Search results for "label"
"label" entries in albums descriptions
| Artist |
Album |
Format |
Description |
Year |
Price (incl. 19% VAT) |
|
| A CASA |
Escaleras abajo de los Arboles |
LP |
behind A CASA we find the Argentinian artist JOSE DE DIEGO, who opens up the first volume in the new "Synesthetic Alchemy" series by the French label 213 Records dedicated to free music and improvisation => sinus-tone drones, voices & screams, noises, an "industrial" form of meditative and minimal music... to discover ! lim. 213 copies with silk-screen insert
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
 |
| A SILVER MOUNT ZION |
13 Blues for Thirteen Moons |
CD |
Die derzeitige Vorzeigeband des Montrealer Labels (da es GODSPEED nicht mehr zu geben scheint) klingt auf "13 BLUES" noch weitaus wütender, aggressiver, rockiger & lauter als man es gewohnt war. Geblieben ist das verzweifelte Pathos und die ausschweifende bis mitreissende Psychedelik, die immer wieder zu wunderschönen Instrumental-Passagen führt, denn noch immer sind diverse Streicher im Kollektiv dabei...
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| A.B.G.S. |
Erdlager |
CD |
third and last A.B.G.S.-album, all recorded live & non-electronically on different locations like old stores, bunkers, fabrics, played on diverse objects, the true ritualistic industrial sound! One of the last releases on the legendary CoC label run by CRANIOCLAST. comes with 16 p. booklet
|
1993 |
€14.00 |
|
| ABRAHAMS, CHRIS |
Fluid to the Influence |
LP |
CHRIS ABRAHAMS (pianist in NECKS) fourth solo album for ROOM40 (the label run by LAWRENCE ENGLISH), less 'droney' than on 'Memory Night' he creates here very playful, evocative tracks that are in steady tonal motion, divided into small sections of notes, operating with Jazz-, Drone- and pure sound elements... (based on piano, organ, electronics and concrete noises); masterful and unique stuff again !
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Fluid to the Influence |
CD |
CHRIS ABRAHAMS (pianist in NECKS) fourth solo album for ROOM40 (the label run by LAWRENCE ENGLISH), less 'droney' than on 'Memory Night' he creates here very playful, evocative tracks that are in steady tonal motion, divided into small sections of notes, operating with Jazz-, Drone- and pure sound elements... (based on piano, organ, electronics and concrete noises); masterful and unique stuff again !
|
2016 |
€14.00 |
|
| ABRAHAMS, CHRIS / OREN AMBARCHI / ROBBIE AVENAIM |
Placelessness |
CD |
full length debut by this Australian trio, working / performing together since 20 years, on STEPHEN O'MALLEYs label... - *two long-form works at juncture of ambient music, minimalism, rigorous xperimentalism and improvisation, and machine music.* - CD version 6 panel digisleeve
|
2023 |
€14.50 |
|
| AF URSIN |
Aura Legato |
LP |
re-issue of AF URSINs second LP from 2005 => the four delicately woven, mainly handplayed drone muzak pieces contain piano slices, smooth vocalizations, harmonium & zither (?) sounds, lightweight percussion and bass-textures and levitated analogue electronics, everything arranged in a very sensitive way... a real gem! Comes with a cover replica of the great 1st ed. cover (gold print on black, die-cut sleeve and hand-glued labels)
|
2016 |
€26.00 |
|
| AGLAIA |
Naked Movements |
CD |
second of the trilogy of new albums by AGLAIA on the ALIO DIE-label
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Reverberant Skies |
CD |
third of the trilogy of new albums by AGLAIA on the ALIO DIE-label
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| AIN SOPH / SIGILLUM S |
Simulacra |
CD |
first CD re-issue of the remarkable split tape by the Italian esoteric ritual industrial bands (originally released by German cult label CTHULHU in 1989), especially AIN SOPH established a unique style...- "an inarticulate summation comrprised ov thee descriptives dark ritual electronics, haunting choral workx, and neo-classical symphonics may be within a range ov aproximation; though thee reader/listener shall hopefully draw reactions ov their own" [vitaignescorpuslignum.blogspot.com]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| AKATOMBO |
Trace Elements |
CD |
debut album by this promising UK project now based in Hiroshima, Japan; on the label by COLIN NEWMAN (WIRE) and MALKA SPIGEL (ex MINIMAL COMPACT)
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| ALEXANDERSON, MAGNUS |
Stretched in the Dark |
CD |
widely unknown composer from Sweden with three pieces (1991-2000), his style could be described as 'dark & droney electro-acoustic', especially the title-track excites us with sharp, intense dronescapes... released by the label of SEAMS, the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in Sweden. back in stock !
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALGOL |
All these Worlds are yours |
CD |
new album (first one pressed on a proper CD) by the Siberian traveller and scientist DANIIL KAZANTSEV (who is also behind STUZHA), moving deeply into peaceful "spiritual ambience" dimensions with slightly psychedelic and "cosmic" synth-drones and harmonics... a must for fans of the GTERMA or WINTER-LIGHT labels.. "Enter now the gates to abyssal nothingness!!!" lim. 333 copies
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| ALLBEE, LIZ |
Theseus vs. Luz Alibi |
CD |
second solo-album by this female artist and trumpet-player from Oakland CA, hard to describe exciting new experimental music on this new label from San Francisco, lim. 350 in handmade silk-screened box
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| AMINI, SIAVASH |
TAR |
LP |
discovery from Iran on the Swiss label with 4 excellent experimental / ethereal drone-tracks, sharing a great spatial quality and quite massive electronic / granular sounds, with classical string instruments as sound sources, powerful and sublime at the same time... highly recommended! "This is Music to get lost in" [THE WIRE]
|
2017 |
€21.50 |
|
| ANDROMALAR |
Nunquam |
Reverse Alignment RA-44 |
contemplation / dream-drone newcomer from Ukraine, slow waving and moving synth based 'mountains' of amorph and subtle atmospherics are build, setting you into a levitational meditation state... for fans of the GTERMA label, HIC SUNT LEONES, WINTER-LIGHT, OÖPHOI, etc.. 10 tracks, 66 min..
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| ANOK PE CURRENT 93 |
Birth Canal Blues |
maxi-CD |
new project formed by DAVID TIBET, BABY DEE & ANDREW LILES with first release, on new C93-label
|
2008 |
€11.50 |
|
| APOLOGIST |
We're on Vapour Cougar |
CD-R |
very structured & harmonic electronic ambience, nicely arranged, by this project from Scotland; lim. 100, already sold out at the label
|
2010 |
€8.50 |
|
| AQUAVOICE |
Grey |
CD |
long active Polish electronic musician doing layered analogue synth-scapes in the way of S.E.T.I., PETE NAMLOCK, BIOSPHERE, SEETYCA, or even COIL... his eighth album out now on ZOHARUM, the ever growing label from Gdansk; to discover !
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARA SOLIS |
Ashvattha |
CD |
black metal from Galicia, Spain, this is their debut album with three long tracks; CD version on Greeks esoteric cult label run by ACHERONTASS.. - \"The ancient Tree of Life and Death - Ashvattha, Yggdrasil - pours the sap of eternity in the ritual copulation of oxygenic and anoxygenic photophosphorylation.\" - as with all Zazen CD releases, very limited
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| ARABELLA'S PARADE |
Evelyn ambient series: volume 1 |
CD-R |
professional full-colour cover & label printing. last copies |
0000 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Static infinite |
CD-R |
professional full-colour cover & label printing. last copies |
2000 |
€7.00 |
|
| ARCHITEUTHIS DUX |
Submergence |
CD-R |
noise duo from Austin, Texas, with a lim. CD-R on ARVO ZYLO's label, prof. cover & duplication - "The result is just under an hour of crisp sampling, damaged percussion, and simultaneously subdued, yet clearly pissed off pedal action that could stand up to SPK's early live sets, or Nurse With Wound's darkest moments..."
|
2016 |
€8.00 |
|
| ARS SONITUS |
Transfuturism Manifesto |
CD-BOX / object |
"Action Directe de la Conscience de Soi Transcendantale" - the project of ARTUR R.SZTUKALSKI, probably the first Polish composer of industrial music, starting in 1980, with a three track album based on tape decks, broken piano, metal objects, field recs, sampler and effects.... - the CD comes in a big, printed box (18 x 19cm) with huge manifesto-flag (80 x 120cm), lim. 100 copies - a true collector's item on the Polish label who also published the "ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INDUSTRIAL MUSIC"
|
2023 |
€18.00 |
|
| ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE (AMT) |
Drawing the Air |
CD-R |
a strange & surreal dance of field recording snippets & other short-timed noises & drones, unique surrounding.... CD version of a 4-track installation that happened in Ireland in 2007; prof. full colour cover, on A.M.T.s own label
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Xixuau Xiparinia Pt. 1 |
CD-R |
pure field recordings from flooded rainforest in Brazilian Amazon-region - first part; rare release on AMTs own label, full colour cover
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| ASHER |
Simple Machines |
CD-R |
professionally printed CDR release, full colour cover & labels, ed. of 100 copies only
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| ASSUMED POSSIBILITIES |
Still Point |
CD |
MARK WASTELL - Cello (founder of CONFRONT label and in many groups); RHODRI DAVIES (harp); CHRIS BURN (piano); PHIL DURRANT => 9 pieces of highly concentrated, extremely subtle and often almost silent impro 'noise' pieces... "This quartets non-idiomatic music attains a minutely focused intensity, where the subtlest shifts in pitch, timbre and texture speak volumes." - special offer !
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| ASTRO |
Colorization of Sound |
MC |
extreme analogue synth space noise from Japan, this is were electric pulses, excessive noisiness and spatial wideness meet, creating islands of 1000 micro-events inside the maelstrom! => three live recordings made at different locations in Japan 2013/2014 by this project which is now working as a male/female duo; translucent blue cassette with white print & professional cover; on a new label from England, U.K.
|
2014 |
€7.00 |
|
| ATARAXIC ATAXIA |
Shadow Sea |
CD-R |
re-issue of a lim. CD-R, this male/female duo (from Columbia, USA) convinces with a very special low fi industrial sound mixture using violin (or other string instruments), processed / sampled found sounds and pulsing noise... "The beauty and grit of this release is not only palpable, but also sort of regenerating and constantly transforming. The rest is enshrouded in mystery." - prof. printed release on the label of ARVO ZYLO
|
2016 |
€8.00 |
|
| ATKINSON, FELICIA & JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA |
Limpid as the Solitudes |
LP |
second collaboration by F. ATKINSON with JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA, known as label-maker (ROOT STRATA), member of TARENTEL and multimedia artist => a most subtle and daydreaming melange made out of field recordings, electronics, warm instrumental sounds and ATKINSON touching vocals and whispers... music like a series of postcards, "things and sounds that happen vertically as a slow ascension, vessels communicating in dream.."
|
2018 |
€18.50 |
|
| AURAL HYPNOX |
Underworld Transmissions |
CD |
extracts from so called "Seances" held 2013-2015 in Oulu (Finland) by different members of the Helixes label collective, extremely dark and sluggish drone ritual-scapes to enter the "threshold".... "Each séance was guided by a unique automatic-portal-portrait reflecting the planetary and stellar distances seen at that particular time in the lodge altar mirror-receiver..." - lim. 150 copies only, comes in 7" sized screen printed cover and with 16 p booklet
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| BAD ALCHEMY |
No.56 (Nov. 2007) |
mag |
92 pages / GENESUNGSWERK label portrait, LA STPO, MASSACRE, 1000 long reviews... deutsche Sprach! Old issues are now downloadable at the website !
|
2007 |
€3.00 |
|
| |
No. 87 (Oktober 2015) |
mag |
neue Artikel & einzigartig formulierte Rezensionen: KRENG, LEIF ELGGREN, SUB ROSA, HELEN SCARSDALE AGENCY, SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA, ATTENUATION CIRCUIT LABEL NACHT & IF BWANA, ReR MEGACORP, ROB MAZUREK, .. und vieles mehr aus der experimentellen, drone, post-industrial, Impro & Neue Musik & NowJazz-Szene... Deutsche Sprach, 88 Seiten, handliches Format, günstig & geistreich !
|
2015 |
€3.50 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
The Sea swells a bit |
do-LP |
the first release in the new "Mind Travels" series of this French label is a vinyl re-issue of AIDAN BAKER's stunning album from 2006 => three longs tracks about the deepsea, the ocean, dying sailors, dense & inapproachable, dark & mysterious, working with mesmerizing layers & circles of long guitar loops, arising in slow Crescendos... beginning with track 2 smooth percussion & bass-grooves are pervading the drones, the whole gets slightly psychedelic... comes with new artwork & live bonus track!
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
True Dreaming (to bend the World) |
CD |
"The Dreaming Things Inside My Head" - a most fragile, lyrical album inspired from the "Broken Monsters" novel by LAUREN BEUKES and "The Death of Vivek Oji" by AKWAEKE EMEZI => using solely electric & acoustic guitar and his vulnerable voice, AIDAN BAKER created the perfect soundtrack made up of touching drones, dreams and speech fragments.. - lim. 200 copies on a new Italian label
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & JAKOB THIESEN |
A Bout de Souffle |
CD-R |
first full-length CD from this interesting new ambient / drone-label. Numbered ed. 150 copies, professional digipack
|
2008 |
€9.50 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN / N / DIRK SERRIES |
Enomeni |
do-LP |
"Enomeni" (which is Greek and means 'connected') is a document of a special live performance (Sept. 2014), held at the marriage of the MIDIRA REC. label-owner: AIDAN BAKER, N and DIRK SERRIES came together for the first time to play an improvised live session. The result is an one hour session (divided into four tracks) of guitar-based dream drones and pulsations. So nice. Gatefold-cover , black vinyl ed. lim. to 150 copies; BACK IN STOCK LAST COPIES!
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| BALDRUIN |
Relikte aus der Zukunft |
LP |
this German artist, raised in a small Bavarian village near a church and serving as altar boy, developed an ongoing interest in transcendental and mysterious atmospheres; this surprising LP on the Peruvian label BUH is another journey into a bizarre fairy-tale world based on electronic miniatures and acoustic hallucinations.. * The gloomiest soundscapes can jump into a ship fueled by retro sci-fi arpeggios, the solemn can turn to rejoice, and a star can shrink into a fireplace.* - lim. 300
|
2023 |
€27.50 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE |
Ambiwax |
CD |
lim. 250 - release on IGOR POTSUKAILO's own label - great trip into BARDO's world of surrealistic electro-drones & cyber-psychedelia.. 'transparent bubbles of consciousness collapse and dissolve in scraps of conversation from a weird movie'
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARRETT, NATASHA |
Kraftfelt |
CD & DVD-A |
digipack with 24p. booklet; hard to find release on Norwegian label by this great composer from UK
|
2005 |
€19.50 |
|
| BASHO-JUNGHANS, STEFFEN |
IS |
LP |
German lapsteel-drone-guitarist on a British label; numbered ed. 500, very nice edition, 200gr vinyl
|
2009 |
€21.00 |
|
| BASS COMMUNION & FREIBAND |
VL Tones |
3 x CD BOX |
lengthy collaboration pieces made out of 1 minute tracks based entirely on sounds from the CASIO VL-Tone (that very first commercial synth), originally produced for a Japanese label, now expanded to amorph and mysterious drone expanses almost beyond conscious recognition... comes in lim. box with poster, numbered ed. 1000 copies |
2019 |
€29.00 |
|
| BAZE.DJUNKIII |
In Macrospace |
MC |
excellent ghostly monolithic dark drone ambience from Hamburg, a raw journey (C-76) into otherworldly macrospaces by the DJ , reviewer and labelmaker (INTRAUNTERIN Rec.) who is normally more based in electronic / technoid areas.. "A dark and threatening journey through the realms of brooding DeathAmbient, cold, hostile sci-fi atmospheres and an innate feel of darkness, doom, desolation and industrial wastelands covered in toxic fumes and the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse." - lim. 100, tape only!
|
2022 |
€13.50 |
|
| BEARS |
I was a good Hunter until that Day |
MC |
First relesae on this new German tape-label: a bewildering & almost earplay-like experimental journey using distorted field recordings, animal noises and other found sounds.. placed in a largely oversized photo-cover bag, lim. 40, numbered, comes with small bag of dog (or bear?) hair and lip(stick)s imprint ! C-60
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA |
Memory makes Noise |
CD |
first solo-album by the Italian electro-acoustic/ experimental ambient composer, three long excellent tracks using a wide range of (found) sounds and spoken voices that build at times beautiful droney, at times more daring & noisy acoustic landscapes that appear to be almost ear-play like, very minimal, dense & refined.. released by the now defunct Small Voices label, lim. 500, last copies, don't miss it !!
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA & FABIO ORSI |
Soundpostcards |
CD |
"emotional drone"; their first collab from 2004 (so far only released as MP3 files), reworked and with additional material recorded for this CD release on the fine label from Rome
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| BELL, JAKE |
Awake in my flying Dream |
CD |
debut album of this US-project (residing in Ukraine!) doing pure electronic / cosmic space ambient with an esoteric touch, reminding on ÖOPHOI, M. GRASSOW, VIDNA OBMANA... for fans of GTERMA or HYPNOS labels; comes with nice oversized cardboard cover & full colour 8p. booklet
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| BERG, CHRISTOPH |
Tape Anthology Vol. 1 |
LP |
known for his works as FIELD ROTATION (Denovali) and his solo-album for SONIC PIECES, this composer and classical trained piano & violin player from Berlin has released the first LP on his own label=> much more experimental as before this is grounded on tape manipulations of field recordings and instrumental sounds, deeply "analogue" and atmospheric, with love for every tiny detail... to discover!
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| BERIDZE, NATALIE |
Of Which One Knows |
LP |
a collection of older, so far unreleased material by this Georgian ambient artist, who released few albums on MAX ERNST (THOMAS BRINKMANN label), and worked with GUDRUN GUT and others.. => "A gossamer collection of tranquillised and dissociated material from the perennially underrated and consistently excellent Natalie Beridze, curling her distinctive vocals like incense smoke around faded pads and processed field recordings" [Boomkat]
|
2022 |
€25.00 |
|
| BERRY, KEITH |
Elixir |
CD |
new release on this fine label dedicated to birds and the landscapes they inhabit: the British ambient artist KEITH BERRY with his extremely subtle; organ-like, amorphous movements; distilled like alchemical matter from older recordings.... "like falling snow, his dreamy work drifts with a poetic chill and tranquil hypnosis through which peripheral elements tease the listener with subtle details. it's so damn beautiful..." [JIM HAYNES]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) |
Verfall |
CD-R |
album based entirely on floating piano-tunes; sounds at times more like a wild ROBERT HAIGH than typical M.B. - 8 different tracks, all with german titles; rare CD-R on this label from Hongkong
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Mectpyo Bakterium |
LP |
re-issue of the much sought-after LP from 1982 released on DYS (the label run by THE MNEMONISTS), recorded August-October 1981, one of the "calmer" albums of the early MB phase, comes with reproduction of the original cover, lim. 275 on coloured /marbled (grey / black / white) vinyl, with inlay... "The icy opression, the hallucinative electronic wounds, are a precious and singular fact in a technological society brought to limit" [M.B.]
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA |
New Beat for Baby |
CD-R |
rare Finnish CD-R only release (BCO firming as "BIG SITI OOKESTRA) doing their uncopyable loopy organic drones; 54 min., incl. 'sounds effects library Vol. 11'; we got the remaining copies from the label! Professional cover & reproduction, printed labels
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| BIRDS OF DELAY |
A Living Room at the bottom of a Lake |
LP |
psychedelic-electronic-noise-drone-etc duo from UK, doing the experimental-impro-uncategorizable-etc. noise-culture-vibes ! Lim. 240 copies, on a label from Egypt !! last copies
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
The Cut |
LP |
between vocal / sound poetry experiments & minimal drone attacks, side one pieces on this LP on Belgiums most crazy label ULTRA ECZEMA, lim. 300
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| BJÄRGÖ, PETER |
A Wave of Bitterness |
CD |
the ARCANA mastermind released his first solo-album in 2009 on the German label Kalinkaland, here's finally a re-issue of this mesmerizing work, a must for any DEAD CAN DANCE fan (transporting the same mood and grandeur, without being a copy of DCD); digipak ed. of 500 copies - comes with 8 page booklet
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLACK DEAL WITH SNOW & MESOPIC VISION |
Untitled |
CD-R |
the only release so far of this Sergey Suhovics (EXIT IN GREY / FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC) side-project, in collaboration with the ex POLARIS and ABGURD-label operator (here as MESOPIC VISION) => dark glowing transcendental drones, comparable to YEN POX or AMON, very good & still to discover. LAST COPY!
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES |
The Glass Bead Game |
LP + CD |
newest album by the British 12-string guitar - mantra wonder, on Michael Gira's label! (CD has same material as LP)
|
2009 |
€17.00 |
|
| BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER / PIG HEART TRANSPLANT |
same |
CD |
"BLEAK AS FUCK"- names the label this collaboration, when ambient noise waves collide with foggy power electronics, at times really monstrous..
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| BORBETOMAGUS |
Live at InRoads |
CD |
extreme impro-noise attack, recorded live November 1982 in New York City, released on the legendary PSF label from Tokyo
|
1993 |
€16.00 |
|
| BRANDAL, ANDREAS |
The Merchant of Salt |
CD-R |
new recordings by this Norwegian artist with his idiosyncratic experimental ambience, mainly based on synths & guitar, at times beautiful, at times sombre & mysterious, at times more weird... lim. 100 professional 6-panel colour digipack, on a new Russian label from Moscow !
|
2011 |
€8.50 |
|
| BRUIL, ARNO / BROUCE TETARETTE |
Pavo / Sonofoque |
MC |
tape only release one of the most obscure labels we ever got to know, driving around with a public "bus bibliotheque" to various French cities... ARNO (ARNAULD) BRUIL creates pure analogue electronic feedback, drone & noise sounds way beyond the normal musical parameters, BROUCE TETARETTE excite us with massive, pulsing overtune drones, in flickering motion, very good! lim. 100 in jewel-case with nicely embossed cover
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| BRUME |
 Two Characters |
10inch |
the French "atmospheric musique concrete" master on the Drone Rec.-sublabel with two highly evocative drone-pieces, full of tension & great sounds, showing a compelling densification process.. lim. 500 coloured vinyl; cover-artwork by MAL HOESCHEN (MULTER)
OUT NOW !!
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| BURIAL HEX |
Gauze |
CD |
extremely idiosyncratic, multi-influenced and versatile "Phantasmagoric Post-industrial" (as the label describes it) comes from BURIAL HEX with intense folk elements, throbbing and pulsing electronics, esoteric invocations and distorted vocals, surrounded by deep reverberation noises from otherworlds.. - "Every bombastic howl and shimmering prayer bowl are as vivid as if we were deep in the catacombs with Burial Hex, experiencing this unfold right next to them..." [parsonharlequin]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S. |
Three allusive Tracks from Break Through in a Grey Room |
7inch |
collector's item! "Curse go back", "Interview with Mr. Martin", "Burrourghs called the Law", numb. ed. 300 copies; label design by STEPHANE BLANQUET
|
2009 |
€11.00 |
|
| B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) |
Ov ELF and HAARP |
CD-R & object |
most abstract drone-morphologism, fields of concrete otherworldy sounds... excellent album by the Swiss project again, soon also on the very first LP on Drone Records !! lim. / numb. 50 copies coming in handpainted CD/cloth-case with diverse inlays, and sticker, on a new label from Augsburg, Germany, run by EMERGE and GERALD FIEBIG
|
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
|
Un_b°tong |
mCDR-box |
6 short pieces (rather studies) of extreme manipulation from unmusical sounds, mainly human voices -> like a daring from of audio poetry mixed with electroacoustic detailness, this presents new surrealistic paths for the great Swiss artist! Comes in mini DVD box on the excellent ATTENUATION CIRCUIT label from Augsburg, Germany
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Monastic |
CD |
MONASTIC (='klösterlich') is the companion release to 'The long Journey' on the same label =>; from various field recordings uncanny soundscapes and strangely reverberating acoustics are formed, resulting in long one nightmarish, unescapable ambience realm which seems to have no beginning or ending, going on in endless circles..
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| CELER |
Perfectly beneath us |
CD-R |
rare Russian CDR-only release on the label of EXIT IN GREY & FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC; new material recorded by WILL LONG summer of 2012 in Tokyo => extremely smooth sensitivity-drones, like an acoustic breeze you can almost not recognize anymore... 35 min. playtime, full colour cardboard cover
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| CENT ANS DE SOLITUDE |
En Concert - El Diablo, Lille, France 29.11.14 |
LP |
the French project (formed by the person behind the legendary LES NOUVELLES PROPAGANDES label) in a rare live concert from Nov. 2014, perfect old school industrial which mixes electronic drones and pulses, object noises and cinematic spoken word and other found sounds, from rough ambient to noise... - comes w. excellent "constructivists" silk-screen sleeve, on rust-coloured vinyl, lim. 270 copies
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW |
Light of the World |
MC |
older material recorded already in 2012 (unreleased so far), on this beautifully designed cassette-only release (C-45), normally only available from the label directly; UK import - "Another great and peaceful album by Mr Chalk in which I can feel the positive waves from the ocean." [Fabrice Lefebvre]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHAMBERS, IAIN |
The Eccentric Press |
LP |
PERSISTENCE OF SOUND is a new interesting British label for experimental musique concrete (so far 4 LPs out): IAN CHAMBERS presents two radio pieces, "The Eccentric Press" uses industrial machine noises and typical working sounds from bells, etc.. recorded at the LWL-Industriemuseum in Dortmund, commissioned by WDR; "Maudslay Engine" is composed with various airplane, steam engine and machine-sounds... two very nice sound art pieces to discover, comes with DL code
|
2019 |
€23.50 |
|
| CHOCHOS Y MOSCAS |
The Shake of Fruit to come |
MC |
14th tape on this German tape-label that gained 'cult'-status very quickly => radical grindcore & noise from Spain with plenty of very short tracks that all transport messages around fruits & Vitamin C, super bizarre stuff again as we love it from this label! lim. 50, luxurious / oversized art-cover 21x21cm, orange cassette & PE Bag with object (plastic micro fruit slices)
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| CHORE IA |
Postscriptum |
do-CD |
the Polish cult label OBUH released cassettes of this project in the 90's, in the typical style for that time - instrumental ambience, sometimes weird and with psychedelic / avant rock influences, with spoken words or more expressiveness... - here are now 5 new dark tracks, plus material from two long deleted more wild OBUH cassettes - "This is a great slab of weird electronic drone that should find favour with fans of creepy atmospheric horror drones as well as fans of avant garde rock." [Musique Machine]
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| CHRIS & COSEY |
Elemental 7 |
LP |
The legendary soundtrack to the film of the same name (released on CABARET VOLTAIRE's label in 1983 on VHS), feat. JOHN LACEY (COUM TRANSMISSIONS), a true collector's item, available for the first time since 40 years!! - "Elemental 7 has cast a looming shadow of influence over almost all electronic music since it was made." [Boomkat]
remastered edition on GREEN vinyl |
2023 |
€30.50 |
|
| CHRONOMAD |
Sayeh |
12" |
experimental rhythmic electronica with ethnic influences by this Turkish artist (living in Munich), using original Persian instruments & field recordings; very good stuff on the NOTWIST label
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Sayeh |
maxi-CD |
experimental rhythmic electronica with ethnic influences by this Turkish artist (living in Munich), using original Persian instruments & field recordings; very good stuff on the NOTWIST label
|
2010 |
€9.00 |
|
| CHRYSAKIS, THANOS |
Manifold Vista |
CD |
The prolific but "still to discover" sound-artist and composer from Greece (who also runs the AURAL TERRAINS label) with a stunning new album, slow, contempaltive and spheric digital ambience with long pulses and incorporated field recordings, it has that certain "feeling" you can find also in material from YANN NOVAK, KASSEL JAEGER, ROBERT HAMPSON or even THOMAS KÖNER; lim. 150 copies digipak
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| CISFINITUM |
Live Earth |
CD-R |
high quality live recording of a special CISFINITUM show that happened in Moscow in February 2015 when sharing the stage with EARTH and NADJA.... CISFINITUM surprises again with a mixture of doom drone and slow industrial rhythms with female vocals by INNA ECHOES and gameboy sounds, extremely heavy... the label calls it "space industrial stoner sludge". lim. 77 copies only !
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Monochrome |
CD |
on 7. Sept 2018 DMITRY VASILYEV, legendary Russian writer, curator and label-owner (MONOCHROME VISION) drowned forever in the ocean waves near Sevastopol (Krim) => long time friend and earliest Russian industrial project CISFINITUM dedicated this remarkable poly-rhythmic release to him, "an alchemical fusion of angelic chorales and dub techno pulsations" using middle age chorals, non-square rhythms, and conceptual links to the Pyramid of Giza and alchemist John Dee, thus forming a complex eulogy..
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| CISFINITUM & THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE |
[ANS]werk |
CD |
another release in this excellent series of half-split / half-collaboration releases on the French FARIO-label, who also publishes the great mag FEAR DROP; [ANS]werk is dedicated to the legendary synthesizer ANS using many amazing sounds from it; these are very dense & pulsating drone-pieces that don't sound like from a synthesizer at all !!! Comes with special (oversized) cover-artwork, lim. 500, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| CITADEL |
Granite Sky |
CD |
12th and last release by the label |
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| CIULLINI, DANIELE |
Cosmetic for Mannequins |
CD |
long active mail artist from Italy (once active with the TRAX label and as COP KILLERS with VITTORE BARONI), who became very active again lately.. "Manipulated field recordings, toy instruments, noises from radio, turntable, tape deck, automatic voices" - very versatile and masses of different sounds appearing...
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| CLUB OF ROME |
Grosse Statik |
CD |
CLUB OF ROME is ASMUS TIETCHENS under a pseudonym, there's only one cassette existing that appeeared on the Italian label ADN in 1985; here's finally a re-issue on CD => this album marks the transition from the more "catchy" SKY releases to his more dark and bleak atonal period... starting with a strange / ironic quite from a german folk artist this developos into eerie / atonal synthscapes with a surrealistic nature, threatening, cinematic....
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| COIL |
A Prison Of Measured Time (col. vinyl) |
12inch |
two unreleased tracks finalized by DANNY HYDE in 1998, containing unheard JOHN BALANCE vocals; very rare (numb. 500) and normally only available from the label directly; comes in three different vinyl colours (white, blue, and blue-white mix) |
2020 |
€30.00 |
|
| COLUMN ONE |
Electric Pleasure |
CD |
back in stock this strong album by C.O. with retro-futuristic IDM using lots of source material from old science fiction films; first release on their own label 90%WASSER
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Early Tapes 1992-1994 |
CD |
unreleased tracks & versions from the early phase of the unique performance/collage/dada//post-industrial group COLUMN ONE; very nice edition comes in thick oversized cardboard sleeve with 8 postcards, lim. 500, with liner notes by TILL KNIOLA (AUF ABWEGEN); on Polish cult label NEFRYT
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Early Apes 1993-1995 |
CD |
rare material from the early phase of the unique performance/collage/dada//post-industrial group COLUMN ONE - the DREAM BOX EXPERIENCE LP (1994), the THIS IS MY DREAM 7" (OBUH Records), and unreleased tracks; very nice edition comes in thick oversized cardboard sleeve with 6 postcards, lim. 500, with liner notes by TILL KNIOLA (AUF ABWEGEN); on Polish cult label NEFRYT
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONTAGIOUS ORGASM |
Live at Maschinenfest 2018 |
MC |
the cassette-only live series on the Berlin based label goes on, high quality design and MP3 download included, perfect sound.. "...this perfectly shows the progression from the 2008 performance made available last year: gone are the idm leanings, the co sound of the 2010s (which is presented here) is even more a language of its own, abrasive and accessible, palpable and psychedelic at the same time." 100 copies
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| CONTROL |
World of Lies |
CD |
the second CONTROL album for the Finnish Freak Animal label appeared in 2006, a dark and structured doom noise and power electronics aussault, full of agony... - "45 minutes playingtime contains heavy death-industrial / modern power electronics what you can't confuse to works of other artists. " - digipack re-issue
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONTROLLED BLEEDING |
Body Samples |
do-LP |
the second C.B. LP appeared in May 1985 on German label DOSSIER and showed already a development from the harsh noise beginnings, incorporating dreamy 'cosmic' and ambience parts, percussion and psych/kraut elements and even electro beats, all framed by their heavy industrial noise and screams and rude experiments... a great album full of diversity and surprises; 11 (!) rare / unreleased bonus tracks, lim. 500
|
2016 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
Body Samples |
do-CD |
the second C.B. LP appeared in May 1985 on German label DOSSIER and showed already a development from the harsh noise beginnings, incorporating dreamy 'cosmic' and ambience parts, percussion and psych/kraut elements and even electro beats, all framed by their heavy industrial noise and screams and rude experiments... a great album full of diversity and surprises; the re-issue has 11 (!) rare or unreleased bonus tracks apart from the 14 original tracks
|
2016 |
€19.00 |
|
| COPH'ANTAE TRYR |
Research Chronicles 2007-2009 |
do-CD |
another newcomer (for us) on the Czech label know for exceptional packaging & artworks - Russian project COPH'ANTAE TRYR mesmerize with very melancholic waves of flickering ambiences & harmonic floating structures... Highly recommended if you like emotional drones! Lim. 500, 8 panel double digipack
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| CORNFORD, STEPHEN |
Domestic Music |
MC |
strong release by this sculptor, musician and sound artist from UK (running the CONSUMER WASTE label), based on prepared piano sounds.. => "In the atmosphere of the album, there is a diffuse sense of isolation. The recordings seem to have been made in an empty room, with enough focus on the action and a ritualistic sense of the piano manipulation, using metallic objects and wooden sticks." [soundtraag] - lim. 90 numbered copies
|
2021 |
€9.00 |
|
| CORRAL SHUT / RESIDUAL / TYHJÄ PÄÄ / HAUDAT |
same |
CD |
"Magnetic Tape Lullaby": four projects from the new wave of Finnish (harsh) noise artists on one CD, on the amazing label SATATUHATTA, known as a platform for non-standard, more handmade and object-based compositions, or unusual noise sounds.. - *On top of everything, on this split they've found a common thread to make this release feel like a proper album, a rarely achieved feat with splits or compilations..*
|
2023 |
€12.50 |
|
| CRAB, SIMON |
Demand Full Automation |
CD |
SIMON CRAB is a legendary figure in UK's experimental/industrial underground, as founding member of BOURBONESE QUALK and with his RECLOOSE label; this is his second solo CD, a very political, electronic and rhythmic album about 'Automatism'... "This is a great album. Intelligent as well as accessible and as poppy as it is ambient. Excellent!" (FdW/Vital Weekly) |
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| CREATION VI |
Tetragrammaton |
CD-R |
the "spiritual drone" project of TIM SIX from Yaroslavl, Russia (who is also running the excellent PANTEON label), with a very contemplative drone CD, three long tracks using voice, singing bowls, ethnic instruments, field rec., etc.. when all is combined to express a holiness inside the (full sounding) drone, loosing your mind completely... "the direct intrusion into metaphysics of the Sound". numbered edition, handmade cover, last copies !
|
2014 |
€9.00 |
|
| CRISTAL |
Homegoing |
CD |
second album by this project from (ex) members of LABRADFORD, SPOKANE and AIX EM KLEMM, experimental, subaquatic ambient drones comparable to BIOSPHERE, DEATHPROD or the late ZOVIET FRANCE (says the label), incl. remix by PAN AMERICAN; on the AKATOMBO label from Japan
|
2013 |
€13.50 |
|
| CZAJKOWSKA, INDIA |
Cosmospir |
CD |
debut-album of polish singer / composer on the ALIO DIE-label; lim. 300
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| CZAJKOWSKA, INDIA & SEBASTIAN MADEJSKI |
Tance Snu |
CD |
this Polish ethereal duo with INDIA CZAJKOWSKA (known from a solo CD on Hic Sunt Leones, the ALIO DIE label) found a very own style within the "neo-classic / middle-age / folk" genre, with expressive vocalizing, elevated synths & lots of classical instruments (viola da gamba, piano, flute, frame drum, dulcimer, guitar, etc..); very sophisticated & spiritual, reminds on ATARAXIA, JACK OR JIVE, COLLECTION D'ARNELL-ANDREA...
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| DALLAS, VINCENT & MOOZZHEAD |
Controlled Chaos & Sound |
CD + MC box |
the title says it all: this extreme harsh collaboration from Belgium's VINCENT DALLAS with long going Finnish noiser MOOZZHEAD (early inspired by EARACHE, SKIN CHAMBER and MERZBOW), recorded in various sessions in Belgium... the CD comes with C-24 tape inside a silkscreen box with inlays and sticker, lim. 200 and sold out at the label !!
|
2023 |
€18.00 |
|
| DAMAVAND |
As long as you come to my Garden |
LP |
a tribute to the Armenian troubadour SAYAT NOVA, the sixth volume in the "Decay Music" series of the Milan-based label
|
2023 |
€28.50 |
|
| DARK MORPH (C.M.VON HAUSSWOLFF + JONSI [SIGUR ROS]) |
Dark Morph |
LP |
collector's item on this London-based label, gallery, record shop and magazine: JONSI (singer from SIGUR ROS) and C.M. VON HAUSSWOLFF worked on field recordings they made during a "TBA21-Academy's expedition programme" on the 'research vessel Dardanelle' at the Vanua Vatu Reef (FIJI) in the Pacific Ocean, mixed in Jamaica (!); very nice textured / embossed cover and sounds, 180gr. pressing, normally only available from the label directly !!
|
2019 |
€44.00 |
|
| DATASHOCK |
Kräuter der Provinz |
do-LP |
"Hullu Gullu, wir liefern Shizz." - DATASHOCK, the 70's influenced impro / drone / krautrock ensemble are back on the prolific Bureau B label from Hamburg - this is the lim. vinyl version with two bonus tracks that are not on the CD version - "Music as a social happening, both in terms of process and outcome, where individual and collective development can thrive - an ecstatic experience! Sheesh!"
|
2018 |
€26.00 |
|
| DB/MZ (dB/Mz) |
The Light to come |
CD |
promising new "post industrial" drone project of DAVID BENGTSSON and MAGNUS ZETTERBERG (MANIFESTO), their debut album contronts you with 6 dark drone ambient pieces, between hazy subtleness and more grim expanses, always creating a wide space and an impressive otherwordliness.... reminded us on MOLJEBKA PVLSE or the MALIGNANT & CYCLIC LAW label releases... very good, to discover !
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| DE WAARD, FRANS |
De Nederlandse Cassette Catalogus 1983-1987 |
BOOK |
hardcover re-print of DE WAARDS yearly Independent Cassette release surveys 1983-1987, styled the same way as the famous ""International Discography of the New Wave" (1982/83), along with lots of archive / source material - articles from magazines about the cassette scene, flyers from labels, letters, adverts for cassettes, etc.. lots of stuff you will never find at Discogs, a true treasure trove about an amazing DIY scene !! 304 pages
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
America’s Greatest Noise |
BOOK |
the story of RON LESSARD, owner of the legendary RRRECORDS store and label in Lowell(MA): running a record shop, releasing weird anti-records and noise albums ["the true sound of LOVE"], encounters with musicians, being on the road, etc. - a wondrous and wonderful read again, put together by the one and only FRANS DE WAARD - 144 pages, softcover
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEAD FACTORY / ATUM |
Extinction / Zona |
CD-R |
special cover with metal-grid inlay & colour photo on the front, numb. ed. 213 copies , sold out at the label
// www.beastofprey.com
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| DEAD VOICES ON AIR |
The Light of June drowned Flowers in your Mouth |
LP |
hard to find vinyl only release from 2009, dedicated to the working people fighting in the international Brigades in the Spanish Civil War - a more poetic and dark release, with dreamlike narrative elements and industrialized sounds... definitely one of the highlights in the DVOA discography! Lim. 350 copies on the Königsberg-based Russian label Brudenia
|
2009 |
€23.50 |
|
| DEAF CENTER |
Recount |
12inch |
the Norwegian duo (ERIK SKODVIN & OTTO TOTLAND) with a long play 12" / EP with two side-long subtle ambience improvisations on guitar, piano, computer & synth.... comes with special die-cut cover, on the collectable Sonic Pieces label
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| DEISON / K.K.NULL |
Into |
CD |
last copies of their first collab.,the label called it "Penetrating Hi-Tech Music", absolutely recommended to re-discover !! - *Splinters of sonic fragments, buzzings, electronic hisses, pulsations, hypnotic loops, ambient textures, sudden rays of light* - "Always abstract, always electronic, but almost never the same thing twice. From soft passages to loud ones, from clicking, rhythmic sounds to dense fields of waving electronics." [Fdw/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| DENT, LOREN |
Anthropology Vol. 1 |
CD |
another newcomer on the never disappointing Infraction-label; beautiful orchestral ambience, uplifting & spacious light-drones
|
2009 |
€13.50 |
|
| DIE FORM |
Baroque Equinox |
2LP+CD+DVD-BOX |
new album of the legendary French industrial project (also labelled as "Fetish Electro"), now active in more song-oriented, danceable avant synth pop and cold wave areas, still working often with pure synthetic sounds and not loosing their experimental approach...this is the limited deluxe 2 x 12" box version with 4 exclusive tracks, comes with CD and DVD, 16 page poster booklet (12" x 12"), hand-numbered to 500 copies
|
2017 |
€45.00 |
|
| DIETER MÜH (DIETER MUH) |
StockholmMonsters |
LP |
obscure "bootleg" LP which comes as a blank label release with simple black cover and insert, it was recorded live in Nov. 2001 at Fylkingen in Stockholm and is a great document of DIETER MÜHs raw ambient industrial sound, filled with dark powerful loops, speech samples, distorted analogue synths and ecstatic tribalesque percussion parts... [please note the cover-corners have suffered a bit, so the cover is only VG ]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Cari Saluti |
CD |
the third album by the British (post) industrialists appeared in 2000 (CD-R, EE Tapes), only two years later the TESCO sublabel Functional issued it on a proper CD; very appealing ambient noise compositions, swirling drones with lots of electronic effects mixed together in an interesting way, never too noisy, never too lush, this is quite powerful ambient Industrial! BACK IN STOCK FOR SPECIAL PRICE !
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| DIFFERENT STATE & SIGILL |
Spazmatic(k) Spell |
CD |
collab of two Polish projects dedicated to A.O.SPARE, creating esoteric music labeled as "alchembient" being compared to PSYCHIC TV, COIL, SCORN, INADE..
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| DISCORDLESS |
Fear on Every Side |
MC |
recommended dark / apocalyptic drone noise from Bucharest, Romania, no harsh noise but very unsettling otherwordly soundscapes unfold, very bleak... on Bulgarian's premier experimental label AMEK, C-60, lim. 100 prof. design
|
2021 |
€8.00 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE |
Intrinsically Pure |
CD |
hard to find D.T. release on this punk/hardcore label from Hiroshima => ICHIRO TSUJI aka DISSECTING TABLE was the first singer in the Japanese hardcore band GUDON (who gained a cult status), on two long pieces analog / digital electronics plus Grindcore elements and processings result in a mixture of very noisy, clattering passages and more silent parts, full of psychedelic effects... one of his best works so far !! Japan import, comes with OBI, lim. 500 copies
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| DJ SCHLUCHT |
Drone Day |
MC |
recorded for the "International Drone Day" in 2021 and broadcasted by Cashmere Radio in Berlin, DJ SCHLUCHT (known for great DJ gigs at the NNOI festival, etc.) has created an adventurous 36+ min piece, a multi-layered audio collage made entirely from the sounds of a THERMOFAX MACHINE, it's drones and sinus tones, papernoises, etc, ...releassed on ANSGAR WILKENs little cult label HAPPY ZLOTY, this is only the 15t release in 23 years... - prof. tape +printed cover
|
2023 |
€10.00 |
|
| DMDN (DVA MET DVA NICHTS) |
Sling Trip |
CD |
first collection of old cassette only material from the 80's by this Dutch noise-artist (also known as DVA MET DVA NICHTS and with his label MIDAS MUSIC), feat. FRANS DE WAARD on two tracks; great low-fi noise! Warehouse found !
|
1994 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Sling Trip 2 |
CD |
second collection of MC-material from the 80's by this Dutch noise-artist (also known as DVA MET DVA NICHTS and with his label MIDAS MUSIC), all released 1987-1991 by MIDAS TAPES; feat. HATERS & EMIL BEAULIEAU, numb. ed. 550 copies
|
1996 |
€10.00 |
|
| DORA, DELPHINE ET MOCKE |
Le Corps Defendant |
do-10inch |
collaboration album spread on two 10" vinyls (the OKRAINA label from Brussels only releases on this format!) by the French singer/songwriter with the special introspective "ambient / experimental" mood, and bell-like voice, with guitarist MOCKE... "Created like an exquisite corpse story they sent each other music to work on with no instructions or suggestions.." - comes with two inlays
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN |
Purge |
CD |
limited re-issue of a deleted MC (C-60) from 2007 by the same label that sold out immediately: "Intense listening taking you deep into the known unknown. Drumm's noise is extremely powerful and dynamic.; travelling frequencies, rich with details, with very little hope, with guaranteed exhaustion after frequent listening." [Joachim Nordwall]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| DRØNE / DROENE / DRONE (MARK VAN HOEN / MIKE HARDING) |
Mappa Mundi |
CD |
third full length (first CD after two LPs) for the creative unit formed by MIKE HARDING (TOUCH label mastermind) & MARK VON HOEN (SEEFEEL, SCALA...) ; "Mappa Mundi traces and describes audio surrounding and occupying the planet earth." comes in a 5" cover, 5 tracks, 500 copies
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| DUENN |
On Layer |
CD |
'DUENN (Fukuoka, Japan) is an electronic musician and composer producing minimal works, using a minimum of equipment. With "On Layer" he brings us 5 fragile dreamscapes reminding of the late, great OOPHOI, which says a lot about the impact of the music..' - oversized artprint cover, lim. 100, on a new label from SILENTES
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN / KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE / C.M.VON HAUSSWOLFF |
Untitled |
CD |
released in conjunction with a DIE STADT- labelnight happening in Brussels in October 2007. These are remaining copies of that night, numb. ed. of 500
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN / M. LE DONNE-BHENNET // TOM MARIONI |
Auftauchen |
LP |
lim./numb. 99 copies / super rare material from 1978-1983 that appeared on tape compilations ! / contains JOHN DUNCANs "Mayday" // rare item on the dutch collector's label !!
|
2005 |
€39.00 |
|
| DUPLANT, BRUNO |
Quelques Usines Fantomes |
CD |
"Some Ghost Factories" - new field recording composer on the MYSTERY SEA sublabel - dedicated to TOSHIYA TSUNODA; fabric-pressed CD, numbered ed. 200 copies
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| DUTTO, ALESSIO |
Dentro |
MC + object |
the collector's tape label present ALESSIO DUTTO from Northern Italy with a stunning 4 track work, harmonic drones morph into noisy ambience and reverse, in a great way (sounds are based on a pipe organ); the packaging is very special again as well: a cardboard box with foil print, a mounted tea light (!), all completely handmade lim. 30 copies; to discover for ecstasy drone heads !
|
2024 |
€18.00 |
|
| DZIADOSZ, BARTOSZ & TOMASZ MRENCA |
Black Lake |
LP |
the Polish duo (known for their works as PLEQ, FROZEN VAULTS and as curator for the DRONARIVM label) with a strong ambient album, reminding on (i.e.) HUMAN GREED... - "This is a slightly dark, ghostly, and nearly religious noir-fi, full of orchestral progressions, field recordings, gloomy soundscapes, and shuffling noise. The eight compositions are of cinematic quality, evoking nocturnal whispers which echo their nostalgic cries." [Headphonecommute] - lim. 150 copies on black vinyl, luxurious cover art
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Black Lake |
CD |
the Polish duo (known for their works as PLEQ, FROZEN VAULTS and as curator for the DRONARIVM label) with a strong ambient album, reminding on (i.e.) HUMAN GREED... - "This is a slightly dark, ghostly, and nearly religious noir-fi, full of orchestral progressions, field recordings, gloomy soundscapes, and shuffling noise. The eight compositions are of cinematic quality, evoking nocturnal whispers which echo their nostalgic cries." [Headphonecommute] - CD version - 6 panel digipak, different cover
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| DÄLEK {DALEK] |
Endangered Philosophies |
do-LP |
the best dark + spheric HipHop around - DÄLEKs album from 2017, with new line-up, released by the prolific IPECAC label (MIKE PATTON) - "Crushing, claustrophobic, educated Hip-Hop. Perfect for the times we live in." [BuiltInThe50s] - *Immer noch sind sie ein seltsames Hybrid - erstaunlich, dass sich sonst niemand an dieser Stilkreuzung versucht hat: hier der urbane, offensive Beat, dort der düstere Hinterzimmer-Soundtüftler-Noise, darauf die kommentierenden, erzählenden Vocals* [OX-Fanzine]
|
2017 |
€29.50 |
|
| EARTHMONKEY |
Alms of Morpheus |
do-CD |
pure psychedelism for the 2010's, comes in the typical lovely oversized mini gatefold-sleeve the label is known for! Lim. 600
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| EASTLEY, MAX / STEVE BERESFORD / PAUL BURWELL / DAVID TOOP |
Whirled Music |
LP |
re-issue of rare LP from 1980 (Quartz Publications - the label run by DAVID TOOP) with recordings from London improvisers 1979 (indoors and outdoors), using only "whirled" or swung instruments (traditional and/or home-made), extremely interesting and purely acoustic; at these series of live performance the audience was usually protected with masks... comes with 24 p. booklet feat. archive material & notes by DAVID TOOP
|
2018 |
€23.00 |
|
| ELEH |
For Moussavi Atrium |
CD |
new ELEH piece composed for a performance held at the Cleveland Museum Of Contemporary Art (Cleveland MOCA) on September 28, 2013; normally only available directly by mailorder from the label
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Circle Three: Full Moon at 35Hz |
LP |
lim. 500, one-sided, heavy duty screen printed cover, normally only available direct from the label mailorder!
|
2014 |
€25.00 |
|
| ELODIE (TIMO VAN LUIJK & ANDREW CHALK) |
Vieux Silence |
CD |
the masterful impressionistic duo of ANDREW CHALK (MIRROR, FERIAL CONFINE) and TIMO VAN LUIJK (NOISE-MAKER's FIFES, AF URSIN, etc.) for the first time published outside their own labels, now on the prolific IDEOLOGIC ORGAN run by STEPHEN O'MALLEY: "a visual imagination in an instant, perhaps filtered through aged watercolour, tape grain, antique lenses, forgotten levels of listening and observational patience"; incl. guest musicians on piano, clarinette and guitar pedal steel
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Clarte Deserte |
LP |
"Forth unobserved I went - In darkness and security - By the secret ladder, in disguise, - In secret, seen of none, - Oh night more lovely than the dawn! - Lost to all things and myself, - And, amid the lillies forgotten, - Threw all my cares away" - 10 track studio album by Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk, recorded 2020-2021.... lim. 300 copies, sold out at the label already !!
|
2023 |
€23.50 |
|
| EMERGE |
Frown |
CD |
after almost hundreds of CD-R releases this is the very first "fabric pressed" CD of this very open-minded German label, with new recordings by EMERGE => "Frown" is a rumbling dark drone journey in three parts that seems to go deeply into the abyss, into a underground mining or sewerage system, using gurgling water sounds, metallic winds, breaking rocks, mechnical machine loops... where no traces of humans are to be found; great ultra dark musique concrete (no synthetic sounds used) !!
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| EMERGE + GERALD FIEBIG |
Flöten / Kinder |
CD-R |
curious pieces created from children's flute playing and other sounds they made (laughing, speech, chuckles...) recorded during a workshop at an elementary school in Augsburg, Germany: a 'pure' collage by FIEBIG, a voice/noise piece by EMERGE considering also the oral material, plus a collaborative drone piece by both artists, who are also behind this great label !!! Lim. 33 copies, special cardboard cover
|
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| EMVOES (MAGAZINE) |
The return of... or trying once more to build an Opera House |
mag |
Greek magazine (English language) published by NICOLAS MALEVITSIS (NOISE-BELOW, EDITIONS ZERO), a kind of continuation to the ABSURD-newsletter from the past: articles / interview: FALT label, SUPERPANG, COLIN WEBSTER, ALICE KEMP (!!), ANTHONY MILTON - Story of the San Miguel del Bala record, NEDA MEHRJOO (mail art), MIZI - Trials and Tributioans of releasing music .. 48 pages, comes with ALICE KEMP art postcard, 300 copies pressed, a must have/read!!
|
2023 |
€6.00 |
|
| ENGLISH, LAWRENCE & WERNER DAFELDECKER |
Shadow of the Monolith |
LP |
first collaboration by these two sound-artists from Australia & Austria, working on "atmospheric, hydrophonic and ionospheric" source materials, resulting in mesmerizing microsound ambience..."a record that drifts from dense microscopic cracks to vibrant shifting frequencies, from sections of profound white stillness to storms of intense activity, from intense light to improbable dark and from immersive macro-spaces to non-spaces" ; lim. 300 on a new Greek label
|
2015 |
€17.50 |
|
| ENTRE VIFS |
Vertebres |
CD |
collection of unreleased / hard to find material rec. 1986-1988 by the French bruitism noise group + creator of incredible selfbuild noise instruments; lim. 200 in oversized silver anti-static bag with sticker; released on Polish cult label IMPULSY STETOSKOPU, known for extarordinary handmade packagings... BACK IN STOCK
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Kohle + Stahl |
MC |
live recording made in May 2014 - celebrating the lust for powerful noise with infernal, siren-like attacks; music with no beginning, ending or structures, white noise patterns in eternal transformation.... C-45 prof. tape & cover, on the new established following label of CTHULHU Records (who once released the first ENTRE VIFS tape)
|
2016 |
€9.00 |
|
| ERCETIN, TURGUT |
Panopticon Specularities |
CD |
four ambitious New Music compositions by this Turkish composer (*1983, Istanbul) who lives now in Berlin - "Erçetin's works engage with issues of sound, not as colors but as sonic entities that interface with time and space. Most of his works, therefore, are involved with acoustics and psychoacoustics as well as computer aided compositional processes." - debut CD with 32 p. booklet and label-catalogue in gatefold slipcase
|
2019 |
€15.50 |
|
| ERLANDSSON, MATS |
4-track Guitar Music |
do-LP |
Gorgeous transcendental guitar drones from this Stockholm based composer who works at the EMS, a re-issue of a cassette released by XKatedral, the label from KALI MALONE, + now with bonus track, 300 copies pressed - "The music is primarily composed using melodic motifs and canonical structures in which a set of pitches are transposed in octaves and delayed, creating an ever-evolving cyclical polyphony."
|
2021 |
€22.50 |
|
| ESCALLON + ISAZA |
Nubes |
mCD-R |
two Colombian sound artists in first-time collaboration, MIGUEL ISAZA is know from various releases on many international labels already... together they created a very subtle sounding experimental drone one-tracker (21+ min.), merging field recordings, digital / electronic sounds and sub-bass atmospherics...
|
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO |
Desarrollos Geometricos |
LP |
limited vinyl version (700 copies) of new album by the Spanish "rhythmic industrial" pioneers who label themselves nowadays as "powerful, primitive and hypnotic" - six stunning new tracks, three of them exclusive to this format !
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| FACTOR X |
022 |
CD |
MONOCHROME VISION, the label of Moscow-based writer & concert organizer DMITRY VASILYEV, manages it to put light on almost forgotten and true undergroundish acts from the cassette-scene of the 80s and 90s; FACTOR X from the UK was active in the scene and known for rough hometaping experiments, this CD contains recordings from that time..
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| FARGUE |
Ruines, Irradiees |
CD |
one of the most surprising releases on Cyclic Law (new sublabel CAVSAS) lately is this album by the Swiss/Finnish band FARGUE with hardcore and black metal roots, who combine ambient, rock and impro influences for their vision of "DRONE ROCK" - using handplayed drums, heavy guitars, synths.. think of OISEAUX TEMPETE, SAVAGE REPUBLIC, FRANK VIGROUX, TROUM, or even VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA! ... - 300 copies
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA |
Equivalent XI |
CD |
after the nice "Surface" 12" on the same label GIANLUCA FAVARON (who is also part of UNDER THE SNOW) created here 11 new tracks that are based on microsounds of everyday utensils and tools, creating a kind object based musique concrete / collage / concrete ambience" with loopy and strange quasi rhythmic effects.... very original and at times bizarre ! lim. 50 collectors item with original photo
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Equivalent XI |
CD |
after the nice "Surface" 12" on the same label GIANLUCA FAVARON (who is also part of UNDER THE SNOW) created here 11 new tracks that are based on microsounds of everyday utensils and tools, creating a kind object based musique concrete / collage / concrete ambience" with loopy and strange quasi rhythmic effects.... very original and at times bizarre ! lim. 200 in satin finished gatefold sleeve
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Variations (Fragments Of Evanescent Memories) |
CD |
This member of UNDER THE SNOW or ZBEEN, citing ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG in his title, creates fascinating and dense sonic worlds with extremely small particles of sounds and multiple layers of electronic effects, very dynamic and weird, field recordings and instrumental sources can be compounded with this, the resulting 7 tracks are difficult to categorize or to describe, but this is definitely one of the most distinguished releases on the SILENTES sublabel... lim. 100 - oversized/handmade cardboard cover
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| FELINE/FERAL |
Wilderness |
T-SHIRT |
FELINE/FERAL is the new VINYL label project of TURGUT KOCER, known for the great VOLUNTARY WHORES tape series; high quality shirt with black print on white / cotton wool colour, ask for available size
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| FENNESZ + SPARKLEHORSE |
In the Fishtank |
CD |
Nr. 15 in the ambitious collab series of the Konkurrent-label, playtime over 40 minutes
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| FERRARI, BRUNHILD |
Exterieur-Jour |
LP |
two unreleased pieces, "Movies for the Ears" with cinematic qualities, electroacoustic compositions with a great share of environmental field recording sources...
- "It comes across as a meditation on the loss and reappearance of memory and silence." - on C. HEEMANN's label
|
2024 |
€33.00 |
|
| FIEBIG, GERALD |
Gasworks |
CD |
GERALD FIEBIG, one of the heads behind the Augsburg-based label DIY label ATTENUATION CIRCUIT, is presenting a true "industrial narrative" with 5 compositions related to the former Gasworks plant in his hometown (which existed from 1915-2001), "processed recordings of the sounds of gas and industrial machinery, stories told by a former gasworks employee, and live improvisations in the echo chamber of the large gas tank." - incl. a radio piece for Czech Radio Vitava, lim. 500
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIRST HUMAN FERRO |
Metaballistik: The Voyeur and his infra-red Insekts |
CD-R |
we could get back few copies back in of some release from the Polish dark ambient / industrial label SOULWORM, all in highly professional design! Early release (rec. 1999-2000) by the wonderful Ukrainian project, comes in standard jewel-case cover; more raw and industrial like, reminds on TAM QUAM TABULA RASA for example.. LAST COPY!
|
2001 |
€5.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC |
Kapotte Muziek by... |
CD-R |
the great Russian project reworks material recorded on a KAPOTTE MUZIEK show in St. Petersburg May 26th 2008. On a new label from Amsterdam run by ORPHAX, lim. ed. 100 copies
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC & DENIS SHAPOVALOV |
Steel Glares and Night |
CD |
the very first "fabric pressed" CD-release for this great Russian label; SERGEY SUHOVIC - man behind the label - is also FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC and a part of EXIT IN GREY; for this CD he recorded material in different industrial areas of Moscow, which are combined with SHAPOVALOVs sounds from natural materials (metal, glass, wood); foggy night-drones & overtuned machine-hummings, sensitive and lonely... great album ! Lim. 500
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| FLEURY-STEINER, BEN |
Ventus |
mCD-R |
the return of this Ambient composer (with big "A") from the U.S. who was once running the fine GEARS OF SAND label and had a release on taalem before (alm 48), inspired by the 'that which blows' notion.. "Maybe like wind, it moves, going round and round, sounds rising a bit above the mix, a bit below, moving about. Like long loops that repeat in various ways, but without much repetition, nothing is overlayed in the same way twice.." [Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€5.50 |
|
| FOETUSDREAMS |
Brouillard |
CD-R |
"There is only one God and that God is man himself" - debut album for a dutch dark drone ambient project on a new dutch label, reaching out for the deep inner and outer spaces and the endless void within, always surrounded by a subtle humming... a dreaming of the impossible? 10 tracks - 62+ min, lim. 150, professional duplication & digipack cover
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| FOR KINGS AND QUEENS |
Merz |
CD-R |
Recommended dark experimental & drone debut-CDR by a German project on a new label from Berlin. To discover.
lim. 200
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| FOVEA HEX |
The Salt Garden III |
10inch + CD |
third and last part of the 'Salt Garden' trilogy by the project around CLODAGH SIMONDS, feat. COLIN POTTER, MICHAEL BEGG (HUMAN GREED) and various other guest musicians, co-released by STEVEN WILSON's Headphone Dust label and DIE STADT... the lyrical "ambient drone folk" compositions have been compared to THIS MORTAL COIL or RICHARD SKELTON and seem to shine from the very inner core...
|
2019 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
The Salt Garden III |
CD-EP |
third and last part of the 'Salt Garden' trilogy by the project around CLODAGH SIMONDS, feat. COLIN POTTER, MICHAEL BEGG (HUMAN GREED) and various other guest musicians, co-released by STEVEN WILSON's Headphone Dust label and DIE STADT... the lyrical "ambient drone folk" compositions have been compared to THIS MORTAL COIL or RICHARD SKELTON and seem to shine from the very inner core...
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| FRAJERMAN, DENIS |
Herbes & Golems |
CD |
NEW album by the French avantgardist, who released in his early stages on the legendary NOISE MUSEUM label; "Herbes & Golem" is inspired by a book of same name from MANUELA DRAEGER, a 'post-exotic' author; compositions are derived from many sources, often based on electric organ and beat box, with spoken lyrics, field recordings, other instruments, maybe like a softer form of D.D.A.A....
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| FRANCK, YANNICK |
Hierophany | Иерофания |
CD |
three long pieces of earthy suction-drones by this promising artist & label-maker (IDIOSYNCRATICS) from Belgium, diving deeply into Orthodox Christianity myths & sounds, with field recordings form chants & church-bells arising from somewhere... a must for any lover of contemplative drones ! Lim. 500 on Moscow's finest experimental label MONOCHROME VISION
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| FRANKLIN, MARTIN & MICHAEL NORTHAM |
An Opening of the Earth : recovered |
CD |
re-worked recordings (that appeared originally 1991/1993 on CD / MC - on the legendary SOUNDS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS RAPE-label!) by the TUU-member M. FRANKLIN and the Drone Records-artist NORTHAM; lim. 500 in the typical Faria-design (full colour cardboard cover with postcards)
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| FREIBAND |
Ice field |
mCD-R |
new label by FRANS DE WAARD; non-jewel-case cover
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Reflection |
mCD-R |
lovely one-tracker on FRANS DE WAARDS mikro label, comes with handmade photo cover
.... "Piano sources recorded on boxing day, transformed in the days after with the final mix on new years eye 2007. Moody textured music with a bite."
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
| FUKUI, KOUTARO |
Gently touching the Conception |
CD |
harmonic electronica from this Japanese artist; reminds on ULTRA MILKMAIDS, etc.. another very good release on this fine label from Paris; lim. 500 digipack
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| FULLMAN, ELLEN |
Staggered Stasis |
CD |
one of the last releases on the legendary Anomalous Records label from Seattle was this beautiful overtune drone-album by ELLEN FULLMAN, perfecting her Long String Instrument; two long pieces of colourful drone-rays |
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| G*PARK |
Gour |
LP |
"crypto electro-acoustics" is the notion the label uses for this long composition by the Zürich based composer, who never fails to record & combine unusual field & object recordings... GOUR is an often quite fast moving collage made of all kinds of field recordings with rough moments, great creaking sounds, mysterious voice delusions, raw ether atmospheres... GOUR appears in an edition of 350 copies
|
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
| GARCIA, MIGUEL A. & MIGUEL SOUTO |
The Lurking Fear |
CD |
first CD release for a new label from Spain - here MIGUEL A. GARCIA aka XEDH collaborates with label maker MIGUEL SOUTO, creating a kind of 'industrial improvisation' with powerful, opressive sound collages - the noises aand drones seem to come in layers from everyhwere and are often hardly recognizable, which is great ; the whole is a homage to H.P. LOVECRAFT, but it's totally free from any 'gothic' elements... 4 tracks 52+ min, absolutely to discover if you like dark noise
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT & L. PETITGAND |
Like This Maybe or This |
LP |
next in the nice atmospheric soundscaping "Mind Travel" series of the French label presents a new album with a strong cinematic edge by the fruitful collaboration of "post industralist" GEIN'S NAIT and "film score composer" L.PETITGAND (who worked with WIM WENDERS and PAUL AUSTER) >= "The subject matter is certainly difficult to grasp and invites us on an inner journey while leading us to doubt and question ourselves incessantly..." ; printed inner sleeve / DL card / great artwork again!
|
2021 |
€18.00 |
|
| GENETIC TRANSMISSION |
Genetic Transmission |
CD |
re-issue of GT's very first release, which was originally a cassette that came out on Polish legendary experimental label OBUH Records in 1997 => "harsh, metallic sounds, a mechanical structure, brut collages created using only analog sources and recorded in exactly the same manner - without the use of computers." lim. 200 and a great document of Polands "early" post industrial sound
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| GILLIS, ANNE / JAC BERROCAL / JACQUES DOYEN |
Fuel 217 / Sacre |
pic-7inch |
first release from a new French label: Side A presents a NEW piece of ANNE GILLIS with JAC BERROCAL who met at 'Sonic Protest' in Paris, performing on oil can and pocket trumpet a most curious and lovely piece, Side B is a rare collab. of JACQUES DOYEN and BERROCAL on a text by ALLEN GINSBERG, recorded already 1982 (relased on a TAGO MAGO cassette); ed.of 230 copies
|
2018 |
€17.00 |
|
| GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR! [GYBE] |
f#a#°° |
LP |
First LP, a classic album now; comes with handassembled, embossed papercover & many inserts. NEW pressing with sticker on front! => *Das 10-köpfige Ensemble aus Montreal, das man nur als Kondensat aus Ennio Morricone, 17 Pygmies, Savage Republic und dem Rhythmus von EX, die kanadische Tradition des Radio-Dramas und Instrumente wie Cello, Violine, Glockenspiel, Percussion, 3 Gitarren und Loops einbeziehend, bezeichnen kann!* [original label info]
|
1997 |
€26.50 |
|
| GOREHALLREIDER |
A Blow to the Head |
CD-R |
project of JOHN GORE (KIRCHENKAMPF), STEVE HALL (YEN POX, V.O.S) and C.REIDER (VUZH label and solo-artist). hand-coloured digipackcovers ! |
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| GRABOWSKI, PAWEL |
Diarakth / Imaginism pt. 1 |
7inch |
we got some last copies of this beautiful 7" by Drone Records artist PAWEL GRABOWSKI; lim. 299 on the now inactive label from Leipzig LAUB RECORDS; special price & last chance !! LAST COPY!
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS |
Sonnenwende |
do-CD |
dedicated to the sun's journey through the seasons and through dark and light, the successor to "Dämmerung" (CD on the same label); a typical epic and highly spiritual GRASSOW work with some surprising moments (acoustic guitar)... comes with 16p full colour booklet
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS & THOMAS WEISS |
Conscience |
CD |
'transpersonal ambience' inspired by the human conscience, first collab by these two German spiritual ambient composers on the now defunct label from Prague, special offer! => "four long tracks leave space to freely morphing soundwaves, reflecting both positive spiritual power as well as somewhat murky moods" [Igor Novácek]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| GREY FREQUENCY |
Empyrean |
7inch |
DIETER MÜH has re-activated his small label with three great 7" releases, this U.K. project tries to reveal the hidden powers lying beneath the surfcae of our everday modern lives through music; from atmospheric drones and noise spheres to more pulsing and structured / electronic areas, two very nice pieces. - . lim. 100 copies with hand-stamped labels and two inserts
|
2022 |
€9.50 |
|
| GRIM |
Therianthropy |
7inch + BOOK |
4-track 7" vinyl EP plus 48 pages fineart hardcover book, the 2nd chapter... - "An album about the mythological ability of individuals to shapeshift into animals or hybrids ? Brilliant. The experimental, tribal, eastern music references in the rhythms and overall sound could make shapeshifting possible!" [blauerosen] - lim. 200, sold out at the label!
|
2023 |
€35.00 |
|
| GRIMAUD, DOMINIQUE & VERONIQUE VILHET |
Iles |
LP |
the label from Rennes (FR), active since 1989 with the slogan "unusual, unexpected music, off the beaten track, far removed from commercial interests" with the 2nd album by these two veterans of French underground music (VIDEO AVENTURES, CAMIZOLE..) on the topic ISLANDS - "Au final, douze morceaux correspondant à douze îles réelles ou fictives, avec douze contours et douze destins tour à tour cabossé, rouillé, déchiqueté, déroutant, extravagant, accidenté, bousculé, tourmenté, cocasse..."
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| GRMMSK |
Reality Asylum |
12inch |
experimental dub project by this formerly Hamburg-based artist known as TOTSTELLEN - this sounds unlike anything you would expect as labeled "dub" but still uses its elements and feeling, in another time frame...."Treffend als Doom-Dub bezeichnet, wird durch Time Stretching, Pitch Shifting und weitere Effekte die apokalyptische Seite im Dub übersteigert....könnte auch die Vertonung des Katers nach der Reggae-Party sein: Da war wohl doch was sehr komisches drin im Spliff."[frohfroh] - lim. 200
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| GRÄF, JENNY |
Os |
CD-R |
METALUX member JENNY GRÄF SHEPPARD with a solo-album on Hamburgs WP label - synth-based atmospheres, vocals, weird industrial soundz... psychedelic low fi ambience; self made 7" colour cover
|
2012 |
€7.00 |
|
| GURUN GURUN |
Uzu Oto |
LP |
stunning Czech experimental ensemble with a record on the Peruvian BUH Records label, creating excellent multi-layered drone noise and confusing fragmo electronics with a surrealistic / psychedelic edge, feat. a female singer from Japan! - *like falling through a strange wormhole full of sounds, noises, and soft female vocals, mercilessly sucking you in, forcing you to collapse into yourself and enter a parallel universe.* - 300 copies, great cover art, too
|
2022 |
€22.00 |
|
| GUS COMA |
Color him coma |
do-CD |
re-issue of an obscure MC-only release from 1983 by this British project (= a member of MILK FROM CHELTENHAM, who's bandname inspired STEVEN STAPLETON to name his label UNITED DAIRIES!) creating complete weird and unclassifiable collages based on turntable or tape-manipulations & found sounds; contains a full CD of bonus-material from 1982-1985
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| HAIGH, ROBERT |
Strange and Secret Things |
CD |
third & final part of the solo-piano trilogy;
lim. 500 with handmade miniature jacket-sleeve designed by FARAWAY PRESS, on Daisuke Suzuki's cult label SIREN! |
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| HAINO, KEIJI / BALAZS PANDI / MERZBOW |
Become the Discovered, not the Discoverer |
do-LP |
the second noise-clash (after "An Untroublesome Defencelessness", 2016) for these three gifted performers on the RareNoise label, four long sets recorded in a studio in February 2018... "the three intrepid improvisers explore a threshold of sound so blisteringly intense, that it passes into a zone of divine cacophony." - comes on coloured vinyl
|
2019 |
€27.50 |
|
| HARRIS, MICK |
Hednod 5-10 |
6 x 12inch box |
MICK HARRIS released four 12"es under the moniker / label HEDNOD from 1999-2001 - it sounds like a most bleak, dark and minimal version of SCORN, cold clear and slowed down beats, bass pulses and otherworldly sounds, packaged in a sturdy black box
|
2024 |
€89.00 |
|
| HECKER, TIM |
Love Streams |
do-LP |
now on a major label: TIM HECKERs irresistable "fake church music" or "neo metal drone", heavily processed digital spheres between harmony & ambient noise, usually based on acoustic sound sources / samples from church organs, pianos or strings; on LOVE STREAMS he works with JOHANN JOHANNSSON who contributed medieval chorals... lim. vinyl version with download code, gatefold cover
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| |
Love Streams |
CD |
now on a major label: TIM HECKERs irresistable "fake church music" or "neo metal drone", heavily processed digital spheres between harmony & ambient noise, usually based on acoustic sound sources / samples from church organs, pianos or strings; on LOVE STREAMS he works with JOHANN JOHANNSSON who contributed medieval chorals...
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| HIAS |
Songs about the End of the Sun |
LP |
Spanish doom-metal / hardcore band with experimental influences, at times melancholic & slow, at times fast and noisy... on CARLOS VILLENA's label
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| HIORTHOY, KIM & RUNE KRISTOFFERSEN |
LET'S PUT IT TO MUSIC / 20 YEARS OF RUNE GRAMMOFON |
BOOK & 7inch |
224 pages hardcover book with visuals by RUNE GRAMMOFON desgner Kim Hiorthøy, the label works since 20 years with the same artist, creating a strong visual identity... "an interesting insight by including sketches, rejected designs and unused idéas that never left the drawing board.." comes with 7" incl. tracks by FIRE!ORCHESTRA, MAJA S. RATKJE and THE LAST HURRAH! |
2018 |
€46.00 |
|
| HIROSHIMABEND |
Vekks |
CD |
first release in the new "Klang Onstage" series by the Austrian label :=> Vienna based Drone Rec. artists HIROSHIMABEND performed live in Oct. 2021 at "Vekks", an excellent performance of ritualized industrial ambience and occult electronics, beats and sounds as coming through walls of sonic cotton batting, strange voices appear as from otherworlds, more chaotic and experimental parts break in.. - 47+ min. playtime
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| HIS DIVINE GRACE |
Le Grand Secret |
CD |
HIS DIVINE GRACE was the main project of the french-german label operators and this their last amazing album, telling a mysterious conspiracy story of "millions of words" who break out of a book and lead to the death of the reader, whose book is read by another one who also dies.. - this "These" and "Antithese" leads to a beautiful "Synthese Et Syncretisme" track, the whole album is filled with gloomy synths, melancholic sounds and spoken word material, a very special album, impossible to categorize....
|
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| HLADNA & VRESNIT |
Inej Senju Kornej |
CD |
shamanic winter meditation drones, played mainly on acoustic instruments at a remoted place; lim. 383 copies and another strong release for this label from Yaroslavl, Russia
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| HOARFROST |
Anima Mundi |
CD |
very quickly REVERSE ALIGNMENT becomes a most active label in the world of (dark) ambient and doomy experimentalism; this fourth album release by Polish HOARFROST dives deeply into mythology about "mother earth" , they establish here a kind of gothic/folk/theatrical industrial-drama style with pathos and emotion (& female vocals)....quite special and to discover! lim. 300
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| HOLLOWAY, IAN |
Silent Spring |
CD-R |
another rather "new name" on this British label & and as usual recommended for any ambient / drone-explorer; subtle mysterious dronescapes based on analog electronics & acoustic loops, in the way of MONOS or ANDREW CHALK..
|
2011 |
€6.00 |
|
| HOLLOWING + MAOR APPELBAUM |
Collaborating Torture |
CD |
last known recording of MATT GIBNEY aka HOLLOWING (who also ran the Rectrix label) who died 01.2006, in collaboration with MAOR APPELBAUM; dark ambience one-tracker of 54 min length
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| HOLY SIMILAUN |
Radicor al flort, espert on'ill il erb, aor Raetia |
LP |
HOLY SIMILAUN is an anonymous experimental project from (probably) Italy, using here electronics, Japanese instruments, harp and the voice of ARCHIPEL, to explore the scopes between reality and illusion...- *a sonic tapestry that ebbs and flows between moments of serene beauty and frenzied dissonance* - as almost everything on this Italian label, a pleasure for explorers of the new, unexpected and unusual !! lim. 300 , 45 RPM LP,
|
2023 |
€18.00 |
|
| HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT |
An Anagram Hypnotic |
LP |
debut LP from this obscure project around painter & sound experimentalist ANTHONY MANGICAPRA from Brooklyn; lim. 281 copies, comes with sticker, numbered & signed & screen printed & with original finger tips on label; very nice edition !
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| HUBWEBER, PAUL / ULI BOETTCHER |
Schnack |
LP |
lim. 300 full colour cover / sublabel of AUF ABWEGEN |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| HYBRYDS |
Cortex Stimulation - Virtual Impact |
do-CD |
the re-issue series from ZOHARUM reaches the year 1996, when THE HYBRYDS released this album on DIRK IVENS (ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL, DIVE) label DAFT... => IVENS and DEUTSCH NEPAL also contributed to this album of dark & distorted electro industrial, still rooted in a deep ritualistic and dangerous atmosphere... + as a bonus the live album VIRTUAL IMPACT from 2000 (also originally on DAFT) has been added; all re-mastered & with new cover art
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| HYPNOZ |
Breath of Earth |
CD |
russian drone-project from Fryazino (Moscow-region) on the fine-label from St.Petersburg; basic material rec. in collab. with CISFINITUM; lim. 500
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| HYPSIPHRONE |
And the Void shall pierce their Eyes |
CD |
new industrial noise project from Greece with debut-album, using elements of doom & black metal - very apocalyptic, authentic stuff, nightmarish & cinematic, absolute mind-crushing.... highly recommended if you like it really dark, noisy & oppressive. On the sublabel of MALIGNANT Records
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| IELASI, GIUSEPPE |
Rhetorical Islands |
LP |
vinyl re-issue of the Senufo CD from 2013, with a piece composed for JEROME NOETINGERs "L'Audible Festival" in Paris 2011, 10 tracks of what IEALASI calls "isolated sound worlds" - seen as a kind of sculptures.. - * Ielasi evokes physical objects, some of which seem to have been constructed out of paper and cardboard, others based on a mechanics of elastic materials. Of course these objects are hallucinations..* - on the label of JAN JELINEK
|
2024 |
€27.50 |
|
| ILLUSION OF SAFETY |
Fifteen / Finite Material Context |
CD |
re-issue of FIFTEEN MC (1990) & parts of FINITE MATERIAL CONTEXT (1990) from the legendary US industrial group; and first release on TESCO sublabel.
|
1993 |
€14.00 |
|
| ILTA HÄMÄRÄ |
Velloa |
7inch |
the extraordinary 7" label MEEUW is now based in Brussels and releases this gorgeous EP by the new project of the (now famous) TIMO VAN LUIJK (AF URSIN, ELODIE and many ongoing collaborations) with BART DE PEPE => two tracks of low-fi rumbling, 1000 miles away & strangely filtered psych-drone excess.... the drug-induced 70's re-appear in a strange dreams... probably very limited and pressed on 45 RPM by Hamburg's Ameise
|
2018 |
€7.00 |
|
| IN MEDITARIUM [IN MEDITARIVM] |
Les Fleurs du Mal |
CD-R |
we could get back few copies back in of some release from the Polish dark ambient / industrial label SOULWORM, all in highly professional design! This one by Ukrainian Drone Rec. project IN MEDITARIUM comes in full-colour cardboard-cover w. inlay and is limited to 300 copies
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| IN SEARCH OF DEATH |
III |
CD |
first CD with archive material by a mysterious act on the label from Belgium that is specialized on death industrial and 'old school' 80's industrial noise, think of early ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO, VIVENZA or the early COLD MEAT INDUSTRY area... cold mechanic machine-like and ponding analogue noises, and martial elements.. lim. 200, mastered by PETER ANDERSSON (raison d'etre)
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| INDO |
Rupa Loka |
CD |
first CD album for this Hungarian ambient project, inspired by the Buddhist notion of 'Rupa-Loka' (the realm of form, of higher beings) - a stunning atmospheric journey using many strange animal & bird-sounds and environmental recordings of forests, water, valleys.. comes with 12p. full colour booklet; filed under: mystic / meditative organic ambience; great start for this new label from Sweden
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE |
A Mysterious Disc |
CD-R |
A mysterious disc! no information on cover or by the label
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| INSTINCT PRIMAL |
Dizzling Darkness |
CD |
SILKEN TOFU becomes the main Belgian label for new post industrial & dark noise projects: INSTINCT PRIMAL is another debuting experimental noise project, behind is a Czech photographer and sound designer finding his own musical language establishing cold atmospheres with neo-classic samples, bleak drones and acoustic strokes... lim. 300, nice A5 silkscreen cover
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON |
Sirimiri |
MC |
tape-only release by the prolific ambience composer with the same 4 tracks on both sides (72 min. in total), this 'drizzle' ambience is "shrouded in melancholic vapours and forlorn harmonics... four majestic extended cuts as so many viewpoints on an untouched phantasmal valley... ‘Sirimiri‘ offers sensations in their purest essence, primitively symbolic yet actively contemplative." 2nd. ed. in cassette-case with download code on this label from Mexico City
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| ISHIGAMI, KAZUYA |
Hosshin No Kizashi [Experimental Music of Japan Vol. 5] |
CD |
most ambitious album of this long-time active composer from Osaka, Japan, oscillating between electro-underground & a "serious" composition approach => 5 excellent "acousmatic" pieces, using concrete sounds as well as purely abstract & amorph drones ... art-cover, lim. 500, 5fth in the series "Experimental Music of Japan" by the well known OMEGA POINT label (known for many YOSHI WADA & JOHN CAGE releases) / BACK IN STOCK!
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Canceller X |
CD |
excellent ISHIGAMI release on a new Japanese label: electro-magnetic charged drones are overwhelmed by metallic shimmering reflections and other unidentifiable, more concrete phaser-noises, breaks can be sharp but the development of tracks occurs in dreamlike slow-motion, eerie and unreal... thematically based around different kinds of "memories", and their cancellation, 14 tracks 69+ minutes, comes with fold-out text inlay (on Japanese) and 4 photo-inlays; highly recommended !!
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Archive Deleter |
CD-R |
"a three-part album of isolationist drone and formless void. Metallic tones with a reflective surface unspool glacially from an unreachable horizon. In one moment it feels meditative, and in the next, filled with a cosmic dread. Digging deeper, one could relate some of the sounds to distant machinery, piping off steam through bulbous steel veins, boring through alien black stone in an irradiated quarry, on some forsaken outer planetoid" - excellent amorph drone works, on US label (IMPORT), micro edition of only 36 copies !!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| JAZKAMER / MARK DURGAN |
split |
7 |
lim. 500 / the project of LASSE MARHAUG & JOHN HEGRE on one side; MARK DURGAN aka PUTREFIER (& live-member of NEW BLOCKADERS) on the splitside! comes in hand-stamped juke-box sleeve with full-colour labels
|
2008 |
€8.50 |
|
| JERMAN / BARNES |
Versatile Ambience |
LP |
collaboration by JEPH JERMAN and TIM BARNES, creating a special form of improvised ambience, intimate, near and concrete... (using atmospheric field recordings, instrumental sounds (wind and stringed) from guests, occasionally shortwave and electronics); very nice edition on 180gr. vinyl with insert, on the re-activated IDEA label.. edition of 500 copies
|
2016 |
€26.00 |
|
| JULIUS, ROLF |
(halb)schwarz |
CD |
'Rolf Julius wonderful world of small sounds' - great drone album with seven floating pieces of hiss, buzz- & whine-sounds. On a microtonal level this world is full of small + smallest strange little details + happenings. Liner notes explain the notion 'Small Sounds', a concept by JOHN CAGE....reminds on works by ANDREW DEUTSCH, RICHARD CHARTIER, ASMUS TIETCHENS... on the PODEWIL-Label from Berlin!" [Drone Rec. info] - BACK IN STOCK; NOW RARE! - with booklet
|
2001 |
€15.50 |
|
| K2 |
Kinky Tape Collection 1981-1983 |
do-LP |
early tape material (1981-1983) by this Japan noise pioneer, released on his own label KINKY TAPE COLLECTION; distorted drumbox rhythms, weird analogue sounds of all kind and tape experiments with founds sound, etc.. lim. 500, gatefold cover
|
2014 |
€26.50 |
|
| KA-SPEL, EDWARD |
The Moon cracked over Albion |
CD |
limited edition CD on the 'new' LPD Terminal Kaleidoscope label, recorded secretly by EK through one full year, with full colour insert w. artwork by the artist + dl-code for extra-track! "Conceived and recorded in a nation (a World?) so tragically divided, it could fall apart, it's hoped that just a few seeds of hope and optimism can be sown over the course of the time you'll spend in this peculiar world."
|
2019 |
€18.50 |
|
| KALLABRIS & LEPENIK |
...on what there is... |
LP |
first ever collaboration by our beloved KALLABRIS philosoph with ROBERT LEPENIK (Austrian musician once active with FETISH 69 and the TONTO label) => funny, eccentric, but also melancholic 'songs' often based on loops & cheap rhythm box & computervoice, with wacky lyrics ("She's just a friendly Psychopath"), an almost undescribable album of weird, surreal, unexpected 'PoP' tunes, a playful & highly creative handling and enlarging of musical genres... - BACK IN STOCK, nice price now!
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| KG AUGENSTERN |
Circles and Cycles |
BOOK + CD |
after the obscure, hyper conceptual sound art "Tentacles" release on the same label, a like-minded offering by KG AUGENSTERN from Berlin: recordings from scratching surfaces with a special fiberglass tentacle, this time made on abandoned places and ruins in Sicilia and accompanied with video recordings of the sites, also using sheep wool and clay, which lead to an exhibition in Palermo; - comes wtih a very nice 60 page art book with many s/w and colour photos, texts, notes..
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| KIRCHENKAMPF |
Transmissions |
CD-R |
numb. ed. 100 / back in stock few last copies, sold out from the label
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| KLEISTWAHR |
Mobility |
LP (single-sided) |
going back to the earliest KLEISTWAHR (GARY MUNDY of RAMLEH) material, this was once released on cassette on the legendary Broken Flag label in 1983! - "Unavailable for over 30 years, this is a must-have record by all those with an interest in RAMLEH and their offshoots, the Broken Flag archives or, more broadly, anything from this fertile period in noise / avant--garde music from the basement." - 5 early power electronics tracks, 300 copies, inlay, one-sided LP
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| KMRU |
Stupor |
LP |
KMRU aka JOSEPH MAKARU, originally from Nairobi, with three new longform tracks on a new Finnish label =>
"Stupor reminds us that we are intrinsically spatial and temporal beings who contribute to the social construction of our worlds. Importantly, this album is a reminder of the capability of sound to carve out space and its potential to open spatial and temporal dimensions. Sound is movement. Sound is space." black vinyl, printed inners, OBI strip |
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| KOMMISSAR HJULER & GUI RONG |
Erzählung der roten Gaslampe |
MC |
KOMMISSAR HJULER in collaboration with a Chinese opera singer (of course) - the true ART BRUT sound, a symphony of metal-bangs and bells & weird quasi-chinese singings & instrumental madness..C-50...11th tape on the great German tape label, always using coloured MC bodies & oversized art-covers (21x21cm) with additional object inside (this time a painted electro-nut! ), lim. to 70 copies
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| KONRAD KRAFT |
Temporary Audiosculptures and Artefacts |
CD |
first release since 15 years by this German artist from Düsseldorf who once ran the SDV-Tonträger label there; excellent electronic and concrete sound based "audio sculptures" that reminded us on earlier works of ASMUS TIETCHENS, but he's also compared with ILLUSION OF SAFETY or CISFINITUM; lim. 300 in special carton folder box
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOPP, HERMANN / FUSILLER |
Les Naufrages |
LP |
legendary "early 80's electronic" obscure-ist HERMANN KOPP is back with this long play 12" which he shares with DJ FUSILLER aka JO TANZ, who runs the Tanzprocesz label in France and worked with G. TAZARTES... HERMANN KOPPS side (feat. LORENZO ABATTOIR) is filled with dark organ drones,sombre electronics, chants and concrete sounds and seems to be the soundtrack to a shipwrecking, FUSILLER confronts with a weird and noisy electro collage.. 200 copies
|
2020 |
€16.50 |
|
| KRAKEN |
Aquanaut |
LP |
"He who gazed into the abyss for too long.." - getreu nach diesem Motto erschaffen KRAKEN abgrundtief düstere Soundscapes, geisterhafte Drones sorgen für Unruhe, vielerlei Effekte schaffen Gänsehaut-Atmosphäre, befremdliche Stimmung, soundtrackartig.. klasse Debut auf schwerem blauen Vinyl... last copies, sold out from the label !
|
1999 |
€16.00 |
|
| KRAUSE, ANDRES |
Move Ground |
LP |
based on a soundtrack for an audio-visual installation; a sound-journey using field recordings from Cologne; co-produced by CHRISTOPH HEEMANN, KRAUSE is also known as AFRI STUDIOS and with his label SOFTL MUSIC
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| KRENG |
Camino - Original Soundtrack |
do-LP |
original Soundtrack for this high class thriller by JOSH WALLER; KRENGs second soundtrack work, full of tension, darkness and pounding elements, electronic and classic foundations... lim. 500 clear vinyl, gatefold cover with booklet & download code - on the label of GEOFF BARROW (PORTISHEAD)
|
2016 |
€28.00 |
|
| KRENG + SVARTE GREINER |
The Night Hag |
CD |
nocturnal drone-muzak in the truest sense: inspired by the phenomenum of "Sleep Paralysis" KRENG and SVARTE GREINER created this eerie one tracker that slowly occupies your mind... and body - "Your body becomes a prison, a padded cell. It is the ultimate personal lockdown scenario.." - great return for KRENG on his first collab with the man behind the MIASMAH label; ed. of 300 copies, handfolded package with stitched cover, plus inlay card, mastering: IAN HAWGOOD
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| KRIWET, FERDINAND |
Hörtexte 2 |
2x-pic-LP |
second release with truly experimental 'radiotext' collages by this sound artist from Düsseldorf, Germany: contains his first work for Radio from 1961/62, "Offen", "Hörtext 1" (1963) and a newer work from 2012 "Rotoradio", comes on two beautifully designed picture discs on Berlins finest label for contemporary music, Edition RZ
|
2014 |
€36.00 |
|
| KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK |
Liquid Circuits |
CD |
KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK is the project of "M.M." who also runs the Zhelezobeton label & mailorder in St. Petersburg and who is a member of HATTIFNATTER and often involved in LUNAR ABYSS performances... "Liquid Circuits" is in many years only the 2nd full length album, and lives up to its title: experimental drone-ambient that is pulsing, throbbing, sizzling, and electronically cheeping, as if the electrons moved into another state of being; 333 copies, nice gatefold cover
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
|
To Dream Is To Destroy |
CD |
the fourth album from the Russian project (who is also behind the legendary ZHELEZOBETON label & mailorder), now being located in Amsterdam (NL), K.R. delevoped a very own experimental style based on radio sounds, drones, crackles, and multi-layered vintage electronics, a challenging ride into the reality of ether static noises with a great nostalgic flair... - lim. CD version only 103 copies !
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
To Dream is to Destroy |
MC |
the fourth album from the Russian project (who is also behind the legendary ZHELEZOBETON label & mailorder), now being located in Amsterdam (NL), K.R. delevoped a very own experimental style based on radio sounds, drones, crackles, and multi-layered vintage electronics, a challenging ride into the reality of ether static noises with a great nostalgic flair... - lim. cassette ed. 50 copies only, CD available too
|
2023 |
€8.50 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC |
L'Inspir du rivage pt. 2 & 3 |
7inch |
back in stock few copies of this rarity: a lim. 7" with pure (A) and manipulated (B) field recordings ( - gargling, smackling and droning water waves, revealing the micro dimensions of this element...) from ERIC LA CASA, recorded at the coast in Croatia in 1995 & 1997, released on JOE COLLEY's (CRAWL UNIT) 7" label - one of the earliest releases of the French environmental sound master, ed. of 325 copies coming in oversized paper cover, still sealed
|
1999 |
€10.00 |
|
| LA STPO (La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux) |
Romanciel |
CD |
the legendary Italian label ADN (very active in the cassette scene of the 80's / 90's) is back with a new studio album by the true "Avant" Rock band from Rennes, France, who often deal with dreams and neologisms in their lyrics, the surreal and the absurd...- "this music is beautiful, imaginative and free just like a successful picture or like the flight of the birds that paint the sky with their wonderful parade."- four epic + incredible expressive new studio tracks, + 8 page booklet
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| LABRADFORD |
Prazision |
do-LP |
for the 20th anniversary of album & label a re-mastered re-issue of the first wonderful / wondrous LABRADFORD-album and first ever KRANKY release !!
|
2013 |
€22.50 |
|
| LAMIA VOX |
Sigillum Diaboli |
CD |
second album for this Russian project - now on the prolific CYCLIC LAW label from Canada - orchestral ambience, droney synths, orthodox chorals, female singing & whispers, with additional ritualistic percussion & neo-classic arrangements, gloomy & elevating at the same time... for fans of / somewhere between ARCANA, RAISON D'ETRE, HYBRYDS, IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES, etc.. lim. 600
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| LARSEN |
Rever |
CD |
debut release by this interesting Italian band, on M. GIRAs label (and also produced by the SWANS-mastermind!)
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| LE SYNDICAT 1984 |
Mars |
MC |
re-issue of tape from 1987 with recordings from 1984 - an endless stream of eruptive noises that NEVER stand still, a cascade of electronic arrows drilling through your brain; lim. 150 copies - professional design and duplication on a new established German label that once operated as CTHULHU RECORDS
|
2016 |
€9.00 |
|
| LEE, OKKYUNG / JEROME NOETINGER / NADIA RATSIMANDRESY |
Two Duos |
LP |
JEROME NOETINGER with his Revox B77 analogue tape installation machine, OKKYUNG LEE on Cello, and the highly interesting NADIA RATSIMANDRESY on the Ondes Martenot in two very fruitful duo improvisations at Cafe Oto in London, March 2019, recorded on 2 days... Side A - OKKYUNG LEE with NOETINGER, Side B - OKKYUNG LEE with RATSIMANDRESY....lim. 500 on the in house label for CAFE OTO
|
2022 |
€27.00 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS (LPD) |
Chemical Playschool Vol. 21 / 22 |
do-CD |
the longest existing conceptual 'series" within the LPD multiversum continues, 40 years after the legendary C.P. 1 & 2, and now again on their own label, which gives room for the experimental, dreamlike, poetic & psychedelic side of the dots.. " The Pink Dots are in excellent form, with their psychedelic outburst, dreamy soundscapes, free jamming, spacious electronics and the always recognizable voice of Ka-spel...." [FdW / Vital weekly]
|
2021 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Hallway of the Gods |
CD |
STERREKRAZHNALIVSHIJAR-H ALHEMNIS - the praised studio album from 1997, back in stock! - "Massive. If the Dots had ever recorded for a major label, it would have been exactly like this era. There are too many highlights here.." [RTW]
|
1997 |
€15.00 |
|
|
From here you'll watch the World go by |
CD |
the original CD version of their 1995 album, the first one on the rising SOLEILMOON Rec. label at that time, feat. "Citadel" and "Remember me this way", back in stock! - "..moving from noir jazz and grand psychedelic ballads to sophisticated space rock, the charismatic voice of Ka-Spel floats and teases as only his can..."
|
1995 |
€15.50 |
|
| |
Faces in the Fire (40th Anniversary ed.) |
LP |
re-issue of this remarkable early 6 track 12" (from 1984), very electronic and powerful at times, full of twists and shouts and some unforgettable melodic moments and refrains..the FIRST EVER release for PLAY IT AGAIN SAM at that time, now the 40th anniverserary release for the label, lim. 500
|
2023 |
€27.00 |
|
| LEPENIK |
Music with Words - Rhythms for Dancing |
CD |
completely overlooked album which unfolds a very strange, surrealistic beauty, using nostalgic film-like quotes, poetry, weird electronic vintage sounds, in its strangeness comparable to KALLABRIS, in its nostaglic flair to old French films or even FIRST HUMAN FERRO's dreamy ambience - a remarkable work from the Austrian musician (once a member of FETISH 69) and label maker (TONTO) from Graz , filed under: uncategorizable nostalgic strangeness... back in stock !
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Weibsteufel |
LP |
after many years, a new release on the KALLABRIS label! - "Weibsteufel" is ROBERT LEPENIK's music for a dramatic theatre-piece act by SIMON WINDISCH, originally written by KARL SCHÖNHERR in 1914.. expect the unexpectable ! lim. 100 silkscreen cover, design : KALLABRIS
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| LETUM |
Dreams and Illusions |
CD |
Swedish dark ambient project that started already in the 80's (known especially for two excellent CDs on Cold Meat Industry from 2001 + 2006), with 6th full length album, inspired by a nightmarish "Out-Of-Body-Experience" - *Life, death and time become one, manifesting and dissolving. LETUM's mournful minimalist soundscapes are as always expertly controlled and display unique compositional skills and emotive depth. Pure and Transcendental. * - we can only agree, a highlight on the CL label !
|
2023 |
€14.00 |
|
| LIKE DRONE RAZORS THROUGH FLESH SPHERE |
Life-Death Continuum |
CD |
Spanish doom and ambient drone with Black Metal influences, seven non-ordinary and versatile tracks, difficult to categorize.. - "An exercise in magnetic fields, meditation and maniac tape abuse. A no-exit labyrinth of eternal doppelspirals and psychedelic morphing emissions. A fully analogue monumental glitch fetishism memorandum carefully digitalised for the glory of the optical disc die-hards;" - lim. ed. digipak, sold out at label
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| LINDHOLM, OTTO / JEAN D.L. |
Apophenia |
MC |
first collaboration by these two GIZEH Records artists who met on a label night in Belgium (JEAN D.L. has already releases with JULIA KENT and RUTGER ZUYDERVELT / MACHINEFABRIEK), performing very dense, at times quite powerful & noisy 'experimental ambient drone' on double-bass and guitar, but there are also more quiet passages, full of tension and metallic resonances... lim. 50 printed cardboard cover
|
2021 |
€9.00 |
|
| LINDSTRÖM, MATS |
Mig |
LP |
first LP release by this Swedish composer (*1960), musician and builder of self-made electronic instruments => almost uncategorizable fragmented electronics & concrete "additions", a new language of sounds, 7 pieces created 2006-2012; on STEPHEN O'MALLEYs new "serious music" label
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO |
Untitled # 295 |
LP |
mysterious ultra low frequency pulses & crackles, sounds like electrified whistles.. a masterpiece of mysterious muzak that sinks into your mind like cotton wool into water.... two long tracks especially designed for vinyl, hard to find album released by the excellent Austrian GOD label
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
HYPER-RAINFOREST |
CD |
massive sound installation from 2011 (Troy, New York, presented on 82 speakers in the dark!) consisting of layers of collected pure rainforest field recordings (1990-2010) done at multiple locations (more than 10 countries!) => a really immersive acoustic trip (the rainforest sounding at times like a real ocean) with lots of details, listen to the glistening noises of animal & insect wildlife, weather, waterfalls and pure atmosphere...comes in F. LOPEZ own label, lim. 300 copies only !!
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / GX JUPITTER-LARSEN |
Francisco Lopez with G.X. Jupitter-Larsen |
10inch |
first time (?) collab by the two masters of minimal noise/drone/conceptsound - each re-working sound material from the other; rare 10" on this harsh noise label from Minneapolis, USA
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| LOWE, ROBERT AIKI AUBREY |
Levitation Praxis Pt. 4 |
LP |
experiments on HARRY BERTOIA's sound sculptures by the man behind LICHENS (and member of OM), also using his own (high) voice, to create something unreal and ethereal... recorded in July 2016 in conjunction with the "Atmosphere for Enjoyment" exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; out on the DEMDIKE STARE label, black vinyl ed. 500 copies
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| LULL |
Journey Through Underworlds |
CD |
LULLs masterpiece from 1993 (his second album on Sentrax, the label from JOHN EVERALL (TACTILE), noisier and more experimental than later albums... ' *The classic, genre-defining 1993 album from LULL - the pioneering, isolationist dark ambient project of MICK HARRIS of SCORN, FRET, ex-NAPALM DEATH - is a dark journey through the Stygian netherworlds of Hell.* - Mixed by Justin K Broadrick (GODFLESH), new artwork by GYDJA
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| LUNDE, ERIC |
A World of Hurt in the Kingdom of God |
CD |
legendary radical "industrial" performer and writer from the US with a collection of live recordings & readings, also once a member of BOY DIRT CAR; extreme sound poetry & noise, on this label from Israel !! Nice priced
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNDVALL, TOR |
Ghost Years |
CD |
retrospective CD with rare & vinyl-only tracks and plus previously unreleased material (1995-2004) by the "Ghost Ambient" singer who releases nowadays on the prolific DAIS Records label.. SPECIAL OFFER NOW!
|
2010 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Beautiful Illusions (lim. clear blue vinyl) |
LP |
FOREVER RAIN: the painter and ghost-musician from New York with an album on the prolific DAIS label, simply the most ethereal, smooth & atmospheric, melancholic "Ambient Pop" you can imagine.. - "New album is purely ethereal. A ghostly sonic mural that perfectly represents the gloom that resides within the death throes of autumn. This one will resonate with me for a long time." [iniquitous_dusk] - lim. colour vinyl version, printed inner sleeves, DL code
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| LUSTMORD & VARIOUS ARTISTS |
The Others (LUSTMORD deconstructed) |
do-CD |
remixes of [O T H E R] (2008, Hydra Head Rec., the label of AARON TURNER / ISIS), by GODFLESH, BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE, ULVER, ZOLA JESUS, ENSLAVED, STEVE VON TILL (NEUROSIS), MONO, and many more, all exclusive material ! - "What demonstrates the profound influence of Lustmord on this contemporary music underground showcased here is that artists from disparate ends of the sonic spectrum all feel inspired to explore the essence of his idiosyncratic sounds within their own realm"
|
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| LUTNAHIMAT |
Kleine Mietzekatze |
mCD |
last copies, 'lim. ed. in closed anti-static / moisture bag.'- another fine release of "experimental drone XXL" on the now highly collectable label from London
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| M.B. (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) |
Aktivitat |
LP |
re-issue of an old cassette release from 1983 (by Tegal Records, the label that was run by SCHLOSS TEGAL) => 4 re-mastered tracks with raw distorted beatbox sounds, shrunken harmonies, voices and blistering analogue electronic effects, sounds really different than any other M.B. work! "Neuronal radioactivity, supported by ancestral sounds that emanate from atomic testing flows that absorb a loss of fallen energy." lim. 500 copies in total, black vinyl
|
2016 |
€21.00 |
|
| MAEROR TRI |
Meditamentum |
CD |
re-release of the 2nd. M.T. CD from 1994, collecting favoured cassette material recorded 1989-1992... "a seamless, darkly grand proclamation of the wordless beauty and sorrow that was Maeror Tri" - comes in brown cardboard-envelope with embroidered cloth-banderole & re-print of original artwork & liner-notes by Lutz Schridde, a German philosoph now living in China; last copies back in stock from the now in-active label MANIFOLD Records
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Archaic States |
CD |
first ever CD re-issue of this cassette from 1993 (M.T. ninth full-length tape), originally released on AUBE's labels G.R.O.S.S. in 1993; it contains with "Blowing Sounds from a Dome" an epic early track from 1989, using raw material from RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK; +. one bonus-track not on the original tape; lim. 350 copies, all-remastered and with new cover design
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Beauty of Sadness |
CD |
the Russian label managed to do another re-issue of this timeless ambient album from 1996, luxurious digibook ed. - "Out of the churning wash of sound from their dynamic use of reverb, delay, and flange effects boxes, Maeror Tri push through honest to goodness songs of hypnotically repetitive guitar chords, melodies, and harmonies, making The Beauty Of Sadness come across like a rough-hewn but equally effective version of My Bloody Valentine's bleary eyed monotone found on Loveless" [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| MAGDALENA SOLIS |
Hesperia |
MC |
Droney and experimental psychedelic space rock with mideastern influences a la GRAILS, from Belgium, comes on a professional copied RED MC with black print & full coloured cardboard box & inlay, and download code, lim. 55 copies. On a new label from Berlin
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
| MAMA BÄR / MAMA BAER |
Mitten im Wald |
MC |
C-20 with two short & extreme sound-collages using speed-up found sounds from horror-movies combined with scary voice overs, crazy sung pop chants & more hard to stand outflows....11th tape on the great German tape label, always using coloured MC bodies & oversized art-covers (21x21cm) with additional object inside (this time something from the forest), lim. to only 41 copies !!
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| MARCLAY, CHRISTIAN & OKKYUNG LEE / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN |
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 6 |
CD |
re-issue of rare LP (Opax Rec.) with one live-recording by MARCLAY & LEE (NYC 12.2003), and two studio tracks (one is a very long bonus-track not on the LP) by MCIAA rec. 07.2002; special priced now as the label has stopped all activities! Comes in nice textured digi-sleeve
|
2006 |
€6.66 |
|
| MARHAUG, LASSE |
Context |
LP |
rare new MARHAUG album on the prolific Oslo-based "Jazz & more" label, seven pieces mirroring an intermediate state between noise and smoothness... - " Few other artists are able to balance chaos and harmony with such ease; Marhaug does it without grandstanding, it's music that sounds as simultaneously beautiful and as daunting as the Arctic landscape he's returning to.." - lim. 300 copies
|
2022 |
€28.50 |
|
| MAROW |
+-0 |
CD |
subtle, pulsing neo chill-out electronics from Berlin on the re-established MILLE PLATEAUX label, minimal & meditative stuff, perfect rhythmic & trancy ambience
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| MC NINCH, NATHAN |
A brief audio history of agriculture |
CD |
ORAL ist das Montrealer Experimental-Label von ERIC MATTSON, der Organisator der MUTEK-Festivals. NATHAN MC. NINCH ist ein neuer Name für uns, der mit “A brief audio history of agriculture” ein Werk präsentiert, welches sich über die Verwendung von field recordings mit dem Thema “Agrikultur” auseinandersetzt, um deren “Geschichte” mit ihren ureigensten Sounds zu erzählen... so vernetzt er hier die Klänge von landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen und der Alltags-Agrarwelt sehr sanft und tagträumerisch, so dass eine adäquate Atmosphäre entsteht, die in die nordamerikanischen Weiten entführt...
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
|
| MEELKOP, ROEL |
4 Propositions |
CD |
we found some copies of this 10 year old release on a long inactive Californian label by dutch composer ROEL MEELKOP; suspenseful drone-minimalism & challenging electronic concrete...
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| MELT FAMAS |
Serial Weather |
10inch |
psych/guitar-drone project of FRED BIGOT (ELECTRONICAT) & NICOLAS MALLET with a debut three-track EP, feat. an electro-drone-noise cover-version of BLONDIE's "Heart of Glass" (with male singing!); on a new label from AARAU, Switzerland
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL |
Together we shall melt Mountains with our Blood |
CD |
back in stock last copies, one of his masterpieces we think, a 49+ min pure process drone of higher beauty & contemplative ecstasy...only 101 copies made, fabric pressed CD, on the now defunct Waystyx label from Moscow!!
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| MERZBOW |
Camouflage |
CD |
back in stock this excellent MERZBOW assault with recordings from 2007, comes in mini-gatefold sleeve on the Brasilian ESSENCE MUSIC label known for exquisite designs! "...we salute the ferocious torrents of abused, imploding and exploding electronics, the sharp, pulverizing and abrasive high frequencies and the unrelenting punishment of frenzied throbbing machine-screams witnessed in the controlled cacophonic environment of Camouflage!"
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Hope |
LP |
Godzilla-Power needed ! Four new MERZBOW "songs" for this Ukrainian, Berlin based non-profit label "SUPPORTING UKRAINIAN RESISTANCE AGAINST RUSSIA BY DONATING OUR PROFITS TO SELF-DEFENCE AND HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATIONS." - *..spricht daneben das Dilemma an, das Lebewesen durch den Verbrauch freier Energie die Entropie in der Umgebung vermehren..* [Bad Alchemy] - lim. 500 bronze / black cover
|
2022 |
€19.00 |
|
| |
Circular Reference |
do-LP |
collector's item on new label from New York: a double 12" with Merzbow's *newer ventures of extreme sonic dynamics*, lim. ed. white & black vinyl with red and white splatters, comes w. spot gloss varnish / textured cover with booklet |
2024 |
€47.50 |
|
| MICH, LUDO / WATARU KASAHARA / KIYOHARU KUWAYAMA |
Les archives de l'univers amnesique illustre |
LP |
highly experimental & raw expressive collaboration recordings by LUDO MICH (Fluxus / soundartist from Belgium), K. KUWAYAMA (also known as LETHE) and W. KASAHARA from Japan; perfect stuff if you like the TOCHNIT ALEPH label, RUDOLV E.BER or MAMA BÄRs nerve-bending soundscapes.. white vinyl, lim. 250 copies
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| MICROTYPE |
Structures Pt. 1 |
CD-R |
loopy, piercing digital noise structures that build powerful pulsing and almost rhythmic formations, first (?) release for this German project with roots in the experimental techno scene of the 90's, a highly interesting EP by a new label from Würzburg, Germany; lim. 50 copies - hand assembled CD case cover
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIEVILLE, EMMANUEL |
Ethers |
CD |
French composer who studied musique concrete at the GRM in Paris with his second CD for Baskaru - by using and transforming quite ordinary field recodings, he wants to "earthen" drone music and make it textured and more dense...."There is fine vibrancy in the pieces by Mieville, shifting back and forth, ignoring strict classical rules of composition. Excellent release." [Vital Weekly] - another highly interesting soundartist on French label Baskaru, to discover !
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| MILTON, ANTONY & ANLA COURTIS |
Bronze Age Subway |
LP |
raw & fringed psych drone, slowly developing = the ex REYNOLS madman together with ANTONY MILTON from New Zealand (PSEUDO ARCANA-label, GLORY FCKN SUN, etc..) white/black silkscreen cover / lim. 260 // LAST COPY // VG+ / NM - listened once !
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| MINAMATA |
Cyclator |
CD & DVD |
CD-album with NEW material rec. 2002-2007; on the DVD a full live-performance (filmed April 2007 in Antwerp on the NUIT & BROUILLARD festival) plus the video-film screened at this performance (3 hours of video material in total); lim. 500 & almost sold out at the label !!
|
2009 |
€19.50 |
|
| MIRT |
Most |
12" |
very first vinyl release for the Polish label NEFRYT known from many great CDR releases presenting the Polish ambient/drone scene (HATI, ARSZYN, UCHO/OKO, etc.); a long play (24min) 12" by MIRT with subtle prepared field recordings &instrumental sounds (clarinet, accordion), very beautiful and softly hypnotic, comes in full colour cover &inlay, lim. ed. 250 copies
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI |
Works 1989-1991 |
CD |
back in stock this collection with early material from the "The same thing makes always her laugh" LP (ZSF 1990), plus other rare cassette-only stuff; on the CRAWL UNIT-label which is not active anymore
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOAN |
Endemia |
CD-R |
we could get back few copies back in of some release from the Polish dark ambient / industrial label SOULWORM, all in highly professional design! Lim. 250 in DVD box with glossy mini-poster & full colour cover
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| MODELBAU |
Thermolite |
MC |
rare cassette only release on Finnish "recycled tapes" label => FRANS DE WAARD (KAPOTTE MUZIEK, BEEQUEEN, WANDER..) in full low fi slow-drone mode, subtle rumbling expanses interspersed with even more subtle feedbacks and microwave / ancient synth tone pulses, resulting in interesting structures and droning forms... a special kind of drone-ambient! C-30, 4 tracks, only 44 copies made !!!
|
2022 |
€7.00 |
|
| MOGARD, ABUL & RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI |
Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close |
LP |
second release on IRISARRI's own label, two side-long epic tracks based on their live performance in Madrid 2023... - COLOUR vinyl lim. 250 (two different colours, please ask) => "If you believe in the transcendent nature and spiritual power of music, with a marriage of the divine and the human, you will be seduced by this album...for fans of Alessandro Cortini, Tape Loop Orchestra, and TROUM (at their most soothing moments). Essential." [IGLOO mag] |
2024 |
€30.50 |
|
| MOHNE, ACHIM |
Accelerated Standstill |
LP |
two side long compositions made entirely of carefully assembled 'locked grooves' (caused by dirt, etc.) found on various mainstream vinyl records - a curious LP full of rhythmic structures and musique concrete drones that are constantly shifting by this German multimedia artist, playable at any speed - a must for fans of PHILIP JECK and Plunderphonics; lim. 300 / Nr. 7 in Touchs white label series; excellent record !
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| MONNIER, THIERRY |
Temps Espace |
LP |
a very abstract and 'a-musical' work of noises, resonances, tones, hums and silences, feedbacking drones in layers, mechanical sounds, reminding on CRAWL UNIT, SMALL CRUEL PARTY, etc.. "DIY musique concrete existing outside of any academism" - first LP for this French composer, member of LA MORTE YOUNG and man behind the DOUBTFUL SOUNDS label ; comes with two postcards
|
2017 |
€17.00 |
|
| MONO |
Under the Pipal Tree |
CD |
debut full-length album by the "now famous" Japanese symphonic post-rock band, appeared on JOHN ZORNs TZADIK label in 2001
|
2001 |
€16.00 |
|
| MOREIGNE, BRUNO |
Solstice |
mCDR |
a great discovery is this mini CD by the almost unknown French createur of mysterious sounds & aural landscapes, BRUNO MOREIGNE, released on the label from Cedric Peyronnet / TOY BIZARRE: very near and concrete sounds, strangely pulsating, shimmering... "Du chaos au bruit, du bruit au son, du son aux sens..." - a piece of 20 min. length
|
2012 |
€8.50 |
|
| MORESCHI, ALESSANDRO |
The Last Castrato |
LP |
another obscure finding on this re-issue label are these recordings by ALESSANDRO MORESCHI (1858-1922), who was the last known 'Castrato' and became as ' l'Angelo di Roma' the First Soprano of the Sistine Chapel choir in Rome at the Vatican... "His recordings were made in 1902 and 1904 at the Vatican. Most of them are extremely rare and are collected here for the first time." lim. 500
|
2019 |
€18.50 |
|
| MORSANEK / VINKEPEEZER |
same |
LP |
new label from Amsterdam with a split LP by two Dutch composers, to discover; gatefold-cover, edition of 550 copies
|
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| MSBR |
Ultimate Ambience |
LP |
re-issue of the rare 1992 debut LP by the Japanese (harsh) noise project, released originally on KOJI TANO's own MSBR Records label... "Two long tracks filled with excellent harsh noise with strong influences of musique concrete and electro-acoustic music. The great production on this LP makes it so powerful that it is frightening at times!" - ed. of 199 copies, oversized postcard, awesome silver on black silk screen cover
|
2019 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Structured Suicide |
LP |
the original album appearead on MSBR Records as cassette-only release in 1992 (C-60), at that time his third release, and is now re-issued by the Italian label in its full glory: "This is the classic sound of MSBR, which envelops you with its texture of noise scales, suffocating and enthralling, without an immediate impact, but which then, at its harshest, hits you with devastating force!" - only 199 copies pressed
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN |
Not Now |
CD |
debut release from this highly interesting US composer ! probably last copies, the label seems to be inactive
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| MUSLIMGAUZE |
The Extreme Years 1990-1994 |
9 x LP BOX |
luxurious wood box containing all MG releases by the Australian EXTREME label that appeared 1990-1994, for many the best MUSLIMGAUZE phase, all for the first time on vinyl, with bonus material, booklet, and numbered certificate, 234 copies on BLACK vinyl, it sold out from the label immediately !!
|
2024 |
€205.00 |
|
| MYNODA |
Night Bathing |
MC |
4th tape on this new German tape-label that gained 'cult'-status very fast => MYONDA is a 5-headed project with members from Belarus, Russia & Moldavia, doing obscure collages & cut-up noise, at times almost experimental earplay-like, at times more drone-noised based... very good! lim. 70, oversized art-cover 21x21cm, the tape itself is covered with glitter, incl. bag with red stars, all professionally duplicated & printed !
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| N + BALTZER |
Gaunerzinken |
do-LP |
first collaboration by N with BALTZER aka J.F.SEBASTIAN, on Dortmunds true DIY underground label INSELKIND: two massive droning guitars on amps in continuous surroundings and spirals, 5 tracks all improvised with some almost "desert blues" sounding elements, reaching a great width and depth... (we had to think of the gifted MELANCHOHOLICS - R.I.P.); very special edition of only 107 copies in total, w. linoleum print cover, black printing on grey paper, BLACK vinyl
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| NADJA |
Luminous Rot |
LP |
almost three years after the glorious "Sonnborner" NADJA are back on the SUNN O)))-label Southern Lord, with this heavily distorted, throbbing & pulsing drone-doom monster, everything seems to blur inside thick atmospheric air, a full dose of (sub) bassy, oneiric hallucination... - comes on milky, YELLOW vinyl (lim. 500), w. colourful gatefold cover
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Labyrinthine |
CD |
extremely heavy, doomy new album with special concept => "Four extended tracks of atmospheric doom sludge, each with a different guest vocalist: Alan Dubin (Gnaw, Khanate), Rachel Davies (Esben & The Witch), Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel), & Dylan Walker (Full of Hell)....Labyrinthine explores themes of identity and loss, monstrosity and regret, extreme asceticism, the differences between labyrinths and mazes, etc.. " - no vinyl version, but numerous Cassette versions on other labels exist!
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| NADJA / AIDAN BAKER |
Nalepa |
LP + CD |
the 100th release on MIDIRA, the fine minimal / guitar / experimental drone label from Essen, Germany, is something very special: a "live in the studio" LP by NADJA recorded at the legendary Funkhaus Berlin, feat. HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE drummer.. plus a full AIDAN BAKER solo CD recorded at the same studios a bit later; only 250 copies exist, all NADJA fans should hurry up !!!
|
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL |
Music for Organ |
LP |
two powerful / overwhelming drone piece for organ recorded 2007 / 2019, entitled UNMOUNTED / MUTED NOUN and NAGRO (AKA-ORGAN), recorded in Austria & France.. "...sustains a breathless pressure that’s either hellish, ecstatic or simply otherworldly, depending on your disposition.." [Boomkat] - ed. of 300 copies on clear vinyl on the new Matire Memoire label
|
2019 |
€26.00 |
|
| NICHOLS, PASCAL |
Nihilist Chakai House |
LP |
excellent album of most unusual & vivid 'solo percussion' music => PASCAL NICHOLS surprises with all kinds of drum sounds, using various percussion instruments (also made from metal), creating membran-drones, bell-like layers, or furious distorted clatter... comes on frosted clear vinyl with, full colour insert , lim. 250 on a highly interesting North-East UK based record label that "specialises in alien sounds"
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| NICOLAS GENITAL GRINDER |
Echoing in Empty White Rooms of Amplified Nothingness |
MC |
rare cassette from the man behind the Greek ABSURD, REKEM and NOISE-BELOW labels, static harsh drone noise recorded live with shortwave, turntables and amplifiers, at parts this is like a precursor what was later called HARSH NOISE WALL (HNW)... C-46, silver print on black cover with a cover art by LEIF ELGGREN, numbered ed. of 77 copies
|
1998 |
€10.00 |
|
| NIEDOWIERZANIE |
Attendre |
LP |
second album on TuTRuR by this remarkable French project, now working more with acoustic instruments & folk influences, sometimes it sounds like film-music to an old french film, all perfectly arranged, the label calls it "Post-Mediterrania" and compares it with NOVY SVET and MUSHROOMS PATIENCE, lim./numb.ed. 198 copies only !
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| NIGHT SCIENCE (MAGAZINE) |
Vol. V |
BOOK & CD |
newest issue for this book-sized magazine (158 pages!) from Australia for Industrial, harsh noise and the darker sides of ambience & drone, has articles & interviews with/about: MLEHST (!), ANEMONE TUBE, NIELLERADE F., KAZUMA KUBOTA, the FRAGMENT FACTORY label,etc. + hundreds of reviews, live reports, + additional comp. CD with the same artists, lim. 500
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ [BJ NILSEN] |
Terroir |
mCD |
the French FERNS label with their charming series of mCDs has been re-activated again, and their first release after the break is this EP by BENNY NILSEN with a long, magnificient "concrete-atmospheric" sound piece based on field recordings made on the country in Austria side near KREMS: 'the terroir, harvest and fermentation during vinification' - first presented at the opening of "Drahtsicht", an outdoor sculpture by GÜNTER WOLFSBERGER, Oct. 2016; lim. 500
|
2017 |
€7.50 |
|
| NNHMN |
Deception Island |
CD |
hypnotic cold / synthwave and minimal technoid pop electronica with female vocals (NNHMN stands for "Nonhuman"), you have to think immediately of CHRIS & COSEY (etc.), a true surprise on the Polish label... "reminding me of the sterile- and cold atmospheres of the 80s. The whispering and totally emotionless way of singing of Lee creates an icy, sensual touch while Michal’s sound production creates a kind of dark-cellar dancefloor sensation." [Side-Line]
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOISE RECEPTOR JOURNAL |
Issue No. 8 |
mag |
the compact (book) format zine from Australia for noise and post industrial tunes, interviews & articles; 90 pages, A5, prof. printed and perfectly bound: MORAL ORDER, POST SCRIPTVM, NORDVARGR, TOTAL BLACK, "DOMINION OF FLESH"-Festival Stockholm, about 50 in-depth reviews, label & distro ads...
|
2020 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOVAK, YANN |
Snowfall |
CD |
like MYSTERY SEA or ATTENUATION CIRCUIT, this 'fine ambience' label run by YANN NOVAK in Los Angeles just began to produce 'real' pressed CDs after a phase of CDR only releases; => this new recording by YANN NOVAK (also known from the "Drone-Mind Vol. 2" LP) tries to express the 'hushed stillness and isolation sometimes experienced during a snowstorm".. originally this was a 6 hour audio-visual performance presented in Los Angeles; a one-tracker (60min) of extreme meditative ambience..
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND |
Arcane Reawakeing |
7inch |
rare 7" released for the festival "Scenasonica Congresso" that happened in Pordenone, Italy, in October 2019 - the 7" was normally only available at the concert or from the label directly, we could get a handful of copies... two pieces ("Trasference 1 & 2") on two different coloured vinyl, numbered ed.
|
2019 |
€16.50 |
|
| NYILAM |
same |
CD |
debut album by this new project of "Alt3r3d Stat3" (Cryo Chamber) and members of NAM-KHAR, with very floating and airy, pure electronic esoterica... - "a sonic exploration into the world of Dreams, Myths, Symbols and the Unconscious using elements of Ambient, Electronica and Kosmische Musik." - very lim. digipak ed., sold out at the label
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| ONODERA, YUI & CELER |
Generic City |
CD |
collaboration recorded 2007-2009 using lots of different field recordings from Japan and Los Angeles - creating 4 long tracks of highly minimal, contemplative but also more concrete & rough daydream-drones for a different state of mind; first release on Will Longs (CELER) new label !
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| ORGANUM |
Valentin |
7" |
after a long time, a typical "rare & mysterious" ORGANUM EP, a very strong piece coming in two versions using percussion & choir-elements (!) paired with field recordings & piano & noise; a very unusual sound!! 45rpm 7" lim. & numbered 233, exquisite artwork the label is known for, designed by JACKMAN / J. COLECLOUGH
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| ORPHX & THE INFANT CYCLE |
Interference |
maxi-CD |
Endlich veröffentlicht das kanadische Projekt INFANT CYCLE auf größerem Label – hier mit unseren HANDS-Favoriten ORPHX. Enthalten sind je ein Stück von beiden Projekten und entsprechende Remixe vom Gegenpart. Das ist tiefschürfender, schleppend-atmosphärischer Elektronik-Ambient der allerbesten Sorte, düster und sirrend.... Finally the excellent Canadian project INFANT CYCLE on a bigger label, here together with our favourite HANDS-Acts ORPHX. Listen to profound, slow-waving atmospheric electronic ambience of the highest quality, dark and fuzzy..
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO |
Memory of a safe Place / La Forest a non fa pura |
LP + mag |
this new series from the Italian ambient label combines acoustic & visual art: a lim. LP + large A4 booklet (16 pages) with b/w photographs of the same artist; FABIO ORSI starts the series with time-suspending dense transcension drones & beautiful forest pictures; lim. 250 copies, white vinyl
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| OÖPHOI / TAU CETI |
Le torri del silenzio |
maxi-CDR |
new sub-label of UMBRA / oversized full-colour cardboard-cover / LAST COPY! |
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE |
Dingggdongggdinggg Vs. Singggsonggsinggg |
LP + 7inch |
the very first release for this new label from Belgium, dedicated to mainly experimental drone forms, and starting with a pioneering drone artist: 5 studio tracks using carillon sounds and voice for the first time in this combination; this is the lim. ed. with bonus 7" (one track - one etching of a Palestine drawing), LP on yellow vinyl, only 240 copies with bonus 7" !! Numbered Edition !!
|
2018 |
€36.00 |
|
| |
October 24, 1975 - - PERFORMANCE ICC ANTWERP BELGIUM |
CD |
the label from Belgium found this very early C. PALESTINE "Strumming" live recording from 1975, which happened in Antwerp at the ICC (55 + min. long)... completely unreleased before, lim. 300 copies, authentic atmosphere..
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| PATERAS, ANTHONY |
Collected Works Vol. II (2005-2018) |
5 x CD |
second CD box collection (incl. a 24 page booklet) on PATERAS label feat. various works and compositions (26 tracks, 5 1/2 hours of music) from the past almost 15 years: long form improvising ensemble and trio pieces and various solo pieces for instruments and electronics... = a great overview on this prolific Australian composer, who often combines instrumental & electronic sounds in a most atmospheric and challenging way... ed. of 500 / silver cardboard box
|
2018 |
€55.00 |
|
| PBK + NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS |
Erosion of the Monolith |
LP |
PBK (PHILIPP B. KLINGLER) re-worked source material from NIGEL AYERS (N.E.) which was already 'delivered' in 2004, then completely finished in 2011... finally ANDY ORTMANN released it as LP on his Nihilist label = totally morphed electronics, mysterious reverberation rooms, a very strong release of excellent post industrial lingerings.. lim. 333 copies, heavy stock jackets
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| PERISTALITH |
same |
CD |
the label from Essen, Germany, became a great place to discover new names of the international drone scene, who often use guitars as their priority instrument.. - PERISTALITH from San Franccisco performs on various (self build) objects and instruments with bows, creating at times massive, at times very harmonic and beautifully resonating "full drones", think of MUHAMMAD, TROUM, FENNESZ or DANIEL MENCHE's best drone works.. - lim. 250, highly recommended !!
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| PERNICE, LAURENT |
Humus |
CD |
Nice Solo-CD from this NOX-member with all kinds of different minimal drones & pure atmospherics, from electro-piercing vibrations to ultra-slow & smooth dark space-sounds. Very good sounds, suspenseful arranged and nicely developing!! Recommended ! - 500 copies, now rare, released on defunct Russian label of DMITRY VASILYEV
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHARMAKON |
Abandon |
LP |
project of noise-artist MARGARET CHARDIET from New York City, doing very out-composed dark post-industrial & doom noise, using de-humanized & alienated vocals about 'Loss. Losing everything. Relinquishing control. Complete psychic abandon.'; recommended for friends of emotional & brooding industrial & harsh noise like NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES, WOLF EYES, etc.. - lim. re-press for the 15th label anniversary, a mix of BLACK,. WHITE and ORANGE, with poster and DL code
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, DAVE |
6 |
CD |
rare & super-intense DAVE PHILLIPS album with recordings from 2003-2005 (23 tracks, 74 min.!), released on a label from Belarus, with artwork paintings by RUDOLF EB.ER => sharp sound strokes and field recordings in eerie atmosphere, noise attacks contrasted with near silence, piercing instrumental and animal sounds, disturbing human utterings => all in all a hard to stand, but rewarding experience and tour de force, also a political attack on the achievements of human mankind !!
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, TOMAS / JASON BIVINS |
Blau |
CD-R |
first collaboration release by these two US-composers; strange minimal "advanced drones" and strong "concrete" atmospheres inspired by the work of painter BARNETT NEWMAN and the philosopy of SPINOZA; ed. of 250 copies, professional design, another very good release by this label from Los Angeles
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, TOMAS / LUIGI TURRA |
Vignettes Amplifie |
CD |
microscopic concrete drone ambience, using many "small sounds" objects; first collab by these two sound artists from USA & Italy.. lim. 500 on the rising Russian label NITKIE
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHURPA |
Trowo Phurnag Ceremony |
CD |
recorded live at "Gazgallery" in Moscow, autumn 2008 = the same ritual that was recently re-issued on IDEOLOGIC ORGAN as do-LP by STEPHEN O'MALLEY! Lim. 500, hard to find, on very unknown Russian label
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Trowo Phurnag Ceremony |
CD |
first rare studio CD (the same recordings were released later as SOMA01 double LP on Stephen O'Malleys newly established label), already recorded in 2005, by the ritual performance group around ALEXEI TEGIN, practising ancient Tibetan vocal / chanting techiques and sound... this is one of the few releases with STUDIO recordings, so the quality is much better; jewel-case + 6 page booklet
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Yan-Drub Ceremony / Ritual IV |
CD |
after a longer pause a new ritual is out by the "Bon-masters", a long one-tracker 51+ minutes - * Their work, a profound act of spiritual art, transcends words—an initiation into the mind-altering realms of their sacred chants and visions.* - very limited CD version, already sold out from the label !!
|
2024 |
€14.00 |
|
| PIMMON |
Secret sleeping birds |
CD |
PIMMON-Werk auf dem portugiesischem SIRR-Label, ambienter, melodischer und orchestraler als gewohnt, aber auch mit weirden Collagen/ Loop-Stücken, den Markenzeichen-digital-Effekten und und und...wie immer kaum kategorisierbare, abwechslungsreiche, überraschende NEUE Experimental-Musik. Aus Australien......
LAST COPY! |
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| POLARIS |
Nishkatup |
mCD-R |
lim./numb. 90 full-colour cover, jewel-case / last copies, sold out at the label
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN |
Rank Sonata |
LP |
four brandnew recordings by the NWW producer & live-member and man behind the excellent ICR-label, incl. a side-long A-side track which combines organic ambience and 'archaic' technoid rhythms in a great way.. lim. 300
|
2015 |
€19.50 |
|
| |
We Couldn't Agree on a Total |
CD |
jubilee release (# 100) on ICR, COLIN POTTER's label (and studio) that started in 1981 with a compilation LP entitled "We Couldn't Agree on a Title" = 2 live recordings made a Cafe Oto in 2016 + 2018, plus one splendid studio mix directly from COLINs magic hands, creating spacious, cosmic, droning synth landscapes.. - "Two sides of the master, and while I slightly prefer the controlled constructions, it's a great release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€14.00 |
|
| PRIMITIVE WINGS |
Morphosis |
CD |
first promising album of the new project from JAAKKO VANHALA, a well known figure of the Finnish experimental underground scene (ZOÄT-AON, I.CORAX) with links to the AURAL HYPNOX label... sophisticated noise with a certain "archaic" feel.. - *a highly evocative album, bringing into mind vivid flashes of something primal, perhaps from the prehistoric past. At the same time it’s very raw, but without being utterly harsh..*
|
2023 |
€12.50 |
|
| PROXENUS / GLOWING PIXIE |
Elapidae |
maxi-CDR |
GLOWING PIXIE (member of SYRINX) remixes PROXENUS material for an almost 30min one-tracker of mysterious dark dronescapes, subtle & mesmerizing; as everything from this label, very much recommended for drone-lovers!! Lim. 80 copies full colour cover
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| PUGNA |
DRA |
DVD-R |
"Archaic ambient drone noise\ Dvd-r in envelope, black tarpaulin bag 17x15, twine, iron sheet 13x13. Blackenning and silver paint." handmade object cover from this russian label, numbered ed. of 96 copies
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| PUTREFIER |
Hypertension Classics 2 |
4 x CD |
collection of rare releases, live material und unreleased tracks by this British industrial & power noise project... on the cult noise label from UK, HARBINGER; lim. 500
|
2005 |
€22.00 |
|
| PYRAMIDS WITH NADJA |
Into the Silent Waves (remixes) |
12 |
Two very different remixes by LUSTMORD and ULVER of the first GREAT track from last years PYRAMIDS / NADJA album, total playtime almost 30 minutes !! Very rare, lim. ed. 300, stamped white label / cover release
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| RADIAN & HOWE GELB |
Radian verses Howe Gelb |
LP |
the great Austrian "avantgarde/electro-acoustic rock" trio (who are compared with THIS HEAT and early TORTOISE) in a very surprising and unusual collaboration with songwriter HOWE GELB (GIANT SAND), the first release on their own label... HOWE GELB contributed lyrics, melodies, piano parts, acoustic guitar fragments, and his vocals.. "a spooky, mysterious sound (and song) collage that has many secrets buried in its murky depths." [Allmusic.com]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| RAISON D'ETRE |
Daemonum + Daemoniacum |
3 x LP set |
inspired by the ANIMA / ANIMUS archetypes theory of C.G.JUNGian Depth Psychology, DAEMONUM marks the 30th anniversery of the project, a truly mesmerizing subconscious drone release.. - "By learning to listen for the voice of our subconscious self, we can call that voice our Daemon, our internal genius that provide guidance, we can find hidden potential within ourselves." - this the special 3 x LP ed. with bonus album "DAEMONIACUM", SOLD OUT from the label immediately !!
|
2022 |
€47.50 |
|
| |
Apres Nous Le Deluge |
LP |
first ever vinyl re-issue of R.D. first cassette release (on Sound Source, sublabel of Cold Meat Industry), more raw & unpolished than any other RD album and more located in the Death Industrial genre, recorded 1991-1992, different from the later re-mixed CD versions! - *the album's title translates to "After Us, the Deluge," a phrase often attributed to Madame de Pompadour, suggesting an impending catastrophe. This sentiment echoes throughout the album* - lim. 299 copies
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
|
| RAMESES III |
I could not love you more |
CD |
new album for the ambient/folk-trio from London on the prolific Type Rec. label |
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| RANTA, MICHAEL |
Die Mauer |
CD |
previously unreleased music for a ballet choreography of PHILIPPE TALARD, composed by MICHAEL RANTA in 1988/1989: using diverse ethnic instruments, a rich "tapestry" of meditative sound objects is spread, where every little sonic tuneis important and brings you to the core of listening and immersion... released on Belgium's METAPHON, the label of TIMO VAN LUIJK and other ex NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES members, so it must be good !!
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| RAPOON |
Moon and Cups Series # 1 |
7inch |
rare 7" (lim. 100 in total) on this label from Hongkong, two tracks filled with hallucinogenic ethno-drones, exotic flute-sounds & rhythms, strange voices... gives you the full "early ZOVIET FRANCE" feeling; great but expensive EP! clear vinyl & two colour postcards included
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Moon and Cups Series # 2 |
7inch |
rare 7" (lim. 100 in total) on this label from Hongkong, again a kind of surrealistic ethno-sound on two tracks filled with subtle percussion, exotic flute-sounds, deranged "oriental" voices...mesmerizing & dreamlike, gives you the full "early ZOVIET FRANCE" feeling; great but expensive EP! Clear vinyl & two colour postcards included; SECOND PART in this series !!
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Cultural Forgeries |
CD |
rare Rapoon album with special concept - pure 'acoustic' sources were later effected with delay & reverb to form one long "live" take in 17 different parts => 'Trumpet, Bodhran, Banjo, Pungi, Shehnai, Indian flute, Chinese flute, Irish tin whistle, hand bells, cello, accordion, guitar, one string slide guitar, Ukelele, Kan (Tai bamboo harmonica), mouth harps, percussion', all played by ROBIN TOREY himself....lim. 300 and almost sold out at the label; US import !!
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Blue Days |
CD |
RAPOON is productive as ever so this is already the fourth album with new studio material for the Polish label in 4 years: on 60 minutes 14 tracks spread with 'sketches and ideas' that form a wholeness together, relying on the typical sound ingredients (sampled choirs, percussion, exotic drones) but sounding here much more melancholic, slow, and less floating and shimmering, and we also hear Mr. STOREY singing... a winter album that slowly enfolds... lim. 500 oversized gatefold-cover
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Moon and Cups Series # 3 |
7inch |
rare 7" (this edition: 75 copies only!) on this label from Hongkong,clear vinyl & two colour postcards included
|
2016 |
€19.00 |
|
|
Moon and Cups Series # 4 |
7inch |
rare 7" (this edition: 75 copies only!) on this label from Hongkong,clear vinyl & two colour postcards included
|
2016 |
€19.00 |
|
| |
Darker by Light |
CD |
classic Rapoon bliss from the early "ethno-percussive" phase (1996), this album has been unavailable for many years... "static walls of sound coming as if from the distance and processed rhythms inspired by ethnic music, sometimes complemented by the sounds of flutes and pipes." [label info] - "a very atmospheric mix of celestial, spacey, ethereal and mysterious" [Andrew Garibaldi] ed. of 500 copies
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| RECCHION, TOM |
Oaxaca Dawn |
pic-LP |
the series of picture discs on Elevator Bath (with visual artwork by the artists themselves) continues with a release by TOM RECCHION (co-founder of the LOS ANGELES FREE MUSIC SOCIETY), who captured field recordings from Oaxaca (Mexico) and Hana bamboo (Haiti), lovely obscure recordings (i.e. masses of cocks) with no further re-working; a must for fans of the UNFATHOMLESS / MYSTERY SEA and GRUENREKORDER labels; lim. 250 copies - BACK IN STOCK !
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| REFORMED FACTION |
Save our Ghohsts Volume II |
CD |
the first release on this new label from Estonia is a two part edition (LP + CD ) by the prolific project of ex (2/3) ZOVIET FRANCE, filed under 'sophisticated delicate ritual ambient' as the labels names it... lim. 450 , 6 panel digipack
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| RENOU, CHRISTIAN |
7 kisses |
CD |
lim. ed. 325 copies, 7" cardboard cover / BACK IN STOCK LAST COPIES - SOLD OUT FROM THE LABEL !!
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| REUTOFF |
NullRauM |
do-CD |
collection of the seven brilliant 'ReutRaum' 7"es (incl. the Drone Rec. EP from 2000) released on 7 different labels in 7 different countries, + 4 new bonus tracks, by the Russian Industrial pioneers who celebrate their 15th year of existence with this release => desolated ambient industrial with a very sad & melancholic touch, definitely among their best material: lim. 250 with 16p. booklet and long liner notes about the specific atmosphere of the "Reutoff" suburb in Moscow!
|
2014 |
€17.00 |
|
| REYNOLS |
Gona Rubian Ranesa |
LP |
the almost mythical REYNOLS ("one of the world's most mysterious and challenging groups") are back with this studio album after 17 years, on a small Canadian label! Only 218 copies exist on alien green label, we could grab some very last copies.. - "a cacophonous, confrontational derivative of punk rock that marries dadaist no wave with cult noise and shamanic mantras." [THE WIRE] - comes with double sided art insert
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Minecxio Greatest No Hits |
LP |
a compilation through their career celebrating the 30th anniversary => REYNOLS have established their own unique sound also due to the fact that their drummer + singer MIIGUEL TOMASIN has down syndrome and breaks many existing musical "rules".. (the way of singing, inventing new words, etc..).. - "his name appears mentioned in diverse books of neuroscience and neurodiversity" - comes with fold out insert, on the Spanish BEAT Generation label
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| RIEK, LASSE-MARC |
Harbour |
CD |
unprocessed field recordings from harbours made in Germany & Finland: gangways, tunnels, bridges, ships, boats, ferries, floating docks, coastal birds, with wind, water and machines. 8 tracks of quite fascinating concrete sound-environments recorded 1999-2007, on this label from Malaysia
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| RIPARBELLI, PIETRO / K11 |
Three Days of Silence. The Mountain of the Stigmata |
CD |
processed field recordings made in the monastery of La Verna in Arezzo, Italy, radiating a magic atmosphere of dreamlike contemplation: monks, organ-sounds, mumbling voices, nature-sounds, all drifting from far away... psychogeographic fog-drones of a higher beauty! the original field recordings for the album plus diary notes are to be found on the label website
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| RLW |
Herzblutanteil |
CD |
back in stock this collector's item with VERY special packaging, released by Russian's legedary WAYSTYX label... it's more a remix + multiple recycling compilation of a basic IHR KINDERLEIN KOMMET (German traditional folk song from 1794), performed by RLW's little daughter Sonja); feat. 9 tracks from BRUME, A. COURTIS (REYNOLS), HOWARD STELZER, and more, it all still sounds incredible,a timeless and absurd journey; lim. 432 copies in die-cut sleeve with 11 small inserts
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| RODEN, STEVE |
Berlin Fields |
CD-R |
"a radiator touched with hands", "maracas in the bedroom", "feet on my ceiling", etc.. - delicate & pure field recordings made in Berlin, Paris & Helsinki, with no further processing; on a label from Hungary that - similar to Unfathomless - is releasing field-recording based works only; lim. 222 copies, numbered, oversized full colour cover; LAST COPY!!
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| ROSENQVIST, DAG |
Lexika |
CD |
the former Russian label DRONARIVM (which now moved to Israel) became a well-known name for contemporary ambient and electronic classic music through the years => this new CD by Swedish composer DAG ROSENQVIST is meant to function as a soundtrack to an imaginay Sci-Fi film, very electronic and dramatic.. - "When I close my eyes and listen, I see supermassive black holes. I see the Oort cloud, asteroids hurtling through endless black, the Andromeda galaxy, a radiant supernova... " - lim. 130 copies
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROSS, DAVID & CLIVE BELL |
Recovery Suite |
LP |
British duo also known as TWINKLE with jazz / impro / world music roots, creating hard to categorize ethno-electronica / fourth world ambient landscapes with the extensive use of the Shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, "dystopic lounge ambiance" the label calls it; very curious, unique music... lim. 250
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| ROSTAMI, ARIA & DANIEL BLOMQUIST |
Still |
CD |
the Italian label series for the represantation of "Icy Landscapes" through sound with the second collab. release by both artists, after "Wandering Eye" (2016) => this album was created with the aim to describe how time changes, slows down and "stops" in extreme cold weather, similar to some COVID-19 experiences... - "...Gradually turning mountains to rumble and cutting out valleys where there wasn’t one before." [God is in the TV]
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| RRILL BELL |
Ballad of the External Life |
LP |
debut LP by a project from US American JIM CAMPBELL (residing in Berlin), immersing totally in the 'found sounds / low-fi drone / field & object recording' area of music, a highly abstract form of homemade musique concrete, somehow strangely electronic, full of unrecognisable, mysterious, lovely sounds... - the label also calls this "Freeform Tape Manipulation" or just "TURNTAPELISM".. - we can listen to this for hours and hours... 200 copies on clear vinyl
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| RUHLMANN, MATHIEU |
Somne |
mCD-R |
Sehr sparsam “instrumentiert”, aber mit Sinn für jedes Detail, dieser neue „Ether-Core“-one-tracker des Kanadiers auf TAALEM...Add drones, subtle sounds and here's the result : a 20min long track, very calm, ambient, dark but luminous in the same time, cold and refreshing. Perfect for the winter !” [label info]
- new ed. without jewel-case!
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| SABI / KIYO |
71:36 |
CD |
subtle orchestral ambience and experimental glitchy IDM by these two artists from the Tokyo electronic scene... on the new sister-label of the re-established MILLE PLATEAUX
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| SALT |
Machiakari |
LP |
joint release by the re-established ANT-ZEN label and Raubbau from Berlin, this is indeed the very first full solo album / LP by the man and designer behind Ant-Zen, STEFAN ALT, comes with six awesome fine print inlays (12" x 12"), six tracks feat. GENEVIEVE PASQUIER (THOROFON) and a cover version of a JOHN CARPENTER piece ("Assualt on Precinct 13", all thematically strong connected to Japanese culture, with mastering by M. RICHTER (XABEC)
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| SAMARKANDE / OBLIVION ENSEMBLE |
split |
CD-R |
numb. ed. of 100 / a special split release marking joint concert events / signed and we only got very few (sold out now from the label)
//www.oblivionensemble.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| SASAJIMA, HIROKI |
Bells |
CD-R |
nice new work (one-tracker) by this drone-minimalist from Tokyo: dark metallic drones, hyper-minimal and overtune-radiating.. on a new label from Buenos Aires ! To discover !!
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| SAVAGE REPUBLIC |
1938 |
CD |
the glorious new full-length album (first full album of SR since 1989) !! On the NEUROSIS-label
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| SCHNITZLER, CONRAD |
Auf dem schwarzen Kanal |
12inch |
one of the most sought-after releases from CONRAD SCHNITZLER is this 4-track 12" (45 RPM) from 1980, his only one for a majorlabel, with a dark & twisted, highly original "industrial pop" sound, reminding on specific KRAFTWERK or DIE FORM material; two pieces feat./written by WOLFGANG SEIDEL, the whole was recorded at PETER BAUMANNs (TANGERINE DREAM) studio in Berlin... the obscure original cover has been replicated with all tiny details (also orange labels)
|
2020 |
€11.50 |
|
| SCOTT, SIMON (SIMON SCOTT) |
Floodlines |
CD |
first album for this British sound artist on the prolific TOUCH label, this composition is based on field recordings made in the flatlands of "The Fens" East Anglia (areas that are located below mean sea level) and underwater hydrophonic recordings; floating water atmospherics with some occasional electronic outbursts.. Live at Cafe Oto, London, 31st January 2016
|
2016 |
€11.00 |
|
| SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE |
Construct |
m-CDR |
lim. 50 photo-cover & little inlay / first release on new label from Germany
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| SECTION 25 |
Eigengrau |
CD |
an album of amazing remixes of tracks by this British post-punk/electronic/pre acid house band from Blackpool (1978-1985), who were label-mates of JOY DIVISON on Factory Records - remixes by ZOVIET FRANCE (!), D.D.A.A. (!), 23 SKIDOO (!), RENALDO & THE LOAF (!), VOLCANO THE BEAR (!), ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL, 7JK, MONOTON, PORTION CONTROL, etc..
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| SEETYCA |
The Luminous Deep |
CD |
hard to find seetyca album on a Swedish label, inspired by deep sea phenomena & atmosphere, cold & soft & timeless...feat. three long really suspended tracks, almost 80 min. playtime, comes with nice 16p. booklet
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mbira |
CD-R |
epic one tracker of 80 minutes using sounds of various artists from the MBIRA-label such as VZUSDW, ARTIN MUCHT, MOEDRA, [:kopfapffel:], etc. etc.. => cosmic bubbles drenched in endless reverb, far away sonics waving in slow passages, weird electronic and non-electronic acoustic objects appear for a short time, etc...no rhythms, extremely subtle, real subconscious space - mind music ! full-colour cover, lightscribed cdr, the MBIRA jubilee release !
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Mbira 2: Facades |
CD-R |
Installation Music for a concert at Stadtbibliothek Gera, Germany, Sept. 2015 => various sound sources from previous mbira releases shape a long, 80 min. dense, anti-monotonous dream-ambient piece, going through various stages and atmospheres, a phantastic journey! this handmade edition comes with laminated colour cover and manually labeled CD bodies
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Seetyca 3 |
CD-R |
the beginnings of SEETYCA were very daring and (using granular synthesis) electronic, "seetyca 3" contains probably the most experimental material we know, a maxi-CD (4 min) with two short tracks, plus a 74 min (!) hidden track => pure sinus / electronic tone sounds and formations, processed and morphed endlessly, creating incredible strange sound figures when they collide..... comes on a handmade laminated & labeled CDR
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Remnants of Carbon Beauty |
do-CDR |
the audio material on CD 1 was recorded for a CD-ROM project of the paleontologic museum of the university of Tübingen, CD 2 contains "remnants of the mesozoic", again seetyca imagines and immerses himself deeply into the pre-historic aeons of our planet earth, when human existence was thousands of years away... comes with laminated colour cover & hand-labeled CD-bodies
|
2005 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Seetyca 4 |
CD-R |
the fourth proper early SEETYCA release (recorded 2002) leads into already more droning and spheric areas, without loosing it's touch for true experimentation; 7 tracks with the central "PHLOX" (25 min), pure electronic landscapes that build bubbles and waves with subtle explosions underneath, repetitive glitch sounds with weird quasi-beats, loops that fray out and become porous... not the usual ambience here at all, comes with laminated colour cover & hand-labeled CD-bodies
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Remnants of Silurian Beauty |
CD-R (MP3!) |
extended MP3 - edition (108+ min. playtime) of this long, dark meditative piece setting the listener into a pre-historic aeon, using lots of animal samples and metallic drones, bell sounds and coirs; a wondrous, mysterious piece and atmosphere... this extended edition has 30 min. bonus material (two pretty experimental pieces with studies of the same basic material) not on the first edition; comes with laminated colour cover & hand-labeled CD-bodies
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Dühringa Aorta 3 |
CD-R |
five years after pt. 2 this is the third part in the favored "Dühringa Aorta" series, again all seven tracks are based entirely on voices (by seetyca himself, MARI SOLARIS, and the OPEN VOICES CHOIR, Hamburg) - ultra spheric voice drones and walls merge with digital sounds and arrangements.... comes with laminated colour cover & hand-labeled CD-bodies
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| SEREN FFORDD |
A Melancholy Light |
maxi-CDR |
new sub-label of UMBRA / oversized full-colour cardboard-cover: Well done one-tracker for this new discovery...
1 A melancholy light 23.22 - Seren Ffordd: synth
LAST COPY |
2005 |
€8.50 |
|
| SERRIES, DIRK |
Microphonics VII |
LP |
collector's item (one-sided LP) in the "Microphonics" series, normally only available via mailorder from the label directly; recording from a live-show on the "Antwerp live looping festival" 31. May 2009; complete edition 300 copies, each 100 in white, silver & gold. We have silver & white at hand
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW |
First thus |
CD |
the first full length CD by the man behind this fine underground / experimental label from the U.S., ELEVATOR BATH => four long tracks that sound very nebulous and analogic, with strange harmonies appearing within, a very own dimension of wafting transcension and dissolution into the ether... all material is sourced from "commercially available records", a kind of GHOST-plunderphonics... slim cardboard box / ed. of 330 / back in stock !
cardboard box / ed. of 330 |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW / JAMES ECK RIPPIE |
Variations |
LP |
back in stock this excellent LP by COLIN ANDREW SHEFFIELD (who runs the label Elevator Bath in Austin, TX) and JAMES ECK RIPPIE with three improvised pieces of experimental drone- and loopscapes using solely harp, guitar and flute for each one, weaving in crackles, breaks and curiously harmonized textures in a hypnotizing way... lim. 400
|
2001 |
€15.00 |
|
| SHIVER |
The Light within has turned into Darkness |
MC |
Italian industrial on a fresh MC & CDR label - slow noisy pulses & vocals in the way of WOLF EYES, etc.. well done & to discover; C-20
|
2012 |
€6.00 |
|
| SHRINE |
Harmony, Bliss, Rust |
MC |
the very first SHRINE release from 2006 was a "file-only" net release and consisted of three long tracks; the Bulgarian label AMEK (home of MYTRIP) has now re-issued this timeless, beautiful rustling ambient album (that evolves into more powerful and harsher territories) for the first time on physical format: a cassette with prof. cover & duplication, only 66 copies made, C-40
|
2018 |
€7.00 |
|
| SIGHTINGS |
Terribly Well |
LP |
the Brooklyn-based band excites again with their unique sounding, 'deconstructed' / avantgardish noise rock... now on the prolific DAIS-label, lim. 500
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| SIGMARSSON, SIGTRYGGUR (BERG) |
So Long |
CD |
"this is foamy music" - extremely minimal & often silent drones, with daydream-soundbubbles appearing....3 long tracks (65+ min.) by the Iceland soundartist, feat. BENNY NILSEN and ANLA COURTIS, as usually garnished with a bit of weird humour... "polar impressionism flecked with hallucinatory ambience" the label calls it adequately
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIGMARSSON, SIGTRYGGUR BERG & BJ NILSEN |
Abstract Art Automat |
MC |
rare cassette-only item on the re-established Icelandic label SOME: the ex STILLUPPSTEYPA teaming up with BJ NILSEN: a tape album with 'experimental drone' muzak that is half acoustic, half collage, half low fi, half field recording based, a tape of various little wonders that is almost uncategorizable... 2nd ed. 50 copies - RED CASSETTE that comes in completly handassembled/coloured paper sleeve, with unique SIGTRYGGUR drawing inlay
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| SKODVIN, ERIK K |
Flame |
CD |
second part of the two 'nocturnal Americana' inspired solo-albums by the man behind SVARTE GREINER, DEAF CENTER, and the MIASMAH label) => "evocative composition stitching singed acoustic instruments to burnt drums, spectral vocals and gloaming, minimalist atmospheres" [Boomkat] first ed. lim. 450 handmade book-style cover
. |
2014 |
€21.00 |
|
| SLAVES NO MORE |
The Unravelling |
do-CD |
first release of the new project from the former SUTCLIFFE JÜGEND duo (the project of KEVIN TOMKINS and PAUL TAYLOR) => really a shift in sound - much more "ambient" and dark melancholic, with real singing / vocals and almost orchestral elements, slowly adding more emphasis, drama and suffering... lim. 300 copies, jewel-case edition, 8 page booklet, on Singapores 4ib label
|
2020 |
€19.50 |
|
| SMALL CRUEL PARTY |
Ancien des Jours |
7inch |
NEW SCP material, two pieces that only KEY RANSONE can create like this, based on half-musical / half-concrete loops and low fi drones, and electro-spiraling clatters, a strange beauty, and it sounds somehow archaic; lim. 250 copies w. mysterious letterpress printing, label art by JOHN HUBBARD
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| SOUND_00 / IVERSEN |
same |
7inch |
nice otherworldy spacious 4-track EP and first vinyl release on this British label => the project from Macedonia in collab. with JAN-MORTEN IVERSEN from Norway, moving between versatile 'abstract experimental ambience' with subtle ice-sounds and more aggressive post industrial collage noise; "Someone dragging heavy sheets of cold steel through the soft mush formerly known as your brain.." lim. 500 BACK IN STOCK
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| SPECIAL INTERESTS (MAG) |
No. 11 |
mag |
the noise & industrial mag. from Finland, feat articles & interviews with CONTRASTATE, SALAKAPAKKA SOUND SYSTEM, CIRCLE OF SHIT, AGENCEMENT, BACTERIA FIELD, WORTH, TORBA, BIZARRE UPROAR, plus review pages for example by WILLI STASCH (ex CTHULHU, now AUSSAAT label); 40 pages DIN A4, b/w
|
2019 |
€9.00 |
|
| SPECTRAL ARMIES |
The Vanished People |
LP |
another group with former VOLCANO THE BEAR member NICK MOTT - recorded outdoors at a disused quarry & at two farms in Cornwall, this music is made up by environmental sounds, acoustic instruments & electronics... experimental drones, deranged folk, 'weird' is the 'normal' here... difficult to categorize, the label calls it "Psychedelic Concrete Folk Noise"; lim. 250 copies only
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| SPLINTERED / RLW |
Split |
CD |
in the mid 90's the popular British noise/drone rock band SPLINTERED delivered material to RALF WEHOWSKY (ex P16.D4, etc.) aka RLW for further investigation (and vice versa) - the result they created we could only describe as "Music that reminds on Rock somehow, but it must have happened in a parallel universe, or: it's like listening to 'normal' music with so far not invented drugs. WOW" - released on the CONTRASTATE label, back in stock!
|
1996 |
€10.00 |
|
| SRH |
Telomer[e] |
LP |
SRH stands for SASCHA ROSEMARIE HÖFER, this is his debut LP, delicate and outcomposed musical ambience on the label of ANDREAS USENBENZ => "telomer[e] is captivating due to its contrasts, it is playful, harmonic and atonal, creating a glamorous homogeneity, despite — or because of — these musically antagonistic efforts. Höfer brings the sounds to life, he nudges them into a conversation until they are fusing, but without losing their immediacy." ed. of 300 copies
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| SRMEIXNER (STEPHEN MEIXNER) |
A Silent War |
CD |
new solo-album by the CONTRASTATE main figure, inspired by the "Recycling" idea from the 80's (Selektion label i.e.), and the murdering of GEORGE FLOYD, a highly ambitious, political work with contributions by other CONTRASTATE members, STEVE PITTIS, RALF WEHOWSKY, etc. has been created...- "Meixner has an excellent ear to make the right connections between this disparate sound material. It makes a fine homogenous album with subtle variations." [Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| SRVTR I INTERNAL FUSION I DARDIS I A.MAIAH |
Thing |
CD-R |
fourth volumne in the new THING compilation series by the always active label from Augsburg, Germany: three of the four acts are newcomers to us, coming from Northern Ireland, Spain and France; this comp. is more rhythm , drone and loop based and features different approaches, INTERNAL FUSION excite again with great new material.. lim. 100 factory pressed CDR, absolutely to discover again! |
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| STAR TURBINE |
White Lines across the Void |
MC |
the project of SINDRE BJERGA & CLAUS POULSEN (known from SMALL THINGS ON SUNDAYS) with two side-long pieces from two live shows in UK Febr. 2014: dense sound/noise/object/drone improvisations, starting from tiny scratch sounds this develops into a rich detailed low-fi floating collage..."The art of meta-sound-collage-improvisation presented with heavily perfumed panache" the label from North-East UK 'specialising in alien sounds' calls it; lim. 50
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| STOREY, ROBIN & VICTOR NUBLA |
About Breathing |
CD |
"ROBIN STOREY (hier nicht unter dem RAPOON-Label) mit dem uns bisher unbekannten VICTOR NUBLA - verarbeitet werden hier ethno-, ambient und drone–Elemente in surrealer Atmosphäre, (flutes, bells, strange airwave-loops) - das ganze ist weitab von dem was man bisher von RAPOON so kennt. Außergewöhnliches Album..." [Drone Rec. info] - lim. 500, back in stock !
|
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
| STREETLIGHT COLLECTIVE |
Evelyn ambient series: volume 5 |
CD-R |
professional full-colour cover & label printing. last copy |
2002 |
€7.00 |
|
| STRINGERE GULAM |
4YDF |
MC |
last copies of this debut cassette release of a Berlin-based project, you may label this as "experimental noise collages with some dadaistic / humorous elements"; pretty obscure but great sounding stuff with long crazy titles such as "Trauergesang von schwer arbeitenden Priemzahlen"; using lots of weird found sounds and vocal material, somewhere between H.N.A.S. and NURSE WITH WOUND? lim. 100, printed cover, professional duplication
|
2015 |
€9.00 |
|
| STROPS |
Slepenie Rotallaukumi |
CD |
re-issue of first album (CD-R from 2004) by this interesting Latvian industrial group, pounding & heavy old school industrial, "cryo-ambient", very electronic & varified...lim. 500 on OLEGH KOLYADAs (FIRST HUMAN FERRO) new label
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| SUDDEN INFANT |
Things that happened |
LP |
intense noise- & bodyscapes, incredible collages, always original, organic, unescapable... documents two live-performances (Leeds 08.2011 & Hamburg 10.2007), comes in three different vinyl-colours (red, green, blue), definitely one of the best experimental noise-acts around !! Lim. 300 copies. Released on Hamburgs true underground label (& connected with the HÖRBAR / B-MOVIE association there) REDUKTIVE MUSIKEN
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Wölflis Nightmare |
LP + CD |
JOKE LANZ dedicated his new album to the legendary Swiss schizophrenic 'Art Brut' artist ADOLF WÖLFLI and created a swampy industrial rock masterpiece, the labels calls it "Industrial Brachial Minimal Blues Noise"; the vinyl version comes with CD copy of the same album
|
2014 |
€15.50 |
|
| SUDDEN INFANT / BILL KOULIGAS |
split |
CD-R |
10 track split CDR with intense and noisy live & studio recordings from 2004-2006, one of the very few solo releases of BILL KOULIGAS who runs the prolific PAN label in Berlin (he was also active as FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE); professional pressing of 180 copies, cardboard foldout sleeve inside a silver-foil envelope, last copies
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| SUNSLIDE |
Mechanisme |
CD-R |
"Field recordings, light electronics & accordeon drones" - very mellow & warm ambience on DRONAEMENTS new label; lovely edition w. handmade cover & full-colour inlay & disc; numbered
|
2010 |
€7.50 |
|
| SUPERSILENT |
1-3 (re-edition) |
3 x CD |
the very experimental debut for SUPERSILENT - this was also the start for the prolific RUNE GRAMMOFON label, an epic 3 CD release in 1997: improvised, dense jazz-avantgarde with influences from ambient, noise and electronic experimentation, at times wild and ecstatic for a fully percussive NOISE BLAST.... every piece is a surprise, even after numerous listenings; comes in triple digipak with full colour booklet; this is the re-issue from 2002
|
2002 |
€32.00 |
|
| SUTEKH HEXEN |
Sutekh Hexen |
do-LP |
already sold out at the label, the vinyl version of the latest album by this radical US American collective of black metal influenced toxic UR-noise..."a distillation of power-ambient, industrial, and black metal deconstructionism" - ed. of 300 copies
|
2019 |
€30.00 |
|
| SWIEZYNSKI, MATTHEW |
The one who modifies Time and Light |
CD |
strong 'etnno-ambient' experimentalism in the way of ZOVIET FRANCE by M. SWIEZYNSKI (INGENTING KOLLEKTIVA and co-founder of the INVISIBLE BIRDS label), using sounds and quotes from SATYAJIT RAY's films which are modifized and put together in new ways.. lim. 200, nice handmade cardboard cover + four page insert
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| SYLVAIN VAN INIITU / DAVID LEUTKART |
The Moon |
MC |
recommended split tape (C-40) by the man behind the GRUBENWEHR label and SYLVAIN VAN INIITU who runs the "Ini.Itu" label in Brussels, and has also released material as BLINDHEAD... => a very nice "oneiric amorph drone" one-tracker with many mysterious voices and hiss sounds (probably field recordings from an air voyage) by LEUTKART, three more abstract pieces with "concrete poetry", harmonies, noises and drones by SYLVAIN... - printed cover, standard case
|
2020 |
€7.00 |
|
| TATE, DARREN |
Edition |
CD-R |
New work of the ORA-member on Colin Potters ICR sublabel FUNGAL, with this special kind of reduced concrete drone-minimalism.
First edition 100 copies.
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAZARTES, GHEDALIA |
Gospel et le Rateau |
LP |
the final studio album of the legendary cultural "nomad" GHEDALIA TAZARTES (who died in Feb. 2021) has been collected by him and the BISOU label exploring his archives during the last two years before his death, 17 tracks, often very musical and emotional but in a unique and challenging way, arranged in two long suitess, feat. various guest musicians - "a melting pot of unreleased tracks which cover a large part of his career"
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Gospel et le Rateau |
CD |
the final studio album of the legendary cultural "nomad" GHEDALIA TAZARTES (who died in Feb. 2021) has been collected by him and the BISOU label exploring his archives during the last two years before his death, 17 tracks, often very musical and emotional but in a unique and challenging way... - "Musik.. die etwas Unermessliches von sich gibt und nicht aufhört, tiefe Gefühle zu vermitteln" [Bad Alchemy]
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| TAZARTES, GHEDALIA & MAYA DUNIETZ |
Schulevy Maker |
LP |
recording of a performance (Cafe Oto, London, Dec. 2013) presenting the first live meeting of MAYA DUNIETZ (multi-instrumentalist and singer) with G. TAZARTES => "An amalgam of bizarre samples, concrete sounds, live piano and bells, juxtaposed with the otherworldly voices of Dunietz and Tazartès. At times light and humorous, at others dark and ritualistic, Schulevy Maker can hardly be labeled or tagged." lim. 300 |
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| TBC |
Insecta: The Birth of Gods |
CD |
debut full-length CD by TBC on the high-class MONOCHROME VISION label from Moscow - "modern mythology" (c)old school noise drone (using old analog synths), raw & low-fi & distorted, but also authentic & full of tension & with true underground spirit....
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| TEARDO, TEHO & BLIXA BARGELD |
Spring |
12inch |
this 5 track EP appeared after their very successful first album "Still Smiling" - again on TEHO TEARDO's own label, has three cover versions of classic songs (by CAETANO VELOSO and TOMMY JAMES) and two new compositions; lim. 1000 copies + download code
|
2014 |
€22.50 |
|
| TEICHER, ELSE |
Whored |
CD |
first album by this US-artist (known to some as one half of ROMULUS & REMUS) with obscure & uncategorizable puresounds & drones, "between ZOVIET FRANCE & SEVERED HEADS" says the label.. recommended for explorers! Lim. 300
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TELEPHERIQUE |
Bionik / Biomimetik |
LP & CD |
lim. 499 on the now defunct LAUB RECORDS label, with CD-cover sticked on LP sleeve; special price !
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| TELEPHERIQUE + CONTAGIOUS ORGASM |
Crosses deeply |
CD |
digipack / lim. 500 / sold out at the label
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| TEMPLE OF TIERMES |
Psychotropic Substances |
CD-R |
we could get back few copies back in of some release from the Polish dark ambient / industrial label SOULWORM, all in highly professional design! This one by the Finnish "archaic noise" band is limited to 333 copies and contains an oversized booklet, comes in DVD-box with full colour cover
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| TERVAHÄÄT |
same |
CD |
dark experimental folk from Finland with industrial & doom influences (the labels calls it "gloomy earth-folk") using banjo, e-bass & guitar, reverberant percussion, voice, found sounds, noises... their debut-album, worth to check out for fans of GLASS THROAT- releases for example..
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| THE LAWLESS |
Habit Forming |
CD |
another new sublabel for M.P. with an album by ROSS Mc LEAN aka THE LAWLESS sounding like a ENNIO MORRICONE or QUENTIN TARRANTINO-film soundtrack (as the label says) - though not sampled but all handplayed & self-composed....
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE NORTH SEA |
Archaic Spines |
CD |
improvised & introspective "meditation" drone-folk using bouzouki & voice only; special priced now as the label stopped all activities
|
2007 |
€6.66 |
|
| THE RITA / TRERIKSRÖSET |
Keep Industrial out of Harsh Noise |
LP |
split LP that lives up to its title (no beats, no synths, no vocals, no real structures, just cascades of granular noises, elegant feedback and distorted piano found sounds;), with a the recording of a THE RITA live performance (Berlin, November 2018) on one side, and a side long (studio?) attack from Swedens TRERIKSRÖSET (one of the Segerhuva masterminds) on Side B; lim. 300, comes with sticker and stamped white labels
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| THE WORK |
Slow Crimes |
CD |
Re-Issue der ersten THE WORK LP von 1982 ! - "First LP by The Work, formed in 1980 by Tim Hodgkinson and Bill Gilonis with Rick Wilson and Mick Hobbs. Song based, noise backed, tight-drum-riff-driven, complex, strange and edgy music, with a life-is-short basement aesthetic. Takes no prisoners. Reissued re-mastered." [label info]
- feat. CATHERINE JAUNIAUX on vocals !!
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| THEODOR BASTARD |
Bossanova_Trip |
CD |
re-issue of this early experimental album, originally released 2002, without vocals and purely electronic, setting the foundation of the later T.B. sound, incl. one bonus track... *14 original utterly minimalistic tracks of the album were on the cutting edge of the avant-garde trends of that time and are worth comparing to the best glitch releases of such labels as Mego, Raster-Noton and Sonig* - lim. 300 copies, gatefold digipak
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| THISQUIETARMY & SLEEPWALKER |
8493 |
CD |
'From the forbidden depths of Siberia' - Russian one-man "ambient guitar drone" project SLEEPWALKER in collaboration with TQA on the amazing Ksenza label - both artist met first on a show in Tomsk at the Planetarium in 2018 and have exchanged material since then for this project => four epic tracks emerged, full of immersive guitar drones and dark harmonies, swirling noise spirals... - 4 tracks 49+ min.
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| THUJA |
Hills |
LP |
the 'dreamtone' improvisation/acoustic drone/folk-ensemble with LOREN CHASSE, GLENN DONALDSON, STEVEN R.SMITH and others with a rare work from 2002 (CD-R on Last Visible Dog), now re-issued on vinyl... "a misty fold of keyboard drones, tinkling piano, clusters of percussives, shuttling and scrabbling strings and other things - often asks for metaphor from the natural world" - ed. of 500 copies on a new sublabel of BLACKEST EVER BLACK
|
2019 |
€20.50 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS |
Spät-Europa |
CD |
Nummer Drei der Re-Release-Orgie auf dem feinen Bremer Label. SPÄT-EUROPA ist eines der vier frühen SKY Records Alben und beinhaltet 20 Miniaturen mit unnachahmlichen frühachtziger analog-Elektronik-Sounds...
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS & TERRY BURROWS |
Burning the Watching Bride |
LP |
back in stock some NEW copies of this 12 year old vinyl-only album, the first release from the now defunct north-german label ! Soon to be rare
|
1998 |
€15.00 |
|
| TILLY, THOMAS (TO) & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET |
Stones Air Axioms |
CD |
"architectural drones" - collaboration by these two French composers working on / with the architecture of the St. Pierre's Cathedral in Poitiers, France - very abstract, amorph, at times fathomless experimental drones, using many unidentifiable sound sources & variations. great mysterious drone-muzak !! on a new label from Lille
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| TO / THOMAS TILLY |
A Semiotic Survey |
CD |
the great Parisian label (ex G.M.B.H.) is back with a new work by the field recording sculpteur THOMAS TILLY, who immersed again deeply into an exotique aural environment (French Guiana) - what makes this special is the incorporation of glitches like dysfunction sounds of the microphones and electronic sounds of the devices, thus the recording artist and his gear becomes an integral part of the audio result, merging the nature-sounds with the human sphere... lim. 200 copies
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO & ANDREW CHALK |
Tahta Tarla |
LP |
beautiful designed release from 1993 on TONIUTTIs label => long organic drones combined with nature sounds und more concrete material.. comes w. nice art-booklet (28 pages, 23 x 16cm), explaining the concept of the "Geographical Totem"; a timeless record, we could grab some more !! - a true rarity now, BACK IN STOCK few copies !!!
|
1993 |
€22.00 |
|
| TORN FROM BEYOND |
If the View Freezes |
CD |
overlooked dark ambient gem, this is the second project of MORTAJA from the same label and the first album for this project, like a more ritualized version of RAISON D'ETRE or INADE this mixes dark mysterious drones with religious chants, percussion, ritual blowers and winds.. to discover !
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| TORTURING GIRL (=TORTURING NURSE + ALO GIRL) |
same |
LP |
rare early URASHIMA release, this collab. project between Shangai's TORTURING NURSE collective and ALO GIRL (Italian project of the man behind the Urashima label) - producing very aggressive harsh noise walls... numbered ed. 119 copies, with booklet, silkscreen-cover, absolutely last copies in stock !!!
|
2011 |
€25.00 |
|
| TORTURING NURSE / EZCATON |
Eternal Foreshadowed / In Humana Ombra Solitaria |
7inch |
split 7" on this French underground noise label by the Chinese masters of harsh noise from Shanghai & the "nekronoise" project EZCATON from Italy; sick sounds for sick braincells! Orange vinyl, lim.200 , handmade wallpaper cover
|
2012 |
€7.00 |
|
| TOTSTELLEN |
Tunnel / Brücke |
CD-R |
"A study of architecture and the perspectives it implies. An acoustic reflection of so called civilisation. Entirely recorded inside the structure of a motorwaybridge, wich is also a tunnel or even a labyrith underneath the droning traffic. A collaboration between Reduktive Musiken and Totes Format. First edition of 100 copies! Comes with colour-cover and inlaycard." [label info]
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| TREMBLAY, JACQUES |
Chroniques d'une Seduction |
CD |
" THE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS CHARME RESIDES IN THE FACT THAT IT IS ENDLESS" - three works inspired by the "Otherness", second CD on Empreintes D. by this Canadian composer - we think this one of the best releases on this label, conceptually and regarding the variety of sound sources and multiple ways of processings... BACK IN STOCK
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| TRICOLI, VALERIO |
Clonic Earth |
do-LP |
after his great "Misery Lares" do-LP on the same label VALERIO TRICOLI is back with five long new compositions => experimental transcension drones with breathtaking streams of mind-absorbing microsounds flowing magnetically through the space, often voice material is processed, and there also weird collages with field recordings and silent interruptions... so abstract, surrealistic, mysterious and unique!
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| TROUM |
Nargis |
7inch |
the dark & roaring side of TROUM; ed. of 500 / part one of the "Landscapes Single Series" / full-colour artwork & inlay designed by MARS WELLINK (adVANCED); last copies back in stock, now SOLD OUT at label!
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Grote Mandrenke |
CD |
2nd part of the POWER ROMANTIC trilogy after 'Mare Idiophonika' - back in stock! - "an aural hallucination on the events that occurred January 15-17, 1362 at the Friesian North Sea coast" - GROTE MANDRENKE is an oceanic & waving, but also dramatic & mournful journey symbolizing the nature's dominion over man; one long track in 5 movements, comes in oversized gatefold-cover; LAST COPIES - LABEL INACTIVE
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| TROUM & AIDAN BAKER |
Nihtes Niht |
CD |
alien drones of DIS-orientation - a soundtrack for the endless NOTHING, for suspended ice landscapes, very dark & lonely & grim - maybe the darkest AIDAN BAKER has ever done! Lim. 500 in very special fold-out cover, comes with 11 additional full-colour inlay cards showing paintings of STAS MUKLINOV, released on a new Russian label from Moscow... LAST COPY !
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| TROUM & RAISON D'ETRE |
De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu |
CD |
RAISON D'ETRE re-works TROUM basics and vice versa (the first part), the title is inspired through a book from 1678 by JOHANNES BOHN; "Engulfed in a hauntingly beautiful kaleidoscope of grey-ish melancholia, raison d’être comfortably walks deeply into Troum’s vast territory, delivering his very own trademark of eerie tones, ominous sacral ambience and crystal clear constructions..." comes w. oversized 6 panel cover on the excellent ESSENCE Music label from Brazil! 68+ min., lim. 700
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| TRUE COLOUR OF BLOOD |
Awakend to never sleep again |
CD-R |
we could get back few copies back in of some release from the Polish dark ambient / industrial label SOULWORM, all in highly professional design! This is a rare release by the US dark ambient / guitar-drone project, full-colour cardboard design
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| TSITSIGIAS, ALEX |
Contractions |
mCD-R |
new label from Hamburg with first release, same design as the mCDR-series on Taalem. To discover ! First ed. 60 copies
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| TUNNELS OF ĀH (TUNNELS OF AH) |
Charnel Transmissions |
CD |
along with SHE SPREAD SORROW, TUNNELS OF AH is another dark project that is heavily promoted by the legendary British industrial label, presenting already the 4th album, and this could be the strongest, a powerful and eerie trip into otherworlds, earthquake-drones and strange tones and voices appear, everything seems electrified and spiraling you downwards into the abyss.. one of the most sinister and eerie albums we know!!
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS |
Field's End |
CD |
the project of ALAN TRENCH + MARTYN BATES, their second album on the long active Italian label FINALMUZIK, 12 tracks of their extraordinary poetic, ethereal-experimental songwriting style, with amazing cover versions of songs from BLACK SABBATH (!), ALASDAIR CLAYRE, BOB PEGG, and VASHTI BUNYAN... => "the seas ride up the skies/and the stars fill yr eyes/I dream the rain’s long answer/I dream the sun’s responses." - lim. 500 digipak
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| TWIG HARPER |
New Lost Knowns |
LP |
JAMES TWIG HARPER's LP for the Alga Marghen sublabel, full of unclassifiable + strange low fi noises, silkscreen cover, ed. of 200 copies, white vinyl, last copies! - *There's an animalistic or perhaps even plant-like bio-logic to its devolved, dubbed-out arcana, a grunting, scraping, grubbing ecological complexity of sounds that grows, twists and bifurcates at seemingly haphazard junctions to catalyse chain reactions of constant change and multiple layers of surreality.*
|
2013 |
€21.50 |
|
| TZESNE |
Asimilacionismo |
LP |
12 years after the "Huffduff" 7" on our own label (DR-74) the first LP by the favored Basque project: field recordings and vintage synth drones+tones+pulses+sequences serve as basis for the mysterious, somehow drone-based compositions, which use lots of unrecognizable sounds, there are flickering passages, synthetic scrawls and glittering environmentals, all carefully constructed for a wonderfully inspiring brain-ride... lim. 200 copies only, on white vinyl, finally BACK IN STOCK !
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| UBEBOET |
Haereo |
CD |
Drone Rec. artist UBEBOET (see "drone-mind vol. 1" LP) from Spain (who also runs the CON-V label) with three new tracks, culled from field recordings a sublime and mysterious acoustic realm is created, with recognizable and unrecognizable sounds,interchanging and interfering in slow waves, building nice contrasts... lim. 200 full colour cardboard cover w. inlay
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| ULTRA MILKMAIDS |
Lands |
maxi-CD |
lim. / numb. 100 copies / two-sided CD label print !! / fabric pressed CD, no CDR ! |
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| UNKNOWN ARTIST |
Agusta Lecetta, 1926 |
MC |
16th tape on VOLUNTARY WHORES, the label for highly obscure/innovative handmade packaging & acoustics => the author of the extreme violent & mysterious low fi horror noise which seems to document a harrowing action on this tape remains unknown, it was found on a CDR in Italy, now transfered to only 34 copies; C-25 with handpainted cardboard cover, the tape is fixed with band-aids and bandages to it and comes with an additional phiole ('suicide potion') in the bag !!!
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| URUS MARTAN / ALEX TSITSIGIAS |
Rare Animals and Fruits |
MC |
first release by new tape-label from Hamburg; comes in envelope with hand-treated photo-insert
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| UTON |
What on Earth are we doing here |
CD |
the project from Turku, Finland, with a new CD on STEVE FRICKERs (ONOMATOPEIA) label => werid synth-psychedelia, echo sounds from objects and instruments, tiny bits and noises of something = suspended electronic music with lots of wormholes at every corner ! - Comes in 6 panel gatefold cardboard sleeve w. full colour print; 5 tracks 57+ min.
|
2024 |
€13.00 |
|
| V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) |
Coilectif. In Memory ov John Balance and Homage to COIL |
CD |
the 'French' homage to Jhon Balance and first release for this label - exclusive / new composed material from : ETANT DONNES, PACIFIC231, DDAA, NLC, VIVENZA, DESACCORD MAJEUR, ILITCH, PALO ALTO, JAC BERROCAL, etc - incl. quotes from the artists and an essay from Jean-Marc Vivenza : 'Meditation sur la mort'; gatefold card sleeve, 4 page insert, lim. 1000, back in stock !
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Death's last Life's Breath |
CD |
label sampler with NURSE WITH WOUND, GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE, EARTHMONKEY, E.KA-SPEL, BEEQUEEN, IRR.APP.(EXT.), LA STPO, WHITELODGE, FRIDAY GROUP... contains a very long, exclusive NWW track! ["A Wasted Life of Phagocyte Foot Fetishism"]
LAST COPY |
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Kompilation |
do-CD |
cheap-priced compilation giving a great overview about this important ambient-label from Chicago, U.S.; contains two exclusive tracks: STARS OF THE LID, PAN AMERICAN, KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN, GREG DAVIS, GROWING, CHARALAMBIDES, BRENT GUTZEIT, JESSICA BAILIFF, LOSCIL, and many more.. BACK IN STOCK
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
|
On Paper |
do-CD |
warehouse found! - early release by this prolific Portugesian label, a compilation on the theme "Paper", it's sonic quality....all kinds of paper sounds are sampled and processed and mixed with others, even vocals.. a comp of high versatilty and curiousness, between musicality and experimentalism.. VITOR JOAQUIM, STEPHAN MATHIEU, PURE, PAULO RAPOSO, @C, b.Z_ToneR [RAN SLAVIN + SEBASTIAN MEISSNER], [DES]INTEGRACAO, etc.. still a much rewarding listening experience !
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Runeology 2 |
CD |
cheapo label sampler, w. ALOG, ARVE HENRIKSEN, NILS OKLAND, DEATHPROD, ARCHETTI/WIGET, etc.. only non-exlusive material ! |
2005 |
€8.50 |
|
|
Swarm |
do-CD |
label compilation w. ANDREW LILES, MERZBOW/ NORDVARGR, JOHN WATERMANN, ZOS KIA, SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY, TENHORNEDBEAST, BAND OF PAIN, WERKRAUM, etc. etc . all exclusive material !! |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Tel Aviv Aftermath |
CD |
Israel-only compilation, with: AGNIVOLOK, CHAOS AS SHELTER, IGOR18, GRUNDIK + SLAVA, etc.. first release on this label, lim. 1000 |
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
|
VARIOUS (Chartier, Brume, Tsunoda, M.Prime, Pimmon, Meelkop, J. Hudak, etc etc) |
do-CD |
nice compilation from this US-label, numb. ed. of 1000 copies |
2001 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Noise Factory Records Sampler Vol. 3 |
CD |
label-sampler with BEEF TERMINAL, HEXES & OHS, NYBBL, TINKERTOY, NAW, MINISYSTEM, NEON TETRA, ADCBICYCLE, AIDAN BAKER (TROUM-Remix)...
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Three aural interpretations of a drawing by Eric Lanzillotta |
7inch |
this was the last release on the legendary ANOMALOUS RECORDS label from Seattle ! => JEPH JERMAN, LEIF ELGGREN, and RALF WEHOWSKY are transforming drawings of label founder ERIC LANZILOTTA into different granular & collagic sound / noise scapes... lim. 250 clear vinyl, absolutele last copies
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
|
FRANNCE |
3 x CDR |
3 CDRs of exclusive tracks by 45 international artists from the "experimental drone folk & beyond" scene:... UTON, SILVESTER ANFANG, FURSAXA, TANAKH, TOM CARTER, BLACK FOREST/BLACK SEA, BEN REYNOLDS, VOLCANO THE BEAR, GIANLUCA BECUZZI & FABIO ORSI, etc etc.. ed. of 300, comes in a wallpaper-cover, sold out at the label !
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
|
OEC 100 / THE OLD EUROPA CAFE |
7 x CD-Box |
back in stock this massive celebration release for the 25th anniversary of the important Italian industrial label with 101 (!) contributing artists spreading on 7 CDs, working on the theme "Europe": AIN SOPH, PACIFIC 231, ASIA NOVA, MZ.412, BAD SECTOR, DREAM WEAPON RITUAL, DEUTSCH NEPAL, KALLABRIS, HYBRYDS, MOLJEBKA PVLSE, VOICE OF EYE, VOX POPULI, etc. etc.. - comes in sturdy box with 16p. booklet
|
2008 |
€38.00 |
|
|
TEKNOIR |
do-CD |
crucial compilation which marked a kind of "manifesto of dark technoid music" for the Ant-Zen sublabel, still sound great today: BLACK LUNG, ORPHX, IMMINENT STARVATION, VROMB, SOMATIC RESPONSES, WINTERKÄLTE, ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO, SYNAPSCAPE, BEEFCAKE, MOTHER DESTRUCTION, etc. etc. SPECIAL OFFER now !
|
1999 |
€8.50 |
|
|
Ten Grand Tonearm |
LP |
Australian underground / experimental / free & abstract noise / impro compilation with a lovely handmade / recycled cover (on the RATS WITH WINGS -label): RLW, SUN OF THE SEVENTH SISTER, THE VITAMIN B12, CASTINGS, RAHDUNES, LOACHFILLET, etc.... amazing stuff included here for the adventureous hearts !! lim. 300
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Music of our time - Wergo Collection II |
CD |
the perfect introduction to contemporary / "new music"; pieces by JOHN CAGE, CLAUDE DEBUSSY, MORTON FELDMAN, GYÖRGY LIGETI, ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG, PAUL HINDEMITH, etc etc; material from 21 Wergo-releases, celebrating 35 years of this label (1962-1997). SPECIAL OFFER!
|
1997 |
€7.50 |
|
|
Soundtrack for the End of the World |
CD |
first ever CD-release for this U.S. label, this industrial, harsh & drone-noise collection with TAINT, CON-DOM, RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK, MACRONYMPHA, HATERS, AUBE, S-CORE, SKIN CRIME, VIOLENT ONSEN GEISHA, THOMAS DIMUZIO, etc... probably last copies, now better priced
|
1994 |
€10.00 |
|
|
YA JI |
CD |
Chinese cross-cultural/remix compilation on a sub-label of SUBJAM with LOOP ORCHESTRA, RELAPXYCH.O / OBJEKT4 / ANDERS PETERSON, BAI TIAN, SHIZ; nice envelope sleeve cover with 4-part fold out insert, all info written in Chinese and English
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Neurot Recordings I |
CD + DVD |
the ultimative compilation from San Franciso's cult label NEUROT REC., has many previously unreased tracks, DVD clips, etc. by NEUROSIS, OXBOW, GRAILS, LOTUS EATERS, ISIS, ZENI GEVA, TARENTEL, HOUSE OF LOW CULTURE, etc etc now for very low price !
|
2004 |
€7.50 |
|
|
MOM |
CD |
Godspeed Mom! Tribute & benefit compilation for Chris Mc. Beths (label owner) mother Jeanine with exclusive material only; NURSE WITH WOUND, LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, VOLCANO THE BEAR, NADJA, LA STPO, TROUM, ANDREW LILES, EARTHMONKEY, and many others from the label; comes in thick oversized cover
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
FREQ_OUT [0 - °°Hz] |
CD |
sound installation (premiered in Copenhagen June 2003) consisting of 12 individual audio works which are presented as single piece, each one using a specific frequency range only; JANA WINDEREN, BRANDON LABELLE, JG THIRLWELL, KENT TANKRED, JACOB KIRKEGAARD, BJ NILSEN, etc..
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
FREQ_OUT 2 |
CD |
recording by the "FREQ-OUT ORCHESTRA" (JANA WINDEREN, BRANDON LABELLE, JG THIRLWELL, KENT TANKRED, JACOB KIRKEGAARD, BJ NILSEN, etc.. ) made during Ultima Oslo Music Festival 2004, curated by CM VON HAUSSWOLFF
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Shapes and Phases of Ambience |
CD |
warehouse found - This three-way split compilation with RELAPXYCH.0, QUANTEC, and DEER was the first release on ANDERS PETERSONs label (also active as LAST INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, etc.) with acts from the ambient-techno scene, based on the idea to include & deconstuct "everyday sounds"... each artist has 3 or 4 tracks; special offer now !
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Stählerne Lichter |
CD |
post-industrial compilation on the label of N.STRAHL.N with exclusive tracks by DIETER MÜH, FLUTWACHT, GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, MINIMATA, LE SYNDICAT, etc.. a good mixture of well knows acts and newcomers, working on the theme "steel & lights"; lim./numb. 300 copies
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
ERRATUM # 4, Revue Sonore |
3 x CD |
Sound Poetry and poetry of sound, edited by JOACHIM MONTESSUIS; feat. FRANCISCO LOPEZ, CHRISTINA KUBISCH, ROBIN MINARD, LEE RANALDO, ATAU TANAKA, R.H.Y. YAU, IRA COHEN, PHILL NIBLOCK, BRANDON LABELLE, and many many more.. 53 artists !!
|
2004 |
€26.00 |
|
|
Twenty Centuries of Stony Sleep |
do-LP |
label-compilation to the 100th release of the Norwegian label; exclusive material by ALOG, ULTRALYD, MAJA RATKJE, SUPERSILENT, DEATHPROD, and many more Norwegian acts.. lim. vinyl version with luxurious cover (350gr. cardboard)
|
2010 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Offstrings |
LP |
the label of DAN BURKE (ILLUSION OF SAFETY) is back with a very experimental compilation feat. new work from Chicago-based guitar players: DAVID DANIELL, MARK SHIPPY, TRAVIS BIRD, DAN BURKE, MICHAEL VALLERA; 180gr. vinyl, colour vinyl, download coupon
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Magnetic Traces |
CD |
Soundart compilation with works for installations by Australian and French composers: THOMAS TILLY, TARAB, MARC BARON & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET, CEDRIC PEYRONNET (TOY BIZARRE), PHILIP SAMARTZIS, ERIC LA CASA, and more.. for explorers, on ERIC LA CASAs own label !!
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
TOUCH. 30 Years and counting |
do-LP |
the famous British experimental label celebrates with this their 30th anniversary - all tracks are exlusive and original to this release: FENNESZ, BRUCE GILBERT, BJ NILSEN, CHRIS WATSON, MIKA VAINIO, VON HAUSSWOLFF, BIOSPHERE, Z'EV, FRANCISCO LOPEZ, HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR, etc... coincidenes with the "Touch.30 Atmospheres 4 festival" in London 5./6.Dec. 2012; comes in gatefold-cover, lim. 1000 BACK IN STOCK LAST COPIES; HIGHER PRICE UNAVOIDABLE!
|
2012 |
€24.50 |
|
|
Es läuten die Glocken |
CD |
genre-conneting compilation with mainly Japanese artists ranging from 70's psychedelic rock to experimental electronics, feat. the legendary MARBLE SHEEP (anyone remembering Jean-Herve PERON in Schiphorst?), TYLEAN, UP-TIGHT, KARL BÖSMANN, ULTRA MILKMAIDS & HARRIS PILTON, CONTAGIOUS ORGASM, ATTRITION, ERIC LUNDE, HIROSHI HASEGAWA, etc... on the PSYCH.KG sublabel Exklageto
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Incendium #4 |
CD |
cheapo label-compilation with tracks from various newer LOKI & POWER AND STEEL-releases of the last years plus forthcoming material, the ideal overview about this great label for dark ambient & experimental esoteric music! Features INADE, HERBST9, NORTHAUNT, CIRCULAR, FJERNLYS, LAND:FIRE, S.E.T.I., SVARTSINN, FIRST LAW, etc.. and a previously unreleased BAD SECTOR version of "Ampos"
|
2014 |
€4.00 |
|
|
MV X : Monochrome Visions 2004 - 2014 |
3 x CD |
the 10th anniversary of this important Russian label is celebrated with this crazy compilation containing 48 exclusive tracks from all so far appearing artists of the label (almost 4 hours of music), we can only name few: CISFINITUM, VOX POPULI, ASMUS TIETCHENS, BARDOSENETICCUBE, FRANCISCO LOPEZ, TBC, IF BWANA, ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE, MAURIZIO BIANCHI.... everything from past & present combined, sound collages, post industrial, musique concrete, etc. etc. fantastic !!
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Wieza Cisnien II |
CD |
the right compilation to dive deeply into the Polish experimental / industrial underground, with : ZENIAL, SUMPF, DEMONSZY, MONOPIUM, SAMBAR, BACHORZE, KALEKA; X-NAVI:ET, TER, MICROMELANCOLIE, MIRT... lots of new names & sounds to discover (all exclusive tracks), presented by the main Polish label for post industrial, ambient, and experimental electronics.... lim. 500
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
|
AUSGEWÄHLTE GERÄUSCHE |
do-CD & BOOK |
jubilee release for this German label and magazine which links the personal history from AUF ABWEGEN from the last almost 25 years with the evolution of the German noise / experimental / drone scene: 29 rare or unreleased tracks (many Drone Rec artists!) AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF, MOHR, MAEROR TRI, KALLABRIS, HITHLAHABUTH, CRANIOCLAST, WERKBUND, LICHT-UNG, COLUMN ONE, , N, THOMAS KÖNER, etc... comes with 82 page book with infos & essays, a must have!!!
|
2016 |
€22.00 |
|
|
25YLOKI |
do-CD |
jubilee release for the 25th anniversary of the German dark ambient label and home of INADE, released for the LOKI festival in Paris in September 2016: the 1st CD has unreleased material by all performing artists: S.E.T.I, INADE, FJERNLYS, CIRCULAR, PHELIOS and BAD SECTOR; the 2nd CD has a DJ mix by PHILIPP STROBEL going through 25 years of their label history
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
A Taste of MOLOKO PLUS / 1996-2016 |
do-CD |
20 year jubilee compilation for this interesting German label, which offers a wide range of styles from post industrial/ experimental/ambient to avant-Pop and poetic Rock, Impro and IDM, nowadays also publishing books with poetry: COLUMN ONE, MIMETIC, DE FABRIEK, JÜRGEN PLOOG, DE FABRIEK, DELPHIUM, ALFRED23HARTH & WOLFGANG SEIDEL, HERBST IN PEKING, R. STEVIE MOORE, etc. etc.. 21 tracks
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
'... that first Season' - A Winter-Light Compilation |
do-CD |
first label-compilation by this new dutch label, dedicated to various forms of aesthetic, atmospheric and contemplative ambience: exclusive material from STROM NOIR, RAPOON, ABBILDUNG, PHANTOM SHIP, GYDJA (!), SEETYCA, HAKOBUNE, FOETUSDREAMS, NEXUS SUN, HAVDIS, APOCRYPHOS, etc. etc. (16 artists in total!)... a very cohesive compilation, for fans of the GTERMA, CYCLIC LAW, and ZOHARUM-circles...
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Fluxus Anthology : A Collection of Music and Sound |
LP |
a collection of various incredible soundworks 1956-1989 that could be labelled as part of the Fluxus movement, by: JOSEPH BEUYS, JOHN CAGE, LA MONTE YOUNG, NAM JUNE PAIK, PHILIP CORNER, YOKO ONO, EMMETT WILLIAMS, MILAN KNIZAK, WOLF VOSTELL, etc.. first released as LP in 1989, comes with replica of the original sleeve design featuring excerpts from various Fluxus writings
|
2017 |
€28.00 |
|
|
Magnetic Traces 2 |
CD |
4 years after "Magnetic Traces 1" ERIC LA CASA presents on his label the second part of field recording / sound art pieces from France & Australia, originally combined with a multi-channel exhibition at Les Instant Chavires in Paris, June 2011(curated by PHILIP SAMARTZIS and LA CASA): listen to great works by YANNICK DAUBY, TARAB, THOMAS TILLY, CEDRIC PEYRONNET (TOY BIZARRE), PALI MERSAULT, J-L. GUIONNET, etc.. lim. 100 copies only!
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Avantgarde is happening because.. |
CD |
special compilation with exclusive material only, released for the re-established "Avantgarde" festival 2017 in Schiphorst, Germany: NURSE WITH WOUND, FAUST, ASMUS TIETCHENS, QLUSTER, V!V!V!, and many more new and unknown names of projects that were performing there with lots of KRAUT and PSYCHEDELIC experimentalism...lim. 500 and almost sold out at the label as many were picked up at the festival..
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Ich glaube ich höre Genesungswerk |
CD |
nice ambient / electronica / experimental compilation from this now in-active label based in Dortmund, Germany, run by one MULTER member, with exclusive material by: KALLABRIS, SEGMENT, MULTER, N , PALE ASLE PETTERSEN, KRILL MINIMA, KARTEN FRANKREICH, KONRAD BAYER, P. MILES BRYSON, and others....special price now !
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Playing with Words |
do-CD |
overlooked compilation dedicated to sound poety and spoken word audio art, with a wide range of abstraction & expression, 41 tracks and artists (!), to name only a few: => JAAP BLONK, JULIEN OTTAVI, ALESSANDRO BOSETTI, TREVOR WISHART, IRIS GARRELS, LARS GUNNAR BODIN, BRANDON LABELLE, CATHY LANE, BARRY TRUAX, LAABAN & STAN HANSON, MIKHAIL KARIKIS, PAMELA Z, PAUL LANSKY, and many more unknown names, every track a surprise!!
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Tal Mont de Lune |
CD |
label compilation by this interesting & long going Italian label with a mixture dark wave/goth, ambient, post industrial and neo-folk artists: three projects feat. JOHN MURPHY(KNIFELADDER, SHINING VRIL..), MANIFESTO (known for his albums on SILKEN TOFU and REVERSE ALIGNMENT), WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW, ALL MY FAITH LOST, ARGINE, CAMERATE MEDIOLANENSE, etc..etc.. special offer !
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Scatter |
CD |
compilation with US-artists by the TOUCH sublabel feat. tracks by KEVIN DRUMM, JOHN HUDAK, EARTH (!), JIM O'ROURKE, DANIEL MENCHE. some material is exclusive to this release! LAST COPY! |
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Earthen |
do-CD |
jubilee compilation for the 250th release of the important UK-based (post) industrial label, feat. an unreleased COIL track, plus material from various newer releases: TUNNELS OF AH, SHE SPREAD SORROW, SONOLOGYST, KHOST, NEW BLOCKADERS, MERZBOW / GENESIS P.ORRIDGE, PENNY RIMBAUD (CRASS), MZ.412, SHIFT, and many more.. (29 tracks in total)
|
2018 |
€8.00 |
|
|
An Anthology of Greek Experimental Electronic Music 1966-2016 |
do-LP |
another outstanding "anthology" on SUB ROSA, this time dedicated to the versatile Greek experimental scene, mainly focused on "newer" (post 80's) creations, with pieces by A. LOGOTHETIS, ILIOS, MICHALIS ADAMIS, XENAKIS, MARINOS KOUTSOMIHALIS (who curated this collection), NICOLAS MALEVITSIS (main figure of the Greek experimental label and concert scene), and many more rather unknown composers and artists; contains two inlays with extensive liner-notes
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Anthology of Electroacoustic Lebanese Music |
CD |
CD-version of this highly successful, unique online-compilation by the label who put together already regional collections for new & unknown artists from Africa, Iran, Eastern Europe, Portugal, Balkan, etc... it features 11 completely unknown artists from experimental / post-industrial / drone / ambient areas in Lebanon, mainly Beirut.. "Lebanese music has a distinct sound due to the country’s unique fusion of Western and Eastern influences" - a dream for discoverers !!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Godfather of Odd: A HARDY FOX tribute |
CD |
a very touching tribute ("specifically recorded music by former label mates, collaborators and friends, and also some musical admirers") to the co-founder and primary composer of THE RESIDENTS, wo passed away Oct. 2018, feat: DDAA, BLAINE REINIGER, STEVEN BROWN (both of TUXEDOMOON), JG THIRLWELL (FOETUS), RENALDO & THE LOAF, FRED FRITH, PALO ALTO, RESIDENTS, OSTRICH VON NIPPLE, etc. etc.
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East |
CD |
the most interesting compilations for experimental "Exotica" at the moment come from Italian's EIGTH TOWER REC./UNEXPLAINED SOUNDS GROUP-label => this new collection is the follower of the "Africa" comp. and features 14 widely unknown artists from 12 countries, from Egypt to Afghanistan!! - "The tunes wander from ambiance to hypnotic drones to heady collages, combining into a fascinating if sometimes divergent whole." [Q-Burns] - 200 copies only!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Thousands of Eyes in the Dark |
LP |
compilation by this U.S. american electronic / avant-pop / ambient label, feat artists from around the globe: SARAH DAVACHI, EMILY SPRAGUE, ORCAS (with R.A. IRISARRI), SAARISELKA, SPACE AFRIKA, YOSI HORIKAWA, SK U KNO, GRAND RIVER, etc..- "Ten original works of contemporary melodic and incidental electronics _ fragments, moods, vignettes _ sequenced as one continuous suite, a pairing of personal expression with wide angle vision.."
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
|
INSANE |
2 x 7inch set |
the supplement to the "Cassette Culture" book is this double 7" in a never seen luxus cover - a large silver embossed special "half-side" folder with 8 tracks from the legendary INSANE label from Belgium: BENE GESSERIT, PSEUDO CODE, HUMAN FLESH and I SCREAM (all from about 1983 - 1986) - all of these groups were on the very first "INSANE MUSIC FOR INSANE PEOPLE" cassette-compilation (1981)... lim. 500
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Bookwar Records - Famous Lathe Cuts |
LP |
this wild compilation collects very limited lathe-cut 7"es that were released in the past years by this obscure experimental / electronic / psych noise / punk / rock label from Moscow - a wide range of styles and unknown projects from the Russian underground, and few more well known names are presented, a crazy blast of UNADAPTED stuff: CISFINITUM, DAO DE NOIZE, YAO 91404 D, BOOKWAR, ELECTRO-HARAM, POST MATERIALISTS, GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA, etc.. lim. 100 copies only (black vinyl), surely last copies!!
|
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
|
R L E (2020) |
CD |
special low priced label compilation for the 2020 edition of the yearly "re:flexions sound art-festival" with the originally planned line up, with all artists in interesting collaborations, i.e.: BU.D.D.A, (feat. B*TONG and EMERGE), N [91] with DEEP, OCCUPIED HEAD, GINTAS K., BOBAN RISTEVSKI, HOSHIKO YAMANE (of TANGERINE DREAM - no joke) and few new names (to us)> a nice collection of new experimental electronics and abstract music...
|
2020 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Made to Measure Vol. 1 |
LP |
Brussels was one of the hotspots for innovative, avantgardish, experimental music in the 80's, and CRAMMED DISCS a central label of this movement.. this is a re-issue of a classic CRAMMED LP comp. from 1984 which became a cult series, with not so easy to find material from MINIMAL COMPACT, TUXEDOMOON, AKSAK MABOUL and BENJAMIN LEW...> "the aural equivalent of a collection of art books" - remastered, comes with DL code
|
2021 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Well known Strangers - UNROCK's ARCHIVAL SINGLE BOX SET |
14 x 7 |
collector's item! For the 25th anniversary of this "genre-free / exotic experimental / jazz / folk" German label: 14 x 7"es in printed cardboard box, rare / unreleased material by: SIR RICHARD BISHOP, ALVARIUS B., CLANDESTINE TRIO (ALAN BISHOP, CHRIS CORSANO..), KARKHANA (from Beirut, with SAM SHALAHBI), AAMM (EDDIE PREVOST, etc.), EYVIND KANG, AVA MENDOZA, SUNN TRIO, TASHI DORJI, BILL ORCUTT, CHRIS CORSANO, DAVID OLIPHANT (LIFE GARDEN),... - only 128 numbered copies exist!
|
2021 |
€95.00 |
|
|
NEKROPHILE REKORDS 1983-1990 |
10 x LP BOX |
the eight cassette releases by the legendary Austrian label (many for the first time on vinyl, like the LASHTAL, KORPSES KATATONIK, THE BEAST666 compilation...) plus unreleased material on two LPs by METGUMBNERBONE and COMING TO NOW: 10 LPs in luxus wooden box, plus 2 x 7"es and T-Shirt with incredible 240 pages book, feat. hundreds of documents, pictures, texts, from the "occult underground of the post industrial area"; lim. 666 copies
|
2022 |
€299.00 |
|
|
Anthology Of Experimental Music From China |
CD |
the great compilation series by the Italian label continues, this time with a great exploration into the experimental / electronic music underground of CHINA! 16 projects are presented... "A phantasmagorical, invigorating trek across a shifting landscape of musical strategies and reference points." [TigerTorakio]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
|
An Oblique Reference to Zeros |
do-CD |
high-class label compilation by the long going UK/PL label with a wide range of styles, almost all tracks here are unreleased yet: CONTRASTATE, HIROSHIMABEND, HELM, BAND OF PAIN, KLEISTWAHR, SUDDEN INFANT, ALTERNATIVE TV, SPLINTERED, THEME, PHILIPPE PETIT, ZSOLT SORES, and many more to discover
|
2022 |
€13.50 |
|
|
CONTEMPORARY HOMEMADE MUSIC FROM SWEDEN |
CD |
label compilation by the cult DIY label from Gothenburg, Sweden: exclusive material from: ASTRID OSTER MORTENSEN, TREASURY OF PUPPIES, SEWER ELECTION, BLOD, and many more names we've never heard of before.. comes with16 page booklet
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Ode to MARCO VERONESI |
CD |
a tribute to MARCO VERONESI, co-founder of ADN, one of the most important labels for the experimental underground in Italy since 1983: excellent line up, with many of theacts that were important for the label: DDAA, RLW, LA STPO, CHRISTINA KUBISCH; BENE GESSERIT, T.A.C., SIGILLUM S, TASADAY, MERZBOW, MOTOR TOTEMIST GUIDE, LA1919, CELLULA ASCOLTO ATTIVO , F. PALADINO, etc.... lim. 300 with full colour poster cover (50 x 70 cm), almost 72 min. playtime
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Hyperakusis II |
CD |
label compilation for the 10th anniversary of this label, with 1 or 2 tracks by each involved project: SPHERICAL DISRUPTED, NERTHUS, TARDIVE DYSKENESIA, MORTAJA, 2KILOS & MORE, MANDELBROT, ALARMEN.... betweeen dark / electronic ambient, rhythmic industrial and IDM, the approach is comparable with Bulgarian label AMEK and provides a high quality underground listening experience through these genres..
|
2014 |
€6.00 |
|
|
XKatedral Anthology Series II |
do-LP |
"An Anthology Of Slowly Evolving Timbral Music" - unreleased pieces from the archives 2018-2020: KALI MALONE, JESSICA EKOMANE; MATS ERLANDSSON, THEODOR KENTROS; WILMA HULTEN, MARIA W. HORN.. * "This collection of pieces focuses on the use of synthetic sound and algorithmic composition languages as tools for precise work within the realm of spectral exploration* - comes on orange vinyl, lim. 500, sold out at label already !
|
2023 |
€45.00 |
|
|
DAIS223 (DAIS X RETROSPECT) COMPILATION |
MC + Portable Cassette Player |
a label compilation in a "package" you haven't seen before: This blue cassette is delivered with a complete "Walkman" (Retrospekt CP-81 Portable Cassette Player), a white player with DAIS design and headphones, fully functioning, with recording function, USB-connecton, etc..!; - on the cassette unreleased tracks by DREW McDOWALL, TOR LUNDVALL, COH, HELM, etc.. - 1000 copies were manufactured of this extraordinary collectors item !!
|
2023 |
€100.00 |
|
|
Anthology of Experimental Music from Latin America |
CD |
another excellent CD compiled by RAFFAELE PEZELLA (SONOLOGYST), the tireless collector of experimental / ambient / electronic music from all parts of planet earth, within his "Sound Mapping Project" => 16 tracks from artists you surely never heard about, often with an exotic touch, incorporating the cultural heritage of the artists (coming from MEXICO, PERU, BRAZIL,COLOMBIA, CHILE, etc... ) - "among the label’s most compelling collections." [THE WIRE] - lim. 200
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
|
NEW STATE OF FLUX |
do-CD |
the last release after 13 years of activity for the excellent label from Sweden, exclusive material from: JARL, TAPHEPHOBIA, AJNA, VELGENATURLIG, B*TONG, DISKREPANT, FREIBAND; RNGMNN, SONOLOGYST, etc..- 20 tracks in total, lots of new names, too.. - *a rare example of integrity and quality in terms of aesthetic choices, creating a collection of minimalist and isolationist gems by releasing a series of albums by musicians that have constituted a new paradigm in minimalistic ambient music* - lim. 200
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
|
In Memoriam : An Ambient Introspection Compilation |
LP |
a legendary figure from the French experimental / industrial scene is YANN FARCY, who ran the labels L'INVITATION AU SUICIDE and NOISE MUSEUM - after a long break and personal disruptions he's back with this slow + silent introspective Ambient / Electronica compilation, inspired by a short French text from 1963: with many new names for us (apart from RADBOUD MENS): NOISE TREES, JOACHIM TITIEN, OCOEUR, FOREST MANAGEMENT, ENFANTS DESFORETS, etc.. - lim. 500, inlay
|
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
|
The ReR Quarterly - Selections from Vol. 2 |
CD |
material from the four "ReR Quarterly" sound magazines that appeared in 1987-1989, 20 tracks: ROBERT WYATT, JOCELYN ROBERT, WHEN, JOHN OSWALD, 5UU's, etc.etc.. - true avantgarde music from this legendary label, a great selection that still doesn't sound old.. comes with extensive booklet
|
1991 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The ReR Quarterly - Selections from Vol. 1 |
CD |
material from the four "ReR Quarterly" sound magazines that appeared in 1985-1986: exclusive material from BIOTA, STEVE MOORE, CASSIX, DUCK AND COVER (ensemble with TOM CORA, CHRIS CUTLER, FRED FRITH, HEINER GOEBBELS, ALFRED HARTH, GEORGE LEWIS, and DAGMAR KRAUSE, etc.. - true avantgarde music from this legendary label, a great selection that still doesn't sound old.. - comes with extensive booklet
|
1991 |
€13.00 |
|
| VALANX |
Ouroboros |
CD |
one of the best labels for drone-newcomers or discoveries at the moment is REVERSE ALIGNMENT in Sweden! => VALANX is the experimental / droning project of the experienced musician ARNE WEINBERG from Glasgow (Scotland), who also runs CROMLECH Records: on "Ouroboros", organic dark ambient industrial drones merge with rumbling loops and ultra-slow beats of unknown origins, which gives this an obscure pulsing.. to discover! lim. 100
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| VALY, SANDOR & ATTILA KALOCZKAI |
The Agitated Calm of Insubstantial Space |
CD |
two imporant figures of the Hungarian underground from the 80's met again and recorded an album with the "ritual poetry" of ATTILA KALOCZKAI, and the dramatic post industrial tunes of SANDOR VALY; furious drone-waves, heavy drumming, atonal violin & piano, a mixture of melodramatic, ambience and noise, intense & dark! - lim. 300 digipak with 16 pages booklet, on a new label from Finland
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| VAN GULICK, JASON |
Concrete |
LP |
the Brussels based label is a great place to discover new names & artists: JASON VAN GULICK is a drummer who presents recordings entirely made on / from his drumkit, creating atmospheric drones with a bow or other unusual tones and noises with sticks and objects..."Quite a bit of work went into balancing the various recordings and Van Gulick delivers a beautiful record. Loud and dark, light and quiet; he knows how to built excellent soundscapes in space.." [Vital Weekly] /lim. 100 first screen printed ed.
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| VEDISNI |
Architects and murderers |
CD |
US ritual / occult industrial on now defunct label |
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| VEPRISUICIDA |
Radio Stigmata |
CD |
a historical document of the "early" Russian industrial avantgarde, "Radio Stigmata" was released on the legendary ULTRA label in 1996 in an edition of only 15 copies, the project of A. LEBEDEV-FRONTOV was standing for very handmade / analogue mechanical industrial noise and rusty sounds... "It is nearly impossible to find as rugged, as crude and as rusty industrial noise in genre these days. Bleak and rotten sound, with broken mechanical feel"
|
2018 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Veprisuicida |
CD |
one of the seven CD re-issues of rare VEPRISUICIDA cassettes (the project of ALEXANDER LEBEDEV-FRONTOV, most important figure of Russian industrial, also known for his projects LINIJA MASS and VETROPHONIA), released in tiny editions on the ULTRA label - this one appeared originally in 1996 - "Bleak and rotten sound, with broken mechanical feel, were saturated tape manipulations and disruptive pause edits add further charm..."
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| VERTONEN |
The Broken Air |
MC |
cassette only release by Chicago's Blake Edwards aka VERTONEN, a work about / inspired through the topics communication, electricity, radio waves, broken equipment... - this noise doesn't sound "noisy", but in a strange way ghostly and mysterious, like an artefact from the ancient past... think of JOE COLLEY, FAMP, etc.. - C-60, 125 copies, prof. cover & duplication, sold out from the label, US import
|
2020 |
€11.00 |
|
| VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA |
My Gate's open, tremble by my Side |
CD |
"A CD reissue of VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA's My Gate's Open, Tremble By My Side album originally released in 1999 as an LP by Roaratorio in an edition of 250 copies. Includes all the monolithic sheets of organic, repetitive drones and subtle rhythm and groove explorations of the original along with three bonus tracks recorded during the same sessions. Australian import." [label info] - LAST COPY; SEALED
|
2004 |
€18.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA |
The ultimated Sign of burning Death |
LP |
incredible document of VIDNA OBMANAs experimental & harsh beginnings, recorded at home in 1984 with a KORG MS20, using self-fabricated tape loops of various lengths, vocals, a few effects and an old DJ mixer, recorded direct to tape... fully droning noises & pulses with muffled screaming voices, etc.. lim. ed. of only 99 copies, sold out at the label !!
|
2014 |
€27.50 |
|
|
The Trilogy |
3 x CD |
the three albums of Vidna Obmana from the early 90's that defined "Ambient" at that time: "Passage in Beauty" (1991, the first CD on DIRK SERRIES own label Decade Collection), "Shadowing in Sorrow" (1992) , and "Ending Mirage" (1993, on the legendary ND label) => timeless non-rhythmic ambient-drones, enlightening and elevating everything around you; for us, true ambience classics ! Lim. 400, re-mastered by the artist himself
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
|
The Surreal Sanctuary / The Contemporary Nocturne |
do-CD |
this do-CD collects two strong albums belonging together, from the later phase of VIDNA OBMANA, published both in the year 2000 on the US label HPYNOS => JIM COLE, JORIS DE BACKER and STEVE ROACH are present as guests on both release, providing bass & guitar, overtune singing and tambura; re-mastered in 2018 by DIRK SERRIES himself, 400 copies, 8 panel digipak; "...diving into a deep sonic ocean made of endless corridors and unsolvable mysteries" [SideLine]
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Memories Compiled : Three Tapes |
3 x CD |
three cassette only albums from the earliest V.O. drone-ambient phase: "Gathering in Frozen Beauty" (1989), "Near the Flogging Landscape" (1990), and "Refined on Gentle Clouds" (1991, released on the legendary Welsh label DIRECTION MUSIC) => all of them of highest quality and for the first time re-issed on any physical format ! Comes w. thick 8-panel triple-pack, lim. 400 copies
|
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| VIGROUX, FRANCK |
Totem |
do-LP |
CYCLIC LAW build a new sub-label for more experimental works and this first release in the series by the long active French guitarist, improviser and composer FRANCK VIGROUX knocks you over with it's overridden and pitched multi-layered drones, forward-pestering and full of suspense.. "tectonic tension, pulsating rhythms and abrasive analog textures like few can produce.." / "Totem features some of the most uncompromising and colossal electronic music you will hear this year" [The Quietus] - lim. 500
|
2019 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
Totem |
CD |
CYCLIC LAW build a new sub-label for more experimental works and this first release in the series by the long active French guitarist, improviser and composer FRANCK VIGROUX knocks you over with it's overridden and pitched multi-layered drones, forward-pestering and full of suspense.. "tectonic tension, pulsating rhythms and abrasive analog textures like few can produce.." / "Totem features some of the most uncompromising and colossal electronic music you will hear this year" [The Quietus]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIOLENT SHOGUN |
Breath and Steam |
CD |
the main project of REMI DAZET, a very active newcomer from the Finnish noise scene (who is also behind HATTIFNATTAR), another discovery on the excellent "new genre-free noise" label STATUHATTA from Finland...- *Sound palette on ’Breath and Steam’ is hard to describe with usual genre definitions like "harsh noise" or "industrial", as the overall atmosphere is very unique... * - silent & mysterious passages play a big role here.. - comes wth silkscreen cover plus insert
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| VISIONS & PHURPA |
Monad |
LP |
the 100th release for the now maybe most important dark ambient label around: a studio collab between PHURPA and the project of label-owner VISIONS, the typical PHURPA vocal and ritualistic instrumental sounds are drowning in a deep morass of huge reverberations, but there are also moments of complete, rather silent alienation, whispers and winds from unknown spheres, timeless and lonely harmonic rays of elevation.... a very beautiful album, highly recommended! vinyl lim. 200
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Monad |
CD |
the 100th release for the now maybe most important dark ambient label around: a studio collab between PHURPA and the project of label-owner VISIONS, the typical PHURPA vocal and ritualistic instrumental sounds are drowning in a deep morass of huge reverbarations, but there are also moments of complete, rather silent alienation, whispers and winds from unknown spheres, timeless and lonely harmonic rays of elevation.... a very beautiful album, highly recommended! CD version 500 copies
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| VITAL |
Magazine for Electronic and Electroacoustic Music - The complete collection 1987-1995 |
BOOK |
all 44 issues of the legendary non-copyright magazine published by Frans de Waard from 1987-1995 in one large book - a true compendium of the experimental / post industrial / cassette underground during that time. 580 pages, hardcover book, english: interviews, reviews, label portraits, articles & essays, announcements, news, etc. etc... almost better than the bible - a must have!!! Comes with full subject index!
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| VOLCANO THE BEAR |
Volfurten |
CD |
re-issue of rare LP from 2006 (the first release at that time on their own label) by the band who had their first proper CD album out on STEVEN STAPLETON's UNITED DAIRIES label in 1998... " A calculated hysterical melting pot of This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Faust and The Residents, of musique concrète and ethno-folk, all seen through a prism of theatrical improvisations and unhinged set pieces"; luxuriuos gatefold cover, lim. 444 copies
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOLLMER, CARSTEN / RECTAL SURGERY |
Arbeit Nummer 12: Tonbandprotokolle / Actually I tried to fuck his girlfriend |
7inch |
little sick harsh noise single - first vinyl release on DEAFBORN ! - "Rectal Surgery: sick noise with a harsh sense of humour & this time with a truly obscure sexual twist.
Carsten Vollmer: dynamic & aggressive tape cut-up noise at its best. Some of his greatest work !!" [label info]
|
1999 |
€5.00 |
|
| VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M. & CHANDRA SHUKLA |
Travelogue [Bali] |
CD |
after the highly successful "Travelogue [Nepal]" audio diary project this is the second collab by VON HAUSSWOLFF with American musician and label-maker CHANDRA SHUKLA => field recordings from diverse places in Bali (beaches, temples, market places, forests) were used to construct 5 long pieces; comes in DVD sized digipack; - "It swallows you, if you let it, and I am more than happy to. There is so much to see here, if you close your eyes..."
|
2023 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Travelogue [Nepal] |
CD |
first release in the \"audio diary\" project by VON HAUSSWOLFF with American musician and label-maker CHANDRA SHUKLA, who met in Kathmandu in 2019 for one week and did various site specific recodings => \"the two galavant the globe with field-, EVP- and phone recorders and other devices where they record the essence of everything from the tiniest microcosms of nature on up to the polluted, diesel-fuelled roars of postmodern globalization.\" - DVD sized digipak
|
2021 |
€17.00 |
|
| VOX POPULI! |
Half Dead Ganja Music |
LP |
re-mastered re-issue of cult cassette from 1987 (on the legendary CTHULHU label) by the French ethno-folk / post industrial / ambient group feat. great female singer with North-African roots, who developed a very own & unique style => one studio, one live-side, pure exotic beauty !!! - - *The beautifully apt title precedes their most intense trip, pushing the boundaries away from the percussive psychedelic of albums ‘Mystcitismes’ (1985) and Aither’ (1989) to create a dark ambient masterpiece..* + inla
|
2024 |
€21.50 |
|
| WARDROBE MEMORIES |
The Mean |
MC |
"a cyber soundtrack, written in the year 3046" - the revived German project created a very filmic, strangely futuristic piece with narrative elements, almost like an experimental ear-play, gloomy & melancholic; 9th tape on the great German tape label, always using coloured MC bodies & oversized art-covers (21x21cm) with additional object inside! Lim. 48 copies only
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Early Years |
2 x MC |
do-MC re-issue of the first two CDR albums by WARDROBE MEMORIES from 1999, which appeared on the DIY label SCHNEETREIBEN in very limited editions => dreamy drone ambient with a strong 'cosmic" touch & experimental edge, travelling far away from earth...this is the 13th tape on the great German tape label, always using coloured MC bodies & oversized art-covers (21x21cm), comes with button & postcard
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| WHARTON, DONATO |
A white Rainbow spanning the Dark |
10inch |
experimental ambience between amorphous drones and near guitar-folk influences by this London-based composer for stage and theatre-plays, creating a very own & remarkable style; second 10" release (edition of 500) for this nice label from Wales
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| WHITEHEAD, CHRIS / ANDREA BORGHI |
Wade's Causeway / Gelazen |
CD |
start of a new "split CD" series on the Russian SEMPERFLORENS label run by [S] from EXIT IN GREY and FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC: CHRIS WHITEHEAD is a field recordist from North Yorkshire, he created a kind of "mythogeographic" piece (31+ min.) with sounds from the area of secretful linear stone structure going through the wild; ANDREA BORGHI presents two pieces of "prepared" vintage disco vinyls from Italy... new concepts and sounds to explore ! ed. of 300
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON / ALIEN RADIO |
split |
LP |
music for "modular electronic music system"; ALIEN RADIO is a project of ULF SCHÜTTE, who is also a member of DATASHOCK & BLACK TO COMM; lim. ed - sold out the label already
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| WINDEREN, JANA |
The Blue Beyond |
LP |
two new sound installations in order to raise awareness for the environmental issues of our society: "Du Petit Risoud aux Profondeurs du Lac de Joux", and "The Art of Listening: Under Water" - containing fascinatinng Ocean and Underwater recordings, we had to think of LLYN Y CWN, CEDRIC PEYRONNET / TOY BIZARRE or YANNICK DAUBY's works,or the great UNFATHOMLESS and GRUENREKORDER labels... - comes w. gatefold cover and printed inlay
|
2023 |
€26.50 |
|
| WORBY, ROBERT |
Factitious Airs (Electronic Music) |
LP |
the second release on UK's newly established PERISTENCE OF SOUND label is the first solo-album for this British composer, sound artist, writer and broadcaster from London => on 10 higly abstract pieces (processing 'recorded sound' of all types) with obscure descriptions he spreads his vision of sounding almost like the electronic pioneers, always surprising, fragmented, dynamic... lots of strange micro worlds to discover here !
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| YEN POX |
Universal Emptiness |
10inch |
OUT NOW May 2011 !! A new 10" vinyl on our sub-label series SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA by the great dark / cosmic / black hole ambience project from the US!
Lim. 500, over 30 min. playtime, stunning artwork by EYELYFT feat. gloss-spots
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Universal Emptiness (test pressing) (SOLD OUT) |
10inch + CDR |
for the fans: the test-pressing (lim. 5 copies on black vinyl, white labels) with original cover and bonus promo CDR, containing a longer /"complete" version of one of the tracks!! |
2011 |
€25.00 |
|
| Z'EV |
A Handful of Elements |
CD |
very droney collection of works (unreleased material from his archives), inspired by the 'five elements".. "the other side of ambient, through the door between your eyes" [label info]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Eleven Mirrors to the Light |
CD |
third part in a series that started with 'Sum Things' on the same label; this new work is inspired by the intersection of light and dark and concentrates again on the droning side of his soundart, a very dynamic form of ambience, in continuous re-shaping and strange morphing process... great! "Z'EV's trademark percussion transforms into glistening soundscapes and drones, one part subterranean and another subatomic"..all 11 tracks are exactly 7 min long = 77 min. full playtime!
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| Z1// |
Drone Works # 1 |
maxi-CD-R |
CD-EP with very minimal, contrasting / high-pitched synth & sinus-tone drones; first maxi-CD in a new series of this Berlin-based label, comes with handmade/stamped kraft paper cover
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| ZIMIAMVIAN NIGHT |
Zimiamvian Night 2 |
CD |
debut-CD of this "extended minimal / drone" project known from a fabulous CDR only release on the same label; hyper-subtle drone pulsations, strangely harmonic, soft & mellow but somehow cryptic.....
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| (FALLEN) BLACK DEER |
Requiem |
CD-EP |
www.southern.com/southern/label/LTT
|
2008 |
€10.50 |
|
| 1000SCHOEN |
Moune |
CD |
"MOUNE is a very old word for MOON, comes out of a old language that was spoken in Germany. But it’s not german, it’s friesisch. Anyway, the moon theme is one of favourite topics in mystic circles around dark ambient genre. For Helge Siehl, who is the driving force of 1000schoen since the time he split his way with the other two former Maeror Tri members, it’s definitely one of the most important subject - in his paintings, photos and music. This album, presenting the program of his first ever russian tour in December 2010 (with Troum and Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim), shows more ambient side of 1000schoen, leaving rhythmic path aside in favor of menacing sounds of highly personal moon rising visions. Moreover, it’s actually debut CD of this prominent german artist, who previously released his music mostly on limited/private edition CDRs. Featuring 3 tracks, with total running time of 45 minutes.
1000schoen is a trained artist, certified art therapist and surround sound acoustician. A native of Fries country, he is currently living in Bremen, where he participated in various art projects. As soundartist, he worked since 1994 in Turin (I), Amsterdam (NL), Zurich (CH), Ghent (B), Never (F), Nuremberg, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, to name a few. Since 1995, he also created many pictorial and graphic works. For instance, he invented the famous Maeror Tri "wheel" logo, and designed some of their album covers, as well as others (Oophoi "Potala" etc)." [label info]
"The symbol of 1000schoen reflects the celestial bodies of Sun and Moon in inseparable symbiosis, which we can see (at least) in all that we can imagine. The world of 1000schoen art and experience moves in this continuum as well." - Helge Siehl
www.nitkie.ru
"Troum came from Maeror Tri. A trio reduced to a duo, so what happened to the third person? Helge Siehl started his own project, 1000schoen, and has had a few releases as such. This might very well be his first real CD release. Its not easy to review this and not to think of Maeror Tri or Troum, simply because there is a similarity between all three. Now if Siehl would have picked up the acoustic guitar and sang songs, it would have been easy: it would be very different. But in the three pieces, two long one short, Siehl continues to explore his own version of his own legacy. He does that in a slightly different way than Troum. Whereas Troum offers a very dense sound of atmospheric sound, layering many sounds together, to put the icing on the cake, it seems to me that Siehl likes a less crowded palette of sounds, stripping and reducing until he is left with a handful of sounds to work. In the final short track it seems that he is using voice only and for me it broke with the natural flow of the two longer pieces. In those he chooses to work with guitars and synthesizers, along with a bit of sound effects, but throughout in a more minimal field. The opening piece 'Moune Rising' moves along those bass lines, field recordings and finds itself eventually taken over by some more synthetic sounds, whereas 'Moune' is more a piece of gentle processed guitar sounds and rusty field recordings of large, empty factories. Not entirely surprising in the world of drone music, but then perhaps so isn't Troum either, but its quite exciting to hear this album and if Maeror Tri and Troum are close to your heart, then you'd should be lending 1000schoen an ear too. Equally good, I'd say." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO |
Under a Morphine Sky |
CD |
15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO is a trio from the US, working somewhere between experimental ambience and noise, using all kinds of sources from concrete instrumental sources (percussions, guitars) to more unrecognizable stuff; 7 tracks that reveal quite a variety of approaches & styles, quite strange & idiosyncratic & worth to check out!
"15 Degrees Below Zero brings you the companion to 'Morhine Dawn' (2004 Crunch Pod Media), a further journey into the experimental ambience of 15 degrees below zero, who were formerly known as "Imperial Flower Unit". Mastered By Tomas Garrison At Misanthrope studios. "15 Degrees Below Zero's sound ranges from subdued, drifting ambience, featuring skewed, conventional instrumentation and tatters of rhythm, to more insistent, grittier electronic flourishes." [label info]
label: www.forceofnature.cc
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Between Checks and Artillery. Between Work and Image |
10inch |
Exzellente 2-track 10" dieses US-Trios, die sich hier weniger "industriell-elektronisch" als eher minimal Gitarren-dronig mit Hang zum Monumentalen zeigen.... anschwellende Gitarren-Anschläge, tiefe Drones, Rausch-Effekte, allmächtige Crescendi, erhabene Weiten
& wuchtige Pulses auf Seite auf Seite B..
"A trio from San Francisco composed of Daniel Blomquist, Mark Wilson and Michael Addison Mersereau, 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO, with previous releases in CD or CDR format on the FORCE OF NATURE and CRUNCH POD labels, brings us their first production in vinyl format. It is comprised of 2 exclusive tracks, on 10’’ vinyl, released on the Montreal based label .ANGLE.REC., still fond of the vinyl disc. 2 tracks which suggest an even more brilliant and exploded future for this exploratory vehicle born on the ashes of the famous IMPERIAL FLORAL ASSAULT UNIT project. The trio’s most recent CD, ‘’Under A Morphine Sky’’, offered a well-balanced perspective between improvisation and composition, a sound alchemy that is realized without any pretension under a purple and…of course… morphined sky. Power-Electronics in symbiosis with Dark-ambient in symbiosis with Guitar-Noise in symbiosis with various layered and shifting acoustic and electronic elements …The result and the overall feel were stunning. This 10incher is the log ical follow-up to the madness. 2 face(t)s, 2 slices of life. A side, ‘’KRONOS’’, proposes us a guitar-based canvas with multiples effects and spacious microworlds, with an accelerating insanity and intensity, an 8-9 minute segment which flies like the wind. It can also be considered as an extrapolation on the last minutes of ‘’THE RETURNING’’, found on B Side; ‘’THE RETURNING’’ begins with an epic lo-fi martial/neoclassical/doom segment but rather soon, haunting post-rock/shoegaze guitar-based structures come to occupy the main stage, and the power electronics segment also turns up very quickly following that, the whole being accomplished with a constant mastery and concern for texture. It is chaotic, foggy buy damned melodic and moving …and it does not stop gaining in intensity. Towards the final segment, we have samples and then a melodic guitar-based motif with a healthy dose of echo, which reverberates while consuming itself, till the end … 15DBZ has crazy surprises in store for us. Discover why, now. Many ambiences and textures on this 10’’ remind us of the reasons why we got interested, in the first place, in various ‘’nocturnal’’ and/or ‘’subterranean’’ musical universes. The beauty of it all is that here, everything is presented in condensed fashion. 2 tracks which fly too fast despite their relative length. Another welcome add to the .ANGLE.REC. vinyl series." [label info]
www.angle-rec.net
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Morphine Dawn |
maxi-CD |
"Four track EP from this highly talented dark ambient and cinematic isolationist three piece outfit. "Morphine Dawn" is just a piece of what the companion album (label to be determined still) "Under A Morphine Sky" has to offer. "Morphine Dawn" was mastered by Thomas Garrison of Misanthrope Studio and features artwork from Ben Didier. First 50 copies come with a bonus CDR featuring the track "Leisure Day Satellite"." [label notes]
www.crunchpod.com
|
2004 |
€7.00 |
|
| 21 GRAMMS |
Water-Membrane |
CD |
"With many qualitative independent CDr, Tape, eps productions, 21 GRAMMS garnered so much praise from so many quarters in the past years.
“Water – Membrane” is the second Poland’s 21 GRAMMS pro-CD album. Seven extended pieces of sublime orchestral dark natural ambient, generated a truly wonderful album.
“Water – membrane” sounds like a ”last hope” inner movement into the most unknown decadences of the soul. Discouraging, shining, naturally isolationist." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
www.greytone.eu
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| 23 SKIDOO |
The Culling is Coming |
CD |
"First released on vinyl only by Crepuscule's Operation Twilight arm in February 1983, The Culling is Coming flagged two radical new directions for Skidoo following their funky indie chart-topper Seven Songs the previous year. Drawn from two live performances, Culling combined a collaboration with the Balinese Gamelan Orchestra recorded at Dartington College of Music in October 1982, together with extracts from a more extreme, improvised set at the first Womad festival in July 1982, using scrap metal and tape loops. Both sides of the album were exactly 23 minutes long, and side one signed off (or rather didn't) with a stylus-hostile lock groove. Long deleted, this, challenging misunderstood album was light years ahead of its time. Now digitally remastered for release on The Boutique Label, it has been expanded by the inclusion of a complete (and equally extreme) 26 minute loop performance at Tielt, Belgium, on 8 October 1982. Recorded as part of Crepuscule's short Move Back/Bite Harder tour with Cabaret Voltaire, Tuxedomoon and Pale Fountains, this material has never before been released. The extended CD runs for 76 minutes. The booklet features the original artwork and contextual notes by Skidoo's Alex Turnbull. Full tracklist: G-2 Contemplation, S-Matrix, G-3 Insemination, Shrine, Mahakala, Banishing, Invocation, Flashing, Stifling, Healing (For the Strong), Move Back/Bite Harder." [label info]
www.ltmrecordings.com
www.ltmrecordings.com
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Seven Songs |
do-LP |
"Expanded digital remaster of the classic 1982 mini album that topped the indie charts, together with all tracks from associated Fetish label singles. Booklet features detailed band biography and archive images. The gatefold double vinyl edition includes Skidoo's John Peel radio session from September 1981." [label info]
www.ltmrecordings.com
|
2012 |
€27.50 |
|
| 2KILOS & MORE |
9,21 |
mCD-R |
Debut-mini-album of a new french duo, which could be described maybe as "electronica with an edge", atmospheric stuff with mechanical loops and lots of development within. Two pieces, almost 19 minutes.
"2kilos &More is a french duo who mixes electronics and real instruments (guitar, melodica) creating evolutive & complex tracks full of detailed sounds. After many live gigs (with Rapoon, Hybryds and Bad Sector at the third Thérapie Auditive festival in Paris in May 2006 and opening for bands like Colder or Trisomie 21 earlier), this 3", carefully mastered by Norscq (The Grief, The Atlas Project, Von Magnet) is their very first disc, a foretaste to their forthcoming album..." [label info]
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| 300 BASSES |
Sei Ritornelli |
CD |
"Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion, objects), Jonas Kocher (accordion) and Luca Venitucci (accordion, objects). Recorded on november 23th-25th 2011 during a residency at l'Arc Romainmôtier, Switzerland. Mixed by Alfredo Costa Monteiro and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Consisting of Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Jonas Kocher and Luca Venitucci, the trio 300 Basses transforms the conventional accordion approach, and enhances new practices leading to creative and innovative musical paths. 300 Basses states that accordion is ' a box with bellows and buttons. The box was for the resonance, the bellows for vibration and the buttons for building a sonic identity that has remained virtually frozen for centuries. But what would happen if the buttons began to vibrate, the bellows would resonate and the box should start to deconstruct this identity? ' Focusing on a collective sound approach, the three accordionists have a strong fascination for noisy static sounds, complex textures, and their powerful physicality. The trio was formed in 2010 and has performed concerts in Rome, Lyon, Geneva, Biel/Bienne, Lausanne, Zürich, Milano. Alfredo Costa Monteiro. After having studied sculpture/installation with Christian Boltanski at Les Beaux-Arts in Paris, Alfredo Costa Monteiro moved to Barcelona in 1992 and became involved in improvised music, concentrating on electric guitar and accordion. His installations and sound pieces, all of a low-fi character, have in common an interest for unstable processes, raw materials and gestures, where the manipulation of objects as instruments or instruments as objects has a strong phenomenological aspect. Alfredo Costa Monteiro runs several ongoing projects: Cremaster (with Ferran Fages), i treni inerti (with Ruth Barberán), Atolón (with Ferran Fages and Ruth Barberán), and duos with Tim Olive or Pascal Battus. Jonas Kocher. Accordion player and composer born in 1977, Jonas Kocher collaborates regularly in improvised and conceptual contexts with musicians such as Michel Doneda, Christian Wolfarth, Olivier Toulemonde, Duo Diatribes, Jacques Demierre, Burkhard Beins, Bertrand Gauguet, Thomas Lehn, Urs Leimgruber, Lee Patterson... Jonas Kocher's work explores the relationships between tone, noise and silence and the processus of listening. As a composer, he realises projects which are situated between composed theater, installation and concert pieces. Jonas Kocher is also involved as an organizer of different events in Switzerland and runs the label Flexion Records. Luca Venitucci. Living in Rome, Luca Venitucci started from the end of the eighties to take part to the activities of the improvised music scene in Italy and Europe. During the next decade, he played with a large number of musicians, among which Mike Cooper, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, Thomas Lehn, Axel Dorner, Tim Hodgkinson, John Butcher, Mario Schiano, Alessandro Bosetti, Michael Renkel... In 1995, with Fabrizio Spera, Elio Martusciello and Maurizio Martusciello, he co-founded Ossatura a major electroacoustical improvising group. From 1996 to 2002 he has been part of Zeitkratzer ensemble, with whom he did performed and recorded contemporary music partitures (Cage, Glass, Stockhausen, LaMonte Young, Tenney) and made original projects and collaborations with several experimental musicians and composer such as Butch Morris, Carsten Nicolai, Keith Rowe, Masami Akita, Mario Bertoncini, Phill Niblock, Radu Malfatti, Thierry Thaemelitz, Lee Ranaldo. In 2001 he realised together with Ulrich Krieger the transcription and arrangement of an ensemble version of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music." [label info]
www.potlatch.fr
"A trio of accordion players from the world of improvised music - that's perhaps something new. For me it is. The unknown player here is Luca Venitucci, who was from 1996 to 2002 a member of Zeitkratzer, and before that a founding member of Ossatura. The other two players I think should be known if you read these pages every now and then. Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Jonas Kocher have regularly new releases. Maybe you think its cheating, but both Venitucci and Monteiro are also playing objects on their accordion, which seems to expand the sound quite considerably. If you think that this trio will focus on playing sustaining, lengthy pieces of drone music, then you are wrong. In 'Abbandonato' and 'Mala Carne' for instance they sound like an all acoustic noise ensemble, with lots of scratching, scraping and bending of the bellows. Its followed by 'Maledetto', in which the accordion sing like sine waves, carefully but also piercingly loud as the piece progresses. In 'Gira Bile' and 'Fantasma' they reach for a beautiful piece of drone music. Six pieces and almost as many approaches to the world of the accordion. Six pieces of a wonderful great, improvised music on a single instruments, times three." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| 400 LONELY THINGS |
same |
LP |
Stilistisch sehr eigenständige, erste Platte dieses neuen US - Experimental Projekts auf neuem Label aus Florida - 400 LONELY THINGS – das sind viele kleine ambiente & experimentelle Minimalismen, ganz entspannt und ruhig und ein bischen obskur, zwischen Experiment und Wohlklang.... kommt mit nummeriertem Envelope mit Photo..
“Appx 1 hour of sad, strange, spooky yet oddly soothing instrumentals. Probably would appeal to listeners of Zoviet France, A Small Good Thing, certain quieter tracks by Cindytalk, Nurse, Coil, Hafler Trio, Oren Ambarchi - although it's a bit lonelier than any of that.... Dark ambience, but cozy and warm. Lullabys for sad little monsters.” [Craig, Bronsonunlimited]
https://400lonelythings.com/album/400-lonely-things
|
2003 |
€20.00 |
|
| 5UU'S |
Crisis in Clay |
CD |
„Die CD folgt dem auf "Hunger´s Teeth" eingeschlagenen Weg und erscheint mir insgesamt sogar packender, zudem rockiger als der Vorgänger, auch wenn hier ein einzelnes Highlight wie "Well... not chickenshit" fehlt. In den Erläuterungen, die Dave Kerman auf der Website der 5 UU´s zu den einzelnen Songs gibt, wird dieses Mal eine direkte Bezugnahme auf Yes ausdrücklich eingeräumt, und zwar beim Song "What Price Virtue?" Natürlich ist allein Spott der zugelassene Sprachmodus bei diesem Eingeständnis („We poked a bit of fun at the band YES by bludgeoning a section from "Tales from Meretricious Oceans"). Am Faktum ändert sich dadurch allerdings nicht viel. Die Musik der 5 UU´s nähert sich auch auf "Crisis in Clay" (stärker als bei späteren Alben) Mustern des klassischen Progs, wie sie insbesondere von Yes verkörpert wurden. Der Unterschied liegt im völligen Fehlen des hymnischen, naiv-pathetischen Elements und dem daraus resultierenden Wechselbad der Gefühle - dem Auftauchen aus dem wohlberechneten Chaos etwa in "Gates of Delirium", das so viele Hörer nicht nur lieben, sondern brauchen. Die Herzen dieser Hörer zu erobern, wird den 5 UU´s daher kaum gelingen, wobei man davon ausgehen kann, daß ihnen das allenfalls unter finanziellen Gesichts-punkten bedauerlich erscheinen dürfte. Wer jedoch ein komplettes Album erträgt, das aus der Progtradition eher experimentierfreudigen, schrägen Sarkasmus als gemütlichen Bombast zu gewinnen versteht, der ist hier richtig.“ [Ralf J. Günter / Babyblaue Seiten]
“Second installment from monster band 5UU's, featuring rock complexity, extraordinary production (by bassist, singer Bob Drake) and high energy precision mixed with eccentric songwriting. People that work this hard are becoming an endangered species. Extraordinary“ [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
1997 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Hunger's Teeth |
CD |
Die 5UU’s gehören zum Aushängeschild neuer “Avant-Prog-Rock” oder “Art-Rock”-Bands und wurden oft mit den genialen ART BEARS verglichen....oder als zeitgemässe Nachfolger von YES. Diese Musik ist schwer zu beschreiben: perfekt eingespielte Genre-sprengende Rockmusik, manchmal sehr strukturiert und mit Refrains die man mitsingen kann, i.d.R. mit disharmonischem oder neu-harmonischem Gesang & alles auf den Punkt gespielt; unerwartete Wechsel, fast-Krach-Parts, sehr ruhige experimentelle geräuschafte akustische Szenen, inkl. einem umwerfenden Solo-Stück von THOMAS DIMUZIO; und SUSANNE LEWIS (CORPSES AS BEDMATES) singt auf zwei Stücken.
„....Ein Charakteristikum der UU´s-Musik besteht darin, daß häufig Melodien gegen Begleitungen gesetzt werden, die nicht als Unterstützung sondern als Widerpart wirken. Es macht Spaß, beim Hören zu erleben, wie diese Melodik trotzdem als "schön" wahrnehmbar bleibt (obwohl ich mir darüber im klaren bin, daß viele Hörer einwenden würden, die Melodien seien hier als Melodien kaum noch erkennbar).... “ [Ralf J. Günter / Babyblaue Seiten]
“The re-formed 5UU's first CD, featuring, one-of-a-kind drummer Dave Kerman with new line-up- Sanjay Kumar (keyboards) and Bob Drake (Bass, Guitar, Vocals) and guests Susanne Lewis, Tom Dimuzio, and James Grigsby. Power, complexity and intelligence - an express train that can pirouette on a dime.” [label info]
“....Hunger's Teeth is the most exciting rock album I've heard this year. No, not Anderson exactly, but Robert Drake's vocals do bear a striking resemblance to the Yes man's "angelic" tenor. Is this "progressive rock" for the '90's? A celebration of intricately layered arrangements and polyrhythmic playing, effortlessly combining '70's grandeur with avant-rock, contemporary collage and computing - and only one track in 11 over six minutes! The musicianship (also David Kerman and Sanjay Kumar, plus guests) is superb, not showy, always at the service of the experimental approach to song structure - lots of convoluted instrumental passages that return almost miraculously to "refrains". Brilliant.” [Chris Blackford / Rubberneck]
„...."Mangate" is a minimalist, tape-manipulation piece created by Thomas DiMuzio. It has such a hypnotic effect, that I once missed my exit on the highway because that track had lulled me into a semi-trance. Very neat. Those first three tracks are my favorite part of the album, but it continues to maintain its high quality throughout. The ground it covers ranges from a barbershop quartet singing about barbers to philosophy about a bachelor fumbling his way through mending his own clothes. Plus there's a running theme throughout the album that has to do with horses - the one pictured on the cover, the track title "Roan" (which starts with galloping hoof beats), the rocker "Glue" ("in time, sugar and horses will both become glue") that starts with the trumpet call that begins horse races, etc. Even the album title is apparently meant to be the name of a famous race horse. The more I listen to this disc, the more layers and tie-ins to various themes I find.
This is definitely a highly recommended album, if you're a fan at all of prog's more experimental edges. For those looking to get their first 5uu's album, this would be a good place to start (if you can find it).” [Ground and Sky]
|
1994 |
€14.00 |
|
| 7JK (SIEBEN & JOB KARMA) |
Anthems Flesh |
CD |
"7JK is a head-on collision of Sieben (UK) and Job Karma (PL). Looping violin and warm vocals mix seamlessly with electronics and an industrial edge." [label info]
"Anthems Flesh sounds like these two well-loved artists combining, but also completely new: Something different has been born here. This new band will take all concerned to new heights: Powerful, intense, aggressive, mellow. Simply great songs, a wealth of emotions, an amazing meeting of two mindsets. A must-have album."
]B.Flynn]
www.7jk.eu
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| 9T ANTIOPE & SIAVASH AMINI |
Harmistice |
LP |
9T Antiope have made a name for themselves in the vibrant experimental music scene of Iran over the past years. Now based in Paris, Sara Bigdeli Shamloo and Nima Aghiani are expanding their stylistic scope and team up with long-time friend Siavash Amini for their debut release on Hallow Ground. After 2017's "TAR" and "FORAS" the year after 2018, "Harmistice" is Amini's third LP for the Swiss-based label and his first in collaboration with other artists. Recorded in Paris and Tehran, the four tracks are the result of "all the long hours of speaking online, being kilometres away, it is a love child of those short times we actually got to be physically in one place." Vocalist and lyricist Shamloo enters a dialogue with Aghiani and Amini's sound art, which is from restrained but interlocks voice and noise with striking subtlety. "Harmistice" seamlessly blends the visceral with the sublime, the abstract with the oh-too-real. From the very first second of "Blue as in Bleeding", "Harmistice" evokes a sense of suspended terror. Shrill frequencies and aleatoric bursts of feedback give way to a hardhitting bass drum until Shamloo's voice arises from the chaos with an uneasy clarity. It's the perfect opening for a record that is built upon stark contrasts like this one. Amini and Aghiani bring together synthetic sounds with acoustic instruments, creating a tangible tension on which Shamloo's sometimes sensitive, sometimes emotionally detached delivery thrives. "It's all based on a dream, a nightmare about war," she says in regards to her lyrics that move between poetic abstraction and first person prose, blurring the lines between lived experience and sinister premonition. "Harmistice" takes inventory after the oneiric damage has been dealt in real life. As a whole, "Harmistice" is thus as ambiguous as its title suggests. As an all-too-lucid dream about unspeakable things that are being lent a voice it overwhelms the senses with an unheard-of volume. Drawn from the depths of the subconscious, "Harmistice" may just be the most challenging album in either 9T Antiope or Amini's discography.
|
2019 |
€22.00 |
|
| @C |
0° - 100° |
CD |
"Pedro Tudela (1962) and Miguel Carvalhais (1974) collaborate as @c since 2000, developing their work along three complimentary approaches to sound art and digital music: procedural composition, concrète sound and improvisation, with one foot in the fields of experimental, contemporary sound art and the other on live performance (where they also regularly collaborate with the Austrian artist Lia, performing as an audiovisual trio). '77' started to take form in early 2007 and was developed until late 2009. Many of the sounds in this composition were created for the soundtrack of an installation by Lia and Carvalhais, dealing with concepts as liquid motion, flow, turbulence, percolation and phase transitions, which inspired the creation of several sound files sorted in three different groups, one for each section of the installation. Along the process we had the chance to spend some time in the atlantic island of São Miguel, where we made several recordings of the ocean, rivers, streams and volcanic furnaces, that complemented the remaining sounds. The installation soundtrack was devised as an open and modular composition, to be dynamically recomposed, as a library of sound files that we later used, transformed and shaped as '77'. Three work in progress versions of this composition were presented live, in 4-channel mixes: in December 2008 in Porto, in May 2009 in Barcelona, and finally in October 2009 in Perugia, the first two in acousmatic setups, the later with Lia's live visual work. All these presentations shaped and shifted the piece to its final form, presented in this release, indexed in 8 movements to be listened sequentially." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| A SILVER MOUNT ZION |
He has left us alone but Shafts of Light sometimes grace the Corner of our Rooms |
CD |
Unglaublich schöne Platte dieses GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR-Seitenprojekts, in tief-melancholischer Stimmung verschmelzen Piano, Violine, Kontrabass, Gitarre, Percussion, Stimme & Radioeinspielungen, nicht unähnlich den RACHELS.
Rot-metallisches Prägedruck-Cover. TIP !!
„plaintive music of chilling warmth for piano and strings by efrim, thierry & sophie from godspeed. mournful orchestrations arranged around simple & haunting melodies” [label description].
https://theesilvermtzion.bandcamp.com/album/he-has-left-us-alone-but-shafts-of-light-sometimes-grace-the-corner-of-our-rooms |
2000 |
€14.50 |
|
| A WAKE A WEEK |
Through line |
mCD-R |
"Perhaps more known for his more rhythmic stuff under the DETRITUS alias, david dando-moore also creates beautiful soundscapes under the A WAKE A WEEK alias where he mixes low key noisy drones with piano melodies. "through line" gathers four rather short tracks with a strong sad and melancholic feel... this 3"cdr/FLAC is the follow-up to the excellent self-produced digital-only release "abandon" still available from dando-moore's bandcamp." [label info]
www.taalem.org
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN |
same |
CD |
"Debüt des gemeinsamen Projekts der Neoklassiker Adam Wiltzie und Dustin O’Halloran.
A Winged Victory For The Sullen sind Adam Wiltzie (Stars Of The Lid) und der amerikanische Komponist Dustin O’Halloran. Mit verschiedenen Klavieren und Droneklängen experimentierten die beiden auf ihrem selbst betitelten Debüt in extrem tiefen Frequenzbereichen. Aber auch traditionelle Instrumente wie Waldhorn, Fagott und Streicher sind zu hören, immer durchdrungen allerdings von Gitarrenmelodien. Die Aufnahmen begannen mit einer nächtlichen Session auf einem alten Bösendorfer-Imperial-Klavier in der berühmten Grunewaldkirche in Berlin. Die Streicheraufnahmen stammen aus den Ostberliner Räumen des einstigen DDR-Radios. Eine letzte Session gab es auf einem handgemachten Fazioli-Flügel in einem Privatstudio in Italien. Das Ergebnis sind sieben Klanglandschaften harmonischer Wiederkehr, Late-Night-Music, von der man immer geträumt hat. Zu den Gastmusikern gehören die isländische Cellistin Hildur Gudnadottir sowie Erased-Tapes-Labelkamerad Peter Broderick an der Violine. Die Vinylversion erscheint mit einem Download-Code.
//
A Winged Victory for the Sullen is the first installment of the new collaboration between Stars of the Lid member Adam Wiltzie and composer Dustin O'Halloran. The duo agreed to leave their normal home studio comfort zone and develop the recordings with the help of large acoustic spaces, and to hunt down a selection of 9ft grand pianos that had the ability to deliver extreme sonic low end. Other traditional instrumentation was used including string quartet, French horn, and bassoon, but always juxtaposed is the sound of drifting guitar washed melodies. The recordings began in one late night session in the famed Grunewald Church in West Berlin on a 1950s imperial Boesendorfer piano and strings were added in the historic East Berlin DDR radio studios along the River Spree. One last final session in a private studio deep in the northern cusp of Italy on a handmade Fazioli piano, and the final mixes took place in a 17th century villa near Ferrara, Italy, with the assistance of Francesco Donadello. All songs were processed completely analogue straight to magnetic tape. Their secret to harvesting new melodic structures from the thin air of existence was for the duo to push themselves to live dangerously, realizing that clear thinking at the wrong moment could stifle the compositions. The final result is seven landscapes of harmonic replicating ingemination. In 'Requiem for the Static King Part 1' (created in memory of the untimely passing of Mark Linkous) they have taken the age old idea of a string quartet and then shot it out a cannon to reveal exquisite new levels of mellow bliss. Of the 13 minute track 'Symphony Pathetique,' Wiltzie says 'after almost 20 years of struggling to create interesting ambient drone music, I feel like I have finally figured out what I am doing.' Notable guest musicians include Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, and violinist Peter Broderick. A Winged Victory for the Sullen is not a side project. This is the future of the late night record you have always dreamed of." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| A.G. (AGHIS GIANNOULIS) |
Colours in Black & White : 2017-2018 |
DVD |
Colours In Black & White (DVD / HD AV), consists of five parts, is the new audiovisual artwork by A.G created from 2017 to 2018. This project is an approach of - Digital Visual Music - in linear process, intersecting the aesthetics of new media art and post-minimal composition, as well as experimenting with the bounds of static and moving imagery next to the music in slow motion. The visuals were developed by the transformation and multiplication of a single video signal through digital post-production, resulting into an abstract black & white video synthesis.
Titles :
Colours In Black & White I : 2017 (Duration 25:00)
Colours In Black & White II : 2017 (Duration 30:15)
Colours In Black & White III : 2018 (Duration 25:33)
Colours In Black & White IV : 2018 (Duration 28:15)
Colours In Black & White V : 2018 (Duration 18:50) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A.G is a media artist based in Athens & Paris. He has released studio albums and audiovisual works under the names of ANIKA and A.G. In 2015 he reinterpreted three compositions of Erik Satie in the 3CD compilation ERIK SATIE ET LES NOUVEAUX JEUNES 2 (incl. Max Richter, Peter Broderick, Sylvain Chauveau, Rachel Grimes & Dustin O'Halloran), released by french label Arbouse Recordings. He has participated in various collective exhibitions where he presented audiovisual artworks and has collaborated with Free103Point9 Transmission Arts organization for Noise!2009 Festival (Ontological Hysteric Theater) in New York.
A.G Works :
2005 ANIKA:A:0304 (MLP)
2008 ANIKA:A:0507 (LP/CD)
2009 ANIKA: 33 RECORDING SESSIONS, NOT INCLUDED IN A:0507 (CD-R)
2010 A.G:POLYGON:08 (CD)
2014 A.G:VIDEOS:2003-2013 (DVD-R)
2015 ERIK SATIE ET LES NOUVEAUX JEUNES 2 (3CD Compilation)
2018 A.G:COLOURS IN BLACK AND WHITE:2017-2018 (DVD-R)
Videos :
Colours In Black & White I (25:00) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhf0LEUunfU
Colours In Black & White II (30:15) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8DK3WZgGts
Colours In Black & White III (25:33) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs6VaQjEL0k
Colours In Black & White IV (28:15) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25dV70HXzJY
Colours In Black & White V (18:50) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztCprALWI3Q&t=336s
Links :
A.G:POLYGON:08 http://agpolygon08.blogspot.com
ANIKA:A:0507 http://anika-a0507.blogspot.com
A.G:VIDEOS:2003-2013 http://ag-videos2003-2013.blogspot.com
A.G:LIVE AT FENAILLE MUSEUM. RODEZ:20.05.17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLRD4yPV0J4
FREE 103 POINT 9 / TRANSMISSION ARTS https://wavefarm.org/ta/artists/xnc29y
RE:VOIR http://re-voir.com/shop/en/film-revoir-experiemental-film-dvd/786-ag-videos-2003-2013.html
_
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF |
Fragment 36 (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Hinter dem Projekt mit dem seltsamen Namen steckt MIRKO UHLIG aus Bonn, der sich auf seiner Drone-7“ auf HERAKLITs „alles fliesst“ bezieht und entsprechende Dronescapes mit hoher Dynamik erschaffen hat.....zerfliessende-handbemalte Covers & multi-colour Vinyl !
“You never cross the same river twice! PANTA RHEI!” Behind this project with the strange name (german for “eel-catch with horse-head”) is one Mirko Uhlig from Germany, who had few CDR-releases so far, most of them standing out through their weird surrealistic coloration. In the meantime he also build his own label EX OVO. “Fragment 36” relates to a quote from Heraclites showing that ‘everything deliquesces” at any moment and can never be the same as one moment before. According to that, AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPFs first and last ever 7” creates two drone-minimal pieces with very high dynamics, using water-sounds and Glockenspiel, drenched into overtune-feedback-resonances & dark deep drones... Filed under: fleetingmelting drones
LIGHT GREEN / YELLOW SPRINKLED VINYL. HANDPAINTED COVERS USING WATER-COLOURS IN GREEN, RED, VIOLET.” [press release] RELEASE DATE: 30. April 2006 !
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Kindspechleber |
LP + CD |
"On Kindspechleber Mirko Uhlig offers a set of real disturbing tracks bsomewhere between musique concrète and cold ambient layers. The
added CD Kall Trä presents reworked sound collections from the vinyl and with this four completely new songs. As they complement
this work as whole, these recordings shouldn´t be withhold. A release which shows once more that Mirko Uhlig is just a versatile experimental musician. Comes in a very appealing coverartwork by Robert Schalinski." [label info]
www.empiricrecords.com
"This proofs absolutely nothing. What the hell do I know? Like why Mirko Uhlig once changed from using his band name Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf to his own name, and since time it's back to that moniker again. There might be a perfect logic explanation for it, but I don't know. Or perhaps I am not certain about it but the differences could be hidden inside the music. If that is the case, then I am sure these differences are quite small. Maybe with Uhlig (as Uhlig) I had the impression things were all a bit more subdued, and with Aalfang it's perhaps all a bit more louder. But maybe I just have the volume turned up more today? Here we have a LP and a CD, both of around forty minutes which offer a sufficient insight in the world of Uhlig. Mood music is the best description but perhaps not mood music in the 'classic' drone sense, but more like a story telling. Uhlig uses long form sounds, drones if you will, but cuts it along with spoken word, children's voices, radio which gives the music a strange surrealistic notion. Will you be surprised if I bring up the name Nurse With Wound in this respect? It has that same estranged atmosphere here as on say 'Spiral Insana', like a wicked radio play, or a montage of film voices from a horror movie, but also with samples from a spaghetti western towards the end of 'Les Mouches Volantes'. If I understood matters correctly, the CD is Uhlig taking the sounds from the LP into a whole new world, a recycled version as we would have said so in the 1980s. Now to proof my point I don't know much. The LP sounds differently than the CD. The CD could be more Uhlig than Aalfang (am I still making sense?). with more subdued textured tones, more ambient, more Hafler Trio than the wounded nurse. It's great that both come to us as Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf as they fit along each other quite well. First play the record to get in a scary mood, and then the CD to relax and contemplate about what just happened. Great work, I must say, but I guess I have been a converted fan for quite some time." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Mutatis Mutandis |
MC |
"The three tracks are based on sound material by Frans de Waard published on a tape compilation for the 25th anniversary of the Korm Plastics label, which can be heard at the beginning of the album. As Frans de Waard explains in a spoken introduction to this album, listeners were invited to remix the material, preferably with 4-track cassette recorder. The music on “Mutatis Mutandis” is Mirko Uhlig’s response to this invitation, so it is a fitting gesture that the album is also released as a cassette in tribute to the important role that 4-track machines and the tape distribution scene have played in the development of experimental musics. Thanks to Frans de Waard’s guest vocal intro, the cassette is a “tape with the sound of its own making” similar to Robert Morris’s seminal sound sculpture “Box with the Sound of its Own Making”, but the music also makes for very pleasant listening on the CD version." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
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2012 |
€10.00 |
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| |
Mutatis Mutandis |
CD-R |
"The three tracks are based on sound material by Frans de Waard published on a tape compilation for the 25th anniversary of the Korm Plastics label, which can be heard at the beginning of the album. As Frans de Waard explains in a spoken introduction to this album, listeners were invited to remix the material, preferably with 4-track cassette recorder. The music on “Mutatis Mutandis” is Mirko Uhlig’s response to this invitation, so it is a fitting gesture that the album is also released as a cassette in tribute to the important role that 4-track machines and the tape distribution scene have played in the development of experimental musics. Thanks to Frans de Waard’s guest vocal intro, the cassette is a “tape with the sound of its own making” similar to Robert Morris’s seminal sound sculpture “Box with the Sound of its Own Making”, but the music also makes for very pleasant listening on the CD version." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Of course I am not the right person to say anything about Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf's 'Mutatis Mutandis', since a little silly thing from me as Freiband was the basis of this. An one minute piece released on a cassette, which people could use to remix, preferably using a four track cassette. There is an unreleased piece by Z'EV, but only Mirko Uhlig has spend a lot of time with it. He's back to using his old bandname, Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf, and there are three pieces here. One seems a straight remix of the original, followed by the title piece, which takes up thirty eight minutes. Here Uhlig takes the hiss of the original apart, adds sound effects, time stretches bits into long form drones, making an absolute great piece, ending a nice up in your face drone bit and even a short noise bit at the end - but hey of course I am not the right person to write such things. Close to the fire and such things. But to know such a short and hissy piece of loosely formed sounds can make such a great piece, I didn't know. Excellent, but of course I am not etc. And, best coup about it, its also released on cassette. Now there is something to bring to your four track machine. I know I will!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2012 |
€8.00 |
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| AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF / EMERGE |
Die kosmische Zygote |
mCD-R |
Ein fantastischer, sehr subtiler Geräusch-Ambience One-tracker...metallische konkrete Schläge, instrumentelle Quellen (Melodika, Kalimba, Perkussion), verarbeitet in hallende Hyper-Echo-Räume...
“Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf and Emerge are two musicians from Germany, with some previous works on various lables (Drone Records or Verato Project for Emerge, our belgian cousin of Mystery Sea for A.M.P.). This quite surrealistic & surprising piece was created in three steps: first, Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf has created what he calls himself "a sound
sculture" with various instruments like melodica, kalimba or spring drum. Then Emerge reworked it, adding his dark-ambient sounds and low rumblings he's known for. The final mix was done by Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf. Expect a mix of dark-ambient and pure experimental musics !” [label info]
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| AB INTRA |
Supremus |
CD |
"After 4 years since the last release, AB INTRA returns with a new album. "Supremus" is almost an hour of music placed in the widely-understood dark ambient genre. The album reflects a much more mature image of the artist who consciously creates a world of his own sound and vision.
The idea behind the album is the trial of creating an inner feeling, or impression, which is superior to others (Supremus comes from Latin and it means the highest, definite, dominant) which is in fact the effect of tuning one's mind and stepping outside the conditioned structures. It is a trial of placing consciousness in the sphere of pure sensations where the word becomes dominated by the sound, surrounded by the feeling, and the symbol and vision become the carrier of new meanings." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
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2012 |
€13.00 |
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| |
Henosis I-V |
CD |
"A bit more than two years after the two-disc split with 1000Schoen (ZOHAR 070-2), Ab Intra is back with a new album. After two previous successful ventures entitled “Aura Imaginalis” (ZOHAR 006-2) and “Supremus” (ZOHAR 026-2) the new release is a record of its research in the field of music.
“HENOSIS” (Greek for unity, unification) is a scene of a suggestive sonic travel; a travel uniting opposites at different symbolic levels. The sounds on the album are an attempt to reflect the transforming process expressed through color, intensity and frequency. In this sense, the album is a conceptual whole strongly interacting with the imagination of the audience.
The album released in a digipak is strictly limited to 300 copies." [label info]
"The second release from Zoharum is by Ab Intra, who is no stranger to this label, after releasing ‘Aura Imaginalis’ (not reviewed) and ‘Supremus’ (Vital Weekly 826), as well as a double split CD with 1000schoen (Vital Weekly 937). I have no idea who is behind Ab Intra, yet I do know that the title of his latest CD stems from the Greek for ‘unity’ or ‘unification’. He (assuming here actually) is someone who also loves his synthesizers, perhaps even of the modular variation like Schlienz, but his output is totally different. If Schlienz is good at playing the ‘minimal’ card, then Ab Intra plays for the maximum output. In the five pieces (all noted by triangle symbols) he feeds his modular synth work to each other and then through what sounds
like a long line of sound effects, and the endgame is what could be easily classified as power drone music. It comes across as a bunch of tormented church organs that over the course over several hundred years have been left outside in the acid rain and just recently have been dusted off to play some music again. There is some intense unity in these sounds, going from rock/drone like in the opening piece to arpeggio in the closing piece; variation through unification, if you get my drift." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.zoharum.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| ABANDONED ASYLUM |
Derelicts of distant Hope |
CD |
"The debut album from Poland’s Abandoned Asylum and a welcome new entry into the Malignant family, fitting nicely alongside roster mates Rasalhague, Collapsar, and Phelios, in its ability to explore not only the outer edges of the cosmos, but deep into catacombs and dimly lit underground passages. Derelicts of Distant Hope is a collection of 7 tracks in total where shape shifting tonal swells are met with a host of nebulous textures, distant mechanical whir and industrial debris, and drifting atmospheric desolation, all expertly constructed and layered into a sprawling and expansive whole. With dark ambient, it’s not so much about re-inventing the wheel (which isn’t so easy to do given the genre’s defining characteristics) as much as it is about setting the mood, and Abandoned Asylum accomplishes that with great precision and skill. In 6 panel digipak, lmtd 500 copies." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ABBILDUNG |
At the Gates of Ouln |
CD |
"The welcome return of ABBILDUNG to our Winter-Light label with a new studio album 'At The Gates Of Ouln'.
We journey once more to the world first visited in 'All Demons Are Horned' and enter the realm of the other dreamers.
On 'At The Gates Of Ouln', ABBILDUNG presents us with six new tracks of classic dark ambient, forged in his own unique style. Utilising field recordings, samples, drones and beautifully crafted atmospherics, we are once again drawn in to the creative realm of Casian's music.
Uplifting organ sounds wrap themselves around rich, dark overtones, pulling them from out of the shadows and up in to the half light, only to let them fall away again in to the gaping abyss below, as they burn bright for one last time before fading away in to black nothingness ....
'They dream our darkest dreams. They are searching for the untold meaning of their own dreams. They are starting to conjure all manner of strange things; demons, fears and chaos in primeval rituals. The mysteries of their realm unveil themselves, as we descend through their mystical gate....'
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-gates-of-ouln
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2019 |
€13.00 |
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| ABBILDUNG & PLATEAU OMEGA |
Anthropocosmos |
CD |
"
'embrace the joy beyond the rational thought...'
EM020, Anthropocosmos split-album inspired and dedicated to Mircea Eliade and his vast work on the human 'cosmos'. A shamanic journey full of ancient mysticism.
Total run: ~ 63 min. of dark ambient, ritualistic world music.
CD release date 01.10.2015.
ABBILDUNG uses caval and oriental percussion instruments, fieldrecordings, keys, programming, sampling. Plateau Omega electroacoustic tracks were written in cooperation with AI. from Wolfskin.
Artwork by C.&L. Photography." [label info]
www.essentiamundi.com
www.essentiamundi.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| ABBILDUNG / KENJI SIRATORI |
The Meaning of Word is Sound |
CD |
"The CD contains 54 minutes of dark ambient, noisy drones & field recordings. Altered spoken words of Kenji Siratori were used from the following writings: Black Paper, VTR, Jaguar, Barometer, Seed, Amorphous.
This is the sound that fulfills an artistic expression of a gestalt - through the interdisciplinary approach towards defining the I - by the way of the vibrating sound in all its meaningful forms, by the collaboration with the avant-garde writer Kenji Siratori.
"The meaning of a word is its use in the language." (L. Wittgenstein) but further, beyond Quine's "eternal sentence", the release's word decontextualization process provides the ultimate meaning of a Word: the Sound." [label info]
www.essentiamundi.com |
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ABLINGER, PETER |
Regenstücke Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Peter Ablinger, composition. Hannes Gill, piano. Isabel Pérez-Requeijo, piano. Elisabeth Vth-Schadler, piano. Brian Archinal, percussion. You never know what to expect from Peter Ablinger: noise, silence, serious grotesque or black humor. And you always get a total opposition from what you have expected, which makes him so special and unique! On his first release for GODrec, he offers two pieces from his famous Regenstücke series: 'Ohne Titel / 3 Klaviere (1-6)' and 'Regenstück 1-6 / 6 (3) Schalgzeuger'.
'Ohne Titel / 3 Klaviere' involves one tone in changing octaves (and very seldom a few additional pitches). There are 6 sections, all in the same sequence of registers, like one piece written 6 times - a series, but at the same time there's an almost hidden development through the 6 sections. Coordinated by click-tracks, each performer plays independently within separate pulses that never meet within one piece. The piece focuses on the micro-rhythmical shifts between piano-attacks and their different location in space - an etude in listening to what is not obvious in its details as well as its silent evolution." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Regenstücke Vol. 2 |
LP |
"Peter Ablinger, composition. Edo Micic, conducting. Nassir Heidarian, conducting. Isabel Pérez-Requeijo, conducting. Adam Weisman, percussion. Winfried Ritsch, computer controlled pianos. Ensemble Zeitfluss Graz. Bruckner Orchestra Linz.
'Since Regenstücke Vol. 1 deals with rain aesthetic in pure instrumental form, Vol. 2 shows Peter Ablingers fascination with techniques of field recordings, accompanied by different ensembles and orchestra setups. Ablinger has been exploring different sides and features of nature recordings for a very long time, always achieving new territories and pushing boundaries to higher level. This release represents only a minority of that output.
City noise, landscape sounds, rain drops, boosted with powerful instrumentation - simple and almost manifestly.
Not forgetting 'instrumental raining', Membrane, Regen, as a part of his cycle Weiss/Weisslich, shows concert version of the piece for eight glass tubes - just like hearing eight church bells surrounding your brain..." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| ABNER MALATY |
Glide (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
released in August 1994 in an edition of 200 copies on light blue vinyl. Each Cover had a different coloured spiral on the front. The vinyl-labels were white stamped with the drone logo and a brain-stamp.
Press-information: "If there was ever something that could be called 'spacious' then it must be ABNER MALATY! This totally unknown musician from Indiana, USA, does a kind of mystic noise that is alien and surreal, complex and energetic. It seems to us that ABNERS view goes far beyond the earth, into cosmos or even further. It's a kind of dynamic quality that makes ABNER MALATY so unique... it's intuitive, intentional-made sound without any pathetic emotional outburst. So far, there are only existing a few limited tapes of this unconventional and original artist, this 4-track-E.P. is the very first vinyl. Exorbitant music for exorbitant people! YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF SOUND? THEN YOU SHOULD INTRODUCE YOUR MIND TO THIS OUTER SPACE RIDE! Mutate again – double check."
|
1994 |
€ |
|
| ABRAHAMS, CHRIS |
Play Scar |
CD |
" Chris Abrahams ‘Play Scar’ inhabits a sound world that’s entirely uncharted. It’s a zone of in-betweens – juxtapositions and parallel lines – a realm in which nothing is certain and at any moment dynamic shifts might occur. In this unusual electro-acoustic landscape, Abrahams has crafted by far his most complex and epically beautiful record to date. It’s a series of pieces that in many ways demonstrates the full scope of Abrahams’ work as a musician and composer. ‘Play Scar’, like Thrown before it is both exotic and unfamiliar. Pieces like ’Twig Blown’ hint at Abrahams’ interest in musique concréte, ‘Lieiden’ pulses with a distinctly electronic flare, whilst ‘There He Reclined’ shimmers in a hazy procession of organ, guitar and electronics. At its core, ‘Play Scar’ is an album of unrepentant diversity, united through Abrahams astounding sense of composition and focus. In another artist’s hands these elements might be rendered too divergent and too esoteric, but sculpted by Chris Abrahams, each piece is a continent of sound, in an auditory world of his making. ‘Play Scar’ is unique, compelling and most of all visionary." [label info]
www.room40.org
"Various works of Chris Abrahams have been reviewed before, but as far as I could judge they were recordings with other people. According to the press sheet this is his fourth solo release, but the first to be reviewed then by Vital Weekly. Abrahams is, as a musician part of the Necks, which are described as an avant-jazz trio, but that's not shown in his solo release. Abrahams plays piano, hammond, rhodes, church organ, guitar, tambourine, bells, Yamaha DX7, Nord Waldorf Q+, prophet vs kurzweil, auto harp and field recordings. Mostly things with keys that is. Its not an album that is easy to pin down. The electronics are mostly atmospheric, but there are some interesting variations to be noted. For once, this is not an album of droney ambient music. A track like 'Twig Blown' for instance revolves around samples drum sounds, and owes much more to musique concrete than ambient music, while 'Running Out' has sudden bursts of guitar like sounds, amidst a bed of low humming electronics and piano sounds. The (too) lengthy 'Birds And Wasps' is a piece of more loudly sounds than quietness. The fairground sounds of 'Jellycrown', while the opening 'There He Reclined' reminded of the obscure A-Tent release on Cherry Red (still not on CD, damn it!). See: a curious hybrid of electronic music which offers a great deal of variation, but then also a great sense of unified approach. A very refined album." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Memory Night |
CD |
"Chris Abrahams' Memory Night is his third edition for Room40 - Play Scar and Thrown preceding this album. Widely recognised as the pianist for Australian liminal improvisation trio The Necks, Chris Abrahams' solo work etches out an entirely different universe. It's a place that is entirely his own, unashamedly unique and at times startling - yet always alluring. On Memory Night, Abrahams' expands his sonic palette, building on the uneasy frontiers of the highly regarded Play Scar. Never content to revisit past glories, Abrahams' charts course into unfamiliar sound spaces, where electronics and instruments meet in a constant state of tension and release. Nothing is quite what it appears upon first listen and as a result Memory Night demands an attentive ear. Recorded across 2011 and 2012, Memory Night is a haunted series of compositions that provoke and compel. Chris Abrahams has created what can only be described as a profound rendering of contemporary composition - a powerful, yet delicate evocation of sound, where instruments and electronics melt and are reformed." [label info]
www.room40.org
"Today is one of those early spring days and the doors of the balcony finally open. Birds, children playing, cars, they all enter my life again, post-winter, and I need to adjust my listening again. Certainly in 'Leafer', the opening piece of Chris Abrahams new release 'Memory Night', I am getting quite confused with the outside and the inside. Low sounds start out, with a rasping kind of sound - children outside rolling karts on the street? - but it's all in the music of Abrahams it seems. Abrahams here uses a wide range of instruments, such as piano, guitar, samples, percussion, waldorf q plus, yamaha dx 7, moog voyager, vermona mono lancet, kurzweil k2600, hammond organ and nord stage. Strange and mysterious music here, and although cut into four pieces with four different titles, you could as easily see them as four parts of the same piece. They seem to be flowing into each other, or move half way through a piece into something else. There is the seemingly out of place piano of 'Strange Bright Fact' which cuts into something altogether more noisy in the same piece. Electronic and acoustic instruments play an interesting game together, sometimes along each other and sometimes against each other, sometimes together and sometimes alone. It's music which has an excellent radio-play like quality to it, even when it's narrative is more obscured, or perhaps, better, not entirely unfolded. An excellent CD this one, full of tension, full of surprises, big and small (jazzy piano chopped up in 'Stabilize Ruined' anyone?) of something that is beyond modern classical music, improvisation, jazzy and sound art - all of that and a bit more and that bit more is what makes this a great CD. Excellent!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| ABRAHAMS, CHRIS / OREN AMBARCHI / ROBBIE AVENAIM |
Placelessness |
LP |
Following nearly 20 years of working together as a trio, and numerous cross-collaborations in different configuration between them, Ideologic Organ presents Placelessness, the debut full-length by Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, and Robbie Avenaim, comprising two long-form works at juncture of ambient music, minimalism, rigorous experimentalism and improvisation, and machine music. Having carved distinct pathways across a diverse number of musical idioms for decades, Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, and Robbie Avenaim are each, respectively, among the most noteworthy and groundbreaking figures to have emerged from Australia's thriving experimental music scene. Ambarchi and Avenaim first encountered Abrahams when seeing the Necks - the project that has served as the primary vehicle for his singular approach to the piano since its founding in 1987 - together during the late 1980s, not long after having met in Sydney's underground music community. The pair's collaborations date back more than 35 years, criss-crossing Ambarchi's pioneering solo and ensemble work for guitar and Avenaim's visionary efforts for SARPS (Semi Automated Robotic Percussion System), robotic and kinetic extensions to his drum kit. In 2004, fate brought the three together in a trio performance at the What Is Music? Festival, the annual touring showcase of experimental music founded and run by Ambarchi and Avenaim between 1994-2012. For the nearly two decades since, Abrahams, Ambarchi, and Avenaim have intermittently reformed in exclusively live contexts, in Australia and abroad, cultivating and refining the fertile ground first tilled in that early meeting. Placelessness is the first album to present this remarkable trio's efforts in recorded form. Placelessness is the joining of three highly individualised streams, working in perfect harmony; the point at which friendship, mutual respect, and decades of creative exploration produce a singular spectrum of sound. Featuring Abrahams on piano, Ambarchi on guitar, and Avenaim on drums, the album's two sides draw on each artist's enduring dedication to long-form composition. Its two pieces, Placelessness I and Placelessness II, initially began as a single, 40 minute work, before being divided and reworked into distinct, complimentary gestures for the corresponding sides of the LP. Beginning with restrained clusters of reverberant piano tones, Placelessness I progresses at an almost glacial pace, with Abrahams' interventions increasing met by sparse responses, darting within vast ambiences, on guitar and percussion by Ambarchi and Avenaim. Remarkably conversational within its convergences of tonal, rhythmic, and textural abstraction, over the work's duration a progressive sense of tension unfurls and contracts, refusing release, as each of the ensemble's members contribute to an increasingly tangled sense of density at its resolve. While an entirely autonomous work, Placelessness II rapidly realises a distillation of the energy hinted at across the length of its predecessor. Following a luring passage of harmonious calm, Abrahams' launches into shimmering lines of repeating arpeggios, complimented at each escalation of tempo by Avenaim's machine gun fire percussion work and Ambarchi's masterful delivery of tonality and texture, as the trio collectively generate dense sheets of pointillistic ambience within which individual identity is almost lost, before slowly unspooling into unexpected abstractions and dissonances that deftly intervene with the work's inner logic and calm. What could easily be termed a maximalist take on Minimalism, Placelessness is a masterstroke of contemporary, real time composition, that blurs the boundaries between ambient music, experimentalism, free improvisation, and machine music. Drawing on Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, and Robbie Avenaim's decades of respective solo and collaborative practice, and the culmination of nearly twenty years of working together as a trio, it's two durational pieces -Placelessness I and Placelessness II - take form with a startling sense of effortlessness and grace, neither shying away from explicit beauty or rigorously tension within their forms.
https://orenambarchi.bandcamp.com/album/placelessness?label=215379737&tab=music
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
|
| ABTAN, FREIDA |
Subtle Movements |
CD |
Debut-Album von FREIDA ABTAN, die zuletzt als NURSE WITH WOUND-Bandmitglied & Collaborateurin auffiel. Auf "Subtle Movements" bewegt sie sich zwischen experimentellem Abstrakt-Drone und Elektro-Akustik und setzt dabei oft & gekonnt ihre Stimme ein, um z.T. sehr schöne harmonische, repetitive & sich überlagernde Texturen zu bilden. Auf zwei Stücken ist STEVEN STAPLETON vertreten. Ein sehr vielversprechender Erstling !
"Freida Abtan loves sound. Her music falls somewhere in between musique concrete and more modern noise and experimental audio. Concentrating on the visceral and inspired by dreams, she has created visual shows for and played with Nurse with Wound, and also as presented her own sound and visual work at festivals across Canada.
Subtle Movements was completed over four years from the sidelines of Abtan's other projects and during her schooling in Montreal. It's a collection of her favorite pieces, combining her love of electro-acoustic music with her love of found melody. Two of the songs that appear on the album are collaborations with Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound, recorded in Colin Potter's studio in Preston, England, when Abtan traveled there to play a show as part of Scribble Seven in March 2006 alongside Stapleton, Potter, Andrew Liles, Matt Waldron, Joolie Wood, and Maja Elliott." [label info]
www.jnanarecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| ACHELOO |
Cycle |
CD-R |
" 'Cycle' is the fourth album of Carlo Luzi under the alias Acheloo. This is a wonderfully dark ambient album, the mixture of electronics and guitar create wonderful soundscapes.
The sound cyclicity in every track is the recurring element and the thematic constant, as in the tracks titles, is present in various cultures and various ambits: an ancient Chinese numeral system ("ten"), the basic units of time -60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours- can all perfectly divide by twelve ("twelve"), the Tonalpohualli, the Aztec Calendar, has cycles of 13 numbers ("thirteen"), in Christian symbolism there are 9 orders of angelic choirs in 9 circles of heaven and 9 orders of devils within 9 rings of hell ("nine"), the sun spot cycle is 11 years ("eleven")." [label info]
www.acheloo.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| AD LUX TENEBRAE |
Ghanood |
CD |
"Dark Ambient | Drone | Ritual. Ghanood is new album of Ad Lux Tenebrae played in collaboration with 121 of Closing the Eternity. One more then half of hour long track. 100% organic & synth-free ambient somnolent meditation with strings, bells, drones, bowls, chimes & rainsticks." [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| ADAMSON, BARRY + PAN SONIC + HAFLER TRIO |
The Hymn of the 7th Illusion |
LP |
On vinyl for the first time, this is Pan Sonic arranged and edited by Barry Adamson, with an additional re-arrangement by The Hafler Trio. Originally released on CD by Icelandic label Kitchen Motors in 2001, the cover art features Icelandic electronic composer Magnús Blöndal Jóhansson having a brain scan performed while listening to this disc.
SIDE 1:
1. The Hymn Of The 7th Illusion (12:20)
2. "" (0:24)
SIDE 2:
1. The Hymn Of The 7th Illusion (23:02) |
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| ADLER, GUNTER |
Douches Dames |
mCD-R |
"Jürgen Hall? Bei so einem musikalischen Namen hätte man sich doch nicht so nibelungendeutsch umtaufen müssen. Der mit dem Grönland Orchester (mit G. Reznicek) und Augsburger Tafelkonfekt (mit S. Reier) und Soloreleases auf Staubgold und Mik unter seinem Nom de plume bekannt gewordene Aachener, der nach seinem Studium in Hamburg hängen geblieben ist, steuert zur 1000füssler-Reihe drei überdurchschnittlich attraktive Tracks bei. Das 13-min. Titelstück entstand für eine Installation im Brüsseler Bains::Connective, das in den Räumlichkeiten eines einstigen Jugendstil-Damenbads untergebracht ist. Das hat Adler offenbar zu entsprechend spritzigen Sounds und zu Unterwasserklang angeregt, durchsetzt mit knackend rumorendem Klingklang, zunehmendem Stimmengewirr und Plantschgeräuschen und einer ganz feinen harmonischen Zierlinie, zu der punktuell heptatonische Skalen getupft werden. Das kurze ‚Scheppertones‘ danach meint eigentlich einen Tauchgang auf der Shepard-Tonleiter, jenem scheinbar unendlich absinkenden Glissando aus Sinuswellenfrequenzen, das auch schon Komponisten wie Tenney oder Risset reizte und das Adler mit furzelndem Geprassel durchsetzt. ‚Mousse-Touch‘ schließlich lautmalt einen nuanciert bebenden Fond, mal flirrend aufgehellt, mal wummernd abgesenkt und von Pfeiftönen durchschwirrt aus Zeiten, als Weltraumfahrer noch Nick oder Laika hießen." [Bad Alchemy]
"Douches Dames was part of an ancient indoor swimming pool in Forest/Brussels. Today this elegant Art Nouveau building hosts the eclectic art laboratory Bains::Connective. The music, originally intended as a sound installation, is an amalgam made of field recordings from inside the building, antique heptatonic scales and synthetically produced sounds spread out painstakingly in the first movement, infinitely transposed downwards in the second (Shepard Tones) and finally hidden inside a shady atmosphere in the third, where another stimulating motif is aperiodically interrupted by sudden violent curves. In addition Gunter Adler has compiled a jumbled array of electroacoustic samples forming a zigzagged rather than streamlined path through his archives. During the roaring times, after the melting of the polar caps had begun, visual artist Isabelle Rouquette showed works on this theme from a diversity of sources and engraved them into the trapezoidal patterned floor of the pool. On the day of the opening the interior was illuminated by flowing zebra skin light projections while the music was presented in a sort of live performance, a soundtrack accompanied by a sweeping improvisation on a synthesizer and twiddling with delay effects. It has an opulent and festive character and is at home in both ancient and modern contexts.
Douches Dames 12‘55
Scheppertones 3‘31
Mousse-Touch 5‘00
About the Artist:
Born and raised in Aachen, Germany. At the age of 17 he starts experimentating with synthetically produced sounds (Commodore 64, all data lost). Moves to Hamburg, Germany in order to study physics, philosophy, music theory. From 1992 to 96 works under the nome de plume ANUBIS (see Stora Compilation from 1993). Works out his first sound installations and in 1998 co-founds the GROENLAND ORCHESTER with G.Reznicek.
Invents his alter ego GUNTER ADLER and releases his solo debut on Staubgold. Additionally works on animation film and film scores. Toured continuosly with Groenland Orchester and Gunter Adler and teams up in the duo-improv group AUGSBURGER TAFELCONFECT with Sebastian Reier since 2002. The same year he releases a split album with Klangkrieg, again on Staubgold. Following up to this his next record Minutemusic is released by the polish Mik.Musik label [run by Wojt3k from Retro*Sex*Galaxy] in 2003. Since October 2003 he is running a net label for exquisite electronic music plakatif.net. www.gunter-adler.de "
[label info]
"After reading the press text that comes with this release, I must admit I still have not much idea what it is about. It was originally intended for a sound installation and uses field recordings from ancient indoor swimming pool in Brussels. The text also mentions something about the opening, a live performance and a soundtrack, but Gunter Adler lost me there. Adler is perhaps best known as a member of Groenland Orchester (together with G. Reznicek), and later with Augsburger Tafelconfect and solo as Adler (which is not his real name). The three pieces on this release are made of highly processed field recordings, of which we no longer recognize the origins. Gliding tones, sine wave like, objects that fall to the ground and sound effects working overtime. This is quite a nice, sweet, short and highly enjoyable release, for those who love their microsound to be much more free and not tied to the strict conventions of that scene. Nice indeed." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.1000fussler.com
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
| ADORAN |
Children of Mars |
CD |
"Adoran is back! After the acclaimed 2013 album, Aidan Baker (Nadja, B/B/S, Whisper Room, Caudal, …) and Dorian Williamson (Northumbria, Holoscene), follow up with their sophomore album “Children of Mars” on Consouling Sounds. The albums picks up where the self-titled debut album left off: drawing largely on improvisational soundscaping with Baker relentlessly pounding the drums and Williamson conjuring a wall of sound on his bass. They might be just a duo, but they fill up the sound beyond belief. Their exploration of both atmospheric and heavy sounds takes the listener to all kinds of places. From doom and drone over ambient and sludge, even touching with experimental and avant-garde, you’re in for an epically dark ride." [label info]
www.consouling.be
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
"An impressive project featuring Aidan Baker (Nadja, Whisper Room...) and Dorian Williamson (Northumbria, Holoscene). Spanning nearly an hour, the tracks of this album explore Aidan's and Dorian's sludgy doom-side in a whole different way: atmospheric as ever, yet heavily relying on rhythmic patterns. Aidan's drums sound bone-crushing, and are really the pulse of ADORAN's music. Straightforward drumming or playing around with syncopations, it makes the odd sludgy sounds Dorian produces come vibrantly alive. In light of these gentlemen's oeuvre, this albums sounds both familiar and at the same time excitingly fresh." [label info]
www.consouling.be
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| AEOGA |
Coav |
CD |
Erstes Album eines neuen finnischen Projekts mit organischer Ritualmusik, die uns hervorragend gefällt....... stehende, teils rückwärtige Klangmassen, voller ätherischer Schwere. surrealistisch & hypnotisch loopig, dunkel und von sakraler Tiefe, irgendwo zwischen VOICE OF EYE, TROUM & URE THRALL vielleicht.. Das ganze im 8eckigen Spezialcover.
Very recommend debut – album of this finnish project with organic ritualistic dronemusic !
“ The debut album of Aeoga, titled as 'COAV ', presents very original and haunting material based on spiralling dark drones, eerie guitar feedback textures, archaic drum and cymbal patterns, atonal / tonal vocalizations and distant / peculiar sample layers. The 8 tracks of the album offer material from organic dark ambient / archaic & ascetic horizons to dark and haunting tribal/ritual atmospheres. "To exhaust mind and body in order to obtain a condition of non-consciousness and thus receive, realize and create material based on both primal and absent vision". (total time: 65:52). Comes in a special octagon shaped cardboard covers including an 6 panel textured cardboard sleeve. Limited to 1000 copies.”[label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Obsidian Outlander |
LP |
"We are proud to present the new Aeoga album ‘Obsidian Outlander’ through our Sublunar series. The album also carries the honour of being the very first vinyl release of the label.
‘Obsidian Outlander’ slowly weaves together droning fabric of guitars and analog synths that melt together with abstract sounds and field recordings. Whereas earlier works have been more holistic in nature, 'Obsidian Outlander' is maybe the most narrow-focused thus far - bound to only certain frame and concept. The album exhales its nocturnal essence upon the listener and inhales this sensory experience back into Aeoga's mythopoetical dimension, crystallizing into a vision of a vigil standing before a slowly throbbing corpsecloth, while the black loom weaves the fabric of UN-inverse-OM. Total running time: 29:08.
The golden edition of the ‘Obdidian Outlander’ LP is enclosed in a customised and screen printed cardboard covers & inner sleeve, including three A5-sized insert cards. Limited to 350 copies.
The silver edition of the ‘Obsidian Outlander’ LP is enclosed in a customised and screen printed cardboard covers & inner sleeve, including three A5-sized insert cards. Limited to 130 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| AERE AETERNUS |
Humanity needs no Funeral |
CD |
From the new wave of 'apocalyptic' or 'doom/death industrial' bands surely one of most interesting and impressive projects, AERE AETERNUS build a de-humanized soundtrack full of dark drones, over-expressive tortured voices, and devastating sounds. There is no light in this hellish Miasma, imagine SLEEP CHAMBER meeting LUSTMORD meeting dark HYBRYDS... The CD Version has video-track as bonus !
"Humanity Needs No Funeral", the first full-length album from AERE AETERNUS, was released on the French label Kaosthetik. With a multi-national and eclectic lineup, the band comprises Alex (MACABRE OMEN, THE ONE, RAZOR OF OCCAM), Claudio Alcara (FROSTMOON ECLIPSE, STROSZEK), Cyr (DARK SANCTUARY, ELKTRONIK SCIETY) and Radu. Drawing on the wide range and considerable musical experience of its members, AERE AETERNUS creates a dark, disturbing atmosphere that probably best fits within the ambient and minimalist genres, and which the band themselves describe as "half misanthropic ritual and half sex ritual." The dominant atmosphere combines a sense of impending insanity with sexual deviancy and a large dollop of occultism, creating a dark and troubling misanthropic sojourn that is relatively unique. The final track is probably the most musical, as it is centred on a guitar arpeggio, but no such concessions to convention are present elsewhere on this deeply troubling disk. The accompanying video (CD version ONLY) of "Invocation" shows a Satanic ritual in all its kitchsy glory. Recommended for those looking for something a darker than the usual entities. "When Dark Ambient meets Industrial Deviance" [label info] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| AETHENOR |
Betimes Black Cloudmasses |
LP |
Zweites Album dieses Projektes mit ihrem instrumentell-improvisierten "Psychedelic Noir", überwiegend ruhig & dronig & minimal, durchbrochen von vielerlei konkreten Objekt- und Instrumenten-Geräuschen, sowie ekstatisch-perkussiven Zwischenparts... hat was verwunschenes, fabulöses, bannendes...
"Betimes Black Cloudmasses is the highly-anticipated second album from Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (SUNN0))), KTL), and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre- and audience-confounding debut Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light, Betimes is an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mind-boggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The deeply psychedelic and moving results present a soundstage that is continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray every couple of seconds.
Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of the music (without resorting to bashing). The album also features a brief but affecting vocal from Ulver mastermind Kristoffer Rygg, who made his first live appearance in over a decade when Aethenor played the Roadburn Festival in April 2008. Aethenor's third LP, featuring vocals and lyrics by David Tibet, will be released in Autumn 2008.
'Musically, Aethenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu, and Charlemagne Palestine. Acousmatic drones ebb and flow into crackling and bubbling sonic clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that every gentle cat's-paw and lapping wave is deafening. Sometimes as tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the surface.' -Daniel O'Sullivan " [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Faking Gold and Murder |
LP |
"... Diese drei Urprinzipien, das sind hier gleichermaßen STEPHEN O'MALLEY (SUNN O))), KTL), DANIEL O'SULLIVAN (GUAPO) und VINCENT DE ROGUIN (SHORA), die sich mit ihrem neuen Werk nun ein drittes Mal im Æthenor zusammenfinden und mit “Faking Gold And Murder” ein dunkles Manifest alchemistischer Transmutationen niederlegen. Begleitet wird das Trio von den beiden Perkussionisten NICOLAS FIELD und ALEX BABEL, dem Gitarristen ALEXANDER TUCKER und dem hier bereits als ANOK PE auftretenden DAVID TIBET. Was immer sich aus dieser Zusammensetzung bereits herleiten ließe, nichts bereitet einen wirklich auf diese von okkulter Ritualistik geprägten Kompositionen vor, durchsetzt von Tibets apokalyptischen Inkantationen. Tosend setzt in dem ersten der vier übergangslosen und unbenannten Kapitel ein Schlagwerkgewitter ein, umbrodelt von den unterirdisch anmutenden Klängen des Keyboards und der Gitarre, während Tibet zu sphärischen Klängen des Beckens und des Glockenspiels seine mitunter zweistimmig intonierten albtraumhaften Visionen in die Komposition hineinwebt, nur um nach einigen Minuten wieder vom zeremoniell anmutenden Lärmen der Perkussionisten übertönt zu werden. Selbst in seinen leisesten Momenten ist das Ganze so komplex und durchdacht arrangiert, dass es an keiner Stelle seine hypnotisierende Wirkung einbüßt. Längst hat vollkommen unbemerkt das zweite Stück begonnen, traumhaft übergleitend in minimal intonierten Ambient, der nach und nach mit dem Einsatz der regengleichen Klänge des Rhodes und eines anhaltenden Drones an Intensität weiter zunimmt, bis Tibet das Stück mit einer wie aus weiter Ferne gesprochenen Passage zu einem von tiefen Bassfrequenzen dominierten düsteren Ende führt. Spätestens mit dem Beginn des dritten Kapitels wird man gewahr, dass dies alles unaufhörlich in einem stärker werdenden Sog in eine Tiefe zieht, deren Boden unabsehbar geworden ist und in der man längst die Orientierung verloren hat. Eine durch wellenartig geschlagene Handtrommeln aufgebaute Spannung liefert hier die Grundstimmung für die Verstörendste von Tibets Inkantationen, unterstützt und bald überrollt vom infernalischen Rumpeln und Brausen des Schlagwerks und der anderen Instrumente, sich verdichtend zu einem vor apokalyptischer Brachialgewalt starrendem Ende. Wie in einem Nachwort endet mit dem vierten Kapitel das Album im erdigen Drone des Harmoniums und sphärisch darüber flirrenden Keyboardklängen, die den Hörer, zu Tibets fast schon gesprochenem Epilog, auf eine beruhigende Weise erden und das erste Mal nach 35 Minuten wieder frei durchatmen lassen. “Faking Gold And Murder” ist ein für den aufmerksamen Zuhörer ungemein lohnenswertes Machwerk. Wer sich darauf einlässt, dem offenbaren sich die komplexen Kompositionen in einer an Greifbarkeit grenzenden Dimensionalität, der hat Teil an einem archaischen Ritual von schauderhafter Schönheit, gekonnt in Szene gesetzt durch das mal fragile, mal tosende Zusammenspiel der Musiker und intoniert von Tibets geisterhaften Deklamationen. Letztere sind es auch, die “Faking Gold And Murder” eine Dimension verleihen, die die beiden Vorgänger nicht aufweisen konnten und das Album so zum eingängigsten und wertvollsten aller bisherigen Æthenor-Alben machen." [Stefan O. / NONPOP]
"Third earth shattering outing for Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). For Faking Gold and Murder, the core trio is joined by percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, as well as renown guitarist Alexander Tucker and the inimitable David Tibet. Faking Gold is Æ’s heaviest outing, driven by a weighty low end and the full fury of Babel and Field’s free-wheeling drums. The trio’s electronics, guitar, Rhodes, and organ ride the waves of sound in a tightly-controlled blare, leaving plenty of space for Tibet’s declarations of the mystical and supernatural. Tibet is on top form here, rising out of the tempest at just the right moment, almost plain-spoken in places – grounding the squall at times, voicing the apocalypse at others.
“Brooding, primeval, dark alchemical epics are full of a ferocious intensity, sounding more like a starlit night being ripped open by lightning than a musical group. Intelligent and primal, like a dæmonic workshop, battering up Pandemoniums and dreaming of gold and murder, Æthenor are spectacular.”- David Tibet
Cover design by Nicola Todeschini and Vincent De Roguin. CD is in a tri-fold letterpress folio, printed on heavy black art paper by Stumptown. Deluxe LP is 180 gram, pressed at RTI, in letterpress cover on heavy black art stock by Stumptown, with custom gold on black inner. Cut by John Golden. A fantastic sounding and looking item." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2009 |
€20.50 |
|
| |
En Form For Bla |
do-LP |
"Aethenor is comprised of Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL), Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver, Mothlite, Guapo), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and Steve Noble (N.E.W., Company, etc.). En Form For Bla documents the continued evolution of this unlikely collective, a collision of players from various avant, improv, metal, and "other" threads who together make a unique and arresting sound. Documenting three gigs in Oslo recorded in 2010, the album is deep and weird, with liquid sounds juddering around the occasionally identifiable percussion or Rhodes motif. In the evolution from a side project / studio group to a frequently working live act, Aethenor kept their sound intact, taking the musique-concrete-style transitions and "what's that sound" ethos of their three previous efforts directly to the stage. Noble, having spent a couple of decades playing drums with Derek Bailey and other well-known UK improvisers, moves the music along subtly, keeping much of the focus on the burbling sound mass. O'Malley's guitar, an instrument of extreme viscera in Sunn0))), is used with restraint, providing occasional low menace but mostly mixing it up with O'Sullivan's thematic lines and Rygg's sound treatments. The overall effect is atmospheric rather than sedate--something like a modern, small group version of Miles Davis' classic "He Loved Him Madly" or Nurse with Wound's Spiral Insana. Other than perhaps Supersilent, no one else is working this sonic vocabulary today. Designed by O'Malley, the deluxe double-LP version is pressed on white vinyl and packaged with printed inner sleeves; the CD is in a card folio. Aethenor will continue to tour extensively in support of their catalog, with ten dates in Italy in December 2010 and additional shows in the works." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2011 |
€21.00 |
|
| AF URSIN |
Trois Memoires Discretes |
LP |
"Three introspective instrumental (English horn, flute, percussion, double bass, Hammond organ) compositions performed, recorded and mixed by Timo van Luijk during 2010-2012. Edition of 400 copies." [label info]
www.lasciedoree.be
"When he has his solo hat on, Timo van Luijk calls himself Af Ursin and his favorite format of release is the LP too. His covers are beautiful, just like the In Camera releases actually, but do not contain an awful lot of information, just like the In Camera releases actually. Af Ursin's music is less based on electronics, but more along the lines of acoustic instruments. Van Luijk uses a relatively small palette of sounds and works with them. I believe not in an analogue manner, but through the use of the computer. The a-side has the side long piece 'Sylphide', which seems to be build from a trombone or trumpet sound. A simple tune, repeated over and over again, with some pauses in between. Say the way Brian Eno did his early ambient pieces of loops of varying length, but then even more stripped down, reduced, minimal and perhaps also more classical. 'Taciturne', the first piece on the b-side is with flute sounds, but also with some highly obscured field recordings of objects moving in the far distant. 'Elegie' is then another piece for another instrument. It seems an organ of some kind, like a children's organ, or a harmonium, but perhaps pitched up a bit. I am not sure, but here to we have the same layered aspects as we had on the other side and yet at the same time this layering doesn't mean it's crowded. It has that same wonderful tranquil character as the other two pieces, or, in fact the two In Camera records. I play all of this music when I got up this autumn morning, mainly playing music and watching clouds pass outside, making darkness and sunlight change all the time, in a similar slow motion. This is just perfect. I should take a day off, play all Af Ursin records, In Camera's other two records and all of the Mirror releases. Sadly that can't be." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| AGLAIA |
Sacred Waters |
CD |
Neben Solo- und Kollaborationen seines eigenen Projekts ALIO DIE erscheinen auf Stefano Mussos Label auch weitere italienische Musiken aus dem „natural dream ambience“-Feld. Das Duo AGLAIA ist auch so ein Fall, SACRED WATERS ist ihr zweites Album .... Musik die wie flüchtige visuelle Eindrücke funktioniert, die langsam verblassen & neu aufscheinen, in der alles auf sehr sanfte Art und Weise verschmilzt..... down-oktavierte Flöten, Guitars, Synth-Drops & drones, vorbei-huschende field recordings, Wassersounds, lange Echos ....
die Musik ist „nach aussen“ bewegungslos, „nach innen“ jedoch erscheint sie in ständiger Schwingung & Zeitlupen-Oszillation....ein Tag-Traum aus Klang !
“The textural ambient project Aglaia have finally released their second album. After a very good feedback from the first CD "Three Organic Experiences", "Sacred Waters" is the new offertoires to introduce more and more in the amniotic sound dimension, of their music. The layers's quality become more deep here.. in breathing circles where processed voices and acoustic instruments, appear to be evocative and fragmented like in a dream, or just like what an echo can play with sounds in an open landscape, coming from far distances with the wind. The electronics/analog sounds are waves of flowing energy with a powerful relaxing quality, and behind them you can hear sometimes an indian flavour like an incense stick burning. By the way it's not possible at all to explain and describe the originality of this music, his poetry and his psychoacoustic properties, but if you start to listen, it invites you to stay inside yourself, in the motionless, and timeless space that induce, bathing in the Sacred Waters of the infinite ocean of peace and inspiration. Cover paints by Alessandro Savelli, graphics by Hic Sunt Leones.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Mondi Sensibili |
CD |
Ein Klanggarten voller luftiger Weite und zart schmeichelnden Windspiel-Sounds, - glockenheller, glitzernder Wohlklang, wie eine sanft tänzelnde Wasseroberfläche... auf dem ALIO DIE-Label.
"... the third CD by AGLAIA "Mondi Sensibili" creates a soundworld where the vibrations, the poetry and sound therapy bring the listener into that forgotten sound places suggested by the title. In "Mondi Sensibili" (Sensible Worlds), the sound incantations caracterized by the Aglaia's music become more and more clear and layered: the electronic sounds seem played from the wind, and their brilliance often seem to come from the cords of an acoustic instrument." [label description]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| AGNIVOLOK |
Sculptor |
LP |
Wirklich Genre-übergreifend, was das in Israel beheimatete Projekt (aus dem CHAOS AS SHELTER-Umfeld bzw. dürfte Vadim Gusis aka CAS hier auch mitspielen) hier fabriziert hat: Leidenschaftlicher, ost-europäisch geprägter Folk mit klagendem weiblichen russischen Gesang vermischt mit industriellen drones & samples & konkreten Geräuschen, Pianotunes, das alles sehr sehr schwermütig zerbrechlich schön. Auf Seite B lange düstere Streichersounds und drones.. dazu ein großformatiges, sehr ästhetisches Cover mit kirillischen liner-notes. Absolutes Highlight!
Israel based Folk-Industrial project with very passionate & melancholic tunes, very much recommended, one of our highlights!
“ Like all Stateart releases, a highly demanding album. Agnivolok compells us to discover a new world of musical meltdown and takes traditional music into new dimensions. It is not folk - although the traditional fire will project ancient Caucasian gatherings into your mind. It is not ambient - although it makes you dream, and these dreams ache. Agnivolok is near life experience - music for spiritual travellers and the listener's V.I.T.R.I.O.L. This heavy vinyl LP comes in a supreme white cardboard folder with silver print.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.50 |
|
| AGNIVOLOK & CHAOS AS SHELTER |
Henbane |
CD |
Starkes Album zweier miteinander verbundener israelisch-russischer Projekte: vier Stücke von CHAOS AS SHELTER mit seinem düsteren Katakomben-Drone (erinnert hier z.B. an EMERGE oder TZESNE), fünf von AGNIVOLOK (das Projekt von VERA AGNIVOLOK mit Unterstützung von C.A.S.), die hinter einer dunkel-hypnotischen Klangwand ihre sehnsüchtigen Songs (z.T. mit Gitarren- und Flötenuntermalung) vorträgt... the real "drone folk" !!
"Early Chaos As Shelter’s and the very first Agnivolok's recordings «Henbane» album to be officially released on The Eastern Front label in Spring 2009." [label info]
wwww.theeasternfront.org
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| AGUIRRE, MARCELO |
Contes d'Etonnement |
LP |
Voices, percussion, drums, and rather spooky electronic processing. A minimal structure onto which uncanny atmospheres become kind of interwoven. A sort of heterophony, in the manner of Japanese Gagaku or Indonesian Gamelan. An intriguing inversion seems to unfold, when the drum set takes the lead in the composition's development. We could even say the drums court the shadow of a melody, whilst the voice delivers a litany, enhancing atmospheres that are, to my ears, less sinister than they are elegiac: the longing for a primitive age, a meaningful world now lost and irrecoverable in its healthful entirety. This invocation works by way of an overlapping of sounds, always finding their source in the percussion set and in the vocal intonations.
It becomes apparent that time is the very question here, a time that is intangible and yet ‘absolute’ (if I may incur in this oxymoron), giving up any stringent historical temporality in favor of a sort of sedimentation in geological layers. Just listen to "Malaria C", a post-industrial landscape in the style of Lustmørd that brings to mind images of a universe in stasis, forever frozen in an ancient phase, while the voice underlines this ominous scenery, and the sound of tiny bells towards the end conjures a unique form of consolation as an ephemeral corollary.
In "Krakatoa", an extensive and vast sense of time lingers morosely in aural repetition, varying only slightly in intensity before the layered singing voices invoke an unlikely fulfillment. Those unmistakable chants may also resound in "Only A Mother", sort of a psalmody framed by a vehement and rhythmic acceleration which emphasizes how exacting and unavoidable is time's call.
Yet elusive, ungraspable time, resists being dissected into discrete and symmetrical units, escaping the prison of human perception; the drums go on and on, scanning their disparate metrics in an integral, unrestrained use of every component in the drum kit.
'I will follow the Time' could be guessed within "In Eternal Life". It is the only song which foregoes the drums. However, gongs recorded by close-miking bring to mind and ears the rumble of a synthesizer, coalescing with a jeremiad sung in a somber dialect that is cryptic, never discernible as intelligible language. The voice is merely another instrument, overlapping in disparate layers and warping polyphonic textures as its frequencies collide and clash, one against each other. While a voice recites an eerie mass, an incantation from another world, then punctuated by chants which resound like undulating drones.
It is difficult not to acknowledge the overall effect of some healthy dispossession, of a deliberate shedding of fineries, aimed at reducing everything to minimal expression. It is as if Marcelo Aguirre turns a cold shoulder to the weight of tradition and to the classification of musical experience with definite labels and overwrought categorization, as if he wanted to go beyond any accepted distinction of rhythm and melody, prose and poetry, or noise and harmony. Is his an appeal which knows of no precedent, a longing for an unheard form of music? A music able to transcend time and place while not relinquishing its human and historical fate? I cannot help taking note of a certain kinship that this musical inquiry of Aguirre's crisscrosses the time-honored obsession with Time, held by European philosophers from the late XIXth and early XXth Century. For instance, William James and his brother Henry's 'stream of consciousness', the 'durée' of Henri Bergson, and the transcendental subjectivity understood as an absolute by Edmund Husserl. What Aguirre may share with this company is the search for a language adept to communicate the indefinable, the flow of a temporality that does not allow itself to be captured in any given moment, instead it is music at the service of a primordial intuition. Therefore recovering an original order, harmonizing in a fullness of sense the flow of sounds. An attitude which positions itself at the antipodes of some developments in current electronic music, with its disassembling of the sound reality into beats (or bits and bytes), and an everlasting reiteration of artificial rhythmic structures, always monotonous and symmetrical even in their angularity. It is in this context of predominant musical tendencies nowadays, which blesses in a paradoxical marriage the once hostile fields of pop and experimentation, that these 'Contes d'Étonnement' reinvent a fresh appeal to the liberal imagination; a force as ancient (and eternal?) as the human species is.
[from the inlay, text by NORBERTO CAMBIASSO]
https://marceloaguirre.bandcamp.com/releases
|
2018 |
€17.00 |
|
| AHTI, MARJA & JUDITH HAMANN |
A coincidence is perfect, intimate attunement |
LP |
After their distinguished duet ‘Portals’ for Cafe Oto\'s Takuroku label, ‘A coincidence is perfect, intimate attunement’ is a wonderful sophomore collaborative work pieced together over two years of changing seasons, ideas, moods, and feelings. The release is formed from a shifting field of sound correspondence that pivots on moments of coincidence, of a tuning in.
What are we opening ourselves to when we tune in to sound? How can one be truly open to a sound? How can the activity of recording move beyond notions of capture and release into more generative frames? Rather than a tool purposed for preservation or ‘conservation’ of memory, of time and place, can recording sound instead form new vibrant or vibratory spaces of attunement?
‘A Coincidence..’ is an LP length composition of multiple interlocking parts, created through exchange, alignment, unpredictability: the title borrowed from poet Fanny Howe falling right into place, a flock of birds in flight, pitches matched and moved across different geographies and temporal frames. Marja & Judith have created an intuitive, lyrical longform piece that considers the idea of attunement itself as, in some sense, the smallest form of measure or denominator connecting their respective practices: across field recording, just intonation, electronic sonorities and instrumental bodies. ‘A coincidence..’ reflects a sense of a willingness to tune in to impulses given, or gifted to the other, a position that embraces an intimate synchronicity.
Judith Hamann: cello, voice, field recordings, synthesizer, organ
Marja Ahti: field recordings, synthesizers, organs, piano
Recordings & correspondances between 2020-2022. Mixed by Marja Ahti & Judith Hamann. Mastered and cut by Anne Taegert at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, 2022. Title quotation from Night Philosophy by Fanny Howe, Divided Publishing, 2020. Photogrpahy by Joshua Bonnetta. Thanks to Nino Bulling, Niko-Matti Ahti and leo. The work was supported by Kone Foundation, Akademie Schloss Solitude and NEUSTART KULTUR.
Second Editions 011 / LP / Edition of 300 / November 25 2022
https://marjaahti.bandcamp.com/album/a-coincidence-is-perfect-intimate-attunement
|
2022 |
€24.50 |
|
| AIR CUSHION FINSH |
Gezieferreigen |
CD |
»Blauholz« ist ein Buch von Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg, gelesen von Lippstueck. Henry Marcuse »Eros y Civilisación«, gelesen von jayrope. Mittschnitt der Radio-Sendung »Biesentales« auf Cashmere-Radio vom 06.01.2018
Musik
Daniel Bjarnason »Over light earth«
Murcof & Philippe Petit »The call of Circé« *
Ju..rgen Ploog »Tapes von unterwegs 1971-1976«
Murcof & Philippe Petit »The call of Circé« *
jayrope [live] »Einerlirre«
Pauline Oliveros & Musiques Nouvelles »Four meditations for orchestra«
Dead Mauriacs »Nouvelles fonctions exotiques« *
Songs of Norway »Inner arms and legs«
Felix »As blue as your eyes lover«
jayrope [live] »Zweierfrei«
Column One »Cherokee«
Felix »What i learned from TV«
Dead Mauriacs »Nouvelles fonctions exotiques« *
Dan Hayurst »Great day atonal soda«
Ellen Fullman & Konrad Sprenger »No home«
Murcof & Philippe Petit »The call of Circé« *
Dimitris Petsetakis »The prophecy«
jayrope [live] »Eisglas«
Musik erscheint hier mit Zustimmung der Künstler, insbesondere Murcof & Philippe Petit »First Chapter« [Aagoo Sec./Rev Lab.]
* Ausschnitt
Lippstueck und jayrope danken Cashmere Radio, Berlin, Robert Schalinski und den Musikern und Autoren.
Coverbilder
Jan Focke
Vorderseite: »Picknick« 2015, Öl auf Leinwand, 120 x 150 cm; Innenseite: »Haus mit Leuten« 2016, Öl auf Leinwand, 140 x 180 cm
www.molokoplusrecords.de/finder.php?folder=Label&content=76
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| AJNA |
The Enigma of Sirius |
CD |
Ajna returns to Winter-Light with his first solo album on our label 'The Enigma Of Sirius', having previously collaborated with Onasander on their 'Canidia' release.
Ancient tribes and civilisations such as The Dogon, The Egyptians and the Sumerians to name a few, claim to have had contact with extraterrestrials from the Sirius star system (Sirius A, B & C) anywhere from 5,000-10,000 years ago.
These ancient civilisations obtained advanced and extensive knowledge on the occult, physics, astronomy. mathematics etc without any modern technology, this knowledge was mostly likely given to them by extraterrestrials. The Dogon themselves claim that they have a secret portal that directly connects them to the Sirius star system where they also describe that it is the place where many departed souls dwell.
These 10 tracks evoke the mystery of how humans have contacted and/or have been contacted by otherworldly entities since the dawn of time.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/the-enigma-of-sirius
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| AKATOMBO |
False Positives |
CD + DVD-R |
"Is it or isn’t it? Have I or haven’t I? Aaah, the joys of a false positive. Hence the title for this, the 3rd full-length album from Hiroshima-based, ex-pat Scotsman, Paul Thomsen Kirk’s AKATOMBO audio/visual extravaganza. Dark and brooding – or – mellifluously uplifting ? “False Positives” carries on the recurrent, underlying theme of urban & cultural alienation in a media-connected, (controlled?), Japanese metropolitan environment, previously presented on the critically acclaimed AKATOMBO albums, “Trace Elements” (SWIM ~ Records) & “Unconfirmed Reports” (Hand-Held Recordings).
From skimming the surface, to trawling the dank underbelly: the daily minutiae of life in a large, concrete/glass/steel Japanese metropolis is duly presented in all its garish hues and faded glories. Accessing all areas, and hopefully dispelling some Japanese urban myths along the way, “False Positives”, allows you, the willfully willing participant, the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself completely in a thoroughly enticing, mesmeric, 360-degree sonic adventure." [label info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| AKBARI, ARASH |
Perpetual |
mCD-R |
living in tehran (iran), arash akbari is a sound and new media artist exploring the ambient, drone and noise styles. his past works were released by various internal labels like soft recordings, unknown tone or flaming pines.
for this track, akbari created a beautiful and very cinematographic ambient piece. immerse yourself in "perpetual"...
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/perpetual-alm-122
|
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| AKERLUND, LARS |
Xenon |
CD |
"Swedish composer Lars Åkerlund releases Xenon, his second album on the Firework Edition Records label.
Xenon is based on recordings of machinery and activities of everyday life. The sound has been analyzed, treated and reconstructed; building a new framework.
Xenon is a chemical element that occurs in the Earth's atmosphere. Some of the properties of xenon are anaesthesia, transposition and levitation. Anesthesia is the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away. The speed of sound in xenon gas is slower than that in air. Xenon lowers the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract when inhaled. This produces a characteristic lowered voice timbre (an effect opposite to the high-timbred voice caused by inhalation of helium). Xenon gas at high pressure has a density exceeding that of some solids and can be used to levitate objects through buoyancy. These features relate to ideas that were important during the process of making this music.
Curriculum Vitae:
Lars Åkerlund is a composer and performer of electronic and computer music. Starting as a guitarist he increasingly got more and more involved into the contemporary art scene of the 90's and was one the founding members of the Lucky People Center (LPC) and has since then been working in collaborations with other artists, choreographers, and filmmakers as well as a solo artist. Lars Åkerlund's work includes solo electronic music, live-electronics, instrumental music, films, videos and performance.
Discography
Some previous releases:
"Ur/Volt", Lars Åkerlund (FYCD 1028) 2008
"Rivers of Mercury/Via Styx", Lars Åkerlund (FER 1025) 2001
"Welcome to Lucky People Center", LPC (MNWCD 234) 1993."
www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| AKERLUND, LARS & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI |
Aware Not Aware/Radio Enemy |
LP |
"This split LP is one of several collaborative projects between Zbigniew Karkowski and Lars Åkerlund, which took place during the years 2012–2013. The collaboration between Karkowski and Åkerlund goes back to the 1980s, with projects like P.I.T.T. and the Dreamers and Onge-4-X. They continued during the 90s with an opera setting of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot and a trio with Dror Feiler, among other things. Collaborations during recent years include the CD Horology, which Karkowski and Åkerlund made together with Jean-Louis Huhta. The three of them also made a couple of live performances during 2012 and 2013 in the re-unioned 80s group Mental Hackers. It was after their acclaimed concert with Mental Hackers at Fylkingen in May 2012 that the idea of this LP was born, whereafter Karkowski and Åkerlund each began working on one piece for it. The record proved to become Karkowski’s last one – at least the last that he, himself, took part in the planning of.
Zbigniew Karkowski died on December 12th 2013, after having been diagnosed with cancer only two months earlier." [label info]
www.fylkingen.se
"The other new release by Fylkingen Records is a split record by Zbigniew Karkowski and Lars
Akerlund, who started working together in the 1980s, with projects like P.I.T.T. And The Dreamers and Onge-4-x, then in the 90s on an opera project around The Idiot (that's the Dostoyevsky play, not the Iggy album) and with Jean-Louis Huhta as Mental Hackers, in 2012 and 2013. As you know Karkowski died in 2013, two months after he was diagnosed with cancer. The last work he was working on was this split LP with Lars Akerlund. Karkowski's piece is called 'Radio Enemy' and is a noisy beast, and that's probably no surprise. It's not, however, one of those over the top Merzbowian blasts of noise, but it opens up with a voice fed through an amount of distortion, but it has still a commanding, strong presence. It then moves to a repeating, high-pitched sound to which a slowed down voice is added. Listening to this right after the 'Text Sound' compilation, it makes perfect sense; Karkowski is here updating the notion of voice/text within the realm of some
highly powerful music. Even if noise can be a bit much for you, I recommend this piece for you. This is the variation of noise that is loud but not for the sake of loudness.
Akerlund on the other side has no text, or at least nothing that we can see as such, and starts out with noise that would suit Karkowski pretty well, but his piece 'Aware Not Aware' moves over a much more dynamic range. The noise is powerful and short and through the twenty-three minutes of this piece Akerlund moves from the very quiet to the reasonable loudness. His build up is slow, minimal and yet dramatic. It is hard to say if these tools are all analogue and modular or much more part of the world of software. Somehow I think the latter. His piece is quite intense; blocks of
heavily treated sounds and it works really well as a piece of modern musique concrete." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| AKIYAMA, MITCHELL |
If night is a weed and day grows legs |
CD |
Sehr poetische und tagträumerische piano & violin-ambience, mit digitalen Effekten durchsetzt, minimal und fliessend, manchmal versinkt alles in grobkörnigem Rauschen....aber auch fragmentarischerer, spärlicher klingende tracks......sphärische FENNESZ oder TIM HECKER sind hier oft wirklich nicht weit.....
“Recorded in Montréal, Canada, If Night Is A Weed And Day Grows Less, the 4th solo cd by Mitchell Akiyama, marks a more concerted return to Akiyama's classical roots. ll eight pieces grew out of four piano compositions that were torn apart and reassembled - fragments of one piece contaminating another - reordered melodies, hidden references, obscured refrains. It is weeds fighting the hegemony of the lawn, it is the possibility of anarchy resulting
in fleeting orders of beauty, it is the progeny of Steve Reich, Michel Foucault and Marcel Duchamp.
The clear melodic beauty of Christian Fennesz but with a piano…
The slow growing form of Akiyama Mitchell Akiyama's career in the arts has followed a reasonably circuitous path. A student of creative writing and literature before switching to interdisciplinary studies,
Akiyama's work as a composer of electronic music and video artist has come to incorporate disparate disciplines, aesthetics and theoretical traditions. He has beenbased in Montreal since 1998 and has thoroughly absorbed the currents of electroacoustics, visual art and modern dance for which the city has always been famous. Akiyama's musical output began with his debut album, intr_verse which he released himself on his nascient intr_version imprint in 1999. A warm, complex work of beat-driven electronica, the record received several glowing reviews and managed to find its way into a few year end lists despite its small run and limited availability.
A 2001 follow-up was released on Canadian label Alien8's sublabel, Substractif. It was met with near unanimous acclaim from critics and propelled Akiyama to prominence in the Canadian experimental electronic music scene. He recently released a collaborative work with Cincinnati musician Joshua Treble. The project, Désormais marks a more organic, compositional direction for Akiyama. Brimming with deconstructed guitars, pianos and field recordings, it is a lush and sometimes jarring work. His third solo full length, Temporary Music, was recently released by renowned German label Raster-Noton.
Akiyama has performed extensively in Canada, Japan, The USA and Europe at festivals (such as Montreal's Mutek and Barcelona's Sonar), art galleries and clubs. Video once seemed like an unlikely milieu for Akiyama. Upon taking a class in video production and history he had no background in film, video or photography. He was inspired by the interface of the still reasonably new phenomenon of digital non-linear editing which he found similar to his digital
music working environment. Three videos emerged - re:sound, the argument and the static industry - all of which played extensively at film and video festivals in Canada. He has since been involved mainly in creating "video paintings" which accompany him whenever he performs musically. Recently these two disciplines, music and video, along with graphic design (which is one of the many way through which Akiyama earns a living) have been collapsing in on each other. Videomusic performances, multimedia cd-roms and an altered way of seeing and hearing have come out of this fusion. With the locus of Akiyama's work being the computer and the inter-relatedness and similarity of sound, video and design software, these fusions are sure to yield strange new fruit.” [press release]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| AKOUSTIK TIMBRE FREKUENCY |
Kthonik Korridors |
CD-R |
Vielversprechender Newcomer aus UK mit "esoterischem" dark ambient, d.h. in diesem Fall ein starker H.P.LOVECRAFT-Bezug - die Musik soll ganz bewusst als Ritualbegleitung für Cthulhu-Okkultismus eingesetzt werden. Man mag dazu stehen wie man will, die sechs langen dronigen Stücke, die sich auf 57 Minuten ausbreiten, erzeugen eine einnehmend geisterhafte und unheimliche Atmosphäre... rituell und fliessend, aber niemals aggressiv oder wirklich krachig. Auf allerlei Instrumenten (Synths, Klangschalen, Flöten, Rasseln) sowie mit grossen aufgespießten Fleischbrocken (!) wird hier die unverstandene Seite des Unbewussten gefeiert. Lim. 100, professionelles Cover & Fertigung.
“Thee new album is a homage to H. P. Lovecraft, to whom I owe so much. It is to be used as bakground atmospheriks for Rites dedikated to thee Kthulhu Mythos. Instrumentation inkludes singing bowls, flutes, rattles, synths and a large chunk of meat set upon with knives, machetes and a pitchfork. Thee kompositions were named using kut-ups of ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ by HPL except Komposition 2 which was kreated as a soundtrak for thee short film ‘Kalibration of thee Gods’ by Madguten.” [label info]
www.myspace.com/23akoustiktimbrefrekuency23
|
2010 |
€11.00 |
|
| AKSAK MABOUL |
Figures |
do-LP |
The legendary experimental pop outfit returns with a brand-new record entitled Figures, written, conceived and produced over the last couple of years by Marc Hollander (founder of Aksak Maboul and of the Crammed label) and Véronique Vincent (former singer with The Honeymoon Killers).
Figures is a double album containing 22 tracks and interludes, resulting from the flow of creative ideas which arose after a gap of over thirty years (see the Aksak story overleaf). Drawing again from the multiple sources which have always inspired the band (from electronic music and pop to experimentation, jazz, minimalism, contemporary classical etc), Aksak Maboul transcends and reconfigures them with its inimitable style, to create an impressive, rich and unclassifiable piece of work.
Seamlessly weaving electronic and acoustic instrumentation, improvisation and programming, songs, beats, found objects and sound collages, the album works as a labyrinth, full of secret passages and interconnections. Figures clocks in at 75 minutes, thus deliberately shunning the laws of instant gratification and the myth of today’s reduced attention span: the Aksak Maboul aficionados will surely be happy to engage in an immersive session of deep listening (in two halves), in order to enjoy the album’s many layers and details.
Véronique Vincent & Marc Hollander wrote the album together, by following parallel courses with their own respective internal logic, while remaining closely connected. Enigmatic and finely chiseled, feeding on her love for painting and literature, Véronique’s texts form a dense fabric which mirrors the sonic kaleidoscope assembled by Marc, who wrote and arranged all the music (aside from a track co-written and sung by Véronique and Julien Gasc). Véronique also made the drawings and paintings which illustrate the cover and inserts.
The two protagonists recorded most of the album in their own studio, with contributions by the young members of Aksak Maboul’s current live line-up: Faustine Hollander (bass, vocals, co-production), guitarist Lucien Fraipont and drummer Erik Heestermans. Also featured are performances by several friends and guests, including revered improvisor Fred Frith, Tuxedomoon’s Steven Brown, members of Aquaserge (Julien Gasc, Audrey Ginestet & Benjamin Glibert), former band members (including Michel Berckmans and Sebastiaan Van den Branden), and several others
https://aksakmaboul.bandcamp.com/album/figures
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| ALDEA, ERIC & IVAN CHIOSSONE |
Kabul |
CD |
" "Kabul" entstand quasi als Auftragsarbeit von IVAN CHIOSSONE und ERIC ALDÉA (Ex-DEITY GUNS, Ex-BÄSTARD) für den Film "Earth And Ashes" von Atiq Rahimi.
Im September 2003 besuchten sie ihn für zwei Wochen in Kabul und nahmen dort landestypische Sounds wie traditionelle Gesänge oder eine Sufi Formation auf.
Mit diesen Sounds im Gepäck ging es zurück nach Paris, wo sie ihre eigenen Parts sowie die des afghanischen Sängers Massoud Raonak und die Beiträge von Pierre Citron (Flöte), Franck Laurino (Ex-BÄSTARD, Percussion), Hasmig Fau (Cello) und François Cuilleron (Ex-BÄSTARD, Geige) hinzufügten.
Heraus kam "Kabul", randvoll mit mächtiger und wunderschöner Musik, die mit Sounds angefüllt ist, wie man sie in unserem Kulturkreis selten oder gar nicht zu Gehör bekommt.
Und da Atiq Rahimi in der finalen Version seines Films nur einen Song benutzte, kommt dieses Digipak mit seinen 16 Songs genau zur rechten Zeit." [label info]
"CD des Monats. Was sag ich, Anwärter auf das Album des Jahres, ganz sicher. Aldea und Chiossonne aus Lyon reisten nach Afghanistan ...
und spielten dann genau das Album ein das heutzutage jeder braucht. ... Kaufen und glauben." ***** De:Bug 03/05 |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALDINUCCI, GIULIO |
Disappearing in a Mirror |
CD |
talian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI drops his 2nd album on Karl: “Disappearing In A Mirror” is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Borders And Ruins” which made it onto several year’s best lists for 2017.
Over the course of four solo albums on labels like DRONARIVM plus EPs and collaborative albums (a.o. with IAN HAWGOOD), GIULIO ALDINUCCI successively has been refining his skills as composer and sound designer. His elegant style which blends ambient and field recordings came to full impact on his 2017 album “Borders And Ruins” which gained the Italian sound artist a lot of critical praise and made it onto several year’s best lists, a.o. Acloserlisten.com. ALDINUCCI’s latest effort is again not only a musical masterpiece of sublime beauty and sacral majesty, it also deals with philosophical concerns. Where “Borders …” was a reflection on the instability of borders - borders as an extreme attempt to discriminate and rationalize that turns into a source of chaos and cultural ruins on both sides - and their impact on the relationship between people and territory, “Disappearing In A Mirror” raises the very personal question of identity. In the words of ALDINUCCI himself:
“ ‘Disappearing In A Mirror’ focuses on the fluidity of the identity concept, highlighting the harmonious coexistence of contradictory elements and the transitional features that characterize every transformation. It is a reflection on the current situation of change and disruption and at the same time it is a gaze into the human timeless soul and its inner soundscapes.”
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/disappearing-in-a-mirror
"Apart from his various collaboration and split releases, Disappearing In A Mirror is Giulio Aldinucci's follow-up to 2017’s Borders and Ruins, and it is his second release for Karl Records. If you thought Borders And Ruins depicted a rather dark view on the state of the world, you’d better be ready for this new album. “Where [Borders and Ruins] was a reflection on the instability of borders and their impact on the relationship between people and territory, 'Disappearing In A Mirror' raises the very personal question of identity." Aldinucci manages to create a sonic version of a hall of mirrors, where you can get completely disoriented from the images of yourself trying to find a way out. In a striking combination of gritty distorted sounds and distant orchestral and choral arrangements that sound like a stretched Beethoven symphony, the first two tracks present a frightening dystopic view. But from there, Aldinucci [somewhat] restores the balance with 'Notturno Toscano', as if he doesn’t want to scare the listener too much. But even in this track the intensity slowly increases again. There’s no way out of the mirror maze, it seems… "Disappearing In A Mirror focuses on the fluidity of the identity concept, highlighting the harmonious coexistence of contradictory elements and the transitional features that characterize every transformation. It is a reflection on the current situation of change and disruption and at the same time it is a gaze into the human timeless soul and its inner soundscapes." If the sweat in the palms of my hand is an indicator of emotional intensity, this album definitely belongs on the top the list!" [Headphone Commute] |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Shards of Distant Times |
CD |
"Italian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI returns with his 3rd album on KARL: “Shards Of Distant Times” is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Borders And Ruins” (2017) and “Disappearing In A Mirror” (2018) which both made it onto several year’s best lists.
Over the course of six solo albums on labels like DRONARIVM plus EPs and collaborative albums (a.o. with IAN HAWGOOD), GIULIO ALDINUCCI successively has been refining his skills as composer and sound designer. His elegant style which blends ambient and field recordings came to full impact on his previous KARL albums “Borders And Ruins” and “Disappearing In A Mirror” which gained the Italian sound artist a lot of critical praise and made it onto several year’s best lists, a.o. Acloserlisten.com. ALDINUCCI’s latest effort is again not only a musical masterpiece of sublime beauty and sacral majesty, it also deals with philosophical concerns.
Where “Borders …” was a reflection on the instability of borders and “Disappearing In A Mirror” raised the very personal question of identity, “Shards Of Distant Times explores the liminal areas of the contemporary soundscape that are characterized by the presence of human voice coming from old and timeworn recordings. Like in the auditory pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon in which the mind hears indistinct voices in random noise where none exist, voices and music emerge from the everyday soundscape through the omnipresent internet connected devices, creating glitches between time and space” (ALDINUCCI)."
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shards-of-distant-times
|
2020 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Shards of Distant Times |
LP |
Italian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI returns with his 3rd album on KARL: “Shards Of Distant Times” is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Borders And Ruins” (2017) and “Disappearing In A Mirror” (2018) which both made it onto several year’s best lists.
Over the course of six solo albums on labels like DRONARIVM plus EPs and collaborative albums (a.o. with IAN HAWGOOD), GIULIO ALDINUCCI successively has been refining his skills as composer and sound designer. His elegant style which blends ambient and field recordings came to full impact on his previous KARL albums “Borders And Ruins” and “Disappearing In A Mirror” which gained the Italian sound artist a lot of critical praise and made it onto several year’s best lists, a.o. Acloserlisten.com. ALDINUCCI’s latest effort is again not only a musical masterpiece of sublime beauty and sacral majesty, it also deals with philosophical concerns.
Where “Borders …” was a reflection on the instability of borders and “Disappearing In A Mirror” raised the very personal question of identity, “Shards Of Distant Times explores the liminal areas of the contemporary soundscape that are characterized by the presence of human voice coming from old and timeworn recordings. Like in the auditory pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon in which the mind hears indistinct voices in random noise where none exist, voices and music emerge from the everyday soundscape through the omnipresent internet connected devices, creating glitches between time and space” (ALDINUCCI).
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shards-of-distant-times
|
2020 |
€19.00 |
|
| |
Real |
LP |
Italian sound artist Giulio Aldinucci returns with his fourth album on Karlrecords: Real is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed Borders And Ruins (2017), Disappearing In A Mirror (KR 055CD, 2018), and Shards Of Distant Times (KR 076CD/LP), which all made it onto several year's best lists. With now his fourth album for Karlrecords, the sound artist from Siena, Italy has proved a steady and prolific artist on the label roster. And each time, Giulio Aldinucci delivers a new ambient masterpiece that clearly carries his signature as composer/producer and yet reveals a slightly different approach to his modus operandi. Aldinucci's massive layers of sound, built from field recordings and an array of electronic gear, blend drone-y ambient with heavenly voices/sacred music that create an atmosphere of a consolatory melancholy -- alien, but with a graspable presence of human souls. And each album deals with a topic that Aldinucci came across in his observations of and reflections about today's society. In the words of Giulio himself: "The digital media we live with shape and define reality by filtering it, letting us run the risk of living without our personal and unique one. My new album expresses a need of something unmediated and authentic. Real is a reflection on the endless possibility of sonic transformation, the ability we have to create new realities transmuting the soundscape around us and the inner soundscape inside us, even only by imagining it. A (deep)real experience permeated by dreamy lyricism." 180 gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve; includes download card.
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/real
|
2022 |
€18.50 |
|
| ALDINUCCI, GIULIO / MATTEO UGGERI |
Bureau |
CD |
Matteo Uggeri : Field Recordings and Beats
Giulio Aldinucci : Field Recordings and Drones
In 2016 Matteo Uggeri took hundreds of pictures during his working days in 70’s building aimed at training and desk work located in the surroundings of Milan
Later that winter the photographs served as inspiration for this album themed on alienation of offices working life. Tracks are based on outdoor field recordings
looped, treated and re-shaped in order to be transformed into beats,rhythms, (Matteo) drones and melodies (Giulio)
https://adnrecords.com/album/giulio-aldinucci-matteo-uggeri-bureau/
"An emotionally absorbing, vibrant and sensitive personal voyage
Matteo Uggeri is one multifaceted and emblematic sound/noise designer artist from Italy—also one founder member of the chamber post-rock collective Sparkle in Grey. His usual signature can be described as composite ambient sceneries where sonic textures meet story-telling minimal sketches and expanding downtempo vibes.
In this new release he collaborates with Giulio Aldinucci, who is a seducing and creative electroacoustic soundscaper whose production (in solo or in collaboration, notably with Francesco Giannico) is largely recognized in the DIY indie community with a fancy for mesmeric, chilled-out then discreet electronic ambient music.
Bureau is an emotionally absorbing, vibrant and sensitive personal voyage through a vast array of emotions, tone colors, flexible tones and kinetic electronic impulses. This is mostly one electronic and ambient-centered atmospheric album with a stylistic inclination for hypnotic organic textures (as in the ravishing “Fire Dome”) and minimal-tinged chilled out soundscapes with more abstract sounds and airy clicks and cuts (in “Inceneritore” “Ghiaccio”), even flirting with glitch-esque vibes (“Ghiaccio”) and hauntology (in the eerie and weirdly “Zoo”).
An easily recommended listening and catchy electronic effort to consider if you are into post-minimal techno, IDM and syncretic ambient waves. Somewhere between Christian Fennesz, Microstoria, Oval, Hecq, and Beequeen."
[Philippe Blache (Igloo Magazine) August 23, 2020]
"Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had already registered the return of ADN Records, erstwhile a cassette label with some great releases (New 7th music, Amok, Pascal Comelade, Bourbonese Qualk etc) in the 80s. They were called (not by me) the Italian version of Recommended Records. They have come back, already some time ago and picked up on a generation of ‘younger’ musicians. Matteo Uggeri took hundreds of photos of his workplace in a ’70s building and that became the inspiration for this work with Giulio Aldinucci. They both use field recordings, but Aldinucci melts the re-processed field recordings into drones and Uggeri into beats. These beats should not be understood as a bunch of big 4/4 rhythms, but minimalist drum patterns of a dark nature. It fits the ditto dark drones as produced by Aldinucci, that are sometimes pretty straight forward sustaining clouds of sound, but most of the time also add a small melodic touch to them. I have no idea where these field recordings were made, only recognizing the fanfare on the street in ‘Chinese New Year‘ and some wind/rain/water sounds in other pieces, or vast empty parking space. Sometimes the beats produced by Uggeri seem almost absent, such as in ‘Inceneritore‘, but maybe they are even more spaced out here. I think it is quite a clever move to work with field recordings in the way these gentlemen do; just treating them into big chunks of abstract ambient music has been done quite enough, but adding minimalist rhythms and re-shaping field recordings into lovely chunks of melodic ambient is also perhaps not unique, but it is not done to death yet (at least, not that I know) and as such, this is a great album." Frans De Waard (Vital Weekly n. 1246)
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
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| ALIO DIE |
Hora Aurea |
10inch |
Zwei neue ALIO DIE – Stücke auf dieser 10”, wie sie entrückt meditativer kaum sein könnten... ganz sanft und doch mit vielen interessanten Sounds gespickt, breiten sich magische Drones repetitiv aus, betäubend wie schweres Perfüm...
“SmallVoices proudly presents the new ALIO DIE work entitled "AUREA HORA". Two exclusive tracks of evocative magmatic soundscapes in the typical atemporal Alio Die aim. The two completely new recordings (with drones, loops, zither and integrated radionoises from an old Valvular model) are similar to early Alio Die experiments or one of his best albums "Sol Niger". Catching atmospheres will bring you in Stefano's magic world, which is an oneiric, dreaming journey to the inner self satisfaction...” [label description]
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2006 |
€12.50 |
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Incantamento |
CD |
"Wieder verliert sich Stefano Musso in tiefster Trance, auf diesen zwei langen Stücken benutzt er erfreulich viele field recordings, bildet lange loopige Samples die sich überlagern und in einen warmen ozeanischen Strom hinabziehen, sehr warm & meditativ.
Newest full length CD from the italian ambient project, using lots of beautiful water-sounds on two lengthy tracks. Coming with parts of plants in the jewel-case. “Ascolta il canto della cicala che beve la rugiada del mattino vedi, mi rintoccano le corde da sole, e vola una voce intorno a me, da ogni parte.” [Sinesio 375 D.C.]" [Drone Rec. info 2001]
" 'Incantamento' provides two long drifting pieces of naturalistic ambience, adding the occasional pluck of guitar strings to the rich bed of aquatic sounds and droning loops. The packaging contains dried stems and flowers instead of a inlay card to underscore the organic nature of the music." [label description]
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2001 |
€14.00 |
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Khen introduce Silence |
CD |
ALIO DIE benutzt diesmal Sounds des aus Thailand stammendenden Instruments KHEN für seine erhabene Illuminations-Drone-Muzak, sowie auch viele field-recordings aus Thailand und Italien, die in den trancig-meditativen Klangkörper eingewebt werden...
“Taking basic improvisations only from sounds produced by Khen (mouth-organ from Thailand/Laos) and processed by different controls like filters, pan and multi-effects, Stefano Musso looks for a vibrational enviroment that is like a special point of view, where time changes his meaning and sometimes becomes absolutely relative, finding a place for contemplation, like being in the clouds and breathing with the sound of the spheres. Observe the circular harmony of seasons in his never ending flow, it speaks like old poetry that is familiar to the soul. Stefano Musso plays: khen, drones and loops, enviromental recordings taken in Thailand and in Lunigiana/Italy. Percussion on track 5 by Ginfranco Cualbu. Thanks to for enviromental sounds to Francesco Paladino (recorded in Katmandu,Nepal) on track 2 and by Teo Zini/Opium (recorded in Topolo',Italy) on track 3.” [label description]
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2003 |
€13.00 |
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Le Stanze della Trascendenza |
CD |
Dritter Teil der Trilogie, die mit "Hidden Spring" begann und aus Bearbeitungen von altem Material besteht. ("reworked with modern technologies"), Soundquellen sind ausschließlich akustisch, Drones, Voice (Choräle), Flute, Field Recordings...Mit dem wunderbaren 24minütigen "Melancholic Roots"
label: www.aliodie.com
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1999 |
€14.00 |
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Sol Niger |
CD |
Sehr nebliges neues Material, eine einzige Verschmelzung aus dumpfen Flöten, sich auflösenden einzelnen Gitarren & Zither-Tupfern, sanft auftauchender Perkussion & Naturaufnahmen, sowie Shortwave-Radioklängen, in einem Ozean aus Hall & bedächtiger Vibration..... erinnert eher an „alte“ ALIO DIE aus der Frühphase, aber ohne die typischen Loops... strahlt eine erhabenene Dunkelheit aus...
“This new cd contains unrealized material recorded by Alio Die in the year 2001, mostly around the time of the winter solstice. The tracks are characterized from the editing of old recordings produced in Milan in 1990, with Massimo Ladarola plays guitar and effects.
The recordings were integrated with radionoise from an old Valvular Model. Some new sounds of flutes and percussions were added from Gianfranco Cualbu.
The recordings were completed with a new tracks displays zither, muezzin voices from the shirt wave space and field recordings made by Alio Die in Notre Dame, Paris Sept 2002.
The sound atmosphere of this release is close in some way of the really first CDs by Alio Die, with a light electronic taste, in the feeling of the dark that pass before a new dawn. SOL NIGER CD is finally out and is ready to be spread around..
You can find more information about titles and look the seed-cover on: http://www.aliodie.com ~ at discography section” [label info]
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2004 |
€13.00 |
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Suspended Feathers |
CD |
„Die 96er CD des Italieniers Stefano Musso kann man wohl als das bisher ausgereifteste und schönste Werk bezeichnen... wundervoller, sensibler und sinnlicher Ambient, beruhigend und verzaubernd zugleich - hier unterer anderen mit Unterstützung von VIDNA OBMANA..“ [Drone Records info 1997]
“silentes presents another great reissue. suspended feathers is one of the best well know works by ALIO DIE. published originally in 1996 in a ltd.1000 copies in a special package by AQUA/AMPLEXUS and sold out for years... finally it's out again with a totally new artwork in jewel box... 5 tracks included one long track originally composed for "mytical" amplexus series, one track composed togheter with Gregorio Bardini and one track composed with VIDNA OBMANA. After 10 years this album sound again fresh and it's a real ambient masterpiece. A must.“ [label info]
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2005 |
€13.00 |
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The Flight of Real Image (full version) |
CD |
Re-Release der mcd von 1996 mit über 50 Minuten Bonus-Material!! Auf neuem russischen Label & in liebevoller Aufmachung.
“This is re-released of old MCD (22 minutes) which has been released in 1993 limited edition of 1000 copies and sold out several years ago. But many people continue to ask this CD. Some people tell that it is the best album of the maestro from all time! Now I happy to present full version of this great album, his length 79 minutes. Classical sound of the maestro is harmoniously combined with his new experiments with a zither, salterio, flutes, bells and many other. Old materials was remastering and now sound very well. Release have a 5 cards with installations of italian painter Sara Luciani. This artwork are an integral part of the concept of an album. Limited edition 1000 pieces.” [label info]
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2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Under an holy Ritual |
LP |
Wiederveröffentlichung der ersten ALIO DIE-CD von 1992 in einer schönen Vinyl-Edition !!
"First time on vinyl this amazing Alio Die masterpiece..., a milestone of ritual ambient music!!! "Under an Holy Ritual" was his first CD, released on his label Hic Sunt Leones in 1992 and re-released on Projekt in 1993, was received with international acclaim.
"Natural and acoustic sounds and selected noises, electronically treated and reworked, are integrated in a meditative and spiritual context that often, in the feeling, becomes close to a prayer. Visible static, this music is rich of hidden sounds, layers of elements to discover at each listening. Alio Die's music, in the consciousness space that creates, it's a melting of technology and mysticism, like a new ritual with echoes of a medieval time, deep and grounded in introspection."
Ghostly incantations from the void, subtly shifting frequencies and moods... Stefano Musso has menaged to resurrect unsettling sounds from a pre-Middle Ages epoch and merge them into a pastiche of gripping, evocative pastures. One might be prone to labelling Alio Die as quasi-active ambient music, but that has become a word so bandied around these days that in this case the meaning far from concise. Alio Die presents in his first seminal work, his personal interpretation of atmospherical music...
Stefano Musso studied art and electronics in his home town of Milan, Italy, and began performing ambient, electro-acoustic music under the name Alio Die in 1989. Characterized by evocative acoustic sounds manipulated and tendered electronically, Alio Die's work builds intimate soundscapes tied to the mystery and majesty of life and nature. His first CD "Under an Holy Ritual", released on his label Hic Sunt Leones in 1992 and re-released on Projekt in 1993, was received with international acclaim. He subsequently released more than 25 CDs, and collaborated with many well-known artists such as Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, Mathias Grassow, Nick Parkin, Yannick Dauby, Amelia Cuni, Raffaele Serra, Ora, Antonio Testa.” [label info]
“Multi-layered sonic densities that can evoke the air of ancient storms one minute, then ebb like an immense black ocean the next. This knows how to alter moods with both thick electronic pulses and prehistoric scrapes of mysterious percussions. Cerebral, spooky, and thought provoking meditative/ambient music that harkens from a ritualistic viewpoint." [I/E Magazine] |
2006 |
€15.00 |
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|
Tempus Rei |
CD |
Two new long pieces, based around a very beautiful subtle "classic instrumental" loop & field recordings of ocean, air & waves. The second piece is very similar but differently structured and uses also zither sounds. At the end everything seems to dissolve into shimmering lights of drone... So simple but so truly ambient-magic, ALIO DIE recently develops into very high levels of ZEN Ambience! Beautiful artwork, too!
"Celebrated by Stefano Musso in 2008 - 2008 at Temple Studio, Milan.
Alio Die: drones and loops, zither, field recordings. Cover photos by Edoardo Caputo. Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones. Tempus Rei is the second chapter of Castles Sonorisation's Series" [label info]
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2008 |
€15.00 |
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Hidden Spring |
CD |
"HIC SUNT LEONES presents Winter Solstice’s Spores. A reprint of two classic albums !
Two milestones of Alio Die's discography are available again after a long hiatus. This new edition offers two superb collectible digipaks printed in black on silver, in collaboration with the American graphic artist Joseph Uccello. This combination of music and artwork is an ideal celebration of this time of the year, as the Sol Niger approaches.
“In the course of life we encounter a kind of special state of consciousness – a moment at the threshold of a deep spiritual experience. At the border of the conscious mind (and perhaps with an initial feeling of disorientation), emerges a strong attraction toward a newly encountered state of being: a state that we feel is crucial in some way, and toward which we subconsciously strive, over the protests of normal rationality. On the other side of this threshold, beyond that apprehension, there is a sedimental layer of inner preparation which makes us ready for that moment. The energy evoked during artistic creation has always held similar qualities to this process; and listening again to these early works, it becomes clear to me just how vital to my music’s flow is this process of transformation and awakening. I feel that this same process informs the art of Joseph Uccello, which elegantly accompanies the music of these two re-releases.
Sit Tibi Terra Levis/ Introspective and The Hidden Spring satisfied completely this desire of immediate expression; truth calls for realization, and the feeling of 'spring water' contained in these albums has for me still something magic after such a long , long time.”
Alio Die, December 2008"
[label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
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Music Infinity meets Virtues |
CD |
"Performed live at Church of St. Simon and Juda, Prague 1 – Old Town, May 23, 2009 and presented as part of the concert series Music Infinity, organized by Palac Akropolis and Josef Sedloň, in association with the Italian cultural institute in Prague.
This CD is released as part and the result of C(t)NOSTI (VIRTUES) creative project supporting the development of humanity’s potential." [label info]
www.nextera.cz
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
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The Way of Fire (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Stefano Musso alias ALIO DIE lives in a small village in the mountains of Lunigiana, where he is inspired by pure nature –surroundings. There he is also running a CD-label for new ambient dream music named HIC SUNT LEONES. ALIO DIE gives the perfect soundtrack to a journey into the realms of untouched nature; listen to animal voices, flutes, long dark drones, drummings, metallic sounds, small feedbacks and thunderous explosions...
a kind of psychoactive illuminative music, the two long tracks here are in a darker vein as on recent ALIO DIE releases..
Ideal Sounds for your psychognostic daydreams!
MINT-GREEN VINYL, VERY HANDMADE COVER-ARTWORK WITH LOTS OF PAINT, STAMPS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, PIECES OF NEWSPAPERS, PIECES OF PLANTS & FEATHERS. EACH ONE DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE!
"Two spacious new E.P.s for entheogenic minds
- out on Drone in December 1998"
|
1998 |
€ |
|
|
Horas Tibi Serenas |
CD |
"HIC SUNT LEONES presents: ALIO DIE Horas Tibi Serenas HSL054
HORAS TIBI SERENAS is the third chapter of Castles Sonorisation's Series, after Aura Seminalis and tempus Rei.It come in a 3 sides Digipack in a limited edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Tripudium Naturae |
CD |
"After 20 years of activity Alio Die present his 15° solo album. Tripudium Naturae display in 10 new tracks with a celebrative feeling, that lead into some intimate, illuminating and deep atmospheres. Sometime close to his first albums, sometime reminds the recent "Castles Sonorisation's Series", employing the usual loop-technique and the electro-acoustic's sounds-magma into new forms and atmospherics explorations. A kind of classic Alio Die's album." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
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| |
Deconsecrated and Pure |
CD |
"Deconsecrated and Pure is an evocative liturgy from the realm where electronic music meets acoustic drones, found objects, sacral voices and field recordings.
Italian ambient-acoustic sonic sculptor Stefano Musso returns for his first solo Alio Die release on Projekt in 20 years. Don't get the idea he's been on vacation, however! Since 1992 he has released 37 collaborative CDs and 19 solo CDs; this makes Deconsecrated and Pure Alio Die's 20th solo release! Welcome back!
The processed traditional instruments and natural textures float alongside rich electro-organic drones, creating a perfect introspective soundtrack with a medieval and sacral atmosphere. Serene and meditative textures combine in a chorus of circular and interwoven sounds, reflecting the harmony of the cosmos as an opus of inner stillness.
Processed and layered into the mix are vocal pieces by Claudio Merulo. The work of this 16th century Venetian Renaissance composer was performed by Paolo Tognon and Quoniam Ensemble di Dulciane and De Labyrintho Ensemble Della Rinascenza, creating the essence of a historical religious feel. The gradual evolution of the arrangements create a strong impression that the listener has been carried across time and space. Elements such as sonically-tampered Middle East horns (The dulciana, a sort of early basoon/oboe), solemn atmospheres of the courts of the Italian Renaissance, and evocative soundscapes cosmic and ethereal combine for holiness and trascendence.
To create this work, Stefano selected fragments of sessions recorded with the acoustic instruments, modifying them through multi-layered loops. Pitch and frequencies changed, effects were added, other sound objects were played and processed into the mix. This was further augmented with the electronics and field recordings adding more layers metamorphosizing the whole atmosphere into a deep trance mood. What makes Alio Die's compositions glow is the attention to detail and fluidity; something from the background floats to the foreground as it is slowly modified, or perhaps it's the gentle addition of a bagpipe or stringed instruments. It all intertwines through constant modulation, addition of atmospheric sounds, and re-contextualization.
Marvelously floating and hauntingly expressive, Deconsecrated and Pure feels like a liturgical poem within an archaic mausoleum distorted by time." [label info]
www.projekt.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
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| ALIO DIE & AGLAIA |
Private History of the Clouds |
CD |
Dies dürfte die erste echte Zusammenarbeit der italienischen Projekte sein, scheinbar geht es hier um Vertonungen des Himmels, genauer: verschiedener Wolkenformationen (CIRRUS = reine Eiswolke in großer Höhe / auch Federwolke genannt; PERLUCIDUS = "durchsichtige" Fleckenwolke; NIMBUS = Regenwolke; RADIATUS = Wolken die parallele Bänder aufweisen; STRATUS = niedere Schichtwolke; CUMULS CONGESTUS = mächtige Quellwolke). Entsprechend "luftig" und ätherisch sind diese hellen Drones geraten, in die sanfte Field Recordings (Wasser, Insekten) sowie die typischen Zither-Klänge von ALIO DIE gemischt wurden... das ist "Ambient" pur, hat klanglich vielleicht nicht das allergrösste Innovationspotenzial, aber wer ALIO DIE & AGLAIA bereits kennt wie meisterhaft & einmalig sie organische Klang-Meditationen umsetzen können... Musik wie Wellenreflektionen.
"Infraction Records curates this new entry to the already considerable body of collaborations involving Alio Die. There have already been communings with the likes of Robert Rich, Mathias Grassow, and Vidna Obmana. Here, though, Stefano Musso's fellow-travellers are lesser known but closer to home. Aglaia is an Italian duo with a trio of albums on his Hic Sunt Leones label; Gino Fioravanti and Gianluigi Toso come trailing credentials in therapy, writing, painting, and teaching, to say nothing of alchemy and ortho-bionomy. In contrast with Musso, who has fully two decades of musical endeavors behind him, they're comparative novices. But you wouldn't have thought it. Theirs is a music whose apparent stasis enfolds within it endless subtle micro-variations. They bring with them from previous HSL releases an appealing aquatic/amniotic sound dimension, characterized by a combination of electronic sounds (analogies as the sleeve notes would have it) and processed acoustica moving as if in virtual circular breathing. Slow waves of soundflow suggestive of psycho-acoustic energy (if you're a believer, otherwise just go with the flow) come with peripheral fragments of sonorities, carried on the wind, drifting as if at the edges of sleep, recalling the way echo plays in open landscapes. That's part of the method of this animist collective's historical unfolding of its subjects' textures and trajectories, yielding a series of luminous aerated tracts. Animists see a spiritual force residing in every element of the physical world. Nature is believed to be alive, imputing an inner life to leaves, lakes and the like. Dwelling on Private History Of The Clouds brings this to mind before even entering its audio world, particularly in light of Alio Die's predilection for 'passion, nature and awakening' and Aglaia's for worlds of feeling ('mondi sensibili,' as a previous album was called). But, lest this kind of talk scare off those averse to nature-hugging, note that the musical Grace inspiring this project is more a familiar of Pandit Prath Nan and Brian Eno than of Wyndham Hill and Hearts of Space." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
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| |
Vayu Rouah |
CD |
"Cosmic like Three Organic Experiences, esoteric like Password for Entheogenic Experience, Vayu Rouah perform a kind of synthesis of the researches by Alio Die and Aglaia.
Vayu Rouah is the primordial wind that join cabala and sonorous alchemies, an inexorable flux with extended electro-acoustic solutions, by a wide range of frequencies.
A very long and slow gestation of about eight years have absorbed different musical moods and have stratified itself throw the time.. sound after sound.. towards his extreme possibilities. The listeners that loved the first chapters, that inspired this work, will find themself in perfect armony into Vayu Rouah's spirals.
Vayu is described in a line of Vedic tradition, in the specific of "Rg veda":
Respiro degli Dei e germe vitale dell’universo, liberamente egli vaga, portiamo il nostro omaggio a colui del quale la voce si può udire ma la cui forma non si vede. RV X,168."
[label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & ANTONIO TESTA |
Rêverie |
CD |
"Rêverie is the third collaboration between Antonio Testa and Stefano Musso after ten years from their last cd together "Prayer for the Forest", with this new potion the duo explore different slow-motion atmospheres, playing a wide range of acoustic instruments, and distilling healing sounds, that naturally relate with music-therapy. An album for the soul and the love of being in its entirety. Airy and suspended, "Rêverie" is inductive music for light-hearted moods - over any siege of thought. The cd comes in a refined 6 panel digipack. Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & DIRK SERRIES |
The Chapters of the Eclipse |
CD |
THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE reveals layers of eternity in each phase like a moon bath vitalizing luminous patches in expanded and contemplative dronescapes. The meditative and minimalist electronic ambient sky is suspended at the interval for liberation from the shadows of becoming: life in its most essential orientation.
THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE is the new musical union of Italy’s Alio Die (Stefano Musso) and Belgium’s Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana) which, more than twenty years after their previous collaboration (ECHO PASSAGE, Projekt 1999), contains three compositions in a suspended airy, majestic succession. These liquid soundscapes create an elegy of pure sonic beauty.
“It offers no possibility of interpretation,” writes Musso, “because the involvement is complete, and immersion presupposes nothing more than being immediately part of the floating of the cosmos in the glow of its impersonal nature. Eight years in the making, this new creation radiates the wave that accompanies the explored space; it’s a telescope on eternity in a contemplative offering which is an impulse towards the very essence of the inner light.”
THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE imparts passage to a realm of transcendence, a reflection on life while absorbing the beautiful harmonics of these essential dronescapes originating from electric guitar, zither and processing.
BIO
Alio Die is the name of Stefano Musso’s shimmering, expansive dronescaping solo-project. Musso began work under the name in 1989 and has released over 70 albums including fruitful collaborations with artists such as Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, and Amelia Cuni. His personal musical signature is a hybrid between sonorous soundscapes and acoustic mysticism: a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design.
Dirk Serries is an experimentalist and foremost guitarist active since 1984, known for his vidnaObmana project and now extremely prolific in the free improvisation/free jazz scene with his own label and many different collaborations. The comings and goings of the sounds embrace and involve rather than describe; it develops sensations which we no longer hold back, while the sound textures flow continuously in the sensitive moments.
https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-chapters-of-the-eclipse |
2022 |
€15.00 |
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| ALIO DIE & FESTINA LENTE |
Il sogno di un piano veneziano a Parigi |
CD |
“With Il Sogno di un Piano Veneziano a Parigi Alio Die and Festina Lente creates together a place of the memory where the past rest with a filmy nostalgia.. it is a dramatically joint that finally extinguish itself to the become.. there at the border where the personal moment ends, and the taste of an impersonal experience starts, with a longer breath. Like life belongs to the cosmos, and time belongs to the seasons.
After a long friendship a pianoforte met a zither, their incorporating sounds brought on wings of an ancient and lully dream, in foggy layers of impalpable feelings and in a wayward journey towards the inland. The field recordings were collected in Paris, East-Asia, and America by Alio Die, kimsonJa and Francesco Paladino such as rituals, animals, objects and spontaneous voices in the street... surround and conduce towards parallel worlds.
The ambient tracks are alternated with more intense and obscure moments, without breaking the solution of the continuum, through the organic elaborations of the sound's dye... loops of notes and silences, subtle presences of the field recordings that spy both: mankind and nature… So the treated piano and the nipped and scrubbed cords, the voices and noises, the resonances of metals... calls back the memory's body, that comes to the surface with great glangour. Dissolvent bright and dark colours, putting voices together to a poetical inspiration and a glamorous and precise lyricism of the entire inside.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
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| ALIO DIE & FRANCESCO PALADINO |
Angel's Fly Souvenir |
CD |
Immer wieder kollaboriert ALIO DIE mit neuen, uns noch unbekannten Musikern und schafft so eine Erweiterung seines typischen Ambient-Trance-Stils .... hier besonders bemerkenswert die vollen Zither-Sounds und ost-europäische Choräle, die wunderbar eingebunden werden...
“ 'Angel's Fly Souvenir': a CD by ALIO DIE & FRANCESCO PALADINO with contributes by IN GOWAN RING and JACK OR JIVE An album out of any definition, music at the same time dreamy and deep, a concrete and ethereal journey, born from the pleasure to experiment, the project was starting from acoustic sounds and voices recorded throw a long tube with zither loops, flutes, and different sonorous objects not identified at all and from the 'nose' sounds by Francesco Paladino. The album contains seven tracks, two of that are enriched by the epic collaboration track with In Gowan Ring in 'Ancient Consciousness of the End', and with the voice by Chako of Jack or Jive in 'Flowing Out from the Core of the Mountain'.
Francesco Paladino apart from his passion with video art, it's active in music from early seventies and was a member of Doubling Riders.
The recordings of Angel's Fly Souvenir were started in spring 2003, and now the Cd is finally come out to the light, with its bright and dark abisses, and its own night meditations.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE & LINGUA FUNGI |
Otter Songs |
CD |
"Performed and recorded between 2008 and 2011 by Jaakko Padatsu and Stefano Musso in Oulu, Finland and Milano,Italy. Mixed and mastered by Jaakko Padatsu in 2011.
All acoustic instruments and field recordings
by Jaakko Padatsu and Stefano Musso.
Accordion on "Fount of Flowing Water" by Heta Kaisto.
Otter Songs - Alio Die & Lingua Fungi
Otter Songs is the culmination of the process that began in 2008 by Lingua Fungi and Alio Die.
The idea for the collaboration was born from the initial recordings by Jaakko Padatsu utilizing diverse self made instruments and natural objects including driftwood, snail shells and otter skull ocarinas. The archaic and arctic drones were later complemented with subtle recordings by Stefano Musso with zither, sitar and other acoustic instruments. The collaboration was sealed with final recordings in Italian spring 2011 by Jaakko Padatsu and Stefano Musso.
From Terra Ultima to Mediterranean, the album brings together the tones of nocturnal cicadae and spring break-up of ice in Bothnian Bay.
Sometimes driven with arctic atavism, sometimes with delicate warm melodies, Otter Songs aims to transcend physical distance by deconstructing and rebuilding the two worlds into boundless celebration of Terra Mater.
The cd comes in a refined 6 panel digipack printed with gold colour. Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones from original concept and photos by Lingua Fungi." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & LORENZO MONTANA |
The Threshold of Beauty |
CD |
"On their second collaboration, these cult Italian musicians create an hour of meditative dream-infused soundscapes and beatless mystical textures. Following their 2015 Projekt album Holographic Codex, Alio Die (with 65 releases) and Lorenzo Montanà (with 17 releases) come together for six tracks of deep ambient soundscaping, intersecting a potent alchemical brew of pure organic sounds.
The threshold of beauty is a transcendental vision of beauty as an integral part of the cosmos. The connections of the music with nature and human spirituality are mixed in an ineffable picture that create a contemplative frame of mind.
The recordings started with Alio Die performing on a psaltery (an ancient medieval instrument like a dulcimer but played by plucking the strings) augmented with real time electronic improvisations & processing by Lorenzo. The tracks were then edited by Alio Die adding layers, additional effects and loops to complete the expansive ritualistic tapestry.
Undeniably calming and moving, the breathing slows, the mind quiets and opens. As the introspective ambience washes over the listener, a naturalistic dronescape unfolds with alluring aural scenarios of evolving, intimate sounds.
* Alio Die has over 65 releases, 7 on America’s Projekt Records and others on his own Hic Sunt Leones label. Montanà recorded 5 collaborations with Pete Namlook on Pete’s German FAX label, plus released 12 solo albums with various European imprints.
Limited edition of 500, May 31 2019"
https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-threshold-of-beauty
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & MARIOLINA ZITTA |
La Sala dei Cristalli |
CD |
"Using selected sound materials from Sonorous stones, Stalactites, Bat calls, Flutes, Field recordings collected by Mariolina Zitta in different caves in Liguria a Sardinia, Italy, processed and edited by Alio Die.
In "Lithos" the drones are played by the authors on a set of long stones that goes in resonance, caressed by a bathed hand, by the same principle of the crystal's glasses.
A very immersive and obscure traveling, an underground meditation with a ritual touch, in accord with the "natural sound", despite the sampling and multieffect techniques used here.
A deep listening experience." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & MARTINA GALVAGNI |
Eleusian Lullaby |
CD |
"Oasen-Ambient" auf dieser Zusammenarbeit von ALIO DIE mit der italienischen Sängerin MARTINA GALVAGNI, hell klingend & klar, eine paradiesische Schönheit und Geborgenheit heraufbeschwörend, zärtlich, warm & sinnlich. ALIO DIE benutzt wieder diverse Instrumente wie Zither & Sitar und field recordings, die er auf seine typische Art und Weise verwebt...
"Eleusian Lullaby is a sensual ethereal-ambient collaboration between Italian soundsculptor Stefano Musso (aka Alio Die) and Italian singer Martina Galvagni. It is the third release in Projekt's series of Alio Die's vocal collaborations following 2001's Apsaras (with Amelia Cuni) and 2005's Mei-Jyu (with Jack or Jive). Eleusian Lullaby blends the natural, warm and earthy ambient compositions of Alio Die with the elegant, neo-classical voice of Martina, merging notes and silence into an expanded dreamscape. This is lullaby music like an aural caress from darkness into the light. The combination of the vocal melodies with the abstract qualities of the loops and instruments creates a suspended near-dream space, intimate and sensual at the same time.
The opening track, 'The Oniroid Sleep,' displays a foggy atmosphere where the voices wash beneath the acoustic layers of the cithara, sitar, kalimba and field recordings. On the second track, 'A Drone Song for Alienor,' the voice is clearer and more upfront with all its powerful beauty apparent creating an intense and fragile song with a neo-classical approach. The third song, 'Eleusian Lullaby,' was created as a totally free improvisation of psaltery and voice; the text is sung in a dialect of the Engadina language (Switzerland). Drones and loops were added later from the original recordings.
60 minutes of music, composed by acoustical improvisations with voice, psaltery, zither, cithara, bells, metals and field recordings. The original recordings were made in locations in the woods and in ancient medieval places then processed and layered by Alio Die at Temple Studio in 2005-2006.
Listen to this trance music in the dark and be lead to a tranquil earthly garden. Like in the best lullabies, you are caressed as you are transported to a mysterious parallel soundworld of peace and harmony." [label notes]
"Three elongated tracks making up a full length album of arty, filmic experimental soundscaping. Delicate and subtle, yet slightly discordant, melodies from archaic stringed instruments interweave with ambient drones, tinkling bells, and wordless vocals with Middle Eastern, medieval and folk touches, as well as sophisticated and evocative neoclassical vocals that are used as more of a focus of the track rather than the other styles that put in briefer appearances. Less song-oriented than many Projekt releases, but its ethereal nature, coupled with the slightly dark take on folk/world/classical music, fits right in with much of the label's other output. Combining elements familiar from the ambient/drone/experimental genre with creative, intellectual ideas of their own, the album is relaxing yet slightly unsettling at times, and goes beyond music and into the realms of aural art." [Bliss / Aquamarine]
www.projekt.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE & SAFFRON WOOD |
The Sleep of Seeds |
CD |
Sehr entspannte Drone-Improvisationen praktisch ohne elektronische Sounds.. eine weitere neue VÖ von ALIO DIE, hier in Zusammenarbeit mit SAFFRON WOOD.
“ The title is also the opening track of this macroscopic journey into a world which spontaneously engages us when we travel through it. A link between life and earth, a passageway between time and change. A melodius itinerary in which a time hourglass often makes no sense but only the sound of articulated and fragmentary notes...50 minutes between a seed and a grain of soil to wander into an infinite space while listening to a far away earth longing sound. Recorded in Savona Italy august 2002, with different flutes, tubes, accordion, various objects, rattles, shells, bells... Drones and loops, effects, editing and mastering on Pro-tools, at Temple studio Milano spring 2003. All the Cds comes in a special artwork compositions with tissues leaves, seeds...” [label description]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Corteggiando le Messi |
CD |
Second collaboration with SAFFRON WOOD, again many Zither-sounds are used to create a very fluffy and airy fluid.. let if flow endlessly ..
"...A new collaboration between ALIO DIE e SAFFRON WOOD is already mastered. From seminal experiments at the research of the harmony, playing with nipped and scrubbed cords by salterio and zither (plus marimba and fields recordings), improvising and recording in the open spaces of the inner Liguria, some very relaxing tracks are spring out ...with coloured harmonics and enchanted depth. One of the Top Ten listenings here… " [announcement from label website]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE & SYLVI ALLI |
Amidst the Circling Spires |
CD |
"Amidst the Circling Spires is a captivating electro-ambient journey into an interior space, weaving visions of strong emotional impact. Sylvi’s heavenly voice drifts within the highly processed acoustic sounds created by Alio Die: a hybrid between – sonorous soundscapes and acoustic mysticism. The treated tones are an essential magma – organic and animated – luring the listener in like an ancestral call or an ancient saga. The loops, played with carillon, kalimba, zither, different objects and field recordings, blend into finely-detailed layered and treated.
Sylvi’s voice is intense and moving, evanescent and precise – each song a mantra exploring a unique soundworld. Her vocals interact deeply with the melodies and atmosphere of Alio Die as they weave together like dark roots underground.
The ecstatic and ritualistic landscapes that these artists offer shine with a magic all their own – giving rise to a multiple array of meditations perfectly mixed with unique pathos and abstraction." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & ZEIT |
Sunja |
CD |
Die erste der gleich DREI neuen HSL / ALIO DIE – Veröffentlichungen Ende 2003 ist SUNJA, die wohl zum harmonischten und entspannendsten gehört, was STEFANO MUSSO bisher produziert hat. Positiv und warme Sphären werden hier imaginiert, die an eine friedliche, paradiesische Oase denken lassen. Esoteric Ambience in its truest sense !
”Magic has blown its precious spores in the air. A human rite, humble and quiet, has evoked a red hot globe that gently illuminates the path toward the borders of Sunja, the dream place where all vibrations start. Sometimes the light comes down from the sky, clear like a crystal. Sometimes it climbs slowly from the earth's depths, but it's always comforting. Crossing the thresholds of Sunja is like landing on an uncontaminated island, furrow its white sea-shores lapped by tepid foamy waters, been inebriated with wide floral smells and saltiness in secret places of the inland and in caves dug from time, gain the top of the plateau from which it is possible to see
beyond...Sunja is creative strength enclosed in two long tracks of incredible intensity, rich in levels of knowledge, pure enchantment and beauty. The deep sound has an extraordinary symbolic and evocative power and it has arrived to a supreme purification owing to millenial percolations across the rock. Music shines, beholds, resounds at the bottom of ourselves, lives and spreads out. We realize, in listening, that a light warmth closes in upon us, everything loses its own original sense, the gates open...the road is beaten!
Basic acoustic recordings were improvised during a warm night in late summer 2002 at Lunae studio,Tuscany. Edited and mixed in spring 2003 at Temple studio, Milano.
Stefano Musso: zither, samples and loops, buzzer , fields recordings. Tommaso Cimo': khen(mouth-organ), accordion,rattles, bird calls, bells. All the Cds comes in a special artwork numbered compositions with collages and handmade prints.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Il Giardino Ermeneutico |
CD |
"The third collaboration with Zeit displays a wonderful and unique combination between acoustic sounds, field recordings and airy gentle electronic sounds. The sonic result maintains the natural atmospheres of the original acoustic recordings, done at the time of the Raag drone theory's sessions in Lunigiana, Italy at Chiostro dell’Annunziata and the Wood Sanctuary in August 2006.
Here the treatments enriche the mixture with a new sensible touch that subtly transports the listener towards an enchanted and multi-dimensional place for relaxation." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
A Circular Quest |
CD |
"Fourth collaborative album by Alio Die and Zeit, A Circular Quest combine electronics with acoustic drones and loops, infusing to the music the usual natural feeling with an eastern touch.
Deep and immersive music, intense and layered electronic meditations, ecstatic spirals and pacific vibes..." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE / M. GRASSOW |
Praha Meditations |
CD |
"After the concert in Prague last year in may, we followed the proposal of friends to play some acoustic instruments spontaneously on top of the hill, in Troja, into a circle of stones installations.
Zithers, Tubes, Bells, Rattle and Shells, Flutes..the sessions were inspired from the special place and the spring's vibes in the wind. The recordings that are a blueprint of the spirit of that day, were edited in studio by Alio Die, then Mathias Grassow added his electronic drones to expand the point of view and enrich the flow and layers of the compositions. The result in eight tracks, show how mostly static and repetitive balanced sounds can interact with our perception during the listening time, bringing us into an active and intimate quiet mood, softly absorbing us into some dreams-like and time-opening experience." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE / NICK PARKIN |
Aquam Metallicam |
CD |
Collaboration between the two italian deep ambient artists, using lots of “real” instruments (percussion, shells rattles, bowed psaltery) to create their emotional touching dreamscapes... using more concrete materials, this sounds stranger & more alien than other works..
label website: www.musicamaximamagnetica.com
|
2001 |
€13.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE / PARALLEL WORLDS |
Circo Divino |
LP |
"This is the first collaboration by ambient master Alio Die with soundscape creator Parallel Worlds. the unique sound achieved could be described as a hybrid sonic world, made out of bouncing electrons and air vibrations. the modular machines of Parallel Worlds are merged with the acoustic instrumentation and drones of Alio Die, joined by the ethereal voice of the Polish vocalist/composer India Czajkowska, resulting in a surreal, yet down to earth, listening experience. The compositions, being, at times, minimal and calm and, at other times, full of mystical darkness and microsound elements,
take the listener into a place were mental and physical boundaries have no need to exist.
The beautiful Digipack artwork is by the painter Romanie Sanchez.
Tracks:
1 Lost Fractales
2 Circo Divino
3 Nuvole di Palissandro
4 Sorinel
5 Electrostatic Forest
6 Slide of Grace
All tracks composed and produced by Bakis Sirros and Stefano Musso (BMI) between 2008 and 2009, in Milan, Italy and Athens, Greece.
Parallel Worlds : Doepfer A100, Serge, AS Integrator, Metalbox/CGS modulars, 4-Voice, VCS3, String machines, Tape Echoes, Tone & CV generators, wave shapers and modifiers.
Alio Die: Drones and Loops, Zither, Carillon, Effects and Treatments.
Voice and effects on tracks 1,3,4 by India Czajkowska recorded in Verezzi, Italy." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Circo Divino |
CD |
"This is the first collaboration by ambient master Alio Die with soundscape creator Parallel Worlds. The unique sound achieved could be described as a hybrid sonic world, made out of bouncing electrons and air vibrations. The modular machines of Parallel Worlds are merged with the acoustic instrumentation and drones of Alio Die, joined by the ethereal voice of the Polish vocalist/composer India Czajkowska, resulting in a surreal, yet down to earth, listening experience. The compositions, being, at times, minimal and calm and, at other times, full of mystical darkness and microsound elements, take the listener into a place were mental and physical boundaries have no need to exist.
The beautiful Digipack artwork is by the painter Romanie Sanchez.
Tracks:
1 Lost Fractales
2 Circo Divino
3 Nuvole di Palissandro
4 Sorinel
5 Electrostatic Forest
6 Slide of Grace
All tracks composed and produced by Bakis Sirros and Stefano Musso
(BMI) between 2008 and 2009, in Milan, Italy and Athens, Greece.
Parallel Worlds : Doepfer A100 modular, Serge Modular Music System, AS Integrator modular, Metalbox/CGS modular, modified Oberheim 4-Voice, modified EMS VCS3, String machines, Tape Echoes, Tone & CV generators, wave shapers and modifiers.
Alio Die: Drones and Loops, Zither, Carillon, Effects and Treatments.
Voice and effects on tracks 1,3,4 by India Czajkowska recorded in Verezzi, Italy.
Mastering by Stefano Musso at Temple Studio, Milan.
Cover pictures by Romanie Sanchez
www.romanie.net" [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIZADEH, SABA |
I may never see you again |
LP |
Iranian composer and Kamancheh virtuoso, Saba Alizadeh releases his new album "I May Never See You Again"on the newly founded Hamburg label 30M Records.
Born in Tehran in 1983 to world-renowned tar and setar virtuoso and composer Hossein Alizadeh, Saba Alizadeh studied the Iranian Kamancheh – an ancient Persian violin – becoming one of the foremost players of the instrument of this day. Alizadeh later studied experimental sound art with Mark Trayle at the California Institute of the Arts and inspired by the conceptual approaches taught there, started composing music that deconstructs and abstracts Iranian traditions and scales into a new musical language and style.
Influenced by Iranian harmonics, musique concrète and sophisticated, forward-looking beat science, Saba Alizadeh's "I May Never See You Again" represent an incredibly exciting act of mutual inspiration - when Iranian scales and Western electroacoustic understanding powerfully unite.
The nine predominantly instrumental tracks on the album fuse tradition and innovation inspiring meditations on the subject of memory. On the one hand, the credibility and resilience of one's own memory is musically dissected, whilst on the other hand, Saba Alizadeh proceeds conceptually, deploying erstwhile dictators’ speeches in his music as a means to question the course of history.
I May Never See You Again also features handpicked collaborations with musician Andreas Spechtl and electroacoustic sound artist Rojin Sharafi. Spechtl, singer of the band Ja, Panik, found fame in the German-speaking world primarily thanks to his song lyrics, in which he deconstructs words in a similarly abstract way as Saba Alizadeh does the music.
Spechtl joins Alizadeh on two tracks for the album, while Vienna-based Iranian Sharafi joins on one.
https://30m-records.bandcamp.com/album/i-may-never-see-you-again
|
2021 |
€24.50 |
|
| ALL SHADOWS AND DELIVERANCE |
Partus |
LP |
"New album by this drone/noise project from Kortrijk (BE). A trip through a cold and loveless world with subdued and repressed fears and demons. It takes you back to the classic Swedish death industrial sound that many loved and loathed in the 1990s (think Cold Meat Industry). The added field recordings, razorsharp feedback, machinery noises and vicious vocals (courtesy of Jenci Vervaeke of VVOVNDS) only add to the hellish and dark atmosphere.
With this new album, All Shadows And Deliverance firmly puts itself in the same filthy corner of the musical spectrum where people like PRURIENT, PHARMAKON and BRIGHTER DEATH NOW reign supreme." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2015 |
€17.00 |
|
| ALLBEE, LIZ & BURKHARD BEINS |
Mensch Mensch Mensch |
LP |
"Berlin based composer-performers Liz Allbee and Burkhard Beins team up for some electro-acoustic explorations, utilising synths and field recordings, trumpet and percussion. Informed by their musical backgrounds ranging from industrial/noise via musique concrete to free improv, the two players create interactive fields of an imaginarchic nature. Limited to 250 copies." [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
|
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
| ALMOND, MARC WITH MICHAEL CASHMORE |
Gabriel & The Lunatic Lover |
maxi-CD |
"1st in a series of collaborative releases. The duo sets to music two poems by Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock, the extraordinary 19th-century gay writer whose bizarre life of decadence, drug-addiction, alcoholism, & poetry; coupled w/ Satanic, vampiric, & Catholic obsessions; led to his early death at the age of 36 in 1895. Beautiful full-color digipak that contains previously unpublished paintings of Almond by Russian artist Vania Soutavliov, a rare photograph of the enigmatic Count, & the complete texts to both poems." [label info]
www.durtro.com
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| ALOG |
Amateur |
CD |
"ALOG zählen seit 1997 zu den besten experimentellen Elektromusikern in Norwegen. Seit ihrem Debüt "Red Shift Swing" sind sie ihrem Label Rune Grammofon treu geblieben, wo die Nachfolger "Duck-Rabbit" und "Miniatures" erschienen. Letzteres gewann 2005 den norwegischen Grammy für den besten Electronica-Release. ALOG reisten für "Amateur" durch Norwegen und nahmen in Musikschulen und Musiksälen von Grundschulen auf, um den Sound eines jeden Instrumentes optimal darstellen zu können, was im Studio dann zu "Amateur" geformt wurde. Das Ziel aller Computersoftware ist es heute, den individuellen Sound eines jeden Musikers zu überdecken und alles gleich klingen zu lassen; ALOG gehen auf "Amateur" den genau entgegengesetzten Weg. //
Alog are duo Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan, and this is their fourth full-length release for the Rune Grammofon label. Since forming in 1997, Alog have been among Norway's leading performers of experimental electronic music. They are mainstays at Rune Grammofon and have been with the label since their debut album Red Shift Swing was released in 1999. They have increasingly worked with various acoustic instruments and in collaboration with other musicians for long recording sessions in special locations. Travelling around the west coast of Norway with Nicholas H. Møllerhaug and Nils Økland sidekick Sigbjørn Apeland, they recorded in music schools in an attempt to capture the unique sound of each selection of instruments found. Because of bad weather they could be stuck for days on islands off the wild northern coast recording themselves playing any instruments they could find and building more of their own. These sessions were subsequently worked on in the studio to bring out the unique spirit of this release, characterized by a curious and fresh approach to playing that is often lost in the process of becoming a virtuoso on a singular instrument. The word "amateur" originally denotes a person who is motivated by a passion or love for their activity. It has been the goal of Alog on this album to preserve and enhance this special energy in their songs, and to do this they use their "augmented acoustics" technology and bring out the hidden "amateur" energy of each song." [press release]
www.runegrammofon.com
"Music by Alog have never ceased to amaze me. The duo of Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan have by now released a bunch of works on Melektronikk, Smalltown Supersound and En/Of, and here return with a strange CD, once again. Apparently 'it was recorded on various locations in the western and northern parts of Norway, often using instruments found or built for the sole purpose of this recording', which is something that is hard to believe. But 'these sessions were subsequently worked on in the studio to bring out the unique spirit of the 'Amateur'. In the post-production world of the studio anything is possible, I then think. To describe the music of Alog is not easy, but 'amateur' is a good description, in the most positive sense of the word. 'Childlike' and 'naive' are two others that fit the description quite well. There are hints of minimal music, microsound, folk and improvisation - and perhaps any category in between these that could be applied to the music of Alog. They play their instruments (whatever lost and found they might be) like children, not banging around but with a curious interest in seeing what a sound does. Carefully as not make too many sounds. Beautiful electronic sound scapes, with interesting electro-acoustic sounds here and there. Very nice. Once again." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Amateur |
do-LP |
"Double LP version, deluxe gatefold sleeve. Alog are duo Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan, and this is their fourth full-length release for the Rune Grammofon label. Since forming in 1997, Alog have been among Norway's leading performers of experimental electronic music. They are mainstays at Rune Grammofon and have been with the label since their debut album Red Shift Swing was released in 1999. They have increasingly worked with various acoustic instruments and in collaboration with other musicians for long recording sessions in special locations. Travelling around the west coast of Norway with Nicholas H. Møllerhaug and Nils Økland sidekick Sigbjørn Apeland, they recorded in music schools in an attempt to capture the unique sound of each selection of instruments found. Because of bad weather they could be stuck for days on islands off the wild northern coast recording themselves playing any instruments they could find and building more of their own. These sessions were subsequently worked on in the studio to bring out the unique spirit of this release, characterized by a curious and fresh approach to playing that is often lost in the process of becoming a virtuoso on a singular instrument. The word "amateur" originally denotes a person who is motivated by a passion or love for their activity. It has been the goal of Alog on this album to preserve and enhance this special energy in their songs, and to do this they use their "augmented acoustics" technology and bring out the hidden "amateur" energy of each song." [press release] |
2007 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Islands of Memory |
LP |
"Islands Of Memory is the long lost, long awaited EP from Norwegian duo Alog that was recorded during the summer of 1999 in Malmö, Sweden. It was scheduled for release around the time of the Duck-Rabbit CD for Rune Grammofon.
Due to unknown problems at the vinyl plant, it never saw the light of day, and was lost in the boiling vinyl cauldron somewhere in Switzerland. Fortunately, Creaked got the master tape back and Islands Of Memory is now finally being released. The wait is over, and it was well worth it!
The brainchild ideas of Dag-Are Haugan and Espen Sommer Eide / Alog bring a breath of new and invigorating air to electronic music scene with their very own blend of modern, melodic and minimal electronica merged with warm instruments and organic sounds.
Delivered with beautiful designed cover from Grandpeople, Islands Of Memory is definitely a must-have for any curious fan of contemporary electronic music." [label info]
www.creakedrecords.com
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Unemployed |
CD |
"Mainstays with Rune Grammofon since their debut ”Red Shift Swing” in 1999, their new album ”Unemployed” finds them on top of their game with what is arguably their finest effort so far. It was recorded in a wide range of spaces and places, from recordings of Haugan and Eide as street musicians in San Francisco while touring, to scavenging old collections of 78-records in the mining town of Bjørnevatn in the far north-eastern part of Norway. From on-the-spot recordings of Sigbjørn Apeland´s legendary collection of vintage harmoniums in the St. Jakobs Church in Bergen, to high-end capture of the unique sounds of Alog´s many custom built instruments in the studios of Notam in Oslo and BEK in Bergen. For a period of three years Alog collected material from all kind of sources, times and situations and made new songs that constantly pushed their creative freedom in unexpected directions. Playful, adventurous, mysterious and exploring, this is 76 minutes of experimental, yet accessible, music of the very finest sort and comes highly recommended." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
"Unemployed", das fünfte Album von ALOG, wurde an den verschiedensten Orten und Plätzen aufgenommen. Von Aufnahmen von Haugan und Eide als Straßenmusiker in San Francisco, während sie auf Tour waren, bis zu Stöbertouren in alte 78er-Plattensammlungen in der Bergbauerstadt Bjornevatn im nordöstlichsten Teil Norwegens. Von den spontanen Aufnahmen auf Sigbjorn Apelands legendärer Harmonium-Sammlung in der St. Jakobs Kirche in Bergen bis zu den einzigartigen Sounds auf den selbstgebauten ALOG Instrumenten im Notam Studio in Oslo und BEK in Bergen. Über drei Jahre hinweg sammelten ALOG Material aus den verschiedensten Quellen, Zeiten und Situationen, um neue Songs entstehen zu lassen, die der kreativen Freiheit in unerwartete Richtungen folgen. ALOG kamen in den späten 90er Jahren in Tromso als Duo aus Espen Sommer Eide und Dag-Are Haugan zusammen. In den vergangenen Jahren sind sie unterwegs auf viele einzigartige Musiker gestoßen, die eingeladen wurden, ihren Beitrag zu ,Unemployed" zu liefern. Da wäre das Harmonium von Sigbjorn Apeland, die minimalistischen Geigenimprovisationen des SHERIFFs OF NOTHINGNESS (Ole Henrik Moe und Kari Ronnekleiv), die klingenden Alltagsobjekte des jungen Soundkünstlers Signe Liden, die magischen Stimmen der Rune Grammofon Labelkollegin JENNY HVAL und der Beitrag des legendären niederländischen Soundpoeten Jaap Blonk.
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| ALONE IN THE HOLLOW GARDEN & NAM-KHAR |
same |
CD |
"The first collaboration between Alone In The Hollow Garden & Nam-Khar manifested in a collection of 8 ritual / tribal pieces, offers to the listener a transcendent voyage through the roots of primordial sound and vibration.
Having its inspiration in Tibetan spirituality & ancient aesthetics, the album merges the individual energies of Alone In The Hollow Garden & Nam-Khar into a fresh new sonic expression filled with tribal rhythmic structures, ritual acoustic instruments & deep chanting, created effortlessly by following the sound's mystical guidance.
Alone In The Hollow Garden: throat singing, chanting, kangling,
flutes, gongs, bells, metal percussion, amplified strings, analogue synthesizers.
Nam-Khar: percussion, programming, singing bowls, effects, analogue synthesizers.
Channeled, recorded & mixed by Alone In The Hollow Garden & Nam-Khar between June MMXV & January MMXVI. Artwork and drawings by A.I.T.H.G.
Professionally pressed glassmaster CD coming in a beautiful digi-file offset printed glossy cardboard packaging. Limited edition of 100 copies released by Qualia Records." [label info]
https://aloneinthehollowgarden.bandcamp.com/album/alone-in-the-hollow-garden-nam-khar |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALTAIR TEMPLE / EXPO '70 |
split |
LP |
"Justin Wright’s Expo 70 is back, this time sharing vinyl space with French duo Altair Temple for a trip headlong into the bonged up psych-drone ether. On Wright’s side we’ve got a jam from the same sessions as his righteous Death Voyage outing, and he sculpts swirling dark masses of sound with heavily effected guitar and Moog, sometimes underpinned by the steady pulse of an analog drum machine. Flip it and Altair Temple deal out some gently pulsing mid-end synth drone that’s most relaxing and mystical-sounding, with subtle playful melodies right on the periphery to tease you deep into the hypnotic swells as it slowly builds and morphs. It’s sending me into a right old trance. Both sides of this fine split provide some of the best in finely detailed drones for the connoisseur. Well worth investigating." [Mike/Norman Rec.]
www.radarswarm.com
"On the for me unknown Radar Swarm Records three releases. I had a hard time reading the track titles on the split LP. I don't understand fonts like this. Its a split, so I learn from the label's website of Expo 70 and Altaïr Temple. The first is Justin Wright, who plays guitar, analog drum machine and moog and his piece 'Land Of The Midnight Sun' spans the whole side. It sounds a bit like an ongoing jam, but it does sound coherent. Slow drums, spacious guitar sounds, fine use of the moog. It slowly evolves and expands into the darker realms of psychedelic music. The other side has three pieces by Altaïr Temple, a duo of Fred (guitar, effects, synth) and Johan (analog synths, computer and audiomulch). Three excellent pieces of drone music that is quite synth/effect heavy, more than being based on the guitar sound. I was remembered of some of the old Windy & Carl stuff here. Quite static in approach, but with gentle melodies meandering just below the surface. Quite dark, but never unsettling, this is some fine mood music. Tow new names, for me, and both are quite good." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| ALTARMANG |
Void |
LP |
"2 great magicians: par bostrom - master of dark sound known of his projects kammarheit, cities last broadcast, and kenneth hansson - specialist of alchemies and plants magic - deliver 2 great dark ambient tracks under the title altarmang. 2 years of collaboration results the great album void where listener can experience great analogic sound and hypnotic rituals crystalised in heavy black vinyl." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| ALTIERI / BALESTRAZZI / BECUZZI |
In Memoriam J.G.BALLARD |
CD |
"James G. Ballard (1930-2009) was one of the most important and brilliant contemporary writers and his death has left a big cultural void. The influence of Ballard’s aesthetics has produced on millennium-end generations a true cult, inspiring artists and art-works in all disciplines. Yet nobody, until now, has decided to dedicate an entire work to his memory.
Thus, by mutual agreement, Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, TH26 ..), Simon Balestrazzi (TAC, Kino Glaz, Candor Chasma, Dream Weapon Ritual ..) and Gianluca Becuzzi (Limbo, Pankow, Kinetix ..), have decided to dedicate this album to the master of post modern literature and his work.
The nine tracks of that album take their titles from so many Ballard novels, trying to recreate his special visionary mood into music.
A universe ruled by free dreaming associations: eroticism, technology, consumerism and cruelty mingle together to create a new perception of reality.
A constant dialectic between micro-events and macro-rumorism, between digital pointillism and white noise, in between static drones, fluctuations, shifts and sudden changes of scenery.
The changing environment is producing sound architectures where the organic and the inorganic are no longer self-conscious, casting vague on each other.
The Marilyn Monroe hologram projected on the wall of a motel near an airport is sexier
Than the original.
James Ballard is dead, long live James Ballard.
This is best Italian Industrial in good old-school mood !
Tracklist :
1. Running Wild
2. Crash
3. Interlude One
4. The Drowned World
5. The Atrocity Exhibition
6. The Crystal World
7. Interlude Two
8. Concrete Island
9. High Rise " [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALTIERI, CORRADO / GIANLUCA FAVARON |
The System of Objects |
CD |
"Silentes presents a new collaborative effort between two prominent artists of Italy's electronic and experimental scene, Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, Uncodified) and Gianluca Favaron (ab'she, Under The Snow, Z'been). Inspired by Jean Baudrillard's essay of the same name, "The System of Objects" offers seven compositions combining field recordings, analogue textures, computer music and concrète sounds. Altieri e Favaron dig deep in the unconscious of the french philosopher, devising a hypothetical music score of his manifesto on the relations between objects universe and consumer society ideologies: drones and digital pulses, processed tapes and multi-layered frequencies make for a voyage to the borders of ambient, noise and radical experiments." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Releases on Silentes are getting a bit more sparse these days, perhaps because of the economic tide etc, but I am also happy to note that they do more and more LPs. However the first new one is a CD with Gianluca Favaron on computer and one Corrado Altieri, who gets credit for electronics and tapes. Favaron is a man whose work appeared a lot on Silentes (as we'll see here too), and I never heard of Altieri. The eight tracks on 'The System Of Objects' are relatively short: the whole album doesn't last more than thirty-five minutes and it's inspired by the book of the same name by Jean Baudrillard. In much of Favaron's work ambient and drones play an important role, even when they are created with the use of the computer. In this particular work however we find him in a somewhat more noisy role, owing more to musique concrete than to ambience. The whole thing has some heavily treated acoustic feel to it, creating seven quite densely knitted pieces of electronic music. Be this field recordings, be this acoustic sounds created with contact microphones, or whatever else, it's treated into great monolithic blocks of sound. In only a few pieces this kind of minimalism is left behind and more things happen at the same time, such as in the opening piece 'Objects And Time 1'. An excellent release of highly vibrant electronic music. Quite raw and intense, exactly the kind of noise I like. Not meaningless and pointless carrying on forever, but seven sharp, contrasting blasts." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Decomposed Days |
CD |
"Decomposed Days" is the new collaborative effort by Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, Uncodified) and Gianluca Favaron (Ab'she, Under The Snow, Zbeen), two major artist in the experimental electronic scene.
Released one year after "The System of Objects", a tribute to Jean Baudrillard, "Decomposed Days" relates to the possible connections between space, time and memory, making reference to imaginary movies as well as existing ones (like Peter Greenaway's "Vertical Features").
The album's five compositions are built with a crosspollination between musique concrete, abstract noise textures, radical computer music and techno splinters, leading to surreal territories.
"Decomposed Days" is available in three different editions:
- a standard edition of 225 copies;
- a limited edition of 20 copies which contain a photographic reproduction of the five Polaroids used for the cover;
- an extra limited edition of 5 copies which contain the aforementioned photographic reproduction and one of the five original Polaroids used for the cover." [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Decomposed Days |
CD |
"Decomposed Days" is the new collaborative effort by Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, Uncodified) and Gianluca Favaron (Ab'she, Under The Snow, Zbeen), two major artist in the experimental electronic scene.
Released one year after "The System of Objects", a tribute to Jean Baudrillard, "Decomposed Days" relates to the possible connections between space, time and memory, making reference to imaginary movies as well as existing ones (like Peter Greenaway's "Vertical Features").
The album's five compositions are built with a crosspollination between musique concrete, abstract noise textures, radical computer music and techno splinters, leading to surreal territories.
"Decomposed Days" is available in three different editions:
- a standard edition of 225 copies;
- a limited edition of 20 copies which contain a photographic reproduction of the five Polaroids used for the cover;
- an extra limited edition of 5 copies which contain the aforementioned photographic reproduction and one of the five original Polaroids used for the cover." [label info]
13.silentes.it
"Here's the follow-up to the CD 'The System Of Objects' by Corrado Altieri (synthesizers, electronics, tapes) and Gianluca Favaron (microphones, loops, effects, computer) - see also Vital Weekly 904. Just like that previous release, this is a rather short album (thirty-two minutes), but the tracks being a bit longer, with 'Vertical Features' even being twelve minutes. This work has less an ambient feel to it, and more a musique concrete/electro-acoustic feel. There are again the heavily treated field recordings and sounds from objects and fewer synthesizers. I might be wrong though. There is an overall sense of experiment here. More noise without being noise, if you get my drift. It's not loud per se, or rather, not at all, but to say this ambient would also not be the point. Throughout the music didn't seem very loud (or maybe I just turned down the volume?), but quite intense at this level; maybe it's just this early morning listening session that makes my judgement a bit clouded;
maybe I am not awake yet? Lots of obscure sounds from all these sources are melted down into this obscured drone music of a highly experimental nature. I quite enjoyed the radical nature of this somehow lo-fi sounding experimental noise. Lots of crackling and rust between the notes. This is, I may repeat myself, the noise I like very much." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
To Found |
CD |
Experimental. To find again sequences, sounds and samples, previously elaborated for other works and live performances, decontextualizing all of them to create new original material. These are the starting points for "To Found", the third release by Corrado Altieri and Gianluca Favaron on a Silentes label, devoted to all-round experimentation and stylistic contamination through the multiple languages of electronic sound. Drone music, post-Techno rhythmic disintegrations, suggestions of the old Industrial school, field recording, abstract echoes and noise pulsations, for eight hypnotic compositions created between Cagliari and Treviso, with the precious collaboration of Anacleto Vitolo. [label info]
https://13silentes.bandcamp.com/album/to-found
"Corrado Altieri and Gianluca Favaron deliver with ‘To Found’ their third album, following ‘The System Of Objects’ (Vital Weekly 904) and ‘Decomposed days’ (Vital Weekly 945). Altieri is responsible for ‘electronics, tapes and programming’ while Favaron plays computer and percussion. The two men have quite a history when it comes to experimental music in all its various incarnations, ambient mostly, but also noise-based and in their duo work they add the element of rhythm. It is difficult to say something about the way they work. It could work either way; either this is all improvised and only comes to us via editing the best bits and pieces, or they sit down and meticulously compose this. Somehow I tend to think it is the first. The pieces they edit together are short and to the point, like the whole album is, being thirty-two minutes long. The lessons learned from Pan Sonic are used quite well in these eight pieces. The bass sound is a strong presence, stomping occasionally away like on a techno record. Yet this does not result in dance music. Whatever else Favaron and Altieri add to the mix are noises, crumbled radio waves, sine waves, feedback, field recordings and highly obscured sounds, all of which is working quite well. By keeping these pieces between three and five minutes and in which there is quite a bit happening, they make sure there is quite a bit of energy in the music, not the least thanks to those rhythms that they slipped in. I think this is their best album together so far." [Vital Weekly] |
2020 |
€12.00 |
|
| ALU |
Autismenschen |
CD |
Späte Veröffentlichung des ersten, bisher unveröffentlichten Album von 1980 von dieser deutschen Paranoia-Elektronik / „New Wave“-Gruppe, die aus zwei der drei Mitglieder der Krautrockband SAND bestand (deren LP „GOLEM“ auf World Serpent wiederveröffentlicht wurde!) . Liner-Notes von DAVID TIBET!
“About the band: Alu was a seminal German synth-punk band active 1979-83. This CD is their unreleased first studio album from 1980.
This is the unreleased first studio album by one of the pioneering German synth / electronic projects. Liner notes by David Tibet. The project of some of the members of Alu were in prior to Alu, Sand, enjoyed a fantastic revival a few years back (thanks in great part to David Tibet).
Unearthing this release will bring much joy to anyone interested in the pioneering sound of German electronic music from the late 70s to mid 80s. Alu released two live LPs, a 7", and a small quantity of cassettes; all of these releases are, tragically, out of print. For those to whom Alu is a new name, comparable audio would be Suicide, Throbbing Gristle (circa 20 Jazz Funk Greats), Esplendor Geometrico, or Algebra Suicide, not to mention myriad electronic German bands who existed concomitant to Alu and have enjoyed recent reissues of their own, including Phonophobia, Die Todliche Doris, and Thorax-Wach. Labels with similar artists include Zick Zack and Twisted Knister. For the young'uns who like Wolf Eyes, this may be considered a worthy ancestor...
Alu was born from the ashes of the seminal project Sand, whose releases were issued a few years ago through the persistence and passion of David Tibet. Not coincidentally, David Tibet also provided liner notes for this release. This release comes with a booklet of lyrics (in German), photos, plus a short biography (in English) of the band. Translations of the lyrics and other information on the band will be up soon at their recently created website, alugenerator.com.
“....you may call me a retro freak, I prefer the old stuff, like Alu, or The Screamers or Suicide, with whom Alu has in common that they both combined the speed and energy of the punk rock, combined with analogue synthesizer stuff. Some of the more lengthy pieces, such as 'Halt Dich Fest' sound, with lenghty guitar doodlings show their krautrock background, but Alu is at their best in their shorter pieces: a screamy voice, full of doomsday paranoia, a continuous rhythm-box, simple melodies on the organ and guitar in a distorted mood. The real stuff that can't be beaten by a groove-box and microphone. The best re-discovery of 2005!” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€20.00 |
|
| ALUVIANA |
Tonicna Negibnost |
CD |
"With 'visual prowess' very similar to Aluviana's former works, 'Tonicna negibnost' (i.e. 'Tonic Immobility') is a tour de force in fantasy made real. There's heaps of charm, plenty of improbable scenarios and lots of surprises around the corner. It manages to be serious but entertaining, sane but daft, deadly accurate before it suddenly erupts in a comedy of errors, alive but sanguine, mature but childish, sick of the world, then impetuously in love with it... The tonal vocabulary, samples and influences are so diverse that any identifications or descriptions are best left alone. This is a very clever and beautifully crafted album and one that I can imagine revisiting many times in the future. If the first impressions never do lie, then is it a mere coincidence that mine was that of a partially remembered dream told by an ancient shark, who had swum the seven seas and seen what the future holds long before you and I have ever existed ? And who said that sharks have no sense of humour, for that matter ?' Lord Ferdi the Despiser. Dark ambient noise from Ljubljana. Limited edition (200 copies-200 different hand painted covers on recycled cardboard)." [label info]
www.syrphe.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALVA NOTO |
Xerrox Vol. 4 |
do-LP |
"Alva Noto returns to his much awaited Xerrox project with Vol. 4, the fourth installment of the five-piece intended series based on the concept of digital replication of source material.
Using the process of copying as a basis, the Xerrox series deals with the manipulation of data by means of endless reproduction. Due to the inherent fallacy of the procedure involving the making of copies made from other copies, everyday’s sounds become so altered that they can be hardly associated with the source material. As a result, entirely new sounds are created: copies of originals become originals themselves.
Following Xerrox Vol. 1 (2007), Vol. 2 (2009), Vol. 3 (2015), Carsten Nicolai continues the pentalogy eluding the accuracy and precise sound design for which he’s renowned, and turning to a more harmony-driven composition technique.
Unlike the previous Xerrox albums, whose starting point is a set of samples extracted from external sources and fragments of recordings, Vol. 4 compounds under a unified cinematic soundscape, warm chords, thrumming digital ambiences, liquified electronics, drones, and noise sustained by floods of strings. The tension between the organic warmth and static curves, broads tones into distant roars and electronic cascade of sounds.
While Alva Noto's oeuvre is predominantly affiliated with pristine sound design, Xerrox holds more intimate gestures and emotional sensibility. This fourth volume shuns further from the conceptualism and orderliness of prior musical outputs, ranging from heart-warming elegies to mind-bending sci-fi projections in extrasolar territories." [label info]
"It took five years for Carsten Nicolai to release the third volume to his five-part series Xerrox, and it took five more to release the fourth. At this rate, it will be 2025 when we will see the final chapter. Although there are rumblings on the intarwebs that the fourth instalment, which should be depicting the letter 'X' again of the typeface 'XERROX', is actually the first one, with the same image on the cover. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, one of the reasons for an interval in between the volumes can be attributed to the split between the Raster and Noton labels, which occurred in 2017, after the Raster-Noton's 20th anniversary. So, although a keen eye may notice that this particular entry in the series appears on another label, the continuity between the music, artwork, layout, packaging, and pretty much everything else, is still intact. For that we thank thee. Whereas Volume 1 was attributed to the "Old World", Volume 2 "To The New World", and Vol. 3 was "Towards Space", this fourth instalment is subtitled as "Transit Extrasolar Territories And Inner Worlds". So the trajectory is further and out, and so are the sounds, depicted within.
This fourth instalment is even more 'ambient', if one may call it that. Gone are the digital structures, copied with all of the artefacts of the process, and replaced with warm swells of organic-sounding strings, which breathe with the punctuating deep bass. I would have almost expected the opposite, as we flew into the extrasolar regions of our universe - something darker, colder, and void. But upon another reflection, fundamental sonic expressions within the fourteen pieces of the album totally make sense, since it is the human world, of the old and new worlds, that occupies within the digital domain. The rest of the creation is beyond the numbers. And yet... if digital emerged from minds and will of humans, is it not part of the organic? This, and many other questions, can be but glimpsed by travelling onboard with Alva Noto, who intricately weaves an aural frame which is by far his best in series.
Of course, I've got all of the four instalments on CD, and have aligned them all to spell out "XERRO..." but at this point, I'm leaning towards grabbing a 2x12" edition of the album, since its vibrations and pure chime must be experienced through surface listening. It's also worth noting, that this album was originally finished in February, just as the pandemic began to unfold across the globe. And, as my dear friend Peter van Cooten notes on his ambientblog writeup, "this means that the emotional impact of this music is different now than it would have been without the COVID-19 crisis," with which I wholeheartedly agree. Xerrox Vol.4 is an album worth listening to on numerous continuous repeats, and if you prefer, you can lie down and turn off the lights. And as you float out of these outer worlds and through your inner, I hope to see you on the other side." [Headphone Commute]
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Xerrox Vol. 4 |
CD |
"Alva Noto returns to his much awaited Xerrox project with Vol. 4, the fourth installment of the five-piece intended series based on the concept of digital replication of source material.
Using the process of copying as a basis, the Xerrox series deals with the manipulation of data by means of endless reproduction. Due to the inherent fallacy of the procedure involving the making of copies made from other copies, everyday’s sounds become so altered that they can be hardly associated with the source material. As a result, entirely new sounds are created: copies of originals become originals themselves.
Following Xerrox Vol. 1 (2007), Vol. 2 (2009), Vol. 3 (2015), Carsten Nicolai continues the pentalogy eluding the accuracy and precise sound design for which he’s renowned, and turning to a more harmony-driven composition technique.
Unlike the previous Xerrox albums, whose starting point is a set of samples extracted from external sources and fragments of recordings, Vol. 4 compounds under a unified cinematic soundscape, warm chords, thrumming digital ambiences, liquified electronics, drones, and noise sustained by floods of strings. The tension between the organic warmth and static curves, broads tones into distant roars and electronic cascade of sounds.
While Alva Noto's oeuvre is predominantly affiliated with pristine sound design, Xerrox holds more intimate gestures and emotional sensibility. This fourth volume shuns further from the conceptualism and orderliness of prior musical outputs, ranging from heart-warming elegies to mind-bending sci-fi projections in extrasolar territories." [label info]
"It took five years for Carsten Nicolai to release the third volume to his five-part series Xerrox, and it took five more to release the fourth. At this rate, it will be 2025 when we will see the final chapter. Although there are rumblings on the intarwebs that the fourth instalment, which should be depicting the letter 'X' again of the typeface 'XERROX', is actually the first one, with the same image on the cover. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, one of the reasons for an interval in between the volumes can be attributed to the split between the Raster and Noton labels, which occurred in 2017, after the Raster-Noton's 20th anniversary. So, although a keen eye may notice that this particular entry in the series appears on another label, the continuity between the music, artwork, layout, packaging, and pretty much everything else, is still intact. For that we thank thee. Whereas Volume 1 was attributed to the "Old World", Volume 2 "To The New World", and Vol. 3 was "Towards Space", this fourth instalment is subtitled as "Transit Extrasolar Territories And Inner Worlds". So the trajectory is further and out, and so are the sounds, depicted within.
This fourth instalment is even more 'ambient', if one may call it that. Gone are the digital structures, copied with all of the artefacts of the process, and replaced with warm swells of organic-sounding strings, which breathe with the punctuating deep bass. I would have almost expected the opposite, as we flew into the extrasolar regions of our universe - something darker, colder, and void. But upon another reflection, fundamental sonic expressions within the fourteen pieces of the album totally make sense, since it is the human world, of the old and new worlds, that occupies within the digital domain. The rest of the creation is beyond the numbers. And yet... if digital emerged from minds and will of humans, is it not part of the organic? This, and many other questions, can be but glimpsed by travelling onboard with Alva Noto, who intricately weaves an aural frame which is by far his best in series.
Of course, I've got all of the four instalments on CD, and have aligned them all to spell out "XERRO..." but at this point, I'm leaning towards grabbing a 2x12" edition of the album, since its vibrations and pure chime must be experienced through surface listening. It's also worth noting, that this album was originally finished in February, just as the pandemic began to unfold across the globe. And, as my dear friend Peter van Cooten notes on his ambientblog writeup, "this means that the emotional impact of this music is different now than it would have been without the COVID-19 crisis," with which I wholeheartedly agree. Xerrox Vol.4 is an album worth listening to on numerous continuous repeats, and if you prefer, you can lie down and turn off the lights. And as you float out of these outer worlds and through your inner, I hope to see you on the other side." [Headphone Commute]
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
| ALVELOS, HEITOR |
Faith |
CD |
"Faith is the first full-length sound release by media researcher and curator Heitor Alvelos under his own name. Heitor Alvelos has been a long-time on/off collaborator of Touch, having on occasion provided photography and stage visuals for Biosphere, Fennesz, BJNilsen, Rafael Toral and Philip Jeck, as well as releasing sound pieces under the aliases Autodigest, Antifluffy and Before Surgery, on Ash International, TouchRadio and The Tapeworm.
“The essence of the present piece is autobiographical: therefore the use of my own name”, the author clarifies. “And yet it aims at being resonant to others”: in this context, resonance may be regarded as both semantic and visceral, as the sound frequencies on Faith are often of the kind that “rearrange one’s organs”, to quote the recently departed Bernadette Martou. A necessity in order to carry the gravitas inherent to the subject, a confessional confrontation with the zeitgeist.
All sources have been gathered, recorded and produced throughout five decades, all the way back to a recording by Francisco Alvelos in 1972 that closes the release. Elsewhere, sounds have been processed to various degrees, the bookends retaining their original contexts, others mutating into deep abstraction. Overall, they flow as one single composition, evocative and foreboding in equal measures."
https://touch33.net/catalogue/to97-heitor-alvelos-faith.html
Heitor Alvelos is no stranger to the Touch label, having collaborated as a visual artist with the big names of the label such as Fennesz, BJ Nilsen, and Philip Jeck, as well as issuing sound work under a variety of pseudonyms on the associated labels. Faith is a collection of processed sound recordings and “audio irregularities”, and due to their more personal and autobiographical source, it is the first record released under his own name. Essentially a single composition split into 12 segments, it is a sparse and murky record, steeped heavily in an analog sound.
Culled from a variety of unspecified recordings collected by the artist since 1972, most of Faith has Alvelos sticking to an open mix, working in bass heavy sounds at often very low volumes, conjuring a sense of space and ambiguity that often becomes unsettling. “Exodus” and “Edict” both have a ghostly rumble to them, distant and unspecific but always there. During the latter he begins to increase the volume and simultaneously the intensity.
On “Allvion” into “Pseudoself” the sound becomes deeper: a wavering expanse of noise that evolves into something with significant depth and variety, but never stops being discomforting. The latter especially sees Alvelos working with monotone electronics and a heavy low-frequency passage that slowly evolves and changes to become all encompassing, climaxing and leading into the silent passage of “Vicarious Solace”.
He builds the minimalist, rumbling hum back up on the lengthy “The Way of Malamat.” Superficially, the droning bass may seem static, but perceptible variations become prominent, at times looping into an almost rhythmic passage that again reaches a heavier, denser saturation point but never too oppressive. This continues through “Peirasmos” and “The Other,” the latter resembling the muffled vibration of machinery.
In its concluding minutes, “The Hopeful Night” has him stripping the piece back to its barest essentials, largely consisting of a low volume buzz that would not be out of place on Bernhard Günter’s work, albeit his sound being more digital than the analog warmth that is more prominent on Alvelos’ work. The single piece that is Faith never becomes overly boisterous or forceful, but its concluding passages are especially understated.
The intentionally ambiguous source of the recordings Heitor Alvelos used to construct Faith does add an extra layer of interest to the album. Rarely does anything ever resemble what we usually consider to be a field recording, so either his processing or his selection of unconventional sources are what makes this album, probably a connection of both. It is sparse and minimalist, but done with an exceptional sense of grace and poise. [Creaig Dunton] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| AMBARCHI / GUNTER MULLER / VOICE CRACK |
Oystered |
CD |
Ungewöhnliche Kollaboration, aufgenommen an einem Tag in Sidney, 23.July 2002: dunkel-pulsierend hämmernde Soundflächen und sich dramatisch entwickelnde elektronische konkret-Klänge machen dies zu einer spannenden Hörerfahrung!
“ Take three Swiss tourists. Feed them top notch Sydney rock oysters, fine Hunter Valley wines and get them into a recording studio with Oren Ambarchi. That was the challenge. This is the record. If Ambarchi, Müller and the Crack have one thing in common (beyond gastronomic excess), it is their ability to get extraordinary sounds out of everyday objects. This one day recording session at Big Jesus Burger in Sydney highlights the mutual approach they share.There's such cohesion, wholeness and single mindedness to these pieces that makes identification of the individuals involved virtually impossible. So forget the 'Who's Doing
What?' game. Close your eyes and play 'Where The Hell Am I?' ... rainforest, glacier, casino, ship's hull, bowling alley or five star restaurant?” [label description]
"Clustered, pacing, stomping. The mechanics of this latest collaboration by Ambarchi, Muller and Voice Crack manipulates resonance and miniscule particles like they are playing a game with sensors that bark and bite back. The ominous nature of 'Walking Oysters' uses plotted stepping which designs the frame for the kinetics lurking inside. Over these forty+ minutes these gentlemen incorporate electronics, strings and percussion to mold something freely derived from bare open circuits and other happy mistakes. A
vernacular is built on 'Briefing Oysters' that forms slowly and largely into a vibrating dissonance - but be careful - these
authoritative sounds are so ecstatic that they literally knocked my bass woofer off the shelf (that was a first). If you play this on
headphones it is sure to be a significant mind rush. After the tremendous pinnacle the piece is treated to the equivalent of a breathing tube, charted by timed intervals inhalations (or percussive metering). Starting as a static-laden drone 'Grounding Oysters'
relies on the residues of quiet and bass thumping play between channels. Like moving lumber and bark that is electrified, the
organic quality to this track is just stunning. Not satisfied to simply use the formidable sine wave with subtle manipulation - 'Oystered' totally experiments with every aspect of frequency and sample. There are parts that test your ear drum, giving the listener a physical, sensory experience. This is active listening."
[TJN, Vital Weekly]
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
| AMBARCHI, OREN |
Triste |
CD |
Überraschender CD Re-Release der vergriffenen LP auf dem Metal-Label SOUTHERN LORD, die auch SUNN O))) veröffentlichen. Ein Live-Mitschnitt eines schönen Konzertes aus Nijmegen vom Juni 2001.
„...zu hören ist AMBARCHI’s ruhig-dronige Seite, markante gitarrenbasierte Töne die in einem immerwährenden Wechsel zu interessanten Mustern verbunden werden...“ [Drone Rec info]
Als Bonus gibt es noch Remix-Collaborationen mit TOM RECCHION.
“An expanded reissue of the Triste album from Australian electronic guitarist and percussionist OREN AMBARCHI. The Triste material is reminiscent of his work on Grapes Of Wrath, with his guitar sound/tone transformed into a dark, tonally extreme, percussive instrument, with the sound arranged melodically to create beautiful drone soundscapes. Includes all the tracks from the original version (released on vinyl in a limited edition), along with some remix collaborations with TOM RECCHION.” [press release]
“ Mr. Ambarchi's subtle harmonic clusters and beautiful Acoustic lullabies sway the listener into a waking dream like the best works of
Charlemagne Palestine, La Monte Young, Phil Niblock, and John Fahey. Imagine that deep tranquil ocean, endless and mysterious, filled by single tears of resonating beauty until the ocean gives way torrents. This is Triste...” [from the original press release]
|
2005 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Destinationless Desire |
7" |
"Electric guitars, organ, samples, bells, percussion and motorised cymbal recorded at BJB Studios, Sydney with additional overdubs made at home 2005-2007. Gratitude to Fairport Convention and Boris D Hegenbart. This is the 5th in the series of Touch Sevens - 7 vinyl only releases. 7 vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a healthy popular culture. It might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of the rear view mirror... the generation of Touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. This series is more than that... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the A & the B and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. As for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the RPM on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. An attempt to make music that works at both speeds. The front cover might actually be the back cover..." [label info]
"...Using electric guitars, organ, bells, samples, percussion and motorized cymbal (!), Ambarchi has created to dramatically different
pieces. The A side is a woozy, washed out underwater sounding loopscape, peppered with record crackle (unless that’s coming from
the record player, either way, it sounds great!), like a slightly jauntier, less melancholy Oval, major key melody, all softly sunshine- y, a dreamily hypnotic stretch of soft swirl that could go on forever.
The B side is much darker, long streaks of shimmery low end beneath haunting slowed down vocals, mournful and mysterious, the
vocals and the guitar drift and shift, all wound up in and around each other, throughout, bits of electronic glitchery, smears of muted
buzz, snippets of conversation and dialogue, but all that stuff seems to be woven into an undulating backdrop for Ambarchi’s ghostlike
disembodied blues.
As always, packaged in super striking thick matte sleeve with gorgeous photos and layout from Touch head honcho Jon Wozencroft." [Aquarius Records review]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
|
A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks |
LP |
OREN AMBARCHI's Beitrag für die neue "guitar series" auf TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS: vielschichtige Poly-Drones, bestehend nicht nur aus Gitarren-Tönen sondern auch aus elektronischen Kontakt- und Störgeräuschen & sich windenden Feedbacks; ein sehr komplexes Stück, lebendig und elektronisch ausstrahlend in 1000 verschiedene Richtungen. Wunderbar auch, wie es dann allmählich mit glockenhellen Klängen versetzt ausklingt.. AMBARCHI in Höchstform. Himmelblaues Vinyl.
"There is a vivid breadth to the guitar deconstructions of Australian Oren Ambarchi. Sometimes his work takes a delicate lilt; it can also dive into dark and deep pools of sound when he joins cowl-core ensembles Sunn O))) (with Stephen O'Malley) and Burial Chamber Trio (with Greg Anderson). Whether with those bands, solo, or in collaboration with luminaries ranging from Mike Patton and John Zorn to Christian Fennesz, he consistently reroutes his instrument into zones of arch, alien abstraction. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks offers a dizzying gaze straight into a chasm of extreme frequencies -- paint-peelingly high and bowel-churningly low -- all set atop a sub-strata of menace, angst, and contemplative beauty." Pressed on light-blue marbled, etched vinyl. B-side etching artwork by Savage Pencil." [label info]
"...Still essentially a dronescape, A Final Kiss is rife with sonic activity, so much so that in lesser hands it would be more of a mess, a sort of pretty-ish noise record, but Ambarchi, takes all manner of buzz and glitch, of scrape and hum, and weaves it into a strangely lyrical arrangement. The core of the piece is a thick, undulating low end drone, a muted Niblockian shimmer, that seems not to change so much as shift, reflecting different colors and sounds depending on the angle. Over this nearly constant thrum, exist a veritable universe of strange sounds, streaks of feedback, cricket like electronic chitter,
moaning throbbing swells of guitar rumble, brief blurs of warm soft focus fuzz, layers of crumbling distortion, all of the various
elements constantly shifting and blossoming, collapsing and then blooming again, creating a super organic flow, another instance of
leaving the instruments on the stage, guitars against amps. amps cranked, although here it seems the instruments have come to life, and
we are glimpsing their secret lives, as the communicate musically, telling some sort of story, exchanging mysterious messages, which
while indecipherable to human ears, still manage to sound magical. Guitardrone freaks will, well, freak! Subtly heavy, darkly
drone-y, slightly noisy, rich and dense and textural. Really gorgeous. And totally recommended.
Pressed on swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side with a super bad ass etching, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Live Knots |
do-LP |
"Oren Ambarchi captured in two exceptional live performances. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M. Pressed on double 140g vinyl & CD. Photography by Traianos Pakioufakis and artwork by Bill Kouligas.
'Live Knots, Oren Ambarchi's first release for PAN, presents two live realizations of 'Knots', the epic centrepiece of his Audience of One (Touch, 2012) release. Built on the interplay between Ambarchi's swirling, guitar harmonics and the metronomic pulse and shifting accents of Joe Talia's DeJohnette-esque drumming, the piece merges the organic push and pull of free improvisation with an overarching compositional framework.
'Tokyo Knots' presents the complete recording of a duo performance of the piece by Ambarchi and Talia recorded at Tokyo's legendary SuperDeluxe in March 2013. The performance builds gently on the foundation of Talia's insistent ride cymbal and the shifting tonal bed of Ambarchi's rich overtone-drenched guitar, eventually going into a free rock free fall of buzz- saw harmonics and crashing drums. From within the maelstrom, Talia picks up a pulsing motorik rhythm that leads the piece back to where it began, with the addition of the shuddering, elastic tones of a hand-played spring reverb unit. Krakow Knots' works with the same basic structure but stretches it out to nearly twice the length and adds strings played by the Sinfonietta Cracovia, led by Eyvind Kang on viola. The strings expand the piece's textural range with lush chordal blocks, uneasy dissonances and occasional Ligetiesque swarms of micro-activity, the swelling string tones intensifying the ecstatic nature of the piece as it moves towards its mid-point crescendo in which Ambarchi unleashes a particularly malicious continuum of stuttering harmonic fuzz. The strings then enter with a series of swelling chords, announcing the piece's final movement, and reaffirming the uniqueness of the tonal and compositional language that Ambarchi has patiently developed over the last two decades, in which the influence of post-minimal composers such as Alvin Curran, Gavin Bryars and David Behrman can be felt alongside the inspiration of raw free jazz, harsh noise and academic psychoacoustics. The final moments of the performance pit Talia and Crys Cole's amplified objects and spring reverb textures against a field of gently gliding string glissandi before the audience erupts in much-deserved applause.' Francis Plagne" [label info]
www.pan-act.com
|
2015 |
€29.00 |
|
| AMBARCHI, OREN & SCOTT HORSCROFT / HADO HO |
19 Guitars / Sonic Wave 2002 Stereo Action |
12inch |
Endlich geht es in der Textile-12”-Serie (echte 45rpm’ler) weiter, mit dieser feinen Arbeit von OREN AMBARCHI auf einer Seite, wo seine sirrenden & repetitiv angeschlagenen Gitarrenschnipsel von SCOTT HORSCROFT verarbeitet werden, hier verbinden sich treibend-trancig-psychedelische Sounds mit meditativen Flächen. HADO HO steht eher in der Tradition von japanischem Impro-Noise, seine Klangattacken wirken seltsam verlangsamt, wie MERZBOW in Zeitlupe.
“Textile is proud to announce the fourth installment in its split 12 series, Oren ambarchi / Hado Ho.' Oren ambarchi & Scott Horscroft. 'Oren ambarchi is an electronic guitarist and percussionist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. Born in Sydney in 1969, he has been performing live since 1986. His recent solo releases Triste (Southern Lord, USA), and Grape from the Estate (Touch UK) have transcended the guitar into a zone of alien beauty and sonic impossibilities to critical acclaim. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, 're-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it's no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it's a laboratory for extended sonic investigation'. (The Wire, UK). Oren ambarchi has collaborated with SUNN 0))) on their recently completed BLACK ONE and hast just completed a world tour playing guitar with the band together with Greg Anderson, Stephen O'Malley, Attila Csihar and Tos Nieuwenhuizen.'
HADO-HO is Takehito Nakazato, of DUB SONIC & DUBNESIA. 'Takehito Nakazato is a sound fetichist, influenced by an earlier generation of Japanese noise musicians as much as by old school electronics pioneers. Hado-Ho's sound is solely based on noises and sound manipulations such as feedback noises, bad cable connections, loud mic tapping, electric hum, feedback squeals. Takehito Nakazato is not as frantic as the traditional noise acts - Masonna, Merzbow etc, but there are points of reference in terms of sound manipulation and extreme frequency variations. Takehito Nakazato appears on Sonic Plate, Meme, Zero Gravity and Improvised music from Japan.' [label infos]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| AMBER ASYLUM |
Still Point |
CD |
Nach vielen Jahren ein neues Album der Band um KRIS FORCE, deren markanter Elfen-gleicher Gesang hier das Zentrum bildet für die elegischen Gothic-Folk Kompositionen mit viel Streicher-Einsatz, eher reduziert und verhalten und nur wenig "rockend", alles durchzogen von einer majestätischen Melancholie... mitunter wird das Song-Format verlassen und schwelend-ruhige instrumentelle Soundscapes erfüllen den Raum, die eine nicht weniger fragile Schönheit aufweisen...
" Still Point ist die erwachsenste CD von AMBER ASYLUM, weil sie am wenigsten verspielt ist; nichts muss mehr ausprobiert werden ('Music is my evolution', KRIS FORCE). Die Stimmung, die Stimmen, die Instrumente, alles ist perfekt positioniert, es konnte nichts anders werden an diesem Album. Wundervoll depressive Kammermusik für die kommenden Monate." [Michael We / nonpop.de]
"One of the most respected, legendary, and influential acts that have emerged from the neoclassical/gothic/ambient/and post-rock alternative scene, AMBER ASYLUM have once again delicately peered through the cascading light with their long-awaited full-length, the band’s first observation since 2000. Band leader KRIS FORCE was an integral part of NEUROSIS, appearing on the majority of their releases, and has played and collaborated with such legendary acts as SWANS and JARBOE. Features members that have been involved with such Bay Area luminaries as WEAKLING, ASUNDER, THE GAULT, HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, and LUDICRA." [label info]
www.profoundlorerecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Garden of Love |
maxi-CD |
Nach langer Pause fünf neue Stücke von KRIS FORCEs Band; melodramatische, Kammermusik-artige Elegien wo ein klares Song-Gerüst aber immer zu erkennen ist, eingespielt mit Bass, Piano, Violine & Cello, Bläsern, Percussion, und dazu KRIS eindringliche Stimme;
zurückhaltend, slow, so einsam & verloren... bisher ihre ergreifenste, weil ausgereifste Veröffentlichung !
"San Francisco's Amber Asylum return with their first new recordings in nearly five years . Five dark, brooding chamber works of misanthropic resonance and chilling emotional beauty. A blackened neo-classical masterpiece following their previous recordings on Relapse and Neurot as well as their acclaimed collaborations with Neurosis, Swans and Jarboe amongst others. Just under half an hour of new recordings, featuring the bonus soundtrack recording, "Serenade"." [label notes]
www.paradigms-recordings.com
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Bitter River |
CD |
"Amber Asylum is one of the most influential and respected acts in the neo-classical / dark ambient genre. Group leader, multi-instrumentalist and producer Kris Force boasts a repertoire that includes collaborations with Neurosis and Swans as well as credits for penning soundtrack music for video games, television, and feature films. Her band is known for their distinct brand of chilling romantic mire and brooding darkness constructed with layers of violin, viola, cello, guitar, bass, percussion, and Force's alluring voice. Bitter River is the darkest and most devastating Amber Asylum album ever conceived. The perfect follow-up to the plunging Still Point, this introspective journey into lost love and lost innocence paints powerful sonic portraits of vast, lonely landscapes, dark chambers, rolling fog, and monumental twilight. For the recording, Force employed some of the most accomplished musicians in the underground: long-time Amber Asylum conspirator Jackie-Perez Gratz (Giant Squid, Grayceon) on cello; Leila Abdul-Rauf (Saros) on guitar, piano, and vocals; bass player Eric Wood (Bastard Noise); and drummer Chiyo Nukaga (Noothgrush), along with guest appearances by Sigrid Sheie (Hammers of Misfortune) on flute and Jarboe providing narration. Bitter River features artwork by David D'Andrea." [label info]
"Amber Asylum machten schon immer mehr als nur Musik. Sie schufen die musikalische Untermalung zu Tagträumen. Zumindest zu den Tagträumen, die in die Welt von Elfen, Feen oder Nymphen führten. Die einen auf die Reise in dichte Wälder oder taubedeckten Wiesen im Mondlicht schickten. Die einen mögen dabei an den Herren der Ringe denken, andere an romantisch-verklärte Illusionen über eine Zeit als die Menschen ihre Seele als Teil der Gesamtdynamik der Natur und diese als von vergessenen Zaubern durchzogen betrachteten. Wie auch immer scheint die Musik von Amber Asylum sich nicht mit dem modernen Großstadtleben vereinen zu wollen. Das dieser Anti-Modernismus nicht immer nur romantische Gedankenverlorenheit ist, zeigt sich, wenn man einige Namen assoziierter Weggenossen und Nebenprojekte unter etwas genauer unter die Lupe nimmt.
Das sagt dann aber weder was über Kris Force, die maßgeblich hinter Amber Asylum steht, noch über die Musik dann wirklich etwas aus.
Auf "Bitter River", dem mittlerweile siebenten Album der Band, wird Force von Jackie Perez-Gratz, Sigrid Sheie und vor allem von Leila Abdul-Rauf unterstützt. Letztere lieh dem Projekt nicht nur ihre Stimme sondern trug auch neben Kris Force zu Songwriting bei. Und gerade ihr pathos-gefüllter, fast opernhafter Gesang hebt Amber Asylum aus der Menge der Neo-Folk Bands heraus und nimmt der Musik damit den Beigeschmack des Klagegesanges Rückwärtsdenkender.
Charakterprägend ist auch die Mithilfe von so unerwarteten Gastmusikern wie dem Noothgrush und Graves At Sea Schlagzeuger Chiyo Nukaga, Eric Wood (Ex-Man Is The Bastard, Bastard Noise) und Jarboe von den Swans. Denn "Bitter River" ist nicht nur besinnlich verträumt, es ist über weite Strecken vor allem von einer düsteren, ungewissen Stimmung geprägt. Das macht dieses Album, das beim ersten Hören eine nette Untermalung für verschneite Winterabende zu sein scheint, auch in diesem Sommer nicht komplett deplaziert, ist doch jeder verträumte Tag im Park Unsicherheit und der Angst vor dunklen Wolken und plötzlichen Gewittern und Regengüssen geprägt." [Tinnitus-Mag]
www.profoundlorerecords.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| AMINI, SIAVASH |
A Mimesis of Nothingness |
LP |
"Siavash Amini returns to Hallow Ground with A Mimesis of Nothingness, his fourth album for the Swiss label. Following up on Harmistice (HG 1902LP, 2019) together with fellow Iranian artists 9T Antiope, the six tracks were conceived in close collaboration with another artist and see the prolific composer intensify his interdisciplinary approach. The six tracks enter a dialogue with the photographs of Nooshin Shafiee, an acclaimed artist whose work capturing their hometown Tehran becomes the starting point for one of Amini's most visceral and haunting records. A Mimesis of Nothingness translates the ephemeral situations and melancholic moods of Shafiee's pictures into suspenseful soundscapes that masterfully navigate between the concrete and the abstract. A Mimesis of Nothingness is a disquieting record precisely because it is a quiet one. Working with field recordings, Amini sculpts dynamic portraits that create an atmosphere of tangible suspense that is never fully released. Even when string-like sounds enter the picture as they do on the third track "Moonless Garden" or when the abstract and glacial noise on "Observance (Shadow)" demand the listener's attention, the six pieces take hold of the subconscious rather than trying to be direct and confrontational. It is sound conceived not as a description, but a circumscription of spatial relations and the eeriness embedded in them. Includes eight-page booklet."
"Zu den interessantesten Versuchen, einen Ort im künstlerischen Medium, sei es Bild, Text oder Klang, erfahrbar zu machen, zählen jene, die den Blick auf eher untypische Aspekte lenken. Ein solcher Fokus richtet sich an ein aktives Publikum, das die präsentierten Details mit dem vorhandenen Wissen zu einem kaum festschreibbaren, hypothetischen Rahmen synthetisiert, und er umschifft ganz nebenbei eine Menge Klischees. Das ganz seiner Heimatstadt Teheran gewidmete neue Album von Komponist und Producer Siavash Amini befasst sich mit Details des Ortes, die zunächst wenig zu den Projektionen passen, die der Medienkonsument abrufen kann, seien diese den Nachrichten oder den Resten eines verklärenden Orientalismus geschuldet. Amini, den Leser unserer Seiten sicher von seiner Zusammenarbeit mit 9T Antiope kennen, ist zudem ein leidenschaftlicher Kollaborateur, und so ist „The Mimesis of Nothingness“ erneut eine Gemeinschaftsarbeit, diesmal mit der ebenfalls in Teheran lebenden Fotografin Nooshin Shafiee.
Amini und Shafiee trafen sich vor einigen Jahren zum ersten Mal in der Emkan Gallery im mit diversen Art Spaces gespickten Zentrum der Stadt. Sie stellte dort gerade eine Reihe digitaler Fotografien aus, während Amini im Raum nebenan Soundevents organisierte. Aufgrund ihrer gemeinsamen Ansätze – ein Sinn für Raum, fürs Fragmentarische und Experimentelle – ließ die Idee zu einer Kollaboration nicht lange auf sich warten, und so wurde der Grundstein zu „A Mimesis of Nothingness“ gelegt: Die Stadt sollte sich quasi selbst porträtieren mit wie zufällig aufgeschnappten “nichtigen” Objekten und Soundschnipseln, aber auch mit der diffusen Atmosphäre, die sie zu erzeugen weiß. Die beiden Künstler sollten dabei mehr wie Medien fungieren, durch deren Ohren und Augen der Ort spricht. Dass Teheran dabei weder als romantischer Sehnsuchtsort, noch als Schauplatz weltpolitischer Konflikte erscheint, mag mit einigen westlichen Vorstellungen brechen, den Nerv der Einheimischen trifft das aber sicher umso mehr.
„A Mimesis of Nothingness“ führt sein Publikum in ein Teheran, durch dessen Häuserschluchten und Alleen, über dessen weite Plätze, Parks, Fabrikgelände und Ruinen ein eisiger Wind weht, ein Wind, der Hagelklötze und Staub und Erinnerungen transportiert und all dies sprunghaft in die unterschiedlichsten Richtungen weht. In den Fotos mag die kühldunkle Atmosphäre impliziert sein, im langsam heranschleichenden Dark Ambient-Sound Aminis ist sie mehr als deutlich im gesampleten Wind und Regen zu hören, und doch scheint dies und das Echo undefinierbaren Donnerns und Detonierens eher das Innenleben des Ortes und seiner Bewohner wiederzugeben. Auf den Bildern sind Objekte zu sehen, die Kontext und Charakter erst beim genaueren Hinsehen implizieren: Zeltplanen, Vorhänge und andere ausladende Textilien kehren leitmotivisch wieder in den dunkel ausgeleuchteten Tableaus, hängen auf Wäscheleinen oder bedecken Treppen, Möbel und manchmal auch den ganzen Schauplatz, und alles, was unter ihrem Stoff verdeckt wird, wirkt außer Betrieb, im Standby, und jede direkte menschliche Präsenz würde deplatziert wirken.
Die Musik und die Bilder arbeiten (auch) immer wieder sehr stark mit dem, was sie gerade nicht präsentieren. Immer gibt es Aussichten auf ein diffuses Dahinter, auf Baum- oder Häusergruppen, diffuse Übergänge auf weitere Räume sind zu sehen. Wohin führen diese Öffnungen, Wege, freien Flächen, was ist oder passiert dahinter oder daneben? Die Frage nach dem größeren Rahmen des nur ausgeschnittenen Raumes ist so evident wie ein eingeblendeter Schriftzug oder eine Stimme aus dem Off. Auch bei den kreisenden, rauschenden, rumpelnden Bewegungen der elegant gestalteten Musik kommt immer wieder die Frage nach dem Was, dem Woher und dem Wohin auf, doch geheimnisvoll ist das Szenario nicht nur wegen des fragmentarischen Charakters und der nur gelegentlich ortbaren Sounds, sondern auch wegen des immer wieder Spannung überzeugenden Wechsels von melancholischen und harschen, gewaltsamen Passagen, die meist recht plötzlich in Form bohrender Loops oder eisiger Lärmlawinen einbrechen.
Die Streicherparts im unromantisch betitelten “Moonless Garden” halten die schönsten, aber auch die desolatesten Momente des Albums bereit, und letztlich sind es doch die Anzeichen des Lebens, die die Szenerie auflockern: zeternde Vögel, deren Krächzen keineswegs betulich wirkt, Schritte, die von einer tiefernsten Klangfläche begleitet eine Treppe herauf oder herunter gehen, gegen Ende sogar menschliche Stimmen, die den Hörer sofort, trotz Sprachbarriere, in einen anderen kommunikativen Modus bringen.
An der meist nur bedingt fassbaren Stimmung, die selten mit derart klaren und eindringlichen Mitteln hervorgerufen wird wie hier, ändert auch das nichts – auf „A Mimesis of Nothingness“ fühlt man sich an einem unbekannten Ort ausgesetzt, den man über das zufällig vorgefundene erkundet. Wenn es so etwas wie ein Wesen eines Ortes gibt, so kann man dieses vermutlich so besser erfahren, als durch ein vorgefertigtes Set an Dingen, „die man gesehen haben muss“." (U.S.) AFRICAN PAPER
africanpaper.com/2020/08/29/siavash-amini-the-mimesis-of-nothingness/
|
2020 |
€22.00 |
|
| AMINI, SIAVASH & EUGENE THACKER |
Songs for Sad Poets |
do-LP |
Composer and sound artist Siavash Amini collaborates with author Eugene Thacker on »Songs for Sad Poets.« The collection of eight pieces draws its inspiration from the legacy of the so-called cursed poets (»poètes maudits«) as well as the German-language tradition of song cycles and expands the structure of the classic art song through a process of lyric abstraction. Amini is no stranger to interdisciplinary collaboration, as seen in »A Mimesis of Nothingness,« his 2020 collaboration with photographer Nooshin Shafiee, also released through the Swiss Hallow Ground label. But whereas in Amini’s previous collaborations music and other media are set in dialogue, with »Songs for Sad Poets«, Thacker’s poems and Amini’s soundscapes are deeply enmeshed with each other. In fact, none of the words printed in the record’s booklet are being said out loud on this double LP, but rather made tangible through the use of sound. Poetry and music do not so much correspond with each other as they conspire together—as songs without words, words without song.
»Songs for Sad Poets« was born out of a mutual admiration of each other’s work and it is easy to see how the musician and the writer could relate to one another artistically. The Tehran-based Amini has released over 20 albums in the past decade—among them »TAR« and »FORAS« on Hallow Ground—that probe the physical world but also search for something beyond it. His compositions draw on field recordings as well as acoustic and electronic sounds, blurring the lines between what is conventionally perceived as real or authentic and the abstract or otherworldly. The New York-based Thacker on the other hand is known as a writer whose philosophical works like »Infinite Resignation« read like poetry while his poetry and other literary writing is inherently philosophically charged. What unites them on this project is an interest in the idea of the fragility of the human being set against the vast horizon of climate, planet, and the cosmos that produces a »sadness without cause.« The pieces on »Songs for Sad Poets« translate this nearly inexpressible ambient melancholy into dense and sometimes claustrophobic pieces that are marked by internal tensions and slowly unfolding dynamics.
The eight poems are neither only the starting points nor just the byproduct of the compositions, or vice versa. Instead, the entire record is one single result of a coherent creative process. Thacker’s writing—dedicated to the poètes maudits Gérard de Nerval, Chūya Nakahara, Sadeq Hedayat, Alejandra Pizarnik, Giacomo Leopardi, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Zhu Shuzhen and Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo—is marked by a stunning formal rigour, but also a wide-reaching evocativeness. All it needs to conjure up an all encompassing sense of cosmic sorrow is a few lines with even fewer words in them. The rhythmic character of the poems is reflected in Amini’s music which puts an emphasis on tone and mood, but also on movement and density. All of this makes »Songs for Sad Poets« a work of art that directly addresses its listeners’ affects, expressing an underlying melancholy while evoking an air of dread by transcending the borders between music and literature.
https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/siavash-amini-eugene-thacker-songs-for-sad-poets |
2022 |
€32.50 |
|
| AMM |
AMMMusic 1966 |
CD |
“74 Minuten Material der AMMMUSIC-Session, die jeweils am 8. und 27. Juni 1966 stattfand. Die CD ist um zusätzliches Bonusmaterial erweitert, welches aus derselben Session stammt. It „allows the listener to hear prefigurations and continuities of the music which makes for a new and a more enhanced experience than the original album material.“ (from the booklet) Die Improvisationen von AMM schaffen lange ruhige Distanzen zwischen Eruptionen krachiger E-Gitarre und begleitend bis störend eingesetzten Transistorradios. Piano und Perkussion im Zusammenhang mit Cello, Saxophon, Akkordion und Klarinette steigern sich wellenförmig höher und lassen die Musik urplötzlich in ruhige Passagen fallen. Es scheint, die Zeit sei stehen geblieben, während die Musiker kleine Punkte und schmale Linien in diesen konstanten Strom eines Stillebens zeichnen. Im Original 1967 als LP
veröffentlicht.
This CD contains 74 minutes of AMMMUSIC recorded on the 8th and 27th june 1966. Some unreleased material made at the same session is inclused. It „allows the listener to hear prefigurations and continuities of the music which makes for a new and a more enhanced experience than the original album material.“ (from the booklet) Improvisation music with pretty long distances between eruptions of noise streams from electric guitar and transistor radio. Cello and percussion together with piano, saxophon, accordion and clarinet culminate in waves and suddenly remain in quiet parts. It seems the time has stopped, while the musicians are painting small dots and lines in this constant stream of a standstill. Originally released as an LP in 1967.“ [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
“Repressed. Monumental debut recording (originally issued by the Elektra recording company in far different times). "The classic first recording from 1966, with Cornelius Cardew, Eddie Prevost, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe and Lawrence Sheaf. One of the first attempts to bring Noise improvisation (radios, scraped guitars, prepared pianos) into popular culture. Essential and historic." [label info]
|
1989 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Uncovered Correspondence |
CD |
"John Tilbury - piano. Eddie Prévost - percussion. Recorded at the concert hall of the Jasielski Dom Kultury (Jaslo Cultural Centre) in southern Poland on 15th May 2010. Th e performance represented by this CD took place on 15th of May 2010 in the concert hall of the Jaslo Cultural Centre in southern Poland. I had spoken to John Tilbury in 2007 about the possibility of AMM performing in Jaslo, but for various reasons the project did not come to fruition until three years later. We had not planned for a CD release of the concert; in fact, we only spoke about recording the day before. There was no opportunity for the usual setup procedures. The recording was only intended as a document of the occasion. The concert began with John Tilbury using the piano to produce a gamelan-like quality, which was quickly followed by Eddie Prévost bowing a cymbal producing subtle metallic sounds. One could feel an electric atmosphere of concentration and note the exceptional care and elegance with which the performers selected even the tiniest details of the complex sound structure. Intriguing phrases from the prepared piano and sonorous tones from percussion instruments waft ed around the huge expanse of the hall — whose excellent acoustics let the audience immerse themselves in the music — savouring the subtle sounds emerging from the silence. e changes within the slow stream of improvisation occurred in such a natural way introduced by either musician by turn. Sometimes a highly abstract motif seemed to be a logical development rather than a step into the unknown — which in reality it was. The dominant impression was that such an advanced level of intuitive understanding between the two performers was the result of many years of collaboration. In my view each sound produced during the concert was not only ‘desirable’ but also essential (inevitable) and created its own profound aesthetic justification. Especially noteworthy was the compelling way in which both musicians made use of silence, whose role in AMM is as important as sound. Th e performance of a shorter or longer period of silence entailed the same creative intervention as did playing a sound or motif. The moments when the sound structure intensified and thickened became less frequent yet did not disappear completely. Particularly embedded in my memory are two moments: one was an exceptionally loud and shattering fragment of sound when dust could be seen rising out of the piano. And, when Eddie got up from his percussion and went to the wood-panelling, playing the wall with a beater generating a very low and vibrating sound — a convincing demonstration that any object may be used as a means to create music. It is only because I attended the concert, and can recall it in my mind, that now when listening to the recording I can identify the sources of those extraordinary sounds. The music presented on this CD requires a serious commitment from the listener. However, anyone familiar with the music of AMM would expect nothing else. To uncover the hidden beauty of these lovingly craft ed improvised sound abstractions requires an appropriate level of concentration on the part of the listener. Such effort will be rewarded by a profound aesthetic experience. In organising this concert I feel honoured I have been able to contribute, albeit inadvertently, to the release of another AMM CD. Andrzej Serwa — August 2010" [label info]
www.matchlessrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| AMON |
Aura (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"A relatively new outfit from Milano, Italy. On the two so far released CDs an auditory film to mystical fields and unknown landscapes was evoked. With the minimal, but effective dark ambient soundstructures on this first AMON-vinyl the listener is taken to a journey into the "archaic" heart of darkness. 1000 miles away, calming and alien." [label info]
|
1998 |
€ |
|
| AMON DÜÜL |
Disaster (Lüüd Noma) |
do-LP |
Im September 1968 spielte AMON DÜÜL bei den "Internationalen Essener Songtagen", dem ersten fünftägigen Rockfestival Deutschlands, das der spätere Ohr-Labelchef Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser initiiert hatte. Der Berliner Musikproduzent Peter Meisel hörte und sah die Band dort und nahm sie spontan unter Vertrag, zusammen mit Tangerine Dream und Birth Control. AMON DÜÜL stand der Berliner "Kommune 1" nahe und entstand zu einer Zeit, da jeder ein Künstler war, der einer sein wollte. Und so konnte auch jeder, der wollte, ein Musiker sein. Zusammen, im Kollektiv, war alles möglich. Angelika und Helge Filanda, Wolfgang Krischke, Ulrich Leopold, Rainer und Ella Bauer, Peter Leopold sowie Uschi Obermaier spielten in Meisels Studio zeitgemäß high in the sky eine Session ein, die alle Regeln durchbrach und alle Hörgewohnheiten auf den Kopf stellte. Die Aufnahmen wanderten zunächst in den Giftschrank, erst ein Jahr später traute sich Meisel, sie unter dem Titel Psychedelic Underground zu veröffentlichen. Hier ist die Fortsetzung: Die Doppel-LP Disaster/Lüüd Noma erschien 1972, als es die Gruppe AMON DÜÜL schon nicht mehr gab, und sie präsentiert weitere Aufnahmen aus derselben Session. Alle Titel sind surreale, unübersetzbare Wortspielereien, die Stücke sind klanglich besser organisiert, weniger fragmentarisch, klarer voneinander abgesetzt und ausgefeilter nachbearbeitet als auf der ersten LP - der ausgenzwinkernd mitgelieferte Hinweis, alle Störungen und Fehler seien beabsichtigt, hat aber gleichwohl einen wahren Kern. Nun sind diese denkwürdigen Aufnahmen wieder zugänglich, remastered von den analogen Originalbändern. Sie sind das Dokument einer Zeitstimmung, die unwiederholbar geblieben ist. Wer sich für die Anfänge des Krautrocks ernsthaft interessiert, kommt an diesem Album nicht vorbei - das Disaster wartet auf Sie!
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| AMUNDSON, NATHAN |
Western Songs |
LP |
"Minimalist singer/songwriter Nathan Amundson began recording as Rivulets in 1999, when his self-titled debut was issued by Chairkickers Union, the Duluth, Minnesota label run by the veteran slowcore outfit Low.
Since then Nathan has released a plethora of albums, EPs, and singles as Rivulets on labels such as Chairkickers, Acuarela, Important Recoords, TROME and Jellyfant. His live performances, both solo and with his band, are highly acclaimed, and much sought after on the European circuit.
"Western Songs" marks the very first time Nathan Amundson is releasing music under his own name. This record is his first for Silentes, and features two side-long late night instrumental guitar jams evoking the vast arid landscape surrounding his home state of Colorado.
Recommended if you like: deserts, drone, experimental, minimalist, mountains and slowcore.
"Western Songs" is released in two different editions:
- 200 copies on black vinyl;
- 50 copies on splattered vinyl. [sold out]" [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| ANAKRID |
Banishment Rituals of the Disenlightened |
LP |
Tolles Album dieser Neuentdeckung auf Beta-Lactam: sehr dichte, dunkle, geräuschhäft-mysteriöse Klänge, elektronisch unterfüttert & stets in dynamischer Bewegung, ein weites Spektrum auf den 11 Stücken austestend... sehr eigener Stil! Dies ist die superlimitierte Vinyl-Version, wie immer wie bei Beta-lactam speziell verpackt!
"..A very dark, often unsettling and intense album of electronic experimentation." [Side-Line]
"LP edition of 100 copies in a hand printed heavy gatefold sleeve. The inside gatefold sleeve is hand painted by Anakrid (each unique). Anakrid a day keeps the doctor slurred in a trove of fish-tallowed sling slong. This is what it sounds like when doves cry because the mother ship crashes into their nest in the 6th dimension. With this symphony of sickness comprised of scraped palpitations, pitched whooshes, roaring cathodes and syncopated metallics, Anakrid have another breakthrough chart topper on their bruised hands! These avant-garde hit-makers have real crossover potential, combining the best, most dynamic experimental noise with the very latest drones. This exciting NOW sound is OUT OF THIS WORLD! The long awaited fusion of ritualistic tribalism with the tweaked electro-tech of ancient alien cultures is finally here. Hey kids! If you love Nurse With Wound, Genocide Organ, Hafler Trio, Muslimgauze, Pierre Henry, Nadja and Harry Bertoia and confusing your parents, then you’ll want to get in on the Anakrid craze before it’s too late. They’ve got a whole new way of kickin’ it old school. With electronics AND home-made instruments, Anakrid CREATES an exploratory atmosphere WITHOUT all those boring, go-nowhere improvisational hang-ups. Everything sounds fresh, progressive and weird!!! It’s just that good. Let’s face it; outsider music has gotten plain boring. Anakrid is just the electrodes to the testicles that left field music has been weeping for since, like, forever. Ex-punks hang up their Mohawks and make good mayhem." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€26.00 |
|
| ANDERSSON, PETER |
Music for Film and Exhibition II |
CD |
"Like baking a sweet cake or cooking an indian dish you need good ingredients and spices to get the right mouthfeel and the splendid flavor of your desire. 'Music for Film and Exhibition II' is just like that: a levelled declitre of raison d'être, a brimful tablespoon of Atomine Elektrine, a couple of teaspoons of Necrophorus and a little bit of this and little bit of that, mixed into a perfect blend of many tastes. Peter Andersson, well-known from projects like Raison d'être, Stratvm Terror, Necrophorus and Atomine Elektrine, shows here broad spectrum of sonic atmospheres, like if all of his different music projects were combined into one. From ambient-drone-textures and electronic chill-out to concrete sounds to even pure atmopsheric piano tunes. 'Music for Film and Exhibition II' is the sequel of 'Music for Film and Exhibition' (Yantra Atmospheres, 2007). While the previous output contains collected works from different exhibition projects and movies spanning from 1999-2005,
this sequel is focused on one single project; an exhibition. Peter Andersson has lately worked as a media producer at Swedish Air Force Museum and being involved with their new large permanent exhibiton about the Cold War.
Within this project Peter has worked with sound design and movie production in particular.
The sonic results are presented on 'Music for Film and Exhibition II'. Some of the tunes are used as soundtrack for exhibition movies while the main part are sonic atmospheres and soundscapes to create the ambience of the exhibition rooms. The music is presented here as stand alone productions, displaced from its original context. To fully experience the music in its environmental Raison d'être there is no other way but to travel to the Swedish Air Force Museum. Until then, you may enjoy the music on its own. The CD comes in a six panel digipak covered with beautiful Sunset painting by italian artist Christian Montagna/FLOODSart.
For same samples go here :
http://www.oldeuropacafe.com/main.php?nav=pd&prdct=10127" [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Music for Film and Exhibition |
do-CD & DVD |
"...Natura Fluxus'. 2CD+DVD in digibook packaging. Limited to 400 copies. Peter Andersson from the Cold Meat Industry act raison detre now presents his sound work for film and exhibition, spanning through the years 1999 to 2006. Peter has been working on several film and exhibition projects, some of these projects never went to final completion but the music was composed in almost all the cases. Music for Film and Exhibition presents a broad spectrum of the sounds and music capabilities of Peter Andersson and those familiar with any of his different music projects including raison d'etre, Necrophorus, Atomine Elektrine, Bocksholm etc. will most probably enjoy this double album (Music duration 151 min.) very much..For now Infinite Fog Productions presents complite edition of 'Music for Film and Exhibition I" which contains real DVD with Natura Fluxus - film by Peter Andersson and Lars Bosma + some rare bonuses, like another Peter's films - Autumn Leaves; Mandala; Dritfing Wall; Nature Morte e.t. Total play time approx. 83 minutes! Natura Fluxus brings us on a poetic, existential and suggestive journey dealing with matters like abandonment, desolation, emptiness, inanimation, remembrance and residual energy through places where we can spot traces of presence of mankind. Discover the aesthetic beauty in old factories and ruins: in the perishable and the metamorphoses that follow. Natura Fluxus is a experimental film where concrete, environmental sounds and original scored music blend with visual stunning sceneries of rarely seen places. The film is in B/W and Color. Highly recommended! Masterpiece of ambient music!" [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru
|
2011 |
€29.00 |
|
| |
Music for Film and Exhibition 3 |
CD |
"This is a different experience! It's very concrete and descriptive, and in some cases almost natural, but always with some twists making it much more magic and enigmatic than just the plain sounds alone. Exhibition music can be difficult to describe because they really need to be presented and experienced in their original context. It's about sound design and soundscape composition. The key to understand the exhibition music presented here lies in the order of sounds and their combinations in layers and alterations through time. It makes the listener coming closer to the sounds, to investigate in their meanings and roles within the given frames. It's like being a sound detective.
'Music for Film and Exhibition 3' is, as the name suggests, the third album with film and exhibition music by Peter Andersson. It contains music for various exhibitions from 2011 to 2013 and also some recently found sketches for the 'Tulpa' soundtrack, which was released in their full and final versions on the 'Music for Film and Exhibition I'. Technically 'Music for Film and Exhibition 3' is the first album by Peter Andersson which is mastered according to the so called K-level standard, specifically to K-14. The K-standard will ensure that the highest dynamical range will be preserved in the music. It will benefit the listener because the music will simply sound much greater than a hot or over-compressed album. All one need to do is to give an extra push one the amplifier volume control to match the gain of a hot mastered album." [label info]
www.wrotycz.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ANEMONE TUBE |
Dream Landscape |
CD |
" ‘Dream Landscape’ is the first official solo release by ANEMONE TUBE after 9 years of silence. Originally founded in 1996 in Southern Germany, ANEMONE TUBE has quite made a name for himself in the industrial/noise genre especially due to the psychogenic nature of his music.
On this new release ANEMONE TUBE creates massive ambient/noise soundscapes. The sounds are pulsating, drowning and floating, tormenting and caressing – all culminating in a haunting sonic experience.
‘Dream Landscape’ is – together with the album ‘Death over China’ – the first part of the ‘Suicide Series’. To this field recordings made in China provide a conceptional basis.
‘Dream Landscape’ is a concept album of fierce malignant power. In a poetic way ANEMONE TUBE combines analytical realism of the phenomenal world with buddhist psychology and nihilist rhetoric influenced by the visionary authors H.P. Lovecraft and Yukio Mishima.
Mastering by JAMES PLOTKIN, January/February 2010." [label info]
www.anemonetube.de - www.myspace.com/anemonetube
www.silkentofu.org
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Death over China |
CD |
"One year after the highly acclaimed "Dream Landscape" CD ANEMONE TUBE returns with the new concept album "Death over China".
No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take, if at all possible, decades to undo. China`s rise as an economic power has no clear parallel in history; thus, its pollution problem has shattered all precedent developments.
"Death over China" is a retaliation of nature against humankind. In the same moment it is a dedication to our untamed curiosity for the essence of death and our (inherent in our collective action) secret death wish. In China`s uncompromising economical and social development we see demonstrated, how we - even with the immolation of our health, environment and tradition - are the servants to material progress. Though we are aware of the approaching ecological disaster, we hazard the consequences. Sustainability is sacrificed on the altar of egoist quest for happiness. We consume, we destroy, we thrive, we conjure: "Deathly kingdom of desire, you sustain the life in me, Black death rise!"
Using field recordings, collected in Nanjing and Shanghai in 2007, ANEMONE TUBE creates an unsettling yet intriguing, apocalyptic soundtrack with a sinister atmosphere and a depressive undertone - a unique blend of dark ambient, post industrial and power electronics in the tradition of European industrial music.
"Death over China" is the second part of "The Suicide Series", for which field recordings provide a conceptional basis. In a poetic way ANEMONE TUBE combines analytical realism of the phenomenal world with buddhist psychology and nihilist rhetoric influenced by the works of Michael Haneke, Hayao Miyazaki, H.P. Lovecraft and Yukio Mishima.All music recorded between July 2007 and December 2009.
Mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN 2010. Definitely ANEMONE TUBE`s best and most mature album yet." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
"Anomene Tube is a noise-project formed in the Southern part of Germany in 1996. Strong influences to the compositional approach of the project is the nihilistic rhetoric works of Michael Haneke, Hayoao Miayazaki and H.P. Lovecraft combined with buddhist psychology and concrete sounds from the real world. All tracks of this album titled "Death over China", are exclusively developed from the use of field recordings. The piece "I shall forever invoke" is the only piece where there are integrations of synthesizer. For this particular piece the synthesizers adds a nice atmospheric soundscape on the background of field recordings. The piece "Prayer walk" is an abrasive beast where the noise drones makes a pure impact on the listener. Screeching noise drills into the ears with additions of distant voices adding a great apocalyptic atmosphere to the piece. Also the piece titled "Brooding haze" drills a deep impression into the listener thanks to the monotonous high frequency noise-sounds
operating on top of crushing power electronics and concrete metal sounds. "Death over China" is a part of the so-called "Suicide Series" - a series that aims to express the self-destructive tendency by the modern population due to the social and highly industrialized global development. The album comes in a beautiful art-work in dvd-sized format with early photographs and paintings from early 20th century. Excellent work of noise art." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
:existence |
CD |
"
A U F A B W E G E N RELEASE INFO
cd-audio
releaae date: 25.05.2001
artist: ANEMONE TUBE
title: :EXISTENCE:
order no.: aatp09
time: 50:12 min
jewel case / 500 handnumbered copies / fold out colour insert
:existence: as a great mix between rumbling noise and floating ambience. four hasrh tracks and three more dense and collage like works make this a varied and thrilling listen!
tracklisting:
Flesh & Bombs (10:13)
Secondary Master (4:43)
Choke Down (5:41)
Existence (11:10)
Red Waves (5:56)
Continuity (4:08)
The Encounter III (8:19)
Anemone Tube was founded in Summer of 1996 by Stefan Hanser who felt the urge to express deeper personal feelings and dreams. The audioworks from Anemone Tube vary a lot along with the different means Stefan Hanser uses as
sound source and for manipulation and could easiest be described as industrial-, ambient- and noisescapes of organic and synthetic sounds. The use of constantly shifting and altering sounds and moods is possibly one of
the most intruiging things about the audio creations of Anemone Tube with the purpose of trying to put the listener into a delirious mental state, to irritate, torment and caress him no matter if in a positive or negative way:
to cause emotional reaction!
Over the years plenty of releases, several participations on compilations, split and
collaborational releases on tape, vinyl, cd and video have been realised by different labels worldwide such as Transfixional Entertainment/Ravensburg, AufAbwegen/Köln, Solipsism/USA, Loud!/Italy, Napalmed/Czech, Inner Space Records/USA and many more.
www.transformed.de/anemone.html" [original press release by AUF ABWEGEN]
"German ambient-industrial project Anemone Tube was formed in 1996, and has explored a variety of heavy noisescapes and rhythmic blocks of sound; the Tube's modus operandi has always seemed to focus on putting the listener into a state of delirium caused by constantly shifting sounds and tones sourced from assorted organic and synthetic sounds, and this approach has resulted in a stylistically diverse body of work over the years. On the debut full length Existence, a nearly hour-long disc released in a hand-numbered limited edition of 500 copies, Anemone Tube is at it's heaviest, constructing seven bulky tracks that move from gorgeous ambient dronescapes to crushing, loop-heavy walls of distortion and menacing melodic tracers undulating over grinding rhythmic throb, sort of like what I'd expect a collaboration between Wolf Eyes and Maurizio Bianchi to sound like, although you can also draw lines to Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and violent early UK power electronics when tracks like 'Choke Down' and 'The Encounter III" get into full swing and start obliterating speakers with ferocious torrents of factory distortion. I really dig the way that Existence manages to balance the haunting, atmospheric drones and buried deconstructed rhythms with the louder, brutal passages of rumbling machine filth, making this much easier to digest than many of Anemone Tube's peers. Packaged in an elegant jewel case with a large 10-panel booklet glowing in fiery, fractaled reds and oranges, imprinted with mysterious pictograms." [Crucial Blast] |
2001 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Golden Temple |
CD |
"anemone tube’s third release of the 'suicide series' tetralogy is an immersive industrial music album and the most ambitious and complex work yet, a long-term project of no less than 6 years, pursuing a highly sophisticated approach full of cross-cultural and historical references. painting a sonic landscape, 'golden temple' is perfectly real and dreamlike at the same time, endorsing archaic, mythological and worldly ideals alike. beauty and evil, the profane and chaos, apocalypse and hope - anemone tube keeps account and observes the antagonist forces of life. composed of raw urban field recordings collected in japan and china, combined with layers of piercing feedback and sinister hovering synth melodies, 'golden temple' confronts you with an all-embracing atmosphere of aggrieving darkness and glorious harshness, fathoming the possibilities of the genre. to ensure due impact, it has been sharply engineered to perfection by mastermind james plotkin. pursuing radical psychological effects of sound, the 13+ minutes initiation 'l`homme et les sirenes' is a mind-bending journey into the human psyche, a slowly emerging sinister landscape evoking man’s intrinsic imbalance with (its own) nature, followed by the noisy debris and crushing buildup of 'apocalyptic fantasy' as well as 'tower of evil', which is the central piece of the album, conceptually and musically, multi-layered and sample-heavy, related to tokyo’s roppongi hills mori tower, which is regarded by natives as a symbol for the uninhibited commercialization of life. 'negation of myth' descends into a barren, metallic darkness, radiating an equivocal sense of melancholy, before 'sea of lights (golden temple)' ascends in sparkling brightness and divinity. the evanescent bleakness of 'anthropocene - the dark abyss of time' finishes the main part of the album on a perversely promising, almost calm, spiritual note. under the heading 'arcadia - dreamland and myth', which constitutes a coherent sequel to the album, anemone tube explores questions pertaining our longing for a return to the realms of myth and emotion. whereas the sinister seething 'i, death, rule even in arcadia' picks up the first piece’s topic of sirens and conjures up the dionysian reunion with the innermost depths of nature and chaos, the psychologically strenuous 'tojinbo - tranquil sea of equanimity' composed by radical sound artist dave phillips (switzerland, schimpfluch-gruppe), using field recordings of the country’s most notorious suicide spot, demands the ultimate choice: how far to go to find your peace of mind. after the purely fantastic 'dream landscape' conjuring up an apocalyptic vision and the dark, brooding landscape of 'death over china' slowly spreading as thick smog (as a consequence for china’s uncompromising economical and societal development causing irreparable environmental harm), the semi-fictional work 'golden temple' is the series’ logical sequel . it suggests a (meta)physical landscape, here in form of global cities and metropolises proudly and brightly soaring in darkness, and bestowing golden radiance and divine beauty. with its alluring metaphorical world of images, symbols and sounds it is the very symbol of our innermost longings, desires and fears and our attempts to escape from a disconcerting reality. the 'golden temple' is comforting and threatening at the same time: consoling as it promises to reveal the secrets of beauty, threatening as it becomes a mirror of our secret death wish. strongly influenced by pasolini’s cinematic masterpiece 'medea', which evolves around the subject matters of estrangement from traditional values, the loss of contact with the mythical and the sacred in an increasingly rationalized and consumerist society, anemone tube brings matters to a head with an invocation of religiously charged symbolism, with the 'golden temple' acting as more than a singular viewpoint, but as a meta-sign, functioning in its paramount acknowledgement and acceptance of complex, sometimes contradictory subject matter. supported by the use of ancient and contemporary imagery, literary and cinematic references reproduced in the lavish accompanying booklet anemone tube creates different narrative levels, juxtaposes contemporary western and long-standing asian culture, plays with symbolic meanings and values - however, while doing so, never takes an unequivocal stand. anemone tube with his varied interests and approaches always strives to present a holistic work of art, and 'golden temple' works on many levels accordingly. the considered use of field recordings and samples, the arrangement of old masters’ paintings, contemporary photos and a variety of quotes from literature and movies - nothing is random, everything is part of the big picture. 'golden temple' is a multi-facetted recording, absorbing and inspiring as well as a complex concept waiting to be discovered. quality time lies ahead for those who get involved and visit the golden temple! the cd comes with a beautifully designed 6 panel digifile with golden print on black paper and a lavish 12-page booklet." [label info]
"Im Zentrum von Tokyos Bezirk Minato erhebt sich die Skyline der Roppongi Hills, einer Gruppe von Bürotürmen um den mächtigen Mori Tower, den die kritisch gesinnten unter den Einheimischen in leicht abergläubischer Weise den bösen Turm nennen. In ihrer Wahrnehmung steht er für die Macht, die das Kapital und der entfesselte Konsum auf alle Lebensbereiche ausweitet. Für den Musiker Anemone Tube, der vor einigen Jahren Japan bereiste und am Fuße der Türme das Covermotiv und nicht wenige der Sounds seines aktuellen Albums „Golden Temple“ aufnahm, ist der Ort ein Symbol der kapitalistischen Spatmoderne, der Tower of Evil, den er im gleichnamigen Stück besingt, ist eine Allegorie, die nicht nur in Japan ihre Manifestation hat.
„Golden Temple“ – man mag beim Titel an Mishimas Temple of the Golden Pavillon denken, woraus im opulenten Booklet zitiert wird – ist der dritte Teil von Anemone Tubes „Suicide Series“ und somit Nachfolger von „Dream Landscape“ und „Death Over China“. Ein weiteres mal geht es um Landschaften, die sich in der Spätform unserer Zivilisation herausgebildet haben und die zugleich ihren selbst hervorgerufenen Kollaps symbolisieren. Auf „Golden Temple“ ist all dies noch stärker als zuvor mit textlichen und ikonischen Zitaten und Anspielungen unterfüttert, die viele Fragen stellen und gelegentlich auch die eine oder andere Antwort in den Raum stellen.
Noch deutlicher als auf „Death Over China“ dreht sich auf „Golden Temple“ alles um das Thema der Entfremdung und ihrer apokalyptischen Dimensionen, und wie es scheint wird ein historisches Panorama entfaltet. Im eröffnenden „L’Homme et les Sirenes“ wird gewissermaßen die Ursünde der Entfremdung abgehandelt, der Trick des Odysseus, dem verführerischen Gesang der Sirenen zu widerstehen, oder allgemeiner: durch scheinbare Disziplin, die in Wirklichkeit eine Selbstfesselung ist, über die Natur und ihre Geister zu triumphieren. Dieser Akt, von Homer gefeiert und noch in der Dialektik der Aufklärung als Sternstunde der Zivilisation gewürdigt, erscheint hier als Auftakt einer fatalen Dystopie, zumindest lässt der knochentrockene Schleifsound, der seine destruktive Wirkraft erst nach und nach entfaltet, nichts anderes vermuten.
Von der Irrfahrt des Heroen bis zum finalen Anthropozän in „Anthropocene – The Dark Abyss of Time“ mit seinem an apokalyptisches Flammengeprassel erinnernden Rauschen ist es ein weiter Weg, und der ist mit Marken versehen, die so etwas wie einen Kampf zwischen Sein und Entfremdung anzudeuten scheinen. Auf musikalischer wie textlicher Seite herrscht der Nihilismus des all-encompassing destroyer aus dem zentralen „Tower of Evil“. „Apocalyptic Fantasy“ knüpt mit fatal dröhnenden Kreisbewegungen und einem Sound, der an Gitarrensoli diverser Metalgenres gemahnt, an die vorab veröffentlichte EP „In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality“ an, und schon dass hier auf Fantasy und nicht auf Nightmare verwiesen wird, unterstreicht das Lustvolle, dass dieses Untergangs-Narrativ bis zum kaum verständlichen Sprachample durchzieht – wie im Tarot Crowleys ist der Turm, der hier durch brettharte Noisewände evoziert wird, eine dem Einsturz geweihte comfort zone, deren Implosion gefürchtet und zugleich erhofft wird.
Nach einer eindringlicheren Version des schon auf dem Vortex-Tape enthaltenen „Tower of Evil“, hier mit dem Zusatz „The Ultimate Truth“, führt uns „Negation of Myth“ in die etwas filigraneren Regionen der Anemone Tube-Kosmos, was allerdings nur heißt, dass die nosigen Sounds weniger verwaschen und die einzelnen grobkörnigen Partikel deutlicher herausgearbeitet sind. Wer vergleichbare Passagen auf „Death Over China“ oder auf der Split mit Dissecting Table kennt, weiß, dass solche Tracks immer noch niederdrückend sind, und hier ist es v.a. das kosmische Hintergrunddröhnen, das den Eindruck von etwas Verlorenem aufrecht erhält. Vielleicht ist es diese Evokation von etwas ungreifbar Verlorenem, die auch den vielleicht schöngeistigesten Track „Sea of Lights (Golden Temple)“ so eindringlich macht.
Anemone Tube war stets an einer angemessenen allegorischen Aufmachung interessiert, doch diesmal ist das Booklet besonders reichhaltig gefüllt. Auf der bildlichen und paratextlichen Seite, die hier entfaltet wird, erwacht eine hetrotopische Gegenwelt, die so etwas wie ein nicht entfremdetes Sein zum Thema macht. Teil dieser Gegenwelt, wenn auch auf sehr radikale Art, ist zumindest der erste der beiden Bonus-Tracks, die wie eine integrierte EP unter dem Titel „Arcadia – Dreamland and Myth” angehängt sind: „I, Death, Even Rule in Arcadia” greift das Motiv der Odysse wieder auf und deutet eine alternative Erzähung an, in der der Held dem Ruf der Geister nachgibt und – auf tragische Weise, der Entfremdung jedoch entrinnend, wieder mit seiner eigenen Natur verschmilzt. „Tojinbo – Tranquil Sea of Equanimity” wiederum ist besonders doppelbödig, scheinen die vom schweitzer Soundaktivisten Dave Philips abgemischten Feldaufnahmen aus der Nähe einer für zahlreiche Selbstmorde bekannten Felsenklippe in Japan doch eher wieder eine Folge der Entfremdung statt ihre Alternative zu beschwören.
Letztlich bleibt es eine Frage der Interpretation, ob man die schönen Seiten des in „Golden Temple“ beschworenen als eskapistische Gegenwelt, als Einklagen einer veschmähten Kostbarkeit, als reine Dokumentation oder als vorsichtig hoffnungvolle Zukunftsaussicht auf ein Danach lesen will. Nietzsches Umschreibung des Dionysischen als „Ja zu Leben in all seiner Tragik” kommt mir dabei allerdings nicht aus dem Sinn. Sicher ist, dass das immer etwas links klingende Wort Antikapitalismus und das immer etwas rechts klingende Wort Antimodernismus selten so sehr überblendet wurde, wie auf diesem an Andeutungen und Anspielungen reichen Album, das den Geist Pasolinis wie ein Kontrastmittel über die Goldenen Tempel unserer Zeit gießt – und damit selbst die namenlose saufende Schönheit zu Füßen der Kolosses aus Glas und Beton zum Strahlen bringt." (U.S./AFRICAN PAPER]
www.raubbau.org
"The second chapter in "the suicide series" from Berlin's Anemone Tube is a suitably grim offering of machined noise, discordant feedback, and industrial field recordings of urban sprawl from a protracted visit to China a few years back. Anemone Tube's inclusion of these Chinese sounds comes from a very conscious decision to express the unfortunate side of the human condition to lay blame of current ills on the foreigner, the other - as Sartre explored in The Stranger. These recordings of locomotive engines grinding against the tracks, jet-engines surging into the sky, and the deafening roar from turbines are not unique to China, but the acceleration of environmental decline through such activities should also be seen as a mirror to the European civilization, whose cities have complex histories to war, famine, death, and disease. Hence, the title refers more to the gleaming optimism of human progress when everything points to another conclusion. Anemone Tube captures this in an immersive construct of these revolving field recordings, compounded by sinister synth passages and haunted drone, that keep us thinking of the likes of Morthound and Megaptera, in the death-industrial realms." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| ANGELI, PAOLO |
Tessuti |
CD |
"Es ist wirklich kaum zu glauben, dass PAOLO ANGELI Tessuti (ReR PA3) ohne Overdubs eingespielt hat. Dabei ist seine verblüffend
polyphone Virtuosität auf der präparierten und elektrisch verstärkten sardischen Gitarre noch der geringere Anlass zur Verwunderung. Was ist
schon Virtuosität? Noch erstaunlicher sind das Material und die Arrangierkunst, die Richtung, in die Angeli strebt. Neben Eigenkompositionen
spielt er Björk und Fred Frith. Dem dabei der Geist von Tom Cora über die Schulter blickt.
Nicht nur bei Skeleton Crews ‚The Hand That Bites‘, auch bei ‚Ahead in the Sand‘ und ‚Navajo‘ von Speechless oder dem miniaturisierten ‚Lelekovice‘, Friths
String Quartet #1 (auf Quartets, RecRec, 1994, und, neu interpretiert vom Arditti String Quartet, auf Eleventh Hour, W & W, 2005). Der Cora-Touch rührt wohl daher, dass Angeli seine
Gitarre zwischen den Knien hauptsächlich arco wie ein Cello spielt. Bei seinen Interpretationen hebt Angeli neben dem
experimentellen Aspekt der trickreichen Mehrstimmigkeit auch das Frith-typische Substrat
der Imaginären Folklore hervor bis hin zu Anklängen an Spielformen der Renaissance.
Von Björk erklingen ‚Unravel‘ (von Homogenic), ‚Desired Constellation‘ (von Medúlla),‚One day‘ (von Debut) und ‚Hyper-ballad‘ (von Post). Dabei
gelingen Angeli ebenfalls erstaunliche Rückbindungen des Pathos und der verstiegenen
Poesie der Isländerin an die manieristische Tradition (minus des ‚Angeschossenes Reh‘-Timbres, das mir Björk verleidet).
Die zart angeraute Sanglichkeit der sardischen Gitarre ist durchwegs bestechend schön.
Wie Angeli dazu die perkussiven Spuren zaubert, sirrende Vibrationen und geklopfte Beats, das
ist der alte Skeleton-Crew-Zauber." [Bad Alchemy]
"The latest from Paolo on which he plays compositions by Fred Frith and Bjork - solo (though when you hear it, you definitely won’t believe it) on his highly customised and extended, electrified, giant Sardinian guitar. A tour de force of technique and a musical pleasure. There is so much subtlety and so much attention to the minutiae of sound, and so much going on at any given time that it is difficult to relate what you hear to just one person playing. Very concentrated, it rewards listening to a few songs at a time. Though strangely, you could probably also dance to it." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Tibi |
CD/DVD (dualdisc) |
"This disc will play in stereo on a CD player and with film and 5.1 surround sound (or stereo) on a DVD player or computer. The music, as always, is prodigious, sounding like a small band, but played by one person in real time (as the film attests). In this format, you can also see the instrument -- close to a highly rebuilt and extended giant Sardinian guitar -- with many sympathetic and extra strings, motor-driven hurdy gurdy wheels, whirling strings, springs and other appendages, played like a cello, vertically, with bow, fingers, plectra and machines. However Heath Robinson it may appear, it is clearly under Paulo's hands, a highly serious and extraordinarily flexible beast that requires and has given rise to new playing techniques. The programme of compositions here navigates through highly-organized additive rhythms, freer Frith-like pointillism and some seemingly impossible mini-orchestrations. The film, professionally made, follows the performance, occasionally interpolating abstract passages and processed images. A remarkable player with a unique instrument, playing a music entirely his own."
[label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ANKERSMIT, THOMAS |
Figueroa Terrace |
CD |
"Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and installation artist based in Berlin. Since 2006 his main instrument, both live and in the studio, has been the Serge analogue modular synthesizer. Acoustic phenomena such as sound reflections, infrasonic vibration, otoacoustic emissions, and highly directional projections of sound have been an important part of his work since the early 2000's. In the winter of 2011-2012 Ankersmit was invited by the CalArts electronic music studios, Los Angeles, where the Serge was originally developed in the early 1970s, to record new music with their heavily customized and recently restored 'Black Serge' system. In addition to conventional analog synthesis techniques (FM, AM, ring modulation, filtering, enveloping and panning under voltage control), Ankersmit used various kinds of waveshaping, distortion and feedback (both internally as well as via a microphone and speaker setup in the studio); oscillator-generated frequencies at the upper and lower limits of auditory perception; a patch matrix to control quick transitions; a homemade circuit-bending type interface to create momentary interruptions to the signal flow, and the scraping of a contact microphone. Aside from recording, editing, and a few instances of reverb no digital technology was used. The music is finely tuned and highly detailed, yet also visceral and raw. Marked by sharp perceptual contrasts, the piece shifts between dense formations of electric noise, to fields of micro-events moving with an intuitive logic, and feedback-drones of overwhelming intensity. The sounds have a real-world physicality, bringing to mind swarms of locusts, distant storms and creaking machinery rather than 'synthesizer music'. The piece was premiered in North America at Redcat in downtown Los Angeles and in Europe at Berghain, Berlin, for the MaerzMusik Festival. The music is originally quadraphonic and mixed to stereo for this release. Figueroa Terrace is Ankersmit's first full-length solo studio release. Recorded at CalArts, Valencia and in Los Angeles, December 2011-February 2012." [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| ANOFELE & LOGOPLASM |
Gravescapes |
mCD-R |
Für field recording-Fans höchst empfehlenswert: Zwei italienische Projekte mit Aufnahmen aus einem unterirdischen Kloster-Tunnel, der mit Steinen, Stöckern & Knochen übersät war… auf der mini-Cd befinden sich drei Stücke, je eines mit den Bearbeitungen von ANOFELE und LOGOPLASM, und einmal die Originalaufnahmen. Geheimnisumwitterte Geräusch-Trips voller steiniger Details…
“We are happiest to bring you this collaboration between Anofele (Adriano Scerna, better known as one half of the italian experimental duo Kar) and Logoplasm (Paolo Ippoliti and Laura Lovreglio from Ariccia, Rome) which comes in the form of a 3" MiniCD-R.
Logoplasm didn't release any music at all during the last few years, so we are particularly glad to be part of their return to the scene, and we're truly hoping that this won't remain an isolated episode.
"Gravescapes" is a very particular release whose origins starts back in 2003 during a week-end in springtime, when Adriano, Paolo and Laura got almost lost in the woods of Central Italy, after a visit to a local theravada buddist monastery.
As they were walking around the monastery, at some point the trees disclosed the ruins of what instantly appeared like an abandoned graveyard bearing the signs of an awful lot of time and almost completely overgrown with weeds.
Underneath the graveyard they soon discovered a short subterranean tunnel. The tunnel was slightly illuminated by the piercing sunlight and their curiosity won over unrational fears, so they decided to explore it.
Inside the tunnel they found a few open loculi which contained small heaps of human bones. More bones were spreaded on the ground along with stones, sticks, branches, etc.
They took some recordings with two portable MiniDisc machines, using their discoveries as the main sound sources. Such recordings were subsequently manipulated and assembled using computer technology and softwares, and turned into "Gravescapes".
"Gravescape One" is Anofele's rendition of the original recordings, which is presented as "Gravescape Two". "Gravescape Three" is Logoplasm's take on the same source material.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| ANTENNE |
# 3 |
CD |
Überraschung! Diverse Jahre nach dem letzten Werk " # 2 " sind ANTENNE zurück, und zwar auf dem Sub-Label von BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS. Der besondere Stil, die magisch-zarten & zerbrechlichen Songs, Akustikgitarren & sanfte Elektronik, zurückhaltende trip-hop Beats, der unfassbar sanfte & wundervolle Gesang, all das wurde weiterentwicklelt und perfektioniert. Extrem subtil & gefangennehmend melancholisch, ohne pathetisch zu sein. Ein leicht geräuschhafter & experimenteller Einschlag rundet das ganze ab, wahrhaft dunkler Ambient-Pop!
"Antenne is the critically acclaimed solo project of Copenhagen’s Kim G. Hansen, who formerly recorded as half of the Danish industrial duo Institute for the Criminally Insane. Kim G. Hansen was also one of the founding members of Danish experimental noise-rock band Grind, who later became Amstrong - a project focused on trip-hop aesthetics but still influenced by the origins of the band. In 1999, Kim left Amstrong to form a solo project - Antenne. The female vocalist of Amstrong, Marie-Louise Munck, also participates at the project as vocalist on most of the songs. Antenne is known for a minimal and profound style of experimental and dark trip-hop. This is their third full length release and their first release on BlRR/helmet room recordings." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| ANTLERS MULM |
Of Withered Sparks |
CD |
"Our hopes, our flesh, our tears... are draped like dead birds in the skies"... Different from most other LOKI-artists, ANTLERS MULM appears to be much more song-oriented, doing a kind of dark electronic pop-music, but very refined, minimal, deeply melancholic & quiet. Reminds us a bit on TWICE A MAN or TOR LUNDVALL at times, but with a much darker singing..
"The third album of ANTLERS MULM opts for deep resonating tones that are harmonious and hypnotic with a greater emphasis on percussion, and the massive foray into song based structures. Dark Beats and phantasmagorial Melodies are melting into an intense atmosphere guided by the outstanding voice of the father of shadows Hans Johm. Throbbing samples enriches this compositions to a homogenic masterpiece. These 10 songs are catching the mood of the warm feeling of being at home and creating a landscape of a coruscant kingdom that lies deep within the lyrical and musical expression. These tracks building melancholy on the most song based LOKI release ever - take a deep breath and get lost in this aural world of ANTLERS MULM. Limited digipack and vinyl version (222 copies) released in January 2008." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Of Withered Sparks |
LP |
"Our hopes, our flesh, our tears... are draped like dead birds in the skies"... Different from most other LOKI-artists, ANTLERS MULM appears to be much more song-oriented, doing a kind of dark electronic pop-music, but very refined, minimal, deeply melancholic & quiet. Reminds us a bit on TWICE A MAN or TOR LUNDVALL at times, but with a much darker singing..
"The third album of ANTLERS MULM opts for deep resonating tones that are harmonious and hypnotic with a greater emphasis on percussion, and the massive foray into song based structures. Dark Beats and phantasmagorial Melodies are melting into an intense atmosphere guided by the outstanding voice of the father of shadows Hans Johm. Throbbing samples enriches this compositions to a homogenic masterpiece. These 10 songs are catching the mood of the warm feeling of being at home and creating a landscape of a coruscant kingdom that lies deep within the lyrical and musical expression. These tracks building melancholy on the most song based LOKI release ever - take a deep breath and get lost in this aural world of ANTLERS MULM. Limited digipack and vinyl version (222 copies) released in January 2008." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS |
You are my sister |
maxi-CD |
“Antony & The Johnsons' breakthrough album I Am A Bird Now has certainly touched fans and critics alike. The album's latest single is the anthemic and heart-rending 'You Are My Sister,' presented as a duet between Antony and Boy George. Together these two vocalists climb to the highest peak of emotional vulnerability providing for the listener one of the most touching and uncanny duets of the past decade. It's heartbreaking when Antony sings, 'You are my sister / we were born / so innocent, so full of need / there were times we were friends / but times I was so cruel / at night I'd asked for to watch me as I sleep'. With soaring and world-weary intensity, Boy George utterly commands the refrain: 'You are my sister / and I love you / may all of your dreams come true.' In 'You Are My Sister,' the pair sing from the depths of their hearts for the world. This extended single also includes three new, unreleased songs recorded during the I Am A Bird Now sessions." [label info]
|
2005 |
€7.50 |
|
|
Another World |
maxi-CD |
"Dramatische Texte, surrealschöne Töne: EP des New Yorker Songwriters.
Er brauchte nur zwei Alben, um zum Kultstar zu werden: Antony Hegarty, kurz Antony. Dabei hat sich der New Yorker dem anspruchsvollen Kunstlied verschrieben, singt neoromantische Balladen zu leisen Pianoklängen, traurige Epen, in denen sein leicht nasaler Tenor dominiert. Zu seinen musikalischen Freuden, mit denen er schon Duette sang, gehören Lou Reed, Leonhard Cohen und Björk ebenso wie Boy George, Hercules and Love Affair und Rufus Wainwright. Um die Wartezeit bis zum dritten Album zu verkürzen legt uns Herr Hegarty mit "Another World" eine Fünf-Track-EP vor. Die teilweise surreal anmutenden Songs thematisieren die Zerstörung der Welt und ihre mögliche Errettung, das Cover von "Another World" zeigt die japanische (Butoh-)Tanz-Legende Kazuo Ohno, fotografiert von Pierre-Olivier Deschamps." [label info]
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Swanlights |
CD |
"In allerhöchsten Höhen: viertes Album des Ausnahmesängers; feat. Björk:
Nach den großartigen Erfolgen der melancholisch-verhaltenen Vorgänger "I’m A Bird Now" und "The Crying Light" liegt der Schwerpunkt beim vierten Album des Wahl-New Yorkers Antony Hegarty auf ausladenden Arrangements. Elektrifizierte Streicherflächen, pointierte Perkussion, ornamentale Bläserfiguren und sogar verzerrte Gitarren sind es, die "Swanlights" in seiner Eindringlichkeit von den bisherigen Werken unterscheiden. Bereits das programmatische "Everything Is New" steht für einen intensiveren Gesamtsound: Eine schlichte Pianomelodie wird hier von getriebenen Arrangements über Minuten in fiebrige Spannung versetzt. Auch das Titelstück entführt den Hörer in eine ungewohnt dunkle Spiegellandschaft aus delirierenden Gitarren. Ein besonderes Highlight ist aber das intime, mit Björk eingespielte Duett "Flétta". Nach ausverkauften Konzerten und Chart-Platzierungen sowie Auftritten in großen Opernhäusern und mit weltberühmten Symphonieorchestern müssen Hegarty und seine Band es niemandem mehr beweisen. Gerade diese Freiheit treibt sie auf "Swanlights" in allerhöchste Höhen." [label info / Indigo]
www.roughtraderecords.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| AOSUKE |
Monotone Spirits |
CD |
"aosuke's new album "monotone spirits", which has been released as collaborative work of the labels audiolith and meudiamorte, is highly recommended to all lovers of classic ambient sounds as all four tracks which are paving their way through a total running time of about 36 minutes feature floating, totally beat-less structures of organic ambience influenced of what my be called a slightly post-postrock'ish attitude if the simple use of processed guitar sounds can be regarded as rock-reference. if not, it's just ambient at its best." [label notes]
www.audiolith.net
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| AOYAMA, MICHIRU |
Wetlands |
mCD-R |
with just a handful of releases on organic industries and shimmering moods, michiru aoyama presents here five beautiful ambient/drone tracks with a little glitchy flavour.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/wetlands-alm-116
"the first one is by Michiro Aoyama, who has some releases on
organic Industries and Shimmering Moods. I never heard of him before. Surprisingly, I guess, he offers
five pieces all around four to five minutes, which in the world of ambient music is not a common thing.
It is hard to say what Aoyama uses as sound sources or instruments, other than (perhaps) a laptop and
various sound effects and throughout is the music not the most of quietest things you ever experienced
in your life, but somehow all a bit more glitch like, with faulty wiring being transposed for a long time
and replicated with all those sound effects. Not as spacious as many of the releases on this label, but it
works rather fine all together." |
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| APALUSA |
Obadiah |
CD |
"Following on from his warmly received cdr releases of 2007, ‘Obadiah’ is the second full length album by Apalusa, aka Nottingham based musician Dan Layton.
Over the course of 50 minutes, these three long-form tracks focus on darker territory than previous releases, with sub-bass rumbles and minor-key chord progressions augmenting the multiple layers of Apalusa’s trademark processed guitar drones and field recordings to form an all-encompassing listening environment.
With Layton’s use of raw sounds and processing techniques now forging an identity for himself which is very much his own, the end result is the most focused and realised Apalusa release to date." [label info]
www.low-point.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| APOLLON |
Nox |
CD-R |
Another (so far, for us) unknown name on C. REIDERS CDR-label is APOLLON, creating distracting loop-ambience with strange samples & ethnic tunes, sometimes really hypnotic... 15 quite different tracks... worth checking out, reminds us on some works of BIG CITY ORCHESTRA.
" 'Nox" is an ever changing tapestry of dark sound vignettes, with gritty and foreboding loops of ethnic percussion and smokey ambience, recalling the works of Zoviet:France and Muslimgauze. Apollon's Martin Lee-Stephenson has been working in the experimental "genre" for many years under different pseudonyms. He has been credited in some way, either as producer and/or artist with over 100 releases to date, including collaborative work with such well-known experimental artists as Muslimgauze and Pigface." [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| APOPTOSE |
Ana Liil |
LP + CD |
"Ana Liil doesn't want to be your friend – she lives in an entirely separate world. Maybe at night you see her shape behind a grimy window in the neighbourhood, or you hear her singing from afar. But you will never get closer to her. “I don't know who she is,” Apoptose says. “One day she just emerged. Like a thought that sounds logic in your dreams but completely strange in daylight.” Apoptose’s “ana liil” plays with your expectations. This album spins within close range of those dark ambient realms that Apoptose became known for since the early 2000s. Songs like “meer der ruhe” or “schnee” still bear this signature. But at the same time they show a new quality of songwriting. Both feature the frail singing of a girl who keeps the dusty shadows at bay . On “forget your face”, “adrenalin” or “ich verbrenne” Apoptose replaces the reverb charged tracks by songs full of voices and haunting melodies. But beware: all is not as it seems. The album will be available on CD, vinyl+CD and download. The CD is housed in a stylish spot varnished six-panel cardboard pack including a twelve-pages booklet and a separate CD-sleeve. The LP+CD version comes in an altered design with copper foil blocking and printed inner sleeve. Don't miss!" [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2014 |
€24.50 |
|
| APSE |
Eras |
LP |
"APSE hail from New England in USA and have been described as "Post-Rock" / "Avant-Garde/Rock" / "Experimental" / ?? ... It may indeed be a tired, old, cliché but the band truly defy normal musical stereotyping. This release presents their debut on vinyl and has been long in the making. This follow-up to their 2006 CD (Spirit on Acuarela Discos) is defined as 'a glossary', that just happens to be a full-length release in its own right. View the APSE band page (here) for videos, discography and more information. Well worth exploring. The record is pressed on highest quality 180g virgin vinyl and presented in a luxurious gatefold sleeve with full printed inner and a numbered post-card insert." [label info]
www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Climb up |
CD |
"In the fall of 2007, around Apse's 8th year as a band, Michael Gundlach and founding member Bobby relocated to the quiet shores of outer Cape Cod, Massachusetts and began living in virtual isolation. A few months into the move and for various reasons the 2 brooklyn based members of the band were no longer in the picture, leaving only Bobby, Michael and their faithful touring bass player / contributing member John Mordecai, living 4 hours away.
Together Bobby and Michael found multi-instrumentalist Jed Armour who joined the band and introduced them to drummer Brandon Collins. Both of them highly talented musicians and long time residents of the cape, the addition of these two members greatly impacted the creative capabilities of the band as well as Bobby and Michael's understanding of - and integration into the year 'round life in the band's new home.
After rigorous preparation with the new members rehearsing for an already-booked 6 week European tour that saw them performing at ATP Vs. Pitchfork and several other noteworthy dates across Europe the band returned to Cape Cod and began writing a new album. In August of 2008 during the early stages of the writing process, All Tomorrow's Parties reissued the band's 2006 Spirit to warm critical reception. Labeled as a post-rock record by some, a genre-splicing giant to others, Spin Magazine's Kenny Herzog likely put it best: "Spirit is the deathnail for the labored beast that is "post-rock," revealing the much more alluring potential that always lurked around its sinister corners."
Since making Spirit - originally completed in 2006 and after releasing a number of smaller albums both before and after the ATP reissue, the band found itself ready to take on its next major endeavor. Just as a director might make respective films - changing subject matter, approach and format for each - the band was inspired to explore new means of composition, songwriting and production. Its range of members were influenced from a diverse array of art and music, life experience, fiction - and were unanimously uninfluenced by their surroundings - as there were little social distractions or creative camaraderies to be had.
The bulk of this writing process then took place between the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009. Forging the album through long days and nights in the quiet beauty of the winter months on outer Cape Cod. The record that's come out of it, entitled Climb Up is undoubtedly a reflection of the very process that made it - tying into the creative methods as well as the story of the lives of the band's members as they crafted the album.
Climb Up was recorded entirely by the band in their homes. The bulk of the arrangements and mixing were authored by Bobby Jed and Michael. Drawing from a mixture of existing demos that were turned into working songs as well as full-band improvised live recordings that Bobby cut up and formed into song structures, overdubbing effects and vocals on top of them - the band ultimately chose and honed in on a final cut of 12 tracks, culled from a larger body of work.
The ever-changing obtuse creative strategies of Bobby and Michael, paired with the adept musical knowledge and performance abilities of Jed and Brandon - and the diverse inspirations of all members combined to create an album that bares a fantastic dialogue between imagination and songcraft. Climb Up is wildly unique, versatile, and inarguably the bravest yet most accessible work by the band.
The record is a major departure from the band's most notable predecessor, Spirit - which was completed 4 years prior. Where Spirit explored a dark world of reverberant guitars, ambient passages, and minimal, haunting vocals, Climb Up proves a bold step out of that darkness. The intricacies of this new world are depicted as if staggering from the world of Spirit into a very different, more illuminated place.
Not to mention its packed with more grooves, a greater use of electronics, a range of instruments both modern and classical and – notably – a much stronger emphasis on voices and melodies.
Climb Up is dense, innovative, cinematic. Apse draw from a colourful palette of different genres, techniques, instruments and approaches - and with that have made what is likely to be one of the most curious, and probably largely unexpected albums of the year. Listen, and be immersed." [label info]
www.atpfestival.com/recordings.php |
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Climb up |
do-LP |
"In the fall of 2007, around Apse's 8th year as a band, Michael Gundlach and founding member Bobby relocated to the quiet shores of outer Cape Cod, Massachusetts and began living in virtual isolation. A few months into the move and for various reasons the 2 brooklyn based members of the band were no longer in the picture, leaving only Bobby, Michael and their faithful touring bass player / contributing member John Mordecai, living 4 hours away.
Together Bobby and Michael found multi-instrumentalist Jed Armour who joined the band and introduced them to drummer Brandon Collins. Both of them highly talented musicians and long time residents of the cape, the addition of these two members greatly impacted the creative capabilities of the band as well as Bobby and Michael's understanding of - and integration into the year 'round life in the band's new home.
After rigorous preparation with the new members rehearsing for an already-booked 6 week European tour that saw them performing at ATP Vs. Pitchfork and several other noteworthy dates across Europe the band returned to Cape Cod and began writing a new album. In August of 2008 during the early stages of the writing process, All Tomorrow's Parties reissued the band's 2006 Spirit to warm critical reception. Labeled as a post-rock record by some, a genre-splicing giant to others, Spin Magazine's Kenny Herzog likely put it best: "Spirit is the deathnail for the labored beast that is "post-rock," revealing the much more alluring potential that always lurked around its sinister corners."
Since making Spirit - originally completed in 2006 and after releasing a number of smaller albums both before and after the ATP reissue, the band found itself ready to take on its next major endeavor. Just as a director might make respective films - changing subject matter, approach and format for each - the band was inspired to explore new means of composition, songwriting and production. Its range of members were influenced from a diverse array of art and music, life experience, fiction - and were unanimously uninfluenced by their surroundings - as there were little social distractions or creative camaraderies to be had.
The bulk of this writing process then took place between the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009. Forging the album through long days and nights in the quiet beauty of the winter months on outer Cape Cod. The record that's come out of it, entitled Climb Up is undoubtedly a reflection of the very process that made it - tying into the creative methods as well as the story of the lives of the band's members as they crafted the album.
Climb Up was recorded entirely by the band in their homes. The bulk of the arrangements and mixing were authored by Bobby Jed and Michael. Drawing from a mixture of existing demos that were turned into working songs as well as full-band improvised live recordings that Bobby cut up and formed into song structures, overdubbing effects and vocals on top of them - the band ultimately chose and honed in on a final cut of 12 tracks, culled from a larger body of work.
The ever-changing obtuse creative strategies of Bobby and Michael, paired with the adept musical knowledge and performance abilities of Jed and Brandon - and the diverse inspirations of all members combined to create an album that bares a fantastic dialogue between imagination and songcraft. Climb Up is wildly unique, versatile, and inarguably the bravest yet most accessible work by the band.
The record is a major departure from the band's most notable predecessor, Spirit - which was completed 4 years prior. Where Spirit explored a dark world of reverberant guitars, ambient passages, and minimal, haunting vocals, Climb Up proves a bold step out of that darkness. The intricacies of this new world are depicted as if staggering from the world of Spirit into a very different, more illuminated place.
Not to mention its packed with more grooves, a greater use of electronics, a range of instruments both modern and classical and – notably – a much stronger emphasis on voices and melodies.
Climb Up is dense, innovative, cinematic. Apse draw from a colourful palette of different genres, techniques, instruments and approaches - and with that have made what is likely to be one of the most curious, and probably largely unexpected albums of the year. Listen, and be immersed." [label info]
www.atpfestival.com/recordings.php
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
| AQUA DORSA |
Cloudlands |
CD |
Debut-Album des neuen Projekts von GIANLUIGI GASPARETTI (aka OÖPHOI) und ENRICO CONIGLIO, einem italienischen Gitarristen und Ambient-Komponisten. CLOUDLANDS tönt sehr friedlich & mit harmonischen Untertönen, mitunter leicht loopig-rhythmisch aber ohne Aufdringlichkeit, erinnert an ruhigere Sachen von RAPOON, etc.. Sieben Stücke von weiträumigen und weltabgewandten Ambient-Scapes...
"...This is ambient music but then with a little bit more, and no doubt Coniglio is the man responsible for that extra bite. Not simply satisfied with 'just' ambient synthesizer textures, there is an addition from the world of microsound to this. Underneath the warm tapestries are woven of synthesizers playing sustained textured sounds, but the icing (pun intended) on the cake comes from the crackles, buzz and hiss that are on top of this. That makes that this music moves out of the usual ambient field, and blends together ambient and microsound, while, because its not entirely generated in the digital realm, its not entirely ambient glitch either. A marriage that works wonderfully well, I'd say. Deep atmospheric textures, icy glitches on top." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Aquadorsa is a new musical Italian ambient project formed by Enrico Coniglio and Oophoi. Their first work “Cloudlands” is a perfect mix of glitch, classical and orchestral glacial ambient soundscape. Enrico Coniglio is a guitar player and composer and his research has increasingly focused on the relationship between 'music' and 'landscape', in an attempt to represent the contemporary crisis of the territory, the loss of nature and identity of places, and the unknown on the evolution of post-urban and post-industrial territory. He has collaborated with various artists, including: Nicola Alesini, Joachim Roedelius and Elisa Marzorati. He has produced some releases such as "AREAVIRUS - topofonie vol.1" (2007 Psychonavigation), "dyanMU" (2008 Psychonavigation) and digital releases Sapientumsuperacquis on Touch Radio (Touch records) and Crònicaster (Crònica Electronica). Gianluigi Gasparetti better know as Oophoi started his own music experiments in 1995, trying to explore the shores of deep space-ambient. His live album "The spirals of time", released in 1997 by Amplexus, has been voted as one of the best ambient albums of all times. Oophoi uses traditional instruments as synths and sampling machines and his music is recorded using analog-only devices in The Kiva. He has released CDs for many International labels such as Amplexus, Hypnos, Nextera, Prikosnovénie and Glacial Movements and he has collaborated with Louisa John Krol, Alio die, Mathias Grassow and Klaus Wiese." [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The November Earth |
CD |
"The duo Aqua Dorsa, perhaps better known under their respective names, Gianluigi Gasparetti and Enrico Coniglio, here present a very solemn yet foreboding album with dark undertones. Gigi originally composed the source material which was then expanded upon by Enrico. We've done some final editing to the material during the summer and fall of 2013. The November Earth also features a short story written by Gigi in 2012, called Sogno di Luce. Album in jewelcase with 16-page booklet." [label info]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| AQUAVOICE |
Nocturne |
CD |
" 'Nocturne', the second AQUAVOICE offering on Zoharum, is a successor to well-received last year's "Grey." The material for both albums was created around the same time and was divided according to the following key: "Grey" - more experimental and coarse compositions; "Nocturne" - more dreamy, low-key and soothing ambient textures. The new album includes 11 new songs clocking in at 50 minutes, songs a bit darker and colder than before where one can find inspirations taken from Scandinavian art.
This 3-panel ecopak release is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Things in Poland seem to be booming, for quite some time actually. Monotype is a very active label, when it comes to releases, and Zoharum follows neatly. Zoharum is a label that specializes in anything that is dark and atmospheric, but not without beats. We start this particular journey with the second release by Aquavoice, the musical project of Tadeusz Luczejko, whose debut was reviewed in Vital Weekly 896. Here Aquavoice further explores the boundaries of starry nights, of nocturnal soundtracks, with dreamy synthesizer sounds, mild sequenced rhythm - more ticking than beating - an occasional voice well placed here and there. Exactly the same references as last time pass by: S.E.T.I., Biosphere, Pete Namlook and no doubt you could add many others from the field of ambient music that comes with a bit of rhythm. I don't think Aquavoice had a re-thought of what he was doing after 'Grey', but simply decided to carry on what he was doing so well already. Maybe the addition of 'real' instruments - piano, violin - is something that is new around here? Maybe not. So, perhaps nothing much new, and then what? There is nothing wrong with that. Luczejko simply explores further what he does best, what is in a tradition from Eno, via ambient house, to microsound and he delivers another fifty minutes of some excellent music. I very much enjoyed this nocturnal, cosmic ride." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARANOS |
And soon Coffin sings |
CD-R |
Again a strange & unique journey from ARANOS, more ambient but with highly obscure sounds (analogue, violin, noises), over the time it gets more and more concrete & and bizarre, sounds from rubbing & squealing & squeezing & playing the violin (?) randomly, listen to thee unknown tortured animal... and then a very peaceful droney ending.....
Comes in handprinted pentagonal shaped cardboard-cover.
“Three instrumental tracks, 72 minutes of sounds from a parallel world. Ocean's fleshy psyche Aimlessly branches out through hare-frost, Ant-port and myself Hot hoe became grass eye From whence puzzles consume caffeine backwards.
Eyes could have it Ears could have it Subtle light reflected towards woolen periwinkles Scent of panning bathtubs Eternal stimulation.
Her first deep eel cupped her heart at once And nulled vehicular freedom. Encased in chemical bondage Four strings chime a distant bell From time and place light ears away.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mother of Moons Bathing |
CD |
Für den Hirn-zerschabenden Stil-Mix alleine hätte ARANOS bereits einen Preis verdient - von klickender Sinuston-Elektronik über free-form Noise bis hin zu swingenden Songs mit Gesang ["MAMA GOT A NEW BOYFRIEND"], von Drone-Loops und Gongflächen über obskurste Geräuschtracks bis hin zu XXX kann hier einfach alles passieren....
für den Wiedererkennungseffekt aber sorgen die immer wieder präsente Violine & seine rauhe, markante Stimme, verbunden mit den verschroben-ironischen Texten. Das ganze ist auch noch verpackt in ein edelstes, Filz-artiges Cover... immer wieder, so scheint es, geht es ARANOS darum, Grenzen jedweder Art zu überschreiten, aber mit STIL... ARANOS bildet sich sein ur-eigenstes Genre.
"Aranos (pronounced Aranyosh) is a prolific composer and storied multi-instrument performer from the Czech part of Bohemia, by way of Ireland, where he lives near his friend and frequent collaborator Steve Stapleton of Nurse With Wound. “Mother of Moons Bathing” is his first release for Soleilmoon, but his lengthy discography includes releases issued by Beta-lactam Ring Records, Brainwashed, Crouton, Klanggalerie, Noise Museum and United Daries as well as his own label Pieros. The album covers a lot of ground, and refuses to be categorized, unless “Aranos” can be its own category. It opens with “Awaking Horns”, a minimalist piece built around a simple repeating click track containing absolutely no horns whatsoever. “New Boyfriend” begins as a jaunty ode to new-found love, but the conversation between mother and daughter turns dark as it’s revealed that the new boyfriend has a dodgy past with little girls. “Some Clowns Are Not Funny” and “Almost Pulled Through” are a pair of scary electro-acoustic roller coaster rides that sound like they might have escaped from Steve Stapleton’s little shop of horrors. The fifth song, “Legs Thighs Splits” returns to the gently fun whimsy started with “New Boyfriend”, but trades literal meaning for delicious texture and experimentation. “I saw Women’s Rising Fry” is a song of fearlessly eccentric lyrics married to complex, brain-tingling instrumental arrangements. “Ta-taa-ta, Taah merged” is a side dish of looped, sampled vocal minimalism leading into the the longest track on the CD, “Towards Glittering Warm Dumplings”, a rolling trance-dance weighing in at more than 21 minutes. “Invisibility Cloak of Time”, another minimalist electro-acoustic instrumental, closes the album. The total length of “Mother of Moons Bathing” is 71 minutes 41 seconds, and it’s sheer bliss from start to finish. In the face of a market dominated by increasingly bland visuals and dire throw-away packaging, this album stands apart. In the tradition of other Soleilmoon releases, the presentation for “Mother of Moons Bathing” is second to none. This time the CD comes in a hand-made silk-screened soft-textured folder with a pair a sparkly screen-printed inserts backing up the disc inside. The costly and stunning materials have work together to produce a pleasingly harmonious package that will appeal to music fans and serious collectors alike. “Mother of Moons Bathing” is limited to 400 copies. After his child was taken away and sent to slavery Carlos resigned himself to becoming low to medium quality moon fodder. Spending his days in rearranging surface molecules with his broken arms and dislocated shoulders while filling his eyes and lungs with yellow dust. All the while pondering impermanence of the unpredictable his reward was flow of hill magic and stunning sunsets. Too much knowledge gathered over the years was proving to be a mixed blessing. Change of timbre in his diabetic movement master’s voice clearly indicated a forthcoming constriction of coronary arteries, but there was nothing Carlos could do. Certainly not over the distance of four and a half thousand miles. The only thing was to accept all. Child slavery, master’s coronary, yellow dust, beautiful sunsets, flow of magic…" [press release]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Surrounded by Hermits |
CD-R |
"Electro-acoustic piece divided into 16 sections crisscrossing echoes of varied genres. Starting with section build on a bowed chinese gong modified by waw-waw pedal moves into cluster chords of conch-shells and flugal horns. String ensembles augmented by 20 voices randomly reciting Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, honky tonk piano plays surreal dream motifs.
You get the idea. No? Have a listen then.
Comes in an individually hand-made wood and hessian case with a small woodcut print." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/aranos
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Samadhi |
CD-R |
"This recording of 6 tibetan singing bowls and one large shakuhachi took place on the midsummer's night 2008.
Preparation for it involved 35 years of meditation and lifetime study of sound.
Samadhi is a spiritual trance of limitless bliss of liberation, beyond doubt and duality. One who has achieved it can indeed act as he/she pleases. To attain this state of freedom from duality is the real purpose of life. (Sri Shankara).
CD is 58 minutes 36 seconds long, comes in individually hand made cover." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/aranos
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Koryak Mistress stakes Golden Sky |
CD-R |
"This record contains one track,
A concerto for 3 double bases, 4 violins, viola, zither, condomble drum and other things that make noise. Composition is in one movement; division into parts is possible but rather superfluous.
Originated as a simple tune on double bass harmonics. Ran away with itself simply to enjoy digital ones and noughts on little silvery disc or even smaller bits of plastic. It times about one hour before returning to its origin.
May gods bless her and all who listen to her.
She arose
Gently, gently,
As if not to wake
Newborn reeds and rushes.
Yet shimmering of her power
Filled both visible and invisible."
[label info]
www.brainwashed.com/aranos
|
2008 |
€11.50 |
|
|
Alone Vimalakirti Blinks |
CD-R |
"This record contains 6 tracks:
Track one, Rocket Sandals is a pizzicato furioso (as opposed to fury piza) with a silent movie pianola, noisy banga banga and klavier delayage.
Track two, this job is So Boring was inspired by years, centuries, millenia, eternities of factory work, 8.30 - 5.30. producing expensive rubbish for people to buy on credit, so than they have to work in similar jobs. Experiment which proven I do not fit this kind of madness. factory went bust due to recession, the owners even had to sell their private helicopter! Not their numerous houses and cars though.
Track three: Yelow Bedspring - a pleasant little tune to make love to gently in a waltz time. It dissolves in a swimming shimmering wetness.
Track four Better Universe No. 2 is a collection of nice noises one encounters in dreams both sleeping and waking. It depicts green and lovely countryside, birds and bees, crunchy picnics with a nice bottle of beer, band playing with feeling and fabulous bike tearing about...
Track five Seedling Awakes - out of powerful darkness of earth slowly and unstoppably live surges up. Zither recorded in a large oak box specially constructed for this.
Track six Swing Low lighthearted but slightly sad re-visiting of and old gospel song, just reminding us what that promised land beyond Jordan is like. And yes there are many Jordans, and just as many shitty places beyond them.
Message is: do not bother dreaming about promised land, work thee not in a silly factory making somebody else rich, have a nice picnic, include a vintage bike if you like." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/aranos
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Crow Eye Hint |
CD |
"This is a drone record. Piano sustain pedal depressed and released activates resonanacy in all strings. Microphone placed inside the piano records these as a moving aural landscape punctuated by giant footsteps of the pedal. 5 minutes deep in this world a burst of sound of one note ripping forwards and backwards cuts into pleasant reverie for a few seconds, than melancholy of vivisected piano returns and increases in intensity. Upon reaching it's conclusion, single note of the same piano replaces it. Through rhythmical permutations this note creates a drone inviting strings. Pedal adds a forward movement. At a given point whole body of sound shifts up a semitone, changes colour, keeps increasing in complexity until final climax.
Crow eye hint comes on CD pressed from a glass master in a case handmade from pine veneers and canvass. Includes two woodcut prints."
[label info]
www.aranos.org
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Archarcha |
CD |
"Concert in Divadlo Archa.
Time stretched forever
in sharp world
where hope met detailed regards.
Summer folded eagle crowns
Sea-gods fatted daily distinctions
on overborne mortal penumbra.
In examination cavities
Dog eyes open open satellite fountains
to back winds of pale televisions.
Trace of billion rain-eyes
so fresh in that piping morning.
Sixth tone harmonium." [label info]
www.aranos.org
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARASTOO & AEMAE |
Ostrakon |
LP |
"Two side-long ice sculptures built on piano and processing, the piano coming strictly from Arastoo Darakhshan, while both add their effects but Brandon Nickell as Aemae delivers digital doctoring as his primary outlet. The title track is a wonderful splintering of sound, with glacier cracking in on the stark black and white keys. Aemae’s timing with noisier nuance is excellent on this, and he has at least one treatment like a frozen train going off the tracks! Here the sum decimates the parts, Arastoo’s delicate hesitance almost dances around a ghost of Clara Rockmore. A very open piece with rays of mourning and crystal shards of electronics, it captures that ever-important balance of order and chaos. If the first piece is Nickell plating Darakhshan, then perhaps the second is a reverse, with a layer of Aemae cast out and the piano imposed on top? Just a guess, maybe I’m too concerned without tallying yin and yang. The first piece really is a stunner with a fascinating name that wiki shows as the derivation for ostracism. Yeah, this is outsider music but I suspect readily acceptable to many ears, of course we too at KFJC have been happily exiled beneath main street for decades of decadence. Limited release on Nickell’s own label."
[Thurston Hunger / KFJC]
"A long in the works collaboration from two aQ favorites, Aemae and Arastoo. We've listed both Aemae releases, but Arastoo has been a bit more elusive, with tons of super limited vinyl and cd-r releases, of which we've only ever managed to review 3. Well, the two have come together, to produce this, the first in a new salvo of Bay Area sound art from Aemae, aka Brandon Nickell's Isounderscore label. And a pretty fantastic start. Arastoo plays the piano, and then the two shape and mold the piano into two side long pieces, both quite impressive.
The A side is mostly straight piano all the way through, some gorgeous fluid playing, some stunning arrangements, but the two subtly shape and twist throughout, adding mysterious little music box flourishes, sudden squalls of super high end skree, but those moments are actually quite controlled, the sounds sculpted onto dog whistle melodies, and haunting upper register textures. The subtle production tweaks really only augment, creating complimentary sounds, or add bits of ambience, allowing the piano to drift and sway and unfurl its melody, seemingly oblivious to what's going on around it.
The B side however, finds the sound of the piano obliterated, transformed completely into long shimmering streaks of layered metallic reverberation, a bit industrial sounding, layers of constantly shifting whir and rumble and hiss and roar, like a choppy sonic sea, building to a buzzing crescendo before settling back down into a tranquil sea of black ambience, as the piano returns, unfurling gentle, yet ominous minor key melodies, all very creepy and cinematic, but also quite lovely. LIMITED TO 320 COPIES. Super striking silkscreened covers, with original artwork by Arastoo." [Aquarius Records]
www.isounderscore.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| ARBEIT / BEAUCHAMP / PALUMBO |
Torino 012010 |
do-CD |
"Torino 012010 is the second release of a series documenting the collaboration between
Jochen Arbeit (guitar player of Die Haut and Einstuerzende Neubauten) Paul Beauchamp and Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (the duo known as Blind Cave Salamander).
This collaboration started as part of Arbeit's “Soundscapes” improvisation live project.
The focus being on the moment of the spontaneous meeting of different systems of soundscaping, the task and challenge of exchanging the results of individual sound research in a public space.
The Torino 012010 double cd release on Tourette Records follows the vinyl only live album Halle 27022010 (released by the German label Behind s.r.b.) and presents two different sessions recorded by the trio in January 2010 in Torino Italy: a studio session at O.F.F. studios reecorded, mixed and edited by producer and sound engineer Marco Milanesio and a recording of a live performance in the historical chapel of the San Pietro In Vincoli ex-cemetery as recorded by Larsen's Paolo Dellapiana and edited by Jochen Arbeit.
Even though this collaboration is an integral part of Blind Cave Salamander's activity and discography the musicians have decided to release these albums under their individual names to emphasize the project's collaborative nature based on improvisation and composing as a real time emotional and musical reaction to each other's inputs/outputs.
Credits
Jochen Arbeit : guitar, electronics
Paul Beauchamp : electronics, musical saw
Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo : guitar, electric viola" [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| ARC |
13th |
mCDR |
ARC ist die 3köpfige “Band” von AIDAN BAKER, der ja schon mit einigen fantastischen solo-releases auf sich aufmerksam machte. Bei ARC vermischen sich ethno-Einflüsse mit ambient-drones, alles live eingespielt. Sanft schwingend & pulsierend, melancholisch-schön..
Schon die Nr. 10 in der schönen low-priced Serie das Pariser Label (ex Harmonies) !
“ Arc is a Canadian trio comprised of Aidan Baler, his brother Richard and Christopher Kukiel. It was formed spontaneously in 1999. Arc's music is based on drones and melodic loops created by Aidan's heavily-treated guitar. Add Richard and Chrisopher's tribalish rhtyhms made with various percussive instruments and you get the picture. When we, at taâlem, first heard Arc, we couldn't help thinking of Life Garden and Voice of Eye, those great US tribal ambient bands from the 90's. But Arc is no copycat !”
[label info]
http://taalem.free.fr/ |
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Glassine 1 |
CD |
"Mit Gitarren, Percussion, Schlagzeug und Holzbläsern dringen diese vier, jeweils gut eine Viertelstunde langen Live-Stücke in verhaltene, energiegeladene Territorien vor, denen eine organische, ja romantische Verspieltheit eigen ist. Auch hier lässt sich ein bestimmter Ritual-Soundcharakter ausmachen, in einigen Passagen fallen mir Popol Vuh oder O Juki Conjugate ein. Vielleicht sollten ARC mal mit Rapoon oder den Tonutti-Brüdern zusammenarbeiten. Von allen erwähnten CDs sicher die zugänglichste. Music for rituals, order from chaos." [Skug]
"Glassine I was recorded live at the Ambient Ping in Toronto on 03/07/2006; and can be easily described as an organic space ambient, with very strong references to Pink Floyd (Ummagumma), Popol Vuh, Ashra Temple, Jackie-O Motherfucker, O Yuki Conjugate, AMP and Flying Saucer Attack or "Fourth World" ambient music! Four tracks of pure vibrant multi-layered psychedelic drone music! Now, close your eyes, listening to "Glassine I" and start for your trip even without the intake of any substances… waiting for “Glassine II (coming soon on A Silent Place)." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARCANA |
Raspail |
CD |
"Die CD kommt in einem hochwertigen Artwork, das sowohl ein 8-seitiges Leporello, als auch ein 12-seitiges Booklet enthält!
Arcana sind seit Jahren über alle Grenzen hinweg stilprägend und eines der großen Aushängeschilde der weltweiten Gothic Wave Szene. Ihre Musik umfasst eine einzigartige, kraftvolle und verzauberte Anmutung, der sich kaum jemand entziehen kann. Mit ihrem neuen Werk Raspail schlagen Arcana nun das nächste Kapitel ihrer einzigartigen Karriere auf und verschmelzen die filigrane Romantik ihrer früheren Werke, um ihr erfolgreiches Album Inner Pale Sun, mit bahnbrechendem Gothicwave der Neuzeit. Raspail begeistert durch die außergewöhnliche Mischung aus orchestralen, mächtigen Soundcollagen, natürlich instrumentierten Arrangements, und den himmlisch klaren Stimmen des Baritons Peter Bjärgö und der Sopranistin Ann-Mari Thim, die das Album in einen mystischen Klangzauber verwandeln der alles bisherige in den Schatten stellt.
Die inzwischen sechste Veröffentlichung des schwedische Quintetts ist ein magisch, geniales Glanzstück, getragen von zarten Pianotupfern und intensiven Klangwelten aus Streichern und Hörnern. Klassisch, melodramatisch und kaum zu überbieten!" [label info]
"Arcana has turned another page in the book and the next chapter will be a meeting between the old and the new. As before, we hear the many instruments that vary the music, but this time the vocals parts have taken more room. The medieval sound from Dark age of Reason and Cantar de Procella is there, the majestic sound from... The Last Embrace appear along with the serene notes from Inner Pale Sun and the oriental instruments from Le Serpent Rouge. Blend this with the new sound once again created by Peter Bjärgö, and you will have Raspail, the next chapter in the book of Arcana." [label info]
www.kalinkaland.de |
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Emerald |
maxi-CD |
"It’s with great honor that present brand new material from Sweden’s most revered Ethereal / Neo Classical act, Arcana. Brainchild of Peter Bjärgö, this now legendary formation is back with a new release after 4 years of silence since their last full length album, Raspail. While 2010 saw the re-release of their first 4 albums with “The First Era” 4CD boxset, commemorating the early days of the band, we are now offered a superb follow up the their long tradition of awe filled melancholic melodies. With it’s undeniable signature sound, Peter’s years of experience as a composer and the gifted musicians and vocalists surrounding him simply shine through on these 3 new tracks. Long time fans will simply rejoice in these mesmerizing songs and new fans will in turn surely be conquered by these. This Mini CD also serves as a prelude to their upcoming full length album “As Bright As A Thousand Suns”, scheduled for a May 2012 release on Cyclic Law.
2nd Edition of 1000 copies in 4 panel eco pack. 3 Tracks. Running Time 13:33." [label info]
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| ARCANE ART |
KritaRan |
CD |
Eine Art langsamer, melancholischer “industrialized post-rock” von diesem Seitenprojekt von VEILED ALLUSIONS. Nice price.
“This is the full length, instrumental version of the MCDR put out by Fossil Dungeon. Soundwise this album goes in the direction of experimental post rock vs. industrial dark ambient. "KritaRan" is a melange of improvised and structured sounds that range from the gothic to experimental post-rock fused with avant-garde ambient atmosphere from Karsten Hamre of Veiled Allusions/Penitent/Dense Vision Shrine fame.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| ARCANE DEVICE |
Devices 1987-2007 |
do-CD |
Texturen aus Sirenen-Klängen und Sinuston-Feedbacks, repetitive Patterns aus Extrem-Frequenzen, Effektgerät-Übersteuerungen bilden seltsame Klangkegel aus, elektronische Cut-Ups formen Kaskaden aus befremdlicher Rhythmik. Und alles basiert nur auf einer Soundquelle: Feeback! Auf dieser russischen Kollektion des emsigen MONOCHROME VISION-Labels findet sich älteres rares Material von längst vergessenen Compilations, aber auch neue Stücke von 2007, welche nahtlos an die Vergangenheit anknüpfen, insgesamt aber weniger noisig & offensiv klingen. Very special stuff!
"Anthology of rare and previously unreleased tracks by Arcane Device, recorded within the 20 years. It is divided into two parts. The first one consists of tracks from compilations issued by Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR Tapes, and Generations Unlimited, but also unreleased material remastered and/or remixed in 2007. The second one is subtitled as "Feedback symphony" and based on various recordings, presented in four movements and finished in 2007. One more chance to approve the exceptional skills and compositional/ technical talent of David Myers who can control the electrons by will, creating fantastic soundscapes. Arcane Device is the unique project of american graphic designer and musician David Myers, active between 1987 and 1995. His creative output is going beyond any categorization, because it’s possible to re-arrange and demonstrate such many styles of modern music with only one thing that is feedback. This effect usually happens when you shortcut the input and output of any electric device. It’s hard to believe but this almost uncontrolable beast became the driving force for Arcane Device music, armed by self-made bank of delays and filters. Looking like inward sound research, decorated with finest web of random processes and microvariations, it becames the peculiar feature. Endless circulation of electrons, never repeating routes and always having some chance for individual life inside of any macrostructure." [label notes / credits]
"....I might be wrong, but the oldest guy here is David Lee Myers, also known in the mid eighties as Arcane Device and one of my heroes of the time. Myers created his own feedback machines long before someone thought of 'no input mixers'. Myers controlled his feedback with all sorts of sound effects, which made him sound differently than say the average industrial musician. No wonder his first release was on Recommended/ReR records, known for improvisation rather than noise. In the time span of less than eight years Arcane Device released a bunch of CDs, a LP, a double 7" pack and some cassettes (many of them these days available from http://www.pulsewidth.com). For Monochrome Vision, Myers went to his archive to pick some rare (from various compilations on Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR and Generations Unlimited) and unreleased for his double CD. I admit straight away that it has been a while since I last played a CD by Arcane Device, but hearing this feast of recognition, prompts me to pull them all out and play them again in the next weeks, when time allows me. The strength of Arcane Device, to work with such unmusical sounds in such a musical form, hasn't lost any of his magic to me. Unlike say the current wave of no input mixers, who like to be microsound, minimal or overtly harsh, but nothing musical, I only know of one equivalent to Myers and that's Marco Ciciliani, who I once saw play a no input mixer in such a musical manner. Great stuff!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2007 |
€17.00 |
|
| ARFORD, SCOTT |
Radio Station |
CD |
"Tune into the shortwave bands in and around San Francisco and you're likely to discover little more than static, hiss and electrical interference broken up by an occasional transmission from a libertarian wacko in the Santa Cruz mountains. Scott Arford has spent his entire carrer manipulating a similar static from televisions in his searing audiovisual installations ans perdormances, so it makes perfect sense for him to begin investigating his hometown's cracked ether. Just as he does through his jacked up TV's, he seeks only the most caustic radio signals as his source material and aggresively cobbles together jagged layers of hotwired sound. In many ways, Arford picks up where John Duncan and Daniel Menche - particularly in the use of conglomerates of throbbing pulses and sub-frequency vibrations - Arford manages to highlight the most inherent "musical" nature of a highly fascinating cause of aural enjoyment." [Jim Haynes/ THE WIRE]
"In the Bay area he's quite well-known, Scott Arford, operator of the 7HZ label, video artist, musician and collaborator of Francisco Lopez, Randy Yau and Micheal Nine. His output however is quite small. 'Radio Station' is his latest work, and it deals with one of the easiest to obtain sound sources: radio sounds. Not the speech type, or plunderphonica, but everything in between the stations - the cracks, the static, the hiss. Arford is not a sensitive man: whatever he finds on the radio waves he uses, but with a high intensity. His work is not about careful, delicate sounds, but a rather forceful, mean and loud mixture of waves crumbling over each-other, falling apart, chopped up. Not really moments of silence and contemplation here, but on the other hand, Arford isn't interested in doing 'just' a bunch of noise either. He knows how to make a strong, vivid collage of sound out of these radio station and how to make a forceful, interesting piece of music. Energetic and present. The use of radio sounds may not be entirely new, the results of Arford are certainly very very nice." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| ARKTAU EOS |
Mirrorion |
CD |
After a long period of unavailability we are proud to release the debut album of Arktau Eos 'Mirrorion - Telegnostic Edition' through our Stellar Mansion series.
Presented in seventeen chapters that can be approached as singular gateways or a slowly unfolding journey of epic proportions, the debut album of ARKTAU EOS is a challenging, complex work. Born of intense private musico-magical sessions held in places abandoned by man and further refined in the temple-laboratory of the duo, it is the distillation of seven arduous months of work.
As the title suggests, 'Mirrorion' is the music of stellar light thrown down from the Heaven's zenith and its eldritch reflections in the depths below, uniting atavistic elemental noise with serene passages of crystalline, spectral ambience. Ultimately, 'Mirrorion' seeks to surpass such earthly definitions in favour of a non-dual vision of reality, hopefully transforming the listener in the process.
For this recording ARKTAU EOS have favoured an organic approach with majority of instrumentation being of acoustic variety, including the unearthly choral of the kanglings, piercings blasts of windbones, accelerating steel-plate rolls, singing bowl and various kinds of stringed instruments.
The album is enclosed in an oversized screen printed cardboard covers including an 8-panel booklet with historical and other additional notes and eight full-colour insert cards within a stamped envelope. Limited to 493 copies.
www.auralhypnox.com
"Das fantastische AURAL HYPNOX-Label aus Nordfinnland mit einem neuen Projekt, das wie HALO MANASH und AOEGA mit dem Labelgründer ANTTI HAAPAPURO verbunden ist. Diese Aufnahmen entstanden (man glaubt es beim Hören kaum) ohne elekronische Soundquellen, sondern nur auf archaischen Instrumenten in spontaner Improvisation & an abgelegenen Plätzen... fliessendes Wässer wie aus tiefen Grotten, Gong-Drones, gutturale Gesänge & Anrufungen, Sounds aus Holz- Wind & Metall, das alles in finsterster, ritueller Katakomben-Stimmung, mal sehr mächtig, dämonisch, mal sanfter & dark ambienter.... dazwischen schälen sich als Auflockerung mitunter instrumentelle dark-Folk-artige Arrangements hervor, aber stets im Rahmen der schamanistischen Noises...
Der perfekte Soundtrack um mit der "Andernwelt", die auch in uns ist, in Kontakt zu treten..." [Drone Rec. info to the first ed]
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| ARNALDS, OLAFUR |
Dyad 1909 |
CD |
"Der Isländer komponiert die Bühnenmusik für ein zeitgenössisches Tanzstück: 2009 war ein gutes Jahr für Islands neoklassischen Export Ólafur Arnalds. Nach dem Erfolg seiner "Found Songs", die er innerhalb einer Woche aufnahm, bat ihn der renommierte britische Choreograph Wayne McGregor, einen Soundtrack für sein Tanzstück "Dyad 1909" zu kreieren. Das Werk, inspiriert von Shackletons Expedition zum Südpol, feierte im Oktober 2009 Premiere in London. Im Dezember 2009 wurde
"Dyad 1909" zur Hauptsendezeit auf ITV1, Englands größtem privaten Fernsehsender, ausgestrahlt. Neben vier neuen Kompositionen bietet der 30-minütige Soundtrack auch vertraute Momente. Auf Wunsch von McGregor interpretierte Arnalds das vorletzte Stück seines Debütalbums "Eulogy For Evolution" und zwei Stücke seiner EP "Variations Of Static" auf neue Art und Weise. "Dyad 1909" erscheint auf 10"-Vinyl (mit Download-Code, digitalem Bonus-Remix und Label-Sampler) sowie als CD. "Die beste Klavierplatte 2009" urteilte "De:Bug" über "Found Songs". Für Fans von Sigur Rós, Max Richter, Peter Broderick und Yann
Tiersen." [label info / Indigo]
www.erasedtapes.com
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Eulogy for Evolution |
CD |
"This is the debut release by Iceland's Ólafur Arnalds and the first North American release for the London-based cinematic music label Erased Tapes Records. Arnalds has immersed himself completely in the world of delicate symphonic composition in a near-weightless orchestral undertaking. Mixing strings with loops, ambience, electronics and beats, Arnalds combines classical instrumentation with an indie-rock aesthetic that draws comparison to Sigur Rós. Eulogy for Evolution is an evocative, orchestral suite that takes the listener on a journey, representing different periods of life from birth to death through slow-building and hauntingly melodic chamber music. It comes with a free download voucher for the 11-track Erased Tapes Collection I compilation to celebrate the label's 1st anniversary. Ólafur Arnalds and his live string quartet performed at unique venues in the UK, including the oldest custom-built concert hall in Europe, the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, before they continued playing mostly sold-out shows throughout the rest of Europe. Over 500 people came to see Ólafur at the State-X Newforms Festival in Den Haag alongside Aphex Twin, as well as at Iceland Airwaves with Amiina and Jóhann Jóhannsson in Brussels. He is already working on his second full-length record and a string arrangement for Erased Tapes friends, 65daysofstatic." [label info]
www.erasedtapes.com
|
2007 |
€15.50 |
|
| |
Two Songs for Dance |
7inch |
"Following on from Ólafur Arnalds critically acclaimed dance score 'Dyad 1909' (2009) for the internationally renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, now comes 'Two Songs For Dance' - a limited edition 7" vinyl that captures two exciting tracks from two contemporary dance projects. The first 'Endalaus II' was created for 'Endalaus' by Norwegian choreographer Alan Lucien Řyen and is available for full stream as part of the Erased Tapes 5th Anniversary Tour playlist. Fans will recognise the track as one of the highlights from Ólafur's recent live shows, creating an emotional punch against the classical strings. 'For Teda', the second song is for London-based company Neon Dance and part of choreographer Adrienne Hart's on-going project 'Archived'it'." [label info]
www.erasedtapes.com
|
2012 |
€9.50 |
|
| ARSZYN |
Z Werszkow Pierwszy |
CD-R |
Eine weitere Entdeckung auf dem polnischen Kult-Label NEFRYT, ARSZYN ist experimentell und abstrakt elektronisch ausgerichtet..
Another new project to discover on this cult-label from Poland, ARSZYN is Krzysztof Topolski, who seems to work more with strange digital sounds: pulsating machine-loops, strange soundpatterns, clear static tunes with harmonics underneath... a very experimental trip into no-mans land..
“Noises, strange rhythms, concrete sounds, ambient a new Polish project¹s debut. Special cover.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| ART BEARS |
The World as it is Today |
CD |
„Die dritte und bis heute letzte Platte des "post-Canterbury"-Trios kreiert eine unheimliche Welt, in der alle Elemente einmalig und unvergeßlich klingen: die kompromißlose Gesellschafts- und Systemkritik in den Texten, die eigenwillige Kombination aus schneidenden Gitarren, Geigen, Piano und Mellotron, dazu die dramatische Stimme von Dagmar Krause und die perkussiven, das Schlagzeug-Spektrum erweiternden Klänge von Chris Cutler."Visionen der Apokalypse" wäre ein zutreffender Titel für diese kleinen Horrorszenarios, dabei geht es ja nur um den zur Zeit der Aufnahmen relativ zahmen Kapitalismus. Was würden die "Art Bears" bloß heute textlich zu diesem Thema bringen? Musikalisch am eindrucksvollsten ist diese ausgeprägte Tendenz zur Weltuntergangstimmung auf "DEMOCRACY" gediehen. Ganz hübsch verdreht wird es nochmal auf "ALBION, AWAKE!" (schon allein die Songtitel sprechen für sich, manchmal sogar demogerecht in Großbuchstaben), was als atonale, gesangslose Soundcollage das Album abschließt.“ [Siggy Zielinski / Babyblaue Seiten]
New digipak version, of the third Art Bears album, originally released 1980. "If you thought Henry Cow was a pretty political band to start with, you may be even more taken aback by the Art Bears, which was put together following Henry Cow's demise by former Cows Chris Cutler (percussion), Fred Frith (guitar, violin), and Dagmar Krause (voice). On The World as it is Today and its predecessor, Winter Songs, the Art Bears move away from the long-form art rock of Henry Cow and get much, much more politically explicit: song titles like 'The Song of the Dignity of Labour Under Capital' and 'The Song of Investment Capital Overseas' almost sound like Monty Python gags today, but if any humor was intended it was clearly meant to be mordant. Frankly, the lyrics are so overwrought and portentous that it's hard to take them seriously. But the music is something else again. Cutler and Frith are natural collaborators; Cutler's drumming always rides a very fine line between the scattershot and the funky, while Frith bounces his horror-show guitar noise and carnival piano off of Cutler's grooves with manic abandon and fearsome inventiveness. And Krause's singing is just as inventive; she whoops, croons and screams her way through the density of Cutler's lyrics without a hesitation or misstep. Easy listening it isn't, but it's sure worth hearing. Frith fans, in particular, should consider this album a must-own." [label info]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Winter Songs |
CD |
Re-Release of second LP from 1978 !
„Die Songs von "Art Bears" haben mit Rock-Idiomen kaum was gemein, das Trio bedient sich auf "Winter Songs" überwiegend der Konzepte der Avantgarde und der Klassik des 20ten Jahrhunderts. Kalt, dunkel und dissonant, nur beiläufig mit den allseits beliebten Schönheitsidealen flirtend ("The Hermit"), beschwören Art Bears eine Stimmung unterschwelliger Spannung herauf. Dazu trägt maßgeblich der unvergleichliche Gesang von Dagmar Krause bei. Die sparsame Instrumentierung besteht aus ungemein kreativem Schlagzeugspiel von Chris Cutler, der bekannterweise auch verschiedenste Effekte, wie z.B. präparierte Tonbänder einsetzt, und aus songdienlich eingesetzter Gitarre, Keyboards und Geige des Multiinstrumentalisten Fred Frith, der gelegentlich auch zum schrägen Gitarrensolo ansetzt. Nur selten bricht hier offene Aggression aus, wie beispielsweise auf "Rats&Monkeys".
Inspiriert durch die Skulpturen der Kathedrale von Amiens, vermittelt "Winter Songs" mit der schön-bizarren Gnadenlosigkeit etwas von der Atmosphäre des Mittelalters, allerdings anders als man es vielleicht gewohnt ist. Allen Henry Cow/Canterbury-Sympathisanten zu empfehlen, Gentle Giant-Jünger dürfen auch mal ruhig reinhören.“
[Siggy Zielinski / Babyblaue Seiten]
“New digipak version; originally released 1978. "The Art Bears' second album consists of twelve songs of various tensions: rest vs. speed, improv vs. pulse, space vs. density, Dagmar Kraus' vocals vs. everyone else. As usual, Chris Cutler's lyrics tell political allegories through medieval-tinged stories: slaves, castles, and wheels of fortune (and industry) dominate. Fred Frith explores discordance through his guitar, and European folk figures through his always enjoyable violin. Though not as confrontational as their other work, the centerpiece has to be the frantic 'Rats and Monkeys' with three minutes of teeth-gritting, out-of-control insanity as all three players are plugged into a wall outlet and let rip." [label info]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| ART ZOYD |
Musique pour l'Odyssee |
LP |
"Released almost three years after Art Zoyd's first LP, Symphonie Pour le Jour où Brûleront les Cités (SR330), Musique Pour l'Odyssée (Music for the Odyssey) presented a slightly different version of the band. The nucleus of
Gérard Hourbette (violin), Thierry Zaboïtzeff (bass guitar, cello, vocals), and Jean-Pierre Soarez (trumpet) is joined by percussionist Daniel Denis (who would remain a core member of the band for two decades), oboist/bassoonist Michel Berckmans (of Univers Zero and Von Zamla), saxophonist Michel Thomas, and a second violinist, Franck Cardon. This lineup recorded an album much more cinematic than the first. The band finds a new dimension in their sound, one that would remain present on through to their next releases.
Art Zoyd's early and great works have been unavailable for such a long time that it's too easy to forget what a strikingly original and amazing band they were in their prime." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| ARTEFACTUM |
Sub Rosa (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"Drone Records is very proud to present the first vinyl-release of the enchanting ARTEFACTUM project from Poland! Described by herself as "Female Esoterica", SUB ROSA opens a vast space filled with tons of different sounds coming from very far away, as nebulous melodies, whispers & voices & choirs, little clicks & cracks, with soft percussive structures appearing on Side B. The two pieces named ROSA ALBA and ROSA RUBEA (white & red rose) have a strong metaphorical alchemistic background, meaning the end point of all alchemistic transmuations. The overall release including the beautiful artwork gives the impression of an almost fabulous acoustic phantasy, so refined & almost caressing yet secretful at the same time. A record filled with "sonic magic" !
Filed under: Alchemistic Drones / more info: www.myspace.com/artefactum
PINK VINYL. SPECIAL HANDMADE COVERS USING DECOUPAGE TECHNIQUE; COVERS CLOSED WITH A PINK BOWED RIBBON" [label info]
www.dronerecords.de
"...ARTEFACTUM ist eine One-Woman-Show aus Polen. Seit 2001 tritt MERISSA D'ERLETTE in der Regel unter ihrem Projektnamen auf und war in diesen sieben Jahren, bei genauerer Betrachtung, äußerst umtriebig. Sie veröffentlichte eigene Werke auf OLD EUROPA CAFE und BEAST OF PREY, war beteiligt am "Père Lachaise"-Sampler (STEINKLANG und DIVINE COMEDY RECORDS) und an "...Where Tattered Clouds Are Stranding" (THE EASTERN FRONT, Besprechung hier). Außerdem unterstützt sie ihre Landsleuten von HOROLOGIUM und hat bereits diverses Split-Material veröffentlicht, unter anderem mit MOAN und DESIDERII MARGINIS.
Das Interesse von ARTEFACTUM gilt alchemistischen Formeln und Erkenntnissen, die musikalische Umsetzung geht als solider Dark Ambient durch. Besonders gelungen sind einige überraschende Ausnahmen, wie "The Night Waltz In Vienna", einem Beitrag zur Geburtstags-Box von OLD EUROPA CAFE: Hier dominieren weiblicher Gesang und Geige, klanglich in den ersten Jahrzehnten des vergangenen Jahrhunderts angesiedelt.
Als 'Alchemistic Drones' wird die aktuelle Single vom Label einsortiert; Dark Ambient zwar, aber gleichfalls mit Überraschungen und deshalb sehr erfrischend. Die beiden Songs sind zwei alchemistischen Umwandlungsprozessen gewidmet: Die 'Weiße Rose' ("Rosa Alba") beschreibt den Übergang von Materie in reines Silber, die 'Rote Rose' ("Rosa Rubea") in reines Gold. Neben der typischen Atmosphäre von hohen, leeren und unheimlichen Räumen wartet der 'silberne' Track mit einer Reihe von sakralen Elementen auf. Mal wispert ein elektronischer Mönchschor, mal – kurz vor dem Ende der Verwandlung – scheinen sich Engel zu Wort zu melden. Ein Schimmern umgibt das Stück, das wie die hörbar gemachte Schwingung von Steinen, Kristallen oder anderem alchemistischen Handwerkszeug wirkt. Die 'goldene' B-Seite ist aufgeladen mit Energie: Lichtstrahlen treffen aufeinander, Geisterwesen einer Science-Fiction-Stadt halten eine Versammlung ab. Aus dem Gedankengewirr schält sich am Ende ein repetitiver Trommelrhythmus, der natürlich den rituellen Eindruck noch verstärkt.
Sehr angenehm zu hören, dass Dark Ambient nicht immer nur düstere Trostlosigkeit mit viel Hall sein muss. Wer sich für ein paar Minuten auf einen Flirt mit der Alchemie einlässt, kann in zwei Momentaufnahmen von Beschwörungsritualen versinken. Die gestanzten Herzchen auf dem Cover fallen auch wirklich kaum auf." [Michael We. / NonPop]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Foxglove & Bluebells |
CD |
"Lie down on the soft summer grass, deep in the woods just before twilight, and perhaps you will be lucky enough to encounter some good-natured tiny beings of pleasing appearance.
Under their spell you may want to fall asleep, but you may also want to... dance!
Being one of the very few representatives of what might be labelled as feminine ambient music, Artefactum remains the embodiment of unique characteristics: deep and warm ambient intertwined with sounds of nature, ritual bells, remote drumming and sensual vocals?
in the case of Artefactum you simply can’t mistake the music for any other artist’s work.
Merissa d’Erlette’s new opus “Foxgloves & Bluebells” has at last taken its final shape after five long years since the release of “Rosarium Hermeticum” ? her last full-length album. The music is richer and more varied than anything else she has ever made ? while still within the borders of ambient, the release contains at the same time a collection of beautiful songs inspired by old poetry and mysterious folklore. With wonderful guest appearances from neo-medieval THE SOIL BLEEDS BLACK, British folk singer ANDREW KING (Duo Noir / Sol Invictus) and neo-classical DAWN & DUSK ENTWINED, “Foxgloves & Bluebells” is a must-have release for anyone into esoteric post-industrial music. Released in collaboration by by Old Europa Cafe and Ur Muzik as a 6 pannel digipack and limited to only 300 copies." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Rosarium Hermeticum |
CD |
"This opus has already seen the light of day. It was back in 2006 when Artefactum’s preceding album Chaos Elements was still fresh out of Athanor’s cavernous hearth. Yet, on her sophomore, strictly limited and self-released work Rosarium Hermeticum, Merissa d’Erlette developed her unique style even more, granting it depth and feminine charm on a new scale. There’s mystery there enclosed within nearly an hour of otherwordly ambient music and sensual whispers that the project has been known for ever since.
Those six skillfully crafted tracks are now available again on Ur Muzik with two bonus pieces and brand new artwork. Prepare yourself to get immersed in the unparalleled sound of Artefactum. Coming out on the 1st of January 2015, as a digipack, in a limited number of 500 copies." [label info]
ur-muzik.blogspot.de
original info from 2006:
"After very well received materials "Chaos Elements" on Athanor and "Sangreal" split on Old Europa Cafe, Artefactum is back with a brand new full-length "Rosarium Hermeticum". This time even more ritual than ever, Artefactum brings back the best atmospheres of early CMI artists, esoteric Ain Soph era combined with female whispers, tribal drums and more refined sound quality. This release comes with full colour, 8 pannel A5 booklet, similar to that of recent "Sangreal". Professional CDr limited to just 111 copies! [label info]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE (AMT) |
Boto [Encantado] |
LP |
"ini.itu is releasing a new vinyl LP, composed by Artificial Memory Trace. Artificial Memory Trace is the long standing musical project of Slavek Kwi, who was born in Czechoslovakia, lived for 14 years in Belgium, and since 2000 has been based in Ireland. Slavek has been
making music for more than 20 years under the label Artificial Memory Trace. His works are precise combinations of restructured (mostly) environmental sounds, where the notions of perception, sensation, cognition, and ultimately reality are questioned, notably through the use of musique concrète techniques
and graphics scores, sometimes combined with elements of performance. He has collaborated with many other musicians, working on the articulation of industrial music, field recordings and musique concrète, among them PBK, Brume, Eric La Casa, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. Since 2007 Slavek has assisted Francisco López in his Mamori workshops in the Amazonian forest, which is where some of the
source material present on this LP originates. Coupled with being a sound artist and composer, Slavek Kwi also facilitates workshops for autistic children, based on sound experiencing.
What Artificial Memory Trace proposes here is 2 sides of “decomposed and recomposed” landscapes and details, mostly centred around the Boto ( Inia geoffrensis geoffrensis ) also known as Amazon River Dolphin or Pink Dolphin. Just as the Boto is rumoured to undergo human-like transformations, most of this record is about transformation: sounds are isolated, cut, scaled up or down, modified and finally reassembled in a delicate and quite peaceful
collage. Slowly twirling around its object, time is taken to examine and explore the environment, including all other sound sources, creating a cubist perspective which is thoroughly unfolded. At times enigmatic, intimate and pastoral, it is a work that will slowly reveal its nuances. For those who need to know, the liner notes include extensive descriptions of the source sounds and a short essay on metamorphic animals." [label info]
www.iniitu.net
"On the backside of this LP you can read: 'you have the choice to consult or not some extra information on the insert. This information would influence they way you are experiencing the sounds. No comprehension whatsoever is required to access this work'. Which is actually something I like. You can choose to take in the information, or not. The information on the insert is printed in mirrored writing, so I am sure if its not really necessary to read it anyway. For the reviewer there is of course a small summary on the press text, and I learn that the sound sources are from the Boto, the Amazon River Dolphin or Pink Dolphin (making it one of the first records on ini.itu to move away from the Indonesian context that the previous records have). This record is another fascinating look in the world of Slawek Kwi, the man behind Artificial Memory Trace. Much of his work sounds like a collage of sounds, long moves and some abrupt changes. None of that on this record. The sounds are just in
long moves, and it seems a bit silent - of course that is intentional. I have no idea how the Boto sounds in the natural environment, nor any clue of the kind of processing applied by Kwi here, and oddly enough the music here sounds like insects, cicadas, chirping at night. A very meditative work, ambient if you will, slowly moving around, revealing some of its beauty only if you turn up the volume a bit more. Maybe also a strange record, for both Artificial Memory Trace and maybe also for the label. In a way I am reminded of the excellent record by Francisco Lopez for the same label. Quite mysterious, but a very good one. One of things were you keep wondering." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Where the Language might be born |
CD-R |
"Since April 1999 I have been involved in experimental sound_workshops with autistic children and children with learning disabilities (between 3 - 10 years of physical age) in La Chanterelle School in Brussels in Belgium. My research-practice are focused on perception as the main factor determining our relationship with reality. Our perception of the surrounding world consequently influences our behaviour. Change of perception change of interest [including system of values] impact on behaviour influence on relation with outside world change (re_modulation) of reality... Impressions evoked by sound_workshops interacts with my personal work as a composer, creating direct confrontation. This confrontation became a dialogue, questioning the fundamental nature of communication beyond form, approaching the basic energetic relationship without references, rejecting the experiences of established language as a form of communication and re_building another 'language closer to unspeakable co_existence, closer to the parallel consonance based on mutual careful listening. Through the creation of a personal language, we can attempt to approach each other's worlds gently, without destroying them through ignorance, without imposing our own modes of communication. What is the aim of communication? I am searching for situations which might stimulate the desire to communicate, in a co_existentional sense - being together - where creation is the spontaneous result of such a situation. The aesthetics of language becomes a direct consequence of communication." [label info] |
|
€10.00 |
|
|
Insekno (index) |
CD-R |
"Artificial Memory Trace [a.k.a. Slavek Kwi) is a cultural and musical refugee. Intensity and the power of his will is present in all that he does, be it the organic sound realm he creates, or the graphics and handwriting he invented. His musical universe is a precisely structured and perfectly balanced mix of diverse musique concrete materials. 'Insekno (index)' : Recordings of insects (direct to DAT). Recorded in Czech Republic, 1994." [label info]
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Ultrealith |
CD |
" 'Ultrealith' is an electro-acoustic sound-adventure exploring sounds that exist on the periphery of human perception, such as underwater recordings (such as fish-songs, crustaceans etc), ultrasounds (sonar of bats and dolphins, insects), electromagnetic signals and other textures. These recordings were sourced in the Amazonian rainforest, Africa, Canadian Newfoundland, northern Australia and in various parts of Europe." [label info]
"Now a CD by Slawek Kwi's Artificial Memory Trace you can always stick on as a piece of music. Build from field recordings but always 'treated' in some way. If I understand correctly, this new CD's main work are the five parts of the title piece, lasting forty-four minutes. Its bookended with two pieces before that and one after that, making a total of almost eighty minutes. The title piece was originally a four channel composition, mixed down to stereo. Lots of field recordings and as is usual with releases by Artificial Memory Trace, its all detailed on the cover. Kwi uses elements from the world of minimal music, with repetition on a lot of small sounds, with small variations leaping in every now and then. Its some excellent music, with a great sense of collage and fine timing, transporting the listener to different places - a holiday feeling almost. Yet there are also two odd balls in this collection, both of them called 'Monochrome'. The first one is a short two minute with sixty-four tracks of Cage's voice - very apt in time for his anniversary. The second one is a musical piece recorded in a psychiatric unit in Dublin of endless strumming and mumbling voices. Not exactly, I'd say, something we should expect from Slawek Kwi, and perhaps a bit of too much of an odd ball perhaps. Maybe Kwi should consider a CD of the real odd balls in his musical output, providing of course he has more of such works." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Paradox of Paradox / Interception I |
do-CDR |
"Over the course of more than two decades, Slavek Kwi aka Artificial Memory Trace has developed a body of work that encompasses live performance, sound installations, music and sound workshops with autistic children, and of course a large number of recordings published by small labels around the globe. This double CD in Attenuation Circuit’s Reissues series makes available again two albums originally published in 2004 that are characteristic for Artificial Memory Trace’s style of electroacoustic music that is characterised by a very elegant use of field recordings.
As the project name says, Artificial Memory Trace is always conscious of the fact that field recordings from nature are never natural in themselves, but become artificial in the very process of recording. Thus, even the toads that can be heard on “Paradox of Paradox” are not simply left to speak for themselves or “nature” per se, as in many pieces of “acoustic ecology” recordings. Instead, the recordings are subtly arranged to make an abstract compositional statement. Other sound sources include Christmas carols, a dysfunctional piano, and, on “Interception”, a dialogue of whistles between Kwi and an autistic child. One theme of both albums then seems to be an investigation into the ways that communities of different species, from amphibians to humans, make sense of their condition through sound. Philosophical considerations apart, the musical attractiveness of these works is based on the treatment of the field recordings which always retain just enough crispness to be recognisable as ambient noises, keeping the listener’s ears pricked up trying to find out their possible origins, while at the same time constantly being on the verge of vanishing into singing oceans of frequencies at times reminiscent of the later phases of Alvin Lucier’s “I am sitting in a room”." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Planktone Unlimited Editions was the label by Slawek Kwi, better known as Artificial Memory Trace. I must admit I didn't know this, so I have no idea why he is no longer working as such. Two of the works released on that label find now their way on a double CDR by Germany's Attenuation Circuit. Like much of his work, if not all, here too we have field recordings at the very foundation of the compositions. Compositions, because its Kwi's idea to use field recordings, alter them a little bit, and put them together, and not present them as pure phenomena of sound. Its music that one doesn't take too easily. There are lots of moments when sound drops to a low volume and for some time stays there, with just the sound of chirping insects. But then it cuts with a loud sound/event into something new and then a whole new world opens up. Its not easy to say what kind of techniques are used, but my best guess would be that its simply the result of layering various sound events together and then find the right compositional balance with these sounds, through editing, cutting and fading. Throughout, the music of Artificial Memory Trace isn't very loud so one has to keep full attention to this. Which makes these two discs, one that lasts seventy-six minutes and one that lasts fifty-eight, not something one would digest in one go easily, unless you either fully concentrate or 'use' it as ambient music: let it come as it comes. Either way of perceiving this music I think is pretty valid. It contains lots of beauty, poetic beauty actually, like the some what cryptic notes on the cover. Long in duration, massive in beauty." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Tidal |
CD |
"Tidal zone is a fluid line between land and sea, a site of perpetual motion and metamorphoses. During 2008 - 2010 I collected a variety of sounds in coastal areas of Western and Southern Ireland and on the other side of Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland, Canada: the remote fishing village of Conche, the ghost settlement of Crouse, and the St.Georges peninsula. I recorded underwater: crackles of decapods, dolphins, mink-whales, a breaking iceberg, a sea-otter fishing in the harbor. And on land: a wooden church crackling in the wind, engines of boats, pebble-surf, sea-gulls... all sounds and individual sequences used in the composition were recorded as-it-is. There is no other transformation than editing and mixing. Though sounds are organized in groups by the location of recordings, there is no intention to re-create an acoustic representation of the location itself. Sounds are chosen solely by morphologic associations and treated as abstractions. Recorded and composed by Slavek Kwi in July 2010 (1,2) and April/May 2011 (3,4) in Tentacles-Of-Perception Studio, Ireland." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
"Summer is slow and sometimes quite hot, certainly here in the VW-HQ. So my ventilator blows cool air in the house, which is nice, unless you are playing something like Artificial Memory Trace. The first time it was in the player, it went totally away in the soft machine breeze. But this morning the weather is a bit cooler, and I can sit down and listen to this under better circumstances. Slavek Kwi, also know as Artificial Memory Trace (and one of the few composers who still maintain their moniker, whereas others may have gone to their christian name by now) is a man who loves to work with field recordings of a rather delicate nature. The four lengthy pieces here all deal with recordings made in the tidal zone, 'the fluid line between land and sea, a site of perpetual motion and metamorphoses' and uses recordings from New Foundland and Ireland, from on land and under water. . Two pieces are stereo adaptions of multi-channel installation pieces. The cover lists specific places
and
things to note, like 'from pier at night (including one call of seal)'. More than before Kwi uses larger section which he puts one another, rather than overlaying them, or processing these sounds. It gives the music even more space than it did before. Maybe a holiday like feel even. This summer we don't spend time on the airplane to Newfoundland, but we stay at home and listen to Newfoundland. The two parts of that Newfoundland piece deal with sea sounds in the first part and the activities of humans in the second as well as nature events, such as a crumbling iceberg. In the piece called 'Western Island' we find at one point mechanical sounds along with high frequency bird calls, which add a weird and electronic texture to the overall composition. These four pieces are excellently, well crafted sonic trips along the sea-shore. Almost like a real holiday, but you don't have to leave the house. Almost my kind of thing, except that I actually planned a holiday." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Attracted by Light (Collection 7) |
CD |
"Track 1: Originally the 4-channel composition was constructed from sounds of crustaceans, mollusks and soniferous fish (rec. underwater in Tasmania, Australia 2011), army ants attacking recording device and walking inside machine, termites and ants recorded with contact-microphone from inside tree-nests, inside nest of stingless bees (rec. Xixuau Xiparina and Mamori, Amazon, Brazil 2008-2009; inside ant-nest rec. with Francisco Lopez and inside bee-nest by Chris Fleeger and Kwi), inside of bee-hive (rec. with Vlastislav Matousek, 1994 in Novy Bydzov, Czechie), wind in chimney, fire and ice (rec. 2003-2008, Ivy Cottage, Ireland) and New Year 2008 fireworks (UK). Dedicated to Vlastislav Matousek and his beloved shakuhachi.
Track 2: Based on underwater recordings from Mamori and Yuma 2007–2011: subaquatic insect (recorded in ultrasonic range, some detected only in ultrasonic spectrum), fresh-water crustaceans (probably Decapods, crackly sounds) and electric field of Gymnotiform fish (the tonal-like sounds reminiscent of electronic sine and square waves), includes also sounds of water-pump, propellers, boat-engines and dolphins "tucuxi" (Sotalia fluviatilis).
Track 3: Based on ultrasonic echolocation and social calls of various micro-bats and insects recorded in Mamori, 2007–2011.
All sounds in Track 2+3 (and partially in Track 1) were recorded during Mamori Sound Project of Mamori ArtLab in Amazon, Brazil by Slavek Kwi. Special thanks to Francisco Lopez and Asier Gogortza for kind support." [label info]
www.semperflorens.net
"The year ended with Artificial Memory Trace and it starts with it, now on a CD release from Russia's Semper Florens. Three pieces of quite varying lengths, six, twenty and forty seven minutes, and all deal with field recordings, like almost all of Slavek Kwi's work. Much of this was recorded during the Mamori Soind Project in the Amazon, Brazil but also, in the title piece, from Tasmania and Czech Republic and even fireworks from the UK. The music from Kwi may be based on field recordings, it's never a purely, untreated piece of sound. Artificial Memory Trace uses his recordings as bricks to build a place, palace perhaps, of sound. Sometimes he treats these sounds, by fiddling around with the EQ and gets out more bass or more high end, whatever is required, and collages these chuncks together into a fine piece of musique concrete. It's quite minimal music at that. You can listen for a few or more minutes to chirping insect sounds, bees, waters, ants or what have you, but then slowly
something else is added to this biotope and without chnaging the scenery too much these two co-exist and the other may take over. You could hear in all of this the survival of the fittest perhaps, but I rather take a more positive view and would rather think of this as a journey. A journey which takes you as easily from the amazonian rain forest in summer time to the new year's eve fireworks in the UK, only to find yourself, within minutes, to be diving to the world of crustaceans, mollusks and soniferous fish in Tasmania - while along you may still hear a bit of that rain forest, which you will find on the map totally somewhere else. That's what this music does: create artificial journeys to various places at the same time. There is hardly human interference here, except for the role of the composer himself, who creates this journey. It's the natural world at the same time. In the shortest piece here, 'Pegamorsego', even in a fine musical fashion of glissandi from insects and bats, made audible in nicely gliding scales. A long journey, at some seventy-five minutes, but a most rewarding one. Excellent!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Synkronika |
CD |
"Exploring abstract textural and aural potential of animal voices and environmental sounds on various surfaces of time and scale. Metamorphoses. Synchronous Chronicles based on various field recordings collected in South Africa, Brazilian Amazon, Basque Country and Eire. Composed by Slavek Kwi in Autumn 2014.
Co-production of Noise-Below and Tentacles Of Perception Recordings 2015.
Limited edition of 300 CDs in digipack." [label info]
www.artificialmemorytrace.com
Additional notes:
1. Various insect, amphibians, birds and underwater activity recorded during “1st Sonic Mmabolela” organized by James Webb and Francisco Lopez in Limpopo, South Africa in November – December 2013. Special thanks to The National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland for kind support.
2. Sounds of whistling frogs, insect and barking dogs recorded during “Mamori Sound Project” organized by Mamori ArtLab in Amazonas, Brazil during years 2007 – 2011. Thanks to Francisco Lopez and Asier Gogortza.
3. Underwater recordings during workshop “Entzute Animalia” led by Slavek Kwi and organized by Arteleku in Donostia, Basque Country, 2010. Special thanks to Xabier Erkizia and Asier Gogortza.
4. Sounds of ice particles falling from trees, boiling oil and hot steam, fire crackles, espresso machine, wind, crows and black birds, cats and dogs from Robertstown, Meath; sea surf from Sligo, Ireland – all recorded during years 2002 – 2014.
5. Various bull roarers … and probably some more, forgotten recordings …
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE / GERALD FIEBIG / EMERGE / PBK |
Fiction Circuit |
LP |
Artificial Memory Trace aka Slavek Kwi and PBK aka Phillip B. Klingler have been pillars of the global DIY experimental music culture for decades. Both of them have released work on attenuation circuit before. Here, they team up with label owner EMERGE aka Sascha Stadlmeier and his colleague Gerald Fiebig. Each one of the four artists contributes one track of about 10 minutes to the album. But while the four-way split LP is a common format in the global sound culture scene, “fiction circuit” is more than just a compilation.
All of the artists on this album share a love of creating electroacoustic music from field recordings or found sounds. Therefore, label manager Stadlmeier invited Artificial Memory Trace (AMT) and PBK to supply source sounds from their archives. These were then used as the basis for the compositions. Leaving the source material identifiable was not the task – it was to be used as raw material to be sculpted, very much in the spirit of acousmatic musique concrète. On the AMT side, we find the tracks by PBK and Gerald Fiebig. They both used AMT's source material to create their tracks. PBK delivers a dense, rather rhythmic track with a decidedly “industrial” feel. Fiebig's track, on the contrary, uses the front cover artwork – a digital collage by EMERGE of visual works by Kwi and Klingler, with other works by them reproduced on the lavishly printed LP insert – as a graphic score for realising a rather harmonic ambient piece. On the PBK side, Artificial Memory Trace and EMERGE “play” the source sounds supplied by PBK. The piece by Artificial Memory Trace qualifies as exuberant rhythm noise, while EMERGE goes all the way into rather meditative laminar lower-case drone minimalism. Therefore, regardless of which side of the record one plays first (“AMT” and “PBK” are engraved on the vinyl itself to guide the listener), one will experience, thoroughout the whole album, a change between very different sonic textures and temperaments that showcase the wide range of expressive possibilities of electroacoustic music. This is not the product of good luck, but of planned collective composition: AMT and PBK, as the “guests” on the label, were invited to create whatever they liked without any formal restrictions. As it turned out, both of their works were rather intense and direct in character. Therefore, EMERGE and Fiebig both made an effort to complement each side with a more subdued, quiet piece.
File under: Electroacoustic music, musique concrète
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/fiction-circuit
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| AS ALL DIE |
Guns, grenades and genocide |
CD-R |
Wer auf apokalyptischen Industrial und Kriegsthematik steht, könnte an AS ALL DIE seine Freude haben: schleppende, noisige Klangflächen, verlangsamte & deformierte Stimmen und Instrumentalsounds kämpfen sich durchs Klang-Dickicht, Kampfgeräusche tauchen auf, kein Lichtstrahl dringt hier nach aussen...
”Cult American act of Clint Listing (aka When Joy Becomes Sadness) on the cult Italian label! Here, As All Die present harsher, more Martial Industrial music than their usual output. A five track release at just over 35 mins. Oversized packaging“ [Punch Rec]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| ASHTORETH |
Rites I & II |
CD |
We’re glad to welcome Belgian artist Peter Verwimp and his shamanistic guitar driven soundscapes. The first instalment for the Rites series touches on the importance of ceremony and ritual in our daily lives. It deals with our interconnectedness with nature as a whole and the necessity to acknowledge and use this connection as an amplifier of thoughts, ideas and emotions. Minimal, meditative ambient drones with layers of meandering guitars and voices mixing elements of doom, drone and ambient experimentation. Rites I & II take a shamanic and animistic approach to our surroundings, unveiling inner and outer visual landscapes, a journey through flesh, sound and spirit.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 6 panels Digisleeve. 2 Tracks. Running Time 37:51
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/rites-i-ii
"Slowly but certainly, Peter Verwimp is becoming the forerunner for the new wave of Antwerp ambient. Throughout the years I have seen him perform his enigmatic guitar drones and soundscapes numerous times. From petite venues and living rooms to forests and stages everywhere, Ashtoreth manages to turn everything into a place for rituals and meditation.
I think it was only a matter of time before a quality label like Cyclic Law would become interested in this shamanic approach to ambient. With 'Rites I & II', the first installment of a series, Ashtoreth delivers a long ceremony and a deep meditation.
'Rite I: Earth' opens with heavy guitars and powerful vocals. When I heard these for the first time, I wasn't sure if I was listening to Ashtoreth or to an intro for a Conan album. This is a somewhat different approach from the slowly in-fading soundscapes. But mostly, it immediately grabs the listener's attention for its brutalist approach. Gradually, however, the track evolves. The distortion fades away and other soundscapes appear. They sound like the breathing of the earth. Then, hints of melody appear, in perfect Ashtoreth tradition. In a way, this first track feels like a journey from something bad and scary to a feeling of piece of serenity.
'Rite II: Fire' is somewhat shorter but still long enough to be a narrative drone ambient highlight. It drives on gloomy drones and shamanic voices, a bit like we're used from Peter Verwimp by now, but let that not be a turn-off. This track is downright eerie, a perfect addition to the heaps of dark ambient masterpieces released by Cyclic Law. So yes, this is a stunning piece of work and it comes with equally stunning artwork by GootSlaper. I don't think this needs much more explanation. 'Rites I & II' is one of those albums that deserve a spot in your ever widening and mind-altering collection." [Merchants of Air]
"Here’s an interesting story. There was an amazing Belgian progressive, experimental hardcore band from Antwerp and their name was Maya. Until now, I consider their debut album as the epitome of hardcore progression, an utterly unrecognized gem and one of the most important hardcore albums in the history of the genre! In 2013, I uploaded Maya’s debut via Youtube, as I believed that such a gem deserves the utmost recognition. Not much time passed and I received a message from a fine gent, Peter Verwimp (Building Transmissions, Haunted Places, Station Grey, Stifled Cries) thanking me for that upload and telling me that he played in… Maya! Shocked as I was, he added that he has a new (at the time) project, named Ashtoreth! Much time have passed, people and I’m extremely pleased to review Peter’s new creation.
Ashtoreth – as I read – is in search of a shamanistic perspective, channeling at times: minimal, meditative drones with layers of meandering guitars and at others, a catharsis of doom, drone, ambient, folk, metal, noise and experimentation, always in a free and improvised form. Intriguing, right?
Rites I & II is a two-piece album, clocking at almost 38 minutes. Being heavily based on drones and ambient, it creates a certain space and a holistic appropriation of darkness, a ritual and introverted expedition into a spiritual and organic vastness. Ashtoreth’s sound is penetrating in every aspect: shamanic chanting, energy razor-blades in the form of minimal guitar, a huge embrace of bass driven currents, cathartic and certain. An aesthetic procreation and the well-perceived certainty of exquisite ambient music, that leaves a feeling of void thereafter. Music that delivers plentifully giving one climax after the other! Serene soundscapes with such power and punch!
It’s amazing to hear in this recording elements of Peter’s early works, even before Ashtoreth. The listener faces a recognizable and fine-tuned sound, with very sincere and solid continuance as developed over the years. In Ashtoreth’s case, ambient that – I dare to say – includes in it’s core, amazingly concealed, but present hardcore (!) elements. In fact, many different but related elements merged together, quite skillfully. And the album is presented as a beautifully packaged vinyl and equally beautiful, six-panel CD released by the Berlin based label, Cyclic Law.
Peter Verwimp has become an artist of his very own kind; a self-proclaimed sonic shaman and very well deserving of this attribute. Let us witness and be merry for his wonderful incantations." [Toneshift]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| ASHTORETH & STRATOSPHERE |
Between Worlds |
CD |
The two Belgian artists Ashtoreth and Stratosphere combine musical forces and present their new collaborative work 'Between Worlds', on our Winter-Light label.
Seven finely woven pieces that ebb and flow between what we perceive to be real and what we sense but cannot see. A transition from darkness to light; a gradient of black to white. Slipping barely noticed between the two. A blurred movement on the edge of our peripheral vision. A push of air gently felt or a change of pressure within a room.
Sensed but never grasped, felt but never seen. A passing between two worlds.
Winter-Light welcomes Peter Verwimp (Ashtoreth) and Ronald Mariën (Stratosphere) to our label. Both talented musicians who have collaborated with some very fine artists and created some amazing work.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/between-worlds |
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| ASPHODEL |
Aokigahara, the Black Sea of Trees |
LP |
"Aokigahara, The Black Sea of Trees is an abstract visual and sonic story-telling which takes place in a forest located in Mount Fuji, Japan. The forest of Aokigahara, has a world-wide fame for the thousands of suicides which took place there and now has an almost mythological statue.
The forest is spread all through with ephemera and items such as photographs, letters and instruments left behind by the leavers, all untouched due to respect. almost entire forest is covered with long ribbons people used to be able to return if they changed their mind. therefore, the entire land is embodied with the vicarious objects that depict the sense of memory, loss and hope.
The auditory side of this album can be related to musical genres such as ambient and drone, but also of importance to this album is film and film abstraction; the experience of light moving in time, as for example the work of Stan Brakhage. An audio story-telling which derives from the contrast between dark and intense sounds to more delicate and quiet auditory landscapes, where the sense of an intrinsic lament is always present, and stepping into the oblivion gets distilled into pure sensation, that of belonging to life and hope. Asphodel puts an emphasis on the romantic, that of life relived through the forest.
Asphodel is a musical and visual project of Atay Ilgün and Alper Yildirim. Asphodel focuses on textural music and it's combination with experimental film. Atay Ilgün and Alper Yildirim run the Turkish label Wounded Wolf Press."
[label info]
A spooky ambient recording from this Turkish project who conceptually based this album on Aokigahara, a forest near Mount Fuji in Japan which has achieved notoriety because of the large number of people who have committed suicide amongst the trees, leaving behind considerable ephemera of their lives. Notes, pictures, objects all litter the forest floor as the final tracing of a human life. While a cascading horror is evident on the first half of this album, evinced through dynamic, tumultuous roars of caustic rumble and desolate pools of isolated tone, Asphodel conjure a shifting internal drama of emotion not limited to sadness, hope, and loss through flecks of wooden guitars and flutes, eerie reflective modulations from feedback manipulation, disembodied voices crackled through ghostboxes, and a ton of reverb. This is a very complex piece of abstraction that honestly confronts the topic at hand while not forgetting to draw from the existential bleakness in mapping out these very impressive recordings. Originally released on Asphodel's Wounded Wolf imprint as a cd-r, now issued on swank vinyl via Invisible Birds, limited of course. (Aquarius Rec) |
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| ASTRID & RACHEL GRIMES |
Through the Sparkle |
LP |
"Through the Sparkle is a collaboration between French ensemble astrïd and American pianist and composer Rachel Grimes.
Rachel Grimes is best known for her chamber music project Rachel’s, a hugely influential group formed in 1991 in Louisville, Kentucky, releasing six studio albums between 1995 and 2005. She has also released a string of contemporary classical works in recent years on labels such as Temporary Residence. astrïd is a collective of four musicians based in Nantes, releasing records on Rune Grammofon and Home Normal.
After years of mail and email back and forth over the ocean, from Nantes to Kentucky, astrïd invited Rachel to come for a residency to make music together and play shows in France. They gathered for a few days, here and there, in 2012 and 2013 to write songs in Cyril and Vanina's home studio in the countryside.
The compositions found on Through the Sparkle glow with a unique, connected energy and a pure, instinctive musical understanding. Considered contributions from all sides allow the pieces to unfurl naturally. Each note and phrase feels like it simply couldn’t be placed anywhere else in the album.
Charming, gentle and cinematic sounds are found here in abundance. Melodies circle and reveal themselves without force, allowing the listener to focus and explore the depths of what is on offer. Musically, Through the Sparkle is an expansive and evocative album. There is a presence to be felt throughout, from Cyril Secq’s emotive tremelo’d guitars of M5 to the darker, more haunting mood of The Theme, to the tension in Mossgrove & Seaweed. Strings and woodwind coalesce around intricate piano and guitar movements creating a wealth of harmony and melancholy.
Through the Sparkle is a record of miniature symphonies, of elegant restraint. A gracious and generous offering from a group of musicians at one with each other and at the top of their game."
www.gizehrecords.com
https://gizehrecords.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-sparkle
"Man, that’s devastating! If the reverb-drenched guitar on this record’s second track doesn’t move you to tremble with tears, then the soaring strings on “M1” surely will.
Pianist/composer Rachel Grimes follows up her best-of-2015 The Clearing solo outing with the magnificent Through The Sparkle, a seven-song collaboration with the French chamber ensemble Astrïd, out today digitally, on CD and on vinyl through U.K.-based Gizeh Records. This thing’s gotta be heard to be believed.
Striking, again, with some of her finest work, Grimes’ piano flashes more contemporary flourishes than the heart-wrenching Romanticism of her landmark years with Rachel’s, everyone’s favorite post-classical ensemble. While there are still gentle, lulling notes – I’m looking to the album-closing “Le Petit Salon” and, again, the epic “M1” – Grimes’ metronomic figures on “The Herald en Masse” and “Mossgrove & Seaweed” positively pulsate with life, lending a record laced with restraint loads of emotional force.
This says nothing of Astrïd multi-instrumentalist Vanina Andreani, whose violin wraps its fingers around Grimes’ ephemeral melodies in much the way Christian Frederickson’s viola did in Rachel’s. Guillaume Wickel is brilliant on bass clarinet, drummer/percussionist Yvan Ros does a fine job anchoring the melancholy, and didn’t I already mention the eerie repercussions of Cyril Secq’s guitar? This ensemble, featuring Grimes, seems to have a beautiful way of making even the most composed moment seem instinctive, lending a gentle humanity to the proceedings.
There are less “classical” and more “post-classical” moments on the record, too, like the haunted “The Theme,” which starts with an emotive bass clarinet figure and kalimba, and expands, more often through the space between notes than the notes themselves, with an electric guitar right out of Hotel2Tango in Montreal. Or there’s “Hollis,” which punctuates Grimes’ refrains with more kalimba, subtle bass, and a shuffling, jazzy backbeat before descending into a field of mathy beeps that could be summoned from piano and, maybe, a Fender Rhodes.
The whole record is breathtaking gossamer – definite year-end-list material." [Justin Vellucci/Popdose]
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| ASTROWIND |
Kaidanovsky |
CD |
"Astrowind Sound designer from Latvia Kriipis Tulo creates an amazing, deeply emotional and romantic music with help of vintage analog synthesizers and open-reel tape recorder. There is a feel of acroamatic escapism, there are these huge chords of hissing analogue synthesizers and you can even find this special kind of Slavonian melancholia (or Baltic, respectively) people use to rave about. Astrowind bring up a lot of references in their beautiful and, well, obsolete music.
Astrowind Project got the harmonies and the sound to become one of the most interesting Baltic acts to emerge from a scene rich of innovative musicians (Muschraum, Joel Tammik, Selffish, to name just the most obvious).
This first Astrowind pro-CD album is a tribute to Aleksander Kaidanovsky, worldwide well known and seminal russian actor and film director. The album consists is eight tracks filled with mind-floating contructions and de-contructions that will bring the listener to a wider dimension.
”Kaidanovsky” sounds like an oppressive, yet captivating, music experience surfing from a lysergic and mutant electronic textures to a degraded samples and hypnotic voices of the universe. A really amazing and impressive album for one of the most talented artist coming from baltic area." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| ASUNTA |
Landscapes |
CD |
"Landscapes enthält Klarinettenkompostionen von Slawomir Golaszewski, Begründer und Mastermind von Asunta, der hier von Wojciech Karwacki auf dem Harmonium begleitet wird. Aufgenommen und produziert wurden die faszinierende Mischung von Ethno drones, Ambient-Psychedelia und slawischer New Age in Warschau von Alik Dziki (http://dziki.net), dem ehemaligen Bassisten der polnischen Reggae-Legenden Kultura und Izrael sowie in der Frühphase Mitglied bei den Mystik-Punks von Armia. Die Erstveröffentlichung in Polen war 1996 lediglich eine Kassette-Edition beim Label "Fly Music", der 2001 eine limitierte Cdr-Version beim polnischen "Nefryt"-Label folgte. Diese Wiederveröffentlichung auf Lollipoppe Shoppe stellt insofern die erste internationale Würdigung des außergewöhnlichen Asunta-Sounds von Landscapesdar.
Slawomir Golaszewski ist eine legendäre Figur der polnischen Off-Kultur: Er gehörte 1985 zu den Mitbegründern der mit transzendentaler Wucht und mystischer Poesie agierenden Hardcore Punk- Institution "Armia", auf deren Platten er mehrfach unter dem Pseudonym Merlin mitwirkte, und war zu dieser Zeit zugleich aktiv im Umfeld des sich auflösenden "Teatr Laboratorium" (http://www.grotowski.net) des großen Theatererneuerers Jerzy Grotowskis in Wroc³aw/Breslau (zu seinen Lehrern zählten hier Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik und Ludwik Flaszen). Grotkowskis Forschungen zum psychophysiologischen Einfluß ritueller Gesänge und die Anwendung auf die experimentlle Theaterarbeit haben Go³aszewskis Arbeit geprägt.
Seit den frühen 1980er Jahren ist Go³aszewski außerdem als Radiomoderator, Journalist und Autor tätig; er hat unter anderem früh die Verbreitung von Reggae- und Rastafari-Kultur in Polen betrieben und mehrere Generation des polski Reggae geprägt. Darüberhinaus war der "musizierende Philosoph" (Alexander Pehlemann, "Zonic" http://www.zonic-online.de) selber künstlerisch in der Szene aktiv. Die Liste seiner Kollaborationen wie auch seiner publizistischen Beiträge ist unüberschaubar.
Über Go³aszewskis künstlerische und esoterische Interessen erklärt sich letztlich auch die Zusammenarbeit mit den ebenso legendären "Atman", einer seit den Mitt-Siebzigern aktive Gruppe von Musikern, die erfolgreich die Integration von Klangkunst und Ökologie betrieben und deren Label "Fly Music" das Album Landscapes 1996 als Kassette veröffenlichte und Asunta im folgenden Jahr auf ihrem "Festival in der Landschaft" (Muzyka w krajobrazie http://pathman.republika.pl) im mittelpolnischen Inow³ódz präsentierten. Mit diesem völlig akustischem Konzert in einer romanischen Kapelle manifestierte sich endgültig die Reputation des Projekts in der alternativen Musikszene Polens.
Nach einer lebensbedrohlichen Gehirnoperation 2010 und Rekonvaleszenz meldet sich Go³aszewski nun zurück: 2012 wurde seine Graphic Novel "Moja Terapia" (mit Zeichnung von Szawe³ P³óciennik, Central Europe Comics Art, http://centrala.org.pl) veröffentlicht und eine erweiterte, 400 Seiten starke und um ein Audiobook ergänzte Neuauflage von Go³aszewskis Schriften zu Reggae und seiner spezifischen Rezeption in Polen von dem Label und Verlag "Manufaktura Legenda" besorgt, das federführend ist bei der Aufarbeitung von polnischer Subkultur ("Reggae Rastafarie - Regementarz" http://manufaktura-legenda.pl).
This release contains clarinet compositions by S³awomir Go³aszewski, founder and master-mind of the project, and harmonium works by Wojciech "Kaktus" Karwacki. Landscapes was recorded and produced by Alik Dziki, former bass player of the Polish Reggae legends Izrael and Kultura, as well as an early member of the mystic punk group Armia. The album was released on tape in Poland in 1996 under project name Asunta on the "Fly Music" label and in 2001 released in a limited edition on Cdr by the "Nefryt" label. Landscapes features a fascinating blend of ritual ethno drones, ambient psychedelia and Slavonic New Age. The cover painting by Lithuanian artist Linas Domarackas was designed for the original release.
S³awomir Go³aszewski is a legendary figure of Polish off- and counter culture. In 1984/85 he co-founded the seminal punk rock group Armia and contributed to their albums under pseudonym Merlin. At the same time he was active in the shadow of Jerzy Grotowskis's dissolving "Teatr Laboratorium" in Wroclaw/Breslau (Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik, and Ludwik Flaszen being his teachers). Grotowskis's research on rituals, its psychophysiological impact, and his expanded concept of theater has coined Go³aszewski's artistic work.
Since the late 1980's, Go³aszewski is active as a radio presenter, journalist and author; among other things he was crucial for the early popularisation of Reggae music and Rastafarian culture in Poland and thus influencing an entire generation of fans and musicians alike. His contributions both artistic and publicistical to the Polish alternative music scene are numerous. His artistic and esoteric quest also lead to the collaboration with the legendary Atman group, a collective of musicians dealing with the integration of sound and ecology. The group's self-managed label "Fly Music" released Landscapes in 1996 on cassette. In the following year, Atman also invited Go³aszewski to present his project at their Music in the Landscape Festival [Muzyka w krajobrazie] in Inow³ódz, a small medieval village in central Poland. This entirely acoustic performance in the Romanesque St. Giles church in Inow³ódz in July 1997 brought Asunta lasting reputation among Poland's alternative music circuit.
After a life-threatening brain surgery in 2010 and a period of convalescence Go³aszewski is back and active again: 2012 saw the publication of his graphic novel "Moja Terapia" (with drawings by Szawe³ P³óciennik, Central Europe Comics Art) as well as a 400-page volume of his collected writings on Reggae music and Rastafari culture published by "Manufaktura Legenda", the leading label and publisher for the reappraisal of the legacy of Polish subculture." [label info]
www.lollipopshop.de
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ASVA & PHILIPPE PETIT |
Empires should burn... |
CD |
"Philippe Petit and G. Stuart Dahlquist first came together when Petit’s Strings of Consciousness project opened for ASVA in Paris. The two quickly discovered a profound likemindedness and decided to combine their creative forces and see where that could take them. The pair, each with their own unique and seemingly infinite brand of creativity, formed a unique partnership. However, as Philippe and ASVA both have a long history of interesting collaborations, they decided to bring some guest vocalists to the project. Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots), Jarboe (Swans), and Bryan Lewis Saunders all lent their voices to this album. After a few months of dialogue and collaboration, “Empires Should Burn” was completed and ready to be released into the world." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| AT JENNIE RICHIE |
The Bicycle Considered |
mCD-R |
"Mysterious project out of the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. We've had to deal with an intermediary to get this release, what came to us was a three inch treasure of terrifying proportions inspired by Alfred Jarry's 19th c. short story "The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race." Not to give away the ending but... you don't win." [label info]
www.resipiscent.com
|
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| ATARAXIA |
Suenos |
CD |
"SUENOS ('Dreams' in Spanish) is the title of the long-time sold out and eagerly awaited album by ATARAXIA but the onomatopoeic sound reminds also of the English words for 'signs' and 'sounds'. It has been recorded in 2000/2001 year and originally released by Cruel Moon International (Cold Meat Industry).
For the first time in ATARAXIA's history this album is not a conceptual album but a collection of new songs with different styles, themes, with different historical backgrounds and many acoustic new instruments. The album has been divided into three parts of 4 songs each: the first (‘Ego Promitto Domino’) features lyrics inspired by journeys and remembrances of mid-eastern lands. The sounds are between neo classical, orchestral for 4 voices and Mediterranean dreamy ambiances. The second part (‘L’ame d’eau’) is entirely based on Medieval ballads just for acoustic instruments and 2 voices and the Third part (‘Sandy Dunes’) finally is more intimate and meditative, once again the theme is the one of water linked to the female soul: The voyage through the sea, regret, the need of the sea. Just for Francesca’s heavenly vocals...
More then 10 years later, Ataraxia & Infinite fog Production presents new, completely remastered edition with special bonus track “Melisanda” - Rare song “Melisanda” was released on split-vinyl Ataraxia/Engelsstaub - “In Amoris Mortisque” 95 but carefully remastered now." [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ATAVIST |
II:Ruined |
do-LP |
"Gatefold double-LP limited to 500 copies featuring Justin Greaves (ex-Iron Monkey ) and Rose Kemp on guest vocals. ATAVIST "II:Ruined" defines pure epic suicidal sludge doom metal. The band's second album, "II:Ruined", is a massive, monolithic, introverted chapter of audial suffering and torment. It sees ATAVIST plunge further into the audial abyss by incorporating more layers and substance to their art (not unlike the way Japan's Corrupted portray their immaculate aesthetic). Heavier, more diverse, intricate, and melodic, "II:Ruined" is just that; an unforgiving observation of selfreflection, repentance, and desperation. It is interesting to note that this was the final album for this line up of the band, one can only wonder at the self-fulfilling prophecy of such and immense and bleak work. Perhaps its a wonder they are all still alive. This double vinyl edition of II:Ruined on Aurora Borealis marks a long overdue vinyl release for this important milestone of extreme doom, and stands in monolithic testament to their achievement." [label info]
www.aurora-b.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| ATAVIST / NADJA |
12012291920 / 1414101 |
LP |
"12012291920 / 1414101 is the coming together of two distinct creative forces in the form of ATAVIST (UK) and NADJA (Canada), and represents an abstract detraction from both of the bands previous works. The feel of the album is one of blissful escapism presented through harmonious audio manipulation, intricate melody and polarizing heaviness. This release sees Atavist / Nadja placing the listener into an dreamlike environment throughout the albums two expansive tracks by using an innovative array of layered sounds, abstract guitar work, subsonic bass levels and delicate electronics to give a desolate, yet warm full length album. 12012291920 / 1414101 is not a split album, rather a collaborate effort between Atavist & Nadja with each artist bringing their own components to the whole.
Vinyl comes with an alternative cover and features reverse board which really makes the graphics stand out." [label info]
www.kreationrecords.net
|
2008 |
€16.50 |
|
| ATELEIA & BENJAMIN CURTIS |
Baghdad Batterie |
LP |
Der zweite Teil in der neuen "Guitar Series" zum 15jährigen Bestehen des Labels. Flackernd-pulsierende Klangfelder, "flüssige Electronica". Kommt auf klarem Vinyl mit Laser-Etching von SAVAGE PENCIL auf der Rückseite !
"On Baghdad Batterie, Ateleia and Benjamin Curtis fuse splendidly, as perfectly synchronized audio alchemists, and when they dip their axes in a vat of liquid electronica, the transmutation is complete:thick, glistening beats throb and undulate, without a tell-tale twang in sight. Baghdad Batterie is a fabulous piece of laptop psychedelia, and certain to delight fans of Curtis and Elliott's previous collaboration, the exhilarating School Of Seven Bells EP, 'Face to Face' on High Places. The packaging of this vinyl-only release is similarly spectacular. It's a one-sided, 12-inch LP, pressed on clear vinyl; the reverse is laser etched with an original illustration by acclaimed UK artist Savage Pencil, whose credits include album art for The Fall, Big Black, and Sonic Youth. It's a limited-edition pressing, so get it while you can -- disks from the label's original Guitar Series in 1993/1994 are now some of Collectorville's must coveted treasures." [label notes]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| ATOMINE ELEKTRINE |
Archimetrical Universe |
CD |
"Eternal Pride Prod. presents re-mixed version of "Archimetrical Universe" + bonus tracks from extra limited CDr boxed version of the album "Nebulous". New edition like DIGI-CD with new design. Space is an illusion. Peter Andersson (Raison D'Etre, Stratvm Terror, Svasti-ayanam, Necrophorus) is one of the handful of finest sound manipulators in the world. Period. Archimetrical Universe showcases Peter’s dissection of the sky, a Caesarean section that births massive, geometrically perfect sonic diversions, all spheres and angles, burnished metal dreams and pristine sonic caresses that reconfigure sound into smooth surfaces. To counterbalance the exactness of the sonic development, light rhythms emerge, huge slabs of disrupting tones puncture, the scattered remnants of all of Peter’s projects utilized in the creation of the music here. Everything seems to be in perpetual motion, evolving, revolving, reinvented at the mercy of Peter’s deft hands and devious whim. The clarity of production and meticulous restructuring of the known (space, stars, planets) with the unknown (space...stars...planets...) only heightens the journey upon which he guides us, an alluring venture into the cavernous realm of space...but not a space most of us would imagine. Whether he is sonically scrubbing the architecture, or just mesmerizing us with another sound sculpture at the edge of forever, Archimetrical Universe is, quite possibly, Peter’s finest release yet, which says a lot because his sonic portfolio runneth over with intoxicating, mind-altering sound manipulations that inspire one’s imagination with conflicting emotional responses (sorrow, desolation, awe, wonder) at all times. Space is an illusion...but Peter has brought it to life. Essential!" [label info]
www.eternalpride.ru
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Antikythera Mechanism |
CD |
"A container of all the knowledge about the universe. The motion of the gears deeply intertwine a link between micro- and macrocosm. A mechanism that simulates cosmology and senses characteristics of an eclipse, with color, size and associated winds.
Define a question, and there will be a calculated answer, even capable of astral divination. Is it an all-seeing eye, or perhaps something beyond even that; a magic entity capable of creating the cosmic events that it is supposed to measure and foretell.
If so, is it by nature auspicious or ominous. Or is it merely a representation and extension of ourselves and our senses, trying to reach both the celestial and the intrinsically unobtainable.
Winter-Light warmly welcomes Peter Andersson to our label, with his 'Atomine Elektrine' project and a stunning new studio album 'The Antikythera Mechanism'.
Here we are invited or compelled even, to delve deep into the intricacies and finely tuned mechanics of this mysterious, all-encompassing machine.
Infinitely extending it's influence across multi-dimensions of time and space, constantly calculating, cogs ever turning, gears whirring, mapping, learning, storing and moving ever onwards. Leaving in it's wake, a vast ocean of unimaginable cosmic events, left to ripple through time until they too fade away to become yet another click in the eternal cycle of 'The Antikythera Mechanism'.
Difference between the CD/Digital and vinyl version
'The Antikythera Mechanism' has a small degree of randomness built-in to the sounds which means that the output of each rendering becomes slightly different. The tracks on the vinyl are of a different rendering than the tracks for the CD/Digital version. This is a natural glitch in 'The Antikythera Mechanism' and it is more or less noticeable.
The sounds are the same but the positions in the sounds are time offset in an arbitrary mode. Any further inequalities are due to the fact that a different mastering technique has been utilised for the vinyl version, than for the CD/Digital version.
As well as there being a different final rendering for the vinyl version, the DLP also comes with an additional and exclusive track, which clocks in at 19:52."
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/the-antikythera-mechanism
"This mechanism Peter Andersson is referring to in the title of the new Atomine Elektrine offering is considered as the first analogue computer. The device was constructed by the ancient Greeks to predict future astronomical occurrences and phenomenas. Even this day it’s an object of scientific researches and studies as its technological sophistication is still unexplained for XXI century scientists and scholars. One of the greatest enigmas in the history of mankind and… what an inspiring theme for a dark ambient artist to explore through music.
It’s not a secret that Peter is a truly versatile musician within the electronic underground, always efficient, no matter if he seeks more noisy approach or more atmospheric one. Atomine Elektrine was born of his fascination of science and instead of wandering through lost cathedrals and desolate wastelands we explore the secrets of space and quantum physics. Clearly, it’s not just the words in the titles and press releases, but the music is unlike his other projects as well. For 25 years the foundation of Atomine Elektrine sound was the use of analogue synthetisers, the old-school instruments cherished by the German masters from the 70s. His music was constantly developing over the years, in all projects, apart from Atomine Elektrine also Raison d’etre, Necrophorus, Bocksholm and several others. Often the inspirations were morphing one through another (for example Necrophorus’ “Imprints” has a one hundred percent Atomine Elektrine vibe), but in general high quality is practically always guaranteed.
I have to admit that while my favourite Peter’s “non-raison” release is “Drifting In Motion” by Necrophorus, it is Atomine Elektrine I value the most as a whole. Maybe not exactly the very first albums, like “Elemental Severance” where it was Jean Michel Jarre a godfather rather than Klaus Schulze, but “Nebulous” or “Laniakea” are very frequent guests in my CD player, up to this day.
Can’t declare today that “The Antikythera Mechanism” will also regain its place in my personal pantheon of all Peter’s releases as it is quite crowdy over there, but yes, it is good, it is goddamn good! The opening dark space of “Arcturus Alpha Boo” made me think of the cosmic vacuums generated by some of the Loki Foundation maestros as the deep rumblings and the feeling of an infinite expanse made me feel small and irrelevant. It calms down after a few minutes and brings a mystery of a titular mechanism to the forefront. From the universe entirety to this tiny device that can capture its secret.
I’m in love with “Metonic Spiral”. You know why? Because it’s like taken straight from “Drifting In Motion”, those delicate synth passages combined with weird bubbling and swirling sounds recall the atmosphere of that masterpiece. Yet while that one had this overwhelming aura of sadness and solitude, in “Metonic Spiral” I hear… a hope that the wonder of what hides behind the ionosphere can be comprehended by the human mind. That feeling is intensified by the second half of the track where these slow melodies and analogue sequences take it one step closer to the old-school German electronica.
In the following track, “The Exeligmos Pointer” all these rhythmic pulsations may recall a working mechanism, while the majestic background textures compliment the structure as a subject of that work. They’re huge and beautiful, they can be compared to the sun/moon eclipse, watched by you, predicted by the device. Subtly disturbing “Time Dislocated By The Mechanism” is. It may sound bizarre, but this piece have something in common with what Penjaga Insaf did on their “Sama Sadja”. While conceptually both projects couldn’t be more distant one from another.
The organic aura of “Epicylic Gearing” is represented by these cyclic sequences, coming and going, pulsating like a bloodflow, later that bass rumblings appears, like a heartbeat. And that simple repeated melody, combined with the mentioned elements develop a tremendous track, which brings another name to my mind. Predominance. Remember that one? Yes, as you can see, that Loki reference few paragraphs ago wasn’t accidental.
Such albums like “The Antikythera Mechanism” deserve an epic ending, yet one must have in mind that Peter Andersson doesn’t really like to finish his albums with a bang. “Fragment F” is not a praise of a human mind, the awe of its endless powers and capabilities. No, it’s a cosmic space, quiet, soulless, without beginning nor end.It’s like the blackest shade of black, it’s probably Peter’s most oppressive finale since “The Eternal Return And The Infinity Horizon”.
And probably one of his best works, at least within the last couple of years. This reference may sound funny, but he’s like Stephen King of dark ambient and I know that a lot of folks grumble that “it’s not the same, his older novels were classic and now he’s just reaping the benefits of his older efforts.” Not true, “The Outsider” or “Sleeping Beauties” are as good as the novels from his so-called “golden era”. Same goes with Peter Andersson, I heard more than once that what he does now is not the same as 20-25 years ago. Wrong. Don’t let nostalgia speak for you. He’s still in a very good shape and the astounding sound of “The Antikythera Mechanism” is its brightest, or rather darkest example." [Santa Sangre]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| ATRABILIS SUNRISE |
Aesthetics of Self-Destruction |
7 |
First release of this CATHARSIS-sideproject, somewhere between agitating power noise, rhythmic industrial, and synth-electronics.
“fierce static, demented voices, distorted noise pulse on one hand, corroded beauty, lonely melodies, brittle fragility on the other. this catharsis sideproject is steeped in images of a starkly contrasting world. the age-old struggle of aggression and poetry has spawned yet another 7" for listeners to cherish. enough bite to please the power noise crowd and inventive enough to infuse emotion and twisted pop sensibilities and thus lure a more adventurous audience into the boat [till schröder]. artist-contact: p-c-m.org“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| ATUM |
HITWA |
CD |
Gespenstischer & sehr dunkel glühender esoterischer dark ambient, mit leichten Folk-Einflüssen. Müsste das vierte Album der Polen sein (nach drei CDRs, die ebenfalls auf Beast of Prey erschienen). Zu entdecken für Fans des Genres! Limitiert auf 444 Exemplaren in grossformatiger Hülle.
" - dark ambient with dark post-industrial rhythms - If symbol can be received by senses, then combining with a sound, how much a concept does it make? Is this something more, that can move our imagination a step forward? New album of Polish project Atum is a try in creating such images in our minds. As a guests on the album participated: INFAMIS, DEAD FACTORY i EQUUS.
47 minutes long album of strong dark ambient. Sounds, calm, and growing, pulsing create a grim atmosphere. Album diversified by rhythm loops, industrial hits and also acoustic guitar. Sounds for a Cold Meat fans, something between Desiderii Marginis and Megaptera.
Unconventional release in 135mm by 150mm format, printed on a cardboard 45cm long. Folded in three parts, minimalistic graphic form with specially designed symbolics. CD mounted on a rubber dot. All foiled and hand numbered to 444 copies." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Legendy Miejskie |
CD |
" "Legendy Miejskie / Urban Legends" the latest album by ATUM, has just arrived! "Urban Legends", arguably one of the strongest titles of the Beast of Prey label, is an extraordinary album, composed mostly of field recordings registered in Jaworzno, the home town of ATUM. It is an attempt at reconstructing the surroundings in order to distill something that eludes the every-day experience. Despite its private character, the message of the Legends is universal as well. Everyone of us passes dozens of places we think are "tamed", places seemingly devoid of meaning. Just a little effort is what it takes to dispel this illusion.
Musically, the album is rather varied. It's a combination of field recordings, drones, whispers, and sounds of different acoustic instruments. The purpose is to reveal the oneiric dark side of the surrounding world. Guests such as Infamis (acoustic guitar), Tomasz K, Rafał Pach, and Piotr U (the author's friends from Jaworzno) contributed to the making of the album." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| AU |
Mort aux vaches |
CD |
AU ist ein niederländisches experimental ambience-Duo, die ohne Computer auskommen und live improvisierend in einen „floating state of mind“ kommen.... fliessend-gurgelnder Untergrund trifft auf allerlei Klangfitzel, pre-recorded tapes, analoge sounds, etc.. eine dronig-sphärisch-elektronische Improvisation. Kommt im schönen braunen „razorblade“-Cover. To explore !
“Au stands, in Dutch for 'ouch', but it's also the two first letters from Audio - I guess the music of Au is more about the latter than to really hurt. Au, Paul Klaui and Jan Borchers, are from The Hague (but not connected to the famous The Hague electro-scene) and have two CDs out so far (besides a whole bunch of CRs, cassettes and even mini-discs), "Non-Existing Output" (on their own Grond Records label) and "Recycling" (on Locust Media/Met Life). Both of these CDs were a culmination and a full stop to what they did up until that point, and in that respect their live recording for VPRO radio in the 'Mort Aux Vaches' series is no different. Past elements return here, like the bicycle ride used on "Recycling", but now embedded in electronica. New elements for Au, like acoustic sounds and found sound, are used here for the first time, so in that respect 'Mort Aux Vaches' is the breakpoint between old and new. Rather than using computers, Au likes analogue electronica. ......a very fine disc in a very fine series.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| AUBE |
Chain[re]action |
CD |
“Chain [RE] Action was recorded using metal chains as it's only source of sound. This is a brilliant and elegent merging of Akifumi's organic ambient and noise styles. A feat of dexterity limited to 1000 copies.” [label description] |
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Triad Threat |
CD |
"Nach einer kleinen & wohlverdienten Veröffentlichungspause scheint es jetzt wieder abzugehen, wir versuchen nur die interessantesten AUBEs anzubieten: Hier wurden ausschließlich Metall-Sounds verwendet, es entstehen hochfrequent flirrende, meditative aber sehr lebendige Klangflächen... auf neuem Amplexus sublabel."
[Drone Rec. info 2000]
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
|
RM4 |
CD |
4 long tracks based on rusty-metal, more silent and droney, but with many details and hypnotizing elements.. originally released as cassette in 2001. Comes in a very beautiful digipack-gatefold cover.
“TOTAL 63:19 MINS. RACK 2 IS THE MIXED VERSION WHICH WAS RELEASED AS 2 X 3 CD-R(G.R.O.S.S. DEC. 2001 IN LIMITED EDITION 22 COPIES.) SOUND AND DESIGN BY AKIFUMI NAKAJIMA(AUBE). MATERIAL:RUSTY METAL.
PRODUCTION BY ULTRA MAIL PROD. HONG KONG.(UMP-001)OURSELF!! LIMITED 1000 COPIES.(945 COPIES IN DIGIPACK EDITION(ON HAND) AND 55 COPIES IN SPECIAL METAL PLATE EDITION--SOLD OUT).” [label info]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Re-Chant (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
the prolific AUBE-project surprises the listener with a complex and threatening work based only on a female voice - great!
"LIMITED+NUMBERED FIRST EDITION OF 250 COPIES.
PINK VINYL, WONDERFUL FULL-COLOUR HANDMADE ART-COVERS.
THIS OUTSTANDING MUSICAL PROJECT FROM JAPAN HAS BEEN WORKING IN THE DOMAINS OF FEEDBACK & MINIMAL NOISE FOR APPROXIMATELY 4 YEARS.
AUBE HAS RELEASED SEVERAL CASSETTES ON HIS OWN LABEL G.R.O.S.S. TAPES; FURTHERMORE THERE HAVE ALSO BEEN 5 CD-RELEASES IN THE MEANTIME.
AUBE TENDS TO USE ONLY ONE SPECIFIC SOUND-SOURCE TO DESIGN A WHOLE RELEASE. AUBE'S MUSIC CONSISTS OF A DRONING ENERGY WHICH RESEMBLES EARTHQUAKES AND WHICH CAN AFFECT YOUR WHOLE BODY.
ON THESE RELEASE AUBE WORKED WITH THE VOICE OF A JAPANESE FEMALE - WHICH WILL ASTONISH YOU ONCE YOU HEAR THE FINAL RESULT:
TWO ENERGETIC AND THREATENING PIECES OF CONCRETE SOUNDSCAPES MIXED UP WITH SCREAMS AND OTHER STRANGLEY EFFECTED HUMAN OUTBURSTS - SO INTENSE AND CHALLENGING YOU WILL NOT ABLE TO IGNORE WHILE LISTENING!
YOU WILL SHIVER WITH COLD WHEN AUBE'S MUSIC APPROACHES YOUR EARS!
" A MASTER-PIECE OF DE/RE-CONSTRUCTED MUSIC "
DRONE RECORDS DR-16/ DECEMBER 1995
|
1995 |
€ |
|
| |
Hydrophobia 1993 |
LP |
"previously unreleased material from 1993, being a remix of his very first cassette release on Vanilla. Remastered by Phil Julian with cover artwork designed by Abby Helasdottir based on visuals supplied by Akifumi Nakajima. Full permission has been received for this to be released. One-sided LP on blue vinyl in an edition of 319." [label info]
Steve Fricker / Cheeses Int: "Originally, the plan was to re-release the Hydrophobia tape as a CD, this was around 2001-2. When Akifumi came back to me he said the tape was only a one-sided C-30, so he sent me the remix he did of the piece from 1993 that he never released, to make it a better length for a CD. He titled the original piece Hydrophobia 1991 and the remix Hydrophobia 1993 and sent me the artwork for the CD. A little while after this I decided to stop Cheeses Int., so the project was shelved. Last year I restarted my activities but as Akifumi had sadly died in the interim I thought that it would never see the light of day. However, as a few labels were re-releasing Aube material I investigated and found the guy to ask for permission and he said yes. As the original Vanilla cassette is still available, I decided to release just the 1993 piece. I'm pleased to put it out in the end. My only regret is that Akifumi isn't here to see it."
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| AUN |
VII |
CD |
"Aun's bi-polar output, generally shifts between dreamy lulling harmonic distortion, to sheer gut wrenching ultra downtuned avant black dirge, Aun's VII is of the latter. Of strong melodic and compositional sense, impossibly detuned guitars and electric power surges, soar through deep space and into black holes. While demented acid fueled fidlers torments the high ends, ghostly cow-boy melodies and industrial strength psychedelia, are time kept by Away of prog-speed legends: Voivod. Playing an uncharacteristic strain of jazzy, motorik and tribal rhythms, Away traps the surreal electrocution state of VII, which is complemented by a mystical and symbolic heavy Justin Bartlett adornment. www.myspace.com/aundrone" [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Full Circle |
10inch |
"Der EP-Nachfolger zum AUN Meisterwerk "Phantom Ghost" aus dem Jahr 2011. Der Titel und die Songtitel dieser Drei-Track-EP geben einige Hinweise darauf, in welcher Geistesverfassung die Band die Aufnahmen gemacht hat und welche Einflüsse die Schöpfer ihr Eigen nennen. Wie Fans jetzt bereits von der Band erwarten ist ,Full Circle" wieder ein ganz andersartiges Soundabenteuer, das aber immer noch eindeutig den AUN Stempel trägt. Auf der A-Seite findet sich das passend betitelte ,Return To Jupiter Jazz", ein Dumais Solostück, während die B-Seite mehr ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt ist - mit langsamen, melancholischen Gitarren und dem Keyboard von ,Floodland" und dem ersten Track, bei dem sich AUN zusammen mit Frederic Arbour an Synthies und Gitarre als Trio zeigt. ,Family Man" wartet auch mit Gitarrenarbeit des Familienfreundes Eric Quach von THISQUIETARMY auf. Im dicken Sleeve mit Downloadcode, limitiert auf 500 Stück." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Alpha Heaven |
CD |
" 'Alpha Heaven' is stepping through doors previously opened on AUN's acclaimed 2011 'Phantom Ghost' album. Walking the line between, romantic, sinister, uplifting and melancholic hazy dreams of mistuned 70's sci-fi TV, 'Alpha Heaven' is AUN's most living and breathing recording to date. Mostly recorded in one take with little editing, apart from some overdubbed vocals, lounge organ and creaky acoustic piano parts. The space echoed, sometimes wobbly tape saturated tracks, evoke past and future, using a collection of electric pianos, organ, bass pedals and tapes, augmenting AUN's otherworldly signature guitar, voice and electronics. Further merging their use of sometimes temperamental vintage analog, with more contemporary electronic equipment and techniques, the concise and focused tracks, find the duo at their most luminous and earthly, while pursuing their ongoing exploration of time, space and unknown dimensions. A chapter closed, a chapter opened." [label info]
www.denovali.com
"Vom Leben, vom Tod, vom König, dem bevorstehenden Krieg, dem Gott des Feuers, dem Mond, vom herannahenden Krieg, aber auch von friedlicher Stille handelt, orientiert man sich an den Namen der einzelnen Titel, die neuste AUN-Veröffentlichung, die zu Teilen in je nur einem Take eingespielt und lediglich hier und da mit Stimm-Overdubs versehen, von Schnitten weitgehend frei, eingespielt wurde. MARTIN DUMAIS nutzte dabei ein Instrumentarium, das, so wie diese Musik, zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft, Ambient und Drone zu schweben scheint. Es wurden Pianos, Orgeln und Tapes verwendet, aber auch Synthesizer und Sampler. Kommt dann auch noch die Stimme von JULIE LEBLANC mit dazu, glaubt man in einer von der bekannten Welt losgelösten Sphäre zu schweben.
„König“, der erste Titel, beginnt mit einer Fläche, wird von dieser und einer brüchigen Gitarre getragen. Dazu wabern dann Töne, Sphärengeräusche. Man kann gar nicht anders, als dabei die Augen zu schließen. „Returna“ und „The War Is Near“, Titel zwei und drei, machen da weiter, bewirken eine gewisse körperlich gefühlte Losgelöstheit. Das ist wie Meditation. In „The War Is Near“ beginnt dann auch noch die Stimme von JULIE LEBLANC, die an LIZ FRAZER von den COCTEAU TWINS bzw. THIS MORTAL COIL und ihrem „Song To The Siren“ erinnert. Titel vier, „Viva“, lässt dann etwas Percussion hören. Die flächige Grundstimmung bleibt dabei erhalten. Kurz darauf wird das Schlagwerk aber auch schon mit posaunenartigen Synthesizerklängen übertönt, klingt aus, hebt jedoch sofort wieder mit einem wabernden Synthesizer an. „Vulcan“, brennt sich in die Ohren. Dann, Titel sechs, kommt mit „La Luna“ ein angenehm kühler Mond zum Vorschein. Und immer so, schwebend, losgelöst, treiben wir weiter, geht es bis zum Schluss, den ein Remix von „The War Is Near“ markiert …
Es fällt einem dann auch tatsächlich schwer, ist der letzte Ton verklungen, die Augen wieder zu öffnen. Hat man es aber getan, glaubt man kaum, dass das da der Wirklichkeit entspricht. Der reale Himmel, kann leider nie so losgelöst sein. Er steht, hängt tief über uns und verhindert, da er meistens bedeckt ist oder Regen fällt, das Land überschwemmt, die freie Sicht. Anders dagegen diese Musik. Sie hebt ab, schwebt, gleitet und driftet in unbekannte Gegenden eines Planeten, über dem ein Himmel steht, der in den seltsamsten Farben hell leuchtet." [Andrew Korsch, NON-POP]
|
2013 |
€14.50 |
|
| AUTECHRE |
Peel Session |
maxi-CD |
"As with most red-blooded facsimiles of human life, it's hard to fathom Autechre music being released on Trent Reznor's Nothing label. Even Cleopatra could conceivably be better. And it's not like it's even a penny cheaper than the Warp version. But I suppose the possibility exists that Trent himself laced up one of his leather boots while stepping on your copy of this release, so line up and take your chances. It will never taste the same again. This Peel Session features 3 previously unreleased tracks -- 25 minutes of music. Originally recorded on 10/13/95 on John Peel's UK Radio 1 show. Track list: "milk dx"/"inhake"/"drane"." [label info]
|
1999 |
€12.00 |
|
| AUTOPSIA |
The Berlin Requiem |
CD |
"THE BERLIN REQUIEM
Give praise to the night and darkness
that close in around you.
Crowd together and look up at the sky
and see that day already slipped away from you.
Give praise for the cold,
the darkness and corruption.
Look up: you do not matter and you can die without
worrying about a thing
[B. Brecht]
Great come-Back with an official CD album after a very long silence by this legend of old-school industrial ! The more intriguing & aclaimed east european industrial band of all times will surprise you ! Be preapared for a new Enlightening but dark masterpiece .... Elegant digipack cover" [label notes]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Karl Rossmann Fragments |
CD |
Sehr kryptisch ausgerichtetes Werk mit 20 "Fragmenten", gewidmet dem tschechischen Komponisten und Maler KARL ROSSMANN. Auf der Innenseite des 7"-Covers ein interessanter philosophischer Text über die Beziehung von Fragmenten und Gesamtheit, musikalisch oszillierend zwischen rein experimentell-elektronischen Figuren und wirren Cut-Up Collagen, die auch auf instrumentellen (Klassik)-Klänge basiseren. Anspruchsvoll Klänge, partikelig und von grosser Variabilität. Und anstatt eines klassischen Presse-Textes gibt es von AUTOPSIA zur Veröffentlichung Zitate von KARL ROSSMANN, THOMAS MANN und ADORNO: "About Karl Rossmann: VARIOUS ILLUSIONS ARE FORMED, THAT OBSTRUCT US FROM PERCEIVING THE REALITY OF VOIDNESS, WHICH IS THE BASIS OF THE TRUTH. Karl Rossmann 1922.
Art is mind, and mind does not at all need to feel itself obligated to the community, to society, it may not, in my view, for the sake of its freedom, its nobility. An art that goes in unto the folk, which makes her own the needs of the crowd, of the little man, of small minds, arrives at wretchedness, and to make it her duty is the worst small -- mindedness, and the murder of mind and spirit. And it is my conviction that mind, in its most audacious, unrestrained advance and researches, can, however unsuited to the masses, be certain in some indirect way to serve man in the long run.
Excerpt from Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus
The language of music is quite different from the language of intentionality. It contains a theological dimension. What it has to say is simultaneously revealed and concealed. Its Idea is the divine Name which has been given shape. It is demythologized prayer, rid of efficacious magic. It is the human attempt, doomed as ever, to name the Name, not to communicate meanings.
Quasi una Fantasia, Essays on Modern Music, Theodor W. Adorno, 1956 " [label info]
"... By another accident a few days I got the latest CD by Autopsia, which seems to be dedicated to the life and work of one Karl Rossmann, who was apparently a painter, composer and writer from the Czech Republic, but in these internet times I am not an easy believer when it comes to people who "destroyed as much evidence of his existence as he could find". On the Autopsia website we see him mentioned as one of the 'few truly original Czech composers of the last century'. Its a bit hard to understand all of this, in relation to the music playing in the background, the 'Karl Rossmann Fragments'. But
strangely enough it comes close to the work of serious modern electro-acoustic composers from France - to complete the circle. The twenty fragments are short, almost 'pop' in length of electronically processed sounds, reverb, drone like sounds, and pitches that go up and down, but it cleverly stays away from the long form that we usually find in this part of the music world. Each fragment seems to have a life of its own, completed, finished, and, despite the word 'fragment', a finished composition. This new Autopsia work is hardly alike the work they are best known for, the sampled orchestral bits, even it at times seems to have sampled strings and percussion. Perhaps its all a bit much this release to take in at once, clocking in at over seventy minutes and with a lack of variation here and there, but half today and the other half tomorrow is quite nice to work with. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.myspace.com/karlrossmannprague
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Palladium |
CD |
"Re-edition of this historical cult album first out in 1991. AutopsiA is a legendary band, they are among the pioneers of "Industrial".
This re-edition was completely remasterd using the modern sound standards and is coming with 4 additional bonus, rare and unreleased tracks.
PALLADIUM review made for the first edition some years ago >> Music of Autopsia oscillates from romanticism to avantgarde, from bizarre to sublime simplicity, from coldness to warmth, from exclusiveness to popularity. Songs of Autopsia are wanderer songs. Palladium leads us to great gates, gates through which there is no passing-by. Leads to great moments, when views into a depth of dark abysses open, in which, one day, staggering, we have to plunge ourselves. These songs are composed in ideal case, only for one man and only one man, in quietness and loneliness can listen to them.
There is something aristocratic in the music of Autopsia. Palladium is a declaration of the end - or perhaps the announcement of the beginning?
Music From The Empty Quarter, [UK] 1991
Album was completely remastered at Mustakillah Studio Prague 2013." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Colonia |
CD |
"Autopsia's latest release for Staalplaat is compilation of long deleted tracks from CD's released by Hyperium in the mid-nineties. Tracks are culled from Humanity Is The Devil, The Birth Of Crystal Power, Secret Christmas History, The Silence Of The Lambs, Palladium and Mystery Science plus a previously unreleased track from 1999. Autopsia, from former Yugoslavia, now in exile in Prague have been producing mysterious orchestral music since the late '80s. Dealing with orchestral tunes from the 19th century which are sampled, they have created an unique sound of their own. In their own words, it goes like this: Colonia is a project that implements death as its theme in order to represent the epoch: the colonial age. Death is not a mere event in the epoch -- terror or genocide, conflict or destruction -- the epoch itself is at stake here: death as time, the age of its reign, death from perspective of faith that encompasses the totality of any being which is founded in metaphysical construct. The structure of Autopsia's sound is syncretic, composed of multiple levels that on one hand refer to liturgical forms and on the other to paradoxical junctures of sub-cultural products of elite technology with proto-urban mythologies." [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Metal |
CD |
"Autopsia Archive Prague Vol.I. Divine violence, egalitarian terror, messianic moment, absolute negativity, revolutionary truth, future anterior: Autopsia’s quintessence of the last decades. Timeless classics. 200 CD edition in a 4 panel matte laminated Digipak." [label info]
www.oleghkolyada.com/label/ |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| AXIOMATIC INTEGRATION |
Off-time (audio & video) |
CD |
“Maybe the name Incite rings a few bells? Besides being a duo, they also do solo projects and put up concerts in Hamburg. And they run a label, Fragmented Media. The Incite 7" (Vital Weekly 456) was the first release, and now comes the full length CD by Axiomatic Integration, aka Kera Negal, one half of Incite. She released a CDR before, 'Syntonic' (see Vital Weekly 439), based on her video-performance. The music of Incite and Axiomatic Integration are closely related, as they both deal with highly minimalist music, of rhythmic sounds generated entirely in the digital world. Axiomatic Integration's work is a bit abstracter than the more formal based rhythmic structures of Incite. Sometimes she uses time-stretched fragmented of an electro-acoustic origin. But throughout the six pieces here things remain pretty similar in terms of sound design and sound processing. That is a pity, since it could also lead to something entirely different, me thinks. However the enclosed quick-time movie is great. Here music and images go together well, lots of red and yellow (and later blue) images, moving along the music, and changing as the music changes. Of course highly abstract, although the first few seconds may give away what the source is, which is great. Maybe next time a full length DVD?” [(FdW]
www.fragmentedmedia.org
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| AXOLOTL |
Chemical Theatre |
LP |
Zwei lange Stücke auf dieser feinen LP des Projekts aus San Francisco: Auf Seite A wunderbar sanfte Drone-Wolken, hell & schimmernd, die sich im Raum verteilen wie akustisches Frühlings-Parfüm, die Sounds kommen etwas taumelnd vor und zurück wie langsam anbrandende Wellen... Seite B hat mehr Druck & Noise und fast schon sowas erkennbare Strukturen im betörenden Drone-Chaos...
Schweres Vinyl, dicke "glossy" Inlays, hand-nummerierte Auflage, auf einem neuen belgischen Label.
"Two long sides of KARL BAUER's best work so far. "Here Bauer uses violin, vocals, electronics and percussion to assemble huge fields of strafing white light that somehow reconcile the all-night flights of Terry Riley and the clouds of lung generated by Yoshi Wada with flickers of microdot vision and stoned oblivion poems... This is another great blast of rigorously thought-out modern American sound. Highly recommended." [Volcanic Tongue].
|
2006 |
€12.50 |
|
| AXOLOTL / MOUTHUS |
12-25-04 |
LP |
KARL BAUER & co in Höchstform, ein einzige low-fi Sumpf, sehr bizarres improvisiertes Zeug, alles sehr langsam und quäkend, feedbackend, aber slowly.... sloooowwly....
"It’s Christmas time, 2004 in Brooklyn, NY and BRIAN SULLIVAN and NATE NELSON of MOUTHUS meet up with KARL BAUER of AXOLOTL for some drug enhanced sonic celebration and let the tape machine roll. What they created was this psilocybe-inspired scoop of shimmering and stumbling drone-zone sludge ragas. “I think I’m gonna puke but in a good way” [label info]
|
2006 |
€16.50 |
|
| B*TONG & BEYOND THE ELLIPSE OF TIME |
same |
CD-R |
"Bºtong & Beyond the Ellipse of Time have united efforts to provide us with a split release revolving around a sphere of influenza where the mind dyonisically roams within a wicked and ecstasic momentum. A finer and subtle state of consciousness conceived through dark ambient and sinister elements that spreads huge amounts of sulphur and unmoral individualistic imagery deriving in a supreme and energetic de-humanistic conceptualization." [label info]
www.msk-productions.org
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| BABY DEE |
A Book of Songs for Annie Marie |
LP |
"Mit Inbrunst und Falsett: neue Lieder der New Yorker Harfenistin. Baby Dee ist eine amerikanische Performancekünstlerin und Singer/Songwriterin. Die klassisch ausgebildete Harfenistin und Pianistin gilt als Legende der New Yorker Straßenkunst- und Transgender-Szene. Baby Dee arbeitete bereits mit Marc Almond und Antony & The Johnsons und ist festes Bandmitglied der Kultband Current 93; ihr von der Kritik euphorisch aufgenommenes 2008er-Album "Safe Inside The Day" wurde von Bonnie "Prince" Billy und Matt Sweeney produziert. "Book Of Songs" verweigert sich erneut allen musikalischen Kategorisierungen, die Arrangements der sehr minimal gehaltenen Harfen- und Klavierkompositionen lieferte Maxim Moston (Antony & The Johnsons), Baby Dees Vortragsweise und ihre teils mit Falsett und immer mit voller Inbrunst intonierten Songs erinnern an klassisch geschulten Liedgesang, an poetische Revuenummern, aber auch an John Jacob Niles oder Antony. Für Fans von Antony & The Johnsons, Marc Almond, Current 93, Will Oldham." [label info / Indigo]
www.tinangelrecords.co.uk
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| BABYLONE CHAOS |
Les machines ecarlates |
CD |
The project of BOTCHAN KARISEN (Belgium) with a new work, a deep tour de force into a electronic / technological chaos-music, with influences from Industrial, Collage-Sounds and even Electro-Acoustic, dark & ecstatic & dangerous !
"A man with a fish eye stared at me when I satisfied my computer with this CD. The artwork on this release is awesome, something which is thoughtful to do when you release your CD in a DVD case. On the front of “les machines ecarlates” stands a man pierced through his forehead with a huge piece of piping. On the back a man with a fish eye gives me a look, which keeps me away from the track listing underneath it. I must say, it pleases me to receive such artwork, I could write a good review about the artwork alone.
Babylone Chaos is new to me, not only as an artist, but the music is very new to me too. Listening to the first track “Dissect me” I got very enthusiastic. This artist knows how to frighten someone with sounds. Electronic heavy sounds flow back and forth while strange ‘ahhh’s and ‘oohh’s can be heard. A shivering breath, winds and strange electronic drums complete the picture. Shocked awake by a heavy pound on a barrel and a cracking door. Where am I at this point? The gruesome sounds I heard before are overtaken by heavenly sounds, birds and some vocals. But it was a short victory, the dark sounds kick in again and the beat starts to get back at me. I am stunned, this is not music, this is straight on sound-engineering! The second track “Scared datas” goes like the first track, but gets more of a triphop sound. Dark triphop, that could become a trend. Count me in for that genre, because what Babylone Chaos is doing here is new, refreshing and awesome. The third track “Blood on thorns” gets a lot noisier than the previous tracks and is suddenly petrifying when circus music starts. (I always had something against the circus and clowns, don’t ask why.)
Listening to the CD I found that Babylone Chaos can be compared, in a strange way, with Aphex Twin. You can hear beats, but they never last longer than a few measures. That is one of the reasons why this CD sounds so great. Babylone Chaos doesn’t care about being tagged with a genre; the artist just does what he wants. The CD isn’t one you listen to on a regular occasion. Listening to “les machines exerlates” is a trip. A trip to the beautiful, the ugly, the frightening the heaven and the hell. As I continued my exploration, I found even more interesting material. The piano pieces in the fifth track “Death crusade” are so strange. It doesn’t fit with the music, but in some way it jet [i]does[/i] fit. The tender background sounds are divided and shattered to pieces by deep noisy scrapes, pounds and scratches. This is music which can be compared with using acid. But please dear reader; don’t use it at the same time!
The tracks go well into each other, although that isn’t hard with such experimental music. Track eight, “Paranoiac morons”, made me think of a scene in the Kubrick movie “Full metal jacket”, where Joker tries to find the sniper who turns out to be a woman. I’ve always found that scene and especially, the music, incredible. But I think “Paranoiac morons” would be even better as a soundtrack to that scene.
As an overall thought I must say that this release surprised me muchly. The packaging is awesome, although I can’t stand it when a CD doesn’t fit between the regular jewel cases and digipacks. The music is refreshing and “les machines ecarlates” is more like a piece of art then a CD filled with songs. “Les machines ecarlates” brings you to the verge of your life, a leap of faith, a trip to hell and back and leaves the unprepared to wonder. This isn’t my regular “sing along in the shower” CD, this is something I admire, treasure for the special moments and certainly use in tiny portions. All those experimental fans out there, beware! “Les machines ecarlates” gives you the journey of a lifetime." [Heathen Harvest]
label-website: www.opn.fr
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Noises from the Attic |
mCD-R |
"seven years ago, we released a "réactions mécaniques", a 3" by botchan korisen, one of the many aliases julien cornu-kuoch uses (used?). over the years, his main project babylone chaos evolved from more electronic sounds and rhythms to more complex structures and organic sounds.
babylone chaos recently released a collaborative disc with contagious orgasm ("altered beasts" on steelkraft manufactory) and it seems like babylone chaos could be now compared to the japanese artist.
"noises from the attic" is an oppressive 17 minute track, a frightening and dense mass of sounds." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Also Babylone Chaos is a new name, but behind it is Julien Cornu-Kuoch, of whom Taalem released a couple of years ago 'Reactions Mecaniques' under the name Botchan Korisen - which is something I can't find no evidence off in back-issues - but now sees a change of modus operandi. The sampler seems is dusted and microphones stuck in the attic, basement or outside and sampled together into a dense piece of sample mania. Cornu-Kuoch is working these days with Japanese artists Contagious Orgasm, which is something that also shows in his solo music. There is an ambient quality about this too, but it's very much unlike say Tone Color. Where's Tone Color is light, airy, and up in the sky, Babylone Chaos is dark, brooding and mysterious. More the soundtrack of a fine horror movie about zombies and life after a nuclear holocaust, ending with a fine industrial grinding of said (sad?) zombies. Very dark and very moody indeed. Quite unlike for Taalem, I was thinking." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| BAD ALCHEMY |
No. 74 (August 2012) |
mag |
"HAFENSOMMER WÜRZBURG: ELLIOTT SHARP - 17 HIPPIES - STIAN WESTERHUS - NILS PETTER MOLVÆR - SUPERSILENT FEAT. JOHN PAUL JONES - ARNOTTODROM - GABBY YOUNG & OTHER ANIMALS; spezielles Österreich-Feature: INTERSTELLAR - DILEMMA - ZACH - GOD (BLESS THIS MESS)... ; OPEN CAGE: VOICES & ORGAN; DIE WELT IST DRÖHN: Gedröhn für die einsame Insel; Neues von BORING MACHINES - DISCORPORATE - MOONJUNE - PNL - RER MEGACORP - TZADIK - UTECH - CUNEIFORM - INSUBORDINATIONS - INTAKT - JAZZWERKSTATT - LEO - LIBRA - das DVD-Label PANREC - PFMENTUM - RUNE GRAMMOFON - ALREALON MUSIQUE - ATTENUATION CIRCUIT - SPECTRUM SPOOLS - STUDENTS OF DECAY - TOUCH - D'AUTRES CORDES - EMPREINTES DIGITALES - KENDRA STEINER EDITIONS - MONOTYPE - BÔŁT - TESTCARD..."
www.badalchemy.de
|
2012 |
€3.50 |
|
|
No. 85 (April 2015) |
mag |
ARTCORE ACTION HEROES; FREAKSHOW mit AVA MENDOZA's UNNATURAL WAYS; Neues von den Labeln AUF ABWEGEN, BÔLT / POPULISTA, CONFRONT, CORVO, CRÓNICA, EMPREINTES DIGITALES, FOR TUNE, HUBRO, HUMBLER, INTAKT, MAKKUM, NO EDITION, ORENDA, PFMENTUM, RARE NOISE, SUB ROSA, UMLAUT, VA FONGOOL ...; Spotlights auf BENJAMIN BONDONNEAU, COSTIS DRYGIANAKIS, BÉRANGERE MAXIMIN, LA STPO...; Interview mit IF, BWANA - SOUND OF DADAISMEN |
2015 |
€3.50 |
|
|
No. 89 (April 2016) |
mag |
FREAKSHOWS: WILD AND WINDY = LE REX - LENT ET SEXUEL = COAX ORCHESTRA - NAGUAL, SHAPESHIFTERS AND DOGSBODIES = ALBATRE + AVA MENDOZA'S UNNATURAL WAYS; LABELPORTRÄT 10 YEARS ALTROCK; SCHLAGLICHTER: JULIEN DESPREZ; SEAMUS CATER; CARATE URIO ORCHESTRA; MARK DRESSER VIRTUAL TOUR; PNL LARGE UNIT; MAJA S. K. RATKJE; REIDEMEISTER MOVE; TORBEN SNEKKESTAD; FRANK ROTHKAMM; KONSTRUKTIVISTS; MOONDOG COUPLETS; THIRD REICH'N'ROLL: STEVE REICH IN KÖLN; LIBERA ME: MONTEVERDICHOR 16.03.2016
www.badalchemy.de
|
2016 |
€3.50 |
|
|
Nr. 121 (November 2023) |
mag |
I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free; Freakshow Artrock Festival 2023; Label-News: Amalgam – Constellation – Cyclic Law – Discus – Enja / Yellowbird – Euphorium – Fundacja Słuchaj – Heilo – Hubro – Intakt – Jazzhausmusik – Jazzwerkstatt – Klanggalerie – No Part Of It – Odin – Relative Pitch – Thanatosis – Trost – We Insist!; Spotlights: Jean-Jacques Birgé – John Eckhardt – Jason Kahn – Benjamin Koppel – Urs Leimgruber – Valentina Magaletti – Ivo Perelman – Piyawat Louilarpprasert – Polwechsel – Marc Richter; Carla Bley: What Will Be Left Between Us And The Moon Tonight?; BA's Favourites 2023; Die Zeit der Blutkirschen. 88 Seiten, keine Werbung [nur für Abonnent*en: Die CD „Inmostones“ (I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free, SONG 13) von YURII SAMSON] |
2023 |
€4.00 |
|
|
No. 125 (September 2024) |
mag |
I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free; Freakshow: Tatsuya Yoshida x Risa Takeda; Estnischer Hafensommer; Auf Abwegen: Interview mit Till Kniola; Labelnews: Attenuation Circuit – Ant-Zen – Circum-Disc – Crammed Discs – Crónica – Cuneinform – Cyclic Law – Discus – Hubro – Intakt – Klanggalerie – Relative Pitch – Thanatosis – Umlaut – White Ear; Spotlights: Hans Castrup – Ivo Perelman - Ignaz Schick – Udo Schindler; Apropos Scheußler, Ungeheuer, Ekelgeiler, Aldebaraner... 84 Seiten, keine Werbung |
2024 |
€4.00 |
|
| |
No. 126 (November 2024) |
mag |
BA's Finest 2024; I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free; Freakshow Artrock Festival 2024; Spotlights: Burkhard Beins – Jean-Jacques Birgé – Fujii / Tamura / Yoshida – Carl Ludwig Hübsch – Claudio Milano – Sean Noonan; Scheußler, Scheißkerle und Alraunen: Hanns Heinz Ewers; Tsss Tapes im Interview; Labelnews: Ant-Zen – Attenuation Circuit – Col Legno – Crónica – Cyclic Law – Discus – Drone – Empreintes Digitales – Evil Rabbit – Glitterbeat – Intakt – Jazzhausmusik – Klanggalerie – Minimal Damage – Ni Vu Ni Connu – Midira – Relative Pitch– Snowdonia – Sub Rosa – Trouble In The East – Trytone – Unexplained Sounds Group – White Ear – Zoharum; 88 S., keine Werbung |
2024 |
€4.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR |
Plasma |
CD |
"Endlich die zweite CD des fantastischen italienischen Projektes: Hier wurden diverse elektro-atmosphärische Originalsounds (VLF-recordings, Pulsare, Neon Tubes radio signals, High Voltage Transformer rec.) mit den sphärisch-melodisch BAD SECTOR-Klängen vermischt, die eher im Hintergrund stattfinden. Eine unvergleichliche Atmosphäre aus Hochspannung und Schönheit entsteht hier..." [Drone Records info 1998]
“Great conceptual work! sound sources : Magnetosphere, Vostok + Salyut + Soyuz original recordings, Pulsar, High Voltage, Neon... all this sounds are building a unique powerful & pulsing sound sculpture, a great mind experience! Ltd. to 747 numbered copies, cover presents a series of interesting "electricity / energy " historical photos.”[label info]
Now re-pressed & back in stock, the great second album ! Different Cover !
www.oldeuropacafe.com |
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Dolmen Factory |
CD |
Re-Release dieses klassischen (zweite CD) BAD SECTOR-Albums aus dem Jahre 2000, damals erschienen auf dem inzwischen längst nicht mehr aktiven MEMBRUM DEBILE PROPAGANDA-Label (basierend auf einer MC Version auf einem italienischen Cassettenlabel von 1997, das Material wurde bereits zwischen 1994-1996 aufgenommen). DOLMEN FACTORY hat all das was BAD SECTOR zu einem ganz besonderen Projekt aus dem "experimentellen drone/ambient" Sektor werden liess: den typischen Synth-Sound, die rauhen Störgeräusche, die endlose Weite & Melancholie, ein industriell-futuristischer "Nährboden".. "Wiederveröffentlichung des raren "dolmen factory" – Tapes, 1997 auf Soffitta Macabra in 60er Auflage erschienen. Hier geht es stark in Richtung "AMPOS", sphärische monumental-distorted Synths, harmonisch und elegisch, dazu " a small set of samples of echocardiogram machine, Stimmen aus dem Nichts... the best synth-music you can get!!!" [Drone Rec. info 2000]
"Reprint of the classic Bad Sector release.
Harmonic, noisy, emotional electronic tracks set the trademark sound of the one-man project from Tuscany. It includes an unreleased track.
Limited edition of 500 pieces, FAR-21, 2008
www.faria.ru" [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
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|
CMASA |
CD |
In jeder Hinsicht ungewöhnlich und doch unverkennbar BAD SECTOR! CMASA beruht auf älteren Fragmenten, die MASSIMO MAGRINI aka BAD SECTOR für eine Kunstausstellung in Pisa 2005 einspielte (zum Thema "River's end" - dort wo der Fluss aufs Meer trifft), darunter Klavier- und Gitarrenbearbeitungen sowie Feld- und Objektaufnahmen von Wasser und Metall. In Verbindung mit BAD SECTORs typischen (und nach wie vor unerreichten) Synth-Sounds entstehen fünf lange "Movements" voller industriell-poetischer Traum-Atmosphären; digital verfremdete "technische" Klänge in einem Meer von Nostalgie, Einsamkeit & Melancholie. Gänsehaut-erzeugend. Grossartig.
"In 2005 Massimo Magrini was invited to provide a soundtrack for the M3M art exhibition in Pisa/Italy. The exhibition was based around images of the seaside and the rivers estuary of Pisana area with CMASA airplane factory built there in it's centre vis a vis of archaic marine cottages. This marvelous seaside scenery mixed with vintage industrial locations, together with some kind of nostalgia, created an unexpected but amazing mood. To sculpture a soundtrack of this scenery Massimo Magrini was asked to use acoustic and natural sounds too and so he added for this work treated piano and snippets of acoustic guitars together with water sounds and metal samples. This may sound unusual for a BAD SECTOR release but all those new elements are perfectly blent into the massive and ambient soundwaves for what previous releases are known for and making CMASA probably to the most emotional album of Massimo Magrini to date. All initial exhibition sounds where regenerated, remastered and re-assembled during 2007-2009. Digipack.(LOKI/PAS 23)" [label info]
www.loki-found.de
www.loki-found.de
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Chronoland |
CD |
"This new album of Massimo Magrini is the soundscape for a mind movie and another masterpiece that picks up where the previous work CMASA left off. Twelve beautifully crafted chapters of music segueing between morphing layers of thick drones, haunting melodies and crackling vocal transmissions. Chronoland unfolds a fascinating and cineastic atmosphere of frightening ambient melodica with dark soundwaves deeply imbedded in the music and bursts of electro-acoustic effects. This release is another step forward into the sound cosmos of Massimo Magrini with new directions but always in the unique way of BAD SECTOR." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Raw Data |
mCDR |
"active for almost twenty years, massimo magrini/bad sector has a solid discography with many releases on respected labels such as old europa cafe, waystyx, drone records, afe records or blade records.
recorded in 2006, these short tracks were originally released as an interactive webpage in 2007. they were remastered and re-shaped especially for this 3" in january 2010. massimo says about "raw data": "the goal was to create interesting soundscapes that have no link to human manufacts/intentions: they just sound like directly recorded from sort of special, non musical device. only apparently cold, their macrostructure is so complex that a top-level macrostructure is totally unnecessary"." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Bad Sector has been going for some twenty years now and had a lot of releases on labels as Old Europa Cafe, Waystyx and Drone. Although sometimes placed among the industrialists of a darker kind, I always thought the music of Bad Sector (the brainchild of Massimo Magrini) was quite interesting. The pieces here, eleven in total, were first released on an interactive website, but remastered for this release. It seems to be entirely made from computer data, and have a cold clinical feel, with a great dynamics in sound. Deep bass sounds, high end frequencies, looped around, seemingly without much story. Cold but fascinating stuff. Things bump and collide, and then disappear as black holes." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Transponder |
CD |
"science experiment as pagan ritual...
Who needs representation for Bad Sector? Certainly almost no one. Since 95 year, each new album of this project it's event which is awaited by every second listener of industrial music. And now - long-awaited, CD the version, one of the most interesting albums of Italian master Massimo Magrini! First time Transponder was released as CD-r on Blade Records in 99, now the album is again accessible, in a new format and with additional, exclusive compositions of that period - "Yst" and "Waal"!
More than 60 minutes dark, deep, meditative, structured noise-ambient, in the best traditions of Dolmen Factory and Ampos..." [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
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|
Storage Disk 3 |
CD |
"This is the third chapter of the anthology of rare and unreleased tracks. Limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, presented in a 6-panel digipack. TRACKS: 01. A-Life, from 'Schlagstrom !Krrrbrrrtztzkrrrbrrrtztz! Vol. 4', released by Sleepless Records Berlin, 2009 02. Ladan, unreleased ('Cephus' extra track), 2015 03. Motol, unreleased ('Cephus' extra track), 2015 04. Night Scan, from 'Elektroanschlag 7', released by Elektroanschlag, 2011 05. Ogiva, from 'DruckEmpfindeN', released by Chamber Music Records, 2009 06. Remote, web release only (made with Cassini Huygens sounds), 2008 07. Inertial, from 'Scrinivm Vitae', released by Old Europa Cafe, 2004 08. Polarized, unreleased, 2003 09. Egidea, from 'Toroidal Body', released by Eibon Records, 2000 10. Tool 09, from 'Survival Tools', released by Cohort Records, 2001 11. No Signal, from 'DruckEmpfindeN', released by Chamber Music Records, 2009 12. Stored, unreleased, 2014." [label info]
www.bad-sector.com
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Live at Maschinenfest 2015 |
MC |
"for more than two decades, massimo magrini aka bad sector has succeeded in spellbinding fans of all kinds of eclectic electronic music. may it be industrial beats or ambient - his musical creations range from simply beautiful soundscapes to pulsations that will grip and energize your entire body. minimal arrangements of distorted bleeps and clicks, distant voice samples and radio recordings of numbers, technical terms or alike blend with farreaching pads, infinitely stretched with massive reverb - thereby generating the impression of moving like a cosmonaut through open space. the reductionistic creations however do not lack complexity by any means, as each sound is allowed to unfold, maximizing each instruments power. the incredible portfolio of bad sector is now topped by raubbau’s release of his live performance at maschinenfest 2015. a perfectly balanced mix of every facet bad sector has to offer. available: 20october2k17"
[label info]
www.raubbau.org |
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Anthology (collectors ed.) |
3 x LP + 2 CD |
https://bad-sector.bandcamp.com/album/anthology
Anthology: A complete compendium of the project in 25 years of activity, in a selection of tracks from 1997 to 2022, remastered in a 3 LP edition.
Released via independent Garsu gelmes label, based in Ukmerge, Lithuania.
Beautifuly coloured 180g heavyweight 3xLP in an exclusive Trifold sleeve made out of 100% recycled material. This edition comes with 2 CDs, 20 pages 30x30 cm Art booklet and beautiful A3 print to frame it on the wall.
Limited edition to 80 copies.
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2023 |
€85.00 |
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| |
Anthology (fan's ed.) |
3 x LP |
Anthology: A complete compendium of the project in 25 years of activity, in a selection of tracks from 1997 to 2022, remastered in a 3 LP edition.
Released via independent Garsu gelmes label, based in Ukmerge, Lithuania.
180g heavyweight 3xLP in sleeve made out of 100% recycled material. Comes with beautiful insert inside the package.
Limited edition to 200 copies.
https://bad-sector.bandcamp.com/album/anthology |
2023 |
€48.50 |
|
| BAD SECTOR & ASTRO |
Idioblast |
CD |
"In 2005 a small Russian label, Insofar Vapour Bulk, proposed to Massimo Magrini to work on a recording made by Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro). It was a "drone-like" sound of a few minutes, Despite the difficult nature of the assignment, Massimo loved the very static and cryptic structure of the original. So, starting from this basic recording (without using additional sounds) he developed a 45 minutes long suite: it was like using a magic audio lens which revealed a myriad of hidden details in a microscopic world. The original Astro sound can
still be heard at the beginning and at the end of the suite. The re-edition comes in beautiful cardboard case with silver-embossed printing." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"... IDIO BLAST verzaubert mit drones und regelrecht glitzernden Klängen, kristallin-klar und glasig-summend und mit seltsame Zwischentöne versehen..." [Drone Rec. 2006]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
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| BAD SECTOR / SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS |
Neurotransmitter Actions |
CD |
"Originally released in 2000 this long sold out collaboration work is now available again and brings back some fine piece of well crafted deep sounding electronica from Italy. The BAD SECTOR tracks of Massimo Magrini building up again a sonic cathedral of sub-harmonic drones and rhythms while Paolo Bandera of SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS/SIGILLUM S dissects precisely the frequency oscillation and adds an intense and contemplative manifest of digital noise to the second part of this split-work. This is an outstanding example in sound research by two of the most important masterminds of the Italian electronic music scene.
The CD is presented in a beautiful cardboard package with bronze-foil print." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"If you have been reading these pages closely over the past few years, you may know I have a soft, as yet unexplained, spot for the music of Bad Sector. One could find this odd, as I may not be known as someone who likes this dark, slightly gothic electronic music. But it seems there is always an element of computer treatments, sci-fi and humour in this, which makes that I enjoy it. In 2000 Bad Sector released this split CD with Sshe Retina Stimulants, also from Italy, and the music project of Paolo Bandera (and I have no opinion on his music, simply because I don't know it very well), and now it's been re-issued. Here we have one-track silence (why?) at the beginning, four pieces by Bad Sector, five by Sshe Retina Stimulants and one, in the middle, of them together. The Bad Sector pieces are trademark for him (the band is a solo project of Massimo Magrini): heavy slabs of electronics, ditto dark rhythms, and lots of treated vocals. This entire here more forceful, it seems, than on the more recent releases. Quite nice, again, music in the realm of industrial music. Sshe Retina Stimulants, whom I didn't know that well, seem to be more about singular synthesizer strokes in quite a noisy manner. There is something about these tracks, which may make them sound alike. Maybe its all more loop like with some sound effect treatments? Either way, it works quite well, even when it's perhaps not something I would play everyday. In the middle ground, their collaborative piece both ends are tied together and operated with a tour de force. Altogether this is fine manifestation of industrial music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
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2014 |
€13.00 |
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| BAILIFF, JESSICA |
Old Things |
CD |
"This record is a collection of rare and unreleased material, mostly recorded between the release of her second and third album. As such, it can be seen as the missing link between the rather droney second record, and the starker Jessica Bailiff record." [label info]
www.morctapes.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
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| |
At the down-turned jagged Rim of the Sky |
LP |
"After being in Europe for 5 weeks as a touring member of Boduf Songs, Jessica Bailiff spent much of 2011, writing and recording At the Down-Turned Jagged Rim of the Sky in her spartan home studio. Sequestering herself through the hot summer months until finished, she then passed the tracks on to her friend Odd Nosdam for final mixing. Down-tuned, distorted bass guitar adds a new color to her palette, but familiar ones also come into play: fuzzed and delayed electric guitar, organ, piano, cello, and drums. Noisy pop-tinged love songs nestle slyly in a bed of off-kilter lullabies and dark, metallic waltzes. No need to recycle descriptives like 'lo-fi' or 'hushed vocals' - these are spurious words. This is another intimate collection of songs recorded entirely by Jessica at home, in a room next to where she sleeps. If you listen carefully, you might hear her dreaming." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2012 |
€15.50 |
|
| BAKER JA LEHTISALO |
Crocodile Tears |
CD |
https://aidanbakercollaborations.bandcamp.com/album/crocodile-tears
A collaborative album of new wave industrial doom songs by Nadja's Aidan Baker and Circle's Jussi Lehtisalo. Cover artwork by Alexa Reneé. Limited CD release by Ektro Records and Broken Spine Productions (BSP015/EKTRO-150).
www.ektrorecords.com
brokenspineprods.bandcamp.com
jussilehtisalo.bandcamp.com
www.aidanbkaer.org
Aidan Baker - guitar, bass, vocals, drum machines
Jussi Lehtisalo - guitar, bass, vocals, drum machines, keyboards
"Baker Ja Lehtisalo is a meeting of experimental rock musicians Aidan Baker (of Canadian drone metal duo Nadja) and Jussi Lehtisalo (of Finnish genre-blurring veterans Circle). Marrying Eighties influenced synth-pop and new wave with noisy, slowcore jams, it’s one of the most accessible things that either artist has ever made." [Norman Records]
https://ektrorecords.com/product/baker-ja-lehtisalo-crocodile-tears-cs/ =>
"A collaborative album of new wave industrial doom songs by Nadja’s Aidan Baker and Circle / Pharaoh Overlord’s Jussi Lehtisalo
Early in 2020 Lehtisalo and Baker began trading sounds over the internet—fragmentary keyboard licks and textural guitar riffs, retro electro-beats and pulsing bass lines—slowly constructing them into songs that combined a sort of ’80s New Wave/AOR aesthetic with a heavy/noisy/shoegaze/industrial sound. The end result was ‘Crocodile Tears’, five catchily anthemic songs channeling the perhaps unlikely pairing of Godflesh and Jan Hammer, electronic pop and pretty melodies mixed with textural guitars and heavy metal riffs.
Finnish multi-instrumentalist Jussi Lehtisalo is founder of the experimental rock band Circle, active since 1991. He also performs with Pharaoh Overlord, Steel Mammoth, and Aktor, to name some of his many projects, and has collaborated with Isis’ Aaron Turner as Split Cranium. He has been running Ektro Records since the mid-1990s and with Circle has released albums on such labels as Southern Lord, Riot Season, No Quarter, and Hydrahead Records.
Canadian multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker performs solo and with various ensembles, most notably the ambient metal duo, Nadja. He has toured and performed around the world and released numerous albums on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Important Records, Hydrahead Records, Karlrecords, and Southern Lord."
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
Candescence |
CD-R |
"Grossartige neue CDR in einem lasziven Nylonstrumpfcover. BAKER klingt hier besonders zart und warm und sanft-bassig, alle sechs Stücke basieren auf Gitarre und Bass, erstaunlicherweise insgesamt wieder in Nuancen anders als die vorherigen CDRs.... der Mann ist ein Genius !!" [Drone Rec. info 2005]
“ ‘Candescence´ features five wonderful silent ambient pieces by Aidan Baker and one song based on an `Autechre´ track. All sounds produced by electric/acoustic/bass guitars: no computers used.” [label info]
www.verato-project.de
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
|
The taste of Summer on your Skin |
mCD-R |
Like a warm summer breeze. Drei anmutig schöne, hauchzarte Drone-Stücke vom Kanadier in der Taalem-Reihe... eine sanft-magische Seelenmassage...
“ I'm not sure Aidan Baker really needs an introduction. Also a member or the tribal-ambient trio Arc (remember "13th" we released some months ago), he has built an impressive discography in a few months, releasing his beautiful drone/ambient guitar-ish music on every interesting label (Mystery Sea, DTA, S'Agita or The Locus OF Assemblage to name but a few). Of course we couldn't not be part of (smile !). So here is "the taste of summer on your skin", "a melodic, shimmering multi-instrumental drone track" as Aidan describes it himself.
"Aidan's approach of instruments is that of an emotional paintbrush, breathing the air all around, soaking into its scents, the subtle tonal vibrations & colours to reach a sort of pure unreducible moment ofcommunion...” [press release]
|
2004 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Green & Cold |
CD-R |
Hier zeigt AIDAN BAKER seine Songwriter-Seele: er singt, sehr sanft, flüstert manchmal eher, dazu spielt er "richtige" Stücke, die aber durchaus experimentelle Anwandlungen und "Dronifizierungen" erfahren... ultra-sanfter dream'n'drone songwriter-Pop mit viel Emotion, auch das gelingt AIDAN wieder traumwandlerlisch & sicher...
"The innovative master of ambient guitar returns with a breakthrough album. At its core 'Green & Cold' is a a mix of drone, post-rock, and what the artist calls appropriately "deconstructive dream-pop." Memorable hooks combine with Baker's trademark huge wall of guitar constituted atmospherics. Baker's shoegazey croon floats among the stuttering clicks and cuts permeating the layers of catchy riffs and slow, intoxicating beats. As 'Green & Cold' unfolds the listener is coaxed familarly inward only to be washed over in waves of wispy, warming drones: An album of uncommon intelligence and artistry." [label info]
"Aidan Baker is back, still vying for the most prolific man in show business award (well, at least underground, free drone show business) with a double shot of washed out dreamy droniness. There's the latest from Nadja, reflecting his more metal side, and then there's this, the follow up to last year's Pendulum, which was a fantastic slab of glistening disembodied dronemusic. Green & Gold follows suit but with an interesting twist. Vocals. Lots of 'em. Baker is no stranger to singing, his whispery croon has graced more than a few of his releases, but on G & G, the vocals are a big part of the songs, and the songs are actual songs, with drums, and verses and choruses and everything. Well, sort of.
Some tracks, like the untitled opener, are indeed still just wispy slow shifting expanses of fuzzy dreamlike sound, which we can NEVER get enough of, but others, like "Chainsaw", are actual lowercase, slow motion, dark and dolorous slowcore pop songs. Simple murky guitar riffs, wreathed of course in all manner of reverb and soft focus fuzz, hovering over stripped down shuffling rhythms, while Baker croons softly over the top, a hushed almost whisper, sounding not entirely unlike Iron & Wine's Sam Beam actually. Even the music sounds a little like a blissier tarpit version of Iron & Wine. There is some definite twang there, subtle, but it's there, nestled amidst the delicate folky strum and the glistening sonic glimmer. Imagine an
even more somnambulant Low, or Spacemen 3 at 16 rpm, a ultra druggy
(druggier?) Galaxie 500, each track a pop song mumbled and murky, a moonlit crawl through a hazy landscape of shuffle and shimmer, of strum and twang, all wrapped up in soft swirls of shimmer. Essential for fans of all things Jeck and Tim Hecker and Jasper TX and Machinefabriek and Grouper and Troum and Main and the like, but also worth a listen for more adventurous fans of Iron & Wine, Spacemen 3, Galaxie 500, Low and other slowcore drugrock dreaminess..." [Aquarius Records]
label: www.gearsofsand.net
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Exoskeleton Heart |
CD-R |
"Following up his amazing Periodic disc that was issued through Crucial Bliss two years ago, acclaimed Toronto drone-guitarist Aidan Baker is back with Exoskeleton Heart, his newest entry into our ongoing Crucial Bliss series. And this 2-track, hour long excursion into deep feedback bliss is stunningly beautiful. Split into two halves, "Interior" and "Anterior", Baker once again taps into his visions of the bodycage using only his electric guitar, performed and recorded live; the result is an evocative feedback-heavy dronescape drifting with the gritty hum of the amplifier, layers of shimmering, chiming feedback, crushing distorted ambient dirge that borders on Sunn O)))-levels of sonic weight, and shafts of elegiac melody breaking through the stormclouds of Baker's cavernous rumbling like rays of sunlight. Aidan Baker is without question the North American counterpart to the Teutonic guitar drones of Troum, and Exoskeleton Heart delivers some of his most massive, meditative, crushing, and beautiful subterranean drift yet. Hell, the final 10 minutes of "Anterior" is without questions one of the most beautiful things we have ever presented through this label, an angelic glacial melody that builds inexorably into a wall of blissed out fuzz a la something you'd expect from Aidan's dronesludge band Nadja. Essential. The disc comes in a full-color signature Crucial Bliss foldover sleeve with the disc affixed to a plastic hub on the interior of the sleeve, and has been pressed in a limited edition of 300 copies" [label info]
label: www.crucialblast.net
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Gathering Blue |
do-LP |
Doppel-LP im Gatefold-Cover, edelst designed von ALAN McCLELLAND. Eine Sammlung von neuem (erste LP) und in Kleinauflagen bereits erschienenem Material (zweite LP), die beiden mCDRs "Cicatrice" (Dreamland, 2003, vier Stücke die alle mit CI beginnen) und "The Taste of Summer on your Skin" (Taalem, 2004), zwei Remixe von BAKER-Stücken von der "Remixes"-CDR (Arcolepsy, 2005) von BUILDING CASTLES OUT OF MATCHSTICKS und TROUM, sowie eine JOY DIVISION-Coverversion von "24 Hours" !!
Die Auflage von 444 Stück kommt in insgesamt drei Vinylfarben!!
"A work of blissful delight. Aidan Baker provides 4 sides of enchantment in this long-in-the-making 2xLP set. Gathering Blue provides new original material plus a stunning cover of the Joy Division track "24 Hours" as well as an extended work-out of the amazing remix of "The Cicada Sings Our Love Song" by Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks which was originally released in 2005 on the ultra-limited and long-deleted Arcolepsy Records CD "Remixes". This really is Aidan Baker at his very best and a record that is sure to charm. Comes in a gatefold sleeve, numbered card insert and pressed on heavy 180g virgin vinyl in 3 editions (55 copies on black vinyl, 95 on sky blkue vinyl [with white blend] and 294 copies on mottled peacock blue vinyl)." [label info]
"It's been a (little) while since we've had some brand new Aidan Baker / Nadja for the store, thankfully this week heralds two new
releases. To be reviewed next time, there's long awaited Nadja all- covers disc (which we'll tell you right now is great), and then
there's this, a brand new, limited double lp from Baker solo, and as always it's a doozy, sprawling and shimmery and expansive, that sort of blissed out ambient dronemusic he does so well. But it's far from more of the same. The first track we threw on was almost jungle, with skittery beats buried beneath softly undulating layers of warm whir and deep drifts of soft swirling sound. There's also a bit of Spacemen
3 like processed psych guitar, which gives way to some buzzing raga like blur, draped over still more dreamlike dronescapes, although
here, it's laced with chunks of processed alien crunch, and weird little bits of scrape and fragmented riffage. Long stretches of underwater Oval-like wooziness, shot through
with streaks of space-y effects and muted bits of glitch and buzz, some of the most washed out and wondrous space (not quite) rock ever! Warped warbly organs are stretched and smeared into warped Philip Jeck like doomy drifts, one of which is apparently a cover of Joy
Division's "Twenty Four Hours", although we could only tell by the vocals, and even then, they're so hushed and barely there, that any
sense of the original seems to melt into a gorgeously oozing expanse of thrum and shimmer and softly warped rumble. Another fantastic and gorgeous and of course WAY too limited
chunk of droney dreaminess from Mr. Baker. Released on the always amazing Equation Records, who really go all out with the packaging as well. Thick swirled/splattered blue vinyl, thick full color gatefold jacket, and a printed full color postcard, each of which is hand numbered, LIMITED TO 444 COPIES!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
|
2009 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Liminoid / Lifeforms |
CD |
"While Alien8 Recordings has had the pleasure of releasing three full-length albums by Aidan Baker's ambient doom project Nadja, as well as his collaborative effort Fantasma Parastasie with Tim Hecker, this marks our first solo release with the artist. Although we consider Liminoid/Lifeforms to be a solo effort, there are in fact no less than eight guest musicians helping out on the recording. These include Canadian noise legend Knurl (a.k.a. Alan Bloor) who has been released three times on Alien8 Recordings prior to this recording, as well as members of Arc, Picastro, Forest City Lovers and Whisper Room. Liminoid is a composition for large ensemble exploring sonic immersion in drones and textures, rhythms and pulsations. Incorporating composed and improvised segments, the piece uses elongation of sound and layered polyph- ony in an attempt to create a liminal and/or numinous state. This recording of Liminoid is from its premier at The Music Gallery's X-Avant Festival in Toronto, October 25, 2008. The piece features a powerful vocal performance with every member sharing the vocal duties. The lyrics have been adapted from 5th-8th century Coptic Christian texts and inspired by the book Ancient Christian Magic by Marvin W. Meyer & Richard Smith. The ensemble members for this performance were: Aidan Baker (guitar/ voice), Clara Engel (guitar/voice), Nick Storring (cello/voice), Jakob Thiesen (drums/voice), Richard Baker (drums/voice), Tillman Lewis (cello/voice), Laura Bates (violin/voice) and Jonathan Demers (guitar/voice). Lifeforms is a composition for strings, prepared/effected guitar, and amplified metal works. Likewise incorporating written and improvised material, the piece was originally commissioned and performed by The Penderecki Quartet in 2003. This recording was made in August 2008 at Commonwealth Studios in Toronto. The performers were: Aidan Baker (guitar), Nick Storring (cello), Mika Posen (violin) and Alan Bloor (metal works). This recording has been both skillfully mixed from multiple recordings and mastered by James Plotkin." [label info]
www.alien8recordings.com
"The latest from the always impressive, and always prolific Aidan Baker, who creates thick wall of sound doomgaze in the duo Nadja, and much more personal, hushed drone music under his own name, but more and more has been expanding his scope with various collaborations and large ensembles. This might be the biggest ensemble he's worked with, 8 players, all contributing vocals, three guitars, two drummers, violin and two cellos. And it does sound like what you might imagine, a sort of Aidan Baker drone record / chamber music
hybrid, long languid tones, plenty of cymbal shimmer, the strings moan and sing, the sounds ebb and flow, swelling ominously, building to
swirling crescendos, before slipping back into something more minimal and contemplative, "Liminoid" is split into 4 movements, and is about as close to classical music as Baker has come, at least in the first part, the second part shifts gears dramatically, transforming into something more jazzy and propulsive, a sort of krautrock thing, but with a jazzy slow shifting Necks vibe, eventually building to a dense tribal workout, before slipping into part 3, all shimmery blissy drift, soft focus and sun dappled, the drums an understated slowcore
shuffle, leading up to the 15 minute final movement, where the vocalists team up for a haunting bit of choral drama, which explodes
into full on free jazz freakout wall of sound, finishing off with a long form spaced out drone jam, that definitely reminds us of a super
stripped down White Hills, psychedelic and washed out and very hypnotic.
The second piece, the nearly 30 minute "Lifeforms" is a smaller ensemble, Baker on guitar, with violin, cello and 'amplified metal works', the metal works had us expecting something clangy and bombastic, but instead, it's almost all warm whirling ambient shimmer,
much more in keeping with Baker's solo sounds, near the end, the sounds shift, and the strings move to the fore, weaving dramatic melodies over the slow burning drone underneath, the result very cinematic. Quite nice." [Aquarius Rec.]
"One of my favorite noise albums, "Frequency LSD" by Japanoise artist Masonna was released on Alien8 Recordings in the mid-90's. With this in mind, and in combination with the release of present two albums, there shouldn't be any questions about the the great span of styles released by Alien8 Recordings - Canada's probably most interesting label of the underground. Aidan Baker is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and sound artist that creates music in the field from post-rock across drone ambient to modern classical. His latest release "Limonoid / Lifeforms" roughly comes across all aforementioned styles. On the album Aidan Baker has allied with concrete noise artist Alan Bloor alias Knurl / Pholde, Richard Baker on drums plus a number of other acoustic members on instruments such as cello, violin and guitars. As the title suggest the album is divided into two main sections: A section called "Limonoid" consisting of four intersections and the long and final piece titled "Lifeforms".
"Limonoid" is as mentioned earlier an interesting crossover between neo-classical chamber music, noise-rock, post-rock with associations of earlier Krautrock (first of all Amon Düül I + II) and neo-folk with elements of middle-age expressions. Quite interesting and very trippy psychedelia with vocals from Clara Engel is what the first four chapters of the albums presents. But in my opinion, the true gift is the second main section of the album titled "Lifeforms". "Lifeforms" is a lengthy piece clocking approximately 30 minutes. Where the aforementioned section was a crossover of a number of styles "Lifeforms" mainly focus on ambient-expressions but with clear interventions of classical instruments such as violin and cello meanwhile aforementioned noise artist Alan Bloor controls his usual ultra-aggressive sound equipments being amplified steel and metal as sound sources into more subtle and very attractive noise drones. The piece is quite repetitive with a long hissing drone of amplified strings but with organic interventions of concrete sounds of aforementioned instruments. Halfway though the track, hissing drone fades away giving way to more plain acoustic ambience until another drone appears. The atmosphere is hypnotic and very intense through out the running time of the piece. Very interesting album showing the wide span of Aidan Baker." [NM / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Lost in the Rat Maze |
CD |
"Aidan Baker needs no introduction: this prolific Canadian classically trained multi-instrumentalist has generously contributed to the doom/drone/ambient genre. Nadja, Arc and Whisper Room are just a few of his manifestations.
As a solo artist he also composed quite an impressive backcatalogue. Consouling Sounds is proud to add another release to that list, as we're quite confident this one will stand out in this discography.
With Lost in the Rat Maze Aidan Baker produces an unconventional album - even to Baker-standards. Having been known for his extensive ambient soundscapes, Baker chose a different approach to his sound weaving - albeit true to the "Bakersound".
In stead of a densely layered and broad sound palette, Baker has almost embraced a "postrockish" method of composing. More compact, pointed and clear progressions can be discovered, together with a diverse array of instruments, sounds and techniques. Expect the classic Aidan Baker elements: captivating, fascinating and repetitive mesmerizing sounds - but with a different twist to it.
Limited to 900 copies." [label info]
www.consouling.be
"Over the last years Aidan Baker has proven to be highly prolific, which resulted in a large catalogue of releases, of which many are solo, but also with his bands Nadja, Arc and Whisper Room. It also brought him some fame, so that his recent releases are on CD and LP only. To be honest, I didn't keep up with all of his releases, only dipping in when it lands on my desk. Consouling, a label from Belgium, tells us that this is an unconventional album in such a way that its not the massive layers of guitar sounds and effects, seemingly waving on end, but in stead its a more compact sound and somewhat shorter pieces, eight in the timespan of fifty some minutes. Baker plays electric & acoustic guitars, electronic drums (provided by Richard Baker), vocals, piano, flute and tapeloops. The music is still highly atmospheric, as one could expect from Baker of course, but somehow it all seems a bit more opener, with 'more air' as it where. Instruments fly in and out, sometimes held together with the tick of drums, sometimes stuck in a loop of unknown kind, with the guitar(s) neatly tinkling away. Surely still a matter of improvising freely around a small set of themes, but Baker doesn't explore them ad infinitum, and rather just for a few minutes. Nicely spacious head music. A new form of old psychedelic music. Trippy." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Only Stories |
LP |
"Only Stories is Aidan’s second release on The Kora Records. The album continues in the “drone folk” style first heard on his (nearly out of print) Kora release, Scalpel. All of the sounds on the record were created by voice and 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars. Aidan penned the three long compositions featured on Only Stories a long time ago, but they were never properly recorded until the fall of 2009, and Kora is ecstatic to release them now in a beautiful fold out letterpress vinyl release limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.thekorarecords.com
|
2011 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Pure Drone (Drone Compendium One) |
LP |
"The album title certainly does not deceive. But there is something absolutely worthy about AIDAN BAKER’s (NADJA) approach to drone composition. He employs a subtle, patient counterpoint that offers an appealing spaciousness when played loud. The music is utterly enveloping, seemingly forcing the listener into a meditative state (Do not operate heavy equipment while listening, unless that heavy equipment is speakers or a spaceship). The compelling organic majesty of these 2 long tracks wafts deep oceanic. Pure drown. One time vinyl edition of 400 copies packaged in custom made book bound sleeves and 180 gram vinyl." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Still Life |
CD |
"This Toronto native has been recording and releasing music for over a decade, amassing a staggering catalog as a solo artist, in numerous collaborations with musicians such as Tim Hecker, Thisquietarmy, Z'EV and Jakob Thiesen, as well as a member of the groups Nadja, ARC, Whisper Room, Mnemosyne, and Infinite Light Ltd. Recorded in the winter of 2010 at Commonweath Studios in Toronto, Still Life is a departure from the sound Aidan Baker is most known for, as it features no guitar, no distortion, and no drone. Still Life is an album with Baker performing only on piano, drums, and upright bass, charting the un-navigated waters somewhere between Bohren and Blue Note." [label info]
www.primary-numbers.com
"Aidan Baker is a household name - I am sure of that. The man has many releases under his belt, solo and with Nadja. Here he stripped down his usual working methods of many looping devices and guitars in favor of three instruments: piano, drums and upright bass. It doesn't mean that the electronics are completely gone, but they play a minor role here. For this album we need to look down under too, and especially at Australia's Hello Square label. What Baker does here sounds like Spartak, 3ofmillions and Infinite Decimals. Jazz like music, improvised music but utterly laidback and 'easy' sounding. Quiet, pastoral music never hectic free jazz or disturbed free improvisations but always in control over the three primary instruments, with the electronics making small ornaments around the pieces, this is some true gorgeous music. An excellent CD and a great move, I think, for Baker to step outside what he normally does and try something new. Now that's what more people should do." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Bach eingeschaltet - vierter Band |
7" |
"The fourth instalment of “Bach Eingeschaltet” by Canadian guitar-drone hero AIDAN BAKER is a double-edged sword: his interpretations of the maestro are both the closest to the originals, almost academic in execution, and in the end the most deconstructive. The live arrangement for electric guitar of the famous cello suite Prelude slowly but surely drowns in a mist of effects abuse, while the epic and lush metal-drone version of a menuet is carried away by NADJAesque lumbering guitar chords in streams of boundless distortion." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Origins & Evolutions. A Composition for multiple Guitars |
CD |
"Aidan Baker returns to INSTALL with a appropriate follow up to his 2009 record 'Dry'. For this one Aidan has brought some friends along to create an immersive composition for multiple guitars recorded by guitarists from all over the world and assembled by Aidan himself. 'Origin One (Drone)' starts the record with a layered, dense drone that sets the frame work for the record. Further on the composition descends quickly into the obtuse with 'Evolution One (Percussive)' and 'Evolution Two (Chime Drone)'. The record is brought full circle by the ending piece 'Origin Two (Melody)'. Limited to 300 replicated CDs in full color 4 panel eco-wallet.
With Guitarists:
Jon Attwood, Aidan Baker, Mick Barr, Bryan W. Bray, David Daniell, Jonathan Demers, Richard Graham, N, JF Sebastian, David Tagg, Velladon Vampillia, Slash Vampillia, Matej Volgar, Brian Wenckebach, Nigel Wright." [label info]
www.installsound.net
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Souvenirs of the Eternal Present |
MC |
"It is hard to find another contemporary artist as prolific as Aidan Baker. Since the year 2000, and across a multitude of aliases, Aidan, often accompanied by a revolving cast of collaborators, has unveiled recording after recording at a rate of productivity which makes even a year in the life of Aidan Baker (or his most prominent alias Nadja) look like the entire discography of many other well documented artists. That in itself is quite a feat, but taking that into account along with the clear, stylistic sovereignty of each of his recordings makes Aidan Baker that rare combination of multitudinousness and creative reinvention, where regardless of what elements and instruments make up a recording, they simultaneously sound unlike anything else before, yet somehow clearly possess the artistic DNA of Aidan Baker.
An aspect of this is his fondness of ethereal elements, which is a distinctive thread running through Souvenirs Of The Eternal Present. In this incarnation, and in juxtaposition to the “slow grow” of recordings more akin to the Nadja moniker, these atmospheric builds and layers are intertwined within a framework of pace quickening rhythms, akin to the end result of some parallel universe where Godspeed You Black Emperor and Bohren and Der Club of Gore are somehow commix.
In terms of art, and its relationship to its complimenting artifact, each side of this cassette (which is made up of a total of 5 separate passages in total) is meant to be taken in as a side as a whole, as one would a diptych or triptych. Thus, as a cassette presentation, one side gives way to the other at exactly the rate the reels spool, and is meant to be taken as such, as opposed to a collection of tracks in of themselves.
Thus, Anthem Records is please to present Souvenirs Of The Eternal Present in the form of a limited edition cassette tape with accompanying digital download." [label info]
www.anthemrecordsinc.com
|
2013 |
€11.00 |
|
|
Aneira |
CD |
"Aidan Baker is a multi-instrumentalist, classically-trained in flute, but best known as a guitarist. Using various electronic effects combined with prepared and/or alternate methods of playing the guitar, he creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental genres but draws on influences from shoegaze and post-rock, contemporary classical and jazz. Over the course of the last decade, Baker has released numerous recorded works, both solo and with his duo Nadja, plus various other musical projects, on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Important Records, Die Stadt Musik, and Broken Spine Productions. He is also the author of several books of poetry.
Baker has collaborated in-studio and live with such artists as Tim Hecker, Carla Bozulich, Jessica Baillif, Noveller, OvO, members of The Jesus Lizard, and members of Swans. He has also composed for and performed with such contemporary classical ensembles as The Penderecki Quartet, The Riga Sifonietta, and The Monday Morning Singers. Baker has toured extensively around the world and appeared at such international festivals as FIMAV, SXSW, Incubate, and Mutek.
Aneira (Welsh for 'snow') is one long, slowly changing piece created using only a 12-string acoustic guitar, manipulated and played with different tools, as a sound source in order to make sounds resembling that of ice moving or breaking and of wind or snowstorms. Aidan Baker also wrote a poem about Aneira, that will be inside the digipack.
Tracks List & info notes
1. Aneira (47:33)
Release Date: 03/25/2013
Cat. Num: GM017
Edition: 500 CDs digipack" [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Triptychs: Variations on a Melody |
CD |
"Aidan Baker's (Nadja) Triptychs takes inspiration from Erik Satie's compositions Gymnopédies and his notion of 'furniture music,' which many consider a precursor to contemporary ambient music. Each 'triptych' is based around a simple, slow moving melodic line, which repeats three times with the addition of an harmonic line upon each repetition, culminating in a three part harmony. Various musicians from different ensembles and musical backgrounds -- Peter Broderick, Julia Kent, Leah Buckareff (of Nadja), Aki Yakamoto (of Vampillia), and Baker himself -- were invited to record their interpretations of these compositions." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Confessional Tapes |
LP |
"Aidan Baker's The Confessional Tapes is another of his more song-oriented albums, though here drifting between slowcore, dreampop, abstract jazz, and glitchy electronica. Baker originally began working on this record in Toronto several years ago, but lost the audio files in a hard drive crash. Those files which were recoverable from the original recordings, corrupted and glitchy, ended up forming the backbone of the album, providing a fragmentary and abstract structure to the songs as Baker worked on them in his adoptive home of Berlin. Aidan Baker is a Canadian musician and writer who has toured and performed around the world, both solo and with his partner in the “ambient-doom” duo Nadja. A prolific artist, Baker has released numerous albums on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Important Records, and Drone Records. He is also the author of a several books." [label info]
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| |
Pithovirii |
CD |
"Glacial Movements is proud to present the soundscapes of Canadian artist Aidan Baker. His first appearance was with the song "Beneath the Ice" on "Cryosphere", the first and only compilation of the entire catalogue. Then in 2013, with "Aneira" (Welsh for 'snow') composed exclusively for GM, through the use of the 12-string acoustic guitar. Pithovirii is his new concept album, which was in part inspired by Vladimir Sorokin's novel Ice Trilogy which in turn led to reading about the Tunguska meteor which fell in Siberia in the early 20th century which in turn lead to reading about 15000 year old viruses found in glacier ice. Using electric guitar and effect pedals, Aidan attempted to musically convey the idea of glacial density and stasis within which lurk potentially malevolent microbiome.
Aidan Baker is a classically-trained multi-instrumentalist using the electric guitar as his primary instrument. Using prepared and alternate methods of playing the guitar, along with various electronic effects, Baker creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental genre but draws on influences from rock, electronic, classical, and jazz. A highly prolific artist, Baker has released numerous recorded works, both solo and with various group projects, on such independent labels as Gizeh Records, Important Records, Alien8 Recordings, and his own imprint, Broken Spine. Baker is also the author of several books of poetry. A regular live performer, Baker has toured extensively around the world, including appearances at such international festivals as Supersonic, SXSW, Incubate, Unsound, and Roadburn, among others. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Baker currently resides in Berlin, Germany."
All songs by Aidan Baker (electric guitar & bass), recorded in Berlin, July 2022.
www.aidanbaker.org
Artwork by Lia Bosch
www.liabosch.com
Sleeve by Rutger Zuydervelt
Glacial Movements Records
March 2024
glacialmovements.com
glacialmovements.bandcamp.com
|
2024 |
€16.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & JAKOB THIESEN |
Mepris |
LP |
"Aidan Baker is a musician and writer currently based in Toronto, Canada. As a solo artist, Baker explores the deconstructive sonic possibilities of the electric guitar as a primary sound source, creating music that ranges from experimental to post-rock to contemporary classical. Jakob Thiesen: Versatile electronic musician. Works with found sound, analog and digital circuitry, laptop computer software and drums to create music for various projects in the studio and on stage. AB - electric guitar: JT - drums. Recorded at Polyphasic Studios in Toronto, June 2012. Engineered by Brandon Hocura. Edited and mixed by AB & JT." [label info]
|
2013 |
€21.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & PLURALS |
Glass Crocodile Medicine |
LP |
"2 tracks, 39 minutes. 500 copies on blue 180gm vinyl in diecut & foilstamped cardstock outer sleeve, with foilstamped inner sleeve and colour insert. Also available on CD.
Aidan Baker has previously graced our studio with his band Nadja. This time Aidan brought British tour-mates Plurals along. Over the two tracks the collaboration has bore some beautiful and exotic fruit. A gradual unfurling of intricate layers of sound builds and envelopes the listener over “Dead Foxes In The Street"'s twenty minutes, creating a warm and uplifting aural atmosphere. The second half of the session is an entirely different affair. “Turning Children Into Mice” is a brooding, decidedly sinister beast, weaving a repetitive and increasingly dark threat, until it explodes into a hive of noise, and then slowly and poignantly dies a hero's death. This is truly a collaboration that makes the most of the musicians touring synchrony.
Mr. Baker has yet again gifted us with a tremendous work, and we thank him and the gentlemen of Plurals." [label info]
http://blog.southern.com/latitudes/
|
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & THE INFANT CYCLE |
Rural Sprawl |
CD-R |
Eine der ganz frühen Releases (CDR auf Blade Records von 2002) von AIDAN BAKER war diese Zusammenarbeit mit dem damals schon seit langer Zeit in der experimentellen Szene aktiven JIM DE JONG aka THE INFANT CYCLE. Inzwischen gehört AIDAN als eine Hälfte von NADJA zu einem der bekanntesten "Drone"-Musiker der heutigen Zeit, während INFANT CYCLE immer noch einen absoluten Geheimtip darstellt. Hiess die Original-CDR noch "Rural" und enthielt nur 2 Stücke, so wurde "Rural Sprawl" durch 2 weitere Stücke ergänzt, um die Idee eines jahreszeitlichen Zyklus zu untermauern. Hier ergänzen sich die etwas herben loops & samples mit sanften Gitarrenklängen & bassigen Pulsen, schon damals waren wir begeistert und notierten: "Gerade erst entdeckt, schon gibt es eine kanadische Zusammenarbeit von AIDAN BAKER mit den langjährig bestehenden INFANT CYCLE auf Blade Records. Statische, „stehende“ Drones verbergen darunterliegende perkussiv-basslastige Strukturen (das erinnert an DRONAEMENTsches Schaffen), zwei lange Stücke, die Atmosphären einfangen und vermitteln sollen („Summer“) („Temperature Drop“)...zarte, subtile, emotionale Klänge: Musik die die Welt braucht! Very emotional Canadian collaboration, subtle drones conceal percussive-bassy structures underneath, two long pieces of shimmering and soft dreamscape-sounds: music that this world needs!"
"Canadian musicians Aidan Baker and Jim DeJong (aka The Infant Cycle) have used the "gentleman's kit" of modern experimenters for creating the compositions of this disk: guitar, bass, tapes, samples, feedback generator, playouts and thumb piano. Four album tracks correspond with four seasons, four states of the soul...
Summer - repetitive loops become overgrown with the juicy flesh of atonal sound and transform into sampled rhythms flown over by a soft guitar tune. Autumn - the rhythm is reduced to a hardly evident monotonous shroud, the atmosphere becomes more melodic and melancholic and in the end turns into a heart-piercing guitar solo. Winter - time for sleep and detachment: icy ringing, the slow breath of bass impulses, the rustling of electronics and sluggish drones painting vast snowy soundscapes. And finally spring - the drone ambient nature unfolds large as life, majestic sonic waves sweep accompanied by a swarm of tiny sounds awoken to life again.
The first two tracks were recorded in 2001 (and released on CD-R by the Italian label Blade Records in 2002 in a very limited edition), two others were recorded in 2005 and thus completed the natural cycle of this album." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & TIM HECKER |
Fantasma Parastasie |
CD |
Die beiden ungekrönten Könige des kanadischen Drone-Ambients in Kollaboration! Trotz ihres sehr unterschiedlichen Backgrounds (der eine v.a. analog mit Gitarre arbeitend aus der Jazz & Impro-Szene stammend, der andere mit rein elektronischem Hintergrund eher aus Techno & Noise-Gefilden) treffen sie sich in einer fast undefinierbaren "Mitte", wobei unklar bleibt wer wessen Material bearbeitet hat oder ob es zu real-time Zusammenspielen kam. Frei flottierende Gitarren-Drones, teils ultra-sperrig verfremdet, teils subtil & beruhigend, dann wieder ausserweltlich und überbordend. Sehr variantenreich und ausufernd. Ungewöhnlich auch die Indexierung auf der CD: Die 7 Stücke verteilen sich auf ganze 66 Indexe!
"Fantasma Parastasie sees the pairing of Aidan Baker, of the ambient doom band Nadja, and Tim Hecker, two of Canada's brightest musicians in the world of abstract electronic music. Tim Hecker has been enjoying the rewards of a stellar career and discography, devoid of filler, due to his incredibly high quality control. His full-length Harmony In Ultra Violet was viewed as a major release in the genre of experimental electronic music. Aidan Baker, on the other hand, works under very different circumstances, releasing material both as a solo artist and as a member of the duo Nadja. His prolificacy is on par with that of Merzbow and the late Muslimgauze. Thankfully, Aidan Baker is one of those musicians with the ability to record and write new music quickly and without sacrificing the quality of his art. Anyone familiar with both Aidan Baker and Tim Hecker is more than likely familiar with Alien8 Recordings as the two musicians have collectively released seven records for our label thus far. While Baker has collaborated with the likes of John Duncan, Black Boned Angel and Fear Falls Burning, among others, this marks the first collaboration to be released by Hecker. This release, divided in eight movements, blends together to form a fluid example of a collaboration that works. Unlike one of those collaborations where artists throw some sound files back and forth via the internet, this release is the fruit of various real-time recording and mixing sessions the two artists worked on in Tim Hecker's Montreal studio. The pieces on the record blend seamlessly into one another, creating a deeper listening experience, as is the case on a number of Tim Hecker's solo outings. While Baker and Hecker share a penchant for creating a powerful blend of ambient noise, Fantasma Parastasie finds the more dissonant elements tempered by an emphasis on ambience and even occasional melody. This release is available on CD in a digipak packaging." [label info]
"... But somehow, the sounds on Fantasma Parastasie manage to transcend, allowing glimpses of familiar sounds, hints of each
artist's own work, but woven into a whole that is unto itself, a gloriously abstract swirl of sound, longform landscapes of bliss and blur, of buzz and even roar, extended movements, in which the various elements drift and shimmer, overlap and intertwine, melodies and songcraft meet texture and soundscapery, guitars unfurl tangled melodies one second, bleary eyed chordal blurs the next, harmonics glisten and hover amidst deep soft swells, distortion and buzz build into fierce walls of blown out psychedelia, the sounds crumbling and
decaying before our ears, threatening to collapse, and in this fragile state lies the beauty of those sounds, effulgent, incandescent, but at the same time, blackening, beginning some unnamable process of inevitable decay. And eventually it does decay, those thick roiling sounds dissipate, leaving something soft and shimmery, glistening on a
bed of shed buzz and crumbled crush, floating heavenward, its notes and melodies catching the sunlight, and offering up prismatic reflections.
The strange thing about this record is that each song is separated into super short pieces, eleven in most cases, each part between 15 and 45 seconds (it's obviously much more noticeable on the cd). We tried listening to it on shuffle, presuming that was perhaps the intention, and while it still sounds cool, it was a bit too and took too much away from the overall effect. Instead, the various parts, played in order, slip seamlessly into one another, so much so that if you weren't watching the tracks tick by on player, you
wouldn't even notice.
The two work amazingly well together, bits of guitar, fragments of riffs, looped and repeated, swathed in thick smears of digital
crunch, of buzzing rumble, much of the record sounds like a heavier William Basinski, as if the two were experimenting with they own
Disintegration Loops. A few of the tracks are quite tranquil, abstract and minimal, but for the most part, Baker and Hecker seem more
interested in distressed sounds, in distortion, in pushing the limits, composing in the red, needles pegged, but taking what in other hands
could be harsh and abrasive, and crafting those sounds into something simultaneously soft and dreamlike. Even the various movements, drift
smoothly into one another the entire record almost like a single piece, expansive and varied and sprawling, epic and majestic, but
inward looking, introspective, melancholy, imbuing the crumbling crunch and blown out minimalism, with emotion, with distinctive mood, at once dark and mysterious, but also strangely hopeful.
The album closer and title track, is the only one not split up into movements, and is easily the most abstract, the most minimal, a
stretch of lugubrious low end, so soft, so weightless, a hushed musical murmur, no distortion, no buzz, just a simple swell and sway, drifting fading, and finally disappearing.
Absolutely breathtaking."" [Aquarius Records review]
www.alien8recordings.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN (WITH RICHARD BAKER) |
Smudging |
LP |
"Backwards proudly presents a new Aidan Baker vinyl LP, issued in a edition of 450 copies. For this release AIDAN BAKER, co-founder of Nadja and member of Arc, is aided by his brother, Richard Baker, at drums. Recorded variously in Toronto and Berlin, 'Smudging' includes six songs comprised in two long epic tracks, with guitar textures and hypnotic rhythm structures to create a beautiful and dreamy listening experience. In the wake of his most experimental and characterized by dilated atmospheres works, as it happened for example in "The Sea Swells A Bit...", Aidan Baker is back to exercise his hypnotic power on the listener. The guitar drones succeed one another, alternating with more rhythmic and structured brackets, thanks to the involvement of Richard, who divides his time between more consistent raids, which almost tend to evolutions near to improvisation (as in "Sweetgrass 1"), and softer and occasional interventions which leave full space to the landscape drifts created by Aidan with his guitar effects and enveloping electronic sound-carpets (as in "White Desert Cedar").
"Smudging" is a work that, both in the execution and in the structure of the six tracks that comprise it, represents another confirmation of the stylistic code reached by the eclectic Canadian musician, who's determined in his aim to drag the listener, with extreme elegance, into the multiple parallel worlds created by his unlimited sounds. Another excellent album from this marvelous artist!
"Smudging" is released as a limited edition of 400 copies in a beautiful designed sleeve. First 45 copies come with an original painting done by Aidan Baker; each one is unique." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN / NOVELLER |
Colorful Disturbances |
LP |
"aidan baker ist hier einfach wolfgang voigt: gas, bei einem der reinen ambient stücke ohne beat. ungefähr genau so viele schichten statischer akkorde und weit, weit unten / hinten passiert dann doch dauernd etwas. und erst viel später merkt man, dass auch die statik nicht statisch ist... perfekter nachschub für alle, die genau diesen typischen, weit ausgebreiteten sound an ihm (und anderen) mögen. sarah lipstate ist mit ihrem instrumentarium auf der gleichen baustelle unterwegs; hier auf der split-LP mit „under the color cave" und „white rabbit" jedoch intimer im sound und etwas kammermusikalischer, dabei in den einzelsounds auch konkreter als aidan baker. melancholisch, abwartend, die gitarre wie ein cello. unbedingt empfohlen und trotz split zweier unterschiedlicher künstler und trotz der unterschiedlichen soundhaltung homogenes ganzes. schönes cover auch, dessen finesse sich erst beim genauen hinschauen erschließt (und hier, in der abgebildeten größe, nur durch hochgedrehte kontraste) und: sehr gute vinylqualität dann auch noch." [N, Unruhr]
"Guitars warped so hard they dissolve into pure consciousness! Seriously, this record had to happen because these two are the NOW of transcendental guitar weirdness. In families like ours where deformed music of one kind or another pours out of the speakers all day long, Toronto's Aidan Baker is a household name. He is no doubt one of the most imaginative experimental musicians of the new generation, quickly creating a universe of limitless sound with his bursting discography. He offers this record an extensive piece which mixes drone, texture, and an ever-bowing foundation -- imagine the sound of falling backwards... forever. The new blood on this split is guitarist Sarah Lipstate from Brooklyn, New York (aka Noveller). Sarah's prepared twin guitar works up a slow hypnotic force, gently pulling way out to the furthest deep end of pulses and patterns. Beautiful repetitions effortlessly skirt over a dark undercurrent. A+++ listen. Edition of 600 copies." [label info]
www.divorcerecords.ca
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN with KEVIN MICKA |
Green Figures |
CD |
"Aidan Baker and Kevin Micka (aka Animal Hospital) first met when they played together in Berlin (Baker’s current city of residence) in the spring of 2009 at a modest venue to an audience of perhaps five people…Despite these conditions, they recognized kindred audio spirits in each other and talked about playing and working together again. They got together again in November of 2009 for three shows: Boston (Micka’s hometown), Montreal, and Toronto (Baker’s hometown). In addition to an Animal Hospital set, Micka also played drums on some of Baker’s more song-oriented material, tunes from “Figures” and “Green & Cold.” The performance on November 28, 2009 at Casa del Popolo in Montreal, recorded by Eric Quach (aka Thisquietarmy), resulted in this album.
The addition of Kevin’s discreet drums to Aidan’s songs gives them a new and unique dimension, leaving the ethereal drone for a subtle (post-)rock. This is a new experience for Aidan’s audience. Edition of 300." [label info]
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/green-figures
|
2011 |
€6.00 |
|
| BALDRUIN |
Portal |
LP |
"Baldruin, the nocturnal brainchild of Johannes Schebler, came into life in 2009 and instantly a unique surrealistic sonic topography was mapped out: through the dense undergrowth of synthesizer sounds and various misty noises a more and more detailed world of sound revealed itself with every new release during the past six years - full of bells chiming, voices calling, pipes whistling and seductive percussive elements. Accordingly Baldruin's music has a very cinematic quality recalling the psychic soundtracks of Goblin, the feverish exotica of Jodorowsky's „Holy Mountain“ or the occult “Themes“ of Psychic TV. „Portal“, Baldruin's first vinyl release, follows this musical path in somnabulistic certainty
towards a slighty more airy horizon. The journey's not come to an end yet, „Portal“ opens a new chapter in the ongoing saga of Baldruin's Bavarian Gothic." [label info]
https://baldruin.bandcamp.com/album/portal
https://vimeo.com/137260451
https://vimeo.com/138391110
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Die halluzinierte Welt |
MC |
"Anbruch eines neuen Tages.
Die Natur wird in ein magisches Licht getaucht.
Es verändert die Warnehmung der Dinge
und erzeugt eine entrückte Atmosphäre.
Etwas nicht greifbares schwebt über den Köpfen.
Ein Übergang von intensiv erlebten Gefühlszuständen in eine halluzinierte imaginäre Realität.
Eine erweiterte Wirklichkeitsauffassung kommt zum Vorschein.
Ängste, Hoffnungen und Sehnsüchte einer nicht (mehr) greifbaren Welt, die sich als surreale Visionen materialisieren.
Individuell real Erlebtes verformt sich und wird transformiert zu fantasierten Erinnerungen,
zu denen immer wieder zurückgekehrt werden kann.
Impressionistische musikalische Skizzen als Ausdruck innerer Sehnsuchtsbilder.
---------
Dawn of a new day, nature is immersed in a magical light.
The aura is raptured by this illumination and the atmosphere is ecstatic.
A transition occurs from an intense emotional state to a hallucinated reality, revealed by expanded perceptions.
Emerging from surreal visions, fears, hopes and desires materialize.
Authentic experiences morph, before transforming back into fleeting memories that return with time again.
Sonic sketches of impressions and internal imagery.
released June 6, 2020
All tracks recorded 2019 and 2020 in Wiesbaden, Germany by Johannes Schebler
https://lullabiesforinsomniacslabel.bandcamp.com/album/die-halluzinierte-welt
"Since 2009 Johannes Scheblers has began mapping out his surreal sonic topography.
Shortly after releasing his first experimental compositions on the homegrown DIY SicSic-Label together with Daniel Voigt, his albums began circulating on labels all over Europe as well as in the USA and Japan. He grew up in a small Bavarian village, where his family had moved to for his fathers work as a pastoral officer. Here they lived in the rectory attached to the church where the loud resonance of the bells, lush organ sounds and chorales of singing churchgoers where constantly present in Johannes childhood. The alluring atmospheres enticed him and he spent several years serving as a altar boy. These early spiritual experiences are a foundation for Baldruin’s sound. In his teenage years, he was exposed to transcendental and dreamlike visions in surreal and avant-garde films which he obsessed over. The unique artistic styles of Švankmajer, Buñuel, Jodorowsky, Cronenberg and Lynch have heavily informed his sonic palette.
Schebler’s compositions offer reinterpretations of dark and mystic mythologies, a chance meeting with strange beings from unknown depths conjured in his imagination where he gives free rein to the fantastic and surreal. Besides his Baldruin project he collaborates with Jani Hirvonen (Uton) on the project Grykë Pyje and is joined by Brannten Schnüre together as Diamantener Oberhof."
|
2020 |
€11.00 |
|
| BAND OF PAIN |
Still falls the Rain |
7inch |
"After an absence of a good few years, Band Of Pain return with a 7” single for Easy Action. Steve Pittis: “Since I got the first Black Sabbath LP when I was 12 years old, the poem inside the gatefold has held a huge fascination for me. I’d read it over and over again, looking at the sleeve, and of course listening to the record. It kept occurring to me that they never used it in any lyrics, so 45 years later, it was time to put that right.”
The A Side of this record, “Still Falls The Rain” features that poem, read beautifully by Lucy Cotter, along with Pittis’ atmospherics and Nurse With Wound’s Andrew Liles’ blistering guitar. All research seems to say that the writer of the poem remains anonymous, so if you’re out there, we hope you like it.
Side B’s “Funhouse (For Karla)” deals with the gruesome misery of an execution chamber and is a powerful journey into the horrors of those barbaric places." [label info]
www.easyaction.co.uk
https://youtu.be/T_ZyNCgmPSo
http://www.andrewliles.com/10-questions/steve-pittis/
"Where most bands opting to record a take on of one of their influential favourites would opt for a more or less straightforward cover version, Band Of Pain main man Steve Pittis chooses instead to invite Andrew Liles and Lucy Cotter to join him in re-imagining the anonymous poem “Still Falls The Rain”, as found inside the upside-down cross adorning the inner gatefold sleeve of Black Sabbath‘s eponymous first album.
This they do in suitably doom-laden style, all clangour and tolling of deep-down bells smeared over with some excoriating paint-stripper guitar from Liles that bears a passing, if distended, resemblance to Sabbath. An equally ominous threnody washes over the stifling atmosphere, which Cotter’s plain-spoken words cut through the thunderstorm of sampled rain with a distracted, almost hypnotised air. Not so much metal as post-Hendrix fed-back skronk, the results waver from the suitably discordant into the eerily unheimlich, with the ghost of a mordant smile nevertheless playing faintly around the snooker hall klang. What Tony Iommi would make of it is anyone’s guess.
The flipside is yet more unnerving and gloomy, dwelling on the subject of imminent state-sanctioned execution on “Funhouse (For Karla)”, and what words there are buried so deep into the mix as to be almost imperceptible at first. Environmental flickers switch back and forth in the deep, dark mix, riding limpidly beneath relentless monotone pulsations that well up in into a tachycardic rhythm modulated to sets the pulses racing as soundbites on the death penalty pass behind the unfolding sense of dread and doom.
For dark, stormy nights, and even glummer moods." [Linus Tossio/FREQ]
|
2015 |
€9.50 |
|
| BARAKA[H] |
ILLUMINESCENCE |
maxi-CD |
Those of you who closely follow taâlem will have noticed that back in 2014 there was no "alm 100" release. We wanted to make something special for this 100th reference but it's been long, veeeery long in the making. Finally, here it is.
This 100th reference is indeed be a bit special: it's the very first solo-release by Baraka[H], member of the legendary Troum and Maeror Tri bands, also head of the seminal Drone Records label.
Baraka[H] has created and collected through the years some tracks that were not used for Troum tracks. He went back to these tracks and completed them in 2018-2019, especially for this release. The result is "illuminescence", a collection of beautiful aerial and nostalgic guitar-based tracks, maybe a bit more droney and melodic...
"illuminescence" is available in two editions:
- the regular edition (alm 100) is a minimax CD with 4 tracks. 150 copies are available.
- the special edition (alm 100#) includes the regular edition plus a transparent 7" lathe-cut including 2 exclusive tracks (the digital download will include the 6 tracks). This edition is limited to 50 numbered copies.
----------------------------------------
«these "songs" are not played perfectly - i'm not a professional musician. but all I can say is that they express my deepest feelings, a yearning for something that is absolutely not 'visible' or tangible. i don't know what it is, but there must be something hidden in the air, in the sounds, in the sensations...»
Baraka[H] - april 2019
miniatures of the eternal yearning.
recorded & produced by Baraka[H] through the years 2007-2019.
all based on acoustic and electric guitars.
all tracks mastered by stephan mathieu at schwebung mastering.
all artworks by hitoshi kojo.
transparent 7"-lathe cut by yann jaffiol at My Studio.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/illuminescence-alm-100
|
2020 |
€9.00 |
|
| BARBARELLA PLÜSCH |
d_b |
7inch |
Experimenteller, ruhiger Post-Rock aus Österreich, sehr schön die B-Seite mit schillernden Drones aus denen sich ungewöhnlich punktuierte Drums herausschälen....
"Musikalisch ist die 7" eine Offenbarung; und ich bin mir nicht einmal im Klaren, warum. Wenn ich nun ‚Postrock’ schreibe, ist das im Grunde wohl gar nicht falsch, aber: ist es ausreichend? Ich denke nicht. Hier geht es vor allem um Konzentration und damit einhergehend: Reduktion, vielleicht auch Vereinfachung. Um das Wesentliche. Ich könnte mit diesen beiden Tracks locker den Sommer verbringen."
[Quietnoise, August 2005]
“Barbarella Plüsch stunned the audience when they opened the live sets on our anniversary party last year. These tracks on vinyl are the band's first ever release. Our first post-rock record, beautifully constructed guitar/bass/drum pieces in the style of Trans Am, David Grubbs or quiet Sonic Youth. Featuring Alexander Wallner of Das Fax Mattinger.“ [label info]
"Descended from the Austrian trio Das Fax Mattinger, a new outfit called Barbarella Plüsch has a very nice single in d_b/Mono. Jazzy rolled drums plus e-bowed guitar and bass create a quiet instrumental space." [The Wire, January 2006]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| BARBIERI, CATERINA |
Spirit Exit |
do-LP |
"Double-LP version. Silver vinyl. The musical vortexes of Caterina Barbieri rewire time and space. Listening to the Italian composer and modular synth virtuoso has felt like traveling at light-speed and slow-motion all at once since 2017's breakthrough Patterns Of Consciousness. 2019's acclaimed Ecstatic Computation pushed even further with the lead single "Fantas". Far beyond any new age trope or modern synth trend, her music stands alone in its ecstatic intensity and cataclysmic emotional impact. Marking the debut album on her new label light-years, Barbieri now delivers her most profound work yet -- a journey through inner-space as vast as a universe and as intimate as a heartbeat. Spirit Exit is Caterina Barbieri's time machine, primarily composed with a modular synth rig she thinks of more like a mechanical fortune teller. Whereas previous releases were constructed on lengthy tours, capturing only snapshots of continually evolving works, Spirit Exit represents the producer's first album fully written and recorded in her home studio amidst Milan's two-month pandemic lockdown in 2020. It was during this extended isolation she found inspiration from female philosophers, mystics and poets spread across time, but united in their strength at cultivating vast internal worlds. St. Teresa D'Avila's foundational 16th century mystical text The Interior Castle, philosopher Rosi Braidotti's posthuman theories and the metaphysical poetry of Emily Dickinson act as thematic anchors throughout Spirit Exit. Spirit Exit crystallizes Barbieri's densely layered, blindingly bright synth arrangements while introducing stunning new elements that feel as if they've always belonged. Strings and guitar flawlessly thread into the composer's web of modular patches, while her revelatory singing voice often cuts right through them. Melodies remain Barbieri's great passion and obsession and on Spirit Exit they grow as large as planets before cracking into atoms. The sweeping "At Your Gamut" perfects the producer's dramatic, slow-burning openers, but in her first ever use of sampling, it later gets crushed, accelerated and unrecognizably transformed into the ghostly hook surging through "Terminal Clock". As the album closes on "The Landscape Listens" -- a song that approaches death with all the gentle grace of Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)"."
https://caterinabarbieri.bandcamp.com/album/spirit-exit
|
2022 |
€31.50 |
|
| BARCHAN |
Soliton |
CD |
"BARCHAN is James Welburn (Miasmah, Tony Buck, Transmit and more) on drones and Tomas Järmyr (of Zu, Yodok, The Void of Expansion and more) on drums. Both musicians share a fascination with testing musical boundaries. Together, they create a uniquely thick tapestry of sound engendered by both organic and chaotic drums in unison with ambient landscapes of noisy bass-drones, spiraling between searing intensity and delirious waves of calm. This is percussion-driven industrial drone music that is generated entirely in live performance. Shards of electric bass noise enhanced by real time software processing provide a harsh electronic element, which combined with the hypnotic free drumming, is reminiscent of intense guitar music." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE |
Blood of Green Colour |
CD-R |
Neues Material der St. Petersburger Formation, die eine eigenständige musikalische Sprache entwickelt haben: eine trance-artig beschwörende ambient-noise-Klangalchemie mit dichten loops & hypnotischen Schichtungen, hier getragen von Mantra-ähnlichem Sprachgemurmel und pulsierenden Elementen im Untergrund, sehr intensiv und wohl mit ihr bester Release bisher!!
“Cult Russian act on the cult Italian label! 2005 release from this veteran St Petersburg Dark Ambient project. Eight tracks of rumbling drones, soaring oscillations and corroded melodic patterns. Oversized packaging.“ [Punch Rec.]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Deadhead |
CD |
Überraschung für BARDOSENETICCUBE: “Deadhead” ist ein durchkomponiertes, neo-klassisch-orchestrales Werk voller Bombast und dunkler russischer Choräle, martial-industriell & düster-elegisch hämmernd, aber auch ruhige, eher elektronische Stücke kommen vor, viele Gastmusiker (Saxophon, Gitarre)... man höre und staune !
“New album of Bardoseneticcube is the whole surrealistic musical performance which is impossible to squeeze into the boundaries of any genre. Six untitled pieces reveal the labyrynth of sonic cobwebs born in the depths of subconscious mind of Igor Potsukailo and his brothers in arms (several guest musicians took part in recording sessions - two guitarists, saxophonist, etc.). The basis for the most tracks is formed by the hybryd of orchestral-ethno-electronic rhythmics and it's layered over with melodic lines walking from composition to composition and completely unexpected samples hardly rationally coordinated with musical context. For sure, this time Igor's talent has beaten all the stylistical limitations - the album sounds very organic and energetic.” [Zhelezobeton]
“first of all: DEADHEAD is totally different to all other releases from this great Russian experimental-ambient artist. DEADHEAD is simply brilliant electronic music, mixed with Neoclassical elements and Russian samples and hymns. some tracks appear with Martial drums and trumpets, others feel more like the finnish cult-label Sähkö. DEADHEAD is without doubt the most musical work of Bardoseneticcube. listen to the mp3s; you will be surprised!” [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
|
The Other Heaven |
CD |
Zweite fabrikgepresste CD für BARDO.. und wieder klingen sie anders als noch zuvor, hier setzen sie auf monotone loops die mit rituell oder sakral anmutenden Sounds versetzt werden - eine unheimliche, beschwörende, z.T. auch sehr religiöse Stimmung wird erzeugt... wieder sehr gut ! Neben REUTOFF, CISFINITUM und LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET z.Zt. wohl die beste russische „post-industrial“ oder „experimental ambient“-Band !
“ Fascinating second opus from the russian (St Petersburg) dark ambient masters. This time atmospheres are developed in a less abstract way than the first CD on Athanor. Bardoseneticcube use of percussions, bowls, bells and ritual chants are mixed with strange ambiance to give it an exquisite and mysterious martial and virile mystical touch. The progression of the album invites us to be a part of the mystery, like we were witnessing the surrouding and the heart of an ancient religious secret society order, whose place could be the monastery hidden in the blue fogged forest depicted on the cover. A new sound approach for BSC, not far away from some early ritual Coil or Deutsch Nepal recordings.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The sacral Member |
mCD-R |
Two tracks that evoke an exotic atmosphere with effected voices & deep frequenced wave-drones... quite special & hallucinogenic again!
"Bardoseneticcube is a now well-known artist from russia, with releases on various labels like Drone Records, Steinklang, Athanor or Mechanoise Labs. For this 3", Bardoseneticcube has looked into his archives and found these two tracks in an ambient/ritual style, sometimes rhythmed by percussions that could remind our dear Internal Fusion." [label info]
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
|
XXX (Dedicated to Nika Turbina) |
CD |
BARDOSENETICCUBE gehören inzwischen zu einer der bemerkenswertesten russischen Experimentalprojekte; mit fast jeder neuen Veröffentlichung vermögen sie zu überraschen, sie verlassen und überschreiten ständig verschiedenste Genre-Grenzen; man könnte fast von einer Art "russischen BIG CITY ORCHESTRA" sprechen, was Einfallsreichtum & die Fülle an Releases betrifft (auch musikalisch gibt es manchmal Überschneidungen, beide Projekte setzen gerne weirde hypnotische loops ein). Auf XXX dominiert bearbeites / verfremdetes Sprachmaterial einer ominösen NIKA TURBINA, das zusammen mit field recordings aller Art zu einem dissoziertem Trip in eine abgründige
Welt zusammengebraut wird... viele akustische Objekte überlagernd sich gleichzeitig und erzeugen hypnotischen Sog, kein Stück gleicht dem anderen, eine rituell-dronige Atmo herrscht vor...wieder sehr gut. 12 tracks, fast 65 Minuten.
ed. of 509 numbered copies / SPECIAL OFFER !
"New Bardoseneticcube album is inspired by life and works of Nika Turbina - a poetess who started to write grown-up tragic poems when she was only 4 years old. "This is not me writing, this is God leading my hand", - the small girl used to say. First Nika's book of poems came out when she was only 9, and was later translated in 12 languages. After living pathologically strange life, receiving the most prestigious poetic prize "Golden Lion", and being held in mental hospital, at the age of 27 Nika tragically died falling down from the 5th floor window. The musical dedication of Bardoseneticcube is presented in 12 untitled tracks filled with surrealistic feelings and some childish morbidity. Obscure loops and industrial soundscapes are buried under a pile of rhyme wreckage, melody fragments and almost chaotic manifold of strange sounds." [label info]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Noosphere |
CD |
Die Interaktions- und Energieform "IGOR POTSUKAILO (BARDOSENETICCUBE)-> KAPUTTES LAPTOP -> HOLOGRAFISCHES UNIVERSUM" manifestiert sich hier auf ungeahnte & einmalige Weise. Auf NOOSPHERE offenbart sich der "Fehler in der Maschine" in einem, in endlosen vibratohaften Wallungen und Drehungen zerfliessenden, Sphären-Drone. Der fast halluzinogene Wahrnehnmungseffekt dieses Wummerns ist absolut erstaunlich, es wird einem regelrecht schwindelig! Die Aufnahme (ein langer One-Tracker von 67 Minuten Länge) entstand in einem glücklichen Augenblick und ist nicht reproduzierbar...
"Russian project BARDOSENETICCUBE is well known in Europe and USA due to numerous releases by various labels like Blade Records, Athanor, Steinklang etc. They are always open to experiments of any kind, so each new album is different and unpredictable. This particular album deals with theory of russian scientist
Vladimir Vernadsky about collective consciousness, emerging from the interaction
of human minds. The universe is full of endless and omnipresent information fields, different in their energy/meaning potentials. Some of them are accessible for people who are using it extensively, others are intended only for machines that seem to be their source and destination at the same time. This soundpiece
is pure improvisation by Igor Potsukailo (BARDOSENETICCUBE) and a Toshiba Satellite A-110 laptop (BARDOSENETICCUBE).
The laptop is the leading performer here, created by unknown system error and playing the music of solar wind, derived from the information field that is not accessible to anyone else. Igor Potsukailo uses a kind of feedback circuit, adding the elements of human presence into this music and modifying the
energy/information balance in that powerful field near our planet Earth called Noosphere..." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE & SHINKIRO |
Inner and Outer Space |
CD |
This is already the second collaboration album of Bardoseneticcube from Russia and Shinkiro from Japan, this time under their own names. The first disc "Four Noble Truths" was released under the combined title of Bashin on the French label Athanor in 2011 and was dedicated to the basic principles of Buddhist teachings. The meditative and contemplative subject continues here as well, now being focused on the aspects of inner and outer space.
We submerge in the dark thick matter of sound, fluid, transparent and stratiform. Woven from abstract electronics, omnifarious samples and transformed voices, textures are smoothly interchanging, always showing new visions in the black mirror of our viewport. Makes you wonder - does the perceivable exist separately from the percipient? In any case this is dark, nocturnal, cosmic music, not devoid of epicism and dramatism. Worth having in your playlist for the next space travel!
The disc is packed in a matte 4-panel cardboard digisleeve with artwork made by Vitaly Stromchinsky (X3D5, Eternal Return Records).
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE & VRESNIT & KSHATRIY |
Creation |
CD |
"A new CD release is presented on the Vetvei label. It is a split of three already well-known projects: Bardoseneticcube (St.-Petersburg), Vresnit (Yaroslavl) and Kshatriy (Vsevolozhsk). Being active and variously cooperating in studios and at concerts, the authors have got a vision of joint release: this split is inspired by a condition of direct experience, transformation, sensation of a new life arrival, display and realization of nature, creativity comprehension as a natural form of being. Some tracks from each project are presented on the disk as a seven acts of creation. BARDOSENETICCUBE: Igor Potsukajlo together with Alla Ryzhenkovoj (traditional Russian vocal) and Edward Dragunov (overtone singing) have presented light Ambient with colorific electronic patterns. Songs "Za verhom" and "Golymba", opening this disk, brightly show a female, mother nature. Further the space reveals as an active man nature. VRESNIT: As a initiator of the release concept, Ilchuk Sergey has presented multilayered psychedelic Drone Ambient with a plentiful use of the field and found records, guitar and cassete drones, analog electronics. "Time is Art "," Anahata "," Creation "... two of this tracks are written down together with a spiritually close project Kshatriy. Becoming even more professional mastering engineer with each his work, Sergey Uak-Kib (KSHATRIY) in the traditional key has presented two powerful space Drone Ambient tracks, " Well of Soul " and " Intention ", showing in music an author’s experience of beauty, harmony and a resonance. A unification of the interweaving beginnings in the solemn act of the world creation. A new act of the initiating resonance and contemplation of the universal art and boundless self-similarity with open hearts. Mastering - Kshatriy. Design presented by six-panel full-colored envelope and card Vresnit & Vevei Art." [label info]
www.vetvei.ohms.ru
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE + NOISES OF RUSSIA |
New Orthodox Line |
CD |
Rauhe, trancige Dronescapes mit sakralem Touch & intensiv ansteigendem Spannungsbogen zum Ende hin. Vielleicht lässt sich dieses feine Album der beiden in St. Petersburg beheimateten Projekte so mit einem Satz charakterisieren. Letztere sind zuletzt durch eine Reihe von ekstatisch-rituellen Konzerten aufgefallen, die sie in Russland und im angrenzenden skandinavischen Raum gaben...
"New Orthodox Line brings together two of the most notable Russian post-industrial / experimental groups: Bardoseneticcube and Noises of Russia. This unique collaboration stirs the best of both artists to surface, and results in an extremely powerful and intense emotional experience. The opus travels from sacral soundscapes of orthodox choirs and church bells to a more punishing end of the sonic spectrum provided by pounding rhythms and howling feedback. Here, the opposites unite with passion and compliment each other for the sake of the greater good, the synergetic New Orthodox Line.
Bardoseneticcube, having released dozens of albums on various labels worldwide, has gained recognition in the international experimental / electronic scene. Bardoseneticcube self-describes their music as “surrealism”, using A. Breton’s description: "pure psychic automatism willing to express the real functioning of the reflection either orally or written, or in any other form. Dictation of mind without any control from the intellect, outside of any aesthetic of moral considerations".
More info » bsc.radionoise.ru
Noises of Russia is a highly active Russian experimental music act, with practically countless live performances and a number of albums and videos under their belt. This four member group uses styles and imagery from dark ambient to drone, all the while never forgetting traditional noise music. Their unique mixture of influences, along with their extremely powerful use of vocals, create an unforgettable experience in modern music. More info » www.noises.ru " [label notes]
"... a joint venture between two of Russia's interesting projects from the Noise-related scene. Noises Of Russia is a quartet known for its high activity of live performances plus a large number of albums and videos released. The other project is called Bardosenetticcube also being in the forefront on the Russian scene. This album titled "New orthodox line" is a strange beast even in the noise scene with the inclusion of sacral soundscapes consisting of church bells and orthodox choirs swirling in the storm of abrasive noise drones. Consisting of one lengthy track of 47 minutes the expression is impressive with a nice emotional approach to sonic aggression. Intense." [NM, Vital weekly]
www.someplaceelse.net
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE / LT. CARAMEL |
Silence Submarine |
CD |
"This is the mail collaboration realized after Lt.C's trip to Russia few years ago. In St-Petersbourg, he was sharing the stage with the local project Bardoseneticcube, which is one of the most important and long running experimental music outfit in Russia. After returning to France, Lt.C and Igor Bardo/BSC found common interests in soundwork, sending the files to each other and re-processing them. The result was this collaborative CD, released by Studio Forum and distributed by Monochrome Vision." [label info]
www.studioforum.net
"Last week we reviewed in these pages a CD by Igor Potsukaylo, who is otherwise known as Bardoseneticcube. His works can be easily classified as drone music, so its quite a surprise to find a CD of him together with Philippe Blanchard, otherwise known as Lieutenant Caramel. Perhaps not the most active composer in the field of musique concrete, but with a distinct style of his own. Long sustaining sounds versus cut-up: how does that work out? Actually quite nice. I had my doubts about it, despite liking what both do in their own field, but these nine compositions tie both ends together in a nice way. Its hard to say who does what here, which I guess is a compliment. There are lots of electro-acoustic sounds, from either field recordings as well as objects, which are chopped up, but also looped around to retain that sustaining drone like character. I must admit that my attention faded a bit after a while. I thought that seventy-two minutes of this kind of demanding musique concrete was all a bit too much to take in at once. The whole second piece, track nine on the CD, lasting twenty-four minutes is were I dropped out. Otherwise, in smaller doses, a great CD." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| BARRETT, NATASHA |
Trade Winds |
CD |
Eine unserer derzeitigen Lieblings Elektro-Akustikerinnen hat sich dem Thema OZEAN angenommen, aus kultureller / mythologischer wie physischer / naturwissenschaflicher Sichtweise. Das lange Stück verteilt sich auf 8 Teile, in denen vor allen Dingen Wasserklänge (Meeresrauschen und -wellen, Gischt, Blubbern), diverse Schiffsgeräusche von einem alten Segelschiff (Holzknirschen, Signalglocken, etc.) und Hafenklängen verwendet werden. Wieder gelingt BARRETT die Balance zwischen schwindelig-machenden atmosphärischen Parts und detailreichen Passagen, zwischen totaler elektronischer Verfremdung und Überlagerung des Materials und ganz konkreten "real vorkommenden" Sounds. Nebenbei baut sie noch Seemannsgarn (Sturm auf hoher See) eines norwegischen Kapitäns ein sowie Shanty-Chor-Elemente & düstere Orgelklänge, die von JULES VERNE's Nautilus-Geschichte inspiriert sind. Das ganze ist so komplex und dynamisch (im Original ein 16-Kanal Stück), dass die Sinne immer wieder komplett überfordert sind. Man ist hier wirklich hin- und hergeworfen wie auf "Grosser Fahrt"...das Gefühl für die endlosen Weiten & die unfassbare Gewalt, die der Ozean bereit halten kann, wird hier adäquat umgesetzt Bei der CD handelt es sich um eine HYBRYD-CD, d.h. sie ist auch als "SUPER AUDIO CD (SACD) in 5.1 Surround Sound abspielbar! Grosse Klangkunst! TIP !
"In 2006 Natasha Barrett was awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Music Prize for her work …fetters… released by Aurora. Her new album consists of one work only: “Trade Winds” is a fantastic voyage down to the mythical and physical depths of the wide oceans. The piece is inspired by the vast expanse of sea – unleashing the musical potential of recordings from the 100-year-old sailing ship Dyrafjeld, from above and within harbour, shore and open oceans around the world, and the spoken narrative of an old Norwegian captain. From a narrative listening position Trade Winds' macrostructure consists of two halves, the first exploring culture and fables, the second exploring nature and science. The central pivot is inspired by the chapter Mobilis in Mobili from 20000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne. Throughout Trade Winds the reference to Captain Nemo is evident in various manifestations of organ recordings. Musical narrative is not necessarily a predictable linear chain of events, and surprise is essential to a compelling story. Natasha Barrett launches multiple narratives in parallel and lets them take turns, interrupt each other, unfold simultaneously, or twist backwards. Sounds emerge from the depths and sweep dramatically across the sound stage in an ever evolving dance of sonic patterns." [label description]
|
2007 |
€18.50 |
|
| BARRIKAD / DEATH SQUAD & HYDRA |
Entropic Society / Neurology 2 |
10 |
TO THE DREAMERS AND THOSE WHO PUT FAITH IN DREAMS AS THE ONLY REALITIES. Das neue schwedische Industrial-Label SEGERHUVA beglückt uns hier mit wütendem Radikal-Noise: die stark politischen BARRIKAD auf der einen Seite mit drei extrem verzerrten Feedback-Noise-Stücken, die in der Tat entropische Qualität haben, wenn sich die found sounds einer durchkapitalisierten Gesellschaft in reinstem Lärm auflösen...
Das San Franciscoer harsh noise Projekt DEATH SQUAD in Kollaboration mit HYDRA benutzt lyrics eines Psychiatrie-Patienten, die mit dunklem, eindringlichen analog-Noise versetzt werden...
“This most likely is the last of death squad¹s recordings. The most current name has changed to MK9. Hydra is Greg Scott who was also a member of the power electronics project Final Solution from New York. Vocals by G. Scott and electronics by death squad.
Neurology 1 was originally released in 1994. Almost ten years later the second installment is realised. Recorded in Poughkipsie NY at The Space. The content is an audio document of aggressive and passive emotional extremes. From night time rants to letters left on door steps. It becomes an array of sound and audio suffocation as each item becomes cataloged and addressed. Extremely bass-heavy and dense electronics gnawing on the top of your vertebrae, a worthy conclusion to the saga of the criminally underrated genius of DEATH SQUAD. Wake up...
This is the sound of young Sweden. The raging youthful energy of anarchist noise as presented by Barrikad. Three tracks of splendid energetic white-hot scorching electronics dealing with the frustration and despair of what passes for everyday life for modern man in a consumerist society. This is the vinyl debut for Barrikad, who has so far released one great CDR on Freak Animal.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| BARUCH, BEN |
The complete Recordings 1949-1950 |
do-CD |
"This box set reissues the complete recordings of Yitshak Jacques Zaludkowski (Ben-Baruch) published on 78-rpm picture discs by "Saturne" in 1950. born on 1914 in Stawiszyn, to a religious family of eight children, this singer's repertoire is diversified: synagogal-like religious songs in Hebrew, Yiddish songs, songs about religious and about the inception of the State of Israel" [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2007 |
€16.50 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM |
Shortwavemusic |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der Raster-Noton LP von 1997, mit Bonustrack! Sanfte Äther-Melodien in endlosen Kurz-Echo Räumen, Musik die ausfranst in einem Meer von seltsamem Effekt-Sounds..
"Re-issue after 10 years (first issue on CD), originally released in limited edition LP in 1997 on Noton (now Raster-Noton). Full length CD with bonus track not on original LP. "The works on Shortwavemusic resulted from a series of experiments in 1982 using lo-fi technology to extract sounds from the airwaves and weave them into musical tapestries. Using two reel-to-reel decks from the '60s, a radio and a shortwave radio, Basinski recorded samples of music from the radio, edited the tape into loops of varying lengths, and slowed them down. These themes were then layered together in real time to an accompaniment of randomly shifting shortwave radio static. The themes explored were often brief excerpts [3 or 4 notes] from muzak-type string versions of American popular standards. By manipulating these themes and mixing them with an existing symphony of electronic information, Basinski has created a series of glacial, atmospheric aural landscapes for the listener to inhabit. The music is timeless and compelling -- a remarkably original experimental music album." [label info]
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
|
A Red Score in Tile |
CD |
"Composed way back in 1979, ,A Red Score In Tile" eventually surfaced as a vinyl-only edition in 2003. Made up of piano, this shows Basinski's patented tape-loop technique perfectly and still stands as one of his most affecting pieces of music. If you've heard ,Melancholia" you'll likely know what I'm talking about, piano notes are transformed into tones by the slowly disintegrating tape, and the loops become motifs all of their own. The beauty of Basinski's work is in its patience, and this early piece is a testament to that overwhelming skill, a skill that few others possess. There are plenty of people now attempting similar things and recreating these sounds using similar methods but for my money none have come even within ten feet of William Basinski. Put this on, lie back and prepare to spend forty-five minutes in paradise. Absolutely gorgeous." [label info]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Variations: a Movement in Chrome Primitive |
do-CD |
" 'VARIATIONS: A MOVEMENT IN CHROME PRIMITIVE' was created using piano tape loops, which were played randomly against themselves creating feedback loops.
By "cloning" small cells of melody then "breeding" them randomly, new sounds were formed.
These new sounds move in and out of the original cells, creating a complex crystalline structure, a new life form not unlike a city for example, which the original cells occupy in multitudes, moving in and out of one another in infinite combinations." [label info]
|
2013 |
€24.50 |
|
| |
Cascade |
CD |
"Cascade and The Deluge are variations on the latest tape-loop and delay composition from the inimitable William Basinski. In Cascade, a single ancient lilting piano tape loop repeats endlessly carrying one along in its tessellating current. In The Deluge, the same loop is processed through a series of feed-back loops of different lengths creating a spiraling crescendo of overtones that eventually fade away to silence. In the denouement, a series of limpid piano loops leads to an urgent orchestral theme that builds and gradually dies away." [label info]
|
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM & RICHARD CHARTIER |
Divertissement |
LP |
"Divertissement is the third collaborative full length from minimalist composer William Basinski and sound artist Richard Chartier.
The duo utilize electronics, piano, tape-loops and short wave radio to evoke a dense atmosphere suggesting hundreds of years of history rising up from the depths of a reverberating cathedral. Subtle, buried and intense murmurs of melody morph through this deeply consuming and slowly evolving composition in two parts.
Pressed in an edition of 500 with beautiful cover drawings by artist James Elaine.
William Basinski is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 30 years in NYC and most recently, California. Employing obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, his haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life and resound with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic 4-disc masterwork, The Disintegration Loops received international critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 by Pitchfork Media. The Temporary Residence deluxe LP box-set reissue from 2012 was awarded best re-issue of the year and a score of 10 on Pitchfork. Installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker, James Elaine have been presented in festivals and museums internationally, and his concerts are presented to sold out crowds around the world. Most recently, Basinski was chosen by Music Director, Antony Hegarty to create music for the new Robert Wilson opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic which had its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011 and toured Europe in 2012 and North America in 2013. Orchestral transcriptions of The Disintegration Loops by Maxim Moston have been performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queen Elizabeth Hall and La Batie Festival in Geneva, Switzerland. Basinski is currently touring the world in support of Cascade and The Deluge, his latest works which will be released in Spring 2015 on 2062/USA.
Richard Chartier (b.1971), sound and installation artist, is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist electronic sound art which has been termed both microsound and Neo-Modernist. Chartier's minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself. Chartier's sound works/installations have been presented in galleries and museums internationally including the 2002's Whitney Biennial and he has performed his work live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America at digital art
electronic music festivals and exhibits. In 2000 he formed the recording label LINE and has since curated its continuing documentation of compositional and installation work by international sound artists/composers exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism. In 2010, Chartier was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellowship to explore the National Museum of American History's collection of 19th-Century acoustic apparatus for scientific demonstration." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2015 |
€25.50 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM / ANDREAS MARTIN / CHRISTOPH HEEMANN |
Cloes |
do-7inch |
Auf Single 1 nebulöse Drones von BASINSKI, und eines der schönen, glasklaren Akustik-Gitarren-Stücke von MARTIN, auf Single 2 werden beide Stücke von HEEMANN in gekonnter Art und Weise remixed. Auf schmuckem klaren Vinyl, mit durchsichtigem, bedrucktem Beiblatt, lim. 400 copies.
“ the occasion of the January 25th, 2003 concert appearances in Austin, Texas at Ceremony Hall. Includes an amazing new recording for solo guitar by Andreas Martin along with an early composition for tape and electronics by William Basinski. Three sides feature remixes by Christoph Heemann. Both records pressed on clear vinyl with full color labels. Includes a clear acetate insert all packaged in a transparent sleeve. An edition of 400 copies." - label description.
|
2003 |
€16.50 |
|
| BASS COMMUNION |
The Itself of Itself |
CD |
https://basscommunion.bandcamp.com/album/the-itself-of-itself
Steven Wilson is no stranger to composing music that appears to counter everything else before it in his catalogue. Bass Communion, his long running solo electronic project, is no exception to this perverse streak that apparently likes to turn all expectations upside down. The Itself of Itself, Bass Communion’s first album for 12 years, skillfully pays testament to this.
Long established as a purveyor of mostly atmospheric or ambient textures, the seven cuts that represent The Itself of Itself take detours from this approach in order draw as much from musique concrete, noise music, abstract electronics and uneasy listening. Whilst still rippled with the same shades of light and dark that can be found throughout all of Bass Communion’s work, The Itself of Itself reveals a fascination with analogue sounds and, more importantly perhaps, ‘unwanted’ analogue artefacts like tape hiss, wow and flutter, static noise, and sonic break-up, taking the music into a space at once different yet familiar. ‘Apparition 3’ presents a stark nod to Wilson's established command of shifting textures steeped in penumbral gauze, while ‘Bruise’ is akin to a space probe adrift and headed towards a white dwarf as all communication is reduced to a disturbing and indecipherable crackle.
Between the other five cuts we witness fragmented, garbled and buried voices, vast vacillating banks of grainy hum, what sounds like the dying gasps of an oboe, spooky swirls from an indiscernible source, swathes of tape hiss, moody drones, and spiralling slivers of noise. Meanwhile on the title track, a mellotron flute rusts and collapses in on itself in a way that renders it the very antithesis of the one deployed on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
Everything adds up to a dynamic listening experience where unease, dread and comparatively claustrophobic torrents of sound make (un)natural bedfellows to moments of enchantment and serenity.
Above all, The Itself of Itself sees Steven Wilson cutting his teeth on an album that’s at once cinematic and moody whilst proving him to be a master in electronic music craftsmanship. It’s an album that might surprise some of those who have thus far been paying attention to his work as Bass Communion, but setting out to please everyone was never part of his raison ‘etre. 'The Itself of Itself' catches Bass Communion spreading its weatherbeaten wings to embrace new strategies and a strong desire to journey elsewhere.
Arriving in a wonderful Carl Glover designed cover also comprising a 24pp. booklet of his photographs and an obi strip, The Itself of Itself arrives in late May 2024 on Lumberton Trading Company as a CD pressed in an initial run of 1000 copies.
NOTE: An exclusive new Bass Communion track also appears on the When Worlds Collide 2LP compilation also due in May and available to pre-order in the shop (see link below). Other artists on this limited edition 2LP include Alternative TV, Final, Sion Orgon, Edward Ka-Spel, Splintered, Kleistwahr, Ashtray Navigations and more.
THE ITSELF OF ITSELF TRACKLIST
1. Unperson 10:34
2. Apparition 3 6:04
3. Bruise 13:19
4. Blackmail 7:24
5. The Itself of Itself 10:24
6. Study for Tape Hiss and Other Audio Artefacts 11.58
7. Apparition 5 02:46
"...This new album has some interesting changes. On one hand, there are sounds of vinyl and tape hiss, heavily processed yet to be recognised as such, and there is the addition of real instruments, such as a mellotron (well, maybe not 'real', but a distinctly different kind of instrument than you'll find on your usual dark ambient record. Also, there are some shimmering chords played on a keyboard (in 'Apparition 3', for instance), crippled voices in the very creepy title track, along with more mellotron (I think). Using tape hiss in 'Tape Hiss Study'
is quite a daring and risky movement. One could all too easily think, 'tape hiss, that we've heard enough of by now', but Bass Communion gives it an elegant twirl and creates an excellent collage, using various stages of the process. Throughout these seven pieces, there is quite a bit of variation so that there is no repeating of stale ideas of worn-out dark ambient. In 'Blackmail', Wilson ventures out to noise music and is more Merzbow (around 1990) than anything you would label as ambient music. Quite the accomplishment!" [FdW / Vital Weekly}
https://basscommunion.bandcamp.com/album/the-itself-of-itself
|
2024 |
€16.00 |
|
| BASS COMMUNION / PRECISION SURGERY |
Kurzwellen 8 |
LP |
"Many of you will be aware of my love of industrial and noise music, and one of my favourite labels of this kind in recent years has been the old school 80’s industrial revivalist label Kurzwellen, affiliated with ToneFloat from the Netherlands (who have released many of my projects over the years, including the IEM and Bass Communion box sets). Each of their releases so far have been in the form of hyper limited edition vinyl only releases, sometimes only 100 copies of so, and each is housed in a 24x36inch silkscreen poster sleeve with suitably grim black and white imagery. This time around the label played me a new album they were releasing as Kurzwellen 7, “Hinterkaifeck” by Precision Surgery (Hinterkaifeck being the location of a famous unsolved murder from the 1920’s), and I felt inspired to create 2 minimal Bass Communion remix treatments which are now being released alongside the Precision Surgery album as Kurzwellen 8. Both LPs are out on 7th July and can be pre-ordered from the Tonefloat Store. Not recommended for people who find the music under my own name quite depressing enough already thank you very much…" [Steven Wilson website]
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| BATCHAS |
Explorations 85-95 |
CD |
"Quite unexpected, but surely long awaited comeback of this mysterious Swiss-based project, returning to the musical scene with the new album released after ten years of oblivion. This is another masterpiece of minimal analogue synth-sound alchemy, a journey through Batchas acoustic world allocated in the deep space between two acoustic radiators of stereosystem. Release date is 1st June 2007. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
"The good things about Monochrome Vision is that the covers (all in stark black/white) have liner notes and so I learned that Robert Masse, who was once the active force behind Batchas (as well as Freq 63, Mydaus, Trebor Semas, Microscope, Myiase and Mental Showdowns) is no longer active in music, but works as a flash developer. What a pity, certainly when we hear 'Explorations 85-95', which of course has material from this period. Each of his projects had a specific sound and Batchas hoovers about in the dark alley of highly atmospheric music. Played on a bunch of analogue synthesizers, this is darker than life mood music, sometimes going almost beyond the threshold of hearing. Great stuff, which calls back to memory his old records, or in fact the scene that came with it, the ambient industrial posse. Very music of that age - highly ambient, a bit industrial: we'd call that drone music these days." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BATCHELOR, PETER |
Kaleidoscope |
CD & DVD-R |
"This release of electroacoustic music by composer Peter Batchelor contains the original (and preferred) 8 channel versions of the works (DVD-ROM) along with stereo versions (CD) for easier/speedier listening.
The idea for the Kaleidoscope works came from the composers? memories of playing with the prismatic toy of the same name as a child. The toy, of course, consists of colored beads in a tube of mirrors, whose reflections generate complex symmetrical patterns that change dramatically in density and texture as the tube is turned. With these pieces the aim was to emulate such dynamic spatial activity through sound, distributing fragmentary materials in space and immersing the listener in a rich and ever-changing sonic environment. They have been composed for an eight-channel listening environment, the speakers arranged equally in a circle surrounding the audience, and the spatial language consists of peripheral, rotational, oppositional and envelopment activities and relationships (in contrast to left/right and back/front as in stereo works and traditional concert diffusion). The works should therefore be spatially and musically coherent irrespective of audience position or orientation, and listeners should receive similar subjective weightings (relative levels) of front, sides and rear wherever they happen to be situated (even if the positions and trajectories of spatial gestures are perceived differently by each).
Peter Batchelor is a composer and sound artist living in Birmingham, UK. He has studied with Jonty Harrison and Andrew Lewis and lectures at De Montfort University, Leicester. Predominantly working with fixed-media, his output ranges from two-channel 'tape' compositions for concert diffusion to large-scale multi-channel installation work."
[label info]
www.pogus.com
"..The DVD has the original 8-channel piece of 'Kaleidoscope', but I don't have the playback for such a thing, so I am stuck with the stereo version. I never heard of Batchelor, who is a composer from Birmingham, UK and who studied with Jonti Harrison and Andrew Lewis. He works 'predominantly with fixed-media, his output ranges from two-channel 'tape' composition for concert diffusion to large-scale multi-channel installation work'. Playing with a prismatic toy as a kid inspired ‘Kaleidoscope’ and perhaps it's not difficult to see that relating to the music piece. Just like light makes different colours of different intensities, so that this music move back and forth, from front to back and back, top to bottom, left to right. I can surely imagine how this sounds on an 8-channel set-up: even better than it does on a stereo version, I imagine. This is from the world of serious electronic composing, say the world of Canada's Empreintes Digitales, but whereas works released over there are not always to my liking, I surely liked this one a lot. The gliding of tones, the processed white noise, the overall vibrancy of the pieces, the constant motion of the sounds used. This is all in the world of computerized sounds, I would think, and whatever went in to generate this sound material is something we not longer can hear. And perhaps it's also something that one should not care about? It's the result that matters and that result is great." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| BATES, MARTYN |
Chamber Music II : Song Setting of James Joyce Poems |
CD |
“1994 and 1995 sees the release of Martyn Bates settings of James Joyce's poems Chamber Music, Vol. 1 & 2 on Sub Rosa. Born simply out of love of Joyce's work, Bates one aim in setting tunes to the text was to bring out in notes and music all the musicality that was already written there on the printed page ... . Inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets and the airs of John Dowland, Joyce's richly musical texts lent themselves readily to the mellifluous style of Bates song writing ... with Bates envisioning the pieces as being created about and around Celtic/English folk idioms ... in a stark setting, almost a kind of essence of simplicity, like the very best folk tunes. Virtually an acapella work for solo voice, and air utilised, allowing Joyce's exceptionally beautiful poems to truly breath.
Written whilst a young man in his early twenties,Chamber Music was Joyce's first published work and is essentially the story of first love passing from illumination to disillusionment ? it's a much neglected and maligned work, often over-shadowed by the colossal heights that Joyce's later works achieved. These later works (Portrait, Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake) are reverently treated as high art by scholars, a feast for ardous intellectual wrangling and dissection. Often coldly cerebral, this misguided approach must surely contradict the true spirit of Joyce, whose actual work is often ribald, lusty, deeply compassionate and humane ? hence Bates use of warm, loosely folk idioms in his settings of Joyce's texts, providing a musical context that facilitate Joyce's subject.
Martyn Bates Cd release sees the first complete cycle of song settings of Chamber Music's entire canon of thirty-six poems since it was written in 1902.” [label info]
|
1995 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Mystery Seas (Letters written # 2) |
CD |
Re-Release dieses Albums von 1995 (Ambivalent Scale 018), nach dem sich das Brüsseler Unterwasser-Ambient CD-R Label MYSTERY SEAS von Daniel Crokaert benannt hat! MYSTERY SEAS enthält 15 Stücke mit wallenden E-Orgel-Polyphonien & Drones, einsamen Melodika-Melodien, alles handgespielt und authentisch, und Martyns intim naher & hochexpressiver Stimme.....alles angetrieben von grosser, den Himmel anrufender SEHNSUCHT, die einen die Tränen in die Augen treibt....
“How can one describe in words such emotional cascades as ’Mystery Seas’. Once again without fail Martyn Bates creates flawless mirages and barren landscapes of explicit consciousness. Riddled throughout with the sort of incoherence and fragility which made Eyeless In Gaza such an immense encounter, at times the guy could be reciting his shopping list for all we know, or care really, for the magic conjured up by a single gasp expresses a magnitude of explanations. This is stark and lonely, yet warm and touching collection of songs drifts over your nerve ends and gently massages your soul. Truly enchanting, beautiful.“ [Music from the Empty Quarter ]
“Martyn Bates’ (ex-Eyeless in Gaza) long announced re-release of his most beautiful album is entering now its final production stage, and Shayo is proud to announce its release date for early January! A second life for this poetic album coming now as a digipack with a brand new layout and booklet. Shayo and Martyn Bates are planning to re-issue "Mystery Seas" twin album "Imagination feels like poison" during the year 2006.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Your jewled Footsteps |
CD |
Eine Art "best of" von Solo-Stücken des "singing Martyn Bates"! Hervorragende Kollektion, die das ganze Genie des Songwriters Martyn Bates zeigen, 20 heartbreaking Songs mit seiner einmalig emotionalen Stimme, zum sterben schön!
"During those 20 years, against all odds, Bates managed to shape a unique, instantly recognizable form of music - that voice! - based on a deeply rooted, 100% English folk tradition. In our opinion, he is also greatly underrated as a songwriter. In his solo work and in EIG, he has developed what can be called a style: a combination of angst (a working-class hero) and pure melancholia (time irremediably lost, the loss of idealized love), mixed in with an unconditional love of poetry (Keats, Yeats, Joyce) and authentic popular song stylings. In other words, Martyn Bates belongs to a tradition that can be traced all the way back to the troubled times of the Elizabethan era. YOUR JEWLED FOOTSTEPS journeys through made-in-England pop, folk, poetry recitation and reconstructions of songs whose origins are long forgotten. In addition to Bates' essential pieces, the collection also includes several previously unreleased tracks, including some pre-Industrial sound works predating EIG's formation, in the late '70s.
Please note that on the design front, we will be introducing a new series featuring the artist in his immediate surroundings (studio, home, street, city…), in the shape of a 8 pages digipack (presenting around 20 photographs) with separate booklet reproducing all the lyrics heard on the CD." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Americas Dissonance |
LP |
Edel Vinyl-Edition der amerikanischen Wiederauflage des quasi ersten MARTYIN BATES Tapes DISSONANCE von 1981, zu der wir bemerkten: "Völlig verschieden von dem späteren Songwriting, stehen diese Sounds noch voll in der Spätsiebziger Post-Punk und Industrial-Tradition, mit rauhem low-fi Noise und Instrumental-Sounds (v.a. Gitarre & Synths), Gesangexperimenten, etc.. aber auch schon ruhigere folkige Elemente die an den späteren MARTYN BATES erinnern, mit seiner typischen Delay-Orgel und gezupfter Gitarre, sind vorhanden... "
"The more definitive American version was released as a cassette ASR 009 in the US in 1981 and dropped the Migraine Inducers moniker and the "Antagonistic Music" title extension. It was now referred to as Martyn Bates' "Dissonance" and released in an edition of 100 cassette copies and became known as "Dissonance Americas"." [discogs info]
"Edition of 150 copies on 220 gram vinyl. Freed from layers of sand, the ancient seal is cracked and the stone portal pried away. A hoary blizzard of slowly settling dust and mold is finally sliced by the first tantalizing glint of a mythological cache. At long last a lost experimental classic from the earliest days of the UK DIY movement is delivered from legendary obscurity. "Violent anti-music: I think this is a brilliant tape...hauntingly beautiful and totally refreshing sound." So wrote Geoff Rushton (aka Jhon Balance) in a 1980 issue his Stabmental magazine about Martyn Bates' "Dissonance" cassette. Originally released as a micro-edition in the UK in 1979, the more definitive American version was released as a cassette in the US shortly afterwards. "Dissonance" presaged Martyns solo career and his work as part of Eyeless In Gaza in a most unusual way. Rather than directly suggesting what was to come, the cassette, instead, suggested a composing and sound AESTHETIC that exists to this day. That first cassette-only cri-de-coeur would have you believe that Martyn would be the next Nurse With Wound. Instead, rather like a more extreme Vice Versa or Human League, with Bates literally finding his voice, the later music (solo and with Eyeless In Gaza) evolved into a textural, fractured, DIY chamber pop INFORMED by the avant-garde, occasionally straying back into outright experimentalism (Pale Hands I Loved So Well, eg.). That Eyeless In Gaza (and lets not forget Peter Becker) and post 70s Martyn Bates manifested from "Dissonance" makes this bizarre and essential release even more of a precious find. If Martyn had not recorded another note, this would still stand as an extremely important early, incredibly forward thinking moment of sonic exploration. Dynamic, visceral and jagged but musical and deliberately constructed, "Dissonance" captures, maybe even defines the zeitgeist of the DIY attitude that was rising in the heady days of the late 70s and early 80s. An undeniable antecedent and a true revolution." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Unsung |
CD |
"Unsung – the new solo album by Martyn Bates (voice/guitar) completed September 2012 and produced by Alan Trench & Martyn Bates. Released on November 13th.
'With Unsung Martyn Bates takes on the more traditional role as a singer-songwriter, armed solely with his guitar for accompaniment, save for the occasional sparse colouring. At this time — when this particular role has been explored and done to death & beyond by long lines of both old and young musicians — one would think that there possibly could not be much to add (not that singer-songwriters generally are out on a mission to add something to the format). But as we know from the past history of Martyn Bates and Eyeless In Gaza, they do invent, they do new things, they sound fresh over and over again. So this is exciting, indeed!
From initial listenings to the album, one happily fails to find anything reminiscent of the new breed of singer-songwriters that tend to sound so same-ish, even when they try to sound “alternative”, “sensuous” and “independent” suggesting the listener would be convinced that it (albeit artificially) “sounds so right”. Here, in contrast, you find someone who plays and sings as if no one has ever done any singing accompanied only by his own guitar playing before. The lyrics are thoughtful, the music is lush and different, the voice is superb and the music is respectful of the intelligence of the listener. Still the music is certainly not dull or gloomy, but spirited and infectious. I think you will agree.– Jerry Nilson" [label info]
www.eyelessingaza.com/asr.html
"These acoustic guitar based songs largely came from sessions relating to the Twelve Thousand Days project in which Martyn Bates collaborated with Alan Trench of Orchis in the 2000’s. Though it’s also produced by Trench , Unsung has a very different feel, and it finds Bates at his most concentrated and immediate. Bates is essentially a singer songwriter but his work in Eyeless in Gaza and other collaborations reveal he’s also adept at improvisation and manipulation of sonics. Here the latter is limited to some ambient drift and phantasmal backing vocals, which sound particularly strange on ‘’And This The Day’’. But essentially Unsung relies just on his voice and acoustic guitar, which is beautifully recorded with a big , full sound. At times his expansive picking recalls Bert Jansch or Roy Harper.
As a singer-songwriter Bates has a wide stylistic lexicon, ranging from soft susurrations to notes that feel wrenched out from somewhere deep. On ‘Muted Music’, he evokes the heightened poignancy of its inevitable transience. One of the album’s loveliest melodies, ‘Caustic’ is, however, a bleak look at how memories of events can differ between two people, with the song’s narrator the one left with nothing of comfort to recall.
His love of traditional music was first overtly stated on the Murder Ballads series he made with Mick Harris in the 1990’s, and the influence of Martin Carthy suggests itself here. But his own work is more in tune with the unfettered feelings that run through folk song. On Unsung, he seals his engagement with tradition on ‘’Love Came To My Door’’, an a cappella tale shaped as a disquieting visitation rather than a cause for celebration."
[Mike Barnes, THE WIRE] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Fireworks & Jewels / The Colour of Amber |
CD |
"Fireworks & Jewels is the 3rd solo album in as many years from Eyeless In Gaza’s Martyn Bates – being a collection of mostly voice/guitar pieces with a focus on the SONG – words and music stripped to core elements. Working with these elements, Elizabeth S. and Alan Trench introduce subtle colours to the body of these performances – with Trench adding particularly deft applications of electronics & tape treatments – creating a whole other supporting soundworld for the seeming fragility of Bates’ apparently often elusively private world of words & music. As Bates’ states, for him, the whole process of music-making is cathartic. On this occasion the resulting songs address some elusive and mercurial ideas and concepts. According to Bates: “ … I wanted to put across … the way that during heightened moments in everyday life – within those moments where there are “fireworks & jewels” as you might say – there’s always a spark or a thought there that flashes the colour amber – an elusive, tantalising light that you know is eternal, and forever, and yet … it’s somehow, always, always held out of reach … .” The appropriate watchwords here might well be, perhaps, Process & Effect, Illusion & Reality, or feasibly, in keeping with the album’s title, Shadow & Substance.
Fireworks & Jewels / The Colour of Amber was completed July 2015 and recorded at Bridge House Studios, on the Greek isle of Evia – the atmosphere of whose current social and political situation of doubt and uncertainty could perhaps be said to have had a noticeable influence upon the brooding & unsettled spirit at work throughout this album."
[label info]
www.eyelessingaza.com/mb.html#1
"Looking back to the year of twenty-fifteen, my audio intake was considerably pepped up by the appearance of the "Mythic Language"/"Egg Box Mask" triple c.d. set. So much so that this retrospective from British post punk/art pop duo Eyeless in Gaza was made number one with a bullet by yours truly on the Terrascope yearly poll.
So now, only a matter of months later, the Becker/Bates family tree (pictured as an ancient yew in an English country churchyard of course...), has sprouted an extra limb with the emergence of "Fireworks..."; Martyn Bates' sixteenth (!) solo outing (on almost as many labels, I might add). To discover that was certainly a surprise (thank you Discogs!), as I simply had no idea he was that prolific!
This beautifully artworked/six-panelled disc (his third in as many years...), finds Martyn joined by Alan Trench ('tronix/sundry percussives/field recordings/kitchen sink) and the mysteriously named banjo player and backing vocalist Elizabeth S. It's a baker's dozen of dream pop constructs in which a slight sense of unease might be detected which, according to the accompanying cribsheet, could be due to the fact that the recording took place on the Greek isle of Evia, during Greece's economic/political upheaval(s). Things mostly focus on Martyn's acoustic guitar work and vocalese and emphasise a concept of pure songcraft, where certain emotional states are laid bare for all to experience. Introspective soul transmissions, if you will, that come nuanced by a number of impressionistic backdops that thankfully, don't overpower the proceedings one jot. Whichever way you huffle the pack there's always seems to be something of genuine worth. Take for example an adaption of a Walter de la Mare poem "Embers, Starry Tapers"; a vision of otherworldliness, which largely comprises of solo vox humana and layered, lighter than air vocal atmospherics. Then there's the finger-cramping banjo exercises underpinning "Belong" and "The Fall", a personal favourite in which a rhythm bed of stately piano lines is deftly overturned by what appears to be a splurge of sustained feedback/sheet metal that has the signature of Master William Reid; late of the J.A.M.C. imprinted upon it. Excellent.
Copies are available through the Eyeless website (see above) and also through the auspices of Rough Trade, i-tunes (who they?) and Amazon. Order early to avoid disappointment... accept no imitations etc etc... "[Steve Pescott, Terrascope UK] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAUMANN, FRANZISKA |
Eternal Ice melts |
CD |
Faszinierendes Gletscher-Dröhnen & erhabene Voice-Poetry von FRANZISKA BAUMANN, dazu 5 Remixe ihres Stückes von MICK HARRIS, SEETYCA (soon on Drone Rec!), SUBMERGED....
"...Highly recommended compilation to anyone interested in contemporary electronics from subtle field recordings to expressive breakbeat-science." [NMP / Vital Weekly]
"In the fall of 2003 Franziska Baumann performed at the Matrix Festival of contemporary music, in Leipzig, Germany. Her manipulated recordings of melting glacier ice wowed the audience, but just as memorable were the 125 copies of a remix CD distributed at the event. Noted artists Lull, Seetyca and Clemmens Presser were drafted to compose pieces based on her works. For Mick Harris (Lull) fans, finding a copy of this CD has been their holy grail. On October 16 Soleilmoon puts an end to their frustration, and does it in typical over-the-top Soleilmoon fashion, with a hand numbered limited edition presented in a silkscreened vellum slip cover. Fortunately, the quantity is more reasonable this time: 500 copies will be made. And finally, just for this new edition, Kurt Gluck (Submerged) has contributed a heart pounding new drum’n’bass track. Lull is the name of the dark ambient side project of Mick Harris, former drummer for Napalm Death and current leader of challenging industrial music band Scorn. German artist Seetyca is a prolific artist who records his bleak, isolationist soundscapes music for many labels, including darkwinter.com. Clemens Presser, another German artist, has contributed to several compilations and is now working on his first solo album. Kurt Gluck runs the Ohm Resistance label and is a famous drum’n’bass DJ. He has collaborated with Bill Laswell and John Zorn, and regularly moves back and forth between the dance and experimental music scenes. Franziska Baumann is fascinated by the glacier as a listening space. She has been examining the forms of sound in and upon the glacier, inspired by the enormous tide of ice and its multilayered temporal and spatial dimensions, and she sets her own voice in a dialogue with its icy spaces Using stereo, zoom and contact microphones, Franziska Baumann senses the aliveness and dynamics of ice and the poetry of the sounds that live in glacial crevasses and grottos. The sounds of the glacier (creaks, drips, rumbles, shuffles etc.) were recorded at different times on and within. Her voice touches the icy crevasse walls in their various states, from karstic to icy smoothness. Warmth and cold produce different sound pictures. In collaboration with glaciologists from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and the Swiss Computing Center in Zurich, she has transformed seismographic recordings of glacial movements into sound paintings. A portrait of this work was broadcasted on Swiss television in December 2001." [press release]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| BAYER, KONRAD |
Dreams of leaving |
CD |
"Sanft schlängeln sich subtile Sounds, wärmen zärtlich ohne zu erdrücken, sind stets präsent ohne jemals zu penetrieren. Das Weite dieser Veröffentlichung, das Nimmermüde gleicht einem wärmenden Händedruck mit Fremden, welche Freunde werden können." [Sebastian Lobstedt / Equinox]
“Twelve tracks between digital folk, field recording and escapism. track 2, 3, 8, and 12 were created in cooperation with the norwegian musician pal asle pettersen. 'dreams of leaving' is an album for winter times, but only occasionally icy, most of the time quite the opposite.” [label info]
“.....Bayer is a boy armed with a laptop, feeding field recordings and samples of classical music to the machine, leaves it boiling for some time and serves twelve tracks of winter music. It's cold outside, but inside Bayer's music is like a warm fire. In each of the twelve tracks, Bayer displays a love for ambient, a very tiny bit of techno music and just a little bit more of clicks and cuts. Occassionally a small melody leaks through the rain of software synthesizers, like in 'Aspertam', which even has a sampled guitar or the christmas like tune 'It Was When'. This is not the sort of music that goes for the trophee of 'musical innovation 2003', but nevertheless a nice winter's journey in music.”[FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.genesungswerk.de
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
| BAYLE, FRANCOIS |
Les Couleurs de la Nuit |
CD |
"The complete version, as premiered in 1982, of one of the François Bayle's masterpieces.
François Bayle studied with Stockhausen and Messiaen. He joined the ORTF Groupe de Musique Concrète in 1960. He later led the group when it became the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1966. Most of his compositions are electronic, and his first important work, 'Espaces inhabitables' (1967) is suggestive of an imaginary world in which nature is distorted in a dream-like fashion. He later utilized natural and synthetic sounds in his compositions, such as the recorded sounds made in a Lebanese cave. He has stated that his purpose as a composer is to enable the listener to feel the motion and vibration of energy in the universe.
François Bayle characterizes his art like this:
"...my purpose was always the same: to compose with only 'images-de-sons' (sound images); to show how, through pure listening in an acousmatic situation, these sound images move like butterflies through audible space and project a colored twinkling on the listener. Out of frame, this is a world proved by itself... Les couleurs de la nuit was created for "tapes and computer". [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Les Couleurs de la Nuit |
LP |
"The complete version, as premiered in 1982, of one of the François Bayle's masterpieces.
François Bayle studied with Stockhausen and Messiaen. He joined the ORTF Groupe de Musique Concrète in 1960. He later led the group when it became the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1966. Most of his compositions are electronic, and his first important work, 'Espaces inhabitables' (1967) is suggestive of an imaginary world in which nature is distorted in a dream-like fashion. He later utilized natural and synthetic sounds in his compositions, such as the recorded sounds made in a Lebanese cave. He has stated that his purpose as a composer is to enable the listener to feel the motion and vibration of energy in the universe.
François Bayle characterizes his art like this:
"...my purpose was always the same: to compose with only 'images-de-sons' (sound images); to show how, through pure listening in an acousmatic situation, these sound images move like butterflies through audible space and project a colored twinkling on the listener. Out of frame, this is a world proved by itself... Les couleurs de la nuit was created for "tapes and computer"." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Electrucs ! |
LP |
Lost tapes !
François BAYLE - "ELECTRUCS !" - 1974
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the GRM, the composer François Bayle introduces us to some of his unpublished archives :
- "Electrucs !" (1974) composed on a Synthi AKS synthesizer
- "Foliphonie" (1974) inspired by "La Grande Polyphonie".
- "Marpège" (1995) dedicated to Bernard Parmegiani.
- Also includes "Cinq dessins en rosace" (1973).
Electrucs (1974) - 20'41
A1 - sophistication - 2'44
A2 - train noir - 2'17
A3 - voltage stomp - 1'48
A4 - crépuscule - 2'32
A5 - quadrille - 1'38
A6 - arpegiatto - 1'17
A7 - mélodie zèbre - 1'25
A8 - saccades - 1'50
A9 - la « chose » - 1'58
A10 - ennemi intime - 3'07
Cinq dessins en rosace (1973) - 13'41
B1- rosace 1 – 1’53
B2 - rosace 2 - 2’33
B3 - rosace 3 - 3’27
B4 - rosace 4 – 2’19
B5 - rosace 5 – 3’27
B6 - Foliphonie - 3’30 (1974)
B7 - Marpège - 3’15 (1995)
Born in 1932 in Tamatave (Madagascar) where he lived for 14 years,
François BAYLE is a major figure of electro acoustic music and member of the historic Pierre Schaeffer's "Groupe de Recherches Musicales" (GRM) joined in Paris in 1958.
In 1975, the GRM was integrated with the new Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) with Bayle as its head, which post he held until 1997, he brought a valuable contribution to the opening of musical research in these original innovative institutions.
Ever since his first productions ( “L’expérience acoustique” 1971) François Bayle has developed through a great variety of “ formats “and designed the Acousmonium a sound diffusion system used originally by the GRM.
He also originated the record series Collection Ina-Grm, organizes concerts and supports the development of technologically advanced musical instruments (Syter, Grm tools...).
After leaving GRM in 1997, he founded his own electronic music studio and record label Magison.
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/electrucs |
2018 |
€24.50 |
|
| BAZE.DJUNKIII |
presents Pink Minimalism |
7inch |
"After 7 long years of silence the Hamburg-based underground imprint INTRAUTERIN RECORDINGS unleashes its next record or better: an anti-record as the most might say, a plain statement for the love of vinyl, a record that can?t even be ripped or downloaded and still is made for collectors and lovers ? limited to 120 hand-stamped copies worldwide.
So what's this fuzz about an anti-record about? A piece of vinyl that cannot be ripped? The answer is simple and obvious. There is no music. There?s not even a groove to be found on this one. Just a plain and simply beautiful piece of virgin vinyl, prompting everyone ? as the stamped B-side says ? to ?ENGRAVE YOURSELF.? , an invitation to make a limited but still machine made piece a very unique and personal one, a request to make up ones mind and get ready for some experimentation.
This record does not intend to send out a big a FUCK YOU to everyone working in the digital circuits of the music industry. This record is a gift to all free spirits out there.
No represses. Once run out this anti-record will be gone forever." [label info]
|
2012 |
€6.50 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA |
Nothing is what it seems |
CD |
"Almost 70 minutes of music, nine pieces of a sonic mosaic full of ideas and inventions? More structured compositions places side by side with more abstract numbers, built with a wide range of sounds, extremely variegated both in timbre and origin. Elaborated electronic treatments applied to sounds and noises of a concrete nature, field-recordings, drones, electronic hisses, shaked metals, cracklings, human and animal guttural cries, synthetic pads, ethereal and undecipherable voices, mechanical loops, noises from the everyday life? An incredibile and unpredictable sound universe without borders and without time..." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Gianluca Becuzzi already established himself as the man behind Kinetix, before leaving that name behind and started again under his own name. Its not easy to note the differences between the two projects. Maybe the name change was just to establish himself as a more serious composer, without wanting to change his music very much. A lot of what Becuzzi does is from the world of computers, electronics and, perhaps, analogue synthesizers, along with a bit of field recordings and electro-acoustics. If a change took place then its most likely in that his recent work is less cold and clinical, perhaps also less calculated and more musical, explanatory in a way. If we take the title in mind, are we then sure about those train sounds in 'Portraits Of Indifference'? Maybe its not? That might be more or less the narrative aspect of this release - nothing is what it seems and somehow it might be that this is explained track by track (a leftover from the more conceptual days?): to have a few sounds which may transport the listener to a particular setting which he can relate to (actually train stations is the one I was thinking of in various pieces, but also the zoo), but you never know if it is really sounds from trains (or any such like, whatever the listener imagines, I guess). Becuzzi cleverly processed his sounds to sound like something which may or may not be related. Quite drone like obviously, and the effect of a drum machine in 'In A Filthy Nursery' may destroy that (and also seems a bit out of place, I think), but through this is quite an interesting release of imaginary soundtracks for the ears." [Vital Weekly] |
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
(In)Visible Fields |
do-CD |
"INVISIBLE FIELDS is collection of tracks created in order to non-compositional works: sound and video installations, theatre, performances, live set. The first CD includes 5 tracks from various installations and theatre pieces: FOR E.A.P. is a reworked audio section for a theatre piece based on E.A. POE novel "The Pit and the Pendulum. THE CAGE is a performance made for the art exhibition "Strade Bianche". Gianluca Becuzzi played, into an etruscan barrel, a big empty aviary, scraping and beating it. RADIO TRANS IT was composed for an installation by Pietro Riparbelli / K11 entitled "Camera Sonora for 4 Radiodramas" presended at eXperimenta 02. WATER MEMORIES is the title of a site specific work presented at eXperimenta 03. BREATHS is the soundtrack of a series of video portraits by Francesco Arena. The second CD includes the long title track (IN)VISIBILITY, a semi-impro electroacoustic live set. The performance was created with a laptop playing a backing track (field-recordings, processed frequencies, concrete sounds) and objects (paper and stones of different form and size)." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
We can be Everywhere |
CD-R |
"Featuring: SVART1, DEISON and RETINA. IT
"We Can Be Everywhere" includes collaborations with Deison, Svart1, Retina.it as well as solo tracks by Italian ambient / electronic music artist Gianluca Becuzzi. "We Can Be Everywhere" is his best work to date. And his darkest one.
Limited to 200 copies only, cardboard sleeve." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA & FABIO ORSI |
Muddy speaking Ghosts through my machines |
CD |
Zweite VÖ dieses Jahr für das italienische Duo, experimentelle electronica-ambience die mit Blues & Folk-Versatzstücken sowie field recordings angereichert ist, was zu erstaunlich stimmigen Ergebnissen führt.
"Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines' is the brand new album released together by Fabio Orsi and Gianluca Becuzzi. This album will be certainly followed by other cooperations, considering the big friendly artistic sodality between them. Fabio e Gianluca are a strange duo, considering the big differences of their artistic back-ground. Fabio Orsi is a young and unexpected talent. After his first album, "Osci" (LP, SmallVoices 2005), produced by Gianluca Becuzzi, he got a lot of positive feedbacks, worldwide, by the most important international media, confirmed by his second official release "For Alan Lomax" (CD, A Silent Place 2006) splitted with cosmical Italian duo My Cat is an Alien. Gianluca Becuzzi is a very well known character of the Italian experimental scene since from the 80s, under many different alias. Recently known as Kinetix, Gianluca latest release is the very well appreciated "Memory Makes Noise" (CD, SmallVoices 2006) a great electroacoustic pearl. The unexpected uncounter between different forces, experiences and visions of this two artists is prefectly melted in this album: strong and tied, an imaginary place where folkway and research, past and present, distance and closeness, mud and clouds, ghosts and machines meets. Shreds of ballads, guitars and old keyboards floating on the vibrant surface of this faery river and disappear, towed off by drones and rumors, pouring between distant voices and centenary blues songs from the Alan Lomax archive. Raptur and sweet lostness: this is the main sensation. It could be listed as Avant-Folk, or Experimental-Blues, Ambient- Roots or contemporary aesthetics and aching nostalgia..." [label press release]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Dust Tears and Clouds |
do-CD |
"Following the previous albums released, among others, by Last Visible Dog and Digitalis, "Dust Tears and Clouds" is the fifth full-lenght work born from the collaboration between Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi. Becuzzi is an electronic / electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the first half of the ’80s. Founder of the historic Darkwave / Industrial project Limbo, since 1999 his artistic production is characterized by a strong experimental imprint and by a clear tendency toward abstract aesthetic forms and micro/macro noises/sounds. Among his recent artistic production - in addition to what he has published under his own name - we should at least mention his projects Kinetix, Noise Trade Company and Grey History. On the other side, Orsi sits among the most interesting names of the European electronic and experimental scene. Following his early output on A Silent Place and Smallvoices, his music works have been published by many other labels worldwide, including Porter Records, Boring Machines and, of course, Silentes. His talent has become an estabilished reality thanks to his abilities in finding a nice balance between experimentation and melody. “Dust Tears and Clouds” combines two CDs in a single release. The first disc, entitled “Dust Tears and Skinny Legs Poets”, was recorded in 2007 and remained unreleased until now. It contains eight highly evocative tracks that feature American Folk samples recorded by Alan Lomax mixed with guitars and electronics. This work can be seen as the ideal follow-up to the acclaimed “Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines”. The second disc collects the three long tracks previously released by Foxglove back in 2007 as a 3x3” MiniCD-Rs extremely limited edition, with the welcome addition of an unreleased fourth track. Here Becuzzi and Orsi offers two solo efforts and two collaborative numbers; the voices and samples that graced the first disc are absent and the musicians create denser experimental plots soaked with field recordings, synthesizers and effects. Overall, the two Italian artists showcase a broad range of solutions and, once again, they create a rich work whose repeated listening will reveal more and more details." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Deceivingly simple. That's what I thought when I noted on the cover 'contains american folk samples by Alan Lomax'. Lomax recorded a whole bunch people singing traditional songs, usually without any instruments, and that's true treasure vault if you want to spice up your abstract music with a more musical element. It almost immediately turns your music into a movie soundtrack or radio play. Easy stuff? The easy road of Moby? Perhaps, perhaps, the eight pieces recorded by Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi, who use a lot a of guitars and field recordings here, and seem to have reduced the electronics, create some great music with not just their instruments, but use the Lomax archives with relatively fine sparseness. Not too much, not too little, and sometimes it seems they process a bit of that too, or just the insects in the background and create perhaps indeed easy music, but easy music that works very well. In the two parts of 'Talking With Ghosts' the original Lomax recordings are a bit too much with not enough 'anything else', but these are with three minutes each also the shortest ones. The other six pieces are longer, but are more in favor of new music with the Lomax samples to support it. Nice stuff, relaxing, ambient, micro sounding but with an odd twist. Just why did it take so long, as this was recorded in 2007, to release it? Maybe Becuzzi and Orsi weren't that sure either? As a bonus (?) there is a second CD with four longer pieces of which three were released in 2007 as three 3" CDRs by Foxglove, with one piece by Becuzzi and Orsi each solo and two duo pieces, of which one is previously unreleased. This is more familiar territory for both artists. Long pieces of ambient like sounds, in which all of the sources - field recordings, guitars, electronics - are further processed and make up some dark ambient music, but not in the strictest drone sense. It moves about in a calm and gentle way, but is perhaps also a bit long here and there, and a bit with form. It moves in irregular shapes and colors and is alright. Not great actually and perhaps a bit too much common ground?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA & LUIGI TURRA |
In Winter |
CD |
"One more new Gianluca Becuzzi release on Silentes, this time in collaboration with Luigi Turra. Composer of musique concrete and graphic designer whose main interest is the musical balance between silence and the tactile perception of sound, Turra’s works were published by labels such as and/OAR, Unfathomless, Non Visual Objects, Smallvoices and many others. A lot has already been written about Becuzzi, here we would just like to remember his historic Darkwave / Industrial project Limbo, his more recent Kinetix and Noise Trade Company incarnations, and the long collaboration he carried on with Fabio Orsi. "In Winter" was recorded between 2008 and 2010, with Becuzzi mostly taking care of field recordings and programming, and Turra giving his own contribution playing acoustic guitar and piano. Light as the snowflakes that entitle them, these nine compositions offer dreamy atmospheres that rely on minimal structures and evoke visions of lonely and lazily wintry landscapes. Music for the heart and the mind, delicate representations of quiet moods translated into harmonic sequences that combine environmental synthesis with influences of a refined sophistication." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| BEEQUEEN |
Music for the head ballet |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung dieser vergriffenen BEE QUEEN CD von 1996, die vier sehr ruhig schwingende Drones enthält.. (ein zuvor nicht enthaltener Bonustrack!)
" Die Musik greift in das Environment ein, formt es um und verändert die Sichtweise des Hörers auf so subtile Weise, daß die Veränderungen erst Stunden später erkennbar werden." [Zipo, Auf Abwegen # 20]. Die neue BEE QUEEN - CD ist im Gegensatz zum Vorgänger wesentlich ruhiger, meditativer und monotoner und enthält 3 lange Atmo-Tracks. Sehr schön!“ [Drone Records info 1997]
„Always a lonesome recording with it's distant organ drones quietly amassed, Music for the Head Ballet was first bestowed upon us in 1996. The now defunct Isomorphic records had the privilege of issuing these 3 pieces of lulling resonating ambience. Music for the Head Ballet has had an elusive history. There is little information about the music listed anywhere. The reviews are scarce, and those few that do make a mention are consistent in their praise of this alluring work. The original 936 numbered copies seem to be carefully tucked away on coveted shelves as it is rarely seen making an appearance in any market platform. Even the names of the tracks support it's ambiguous nature ("Days that never were", "White feathers on a dish,used to erect the pyramids" and "These foolish things"). Now after so many years of myth making, this gorgeous work has been made available again by Infraction. This reissue features new artwork as well as a previously unreleased 13 minute additional track from the original sessions. It is quite possibly the most blissful track Beequeen have committed to disc. Buy it now and hold your peace forever. Edition of 500.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sturmwind and Gilbert |
7inch |
"The time has come: Beequeen’s final single “Sturmwind” is now available on Tonefloat records! With this single, surely our most ‘pop’ release ever, comes an end to nearly 30 years of Beequeen. What a beautiful and fun ride this has been, so much we have seen, heard and learned for which we have so many people to thank. Do things really end here? Who knows? As always, I keep working on new material. “Sometimes my arms bend back” – to the future…
Meanwhile, the “Escape” CD, featuring covers of the songs on “Asylum”, the 1985 album by The Legendary Pink Dots will be released soon. It features my solo version of “Golden Dawn” of which I’m actually quite proud😉
THE PRESS BIT: Achtung! Beequeen (Olga Wallis, Freek Kinkelaar and Frans de Waard) goes pop. But Beequeen being Beequeen, it is not pop as we know it. Sturmwind, as the title suggest, is sung in German and probably the first single in history to paraphrase German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters in the chorus of “Du, deiner, dich, dir” from his famous poem An Anna Blume. Couple this with an existentialist lyric about overwhelming all-consuming love at the end of the world and an uplifting melody and rhythm and you end up with the typical surreal-twist that was also present on Beequeen’s latest album “Around Midnight”. The other side of this single tells the story of Gilbert; who hungers for love, but fails to understand what the concept of ‘love’ actually is. Gilbert is set to an 80s shoegazing tune where desperation gets mixed-up with hope. And with this single the Beequeen bids us, after more than 30 years, goodbye. Sturmwind/Gilbert was written by Freek Kinkelaar and Beequeen, produced and mixed by Peter van Vliet (The Use Of Ashes) and mastered by Raymond Steeg. Sturmwind/Gilbert will be out on March 19 as a limited edition 7inch (300 copies) in a numbered sleeve designed by Carl Glover." [Freek Kinkelaar web & label info]
"Achtung! Beequeen goes Pop. Aber da Beequeen Beequeen ist, es dabei kein Pop wie man ihn kennt herausgekommen. Sturmwind ist, wie der Titel bereits suggeriert, Deutsch gesungen und wahrscheinlich die erste Single in der Geschichte die den deutschen Dadaismus Künstler Kurt Schwitters mit seinem berühmten Gedicht An Anna Blume im Chorus "Du, deiner, dich, dir" frei aufgreift. Verbinden Sie dies mit existentialistischen Texten von überschwänglicher, alles auffressender Liebe am Ende der Welt und einer aufbauenden Melodie und Rhythmus und man landet bei dem typisch surrealen Schwung, der auch auf Beequeens letztem Album "Around Midnight" präsent gewesen ist. Die andere Seite dieser Single erzählt die Geschichte von Gilbert; der nach Liebe hungert, aber nicht versteht was das aktuelle Konzept von Liebe ist. Gilbert ist an eine selbstverliebte 80s Melodie gebunden, bei der Verzweiflung und Hoffnung eng beieinander liegen. Und genau mit dieser Single sagen uns Beequeen, nach mehr als 30 Jahren, Goodbye. Sturmwind wurde von Peter van Vliet (The Use Of Ashes) gemischt und produziert." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2016 |
€9.50 |
|
| BEGG, MICHAEL / HUMAN GREED |
Let the cold Stove sing |
CD |
"These recordings comprise work conceived for theatre, gallery and installation contexts. They are concerned with defined and definite spaces, places and absences. These places arise both from nature and through construction. In turn, the construction may be natural or virtual.
They are informed by the great divorce of music and context occasioned by the birth of recording, and by the 20 year fermata occurring after the invention of recording and before the discovery of the means of affecting playback. This was, by definition, the period where we began to conceive of the need to listen repeatedly, in the way an archaeologist brushes repeatedly at the desert, for clues, details, and, possibly, reason." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
"East Lothian based composer Michael Begg has quietly but steadfastly released (in this listener's humble opinion) some of the finest and most affecting albums of the last decade, such as 2008's dark and yearning 'Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star', 2011's melancholic masterpiece 'Fortress Longing' and 2014's career best 'World Fair'. Along the way many noted and esteemed collaborators have added their voice or presence to proceedings such as Julia Kent (Antony And The Johnsons), David Tibet (Current 93), Chris Connelly (Ministry) and Clodagh Simonds (Mellow Candle, Fovea Hex). Working in the realm of drones, electronica and modern experimental composition to create vast, atmospheric and hugely evocative pieces of sound and melody, Begg has little in the way of contemporaries although aficionados of the windswept work of Richard Skelton, 'On Land'-era Eno, the dark soundscapes of Andrew Lilies and the classic recordings of Reich, Glass and Popol Vuh will find much to fall in love with here. Referencing both, according to Begg, 'gallery, theatre and installation works, as well as my preoccupation with defining space, place and time with sound' this is an essential and crucial work that needs to be heard and experienced.
The album begins with 'Hopetoun Tower Before The Harvest', named after a forbidding and lonely construction that stands defiantly on a hill near Begg's Captain's Quarters recording studio. As befits its namesake, the track rumbles with exposure to some building and growing winds as snakelike electronics creep and wisp into view. A beautiful and tentative string section enters, trembling emotively as bowed strings and bowls resonate. It feels sacred, like a storm has suddenly and dramatically silenced leaving a hushed and perceptible sense of being in the universe. The title track follows, piano and droned strings echoing out into darkness, both tangibly lonely and filled with a gorgeous sadness. There is something deeply existential about this work, one feels small in the face of the space and sounds that evoke the surrounding skies and landscape. 'The Children Will Wet The Academy Floor' adds some truly lovely chamber strings that reverberate and haunt, a spectral symphony of lamentation and grief whilst 'Paris is Closing' is a field recording of chatter and metro sounds that are pleasingly though disturbingly disorientating. Next, 'Pendrachin Wood: Pollen And Frost' is a frozen and glacial layered piece of orchestral electronica, reminiscent of Bowie's Berlin experiments; this literally lifts the hairs of one's arms and neck as it swells and recedes with visions of snow covered pines in the darkening Scottish winter afternoons. Human Greed are no simple drone or electronic act; these are carefully wrought and constructed compositions that evoke and emote in an almost avant classical sense. They are almost unique in working in this field and are creating pieces of heartbreaking genius that this listener implores you to discover and fall in love with; it is criminal that Begg is not more revered outside of the underground as the pioneer and composer that he is.
'Francis Bacon; A Room' is as complex and unsettling as the British artist himself, a corrosive drone and buzz hovering over the mutter of voices whist a sister song 'Louise Bourgeois: A Cell' allows chimes and electronic hums to flutter and slither malevolently throughout. 'Leisure In F' glides majestically into being, epic and choral strings ebbing and flowing until ominous notes and birdsong float into focus; reminiscent of charcoal skies passing by overhead with the threat of snowfall as nature and animal life reacts accordingly this is an incredibly moving and transportive piece. 'Made And Unmade In Europe' rasps and buzzes as a bird's lonesome call cries out against the imperious landscape, an unforgiving wind suddenly giving way to a soprano song and weeping strings in a genuinely breathtaking moment. 'Cunny For Thine Mountain Penne' almost silently emerges on delicate notes and drone sounds, distant percussion and mournful brass reminding this listener of Gorecki's 'Sorrowful Songs'. Stately, graceful and melancholic this regal and funereal piece stays with the listener long after the album has finished playing. Next, 'Intermission For Blisters And Russian Weddings' is driven along on wary and eerie violin bursts, a solar echo resonating and unfurling slowly and perceptibly whilst gentle bass notes hold anchor. This is music to play when the sky is huge, dark and forbidding, to watch the stars blink on and off with cosmic indifference to us watching.
'Studies In Space And Density' is equally massive in scale and suggestion; a cold, sad throb through the universe that becomes increasingly distorted and growling before returning to an icy, repeating refrain of solar wind. A sudden warmth enters with 'Let The Cold Stove Sing Within Reason' as a bass throb and beautiful melody grows and layers over a distant electronic howl and circling strings. Hugely affecting, there is an integral human component at the heart of everything Human Greed or Begg does, this is music about the human condition, about what it is to be in this casually cruel and beautiful universe. 'Whiteadder Water After The Harvest' brings us full circle and close the album with the burble of streams and rivers, metallic and windswept notes sweeping overhead.
I cannot recommend this album highly enough. There is more detail, more arresting and heart-rending moments, more creativity on this album than there is in some other artist's entire oeuvres. One for those lonely, late night listens or for accompaniment of solitary walks and dérives, 'Let The Cold Stove Sing' is a heartbreakingly beautiful and important album, perhaps quite easily already my album of the year. The cold stove is singing, now one must listen." [Grey Malkin/The Active Listener blogspot]
active-listener.blogspot.de/2016/06/michael-begg-human-greed-let-cold-stove.html
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEHRENS, MARC |
Architectural Commentaries |
CD |
Architektonischer Noise? Aurale Geometrie? MARC BEHRENS versieht sein Cover mit Fotos von dreidimensionalen Gebilden & Gebäuden und scheint auch soundmäßig neuartige Räume ausloten zu wollen. Hermetischer Minimal-Ambient zwischen Geräusch, Drone und dem Nichts, veröffentlicht auf dem inzwischen von 20CITY in CMR unbenannten ESO STEEL – Label aus Neuseeland. Etwas für spitze Ohren.
“ German composer and sound artist Marc Behrens has put forth a beautiful installment of sound work for CMR's second CD release, entitled Architectural Commentaries. Marc has been working with sound (in one form or another) since 1986 and is probably most recognised for his digitally re-worked field material and composition. With a long history of installation work and live performance, he has exhibited alone and in group exhibitions; and performed live internationally in locations such as Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. He has completed tours with fellow sound artists Francisco Lopez, Bernhard Gunter and John Duncan and has had notable CD releases on Gunter's label Trente Oiseaux (Germany), Digital Narcis (Japan), Raster Music (Germany) and Intransitive Recordings (USA).
Architectural Commentaries is comprised of five tracks. The first three pieces, entitled 'Architectural Commentaries 1-3', are some of Marc's most recent compositions arranged in 2001 using basic material recorded from 1990-2000 in various global locations. Taking title, sleeve images and sound together we are left with new audible environments for architectural structures; jets of forced air and amplified nothing, distant machinery and tiny bites of frequency, faded and cut together to create beautifully atmospheric soundscapes. Track 4 was previously released on RLW's 'Tulpas' 5 CD set (Selektion 024) and was constructed using source material from Ralf Wehowsky. Track 5 was composed in 1992 as a soundtrack to accompany the video Der Raum by Torsten Grosch - stills of which feature on the CD sleeve. The album permits a smooth flow between Marc's earlier and more recent work and shows the artists' continuing exploration into the depth and dimensions of sound recording.” [press release]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Architectural Commentaries 4 & 5 |
CD |
“An Architectural Commentary is a form of ‘reviewing’ architecture in which functional, symbolic and aesthetic aspects of a building or
a bigger architectural structure are analysed. Inspiration for this cycle of compositions is drawn from architectural criticism, structures,
buildings, involuntary cityscapes ‘architecture without architects’)and technological noise within buildings.
One special recording session took place at Resonance FM, the London-based radio station, in June 2004. Patrick McGinley of Resonance FM
and I recorded the studio equipment itself, the drive noises, ventilation, vibrations in the machines, the studio’s air conditioning, doors…
This particular array of sound forms the sole and exclusive basic material for Architectural Commentary 5: Some Models for Resonant Behaviour
and links the cycle to earlier music pieces I constructed with sounds from computer labs. This part was commissioned by Resonance FM.
In Architectural Commentaries I composed some structures (mainly in parts 4 and 5) loosely based on Luigi Nono’s idea of ‘isole musicali’.
This means that encyclopaedic variations of themes are generated and often highlighted by silent breaks, like islands, between the individual parts, all different in form and size, but topologically similar.”
Frankfurt-based Behrens is presently best described as a ‘sound artist’, working across performance, installation and audio-visual recorded media. He also creates photographic works, designs record sleeves, and has even produced a bottle of white wine...
First edition of 300 copies." [label notes]
"There are sounds like stone on stone, for example, large stones. To the extent they offer images of cityscapes, they do so in a de Chirico sense, one of empty concrete canyons and long shadows. There’s a brief bustle or two, a sudden flurry of traffic, but then it’s back to the urban desolation. A short track separates the two main pieces; though it’s entirely of a piece with them, its concision serves to orient the listener with regard to the others. The first half of Commentary 5 is even emptier than its predecessor, a place of drips, vague, distant echoes of machinery, the occasional low thrum of some subterranean engine. Midway through, an eerie, silvery drone emerges accompanied by quasi-musical pings, backwards tape swatches and gurgles. It’s kind of like coming upon a barely functioning outpost in the ruins. It dissipates after a few minutes, bringing us back into the ozone-tinged vacuum. Behrens has created some evocative work, very effective and accomplished of its kind." [Brian Olewnick / Bagatellen]
www.entracte.co.uk
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
20 Zonen |
CD |
"Produced in 2010 for a radio broadcast on Germany's hr2-kultur radio, "20 Zonen" (20 Zones) is Marc Behrens' homage to Darmstadt, Germany, his hometown, and in particular the city's Kranichstein district, where he grew up and learned to listen. Behrens made recordings in such locations like an equestrian club, a heavy ion research unit, a railway museum, and of trains and airplanes noisily cutting through the supposed serenity of the industrially planted forests around Darmstadt. From time to time the subjective microphone goes underwater and dips into the area's various ponds, among them the world famous Messel Pit Fossil site, which used to be a rainforest millions of years ago, not unlike the Amazon still is today. The intricately edited material is arranged into zones that "form themselves into cells, into blocks, into a topophonic cross vein" (Stefan Fricke, hr2-Kultur), set in a grey area between musique concrète and phonography." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
"Having played on six continents, recording fields in China and the Amazon rainforest, Marc Behrens keeps things close to home on his '20 Zonen' release. By invitation of Germany's hr2-kultur radio show he pays homage here to the city where he was born, Darmstadt (in Germany obviously) and especially in the area called Kranichstein. The forty minute work is divided in twenty zones (hence the title), not equally but what is needed. These zones are put behind one and other with small cross fades and as one piece on this CD. The cover lists, luckily, every single bit which is nice. So we have anything from a brass band to churches, parks, a local pond, aircraft noise, train announcements, which may seem like this is a demonstration record by the local tourist office, but the recording, selection and chronology of these sounds, can stand very well as an electro-acoustic composition - if perhaps somewhat loosely organized at times and a bit sparse. If you don't know Darmstadt, just as I
don't, this will perhaps a very much the audio portrait of any civilized city with perhaps not a lot of human activity, but it sounds great with lots of detail. Behrens must have some fine microphones at his disposal." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Im Rahmen der Sendereihe 'Hessen hören' des Hessischen Rundfunks audiografierte MARC BEHRENS Darmstadt, insbesondere den Ortsteil
Kranichstein, mit Abstechern in die Umgebung - zur Grube Messel und zur Grube Prinz von Hessen. Insgesamt 20 Zonen (aatp35) sind als akustische Mosaiksteine zusammengefügt. Einen besonderer Reiz liefert die Eisenbahn mit dem Verschiebebahnhof und dem Eisenbahnmuseum in Kranichstein. Neben dem Stichwort Verkehr, das auch im Sausen der Straßenbahn und im Fluglärm der Einflugschneise des Frankfurter Flughafens widerhallt, spielt die Wissenschaft mit, nämlich mit dem GSI Helmholtzzentrum für
Schwerionenforschung in Wixhausen und der TU Lichtwiese. Die beiden Gruben sind verwandt durch die Entstehung im Eozän vor rund 47 Millionen Jahren, wobei Messel als Fossilienfundstätte Hessens Vergangenheit als
Dschungel festhält, während die Prinz von Hessen ein Relikt des Industriezeitalters
ist. Zur Erholung geht man an den Bürgerparkteich, den Backhausteich, den Steinbrückerteich, in den Park Rosenhöhe mit der Kirche St. Ludwig oder in den Herrngarten des Prinz-Heinrich-Palais; pferdesportlich
wird es auf dem Gelände des Darmstädter Reitervereins. Behrens zieht da wieder geschickt eine Zeitachse ein, wenn er über der 1 PS-Mobilität, deren Zeitebene auch das Bläserkorps der Kreisjägervereinigung Böblingen
evoziert, die Düsenmaschinen von Heute hinweg ziehen lässt. Dazwischen schnaufen noch einmal die Dampfventile alter Lokomotiven. Oder sind das Urwaldtiere von Einst? Die Frösche jedenfalls, die quaken hier schon ne ganze Weile. Lebensraum wird ganz intensiv als Spannungsfeld von Natur und Kultur in Raum und Zeit begreifbar." [Bad Alchemy]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Mut Att Narc Imm |
CD |
„Mut Att Narc Imm“
Mut att narc imm mut att imm narc mut narc att imm mut narc imm att mut imm att narc mut imm narc att att mut imm narc att mut narc imm att narc imm mut att narc. The three pieces on this album are steps in an evolution of live concert pieces. Each of the title abbreviations indicates a specific sound set. The titles (Imm, Att Imm Mut and Mut Att Narc Imm) become genetic sequences forming the possibilities of the sound set combinations. Mut imm att imm narc mut att imm mut narc narc mut att imm narc mut imm att narc att mut imm narc att imm. The concrete sounds featured in the various sets are recordings made with a circular water reservoir (Kleiner Wasserspeicher, Berlin), various electric kettles, a wet towel, metal percussion, and metal jetties at Marseille harbour. Starting with the Imm set in 2006, the evolution halts with the full Mut Att Narc and Imm sets in 2016. Performances of the different evolutionary stages took place in Europe, South America, South Africa, Asia and Australia. With the release of the Mut Att Narc Imm album in 2018, this cycle of work becomes recorded music. Mut narc imm mut att narc imm att mut imm mut narc att imm mut att narc imm att narc mut imm att mut narc imm narc att mut imm narc mut att.
www.aufabwegen.de/label/?p=667
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/mut-att-narc-imm
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEHRENS, MARC + FRANCISCO LOPEZ |
A szellem alma |
do-CD |
" “a szellem álma” (”the dream of a ghost”) is a collaboration between sound artists Marc Behrens and Francisco López, which started three years ago with a joint recording session at Frankfurt airport. Sharing a common pool of mutated sound materials, they have created two parallel sonic worlds inhabited by obscurity, complexity, and resilience. Two long journeys across purely sonic geographies. Crisp, dense, delicate, and full of intricate spaces. Like the dreams of a ghost." [label info] |
2004 |
€20.00 |
|
| BEINS, BURKHARD / DIRK MARWEDEL / MICHAEL VORFELD |
Misiiki |
CD |
Michael Vorfeld
Plays percussion and self designed stringed instruments and works as musician and visual artist based in Berlin, Germany. He works in the field of improvised, experimental music and sound art and is often involved in site-specific art projects. Besides his solo activities he is a member of various ensembles and collaborates with artists from different art forms. His visual work concentrates mainly on the use of light, and he realizes light installations and sound and light performances. His list of activities includes numerous concerts, performances and exhibitions in Europe, the USA and South East Asia.
Dirk Marwedel
Since 1985 improvised music, related musical concepts and interdisciplinary projects with dance, theatre, sculpture, painting, film, performance, soundinstallation; in several groups as well as a soloist developing technics of soundshaping and preparations which are extending the sonic spectrum of the saxophone far beyond the traditional sound of the instrument. Concerts in Europe and Canada. Lives in Wiesbaden, where he is a founding member and organiser of the HumaNoise congress. He is a group member of WIE?!, Salpinx, Ensemble 2INCQ, Xtrax, DOMINO Orchestra and a duo with Charlotte Hug.
Burkhard Beins
Plays percussion. Since the late 1980's international festivals, concerts and tours with experimental music throughout Europe und North America. He is a member of several ensembles like Perlonex, Activity Center, Polwechsel, The Sealed Knot, Phosphor and also works with Keith Rowe, Sven-Åke Johansson, John Bisset, Orm Finnendahl, Phil Minton, John Tilbury and many others. More than 25 CDs and LPs, released on labels like 2:13 Music, Zarek, Erstwhile, Hat Hut, Potlatch, Confront and Rossbin
www.burkhardbeins.de/groups/misiiki.html |
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| BEKAERT, JACQUES |
Jacques Bekaert |
LP |
Originally released in 1981 on the Belgian Igloo label this reissue comes with the same sleeve as originally designed by Alain Géronnez. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"A Late Lunch\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects, and juxtaposition of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom, and Blue Gene Tyranny. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"A Summer Day at Stony Point\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" was composed in 1969, with participation of David Behrman, Shigeko Kubota, and Charlotte Warren. The piece was commissioned by English composer Hugh Davies who presented it at the Harrogate festival the same year. Stony Point is a small village in New York State where John Cage co-owned a small pseudo-commune art resort where like-minded artists gathered. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"A Summer Day at Stony Point\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is nothing more than a page of a journal, a fragment of a notebook that utilizes a series of sound sources recorded at Stony Point on one beautiful day in the summer of 1968. Other electronic sound sources were recorded at the Brandeis University where Alvin Lucier was professor. The final realization of the piece was done at Henri Pousseur\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s APELAC Studio in Brussels, 1969. The soundtrack for Akiko Iimura\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Mon Petit Album was composed on the basis of a simple description of the technique of the film and its time span. It includes David Behrman on alto, from an outdoor recording at Stony Point, plus excerpts from a Transition concert in London, the band Bekaert formed in 1971 with Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi, and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers. The atmosphere is quiet and pastoral throughout with a very dreamlike flavor. Edition of 500.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"... Gentle threads of instrumental and electronic sounds are mixed with outdoor rural field recordings and occasional voices of his friends speaking, whistling or singing. Bekaert creates a warm environment within which we can hear subtle individual voices of good musicians who are relating to his loosely-notated scores and verbal instructions...\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" --David Behrman
https://metaphon2.bandcamp.com/album/jacques-bekaert
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"In a truly great moment for reissues, Metaphon delivers one of the best of the year: the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques Bekaert\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s monumental self-titled LP for Igloo from 1981. An unprecedented window into a singular creative mind, including contributions by Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, David Rosenboom, Maggi Payne, Georges Lewis, and numerous others, it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s a masterstroke of electroacoustic composition that achieved nothing short of holy grail status for collectors over the years, which manages to entirely recalibrate the listener\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s mind.
Working at a slow, meticulous pace, for a decade and half, Metaphon - the Brussels based imprint run by Timo Van Luijk - has continuously illuminated fascinating trajectories within a number of historically neglected contexts of electronic music and sound art. Primary focused on work produced in Belgium - with their own criteria of personal taste guiding them well - they’ve produced an incredibly important body of albums that endeavour to respect and supports the music and those who make it. In the midst of an incredible run - having recently released important works by Jan Bruyndonckx, Johannes Fritsch, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta, and Takehisa Kosugi’s - they’re back with the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques Bekaert’s astounding self-titled LP, originally issued by the seminal Igloo imprint in 1981.
A long-standing holy grail for countless experimental music fans, its two sides gather three astounding compositions, created in collaboration with some of the most important voices in 20th Century sound: Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, David Rosenboom, Maggi Payne, Georges Lewis, and numerous others. Absolutely incredible and not to be missed. A truly legendary album - issued in a very limited edition of 500 copies on vinyl - has finally returned to our hands.
[By Bradford Bailey, 16 December 2022]
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| BELFI, ANDREA & MACHINEFABRIEK |
Pulses & Places |
CD |
"Manche Releases enthalten neben der auralen Qualität auch etwas hübsch haptisches, etwas aus der guten :zoviet-france:-Zeit: ein gediegenes Cover zum fühlen, riechen oder auch mal etwas verquer-komisches mit Kunst- bzw. Antikunstcharakter. BromBron ist das Sublabel von Frans De Waard’s Korm Plastics, eine Serie feiner klanglicher Kostbarkeiten in zwei Sorten Karton eingeschlagen, mit Papierfahne zum Herausziehen und dem Gefühl einer kleinen gezähmten Origamisensation. Machinefabriek und Belfi kommen hier über die bizarre Haptik des Releases hinaus, passend zum geprägten Cover in Form einer alten Landkarte gibt es schnarrige Mikrophonien einsamer Studioklänge, der Stuhl vorm Mischpult darf knarzen und sein kleckeriges Scherflein zum Klang dazugeben, während Belfi Messingschüsseln schrubbt und Zuydervelt alias Machinefabriek seine fein austarierten Klangbeigaben dazurührt. Die vier Titel überspannen sämtliche Zustände im Studio, von gelöster Mikroakribie bis hin zu glacialen Droneschichten, welche so luftig leicht erscheinen, dass es einen fast selbst aus dem Ohrensessel erhebt. Dabei gehen beide Künstler vorsichtig genug um, um dieses lockere Klangsoufflee nicht platzen zu lassen. »Pulses & Places«, Puls und Platz, all das ist ein wahrer Klangbogen voller Kuriositäten, dem Ach!-Gefühl wenn ein wohlvertrauter elektroakustischer Regen aus den Boxen quillt und einem das Gefühl gibt, einfach noch nicht alles gehört zu haben. So muss Musik klingen, die zum Erscheinen der abgedruckten Coverlandkarte noch nicht existiert hat." [Thorsten Soltau, AEMAG]
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the ninth release in the Brombron series. Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Andrea Belfi (born 1979) is an Italian electro-acoustic musician and composer. He began playing drums at the age of 14, and studied art in Milan, before becoming involved in experimental music in 2000. Belfi is also a member of electronic outfit Medves. In 2002 Belfi began a project titled Between Neck & Stomach, in which he attempted to turn a whole house into a musical instrument, by using sound vibrations to shake various items, such as pots, plates, and cupboards. This project resulted in a CD of the same name, released on the Häpna label in 2006.
Rutger Zuydervelt, better known as Machinefabriek, lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Started as Machinefabriek in 2004, he released 40+ small run home-made cdr's as well as work for Type Records, Lampse, Digitalis, Staalplaat (Mort Aux Vaches) and now 12K. A double remix cd was released in 2007, with interpetations by Alva Noto, Pita, Mitchell Akiyama, Xela, Gert-Jan Prins and many more. Collaborations (live or recording) include Steinbrüchel, Jasper TX, Wouter van Veldhoven, Simon Nabatov, Frans de Waard, Aaron Martin and Peter Broderick.
A striking collaboration took place between Belfi on drums and assorted small percussion and Zuydervelt on guitar and organ. Together they produce the 'pulses' and 'places' mentioned in the title. Organic yet partially improvised, it resembles a kind of sonic geography. The listener is taken away for a journey of mild drones, soft yet outspoken percussion. A strong release. Design by Gerco Hiddink" [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BELLERUE, BOB |
Music of Liberation |
do-LP |
Bob Bellerue's new double-LP, "Music of Liberation," is a careful and intricate album of textured drone and shapely noise. Like the greatest works by post-industrial masters David Jackman (Organum) and Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), its power lies not in harshness, but in dynamic spectral intensity. These are minutely composed pieces with very great attention paid to timbral details and variances.
Through the last few years, Bellerue has released a series of highly acclaimed long-form classics of tactile noise, including 2014's "Hollow Body" (Los Discos Enfantasmes), 2015's "Damned Piano" (Anarchymoon Recordings), and 2017's "Yamaha Deluxe" (iDEAL Recordings). These are in addition to more concise releases for labels like No Rent, Banned Production, Phage Tapes, and others, issued in a lava-like flow since the start of the millennium. And with "Music of Liberation," Bellerue's singular brand of volcanic aesthetics has reached a point of near-Hellenic refinement. The four pieces here are controlled eruptions, seeping slowly with the force of geologic synthesis.
There is a subtle poignancy at work here too: "Music of Liberation" is dedicated to Bellerue's friend and collaborator, Z'EV, who passed away during the final stages of finishing the double album. The late experimental percussionist/sound artist shared a certain sensibility and approach with Bellerue, as both artists have a longstanding interest in the power of metallic resonance, poetic dissonance, and composition in-situ.
"Music of Liberation" (née "Música de Libertação") was recorded in April 2016 at Sonoscopia (Porto, Portugal), in a raw session balancing drone feedback states with instrumental and vocal elements. The session was made possible through a variety of borrowed equipment and instruments (acoustic bass, shruti box, bowed gongs), which led to techniques and content which diverge from Bellerue's canon of work with surprising melodic moments. The unfamiliar instruments lent an inscrutable, organic quality to Bellerue's emotionally charged metallurgy. To bring out more full-spectrum sound, the recordings were played back in the old marble and plaster cavern of Issue Project Room in Brooklyn (where Bellerue works), to harness the resonant acoustics and add depth and dimension to the mono source recording.
In Bellerue's realm, volatility frequently gives way to passages of sustained beauty, compelling all those journeying with him from instability to lucidity; from repression to liberation.
“In the realm of noise and experimental music, Bob Bellerue elevates his recordings beyond the mere level of harshness into three-dimensional soundscapes that can be felt as well as heard.”
- Chuck Foster, The Big Takeover
Bob Bellerue is a noise composer, experimental musician, and creative technician based in Brooklyn NY.
"Music of Liberation" has been released by Elevator Bath as a limited edition double LP, mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin
https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/music-of-liberation
|
2018 |
€25.00 |
|
| BELTAINE |
Drzewo I Kamien |
mCD-R |
Wieder etwas besonderes auf dem polnischen NEFRYT-Sublabel MALACHIT: Professionell mehrstimmiger, mittelalterlicher Gesang (soll alles von EINEM Mann stammen, was unglaublich erscheint) mit viel Pathos & Melancholia und ruhiger halbakustischer Hintergrundbegleitung. Anklänge an DEAD CAN DANCE und andere “Heavenly Voices”-acts, aber absolut eigenständig. Das alles noch in einer eigene Sprache vorgetragen...
Again something special on the NEFRYT – sublabel MALACHIT! “Seven tracks: beautiful a capella & songs inspired by folk and medieval music. Keybords, bas, guitars, dulcimers, bells, tenor flute, cithern. Fantastic singings (own language!!!) – its hard to believe, but all the voices are sing by one man!!”[Nefryt]
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| BEREZAN, DAVID |
La face cachee |
DVD-A |
"DAVID BEREZAN (*1967, Edmonton, Canada) holte sich, wie viele seiner Labelgenossen, den letzten Elektroakustikerschliff bei Jonty Harrison an der Univ. Birmingham und lehrt inzwischen selbst an der Univ. Manchester. La face cachée (IMED 0896) ist sein Debut und
präsentiert 5 Stücke, die jeweils einen konkreten Anstoß, zugleich Klangquelle, nach einer ‚verborgenen Seite‘ hin erweitern. ‚Cyclo‘ (2003) kommt vom eigenen Geradel zu einer Symbolik des Kreislaufs. ‚Baoding‘ (2002) assoziiert ‚Handschmeichler‘-Kugeln mit Peking- und Kun-Oper. ‚Styal‘ (2004) belauscht die von einem Wasserrad angetriebene Quarry Bank Mill, eine Weberei in Styal südlich von Manchester, heute Industriedenkmal, einst berühmt für seine wohltätige Kinderarbeit - tja, Music to read Dickens by. ‚Hoodoos‘ (2007) führt einen auf den Hoodoo Trail im Banff National Park, zu Strukturen aus Wasser, Holz und Stein. ‚Hannibal‘ (2005) schließlich hat nicht Lecter oder Elefanten im Sinn, sondern basiert auf ‚Hannibal II‘, einer Skulptur von Jean Tinguely, speziell dem Klang einer schwingenden Kette. Berezan nimmt Details so unter die akustische Lupe, dass der Lauscher sich ganz winzig vorkommen muss, weil die Dinge brobdingnagsche und hochdramatische Züge annehmen, aber dabei auch sich seltsam gleichen." [Bad Alchemy]
“Cyclo (2003)”. “Baoding (2002)”. “Styal (2004)”. “Hoodoos (2007)”. “Hannibal (2005)”. DVD-Audio stereo + MP3 files. “Of all the things I have learned about my own music, the notions of revealing and discovery seem the most essential. There are two sides of myself at work here, in co-operation, and sometimes in conflict, in the creation of the pieces presented on this disc.On the one hand, I search for sound sources that are sonically appealing, and that I connect with on a personal and tangible level, in their real world and everyday setting. On the other hand, through processes of transformation, reconstruction and imagination, I create and reveal hidden spaces, characters, and substance from those sources. Within, underneath, and behind the sound objects and concepts, there are often unexpected sound worlds in terms of detail, colour, and dynamic. For me, this multi-faceted aural-vision that twists, turns, and opens into itself is the magic of the art form. It is also through this process of discovering “the hidden side” (La face cachée) that I discover as much about myself.This disc and its music is dedicated to my parents: Jennie and Victor Berezan.” David Berezan [credits]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| BERG, MOLLY + STEPHEN VITIELLO |
The Gorilla Variations |
CD |
"This is the first full-length collaborative release by Richmond, VA-based musician and sound artists Molly Berg and Stephen Vitiello. The CD title, Gorilla Variations came about from a request for a short-soundtrack from Éder Santos, a Brazilian video artist who Vitiello has worked with for 20-years on an uncounted number of projects. For Santos' recent video installation, Boxing The Game, Éder asked for a 3-minute soundtrack to accompany a video portrait of Idi Amin, a lonely gorilla housed in the Belo Horizonte Zoo. Molly and Stephen recorded a 40-minute improvisation, straight to a stereo hard disc recorder (no overdubs) with the intention of choosing 3-minutes to send to Santos, the bulk of the material from that session becoming the basis for this CD ('Variations' 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The 'Variations' include layers of looped electric guitar, clarinet, voice, whistling and samples played from laptop and from Molly's Fischer Price cassette player. For Stephen this is a return to playing guitar, the first time in 6-years. A desire for melody to accompany voice was certainly an impulse to play again, as were recent collaborations with Machinefabriek and with Steve Roden, both of whose use of guitar offered useful reminders of what a nice thing it could be to play again. Additional tracks on the CD were performed, edited and performed again over a period of 6-months, drawing primarily on improvisations but also allowing for healthy doses of editing and processing in post-production. Field recordings from sites in and around Richmond are heard throughout. Recurring characters include the 14 hunting beagles in Stephen's neighbor's yard. Throughout, a shared desire to bridge songwriting with soundscape, melody with texture shape the intention of the project." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| BERG, MOLLY / OLIVIA BLOCK / STEVE RODEN / STEPHEN VITIELLO |
MOSS |
maxi-CD |
"Edition of 500. Moss, is a live recording from a unique collaboration by sound artists/musicians Molly Berg, Olivia Block, Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello. This was a midnight concert at the beautiful Trinity Cathedral in San Jose, CA which was part of the 01SJ Biennial. Olivia and Steve had performed solo sets on the previous nights. The final night was meant to be a duo with Molly and Stephen but the opportunity to play with musicians/friends who we admire so much called out for an invitation to play together. As the set was entirely improvised, the billing really changed in our minds from being a duo with guests to becoming a quartet. The church itself was certainly inspiring, it’s dark wood and clean dry acoustics. There was a very small but dedicated audience. No one slept and the church crew were able to, amazingly, quiet the rowdy revelers on the street for the duration of their set.
Anyone familiar with any of the four musicians involved in this recording will know the level of craftsmanship and attention to sonic tactility that can be found within. They each exercise such incredible restraint, a feat difficult to pull off in an impromptu improvised session where musicians are often found competing for space, and allow for a sense of place to work its way through the quiet recording. “Moss” breathes like a living being lying down to sleep — a delicate wave of hushed field recordings, tape tracks and subtle electronics provides a bed for which Molly Berg’s clarinet and voice (joined at times by Steve Roden) ebb and sway, allowed center- stage, in movements across the piece’s 24+ minutes. Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello provide guitar (lap steel and electric, respectively) while Olivia Block manipulates the tapes, field recordings and electronics.
Moss is a perfect example of how four like-minded friends and musicians can come together at a moment’s notice and create, unrehearsed, a captivating and beautiful sonic landscape. The connection between them as artists is completely evident while at the same time disappearing into the background to allow the piece move like a singular body." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2011 |
€10.50 |
|
| BERLINER RING |
Orbital |
CD |
Subtile, pulsierende, intelligent arrangierte rhythmische Elektronik von diesem Berliner Ensemble, die auch viele Instrumente und selbstgebaute Maschinen einsetzen...
"An arresting set of 'electromechanical' pieces utilising homemade instruments and various modified electronic and percussive devices, this album hones in on resonant metallic sonorities, both in the pursuit of creating strange, alien rhythms and composing melodically cogent instrumentals. Timpanis, metallophones, Korg MS20s and something called a 'heckeshorn', which if a certain video on YouTube is to be believed is a bit like an industrial revolution-era synthesizer, complete with cogs and all manner of moving parts. There's an entire solo piece on Orbital dedicated to this curious contraption (titled 'Heckeshorn') which makes for a rather creepy jaunt into the steampunk avant-garde. Berliner Ring make all manner of bizarre noises on this record, but their real achievement is in managing to configure them into easily digestible, very musical shapes. Highly recommended." [Boomkat]
"What the London orbital is to the English capital, the Berliner ring is to Berlin: a circular highway that surrounds the city.
The first contemporary release from Art Yard amalgamates disparate elements: electro mechanical devices, invented instruments, modified keyboards, delays, customised rhythm and string machines: a half man, half machine driven trip into the Electro-Mechanical sub-underground, built around a combination of moods and themes drawn from the Berlin landscape. Berliner Ring work toward a brew of forms and techniques, creating geographical references and representations, ‘tonal landscapes’, an unfolding of ambient instrumental stereologues..
Berliner Ring is: Moritz Wolpert:: percussion, tympani, painting, inventor of the Heckeshorn -a hybrid slide guitar, triggered polychord and rhythm machine. Christian Günther: builder and designer of analogue synthesizers, rhythm boxes, theremins and painting machines.
Alexander Christou: samples, electronic grooves, songs, traditional and outside music styles, 12 string guitar. Thomas Stern: bass, osmotic dubbler, doctorate in distillery, orbiting Berliner Ring and great remixer.
A collaboration with Bomb The Bass mastermind Tim Simenon is planned for later in 2009." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Bardo |
12inch |
"In their own words, like a radio-controlled mechanical, electro-mechanical and multifunctional musical instrument, Berliner Ring build up relentless and relentlessly different grooves in a characteristically non-direct way. As if playing around without focus they layer their tracks and slowly position them into form. The tracks featured here were originally released on CD on the Art Yard label. Melodies are fragmented, often even sparse, the groove never stops, but does so with intervals and while changing focus. Berliner Ring references similar bands in the krautrock and post-rock genre, but it's subtlety, the originality of their self-built instruments and their songs that shift from downright groovy to more atmospheric explorations of ambience and texture guarantee them a unique voice and perspective. Essential stuff."
www.meakusma.org
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| BERNIER, NICOLAS |
Usure.Paysage |
LP |
"usure.paysage combines the strongest particles of Bernier's kaleidoscopic oeuvre: an expressive mix of lively field recordings, tiny and massive electronics and sparkling relocations. The docker barks out aloud, the little insect crawls through the 19th century woodworker's atelier, forgotten voices vanish and the rest is no silence. This is truly some of the finest musique concrète ever released on vinyl - very charming.
Nicolas Bernier: electroacoustic artist, surround sound composer, occasional curator, old typewriter aficionado and sandcastle manufacturer. Careless about aesthetic tags, Bernier navigates through live electronics, installations, musique concrète, art video, performance, music for dance, theatre and cinema. In the midst of this eclecticism, his artistic concerns remain constant: the balance between the cerebral and the sensual, and between organic sound sources and digital processing. He is the founder of the sound art microorganism Ekumen, member of the media art organization Perte de Signal and the art director of Réseaux, a major Canadian electroacoustic concert producer. His works have been awarded or broadcast in festivals around the world including ZKM, Transmediale, Prix Ars Electronica, Akousma, Mutek and DotMov.
Artwork by urban9
Mastered & cut at D+M Berlin
Vinyl only, 300 copies
http://www.nicolasbernier.com" [label info]
www.hronir.de
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| BERROCAL, JAC / MARIE FRANCE / JACK BELSEN |
Marie Antoinette is not dead |
7" |
"Crystal transparent 7' vinyl encrusted with white sprayings (I worked a lot this year and I'm emptied), numbered and stamped edition limited to 470 copies. Stunning collaboration between four entities who all left an indelible track in various spheres and in different eras, such as Jac Berrocal, a mythical figure, improvisator in his music and his encounters, a visionary poet and avant garde trumpeter who went against the grain in jazz and punk, amongst others, and his associate Jack Belsen, a virtuoso with the machines, guitarist and into a lot of other things, composer of soundtracks for films, who founded with F.J. Ossang in 1980 the Messagero Killer Boy of which the noise'n roll sonorities essentially structure themselves around the poetic words of Ossang. Also the singer and actress Marie France, rock, punk, diva, cabaret muse, fond of unpredictable and stunning collaborations, just as her own personality. ' Je vous veux ' and ' Marie-Antoinette is not dead ou dans quelle position je vous laisse ' are the titles of the two tracks of this historic 7'', historic by this never seen before collaboration initiated by the label rotorelief, and by the presence of the author of the letter and the poem put in music, the Queen of France Marie-Antoinette. She is the fourth protagonist of the project. Out of time and out of eras, this concept is definitely away from a passeist royalism or a vain nostalgy. It only wants to put forward these personages who, strangely, have common particularities :innovators, avant gardists, passionate about liberty and pleasures. A sharp and historic single." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| BERROCAL, JACQUES |
MDLV |
CD |
"A real event: Jac Berrocal has not released disc for 20 years. The legendary French trumpeter is back with its special atmosphere and feeling. Lot of guests too.
Jacques "Jac" Berrocal (born 22 October 1946, Saint-Jean d'Angély) is a French trumpeter, singer and composer. He has been active since the 1970s in the independent and avant-garde music scene (he recorded/played with Steven Stapleton/Nurse With Wound and collaborated with Sunny Murray, Pascal Comelade, MKB (F. J. Ossang), James Chance, Alan Shorter, Bernard Vitet, Lol Coxhill, Michel Portal, Lizzy Mercier Descloux).
He has released a few important albums, mainly on his own label d'Avantage. He also founded and performed in the group Catalogue. Berrocal has appeared too in several films.
In 2011, we released an unique collaboration between him, Ghedalia Tazartès and David Fenech (Superdisque CD/LP SR321)." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| BERRY, KEITH |
The Cartesian Plane |
pic-LP |
"Elevator Bath's ongoing series of picture disc LPs (each record being adorned with full-color artwork by the recording artist) continues with Keith Berry's debut appearance on vinyl: An absolutely mesmerizing cycle of deep, meditative tranquility inextricably linked to Berry's otherworldly painting which appears behind the record's grooves.
The soundscapes along The Cartesian Plane are beautifully absorbing, heavy with the slow unraveling of emotions, almost beyond belief. There is an immense weight to these recordings, the richness of which belies the careful subtlety of the compositions. The sound is expansive and unreal, a perfect complement to the record's visual aspects which seem to describe a kind of alternate existence. Like bookends, the colorful images house a wealth of experiences, wonderful and frightening. As you gaze upon the rotating colors and Keith Berry's dense dream-sounds pour out of the speakers, total immersion in The Cartesian Plane is more than probable, it is certain.
Five years have passed since Keith Berry's masterful The Ear That Was Sold To A Fish, a disc that was something of a revelation for the lucky few who were able to obtain a copy of the original release. Since that time Berry's reputation has steadily grown, even though his discography has not. Aside from a few compilation appearances (including Elevator Bath's A Cleansing Ascension), he has remained silent. The release of The Cartesian Plane then truly calls for celebration, as it is precisely the record those of us who admire Berry's work have longed for.
Keith Berry's music has been released by such labels as Trente Oiseaux, Twenty Hertz, and Crouton. He resides in London.
This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 233 copies.
Total running time: 47 minutes" [label info]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| BERTHET, PIERRE |
Extended Loudspeakers |
CD |
Interessante Klangkunst von PIERRE BERTHET! Seine "extended Loudspeakers"-Installation beruht auf im Galerieraum aufgehängten Benzinkanistern, die mit Drahtseilen verbunden werden, so dass die Vibration eines Lautsprechers über die Drahtseile weitergegeben wird. Je nach Klangmodulation des Ursprungslautsprechers ergeben sich verblüffende Veränderungen der Ober- und Zwischentöne, eine klackernde Mechanik wie von einem Meer von lebendigen kleinen Maschinen, die schlingernde Metallwellen aussenden, die sich im Verlauf sehr dynamisch verändern... klingt wie nichts was man JEMALS gehört hat..
"Extended Loudspeaker. Jerrycans connected by a network of steel wires, each wire length and can location is adapted to the space. a loudspeaker is slipped inside one of the cans; the sounds it broadcasts make the wires vibrate. When these sounds are modulated (pitch, timbre, volume, density), the cans produce various resonances, which can be injected back into the speaker (feedback). The cans are hanging, so that listeners can circulate and choose different listening perspectives. Berthet: a short biography. Lives and works in Liège, Belgium, musician, composer, inventor, craftsman - he Studied percussion with André Van Belle and Georges-Elie Octors. Improvisation with Garrett List. Composition with Frederic Rzewski. Music theory with Henri Pousseur. Designs and builds sound objects and installations (steel, plastic, water, magnetic fields,Š). Presents them in exhibitions and solo or duo performances. He works with Frédéric Le Junter, Pierre Bastien, DJ Low and Rud i Trouvé, played percussion with Arnold Dreyblatt ("Animal magnetism" on Tzadik, "The sound of one string", on Table of the elements)." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BERTHLING, ANDREAS |
InvalidObject Series (with) |
mCD |
Das irische FÄLLT-Label hat auf einen Schlag ein Kompendium zur neuen digitalen laptop / click / glitch / IDM – Musik herausgebracht ! Das sind 24 mCDs mit allerlei bekannten und unbekannte Vertretern dieses jungen Genres. Wir haben die meisten da, hier eine Übersicht ! Limitiert jeweils auf schamlose 250 Stck !
“ The invalidObject Series was established in 2000 as a sublabel of Fällt to release a finite series of twenty four 3"CD/.mp3 works.
Offering a unique perspective on a diverse range of musical output at the turn of the millennium, the Series features work by some of the most respected artists operating within the field of '.microsound' and has been described as "a remarkable document of a vibrant artistic community and a critical moment in the evolution of digital music" (Philip Sherburne),
"a showcase for the extraordinary range of practical approaches within contemporary electronic music" (Matt Ffytche, The Wire) and, simply, "impressive" (Rob Young, Editor, The Wire). “ [label press release}
|
2000 |
€7.00 |
|
| BERTOIA, HARRY |
Experimental I / Mechanical I |
CD |
This LP is cut straight from the original master tapes maintaining a straight analog signal path. The CD version contains a bonus track called Long Sounds.
When Harry Bertoia’s Sonambient label was resurrected, our intention was to tell the story of Bertoia’s groundbreaking Sonambient work as revealed through his extensive collection of notes and recordings. When the first new LP was released in 2016 we were only in possession of 1/20th of the archive. Now, in 2019, we’re excited to release the first LP of new material from the full archive and we present it to increase understanding of what Bertoia was doing in his sound-barn deep in the Pennsylvania woods.
The recordings contained on this LP were selected because of their relationship to Bertoia’s body of recorded work. The titles are from from Bertoia’s notes which Bertoia placed in each tape box, indicating date and describing briefly. Like his sculptures, Bertoia never titled his recordings but frequently referred to specific concepts he was pursuing. These are among the earliest known examples of Bertoia using terms which would become more common in the years to come: “experimental,” “mechanical” and “long sounds.”
https://soundcloud.com/importantrecords/harry-bertoia-experimental-i-bw-mechanical-1-lpcd-pre-order-now
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Experimental I / Mechanical I |
LP |
"This LP is cut straight from the original master tapes maintaining a straight analog signal path. The CD version contains a bonus track called Long Sounds.
When Harry Bertoia’s Sonambient label was resurrected, our intention was to tell the story of Bertoia’s groundbreaking Sonambient work as revealed through his extensive collection of notes and recordings. When the first new LP was released in 2016 we were only in possession of 1/20th of the archive. Now, in 2019, we’re excited to release the first LP of new material from the full archive and we present it to increase understanding of what Bertoia was doing in his sound-barn deep in the Pennsylvania woods.
The recordings contained on this LP were selected because of their relationship to Bertoia’s body of recorded work. The titles are from from Bertoia’s notes which Bertoia placed in each tape box, indicating date and describing briefly. Like his sculptures, Bertoia never titled his recordings but frequently referred to specific concepts he was pursuing. These are among the earliest known examples of Bertoia using terms which would become more common in the years to come: “experimental,” “mechanical” and “long sounds.” "
https://soundcloud.com/importantrecords/harry-bertoia-experimental-i-bw-mechanical-1-lpcd-pre-order-now |
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| BERTONCINI, MARIO |
Arpe Eolie |
LP |
"Format: LP, Limited Edition of 400 copies. Deluxe silver cover with silver foil design, custom inner sleeve and 4-page booklet in English and Italian.
First ever vinyl release of the works by Italian maestro Mario Bertoncini, relentless experimental composer, philosopher, artist and builder of sounds. The LP presents a selection of his compositions for aeolian constructions: in the early 70s he started to produce sound aggregates, true 'sound sculptures' based on the Aeolian sound principle. Amongst his more spectacular installations there were Vele, a massive Aeolian harp (more than 7 meters high); Venti (winds), for 20 Aeolian sound generators and 40 performers; and Chanson pour Instruments à Vent, an assemblage for Aeolian harps, Aeolian gongs, and one performer.
By their very nature these sound objects ("sound sculptures" that liberate the concept of sound form from time development) convey a sense of natural sounds beyond the grasp of composition and musician. Bertoncini self-built harps and gongs are excited by blows of compressed air, or by the composer's own breath, resulting in a musical blueprint that takes minimalist drone to a massive scale: the music unleashes itself. There's no sense of a composer's hand present. If at superficial levels they may sound like electronic music (long drones and swooshes of otherworldly sounds), at a close listening they reveal the intensity of a pure sound of air, far removed from both any artificial or measurable principle as well as from any casual or chance method of composition." [label info]
www.die-schachtel.com
|
2016 |
€26.00 |
|
| BERTONI, MARTINA |
Music for Empty Flats |
LP |
cello player and electronic artist martina bertoni‘s new album „music for empty flats“ delivers masterfully crafted experimental ambient / drone for fans of hildur guðnadóttir, giulio aldinucci or lawrence english.
martina bertoni is a berlin based cellist and composer. she started playing the cello at a very young age. classically trained, bertoni‘s career soon developed around experimental and film music where her cello has been featured in numerous records, soundtracks for awarded movies and tv series and collaborations, among others with blixa bargeld and teho teardo with whom she recorded several albums and performed at many prestigious festivals all around the globe.
the core of her solo work is based on deconstructing the relationship with her own instrument by combining acoustic sound, repetition, analog and digital synthesis. after the eps „in a paradise you would be happy“ (2018) and „the green ep“ (2019) she released her critically acclaimed full length album „all the ghosts are gone“ with the reykjavík based label falk in january 2020.
on her new album she continues to explore the sonic possibilities of her instrument which she uses as sound source - sounds which are then processed, adding reverb, feedback and sub-bass frequencies and thus crafting sonic sculptures, rich of atmospheres and frictions.
„the inspiration for the title „music for empty flats“ comes from a fraction of time during last winter, while i was visiting iceland. i had the strange opportunity to spend lots of time listening to music, alone in a brand new but unoccupied - therefore completely naked - empty flat in the suburbs of reykjavík. it was christmas, it was constantly dark, outside there was snow, inside there was this strange dystopian empty space in which i could listen to my favourite pieces of music in complete solitude. this is when i started sketching the new record.“ says bertoni.
the resulting seven new tracks deliver masterfully crafted experimental ambient / drone, dense and intense but fragile and sensitive at the same time. A more than impressive new artistic statement by martina bertoni, recommended not only for fans of hildur guðnadóttir, giulio aldinucci or lawrence english!
all music composed and produced by martina bertoni in reykjavík & berlin 2019-2020
mastered & cut by helmut erler at dubplates & mastering, berlin
martina bertoni: cello and electronics
artwork by kaidoh
cover photo by martina bertoni
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-empty-flats |
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| BESTIA CENTAURI |
Teratogenesis |
CD |
oversized digipack
Bedrohlich klaustrophobische Welten beschwört "Teratogenesis" herauf, einengend nah und intensiv scheinen elektronische Drones & Sounds wie Waffen anzugreifen, wie eine Psycho-Geisterbahn der völlig derangierten, morphenden Art... kein typischer dark ambient, eher düster-industrielle Elektro-Akustik !
"Bestia Centauri is a solo electronic music project begun in 1999. "Teratogenesis" is its fourth release after "Ubbo-Sathla" (Somnambulant Corpse Recordings, 2002), "The Antideluvian Earth" (Afe, 2003) and "The Self Immolation Rite" (Somnambulant Corpse Recordings, 2004).
The aim of Bestia Centauri is to create sonic landscapes that convey a sense of the numinous, the horrific, and the extra-human. Its sounds have much in common with those of electroacoustic music, but the compositional structures generally display a much greater sense of flow. Although Bestia Centauri's music is (to put it mildly) very different, the early releases of Tangerine Dream (circa 1972-1975) remain a tremendous source of inspiration for the composer, along with the orchestral, choral, and organ works of the composers Gyorgy Ligeti (Atmospheres; Lux Aeterna; Lontano) and Giacinto Scelsi.
Older works of electroacoustic or tape music, such as the compositions of Basil Kirchin, Tod Dockstader, and Iannis Xenakis, offer the listener another frame of reference. With the new release, "Teratogenesis", Bestia Centauri defies once and for all the persistent mischaracterizations of its sound as belonging to the "Dark Ambient ghetto". Electroacoustic and computer music elements come brazenly to the foreground, and contribute even more so to the flow of "crawling chaos" that has always characterized and inspired Bestia Centauri’s compositions. The genesis and development of a monstrosity is the theme of this new work, which charts a course from mutated unicellular sonic DNA to the resultant life-form that reaches "from the jaws of the dragon, from the depths of the abyss". With "X" and its deranged rhythmic outbursts, which suggest a creation gone radically wrong, with "Nebular Embryo", a microtonal and minimalist homage to the work of Giacinto Scelsi, and with "E Faucibus Draconis, E Profundis Barathri", a pure electroacoustic work of epic scope, Bestia Centauri demonstrates a new-found range and mastery in its work.
Four years in the making, "Teratogenesis" represents Bestia Centauri's most mature mating to date of flowing soundscapes and electroacoustic sound design. It also represents a point of departure for even more radical works, to come.
This albums comes as an Eibon Records / Afe co-production whose artwork was designed by Chris Donovan of Somnambulant." [label description]
www.eibonrecords.com / www.aferecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEX |
Rosegger |
LP |
"Third opus by Berlin-based one-man project Bex. Originally from France, Bex has released two CDs on the French label “Le Dernier Cri” and played a great many concerts throughout Europe since his first live gig back in 2006. “Rosegger” is his first vinyl appearance, his most luminous and most intense work to date. As if emerging through some hermetic transformation from the harshness and anger of the previous albums, “Rosegger” is ablaze with a radiant, almost ecstatic mixture of joy and grief, drenched in light even in its darkest moments. Melodic guitarscapes and distant shoegaze vocals between lament and incantations pour over the listener, filling every pore, vein and cell with a warm, brittle, spellbinding emotion, taking him adrift on luminous waters which progressively darken on side B, finally drowning the incandescence into deep pools of doom drones like a glorious, achingly beautiful sunset." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE (B.S.E.) |
Korrelations |
CD |
Vierte CD des B.S.E.-Projekts, welche eigentlich Bestandteil einer Box werden sollte. Unveröffentlichtes Material plus einige Remixe, teils rhythmisch, teils eher krachig ausgerichtet....
“The production of the anounced special box was cancelled ! but we will now produce a 4th CD in the BSE series with unreleased BSE material plus remixes by Mr. Nordvrgr, Alk0, Do Shaska, Alexxx & more” [label info]
“....Obscure, rumbling, subterranean noise, typically BSE, can become trance, as disenchant, light or classic melody, in a gloomy crescendo like a mute horror soundtrack, in a powerful proceed comes close to martial cavalcades.”[Tanks]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Modern Day Diabolist |
CD / DVD |
"Beyond Sensory Experience are back with their seventh full length study - Modern Day Diabolists. BSE have reopened the dossiers and turned page to focus on life in the modern urban world. True to their ten-year pattern of evolution the dark ambience is more captivating than ever; complex soundscapes and consoling melodies combine with provocative rhythm structures and unsettling samples to generate a new profile of BSE. When business has stopped and lights are out what is left is Modern Day Diabolists.
Modern Day Diabolists will be available as a CD/DVD double Digipak in May. The DVD features compelling visual interpretations of two tracks from the album by Swedish video artists The Retardtank and Fetish 23.
Edition of 800 copies in 6 panel double Digipack. 9 tracks. Running Time 57:00" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
" “Modern Day Diabolists”. Such title would suggest that we have to deal with the darkest installment of BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE activities. Personally, when I first heard this title, also remembering previous material, “Zielona Góra” recorded together with Moljebka Pvlse, subconsciously I expected release which will be hell darker than “No Lights In Our Eyes.” I was disabused of this mistake very quickly.
This is first full length BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE album since four years (not counting here mentioned above Moljebka Pvlse collaboration). After a handful of releases for Old Europa Cafe and Cold Meat Industry, this time the Swedes came under Canadian wings of – very buoyant recently- Cyclic Law. At the beginning Frederic Arbour’s label focused mostly on releasing high quality Scandinavian dark ambient, occasionally penetrating other corners of sonic darkness. However recent years brought us opening for other parts of the world and other approaches to dark ambient matter. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is definitely to Cyclic Law advantage. Of course “Modern Day Diabolists” is the work by Scandinavian duo, but closing this album in strictly Nordic compartment would be a huge faux pas.
As I have mentioned earlier, the album opener “Through the Underworld” is somewhat surprising. It starts with a low-pitched voice (Swedish I guess) and serene sound texture, but after a while this calm sound surface is disturbed by a beat. Beat which is kinda rough, but all in all quite peaceful. “Hailstone Reactor” has a similar structure: it begins with sound of rain, voice shouting the same phrase over and over again and single electronic howls hanging on the canvas painted with silence. And then, after two minutes or so, I hear post-rock guitar and simply stop thinking about “Modern Day Diabolists” as another dark ambient album. Instead I start to wonder if it wouldn’t be a perfect illustration for another Jim Jarmusch movie. Then a minute of cacophony tempered by drowned in reverberation, reflective melody. All this within a single track. Not bad. Every another fragment of the album is as rich in sounds as these first ones. In “Modern Day Diabolists” restless industrial surf appears, while “Between Sleeping and Walking” returns to post-rock soundscapes, sonic illustrations of night panorama of Tokyo. Reflective atmosphere is maintained by absolutely beautiful “Rapt Earthly Things” and quite minimalistic “Lost in Habblahester”. “The Testimony of Memory” almost literally suspends the passage of time, especially when this slow, looped melody is joined by the rhythm which reminds of slowing down hands of clock which someone forgot to wind up. Then short “Geometric Fashion” which is preludium to the grand finale of “Modern Day Diabolists”. The album ends with “Locating Imaginary Events in Real Places”, over thirteen minute piece which brings together all the essential features of this album.
Lot of things happen on “Modern Day Diabolists”. Lot of things happen, but to be honest, BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE even for the moment doesn’t go beyond atmospheric frames established by the Swedes not only on this record. This music is not dark per se. Instead it’s quite foggy and oniric, where reverb and silence play huge role. And at the same time the sounds generated by BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE arouse kind of yearning of something long gone. So long ago that we’re not even sure whether it really happened or was it just a dream. It’s the most mature work of Swedes. By all means worth of recommendation." [Santa Sangre / santasangremagazine.wordpress.com]
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Faint |
CD |
"With their new full-length album "Faint" Beyond Sensory Experience are back revisiting ghosts of the past to create memories of the future. Eleven divergent studies of transformation elements result in BSE’s most complete and intriguing album to date; full of liquid dark ambient soundscapes, salient samples and entrancing melodies. Hold your breath and close your eyes, when winter turns to water, day turns to Faint.
Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel digi sleeve with 12 page booklet. 11 Tracks. Running Time 60:00" [label info]
"They didn’t make us wait very long for a “Modern Day Diabolists” follow-up. Along with “Faint”, we have the opportunity once again to move away from the senses under the watchful eye of Drakh and K. Meizter. And because they’re fully fledged professionals, in this case also the trip on the edge of and even beyond the human self turns out to be very fruitful.
Fruitful, but somehow familiar. Our fellow Swedes have defined their specific path for quite a while, they have their own unique style and sound and are sticking to it, leaving the battering down of this already open door to younger and more hot-headed travelers. It’s an experienced project, their aforementioned style is usually recognizable after only a few sounds – “Faint” isn’t at all different. I think even woken up in the middle of the night it would take me maybe a few seconds to pinpoint whose creations are filtering from the speakers.
I never meant what those two nice Swedes do as dark ambient does. Certainly, the genre’s characteristics have always been to a larger or lesser extent present on previous albums, but they were never incorporating a typical, textbook darkness with particular relish. And with each consecutive release its amount becomes lesser and lesser. On “Faint” you practically won’t find the typical background-filling drones. This role is ascribed to either a stretched echo single guitar or piano tones (just listen to “Blank”), or simply silence which operates here on the same basis as the specific sounds, instruments, field recordings or samples. I always appreciated musicians who can play with silence.
As for the album’s atmosphere, I could actually copy-paste here what I wrote about “Modern Day Diabolists”. Ethereal, dreamy parts, mesmerizing in a way, sometimes serene (“Bystanders”), sometimes pulsating with a distant, uncertain threat (such as in my favorite piece, “Legacy”). Sometimes it feels as if the Swedes deliberately want to lull the listener, so that all external protective barriers are down and then hit with horror, war or apocalypse. But it never happens, though you never know what lies beyond the horizon.
Calm down, you can safely turn off for those few minutes. Beyond Sensory Experience doesn’t interfere with the bliss. It only gently wags its finger at us at times, saying that “next time there’s going to be a nightmare” (“Exhausted”), and we don’t have to believe the Swedes anyway. Probably in a year or two they’ll release another album, and again we’ll allow ourselves to be seduced by those ambient spaces, a pinch of post-rock atmosphere. We’ll smoke another cigarette, listening to the yearning, aching samples spoken in different languages… Another successful, very solid release by Beyond Sensory Experience and another – which one is it already – strong position in the Cyclic Law roster." [Stark/Santa Sangre] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The End of it all |
CD |
"On their third release for Cyclic Law, BSE have created an aural mirror image of underlying substructures hidden amongst the ordinary. Using their trademark sounds of lush ominous melodies and insightful theories, extinct arrangements of life mechanics unfold to reveal The End Of It All.
Edition of 500 Copies in 6 panel Digipack with Spot UV varnish. 11 Tracks. Running Time 63:33" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"Beyond Sensory Experience have been making albums in the dark ambient genre for over a decade, starting with their debut, Tortuna, on Old Europa Cafe. They gained recognition during their time on the legendary, now defunct label, Cold Meat Industry. In 2013, Beyond Sensory Experience would find their new home with Frederic Arbour and company at Cyclic Law. Now, with the release of their third album on Cyclic Law, entitled The End Of It All, Beyond Sensory Experience prove that they still have plenty of landscape left to cover in their musical career.
The End Of It All does anything but break the mold when it comes to musical output by Beyond Sensory Experience. The sounds presented here will be familiar to any fan of their previous albums, especially their most recent releases through Cyclic Law. Beyond Sensory Experience have a very particular sort of sound, which seems to draw a lot of parallels to Silent Heart by The Human Voice, also released through Cyclic Law. In both these projects what we hear are albums which seem to be the perfect soundtracks to a lonely and melancholic late night, lights dimmed, conjuring retrograded mental images of a life once lost. There is no happiness to be found here. Yet the album doesn't tend to make one sad, so much as it is the perfect companion to one's own sadness, a shoulder to cry on, when no other living soul is around, during your darkest nights. Beyond Sensory Experience achieve this bleak and melancholic mood through the use of minimal droning passages, checkered with solemn and tragically forlorn piano movements. The occasional cello notes can be heard on tracks like "Ends And Histories" raising the emotional intensity to an even higher degree. There are ample vocal passages throughout The End Of It All, adding a bit of narration to further solidify the intentions of its authors. These vocal passages are almost all from different sources and different people, presumably none of which are actually Beyond Sensory Experience, which is of little consequence as the words and voices themselves are a perfect match to this somber affair.
As previously mentioned, similar to Silent Heart, by The Human Voice, The End Of It All is a soundtrack to a deep and personal ending. The intersections of beauty, despair, and a pervasive calmness give The End Of It All a powerful emotional edge. Listened to in the right circumstances, I am sure this could easily bring one to tears. This isn't a glorification of sadness by any means, more so an complete and utter appreciation for and understanding of the depression, loss, and defeat felt in the lives of everyday people. As the illusion of world-wide peace and happiness is being slowly revealed to the inhabitants of our planet, there has never seemed to be a time in the past more suitable for contemplating the weaknesses and failings of humanity as a whole. Never before have so many people, world-wide, been able to look at history, without rosy-red glasses, and see the predicaments we are now finding ourselves in as a collective whole. The End Of It All is the soundtrack to that sentiment. "Properties Of Stars", for instance, grasps this concept like few other dark ambient tracks. It is as if we are sitting in some lonely personal retreat, staring up at the stars, and yet we feel the collective of humanity at our side, all staring into the sky, wondering, pleading for some signs of a way out of our collective dilemma.
The vocal passages in The End Of It All really do play a large part in this personal feeling of loss and sadness. Many of these passages are spoken in English, but others are in some other language which I am unable to specify. One of the best tracks on the album, and the best example of the power of these spoken words, comes in "Time Travels" the second last track, which says, "I have often wondered about what it must be like to go to sleep and never wake up." and later in the track saying "To be simply not there, forever and ever." These simple statements along with some of the most melancholic piano work I have heard combine to produce quite an emotionally charged experience.
With many humans finding themselves in an existential dilemma these days, and the state of our Eco-system in utter chaos, there has never been a better time for releasing music of such a particularly dark yet contemplative and sober variety. Dark days are sure to be ahead of us, and with those dark days many of us seek equally dark music. For many listeners The End Of It All should be the perfect companion to your own personal apocalypse. I highly recommend this album to any fans of a more instrumental and vocal take on dark ambient. Also, anyone interested in melancholic neo-classical will find plenty to enjoy here. As far as readers who may not often listen to this genre, Beyond Sensory Experience showcase many of the elements which make for a perfect introduction to dark ambient and its various cousin genres."
[Michael, Terra Relicta] |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI |
Alienation |
CD-R |
5 tracks, professionally printed. Exciting tension-bath, deranged synth sounds, rough drones, pulses, microwaves, this is how ambient industrial should sound today. For a BIANCHI release this is highly chaotic and versatile, raw & dark!
"Estranging sounds complex in five unusual recordings, edited and assembled in an alienor period of two years. Fantastic collaborative work; file under: experimental, concrete music, deep dark noise ambient.Limited to 700 copies only. Format: special professional silver CDr (= same quality and “look” of a CD) in beautiful digi-sleeve package.
Maurizio Bianchi: tapes, radio waves, electronics, samples.
Claudio Rocchetti: dusty analog devices.
Mastered by Valerio Tricoli.
Preface:
A DANGEROUS TERMINAL DRAMA UNDER THE ACTUAL IMPROPER REVENUE OF ALIENATION WASTE, OF SOCIAL-CULTURAL SPHERISTERION, WHEN THE MAIN ELECTRONIC TOPICS IN THE VAN OF SHIFTLESS ACCESSORIES WAS PLANNED AS RESTRICTIVE SCULPTURES. THE VIOLATED ACTIVITIES, GRINDED OF THE EMBRYONIC INGREDIENTS REMAINED BETWEEN EXISTENTIAL INDIVIDUALISM AND TRANSFORMATION OF PARASITES WORTH, VISITING A RECREATIONAL ESTRANGEMENT. THE GRAVITATIONAL PEOPLE REMAIN INTERESTED WITH ELEMENTS OF PICTURED INTERIORS INSIDE A REFINED CRUELTY... THE BEST RESULTS ARE A DETERIORATION OF EDUCATION SYSTEM, THE ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS RETICULATED METROPOLIS, IN FRONT OF THE IMPURE HUMANIZATION OF INNOVATOR PROCESSES. THE PARTICULAR USE OF FANCIFUL CONCRETE-TONES LEAVE YOU WITH A GREAT IMPRESSION OF CHROMATIC CONSISTENCY, FAR AWAY FROM BUREAUCRATIC AND COMMERCIAL MORBIDITY." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & MAOR APPELBAUM |
Electrostatic Deflection |
CD |
" 'Electrostatic Deflection' is a new industrial-music masterwork, created through collaboration with MAURIZIO BIANCHI, and Israeli musician MAOR APPELBAUM. It's represents Bianchi's more extreme direction... a sample of whats comming in the future from the historic Italian composer. Amazing impact, immense slabs of industrial sound in motion. Sweeping vistas of intense static energy, storm-fronts moving across the stereo field, an acoustic tidal wave approaching landfall, breathtaking deep and dark voyages through underground abysses... a massive and monumental work. Sounds of Sodom and Gomorra burning... don't look back! An apocalyptic prophecy of sound. Waves of sound that can penetrate the thickest steel-plate. Let it wash over you. At high volume, this cd becomes a very physical experience." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mene Teqel Farsin |
CD |
"Storms of cosmic energy, boiling and gurgling electronic fluxes, sonic masses made of monolithic and impenetrable drones, visions of smoky afterdeath landscapes, scorching and infernal… A neverending tunnel with no way out, a sense of deep anguish, of desolation and resigned impotence that lead the dark journey from the beginning to the end of this hallucinatory path. The sound quality and the sharpness of details are absolutely insuperable, they will offer you a “wrapping” and emotionally all-involving listening experience." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Innervation |
CD-R |
"Excluding the avantgarde composers of the 1950/60s, Maurizio Bianchi is probably the most well-known and respected italian experimental composer.
At the end of the 70s, at the peak of the Industrial scene, he released several tapes of noise music under the Sacher-Pelz moniker.
In the early 80s he started using the M.B. moniker and as the tape network was growing, a lot of his cassettes, such as Mectpyo/Blut, Industrial Tape, Computer S.p.A., Technology, Dicembre 1980 and many more were released.
Symphony for a Genocide was his first vinyl record, soon followed by other cult albums such as Menses, Neuro Habitat, Regel, Mectpyo Bakterium (released under his own real name), Das Testament, Endometrio, Carcinosi and The Plain Truth. In 1984, "Armaghedon" was announced as his last record.
In 1998-2000, due to the interest of Emanuele Carcano, founder of the Alga Marghen label, after having been sadly bootlegged all over the world for more than a decade, the whole M.B. vinyl catalogue was officially re-released on CD by Ees't Records.
At the same time, after a 14 years of meditative pause, Maurizio Bianchi returned to create music. Plenty of solo albums and collaborations were subsequently released on various medias by labels all over the world, showcasing Bianchi's different approaches at experimental music.
Maor Appelbaum is a well-respected producer and sound and lighting engineer and multi-talented musician. He has been heavily involved in the Israel music scene for many years.
He is involved in multi-textured and genre-hopping projects such as the atmospheric Sleepless, the highly aggressive and varied Vultures, the dark wave EBM-oriented band I.W.R, the dark black noise project Thy Mesmerized, as well as being the sole creator of such avant-garde solo projects as, Vectorscope, Lunisolar and Screening.
His musical ventures expand to more metallic bands such as the doom infested Moonskin, for whom he play bass and compose most of the music and lyrics. He has done various musical collaborations with Maurizio Bianchi, Kenji Siratori, Clint Listing, The Hollowing and Tom Davidov.
He was a freelance writer in such well-known zines as Metal Hammer Israel and Dofek. Currently he is the editor of the music webzine www.alternative-zine.com, and also a D.J. for many clubs and radio programs.
Coming after "Environmental Meditations" (Topheth Prophet, 2006) and "Electrostatic Deflection" (Silentes, 2007), "Innervation" is Maurizio Bianchi & Maor Appelbaum's third collaborative effort.
"Innervation", in the scientific study, is the distribution of the nerve fibers to an organ or body region. "Innervation", in the experimental dissertation, is the prevaricator apportionment of the sound filaments to a magnetophonic tissue or electrostrictive territory." *
The six tracks on the album have a strong impact, treating us with stabs of intense noise generated by analog synthesizers and effects.
"This innervated work was released using electro-neurotic sequences, mixed with concrete-sensorial modulations in an investigative contraction. Its mechanistic internalization stimulates indipendent functions for an emotional behavior. For your genetical safety please listen to it using intense cellular ear-dilatation..." * * Maurizio Bianchi, October 2008" ]label info]
www.aferecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & RYAN MARTIN |
As strong as Death is |
do-LP |
Backwards is very happy to announce the Maurizio Bianchi & Ryan Martin "As Strong As Death Is" double vinyl LP.
For roughly the past 40 years, the cryptic tally of works by Maurizio Bianchi has formulated a somewhat religious rite of passage, a communion of tone and definition based around his various devotional phases in his life. Coming to the forefront of industrial music and noise composition in the late 1970’s, just as the world was recovering from the jarring wake left behind by groups such as Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse, Bianchi was bundled within the zeitgeist of extreme experimentation due to the use of provocative subject matter and sonic assault. Though by 1983, Maurizio Bianchi seemed to have “disappeared” after conflicting releases and disappointing acceptance amongst his peers. It was not until the mid-90’s when Maurizio Bianchi resurfaced, now with a focus on spiritual guidance and restraint, that he released varied recordings of his newly sculpted ambient works and re-visitations of his now classic albums from the previous decade. Up until present day, Bianchi has enjoyed a renaissance of interest in part due to his expansive reissues of previous works and his dedication to new recordings, which state that Bianchi is still a zenith in the world of the experimental electronic music.
Around 2008, New York City based artist / musician Ryan Martin, of industrial outfit York Factory Complaint and Copley Medal, started correspondence with Bianchi about the reissue of his mechanically clinical ambient masterpiece, Endometrio, for release on Martin’s co-founded imprint, Dais Records. During this time, Martin was forming his own solo label to release private edition works under the title Robert & Leopold and asked Bianchi to present his recent exploratory violin compositions as the label’s debut release. Since that time, Bianchi and Martin have collaborated in various forms including the release of Bianchi’s recent exploration, Arkeomene, and the featuring of Martin’s artwork on the cover of Bianchi’s contentious single, Amentest. Most notably however was the complex and deliberate musical collaboration between the two entitled “As Strong As Death Is”.
Spanning the course of two years to create, legendary Italian noise composer Maurizio Bianchi and artist Ryan Martin (York Factory Complaint / Copley Medal / Dais Records) took on the pilgrimage of scoring the abstract concept of marriage based on the biblical Song of Solomon. Employing prepared electronics with accompanying strings and tape, this ambient religious collaboration seeks to flesh out the union, to understand the universal desire to be one. Constricted lullabies walk down the aisle to create a consortium of moving, ghost-like consolidation. Mixed ad edited by Anthony Mangicapra (Hoor-paar-Kraat) and mastered by Kris Lapke (Alberich / Hospital Productions). Recorded in both New York City and Opera, Italy between 2010 and 2012, this release was originally released in 2013 as a limited double cassette on Martin's own Robert & Leopold imprint in a edition of 100 copies, which quickly went out of print.
The release comes with a lavish jacket, in two editions: ltd.100 copies on white vinyl and ltd.400 copies on standard black vinyl.
Comes with a coupon for a free digital download.
www.backwards.it
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & SAVERIO EVANGELISTA |
Micromal Sonorities |
CD & booklet |
"A collaboration between Maurizio Bianchi e Saverio Evangelista (Esplendor Geometrico). Originally published only in Japan in 2007 and deleted from years, now it's time for the long awaited re-release, that - with the cd - features the workshop MICRO by Stefano Gentile, inspired by the album." [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & SPARKLE IN GREY |
Nefelodhis |
CD |
Das Schwester-Album zu "Erimos" verknüpft melodische und mitunter fast andächtige Instrumentalklänge der italienischen Post-Rock Band SPARKLE IN GREY mit den z.T. obskuren Geräuschsounds von M.B. - das klingt manchmal dann fast nach GODSPEED oder anderen Post-Rock / Psychedelikern, sehr introvertiert und ruhig mit viel Violin-Einsatz... Namensgeber für die 8 Stücke sind Bezeichnungen verschiedener Wolkenformationen, sehr passend !!
"Nefelodhis album was then recorded in few days in a totally improvised session where Sparkle in Grey, the ensemble of Alberto Carozzi (guitar, bass), Cristiano Lupo (piano, guitar, drums), Franz Krostopovic (violin) and Hue (laptop, objects), played melancholic melodies on the mysterious analogical and a-rhythmical soundscapes provided by MB. The results of these sessions, recorded into the factory where Sparkle in Grey are used to have their rehearsal, was assembled and mixed by Hue himself. As the sounds coming from MB were mainly analogical (treated guitars, DVD players, tapes and other unknown instruments), and as the laptop was used only in the mixing phase, the result is a dirty but very analogical mixture of sounds, where the concrete drony noises and the textures of violins and guitars melt in a quite uncommon way. Nefelodhis is a desperate but dreamy picture in sounds of the concept of clouds (in Greek 'Nefelodhis' means 'cloudiness') and, after the careful mastering of Giuseppe Ielasi, sounds like a trip through the wet lands made of vapor. Being part of a complex quadrilogy about the spaces Between the Elements, this records inaugurate a series of CDs of various experimental sounds, where Erimos (in Greek “Desert” is the second chapter, already available on the American label Digitalis Industries." [label info]
www.freakofnature.it/coldcurrentprod
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & TH26 |
Arkaeo Planum |
CD |
Dunkle, spröde, klinisch-kühle Elektronik, effektierte Pianosounds; die erste Zusammenarbeit von M.B. mit TH26, inklusive der Stimme des kürzlich verstorbenen ROBERT ANTON WILSON !!
"After the "A M.B. Iehn Tale" release (CD - SmallVoices 2005) for the first time Maurizio Bianchi meets TH26, historical Italian project in dark electronics. After their first official release ("La Haine" CD - SmallVoices 2002) they are now back with this amazing cooperation. For this release TH26 leaves their usual rhythmical attitude, in perfect symbiosis with Maurizio Bianchi, the "father" of Italian industrial music. This work presents deep obscure minimal soundscapes, moving in the fields of dark ambient music. Arkaeo Planum is a long deep 5 tracks trip through 5 interlinked themes (Aereo, Arkaeo, Audio, Caro e TerraPlanum) togheter with a single special track titled MB Sorrow (dedicated to Maurizio Bianchi) as final sadly sequence of melting melody. Sound textures with piano incursions and samples, properly treated by M.B., involved in a magmatic and dark isolationist sonority, made by Th26." [label description]
"Antique phagocytic cells in a profound knowledge of changing habits, electromagnetic science and moribund identities, enter in contact with vertebrate contemporary abstractions. It's the unequivocal and consecrating action of the foetal twenty-first century servant, a laborious period of the cement bloodstream museums where archaic purposes have gathered together a stimulating selection of "planum" relationship. The compressed and specific hormonal aim of this provocative work, "Arkaeo Planum", is to illuminate the entire febrile dream of some unscrupulous sadness; a constant affection of soared talents in this synthetic journey to penalize the closed culture nightmare. The question asked is: are we intentionally communicating or developping some unique opportunities? The transformation process is facilitating the indecent massive infrastructures of the industrial soundscapes, nearly the neutronic unimaginable..." (Maurizio Bianchi)
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) |
Dead Colours |
CD-R |
Amazing & rather peaceful synth-based work about colours which was created between 1997 and 1999. 10 pieces, over 70 minutes of music.
Full-colour design by AUBE and numbered edition.
“A paradoxical modulation from Maurizio Bianchi's archaic past, Dead Colours. Membranous reduction for enzymatic recrudescences” [label description]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
The Testamentary Corridor |
CD |
"Five months after the acclaimed 'Niddah Emmhna', Silentes releases a new five track cd of 'suggestive twilight sounds'. Visionary electro-acoustic ambience by the most eclectic Italian decomposer / inventor / manipulator of sounds: MAURIZIO BIANCHI. Alternating between lighter atmosphere, and darker isolationistic moments, Bianchi penetrates deep into the most subtle essence of sound, rearranging it's elemental particles/grains, and creating unbelievable sonic-washes." [label info]
label: www.silentes.net
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Selfportrait of M.B. |
CD |
"An unusual self-portrait of Maurizio Bianchi in a minimal and introspective version, "a discreet" sonic self-portrait, elaborated with soft and nearly abstract electronic sketches, cyclical waves, tangles of intersected sounds, stratified, continuously chancing, manipulated and molded through uses of effects, filters, reverbs, choruses, delay... Expanded places, rarefied and "apparently quiet" atmospheres, but at the same time always full of a constant sense of gravity and heaviness, of vulnerability, always on the extreme border of the abyss that leads towards the unknown, the dark, the not to be defined and the mystery...
a new and definitive "manifesto". This is simply MB... no other word is necessary. A MUST!!!" [label notes]
www.silentes.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Menstruum Regles |
CD |
"This album is decomposition instead of composition. De-structured music instead structured music. Not to complex and articulated technologies for recording, mixing of the parts and mastering; not to one sophisticated production and maniacal and defined participations correct in post-production... This the new "challenge" capacity to the extreme limit from Maurizio Bianchi, a new musical effort, "directed", "raw", immediate, absolutely uncompromising new, to outside of every law and from every pre-constituted rule...
Fragments of music, short fragments of sonorous material of varied extraction, now short, now long, placed in sequence one behind the other, in a "dry" way, following absolutely unforeseeable times and dynamics.
Continuous loops, raw unexpected cuts, noise alternated to musical parts, single sounds, drones, notes of piano, buzzes, soft pads, electric current workers... Two long traces, 75 minutes, a listening experience over any edge and reliable definition. A old work for the first time on CD." [label notes]
www.silentes.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Dead Colours |
CD |
Amazing & rather peaceful synth-based work about colours which was created between 1997 and 1999. 10 pieces, over 70 minutes of music.
"This is the reissue of a CDR published by SILENTES a couple of years ago in only 120 copies. Now finally available on CD with restored artwork. DEAD COLOURS shows the more quite side of MB... with an incredible dark melancholic tough in vein of David Lynch's atmospheres... Fantastic!" [label notes]
www.silentes.net |
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Persecutionem |
LP |
"Persecutionem" heisst "Verfolgung" und wie viele von MBs Veröffentlichungen ist dieses Album religiös inspiriert. Die sechs Stücke wirken fast wie eine logische Fortsetzung (auf einem anderen klanglichen Level) dessen, was vor 30 Jahren begann - recht rauher, irgendwie mysteriöser & hypnotischer Drone-Noise, mit Zeitlupen-Vibrato-Effekten, die seltsame Obertöne "nach oben" sprudeln lassen... Sechs Stücke, in einer nummerierten Auflage von nur 303 Stück !
"'I've taken inspiration for this medicative work from the sordid persecution of the early Christians, but in other ways we receive objectivistic persecution every day from this standardized system, from our wretched condition and from the modern persecutors which are hidden behind their threatening countenances. The appropriate soundtrack of such perturbed sufferings is this justifiable work, 'persecutionem', in which the semblances of our gaolers are inherents on these obstructed sounds, and the hopeful liberation of our existences are culminating on the eschatologic modulations. The deliberate epilogue is contained in the derogatory elevation of our reinstated spirituality for a repulsive capital sentence in order to transform the alienated persecutor into an inalienable victim of persecution.' Maurizio Bianchi - February 2009" [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Ludium |
CD |
"A long and almost “solemn” track built with reverberated piano notes, a slow and rhythmical flow leaned on a background made of clashing hisses and vague, distant, rustling ambient noises… A brief interval based on obscure drones moving in circles, inexorably entangled on themselves… Therefore another long piano-based track, this time more dilated, confused, ethereal and prim, so much that it takes the distinguishing features of an indecipherable sonic mass, abstract and booming, estranging, deep and psychedelic…A few and minimal elments, “directed” in a masterly fahion and assembled in an absolutely fundamental work, from the brightest mind of Italian experimental scene and of all the music “without compromises” of the last thirty years… One of the last contributes to the History of Music from an artists that, even in a phase of extraordinarily and unstoppable creative mood, has recently choose and officially announced to quit his long artistic activity. Simply essential." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Celtichants |
CD |
"Lost and found all of a sudden, this album is the exploration made with the chanting voices of unknown nature. Choral fragments were decomposed and restructured, arranged with the effects and atmospheric shifts, creating the mysterious soundtrack to the otherworldly ceremony. These echoing voices are going directly from the lost memory or the daydreams, nobody can tell you where they are from, where they are calling you. Here are some words of the author, giving you just the hint but not the clear explanation. Postface : The knowledge exemplified affect distress to their natural peduncle environment. Destructive invention progressed towards purposes in some external fumes surroundings and deplete globalization performance bloody resources applied precipitous challenge. Developed simple efficient disrupt generations usually prominces changed damned systems especially from tightness with instrumental reason practical poisonous organized inorganic entities immaterial in the compulsive habitat. Wooden marginalization virtual techniques combine to produce skills processes for neurotic medical combined with additionally oppression formalize endeavor output engineering parasites investigation for principles among exclusively retrieve the challenge development advanced research in the excessive leading towards primitivism to dissolve the molesters emergence earliest alienates shape. Discovery allowed early multimedia digestibility progressivism sophisticated retractile for misanthropic domain transition with prominence contribute specialization adjacent a role processing alloys utensils near the harness evidence inhuman innovations borrowed structures. Advancements countless transit miniaturized resulting alienating after complex treatments support them, microfractures perform the entirety existence proponents morally pessimistic are increasing serious disarticulation chained with passionately communicate infrastructure to describe mortal lethargy perspective unique overall for muscular lucubrations. Limited edition of 500 copies in special packaging - custom made of textured paper with black/silver print, assembled by hand. Different colors available: china white, pearl white, lemon yellow, mallard green, lime green, concrete grey, dark grey, dark violet. Comes with the set of 3 photos of miocenic basalts made by Siegmar Fricke in Maspalomas (Gran Canaria Island)." [label info]
www.alone-at-last.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
S.F.A.G. 81 |
LP |
"MAURIZIO BIANCHI’s 1981 Symphony for a Genocide LP is the artist's most well known work, widely recognized as a classic of early industrial music. A year and a half after its initial release on vinyl in a limited edition of 227 copies, the album was reissued on cassette by the Broken Flag label. It was at this time that Bianchi created an entirely new recording drawn from the audio of the original LP. Entitled S.F.A.G. 81 and issued in January 1983 as a companion to the Symphony for a Genocide cassette release, it was a radically different work comprised solely of two extended, side-long tracks. Bianchi had already began to evolve from the harsh and primitive attack of his earliest releases toward a more desolate, introspective sound exemplified by The Plain Truth and Armaghedon albums; S.F.A.G. 81 lands somewhere in between these two approaches. Remnants of the relentless mechanical rhythms and synthesizer churn of the original Symphony remain, but it is as though one were listening to them from a distance, lost in the midst of a massive blizzard. Strains of recognizable sound drift in and out of earshot like hallucinations, echoing across the bleak stretches of grayed-out sound. The S.F.A.G. 81 recording has been re-released (often in abridged form) on cassette and CD several times over the years, and an except appeared on one LP side of Vinyl On Demand's massive five-disc Broken Flag retrospective box set; this reissue marks the first time ever the complete album has been available on vinyl. Remastered and fully authorized, it comes packaged in thick tip-on jackets with artwork by longtime Bianchi collaborator SIEGMAR FRICKE. One-time pressing of 500 copies." [label info] |
2014 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Telmegiddo |
LP + CD |
Apocalyptic echo-sounds, originally decomposed at Mectpyo Studio in February 1983.
Telmegiddo was the last tape-decomposition by Maurizio Bianchi and was recorded after the Armaghedon LP.
Bakterihabitat by M.B. contains sound sketches that were later used in Telmegiddo.
White vinyl with white labels and white polylined inner sleeves.
Edition of 100 numbered copies with paste-on cover.
Cover image is a 1981 original M.B. artwork. |
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) & CRAIG HILTON |
PU94 |
CD |
"Here at last is a deserved and “rightful” CD re-release of this fantastic collaboration created in 2007 by Maurizio Bianchi and Craig Hilton. Until now this recording was only made available in a very limited CD-R edition. Extremely dark atmospheres, restless and dramatic… Sharp masses of metallic noises cleave pulsating substrates of low frequencies, mixed with magmatic agglomerates of more processed sounds of an unrecognizable nature… Moments of stasis and apparent quietness… Handfuls of minutes of an unutterable, hanging and distressing tension… Sudden showers of vibrant frequencies that emerge from nowhere and bury everything under an heavy and devastating sonic mantle… A real masterpiece of incredibly dark and subterranean music." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) & CRIA CUERVOS |
Azazel |
CD |
"Three long and “majestic” tracks where Maurizio Bianchi’s typical deep and reverberated sonorities, full of crepuscular melodies and subtle dissonances, get enriched by more electronic elements and fascinating elaborations, sophisticated manipulations and strong dynamic interventions operated by Crìa Cuervos… Three touching compositions built on progressive “crescendos” and a raging of slow sonic stratifications that lead to real “explosions” of sounds, drones, pulsations, frequencies, vibrations… A new, magnificent and very successful collaborative experience." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO / JAN-M. IVERSEN |
Rekviem MB-JMI |
CD |
"A "classic" minimal ambient album; just one long track, a bit obscure, of a static nature but unarrestable as a matter of fact and slowly developing, built with layers of soft and “round” sounds, heavily processed and effected, whose origin seems to be an organ... "Atypical" for sure, if confrontated with the huge and widely diversified productions of Maurizio Bianchi, this new album is probably one of the last and not to be missed releases signed by “M.B.”, since he has already announced his definitive departure from the musical scene. Another extraordinary collaborative CD, involving this time Jan-M. Iversen, an artist of international fame who managed to enrich and elaborate with great effect the "sound materials" provided by Maurizio Bianchi." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"...Thirty seven minutes pure ambient bliss with a touch of experimentalism. One of the best works from either of them in recent years." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO / L.C.B. |
Brain Meat |
CD-R |
"Recorded and mixed during Autumn 2012. Brain electronics and Meat waves by M.B. and G.M.: outstanding analog treatments, sonic abuse and disturbing manipulated frequencies.
Brain is Meat: this is Brain electronics / Meat electronics.
One of the best M.B. collaboration CDs ever released! Mastering: Eraldo Bernocchi.
Limited to 200 copies only, cardboard sleeve, with intentional double catalogue number (CDr and sleeve)." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2014 |
€7.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO / SIEGMAR FRICKE |
Stroma-Konkret |
CD |
"...eine Kollaboration des italienischen
Kult-Noisers MAURIZIO BIANCHI (*1955, Pomponesco) mit SIEGMAR FRICKE (*1968, Wilhelmshaven). Letzterer, frühreifer
Klangtüftler bereits in den 80ern mit Releases bei Irre Tapes oder Old Europe Cafe und anfänglich bekannt als Bestattungsinstitut, hat bereits durch Projekte zusammen mit Giancarlo Toniutti, Mathias Grassow und mit Miguel A. Ruiz als Efficient Refineries seine ‚Pharmakustik‘ in der internationalen
Sound Art vernetzt. Eines seiner Tapes hatte er mal ‚Unsophisticated‘ getauft, aber wer Tracks ‚Keratoplastie (für transversale
Magnetbandakzeleration, sensorisches Klavier und konkrete Mechanik)‘, ‚Distrofia Atonale (for paralysed aritmia, nuclear ambience
and anamorph tone-pigments)‘ und ‚Dissonanza Sclerotica (for polineuropathic surface, piano edematosa and opaque microsections)‘ nennt
und als „the sphaerialic polymetamorphose of stromatic plastocyanin“ beschreibt, der hat offenbar nicht nur bei Dr. House sein Praktisches Jahr gemacht, der ist auch ein mit allen trüben Wassern gewaschener Pillendreher, der Russolo und Marinetti, Jary und Henry in nicht nur homöopathischen Dosen verschreibt. Immerhin erspart er mir so alle näheren
Beschreibungsversuche. Wer Stroma-Konkret einwirft, der darf sich jedenfalls über psychedelische Nebenwirkungen nicht wundern,
vulgo, wo Rosa war, stellen sich Nekrorealismus und Sarkasmus ein. Vermutlich hätte zwar eine 42-Stundenwoche in einem chinesischen
Stahlwerk einen ähnlichen Effekt, aber Scheiß doch auf China." [Bad Alchemy]
"Extra heavy fusion of industrial noise and musique concrète, this exclusive collaboration unites forces of two legendary musicians who were witnessed the roots of industrial music movement. It consists of three long tracks of mechanical aggression, clinical obsession and uncompromizing psychic attack. Dedicated to the memory of Pierre Schaeffer, this is the second part of ongoing series, started by Tibprod label CDR-release. Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIBLE, JEREMY & JASON HENRY |
Vryashn |
LP |
"A vinyl-only release of a fantastic underwater dark ambient piano piece by a local duo of musicians -- Jeremy Bible (he of Experimedia) and Jason Henry. This vinyl remaster (by 12k's Taylor Deupree) is limited to 500 copies. 180g vinyl, printed on a reverse board gatefold sleeve with an OBI. Comes with an exclusive download code featuring an expanded version of 'Vryashn.'"[label info]
"Two lengthy, sonorous tracks with looming, viscous currents offset by a seductive parade of pattering detail. Fluttering piano notes pierce shifting planes of texture, catspaws of white noise skip across the swell, and Echoplexed flurries float, like distant birdsong, back and forth across the threshold of audibility. Vryashn reveals a perfect balance between fluidity and architecture before disappearing into a haze of chiming bells." [The Wire]
|
2011 |
€18.00 |
|
| BIBLO |
On Ugliness |
LP |
"pop music had been an intensity-thing once, as to follow the legend, but as time passed it just started to quote and copy the erstwhile forms in a void way. the latter has never been exactly accurate, especially regarding the developments in the less noted niches. one example for that is provided by the amalgamations of folk-traditions, vanguard experiments, improvisation and outsider art, as they have boomed in the last years with acts like inca ore, pocahaunted and kuupuu. also in the music of the composer, singer, bass-guitarist and laptop-musician pinar üzeltüzenci aka biblo from istanbul - a sister in mind of all the acts mentioned above - you feel the intensity again and again in an almost painful way when it peeps through the curtain of drones and noise. her lost in reverie vocals leave you irritated and in love. we are proud to present the new biblo-lp "on ugliness" in a limited edition of 200 pieces as the first ever record on quetzi records." (label info)
"No, the ever-prolific Bibio hasn’t snuck out yet another new album as a limited vinyl release on an obscure label. This is actually an LP by a Turkish woman going under the name Biblo, who refers to her music as “ambient thrash”. Not sure what’s so thrash about it (or even what the proper definition of thrash really is), but regardless, this sounds a lot closer to ambient than any type of metal. Not much is provided in the way of liner notes, but it sounds like plenty of static loops, some toy instruments, some found sounds, and some delay-heavy girlish vocals. The dozen tracks on here progress slightly, but it doesn’t feel so much like traveling from one place to another as it feels like standing in the middle of a darkened room and watching things float around you. Even though it’s late at night, your eyes are wide open at all the illuminated objects circling you. In some sense, the “ambient thrash” tag does fit, as this is not ambient to ignore or lay back and fall asleep to, but ambient that’s active and commands attention.
While most of the tracks on this album are miniatures that only last a few minutes, the centerpiece of the album is side 2′s opener “Son Super Tembel”, which begins looping some chopped up ghostly piano, adding some more vinyl-sourced loops until they sound like a skipping record, then adding some more subtle blips, whispery vocals and small-sounding instruments. “Earth” also stands out for coating its drifting vocals in a thick layer of droning distorted guitar feedback; perhaps the song is a tribute to the band Earth. “The Eyeballs Of Truth” ends the album with its thickest layer of hiss and crackle, featuring distant piano and vocals that suggest some of the spectres in The Caretaker’s ballroom stepping up to the mic.
It’s easy to overuse the word “haunting” to describe anything that’s dark yet otherworldly beautiful, but it’s hard to think of the sounds on this album as being created by anything other than possessed beings. As dreamlike as it seems, though, it feels completely real. The whole album is an incredibly moving experience." [Paul Simpson / FOXY DIGITALIS]
www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/?p=17357
|
2011 |
€18.00 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA |
Airre |
CD-R |
BCO (named here “Big City Orchestrairre”) are back again with another surprising release, for the amazing new british label ENTR’ACTE. Unusual instrumental sounds & loops (lots of guitar sounds), found music & radio-material, quasi-rhythmic structures, something like an oriental touch, every piece is different – and there are a lot! Oscillating between dark atmospheres, odd “somethings” and a mind-expanding “funnyness”… Again very original, almost undescribable, BCO continue to excite us !! |
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Drone Gnomes (SOLD OUT) |
10inch |
Komplett "handgespielte" akustische Trance-Musik von San Francisco's weirden Drone-Magiern; mit allerlei "echten" Instrumenten improvisiert klingt das wie "wyrd folk" im Sufi-Drone-Kontext....fünfter Teil in unserer neuen 10"-Reihe, die neue Hör-Neuronen im Nichts schafft, hellblaues Vinyl, Spitzenartwork von MIKE DRINGENBERG.
"...Als ob das gestaltwandlerische, aber doppel-x-chromosomenstarke BCO und seine ungooglebare Konstante namens Das bewusst ihre sarkastische und parodistische Neigung gebremst hätten, um dem Substantia Innominata-Konzept mit zwei Arc of Infinity-Trips Referenz zu erweisen, einer pulsminimalistischen rituellen Session mit
accelerierender Percussion und Engelsingsang und einem dröhnminimalistischen Tauchgang in die Grey Matter selbst." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
Acoustic trance by San Francisco's great masters of obscure atmospheric noises... artwork by well-known illustrator Mike Dringenberg !!! Light blue colour vinyl with special marmor-effect, 4-colour covers & labels ! 5th part in the new 10"series by Drone Records ... lim. 500. sealed copies.
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Eerily |
CD |
"Underground is a difficult term. Perhaps its best defined as Do It Yourself. Not looking for the next record deal, or moving from CDRs to CDs and never wanting to do CDRs again. That sort of attitude. If one band live up to that, then today my choice would be Big City Orchestra. They have been around for ages, releasing on all formats the world of music saw, but never gained 'fame' in any way. And perhaps that's good. Let's have them underground, with us. Here for instance is a new CD by Das, the master mind behind Big City Orchestra since the beginning, but also members like Cliff Neighbours, Ninah Pixie, Univac, Jonathan Segal, Melissa Margolis and as a special guest David Aellen of Gong fame. Although Big City Orchestra was never fixed into one musical genre, there is, throughout the years an overall idea to be noted. Roughly somewhere in the grey area of ambient music, drone, narrative music and perhaps all touched with a sense of psychedelic music. These six new pieces here sum up this very well. No doubt largely conceived in the world of warm, analogue synthesizers and guitars with lots of effects. The result is an eerie (sorry, couldn't help that one), desolate sound piece with very slow, minimal shifts. Maybe to some extent they still sound the same as back in 1987 when they released cassettes, but luckily it sounds much richer now on CD. The underground is not about sticking to hissy cassettes out of some perverse love of retro, but finding the best ways to express yourself, without keeping any notion about the overground. In that respect to people who want to hear a band develop, then Big City Orchestra might be the wrong place to turn to, but I think this is great music. Mood music, dark night, late night music. Music that has not been made to please the big crowd, but a small but caring community of truly devoted fans. I may not be one, simply because I don't have everything they made, I certainly rank myself as someone who is always keen to anything new by them. 'Eerily' is a great CD." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"One of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades, BCO is not your standard Orchestra. Situated in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the band has released an enormous catalog of recorded material over the past two decades. Formed in the late 1970's the ensemble continues to maintain a free-flowing roster of artists from around the world that collaborate on specific projects. Categorizing the Orchestra into any given genre can be a task, as releases continue to surprise even the most devout listener. There is never any way to precisely classify the next BCO release.
Featuring original members and introducing special guests such as Daevid Allen (of Gong fame) and Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven)
BCO 'Eerily' tracklist :
1. Garuda
2. Mister Jones
3. Protectionraga
4. Zhong Kui
5. Pink Swirl
6. Chnubis
7" cover including a unique silkscreened inlay produced by the members of BCO/Ubuibi."
[label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Stanchenzza |
CD |
"Bifurcated Cithara Orcin otherwise known as Big City Orchestra is a SF based group that has been around since the days or yore. Getting their start in the late 70′s with tape cassettes. Here we have a genuine audio CD release. The real deal my friends. This is no snake oil sales pitch. Enclosed you will find 6 tracks of mystifying delights, sea shanties and cosmic drones. Come one come all!" [label info]
www.obfuscatedrecords.com
"Big City Orchestra (here billed – why not? – as Bifurcated Cithara Orcin) is the ever-morphing sonic entity out of San Francisco that's been lecherously fondling the hometaper scene for decades. Like anyone who's ever bought anything from a DIY label, I've encountered their distinct brand of odd in the past, most recently on a tiny 2009 tape release, 'Ymiz,' put out by the now-defunct Agharta label out of Lithuania. One thing I especially dig is their fervently inclusive message: their list of former members encompasses an extensive smörgåsbord of varied soundsmiths, and they have a well-documented willingness to issue their releases on small, otherwise unestablished labels (in addition to several linchpin imprints of the 80s/90s tape-trading scene). The joy of each BCO record stems from its utter unpredictability; never content to settle for mere noise, they skitter eagerly from hand-sewn sound collages to tape loop diversions to wispy miasmas of droning miscellany.
'Stanchenzza' is more of the same from the reliable troupe, this time scraped down to a mere quintet. Expansive "Dirt Road to Cliff" and "Klangend" busy themselves with forlorn, droning textures, both of them paralyzing in their glowing impressions of infinity. They steal the show somewhat, but the second half of the album has its share of pleasures, too: the flimsy rhythmics on "Opium" are a welcome textural diversion, while relative shortie "Pixied" has its foundation in loops and found sounds, much in line with the aesthetic propagated on dusty old tapes in the mid-eighties. On 'Stanchenzza,' as always, BCO stirs their unique playfulness into each abstract composition. The final product is a treat." [MT/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA / CTEPHIN |
MiZture #2 |
CD-R |
Recht ausufernder bis ziemlich wahnsinnig tönender Split-Release der beiden kultigen US-Projekte - die fünf Stücke von BCO bewegen sich zwischen fülligen Drones und eher chaotisch infantilen Arrangements mit Gedröhn, Gitarrengeklimper, Beat-Box & highpitched Gesang; CTEPHIN sind viel massiver, beschwörend & agitativ, pulsierend, okkult, ekstatisch dronend... Langeweile kommt garantiert nicht auf bei dieser MIZTURE !
"MiZture (disambiguation). A suspension of noise in water, a heterogeneous miZture... miZture an noise made from the miZture of two metals. Just about everything that you can think of is probably a miZture and then showed a curious miZture of eagerness and terror.
10 tracks - running time 1 hour 16 minutes - inkjet printed 5" CDr w/ insert in a large 6 mil vinyl sleeve." [label info]
http://roilnoise.com
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| BIOMECHANICA |
BM-01 |
CD |
"The 'BioMechanica' project marks the first collaboration between FRANCISCO LOPEZ and ARTURO LANZ (founder and member of the current ESPLENDOR GEOMÉTRICO tandem) after thirty years of an ongoing relationship. Their debut album, "BM-01", is the outcome of years of intense work in multiple cities across the world, from Beijing to Reykjavik all the way to Johannesburg. Raw power and original rhythms, together with an overwhelming sound complexity, a multi-channel spatial virtuality and a spectacular production come together in BioMechanica, synthesizing the insight and experience of two internationally acclaimed industrial/experimental music makers." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
"Recently I had a discussion about musicians who produce a lot of work, and in that conversation also the name Francisco Lopez came up. A friend of mine admitted he gave up on Lopez some time ago, as he said there were too many similar works by him. You could, he argued, pick a few of the essential ones ('La Selva' and 'Buildings [New York]' being two that are always mentioned), but it was perhaps not necessary to collect all of his releases. I don't know: I am not really much of a collector but I can see his point. But I didn't hear BioMechanica when we talked about this. Lopez is, besides a producer of many CDs, also someone who collaborates with others, as he does here. Just as with remixes, it's always good to see something moving in a totally different area, and that's something that happens here. Lopez teams up with Arturo Lanz, the only original member of Esplendor Geometrico and maybe an unlikely partner for Lopez. Lanz plays 'germ rhythmic patterns' while Lopez is responsible for 'rhythmic pattern evolution, environmental recording mutations, composition, editing, mixing and mastering'. So Lanz recorded some of his trade mark rhythms, which we love for more than thirty years now, while in return Lopez adds his likewise trademark sound material. However this is not a question putting one and one together in the hope it's going to be two, which usually doesn't work. But that's not what Lopez does here. He cuts his sounds short(er) too, and creates a mechanical rhythm out of that too. His field recordings here sound like they found their origins inside a factory - hissing and bleeping of motors, sustaining sounds from mechanical devices and such like. That gives the music perhaps a sense of old fashioned industrial music but that is maybe the whole idea behind this. It works wonderfully well, especially when Lanz creates those banging industrial rhythms, such as in '01' and '05', which sound almost like Einsturzende Neubauten. A great release, almost like pop music, which is a rare thing for Lopez. So, yes, I can imagine people asking themselves why they should buy every new Lopez (related) release, but this one is actually very good - an essential one even (the future must proof this). And seeing they took a 'band' name, I wouldn't be surprised if there is more to come." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| BIONULOR |
Sacred Mushroom Chant |
CD |
"Inspired by the work of such artists as Aube and William Basinski, Bionulor again rakes the past, looking like an alchemist for the most appropriate material for their work. "Sacred Mushroom Chant" is a record created solely on the basis of treatment of the human voice without additional sounds or instruments.
Each of the five tracks is based on a separate part of the sound source. Then the base is: an archival record of shamanic chant associated with the ceremony of taking hallucinogenic mushrooms, a Japanese traditional song extracted from a collection of old vinyl records, Neil Armstrong's walking on the lunar surface famous phrase, a fragment of an interview with Marcel Duchamp telling about his first ready-made, and finally the voice of the artist himself denouncing the sentence attributed to Hassan ibn Sabbah (“Nothing is true”).
Over 50 minutes of pure experimental music (mix of minimal, ambient and even noisy sounds) created on the basis of author's creative method called the "100% sound recycling." You will be really impressed when you realize that those tracks were crafted only with scraps of samples.
Cover art by Monika Machnik, mastered by Peter Andersson. Comes in 4-panel digipack." [label info]
www.wrotycz.com
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| BIOSPHERE |
Wireless - Live Arnolfini, Bristol |
CD |
"Biosphere ist das Hauptprojekt des norwegischen Künstlers Geir Jenssen, der auf eine ansehnlich Discographie zurückblicken kann. "Microgravity" and "Patashnik", zwei weg- und stilbereitende Alben erschienen auf dem legendären R&S-Label in Belgien, prägten in diesem Kontext neben Alben von Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, Sun Electric und Ken Ishii den Begriff "Electronica" maßgeblich mit. Aus dem Album "Patashnik" wurde die Single "Novelty Waves" ausgekoppelt, die auch die Spots einer der Levis TV-Kampagnen untermalte.Remixes für bekannte Künstler wie Nicolette, James oder Frontline Assembly zeigten zwar weiterhin gleichsam das Interesse der Musikszene an seiner Kunst, aber auch Geir Jenssens Willen Musikstücke völlig nach seinen Vorstellungen zu transformieren.Live während des "Arnolfini" Festivals in Bristol, am 27.Oktober 2007 von Chris Watson aufgenommen. Er benutzte hierfür 2x Sony ECM 77s mit einem Nagra P11 Ares Flash Recorder. Gemixt, editiert und gemastered wurde das Stück final von BJNilsen in Berlin im März 2009.Dieses Konzert war Teil des "Touch 25 Live", die auch eine "Storm" Performance von Chris Watson & BJNilsen beinhaltete." [label info / Cargo ]
"... What we do know is that 'Wireless' is the first live album by Biosphere, one of the master minds of ambient music. Starting out in ambient techno (releasing a classic with 'Patashnik' in 1994), and then moving out of the techno, deeper into the land of ambient music, leaving off any pulses at some point. On 'Wireless' he returns to use pulses and rhythms: minimal but not in a click n cut sense. Warm, fourth world alike. which guide the soft synths, field recordings and, for the first time around the trumpet of Anders Karlskas. As such this live album is not a distinct break with the 'old' Biosphere, the one calm sound tapestries on 'Substrata' for instance, but it seems to have come to a full circle now. The more simple, rhythmic samples refer to what I can call Biosphere 'mark 1', but not as dance oriented, more trance inducing, lay down, sit back music, whereas the deep atmospheric textures of before are still part of it, that has become a trademark of Biosphere. Changes in the sound of Biosphere are small, but crucial. 'Wireless' is once again a refined ambient from one of the true masters of the genre." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.myspace.com/biosphereofficial
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Microgravity |
do-CD |
"A remastered version of Biosphere's debut album Microgravity on double CD with a bonus album of previously unreleased tracks. From Wikipedia: "Geir Jenssen began releasing his music as Biosphere on obscure Norwegian compilation albums. His first Biosphere releases were the 12-inch single The Fairy Tale and the album Microgravity, both of which were rejected by SSR as unmarketable. Microgravity was released in 1991 on the Norwegian label Origo Sound, and saw wider release via the R&S Records subsidiary Apollo in 1992, to much critical acclaim." All tracks written and produced by Geir Jenssen. All tracks on CD2 and sides E-F are previously unreleased. Recorded in Skippergata 42, Tromsø, Norway, between 1990 and 1991. Mastered by Stefan Betke. Artwork by Philip Marshall." [label info]
|
2015 |
€25.50 |
|
|
The Hilvarenbeek Recordings |
CD |
"The Hilvarenbeek Recordings are based on field recordings from the Dutch farm Biologische boerderij 't Schop in Hilvarenbeek. Commissioned by Incubate." [label info]
"Geir Jenssen a.k.a. Biosphere yields the results of a field recording project on a Dutch farm, commissioned by Incubate festival.
Imperceptibly melded with Biosphere’s signature synthetic palette, the field recordings are effectively reanimated as dreamlike sequences, variously incorporating the sounds of a distant helicopter with shepherd’s calls and windswept choral synth voices in t’Schop, focussing in on insectoid minutiae with Pipistrellus, or indivisibly meshing the real and the unreal in lush pieces such as Audax and the pastoral bliss of Icoon." [Boomkat]
|
2018 |
€11.50 |
|
| |
N-Plants |
do-LP |
"Geir Jenssen writes: Early February 2011: Decided to make an album inspired by the Japanese post-war economic miracle. While searching for more information I found an old photo of the Mihama nuclear plant. The fact that this futuristic-looking plant was situated in such a beautiful spot so close to the sea made me curious. Are they safe when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis? Further reading revealed that many of these plants are situated in earthquake-prone areas, some of them are even located next to shores that had been hit in the past by tsunamis. A photo of Mihama made me narrow down my focus only to Japanese nuclear plants. I wanted to make a soundtrack to some of them, concentrating on the architecture, design and localizations, but also questioning the potential radiation danger (a cooling system being destroyed by a landslide or earthquake, etc). As the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said: the plants were so well designed that 'such a situation is practically impossible'. The album was finished on February 13th. On March 17th I received the following message from a Facebook friend: 'Geir, some time ago you asked people for a photo of a Japanese nuclear powerplant. Is this going to be the sleeve of your new coming album? But more importantly: how did you actually predict the future? Kind regards, David." [label info]
"Obviously we have to believe Geir Jenssen when he writes that in February he decided to make an album about Japanese post-war economic miracle, found a picture of a nuclear power plant, and wondered why so many are close to the sea, and what would happen if a tsunami would sweep the land? We know the answer by now. I assume Jenssen didn't make this story up as good line to sell a CD. Its been a while since we last heard Biosphere, a new work that is, as 'Patashnik' is still an ipod favorite here, and a work that breaks away, it seems, with the more recent ambient works. 'N-Plants' sees a return to the world of rhythm and that makes this quite a remarkable work. Biosphere going back to the world of dance music, although its hard to imagine people actually dancing to this. But if my crystal ball gazing is right, ambient house is soon to be on a revival trip, following the recent explosion in cosmic music, and then Biosphere can't do wrong. He plays here with the elements of cosmic music and adds nice minimalist beats to it. Loops of keyboard sounds, spiced with 4/4 minimal beats (more Cologne than Berlin) as well as layered drones of what might be more keyboards, or heavily processed field recordings, make up some great music, returning to his earlier music, but expanding it. Out are the voice samples, the beats are reduced to the bare minimum, the ambience is more to the foreground, making this another essential Biosphere record." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€32.00 |
|
| BIOTA |
Invisible Map |
CD |
Irgendwie isses Folkmusik, irgendwie isses Popmusik, aber ständig verschiebt sich der Grund in quasi halluzinogener Manier, der Boden wird einem regelrecht unter den Füssen weggezogen....schöne Folkmelodien und mehrstimmiger Gesang sind präsent, zum Teil scheint alles schwankend im Chaos zu versinken, aber plötzlich ist wieder alles im Lot ! Einfach geniales Zeug und nach wie vor nicht zu kategorisieren, was BIOTA, die Nachfolger der legendären MNEMONISTS, hier machen !
"If fans of Biota were shocked by the pop songs that appeared for the first time on the previous Biota release, Invisible Map is going to send them reeling. They are sung by Genevieve Heistek, from the same school of Montreal musicians who spawned Godspeed You Black Emperor. The songs provide a central point around which Biota hang their esoteric production ideas. Crazy shawms suddenly spurt out of the mix, unsteady tripping rhythms from the drums counterpoint interlocking guitars, and unsettling sound processing pushes the material to the edge of oblivion. The tracks were built up from solo accordion or rubab, drums and guitar, and the whole piece is woven into an ambiguous cinematic journey. Mixing and effects were applied in real time, 'by hand'. This gives a wonderful spontaneous feel to the music, and Biota have made an art out of accepting and working with freak accidental effects." [label info]
|
2001 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Half a True Day |
CD |
BIOTA, das ist "Neo-Folk" der ganz anderen Art, surrealistisch & fremdartig, mit unglaublichem Sound- & Effekt-Reichtum, ohne Pathos und von feinster Klangsprache. HALF A TRUE DAY lässt einen wunderbar verwirrt & emotionalisiert zugleich zurück, irgendwie belustigt und trotzdem tief verzaubert. Es gibt wohl keine andere Band der Welt die auch nur annähernd so tönt.
"Kaum ein anderes Projekt steht derart für kollektive Kreativität und Kontinuität, für elektroakustische und audiovisuelle Gesamtkunstwerklichkeit wie die seit 1979 (anfänglich als Mnemonists) in Colorado operierenden BIOTA. Sechs Jahre scheint eine natürliche Biota-Schwangerschaft zu dauern, denn solange liegt Invisible Map (2001) zurück und davor Object Holder (1995). Dass Bad Alchemy Records 1989 die Biota-10“ Awry herausbrachte, lässt mir noch heute jedes Loblied auf die Gruppe wie Schleichwerbung erscheinen. Doch schon die Tragfähigkeit des Konzeptes verdient Bewunderung, ebenso wie das kollektive Artwork, das nun Half A True Day (ReRB6) wie jeden Biota-Release zuvor visuell einzigartig macht. William Sharp, Steve Scholpe, Randy Yeates, Mark Piersel, Tom Katsimpalis, Gordon Whitlow, Charles O'Meara (aka Vrtacek) und all die andern zauberten zudem wieder eine unverwechselbare Melange aus den Klängen von Akkordeon, akustischer Gitarre, Rubab, Flügelhorn, Keyboards, Piano, Percussion und mehr, in minutiöser Kleinarbeit verwebt durch Tapework, Mix, Processing und Editing zu 17 von einem zum anderen fließenden Aspekten eines träumerischen, surrealen Ambientes, in dem die Zeit manchmal rückwärts läuft oder sich verzweigt. Diese Exotica vom andern Stern entführt in ein akustisches Spiegelkabinett, in dem sich Klänge in Ketten vervielfältigen oder wie in Echokammern brechen oder überlagern. Soeben noch transparente Folklorismen krümmen sich zu Loops, zarte Vokalisen von Kristianne Gale, Gitarren- und Rubabzupfer und Akkordeonsound zerfließen zu Musique concrète, zersplittern als rockiger Widerhall aus dem Cyberspace, kollidieren als mittelalterliche Fantasies mit Sonic Fiction. Die Musik zerläuft
stagnierend und doch stetig, erschafft ihre eigene Traumzeit, unablässig morphend, äußerst seltsam. Einzig die Sun City Girls kommen als halbwegs vergleichbar in Frage" [Rigobert Dittmann / Bad Alchemy]
"Six years in the making, the visual/sonic art group Biota have finally completed their Sixth CD for ReR. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concréte techniques with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources - from kit drums, through mediaeval winds, strings and barrel organs to early experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always performance driven and interleaved with successive stages of lamination, imbrication, and radical pre- and post-processing, Quietly ploughing their own furrow for decades, Biota resemble no one, follow no one and, if the sonic arts were like the visual arts, would by now be a national treasure." [label notes]
label: www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Funnel to a Thread |
CD |
"Gut zwei Jahre nach „Cape Flyaway“ meldet sich das amerikanische Avant-Rock-Kollektiv BIOTA mit einem neuen Album zurück. „Funnel To A Thread“ erscheint als CD auf RER. Seit ihrer Gründung 1979 (unter dem Namen MNEMONIST ORCHESTRA, später MNEMONISTS) beglücken BIOTA ihre weltweite, treu ergebene Fan-Schar mit in unregelmäßigen Abständen erscheinenden Alben, die stets als Gesamtkunstwerke aus Musik und Artwork zu verstehen sind. So vielseitig wie die musikalischen Einflüsse ist auch das Instrumentarium der elfköpfigen Formation: elektrische und akustische Gitarren, Hammond-Orgel, Micromoog, Trompete, Geigen, Bass, Akkordeon, Klavier, Percussion und gelegentlich Gesang schichten sich zu frei fl ießenden, kollagenartigen Songs, wobei Folk-Elemente als Leitmotiv dienen. BIOTA kreieren ihre ganz eigene Musikform, in der Zeit als dauerhaftes Kontinuum erscheint und nicht als stringente Abfolge von Ereignissen - experimentelle Psychedelia der ganz besonderen Art.
Kristianne Gale: voice, strumstick; James Gardner: trumpet, kim; Tom Katsimpalis: electric, nylon, 12-string guitars, Crown bass, Clavioline, zither; Randy Miotke: Rhodes, trumpet, flutes; Charles O’Meara: piano; Mark Piersel: resophonic guitar, editing; William Sharp: mix, editing, electronic processing; Gordon Whitlow: Hammond electric & Estey pump organs, accordion, kaen, autoharp; Larry Wilson: kit drums, percussion, ranat, xylophone; Randy Yeates: Biomellodrone keyboard, Roland Space Echo; David Zekman: violin, mandolin, banjolin
Since the late 1970s Biota has ploughed its own furrow, producing a body of work that resembles nothing anyone else has done or is yet doing. Their compositions evolve in long, constantly shifting timbral blocks filled with fragments and echoes of quasi-familiar musical languages. They use instrumental resources bridging half a millennium and two thirds of the planet to create unique combinations of texture, colour and movement. It’s a music of constant flux, dissolving, re-forming and mutating without agitation or stress, where motion and stasis blend into a single ambiguous condition. And although it will never arrive, the path, with its simultaneous familiarity and strangeness has an eerie power to compel.
The recordings, as always from the Dys Studio, are meticulous and carefully constructed - the fused product of generation after generation of processing and mixing. There’s an almost Feldmanesque quality of necessity and unpredictabilty. The band now takes, on average, five years to prepare, record and finalise a new release. They’re in no hurry.
BIOTA
Founded in Colorado in the late 1970s, Biota's first recordings were released under the name of the Mnemonist Orchestra which, between 1980 and 1984, released five albums on its own label, before linking up with ReR in1984. That was also the year in which they split into an independent visual arts collective - which retained the Mnemonist name - and the recording project, Biota. Since which time, their releases have presented the work of both groups in tandem." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"We should have known better. If Biota decide to come out with a new CD after “just” three years instead of leaving us to wait for the large part of a decade as always, the occurrence is presumably concealing specific implications. As if they were anxious of re-establishing a connection with preceding issues without losing the grip on the chain of circumstantial matters that originates the current visions.
So here we are, celebrating Funnel To A Thread as a foundational chapter in the collective’s history, possibly standing among their all-time best if such prosaicness makes sense. But maybe – just maybe – this will encourage at least a portion of the populations still shamefully unfamiliar with the subject to ultimately deepen it. Let me be straight. Someone as, say, The Residents have managed to reach cult status via marketable mysteries and a body of work which, in terms of musical depth, is mainly insignificant. What are Biota to do – besides producing beautiful, fulfilling, seriously groundbreaking albums accompanied by jaw-dropping artworks – to be formally welcomed in the elite of veritable contemporary innovators?
The connoisseur will never cease to fight against the ignorance surrounding this rewarding acoustic macrocosm. A place where past, present and future are literally embraced by the same kind of emotional reverberation. Where conscious species of listeners inevitably find answers to essential questions that appeared impossible to decode before. Where a concatenation of short episodes streaming without solution of continuity leads through a lifetime of intuitions that had been kept for ourselves to date, and now – at last – we can stamp as “right”, not really caring about sharing them. These people produce sounds that naturally regulate our synchronous response to a physical energy directly connected with what the trade brands as “cosmic vibe”, in spite of an external appearance often relating to finely aging forms of folk expression. How they manage to do this remains an enigma.
Twenty-one tracks conscientiously played and painstakingly assembled, rooted in clearly perceptible influences, morphing as clouds in an autumn sky. Katsimpalis and Piersel’s guitars are a conspicuously driving presence, textbooks of heartfelt arpeggios and bucolic phrases which made me consider the bygone existence of a John Fahey / Neil Young hybrid. Gale’s vocal shards appear suddenly to instantly run away, a grace too shy to be evaluated. Whitlow’s accordion scientifically places signposts of reassurance when things seem to turn towards a mild turbulence. Zekman’s violin tells of the inevitability of a goodbye, minus the tears. O’Meara’s pianistic interventions are simple and unresolved at once, magniloquence removed from the vocabulary. Sharp’s typically masterful hands and ears exalt details that usually stay unnoticed, the audio landscape disclosing a palette of ineffable amorphousness around precisely defined arrangements and spatializations, more than anywhere else in the band’s recorded output. Mixing skills that nobody knows, except those who smile instinctively hearing words like “Tumble” or “Tinct”. Favorites? Quite absurd to ask: a Biota album is, by definition, a whole movie. However, in truth there are scenes that linger on; were this writer forced to choose with a gun pointed at his temple, the transition between “Understory” and “Numberless Years” might liquefy a hardened heart at any given moment.
Biota is an entity that attributes fresh meanings to the concept of altruism, for this music is a richness for anybody willing to dive in. An unpretentious assertion of confidence surrounded by colors conveying humanity and nostalgia, with an unremitting focus on clever ways to distil sonic significance from the forthcoming." [Massimo Ricci / touching extremes]
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Fragment for Balance |
CD |
After 4 years of work on their 11th release for ReR, this extraordinary, reclusive, and highly individual audio-visual collective continues to evolve through the painstaking accumulation and disposition of a seemingly incompatible range of both exotic and familiar musical languages, instruments, techniques and studio manipulations into one of the few genuinely original bands at work today. It took a long time to refine their unique process of composition to this level of ambiguity and depth and newcomers will wonder how they strayed so far from orthodoxy and yet managed to retain a lucidity and transparency that is quite rare in contemporary music. Timeless, almost weightless - yet teeming with life, motion and complexity - this is a music that suggests an untroubled world in which nostalgia, tragedy and agon, while rudely present, remain subservient to deeper, calmer currents. Sic transit gloria mundi.
The bullet points are that Biota is a unique project, defying genre with, like all such cult artists, a small but extremely dedicated public that, over the last 15 years has grown continuously as new listeners discover them.
BIOTA
Founded in Colorado in the late 1970s, Biota's first recordings were released under the name of the Mnemonist Orchestra who, between 1980 and 1984, released five albums on its own label, before linking up with ReR in 1984. That was also the year in which they split into an independent visual arts collective - retaining the Mnemonist name - and the recording project, Biota. Since then, their releases have presented the work of both groups in tandem.
http://biotamusic.com/
https://biota.bandcamp.com/album/fragment-for-balance
"Für ihren 11ten bei Recommended Records (oder ReR Megacorp) veröffentlichen Tonträger (EP, LP oder CD) haben sich Biota aus Fort Collins in Colorado wieder etwas mehr Zeit gelassen. Nachdem 2014 "Funnel to a Thread" erschienen war, legte man erst einmal eine längere Pause ein, um dann vom Frühjahr 2016 bis in den Herbst 2018 hinein das neue Album einzuspielen. Das Ergebnis - "Fragment for Balance" - wurde schließlich im Frühling 2019 veröffentlicht. Das Album kommt in einem bunten Digipack, versehen mit einem dicken Beiheft voller expressionistisch-tiefsinniger Bilderwerke. Die ersten 150 Exemplare beinhalten - wenn man direkt beim Label bestellt - zudem einen kleinen Pappschuber, in dem ein originale, von Tom Katsimpalis gestaltete Bildcollage steckt. Sehr edel!
Offenhörlich haben Biota ihren Stil gefunden, bewegt sich doch die auf "Fragment for Balance" zu findende Musik in sehr ähnlichen Gefilden, wie die des direkten Vorgängers. Die Besetzung ist zudem identisch. Allerdings scheint mir "Fragment for Balance" etwas homogener und klangvoller voran zu fließen.
Eine recht eigenartige folkig-elektronische Kammermusik gibt es auf "Fragment for Balance" zu hören, oder einen seltsamen elektronisch-kammermusikalischen Avant-Folk, bestimmt von filigranem Akustikgitarrengeschrammel, Violinenklängen, allerlei Blaswerk, analog-elektronischen Tastensounds, Piano, Harmonium, Akkordeon und diverser Perkussion. Deren Tonerzeugnisse werden (teilweise effektverfremdet) mit verschiedensten Elektronikgebilden, komplexen Tonskulpturen und prozessierten Klangfragmenten unterlegt, bzw. von diesen verwoben, so dass sich das Album als lange und vielteilige, elektronisch-akustische Suite voran arbeitet, bei der die einzelnen Nummern ineinander übergehen. Über all dem schwebt Kristianne Gales wunderbarer, gälisch-folkiger und ätherisch-luftiger Gesang.
Im Vergleich zu früheren Alben, insbesondere denen aus den 80er- und 90er-Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts, ist die rezentere Musik von Biota eher ruhig, fast sanft gehalten, wobei dieselbe immer ausgesprochen unkonventionell dahin gleitet. Dies trifft auch auf "Fragment for Balance" zu, welches stilistisch Folk, experimentelle Elektronik, moderne Kammermusik und eine Art von Avantrock zu einem dichten, sehr homogenen und seltsam gewichtslosen Ganzen vereinigt. Sorgfältig geplant und komponiert arbeitet sich die Musik voran, dissonant aber friedlich, gleichzeitig erstaunlich harmonisch, rund und vertraut, dann aber wieder sperrig und ausgesprochen fremdartig. E-Gitarre, Bass und Schlagzeug sorgen dafür, dass es immer mal wieder rockt, doch arbeitet sich der Großteil der Musik eher formlos voran, ohne aber auf Struktur und Zielstrebigkeit zu verzichten. Momente unglaublicher, fast absurder Schönheit wechseln sich mit schrägem Plingen und Hallen ab, mit voluminös-symphonischen Tonschüben, wolkigen Klanggebilden, akustisch-kammermusikalischen Abschnitten, dynamischen RIO-Prog-Momentaufnahmen, repetitiv-minimalistischen Exkursen und wirren Tondurcheinandern.
Chris Cutler bezeichnet Biota als eine der 'few genuinely original bands at work today', und dem möchte ich durchaus zustimmen. So wie Biota klingt derzeit keine andere Band auf dieser Welt. Wer progressive Musik in einem folkig-elektronisch-freiformatigen Kontext schätzt, der sollte "Fragment for Balance" (und "Funnel to a Thread") kennen." [Achim Breiling / Babyblaue Seiten]
"As obvious as this may sound, the years run way faster as one grows older. When Biota announced the release of Fragment For Balance, my delight in receiving a new bulletin from the collective “after not so long” was soon replaced by the mild shock of realizing that their previous outing Funnel To A Thread had been published in 2014. I wasn’t paying attention to all those months flying away (to paraphrase another title from the group’s discography).
Even worse, this period was rendered heavier by two major losses in Biota’s universe. In 2015, visual artist Joy Ann Froding left this planet following the successful surfing of an ocean wave; in 2018, multi-instrumentalist Charles “Chuck” O’Meara (formerly Vrtacek) suffered a heart attack while he was cutting wood to warm his winter. In the sadness, it is somewhat relieving to note the natural ambience of these occurrences, presuming that Froding and O’Meara were in a comfortable place inside when the call from nowhere came. The album is dedicated to them, and the artwork commemorating the pair on the accompanying booklet – a flower and a bird embedded in unique Mnemonists shades – nearly caused this writer’s tired eyes to well up. That ear-gracing piano inevitably puts the soul in “still here with us” mode; Chuck was, and forever will be, a certified Biot.
Every single snippet of the multitude of sketches, proposals and fully fledged visions represents a piece of fertile ground for sensible roots. Yet the process of absorption doesn’t really happen through the listener’s mind, exploiting instead the most unconventional features of sympathetic resonance. There’s always been a touch of magic in William Sharp’s slight defacement of arrangement and equalization, be it a chiaroscuro of off-key echoes or the enhancement of quietly intertwining arpeggios. Throughout the 26 (!) consecutive tracks comprised by the program – duration from 0’38” to 9’48” – the achievement of a flawless amalgamation of tunings, melodic intelligibility and aural daydreaming remains at the core. The instruments shine brighter than ever, with particular regard to guitars (Tom Katsimpalis and Mark Piersel) and violin (David Zekman). They seem to trace coordinates and paths to places of blinding light amidst the hand-woven textural patchworks and gentle superimpositions informing the orchestration.
Apropos of that, flashes of enlightenment are born from the melting of a larger number of voices (including Kristianne Gale’s apparitions, a singing mermaid in a sea of wistful refractions). Keyboard constructions totally deprived of preset futility lie at the basis of revealing harmonic disseminations, Gordon Whitlow’s accordion and Hammond organ strengthening the sonic tissue with typical wisdom. Also notable is the role of Randy Miotke, his trumpet and flugelhorn supporting the contrapuntal constitution, and its various transmutations. Larry Wilson’s drums emerge in unexpected spots, attributing hues of temporal non-existence to otherwise regular rhythmic cells.
And so on and so forth, one would have to conclude. It’s been decades by now, yet attempting to describe the essences emanated by Biota’s garden still makes me feel stupid, or useless, or both. Nevertheless, the sensation of understanding a little morsel every time – of the music itself, of the fight against big-mouthed superficiality, of the painful impossibility of communicating with lesser levels of perception – is incomparable. In less than ten minutes, a track like “Walking Is Missing” teaches much more than the millions of words spewed by cretins most everywhere.
When that packet from Colorado materializes, my gradually greying beard doesn’t matter anymore. All it takes is sniffing the cover’s scent, observing once again the profound art of human beings who do not accept commands, or foolish indications, by anyone. And, of course, spinning the disc without putting the finger on the whys and the whos. Just intuiting the actual reasons of aliveness, and envisioning our future merging with the meaningful consequences of the acoustic laws.
Or, as good ol’ Chuck would have it, “learning to be silent”." [Massimo Ricci]
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL |
Seventh ruined hex |
CD |
"... Die Grundästhetik seiner Arbeit als Birchville Cat Motel speist sich dann auch aus einem starken, deutlich hörbaren Black Flag-Einfluss, der auffällig gut mit einigen Querverweisen an Drone Music und Power Electronics harmoniert. Unter der willkommenen Mitwirkung von Matthew Bower, der dem Rock unter anderem bereits mit Skullflower einst ein anderes, tatsächlich ungewohntes Gesicht verpasste, kreiert Kneale in diesem Spektrum auf »Seventh Ruined Hex« (Important Records) eine weitere hörenswerte Variation auf ein Themas, das zuletzt vielleicht etwas oft beackert wurde, um dauerhaft spannend zu bleiben. Mann muss ihm allerdings zu Gute halten, dass seine Layer aus Noise, angedeuteter Harmonie und purer Klangwand jederzeit überzeugend, durchdacht und manchmal sogar recht originell erscheinen." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"A further step out in Birchville Cat Motel's ruminations on time/space distortion featuring the additional mystikal talents of fellow gravity destroyer, Matthew Bower (Hototogisu/Sunroof!). Seventh Ruined Hex presents like a lonesome planet, occasionally struck with super-sized fragments of space detritus, but for the most part, just hangs around, spinning on its axis and doing fuck-all. Strangely emotive for 'a buncha noise.' Like the deepest love, it's warm yet tenuous, and filled with the ever-present potential for loss and brutality. More in line with the estranged love tangle of the Birchville classic Chi Vampires than the most recent befuddling hyperspace rock overload of recent albums like Our Love Will Destroy the World and Birds Call Home their Dead. Features Matthew Bower, who has been known to put out a good album or two on a regular basis. Powerful." [label notes]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
"Guitar - Cymbal - Electrics" prangt auf dem Innencover (7"-Hülle) der allerersten BCM-CD von 1997! Hier begann der Siegeszug von CAMPBELL KNEALEs rauhen und furiosen neuseeländischen Drone-Sounds, unglaubliche Feedback-Skulpturen entstehen hier, aber auch ruhige Dronismen... wenige Kopien dieser CD (Auflage etwa 550 Stück) sind wieder aufgetaucht, das Label ist seit Jahren nicht mehr aktiv!! |
1997 |
€14.00 |
|
| BIRDS BUILD NESTS UNDERGROUND |
So As |
CD |
"So As is Birds Build Nests Underground’s first studio album after three years. It features four songs/compositions created exclusively with turntables and prepared vinyl records. The first of them, 'Sintordin,' is BBNU’s attempt to add something to the “jazz from hell” niche. And the idea of clashing marching bands... 'Ossifying Tongues' started, as the name implies, as a sonic description of the ossification of the mouth: the human voice material was slowly changing into white rhythmic and repetitive skeletons. However, over the years, the song has changed into a different kind of a monster and can be read as a comment on BBNU’s industrial/ambient past. 'Axe Loop' is a rock song – intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental break, chorus… somehow it is sixteen minutes long – after the band decided to leave out one verse. And finally there is 'Smoking Sun', a short interpretation of the band’s long-lost loop. New Romance meets clarinets on a nicely decorated dissecting table with some flowers in the pot. The fifth is a video track – a 10 minute part of BBNU’s performance from the autumn 2011, the day Freddie Mercury died. Martin Jezek shows his skills of 16mm improvisation here while Petr Ferenc and Michael Brunclík are locked in their favourite groove. The release arrives in a digipak and is limited. It is joint-released by BBNU's own Love Nest imprint." [label info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIRDS OF PASSAGE |
This kindly Slumber |
CD |
"Nach den beiden Alben 'Without the World' und 'Winter Lady' im Frühjahr bzw. Winter 2011, kehrt die Neuseeländerin Alicia Merz - besser bekannt als Birds of Passage - mit ihrem dritten Album 'This Kindly Slumber' endlich zurück. Wie ein Kokon umhüllen die vielen feingearbeiteten Schichten dieses Album den Hörer. Leise Klangstürme tragen eine Ambient Atmosphäre heran, gefolgt von dicht auf dicht übereinander gelagerten chorischen Drones und Alice Merzvertraut fragilen Vocals. Der schroffe Nachhall ihrer unverwechselbaren Stimme kontrastiert sanft dahin schwelgenden Träumereien, getragen von poetisch philosophischen Texten. Zusammen schaffen sie ein Klima von Glück und Zuversicht, das so unwirklich und sanft wie es gekommen ist, auch wieder abklingt. Mit Anspielungen auf Dark Pop und klassischem Broken-Folk, erinnern uns Alicias Kompositionen - die jederzeit konsequent den musikalischen Klimax oder etwaige Annäherungen aussparen - daran, dass sie eine Singer-Songwriterin ist für Hörer, die sich eigentlich genau jener Form von Musikern nicht verschrieben haben. Es ist Zeit in den Kokon zu klettern und 'This Kindly Slumber' zu erfahren. Dieser Ort der Zuflucht wird dich finden, wenn du ihn am meisten brauchst und dich in seine Welt aufnehmen. Für Hörer von SLOWDIVE, GROUPER, ZOLA JESUS, COCTEAU TWINS, SIGUR ROS." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| BIRDS OF PASSAGE & LEONARDO ROSADO |
Dear and Unfamiliar |
LP |
"180gr Vinyl im Gatefold Sleeve auf 300 Stück limitiert. CD im Digipak. Ein minimalistisch-cinematischer Trip in den Bauch des experimentallen Dark Pop.
Nach dem von allen Seiten gelobten Debüt "Without The World" und ihrer ersten Europa Tour 2011 kehrt BIRDS OF PASSAGE ("der neue Stern am Himmel des Dark Pop") aus Neuseeland nun mit dem zweiten Akt zurück.
"Dear And Unfamiliar" ist ein cinematisches Konzeptalbum, das sie zusammen mit Leonardo Rosardo aus Portugal erschaffen hat.
Das Album ist ein vollfarbiger Soundtrack, der einen lebendigen Pfad durch die Düsternis der desolaten Melodien schneidet.
Geschichten vergessener Tragödien und unerwiderter Liebe befreien den Reisenden von Tagträumen des Unglücks und leiten den Wanderer durch die kontrastierenden Landschaften aus Dysphoria und Ekstase.
Gemastert von Nils Frahm mit Artwork von Bruno Merz. Das Album sollte Fans von COCTEAU TWINS und PORTISHEAD ebenso wie Fans von JONSI & ALEX oder ZOLA JESUS gefallen.
Glücklicherweise arbeitet Alicia schon an ihrem nächsten Soloalbum samt Single, auf der sie mit Aidan Baker (NADJA, INFINITE LIGHT LTD.) kollaboriert." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| BISCLAVERET |
Psyche noMine |
CD |
Erste "volle" CD für dieses polnische Dark Ambient / Esoteric Drone-Duo, erschienen auf dem israelischen EASTERN FRONT-Label.
"... Diese Kompositionen offerieren ein Dickicht aus Synths-Schwaden und einem Gewirr von gesprochenen, geflüsterten oder klagend gemurmelten Stimmen, gelegentlich aufgelockert von Piano-Klängen und dezenten rhythmischen Erschütterungen, und strahlen eine sich langsam verbreitende beklemmende Atmosphäre aus, die insbesondere nach intensivem Rotwein-Genuss ihren Platz beanspruchen kann und auch inhaltlich gestützt wird. Songtitel wie „Ritual of the all-embracing madness“ und „Voices from another state of…mind, heart and body“ dürften insoweit für sich sprechen, mit “Akeldama XIV” wurde zudem Mr. Aleister Crowley vertont.
„Psyche noMine“ erscheint auf dem israelischen Label The Eastern Front. Dieses hebräische Bataillon hat keine Kosten gescheut und dem Silberling eine überdimensionierte Pappverpackung mit Einlegekarte und allen Texten spendiert. Es kann also endgültig losgehen für BISCLAVERET, die für 2007 neben einer neuen EP auch noch eine Wiederveröffentlichung ihrer Erstwerke in Planung haben." [Terrorverlag]
"Bisclaveret - A Polish dark ambient/dark wave duo presents its album Psyche noMine. It took two years to conceive, resulting in 6 songs (clocking at around 53 minutes). Musically, it's a piece for those interested in moving, yet extraordinary art. Lush strings, industrial rhythms and even noise tones at times summarize the background for Dragos' voice coming from the other, subconscious side of his mind. Lyrically, it's a concept-album of sorts. All the lyrics deal with human sub consciousness. The words on 'Psyche noMine' shows a man entangled in the arcane of the world, somebody who does not notice phenomena around him. The man whose recklessness or even arrogance so natural for him is the cause for him being lost in the surrounding reality. The album's ambiguous title suggests what receivers will deal with when listening to new Bisclaveret album. A must-have album for fans of Nordvargr, Dead Man's Hill and Cold Meat Industry acts, such as In Slaughter Natives & Sanctum." [label info]
www.theeasternfront.org
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ephemeros [ante |
CD |
"The newest Bisclaveret release is a concept album , touching up a subject of human existance hidden in the symbolic of seven angel names.On this album you will find 7 songs - pieces showing various aspects of human’s nature and his cosmic dimension in the world.
This album is the trip into the human’s mind through the word and sound.
Ephermeros [ante ‘Te Deum’] shows a little bit different face of Bisclaveret by using new form expression which the musicians used in the alchemic ritual of creation.
Album released in exlusive 3- panel digipack.
The author of all graphics used in this album is Praetorian." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| BISCLAVERET & FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM |
Both Sides of the Looking Glass |
7inch |
"Zoharum's first release on seven inch vinyl. 'Both Sides of the Looking Glass' is a split between BISCLAVERET & FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM. As the title of publication, each of these projects has created a sound in a slightly different vein, based on the post-industrial stylistics. One medium, two sides, similar areas of music. The release is a collaboration of Bremen's FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKES DAHEIM and Gdansk's BISCLAVERET that
began after their concert in London. Then the musicians of both groups, each appreciating the other's work, decided to prepare a joint release. On this occassion, they prepared a new piece of work exclusively for this release.
7" vinyl in a gatefold sleeve,
strictly limited to 200 hand-numbered copies.
cover painting: Maciej Nabiałek" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2012 |
€8.50 |
|
| BIXOBAL |
No. 5 (October 2008) |
mag |
Magazin aus dem (post)-ANOMALOUS RECORDS Umfeld, mit Artikel über die grossartigen ONDE!
"The No-Neck Blues Band's Dave Nuss recalls his time with The Source Family which led to the first Yahowa 13 performance in New York City and their new LP. An extensive interview with reformed Vancouver noise band Tunnel Canary by Allan MacInnis. A remembrance of Noggin violin player Michael Griffen by his friend Aaron Gorseth. A feature on the Belgian group Onde featuring former members of Noise-Maker's Fifes. A feature on the new label Assophon, home to The Sea Donkeys, Spider Trio and Factums. Eric Lanzillotta's reviews of vinyl, compacts discs, and books, both new and old. Patrick Marley's column Nickels and Dimes." |
2008 |
€3.00 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & FABIO ORSI |
Faded Brown and Grey |
CD |
"In October 2013 Orsi and Bjerga recorded a work of haunting beauty in the Extrapool studio. A delicate, precise mixture of Orsi's guitar playing and Bjerga's microcassettes, contact microphones captured in a myriad of electronics. Warm music, intense, yet also dark - like various shades of gray, brown and black. The cover features photographs by Fabio Orsi. Limited to 300 copies."
www.kormplastics.nl
"The Brombron project started in 2000 and is an initiative of Frans de Waard and Extrapool. Two musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, a space for art in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and have the possibility to do recordings in a fully equipped sound recording studio. The collaboration between Fabio Orsi from Italy and Sindre Bjerga form Norway is a wonderful mix of beautiful sounds. Fabio Orsi is specialized in creating atmospheric drones by guitars, old keyboard and field-recordings. He released music all over the world and did collaboration with a lot of other musicians. Sindre Bjerga is active since mid-nighties and released more that 100 records on labels worldwide. He creates his drones by microcassettes and contact microphones in combination with a lot of electronics. The result is five intense pieces of music. The first track is a short fragile track with some fine sounds and is followed by a composition with an on-going tone and concrete sounds are coming up and fade away. The track develops into an electronic on-going changing sound layers and flows into a melancholic melody played on an electric guitar. The following droney track has the same concept of an on-going and slowly changing tone. The fourth track is a beautiful mix of several sound layers, which create a dark ambient atmosphere. Concrete sounds crack the threatening atmosphere and sphere changes to more chaotic and aggressive. The last track is very strong. The track starts in silence with a droney dark tone. The guitar of Orsi goes on and on and he plays louder and louder with a lot of intensity. The sounds of Bjerga like looping screams or a yelling mass guides the massive guitarsound. Great album, highly recommended for lovers of drones with a taste of experiment." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & MICROMELANCOLIE |
Invisible Paths |
CD |
"Another instalment in the ongoing collaborative mail-art series by the duo of Sindre Bjerga and Robert Skrzyński aka Micromelancolié. The first is a well-known Norwegian sound artist that works alone and in many projects (including the excellent drone Star Turbine) and runs the label called Gold Soundz. Robert Skrzyński does not slow down his creative momentum appearing for the first time on Zoharum with a collaboration (after highly acclaimed albums "It Does not Belong Here" by Micromelancolié and "Najas Flexilis Exequiae" by ForrrestDrones).
The two parts of the title composition included on the album "Invisible Paths" is a continuation of sound exploration by both artists. The duo put on a more modest sonic arsenal than on the previous releases, which does not reduce the quality of these two recordings. In these collages there is a place for ambient textures, surreptitiously recorded conversation, oily drones, and even a little bit of tape music. Here and there scraps of melody emerge from from the bubbling magma, although, in contrast to "Prayer Calls" for example, they only serve as ornaments. "Invisible Paths" is an exercise
in focusing attention of the listener, but it's a risk worth taking.
The album is released in a 3-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies. The cover is designed by Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek). It is mastered by Claus Poulsen (the Danish half of Star Turbine duo). The whole production process is overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & NILS ROSTAD |
Live at Moving Furniture Records |
CD-R |
"Split album between Sindre Bjerga and Nils Rostad recorded live at Moving Furniture Records HQ on 8-03-2011.
The CD-R comes in handmade eco-pack sleeves with pictures of both artists glued on them. The names are handwritten on each side.
There is also a hand-numbered pro-printed insert.
Includes unlimited streaming of Live at Moving Furniture Records HQ via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
|
2011 |
€7.50 |
|
| BJÄRGÖ, PETER |
The Architecture of Melancholy |
CD |
"Peter Bjärgö, the man behind the now legendary groups ARCANA and SOPHIA is back with his second solo album. On his first solo release "A wave of Bitterness", we got a glimpse into the mind of a thoughtful person. Now this new release, "The Architecture Of Melancholy", we are sent onto a journey to the darkest depths of Peter's mind and thoughts. Melancholy was once a disease, a mental statement of chronic depression, we are now facing this illness again around the world and this album is a real journey with the melancholic mind. Titles like Bitteresque, Apathy and The Death Of Our Sun give us an idea of the aural voyage ahead. The delicate blend of soft guitars, engulfing dark ambient and the sheer power of Peter's voice make this album a shining diamond among stones. Hope is all that is left...
Edition of 700 copies in 8 panel digipack. 7 Tracks. Running Time 40:30" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
https://peterbjargo.bandcamp.com/album/the-architecture-of-melancholy-2
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLACK MAGIC DISCO |
same |
do-LP |
"double LP couloured vinyls (vinyl 1solid RED / vinyl 2 solid WHITE); comes in a luxury gatefold cover, including a huge 70x100 cm. poster (by Roberto Opalio drawing); BLACK MAGIC DISCO ARE:
TOM GREENWOOD / psych-blues guitar, turntables.
ROBERTO OPALIO / electrogalactic guitar, space toys, astral toy-keyboard, piano toy, percussions.
MAURIZIO OPALIO / electric alien guitar, cosmic rays effects, mini-xylophone, percussions.
RAMONA PONZINI / Japanese vocals & hypnotic chimes.
Black Magic Disco is the new all-star band featuring Tom Greenwood (Jackie-O Motherfucker), Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and Ramona Ponzini (Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, Praxinoscope). The project was born out of an idea from Tom Greenwood, founder leader of the avant-folk-blues ensemble Jackie-O Motherfucker, who invited Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka the Italian improv duo My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA), and their close collaborator Ramona Ponzini (also involved with the two brothers in the projects named Painting Petals On Planet Ghost and Praxinoscope, as well as in the new collaboration with Z'ev) to perform with him for two months of touring throughout all Europe in May/ June 2005. As one can imagine, the result was killer. The music which came out of the live performances was totally explosive, combining Ramona's Japanese vocals & hypnotic chimes with Greenwood's psych-blues guitar attitude & wild turntablism, over MCIAA's alien cosmic flux of electric guitars, space toys & percussions, creating a still unheard mixture of sounds unifying archaic & post-modern, western & eastern, sky & earth. This debut CD represents a unique chance to experience almost 80 minutes of that pure and magic live action, divided in four long tracks taken from the original live recordings. BLACK MAGIC DISCO's logo comes from the pencil of Roberto Opalio; the gatefold jacket CD artwork, curated by MCIAA contains some band photos taken during the live performances included in the record." [label info]
"... This is a music that grows out of the faith each performer puts in whatever they may come up with ? by the simple act of listening & reacting to one another in the most profound and dedicated way. Again, one of its greatest achievements lies in the fact that it is able to sustain a body of sound that is as intense as it is delicate; something which, in my opinion, is truly unique.
Accordingly, this is not just a testimony to the talents of the aforementioned musicians, but also one of the most passionate love letters MUSIC has received in quite some time. How can THIS not be essential? 10/10" [Francois Hubert / Foxy Digitalis]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€19.50 |
|
| BLACK OX ORKESTAR |
Nisht Azoy |
CD |
Zweites Album des kanadischen Ensembles, die Klezmer- & osteuropäische Musik mit neueren alternativen Musikformen verschmelzen (wobei der traditionelle/ folkloristische Anteil aber klar überwiegt) , und dabei so emotional & authentisch klingen daß es sehnsüchtige Herzen sofort in den Bann schlägt... das Quartett besteht aus THIERRY AMAR von GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR, GABRIEL LEVINE von SACKVILLE und JESSICA MOSS sowie SCOTT LEVINE GILMORE von A SILVER MT.ZION, alle lyrics sind diesmal im Beiblatt abgedruckt (auf englisch & französisch, gesungen wird auf Jiddisch), die Coverartwork ist wie immer bei Constellation superb ! „..Das auf ihrem zweiten Album erzielte, mit ausschließlich akustischen Instrumenten umgesetzte Ergebnis klingt dabei so zeitlos wie fesselnd. Melancholisch, aber nicht schwermütig oder gar depressiv, vielseitig, aber nie beliebig und vor allem: lebendig!“ [Ulf Imwiehe / OX-Fanzine]
“The latest from this Montreal quartet who explore their common Jewish heritage for sounds that can speak to them today. Mixing pre-war Jewish and non-Jewish music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans with their own musical backgrounds in out-jazz, punk, and weird folk, the band takes the strangeness and beauty of the older music and translates them into new forms. Percussion, harsh sounds, dynamics, and sonic and lyrical explorations all get thrown in the mix.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Nisht Azoy |
LP |
Zweites Album des kanadischen Ensembles, die Klezmer- & osteuropäische Musik mit neueren alternativen Musikformen verschmelzen (wobei der traditionelle/ folkloristische Anteil aber klar überwiegt), und dabei so emotional & authentisch klingen daß es sehnsüchtige Herzen sofort in den Bann schlägt... das Quartett besteht aus THIERRY AMAR von GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR, GABRIEL LEVINE von SACKVILLE und JESSICA MOSS sowie SCOTT LEVINE GILMORE von A SILVER MT.ZION, alle lyrics sind diesmal im Beiblatt abgedruckt (auf englisch & französisch, gesungen wird auf Jiddisch), die Coverartwork ist wie immer bei Constellation superb !
„..Das auf ihrem zweiten Album erzielte, mit ausschließlich akustischen Instrumenten umgesetzte Ergebnis klingt dabei so zeitlos wie fesselnd. Melancholisch, aber nicht schwermütig oder gar depressiv, vielseitig, aber nie beliebig und vor allem: lebendig!“ [Ulf Imwiehe / OX-Fanzine]
“The latest from this Montreal quartet who explore their common Jewish heritage for sounds that can speak to them today. Mixing pre-war Jewish and non-Jewish music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans with their own musical backgrounds in out-jazz, punk, and weird folk, the band takes the strangeness and beauty of the older music and translates them into new forms. Percussion, harsh sounds, dynamics, and sonic and lyrical explorations all get thrown in the mix.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€17.00 |
|
| BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS |
Astral Walk |
CD |
First real album by the Swiss duo, very electronic, sludgy, hypnotic, trancy & creepy industrial-grooves!
"Musick originally created as a soundtrack for the performance of Plastic Spider Thing Part XXII. Performed by legendary COIL collaborators and performance artists Massimo & Pierce. Energetic, breathtaking ritual music for mind and body. Includes a cover of Soft Cell's "Macabre (Meet Murder By Angel)". Definitely one for COIL fans. Ltd x 1000 copies with beautiful artwork by Lukas Lux and layout by BSP." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| BLACK TO COMM |
Rückwärts Backwards |
CD |
“Black To Comm is an alias for Dekorder label owner Marc Richter's audio excursions. "Rückwärts Backwards" is his debut full-length album recorded between 2003 and 2005 in his adopted hometown Hamburg and his childhood home in the Black Forest located in the south of Germany. With a background in many musical styles (from Psychedelia to pure Computer Music) BTC's music is never easy to pin down.
This album is essentially created from scratchy shellac and vinyl loops merged with ambience field recordings (with some voice manipulations and kitchen gamelan thrown in for good measure). The warm hiss of analogue recording techniques combined with the apparently antique sounds of vintage organs, acoustic & electric guitars, pianos, glockenspiel and mbira used on these tracks generate a kind of hyperreal, fake nostalgia playing with one's perception of a pseudo-recollection. The layering and hypnotic repetition of short loops extracted from old Psychedelia, Free Jazz, Vaudeville and Traditional records reveal a haunting melodic quality sometimes not distinguishable within the original source material, evoking a hovering feeling of bittersweet melancholy with an omnipresent, slightly disturbing atmosphere hidden beneath the surface.The 8 songs constantly sway back and forth between simple, almost naive arrangements and dense surreal drones with rare, yet intense distorted climaxes making this album one constantly absorbing listening experience.” [label info]
“First of all this CD is beautifully packaged with a tri-fold disc holder. Each picture bears its own character (blurry forest with handscrawled text, a sleeping cat, and what appears to be an old wallpaper pattern) But on to the music. Black to Comm (aka Marc Richter who also runs Dekorder) knows how to keep it short and sweet with 8 songs clocking in at under 37 minutes. Ruckwarts Backwards opens with the aptly titled 'Bees' some gentle buzzing of said insect is later accompanied by some child-like hums, this gives way to the second song 'Levitation' which is a gentle soundscape of rising and falling organ tones backed by a field recording. 'Lucifer Lacca' ushers in an operatic vocal loop that reaches crescendo and ends with another bit of children's singing. The feel is still subdued and continues throughout the record, I'm reminded at times of Tape, not so much in sound but in how I feel while listening to them. The title track is a series of interlocking vibraphone melodies that
are augmented by computer processing. The computer treatments are more of an enhancement rather than something that would radically alter the source sounds. Track 5 is my personal favorite with a minimalist and slightly buzzing drone that cross-fades with a quieter drone. The remainder of the album hits just the right drone spot! Minimal loops with a somber feel, that guides you right to the end. The credits list microphones, voice, and kitchen gamelan, and Marc is good at assembling seemingly unrelated segments into gently blurred landscapes that roll by with an ease and comfort. In a few words..... simple, and elegant. Ruckwarts Backwards follows a self titled 10" also on Dekorder. Very curious to hear to more from this project” [CJ / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Fractal Hair Geometry |
CD |
"Black To Comm is the solo venture of Dekorder label boss Marc Richter. Having released two and a half albums on his own label he is slowly establishing himself as one of the more prolific drone artists out there with a forthcoming album on the American Digitalis label, a collaborative CD with Datashock on Ikuisuus, a 7" on the Irish Trensmat label and a collaboration with Xela in the works.
"Fractal Hair Geometry" is Richter's most refined and original work to date, picking up where the electrifying drone works of his monumental Double-LP left off. Like the last records this album is centered around recordings of a variety of vintage organs. While "Wir können leider..." often featured pure harmonium sounds and spacious recordings of chuch organ and mellotron, the new album opts for a more electronic, effects-laden sound, sending an old Farfisa Compact Deluxe and Casio SK-5 through an armada of analogue & digital effects pedals. The results are massive one-chord drones layered into dense & ecstatic, flickering & pulsating clusters of psychedelic electronic sound. Additional wordless vocal effects, hyperventilating & sizzling drum machines and hypnotic violin and guitar noises make for a hyperactive sound that never stands still even though most of the music is pure drones (sometimes consisting of more than 50 recording layers). Decidedly simple but gorgeous melodies shine through the mist from time to time, making a Black To Comm record always much more accessible than your average drone album.
There's even a heavy 4/4 bass drum smuggled into a track dedicated to the late Leigh Bowery, one of the most enigmatic creative figures of the mid-80's UK club scene (and singer of Minty).
Guests include Jonna Karanka (aka Kuupuu) on piano, Guido Möbius on trumpet and current Black To Comm (live) band members Renate Nikolaus on violin and Ulf Schütte (of Datashock, Aosuke, etc.) adding electronic sounds.
Along the lines of the music, seminal German artist Oliver Ross has created a massive multi-layered neon-coloured collage artwork which is printed on special ultra-heavy cardboard stock." [label info]
"..Chanted vocals, whirring organs, mysterious shimmers, squiggly melodies, buzzing Theremins, electronic glitches, analog synths, wheezing harmoniums, and those are just guesses, cuz just like that museum exhibit, it's difficult to tell what the source sounds are. We also didn't try that hard. It's like trying to peek under the table to see how a magician does a trick. We don't want to know. It's more fun
to get lost in these mysterious sounds. One track even introduces a muted techno throb, and for a brief second it sounds like the weirdest
record Kompakt never released. It's really hard to describe this stuff, which is probably why we like it so much, check out the sound
samples, and hear for yourself!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.dekorder.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Alphabet 1968 |
CD |
"Marc Richter alias Black To Comm ist kein Newcomer auf dem Feld der elektronischen Musik. Als Kopf des in Hamburg ansässigen Labels Dekorder hat der Musiker und Designer die Musikfans schon mit zahllosen Kuriositäten beglückt, mit seinen eigenen Kompositionen machte er allerdings am meisten Furore. Richter ist ein Pionier auf seinem Gebiet: Mit Bandschleifen, alten Orgeln und einer Flut zufällig gefundener Sounds schuf er einen ganz eigenen, organischen Drone-Sound. Mit "Alphabet 1968" indes bewegt sich Richter eher hin zu klassischen Mustern, hin zu Songs (in Ermangelung eines besseren Begriffs). Kurze Stücke, die für ihn Meilensteine repräsentieren, die ihn wiederum an seine Lieblingsplatten erinnern. So entstanden zehn
atemberaubende Songs, die über 45 Minuten Weltmusik, Techno, Noise, Avantgarde, Ambient und sogar Exotica streifen, die Reverenzen reichen dabei von Moondog über Basic Channel bis zum Soundtrackkomponisten Bernard Herrmann. Jedes Stück ist mit elektrostatischem Radiorauschen unterlegt, das einen durch das Album wie auf einer alten Senderskala wandern lässt. // A sprawling epic of a record from Hamburg's omnipresent Marc Richter.
Marc Richter (aka Black to Comm) is no newcomer to the experimental music scene. As the figurehead of the Hamburg-based Dekorder label, the musician and designer has brought countless oddities to the attention of rabid music fans in the last few years, but it is with his own compositions that he has made the biggest splash. Releasing for a plethora of labels including Digitalis, Trensmat and of course his own imprint, he has pioneered a new, organic drone sub-genre using tape loops, vintage organs and an inexhaustible swamp of found sounds. With this latest album however, it was Richter’s intention to move away from the epic drones he had made his own and into something more ‘classic’.
The mission statement for ‘Alphabet 1968’ was to write an album of ‘songs’ for want of a better word. Short tracks which represented genre points, the milestones which stuck in Richter’s mind when he thought back to his favourite records. What we arrive at is an breathtaking ten track album which, over the course of forty-five minutes, explores world music, techno, noise, avant-garde, ambient music and even exotica. Each track is linked with a loose thread of radio static or environmental sound, dragging you through the album as if tuning in to a stray broadcast or a particularly adventurous mix.
Richter has pieced the album together from hours of recordings made at his studio with home made gamelan, small instruments and loops gathered from a collection of ancient vinyl and 78 records. The scope of the album is admirable but ignoring this it is simply a shockingly arresting collection of experimental oddities, with references ranging from Moondog to Basic Channel by way of the Bernard Herrmann. It’s not hard to fall in love with ‘Alphabet 1968’, far harder would be to place exactly where the record should fit into your collection." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Wave UFO |
do-7" |
"Following his latest album "Alphabet 1968" on Type Records and several releases for Digitalis, Trensmat and his own Dekorder label Marc Richter (aka Black To Comm) has recorded another amazing yet unexpected collection of brand new tracks. Always hard to pinpoint, on these two vinyl singles Richter's music oscillates between cosmic drones, dub, lo-fi pop anthems, musique concrete and high-pitched free jazz rhythms. Strictly limited edition of 200 copies in a large full-colour collage poster cover.
Limited edition of 200 copies!" [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
|
same |
do-LP |
"Hamburg’s Marc Richter has been busy since his last Type appearance (2009’s genre-bending and critically acclaimed Alphabet 1968). Aside from helming the prolific Dekorder imprint, he’s put out a number of musical curios, including 2012’s excellent film soundtrack EARTH. Now Richter is back with Alphabet 1968’s proper followup , a sprawling double album pieced together with crumbling samples, vocal snippets and an arsenal of noise generators and filters.
Richter’s material has always been characterized by an air of surrealism, but it’s never been more obvious than on the the pulsing, chattering opener ‘Human Ghidrah’ or in the delirious fractured pop of ‘Hands’. There are real songs in hidden somewhere, but disintegrated by Richter’s sound manipulation techniques and dissolved into soupy extended drone marathons. The centerpiece is undoubtedly ‘Is Nowhere’, which builds slowly over 20 minutes with rumbling organ sounds and buzzing filters, never budging your attention for a second.
Black To Comm is a deeper, more challenging record than its predecessor, but one which repays the patient listener. Richter’s dusty, unique sound has never sounded more well-honed and pointed, and it’s a patchwork of ideas and fragments that only improves over time." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2014 |
€23.50 |
|
| |
Seven Horses for Seven Kings |
do-LP |
2xLP packaged in a gatefold jacket with black inner sleeves. A limited quantity is pressed on one of a kind green mashup vinyl. Check out the unboxing here!
CD version in 4-panel mini-LP style gatefold jacket.
Black To Comm is the solo project of German sound artist Marc Richter. Through his output both as an artist and through his eclectic Dekorder label, Richter has established himself as a singular voice of new music. Operating at the fringes of drone and ambient genres, his music is darkly magical and deeply atmospheric, underpinned by a signature surrealism. A relentless sonic explorer, Richter approaches the studio as his instrument, using sampling, analogue production and digital manipulation to offer an almost infinite choice of tones and textures. Audio fragments are liberated from their original context and sculpted into surprising new shapes, creating work that transcends time or genre. Seven Horses For Seven Kings sees Richter reaching out again into the limitless field of sound, summoning forth his darkest and most visceral work to date.
Seven Horses For Seven Kings was completed during a particularly prolific period for Richter. Working on a broad range of commissions since his last album - from writing for film and theatre works to composing for art installations, apps and sleep music - generated a flurry of new ideas and influences. Site-specific residencies in particular let Richter shift his focus from melody and song architecture to more abstract sound art. Extensive touring would equally come to inform a key shift in Richter’s music, simulating the raw, unpredictable energy of live performances on record. Rather than ironing out mistakes in samples or his own playing, he exploits or even forces such imperfections. While rhythm has been largely absent from previous Black To Comm releases, here the music seems totally bound to it, from the fractured techno breaks of ”Fly on You”, to the pounding war drums of “Rameses II” and pulsing Mellotron sounds of “Angel Investor”. The album’s breath-taking pace drives Richter’s music to new levels of intensity.
Richter’s creative practice is informed as much by careful, attentive listening as it is studio experimentation. Pieces often begin life as a single sound that catches his ear, be it a record from his extensive collection, or something in the natural environment. Samples and instrumentation are sometimes presented authentically, a deliberate reference to an era, place or player, and at other times are twisted beyond recognition. Samples from contemporary artists like Nils Frahm are bent and compounded with fragments of early recorded music and medieval song. Richter blurs the lines between organic instrumentation and digital production to the extent that the two become inseparable. Being able to separate sound from context gives Richter complete command of the emotional impact of his music, imbuing pieces with meaning or stripping it back as he sees fit.
While Richter questions whether instrumental music needs to have deeper meaning beyond its sonic qualities, he accepts that the wider world inevitably bleeds into his art. Reflecting the violence and unreality of modern life, Seven Horses For Seven Kings is unashamedly dark, undeniably angry. But rather than be consumed by such emotions, Richter employs them as ecstatic release. Through his mastery of sound, he achieves transcendence through noise, beauty through intensity.
www.thrilljockey.com/products/seven-horses-for-seven-kings
|
2019 |
€23.50 |
|
| BLACK TO COMM / AOSUKE |
same |
LP |
"....THE TWO BRAND NEW TRACKS BY BLACK TO COMM ARE CONTINUING THE MASSIVE ORGAN/VOICE DRONE ALCHEMY OF THE LAST DOUBLE-LP WHILE REFINING AND PERSONALIZING HIS SOUND, REACHING NEW HEIGHTS OF BLAZING SONIC MYSTICISM. AOSUKE HAVE DECIDED TO HOME-RECORD THEIR NEW MATERIAL, CONTINUING THEIR LOOP-ORIENTED, MONOTONE YET HIGHLY MELODIC AMBIENT JOURNEYS. WORKING WITH REPETITION AND SMALL ABSTRACTIONS, ALL INSTRUMENTAL "LOOPS" ARE PLAYED BY HAND AND RECORDED LIVE WITHOUT OVERDUBS (ONE OF THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF THE GUITAR/ELECTRONICS DUO), CREATING SURPRISINGLY CONCRETE DORMANT AND SOMNAMBULISTIC SOUNDSCAPES WHILE FORTUNATELY COMPLETELY LACKING THE WASHY AND DROWSY EFFECTS OF MOST AMBIENT MUSIC.
BLACK TO COMM IS THE ONE-MAN PROJECT OF MARC RICHTER WHO IS THE BRAIN BEHIND THE DEKORDER LABEL AS WELL. SO FAR HE HAS RELEASED TWO ALBUMS ON HIS OWN LABEL ("RÜCKWÄRTS BACKWARDS" AND "WIR KÖNNEN LEIDER NICHT ETWAS MEHR ZU TUN..."). AOSUKE IS THE DUO OF TOBERT KNOPP AND ULF SCHÜTTE, THE LATTER BEING A LABEL HEAD AS WELL (TAPE TEKTONIKS). LAST YEAR THEY HAVE RELEASED THEIR DEBUT "MONOTONE SPIRITS" ALBUM CO-RELEASED BY HAMBURG'S AUDIOLITH LABEL AND SOUTH GERMANY'S MEUDIADEMORTE LABEL." [label info]
"...A nearly sidelong track that begins with a wavering Goblin-y synth, that buzzes warmly and endlessly, an epic stretch of near static drone, drenched in overtones and subtly flickering variations in texture, and surrounded on all sides by distant barely audible scifi melodies and field recordings. Eventually this synthdrone is joined by another tone, this one more grinding and distorted, that slowly builds and builds along side the first, the intensity growing and growing as well as the volume, and the various surrounding sonic events seem much more frenzied, until everything levels off in some sort of Niblock style drone, the various layers beating against one another, notes and tones shifting subtly, the sound seemingly alive, flecked with shards of melody and bits of buzz and swirling effects. It's a glorious sound that enraptures and entrances, eventually, fading out and releasing the listener from their glorious trance. The side finishes off with a brief coda of humid late night soundscaping, the sound of the moors, or the plains, some mysterious dark emptiness, droning and ominous, with creepy reverbed vocals and all sorts of night sounds tangled up in the track's undulating shimmer. The flip side features a group called Aosuke, who we weren't all that familiar with, but whose sounds are as dark and gorgeous and Black To Comm's. But where BtC focus on sound and drone, Aosuke focus on melody as much as texture, with guitar being the focal point, a blissy soft focus guitar ambience, crystalline notes drifting through clouds of space-y effects and strange processed and blurred vocals, it sounds almost like how you might imagine a Durutti Column record on Morr Music might sound. Organic melodies, natural sounds, all tangled up in strange electronic soundscapes, very meditative, a little krautrocky at times, and so so pretty." [Aquarius]
www.dekorder.com
|
2007 |
€12.50 |
|
| BLACKHUMOUR |
Selected Pieces |
CD |
"since the time i came across ‘romance’ LP (on korm plastics, netherlands) and the ‘two women’ tape (on sph, spain) almost 20 years ago fell in love with the work of blackhumour, and his simple but Immersive way of playing with the human voice (be it found sound or recorded by himself), its transformation and the way he perceived his universe and his approach. in ‘selected pieces’ we find recordings done mostly in the 00’s culled from his archives for this release showing in almost the best way his sound in various manifestations (be it harsh, bizarre or mesmerizing like the ‘incantatory’ piece based upon the sounds of a hypno-dominatrix). and couldn’t find a better release to coincide with the outbreak of my new fanzine ‘emvoes’. housed in a foldout poster this release can be seen either as a cd, an audiopostcard, an audiozine or whatever situation the listener wants to find himself into…" [label info]
blog.noise-below.org
"probably one of the more curious careers in music: blackhumour, who spells it without capitals, like any thing he writes really. so we humour him with this review without capitals. curious career, since in the late 80s he was active on the cassette scene, released a lp even, and then seemed to have disappeared and releases have become more sparse since then. what i enjoyed back then about the music of blackhumour was the consistent use of only voice material, which he cut into loops and layered them together, very much like steve reich did with his 'come out' and 'it's gonna rain'; in later he work blackhumour cut phrases out of conversations and moved them around, creating new contexts. that work appealed less to me, i must admit. the six selected pieces here are from the period 1996 to 2002 and hold the middle ground between those 'heavy' drone like pieces from the early years and the cut 'n paste pieces of later. repetition plays a big role here, and most of the time it seems like not much is changing here - except for 'arbitrary', which seem to contain glitches from the digital audio tape it was once recorded on (unless this is a dirty cd), which add something to the voice material. Otherwise these pieces are as minimal as you can get, and it's the blackhumour i like very much. it has that fine hypnotic sound, with enough information to concentrate on one thing for a while and then something else. 'le mot juste' is the piece in which things change around into something entirely different. 'revision' adds in density over the course of seventeen minutes before changing over, in order to grow again, which is pretty much a standard blackhumour compositional technique. this is a most wonderful release. it should have fitted on monochrome vision (blackhumour has a strong black and white aesthetic too), but on noise-below is equally in the right place. if you have no idea who blackhumour is or what he does and if 80s unsung cassette heroes is your 'thing', then this cd is the best place to start. my pick of the week." [Fdw/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES |
Litany of Echoes |
CD |
"Initially inspired by the guitarists of the '60s Takoma label to teach himself fingerpicking, London-based musician James Blackshaw writes pieces primarily for solo 12-string guitar that share more in common with the minimalist works of composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine, as well as French composers Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, than the blues/raga influence of his peers. Using drones, overtones and repeating patterns alongside a strong inclination for melody, Blackshaw creates instrumental music that is both intelligent, hypnotic and unashamedly sentimental. Litany of Echoes, Blackshaw's sixth studio album in five years, shows a more mature, focused and, on the whole, accessible approach to composition. While the album often feels darker and more introspective in nature than on previous releases, many of the songs have a huge-sounding, classical quality to them. With Blackshaw adding some glistening piano work for the first time and Fran Bury returning to play swarms of sweeping string parts for violin and viola, Litany of Echoes is a truly original, affecting and timeless album from a guitarist/composer coming into his own." [press release]
"With each new James Blackshaw release, we're always amazed at how someone who works within such a small musical framework can continuously exceed our expectations. Definitely a favorite among favorites of solo guitarists, Blackshaw has bulked up his arsenal of compositional approaches by introducing for the first time the use of piano as a key element. Bookending the album are two long form pieces of solo piano in a minimalist style that remind us of Charlemagne Palestine or Lubomyr Melnyk. When the twelve string is first heard on the second track, it's not before we're set up with a foundation of resonant timbres of violin and viola (played by Fran Bury) that give
weight to the airy modal improvisations of the guitar. Adding subtle layers of richness and dynamics, the strings ground and support the ringing overtones of the 12 string creating complex harmonies to the pulsating melodies. We can't imagine we'll ever tire of hearing Blackshaw's shimmering textural pieces. Amazing how sound so deep, dark, damp and resonant can be so transcendentally uplifting." [Aquarius Records review]
www.tompkinssquare.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Celeste |
CD |
"Re-issue)Guitarist/composer James Blackshaw?s 2007 Tompkins Square album, The Cloud of Unknowing, received "Top 50 Albums of the Year? honors from Pitch-fork and Wire Magazine. Fresh off a U.S. and UK tour with Jose Gonzalez, and a bevy of year-end praise from the blogosphere to The New York Times, Tompkins Square reissues four catalog titles previously only available as tiny, limited edition CDR pressings. "Mr. Blackshaw plays 12-string acoustic guitar, picking endlessly circling, intertwining arpeggios: stately, tolling ones on the lower strings and faster ones, verging on tremolo, up above. Yet what usually emerges from the welter of notes is not bustle but tranquillity. The music has the same contemplative scope that turns countless tiny daubs into a Monet water lily." - Jon Pareles, The New York Times, Dec 31, 2007 www.myspace.com/jamesblackshaw"
[label info]
www.tompkinssquare.com
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death |
CD |
"Important is proud to welcome back James Blackshaw for his first full length on Important since his breakthrough album O True Believers was released on the label in 2006. James has since forged a remarkable career achieving critical praise for his dexterity, his deep, connected songwriting and his beautiful arrangement. Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death is available on CD & LP. LP pressed in an edition of 1000. Limited stock of color vinyl for mailorder customers.
Written at a time of great emotional disquiet, the hauntingly beautiful and bittersweet ninth
full-length studio album, 'Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death', from British guitarist-composer James Blackshaw was recorded at Soma Electronic Music Studios, Chicago in December 2011 by engineer Andrew Hernandez (Balmorhea). The six original pieces contained on the album (whose titles are lovingly misappropriated from those of short stories by the late, great science fiction author James Tiptree Jr AKA Alice B. Sheldon,) are based alternately around nylon-string classical guitar and grand piano, with spare and subtle vibraphone and B3 organ parts overdubbed by Blackshaw himself. Geneviève Beaulieu (Menace Ruine/Preterite) adds her stunning and powerful voice and words to track 'And I Have Come Upon This Place By Lost Ways'. 'Love Is The Plan' is an incredibly warm and intimate recording and perhaps
Blackshaw's most concise, consistent and overtly melodic to date." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Fantômas: Le Faux Magistrat |
do-LP |
"In celebration of the centenary of Louis Feuillade's Fantomas silent film series, James Blackshaw was invited by Yann Tiersen to perform a live score to the fifth and final film, Le Faux Magistrat, at the beautiful and prestigious surroundings of the Theatre de Chatelet, Paris on October 31, 2013. Fantomas -- a master of disguise and symbol of terror -- is one of the most popular characters in French crime fiction, as well as a favorite with the avant-garde, particularly the surrealists. Tim Hecker, Amiina, Yann Tiersen and Loney Dear also performed during the event (which was broadcast live on the European ARTE channel) each bringing their own unique sonic perspective to the other installments. Written during the course of a few months, Blackshaw drew influences from French impressionist composers, Brazilian guitar music, musique concrete and the works of other film composers such as David Shire and Pino Donaggio, to create a noir-ish score that is in turns sinister, quietly profound and thrilling. Personally invited by James Blackshaw, experimental musician Duane Pitre and Simon Scott (also of Slowdive) contributed drums, electronics, synth, bowed guitar, bass and more to Blackshaw's nylon string guitar and grand piano, with multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Glasson adding violin, vibraphone and several wind instruments to the 75-minute long work." [label info]
www.tompkinssquare.com
|
2014 |
€30.00 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES & LUBOMYR MELNYK |
The Watchers |
LP |
"The Watchers is a historic collaboration between Lubomyr Melnyk and James Blackshaw. Both artists are well known as composers but here it is their impovisational skills that are on display. First 200 copies of the LP will ship on blue vinyl. CD version is packaged in a heavy duty digipak.
I first met Lubomyr Melnyk at a festival called Hea Uus Heli in October 2008. We were both scheduled to play that day and I was very excited to see him perform. Before the show I bought several LPs from him and mentioned as much. Lubomyr (more than modest and courteous, as he always is) asked me what I was doing at the festival and I replied that I was also performing at the festival a little later, to which he responded "I'll come and watch you", before being ushered into the hall to play one of the most staggeringly sonorous and beautiful sets I've ever heard. It was overwhelming, full of pathos and I left the hall with those incredible overtones hanging in my ears for hours.
A couple of hours later, I was onstage when I glanced up and saw Lubomyr, true to his word, stood in the audience watching me attentively. I felt incredibly nervous. It's not everyday you get to play for someone who has greatly inspired and influenced your own music. After the show, I packed up my guitar and came out to meet the crowd. The first person who greeted me was Lubomyr: friendly. full of enthusiasm and keen to hear about my music, my processes, the way in which I made music. Yet again, I was overwhelmed - for very different reasons.
"You have invented continuous music for guitar!"
I don't know if that's true or not, but I can't think of an epitaph that would make me prouder.
We also spoke about collaborating that night and via e-mail a while after, but it wasn't until January 2012, shortly after I'd moved back to Hastings, England from Ann Arbor, Michigan and Lubomyr played his first ever show in the UK at Cafe Oto that it came to fruition. John Chantler got in touch, said Lubomyr had a free day after his performance and could I come to London for a day, see what happens? He kindly agreed to record the whole thing.
We all met at the Vortex Jazz Cafe around midday. We set up, Lubomyr at the grand piano, me directly facing him with my 12-string guitar and began. I would retune at random between songs and together we would find interesting chord progressions, hints of melodies and ways in which to weave those immense overtones that Lubomyr is able to generate on the piano with those of my guitar. No more than two takes per song. Improvisation, spontaneous composition, whatever you want to call it. Either way, it truly felt as if the piano and guitar were as one - inseparable, parts of a bigger whole, a means by which for two people to make one sound. It never felt forced and never less than engaging. Lubomyr was always humble, jovial and open to ideas. The whole session lasted six hours.
I'm not a great improviser. I always want to take that raw creative element that the form brings and work upon it, to distill and refine it further. I think Lubomyr feels the same. But there is something about these recordings that would be incredibly difficult to recapture. A small moment in time, feeling perfectly and wonderfully lost within that sound.
I'm honoured.
James Blackshaw, October 2012." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| BLANCO ESTIRA NUESTRO (+), HERMANA HELICE |
Cylindre / Oeur (S+C) |
12 |
"To show an aeroplane in motion, one should not paint still lives" (*) Kryptische neue VÖ des griechischen Projekts, das ständig den Namen ändert (nach NIXILX.NIJILX und HELICE PIED - als DR-83 auch auf Drone Records verewigt) - und damit wirkliches Neuland betritt, denn der Wiedererkennungswert anhand eines festen Band-/Projektnamens ist wohl der Grundkonsens aller Musikschaffenden. Diese 45rpm 12" enthält 3 Stücke, die alle auf Aufnahmen von Flugzeugen (wahrscheinlich Innenräume) basieren. Dazu kommen absolut undefinierbare rumpelige Klänge und Sirr-Sounds, und diverse kryptische Zitate von MARCEL DUCHAMP(*), ANTONIN ARTAUD, JEAN COCTEAU, ARTHUR RIMBAUD und anderen auf dem Cover. Bestimmte Klänge auf den Stücken sind wiederum verbunden mit vorher erschienenden Tonträgern. Sokratis Martinopoulos produziert keine gewöhnliche Musik, sondern akustische Rätsel.
"blanco estira nuestro (+), hermana Hélice is Socrates Martinis’ (1984, Athens, Greece) third pseudonymous project, following nixilx.nijilx and Hélice Pied. This installment, composed in 2006–7 using found sounds and objects, focuses on the sounds and sights of a distant aeroplane,
the vanishing drone of which Martinis’ finds to be particularly beautiful. The subject of planes was first explored in Aputi (released by Authorised Version, 2005), the final section of which makes a return appearance here in the .oeur diptych. This piece also reuses a guitar sound from E.2, which originally appeared on the debut nixilx.nijilx CDR published by absurd in 2004. Cylindre. also revisits past recordings, borrowing a bell sound from Conduit no. 2 (Drone Records, 2006). Martinis is also
a member of ‘silkworms cannot be confiscated until they’ve become perfect cocoons’ with absurd’s Nicolas Malevitsis. First edition of 200 copies. Co-published with absurd." [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| BLEEDING HEART NARRATIVE |
All that was missing we never had in the World |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des Debut-Albums, mit Bonus-Tracks. Eine erstaunliches Zusammentreffen von Noise & Drones mit Folk / Postrock und kammermusikalischen Klängen, traumverwoben und verwandelt in sensible Fliessmuster...
"...In The World". Reissue of the stunning debut BHN album from spring 2008 (ltd. 200). Working with a constantly evolving autumnal orchestra of layered cellos, repeating piano melodies, hushed vocals and mutant textures of sound and noise, Bleeding Heart Narrative has constructed a unique, haunting and compelling album. BHN is the work of sole composer, artist and producer Oliver Barrett, working in the live spectrum as a septet. Presented in a digipak with the new and exclusive bonus track 'Blueskywards'. We can't recommend this highly enough!" [label info]
"Present album was originally released as a limited edition of 200 copies on Tataruga Records. One year after the original release British label Cold Spring Records now gives a wider audience the chance to get introduced to this interesting project. Behind the name Bleeding Heart Narrative, you find the London-based composer Oliver Barrett, who proves his insight knowledge in the world of acoustic sounds. Important elements on the album titled "All that was missing we never had in the world" is the sound of acoustic instruments such as cello, piano and guitar. Sometimes these acoustic sounds live their very own life in the music, other times the sounds are woven into electronic dronescapes, giving the music an ambient feeling. Musically, the album floats in-between ambient and postrock, mostly kept in trance-inducing atmospheres. A central part of the album is the excellent vocals of Alastair Bailey, that makes the overall style remind of the excellent joint venture-project between ambient-maestro Robert Rich and guitarist/bassist Rick Davies, Amoeba. As the album-title and the project-name suggest, the feeling on the album is melancholic and fragile. A beautiful and emotive experience that will appeal to listeners of dreamy postrock and acoustic based ambient." [NM / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLEGVAD, PETER / JOHN GREAVES |
Kew. Rhone |
CD |
"The classic restored. No extra tracks, just this legendary release as it was originally conceived. Kew Rhone was made soon after Peter and John left Henry Cow, at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s Grog Kill studio in New York (they both appear on the CD). Fellow conspirators included singer Lisa Herman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. It’s one of those records which sums up a moment; a creative moment in which ideas have come into clear focus, and just need to be got down; an historical moment at which an innovative, collaborative run of cultural luck is about to run out. It couldn’t have been made earlier or later, we’re just lucky it got made at all." [ReR website short info]
"For decades this was a cult item. People fought about it. The songs are accessible, but difficult, the music - recorded at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s studio back in the JCOA days - is eccentric, extremely complex, but still catchy. Bley, Mantler and the legendary Andrew Cyrille all appear on it in arrangements that are… pretty off the wall. It’s rock, it’s jazz, it’s a song cycle, it’s a one-off hybrid with some traces of Henry Cow and Escalator over the Hill, it’s deep or indulgent, or both – but whichever line of approach you adopt, it’s art. And that makes it a major achievement. It also manages to be funny and charming while taking no prisoners in the high intellect department.
After the Henry Cow/Slaphappy merger, Peter left and John followed him a year or so later. The two of them then concocted this highly ambitious project - a marriage of high literary ambition full of Ouliposeque anagrams, palindromes, missing letters and wordgames, and meticulous musical complexity rooted in show music, jazz and the fringes of experimental rock. The album design, text and musical content together embody a continuous, integrated, work: so the texts refer to the artwork (both are by Peter Blegvad) and vice versa; neither quite makes sense without the other.
Pop Triva Fact: Kew. Rhone was released on the same day, and on the same label, as the Sex Pistols's Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" [press release]
"Completely and utterly unlike any other album you're likely to come across. Ever." Andy Gill NME
"How in the name of God could anyone take lyrics so oblique, so obscure, so cerebral and fashion such a memorable tune out of them?"
Jonathan Coe (author of The Rotter’s Club)
“A neglected masterpiece of surreal rock…a musical Finnegan’s Wake”
Clive Bell. The Wire.
"A neglected masterpiece of '70s progressive rock” Stewart Mason, AllMusic.
"The classic restored. No extra tracks, just this legendary release as it was originally conceived. Kew Rhone was made soon after Peter and John left Henry Cow, at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s Grog Kill studio in New York (they both appear on the CD). Fellow conspirators included singer Lisa Herman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. It’s one of those records which sums up a moment; a creative moment in which ideas have come into clear focus, and just need to be got down; an historical moment at which an innovative, collaborative run of cultural luck is about to run out. It couldn’t have been made earlier or later, we’re just lucky it got made at all." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| BLITZOIDS |
Steeling from helpless children / Look up |
do-CD |
"Old hands will remember those strange LPs imported and distributed by Recommended back in the late 80s. A studio project, audibly influenced by the Residents, but not over-imitative, the Blitzoids mixed concrete- and tape-manipulations, noise, extended playing techniques and found recordings with iterative song-like structures and open architectures. Always interesting, sometimes scattershot, avoiding any obvious style, they moved fast from one idea to the next. At the time, they were pretty much out there on their own, and achieved only limited visibility, so its good to see their work collected and reissued on this double CD." [label info]
"if comparisons must be made, then imagine putting the Los Angeles Free Music Society, Fred Lane, Fred Frith, various field recordings, radio transmissions, and a haunted house sound-effects tape into a blender. After the blender shakes violently and explodes, spraying globules of audio lunacy across the room, you giggle and dance around like a moron. That's what listening to the Blitzoids is like.
Brothers Steve and Chris De Chiara were running a Chicago record store when they started recording with Jim Nickels. Their first LP, 1987's Stealing From Helpless Children, is a work of unbridled invention, lumping together skronky jazz, tape manipulation, funny sounds, spooky textures and low-fidelity melodies. A reliance on traditional song structures doesn't make the band sound at all conventional, but merely confirms their considerable compositional skill.
Each track is a mini-movie for the ears. “Left or Right?” utilizes Donald Duck laughter for a bizarre refrain; ”Try and Stop Us” is a complex sound collage that recalls Evan Parker at one moment, Penderecki at another; ”Middle of Nowhere” shifts from a tribal jam session to an imagined Carl Stalling horror film score. It's all held together with catchy vocals, cheapo synth drums and Chris De Chiara's inspired guitar work, which can echo anything from John Abercrombie to Snakefinger. For uneasy listening, Stealing From Helpless Children is surprisingly listenable.
1990's Look Up is even more adventurous. The raw materials haven't changed—backwards tape and talk-radio excerpts abound—but each track is so densely layered that it takes many listens to absorb it all. The songs are still accessible: the lyrics to “Good Vacation” are worthy of Bob Dylan's best hallucinatory narratives, accompanied by music that is more appropriate than Dylan ever attempted.
Rounding out this reissue are eight bonus cuts, including the band's funniest achievements. “Fire on the Mountain” transforms an old fiddle tune into a hoedown from hell, and it's hard not to crack a smile through mangled versions of “A Summer Place” and “The Witch Doctor.”
The Blitzoids might have worn their influences on their proverbial sleeves, but their music stands on its own. Give them a listen if your tastes run to the left of strange, or if you just want something to listen to while you're getting blitzed.." [Brad Glanden / allaboutjazz.com]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| BLOCK, OLIVIA |
Mobius Fuse |
CD |
“Sedimental’s release of the second cd from Chicago based electro-acoustic composer Olivia Block titled Mobius Fuse. This much anticipated follow up to her critically acclaimed debut Pure Gaze(sed cd028) continues her rich and unique exploration of both acoustic and electronic sounds reaching a depth and level of emotional intensity rarely heard in the field.
Olivia Block is a contemporary composer who combines field recordings, scored segments for acoustic instruments, and electronically generated sound. Her recorded work seeks to introduce, set at play, and ultimately reconcile nature with artifice in the realms of music and sound. In the process, "organic" sound becomes subtly processed, digitized and abstracted; "inorganic" sound becomes self-replicating and animate; and "musical" elements such as chamber instruments are de familiarized from their traditional associations, freeing them to participate in the larger aesthetic possibilities of sound. Her pieces are composed over long periods of time in numerous stages. She often prepares elaborate tape installations in natural sites for field recording sessions which she later integrates into her recorded compositions. In live performance, Block introduces additional elements of paradox and tension: chamber musicians perform scores which accompany pre-prepared tape material, and improvisers (often including herself) interact with "lo-fi" speaker installations and digital recordings.
Since its release, her debut solo CD, Pure Gaze (Sedimental, 1998) has been consistently included on radio play lists throughout America and Europe. It was included in Blow-Up magazine's "Top Releases" of 1999 and The Wire magazine's top ten section, "Charts"; and Julian Cowley, in the latter publication, described her as "a composer who demands serious attention." Another of her works, Piece for Scrubbing Tile, was featured in the Modern Museum of Lyon, France in 1998, as part of the Collage Jukebox installation and festival (curator: Jerome Joy). Her recorded works have been used as source material recently by Achim Wollscheid, in his Shifts release (Ritornell/Evolution). Her soundtrack work for Natalia Castro's short video piece, Fire-Fly, helped earn the project the undergraduate video award at the School for the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997. She has recorded with such artists as Jim O'Rourke and Jeb Bishop, and has performed with artists including Pauline Oliveros and Fred Lonberg-Holm. Her radio appearances include WKCR's Live Constructions (Columbia University), WLUW's Something Else (Loyola University), and others. She was a visiting lecturer at DePaul University. She has toured extensively in Japan and has Europe.
Olivia Block is self-taught. She started her musical career in Austin, Texas, in the experimental rock scene in which she played electric guitar and trumpet, sang, and created abstract tapes for play during live performances in several bands. Such tape work led her to her next trio, Alial Straa, an electro-acoustic and improvisational group including Seth Nehil ("Tracing the Skins of Clouds," Kaon records), and John Grznich ("Stomach of the sky," Staalplaat; "Absurd Evidence," Bobby J.) Alial Straa's CD, "Tunnels/Stairwell" is currently out on Alluvial records.
At present, Olivia Block lives in Chicago. Her next collaborative release, Oil and Water, an electronic composition with Petra Klusmeyer, will be released on Boxmedia records." [label info]
www.sedimental.com
|
2001 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Pure Gaze |
CD |
"Block is an electro-acoustic and modern instrumental composer whose recorded compositions combine layered, processed wind and string instruments with processed sound from sections of field recordings she has collected from various natural landscapes. Her performances include minimalistic scored musical sections played live by a quintet accompanied by taped material, often sounds of field recordings, or the same quintet previously recorded and electronically manipulated. Block herself 'plays' found objects and instruments (trumpet). The resulting surrealistic sonic landscapes and the contrast between elements create a paradoxical element to her work. In all of her recent works she emphasizes comparisons between organic or 'real' sounds and electronic ones, and she demonstrates how electronic technology imitates natural evolution using similar sounds from both worlds. She also explores the difference between 'sound' and 'music' and the creation of experience through emotional, subjective or intellectual, objective means." [label info]
www.sedimental.com
|
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Karren |
LP |
"Ltd Edition 500 copies. Karren is a two-movement electroacoustic-orchestral composition. The first movement, Foramen Magnum, is an electroacoustic/concrète piece created from heavily processed field recordings taken from orchestral rehearsals and various public locations, including museums and zoos. The second movement, Opening Night, is a layered orchestral score performed by the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, with whom I recorded and worked for several years in order to complete this project.
Thematically, Karren includes several personal interests and areas of study, including my recent work in anthropology and sociology. Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor described in The Presentation of Self in Every Day Life is a lens through which the entire composition, presented on vinyl, might be viewed as a metaphor for the self. The act of turning the vinyl disc over to play one side or another highlights the binary quality of the metaphor. Side one of the record plays the chaotic, angular and unsettling “back stage” sounds of Foramen Magnum, while the other side plays the smooth “front stage” sounds-the orchestral layers of Opening Night.
The term “foramen magnum” literally means “large hole” or “large opening” in Latin. In anthropological terms, it is the name of the opening in the base of the human skull that allows the spine to connect with the brain. The position of the human foramen magnum is crucial to the evolution of bipedalism. The titles frame the composition with images of openings-an opening into a human skull on one side of the record and an opening into night on the other side.
Olivia Block creates original sound compositions for concerts, site-specific multi-speaker installations, live cinema, and performance. In a recent feature article in the April 2011 issue of The Wire magazine, Julian Cowley describes Block’s compositions as “finely nuanced textures of environmental material and occasional surges of sonic power blended with an elegant instrumental architecture.” Her compositions often include field recordings, scored segments for chamber instruments, and electronic textures. Additionally, she performs her own partially improvised compositions for inside piano and electronics.
She has performed throughout Europe, America, and Japan in tours and festivals including Sonic Light, Dissonanze, Archipel, Angelica, Sunoni per il Popolo, Outer Ear, and many others. Her works have premiered at La Biennale di Venezia 52nd International Festival of Contemporary Music, and she has completed residencies and premiered works at Mills College of Music and The Berklee College of Music. She has taught master classes at several additional universities.
Block has created sound installations for public sites and exhibition spaces including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the library at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the Lincoln Conservatory Fern Room in Chicago, and at the “Echoes Through the Mountains” exhibit at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
Her 2008 DVD release with expanded cinema artists Sandra Leah Gibson and Luis Recoder, Untitled, on SOS editions, has been screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Expanded Cinema symposium at the Tate Modern in London. Her release Mobius Fuse was voted one of the best albums of the decade by Pitchfork.
Block has published recordings through Sedimental, either/OAR, and Cut, among other labels." [label info]
sedimental.com
|
2013 |
€19.00 |
|
| |
Dissolution |
LP |
" “Dissolution is a reflection upon human “webs of significance,” and an investigation into the ways that electronic communications and recording technologies, both past and present, facilitate, complicate and transmute the formation of these webs. Sounds of shortwave radio, municipal broadcast recordings, fragments of found microcassette tapes, tones and instruments dramatize the fragility and failures of communication and language in shaping memory and experience.
This album is dedicated to Adam Sonderberg, without whom I could not have completed this project.”- Olivia Block
Lesley Swanson, flute. Shaun Flynn, clarinet. Musicians were recorded at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago Il in January 2015. The session was engineered by Alex Inglesian." [label info]
https://glisteningexamples.com
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| BLOCK, OLIVIA & KYLE BRUCKMANN |
Teem |
CD |
"Olivia Block: field recordings, piano, reed organ, editing and mixing. Kyle Bruckmann: oboe, English Horn, suona, accordion, field recordings, editing and mixing. Bruckmann and Block's creative relationship dates back to the recording of Block's 1999 release Pure Gaze, shortly after both artists entered into Chicago's vibrant experimental music community. Their decision to create a collaborative duo ensued, but remained in the realm of good intentions until shortly before Bruckmann's relocation to the San Francisco Bay Area. They then began playfully stockpiling sounds from a myriad of sources, collecting field material, and recording duo improvisations in various spaces using hallway intercom systems and unorthodox microphone placements, among other processes and techniques. This initial activity was followed by five years of collaborative editing, processing and mixing, resulting in the emergent expanse that is Teem." [label info]
"From Chicago, both of them: Olivia Block (field recordings, piano, reed organ, editing & mixing) and Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, English horn, suona, accordion, field recordings, editing & mixing) - the meeting of a serious composer (Block) and an improviser (Bruckmann being part of EGK, among other things). Its a combination that works well. Both ends are covered well. We hear Bruckmann's wind instruments playing strange figures, while along we have the more rigid organization of Block's field recordings and organ parts, as well as the rumble and tumble of acoustic objects. They bump and collide into eachother, attract eachother, and then move away from eachother. Four parts were recorded over a period of five years, from nervous hectic of part three to the quiet, introspective fourth part. Demanding music here, which requires your full attention. This is not music which allows you to go and do other things, but in these thirty seven something minutes you need to stay with it, and focus. Its only then when it unfolds its beauty. After that you may tired, but perhaps also, like me, utterly pleased. An excellent collaboration." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| BLONDE REDHEAD |
Misery is a Butterfly |
CD |
Wonderful album by one of the best spheric / emotional and genre-breaking / transcending “Pop/Rock”-bands of this planet, now on the cult-label from the 80’s / early 90’s, 4AD, and working with strings (i.e. played by EYVIND KANG) !
“Freed from all constraints, Blonde Redhead are beautifully reborn on Misery Is a Butterfly. True, feelings of loss, insecurity, and outright alienation do factor heavily into the record's thematic vision (this butterfly isn't called "Misery" for nothing), but the band's sense of assuredness surrounds the album's themes of vulnerability. Misery Is a Butterfly was recorded before being shopped to a label, but judging by the sound of the album, its eventual release on 4AD seems to have been an inevitability. From track one, the record is lacy and moody, perfectly suited to the one-time home of the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil. The word "lush" doesn't quite capture the fluttering whirls of strings, keyboards, and delicately plucked guitar that open "Elephant Woman"; I'd go so far as to label such enveloping richness of instrumentation "baroque," perhaps even "rococo." For Blonde Redhead's latest incarnation, the softer production simply serves as polish for tarnished, tired guitar, drums and keyboards. Here, the bristling energy that once held would-be sympathizers at bay has been turned inward, resulting in an unprecedented illusion of warmth. "Anticipation", for example, ventures into completely foreign territory for the band; it's vulnerable, yet remains emotionally available, and is breathtaking even in comparison to the band's most typically pretty compositions. Never before have Makino's gentle whispers seemed so genuine or close at hand. The psychedelia-inflected title track and the fractured desolation of "Falling Man" also offer inviting hints of the underlying humanity Blonde Redhead had, until now, been so reluctant to display. Of course, even now, that humanity may be little more than an apparition. Their tales of heartache and desperation have cast Makino and Amadeo Pace-- the emotional heart of the band-- as tragically misunderstood, tortured poets who pin misery on their sleeves, never conceding that anyone else could be capable of understanding their pain. And despite the more inviting nature of Misery's music and production, they remain insular and distant here, as well. Only on "Anticipation" are Makino's vocals as beckoning as their musical surroundings; elsewhere, Blonde Redhead remain as they've always been: beautiful and vacant......”
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| BLUE SABBATH BLACK FIJI |
Mistake of a small Bird |
LP |
"This multi-national European duo, who currently hail from Scotland, have been producing a steady stream of ultra-limited releases (on Abandon Ship, Blackest Rainbow, Deathbomb Arc, Digitalis, ad infinitum) and a crazed series of incendiary live performances on both sides of the Atlantic. BSBF may be a swanky looking couple, but their music is about as destroyed as a bombed out building. The two guitars and two mics are constantly threatening to overpower and split open the discotheque beats of the drum machines and electronics. You could dance to this music but you might get a bloody nose. This is their second LP and, by far, their most fully realized album, showcasing them in peak form. Mastered by Rat Bastard and James Plotkin." [label info]
|
2011 |
€17.50 |
|
| BOB DOWNES OPEN MUSIC |
Episodes at 4 am |
CD |
"Bob Downes is most often thought of as a jazz flautist, composer and group leader, but throughout his varied career that has included such diverse musical activity as working with the John Barry Seven and playing on Egg’s second LP, he also had his own fluid conceptual group “Open Music” with principle bass player Barry Guy and drummer Denis Smith. Other players that passed through Open Music include Chris Spedding, Kenny Wheeler, Ray Russell, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Harry Miller, Barre Phillips, John Stevens and many others. Besides the free jazz and jazz rock influences, Bob Downes has also been involved in much experimental music. After his early 70s releases on Philips, Vertigo and Music For Pleasure there appeared a series of 3 private pressed LPs on his own label Openian that explored this more experimental style. “Episodes at 4 am” is the second in this series and is by far the strangest of the three.
Released in 1974 and commissioned by the Welsh Dance Theatre, it consisted of 10 short duos performed by Wendy Benka on zither, dulcimer and small percussion, and Downes on flutes, various percussion and plenty of electronic manipulation. Nearly every sound on this LP was processed using a variety of shimmering delays, controlled feedback, reverb and speed change to create a haunting and delerious mix of musical styles and atmospheres.
Taken from the master tapes, this 33 minute LP has been expanded for the CD release with 35 minutes of previously unreleased experimental works, mostly from the same period, that cover even more ground than the LP, including one piece made entirely from the sounds of various phone booths on the streets of New York." [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BOCA RATON |
Mansdoof |
CD-R |
Bearbeitete field recordings vom MIXER-Labelbetreiber Martijn Tellinga aka BOCA RATON. Spannungsreiche, nebulöse Soundlandschaften sind hier entstanden, durchdrungen von kaum zu identifizierbaren Konkret- und Geräuschklängen.
“Two new releases on one of the finest CDR labels around, and still going strong. Boca Raton, you are no doubt aware is a city in Florida, but it's also the musical project of Mr. Mixer Martijn Tellinga. After his 7" for his own label, he now releases on Absurd. The release was delayed but it enabled Boca Raton to rework the material according to new working methods learned at his Sonology training in The Hague, The Netherlands. Boca Raton is the man running around with a microphone and a minidisc - taping sounds from the environment. Then he returns to his studio and started treating the sounds electronically. A very traditional way of working of course, but in Boca Raton's instance he comes up with ten delicate nice compositions. What sets him aside from so many others is the fact that he is not interested in making the material 'silent' or 'inaudible' or 'noisy' and 'louder'. He simply crafts ten small pieces of sound. Off hand I could think of one other band that did so, albeit in the past. Much of the work of Boca Raton dwells on the ideas of THU20, a Dutch electro-acoustic group. They too treated their sound with great care and what interested them, and now Boca Raton, was the composition they could make out of it. Everything is well-balanced and placed in the mix, which makes this a truely nice work to hear. Joyful. Skillfull. Two things that aren't always around.” [fdw, Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| BOCKSHOLM |
Caged inside the Beast of the Forge |
CD |
"The two drunken bastards from Bocksholm (Peter Andersson of Raison D'être and Lina Baby Doll of Deutsch Nepal) are finally back with a new album and this time they have unleashed the Beast. Any mythological idea that Boxholm has become a great peaceful Eden is from now on eternally disproved. No one is safe anymore, not even the horror of Kisa. Birath - the Beast of the forge - is back and we are all captives inside his devilish mind, at least for 60 minutes after pressing play. Enjoy with a bottle of moonshine." [label info]
www.wrotycz. com
"Maybe the name Peter Andersson is a common name in Sweden, and hence it's no surprise that we have two musicians from the world of darker electronic music are called like. One we better know as Lina from Deutsch Nepal and the other one is better known as Raison D'etre. Both release their music is a parallel universe which is seldom covered by Vital Weekly, releases on such labels as Cold Meat Industry. The two Peters found each other in a project named Bocksholm, a small village where Lina used to live in the summertime (and which is actually called Boxholm). According Raison D'Etre, the music 'reflects the bad childhood environment of the ironworks in Boxholm.' There is indeed some sort of metallic rumble going on. The children of the village with iron rods against the fence of the garden, in which two children with the same name create music? Maybe that is some such thing that this music evokes here. Maybe I just read that into the music based on what I found. It's not difficult to
see any of their 'other' musical interests in this music. It's all highly atmospheric, drone like, but also with a fair amount of rhythm loops, a bit of orchestral inspired movement, but also it's perhaps less dark than one should expect based on their respective past releases. There is an interesting 'experimental' component in this music. Maybe 'electro-acoustic' is too much of a term, but it's not all about heavy dark ambient drone music, but more like a nice free, adventurous album. Let's try to work with this sound, let's loop that piece of clanging metal, and oh 'you know we did a bit of voices like we did before, in 'Forging Hammers'. That is the sort of spirit, which adds to the joy for the listener, I think. Despite it's occasional doomy character, these boys certainly had fun doing this." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| BODIN, LARS-GUNNAR |
Clouds |
LP |
Letzte Original-Kopien dieses Klassikers der schwedischen elektronischen Musik! "CLOUDS" wurde erst kürzlich auf CD wiederveröffentlicht; eine Art multimediales Drama aus Musik, Gesang, Tanz-Performance, Dia- und Filmprojektion. Eine komprimierte Fassung (ca. 45 Minuten) wurde als LP veröffentlicht, mit auffallend schönen Synth-Drones & vokalpoetischen Elementen & Gesängen, mit absolut visionärer Qualität.
"Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Swedish composer and graphic artist, was one of those who during the first half of the 60's tried to integrate elements of different fields of art in his works: instrumental music, tapes, texts, actions, projections etc.
In 'Clouds' (1972-76) he developed an advanced form of musical drama involving electronic music in 8 channels, singers, dancers and slide and film projections on five screens. The music on this record is a shortened version of Clouds, especially created for this medium." [label info]
www.fylkingen.se
|
1977 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Winter Nightfall |
CD |
"Lars-Gunnar Bodin (1935), mainly active in the electroacoustic music field, in concrete poetry, and he coined the term 'Text/sound Composition'. 1. Mare Atlantica (1997) 2. Divertimento for Dalle (1991) 3. GYZO (1998) 4. Wonder-Void, text-sound-suite (1990) 5. Winter Nightfall (2000)." [label info]
www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| BODIN, LARS-GUNNAR / BENGT EMIL JOHNSON |
Semikolon |
LP |
"LP, 500 numbered, 4 page insert. Originally created as a 6 part radio series in 1965, and released in 1966 by Sveriges Radio. This is the first LP recording by either of these composers. Recorded at EMS (Elektron Musik Studion), the newly established studio facility at Swedish Radio. This pioneering work did not easily fit in any category that existed at the time. Inspired by the work of Öyvind Fahlström (who was a pioneer of concrete poetry along with the Lettrists and Futurists), a few young Swedish artists began exploring new text based experiments. The only other artist releasing records of similar soundworks at this early time in Sweden was ke Hodell who had released two 7' singles. These Swedish sound poets differ in style from their other European counterparts mainly due to their easy access to the high quality facilities available at EMS, with its own in house engineers and sophisticated studio equipment. Given the close relationship at that time between EMS and the national Swedish radio station, their works often have a strong narrative (radio art) quality. Semikolon is one such work, but it also uses found sounds, musique concrète and electronics to create a collage, the likes of which had not been heard before. By 1967, Bodin and Johnson had together finally agreed upon a term for this particular style of sound poetry; text-sound composition. This term was then taken up by other Swedish artists working in the same field including Hodell and Sten Hanson, and soon became internationally recognised. The following year Bodin and Johnson in association with Fylkingen inaugurated the first annual festival of text-sound composition. This international festival, and the commissions it gave rise to, became a major part of the work at Fylkingen and EMS. The festival ran for 10 years. 7 LPs from the early years were released by Sveriges Radio and more recently Fylkingen have compiled the series as a 5CD set. Naturally, both artists were included in the festivals, but they also created a large body of work which appeared on many of the essential anthologies of European sound poetry at the time, including the OU Revue and Klankteksten (released by the Stedelijk Museum in 1970 to accompany their exhibition of concrete poetry), as well as other international compilations. Both artists have also worked in the area of pure electro-acoustic composition, and these works are also mostly available on compilations. This record though, is a collaboration rather than a compilation and retains a timeless contemporary feel that is shared with other radio art projects like the Hörspiel Heute series released by Luchterhand in the 70s. This new vinyl edition of the original LP adds an extra 7 minute composition by Bodin, also taken from the original Semikolon radio series." [label info]
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| BOHMAN, ADAM |
Burnhill Row |
LP |
Incredible weird recordings from 1980 from this one half of todays still very active duo BOHMAN BROTHERS !
"1980 was an incredibe year for London's experimental music scene with many different strands. Recommended Records were rereleasing the first two Faust LP's, L. Voag had found 'the way out', Swell Maps were 'in occupied Europe'. Throbbing Gristle and other industrialists were giving plenty of live actions. Nurse With Wound had just released their first LP, as had This Heat. The other great LP on Piano Records by Steve Beresford was also on the shelves. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the capitol Adam Bohman was making his first recordings working with two budget cassette recorders. Bunhill Row was the first complete album of material, but whilst the aforementioned artists were pressing up their recordings and making them easily available via Rough Trade or the Recommended Records shop, Adam's releases remained in tiny cassette editions made for friends or exchanged on the mail art network. So here for the first time is Bunhill Row, released as it should have appeared at the time - on vinyl. It must be said that this is quite unlike any of Adam's other releases, and quite unlike his work with Morphogenesis, or his work as one half of The Bohman Brothers. This is 'songs' - 30 in all, and the main instrument used is a trumpet (an ordinary trumpet), along with a variety of other acoustic instruments and objects, many of which are still part of the Bohman armoury as known. The overall feel sits somewhere between R. Steevie Moore and Caroliner Rainbow, but this is British of course. Somehow it all works, and all in all opens another window on to the incredibly fruitful astral alignment that occured over London at this time. Adam also has a solo CD on Paradigm Discs, and also appears on 'Variations - a London compilation' the first CD released on Paradigm Discs." [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
| BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE |
Patchouli Blue |
CD |
Nach ihrem letzten Studioalbum "Piano Nights", mittlerweile schon über fünf Jahren alt, veröffentlichen Bohren & Der Club Of Gore am 10.01.2020 ihr neues Album "Patchouli Blue" auf [PIAS] Recordings Germany.
1988 in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr gegründet, und seit 2016 - nach dem Ausstieg von Schlagzeuger Thorsten Benning - auf eine Trio-Besetzung optimiert, haben Bohren & Der Club Of Gore mittlerweile 7 Studioalben, 1 Compilation und eine 1 EP veröffentlicht. Dazu zahlreiche Konzerte auf der ganzen Welt gespielt und sich mit präziser Entschleunigung, kombiniert mit minimalen Lumeneinheiten, eine große und treue Fangemeinde erspielt. Dabei blieben sie ihrem Sound stets treu. Mit Bass, Saxophon, Piano, Fender Rhodes, Vibrafon und Besenschlagzeug als Basis erschaffen sie seit 20 Jahren ein einzigartiges Werk - immer instrumental, immer langsam, immer ereignisarm. Gesang gibt es nicht.
Nun also "Patchouli Blue". Instrumental, langsam, ereignisarm. Gemischt wurde das Album wieder von Andi Reisner.
[label info]
"The fog is turning to rain as I push through the doors into the old Club of Gore. The place has been closed up for a few years but nothing much has changed, it’s still comfortably frayed around the edges. Organ drone swells up from the background, cuts out. They kept the worn fittings and the gloom, smells like death rock. After a couple of minutes the saxophone sighs softly, like a friendly hand on your shoulder. Patchouli Blue just fell into my lap, new information at short notice. The hardcore had the jump on me all along. By the time this review makes it out they’ll be soaked in it, hip to details I haven’t had time for yet.
Bohren & der Club of Gore play a superbly unhurried type of slow core doom jazz. The sort of stuff to make long shot film noir images spool across the mind’s eye and your internal monologue turn all hard-boiled detective without warning. New faces at their notional dive bar turn on their heel pretty sharp or settle right on in because it feels like home. Companionship in solitude, nobody pulling on yer sleeve and making noisy chit chat, it’s all existential brooding on life’s mystery in here. If you’re coming to it cold then what Patchouli Blue most sounds like is Angelo Badalamenti’s dark jazz mood music for Twin Peaks. Only slowed down and left to wander the woods. It’s what’s playing on the jukebox in Audrey Horne’s coma." [Echoes & Dust]
|
2020 |
€16.50 |
|
| BOKANOWSKI, MICHELE |
Three rooms of unrest (trois chambres d'inquietude) |
maxi-CD |
Ein dreiteiliges Stück von 1976 von der französischen Komponistin (bekannt wohl den meisten von der metamkine mCD), welches auf vielen fieldrecordings basiert (Glocken- undKinderstimmensounds, Schaben, Klackern und Rausch-Drones) ...
“Concrete music recorded, edited and mixed in the composer's studio (Paris). Final mix: GMEB Studios (Bourges). First performance: June 5th, 1976, Bourges, Palais Jacques Coeur, 6th
International Festival of Experimental Music. Title taken from the Danish engraver Lars Bo (1924-1999). Michèle Bokanowski studied harmony, fugue, counterpoint and analysis with Michel Puig from 1965 to 1969. In September 1970, she began a two-year internship at the Research Department of the French National Office of Broadcasting (ORTF) under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. At the same time she participated in a sound synthesis research group, studied computer music at the University of Vincennes and electronic music with Eliane Radigue. Between 1972 and 1984 she composed essentially music to be performed in concert - POUR UN PIANISTE (For a Pianist), TROIS CHAMBRES D'INQUIETUDE (Three Rooms of Unrest), TABOU (Taboo) - and for film - score for Patrick Bokanowski's short films as well as his feature-length film L'ANGE (The Angel). Since 1985, she has also composed for television, for theater - with director Catherine Dasté - and for dance - with choreographers Hideyuki Yano, Marceline Lartigue and Bernardo Montet. Michèle has released two previous compact discs on Metamkine and Empreintes Digitales. Compact disc issued in an edition of 1000 copies. Packaged in beautiful full-color (inner and outer) jackets -- featuring photography from the composer's husband, filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski.” [label description]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2001 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Pour un Pianiste |
maxi-CD |
" 'Pour un Pianiste' (1973-1974). Piano and prepared piano : Gérard Frémy. Electroacoustic music edited and mixed in the composers studio (Paris) and GMEB studios (Bourges). Sound recording : GRM studio, ORTF. Sound engineer : N'Guyen Van Tuong. First performance :May 28th,1974, Bourges, Maison de la Culture,4th International Festival of Experimental Music. Mastering 2005 :Lionel Risler. Thanks to Roger Cochini. 'This work was commissioned by Gérard Frémy. I wrote the different themes, the patterns and rhytmic cells first. Gérard Frémy played them on piano as well as on prepared piano. These recordings gave me the necessary material to create the magnetic tape. All the sounds are issued from the piano with the exception of the opening clavicord clusters. I wrote another version of this work that is for concerts only. In this instance a piano partition is played live along with the magnetic tape. Pour un Pianiste is dedicated to Gérard Frémy." [label info]
www.tracelab.com
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| BOLANOS, CESAR |
Peruvian Electroacoustic and Experimental Music (1964-1970) |
do-CD |
"César Bolaños is one of the leading artists of the Latin American avant-garde of the mid 20th century. Born in Lima, Peru in 1931, he was part of an astonishing generation of Peruvian composers: Edgar Valcárcel, Olga Pozzi-Escot, Alejandro Núñez Allauca, Leopoldo La Rosa, Enrique Pinilla and Celso Garrido-Lecca, among others. After studying piano at the National Conservatory in Lima, and following classes with the Belgian composer Andrés Sas (who after leaving Europe settles in Peru), he would join the group 'Renovación' (together with Valcárcel, Pozzi-Escot, Pulgar Vidal and Sas); with them Bolaños began a series of presentations and edited a music magazine. He had already composed brief pieces for piano and music for a chamber orchestra. At that time Bolaños is interested in the work of Stravinsky, Bartók and Schoenberg. But he's still far from the sound radicalism that he would reach in the future. In 1957 he traveled to New York City to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music and electronics at RCA. He met the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, who offered him a scholarship to study at the Latin-American Center of High Musical Studies (CLAEM) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On his arrival in 1963, Bolaños became involved in the design and development of the electronic music laboratory of the CLAEM. There he composed his first electronic piece and the first work generated in the above laboratory: 'Intensity and Height' (1964), inspired by a poem of César Vallejo. Bolaños also composed 'Interpolations' (1966) for electric guitar and magnetic tape, 'Spaces I' (1966), 'II' (1967), 'III' (1968) for magnetic tape, the experimental audio-visual cantata 'Alpha-Omega' (1967), instrumental and mixed pieces like 'Flexum' (1969), 'I-10-AIFG/Rbt-1' (1968), and, with a commission from Radio Bremen (Germany), 'Nacahuasu' (1970), inspired by the Che Guevara diaries. Bolaños also experimented with computers, and composed two pieces with the mathematician Mauricio Milchberg. 'Sialoecibi' (1970): ESEPCO I (computer sound-expressive structure)* for piano and a recitator-mime-actor (a work that satirizes the organization language initials from the 1950's) and 'Song without words', ESEPCO II (1970) 'Homage to the unpronounced words' for piano (2 performers) and tape. For the composition of these pieces Bolaños and Milchberg introduce into the computer parameters to have the machine generate a composition from the information obtained by the composer's production. These recordings bring together for the first time a definitive edition of his work on CD." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"Electronic music from Peru? Pogus boss Al Margolis goes with his search for some of the exotic, unknown composers from the most obscure parts of the world. Carlos Bolanos was born in Lima, Peru in 1931, who also composed for piano and chamber orchestra. In 1963, while in Buenos Aires he was introduced to electronic music, which he continued to compose until 1970. After 1973 he was back in Peru, but without any further means to continue this line of work and devoted the rest of his time investigating pre-Hispanic instruments. Now for the first time his electronics appear on compact disc. Only the first piece, 'Intensidad Y Altura' is pure electronical piece; all the others combine electronics with other, 'real' instruments. About one hundred minutes here of what is best called 'difficult' music - the germanic ernste music. I must have written this before, but I am not the most right person to do this music any justice. This is a highly serious mixture of avant-garde classical music in
combination with electronic sounds. My favorite is 'Cancion Sin Palabras, ESEPCO II' for two piano's and tape, which is intense at times, soft at times and has a great touch to it, including some scarping and bending sounds. The other pieces were not bad either, but not all the time worked for these classically untrained ears. Definitely an interesting release, but perhaps I wished for some more electronics."
[FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| BORBETOMAGUS |
1st ("Sauter, Dietrich, Miller, Doherty") |
CD |
"The trio of Jim Sauter (reeds), Don Dietrich (reeds) and Donald Miller (guitar) are practically an American institution at this point. For the better part of 2 decades they have raised the mantle on intense improvisational sound parameters into one of the most unique sound configurations heard on planet earth. Heavy noise, deeply coiled feedback manipulation, hair-raising electronic squeal & the ultimate in air propulsion explosiveness, all initiated by humans. Pretty much every home could use at least one Borbetomagus recording; this CD is a reissue of their debut album from 1980, with the addition of Brian Doherty on electronics. With a previously unreleased track." [label info]
|
1995 |
€13.00 |
|
| BORGA, ASCANIO |
Peripheral Vision |
CD-R |
Supersoft guitarambience in the way of MIRROR, STARS OF THE LID, endlessly floating dreamscapes; a new work by this italian artist.
"Entirely improvised live in studio on a treated guitar, this album is very quiet and introspective, there is no rhythm at all, no structure, nor even struck notes, everything is distant, reverberated, stratified, smooth and slowly evolving: peripheral vision is a personal exploration of hidden psychological textures of harmony and sound." [label info]
www.ascanioborga.com
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Xenomorphic |
CD-R |
"... It seems to me that his music has made a nice step forward. Until now it was all mainly non-rhythmic ambient music in the best Hypnos tradition of heavily treated guitar works, here he adds percussion, windchimes, Japanese carillon, frog guiro, samples, found sounds and objects. Three long pieces and one shorter coda 'Raw Ground' at the end of the release. The music is still largely in the ambient sector, with the addition of pseudo ethnic drumming and careful percussion. Somewhere towards the end of 'Apnea' e-bow guitars come in, adding an extra texture of seventies cosmic music. Still there is nothing new under the sun for Borga, but these new pieces mark an important step forward, the deepening of the sound of Borga. It makes a fuller, richer sound, still with all things beautiful. Borga wants to lull you to sleep, late at night and he does a very fine job at that. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Ascanio Borga is an italian guitarist, electronic musician and independent composer. After years of piano lessons attended during his childhood, he decided to leave formal musical studies to become a self-taught guitarist. He approached rock music and computers, learning to use the famous Amiga 500 Soundtracker. He began to play in various noise-rock bands and to record instrumental pieces for guitar, piano, and sampler, progressively approaching experimental music. In 1997, at the time when he was a student at the Faculty of Cinema, he released a cassette of "lo-fi" electronics entitled "Music For Non-Airports". Soon afterwards he left University to attend a professional course of recording techniques and digital audio, continuing to play in various rock bands for some more time. Later he began to create electronic suites for synthesizers and treated instruments, introducing more personal elements in his compositions, and at the same time he undertook the study of Mathematics. In 2001 he started to publish his music in the form of self-released CD-R albums credited to his own name. In the meantime, having completed his studies, he began to work as a programmer/consultant in the software industry. As an audio technician, besides mixing and mastering his own music, he did mastering work for several other musical productions, and also produced sound effects for various stage plays. Ascanio Borga is also an occasional writer and his personal website includes various movie, music, art reviews and essay about science and philosophy. Among his recently self-released albums we'd like to mention "Inner Geometry" (2001), "Liquid Symmetries" (2002), "Bad Ground" (2006) and "Peripheral Vision" (2007). "Xenomorphic", Ascanio's latest offering on Afe, literally evokes something "with a strange form", something unfamiliar that appears alien to us, defying our logic comprehension, and therefore generating tension, disquietude and even anguish in us, but it represents something terribly vital and dynamic at the same time, something whose possibilities are still unknown. Mixing guitars, bass, synthesizers, samples, percussions, objects, field-recording and even more sources, "Xenomorphic" is probably Ascanio's most evoluted work. With its feet in Ambient territory, the album features a wide range of musical solutions, showcasing the author's will to create a work where appearently distant elements converge and experimentation is put into a more accessible form." [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Altered States |
do-CD |
disc 1: recorded in january 2010
disc 2: recorded in february 2011
remastered in v2k studio
ab - treated electric guitar
the music contained in this album was recorded in two single live improvisations in studio - no overdubs or additional effects were successively added in the recording
artwork and layout by ab
portrait of ab by erika bonanni
thanks: giuseppe verticchio
© sonic boundaries sb001
https://ascanioborga.bandcamp.com/album/altered-states
"Like listening to a painter attack the canvas while drinking absinthe in the other room, Altered States is a two-disc, ninety-minute collection of solo guitar vignettes by Ascanio Borga, his first on new label Sonic Boundaries. Track titles hang off the same, great chain of roiling, evolving being – “Magma”, “Acid Landscape”, “Harsh Ground”, “Raw Science Loops” – and Borga works quickly but methodically. Altered States is formalist in the sense that no heed is paid historic, political and cultural context, all attention instead focused on the materiality of the art.
Disc one was recorded one day in January 2010, disc two also a single day, one year and one month later. Dark green outside, vital-organ pink inside. Played and treated live, no additional fiddling or overdubbing, a dozen states of mind (even grace) passionately expressed. The cumulative effect is volcanic, droning, sputtering worlds being formed, others being pulverized down to cellular level, ancient in gut feel, ablating all other thoughts. You can´t help but concentrate. Raw indulgence, visceral gratification."
[Stephen Fruitman - avantmusicnews.com/2015]
"It's hard to believe but it seems that I wrote about Ascanio Borga three times in Vital Weekly, in issue 550, 600 and 657, but not after that. I have no idea why there is such a long gap in producing some new music (and I surely would have believed it wasn't that long ago), but he manages now to release a double CD of recent works. Like before Borga's main instrument is the guitar but unlike before it's just the guitar and no percussion, wind chimes, Japanese carillon, frog guiro, samples, found sounds and objects as on the last release. He writes that 'Altered States' is an album of 'guitar solos' and that they were all recorded live in the
studio, with no additional overdubs. That still is something that leaves many options open, and Borga certainly explores a few roads here. Drones are, obviously, an important part of these twelve pieces (close to ninety minutes in total), with some of these being viciously loud and noisy, or, as in 'Magma' or 'Radiance' with an orchestral touch. Sometimes there is a more rock like approach to his guitar sound and Borga layers many of these on top of each other: effects such as loopers, delay and reverb play an important role, as well amplification. In 'Harsh Ground'
the resemblance with guitar sound is virtually gone in favour of a more abstract, controlled feedback. A minority of the pieces consist of more open ended strumming of the six strings, which I think is a pity; the release could have used a little more variation I think. The balance is now in favour of the noisy nightmares of burning distortion boxes, wandering off in the endless void of reverb and feedback. I think a stricter selection of pieces, ultimately fitting on a single disc, would have made a much stronger release. But now, spread out over two discs, this is just a 'great' one as well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| BORGHI, ANDREA |
Palsecam |
LP |
True to form, Borghi works directly with VHS tapes and the apparatus that plays them, manipulating the exposed mechanisms with the care and curiosity of a dedicated scientist. Drawing from these manual manipulations, Borghi's experiments combine mechanical sounds with mangled tape samples to inspire a mechanised nostalgia inseparably hybridised with human trace. Unlike others who work with old film, he resists the eerie to focus on the intricate crunch and buzz, an electro-acoustic soundscape tangentially related to the field recordings. By highlighting the precise moment that recorded media becomes perceived, a restless, shifting mass of both familiar and unrecognisable sounds results in a unique form of otic chiaroscuro. The result is a complication of inside and outside sounds: distant, gesturing snippets of semi-remembered, half-imagined films compete with TV cathode burn, tracking stutters, mechanical interference, and vérité whirrs and clicks that could only come from that original reproducer of dreams, the VHS player. With Palsecam Borghi gives dignity to an often maligned format, in an engaging mélange that represents the recovery of an object discarded as an objet d'art.
Composed and recorded by Andrea Borghi.
VHS Recorder, contact microphones, computer.
Andrea Borghi : andreaborghi.com/project/vhs-2
Published by Aposiopèse / Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
APO 17 | Cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M. Speed : 45 RPM.
https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/palsecam
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| BORISOV, ALEXEI |
A Polished Surface of a Table |
CD |
Eine der experimentelleren neuen Veröffentlichungen auf dem Moskauer Label von A. ARTEMIEV kommt von ALEXEI BORISOW.
Zu hören gibt es von ihm sehr komplexe Collagen und unendlich scheinende Überlagerungen aus „everyday sounds“ und atonal-dronigen elektronischen Klängen, Geräuschkaskaden, mutiert-technoides und vieles mehr....
“ A full-length album by Alexei Borisov is a nice thing to hear, if you need a redefinition of the experimental music. Alexei is certainly
one of the Russian artists that's gaining a bigger worldwide recognition lately, he played live at this year's Club Transmediale in Berlin few weeks ago. Before this album and besides the tracks from various compilations (released by N&B Research Digest), I've heard Alexei's live album Before The Evroremont released by N&B
Research Digest / Avanto Festival, and I liked it. I wonder what it means when a track by Alexei Borisov is titled Blue Vinyl? Does it mean he took a blue vinyl and conducted a musical massacre on it? Could be. Alexei likes to use voices in his post-electronic, post-techno, post-experimental, post-post music, one of the best post-musics I've heard. This is done truly amazing in the sixth track Dew, a complete musical slaughter, 4 minutes of the most amusing (and most gentle) sound-killing I've heard recently as a counter-point of the first 15 seconds at the beginning of the track with the appealing vocal of Angela Manukjan. Kill sound before sound kills you? Kid606, take notes. The techno moment is in Zaraza (Volume I), a track that could have been done maybe by Motor, and noone else. Could be because of the national connection. The softly distorted beats make me want to hear Volume II, if there is. The voices are sometimes used to create only noises with them, like in My Voices. Alexei Borisov's music is maybe not the kind of music you'll listen all day every day, but it's sure great to know it exists out there, somewhere, in the outer limit. Great work! Address: http://www.electroshock.ru [BR, Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| BOTCHAN KARISEN |
Reactions Mecaniques |
mCd-R |
Die Nr. 33 in der tollen Taalem-Reihe und schon wieder ein neuer Name. BOTCHAN KARISEN lässt sich im Bereich "repetitiv / hypnotischer / experimenteller Noise-Ambient" ansiedeln,
recht scharfkantig das ganze, über einem derangierten Piano-Loop wandeln viele noisig-disharmonischer Elemente...
"a mix between un/de-tuned piano melody, manipulated sounds, ambient experimental music and noise... botchan karisen is also known for his electro-industrial sounds under the Babylone Chaos alias (last release on divine comedy records). he's also part of the experimental & oniric duo Scripta Manent. full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by cyril herry." [label info]
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| BOUCHARD, CHRISTIAN |
Fractures |
CD |
"Following the completion of his college studies in guitar, he makes his first recording in 1995, Factotum, devoted to the prepared guitar. At around the same time, he collaborates on the production of radio programs where he performs his first electroacoustic attempts. A year later, these compositions will grant him access to the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. There he completes his master’s degree under Yves Daoust and receives the Prize in Electroacoustic Composition. He receives several prizes in composition: the SOCAN Young Composers Competition (Canada, 1998); the Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s competition Jeu de temps / Times Play (CEC, Canada, 2000); the biennial acousmatic composition competition Métamorphoses 2002 (Brussels, Belgium). His music has been broadcasted in Canada and abroad, but it can also be heard on film and in installations. Christian Bouchard also works as a soundman and sound designer for film and video.
“Angle mort” (2001-02), “Trois miniatures en suite” (1997), “Parcelles 1” (2002-03), “Parcelles 2” (2003)." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| BOURBONESE QUALK |
Hope |
CD |
Bourbonese Qualk were an experimental music group from England who where active from 1979 until 2003. The group were always obsessively and uncompromisingly focused on controlling their work – they ran their own record label, recording studio, tour organisation and music venue (the legendary ‘Ambulance Station’) – they refused to integrate into the commercial music racket turning down publishing deals from major labels – stubbornly opting for total independence. Bourbonese Qualk were also known for their political activism which was formed in the crucible of the 1980s Britain: The Miner’s Strike, Falklands/Malvinas war, Anti-fascism, Thatcherism, Moneterism, squatting/housing, local government corruption, anti-capitalism, and Anarchism – which was further re-enforced by touring Europe and meeting like-minded groups and organisations. They saw their music as a revolutionary cultural force – a belief that radical musical forms must be part of positive social change. Despite this position, the group avoided dogma, cliché and propaganda, preferring to let their audience come to their own conclusions – their work was often ambiguous and directly critical of cynical power-politics of any colour – often irritating members of the traditional ‘organised left’. In 1984 Bourbonese Qualk occupied a large empty building on the Old Kent Road in South London which they turned into a base for their activities and a co-operative for artists, musicians and writers as well as a centre for radical political activism – specifically as a co-ordinating centre for the ‘Stop The City’ anti-capitalist riots of 1984-1986. They never recorded in a ‘proper’ studio (not that they could ever afford to), choosing instead to work with their own extremely basic equipment (at a time when home studios were very unusual – the unique raw sound of these recordings is the result of their choice – which now, ironically, is in vodue due perhaps to the overwhelming obliquity of ‘clean’ audio digital production tools. If Bourbonese Qualk have a legacy, it is that ‘culture’ should be reclaimed, re-defined and owned by the people, wherever they are, however small and not by the state or the market and that ‘culture’ is a vital vehicle for debate and radical change.Hope was the group'ssecond long player, released on their own Recloose Organisation label in 1984. It features Simon Crab, Julian Gilbert and Steven Tanza. It's a masterpiece of early DIY Electronic/Industrial music and is available on CD for the first time now. Full tracklist: 1. Erector 2. Sunset Sex 3. Invocation 4. Cold Blood 5. Headstop 6. Mission England 7. Dereliction 8. Black Madonna 9. Gag 10. Something In The Air 11. There Is No Night 12. Exposure 13. Waves 14. Lost Time. Price: € 17,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping.
www.klanggalerie.com/gg317
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Bourbonese Qualk |
CD |
Bourbonese Qualk were an experimental music group from England who where active from 1979 until 2003. The group were always obsessively and uncompromisingly focused on controlling their work – they ran their own record label, recording studio, tour organisation and music venue (the legendary ‘Ambulance Station’) – they refused to integrate into the commercial music racket turning down publishing deals from major labels – stubbornly opting for total independence. Bourbonese Qualk were also known for their political activism which was formed in the crucible of the 1980s Britain: The Miner’s Strike, Falklands/Malvinas war, Anti-fascism, Thatcherism, Moneterism, squatting/housing, local government corruption, anti-capitalism, and Anarchism – which was further re-enforced by touring Europe and meeting like-minded groups and organisations. They saw their music as a revolutionary cultural force – a belief that radical musical forms must be part of positive social change. Despite this position, the group avoided dogma, cliché and propaganda, preferring to let their audience come to their own conclusions – their work was often ambiguous and directly critical of cynical power-politics of any colour – often irritating members of the traditional ‘organised left’. In 1984 Bourbonese Qualk occupied a large empty building on the Old Kent Road in South London which they turned into a base for their activities and a co-operative for artists, musicians and writers as well as a centre for radical political activism – specifically as a co-ordinating centre for the ‘Stop The City’ anti-capitalist riots of 1984-1986. They never recorded in a ‘proper’ studio (not that they could ever afford to), choosing instead to work with their own extremely basic equipment (at a time when home studios were very unusual – the unique raw sound of these recordings is the result of their choice – which now, ironically, is in vodue due perhaps to the overwhelming obliquity of ‘clean’ audio digital production tools. If Bourbonese Qualk have a legacy, it is that ‘culture’ should be reclaimed, re-defined and owned by the people, wherever they are, however small and not by the state or the market and that ‘culture’ is a vital vehicle for debate and radical change. BQ was the band's fifth album and was originally released on New International Recordings in 1987. It was recorded by the band's core members Simon Crab and Steven Tanza, the latter leaving the band after the recording of the album to form his own project The State. Full tracklist: 1. Skin Deep 2. On Your Knees 3. Dream Decade 4. Untitled 5. Black And Blues 6. Pipe Dreams 7. Workover 8. Shock Corridor 9. Sweat It Out 10. Dummy-Run 11. C2V 12. Obsession 13. This Is The Enemy 14. Mean Street 15. Always There 16. New Jerusalem 17. Forget 18. Lullaby
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg414
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| BOY DIRT CAR |
Spoken Answer |
CD |
"In one of the most unlikely reunions of recent years, seminal Milwaukee noise group Boy Dirt Car announces the release of its first new recordings since 1988. Spoken Answer To A Silent Question brings together several original members -- co-founder Darren Brown, Keith Brammer and Dan Kubinski (Die Kreuzen), T.S. Wahlen and Dave Szolwinski -- and, consistent with Boy Dirt Car's classic revolving-door lineup, brings in several newcomers, including longtime Milwaukee mainstays Peder Hedman, Karl Paloucek and Jeff Hamilton. For much of the 1980s, Milwaukee was home to Boy Dirt Car's brooding sound. Influenced as much by Wisconsin's brutal winters and the dark tales of its North Woods as by any of their avant garde contemporaries, the group forged a sound different from other so-called 'industrial' bands of the day. As one reviewer once put it, 'Boy Dirt Car creates a sound not like being in a car crash, but of being under one.' Just as it cadged its industrial instrumentation from scrapyards and roadsides, BDC culled its members from across Milwaukee's vibrant music scene of the time, building up an intense following and a reputation as one of the city's most potentially hazardous acts. At the same time, the group recorded numerous (now-legendary) cassettes and LPs which, while escaping the ears of Rolling Stone, garnered them coverage in The Wall Street Journal, and -- even more unlikely -- from late advice columnist Ann Landers." [label notes] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, JULIAN |
Miss Modern Venus |
CD-R |
Rare Zusammenstellung von live-Aufnahmen des VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA-Mannes. Stränger, ächzender, an jeder Ecke dronender low-fi noise...
“ Seems an appropriate start to the UK leg of the Apoplexy journey to issue a disc by Leeds own Mr Bradley, known to many as one of the fab Vibracathedral Orchestra. Julian presents us with a selection of live recordings from a visit to Belgium last year and boy do they hit the spot. Murky loops and growling substrata is the order of the day here and in the family spirit of this small industry JB is joined by Laurent Cartuyvels on bass... Laurent runs the Veglia label and has just released a swell Julian Bradley compilation cd which I urge you to check out along with this wee gem. ” [label description]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, MARK |
The Gloaming |
mCDR |
"active for a few years only, mark bradley is a us sound artist with many releases on various labels such as basses frequences, ruralfaune, reverb worship or idrone park.
"the gloaming" is a soft synth based track that requires an attentive listening. mark partially defines his music as "moonlight ambient"; we couldn't find a better description. let yourself drown in this hypnotic piece..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, PAUL |
Anamnesis |
CD-R |
Drei lange Stücke mit mesmerisierendem Traum-Ambient/ Drone, in den sich allmählich mikroskopische Klangdetails niederschlagen.... kontemplativ und meditativ entrückt, dicht & erhaben. Eine andere Art des Hörens von Klang & Empfindens von Zeit wird hier möglich.
„DURATION 51:56 Bonus disc: 21:37 FORMAT CDr
DESCRIPTION A sultry haze… A shimmer of light… A moment… A place… A memory… Forever suspended in time… To listen…To drift… To remember… To lose yourself…To dream…“ [label info]
www.twentyhertz.co.uk |
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Liquid Sunset |
CD |
Two drone-tracks (one very long, one shorter) that pass by like hazy shades, very minimal and soft cloudy (over-)tones that let the time stop...
“Colour bursts on the horizon. The haze of light creates a dreamy, almost unreal atmosphere. Everything slows to a stupor as the sun finally drops from view, ever static yet ever evolving, to be reborn again in a few short hours. CD encased in some delicious artwork.“ [label description]
www.twentyhertz.co.uk
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Sketches from Dust |
CD |
Extreme amorph drone-scapes that invite to discover even the tiniest micro-details inside the undulating, waving, floating sounds... very relaxing, meditative, contemplative, tensionless movements..
A one-tracker of 40 minutes. Standard edition.
“Following on from ‘Memorias Extranjeras’ (Alluvial Recordings) with ‘Sketches from Dust’, we again have a less ‘typical’ Paul Bradley release. For this CD, gone are the field recordings and over the forty minutes we hear a piece that is mainly constructed from Guitar and Piano (the latter being played by Maja Elliott of Current 93). The recording is augmented by various acoustic sounds and some precise mixing techniques to form an organic and possibly ‘looser’ feeling recording than we might be previously expecting. What we hear is an intimate yet murky, almost eroded sonic journey. A primitive earlier outtake of ‘Sketches from Dust’ appeared on the limited ‘Notes from Past - Sketches from Dust’ CDr released earlier in 2006.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Sketches from Dust (special) |
CD |
Extreme amorph drone-scapes that invite to discover even the tiniest micro-details inside the undulating, waving, floating sounds... very relaxing, meditative, contemplative, tensionless movements..
A one-tracker of 40 minutes. Special edition.
“Following on from ‘Memorias Extranjeras’ (Alluvial Recordings) with ‘Sketches from Dust’, we again have a less ‘typical’ Paul Bradley release. For this CD, gone are the field recordings and over the forty minutes we hear a piece that is mainly constructed from Guitar and Piano (the latter being played by Maja Elliott of Current 93). The recording is augmented by various acoustic sounds and some precise mixing techniques to form an organic and possibly ‘looser’ feeling recording than we might be previously expecting. What we hear is an intimate yet murky, almost eroded sonic journey. A primitive earlier outtake of ‘Sketches from Dust’ appeared on the limited ‘Notes from Past - Sketches from Dust’ CDr released earlier in 2006. This now fully realized work is released in two CD editions, one limited to 200 copies in hand painted card sleeve and a second unlimited edition with printed card insert in a plastic wallet.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Pastandpresentcollide |
CD |
A very soft and delicate one-tracker (56+ minutes), mellow like a warm breeze, but then strange voices are entering the drone-fields from the very below...
"There is no escape, grainy snapshots constantly replaying in our heads. It is futile, our every action/reaction, decision, choice, it is who we are, it is what we will become. An endless loop in our minds, it is always with us. Past and present... Brand new drone suite by Paul Bradley. Sound material collected over the years from different sources." [label info]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Chroma |
CD |
"Split over seven tracks 'chroma' is a beautiful swarming forty five-minute suite of pieces. A warm, almost angelic hue of sound radiates from 'chroma' giving it a pure, optimistic feeling that only fades with the last dying notes. Weightless and saturated in it's waves of sound, all you have to do is listen." [label info]
www.twentyhertz.co.uk
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Sirens |
CD-R |
SIRENS fasst die vergriffenen mCDRs "Cede" (Waterscape Rec.) und "Searching for the way" (Locus of Assemblage) zusammen, sowie
das bisher nur als digitalen Download erhältliche Stücke "Horizon".
Das sind warme, melancholische Dronescapes wie sie für BRADLEY typisch sind, hochsensibel & verzaubernd..
‘sirens’collects together the out of print releases ‘cede’ and ‘searching for the way’ along with the download release ‘horizon’. ‘cede’ was originally released as a 3 inch cdr on the German label Waterscape Records in an edition of 50. ‘searching for the way’ was issued through the UK label ‘The Locus Of’ in an edition of 100 3 inch cdr’s. ‘horizon’ is also available as a download from Twenty Hertz Digital.
‘sirens’ comes in a plastic sleeve with full colour 4 panel insert and the first 50 copies also include two photograph inserts (the ‘sirens’ and ‘searching for the way’ covers) and a numbered and signed obi. Tracks one and three were lightly re-touched in February 2008 at IC Studio." [label info]
www.twentyhertz.co.uk
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRAINVILLE 3 |
Trial by Headline |
CD |
"Three old hands out of Soft Machine, Gong and Henry Cow stretch already flexible musical material into one shape after another, then tie it in knots and generally have a fun with it. High quality recordings combined with seat-of-the-pants playing keep the tension high, underpinning a richly labile music, full of shape and colour that is constantly in motion. Compiled from recent concert recordings in Berlin, London and Tel Aviv, this clutch of extended songs should be to the taste of anyone familiar with the protagonists - or who longs to hear a little more straightforward instrumental playing in place of computers, heavy processing and sanitised post production. Brainville offers you tightrope walking, imagination, fast thinking, and a seasoned musicality: a social music, played by old friends, that blithely goes its own way." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| BRANCA, GLENN |
Symphony # 5: Describing Planes of an Expanding Hypersphere |
CD |
" Recorded in 1984 but held up in a post-production stasis until now, this is music for 5 guitars, mallet guitar, violin, drums, bass, keyboards, that is being touted as the "most dense, cacophonous Branca symphony yet." "Glenn's music gets quite often inaccurately described as wall-of-sound/noise/guitars/whatever. A wall exists for the purpose of containment. 'Symphony No. 5' is expansive beyond limits, smashing the wall (at least sonically) between this dimension & all others. There is quite audibly the garblings of the voices of alien intelligences banging at the doors of our world as we dream of theirs."
[label info]
www.atavistic.com
|
1996 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Symphony # 6: Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven |
CD |
"Massive guitar ensemble including helmet’s page Hamilton Debuted @ Expo ’92 in Barcelona, Spain > Potent ’89 recording produced by Wharton Tiers swarms your head like a hive of electrified bees." [label info]
www.atavistic.com
|
1993 |
€14.00 |
|
| BRAND, STEVE |
Looking into the other |
CD-R |
STEVE BRAND (also known before as AUGUR) mixes electronics, field recordings and sounds from "real" instruments for a very mellow deep ambient journey, similar to ALIO DIE or ROBERT RICH... but he also has parts of very "pure" concrete sounds, that are more challenging...
Great full-colour artwork / cover, showing nature, symbols, stones.
"Steve Brand has been creating sound art and visual art since the mid-80's. From 1995 to 2003 he was active as Augur, creating obscure and organic music which was released on many labels worldwide, including The Foundry, Manifold, Alluvial, Self-Abuse and others.
During the years he had the chance to collaborate with artists such as Jeph Jerman (Hands To, Animist Orchestra), Rick Kitch (I Am Umbrella, Lucky Cricket), PBK, James P. Keeler (Wilt), Brooke Oates (Birds of Tin), etc.
His atmospheres, alarmingly austere, with varying shades of gray, are drenched in allusion and a heightened sense of cinematic noir for the listener. According to his own words, "emotional aspects of a recording always come first".
Consisting of six long tracks, "Looking Into the Other" takes up where "Awakensong" (...released on Afe in April 2006...) left off, expanding the exploration of twilight worlds.
The album utilizes bells, synthesizers, voice, various flutes, medicine drums, cymbals, fiddle, rattles, prayer bowls, etc.
"Looking Into the Other" begins with the ritual horns introduction of "The Flower of Life", a piece full of pathos which is subsequently filled with morbid sythesizers lines and insects sounds provided by Johnathan Benham.
"Where Two Rivers Meet" starts as a percussive number and then proceeds with keyboards and flute intertwining each other before percussions re-emerge towards the end of the track.
Clocking at more than thirteen minutes, "Djehuti, the Architect" is one of the longest and most complex tracks on the album. Its structure keeps on changing as different percussions, cymbal, voices and synthesizers flow in and out of the mix. Listening to this track is quite an experience.
"Columns of Light" it's a quieter and dreamy piece constructed on floating keyboards sequences and background rattles, bells, chimes and other small objects / hand-held percussions.
"Looking Into the Other", the title-track, was already featured on our 10th year celebrative on-line compilation in late 2005, the one on this album is an improved version. With its flutes, voices, phased drones and repetitive drumming, this track has a strong introspective quality.
The fourteen minutes long "Wrapped in Leaves" closes the album with a mocking laugh. A shorter version of this track previously appeared on the "Things Asunder" compilation released by The Foundry.
Once again, with this work Steve Brand has created an high quality and excellent album of deeply emotional music, and proved himself as one of the most inspired authors in contemporary Ritual Ambient.
"I am reaching into the interior realities, the meaning behind the symbols we accept as everyday reality, into the dream of the abundant natural self that knows no boundaries or limitations." [label description]
www.aferecords.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRANDSDAL, KJETIL D. |
Freedom Waaaoh Waaoh |
CD |
Die ersten beiden BRANDSDAL LP’s auf einer CD ! Obskurster low-fi Surrealismus! Hard to say what this really IS, as the sounds are difficult to recognize or to classify...low-fi surrealism at its best!
"The name of Kjetil D. Brandsdal has been bandied about the world increasingly over the last couple of years. Of Norwegian origin, though resident for the last three years or so in Northern Ireland, Kjetil has carved quite a niche for himself as a 'sound artist'. Exhibiting a sterling self-reliance, he emerged first via a slew of self-released cassettes (about ten in all), then followed these with two self-released LPs and a slew of singles on labels such as Boblador, MykeDroner, and Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers. The LPs were manufactured in editions of 300, and got snapped up pretty damn fast, but not before he sent one to H-Corp HQ in the far antipodes. The CD currently under consideration was the natural result, once the Hermetically-tuned ears of the corporation got a whiff of the lo-fi, droning, tape-looped improv. spew that Kjetil was purveying, it was a done deal. The Freedom CD compiles choice tracks from both LPs, KDB and Kjetil D. Brandsdal, but also features the full-length version of 'III', originally restricted to just one whole LP side, it now closes the CD at a full 35 minutes. The recorded pieces are devoid of drums, most rhythms coming from tape loops or guitar parts, and generally levitate the consciousness pretty effectively in a ceilingwards direction. Production appears to be on porta-studio in most cases, and headphone listening reveals some pretty cool mix-work in a style not a million miles from our own Omit, but retaining a unique Nordic 'grittiness' in sound."[press release]
“Of Norwegian decent, though a current resident of Northern Ireland, Kjetil D. Brandsdal constructs ominous lo-fi droning tape loops similar to a gritty variant of Omit accompanied by throbbing de-tuned bass and occasional post-VU strum. A very nice introduction / documentation on the perennially great Corpus Hermeticum!” [Aquarius Records]
|
0000 |
€14.00 |
|
| BRANT, JACOB |
Rainmaking |
mCD-R |
"ACM 1019: 3“ CD-R in mini DVD-style case
Drone ambient at its lushest, most densely harmonic, is how best to describe the music of British artist Jacob Brant. Using sampled acoustic instruments and especially voices to create sonics vaguely akin to Ligeti’s ‘Lux aeterna’, this two-part composition shows his capability of colouring his dronescapes both in serene and ominous colours.
“This piece of music is dedicated to those who protect us,” the sleeve notes say, and while the first part of the piece, ‘Rainmaker,’ seems to refer this to a sort of religious context, the title of the second part, ‘Whistleblower,’ proves that for all the blissful otherworldliness of his music, Brant is not blind to the ugliness of our world that needs whistleblowers in evil organisations to protect the rest of us from the worst. Jacob Brant certainly shares a lot of compositional methodology (use of acoustic sound sources etc.) with drone composers like Niblock and If, Bwana, but the structure of pieces like “Rainmaking” is more akin to artists like Mirko Uhlig and Tim Hecker and their more song-like, melody-oriented approaches." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€6.00 |
|
| BRASIL |
Wander till spring |
CD |
The first real „fabric pressed“ CD on our beloved polish label for exquisite magic ambience. BRASIL is a side-project from two members of ONE INCH OF SHADOW, the material presented here consists of deeply isolated & melancholic “homerecording” ambient songs with male vocals, very minimal and sparsely instrumentalized with all kinds of instruments and electronic sources. A kind of psychedelic, esoteric cold wave industrialism… beautiful and so sad… reminds at times on SPEAR, COIL, etc..
365 numbered copies, thick oversized cardboard cover
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRETHREN OF THE FREE SPIRIT |
The Wolf shall also dwell with the Lamb |
CD |
"Brethren of the Free Spirit are guitarist/composer James Blackshaw and lutenist/composer Jozef van Wissem. Named after a cult of 13th-century Northern European religious heretics, this duo play with an appropriately zealous intensity. Brethren of the Free Spirit debuted in New York and went on a crusade through the Lowlands, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and London even appearing On the Dutch National VPRO TV show 'Vrije Geluiden.' Intricate phrases circle and spiral in on themselves, and in the end, it's the subtle shifts in rhythm and tonal coloration that provide a kind of transcendence in a sea of repetition. The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb was recorded at Locksley Hall, Amsterdam in April 2008. It consists of 4 long circular compositions in which the duo employ all methods of contemporary performance styles to free the lute and merge the two instruments. Intentionally recorded in mono, it's occasionally impossible to tell the two instruments apart. Perhaps that's just what makes this duo so successful -- the players and the instruments become unified in historical references to the musics of both the ancient lute & contemporary acoustic guitar. For example, 'Into The Dust Of The Earth' is based on a classical baroque lute prelude from 1650 by an anonymous composer. The theme is mirrored midway, turning the piece into a palindrome, updating the material in the process. Blackshaw weaves his 12-string tapestry, hypnotically intertwining the lute and the guitar into one modern piece of ancient tunage, bringing the lute into the present day. The drawings on the cover by Belgian brethren Wouter Van Haelemeesch reference Greek myths as well as medieval alchemical emblems by the likes of Michael Maier." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
The Wolf Also Shall Dwell with the Lamb |
LP |
"Brethren of the Free Spirit are guitarist/composer James Blackshaw and lutenist/composer Jozef van Wissem. Named after a cult of 13th-century Northern European religious heretics, this duo play with an appropriately zealous intensity. It consists of 4 long circular compositions in which the duo employ all methods of contemporary performance styles to free the lute and merge the two instruments. Intentionally recorded in mono, it's occasionally impossible to tell the two instruments apart. Perhaps that's just what makes this duo so successful -- the players and the instruments become unified in historical references to the musics of both the ancient lute & contemporary acoustic guitar." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€23.50 |
|
| BRIDLE WIRE |
Damper String |
mCD-R |
Einer unserer Favouriten von den vielen neuen Namen auf SCARCELIGHT ist diese kleine mCD mit einem fabulösen One-Tracker, der sich aus sphärischen Drones in monumentale, später in noisig-collagenhafte Höhen aufschwingt. TIP !
“One monolithic drone piece built entirely from samples of pianos. Who the hell knows what is really going behind the music with this one. What we do know is that Thaniel Lee (who is Bridle Wire) is a talented visual artist from New Albany, IN. who has crafted a devastingly beautiful noise track. Like Glenn Branca dipped in a digital fire.“ [label info]
“...[N]ew to me is Bridle Wire, aka Thaniel Lee, from New Albany, IN. His work was entirely constructed from using piano sounds samples. You surely heard that tune before, but Bridle Wire is a man who loves to layer his sounds ad infinitum. At various speeds these sounds drop in and out and maybe there is a moment when you hear just a few layers, overall it's a densely layered drone noise piece with classical references, especially related to the New York scene around Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth's side projects. Quite scary but nice indeed.”
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| BRODERICK, PETER |
Music for falling from Trees |
CD |
"Voller Schönheit und Ehrfurcht: Der US-Amerikaner vertont ein Tanztheaterstück.
Peter Broderick ist ein bisschen wie ein Schweizer Taschenmesser: kompakt, elegant, vielseitig. Jedoch ist der multiinstrumentell aufgewachsene US-Amerikaner zurückhaltend und gibt sein riesiges Arsenal an Talenten immer nur Stück für Stück Preis. Seit 2007 tourt er als festes Mitglied seiner musikalischen Helden Efterklang um die Welt und eröffnete dabei einige Konzerte als Solo-Act. Nach seinem 2008er-Folkalbum "Home" zeigt sich Broderick von einer gänzlich anderen Seite: "Music For Falling From Trees" ist ein 30-minütiges Album in sieben Akten, welches er für das gleichnamige Tanzstück der Londoner Choreografin Adrienne Hart komponierte. Adrienne suchte Bühnenmusik, die auf Piano und Streichern basiert; also konzentrierte sich Peter nur auf diese beiden Klangfarben. Die Musik ist zeitweise melancholisch, mal verspielt, mal chaotisch, jedoch voller Schönheit und Ehrfurcht. Die CD kommt inklusive der "Erased Tapes Collection I" als Gratis-Download. Für Fans von Max Richter, Yann Tiersen, Ólafur Arnalds und Efterklang." [label info]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRODERICK, PETER & GABRIEL SALOMAN |
same |
LP |
"In 2013 Beacon Sound invited PETER BRODERICK (EFTERKLANG, collaborator with NILS FRAHM and MACHINEFABRIEK) and GABRIEL SALOMAN (YELLOW SWANS) to collaborate on a musical project. The two artists met for the first time at the Beacon Sound Weekender on the Pacific Coast in October of 2013, and immediately afterwards went into Type Foundry studio with engineer JASON POWERS to record basic tracks together. They each then transformed those tracks into their own pieces and the result is a compelling reflecton of each artist’s personality and musical trajectory. Broderick’s side brings together elements of modern compostion, electronic music, dub and vocal-oriented songwriting, while Saloman’s side is an epic 18-minute journey that builds into a gorgeous crescendo before gliding away on plaintive cries of a violin." [label info]
www.wearebeaconsound.com
|
2015 |
€19.50 |
|
| BROWN, HANNIS |
Severe Insomnia |
CD |
"Severe Insomnia, the second release by New York-based experimental composer Hannis Brown and his first album for Lumberton Trading Company, is a spine-chilling and unpredictable rollercoaster-ride of a listen. The 11 instrumental tracks run the gamut from musique-concrete tape collages and electroacoustic composition to works for chamber ensembles, orchestra, and solo prepared guitar. Inspired by the meandering and disjunct images that manifest themselves on the backs of eyelids during bouts of insomnia, the music is charged with an instability marked by atonal explosions of saxophones, sedate interludes of electronic and orchestral textures, and nightmarish climaxes of tone clusters. Each piece creates a unique sonic space while contributing to an overarching theme of somnipathy—the anguished screams of “Face Down At Twilight,” the chopped found sounds of “Alice’s Attic,” the churning orchestral textures of “Furies.” Incorporating the microtonal orchestrations of Pendereki and Ligeti with the electro-acoustic spatial compositions of Edgar Varese and frenzied free jazz of Charles Mingus, Severe Insomnia is colored with unorthodox textures and orchestrations. Violins gliss through streams of broken harmonics; tapped beer bottles, spinning coins, and metal garbage cans scraped with paper clips serve as percussion behind the sounds of children’s voices and spiraling woodwind clusters. Strings oscillate slowly in and out of phase with one another; hyperventilating breathing exercises cloaks muddled trumpet and flute.The result is a unique and unsettling suite of compositions: a textural concept work that pushes you to the depths of your subconscious and hold you there. Limited to 500, with the first 25 copies in special hand-painted glass packaging (only available via retail directly from LTCo). Out on 31/01/11." [label info]
www.lumberton-trading.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRUITAL ORGASME |
Experiment in functional Background Music |
LP |
"The first full album on vinyl for Belgium's favourite experimental/noise couple Fil & Nat Cavaleri. Using frequencies & sounds recorded during their many concerts and tours, home made sounds generators, modified devices, lost and found sounds from many sources (as old vinyls, turntables without records, radios, tapes), they manage to create an atmosphere that was described by the pressing plant's manager as 'very Stanley Kubrick'... which can obviously only be taken a compliment.
From pure electro-acoustic sounds over field recordings and sampled old records to blistering noise, this album is far from 'functional background music' but an interesting whirlwind of sound and an engaging listen." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| BRUME |
Normal |
CD |
Die 98er VÖ, diesmal auf einem "großen" Label; hier geht es thematisch um Hirnphysiologie ("Split Brain"), Neurochemie ("L-Dopa") und Neuropsychologische Störungen ("Korsakow-Syndrom"), und so kann man sich beim Hören direkt vorstellen, wie der DOPAMIN-Spiegel steigt und spüren, wie jegliche NORMALITÄT aus den neuronalen Netzwerken vertrieben wird durch diesen Sound! Ein absolut atmosphärisch dichtes und intensives Album, BRUME auf dem Höhepunkt seines Schaffens??
....one of the best works of BRUME, chases away the normality out of your braincells!
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
|
I'm ... I come... I was |
CD |
Finally someone re-issues the genius BRUME-works that appeared so far only on Cassette! BRUME was ahead of its time, a stunning mixture of Post-Industrial, Ethno-Ambient & Electro-Acoustic!
Second in a series of re-releases on the great WAYSTYX-label from Moscow! "Originally recorded in 1992, originally produced on cassette by Tonspur Tapes in 1992. Time duration is 57.21 min" [credits]
www.waystyx.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Accident de chasse |
CD |
Finally someone re-issues the genius BRUME-works that appeared so far only on Cassette! BRUME was ahead of its time, a stunning mixture of Post-Industrial, Ethno-Ambient & Electro-Acoustic!
First in a series of re-releases on the great WAYSTYX-label from Moscow! "Originally recorded in 1988/89, originally produced on cassette by Tonspur Tapes in 1989. Time duration is 61.23 min." [credits]
www.waystyx.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Schiluuk |
CD |
"This is the 3rd CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology, originally recorded in 1991 and released on cassette in 1991 by Corrosive Tapes. Digitally remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006. C. Renou - all instruments, home-made instruments, tape, pseudo ethnic voices, electronics, mix..." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Stable |
CD |
"This is the 4th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. C. Renou - electronics, tapes, voices, mix. Track #1 was recorded in real time in the studio: programming, 3-string guitar + effects. Track #6 is alien stuff called "Erection in Church" from Nihilistic Recordings compilation cassette. Because of the destruction of the original master, this recording was revisited and remastered from a bad quality cassette copy. Produced in 1995 by Bandaged Hand Produce. Reworked and digitally remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Electrocoagulation Tapes |
CD |
"This is the 5th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. Tracks 1-9 basically recorded live in the studio. C. Renou - electronics, metal, tapes, loops, horn, trump, voice, mix. Pat' Blanch - trump, voice, tapes. G. Guiggia - percussion, flutes. Reprocessed at Brume Rec. in winter 2006. Originally produced on cassette by Irre-Tapes in 1991. Tracks 10-12 were extracted from the split tape Brume / Telepherique, produced by Drahtfunk Products in 1991." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Les Victimes sont dangereuses |
CD |
"This is the 6th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. C. Renou - all instruments. Compiled, recorded and mixed at Brume Rec. in 1996-97. Ultrasonic mastering by Richard Johnson / Atmoject. Originally produced by Atmoject as a limited edition CD-R in 1998. Digitally remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Moll |
CD |
"This is the 7th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. C. Renou - all instruments, tapes, mix, Marie-France - voice. Compiled, recorded and mixed at Brume Rec. in 1999. Originally produced by Prion Tapes as a limited edition CD-R in 1999. Remastered from the DAT-master at Brume Rec. in winter 2006. Dedicated to Philip K. Dick." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Lost in Karrack |
CD |
"This is the 8th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. A compilation of rare/unedited tracks. C. Renou - all instruments, tapes, voice. Remastered from the DAT-master at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Early Tracks |
CD |
"This is the 9th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. A compilation of the very first recordings from 1981-1986. C. Renou - all instruments, tapes, mix; Antoine Faure - guitar; Eric Erfurth - guitar, voice; Phil - guitar; Thierry Febvre - sequencer. Remastered from the cassette and DAT-masters at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
In Death we trust! Programm T.4 |
CD |
"This is the 11th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. Tracks 1-8 recorded in 1987 and produced by Underground Prods in 1998. Track 9 recorded in 1986. Remastered from original cassette masters at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Live with or without Audience |
CD |
"This is the 10th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. Live recordings from 4 performances held in 1985-1988. Remastered from the cassette and reel-to-reel masters at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Drug |
CD |
"This is the 12th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. "Drug" (parts 1-7) was basically recorded in 1999 and released as a limited edition CD-R by Blade Rec. in 1999. Track 8 was basically recorded in 1986 and released as a limited edition cassette by Brume Rec. in 1998. Tracks 9-10 were the very last stuff recorded in 1999 under the name of Brume. Digitally remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Prehistoric Tapes |
CD |
"This is the 13th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. "These recordings were the very first electronic experiments I made, just after I gace up Uria, and just before I create Brume. The main stuff was inspired by music like Heldon, Suicide... but also progressive music and German kraut-rock." Recorded from 1979 to 1983 at Primitive Studio and Brume Rec. Remastered from "dusty tapes", reprocessed at Brume Rec., winter 2006." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
After the Battle |
CD |
"Christian Renou, leading master of audio suspense is back under his familiar alias Brume.
Following something old & new on Elsie and Jack earlier this year, here is a full brand new solo work: 'After the battle', an amazing visual journey in sound that captures you from the first seconds right to the very end!
Whether all this was created analog/digital or mixed seems irrelevant, Brume keeps surprising his audience in the best possible way, as if he has never been away……Viva Brume!
Goldprint on helldark blue relief cardboard featuring artwork by US artist Jonathan Canady.
Including the official Brume/C.Renou discography, with big cheers to the Grandsons of Elsie and Jack." [label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ainsi-soit-il! |
LP |
"LP album, numbered and stamped vinyl limited edition of 250 copies. Alone, you have to listen to BRUME alone, and lie down far from the neon lights, traffic and gossips, with your lights filtered. In the dominating dark and night, BRUME carries an atomized reality to a world where chaos rhymes with spatial waverings, where atmosphere is devoid of impurity, rich with sonorities and dense with emotions, for a mysterious but undoubtedly innovatory trip. In these days of mist, 'Ainsi soit-il!' envelopes us with a rich, complex and experimental coat." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2009 |
€19.50 |
|
|
V s /M 3-44-65 / Time out of Joint (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"For several years now Christian Renou aka BRUME from Villiers/Marne in France has been creating one of the most intense & unique form of dark musique concrete one can imagine. However the project is about to be stopped soon and this is one of his last releases (he will continue as RAGLE GUMM). On these two tracks the more minimal side of BRUME can be experienced – suspenseful & quiet tunes, voices, samples, sudden harsh break-outs that make you shiver, etc.. the highly atmospheric music of BRUME is always a very expressive form of emotional outburst, and this is no exception.
BLACK VINYL, HANDMADE COLOURED BLACK COVERS WITH DIFFERENT PATTERNS AND COLOURS DONE BY BRUME" [label info]
|
2000 |
€ |
|
|
Anastomose |
CD |
"A5 gatefold cover. Limited to 444 copies. "Anastomose 1 & 2" was previously released as a picture 10" LP by Ant-Zen in 1996 and remastered from DAT-master in March 2013.
"Seven Trumpets" was previously released as a cassette by Voluntary Whores in the end of 2012 and remixed, overdubbed in March 2013.
"Charlemagne the 33rd" was previously released as a 7" EP called "Charlemagne" by Membrum Debile Propaganda in 1997. Side one was remastered from DAT-master in March 2013." [label info]
www.nefryt.serpent.pl
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Friction |
LP |
"'Friction' is a compression of the two first official tapes of Brume, 'Frikture' 1985 and 'Le jour du cochon' 1986/87, also including an unreleased that closes the end of side A of this vinylic reissue. A very experimental period, electro-ethnico-indus orientated because Brume went from 'all analogical' to the first numeric tests, electroacoustic, to make an hybrid synthesis until today with the computer." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2015 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Enola |
mCD-R |
"Does BRUME / christian renou really need an introduction? active for nearly 30 years, he's now considered as one of the french masters of musique concrete. having released more than 100 releases on many international labels (there are too many to name a few) on many different formats, he's back to taâlem for his third release, after one under his own name in 2007 ("gone with the wound") and another one under a mysterious alias (try to find which one it was!).
BRUME / c.renou: voices, taped voices, tapes, electronics, cymbals, small gong, big metal plates & tubes...
comp./rec./mix. at BRUME rec, spring 2014
"humanity is a reduction of a great hight bones loaf onto which i'm walking on. that's history!"
photography: delphine ancelle-b." [label info / credits]
www.taalem.com
www.taalem.com
|
2015 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
L'ombilic des Rêves |
CD |
"The nightmare is a theme that interested the medical field very early on. The first mentions in medical texts are already found in the writings of Hippocrates. But the nightmare has also fueled popular folklore from the ancient period to the present day. The meaning of the term nightmare is to be taken here in its original meaning. Etymological analysis allows us to distinguish two elements. The term “cauche” is the Roman form of the Latin calcare, meaning “to crush” The term “mar” derives from the Germanic term ''mahr'', which refers to a ghostly entity riding a horse. This spirit has the habit of surprising the sleeper in his sleep to trample him from his horse and kill him. The horse theme is also found in the English language: doesn’t night mare literally mean “mare of the night”?
Nowadays, the nightmare corresponds to the notion of bad dream of the first meaning of the nightmare. From antiquity until the end of the 19th century, nightmares designated a completely different neuropsychological disorder. The constant elements noted throughout the descriptions of the nightmare, whatever the country and the historical period, are the following: sudden awakening, with a feeling of suffocation, chest tightness, heavy feeling and intense anxiety that can be severe, accompanied by a feeling of imminent death. A temporary paralysis of the limbs accompanies the picture. Sometimes the vision of supernatural beings in the bedroom or the feeling of sexual areas being touched completes the picture.
Presented in a recycled cardboard gatefold sleeve with a photo sticker on the front and an insert inside. Limited to 250 handnumbered copies." [press release]
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/lombilic-des-r-ves-alm-145
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"A few weeks ago, I asked in a review if it’s okay to say one is a ‘fan’ of someone’s work. Because it was a new album by Christian Renou, a.k.a. Brume, and well … I am a fan. And I don’t care what all of you think, but as always, I will write my reviews with a bit of distance towards my own opinion. Because that’s what a reviewer i.m.h.o. is supposed to do.
The Taalem label, which we all know from the 3″ CDRs they’ve released for years and years, has stopped doing them, and after a year of silence, they’re now releasing full-length CDs in a minimal brown cardboard sleeve with a little imagery. Excellent and minimal as it was and still is. But instead of the approximately 20 minutes of the 3″ you get ‘full releases’ on CD or even 2CD. The same goes for the side label Kokeshidisk, by the way. Brown sleeve, minimal artwork. And with Desaccord Majeur, Murmer and Brume Taalem set the level high for all future releases. Taalem knows what he’s doing and mark my words: This label will have a catalogue of beauty if they keep building it like this. A paradise for drone heads like us.
In my opinion, “L’ombilic Des Rêves” is a complex album. The reason is it’s very strongly themed on the theme of nightmares. But just as nightmares can (will?) be different each time you have them, the music on this album varies a lot. From chaotic ambience with horns to rhythmically driven short interludes, this album is a journey through the insides of your head. This album perfectly exemplifies Renou’s dynamics as an artist and sound designer. Sounds straight out of synths, manipulated field recordings, found footage / spoken word and the before mentioned horns or wind instruments on one hand, and the other side compositions with a lot of erratic changes, ambient approaches, long compositions (11 and 14 minutes) as well as shorter ones – 2 minutes and even one just over 1 minute – harmonics and dissonance … This album is lovely in its variation on so many levels. Personal favourites are “Hot Concrete / Turning To Nightmare” and ” Dreams Are Not Free”, but my oh my … Mr Renou did it again. And Taalem. Both. Chapeau. " [Vital Weekly]
|
2024 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRUME & TBC |
House Unwillently |
CD-R |
CDR-Version der vergriffenen LP !! Finally out, the CDR version of the sold out LP !!
“This Lp is a collaboration between Brume, aka Christian Renou and Tbc, aka Thomas Beck. I have sent musical material to Brume and he has made five typical Brume tracks out of it. I think I don`t have to introduce him, because over 70 Releases speak his own language.This is the second lp for him and me too. On " House Unwillity" you find all this: a complex texture of soundstructure using drones and enviromental soundscapes from Tbc and abrutlly cuts, "primitiv" percussion and the usual absuse of traditional instruments from the musical talents of Brume. The enviromental recordings was made in a old house near the habour in Hamburg. This house is a part in spectulating with money around this area in Hamburg to get a new architectonic face of happy capitalism. It`s near the wellknow "Hafenstraße", a squat with places for concerts, bars, food on a low profit d.i.y. culture.” [label info on original LP release]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| BRUME / OUBLIER ET MOURIR |
A Year to live |
LP |
" ‘A Year To Live’ is the 2nd collaboration between the German dark ambient/noise sound artist ANEMONE TUBE (OUBLIER ET MOURIR) and the French sound experimentalist CHRISTIAN RENOU (BRUME). ‘A Year To Live’ ties in with the highly acclaimed ‘Transference’ collaboration CD (released by Auf Abwegen, 2003), which radiated a subtle (dis)quieting melancholy, but goes beyond it.
‘A Year To Live’ refers to the same-titled book by Stephen Levine, which deals about preparing for or ‘practicing’ death to remind oneself of the beauty of life. On his deathbed, Socrates exhorted his followers to practice dying as the highest form of wisdom. Levine teaches us to live each moment mindfully and created the so-called ‘year to live’, a program of intensely practical strategies and powerful guided meditations, which helps us to live our lives with more awareness before we die. Both artists approach this theme with notably different points of view, but complement one another’s vision, in such a precise and dedicated manner, that one can truly not exist without the other.
BRUME is the experimental music project by CHRISTIAN RENOU, a particularly prolific sound artist, active since 1985. With recordings on Elsie And Jack, Drone, Old Europa Café, Relapse, Staalplaat and his own Brume Rec., Christian Renou has built quite a name for himself over the years and can be considered a legend in the field. On ‘A Year To Live’ BRUME creates environments ranging from the completely abstract to the vaguely specific, using elements such as voice, loops, wide-ranging drones, ghostly ambiences, noise, various electronics and even percussions. The loops and voice samples roam throughout the track list like persistent ghosts wandering in a transcendental, shapeless purgatory, reciting their obsessions like a mantra.
www.elsieandjack.com/brume
ANEMONE TUBE has aroused much attention with his two consecutive releases ‘Dream Landscape’ (2010) and ‘Death over China’ (2011), which embody hell’s darkest nightmares to give a good, hard glimpse of Death’s reign over matter and human existence. Now a new form of expression is born and in a sense it is the cathartic aftermath of the unbearable pain caused by the previous realisations. Such an expression required a different vehicle, which is OUBLIER ET MOURIR (‘to forget and to die’). A name perfectly suited to the peaceful,
meditative, but also deeply emotional and atmospheric character of the music, which is a unique mix of melancholic ambient soundscapes & melodramatic pop sometimes reminding of TOR LUNDVALL and (early) SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU.
www.anemonetube.de " [label info]
www.silkentofu.bigcartel.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| BRUNNEN |
The Beekeeper's Dream |
CD |
Eine Art Retrospektive von der BEEQUEEN-Hälfte mit seinen melancholisch-süssen, folk-angehauchten Homerecording-Ambient-Songs… einiges davon ist wohl bereits auf anderen Formaten schonmal erschienen, aber vieles scheint auch neues Material zu sein.
“Brunnen reveals that part of Beequeen's Freek Kinkelaar which is the strange wandering minstrel/alchemist (half-orc cleric with a +2 mace). If only more records were so cogently perplexing. A slightly cinematically arranged, quasi-psychedelic little dear of a hushed pop song opens the album. Freek's vocals sublimate in a pleasant whisper, not unlike (ahem) a quieter Yo La Tengo song. Freek, perhaps true to his name, does not hesitate to then very, very slowly weave together a spacious tone poem whose initial notes live counties apart, concocting an outré sort of high lonesome that might sonically drift across the same sort of plain as Wenders' Paris, Texas does visually. Kinkelaar's vocal delivery tugs at shirt tails ala Just Drifting era Psychic TV balladry or introspective LPD. Subtly amplified guitars chime quietly against slo-mo keyboards, occasional samples, tablas and air. An understated rave-up of Trust In Me from The Jungle Book is a nice exclamation point. A musical sandwich, really, with the outer psychedelic pop buns keeping the avant-garde middle meat warm.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
The Beekeeper's Dream |
LP |
Eine Art Retrospektive von der BEEQUEEN-Hälfte mit seinen melancholisch-süssen, folk-angehauchten Homerecording-Ambient-Songs… einiges davon ist wohl bereits auf anderen Formaten schonmal erschienen, aber vieles scheint auch neues Material zu sein.
Diese limitierte Vinyl-Version ist auch gleichzeit Teil 3 der RECORDS ARE NOT FOR BAKING – Serie, die es im Abo auch mit Bonus pic-12“ gibt!
“Brunnen reveals that part of Beequeen's Freek Kinkelaar which is the strange wandering minstrel/alchemist (half-orc cleric with a +2 mace). If only more records were so cogently perplexing. A slightly cinematically arranged, quasi-psychedelic little dear of a hushed pop song opens the album. Freek's vocals sublimate in a pleasant whisper, not unlike (ahem) a quieter Yo La Tengo song. Freek, perhaps true to his name, does not hesitate to then very, very slowly weave together a spacious tone poem whose initial notes live counties apart, concocting an outré sort of high lonesome that might sonically drift across the same sort of plain as Wenders' Paris, Texas does visually. Kinkelaar's vocal delivery tugs at shirt tails ala Just Drifting era Psychic TV balladry or introspective LPD. Subtly amplified guitars chime quietly against slo-mo keyboards, occasional samples, tablas and air. An understated rave-up of Trust In Me from The Jungle Book is a nice exclamation point. A musical sandwich, really, with the outer psychedelic pop buns keeping the avant-garde middle meat warm.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€17.00 |
|
| BRUNO ŚWIATŁOCIEŃ |
Czern / Ciern |
CD |
"The debut album by BRUNO ŚWIATŁOCIEŃ, a project founded by a musician and painter Bronisław Ehrlich. 9 songs in the vein of postpunk, darkwave with hints of ambient and post-rock.
Uncompomising lyrics and atmospheric music is a reflection of neurotic states of the band's leader. Their music is a must-have for fans of Joy Division, early years of The Wolfgang Press, but also fans of Blood Axis, In Gowan Ring or even Mogwai. One of the most promising debuts of the Polish new wave scene. The album was produced by Michał "Goran" Miegoń - the musician of Kiev Office and The Shipyard, among the others, and the producer for many interesting bands hailing from 3city, Poland." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| BRYARS, GAVIN |
In La |
LP |
"In Là" is the outcome of the collaboration between Gavin Bryars and the Italian visual artist Massimo Bartolini. Staged as a large-scale installation at the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art in Prato, Italy, (the opening was in autumn of 2022 and the exhibition is still running until May this year), Bartolini transformed scaffolding into pipe organ bars, suspended from the ceiling across seven rooms of the museum as the central piece for his retrospective exhibition. It is the music played by these singular organs, composed by Bryars, that makes up the two sides of Alga Marghen's LP edition. The music of "In là" by Gavin Bryars directly refers to his experimental and conceptual territory of the early 1970s, prior to the composition of seminal works like "The Sinking of The Titanic" and "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". "In Là" presents the composer working across the vast space of the installation, with sounds physically spread in each of the museum's rooms and placed in careful consideration of the space continuity, while at the same time never fulling being experienced in its totality by the listener. This allows the LP documentation of the work to become a singular complement to the live, real-time aural adveture, unveiling phenomena and perceptions of the work's rich tones and poetic structures that would otherwise be unavailable. While Gavin Bryars background in music is well documented (started as a jazz bassist working in the early 1960s with improvisors Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley, later worked with composers John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, founded the Portsmouth Sinfonia and collaborated with Brian Eno to the Obscure Records series), the connections of Massimo Bartolini's poetic to sound as less known. The early practice of modifying architectural or domestic devices into sound producers, eventually led Massimo Bartolini to create installations made of scaffolding tubes which are modified into the pipes of an organ. Conceived in different forms and in relation to different architectural contexts since 2008, these works clearly relate to Baroque organs, the most visual of musical instruments, and to the use of scaffolding in construction sites. From these references they adopt the quality of being part instrument part architecture, a work of sophisticated engineering, a "ladder" for climbing up to God. If Baroque organs render visible the intangibility of music, though, Bartolini's scaffolding amplifies a machine, extends its breath, turning it into music. The organ conceived for the solo survey at Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato is the largest incarnation of these series and altogether the largest installation ever conceived by the artist. Hung from a structure that runs along the museum ceiling and suspended just centimeters above the floor, Bartolini built a continuous 75-meters-long wall of scaffolding tubes which winds through seven of the ten rooms of the exhibition space. For this structure of complex engineering Gavin Bryars was invited to compose a specific polyphonic score. Assigning each room a unique melody, the composition creates a richly layered soundscape that is constantly shifting with the viewer as they move through the space. As the title suggests-alluding to the dominant tonality (La) of the piece-the score is always "beyond," out of reach, never experienced in its entirety by a single listener as, in fact, the shape of the organ itself." (label info) Edition of 400 numbered copies, including an insert with liner notes and photo documentation of the installation
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| BUCK, TONY & MASSIMO PUPILLO |
Time Being |
LP |
"Italian composer and bass-player Massimo Pupillo (ZU) and Australian drummer Tony Buck (The Necks) colloborate in a beautifully haunting, absorbing ambient set, taking in electronic abstraction and free improvisation. Pupillo & Buck are well known for their work with their long-running bands, as well as for their collaborations with musicians of the current international avantgarde scene - Pupillo released for instance with Cindytalk, FM Einheit, Ambarchi, Corsano; Buck with Fennesz, Branford Marsalis and Magda Mayas. In TIME BEING / UNSEEN we experience floating uncanny percussion sounds underlined with heaving subs, sealed in deep and noisy atmospheres." [label info]
https://massimopupillo.bandcamp.com/album/time-being
|
2019 |
€19.50 |
|
| BUCKNER, THOMAS |
New Music for Baritone & Chamber Ensemble |
CD |
"For 30 years Thomas Buckner has carved out a very special niche - that of a champion of the avant-garde. In concert halls throughout the world, his "baritone-mastery" has astonished both audiences and critics. He has an extraordinarily flexible voice; his experience and ability ranges from madrigals, lieder, opera, free improvisation, extended techniques, all the way to electronically processed wordless minimalist song. This wonderful new collection of works for baritone and chamber ensemble were all written specifically for Mr. Buckner.
Annea Lockwood is known for her explorations of the rich world of natural acoustic sounds and environments, in works ranging from sound art and installations, through text-sound and performance art to concert music. Lockwood¹s Luminescence is a song cycle based on eight poems from Etel Adnan¹s 'Sea¹. It falls into three movements, opening and closing with Adnan¹s voice. The piece celebrates their three-way friendship and their shared love of the Pacific Ocean.
Tania León, born in Cuba, a vital personality on today¹s music scene, is highly regarded as a composer and conductor recognized for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. León¹s Canto is a song cycle for baritone and mixed ensemble. It is: rhythmically driven lines orbiting each song around its core... multi-dimensional checkerboard of harmonic colors...Diaspora of images in words. Poetic voices of Cuban roots at the center of a musical universe.
Petr Kotik is a performing musician (conductor and flutist) and the founder and director of the S.E.M. Ensemble which expanded in 1992 as The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble (debut at Carnegie Hall tribute to John Cage with soloist David Tudor). Kotik¹s Conceptuality/Life was created specifically for Thomas Buckner. The baritone solo is sung simultaneously with instrumental sections excerpted from Kotik¹s Chamber Music (1982). There is no general score and the superimpositions of individual sections are prearranged. The pulse of the music unites all simultaneously performed parts into one homogenous unit." [label info]
www.mutablemusic.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| BUDD, HAROLD / AKIRA RABELAIS |
Avalon Sutra |
do-CD |
"Harold Budd at his very best, coupled with an extra disc featuring a 70 minute re-working by Akira Rabelais. A timeless classic on David Sylvian's Samdhisound label.
It's hard to over-estimate the contribution Harold Budd has made to modern music, his seemingly effortless take on minimalism and ambience imbuing this often academic genre with all the warmth and humility so often missing from the work of his contemporaries. Best known for his collaborations with Brian Eno and the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, Budd here delivers 14 immensely moving pieces, strewn with Piano cascades and panoramic soundscapes, drifting off into sublime, almost unbearable reflection.
It's a theme that's further developed with the second of the two cd's here, featuring a 70 minute re-working of Budd's work by the remarkable Akira Rabelais: a breathless, beautiful tapestry of midnight strings and echoes of lost piano taking time to unravel, eventually displaying all the warmth and intimacy Budd has spent a musical lifetime striving to perfect."
"On learning that Avalon Sutra will be Harold Budd’s last ever recording, I didn’t know whether to treat this release with a
sensation of happiness or gloom . It seems hard to believe that after 30 years of composing and releasing CD’s, this demi-god
of ambient music will no longer be enlightening us with more of his beautifully crafted pearls; one can only hope that Budd will
reconsider sharing his considerable talent for us all to appreciate.
Armed with this knowledge, it would be easy to write a review that strings superlative after superlative together in Budd's
honour, but the fact is, after you’ve spent a week listening to Avalon Sutra, there is little more you can do except truthfully
recognise what is staring you plum in the face; that from the day Budd released Pavilion Of Dreams in 1978, he never lost his
touch.
Still, there can be no more fitting an epilogue to Budd’s career than Avalon Sutra - 14 tracks of contemplative, blissful, ambient,
melancholy beauty, with a bonus disc, titled As Long As I Can Hold My Breath, that features an hour-long arrangement of
Budd’s work from LA-based composer Akira Rabelais - with additional production from David Sylvian.
From the haunting synthesized opening of Arabesque, featuring John Gibson’s Sopranino sax and Budd’s trademark piano
sprinkles, to the heartbreaking beauty of Budd’s own final piano-treated legacy – the closing As Long As I Can Hold My Breath,
this album is nothing short of phenomenal, and without doubt one of his greatest works to date.
Other than the sumptuous, meditative warmth of the opening track, as soon as the following It’s Steeper Near The Roses (for
David Sylvian) opens, you realise you’re in for a treat, as the painfully bittersweet violin and string arrangements envelope you in
a warmly secular cocoon. Budd then forges his way through a stunning collection of Autumnal compositions, featuring a variety
of moods that range from the achingly sad, to the medatively reflective and upliftingly beautiful, aided by a string of session
musicians (John Gibson, James Sitterly, Peter Kent, John Acevedo, Marston Smith) on saxophone, violin and cello.
Most artists end the career on a low, virtually none will end it on anything as highly creative as this. Don’t miss Budd at his best,
on stunning ambient tracks such as Little Heart and Chrysalis Nu, even his song titles carry emotion – A Walk In The Park With
Nancy (In Memory). I could go on and on trying to describe this album, but words cannot always accurately do justice to music
of such quality and depth. All I will say is that there isn’t a single wasted note on Avalon Sutra.
In a world where backslapping acclaim is over-congratulatively thrown around like breadcrumbs to pidgeons, Budd stands alone
as a class act that truly merits every plaudit handed to him. His music will be missed - in the same way that we miss the autumn
in summer and the spring in winter." [Barcode Review] |
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| BUMSTEINAS, ARTURAS |
Gamelan Descending a Staircase |
CD |
The instrumental sound material for Gamelan Descending a Staircase was recorded at the Ethnologisches Museum Dahlem in the summer of 2013, during a research visit there. A large collection of Indonesian Gamelan orchestra instruments was recorded, and later it was composed into a surround-sound composition, premiered in Jauna Muzika festival at the Vilnius Contemporary Art Center, in April 2015. The live version of this piece also involved three improvising trumpetists providing live solo/accompaniment textures for the pre-recorded music.
Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 painting Nude Descending the Staircase. No.2 was an inspiration lurking not only behind the title of this composition but also regarding the deconstructed micro-forms and the study of sound structures, progressing as if in slowmotion, and without a clear point of destination… Descending into the unknown territories… The title came in a vision, as a possible sonic event of a instruments of a gamelan orchestra falling down the stairs. A beautiful, unrealistic image. A dream.
Sad Young Man on a Train is composed from sounds recorded entirely on one prepared harpsichord. Preparations as wood, glass, stones, metal objects, kitchenware, toys and electric devices such as e-bows and cappucino mixers were used. All these objects were dangerously applied to the strings of harpsichord and the recording attempted not to reveal their presence, only amplifying the sounds of the harpsichord’s strings and body.
The whole recording session took place after recording another Bumšteinas’s composition Epiloghi. Six Ways of Saying Zangtumbtumb, which was produced by Deutschland Radio Kultur’s Klangkunst and released by Unsounds label in The Neatherlands in 2014.
The composition’s title is borrowed from the 1911-1912 painting of the same name by Marcel Duchamp. The auto-erotic associations provoked by the painting should not be dismissed as an influence for this musical composition.
Gamelan Descending a Staircase:
Percussion instruments of the traditional Gamelan orchestra performed by Arturas Bumšteinas & Raminta Atnimar. Instruments recorded in 2013 at the archives of the Ethnologisches Museum Dahlem, Berlin.
Composition commissioned in 2015 by the Lithuanian Composers’ Union.
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais.
Special Thanks to Albrecht Wiedmann, Lars-Christian Koch, Marcus Gammel, Werner Durand.
Sad Young Man on a Train:
Performed by Arturas Bumšteinas & Neele Hülcker in Studio P4 Nalepastrasse, Berlin, 2013/01. Recording engineer Andreas Stoffels. Harpsichords courtesy of Christine Kessler.
Mixed by Arturas Bumšteinas in Turku (Finland), 2015.
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais.
Special thanks to Marcus Gammel (Deutschland Radio Kultur).
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/gamelan-descending-a-staircase
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| BURIAL |
Burial.Hdbcd001 |
CD |
„Auf "Burial. HDBCB001" schickt BURIAL die unterschwellig sexy Beats des britischen Garage über den Umweg von Funkstörungen in eine heimelige Gummizelle aus tiefem Bass, nicht ohne auf der Reise noch einen Zwischenstop im Berliner Dub von POLE einzulegen. Dabei klingt es, als würde BURIAL das Südlondon der nahen Zukunft unter Wasser setzen. Das allumfassende Knistern ist gleichzeitg das Statikgeknister eines Piratensenders und der tropische Regen, der sanft ans Fenster schlägt. Die Melancholie der Tracks öffnet ihre Arme und sucht nach ertrunkenen Liebhabern. Der Mix von BURIAL wird von den Echos aus einer anderen Zeit heimgesucht. Signale einer fremden Frequenz strecken tastend ihre Fühler aus. Eine Flutwelle aus Lärm verschlingt alles und lässt nur die schärfsten Beats zurück. Doch der Lärm schmerzt nicht; er streichelt, kitzelt und erregt die Nervenenden. Willkommen in der Welt von BURIAL. This first album on Kode9's Hyperdub label comes from the mysterious Burial. On this self-titled CD debut, Burial carves out a sound which sends the dormant slinky syncopations of uk garage, via radio interference, into a padded cell of cushioned, muffled bass, passing through the best of Pole's Berlin crackle dub. Burial explores a tangential, parallel dimension of the growing sound of dubstep. Burial's parallel dimension sounds set in a near future South London underwater. You can never tell if the crackle is the burning static off pirate radio transmissions, or the tropical downpour of the submerged city outside the window. In their sometimes suffocating melancholy, most of these tracks seem to yearn for drowned lovers. The smouldering desire of ‚Distant Lights' is cooled only by the percussive ice sharp slicing of blades and jets of hot air blowing from the bass. Listen also for a fleeting appearance from Hyperdub's resident vocalist, the Spaceape unravelling his crypto-biography. In its loud quietness, Burial takes his kitchen crackle aesthetic neither from the digital glitch nor merely a nostalgia for vinyl's materiality. Instead, as irates' suggests, Burial crackle mutates the tactile surplus value of pirate radio transmissions. Burial's mix is haunted. Echoed voices breeze in and out, on road to another time. Pirate signal from other frequencies steams in. A tidal wave of noise submerging all but the crispest syncopations. The noise is not violent, but caressing, tickling, exciting the ends of your nerves. Seducing you in.“ [press release] |
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Street Halo |
12 |
"This single is a surprise to all and is the first new official solo material from the mysterious dubstep magnate since 2007. Not to say Burial hasn't been busy, seeing how the man just released a collaborative effort with fellow electronic pioneers Four Tet and Thom Yorke. Their combined length is 20 minutes, 41 seconds. www.myspace.com/burialuk " [label info]
www.hyperdub.net
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| BURIAL CHAMBER TRIO |
Wvrm |
pic-10 |
ONLY VINYL IS REAL! Erst einmal fällt die beeindruckende Cover-Artwork von SELDON HUNT auf, zusätzlich zum SPLATTER-igen picture-vinyl gibt es noch gold & schwarz bedruckte klare Inlays, sehr passend zum dem unglaublichen tief-morastigen Sumpf-Bass-Drones die hier erzeugt werden, man meint die hohe Lautstärke mit denen hier die Verstärker in Schwingung versetzt wurden immer noch zu spüren, alles steht kurz vor dem ZERBERSTEN, und irgendwo da drin in diesen tiefen Feedbacks ist eine menschlichähnliche Gestalt die ächzt & stöhnt, ein sterbendes Monster... DIE BESTIE IST LOS! Selten einen so tiefgrunzend-abartigen Sound vernommen...
In der Tat, auf 33 klingts noch besser als auf 45, und es dröhnt länger.... so LIEBLICH!
"The Burial Chamber Trio is: Oren Ambarchi (Guitar, Analog Electronics), Greg Anderson (BASS/subsonics) & Attila Csihar (Vokills, invokations). Live recordings from the groups performance in Rotterdam, Holland in Jan. 2007 at club: Wurm. 10"Picture disc // with original art and packaging design by Seldon Hunt. Two transparencies with gold ink/printing on them." [label info]
"....For this outing, Ambarchi and Anderson are credited with sub bass death throb, while Attila is responsible for undead voices. And that's pretty much what it sounds like, sub bass throbs with haunting undead vocals woven into the heaving roiling mass. There seem to be some guitars in there too, maybe some electronics, but it's hard to tell, it's all smeared into a single swirling blackened mass. When we first listened to it, we played it at 33 (which we're assuming now is NOT the right speed, so hard to tell sometimes), and we thought, wow, this is even slower and sludgier than ever, but once we figured out it was meant to be 45, the sound reverted back, closer to the sound of SUNNO))) or the older records of their forbears Earth. Slow motion riffage, glacial and thick, massive and blown out and super distorted, muffled and murky, a sluggish sprawl of caustic crumbling guitars, the vocals barely audible, a haunting raspy growl way down in the mix, often just sounding like another buzzing bassline, hum and fuzz, dense and intense, all melted down into a viscous black crawl. Occasionally, the random bits of riffage and low end rumble coalesce into truly gorgeous harmonies, lovely and chordal, like some blackened church organ, but for the most part, this is the sound of guitar tones allowed to ring out forever and beat against each other, the air filled with oscillating overtones and strange tonal colorations, all beneath a patina of thick black buzz.
Amazing cover art as well, a gross out gutted worm picture disc, with a transparent skull and bugs insert on one side, and another sick silkscreened artwork overlay on the thick plastic sleeve, all courtesy of Mr. Seldon Hunt. Recorded live, in January of this year, in Holland. And of course, you had to know this part was coming: LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES!! And if it's anything like the other Burial Chamber record, it will sell out FAST." [Aquarius Records]
label: www.southernlord.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| BURKE, DAN & KEVIN DRUMM |
Mort aux Vaches |
CD |
"In 2001 Dan Burke (aka Illusion Of Safety's frontman) and Kevin Drumm embarked on a small European Tour, bringing them also to the VPRO studios. This was the third time that Dan Burke made recordings there, the first two being previously released in the Mort Aux Vaches (and both are still available). Rather then playing under the Illusion Of Safety moniker, this was a tour of two like minded improv artists. Dan Burke has been doing Illusion Of Safety since the mid 80s, releasing many CD's and the band has seen many members besides Burke, including Jim O'Rourke, Mark Klein and Kurt Greisch. They balance on the fringe of silence and noise, always seeking out the beauty. A discography by Kevin Drumm reads like a who's who in the world of improvised music. He has released CD's with Ralf Wehowsky, Taku Sugimoto (various releases, such as for Boxmedia, Sonoris and Meme), Martin Tetreault, Axel Dorner and Lasse Marhaug (plus lots that we forget of course) as well as various solo works for Perdition Plastics, Mego and Fringes. This CD is a fine improvisation between the closely contact microphone objects, guitar and laptop of Dan Burke and Drumm's guitar and ancient analogue synthesizer. A very dynamic work, which ranges from sheer silence to sheer noise, always with a sharp edge." [label info] |
2003 |
€14.50 |
|
| BURNES, ANDREW |
Telescope |
LP |
Siebter Teil in der neuen "Gitarren-Serie" mit kunstvollem, farbigen Gravur-Vinyl. ANDREW BURNES aus dem LOREN MAZZANE CONNERS-Umfeld schafft konzentrierte Aufmerksamkeit in seinem innovativen Umgang mit seiner "steel guitar", wenn polytonale, metallisch schimmernde und sehr lebendige Drones erstönen..
"7th installment in the Guitar Series Vols. 3 & 4. Burnes is a founding member of the ethereal, post-blues ensemble SAN AGUSTIN & is also member of HAUNTED HOUSE, alongside Loren Mazzacan Connors. Telescope is a glittering chunk of sound, as Burnes transforms that particular emblem of Americana, the steel guitar, into one vast, slowly undulating drone." [label info]
"Here, Burnes, credited with just lap steel guitar, totally reinvents the instrument, subverting any idea of Appalachia or traditional steel string guitar music, instead creating a warm sidelong soundscape of muted buzz and slowly shimmering soft focus drift. The main component here is most definitely the drone, a whirring buzzy, shimmering metallic whir, that is by no means static, instead shifting colors and subtly changing shape, almost like holding your ear against an excited string as its overtones take on a life of their own. But in and around the buzz, little flecks of melody surface, almost like sparks being produced by the constant incessant vibrating steel, but these sparks are soft and sweet, like the surviving fragments of what was once some sort of Appalachia, drifting to the surface, and fluttering to the ground through Burnes' ever
expanding cloud of warm metallic shimmer. Super subtle and minimal and gorgeous. Drone music fanatics will definitely need to keep an eye on Burnes, and folks who like their country disembodied and blurred into warm fuzzy blissy drones, well then Telescope seems like it was custom created just for you! Pressed on super thick, swirled milky green black and white vinyl. One sided, the other side with a beautiful etching courtesy of the mighty Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and again like most good things in life, or so it seems, VERY VERY LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| BURNING STAR CORE |
Amelia |
10inch |
Rare 10" auf dem in letzter Zeit hochaktiven britischen Psych/free Drone-Label NO FI, 3 Stücke mit sich überlagernden, minimalen (Synth?)-Polydrones und bizarren, auf konkreterem Material basierenden Geräuschlandschaften... sehr eigen und schön... das Material befindet sich auch auf der do-CD "Mes Soldats Stupides".
"First in the series of six 10"s by C. Spencer Yeh entitled 'Mes Soldats Stupides 96-05.' Hard-to-find reissues on vinyl for the first time. Includes insert with design by guest artist Robert Beatty (Hair Police). 'Three very different but equally captivating electronic pieces, this may be some of the most focused work Spencer has produced to date.' --Rock-A-Rolla Magazine" [label info]
www.no-fi.org.uk
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Blood Lightning 2007 |
CD |
"Creeping drones, strange mutilated vocal incursions, and compositions full of unidentifiable sounds both acoustic and electronic. Another classic in sound exploration from the mind of Mr. C. Spencer Yeh. This is the sound of humanity looking into the depth of their soul searching for a reason to continue fighting the daily maze of homo sapien life. The three sisters on the front cover of this album all have the "mark of the devil. Like all No Fun Productions cd's comes in the deluxe classic mini-gatefold style no fun CD case." [label notes]
www.nofunfest.com/nofunprod.html
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S. |
The Instrument of Control |
CD |
Tja, mehr als die Recordings gibt es hier nicht! Aber das reicht voll und ganz! Lesungen mit Publikum (ziemlich witzig!), Radio-Features, ein Interview, sogar ein bischen Musik ist drauf.... Material aus den 70 oder 80er Jahren, leider keine weiteren infos im Cover.. 17 Indexe, 55+ Minuten.
"Collection of rare recordings of William Burroughs in conversation and readings from the 1970s/80s. This is an essential insight into the mind and writings of arguably the most influential writer from the Beat generation. "Through his mordant satire of cultural aspirations, homosexual eroticism and political power, Burroughs focuses our gaze into the abyss. His cold, surgical language creates beauty through a terror that we are just able to bear". A great collectors' item!
[label info]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages |
CD |
"The cult 1922 silent film, with 1968 narration by beat poet William S. Burroughs. Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary 1922 film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious; instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous. In 1968, an abbreviated version of the film (77 minutes) was released. This version features an eclectic jazz score by Daniel Humair (played by a quintet including Jean-Luc Ponty on violin and Daniel Humair on percussion) and dramatic narration by William S. Burroughs. The artwork features great stills from the film. Daniel Humair, percussion. Bernard Lubat, piano organ. Guy Pedersen, double bass. Jean-Luc Ponty, violin. Michel Portal, sax, flute." [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Call me Burroughs |
LP |
"Originally released in 1965 by The English Bookshop in Paris and later by ESP-Disk' in New York, Call Me Burroughs marks not only the recorded debut of William Burroughs, but also for many the first encounter with his inimitable voice. While Burroughs has had pervasive influence on counterculture in the past 50 years – from the Beats to punk rock and even hip hop – no other figure today is so widely considered the epitome of cool.
Call Me Burroughs features the author reading from Naked Lunch and Nova Express, two of his best-known works that utilize the cut-up method developed by Burroughs and artist Brion Gysin. An eerie, deadpan drawl guides the listener through sci-fi innerscapes, narcotic nightmares, reports from the edge of the apocalypse. Phantasmagoric passages echo real experiences roaming the streets of Mexico, the West Village, Tangiers. Bradley the Buyer and other shadowy agents haunt our ears as Burroughs turns the page and pauses purposefully.
"Anything put out up till now is like pulling a figure out of the air – Enemy installations shattered – Personnel decimated – Board Books taken – Electric waves of resistance sweeping through mind screens of the earth – The message of Total Resistance on short wave of the world"
This first-time vinyl reissue is recommended for fans of Hunter S. Thompson, Patti Smith and Throbbing Gristle." [label info]
www.superiorviaduct.com
|
2016 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Break Through in Grey Room |
LP |
Inspired by the original Industrial Records release of William S. Burroughs’s Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, Belgian record label Sub Rosa worked with Burroughs to release another album: Break Through In Grey Room. Originally compiled in 1986 by producer Bill Rich, the album features Burroughs's experimental recordings from 1961 to 1976, featuring field recordings by Burroughs of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, experimental collaborations with mathematician Ian Sommerville and painter/cut-up originator Brion Gysin.
Break Through In Grey Room documents William S. Burroughs during his time in Europe and England, working with Ian Sommerville on recording with the 'cut-up' technique. Sommerville's technical background enabled him to contribute to the early development of sound-and-light shows in London, leading to work with gear provided by Paul McCartney in an apartment owned by Ringo Starr. Experimental in nature, the record is as much an exhibition of studio and composition technique as it is a document of underground culture at that time.
For the 2023 reissue, Dais Records has collaborated with the Estate of William S. Burroughs on reissuing the album on vinyl and compact disc, fully remastered by mastering engineer Josh Bonati.
Releasing in tandem with Nothing Here Now but the Recordings
https://www.daisrecords.com/collections/william-s-burroughs/products/william-s-burroughs-break-through-in-grey-room
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Break Through in Grey Room |
LP |
Inspired by the original Industrial Records release of William S. Burroughs’s Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, Belgian record label Sub Rosa worked with Burroughs to release another album: Break Through In Grey Room. Originally compiled in 1986 by producer Bill Rich, the album features Burroughs's experimental recordings from 1961 to 1976, featuring field recordings by Burroughs of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, experimental collaborations with mathematician Ian Sommerville and painter/cut-up originator Brion Gysin.
Break Through In Grey Room documents William S. Burroughs during his time in Europe and England, working with Ian Sommerville on recording with the 'cut-up' technique. Sommerville's technical background enabled him to contribute to the early development of sound-and-light shows in London, leading to work with gear provided by Paul McCartney in an apartment owned by Ringo Starr. Experimental in nature, the record is as much an exhibition of studio and composition technique as it is a document of underground culture at that time.
For the 2023 reissue, Dais Records has collaborated with the Estate of William S. Burroughs on reissuing the album on vinyl and compact disc, fully remastered by mastering engineer Josh Bonati.
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
|
| BURT, WARREN |
The Animation of Lists and the Archytan Transpositions |
do-CD |
Kompositionen für mikrotonale Stimmgabeln: einzelne glockenklare absolut „reine“ Töne, eine meditative & äussert minimale Atmosphäre ausstrahlend, erinnert an Arbeiten von CHRISTINA KUBISCH. To discover.
“There are any number of ways to hear Warren Burt's music for tuning forks; as many ways as there are listeners, probably. The most immediate one is simply to revel in its beauty and enjoy the music as sound. Or, to be more accurate, as clouds of sound; sonic colors that momentarily hover here and there, as they move slowly across the musical horizon.
Of course, Warren Burt's music may also be heard as the mature work of a major experimental composer, one secure in his craft, and still filled with a sense of sonic adventure. An explorer in sound. A composer willing to experiment with multiple versions of the same piece, not to mention one who allows chance to determine the precise placement of the composite pitches of his three individually composed lines.
For the more technically minded, these songs, for ultimately that's what they become on repeated hearing, can also be recognized as microtonal music. This is music that uses pitches smaller than a half-step; music that explores the sounds between the keys of the piano‹in this case, from 19 to 53 pitches to the octave, instead of the usual twelve. And even though most people rarely think of tuning in general, much less of microtonal tunings, it is an idea that has always been around. In the twentieth century this search for alternative tunings can be traced from Harry Partch and Lou Harrison in the first half of the century, through La Monte Young and Ben Johnston in the latter half, to Glenn Branca, Kyle Gann, and Michael Harrison today. The power of music, according to all of these composers, is, first and foremost, inherent in the tuning. So it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Warren Burt's music to learn that he, too, is a card-carrying member of this group. Warren is, after all, a composer who not only innately hears, but also cares greatly, about such minute differences in pitch. In his music, these differences matter on a fundamental level.
But what are these sonic differences? And what is a listener supposed to hear? Ben Johnston once described the shift in experience from listening to music played in equal temperament to hearing a microtonal performance as the sudden fine-tuning of an out-of-focus TV. Ben also once said that equal temperament could sound like varying shades of grey. Others, in less subtle terms, have described hearing microtonal music as the difference between seeing a Technicolor movie, and watching one in black-and-white. For the average listener‹once they realize that the enjoyment of microtonal music is about the tinting and the shading of the sound, and doesn't require superhuman hearing‹what they begin to notice first are the new colors and the spaciousness of the sound.
But what do I hear in Warren's music that attracts me so? I listen to the combinations of tones, each aggregate of which‹because the tuning is acoustically pure and non-tempered‹sounds clearer and more colorful, with unique personalities, and, sometimes, more of an edge. In this tuning, the chance-determined pairings of the composed lines always ring true, with even the dissonances vibrating cleanly, free of acoustic distraction, and with no sonic clutter to muddy up the sound. And within this microtonal world, sounds combine without losing their individuality, as the music slowly reveals its pitch and rhythm in slow, unhurried, chance-determined clouds of sound. In Warren Burt's hands, these tuning forks become some strange new instrument, complete with its own exotic tuning system, singing its songs somewhere on the verge of memory.” [label description]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| BUT I'M NOT (PAWEL GRABOWSKI) |
DAEMON TRANCES I-VI |
CD |
This album is about trauma and PTSD.
The music portrays the emotional loop...
the continuous reminiscing about the traumatic event
the never-ending anxiety and
paralyzing panic attacks...
... from which a traumatized person simply cannot escape.
I call this state the daemon trance
(and, unfortunately, I know it far too well...)
Recorded between January and May 2021 at SINE studio, Ireland.
but I'm not is Pawel Grabowski (processed live instruments, field recordings, objects.)
Mastering - Colin Potter at IC Studio, August 2021
Cover photo: Artur Mieczkowski (www.instagram.com/anxious_93/)
https://silenceisnotempty.bandcamp.com/album/daemon-trances-i-vi
"It's been a long time since I heard music by Pawel Grabowski (check Vital Weekly 414, 424, 492 and 508, but following that flurry of releases, it all went quiet for him. That was "mostly due to family, and life in general". Now he has a new moniker and a new label. The new name is But I'm Not (lower case, except for 'I'), and on 'Daemon Traces I-IV' he wanted to compose that captures that unique state is known only to people suffering from the
aftermath of a traumatic event". According to the cover, it is something that he is "unfortunately all too familiar with". "Each of the six compositions portrays different aspects of what a traumatized person goes through, often every day - the continuous reminiscing about the traumatic event". This is one of those things of which I think "had I not known this, would I have heard it?". I guess not, but my personal view towards music is a very 'absolute' one. Music is never about anything. Anything attached to music to make it about something is not music; they are words used, descriptions, images (a record cover), that kind of thing. Grabowski explains the nature of the trauma for none of these six pieces, which leaves something to imagine, I guess, but also a hole in our knowledge (why not go all the way). Grabowski uses "processed live instruments, field recordings and objects". It is a pity that these live instruments are not specified. I hear a piano on quite a bit on the pieces,
solemnly slow bangs on the keys, Gregorian voices in the first one (which I think that Grabowski went all gothic, but, good news, he didn't), a fair bit of synthesizers and sound effects and the samples of marbles in a bowl (also in the opener). Some of the other sounds are harder to define. Throughout the music solemn, slow and very moody. A bipolar disorder, with some extreme darkness and extreme happiness, is not to be found here. Grabowski reminded me what I thought of his older releases in a private letter, but they are so far away in the past that I don't remember them. Therefore it is not easy for me to say to what extent this new one is different from his previous releases. I think this is a solid album, a severe one, and while the subject is not very well spend on me, I can see that he's serious in creating music that paints a picture of those suffering from trauma and PTSD. [FdW / Vital Weekly]
FULL PRESS RELEASE:
About daemon trances
“Daemon trances I-VI tells a story about experiences of living with trauma and PTSD.
My objective when composing this music was to capture that unique state known only to people suffering from the aftermath of a traumatic event.
And so, each of the six compositions portrays different aspects of what a traumatized person
goes through, often every day – the continuous reminiscing about the traumatic event, the
never-ending anxiety, paralyzing panic attacks...
For my use, I refer to this state as the “daemon trance,” and the music on this album perfectly
represents what I often struggle with in life.”
About Pawel Grabowski
Pawel Grabowski (b. 1977) – composer specializing in writing deeply personal electroacoustic and drone music.
Grabowski uses prepared instruments, field recordings, and objects to create meditative and
hypnotic compositions to convey emotions and create unique atmospheres.
He refers to his music as Imaginism.
Background:
● Although he doesn’t have a formal music education, between 1998 – 2001, Grabowski
studied double bass with a famous Polish jazz bassist, Janusz Mackiewicz.
● He also took private tuition in classical composition between 2000 - 2002, first with prof.
Krzysztof Olczak, then with prof. Eugeniusz Glowski
● He also participated in international composition workshops at the Academy of Music in
Gdansk, Poland, in 2002.
● In 2002, he was selected as one of the artists representing his home city, Gdansk, at the
Art Biennale - “ArtGenda” in Hamburg. He wrote music commissioned for various
projects of the biennale.
● In the same year, he composed a piece commissioned by the Baltic Cultural Centre in
Gdansk, showcased during a presentation of composition students of the Academy of
Music.
Career:
● Grabowski founded a chamber trio, Miasto Nie Spalo, in 1998 and recorded two albums
with the band: Festspielhaus (1998) and Piesni Zalobne I-VII/Threnodies I-VII (2000 -
released on the famous polish label, Obuh recs.)
● Between 2001 – 2006, Grabowski recorded solo, publishing his music on such labels as
Drone records, Laub records, Cronica, Mystery Sea, Dark Winter, and more.
● Since 2020, Grabowski performs as but I’m not and runs a small, independent record
label, Silence Is Not Empty.
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| BVDUB |
Ten Times the World lied |
CD |
Brock Van Wey, aka bvdub, is undoubtedly among the greatest and most prolific artists in the world, whose music directly affects the heart, soul, and human mind. His soundscapes spread in the air as if they were delicate and slow movements of the northern lights, or the wind that blows on the flowers of the trees in spring. There is something divine in bvdub's music, and Glacial Movements is more than honored to welcome another great work for the world, Ten Times the World Lied, his fifth album on the Roman label, as he nears forty overall. Ten songs impossible to describe in words, but which will breach the heart of all those who lose themselves in this sonic wonder. Completely devoid of vocals for the first time ever, Brock spins but layers upon layers of divine clouds, gradually darkening, gradually closing in - expertly mastered by the artist himself, culminating in arguably the best album he has composed for Glacial Movements to date.
This album was recorded live in one take, over ten months, on the tenth of each month. Each in memory of a time the world lied.
https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/ten-times-the-world-lied
"With nearly 40 albums to his credit, it’s a surprise to hear that this is bvdub‘s first album without vocals. After all, we’re an instrumental-based site and we’ve reviewed a lot of them. But to be fair, Brock van Wey usually uses vocals in a textural fashion, using time-stretch and loop; although vocal, his albums haven’t seemed vocal; they have seemed like dreams.
That part doesn’t change in Ten Times the World Lied, a generous 78:45 excursion into blissful ambient drone. Tones rise and fall, undulate and flatten. Orchestral instruments rise from the depths and float for a while, searching for land before they descend once more. Fans should be overjoyed at the seamless tone, as each track gently fades before another gently rises. Although the lack of vocals pushes it from the foreground, the album is ideal as the backdrop to nearly any task: reading, writing, cooking. It casts a pleasant cloud around the house, a welcome fog of sound, a white noise spirit to overwhelm any tiny real-life disturbance.
And yet, real life is present for those who wish to look deeper. van Wey has always resisted any single interpretation of his music, but neither has he squashed attempts to paint over the tabula rasa. And so one might make something of the fact that most tracks are 7:52 in length (a few being 7:53), making the connection to Ukraine Flight 752, shot down over Iran earlier this year; or the leap year 752, marked by conquerings and successions. Since the only description is that each track is “in memory of a time the world lied,” one might jump to all manner of conclusions. “Not Yours to Say” might refer to the cover-up of the Iranian government; “Not Yours to Build” to the Tower of Babel; “Not Yours to Take” to the slavery trade; “Not Yours to Find” to early “discoverers” of settled land; “Not Yours to Rule” to the bloody aftermath. The most intriguing title, “Not Yours to Know,” strikes to the heart of the human condition as it pertains to faith: for now we see through a glass, darkly.
It’s fun to play match-up. And we know that the world lies in all manner of ways, from the political to the commercial (for example, promises that a product will bring success, a procedure will make one beautiful, and the next movie to open will be fantastic). From the titles and theme, one might expect an angry or accusatory album, but instead, as with most of van Wey’s oeuvre, the tone is one of higher surrender. There are truths we may never know, but there is also comfort, majesty, awe. As the organ tones surge in “Not Yours to Know,” one may think of grand cathedrals, of encountering the divine not through word, but through beauty and symbol. Ten tracks, each recorded in one take on the tenth of the month: in numerology, ten defined as “constant change and flowing energy,” an apt description of van Wey’s work; but also the 10 plagues, the 10 Commandments, the perfect 10, the 10,000 x 10,000.
While listening, one might delve into numerology, symbolism and history; or simply allow the sounds of this album to conquer the anxieties of the day. The piano of “Not Yours to See” is like the voice of a soothing parent, encouraging one to sleep. The overall message (if there is one) seems to be one of comfort: The world has lied and continues to lie; but real truth is eternal." [Richard Allen / A Closer Listen] |
2020 |
€15.50 |
|
| BVDUB & IAN HAWGOOD |
The Truth hurts |
CD |
"Brock and Ian were introduced to each other through Mike, who ran a small but perfectly formed record label and shop called Smallfish Records. Mike had this crazy idea that Brock and Ian were like two musical peas in a pod and that they should work together. Mike wasn't wrong, and the first musical product of this 'poddom' was Brock's own bvdub release 'Tribes at the Temple of Silence ' on Ian's label - Home Normal. The second is a musical collaboration between the two titled
'The Truth Hurts.' 'The Truth Hurts' was put together and created in their current respective homes of China and Japan.
The album is a reflection on not only loneliness, but the stark reality – and hidden beauty - with which it is forever entwined. Ian poured over old recordings, recent recordings and even recorded new work as a sketchpad for Brock to work from, and in the end, Brock wove Ian!s recordings from 1999-2011 together with his own, forming his own oceans of drones, walls of emotional abstractions, field
recordings, and even live recordings that would see the initial sketches become complete narratives, each with a very different story to tell. The result is a raw and unbridled experience – one that pays homage not only to the eternal and often crushing beauty of loneliness, but also the days when music only worried about speaking from the heart.
'The Truth Hurts' is a labour of love, a reflection on isolation, and a message of strength through innocence undimmed.
NOTE: All profits from this release will go to relief funds in Japan, directly used by Ian's wife who is currently working with both the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support organisation (JEARS) in Sendai and surrounding areas, as well as the Direct Help for Victims and Animals Rejected from Shelters in Japan group who are going up to areas which are not receiving government support for food, water, basic supplies, as well as rebuilding and cleaning up. Thank you." [label info]
www.nomadickids.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| BÜTTNER, GREGORY |
Every |
mCD-R |
“ 'every' ist der zweite beitrag von gregory büttner für die 3“cd-serie auf 1000füssler. als ausgangsmaterial wurde ausschließlich menschliche stimme verwendet, allerdings in einzelteile zerlegt und erst im epilog als stimme erkennbar. abstrakter minimalismus zwischen sägender präsens und weit entfernten surren. ‘every‘ is the second contribution of gregory büttner for the 3"-cd-series on 1000füssler. the human voice was exclusivly used as source material, though taken in parts and only in the epilogue recognizable as voice. abstract minimalism between sawing sounds and whirring from far away” [label info] |
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Nil.:Audio |
mCD-R |
"GREGORY BÜTTNER schickte für nil:.audio (AICdisc009, 3“ cd-r) Daten in den Softwarehimmel, in dem sie gelöscht werden und alle Sorgen enden. Vorher jedoch hört man in vier Varianten mehrfach komprimierte Sequenzen aus CDRom-Werbungen (heute auch nur noch prähistorische Kuriosität). Nach der ersten Überformung sind noch die Werbestimmen vernehmbar, wenn auch schon vermulmt, verzischelt und überwummert. Mit jedem Prozess nimmt die Information ab und die Entropie zu. Sirrend, bitzelnd, schmurgelnd verteilen sich die Klangmoleküle und nähern sich über eine Phase, die vielleicht den sprichwörtlichen Traumweiden von Androiden ähnelt, mehr und mehr dem anderen Ende der Bewusstseinsund Verstehensskala, um in den elysischen Gefilden zu verlöschen." [Bad Alchemy]
"Gregory Büttner, known as member of the duo Für diesen Abend , and also for running the fine small label 1000füssler, is giving honour to AIC by this impressive concept of subversive appropriation. Quicktime movies, taken from various internet providers’ advertisement CDRoms, were used as source material for the audiovisual work “nil”. The images as well as the sound tracks of those flics from the late 1990s / early 2000s ( so, from medieval times of digital technology ) have been compressed again and again by Buettner, using different Codecs – followed by some precise compositional arrangement. “nil:.audio” documents the most prolific audio pieces of the series – dense and idiosyncratic electroacoustics." [label info]
www.0000-anti.info
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) |
Microsleep |
CD-R |
"b°tong is a project by Chris Sigdell, former member of the Swiss/German experimental trio Níò and guitarist/singer in Phased. b°tong's first 3" MCD was released by Verato Project in 2005. Since then he's released some more on various labels (Auf Abwegen, 1000+1 TiLt, Mayo Rec, P.B.B.) and played all over the EC - a.o. the Sinus Series in Basel, 2006 and the Ausklang Festival in Hamburg 2006 and two tours with One Man Drone project. b°tong, Tamagawa, Shit & Oldine - four bands, four men and one sound: droning, ambient noise. "Microsleep" is the new album on Verato Project. The music has been created on laptop using sounds and samples collected from natural sources and/or records, films, radio, etc. It was inspired by a trip to Australia and the road signs warning of the dangers of microsleep and advising to stop over at rest areas. The individual tracks' themes are those of fatigue versus sleeplessness, loneliness and long distances, dreams and nightmares of being on a road to nowhere."
[label info]
www.verato-project.de
|
2007 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
Hostile Environments |
CD |
"B°TONG is Chris Sigdell, former member of the German experimental industrial group NID (1995 – 2005).
With B°TONG he reaches for the nether regions of experimental electronic sound and has established himself as an acknowledged and known professional soundscape artist. His music is a choice of dark, brooding layers of sound, high-pitched tones and weird electronic sounds that give birth to images of darkness and tranquillity, the solitude of an icy polar night or the equivalent of an underwater journey into a bottomless pit. To create these soundscapes, he uses found samples and self-made recordings and processes these on the computer together with recordings of his own voice and other vocal samples. There are no traditional instruments involved. In a live-situation Chris Sigdell relies on playing metal-sheets, electric toys and various kitchen utensils. The sounds thus generated are put through various effect-pedals giving him that trademark sound.
.
B°TONG has played over 200 concerts all around Europe and in Russia, Canada and the U.S.A. He has shared stages with Aun, Batur Sönmez, Column One, Dave Phillips, Frontline Assembly, Michael Northam, Origami Galaktika, Sudden Infant, The (Law) Rah Collective, To Live And Shave In LA, Troum, Zbigniew Karkowski.
.
Sometimes B°TONG collaborates with other artists, as he has done with: Alain Courtis, Batur Sönmez, Diskrepant, Origami Galaktika, PS Stamps Back, TBC, and Tamagawa. Two new project are Tongdisklaktika, a together with Benny Braaten (Origami Galaktika) and Per Åhlund (Diskrepant) and Thee Secret Society with Jürgen Eberhard (F.T.PB.P.D.), Helge Moune (1000schoen) and Melvin Neumann (Vibrae). B°TONG has also been part of installations (“Polarkreis” & “95°“ by Brigitte Gierlich & Camilla Schuler) and video-projects (“Images” by Ulrich Fischer). He video-clips have been shown at the 2007 Miami Art Fair as part of the Urban Nomad film-festival, and in Beijing. His videos are made in collaboration with video artist Silvia Bergmann." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
"We first discovered Chris Sigdell, aka B-Tong (which, by the way, is usually written with a little circle, you know, the degrees sign, not a dash, but our website doesn't like it, so hence the hyphen), via a four way split called One Man Drone, which as you may have surmised, was a collection of one man drone-groups, and our favorite of the bunch happened to be B-Tong, whose sound was weirdly cinematic, and fantastically and psychedelically noisy and chaotic. We compared the sound to Philip Jeck mixing Goblin and Wolf Eyes! We later discovered that Sigdell played in NID, another group who utilized drones, but wove those drones into something much more cacophonous, and expansive and lushly layered. But still, ultimately, it was all about the drone.
We had always hankered for more B-Tong, and while apparently there have been a bunch of full lengths, this is the first we've managed to get our hands on, and it's just as good as we remember; and yeah, if there was ever any doubt, Sigdell firmly establishes himself as an aQ-pantheon-worthy dronelord.
The opener, is ominous and cavernous, laced with weird crackles and gritty crunch, kindred spirits with our own Jim Haynes for sure. The sounds oozing a sort of sonic decay, and some deft and subtle sample placement, makes the opener even more chilling. It's almost like some industrial doom, stripped down to its skeletal core. A moody, muted melody, playing out like foghorns in the distance, echo drenched chimes, and tinkling percussion, buried under grey washes of softly undulating thrum, lots of constantly shifting textures, and some seriously harrowing sound design reminiscent of Ben Frost. And the sound continues to drift southward as the record progresses, a virtual journey through dark caverns, toward whatever lurks below, fields of deep resonant rumbles, dripping water, distant billows of thunder, stretched out into weird glossolallic shimmers, thick chordal blurs that ooze and bleed ominously, splashing water doused in FX and transformed into a sort of garbled alien language. Plenty of barely there lowercase ambience, but also super active sprawls of electro static gristle, ultra creepy moans and gasps, sonar pings that disappear into the abyss, short wave broadcasts from beyond, lumbering behemoth beats, dulled into barely perceptible pulsations, smears of almost dub like throb, and keening high end tones dulled into bleary shimmery sonic ripples, all locked in a sort of hazy stasis, while all around, billowing clouds of black hum drift malevolently, and beneath this black soundworld, hushed melodies, and dreamlike sonic coloration, shift constantly creating an ethereally prismatic sonic backdrop. Fantastic. Essential dronemusic for sure!!" [Aquarius Records] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| B°TONG / EMERGE / IF BWANA / GERALD FIEBIG |
Thing |
CD-R |
In 2022, attenuation circuit starts a new series of four-way split albums called THING. The aim is to provide a medium for exchange and presentation of a great variety of artists. As each artist spreads the copies to their network, listeners also get to know the other artists featured on the same disc. The title references the fact that the CDs are physical objects – things! – but also refers to the 'thing' or 'ding' in old Norse and other Germanic languages, which designates the place of a popular assembly or the assembly itself and thus alludes to the 'meeting-place' character of the albums on (or around) which the four artists and their audiences meet, if only virtually.
With the first instalment of the THING series, attenuation circuit also celebrates the 10th anniversary of its very first vinyl release. In 2012, b°tong and EMERGE released their self-titled split LP on the label. In contrast to other split LPs, their pieces were composed specifically for this LP, with both artists sharing the same pool of sound materials to create their respective pieces. The 100 copies shared a common design created by visual artist Tine Klink, but as all sleeves were hand-painted, each copy had a recognisable, yet still unique cover. This concept earned the label a mention in recognised art director Stuart Tolley's book “Collector's Edition: Innovative Packaging and Graphics” (London: Thames & Hudson 2014).
In 2013, this album was followed up with another split LP by If,Bwana and Gerald Fiebig which followed the same musical and visual approach. Together, these two split albums formed attenuation circuit's original Vinyl Series, which was soon replaced by individually conceived vinyl albums. To celebrate the anniversary of attenuation circuit's first venture into vinyl territory, this THING collects all four sides of the two original LPs. To retain the “LP side” feel, the two pieces by If,Bwana have been transferred to the CD as only one track.
File under: drone, dark ambient, ambient
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing |
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| CAGE, JOHN |
Variations VII |
DVD |
Historische Aufnahmen von 1966 (41minütiger Film, 85 Minuten Audio)!
"In 1966, 10 New York artists and 30 engineers
and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music and theatre performances, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, held in October at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The artists were John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor and Robert Whitman. Archival material has been assembled into 10 films, each of which reconstructs the artists' original work and uses interviews with the artists, engineers and performers to illuminate the artistic, technical and historical aspects of the work. Variations VII, performed at 9 Evenings, was the next to last in John Cage's series of indeterminate works that he had begun in 1958, which made increasing use of electronic equipment and systems. This DVD documents the only complete performance of Variations VII and also presents a stereo audio recording of the full 85 minutes of the performance. This rare and historical film is the second in the 9 Evenings series from E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) and ART PIX and was produced by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin of E.A.T. and directed by Barbro Schultz Lundestam."
All-region DVD, two-sided for both NTSC & PAL formats. 41 minutes + 85 minute audio track.
[label info]
|
2008 |
€20.00 |
|
| CALARCO, JUAN JOSE |
Aguatierra |
CD |
"U N F A T H O M L E S S
a thematic ltd series focusing primarily on phonographies reflecting the spirit of a specific place crowded with memories, its aura & resonances and our intimate interaction with it…
Juan José Calarco | aguatierra
Aguatierra is about creating an undefined territory, where traces of one place reconstruct the other. A flow from which the discontinuities of time and space try to create a continuous narrative through the wandering into two landscapes of artificial islands. Considering them both delineated by their irregularities, my main approach was about exploring through their variances, generating a reflection of each other : the ecological park of Xochimilco, located within México City, is somehow defined by the coexistence of a very traditional place (the large series of canals which are remains of the Chinampas agricultural practice) with the semi-urban morphology of fences, metal structures and large lumber. Called “garden of flowers” and nevertheless immersed in the urban and environmental degradation, these islands preserve a rich heritage of myths and rituals.
Whilst Reserve Otamendi, at the valley of Río Luján in Argentina, can be really described as a reversed interrelationship of the built environment and nature ; an abrupt myriad of small canals and marshes form themselves between the landslide of a railway bridge and the surrounding waters ; grown from the margins of their spatial context, they extend as a vast wetland threatened by abandon, predation and recurrent fires.
So, I worked from the similarities on the sound contents of both places, treating them as a whole but also focusing on their landmarks, to mirror each other, juxtapose and merge them. Wanting to draw indeed a blurred but tangible, non-territorial geography. (Juan José Calarco)
cd ltd to 250 copies hand numbered copies
cover design + treatments by Daniel Crokaert
based exclusively on photos by Juan José Calarco." [full label info]
www.unfathomless.net
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| CALARCO, JUAN JOSE & DAVID VELEZ |
Bahias |
CD |
"On December of 2009 Juan José Calarco and David Velez captured sound from bays near the cities of Buenos Aires and NYC respectively. They exchanged files for over two years until mid 2011 when the piece was finalized. The artists wanted to explore the opposite weather conditions as an element of difference and the site where they will record (bays) as an element of concurrence to support their site recording work. On the compositional process the artists make gestural and intuitive use of those recordings based on mere formal and aesthetic considerations: Concrete sounds used as material to build new experiences on the listener's conscience where the perception of space and time is altered and distorted under artistic acoustic means.
Active since the early 2000, Juan Jose Calarco is a musician and sound artist who works with materials from urban and natural environments. Ranging from the documentation of harbours to water canals to detailed sound topographies of several cities at night, his interest focuses in the narrative and emotional content of the sound matter. His works have been published in several labels as And/Oar, Unfathomless, Con-v, Siridisc, Mystery Sea, Mandorla, Test Tube, Frígida, Sijis or Koyuki and has collaborated with James McDougall, Manrico Montero, David Wells, H Stewart, Ubeboet, Pablo Reche and Nicholas Szczepanik.
David Velez is a sound artists currently living in his hometown Bogotá where he is taking a Masters on Fine and Visual Arts. His work deals with the perceptual aspects of time and space and addresses them through textural work as the main formal consideration. His method consists of making use of Field recordings as sound matter that he will instrument through gestural composition and improvisation. David Velez is interested in the relation between the reduced and the casual hearing and the possibilities when involving them into the perceptual acoustic experience. He founded and works for the label Impulsive Habitat and the blog The Field Reporter and he is constantly publishing his works on digital and physical media and performing at concerts at Universities and small venues." [label info]
www.semperflorens.net
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| CALON, CHRISTIAN |
Les Corps Eblouis |
maxi-CD |
“les Corps éblouis was commissioned by the Ina-GRM and the French State. It was realized in the GRM studios (1992-93) and was premiered by Francis Dhomont (sound projection) in June, 1993 in the Salle Olivier Messiaen of the Maison de Radio France (Paris, France) as part of the Son-Mu concert series. The following year, the present recast version was premiered at the National Theatre of Marseilles. les Corps éblouis was awarded the 2nd Prize at the 22nd Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1994) and was also awarded Distinctions at the Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1995, 97).”
[label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
1998 |
€8.50 |
|
| CAMBERWELL NOW |
All's well |
CD |
Endlich wieder erhältlich, die CD mit dem Gesamt-Material der THIS HEAT-Nachfolgeband!
"1982 lössten sich This Heat auf, bzw. verwandelten sich in Camberwell Now. Gareth Williams hatte die Gruppe verlassen und sich nach Indien aufgemacht, um neue künstlerische Herausvorderungen zu suchen (er starb im Dezember 2001). Bullen und Hayward hielten This Heat danach noch eine Weile am Leben, zeitweilig unterstützt von dem Bassisten Trefor Goronwy. Doch irgendwann stieg auch Bullen, der sich ein eigenes Tonstudio aufgebaut hatte, aus. Damit war das Projekt This Heat beendet. Hayward und Goronwy machten allerdings gleich weiter. Zusammen mit dem Klangkonstrukteur Stephen Richards hoben sie Camberwell Now aus der Taufe, benannt nach dem Wohnort der Gruppe (und auch dem ehemaligen von This Heat), dem Londoner Vorort Camberwell. Camberwell Now haben zwei EPs ("Meridian" von 1984 und "Greenfingers", 1987) und eine LP ("The Ghost Trade", 1986) eingespielt. Alle drei Alben wurden 1992 zur CD "All's Well" zusammengefasst, die beim schweizer RecRec-Label erschienen ist. Zusätzlich wurde noch ein Stück daraufgepackt, welches vorher nur auf einem Kassettensampler veröffentlicht worden war ("Daddy Needs A Throne"). "All's Well" bietet somit das komplette Œuvre der Band.
Die Musik von Camberwell Now unterscheidet sich recht deutlich von den Klängen von This Heat, obwohl es gewisse Gemeinsamkeiten gibt. Bizarr und schräg ist die Musik immer noch, der gequälte Gesang von Hayward hat sich auch nicht allzu sehr verändert und auch sein virtuoses Schlagzeugspiel ist sofort wiederzuerkennen. Gab es auf den This Heat-Alben aber rohe Klangexperimente und kaputte Songs zu hören, ist die Musik von Camberwell Now melodischer und musikalischer geworden. Experimentelles Tonschweben, industriellen Krach und bizarre Tonkollagen sucht man hier fast vergebens. Sehr virtuos musizieren Bass und Schlagzeug miteinander, treiben die Musik bestimmt und energiegeladen voran, angereichert mit diversen Sounds und Geräuschen vom Tonband und verschiedenen Keyboards, gelegentlichen Einlagen an der Gitarre und dem sehr eigenen Gesang Haywards. Auf den Stücken von "Greenfingers" gibt es zusätzlich noch Saxophon, Flöte und Viola von Maria Lamburn zu hören. Das Ergebnis sind sehr intensive, meist sehr rhythmische, etwas klaustrophobisch wirkende, schräge Rocksongs, neo-canterbury-artige Artrocker, mit Postpunk-Flair und einer unterkühlten, fast depressiven, stellenweise sehr hektischen Atmosphäre. Reichlich seltsam, rhythmisch und schwebend zugleich, kalt, aber sehr direkt ist diese Musik. Heutzutage würde man diese Klänge wohl in die Postrock-Schublade stecken.
Wer This Heat schätzt, insbesondere Haywards Gesang, oder auch die Solo-Scheiben von Robert Wyatt (es gibt da gewisse atmosphärische und stimmliche Ähnlichkeiten), der sollte versuchen sich "All's Well" zu besorgen." [Achim Breiling / Babyblaue Seiten]
"After the demise of This Heat, Charles Hayward continued to work with Trefor Goronwy, bassist from the last manifestation of the group, the two of them joining forces with Steve Rickard who, for the new band, designed the cassette switchboard a kind of proto-sampler - but thats not the half of it (Steves article fully explaining the device is reprinted in the new, expanded booklet that comes with the CD). Musically, Camberwell both followed and departed from the style of This Heat. Formally and gesturally there are common elements, but there is far greater transparency and the sound palette is quite different: the music is more placed than grown, as the slow accumulation and evolution of material in This Heat gives way to a more immediate and orderly development of the material in Camberwell Now. The songs - nostalgic, scary, quietly desperate - peer into the future to find harbour but confront only fragments of ruin. Debris and disturbance eat away at the root and corrode each shiny surface (this is mostly the musical work of the cassette switchboard). The juxtaposition of powerful, virtuosic playing and the eerie, often unidentifiable keenings, chords and constant motion of the cassettes is one of the things that make Camberwell Now so expressive of its time - when the whole social and political fabric of a no-longer-great Britain was unravelling. This definitive edition collects the entire released output of the group together (two EPs and an LP) newly re-mastered by the band and repackaged with full notes, lyrics, additional photographs and artwork." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| CAMINADA, ANSELM |
Short Frites AA |
do-mCDR & object |
label-website: www.editiongraphon.com
|
2007 |
€22.00 |
|
| CAMPBELL, J. |
The Cormorant |
LP |
Following his former album ‘Heirloomʼ, which came out on E. Sagglia and Death Kneelʼs now defunct Summer Isle label in 2018, ‘The Cormorantʼ is the latest album by Australian native Jason Campbell.
After taking a year to complete, Campbell perceives ‘The Cormorantʼ as “a document of small-town Australia, concerned with the natural environment and the rugged coastline that I call home.”
The sounds of his native domain, the coastlines of New South Wales, are explored and dissected throughout the entire album, with ocean swells or conversations at the local food court are layered onto sequences of violin tremolos, detuned cymbals and delayed piano chords.
Throughout the albums run time, ‘The Cormorantʼ inhabits a destinctive sonic realm of its own, inhabited by sounds of ocean swells or conversations at the local food court, layered onto sequences of violin tremolos, detuned cymbals and delayed piano chords. The album begins with the highly vigorous ‘Emerge Againʼ, which features an accelerative volley of machine clatter and pitch shifted choruses, slowly merging into a bed of candid breaths and piano stabs. On the midway point, The album’s title track, ‘The Cormorantʼ presents itself as the albums definite, emotive underscore, while the pre-culminating reprieve ‘A Fallen Eucalyptʼ usher in the final stages of the journey.
In the end, each piece on ‘The Cormorant’ showcases a unique, riveting sonic investigation into J. Campbellʼs coastal home, yet the album is not merely about an introspective examination of oneʼs topography, it’s the culmination of a truly sincere exploration, it’s a body of work about passion, existence and self- discovery.
https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/the-cormorant
|
2021 |
€22.50 |
|
| CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE |
Love is a Stream |
CD |
"As a member of San Francisco legends Tarentel and Type’s premier astral travellers The Alps, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is hardly a new addition to the label, so it’s hard to believe that ‘Love Is A Stream’ is his first Type solo album. Previously releasing on Arbor, Spekk and his own Root Strata imprint, this latest album marks his journey into the beautifully cacophonous world of dream pop.
Shoegaze music has been much maligned in recent years, probably due to its rebirth and subsequent explosion of popularity (which gave rise to hundreds of young bands aping the over twenty-year-old sound). However it was only a fragment of the genre that these bands attempted to re-create, and on ‘Love Is A Stream’ Cantu, instead of focusing on tired weeping melancholy ballads, focuses solely on expansive, almost noise-ridden hopefulness. This is the kind of noise we fell in love with when My Bloody Valentine blew our ear drums performing ‘Loveless’, or the kind of harmonic excess we heard on hundredth listen to Catherine Wheel’s ‘Ferment’, but taken into deeper, more abstract realms.
‘Love Is A Stream’ is dedicated to love itself, and the dreamy, shimmering blown-out textures might at first sound like white noise before they ultimately give way to blissful harmony and hidden melody. Underneath the grit and growl are hidden guitar parts, synthesizer drones and even vocals (provided by Lisa McGee, John Twells and Maxwell August Croy) that succeed in swelling the dense, tape-saturated songs to heady new heights and belie any influences they might have. On each listen the mind strips away another layer of dust and bones to reveal haunting and deeply moving beauty.
The world might be spiralling into despair, but Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has brought us a record that isn’t afraid to share the love. All that’s left to do is drown in it." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| CAPECE, LUCIO & SERGIO MERCE |
Casa |
CD |
"Titled 'Casa', it finds Capece and merce performing two pieces of impressive construction as well as astonishing clarity. Both players are very active in the international scene of electro-acoustic improvisation (& beyond), merce in Argentina & Capece in myriad projects in Europe and elsewhere. This recording marks a homecoming of shorts for Capece (or a re-union without a real break-up) and sees the two musicians taking the skills they've built within their various collaborative projects and using them for the purposes of an unusually focused statement." [label notes] |
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| CAPELLE, MIREILLE |
Anello. Naga. Sunyata |
3 x CD |
" “...The Sonic Architecture pieces are constructed geometrically according to a mathematical scheme which is based on the symbolism of numbers. On the basis of whatever drives my senses, I gather together a great mass of recorded sounds from everyday life: the street, the wind, streams, the noise of cars, of conversations, of birds, of singing... accompanied by everything that resonates around them...” — Mireille Capelle
3 Sonic Architectures. Each Sonic Architecture consists of two compositions. Each composition can be played separately. From the moment they are played together and allowed to resonate via 2 CD players and 4 audio speakers, the Sonic Architecture becomes one composition. These pieces make a journey of several hours, or days, before they refind the point of their beginning. The CDs in this box are 3 Simulations. Each CD is a fragment of one of the 3 Sonic Architecture compositions. Anello, Naga & Sunyata were presented repectively at the Axel Vervoordt exhibitions Artempo, Academia & In-finitum.
Mireille Capelle appears in various films and plays, as well as singing a number of different operatic roles. She interprets baroque works with Jos Van Immerseel, sings numerous recitals of melodies throughout Europe and Japan, and she is a singer in the HERMESensemble. Capelle is a Professor at the Conservatory of Ghent, where she is also in charge of the singing department.
Anello • Naga • Sunyata is a production of Inspiratum vzw." [label info]
www.audiomer.org
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Blue Veil |
CD |
"audioMER. is honoured to announce the release of a new CD; Blue Veil with music by Mireille Capelle (BE) and HERMESensemble*.
The world of Mireille Capelle is one of music and theatre. She has performed as a singer in numerous European opera houses, under the artistic direction of the foremost stage directors and conductors. She is member of the artistic board of HERMESensemble. Mireille Capelle has a particular affinity with contemporary music and art, characterized by many encounters with the most important contemporary composers. Blue Veil is a sonic architecture composed for the exhibition I Fortuny. Una Storia di Famiglia, curated by Daniela Ferretti, at Palazzo Fortuny, in Venice from May 6 till November 24, 2019. The essence of the piece was inspired by the installation of Axel Vervoordt and Tatsuro Miki in the wabi-space of the palace."
"I took two pieces of white marble stones—both sculptural and radiant. I banged and rubbed them. In Venice I recorded the sounds of the bells of San Marco and the rustling of the water. I remembered the words coming to me. Sometimes they came very clear, sometimes barely understandable. Stemming from my fictional journey into the past, the words of Proust and d’Annunzio arrived… I catch Wagner’s breath as in his Shepherd’s Song… The whisper of a great white sail in the wind… In Blue Veil Henriette Fortuny—the silent muse—appears. Her pink dress and blue veil are floating in the wind… There is light of sounds and shadows. Blue Veil is both a quest for transparency and a path of perpetual repetition. I wanted this piece to allow us to hear the inaudible. I wanted to enlarge what is hidden in sound. “Eternity is the one who is, who will be and who was”. This sentence from Plato signifies to me that we are all particles of eternity." - Mireille Capelle
http://mireille-capelle.droppages.com/
Blue Veil excerpt
https://soundcloud.com/audiomer-label/mireille-capelle-blue-veil-excerpt
Wabi excerpt
https://soundcloud.com/audiomer-label/mireille-capelle-wabi-excerpt
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| CAPPAROS, OLIVIER & LIONEL MARCHETTI |
Equus |
CD |
"Please Note: This is a 33 minute CD.
Equus is a collaborative work of musique concrète recorded in 2001-02 on a commission from the INA GRM It is truly a delight for Pogus to add this title to our catalog. As Capparos notes: "Equus guides us through human memory and history. It may sound a bit strange that sound & music would appear as a "vehicle", or as we had cast a lead into a labyrinth. This brings us to the question of whether we are alive or not; travelling the path throughout these soundings would drive us down and up our consciousness and our listening, not to mention that we are dead or alive."
Olivier Capparos is an instrumental and electro-acoustic composer whose work encompasses philosophy and literature as well as music. Many of his compositions are focused on voice and its interpretation through loudspeakers. Capparos was composer in residence at the INA-GRM in Paris (2001), the Studio National des Arts Contemporains du Fresnoy (20023), and at the Argos Center in Bruxelles (2004). He has composed and conducted works for chamber orchestra, voice (soprano), violin, and piano, and has co-produced many other recordings and radio broadcasts with Lionel Marchetti throughout their long association.
Lionel Marchetti was born in France in 1967. His interest in music resides in the qualities of sound. He started to experiment by himself and later discovered the rich French corpus of musique concrète through Xavier Garcia. He is one of a handful of artists who in the mid- to-late 1990s took electro-acoustic music out of academic studios and into the free improvisation ring. A scholar who worked at the CFMI (Lyon) and INA-GRM studios and published a book on acousmatic composer Michel Chion, Marchetti developed a set-up of microphones and loudspeakers he uses on stage along with tape recorders, prepared CDs, motors and radios. He often refers to his instruments as an Œelectro-acoustic contraption¹. His musique concrète studio work incorporates sound collage and academic electro-acoustic composition, though the level of poetry and refusal of genre boundaries in his music puts him closer to Kristoff K. Roll and Luc Ferrari than Pierre Henry or Bernard Parmegiani. Following his encounter with Metamkine label owner and fellow sound experimentalist Jérôme Noetinger in the early 1990s, a series of live and improvisation-based projects would run parallel to his more academic career. The Marchetti-Noetinger duo was the first of such projects and remains the longest lasting one. They are also involved in the audio- visual project Le Cube. In addition, Marchetti performs with the influential improv collective Archipel (with Emmanuel Petit, Sophie Agnel, Fabrice Charles, Pascal Bathus, and Werchowski)." [label description]
www.pogus.com
"So mögen wir es: kurz und knackig und mit vielen Generalpausen. Lionel Marchetti und Olivier Capparos sind zwei Akteure, die mit elektroakustischen Klängen die Domäne der spinnert-verklausulierenden Raumklangforscher verlassen und ihr Werkeln und Forschen an allgemein ästhetische und fast schon philosophische Fragen koppeln. Equus, eine Reise durch flockiges Geknister, prutzelnde Plirrgeräusche, fauchend-hüstelndes Tongebäck und vieles mehr, dauert nur eine halbe Stunde. In dieser Zeitspanne nehmen sich die beiden Komponisten – benutzen wir das Wort doch ruhig hier! – nichts weniger vor, als in Klang der Frage nachzugehen, was es ausmacht, am Leben zu sein! Wow! Bitte Alexander Kluge nach ‘ner gescheiten Rezi fragen und mich das Ding weiter auf Köpfhörer liegen lassen. Supertolle Sounddusche!" [Zipo / Auf Abwegen] |
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| CAPRICORNI PNEUMATICI |
same |
LP |
"Capricorni Pneumatici began in 1986 as a research project about the esoteric/ritual implications of music and sounds, a full acoustic/concrete music set with voice and other means of producing and manipulating sounds: PVC tubes, air compressors, hammers, buckets, water, steel and aluminum tanks and plates, various metal and plastic objects. CP I was recorded live the 15th of June 1986 at The Cave, a subterranean private location. No electronics of any kind was used during the sessions, no additional mastering or remastering was performed after the recordings. Unpublished parts of the same session have been released on the second CP work, Al-Azif (1987). CP I was first published in 1987 by the tape label 666 prod in a limited edition of 100 unnumbered copies, the first 10 in a special box edition. CP I is inspired by the ancient primordial Chaos Cults and dedicated to Azathoth, the blind, mindless, idiot god which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity. Tracklist: Snortz Cavita Monte meru PVC I Besz PVC III"
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| CARAVAGGIO |
Caravaggio # 2 |
CD |
"Crédits
Bruno Chevillon . basse, contrebasse, electronique
Benjamin de la fuente .violon, mandocaster, guitare ténor electrique, electronique
Eric Echampard .Batterie, percussions et electronique
Samuel Sighicelli .orgue Hammond, sampler, synthétiseur (korg et minimoog)
description
L’envie commune était, dès le départ, de faire une musique inspirée du rock mais avec une grammaire de musique contemporaine, de musique électroacoustique, de musique inventive. Garder le précieux de ce que nous avons appris et aimé avec les musiques contemporaines tout en le réinjectant dans une manière différente de composer, jouer, improviser – travail plus collectif et de terrain, écriture toujours au service d’un méta-instrument que serait le groupe – pour être, au moment de la performance, réglés sur les mêmes modes. Mais le côté rock c’est aussi un son, distordu à souhait, plaisir des textures métalliques, plaisir aussi des carrures amplifiées, pulsations insistantes, spectre parfois plein comme un oeuf, énergie et ampleur du son/geste. L’autre côté ce sont les réglages millimétriques, le souci du détail, le désir de phraser, une tendance presque maladive à penser en terme de « dramaturgie », de gestion des énergies et du souffle musical. Nous composons des « morceaux » - c'est à dire des objets à facettes qu'il faut ré-explorer chaque fois - en vue de constituer un répertoire sur mesure, qui mette le plus possible en avant les qualités de chacun au service d’un univers que nous défendons tous implicitement." [label info]
www.labuissonne.com
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
| CAREY, DAN |
Shadowgraph |
mCD & object |
Second release on new SoundArt-label from Munich! Musik von dem Londoner DJ, Musiker & Filmemacher DAN CAREY, Artwork wieder von JUDITH EGGER.
„drawing (paper-lasercut) by Judith Egger, letterpress, in embossed case, printed by Stefan Feigl. shadowgraph - an x-ray through harmonics and melodics, inspired by the attempt of the inventor Nicolai Tesla to photograph
what was inside his head. Dan Carey´s shadowgraph is a dreamy journey through musical
patterns which cast long shadows caused by the light of a late afternoon sun.“ [publishing house info]
|
2004 |
€22.00 |
|
| CARRIER BAND |
Voice Coil |
CD |
"Pauline Oliveros (accordion with Expanded Instrument System); Peer Bode (live text with Bode vocoder); Andrew Deutsch (live mixing, archival recordings, samples, loops and electronics). Voice Coil was performed by the Carrier Band in the fall of 2003 at the Deep Listening Space in Kingston, New York. Pauline Oliveros performed on accordion and computer-based Expanded Instrument System, Peer Bode performed live text with his Bode Vocoder, and Andrew Deutsch performed live mixing, archival recordings from the Bode archive, samples, loops and electronics. Voice Coil is an example of an improvisation emphasizing the integration of analog systems and new digital tools between performers both living and deceased. In 2007, Andrew Deutsch added about 35 minutes of short overdubs to the recordings and has brought the recording closer to what the audience heard at the Deep Listening Space. Furthermore, the overdubs provide added depth to the work for repeated listening. 'Frozen Speaker' is an electronic composition by Andrew Deutsch and features sections from Oliveros' Music for Expo 70. 'Video Voice' uses sounds from Pauline Oliveros' electronic works 'V of IV' and 'Mewsak,' as well as elements of Stephen Vitiello's 'Light Meter' recordings. The Carrier Band was formed in 1998 when Pauline Oliveros, Peer Bode, and Andrew Deutsch performed 3 improvisations at Alfred University that were later released as the Carrier CD on the Deep Listening label." [label info]
wwww.deeplistening.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CARRINGTON, BLAKE |
Cathedral Scan |
CD-R |
"Cathedral Scan translates the architectural plans of Gothic cathedrals into open-ended musical scores via custom software. Treating the plans as a kind of map, in the live performance Carrington navigates through them to create diverse rhythms, drones and textures. The album is edited from a live concert in a large church space, and combines the direct signal created in software with the immense natural reverberation of the performance space." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| CARTER TUTTI VOID |
Transverse |
CD |
"Transverse is a unique collaboration between two members of the groundbreaking band Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and electronic trailblazer Nick Void of Factory Floor. Created especially for the legendary Short Circuit presents Mute festival at the Roundhouse London in May 2011, the tracks were prepared in the studio and then performed and recorded live in front of the audience. Outside of the trio, these recordings were unheard prior to the festival and the popularity of the performance left many being turned away at the door." [label info]
www.mute.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Play Chris & Cosey |
do-LP |
"Mit acht brandneuen Neuinterpretationen und Bearbeitungen von CHRIS & COSEY Klassikern aus den Achtziger und Neunziger Jahren. Die Idee zu diesem Album stammt von den sehr erfolgreichen Live Performances von ,Carter Tutti Play Chris & Cosey", die zwischen 2011 und 2014 zu einer bisher ungesehenen Serie von Shows im Vereinigten Königreich, Europa, Skandinavien und Nordamerika führten. Diese Shows führten wiederum zu einer großen Nachfrage, was Aufnahmen dieses Livesets anging, so dass sie Ende 2014 die komplette Kollektion der aufgearbeiteten Klassiker in ihrem eigenen Studio in Norfolk neu aufnahmen. Jedes Format wartet mit einem exklusiven Remix auf. Bei der CD ist das ,Vengeance" im exklusiven Remix, während das Vinyl sämtliche fünf Tracks von der Merchandising CD der Tour enthält.
Double LP version, includes all five tracks from the limited CD Remix Chris & Cosey (CTI RSDUK01, 2014). Reinterpretations and re-workings of classic Chris & Cosey songs from the 1980s and 1990s. The idea for the album originated from the pair's much-requested live performances of Carter Tutti Plays Chris & Cosey, taking place in an unprecedented series of shows in the U.K., Europe, Scandinavia, and North America from 2011 through 2014. These dates in turn instigated so many requests for recordings of the live set that they were inspired to re-record this collection of reworked classic versions in their own Norfolk studio. Housed in a gatefold sleeve." [label info]
"Carter Tutti. Chris & Cosey. There may be a semantic difference somewhere to be discussed, but this album brigades what those differences may be as the pair of Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti have crafted an album of material mined from the back catalogue of Chris & Cosey albums under the moniker Carter Tutti. Over the past four years, the couple has been touring vigorously, with the set including revamped / recorded / reengineered versions of the older Chris & Cosey material. So many people approached them with requests for the live recordings of these newer versions that they went into the studio to properly sequence these tracks for an album. And we gotta say that Carter Tutti offer up one hell of a recapitulation, and at times, they really do better themselves than what they had done back in the '80s. When Throbbing Gristle broke up and Chris & Cosey ventured out on their own, they adopted the seductive electro-pop subversion facets of TG to their own devices. Their albums eagerly consumed technology and fused any and all forms of electronics into the sexual / somatic rhythms of the human body. Admittedly, some times their ideas were hindered by the technologies that were at their disposal. Samplers that could only fire so fast and so much. MIDI programming that was limited by latency, memory, and timing issues. Jump several decades, and what Chris & Cosey did in the '80s with a bank of synthesizers and sequencers can now be done on any given phone. So many of these recapitulations work with the same set of melodies and sequences, but smoothed out the technological stumbling blocks. "Driving Blind" was one of the better tracks on their 1984 album Songs Of Love And Lust; and here, the two flesh out the arpeggiation of the sequences with a dense polyphony of streaming electronics above their whipcrack techno production - and Cosey's skulldrill monotone mantras are as compelling, delirious, and sexy as ever. "BeatBeatBeat" is one of the most refreshing recreations, mostly because the original was pretty damn annoying, again with a minimal, surgical set of cybernetic techno and Cosey reworking the vocal chorus into more of a celestial chime and less of a mosquito irritant. The S&M inspired "Sin" finds Cosey channelling Siouxsie more so than she's ever done in the full-throated bellows of sexual depravity above another finely tuned machine of chome-plated techno. One can hope that whatever new material comes out of this redux, it will follow this template which is pretty fucking great." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€29.50 |
|
|
Triumvirate |
LP |
"Triumvirate = the combined power of a group of three in creative collaboration. Containing all new studio recordings, Triumvirate brings Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Nik Void's collaborative partnership as Carter Tutti Void to a conclusion. The trio first came together as a collective for a live performance, invited by Mute for the Short Circuit Festival in 2011 and released their acclaimed debut, the live album Transverse the following year. Carter Tutti Void went on to release f(x) (Industrial Records, 2015), their first studio recording and performed a handful of selected shows, culminating in their final live performance in Hull, part of a series of events for Hull City of Culture 2017 centred around the COUM Transmissions retrospective. Triumvirate was approached with the improvisational spirit of previous Carter Tutti Void albums. The rhythms, created by Chris Carter, formed the foundation and starting point from which the process began of melding the live instrumentation of Cosey Fanni Tutti and Nik Void's searing guitars, vocals, effects and the arsenal of sounds each had amassed from a variety of sources, some sounds manipulated to extremes, all fed into the mix. Tying the album together is the power of three, and a free open approach to sound shared by the trio. Carter Tutti Void are Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti (Chris & Cosey / Throbbing Gristle) and Nik Void (Factory Floor / NVPR). Chris Carter recently released his first solo album in 17 years, Chris Carter's Chemistry Lessons Vol. 1 (Mute, 2018) and Cosey Fanni Tutti's TUTTI, her first album since 1982, came out ear-lier this year on Conspiracy International (home of Chris and Cosey since 1982). Nik Void is currently working on her debut solo album." [label info]
|
2019 |
€26.50 |
|
| |
Triumvirate |
CD |
"Triumvirate = the combined power of a group of three in creative collaboration. Containing all new studio recordings, Triumvirate brings Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Nik Void's collaborative partnership as Carter Tutti Void to a conclusion. The trio first came together as a collective for a live performance, invited by Mute for the Short Circuit Festival in 2011 and released their acclaimed debut, the live album Transverse the following year. Carter Tutti Void went on to release f(x) (Industrial Records, 2015), their first studio recording and performed a handful of selected shows, culminating in their final live performance in Hull, part of a series of events for Hull City of Culture 2017 centred around the COUM Transmissions retrospective. Triumvirate was approached with the improvisational spirit of previous Carter Tutti Void albums. The rhythms, created by Chris Carter, formed the foundation and starting point from which the process began of melding the live instrumentation of Cosey Fanni Tutti and Nik Void's searing guitars, vocals, effects and the arsenal of sounds each had amassed from a variety of sources, some sounds manipulated to extremes, all fed into the mix. Tying the album together is the power of three, and a free open approach to sound shared by the trio. Carter Tutti Void are Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti (Chris & Cosey / Throbbing Gristle) and Nik Void (Factory Floor / NVPR). Chris Carter recently released his first solo album in 17 years, Chris Carter's Chemistry Lessons Vol. 1 (Mute, 2018) and Cosey Fanni Tutti's TUTTI, her first album since 1982, came out ear-lier this year on Conspiracy International (home of Chris and Cosey since 1982). Nik Void is currently working on her debut solo album." [label info]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWB1ni4sa5Y
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| CARTER, CHRIS |
Chemistry Lessons (CCCL Volume One) |
CD |
"Das erste Album von Chris Carter seit 17 Jahren ! Als Gründungsmitglied von Throbbing Gristle – gemeinsam mit Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson und Genesis Breyer P-Orridge –, spielte Chris Carter eine signifikante Rolle in der Entstehung elektronischer Musik, eine Reise, die Carter als Teil von Chris & Cosey und Carter Tutti respektive Carter Tutti Void und in seinen Soloarbeiten bis heute fortsetzt. Die Verknüpfung von traditioneller Musik und Elektronik sind jene Momente, die die Musik von CCCL Volume 1 an das Schaffen von Throbbing Gristle rückbinden." [label info]
"Architect of the present future, Chris Carter goes retro hauntological on CCCL Volume One, his first solo album in 17 years.
Since his previous album, released in the last century, he’s been busy taking his influential duo with partner Cosey Fanni Tutti to a natural close, and likewise seeing thru their trio with Nik Colk Void, while at the same time diversifying his bonds with remixes of the contemporary field, from Factory Floor to Nisennenmondai and Perc. Here, however, the enormously pivotal artist paints a sonic self portrait indulging an unswerving thing for the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop and the malleability of modular synths, all with a mixture of wide-eyed, youthful innocence and high end studio nous executed to nostalgic degrees.
In the classic framework of hauntology, Carter’s nostalgia is for a lost, assuaged or thwarted synthetic future he experienced explicitly and cosmotically growing up during the ‘space age’, when synthesisers were vehicles for interstellar and interdimensional travel and acted as the connective ligament of counter-cultural likeminds across the world, so its easy to understand why he can’t shake that feeling here.
Like a grown up kid with all the kit he could ever dream of, Carter brings his ideas to life in uniquely tactile style, working like a sculptor with broad palette of amorphous materials that continue to react and mutate after he’s fixed them in place, at his legendary studio in Norfolk. Each of the 25 tracks feels to offer a window onto worlds of encrypted kinetic energy, fulminating figments of the imagination which come to life in shapeshifting, plasmic forms made all the more “real” and hyperstitious thanks to his application of AI like vocaloids which populate the album, cropping up as alien sirens, glossolalic darkroom murmurs, and fully-fledged “singers” in their own strange right.
The result is a uniquely absorbing album tied together by Carter’s smart internal logic, a mazy manifestation of bio-electronic feedback systems that gives voice to the machine as much as the man operating it in a way that will really speak to followers of classic electronic music." [Boomkat]
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| CARTER, TOM & VANESSA ARN |
What is here for ? |
LP |
Die CHARALAMBIDES-Hälfte in Zusammenarbeit mit VANESSA ARM -> zwei lange flächige Improvisationen bestehend aus analog-elektronischen Vibrato-Tönen & Carters "Lap Steel" Gitarren-Drone-Arbeit, genaustes Zuhören belohnt mit feinsten konkreten Details.
"Limited Edition of 515 copies. First 110 copies released as coloured (brown) vinyl. Including a small insert. Contains two long and deep duo cuts of univibe-era lap steel/ electronic tone generator improvisation, one side recorded live and stamped w/ the indelible mark (ie, the #15 bus rumbling by) of Bullbabe Studios, Austin TX (the odor of sweat, lone star, and barbeque is palpable). The sounds: monolithic serenity infused with a deep breath from the void, as peaceful and violent as a mountain range. A shame that this configuration is so underrepresented in the discography, as the mesh of T&V's playing is so instantly seismic... Tom Carter is best known for his work with Charalambides, which he co-founded with longtime creative partner Christina Carter in 1991. Since 2002, Carter has also undertaken solo work and collaborations. His 2003 solo tour, centered around the seminal Brattleboro FreeFolk festival, featured unaccompanied solo shows and musical excursions (on stage and tape) with Bardo Pond, Thurston Moore, Dredd Foole, the MVEE Medicine Show, Ian Nagoski, Tower Recordings, and Double Leopards, among others. Vanessa Arn became a member of Boston/California/Texas group Primordial Undermind soon after Tom's brief tenure in the group. The potential for mountainous difference tones between the lap steel and the triwave tone generator (a custom built synthesizer) was immediately apparent to all parties, and Tom suggested a collaboration (which was greatly assisted by the fact that Tom and Vanessa were at the time next door neighbors). A sole performance and a handful of recordings ensued and the results are here for your perusal." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| CARVED IMAGE OF EMPTINESS / ZINC ROOM |
Lie, Illusions, Mystifications / Zinc 99,99 |
CD |
"This CD contains not even a split, but in fact 2 full-length albums of two Russian industrial projects, both coming from Ekaterinburg, Ural region. Carved Image Of Emptiness isn't so easily categorized with one term, during their half of the disc the style changes in quite unpredictable manner. The album starts with an energetic industrial track with sampled distorted bass guitar (well, when you write about noise music you can't be completely sure about the sound sources, but it sounds like bass guitar here) and various samples. Then comes unhurried, sombre and serious neo-classics which changes with more "fairy" track. Then again, a neo-classical composition in which pompous martial-like "verse" (think about Der Blutharsch) alternates with totally cartoon-style "chorus" (think about "Crocodile Gena"). During the last 4 tracks the same metamorphoses happen... I think this could be a good soundtrack for some slightly naive, but thus interesting industrial movie from 80-90-ies... Zinc Room is quite another matter! Here you can feel the addiction to the old noise school: in his tracks analogue distortion (bass guitar, percussion, steel objects) blends with field recordings and samples. The recordings are mostly not aggressive (unlike, say, Japanese act K2 who uses a lot of iron as well), but somehow sadly pensive. Like an abandoned rusty factory building standing in the field and grown by weeds long ago. However the spirits of industrialization still live there and sometimes continue their mechanical activity." [label info] |
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| CASCONE, KIM |
Anti-Musical Celestial Forces |
CD |
"Anti-Musical Celestial Forces presents a thirty minute cinematic montage of field recordings - gathered in the fall of 2008 while on tour in Europe, mixed with computer generated textures and spoken word." [label info]
www.storung.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| CASCONE, KIM / ANDREY KIRITCHENKO / ANDREAS BERTHLING / KOTRA |
Fourfold Symmetry |
CD-R |
Ausufernde Kollaborationen von vier laptop-Musikern, initiiert von dem exzellenten Ukrainer ANDREY KIRITCHENKO. Konkret-fliessender Digital-Ambience at its best !
Many different collaborations from these four laptop-musicians, on the label of the excellent Ukrainian ANDREY KIRITCHENKO.
Comes in a very special cardboard-package.
“The Fourfold Symmetry music might annoy and tire with unfinished or overloaded constructions, rambling and obviously disjointed sounds, and unmotivated gaps in the tracks. And yet, it is these faults and flaws brought out with the utmost defiance that capture the listeners’ attention and keep them on edge. While the intentional oddities of the music, its deliberate arbitrariness and imperfection arise very controversial feelings, they also restrain the music from becoming an acoustic background. Which is exactly what Fourfold Symmetry aspired to in the process of creation.” [from the press release]
label: www.nexsound.org
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| CASPAR, C.O. |
Epitaph |
CD |
Neues Werk des Berliner Künstlers & Musikers auf dem feinen russischen Label WAYSTYX, welches inzwischen von Mikhail Tumanov betrieben wird. CASPAR geht hier (mal wieder) neue Wege, setzt fliessendes Wasser, Kirchenglocken und andere Feldaufnahmen ein, lässt einen „female robot“ BAUDELAIRE zitieren, um dann allmählich in industriellere Gefilde zu versinken, mit verhallten und wummernden Maschinen-Geräuschen, metallischem Quietschen & Zerren, und wieder the robot... experimenteller Industrial zwischen Maschinen- & Natur-„Noise“ und schwarzer Lyrik ! Spezial-Cover !
“Penetrating sound confession from respected german master Co.Caspar, Berlin-based activist of an experimental sound, built with propulsions, sound vibrations from corporal movements, consisting of four tracks, each for 20 minutes. First of which “Benediction” and Replica are composed for a paintress from Quebeck/Canada, based on two field recordings (river & wood) in the canadian nature, used as the soundtrack during the vernissage of her paintings. 'Benediction' origines from the anthology Les Fleurs du Mal by Ch. Baudelaire spoken by the artist. purest drop of human prejudaces, fears, drawbacks essence heavy, humid and clouding impicated by the fistfull of various cuts of everyday life hypnotic song of far away syrene vibrant, graceful, controversive, whispering and shivering......” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Reports from this Lunatic Asylum |
CD |
"REPORTS FROM THIS LUNATIC ASYLUM is the new album by C.O.Caspar, legendary industrial musician from berlin. It is a symbiotic mix of textfragments and archaic soundscapes and rhythm. The album tries to reflect nowadays chaos in this world in its specific way - a combination of proclamations and assurances which never will be concerted in the end, a critisims on todays politics and mediasystems." [label info]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| CASTELLO, ANGELICA |
CATORCE REFLEXIONES SOBRE EL FIN |
LP |
https://angelicacastello.bandcamp.com/album/silvertone-e-il-sentimento-oceanico
https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=20469
"Information is available about Angélica Castelló's new record 'Catorce Reflexiones Sobre El Fin', meaning 'fourteen reflections on the end'. She composed this music for an installation at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2019.
She uses many field recordings, but according to the label, also she refers to her previous work, including voice work, recorded in very high and very low quality. I assume some recordings include her instrument of choice, the Paetzold recorder. There are fourteen pieces on this album (as they were on display in the installation, hanging from the ceiling), and I admit it also sounds like two long pieces, with the occasional silence occurring. The shuffling of a spade in the first piece, 'Rómpeme', reminded me of digging a grave. There are more of these death references, such as the church bells of 'Bells' or the shattering of glass, also an end. There are lots of animal sounds, and there is an eerie atmosphere throughout these pieces. In 'Un Homme', there is the sound of an old record; there is a marching rhythm, jackhammer or funeral march? Hard to say. Castelló carefully uses reverb to add to the creepy atmosphere. It is uneasy music, but at the same time, it is beautiful uneasiness. The 'death'/'end' theme is not throughout all these pieces; perhaps, they aren't always that noticeable. Sometimes, she's more observing the scenery from some distance, which makes it spooky, as if the impending doom is coming your way any time (and you know it will come to all of us). Castelló uses musique concrète techniques in mixing various sounds and telling a story, and she does that very well. No extensive processing techniques are used, but they are more collage-like, with seemingly unrelated sound events becoming one narrative. Of the three new releases by Gruenrekorder, this is the best, in terms of music, at least. There is an underlying concept, yet the music can be enjoyed without knowing too much about it." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€18.00 |
|
| CASTRO, NICK & THE YOUNG ELDERS |
A day without disaster (gold edition) |
10inch |
Romantischer Folk mit Harmonium & wunderbar gezupften Akustikgitarrren & elfenhaftem Gesang - dies ist die limitierte Auflage auf goldenem Vinyl, mit Goldpräge-Cover und goldfarbenen grossem Inlay / Poster.
"A Day Without Disaster is the newest chapter in the musical adventures of Nick Castro & The Young Elders. The group has spent the last year recording and touring the world while honing their skills both in the studio and on stage. This EP, on Italian label A Silent Place, is a glimpse into the ever-evolving minds of NC & The Young Elders, which are dwelling somewhere between the romantic male/female duets of Richard & Linda Thompson and the exotic worldly arrangements of the Incredible String Band. With their focused sensitive touch, unusual acoustic textures, gentle wordplay and ensemble interaction The Young Elders are traversing the folk world and leaving large shoes to fill. Their latest efforts meet paths with psychedelic sirens, Turkish rain calls, celtic ghost stories and realizations of the natural world. They've created a sound where the harmonium and saz coexist with blaring electric guitars and close vocal harmonies. The Young Elders are currently comprised of members Wendy Watson, Ryan Kirkpatrick, Christof Certik (member of Winter Flowers) and guest Jeb Lipson. Though often lumped in with the "freak-folk" genre Nick Castro has been transcending such labels since most of these new folkies were still playing indie rock." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€19.50 |
|
| CASTRUP, HANS / STEFFAN DE TURCK / BOBAN RISTEVSKI / GRODOCK |
Thing |
CD-R |
"In 2022, attenuation circuit starts a new series of four-way split albums called THING. The aim is to provide a medium for exchange and presentation of a great variety of artists. As each artist spreads the copies to their network, listeners also get to know the other artists featured on the same disc. The title references the fact that the CDs are physical objects – things! – but also refers to the 'thing' or 'ding' in old Norse and other Germanic languages, which designates the place of a popular assembly or the assembly itself and thus alludes to the 'meeting-place' character of the albums on (or around) which the four artists and their audiences meet, if only virtually.
The artists featured on the third instalment of the THING series hail from Germany, the Netherlands, and Macedonia. Hans Castrup and Steffan de Turck (also known under his Staplerfahrer moniker) create pieces of a rather collage-like nature, including many quasi-referential sounds which seem to tell a story – but one that retains a large degree of mystery. It might be called 'musique anecdotique', to borrow Luc Ferrari's term, but listeners are invited to find out their own punchlines. In the second half of the album, almost as if it were a B-side, Boban Ristevski and Grodock, who is also active as label head of Grubenwehr Freiburg (which despite the name is now based in Leipzig), take us deeper into drone territory. Cartographies get more blurred than in the first two tracks, and if track 1 and 2 were a sort of sonic road movie, now we rather find ourselves out at sea. Or in space? And if so, inner or outer space? Put on this THING and find out.
File under: electroacoustic, drone"
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing-3
"David Leutkart, who calls himself Grodock, is no stranger as the maker of Grubenwehr Freiburg (in Leipzig!) and with "Der Sog / Kollaborationen". He gives here in 'Das AbWesen a meaningful cue that unbirches Lacan's abject. As the seething, rasping, predatory snorting real (dead, unconscious, evil, powerless, inexistent, counterfactual, sadistic, ugly, disgusting, creepy, excessive, obscure), which is countered by harmonically pulsating waves and a chirping harmonica." [Bad Alchemy]
" 'Thing' is, of course, a physical thing, the CDR object, but in old Norse and Germanic languages, a meeting place, a place of a popular assembly. This is a meeting of old and familiar names and newbies; well, rather new names for me. The latter constitute of Eisenlager, Wilfried Hanrath, and Hans Castrup. The latter opens up the proceedings with an exciting piece of modern electronics inspired music. Seemingly random drones and tones mingle in ever-changing configurations. Steffan de Turck (whom we better know as Staplerfahrer; I have no idea why he chooses his name for this release) has a somewhat unfocused piece with some interesting percussive loops, but, sadly, also some unimaginative turntables moves. Recently revived and active as ever, Boban Ristevski continues his excursions in drone land, and this time, the subject is acoustic sources; or so it seems. It has that warm laptop/pop sound that we used to love fifteen years ago, and which, in fact, I still do. Grodock, of the Grubenwehr Freiburg label, closes the proceedings with a descent into the underworld of darkness. Deep and mean rumbling below the earth's surface, via a monolithic synth, slowly slicing the core of the earth and unleashing a higher-pitched drone. Lovely!" [Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| CATLIN, TIM |
Radio Ghosts |
CD |
"The name Tim Catlin may not be terribly well known amongst the avant-guitarist circles; but his recorded output clearly stands amongst the best that Glenn Branca, Keith Rowe, and Jim O'Rourke have mustered from their six strings hard wired into the histories of electroacoustics, minimalism, and post-punk experimentation. Based out of Melbourne, Catlin is a guitarist who incessantly tinkers with the mechanics of his instrument, envisioning it as alternately as a mimetic sculptural object and a pure sound generator. Through his experiments with alternative tunings, atypical string gauges, and Rube Goldberg contraptions of interconnected motors, speakers, and radios, he seeks out the rasping textures of strings vibrating against each other, the acoustic phase patterns of two microtonally tuned strings, and the electrical purity of circuits feeding back upon themselves, essentially creating a polyglot drone symphony cast in smoldering monochrome. Radio Ghosts arrives nearly five years after his debut album Slow Twitch and showcases Catlin's unassuming expertise with the finer aspects of the mechanically prepared guitar. For all of its dynamic frequencies and crosshatched vibrations, Radio Ghosts is devoid of Marshall stacks, Sunn amps, and stomp boxes, as Catlin captures the acoustic phenomenon of the guitar's transient vibrations and steers clear of any tricked out sonic demolition. Instead, Radio Ghosts focuses upon the minutiae of the guitar: wood, strings, and amplifier. Through his refined, tabletop guitar techniques, Catlin prefers to set his guitar in motion, allowing the process dictate the course of action with minor edits and sleights of hand from the composer himself. Catlin's drone guitar work is simultaneously capable of expressionistic illusions (e.g. cicada choruses, industrial grind, uncanny ephemera from the radio waves, etc.) and a sonic transcendence of pure sonic introspection. Given that the final piece on Radio Ghosts replaces the guitar with a crash cymbal that Catlin agitates through similar processes, Catlin's work shows that Organum does not have exclusivity on the bowed cymbal for creating epic, tactile sound fields." [label info]
www.23five.org
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| CAUDAL |
Forever in another World |
LP |
Caudal is a new trio featuring Aidan Baker (CA – Nadja, Whisper Room, ARC) on guitar, Gareth Sweeney (IE – Gout) on bass, and Felipe Salazar (CO – Muerte En Pereira) on drums. Baker’s multi-layered, heavily affected guitar overlays Sweeney and Salazar’s driving, propulsive rhythm section creating music equally influenced by krautrock, post-punk, and spacerock.
The Animal: European Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus citellus)
Caudal have decided to dedicate their release to the European ground squirrel (German: Ziesel). All profits will be donated to support the protection efforts of the Austrian Union for Nature Preservation (homepage only available in German – sorry for that!).
The European ground squirrel has very specific habitat requirements. It needs short turf in order to dig its tunnel system. It finds this on the steppes and in pasture, in dry banks, on sports fields, parks and lawns. These conditions are lost when changes in agricultural practice convert grassland into arable land and forest, or grazing ceases and the grass grows coarse and scrub-land develops. Over the last ten years, the population has therefore diminished by more than 30%." [label info]
www.oakenpalace.com
|
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Ascension |
CD |
"The trio featuring Aidan Baker (CA – Nadja, Whisper Room, Arc) on guitar, Gareth Sweeney (IE – Gout) on bass, and Felipe Salazar (CO – Muerte en Pereira) on drums, return with their second album.
Their particular sound with lots of guitar overlays and a propulsive rhythm section constantly echo and cross borders between krautrock, post-punk and space rock. A rich and imaginative album for fans of fuzzy soundscapes!" [label info]
www.consouling.be
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Let's all take the yellow Pills |
LP |
"Caudal is a trio of Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker, Irish bassist Gareth Sweeney, and Columbian drummer Felipe Salazar, formed in 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The trio plays 'trance punk,' combining Baker's multi-layered, heavily affected guitar with Sweeney and Salazar's motorik, propulsive rhythms, creating music which draws from krautrock, mathrock, post-punk, and spacerock influences. Baker also performs with the dreamsludge duo Nadja and the collective Hypnodrone Ensemble; Salazar also plays in the no-wave trio Muerte En Pereira and Hypnodrone Ensemble; Sweeney also plays with the post-post-punk trio Faulty Rabbit.Caudal released their debut album, Forever In Another World, on the environmental charity label, Oaken Palace Records, in 2013. Their second album, Ascension, was released in September 2014by Consouling Sounds, a their third full-length, Fight Cry Fight, came out in April 2018 on Drone Rock Records/Katuktu Collective.The EP Let's All Take The Yellow Pills, released in 2016 as a limited edition CD and only available directly from the band, was recorded during the same sessions as the material from Fight Cry Fight. But whereas Fight Cry Fight is quite structured and composed, the tracks on ...Yellow Pillsare much more free-form and improvisational, eschewing structure for texture, form for atmosphere...The vinyl rerelease on Kapitän Platte is limited to 300 copies and comes with a silk-screen printed banderole including donwload-code and senseless insert."
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Murk |
12inch |
Caudal is the self named “Trance Punk Trio” from Berlin featuring Aidan Baker (guitars), Felipe Salazar (drums) and Gareth Sweeney (bass). They already released two records with Oaken Palace Records and Consouling Sounds, showing their love for instrumental pulsative rock music with a pinch of experimental sounds.
To be honest, we where not the biggest fans of this trio until we heared the track “Murk” for the first time. “Murk” is like the black sheep in the Caudal repertoire. The track is more doomy, more slowly, more menacing… of everything they recorded before. So we thought it would be great to highlight this 15minutes track with this 12inch EP release.
The EP comes in a matt black cardboard sleeve with a label hole, coloured record labels and the vinyl itself comes in a dookie brown semitransparent colour. Nearly 30 minutes of music from the Caudal cosmos.
Limited to 125 copies.
https://midirarecords.bandcamp.com/album/murk
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| CAUL |
The long Dust |
CD |
"The Long Dust signifies the first full length Caul recording for Malignant since 1998's "Light From Many Lamps' CD, and while, stylistically, Brett's sound has evolved, there's no question it has also matured, moving further away from the climatic drift of the early works, into more structured, composed realms, adding layers of noir-ish percussion and gentle guitar melodies to the arching tones and cinematic textures that define the Caul sound. This is music that speaks of grey skies and introspection...solemn, yet abounding with serene beauty. 4 panel digipak." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
"Broad and dusky ambient vistas meet shuffling, shoe-gazey post-rock beats on Caul’s new release, The Long Dust. Caul (aka Brett Smith) brings a cinematic sense to his tracks, everything moving with a thoughtful slowness, the long, considered pace of deeply mulling something over. It’s like watching a series of long tracking shots, the camera panning and pulling back to reveal a lone figure. It’s moody and a little brooding, a mindset that’s strongly presented from start to finish, but which never bogs by getting maudlin. That’s due in large part to the beats and the guitar, the way they ground the ambient side. The slump-shouldered drum beats and the lazy twang of the strings serve to amplify the emotional effect of the edge-of-giving-up synth pads. The post-rock framework makes it accessible, and infuses it with a recognizable energy. The ambient side is a thing all its own. Tending toward the low end of the scale, earthy notes grumble and sigh as they spread out to form a somewhat bleak landscape. In the moments where it exists on its own, the ambient aspect is deep and potent, with its own definite beauty. The mix, therefore, ramps it up. “Relic” nails it early on with garage-band drums and a spaghetti-Western guitar. The synth pads moan in the background as Smith casually turns up the catchiness. The last 30 seconds are given over, to great effect, to the synths. This moves us into my favorite track, “Ascension.” The drums clatter, a bit on the ungainly side, over crying pads and chords. It’s a bit stark, bordering on minimal for two minutes, and then–oh, my, how it explodes in a sudden burst of power-chord joy. “Veil of Sand” also works upward from a sparse start, the loneliness of the guitar and drum combo offset by an almost hopeful-sounding blend of high pads and chorals. Even so, it retains a solitary feel. “The Road” has a roll-the-credits solemnity to it. Watch the main character walk off, only partially defeated, into a heat-shimmer sunset, accompanied by a resonating acoustic guitar. Smith builds in more elements to heighten the feel. Once again the backbeat makes it catchy even as it keeps its head-down, alone-again tone. A keening voice sings the last few notes alone.
I’ve seen this disc described as dark ambient. It’s not. It’s heavy, certainly, but it’s a stones-in-your-pockets emotional heaviness. It’s painted not in cloying blacks but in chromatic greys. It dares to show a little hope here and there. What it is, is human. This is a very human disc. It is vulnerable and sad and alone, but it’s finding its inner strength and going on ahead anyway. It has a story to share, and it’s told very well. The Long Dust will ping your emotional core and find something in there to make you a little sad, a little pensive. That’s how and why it works so very well. Another superb offering from Caul." [Hypnagogue]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| CECILIA |
Adoration |
LP |
"Standout début album of dream-like, avant garde pop and electronic variants that properly introduces Rome-based Montreal artist Mélissa Gagné aka CECILIA after guesting on Rabit’s Les Fleurs Du Mal album last year and releasing an EP for Yves Tumor's Grooming label. Devastatingly restrained yet ravishing songs with haunting English, French and Italian vocals, huge recommendation if you're into Yves Tumor, Félicia Atkinson, Rabit, Teresa Winter, Portishead, Leila...
Cecilia wrote and produced Adoration, with accompaniment by mutual spirits such as her friend Jasmine Pisapia and the poet activist Griséldis Réal, who help to render a stark yet subtly gilded cross-section of her psyche, which places the listener as dark interpreter to a series of tumultuous inner dialogues - “One is summoned to whisper truth, beauty, tragedy to demon ears.”
Incubated for one and half years between Montreal, Toronto and New York, Adoration reads like intimately diaristic pages recalling an amorphous lucid dream. In that phantasmagoric headspace she meditates on loss and romanticism, using a shifting backdrop of highly visual stimuli to frame her thoughts and bring them to life with an uncannily immersive effect perhaps not felt so strongly since Félicia Atkinson’s Hand In Hand LP.
Electronic bass and percussion are shadowed with traces of synth and guitar improvisations, but the one consistent element is the female voice. Sometime detached, glossolalic, and at others uncannily familiar, plaintive, the voice’s presence is integral to the album's quietly absorbing atmosphere, and even if the listener can’t understand their direct meaning, they connote so much more through abstracted inference and ambiguity.
Following her early forays made with the Charity Whore EP for Yves Tumor’s Grooming label, and previous work as DJ/producer Babi Audi, along with her hybrid stage works, Cecilia ties all those strands into an illusive yet highly distinguished work set to resonate with listeners from myriad backgrounds and disciplines. It's no doubt one of 2018’s most haunting, beguiling LPs."
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| CELER |
All at once is what Eternity is |
mCD-R |
"celer is the sound, visual, literary, and artistic endeavor of the husband and wife duo of will long and danielle baquet-long (she sadly passed in july '09). celer fastly gained a big name in the ambient/experimental world thanks to exquisite self-releases and soon was approached by numerous international renowned labels such as infraction, and/oar, mystery sea, smallfish or spekk (a collaboration with mathieu ruhlmann). based upon strings, samples and field recordings, this 22min is another example of the simple beauty celer was able to create..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"What Drone Records does with 7"s, does Taalem with 3"CDR releases. Quite a success and getting more and more great names added to the series. People that we know otherwise from the real CD releases, which aren't afraid to put something out on a 3"CDR. Celer for instance gained quite a reputation in a short time span. What I didn't know about Celer is that Danielle Baquet-Long, one half of Celer, passed away in July 2009 of heart failure. Since then no new works are created, and all works that are released now, are from the duo of Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long, recorded before that. 'All At Once Is What Eternity Is' is a very fine piece, a signature Celer piece. Meandering drones, with some acoustic sounds in the early parts of the piece. Maybe the sound of crop fields in the wind, along with some bells and chimes. An excellent piece of music." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/all-at-once-is-what-eternity-is-alm-64
|
2010 |
€5.50 |
|
|
Weavings of a rapid Disenchantment |
10" |
"the companion release to the "panoramic dreams" CD released a month ago. Two exclusive tracks that were supposed to be on the album, but that we kept aside to have a well balanced album. Fields recordings, electronics, analog tapes...same mood, but a bit darker though." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Sunlir |
CD |
"All music by Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long
Recorded in 2005-2006 at home in Huntington Beach, California
Originally self-released as a limited, handmade edition
new master by m.a.tolosa, Madrid 2011
I am a frame.
I am the frame looking at me, sleeping.
I am a frame
In a dream crooked, at me.
I am a frame shrugging
Without movement.
I am hanging
In a triangle, a knot
Not a tie,
I am a frame.
Wall habitude.
I am the frame looking at me, sleeping
I am a frame
In a dream even, at you.
I am a frame off the wall
With movement; falling,.
I am crooked,
Spun off course by a hand,
The worth of suffering
Is in time, we place ourselves between
The moss of recency
[ Dani Baquet-Long ]" [label info/credits]
www.con-v.org
"The story of Celer is probably well-known by now, certainly if you have been reading these pages before: in a relatively short time span the duo of Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long created a whole bunch of releases as Celer, all dealing, more or less, with what we can roughly 'drone' and 'atmospheric' music. Baquet-Long died suddenly in 2009 and it was decided by Long that no more music was to be released as Celer. Anything that comes out now as Celer is either old and unreleased and re-issues of older work, such as this release, which was originally a self-released CDR (thus they gain a status like Maeror Tri, who early 90s cassettes found their way on CD and CDR by now). What can we say about this music that we haven't said before? Nothing much I guess, but that doesn't mean I say anything about the quality of the music. Apparently Celer use a variety of instruments, although none are specified here (but it was on other releases) but these are transformed into abstract glacier like masses of sound, slowly moving and lowly humming, just as pretty much anything else I heard from Celer. Its hard to say if and what the differences are between this particular releases and the others I heard. Surely they are there but appear to be minor. When listening to this CD I was thinking about all of this. Surely there are people who like music to progress, slow, quick but inevitably moving to something else and there are people (in both cases people are consumers, not musicians themselves) who like things to remain the same, no matter how many releases an artist does, and this sometimes applies to musicians who release a lot, such as Fear Falls Burning, Francisco Lopez, Merzbow or Machinefabriek (to mention a few): all with a large dedicated group of fans and Celer has joined their ranks. Be it that no more new music will appear, with their back catalogue (which is indeed vast) filled with obscurities. They surely can see some interesting, re-mastered titles in the future. Me, I belong, perhaps more to the first group of consumers, those who like some things to change every now and then. That said, I thought 'Sunlir' was a pretty fine nocturnal listening thing." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Salvaged Violets |
do-CD |
"'In February of 2008, Dani and I recorded, mixed, and completed the music for Salvaged Violets. The words came as the subject line of a short poem, sent to me over email, included with an unrelated question. During these weekdays, our working schedules were almost the opposite, but we spoke over email constantly. Until recently, I did not notice how similar this was to our beginnings, sending letters as we were on different sides of the country. With no conceptual idea in mind, and since we were apart for so much time during the weekdays, we decided to begin Salvaged Violets, and see what came of it. Every night when I returned home, before sleeping, I would spend time working on the music that Dani had worked on through the afternoon, and had left on the desk. Every afternoon, she would find a different version to work on that I had left, and this continued for some time. When together, we would sip our tea, laugh at silly jokes, cook, watch television, and so on. There was no need for longing while we were together. There was always laughing, pots and pans clanging, or a muttering television. In forming Salvaged Violets, we did not mix it in a particular arranged order. It was mixed simply by the order it was first played, compiling many miniature sections rolled into one. In this case, they were rolled into two. Nothing was discarded, nothing was rearranged. As the sound changed over time, the original form did not. When it was finally complete, we listened together, for the first time. I remember how familiar it seemed, yet I also felt that so much of it was unknown, and undefined. More than a year later, in September of 2009, I revisited the recordings for the first time since 2008. At this time, it was being mastered by our good friend Corey Fuller, so I was still listening to the original. Riding my bike through the endless suburban subdivisions, through the busy downtown streets, I listened repeatedly, for days, over and over. Something was familiar, but so much I was unable to recall, and yet I was able to relate. I returned home, put my bike against the door, and took my headphones off. There, in the still silence, I think I understood finally what it was about.' -- Will Thomas Long, December 2009. 998 copies, stoughton mini-LP gatefold CD sleeve. Twelve art prints and photographs by Peter Lograsso." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Discourses of the Withered |
CD |
"Celer is a husband (Will) and wife (Danielle) duo from California that use a variety of strings as the basis for their sound. Cello, viola, violin and the sounds are mixed in with field recordings, choir and then tape spliced in varying lengths to create reel-to-reel looping. Those sounds are then sampled, layered and processed. The result is a near orchestral drone. Though at times very haunting, it's brightly hazy ambient." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Sky Limits |
CD |
Dreams Wide Awake
"Hill towns and empty mountains pass by, but the smoothness of the train blurs the view, and it's easier than ever to fall asleep in the low morning sunlight coming in through the train's windows", writes Will Long, the artist behind the Celer moniker, in his liner notes to Sky Limits, one of his most fulfilling records to date.
First created as a duo project in 2005, Celer has been US-born musician Will Long's solo vehicle since 2009. Through the years and thanks to an astounding rate of production, Celer has become a reference in the field of ambient electronic music. The care Long puts in his ethereal albums and his flawless musical intuition have earned him the critics'praise and invites to release material on key labels such as Spekk, Glacial Movements, Humming Conch, Experimedia, and/OAR, and now Baskaru.
Sky Limits consists in a series of daydreaming-prone, strings-laden ambient tracks interspersed with field recordings of daily life in Tokyo and Kyoto. This album is a reflection on the evanescent nature of memories, dreams, and reality.
In addition to Celer, his main project, Will Long plays in Oh, Yoko (with Miko) and Hollywood Dream Trip (with Christoph Heemann). He also runs the Two Acorns label.
www.baskaru.com
"For a while I assumed that Celer was no more, due the passing of one half of the duo, but since 2009 Will Long also uses this name as a solo vehicle. He has released his music on many labels, such as Experimedia, Glacial Movements, Spekk and now Baskaru. Here we have a new album of eleven pieces, which all have a title and not necessarily form one long piece but could also be treated as such, of music that is very ambient mixed with a bit of field recordings. From his current location, Tokyo, he offers what seems to be the entire opposite soundtrack of a busy city. Much of this sounds like processed string music, not unlike the kind of strings processed by Marsen Jules. Music that floats by, really, really gentle and calm. Not the kind of stuff I would let pass without looking out the window and think of some weather related metaphor. It fits this sunny yet cold (how would I know: I haven't left the house all day) January day, and now, especially at the end of the afternoon, the
evening starts to fall and lights begin to fade: this seems to be the perfect time of the day to start this CD and then, about an hour later, it's most likely dark and we have moved to a variety of moods here, all from the various possibilities on offer from the string sounds (light, dark, somewhere in between, together, alone), which he mixes with very quiet field recordings from Tokyo, just faint traces it seems of someone talking, some sparse sound, the rumble of far away traffic; Tokyo has quiet areas too, I know. This is Celer the way we like it; it's not the kind of music that Celer wouldn't do, and that's perhaps the downside of it. It doesn't seem to be something 'new', for whatever that is worth. But perhaps that's reviewer talk; maybe the fan wants more of the same?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| CELER & MACHINEFABRIEK |
Compendium |
CD |
"Late in 2011, Celer and Machinefabriek teamed up online and recorded the 7" 'Maastunnel/Mt. Mitake', to coincide with their tour in The Netherlands. They got the hang of it and decided to make it into a trilogy of 7" singles, all self-released in limited editions. Now, Irrational Arts has compiled the six tracks of the 7"s onto a CD‚ titled Compendium (Collected Singles and Remixes), including an additional new track by Celer and Machinefabriek, and remixes by Stephan Mathieu, Sylvain Chauveau and Nicolas Bernier. The artwork of the CD continues the design style of the singles, with collages of old Japanese cards and ephemera." [label info]
www.irrational-arts.co.uk
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW |
The Circle of Days |
LP |
"Truly beautiful new LP, "The Circle Of Days", from UK sound/drone artist Andrew Chalk on his own Faraway Press imprint. Recorded in 2003-06 and created with field recordings, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, and slide-guitar, "The Circle Of Days" includes a return for Chalk to his long-term collaboration with Daisuke Suzuki (Ghosts On Water, Lost Shadow, Siren Records et al), who features on five of the LP's 14 (relatively short) pieces. The field recordings, mostly captured from everyday home/community life, blend with beautiful fragments of minimalist keyboard runs and droning string tones that reach out, rise-up, and resonate to stunning effect, conveying celestial-like imagery of, say, light from another world shimmering in the dark of our own fog-blurred night. The sounds unfold, subliminally freezing/interrupting time, before fading into voids that sometimes leave a peculiar and wondrous sense of longing. Whilst the field recordings feel grounded in the real world, the instruments' rich sounds seem like they arrived from the ether of far-away, deep inside Chalk's expansive artistic vision. A magical, captivating piece of work that functions like a sonic parallel to the way shooting stars grip our gaze in wonder. Released on Chalk's Faraway Press imprint in an edition of 325 copies. Pressed on super-sounding black vinyl, mastered by Denis Blackham and housed in a sleeve featuring a reproduction of a pencil sketch by the artist himself, with layout design by Jos Moers." [Infinite Limits]
www.farawaypress.info
"Andrew Chalk records are the jewels of the English underground. The noise of Ferial Confine gasped with an existential blurt of obstinate tactility, violent in their self-immolation but never directing a rage outward. The gaze was inward. Then, when the drone grounded much of Chalk's classic works in the '90s and '00s, these slippery, elegiac croons of sonic impressionism dripped with an opalescent beauty that also spent a fair amount of time splashing around in the mud. More recently, Chalk has been exploring the poetic fragment, cracking the lens of British avant-folk eccentricity and scattering the results on stunningly beautiful albums like The Circle Of Days. The curious introductory track here sports a clattering of wood, recorded in situ with longtime collaborator Daisuke Suzuki, with a church nearby, whose bells chime the solemn Westminster Quarter melody. The following track pools rounded tones from Chalk's open-body electric guitar, finding a counterpart in the stoner-folk of Tom Carter's early work in the Charalambides. Piano, chord organ, and more guitar flesh out further tracks of nocturnally impressionist details that hang like constellations in the night sky, curving steadfast against the traffic of satellites, planes, and planets. The course of the second side reprises that of the first, with equally wandering expositions of intimate ambient swath, gossamer half-melody, and the soft-spoken mystical charm that has graced many an Andrew Chalk record! Very highly recommended as with everything that Chalk touches." [Aquarius Records]
"Or, where quality meets content. The name Andrew Chalk, and indeed Faraway Press and La Scie Dorée, will be familiar to any attentive Vital Weekly reader. Chalk has been releasing music since the mid 80s and has worked with people like David Jackman, Darren Tate and Jonathan Coleclough. His best know collaboration is perhaps that with Christoph Heemann under the name Mirror, creating a series of albums that belong both musically as visually to the, in my humble opinion of course, to the best that the ‘ambient/soundscape’ genre has to offer. His new solo album The Circle Of Days has been made available in two editions: 325 copies in regular sleeve and 100 in a beautiful handmade portfolio sleeve, which, if you enjoy that sort of thing, is well worth hunting down. Working again with Daisuke Suzuki, headman of Siren records, Chalk has created what can only be described as yet another gorgeous and very fulfilling album. Even though the cover features several song titles on the back, the album itself is banded as one track per side, giving the impression of two suites, which is something I really like. Plus the record features a label that is slightly smaller in size than regular LP labels, which gives the album the look of an ancient 78 rpm record, which, again, I like very much. Full points for style and design therefore. The precise contribution of Suzuki is not always clear: even though some tracks mark his name, the almost hesitant playing of instruments like guitar, keyboards, piano (in gorgeous stereo), vibes could be either of the two. There are environmental sounds added to the slow tempo music; birds, children playing, the sound of a swing, it all adds to a beautiful musical painting of endless summer days. Nothing new, nothing shocking, simply an emotionally moving musical miniature." [FK/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
|
East of the Sun |
CD |
"...These recordings originally came out in 1994 as a cassette, released through Ora's in-house label, Ora being an early collective that revolved around Chalk, Colin Potter, and Darren Tate with occasional assistance from Jonathan Coleclough, mnortham, Lol Coxhill, and a handful of like-minded British drone enthusiasts. A few years later, the Italian label Hic Sunt Leones convinced Chalk to reissue the cassette in digital form. That CD version of East Of The Sun compressed the two sides of the cassette into a single 50 minute piece and was flushed out with some complementary dronescaping. Chalk was never happy with the Hic Sunt Leones version; and thus his reissue of the album returns to the original version found on the cassette, now gloriously remastered in its entirety. For those persnickety types, the 17 minutes or so which concluded the Hic Sunt Leones version is not here; but that is a minor loss compared to the pinnacle of drone-based minimalism found here.
Sure, Eno's ambient records On Land and Thursday Afternoon were milestones in the realm of ambient music, setting an impressionist context through which any number of the images, thoughts, and ideals could be imagined; but that strategy was perfected by Andrew Chalk on a couple of records. There was his ephemeral album Sumac in collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough, there was the first Mirror album Eye Of The Storm, and there's East Of The Sun. Very dark without becoming unbearably cold, East Of The Sun is a constant bloom of nocturnal frequencies, whose origins may be thoroughly blurred bass guitar or possibly some resonant artifact from Chalk's acoustic work in Organum. Regardless, the resultant drones drift with no beginning and no end, merely rippling, reflecting, and turning upon themselves in a perpetual, very slow motion turbulence. Leaves tumbling in autumnal twilight. Fog spilling over coastal hills. Moonlight tickling the agitated surface of a pond. Any of these organic references for meditation on simplicity to reach the sublime and the profound could easily apply to Chalk's East Of The Sun. Not just recommended, this is required listening." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
|
The River that flows into the Sands |
LP |
Entirely handmade art edition, heavyweight card sleeve with tipped-on images, every copy features unique and original monotype artwork-printed by hand, no two copies are alike. 180 gramme clear vinyl with full-colour labels.
The strikingly radiant masterwork The River that Flows into the Sands receives its first vinyl airing thanks to the wonderful Faraway Press imprint. Exploring oneiric and ghostly guitar soundscapes, Andrew Chalk centers his attention on the guitar and develops a series of meditations that gives his music new depth. While all drone music has a drifting quality to it, The River that Flows Into the Sands is worthy of that description for a different reason. The expanses that normally come to mind when I listen to Chalk are gone on this album and replacing those images is a sense of continuous movement. The bowed instruments and contracting moans seem weightless and inconsequential, floating away into nothing, but leaving a path for other sounds to follow. Like a fountain each drone bubbles up and slowly fades away or evolves into a new drone and each time a sound disappears, there is a new voice there to replace it. Multiple listens will reveal, however, that Chalk really hasn't left that much silence on the record. That illusion is generated via the way Chalk mixes very distinct melodic features with fairly constant tones. As they move about together, a sense of space is opened up that may not actually exist. The effects are as real as possible, though, and there is little room for doubt that this one of the most unique albums in Chalk's discography.
[Soundohm]
|
2018 |
€30.00 |
|
| |
Paradise Lost |
LP |
"Newly reissued on vinyl (and digitally) with beautiful new artwork, Paradise Lost was originally released as a cassette back in 2019. As is the norm for many Andrew Chalk releases, additional details beyond the fact that it exists are quite thin, but this one takes that to an amusing extreme, as the Discogs entry for the original cassette notes "label and artist name are not listed on the release." That said, I believe I can say with moderate certainty that these two longform pieces were recorded on an 8-track reel-to-reel between 2016 and 2018 and that Chalk primarily played a synthesizer. Also, his Ghosts on Water bandmate Naoko Suzuki contributed some very well-hidden vocals and created the artwork for the original tape.
To some degree, it makes sense that this album originally surfaced as a very limited-small run tape, as it does not feel like one of Chalk's more significant opuses, but it is quite an enjoyable and interesting release nonetheless. In fact, the title piece feels like legitimately prime Andrew Chalk material to me, though I suspect many longtime fans will be more fascinated by the surprising and divergent "This Pendent World." Faraway Press One interesting bit of information that I stumbled upon while researching this album was a blurb from Daisuke Suzuki's Siren Records noting that this album "strongly recalls the atmosphere of home recording in the '80s." I got exactly the same impression myself from the opening "This Pendent World," as I had scribbled down that it felt like a duel between two very different artists from the golden age of private press New Age: one kosmische-inspired synth wizard hellbent on taking me to space and another guy who just wants to lull me into a blissful, bucolic reverie with some pretty string swells.
There are also some traces of a third guy who closely resembles contemporary Andrew Chalk, as there is a loose melodic theme of wobbly, liquid tones likely originating from an electric piano. While that is certainly an odd collision to encounter on a Milton-themed Andrew Chalk record, it works surprisingly well, amiably and amorphously drifting and curling like a trail of smoke. The following "Paradise Lost" is similarly form-averse, but in a much more compelling way, as its frayed and smeared swells of warm synth tones feel teasingly just out of focus. Additionally lurking within the artfully blurred dream-fog are a slow-motion tumble of acoustic guitar fragments, ghostly traces of Naoko's lovely singing, and probably some pedal steel too. I am tempted to make a wince-inducing pun on the album title here, but "Paradise Lost" is simply too beautiful of a piece to deserve such an indignity, vividly evoking the slowly streaking and shifting colors of an especially gorgeous sunset." [Brainwashed]
https://andrewchalk.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-lost
|
2021 |
€19.50 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW & DAISUKE SUZUKI |
山と梨 = Yama To Nashi |
CD |
Entirely handmade at Faraway Press (England)
Debossed design and letterpress printing, with an insert.
Recorded in Japan and England in 2016
“Somewhere in that blue sky
where you hear the sound of the waves,
I think I lost something incredible.
Standing at Lost and Found
in a transparent station of the past,
I became all the sadder”
-Sadness, Tanikawa Shuntaro
Our third full-length album in fifteen years..
"Andrew Chalk and Daisuke Suzuki have known each other for many years now, as Suzuki runs the Siren label out of Japan and had released Sumac, Chalk's masterful collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough. Suzuki is also responsible for one of the very few published interviews with the somewhat reclusive Chalk. Their friendship certainly runs deep, and out of this friendship came the impetus to collaborate once again (both Suzuki and Chalk had contributed to the now defunct Ora project well over a decade ago). The enveloping opiated drone wrapping around cold field recordings of arctic winds racing across a mountain becomes the centerpiece, reflecting just how good Andrew Chalk's sounds are. Entirely handmade sleeves, Yama to nashi (Mountain & Pear) features delicately embossed and debossed paper techniques, with letterpress texts (in Japanese), housed in a heavy card gatefold sleeve of mini LP size. Insert included with translations to English language." [Soundohm]
"The work of Andrew Chalk and Daisuke Suzuki seems as if it has been intertwined forever, so I was somewhat startled to discover that this is their first new collaborative release in almost a decade. As befits the re-convergence of these two masters of understated tranquility, Yama to Nashi feels like a relaxed and unhurried reunion of old friends rather than a bold new vision. As such, it is a somewhat minor (if lovely) addition to the Siren/Faraway Press oeuvre that mostly lingers in familiar territory, but there are a couple of divergent gems lurking amidst these new pieces that longtime fans will not want to miss.
For the most part, the languorous and glistening opening piece ("Threads From The Milky Way") sets the tone for the entire album, establishing the overarching aesthetic of sketchlike vignettes of dreamlike, liquescent bliss. It is difficult to tell exactly how Chalk and Suzuki are getting their blurred and slippery tones, but I believe there is a processed electric piano at the heart of these recordings. As the album unfolds, however, Chalk and Suzuki start to drift further and further away from their lazily glimmering and rippling sound pools and both the mood and the palette start to deepen (and darken). The first real shadows start to fall across Yama on the third piece, "Suzume," which casts a mournful spell by weaving discordant harmonies from glacially swelling strings and drifting smears of synth tones. Curiously, that veil of sadness dispels almost as suddenly and unexpectedly as it appeared, as the wonderful "Shelf on Wall" shakes off its initial moody reverie to blossom into a surreal field recording of a Japanese parade. From there, the piece continues to be a pleasantly inventive and evocative surprise, as the parade seems to partially fade away, but leaves a lovely and lyrical flute melody in its wake that dreamily drifts through a woozy fog of gentle arpeggios, crashing waves, and a few lingering tendrils of the raucous festivities (marching men, clattering percussion, children's voices). To my ears, it is the album's true centerpiece (conveniently located in the center of the album, no less), but it is not without strong competition from the album's final stretch.
Although it is considerably shorter, I am also quite fond of "A Sentry on The Roof," which augments its blearily impressionistic cascades of watery electric piano tones with the loud and fitful buzzing of a large bee. That bee makes a surprising amount of difference, which highlights an unusual trend the runs throughout Yama to Nashi: the purely instrumental pieces feel like the soundtrack to a gorgeous sunrise or seaside vista that I am not seeing, while the pieces that prominently feature field recording are considerably more effective at drawing me into the scene. I am a bit curious about why Chalk and Suzuki did not pursue that elegant blurring together of swooning, hazy ambiance and crisp, vibrant textures from the natural world more, as it definitely feels like that synthesis elevates this collaboration into something more transcendent and unique when it happens. If I had to guess, however, I suspect that the reason is that most of Yama to Nashi consists of Chalk and Suzuki's stronger improvisations that occurred on the road to composing the album's epic closing title piece. On one hand, "Yama To Nashi" is not radically different from the rest of the album, as it is built from gently tumbling arpeggios and warmly radiant washes of synthesizer (though there are some buried bird noises hiding in the mix). There is, however, an unexpectedly strong motif resembling a shuddering, digitalized bird call that periodically tears through the placid idyll. That certainly livens thing up, though it is not quite as dramatic as it sounds. The real difference is mostly just time: Chalk and Suzuki allow "Yama to Nashi" to languorously stretch out for over 20 minutes and that suits it beautifully. Duration makes a world of difference with music in this vein: a glimpse of heaven is nice, but getting a chance to linger in it is by far a superior experience.
As is true of most Andrew Chalk albums (both with and without Suzuki) there is very little to grumble about with this album: Chalk and Suzuki have a long history of making lovely and lush music together and Yama to Nashi ends a long hiatus to bring the world more of it. That pleases me. I am, however, the hapless victim of my own high expectations, as I hoped this welcome reunion would result in an enduring classic. Yama is not an enduring classic, though "Shelf on Wall" seems like a strong step towards a more ambitious and immersive future opus. Hopefully it will not take another decade for that to happen, but I am sure I can find some way to keep busy while I wait if it does. In the meantime, Yama to Nashi is a solid to return to form that adds one more quietly beautiful longform work to the Chalk/Suzuki canon." [Anthony D'Amico / Brainwashed] |
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW / JEAN-NOEL REBILLY |
TSILLA |
CD |
“On Tsilla, Jean-Noël Rebilly and Andrew Chalk pay homage to the late French writer and engraver Cécile Reims. While she may be best known as interpretative engraver for surrealist artist Hans Bellmer, and she also worked with Leonor Fini and briefly for Salvador Dali, Reims’ most powerful and enduring works were made either in collaboration with her husband, the writer and artist Fred Deux (who signed their collaborative work “cf deux”), or by herself. Later works by Reims, like the L’Elan Vitale suite, or the Histoires Naturelles series, manifest denuded, obliterated landscapes; spiralling abstractions; engravings that shiver with an unearthly radiance, where etchings of great intricacy hint at intimacy and the velocity of rapture, before opening out to aching empty spaces. The music on Tsilla is similarly evocative, a tender weaving of emotional complexity carved with the hand-held and simple tools of artisans. Much like Reims, Rebilly and Chalk enact a similar transfiguration of base materials. For Reims, natural order is made “more sinuous and curious through the rounded flow of her graver,” Kate McCrickard once noted. For Rebilly and Chalk, these seven pieces, cast under the shadow of a great artist, inhabit that sinuousness, and tease out the eternal flow of tone.” [Jon Dale]
Edition of 300, comes in a mini handmade gatefold jacket
https://anarchiveslabel.bandcamp.com/album/tsilla |
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW / RALF WEHOWSKY / ERIC LANZILLOTTA |
Yang-Tul |
CD |
"A legendary sound collaboration formed of two lengthy pieces. The first track features Andrew Chalk (Mirror, Ora, Ferial Confine) gently reworking the sound materials of Ralf Wehowsky (P16.D4). A hypnotic, slowly-evolving drone with waves of mysterious sounds, static and glitches. The second piece, on the other hand, finds Ralf Wehowsky composing a frenzied journey into otherworldly realms using sound material from Andrew Chalk and Eric Lanzillotta (Eye Music). These pieces reflect a sound unique from the work of any of the three individual participants, but clearly related. Subtle, but full of detail for the willing listener. Originally issued as limited coloured vinyl only on Lanzillotta's label Anomalous Records in 1998. Cover painting by Andrew Chalk. Remastered for CD from the original master recordings. Digipak." [label info]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| CHANTE ISTA |
Alaya |
CD-R |
"The first release of the project from the North Karelia – Chante Ista. Meditative sound installations from 66° 33′ parallel… Anima Mundi contemplates the static icy landscapes that are sparkling by purity of perfection. Anima Mundi listens itself wandering behind the sun on the firmament’s ringing emptiness. Anima Mundi inhales and exhales the northern lights, the endless energy flows. Excellent lasting dream of Alaya, that runnin through the World Space by Fiery Thought of Ultimate Beginning." [label info]
www.radiodrone-records.com
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| CHAOS AS SHELTER |
Dawn Syndrome |
CD |
TOPHET PROPHET is maybe the only real dark ambient / industrial-label in Israel at this time. This new CHAOS AS SHELTER-release spreads on 9 tracks lots of very clear metal / bell / glass –sounds & drones, “eastern/oriental” ethnic found sounds and melancholic melodies, wonderful vocals from VERA AGNIVOLOK on one piece, conrete recordings from broken glass, etc... and the epic drones CAS is known for... A high-class release and also perfect introduction into the mystic-drone world of CHAOS AS SHELTER ! [Drone Rec. info 2006]
“After releasing over 18 releases since 1999, Chaos As Shelter needs no further introductions. His latest work, dawn syndrome, was recorded in 2001 and is dedicated to the end of Kali Yuge, the age of iron, which is the final and most negative of four evolutionary Yugic cycles, the end of the world, and the dawn of a new golden age - Sataya Yuga (the age of purity). Dawn Syndrome is an eight-track composition of ritual dark ambient crafted in the skillful way Chaos as Shelter is known for. The usage of organic and artificial sound sources which has been his trademark. It is a hymn of submersion and rebirth, of confusion, ambiguity and enigma, of the darkest moment before sunrise.
Dawn Syndrome was recorded at new Jerusalem studios and Chaos As Shelter was supported by Vera Agnivolok , Helena Dorsht and an accidentally obtained presto home recorded vinyl disc.“ [label info]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Live in New Jerusalem |
CD-R |
“Two Live tracks of beautiful Dark ambient sounds from Israel. Over an hours worth of music, the first track was recorded in December of 2000 at New Jerusalem Studios, the Second is from August of 2000, and was recorded live at the Abama Theatre, in Jerusalem. Mixing drifting, dark ambient electronics, with subtle rhythms, and ethnic sounds, Chaos as Shelter are one of the more interesting new projects from the last couple of years, and his live work adds another layer to his already complex sound. Haunting, and meditative, this is music that envokes a world of it's own.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Message |
mCDR |
Nr. 9 in der mCDR-Serie beschert uns das wohl derzeit düsterste Projekt aus Israel..
“ Chaos As Shelter, from Israel, is one of those bands that don't really need to be presented. He has fastly become a big name in the ambient industrial world thanks to a handful of releases on various labels around the world. For this 3", Vadim has worked from a spy message he had captured on his shortwave radio.
The always evolving 20mn track he has composed is simply fascinating and obsessive. At the first listening you're hooked !” [press release]
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| CHAOTALION |
Tannenholzrauch |
CD |
"Dark fir woods and weird pentagram-esque runes on the cover: How can the contents of this album not be a clichéd, possibly black-metal influenced rendition of the idiotic “stay true to the soil” creed? Well, Alexander Marco has succeeded in tricking us all. His music on this album under the Chaotalion moniker is a vast expanse of breathing, pulsating ambient dreamscapes, cleverly evoking certain black metal genre elements, but totally eliding its ideology.
Marco uses guitar and electronics to create the music on this album, but his textural approach owes a good deal to his work with not-so-musical sounds. A regular participant in the Noise Factory sessions hosted by Y-Ton-G, Marco is also schooled in musique concrète and assemblage of found sounds, and this rather constructivist approach gives this release a refreshingly sober, clear, kitsch-free touch. Actually, the album, with all its packaging and teutonic titles, might well be a conceptual ‘joke’ on certain ‘black’ aesthetics, but the music is too well-crafted to allow for an easy interpretation as a simple parody.
File under: ambient" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"Attenuation Circuit Records have been rumbling around for a while. It’s mindblowing how much effort Sascha puts up into his releases, shows, tours, and his activism on the contemporary avant-garde scene skyrocketed the label to the top. It’s no wonder why this is the case considering the number of releases Attenuation Circuit has managed to publish in previous years. The numbers speak for themselves. Tannenholdrauch by Chaotalion is just a tiny particle in the label’s vast universe, but the significant gear on the modern dark ambient scene. The album comprises of nine cleverly layered dark ambient numbers that burst with eerie atmospherics. These eerie atmospherics consist of a wide array of spacey sounds, subtle synthetic drones, occasional guitar experimentations, and delicate non-organic noises. Chaotalion uses calm tones as overtures for his compositions, perpetuated by simplistic ambient keys. The situation becomes complex when the artist includes the mentioned elements to enhance the overall listening experience. The transitions between monotone and polytone sequences are nicely composed, so Tannenholdrauch keeps attention thought complete sessions. There’s a certain accentuation of composite darkness showcased through loads of assorted half-tones. However, Chaotalion maintains a dosage of melody that sounds intentionally odd, but pleasant to the listening apparatus. The artist has also included pulsing sequences at some points to retain listeners’ attention during the exhausting monotone segments. Still, these monotone segments are incorporated to maintain a dark, depressive, obscure ambiance that lurks around throughout the complete album. If that was the intention of the Chaotalion, than the artist unquestionably nailed in his intent to depict macabre imagery through Tannenholdrauch. The album comes with minimalistic photography of the woods, characteristic for depressive black metal bands, and it includes stylized pentagram logo, which serves as a Chaotalion’s symbol. Tannenholdrauch carries the dosage of depressiveness characteristic for the vast majority of dark ambient works, but this particular one provides a more eerie atmosphere than the other artists. Tannenholdrauch has come as a compact disc, and it can be purchased at the Attenuation Circuit Bandcamp page." [Thoughts Words Action] |
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| CHASE, BRIAN |
Drums & Drones |
CD & DVD |
"A first for Pogus! This fantastic new 2 disc set by Brian Chase, drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, contains both a CD of the music and a DVD of the music with videos by New York video artists Ursula Scherrer and Erik Z. This recording is exactly what it says it is : drums and drones - based on Just Intonation tuning theory: A tuning system modeled after a naturally occurring acoustic phenomenon known as overtones, the subsidiary tones which exist in an ordered series from an established primary tone. Stemming from this single primary tone an infinite amount of overtones can be derived. As Chase explains: Drums and percussion has seen some but not much exploration in Just Intonation, yet they are inherently designed to represent it as such: a drum head is tuned to a single pitch, one frequency, and resonates with rich harmonic detail. From there the overtone series can be uncovered and expressed. The Drums and Drones project deals directly with approaching drums and percussion from the standpoint of Just Intonation. For Chase, the genesis of this project is outlined in this brief excerpt from his liner notes: The Drums and Drones project initially came about from inspiration by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House installation in TriBeCa, NYC. I had spent a good amount of time, volunteering there as a 'monitor' someone who minded the installation and greeted visitors. The duration of my shift, about 4-5 hours, was mostly spent sitting directly outside of the gallery space, listening and feeling the immense sound pulsing through the door and walls, and reading up on the principles of Just Intonation and the historical background of La Monte, Marian, and their cohorts of the NYC experimental art scene. I accumulated countless hours, too, sitting in the space itself, embracing the impact of the finely tuned sound and light vibrations. The tones would dance in my head, hypnotic and entrancing, and I would hear tones that previously seemed veiled which were now resonating loudly and clearly somewhere between the air, my ear, and my brain. I was mesmerized by the power of this physiological experience. With the pieces that were developed for a Feb. 2007 concert, a starting point was formed for what was to grew into a recording project. I had the idea of approaching the project as being a series of etudes, each one a study in the different ways of the application of the Just Intonation tuning theory to drums and percussion. Eventually I did develop a basic method which laid the groundwork for most of what was to come with D & D: 1) tune the drum head to a specific frequency 2) mic the drum and run the sound into a computer 3) with recording software, use very precise, a.k.a. surgical, equalization to emphasize and boost the frequencies of the drum's overtones. Also as part of the setup was a loop pedal, but at this stage it was used more for live performance. Another important method that I developed at this stage was getting sustained feedback tones generated between the resonating drumhead and the stereo speakers. To do this, I would boost a specific frequency on the EQ corresponding to the fundamental or a low harmonic, and this would encourage the drumhead to vibrate at that frequency. A feedback loop would get going between the drum and the speakers. Often times I would need to raise or lower the pitch of the drumhead ever so slightly to 'dial in' the tuning of the feedback tone. Each etude developed at this time would highlight a different set of overtones and showcase a specific playing technique. Brian Chase is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up on Long Island, he started taking private drum lessons when he was 5 that led to earning a Bachelors of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Though he works in a variety of contexts, Brian is probably best known as a member of the rock group Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a band that has toured extensively throughout the world and has been nominated for two Grammys. Other recorded projects include the Seconds, a minimalist punk rock band that has two albums on the 5rc label, a duo ensemble with saxophonist Seth Misterka that has a record on the Heathen Skulls label, and Jeremiah Lockwood's Sway Machinery with a record on JDub. Performance collaborations have included Matt Welch, Jessica Pavone, Mary Halvorson, Stefan Tcherepnin, Alan Licht and Okkyung Lee. Brian is also interested in the Just Intonation tuning theory and is heavily influenced by the work of La Monte Young introduced to him by guitarist Jon Catler." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"The next release is the first DVD release by Pogus, with the same music on CD. I went to straight to the DVD. Brian Chase is the drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (which name I may have come across, but surely not their music, as far as I know), a rock group. I must admit I didn't know what to expect from a disc in which the title already tells us what's going to happen. But exactly how drums create drones, or how the two are going to be married, is of course the big question here. Inspired by LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela, Chase started to tune the drum head to a specific frequency and 'mic the drum and the sound into a computer' and then using software with very precise equalization to emphasize and boost the frequencies of the drum's overtones. In a concert situation he would also use a loop pedal. That was one starting point, the other was to have drum heads resonate with feedback loops between drum and speakers. None of this is actually be seen on the DVD, and the images, created by Ursual Scherrer and Erik Z, which are mostly abstract affairs of multi-layered images, that fit the music rather well. In many of these pieces one hardly has the idea one is listening to anything that is even remotely drum like, except perhaps 'Stick Shot Harmonics Drone', which is also one of the pieces in which the video seems to be running along with the music - in sync. But many of the other are like sustaining tones of sometimes sine wave like sounds, waving slowly and majestically about. If you listen closely you may recognize a bit of drum here and there, maybe more apparent if you play the CD and not be distracted by the visuals. As someone who loves drones, I must say I was quite taken by this release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| CHASSE, LOREN & MICHAEL NORTHAM |
The Otolith |
CD |
58 Minuten voller Wunder und Geheimnis! Mehrere Jahre haben LOREN CHASSE (THUJA, etc.) und MICHAEL NORTHAM eine unglaubliche Fülle von Klängen zusammengetragen (Field Recordings, Aussen-Objekt-Aufnahmen, Instrumentalsounds) und daraus auf acht Stücken Räume voller konkreter Details und dröhnender Sphären erschaffen, es tönt so soft und obertonreich und doch nie beliebig, Originalsounds bleiben oft im dunkeln aber betören stets in höchstem Maße. Das ist "organischer Ambient" oder "Microsound Musique Concrete" in Vollendung!
"The recordings of Loren Chasse and Michael Northam begin and end with the great outdoors. Yet, the well-documented wanderlust of these two kindred sound artists is only part of the equation. Field recordings of wind, water, and stone intertwine and hybridize within private rituals of droning psychedelic ragas that return as a folklore reiterating the mystery of the natural world around us. Through his numerous contributions to the multi-faceted Jewelled Antler as well his solo work, Chasse has long postulated the microphone as an extension of his ear, which magnifies and probes the surface of the earth for a tactile grit that permeates all of the sounds that he generates. Northam claims his inspiration from vast geographies, microscopic detail, and severe weather, which he compacts through various techniques to explore what is between improvisation and acousmatic composition. Both Chasse and Northam entertain such notions through an alchemy of arcane instruments: autoharps, ouds, flutes, bells, gongs, bowed wires, harmonium, and Northam's magnetic table harp. The Otolith is the result of several years of work, with sounds gathered collectively in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout Europe. The album speaks as a bramble of fence wire and chaparral scrub oak, acquiring an unkempt collection of rubbish, cobwebs, insects, and soil within its tangle. As the wind pushes in one direction, this mass emits a quite if scratchy melody as if the ghost from a forgotten song; but when the wind changes directions, it bellows a rasping din of metal and vine cracking against itself. This sodden calliope tumbles into a miasma of droning atmospheres, softly rasped distortion, and very subtly rendered lulabies lurking deep within the overgrowth." [label info]
" Throughout the Marin Headlands just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the coastal mountains are dotted with countless bunkers which were built during World War II in anticipation of the Japanese invasion that never came. Nearly 70 years later, these bunkers have been weathered by wind, fog, rain, and of course the sodden folks who tromp through the Headlands on a daily basis. These concrete structures with small portals facing the Pacific all have amazing reverberant qualities; and it shouldn't be a surprise that the more frequented bunkers and passageways inevitably echo with the sound of children dying to hear their own voices tossed back to them. The Headlands have been a favored destinations for Loren Chasse, who has sought many of the lesser known and lesser travelled environs for field recordings and jam sessions that would eventually work their way
into all things Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Franciscan Hobbies, The Blithe Sons, Of, Ov, etc.). In his recordings, Chasse extracts a profound mystery and grand sense of wonder from that echo, the bunker's grit, the soft recurrence of surf bleeding through those walls, and the distant bleat of a foghorn.
Back in 2005, Chasse took his fellow globetrotting wanderer Michael Northam to the Battery Townsley where the two set up long
string wires and various handheld instruments to begin a series of recordings which took a few years to complete after Northam left
California. The two did manage to meet up once again in Estonia, there exploring the Soviet industrial ruins that pock the Estonian landscape with similar intentions. Out of the bramble of overgrown weeds, rebar, concrete, dirt, rock, wind, and water, Chasse and Northam straddle those psychedelic leanings of Jewelled Antler and the more studied aspects of minimalism.
The Otolith begins with an acoustic clamor, as if billions of iron filings were brushing against each other under the direction of a
couple of hefty magnets, before shifting into a harmonium blur of sustained tones hinting at a melody well beneath these clouds of tousled energy. Softer drones and Aeolian fragments flutter forth out of bowed strings and gently tapped gongs amidst a golden hue of opiated atmospherics. Scrabblings across the surfaces of leaves, rocks, mud, and metal fuse with field recordings of wind and water, as a continuing demonstration of Chasse's alchemy with naturalist sound to bring forth stately ragas and dreamtime psychedelic lullabies.
Chasse and Northam work amazingly well together, having produced this thoroughly amazing album. Think Popul Vuh, Parson Sound, Pandit Pran Nath, Harry Bertoia, and Eric La Casa. Totally beautiful and mesmerizing." [Aquarius Records review]
www.helenscarsdale.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHATHAM, RHYS |
Outdoor Spell |
CD |
"Rhys Chatham has trailblazed a course through late 20th century music, equally aplomb in post-minimalist composition as he is in punk. Not since Roebling laid his span across the East River has there been an artist who builds bridges in both how we hear music and how we can appreciate art. His latest album, Outdoor Spell, is a further document in that direction. Here has has eschewed 100 guitars, or even himself playing a single guitar, for the trumpet and voice, both electrified and dry. www.myspace.com/rhyschatham" [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHAUVEAU, SYLVAIN |
S. |
10inch |
Five pieces, composed for the dance show "Au nombre des choses", very reduced material, single notes on guitar, piano, electric hummings & micropatterns, gives a lot of room and silence, quite special & intense!
" 10" vinyl version to accompany the long-awaited sixth release for French composer and electro-acoustic producer, Sylvain Chauveau. Since his 2000 debut Le Livre Noir Du Capitalisme, Chauveau has been a pioneering figure in the world of modern classical/electronic music. This status has seen him inhabit the same creative space as Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Ryan Teague, and Type welcomes him to their label and community, beginning with the issue of this brand new mini-album. S. sees Chauveau taking a daring new direction since his last record, moving away from the haunting strings and piano work of his best known works and temporarily stepping into the world of minimal electroacoustics, using the guitar as a focal point." [label info]
https://sylvainchauveau.bandcamp.com/album/s
www.typerecords.com
|
2007 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) |
CD |
"Stripped: dekonstruierte "Popsongs" des französischen Elektronikers.
Es ist kaum zu glauben, dass zwischen Sylvain Chauveaus letztem Album "Down To The Bone" und "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" ganze fünf Jahre liegen. Dazwischen gab’s Reissues, diverse Kollaborationen und Soundtrack-Arbeiten, dennoch ließ sich Chauveau Zeit, bis seine Ideen die Reife hatten, umgesetzt und auf Tonträger gebannt zu werden. Die Depeche-Mode-Songs, die er auf "Down To The Bone" erkundete, brachten ihn auf die Idee, ein Album mit Songs aufzunehmen. In vielerlei Hinsicht ist "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" wie ein normales Album mit Hooks und Melodien konstruiert. Dennoch dekonstruierte Chauveau die bekannten Formen auf ihr Grundlevel. Vokalpassagen fallen aus den sparsamen Klavierarrangements wie Äpfel im Herbst. So wie Carsten Nicolai und Ryuichi Sakamoto klassische Musik dekonstruierten, hat sich Chauveau vorgenommen, die Wurzeln der Popmusik freizulegen. Jedes Stück klingt zunächst so, als könne mit ihm ein Drei-Minuten-Pop-Stück beginnen, bevor dann alle Teile allmählich wegbrechen. Eine herausfordernde, intensive Hörerfahrung." [label info / Indigo]
"It is hard to believe that five years have passed since Sylvain Chauveau’s last ‘proper’ album. Of course there have been re-issues peppering the years since ‘Down To The Bone’, as well as more than a few collaborations and soundtrack appearances, but Sylvain has purposefully waited to allow his ideas to come to fruition. On mentioning his new album to me a few years ago, Sylvain commented that he didn’t think it would appeal to everyone and that he wanted to take a fresh direction. The Depeche Mode songs he had explored on ‘Down To The Bone’ had given him ideas he felt he needed to explore, and ‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)’ is his attempt at an album of ‘songs’.
In many ways, ‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated’) is constructed the way albums used to be – it is compact and filled with vocal hooks and melodies, yet Sylvain has deconstructed the musical forms he grew up listening to and reduced them to their base level. Vocal snippets fall through the stereo field and his signature piano motifs splutter and cough through processed digital hiccups. As Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto deconstructed classical music, Sylvain attempts here to study and dissolve the roots of popular music. Each piece feels like it could have started as a three-minute pop sing-along before the accompaniments were stripped away and the component parts reduced to merely a backbone.
‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)’ is a daring and challenging listening experience. The widescreen theatrics of Sylvain’s previous work have all but disappeared, leaving an album that is stark and incredibly beautiful. It is an album rooted in a love of art and music, both minimal and mainstream and celebrates Sylvain’s influences. One listen might only reveal surface details, but listen again and you will find much, much more." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) |
LP |
"It is hard to believe that five years have passed since French composer Sylvain Chauveau's last "proper" album. Of course, there have been re-issues peppering the years since Down To The Bone, as well as more than a few collaborations and soundtrack appearances, but Sylvain has purposefully waited to allow his ideas to come to fruition. The Depeche Mode songs he had explored on Down To The Bone had given him ideas he felt he needed to explore, and Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) is his attempt at an album of "songs." In many ways, this album is constructed the way albums used to be -- it is compact and filled with vocal hooks and melodies, yet Sylvain has deconstructed the musical forms he grew up listening to and reduced them to their base level. Vocal snippets fall through the stereo field and his signature piano motifs splutter and cough through processed digital hiccups. As Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto deconstructed classical music, Sylvain attempts here to study and dissolve the roots of popular music. Each piece feels like it could have started as a 3-minute pop sing-along before the accompaniments were stripped away and the component parts reduced to merely a backbone. Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) is a daring and challenging listening experience. The widescreen theatrics of Sylvain's previous work have all but disappeared, leaving an album that is stark and incredibly beautiful. It is an album rooted in a love of art and music, both minimal and mainstream and celebrates Sylvain's influences. One listen might only reveal surface details, but listen again and you will find much, much more." [label info]
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
|
The Black Book of Capitalism |
CD |
"Erste Solo-CD von Sylvain Chauveau aus Toulouse, Mitglied der ebenfalls hochgelobten MICRO:MEGA, die eine vielseitige Verknüpfung von mehreren Stilen vorgenommen haben. "Le live noir du capitalisme" ist introvertierter und (noch) melancholischer ausgefallen als man es von MICRO:MEGA kennt, langflächige Pianopassagen, Violine, Gesang, dazu aber auch einzelne Samples, Bläser,...
aber auch leicht experimentelle Anwandlungen, perfekte Filmmusik.... herbstlich-warm, einsam, unglaublich nostalgisch & wunderschön, eine CD für die Insel." [Drone Rec. info 2001]
"Originally released in 2000, Le Livre Noir Du Capitalisme was the first album from French composer Sylvain Chauveau. Now in 2008, it has been remastered and repackaged for Type Records, translated into the English The Black Book of Capitalism. This record was the first the world had heard from Sylvain, a musician who had been rooted in post-rock before realizing that he could do a lot more with the instruments around him. On The Black Book of Capitalism, we hear a rare playful side to the composer as he flirts with Gallic classical music, electronica, jazz, and even indie rock. The variety splintered into various side-projects as Sylvain moved on in the music scene, but here we get a sense of confident experimentation without a hint of cliché. Sylvain's sound would go on to influence a host of other artists and kick off an entire sub-genre of modern classical music, but strangely enough, this debut album has been out of press for some time. Now remastered by Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin and on vinyl for the first time ever, it sounds more relevant and timeless than it ever has. Beginning with a cloud of smoky ambience, piano, strings and the atmospheric field recordings that frame the record, we are dragged into Sylvain's noir-esque world. This sets the scene for the entire album which drifts through the kind of piano-led classical vignettes popularized by Max Richter and more recently Goldmund, yet punctuates these with doomy jazz and lighter pieces such as the guitar-led "Dialogues Avec Le Vent." The result is a beguiling collection of pieces which show an incredibly inventive mind at work, a mind refusing to be held to one specific style, or even time." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Kogetsudai |
LP |
"Kogetsudai is Sylvain Chauveau's 10th album, the second in a trilogy initiated by Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) (2010), where the song structure is dismantled and reconstructed on the fringe of silence. Whereas Singular Forms found inspiration from Abstract Painting, Kogetsudai is influenced by Zen rock gardens found in Japan Ñ also the location where the album was conceived (for the most part) Ñ and from which the album borrows its title. Layers of minimal electronic sounds and filtered field recordings meet Sylvain's rich baritone voice, with ghosts of piano. Sylvain Chauveau has made solo records on labels such as FatCat, Type, Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier, and Brocoli: very minimal compositions for acoustic instruments, electronics and vocals. He has played live around the world (Europe, America, Asia), performed in museums and art galleries, and was artist in residence at the Villa Kujoyama (Kyoto 2011), Fundacao Serralves (Porto 2011), and Lieu Unique (Nantes 2004). He runs the labels Onement, whose aim is to release one-copy vinyl records (www.onement-label.com) and I Will Play This Song Once Again Records where musicians re-record their songs for each buyer. He has composed a piece titled You Will Leave No Mark on the Winter Snow whose duration is seven years, with extremely long silences inside (www.7yearsofsilence.com). He has made soundtracks for long feature films and dance shows. Sylvain Chauveau also plays with 0 (with Joël Merah and Stéphane Garin), Arca (with Joan Cambon) and On (with Steven Hess). He was born in 1971 in Bayonne (France) and lives in Brussels, Belgium. Kogetsudai is the third album featuring Sylvain Chauveau published by Brocoli, following ON's Second Souffle (with Steven Hess and Pierre-Yves Macé), and the 7 inches The Absence (with Rainier Lericolais)." [label info]
www.brocoli.org
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| CHAUVEAU, SYLVAIN & ENSEMBLE NOCTURNE |
Down to the Bone. An acoustic Tribute to Depeche Mode |
CD |
"TRIBUTE TO DEPECHE MODE. Interpreted by Silvain for voice and acoustic instruments only, very minimal and down to the bone! For this album, Sylvain Chauveau (voice and guitar) was helped by: Samuel Crowther :piano, Marie Legendre : alto, Graldine Devillieres : cello, Aurlien Besnard : clarinets and JB Salles : up-right bass!Tracklist: 01. Stripped 02. The things you said 03. Blasphemous rumours 04. Deaths door 05. Home 06. Policy of truth 07. In your room 08. Free love 09. Never let me down again 10. Enjoy the silence." [label info]
|
2005 |
€16.50 |
|
| CHEERLEADER 69 & .CUT |
Nagatsuki |
mCD-R |
collaboration between two french musicians usually active in other musical genres (cheerleader 69 is the ambient/cinematic project of the french cyberpunk punish yourself band singer while .cut is usually more in a post-rock vein). "nagatsuki" is a wonderful ambient/industrial track based upon field recordings done in japan with added bass & guitar drones...
completed 5 years ago, this track was supposed to be released on a split-tape (but the planned label sadly folded) then was presumably lost until albérick found it on a long forgotten hard disk!
released February 18, 2017
field recording by VX in tokyo (asakusa, akihabara, ueno, shinjuku, goldengai) & osaka, september 2010.
sound manipulations & editing by albérick, september 2010.
guitar drones recorded live (guitar: brouff & VX, bass: akira), september 2011.
mixed & mastered by VX, february 2012.
photography by albérick
www.taalem.com
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| CHION, MICHEL / LIONEL MARCHETTI / JEROME NOETINGER |
Les 120 Jours |
do-CD |
Ausufernde Electro-Akustik und Musique Concrete der drei französischen Komponisten, wo sich Kriegs/Kampf-geräusche, orientale Gesänge, Stimmen und found sounds und massenhaft konkrete Geräusche aller Art zu einem dynamischen, intensiven Ganzen vermengen.. ein wahrhaft monumentales Werk !
"Musique concrete composed in 1997/98 for the Festival Musique Action in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy. A collaboration between these three French composers. First they collected a bank of sounds, which they reworked and transformed using their own style and techniques. At the end all the parts were organised together to create this kind of monster." [label info]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| CHOPIN, HENRI / PAN SONIC / ACHIM WOLLSCHEID |
Composition I |
CD |
SO macht Globalisierung Spass! Wer hätte das gedacht? Das französische Ur-Tier der sound poetry HENRI CHOPIN (3 Stücke) zusammen mit den finnischen Avantgarde-Elektronikern PAN SONIC und dem deutschen Konzeptkünstler auf EINER CD, das alles auf dem japanischen Label von KOUHEI. Herausragend ist dabei das 22 minütige „Kumamoto osterit“ von PAN SONIC, ein regelrechtes elektro-akustisches Opus !
“Fascinating three-way split CD with about 20 minutes of material from each artist. Mostly minimal, concrete sounds with occasional louder parts, makes for a smooth deep listening experience. Artwork by Tatsuo Ikeda.“ [Someplaceelse]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHORA(S)SAN TIME-COURT MIRAGE (=CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX) |
Live at the Grimm Museum |
CD |
"Exemplary work from Catherine Christer Hennix's ensemble. This disc is the beginning of a series of collaborative work between Hennix, her ensemble and Important Records. Released in conjuntction with the Sonic Acts festival in Amsterdam.
BLUES DHIKR AL-SALAM (BLUES AL MAQAM)
for voice, brass, computer and live electronics in the mixed-media environment
NUR / SOLITON(E) STAR
The world premiere of the infinitary computer animation NUR and the accompanying infinitary computer sound composition SOLITON(E) STAR were given at Diapason Gallery (NYC) for the celebration of La Monte Young's 70th birthday in 2005.
Catherine Christer Hennix has now extended this installation in the venerable tradition of the pentatonic blues for a live-electronic ensemble.
Recorded live on Sunday 14 August 2011 at the Grimm Museum, Berlin
Catherine Christer Hennix – voice, computer, sine waves, live electronics
Amelia Cuni - voice
Robin Hayward – microtonal tuba
Hilary Jeffery – trombone
Michael Northam – time-mirage delay, sound engineer." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| CHORD |
Flora |
CD |
"Neuer Drone-Monolith bestehend aus Kyle Benjamin (guitarist for Chicago´s Unfortunaut), Jason Hoffman (a.k.a. darkwave composer Anatole), Trevor de Brauw (of Chicago instrumentalists Pelican) und Phil Dole (of über-dronists X-Bax). Folgende Herangehensweise: Es gibt einen Chord und jeder der hier Teilnehmenden spielt davon eine einzelne Note - Monotonie in seiner reinsten Form. Da brummen die Boxen, glühen die Kabel, vibrieren die Eingeweide, vorausgesetzt, selbstredend, natürlich, wo denkste hin, ´maximum volume yields maximum result´. Ein ´sonic titan´ zwischen Lotus Eaters und Growing." [Flight 13]
"Evanston, IL. - CHORD was formed at Dr. Wax, a once thriving record store (now sadly closed, but immortalized as the title inspiration for prolific casio-rocker Wesley Willis’s 2000 full length) that was an appealing gathering place for musicians and music aficionados alike. Amid endless musings about the finer points of texture, tone, and Jimmy Eat World’s rousing single “The Middle”, Kyle Benjamin (guitarist for Chicago's Unfortunaut), Jason Hoffman (a.k.a. darkwave composer Anatole), Trevor de Brauw (of Chicago instrumentalists Pelican) and Phil Dole (of über-dronists X-Bax) devised an outline for CHORD that lived for many months in the realm of conversation. With a shared appreciation for the works of Tony Conrad, and Glen Branca the group formulated a collective vision: exploit and explore the sonic depth of a single chord.
CHORD performances consist of each player being assigned one note from a pre-selected chord. They are then expected to consider all ranges of flexibility concerning octave, rhythm, playing style and effect treatments. The overall effect CHORD generates is that of a single note being rendered into an unsolvable riddle – a harmonic Gordian knot that creates an almost pastoral feel of being blinded by the sun. The rejection of melody and structure in favor of sweeping and epic tones inspires a sense of rousing apprehension. Shrouded in the individual tunings of each player the pieces never become diluted, instead finding resolution in collective dissonance and consonance. To be in the presence of chord achieved is transcendent.
CHORD first performed during February 2004 at Evanston's Nevin's Live, stunning a sold out crowd who had gathered on a combination of word of mouth and their appreciation for the other folk-rock acts on the bill. A few select shows followed including coveted opening slots for Jakob, Savage Republic, Growing, and The Austerity Program, as well as a headlining appearance in Brooklyn at a benefit for The American Red Cross. CHORD released its debut recording FLORA on Neurot Recordings in spring 2009." [label info]
"...It's all quite dramatic and epic, quite beautiful, stately at certain moments, almost chaotic and crumbling at others, anyone into Conrad, Cale, Maclise, Flynt and especially Branca and Chatham will definitely dig this. As well as guitardrone freaks who count Fear Falls Burning, RST, Seconds In Formaldehyde, Elm, Continuum and the like among their favorites." [Aquarius Records review]
www.neurotrecordings.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| CHRISTOPHERSON, PETER |
The Art of Mirrors. Live at L'Etrange Festival 2004 (Homage to DEREK JARMAN) |
CD |
\\\"The late Peter \\\"Sleazy\\\" Christopherson, former member of Coil, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, is remembered by Black Mass Rising and Infinite fog Produciton Labels with the release of his 2004 performance at L\\\'Étrange Festival, The Art of Mirrors (homage to Derek Jarman).
A master of samples, industrial wizard, renowned visual artist, Peter \\\"Sleazy\\\" Christopherson influenced all. Heavy, dark, and otherworldly, this record is sure to bring you towards a trance-like state.\\\" [label info]
https://infinitefog.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-l-etrange-festival-2004-the-art-of-mirrors-homage-to-derek-jarman
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| CHROME |
Alien Soundtracks |
CD |
Die frühen CHROME-Alben werden von NOISEVILLE wieder aufgelegt, ihre rauhe Science Fiction / Industrial / Psych / Post-Punk Mischung war damals (und ist es heute) ziemlich einmalig! ALIEN SOUNDTRACKS war das erste Album auf dem sich der so typische CHROME-Sound in voller Gänze entfaltete..
"This is Chrome's second album, released in 1978, and comprised of members Gary Spain (bass, guitar, vocals), Damon Edge (drums, synthesizer), and Helios Creed. Alien Soundtracks is the first of their releases that would later mark them as early innovators of post-punk industrial experimentalism. This release is raw punk heavy on the Stoogeian vibe, featuring Creed's flanging, scrawling guitar sounds backed up by Edge's use of tape manipulation and samples. " [label notes]
www.noiseville.com
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Half Machine Lip Moves |
CD |
"Originally released in 1979 on Siren/Beggars Banquet, Half Machine Lip Moves is Chrome's third album and is considered an absolute classic of raw punk/experimental genius, authored by the duo of Helios Creed and Damon Edge. "Half Machine Lip Moves was a curious and powerful hybrid, which fused a Stooges-styles aggression with a sci-fi and LSD-inspired otherworldliness, reflected in titles that evidenced their interest in aliens and contemporary technology. This album was arguably their finest moment ... Creed's searing, heavily FX-laden guitar and Edge's eerie Moog and vocals, underpinned by metallic drums, came together to create what could have become a radical new departure point for a nascent form of post-rock." --The Wire; "One of my Personal Top 25 albums of all time, this is certainly one of those records you can keep returning to and find new things buried in all those layers of ZOUND." --Julian Cope" [label info]
www.noiseville.com
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Ghost Machine |
CD |
Chrome was founded in San Francisco in 1975. Their sound wasn't easy to label - being ahead of their time, Helios Creed and Damon Edge created music that featured heavy elements of feedback and distortion.They experimented in mixing synthesized noise with rock instrumentation, therefore they are now seen as part of the post punk movement (even when punk was still in full flow at that time). Their breakthrough came in 1977 with their second album Alien Soundtracks. The band largely abandoned conventional rock compositions, instead employing cut-up and collage techniques and heavily processed sound to create a kind of sci-fi punk style. The album was given 4 out of 5 stars in the UK music paper Sounds, and Chrome began gradually to gain a cult reputation in the UK and in Europe. In the 1980s Damon Edge released several rather electronic records under the Chrome name, but Helios Creed had by that time left the band. He pursued a solo career but picked up the name Chrome again after Damon Edge died in Paris. The album Ghost Machine came out in 2002 on the German Dossier label. It is an often overlooked gem in the band's discography and has been out of print for over a decade. Creed reinstalled all the Chrome trademark sounds mixing electronics with his distinct guitar sound, and unusal production and mixing methods. This new edition comes in a digipack and with remastered sound.
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2017 |
€14.50 |
|
| CHROME & HELIOS CREED |
Dual Forces |
DVD |
"Dual Forces" versammelt mit "New Age" (vom ,Red Exposure" Album 1980), "Meet You In The Subway" (Chrome Box 1982) und "Danger Zone" (No Humans Allowed EP" 1982) nicht nur drei klassische CHROME Videos, sondern legt als Dreingabe auch noch das niemals veröffentlichte Video zu "Firebomb" (3rd From The Sun 1982) und Livematerial von 1988 dazu. Dazu gesellen sich "The Rant" und "Your Spaceman" von HELIOS CREED als Solokünstler und Livematerial von der 2006er Deep Blue Love Vacuum-Tour. [label info Cargo transl] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHRYSAKIS, THANOS |
Magma |
CD |
" 'Magma' is nearly half hour long electroacoustic piece, recorded in 2011 and presenting one of the best compositions by the artist. For this work, he extensively uses electronic devices, acoustic sounds and field recordings.
Release date is 27th December 2011. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
ELYTRA |
CD |
New insect music release by Greek sound artist Thanos Chrysakis
About ΕΛΥΤΡΑ
Everyone has heard the marvelous sound of crickets in the summer especially in the countryside. The sound is produced by raising and scraping against each of their protective fore-wings the elytra.
Their burrow act as a resonator bringing at times a transcendent quality to the place.
The music in this album with myriads of sounds, regular and irregular pulses, unfolds a similar transforming quality.
Thanos Chrysakis
About Thanos Chrysakis
Thanos Chrysakis is a Greek composer, musician, producer and sound-artist. He is best known for his work in electronic and contemporary music, free improvisation, and electro-acoustic music.
With several albums to his name his work has appeared in festivals and events in many countries.
His music was among the selected works at the International Competition de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges 2005, in the category oeuvre d'art sonore électroacoustique, while received an honorary mention in 2006 at the 7th International Electroacoustic Competition Musica Viva in Lisbon (the jury was constituted by Morton Subotnick (USA), François Bayle (France), and Miguel Azguime (Portugal). He operates the Aural Terrains record label since 2007 where he has released part of his work until now, alongside releases by Kim Cascone, Franscisco López, Tomas Phillips, Dan Warburton, Szilárd Mezei, Michael Edwards, Wade Matthews, Dganit Elyakim, Edith Alonso, Christian Skjødt, Luis Tabuenca, Christian Kobi, Jeff Gburek, Steve Noble, and Milo Fine. He has written music for musicians of the Hyperion Ensemble, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, the Konus Saxophone Quartett, and the Shadanga Duo among others. Close collaborations with Tim Hodgkinson, Vincent Royer, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Lori Freedman, Jason Alder, William Lang, Wilfrido Terrazas, Philippe Brunet, Wade Matthews, Ernesto Rodrigues, Abdul Moimême, Zsolt Sőrés, Ove Volquartz to name but a few.
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/track/tortoise-pilgrimage
"Insekten üben seit langem eine (nicht nur) klangliche Faszination aus: Man denke an die vielen Filme, in denen das Zirpen der Zikaden fast schon ein alternativer Soundtrack ist oder an die symbolische Bedeutung der Geräusche der Grillen in einem Stück wie Sam Shephards „True West“. Eine Reihe von Musikern wurden vom Klangpotenzial der Insekten angezogen: 1986 veröffnetlichte Graeme Revell „The Insect Musicians“, sein Versuch einer auf dem Geräusch von Insekten basierenden “micro-musique” (gerade ist das Album auf Old Europa Cafe neu herausgebracht worden), jüngst erschien noch ein Album namens “The Life Of Insects” von der in Berlin lebenden Peruanerin Ale Hop.
Der 1971 in Athen geborene Thanos Chrysakis hat zahlreiche Alben veröffentlicht und betreibt das Label Aural Terrains, “a creative space for exploratory contemporary music in its different manifestations”, auf dem er u.a. Alben von Francisco López, Tomas Phillips oder Michael Edwards veröffentlicht hat.
Auf “ΕΛΥΤΡ” basieren die Stücke auf dem Klang von Grillen, der für Chrysakis fast eine “transcendent qualitiy” hat. Das das Album eröffnende 8-minütige „Alabaster Tide“ ist eine dichte Klangfläche, die anfangs in ihrer rabiaten Unruhe durchaus an einige der perkussiven Arbeiten von Z’EV denken lässst. Hier fühlt man sich, als befinde man sich geradewegs inmitten zahlloser Insekten. Das Unruhige wird aber im Verlaufe des Stücks zurückgefahren, schließlich hört man ein paar hochfrequentere Passagen und Knirschen. „Coral Aether“ knüpft mit seinem Knistern und Flüstern daran an. „Tortoise Pilgrimage“ besteht aus flirrenden und sirrenden kristallinen Sounds, die gar nicht so weit von einigen Aufnahmen Asmus Tietchens entfernt sind, dann plötzlich meint man, ein Windspiel erklinge. Eine größere Reduktion hört man auf „Tranquil Edge“ mit seinem Knistern, das den Eindruck erweckt, als ob kleine Zweige brechen würden. Dann gibt es „Delphic Maxims“ mit fast schon wasserartigen Sounds oder das Rascheln bei „Pierian Roses, das sich im weiteren Verlauf verdichtet. Schließlich endet das Album mit „ A Shadow’s Dream“ mit erratischen perkussiven Momenten, und dann plötzlich – unerwartet – etwas, das wie ein Piano klingt. Auch ohne die Faszination, die vielleicht vom Ausgangsmaterial ausgeht, ist das ein sehr starkes Album." [MG / African Paper]
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHUBBY WOLF |
Seasick |
CD |
":: INTRODUCTORY WORDS :::
A mis-use of mistrust,
a clouted loop,
a taking under.
a view of islands hidden by a cloak of sea steam,
a loss,
a hidrotic tide.
Thus, I sigh at the sea, and
the sea sighed back at me.
- Danielle Baquet-Long
::: PRESS RELEASE :::
In a very short span of time and of creative obsession, CELER have managed to amass an astounding body of works…but this didn’t help to quench the thirst yet, and Danielle Baquet-Long, half of this symbiotic duo, under her wry moniker Chubby Wolf, sketched her own repertoire of twisted ambient patterns through spontaneous & diligent experimentation – this led to some brilliant discs, as for instance, “L’Histoire” on Gears Of Sand…
Here on “Seasick” comes another of her sadly posthumous treasures, and it’s truly a pinnacle…some stirring ode to the immanence of the sea, and the ever shifting horizon strewn with ships going who-knows-where…
An imposing slow unfolding lament respectfully & subtly enhanced by Mathieu Ruhlmann’s mastering who dared to sprinkle Dani’s soundscape with aural debris giving the whole work a new aura & pertinent direction…
After all, Dani is still sailing…
In front of us,
a vertiginous sea,
submerged crevasses
frozen moments of uncertainty
that makes our hearts sink
into this solemn immensity…
And when we get closer,
It’s all ebullience,
an endless wash of disparate elements
pulled from a disintegrated cosmos…
So, we’ll leave this world,
as naked as when we entered into it,
just shot through by its piercing beauty & sly unease,
SEASICK, but somehow reconciled…
::: TRACKS :::
1. Seasick
::: DURATION :::
40:52
::: FORMAT :::
CD ltd to 250 copies" [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| CINDYTALK |
Transgender Warrior |
7inch |
Für uns eine der Kult-Bands der 80er aus dem dunkel- experimentellen englischen Untergrund. ... das Projekt um den charismatischen Sänger Gordon Sharp überrascht hier mit einer neuen 7“ auf Klanggalerie, wo es rein geräuschhaft-pulsierende Hochfrequent-Atmosphären-noises zu hören gibt...
“ Cindytalk is a band from the UK that has been active for over twenty years. In the 1980´s their fantastic albums like "Wappinshaw" or "Camouflage Heart" were released on Midnight Music, in the 90´s mastermind Gordon Sharp concentrated more on his DJ activities and his other project Bambule. Now, in the new millennium, we are proud to present you a new Cindytalk release with another change in style. Noisy tracks that build up atmospheric soundscapes which need deep listening to be understood in their full beauty.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Up here in the Clouds |
CD |
"Recordings by Gordon Sharp 2003-2010 at the mid-levels (hk) by mainly at roi vert, Okamoto, Japan. Up here in the clouds is the second installment in the new Cindytalk sound wich started last years The Crackle of my soul. Whereas Crackle was more of a blistering burner, Clouds has a fresher cooler sound to it, with longer tracks that slowly evolve in great patches of aural beauty. The sound that Gordon Sharp and co create now is unique blend of cracked electronics, near awkward ambient textures that always seem to flow smoothly like the most natural sounds around, building up a great set of modern electronic music which closes with the child like melody of the title track. Superbly packaged with new David Coppenhall artwork in a 4-panel digipack."
[label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Silver |
7inch |
"We dream in colour, is the title of the new Live music project, curetted by six d.o.g.s (www.sixdogs.gr) and Angelos Petroutsas (Prince of Poverty), that consists of seven live concerts in the Gig Space of six d.o.g.s venue in Athens Greece, starting from February 2011 and ending in December 2011 of seven music artists, and the release of seven 7” by Tourette Records, in which the artists shall contribute music for the project.
Each artist has been assigned with one colour in a “journey” from the moon to the sun, and each 7” is considered as a blooming coloured flower and as seen in the art work of the jacket a bee dancing in coordinates with the sun showing to other “bees” where the “nectar” music can be found and a solar clock pointing the time of each live concert taking place in Athens.
Each 7” vinyl shall be released in the colour assigned to each artist in 300 limited edition copies and the artistic direction is by Pindaros (www.arsondpi.gr), the first seven vinyls from each release will be all united in a limited edition box of seven copies in the form of a bee hive made from black non see through Plexiglas, with a surprised art work inside to be revealed to the ones that acquire them, plus as each box will be dedicated to each artist taking part in this will include also the test press for each one.
The artists that are participating in the project and their colours are as follows :
Silver - Cindytalk
Yellow - COH
Red - Οthon & Tomasini
Green - Troum
Violet - Mark Spybey (Dead Voices on Air) & Jochen Arbeit
Blue - Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo & Little Annie (USA)
Orange - ?" [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Hold Everything Dear |
do-LP |
"All tracks written and recorded by Gordon Sharp and Matt Kinnison between 2006-2011 at Roi Vert, Okamoto (Japan), 13th Floor and Space Eko (London), Southend (Essex). Mastered at Piethopraxis, June 2011. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, June 2011. Design-images: David Coppenhall. Assembled at Sixism (Maggi Smith-David Coppenhall). For Matt Kinnison and John Berger.
'Hold Everything Dear' is the third installment in the new Cindytalk sound which started with 2007's The Crackle Of My Soul, and then last years Up Here in The Clouds. Its the first in the trilogy to feature musicians other than Gordon Sharp namely the late Matt Kinnison, to whom the album is dedicated. Inspired by the John Berger book of the same name, this latest release is whole new set of parameters which push the sound on the previous two works to an extreme point of abstraction, and in some places near silent passages and haunted melodic segments. And what a mysterious journey this ends up being with increased use of piano and found/field recordings giving all the tracks a blurry soundtrack appeal to the point where the definitions between the tracks are no longer clearly defined. It harks back to the odder parts of In This World and The Wind Is Strong albums from the early 1990s. Superbly packaged with new David Coppenhall artwork in a 4-panel digipack and gatefold vinyl sleeve." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
|
A Life is Everywhere |
LP |
" 'A Life Is Everywhere' is an ecstatic mix of rhythm, noise, drone, texture and melody. Simultaneously heartfelt and not for the faint hearted. Within their self contained world Cindytalk continue the unique trajectory that has purveyed their career starting in 1982. This instalment further explores the fearsome terrain that was initiated with previous Editions Mego releases such as 'The Crackle of my Soul' and 'Hold Everything Dear'. Throughout the 6 tracks on offer the standard fair of music is run through serious level processes leaving, taking rhythm and sound to extreme limits whilst always retaining trace elements of their core. Ringing bells are interrupted by artefacts from shredded sound matter, euphoric chords are swamped by chopped rhythms which succumb to an endless storm of electronic bliss. Utopia has never been so bold.
The unique positioning of Cindytalk's output over a 30+year period is a testament to the will to explore. Unfettered by trend, taste and desire. This is unadulterated expression, a future music for those willing to confront the future as a viable option." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2013 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Wappinschaw (lim. clear red vinly) |
LP |
- For Fans of: This Mortal Coil, Xmal Deutschland, Interpol, Zoviet France, Clan of Xymox - First ever reissue - CD and vinyl download card include three rare b-side bonus tracks // Cindytalk is the mercurial, expressionist outlet of Scottish artist Cinder. An evolution of her early 1980's Edinburgh-based punk band The Freeze, she launched the project upon moving to London, inspired by the crossroads of exploratory UK post-punk and early European industrial. Her work thrives on chance and transformation, collaging elements of noise, balladry, soundtrack, catharsis, and improvisation. After a series of celebrated albums for the Midnight Music label as well as collaborations with This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins, Cinder migrated to the United States, becoming involved with various underground techno collectives around the Midwest and West Coast. Subsequent relocations to Hong Kong and Japan further expanded Cindytalk's horizons, resulting in a fruitful partnership with Viennese experimental institution Editions Mego, for whom she released five albums of swooning, granular atmosphere. 2021 finds her as engaged as ever, at the precipice of long-awaited back catalog reissues alongside multiple new works, guided by her lasting love of discovery and deviation: "new pathways always being uncovered." Across decades of activity Cinder's body of work has forever followed its own elusive muse but nowhere is this restless spirit more apparent and ambitious than the 4th Cindytalk LP, Wappinschaw. Conceived as "a call to arms" inspired by Scotland and its struggle for independence, the title refers to an archaic Scottish battle inspection during which clan chieftains surveyed their group's weapons to ensure they were combat ready. A mindset of reflective preparation threads throughout the record, manifested in forms both naked and noisy, ancient and anguished. Opening with an aching solo vocal rendition of the British folk standard "The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face)," the album then surges into the Cindytalk classic, "A Song Of Changes," sparkling and spiraling in strange waves of sorrow and joy. From there the mood fragments, tracing asymmetrical paths of feverish dirge, pensive spirituals, noir abstraction, spoken word (landmark Glaswegian writer Alasdair Gray guests on "Wheesht"), bagpipe drone, and apocalyptic post-punk. Given its aggressive eclecticism, it's not surprising that Cinder describes the creation of Wappinschaw as a "precarious" process, composed from "scraps" with abruptly shifting personnel - a situation only compounded by the impending dissolution of their label at the time, Midnight Music. Despite, or perhaps because of, these factors, the collection stands as a testament to Cinder's belief that "so-called experimental can only remain so if you keep challenging yourself." This is singular and challenging music, texturally jagged and emotionally conflicted, swimming through shivering darkness into fragile pockets of light. At the time of its recording, Cinder was attempting to leave London after many years in the city, dreaming of an ancestral return. But as much as "ideas of homecoming were percolating," there remained unfinished business, old ghosts to exorcise, culminating in Wappinschaw's heady, harrowing voyage: "An invocation of spirits of resistance - as much a declaration of war as a declaration of love."
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2021 |
€23.50 |
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| |
The Wind is strong (lim. marble smoke viny) |
LP |
Cindytalk is the mercurial, expressionist outlet of Scottish artist Cinder. An evolution of her early 1980's Edinburgh-based punk band The Freeze, she launched the project upon moving to London, inspired by the crossroads of exploratory UK post-punk and early European industrial. Her work thrives on chance and transformation, collaging elements of noise, balladry, soundtrack, catharsis, and improvisation. After a series of celebrated albums for the Midnight Music label as well as collaborations with This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins, Cinder migrated to the United States, becoming involved with various underground techno collectives around the Midwest and West Coast. Subsequent relocations to Hong Kong and Japan further expanded Cindytalk's horizons, resulting in a fruitful partnership with Viennese experimental institution Editions Mego, for whom she released five full-lengths of swooning, granular atmosphere. 2021 finds her as engaged as ever, at the precipice of long-awaited back catalog reissues alongside multiple new works, guided by her lasting love of discovery and deviation: “new pathways always being uncovered.”
The 3rd album by Scottish industrial enigma Cinder aka Cindytalk began life as the soundtrack to an experimental film by English director Ivan Unnwin entitled Eclipse (The Amateur Enthusiast's Guide To Virus Deployment), and was originally slated for release via Factory Records' video division, Ikon. Inspired heavily by Alan Splet's eerily disembodied sound design in David Lynch's Eraserhead, the collection's 15 pieces seethe between field recordings, wistful piano vignettes, and lurking metallic haze – a hybrid palette Cinder characterized at the time as “ambi-dustrial.” Unfortunately Ikon collapsed on the eve of the project's completion so the film was never distributed, but the Midnight Music imprint repackaged Cindytalk's score as an LP in 1990 under the name The Wind Is Strong... (full title: The Wind Is Strong - A Sparrow Dances, Piercing Holes in Our Sky).
Long out of print, the album remains one of the most elusive and adventurous in the Cindytalk discography, a mix of musique concréte, haunted reverie, and desolate beauty. Even unaccompanied by their intended visuals, this is overtly cinematic music, conjuring forests at dusk and shadowed corridors, equal parts remote and reflective. Cinder cites a belief that “all sound is music,” which fully manifests here, utilizing tape hiss, ticking clocks, flicking flames, and distant whispers as evocative accents in tapestries of luminous negative space.
Although Cinder included the subtitle “A Cindytalk diversion” in the sleeve notes, The Wind Is Strong... is crucial to the project's canon, demonstrating the depth and versatility of her unique ear and intuition. She describes each album as a direct response to the previous one, and in that sense The Wind marks a bold break from the coiled song-oriented post-punk of 1988's In This World, venturing into unknown, unnamed terrain, and finding foreboding new futures to call her own.
https://www.daisrecords.com/products/cindytalk-the-wind-is-strong
Cindytalk ist das quecksilbrige, expressionistische Ventil der schottischen Künstlerin Cinder. Als Weiterentwicklung ihrer Edinburgher Punkband The Freeze aus den frühen 1980er Jahren gründete sie das Projekt, nachdem sie nach London gezogen war, inspiriert von der Kreuzung aus forschendem britischen Post-Punk und frühem europäischen Industrial. Ihre Arbeit lebt vom Zufall und der Verwandlung, sie collagiert Elemente von Lärm, Balladen, Soundtracks, Katharsis und Improvisation.
Nach einer Reihe gefeierter Alben für das Label Midnight Music sowie Kollaborationen mit This Mortal Coil und den Cocteau Twins wanderte Cinder in die Vereinigten Staaten aus und engagierte sich in verschiedenen Underground-Techno-Kollektiven im Mittleren Westen und an der Westküste. Spätere Umzüge nach Hongkong und Japan erweiterten Cindytalks Horizont und führten zu einer fruchtbaren Partnerschaft mit der Wiener Experimental-Institution Editions Mego, für die sie fünf Alben mit schwelgerischer, granularer Atmosphäre veröffentlichte. 2021 ist sie so engagiert wie eh und je und steht an der Schwelle von lang erwarteten Wiederveröffentlichungen des alten Katalogs neben zahlreichen neuen Werken, geleitet von ihrer anhaltenden Liebe zur Entdeckung und Abweichung: Immer neue Wege werden aufgedeckt.
Das dritte Album des schottischen Industrial-Enigmas Cinder aka Cindytalk begann als Soundtrack zu einem Experimentalfilm des englischen Regisseurs Ivan Unnwin mit dem Titel Eclipse (The Amateur Enthusiast's Guide To Virus Deployment) und sollte ursprünglich über die Videoabteilung von Factory Records, Ikon, veröffentlicht werden. Inspiriert von Alan Splets unheimlichem, körperlosem Sounddesign in David Lynchs Eraserhead, bewegen sich die 15 Stücke der Sammlung zwischen Field Recordings, wehmütigen Klaviervignetten und lauerndem Metalldunst - eine hybride Palette, die Cinder damals als "ambi-dustrial" bezeichnete. Unglücklicherweise brach Ikon am Vorabend der Fertigstellung des Projekts zusammen, so dass der Film nie vertrieben wurde, aber das Midnight Music Imprint verpackte Cindytalks Partitur 1990 als LP unter dem Namen The Wind Is Strong... (vollständiger Titel: The Wind Is Strong - A Sparrow Dances, Piercing Holes in Our Sky).
Längst vergriffen, bleibt das Album eines der schwer fassbarsten und abenteuerlichsten in der Diskographie von Cindytalk, eine Mischung aus konkreter Musik, geisterhafter Träumerei und trostloser Schönheit. Selbst ohne die visuelle Untermalung ist dies eine offenkundig filmische Musik, die Wälder in der Dämmerung und schattige Korridore heraufbeschwört, die zu gleichen Teilen entlegen und nachdenklich sind. Cinder beruft sich auf die Überzeugung, dass ügalles Geräusch Musik ist,üh was sich hier voll und ganz manifestiert, indem sie Tonbandrauschen, tickende Uhren, züngelnde Flammen und entferntes Flüstern als evokative Akzente in Wandteppichen aus leuchtendem Negativraum verwendet. Obwohl Cinder den Untertitel "A Cindytalk diversion" (Eine Cindytalk-Abwechslungü) in die Cover-Notizen geschrieben hat, ist The Wind Is Strong... entscheidend für den Kanon des Projekts und demonstriert die Tiefe und Vielseitigkeit ihres einzigartigen Gehörs und ihrer Intuition. Sie beschreibt jedes Album als direkte Antwort auf das vorherige, und in diesem Sinne markiert The Wind einen kühnen Bruch mit dem songorientierten Post-Punk des 1988er Albums In This World, indem sie sich in unbekanntes, unbenanntes Terrain wagt und eine neue Zukunft findet, die sie ihr Eigen nennen kann. Für Fans von: Harold Budd, Tor Lundvall, Lawrence English, Kevin Drumm, Loscil, This Mortal Coil, Drekka, Zoviet France.
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2021 |
€23.50 |
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| CINDYTALK / ROBERT HAMPSON |
Five Mountains of Fire |
10inch |
"Cindytalk - Five Mountains Of Fire: Gordon Sharp (electronics), Paul Middleton (drums), Dan Knowler (Guitar), Gary Jeff (Percussion) and Sherrill Crosby (Electronics). Pre-mixed and re-played by GS at Roi Vert, Okamoto, Japan, March 2009. Robert Hampson - Antarctica Ends Here: Dedicated to John Cale. Recorded and Mixed at Thirst 2007Ð2009 in London and Paris. Design: Dave Coppenhall. Cindytalk's Gordon Sharp and Robert Hampson (Loop. Main...) are 2 characters of legend circulating on the periphery of London (and beyond) underground music over the last 2 plus decades. It may come as a surprise then that this stunning split 10 is the first meeting of these two singular minds. 'Five Mountains Of Fire' by Cindytalk is a cracking track taking their recent brittle electronic experiments and charging them with firecracker like percussion to create a pleasantly disorienting soundscape. Flip it over and Hampson delivers the practical polar opposite with Antarctica Ends Here. An exceptionally beautiful piece utilizing piano and carefully placed electronics so as not to break the ice, a tribute to John Cale's 'Antarctica Starts Here' (from 'Paris, 1919' album). Limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Eine eher unlikely Split, die aber zwei schöne aktuelle Entwürfe des Experimentellen zeigt. Die entzündeten Berglandschaften von Cindytalk klingen wie aus einem Jodorowsky-Film entsprungen: erdig, ekstatisch und irgendwie religiös. Die sirrend-dronige Klangfläche wird in einem Bandkonstrukt mit Gitarre und Schlagzeug erarbeitet und dann in der Nachbearbeitung zerlegt. Besonders die rukelnden Percussion, die sich in der zweiten Hälfte des Tracks in den Mix schiebt, läßt neue Hoffnung für die Kombination von Elektronik und Instrumentarium aufkommen. Der eher scheue Robert Hampson (Main, Loop) hat sich mit seinem konzentrierten Beitrag, nicht wie es scheinen will auf den Eternal Music Cale berufen, sondern sich wohl explizit vor John Cale’s ‘Antarctica Starts Here’ (aus Paris, 1919) verneigt. Der Track klingt wie eine traurig-zerfleischte Geigenmelodie im Lockgroove, angereichert mit Mikropartikeln und schwüler Atmosphäre. Eine unbedingt lohnenswerte Veröffentlichung!" [Zipo, Auf Abwegen]
"Cindytalk is back, thanks to Editions Mego. The CD released last year (see Vital Weekly 702) was mainly the solo effort of Gordon Sharp, and saw him move towards the computerized music, say that of microsound, ambient, drones and such like, so much to my surprise its a band line up here again. Besides Sharp, who gets the credit for electronics, there is also drums, percussion, more electronics and guitar. The pieces was recorded in Japan last year (in concert?) and consists largely of sustaining notes played with bows on the cymbals, drones created from the guitar and electronics having quite an obscure role in this. Great mood music. Which is exactly what can be said of Robert Hampson on the other side. Great mood music. Just like Cindytalk, Hampson has been active in the underground of the UK music life since more than twenty-five years, as Loop and as Main, and since the last decade mainly under his own name, working in that obscure niche where popmusic meets musique concrete.
Popmusic? Things with guitars, more likely. His piece is dedicated to John Cale, another such character on the crossroad of many musical styles. Followings Cindytalk's full sound spectrum approach, Hampson goes out with just a few sounds on his hands. A bowed guitar, some far away crackles and maybe the odd field recording. Carefully constructed as opposed to the somewhat 'live in concert' approach on the other side, but both pieces are complimentary to eachother. An excellent record. I have no idea if Cindytalk now returns as a full band, or that it will continue to confuse us. I hope the latter." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
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2010 |
€12.50 |
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| CIRCAEA |
The Bridge of Dreams |
LP |
"Released July 2019. An edition of 300 copies.
Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering. Cut onto lacquer at 33/45 in London by Noel Summerville. Sleeve design by Tom James Scott
Circaea is ; Tom James Scott, Ecka Mordecai & Andrew Chalk
The Bridge of Dreams was begun as a series of piano miniatures, played by Tom in St. Matthews church in Hull before it closed many years ago. In the airy and (cold) spaces of the vast church in the winter of 2013 the pieces further condensed into 12 parts of the album here, with wistful string arrangements by Ecka Mordecai and mapped out, finally, by Andrew Chalk.
"Birds love the woods
If you are not a bird
you will not know its truths
A quiet life is much the same.
How would anyone know it
without living it ?
The moon
of my life is setting.
The life now left me
sinks into the hills"
(from Visions of a Torn World by Kamo-no-Chomei)" [label info]
"Circaea is the debut project of ; Tom James Scott (piano), Ecka Mordecai (cello) & Andrew Chalk (arrangements).
After the previous album, Scott and Chalk’s Calluna (Skire) a pause of some years followed and The Bridge of Dreams in fact began life even before Calluna did. With the addition of poignant and fluttering textures on strings by Ecka Mordecai, the album took on a completely new and special direction, which we present here now. ‘The Bridge of Dreams’ spans twelve tracks and becomes a story in its own right.
Viae Memoriae & A Inocencia Mastered by Denis Blackham and cut by Noel Summerville at 33/45 in London.
Full colour sleeve and pressed in an edition of 350 copies." [Penultimate Press]
"Circaea, the latest collaborative project involving prolific British musician Andrew Chalk (Ora, Mirror, Isolde...) debuts with The Bridge of Dreams. Alongside Chalk in this new adventure we find young cellist Ecka Rose Mordecai and classically trained guitarist Tom James Scott, also founder of the Skire label. The twelve delicate miniatures that make up this album find protection in the caring arms of Faraway Press - Chalk's own label - and are a work of pure beauty."[Soundohm]
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2019 |
€20.00 |
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| CIRCULAR |
Radiating Perpetual Light |
CD |
"The evolving, dense nature of Circular's sound world is unfolding again with this new work - the first since 2009. Pulsating and deep, reverberant drones, slowly moving guitar lines and rhythms, combined with ambient layers of rich tonal colours were created with an extensive set of analogue and acoustic devices. With his third album Johannes Riedel has entered a region of higher density that produces deeper echoes of sombre oscillation. Radiating Perpetual Light emerges from the desire to sculpt an organic, meditative and deeply ambient environment of mysterious and shapeshifting soundscapes. This is the perfect soundtrack for a dark and glowing sunset." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| CISFINITUM |
Bezdna |
CD |
Neues Album von CISFINITUM, eines der sicherlich am längsten bestehenden russischen “Post-Industrial”-Projekte aus Moskau. Auf BEZDNA frönt Evgueny Voronovsky seiner Faszination für alte russische Synthesizer und klingt entsprechend analog-elektronisch, aber mit haufenweise nicht-alltäglichen Sounds und Effekten und Einsatz von Violione, Piano, Stimme, Akkordeon. Entstanden sind atmosphärische, sirrende Klanglandschaften, die mal von sehr detailreichen konkret-analog-Sounds bestimmt sind, mal ins rein ätherisch-dronige abdriften. Wieder erstklassig und spannend arrangiert.
“New album of Moscow-based project Cisfinitum is the experiment in more emotional rather than in musical domain. Deep and profound, it's touching the most dark corners of human soul and takes it to the imaginary otherworlds. This peculiar quality of Cisfinitum music is achieved through extensive use of soviet analogue synthesizers (ANS, Polyvox, Yunost-21, Formanta amongst others), but the spiritual beauty of "Bezdna" is also created by violin and omnipresent voices. Psychoactive dark ambient combined with melodic incantations.“ [label info]
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2005 |
€13.00 |
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Coniunctio |
do-CD |
Material from 1999-2001 from the Russian cult-project, some taken from the deleted LANDSCHAFT CDR (IVB Records), one CD is entitled “World of Retribution”, the other “Heavenly Russia”. Monolithic sad noise, sacral post-industrial, spiritual doom-ambience,
overwhelming sounds & sad emotions at the same time, highly recommended!
“Cisfinitum is one of the oldest and well-known projects on Russian industrial scene, and shortly after their well-acclaimed 7” on Drone, Ewers Tonkunst is happy to present another international release of this remarkable project. This 2CD-set contains the tracks from the most gloomy and profound albums of Cisfinitum – “Landschaft” (released in 2001 as CDR by IVB Records) and “Malgyl” (previously unreleased), which have been recorded in 1999-2001. The material has been remastered and recompiled to become the new entity called “Coniunctio”. Newborn album consists of two parts, “Worlds Of Retribution” and “Heavenly Russia”, the first one contains most dark and depressive tracks, the second one presents brighter side of Cisfinitum. Going through the desperate landscapes of today’s dying spiritless world, the listener comes into the sacred and surreal inner space of an immaterial land full of light, mysticism and universal melancholy. One of the most beautiful and heartful records ever done in the drone ambient style, “Coniunctio” could remind of the best and saddest Maeror Tri albums or legendary HOEDH “Hymnus”, but the irrational Russian essence within Cisfinitum’s music makes it unique and completely original. The real masterpiece which we are really proud to release! CD comes in a full-colour fold-out digisleeve. The edition is limited to 500 copies.” [label info]
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2006 |
€15.00 |
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V |
CD |
Nach Jahren endlich die erste fabrikgepresste CD von CISFINITUM ! Das Warten hat sich definitiv gelohnt, V ist von einer melancholisch-düsteren Atmosphäre geprägt; schwere, rauhe & nostalgische anmutende Sounds prägen das Bild, Anleihen von klassischen Arrangements tauchen auf... special coverpackage mit vielen inlays !
Finally the first „fabric“-pressed CD by CISFINITUM! V ist based on a melancholic & dark atmosphere; heavy & raw & nostalgic appearing sounds are floating through the album, classical music elements also.. a true masterpieces of dark melancholic drone-Industrial !
"V" is follow-up to the most high valued album "Landschaft" and you can hear some echoing sounds from there. Four long tracks will drive you further into abysmal depths of mind prospectives. "V" is the aural extension of audiochemy method developed by both Cisfinitum
members (Voronovsky and Norvila) in Audioform studio during recent two years, using synthesis of classical composition, industrial aesthetics and tonal noise layers. Listening to Cisfinitum music, everyone can feel physically the exclusive aloofness and impartiality
preceding the heterogeneity and time collaps. Long transitions between initial states, sudden dynamic outbursts and again desolate spaces where apprehensions are the only way to think. This album is notable not only by background contents but by sounding too: the deliberately reduced quality is remained in the past, agressive alienation changed to the introspective one. The atmosphere of sci-fi cinema of the 70-80s is back - cold, dark, mysterious but nevertheless open-minded and reality engaged. For those of you who like to use PC-CDROM for anything labelled with "compact disc" logo, the nice surprise is waiting.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Tactio |
CD |
Mitschnitt des denkwürdigen CISFINITUM-Konzerts im Bremer St. Petri-Dom vom 24. November 2005, welches v.a. durch die Verwendung monumentaler Kirchenglocken-Drones besticht (Aufnahmen einer russischen Kirche basieren); es fand statt im Rahmen der REIHE ELEKTRONISCHER MUSIK ("Rapid Ear Movement"), kuratiert von CHRISTOPH OGIERMANN.
"CISFINITUM ist eines der am längsten bestehenden Moskauer Industrial / Experimental/ Elektronik - Projekte (Gründung 1989) und steht für die russische Variante des sogenannten „ambient Industrial“, „drone“ oder „dark ambient“. Als „dark ambient“ bezeichnet man in der neueren elektronischen Musik seit einigen Jahren die „dunkle“ Seite der atmosphärisch-experimentellen Musik, bei der es oft weniger um den explizit Ablauf der Komposition geht, als vielmehr um die Schaffung „bewusstseinsverändernder“ Atmosphären mit Hilfe von Klang. Hinter CISFINITUM steckt Evgueny Voronovsky, ein ausgebildeter Violinist, der neben konkreten und instrumentellen Klangquellen auch alte sowjetische Synthesizer in neuem Kontext benutzt (wie auf der letzten CD-Veröffentlichung „BEZDNA“ [Monochrome Vision]), z.B. den legendären ANS. CISFINITUM (=„Jenseits des Endlichen“) ist ein Text & Begriff des russischen Dichters Daniil Charms, der für die „Logik der unendlichen Nicht-Existenz“steht: das was hinter dem Verstandesmässigem liegt. Die Endlichkeit der logischen Welt wird durch die Logik selbst nachgewiesen." [Konzertankündigungs-Info Drone Records]
"With a parsimonious discography mostly released on seasoned Russian labels such as Waystyx, Ewers Tonkunst and Monochrome Vision, Evgeny Voronovsky has established himself as an uniquely engaging artist in the country's current ambient scene. Under the name of Cisfinitum, he has taken a syncretic approach to an often codified genre, uniting his formal training as a violinist at the Moscow State University with his affinity for concrete sounds and experimental structures. Past releases have shown a capacity to synthesize these factors at times while emphasizing the contrasts between them at others, sometimes over the course of a single track. In this aspect, this album follows the tradition faithfully.
Tactio is the live recording of a Cisfinitum concert at the St. Petri Dom (St. Peter's Cathedral) in Bremen, on November 24, 2005. The particular (and as expected highly favorable) acoustics of this environment were consistently used not only as an enhancing effect but as an integral foundation for the performance, making it unmistakeably tied to its context. Presented in the form of six continuous tracks, the album is a contemplative composition of vibrant drones, reverberating bells and synthesized resonance, gracefully evolving from the celestial tones of its start to the tellurian pulses of its climax. This is a piece of work that is elaborate in its simplicity, and it's with much appreciation that it is presented here today. The beautiful iconic artwork by Evgeny Kuprienko further emphasizes the relic-like qualities of this recording."
[label description]
www.mechanoise-labs.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
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Landschaft |
CD |
"Erste CDR des Moskauer dark/drone ambient-Projekts CISFINITUM, die spacig-harmonische Räume erschaffen, die von der Stimmung an alte ULTRA MILKMAIDS oder MAEROR TRI erinnern, aber auch an Endlos-Minimal-Ambient a la CHALK und mystischem dark ambient ... rauschende Wellen von Sound, in hand-geschnitzter Papphülle, erste CDR des Moskauer Labels.. Tip!" [old Drone Rec. info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Bog |
CD |
"This album dedicated to the archetype of Toad in world's mythology and based on re-processed sounds of frogs, toads and swamps.I made this field recordings during my travels in China, India and Kavkaz , also i receieved a part of them from friendly sound artists as Mars F. Weillink (x-Vance Orchestra) , Andrea Marutti (Amon) and Roman Voronovski (Rombix).
Track 3 contains a looped voice by Dasha Baskakova and sounds recorded at Volkonski Dolmen using sine generator and dolmen original acoustic. Track 4 based on pitched loops of my violin and sounds from Mars. No any preset sounds/ synths used on this record.
*The term "toadstool" was often applied to poisonous mushrooms or to those. Between 1400 and 1600 A.D., this term were used synonymously with some mushrooms of umbrella-like cap-and-stem form.
*the myth of a Princess Frog exist in a different cultures. In Russia its a character of some russian magic tales of archaic times...Symbol of Princess Frog- is a frog keeping an arrow in mouth and with a crown on the head.
Similar myths also exist in Chinese and South-American cultures.The image of a princess frog goes back to an archetype of totem spouses whom the primitive hunter should "marry" that hunting has gone right. Wedding on this totem was symbolical, in special ritual. The myth which explained sense of ritual, told about a marriage on totem spouse so that the cultural hero had an opportunity to receive for people any blessings, good hunt etc..." [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru
"Of much more interest for this rag is the music from Cisfinitum, the musical project of E. Voronovsky and for this new release he invited a bunch of friends to send him field recordings of frogs, toads and swamps. Friends such as Mars F. Wellink (x-Vance Orchestra), Andrea Marutti (Amon) and Roman Voronovski (Rombix) but he himself taped also some of these during his travels in China, India and Kavkaz. The cover mentions several references towards toads, mushrooms and the Princess Frog myth. That too might by a bit gothic, one could think, but the music is quite nice. There is talk, on the website, of various pieces, but there is one long piece on the CD itself, and with some good will, you can dissect that to smaller parts, slowly merging into one another. Heavily processed field recordings, created by means of computer treatment, time stretching, lots and lots effects, mainly reverb, stretch out this like a moist swamp land, sucking the listener inside, but as the piece evolves,
and certainly the end bit, the last ten minutes, are very light, like a siren from the swamp singing for us. It's actually "pitched loops of my violin and sounds from Mars. No any pre-set sounds/ synths used on this record", which I thought was a nice bit of information. In terms of ambient, drone, soundscaping and such like, there is, perhaps, nothing new under the sun, but I thought this was not really a problem (if such would be a problem at all), as I wasn't looking for any of that. A highly enjoyable dark ambient album by one of Russia's best assets in this field." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
O vs 0 |
CD |
"The debut album by charismatic Eugeny Voronovsky and his enigmatic project Cisfinitum “O vs 0” is re-released in a CD format after 15 years of its cryptic lurking in the dark. True minimal post industrial analogue sound. The first album recorded by Cisfinitum circa 1998 is a unique archival work from internationally renowned underground dark ambient composer from Russia. The lunatic and lo-fi album with a distinct industrial aftertaste. It is kept unremastered and its pristine condition hints at obvious hisses, noises, clicks, abrupt frequency amplifications and sporadic channel drops. Approach the record with caution, play it not loud to reveal its morbid charm which is extreme simplicity that hurts. For the lovers of Archon Satani and No Festival of Light. The CD comes in limited Digifile edition of 250 copies." [label info]
oleghkolyada.com |
2014 |
€13.00 |
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| CISFINITUM & FIRST HUMAN FERRO |
Alchemicals |
CD |
"A new collaborative work by two modern alchemists, Eugene Voronovsky and Olegh Kolyada, is a transmutation of Saturn into Sol with the goal of attaining immortality. A cross-border of avant-garde jazz (featuring Sergei Letov, saxophone player) and dark ambient (Cisfinitum & First Human Ferro) reveals cryptic alchemical symbols, diagrams, and vocalisms (featuring James Thirlwell (of Foetus fame)) that contain multiple layers of meanings, allegories, and references to be laboriously decoded in order to discover true meaning hidden from its creators. A panacea “Alchemicals” is accompanied by a proto-scientific design of Andrey Bondarenko to enliven the content cornucopia. Edition of 300 copies in 4 panel Digipak. I dedicate this album to my brother, Sergey Kolyada (1979-2012), who died on the 25th of December, aged 33." [label info]
www.oleghkolyada.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Alchemicals (re-issue) |
CD |
A limited re-edition of Cisfinitum & First Human Ferro "Alchemicals" / Old Captain (OCCD06 (2012)) with the additional original material recorded in 2010-2011 by Oleh Koliada and Eugene Voronovsky featuring Mykhail A.Shukh, James Thirlwell (Foetus), Sergei Letov, Thierry Jolif, and Peter Smirnov. A masterpiece of the modern classical style in an existential avant-garde electronic genre. A glass mastering CD pressing in Italy in a limited to 50 4-Panel Digipak + 2 A3 Posters (available only from the label). The artwork is courtesy of Bronisław Linke's 1946-1958 series "Screaming Stones", "Atomium" and "Radioactive Dust". Artwork design by Mauro Berchi. In memory of Mykhail A.Shukh (1952 - 2018).
https://oldcaptain.bandcamp.com/album/first-human-ferro-cisfinitum-alchemicals
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| CIUTA, DARIUS |
l2di-(3) |
CD |
"1. The condition was chosen that there should be an interval of at least 1.5 hour in between recording sessions.
2. The recordings were made during the daytime (11am – the earliest/6pm – the latest).
3. The sound sources were selected by activity – the most active of them were recorded.
4. The places where recordings were made were sky photographed by a mobile phone camera as a light source.
5. Every sound recordings has its own photo of lightness at that particular moment.
6. 24 recording situations were collected at different time of the day and with different intensity of light.
………………………
A. All recordings are grouped by their photo of light – from the lightest to the darkest.
They’re connected into one whole.
B. All recordings loose their succession in a common entirety which becomes a documentary of 5 days.
C. Final entirety of sounds is presented in its most natural form -
as a cycle of day (sun is rising in the morning and sets in the evening)…”the final result is dual”.
(darius ciuta, March 2013)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"This might very well the longest release on Unfathomless so far, clocking in at seventy-three minutes. A long time ago, Darius Ciuta worked as Naj and as such had a release on Pure/RRRecords, but since working with field recordings he calls himself by the name his parents gave him. He is from Lithuania and he recorded at Curonian Spit the sound material he uses here. The cover lists a bunch of conditions, such as there should be 'an interval of at least 1,5 hour in between recording sessions' and that they 'were made during daytime (11 am - the earliest/6 pm - the latest) etc and that all recordings 'are grouped by their photo of light - from lightest to the darkest'. This process took five days and presents a cycle of a day (less the night). Not a lot of releases on Unfathomless go this far to describe the concept. So, cut together as one piece it's not easy to 'follow' the conceptual guidelines as set out by Ciuta. It all sounds like an environmental work, and if you listen superficially it may sound like an uncut piece of nature sounds, but if you listen more closely you can hear all these edit points, changing over the course of this piece. Lots of insect sounds, crackling of leaves, and maybe birdcalls. It makes all together quite a fascinating environment. You can listen to this very concentrated, like you would when listening to something that requires your full attention, or you just could simply walk around, take a nap, read book or have a phone conversation, or even mix it with your environment, by opening your window. True music of ambience I'd say." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| CLADE, |
Klavierstücke |
CD-R |
"san francisco, march 2012: the scottish delegation arrives on the sun-drenched american west coast. studio is rented, microphones selected, supplies procured. 7 days later they emerge, blinded by the light.
oakland, december 2013: over the course of 7 more days some 12 hours of raw materials are in turns cajoled, caressed, genetically modified and burnt beyond recognition, at long last distilled into the 12 pieces we present you with here.
as these recordings utilise piano, organ and keyboard as the most salient sound sources they will no doubt remind some listeners of last year’s ‘vietnamese piano’ release. in point of fact the present recordings were completed some months prior to the session in hanoi that produced clade 2.5, but while that release was effectively entirely improvised the ‘klavierstücke’ have undergone a much more rigorous process of composition, editing and post-production. at once delicate, haunting, and cinematic, the result is the most mature and rewarding clade release to date.
file next to: deaf center, stars of the lid, jonathan coleclough, AMM, harold budd with a migrane
with apologies to k.s. " [label info]
cladistic.bandcamp.com/album/klavierst-cke
"More mysterious music by Clade, whose bandcamp these days says they are from Edinburgh these days - although maybe they always were? The cover and CD print look like a nice modern classical recordings rip-off and we find here twelve pieces, called 'Klavierstück' (piano piece, in case you were wondering), of which the last four are four parts of 'Klavierstück IX'. The first four pieces are dedicated to Harold Budd, the second four to David Jackman, and the last four to Otto Totland. Apparently recorded over a seven-day period in March 2012, and a further seven in Oakland in December 2013. The first seven to record the piano sources, the next seven to 'cajole, caresse and genetically modify' them. Not unlike their previous, 'Vietnamese Piano', this is a further exploration of the world of quiet music; highly atmospheric and sparse. The treatments are kept to an interesting minimum, or perhaps they are done to such an extent that we no longer recognize them as treatments; maybe the
treatments are kept more natural? Like being played in a large and natural reverb becomes part of it? All of these things you could wonder about while listening to this music. But better is to sit back and enjoy. I am not sure if the three dedications are reflected in the music, even when I know Jackman's best and Totland's music not much, but it seems to me that all twelve are along similar lines. Much reverb suggests much atmosphere, and it works very well. Sometimes it sounds like a William Basinski piece, but then trimmed down a lot in length and there is quite an amount of variation in these pieces also which makes this a most enjoyable album. An excellent album in fact of some imaginative ambient music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| CLAU D.E.D.I. |
V.I.T.R.I.O.L |
mCD-R |
Viereckige mCDR, Wiederveröffentlichung eines obskuren alten Tapes des AIN SOPH-Mitglieds mit „archaischen“ instrumentellen Klängen...
“Re-edition of a very limited & long time sold out tape ! Legendary side project by ClauDeDi of Ain Soph dealing with magic & esoterism !
Close to the first Ain Soph age but more extreme ! Real pre industrial-esoterims .... For purists & adepts only ! Professionally printed CDR with special square shaped disc. Limited and on CD label numbered to 200 copies, comse in oversized cover ...” [label info]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| CLEAR FRAME |
same |
CD |
"Continuity... Records, ein neuer Trabant, der RéR umkreist, wurde initiiert von Charles Hayward & Lesley Evans, um sich speziell um die Musik von Hayward zu kümmern, aber auch Leckerbissen aus dem britischen Underground der 60s & 70s auszugraben, und bringt gleich als Erstes ein besonderes Meeting of the Spirits. CLEAR FRAME (TINU 001) ist nichts weniger als ein All-Star-Gipfel - Hayward (Quiet Sun, This Heat, Camberwell Now) an den Drums, Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine, Soft Works, Brainville 3) am Bass, Lol Coxhill (Delivery, Kevin Ayers, The Melody Four, The Recedents, Burt / MacDonald + Coxhill) am Soprano, dazu Orphy Robinson (Courtney Pine, The Jazz Warriors) an Vibraphon, Steel Pan & FX, der zuletzt auf Robert Wyatts Comicopera zu hören war. Wyatt selbst spielt auf Gegenbesuch hier Kornett. Zusammen kreieren sie eine post-canterburyeske,
neo-fusioneske Ästhetik, mit agil-dynamischem Drumming und dem E-Bass als gewaltigem Soundelement und zweiter Leadstimme neben Coxhills einzigartigem, schnörkelig-näselndem Knören. Diese Bitches Brew bekommt durch Robinsons karibisches Steelgedengel und das tönerne, gläserne Perlen des Vibraphons eine exotische Würze, das tagträumerische Ambiente eines neuen Horizontes und fremder Küsten. Wyatts dunkler Kornettklang, schnarrend oder mit kaskadierendem Nachhall, mäandert dazwischen wie ein weiterer Duft von weither. Hoppers fuzzige Klangwolken sind der Stoff, aus dem Cloud 9 geballt ist. Coxhills Swing kann einen entführen in das New Orleans eines Paralleluniversums, nichts ist hier wie man es kennt. ‚Figure Eight‘ hat ganz klar Jon Hassells Possible Worlds vor dem inneren Auge. Diese Exotica lässt durch ‚noise‘ und ‚void‘ hindurch etwas Höheres und Besseres durchschimmern. Dass Rock + Improvisation weniger ist als die Summe seiner Teile, ist übrigens nur Smalltalk, an dem man einen Schmock erkennt." [Bad Alchemy]
"An all-star line-up convened and recorded for a BBC radio project, subsequently radically reworked by Hugh Hopper. These are clear, defined and shapely improvisations, music rather than noise based, invoking the best of the ‘70s rock- improvisational approaches; genre-free and structurally-minded. Robert appears in an unfamiliar role, playing trumpet throughout, and everyone is on top form. A rarity in these times, this is deep rooted music that grows with listening." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| CLEARED (STEVEN HESS & MICHAEL VALLERA) |
Of Endless Light |
CD |
"Cleared is the longstanding project of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera, based in Chicago, Illinois. Of Endless Light was recorded by Jeremy Lemos at Electrical Audio in Chicago and mastered by Denis Blackham. The six tracks complete the longest release to date by the duo, who were resolute in utilizing the maximum time available on the compact disc format. Cleared has produced a series of critically recognized recordings since its self-titled debut in 2011. Working with the Touch label on The Key (recorded in spring 2019, released in October 2020, TO 116CD) was a leap forward, prompting remixed tracks by Philp Jeck, Fennesz, Bethan Kellough, and Olivia Block. Of Endless Light is noctambulant, a walk through formal sonic spaces and colors beginning with the cascading, bell-like tones of the opening track, 'First Sleep.' The husks of a city's industrial past are summoned: warehouses hollowed out for condominiums, dust-covered factory floors, a distant grind of machining, clouds of metallic particles, and the persistent background hum of traffic. These remnants contrast with hints of the sterile present of a city no less cruel than its industrial past. 'Dawn' opens with a grey drone and scattered electronic rhythms as wiring, and extended guitar lines suggest the opening of another cycle of the day into evening. 'Pulse' offers a hypnotic pattern that suggests the movement of people through the city's core, slowly overlain with cymbals evoking the shimmer of sunlight cleaving off the windows of distant buildings. The album appropriately concludes with 'Walking Field,' methodically moving forward via a cloud of meditative clicks and looping melodies. Of Endless Light is a patient listen, distilled into a sonic environment specific to Hess and Vallera's lens. Cleared created its crepuscular moods using the core methodology of their previous records while expanding their music's range, artistry, and subtlety. Deploying careful instrumentation, sampling, and mixing to experiment with tone and atmosphere, Of Endless Light breathes and drifts through layers of sound that veil, reveal, and intrigue. The result gives a listener much to discover, examine, experience, and consider -- as well as the incentive to return again and again." -- Bruce Adams, 2022
https://clearedreleases.bandcamp.com/album/of-endless-light
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| CLEMENTI, ALDO |
Collage |
LP |
Alga Marghen presents the previously unreleased Collage 2 and Collage 3 (Dies irae) for magnetic tape, both realized at the Studio di Fonologia Muisicale RAI in Milan with the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri. These pieces are precious testimonials to Aldo Clementi's intense and ongoing interest in electronic music in the 1960s. The electronic composition Collage 2 dates from 1960. It was the first experiment with electronic music for Clementi whose original and consistent adherence to structuralism is reflected in several of his instrumental works written around that time. The first idea of Collage 3 dates back to 1966, in the form of a short electronic collage on the Beatles' song "Michelle." The composer wanted to replace old concepts and clichés which had become popular and common, through the use of "natural wells of timbre, live and organic, springing from a world of symmetry and fixed blocks." This original idea underwent a drastic transformation when the RAI (the Italian radio) commissioned Clementi to write a longer work. To his initial desire to start from scratch was added the problem of a longer duration. It was only when Clementi had almost completed the piece that he gave it its final title of "Dies irae," owing to the extreme tension that accompanied its composition.
###############
Having already issued some incredible LP by Gavin Bryars, Phill Niblock, Damião Experiença, and Hans KRUSI in 2023, Alga Marghen returns with an absolute stunner, “Collage”, dedicated to seminal Italian composer Aldo Clementi.
Comprising two previously unreleased works for magnetic tape - “Collage 2” (1960) and “Collage 3 (Dies Irae)” (1967) - both of huge historical importance, alongside a brand new rendering from 2022 of the composer’s brilliant “Fantasia su roBErto FABbriCiAni” - a work composed for flute and magnetic tape in between 1980 and 1981 - the importance of this beautiful LP can’t be overstated; bringing to light a previously inaccessible period of the great Italian composer’s career, and illuminating a crucial body of work at the heights of 20th Century musical Neo-Avantgarde.
Aldo Clementi
“Collage”
(LP)
Over the course of nearly three decades of activity, the Italian imprint, Alga Marghen, has continuously cast light into the shadows of historical sound practice, offering particular focus to underappreciated artefacts at the juncture of visual art, sound-art, experimental music, and sound-poetry. With each subsequent release, the label has helped to reform our understanding of 20th Century, and the voices that made it what it was. Over the years, they’ve brought forth an unprecedented range of early and archival material by seminal composers like Charlemagne Palestine, Walter Marchetti, Philip Corner, Henri Chopin, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Max Neuhaus, Éliane Radigue, and numerous others. Further this mission, their latest, Aldo Clementi's “Collage”, presents some of the most extreme musics ever issued by the label, at the same level as Robert Ashley's “Wolfman”, Max Neuhaus' “Fontana-Mix Feed” or Philip Corner's “Oracle”. Representing an entirely singular sound and approach to tape music that was unique to Clementi alone, once again Alga Marghen has cracked it wide open and rewritten our understanding of the history of sound.
Born in 1925 in Catania, Sicily, Aldo Clementi began his piano studies at the age of thirteen, for which he immediately showed great promise. Three short years later, in 1941, he embarked upon the study of composition under Alfredo Sangiorgi (a student of Arnold Schoenberg) who introduced him to the twelve-tone technique, leading to his attendance of the Rome Conservatory and Darmstadt. In 1956, Clementi met the Italian-born, German conductor, composer, and teacher, Bruno Maderna, attending the Studio of Phonology in Milan - the electronic music studio (RAI) founded by Maderna and Luciano Berio in 1955 - which instigated a decisive turning point in his career and work. It was there that he composed two key works in electronic music - “Collage 2” (1960) and “Collage 3 (Dies Irae)” (1967), issued here by Alga Marghen for the first time.
While Clementi would become primarily known for pieces, composed for acoustic instruments, that were characterized by a calm, consistent sound, with their materiality rooted in a unity of concept and procedure - lacking highs, lows, and any sense of forward movement - that became almost self-generative, closely connected to the approaches of Pittura Informale, his early endeavors in electronics and tape music remain among his most important works. Despite having only rarely been encountered since, in 1961 “Collage 2” was presented at the Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome, and subsequently won the International Society for Contemporary Music’s prestigious competition that year.
Realized at the Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan in 1960, employing the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri, Aldo Clementi’s “Collage 2” was the composer’s first experiment with electronic music, about which he explained: “The title and the technique, both of the same name, are the result of my having conceived the work in terms of compositional planes created independently and later superimposed; this gives rise to absorption or emergence, intersection or isolation, all absolutely and deliberately unpredictable. The difficulties implicit in the acoustics, and consequently in the effect, of this kind of treatment, are taken for granted and accepted from the start”. The result is striking; a bumbling expanse of textures and muted tones that foreshadow (and possibly lay the groundwork for) his subsequent development of techniques that would render the sound, lacking highs, lows, and any sense of forward movement, for which he would become famed, illuminating a far more pointed and arguably aggressive sense of pop possibility for the conceptual framework.
Conceived in 1966 as an electronic collage of the Beatles’ song “Michelle”, and realized the following year, also at Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan, with the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri, in from a markedly different root, “Collage 3” encounters Clementi endeavoring to replace old concepts and clichés through the use of “natural wells of timbre, live and organic, springing from a world of symmetry and fixed blocks”. The outcome, while clearly a work of sound collage, renders the composer’s source material virtually unrecognizable in a swirling, shattered expanse, the extreme tension of which compelled Clementi to add the words “Dies irae” ("the Day of Wrath”) to the title, in a strange and fascinating reference to the idiom of Requiem Mass.
The final piece on Alga Marghen’s “Collage” LP is “Fantasia su roBErto FABbriCiAni”, composed by Clementi in 1982, and thus offering a fascinating counterpoint to its predecessors, establishing a point of contact between his early electronic pieces and more well know acoustic works, and illuminating the enduring engagement with electronic process that stretched across his career. Composed for flute and magnetic tape, the piece is based on the notes corresponding to the letters in Fabbriciani’s name according to the German musical nomenclature (B flat, E, F, A, B flat, C, A). Describing the ideas at the root of the work, Clementi stated: “My stylistic purpose was to create a delirious labyrinth around the solo instrument like an enormous growth of vegetation that chokes out a little plant…”. The result, rendered here in a brand new realization, recorded live in 2022 by Alvise Vidolin, is a remarkable meeting of conceptual rigor - where the idea is the generative drive - and complex structural notions of composing. Against haunting sheets of dissonant tonality, a flute traces through the notes established by pieces conception, floating above in flirtations with melody that never fully form.
Truly amazing on creative and conceptual terms, and engrossing in its sonorities, Alga Marghen has done an hugely important work with their issue of Aldo Clementi’s “Collage”, illuminating a little-known aspect of his output, and delivering this seminal voice of Italian Modernism to an entirely new generation of listeners. Ten out of ten and impossible to recommend enough.
SOUNDOHM
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| CLEW OF THESEUS |
Meridian |
CD |
"This album shows a projection and further maturity in Clew Of Theseus’ sound. Meridian is a dark and esoteric album, very focused, full of sounds at once harsh and ambient, with forceful drones and rich textures. Sounds were created with acoustic winds, electric guitar, analog and junk synthesizers and gritty electronics, mixed to create a foreboding atmosphere. The album was mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering, best known for his work on dozens of Daniel Menche albums. Meridian was recorded in two weeks during the monsoon season of 2008. A careful study into the symbols inside the album show an obsession with elemental force and eternal power. Clew Of Theseus evokes images of furious storms, wiping the landscape of blight, bringing beautiful darkness in its wake. CD packaged in standard jewel case with full-color artwork." [label info]
www.catharticprocess.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Death Urge |
LP |
"Two long tracks of organic, brooding drone with raw, darker undertones. Bleak and unsettling ambiances with a distinct oppressive, monotone edge. A comment on the nihilistic state of the world today. Side B a re-release of one of the tracks from the very limited tour tape from 2009. Edition of 215 copies in printed brown cardboard sleeves with insert." [label info]
|
2011 |
€17.50 |
|
| CLOAMA |
same |
CD |
This is dark experimental ambient with a very piercing edge, evokes a very unsettling and eldrich atmosphere....the other, dark & abysmall side of CLOAMA...
“.....This recording, marking a debut for artist / group on the New Old Sentinel label and for the label itself, is five tracks of experimental ambient music limited to 500 copies. Experimental ambient. Two words guaranteed to send most people running off in sheer apoplectic fright. The fear of the unknown. Ambient in all its forms they can cope with but…‘experimental’…too weird. Too challenging. Never assume. On this recording the balance between the differing genres has been implemented in such a seamless and gratifying manner that its only when the recording has finished do you suddenly realise what a strange aural experience you have lived through.
Track one ‘Radiation Amplifier’ starts with what sounds like Tibetan instruments being struck before the piece swiftly introduces musique concrete electronic effects and a sample before ending in something being strummed. Whoa!! Far fucking out maaan. Track two ‘The New Old Sentinel’ throws a whole caboodle of multi effects into the mix merging part drone / part black ambience / part electro acoustic over ghostly voices. Double whoa!! Double far fucking out maaan. I think you can gleam from this what the other tracks are going to sound like. Manipulated electronic sounds and voices resonate predominately. The music continually fluctuates. To move, evolve and grow. Putting out searching tentacles to probe and envelop. Building up pieces which are then demolished before starting anew all within the same track. This combination, which will happily throw dark and light together and damn the consequences, isn’t afraid to take risks. These are minuscule forays into every genre. Picking the finest flecks and combining them into one ethereal state. The music is abstract enough to be confounding and innovative but it never alienates the listener. Instead you feel a guiding hand leading you gently into the more surreal pieces whilst cooing soothing words of comfort are spoken into your ear as you stand hypnotised at the sonic sculptures unfolding.
If this is a foray into uncharted waters, away from the normal Cloama sound, then long may it continue. To produce a piece of work that is structurally complex and yet easily accessible, without falling into the pitfalls of self absorbing wankery, is a feat many aspire to. Cloama have achieved this easily and comes highly recommended to the more adventurous spirits amongst you. “ [Auralpressure]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Halveksin Kuolemaa |
CD |
Reissue of tape that was published by LSDO label. Recordings from 1999 and added bonus track.
Curious fact about this original tape is that unknown amount of edition of 100 was dubbed with wrong tracks. Artist had submitted master tape with b-side including promotional songs of upcoming materials. Some copies of tape - like the one that circulates online as digital file, has wrong tracks on it. Nobody knows how many tapes were dubbed incorrectly.
For many, this CD may be first time to hear release as it should have been! It includes cold, yet highly electric industrial soundscapes and heavy electronics, not far from Söldnergeist, Dagda Mor, and perhaps some works of Anenzephalia. Cold synth tones oscillating over subtle rhythms of crashing loops and sound samples, covered with processed voice samples and speeches. In English, "I despise death", showcases well early progressions of Cloama. This release shows moment where transformation from harsh noise unit of earliest years was moving into recordings like "Neuroscan Organization" and split CD with GRUNT. Not to forget, these recordings are made around time when another Finnish legend, STROM.ec was formed. Due partly same members and gear, some similarities of the sound can be noticed!
Certainly album that fans of 90's Finnish power electronics / industrial noise should not overlook!
https://www.nhfastore.net/cloama-halveksin-kuolemaa?search=cloama
|
2018 |
€12.50 |
|
| CLOSING THE ETERNITY |
Forever and a Day |
CD |
"The Russian project Closing The Eternity hardly needs an introduction. Since the beginning of its activity 15 years ago, in 2001, it has released a good amount of recordings on various respected labels both in Russia and abroad. In its music the project aims to digress from everything earthly and mundane, bringing attention to the phenomena and processes lying outside of the realm of human existence... The material of this album was recorded back in 2004 and has long been awaiting the right moment for manifestation. It seems as if this work was specially created for the Muzyka Voln label (the title of which translates as "music of waves") as these two words describe it best. Three long tracks flowing one into another dissolve the listener's attention in endless tides of gentle electronic ambience. An absolutely pacifying and tranquil work imbued with a majestic contemplative atmosphere... The artwork of the album features a series of photographs by Arseniy Vinovarov made literally on the edge of the Earth - at the shore of the Arctic Ocean, where one unwillingly faces the inhuman flow of time, where eternity meets infinity..."
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| CLOSING THE ETERNITY & AD LUX TENEBRAE |
Nearby Being |
CD |
Collaboration des durch die Drone 7" hoffentlich etwas bekannter gewordenen sibirischen Projekts CLOSING THE ETERNITY mit den uns bisher unbekannten AD LUX TENEBRAE, der "cosmic black hole" Sound von CTE gewinnt dadurch an Variation. Hier wurde ausschliesslich mit asiatischen Original-Instrumenten gearbeitet, also Glocken, Gongs, Klangschalen, das Ergebnis ist aber weitaus droniger & dark ambienter, als z.B. bei HATI...
Sehr behutsam umgesetzt ergeben sich Obertöne & Resonanzen, die manchmal fast wie wispernde Stimmen klingen, und man kann sich ganz den Schwällen von sanft vibrierenden Drone-Sounds hingeben, die sich in langsamen Wellen ausbreiten...
"Wonderful cooperation of two Uralian projects CLOSING THE ETERNITY and AD LUX TENEBRAE. Fascinating ritual shamanic drone ambient changing your consciousness. Real delicacy for lovers of Alio Die, Troum, Sostrah Tinnitus... Limited edition of 500 copies in digisleeve." [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| CLOUWBECK |
Wolfrahm |
CD |
" 'Wolfrahm' is the latest work by UK artist Richard Skelton, who records under many different guises, including A Broken Consort and Carousell. It's the follow-up to 2007's "A Moraine", and continues his preoccupation with landscapes, land formation, erosion, decay and renewal. The album's title is a reference to the mineral ore that produces Tungsten - a metal, which amongst other things, is used to make violin strings. The music itself brims with a rich, textural ebb and flow - a sonorous drift of shifting layers, with dark seams of beautiful, bowed melodies and eddying, turbulent undertow." [label info]
www.shiningday.pl
"Clouwbeck is yet another pseudonym for the British ambient folk experimentalist Richard Skelton, following A Broken Consort, Carousell, and a couple others which haven't yet found their way through these doors. Each of his monikers has its own slight yet particular bent on his signature sound of rough hewn melancholia, with Clouwbeck being the most somber and abstract that we've heard from him so far. He strips down the instrumentation to just the violin, although he does allow for a considerable amount of processing and thick applications of layered drone from that instrument, building up a ponderous atmosphere of wintry sadness. The album's opening track "Gossan" scratches out the melody as if the bow were dragged across a piece of barbed wire instead of violin, yet the buzzing, luminous beds of sound that Skelton broadcasts around these scraped recursive melodies prevents the whole thing from tumbling into dissonance. "Leached" softens the rustic buzz with a majestic billowing of overlapping violin melodies, distended and blurred into a rich mass of sound. The rest of the album continues to dive deeper with each track becoming incrementally more submerged in the dense loopings and hazy drones. Throughout, Skelton's album sounds like those beautiful orchestrations from Johann Johannsson as played by Alastair Galbraith and produced by the Caretaker. Really, fantastic stuff." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| CLUSTER |
Grosses Wasser |
CD |
"Kammermusikalischer Minimalismus: 1979er-Album des Avantgardeduos. Auftakt einer 23-teiligen Reissue-Serie mit Elektronik-, Ambient- und Krautrock-Alben: 1971 gründeten Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Dieter Moebius Cluster, eine der einflussreichsten deutschen Bands der 70er-Jahre. Cluster zählen zu den Protagonisten der internationalen Elektronik-Avantgarde, gelten je nach Standpunkt als Erfinder der Ambientmusik, als Wegbereiter des Synthiepop, der Industrial-Musik, oder einfach als strahlender Stern im Krautrock-Universum. "Großes Wasser" erschien erstmals 1979, wurde
von Peter Baumann (Tangerine Dream) produziert und ist Clusters fünftes Album. Das Cover illustriert seinen Minimalismus, steht für die Konzentration, Transparenz und Abgeklärtheit der Musik, die fast kammermusikalisch anmutet. Mehr als jemals zuvor bei Cluster sind akustische Schallquellen zu hören, allen
voran ein sauber gestimmter Steinway-Flügel, aber auch E-Bass, Gitarre, Percussion und Stimme. Das Reissue des Albums ist Start einer 23-teiligen Wiederveröffentlichungsreihe von Elektronik-, Ambient- und Krautrock-Alben der Firma SKY Records. Der Begleittext stammt von Asmus Tietchens." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com |
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| CODACHROM |
Plastinka |
10inch |
"First-class electronic-space-pop with retro flavor. A gem for fans of analogue electronics, old drum machines, vocoders...Two talents of current European electronic music together on a special project.
CODACHROM is the duo formed in 2012 by Eugene Voronovski and Miguel A Ruiz, from Madrid.
Voronovski is one of the most renowned musicians of the current Russian electronic music scene.
One of his most acclaimed projects is Cisfinitum, within the so-called industrial-drone-ambient scene.
He collaborated with Miguel A Ruiz in the past on the amazing "Ornaments" CD (Longs Arms, 2007).
Ruiz is one of the most noted Spanish electronic musicians since the early 80s. CODACHROM is a new electronic-rhythmic project, born out of the exchange of sound files between these two musicians, created with analogue drum machines, assorted synthesizers, modified video game consoles, vocoder and Eugene's processed violin.
Computers have only been used in the editing of the final sound but not in the composition process, which gives this record a freshness and a completely retro feel reminiscent of the electronic pop of pioneering artists, 70s space electronic disco music and 80s tecno-pop.
PLASTINKA is the perfect music for a space-themed party. It's inspired by moon craters, especially the great crater Tsiolkovskiy, located in the far side of the Moon, to the west of crater Gagarin.
That's where, from time to time, these two talents of current European music gather up and turn on their machines, offering spontaneous live shows to strange beings that rise up from the nearby craters.
With a bit of luck, the flickering lights of their synthesizers can be seen through a telescope from our planet." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| CODE INCONNU |
Abgesang |
CD-R |
Eher in „rockilde“ Gefilde geht es bei diesem Newcomer auf Tonto.....treibend-wuchtiger Instrumental-Rock, mit wunderbaren ruhig-melancholischen Passagen, düstere THIS HEAT treffen auf AIDAN BAKER-Drones....
A trio from Graz, Austria, with minimal experimental drone-rock between THIS HEAT and AIDAN BAKER maybe.
„Benannt nach dem Film "Code Inconnu" von Michael Haneke, welcher Verständnisprobleme zwischen den Menschen thematisiert, behandelt die dreiköpfige Grazer Band mit "Abgesang" ähnliche Themen: Das Erleben von gesellschaftlichen Zwängen und die Auseinandersetzung des Einzelnen damit bzw. die Banalität des Alltags, die zum Auslöser seelischer Konflikte und innerer Zerrissenheit wird. Die Musik ist zu verstehen als Abfolge von "Schnappschüssen"(kurzen Geschichten), die den "Kampf" des Einzelnen mit sich selbst und seiner Umwelt
darstellen sollen. Daraus resultieren Gefühle wie Zerissenheit, Wut und Resignation, die musikalisch ausgedeutet werden. Wichtiger Träger der Emotionalität ist die Klangfarbe (der Sound), welche daher als Ausdrucksmittel im Vordergrund steht. In den minimalistisch angelegten Arrangements mischen sich "brachialer Lärm" und "romantische Zurückhaltung", wobei der oft unvermittelte Wechsel zwischen den Kontrasten als Umschlagen der Stimmung verstanden werden kann. Zu einfachen Drumgrooves kommen tiefe Synth-Bässe und eine extrem effektierte Gitarre sowie computergenerierte Samples. Realisation: akustisches Schlagzeug (Markus Sworcik), effektierte Gitarre (Gottfried Krienzer), Synthesizer (Christoph Uhlmann), Samples." [label info]
www.tonto.at
|
2002 |
€11.00 |
|
| COELACANTH & KEITH EVANS |
Wrack Light in Copper Ruin |
CD & DVD |
Audio CD von COELACANTH, Video-DVD von KEITH EVANS. Ein Geräuschnetz aus field recordings, leicht feedbackenden drones, vereinzelten instrumentellen Sounds & eher konkreten Objekt-Klängen macht sich breit, welches mysteriös und dynamisch zugleich wirkt, ein low-fi dröhnend-wallendes Etwas. Sowas wie pfeifende Windhosen, zischender Sand, rieselndes Granulargeknirsche...schwer zu fassen, alles scheint permanent zu flackern, flirren, schwanken, dicht dran am konkreten Material, & doch so sphärisch & Räume öffnend.
“Jim Haynes and Loren Chasse have collaborated with Keith Evans to create Coelacanth's fourth and most complex record. Culled from two
performances -- a five-hour recording session during Matmos's 96 hours of performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and an
audio/visual performance with Keith Evans -- Wrack Light in Copper Ruin explores the the symbiosis of materiality and sound, and its
infinite network of metaphors and allegories.
Like an abandoned aquarium in which an accidental and incongruous microcosm takes shape, Coelacanth's sound illustrates a constant evolution of decay, encroachment, and repossession of the border space between the natural and the man-made.
With Wrack Light in Copper Ruin, Coelacanth also meditates on the space of performance, the tactile nature of the creation of sound,
and its ephemeral, elusive and entirely subjective character. The visuals of Keith Evans further the exploration with their organic, nocturnal, energy. Comparatively, Wrack Light is more delicate than Coelacanth's previous recordings, inhabiting a space where artists such as Jonathan Coleclough, Andrew Chalk, Mirror, and MNortham can be found, yet it maintains the mysterious, oceanic nature its name implies.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| COH |
IIRON |
CD |
"It would be too easy to simply call IIRON the COH metal album, as it goes way beyond that. True, this album of classic Ivan Pavlov stompers contains more than its fair share of guitars both acoustic and electric, yet it still maintains that sense of power and purpose through electronic music which stands out as the COH "raison d'être." Coming 11 years after IRON (Wavetrap, 2000), which also tackled the sound of rock with alarming results, the new album features not only recent guitar tracks recorded at Music Research Centre at York University, but also recordings made during Soviet-era Russia, which refer to Pavlov's underground music activities in the early '80s when making or even consuming of "metal music" was forbidden. IIRON is a powerful, well-executed electronic rock record, with just a dash a humor to keep it from becoming pompous, as so much of that kind of music can be sometimes. Packaged in a 4-panel digipack for CD, and lavish gatefold for the vinyl, with stunning artwork by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))). Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, November 29th, 2010. HAIL TO WORLD PEACE AND DEATH TO FALSE METAL. In memoriam: Satoshi Kon and Peter Christopherson." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
To beat |
CD |
"Recorded May 2013 - January 2014. All music and lyrics by Ivan Pavlov / COH. Picking up right where the last track on the previous COH release RETRO-2038 left off, the new album is focused on the use of beats within the similar aesthetics. While most of the previous COH records openly shy away from accentuated beat structures and instead build up their rhythmical content by layering waves and pulses, every track on To Beat is padded with just that - beats. The music transition is illustrated in the album's artwork, displaying transformation of a sine-wave, a tone, into a waveform which is beat. This mathematical progression is made audible in the album's opening track Wave To Beat. The rest of the album, however, steers clear from dull math and presents the beats in their more traditional context of what could be referred to as adventurous dance music, taking the listener through various examples of beat use with the sense of playfulness and joy. The final piece, Beat to wave, wraps it up by dissolving a simplistic post-techno piece into a tonal chord. This brings back the album's main idea, where tone and beat are essentially one and the same, like vowels and consonants in a language, like Yin and Yang in music." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"I enter the airlock of TO BEAT: an isolated zone away from the logic and consequence of a linear life, where rebellion and transformation materialise in time and then dissipate into the files of forgotten memory. The opening track tracks the compression of a constant sine tone into sharp punctuations of beat – dynamic curvature compacts into sheer right-angles. For the following 45 minutes, the eternal, fluid unwind of being is chopped up into square and unambiguous blocks of rhythm; life pixelates momentarily, and the endless string of insatiable curiosity becomes a finite ribbon of understanding I can hold in my hands. Once it’s over I shall never speak of it again, taking the airlock out the other side via “BEAT TO WAVE”.
The album’s interior is a strange emulation of dance music. The melodies are tangible and thick – riding 4/4 like an unforgettable congregative chant (it feels somewhat Eastern at points, although I feel ignorant thinking that) – yet the beat emphasis falls in eerie places, causing my body to jut out in a series of unnatural angles. It’s an inhuman sound but far from clinical, and while the combination of hum and pulse evoke a sort of chorus of stable spacecraft monitoring equipment, none of these tracks are sheened with mathematical precision; there are bubbles of warm mid-frequency and the sliding voices of alien worship, placing TO BEAT in an error void between abstract calculation and the music of corporeal organisms.
There are moments that fling themselves into the lust of nightclub strobes: the sterile pump of blood around a dancefloor, puppeteered by rhythms that speak to the instinct to move. For instance, “ungear moi” sends the drip of neon sweat into half-time as rave synthesisers flit between subterranean corners like lasers, or perhaps surveillance cameras. And then there’s “Moonviewhigh”, whose mixture of major-key colour and geometric certainty depicts it as a Rubik’s cube rotating in front of my face – a flicker of squares in digital contrast, punctuated by a sloping reverb that mockingly emulates the spaces that exist beyond TO BEAT’s four titanium walls. It’s a simulated reality, and to step inside is to subvert gravity and co-ordination for just a short while." [ATTN:Magazine] |
2014 |
€13.50 |
|
| COH / DADA 999 |
Hunger |
7inch |
"This interesting Split-7” is the single E.P. for the reissue of TACTILE “Borderlands” album featuring special guest Jhonn Balance (COIL) at the voice. The Coil’s member Ivan Pavlov alias CoH presents “Hunger”, a new unreleased version of “Grief” (extract from the album). On the B-Side DADA 999 (in collaboration with BAHNTIER) impressed with the proto-electro-psychedelic song “Dave’s Tripping Attitude”, a pure allucination in music. Excellent gatefold cover-7” and three different colors available (Red, White and Transparent), all in numbered and limited edition. The complete release is dedicaded to both John Everall and John Balance." [label info]
www.nortonnorth.com
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| COIL |
Backwards |
CD |
"After the ground-breaking release of 1990′s “Love’s Secret Domain” album, Coil were not dormant; the main project was “Backwards”, which was started in 1992, updated considerably between 1993 and 1995, and transferred in 1996 to New Orleans, where it was finished in the magic of the Nothing studios of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). The album saw the fruition of Jhonn Balance‘s recent vocal coaching, producing haunting, passionate vocals, while reaching new heights.
23 years after its initiation, these tracks have been beautifully preserved by Danny Hyde and are finally available in highest quality audio. Differing substantially from the later, remixed incarnation, “The New Backwards” (2008), “Backwards” contains the original versions of Coil’s much-loved tracks; ‘A Cold Cell’ and ‘Fire Of The Mind’, which have appeared on various compilations over the years, and are now presented as originally intended.
This album is the essential bridge between “LSD” and the later “Musik To Play In The Dark” series. It is an essential conduit, to understand the journey that was taken. It was to be released… it should have been released… but because of issues with grey men it wasn’t. It is now, so enjoy. (Danny Hyde).
CD in digipak / 2LP in gatefold sleeve." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk |
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Another Brown World / Baby Food (black vinyl) |
LP |
"Sub Rosa presents two rare tracks by Coil, originally commitioned by Sub Rosa in the late 80s / early 90s and now finally released on vinyl!
"Another Brown World" (12:09 min) was written by John Balance and Peter Christopherson, produced and mixed by Coil, and recorded by Danny Hyde at Threshold House, London in the Summer of 1989. The vocals were recorded at the Animist Monastery situated at the Summit of Mount Popa in Pagan, Burma.
"Baby Food" (12:32 min) was written and performed by Coil: Danny Hyde (essentials) Peter Christopherson (fundamentals), and John Balance (vibrant rays of spiritual psychosis). This track is the first to utilize the recording process known as "Sidereal Sound", a continuation and advancement of the deep listening theories as demonstrated on the album Love's Secret Domain (1991). Recorded in a storm in London in the summer of 1993.
These two pieces were commissioned by Sub Rosa for these two specific projects: Myths 4 - Sinople Twilight In Çatal Hüyük (1989) and Chaos In Expansion (1993)" [label info]
2At the height of England's hidden reverse, Coil (alongside Current 93 and Nurse With Wound) were tireless contributors to various experimental / industrial compilations hither and yon. The two lengthy tracks on album represent what Coil offered to Sub Rosa. A suitably scatological recoloring of Brian Eno's classic, "Another Brown World" was featured on the 1989 compilation Myths 4, alongside Current 93 and Cheb Mami. While built upon an insistent, haunted synth line, this particular track is darkly-lit labyrinth of divergent musical ideas: a repeating phrase from a fuzzed-out guitar, eerie flares of electronic trickery, and various cut-ups from ethnographic studies recorded at the Animist Monastery at the summit of Mount Popo in Burma. In the same year, Coil contributed a track called "Contains A Disclaimer" to a Pathological Records compilation which used many of the same elements -- that guitar freak-out and that reductive Goblin-ish synth motif. While these tracks are clearly linked, it's always been unclear if "Another Brown World" is the lysergic dub of the other or if it is the early exploration of ideas later ratcheted into submission. It's always been a corker of a track, no matter how anybody looks at it.
"Another Brown World" is coupled with the 1993 track "Baby Food" which finds Coil in their post-rave guise. From here, the Balance / Sleazy duo also delivered their iconic Worship The Glitch album a few years later. This particular track looks forward actually to what Aphex Twin would produce on his seminal Selected Ambient Works, Vol 2. It's a psychoactive track of rounded acid tones shaped into a hypnotic / aquatic percolation. It's a beautiful and melancholy example of Coil's take on '90s electronica, easily bettering most of their peers at the time." [Stranded] |
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Time Machines |
CD |
"Coil's four legit drone pieces, released under the moniker 'Time Machines' in 1998, recorded one year earlier, using single takes with minimal post production. What has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of COIL history ever released, is now for the first time available on vinyl.
"4 Tones to facilitate travel through time." So begins the listeners’ journey into what has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of COIL history ever released.
Each of the four pieces on Time Machines is named after the chemical compound of the hallucinogenic drug that they were composed for, and the album was meticulously crafted to enable what John Balance referred to as "temporal slips" in time and space, allowing both the artist and audience to figuratively "dissolve time".
Inspired by long form ceremonial music of Tibet and other religions, where the intent is to lose oneself in the music – to meditate or achieve a trance state – Time Machines became Drew McDowall, John Balance, and Peter Christopherson’s “electronic punk-primitive” answer to this tribal concept.
Starting as a rough demo tape recorded solely by Coil member Drew McDowall, Time Machines started to take full form when McDowall enthusiastically delivered these demo recordings to Balance and Christopherson as sketches for a new Coil project with the primary goal of shifting Coil’s sound further into a more conceptually abstract direction. Largely recorded in 1997 using single takes with minimal post production, these four drones contain every intended fluctuation and tone, along with every glitch of the original – “Artifacts generated by your listening environment are an intrinsic part of the experience.”
Dais Records announces the official remastered reissues of Time Machines on both LP and CD. The reissued CD edition includes reproductions of the 6 original vinyl stickers and comes in a double-pocketed brown board digipack. The reissued double vinyl LP will feature deluxe double pocket gatefold, matte with gloss overlay with printed eurosleeves inserts. The European LP edition is limited to 1000 on transcent orange vinyl."
"The art of Coil involves a confluence of the surreal, the deviant, the magical and the psychedelic, all stemming from their inception within Industrial culture in the early '80s. Time Machines was conceived by Coil's John Balance, Peter Christopherson and Drew MacDowall back in 1998 as a series of audio hallucinogens, constructed by means of method acting. The zeitgeist of Time Machines is the very same as Spacemen 3's early compendium Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To, while the compositional sensibility travels down a very different path. For Balance, the concept to the album reflected the notion of hallucinogens as means of time travel, as he posited, "they can conjure up histories of yourself and/or act as predictors of the future. In any case, they can remove you from 'temporal reality.'" The four tracks are named after four powerful chemical compounds with hallucinogenic properties, with each track presumably engineered both for and through those exact chemicals. Such is deeply rooted in the tradition of kosmische electronica and psychonaut minimalism. La Monte Young, early Tangerine Dream, Nurse With Wound and certainly Coil stand at the pinnacle of a tradition for lysergic music that transcends the need for drug-taking to embrace the full experience.
Time Machines remains one of the few truly successful pieces of electronic music in this liminal oeuvre. Slow oscillating tones gird vibrating patterns, and black-hole echoes of rhythm slither in the distance behind slightly dissonant saw-tooth drones. This simple structural sensibility belies the investigative and imaginative prowess that Coil have long mastered. You can't just turn on a synthesizer and have these sounds spill from the circuitry. In Coil's calibration of electricity with chemistry, this immersive pool of sound is a stark document of their power in dissolving time." [Stranded Rec.]
"Vier Klangreisen zu halluzinogenen Verbindungen. Meditation in post-spiritueller
Versuchsanordnung.
Vier Töne, um eine Reise durch die Zeit zu erleben. So beginnt der Trip zu einer der geheimnisvollsten Veröffentlichungen in der langen Geschichte von Coil. Jedes der vier Stücke von "Time Machines" ist nach
der chemischen Verbindung einer halluzinogenen Substanz benannt. Das Album wurde konzipiert, um zu ermöglichen, was John Balance als eine Art "Fehltritt" in Zeit und Raum bezeichnet; die Möglichkeit für Künstler wie Publikum, sich im übertragenen Sinne in der Zeit aufzulösen, eine Art Gegenstück zu spiritueller Musik. Die drei Musiker verstehen dieses Werk als eine elektronische und von der Primitivität des Punks
inspirierte Antwort auf die lange Tradition zeremonieller Musik und Stammeskonzepte verschiedener Religionen, denen es darum geht, zu meditieren und sich in der Musik zu verlieren. Das Projekt begann als Demo-Tape, das ausschließlich von Drew McDowall aufgenommen wurde, und formte sich voll und ganz aus,
als er es Balance und Peter Christopherson vorstellte. Es entstanden vier Klanggebilde, die 1997 als First Takes aufgenommen und nur minimal nachproduziert wurden." [label info]
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Love's Secret Demise |
CD |
"These recordings were initially titled 'The Side Effects of Life', which was a working title for COIL's legendary album "Love's Secret Domain". The music presented here are demos / mixes of material that was later released as the
"Love's Secret Domain" album and includes parts of the "Wrong Eye/Scope" 7"-single.
The original cassette (only a handful are known to exist) was sent to WaxTrax! records in 1989 ahead of the planned future release of "Love's Secret Domain" on the label. The track 'Fidget' was subsequently released on the "WaxTrax!Sampler#2" cassette in 1989.
The album was finally released by Torso (Europe) and Wax Trax! (USA) in 1991.
These recordings and mixes are incredibly rare, and demonstrate Coild working towards the final pieces that would make up "Love's Secret Domain".
Tracks:
01 Fidgit 02 Dark River 03 Window Pain 04 Teenage Lightening 05 Titan Arch
06 Scope 07 Carvers and Gilders 08 Love's Secret Domain 09 Fidgit Too
|
2018 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Theme from the Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex |
LP |
" ‘Musique Pour La Danse’ is proud to present Coil's unreleased soundtrack for the VHS only,
pre-internet, sexual education documentary entitled "The Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex" re-
leased in 1992. Members for this project are John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson
and Danny Hyde.
The OST, to quote John Balance's interview for Compulsion Online, "is [a] slightly new agey, progressive house type thing". Another way to approach it is as a delightful collection of balearic beats, smoking jazz not far removed from Badalamenti's work with David Lynch, somewhat of an ambient house album for your home listening and early morning sunrise dances, Coil style. Taken from the original masters provided by Danny Hyde, "The Gay Man's Guide...” features a new sexy edit of the main theme.
Bonuses: "Nasa-Arab" and "Omlagus Garfungiloops" are taken from the 1992 CD only "Stolen and Contaminated Songs", both being original versions of the radically reworked (for the OST) "Nasa-Arab 2" and "Exploding Frogs" in order to balance the whole album and extend the listening pleasure.
Tracks:
A1 Coil - Alternative Theme From Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex (End Version)
A2 Coil - Exploding Frogs
A3 Coil - Nasa Arab 2
B1 Coil - Nasa Arab
B2 Coil - Omlagus Garfungiloops
B3 Coil - Theme From The Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex" [label info]
"Next in Coil’s archival excavations is their soundtrack to a pre-internet, VHS-only sex ed documentary released in 1992. Released from masters with the blessing of Danny Hyde (Jhon and Sleazy’s right hand man and go-to engineer), this first proper edition of the soundtrack features a newly reworked “sexy” edit of the main theme along with bonus reworks of ‘Nasa-Arab’ and ‘Omlagus Garfungiloops’ which appeared in the soundtrack to ‘Gay Man’s…’ as well as on 1992’s CD-only ‘Stolen And Contaminated Songs.’
In a way that Coil would shed with later recordings, ‘Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex’ sounds very much of its time, melding downtempo rhythms with smoky atmospheres in a way comparable to fellow ambient travellers such as The Orb and FSOL as contemporaneous material by Lynch & Badalamenti or even The Wildbunch, essentially nailing a sort of Balearic backroom or afterhours style.
The big highlights are the EP’s balmiest and jazziest bits, namely the dusky blue strut of ‘Alternative Theme From Gay Men’s Guide To Safer Sex’ that opens the EP, along with the iridescent shimmies of ‘Exploding Frogs’ and its rework ‘Omlagus Garfungiloops’, which could almost be a fantasy collaboration between Japanese Electronics-era Heinrich Mueller and Angelo Badalamenti at his most snake-hipped and winking.
While we’re not certain of the soundtrack’s efficacy in its purpose - it remains a unique piece of the impossible jigsaw puzzle that is Coil’s catalogue, and a fine throwback to early ‘90s ambient/downtempo styles." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Theme from the Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex |
CD |
" ‘Musique Pour La Danse’ is proud to present Coil's unreleased soundtrack for the VHS only,
pre-internet, sexual education documentary entitled "The Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex" re-
leased in 1992. Members for this project are John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson
and Danny Hyde.
The OST, to quote John Balance's interview for Compulsion Online, "is [a] slightly new agey, progressive house type thing". Another way to approach it is as a delightful collection of balearic beats, smoking jazz not far removed from Badalamenti's work with David Lynch, somewhat of an ambient house album for your home listening and early morning sunrise dances, Coil style. Taken from the original masters provided by Danny Hyde, "The Gay Man's Guide...” features a new sexy edit of the main theme.
Bonuses: "Nasa-Arab" and "Omlagus Garfungiloops" are taken from the 1992 CD only "Stolen and Contaminated Songs", both being original versions of the radically reworked (for the OST) "Nasa-Arab 2" and "Exploding Frogs" in order to balance the whole album and extend the listening pleasure.
Tracks:
A1 Coil - Alternative Theme From Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex (End Version)
A2 Coil - Exploding Frogs
A3 Coil - Nasa Arab 2
B1 Coil - Nasa Arab
B2 Coil - Omlagus Garfungiloops
B3 Coil - Theme From The Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex" [label info]
"Next in Coil’s archival excavations is their soundtrack to a pre-internet, VHS-only sex ed documentary released in 1992. Released from masters with the blessing of Danny Hyde (Jhon and Sleazy’s right hand man and go-to engineer), this first proper edition of the soundtrack features a newly reworked “sexy” edit of the main theme along with bonus reworks of ‘Nasa-Arab’ and ‘Omlagus Garfungiloops’ which appeared in the soundtrack to ‘Gay Man’s…’ as well as on 1992’s CD-only ‘Stolen And Contaminated Songs.’
In a way that Coil would shed with later recordings, ‘Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex’ sounds very much of its time, melding downtempo rhythms with smoky atmospheres in a way comparable to fellow ambient travellers such as The Orb and FSOL as contemporaneous material by Lynch & Badalamenti or even The Wildbunch, essentially nailing a sort of Balearic backroom or afterhours style.
The big highlights are the EP’s balmiest and jazziest bits, namely the dusky blue strut of ‘Alternative Theme From Gay Men’s Guide To Safer Sex’ that opens the EP, along with the iridescent shimmies of ‘Exploding Frogs’ and its rework ‘Omlagus Garfungiloops’, which could almost be a fantasy collaboration between Japanese Electronics-era Heinrich Mueller and Angelo Badalamenti at his most snake-hipped and winking.
While we’re not certain of the soundtrack’s efficacy in its purpose - it remains a unique piece of the impossible jigsaw puzzle that is Coil’s catalogue, and a fine throwback to early ‘90s ambient/downtempo styles." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Sara Dale's Sensual Massage |
do-LP |
"Sara Dale's Sensual Massage was a delightful erotic video with a mystic soundtrack by Coil. Quite unusual for the band dreamy ambient, almost spa-relaxed soft harmonies, bland tribal rhythms, chimes, and birdsong but still with dark mysterious and inimitable Coil musick's charm. However, the second part of the album explores more rhythmic structures that remind 'Gay Man's Guide...' soundtrack. Besides the OST recordings, the edition includes bonus tracks from the "Basilisk prod.'s" era: “Theme From Blue”, and grandiose "The Hills Are Alive" so badly wanted on vinyl. Artwork by Steven Stapleton. Mastering by Martin Bowes." [label info]
"Coil’s gaping vaults give up their esoteric erotic massage parlour soundtrack supplemented by tracks from 1993’s ‘Themes For Derek Jarman’s Blue’. This is Coil at their most beautiful - in places best compared to Art Of Noise's 'Moments in Love'...
After recently cropping up on one of the Threshold Archive CDs, Coil’s seven tracks of creamy new age parlour music make a kinda incredible release on their own, with the culminating cuts for Derek Jarman making for a very happy ending in certain Coil fan’s fantasies. For the most, this is Coil doing sensual New Age music in a very early ‘90s style, all choral harmonies and blushing digital pads primed for your comedown or floatation tank session, but edged with that unfathomable sense of eeriness that’s practically made Coil a byword for all things queered and quasi-mystic.
It gets very weird when the masseuses’ hands turns to tentacle with the plasmic ooze of ‘Part 5’, and in the mix of raga drone and sleazy rhythmic creep in ‘Part 6’, with the set all arranged to lead up to a tantric disco noise climax as only these guys could in the pair of Jarman soundtrack parts recalling their work on the sort sibling soundtrack release, ‘Gay Man’s Guide…’." [Boomkat]
|
2020 |
€34.00 |
|
| COIL / NINE INCH NAILS |
Recoiled |
CD |
" “Recoiled” is a rambunctious alchemy, of magikal Coil sensibilities and hi-tech home circa 90’s mixing technique, all fused in the cave-like early studios of Danny Hyde / Peter Christopherson. These were the unrestrained PRE- BIG studio- mix downs, of four songs which long time Coil admirer / collaborator Trent Reznor requested Coil to remix. Reznor sent over the original multi-tracks and DATs to Hyde / Christopherson, who independently mixed versions and then met to synch both creations, molding them into these master versions. ”Recoiled” includes a fuller, more opulent version of the track ‘Closer’, which eventually made it onto the opening credits to the movie “SE7EN“. These 5 lengthy compositions are pre-Ableton / laptop generation type priest song creations, with the use of baby alarms and numerous wires to create bespoke effects. These legendary tracks were always rumoured to exist and, only the due diligence of a dedicated NIN forum who hunted them down, are released/unleashed for your listening pleasure. 4 of the tracks were released on the download-only “Uncoiled”. A bonus, previously unheard track from the same sessions closes the album. Jhonn Balance is also manifest on this gilded constellation. Beautifully remastered for CD / vinyl. CD in digipak." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| COLD BODY RADIATION |
The longest Shadows ever cast |
7inch |
"So hard to categorise, CBR is becoming a fiercely original reference in the so called postbm shoegaze movement. Cold Body Radiation pervasive melancholic sound structures are the marriage between trascendence and power of nature.
The two-track vinyl is about the death of the summer, when the light changes and the shadows become very long…
This amazing release is presented as 7” ep hard vinyl limited to 500 copies featuring exclusive brand new compositions for your inner conceptual meditation." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH / MURMER |
Husk |
CD |
Starke Collaboration des field-recording-Spezialisten MURMER aka PATRICK MC GINLEY (er betreibt auch die Radiosendung „Framework“ auf dem Londoner Kult-Sender ‚Resonance104.4fm’) und JONATHAN COLECLOUGH. 4 Stücke, über 70 Minuten Spielzeit, feinstoffliche Resonanzenteppiche verbinden sich mit konkretem Material aus Natur & Alltag und von Instrumenten, der Geist öffnet sich für Mikro-Detail-Geräusche & subliminale Klangwelten... watch out: demnächst (2007) wird es von MURMER eine 7“ auf Drone geben!
“They first met in 2002 after appearing on the compilation LP ‘Chaleur’, and soon began work on the material that would become ‘Husk.’ Sharing a fascination with using ‘found sound’ in their music, ‘Husk’ includes recordings of refrigerators, thunderstorms, sheep, car horns, ferryboats, windblown sand, crackling charcoal, as well as more conventional instrumental sounds including a variety of percussion instruments. Much of the music started as live improvisation, in one case during a radio broadcast on McGinley’s regular ‘Framework’ slot on the London-based radioart station Resonance FM. These live recordings have been carefully edited and mixed over several years. ‘Husk’ is packaged in a 6-panel Digisleeve featuring photographs by Patrick McGinley.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, J. & LETHE |
Long Heat |
CD |
Collaboration von JONATHAN COLECLOUGH mit dem japanischen Cellisten & Impro-Droner LETHE ! Far-away drones, die man kaum fassen kann, dicht & subliminal, unwirklich & undurchdringlich, zeitweise sehr kraftvoll & konkreter werden in Mikrosound-Bereiche hinein, alles andere als statisch, mit überraschenden Wendungen.
“It's a pity that there is not much information on the cover of this CD, since it would be interesting to know what is going on here. Lethe is the Japanese Kuwayama Kiyoharu, who has released a CD on Trente Oiseaux of his cello/drone music aswell as a couple of releases on his on own label (and a collaboration with Kapotte Muziek is forthcoming on Intransitive). The reader who has been paying attention knows the name Jonathan Coleclough as being on this reviewer's favourite drone artists. Now, why would it be nice to know just a little bit more? Is it Lethe sending sound material to Coleclough? Perhaps. It seems to me the most logical thing upon hearing this CD - well, two actually. If you want you can order a copy and order an extra bonus CD with 'Long Heat - Second Part'. It has the majestic sounds that is the trademark of Coleclough. These long drone sounds that slowly change shape, change colour. But that's only one part of the game. Coleclough adds another layer of heavily reverbed sounds of falling objects. An additional third layer is used for utter dry sounds – scratching the surface. Three distinct layers of sounds that over the course of each disc start to intermingle with eachother, they slowly merge together, but it's not that a blurr arises, not at all. From these slowly merging masses a new distinct and powerful drone arises above the field which slowly moves on and follows it's own course. Once this course is gone, the material falls apart like small particles, suddenly, without warning.
But like said: is this what is done, or is it the work of Lethe producing this work with the use of Coleclough soundmaterial? Something says here, this is not the case. Hard to tell why, so it remains mere guessing. But is it important, all this guessing? Perhaps not, I am sure it is not important at all. Isn't this were the result counts? I am sure it does. And sure it does count. This is a beautiful work of drone music. Majestic stuff, moving slowly forward. Great stuff, but maybe I'm a little biased here.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN |
Drop |
7inch |
“A new 7" by the Drone meastro - two extremely intense pieces based on the sound of water dropping. Limited edition of 200 copies only.” [label info]
“....In "Pindrop" we hear the sounds of pins falling on a metallic surface - nothing else. With a total absence of drones. In "Seed Drop" the drones are present again, set against a backdrop of processed sounds of seeds dropping on, perhaps, the same surface. The a-side is very nice, but far too short, but for the limited concept of the b-side the format of 7" is fine enough. A little treasure.”[FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€16.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN / BASS COMMUNION / COLIN POTTER |
same |
do-CD |
Another re-release, on the Aquarel label, of this double collaborative CD, which has long been out of print, becoming a collectors item. The new issue is housed in a high-quality gatefold sleeve.
Here\'s what Lucas Schleicher said about it on Brainwashed. \"Jonathan Coleclough, Steven Wilson, and Colin Potter are all gurus of the meditative and sublime, crafting from seemingly thin air the most delicate and shattering of sounds. Every track has a heaviness or a weight that can feel paranoid or transcendental. ‘Pethidine’ is a twenty-eight minute pause, frozen perfectly in space and time. It develops and unfolds slowly, revealing each of its particularities only to show that they are indeed one entity turning inside out. Being surrounded physically by this sound has literally kept me warm at night. ‘Epidural’ manages to erase all memory, all sensation, and leave only the truth of intuition in its wake. Its immediacy, weight, and thrust is unequalled in much of the music I know.\"
https://retortae.bandcamp.com/album/jonathan-coleclough-bass-communion-colin-potter
https://icrdistribution.com/collections/other-artists/products/bass-communion-jonathan-coleclough-colin-potter-icr-39-cd
|
2022 |
€19.50 |
|
| COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES |
Six Guitars |
LP |
Dies dürft der erste Teil (man könnte auch sagen: das erste Sammlerstück) der neuen "Guitar Series" auf Table of the Elements sein! COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES wurden von JON MUELLER & CHRIS ROSENAU 1998 gegründet, hier schichten sie 6 Gitarren im minimalen Breitwand-Modus übereinander, das hat was von meditativem GLENN BRANCA...super! Auf klarem Vinyl, einseitig bespielt mit SAVAGE PENCIL - etching auf der Rückseite.
"Their sound is expansive, vast, and billowing; full of ringing guitars, soaring in the best traditions of the Chatham/Branca standoff; meanwhile, beneath the clouds sprawl dewy meadows of gently rolling electronica. Six Guitars is just what its title states, yet so much more. Wildly versatile drummer Jon Mueller follows the rules by hammering on an electric guitar with mallets, enhancing the Steve Reichian vibe (compare this with Mueller's face-melting solo onslaught Metals). The band sparkles accordingly, lifting to a dazzling climax. It's epic minimalism in exquisite registration, and the perfect selection to introduce the Table Of The Elements Guitar Series (fans will be happy to hear that Mueller is on deck with a solo contribution to the series as well). Beyond the music, there's the similarly spectacular packaging. It's a one-sided, 12-inch LP, pressed on clear vinyl; the reverse is laser etched with an original illustration by acclaimed UK artist Savage Pencil, whose credits include album art for The Fall, Big Black, and Sonic Youth. It's a limited-edition pressing, so get it while you can -- disks from the label's original Guitar Series in 1993/1994 are now some of Collectorville's must coveted treasures." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| COLLEEN |
Everyone alive wants Answers |
CD |
"Spinnenwebartige Soundgebilde voller Magie und Charme: Debüt der Französin.
Mit "Everyone Alive Wants Answers" legte im Jahr 2003 die damals 26-jährige Französin Cecile Schott aka Colleen ihr Debütalbum vor. Begleitet von einer defekten Effektmaschine, Glockenspiel und Gitarre entstanden spinnenwebartige Soundgebilde voller Magie und Charme, die einen nachhaltig verzaubern." [label info / Indigo]
www.theleaflabel.com
|
2003 |
€15.50 |
|
| |
The golden Morning breaks |
CD |
"Meditative Schönheit: zweites Album der französischen Elektronikerin.
Nach ihrem Aufsehen erregenden Debüt im Jahr 2003 ("Everyone Alive Wants Answers") ließ sich Cécile Schott alias Colleen zwei Jahre Zeit für ein zweites Album. Die französische Elektronikerin scheut sich auf "The Golden Morning Breaks" nicht, neben Effektgeräte auch akustische Instrumente zu benutzen. Diese setzt sie genauso minimal ein, sodass von den Kompositionen eine warme, meditative Schönheit ausgeht.
Die CD enthält außerdem das Video zu "The Happy Sea"." [label info]
www.theleaflabel.com
|
2005 |
€15.50 |
|
| COLLEY, JOE |
Acting As If |
10inch |
"When Joe Colley speaks about his work and even about his life, he shrugs in an awkward attempt to stave off an existential frustration that not only his work addresses but also seems to consume his identity. There are numerous metaphors through his titles that allude to endless failures and a nihilism full of contempt, but Colley also implores a desperate urgency to express these poetics no matter how painful they may be. For three decades now, Colley has been a central and persistent figure in the California noise community. First recording under the moniker Crawl Unit and running the short-lived Povertech label, Colley presented a preternaturally strong acumen of electro-acoustic techniques and abstraction through a vast language of blistered textures, atonal noise, and gnarled drone. By 2000, he dropped the Crawl Unit moniker in favor of his own name with an ongoing discography of damaged yet exploratory electronics.
Colley returns to Drone Records for this 10" on the Substantia Innominata series, many years after his Crawl Unit "Tuscon Mon Amour" 7." In describing "Acting As If," Colley offers a vague series of descriptors: unheimlich, terror of the familiar, and no faith in what is "real." Within the sustained movements of scrabbling textures, motorized abrasions, and uncomfortable harmonics, such conditions are made manifest and Colley amplifies them into something eeriely sublime. All of that held within a self-contained logic that works within and against his deep knowledge of drone-on minimalism, musique concrete dynamics, and the explosiveness of noise culture. His swarming masses, throttled rumbling, and smoldering tension are all encircling and folding in on themselves. Rhizomes of sound that speak poison. Drink up, if it doesn't kill you, it will only make you stronger."
[Jim Haynes / Northern California, 2023]
listen to various CRAWL UNIT + JOE COLLEY tracks here:
https://aftersilencepodcast.bandcamp.com/album/as-31-from-crawl-unit-to-joe-colley
https://www.last.fm/music/Joe+Colley
"MECHANICAL RITUALS: 23 years after his EP for Drone Records (DR-28, as CRAWL UNIT) we are proud to release another / new work of conceptual / minimal / object drone artist JOE COLLEY from California.
We think JOE COLLEY (*1972) is a master of using mechanical object sounds and electronic static, but also strange low fi found sources and field recordings, creating alienating, surrealistic effects, similar to the likes of SMALL CRUEL PARTY, JIM HAYNES, DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE or even the more experimental side of ZOVIET FRANCE...
His newer compositions seem always to be filled with electro-magnetic hummings, strange hissing and the pourings of metallic objects as a basis, but you never find the use real instruments, synths, or masses of effect procession. Thus a very own scent of mystery appears, as all of these radiations are not really from this planet, without any "cosmic" connotations..
For the creator, these sounds are connected with unreal emotions of "Being Lost", a mistrust in what may be called reality, and a general feeling of alienation... - you can only wonder how this can result in such beautiful droning expanses..
Presented here are over 30 minutes of very best new COLLEY material (entitled "Limit / Limit" und "Always I / Always II") => through these drones of strangeness the mind is thrown inside an unrecognizable and confusing realm of broken electricity and something like audible-made atmospheric pressure..
Lim. 300 copies with artwork by dutch designer and micro label hero MEEUW, using a special silver print (on reverse board), BLACK vinyl. glossy black inner sleeves." [press release]
"I don't keep up with Joe Colley's recent releases for reasons I am unsure of myself. Not that there are many of them, but I only heard a few. Maybe his work is these days within installation work or performing? This new record shows Colley as I know him best. He is a man with an ear to the ground or wall; he hears stuff we don't. I believe he uses very few 'real' instruments, and for convenience, I include all things synthesizer (modular, digital, analogue). With his equipment, he records the unwanted sounds from our world. Buzzing, whirring, near broken cables and other forms of electric debris. It's never clear whether his recording devices are great or lo-fi. It could go either way, I think.
Maybe you need great some great electro-magnetic devices to pick up these sounds, but at the same time, when they are relatively low-key, they might have another attractive quality. Get my drift here? We live in a world with many sounds, at least many of us. I like to think I live in a quiet street, but here too, there is a lot of noise pollution. This pollution, so I believe, is Colley's playground. He collects and collates this material into pieces of dystopian nightmare. Coley's music sounds like I imagine the sound of a leaking nuclear power plant, the last breath of a machine park, and the death rattle of our post-industrial society. Unlike some of the other work I heard from Colley, this new work is relatively 'smooth', I must say. There aren't many hard cuts to indicate the final breath of a sound (but they are also not entirely absent), but Colley, this time, uses smoother transitions in the music. Many fragments are slowly cross-faded into the next section, revealing a less brutal element in his work. Or, perhaps, one could say, it makes his music all the more gentle? Or even more musical? Colley applies all the techniques from musique concrète here but keeps much of his source material in what seems to be a pretty rough state anyway. It's dark; it's real, scary, weird, haunting and haunted and, ultimately, beautiful music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Trying to Play Nothing |
7inch |
A recording of Samuel Beckett’s “Text for Nothing #8” read by Jack McGowan 1958 (used without permission) is burned to a CDR with 99 index points. A Sony Discman in shuffle mode attempts struggles to play the disc. Electromagnetic signals of struggling CD player mechanics are recorded, edited and collaged into two pieces.
Joe Colley is a visual artist and composer based in Sacramento, CA. He investigates audio phenomena, using field recordings and electronics. He also records under the name Crawl Unit and he is the founder of the label Povertech Industries. |
2021 |
€9.00 |
|
| COLORLIST |
The fastest Way to become the Ocean |
10inch |
"The Chicago based Colorlist is comprised of crossover jazz duo Charles Rumback and Charles Gorczynski. Both multi-instrumentalists, Rumback mans percussion, bells and melodica, while Gorczynski plays saxophone, numerous woodwind instruments, synthesizers and harmonium.
'The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean' is a four track EP recorded especially for Serein. Once again joined by collaborators, the EP features guitarist Jeff Parker of Tortoise on 'Nine Lives' (A2), while Liz Payne lends vocals and melodica to the closing track, 'What We Have Left' (B2). The tracks were mixed by long-time Colorlist cohort, Josh Eustis.
This work finds Colorlist at their very best - during the twenty-six minutes of run-time we are led through a kaleidoscopic ocean of sounds and ideas. Opening track 'Light Conditions' begins on an optimistic note, all feather-light woodwinds and gently brushed snares, the mood is open and care-free. But, like mist rising on a clear day, punch-drunk harmonium drones and haunted sax phrases permeate the air and hint at something darker, more sinister at play. In the end, balance is restored, and we are led into the second piece, 'Nine Lives' feeling a sense of resolution.
'Nine Lives' is a beast of a track. At just under ten minutes in length, it builds from a growl of low bass and drums like waves crashing on the shore. This tumultuous opening is slowly organised into a labyrinthine but perfectly organised series of repeating phrases, steadily falling in and out of phase with one another. Parker's improvised electric guitar playing contrasts with the purposeful repetition of the other instruments. The track continues to build as more and more elements are added to the mix, until, as if reaching some kind of critical mass, tension is broken and the piece resolves with wave upon wave of blissful melody. It's fitting that this epic track closes the first side of the record - many will doubtless feel the benefit of a prolonged period of silence in order to reflect on this breathtaking piece of music.
The perfect antidote to the sheer impact of the pieces preceding it, 'Coming Into Sight' opens side B with an almost hymn-like solemnity. Harmonium is accompanied only by the distant roll of drums and the quiet chatter of birds, it's not difficult to imagine a boat roll in off the ocean bearing a loved one home to shore. The piece, which also falls just short of the ten minute mark, builds until the moment feet hit dry land again, the homecoming heralded by hoarse screams from Gorczynski's saxophone and flurries of thunderous percussion from Rumback.
'The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean' ends on a high with the short, upbeat closing track, 'What We Have Left'. This piece sits slightly apart from the others due to the presence of vocals from Liz Payne – a first for Colorlist and a welcome addition." [label info]
www.serein.co.uk
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| COLUMN ONE |
Feldaufnahmen I |
CD |
"Limited edition of 500 copies, CD in digipak, 16 pp. booklet. Feldaufnahmen I is the first release in a series of pure filed recordings by german multi-disciplinary experimental group COLUMN One. The 12 recordings where collected in east Germany in the Polenztal within the mountain range called Elbsandsteingebirge in 2000-2001 with the simplest equipment. The recordings where edited and rearranged by Robert Schalinski in Berlin in 2006. Feldaufnahmen I is a new üphase for Column One whio have continued to change and evolve in their musical career. The group was renowned for post-industrial atmospheres, media collages and cut-up dadaist humor now they enter the terrain of sound ecology with their own twist. The 12 pieces on the disc radiate with beauty - they demonstrate the full spectrum of sounds that can be found in any relatively quiet natural resort: dogs barking, humming of insects, crackling of twigs, footsteps, wind and more. The CD Feldaufnahmen I is is presented in a full colour digipak with a 16 pages booklet with full colour reproductions of photographs taken by Column One in the area where the sounds were recorded.
Column One was founded in Berlin, 1991 as the IDEOLOGICAL BASIS for an (aesthetic) approach to structures, philosophical ideas & media of the (now) western world. At that time Rene Lamp & Robert Schalinski already had been working together on short-film projects. The philosophical ideas of RADICAL CONSTRUCTIVISM (Paul Watzlawik etc.), the paths of the CUT-UP demonstrators such as W.S. Burroughs, Bryon Gysin & Jürgen Ploog, the experiments of POP-TERRORISTS like Genesis P-Orridge with Psychic TV & the films of directors like Andrew Tarkowski, Derek Jarman, Ingmar Bergmann, Lars von Trier, Alexandro Jodorowski have had greater influence on the foundation and the work of Column One. However, the crucial point & the main motivation for the work of Column One is the TOTALISATION OF COMMUNICATION. Meaning: to bring back into consciousness communication in its unavoidable consequence & presence.... thus, it's about decoding information, the utilisation, cutting up & decoding of which is presented to us as REALITY & of what we constantly present to ourselves. In order to succeed in this decoding process Column One utilises existing forms of communication & its media & generally considers everything as raw material, basic element or finished product.
Column One operates as collective. Besides the founding members a changing amount of various members changes from project to project: Andrew Loadman, Jerome Soudan (aka Mimetic), Wojcek Czern (aka Zia Siodma Gora), Jürgen Eckloff (also: Kein Zweiter), Leo Solter (also: Kein Zweiter, Tornow), R.U. Brain-Bridge..." [label description]
"Over the years Column One has been a group that loved electricity - to connect their synthesizers, samplers, computer or whatever. Their music was strongly rhythmic and there was always a media edge to the music. Nothing so on 'Feldaufnahmen 1', the first in what is going to be a series of pure field recordings (as that is what the title means actually). Column One member robert Schalinski went out in East Germany to the Polenztal and recorded twelve different sound events. For whatever obscure reason they are titled in French, but the title leaves nothing to guess: 'The Insects', 'The Forest/The Dog', 'Water/Insects'. We hear dogs, children, rocks, all in a pure form. Very easy? Yes, very easy, but as someone who likes sounds, I must admit I pretty fascinated by these recordings. Simple and pure, phonography in it's purest form. I am not sure what the hardcore fans of Column One will think about this, but I thought this absolute break with the past is a great move and the result is likewise." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
AntiphoNA |
10inch |
" 'ANTIPHONA AD INTROITUM'! Finally on SUBSTANTIA we can present to you the highly regarded German masters of experimental dadaism & de-construction, whose releases are always a thoughtful play with hidden meanings, conceptions & contradictions: 'Learning to play. Disorder. Destruction of programmed Solutions. Learning to see.'
COLUMN ONE is a long existing collective of multimedia artists hailing from the Berlin-area with frequently changing members; their performance & artworks are as important as the music (see also their impressive website: www.column-one.de). On this mysterious 10" you will disocver two pieces that sound completely different: ANTIPHONA is a bewildering work of musique concrete, changing between very fast moving collages and quieter parts, always surprisingly fractured, using an amazing quantity of different sound-sources of all kinds. The second piece INTROITUM is a meditative overtone bowl-drone recorded at the legendary "Sibirische Zelle" in Berlin with three microphones in three different rooms, resulting in strange sound-effects and audio interactions. Both tracks can be regarded as anthiponies forming a single whole.
For us these are metaphors for the emergence of the "Irrational" and "Sacred" in the daily profane lives, using notions from religious scopes in a new context. Side A ends in an endless groove, the artwork comes from SEAN HILLEN, pressed on bleak vinyl in an edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
"Following Illusion Of Safety's 'Sweet Dreams', Germany's Substantia Innominata (daughter of Drone), returns with another fine work of some the older garde of experimentalists, Column One from Berlin. They have been around for quite some time, and for them the presentation is equally important as the music, and there is always some sort of link with dada, even when it's quite well hidden, like on the b-side 'Antiphona' 10". Or the a-side, depends which one you play first. I started out with 'Introitum' in which a salad bowl is played. It's recorded with three microphones in three different rooms. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Peter Hollinger, who played the bowl, was walking around, as to catch the overtones in various ways. The location was a masonry, so there is quite some natural reverb. He plays it graciously and it makes up a wonderful simple but lovely piece of 'drone' like music. The title piece can be found on the other side of the record and shows the dada side of Column One. All of the members seem to donates 'sources' as well as Antoine Chessex playing saxophone and Robert Schalinski on zither, voice, gongs, saw, acoustic instruments and field recordings. The editing was done by by Jurgen Eckloff. This is a fine piece of instrumental passages by the duo of Schalinski and Chessex and taped media excerpts by the others. Set next to each other, rather being superimposed on each other. Its hard to say what this piece means, if anything at all. I'm sure it does however. It's perhaps not a piece one easily expects from this label, better known for music such as captured on the other side, but it's a daring out-of-the box movement of said label, and therefore needs our applause. And Column One? They just always surprise us." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Cindy, Loraine & Hank |
do-LP |
"The latest album from the legendary Berlin-based art collective Column One, entitled "Cindy, Loraine & Hank", was in the works for almost 10 years and it is their first album since anniversary box set "No One" from 2011 and "Antiphona" 10" vinyl EP from 2013. Many fragments, materials & ideas created during the collaboration with the Berlin Zeitkratzer Ensemble (2012) remained unfinished or underdeveloped. After years of further recordings and reviewing the existing material and the destruction of useless bubbles arises with "Cindy, Lorraine & Hank" a bulky muscleman from the splinters of classical instrumentation, electro-acoustic manipulations & assemblages & the clarity of field recordings. A boundless world.
This double album presents Column One and their experimental approach to sound at its best.
"Cindy, Loraine & Hank" a collection of incestuous figures, a museum of small, lovely bastards. Products of passion & weakness, disorientation and dedication, of dull instincts and narrowness. Twins, triplets, octuplets, dyslexic, presidents, beginners, criminal citizens, sacred Neanderthals, expert idiots. Begotten in haste, hidden in the dirt, covered with garbage. A contourless, monstrous void in the cardigan of the great-grandmother. A voyage through the labyrinthine mind of Column One... a surreal, organic projection.
The two LPs are housed in a luxury gatefold sleeve and the first edition is limited to 300 copies only. The cover was designed by Robert Schalinski, based on "Black Depths" print (1974) by John Hiliard. CD edition available from Zoharum Rec.: http://zoharum.com/
„Column One’s greatest achievement is then that by constantly applying all these techniques, they have succeeded in creating a real alternative, a filter onto reality itself. The mask is not pretty, hell it may be even ugly sometimes. But the identity of Column One is created through the power of their findings, and this includes a lot of questioning and doubts and sometimes stepping into a pool of shit only to discover it was gold in the end. May the search continue…“(Till Kniola) " [label info]
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| |
Cindy, Loraine & Hank |
do-CD |
"Zoharum proudly presents the latest album from the legendary Berlin-based art collective Column One. Their new double album, entitled "Cindy, Loraine & Hank", was in the works for almost 10 years and it is their first album since anniversary box set "No One" from 2011 and "Antiphona" 10" vinyl EP from 2013. For this recordings, Column One were René Lamp, Robert Schalinski, Jürgen Eckloff, Andrew Loadman with Nada and Rasmus Schalinski plus a host of guests including Reinhold Friedl and Zeitkratzer Ensemble.
This double album presents Column One and their experimental approach to sound at its best."Cindy, Loraine & Hank" a collection of incestuous figures, a museum of small, lovely bastards. Products of passion & weakness, disorientation and dedication, of dull instincts and narrowness. Twins, triplets, octuplets, dyslexic, presidents, beginners, criminal citizens, sacred Neanderthals, expert idiots. Begotten in haste, hidden in the dirt, covered with garbage.
A contourless, monstrous void in the cardigan of the great-grandmother.
A voyage through the labyrinthine mind of Column One... a surreal, organic projection.
Idiotenmusik - field recordings - orchestral variations - cut-up´s - musique concrete - collage
The CDs are housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover was designed by Robert Schalinski, based on "Black Depths" print (1974) by John Hiliard." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| COMBATIVE ALIGNMENT |
The ritez of higher communication |
LP |
Erstes vollständiges Album des AVATAR-Projekts, die hier ein wahrhaft illuminiertes Debut-Werk vorlegen – eine erhabene Atmosphäre aus Klang und Ritus tut sich hier auf. Trancig-rituelle Klänge, die an tibetanische Gebirgslandschaften denken lassen, undurchdringliche soundscapes voller Geheimnis: Perkussive Strukturen, flutes, choirs, deep voices, drones.
First album of this german AVATAR-project and a real masterpiece of ritual-trance Illumination-sounds !
"The ritez of higher communication" celebrates the first step of COMBATIVE ALIGNMENT into a new area of recordings for first time on a long play vinyl album. Dreamlike soundscapes rising out of the rain and creating a deep symphonic atmosphere where flutes and Tibetic mantras are mixed with drums in order to build ritual music in the finest form. Circles of visionary dark voices are introducing brooding anthems on the climax with multiple layered drones, illuminating a weeping red sky. TROFHC is an invocation of consciousness corresponding to individual fears banned in sound. The journey of Combative Alignment through several media formats on different labels finds it´s manifestation in an outstanding release. Limited edition of 523 copies” [press release]
|
2003 |
€12.50 |
|
|
... and outside glows the red dawn |
CD & CD-R |
Nach einigen Veröffentlichungen auf deutschen Labels jetzt die erste volle CD, und das auf dem profilierten MALIGNANT – Label aus den Staaten! AND OUTSIDE GLOWS THE RED DAWN ist eine einzige Manifestation von archaisch-mythisch anmutenden Klängen, die von unentzifferbaren Hieroglyphen zu berichten scheinen. Eine undurchdringliche, dickflüssige, dunkle aurale Glut wird hier in Szene gesetzt, die von auftauchender Perkussion & harmonischen Sprengseln begleitet werden.... ein grandioses archaic-ambience Album !
“After several releases, including full length vinyl releases on LOKI and their own label Avatar, and a 7" on Eternal Soul, it is with great honor and pride that we present 'And Outside Glows the Red Dawn', the first full length CD from this powerful and visionary German project. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn can perhaps be seen as Combative Alignments benchmark, offering 6 tracks that work as a virtual musical thoroughfare to a more dreamlike, illusory state. Deeply brooding atmospheres, where omniscient layers of drones and reverberating sound currents meet measured, ritual percussion as performed under the glowing, gloomy haze of a primordial sunrise. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn shines a dim light on a world of obscure origin, full of dark permanic mysticism and unearthly sonic terrain. On a whole, this is a more focused, deeper, and fluid recording than you've heard before, yet triumphantly carrying on the tradition laid down by previous releases.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
....and outside glows the red dawn |
CD |
Nach einigen Veröffentlichungen auf deutschen Labels jetzt die erste volle CD, und das auf dem profilierten MALIGNANT – Label aus den Staaten! AND OUTSIDE GLOWS THE RED DAWN ist eine einzige Manifestation von archaisch-mythisch anmutenden Klängen, die von unentzifferbaren Hieroglyphen zu berichten scheinen. Eine undurchdringliche, dickflüssige, dunkle aurale Glut wird hier in Szene gesetzt, die von auftauchender Perkussion & harmonischen Sprengseln begleitet werden.... ein grandioses archaic-ambience Album !
“After several releases, including full length vinyl releases on LOKI and their own label Avatar, and a 7" on Eternal Soul, it is with great honor and pride that we present 'And Outside Glows the Red Dawn', the first full length CD from this powerful and visionary German project. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn can perhaps be seen as Combative Alignments benchmark, offering 6 tracks that work as a virtual musical thoroughfare to a more dreamlike, illusory state. Deeply brooding atmospheres, where omniscient layers of drones and reverberating sound currents meet measured, ritual percussion as performed under the glowing, gloomy haze of a primordial sunrise. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn shines a dim light on a world of obscure origin, full of dark permanic mysticism and unearthly sonic terrain. On a whole, this is a more focused, deeper, and fluid recording than you've heard before, yet triumphantly carrying on the tradition laid down by previous releases.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| COMES, MARTIJN |
Interrogation of the Crystalline Sublime |
do-CD |
Martijn Comes - Interrogation Of The Crystalline Sublime
"The human being knows himself only insofar as he knows the world; he perceives the
world only in himself, and himself only in the world. Every new object, clearly seen,
opens up a new organ of perception in us."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I hear atmospheres, sound shapes, gestural narratives, spectral trajectories, stochastic rhythms and phasic space when I encounter an environment rich in sonic phenomena.
But in order to be open to this meta-sensory information, I must first get my ears out of the way. I don't listen with my ears but with an inner sensory apparatus, what Goethe called "organs of perception," that I have developed over the years.
Once opened to this world sound becomes something very different—it's as if one could previously only see in black and white and suddenly were able to see in color. One becomes a witness to a full range of qualities and events that were previously inaccessible.
The drone is not a steady-state sound but a constellation of sound objects that lie hidden beneath a simple surface. The listener can penetrate this surface when they allow time to exist in a space where the past and future collapse into an infinitesimal, yet infinite, moment.
Once inside this space the drone serves as a conduit to other planes of existence and explains why spiritualized cultures around the world have used the drone in their worship for millennia.
The drone integrates us with the supernal, a synesthesia takes place, all of our senses become a singular super-sense: there is no longer a distinction between sound and sight, or taste and touch.
When we experience the world in this way we see the vast web of interconnections and how we deprive ourselves when we divide the world into the narrow-band regions of our senses. It is by transcending these boundaries that we become more fully human and open to the richness the world has to offer us.
Kim Cascone - San Francisco, Nov 20 2015
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/interrogation-of-the-crystalline-sublime
"Martijn Comes is a Dutch composer specialising in new media, sound design and electro-acoustic composition. His hour-long deep-drone piece Interrogation of the Crystalline Sublime was published on the spectacular Drone Cinema 2015 Raspberry Pi (!) release – the kind of gem every dronehead will probably dream of, but with a price tag only few can afford.
So it’s a good thing that the Moving Furniture label decided to reissue this piece in a 2-CD version (ánd digital download of course): CD1 containing the hour-long Interrogation by Martijn Comes, and CD2 containing 8 remixes of that piece by Scant Intone, Mitchell Akiyama, Zeno van den Broek, Alberto Boccardi, Haarvöl, Juan Antonio Nieto, Giulio Aldinucci and Orphax.
Comes describes his work as ‘livingroom music’ (possibly distinguishing itself slightly from Erik Satie’s ‘Musique d’Ameublement’ (Furniture Music), which was meant to be played by live performers).
He set out to “write a piece that is equally meditative as it is harmonious and melodic, or at least it would hint at large subtle progressions of harmony, in a way that is magnetic to the imaginations, while the body remains in a meditative, relaxing state.”
It’s an immersive drone, with hints of a shore in the background, that gradually grows intense and inescapable in its first half and then gradually recedes again.
It is not often that drone material like this gets remix treatments by different artists, so it’s interesting to hear what other artists do with sonic material like this.
Some of the remixers focus on the drone aspect, emphasizing different frequencies thus altering the overall feel. Others filter out artefacts (which can hardly be heard in the original), or add their own material to create abstract electro-acoustic compositions that hardly seem related to the original. Some focus on emotional aspects, others take a more analytic approach. Most of them venture into sonic extremes, thus losing some of the ‘livingroom’ aspect of the original.
But each one of these remixes sound completely different – like if they were original compositions in the first place." [Ambientblog]
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| COMPEST |
Benu |
mCD-R |
Ein one-tracker mit geräuschhaften Klängen, der in rhytmisch-rituelle Gefilde abwandert... Neues Seitenprojekt von STILLSTAND.
“compest is the new metaproject of martin steinebach (monoid, stillstand, conscientia peccati). his 20min track is a mix between tribal & ambient musics with some heavier moments... full-couloured printed 3"cd-r in a slim crystal box.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| CON-DOM / MILITIA |
Scorched Earth Policy |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung eines alten Split-Tapes: CON-DOM mit rohem, flirrendem analog-harsh noise, verzerrten found sounds und Hass-Vocals; MILITIA differenzierter und weniger reduziert, post-Industrial mit Metall-Percussion und –Effekten...
“ re-release of the legendary tape out on OEC, completely remastered by Frank Gorissen (Militia) for the CD format !
First part of the cd is featuring more songs of faith & war by Con-Dom in his usal scraping way, with great rough vocals and pulsing & beating sounds : "Power is nothing without Control " & "Butchers Call to Arms" are 2 of the 6 titles by Con-Dom, you now wat to aspect ! The second part of the cd features Militia's best power & war structured industrial agony .... reiterative sound fields changing into great industrial tradition ! Militia is also delivering 2 unreleased live-attacks with great sampled voices recorded during their very first live gig ! a new cult release by OEC, not to loose !” [label press release]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| CONCEPCION HUERTA |
The Earth has Memory |
LP |
Elevator Bath is thrilled to present the first solo vinyl LP from Concepción Huerta, highly accomplished multidisciplinary artist from Mexico who employs tapes to manipulate recordings of everyday objects and electronic instruments. The fruit of these experimental methods is an intense, heavy take on dark ambient and noise music: a densely atmospheric exploration of sound driven by narrative, more akin to storytelling than songwriting.
“The Earth Has Memory” was recorded while in residence at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), Stockholm and then partially fine tuned at a seminar at UNAM with Olivia Block (Block is credited with co-production on two of the album’s pieces). Instruments used were primarily the Buchla and the Nord, which were then processed via magnetic tape, lending a tactile, organic quality to the work — appropriate as “The Earth Has Memory” tells of a descent to the center of the earth. Purely abstract resonances dominate this chronicle, reflecting the mystery of what lies beneath the surface. High-pitched tones occasionally appear, like glimpses of light showing through the cracks while looking up from within the earth. Low frequencies indicate the pressure at the core, while lurching drones replicate geological movements larger than humanity.
The album’s cover art consists of exquisite color photography by Magaly Ugarte, taken while on a visit with Huerta to an obsidian mine in Hidalgo. This trip was full of discovery for the two women, forming a bond between the artists and a connection with the minerals they found. This literal excursion served as a perfect counterpoint to the figurative explorations through which the album was created.
Concepción Huerta has a storied background in audiovisual media and a deep focus on the sound spectrum. She is an active solo performer as well as a member of the experimental ensemble Amor Muere with Gibrana Cervantes, Camille Mandoki, and Mabe Fratti, with whom she has collaborated on several releases. She has also worked with a diverse array of artists including Fernado Vigueras, Martin Escalante, CNDSD, Resonancia, Rick Reed, Tommi Keränen, Camilo Angeles, and Daniela Huerta, among others. Her recordings have been issued by labels such as Static Discos, SA Recordings (Scrawl), Aurora Central, and Umor Rex. Huerta has performed at a wide range of festivals and venues in America, Europe, and Asia.
"Just via synths and tape treatments, she conjures the depth of the ocean, the solidity of the earth, and the remnants of the Big Bang, all within the span of seven compositions."
— Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed
"Though it’s very early days, it will have to be an outstanding year for the genre for Huerta not to show up as one of our 2024 choices of drone music."
— Samuel Rogers, A Closer Listen
"....I believe some of this could function quite well in a soundtrack; wide lens shots of mountains, deserts and dark clouds and 'Trepidation' as its soundtrack would work quite well. An excellent record!"
— Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly
Produced by Concepción Huerta
Additional production by Olivia Block (tracks 1 and 3)
Mastered by James Plotkin
Photography by Magaly Ugarte
Design by Colin Sheffield
https://concepcionhuerta.bandcamp.com/album/the-
earth-has-memory?label=3340424991&tab=music
|
2024 |
€21.50 |
|
| CONCERN |
Truth and Distance |
CD |
Neue Drone-Entdeckung aus den Staaten! Nah-Klänge & Vibrationen diverser Instrumente wie Zither, Klarinette, Horn oder Posaune werden mit Kontaktmikros aufgefangen und in obertönreiche, polyphone und recht rauhe Klangfelder transformiert. Drei Stücke mit sehr lebendigen, erhabenen Drones in verschiedenen Färbugen sorgen hier für sonores Entzücken! Zum entdecken !
"...Essential listening for the drone inclined, and any one into Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Fennesz, Belong and the like might just have
a new favorite record." [Aquarius Rec]
"Also Gordon Ashworth, also known as Concern, is a new name for me, who delivers three pieces on his 'Truth & Distance' release, which are alike Darwinsbitch in the field of drone music. He uses zither, lap harp, mbira, banjo, piano, clarinet, alto horn, trombone, accordion and lots of reverb. His instruments are scanned with vibrating objects in order to create overtones and it makes this almost a modern classical release. Somewhere in between music for an installation and Phill Niblock, I'd say. This is more the territory where things are on endless sustain, but perhaps due to the variety of sources and the relative shortness of the pieces things don't leap into static, but are vibrating, changing throughout its minimalist approach to keep things fascinating. Ashworth has plenty of skills to deliver three fine pieces. Not a second too long, not a minute too short. Very nice work." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Gordon Ashworth is Concern and this is his manifesto. Truth & Distance is a mini-epic, a minor masterpiece. Within these sonic walls lies a stunning landscape, adrift in golden tones and silver siren songs. Ashworth creates beautiful, shimmering music that defies categorization. It stands on its own, droning away into the furthest reaches of the night. Using only acoustic instrumentation, Ashworth conceives pieces of music in which resonance and timbre mutate and in the air and unfold naturally, organically. Hints of piano glisten like night shadows whispering through the leaves. Strings are bowed and plucked into oblivion. Everything is turned into a pile of reverb. Everyone is a ghost. Concern will shine a light on it all. Truth & Distance indeed. It's all coming up roses this time. Co-released with Iatrogenesis. Packaged in custom-designed silkscreened gatefolds by Seizure Palace."
[label info]
www.digitalisindustries.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Cæsarean |
CD |
" "Cæsarean," the new album by solo artist Concern, is primarily composed of piano, banjo and extensive tape manipulation. Rejecting the heavily electronic/synthesizer foundations of modern ambient music, "Cæsarean" is a uniquely beautiful and organic album; mournful collages of decaying tape loops, swelling acoustic tones, and harmonious, shimmering banjo drones. Included in the CD version released by Slow Flow Recs are two earlier Concern pieces, previously released in a very limited edition by Students of Decay in 2007. Concern (aka Gordon Ashworth) resides in Oregon, USA, and will be touring extensively in Japan in Europe in Autumn, 2010." [label info]
http://slowflowrec.web.fc2.com/index.html
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Cæsarean |
LP |
"As Concern, Gordon Ashworth has explored drone music through an inspection of the textural components of acoustic instruments and recording processes. On Cæsarean the palette presented is a singularly precise one. Using simple sources (piano, clarinet, banjo, shrutti box, and acoustic guitar), tape processing (1/4" and cassette), and reverberation, Ashworth crafts delicate tape music through transforming repetitions and obscured fidelity. The emotional and physical presence of Cæsarean is overwhelming; sounding simultaneously natural and alien. The instrumentation and field recordings are both stripped of their defining characteristics; creating a balance between the harmonic characters of both, a pure transformation empty of excess and desire. Time held in suspension. In an edition of 500 copies with black and white reverse board jackets and printed labels." [label info]
www.arborinfinity.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| CONCERT SILENCE |
9.22.07 [2-3 P.M.] |
CD |
"Concert Silence is a collaboration between Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper, currently both residing in Portland, Oregon. An ongoing conversation between the two began in 2004 when they met over a shared interest in live sound manipulation. 09.22.07 was the first major outcome of discussions regarding symbiotic cultures and their implications to music. A live performance set up was designed, allowing each player to have equal input and manipulation control, (which can be seen in a diagram within the artwork of the album). After the completion of a live session recorded to minidisc, the two decided to release the unmastered un-edited music for free download via their website. A short while later the free recordings were taken down from the site. Infraction Records is now releasing a previously unheard professionally mastered recording of the session in its entirety. Housed in a 6 panel cardstock folder." [label info]
"The sound of piano, both pure and processed, has become almost a sub-genre of its own within ambient electronica. There's a Satie-authored lineage stretching from Budd/Eno through to Sakamoto's collabs with Alva Noto and Fennesz, with signs to other off-beat sites. Buckingham's background in visual art makes his contribution to Concert Silence somewhat enigmatic. He had previously co-opted Cooper for the audio of an online ambient audio-visual collaboration in the Window Exchange project; Cooper's signature is clearly recognizable, for all that the pianism of his earlier Eluvium work are tweaked and tampered with here. Six discrete movements, an affair of edgy ambience, with lilting lulling passages ceding to digital depredations. Some parts subtly infiltrated, others strewn with the detritus of error-smithery. 'Part Two,' for example, sounds as if it's slowly spontaneously combusting in the player, gradually growing into a larger conflagration, culminating in a veritable firework display of pops, crackles and wayward woozy pitch shifts, eating itself in echo and fuzz, before returning to the opening lull of barely audible soft-pedaled piano purism. Overall the Cooper-Buckingham pairing puts a distinctive slant on the compositional tradition mentioned above, finding a beguiling blend of the worlds of piano concerto and that of digital signal processing, with its random reversals, glitch flurries, and drone. Yet, for all its peculiarities of pitch and microsonic mist, strong melodic lines serve as binding, stiched together, lending poise to noise. " [Alan Lockett]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Rain Furniture |
LP |
"With Rain Furniture, Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper wanted to explore a new and different musical territory than previously traveled, while still using the audio set up from 09.22.07. As a companion piece to the full length, Rain Furniture engages a more raw energy." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Rain Furniture |
maxi-CD |
"With Rain Furniture, Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper wanted to explore a new and different musical territory than previously traveled, while still using the audio set up from 09.22.07. As a companion piece to the full length, Rain Furniture engages a more raw energy." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/rain-furniture
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| CONIGLIO, ENRICO |
Sea Cathedrals |
CD |
"Five superb tracks of deep and evocative ambient music, enriched with echoes of ancient ritual suggestions. The immense spaces and the abyssal deepness of the sea, but also the sound of the bowels of the Earth, the colour of the sand of the desert, the energy of the wind, the strenght of all the Elements, the infinite cycle of day and night, of life and death… A long circular journey through interchanging atmospheres that shake and capture, dragging with energy, then leave room for more quiet and soothing introspective “stasis”, and again become dramatic and overwhelming, A great, unmissable album of “classic” ritual ambient music." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Enrico Congilio already worked with Oophoi on a CD for Glacial Movements (see Vital Weekly 683) and here works with his drones, field recordings, bells, programming with two musicians (not on every track together) Manuel P. Cecchinato (arc-angel synthesizer, treatments, crystals) and Massimo Liverani (guitars, loops, treatments). The five pieces, ranging from six to twenty minutes, are excellent examples of ambient drone music. Dark, atmospheric, spacious, all those keywords of what ambient and drone music is, apply to this music. Much of this kind of music has been said and done before, but Coniglio does a mighty fine job here. Excellent wonderful production." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| CONIGLIO, ENRICO / UNDER THE SNOW |
Dialogue One |
CD |
"This is the first split work between UNDER THE SNOW and various artists/friends. Nearly an hour of suggestive "border" music, equally divided between the relaxing and ambient atmospheres contaminated with experimental elements created by Enrico Coniglio, and the low-fi/rough sounds and atmopheres crafted by Under the Snow (Stefano Gentile and Gianluca Favaron) - not so different but with a more dramatic, tense and hypnotic doom - built on deep drones stratifications, often hard and cutting, with a wide collection of noises, electronic hassles, ununderstandable wispherings, concrete moments... A perfect join-venture, a mix among two different music projects that gather coherence and inspiration to "sustain" a split album that showcases a not to be missed fusion of styles among the involved artists, oriented on parallel patterns, clearly increasing the value of their own personal and somehow different sonic directions." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| CONJECTURE |
Nostalgia Futura |
CD |
listen: https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/nostalgia-futura
"Genre/Influences: Cinematic, Dark-Ambient, Experimental, electronic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Set up in 2013 by Greek artist Vasilis Angelopoulos, Conjecture has already released several productions on different labels like Ars Nocturna, Raumklang Music, Zoharum ao. This is the first work released by Cyclic Law which is meant as ‘an exploration of the rare psychological and neurological phenomenon known as Anticipatory Nostalgia.’ This is ‘a feeling of longing for something that has yet to occur or may not exist at all.’
Content: An interesting psychological concept which has been transposed into icy noises driven by crashing drones and heavy, electronic sound blasts. We get 4 extended cuts which have been slowly built up sometimes resulting in a true Cinematic format.
+ + + : This album sounds different from the early work of the project. Conjecture seems to be in constant move and exploration of new sonic paths. I was deeply impressed by the great sound canvas this album has been made by. It’s maybe a kind of legacy from earlier IDM-productions Conjecture was dealing with. From heavy, blasting, and overwhelming passages toward refined parts with subtle bleeps this album appears to be an interesting sound labyrinth.
– – – : Both debut cuts are absolutely phenomenal while both last ones never reached a similar level. So the best is right at the beginning while the end rather sounds like an antithesis.
Conclusion: Conjecture remains an interesting project feeling comfortable dealing with multiple influences and (related) music styles." [Side-Line]
* "Nostalgia Futura" is an exploration of the rare psychological and neurological phenomenon known as Anticipatory Nostalgia. While nostalgia is a widely recognized and socially significant emotional experience, Anticipatory Nostalgia is a feeling of longing for something that has yet to occur or may not exist at all. Through the use of digital and analog synthesizers in midi polychain, reel-to-reel recording, and IR reverbs, this album delves into the psychological implications of Anticipatory Nostalgia, particularly in relation to future-oriented benefits, affects, and social cognition. The album aims to appeal to those who seek a sense of nostalgia for the future, particularly those who are drawn to the idea of experiencing non-existent urban and rural landscapes that reflect the aesthetics and chronology of the future. In essence, "Nostalgia Futura" is a sound manifesto on the psychology of visionaries, and a demonstration that existence transcends the constraints of time and space, extending into the infinite cosmos and the depths of the human psyche.
Conjecture is an experimental post-industrial project helmed by the Greek Avant-Garde visual artist Vasilis Angelopoulos. Initiated in 2013, Conjecture's sonic output embodies an artistic vision that vacillates between disparate genres, concepts and moods. Angelopoulos employs primarily hardware synthesizers, metal sheets, piezo microphones, DIY impulse responses "collected" from abandoned buildings, and tape-manipulation techniques to conjure an immersive, cerebral and often haunting sound that probes themes such as human existence, religious folklore stereotypes, and transcendence through archetypal rituals, body deconstruction, human subtraction, and murder.
Edition of 300 copies in 4 panel Digipak, matt lamination. 4 Tracks. Running Time 35:59 * [press release]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONSCIENTIA PECCATI VS. STILLSTAND |
Rites ov lamashtu |
mCD-R |
"martin steinebach, the german artist hidden behind those two aliases, shouldn't be unknown to those who follow closely our releases. we released a 3"cd-r of his ambient/tribal/noise project (compest) two years ago. with this latest release, steinebach takes another route and shows another side of his skills: "rites ov lamashtu" is a smooth & melodic piece full of effects and ethnic percussion. enjoy the beauty!" [label info]
label: www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| CONSUMER ELECTRONICS |
Airless Space |
do-LP |
"Consumer Electronics return with a double album of all new studio recordings produced by Russell Haswell. Some wondered how the songwriting team of Philip Best and Sarah Froelich would fare after the leaving their London home to take up residency in the United States. Well, here's the answer. Recorded in San Francisco, CE deliver "Airless Space", a state-of-the-union address that does for our American cousins what the band's earlier "Estuary English" album did for a British audience poised upon the coming madness of Brexit. Unusually for CE, "Airless Space" clocks in at 60 minutes, a hexed induction for a country labouring under a presidency, that like Brexit itself, few saw coming or contemplated having to endure. Soundwise, CE have maybe mellowed the tone a touch, allowing their electronics to stretch out and breathe, whereas the frenzied and anxious vocals of Best and Froelich remain as snatched and breathless as ever. Stunningly produced by Russell Haswell and gorgeously mastered by award-winning cutting engineer Matt Colton, "Airless Space" by Consumer Electronics is their most complete and rounded statement yet." [label info]
"Russell Haswell serves vacuum-tight production for Sarah Froelich and Philip Best’s alternately piercing/soberly observant vocals in their 3rd album together as Consumer Electronics, and their first since relocating from London to San Francisco…
In ’Airless Space’ the grizzly trio recalibrate their shrewd gaze from the pre-Brexitlands of 2014’s ‘Estuary English’ to the thick of an unprecedented time in USA, which is currently in the process of fulfilling the dystopian, apocalyptic America of 2020 prophesised in countless films, books and artworks.
Trust CE to grasp the zeitgeist with bare hands in their particular style, with Best and Froelich trading the mic to mete out nearly 60 minutes of wryly sardonic side-eyes at the state of it all, while Haswell variously punctuates the negative space with a palette of bolshy bass drums and noise, or turns the vocals into gargling gurns of bestial wretchedness.
If we’re playing favourites, the increasingly throttled 13 minutes of vitriol and pranging n0!ze jabs in ‘Muder of JJ’ is substantial, while Best is at his most unsettling with the unflinching cool delivery of ‘Carnage Mechanics’, and they come together most fiercely when the vocalists trade the mic over pelting rhythm and bone-twanging twitches in ‘Play Therapy’, with Best uttering the truest lines: “Stay indoors all day, that’s what i do these days / Never leave the house if I can help it/ why would i fucking want to?” [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Airless Space |
CD |
"Consumer Electronics return with a double album of all new studio recordings produced by Russell Haswell. Some wondered how the songwriting team of Philip Best and Sarah Froelich would fare after the leaving their London home to take up residency in the United States. Well, here's the answer. Recorded in San Francisco, CE deliver "Airless Space", a state-of-the-union address that does for our American cousins what the band's earlier "Estuary English" album did for a British audience poised upon the coming madness of Brexit. Unusually for CE, "Airless Space" clocks in at 60 minutes, a hexed induction for a country labouring under a presidency, that like Brexit itself, few saw coming or contemplated having to endure. Soundwise, CE have maybe mellowed the tone a touch, allowing their electronics to stretch out and breathe, whereas the frenzied and anxious vocals of Best and Froelich remain as snatched and breathless as ever. Stunningly produced by Russell Haswell and gorgeously mastered by award-winning cutting engineer Matt Colton, "Airless Space" by Consumer Electronics is their most complete and rounded statement yet." [label info]
"Russell Haswell serves vacuum-tight production for Sarah Froelich and Philip Best’s alternately piercing/soberly observant vocals in their 3rd album together as Consumer Electronics, and their first since relocating from London to San Francisco…
In ’Airless Space’ the grizzly trio recalibrate their shrewd gaze from the pre-Brexitlands of 2014’s ‘Estuary English’ to the thick of an unprecedented time in USA, which is currently in the process of fulfilling the dystopian, apocalyptic America of 2020 prophesised in countless films, books and artworks.
Trust CE to grasp the zeitgeist with bare hands in their particular style, with Best and Froelich trading the mic to mete out nearly 60 minutes of wryly sardonic side-eyes at the state of it all, while Haswell variously punctuates the negative space with a palette of bolshy bass drums and noise, or turns the vocals into gargling gurns of bestial wretchedness.
If we’re playing favourites, the increasingly throttled 13 minutes of vitriol and pranging n0!ze jabs in ‘Muder of JJ’ is substantial, while Best is at his most unsettling with the unflinching cool delivery of ‘Carnage Mechanics’, and they come together most fiercely when the vocalists trade the mic over pelting rhythm and bone-twanging twitches in ‘Play Therapy’, with Best uttering the truest lines: “Stay indoors all day, that’s what i do these days / Never leave the house if I can help it/ why would i fucking want to?” [Boomkat]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgTBnca2rE |
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| CONTAGIOUS ORGASM |
Flows out |
CD |
Das Moskauer Label bereits mit dem vierten Release, ein neues sehr sehr ungewöhnliches Werk von HIROSHI HASHIMOTO (inkl. Verstärkung) mit dem genialen Projektnamen. Dies ist "a kind of experimental Mutanten-Pop", ungewöhnliche rhythmische Strukturen & weird Samples, jedes Stück klingt anders, hypnotisch, außerweltlich, analogisch. Kommt in aufwendiger Artwork mit diversen Inlays!
„Contagious Orgasm is the band which was always cutting the line of japanese noise units. The music of Hiroshi Hashimoto appears to be much more structured and heavily "composed". Even in early albums released by Tesco and Ant-Zen, one can feel mind warping and challenging atmosphere instead of more usual raw instinctual aggression freed by sound. With every new album, the Contagious Orgasm music becomes more complex and unpredictable. "Flows Out" probably takes the band to the high point of career - to the moment , it's most mature and completed work. It's homogenous, but implicated with a plenty of different elements, not contrary but hardly combined within the noise music unwritten rules. These elements are mostly rhythmic parts related to minimal techno, techno ambient, glitch, electro industrial and even dub and swing grooves, which are fitting perfectly in every aspect of industrial aesthetics which flows out of the album. One can see the organic sounding as the optimizing feature for those who couldn't accept the real voice of nowadays underground. Anyway, this album is the perfect choice for the newcomers and people who never heard this band before. As always for Waystyx, deluxe edition including a set of nice postcards, placed with CD into the black pseudo-digipack. Ltd edition of 777 copies.” (I.E.M. magazine)
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Spill Drop |
CD / object |
Es gibt wohl kein anderes Projekt aus der früheren Japan-Noise Fraktion, das inzwischen einen so eigenartigen & eigenständigen Experimental-Stil entwickelt hat, der meilenweit vom harsh noise früher Tage entfernt ist, und schlicht nicht einem bestimmte Genre zuzuordnen ist. Hiroshi Hashimoto lädt wieder zu 11 mutierten Musik-Rätseln ein: elektronisches & found sounds & field recordings, ruhige electro-pulses, dunkle Stimmungen, aber auch recht „durchgeknallte elektronik“, manchmal eher wie ein Hörspiel mit Sprach- und anderen Samples, nimmt dann aber auch „ethnischen“ Charakter an, auch strukturiertere Sachen mit richtigen Rock-Gitarren gibt es, immer ungewöhnlich, insgesamt hier eher ruhig und dunkel elektronisch. Die CD ist passend dazu verpackt in einer rot bedruckten Gummi-Banderole, auch das passt wie die Faust aufs Auge...
„....ein weiteres Eintaucen von CONTAGIOUS ORGASM in das ‚aqua soma’, das Halb- und Unterbewusstsein eines Japaners, seine versteckten sexuellen Obsessionen, den absorbierten Feinstaub unter der medialen und kulturellen Käseglocke..[..]..Telefonische Zeitansagen auf Deutsch, ein Interview mit einem Elektronikveteran auf Englisch, ein afrikanischer Mädchenchorus, ein Esoterikguru, der einem die Seele einseift, werden als Treibgut mitgewirbelt auf einem elektronischen Fluss aus Beats, zischenden Drones und einem pathetischen March of Godzilla, bei dem man das Totemtier der japanischen Trashculture schwerfällig heranstapfen hört.“ [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy # 47, 2005]
“New step on the way of Hiroshi Hashimoto creative evolution, one of the most controversive japanese musician, presenting a dense stream of sound,explosing by traditional for Contagious Orgasm flashes of sexual obsession, ritualism and culture permeate. Mature and complicated work. Its a mirror in which crystall depths everyone of us will see his real matter-purest drop of human prejudices, fears and drawbacks essence. On one hand you can find microglitches, clicks, subtle melodies and controlled rhythmic clicks n cuts. And on the other hand more experimental sounds: from rough field recordings, noisy frequencies and distorted voices to sinewaves and continuous glitches. As always for Waystyx Records, exclusive design,consisting of
transparent heavy polyethelen and strip of technical ribbon with red landmark.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ripple |
CD |
The always genre-crossing project from Japan with a great album, dark & experimental, more rhythm based stuff, (but these are stranged out rhythms, not danceable ones!), but the usual "unlistenable" collage / found sounds-tracks are present too, the more the album continues, the weirder it becomes... again quite unique & not classifiable.
"packaging: special transparent paper booklet w/ inlays + jewelcase. hiroshi hashimoto started releasing music twenty years ago as contagious orgasm. right from the beginning listeners knew that there was something very unique and special about c.o.'s sound - differing from the typical japanese 'industrial scene'. the initial aural transformation of track and release titles were soon replaced by something quite different. themes became more abstract and surrealistic; influences came from various collaborations and often seriousness was undercut with a wink... as on previous c.o. releases you can hear musical and stylistic sources from many cultural areas; for instance on 'ripple' you can hear indian chants, dub bass, electronic clicks/cuts, gongs, a piano, even straight beats and minimal sequencer grooves. styles range from free form to dance music to idm to noise and to ethnic sources. in hashimoto's works these ingredients cease what they were before - they are now transformed into coherent music (without being a eclectic cliché). an example: often many artists use voice samples in their work, to explain or to engross thoughts. hashimoto's usage of samples take the 'instruments of speech' out of their initial contexts - used in c.o.'s metaverse they entirely lose their initial intent and function. if we go further and think about 'rhythms', 'melodies' and 'textures' instead of 'voices', we might have a key to c.o.'s self conception. this album should be experienced with all senses wide open. enjoy this anniversary and look forward to the next twenty years of a great artist." [label description]
"Three years ago I had the great honor of reviewing the first album on Ant-Zen Recordings by legendary Japanese sound artist Contagious Orgasm. Since I had always connected Hiroshi Hashimoto ( a.k.a. Contagious Orgasm) with the Noise scene, thanks to his contribution to various Noise compilations, among others Relapse/Release Entertainment's "Japanese/American Noise Treaty", I was quite surprised to listen his "Dessert Addicts Will Return To This" (Ant-Zen, 2004). This latest album continues the strange landscapes of numerous musical styles. Dealing with everything from drone-based as well as collaged noise, across clicks'n'cuts to almost danceable electro-inspired techno and eerie soundscapes of beautiful ambient, it is an impossible task to finish this album only within a few listens. It is a complex musical voyage, that atmospherically varies from icy minimalism reminiscent of Pan(a)Sonic to militant electro of Kraftwerk until towards the end where the album turns more dreamy and dramatic with a mixture between experimental ambience and gentle acoustic post-rock reminiscent of Tortoise. "Ripple" is a continuation of the style of "Dessert Addicts Will Return To This", and the result is even more intense and clever than the aforementioned. Turn off the light and let yourself fall into the psychedelic tones of Contagious Orgasm. Excellent!" [NM / Vital Weekly]
label website: www.ant-zen.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Escape |
CD |
"with 'escape' contagious orgasm continue to plough their uniquely peculiar furrow of audio experiments and self improvement, exploring the strange landscapes of numerous musical styles. dealing with influences ranging from ambient, dub, idm/electronica and electro to dark ambient and noise, it is an impossible task to completely comprehend this album’s scope within just a few listens. this aural voyage atmospherically varies from hypnotic echo-based beat pulses and moony synthesized melodies up to disturbing industrial soundscapes. mighty bass strokes, a multitude of different rhythms, manipulated voices and skillfully applied samples result in an adventurous and enthralling work of sonic art captivating with its deep, transparent production. turn off the light and let yourself fall into this album's very own flow. a quite accessible, multifarious, and yet typical element of contagious orgasm's wide cosmos in its charm, enjoyment and surprise." [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
| CONTE, MARIO |
Overtunes |
CD-R |
The subtitle “Electronic Research in Natural Harmonics” sounds far more academic than the actual music. In fact, this short album does work with overtone drone layers, but it combines these harmonic fields with classic TR-808 beats. The result is experimental, yet partly danceable music, cleverly constructed yet very soulful. A masterpiece that will open up the pathway into experimental sound creation for listeners whose tastes are shaped by electronic dance music.
Using various synthesizers, all meticulously specified on the sleeve, but also a wide array of sound sources such as “fake guitar” and “live vocal tape scratching over Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment cassette”, Mario Conte and his co-conspirators create multi-faceted dronescapes with a high degree of melodic potential. "Overtones" is co-released with the Berlin and Italy-based label Zoff82, which publishes the tape version of the album.
File under: Drone, techno
emerge.bandcamp.com/album/overtones
Conte works with synthetic or otherwise scarcely identifiable emissions and a Roland TR-808 to generate a brand of unlawful techno-drone (with industrial hues in “Modern Country Side”) with several attention-getting attributes. I might be growing old and creaky-boned, but feel no shame in declaring that this short album was a considerable surprise in its utter respectability, not a given when I tackle genres where a proper instrumental training is not a requirement. Sometimes, though, all it takes is the right frame of mind and a personal predisposition to the enchantment provided by a particular constitution to relish a product; in the case of Overtones, that’s exactly what happened. Sonorities and rhythms that sound, generally speaking, very natural in their relative amorphousness; hints of subterraneous melodies; a vague similitude with chosen episodes by the late, and ever great Muslimgauze (especially in the two “Harmonic Field” slices). The electronics are fleshy yet not invasive to a fault. The profusion of amassed frequencies and misrepresented colors furnishes the record with an essential animation, in spite of the occasional appearance of spectral vocals (including unneeded spoken snippets in “Organic Wave 1 & 2”). Basically, the tissue of the propulsive structures would be thick enough alone, that’s what we mean. The press release boldly states what follows: “A masterpiece that will open up the pathway into experimental sound creation for listeners whose tastes are shaped by electronic dance music”. Hype, I concur. Still, this stuff eats Burial and the likes for breakfast.
touchingextremes.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/mario-conte-overtones/
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| CONTEMPLATRON |
Prabhashvara |
CD |
"Third album of dark ambient project Contemplatron “Prabhashvara”(Clear Light). Music inspired by Tibetan buddism uniting traditional instrumentarium (gongs, bells, drums) with electronics and Tibetan monk’s chants. This mixture creates mistic, meditative atmosphere. Mastered by Peter Andersson (Raison d’Etre). CD released in elegant digipack, with silver inprints and embossed elements, with design corresponding to the album concept." [label info]
www.wrotycz.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Delog |
CD |
"The DELOG experience is extraordinary, marvellous, even within the esoteric context of Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan word DELOG refers to one who has crossed the threshold of death and returned to tell about it. The person who is recognised as DELOG lays without any sign of breath, pulse or body warmth for many days. During that his or her mind journeys to other realms of experience: the pure display of enlightened mind as well as existence within samsaric delusion and ignorance." [label info]
www.wrotycz.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| CONTRASTATE |
A breeding Ground for Flies |
CD |
"After a ten year break, the unique, incredible Contrastate have resumed activities and we at Dirter are immensely proud and excited to be able to announce this full length CD of brand new material. This follows a number of re-issues and releases of live and unreleased material, that just about quenched their loyal following's thirst. It seems like Contrastate never really went away and they, along other experimental acts from the 80's and 90's, have gone through something of a critical re-assessment of late. When Contrastate ceased activities nothing like them really came to take their place. Wilfully obscure with just a handful of memorable live shows to their name, Contrastate's music has come to be understood on its own terms. Simply, if you are familiar with them you need to know no more; if you're not, you've been missing out and this is as good a place as any to start. Contrastate's sound insinuates itself somewhere inside the dark ritual ambiance of the electronic avant-garde shot through with a vein of experimental noise and vocals strewn amongst industrial surrealism." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
"Ah Contrastate. Did I ever say that I loved the group's earliest output very much, but when they allowed more room for vocals, I thought it was all a bit too 'gothic' for me - and I use that term for a lot of things which I guess I simply don't like. Then I lost track of Contrastate, although it was good to see their first LP on a CD in Vital Weekly 480. Stephen Meixner occasionally pops up in Vital Weekly every now and then. But here is an entirely new album, their first new recording in ten years and of course of the band as trio. Long term serving members Jonathan Grieve and Stephen Meixner and 'new boy' Stephen J. Pomeroy. I must admit I had no idea what to expect this time around. Good news is that the voice that put me off before is not very well present on this new album - for the majority it's all very instrumental. It's the kind of instrumental is that is close to the original sound of Contrastate, but perhaps better recorded than before, using more smooth equipment.
Contrastate is still very good in creating highly atmospheric music with the use analogue synthesizers, electronics, bits of field recordings, some voices (not a lot, not a lot) and an odd use of the collage form for their pieces. A piece like 'Against The Sky' moves through a number of different places which could have been easily separate pieces by themselves. Excellent stuff all around but a downside is perhaps that once they get 'poppy' (by their own standard, I guess), in 'Operation Infinite Truth', they show their political side, which is not a bad thing per se, but isn't a sampled speech on the situation in Iraq by one George W perhaps a bit outdated with Obama in his second term already (or in his first when this was recorded). Being political is always a key point for Contrastate, although I never grasped the finesse of their politics, but here it seems a bit outdated. But besides that, I think this is great return to their best form. Moody, dark, atmospheric, vaguely
experimental, a bit pop-like, what more could we want?" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
True Believer / The 10 40 Window |
7inch |
"Contrastate follow up their studio album A Breeding Ground for Flies (DPROM 091CD, 2012) for Dirter Promotions with two brand new tracks. A sonic soundtrack to an apocalyptic world that is hypnotic, yet full of dynamic sounds and shifts. Their sound insinuates itself somewhere inside the dark ritual ambiance of the electronic avant-garde shot through with a vein of experimental noise and sarcophagic vocals strewn among industrial surrealism. Edition of 500."
[label info]
www.dirter.co.uk |
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| CONTROL |
Natural Selection |
CD |
CONTROL-Stücke beginnen oft eher ruhig und untergründig dronend, bevor sie sich monumental noisend erheben – maschinenhaft, kalt, zerstörerisch, mächtig, unter Hochspannung... kein plumper harsh noise, zeigt „Natural Selection“ das US-Projekt mit zeitgemässen Maelstrom-Industrial, der zerstörerische Prozesse zu ästhetisieren scheint...
“Brand new album of this legendary power noise artist. Concrete & abrasive songs, consuming & devastating sounds, evolving & mutating noise. Keep your aspirines at hand - CONTROL is here
to crush you. To little pieces.“ [label info]
www.eibonrecords.com
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONTROLLED BLEEDING |
Distress Signals I |
do-LP |
"Re-Issue auf limitiertem, schwarzem Doppel-Vinyl Gatefold Sleeve Offiziell autorisiert Die erste autorisierte Wiederveröffentlichung von CONTROLLED BLEEDINGS seltenem Debütalbum "Distress Signals I" auf Vinyl. Ursprünglich wurde es im Jahr 1984 auf Gary Mundys Label Broken Flag ausschließlich auf Kassette veröffentlicht. Ein Album voll von Powernoise und verzerrtem Gesang. Diese 2LP-Edition wird im Gatefold Sleeve mit originalem Artwork veröffentlicht und enthält die ursprünglichen Liner Notes der Kassetten-Veröffentlichung.//
Originally released as a tape on Broken Flag in 1984, Controlled Bleeding's first album 'Distress Signals' is a rare delivery of brutal powernoise and experimentally distorted and tortured vocals. The near hour-long performance is immediate and harsh, and the tape has a kind of holy grail'ish quality amongst collectors, not the least because of the special status of Broken Flag, but also because it had never been properly reissued on either CD or vinyl. Now the material is issued as a DOUBLE-LP, presented in a sublime gatefold sleeve featuring the original artwork, as well as a copy of the liner notes from the tape insert. This edition is limited to 200 copies on GREY VINYL." [label info]
www.artoffact.com |
2016 |
€30.00 |
|
|
Distress Signals I & II |
do-CD |
"Erste Re-Issue von DISTRESS SIGNALS I & II als Doppel CD Inkl. unveröffentlichter Bonus-Tracks Remastered Offiziell autorisiert! "Distress Signals I & II" ist eine Wiederveröffentlichung der beiden "Distress Signals"-Alben von CONTROLLED BLEEDING, die nun zum ersten Mal auf CD erhältlich sein werden und mit einer Menge an Bonus-Tracks daher kommen. Ursprünglich wurde das erste der beiden im Jahr 1984 auf Gary Mundys Label Broken Flag ausschließlich auf Kassette veröffentlicht. Ein Album voll von Powernoise und verzerrtem Gesang. Nun wird es zusammen mit "Distress Signals II" über Artoffact Records als Doppel-CD wiederveröffentlicht - inklusive des originalen Artworks des Debüts von CONTROLLED BLEEDING und Liner Notes der ursprünglichen Kassette. Zusätzlich enthält diese Version eine ganze Reihe an unveröffentlichtem Bonusmaterial."
www.artoffact.com
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Distress Signals I |
do-LP |
"Re-Issue auf limitiertem, schwarzem Doppel-Vinyl Gatefold Sleeve Offiziell autorisiert Die erste autorisierte Wiederveröffentlichung von CONTROLLED BLEEDINGS seltenem Debütalbum "Distress Signals I" auf Vinyl. Ursprünglich wurde es im Jahr 1984 auf Gary Mundys Label Broken Flag ausschließlich auf Kassette veröffentlicht. Ein Album voll von Powernoise und verzerrtem Gesang. Diese 2LP-Edition wird im Gatefold Sleeve mit originalem Artwork veröffentlicht und enthält die ursprünglichen Liner Notes der Kassetten-Veröffentlichung.//
Originally released as a tape on Broken Flag in 1984, Controlled Bleeding's first album 'Distress Signals' is a rare delivery of brutal powernoise and experimentally distorted and tortured vocals. The near hour-long performance is immediate and harsh, and the tape has a kind of holy grail'ish quality amongst collectors, not the least because of the special status of Broken Flag, but also because it had never been properly reissued on either CD or vinyl. Now the material is issued as a DOUBLE-LP, presented in a sublime gatefold sleeve featuring the original artwork, as well as a copy of the liner notes from the tape insert." [label info]
www.artoffact.com
|
2016 |
€26.00 |
|
| CONTROLLED DEATH |
Requiem for the Boundless Flesh |
5 x 7inch BOX (wood) |
"Controlled Death is the dark-side project by the Japanese noise legend Masonna that started with Symphony For The Black Murder as first official work released in April 2018 in a vinyl edition of 199 copies. The activities of Controlled Death are like archaic revival to the music experience before Masonna. You can also find the pathology image of the early industrial period and the shadows of Vienna activism such as Hermann Nitsch. The existence and art that pierces through conspicuous consciousness and dives to areas of unconsciousness due to death and pleasure.
Controlled Death's incredible new work is released on a fivefold seven inch. Ten new tracks, to be precise ten requiem (Rè-quiem carnem I – X), between five and six minutes each for a total duration of almost an hour. The selection of the format is perfect for this composition: the analog support highlights the lo-fi recording and the choice of seven inches allows you to listen to the same song several times, or more songs without a preset order. Thus was born Requiem for the boundless flesh, a pulsating panorama of screams, Korg MS20 MK1 and EMS VCS3 The Putney synthesizers with the addition of the grand piano, electric guitar, tape and effects. Each piece is a short sound vignette, which fills the air with its otherworldly beauty and goes away with the same speed with which it arrived, where the presence of the Viennese master always hovers.
Like a cosmic journey, without a precise destination, we enter a new evolution of Controlled Death's work. The sound is darker, the darkness envelops you with its ancestral echoes, the use of synths is accompanied by inhuman screams, sounds on the edge of psychosis are lost in the infinite expanse of the gorges ''at the mountains of madness''. A sound tunnel is created that leads to the depths of the earth. The myth of Cthulhu mingles with the mangled flesh of human beings. The legend moves towards the harsh reality. Rotten, worm-eaten flesh lies beneath thousands of tombstones: boundless masses of flesh! The rumble of the synths becomes thunderous. The use of the guitar and the grand piano are thus distorted, slowed down and overwhelmed once again by the slanted and dilated screams and the intertwining of the pedal’s effects. The tape editing work is wonderful, with a mastery of machines that can be compared to the German cosmic duo Moebius & Roedelius. But the result is not as sugary as Cluster or Harmonia tunes. Honey has become blood and flesh in Maso's hands and harmony gives way to obscure and desolate side. But if it had been recorded in West Berlin during 1970, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser would have certainly wanted it for his Ohr label!"
https://urashima.bandcamp.com
|
2021 |
€59.00 |
|
| COOP |
Moped |
CD-R |
Die Nr. 4 auf dem Grazer Elektronik-Experimental-Label TONTO. Hinter COOP stecken die Herren / Frauen? HEINRAUCH, MATTERSDORFER, SCHMIDT und KAPLAN, die hier in verschiedenen Kombinationen improvisiert haben, meist handelt es sich um recht eingängige, aber spannend arrangierte elektro-rhythmische Stücke mit verzerrten Frauen-Stimmen & Sounds, irgendwie „undergroundig“ low-fi unterkühlt und sehr eigen...
“live-elektronik / improvisation; die komposition der stücke entwickelt sich, ausgehend von gegebenen sound- und rhytmusmustern im zuge der zusammenarbeit einzelner musikerInnen; welche in weiterer folge editiert und weiterbearbeitet werden können. [dieter mattersdorfer]“
www.tonto.at
|
1999 |
€11.00 |
|
| COOPER, LINDSAY |
Rags / The Golddiggers |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung ihrer ersten beiden LPs von 1980 & 1983!
"Consists of the whole of the LP previously issued as Re/arc and most of "The Golddiggers". Featuring Lindsay Cooper, Sally Potter, Phil Minton, Georgie Born, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Marilyn Mazur, Kate Westbrook, Collette Lafont, Eleanor Sloan, Lol Coxhill and Dave Holland. Explores the song form as so many of the early post Henry Cow records by ex alumni did. With a full book of texts and pictures (74+ minutes)." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
1991 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Rarities Vol. 1 & 2 |
do-CD |
"This double CD set collects together, amongst other things, all of Outtakes for Other Occasions and The Small Screen, both of which were never commercially released, all four pieces from The Classic Guide to NoMansLand, the subscription 7” Pictures from the Great Exhibition collage, an extract from the Concerto for Sopranino Saxophone and Orchestra, an amazing, unreleased, live recording of Trio Trabant with Alfred Harth and Phil Minton, Education sung by Sally Potter, In the Dark Year, sung by Robert Wyatt, material from the with David Thomas and - the really great discovery - a really extraordinary solo piano performance recorded at Roulette in 1985. Comes with a substantial memorial booklet with newly discovered photographs, and texts by Sally Potter, Tim Hodgkinson, David Thomas and Kate Westbrook." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2014 |
€22.50 |
|
| COPH NIA |
A Prelude to Lashtal Lace |
12inch |
"before appearing on raubbau with a long-awaited full length album, coph nia mastermind mikael aldén serves us a scrumptious appetizer on a 12'' plate: one outtake, a radical remix and two b-sides are a classic satiable ep size serving for the vinyl gourmet.
first up is the album's title track, a homage to coph nia's ongoing fascination with crowleyan matters, an enchanting dark folk hymn in which the female backing vocals swell on slowly, before, after a moody break, the song plunges into full-on hazlewood / sinatra-style psychedelia. 'mother of songs' is a lesser known original, here as a slowly grinding goth tune with angelic choirs, while joy division's 'in a lonely place' is an undisputed classic, stripped to an even bleaker carcass of despair in the unique coph nia style. finally, michael idehall's version of 'lashtal lace' replaces everything female, acoustic and romantic about the song with haunting atmosphere and industrial darkness. appease your appetite quickly, the serving is scarce!" [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| CORBO COMBO / DANGER |
same |
do-CD |
CD 1 Recorded live at CCL des Coteaux - Mulhouse by Claude Vorburger - 1978. All the music was played live in total improvisation.
CD 2 Recorded live at MJC de la Meinau – Strasbourg – 1979. All the music was played live in total improvisation.
Double CD in metal boxes including 12 paged b/w booklet with photos and Bruno de Chénerilles' memories.
200 copies.
https://alesiacosmos.com/out-now-alen-disko-corbo-combo-danger/
"Impulsy Stetoskopu is also well-known as a label for re-issuing some of the most obscure music from the past. I must admit I have no idea where the label finds them. On two CDs, we find two groups with a connection. Danger is a duo of Michel Froehly and Bruno de Chénerilles on electric guitars. They both play the same instruments in Corbo Combo, but Froehly adds bass, De Chénerilles, drums, trumpet, and trombone. The other members are Dominique Gasser on alto saxophone, tuyau (whatever that is) and Marie-Berthe Servier on voice and objects. I believe Corbo Combo was there first and existed for a short time. Danger was even around for a shorter period and played only three concerts. The other connection is the free-form music they play. In Corbo Combo, the saxophone adds a certain free jazz vibe to the music, but that doesn’t tell the complete picture. There is also an element of free rock in the music, reminding me of Smegma in similar times; the recordings from both discs are from 1978 and 1979. Danger’s free-wailing guitar improvisations are less jazzy/rockier. Occasionally they slip in a riff or the start of one, and their guitar techniques are not as extended as they would become during post-punk. But there is enough freedom here to enjoy. According to the booklet, some concerts ended in a riot, and it’s easy to hear why this in 1979 wouldn’t go down very well. Of the two discs, I prefer the Danger one, reminding me of seeing Sonic Youth on perhaps their first Dutch tour when Moore and Renaldo did an extensive improvisation at the end. Corbo Combo sounded interesting too, but maybe due to its free jazz connotations not so my thing. I can imagine seeing them live would be great, though!" [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| CORDIER, ERIC |
Osorezan |
CD |
Eine faszinierende Welt der Vulkangasgeräusche und -ausströmungen betritt man im ersten Stück auf ERIC CORDIERS "Osorezan", der hier "reine" Feldaufnahmen aus Japan verwendet hat. Daneben finden sich auf dieser Kollektion auch Aufnahmen aus einem (französischen?) Bergdorf, pure field recordings mit Maschinen- Tier - Menschen- Naturgeräuschen.....
dazu sehr schöne Farbaufnahmen auf dem 6-teiligen Digipack.
"Selected field recording 1993 - 2006. Recorded in Niseko, southwest of Hokaïdo and in Osorezan, northern of Honshu in August 2006. Gas emanation of volcano in Japan. The sound recordings were carried out in the depths and then re-organised. We listen to gas bubbling in water, gas mouths, gas that creates rhythms while escaping from under a dead leaf down in the clay, whistling. All panoramic movements, repetitions, effects of phasing have been carried out during the time of the recording, travelling at the mouth to gather the sound of sulphur gas as a sound pallette." [label info]
http://geocities.com/herbalrecords
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| CORDIER, ERIC & DENIS TRICOT |
Orgue de Bois |
CD |
"Wie urig die Welt der Prêles, der Schachtelhalme, ist, nach denen ERIC CORDIER sein zusammen mit Satoko Fujimoto betriebenes Label benannt hat - auf Englisch heißen die ‚lebenden Fossilien‘ übrigens ‚Horsetails‘ - , das hört man besonders gut bei Orgue de Bois
(prl003). DENIS TRICOT baut diese ‚Holzorgeln‘, große Land-Art- und gleichzeitig Klangskulpturen, die sich 30 Meter lang und 3, 4 Meter hoch durch die Luft schwingen. Es sind Konstruktionen aus geschweiften Birkenholzlamellen, die durch den Raum kurven wie bizarr verholzte Lianen oder erstarrte Mähnenhaare eines Riesenpferdes, von Drähten gehalten und mit Steingewichten geerdet. Zu ‚Orgeln‘ werden sie, wenn man diese Lamellen durch Klopfen und Schaben, mit bloßen Händen oder einem Streichbogen, zum Federn und Schwingen bringt, so dass sie knarrende und wummernde Laute von sich geben, manchmal so sonor, dass sie fast einem Didgeridoo ähneln, oft perkussiv als tockendes Klappern oder dumpfes Pochen, oder auch gestrichen wie knurrig, krätzig und quietschend vibrierende
Monsterbasssaiten. Das ‚Holzige‘ wird als Grundton gut hörbar, auch das Urige als dunkler U-Laut und dazu der Eindruck von etwas Großem, von raumgreifender Spannweite. In den hölzernen Langwellen ist Klang ja schon sichtbar, bevor man ihn hört, die ‚Holzorgeln‘ sind
wie zeremonielle Instrumente oder sogar Altäre eines uralten Klangkultes. Die Aufnahmen stammen aus Charentonneau à Maisons-Alfort (Festival de l‘Oh! 2006), La Ferté-sous-Jouarre (Festival Mémoires Vives à l‘initiative d‘Act‘Art 77 2006) und Ville de Vaux-sur-Mer (2007), wobei, anders als bei den multimedialen Events, die Tricot ebenfalls inszeniert, ausschließlich die ‚Holzorgel‘ zu hören ist, ohne Overdubs, aber eingebettet in das Environment, mit Stimmen, Glockenschlägen, Vögeln etc." [Bad Alchemy]
"In the last few years, with their Orgue de bois (Wooden Organ), Denis Tricot and Eric Cordier have installed constructions, which are at the same time sculpture and musical instrument in many public spaces. Each Wooden Organ is unique, conceived for the space that will receive it. A monument, a square, a street, a city... With its long undulating wooden lines (successions of joined slats), it creates privileged spaces which are exposed to the public eye. After a performance, the audience is free to explore and discover the instrument's vast potential for musical sounds and noises.
More that thirty Wooden Organs have been created in the lat four years in France and Italy. Generally around thirty metres long, these monumental yet extremely light sculptures integrate in their construction the basic principles of lutherie (instrument-building), and can be played like any string or percussion instrument. The Wooden Organ is very simply amplified. The recordings, like the concerts, use no electronic processing, but the monumental instrument itself intentionally contains principles of mechanical resonance and vibration." [label info]
http://www.prelerecords.net/prl003/prl003.htm
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CORDIER, ERIC & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET |
Synapses |
CD |
Eine beeindruckende Instrumental / Objekt-Installation, diverse Saiteninstrumente (Cello, Gitarren, etc.) bilden in einem aufgehängten, verbundenen System mit Metall-Resonatoren & und aufgespannten Drähten ein akustisches, 3-dimensionales System. Egal wo man es berührt, es werden dadurch weitere Klänge ausgelöst, meist von dröhnend-metallischer Textur. Das schöne aufklappbare Booklet zeigt die unglaubliche Kreation, zwei Improvistationen von 1996 & 1998 wurden hier verewigt (Paris), über 70 Minuten Spielzeit.
NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES, ORGANUM, Y-TON-G fallen einem als Referenzen ein, aber hier passiert alles in "real time" und ohne weitere Effektierung.
"Synapses (Jean-Luc Guionnet et Eric Cordier) is an instrumental device of combined string instruments (acoustic and electric guitars, detuned piano, spinett-vina, hurdy-gurdy and cello), percussion instruments and metal resonnators --all interconnected with double-bass-, cello- and guitar strings. When one string is played the resulting sound or movement is transfered by the connected strings to the next resonator. Thus one action causes several sound events. In fact, it's impossible to touch one element of the system without getting response of the whole device. Synapses is an hanging sensible network... "
[label info] |
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| CORNER, PHILIP |
Italian Air: Wind, Water & Metal |
LP |
"RICERCA SONORA proudly presents, as its first release (RS1), a new PHILIP CORNER album titled "Italian Air: Wind, Water & Metal (Aria Italiana: Vento, Acqua & Metallo)".
Philip Corner (b. 1933) studied composition with Henry Cowell and Otto Luening and musical analysis with Oliver Messiaen. During the 1960s and 70s he was an active member of Fluxus, a founder (along with James Tenney and Malcolm Goldstein) of the Tone Roads Chamber ensemble, the resident musician and composer for the Judson Dance Theatre, and co-founder of Gamelan Son Of Lion (with Barbara Benary and Daniel Goode).
"Italian Air: Wind, Water & Metal" presents three previously unpublished compositions by Philip Corner recorded in various locations.
On side 1 "Ear Wave" (Venice, October 1994) is a long piece for Korean cymbal in water: an ecstatic composition recorded and played outdoor by Phil Corner; acousmatic interjections of metallic resonances and subtle water sounds; you can listen the distant sound of the midnight bell of San Marco in Venice. On the second side the track "Gong/Ear" recorded in June 1990 (S.Andrea di Rovereto, Italy) Phil Corner plays gong together with rain and thunder for an abstracted and strongly emotional track. Followed by "I Respiri/The Breaths" an avant-garde composition for alphorn and gong recorded in 1992 (at Teatro Scandicci).
In very few words, Philip Corner is one of the most important figure in the American avant-garde." [label info]
www.ricercasonora.com
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Battutosso / Bone Pulse (and other Nature Musics) |
LP |
"Gamelan-ish solo recordings from 1989-97 using bones, the 100 most beautiful cow bells, breath, flute, rock, and Geoff Hendricks's xylophone sculpture. Edition of 300." [label info]
www.ricercasonora.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Through the two more than mysterious Barricades |
LP |
" “Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin, has been a long-running source of exploration for Fluxus musician Philip Corner, who for years has used it as a jumping-off point for piano improvisations. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades comprises two very different takes on the same piece. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears (who provides the ‘singings and screamings’ of the album’s subtitle); it moves from a frenzy of abstraction to a more meditative take on Couperin’s composition, with diversions and tributaries along the way. The second, from 2004, is a rougher beast: recorded with wildly over-saturated levels, the tape machine itself becomes a participant in the performance, with its heavy distortion bringing out stormclouds of overtones from Corner’s piano. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades is released in an edition of 318 copies, with Corner’s calligraphy silkscreened on Kozo rice paper and mounted onto the jacket. Download coupon included." [label info]
www.roaratorio.com
|
2014 |
€23.00 |
|
| CORPOPARASSITA |
Inesorabile |
CD |
Kind of low-fi ambient & drone industrial from this italian project, melancholic and dark & worth to check out !
"Italian project Corpoparassita is known in the industrial underground scene for a few outstanding limited edition CDr releases. "Inesorabile" is their first full length CD, including - trust us! - the most obscure and colder stuff around! Just imagine a modern version of Italian 70's horror movies' soundtrack meeting thrilling dark ambient and morbid black noise. "Inesorabile" is a must for industrial / dark ambient fans, and it is available in a beautiful poster sleeve akin to some Crass and hc / crustcore releases. Limited to 500." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| CORTINI, ALESSANDRO |
Risveglio |
do-LP |
"Much needed new vinyl edition of Nine Inch Nails' synthesist, Alessandro Cortini's much sought-after second album for Hospital productions, originally released in 2015 and out of print since. On 'Risveglio' Cortini animates an enveloping shadowplay of Roland 202 and TB303, here enhanced by the intangible quality provided by ambient room recordings that lend proceedings a mysterious and unquantifiable dimension. It’s easily our favourite Cortini.
'Risveglio' is the 'Awakening' to 'Sonno''s 'Sleep'. Like its predecessor, it was also written and recorded while on tour but, unlike 'Sonno', it syncs his favoured 202 with the unique integers of a TB303, eliding the two via a delay unit to expand his sound without ever losing sight of the crushing harmonic noise romance at its core. It's fair to say that we've never really heard the 303 used quite like this, eviscerated of its usual characteristics and instead used as an electro-acoustic component to convey a ghostly sense of momentum and underlying tension in some of the albums strongest passages.
Ultimately, however, it's the perpetually claggy, electro-acoustic atmosphere and desiccated timbre of Cortini's spectres that we find ourselves so enchanted by, operating at liminal levels of ambient biting points similar to his label mate, Kevin Drumm, but guided by a grander, innate sense of gothic emotion. Cortini is a genuine anomaly by today's synth music standards, and 'Risveglio' is a perfect case in point.
Classic." [Boomkat]
"One of the most unlikely moments of musical philosophy surely comes from the mouth of Peep Show's Super Hans when, while pressing a bass synth note, he utters the immortal line, "remember, the longer the note, the more dread." And of course he's right. Ambient music has long utilised the idea of drones and sustained notes to invoke such feelings. Like the musical equivalent of the Deleuzeian time-image, the long drone highlights the breakdown of sound that's organised by rhythms and movement, creating in its place a sense of memory and history, with the pitch and timbres of the sound opening and unfolding to our ears.
Alessandro Cortini is a musician who's fast being recognised as a master at manipulating sound and time. A long-time connoisseur of analogue and modular synths, when he's not performing as a member of Nine Inch Nails, he is more likely to be seen on YouTube videos tinkering and messing around with huge modular synth racks. His solo discography of synth music, in particular the album Sonno he released last year on Hospital Records, shows a musician capable of creating ambient music of eerie and physical uneasiness. With its thick, crepuscular drones and tape hiss textures, Cortini draws out the sense of the uncanny, his music a soundtrack to those night time non-spaces built by but uninhabited by humanity; multi-storey car parks, office spaces, industrial parks, hotel and office corridors.
Cortini now brings us Risveglio, a follow-up and continuation to Sonno. Like Sonno, Risveglio is an album created under severe restrictions and economy, composed while Cortini was on tour with NiN, with the tracks recorded in hotel rooms with a portable studio recorder. The capturing of fleeting moments of music on the hoof can be heard in instances on 'Dormiveglia,' which inexplicably stops less than 30 seconds in, while 'Ricadere' has fluctuating recording levels and the sound of cables being unplugged during the song.
While Sonno was made with a single Roland MC-202 synthesiser/sequencer, Cortini, with Risveglio, adds a synched TB-303 bass synth. In terms of self-imposed limits, Cortini's setup is a closed system on starvation rations, with only Andreas Tilliander's TM-404 alter ego (where he uses combinations of nine pieces of classic Roland equipment) coming close to such levels of creative austerity. The inclusion of a TR-606 drum machine on the final track, 'La Sveglia (Drum Version)', feels gaudy and ostentatious in comparison.
Despite such minimal and spartan conditions, Cortini makes his two machines sing to each other on Risveglio, creating remarkably dense soundscapes that bubble and oscillate in their own world. The opening two tracks, 'Stambecco' and 'La Sveglia', highlight how the TB-303, if not adding distinct rhythm, introduces a sense of movement to Risveglio’s sonic space imbibing a purpose of action to Cortini's music. While the bass purrs and burbles in the background, Cortini inflicts queasy pitch-shifting notes reminiscent of Boards Of Canada at their most hypnagogic. These two elements or movement and sound, reach their highpoint on 'Rispetto', a track with crumpled clicks and pings that echo through darkened zones.
Despite the introduction of movement to Cortini's music, Risveglio still contains huge monolithic surges of synthwash drones. 'Lotta' consists of a simple repeating melody structure whose sounds gradually increase in mass until the notes distort and lose their stability, bleeding and dissipating into each other until they become a single mass. 'La Guardia' is one of Risveglio's highlights; a pulsating bass line strafed by single note pulsars and shrieking atmospherics that come to a crushing, noisy conclusion. Risveglio is an album that, while a continuation of Cortini's increasingly esoteric and hermetic journeys to the edges of the analogue synth frontier, actually turns away from the idea that ambient music should be passive and pastoral. Its use of frayed tones and frequencies as the organising basis for movement and propulsion allows the music to seep into the cracks and pores of the space around you, extracting the anxiety and dread inherent hidden in our world around us. Embrace the abyss and enjoy." [The Quietus]
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| COSTA, RUI & FRIENDS |
Sightseeing for the Blind |
CD |
"Ausgehend von der Idee, dass Touristen beim Besuch einer Stadt die Eindrücker derselben unbewusst mit ihren Wünschen, Vorstellungen und Ideen des Ortes abgleichen benutzte Rui Costa Empfehlungsrouten aus einem Lissabon-Reiseführer quasi als Instruktionen für eine Klangarbeit. Sightseeing For The Blind ist eine knapp halbstündige Soundmap der persönlichen Art geworden. Costa hat in der Folge der Fertigstellung seine Rohmaterialien seinen “friends” zur Verfügung gestellt, unter ihnen Gregory Büttner, Marc Behrens, Bill Jarboe u.a. Einige haben eher mental-psychische Kommentare abgeliefert, andere haben ihre eigenen Feldgeräusche mit dem Ursprungsmaterial vermengt und lösen so den direkten Zusammenhang zwischen Aufnehmendem und Geräuschpostkarte auf." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
"The idea for the piece first came to me in 2005, when I was invited to develop a sound project with the city of Lisbon as its theme. I decided to wander through the city, making a series of sound recordings using a pair of binaural microphones. What I concluded from these recordings was that, more than capturing the sound of the place or its “atmosphere”, they reflected a lot about me: my decisions of where to go, what places to avoid, how fast to walk, how long to linger in one place… preconceived ideas of what I wanted to be captured on tape. Later I followed up on this idea by introducing an element of “sonic sightseeing”. I grabbed a tourist guide of Lisbon, walked along the recommended hiking routes and made recordings with binaural and shotgun microphones. I wrote down my impressions, states of mind, mental associations and decisions and then mapped the recorded sounds against these notes, considering them as “instructions” or “cues” for a sound composition. I suppose that the experience that tourists get from a city is in great measure determined by the randomness of these almost unconscious impressions, of a permanent mapping out of what they see against their desires, preconceived ideas, memories, etc. All in all, my intention was to convert this process into a method for sound composition using field recordings. (Rui Costa, 2009)
Sound recordings made by Rui Costa between 2005 and 2008 in Lisbon, Portugal. Composed and mixed by Rui Costa in 2008,
About the Artist:
Rui Costa is a sound artist from Lisbon, Portugal. He has been publicly presenting his work since 1997.
From 1999 to 2003, Rui Costa collaborated with the Spanish musician Iñaki Ríos, under the name ja_dijiste. This duo explored improvisational and compositional techniques based on Max/MSP and Lisa computer software and developed a series of site-specific works in the village of Nodar, Portugal, with subsequent presentations in sound and media arts festivals in Spain.
In 2007, Rui started collaborating with the Italian vocal performer Manuela Barile, through a large scale intermedia project entitled ‘La Scatola’, which was conceived as a series of installations and performances. Rui developed processes that captured the reverberations of the voice inside the body (laryngeal microphones, amplified stethoscopes) so that the spoken word is invested with a musicality and spatial dimension that further extend the expressive capabilities of the voice.
Rui has performed in many venues and sound art festivals in Portugal, Spain, Italy and the United States. He has played with such musicians as Maile Colbert, Iñaki Ríos, Manuela Barile, Pablo Rega, Nilo Gallego, Toshio Kajiwara, Casey Rice, Lê Quan Ninh, Richard Antez, John Herndon, André Gonçalves, Carlos Santos, Pali Meursault and Cédric Anglaret.
Rui Costa is a founding member and artistic director of Binaural, an arts collective dedicated to the promotion of context-based sound and media arts. Binaural runs an artist residency space in Nodar, a small village in the north of Portugal.
Rui Costa’s current artistic research is centered on the use of the psycho-acoustic characteristics of sound to create “sonic fictions” where the notions of space, perception and meaning are submitted to a process of recontextualization and of creation of improbable and unstable relations. He investigates the different ways of making the space audible and of studying the place of the listener within the triangle formed by him/herself, the sound and the space. By capturing the sound resonating through the materials that structure a given space, manipulating it in real-time and then projecting it into the same space, it is possible to create “sensorial extensions” that configure a sonic architecture that operates in real-time and is therefore fluid and unstable. An example of this approach is his ongoing project “The Future Memory”, with the American sound and video artist Maile Colbert, where they visually and sonically map abandoned and almost silent spaces to create poetic fictions around them." [label info]
www.1000füssler.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| COSTES |
Bible and Machine Gun |
CD-R |
Schon seit vielen Jahren ist COSTES der Nestbeschmutzer par excellence, der vor keiner Perversion oder Tabu zurückschreckt
(sein Logo zeigt einen erigierten, durch eine Compact Disc gesteckten Schwanz), er suhlt sich im kollektiv Verdrängten & Tabuisierten und ist so politisch unkorrekt wie möglich.
Bei BIBLE AND MACHINE GUN geht es v.a. um religiöse Themen, die Musik besteht aus wirklich weirdem cheapo elektro-pop-noise-industrial und COSTES provokativen Texten, gesunden & geschrien in schlechtem franko-Englisch !
Odd release on Berlin’s premier noise label by this crazy anti-artist named COSTES, the french pendant to GG ALLIN and PSYCHODRAMA, totally anti-“PC”, perverse texts mixed with bad cheapo pop / electronic music and noise-collages.
|
2002 |
€9.00 |
|
| COULOMBE SAINT-MARCOUX, MICHELINE |
Impulsion |
CD |
“For the first time with Impulsion are presented all of the works for tape by Coulombe Saint-Marcoux (all but two which have disappeared). This historical disc is the occasion to discover the work of one of the Canadian electroacoustic pioneer.” [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2001 |
€12.00 |
|
| COUNCIL ESTATE ELECTRONICS (JUSTIN BROADRICK & D. DALTON) |
Arktika |
CD |
"The original concept for COUNCIL ESTATE ELECTRONICS was for Justin K Broadrick and Diarmuid Dalton, via analog synths and electronics, to pay tribute to the synthesizer music they were influenced by in their youth : Tangerine Dream, Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Cluster, etc. Set to the imagery and geography of the council estate in Birmingham in which they were both raised; Shard End and the surrounding areas. Once the duo set to work on the music they found other influences seeping in - seventies dub like King Tubby, Scientist, etc and early dub techno founders Basic Channel, Maurizio, Chain Reaction label, etc, thus expanding the sound palette and the geographical environment that was to be the theme for the project. The Arktika, launched in St Petersberg, is the first of a new class of ships known as Type LK-60YA, ordered by Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom (eventually there will be three vessels). Its task will be to smash a path through the ice of the Northern Sea Route. Raw power counts for a lot in icebreaking, and by bringing 80,000 hp (60 megawatts) to bear, Arktika will be able to break through floating ice almost ten feet thick. The icebreaker will lead convoys along a route that otherwise would be impassable."
www.glacialmovements.com |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| COURTIS / MARHAUG |
North and South Neutrino |
CD |
Two performers in collaboration rather known for their harsher or more chaotic works (Anla Courtis was a member of REYNOLS) create a very elegant and softly developing composition... this 45 piece begins very soft, with high & nearly inaudible frequencies, uses crackles & hisses and slowly develops into something LOPEZian, but with more changes and strange sounds in the cold ultra-spheric & far-away drones. great stuff !!
“ This much expected collaboration (recordings started 5 years ago in Buenos Aires and Oslo), is released by Antifrost on February 1st.
Lasse Marhaug, known from his solo works but also as half of US/Norwegian group Jazzkammer has been around for a long time and has collaborated before with artists such as: Maja S.K. Ratkje, Tore H. B e, Merzbow, Aube, Ronnie Sundin, Kevin Drumm, TV Pow, Francisco L pez, Leif Elggren,, Mats Gustafsson, Fe-Mail, Andreas Berthling, Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Taku Sugimoto, Mark Wastell, Matt Davis, Reynols, SPUNK, Kim Cascone, and many others. The other creative half of this collaboration work is Anla Courtis, the guitarist and main composer behind the famous Argentinian group Reynols. The cover illustration/ artwork of the CD is done by the prestigious Swedish artist Leif Elggren (of Elgaland/Vargaland - Fireworks Editons).” [press release]
”The Antifrost label has put out some of the most challenging records of recent times, and this collaboration between Lasse Marhaug, one half of Norwegian noise thugs Jazzkammer and Anla Courtis, the musical mastermind behind the unruly Argentinians reynols, is as forbidding as they come. For the opening half hour it is a minimalist exercise in the slow motion deployment of a small clutch of extreme frequencies.
Then a richer metallic texture emerges from the brittle digital atmosphere recalling the isolationist going pieces of Thomas Koener. This darker, more brooding sound is submerged once more into the digital realm, as if we are viewing the same vast, immobile object from above and below the waterline. Or perhaps it is the subatomic particle referenced in the album title under two different magnifications. It's certainly not an easy listen, but submit yourself to its cold, dramatic logic and you will be rewarded.” [THE WIRE/ Keith Moline]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| COURTIS, ANLA |
Antiguos Dolmenes del Paleolitico |
CD |
„Alan Courtis hat altsteinzeitlichen Grabstätten, wie auf dem Cover zu betrachten, reine Feedbacks, ohne Einsatz von Mikrofonen oder anderen Instrumenten gegenübergestellt. Mit einem nachempfundenem Grundraunen steinalter, mit Menschenschweiß getränkter Felsen, beginnt der erste der mit Part I – IIII betitelten Stücke. Im Verlauf der gesamten knapp 48 Minuten erfahren die im Feedbacksystem gefangenen Töne eine Läuterung von sirrenden zu glasigen Drones – refreshed Drones, wenn man so sagen will. Damit ist aber keine einschmeichelnde Glätte erzeugt, denn die Töne wandern immer wieder in alarmierende Frequenzen höchster Register. Zur Schmerztherapie kommt der Gedanke an die Erbauer der Felskonstruktionen, wie sie tonnenschwere Steine ohne Kräne etc. aufeinanderstapeln. Behaglich lehnt man sich dann im Hörsessel zurück und lässt sich die Ohren mit akustischen Sticheleien reinigen.//
Megalithic stone structures, to see on the cover, seems like an inspiration for these very pure recordings of Alan Courtis. „No microphones, instruments or inputs of any kind were employed in this project.“ as the linernotes are telling. The first track starts with a basic murmer of the old rocks. In the course of the 48 minutes, the tones of the feedback system change from buzzing to drones of crushing glasses – drones refreshed. That means no smoothness, because the sharp tones are moving up to highest frequencies. Thinking about the humans who have built up these stone structures under pain, the listener leans back in his armchair while acoustically brooms are cleaning up his ears.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
"...a composition in four parts created exclusively with processed no-input feedback and inspired by these stone monuments. It was created in early 2004 and is the first full-length solo CD from Argentinian composer Alan Courtis, a founding member of the group Reynols. Courtis currently lives in Buenos Aires, and has toured extensively in USA, Europe, Japan & Latin America collaborating with artists such as: Pauline Oliveros, Damo Suzuki, Toshimaru Nakamura, Makoto Kawabata, K.K. Null, Rick Bishop, Thomas Dimuzio, Jason Kahn, Solid Eye, Birchville Cat Motel and Lasse Marhaug.
Technical equipment employed: Phonic 1002? Mixing Desk, Art SGX LT Effects Processor, Digitech RP6 Effects Processor, DOD FX55B Supradistortion, Tascam 424, PC (Wavelab). No microphones, instruments or inputs of any kind were employed in this project. Recorded and mixed at 8(8)8 Studios, Buenos Aires, Argentina. January-March 2004" [label info & credits]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| COURTIS_MATSUNAGA |
same |
CD |
Die argentinisch-japanische Zusammenarbeit vom ex-REYNOLS-Mann und KOUHEI beschert uns 9 drone-basierte Stücke, vom hyper-tiefen Kontemplativ-Drone bis hin zu komplexen, eher experimentellen Konkret-Material-Drones mit vielen Details. Low-fi, organisch, rauh und mit genügend akustischer Schubkraft und Bizarrheit um immer wieder aufs neue zu überraschen... inkl. einem crazed-out track mit RUDOLF EB.ER.
“9 tracks of solos, remixes, telepathy collaboration and real collaborations. 62min58sec landscape of flying drones, electronics, guitar, unidentified objects, uncertain clarinet, voice, distanced meeting and the memories of co-habitation. Intervention of RudolfEb.er for 8th track” [label info]
“The disc contains nine tracks of widely varying lengths and collaboration methods. To name a couple: remix of the other's material, telepathic collaboration and real collaboration. Most tracks are of a certain ambient nature, but with enough things going on to definitely go beyond that (strange cuts, sudden outbursts of seemingly random noise, etc.). The overall quality is pretty lo-fi, which is very good, because it is combined with very typical computer sounds. This works very well and adds a warm quality to the sound. For me the most interesting piece is actually the longest one: the telepathic collaboration. Somehow Courtis and Matsunaga seem very well in tune and have created a very good track with so many kilometers between them. Somehow this track is almost a condensation of the whole CD. It will be interesting to see what the Prele label has to offer in the future.” [MR / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| CRAIG, LEIGHTON |
11 Easy Pieces |
CD |
"Since 1995, Brisbane resident Leighton Craig has etched out a varied musical existence, from solo keyboard studies to an extensive body of collaborative work. His solo works, which span delicate ambient keyboard excursions through to site specific live documents and most recently song based explorations, have mapped out a focus of tone, duration and 'situations' for sound.
On 11 Easy Pieces, his first widely available solo LP, Craig offers an intimate yet robust collection of works recorded on an array of cheap analogue keyboards, including his instrument of choice the Casio MT40. Recorded to cassette at the kitchen table between 2003-04, these recordings have been lovingly toasted by valve tubes during mastering to reveal not only a true sense of analog adventurousness inherent to Craig's mode of operation, but also his ability to unveil a rare tonal richness from his instruments.
Leighton Craig casts out an audio net and collects together an essential haul of tonal gradients, phased rhythm and collapsed chordal interplays. 11 Easy Pieces (and two somewhat less 'easy' works), is a warm collection of distorted hymnals and blurred geometry - all of them visionary in their purity and timbral sensibilities." [label info]
www.room40.org
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| CRANIOCLAST |
(THE) L.K.A. SONAR KIT (SOLD OUT) |
pic-7 |
"CRANIOCLAST–maybe the most mysterious & legendary "post-industrial"- group from West-Germany of the 80's-the German counterpart to ZOVIET FRANCE? As CRANIOCLAST have nearly disappeared over the last few years, we are very proud to release a wonderful designed picture-disc containing two new tracks ("DE ZEESTER" and "THE ANEMONE") taking you closer to a bizarre & breathing aural world – listen to distant floating melodies, droney electronic tunes, exotic instruments (Sitar) , voices from nowhere, animal sounds, piano, ether-sinus-sounds...as they all merge & form a perfectly relaxed & timelessly emotional soundtrack. Let the world turn into something different and witness how something alien can grow into sheer beauty.
BLACK & WHITE PICTURE DISC, COVERED BY DIFFERENT COLOURED TRANSPARENT PAPER, CLOSED WITH INDIVIDUAL NUMBERED STICKER" [label info]
|
2000 |
€ |
|
| CRAWL UNIT |
Tucson, Mon Amour (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
white vinyl, handmade Coverartwork (sticked papers & pictures with coloured wax), edition of 250 numbered copies
"This project from Sacramento, CA, has released some of the most exciting experimental music in the last few years, which is documented on some CDs, Vinyls and tapes. CRAWL UNIT has shown many different sides to his sound so far, and this EP is no exception: metallic, high frequent reverberated sounds and low, droning backgrounds, accompanied by some harsh outbursts of noise. Extremely suspenseful and not to be missed by lovers of new & independent music." [label info]
|
1998 |
€6.00 |
|
| CRAWLING CHAOS |
Spookhouse |
CD |
"Remember Crawling Chaos?
Debuting post-punk art rock ensemble on Factory UK with the single 'Sex Machine'/'Berlin' (1980). They soon got dumped to Factory Benelux (who released their first LP 'The Gas Chair' in early 1982) for being too unclassifiable. Too weird? What else left but to put up their own Foetus Products for the musical output of Crawling Chaos and their many other disguises....
They reached a modest cult status, especially with the LP albums 'The Big C' (1984) and 'Waqqaz' (1985). 'Spookhouse' is a collection of their last ever recordings from 1987, unpublished so far, except for 2 tracks that were previously released before on cassette compilations by EE Tapes in 1987 and 1990.
Hey, this is CD EE25, these tracks are 25 years old and this label is exactly 25 years old too this year! Coincidence does exist, let's throw a party!
Jeff, this one's for you!
Filed under: art rock, psychedelic rock, avantgarde, experimental" [label info]
www.eetapes.be
"EE Tapes is a very interesting Belgian label that picks hidden gems from the experimental underground scene and present them for audience of today. Present album was originally released 25 years ago - in fact released by a label that also can celebrate its 25th anniversary. The album titled “Spookhouse” comes from the British band Crawling Chaos. The band is stylishly a hard one to pigeonhole. Many styles are emerged to create this cocktail of experimental rock. Throughout the runtime the listener are confronted with everything from sax-driven ska-music across punk rock to something that could have been born in the age of German Krautrock. Especially krautrock-band Amon Düül II crosses my mind as I listen to the “Spookhouse”-album. The sound production of the album is quite raw and unpolished giving a nice feel of authenticity and improvisation. Yet another pearl from the 80’s experimental scene picked by one of Belgium's premium underground labels. Highly recommended." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| CRAY |
InvalidObject Series (comment) |
mCD |
Das irische FÄLLT-Label hat auf einen Schlag ein Kompendium zur neuen digitalen laptop / click / glitch / IDM – Musik herausgebracht ! Das sind 24 mCDs mit allerlei bekannten und unbekannte Vertretern dieses jungen Genres. Wir haben die meisten da, hier eine Übersicht ! Limitiert jeweils auf schamlose 250 Stck ! Preis pro mcD : € 9.50
Better priced now, last copies of this absolute compendium of IDM. € 9.50
“ The invalidObject Series was established in 2000 as a sublabel of Fällt to release a finite series of twenty four 3"CD/.mp3 works.
Offering a unique perspective on a diverse range of musical output at the turn of the millennium, the Series features work by some of the most respected artists operating within the field of '.microsound' and has been described as "a remarkable document of a vibrant artistic community and a critical moment in the evolution of digital music" (Philip Sherburne), "a showcase for the extraordinary range of practical approaches within contemporary electronic music" (Matt Ffytche, The Wire) and, simply, "impressive" (Rob Young, Editor, The Wire). “ [label press release}
|
2000 |
€9.50 |
|
| CREATION VI & UGASANIE |
Birds of Naukan |
CD |
Together with the labels NEBOSVOD and ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ we're glad to present the proper reissue of the work, first published in 2015 in a small edition of 80 copies. This is a collaboration album recorded by the projects Creation VI and Ugasanie and dedicated to several sacred places of Chukotka, such as the Whale Bone Alley on Yttigran island and a collection of ancient rock engravings on the Pegtymel river. The album was inspired by the documentary "Chukotka: The Coast of Memory" directed by Andris Slapiņš and poems of the Yupik poetess Zoya Nenlyumkina, who was born in the now deserted village of Naukan, which at that time was the easternmost settlement of Eurasia.
Petroglyphs carved on stones along rivers, bird colonies and herds of walruses, whale skulls dug in the coast hundreds of years ago - many images were captured in the sounds of this album. Mouth harps and ocarins, throat singing, field recordings and transparent iridescence of cold creeping ambient, saturated with echoes of shamanistic rituals, cries of bird flocks and songs that the ocean sings to heavens, while playing on coastal pebbles.
The sound was remastered in 2019 specially for this edition. The disc is packaged in a glossy 6-panel digipack with photographs of the Whale Bone Alley
zhb.radionoise.runwww.zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/zhb-xlvi.html |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| CRESHEVSKY, NOAH |
Rounded with a Sleep |
CD |
"Active in electronic composition since 1971, Noah Creshevsky delights in presenting extreme and unpredictable juxtapositions in which the integration of electronic and acoustic sources and processes creates virtual "superperformers" by using the sounds of traditional instruments pushed past human capacities. Creshevsky uses the term Hyperrealism to describe his electroacoustic language constructed from found sounds, handled in ways that are exaggerated or intense.
Creshevsky's first full length CD on Pogus (and hopefully not his last) works his sampling wizardry on performances by Sherman Friedland (clarinet); Lisa Barnard Kelley and Tomomi Adachi (voices); piano improvisations by Stuart Isacoff; Gary Heidt (voice and guitar); Rich Gross (lap steel/banjo); Orin Buck (bass); Juho Laitinen (cello).
As always his music needs to be heard to be believed. A truly singular voice." [label info]
" …Creshevsky's music is cosmopolitan and streetwise post modern expression…I do not exaggerate when I say that I have never heard anything like Creshevsky's music before…If you're up for an aural adventure, here's your ticket." -Josh Mailman, American Record Guide
"His works are powerful musical statements that may also become historically important…totally fascinating."
-Randy Raine-Reusch, Musicworks
"Creshevsky is as much a virtuoso of the sampler as anyone working in the field.…His sampler is a means toward not only superhuman virtuosity, but a new universality." -Kyle Gann, Village Voice
"…dazzling virtuosity and boundless imagination…simply gorgeous…one of the most interesting composers I know." -Jed Distler, Gramophone
www.pogus.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| CRESHEVSKY, NOAH / IF, BWANA |
Favorite Encores |
CD |
Split-Album mit vier Stücken von NOAH CRESHEVSKY und seiner HYPERREALISM-Musik, dazu 3 Stücke vom POGUS-Label Betreiber und experimentellen Urgestein IF, BWANA. Anspruchsvolle & aufregende Neue Experimentalmusik, basierend auf instrumentalen & vokalen Klangquellen..
"A split cd of works by Noah Creshevsky (4 tracks) and If, Bwana (3 tracks). While on the face of it this may seem a somewhat odd pairing, the pieces recorded here comment on and highlight each other. And as the above quotes suggest, an aural adventure is indeed in the offing.
Trained in composition by Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Luciano Berio at Juilliard, Noah Creshevsky has taught at Juilliard, Princeton University, and Brooklyn College. He was director of the Center for Computer Music (1994-2000) and is currently Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. His musical vocabulary consists largely of familiar bits of words, songs, and instrumental music that are edited but rarely subjected to electronic processing. The result is a music that obscures the boundaries of real and imaginary ensembles though the fusion of opposites: music and noise, comprehensible and incomprehensible vocal sources, human and superhuman vocal and instrumental capacities. Creshevsky's most recent hyperrealist compositions explore the fragmentation and reconstruction of pre-existing music in combination with original synthetic and acoustic materials. Moments suggest musical environments of indeterminate ethnicity--simultaneously Western and non-Western, ancient and modern, familiar and unfamiliar.
Hyperrealism is an electroacoustic musical language constructed from sounds that are recognizable parts of our shared environment ("realism"), handled in ways that are exaggerated or excessive ("hyper"). Hyperrealist music exists in two basic genres. The first uses the sounds of traditional instruments that are pushed beyond the capacities of human performers in order to create superperformers--hypothetical virtuosos who transcend the limitations of individual performance capabilities (e.g., Mari Kimura Redux, Intrada, Favorite Encores). Hyperrealism of the second genre aims to integrate vast and diverse sonic elements to produce an expressive and versatile musical language. Its vocabulary is an inclusive, limitless sonic compendium, free of ethnic and national particularity (e.g., Shadow of a Doubt). Hyperrealism celebrates bounty, either by the extravagant treatment of limited sound palettes or by the assembling and manipulating of substantially extended palettes.
Al Margolis has been working under the musical pseudonym If, Bwana since New Year's Day 1984. There are often collaborators in this project‹both knowingly and unknowingly. Both are represented on this recording. Xyloxings was a concept-based work that in the end had the concept discarded for compositional considerations. Lisa Barnard's vocals were recorded with her direct knowledge. Scraping Scrafide uses a portion of Tony Scafide's piano part from a prior work of mine‹3 Out of 4 Ain't Bad‹and processes it. Cicada #4: Barnard Mix is part of my "discipline" series‹an open set of works‹and uses Barnard's vocals from other sessions to create one of many possible versions of this work." [press release]
"... Creshevsy choose the term 'hyperrealis' for the typical electro-acoustical music he developed. In three compositions on this cd ('Mari Kimura Redux'‚ 'Intrada' and 'Favorite Encores') Creshevsky "uses the sounds of traditional instruments that are pushed beyond the limitations of individual performance capabilities". Creshevsky is a master in the field of audio-collage and plunderphonic-like procedures and leaves us with many questions. For example we often hear violins in his work, playing in a style that we are used from normal classical music. But I'm not sure whether he takes samples from already existing (violin)works by others, or whether he composes pieces for violin first to be used consequently by him in his collage work. Comparable to how Biota works. His compositions make the impression of staying close to classical musical structures, but transcended to unknown heights through his virtuoso manipulation work. The music has an enormous speed and drive, combined with an enormous flexibility and maneuverability. In each piece we are constantly exposed to an intensity and complexity that we don't often find in music. His works open dazzling dimensions and perspectives. On the other hand the music remains fluent and accessible, very lively and of an appealing dramatic. Great work! 'Intrada' is of special interest because of the use of (samples of) the fantastic voicework by Chris Mann.
If, Bwana is the pseudonym Al Margolis uses already since 1984 for his musical output. As a guest he was present on Creshevsky's 'To know and not to know'. Between the highly informed and complex music of Creshvesky, the works of If Bwana offers us some rest. His pieces develop in a slower pace and are built from a smaller set of soundmaterial. In 'Xyloxings' and 'Cicada # 4; Version Barnard', the voice of Lisa Bernard plays a prominent role. For 'Scraping Scrafide' If, Bwana makes uses of the piano playing of Tony Scafide, taking from an earlier composition by If, Bwana. In comparison to maximalistic efforts of Creshesky, the works If Bwana are more of a minimalistic approach." [DM / Vital Weekly]
www.pogus.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CRETA |
Creta |
LP |
CRETA is the new project by MASSIMO PUPILLO (ZU, LANIAKEA), electronic artist LUCIANO LAMANNA and string instrument virtuoso ROBERTO ZANISI. As trio they explore an adventurous sonic territory between COIL in their ambient moments, dark bass pulses and bucolic-mediterranean string sounds.
CRETA is a new trio of artists coming from very different backgrounds: ROBERTO ZANISI is a finger picking guitar player and a virtuoso on strings of all kinds, including “exotic” instruments like the Turkish Cümbüs, the Greek Bouzouki or the Albanian Cifteli. Since 2003 he has been active in many contexts: he worked with GIOVANNI VENOSTA producing sound tracks for SILVIO SOLDINI’s movies, took part as soloist musician in STEWARD COPELAND’s tour “La Notte della Taranta (Night of Tarantula)”, played with the American musician AMY DENIO and performed with SAINKHO NAMTCHYLAK. LUCIANO LAMANNA’s main characteristics are experimentation, analog synths, vinyl and a big love for techno. In 2015, the resident DJ at Ex Dogana, Roma and member of the Italian artist collective LSWHR launched the modular synthesizer project BALANCE (with DAVIDE RICCI), and in 2017 he released the album “Divus” with ZU member LUCA T. MAI, to name a few of LAMANNA’s many releases on labels like EARACHE, BORING MACHINES, SCUDERIA et.al. And, last but not least, there is MASSIMO PUPILLO, highly acclaimed bass maniac with ZU, LANIAKEA and in countless other constellations (a.o. PETER and CASPAR BRÖTZMANN, FM EINHEIT, CHRIS CORSANO). As CRETA, they create outlandish sonic pieces that blend sci-fi ambient atmospheres with dark bass pulses and bucolic-mediterranean string instruments – an unique and yet coherent mix of elements that adds consequently to the oeuvres of the three artists!
Tracklist:
1 … And Everything That Shines
2 Babe In The Egg Of Blue
3 Future Humans In Form Of Aur
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| CRIA CUERVOS |
Des tempes qui se vitrifient ou se marbrent |
mCD-R |
New material by this italian project, very hissy & droney & machine-like an-organic deep atmo-noise....
“this 20min piece could be depicted as the awakening of a mysterious living being, discovering a hostile world... screepy dark ambient! full-couloured printed 3"cd-r in a slim crystal box.” [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| CRISTAL |
Re-Ups |
LP |
Das Trio mit dem von LABRADFORD bekannten BOBBY DONE existiert schon seit 2001 und liesse sich soundmässig am ehesten als Drone-basierte, atmosphärische Improvisation & Komposition mit feinen harmonischen und auch noisigen Ausflügen beschreiben. Sehr sorgfältig und Raum-schaffend bauen sie ihre Klangfigurationen auf, in denen subtile Mikrosounds platziert werden...das hat was von ruhigen ILLUSION OF SAFETY zum Beispiel, sie wurden aber auch schon als elektronische, LABRADFORD-getränkte Variante von SUNN O)) beschrieben, oder mit AUBE und DEATHPROD in Zusammenhang gebracht (was alles nicht so recht passt, aber als grobes Raster OK ist..) Dies ist das zweite Album nach der "Cristal" CD (2005), kommt in nummerierter Auflage & im Gatefold-Cover. Leider teuer.
"Jimmy Anthony, Greg Darden & Bobby Donne (Labradford, Aix Em Klemm) play out infrequently , are unprolific in their release schedule & spend their time refining & recording their abstract electronic music. Their seclusion & deliberation produce remarkable results. Re-Ups is their second full length release. Cristal use computers to mutate & stretch sound spectra into long forms balanced against tenuous, implied melodies. The barely perceptible abuts the overwhelming. Placid soundfields are lacerated with incisions of digital fragments & static on the opening track. Sonic reductions boil & release evaporate melodies on the track “Xicifu” and then are decimated by the scouring noise of “Left of Swept”. All across Re-Ups, disorienting & comforting elements sit side by side. When so many noise & experimental artists seem to be hemorrhaging releases, Cristal’s compositional rigor is refreshing. ONE TIME PRESSING OF 500 on 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold jacket. Comes with digital download code." [label notes]
|
2008 |
€23.00 |
|
| CROENE, FREDERIK |
Le Piano demecanise |
LP |
"Le Piano Demécanisé is a vinyl album with music played on a dismantled piano. The release of the album goes in tandem with the publication of the new issue of RTRSRCH magazine, in which Frederik Croene presents the text accompanying the LP. The LP was pressed in an edition of 500, sleeve design by Joris Verdoodt." [label info]
www.audiomer.org/projects
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| CROUCH, ROBERT |
An Occupied Space |
CD-R |
"An Occupied Space is the debut full-length release by Los Angeles artist Robert Crouch. Each track takes as its point of departure a field recording of a public place where music is integral to the experience of these social constructs. Throughout the release, music is piped through loudspeakers across public plazas and boulevards, footsteps cross thresholds where reverberating guitars and vocals spill out into city. “I found it necessary to give myself a very strict set of parameters,” Crouch states, “in order to approach the idea of making music in the first place. I suppose it comes from my training as a visual artist.”
Furthering this analogy to a visual arts practice, An Occupied Space has perhaps more in common with the photographers from the Düsseldorf School, rather than the history of field recording or ambient music. Much like the photographers Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, and Thomas Ruff, and how they wrestle with both the psychology of their subject matter as well as the politics and constraints of their chosen medium, An Occupied Space can be considered to be a collection of landscape studies, with the artist fulfilling the roles of documentarian, composer, and observer simultaneously.
Structurally, An Occupied Space operates within overlapping contexts; they exist as documents, as meditations on the psychology of place, and finally as self-reflexive “objects” that address the contingent nature of their own construction. They are as much about music as they are music. “I wanted to employ melody without necessarily being melodic, to explore texture without remaining static, and to respect the integrity of the original recordings while still allowing my hand as artist to remain evident." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| CRYPTIC SCENERY |
The Radar Society - a sonic dystopia - |
CD-R |
"German project from Berlin and the main music outlet of Christian H. Sötemann. Cryptic Scenery is active since many years with several releases with various styles.
"The Radar Society - a sonic dystopia" contains the most sinister and darker music under the name of Cryptic Scenery. Very intensive sounds with minimal moments and drone parts. Dark music, but neither dark nor sombre... There is something like a melancholic feeling in this sounds. Not a negative sense, it's sounds like the word and feeling "saudade" in Portugal. The artist says: "the perfect soundtrack for a romantic date... in 2080"." [label info]
"Christian H. Sötemann is someone we also know for some time with his project Cryptic Scenery. I would have probably called Cryptic Scenery 'ambient' and 'drone' too, but listening to 'The Radar Society - A Sonic Dystopia' I wouldn't be that sure. It seems that this opens up a more darker side in the work of Sötemann, with strange metallic samples, more abstract drones than pleasant ones and throughout a somewhat unsettling mood. Only in a piece like ;Glittering Figment' we recognize the music of Sötemann: sustained guitars with much sound effects. I must say that this new album is quite nice. It breaks with the 'old' work, even when not fully, and expands the musical horizon with a varied album of textures, moods, experiments and ambience. Unsettling but therefore quite nice." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.tosom.de
|
2009 |
€10.50 |
|
| CTACIK |
Amur Region |
CD-R |
"CTACIK ist dunkel as fuck und bewegt sich mit seinen Klangforschungen irgendwo im Dark Ambient, Noise und Field Recordings Bereich. Weite mächtige Klangfelder mischen sich mit nervtötenden Radiowellen und verschiedenen Samples von Stimmen und Tieren, welche ineinander wallen- und wabern, generiert durch synthetische Sounds. Dass hier keine schöne angenehme Musik geschaffen wird, dürfte klar sein. CTAICK wirkt eher ungeschliffen, dreckig und entfremdet von jeglicher menschlicher Kommunikation. Entstellte Maschinen dominieren hier die Erde. Interessant wie verstörend." [Creative Eclipse]
"mur Region´is a concept album influenced by memories of a time as a child. Memories about places, streets, factories quay, malicious beauty, love and pure hatred, life...! The first edition comes in a handmade frame out of wood." [label info]
www.verato-project.de
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| CTEPHIN |
DUAD |
7 |
"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union". CTEPHIN is a curious "drone-family" built around the main couple StF & Aedria Hughes who create atmospheric & noisy soundscapes, with various friends and their 7 children. Calling themselves "Umbrella Noize Collective", they live to the: "Law of Liberty as laid out in Liber AL vel Legis". DUAD is their first vinyl release and uses pumping drones, field recordings (rain), guitars, metallic effects and a kind of very harmonic cembalo instrument. The two tracks develop in a lovely way; from pure ambience to noise and back. The same use of beautiful harmonics & noise-drones creates quite a special atmosphere, from NOISE LIGHT to LIGHT NOISE.
Filed under: THELEMIC LIGHT DRONES AND DRONE LIGHTS / www.myspace.com/ctephin
GOLDEN VINYL WITH LOVELY MARBLE EFFECT & SILVER-GOLD LABELS
BLACK COVERS WITH THICK WHITE PAINT STAMPED ON. RED INLAY WITH GOLDEN PRINT
|
2009 |
€7.00 |
|
| CUNI, AMELIA |
... sings Dhrupad |
CD |
"Was ganz besonderes auf dem ALIO DIE-Label Hic Sunt Leones: original indische RAGA-Musik, gesungen von AMELIA CUNI, aufgenommen in Bombay 1995. A.CUNI singt über Sitar-Drones und Tablas ihren eigenartig harmonischen, in Trance versetzenden Gesang, auch für "westlich" sozialisierte Ohren ein Genuß! Im 20seitigen Booklet ausführliche Erklärungen (englisch/italienisch) über Dhrupad, Cuni's Gesang, den Ablauf einer Performance, und das RAGA-System... " [Drone Records info 2000]
see also: www.aliodie.com |
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| CURRENT 93 |
Black Ships heat the Dancefloor (remixes & videos) |
CD/DVD (dualdisc) |
"Diese Dual Disc CD/DVD enthält die zwei von Cam Archer gedrehten Videoclips für die C93 Tracks "The Beautiful Dancing Dust" (mit Gesang von Antony) und "Black Ships Ate The Sky" (Gesang von Tibet) sowie die 4 Songs von der gleichnamigen 12". Zwei" Black Ships Ate the Sky" Remixe von JG Thirlwell und zwei Matmos Remixe zu "The Beautiful Dancing Dust" und "Black Ships Ate The Sky". Die DVD-Seite ist 'region-free' und sollte auf jedem DVD-Player abspielbar sein." [label info]
www.durtro.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Nature Unveiled |
CD |
"Nature Unveiled is Current 93's seminal first album. It's been returned to its original format of two tracks, and has been beautifully re-mastered by Denis Blackham. This reissue comes with a booklet with early photographs of the group members-- who included David Tibet, Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), John Balance (Coil), and Little Annie-- and original insert materials." [label info] |
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
|
When the May Rain comes |
12inch |
"When the May Rain Comes, a cover of a track by Sand, whose work has had a profound affect on Tibet’s work, first appeared on Current 93’s influential album Thunder Perfect Mind. Also appearing on this 12" is an alternate version of the same track from a CD single which accompanied the first 1,000 copies of Tibet and Stapleton’s release of material by Sand, Ultrasonic Seraphim. This 12'' is part of a series of releases from rotorelief comprised of new albums from Sand, a reissue of their album Golem and albums by Nurse with Wound and Current 93. “INXOM” is the series of albums from Sand, the series title having one letter for each album. So, 5 albums of Sand are to be released. Two more albums from Nurse with Wound and Current 93, two groups who helped bring to light the mystery that is Sand, increase the number of letters in the title. With these last two albums the series becomes INXODEM. His First Steps – Golem - Desert Navigation - Sylph Ballet – North Atlantic Raven. And Chromanatron by Nurse With Wound and When the May Rain Comes, cover versions of Sand by Current 93." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
|
When the May Rain comes |
CD-single |
"When the May Rain Comes, a cover of a track by Sand, whose work has had a profound affect on Tibet's work, first appeared on Current 93's influential album Thunder Perfect Mind. Also appearing on this 12" is an alternate version of the same track from a CD single which accompanied the first 1,000 copies of Tibet and Stapleton's release of material by Sand, Ultrasonic Seraphim." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Honeysuckle Aeons |
CD |
" „Honeysuckle Æons” ist das neue Album der halluzinogenen Super Group CURRENT 93; das sich an die Fersen der kürzlich veröffentlichten Trilogie aus „Black Ships Ate The Sky“, „Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain“ und „Baalstorm,Sing Omega“ heftet. Die CD kommt in einem vierseitigen schwarz-weißen Digipak mit 16-seitigem Booklet mit allen Texten und Familienphotos. www.myspace.com/current93 "
Honeysuckle Æons is the new album by hallucinatory gnostic supergroup Current 93, following hot and hard on the heels of their recent trilogy (Black Ships Ate the Sky, Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain and Baalstorm, Sing Omega). The CD comes in a black and white digi-pack and contains a 16-page booklet with all the lyrics plus photos of the C93 family. Current 93, who were as cool as flies and as real as rainbows, are now as perfect as planets: Eliot Bates, Baby Dee, Andrew Liles, Lisa Pizzighella, Armen Ra and David Tibet." [label info]
|
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Nature Unveiled |
pic-LP |
Current 93's first and last album, NATURE UNVEILED dragged together my obsessions, as I had decided to make a pop album that dealt with my (then-as now!) primary fascinations: Christian apocalyptic and eschatological Christian texts. In my Speed-Ridden Soul and Mind, I thought I was reinventing The Ronettes, and that the 2 long sides of NATURE UNVEILED were A- and B- Sides of a Wall Of Soundhogs HIT! But the reality is that I was sharing a squat in Vauxhall with Little Annie Anxiety, and hanging out with Youth in The BatCave, with chickens rescued by The Animal Liberation Front in our backyard. Or did that come soon after, soon later? The album was recorded at The Roundhouse Studios in London's Chalk Farm, home of Bronze Records, the label of my heroes (then-as now!) Uriah Heep, and Motörhead too, for whom I had moved stage-gear on their tour promoting their debut single on Chiswick Records. Anyway, anyway-I had not reinvented The Ronettes, though every time, every place, I listen to NATURE UNVEILED it Hits Me, And Feels Like A Judas Kiss. There has been NOTHING UNVEILED like NATURE UNVEILED, Before, Since, Or After. Remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies!, and with the original artwork refreshed and reborn by Rob Hopeye, this 12" vinyl picture-disc comes in a full-colour die-cut sleeve, which is printed on both the outside and inside. This is one of the first 4 reissues of the entire back catalogue of C93 on picture-disc and standard vinyl, in the lead-up to the publication of my autobiography at the end of 2025, whilst I also work on many other recording, publishing, and painting projects, and Watch And Pray! Each release in the picture-disc vinyl reissues series is limited to 1,000 copies, and the titles will not be repressed as picture-discs once they have sold out. David Tibet, Hastings, 3 July 2025.1 Ach Golgotha (Maldoror Is Dead) 2 The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim (The Great In The Small)
|
2024 |
€35.50 |
|
| CURRENT 93 / OM |
Inerrant Rays of infallible Sun |
10inch |
“This extremely limited 10" collects tracks from Current 93 and Om (ex-Sleep) in deluxe packaging. Current 93 were founded by David Tibet and the late Jhonn Balance of Coil in 1982. Over the last 24 years they have pursued their own unique hallucinatory patripassianist vision through numerous records, books, concerts and paintings. Om is a two member band featuring Al Cisneros (bass/vocals) and Chris Hakius (drums), both founding members of legendary doom pioneers Sleep. This is a limited vinyl release, once they're gone, they are gone for good.” [label info]
„...OM provide a trademark hypnotic mantra while Current 93 throw a curveball with an entirely unexpected piece that is heavier and sludgier than the vast majority of the Current 93 back catalogue.“ [Brainwashed]
|
2006 |
€20.00 |
|
| CUSACK, PETER |
Baikal Ice (Spring 2003) |
CD |
“Location recordings” vom (teilgefrorenen) sibirischen Baikal-See, dem wahrscheinlich ältesten und tiefsten See der Erde. Sehr konkret und “unprocessed” hat PETER CUSACK v.a. Sounds von brechenden und knirschenden Eisflächen aufgenommen, Eisstücke auf Wasser,
Steine, knirschen & knacksen verschiedenster Coleur, diverse herumschwirrende Tierlaute, irgendwo vorbeifahrende Züge, vokales Material von ihm selbst und EIS, immer wieder mysteriöse EIS-Sounds....
“Subtitled: Spring 2003. "Over the last thirty years Peter Cusack has built a reputation as an improvising musician, and is often to be found plucking an array of string instruments, including guitar and balalaika, while simultaneously triggering live electronics. Peter had known for some time about the extraordinary Lake Baikal, a 600 kilometre long lake in Siberia. It is thought to be the world's oldest and deepest lake and holds one fifth of the earth's fresh water. It was only recently, however, that he came across a reference on the internet to the mysterious noises made by the ice, which covers the lake from autumn to spring to the depth of a meter. The sounds are most spectacular when the ice melts and breaks up, and the lake transforms itself back into water. This album is a document of Peter's journey, on a mission to record these sounds. There are humorous incidents, as when a telephone engineer unexpectedly falls through the ice while Peter is recording (he made it out to safety!), or when the local children take over the village's PA system. There are haunting vignettes; a young girl burst into song on the train, on the small branch of the Trans-Siberian railway part of which runs along the shore of the lake; an accomplice of Peter's performs bell-like angular music on the broken metal fountain which they find in the town of Angarsk. But centre stage belongs to the sounds of the ice break-up itself, as ghostly creaks and agonising groans emerge from the tinkling, sparkling flow. Baikal Ice is comparable to Chris Watson's pristine sound recordings, to be found on the Touch label." [press release]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Sounds from dangerous Places |
do-CD & BOOK |
"Two remarkable and important CDs of remarkable and very diverse - site recordings made in Chernobyl - (occupying the whole of CD1), the Caspian Oilfields around Baku (Azerbaijan) and in various UK sites, including Lakenheath, Dungeness, Sellafield, Snowdonia &c. (CD2). The CDs are accompanied by a very beautifully made 90pp hardback book filled with a huge number of original colour photographs, background information, interviews and detailed documentation of the recordings, their collection, the history of the environments recorded and the curious and inadvertent inverse relation between human hazard and broader environmental recovery. An essential and unusual document." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2012 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Where is the green Parrot? |
CD |
"Welcome release from this subtle but complex composer-performer-instrument designer. More than musical, these are dramatic constructions with environmental sound, birdsong, conversation, narrative... the guitar shop section of "two small boys go shopping" is a masterpiece.. A record hard to describe since it deftly side-steps all the usual categories." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Favourite Berlin Sounds |
CD |
" “What is your favourite sound of Berlin, and why?” During 2011/12 many Berliners were asked this seemingly simple question and their responses are as fascinating and varied as the city itself. Almost no one says exactly the same as anyone else, but together they reveal the Berlin of the ear – quite different to that of the eye. A myriad of places and experiences, familiar and obscure, are brought to life in these recordings. From S–Bahn trains at speed to atmospheres inside the city’s unique courtyards, waves slapping in the River Spree to memorial bells, bustling markets and midnight nightingales to football matches heard citywide. These are Berlin’s favourite sounds.
The CD was compiled by Peter Cusack with recordings made by himself and Anna Bogner, Elen Flügge, Thomas Koch, Jasmine Guffond, Klaus Hamlescher, Valeria Merlini and Udo Noll. 31 tracks run for 77min.
Berlin is noticeably quieter than other European capitals such as London or Paris. Why should this be? Most obviously the traffic seems less dominant. Some roads are very busy, but on smaller streets moving vehicles are surprisingly sparse and at night Berlin can be very quiet indeed. The small number of planes is also a factor. Except in areas under the flight path into Tegel airport the city is relatively free of low flying aircraft. Berlin’s unique Hinterhöfe (inner courtyards) add to this impression. They create spaces of genuine calm, even in the liveliest areas. This quietness allows people-sounds to come to the fore: footsteps, conversation, children playing, outdoor café atmospheres and the buzz of nightlife are ubiquitous. All are mentioned as favourite sounds.
So too are natural sounds and those involving the elements. Berlin is a particularly green city with a considerable area of waterways and lakes. Springtime birds – nightingales and the abundant blackbirds - are often mentioned. The Spree is a working river where waves from deep sounding heavy barges, and puttering tourist cruises, slap along the banks.
Berlin also gains a special acoustic personality from sounds that are present citywide. The rising and falling tones of accelerating or decelerating S–Bahn trains are unique and everywhere. It is no accident that the S-Bahn system contributes the most nominated of favourite Berlin sounds. Church bells sound simultaneously across the city and are also regularly mentioned. They are synchronised to ring daily at 12noon and 6pm except on Sundays when the timing is more varied.
It is almost 25 years since the Berlin wall fell, but sonic remnants from the division still appear amongst Berlin’s favourite sounds. Tram bells and rumble continue to be associated with the east, whereas the shouts and bustle at Turkish markets, are very much of the west.
The Favourite Sounds Project explores what people find positive in their city’s soundscape. It started in London in 1998 and has since taken place in Beijing, Prague, Manchester, Birmingham, Chicago, Brussels and Southend on Sea. http://favouritesounds.org/" [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| CUTLER, CHRIS |
There and back again. Volume 2: On Memory |
CD |
"A companion to Twice around the Earth, There and Back Again uses 44 environmental recordings to explore - amongst other things - the way memory works, and how the experience of passing time is constructed. Mainly its just meant to be good to listen to: surprising, serendipitous, mundane - but alien, the commonplace transfigured - an agglomeration of inadvertent sounds made haphazardly by the world and some of its inhabitants that were never meant to survive, and certainly not to be listened to repeatedly. And yet - they seem to add up. I listened to this many times and it keeps changing, though it cant. I dont understand it, but I like it. As a whole its very different from Twice, though both share some locations (taken at different points) making reading across the two CDs another dimension of listening." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| CUTLER, CHRIS / THOMAS DIMUZIO / FRED FRITH |
Golden State |
LP |
"A limited Edition of 1969 numbered copies pressed into 180 gsm virgin vinyl and rather beautifully (and horribly expensively, as it turned out) packaged. The music was recorded in California in 1999 with guest Beth Custer (clarinet) on one track. Carefully mastered by Tom Dimuzio in wide frequency, solid footprint, broad compass stereo. Solid and expansive. Though we waved goodbye to vinyl decades ago, we felt this release was made to be an LP - a CD just wouldn't be the same, sonically, visually or ontologically. And of course we took advantage of the exaggerated dimensions and physicality to make it a thing visually to savour. Off the groove, Dimuzio, Cutler, Frith and Custer do what they do and you get a ringside seat - as well as something exquisite to look at and play with while you listen. A thing of beauty. The first 500 will be pressed on white vinyl, so please order early to get these." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| CYCLOTIMIA |
Music for Stockmarkets |
CD |
Das russische Projekt mit einem kritischen Werk zur Konsumgesellschaft & Finanzwirtschaft, eingespielt auf original russischen "Vintage Electronic" Geräten!
"Cyclotimia is a project from Russia and have created some very good and interesting albums. Albums like ‘Same Time Same Place’, ‘Wasteland’ and ‘Celestis’ are a combination of spatial ambient and IDM glitch, aided with the use of lush synthesizers. The music often times is very deep and free interpretable. A recurring theme for this project is the world of stockmarkets. With this new album ‘Music for Stockmarkets’, stockmarkets is the essential theme and motive. Though the album ventures into the typical Cyclotimia topics, it doesn’t sound at all like the former albums. Well, maybe in some places, but its most of all a totally different experience. Gone are the deep soundscapes as the music is stripped to its bare essential. With a fast listening, it reminds me of music created in the Amiga era, but upon closes inspection, the music is rather layered and there is a lot to be discovered here. The album consists of a lot of bleeps and clicks and cuts, but there is also room for the occasional (piano) melody, together with different sampled sources. The great thing about this album is that it’s very subliminal and can sometimes have a rather disturbing feeling to it. A lot of tracks are very clinical in its approach, but it is interspersed with more layered tracks and deeper sounds. This is really an album which should be listened to with headphones and requires your full attention. If listened to rather superficially, the album can seem somewhat boring, because all the details are missed, which is the essential of this interesting work.
It is music that can be difficult and cryptic, but that’s also the beauty of this album, which turns the music into a piece of art. The music therefore isn’t for everyone, because it’s not a ‘fun’ album. It’s maybe more academic, but with a more human approach. Hard to describe, you just have to listen to it. The artwork is also very nice and really makes the experience complete. The album gets a high recommendation because of its originality, but only to the more advanced listeners of experimental music, but a great album nonetheless." [Gothtronic]
"Cyclotimia is most probably the only project in the world which has chosen the creation of a soundtrack to "globalisation" and life of the "consumer society" as their concept. The project members more than anyone else are immersed into the magic of finance and probably therefore has their creative intuition allowed them to compose the main part of "Music for Stockmarkets" with its unforgivingly precise name "Wallstreet Requiem". Today the whole civilised world is listening to this requiem the first cords of which were played on Wall Street itself... The "Music for Stockmarkets" album with its radically experimental nature stands out in the extensive discography of this Moscow project. The 64-minute album includes 32 tracks divided into three conceptual parts: "Wallstreet Requiem" (25 minutes, recorded in 2004-2007), "Trivial Pleasures" (26 minutes, recorded in 2002, this part was the only one released as a seperate CD in 2003) and "Financial Glossary" (13 minutes, recorded in 2003)... The music material itself is nothing like the one heard in the previous records of Cyclotimia. There is no apocalyptic soundscapes of "Wasteland" times, no cybernetic hi-tech and media madness of "E$chaton", no cosmic downtempo of "Celestis: Space Ceremonial Music"... Minimalism, academic sterility, surgical accuracy and meditative ataraxy prevail on "Music for Stockmarkets". Then again it is not the familiar "idm", "glitch", "noise", "clicks and cuts" and not "minimal techno"... The sound of the album is chrystal-clear and warm at the same time. "Vintage" lovers have a wonderful chance to listen to the masterpieces of Soviet music production (such as Rhythm 1, Rhythm 2, Aelita, Formanta UDS, Formanta EMS-01, Polyvox) in pure sound, unprocessed by effects." [label info] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CZERNOWIN, CHAYA |
Afatsin |
CD |
"Born in Israel, composer Chaya Czernowin has lived in Germany, Japan and the U.S. Her teachers included Dieter Schnebel, Joan Tower, Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds. Czernowin's sound occupies a unique world. Often many instruments are used to become one 'composite' instrument. Time is slowed down, so that the slow flow of sound enables one to perceive the smallest details of a texture or a sound. The resulting music can feel fluid, dense or agitated, at times echoing that of Xenakis and Ferneyhough. She has been awarded numerous international prizes including: Gaudeamus Composer's Workshop, DAAD Scholarship (Berlin), Stipendium Preis and Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (Darmstadt), Asahi Shimbum Fellowship (Tokyo), NEA Composition Commission Grant, ISCM and IRCAM commissions. Czernowin is on the composition faculty of the University of California at San Diego. This is the debut recording of her works. A special opportunity to hear an exciting voice in New Music."
[label info]
performed by The Arditti Quartet, Mayumi Miyata (sho), John Fonville (flutes), SONOR, Harvey Sollberger (conductor).
www.mode.com
|
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
| D'ANGIOLINI, GIULIANO |
Simmetrie di Ritorno |
CD |
" 1. Composer:
Giuliano d’Angiolini
2. Title:
Simmetrie di ritorno
3. Studios:
Auditorium du Conservatoire de Gennevilliers
Auditorium Antonin Artaud in Ivry-sur-Seine
4. Performers:
Ensemble 2e2m, Franck Ollu, Pierre Roullier, Monique Bouvet,
Barbara Morihien,
Quatuor Parisii: Arnaud Vallin, Jean-Michel Berrette,
Dominique Lobet, Jean-Philippe Martignoni
5. Format:
Audio CD, Digisleeve, Booklet German/English
6. Total time:
ca. 64:11
7. Catalogue #:
ed. RZ 10020
8. EAN Code:
4029455100208
9. Release date:
18. November 2010
10. Tracklist:
Simmetrie di ritorno für 10 Instrumente • 2000
Ita vita zita rita für verstärktes Klavier • 1997
Orizzonte fisso, bordoni mobili für 8 Instrumente • 2007
Und’ho d’andà für 9 Blechbläser • 1995
Ho visto un incidente für Solostimme • 1991¬92
Notturno in progressione für Streichquartett • 2004 " [label info / credits]
"Giuliano d’Angiolini ist ein absoluter Sonderfall in der musikalischen Landschaft. Sein gründliches, wohl überlegtes,
hartnäckiges Vorgehen hat ihn dahin gebracht, eine Musik zu erschaffen, die er selbst »unpersönlich« nennt. Eine Musik, aus der jede Vorstellung von Entwicklung oder Form getilgt ist. D’Angiolini erklärt, er wollte aufgrund
einer Reihe erhellender Erkenntnisse »dem Ton seinen Raum lassen, damit der Musik weniger Willen aufgeprägt wird«. Ein Ansatz, der ihn dazu geführt hat, sich der Oberfläche
zuzuwenden, ¬ ein alles andere als oberflächliches Verfahren ¬ die unmittelbare Seite eines jeden Klangentwurfs und die Gegenwart als die Oberfläche der Zeit.
In seinen Werken bilden Prozess und musikalisches Material eine Einheit, sie werden unverhüllt vorgestellt. Was wir zu hören bekommen, ist nicht diskursiv, auf formale
Artikulation wird bewusst verzichtet.
Es ist sogar gestattet, sich vom Gehörten zu lösen, um sich ihm später nach Gutdünken wieder zuzuwenden.
Giuliano d’Angiolini is a positively unique figure in contemporary music. His profound, well-conceived and stubborn take on music has led him to what he calls »impersonal« music —
music that has fully abandoned the idea of
development or form.Through successive states of presentation, which aim to elucidate, d’Angiolini wanted to »leave place in sound so that music could become less voluntary«.
This led him to favour the surface and present,
an approach that was by no means superficial: the surface as the immediacy in the propositional content of sound and the present as the very surface of the criterion of time.
In his work, musical process and material are but one and are completely laid bare. What we are to hear is non-discursive, deliberately lacking formal organization. We are even free to turn away and come back of our own will — as if the composer wanted to make positive use of the negative metamorphosis of today’s urban listeners, listeners who are constantly assailed with stimuli." [Gérard Pesson]
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| D'HERS, RUBEN |
El Reflejo en las Hojas |
CD |
We have no info at all about this artist which seems to come from Venezuela, his album on our beloved weirdo-label JEANS RECORDS (run by FRANK ROWENTA) is a hybrid of all kinds of instrumental, electronic, sampled and environmental sounds, sometimes more introspective & nice in a folky, droney or electronica-way, sometimes quite obscure & "difficult", electro-acoustic collages or even free-jazzy improvised with wild samples..... hard to pin down what it is really, but the 9 tracks offer a very broad cross-over of styles, from "serious" to "weird", a kind of mixture of minimal short sketches and longer tracks, most stays in the more silent areas.. very idiosyncratic, there's definitely something to discover here. For adventurers.
"Electric and acustic guitars, voices, ambient and noises, piano, keyboards and violin by Rubén d'Hers. Clarinet on track 05 and 08 by Gorgias Sánchez. All tracks composed, recorded, mixed and mastered by Rubén d'Hers in la maleta estudios. Caracas, Venezuela 2006. Original photography by Rubén d'Hers. www.dhersmuzik.com
Art direction and design by Marius Schillak. www.graffixyz.de
Published by Jeans Records. www.jeansrecords.com " [label info]
www.jeansrecords.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| D'INCISE |
Rivages sur l'Antipode |
LP |
"Laurent Peter has produced and released electronic music under the d'incise moniker since 2002, from dub to electronica, gradually opening those styles to electroacoustic experimentations. With his projects Diatribes (an open formation with drummer Cyril Bondi) and Karst (quartet with Bondi, Luc Muller and Abstral Compost), he is also involved in free improvisation, for which he is using his laptop, live treatments and various contact miked objects. These projects have included musicians such as Barry Guy, Keith Row, Jason Kahn, Christian Weber, Norbert Moslang, Hernani Faustino, Joao Pedro Viegas, Tzii and many more. Finally, besides coordinating the insubordination netlabel, dedicated to improvised music, and being a member of the audiactiviste netlabel, Laurent Peter is also active as a graphic designer. Composed on a special request from ini.itu, “Rivages sur l'antipode” (shores on the opposite side of the earth) is his first vinyl LP and is based on similar archival material as the one used by Francisco López in his stunning “untitled #228”. Nonetheless, d'incise has achieved radically different results, combining digitally-processed textures, microsamples and humming harmonics rippling out over broken rhythms. He has collaged the least obvious bits of gamelan, many grainy soundbytes from Jakarta, Makassar, Bandung and Yogjakarta into a kaleidoscopic reinterpretation of these shattered fragments. Sudden transitions, alinear progressions and melancholic, sprawling, autumnal atmospheres reveal a very personal soundworld. This LP could evoke Kim Hiorthoy on sedatives under moist tropics, or an alter-ego of Burial in a futuristic decaying Jakarta won back by the jungle, with hints of digital crispiness from Kid606 période Mille Plateaux; a touch of the microsampling of Akufen, all of this marinated into the experiments in folk deterritorialisation made by some Ritornell artists such as Random_Inc / Sebastian Meissner. Icing on the cake, this LP was mastered by James Plotkin in Philadelphia. 250 copies, hand numbered. Some copies come with a serigraphy made by Laurent Peter himself." [label info]
www.iniitu.net
"On an entirely different nature is the album by Laurent Peter, finally we have a name for D'Incise from Switzerland, who received slighty similar sound material as Francisco Lopez did for his album for this label (see Vital Weekly 711), but Peter does something completely different with it. His main method is sampling the hell out of anything. It perhaps also reveals a bit more what Lopez used, as that was rather a mystery back then. Percussive sounds from Indonesia for instance, which D'Incise explores these for the lowest, grainy textures, chopped up to form new rhythms, cut from 'real' sound and the hiss between. Ini.itu compares this with some of the older and more experimental releases on Mille Plateaux/Ritornell, and I can see that. It shares that somewhat crude approach to sampling, the click 'n cut approach musicians like Random Inc and Kid606 had back then, but D'Incise never comes close to playing any 'dance' related music. The textures are sometimes pretty 'vague', shimmering perhaps, but I think that kind of adds nicely to the record. Its probably the best record by D'Incise I heard so far. The compositions are worked out better, and never seem to take more time than necessary. Very nice." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Arpenter |
mCDR |
"...after a recent lp on ini.itu, a cd on audiotong and various netreleases on test tube or resting bell, geneva-based sound artist d'incise proposes a release based on recordings collected in poland and portugal. the two tracks mix those found sounds and electroacoustic recordings with drones for captivating soundscapes..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"D'Incise from Geneva is quite active these days, following his AudioTong CD and LP on Ini.Itu. Here he offers two pieces based on field recordings. The first piece has sound recorded in an abandoned hospital in Chrzanow, Poland and the second in Lisbon, Portugal. Two pieces of deep end rumbling from the world of electro-acoustic music. High and mighty in the world of soundscaping these two pieces. Not presented in the form of cut-up sounds, but long form drone-like affairs. Excellently produced with lots depth and imagination. Hard to say what was actually captured on tape, I must say, although in the title piece we may or may not recognize some sort of respirator." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Lethargie & autres animaux rugueux |
CD |
" 'd'incise is a member of the Audioactivity, music & visual collective founded in 2000 in Geneva (CH). In 2002 he starded to produce different kinds of electronic music, from dub to electronica, dangerously sliding to the more experimental ways of electroacoustic. His world is made with sound fractures, nevralgic crepitations, melancolic atmospheres and a non-dissimulated fascination for rust and faded rhythms. 'Lethargie...' , his newest CD, is not far from described above. A mixture of field recordings, objects and distant melancholy makes it a very intense - and rewarding -sound experience." [label info]
www.audiotong.net
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
(aral) |
CD |
"Geneva based, very active and free electron of an exploratory music with diverse accents, d’incise (whose real name is Laurent Peter) keeps on eating up the miles away from arbitrary categorizations… As well as being a graphic designer, coordinating the Insubordinations label, and having collaborated with a host of artists (Cyril Bondi, Jason Kahn, Tomas Korber, Norbert Moslang, Jacques Demierre, Jonas Kocher, to name a few…), he’s also fond of sound installations, manipulations of objects, and improvisation, and tours actually quite a lot…
Borrowing from musique concrète, electroacoustic music, drone, electronica, field recordings…, d’incise plays skilfully with acoustic sources, giving birth each time to powerful sound microcosms, catalysts of engulfing listening moments…
Here, a flux of particles, an effervescent gush, like an elementary wave with countless appearances…
(aral) sprays, letting curls and sulfurous steams slip in suspension…
sizzling blanket with an irregular & intricate weft, granular quiverings in bareness, a sea that never dies/remains…always the same, ever differing…
(aral) shakes the sediments inducing minuscule frictions, lashings…
an immersion in the course of an hidden side into the muddled and the turbulent…
Beyond the roughnesses, the pseudo-linear, looms then like an evidence, the emergency of another gaze…" [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
"From the slowly growing empire of Mystery Sea and Unfathomless this week a new release on the first label by our man from Switzerland, D'Incise, behind which we find Laurent Peter, who has perhaps a likewise growing empire of releases. Other than his musical talent, he is also a designer, working for the Insubordinations labels and as an improviser he played with Cyril Bondi, Jason Kahn, Thomas Korber, Norbert Moslang and others. Looking back on his previous releases, I think there is an upwards curve in terms of sound treatment, production and composition. He seems, but that's how I perceive things like this from the outside, more and more in control of his methods and creates some interesting computer music. No doubt there are a bunch of field recordings at the core of this, but none of them are easily be traced back to their origins. One should think sea sounds, sea shores and dunes, based on the crackles and sustaining sounds intertwining each other here. It works really well, and D'Incise uses the dynamic spectrum in an excellent way. Being very low end and very high end, and the whole forty some piece is clearly divided in various parts, each with its own character. Slow and peaceful but with some nasty undercurrent. Like the sea itself!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| D.C.P. (DAVID PITA CASTRO) |
Foulque Macroule |
CD |
"D.C.P 'S musical approach is characterized by combinations of hypnotic frequencies, sometimes leading to disturbing sensations for the audience. More : deafdcp.org" [label info]
dcphu.bandcamp.com/album/foulque-macroule
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| D.D.A.A. (DEFICIT DES ANNEES ANTERIEURS) // DDAA |
Pourriture Cubique |
CD |
"We are proud to present the new album by legendary French avantgarde group DDAA. Active since 1979, they have developed their unique sound that has produced classic albums like "Ronsard", "Action and Japanese Demonstration" or more recently the collaboration "Cinq Faux Nids Six Fauz Nez" with jazz band Palo Alto. One of the longest surviving groups from the classical avantgarde. If you like Jacques Berrocal, Ghedalia Tazartes or HNAS (with whom the band have released a split 7"), you will love DDAA. But why explain a band who should be part of every record collection anyway? Go and buy DDAA. All of their records." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Hazy World |
CD |
Hazy World is the World where DDAA has found these Soundpieces.
All Instruments and Voices by JLA JPF SMH
Special Thanks to Christine COËNON for Voices and Sounds Building on 5-Mar Duch (voices from France Culture Radio)
Recorded in “Souterrain Scientifique” between December 2013 and June 2014
www.nefryt.serpent.pl
"The shorthand descriptors for DDAA have long read that they are the French equivalent of Nurse With Wound or The Residents. It has to be said that this pithy equation isn't too far from the mark, with DDAA trading in the self-taught meandering through lysergic experimentation, fractured psychedelia, surrealist stream of consciousness, prankish naivete, and the loosest of connections to European post-punk, all of which are very much akin to their stalwarts of NWW and the Residents. DDAA started back in 1979, lifting their name - Deficit Des Annees Anterieures - from an accounting vernacular of the past year's deficit, with the core membership being remarkably stable as the trio of Jean-Luc Andre, Jean-Philippe Fee, and Sylvie Martineau Fee. Like NWW and The Residents, DDAA has self-published much of their work, allowing them the freedom to take whatever detour they need to make while on their eccentric journey of crafting an album. Hazy World, published in late 2014 (not on their own label, but through the obscure Polish imprint Nefryt), is a suitably strange and ineffable record. Hand-cranked, liquid rhythmic patterns trickle through the album, sounding somewhere between the clatter of toy locomotives, somatic wheezings, and the burbled hypnosis of a vernal stream. The trio lace these organic rhythms with mumbled voice, drone-on organ, radiophonic electronics, scabby guitars, and various other instruments, crafting linear passages that might be considered motorik if such sounds weren't performed as if drunken, liminally scribbled, and / or only half-awake. It makes for quite a weirdly meditative record; and yes, those references to NWW and The Residents still hold up very nicely." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Objet: When a Cap is raising |
CD |
Jean-Luc André, Sylvie Martineau-Fee and Jean-Philippe Fee started DDAA (Deficit Des Annees Anterieures) in 1977. They are pioneers of the French experimental and indie scene, also connected with Industrial 80s music and audiovisual projects. Approaching music in a completely unique way, and brilliantly produced by their own Illusion Production label (with more 40 published items), DDAA was and is undoubtedly one of the most legendary groups of the French underground for the past 30 years. Their early albums are classics - the self-titled debut, Action and Japanese Demonstration or Les Ambulants (re-issued and still available on Klanggalerie) are a must-have for every connoisseur of usual music. They appeared on the compilation album of music by outsider artist Adolf Wölfli alongside Nurse With Wound and Graeme Revell of SPK. The 10" album When A Cap Is Raising came out originally in 1988 on UK label Big Noise in Archgate. For this re-issue, the band has remastered the music and added bonus tracks from the compilation album Objet, and other sources, some previously unavailable. Full tracklist: 1. Chemin De Pierre 2. Little Boy 3. Exploration 4. Kembou 5. Geisha Girl 6. Passage On Nihon Bridge 7. Territoire Interdit 8. Dig It's Dig 9. Pourquoi Un Homme Est-il Un Homme Et Un Chat, Un Chat? 10. La Roue De Bicyclette 11. Mother With A Big Cake 12. Driving My Car With A Cigarette 13. Fonderie Sablage 14. Sonorisation Par Le Sol 15. A Fond Les Manettes 16. Sous Le 5eme Rideau.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg379
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| DAIJING & DAFELDECKER |
A Page to a Corner |
7inch |
"The unfathomable quantity of Pan Daijing meets Werner Dafeldecker’s mercurial sound art on this surprise, limited edition 7" pressing.
Leading on from her heavily arresting Lack album for the PAN label, A Page To A Corner is Daijing's first collaborative release. The title track is a lethargically hypnagogic thing, with Daijing lamenting an unseen force, bound into a mesh of monotone drones and keening strings to ultimately quease-inducing effect.
On the B-side, Daughters of The Botanist, Daijing's death croak vocals are placed front and centre of the mix against a more dynamic backdrop of gong-like tones that gradually recede to leave the slithering sound of extended instrumental techniques and brownian electronics."
|
2018 |
€11.00 |
|
| DAIJING, PAN |
Jade |
LP |
"LP on white vinyl! What if a song was not a culmination but a singe, an imprint, or a crater left in the wake of creative process? On her new record "Jade", Pan Daijing composes at a different scale than that we've come to know. Since the release of her groundbreaking LP "Lack" in 2017, Daijing has expanded her operatic vision into a series of major commissioned exhibition-performances at institutions including the Tate Modern, Martin Gropius Bau, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Developed for full casts of opera singers and dancers, and reaching for an all-encompassing durational experience of intensity for both performer and audience, the development of these works was for Daijing as emotionally disarming as it was thrilling. In order to continue accessing her own limits, Daijing had to develop a place of sanctuary within her own practice. Its nine tracks written and recorded over the last three years, "Jade" is the sound of solitary release and refuge, of creative self-sustenance. Written without the imperatives of direct address to performers or audience, "Jade" speaks inward, while inviting a kind of rhetorical listening. The artist draws on materials familiar from her previous work: namely, ascetic electronic textures that rumble and pierce, and voice bent in irreverent directions. In place of catharsis, however, her arrangements here linger in tension, extending curiosity towards the delicate void that nourishes extremes. They toy with the minor capacities of song: repetition, chant, observations that conclude without resolving. "Jade" comes from a vulnerable place, tender as in an undressed wound caught in the midst of healing over. Vocals, mostly Daijing's own, arrive as wordless sequences of notes soaring alongside a drone, or plain laughter, or in a few places spoken word. What is said or sung provides fragments of experience and reflection. In the process of piecing together these fragments, the listener is confronted with the tender parts of her own. "Solitude is like an immense lake you're swimming through," says Daijing of these songs. "Sometimes you dip your head in and sometimes you lift it above. On album centerpiece "Let," she speaks to us over the sound of rippling water, returning between anxious scenes to a refrain: "I take my bath in the ocean." We are not just consuming Daijing's story; we are being invited to join her in the water. The album is mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Pan Daijing, cinematography by Dzhovani Gospodinov & design by NMR."
"High-minded noise operatics and ruptured spoken word experiments from PAN mainstay Pan Daijing on her second album for the label.
If Daijing's PAN debut "Lack" was operatic body horror, all fireworks and theatrics, "Jade" drags that body inside, dumps it into a grimy bathtub and locks the door. It's an anxious, solitary album that twins basement noise aesthetics with Daijing's cathartic performance, playing her signature vocals against screaming oscillators, booming Wolf Eyes-esque percussion and uncomfortable analog bass.
'The Goat' allows her words to creep slowly over a backdrop of slithering, industrial distortion. Her voice is barely audible, whispered in the spaces between muted squeals and repeating pulses. On 'Dictee', Daijing wails and hums over distorted cello moans; on 'Dust' there's the suggestion of a song, shattered into pieces and rebuilt using ill-fitting replacement parts.
The album's most successful moment is when Daijing allows a crack of light to shine in through the tightly-drawn curtains. 'Let' layers disarmingly sweet synthesizer chimes over Daijing's cool, confident vocals. "Could it be possible, I take my bath in the ocean, I can't get out," she repeats ominously as synth tones creep into view.
It's a suffocating album, made in solitude to represent the visceral anguish of the void. Fans of '80s industrial drone tomes from Ramleh or M.B. or more recent noise plates from Puce Mary, LINGUA IGNOTA or Pharmakon should investigate without delay." [Boomkat]
https://soundcloud.com/pan_hq/pan-daijing-dust-pan-113
|
2021 |
€23.50 |
|
| DAKOTA SUITE |
The Night just keeps coming in |
CD |
"Tieftraurige Melodien und melancholische Schwermut zeichnen den Singer/Songwriter Chris Hooson von Dakota Suite aus. Das waren auch die Hauptanregungen der letzten Platte "The End Of Trying", welche Anfang 2009 erschien. Das Nachfolgealbum "The Night Just Keeps Coming In" wiederum enthält Versionen und Remixe von einer illustren Schar Musikern aus den Bereichen neuer und elektronischer Musik. Auf Hoosons eigenem Label Navigators Yard erschien bereits 2009 eine auf 300 Exemplare limitierte Auflage des Albums. Die Originale erzählen von Kummer und Schmerz des Komponisten aus Leeds. Künstler wie Machinefabriek, Peter Broderick und The Boats hauchen den einzelnen Tracks ein völlig neues Leben ein. Dadurch wirken die einzelnen Lieder graziöser (Jasper Leylands "Hands Swollen With Grace"), tragischer (Hauschkas "A Quietly Gathering Tragedy") und manchmal auch unheimlich wie Elegis "All The Love I Had
Was Not Enough". Neben der CD wird es auch eine streng limitierte Vinylauflage geben. ***
01. Machinefabriek „One Day Without Harming You“ // 02. Peter Broderick „This Failing Sea“ // 03. Jasper Leyland „Hands Swollen With
Grace“ // 04. Hauschka „A Quietly Gathering Tragedy“ // 05. Elegi „All The Love I Had Was Not Enough“ // 06. Deaf Center „Very Early
Morning On Old Road“ // 07. Arve Henriksen „The End Of Trying Part 1“ // 08. Greg Haines „The End Of Trying Part 2“ // 09. Hannu „The End Of Trying Part 3“ // 10. Tape „The End Of Trying Part 4“ // 11. Swod „Een Langzaam Lekkende Wond“ // 12. The Boats „The Night Keeps Coming In“ // 13. Jacaszek „How Could You Let Me Go“ // 14. Emanuele Errante „Second Hand Light“ // 15. Loscil „Things We Lost Along The Way“ // 16. Dakota Suite & Nick Hawley „Z-Cars“ " [label info] |
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| DANGERS, JACK |
Forbidden Planet Explored |
do-CD |
"You may know Jack as the founding member of the most experimental and influential group ever to hit the dance floor, Meat Beat Manifesto. His intensely elaborate work with Meat Beat Manifesto. This double CD release contains Jack's now famous soundtrack for the legendary sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. As a special bonus, Forbidden Planet Explored contains a second cd full of sci-fi sound effects inspired by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop." [label info] |
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| DANIELL, DAVID |
Coastal |
CD |
Erstes (?) Solo-Album des RHYS CHATHAM-Bandleaders DAVID DANIELL, der natürlich auch Gitarrist ist, hier aber auch noch per Analog-Synth generierte Drones, Beckenklänge, leicht Perkussives, und field recordings geschickt verwebt, so dass fliessend-einnehmende "experimental Drone"-Stücke entstehen, aber auch erstklassige hypnotische Gitarrenbasierte Minimalismen. Exquisit !! 58+ minutes, 4 tracks...
"Wenn man jemals das rohe, minimale Heulen gehört hat, das von den nächtlichen Lagerfeuern im Labelcamp von Table Of The Elements aufsteigt, dann hat man auch von DAVID DANIELL gehört, auch wenn man den Namen nicht zuordnen kann. DANIELL ist sowohl der Bandleader des Ensembles von RHYS CHATHAM, als auch Gitarrist für FEBRUARY, die Band von Jonathan Kane. Dazu kommen regelmäßige Auftritte mit Doug McCombs von TORTOISE, Kollaborationen mit Tim Barnes, Thurston Moore und Loren Conners und die Arbeit mit seiner eigenen Band SAN AGUSTIN. Nach einer langen Pause steht nun mit "Coastal" die zweite Soloplatte des Umtriebigen ins Haus, die eine perfekte Synthese aller Einflüsse von David Grubbs bis FAUST destilliert. Verwurzelt im Blues, dem amerikanischen Minimalismus und den Ideologien des Punk spricht DANIELLs Gitarre schon allein wahre Bände, während ihre Fusion mit den elektroakustischen Kompositionen einem den Atem raubt. // Have you heard the raw, minimal howl that rises from the late-night, backwoods campfires at Table Of The Elements? If so, you know the work of David Daniell -- even if you don't yet recognize the name. Daniell is the head of both of composer Rhys Chatham's current ensembles; he's the lead guitarist in Jonathan Kane's rollicking band, February; he performs regularly in a duo with Tortoise's Doug McCombs; he has collaborated with the who's who of today's finest, including Tim Barnes, Thurston Moore and Loren Connors; and his guitar work with his own band, San Agustin, is the stuff of which fleeting blues-drone dreams are made. Following a long break after his debut solo release, Daniell now returns with Coastal. In all its variety, this record is a focused synthesis of influences. Tracks like 'Sunfish' and 'Glasswort' use acoustic guitar reminiscent of work by David Grubbs and Mountains, while the thick psychedelic morass of deep electric guitar, synth drone and scattered tribal percussion of 'Whelk' brings to mind early Faust, and the long-form tone poem 'Palmetto' is pure swirling electronic glacial beauty. Rooted in the blues, American minimalism and post-punk ideologies, Daniell's guitar playing is always inspired; when fused with his intricate electroacoustic compositions, the results are breathtaking." [press release]
www.tableoftheelements.com |
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
I-IV-V-I |
LP |
Ein kleines Meisterk der dronigen Gitarrenkunst ist die achte 12" in der Guitar Series von TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS geworden! Auf gleich vier Stücken schafft DAVID DANIELL (ehemaliges Mitglied von SAN AUGUSTIN) symphonisch-betörende Flächenpolydrones, mal ganz subtil mit tollen Echo-Effekten, mal mit geschichteten Akustik-Gitarren, dann unter Einsatz von E-bows oder Steel Guitars.. vier sehr verschiedene Stücke, alle mit den gleichen Soundquellen geschaffen.
"...The opening track is a monstrous slab of tectonic buzz, layers of rumbling and crumbling distorted guitar, blurred into a Niblockian drift, warm and wavery, smeared and dreamy, but suitably tense and dramatic. Which is followed by a sort of looped Appalachia, steel string guitar, locked into a mantra like progression, the main figure locked into endless repetition, while in the background, a second (and maybe third) guitar offer up pretty little counterpoint and extra steel string buzz, texture and melody that seems to swirl beneath that hypnotic main riff.
"V" is all new age-y drift, another bit of soft dronemusic, laced with subtle layers of hiss and crackle, the melody a distant swell, which all gives way to a sweet melancholy guitar line that is processed into a layer of warm buzzing dreaminess, and finally the record finishes with a mournful, almost funereal sounding steel string buzzscape, that sounds almost like bluegrass, if it was stretched way out into long streaks of metallic shimmer, but Daniell drapes some playful major key melodies over the top, and the two, while seemingly at odds, mesh into something both haunting and mysterious, soft and weirdly pretty. Pressed on super thick, swirled green, yellow and white vinyl. One sided, the other side features an etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and as always, VERY LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
"8th installment in the Guitar Series Vols. 3 & 4. Daniell leads the troops in RHYS CHATHAM's guitar armies; he was a member of Jonathan Kane's rollicking band FEBRUARY; he performs regularly in a duo with Tortoise's Doug McCombs; & his guitar work with his own band SAN AGUSTIN, is the stuff of which fleeting blues-drone dreams are made. With influences rooted in blues, American minimalism, & post-punk ideologies, his guitar playing is always inspired, when fused with his intricate electro-acoustic compositions, the results are breathtaking." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| DANIELL, DAVID & DOUGLAS MCCOMBS |
Sycamore |
LP |
David Daniell and Douglas McCombs's first collaborative LP, Sycamore, was assembled from seven hours of in-studio improvisations. Daniell and McCombs sifted through the material looking for their favorite moments, then combined, cross faded, mixed, and matched those moments into something that made sense to them as a long player.
For their new release, the double LP Versions, they gave the same seven hours of material to noted recording engineer and producer Ken Brown (ex-Tortoise), who was given free rein to assemble an LP of his choosing (subject to approval, of course).
The results are fantastic. Brown has chosen to highlight moments in the music that the normally reserved Daniell and McCombs probably would not have chosen. There's a wider dynamic range on Versions, from brutally raw to delicate to practically inaudible. The other interesting aspect is that Brown's selections rarely cross over with the material on Sycamore--this is in no way a "remix," and that is exactly what Daniell and McCombs were hoping for.
In addition, Versions includes a second LP of two live performances. These were chosen to show how Daniell and McCombs's music develops in a live setting. Improvising in a recording studio and improvising in front of an audience are two vastly different things. Montreal and Knoxville were two of Daniell and McCombs's favorite performances from their tours together.
Over the years Daniell has collaborated with many notable musicians, including Loren Connors, Rhys Chatham, Tim Barnes, Jeph Jerman, Thurston Moore, Greg Davis, and Jonathan Kane, as well as releasing numerous albums under his own name and with his band San Agustin on labels such as Table of the Elements and Family Vineyard. McCombs is more often seen wielding a bass guitar, whether as a member of Eleventh Dream Day, the acoustic collective Pullman, or the pioneering and inimitable Tortoise; in his role as the driving force behind Brokeback; or through his varied work with the likes of Tom Ze, Azita Youseffi, Will Oldham, Yo La Tengo, and Calexico.
www.thrilljockey.com/artists/david-daniell-and-douglas-mccombs
https://daviddaniellanddouglasmccombs.bandcamp.com/album/sycamore
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| DAO + COH |
Dzerzhinsk-9 |
LP |
"Tourette Records is proud to announce the release of DZERZHINSK-9 by DAO+COH (Andrej Kolesov and Ivan Pavlov). Originally recorded in 1996, this collection of previously unreleased material showcases COH's trademark audio experimentation, and the collaborative spark shared by both artists.
DZERZHINSK-9 represents some of the earliest work by this duo, and pre-dates Pavlov's first solo release on raster-noton.de by 2 years. This potent collection of intense and dark experimental material is a result of a live-in-the-studio improvised session recorded during one of Ivan's visits to DAO studio in Dzerzhinsk, Russia. Performed with hand-made digital and analogue equipment, and recorded onto a 4-track cassette deck, this is a gem of curiosity to anyone with interest for COH and electronic music in general.
Russian-born Ivan Pavlov is well known for his solo work as COH spanning more than 20 releases, including collaborative projects with the likes of Coil and Cosey Fanni Tutti. He currently works with Peter Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil) in SOISONG. Ivan's university friend, Andrej Kolesov (aka DAO), is a musician who has previously contributed to the album COH: STRINGS (2007), playing saz and oud. A new joint work by Andrej and Ivan is currently in the works." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| DAO DE NOIZE |
4 Squares |
CD-R |
"Dao The Noize comes from kharkov/ukraine and have in a short time a great output. Here, he says, inspired by the work of japanese ikeda, but for me sounds like a electronic record of
the 1950-60. Two different work circles and squares on one disc. It is noise, but slow moving and have a sprectral sound." [label info]
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| DARKRAD |
Heart Murmur |
CD |
Jana Komaritsa presents the new album of her project Darkrad – Heart Murmur, released on German label audiophob. With this album she continues the theme of inner blackness and disturbances of mind, weaving the canvas of ominous world.
Heart Murmur is a medical condition, when the sound of blood flowing can be heard in between regular heartbeat cycle. Darkrad creates swishing rumbling sounds of the tortured heart, sounds from the reality not seen, from the world not known, sounds from the dread, both inner and outer.
Merging melancholic dark ambient passages, bitter melodies, disturbed vocals and raw noisy sounds, rhythms and basslines, she opens the door to the infinite dark and offers the listener to dive into the world beyond. Pure unrestrained emotion interweaves with once suppressed memories and fears, merging into one flow of hypnotic soundscape.
Listen to her grim heart murmur, pulsating and vibrating in between the regular healthy heartbeat, frightful signals sent from the other side, penetrating the normal reality and spreading into our world.
The album also includes bonus tracks: compilation contributions and former tape releases, partially in new versions, as well as remixes from Flint Glass and Mortaja. (auphcd026)
https://audiophob.bandcamp.com/album/heart-murmur
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| DARUIN |
My New Happy Star |
mCD-R |
Newcomer auf DREAMLAND in der feinen mCDR-Serie! DARUIN kommt aus Japan und schafft hier in kurzen Intervallen flackernden feedback-ambient, eine kleine faszinierende Soundreis... newcomer from Japan on this nice new australian mCDR series ! Short-interval flickering ambience.
“Hissing, buzzing, perfectly formed electronics. A journey through varied terrain, sailing seas of primordial matter.” [label description]
www.dreamlandrecordings.com
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| DAS AUDIOVISUELLE KOLLEKTIV |
Betrachtung |
CD-R |
"Documenting the sonic side of two audiovisual live performances on the subject of contemplation (‘Betrachtung’), the two 22-minute tracks on this album are remarkably different in character. EMERGE’s samples of breathing sounds, extremely processed, and Gerhard Zander’s prepared electric guitars alternate between near-Cagean intervals of silence, while the second set is a closely interwoven dialogue between percussive sounds and soothing harmonic drones.
‘The Audiovisual Collective’ is an outfit with members from Zurich and Augsburg founded in 2010. While the number of players and the instruments they use may vary, the concept that unites their live improvisations treats the visuals not as an ornamental backdrop for the musical performance, but a visual cue for the sound players to interact with. For “Betrachtung”, the image of a human eye depicted on the album cover was treated to a range of live manipulations, instigating live processing of the samples and guitar sounds. While both of the recorded sets display an astonishing range of textures and timbres given the minimalistic choice of source sounds, each track exemplifies a different approach to free improvisation. Track 1 is a series of isolated events creating an unresolved tension between them that keeps the listener in suspense until the very last minute. Much less ‘noisy’ than track 1, track 2 starts out by defining a clear division of roles between the percussive samples and the harmonic, if not melodic, soothing drones of the e-bowed guitar. The ensuing closely-knit dialogic interplay between the two audible players EMERGE and Zander is a fine testimony to the degree of intensity that can be reached in spontaneous musical communication." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Verwandlung |
CD-R |
"This live performance from the ‘Elektromagnetischer Sommer’ 2011 festival in Zurich features prepared guitar player Gerhard Zander and ‘musicien concrète’ EMERGE, on samplers and contact microphones, both interacting with the visual cues from Eazy’s live processing of abstract images on the theme of metamorphosis (‘Verwandlung’), an extract of which can be seen in the sleeve art. The 45-minute set is dominated by gently droning ambient textures and looped chords in unhurried pulses while a constant interplay with metallic, rather high-pitched samples originating from guitar and electric bass, but sometimes more reminiscent of saxophones, manages to sustain interest throughout.
Formed in 2010 by audio and video artists from Augsburg and Zurich, ‘The Audiovisual Collective’ has since developed towards an ever closer integration of the sounds that are used to communicate a sonic counterpart to the images projected during their performances. With lots of reverb and effects used on the prepared electric guitar, which is frequently played with an e-bow, thus losing its typical ‘plucked’ character, its texture often resembles the droning quality of the time-stretched samples. In turn, EMERGE adds live signals to his mix of samples, picked up through contact microphones and subjected to various forms of live processing. Its idiosyncratic mix of what could be described, depending on the listener’s preference, as aqueous 1960s sci-fi movie sounds or vintage Pierre Henry with mandala-like tranquillity, plus the occasional exhilarating outburst of semi-noisy hyperactivity towards the end, maintains harmonic structures throughout and thus makes for an accessible introduction to the world of free electroacoustic improvisation that still contains lots of interesting details for experts in that field." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| DAS ERDWERK |
Leben im Wartesaal (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"This creative duo from Switzerland has only released one CD so far ("Grat"), which was a dark journey into apocalyptic worlds. Now they go into a total different direction and present very concrete & strange material on this 7" (on 4 tracks), music that has no history and can't be described really, a short but surprising trip into realms of neverheard sounds! Expect something very different!! Grey vinyl, great handmade & printed fold-covers." [label info]
|
1998 |
€ |
|
| DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE |
Neunundvierzig Entgleisungen |
do-10 |
"....What you hear on this pack is four delirious sides of hermetically-sealed confusion, playing havoc with your acoustical preconceptions and expectations until you won’t know which way is up. Noise, glitches, murmurs and clicks are abstracted by careful processing, and apparently edited together into microscopic mosaic patterns to stimulate your perceptual receptors in ways you’d never have thought possible. Jean René Lasalle contributes profuse printed texts inside the cover, which are likewise streams of cut-up absurdist poetry containing such deathless observations as “glances irrigates elytrons in a trembling headlight”. Françoise Vigot did the cover paintings, featuring the domestic (and amorous) adventures of the red and blue cipher-like figures whose antics I have seen, I think, on a Hypnagogia release by DSM. Verily, Huebner’s universe is an elaborate many-layered puzzle which is slowly coming together for this listener." [The Sound Projector]
"aufabwegen is very proud to offer a new release by what we consider to be one of germany's most important sound projects: DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE. DSM is now the sole project of guido huebner, who has been working in the medium of sound and found objects since the early 1980ies. DSM have their very own take on the patialization of sound and the moving around of sonic objects in the stero field. the overall impression is of rawness and fragility at the same time. the music on these two 10" records is super-dynamic and fragmentated and sounds very fresh and alive. DAS have collaborated over the years with artists such as Michael Northam, Frans de Waard, New Blockaders, MSBR and many more and have released material on various labels around the globe. DSM have played many concerts all over and have combined their sound with different art froms, such as projections, film, dance and even conducting workshops fro kids.
"neunundvierzig entgleisungen" comes in a full cover fold sleeve and is slipped in a stable plastic seethrough. it plays on 45rpm, even if the label prints instructs you to run it at 33.
the record was recorded by guido huebner and features texts by jean rene lasalle and artwork (paintings reproduced) by francoise vigot. it was layouted by stefan hanser (anemone tube), mastered by josef suchy and cut by lupo at dubplates & mastering." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2008 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Casual Praise of Domestic Calamities |
CD |
"Another attempt to dissolve any kind of structures from DSM, something like micro-concrete Noise, very small bits and pieces are put together in fast sequences, sometimes it climaxes in harsh outbursts, radiowaves are appearing as well..... comes in nice box on our favourite British anti-music label." [Drone Rec. info 2005]
"Edition of 500. All compositions by Guido Huebner, created between 1999 and 2004 in Caen, France and Berlin, Germany. Sections of track 6 recorded in the studio for electro acoustic music at the arts academy of Berlin. Field recordings for track 8 and 9 were carried out at the harbour of Hamburg, Germany, as well as at the shores of Lower Normandy and in the countryside around Caen, especially the bridges trespassing the canal between Caen and the sea." [label info]
„Guido Hübner, Ex-Berliner und seit über zwei Jahrzehnten ununterbrochener Noisebastler, kommt tatsächlich mit einem neuen Album auf richtig fertiger CD und obendrein auf dem Label, das uns bisher lediglich bzw. fett selbstbewußt ein Album der New Blockaders auftischen konnte. Neulich kamen schon mir leider unbekannte DSM-Kompositionen auf Vinyl-On-Demand, die CD aber, soviel läßt sich sagen, knüpft definitiv an DSMs frühere Versuche an, Form völlig aufzulösen, bevor sie sich als greifbar und folglich interpretierbar entblößt. All die tausend kleinen, dreckigen noises passen ganz sicher auf eine CD, das steht fest. Aber Hübners einzigartige Anordnung dieser Unjuwelen an sound (eine Anordung übrigens, die offenbar ohne Wiederholung auskommen will) übertrifft ganz sicher alle banalen Versuche, die Harmonie zwischen diesen unvereinbaren Geräuschen auszumachen. Form ist immer Harmonie und somit Mittelmaß. Vielleicht ist es genau dieser Gedanke, den DSM in uns wachrütteln wollen; und natürlich gelingt es ihnen perfekt.“ [Ed Benndorf , de:bug]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE / TBC |
split |
CD |
"Das Synthetische Mischgewebe is Guido Hübner, living in Cean, France. He is some of the leading modern electro-acustic composers of today. Many mentionable releases he has done in the last years: a collaboration retropersective for Monochrome Vision or the collaboration with The New Blockaders. Out of isolation he is always looking to work with other musicans in some or other way. So seems to be natural to do a split-CD for Reduktive Musiken and Wachsender Prozess. His track is dry, only filtering effects based surrealistic domestic home noises composition on objectsound. Yes, it is in some sense quit, but noise as can be. It\'s seems the home be a living organismen!
TBC is Thomas Beck, the man behind Wachsender Prozess. His track is a tour de france of cut-up technics. Sometimes loud, sometimes sensual quit with some aural shock effects. They use all technics of modern composition: noise, fieldrecording, abstract electronics, plunderphonic and ambient in one composition. It's like a best of or showcase recording." [label info]
www.reduktivemusiken.de
"Wachsender Prozess, das Label von Thomas Beck alias TBC und Reduktive Musiken von Noisekünstler m. stabenow verlagern auf ihrer ersten gemeinsam gestützten Veröffentlichung das Interesse an konkreten Strukturen und minimalistischen Interruptionen (im Falle vom Synthenthischen Mischgewebe) bzw. in leicht noisophil angelegte, plunderige Aussetzmanöver (siehe TBC). Die edle Aufmachung im DVD-Schuber erinnert nicht nur an die AIC-Veröffentlichung des DSM vor einigen Jahren, sondern ist auch graphisch von Nicolas Wiese (alias [-HYPH-]) ädaquat umgesetzt worden. Das TBC sich in seiner von Art Of Noise’schen Cut-Ups und geschwinden Richtungswechseln taktil beeinflussten Komposition aus seiner Noiseecke getraut, ist hierbei obersten Respekt zu zollen. Die Hauptseite, das Arrangement des DSM verzärtelt sich zwar in den altgewobenen Strukturen minimalistischer Konkretness, differenziert sich jedoch im letzten Viertel zu einer ausgewachsenen Kakophonie kleinster Geräuschpartikel, auf Tonband mit dem Zimmermannshammer geheftet. Die beiden Stücke, nur unwesentlich von einander in Technik und Montage getrennt ergeben hier eine gänzlich fusionierende Einheit aus konkreter Musik und Noise, jedoch in gezähmter Manier. Ein mutiger Akt und hier wahrhaftig gelungen. 5/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| DATASHOCK & BLACK TO COMM |
same |
CD-R |
Der poly-instrumentale Improvisations-Drone vom DATASHOCK-Kollektiv wird hier zusätzlich verstärkt von BLACK TO COMM, ein one-tracker von 24 Minuten bezirzt mit prall angefülltem low-fi ambient noise, dazu kommt noch ein 9 Minuten Livevideo-Mitschnitt vom gleichen Festival, August 2007!
"Incredible, spooky-spiritual-drone masterpiece by the most hip German experimentalists Black to Comm (Mark Richter) and the free-noise group Datashock companied by new member Marcel Türkowsky. Here all together creating a flavor of blissen alien soundscapes, whirling on, changing and evolving all the time, generating hyperzonic tensions inside the crown-chakra so long that the eyes start to see pulsating flames inside and outside your imagination. Rich in Colour of sound and for sure not a restless headfuck, but a stony stoned psychedelic vibration of something spiritually exciting, something which reminds the outer inner worlds, and how close they are. The fog of the lake & the ghosts of the forgotten old new days. Recorded nearby Berlin's Goldmund festival in August 2007, in a place which used to be a summercamp for kids in the times of GDR the point which alone may cause the climbing in such a mystical level. Peaceful & strange at the same time. Includes 9 minute Quicktime video by Renate Nikolaus!!!
Music and video recorded at Goldmund Festival, Wukensee/ Biesenthal 08/2007 total: music & video 33:20. 150 Copies." [label / website info]
www.ikuisuus.net
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| DAUBY, YANNICK |
Alisen |
mCD |
Ein one-tracker von YANNICK DAUBY auf MICHAEL NORTHAMs neuem Labe ALISEN! Zu hören gibt es recht hochfrequente Klangwellen, die sich sehr sanft ausbreiten... das ganz tönt mysteriös und höchst „lebendig“, ursprüngliche Klangquellen sind nicht auszumachen.....wieder sehr schön, einer unserer Favoriten unter den field recordern.....
“An ethereal sketch of high frequency acoustic feedback phenomena originally recorded at STEIM, Amsterdam in 2002. Total Length : 19:43 Yannick Dauby - born in 1974. had spend most of his time between mediterranean sea and the alps. makes sound works mainly based on processed fields recordings. involved in improvisation using computers and found objects. started some theoretical works about soundscapes and is highly interested by animal acoustic communication.” [label info]
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2005 |
€10.50 |
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|
La Riviere Penchee |
LP |
Faszinierende, sanfte Flusslandschafts - field recordings from “magic acoustic reality” – Meister YANNICK DAUBY ! Stark limiertiertes Vinyl-Album.
"Yannick may be best known for his collaborative work with mnortham and Thomas Köner. La rivière penchée is located near his home in Lyon. From what he has told me, there is a rock shelter-like structure on one of the banks of the river where he decided to collect these recordings. We have the pleasure of hearing richly textural compositions made up of recordings taken at the rivers' banks, the manipulation of found objects, and some electronic elements. As one might expect, the record reflects a snapshot of a place -- running water, stones, soil, metallic timbres, wind, rain, and even bats -- all electronically altered so the sounds become something recognizable, but different. He has woven these sounds together into six pieces that span about 40 minutes. For some reason, we felt that the music found here is best suited for vinyl. Perhaps it is the organic quality of what Yannick does. Strictly limited edition to 280 copies." [label press release]
“Yannick Dauby succeeded in producing a more than excellent LP, which fit a small but strong tradition.” [FdW/Vital Weekly]
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2004 |
€15.00 |
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|
Sounds of HORSE. Music for Dance by Yannick Dauby |
do-CD & BOOK |
"Publication by Atelier Hui-Kan and Horse Dance Company. 'Since 2008, French sound artist Yannick Dauby is collaborating with Horse, a taiwanese male-only contemporary dance company. During these years, he created the soundtracks for the following performances : Bones (2008, National Experimental Theater, Taipei). Growing Up (2009, Theater of Taiwan University of the Arts, Taipei). I (2010, National Experimental Theater, Taipei and Theater in Tainan). Faceless by Chou Shu-Y (2011, National Experimental Theater, Taipei). The sound material used for these projects is quite unusual for dancers and it became one of the specificity of the shows of HORSE : recordings of animal voices, urban soundscapes, industrial textures, electroacoustic abstractions sounds of HORSE is a glamorous publication documenting this collaboration. Its two CD contains more than two hours of sound works, organized and remastered for a domestic listening, and a double-folded booklet with high-quality photography of the dancers with texts by choreographers and dancers Chen Wu-Kang and Chou Shu-Yi, and Yannick Dauby. This double-CD has been published in collaboration with HORSE and Atelier Hui-Kan'." [label info]
www.kalerne.net
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2011 |
€16.00 |
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Tai-pak thia sa pian |
CD |
"Produced by Kalerne Editions and published in Taiwan by Atelier Hui-Kan. 'Three sound compositions (2008, 2009, 2011) by sound artist Yannick Dauby, based on field recordings of Taipei city and its surroundings. Inspired by the Ghost Festival and the ambiences of Summertime, by the evolution and modernity of the urban environment, by the now extinct plain aborigines who once lived in the Taipei basin, these works are reflecting three ways of listening the urban soundscape of Taiwan's capital. Produced by Kalerne Editions and published by Atelier Hui-Kan in Taiwan, December 2011. 'Nous, les défunts' Field recordings and composition : Summer 2008. Commission by SilenceRadio.org Belgium, 2008. 'Taipei 2030'. Recorded and composed between June and August 2009. Commission by The Positive Soundscape, UK, 2010. First presentation during the festival Expo Leeds, UK, September 2010, organized by Sound and Music. 'Ketagalan' Commission by Purepresence, first presentation at Parisonic Hear & Now, Paris, june 2011." [label info]
www.kalerne.net
"Its not easy to write something about a disc like this. Yannick Dauby lives since four years in Taipei, which he both loves and hates. Like any good composer would do is to tame the noise of the city by recording it and that's what he does here. In these years he received three commissions dealing with the environment of Taipei, from Belgium, the UK and France. These three commissions are now collected on this CD. Taipei is not a city I have been too, or in fact any far East city, except for some Japanese cities, which are perhaps more western oriented - I am merely assuming here. So without ever sensing the noisiness of Taipei, I think these three compositions give me a very accurate impression of what that city is like. Lots of traffic noise, public transport system, people talking on the market and the electricity that sometimes comes with it. Towards the end of 'Taipei 2030' there is also quietness and tranquility with just a few sparse sounds. Maybe Dauby envisages himself as
the mayor of Taipei banning all noise? Maybe not. The final piece 'Ketagalan' is also not very noisy and loud but seems to be concentrating on the more ethnic sounds of the city, like a search for some original Eastern ethnicity in the country. It deals less with the modern city bursting with noise than with background of the country itself. This makes that these three pieces differ quite a lot from eachother, each bringing out a certain aspect of city sounds and make this a highly varied work. Excellent work of composed field recordings." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
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2011 |
€15.00 |
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Vescagne, Salèse |
CD |
"Two compositions (Spring 2014) related to the landscapes in the Mediterranean Alps. 'Lignite'. Also called brown coal, this mineral was extracted in the mine of Vescagne, located near Vence, until 1953. Recordings : Bézaudun-les-Alpes, France, January 9th 2014. 'Caïre Archas'. The toponym of this mount, located in the Mercantour area, relates to its shape : steep and protruding. But aren't moutains all analogue ? Recordings : Col de Salèse, January 15th 2014." [label info]
www.kalerne.net
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2015 |
€12.00 |
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| |
Echoes as Messengers |
CD |
"This year 2015, Yannick Dauby and Wan-Shuen Tsai were part of a public art project at National Taiwan University. Yannick's work was a creation project related to the sound universe of bats and led to a series of public events, including soundwalks and exhibitions in the campus. The blog chiroptera documented the activities of field recording and creation, some in collaboration with students. Here is a new output of this project, released as a CD.
Echoes as Messengers is a kind of domestic sound installation, an electroacoustic composition which develop itself slowly and sparsely, a 'Discreet music' inspired by echolocation.
It has been composed with the ultrasonic voices of the Japanese House Bat (Pipistrella abramus) recorded in Taipei (Spring 2015), transformed and combined with the help of analogue electronics (notably the infamous Blippoo box by Rob Hordijk, the Sidrax organ by Peter Blasser and other modular synthesizers) and digital processing.
Please try to listen to it at low volume, or at dusk, or windows open.
This project as been informed and influenced by the remarkable works of Donald Griffin, Alvin Lucier, David Tudor and David Dunn." [label info]
www.kalerne.net
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2015 |
€12.00 |
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| DAUBY, YANNICK / HITOSHI KOJO / MICHAEL NORTHAM |
КОРЛИГОН (Koriigon) |
CD |
"the act of moving inside of this dimension requires a specific entry point - due to the fragile complication of finding this entry point often gestures are made that seem incidental, haphazard, and or like a clumsy dance. however - these gestures each acquire a particular sense when the non-linear goal is kept in mind...
an accumulation of gestures that result in the correct connection to the necessary transducers. as the interface is in constant flux so this technology must transform and adjust at a moments notice.
it is the ultimate organic interweaving of intention that creates the impression that the system is on the brink of evaporation - however it is the most fundamental indicator that all is in perfect working order...
Michael Northam, 2012.
Spontaneous live recordings of the trio, taken from concerts in 2004 and 2006. The concerts in 2006 were presented with a video projection of a Taiwanese artist Wan-Shuen Tsai. The drawings on the CD cover are also her works." [label info]
http://abser1.narod2.ru
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2012 |
€13.00 |
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| DAUBY, YANNICK / WAN-SHUEN TSAI (SHEJINGREN) |
Village, Vestiges |
BOOK & CD |
"Village, Vestiges is the first publication by Shejingren (Yannick Dauby & Wan-Shuen Tsai), an audio-visual collaboration about landscape and habitat. This book is about some abandonned buildings of Cunlhat, Village in the center of France, and about the traditional houses made from coral in Peng-Hu archipelago in Taiwan. This book contains numerous images, a few texts in French and Chinese Mandarin, and a CD which is half documentating a performance with Christophe Havard and Caroline Bouissou which happens in Cunlhat, a few spoken texts in French and Chinese and a collage of wind sounds recorded in Peng-Hu." [label info]
www.kalerne.net/shejingren
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2009 |
€20.50 |
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| DAVIS, GREG & JEPH JERMAN |
Ku |
CD |
"The act of conjuring remarkable sound from found objects is at the very heart of this recording from American musicians Greg Davis and Jeph Jerman. Having met in Arizona some years back, Davis and Jerman commenced working together on a series of recording projects. Improvising with a range of implements and devices ranging from sticks, stones and low-fi electronics to prepared instruments, gongs and broken percussion, the pair sought to develop a personal language that reflected their individual approaches but also created a shared sensibility and aesthetic quality. Placing their work in a range of environments, most of which orbit around Jerman's ranch in Cottonwood, Davis and Jerman create a richly textured array of sounds from the most modest of sonic tools. Each of the works featured here collects together multiple improvised sessions, which have been edited to create a flowing sense of movement and space. These tempered post-concréte works resolve a joint interest from these two musicians in the act of freeform found sound improvisation and experimentation." [label info]
www.room40.org |
2006 |
€15.50 |
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| DE BABALON, CHRISTOPH |
Scylla & Charybdis |
LP |
"In light of his hugely acclaimed and recently reissued classic 'If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It', CDB’s monstrous 'Scylla & Charybdis' [2008] plate creeps back out of whatever hole it slid down for a 10 year anniversary reissue on his Hamburg-based CFET label.
Scylla & Charybdis is a first rate example of breakcore at its mutant and gothic best, executed by one of the sound’s definitive operators. In two 12 minute parts - De Babalon unfurls scenarios traversing from darkly cinematic, atonal strings and looming bass to lurching hybrids of Alexandra von Bolz’n’s doom metal vocals with distended speedcore rhythms and harpy chorales in Scylla, while the B-side’s Charybdis tests out a more mercurial, fluid blend of rolling 180bpm jungle breaks and uncannily naif vocal from Panacea-collaborator, Hanayo." [Boomkat]
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2008 |
€20.00 |
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| DE FABRIEK |
Terugkeren |
LP |
The world of noise, ambient and cosmic sounds doesn’t get much obscure than De Fabriek. They have been active since the late seventies, as a band and a label of the same name, and in the 80s they were very active players in the world of cassettes and exchanging sounds through mail. We haven’t heard anything from them in ages. This new release, their first on over a decade, sees some old players again, such as Klaas Mons (who was once responsible for the three concerts De Fabriek ever did), Nico Selen (from O.R.D.U.C.), Alex Nanuru (who contributed voice to Neveleiland, one of De Fabriek’s best LPs from the 80s) and Richard van Dellen himself. Other members (‘workers’ is how De Fabriek, translated ‘the factory’, called them in the past) here are Simon Steiner and Jan Peter van Aalst.
What is De Fabriek and their new LP TERUGKEREN all about? That is not an easy thing to say, as there is no defined De Fabriek sound. Over the years the group experimented with ambient music, with noise, with rhythms, industrial music and perhaps even cosmic music. This release of Terugkeren sees a bit of all of this and that makes release a nicely varied journey as well as an introduction into the world of De Fabriek, and we find the gentle guitar strumming of Machinerie/Luide Muziek next to a heavy guitar sound in Verleden, dark ambiences of De Terugkerenden and Zwarte Engelen or radio play like Rustpunt, with Alex Nanuru’s voice reciting a story (this could have easily been an outtake of Neveleiland). Guitars play quite an extended role here, but are transformed by the use of sound effects, without sounding too droney. De Fabriek keeps their pieces short and to the point. It is all in all a wonderful collection of pieces and it’s great to hear something new from De Fabriek. (txt with thanks to Frans de Waard).
TERUGKEREN is manufactured on 180 grams vinyl, and packed in a deluxe triple foldout sleeve with insert. The LP is limited to 300 copies. Release date: September 29, 2017.
https://tonefloat.com/2017/08/29/de-fabriek-returns-with-terugkeren-lp/
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2017 |
€19.00 |
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| |
Quatro-Erogenic-Occupy Theme's |
CD |
"I have been familiar with De Fabriek since the early eighties and have been intrigued by the constant changing of sounds, although they
sometimes went into directions that I didn't like. De Fabriek is one of those bands I am always keen to hear were the are now. I must
admit that in more recent years I kinda lost track on their releases (which if they are released on their own label are no doubt super
limited and hard to find), but this CD on Moloko Plus should be widely available. At the heart of De Fabriek we find Richard van Dellen, who invites various people to send in their sounds which he collages into the sounds of De Fabriek. We find here workers as Zan Hoffman, Alexander and Aleksy Chulkov, Berry Rikkerink, Olaf Seider
and Mitsumasa Miyazaki; a lot of new names for me. The music that De Fabriek offers us here is of an eclectic nature. From electro rhythm
pieces such as 'El Ninyo' to soundscapes of rain and synthetic ambience in the beautiful opening piece 'River Of Tears' and the industrial soundscapes of 'Bad Lands'. Music from De Fabriek is like a trip from the urban jungle to countryside jungle, music that sticks
inside the brain and puts the listener on the wrong track by being somewhere else then were you expect it. It carries some weak moments
(like 'Half Live') but they remain on the minor side. Overall a nice one, this one. Let's see where De Fabriek are next." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
Credits
Artwork by [Cover]: Robert Schalinski // Artwork by [Insert]: Mark Lane // Performer: Aleksey Chulkov, Alexander Chulkov, Berry Rikkerink, Mitsumasa Miyazaki, Olaf Seider, Richard Van Dellen, Zan Hoffman
Notes
Recorded at Fab Studios, Holland 1997 and at Gauge 24 Studio, Japan 1998. Completed in 1999. Comes in a digipak with a 2-sided art-sheet.
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1999 |
€13.00 |
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| DE FABRIEK & P.FUNK |
Music for Hippies |
CD |
Remix of the legendary 1988 cassette release by DE FABRIEK & P.FUNK.
Another special release in the 35th year of our existence at EE Tapes.
DE FABRIEK and our label have had an excellent connection for many years. We did some releases before on cassette, CDr and CD, and now the big chief of DE FABRIEK was so nice as to give us the exclusive rights for a BEL(gian) version of his newest baby (De Fabriek FABPROD27 / CD 100 cps / NL).
Needless to say we still adore DE FABRIEK after all these years! First come, first served.
Limited to 75 cps with different cover and CD-print
Tags: abstract, ambient, experimental, freestyle
https://eetapes.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-hippies-remix
"Years and years ago, I went through my collection of old cassettes and transferred many of them. Within the dark corners, I found some rarely played cassettes by De Fabriek, and when I heard those again, I realized why I hadn't played those a lot. One was with P. Funk and called 'Music For Hippies'. Today I learned that not all those old cassettes will be re-issued on CD, which I think is good. I also learned that behind P. Funk there are a few people already involved in playing music with De Fabriek (with one of the band's sporadic live performances), such as Robin van Vliet, Rob Prenger, Moniek, Maurits de Weert, and Roberto van Veen, but they also dabbled in other bands. P. Funk, the name holds a promise.
We find traces of funk music indeed here. But none of it is very traditional. As I was playing this and thinking about the title, knowing Richard van Dellen (the primary factory worker), I realized I never thought of De Fabriek as a band inspired by the world of krautrock. Now I made the connection, only after knowing their music for close to forty years, it only seems logical. Many of the pieces here are free form jams involving many guitars, bass guitars, drums. As ever with releases by De Fabriek, it is tough to say who does what; the cover, as ever, has minimal indication. It is not a re-issue of the original cassette but rather a complete make-over, sounding much better than the old cassette. Both in terms of technology used but also in terms of the music itself.
The music here is rocky, funky, freaky, but never too rocky, funky or freaky. Things are kept within reasonable boundaries; the goal is not the freak out jam session but playing music other people might want to hear. It is a wild one, this new release, and may expand whatever you thought De Fabriek was about; I know it did for me." [Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly] |
2022 |
€14.00 |
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| DE JAER, BAUDOUIN |
4 Geomungo Sanjo Vol. II |
CD |
New compositions for ancient Korean instrument: the Geomungo. Follow up to the high acclaimed Compositions For Geomungo and Gayageum (2012).
Baudouin de Jaer tells. his large hands stir the air, drawing soft and assured lines, they connect distant planets and micro-particles in a space that does not exist yet. There is the encounter with the Geomungo. a traditional Korean instrument, the geomungo is an ancient table zither, an improbable association of wood and tense strings, with sounds in turn soft, brutal, limpid, rough, mute, and light. It is the voice that imposes itself and guides us through the worlds.
Baudouin de Jaer takes us irresistibly, back and forth, from the deepest of oneself to the universality of life.
Baudouin de Jaer
Composer, violonist, Baudouin de Jaer studied composition with Philippe Boesmans, Henri Pousseur, Frederic Rzewski and at McGill University (Montréal) with Bruce Mather. He composes for the Korean instruments Daegeum, Haegeum, Gayageum and Geomungo, and for orchestras of Korean traditional instruments. In 2010 he resolved the enigmatic music system of Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli and released a CD called 'The Heavenly Ladder' on the Sub Rosa label (SR312). In 2010, Baudouin de Jaer was awarded a prize from the National Gugak Center for his Gayageum compositions. |
2018 |
€13.00 |
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| DE LAET, JORIS |
SEM |
3 x LP box |
"Joris de Laet (Belgium, 1947) is a fully autodidact composer of electroacoustic music. Between 1972 and 1975 he worked at the IPEM along with Lucien Goethals and Karel Goeyvaerts and in 1973 he founded the SEM (Studio for Experimental Music) where he organised plenty of group sessions, live performances, lectures... De Laet's work is adventurous, complex and difficult to classify, due to many interesting contrasts in his style and approach academicvs intuitive, modern composition vs free improvisation, acoustic vs electronic, sound vs noise... This selection (10 tracks) of his early recordings (1972 1979) represents an overview of his intriguingly radical and highly personal work which includes solo tape experiments, live electronics with Karel Goeyvaerts and group performances with experimental instrumentalists from the SEM ensemble : Pieter Kuyl (chapmanstick), Leo Verheyen (trombone), Paul Adriaenssens (flute and amplified objects), Maurice Verstuyft (flute). All material has been mastered from the original tapes and is previously unreleased. Edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.metaphon.be
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2016 |
€70.00 |
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| DE WAARD, FRANS |
Klankschap 1999-2005 |
CD |
"The second solo CD under his own name, following the widely acclaimed 'Vijf Profielen'. Six pieces from the period 1999-2005 dealing with field recordings and sparse electronic processing." [label info]
www.zang.no
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Courriere |
CD |
In 2005, I went to the Ardennes in Belgium with a group of friends.
They’d planned on a day of canoeing.
I’m too cowardly to even get into one, but I really wanted to record the sound of a trip down a roiling river from inside a canoe.
So I asked my friends, who took my device and recorded the sound material l used in this piece of music.
– Frans de Waard (avril 2015)
::: PRESS RELEASE :::
About 30 years into the “experimental” music scene, Frans de Waard (from the city of Nijmegen, in The Netherlands) epitomizes almost on his own a certain ideal of “alternative” culture. Cornerstone of legendary STAALPLAAT (shop/distro/label), he’s besides behind the iconic and still operating online mag VITAL WEEKLY, where he has never been stingy of informing reviews related to thousands of titles of underground music.
Impossible also not to mention his activities at Extrapool, a production house versed into sound, art and print where he did lectures and workshops…
His name can be found stamped onto a host of musical projects, both collaborative : Kapotte Muziek, Goem, Beequeen, Modelbau, The Tobacconists…and solo : Freiband, Shifts, or simply Frans de Waard…and this is not counting, as a lover of improvisation, his sets with among others : Howard Stelzer, Roel Meelkop, Giuseppe Ielasi, Andrew liles…
Needless to say he made as well many performances throughout Europe, but also in USA, Canada, Japan & Russia…
Last but not least, he’s the curator of Korm Plastics, Bake Records, and My Own Little Label, and co-founded Plinkity Plonk and Audio.nl…
Being exhaustive about the man, is clearly “mission impossible”…
“Courrière” is the soundtrack of a transcended phobia…
Evaporating voices heard from within,
quiverings on the liquid surface,
where we follow the course of dead stars…
A lengthy remorseless drift
to transpose the world…
Small in-depth erosions, oozing insides,
along which we glide in awe…
Sounds decay and meander,
sowing fear and dim light…
Our days are torn,
mirroring a subterranean sea…
“Courrière” offers no shelter,
just a U-turn…
www.mysterysea.net
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEAD BODY LOVE |
Destruction's Geometry |
CD |
DEAD BODY LOVE is Gabriele Giuliani, the Italian grand-master of Industrial / Power-Electronics, active since early 90'es.
DESTRUCTION'S GEOMETRY was first released into cassette by SOFFITTA MACABRA (the label run by Marco Deplano aka Wertham / Caligula031).
Here finally comes the re-edition into CD of such powerful Noise / Power-Electrinics cult album.
https://phagetapes.bandcamp.com/album/destructions-geometry |
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEAD FACTORY |
Nachtmusik |
CD |
"DEAD FACTORY, the project of Maciej Mutwil, has been active since 2001. Hailing from the region of Silesia, sonic- and imagewise it revolves around the themes of heavy industry found in that part of Poland, which serves as the biggest source of influence. The sounds and images from his surroundings are transformed in his music. DEAD FACTORY discography consists of 2 demo CDRs "Solitude" and "Nowhere"; "Indusreality" MCD, a split release with ATUM and a few web releases.
After the recording hiatus, DEAD FACTORY returns with a new album, first time on a regular, silver CD. "Nachtmusik" is available on two editions: regular - CD in a wallet serving as an audio addendum for HARD ART #6, and limited - hand-numbered 200 copies in special packaging It is the first collaborative release of Beast of Prey and Zoharum." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| DEAD GUM |
Sleepy Town |
CD-R |
"Blurry, multi-layered, dreamy imagery for a dark city at a summer night which almost looks like a ghost town. Numb emotions and gentle touches guide you to a private wandering where materialism cannot be felt. It's a delirious battle inside your dream warrior head. Drift around without touching the ground, smell the transparent fumes, hear the city's most intimate secret noises, make your very own narrations until the death of night finally comes. It's meant to be listened as one piece at the recommended track order.
Limited edition of 50, packaged in jewel case w/ full color artwork on textured paper." [label info]
|
2013 |
€7.50 |
|
| DEAD MACHINES |
The Night Callers |
LP |
"LP from husband-and-wife duo John (Wolf Eyes) & Tovah Olson (Wooden Wand...) left field horror drone, flutes and garbage electronics. Cover art by John Olson. Limited to 500 hand numbered copies on 140gram pink marbled vinyl." [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEAD RAVEN CHOIR |
Jean Genet's Lonesome Rhino |
7 |
"No fi mayhem, trademark destruction of originals." [label info]
www.dotdotdotmusic.com
|
2010 |
€8.50 |
|
| DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN / DYSTHYMIA |
split |
7inch |
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce our first 7", a split between Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain and Dysthymia.
It gives me great please to release this new vinyl on Diophantine, featuring the work of Marc Benner's Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain project, and my own Dysthymia project. Though started in 2000, DSNHDIV became most active five years ago and has released a number of limited CDrs and cassettes on RRRecords, Tape Fiend, Turgid Animal, and Marc's own Pottersfield label. His track here shows a more subtle and experimental side to this usually noisy project, with flowing ambient and the crashing and cracking of metals. Dysthymia began in late 2004 and the first release was a split cassette with Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain. Since then there have been a number of cassettes and CDrs on Pottersfield, Self Abuse, BloodLust!, and Tape Fiend. The track here shows Dysthymia's dense analogue industrial/noise style.
Pressed on clear vinyl and housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 300 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
"A split 7" on Diophantine Discs. Dysthymia is Kyle Wright, also the man behind the label, whose first release was also a split with Dead Shall Nor Have Died In Vain. That is the project of Marc Benner, who started in 2000. He has a bunch of releases on RRRecords, Tape Fiend and Turgid Animal as well as his own label Pottersfield. Apparently, since this is the first time I hear his music a more noise based outing, but here with an ambient industrial tapestry, with heavily reverb on the metal sheets that rumble on top. Dysthymia on the other side is more noise based, with crashing loop of industrial sound. The sound and the fury, but Wright keeps things well under control. I like both sides actually, but this is not 7" music, if such a thing exists (obviously it doesn't). Both sides seem to be out takes of longer sections, something that more music suffers from that is released on 7". Here a 10" would have been in place and then with a more appropriate beginning and end. Not that die hard fans of the genre would matter of course." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| DEAD TEXAN |
The dead Texan |
CD & DVD |
"The Dead Texan contains music from Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid, Aix Em Klemm) on compact disc and a DVD containing music videos by Adam Wiltzie and video artist Christina Vantzos. The eleven tracks on The Dead Texan are sonatas to Stars of the Lid's noctambulant fugues. Or as Adam Wiltzie describes them, mini symphonies. The presence of piano and strings are reminiscent of Zbigniew Preisners soundtrack work and the feel is suggestive of George Delerue's early 60s soundtracks, but the surreal smear of guitars is Wiltzie's unmistakable contribution." [label info]
www.kranky.net
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| DEAD VOICES ON AIR |
Fast Falls The Eventide |
do-CD |
"Fast Falls The Eventide is aural provocateur Mark Spybey’s 11th album as Dead Voices On Air, and across a multi-decade career stirring pots experimental, existential, and otherwise, his is a sound that summons any number of nocturnal beasties from the ether. Blink twice, listen carelessly and you'll fail to discern the minutiae Spybey meticulously works into every one of the 15 pieces sprawling across the first disc of this 2-CD set’s eminent domain. Spybey works hard at his art so you don’t have to: rather, as the listener, the participant, the absorber, it’s more important to ignore categorical tags such as “industrial”, “ambient”, “soundscape”, et al, and instead gorge deeply on a wriggling, sometimes confrontational puzzlebox of sounds erupting from a bevy of mysterious sources.
The title of this collection notwithstanding, Spybey’s been having his way with rhythm and noise for so long that the motifs he’s ascribed over the years are practically commonplace amongst the novice post-industrialist - or, hell, the post-whatever. Throughout the last 25-plus years, he’s plied his trade and remarkable sonic mojo both solo and in the company of many a forward-thinking electronic engineer, from guitarists such as Michael Karoli and James Plotkin, to fellow artisans like Skinny Puppy’s cEvin Key or Rapoon’s Robin Storey (with whom he feints sounds as Reformed Faction). It’s as Dead Voices On Air, however, that some of his most startling ideas emerge fully-realized and fully-armed; of course, to hear Spybey tell it, once art leaves the nest it’s up to (once again) the recipient to assume the role of engager: “My work is created in isolation from external references. That is the ideal I strive for. Only in this way is it possible to allow the listener an opportunity to create their own understanding of the music, or, as the artist Joseph Beuys once said, ‘One should resort to interpretation only in an emergency.’”
Perhaps. Still, there’s much expressive bounty to be gleaned from these dark, dusky, evening-soaked works, from the first disc’s mix of ethnological drum cabals, windswept electronics and scraped edits, up through the immense near-quarter-hour title track, which finds Spybey revisiting the mortal atmospheric coils of former colleagues :Zoviet*France:. And pulling the whole enterprise together is the second disc’s first-time digital unveiling of Spybey’s opening salvo, the 1994 cassette Abrader, in conjunction with two unreleased tracks originating from the artist’s early gestations featuring contributions from the aforementioned cEvin Key. New or old, Spybey’s continuing vitality ensures these Dead Voices remain gloriously alive and kicking.
Fast Falls The Eventide is a two CD set featuring the all new recording Fast Falls The Eventide on Disc 1. Disc 2 features the long out of print first release by Dead Voices On Air - Abrader - originally released in 1994 on cassette by Japan's G.R.O.S.S. label. This digitally remastered version of Abrader features two previously unreleased tracks featuring cEvin Key. Abrader and the two bonus tracks are only available on this CD release.
Packaging: 2xCD w/6-panel insert in jewel case featuring artwork by Mark Spybey
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Running Time: Disc 1 - 60:22, Disc 2 - 53:54"
[label info]
www.lensrecords.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Mawson's Will and other Short Stories |
CD |
"The album is named after a track that Spybey worked on with Robert Hampson of Loop and Main as part of the twentieth anniversary series of 7 inch singles, that has thus far featured collaborations with Simon Fisher-Turner, Edward Ka-spel and Robin Storey. Douglas Mawson was a famous polar explorer and this 12 minute collaboration with Robert became a focal point for this album. The tracks could perhaps be described as musical narratives, each named after a place or an event or a person that has attracted Spybey’s attention. Some are more obvious than others, “Kursk,” for example being about the Russian submarine disaster. But, ironically, in the world of Dead Voices on Air, concepts limit creativity. The studio is a place of invention, with the starting point being the creation of a sound. Ideas are never written down. When Spybey works he becomes engrosssed in the act of making music and in editing it. The studio and everything within it is utilized in the act of creating music. Spybey does not try to create music that is descriptive or literal. For him, the gift of music is in the eye and ear of the listener. The more he makes music, the longer this impossible career progresses, the less he feels like talking about music. He simply makes music. All of the time. The album also features a cameo appearance by Robin Storey and by Utah keyboard player Lori Cole, who has contributed several pieces that Spybey has reworked in the past year." [label info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Bundle 1995-2013 |
CD |
“Bundle 1995-2013″ stands as a career spanning primer into the challenging and innovative musical world of “Dead Voices On Air”.
Mark Spybey has worked under the name Dead Voices On Air for 20 years, following his departure from Zoviet-France. He's released 15 albums and collaborated with an impressive list of people, including members of Can, Faust, Throbbing Gristle, Swans, cEvin Key, and others. Bundle 1995 2013 stands as a career-spanning primer into the challenging and innovative musical world of Dead Voices On Air. Spybey began working as DVOA in 1992 in the wake of relocating from his native Britain to Canada. Employing processed sounds generated by primitive instruments and childrens toys, and eschewing the standard sequencers and samplers, he began sculpting experimental soundscapes. Haunting drones and echoes of vocal murmurs are layered with noisier elements to create an intense, engaging sonic experience." [label info]
www.metropolis-records.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Abrader Redux |
CD |
The hugely sought-after debut album from Dead Voices On Air (Mark Spybey of Download/ ex-Zoviet France, Reformed Faction), featuring Cevin Key (Skinny Puppy/Download). Abrader blends processed sounds from primitive instruments and found objects into hypnotic looped rhythmic structures, with dark clusters of heavy ambient washes into what could be described as "organic panambience", or "music for the eyes". Abrader was the first of over 80 releases (so far) by Mark Spybey using the name Dead Voices On Air. It was recorded over the space of days in Vancouver in 1993 and released as a tape the following year by Akifumi Nakajima (Aube), for his G.R.O.S.S. label. Chronologically, the material was recorded after most of the music that made up his first two releases on compact disc -- New Words Machine and Hafted Maul -- however, Abrader was released before both of those albums. Abrader Redux features the three lengthy tracks that were released on the original cassette, plus the bonus tracks that were included in the 2009 reprint as part of the Fast Falls The Eventide double-CD, and now with two "new" previously-unreleased bonus tracks recorded 1994 -- taking this masterwork up to seven tracks and over 67 minutes of exceptional music. This release is dedicated to the memory of both Akifumi Nakajima and Zev Asher who both passed away in 2013. Spybey was introduced to Akifumi by his friend from Vancouver, Zev Asher. Zev had a noise project called Roughage and was also in a band called Nimrod, that had at one time been based in Japan. Remastered by Martin Bowes from Attrition. Packaged in a matt-laminate digipak with art by Spybey, beautifully laid out by Abby Helasdottir. "If most ambient is the laudanum of the new fin de siécle, then Dead Voices on Air are the absinthe" --Village Voice.
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/abrader-redux-csr320cd
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEADVERSE MASSIVE |
Son of Concrete |
pic-LP |
Starke 4-track long-play EP einer Art Supergroup des US-amerikanischen Experimental-Dub & Hip-Hop Undergrounds, mit erstaunlichem Ergebnis zwischen melancholischer slow-Dub Ambience und frei flottierenden Experimenten, viel vokales Material & halluzinogene Atmo...und auch ruhig-harmonische parts tauchen auf. Leute von DÄLEK, DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS, ODDATEE sind beteiligt. Erschien auf dem wahrhaft grenzüberschreitendem Label PUBLIC GUILT aus Baltimore, MD.
"The Deadverse Massive 12" picture disc brings together three intense forces in music-- avant hip-hop unit, Dälek, ambient guitarist, Destructo Swarmbots and hip-hop madman, Oddateee. Spontaneity, open-mindedness to the recording process and a collective cohesiveness sprung forth an album that none of them would have every created alone and none of them would have imagined before the moment of creation. Easily, the strangest record any of these artists have ever touched. Artwork from the amazing Paul Romano rounds out the release." [label info]
"When hip-hop gets weird, it gets "Deadverse Massive". Mescaline dreams from the deep unconscious rise through psych-ambient guitar drones to meet street socially-conscious poetry and spoken-word in a no less than stellar collision... 8/10 "[Foxy Digitalis]
"A stunning mashup of heavy beatscapes, surrealist avant hip hop, and spacey drones from beyond the wall of sleep... a surreal and drifting collage of beats and psychedelic drones, powerful rhymes and voice transmissions, as informed by classic krautrock and cassette experiments as it is by actual hip hop." [Crucial Blast]
www.publicguilt.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEAF MACHINE |
Found Noises |
CD |
Das Berliner RAUBBAU-Label (früher auch als FORMOSAN aktiv) hat das längst vergriffene, verstreute Material dieses Solo-Projektes eines MEGAPTERA-Mitglieds zusammengestellt. Low-fi droning & death industrial stuff mit obskuren Samples & found sounds...
"The groups in the Nyköping/Oxelösund region of Sweden (Megaptera, The Protagonist, Morthound) have been pretty thoroughly documented in the past. But one crucial missing link of this micro-scene has been overlooked, and not given the deserved recognition. Until now, that is.
Mikael Svensson, founding member of Megaptera, also did his own project Deaf Machine for a while, though it vanished without leaving many traces behind. Besides a couple of wildly obscure self-released tapes, the only other marks were contributions to seminal compilations such as "In the Butcher's Backyard" (CMI) and "Death Odors" (Slaughter Prod.).
Not content to rest on the laurels after the successful inaugural release by Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, the fresh German label Raubbau
has decided to treat Deaf Machine with an ambitious rerelease program covering two separate CD albums. This first one, "Found Noises", contains one of the tapes, two tracks culled from compilations, and one previously unreleased track. The similarity with Megaptera lies in the frequent use of voice samples from movies and news broadcasts. But whereas Megaptera relies on a method with upfront pounding machine rhythms, Deaf Machine opted for a subtler approach more based on textures and moods. The mix of muffled voice fragments, disjointed rhythm loops, and crude, bass-heavy synth-noises sound unlike anything else that came out of Sweden at the time. A unique sound by a neglected artist that thankfully no longer will remain a secret within small circles of cognoscenti." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Transistor |
CD |
"The German label Raubbau have decided that the time is ripe to end the nearly two decades of severe under-exposure for Deaf Machine, the Megaptera offshoot conceived by Mikael Svensson. Previously in 2008 the 'Found Noises' CD was put out, a release that was met with great enthusiasm. A majority of listeners to industrial music were up until this year not even aware of the name Deaf Machine. Only a minuscule fraction had ever heard the music. Merely ten people can claim to actually own the original tape release. But certainly the extremely limited nature of an album does not automatically imply that its content merits another issue. In the case of 'Transistor' any such fear of groundless hyperbole can be scrapped. While operating within the confines of death industrial, the sound of Deaf Machine clearly lacks antecedence in its more oppressive, minimal approach; a rhythm-less universe inhabited by the creaking noises of analogue devices and metallic artefacts, and fleeting voices leaking through from media broadcasts. Svensson may have been a minor player in the scene, but his precious few moments of brilliance are now finally captured for posterity. What more semi-forgotten corpses from the heyday of Swedish death industrial are waiting to be unburied?" [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEAS (CAMERON) |
Time Exercises |
LP |
Cam Deas is a guitar virtuoso who has switched to modular synth and computer productions resulting in these staggering studies in polymetric, mercurial and dissonant tunings - hugely recommended if you’re into the work of Autechre, Rashad Becker, Roland Kayn, Fis, Coil, Xenakis.
Time Exercises is a complex study in amorphous polymetric rhythms by Cam Deas for The Death of Rave. His first album composed solely for modular synths and computer, Cam’s follow-up to the acclaimed String Studies for Luke Younger's Alter label marks a headlong tilt from acoustic to electronic spheres with a staggering effect resulting from meticulous research and process. It sounds as advanced as Xenakis or Roland Kayn superstructures, with the rhythmic displacement of FIS or Autechre, and with a grasp of slippery, mind-bending timbral dissonance comparable to Coil and Rashad Becker records.
Cam’s six Time Exercises form both a bold break with - and an extension of - the avant, folk, blues and outernational traditions that he’s worked to deconstruct and fluidly syncretise over the past decade. In the past four years he’s stepped away from the guitar as a compositional tool, turning to electronic hardware in a focussed effort to consolidate myriad tunings and meters with a precision that had previously eluded him in the acoustic sphere.
Severed from the tactility and sentimentality of instrumental inflection, Cam’s disembodied music plays out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution. Harmonic shapes as densely widescreen as those in Roland Kayn’s Cybernetic Music roil in unfathomable fever dream space, where massed batteries of synthetic percussion swarm like an orchestra of Cut Hands in viscous formation, and where polychromatic mentasm figures converge like cenobites laying siege to Rashad Becker’s utopia.
On Time Exercises Cam articulates a synthetic musical language that speaks to the listener in myriad, quantum tongues awaiting to be deciphered by keen ears everywhere. It’s an outstanding record for lovers of forward-looking but deeply rooted electronic music.
https://boomkat.com/products/time-exercises
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| DEATH & BEAUTY FOUNDATION |
same |
CD |
Noch bevor 1984 die ersten Aufnahmen von THE HAFLER TRIO das Licht der Welt erblickten, war H30-Mastermind ANDREW MC. KENZIE mit VAL DENHAM aktiv, einem britischen Transvestiten & frühen Industrial-Aktivisten der als Maler(?) & Artworker für TG, PSYCHIC TV, MARC ALMOND oder CYCLOBE tätig war. Die insgesamt 21 Stücke, die mit "Darlington Tapes" betititelt wurden sind hier nun erstmals auf einer CD zu hören - äusserst eigenwillige experimentelle "Songs" mit kruden Stimmverfremdungen und elektronischen Sounds, wie sie - etwas eleganter - z.T. auch auf die erste H30 LP "Bang! An Open Letter" oder die krasseren sprachbasierten NURSE WITH WOUND-Alben gepasst hätten. Auch über 20 Jahre später ist das noch absolut unzugängliche Anti-Musik, die sich nicht mit klassischen Maßstäben "bewerten" lässt, da es kaum Vergleichsmöglichkeiten gibt.
"... present the legendary "Darlington Tapes"recorded in 1982. At last, the sound of Val Denham and Andrew M. McKenzie's long awaited avant garde masterpiece for the bewildered is available after 26 years. Remastered, frightening and beautiful. The strangest album ever recorded. You have been warned." [label info]
" The Death & Beauty Foundation is an odd footnote in the history of The Hafler Trio. It's a project that began sometime in the early '80s presumably in and/or around Newcastle, UK featuring a young Andrew McKenzie (who later went on to found The Hafler Trio) and Val
Denham, a visual artist who has some history with Psychic TV, Marc Almond, and Cyclobe. Only a couple of compilation tracks of the Death
& Beauty Foundation had appeared on Touch cassette compilations, and a tape-only release emerged in 1986; but beyond that, the story to the Death & Beauty Foundation is pretty mysterious. This CD represents the complete 'Darlington Tapes' which the two began in 1982. Instead of the media-savvy collages and psychoacoustic investigations which The Hafler Trio mastered throughout the '80s, the Death & Beauty Foundation penned songs, really weird and fractured songs; but these are nonetheless tunes. A curious falsetto (which we're presuming to belong to Denham) floats in flanging tremolo haze above odd, Spartan electronics, sounding somewhat like "In Heaven" from the Eraserhead soundtrack, but ever more evasive and purposefully meandering. In line with primitive BBC Radiophonic tricknology meets Cabaret Voltaire cut- up methods, tape manipulations guide the bulk of the arrangements to that fluttering voice, with Shadow Ring like splutter across guitar and tin-can percussion on a few tracks. Some of the electronic sounds seem to have reappeared on the h3o album Sea Org; but those recognizable instances are few and far between in this confusing album." [Aquarius Records review]
www.somnimage.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| DEATH KNEEL |
Adaptive Emotional Use |
LP |
"Max Klebanoff’s (Tomb Mold) industrial noise unit thrives on buried rhythmic nodes under walls of crackling distortion and blistering sonic disfigurement. Nascent hums blossom into spectral ambient drones. Gnarled electronic pulses waver in grand fields of dissonance. Granulated tones crumble and reform as the tracking adjusts on Death Kneel's harsh noise synthesized into meditative soundscape creation." [concert info]
Limited edition black vinyl LP, edition of 250. Housed in 350gsm sleeve with full color center labels.
"Death hides the angels it makes in blue skies"
Mastered by Grant Richardson.
Additional processing by Moss Harvest.
Thanks to Rita Mikhael, Brett Wagg, and Matt Harrison.
https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/adaptive-emotional-use
"This album is my formal introduction to the works of Death Kneel, the project of Max Klebanoff. Seemingly active since 2014, 13 cassette releases have been issued in that time, but Adaptive Emotional Use is the first release on vinyl.
Stripped to the Ivory Core opens the album with detailed micro-tonal scrap metal and field recording tones, but ample depth in the mix and the separation of sounds makes for detailed and engaging listening. A brooding atonal synth rumble and looped conveyor belt provide slight momentum and structure, but mid-track the whole mood shifts into wondrously minimalist and melancholic synth melodies. The title track follows and continues with shimmering melodious synth elements, yet these are force-fed through sonic filters which changes their tonal quality to scattered and fractured. Later in the track a pounding industrial undercurrent appears while the sweeping maudlin sub-orchestral textures gain focus and prominence. In clear contrast to the controlled and moody elements which precede it, Trauma Martyr opts for a more direct expression, consisting of choppy cut-up static and chaotic junk metal noise, with a rumbling bass distortion undercurrent. Would Anyone Die For Me? features a moody piano melody, minimalist scrabbling textures, and fractured mid-toned synth elements, generating a mood of melancholy and restraint. For the final track Redemption Angel (Corpse Criteria) the harsh and choppy cascade of noise returns, sitting at the mid to lower tonal range and clearly based on layered and processed scrap metal abuse – yet midway in it coalesces into a mangled mass of sub-orchestral synths and shimmering, fragmented, mid-toned noise.
With its wildly divergent sound, but one which is clearly the result of detailed attention to the structure and composition of sonic elements, Adaptive Emotional Use could be filed alongside the likes of Puce Mary or Damien Dubrovnik, without necessarily sounding like either of those. With its clear attention to detail and the careful juxtaposing of harsh sounds against melodious elements, Death Kneel have delivered an evocative and artistic take on experimental industrial noise." {Noise Receptor} |
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| DEEP |
If you drive a Traktor |
CD-R |
"With a line-up consisting basically of two bass guitars and effects, Deep have been extending the textural and compositional vocabulary of the rock bass guitar for the past 15 years. In the two instrumental tracks (30 and 15 minutes) of this album, they are at the height of the powers. They manage to combine driving indie-rock flavoured riffs with walls of sound reminiscent of Earth or Sunn O))) to create ambient atmospheres but still retaining a sense of groove.
Although Deep sometimes use distorted power chords and bowed drones in some places to pile up static walls of sound, for the most part the album has a definite mid to uptempo groove. However, through quasi-mantric repetition of the chords and layering of the two bass parts, the feel conveyed by the music is not “speed,” but rather a soothing, trance-like quality that is always based on subtle melodic lines indicative of the fact that earlier Deep releases, mainly featured on the band’s own Dhyana Records label, have proven them capable of writing compelling indie rock songs (complete with vocals) in the vein of Dinosaur Jr or Notwist. This album is co-released on Attenuation Circuit and Dhyana Records in tribute to the ground-breaking work of Dhyana Records for the formation of the experimental music network that now supports Attenuation Circuit." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Another trio of releases on Attenuation Circuit, although the first one is a co-release with Dhyana Records - hence a somewhat different package. Deep is a duo and consists of two bass players, Stefan Vetter and Bernd Spring. No doubt there is a string of sound effects attached to the bass guitars. One long, thirty minute track and one that lasts half of that. Now with a band name such as Deep and with two bass guitars and effects, you could expect that this is all about deep ambient music, but that's not the primary interest of Deep. At times, many of them, Deep is more interested in playing rock like structures, less drums, not as much melody, but also with a certain groove going round. But the length of the pieces adds a long duration to both pieces and one could say that this adds to a more drone like character of the pieces. Think of a more mellow version of Earth and you have Deep. Minimalist avant-rock. Very nice." [FdW/VitalWeekly]
|
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
| DEGENERAL |
After the World |
CD-R |
Neuer russischer Industrial, analog, rauh & gut arrangiert! Kommt im silberfarbenen Schaumgummi-artigen besprühtem Spezialcover!
"Degeneral was formed in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in 2001 and has already recorded several albums none of which has been issued to present day, so "After the World" can be called the first official release of the project. The album sounds like a soundtrack to a mental trip through the lifeless spaces of the world outlived electro-mechanical apocalypse. First monotonous droning tracks unobtrusively bring listener's perception into a laid-back and meditative state. But the sound gradually condenses, saturation of sonic events grows and music takes mechanical features of sinister atmosphere of a desolated factory working for hundreds of years without human assistance. Thunder of workshops, buzz of power substations and clanks of unknown mechanisms flow together into united psy-noise symphony. By the end of the disc anthropomorphical assotiations naturally pale and give way to abstract cosmic visions, provoked by skilfully combined avalanche-like noise waves and looped melodic lines. The release is packed into hand-made outer sleeve made of foil-covered material with sprayed symbol and inner semi-transparent cardboard sleeve with information notes." [label info]
label: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| DEISON |
Night Sessions |
CD |
"A collection of fascinating and obscure "nocturnal sessions” alternated with more "classic" electronic parts based on sequencers and synthesizers, more abstract and minimal sonic sketches, involving and tense deep drones musical mixtures, distorted and dilated electric guitars, deformed human voices, more static and fluctuating typical ambient movements, cold inserts of pulsating and "techno oriented" sounds, suggestive atmospheres built on bizarre loops, flat organ backgrounds and low guitar notes, and then again arpeggios, piano clusters, field recordings, more typical "glitch" inserts and hisses... A wide range of original and catching solutions created with the help of many guests, the album includes contributions by Teho Teardo, Philippe Petit, Under the Snow, Jim Coleman, Franck Vigroux, Testing Vault and Annen Berg." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Any Time Now |
CD-R |
"Recorded and mixed in the last 3 years “Any Time Now” is the new solo studio work by Deison after several collaborative projects (with Mingle, Maurizio Bianchi, Uggeri, Favaron); the record is focused on small sounds, interferences and long slow-moving drones captured to explore the perception of time.
It’s a dirty electronica to suggest a different listening, any time…now!
Involved in the noise electronic area since 1991, (he played loops and voice in Meathead during 90's) he approached the world of sounds doing self released cassettes doing his own tape collages with some tape recorders, turntables and objects mainly in the field of noise and power-electronics; he established a small label (Loud!) and began to collaborate with artist like Lasse Marhaug, KK Null, Shee Retina Stimulants, etc... Influenced by the electroacoustic music, ambient minimal electronic as well as a great interest into digital music and sound design then he operated with samplers and field recordings. On Loud! he has released a couple of 7" singles and a record with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), plus a lot of compilation appearances . His first cd "Dirty Blind Vortex" has been released by Crionic Mind (usa). New releases show the new sound direction taken by Deison: calm waves of looping deep ambient scapes, penetrated with sample fragments and light additional noise-ambient textures form a silent, minimal frame-set. Experience this new imaginary movie soundtrack. His works have been released on Silentes Records (Italy), Aagoo (U.S.A.) and new collaboration works emerged with Candor Chasma, Sara Galan and Mingle. He also contibutes sounds for his more dark-ambient duo Cinise (with G.Santoro). He works as a dj in a indipendent local radio (Loud! radio show) playing electronic, avantgarde and experimental music and is a co-fouder of Final Muzik label.
Sounds recorded,assembled and processed by Deison (2013-2016)
Deison: electronics,field recordings,tapes,objects,synths
Ennio Mazzon : electronics on "Blissfull Moments"
Andrea "Mingle" Gastaldello : piano and synth on "Motionless pt.1 and pt.2"
Israel Martinez : field recordings on "Motionless"
Mastered by James Plotkin
Artwork by Andrea Maioli [Kanaka Project]
mfu/c 009 - L!CD09
100 copies // digipack//cd-r//limited edition
www.manyfeetunder.eu
www.deison.net
https://deison.bandcamp.com/album/any-time-now
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Una Notte Che Non Finisce Mai |
BOOK + CD |
CD + 8" 48-page booklet in Italian, ltd. 200 copies
Deison / Tonizzo
Una notte che non finisce mai
"It often happens that crime stories are able to influence the larger history that surrounds them, but very few are those that managed to change aspects of society and pass through more than five decades unharmed, at least in terms of fascination. The whole story of the Monster of Florence is one of them. It is impossible not to get entangled or at least to be captured by it, if one delves into its pages of far-fetched features and too many unanswered questions. For us, as for many, the case of the Monster of Florence has become an obsession. We periodically dusted it off, racking our brains in vain over details or the possible culprit. This time, 40 years after the crimes that started the psychosis of the infamous couple killer, we told ourselves that we had to somehow get rid of it and we did it our way."
The project "Una notte che non finisce mai" (A Night that Never Ends) is made up of eight short stories (written by Sandra Tonizzo) and eight sound episodes created by Deison, and tells the incredible story of the "Monster of Florence" through suggestions, chronicles, impressions and memories. The booklet (21x21cm, 48 colour pages) and the CD included are published in a limited edition of 200 copies for Silentes' newborn label "1970".
store.silentes.it/catalogue/7001.htm
https://deison.bandcamp.com/album/una-notte-che-non-finisce-mai
"Buch und CD: Sandra Tonizzo, Deison und das Monster von Florenz
Schon seit ein paar Wochen erhältlich, hierzulande aber immer noch eine News wert ist das aktuelle Gemeinschaftswerk zwischen dem Soundkünstler Cristiano Deison und der Autorin Sandra Tonizzo. “Una Notte Che Non Finisce Mai” setzt sich aus einer CD Deisons und einem mehrfarbigen Bild- und Textband von Tonizzo zusammen, in dem auf 50 Seiten die faszinierende Geschichte des sogenannten Monsters von Florenz – Il mostro di Firenze, auch genannt der Mörder mit dem Skalpel - in acht Geschichten, Dokumenten, Reportagen und anderen Textsorten erzählt wird.
Der spektakuläre Kriminalfall, bei dem ein oder mehrere Täten in den Jahren zwischen 1968 und 1985 im Umland von Florenz acht Liebespaare in Serie massakrierten, wurde in Italien schnell zum Stoff urbaner Legenden und zahlreicher fiktionalisierter Umsetzungen in Büchern, Filmen, Comics und Serien, in deren Tradition das vorliegende Werk steht. Die CD enthält gewissermaßen den Soundtrack zum Buch in Form dunkler, in weiten Teilen samplebasierter, harsh-ambienter Klangwelten. Das Werk erscheint beim Silentes-Ableger 1970." [African Paper]
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| DEISON + GIANLUCA FAVARON |
Nearly Invisible |
CD |
"Cristiano Deison and Gianluca Favaron met in 2011 when the latter was a guest on Deison's "Night Sessions" album on Silentes. Both involved in many projects and music collaborations - Favaron with Lasik Surgery, Maribor, Zbeen and Under The Snow, and Deison with Mingle, Matteo Uggeri and Maurizio Bianchi - during the summer of 2015, at last free from previous engagements, they finally decide to mix their sound attitudes and give life to "Nearly Invisible", an album where they process concrete sounds, field-recordings, digital impulses and analog tapes. A sort of "rational improvisation" where the two artists have a conversation talking through the sounds of their surrounding realities. A slow overlapping of contaminated drones, embedded with manipulated noises describes "nearly invisible" environments visually captured by the companion pictures taken by Stefano Gentile. Rough images, textured, dirty; details that open windows onto landscapes where you can recognize panoramas, shadows and structures. All of this is presented in a high quality package, also available as a limited "art edition".
DEISON
Deison is involved in the experimental electronic area since more than 20 years (he played in Meathead during '90s) and he approached the world of sounds doing his own tape collages with tape recorders, turntables and objects mainly in the field of experimental noise; he runs a small label (Loud!) and collaborates with artist like Lasse Marhaug, KK Null, Teho Teardo, Thurston Moore, Scanner, etc... Influenced by the experimental music, ambient minimal electronic as well as a great interest into digital music and sound design, he operates with loops, field-recordings and drones to develop swirling electronic sounds of enormous range and complex musicality. Waves of looping deep ambient scapes, penetrated with sample fragments and light additional noise-ambient textures form Deison’s silent, minimal frame-set. His records have been released on various labels in Japan, Usa, UK, Italy and Germany. Latest collaborations include works with Maurizio Bianchi, Uggeri and Mingle.
Gianluca FAVARON
An electroacoustic musician, his work focuses on the processing of concrete sounds using software made on purpose. Field-recordings, drones: an approach that uses different music languages, to elaborate, merge or transform the sounds made by everyday objects into something different, both taking them out of context and/or processing and modifying them with various effects. He currently collaborates with Corrado Altieri in the "Altieri | Favaron" project and with Stefano Gentile (Silentes) as "Under the Snow". In 2015 he has released the CD albums "Entretien" on 13/Silentes and "Forget About Any Non-Gray" on MFU /Concrete; the Ab'SHE / Uncodified (Corrado Altieri) split album "Applied Misinformation for People Control" was also released by Naked Lunch Records.
"Nearly Invisible" is released in two different editions:
- a standard edition of 230 copies (CD + Book);
- a limited "art" edition of 13 copies housed in a 12" gatefold handpainted cover that also include one original photo (size 26x26 cm) + CD + Book" [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| DEISON / DEVIS |
Bees |
MC |
After a split cassette in 1997, «Bees» is in fact the first collaboration ever between the two historical Italian experimenters Deison and Devis G.
Deison and Devis worked meticulously, but in an instictive and natural way to this project, inspired by the natural order of things, by bringing piece after piece sounds, texts and rhythms, gathering them together to build a complex structure, like bees do.
Out in a limited edition of 60 numbered copies, with download code on Luce Sia label!
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| DEISON / GALAN |
Cayendo |
CD-R |
“One meeting, one recording: 8 tracks. A cello mixed with dirty electronics”
In summer 2012 Deison meets in Spain Sara Galan, a cello artist based in Valencia.
In this meeting they decided to record some stuff together: some cello ambient drones
have been mixed with filed recordings, tapes and electronic sounds.
This improvised material was first inspired by the sentence repeated in loop for days:
“Earth swallow me” (”Tierra tragame).
And then the concept leads to internal sounds, sound from stomach, sounds from the throat. Visceral sounds also connected with earth, sand, mud and desert.
Audio material has been manipulated and assembled in winter for a release on Loud! label, Deison’s personal record label re-activated after a long silence.
Francesca Mele provided the perfect visual imagery for the cover artwork with her b&w photography and Gianluca Becuzzi (Limbo,Noise Trade Company) mastered the album with his perfect touch.
https://deison.bandcamp.com/album/cayendo |
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| DEISON / MATTEO UGGERI |
In the other House |
LP |
"Final Muzik label presents a new limited edition release: it's a collaboration work by our label's backbone DEISON and Italian musician MATTEO UGGERI. It has been co-released with Old Bicycle Records and Oak Editions + the artists (through their own labels Loud! and Grey Sparkle). "It was not born as a concept album, but as it was slowly becoming like the music inside it the sound work of Cristiano Deison and Matteo Uggeri ended up finding itself, step by step, enclosed between the narrow walls of an exceptional home. Arriving there from different places and positions, and never actually meeting, Friulian and Milan found themselves, perhaps inspite of themselves, together in uncomfortable rooms which were populated by dark invisible presences. It is not the scenario of a horror movie, there is no tragedy or fear, just the knowledge that somewhere else or the escape itself may be less reassuring than one has hoped. Therefore Francesca Mele's photos, both a seal of the workand source of inspiration for the music seem to further cloak the place in that sense of quiet desperation that daily life often implies." Limited edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEISON / MAURIZIO BIANCHI |
[Black Panorama] |
CD |
"One of the best Maurizio Bianchi's collaboration works and one of the best Deison's albums. Period. Music for black landscapes. MAURIZIO BIANCHI: "Prologue: The title can already say a lot of contents. When we see ahead of us a view from the inside and we see another, the two views collide and according to our state of mind we can see a negative panorama or a more positive one. That's why this work will help us to regain our peace of mind or to lose it forever, while remaining unchanged the view before us". Limited to 200 copies only." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEL POZO, ARTURO RUIZ |
Composiciones Nativas |
LP |
BUH RECORDS IS PLEASED TO PRESENT A MASTERPIECE OF PERUVIAN AVANT GARDE MUSIC "COMPOSICIONES NATIVAS" (1978) BY ARTURO RUIZ DEL POZO - LP REISSUE
By the end of the 1970s, a new generation of musicians who brought together ancestral and forefront, became visible in Lima as they searched for native sounds and the new tools of technology. Amongst them, we find Arturo Ruiz Del Pozo, composer who studied with Edgar Valcárcel. After studying at the National Conservatory in Lima he traveled to London in 1976 to register himself at the Royal College of Music where he took a master's degree in electronic composition. Ruiz Del Pozo had left Lima with a bag full of Peruvian native instruments with the idea of utilizing them in his future compositions. In London he was taught by Lawrence Casserly, one the prominent figures of Britain's electro acoustic composition; a musician who was fascinated by the interaction of instruments and electronic media way back from the times of his fundamental audiovisual experimentation group Hydra. Ruiz del Pozo utilized a series of concrete music resources learnt from Casserly. Based on sounds that came from native instruments and diverse manipulations to which these sounds were subject of, he obtained textures and sonorities, which, at the same time they invoked rituals, they opened a new field of experimentation; a collage of sounds of Andean reminiscence, echoes and abstractions, which will entrance you an unprecedented sound universe. These recordings were named Native Compositions (Composiciones Nativas) and they were released in a cassette tape format in 1984 by the author himself. More than 30 years later Buh Records rescued these recordings to inaugurate its Essential Sounds Collection, dedicated to publishing strange and fascinating artifacts of Peruvian experimental music of this period, in a CD edition (2015), which was quickly sold out. Now the label presents its first release on vinyl.
https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/br66-arturo-ruiz-del-pozo-composiciones-nativas-1978-sounds-essentials-collection-vol-1
|
2018 |
€21.50 |
|
| DELETED |
Systeme Nerveux |
CD-R |
“Quirky mid-tempo techno from the French duo also known as Klimperei. Using a weird pop sensibility akin to the Art of Noise or Yello, with some moments of Tortoise-like post jazz, and a slightly melancholy flavour. Makes me feel like sipping a cold grape soda and sitting on the porch and letting the rest of the world go to hell. As Kraftwerk once said: "Musique Non-Stop, Techno Pop !!" [label info] |
2000 |
€8.00 |
|
| DELPHIUM |
Snowhill X (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
a strange and unique blend of ambient Industrial with sometimes even dub-rhytmical-tunes; low-fi and very deeply frequenced... reminds on SCORN or early COIL sometimes! A very own style...
first edition
250 copies, clear vinyl,
handmade cover art with printed
linoleum finishing/center piece
released May 1997
"This outfit from berkshire, uk, has gained some attention through the releases of several self-produced 7"es in the past few years, which showed a great variety and mixture of influences, all combined in an experimental
manner to reach unknown fields of musical creation. One can find elements of industrial, techno & ambient & even rock in the songs of Delphium, that are mixed and varied into a kind of "low-fi" homerecording-style that is sometimes dark & melancholic, sometimes rhythmically pulsating and even danceable. As this is really hard to describe we recommend this 7" to everyone who is able to confront him/herself with a musical style that can't be sticked into a musical drawer, that is always surprising and shifting (some people even
compared it with early-coil!). This e.p. contains 4 tracks of a darker nature,
spheric electronics, noises and guitars with a very cineastic character... [label info]]
"This group proceeds from the british school of guitar-noise groups (such as their friends and colleagues Splintered), combining experimental
music elements within the rock format. However Delphium are strangely different from this. Having appeared near 4 years back and having written currently a variety of works on the small independent labels (mainly 7" singles;
the long awaited CD "How Can You Hide from What Never Goes Away?" has seen the light of day only recently through Outsider), they continue dubbed bass studies in combinations with sampled technological rhythms and guitar.
Their sounding is a strange and unique mixture of ambient-industrial, dub-rhythmic tonality, low- and exceedingly deeply frequencies of low-fi-darkness, harmonics, repetitive noise-feedbacks, industrial drones and voices, riffs
and gloomy electronic depths, melancholies and more active rhythmic beat-pulsations,
reminding a strange dance on the edge of trance and claustrophobia, freely based on the firm foundation of their creative ideas. Written in the style of homerecording, their work reminds Scorn or even early Coil in places, but their own style is individual.
The recording of four compositions for "Snowhill-X" was made in 1995, but mixed only recently, having present getting dark sullen fall in tones of spherical electronics play "Unforgiven", polished extremities with thick
striking sounding of title composition, finishing with massive wall of guitar sounding, oppressive drone-philosophies of internal sample cogitations of "Stringsong 1" and strange keyboard canto with knocking time and again on background gloomy spheres of "Lie to Me". Manual design on the linoleum, best work."
[Achtung Baby!]
SELECTED WORKS:
Delphium/Lull (7", split, Aquese, 1994)
Delphium/Husk (7", split, Aquese, 1994)
Delphium/Sheephead (7", split, Alleysweeper, 1995)
Breeding Bad Blood (7", Outsider, 1996)
Delphium/Big City Orchestra (7", split, Aquese, 1997)
How Can You Hide from What Never Goes Away? (CD, Outsider, 1997)
|
1997 |
€ |
|
| DELPLANQUE, MATHIAS |
La Plinthe |
CD |
Empfehlenswerte CD dieses Komponisten aus Nantes, LA PLINTHE bewegt sich zwischen digitaler microwave-ambience und spannender Electronica. Bedächtig, elegant, intelligent gemacht..
“La Plinthe” opens with crackling and sizzling noises, then settles into a rhythm of subdued explosions, which leave prismic debris in their wake before fading into the void. Instead of introducing a philosophical analysis of the relation between sound and silence, the first track serves as a sort of meditation, guiding the listener into the core of the album and shutting out uninvited outside noises. Even the glistening drone of the second part is merely a messenger, before a delayed bass and rustily breathing ambiances create the illusion of safety in an entirely alien territory.
It is here, in the middle section of the work, that Delplanque truly unpacks his talent. Comforting hiss, consoling crackles and flirring chordal fenlights are held together by the power of deep, resonating bass vibrations, as tracks settle into the groove of strangely consoling wordless Dream Dub. By locking the body in subtle movement, he is able to caress the sweetly drugged mind with brushstrokes of abstract noises. Even though the record descends into a dark cave towards the end, the grand, eight minute finale picks the listener up again, shining a path through the darkness with a majestic piece made of nothing but a stoically hit piano key over an undulating continuum of swelling hums, a warm impulse drone and the suggestion of rhythm by means of evolving patterns made from grating and gravelling timbres. [label info]
"It has taken some time, but a new generation of experimental musicians, respecting these demands intentionally or by instinct, is making itself heard. Delplanque is one of a few select players who stand a serious chance of reaching beyond the outer edges of a small niche. While his contribution to international trio project The Missing Ensemble may be more pronounced, almost aggressive even in its translation of inorganic sources into emotive compositions, his solo work is fueled by a personal approach capable of touching the listener in the sentive area of his heart. If “Le Pavillon Témoin” (from previous year) sounded as though he were trying to achieve this by means of allowing acoustic instruments and hints of melody and harmony into his oeuvre, “La Plinthe” does away with these luxuries and sheds whatever notion of the old world there might have been. The real aim of this radicality is neither benevolent shock nor progress for progress’ sake, but rather attaining a sense of coherency and of interrelatedness between the album’s building blocks. In an orchestra, there is no intrinsic connection whatsoever between a piano and violin. In Delplanque’s symphonies, however, their faintly shimmering echoes are like brother and sister. “La Plinthe” opens with crackling and sizzling noises, then settles into a rhythm of subdued explosions, which leave prismic debris in their wake before fading into the void. Instead of introducing a philosophical analysis of the relation between sound and silence, the first track serves as a sort of meditation, guiding the listener into the core of the album and shutting out uninvited outside noises. Even the glistening drone of the second part is merely a messenger, before a delayed bass and rustily breathing ambiances create the illusion of safety in an entirely alien territory. It is here, in the middle section of the work, that Delplanque truly unpacks his talent. Comforting hiss, consoling crackles and flirring chordal fenlights are held together by the power of deep, resonating bass vibrations, as tracks settle into the groove of strangely consoling wordless Dream Dub. By locking the body in subtle movement, he is able to caress the sweetly drugged mind with brushstrokes of abstract noises. Even though the record descends into a dark cave towards the end, the grand, eight minute finale picks the listener up again, shining a path through the darkness with a majestic piece made of nothing but a stoically hit piano key over an undulating continuum of swelling hums, a warm impulse drone and the suggestion of rhythm by means of evolving patterns made from grating and gravelling timbres. You need to like these sounds, these delicate crackles and the fireplace-metaphorics they evoke in order to enjoy the album as a whole. It is no longer possible denying their aesthetics by hiding behind a smart concept, simply because there is none. On the other hand, that is exactly why “La Plinthe” works in such a magnetic and rich way: Even though it offers a depth of structures Pop and Rock could never muster, it forces the listener to either hate or love it. Whatever your pick: Kissing your lover to a piece of sound art, no longer seems like a ridiculous thought.." [Tobias Fischer, Tokafi]
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Ma Chambre quand je n'y suis pas (Paris) |
mCD-R |
"mathias delplanque is a sound artist born in ouagadougou (burkina faso) in 1973. he released records under his own name or under the pseudonyms of lena and bidlo, on several labels around the world. the works under his name all deal with the relation between space and music. with the series "ma chambre quand je n’y suis pas" ("my bedroom when I’m away"), he uses field recordings from empty private spaces to compose works standing at the border between concrete and drone music. this "paris" version is the first opus of the series. it was created in 2001 but had never been released yet. mathias delplanque remixed it in 2008 and edited it in a single 20 minutes version for taâlem." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Drachen |
LP |
"News from Ici D'Ailleurs Mind Travels Series: Mathias Delplanque is an artist from Nantes who was born in Burkina Faso and has close links with the ambient, electronic, electro-acoustic and concrete musical spheres as well as dub and field recordings. His approach is therefore intimately intertwined with the creation of sound. Sound in the physical sense of the term, sound which goes through your body modifying your perception without ever giving into the academism which can sometimes be found in music in the field of pure musical sound research. There is no question of theorization here - rather questioning all the possibilities which enable an artistic vision to be pushed to reach its pinnacle. Mathias has been perfecting this approach to music for 15 years name under his own name or different pseudonyms (Bidlo, Lena). However, the premising underpinning the album we are discussing today is slightly different from that of his other productions. Normally Mathias takes his time to finely and obsessively sculpt his work down to the smallest detail but here Drachen (Dragons in German) reveals itself to be a much more direct and incisive album. Taking the idea that impurities can also give life to music as a starting point, he set himself a constant working rhythm and the aim of adding interference rather than the sublime going so far as to create actual interference with his mobile phone to disturb the rhythm and harmony of his compositions. By his own admission, he works urgently to induce mistakes or accidents to liberate himself from his own automatic reflexes. Drachen is therefore a dangerous album both for its author and for listeners. However the result remains impressive because, even though questioning accepted ideas is an essential facet of the record, there is an intact sensibi lity which provokes emotion. All sorts of instruments (guitar, bass, melodica, kora, synths etc.) are run through live electronic processing and he manages to bring a beautiful melancholy - even a certain tenderness - out of this sonic mass despite the roughness of the overall sound. The record is made up of 7 highly distinct pieces which nevertheless fit together as a coherent whole. Although instrumental, Drachen is a largely narrative album which recounts its own story. It is a necessary reminder that just sound and consequently silence are fantastic vectors for communication. At the end of the record, an eighth track makes an appearance to prolong the story and provide a conclusion for the album. The track is introduced by 2008 field recordings from the village of Gandefabou in northern Burkina Faso and offers a calm environment full of humanity.
It is heavy with meaning given the current situation of this region of the world struggling with jihadism. "Vielleicht sind alle Drachen unseres Lebens Prinzessinnen, die nur darauf warten uns einmal schön und mutig zu sehen".
"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage." RAINER MARIA RILKE, Letters to a Young Poet " [label info]
www.icidailleurs.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Chutes |
CD |
"What a pleasure it is to see an artist develop, mature, and produce his best album yet – and, even better, for Baskaru! After 14 years of activity as a composer, Mathias Delplanque has refined his art to the point where, at age 39, he delivers a true masterpiece called Chutes.
After several years spent creating highly conceptualized sound installations and electroacoustic compositions (Ma chambre quand je n'y suis pas being one of many highlights), Delplanque has designed for himself a work station that allows him to step away from a studio's logic to record, transform, edit and mix sound sources all at once in a live setting. Using real objects, instrument samples and computer, he spontaneously builds aural gems that hide a frantic level of activity under their occasionally serene looks. And that frenzy is not fake, since all the tracks on this album are edited from live solo performances (recorded between 2010 and 2012), with no overdubs.
Mathias Delplanque is active in several new music spheres, as a composer, an improviser, a performer, a music reviewer, and a teacher. He is known in electronica circles under the monikers Lena, Bidlo, and Stensil. In the field of sound art, he makes sound installations, electroacoustic compositions, field recordings, and more recently electronic improvisations. He owns the Bruit Clair label."
www.baskaru.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Temoins |
MC |
A series of commissioned works, each connected to a location given to me. The sites were used as recording studios for creating multilayered compositions with minimal to none post-production. All instruments were played on site. Roz was recorded in Roz-sur-Couesnon in April-May 2014, mixed in Nantes in September 2016. Commissioned by the sound art gallery Le Bon Accueil (Rennes), as a workshop with schools from the area of the Mont Saint-Michel. Bruz was recorded at the Faculté des Métiers (IFA) de Bruz (Rennes) in March-April 2011, mixed in Nantes in May 2011. Commissionned by the Festival Electroni-K in Rennes, for the “Sound Postcards” program. TU was recorded at the Théatre Universitaire de Nantes, 8 October 2011, during a rehearsal of Stomach Company’s Ô l’air frais des bords de route. Mixed in Nantes, 9 October 2011.
Mathias Delplanque was born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1973. He is a composer, performer, improviser, music critic, author of sound installations, teacher, composer for theatre and dance, and the founding member of several musical ensembles. He lives and works in Nantes, France.
Delplanque started working as a composer in 1998 as he graduated from the Fine Arts School and decided to put an end to his sculpture activity and turn towards sound creation. He has since been releasing on various international labels, including his own label Bruit Clair. He collaborated with musicians from various points of the musical spectrum, and numerous visual artists, writers, photographers, film directors, dancers, etc. His installation works are frequently shown in galleries and art centres, and he regularly performs on stage, solo or accompanied by other musicians.
"Témoins" is Mathias Delplanque’s third release in Crónica, after the acclaimed "Passeports" (Crónica 048~2010) and "Transmissions" (Crónica 088~2014).
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/t-moins
|
2018 |
€9.50 |
|
| DEMOULIN, JULIEN & IA |
The Bay |
CD |
"A tribute to both a great friendship and the mist-mantled San Francisco Bay Area, “The Bay” is a sprawling forty-minute drone piece recorded and produced in 2009 and 2010 over the course of several journeys between Oakland, California and Brussels, Belgium.
Guitar and vocal drones, environmental recordings and flute merge to form an emotional travelogue at the grey boundaries of the dreaming and waking worlds…in celebration of reminiscence, before a darkling dawn, deep under the skies of water…" [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
"These two new releases on Basses Frequences see further exploration of the theme of ambient music, but are worked out differently. On the soft(er) edge we have a collaboration between Julien Demoulin and IA, recorded in Brussels and Oakland. The thematic approach here is about the Bay Area of California, but it could have been anything else really. Demoulin and IA use, apparently, guitars, voices, environmental recordings and flute in these two pieces which exactly last twenty minutes. Perhaps they intended this to do be a LP? Compared to other CDs I was listening to, around this, this is very soft music. I am not sure why that is, but I'm glad its not on vinyl; who knows what would have been left? Maybe its an artist statement to do it this soft, but it could have been easily a bit louder and still sounding great - I know someone who can a great mastering job, guys. Its not easy to spot those water recordings, or chimes, and certainly in the first part things move away below the surface of audibility. Its music you hear from a distance, maybe just like overlooking the bay area (a view to a kill?) from some distance. The music acts like fog horns in the night, far away, shining through the mist and haze of the night. The second piece is a bit 'louder', and comes across like boats passing in the night. Its also the somewhat more abstract piece of the two, dwelling more on sustaining tones, whereas the first part has nicely shimmering melodies. Excellent stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| DER BRIEF |
Volum |
CD |
Release from this now defunct Norwegian label, lim. 500, special priced.
"John Hegre's improv power trio. Guitar, drums and electronics pushed to the limit. Known for having the loudest release party in Norway. Produced by Jørgen 'Sir Dupermann' Traeen. Jewelcase cover. 500 copies." [label description]
|
1999 |
€8.00 |
|
| DESACCORD MAJEUR |
La Coulour Odorante |
CD-R |
Eine weitere Wiederveröffentlichung in der Kokeshidisk-Reihe, erschien im Original 1998 auf MC beim Taalem Vorgänger-Label HARMONIE (harm09). Das Tape der markanten französischen Ethno-Elektroniker war eine Zusammenstellung aus älterem Compilation-Material 1990-1995, plus zweier unveröffentlichter Stücke von 1989.
"reissue of the tape released in 1998 on our previous label Harmonie, "la couleur odorante" gathers eight tracks previously released on various international compilations from 1990 to 1995, showing the evolution of Desaccord Majeur music & sounds with more and more ethnic influences while keeping a melodic and evolutive structure. this reissue includes two previously unreleased track from 1989 (one of the first Desaccord Majeur tracks, very ambient) and 1993 (more in the ethno-ambient sounds he's known for). full color pro-printed A5-sized cardboard cover in a plastic sleeve & full printed cd-r with artwork by cyril herry."[label info]
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
|
La Lumiere des Jours |
CD |
this is a taâlem release - alm 144 - september 2023
composed and mixed by Jérôme Mauduit - december 2022
text on track 4 by Michel Foucault
mastered by Flavien Gillié
photography and design by Désaccord Majeur
Presented in a recycled cardboard gatefold sleeve with a photo sticker on the front and an insert inside.
Limited to 250 numbered copies.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/la-lumi-re-des-jours-alm-144
"The Taalem label took a rest after their long line of 3"CDRs but now returns with a factory-pressed CD by the long-running musical project Désaccord Majeur. Jerome Maudit, the man behind Désaccord Majeur has been going for many years, with a debut release in 1989. Yet, there have been only ten releases, this one included. From 2003 to 2020, it was total silence. I know I heard many, if not all, of these releases, and yet, I don't have a clear picture of what Désaccord Majeur is all about. After hearing the five pieces on 'La Lumière Des Jours', I still don't know. The music is all electronic, mostly ambient and usually all in a slightly more sequenced way. Not because there is a lot of rhythm, but through sampling and sequencing, many small and bigger elements repeat. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it says that in the past, Désaccord Majeur's music was heavily influenced by Muslimgauze and Rapoon, and maybe it was and still is, but there is something unique about the music of Désaccord Majeur.
Less 'ethnic' (if that is a word we can still use), maybe a bit more 'dance-like', and with sufficient additional sounds, such as the distortion in 'Les Nombres Transfinis'. The music is quite moody and atmospheric, darkish, but it's not for dark for the sake of darkness. We find the shortest piece at seven minutes and almost fourteen the longest. Désaccord Majeur takes his time to let his music develop; it is time well-spend. Nowhere I had the idea that it was too slow (or rushed!), just the right amount needed to let it all develop naturally. Beautiful stuff that made me realize I should, when I have some more time, also return to some of the previous releases." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Les Primordiaux Crepusculaires |
do-CD |
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/les-primordiaux-cr-pusculaires-kodi-15
1 Les lois du Cercle
Previously released on "homework - year 7" - various - taâlem - 2022
vimeo.com/787931859
Composed November, 2022
2 Mimèsis
From "Mimèsis, le théatre botanique" installation by the plastician artist Sophie Videgrain
Salle des templiers - Label Friche - Nogent-le-Rotrou - France (Journée du patrimoine - September 18-19, 2021)
sophievidegrain.ultra-book.com
Previously released on "homework - year 6" - various - taâlem - 2021
vimeo.com/688304253
Composed September, 2021
3 Nomos
Previously released on "homework - year 5" - various - taâlem - 2020
Composed December, 2020
4 Res Publica
Previously released on "homework - year 4" - various - taâlem - 2019
Composed November, 2019
5 Bushveld
Previously released on "homework - year 3" - various - taâlem - 2018
Composed November, 2018
6 Ex Folia
From "Ex folia" exhibition by the plastician artist Sophie Videgrain and the photographer Vincent Brien at La maison des comtes du Perche in Mortagne-au-Perche, France in May 2017
Text written by Denis Boyer, read by Frédérique Bruyas and Christine Batty
sophievidegrain.ultra-book.com/ex-situ-p230234
Previously released on "homework - year 2" - various - taâlem - 2017
Composed April, 2017
7 Time is always now
Previously released on "Coilectif (In Memory Ov John Balance And Homage To Coil)" - various - Rotorelief - 2006 (CD ROTORCD0001 - 2LP ROTOR0001)
Composed September, 2005
8 Les primordiaux crépusculaires
Composed June, 2001
9 Nomad 27
Previously released on "Lágrimas De Miedo N°5 - Kimota" - various - Fear Drop - 1998 (CD LAGR 005)
Composed February, 1998
10 Noun
Previously released on "ahimsâ" - various - Harmonie - 1997 (CD HARM 07)
Composed August, 1996
11 Zemi
Previously released on "sans titre, 2001-2004" - various - taâlem - 2005
Composed April, 1995
|
2024 |
€16.00 |
|
| DESIDERII MARGINIS |
Years lend a golden Charm |
CD |
Kollektion des frühesten Materials von den ersten drei Tapes, hier klingt alles noch reduzierter, einfacher, elektronisch & rhythmisch, aber schon mit deutlich melancholischem Einschlag, erinnert an andere frühe COLD MEAT INDUSTRY-Tapes aus dieser Zeit. Wohl v.a. für D.M. Fans interessant, oder für Tape-Nostalgiker, dies hat den "typischen" Tapesound!
"To gain a deeper understanding of what is, it is necessary to examine what was ¬ to go to the sources and the origins. With the emergence of this brand new offering by Desiderii Marginis, ‘Years Lend a Golden Charm’ we are invited to experience the very birth of what is now a well established and worldwide recognised project within the dark-ambient industrial scene. The contents of the new album is made up of some 73 minutes of material from the first three tapereleases from 1993. Highly sought after by collectors but only available in a mere dozen of handmade copies, these songs are now finally made available to a greater audience. When you listen to the music with the knowledge that hindsight brings - it is obvious that these are the roots and the foundations, not only of the first full length album ‘Songs Over Ruins’, but of every succesive release up to the latest ‘Seven Sorrows’. In 1993 there was no set course, no long term plan ¬ and still, maybe it couldn’t have turned out any other way?" [label info]
www.eternalpride.ru
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Thaw |
CD |
"Of the Swedish wave of ambient acts from the 1990s, Desiderii Marginis is one of the few still active and definitely one of the finest of those few. Over the course of 20 years, Levin released 7 full-length albums, a 3-way split and a collection of rare pre-debut demos plus numerous tracks on various compilations. His latest offering entitled "Thaw" compiles the latter and adds 3 tracks from the split "Lost Signals from Unknown Horizons". On the one hand, it is simply a collection of rare tracks, but, on the other, it may serve a purpose of a "best of" album. With the chronology unaltered, it gives you the full picture of the project and its progress. It is a history lesson of the last 20 years in sonic melancholia of Desiderii Marginis.
This edition is released in a 3-panel digipak strictly limited to 1000 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEUPREE, TAYLOR |
Mur |
LP |
Deupree describes the album title “as if there’s always something about my music that’s like a murmur”, resulting in a murmuring effect when pronouncing the names of each track. Mur is a personal journey through the challenging year that 2020 has been.
Taylor Deupree is an American musician and mastering engineer based just outside of New York. As a former member of the American electronic band Prototype 909, Deupree has had numerous collaborations with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Stephen Vitiello, Alva Noto and Marcus Fischer. Curating 12k, a New-York based music label, is another aspect of Deupree’s career and brought together over one hundred releases since its beginnings in 1997. Having some similar artists in our catalog (Federico Durand, Will Samson and Steinbüchel for example), it’s safe to say that Deupree’s new release through Dauw will be in good company.
"Mur is a profoundly tender work, made for close listening; the waters of its meditational, memorial stream of flowing minimalist ambient run deep." (Loud and Quiet, 7/10)
https://dauw.bandcamp.com/album/mur |
2021 |
€23.00 |
|
| DEUTSCH NEPAL |
Tolerance |
CD |
Die zeitgleich zur "Erosion" Neuauflage erscheinende zweite DEUTSCH NEPAL Re-issue ist die vom "Tolerance"-Album, das im Original bereits 1994 erschien. Klassiker des schwedischen (Post)- Industrials der diverse Genre-Grenzen überschritt !
"The genial album Tolerance is one more golden deja vu of the industrial culture, released by Staalplaat label long ago, sold out and desperately sought and hunted in auctions by collectors. The new release of the cult album enjoys the enhanced sound and the new package design from the author Lina Baby Doll. And this time it does not come out in limited edition like its predecessor. The new generations can get it without limitations. Those who do not know Lina Baby Doll’s masterpieces, should be informed that Tolerance is an artefact of the early stage of project’s Deutsch Nepal music. The period is characterised by ritual tribal rhythms, mesmerising loops and indeed suggestive psychedelic atmosphere." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Amygdala |
CD |
"Amygdala is the latest album of the Swedish industrial music guru Der General. After listening to this album, one finds it difficult to decide whether it is a masterpiece of hypnotic music, the hallucinations of delirium tremens or perhaps the sign announcing the approaching apocalypse? Magnificent, gloomy and profound tracks create the atmosphere reminding the last days of the last member of the royal family or the celebration of the collapse of its era by a majestic empire. But that is only the general mood of the album. The tracks are very different from each other. Some of them frightful, some majestic, while the rest are calm and deep like dreams. And yet the subject matter of all lyrics is in one or another way related to death and the secret lurking behind it. Actually, Der General conveys it with remarkable subtlety. The album contains a number of crescendos, at least three hits and yet none of them reveal the secret fully. Der General music mesmerises with its slow and massive rhythms inherent most probably only to the Scandinavian electronics, and icy ambient flow inborn to the Northern men. Amygdala is the undisclosed secret. In various shapes it occurs throughout the album tracks where Der General to Heaven travels to meet Jesus and the holy family and investigate the nature of the supernatural ecstasy. Something bothers him and he leaves Heaven. In other tracks he states that we have to be reborn and continue living, later he takes part in the mystic funeral train burying and then resurging dead dogs. Upon their revival, the dogs attack the participants of the train and spread panic. Amygdala is a very colourful kaleidoscope of psychedelic visions. Der General concludes the album by letting us know that it is all clear to him and that the atmosphere is absolutely rotten. Perhaps it is a result of the empty bottle, or much more serious reasons…" [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEUTSCH, ANDREW & STEPHEN VITIELLO |
Inductive Music |
CD-R |
"issued in 2006 as a limited edition cdr on 'magic if'. re-released on nov. 23rd 2007 to celebrate kyra's 1st birthday" [label info]
http://absurd.noise-below.org/
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| DEYHIM, SUSSAN / BILL LASWELL |
Shy Angels. Reconstructions and Mix Translation of |
CD |
"The previous three artists whose work was revisited by Bill Laswell are Miles Davis, Bob Marley and Carlos Santans... we were therefore both honored & thrilled when the mighty Bill (whose credentials as a producer include names such as Laurie Anderson, Afrika Bambaataa, George Clinton, Yoko Ono, and most recently Herbie Hancock) accepted to create a new interpretation of Iranian diva Sussan Deyhim's "Madman Of God" album.
The result is magnificent and provides a continuous, 45 minutes listening experience which includes re-arranged versions of all albms's songs, featuring new performances by musicians including Karsh Kale, renowned Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain and others, on top of the original albums's line-up (Reggie Workman, Glen Valez, Reza Derakhshani etc).
"Madman of God", which came out in 2000, is Sussan Deyhim's uniquely personal reading of devine love poems by Rumi, Saadi and other Persian Sufi masters, set to a mixture of traditional Persioan music and delicate electronics, her extraordinary vocals being the central focus.
Deyhim's live performances in 2001 were few but memorable (including a steaming set at the Montreux Jazz Festival and an acclaimed appearance with Ornette Coleman's group in London). A series of not-to-be-missed festival dates in Europe are planned for this year." [label info]
www.crammed.be
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| DHOMONT, FRANCIS |
Birthdays |
LP |
"One Sided White Vinyl Picture Disc LP. Edition of 300. New recordings from 2007-2010 by 85 year old French Composer Francis Dhomont. This LP is Dhomonts first appearance on vinyl since his 1982 record on INA-GRM Sous Le Regard D'un Soleil Noir. Birthdays explores high fidelity studio editing methods of concrete sound and vocal manipulation. Each record screenprinted by hand with archival high gloss varnish. Stored in a PVC sleeve with sticker with program notes by Dhomont & Jean-Francois Denis. 'Quelques Eclats' (2010), 'Les Flux Des Sons' (2010), 'Forte-Piano' (2008, 10), 'Denature Parme-Sons' (2007)." [label info]
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
| DIALING IN |
Cows in Lye |
CD |
Sehr interessantes Drone-Projekt aus Seattle, absolut undurchdringliche low-fi drones, die aber voller verdeckter Harmonien stecken, die kaum noch erahnbar sind. Basierend auf v.a. indische field recordings, wird hier mit der klassischen LUCIER-Methode immer weiter verfremdet...
"DIALING IN is the ecstatic roaring psychedelic drone project of Seattle based sound artist REITA PIECUCH. Utilizing the natural acoustics of a series of reverberant spaces she weaves together super saturated soundscapes by recording in one environment, playing back in another, and then re-recording this recording playing back in yet another environment (etc.). On Cows in Lye, the original sound sources range from loops of field recordings from a trip to India, piano, and the shifting drones of a "Shruti Box" (electronic Tamboura). One track also features a long stream of consciousness vocal performance from avant-crooner HERB DIAMANTE! After a trek with recording gear through the caves, cathedrals and bunkers of Seattle these ingredients are transformed into huge and sublimely distorted quasi-melodic dreamscapes. The album lifts off with an ecstatic roar and the intensity doesn't let up until one is released exultant in the green flash of a setting sun." [label info]
www.pseudoarcana.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIAMETRICS |
Options |
CD |
" „Diametrics“ or, say, 'exactly opposite', someone told us some time ago, „gosh, that sounds so edgy, mathematical, New Wave-ish…“. Well, whereas we couldn’t give a damn about the former ideas, we definitely like the latter one. BUT don’t you even dare to think we’re a retro outfit – no fucking way! Just go on reading and let us explain. First of all, there was this trio from Bremen called ILSE LAU, the "post and noise rock monolith from the river Weser." (Szene Hamburg). During the ten years they played together, they released several albums on labels such as Fidel Bastro and Klangbad, before they split up in the Summer of 2007. Guitar player Ansgar went missing for good. So - time for a fresh start. Drummer/singer Henning, who had been intent on giving up hitting cymbals and skinks anyway, took over the vacant six-string position, while Fokke remained true to his bass. In Bremen, there's a saying that there are no drummers in the city. Proven wrong entirely after after just one try. Curtains for Jörn: hello to a fabulously good stickman and technician. First songs and a self-produced CD-r are finished after a few months only. So are initial live shows. The audience states: 'Indie rock' > naah, Diametrics know a few more strange chords. Or the audience says 'Math rock' > Sorry, we don't have calculators with us when we play. Says audience: 'Noise rock' > wrong. The band's too hooked on good melodies. Some even say 'Post rock' > sorry, we're a wee bit too loud for such assumptions. What we want to bring across? We just love finding ourselves in between chairs. We rather get our stuff from everywhere than using the most boring phrase in the music world, i.e. 'We can't be categorized'. You're still keen on adjectives? There you go: aesthetically dirty, consonantally discordant, metrically (in)constant music - partly with English or German lyrics. To be filed somewhere between the likes of SST, Amphetamine Reptile, Too Pure, and the Neue Bremer Schule. The press calls Diametrics "boisterous and feverish New Wave alongside precise stop-and-go Noise rock." (Szene Hamburg). In Summer2009, our first album 'There Is' (produced by Gregor Henning, who had been working with Ilse Lau all along) was released on Fidel Bastro. And more to follow this year. The mixing of the band's second album 'Options' has just been finished, and it's going to see the light of day in late Summer 2011, with supporting live shows to follow. .." [bandinfo]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| DIASPORA |
Ohmworld |
CD-R |
DIASPORA ist australisches „experimental ambience“-Duo, die hier transzendetal-Drones schaffen, die wie ein Meer aus Glockenspielen tönen; oder unendlich lange, energetische Flächen, in die sich subsonische Drones & digitale & backward & konkret rumpelnde Effekte und small sounds drängen.... insgesamt eine sehr gute CDR, ein Name den man sich merken sollte !
“Polished dark ambient soundscapes from Brisbane retaining a sense of continuity without inoculating the ensuing chaos. Diaspora draws the listener into the dark spaces where ceremonial pain is but a stepping stone to transcendence. Isolating the ritual in the religious and resituating it within a tabula-rasa, the audience is inspired to touch their own spirit, find their own gods, worship their own life as the holiest of sacraments. Lloyd Barrett and Joe Musgrove are the primary creative personae behind Diaspora. Both have been heavily involved in all aspects of the BrisbaneExperimental Noise/Sound Art Scene for several years playing together and separately as – Brainlego, Biffplex, and Bourbaki” [label info]
|
2004 |
€9.00 |
|
| DIE ANARCHISTISCHE ABENDUNTERHALTUNG |
#1 |
LP |
LP version. Marbled vinyl. In 1995 the self-titled full-length debut of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (DAAU) was released. The band consisted of four young, "classically derailed" musicians who played their own compositions exclusively with their with acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, clarinet and accordion. Their work contained influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz, and was performed with energy and true punk spirit. DAAU was part of the fertile Antwerp scene, which also produced dEUS, Zita Swoon, and Kiss My Jazz, and soon signed an international record deal with Sony Classical. The group's influential first record, which has been out of print for a while, is now finally being released again and is available on vinyl for the very first time.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/1
In those early days, DAAU consisted of four young, classically trained musicians who tackled their instrumental compositions with a true punk spirit. 'If we'd had guitars, bass or drums at that time, we would probably have been just another rock band', says accordionist Roel Van Camp, who, together with his schoolmates Buni Lenski on violin, the latter's brother Simon on cello and Han Stubbe on clarinet made up the Antwerp quartet. 'With our acoustic instruments we tried to create our own version of the music we loved listening to, from sixties rock and prog to new wave.'
The quartet, which initially played in streets and cafes, appealed to a diverse audience and sometimes joked that they were a classically trained unit that had 'gone off the rails'. 'As befits teenagers, we wanted to shake things up', Stubbe remembers, 'even though we always kept cherishing our classical backgrounds.' Van Camp: 'Our education was never supposed to feel like a straitjacket. We were free-spirited enough to ignore the laws and regulations of the music academy and to create our own sound. Our compositions were
open to influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz'. 'That eclecticism was a direct result of the zeitgeist', Han Stubbe adds. 'We loved different styles and happily mixed them together'.
The monniker Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was derived from Steppenwolf, a novel by German writer Hermann Hesse about a character who was outside society. 'In the book, the narrator talks of a theatre', Van Camp explains. 'And at the entrance there is a warning sign sign that says: if you go in here, you are guaranteed to lose your mind. That was an apt description of the way our music worked'.
Almost all tracks on DAAU's first album were 'Drieslagstelsels' (or 'three-course rotations'). The term referred to an agricultural method of the early Middle Ages, but also to the fact that each song of the group consisted of three major movements. Van Camp: 'The titles of those pieces referred to our method of writing. We piled up a huge bunch of ideas, because we wanted to tell more than just one story. With each composition, we took the listener for a ride'.
|
2023 |
€17.00 |
|
| DIE FORM |
Die Puppe |
LP |
"Die Form is a French post-industrial and electronic band formed in 1977. The name ‘Die Form’ means ‘(the) form/shape’ in German, like the Bauhaus diary and is a play on the English homonym ‘deformed’ and on the French homonym ‘difforme’ (deformed). Die Form is the primary project of electronic musician and multimedia artist Philippe Fichot. He began by recording a number of experimental cassette releases in the late 1970s and formed the Bain Total label to release these early cassettes and various side projects including Krylon Hertz, Mental Code, Camera Obscura, Eva-Johanna Reichstag, Hurt and Fine Automatic.
In 1982 Die Form released their debut vinyl album, “Die Puppe” in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. These are the first esoteric electronic experiments, often improvised, from what would become the sound of the project. Underlying themes of eroticism, death and other ‘taboo’ subjects are apparent in both the music and the album artwork, which Philippe also produces. The album was recorded with entirely analog equipment (Roland MC4 Micro-Composer, TR-808 Rhythm Composer, ARP 2600, Kawai 60F, Revox B77). Songs range from hypnotic, minimalistic proto-IDM to pure, daring experimental sound manipulation. Unable to fit into any genre, “Die Puppe” is in a class of music all its own.
All songs have been remastered from the original master tapes for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The jacket is an exact replica of the original 1982 edition designed by Philippe Fichot, with a photograph of a porcelain doll holding a syringe. Each album includes two post cards with never before seen photos of Philippe with lyrics and liner notes by the band. Prepare to indulge your lustiest hedonistic fetishes." [label info]
www.darkentriesrecords.com
|
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Die Form ÷ Fine Automatic¹ |
LP |
"This release is the unique and complete full album from one of the Die Form side projects, named 'Die Form ÷ Fine Automatic' (from the 'Endless' short tapes serie). This one is released in double albums and also two separate LPs. This double album existis as two separate vinyl LPs in the context of the Archives of Industrial Music from France (offering inside this collection : identical covers, excepting specific typography of the artist or of the band and personalized logotypes) in order to point out its radical aesthetic unity and strong artistic coherence." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2015 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Die Form ÷ Fine Automatic² |
LP |
"This release is the unique and complete full album from one of the Die Form side projects, named 'Die Form ÷ Fine Automatic' (from the 'Endless' short tapes serie). This one is released in double albums and also 2 separate LP. This double album existis as two separate vinyl LPs in the context of the Archives of Industrial Music from France (offering inside this collection : identical covers, excepting specific typography of the artist or of the band and personalized logotypes) in order to point out its radical aesthetic unity and strong artistic coherence." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2015 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Die Form ÷ Hurt |
LP |
This Die Form side-project was recorded in a few days in 1984 and remains the only trace under the name of Hurt, initially released on Bain Total label (K.29 cassette) at the same period as 'Some Experiences With Shock'.
As for the both previous volumes 1 & 2 from the double album 'Die Form ÷ Fine Automatic', it appears in the 'Archives of Industrial Music from France' collection, proposed by Rotorelief Records.
It brings together all the tracks of the cassette, and other titles from Die Form, close in the spirit and in the form, have been added.
It is a kind of snapshot, close to the tear and chaos, where the machines and the out-of-control guitars are used as a support for the cry up to the final exhaustion. Passion - Pain - Urge.
Again, these are experimental and industrial creations, characteristic of this particular period:time, in the spirit of bands as 'No New York' (Teenage Jesus, DNA, James Chance, Mars), and Suicide or Throbbing Gristle, SPK
www.rotorelief.com
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| DIETER MÜH & LON MILO DUQUETTE |
The Call |
LP |
"The first side of this LP is a 23 minute piece entitled “The Call” featuring Lon Milo DuQuette, legendary occultist and leading, & longest serving, member of the OTO in California.
Lon intones the 19 calls of the Aythers in the Enochian language in a truly enlightening piece of ritual magick!
The second side entitled “Sutreworde” is a live performance by Dieter Muh, from 2003 in Leipzig, Germany, featuring pieces from The Call woven into the 23 minute set.
This LP is released on our own HaemOccult imprint (HAEM001)." [label info]
"Following Atomyriades, an exemplary reworking of source material from Mnem, Dieter Müh the much-underrated UK underground electronic outfit return with their own material on The Call. The Call is perhaps the most significant work from Dieter Muh, as it features eminent occult author and Grand Master of the O.T.O. Lon Milo DuQuette reciting Enochian texts, a series of calls in the language of the angels. 'The Call' is based on the work of Dr John Dee, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, and the texts recorded by his scyrer Edward Kelley, who he said were dictated to him in the angel's own language.
'The Call' enters to an atmospheric build up of chiming metal bowls and quietly understated howls of ambient electronics shifting to passages of ringing metal bowls. Its slow pace providing an unmistakeable ritual setting for the poised tones of Lon Milo DuQuette, as he effortlessly wrestles with the intricacies of the Enochian tongue over the shimmer of singing bowls.
As DuQuette relates in the sleevenotes, "The Call is a shuttle that waves high magick and high art - an incantation of transcendent sound and angelic language chanted to the guardians of the Aythers so they might awaken and one by one peel away the thirty membranes of consciousness that, like cerements of the tomb, separate us from the pure consciousness of the divine." Heavy stuff, you're unlikely to encounter elsewhere.
The flipside, 'Sutreworde' is a live recording of Dieter Müh from Augsburg, Germany in 2003. It captures an improvisary performance of Dieter Muh's murky industrial and occult electronics. Skittery electronics are woven with pulses, rattling tones with an assortment of taped voices fed through the mix. With a mass of electronic devices and sampled sources Dave Uden and Steve Cammack, once again, keep firm control of their textured output, even including elements of 'The Call' before bowing out with some ambient droning to taped strains from their 'We're Not Happy…' single.
This recording of 'The Call' has been long promised ever since Dieter Müh and Lon Milo DuQuette performed this live at The Salon music event as part of the Information Wants To Be Free festival at the October Gallery, London, in 2003, a performance I was fortunate to witness. This recorded version does not disappoint and I really can't see this being available for much longer. It's perhaps the closest you'll ever come to communing with the angels.
The Call is released on heavyweight white vinyl in an edition of 230 copies on Dieter Müh's own HaemOccult Recordings imprint. For more information go to www.dietermuh.org." [Compulsion Online] |
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| DIETER MÜH (DIETER MUH) |
The Björn (Bjorn) Tapes |
CD-R |
Three long pieces of re-mixed live-material by the masters of dark grim ambient-noise ! Slowly evolving dense industrial soundscapes full of tension and atmosphere... comes in handmade wood-package!
“Another well deserved re-release of material by these British masters of unique electronics. This work was originally put out on the Japanese Xerxes label in 1999 as a limited tape release. Three lengthy pieces of adventurous and strong electronics beyond categorisation yet lurking somewhere between harsh ambient atmospheres and heavy post-industrial intensity.” [Kaos Kontrol newsletter]
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Feeling a little Horse |
CD |
"Reissue of a live performance by Dieter Müh, originally released on CDr on the Mouth label
in an edition of 15 copies (1998).
Performers were Steve Cammack and Dave Uden.
New CD limited to 150 copies including 3 additional studio tracks from the same period,
taken from 2 CDr compilations on EE Tapes.
Packaged in a 7"-sized cover with 4 extra cards."
[label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Eponymous |
LP |
" “Eponymous” was at first to be a cassette release on the French label Mineurs Du Fonds. In the spring of 1998 José Leseuer (Mineurs Du Fonds operator and journalist) contacted us wanting to distribute our “Black Square” CD album in France and was asking about new material. We mailed him the “Eponymous” recordings. Recorded in late 1998 at our home studio in Forest Fields, Nottingham “Eponymous” is a classic example of a "Work In Progress" album. At the start of 1998 we had ditched our old Roland synths (JD800 / SH101) and invested in sampling devices, an 8 track digital recorder and effects pedals. “Eponymous” features us looping a lot of machinery (including photocopying machines and printing machines) and taking samples from our old 1980’s project Mühviertel. With “Eponymous” we were still learning and discovering the possibilities of reaching the sound we wanted to create / hear.
José never released the cassette, instead he disappeared for four years. In 2002 he resurfaced with a new label called Naninani Recordings and “Eponymous” was now a CDR with a remix by French artist Cedric LeRouley. The original release was 113 copies. José has since disappeared again.
Sentimental Productions have caringly rescued the recordings and re-mastered them. Vinyl seems to make sense….." [Stephen Cammack / Dieter Müh]
https://soundcloud.com/sentimentalroductions
"As I was looking at the cover of this record, I was thinking: does Dieter Müh still exist? The previous release I reviewed was not that long ago, Vital Weekly 1062, but that was, as is this new one, a release recorded in 1998. The previous one was released back then in a small edition, but 'Eponymous' had a somewhat bigger edition back then; 103 copies were released on CDR by Naninani Recordings, a short lived CDR label from France. Vital Weekly, being one of the oldest online sources for this kind of music, of course (well…) reviewed this before, in Vital Weekly 337.
I wrote back then: "One would think that Dieter Müh is just a guy with a funny name, but it's not. I believe they are a duo or trio from the UK. Also, they have been around for sometime now, with a couple of small scale releases some years back. After that things became quiet and they seem to have vanished. But Dieter Müh is back. The pieces on this release are not very recent ones, they were all recorded in 1998 {the release was from 2002 - FdW}. The easiest way to describe Dieter Müh is by labelling them as 'ambient industrialists', but that wouldn't entirely justify them. They operate in a lofi sampling way, lifting samples from probably other people's work, and creating their own dense and dark tapestries of sound. Because of their humble recording methods, the sounds remain kinda obscured, but that is something, I believe, that will appeal to the lovers of
such ambient industrial ethics. The final piece is a remix of Dieter Muh soundmaterial by one Cedric Lerouley, who uses probably more updated sound techniques, but if you wouldn't know would
sound like another Dieter Muh piece, but then recorded better. All in all in a nice release, without anything dramatic new."
With fresh, 2017, ears I would say something like this; the recordings on this LP were made
in a studio and one easily notes the difference with the previous one, recorded in concert. I easily admit I wasn't that blown away by their live sound, which I thought was a bit too single-minded in approach, but in their studio work they show much more. The seven titles here continue to explore the mild industrial sound of sampled percussion, repeating voices, a fair dash of reverb; for instance in 'Dumhome' I hear influences of both Big City Orchestra and early Contrastate. In 'R.I.P.>5' they go out for a more industrial drone sound of multi-layered synth sounds, while in 'Sebel' Throbbing
Gristle/Cabaret Voltaire are guiding principles, with phased loops and spoken word samples. There
is throughout all of these pieces references to be made to one band or another, yet I would think Dieter Müh, back then a duo of Steve Cammack and Dave Uden, have plenty of their own input to make each track their own thing, and it is through variety that they achieve their own sound. It seems like none of these pieces sound very similar to the other ones. None of this screams 'true noise' in your ears and that's some much better. Ambient industrial is surely something that is still the most appropriate term for such music. It's also a musical style that never became big and never had a revival, oddly enough. This is a most welcome re-issue I guess; it sounded retro and I love it (the previous remix not included this time)." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2017 |
€23.50 |
|
| |
The Bjorn Tapes |
LP |
"This is a entire reissue of a limited to 50 copies C45 audio cassette originally released by Xerxes (Japan) as ES-27 in April 1999, later re-released as a limited CDr by Blade Records (Italy) in 2004. All material recorded live on 30 January 1999 in Nottinghem, U.K., edited and produced by Dave Uden during February 1999, re-mastered in September 1999.
using electronics, semples, tapes, bass-guitar, vocals, the English duo created here three long tracks of hypnotick electronic music / ambient noise in the "old-school" experimental genre.
White vinyl housed in a three-panel folded silkscreened cover released in a limited edition of 320 handnumbered copies. Released in November 2018."
"I'd like to think the world has finally woken up to Dieter Müh, the long-running industrial ambient project once consisting of Dave Uden and Steve Cammack, which since 2009 has been the solo project of the latter. EE Tapes recently resurrected Mutus Liber, a 1995 giveaway tape compiled for interested listeners and reissued it on CD. The Bjorn Tapes was another short-run cassette released by Dieter Müh first released on tape in 1999. It was a year that would see Dieter Müh share bills with The Grey Wolves, Con Dom, AntiChildLeague and Colin Potter. Colin Potter had a hand in their debut album Black Square, recording and producing it at his studio in Yorkshire. Dieter Müh at this point were Steve Cammack and Dave Uden, both inspired by the possibilities brought forth by the punk/DIY spirit of the seventies. It is industrial music that seeps into their sound, and you can hear it in the drone and noise ridden layers of electronics, manipulations, tapes and field recordings found within The Bjorn Tapes, which was recorded live and later edited in the studio. The entire Dieter Müh discography is littered with some wonderful short run releases on labels such as Tesco, Hanson Records, Harbinger Sounds. The Bjorn Tapes first surfaced on the Japanese label Xerxes run by Yoshida Yasutoshi of Government Alpha.
The Bjorn Tapes was recorded live in Nottingham in January 1999 and edited and produced a few months later. I don't see a show listed in the Dieter Müh gigography so I'm guessing this was a live in the studio affair. It was soon after this recording I first caught Dieter Müh live, where the duo would be huddled over banks of synths, twisting wires and twiddling knobs. I've really no idea how they produced the sounds they did but whatever they did it resonated with depth, feeling and power. The Bjorn Tapes captures the essence of a live Dieter Müh performance.
Silence, space and a keen sense of sound gestation play a role on 'Herma'. Distant throbs and samples ebb into windswept drone terrain mixed with shuffling textures before it seeps into harsher drone based layers. It is a fine example of their ambient sound vibrations where nothing is rushed or overbearing and you really need to listen closely to pick up on the dynamics.
Even though their sound is based in drone based experimental electronics, Dieter Müh are often regarded as an industrial ambient group. If that's the case then 'Herma' focusses on the ambient side of their industrial ambient sound, while the other two tracks emphasise the industrial side of that description. 'Low Feed' mixes industrial churn mixed with tape manipulations where voices become almost alien. An electronic throb pulses underneath, like blood through coursing through the body. Electronics shimmer, whirr and echo, broken by sudden glints of crashing noise. This is the Dieter Müh I remember from the live shows I witnessed where they slipped seamlessly from subtle drones into denser, harsher sound layers writhing with distended, disembodied voices, sampled percussive clatter and chasms of noise. Unsettling, unnerving and oppressive 'Low Feed' is a great track.
The 23 minute side long piece 'Aghor' unfurls in various movements. The opening ambient sonics are laced with taped voices and intermittent bass thuds. It cut to crunchy, textured manipulations, followed by a passage of processed tapes of mutterings, utterings and whisperings shadowed by electronic oscillations, spliced with clicks and micro tone shudders. At this point there's a sense of ritual to be found within the soundscapes and primordial intonations before bass rumbles enter and underpin a dizzying morass of sound, where manipulated and disembodied voices are enveloped in waves of fluctuating distortion and noise and the flickering haze of frequencies. It is an impressive build up of sound, texture and intensity proving Dieter Müh's dexterity and firm grasp of composition. As it unwinds the loose bass tones and taped voices almost take the form of a live Throbbing Gristle performance, surging with brief bursts of vocals, rendered in a power electronics style sinking into silence and then edging out in queasy electronic oscillations.
Originally issued on cassette by the Japanese label Xerxes run by Yoshida Yasutoshi of Government Alpha and subsequently reissued on CD-R by the Italian label Blade Records The Bjorn Tapes is now released on white vinyl housed in a three-panel folded silkscreened cover released in a limited edition of 320 handnumbered copies on the Nuit et Brouillard side label Force Majeure. It's a handsome edition and well worthy of your time, especially if you've missed this group whose roots in early industrial inspired some fine releases, such as Cari Saluti and Tertium Organum, which collaged the sounds of industrial, experimental, ambient, ritual and noise to great effect. For more information go to Force Majeure" [Compulsion Online] |
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| DIEVA, DAINA |
KAS |
CD |
https://dainadieva.bandcamp.com/album/kas
KAS is an album by Lithuanian Daina Dieva, composed in 2012/2013, released three years later by Finnish/Russian/Lithuanian/Etc label VIBORA.
"This is the unbridled power of Dieva's creations, that you sit in quiet wonder, following the pieces as they take you through different aural and emotional landscapes.
Especially recommended for lovers of the afore mentioned Human Greed and Andrew Liles as well as the work of Richard Skelton and the 4AD label, 'Kas' is a work of subtle power and emotive resonance."
- review by Grey Malkin, "The Active Listener", read in full: active-listener.blogspot.lt/2016/09/daina-dieva-kas.html
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| DIFFERENT STATE |
Through the Falling Eyelid |
CD |
"Back on New Album „Through the falling Eyelid”
Most pure and brilliant album in the band history." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| DIJKSTRA, RAYMOND |
De Schaal |
CD & BOOK |
"Raymond Dijkstra is a Dutch visual artist and avantgarde musician active in the field of acoustic music.
Most of his oeuvre is released on his own label Le Souffleur, in very limited vinyl format.
"De Schaal" is his first book collecting 40 collage artworks and comes with an exclusive piece on CD.
After a two-year long delay - a technical malfunction at the printing plant - we are proud we can finally offer you this visual/musical poem, a must have!
Limited to 200 hand-numbered copies of which the first 100 are signed by the artist." [label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| DIMMER (JOSEPH HAMMER & THOMAS DIMUZIO) |
Remissions |
do-LP |
Nach "Shining Path" das zweite Album für das kalifornische Duo (die Langzeit-Aktiven THOMAS DIMUZIO & THOMAS HAMMER), absolut meisterhafte & spannende Dronescapes, die einen gleich gefangennehmen... unheimlich bannend, metallisch-irisierend, mit Obertönen wie von rostigem Metall... vier lange Stücke aufgenommen auf verschiedenen Konzerten 2006-2007. Aussergewöhnlich schön!
"Dimmer's Remissions is the second full-length album from longtime sonic architects of interactive feedback circuits, Thomas Dimuzio and Joseph Hammer. This 2xLP effectively represents four side-long pieces from their live shows throughout California taken place between 2006 and 2007. Essentially a follow-up to their 2007 album on Los Angeles' Melon Expander, Remissions expands upon the immense recursive tape looping and resampling that is found inherent in their work but achieves a weight and time displacement that greatly overshadows their dark preceding full-length. All four pieces were recorded at: Norcal Noisefest in Sacramento (2006, 'Sky Wire'), The Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco (2006, 'Sun Dog'), The Smell in Los Angeles (2006, 'Gases That Emit Light'), and ArtSF's Noise Pancakes Series (2007, 'Giant Eagle'). Live sampling, processing, feedback, looping by Thomas Dimuzio. Tape manipulation and processing by Joseph Hammer. Design and layout by Thomas Dimuzio, Joseph Hammer and Brandon Nickell. Limited to 500 copies on full-color sleeves with cover photography by John Dalton."
[label info]
"... Hammer's instrument of choice is the reel-to-reel tape deck, through which he can muster an uncanny palette of sound, noise, and drone. The two have worked together off and on for a good part of the last decade, with a handful of performances throughout California and a couple of releases - Remissions being their second and collecting some of the best moments from those live gigs. "Sky Wire" builds insectoid buzzes and creepily harmonic drones out of the interplay between Hammer's rough-hewn tape manipulation and Dimuzio's deftly rendered swells, somewhere between Machinefabriek and Christoph Heemann. "Sun Dog" grafts blackened noise onto an electrocutioner's hum, with Hammer's start 'n' stop tapes popping into view like a detached Burroughs cut-up. Both "Gases That Emit Light" and "Giant Eagle" continue along these same strategies with eerie clouds of drones that fold and collapse between harmonic resonance and dissonance with unsettled bursts of soft focus noise. This is really exceptional stuff, and certainly some of the best that we've encountered from either artists individually." [Aquarius Records review]
"It may sound like a new name, and half of it also is. Dimmer is a duo of Thomas Dimuzio and one Joseph Hammer. This double LP set is the follow up to a CD on Melon Expander which I didn't hear. Each of the four sides has a live recording, three from 2006 and one from 2007. Dimmer uses live sampling, processing, feedback, looping (Dimuzio) and tape manipulation and processing (Hammer). This is pretty interesting music. All four pieces show something that could be labeled as 'band sound'. The careful tape manipulations of Hammer, making the tape go 'wobbly' against the heads, set against a scary set of subdued electronics. A record to turn up the volume as things seem rather 'low' here, but once a bit louder reveal a lot of hidden detail. Scary, spooky stuff, with dark atmospheric undercurrent. Of the four pieces 'Giant Eagle' is my favorite here with its somewhat more clear tape sounds, and scraping, feedback like rusty metal sound, whereas the other three seem to be moving more along side one specific idea and are throughout more minimal. Excellent sci-fi soundtrack stuff at work here, save then perhaps for the piece I like which works really fine by itself. An excellent record. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.isounderscore.com
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| DIMUZIO, THOMAS |
Amid Zero Echo |
do-10inch |
"Thomas Dimuzio's Amid Zero Echo marks the new release from this US underground legend from San Francisco, whose massive hypnotic soundscapes already released in the 90's were much ahead of the time!
Four new transcendental drone masterworks abstracted from electric guitar bristle with life through the dense, rich and detailed sonic expanse of Dimuzio's glorious sound world. Vibrating wires of the electric guitar inform a digital musique concrete modus operandi replete with unheard studio techniques which form a music with a strong organic core. These four drones open wide rooms for phantastic aural imaginations: like flying over endless grounds of unknown origin, sensing a heavy suction of extreme gravity, moving towards a black hole center... or driving into a totally dark mining tunnel with all the metallic ore and dust around.... These are drones that LIVE from the inside! Striking gatefold artwork by Mars Wellink showcases two clear vinyl LPs in an equally compelling and beautifully designed package.
Thomas Dimuzio is a musician, composer, sound designer, mastering engineer, label proprietor, and music technologist residing in San Francisco, California. Inspired as much by John Cage as Led Zeppelin, Dimuzio's music forms a sonic excursion that transports the listener into other worldly aural realms. “His work has a narrative, filmic tug that will draw you into its dark corners, ears alert… brilliant and rarely less than entertaining.” [Peter Marsh, BBC]
Long regarded as a musical pioneer for his innovative use of live sampling and looping techniques, Dimuzio has earned a deserved reputation worldwide as an avant-garde sound artist in touch with the aesthetic pulse of time and technology. A true sonic alchemist who can seemingly create music events out of almost anything, Dimuzio's listed sound sources on his various releases include everything from 'modified 10 speed bicycle' and 'resonating water pipe' to short-wave radios, loops, feedback, samplers, synthesizers and even normal instruments such as guitar, clarinet and trumpet. Dimuzio's eclecticism bespeaks a career equally informed by a profound dedication to his craft and collaborations with friends, artists and technologists alike.
Dimuzio's recordings have been released internationally by ReR Megacorp, Asphodel, RRRecords, No Fun Productions, Sonoris, Drone Records, Record Label Records, Odd Size, Seeland, and other independent labels. Among his collaborators are Chris Cutler, Dan Burke, Joseph Hammer, Anla Courtis, Nick Didkovsky, Due Process, Voice of Eye, Fred Frith, David Lee Myers, 5uu's, Matmos, Wobbly and Negativland." [label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
"Attending a Thomas Dimuzio performance is like lying underneath a web of freeway bridges with your eyes closed; blocking out all visuals except the brief daggers of light that flicker with each passing car. There is a sense of probable dread—metal, wooden or cigarette debris from the vehicles could fly off and injure you—but also one of hypnotized calm, thanks to the amplified hum of Michelin and Goodyear against greased concrete." [Cameron MacDonald, Pitchfork Media]
"While I was listening to this double 10" record, I was thinking that Thomas Dimuzio has a very distinct sound, although I would not go as far as to say that I could pick him blind in a contest. The four pieces on this record are what we know from Dimuzio and what we love; at least that's what I do. It's never easy to know what Dimuzio is doing, and perhaps I have some romantic notion about it: take a teeny tiny fragment of sound and capture that is an endless range of sound effects, samplers, oscillators and filters and what else he got down in his studio. The cover says 'guitar and processing', so there you go: what do I know. Like so many others he knows how to manipulate the guitar beyond - light-years beyond actually - the sound of the guitar and it sounds like this dark, slow moving landmass; Drone Records, who are behind this series, calls him a sonic alchemist, and that term is perhaps over-used, but maybe not in this case, I think. Dimuzio creates the kind of drones that many
dream of and few can actually do: that of a constant swirl up, down and side ways spin, always moving and changing, never in state of standstill. It's music that could as easily work for as a soundtrack for a film, but is best enjoyed on it's own, in a barely lit room at night and at a louder volume: only then, I would think, the true beauty will be fully uncovered. Music as a total immersion event. The only downside is you have to get and change the record a few times; on the bright side, you have four pieces and the choice to release this as a double 10" is a great one. One day on CD, perhaps, please?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.substantia-innominata.de |
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Sutro Transmissions |
LP |
"This is the wizard the land of Oz wished for: boundless, benemalevolent, shrouded in torrents of sound, daring lions to speak and machines to feel. Dimuzio sets your straw brains alight to melt your metal heart while your furry ears crisp and yowl.
For the first time, San Francisco legend Thomas Dimuzio presents an all Buchla-synthesizer album. Custom algorithmic crossfades of complex sound synthesis fuel this metabolism of mind and machine. His Buchla 272e module incorporates a polyphonic FM tuner introducing chance-factors snatched from live transmissions, steered via algorithmic mixing through oscillator arrays and envelope generators before spilling into the ears of blood-pumping audiences huddled in the slanting five thousand foot shadow of SF's Sutro Tower. Each track is a site specific improvisation blooming in the dark of underground venues on opposite ends of Haight Street just blocks from where Buchla invented the world's first synthesizer.
“Nothing is more beautiful than [Dimuzio's] acoustic heterogeneity, a depth of aural perspective provided by antithetical frequencies, irregular waves and inscrutable halos.” -Massimo Ricci
The first thirty pre-orders will include unique and original letterpress art created by Planetary Magnetics Corporation in New Orleans. These one of a kind prints were rendered on a huge letterpress using gorgeous, richly colored and metallic inks on dangerously old blocks arranged sleestak style by master-printer Tyler Harwood. The album cover is a reproduction of a single print from this original series."
https://www.resipiscent.com/artist/view/51
"Thomas Dimuzio – justifiably called a “legend” by the label’s introductory summary – belongs nonetheless in the pool of names not immediately springing to mind when it comes to sonic innovation built upon the interpenetration of supposedly unconnected elements. However, his expertise in concocting unorthodox landscapes and spontaneous articulations of otherwise inexpressible insights has been proven time and again. Sutro Transmissions, a gorgeous example of analog synthesizer-based music, represents a quintessential reminder.
The apparatus through which Dimuzio emits transcendentally tangible matters is constituted by (drum roll, press release) “a Buchla 272e module [that] incorporates a polyphonic FM tuner introducing chance-factors snatched from live transmissions and steered via algorithmic mixing through oscillator arrays and envelope generators”. For the unacquainted, this might appear as alien language; as soon as they hear the results, all doubts are going to be extirpated.
Nothing is more beautiful than absorbing acoustic heterogeneity if the diversification is driven by the vision of an inherent logical structure. Dimuzio has produced two exceptional pieces in that sense. The conglomeration of extreme dynamics and timbral variegation systematically startles the attentive listener, even when the textural totality may suggest a “search for quietness” hypothesis. It is actually by this juxtaposition of contrasts that the necessary energies are released for the attainment of that state. Learning to distinguish and welcome diversity is never a wasted effort, especially when the forced acceptance of what’s unnatural and the effects of cyclical ordinariness become unbearable. By experiencing the depth of aural perspective provided by antithetical frequencies, irregular waves and inscrutable halos you’ll have a clear exemplification of what I’m trying to translate.
Replace the nauseating boredom generated by the self-appointed boffin of your choice with the polychromatic fibers of these sounds. Train your perception to rapidly individuate the correct direction rather than ruminating for days on something that will ultimately be revealed as entirely unfounded. Doctor Dimuzio can assist you." [Touching Extremes]
|
2020 |
€22.50 |
|
| DISKAHOLICS |
Live in Japan Vol.1 |
CD |
DISKAHOLICS = JIM O’ROURKE, MATS GUSTAFSSON, THURSTON MOORE! Live-Impro Japan 2002 ! Noise-Jazz !
"Documenting a 2002 sojourn to Japan that featured some slathering improv between Jim O'Rourke (synthi, noise), Mats Gustafsson (sax, noise), and Thurston Moore (guitar, noise). Although the purpose of the visit might have been to find bagloads of righteous collector-styled records, this recording flops onto the sidewalk with some of that old salted slug action you know -- deep breaths with a deadly spasm. The sounds here really get electro-acoustic in the same vein as leather elbowed warriors like Toop and Henri, but with scrappy crappy horizontal huddle of minds flowing with the JUICE! Really an inspired record that brings each player's pedigree upfront. This is a hot-wired jazz, really free blowing and joyous, but not so obvious you'll feel like the second time around. You're a grown up now, listen to grown up music. Step up to the bar!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE |
Zettaizetsumei |
CD-R |
We got few copies of this lim. leather-cover edition!
“ A 4 Track CD-R with a 46:36 minutes running time. 4 new japanoise tracks by this wellknown japanoise artist. All 4 Tracks composed by Ichiro Tsuji in 2005, released as UPD Org. 010 and sold out now. The european edition will be available at 31st of march 2006 and comes only in an edition of 75 copies , the CD-R is housed in a special darkgreen full leather bag with envelopecover around and insert , the leather bag was created and manufactured by Watty in December 2005 All copies are handnumbered!” [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE / MATTHIAS GRASSOW & TOMAS WEISS |
split |
LP |
" 2 Track 12” , mehr als 40 Minuten Musikgenuss, Mathias Grassow & Tomas Weiss mit einem New Age / Ambient Track, der seinesgleichen sucht, die Ruhe pur, mit sehr ruhiger Bewegung, ein Track zum meditieren, relaxen, bevor man aus allen schönen Träumen gerissen wird und Dissecting Table (Ichiro Tsuji) uns an den Alltagswahn erinnert, meines Erachtens die komplexeste Noise Granate, die je Dissecting Table hervorgebracht hat, brachial und kompromisslos.
Diese LP ist nun der lang erwartete Zweite Teil, der „A-Childs-Color-Play Serie, diesmal limitiert auf 100 Exemplare mit Insert und kommt im handbemalten Coversleeve heraus, gemalt haben Kinder und Jugendlich mit
einer Geistigen Behinderung, an den Covern kann man erkennen, das es Ihnen Spaß gemacht haben muss, viele sehr schöne Motive, verständliches und unverständliches, aber mit viel Phantasie wird man auch das eine oder andere verstehen können.
Wie auch bei dem ersten Teil, geht ein Teil des Preises der LP an die Cover-Künstler." [label info]
www.psych-kg.de
" 'Plus - Minus' is the title of the composition by Mathias Grassow and Tomas Weiss on this record. It might have been the title of the entire record, as things are very opposite. I have a certain weakness for the music of Dissecting Table, simply because one of the first CDs I ever bought as a young man was by Dissecting Table. It was a time when it was hard to get 'my kind of music' on CD. Not that I kept up with subsequent releases very much, of which some of the more recent is a bit too noisy (or ordinary noise) for my taste, but on 'Sky' it seems that Dissecting Table pulls back gear a bit, and not just works with noise, but glides back down and let sound effects run their course and die out, before starting up again. Its actually quite a nice piece of solid noise. The piece on the other side is something else. Both Mathias Grassow and Tomas Weiss are known to be players from the world of drone music, and that's exactly what they set out to do here. What ties in noise and drone, is that both ends of the musical spectrum don't seem to have many new developments in recent years. Just as noise is perhaps so much as it is, drone is no different. What Grassow and Weiss do here is what they have been doing for years. That again is no problem, and knowing myself to love drones more than noise - these days - I think this a wonderful side, in which time doesn't seem to be moving. Excellent. The cover of these records, which come in an edition of 100 copies, are 'designed' (drawn is perhaps the word) by a child with a mental handicap. I have no idea what the bigger idea behind that is." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE / VASILISK |
Saddharma / Tibetan Liberation |
CD |
"DISSECTING TABLE: Saddharma is a very intense Experimental Industrial-Noise Orgy, lasting over nearly 32 minutes. on this brilliant track, the mastermind of the Japanese Noise-Poineers DISSECTING TABLE, Ichiro Tsuji, combines different rhythmic oldschool-elements, experimental sounds and very dark/aggressive vocals, that remind to the band's early years.
VASILISK: after the mysterious Japanese Power-Noise band "WHITE HOSPITAL" split up into "GRIM" and "VASILISK", the newborn band released 3 fantastic LPs in 1987-89, which became some of the most wanted and most expensive records in the collector's scene, already short after their release. In 1990 the 3 LPs were followed by a brilliant "best of" CD (Liaberation & Ecstasy), which was definitely one of the best Ritual albums ever released.
after the release of this CD it went quite silent around the band, but now, after more than 20 years, Tomo Kuwahara (Vasilisk) is back with the same amazing Ritual Music than before! he played a great live-concert in Japan short ago (please find the youtube links below) and his brandnew album will be released on Steinklang soon!" [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| DITHER |
Urei |
CD |
"Auch der vormaliger NOISE MUSEUM – Liebling DITHER ist zurück mit einer neuen CD, auf dem neuen Pariser Label M-TRONIC! Softer als auf den bisherigen Alben, verbindet DITHER hier gegenläufige Beats mit komplexen elektronischen Arrangements und dunklen Stimmungen, sehr eigen und ungewöhnlich!
New work from this french (former NOISE MUSEUM) act, softer than before but very complex and unusual electronic beats & arrangements & dark moods..." [Drone Rec. info 2002]
“ With its 3rd album, Marc T. aka Dither proves that he is the french master of dark-ambient electronics. His micro-electronic works are so subtle that they invite you into an abyssal trip, growing deeper and deeper inside your body and mind. Close to the universe of acts like Scorn, Autechre or beefacke but with a much darker touch, Dither is the new sensation not to be missed. This cd comes out in a very charming 3 panels digipack. Choose your chemical element choose He2 : Dither 'Urei' !” [label description]
www.m-tronic.com |
2001 |
€7.00 |
|
| DJINN / KADAVER |
Anti Human Life |
CD-R |
"When the noisy paranoid of Kadaver blend into the twisted inquietude of Djinn it rises a suffering litany accompanying the listener into the deeper of the human nature which is always in the pursuit of the complete aloofness from the human race.
Split release presenting a series of uncompromising ambiant-industrial tracks. Sounds for a sharp dissecting scalpel job background ..." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| DMDN (DVA MET DVA NICHTS) |
Kapotte Muziek by... |
7inch |
" 'This is number 5 in a series' it says on the cover, although there are already 13 available. With an odd catalogue number – kp 8098. What the hell is going on? When Korm Plastics started the series ‘Kapotte Muziek by’, it was for friends to remix very specific recordings by Kapotte Muziek and quite early on it was decided that our friend DMDN should do one. Obviously a long term friend for all members of Kapotte Muziek, and co-bandmember of THU20. Enthusiastic he set to work and by the time he was ready to mix down what he had something broke down and everything was ruined. DMDN was no able to fix it, or repeat it and the whole project was shelved.
On February 26th 2010 DMDN took part in the 25th anniversary activities at Extrapool as the DJ of the ceremony, using a variety of turntables, cassette decks, CD players all loaded with Kapotte Muziek work from those 25 years (and slipping in some Goem, but we don’t mention that) and out of the blue send us 2 edited highlights – ‘here it finally is’. Now the series started out as a 7” series, then turned CD, but to honor DMDN for just once we go back to 7” – we have 100 pressed up and co-release it with DMDN’s own Antenne Records (although no mention of that on the cover, but he has half the edition, so when in Tilburg, The Netherlands, move over to Noordstraat 82 to visit his excellent store, or visit www.antenne-tilburg.nl). Two excellent dense pieces of electronics colliding and bumping in the hazy night. This might be the final installment in this series, since we have now completed it." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| DMT |
Ultimatum |
CD |
"DMT “Ultimatum” is the second album in “Die Zeichen” series run by kultFRONT and ZHELEZOBETON labels. The first part was released in 2013 - Sal Solaris “Die Scherben 2004-2010”. The new album is a tribute to Dmitriy Tolmatskiy who unexpectedly left us in 2009. Dmitriy was one of the few journalists who popularized the alternative culture in Russia. In late 90-ies he created the web portal RWCDAX and his famous “Industrial Culture Extended FAQ” which unveiled previously unknown layers of post-industrial art for many Russians.
“Ultimatum” shows the varied musical and stylistical planes of DMT. It mainly consists of compositions never officially released before, taken from CDRs which Dmitriy gave to his friends. There are also a few tracks from the compilations he had time to participate. Unfortunately not always were there notes and years of recordings. One track was digitized from an untitled audiocassette kept by the musician’s friends in his native city of Saratov. The album provides a glimpse into various periods of DMT’s sonic experiments from 1999 to 2008. It also features fragments of a live performance together with Alexei Borisov in St. Petersburg in December 2005.
For bandcamp users there is a bonus archive of three compositions. One remix by DMT of the Species Of Fishes track. One remix of DMT track by the Ghost Reflection project. And an extended version of the title track from the unreleased album “Cold Autumn in Belgrade” recorded in 2000." [label info]
kultfront.bandcamp.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| DNMF (MACHINEFABRIEK & DEAD NEANDERTHALS) |
Smelter |
LP |
Band: DNMF
Album: Smelter
Release date: April 30 2018
Formats: LP / CD / Cassette / Digital
Labels: Moving Furniture Records (LP, CD, Digital), Tartarus Records (Cassette, Digital)
Catalogue number: MFR054LP (LP), MFR054CD (CD), TAR095 (Cassette)
About the album:
Prolific experimental music purveyor Machinefabriek and droning free jazz combo Dead Neanderthals team up for the second DNMF album entitled 'Smelter'. Clocking in at nearly 40 minutes, Smelter is a highly dynamic amalgam of metal, drone and dark ambient and is hard to compare to anything else out there. Have a listen and enjoy!
Online
deadneanderthals.wordpress.com
deadneanderthals.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/deadneanderthals
machinefabriek.nu
machinefabriek.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Machinefabriek-105289806168145/
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/movingfurniturerecords
tartarusrecords.com
facebook.com/TartarusRecords/
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/smelter
|
2018 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Smelter |
CD |
Band: DNMF
Album: Smelter
Release date: April 30 2018
Formats: LP / CD / Cassette / Digital
Labels: Moving Furniture Records (LP, CD, Digital), Tartarus Records (Cassette, Digital)
Catalogue number: MFR054LP (LP), MFR054CD (CD), TAR095 (Cassette)
About the album:
Prolific experimental music purveyor Machinefabriek and droning free jazz combo Dead Neanderthals team up for the second DNMF album entitled 'Smelter'. Clocking in at nearly 40 minutes, Smelter is a highly dynamic amalgam of metal, drone and dark ambient and is hard to compare to anything else out there. Have a listen and enjoy!
Online
deadneanderthals.wordpress.com
deadneanderthals.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/deadneanderthals
machinefabriek.nu
machinefabriek.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Machinefabriek-105289806168145/
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/movingfurniturerecords
tartarusrecords.com
facebook.com/TartarusRecords/
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/smelter
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| DOCKSTADER, TOD & DAVID LEE MYERS |
Bijou |
CD |
„Bijou (ReR TGM2) ist nach Pond (2004) erneut ein Generationen übergreifendes Gemeinschaftswerk von TOD DOCKSTADER (*1932, St. Paul, MI) und dem New Yorker DAVID LEE MYERS. Während Dockstader mit seinem charmanten elektroakustischen Sonderweg seit Anfang der 60er zu den frühen Gurus der amerikanischen Musique concrète zählt (Eight Electronic Pieces, 1961, OWL-Recordings, 1966), trat Myers unter dem Pseudonym Arcane Device Ende der 80er Jahre an die Öffentlichkeit mit seiner eigentümlichen Feedbackmachinen-ästhetik (Engines of Myth, 1988, Also sprach Zarathustra, 1991, Diabolis Ex Machina, 1992), von der er sich in Kollaborationen mit etwa Asmus Tietchens (Speiseleitung, 1996, Flussdichte, 2001) und Thomas Dimuzio (Uncertain Symmetry, 2002) zunehmend löste, eine Entwicklung, die er auch durch die Verwendung seines Familiennamens unterstrich. Myers teilt mit Dockstader, mit dem er lange vor ihren Kollaborationen bereits im Briefwechsel stand, mehr als nur eine Vorliebe für Frösche, der sie mit Pond frönten, während Myers einen Frosch namens Beaumont als Held eines Kinderbuchs auftreten lässt. Bijou ist pures Cinema pour l‘oreille, das sich aus 27 kleinen Szenen entfaltet, mit ratterndem Vorführgerät als illusionistischem Vor- und Abspann und schmetternden Hollywoodfanfaren als ‚Credits‘. Dass das audiovisuelle Moment bei Dockstader immer eine große Rolle spielte, zeigt schon seine Recorded Music for Film, Radio & Television: Electronic (1979/1981). Zusammen mit Myers blättert er im „unconscious lexicon of sound“ (Chris Cutler), das als Bodensatz von millionenfach geteilten Stunden vor TV-Bildschirmen und Kinoleinwänden dem modernen Bewusstsein eingeschrieben ist. Dabei wurden Verbindungen gebahnt und Signale verankert, die rein auf klanglicher Basis so evokativ wirken, dass über das Gehör unwillkürlich ‚Atmosphären‘, ‚Stimmungen‘ und ‚Imaginationen‘ rückgekoppelt werden. Jeder weitere Werbeclip, jeder neue Film basiert auf solcher Konditionierung, solcher ‚Medienkompetenz‘. Bijou ist aber nur insofern der ‚totale Film‘, dass in ‚Dementia‘, ‚Scene of the Crime‘, ‚The Cringing Unknown‘, ‚Battle Finale‘ etc. Elemente aus Thriller, Melodrama, Doku, Film Noir, Kriegsfilm, SF usw. anklingen. Das Cover zeigt ein Psycho-Motel, der Soundtrack ist aber kaleidoskopischer, auf narrativer Ebene überwirklich und ambig, wie Erinnerungsfetzen, die nur von Traumlogik und Traumdeutung zusammengezogenen sind. Dockstader löst seinen Anspruch, „trying to push the sound a little farther forward toward Something we hadn't heard before“, insofern ein, dass er und Myers eine aus dem Medialen destillierte ‚Metasprache‘ finden mit der nahezu magischen Kraft von Klängen, die mit nichts als gewellter Luft und dem Reservoir medialer Erinnerungen im Stande sind, effektvoll Raum und Zeit auszuhebeln.“ [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy # 49]
"A subtle, moody, rich and wide-ranging work, in which atmosphere, emotion and dramaturgy lead the ear far beyond music into a world of hints, evocations, anticipation and association -- and, in passing, reveal a complex metonymic language that, at a deep level, invokes that mostly unconscious lexicon of sound we have all absorbed collectively and subliminally in the course of a century of movie-going, television viewing, documentary recording and electroacoustic experimentation. Once sounds have been abstracted from events, they are free to act and interact as signs; they are no longer indications of the real. And from their use as indicators we learn new meanings (the low drone from Jaws, the shower strings from Psycho, a TV theme -- these are all as directly meaningful to us as a barking dog or an approaching train; after 1000 movies, the sound of a helicopter has as many fictional as factual meanings, and these accretions make experience imaginatively richer. This is the language Dockstader and Myers explore, and although, in a sense, such signs are weightless (there is nothing there) nevertheless we cannot unhook them and they conjure instinctively fragmentary narratives, events, places, situations and meanings. Where their last CD (Pond) abstracted sounds from real life (in fact, documentary recordings of frogs), this one invokes a fictional life invoked in a language of purely mediated abstraction." [label description]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| DOCKSTADER, TOD & JAMES REICHERT |
Omniphony 1 |
CD |
„Omniphony 1“ ist die Neuauflage der gleichnamigen, 1966 auf OWL Records erschienenen LP. 1963 komponierte Tod Dockstader eine Reihe von Tonbandstücken, „cells“, bestehend aus natürlichen Klangquellen (Glocken, menschliche Stimmen etc.) und elektronischen Klängen (z.B. Oszillatoren). Der Filmkomponist James Reichert (1932 ¬ 1995) entwarf, der Klangintention der „cells“ entsprechende Orchesterstücke, sogenannte „inparts“, die anschließend nochmals durch Filter und Ringmodulatoren gejagt wurden, um den instrumentalen Klangumfang und die Dynamiken zu verändern. Die
anschließende Re-Komposition zeitigte ein sehr homogen angelegtes Ergebnis, das auch heute noch in Erstaunen versetzt. Elekronisches umschwirrt reißend und manchmal ein bischen frech die moog-manipulierten Bläsergruppen. Ständige Wechsel der Dynamik verwirren die Fäden der Klänge so weit, dass Elektronik und konkreter Instrumentalklang jeweils mit der Sprache des anderen zu sprechen scheinen. So wirken manche Stellen glatt wahnwitzig: wenn die kammermusikalischen „inparts“ im Zusammenspiel mit Dockstaders
prä-Industrial-elektronischen „cells“ eher Hollywood denn Donau-Eschingen beschwören, werden Bereiche des Grotesken befühlt. Das ist nicht schlimm, sondern erzählt vielmehr von der Besessenheit mit der echte Freaks am Werke waren, um in einem Jahr 100.000 Fuß an Tapematerial zu bearbeiten. Als Bonusmaterial gibt es Dockstaders „Study no.7“ (1961) in einer Stereoversion, sowie seine dringliche „Past prelude“ von 1990. //
„Omniphony 1“ is the rerelease of the OWL-LP from 1966. In 1963, Tod Dockstader composed a set of taped sounds which he called „cells“ consisting of natural sounds (bells, wind, voice) and electronically sounds (as from oscillators, recording circuitry, etc.). James Reichert (1932 ¬ 1995) composed a series of orchestrated parts which were based upon the sound intention of Dockstader’s „cells“. Those „inparts“ were transmuted using R.A. Moog music processing equipment to change the instrumental ranges and dynamics. With the following re-composition they produced a very homogeneous result wich is today still amazing. Electronically sounds pungent and sometimes a kind of saucy are flowing through a moog-manipulated brass group. The permanent changing of dynamics entangles the sounds. It seems that electronic and concrete instruments have particular swapped their very own sound. So some parts might have a strange atmosphere: when the chamber music -like „inparts“ together with Dockstader’s prä-industrial-electronically „cells“ evoke Hollywood more than Donau-Eschingen it is getting grotesque. But it is cool, because it tells from the truly obsessive fashion of two music freaks who edited and mixed down over 100.000 feet oftapes for that release. Further bonus tracks are Dockstader’s „study no.7“ (1961) in a stereo version and his „past prelude“ from 1990." [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
"In the early 1960's Tod Dockstader was a young maverick composer of electronic 'organised sound', and James Reichert a film composer and music supervisor. They met in New York in 1963, and launched one of the most extraordinary collaborations in modern music, a unique attempt to integrate electronic sounds and the classical orchestra. Unlike Varese's Deserts, and Stockhausen's Kontakte, it does not merely have the orchestra play along with a tape, or even process orchestral sounds live. What makes this project unique is that the orchestra was transformed by electronic processes at a fundamental level, and organically fused with the purely electronic sounds. The completed work is a bizarre blend of Dockstader's fundamentally intuitive approach to sound, and Reichert's more conservatoire-based feeling for melody and orchestration. It often sounds like an unlikely collaboration between Stravinsky and Frank Zappa in avant garde mode, or Stockhausen and his alter-egos, Stock, Hausen and Walkman. Its not simply an important historical document, but an intriguing and entirely convincing listen; a truly extraordinary combination of electronic and orchestral textures, in which the orchestra seems to have been drenched in Technicolor, and dragged through a cartoon sound studio." [label
info] |
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| DOCKSTADER, TOD / DAVID LEE MYERS |
Pond |
CD |
Überraschende Collaboration zweier Urgesteine der experimentellen Elektronik – der wiederentdeckte TOD DOCKSTADER und der ebenfalls nach langer Pause wieder aktive „ARCANE DEVICE“ DAVID LEE MYERS. Hier frönen sie ihrer Faszination für Frosch- & Kröten-Sounds, die elektronisch bearbeitet werden - so entspringen ihrem „Klang-Teich“ die merkwürdigsten stakkatohaften & pulsierenden organisch-elektronischen Akusmen.....sehr kurios & obskur !
"Tod Dockstader and David Lee Myers are two pioneers of electronic music, but from very different epochs. Dockstader started working with optical sound in the 1950s, later working with vast Telefunken tape recorders that became so hot they had to be left overnight to cool down. His electronic soundscapes ('Lunar Park' and 'Apocalypse' among them) are now being re-discovered and given the respect they deserve. Pond is his first new album-length piece since 1967. David Lee Myers, on the other hand, made his name in the 1980s under the name Arcane Device, and the music was derived from almost uncontrollable feedback systems. His Engines of Myth was originally released by ReR on vinyl in 1988, and was re-released on CD in 2001. A collaboration between these two legendary figures -- the painstaking, highly organised researcher Dockstader with the younger, more go-with-the-flow Myers, is an intriguing proposition. The first problem to overcome was computers; Dockstader had never used them, having perfected methods of working with optical and tape formats. It was only with much coaxing from Myers that it became possible. Dockstader recently remarked that when he began working with computers he 'realised that many of the old principles -- slowing, speeding, pitch-change, reversal -- were the same -- but with much more control and better sound. And no tape hiss. Because it was faster and I could keep my belief in what I was doing, more fun.' Fun is what they had. Most of the sounds derive from frog and toad calls, garnered by hanging around ponds with recorded equipment late into the night. The results are extraordinary -- the cries are transformed into an electronic melee that does not so much resemble a pond, as fragments of a road-movie soundtrack left over by Kraftwerk or Eno."[label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| DOME (BRUCE GILBERT & GRAHAM LEWIS) |
Dome 3 |
LP |
With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of »using the studio as a compositional tool« and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: »Dome« (July 1980), »Dome 2« (October 1980) and »Dome 3« (October 1981). A final fourth album, »Will You Speak this World: Dome 4« was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in May 1983.
These albums represent some of the most beautifuly stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene.
https://editionsmego.bandcamp.com/album/3-2
|
2024 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Dome 2 |
LP |
With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of »using the studio as a compositional tool« and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: »Dome« (July 1980), »Dome 2« (October 1980) and »Dome 3« (October 1981). A final fourth album, »Will You Speak this World: Dome 4« was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in May 1983.
These albums represent some of the most beautifuly stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene.
https://editionsmego.bandcamp.com/album/2
|
2024 |
€22.50 |
|
| |
Dome 1 |
LP |
With the demise of the group Wire in 1980, founder members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis joined forces to create Dome. With the assistance of engineer Eric Radcliffe and his Blackwing Studio Dome took the ethic of »using the studio as a compositional tool« and recorded and released three Dome albums on their own label in the space of 12 months: »Dome« (July 1980), »Dome 2« (October 1980) and »Dome 3« (October 1981). A final fourth album, »Will You Speak this World: Dome 4« was released on the Norwegian Uniton label in May 1983.
These albums represent some of the most beautifuly stark and above all timeless exercises in studio experimentation from early 1980s alternative music scene.
https://editionsmego.bandcamp.com/album/1
|
2024 |
€22.50 |
|
| DONOSO, RICARDO |
Sarava Exu |
CD |
"Der brasilianische Komponist, Percussionist und elektronische Musiker RICARDO DONOSO kommt ursprünglich aus Rio de Janeiro und lebt mittlerweile in Boston, wo er am renommierten Berklee College of Music und am New England Conservatory Komposition studierte. Ricardo Donoso hat in den vergangenen Jahren an einer Menge Musikprojekten mitgewirkt; unter anderem ist er Drummer bei der Avant-Death-Metal band Ehnahre und formt zusammen mit Luke Moldof das Electronic Duo Perispirit. Ricardos musikalische Sprache ist von zeitgenössischer Komposition inspiriert und ebenso auch bestimmt von Drone, Techno und Noise. Im Kontrast zu dem beständigen Streben nach Leistung, das die heutige Kultur uns lehrt, ist das Thema des Abstiegs - wie es in vielen Mythen vorkommt in Form eines Helden, der in den Untergrund geht um eine Periode der Abgeschiedenheit zu durchlaufen - nicht länger in unserer Gegenwart repräsentiert. In den meisten traditionellen Gesellschaften existierte ein kultureller Freiraum für eine solche Periode im Leben einer jeden Person und es war allgemein angesehen, dass dies eine Notwendigkeit war um sich in Verbindung zu bringen mit der Vergangenheit und damit begleitend dem kollektiven Unbewussten bzw. der ursprünglichen menschlichen Existenz zu begegnen. "Sarava Exu" wurde durchweg in einer solchen Periode geschrieben - eine beabsichtigte Isolation, ausgedrückt und geführt durch die sakralen esoterischen Rituale des braslianischen Kults 'Quimbanda'. Die musikalische Folge bewegt sich entlang der '7 Lines & Kingdoms of Quimbanda', die durch die traditionellen Candomblé Rhythmen, brasilianische Percussion, Noise sowie klassische Streichinstrumente verkörpert werden - allesamt bekannte Elemente aus Donosos Vergangenheit, die er neu betrachtet und reinterpretiert. "Sarava Exu" ist das symphonische Poem eines Quimbanda Rituals und eine musikalische Begleitung des Abstiegs in die eigene persönliche Hölle. Sicherlich Donosos bisher ambitioniertes und herausforderndes Vorhaben, aber all diejenigen, die Zeit damit verbringen und die Schichten darunter aufdecken, werden belohnt. Die Linien sind nun verschwommen zwischen den kompositorischen Strategien von Donosos Soloarbeit, dem Scuba Death Projekt und den Techniken, die genutzt wurden um für Gruppen wie Perispirit & Ehnahre zu schre iben. Musikalisch nimmt das Album Inspiration von Filmtrailer-Musik; Musik die sich gewöhnlicherweise extrem und vollkommen in zwei Minuten oder weniger entwickelt und gänzlich darauf konzentriert ist, eine emotionale Reaktion beim Betrachter zu triggern. Obwohl jedes der sieben Stücke untrennbar miteinander verbunden ist, spürt man dennoch das permanente Push & Pull, das am Ende keine Auflösung bereit hält. Ein konstanter Antrieb als Versuch irgendwohin zu gelangen, aber doch niemals wirklich anzukommen - dynamische Crescendos kommen und gehen, entwickeln sich, fallen wieder auseinander und bringen uns dahin zurück, wo wir begonnen haben; die Musik, entfaltet sich konstant, führt doch gleichzeitig nirgendwo hin und schafft darin einen klares Gespür für die Zeitlosigkeit. Wenn das Album "Assimilating The Shadow" die Theorie war, dann ist "Sarava Exu" die Praxis - ein Nachtrag, der nicht ein zielloser oder destruktiver Fall in den Abgrund ist, aber eine bedeutsame Erneuerung. "Der Weg hin zur Weisheit, wie ihn Exu vorschlägt, ist einer des Höllenfeuers und Schwefel, von unbarmherziger Ehrlichkeit und Mut, wo der grausamste aller Feinde das eigene Selbst ist." Für Hörer von Emptyset, Alva Noto or Raime." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| DORELLA, BRUNO |
Paradiso |
CD |
Italian musician and producer Bruno Dorella guides us to \"Paradiso\", his new solo album, with the music for the homonymous choreographic project of gruppo nanou, to be released on CD and digital on November 25th, 2022 by the independent label 13 / Silentes.
\"Paradiso\" was born for the choreography of the new show by gruppo nanou, a contemporary dance and performing arts company, founded by Marco Valerio Amico, Rhuena Bracci and Roberto Rettura. The collaboration between Dorella and the company has started almost a decade ago and over time has also involved Ronin and OvO, the main bands of the Ravenna-based musician - OvO were on stage in 2021 for Canto Primo: Miasma | Arsura, an encounter between sounds and infernal images, with Dante\'s recurring reference.
But there is more than this. \"Paradiso\" is also the first electronic music album made by Dorella who, during the lockdown period, focused himself more and more on softwares. The tracks are composed according to the bodies and the choreography of the show. Dorella says: \"The composition took a long time. The choreographic needs, and the effect of music on the bodies, often led me to think with a broader perspective. Me and the members of gruppo nanou started the work from mutual suggestions and gradually we understood each other faster and faster. We defined a common conception of rhythm, deciding to work on apparently \'off-grid\' rhythms, creating the illusion of something wrong together but perfectly timed. In reality, these rhythms are parallel planes that travel in time with each other, even if out of phase.\"
\"Saturno\" is the first single taken from \"Paradiso\" and contains the fundamental elements of the entire work. That is, parallel, overlapping, sinuous rhythms, apparently out of phase but which \"turn\" together. In addition to abstract guitars and breath as the only source of voice.
According to gruppo nanou: \"Bruno has composed a choreographic work. We have verified together how sound can accommodate the body and be in dialogue with the scenic action. It was a transitive operation between scene and sound, bodies and the material density of sounds, vibrations and motion. The beauty of this musical work is that it is concrete matter and at the same time it is a precise thought. All the rules and limitations that we set for the creation of the show - regarding choreography, sound, lights and scene - have managed to be assimilated to become creative resources and therefore to become exact viscera.\"
The journey of \"Paradiso\" is articulated into thirteen tracks and ends with the title track, which is also the brand new single from the album and the only episode that can be assimilated to an \"alien\" song-form, featuring Francesca Amati (Comaneci) on vocals. Dorella speaking: \"We always thought that, at a certain point, we needed a \'song\'. With Francesca there is a long-standing collaboration and gruppo nanou loves her tone of voice, so it has always been clear that she would be the one to sing the song. But she had to do it in a non-existent and unidentifiable language. So, I broke down the syllables of what Francesca had sung, recomposing them with a new result.\"
In Dorella\'s long and eclectic career, \"Paradiso\" is only his second solo record, following \"Concerto per chitarra solitaria\", created for a contemporary classical music festival and released in 2019 by Bronson Recordings. \"I always thought of ensemble music, never really in the solo dimension, and I always imagined that if I ever made a record on my own and with my name on it, it would be related to pure composition\", Dorella explains. Active since the late 90s, Bruno Dorella is also known under the pseudonym Jack Cannon and was a member of Wolfango, as well as founder of OvO, Ronin and Bachi da Pietra, and more recently of Tiresia and the GDG Modern Trio, as well as an element of Sigillum S. \"Paradiso\" is the first record that testifies his experience in the field of theater music, developed through collaboration with various theater and dance companies.
\"Paradiso\" is a collective effort among the contemporary research dance company gruppo nanou and the artist Alfredo Pirri. Its path begins in 2021 and continues until July 2022 through appointments, called sketches, intended as the progressive deepening and development of research and tests for the construction of a performative process that removes the concept of the beginning and end of a performance, as well as its front use.
The space is intended as an active place in which to immerse oneself, creating an impromptu community that accesses the performance as it happens in a museum exhibition. \"Paradiso\" is the beginning of a common journey starting from the Third Canticle of Dante Alighieri’s Commedia; as a paradise, it is an elsewhere space, inhabited by light and evanescent figures; a long cinematic shot in which to immerse yourself thanks to the music of Bruno Dorella. The stage space consists of a mirrored dance floor obtained by combining different layers of silver and gold carpets where reverberating spaces and territories, intertwined and choreographed by gruppo nanou. Indirect lighting allows the carpet to reflect the surrounding space, welcoming it inside visually and creating a floating perception and making the floor like a pond where the bodies in movement flake with evanescent contours. The place determines each time the use and arrangement of the scene created by Pirri; the space, as well as the bodies and the light, is reflected by the mirrored surface of the carpets, redesigning the geometry of the space itself. For this identity of relationship between place and scene, each Paradise is unique and unrepeatable, thus finding the impossibility of describing a Paradise uniquely, as Dante wrote in the beginning of the Third Canticle.
The gestures lose all trace of naturalism to turn into an abstract choreography, whose meaning is in the desire to bridge the distance between the gaze (of the viewer) and the bodies in action. The limit of the backgrounds is forced, torn, deteriorated by the body that attacks it with its choreographic action. The choreographic images are produced “accidentally”, and the bodies are immediately pulverized thanks to the process of abstraction that produces pure plasticity that surpasses all other instances. The evidence of every research step or residency is called sketch and, even if is still a studio form, it shows how the performative device works on the space, its architecture or lack of it, recreating and rethinking both the stage and how the audience interact with it. As it will be in his final form, every sketch is different from the others; not a step forward but a step in deep the research. In each different spaces there will be different sets and choreographic compositions. A difficult experience to tell.
Album credits:
Music composed, played, recorded and mixed by Bruno Dorella
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Vocals on 6 & 13 by Francesca Amati
Vocals 4, 9 & 10 by Elisabetta Da Rold
Voices treatment on 1 by Bruno Dorella & Giovanni Lami, 5 includes parts of Old Vogue Dancer by Bruno Dorella, 11 includes a sample by Stefano Ghittoni
Layout and artwork by Marco Valerio Amico
Photos by Daniele Casadio
Project credits:
Project: gruppo nanou, Alfredo Pirri, Bruno Dorella
Choreography: Marco Valerio Amico, Rhuena Bracci
Scenic space: Alfredo Pirri
Music: Bruno Dorella
Lights: Marco Valerio Amico
Colors: Marco Valerio Amico, Alfredo Pirri
Costumes: Rhuena Bracci
With Carolina Amoretti, Marina Bertoni, Vera Borghini, Rhuena Bracci, Francesca Dibiase, Andrea Dionisi, Agnese Gabrielli, Marco Maretti, Emanuel Santos, Sofia Pazzocco, Michele Scappa
And the graduates (2019) of the Post Diploma – Dance Course of the Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” of Milan: Livia Bartolucci, Alessandra Cozzi, Elisabetta Da Rold, Agnese Gabrielli, Nicolò Giorgini, Simone Mazzanti, Camilla Neri, Francesca Rinaldi, Pablo Ezequiel Rizzo, Bruna Romano
Production: Nanou Associazione Culturale, Ravenna Festival
Contributon: MIC, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Ravenna, Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna
Collaboration: Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” di Milano
Support: Centro di Residenza della Toscana (Armunia-CapoTrave/Kilowatt), E Production, ATCL Circuito Multidisciplinare del Lazio per Spazio Rossellini Polo Culturale Multidisciplinare della Regione Lazio, C.U.R.A. Centro Umbro Residenze Artistiche, Spazio ZUT!, Indisciplinarte, La Mama Umbria International
https://brunodorella.bandcamp.com/album/paradiso
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2258_bruno_dorella.htm
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| DOUBLENDS VERT |
Cistern |
CD |
Ein Quartett (bestehend aus 4 Instrumentalisten mit Violine, Akkordeon, Klarinett und Pauke) hat diese Aufnahmen in einer riesigen unterirdischer Höhle gemacht, den natürlichen Hall ausnutzend. Entstanden sind flirrende, schneidende Obertonwellen, die sich amorph ins Ätherische ausbreiten & allmählich ihre harmonische Struktur ändern. Polyphone Überlagerungen & Frequenzinterferenzen tauchen auf, kein reiner Wohlklang, sondern fremdartige Environments werden hier geschaffen. Erinnert an PAULINE OLIVEROS ähnliche Arbeiten, nur das hier der Sound- & Geräuschaspekt noch stärker im Vordergrund steht.
“Cistern was made in a two million gallon underground reservoir at Fort Worden, a de-commissioned military base overlooking the entrance to the Puget Sound. The space’s resonance extended the instruments in a way similar to electronic processing. The acoustic properties of the cistern created new sonic relationships to which the group applied their musical concept. Cistern captures Doublends Vert’s first experiences in the sound-world of the cistern.
Doublends Vert formed in 2003 through a common interest in creating restrained, acoustic music exploring the timbre blending possibilities of the violin, accordion, and clarinet.
Doublends Vert:
Clarinetist Adam Diller’s (b. 1980) music deals with the problems of composing for recorded medium, integrating electronic and acoustic sounds, and improvising with social and natural
environments. His process draws on experience with jazz, composition, improvisation, and computer-based sound design. Since moving to Seattle in 2002, Diller has performed in many situations and produced 10 recordings.
Annie Lewandowski (b. 1979) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with backgrounds in classical, improvised, and experimental music. She has performed at festivals in the USA, Canada, and Europe with trio Doublends Vert and duo Emma Zunz (with Cristin Miller). She currently lives in Seattle.
Tom Swafford (b. 1972) is violinist and composer active in a wide variety of musical styles. He studied composition in Boston, Berkeley, CA, and The Netherlands (with Louis Andriessen). He is a member of Cipher, Drumolin and Doublends Vert and also performs classical, bluegrass and rock music. He resides in Seattle, WA.
Matt Crane joins on timbales for cistern tracks 4 and 5 and engineered this live recording. Crane has been playing drums from an early age. His profound interest in music has translated into the study of many different idioms. He currently engages in many improvised settings with an emphasis on environment and its shaping of the musical experience.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| DOYLE, ROGER |
The Ninth Set |
CD |
Noch aus UNITED DAIRIES-Anfängen bekannt ist ROGER DOYLE - sein 66 minütiges prämiertes Werk "The Ninth Set" überzeugt mit raumfüllenden atonalen Sphären-Drones, so rauh und symphonisch wie einige KAYN-Stücke! Durchsetzt von elektro-akustischer Spannung
schaffen "stehende" Wellen von Klang tiefe suggestive Räume, harmonische Wechsel geschehen unerwartet und zirkulär, Lautstärkelevel verändern sich dynamisch. Mitreissend!
"Irish composer Roger Doyle's first release on Die Stadt is his prize-winning work The Ninth Set, a 67 minute masterpiece in 5 parts. He was awarded the Magisterium Prize at this years's Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition in France for parts 4 and 5. The award, which is one of the most important prizes in the world for electronic music, is open to composers having at least 25 years of professional experience in the field, and its objective is 'the promotion and diffusion of works that might become milestones in the history of electroacoustic music'. Previous works of Doyle include a 5-CD set Babel which took ten years to compose, where each track corresponds to a room or place within an imagined tower city; and the 3 hour Passades, music made from software that freezes sounds like a freeze-frame in DVD. He's also known for his project OPERATING THEATRE which released the classic "Rapid Eye Movements' album - consisting of 4 works composed between 1968 - 1980 - on Steven Stapleton's (Nurse With Wound) own United Dairies label in 1980. Furthermore he guested on Fovea Hex's 'neither speak nor remain silent' EP number 2 'Huge', alongside among others Clodagh Simonds, Brian Eno, Percy Jones and Colin Potter. More at http://www.rogerdoyle.com.
The CD comes in a color digipack in a first edition of 600 copies. Total playing time: 66:29 min." [press -release]
"...Through the five lengthy pieces of The Ninth Set, Roger Doyle cycles through rumbling episodes of recontextualized tumult and industrial heft, with every sound recorded and presented with impeccable digital clarity. At times, his work mangles Ligetti-esque vocal chorale through timestretching DSP tricks and thick digitally swabbed crescendos of grey noise; at others plucked cords, wires, and strings congregate into an unsettled mass with opaque rumblings and seasick swells. Throughout each movement, there's plenty of pregnant
interludes of relative quiet with punctations of rapidly approaching noise that halt at its peak with a razor cut to silence. Uncool, it
may be; but The Ninth Set is a brilliant record." [Aquarius Records review]
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Chalant - Memento Mori |
CD |
"The latest album by the godfather of Irish electronica is surely the artist’s finest moment. Roger dusts down his old answer machine messages from his parents, son and close friends and skillfully blends these with his trademark piano & string arrangements.
After the haunting narrative tale of Cool Steel Army in 2009, Psychonavigation Records is proud to present the latest project by Ireland’s Godfather of Electronica Roger Doyle. When speaking about the project recently Roger said “I have composed music around telephone answering machine messages left on my machine from the late 1980s: from my now-deceased parents, my son when he was ten (he is now a father himself), Jonathan Philbin Bowman, and the morning after the opening night of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé at the Gate Theatre, for which I composed a 2 hour onstage piano score. There’s a presence, an atmosphere of nostalgia around these messages. Perhaps it is something to do with irretrievable time and the distance of 24 years that has passed since they were left.”
These intimate verbal time capsules have been interspersed with instrumental compositions evoking a world of an ancient race memory, giving a hint of exotic imagined cultures. Both ideas are forms of time signatures.
In 2011 The NOVA programme presented by Bernard Clarke on Lyric FM broadcast a one hour profile of these new works of Doyle. The programme which is built around Chalant was then chosen as one of the Top 5 winners in the prestigious Prix Europa awards in Berlin.
Album Of The Week in The Irish Times (30 March 2012), the digital copy of this album can be bought via our Bandcamp site here." [label info]
www.psychonavigation.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Thalia |
do-LP |
The concrète riddle of ’Thalia’ is the Nurse With Wound-listed and cultishly desired Roger Doyle album withdrawn by CBS Classics shortly after its release in 1978. Less than 200 copies reached shops some three years after his distinctive debut ‘Oizzo No’ (1975) - which was reissued by Finders Keepers Cacophonic label to receptive ears in 2018 - and in retrospect the resurfacing of ‘Thalia’ follows that wonderfully odd LP to cement Doyle’s place among the outsider pioneers of ‘70s electronic and avant-garde tape experimentation.
Arguably one of the most important experimental records to emerge from 20th century Ireland, ‘Thalia’ is coveted for its inventive, unpredictable, near-psychedelic brilliance, yet has remained scarce due to major label politics, meaning listeners either had to fork out a ton for a 2nd hand copy, or make do with a 2002 CD compilation of ‘Oizzo No’ and ’Thalia.’
Now finally available on its intended format, the keening, breezy logic and abstract dramaturgy of Doyle’s work on ‘Thalia’ has been reshuffled to highlight its apparent surreality and frolicking apparitions. Combining his studious research and prep work at Utrecht Institute of Sonology (then home to Roland Kayn, Leo Küpper, Jaap Vink) and the studios of Finnish Radio (Yleisradio) Helsinki with a finely honed improvisational intuition at his home studio in Malahide, Dublin, the record yields a poetic diffusion of electro-acoustic phantasms meshed with politicised and unsettling field recordings, alongside a playfully experimental solo piano piece.
The 3-part title track is the biggest attraction on ‘Thalia.’ Acting as a sort of shamanic extension of Gaelic bardic traditions, Doyle guides the listener through labyrinthine dimensions, vacillating cartoonish tape FX with stark synth pulses, fragments of ‘Danny Boy’ and the unsettling sound of a woman wailing or even keening (a lament for the dead) in only the first minutes, the piece spirals over two sides between obtuse electronics and jump-cuts to melancholy strums, airborne melody and rabid dissonance with the natural quality of Ireland’s ever-shifting interplay of sun, rain and clouds. The relatively brief ‘Baby Grand’ follows as a sort of playful solo piano palate cleanser for the LP’s purest electronic piece ‘Solar Eyes’, which surely recalls to some degrees the iridescent expanses of Roland Kayn or Jaap Vink’s cybernetic music as much as Coil’s ‘pHILM #1’ as ELpH.
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| DRAFTED BY MINOTAURS |
Aversion Therapy |
do-LP |
"Drafted by Minotaurs mainstays are guitarist Ryan Wilson and Ian Fulcher, who contributes trumpet and glockenspiel. Meanwhile members of a floating cast chip in with added textures from cello and violin. Opener "Blueprints for Sunbuilding" spools out a hail of plucked and bowed strings, webs of sound solidifying then melting into steely flow, stall set out somewhere around cultivated Constellation post-rockeries, a mood and sound that may feel familiar to those acquainted with the new backwoods chamberisms and neo-folk drone of UK cottage industrialites such as Richard Skelton (aka A Broken Consort/Clouwbeck) and Seasons (Pre-din). "Sault Locks" proposes cyclical patterns of stringed things that seem to hover shyly apart, before swarming to swell and billow over the listener - not so much a Storm of Drones as a squall of tones. "Skin the Night and Fog," a more veiled sister of the previous pluckings and bowings, plays out a psych-infused dream sequence. These three tracks forming Side A work with their own distinct harmonic and textural patterns, while seeming like movements of something overarching. Miasmic minor chord tidal flow abounds, the music's motion determined by languorous bow-strokes, its textures by warm-prickly needles of guitar pizzicatos. Side B's single extended track, "Sunday's Morning Ghost," is wrought from similar materials, but aspires to more transcendant levels, led by the celestial harmonics of Fulcher's treated trumpet. It takes on atavistic echoes redolent of some distant Miles Davis or Jon Hassell blowback, as if viewing In a Silent Way through a post-Kosmische kaleidoscope, or channeled through Eno/Budd cathedrals to meet today's psych-drone and ambient trajectories. Overall, Aversion Therapy thrives on such productive tensions between genres and eras, as it does between live and recorded, spontaneous and pre-structured, making for engaging, at times thrillingly psychotropic, listening." - alan lockett " [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
"A duo is Drafted By Minotaurs, being guitarist Ryan Wilson and trumpet and glockenspiel (an unlikely combination me thinks) Ian Fulcher, whose 'Aversion Therapy' is their first LP. A great package with a gate fold sleeve - no costs are spared here. Their ambient is much more open and gentle then say Dent, and miles and miles away from the music of Malignant Records. The guitar is clearly to be recognized, even with some folk strumming in 'Sault Locks'. Whatever glockenspiel and trumpet are doing is however a bit unclear. My best guess would be is that are looped through a variety of sound devices and which form the ambient backdrop in which the guitar seems to move so freely. Side A has three tracks, under which the aforementioned 'Sault Locks', which is quite short, which are nice, but the best piece is the side long b-side 'Sunday's Morning Ghost', in which the trumpet plays a more dominant role (or at least can be recognized more), in long sustaining tones, meandering together, merging gently with the guitar sounds, which now are close to the trumpet. The glockenspiel? It plays its own spiel somewhere, like shimmering metallic sounds pushed towards the end of the spectrum, but they haven't disappeared altogether. Great cinematic beauty. Top class ambient album." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€26.00 |
|
| DRAHOMIRA SONG ORCHESTRA |
The Return of the 120 Magicians |
CD |
DRAHOMIRA SONG ORCHESTRA mag einigen bekannt sein von einer schönen LP auf dem inzwischen nicht mehr aktiven kanadischen Label FLESH EATING ANTS. Hier neues, sehr experimentelles Material in der „fabric pressed“ KunstCover-Reihe des Moskauer Labels.
This project had an LP on the now defunct canadian FLESH EATING ANTS and thats all what we know. This new release in the art-cover-series of the moscow-based label contains very experimental low-fi noises & tunes.
|
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
La Chambre de Stryrene |
CD |
"This album is the first release of the DRAHOMIRA SONG ORCHESTRA, the musical subsidiary of the multimedia art factory 'INSTITUT DRAHOMIRA'. Eight obscure ambient tracks: bizarre string loops and mysterious unidentified speaking voices create a worrying atmosphere of claustrophobia. So far, their works (about 50 albums) were only produced on CD-R or tapes and distributed randomly by mail, to people picked in the phonebook. Since the late 80's some live performances were also organised in secret places and transmitted by phone to the audience. Weird!" [label info]
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| DRAKE, BOB |
Lawn Ornaments |
CD |
"After Bob's Drive-In, which, in terms of production was quite restrained and minimal, Ornaments sets off in the opposite direction, piling up great car-crashes of overlapping fragments in a production that makes rococo look like shaker minimalism. Playing only drums, guitars, bass, banjo, fiddle, organ, trumpet and piano Bob herds tamed cataclysms of musical debris into the shapes of coherent - if episodic – songs, en route skipping through half a century of recording history. As to method well, you can’t beat a year of work. The CD comes with a beautifully illustrated booklet that includes all the song texts as well as eighteen commissioned drawings by the meticulous fine-artist Joe Mruk. Extraordinary music, intriguingly wrapped..." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"By my probably inaccurate count, this is Bob's eight album. Bob plays everything and the sound is purely Bob - is it folkie Americana subversively progressive singer songwriter avant what have you? Yes! It is! As it says below and beautifully sums his sound up, "he just does what he does."
This one has a beautiful booklet by noted illustrator Joe Mruk." [Wayside Music]
"Bob Drake is an enigma, a revered cult figure with a unique & bizarre approach to music. A musician's musician, he just does what he does. This time it's songs that slide through a thousand momentary flashes of other songs, other productions & other musical genres - ridiculously, outrageously, densely produced."
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| DRAKH |
Bethlehem |
CD |
"One third of the cult post-industrial Swedish legends MZ.412, one half of the amazing experimental act Beyond Sensory Experience and Nordvargr’s long running loyal partner on classic endeavors – including the abyssal black ambient duo Nordvargr/Drakh. With such high caliber résumé, we are more than honored to present the first Drakh solo album!
While mostly known for his demonic, truly Swedish guitar interventions on the MZ.412 or N/D pitch black ambiences, Bethlehem finds Jonas Aneheim walking through slow, quasi-harmonic, subtle, yet thick drone fields weaving elaborate and unexpected damaged electronic rhythms and harsh, crackling ambient textures that can become – at the same time – both delicate and haunting, warm and freezing, to finally drown in a sea of reverb, glacial riffing and distortion on his own shadowy interpretation of the city of Bethlehem. Simply perfect.
Masterfully conceived and recorded on the road during his many world travels over the past years – from the US State of Indiana to Asia –, the album successfully narrates unknown angles from these places via ominous sonic vistas and pallets that truly honor the charming aura and tradition of the bleakest Swedish sounds.
Presented in our custom 6-panel digisleeve packaging with stunning and desolate photography by Seldon Hunt. Not coincidentally mastered by no one else than Jouni Ollila (aka Ulvtharm, from the MZ.412 fame) at oLLiLaboratories Studios." [label info]
www.essence-music.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| DRAPE |
An Idea and its Map |
LP |
"Drape is an ambient duo comprised of Ryan Gracey and Spencer Williams. They have been crafting soundscapes since 2004. Their debut, 'dream words' (Gears of Sand) saw a limited CDR release in 2009. It was well received and garnered comparisons to Stars of the Lid, early 70's Tangerine Dream as well as late 80's space ambient. Their follow-up was an interesting pairing on cassette - a split w/ experimental artist Odd Nosdam.
'An Idea And Its Map' marks a refined leap forward in Drape's sound. While less space music, there is certainly more expansion. It is a smudged and blended orchestra of drones on the opener 'Solo in High Dreary' and those drones are split apart in slow-motion - eventually revealing a single guitar tone.
Moments of sublime resonance as on 'The Visible The Untrue' anchored by piano, and notes that float, seemingly carried in on a breeze. All is not as it seems with an undercurrent of ground swelling, oscillating air - somewhere in the distance there is a storm assembling. Ebb and flow between light and dark - silver lined black clouds converge on the B side opener 'fanfare for lake flies'. The strings, guitar, siren calls are assembled and plastered to one another. A thick blanket of overwhelming beautiful cacophony results.
The album's close is as much filtered white noise as it is heavenly chords. The dual slow-motion treated guitar present thoroughout 'An Idea...' diverges between pools of dissonant feedback, howls of wind, and melodic drones.
'An Idea...' is a study in contrasts - and Drape find effective employment of the disparity as well as the combination of the reticent and the reserved turbulence. There is an atmosphere of tension, in a sense with resplendent tones enveloping a barely concealed fury just under the surface.
Edition of 400 copies. Black vinyl, 180 Gram pressing. Gatefold sleeve + OBI strip. Purchase of LP will include a download code of the album (FLAC, MP3, etc. - your choice).
After a tumultuous pathway to being pressed on vinyl, be it natural phenomena, pressing issues, manufacturer issues, broken plates, and so on - Infraction is relieved to present finally the first vinyl full-length LP by Drape." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
"Graduating from extended synthesizer jams of their earlier output to symphonic, string-based ambience, the duo of Drape provide a soundtrack for frigid early mornings and star-laden late nights. The seven tracks that comprise "An Idea and Its Map" glisten and glide over slow arcs of swelling strings and luxurious textures that bring to mind the oft-referenced figureheads of the genre, Stars of the Lid. Drape, in both structure and execution, clearly aim for this comparison. Yet they do it better than most and while they can't approximate Stars of the Lid's natural emotion and grasp of melody, Drape smartly overlay their drones with guitar distortion and amplifier feedback to give the surroundings a patina of worn textures. The end result illuminates "An Idea and Its Map" with both a vulnerable and hard-edged feel and is all the better for it." [Ryan Potts, Experimedia]
"Its been a while since I last from Drape, the duo of Ryan Gracey and Spencer Williams - see Vital Weekly 722 - but I believe they didn't release much beyond that point, other than a split cassette with Odd Nosdam. With this release we return to the more introspective ambience which we also encountered with Eluder. Yet there are differences also. Whereas Eluder is certainly grey towards black, Drape is more grey towards white. It would seem to me that all of this music is created with guitars, and it's not difficult to see a strong influence from Stars Of The Lid. The long form, sustaining guitars, cascading slowly, like majestic waves, rolling ashore, has a strong orchestral to it. Ringing string music, on an endless, perpetual slow motion roller coaster. If that is at all possible. Its been a while since we last heard something from Stars Of The Lid, and for all I know they might no longer exist, but Drape, on this particular record, would win easily the chance of successor to their throne. A fine example, textbook drone music. Forty years of mood music pass by, from the German cosmos, Eno's living room and a bit of neo-classical music - Arvo for my part. Highly refined journey on the wings of musical history." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€25.00 |
|
| DRCARLSONALBION |
La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke |
LP |
"Known as “the doom metal innovator” for fronting drone ambassadors Earth, Dylan Carlson now brings his solo career to our very own Latitudes series. Featuring artwork by Battle Of The Eyes and released in a limited run of hand numbered and hand packed green 180g vinyl (green or white) and CDs (1000 of each).
Subsequent to his first release under the moniker of Drcarlsonalbion, the legendary Dylan Carlson visited Southern Studios to record an exclusive session amidst his spell in the UK researching folklore and faire folk of the British Isles. Drcarlsonalbion sees Carlson experimenting further with field recordings as he re-renders traditional folk as well as contemporary songs with his unique drone sound which has ever so long been allied to the mighty Earth. Joined by Teresa Colamonaco on vocals and Jodie Cox on guitar, the trio unite to bring a restrained majesty to the reworking of shared favorites, including Last Living Rose by PJ Harvey, resulting in an immensely special Latitudes release indeed.
Six covers/arrangements and one original composition recorded during his research into faire folk and collation of field recordings in the UK." [label info]
http://shop.southern.com/latitudes/
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
| DREAM WEAPON RITUAL |
Ebb and Flow |
LP |
"Formed in November 2006, Dream Weapon Ritual is the duo of Simon Balestrazzi and Monica Serra. They play free-form music that draws equally from droning electronica soundscapes and imaginary folk visions.
Simon Balestrazzi is an electronic/electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the 80's. He released many albums and performed live around Europe under various names. Monica Serra is a talented actress whose artistic research led to double as vocalist since 1999. Both are members of the long-lived Italian cult band T.A.C. (Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata).
Monica primarily sings and plays kaoss pad, while Simon primarily plays laptop and various small stringed instruments, although both also employ old synthesizers and various electronics, amplified sound objects, toys, live sampling tools, small percussion, and whatever they can get their hands on.
Togheter as Dream Weapon Ritual they released their music through Radical Matters, Old Europa Cafe and Magick With Tears.
Ebb & Flow is their latest album since 2011 and it’s another step forward in their imaginary
blend of the archaic and the modern. Togheter with the core duo, Ebb & Flow sees contributions from M.S.Miroslaw (sacred horse skull), Massimo Olla aka Noisedelik (chalumeau), Paolo Sanna (various percussions), Donato Epiro (flutes), Antonio Gallucci of Architeuthis Rex (guitar, percussions)." [label info]
www.boringmachines.it
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| DREYBLATT, ARNOLD |
Turntable History |
CD |
"ARNOLD DREYBLATT (b.1953) is an American composer who has studied with La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier. He is a member of the German Academy Of Art. He has released work on labels such as Table Of The Elements, Canteloupe, Tzadik, Hat Art and Dexter's Cigar. Turntable History is a recording of a 40 minute multi-channel sound composition which was concieved as part of an audio-visual installation installed in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. The original sound content is derived from recordings made by Arnold Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner ("Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class") in a radiological practice in Berlin. Dreyblatt was fortunate to gain rare permission to record this device in operation without patients being involved. A technician from Siemens manned the machine especially for these recordings, searching for software settings related to their resulting sonic output rather for scanning particular body areas. Dreyblatt treated the device as a giant "Tesla coil," in which the alignment and resonances of a powerful magnetic field is gradually altered by rotating radio frequencies. Dreyblatt analysed and deconstructed the original recordings and grouped the audio segments by pitch, rhythm and density. The resulting five-channel composition of harmonically resonating, pulsating signals, sounded within this voluminous reflective space (with long delay times) is wonderfully captured in this recording." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| DRIVE TO UQBAR |
First Station |
CD-R |
"First Station is a seven-track album featuring ambient, dark-ambient, and experimental minimal music comprised of electronically manipulated field recordings fused with guitar noise and drones developed by Keith Rose. Based on seven paintings by late abstract expressionist artist Barnett Newman, the album’s individual tracks structurally mimic (though not contrived) Newman’s minimalist, single-stroke technique, which he called his “Zip.” In addition, when translated sonically, Newman’s use of a single color for his paintings’ fields afforded a great deal of creative freedom when designing each track’s overall soundscape. Additional textures include female vocals by Rebecca Reis-Miller and cello performed by Yamilet Trujillo." [label info]
www.essentiamundi.com
|
2012 |
€9.00 |
|
| DRONAEMENT |
Ezoterick Muzick |
CD-R |
Finally a new full album by DRONAEMENT with NEW material, very “positive” drone-vibrations & field-recording-reworkings with excursions to trancy tribal-rhythm-pieces, full of mystic feelings and close to the mystery of existence, the title is more than appropriate...
“Dronæment is active since 1997 and is the main musical project of Marcus Obst who lives in the South area of what once was East Germany. After a few amazing tape albums he joined the Drone Records serie with the "Wassermond" 7", which was based on a collaboration with Jim De Jong, followed soon by a split LP with The Infant Cycle (Jim De Jong again....). Since then he released some marvellous albums on Dachstuhl, Nauze [Muzick], Mystery Sea, Le Cri De La Harpe and Field Muzik. Everyone with an even small interest in Drone / Experimental music should immediately put their hands on them. After the wonderful "Yr" (released with the help of our friends at Blade Records) and "Allein... Unter Menschen" (a remastered CD-R version of one of his early tapes), this is the third Dronæment album released by Afe. Needless to say that we're very proud about this. "Ezoterick Muzick" was inspired by repeated listenings of indian traditional music and is a successful attempt at creating meditative / relaxing ambient music...” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Fuer mur |
mCD-R |
Ein sehr anmutiges, waberndes Drone-Stück, basierend auf Piano-Klängen...ein weiteres mit verzerrten Synth-Sounds, die ins endlose driften.... die Nr. 20 in der taalem-Reihe vom sich weiterhin prächtig entwickelnden DRONAEMENT.
„Dronaement should need no introduction as he has now gained a strong reputation in the ambient world thanks to some releases on various labels like Drone Records, Dachstuhl (Tarkatak's home), Afe or Mystery Sea (yes, again !). Marcus presents here two melancholic and nostalgic tracks, the first with softer sounds, based on the wonderful "Für Alina" by Arvo Pärt, the second (an older piece found on a long-lost tape) with some more aggressive sounds, full of analog synths. Two sides of Dronæment's beautiful music...“ [label description]
www.taalem.com
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Wassermond |
7inch |
"DRONAEMENT is a newcomer from a small village in East Germany, who is also active in DAS RHYTHMISCHE ORNAMENT and D:RHYTHM:O and his small cassette-label NAUZE MUZICK. After a few amazing tapes, this is the very first vinyl issue for DRONAEMENT, containing two flowing tracks based on water sounds, entitled "wassermond" and "wassertank". Sounds go up and down like waves, pulsate soft and tender, surround you like cotton wool, being added up by sensitively created electronics. This is a kind of hommage to water, symbol for life, moving and development.
Listen to the endless streaming and flowing of life." [original press release January 2000] |
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Wassermond (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"DRONAEMENT is a newcomer from a small village in East Germany, who is also active in DAS RHYTHMISCHE ORNAMENT and D:RHYTHM:O and his small cassette-label NAUZE MUZICK. After a few amazing tapes, this is the very first vinyl issue for DRONAEMENT, containing two flowing tracks based on water sounds, entitled "wassermond" and "wassertank". Sounds go up and down like waves, pulsate soft and tender, surround you like cotton wool, being added up by sensitively created electronics. This is a kind of hommage to water, symbol for life, moving and development.
Listen to the endless streaming and flowing of life. GREEN VINYL, SILK-SCREENED COVERS IN DIFFERENT COLOURS." [press release]
|
2000 |
€ |
|
| DROUIN / OLSEN |
Snow:Field |
CD-R |
Schnee-Musik ! Alle Quellen-Klänge auf dieser CD-R wurden irgendwie mit Schnee erzeugt, und dann zu sieben langen Stücken verarbeitet. Sanftes Wummern, typisches Schnee-Knirschen, geheimnisvolles Wispern, eine detailreiche akustische Mikrowelt tut sich einem hier auf!
Ein Projekt von JAMIE DROUIN und LANCE OLSEN des Künstlerkollektivs INFREQUENCY.
Seven long pieces based on original sounds created with snow... soft vibrations, typical snow-crunching, mysterious whispers, a detailed acoustic micro-world opens..
check: www.infrequency.ca
“this 5" full-length cd documents portions of the audio installation of the same name recently seen at the folly gallery, uk. all sounds in this production are the result of the interaction with snow and feature drouin/olsen's best work to date. limited to 200 copies” [label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| DROUIN, JAMIE |
A three Month warm up |
CD-R |
DER GROSSE DRONE ! Jamie DROUIN lässt seine ätherischen Gebilde nicht einfach so im Raum schweben, sondern verbindet immer wieder interessante Konzepte damit: Hier verbindet er ganze 124 verschiedene Field Recordings(in einem Zeitraum von 3 Monaten aufgenommen) zu einem Polydrone, der alles einzusaugen scheint, und trotzdem eine choral-harmonische Tiefendimension offenbart..
"A Three Month Warm Up uses 124 individual field recordings made in an outdoor public square in Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) over a three month period, and is inspired by the cacophony of notes played by a symphony during warm up, where a single unified tone emerges out of the various instruments and voices. In playing back the ambient recordings, filtering them down to their essential 'notes' and layering the events, Drouin creates a sonic signature of the space, as if a residual echo of everything that occurred during those three months has been trapped within the structure.
A Three Month Warm Up was a site specific work created for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's Assume Nothing exhibition January-May, 2009. Curated by Lisa Baldissera." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
"...Drouin layers all the field recordings into one long swarming mass of sound, like indeed the orchestra tuning up, but much slower and without a single event to be recognized. Or perhaps like a church full of mumbling voices. Over the course of these seventy-seven minutes, the color of the music is slowly changes, changing from dark to a bit lighter and brighter and then slowly towards the dark again. Ambient music as it is supposed to be according to the text book of Brian Eno. Music derived from everyday, common sounds surrounding us. Maybe in that respect Drouin doesn't have to offer much news to the initiated in the world of ambient music, but the longitude of the work makes much sense. Play at a low volume and let it surround you."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| DROWNING POOL |
Aphonia |
CD-R |
"Out of the many recordings and releases by this group (comprised of Adam Elesh, Brett Smith, Andrew Crane and Jon Thomas), the main three releases that we have picked to digitally re-master are: "Green" the 1986 debut U.S. and Worldwide release (here available with bonus track "Sparrow"); "Aphonia" the instrumental 1990 release which has been beautifully re-mastered (with added bonus track "Dulce Periculum" 2006); and the digitally re-mastered re-release of the classic opus "Satori" originally released Worldwide by Nate Starkman. This CD "houses" many of the tracks from "Nierika", "Bloody Boy" and "Ultraviolet"." [label website info]
www.scarfacecharley.com
|
2009 |
€11.50 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN |
Humid Weather |
LP |
"Microphone, electronics, field recordings. Initialy published by Kevin Drumm himself in a very limited CDR edition. A mixture of field recordings and microtonal drones with intercepted voices." [label info]
www.bocianrecords.com
"A Bocian Records regular, Kevin Drumm, with another new LP of his work, which he recorded in July and August 2012, and perhaps there was humid weather in Chicago back then? There is not a lot of information on the cover, with regards to instruments and such like. The title piece spans side A, and on side B we find 'Heat Stress' and 'Humidity Can Suck It'. To start with side B is to start from an obvious point of entry. We know and love Kevin Drumm as a noise maker and these two pieces are very much like you would expect him to do. You could wonder if that's a good thing, but I quite enjoyed these two massive slabs of noise. Maybe there is some field recording in there, but there are effectively transformed by the use of effects and analogue synthesizers. It's what he does best, and Drumm isn't exactly of the Wall of noise school guys, but he's certainly one heavy composer. Chaotic it bounces around, like the finest Merzbow piece. It's great, but it's what you expect. The big surprise is to be found on the other side. Here we have a piece which is build from field recordings, lots of rain and thunder sounds, but also bits of street sounds. That's about one-third of the piece, the rest is made up from a very low ambient sound, mostly electronic I'd say, of a few loops howling around in the far distance, and nothing much else. This is great piece, unlike much, if not all, you may have heard from Drumm. A fine piece of ambient music, humming away in the background, almost like a very quiet Brian Eno piece. That perhaps is the biggest surprise - well, at least for me it is." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Phantom Jerk |
LP |
\"6 oscillators recorded July 2013 at Single Room Occupancy, Chicago IL. Vinyl issue of his 2013 CDr release, \'Phantom Jerk\'. In the tradition of \'Imperial Distortion\'.\" [label info]
www.bocianrecords.com
\"Arch electro-acoustic drone/noise explorer Kevin Drumm returns to \'Imperial Distortion\'-alike drone scapes on this abridged (3 tracks instead of 4) vinyl issue of his 2013 CDr release, \'Phantom Jerk\'. Using six oscillators, Drumm casts a shadow world of sedentary low end sag and keening, glassy highs as haunting as they are piercingly compelling. The 23 minute A-side moves as slowly and furtively as anything from his modern classic, \'Imperial Distortion\' for Hospital Productions, leading us thru successively dank, cold antechambers of isolated, wavering frequencies arranged with stoic logic. The B-side opens with a shorter, redemptive piece, almost painful in its achingly bittersweet beauty, and culminates in a thirteen minute piece of glacially layered, acrid tones yielding a spectrum of smeared, wide bass and beautifully hypnotic high end discord.\" [Boomkat]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Trouble |
CD |
"Recorded Winter 2013-2014 at Frostbite, Chicago, IL. Mastered by Russell Haswell. 'Trouble' is the brand new dispatch from the assorted output of Kevin Drumm and sits as one of the quietest in his entire catalogue. A single continuous 54 minute excursion into the netherworld of the audio spectrum, 'Trouble' is neither ambient nor drone but a more complex investigation into the deep recesses of sound. One which discreetly works itself into the mind of a listener willing to invest in the path laid out in this extremely subtle, beautiful and exceptional release." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Kevin Drumm has been known to wield an iron fist on his recordings—records like Sheer Hellish Miasma, Impish Tyrant, and Electronic Harassment are titled that way for a reason—but Trouble may punish you in different, and sneakier, ways. This is the quietest record I've heard since Bernhard Günter and Francisco Lopez's hushed microsound works from the turn of the millennium. It is so quiet that you'll need to turn the volume up very, very loud to hear it well, or indeed, at all. In my case, that involves several steps—one volume control on the laptop, one on the audio interface, and one on the DJ mixer that it all runs through on the way to a pair of studio monitors—as well as closing the window in order to shield Drumm's filament-like drones from the rumble of traffic outside. Suffice to say, this is an album that requires some effort, and part of that effort might involve just sitting still.
I thought I might get some multi-tasking done—file maintenance, email cleanup, general absent-minded mousing around—while I sat and zoned out to a first run-through of what might be the Chicago noise musician's most ethereal recording since 2009's Imperial Horizon. But I had forgotten about the computer's default alert sounds, and when I went to delete a document, I was startled by the noise that suddenly tore through my speakers—a sound like boots crunching through snow, almost painfully loud. The sound, of course, came not from Drumm's Worse than Burning Offal studios, but from a lab in Cupertino. But it was tempting to imagine that moment of sonic violence as a part of the piece, in a way. Kevin Drumm wants your full attention, and he has mastered Trouble in such a way to practically guarantee it.
Another, perhaps better, option is just to leave the album on in the background at a natural, almost inaudible volume, and let it sink in like incense. That's the same line of thinking behind Imperial Horizon's lone, hour-long track "Just Lay Down and Forget It", presumably. I can think of few passive listens that might be less taxing than this shimmering, 54-minute piece, divided into two halves and separated by a minute or two of actual, total silence. As far as wallpaper music goes, Brian Eno's Music for Airports scans as a clash of gaudy op-art prints compared to Drumm's almost invisible layer of atmosphere. Still, per the title, Drumm's disappearing act amounts to a kind of uneasy listening, even at an almost imperceptible volume. This is the sound of fingertips slowly tracing crystal rims; of whale song heard from the opposite end of the ocean; of ghost trains braking in the dead of night. It is the sound of mountains slumping and mist settling. Its deathless peal is a dead ringer for the music of the spheres—all that friction, all that reverb, nothing but shivering frequencies, from here to the ends of the known universe. It's the ghostly microwaves of cosmic background radiation.
Despite Drumm's noisy reputation, his music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest. Sheer Hellish Miasma's "Hitting the Pavement", for instance, is a full-body rubdown of distortion—part airplane engine, part power sander, yet still, above all, a welcoming embrace. And that goes a thousand-fold for the sublime Trouble, an album that invites you to dive into its clutches with the promise of never hitting bottom. The noise floor is a very, very long way down." [Philip Sherburne/Pitchfork]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Wrong Intersection |
CD |
"Wrong Intersection is a brand new album from Kevin Drumm presented in a one-time pressing and released on CD only. This new work spans Drumm's wide palette of textures and dynamics and is yet another milestone in his already prolific and critical journey of sound. Drumm has previously released material on Editions Mego, Hanson, Hospital Productions, Erstwhile, Chondritic, and Perdition Plastics." [label info]
Drumm is one of the most revered and influential noise artists, whose landmarks include the genre classics Sheer Hellish Miasma and Imperial Distortion.
"It can be hard to describe what distinguishes a really good noise record from an average one, but Drumm makes it easy for us. The question that all improvisers have to answer is whether something you play once can be worth listening to more than once. Experience and forethought ease the answer toward yes, and Drumm has both at his command." [Pitchfork]
"Kevin Drumm's outstanding Imperial Distortion is undoubtedly one of the finest experimental tomes to emerge over the last decade. It reframed the then noise-mired Hospital Productions label and was a startling about-turn for Drumm too, who up until this point was known pretty much exclusively for making eardrum-ripping noise in the vein of his pioneering Mego stand-out Sheer Hellish Miasma." [FACT Magazine]
"Even at its most chaotic, Kevin Drumm's music usually belies a sense of intentionality, a feeling of controlled purpose no matter the severity of the storm. It's one of the things that sets him apart: I've heard fans talk of Drumm as the most 'musical' of noisemakers, or a man who can do more with a few carefully sculpted sounds than most could do with a million." [Dusted]
www.handmadebirds.com
|
2014 |
€13.50 |
|
|
The Back Room |
LP |
Pulse generator, reverb, big muff.
One of the most interesting outsiders, icon of experimental electronic noise music first released this collection of intensive sounds on his own label, on CD-r limited to 60 copies. Now, three years after that premiere we're glad to present you an LP.
monotyperecords.com
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Impish Tyrant |
CD |
“A CD repress of a cassette that was released on the Spite label in 2004. Guitar and electronics. Processed guitar riffs and screeching electronics.”
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN & DANIEL MENCHE |
Gauntlet |
CD |
"Gitarre, Orgel, Fuzz Boxes und die Liebe zu Noise, Noise, Noise. Ein großes Dröhnen und mittendrin ein Gitarrenloop oder pumpender Puls. Konsonanz, die im Obertonbereich verklumpt zu einem Hornissen- oder schwirrenden Heuschreckenschwarm, groß genug, um den Himmel zu verdunkeln. Zu einem Geläut, das alles erbeben lässt. Die Hornissen schwellen an zu Bombern, des Schwirren zu Hubschrauberrotoren, die Gitarren entzündet sich selbst in Hendrix‘scher Pyromanie. Ich liege längst wimmernd auf den Knien, als noch nicht einmal die Hälfte dieses Spießrutenlaufes vorüber ist. Zwei sarkastische Ritter spielen mit eisernen Fingern Metal Machine Music. Nach 21 Min. wird das Dröhnen heller, sirrender, die Rotoren schrappen aber weiter und gegen Ende zu immer schneller. Den Schlusspunkt dieser Herausforderung für die Höre-mit- Schmerzen-Fraktion setzen grobe Störimpulse." [Bad Alchemy]
"Kevin Drumm (guitar and noise) and Daniel Menche (organ and noise) recorded Fall of 2006 in Chicago at Uggae's Porta-toilet studio. Mixed and mastered at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, Oregon. One organ, one guitar, several fuzz boxes and two highly regarded purveyors of american extreme sonics are the savuory ingredients that created Gauntlet. Building on Menche's aural low end physicality and Drumm's exacting attention to high frequency detail - the aptly titled 'Gauntlet' is sizzling, scorching slab of essential audio. Heavy in iron and protein. A lean cut indeed, no fat included." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2007 |
€12.50 |
|
| DUAL |
Klanik |
7inch |
Nahezu weiss in weiss ist die dezente Gestaltung für die Klanik / 4tH-EP.... DUAL gehören für uns definitiv zu einer der besten wirklich experimentellen "ambient-guitar“-Bands ...Wiederveröffentlichung der EP von 1999!
"DUAL hail from Doncaster, now based in London, England and have so far released two cassettes and a 7" on Dirter Promotions. Their music is a mixture of mighty guitar-drones with massive sub bass undertones & slight rhythmic structures that evoke feelings of total transcendence and grandeur. On Side A (KLANIK) there seem to be cascades of tuneful layered guitars that speak a special language of their own, on Side B (4tH) more concrete elements (rumbling and squealing) and unpleasent feedback arising, added by strange backwards sounds creating a rather eerie and challenging feel to it. This is highly demanding incremental experimental guitar-music with a very individual style!” [original label info August 1999]
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| DUBIT |
Vitriol |
CD |
Spiritual research and constant need for inner transformation. These are the key elements in the compositional style of Dubit, Pier Alfeo's moniker, the Apulian countryside-based electronic musician and producer whose Backwards is proud to issue "Vitriol", his second full length.
This ten-track album, which resumes the Backwards' CD-series started in 2013 with Fabio Orsi's “Endless Autumn”, has taken more than one year of work, using both analogue instruments (such as Spring Reverb, pedals, [D]ronin, Moog etc ...) and digital synthesis techniques. For its realization, Dubit also built by himself acoustic instruments composed of metal elements, strips, strings, barrels, amphorae as resonance boxes, and used prepared pianos, traditional Spanish instruments, didgeridoo, harmonica, snare drums and cymbals as well.
As in an alchemical process made of sounds, “Vitriol” blends in with powerful dark ambient, post-industrial music, some elements from techno and field recordings, drawing distopic landscapes in the sky. It's as if Raison d'être met Shackleton in the recording room to create a soundtrack for the end of the world. “Vitriol” comes in an edition of 500 CDs. Released in a matt-varnished ecopack. Artwork by Italian illustrator Master Easter.
Pier Alfeo, aka Dubit, lives for a few years in Berlin, where he leaves the sign by founding the label Several Reasons Recordings and Soluxion Lab mastering and sound design studio. After a series of singles and Eps, Dubit comes to his first full length “Fragmenti”, a large and articulated album in which he examines the particles of our everyday reality in relation to time, space, our inner experiences and primordial fears that hold us back.
Towards the middle of 2015, he returns near Bari where he starts composing his new record “Vitriol” and in 2016 he begins his course in Electroacoustic Composition, Multimedia and Music Computer Programming at the Electronic Music School in the Bari Conservatory. During his studies, he continues his specialization by designing Sound Art installations, studying and interpreting Acusmatic Music at Acusmonium in the “Space Silence” in Bari and creating Electroacoustic pieces through algorithmic compositing techniques.
www.backwards.it/releases/vitriol/26/
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| DUBUFFET, JEAN |
Coucou Bazar |
do-CD |
"In 1965, Turkish composer Ilhan Mimaroglu, then residing in New York, sent a letter to Jean Dubuffet, to explain his experiments, inspired by the series of the artist's drawings.
In 1971 when Dubuffet started working on a new form of "show," Coucou Bazar, he decided to submit his project to Mimaroglu. Mimaroglu released his music for Coucou Bazar in 1973 under the title: Electronic Music for Jean Dubuffet's Coucou Bazar, accompanying the first version of the 'show' presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, from the 16th of May to the 29th of July 1973, and the second version at the Grand Palais in Paris, from the 2nd of November to the 1st of December 1973.
Following these first two versions of Coucou Bazar, Dubuffet quickly envisioned a third version. This third version of Coucou Bazar was finally produced in Turin in 1978, thanks to the FIAT company. And this time, it was accompanied by Dubuffet's music. Anna Sagna, the choreographer of this third version, took care of editing the tapes from 1961 and 1973-1974 into a collage.
All musics done for Jean Dubuffet's Coucou Bazar show.
CD1: Ilhan Mimaroglu's soundtrack for Jean Dubuffet's articulated painting exhibition Coucou Bazar, which opened at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on May 16, 1973.
CD2: Jean Dubuffet's soundtrack of the Coucou Bazar show presented in Turin from June 16 to July 15, 1978 (based on Dubuffet's music recordings from 1961 and 1973-1974).
+ a never released before piece by Jean Dubuffet: Bal des Leurres (1972-73)." [label info / credits]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| DUHKHA |
Mariyammal |
LP |
"Ambient-Puzzle aus Frankreich. Zahlreiche Soundlandschaften von Musikern werden zu einer Fläche verbaut. Organisch und handfest. mit einer ganz besonderen, kränklichen, geheimnisvollen Stimmung und irren Vocals. Achtung Sogwirkung!
Vor vier Jahren veröffentlichte der in Berlin lebende Franzose BENJAMIN BEX mit "Rosegger" ein Album auf TREUE UM TREUE / REUE UM REUE. Für seine neue Projektarbeit, zusammen mit befreundeten Musikern als DUHKHA auf IDÉOBLASTE erschienen, übernimmt das Label zwar 'nur' den Vertrieb. "Mariyammal" klingt aber so stark nach der mysteriösen Ambientwelt von TUT / RUR, dass das Album perfekt in die Labelwelt gepasst hätte. (Wer mit der entsprechenden Musik vertraut ist, kann sich den Rest des Artikels theoretisch sparen und blind zugreifen.)
Für mich stellt sich die Arbeit von DUHKHA wie ein großes, schönes Puzzle dar, mit BENJAMIN BEX als Chef am Tisch. Er hat sich von befreundeten Musikern Klänge, Töne, improvisierte Tonfolgen, Geräusche et cetera einspielen lassen und diese auf sehr kunstvolle, magische Weise zusammengebaut. Ergänzt durch eigene Beiträge, insbesondere durch bemerkenswerte Gesangsparts. PIERRE GORDEEFF zum Beispiel hat Aufnahmen seiner verrückten Maschinen beigesteuert. Das Turntablism-Projekt VINYL -TERROR & -HORROR lieferte einige Klanglandschaften. Andere Freunde spielten Cello-Improvisationen oder Echtzeit-Soundbasteleien ein. Der ganze Prozess, inklusive des Verwebens der Bestandteile, dauerte rund zwei Jahre.
Das ansteigende, dröhnende Rauschen im Opener "Mariyammal" (A1) lässt sich viel Zeit, bevor sich Streicher mit sirenenartigen Sounds einmischen. Eine eigenartige und recht bedrohliche Atmosphäre, die plötzlich umschwingt: Als würden Wolken weggeblasen, taucht der Gesang auf. Verletzlich, hoch, fast Falsett, und dazu ein Kratzen – als ob die Singstimme gleich wieder weggewischt werden sollte. Weitere Zutaten: Arienansätze im Hintergrund und improvisierte Streichertöne. Sehr filmisch und sehr, sehr intensiv. In "Whidama" (A2) stammen die ersten Töne zwar von einer Akustikgitarre (nicht von Streichern), ansonsten bleibt vieles gleich. Die knarzenden, fordernden Sounds, der hohe Gesang (kurze Momente lang erinnert er mich an DAVID TIBET), und später quietscht auch das Cello wieder, zu- und abnehmend. "Teufelssee" (A3) bleibt instrumental, mit bearbeitetem Piano und einem Potpourri aus bisherigen Klängen, etwas enervierend mutet dabei das heftige Vinylknacken an.
Die B-Seite startet ("Dans La Nuit Et L'Oubli", B1) mit Gitarrendrones, dem Klirren von Münzen und extrem hingebungsvollem, mystischem und beschwörendem Gesang. Durch längere Instrumentalparts, repetitive Geräusche mit Streicherimprovisation und später wieder dem verrückt machenden Plattenknistern und -knacken ist das Stück zerhackter, collagenartiger als die Tracks auf der ersten Seite. In "De La Lumière Et De La Mémoire" (B2) übt ein ganzes Orchester, mit fanfarenartigen, sägenden Tönen im Vordergrund. Der Gesang: noch höher, lyrisch und manisch, dagegen geschnitten sind ängstliche, fliehende Frauengeräusche und schräge Engelschöre.
"Mariyammal" ist ein organisches, handfestes Werk zum Anfassen. Gleichzeitig scheint es mir durchzogen von Vergangenem, Morbidem und erinnert phasenweise an unsaubere, entfernte Schellackaufnahmen. Erstaunlich, dass sich die ungeheure Vielfalt stets zu dieser ganz besonderen, kränklichen, geheimnisvollen Stimmung mischt. Sorgfältig geschichtete Ambientmusik, bei der vor allem die Stimme – im Vergleich zu vielen sonstigen Basteleien auf dem Markt – den Unterschied macht. Achtung Sogwirkung."
[Michael We. für nonpop.de ]
https://vimeo.com/116551690 |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| DUKE, ANDREW / AKUMU |
Organic |
CD-R |
Two new unknown names for us on John Gore's (KIRCHENKAMPF) label: ANDREW DUKE has 10 shorter pieces with delayed object-noises, nicely effected roaring drone-waves, weird electronic sounds, and glitchy rumbling granulation-fields, many details & ideas here, every piece is different... AKUMU presents three permeating sonorous drones with lots of micro-sounds... great CDR, much recommended!
"two Canadian sound artists: Andrew Duke of Cognition Audioworks of Nova Scotia presenting his cutup glitch compositions and Akumu (aka Deane Hughes) three tracks of deep drone - limited to 100 copies"
"I always appreciate Cohort’s will to present non-commercial electronic music from all over the world, even at the price of a few minor releases. But the good ones are REALLY good, and this is one of them. Andrew Duke, who is a renowned composer active in many different media, is here represented by a series of relatively dark tracks which feature quite a lot of spontaneous instrumental generation, in addition to Andrew’s obvious technical skills. Deceitful patterns and clashing reverberations release inexhaustible, mind-dislocating clouds of frequencies that contrast – or get married to – hypnotic vicious circles in an unpredictable kinship with hypothetical altered states of mind. Headphones are recommended to catch every minute detail, as Duke works at the margins of the audio spectrum to deliver his brand of electronica from any preconceived interpretation, virtualizing events with the equidistant calm of a neutral observer. Dean Hughes (Akumu) is even more obscure, entrancing and – contrarily to what the titles might suggest – organic. His three tracks are long explorations of the psyche through a mass of extremely resonant low drones that suggest no other behavior than a total relinquishment of our will to penetrate their structure (no pun intended). For my own taste, this is the best half of this split album, bringing memories of current masters of the genre (Frans De Waard’s Shifts and Freiband projects come to mind) through a masterful modulation of our sensitive apparata. But the whole CD is excellent, and it would be unjust on my behalf dividing the artists’ merits." [Touching Extremes]
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN |
John See Soundtracks |
CD |
Soundtracks from the JOHN SEE SERIES, 1986-1988, und MOVE FORWARD, 1984. Very early experiments as a Soundtrack to Pornofilms. Originally released in 1994 as a lim pic-LP and as part of a cassette. Includes Full-Colour booklet with many photos.
label: www.rrrecords.com
|
1996 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Nazca Transmissions |
LP |
"On Christmas Eve, 2004, John Duncan received a mysterious email from an archaeologist working at the site of the Nazca Lines in Peru. He claimed to have discovered, and over time recorded, a variety of sounds actually generated by the enigmatic lines themselves. Familiar with Duncan's 'Infrasound-Tidal', composed from source recordings taken from tides, seismic activity and barometric data from the Australian coastline, he suggested to Duncan the composition of a piece with these sources. All of the sources were modified in the studio of John Duncan, some radically, to bring out an unsettling, haunting quality. In mid-June 2005, the glorious 5-track piece was finally ready. John Duncan sent several messages to the archaeologist, none of them ever answered or returned. A hard disk crash effectively destroyed all of the email correspondence between them. What remains are the notes he sent that ostensibly describe the details of sites and times for the source recordings. Those notes have been reproduced on the insert included in this edition, also presenting John Duncan liner notes. First pressing limited to 380 copies, with embossed total-black cover, insert and full-color inner sleeve with wonderful space images of the Nazca Lines." [label info / credits]
"The sound constructs of John Duncan almost exist as a residue of his own personal research into esoteric realms of knowledge, existential bouts of continuous questioning, and transgressive acts against himself and society at large. Here was a man who claimed to have sex with a corpse as a performance piece entitled Blind Date, whereby he planted his last seed in a dead body before undergoing a
vasectomy. That event presumably took place nearly 30 years ago, when Duncan was emerging as an artist in Los Angeles alongside Paul
McCarthy, Jim Shaw, and Mike Kelley. Blind Date has become a piece of infamy that blossomed beyond his already highly transgressive context, but he's always been an artist who is very deft at framing particular works through the process and through the context of said piece. The Nazca Transmissions is one such piece.
A few years back, Duncan received an email from a German archaeologist working at the site of the Nazca Lines in Peru. These
are the massive drawings carved into an arid plateau some 2000 years ago by the ancient Nazca people. Some of these figures are
representation, some are not, and some get as large of 200 yards in size, all posing the question: who was supposed to be seeing these
figures, and to what end? Now, this archaeologist claimed to have been able to record sounds from those line drawings; and he presented the raw material to Duncan, having been familiar with his transmutational pieces of digital data and shortwave. Duncan was suitably perplexed and intrigued by the sounds that were presented to him, proceeding to
work on a series of compositions through that material. Unfortunately, this archaeologist ceased all communications, leading Duncan to wonder if it was all a big hoax.
Eerie ringings pocked with scrabbled textures almost like clipped VLF recordings open the album set against a gaping chasm of
quietness. While Duncan's penchant for abrasive noise and jarring juxtaposition is well documented, you won't find that here. By the end of the side, the textures take on an unsettled rhythm that almost resembles human speech garbled through the process. Very compelling, very unsettled. The second side begins with an interlocking series of modulated and muffled Shepherd Tones, these are the audio equivalent of a barber's pole with the tones giving the appearance of being in constant ascension or descension. It's a common artifact found throughout the shortwave bands, harkening back to one of his preferred sound sources; and Duncan puts them to excellent use amidst a sea of low end rumblings. Soon after, pierced tones push to the foreground as those low end rumblings mutate into grotesquely deformed growlings only to fade against a hushed coda of grey noise. This is limited to less than 300 copies, and it remains to be seen if we'll be able to get more than the handful we have now. Recommended no matter how you look at it." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN & GIULIANA STEFANI |
Palace of Mind |
CD |
"... a really mind-blowing journey into pure sounds - same concert as he played during his small tour in Germany December 2000. Needs to be played loud. Our favourite DUNCAN-album so far. Mysterious, powerful, organic. A real experience." [Drone Rec. 2001]
label: www.allquestions.net
"Palace Of Mind is the 2000 recording collaboration between John
Duncan and Giuliana Stefani. Mr. Duncan has long been one of AQ's
favorite experimentalists, having started things out back in the '70s
LA performance art community only to quit the US to pursue his own
intense psychological research into sound, projection, installation,
photography, and the like. Stefani is a mathematician by training and
became acquainted with Duncan through a collaborative project they
began in Amsterdam in 1996. For this album, the two sifted through
digital treatments of shortwave transmissions, wire-tapped data
streams, and voice. In turn, they work the album into labyrinthine
composition that can hold any number of potent metaphors: the neural
synapses of the human brain, the schematics of a computer, or simply
an architectural set of overlapping resonant spaces. Rareified tones
set with motoric vibrations transition through the fluttering of (or
rather the lack there of, as this sounds like the empty spaces between
the bands marked by a mechanoid oily hiss) and onto slashing digital
drone. Here, one can think to Duncan's exceptional field recordings
made at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in the early '90s. Within the
movement from an irritable data-stream purity to the gossamer haze of
shortwave distortion to gaping drones of treated vocal vibrato, Duncan
and Stefani have set a trajectory deep into the heart of their sonic
architecture, with each 'room' saturated with an anxiousness for what
may be on the other side of the door. You won't find Duncan firing a
gun at your head (seriously, he did that as performance piece called
Scare back in the late '70s, using blanks mind you), but Palace Of
Mind revels in an interlocking network of chambers that resonate and
breathe with a profound beauty. Highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2000 |
€15.50 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN & PAOLO PARISI |
Conservatory (San Sebastiano) |
BOOK & CD |
Ein weiterer Ausstellungs-/Installationskatalog mit Audio-CD von JOHN DUNCAN, diesmal in Zusammenarbeit mit PAOLO PARISI. Alle Klänge basieren auf “human voice only”...
"Full color 64 pp. paperbound catalogue with installation audio CD mounted in separate cover, both inserted in paper box.
Catalogue : Texts (English/Italiano) by Daniela Cascella, Pietro Gaglianò, Giovanni Iovane, & Sergio Risaliti.
Audio CD : John Duncan : shortwave, processing.
Catalogue and CD cover produced by Maschietto Editore. CD produced by Allquestions." [label notes]
„The work of John Duncan should need no introduction, as he has long been one of Aquarius' favorite sound artists; however, Paolo Parisi is something of a mystery to us. An Italian sculptor, painter, and installation artist, Parisi commissioned Duncan to compose a sound component for one of Parisi's installation. The themes behind Parisi's installation for plastic tubes and eviscerated cardboard sentry houses are far too convoluted to recount within this review; but in a shocking display of Aquarian restraint, we'll merely mention that the Panopticon, Hitchcock, Deleuze, and Duchamp all get name checked throughout the book's text celebrating Parisi's installation. The CD is all Duncan; and it's well worth the price of admission. Duncan has long been known for his use of shortwave radio sounds as the springboard for his psychologically intense compositions; but slowly, he has been introducing the human voice into his pantheon of sound sources. For Conservatory, voice is the only source he is using, in particular he's amplifying and stretching the gasps, wheezes, and hisses that occur during the act of breathing. Through his manipulation of these sounds, Duncan cultivates a vast network of gaping blasts of air that collectively build into a ghastly, frigid drone emanating from a unscrupulous cryrogenics laboratory. Another epochal release from Mr. Duncan!“ [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€35.00 |
|
| DUPLANT, BRUNO |
Nox |
CD |
The sound piece Nox (in addition to reflecting the traditional nocturnal effluvia specific to the title) is based on the multiple meanings and interpretations that can be made of the incomplete form of the dactylic hexameter and palindrome In girum imus nocte ecce et consumimur igni. This Latin phrase, pictorial and poetic, most often attributed to Virgil, refers to the moths that circle around the candle before burning themselves, and which means: “We go around in circles in the night and we are devoured by fire “. It is also, much closer to us, a French film directed by Guy Debord in 1978. The film (lasting 95 min) describes the consumer society and capitalist alienation, applying to highlight the condition of modern slaves. Today even more this Latin expression takes on a new meaning with the phenomena of ultra-liberalism and major climate crisis. Man, like moths, burns his wings on the fires he himself lit and continues to maintain despite warnings and threats. Are we witnessing the end of the Anthropocene, of the consumer society and capitalist alienation described by Guy Debord?
~
La pièce sonore Nox (outre le fait de refléter les traditionnelles effluves nocturnes propre au titre), repose sur les sens et interprétations multiples que l’on peut faire de la forme incomplète de l’hexamètre dactylique et palindrome In girum imus nocte ecce et consumimur igni . Cette locution latine, imagée et poétique, le plus souvent attribuée à Virgile, fait référence aux papillons de nuit qui tournent autour de la chandelle avant de s’y brûler, et qui signifie : « Nous tournons en rond dans la nuit et nous sommes dévorés par le feu ». C’est aussi, beaucoup plus près de nous, un film français réalisé par Guy Debord en 1978. Le film (d’une durée de 95 min) décrit la société de consommation et d’aliénation capitaliste, s’appliquant à mettre en évidence la condition d’esclaves modernes. Aujourd’hui encore plus cette expression latine prend un sens nouveau avec les phénomènes d’ultra-libéralisme et de crise climatique majeure. L’Homme, tels les papillons de nuit, se brûle les ailes sur les feux qu’il a lui même allumé et qu’il continue a entretenir malgré les avertissements et les menaces. Assistons-nous à la fin de l’anthropocène, de la société de consommation et d’aliénation capitaliste décrite par Guy Debord ?
(Bruno Duplant, May 2022)
Release Date : June 20, 2022
Duration : 40:00
Format : glass mastered CD/digital
Track : nox
Regular Edition : 165 hand-numbered copies
Packaged in clear vinyl sleeve with folded insert + additional art card on 350gr satin paper.
Cover design, card & treatments by Daniel Crokaert
Based almost exclusively on photos by Bruno Duplant and some additional textures from
Unfathomless' archive
"It seems as if no week passes by without a new release by Bruno Duplant, the French composer of whom I never seem to know much about. Releases for Unfathomless deal with field recordings, and this one is no different, except, perhaps, for the fact that many of these field recordings are made in one place. Duplant
recorded his material in Waziers, Berlin and London, without being very specific about the exact locations. That too is sometimes different on this label. And lastly, Duplant uses some instruments here. I believe to hear a piano and some instrument played with a bow; that might strings or a cymbal. The title refers to "the multiple meanings and interpretations that can be made of the incomplete form of the dactylic hexameter and palindrome In girum imus nocte ecce et consumimur igni. This Latin phrase, pictorial and poetic, most often attributed to Virgil, refers to the moths that circle around the candle before burning themselves, and which means: “We go around in circles in the night and we are devoured by fire". I am not that smart. More explanations on the Bandcamp page. Maybe the piece is indeed a palindrome. At least when I opened it in an audio editor it gave that impression. As with some of other recent works, Duplant seems to be layering a lot of sounds that may not have
many relations with each other and then finds a dialogue among them. By slowly fading up and down particular sounds, he creates a very rich sound world. I am not sure to what extent this is to be understood as random in the John Cage-sense, or if the composer willingly allows sounds to be louder or quieter in the mix. There are some massive, drone-like rocks, very detailled small field recordings, the occasional piano tone, the bow across the cymbal/violin, crackles and it all works very well. 'Nox' lasts exactly forty minutes, but I am sure this could be twice as long and still be interesting. I know this, because I had it on repeat and didn't notice the change over that much and it wasn't until much longer that I realized it started again. The overall tone of the piece is quite moody and atmospheric, but I guess such is the nature of densely layered field recordings. High quality work, as usual." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| DURAND, SOPHIE & MANU HOLTERBACH |
Verres enharmoniques : un |
maxi-CD |
Great polyphonic glass harmonic-drones, a one-tracker of about 20 minutes. Professional cover-artwork. To discover !
"The first acoustic recording of a performance in Paris utilizing Manu Holterbach's invented glass instrument from April of 2003.
The Cloud of Statics project is a series for commissioned works on CD by newly discovered or independent contemporary composers and ar tists working with suspended acousmatic sound phenomena. Cloud of Statics releases will consist of two formats, long works and shor t works. Long works will be full length CDs published in 12 x 15 cm landscape hardback book packaging. Short works will be 20 minutes length semi transparant large CDs packaged in double car ton sleeves." [label info]
|
2004 |
€10.50 |
|
| DURAND, WERNER & ALIO DIE |
Aqua Planing |
CD |
„Aqua Planing“ ist eine begeisternde Veröffentlichung, bei der ALIO DIE sein Klangspektrum beeindruckend erweitert und keine elektronischen Klangquellen oder Synths benutzt! Kern dieser ungewöhnlichen Zusammenarbeit sind die improvisierten Drones von WERNER DURAND: Dieser steuert hier Klänge von diversen handgespielten (ethnischen), z.T. selbstgebauten Blasinstrumenten bei (NEY, KHEN, SHAKUHACHI, Klarinette, ein „Drone-Rohr“), die er sehr flächig einsetzt, während ALIO DIE v.a. field recordings dazusteuert. Fünf Stücke von sehr natürlicher Atmosphäre, energetisch & dynamisch..
“In the enigmatic Aqua Planing, Werner Durand and Alio Die create a sonorous, powerful, impervious space; sometimes liquid, subtly endearing. A meeting of mysterious sounds, both improvised and organised, of the traditional and self-made wind-instruments and their hybrids by Werner Durand (persian and circular water ney, circular clarinet, khen, prepared shakuhachi) with the editing, loops and enviromental recordings by Alio Die. As in the title track, where they recorded the sound of the wind blowing on the edge of a PVC tube sticking out of the car window, while driving on an italian highway and mixed it with the sound of the ocean, filtered acoustically by the very same PVC tube, or the noise of a night train, the church bells in a mountain village, the musicians cause you to loose tracks of home and move towards purely surreal places. Their performance is always rigorous, the accurate tunings accuracy and special timbres of Werner Durand`s playing settled in the peculiar atmospheres created by Alio Die evoke unique interwoven listening spaces, rich with hues and shades, continuously evolving.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| DUVELLE, CHARLES & HISHAM MAYET |
The Photographs of Charles Duvelle - - Disques OCORA And Collection PROPHET |
BOOK / 2 x CD |
The Photographs of Charles Duvelle
Disques OCORA and Collection PROPHET
Charles Duvelle and Hisham Mayet
Disques Ocora, a French label dedicated to capturing and publishing the sounds of folkloric culture from around the world, is held in the highest possible regard in the realms of professional and amateur ethnomusicology. Instigated in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of musique concrète, Disques Ocora’s sterling reputation is largely built on composer and musicologist Charles Duvelle’s pioneering field recordings, as well as his now-iconic photographs and graphic design.
Charles Duvelle’s work is indisputably one of the most important contributions to the human understanding of the rich biodiversity of our planet’s music and language. In 1977, his field recordings from Benin were selected by Carl Sagan for inclusion on the Voyager Golden Records, which were carried into outer space by the Voyager spacecraft to stand as an example of humanity’s highest musical expressions for the universe’s unknown listeners.
Sublime Frequencies’ most ambitious project to date, this 296-page fine-art photography book comprises an exhaustive collection of Charles Duvelle’s field photography from 1959 to 1978, demonstrating that this master musicologist had an equally unerring eye for photography. It also contains an exhaustive interview with Charles Duvelle by Hisham Mayet, detailing the history of the label and offering Duvelle’s unique insights into the discipline of field recording. The package includes two full-length CDs of archival recordings (some of which have never been published) selected by Duvelle himself.
In a tribute to Disques Ocora’s exquisite design sensibility, the book is printed on 170gsm Lumisilk matte artpaper and bound in grey buckram with gold foil stamping on the cover and spine. The front cover includes a tipped-on glossy photograph by Charles Duvelle.
Contents
• 188 black & white and 58 color photographs selected by Charles Duvelle and Hisham Mayet from five regions surveyed during his time with Ocora: West Africa, Central Africa, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, and SouthEast Asia
• Two CDs of music compiled exclusively for this volume by Charles Duvelle with fully annotated track listings and recording details
• An interview with Charles Duvelle by Hisham Mayet (French and English facing text)
• “Disques Ocora / Charles Duvelle Discography, 1959–1974,” a complete overview illustrated with 94 full-color album thumbnails
• “The Prophet Collection, 1999–2004,” a discography of Duvelle’s post-Ocora label, illustrated with 41 full-color album thumbnails
• Ocora catalogues, 1964–1973
• A photo index listing the details of each photograph in the book
• “Eastern Music in Black Africa,” a 17 page report prepared by Charles Duvelle at the request of UNESCO, February 1970
Produced and edited by Hisham Mayet
Limited Edition. 296 page fine art photography book with 2 CDs of exclusive audio complied by Charles Duvelle.
https://sublime-frequencies.bandcamp.com/album/the-recordings-of-charles-duvelle-disques-ocora-collection-prophet
|
2017 |
€59.00 |
|
| DÄLEK {DALEK] |
Untitled |
LP |
"One track, 40 minutes over 2 sides. The eagerly awaited and legendary Latitudes session finally sees the light of day. Vinyl comes in a limited run of 700 black and 300 purple and includes an insert and a sticker.
from the liner notes:
July 2005 was a crazy time in my universe. John Loder, my mentor and surrogate big brother, who I had worked alongside at Southern for 20 years, was very ill - battling a brain tumour diagnosed 18 months earlier. Dälek were holed up in my flat, on the sharp end of reducing their number from three to just two. They were recording a session for our relatively new Latitudes imprint - spending days in the studio laying tracks and nights in my living room, working on ideas. We got to know each other, really. (I have the photos of Alap passed out drunk in his boxer shorts to prove it.) I discovered that the hip-hop bravado and crushing beats were only one layer of these guys. They had a secret Metal past, a serious Alt-Country present, and hearts as big as New Jersey. Their love and knowledge of music ran deep.
On the 7th, I got up to head into the office/studio, and left them sleeping away. Half way to the bus stop I got a call from Tony saying turn around, go home, don't get on the bus or the tube. He said there had been explosions in the Underground. I turned around, went home and turned on the news. Alap and Will sat with me and watched London's own version of 9-11 unfold, and then, full of determination and grit, headed into the studio to finish recording. And what did they produce?
Why it's taken this long for this recording to be released is only down to me, and the battles that I've fought in the intervening five years. In August of 2005, John Loder left us. Since then I've had to work very hard to keep Southern going, and though we had to close our warehouse and as a result lose most of our staff last year, we've survived, and actually come out all the better for it. It's like the old days - we're compact, which means we can fight our battles like guerilla warriors - which is pretty much what you need to do to make ends meet these days.
None of this has much to do with the epic grooves that Dälek laid down on this session. And it has everything to do with it, at least when I listen to what MC Dälek is saying. Sonically, this session is a real departure from Dälek's albums. It's a gorgeous, multi-cultural melting pot of sound and space, a serious shot to the head, an opening of the third eye. I strongly urge you to explore the magnificence of this session on headphones, in a darkened room, and let it take you away.
I love it so much that I guess I wanted to keep it to myself for all this time. But it's time to share, and to apologise to you all for taking so long. - Allison Schnackenberg, August 2010" [label info]
http://blog.southern.com/latitudes
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Respect to the Authors |
12inch |
180g schwarzes Vinyl, Std. Sleeve mit Glanzlaminat. In jeder Hinsicht sind Dälek ein musikalisches Extrem. Als Kollektiv nutzen sie die Collagen-Ästhetik der frühen Bomb Squad Produktionen und versetzen ihren HipHop mit Elementen von Faust, My Bloody Valentine und Velvet Underground. Betrachtet man die Texte verwendet Dälek als MC Ideen und Gedanken, die jenseits gängiger HipHop-Issues liegen. Sowohl Dälek's Musik als auch seine Lyrics bilden eine ganz besondere Komposition und ergänzen sich zu einem großen Ganzen. Und obwohl dieser Act die wohl größte Herausforderung in der Geschichte der experimentalen Musik angenommen hat, geht es hier nicht um elitäre Standortbestimmungen sondern geerdete Synapsenmassage. Dälek bleiben sich selbst treu und präsentieren HipHop als eine progressive Form von Kunst und nicht Kommerz. Es ist heutzutage einfach, eine Band mit den großen Künstlern der Vergangenheit zu vergleichen, aber wenige sind es, die Einflüsse aus der Popgeschichte aufsaugen und die Summe dieser zu einem Größeren machen als die Einzelteile. Exile On Mainstream verbindet eine tiefe Freundschaft mit Dälek seit nunmehr 17 Jahren und wir sind stolz und glücklich wie bekloppt, diese EP zu präsentieren. Sie erscheint strengstens limtiert ausschließlich auf Vinyl.
Dubbed as ‘alt hip-hop’ by their iconic label Ipecac Records we can’t agree more to the implication of this honorific as the New Jersey tone evangelists are indeed an alternative, if not thee alternative: being Hip Hop for those who don’t pigeon-hole themselves as typical Hip Hop diehards, attracting those who keep listening outside the box. Subversive. Paradigm-changing. Mindblowing.
Dälek do not have a message, they are the message: with focusing both on tone and content while staying true to the roots of HipHop but bringing in the love for monolithic sound arrangements as well as dream-like haze of sheer volume they combine both the powers of sound and words solely and undisputable. For us at Exile On Mainstream it’s nothing less than a long dream coming true to release a strictly limited, one-off vinyl-only EP called “Respect To The Authors” in time for the EU tour in March/ April 2019. The EP features 6 tracks and 30 mins of playing time.
Exile On Mainstream has been friends with Dälek for well over 17 years and the release marks bringing together likeminded efforts to full circle.
|
2019 |
€17.50 |
|
| E-MAN |
same |
MC |
"Cassette-only release in a limited-edition of 350 copies only. E-Man was the first apparition of Norway's father of chilly ambient electronics, Geir Jenssen -- these days better known as Biosphere. This tape, originally released in 1984 on Likvidér, features contributions from Per Martinsen (Mental Overdrive) and Nils Johansen (Bel Canto). All tracks recorded on a Teac 4-track cassette recorder at Elverhøy Studenthjem, Tromsø and Nord-Norsk Studenthjem, Oslo, Norway between 1983-1984. All tracks written by Geir Jenssen except track A1. written by Jenssen/Martinsen, A4. written by Jenssen/Johansen/Larsen, A6. and B4. written by Jenssen/Larsen, B1. written by Jenssen/Høyer/Larsen. Geir Jenssen (electronics), Ragnar Larsen (vocals and bass) (A4., A6., B1., B4.), Frank Jensen (vocals) (A1., B5.), Per Martinsen (electronics) (A1., B7.). Cover illustration by SavX aka Savage Pencil." [label info]
www.tapeworm.org.uk
|
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
| E/I MAGAZINE |
MUSIC ELECTRONIC AND OTHERWISE - Issue Seven (Summer 2006) |
mag |
Great new issue of this nice US-mag run by Darren Bergstein, 66 pages, most in full-colour !!
“sutekh - troum - free103point9 - muslimgauze - john duncan - christopher willits - secede - john bischoff - victor nubla - radboud mens - another electronic musician - ellipsis by colin newman - label profiles: cajid media, confront, infraction, noise factory, rune grammofon - 150+ reviews”
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| EARTH |
The Bees made Honey in the Lion's Skull |
CD |
"... und die „bees" ist dann so etwas wie die positive „hex": die kräfte sind gesammelt und fast mit einem fingerschnippen rollen die riffs (in typischer earth-manier, zweifellos, aber sie rollen und verharren eben nicht in ihrer eigenen statik wie zuvor). wie ein soundtrack zu einem extrem verlangsamten cruisen. dazu die in einzelfällen uplifting melodieführung... da könnten einzelne freunde der erde schon dran zu knacken haben... in ihrer mischung aus hypnotisch (die wiederholungen) und dem neu entdeckten drehmoment (der innere, ja, swing) plus dem offenen sound und der harmonik aber einfach ein sexy gesamtpaket." [N, Unruhr.de]
"...After refaceting some old gems for greater illumination on "Hibernaculum". The band returns once again to it's continuing evolution. Where "Hex" reveled in dark satanic twang and austere american beauty, "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull" finds Dylan Carlson and the band growing into a harder, more rock, american Gospel and improvisitory direction framed by truly psychedelic production and blazing guitar sounds. Earth shows it's affinity with a nod to the best elements of the more adventurous San Francisco bands of the late 60's and 70's, and the more spiritually aware and exciting forms of Jazz-Rock from the same era. This is no nostalgia trip but a thoroughly inspired and original metamorphosis. Earth is also very honored to be joined on this record for three songs by legendary and virtuoso guitarist BILL FRISELL (doing some of his most fuzzed out playing in years!) . Bill Frisell adds a brilliant texture and counterpoint to the scintillating and inspired riffs of Dylan Carlson and the band. Adrienne Davies joins again on drums lending a classic and steady feel to the proceedings. Steve Moore also returns adding heavy hammond organ and his intense jazz inspired piano playing. Live Bassist Don McGreevy also makes his full length Earth debut on this record. Earth will begin touring throughout the world when the album is released, Australia, Europe and a full US campaign and on from there. The new songs are equally compellinglive where EARTH takes the vehicles and expand and explore them for further musical and meditative exploration..." [from the label notes]
www.southernlord.com
|
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
|
A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extraction |
do-LP |
"We have been blessed with a massive offering from the gods! For the first time ever the debut recordings of Earth are available in one concise, beautifully documented capsule. "A Beaurocratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extraction" contains the entire 1990 Smegma Studios sessions which are the debut recordings from Earth. Previously available scattered via the "Extra Capsular Extractions" EP and "Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitar" CD. This essential collection contains every note from the infamous first Earth recording sessions. All 7 tracks have been carefully remastered by Mell Dettmer. It is actually questionable what mastering if any was done on the original tracks so we entrusted the task into the very capable hands of Mell who has mastered all the other Earth releases via Southern Lord. The result is a more burly, mammoth and crushing audio experience that makes this collection a must have even for the die-hards that own previous versions of these recordings. Includes liner notes from Dylan Carlson with exclusive artwork by Simon Fowler and package design via Stephen O'Malley.
Founded by DYLAN CARLSON in 1989, these early tracks include contributions from SLIM MOON (Kill Rock Stars), JOE PRESTON (THRONES, SUNN O))), MELVINS), and KURT COBAIN." [label info]
www.southernlord.com
|
2010 |
€29.00 |
|
|
Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light |
CD |
"Earth recently unveiled a beautiful collection of early recordings ("A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extraction") to which many agree marked the band as pioneers of a new sound that has continued to metamorphose ever since. True that with each brand new studio album, they evolve, and it is this willingness to experiment with different sounds and different musicians that has enabled Earth to remain consistently interesting and undoubtedly always unique.
Following the Extra Capsular reissues, Earth's next offering is a brand new studio album, "Angels Of Darkness, Demons of Light 1", a fine testament to the fact that they have come a long way since 1989. Drawing on inspiration from both British Folk-Rock bands the Pentangle and Fairport Convention and the North African Tuareg band Tinariwen, the new material, while still "heavy" is much more fluid and melodically oriented, less dense and more textured and nuanced. It contains greater improvisatory interplay between the musicians.
On one hand the new album acknowledges previous recordings, sonically it cultivates the jazz infused Americana presented on The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull and as a further nod to the past, Earth returned to Avast studios to work with producer Stuart Hallerman (Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Built To Spill, and Earth2!) again. On the other hand, there have been some significant changes which have given birth to yet another new sound, the main change being the line up and so joining Dylan and Adrienne on the album is cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, David Byrne, Black Cat Orchestra, Laura Veirs) and Karl Blau (K Records, Laura Veirs, Microphones) on electric bass. The touring band will feature Dylan Carlson, Adreinne Davies, Lori Goldston, and Angelina Baldoz on bass.
Songs "Father Midnight" and Hell's Winter" definitely retain some of their former glory on the Bees Made Honey... whilst the cello, though subtle at times, adds a more haunting tone to songs "Old Black" and "Descent to the Zenith" which are so powerful that they have the ability to move one to tears. It is the album's closer and title track which is the boldest step in a new direction for Earth, utilizing the complimentary tones of cello, electric bass and Dylan's guitar, leaving the notes to hang contemplatively in the air before Adrienne's drum beats finally emerge. The repetition throughout the song is seemingly simplistic, though as we all know by now, there is absolutely nothing simple about holding a note or beat for as long as Earth do.
There are many breaths of fresh air in this new record, many hopeful tones and drones as well as more eerie ones. One thing is for sure, this incarnation of Earth excels all expectations." [label info]
www.southernlord.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II |
pic-do-LP |
"In den selben Sessions in den Avast Studios Seattle, mit Producer Stuart Hallerman (Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Built To Spill und EARTH2) aufgenommen wie das im März 2011 erschienene "AODDOL I" trägt dieses Album die Inspirationen des ersten Teils fort. Wiederum tief inspiriert vom britischen Folk solcher Heroen wie Pentangle und Fairport Convention sowie der Musik der nordafrikanischen Tuareg-Band Tinariwen präsentieren sich EARTH melodischer als je zuvor, ohne dabei an Heavyness einzubüßen. Im Gegensatz zum Vorgänger wagen EARTH hier jedoch den Blick weit über den konstruktivistischen Kontext hinaus und geben Improvisationen Raum wie nie zuvor. Das LineUp besteht abermals neben Adrienne Davies (drums) und Dylan Carlson (Gitarre) aus der Violinistin Lori Goldston (Nirvana, David Byrne, Black Cat Orchestra) und Karl Blau am Bass (K Records, Laura Veirs, Microphones).
TRACKLISTING: 01. SIGIL OF BRASS 02. HIS TEETH DID BRIGHTLY SHINE 03. MULTIPLICITY OF DOORS 04. THE CORASCENE DOG 05. THE RAKEHELL" [label info]
www.southernlord.com
|
2012 |
€30.00 |
|
| EARZUMBA |
Bestia Infernal |
CD |
Neues Material von argentinischen Drone-artist CHRISTIAN DERGARABEDIAN, der sich stylistisch mit seinem Projekt EARZUMBA mal wieder kaum einordnen lässt mit seiner irren Plunderphonia & Electro-Akustik beeinflusster Komposition. Als Beigabe gibt es etwas ganz anders, einen Mitschnitt von seinem tollen Solo-Auftritt in der Neuen Weserburg in Bremen, der im April 2005 von Radio Bremen mitgeschnitten und später ausgestrahlt wurde, ca. 30 Minuten fabulöse Drone-Vibrations!
"...this album is pure sampladelia: Billy Joel,Metallica,tons of blues artists, Cage, Elvis, Bowie, tons of public and r&r bands, Screamin Jay Hawkins,Discepolo´s classic "siglo xx cambalache" PLUS a piano improvisation,a electroacoustic track and a bonus track of 30 MINUTES LONG of pure drone recorded live by RADIO BREMEN!!!!!! OUT NOW!!!" [label website info]
"This is probably one of Christian Dergarabedian’s best albums to date, if not THE best, presenting his greatly enjoyable, truly “delihilarious” work with samples and cut’n’paste in the first half and an engrossing exploration of the low realms of “cosmic vibration” in the very last track " [Massimo Ricci TOUCHING EXTREMES]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Real Ruido Pastizo |
CD-R |
Embrace the unexpected! Again C.D. manages it to create very unexpected and uncommon soundscapes made up out of found sounds & samples. This has at times even a jazzy & funny feel, but its like being in a totally deranged & transformed reality-system. Collage-music, Loops, all arranged very nicely. Check it out!
"Christian Dergarabedian is by now more known through his Earzumba than his previous engagement with Reynols, and releases a great bunch of great CDRs. More and more he relies on the sampler to be the crazy melting pot of sounds and here he seems to be taking matters a bit further. From the field recordings of 'Intro' to a heavily cut up reggae collage madness in 'Descuidado'. Spinning vinyl by hand and picking up crazy fragments, and not by strange coincidence Editions_zero remarks that this is a nice soundtrack to a b-movie. I was playing this a couple of times in a row, and each time I turned it back on and discovered new themes in this crazy road movie. It has a strange appeal, this madness, this hotchpotch of music. A strange kind of radio play even when words aren't really used here to any extent. Not even a real story actually now I come to think of it. Turntablism without turntables. A story of no words, but the perfect soundtrack to out and make your own crazy roadmovie." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
"I managed to create a film score sensation giving the dynamic as if it were done strictly following a script. Includes one mash up in between Bernard Herrmann & Silvestre Revueltas." [Christian Dergarabedian]
label: www.void.gr/absurd
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| EASTLEY, MAX |
Installation Recordings (1973-2008) |
do-CD |
"This 2CD is essentially a retrospective of Eastley’s installation work. As such, it updates and adds many new examples to the 1975 release “New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments”, which was released as a split LP with David Toop on Brian Eno’s Obscure Records.
This is Eastley’s first solo CD. Of the 35 tracks, only the last 2 have any guests or ‘playing’ (the most virtuosic moment being George Lewis playing a grass blade). All the other pieces are either powered by the natural forces of wind and water, or else are motor driven gallery installations.
The ethereal sounds of the aoelian harp, the haunting aeolian flutes, and the violent tension of his aerophone installations are hallmark Eastley sounds. These sounds, and many others, sit amidst a wide range of acoustic settings, from windy hill tops to quiet brooks, residential street scenes to coastal shores. The indoor recordings are no less varied, ranging across a rich variety of acoustics and gallery spaces from tiny micro sounds to large scale amplification. Wood, metal and stone are brought to life with electricity. Although there are many photos in the 20 page booklet, much is left to the imagination to work out how the sounds are made. With this limited access to the visual, the focus is pulled towards the musicality of the sounds themselves. This musicality is reinforced by the slow crossfades of most of the pieces from indoors to outdoors to form a series of suites.
The recordings mostly date from the mid 70s, but there are pieces from later decades. Nearly everything was recorded either to Revox or Uher and occasionally cassette, using what microphones were available at the time. Recent recordings are digital. The varying quality of the recording set-ups across this 2CD adds yet another dimension to the shifting sound fabric of this anthology." [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
"Max Eastley begann 1972 damit Skulpturen mit Klang zu verbinden, indem er Bewegung und Materialien seiner Skulpturen mit den Grundprinzipien des Instrumentenbaus verband. Dies führt für die vorliegende Retrospektive, die Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 1973 – 2008 auf 2 CDs enthält, notwendig dazu, dass nur Klang dokumentiert wird, doch die ihn erzeugenden Installationen trotz der zahlreichen Fotos nicht adäquat abgebildet werden können. Immerhin kann man auf ihnen die verschiedenen
Instrumente zumindest sehen. Die Aerophone sind teilweise sehr schlanke Kreuze, deren Arme im rechten Winkel außen mit Saiten verbunden sind, die im Wind schwingen, und erinnern beinahe an Antennen, in deren Zentrum noch ein Stück bunter Stoff geknotet wurde. Auch an den schmalen dünnen aufrechten Kästen der Aeolian Flutes finden sich diese bunten Bänder wieder, so dass sie an abstrakte Figuren erinnern, deren Schals im Winde wehen. An den Hydrophonen fällt ihre Schlichtheit auf, wie sie als verschieden lange dünne Rohre aus dem sie antreibenden Wasser ragen. Klanglich erinnern die Skulpturen überwiegend an vom Wind betriebene Klangspiele und – meist archaische – Drones sowie verfremdete Tierstimmen und seltener an präparierte Saiteninstrumente. Da bei den Innenraum-Installationen die natürlichen Kräfte fehlen, um sie erklingen zu lassen, wurde auf mechanische Antriebe zurückgegriffen, die jedoch die unregelmäßigen Strukturen natürlicher Ereignisse nachahmen sollen. Nichts desto trotz erinnern einige ihrer Aufnahmen eher an Loops als an Klangereignisse, denen jedes Muster fehlt. Für diese Retrospektive wurden alle Aufnahmen auf „radiotaugliche“ Ausschnitte von oft nur zwei bis fünf Minuten gekürzt. Doch da die kinetischen Installationen keinen kompositorischen Aufbau haben, der einen bestimmten Anfang und Ende „erfordert“, lassen die als einzelne Tracks dokumentierten Ausschnitte fragen, ob eine einzelne Installation auf einer eigenen – dann wohl leider weitgehend unverkäuflichen – CD nicht besser repräsentiert worden wäre, da dies dem fortdauernden Klang einer Installation angemessener wäre. Ohnehin sind die Mehrzahl der Aufnahmen durch Ein- und Ausfaden zu collagenartigen kleinen Suiten arrangiert, was dem Material eine dem bloßen Hören angemessene neue Form gibt. Da die Ebene eines Dokuments, das den für Eastley gleichberechtigten visuellen Teil ausspart, verlassen wird und etwas Neues entsteht. Damit wird ebenfalls deutlich, dass auch eine kinetische Kunst letztlich das Werk eines – oder mehrer – Künstler ist und damit einen sozialen Charakter hat. Leider findet sich dazu nichts in dem 20seitigen Beiheft, das keine konzeptionellen Überlegungen enthält. Mit dieser Eastley-Retrospektive macht Paradigm Disc einmal mehr Musik zugänglich, die sonst kaum auf Tonträgern zu bekommen ist. Denn nach der 1975 auf Brian Enos Obscure Records Label erschienen Split-LP New And Rediscovered Musical Instruments mit David Toop, ist diese Doppel-CD erst die zweite Veröffentlichung, die Eastleys Klanginstallationen dokumentiert. Wer sich für Musik jenseits chromatischer Tonleitern, in der Zufall eine zentrale Rolle spielt, interessiert,
dem ist diese Doppel-CD sehr zu empfehlen."
[Ingo Techmeier / Bad Alchemy]
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| EASTLEY, MAX / MICHAEL PRIME |
Hydrophony for Dagon |
CD |
Live-Aufnahmen von 1996, alle Klänge wurden "unter Wasser" aufgenommen, PRIME ist wieder auf der Suche nach den versteckten Micro-Sounds im "Innern" der Materie...
“This haunting music was recorded in 1996 at "The Four Elements", SKRAEP Copenhagen. Every sound was generated underwater by an array of instruments including hydroarcs, bubble machine, tubing, fans, motors, tapes and objects. Coherently with their work, which many times has employed water as means or texture, Eastley and Prime develop a convincing narrative whose obscurity is made desirable by a challenging exploitation of aquatic reverberations and refractions. This means that we're neither in presence of a soundtrack for a dolphin exhibition, nor ambient music for swimming pools; try instead to conjure up images of an Organum/Noise-Maker's Fifes hybrid whose clothes are slowly washed by a humongous machine that puts us in a suspended state through its monotonous cycles of deep regurgitations. Never intimidating, rather comfortable, this womb of gurgles is nicely balanced between abstraction and tangibleness, which results in a very appreciable release.” [Touching Extremes]
"Recorded live at 'the Four Elements', Skraep Copenhagen 1996. All sounds were produced underwater and recorded via hydrophones. Max Eastley: hydroarc, tubing, fans, tapes, objects. Michael Prime: hydroarc, bubble machine, motors, tapes, objects." [label info]
www.void.gr/absurd
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| EAU-DC |
NR2 |
LP |
"With Nr2 Jens Fischer and Thorsten Polomski developed 8 Songs moving between the relaxing moods of electronica. Just mixing up their favoured elements, adding more restrained, but sometimes pretty hasty beats and analog sounding fx’s this time, their 2nd recording expands ambient to not-just ambient. 100 copies will include a big sized poster with conceptual artwork according to the sleeve. Artwork/ design by Dominic Rechsteiner." [label info]
www.empiricrecords.com
"Following the LP/CD by Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf (see Vital Weekly 851), Empiric Records now releases a LP with a big sized poster and tapping into a different kind of music. Eau-Dc are a duo of Jens Fischer and Thorsten Polomski, who play electronic music that is somewhere along the lines of ambient music meeting up with rhythm. It's not exactly either strict ambient music or dance music for that matter. Music to tap your feet along, when you sit at home, reading a book, doing the laundry or other chores around the house, rather than heading out to the disco and dance your socks off. This is what a long-gone record store once described as 'head-nod' music. You feel the rhythm in your head and nod along too. Eight pieces of shimmering beats, moody but bouncing keyboard lines, a deep bass (although the record seems quite soft overall) for that necessary element of dub music. The ambient/cosmic music of late is slowly going more and more into the direction of 'dance' music - and before you know it we have another revival of ambient house and intelligent dance music. Be warned, Eau-Dc might be at the beginning of that too. These eight pieces, while nothing particular new, are crafted with great care and some nice delicate melodies to create a fine sonic depth in your living room." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€17.50 |
|
| EB.ER, RUDOLF (aka EBER/ RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK) |
Meditation on a Broomstick |
CD |
"First proper studio album by Rudolf Eb.er / R&G since '23 Brutal-Humouroid Dramas' (TA052) from 2005. Psycho-active Audio-Art composed and mixed 2010-2011 by Rudolf Eb.er in Osaka. CD in 6-panel fullcolour digipak. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.tochnit-aleph.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| EB.ER, RUDOLF / JOKE LANZ / GX JUPITTER-LARSEN / MIKE DANDO |
Wellenfeld |
CD |
"The grande finale of 'Extreme Rituals - A Schimpfluch Carnival' held at Arnolfini, Bristol UK on December 2nd 2012.
In memory of Urs Schwaller.
Four leading figures of the international Noise circus team up for a unique performance, solely based on their brainwave activity. Each performer is wearing a wireless electroencephalograph (EEG) headset. The EEG signals sent from the stage are received by soundengineers, transformed from data into sound and processed to emerge through eight speakers surrounding the audience. The performance took place without prior tests or rehearsals. The performer develops and gains control over his own brainwave patterns during the performance, by listening to the sonic results of his mental activity. By changing electric impulses of the brain during meditative and ecstatic trance, the performer begins to sculpt the sound through the mind alone." [label info]
www.fragmentfactory.com
"A while ago, December 2012, saw Bristol celebrating twenty-five years of Schimpfluch activities via a three-day festival called 'Extreme Rituals', with their various members performing (Dave Phillips, Rudolf Eb.er, Sudden Infant) and various guests, such as Con-Dom and The Haters. The festival ended with 'Wellenfeld: for amplified brainwaves (in memory of Urs Schwaller)'. To quote the cover: "Four leading figures of the international Noise circus team up for a unique performance, solely based on their brainwave activity. Each performer is wearing a wireless electroencephalograph (EEG) headset. The EEG signals sent from the stage are received by sound engineers, transformed from data into sound and processed to emerge through eight speakers surrounding the audience. The performance took place without prior tests or rehearsals. The performer develops and gains control over his own brainwave patterns during the performance, by listening to the sonic results of his mental activity. By
changing electric impulses of the brain during meditative and ecstatic trance, the performer begins to sculpt the sound through the mind alone." It looks, I'm sorry to say (and no doubt I am not the only one to notice this), a bit like Alvin Lucier's 'Music For Solo Performer', although a bit different. The twenty-six minute piece, by the performers mentioned above, mixed by Rashad Becker onto an eight channel system surrounding the audience, is a quite a noisy piece of loud tones, which may sound like simple, hand build synthesizers, but with some extreme activities. If you look films of this on the net, you see Eb.er moving and shaking at one point, and the others not moving at all. I think I would have preferred if none moved at all, and it would keep Zen like thing with as little activity as possible and take away the 'extreme' performance element (which to me looks all very 'un'-extreme, very regular performance art; I wondered if there was any body there who wasn't dressed in
black) and focus on the interesting aspect of creating music this way, which is something I liked very much. Quite a nice release; noisy but very interesting and that's how I like these things." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| EBTEKAR, ATA & THE IRANIAN ORCHESTRA FOR NEW MUSIC |
performing works of Alireza Mashayekhi: Ornamentalism |
CD |
"An Organic Electrocution: perfect follow-up to the highly acclaimed Persian Electronic Music (SR277), this new Persian Music album involves a cast of seasoned musicians performing works written by legendary Iranian composer Alireza Mashayekhi; in which Ata Ebtekar (aka Sote) was granted complete creative freedom by Mashayekhi himself to transform these compositions into fully realized pieces using his techniques of synthesis and electronic manipulation. it's an organic electrocution without sacrificing the beauty of the performance. these sound sources and compositions were metamorphosed via electronic processing, rearranged and decomposed using sound generators, effect boxes, modular synthesizers and samplers. finally, Ebtekar programs synthetic sounds and adds new electronic harmonies, melodies and soundscapes to the sonic palette of Western classical music and Persian instrumentation for a unique musical experience. Sote unites the grace and symmetry of noise and silence inside the magic circle of electronic music composition.
________________________________________
The Tehran Contemporary Music Group: cofounded in 1993 by Farimah Ghavensadri and Alireza Mashayekhi. in 1995 Mashayekhi established the Iranian Orchestra for New Music as a performing entity. the Tehran Contemporary Music Group's main goal is the presentation of new music in order to promote young composers and performers. the Group has also helped to establish the Biannual For Composing and Performing of Contemporary Music in Iran.
________________________________________
Alireza Mashayekhi: a short biography.
Alireza Mashayekhi was born in 1940 in Tehran, Iran. He is one of the pioneers of modern music in Iran. Mashayekhi's works have been performed in Iran and abroad for more than 35 years. Mashayekhi believes that contemporary composers should create music in wide range of styles. His own compositions have tended towards three
major direction: pieces that are directly inspired by Iranian music (e.g. Symphony No. 5,
Persian Suite and Shahrzad) and compositions that are not directly related to Iranian music
(e.g. Symphony No. 6, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra,Sonata for Piano) and multicultural
compositions (e.g. Symphony No. 8 and the electronic composition East-West).
'At the time of Stalin in the USSR, many pieces were composed with predetermined identities
in honor of Marxism and Leninism by the request of the governmental authorities or by the
artist's own whishes. Among these pieces those with artistic rightfulness remained and they
were honored in both East and West, but the political weight of the other ones did not succeed to help them survive.'
[Alireza Mashayekhi]
'Alireza Mashayekhi is regarded as a pioneer Iranian avant-garde composer whose ideas and
works, which have been performed in Iran and abroad for more than 35 years, have greatly
influenced the contemporary music in Iran..'
[Hooman Asadi of the University of Tehran, Iran]
________________________________________
Ata Ebtekar aka Sote: a short biography.
aka Sote is an Iranian-American electronic composer and sound artist. he was born
in Germany to Iranian parents, spent the first eleven years of his life in Iran and the next
six years in Germany. at the age of seventeen he moved to the United States and lived in
the Bay Area for fifteen years. he has spent the last few years living in Tehran and working
on several projects. one of these projects was released in 2007 as a double disc set called
'Persian Electronic Music - Yesterday and Today' (sub rosa SR277) for which he compiled early electronic music from Alireza Mashayekhi who had created these compositions forty years ago. disc two features Ebtekar's own electronic compositions to present a timeline in modern Iranian music history. Sote's compositions are sonic tales synchronously decoding and regenerating customary patterns of thought in nature; aural designs of crisis and harmony where contempo meets folklore, orchestrating an artificial saga with a variety of illuminations and analysis. he believes that music is a cultural habit of sound and anti-sound (silence). therefore, he generates music without a specific culture, which he believes to be 'The Other Sound'. He has released several cds and vinyls on Dielectric/RLR, Spundae and especially on Warp." [full label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ornamental |
do-LP |
Subtitled: Ata Ebtekar and the Iranian Orchestra for New Music Performing Works of Alireza Mashayekhi.
"An ambitious, extremely complex, and sonically rich project that gives us an immense pleasure to release. An incredible collaboration between Ebtekar and Alireza Mashayekhi's Iranian Orchestra for New Music in Tehran, Iran involving dozens of trained musicians. Ebtekar has recently returned to the Bay Area from his three year stay in Iran where he closely worked with legendary composer Alireza Mashayekhi. The album spans 50 minutes, crystallizing acoustic instruments and electronic music composition with ten tracks fully realized by Ebtekar and Mashayekhi's orchestra. Ata Ebtekar (b. 1972, Hamburg Germany) aka Sote is an Iranian-American electronic composer and sound artist. His compositions are sonic tales synchronously decoding and regenerating customary patterns of thought in nature; aural designs of crisis and harmony where contempo meets folklore, orchestrating an artificial saga with a variety of illuminations and analysis. Presented here is a full-length album involving dozens of trained musicians performing works written by legendary Iranian classical and electronic music composer Alireza Mashayekhi in which Ebtekar was granted freedom by Mashayekhi himself to arrange and transform these compositions into fully realized pieces using his techniques of synthesis and electronic manipulation. Ornamental continues to explore even further than that which was presented in Sub Rosa's 2007 anthology, Persian Electronic Music (Yesterday and Today 1966-2006). The album also continues the radical experimental departure from his early electronic music work as Sote in the 12"'s published by Dielectric and Warp Records. Ebtekar's work continues to be painfully singular and shines bright in its ability to eliminate barriers the world over between noise, silence and modern electronic music composition. All music recorded in Tehran, Iran. Limited to 500 copies on black vinyl on full color spot-varnish matte jackets. Mastered by Thomas Dimuzio at Gench Studios in San Francisco, CA. Artwork and design by Brandon Nickell." [label info]
"....The sounds are varied and wondrous, from fantastical flurries of wild freaked out electronic flecked free form soft noise, to delicate tinklings and hushed moonlit drift, spacey metallic shimmers to haunting alien music box like lullabyes, Eastern sounding folk fragments drifting in soft swirls of rumble and hiss, long stretches of barely there melody and wispy streaks of distant rumble. Really quite mysterious and beautiful, whether you're into modern classical, electronic music, abstract dronemusic, or all of the above. ESPECIALLY all of the above.
Beautiful screened sleeves, with a printed insert, detailing the project, as well as the various performers and composers." [Aquarius Records review]
www.isounderscore.com
|
2008 |
€22.50 |
|
| ECHOES OF YUL |
Tether |
CD |
"Zoharum presents ECHOES OF YUL in their new release entitled 'Tether'. After two longplayers ('Echoes Of Yul' and 'Cold Ground') and a split CD, it's time for the next release, atypical in every respect. It's not a full album in the exact meaning of this word. 'Tether' is an extended play which has a record running time for such a release which clocks at 78 minutes. It's a stylistically varied project which is the result of the collaboration with many artists of different backgrounds. 'Tether' contains 4 new tracks full of slow heavy riffs, sounds from broken synths and ethereal atmospheres plus a number of reinterpretations by Different State, iconAclass (MC Dalek), James Plotkin (OLD, Khanate), Maciek Szymczuk, Stendek, Steve Austin (Today Is The Day). All compiled to sound not like a compilation, but a stand-alone cohesive album with many unexpected twists and turns." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| ECKLOFF, JÜRGEN |
Jürgen Eckloff liest Nietzsche / Es geht im Kreis herum |
LP |
"Two sides – two tracks!
'Der (halb) mechanische Derwisch' was a live performance given at the N.K. In Berlin in May 2010. 'Es geht im Kreis herum', the incredible circling soundtrack for this live-ritual, is presented on one side of this record.
“It goes in circles - as a record does! As a Dervish does! As life does! Rotating bliss!” (Ignaz Horeb)
Many, many, many readings of Friedrich Nietzsche's writings are available.
But THIS is the only one that comes to the point! And the only one Mr. Nietzsche would have accepted as a correct one!“Accurate, concise, precise & specific - the only words to describe this recording.”(Gustav-Ramon Ludig, Literature Now!)
As usual for the high quality of 90% Wasser, the 34 recorded minutes are presented in FSS (Full-Stereo-Sound) on black vinyl in a limited edition of 199 copies including two inserts.
The whole artwork is done (again) by Robert Schalinski of Column One." [label info]
www.90-prozent-wasser.de
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Angeflantschte Fugenstücke |
LP |
“Bei Wanzen Geld zurück” originally recorded 2004 for an exhibition at Sibirische Zelle (Berlin) fills the A-side of this two sided 30,48cm rotating audio-archive. A seemingly empty room with greasy walls is somehow filled by situations and more - of course with happy ending!
Side B contains six shorter pieces including the unusual trilogy Mörtel
I – IV. This is the very first trilogy that consists of four pieces instead of the usual three! A masterpiece using the most modern techniques of composition. (That's also the reason why the additional `T´ is used in the record-title...)
All the sounds used for the pieces on Side B where recorded by the author himself mainly for his forthcoming film "Girls In Dirty Aprons"
at several places. Five scenic figurines of photographic beauty and understanding of sonic nature. `Miniatures Concrètes´ a French maybe would say.... The final piece entitled “Jazz” sets another direction, Eckloff never has shown before. Not Dixieland...the other Jazz! Yes!
The not fully printed backside of the coveroffers a lot of space for notes - a new & fresh invention on the fast growing record-market that underlines once more the forward-thinking way 90%Wasser steps on since years!
Tracklist:
side one:
1. Bei Wanzen Geld zurück
side two:
2. Fettröhre
3. Mörtel I
4. Mörtel II
5. Mörtel III
6. Mörtel IV
7. Jazz
"Und gleich noch etwas Neues aus dem Hause 90%WASSER, dem Berliner Label, das uns so exzellente Platten wie die von COLUMN ONE, JÜRGEN PLOOG und die letztlich hier präsentierten KEIN ZWEITER beschert hat. Das heißt, neben eben KEIN ZWEITER wird uns gleich noch die neuste Scheibe von JÜRGEN ECKLOFF angetragen, demjenigen, der so großartig Collagen und Videos mit surrealem Inhalt schnitzelt, dem, der Alben produziert, seine Collagen ab und an ausstellt (wie z.B. in der Sibirischen Zelle, der Rumsti-Pumsti-Galerie am Treptower Park in Berlin und – wie gemunkelt wird – demnächst in Zernikow bei Berlin) und sowohl mit COLUMN ONE als auch mit dem oben genannten Label eng verbunden ist.
Auch auf dem Cover prangt eine Collage von ihm – wobei hier die einzelnen Teile wie ein Langschatten ineinandergefügt wurden. Dieser ist der eines Mannes. Und der wird von hinten wie von vorne gezeigt – mit einer Mütze auf dem Kopf, die darauf schließen lässt, dass es sich hier wohl um einen (Stahl- oder Bergwerks-) Arbeiter aus den – sagen wir – 1950er Jahren handelt.
Musikalisch, oder was die zu hörenden Geräusche betrifft, oder auch hörspielerisch, werden wir in den Großraum einer Werkshalle entführt – möglicherweise ja die des auf dem Cover zu sehenden Arbeiters.
„Bei Wanzen Geld zurück“ umfasst dann die gesamte A-Seite des Albums. Da schlürft und schmatzt zunächst jemand. Hörbar in einer eben größeren und annähernd leeren Halle. Alle Hintergrundgeräusche, einschließlich Pfeifen, hallen hier nämlich nach. Koch- oder größere Metalldeckel rollen. Das Schmatzen bleibt. Balken, wie Klanghölzer fallen in Pfützen. Das Schmatzen bleibt, scheint sich sogar hier und da mit den Wasserpfützklängen zu verbinden. Dann wird so etwas wie eine Tonne durch die Halle gerollt. Nun schmatzt es unterbrochen. Mal äußert sich das – ja was eigentlich, vielleicht Monster – brummend, mal hustend. Ein Knirschen. Die Deckel. Und wieder das Schmatzen. Im Hintergrund dann auch einzelne Töne eines Klaviers, oder etwas kleiner – eines für Kinder vielleicht. Dann wieder das Rollen. Manchmal, zum Ende hin, sind auch Töne zu hören, die an welche erinnern, die entstehen, wenn mit Wasser gefüllte Gläser, die an den oberen Kanten mit dem Finger gestrichen werden, ertönen, klingen, summen und brummen. Das geht bis zum Rückkopplungsgeräusch. Und schließlich mündet das Ganze in ein Flaschenfallgeräusch – in etwa so, als wär diejenige Person (das Monster, Wesen) da in der Halle grad damit beschäftigt, zu kegeln ...
Die A-Seite macht dem Titel des Albums alle Ehre. Denn es flieht das besagte (Monster-) Wesen der (Arbeiter-) Person durch die Halle, und zwar in Form von Geräuschen, die polyphon und mehrstimmig sind – so wie bei einer klassischen Fuge, in der ja jedes Thema nach seinem Auftauchen, zeitversetzt wiederholt wird. Weil wir es hier aber lediglich mit Fugenstücken zu tun haben, die angeflanscht wurden, die also dicht, jedoch lösbar miteinander verbunden sind, kann das Ganze wohl auch in andere Kontexte gesetzt werden. Wer weiß? ...
Auf der B-Seite sind dann „Röhrenfett“ (B1), „Mörtel I-IV“ (B2-5) und „Jazz“ (B6) zu hören. Vielleicht geht das Ganze auch in Richtung Versuchsaufbau. Vielleicht dient der Mörtel dem Errichten einer neuen Halle außerhalb der alten. Da werden – wie auf dem Bau üblich – nämlich Flaschen mit Plopp geöffnet, da wird innerhalb der Stücke gewerkelt, Lasten werden gezogen, da wird gehämmert, verräumt usw. Vielleicht richtet sich's aber auch an die Form der Musik. „Jazz“ ließe diesen Schluss zu. Denn hier wird nicht mehr mit Instrumenten, sondern mit Türknarren gearbeitet. Türen klingen da nämlich wie Blasinstrumente. Und das Hämmern und Poltern so wie ein Schlagwerk, das wie im Jazz üblich nicht unbedingt im Takt bleiben muss.
Vielleicht ist das DADA, vielleicht konstruktivistisch oder auch situationistisch. Schließlich beschäftigten sich die Situationisten neben der Malerei und der Collage auch mit Stadtplanung. Allerdings waren sie der Arbeit gänzlich abgeneigt „Arbeit? Niemals.“ Das war einer der Slogans der Zeit ... Nun, was auch immer es ist, es lohnt sich auf jeden Fall „Angeflanschte Fugenstücke“ zu hören, und zwar um sich selbst ein Bild davon zu machen, wofür es meines Wissens nach noch keinen Begriff gibt." [andrewkorsch für nonpop.de] |
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| EINHEIT, ESCH & MUR |
Terre Haute |
LP |
"Limited 299 copies Colored vinyl just for record store day 2015
The album “Terre Haute” is the first body of work from the industrial legends FM Einheit (Einstürzende Neubauten) En Esch (formerly of KMFDM) and Postpunk Diva Mona Mur.
EINHEIT, ESCH & MUR call their music a GERMAN ANGST RIDDEN ART CORE EXPERIENCE. The main sounds that I see coming out of this album are post industrial to minimal electronics, with some classy guitar.
The voices of Mona Mur and En Esch meet the tribal percussion of FM in a visceral trip of electro loops noisy guitars and electronic drones. An Amazing Experience.
Limited 299 copies Colored vinyl just for record store day 2015" [label info]
" “Terre Haute” ist Name des Ergebnisses der spannenden Kollaboration von NEUBAUTEN Percussionist FM EINHEIT, EN ESCH und MONA MUR. Erscheint als streng limitierte LP (299Stück, rotes Vinyl) auf RUSTBLADE.
Wahrlich ein bemerkenswerter Zusammenschluss zwischen drei Altmeistern und Legenden: EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN-Schlagwerker FM EINHEIT sowie die Industrial-Legende EN ESCH (KMFDM) und Postpunk-Diva MONA MUR machen für dieses spannende Projekt gemeinsame Sache. Die Wege der drei Ausnahmekünstler kreuzten sich schon öfter in der vergangenen Musikgeschichte. So gehörte EINHEIT in den 80ern zur Band von MONA MUR. Mit EN ESCH arbeitet MUR seit 2007 zusammen und veröffentlichte mit ihm mehrere Alben. Beide traten zusammen bei wichtigen Festivals des Genres weltweit auf. Bereits 2013 traf sich das Trio, um an einem gemeinsamen Projekt zu arbeiten. Das Ergebnis heißt “Terre Haute” und ist genau, was man aus dem Background der Musiker erwartet. Zwischen Avantgarde, Wave, Post-Punk und Industrial wandert die Musik. Die Band selber nennt dies “German Angst Ridden Art Core”. Insgesamt sieben Songs (Sechs Eigenkompositionen und das BERTHOLT BRECHT Cover “Salomon Song”) mit 41 Minuten Spielzeit gepresst auf streng limitiertem rotem Vinyl." [Broken Silence]
|
2015 |
€22.00 |
|
| EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN |
Lament |
do-LP |
»Lament« heißt das brandneue Meisterwerk der Berliner Kultband Einstürzende Neubauten, geschrieben für die 100-jährigen Gedenkfeierlichkeiten des Beginns des Ersten Weltkrieges.
Die flämische Stadt Diksmuide beauftrage die Einstürzenden Neubauten im Rahmen der 100-jährigen Gedenkfeierlichkeiten des Beginns des Ersten Weltkrieges zu den Arbeiten an »Lament«, dem neuen Album der 1980 in Westberlin gegründeten Band. Die Einstürzenden Neubauten verstehen »Lament« nicht als reines Studioalbum, sondern als eine Dokumentation der Geschichte der Stadt Diksmuide, wo das Werk im November 2014 uraufgeführt wird, bevor sie damit auf Tour gehen werden.
»Lament« enthält viele bereits bestehende Elemente wie die beiden Prejazz-Songs der Marschkapelle The Harlem Hellfighters, die die US-Regierung als erste afroamerikanische Einheit in die Schlacht schickte. Das Album thematisiert zwei Texte des belgischen Autors Paul van den Broeck sowie ein Stück des weniger bekannten deutschen Schriftstellers Joseph Plauts, der die Geschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs aus Sicht eines Tieres erzählt. Des Weiteren singt Blixa Bargeld die deutsche Version von Pete Seegers Antikriegslied »Where Have All The Flowers Gone«, die Marlene Dietrich mit »Sag mir wo die Blumen sind« weltberühmt machen sollte. Die Band erweckte außerdem eine Nationalhymnne wieder zum Leben, die einst von Kriegsteilnehmerländern wie Deutschland, Großbritannien und Kanada gleichermaßen verwendet wurde. Schließlich folgt der dreigeteilte Titeltrack »Lament«, der eine Reihe historischer Wachszylinderaufnahmen enthält. Diese wurden damals von Sprachforschern deutscher Gefangenenlager aufgenommen, die ihre Insassen dazu zwangen, die Bibelstelle des »verschwenderischen Sohns« in ihrer eigenen Sprache zu rezitieren, von denen viele inzwischen ausgestorben sind.
Über all dem schwebt die drastisch verlangsamte Version des Motetts des Komponisten Jacob Clemens non Papa, der im Diksmuide des 16. Jahrhundert lebte.
//
LAMENT the new album by Einstürzende Neubauten is released Friday 07 November 2014 on BMG Records.
LAMENT should be heard as a studio reconstruction of a work primarily designed to be performed live, rather than an official new Einstürzende Neubauten LP proper.
In truth, the piece can only be fully realised, as well as best experienced, in its physical embodiment, performed on or by founding member Andrew Unruh’s gigantic instruments and noise generating devices that visually evoke the horrors the work describes or embeds in the sounds they conjure from the filth and terror of the industrialised 20th century world at war with itself.
But in fulfilling what at first appears to be a surprise commission for such a formidable longtime outsider group, Einstürzende Neubauten transformed the earthy, idiosyncratic contents they mined from academic, state, music hall and internet archives with the help of their two researchers into a richly complex cycle of original and cover songs and performance pieces.
The music often originated in LAMENT’s storytelling needs, be it in terms of sounds used or compositions structured along First World War flow charts or scored from calendars of the involvement of the 20 plus countries embroiled in it.
The way LAMENT plays off pre-existing and composed materials, pieces clipped together from historical records next to direct cover interpretations, or indeed their Frankenstein like construction of an ur-anthem/national hymn delivers a differently angled history of the war.
Finally, LAMENT opens Bargeld’s case that the First World War never ended - the interwar and postwar periods being essentially pauses for breath as the great military powers carry on their conflict at some remove in faraway wars fought by proxy." [label / website info]
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| EIRIKURA |
Reflections of a Higher Realm |
CD |
"The varied enchanting soundscapes of Eirikura are created using familiar instruments s.a. guitars, strings (violin, viola, cello), grand piano, flute, oboe, trumpet, drums and more unconventional ones, such as bandura, zither, bowed psaltery, musical saw and various percussions. The eclectic sound ranges in genre from neo-folk and neo-classical to ethereal and ambient." [label info]
"Reflection of a Higher Realm is the debut album by neoclassical/ ambient music project Ēirikura, released by Wrotycz Records, consisting of artists from several different German bands, plus Irish poetess Johanna Doyle. With thirteen tracks – Reflection of a Higher Realm, Wassara, Flowers, Eirikura, Annabelle Blue, Oh, roses for the flush of youth, Fornocht do chonac thu, Today's Eulogy, Dance into Images, Like an out-dated Pre-Raphaelite, Gerds, Ramawas Warta and Reflection of a Higher Realm (reprise) – this is a beautiful, formidable and astonishing record, probably the best neoclassical album that I have heard. Fulfilled by references of art and literature – with original and adapted poems as well – Reflection of a Higher Realm is a fantastic, bright and marvelous journey throughout a serene, ordained, sensible and sincere universe, where a colorful ocean of hope can be seen involving worlds of incommensurable delight, in a warm and complete embrace of patience, immutability and beauty. With great tenderness and delicacy, the music of Ēirikura is a marvelous journey throughout an intelligent and thoroughly elaborated universe of supreme art, created with the sentimental, but pragmatic axiom of a truth that comprehends all the virtual and literal necessities of the human soul.
Reflection of a Higher Realm couldn’t have been a better title for the album, because all tracks in this outstanding and vigorous work – without exceptions – seems to transmit exactly this sensation: reflections of a higher realm. You almost feel you are looking, touching or making contact with the omnipresent consciousness of a higher dimensional existence, parallel to our mundane and ordinary world. These songs appear to descend from a transcendental reign of underlying and subjective, but overwhelming beauty, that came to rescue us from our suffering, fatalist misery and insignificance. With folk and regional elements beautifully inserted in the songs as well, the pure and consecrated density of this work goes beyond the infinity of its majestic tenures of beauty, aggrandizing artistry and emotional virtuosity.
With a succession of beautiful songs that cohesively forms in the universe of its sensible context a marvelous cosmos of original creative strength and sagacity, Reflection of a Higher Realm is an unbelievable, sensational and monumental record. Its imperial, but graceful and gentle expansive movements liberates the engines of a fragile and hidden existence, made primarily of tenderness, humanity, art and a genuine capacity to sonorously create, evoke and reproduce higher dimensions of dense and meaningful sensibility.
With wonderful songs like Fornocht do chonac thu, Today's Eulogy and Like an out-dated Pre-Raphaelite – the seventh, eight and tenth track, respectively –, which are my favorites, Ēirikura offers you the possibility to travel to the extremes of your own soul, making you discover and decipher, in the process, the most profound and consistent devotional diagrams hidden in the depths of your own consciousness. But even if they were devoid of this ability – although they aren’t –, the music itself will be a reason strong enough to make anyone anxious to embark on this fantastic symbolic journey of expressive moments, filled by delightful redemptive skies of infinite grace." [Wagner/Merchants of Air]
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| EKIN FIL |
Being near |
LP |
"Had the titular contest in Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music In The World not been rigged from the onset, Turkey could have delivered an impeccable contestant in Ekin Fil. For many years now, her spectral dream-pop deconstructions hold a thousand-yard stare of an unconsolable melancholy; and she's drawn the highly favorable comparisons to Grouper and lovesliecrushing thanks to her understated yet beloved catalogue of releases on Root Strata, Students Of Decay, No Kings, and Sacred Phrases. Helen Scarsdale has long been a fan of Ekin Fil's work, and we are delighted to have her in our constellation of artists here at The Agency.
Born Ekin Üzeltüzenci and based in her native Istanbul, she cites the shoegazing classics (Cocteau Twins, Cranes, Slowdive, etc.) as her earliest influence, seeking out worn issues of Melody Maker or NME from second hand shops and trading cassettes with friends and fellow enthusiasts. This Proustian obsession with rainsoaked melodies from the British Isles blossomed into a foundation for her own art. Being Near stands as the pinnacle in her luminous career, with achingly beautiful and elegantly simple arrangements for guitar and electronics saturated in cavernous amounts of reverb, whose semi-mystical blur extends well into the vocal melodies. Ekin Fil's songs emote a timelessness of human desire and longing, albeit constrained to this plane of existence. For Üzeltüzenci, her music is not an escape valve from the patriarchal hammer of the dominant culture in Turkey, but a reflection through her own condition, in her own context, from her own body that may have actualized what Helene Cixous theorized as "écriture féminine" but through sound and not language." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| ELDAR |
The Secret Golden Flower |
CD |
"ELDAR, the Spanish Dark Ambient/Martial project that once started on Cold Meat Industry, return with yet another conceptual album presenting a wide range of beautiful sounds. The concept of this album is inspired by the mystical and psychological archetypes to explain the universal version of a generic soul that rules from the collective unconscious of individuals in all human civilizations since antiquity. These archaic prototypes were copied, emulated and used since the dawn of humanity, and fantastic dream and images have been represented in myths and symbols, trying to explain these exemplary patterns that are still alive and latent until today. They sleep present in popular folklore, in the psyche of every human being, influencing yourself and collectively in the beliefs and ideas that lead them to make beautiful and creative acts or carrying even their own destruction, evolving or backward from that inexorable shape societies through time and history. This album runs in his melodies and lyrics the long road of archetypes that continue to print his psychological injury in each individual and that shape their behavior in society, determining the fate of humanity. Composed by Marc Merinee & Merce Spica and recorded at Oxid Studio Barcelona 2011. Produced & Mastered by Marc Merinee. Art Work by Alonso Urbanos." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| ELECTRIC SEWER AGE |
Bad white Corpuscule |
CD |
"Electric sewer age was thought up in 2006 by a man called John Deek (r.i.p). The original idea was for likeminded souls, amongst particularly the coil fraternity, too compose music, which would be released, with no credits to the creators.
This would allow the listener to listen, and not have a preconceived bias, as to which song they liked best, based on their favourite composer etc.
While in Bangkok 2006, I talked with Peter Christopherson (r.i.p) about the project and he jumped aboard. He supplied many loops which made their way to Texas and onto the UK.
These segments might or might not be used in here, you explore.
Danny Hyde continues his fantastical journey in sound with this second release under the ESA name and completely moves beyond expectations.
Disproving the doubters, this EP is pretty much just him in his studio wrenching new creations out of his equipment; the trainspotters amongst us will no doubt pick out some of the shards he pulls from his past.
But he doesn't make them the focus of what is going on here, they are there merely to accent, to add a bit of depth and help illuminate how many years he's been at this.
Does he follow a muse?
If so, it must not be one that operates in the traditional sense. Perhaps it is more of a compulsion to create and then endlessly refine what you've done down to the most primal of elements.
There are ghosts all over this thing, you can feel the weight of their absence and at some points you swear you can actually hear them.
Tricks of the sound field, the mirror casting back shadows. If anyone else is on here, they have come out of the ether to make an appearance. Don't be afraid, put on your headphones and immerse yourself into a symphony that Hyde terms "an ode to loss".
He'd know.
We can all see from the outside what happened over the last decade but for him, it was all right there. Up close and personal. Through the usage of heavily processed vocals and arcane terrestrial instrumentation, Hyde lives up to his reputation for creating amazingly detailed yet extremely dark electronic compositions.
The symbiosis of organic and synthetic influences would be his forte and he's not holding anything back this time out, believe me, there's a feel to what is on here that isn't easily conceived. To just sit down and begin knocking out what 'Bad White Corpuscle' contains I don't think could be done unless you had planned and plotted out every last possible contingency down to the millisecond.
I've played this a lot but by comparison he's probably got mixes and additional versions of what's on here that could fill terabytes of hard drive space without batting an eye.
Electric Sewer Age exist between two worlds: the one of now and an older, more disturbing place which with the passage of time only becomes more savage and terrifying to visit.
As it appears he's chosen to put Aural Rage to bed, we have these excursions to look forward to; every few years Mr. Hyde will come out of seclusion to reveal where he's at and where he's going.
Clearly, this project is a form of therapy for the guy and having researched precisely what a bad white corpuscle is there's an uneasy feeling that foreshadowing is being employed here.
I'm not privy to whom this refers, I can only hope they know what they're doing.
This is so intense, so unflinchingly expressive that I come away completely drained.
Up by Sunday.
Peter.
Very elegant electronica, as you are used from best Coil's albums.
Dreamy and doped muzak for the real dreamer.
Tracklist :
01. Grey corpuscle 3.56
02. Corpuscular corpuscle 5.11
03. Amber corpuscle 5.12
04. Rising corpuscle 8.40
05. Bad white corpuscle 6.27
06. Black corpuscle 5.20 " [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Contemplating Nothingness |
CD |
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE was born as an “anonymous / secret and aural experiment” in 2006.
In fact this project was a collaboration between PETER “SLEAZY” CHRISTOPHERSON (legendary former member of TG / COIL / PTV) and long time friend and collaborator DANNY HYDE (Dan might be better known for being the Sound-Maestro behind many COIL albums…).
Following the unexpected passing of SLEAZY in 2010 and after the publication of first posthumous ELECTRIC SEWER AGE album, ESA became a solo project by DANNY HYDE.
Well, after 5 years from the release of second ESA album here finally comes the awaited third chapter in the ESA saga.
Very elegant, first-class electronic muzak.
Dan was the sound-engineer for a number of COIL albums, e.g. “Love Secret Domain” which clearly bears his mark, similarly doped sounds & muzak can be deeply heard also on this new release.
.... just like the previous release, this CD will come in a limited numbered edition of 750 copies."
"In den letzten Jahren hat Danny Hyde durch seinen – und hier setze jeder das ihm passende Adjektiv ein – Umgang mit Coil-Material für Kontroversen gesorgt. Ich habe schon an anderer Stelle geschrieben, dass die gegenwärtige Situation des Coil-Nachlasses zu den traurigsten Kapiteln der Industrial Culture gehört. Vor etlichen Jahren debütierte Hyde nach langen Jahren als Studiomann als Solokünstler unter dem Projektnamen Aural Rage mit rhythmischen Tracks und auf dem bislang einzigen Album überarbeitete er auch Stücke, die er mit/für Coil geschrieben hatte. Mit „FJ Nettlefold“ konnte man dort das letzte von Balance eingesungene Stück hören.
Das Projekt Electric Sewer Age hat eine schwierige Genese, Hyde hat das hier dargelegt. Die erste Veröffentlichung “In Final Phase” knüpfte an Coils „Equinoxe/Solstice“-Singles an. “Contemplating Nothingness”, ursprünglich 2019 auf Old Europa Café als CD und nun von Hallow Ground auf LP veröffentlicht, erinntert durchaus etwas an den Vorgänger “Bad White Corpuscle”. Von Labelseite wird das neue Album beschrieben als “a lysergic tapestry culled from the deep end of the collective pop cultural unconscious”.
Der Einfluss Coils wird thematisch und musikalisch mehr als virulent. “Still Too Far To Go” ist ein atmosphärischer Beginn: Orgelartige Drones, Beats, die wie Überbleibsel aus den “Backwards”-Sessions klingen, dunkle Streicher und pastorale Flöten untermalen, wie jemand von seinem ersten Pilztrip berichtet („My first mushroom trip. It was so profound”). Das Cover des Gnarls Barkley-Stücks “Who’se Gonna Save My Soul” (hier leider ziemlich sicher unbeabsichtigt als “Whose Gonna Save My Soul” tituliert), kombiniert orientalische Flöten, Akustikgitarre und choralartige Passagen, wobei die leicht mit Effekten unterlegten spoken words nicht ganz überzeugen. Auf „Chebo” wird der gesamplete Gesang auf eine Weise bearbeitet, die an das erinnert, was Peter Christopherson mit seinem Threshold Houseboys Choir gemacht hat. „Surrender To The Crags“ besteht aus Sprachsamples (zum Thema Alkoholismus), orientalischen Flöten und Perkussion, die an Muslimgauze denken lässt. Eine Assoziation, die nicht nur ich hatte. „Self Doubting Trip”und „Dekotur“ mit ihren sphärischen, flächigen Passagen haben eine dezent melancholische Atmosphäre und schließen das durchaus stimmige und stimmungsvolle “Contempating Nothingsness” angemessen ab." (MG/African Paper} |
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| ELECTRIC URANUS / X-NAVI:ET |
Voices of the Cosmos |
CD |
"Project "VOICES OF THE COSMOS" is an educational-artistic initiative created by two artists from Kujawsko-Pomorskie: Rafał Iwański (X-NAVI:ET) and Wojciech Zięba (ELECTRIC URANUS). Both of them have lot of experience in creating experimental and electroacoustic music. In recordings of this album original extraterrestrial sounds captured from space by radio-telescopes (pulsars), sounds from space missions and the space itself.
Every artists created 3 tracks that form the 40 minutes album. Instrumental tracks played and recorded in rhythm with tones of "space sounds", are made manually with use of electronic and acoustic instruments. All that makes this project very unique. It is the only type of it in Poland. The project had also gain reputation in science circles. "VOICES OF THE COSMOS" is the electroacoustic dark ambient (although it should not be genered this way), it's music that in 100% the title itself explains - the voices of cosmos. We watch the sky and the stars, we know many photos of heavenly bodies, other galaxies. All that fascinates us, is beautiful and colorful. But those are not environments kind to us. They are terrifying, cold or extremely hot places. And this how this album is. It can take you out there but it can scare you too.
As a bonus two tracks are added in video version, made with exclusive video-art by Chris Konky. The "VOICES OF THE COSMOS" is released by Beast Of Prey and Eter Records in a three panel digipack." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
"Rafal Iwanski is the man behind HATI, a percussion group from Poland, but in his spare time he is also the man behind a solo project called X-Navi:et, which is all about electronic music. Here he works with Wojciech Zieba, also known as Electric Uranus. They already released an album in 2011, which was more a split album, which each of them playing three pieces. The name, Voice Of The Cosmos, should be taken literally: they use recordings from out space, picked up with a 32 meter radio telescope in Torun. Here they have five pieces which they performed live at the the Planetarium and Astronomical Observatory in Grudziadz, plus two solo pieces each. You could, perhaps all too easily, think this is the kind of early long form synth music, with pieces that last twenty minutes, lots of arpeggio's on the keyboard, bouncing jolly forward. This is not the case here. These men keep their pieces actually quite short for this type, and not exclusively build with the use of synthesizers, but also with samples from space and even a heavily processed voice. This is the kind of music that is actually striving to be a pop song, even when the music is not entirely 'pop' like. The structure of the pieces is all to be a rounded song structure, and not a more open ended free fall of synth sounds. The use of long wave sounds in this music add a nice experimental component to the music. The solo tracks, aren't the divided sum of the total, but more along similar lines, so perhaps you could wonder if perhaps this could have been entirely in solo mode, but of course the element of creating together adds that a bit of extra tension to the music. It's worth picking up their 2011 album, the split one, and get a more complete picture of the development. Excellent cosmos music, something just out of the ordinary, but not too estranged." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Voices of the Cosmos II |
CD |
"Project "VOICES OF THE COSMOS" is an educational-artistic initiative created by two artists from Kujawsko-Pomorskie: Rafał Iwański (X-NAVI:ET) and Wojciech Zięba (ELECTRIC URANUS). Both of them have lot of experience in creating experimental and electroacoustic music. In recordings of this album original extraterrestrial sounds captured from space by radio-telescopes.
The „Voices of the Cosmos II” is the continuation of the previous album. In this case the radio signals related to the activity of the Sun became the main source of inspiration. The record was being created during the 2013 solar maximum (activity cycle no. 24). In the compositions, a whole range of signals, accompanying the aurora borealis can be heard. They originate in bombarding the Earth’s magnetosphere with charged solar wind particles. While listening to these pieces we realize fully the permanent interaction between the Sun and the Earth.
The "Voices of the Cosmos II" is released by Beast Of Prey and Eter Records in a three panel digipack. Project partially financed from resources the Scholarship of the Grudziadz City in the sphere of the Culture and Art." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ELEH |
Retreat, Return, Repose |
3 x CD |
"Edition of 1000. This deluxe three CD set presents Eleh's Retreat, Return, and Repose together for the first time. The LPs were originally available via Important Records mailorder only. Retreat is a collection of exploratory sound assemblages put together during a cabin sojourn. New timbral richness, tonal expansion and deep synthesis make these pieces rather different from previous work. Return reflects on time away. Repose contains only one piece, the final recording of 'Circle Two: Coastal Rotation for Dune Loop' which was debuted at 2010's Mutek festival in Montreal. This piece completes the Retreat/Return trilogy with Repose and is intended to stand very much on its own. Rain on your hood. Your heart beats. A beach break roaring in the distance. Isolated pines are played by the wind. A fine spot for repose. You turn around and head home." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€44.00 |
|
| |
Homage |
3 x LP-BOX |
"Presenting a unified whole, the Homage 3LP boxed set contains Homage to the Square Wave, ...Sine Wave and ...Pointed Waveforms, all out of print until now. Initially released separately in 2008, 2009 and 2012 respectively with custom letterpress jackets, this collection includes new retrospective artwork by John Brien. Each disc comes in its own one-color silkscreen jacket using the same blue, orange and green from the original editions; all housed in a rigid white satin-coated slipcase with spot varnish printing hand-numbered out of 800. Eleh, an artist who flourishes in restraint, uses a reduced sonic vocabulary to highlight delicate intricacies in a logical path toward harmonious satisfaction. The organization of hypnotic square waves, rippling sine waves and triangle saw tooth waveforms is a discourse in the infinity, rather than the limits, of reduction. By employing a natural practice of balanced interpretation Eleh enables an individual reaction free of the clutter of white noise." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2013 |
€55.00 |
|
| ELEH / DUANE PITRE |
Empty Summer Endless / Feel Free Installation |
LP |
"Split release including a new 20 minute piece from Eleh and the installation
version of Duane Pitre's beautiful new composition, Feel Free. Screenprinted jackets.
Feel Free is a new composition by Duane Pitre that currently has three possible manifestations: solo performance, group performance, and sound installation. At the core of all of them is the pillar of the work, an open yet orderly system whose intention is to produce potentially infinite variations of self-generating rhythm and melody. This system is created in part by a Max/MSP patch, designed by the composer, which consists of two (unprocessed) sound sources: guitar harmonics and simple-timbre electronic tones (in the solo/group versions, the latter are performed by the composer).
Where the solo and group versions find the work following a sequence of movements (each embodying a varying feeling) that consist of different pitches and rules/methods for the group to execute them, the "installation version" (which occupies a side of this record) is void of any performers and is meant to embody a certain stillness. And while the listener may become familiar with what seem to be recurring patterns, no sounds are ever looped, but are rather continually moving forward, yet still remain suspended." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€19.50 |
|
| ELEH / TARA JANE O'NEILL |
Circle Four: 100 Gongs for Arieto / Medusa Smack |
LP |
"Sound sculptures and gongs by Harry Bertoia unite the sides of this split LP from Tara Jane O'Neil and Eleh. Packaged in deluxe letterpress printed jackets in an edition of 800. The first 300 copies are on metallic gold vinyl.
O'Neil's composition was commissioned by Venessa Renwick for her Medusa Smack video installation (originally screened in 2012 at the Oregon Biennial). The piece is partially comprised of sounds recorded by Harry Bertoia on his own Sonambient sound sculptures, as well as a recording Tara made of Athanasius Kircher's Bell Wheel at the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Eleh's side consists of 100 gongs synthesized on a Serge modular system to honor the centennial of Bertoia's birth in 2015." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
Vanessa Renwick recalls the conception of Medusa Smack: "In the '70s I was a bike messenger in Chicago and whenever I had downtime, I would hang out in front of the huge Bertoia sound sculpture outside of the Standard Oil Building. The winds off Lake Michigan whipped his masterpiece about, clanging and banging. Years later, in Oregon, I came across a small Bertoia sound sculpture, I clasped its rods together within my hands and released them. The exquisite noise they made immediately whispered Tara Jane O'Neil to me. I knew that someday I would make a film and Tara would incorporate this very noise into the score. Along came my idea to create a giant mother-jellyfish-shaped screen, the Medusa Smack, for people to lay beneath, with moon jellies and pacific sea nettles projected upon it. I asked Tara to create the score, and incorporate Bertoia's own sound recordings into it. Harry Bertoia's son, Val, granted his permission. This beauty to lull you away to the deep is the result."
|
2015 |
€30.00 |
|
| ELEKTROJUDAS / XNDL |
split |
LP |
"For years, the work of elektrojudas released on Attenuation Circuit has
been linking the drone/ambient flavour of the label to more
dance-oriented styles of electronic music. On this split LP featuring
four tracks by elektrojudas and three by his long-time musical
companion XNDL, the two collaborators give an impressive insight into
the hidden kinship between abstract instrumental hip hop and drone
electronica.
XNDL has been active since 1998 in musical styles from hip hop to
drum’n’bass as a DJ, producer, and engineer, working with artists such
as Anticon, Botanica Del Jibaro, Shapeshifters, Plague Language, and
many others. On his own record label Subversiv*Rec, he published some
45 releases by underground/abstract hip-hop acts. This LP is
co-released with his current publishing outlet, cognitive*defect.
This split release marks a new step in the ongoing artistic
collaboration of XNDL with elektrojudas. Both sides of the vinyl are
unified by mid- to downtempo beats with a rather relaxed feel. Dreamy
piano chords sometimes make you think that this could be a nice
chill-out album. But then you turn the record over, and suddenly
jarring, guitar-like distortion and high-pitched oscillators change the
atmosphere. Things do not get faster, but the tension rises … until it
is resolved again. An exciting sonic journey that showcases one of the
many paths of musical innovation in the hip-hop tradition, and an
admirably consistent approach shared by the two artists." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| ELGGREN, LEIF |
Death travels backwards |
DVD |
"Cataloguing a collection of works from 1999 to the present, DEATH TRAVELS BACKWARDS delivers an important overview of the artist's pursuit of the hidden secrets and spectral enigmas found within the everyday. What marks ELGGREN's video works is an understanding of how image and sound work together to infuse the electronic material with an element of the uncanny, and to supply the imagination of the viewer with a glimpse onto infinity. Active since the late 1970s, Leif ELGGREN is one of the most constantly surprising and mysterious conceptual artists to work in the combined fields of audio and video. A writer, visual artist, stage performer and composer, he has numerous audio releases to his credit, working individually and also with the Sons of God (along with Kent Tankred). His music, often conceived as the soundtrack to visual installations or experimental stage performances, presents carefully selected sound sources over a long stretch of time and can range from mesmerizingly quiet electronics to harsh noise. His wide-ranging and investigative body of work consistently involves dreams and mysterious narratives, often inverting social hierarchies to ultimately subvert the real with poetical matter." [label info]
www.errantbodies.org
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Motor for an Unknown Vehicle (Opening the Grave) |
LP |
"Motor" is the second part in a trilogy, preceded by "Das Baank" (Fragment Factory/Rekem Records) in 2016. The Motor started a long time ago with small basic fragments used for different steps (phases) like installations and performances. Those fragments were put together over the years into a longer piece presented on this LP. Motor is now a 32 minutes long continuous piece of sounding matter. Autonomous and free in itself. Like an homunculus it can now leave its birthplace and head for the future, for something else. The initiative (the basic source) was taken already in April 1949, as an inevitable starting point.
Leif Elggren is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm. Active since the late 1970s, he is a writer, visual artist, stage performer and composer. He has many sound-works to his credit, both solo and with the Sons of God (with Kent Tankred), on labels such as Ash International, Touch, Radium and Firework Edition Records (which he co-runs with Kent Tankred). His music usually presents carefully selected sound sources over a long stretch of time and can range from quiet electronics to harsh noise. His wide-ranging and prolific body of art often involves dreams and subtle absurdities, social hierarchies turned upside-down, hidden actions and events taking on the quality of icons.
Together with artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff, he is a founder of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) where he enjoys the title of king.
Edition of 300 copies on black vinyl, incl. signed and numbered insert.
https://fragmentfactory.bandcamp.com/album/motor-for-an-unknown-vehicle-opening-of-the-grave
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| ELIAN |
Whispers, then Silence |
CD |
"To say Michael Duane Ferrell (the man behind the Elian moniker) is a patient man would be something of an understatement. But then the work of Elian is all incredibly understated anyway, so it all fits nicely. I first heard Elian’s work through mutual contacts, my first experience being ‘We Are All Visitors Here’ on the rather wonderful Test Tube label. In fact, if you go over the work he has released, you will instantly notice a person who clearly takes his time and treats each album as a labour of love in the fullest sense.
The album ‘Whispers, Then Silence’ was actually one of the first albums I got for release on Home Normal, all the way back in December 2009. Along with Celer, offthesky and Library Tapes, it was one of the albums which defined exactly what Home Normal would be for me. Its very special that we have been able to wait, tweak and just get everything timed perfectly for the release, which it duly has. The album is about as broad a record as we’ve released and about as ambitious a work that I have ever heard. From the opening vibraphone of its title track, through the interspersed white noise static and disturbing light-dark-dark-light melodies sourced from various instruments, you are left with the feeling of absolute and complete imagination. Always changing, never still, it keeps you suspended in its entirety, in (as one friend of mine said) ‘a horror film state’.
Whilst I get this, it doesn’t fit for me. There is often a very limiting split in so called ‘minimal’ work for me: light airy fluffy drone or dark ‘doom’ drone work, and quite frankly I am bored of both. Where this work is truly great is in its ability to cross the line between organic and electronic, accessible and inaccessible, dark and light. The melodies are totally unique and its a voice quite unlike anyone else out there today. It doesn’t fit into any scene or exact definition, and whilst that may put some people off, it shouldn’t. For those who are as patient as the man himself, sit down and enjoy, you are in for one incredible ride." [label info]
www.homenormal.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ELIK, YURI / NOISES OF RUSSIA |
VOICES OF THE DEAD |
DVD-R |
"Photographer and videoartist Yuri Elik is primarily known as one of the founders and permanent members of multimedia project 2012, creating audio-video installations on various contemporary art festivals (SKIF, Heilige Feuer, Multivision, etc.). Apart from this Yuri performs on his own making video- and slide-shows for a number of experimental musical bands in St. Petersburg. Yuri is also the video show author for the performances of Simon Magus ballet written by D. Kakhovskiy and the designer of several CD artworks and websites. Gosha Solnzev (also known as "Van Gog" - 1g0g) - big industrial showman, leader of the project Noises of Russia well-known in Russia, organizer of several festivals, such as "Noise vs. Glamour", "Military Days", "Noisy Women", etc. Gosha has always claimed that he plays funeral music, so it's no wonder he showed interest in the phenomenon of voices of the dead, discovered by Friedrich Jürgenson in the late 50s of the past century. Electronic Voice Phenomenon (voices of the dead, Raudive voices) are the voices of anomalous origin appearing while making records on tape recorders or other electronic audio devices. EVP researches claim and have proof that this is a possible way of communication between physical and some other non-physical planes of existence. The exploration of this phenomenon led to an effective cooperation between Van Gog and Yuri which resulted in a series of live performances with the "Voices of the Dead" program and this short film, with 24 minutes an obscure psychedelic drama evolving in front of the spectator. A multi-layered collage of concrete visual images and kaleidoscopic colour fields constantly transforms, accompanied by unusual and uneasy sombre ambient with real voices of the dead samples interlaced in it's structure. As a bonus this disk also contains a 12-min. slide-film "City Spirits": alternation of photos by Yuri Elik with his own soundtrack constructed from city noises. Yuri skillfully focuses attention on subtleties of usual things that remain unseen to the eye of a usual human being, generally too busy with thinking over his insubstantial problems and forgetting about the beauty of the world surrounding him. The release is packed in a special cardboard sleeve and goes with a booklet with an encyclopaedic reference about the phenomenon of electronic voices." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| ELIZABETH S. |
Gather Love |
CD |
Elizabeth S., long time contributor/performer with duo Eyeless In Gaza is about to release her first solo album. Happy in the past to remain on the sidelines with her collaborations she is now ready to reveal some of her story. These songs are her personal journey through many stormy years and the development of this work was many years in the making. All the songs were written, performed and produced by her with the only additional contributions being made by Martyn Bates and Alan Trench. In a recent review (www.bigbeautifulnoise.com) Lee Henderson wrote that her work extends from an almost mournful reminiscence to ethereal portraits and symbolic aural illustrations. Elizabeth S. has an approach that combines electronic treatments while having a tight grasp on her early British folk beginnings: this in-depth collection is a beacon on dark and intensely stormy years and yet it still offers a warm invitation to inspire hope and goodness to the human race. Consisting of twelve tracks of such an intimate autobiographical diary this body of work leaves the listener with no doubt that we have been allowed into a very private space inhabited by most of us at some point in our lives - with Elizabeth’s music gently moving from the tender to the abstract, all the while staying firmly rooted within a range of sparse musical arrangements. Elizabeth S. has been likened to a curious hybrid of Dolly Collins, June Tabor, Laurie Anderson and Kate Westbrook – but, it is truly difficult to label her music, and this is a task that we leave to the listener. Full tracklist: 1. Misborn 2. Will Your Love 3. The Carer 4. The Carter Girl 5. Weathered Life 6. Measured Greed 7. The Hill 8. The Long Farewell 9. Wanderlove 10. Gather Love 11. No Rain 12. To.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg384
"Warum Elizabeth S., langjährige Mitwirkende bei der Band Eyeless in Gaza, erst nach Jahrzehnten ein Album im Alleingang produziert hat, ist nicht weiter bekannt. Schon die ersten beiden Tracks ihres vor kurzem erschienenen Debüts “Gather Love” geben jedoch bereits eine Vorstellung von der enorm aufwühlenden Emotionalität, die sich in unterschiedlichen Facetten durch das ganze Werk zieht. Ein solches Album braucht nicht nur eine Weile, um fertig gestellt zu werden, sondern noch mehr Zeit, um überhaupt als Idee heranzureifen.
Ein solches Album ist, so will es die Redensart, keine leichte Geburt, und so beginnt “Gather Love” wie ein Donnerschlag mit dem heftigen “Misborn”, bei dem die Sängerin inmitten einer lärmenden Karambolage aus Drums, Noiserockgitarren und anderen Instrumenten beschwörende Verse anstimmt, während kleine Melodiefragmente auch hier bereits die Sanftheit ahnen lassen, die im weiteren Verlauf immer deutlicher in den Vordergrund treten wird. Alles dreht sich um den titelgebenden Begriff, und es scheint, als wollten Gesang und Lärm durch eine unsichtbare Wand dringen. Hinter der verbirgt sich vielleicht die gelöste, sehnsuchtsvolle Trauer, in die das darauffolgende “Will Your Love” getaucht ist – dieser vielleicht eingängigste Song des Albums, dessen eindringliches Gitarrenspiel und feuriger Gesang die Energie des Folkrevivals der 70er channelt, stellt die Frage nach einer Liebe, die den Tod überdauert. Alles in diesem Stück scheint dem Schmerz abgerungen und ist dabei frei von jeder lieblichen Romantik.
Die zwölf Stücke, in denen die oftmals verschwimmenden Klänge von Gitarre, Piano, Melodica, dezenter Elektronik und Streichern den Sound prägen, drehen sich immer wieder um Themen des Verlusts und des Vermissens und strahlen dabei eine große Zärtlichkeit aus, die mehr als alles andere die Wertschätzung des Verlorenen deutlich macht. Der Journalist Lee Henderson, der einiges über die persönlichen Hintergründe des Albums weiß, erwähnt den Bezug einiger der Songs auf die Familie der Sängerin. So enthält das verweht dröhnende “The Carter Girl” eine Tape-Aufnahme, die Elizabeth als Kind von ihrer Mutter, einer Opernsängerin, machte, die später an Alzheimer erkrankte. Andere Songs wie das so entrückte wie exaltierte “Weathered Life” erzählen in ihren Texten von den Herausforderungen, mit denen der Sängerin nahestehende Personen leben und kämpfen mussten.
Was die Opulenz der Stücke betrifft, die in ihrem unklaren Ort zwischen dunklen Folkballaden und abstrakteren Soundscapes immer wieder auch an Elizabeths Stammband erinnern, könnte “Gather Love” durchaus das Werk einer Band sein. Und doch bleibt stets der Eindruck einer persönlichen, autobiografischen Stimme, wie sie nur in wirklichen Soloarbeiten sprechen kann – ganz gleich, ob die Sängerin sich dabei wie in dem schleppenden, fast an No Wave erinnernden “No Rain” oder im gemächlich rauschenden “The Long Farewell” eher zurücknimmt und den Instrumenten den vorderen Platz überlässt, oder ob sie auch gesanglich wie in “The Hill” oder dem monumentalen “Measured Greed” alle Barrieren durchbricht und sich in fast wahnhafter Ekstatik Ausdruck verschafft.
Zu den gemächlicheren Stücken zählt auch das Mason Williams-Cover “Wanderlove”, bei dem mit Alan Trench (Temple Music, 12 Thousand Days u.v.a.) und Ehemann Martyn Bates auch Gäste mit Drones und begleitendem Gesang zu Wort kommen. In das sanfte Dröhnen mischt sich etwas unruhig drängendes, das sich durch die emotionale Grund-DNA des ganzen Albums zieht, eine sich heftig aufbäumende Eruption, die gleichermaßen rastlos und konzentriert, magisch und kathartisch ist. Erst im kurzen Abspann von “To” glätten sich die Wogen – wie auf der letzten, versöhnlichen Seite einer autobiografischen Erzählung. Zweifelsohne ein mehr als gelungenes Debüt." [U.S./African Paper]
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| ELLENDE |
Bitter Lemons |
mCD-R |
“Ellende is a mysterious project. no one knows exactly who contributes to ellende. all we can say is that some people contributes sound to one dutch man living in japan. this man carefully builds (he's an architect) his tracks with these sound contributions et voila ! active for many years but releasing his music for only 2 years, ellende has fastly got a very strong reputation in the dark ambient/experimental scene thanks to a bunch of cd-r's and mp3's releases on many labels all over the world, creating unique atmospheres that can't be compared to anything else.
this 3" gives a perfect example of ellende music, maybe a little harsher and darker than previous works...” [label info]
|
2004 |
€5.50 |
|
|
Growing A Beard, Driving A Bike With A Naked Girl On Your Lap Does Not Make You A Man |
MC |
"Notes: Side A: Recorded live in New York, US on 17 September 2009
Various analogue instruments used,
Mastered at The Plantation Capetown October 2010 on Nakamichi RX50
Side B: Recorded live in Pieterburen, NL on 6th June 2008
Various analogue instruments used
Mastered at The Plantation Capetown 2010 on Nakamichi RX505
Both play LOUD.
C-60, 100 copies" [label info / credits]
www.impulsystetoskopu.pl
"In the recent, second, volume of the Encyclopedia of Noise, released by Impulsy Stetoskopu, we find an entry for Ellende. We learn its an anonymous musical project, led by one Wim Bontjes (who died in 1995), an author whose work is the basis of sound material. Musicians from all over the world deliver their sounds to the project and mixed together by the other three members from The Netherlands. Some of their music has been reviewed before. This cassette, also released by Impulsy Stetoskopu, contains two live recordings, one from 2008 (in Pieterburen, The Netherlands) and one from 2009 (New York). No members are mentioned here, but both pieces were created with 'various analogue instruments'. Both were picked up using a microphone, rather than a line recording, which adds a more raw edge to the end result. Probably its fair to say that we are dealing here with a rough form of cosmic music. Lots of synthesizer buzz around, sweep, oscillate and bubble and create fine, dense waves of cosmic music. Effectively it may seem that both concerts sound alike, which made me think that the same musicians are at play here, even when the 2008 concert is a bit more louder. I have no idea which literally references are in play here, but the title is great!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
HALLO KAPTEIN |
mCD-R |
During the early 2000’s we experimented as a collaborative in trying to erase the notion of being a band. Instead, we aimed at operating as an anonymous musical assembly. Through the rise of the internet and its collaborative economy we thought that by pouring various (found) sounds into a large database, we could mix this into music with an incredible complexity that would amount to soundscapes (ugh) so deep that each time the listener would have a multifarious listening experience. In the mid 1970’s Ellende’s founding band members, the cousins Wim and Martinus had tried something similar when they over-dubbbed every 7” vinyl record found at their Cape Town home (mostly Dutch and Afrikaans popular music) onto tape, with mixed results.
Conceptually we continued to experiment with this idea of overdubbing; by randomly layering found sounds, but also juxtaposing images or tv images on top of each other in anticipation that this technique could lead to interesting new images or sounds. We can safely say that the Post Modern concept of a hyper-collage has been an obsession for us for over 45 years. This idea reached for us its zenith in 2003 with the double cdr release on Somnabulant Corpse: No Holiday Without a Funeral - Damaged Beyond Repair. This release was extremely deep (sometimes 20 layers deep), but also very, very data heavy (it crashed our at that time top of the line Apple computers). Despite this technical feat, the resulting albums never reached the level of complexity that we had in mind. The result just sounded muddy.
In 2010 we tried it again. The sessions for Hallo Kaptein started in 2010 and were mixed in 2011. It follows the same collage approach and contains many found sounds that are layered. However, we consciously aimed at remaining sonically spread out, leaving space for the various layers to be heard in context to the other sounds that are stacked on top of them. Some of the tracks are very open and give a feeling of having been recorded outside, while others are more metallic and enclosed. The last title track of the album is a live improvisation by adding one instrument upon the next one. As this was recorded in one take, we depended heavily on a compressor to keep everything within an acceptable dynamic range.
Although recorded more than 10 years ago we felt that Hallo Kaptein was a layering exercise in which we achieved, to our own ears, more acceptable results.
Ellende was Martinus Antonius and JJ. Scholtz with many anonymous contributions. Recorded in Cape Town and Tokyo.
https://ellende1.bandcamp.com/album/hallo-kaptein
"Experimental music is not constrained to a specific part of the world. And experiments, in general, are everywhere: it's a 'human' thing to think outside of the perspective we're given in our upbringing, environment or culture. The only thing is that it is sometimes difficult to get informed about what is all happening outside our little bubble of western influences. But thankfully, sometimes, the sounds of these unknown territories reach our side. We get to hear so many beautiful things ... One of the lesser-known continents where experimental music is made in Africa. Still, the best-known experimental group from this continent is South-African (and Tokyo) based Ellende (Dutch / Afrikaans for 'misery'). They also have a label called Smeerlappen (tr: Scumbags), and in the player are two 3" CDRs from that label.
"Hallo Kaptein" by Ellende is the first, and it contains six tracks with a total playing time of just under 18 minutes. Way too short if you ask me
because what I hear is serious of a higher level. The combination of field recordings, vocals and (mostly?) synthetic sounds are folded into hypnotizing sound collages, which I simply can't get enough of. Especially the title track - with its almost 7 minutes also the longest track - is so subtly layered and has excellent sound perfectly aligned and mixed ... A constant tension because of subtle changes in the attack of the recurrent sounds, layers in the background that after a bit of while shifted from the back to the front and then back again. And the use of vocals where I must say that being Dutch, the Afrikaans is in a way foreign to me, but with enough overlap to understand the basics. Damn, 18 minutes. Replay. I need a complete CD. And I believe I understand the "ETERNALLY ILLUSIVE DRONESOUP" words on their website." [BW / Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€9.50 |
|
| ELODIE (TIMO VAN LUIJK & ANDREW CHALK) |
La Lumiere Parfumee |
CD |
"The second album by Timo van Luijk & Andrew Chalk. While the debut album 'Echos Pastoraux' ( La Scie Doree) had the sentiments of a homely
sketchbook memory,'La Lumiere Parfumee' is a new collection of eight pieces, bringing
a more elaborate repertoire with delicate acoustic and electronic arrangements
in an impressionistic pallette of pastel shades and shimmering opalescent rays.
Packaged in handmade mini LP style gatefold cd sleeve. Release date : 30 December 2011
Catalogue No. : Faraway Press 020
Edition of 400 copies
1.Aubade
2.La Boite aux Souvenirs
3.Ame Pale
4.Mirage
5.Rayons Irises
6.La Voix du Lac
7.Arcade Oblique
8.Souffle de Cendre
Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering." [label info]
www.farawaypress.info
"Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk's ongoing research in the world of atmospheric music adds another chapter through their latest album 'La Lumiere Parfumee'. Armed with a handful of acoustic sounds, rusty metal, a piano, flutes, violin, wine glasses and such like they play intimate music that sounds improvised. Which I guess is an odd thing since you could expect something more drone like, but that's simply not the trick of their trade. Through sparse notes they create a sense of emptiness, desolateness and melancholy. Electronics, when used, are only there is a very sparse way. 'Arcade Oblique' seems to me the only piece that use more of them, but it fits well with the more acoustic pieces. Very intimate music, reminding me of Idea Fire Company's 'Music From The Impossible Salon'." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Traces Ephemeres |
LP |
"An eclectic ensemble of 18 instrumental arrangements evoking an epic and existential soundtrack determined by the power of momentary destiny and reflective sentiment. Music played by Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk. Clarinet by Jean-Noël Rebilly. Piano and koto by Tom James Scott. Edition of 350 copies." [label info]
www.lasciedoree.be
"When not playing his own music, Timo van Luijk is busy with recording music with other people, and with some of them as part of an on-going collaboration, such as In Camera with Christoph Heemann and Elodie with Andrew Chalk. This is Elodie's fourth full length release (see Vital Weekly 781 and 828) and like before the album has rather shortish pieces, even more fragmented, it seems, than before, eighteen in total. It therefore isn't one of those 'one drone, one side, LP done' sort of releases. This is all highly atmospheric music as you can surely imagine given the reputation of both of these composers, but then played on a wide variety of instruments, of an acoustic and electronic origin. The carefully strummed guitar (Chalk), the flute, percussive bits, (both van Luijk) along with electronics - no computers I should think - play short and sketch like pieces. Not refined oil paintings on canvas but pencil sketches on paper. Introspective music, moody, but also airy and light. Moving like clouds on a blue sky, some white, some grey, some times rainy. Textured music, like you have textured paper, with spots of ink on them. Excellent stuff here." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Miniatures Persanes |
LP |
"Fourth album by Andrew Chalk & Timo van Luijk. 'A musical fantasy in two movements symbolising the evocative power and poetry of ancient illustration'. Edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.lasciedoree.be
"Elodie’s Miniatures Persanes (‘Persian miniature’ I would venture) is the fifth album of Chalk’s collaboration with Timo van Luyk and released on Van Luyk’s private label La Scie Dorée. Available on both vinyl and in one of those beautiful handmade portfolio/slipcase covers that are also produced for Faraway Press albums, this record features two side long tracks that indeed conjure up images of Persia. The instrumentation and feel of Miniatures Persanes is not unlike that of The Circle Of Days, but there are differences that set it apart. The first side long track, Le Doigt d’Etonnement (The Surprising Finger?), is a slow drone-like piece, filled with reverbed instruments, backwards tapes and what sounds like wind (electronic or real), giving it a thick rotating sound. Despite the lack of some breathing space and, indeed, surprise in the track itself, this is a fine musical piece. The second side, Illuminations, fares even better with more pensive and transparent playing, that much-needed breath of air and even a hint of melody. With more variety in its structure and playing, I prefer this over the first side. Miniatures Persanes is a beautiful and reflective record, that works very well on a quiet winter evening." [FK/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Le Manteau d'Etoiles |
LP |
The fifth full length album by Elodie, here expanding on the first concert as a quartet given in Leuven, Belgium in November 2012 -with Tom James Scott : piano and Jean-Noel Rebilly : clarinet. “Le Manteau D’étoiles” collects ten airy instrumental spheres glowing and evaporating in a universal infinity like any moment in the panorama of everyday life. Released on Andrew Chalk’s Faraway Press label in an edition of 300 copies. The album contains a specially printed double-sided insert and postcard set, printed on 350 gramme cream paper stock.
Mastering and cut by Noel Summerville at 3345 Lacquer cut, pressing on 160gramme vinyl, sleeve design and layout by Timo van Luijk, Andrew Chalk and Jos Moers. Faraway Press.
www.farawaypress.info
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Odyssee |
CD |
"Elodie here featuring core members Timo van Luijk and Andrew Chalk, playing live in Germany
in 2015. Performing a pure duet of flute and string synthesizer over one episodic track 'Odyssee', a poetic and melancholy synchronous soundtrack to a film made and shown by van Luijk on the same evening.
'Odyssee' was mastered for CD release by Denis Blackham and is packaged in handmade gatefold mini LP style sleeve with Japanese language obi." [label info]
"Elodie’s 'Odyssee Musique En Scene II' is the latest offering by Elodie on Faraway Press. Elodie is a musical collaboration featuring Chalk and Timo van Luyk, which first released their particular brand of ambient music, as in a combination of keyboards, wind instruments and ROOM in 2011. Their previous offerings, either on Faraway Press or Van Luyk’s equally impressive La Scie Dorée label have, for obvious reasons, never failed to impress me. This album was recorded live at the Gerauschwelten Festival in Münster on 7 February 2015. It is a brief performance, 33 minutes, but let me assure you that quality always goes over quantity. This half hour+ is a gorgeous, shimmering beautiful listen. Resting on a soft bed of keyboards and various flutes, Elodie takes you on an odyssee that is calming and soothing, without ever becoming a cliché. The atmosphere and warmth
of the recording is just perfect. The applause at the end is a reminder this was done live, proving not only the sheer quality of playing, but also of the remarkable high quality of interaction between these two musicians and the space they are performing in. As you might have guessed, 'Odyssee', handsomely packed in a sturdy carton gatefold cover, is a highly recommended release." [Freek Kinkelaar, Vital Weekly]
www.farawaypress.info
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
La Porte Ouverte |
LP |
La Porte Ouverte was recorded by Timo van Luijk, Andrew Chalk and Tom James Scott and was cut by Noel Summerville at 33/45 in London.
Available in a standard only edition and cut at 45 RPM for higher fidelity.
350 copies pressed.
Sleeve is printed in reverse board with poly-lined inner sleeve.
Any orders are always shipped vinyl out of main sleeve to prevent seam ripping.
'An open door...
an exit... an entrance...
a new horizon
we never know where we are...
as long as the door remains open
there will be light...'
www.farawaypress.info
"Few musical artists have explored the notion of quietness as a virtue — and, let’s face it, as a reaction to the fetishization of high volumes in rock music — with as much rigor as Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk do in their Elodie duo. Performing live in about 2012 or so, opening for Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney, they held the audience in rapt silence, Chalk gently — barely — caressing the strings of his acoustic guitar and van Luijk only occasionally whistling with unbelievable restraint into his flute, was remarkable. Not to mention bold. It’s a potentially risky approach, but the control van Luijk and Chalk have in their interactions (not to mention their musical skill) means they have consistently been able to evince new forms of minimalism.
For La Porte Ouverte, originally issued in 2016 on cassette, the duo is joined by Liberez pianist Tom James Scott, and his keys, added to subtly applied textures from other instruments, lead to a slight change in the overall aesthetic of Elodie. There was always a difference between Elodie live and their studio output, but on this album they shake off the shackles of lowercase altogether, removing the constraints of that genre’s formalism and delving into a delicate, moonlit realm somewhere between barroom jazz and modern minimalism.
On most tracks, Tom Scott’s piano acts like a semi-regular metronome: emerging gradually but with confidence, delineating the atmosphere with patient, slow-building clusters of notes, arranged like outlines. Within — and even without — the resulting canvasses, Timo van Luijk and Andrew Chalk have the space to reflectively dab their own considered shades, reacting both to the piano and each other. “Matin de Marbre” shimmers like light on a marble statue, a thread-like keyboard note drifting anxiously in and out of tremulous piano notes. There are hints of Angelo Badalamenti’s compositions for David Lynch, especially the Straight Story soundtrack, in the aching tone of the instruments; it’s equally easy to imagine a lot of the tracks on La Porte Ouverte forming the backing track for a song sung by Isabella Rosselini in Blue Velvet. “La Marche” is more austere, with piano notes struck almost angrily by Scott only to find no echo in van Luijk and Chalk’s unflinching keyboard drone. Somewhere deep in the mix, van Luijk’s flute seems to echo like a defeated cry, but that could just be my ears finding textures that aren’t there. Or maybe they are, it’s hard to tell. As an entire album, La Porte Ouverte can have that effect, especially on the longer tracks.
On average, the tracks on the first half are most minimal and quiet, borrowing most noticeably from lowercase traditions in the sparseness of the piano notes and barely audible flourishes on flute or guitar. Scott’s playing will instantly appeal to fans of Morton Feldman or Michael Nyman, whilst the keyboard arrangements evoke the ambient works of Fennesz or David Sylvian’s mid-1980s work (sans the vocals, of course). “Le Jardin Onirique” is the side’s longest work, and also the most abstract, fittingly given the title. A dreamlike quality drifts through much of the entire album, the earthiest moment coming with the emergence of Andrew Chalk’s guitar on “Par la Main,” as he sketches out a gentle series of scales to dance hesitantly with Scott’s piano motif, rewarding listeners with the most intimate piece on the album.
In contrast, the second side features synths and keyboards more prominently, although don’t go thinking the results are lush or dense. Elodie make a virtue of stillness and calm, and the lengthier tracks (of eight, only three feature on side B) somewhat paradoxically underline this further. The title track drifts on a curtain of synthetic strings into which piano notes drop like rain into a pond. It’s a profoundly moving and melancholic piece, its apparent simplicity hiding a range of depths. Tom James Scott really shines, delicately deploying his notes only when necessary, and the synth arrangement is positively haunting. I’m not sure what the title, which translates as “The Open Door,” means, beyond maybe a sense of welcome, which this track certainly carries in abundance. The organ-drenched “Lumen” is possibly the loudest Elodie has ever got, the venerable church instrument building a foundation over which piano and vibraphone notes swirl like motes of dust caught in a shaft of light. Again, I find myself reaching for Badalamenti, but in truth that’s a lazy shorthand for music that is both emotionally-resonant and cinematic in scope. Elodie have jazz and minimalism in their bones, and feeling in their hearts, and by broadening their palette so effectively on La Porte Ouverte they have created an album as close to unique as you can get in 2016." [Joseph Burnett/Dusted Mag]
"Utterly sublime ambient jazz from consummate, lower case collaborators, Timo Van Lujik and Andrew Chalk, joined here on piano by Tom James Scott (Charcoal Owls, Liberez) in a subtly breathtaking LP of melting romantic gestures and spectral electronics. Big recommendation if you're into David Lynch, Bohren Und Der Club of Gore, Af Ursin, Oren Ambarchi...
Their 8th album - alternately released like all previous Elodie LPs since 2011 on the duo's respective labels, La Scie Dorée and Faraway Press - they navigate thee finest line of anticipatory tension and vaporous release, resulting in some of the most tender, unshowy yet arresting musical expressions that we’ve heard in years.
In eight parts they expand, contract and drift off on shafts of moonlight, oscillating shorter vignettes which appear like magnetically suspended bonsai trees - as with the hyaline delicacy of Matin de Marbre or the latinate acoustic guitar that slides between the silken ambient tones and Feldman-meets-Sakamoto keys of Par La Main - with longer sections such as the midnight stroller Le Jardin Onirique and the B-side’s sail-away suite of three pieces, including the unmissable title track, afford teasingly intangible visions of a sound which we’re sure everyone can agree, is some of the most beautiful music imaginable.
We were lucky enough to catch the duo in this record’s line-up with Tom James Scott at Salford’s Islington Mill in 2016, where we witnessed them totally silence the room with an almighty, barely-there demonstration of how to enchant a crowd. As with everyone else in the room, we were duly pinned to our seat for the duration, with incidental creaking chairs and refrigerator hum only heightening the sublime tension whilst waiting for the trio’s next, curious jazz chord in sequence, or when attempting to follow their chromatic gasses off into the ether.
Like the weeks after seeing their show last year, you just kinda want to make sure everyone in earshot knows about or can at least get a glimpse of this music. It just seems to reset everything..." [Boomkat] |
2017 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Le Nid d'Ivoire |
LP |
...Le Nid d’Ivoire – The Ivory Nest…
“The breeze of summer evenings
a breath of life and death
the presentiment of blossom time
the shiver of corruption
the present
the here and the beyond
an immense beyond.”
‘Heure Dorée’
https://lasciedoree.be/releases/elodie-le-nid-divoire/
"The tremulous, electro-acoustic/ambient beauty ’Le Nid D’Ivoire’ marks the return of Andrew Chalk and Timo Van Luijk’s enchanted duo to the latter’s La Scie Dorée label. It's an engrossing smudge from oneiric wind, brass, keys and string tones to much gauzier, gently psychedelic scenes over the LP’s spellbinding narrative arc.
With intravenous stealth and efficacy ‘Le Nid D’Ivoire’ gets right under the skin and soothes the senses with its glacially unfolding pace and sensuous smoke-curl dynamics. It starts out recalling the soundtrack to a film noir, but ends up ripe to soundtrack scenes of druggy, psychedelic experiments or a slow burning, furtive romance, conjuring heavy-lidded osmosis, letting the soundtrack drift over you during the dying light of a winter afternoon.
Where the first side is marbled with wistful melody that wraps us up in its tale, their musical storytelling really comes into its own on the B-side with the title tracks’s tip-of-tongue tremble redolent of everyone from Loren Connors to Akira Rabelais, leading into the elegantly pulsating chamber ambience of ‘Calice et Croix’ before they ultimately transmute into shimmering spiritual resonance with the hyaline strokes of ‘Méridien’ to leave us blissed to bits." [Boomkat]
|
2020 |
€19.50 |
|
| ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE |
Shanti |
do-CD |
" “Shânti” (1972-73) for electronic and concrete sounds. Electronic music studio, WDR, Cologne, Germany, 1972-73. Digitalized and revised version from 2001.
“The term “meditation music” triggered many conflicting comments including positive ones (“... let us say that Shânti belongs to those very rare works that change you after listening to them. You are not exactly the same before and after.” - Gérard Mannoni, Le Quotidien de Paris, 1974). Others, wondering at the strong sound presence of the piece, consider such aspect as hardly helpful to their own meditation... Let us be clear: “what meditates” here (”that” who meditates) is the composer. He is the one who takes you on his journey and guides you through his work like in a classic or romantic symphony. As a listener you are invited to follow “his” meditation... The composition is the meditation.” " [label info]
"Was I recently 'complaining' about 3CD sets with music of people I never heard of, I wasn't perhaps thinking of Jean-Claude Eloy. First time around the mailman decided to keep the CDs, but the second time delivered them duly. I hope he likes them as much as I do. I may have heard the name Eloy before, but not his music, or where to place him, these two sets, six discs in total will set the record straight (pun intended). Eloy was born in 1938 and studied with Darius Milhaud. I believe he composes all sorts of work, but his main line of business is electronic music. I review them in order of composition. 'Shanti', which means 'peace', was composed after 'Kamakala' for three orchestra ensembles, five choir ensembles with three conductors, so it was perhaps 'necessary' to compose an electro-acoustic work at the WDR studios in Cologne, Germany. A work of meditation, or so Eloy tells us. Now this is not a work of pure and solitary drone music, as one would perhaps expect from 'meditative music'. They are here, that's for sure, but there is also an interview with Aurobindo and Mao, as well as a small piece called 'Soldats', with soldiers speaking and 'Vagues Lentes, Boucles De Feux', which takes their singing into an electronic landscape. This is of course an album about 'Peace', but rather then just produce a drone or two, Eloy brings in a political element, the soldiers. However the majority are those various drones, played on those ancient machines (great pictures in the booklet here), the mystical oscillators, wave generators and such like - which defy any laptop, I'd say. Excellent music, although not always exactly as meditative as promised, but that, I thought, was hardly a problem. Unsettling meditation, which is better than just go with the flow." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Erkos / Galaxies (Chants pour l'autre Moitie du Ciel Part III & IV) |
do-CD |
"Songs for the other half of the sky. With 'Erkos' (1990-91) and 'Galaxies' (1986-1996). Performed by Junko Ueda (satsuma biwa and voice) and Jean-Claude Eloy (sound projection).
Erkos is a word from the Indo-European language and means song, praise. It is close to the Sanskrit word Arkas (hymn, chant, radiance) and to the Tokharien term Yarke (reverence, homage). The texts consist of extracts from the Devî-Upanishad and Devî-Mâhâtmya writings, in Sanskrit. In those texts, an homage is paid to the Goddess who, in Indian philosophy, is considered as the mother of all energies. For this work, I have been inspired by Junko Ueda, a particularly gifted young musician whom I met in Japan in 1987, mastering at the same time the traditional technics : those from Japan (Shômyô and Satsuma-Biwa), those of the other countries of Asia (Gamelan), as well as the western technics (piano, composition). It was possible, with a performer of such a vast background, to translate these ancient and original techniques into a free contemporary creation without distorting their original nature. Erkos was commissioned by the Cologne Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), at the invitation of Karlheinz Stockhausen, in collaboration with the Institut Français de Cologne and was produced in its entirety in 1990-91 at the WDR Electronic Studio. The electroacoustic materials are essentially concrete in nature and have been drawn from three sources Junko Ueda's voice, Satsuma Biwa (plucked string instrument with plectrum), Unban (metallic plate with complex resonance). Consequently, the recording studio is not used here as a generator but as a 'multiplier-transformer' to the soloist, who is the real origin of all sounds. Symbolically, she is the source, the Goddess-mother as written about in the Sanskrit texts I have used here.
'Galaxies' is an electroacoustic work composed of two large groups of elements, contrasting with each other in function, construction, etc. but still unified as they are born from the same sources of timbre and treatment : the Japanese Shô (traditionnal mouth organ) from which all of the work's sound material is taken, to which are added an ensemble of five Bonshô's (temple bells from Japan and Korea)." [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
"...In 'Erkos', three parts are instrumental, and the two use the voice of Junko Ueda, and the title means 'song' or 'praise'. Whereas on the other CD the voice material prevails, here's it's the other way round, and the instrumental parts are much stronger. It's hard to see this as an electro-acoustic work, since the percussion sounds most of time as percussion, and it doesn't always seem to swirling around in electronics. 'Erkos' is a particular more 'quiet' work, which meanders slow and peacefully, with very few outbursts. 'Galaxies' is more like a sandwich, with an electronic piece at the beginning and at the end and three solo voice pieces in the middle, which make a nice contrast. Here the music sounds much more electronic indeed, with clusters of sounds derived from temple bells, making a beautiful, powerful drone. The form a great contrast with the solo voice of the three shorter pieces in between, which have a likewise contemplative character, but then perhaps of an entirely different nature. It's great to see two such different sides of the same coin work together on this work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Kâmakalâ |
CD + booklet |
"CD with 60 pages booklet with photos + texts in French and English.
'Kâmakalâ. The Energy Triangle' (1971). For three orchestra ensembles, five chorus ensembles, with three conductors. Orchestra and chorus of the WDR, Schola Cantorum, Stuttgart. Conductors : Michel Tabachnik, Bernhard Kontarsky, Jacques Mercier. Kâmakalâ - a Sankrit term meaning energy triangle - refers to India's philosophy (Tantric Shivaïsm) and is expresses here as the appearance of energy, which is the erotic and cosmic energy (Kama), that which helps Shiva uniting with his Shakti (feminine energy), create every self-subdivision (Kalâ), hence gradually generating the whole complexity of the universe. It is that idea of a vast and slow crescendo of the various parameters of a musical score, of an infinite division and infinite multiplication of the material contained in it that appealed to Eloy. At the time he would complain about a type of contemporary music aesthetics only focusing on the quick scattering of all kinds of points within short periods of time, sometimes in just a few seconds (pointillism). As a result music pieces were almost inevitably bound to be brief, unable to sustain time as it would distribute the entire sound energy from the very first minutes. On the contrary, Eloy wanted to create music in which the energy was sustained, non distributed and reserved to intense inner blossoming at a later point; music expanding very slowly as in Indian Raga, yet Western music definitely modern, atonal and athematic.
'Étude III' (1962) for orchestra, with piano and five percussionists. Orchestra of the SWF, Baden-Baden. Conductor : Ernest Bour. Etude III, which was composed in May and June of 1962 in Zurich and Paris, uses the configuration of a traditional orchestra (wood and brass instruments by pair) opposite to an ensemble of five percussionists, piano, harp and celesta. A dialectic stands out of this opposition as it is emphasized through the writing and conducting (measured for the orchestral mass, a-measured and cued for the entire ensemble on the foreground). The instruments, which form cohesive timber families, come in according to an irregular pattern as the piece develops, with the entire configuration not coming into play until the last developments. The frequent use of very long durations, related to the steadiness of the pitch registers, leads to a rising static sound phenomenon reminiscent of oriental music in some regards: the tone and use of Shô in Japanese Gagaku, the slow and steady increase of complexity in Indian Raga.
'Fluctuante - Immuable' (1977) for full orchestra. New Philharmonic Orchestra from Radio-France. Conductor : Gilbert Amy. Fluctuante-Immuable, which was composed in 1977 as Gaku-no-Michi was produced in the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) electronic studio in Tokyo, is the result of a commission by the Secretariat of Cultural Affairs made for the Orchestre de Paris, which premiered it in May 1977. This work clearly shows the influence and the alterations that electro-acoustic practices infer on orchestral writing practices. Besides Eloy's long electro-acoustic productions, Fluctuante-Immuable suggested a new (theoretical and practical) way of addressing issues related to composing with notes. The formal issue that the composer faces at the beginning is that of a dialectic between Order and Disorder (or between order and organized chaos) topped by an issue about the relation between the conductor and his orchestra (techniques of synchronization or desynchronization with the mass of musicians)." [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
|
2012 |
€23.00 |
|
|
Butsumyôe / Sappho Hiketis (Chants pour l'autre Moitié du Ciel Part I & II) |
CD+BOOK |
"A book (English text) around the cycle 'Songs for the other half of the sky' with the following pieces 'Butsumyoê', 'Sappho hikètis', 'Erkos', 'Galaxies', 'Gaia-songs'. Interview, documents, technicazl specification, photos. A CD with 'Butsumyôe' and 'Sappho hikètis'.
'Butsumyôe' (1989). For voices, percussions and electroacoustic. With Yumi Nara and Fatima Miranda, voice and percussions. In 'Butsumyôe' ('The ceremony of Repentance') the singer Yumi Nara (soprano) occupies the function of a first solo voice, whereas Fatima Miranda (vocalist) assures the function of the second accompanying voice. In Sappho hiketis, it is the opposite: Fatima Miranda occupies the function of the first solo voice, and Yumi Nara assures the function of the second accompanying voice. But in practice, the vocal activities are mixed, creating an actual creative vocal duet. These two works are freely conceived and of pure imagination, which lean on not any pre-existent model. Butsumyôe is a long monologue for voice that sings, speaks, shouts, and is modulated with a host of techniques, punctuated by the exclamations of the accompanying voice and by various percussion instruments played by the two female singers. Basing myself on Saïkaku's beautiful text, I have worked in the original language (ancient Japanese from the area of Osaka), striving to magnify the expressive capacity of each word. The point is to cause Western vocal techniques to expand towards more expressive possibilities, particularly in the very difficult and rich space between 'sung' and 'spoken' texts. Curiously, the recent practice of electro-acoustic techniques sheds light on these issues, forcing us to rediscover the acoustic, whose perception and conception had been gradually obscured, standardized and diminished by our cultural certainties.
'Sappho hiketis' (1989). For voice, percussions and electroacoustic. With Yumi Nara and Fatima Miranda, voice. A vocal duet articulated from an electro-acoustic piece (realized during the production of Anâhata at the Electronic Studio of the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam). The basic material is composed of pre-recorded metallic percussion instruments (samplings realized in 1984 by Michael W. Ranta). Prosody and vocal technique: unlike the previous piece, the text is used in a very broken up mode, with somewhat scattered phonemes, also integrating a listing of the names of Sappho's most famous female lovers. The adaptation of the text (in modern Greek) is totally free and makes no reference to the metrics or musical modes allegedly used by Sappho." [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
|
2012 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Electro-Anahata |
do-CD |
"Electro-Anâhata' (1986-1994). Fully electro-acoustic version of Anâhata realized on the composer's personal computer from the original electro-acoustic recordings of this work. Electronic music studios where the original Anâhata was produced (1984-86) : Studio of the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music, Amsterdam (1984 and 1986): the entire production (pre-recorded material processing, new material generation, premixing) and all final mixing processes. Tokyo-Gakuso studio, Tokyo (1983): for the Shô and Ô-Shô (traditional mouth organs from Japan) sampling with Mayumi Miyata. Conny's Studio, Neuenkirchen, near Cologne (1984) with Asian Sound and Michael W. Ranta: metal percussion instrument sampling, including Bonshôs (Buddhist temple bells from Japan) sampling. INA-GRM, Paris (1985): pre-recorded material processing. Studio ART, Geneva (1985): pre-recorded material processing and pre-mixing. Studio of Technische Universitt (TU), Berlin (1985-86): pre-recorded material processing, new material production, pre-mixing. CD 1 Metal metamorphoses. Five electro-acoustic works of a contemplative nature. Electro-acoustic parts alone of Âhata-Anâhata (struck sound - unstruck sound) including a new unreleased part. CD 2 The Bird-Mirror in the Magic Forest (a tribute to Paul Klee). Electro-acoustic parts alone of Akshara-Kshara (unchanging-changing). 'The Reed, the Sea and the Stars' (1986-1994). Electro-acoustic parts alone of Nimîlana-Unmîlana (that which awakens - that which slumbers) among which a new unreleased part. Jean-Claude Eloy: 'In the past composers would often arrange or adapt their works themselves, often for practical or economic reasons. Let us take a look at the most prestigious examples Take Wagner: Prelude and Love Death (Tristan and Isolde) is played two different ways. Sometimes the orchestral part alone is played as a concert piece. Other times the voice solo part is added as it is in the original opera (which then becomes the magnificent Liebestod). Such examples could be repeated endlessly among the greatest composers. In the early 1990s I faced a challenging situation: the Japanese Gagaku musicians who had performed my work Anâhata for the first time in 1986 (for the Sigma Festival of Bordeaux and the Autumn Festival in Paris), and had performed it again in 1990 (for the Donaueschingen Festival) were not able to find time in their schedule to accept an important invitation to the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Only the two Buddhist monk singers were able to fit it in. Before that and to complete the Anâhata project and its electro-acoustic parts I had to travel across part of Europe and spend two whole years commuting between Paris and Amsterdam several times, later between Paris and Berlin, then between Paris and Geneva even within Paris, thanks to my friends from the GRM who had kindly let me use their studio for several weeks during night hours. Those were very precious nights for me. During those two years I would always carry boxes of tapes and Betamax or U-Matic cassettes with two PCM Sony and two Betamax cassette decks that I had purchased a little earlier. For the first time I was then able to arrange digital recording sequences and carry out several mixing, recording and reading processes without compromising signal quality. I also had to carry boxes of multitrack bands of all types: the Amsterdam studio was equipped with a two-speed 16-track Studer, the Geneva studio with a three-speed 24- track Otari; the Berlin studio with two 8-track Telefunkens including a variable-speed one." [label info]
|
2013 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Galaxies full-electro |
CD |
" 'Galaxies' (Warsaw version), electro-acoustic alone. Fully electro-acoustic version of Anâhata / Galaxies realized on the composer's personal computer from the original electro-acoustic recordings of this work. Electronic music studios where the original Anâhata / Galaxies were produced (1984-86): Studio of the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music, Amsterdam (1984 and 1986): the entire production (pre-recorded material processing, new material generation, premixing) and all final mixing processes. Tokyo-Gakuso studio, Tokyo (1983): for the Shô and Ô-Shô (traditional mouth organs from Japan) sampling with Mayumi Miyata. Conny's Studio, Neuenkirchen, near Cologne (1984) with Asian Sound and Michael W. Ranta: metal percussion instrument sampling, including Bonshôs (Buddhist temple bells from Japan) sampling. INA-GRM, Paris (1985): pre-recorded material processing. Studio ART, Geneva (1985): pre-recorded material processing and pre-mixing. Studio of Technische Universitt (TU), Berlin (1985-86): pre-recorded material processing, new material production, pre-mixing. Jean-Claude Eloy: 'In 1994 I had (for purely practical reasons) to remove these big electro-acoustic parts making up the two Galaxies works from the piece they were connected with until then: Part III of my Anâhata cycle, entitled Nimîlana-Unmîlana (that which awakens - that which slumbers). An electro-acoustic work integrating instrumental acoustic parts that required the performance of a Shô player from Japan. Those electro-acoustic parts were substantial enough to warrant a new configuration ensuring their stand-alone nature, independent of whether a performer was available or not. Therefore I used (apart from the two Galaxies) a set of particular sounds that I had generated during that production (all of them resulting from Shô sampled sound processing and modulations) entitled sons d'infinitude (sounds of indefiniteness). These sustained sounds were very fixed, quite contemplative, almost motionless or maintained through short fluctuations that were more or less regular. They were five of them altogether. Four of them were grouped together into a consistent set and occurred after the first Galaxy, before the Shô solo. I had used them to compose a sequence called Awakening, which formed the first Shô appearance in the version realized for the Donaueschingen Festival in 1990. The fifth one took place at the end of the second Galaxy and was used to support the conclusion played on the Ô-Shô. In this purely electro-acoustic version the first four sons d'infinitude came quite naturally as a bridge between both Galaxies. The fifth sound kept its conclusive place, making it bigger and using it as a genuine extension sound that could be infinite, with no limit!" [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
L'Anneau des Sept Lumieres |
CD |
"The Ring of the Seven Lights (Metametal, long version) (1994-95 / revision and new master: 2013). Seven continuous variations from a single Bonshô sample (Buddhist temple traditional bell from Japan), a tribute to Inayat and Vilayat Khan. Jean-Claude Eloy: 'I created and partially realized it in 1994-95 during this conversion of Anâhata into an electro-acoustic version alone. I first made a short version out of it which integrated into Electro-Anâhata and became the fourth station within the first part (around Âhata-Anâhata). It was an entirely new part that had never been realized during the final mixing of the original Anâhata cycle." [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Etats-Limites ou les cris de Petra |
CD |
" 'Borderlines or Petra's shouts. Songs for the other half of the sky N°VII' (2013). After some reissues or first edition of old compositions, here's a brand new composition from Jean-Claude Eloy. Made mostly with voice, bells and synthetic sounds this piece works like an electroacoustic lightning. 'A kind of salutary madness." [label info]
"In the early nineties French composer Jean-Claude Eloy worked on a commission for the German radio, and recorded a bunch of female voices, reciting texts by his favourite female German writers and decided he also needed some 'vocal material', like sighing, shouting, rustles, whispers and for that he recorded one afternoon the voice of Petra Meinel-Winkelbach. That recording he kept and was found last year again and used for this piece, 'Borderlines' (which is incidentally also the name of his label, as he's fascinated with borderline individuals), which makes this a very recent piece, as opposed to some of the older pieces he has been releasing in recent times. It lasts almost eighty minutes and at its foundation is the voice material as well as his set of cowbells, all of them from his own collection. Miss Meinel-Winkelbach died a few years ago and this work is in her memory. It's a great work; starting out loud with pitched bell sounds, stretched voice material and then in the
middle it's all very quiet and spooky. Buzzing, sparkling, glissandi, sustaining and broken up: all those ingredients of a fine musique concrete piece are in here. It seems to be always on the move however, never staying any long in a particular place, but something new comes in and changes the form of the piece over and over again. This is one to those pieces, at least, that's how it worked for me best, and to sit back and simply let it roll out, all over you. Don't spend too much time thinking about it; just close your eyes and enjoy." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Le Minuit de la Foi (The Midnight of the Faith) |
do-CD |
" 'Le minuit de la foi' ('The midnight of the faith') (2014) for electronic and concrete sounds, around selected sentences by Edith Stein recorded by German actress Gisela Claudius. New work from Jean-Claude Eloy, a long piece under the power of expanded sounds and sacred words.
'Le minuit de la foi' is a double album, each CD of which forms a stand-alone entity. Each CD can therefore be listened to separetly. However, you do need to listen to the full album for it to become meaningful through its complementary balances, and to grasp its very essence." [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| ELUDER |
Through Horizon |
CD |
"Japanese style mini-lp gatefold sleeve - printed by Stoughton. Features printed inner sleeve. Design by Timothy O'Donnell. Images by NASA. Edition of 400 copies.* For the many things "Through Horizon" does well, diversity is not one of them. For a drone record that isn't the negative that it can be for many other types of music as it allows the musician to focus on and hone a single aesthetic to create a defined and monolithic work. Eluder spends a full hour exploring the intersection of lurching and despondent bass rumblings and the flecks of high end digital distortion that may rise to the surface. At many moments throughout the album "Through Horizon" possesses the restraint of early Eluvium and the shrouded mystery of Seasons (Pre-Din) with a confident, dedicated voice. If you're going to focus on a sole objective for the length of an album you better make the right decision and Eluder undoubtedly does. - Ryan Potts, Experimedia" [label info]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| ELUVIUM |
Similes |
CD |
"Matthew Cooper wurde 2003 zu ELUVIUM und brachte sogleich frischen Wind in eine Ambient Electronic Szene, deren Luft zusehends stickiger geworden war. Beeinflusst von neoklassischen Helden wie Erik Satiey und Philip Glass schmuggelte ELUVIUM emotional mitreißende Melodien ins Auge eines Hurricanes aus Nebel und Fuzz und wurde so eher zufällig zu einem Komponisten, der gern in einem Atemzug mit den Namen seiner Helden genannt wird. Nach "Copia" aus dem Jahr 2007 waren ELUVIUM ein Jahr lang auf Tour unterwegs - oft und gern auf einer Bühne mit den Labelkollegen von EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY. Doch mitten im Jahr 2008 drängte es Cooper in eine neue Richtung. Nach fünf Alben in ebenso vielen Jahren setzte eine gewisse Selbstzufriedenheit ein. Ein Jahr verging, ohne dass ein neues ELUVIUM Album erschien. Tatsächlich vergingen ganze drei Jahre. In der Zeit veröffentlichte Cooper mit "Miniatures" ein Soloalbum, schrieb den Soundtrack zu dem Kinofilm "Some Days Are Better Than Others" und brachte ein Vinyl Boxset heraus, das jedem Hörer den Atem verschlug. Nachdem "Copia" geschrieben und wieder verworfen wurde, wagte Cooper mit "Similes" den kreativen Quantensprung: erstmalig finden sich hier Percussion, eine Songstruktur und Gesang. "Similes" verschmelzt die typische traumartige Aura von ELUVIUM mit dem lakonischen Gesang von Cooper - als ob sich ein extrem grüblerischer Ian Curtis Gedanken über MAGNETIC FIELDS und Brian Eno macht. www.myspace.com/eluviumtaken " [Label info / Cargo]
"The long-awaited follow-up to the acclaimed Copia, ELUVIUM takes a courageous creative leap with Similes, an eight-song album featuring three key musical elements previously uncharted by Eluvium: percussion, a verse-chorus song structure, and singing. For a celebrated experimental musician, it was just about the bravest and scariest direction to go. In this way, Similes is the most truly experimental Eluvium album yet, and also the most accessible. Written, performed and recorded as always by MATTHEW COOPER’s own Watership Sounds studio, Similes marries Eluvium’s trademark dream-like aura with Cooper’s unique, laconic vocals, akin to an especially contemplative Ian Curtis with trace reflections of Magnetic Fields and Brian Eno. It is the most daring—and ultimately most rewarding—work of Eluvium’s impressive and prolific career." [original label info]
www.temporaryresidence.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| EMERGE |
Angle |
mCDR-box |
"ACM 1003: 3“ CD-R in mini DVD-style case
This 17-minute composition contrasts metallic, bell-like sounds reminiscent of classic electronic music of the 1950s and 1960s with deep, grinding bass frequencies with a certain dark-ambient flavour. EMERGE stays true to his compositional principle of not creating synthetic sounds but using only extremely manipulated field recordings from one single source per piece. In this case, recorded sounds of breathing provided the source material.
Throughout the piece, melodic developments struggle to emerge while time and again being contrasted with fragments of small noises. Pauses of almost complete silence also serve a structural role that keeps the sonic process in constant suspense. While the first half of the piece sounds very crisp and transparent, the second half layers more and more bass-heavy sound masses on top of each other, thus invoking the echo of huge rooms and creating the type of brooding atmosphere characteristic of earlier EMERGE releases. But sounds of an increasingly percussive, rhythmic character start to build up a further structural level on top of the bass foundation, so that between the beginning and end of the composition, the roles of the bass and treble sounds are more or less reversed." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
www.myspace.com/attenuationcircuit
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Canvas |
mCDR-box |
"This live performance by EMERGE was given in the context of a painting exhibition and creates a dynamic set ranging from metallic percussion, rumbling drones, and sometimes sursprisingly groovy loops. All sounds are created from sampled noises made by paintbrushes and other painting tools.
The live performance was recorded on the finishing night of the exhibition „hörbar in Farbe“ (‚audible in colour’). The CD accompanying the exhibition, also released by Attenuation Circuit (ACS 1001), contains a studio version of “Canvas”. Although the live improvisation uses sounds from the same source as the studio recording – sounds created by one of the exhibiting painters using brushes, glasses, canvas, cardboard, and other materials –, the two versions are very different in terms of their compositional structure and sonic textures because the samples were treated to a wide range of live manipulations in performance." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"A few weeks ago we had three limited CDs by Attenuation Circuit with handpainted CD bags, now we have a trio of 3"CDR from the label. The first is by Emerge and has a live recording from earlier this year. It was part of an exhibition in which Emerge also took part, and for which they created a studio version of 'Canvas'. On the last night of the exhibition they used the sound sources from 'Canvas' to create a live version. All of the sounds 'are created from sampled noises made by paintbrushes and other painting tools', which is very nice, since I would have never guessed this. It sounds rather like metallic objects being tossed around and played with, almost percussive. Sometimes a bit stuck in a loop, sometimes seemingly more improvised. Nice sort of organic ambient like ritual music but also a bit too long I guess and perhaps that works best only in a live context." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Contrition |
mCDR-box |
"On the two 10-minute pieces that make up this release, EMERGE uses samples from bass guitar (track 1) and prepared electric guitar (track 2) to create reverberating sonic environments that combine his characteristic dark drones with chords and melodic fragments that lend these compositions an unusually warm, acoustic sound.
EMERGE aka Sascha Stadlmeier is the founder and curator of the Attenuation Circuit label. Underlining the label’s collaborative spirit, EMERGE has invited label artists Eazy and Gerhard Zander, with whom he also collaborates in live improvisations (see “Betrachtung”, ACC 1001), to contribute snippets of their playing the bass guitar and prepared electric guitar. While most of EMERGE’s earlier works process their source materials way beyond any possibility of recognition, the two compositions on this disc are markedly different. Not only does the processing sometimes enhance the acoustic, analogue, and rather delicate feel of the source instruments, instead of sculpting the source materials into massive, bass-heavy blocks of sound. What also adds a new dimension to EMERGE’s catalogue of austere, abstract dronescapes is the fact that the two pieces, especially track 2, use a varied palette of seemingly rather referential sounds, conjuring up associations that range from the zoomorphic to the oriental." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"The final release is by Emerge, the project of Sascha Stadlmeier, who is also the man behind the Attentuation Circuit label. Knowing his previous releases, its not a surprise that on this new one he explores the edges of sampling
through the use of a single sound source, in this case the bass guitar (track one) and prepared electric guitar (track two). These new pieces see him move away from his earlier work, going more into a collage like style of sounds,
pieced together into compositions stemming from the world of musique concrete and making connections to the world of people like Marc Behrens or Roel Meelkop. Moving away from the more densely layered works with less variation, into a much richer field of music, at least that's what I think. A major leap forward for
Emerge." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Oneirism |
10inch |
"Two untitled tracks of 12 minutes each make up EMERGE’s first release in the 10” format. Both showcase the “dark ambient” aspects of EMERGE’s work in its purest form to date. “Oneirism” hints to the world of dreams, and while one side can be considered a cinematic rendering of a nightmare set in dark and glacial surroundings, the other is replete with immersive drones that are mysterious yet beautiful in an otherworldly way, literally making this release the dream of every dark ambient fan.
This release is a new departure in EMERGE’s work in various ways. While deep, dark drones have always been an important feature of his compositions, they have always been contrasted with other timbres. Here, EMERGE goes more minimal and more bass-heavy at the same time and lets the deep microtones do all the work of enveloping the listener and sucking him or her into the dream world of the music. The lack of any information on the sound sources used, otherwise meticulously supplied with every EMERGE release, heightens the sense of mystery evoked by the sound itself. Listeners are invited to create their own associations inside their own heads. An intense and beautiful listening experience, not only for dark ambient buffs, but for anyone who is interested in spaced-out, psychedelic kinds of ambient and other electronic music. For EMERGE fans this release is a must, as it is the artist’s third vinyl outing after a 7” on Drone Records, long sold out, and the hand-painted split LP with B°tong on attenuation circuit." [label info]
www.attenuation-circuit.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Desecrate |
mCD-R |
"ACM 1020: 3“ CD-R in mini DVD-style case
Instead of focusing on one single type of sound source as in his previous “musique concrète,” EMERGE creates a warmer, more ‘organic’ imaginary soundscape in this piece, using sound materials as diverse as church organs, electric guitar feedbacks, and field recordings of animal sounds.
EMERGE’s often purist, acousmatic approach of processing sounds to the point where they lose all referentiality to the original instrument or noise they have evolved from, is replaced here by a new approach. You can still tell that organs and natural sounds are involved here, and they all convey a pleasant sense of ‘analogue-ness,’ but it is still impossible to tell what is what. And then again it might just be foghorns of ships passing through the rainforest. A soundscape piece from a landscape experienced as in a dream, half-familiar yet strange." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€6.50 |
|
| EMERGE FEAT. DON VOMP |
Retention |
CD-R |
"The first ever collaboration of drone artist EMERGE and experimental violinist Don Vomp, recorded in 2009 at the lab.30 festival in Augsburg, is a hauntingly intense performance. Evolving from dronescapes into intricate interplay between live and processed violin into the icy caverns of reverbed small sounds, this 45-minute set shows a very good sense of economy and timing.
Effectively a live improvisation, “retention” clearly shows that the artists collaborated closely in preparing their live set. All the sounds created and played by EMERGE are based on the ‘natural’ sound of Don Vomp’s violin. The beauty of the resulting piece is that the soundscape evolves from clearly recognisable (if somewhat layered and pitched, kind of Niblock-style) violin-y timbres to totally alien sounds, alien in the sense of “from outer space.” And as the listener travels along in EMERGE’s spaceship, Vomp’s live violin playing, even if he hardly uses any effects, starts to sound more and more unfamiliar. Making us hear a totally traditional instrument like the violin in an unexpected new way – isn’t that among the best things that experimental music can achieve?
File under: Free improvisation" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2014 |
€6.00 |
|
| EMITER / ARSZYN |
Emiszyn |
CD |
“Silence does not exist and emission lasts!” ist das Credo für diesen dritten Release auf dem noch tau-frischen MONOTYPE Records aus Warschau. EMITER aka Marcin Dymiter zusammen mit Klangkünstler und Schlagzeuger Krzysztof Topolski aka ARSZYN, der auch von der NEFRYT-Reihe bekannt ist. Neun improvisierte Stücke, electronics und handgespielt, feingespielte guitars & percussion... sehr schön und spannend....zwischen fast-Songstrukturiertem und free floating Sounds....
“.... The present project emiter . arszyn . emiszyn is the next part of our cooperation. Duet is the best ever dreamt team for a musical dialogue, free from any formal borders of musical groups. Everything here is made in a completely different way, using electronics. Improvisation, intuition and experiments are tracing the direction of our united displays.
....Musicians improvise electro-acoustic, spatial sounds structures; they do not avoid post noise improvisation or post rock stirring atmosphere.
Dialogues between a percussion and guitar are seasoned with electronic and electro-acoustic searching. The almost ready CD will contain not only electro-acoustic improvisation but also dynamically improvised groove and next to the melody of a guitar computer’s noise that all created on a junction between acoustic and electronic searching of sounds and annotations.” [label info]
www.monotyperecords.com
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| EMMANUEL, J.D. |
Echoes from ancient Caves |
LP |
"Probably one of the most underestimate artist of electronic of the early ‘80, has been lately rediscover. Expert modulator of electronic and natural sounds, with this work Emmanuel seems to recall and reflect exstensively on that poetics of the cyclic and mantric sound investigated by other pioneers as Terry Riley and La Monte Young. The micro-tonal pattners of the compositions are animated by dense and minimum pulses that amplify the hypnotic and meditative dimension and can be coloured by tibetan suggestions or guitar glissandi of nocturnal taste. In this way the "Echoes from ancient caves", originally appeared only on tape in 1981, is ideally connected to the previous experimentations of "Rain Forest Music (1981) and Wizards (1982).
500 copies on black vinyl + download link for digital edition." [label info]
www.blacksweatrecords.com
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| EMME YA |
Atavistic Dreams & Phallic Totems |
CD |
"40 minutes of dense astral emanations and magickal paradigms transmitted through the ritual mantras generated by Emme Ya. Emme Ya’s ‘Atavistic Dreams & Phallic Totems’ is based on the mysterious African Dogon tribe and their secret oral tradition. In the 1930s two anthropologists gained their trust enough to be told these remarkable secrets. The Dogon seemed to possess advanced astronomical knowledge beyond their means, without any instruments. They revealed that the star Sirius was orbited by the ‘smallest and heaviest of all stars’ and drew its elliptical orbit, which spans 50 years. This white dwarf (Sirius B) is so invisible that the first image was only obtained by scientists in 1970. But the Dogon also told of a third star in the system named Emme Ya (now Sirius C). This was only discovered in 1995 and only with the use of advanced infrared imaging. The Dogon say that their information was given to their ancestors through contact with beings from the star system of Sirius, calling these beings Nommos or ‘the monitors of the universe’." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Next album moves into others sound spheres but sticks to the atmosphere of utter darkness.
Behind the project Emme Ya you find columbian artist Edgar Kerval. Present album titled "Atavistic dreams & phallic totems" moves in territories of ritual music and dark ambient, not too far away from early Coil or early Lustmord. The album is a tribute to the mysterious african dogon tribe and their secret oral tradition. The music on the album is deep and intense ritual ambient music. Listen in a dark room!" [NM, Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Beyond the Secret Flame (The Aiwass Manifesto) |
CD |
"Emme Ya’s “Beyond The Secret Flame” is a voyage to inner trascendence beyond nothingness, based on the three chapters of Liber Al Vel Legis sub figura CCXX, in which is revealed through diverse audial soundcapes and atmospheres, the revelations of Aiwass in Cairo, Egypt. when dictating the Book of law. The three chapters converge in its own enigmatic message dressed through codified phrases and symbolic structures. The whole album is a dedication not to the Scribe (A.Crowley) but, to a such vast entity known as Aiwass-shaitan and the totality of experience beyond the complex current 93 and The thlemic trinity.
Ritual ambient soundscapes combined with some tribal influences and completed by spoken words from Crowley's The Book of the Law." [label info]
www.mercuriuscollective.org
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Ophidian Fetish Mandala |
CD |
"EMME YA "Ophidian Fetish Mandala" is 5 tracks totaling over 45 minutes. It is accompanied by 5 sigil cards representing each track. Again I am left amazed by Edgar's ability to compose works that are so deep and captivating to the listener. Emme Ya goes beyond the formal composition of music. It is through a deep process of spiritual transcendence, ritual and meditation that the music is created. "Ophidian Fetish Mandala" is a work that reflects a great dedication to that process leading the music to the forefront of the darker genres of music..." [label info]
www.nvagant.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| EMPUSAE |
Geesten |
7 |
Techno Noir, durchaus tanzbar, aber mit ungewöhnlichen Sounds & Ambient-Passagen versehen.... Schweres Vinyl und dickes Booklet-Cover mit Zeichnungen...
“Geesten is an exorcism on vinyl by the belgian artist Empusae, who releases his ghosts by banging the electronic drums. Hypnotic constructions, deconstructions and reconstructions for the intelligent dancer.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€7.50 |
|
| EN |
op.10218 v1.2 |
CD |
"Das Lissaboner Label SIRR Records entwickelt sich zu einer guten Adresse für abstrakte, minimale Geräusch-Neutöner. Hinter EN verbirgt sich Pal Toth aus Budapest, der schon lange Jahre Radiosendungen macht und hier mit einem Konzept arbeitet, daß an ACHIM WOLLSCHEID erinnert, dabei aber weitaus isolationistischer und minimaler klingt..." [Drone Rec.info 2003]
“Pal Toth alias én is a Hungarian sound artist and radio producer, living in Budapest. In the frame of his radio programme, we can regularly hear what he calls "ether concerts", compositions made to the medium itself and comprising an improvised (real-time) method of editing, Pal Toth confronts the listener with an evolving sense of time and duration that transcend questions of musical form to focus in the idea of shape, in the potentialities of a sound representation as stream of consciousness.” [press release]
“... On the air he edits his works, removing and erasing sounds and bare, naked sound residue remains. Entirely along the lines of Roel Meelkop, Bernard Gunther or Richard Chartier, with this exception that Pal Toth has a more bleak and empty sounding music. Hums from various sources, occassionally time stretched are interwoven and some vague metallic rumbling are the main sources. It remains at all times distant and cold... “ [Vital Weekly]
www.sirr-ecords.com |
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| EN NIHIL |
The approaching Dark |
CD |
"The sound of ongoing apocalypse. Mixing extemporaneous noise bursts with solid dark ambient structures and menacing death industrial, US legendary EN NIHIL return with a brand new album. And what a come-back it is. The humans have left the earth. The universe is collapsing, and this is the sound of its death......" [label info]
www.eibonrecords.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ENCOMIAST |
Malpais |
mCDR |
"founded in 1999, encomiast is now the solo project of us sound artist ross hagen. a handful of beautiful releases were issued through various labels such as lens records, gears of sand, mystery sea or crucial bliss. "malpais" is a single long piece derived from an old folk song from an archival collection ross was working with a few years ago. it uses a lot of other pieces from that collection as source material throughout. expect layers of slowly evolving drones..." [label info]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| ENCOMIAST / THE COPPER THIEVES |
139 Nevada |
do-CDR-box |
"In 2004, a group of musicians and curiosity-seekers went to the Belvidere Theatre in Central City, CO because it was rumored to be one of the most haunted buildings in the state. Our initial goal was to attempt to record Electromagnetic Voice Phenomena, but the project eventually took on a much different cast. We never succeeded in capturing any ghostly voices, but we reassembled the recordings into new compositions that captured the haunted spaciousness of the theatre.
That’s where 139 Nevada began
We returned to record in the theatre two more times while making these two records. Even if the spirits never raised their voices, we hope they were entertained by our presence.
139 Nevada consists of two discs - Encomiast ‘s “Masked Mirror” and "Slam Your Doors In Golden Silence" by The Copper Thieves, a coalition including members of Encomiast and the group Mandible Chatter. Both collections mine the rich sonic bed of the Belvidere Theatre - located at 139 Nevada, Central City, CO - but each one takes its own clear path.
Limited to only 200 copies, 139 Nevada is a double CDR release containing two discs in sleeves, with two insert postcards packaged in a textured cardboard box.
Packaging: Textured box w/Two Pro CDR's and two insert postcards
Release Date: June 23, 2009
Running Time: Disc 1 - 57:12, Disc 2 - 44:40 " [full label website info]
www.lensrecords.com
"Eine geheimnisvolle Veröffentlichung in einer schmucken kleinen Pappschachtel mit zwei CDRs und zwei Postkärtchen, denen wir folgende Geschichte entnehmen können. Die Projekte Ecomiast & The Copper Thieves (fast personell identisch) erhielten Zugang zu einem verfallenen Provinztheater in einem kleinen Städtchen. Von dem Theatergebäude hieß es, dass hier Geister hausen würden. Die Musiker machten mit diversen Gästen Aufnahmen vor allem am Klavier im verlassenen Geisterauditorium und bearbeiteten diese Aufnahmen im Studio. Sie kehrten zwei Mal an den Ort des Geschehens zurück und fanden es irgendwie unheimlich aber auch spannend. Den Hörer erwarten zerpflückte und hallige Pianotupfer, manchmal kammerpoppig verdichtete Arrangements und viel verwaschene Atmosphärik. Der ganze Release wirkt irgendwie literarisch, wir können dies auch nicht näher begründen. Es bleibt etwas unwirkliches an den Klängen haften, obwohl sie nur milde experimentell sind." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| ENGEL, CLARA |
Tender |
LP |
"Backwards is proud to present the new album by Clara Engel, the Canadian musician with the warm and dreamy voice, also known for the intimate and melancholy character of her compositions, heartfelt and passionate. "Tender" is a sort of manifesto of Clara's way to conceive music: her songwriting is intense and fraught with emotions of the broadest range; her melting lyrics bring us back to the "poetry in music" by artists as Jacques Brel or contemporary balladeer Antony Hegarty. Listening to the eight tracks of "Tender", you have the impression that the only voice of Clara is enough to declaim her inner world: the arrangements, deliberately meager and never baroque, they just represent an added value, a "white outfit" equally suggestive of her compositional, artistic and vocal skills. Moving from visionary atmospheres à la David Lynch to raging blues of the Mississipi Delta, till gloomy sceneries that seem to come from Nick Cave's pen, Clara can combine Chrissie Hynde, Howlin' Wolf and Diamanda Galas into a single artistic creature." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| ENGLISH, LAWRENCE |
Lonely Womens Club |
LP |
"Beautiful new work from Lawrence English. Pressed in an edition of 500 copies. Lawrence English is composer, media artist and curator based in Australia.
Working across an eclectic array of aesthetic investigations, English's work prompts questions of field, perception and memory.
English utilises a variety of approaches including live performance and installation to create works that ponder subtle transformations of space and ask audiences to become aware of that which exists at the edge of perception.
Over the past decade, English's sonic investigations have traversed a divergent path through which musical languages and environmental sources are granted equal focus.
His work calls into question the established relationships of sound and structure. English's sound work is evocative and invites the listener to explore their own narratives and impressions informed by personal histories and experiences.
Published widely on respected imprints including Touch, 12K and Winds Measure, English's work is sculpted and overwhelmingly intricate.
As a producer, English has completed numerous projects with artists including Tujiko Noriko (U, Blurred In My Mirror), Ben Frost (Theory Of Machines) and Tenniscoats (Totemo Aimasho, Temporacha).
He has also completed commissioned compositions for acclaimed performance troupe Circa and other contemporary dance ensembles and has worked as a sound designer on video installations in collaboration with artists including Australian visualist Craig Walsh.
His music has also been used in a number of films including a commission from Makino Takashi to create a composition for The Low Storm in 2009." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Cruel Optimism |
LP |
"Cruel Optimism is a record that considers power (present and absent). It meditates on how power consumes, augments and ultimately shapes two subsequent human conditions: obsession and fragility. This pyramid is an affective ecology of the (ever)present moment.
This edition owes its title and its origins to the wonderful text of the same name by American theorist Lauren Berlant. I had the fortune to come across her writing almost a half-decade ago. In Cruel Optimism, I found a number of critical readings around the issues that have fuelled so much of the music I have been making recently. Beyond her keen analysis of the relations of attachment as they pertain to conditions of possibility in the everyday, it was particularly her writing around trauma I found deeply affecting. It was a jumping off point from which a plague of unsettling impressions of suffering, intolerance and ignorance could be unpacked and utilised as fuel over and above pointless frustration.
When I made Wilderness Of Mirrors, clouds of unease were overhead. As I have worked through Cruel Optimism, what seemed an unimaginable future just a few years prior, began to present as actual. Over the course of creating the record, we collectively bore witness to a new wave of humanitarian and refugee crisis (captured so succinctly in the photograph of Alan Kurdi’s tiny body motionless on the shore), the black lives matter movement, the widespread use of sonic weapons on civilians, increased drone strikes in Waziristan, Syria and elsewhere, and record low numbers of voting around Brexit and the US election cycle, suggesting a wider sense of disillusionment and powerlessness. Acutely for me and other Australians, we've faced dire intolerance concerning race and continued inequalities related to gender and sexuality. The storm has broken and feels utterly visceral.
Cruel Optimism is a meditation on these challenges and an encouragement to press forward towards more profound futures.
Beyond the motivations forging the record, the process by which this edition was created was unlike many of my other records. Having worked largely alone in recent years, I wanted to shift away from that approach. I wanted the opportunity for exchange, to trial new ideas in various spaces and to find myself surprised by the perspectives of others. It was this desire that led me to reach out to friends, old and new, and invite them to contribute to Cruel Optimism. It also led to me using a range of studio spaces to explore new techniques, informed by what I had learned taking Wilderness Of Mirrors on the road for the better part of two years.
I count myself exceptionally fortunate to have been able to call on so many fine musicians in the making of this album. Some of these collaborations were at the foetal stages, acting as important catalysts. Specifically, contributions from Mats Gustafsson, Mary Rapp and Tony Buck were important during this period. Some contributed from afar, including Chris Abrahams and Werner Dafeldecker, who both responded so very kindly to my cryptic notes and hopelessly poetic evocations. Some artists came to visit here in Brisbane such as Norman Westberg, Brodie McAllister, Australian Voices, Vanessa Tomlinson and Heinz Riegler. Others, such as Thor Harris, kindly invited me into their homes to work together. The richness of experience afforded to me during the making of Cruel Optimism is difficult to summarise. It was ultimately a truly rare pleasure to have these exchanges.
I leave it to you then, to listen as you can. This record is one of protest against the immediate threat of abhorrent possible futures. It’s an object of projection, from me to you and onward from there. I couldn’t be more pleased to share Cruel Optimism with you." [label info]
"This record is one of protest against the immediate threat of abhorrent possible futures."
I open the glass door of my bookcase and run my finger along the spines. All these words, written ago, from one mind to another. What does this all really contain if not the essence of another person's life? Perhaps a historical recount, or a scientific principle, or a story wrapped around a thought, philosophy, or an idea. What do all these people want to really say? Is there a warning in between the pages, a lesson for the generations, sent into the future through the might of words? I turn towards the records on my shelves and think the same. Perhaps not certitude or fact, but certainly their own reality, their truth, and their emotions are being locked inside those grooves, awaiting one more magic spin to sing and be alive. This is why music stands in time, outside of dates, and schedules, and agenda. A great record will always simply be.
And then sometimes the books and music come together...
All this rumination and one must wonder if it's simply not a pretext to an album I have sat on for so long. In fact, Cruel Optimism has been on rotation for nearly nine months now, slowly appearing and then disappearing again, awaiting proper time to share its point, only to be put away again, for yet another slice in time. It's possible that consuming this latest opus by Lawrence English requires a specific state of mind, a bit unease and agitation, some mortal metaphysical discomfort with a dash of existentialism and reflection. It's not a truly dark experience per se, but it's certainly not sunny waves and roses. The ominous sound of this album at times conveys a sense of an electric shock, mixed with a wall of noise, and joy of drone, and pain of silence. The oversaturated frequencies slam like a jet-fueled engine in your brain and send you flying through the haze of obtuse worlds, compact in time and dense in sound.
And then there is the concept...
Cruel Optimism is a record that considers power (present and absent). It meditates on how power consumes, augments and ultimately shapes two subsequent human conditions: obsession and fragility. This pyramid is an affective ecology of the (ever)present moment [...] Cruel Optimism is a meditation on these challenges and an encouragement to press forward towards more profound futures." -Lawrence English
Lawrence English has been known to draw inspiration from books. Back in 2011, he released The Peregrine which was driven by a book by J.A. Baker. Now, this Australian experimental composer, and owner of the magnificent Room40 label, extracts a seed of thought from a text by the same name by American theorist Lauren Berlant. Based on the rise of the unstable geopolitical landscape, the music of Cruel Optimism is a reflection of a modern world, in all its furious, distressed, and wrathful glory. Where self-destruction is no longer just a horrid dream, physical catastrophes and spiritual implosions are just around the corner. Just take a look around (but don't turn on TV) and witness the inflicted war on (human) nature - there is no need for extra words.
Cruel Optimism is not exactly a solo record either. Having mostly worked alone in his past years, this latest album sees English invite a few of his friends for the collaboration and try out new ideas in various recording spaces, exploring new techniques in a somewhat bidirectional exchange of musical conception. Here we are introduced to Mats Gustafsson, Mary Rapp, Tony Buck, Thor Harris, Norman Westberg, Heinz Reigler, and Chris Abrahams among the many. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact contributions of these musicians (I hold on to a separate credits sheet just for that), but then again, you shouldn't try and peel apart this piece, instead just let it hit you straight out of your emotionally suppressed hibernation if you haven't been already wide awake." [Headphone Commute]
|
2017 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
Observation of Breath |
LP |
Do you remember the last time you were breathing consciously? Either way, you are likely doing it now. On his new album »Observation of Breath« for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label, Lawrence English worked exclusively with an organ for four compositions that are exercises in »maximal minimalism,« as their creator himself notes in a nod to Charlemagne Palestine, who coined this term. While it seems somewhat fitting that those four pieces based on a steady flow of air were conceived and recorded in a situation of accelerated standstill caused by a respiratory disease, the Room40 founder is not so much concerned with capturing the zeitgeist than rather incorporating the spirit of time itself. »It is a record about presence and patience,« he explains. Exploring the unique sonic affordances of a singular instrument, »Observation of Breath« is not only devoted to the durability of sound but also to its density. That it marks his debut on Hallow Ground after having shaped its sound by mastering most of the label’s releases in recent years is just as fitting then as its release following albums by Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA, whose innovative work with organ instruments have facilitated a rediscovery of their possibilities.
English’s compositions however are neither directly indebted nor responding to these musicians. His exploration of the organ’s many facets started a decade ago when the composer was given access to an instrument built in 1889 that is presently housed at The Old Museum in Brisbane. After it had already played a crucial role on his seminal albums »Wilderness Of Mirrors« and »Cruel Optimism,« last year’s self-released »Lassitude« was the first record that English entirely composed and recorded with that instrument. »During the soft lockdowns, I spent many days playing to an empty concert hall, recording the pieces that became ›Lassitude‹ and then, this album,« says English in regards to an unfortunate situation that fortunately provided him with time and space—two major themes but also key qualities of the four new compositions. In this sense, he goes on, »Observation of Breath« resolves a number of the questions originally raised by »Lassitude.«
»The organ is an exercise in the observation of breath,« English explains the album’s title. »It is a physical breath, one that manifests both audible and inaudible waves of vibrations. The sheer scale of the instrument, its weight and the physical length of the pipes involved in producing the sounds we experience is nothing short of mind-boggling.« More importantly, the sound artist is fascinated by the organ’s ability to produce frequencies that exist at the sensory limits of human awareness—it’s at the edges of these limits that fascination can be found, he argues. »The particular organ that I work with comprises four manuals and 45 speaking stops and it has a tubular-pneumatic action,« he explains. »It’s the stops that are the focus of my interest. They are very specific and when manipulated in certain ways and in certain combinations, create a unique set of unsteady timbres that make it a remarkably intoxicating instrument to collaborate with.«
Collaboration is indeed the key word here. The pieces of »Observation of Breath« were recorded in one take in recognition of the co-existence and co-dependence of the human body and mind when brought in unison while working with such a complex instrument. The end results are thus not only marked by longevity but also gripping dynamics. While the six minute-long »A Binding« and the album’s title track explore the sonic qualities of different frequency spectra with long sustained drones, opener »A Torso« and the aptly titled »And a Twist,« only two minutes and 42 seconds long, work with rhythmic elements that create intense moments of structural instability. »The music's power lies in its density, in the stacking of exhales all breathing in unison and then, at some point, failing to breathe further,« says English. »In these moments a wavering unsteadiness of tone arrives with an elegant uncertainty.« It is precisely this quality that makes »Observation of Breath« such a masterful exploration of the multifold relationships between space and time as well as the body and the mind—it’s a conscious meditation on unconscious processes.
https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/lawrence-english-observation-of-breath
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
| ENGLISH, LAWRENCE & STEPHEN VITIELLO |
Fable |
CD |
"Lawrence English and Stephen Vitiello are creators of mythology. Their mythology renders a series of acoustic spaces, haunted by narrative and hinting at happenings unseen, but certainly heard.
With Fable, we are presented with their second duet. It chronicles three years of intermittent audio communications in search of new collaborative approaches. The results focus on the pair’s joint interests in modular synthesis, field recordings and the blurry boundaries between acoustic instrumentation and electronics. The album’s multiplicity of sources creates a weaving and at times overwhelming collage of materials that coalesce with considered intent. Its palette, whilst diverse remains focused and as the album progresses themes of arrhythmic percussion, electronic-like field recording, prepared piano and vintage synthesis begin to take form.
Like the photography of the cover, these musical pieces bare witness to time, they exist in the moment, but are formed outside of a sense of singularity. Their textured qualities and intricate variations are evidence of an iterative production methodology that invites a depth of listening. A pondering and the intended goal that one may hear or even see their own internal spaces, haunted by a cast of sonic characters." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| ENKIDU |
Live in Kyoto |
do-LP |
Mitschnitt eines Konzertes dieses Projekts mit der TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS-Legende CHIE MUKAI vom 12. Mai 2004, die in Kyoto mit SEIICHI YAMAMOTO (Gitarre, Electronics, Percussion) und ERIC CORDIER (Hurdy-Gurdy, Electronics) zusammentraf. Zu hören gibt lebendige Drone-Improvisationen mit surrealem & expressivem Flair; das ganze kommt im Siebdruck-Cover, limitiert auf 525 Exemplare.
"Enkidu is the mythical Japanese psychedelic noise project of legendary performers Chie Mukai (Taj Mahal Travelers, Che-SHIZU, East Bionic Symphonia, Dadnur), Eric Cordier & Seichi Yamamoto (the Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba, Rashinban, Ontoko). Over four bruised side-long cuts, Live in Kyoto faithfully captures the intensity of one particularly eviscerating evening of ritualized self expression at Kyoto's Tanq space in 2004. This is liminal ecstatic drone, clatter & relentless sound bursts with a rough-around-the-edges vibe that maintains a loose kinetic debt to everything from La Monte Young & the Theater of Eternal Music to Keiji Haino, AMM & Fushitsusha. Hand-numbered edition of 525, 2 X 180 gram vinyl housed in a black silkscreened bottom-folded heavy jacket. Chie Mukai (kokyu, electronics, voice, percussion & dance) Seiichi Yamamoto (guitar & electronics & percussions) Eric Cordier (hurdy-gurdy & electronics)." [label info]
label: www.locustmusic.com
|
2007 |
€22.00 |
|
| ENO / MOEBIUS / ROEDELIUS |
After the Heat |
CD |
"Das Treffen der drei Ambient-Erfinder, dokumentiert auf zwei legendären Alben.
Brian Eno hat den Begriff Ambient Music geprägt und berühmt gemacht - die Musik aber hat er nicht allein erfunden. Brüder im Geiste waren die deutschen Musiker Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Dieter Moebius (Cluster). Es ist müßig, darüber zu spekulieren, wer wen beeinflusst hat, die Idee der Ambient-Musik lag Mitte der 70er-Jahre einfach in der Luft. Fakt ist, dass Brian Eno 1975 ein Konzert von Cluster in Hamburg besuchte. Er stellte sich strategisch günstig in die erste Reihe, und erwartungsgemäß bat man ihn zu einem Jam auf die Bühne. Nach dem Konzert verabredete man ein Treffen, das dann 1977 stattfand. Drei Wochen lang waren Eno und Cluster im Studio von Conny Plank. Zwei Alben entstanden daraus: "Cluster & Eno" sowie "After The Heat". Ersteres ist ohne Übertreibung das erste in Deutschland produzierte Ambient-Album. "After The Heat" ist jedoch etwas völlig anderes. Während auf "Cluster & Eno" die Handschrift von Cluster zu lesen ist (und Enos Ambient-Konzept die Hand führt), ist "After The Heat" eher ein Eno-Album mit den Stilmerkmalen der Cluster-Musik." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| ENO, BRIAN |
Music for Installations |
6 x CD BOX |
Though containing music that goes back to 1985, Music For Installations is hardly a retrospective in any traditional sense. It’s more a whimsical line connecting ideas in Eno's own personal Long Now.
Not long after Brian Eno coined the term “ambient music” in the late 1970s, he generated another Eno-ism with an extended lifespan, one with an appropriately slower dissemination.”I want to be living in a Big Here and a Long Now,” the producer wrote in a notebook. He thought of his then-recent recordings as sound “suspended in an eternal present tense.” Perhaps unconsciously channeling Baba Ram Dass's brand/mantra, Be Here Now, the always-conceptual Eno began to expand his sense of scale. Two decades ago, Eno helped start the Long Now Foundation, working to connect the present moment to the far-extended arc of human history. One project was the 10,000 Year Clock, for which he created patterns for the clock's chimes, each to be rung once and never repeated.
By the mid-’90s, the period representing the general starting point of the six-disc Music for Installations, Eno's “ambient” work had largely fallen under the subtly different rubric “generative” (that is, music that is created according to a system of algorithms, only partly under its maker’s control). Each piece here represents its own individual slice of one possible Long Now, with Eno providing the finely considered coordinates so that the music itself can run infinitely, changing into new patterns like a river or an ocean. Grown from mid-’80s experiments with four tape recorders looping cassettes of differing lengths, Music for Installations contains what are essentially field recordings from a series of different environments, each its own universe. Filled with gorgeous washes of bells and drones and unidentifiable luminous shimmers, deep vibrations moving across widescreen stereo fields, one might imagine them all as separate galleries and vestibules in a vast museum, each filled with light and sound, running constantly as night and day change outside and the seasons pass. Though Music for Installations contains sound created for specific situations and places, as a box set, it might be used to step outside of time.
Of course, a streaming service might still label all of the above as “ambient,” part of the new chill-out economy seemingly driving Spotify to its own kind of generative musak. But what Music for Installations proves beyond a doubt is that, to paraphrase Chevy Chase, he's Brian Eno and they're not. Though containing music that goes back as far as 1985 (”Five Light Paintings”), Music For Installations is hardly a retrospective in any traditional sense. It’s more a whimsical line connecting ideas in Eno's own personal Long Now.
Eno is everywhere and nowhere in this music, much of it not so much performed by him as willed into existence, like a character from a science fiction novel who dreams in sound. On several of the longest pieces, such as the 44-minute 77 Million Paintings, low rolling notes played sparsely at long intervals seem to indicate melodies unfolding too slowly for immediate comprehension, perhaps even direct continuations of the similar motifs from 1978's Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Released in DVD editions in 2006 and 2007, 77 Million Paintings constitutes the audio accompaniment of a generative video program Eno created. As he recounts in the liner notes, when he first set it up, he began to document individual frames of it with a still camera, shooting off some 800 pictures before surrendering to the ephemerality. The feeling of listening to Music for Installations is often similar. Its pieces are beautiful and always different, and yet always the same, generic without losing character.
Much of it is resolutely not chill-out music. The nearly 40-minute piece “I Dormienti” is filled with a ceaseless moving richness that's hard to reconcile with the idea of machine creation. High-frequency electronic tones and clusters of upper register piano notes flutter between percussive samples of vocalist Kyoko Inatome, amid other layers. Composed for a joint installation with the sculptor Mimmo Paladino in the subterranean space beneath London's Roundhouse, the music is perhaps more suited for the kind of contemplation that goes along with quietly freaking the fuck out, an accompaniment to Paladino's haunted work as it was seen in the darkroom, pieces displayed on the floor like strange creatures preserved after a Pompeii-like disaster.
The set's final two discs don't actually contain music for installations, except in ever more conceptual ways. Making Spaces was a CD sold at installations, and little of it feels generative in composition or structure, though the liner notes don't clarify. In the context of the box set, it feels not only like a separate, hidden Eno album of its own, but a brilliant one, demonstrating that Eno is still perfectly capable of seizing the means of production. The nine pieces feel less like spaces and more like the objects inside, sculptures with distinct shapes and boundaries and artistic intentions. The unearthly “New Moons” features a sparsely strummed guitar part with defined chords (and even a bridge), aglow from start to finish, perhaps one haunted vocal away from fitting perfectly onto the song-based album some strata of Eno fans always want dearly. “All the Stars Were Out” contains a background flutter that could equally be the sound of crickets or the flicker of a film projector, but is just one more expressive tone carved out by Brian Eno. Each of the tracks contains its own inventions and deployment of color-forms or unexpected tonal voices or structural turns.
The set-concluding Music for Future Installations, meanwhile, is perhaps the box's cheekiest conceit, music for new places, new situations that haven't yet happened.”I often find it helpful to have an alibi for making a piece of music,” he observes, and the seven discs of Music for Installations might serve many contexts. Music For Airports was never for airports (though it certainly is capable of providing calm inside one), and the function of Music for Installations is wherever the listener might like to install it, less about the purpose of the music and more about the listener's desired level of engagement. But no matter what level of engagement one chooses, Eno will be there, too.
The set's 60-page liner notes are filled with documentation, though it's sometimes unclear which recordings correspond to which installations, if any. More, though, it acts as a Little Red Book of Eno-isms, where he lays out one deeply awesome hot take after another.”I thought of television as a light source rather than a narrative source,” he writes about his video installations, “at that time the most controllable light source that had ever been invented.” (I… had never thought of it like that.) No matter how vibed-out the music may get, there is always the sense of a voice and mind behind it. Even when trying to abdicate the order and arrangement of the notes being played, Eno's control over sound remains at a practically spiritual level. “Eno is God,” ran the early ’80s graffiti, and depending on how you define his domain it might still be true, manifesting in the smallest of breezes and the tiniest of bleeps.
|
2018 |
€55.00 |
|
| ENSEMBLE PEARL |
same |
CD |
"Cosmic heavy amplified rock drops and ripples, auras radiate and expand into cloudforms, through which lightning bolts. Tides rise, the moons wax upon a place somewhere between Link Wray, Hex-era Earth and early Tangerine Dream. The echoes return, leaving a trail that blows and drifts, creating a separate piece. The metal of coils is the metal of the earth, the air... the meteoric and primal elements found in space. ENSEMBLE PEARL reaches through the clouds and atmospheres and brings it all back down to the ground, to forge further creations for woman and man. This music production is inspired by rock from the classic era (’50s through ‘70s) and acousmatic contemporary composition alike. Ensemble Pearl are ATSUO, WILLIAM HERZOG, MICHIO KURIHARA and STEPHEN O’MALLEY. Their debut album also features the elemental forces of EYVIND KANG and TIMBA HARRIS. These players have all moved air and earth in many other projects and can create monolith and river alike on their own—but for Ensemble Pearl they give and take, knowing and understanding each other’s strengths and lack of weakness. Rather than blast sheets of air-filling sound, their contributions float the space with positive and negative dynamics. There are no borders being patrolled, allowing Ensemble Pearl to move from place to place unhindered. Over the course of six sides of music (and four sides of vinyl) they ride the jet stream as the world revolves slowly below, static almost, shimmering imperceptibly, mostly water. In and amongst the sprays of foam, there’s a wash of twin-lead psych-proggery, a raft of tribal-beat sun worship, a passing rumble of neck-stretching, some delicate noiseblowing, a bit of float-and-drone and finally, a majestic drift into the deep waters of dub atmosphere. From these heavy vibration masters, with their ear-shattering antecedents, these are new horizons, first dreamed of, then visited and played upon." [label info]
www.dragcity.com |
2013 |
€15.50 |
|
| ENSEMBLE SP |
Boutique de pensee magique |
CD-R |
This highly atmospheric lithuanian experimental project with five new tracks between surrealistic obscureness and strange beauty, loops - field recordings – odd sounds, very lovely.
“ENSEMBLE SP (aka SALIkaPALIKAU) comes with another album, as usually - electro-acoustic reflections and synthesized drone stuff. “boutique de pensee magique” contains some field recordings, droning vibrations, electro-acoustic lapse, environmental eclectics. one piece is done with collaboration with other lithuanian sound artist GIRNU GIESMES.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€9.50 |
|
| ENTRE VIFS |
No Signal |
CD-BOX |
"We are proud to present the new material from this respected French noise/bruitiste project. Limited edition of 200 hand-numbered copies on CD in metal boxes including 16-page booklet. European noise industrial at its best!" [label info]
https://thecatcherinnoise.wordpress.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| ENTRELACS |
Cynorrodhon (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
ENTRELACS ist das neue Projekt von YANNICK DAUBY und MICHAEL NORTHAM, auf dieser Single präsentieren sie detailreiche, hochfrequente mikro-drones..
“Originally our label wanted to present YANNICK DAUBY’s solo work, knowing him from some fabulous field-recordings (unfortunately most of them are still unreleased), he came up with a new project he has put together with “organic-drone-master ” MICHAEL NORTHAM, known from several beautiful installations and field-recording releases. Both are present in their new project going under the name of ENTRELACS. Here they enchant us with live improvisation of high-frequency drones & overtones, some concrete microscopic sound-objects as well as a rumbling appearing from time to time. It’s like millions of small sounds condensed together here... very rich in details. The B-Side is more challenging with a much stranger and darker atmosphere using sharp & sawing clear sounds. Somehow this music seems to reveal no “outer” or “objective” rhythm but rather the ‘inner-essence’ of nature itself. The title of this record ‘Cynorrodhon’ is the name of a plant also named "Rosier des chiens" in French. It develops “delicate flowers in spring time, red fruit in autumn and bears spines the whole year.” (Yannick Dauby) Filed under: organic micro/macro-drones.
CLEAR VINYL. BEAUTIFUL PRINTED COVERS WITH PICTURE OF CYNORRODHON. EACH COPY HAS A STAMPED DRONE SUN & AN HANDWRITTEN CATALOGUE-NUMBER.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Underleaf |
CD |
"Erste Veröffentlichung des Projekts von YANNICK DAUBY und MICHAEL NORTHAM: magischer Konkretismus von flüsternden Blättern und Ästen, die sich mit sanften Gong-Drones und Metallrauschen verknüpfen." [old Drone Rec. info]
"A project that was formed by Michael Northam & Yannick Dauby in 2003 and put out only 2 releases: "Underleaf" CDR on Italian label S'agita Recordings and "Cynorrodhon" 7" single on Drone Records. This CD is a reissue of "Underleaf". Sound sources are a walk along a fallen tree in Corbet, Oregon and a conversation with found objects in Paris, France." [label info]
www.semperflorens.net
"Entrelacs is the sporadically operational collaboration between longtime aQ fave eco-dronologist Michael Northam and phonographer Yannick Dauby, as Northam is perpetually wandering back and forth between North America and Europe, and with Dauby residing in Taiwan. These recordings actually date back to 2003, made "along a fallen tree in Courbet, Oregon and [at] a conversation with found objects in Paris." The Entrelacs project begins with the collection of found objects, continues through the manifestation of tactile sounds from those objects aided by some use of digital manipulation, and concludes when the objects are returned from where they were found. This lends itself well to the discovery of previously unknown sounds in new regions, especially when these two would perform live. On their website, they site an impressive array of atypical sound making devices that would give Matmos more than a few good ideas for their electro-acoustic madness. Amplified chimney sweeps, bowed escargot, obsidian shards, dried chardons, and needles piercing leaves are just a few of the more interesting ones. We're very curious to know where those bowed snails are in the mix! Underleaf unfurls slowly through a slow crunching of organic materials occasionally jolted with the sharp tinkling of what must be those obsidian fragments. Aggregated masses of those textures blossom throughout the 49 minute track in blurry drones that settle in the background of those tactile sounds, eventually giving way to a bowed metal chorale near the 30 minute mark that has all the right Organum / Andrew Chalk references." [Aquarius Records SF]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| EQUIMANTHORN |
A Fifth Conjuration |
CD |
"Most are bewildered and some have protested concerning the esotericism of Equimanthorn, Presuming our extraneous song titles and writings to be no more than mysterious obliquity. While sensible to its creators, our writings have long been misunderstood or simply unintelligible to most. "A Fifth Conjuration" transcends any mystical balderdash with a decisive and intentional approach: realigning the senses with their most natural state in the nervous system through the aid of sound. In this, our Fifth Conjuration, you will engage a journey of the slight and subtle. Where the senses may become aware of the silence from which sounds emerge and the spaciousness that resides between thought and stillness.
"When the seventh day arrived..." Dalkhu Zilittu 2011
These recorded efforts should only be listened to under the influence of candlelight." [label info]
zazensounds.bandcamp.com
"Though originally formed as a side-project of occult extreme metal band, Absu, the constantly (r)evolving lineup of Equimanthorn has established itself as its own entity with its own dimensional chaos. This fifth full-length release shows these musickal magicians constantly refining their sound, but staying true to the original ideas behind the band.
Far from the black/death/thrash metal of Absu, Equimanthorn exists more in the dark/ambient realm. Their earliest releases were Throbbing Gristle-esque orgiastic conjurations, invocations and evocations, but now things are sparser, more minimalistic. The vocals, now eerie distant voices reciting occultist poetry, have been cut back to only two tracks: “Kneeling to the Throne of Winter (Confidence and Lust)” and “Nanna’s Dreaming (The Endless Night of Crucifixion)”. Synthesizers, still the main instrument, are focused drones and creepy effects, background noises recalling ancient rites of Sumeria, Babylon and Egypt, perhaps a genetic memory from the origins of civilization.
This is the darkness of Lustmord, the uneasy time-traveling journey of Roman Saenko‘s Dark Ages, even a bit of Burzum‘s neo-classical pagan folk in places. Blood Box, Yen Pox and early Maurizio Bianchi also come to mind. This is not music for head-banging, social activity or good vibes. It’s what you put on while combing over the books in your occult library.
This is the perfect soundtrack for Aleister Crowley‘s The Book of the Law. Frater Perdurabo would be proud." [Chuck Foster/The Big Takeover] |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| ERIK M (eRikm) |
Monofacemirror |
maxiCD |
Zweite Veröffentlichung für den Turntable-Experimentalist ERIK M auf Sonoris, ein einziges ca. 25 minütiges Stücke auf dem er sein ganzes Können zeigt, vom ruhigen subraum-dronigen Beginn über verwirrende & weirdo – Collagenklangfelder hin zu hörspielartigen Soundscapes mit Erzähler-Lyrics.. spannend!
Second release of this turntable-experimentalist on Sonoris, one 25 min. piece where he shows all his ability, from the quiet droney start over collagous fields up to earplay-like soundscapes with french narrator.. thrilling !
label: www.sonoris.org
|
2001 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Sixperiodes |
CD |
Kollektion von sechs sehr unterschiedlichen Stücken für Tanz, Theater und Kino (2001-2004) von dem aussergewöhnlichen französischen Komponisten & Klangkünstler, der mit Computern, Turntables, Objekten & was auch immer arbeitet. Feinste konkrete Mikro-Sounds wirbeln hier herum und bilden doch kohärente Klangmuster, ob Drones, Pianotupfer, elektronische Sounds, konkrete cut-ups, ERIK M erschafft eine musikalische Sprache für die es noch keinen Namen gibt, die dynamisch-aggressiv aber auch sehr poetisch und surreal-zart sein kann. Für Sound-Explorer !
"sixpériodes departs from composed and improvised fragments of different media from dance or theatre performances, silent films or dance-conferences. far from standard soundtrack music, each creation here is accomplished using diverse approaches and techniques that demonstrate the most personal skills of erikm in combining different material - digital and acoustic sounds, field recordings and vinyl manipulations - in a unique way. his primary aim is no longer simply to quote his system of references but to create for himself a bank of singular material to compose without referring to other works, thus approaching a subtle abstraction and a sense of pause within contemporary sonic agitation. erikm has collaborated with the likes of fennesz, otomo yoshihide, musique concrète composer luc ferrari and avant turntablist christian marclay. he has released on such labels as hathut, for4ear, asphodel, metamkine, sonoris and others." (label info)
“Described as a "display of ErikM compositions for dance, theatre and cinema between 2001 and 2004", this album is a charming alternative in the congested field of laptop/acousmatics, being imbued with a determined research for a sonic biology whose purpose goes far beyond the "soundtrack" definition. ErikM's target appears to be the action of freezing what moves into aural snapshots: he reduces his perceptions to the bare minimum, using fragments of intuition and sampled snippets to find a connection with the functions of the body, which most of this music seems to represent in an almost graphic manner. It feels like there is a strong correlation with the automatic reactions of our nervous system, most sounds zapping around like a stimulated grasshopper, therefore effectively fulfilling their scope of demarcating choreographic schemes and underlining images. This music is indeed extremely visual, yet absolutely suggestive when taken as pure electroacoustic circumstance, completely original and honestly transcendental but at the same time very substantial.” [Massimo Richi / Touching Extremes]
“....It's hard to tell what is on those records and tapes, but throughout everything jumps and skips around like crazy, creating things to be very vibrant and lively. Most of the times rhythmical in a sort of non-linear way (even when it's a dance record!), combined with elements of noise and musique concrete, this also jumps stylistically all over the place, moving from strict improvised parts, such as the opening 'Les Paesines' to the more straight forward, almost industrialized rhythms
'Paris Qui Dort'. But that keeps the adrenaline of this disc going round and round. I enjoyed many of his collaborative works already, but as a first introduction to his solo work, I am even more impressed. Very good material...” [Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Zygosis |
CD |
Erste CD eines französischen Soundartisten aus Marseille, der v.a. mit Plattenspielern arbeitet, aber für diese Arbeit auch Samples und Tapes einsetzt. In der Vergangenheit hat er bereits mit GÜNTER MÜLLER, CHRISTIAN MARCLAY, JIM O'ROURKE, TOM CORA und OTOMO YOSHIHIDE zusammengespielt. ERIC M benutzt Soundquellen aus zeitgenössischer Musik, French Poetry, Film-und Rockmusik. Sie reichen von PARMEGIANI über CHOP SHOP, PIERRE HENRY und NAPALM DEATH bis hin zu YOKO ONO, JEANJACQUES BIRGE, SUN RA und QUEEN! Auf 27 Indexen kommt dabei eine weirdo, semi-plunderphonige & witzige Überraschungsmusik heraus, wo jede Sekunde ALLES passieren kann, aber auch ganz ruhige Stücke gibt es zu erkunden! Sounds really new!
label: www.sonoris.org |
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Steme |
CD |
"Steme" ist eine Arbeit über "Fragmentierung, Genese und Erneuerung", basierend auf einer Auswahl von zehn 1minütigen Klangstücken von einer defekten CD. ERIK M ist ein Meister im improvisierten Konstruieren und Dekonstruieren von Klangschnipseln; hier klingt das unfassbar abstrakt, zerschnipselt & geräuschhaft, von Gekräusel & Rauschen durchsetzt, aber es gibt auch schillernd-elektrisierte Drone-Parts....muss man gehört haben...
"Between his reputation as swift shifting improviser, concréte composer and turntable deconstructionist, Marseilles based artist ERIKM has earned himself an enviable position in the European music community. With Stéme, his most ambitious and fully realised compositional work to date, he devolves and recontextualises the boundaries between sound source and sound media. In essence, Stème originates from a selection of ten one minute long sound pieces burned on a CD which was deliberately damaged. These media (music on modified media or field recording) formed the basis of multiple improvised session including multiple stages of construction and destruction of these acoustic matters using my different electronic real time live music systems (3k-pad system & MD or CD-dj and electronics). The resulting sounds are truly distinctive – filigree like sonic details are brought into sharp focus, tuning the ears with their paced spatial movements. Occasional grabs of the source sound material appear and are erased equally as quickly. A genuinely powerful statement of compositional intent." [label info]
"...Unlike say Oval, ErikM is not interested in creating some new (old?) form of popmusic out of it, but rather tries to use all these blocks in a large composition of a highly delicate, electro-acoustic nature. With the exception of 'White Out' which operates more from the drone end, and there for seems a bit out of place here, all the seven other pieces are of a collage like nature, which adds a great vibrancy to the material, bouncing all over the place while the listener only can submit to this with full attention. That 'White Out' piece could have been easily left of from this, and it would have been a perfect CD, now it's near perfection." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.room40.org
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Transfall |
CD |
"eRikm's Transfall is a document of profound gesture. A collection of works that resolve his recent explorations into music and sound for performance, dance and theatre. For almost two decades, eRikm has been a major force in contemporary musique concréte. He is a compelling improviser and forthright composer whose work taps into the central linage of sound-object oriented composition emanating from France. Developing a highly personal performance and compositional language, eRikm's reputation and position within the emergent generation of concréte composers had led to numerous collaborations with icons such as Luc Ferrari (Room40 issued Les Protorythmiques in 2007). Transfall is an archive of six works linked through new developments in eRikm's compositional philosophies. He notes : 'The time spent on the composition of some of these pieces gave me the possibility to 'break out', that is to get out of my usual processes of 'degeneration/generation' of a body or of a multiplicity of 'pre-existing sound objects'. Thus my gesture shifted, I have looked for and recorded my own sound materials.' When heard collectively, these compositions take on a presence much more than the sum of their parts. They collect unconventional approaches from an artist whose compositional methodologies are already deeply rooted in experimental traditions. The resulting pieces, and the album as a whole, represent one of eRikm's most personal and resolved works to date. A vision of future explorations mounted within a frame of the artists' previous sonic understandings." [label info]
www.room40.org
"The other new release is 'Transfall' by erikM, of whom I never seem to know if he's a composer or an improviser, or both. No doubt, the latter. The six pieces on his latest CD are not new. They were recorded between 2004 and 2009 and found their way to compilations, dance pieces or commissioned by an ensemble. The latter is the longest and opens the CD, and has erikM playing electronics and CD player and the ensemble playing harp, clarinets, flutes, cello and percussion. This is a piece in the best modern classic tradition, but despite reservations I may have against modern classical music, I think 'Astral' is a great piece. Partly filled with nasty electronic sounds, and partly what seems at times acoustic instruments, reminding me of the best Zeitkratzer pieces. The other five pieces are much shorter and see erikM working with electronics and field recordings. Here we find him as a more traditional composer of musique concrete, in some excellent short, concise pieces with great style. Full of tension, great compositional style and evocative, these are excellent pieces." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ERLANDSSON, MATS |
Minnesmärke |
LP |
Mats Erlandsson makes his debut on the Swiss label Hallow Ground with »Minnesmärke,« at once a nuanced sonic exploration of the industrial and political history of his native Sweden and a deeply personal album. One of the key figures of the Stockholm drone scene, the prolific composer worked with The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’s Hillary Jeffery, violinist and long-time friend Gaianeh Pilossian as well as sound artist and frequent collaborator Yair Elazar Glotman for a two-part composition built around tuned sustained tones performed by electronic and acoustic instruments that were combined with field recordings in order to evoke a psychedelic state of reflection, a dream-like elegy for the acoustic properties of the former iron ore mine Ställbergs Gruva where the music has been conceived and recorded. Following up on releases on labels such as Hallow Ground label mates Kali Malone and Maria W Horn’s XKatedral imprint, »Minnesmärke« is Erlandsson's most accomplished work yet.
Originally a commissioned work by the Non Existent Center for a month-long artist residency in Ställbergs Gruva last Summer, »Minnesmärke« conceptually picks up on the socio-political and economic history of the Bergslagen region where the mine is situated. After mining operations had been on-going for decades prior, in the Industrial Age iron became one of the country’s largest exports, making the mining industry an integral part of the country’s progression towards a socialdemocratic welfare state in the years after World War II. With the rise of neoliberalism and the simultaneous erosion of the welfare state however, the mines around the region started closing, which resulted in the surrounding community losing its relative prosperity. Erlandsson’s interest in this story though does not exclusively stem from the historical significance of the mine, that has been re-opened in 2012 as a centre for cultural activities and critical thought. In fact, his grandfather was born and raised in the vicinity of it and thus his life - and, by extension, his grandson’s - was inextricably linked to its fate and the ebbs and flows of the industrial development in the area.
It’s no surprise then that the two parts of »Minnesmärke,« which translates to »memorial« or »monument,« is marked by a sense of dislocation and dissociation. »Working in Ställberg was a somewhat surreal experience from the point of view of a musician some one hundred years later,« says the artist. »Being in that environment makes you view time from the side - since the place remains the same it accentuates the deep chasm that separates my perspective from those of my relatives, while at the same time providing a form of intimacy with them.« This naturally shaped the recording process, which saw Erlandsson create an interaction between the acoustic and the electronic, the human and the machinic as well as the natural environment and the technology that has shaped it as much as it has been shaped by it. A combination of synthetic and recorded sound sources was processed by reamping it in various rooms of the vast mining complex. The resulting hybrid field recordings were transferred to tape and have then been treated extensively. An arrangement for Pilossian’s violin, Jeffery’s tuba and trombone playing as well as Glotman’s parts on double bass were recorded separately and similarly manipulated to create an expanded chamber ensemble with a wider range and an ability to transcend the usual temporal bounds of the instruments.
The outcome of this intricate working process calls to mind Phill Niblock’s most dense compositions, the iconic yet subtle work of Pauline Oliveros in the field of deep listening or even Jóhann Jóhannsson’s evocative examination of similarly politically charged topics on the »The Miners’ Hymns« OST amongst others. While Erlandsson shows his knack for creating emotive dynamics by bringing the acoustic recordings into a pulsating flow, the manipulated field recordings are used as a counterpoint throughout both parts of the composition, commenting on and fostering the ever-shifting dramaturgy of the record. Most importantly though, the 41 minutes are marked by a continuous tension that almost feels tangible. It’s the looming shadow of history, materialising in the form of a monument, a memorial for the past generations that have etched their hopes and aspirations into the walls of Ställbergs Gruva.
Hilary Jeffery - Trombone, Tuba
Gaianeh Pilossian - Violin
Yair Elazar Glotman - Double Bass
Mats Erlandsson - Everything Else
Mastering by Andreas Lupo Lubich
Artwork by Marijn Degenaar
https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/mats-erlandsson-minnesm-rke
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
| ERSTLAUB |
Broadcasting on Ghost Frequencies |
CD-R |
Scottish \\\"mysterious ambience\\\" project with wonderful one-tracker; full of hissing loops & hypnotizing patterns... music of the spheres to discover; lim. 100.
\\\"Inspired by the Ganzfeld Procedure where the participant is deprived of visual stimulus and bombarded with white/pink noise drawing the mind to form patterns in the chaos often hearing voices from the past or inventing entirely new constructs within their consciousness, this release pays tribute to the parapsychological mind and its many wonders.\\\" [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
\\\"Back in Vital Weekly 601 we first heard the music of Erstlaub, also known as Dave Fyans from Perth, Scotland. On \\\'On Becoming An Island\\\' Fyans composed everything live, without processing or multitracking using a Nord G2 synthesizer. I don\\\'t know if that\\\'s the case here too on \\\'Broadcasting On Ghost Frequencies\\\' but its again a single track, this time lasting almost forty-nine minutes. That\\\'s not the only link to the previous release. This new work sees him continuing on the thematic approach of drone music. A nightmare like soundscape. The sky tonight is covered with clouds, no moon, no stars. But the clouds drift on the howl of wind. One can barely see a thing - no street lights are on. Apparently Fyans is inspired here by the Ganzfeld Procedure \\\'where the participant is deprived of visual stumulus and bombarded with white/pink noise drawing the mind to form patterns in the chaos often hearing voices from the past or inventing entirely new constructs within their consciousness\\\'. I
hear voices too, but they are real: they come from the outside. No clouds, just lots of sunshine. This might be the wrong moment to hear this? It works well, except that its not chaotic at all. Its a beautiful piece of drone music. Nothing new under the pitch black sky, done however with great care.\\\" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€9.50 |
|
| ERTHAD |
Gma |
CD-R |
Erste VÖ eines russischen Projekts, der mit uraltem Analog-Equipment ausgerüstet zu sein scheint, Rausch- und Sirr-Felder, Kurz-Echo-Räume, seltsame Pulsationen.. analoger Drone-Ambient...
"Russian project Erthad, originating from Kazan, exists since late 90-ies, but until now still hasn't made any official releases and preferred to stay in underground, recording music only for himself and his friends. We have been endeavouring to change this situation for a long time and now we're glad to present this wonderful disk to your attention. "Gma" was recorded in 2002 with the use of voice and software noise synthesizers. If one says that the album's style is called "ambient noise" - is to say almost nothing. The disk has very specific atmosphere: this is a noise meditation, calm and detached from emotional fuss. An intuitive electronic pulse synchronizes with brain frequencies, rising and falling waves of non-aggressive white noise pacify thoughts, and constantly rustling high frequencies when listened to attentively evoke dissotiative sensation, dissolving perception in the sonic field. However, everything as always depends on a listener himself." [label info]
label: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| ESA RUOHO |
Parched Throat |
CD-R |
"In the electro-dance track “Empire of Dust” by Anodyne, dust is just a word in the title. But in Esa Ruoho’s remix of that track, which is released here, you can really hear, feel and taste the dust settling everywhere. This is why “Parched Throat” is a perfect title for this rework.
Instead of some seven minutes like the original, the rework by Finnish composer-producer Esa Ruoho aka Lackluster lasts well over an hour. Everything that used to be beats and melodies has been pulverised into drifting audio grit, sheets of hiss covering the dunes of harmonics that are left over from extensive time-stretching operations performed on the previous material. Esa Ruoho does to the original track what time and desert climate have done to the monuments of ancient cultures – he erodes them, only to eventually take the role of the archaeologist and uncover some fragments that are beautiful in their own right.
File under: drone, ambient, lowercase" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| ESMERINE |
Dalmak |
CD |
"180 GRAMM VINYL LP INKLUSIVE POSTER + DOWNLOADCODE! Als ESMERINE mit "La Lechuza" 2011 ins Licht der Öffentlichkeit traten, war das Album das Signal für viele Dinge: es markierte die ersten Aufnahmen der Band nach sechs Jahren, ein erweitertes Line-Up und eine Songsammlung, die vom Leben und dem viel zu frühen Tod eine Freundes und Mitmusikers inspiriert war.
Das neue ESMERINE Album ,Dalmak" stellt heraus, dass die Band nicht damit aufgehört hat, zu schreiben, zu entdecken und zu kollaborieren.
Bruce Cawdron (Ex-GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR) und Cellistin Rebecca Foon (SILVER MT. ZION, SET FIRE TO FLAMES) haben den Percussionisten Jamie Thompson (UNICORNS, ISLANDS) und den Multiinstrumentalisten Brian Sanderson als vollwertige Mitglieder rekrutiert.
Europäische Touren brachten ESMERINE zwischen 2011 und 2012 nach Istanbul; ,Dalmak" ist das Resultat dieses Besuches: Der Großteil des Albums wurde in Istanbul aufgenommen, wo die vier kanadischen Musiker Verstärkung von der gleichen Anzahl türkischer Gastmusiker bekam.
,Dalmak" ist ein türkisches Verb mit vielen Auslegungsmöglichkeiten: betrachten, sich auf etwas einlassen, eintauchen, baden, in etwas hineineilen, abstürzen.
Als Albumtitel bezieht sich ,dalmak" wörtlich auf das Einlassen auf die Kultur und Musik von Istanbul, beschwört jedoch auch passenderweise die Spannweite der Musik, die hier herauskam: eine Sammlung von Songs, die zwischen meditativem Pulsieren und umarmender Hemmnis und spontanem Ausbruch in Rhythmus und Groove pendelt." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO |
Live in Warengen |
CD-R |
The rhythmic-Industrial legends from Spain, live 1997 !
„GEOMETRIK introduces this limited series with three different Esplendor Geométrico concerts recorded digitally, with very good sound quality, presented in an special cardboard packaging numbered (limited to 250 copies each). Most of the tracks contained are unreleased or very different versions from the originals. The distribution of these editions will be very limited due to the short number of copies. TRACK LIST (LIVE IN WARENGEN): 1- ¡Al Asalto!, 2. Nuevo Frente, 3- El Acero del Partido (vocal versión), 4-Villa Esplendor/Ultima, 5-Who´s That Señorita?, 6-7- Balearic Rhythms (live versión), 8-Rotor (live versión), 9- Ciudad Eléctrica, 10- Arizona 1962. (62 minutes)“ [label info]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Veritatis Splendor |
CD |
"SECOND REMASTERED EDITION (nov.2008). Veritatis Splendor (1994) is the first Esplendor Geométrico album recorded in the nineties, after the split work with Most Significant Beat -Control remoto 1.0 -. It sets the beginning of a new period of the band, where the incorporation of digital technology, synths and rythms, can be felt. Veritatis keeps the typical characteristics of EG sound but with a greater production, complex rhythmic structures, and most of all, it achieves an original and personal fusion of classic Industrial sound with elements of tribal music, and also others of avant-garde techno. It has a bigger variety of registers than in their newer repertoire, ranging from the hypnotism of "La radio al día", the classical sound of the duo in "Poder de ruptura", and the bright dance rhythms of "Ensayo de compresión", or "La meta del servicio", an exciting sequence really surprising, with some tribal screams. It is noticeable the constant presence of radiophonic emissions throughout all the album. A classical sold out since 1995 and now available again, remastered and with different artwork." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Balearic Rhythms |
CD |
"Sold out for more than twenty years, the re-release of one of the “classical” E.G. works, published originally in 1996 (following Veritatis Splendor), now with completely different artwork and three extra tracks. Pure electronic energy in a mix of hypnotic and tribal industrial rythms, metallic percussion, ethnic voices, and technoid sounds. The three extra tracks included are from the sold out single 30 Km de Radio (1996) released by Daft Records." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Sheikh Aljama |
CD |
"Geometrik presents the reissues, remastered from the original tapes, of three classical E.G. records sold out for more than fifteen years: SHEIKH ALJAMA, ARISPEJAL ASTISARO, and NADOR. They were recorded between 1987 and 1989, an especially interesting period where the unique and characteristic rhytmic-industrial EG style, developed along the eighties, turns more minimalistic, schematic, cold and rough, with sporadic influences of arabic musics and rhythms. They are released in digipack for the first time, with complete new design, and include a 4 page booklet. Sold out for more that 15 years and originally published by Daft Records, SHEIKH ALJAMA is a Esplendor Geométrico classic and one of the best albums of their whole career, including their hit Sinaya. Sheikh Aljama stands out for the incorporation of sonorities, voices and percusions of arabic influence, due in great measure to Gabriel Riaza, who a few years later would leave E.G. and convert to Islam." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Arispejal Astisaro |
CD |
"Geometrik presents the reissues, remastered from the original tapes, of three classical E.G. records sold out for more than fifteen years: SHEIKH ALJAMA, ARISPEJAL ASTISARO, and NADOR. They were recorded between 1987 and 1989, an especially interesting period where the unique and characteristic rhytmic-industrial EG style, developed along the eighties, turns more minimalistic, schematic, cold and rough, with sporadic influences of arabic musics and rhythms. They are released in digipack for the first time, with complete new design, and include a 4 page booklet. ARISPEJAL ASTISARO was firstly published in 1993 by the label Línea Alternativa, with tracks recorded during 1988 and 1989. The reissue is from a new digital remaster with a vastly improved sound. A.A. includes 10 tracks recorded in 1987-88 that constitutes the perfection of the eighties E.G. sound in all its aspects, included the voice of Arturo Lanz. Agressive siderurgical hammering ("Jari", "Arispejal astisaro"), mechanized tribalism ("Felacion", "Bi bajin"), hypnotic spirals ("Catare")...Recorded in Palma de Mallorca.Mixed in Almachriti Studio (Melilla-Spain/Africa) by Chibril Ben-Yúsuf." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Pulsion |
CD |
"Pulsión is the new album of Esplendor Geometrico, the influential and acclaimed Spanish duo of survivors of the second Industrial wave on the first eighties. It includes nine tracks recorded between november 2008 and May 2009. Some have been already played in their last performances in Leipzig, Madrid and Barcelona with great success. Pulsión is in fact the album that follows Compuesto de Hierro (2003) as 8 Traks and Live (2007) can be considered as a transition, being a record made to go with the DVD, and contained some tracks that were in fact versions of older ones. Esplendor Geométrico style continues having a unique and unmistakable mark that distinguishes them from later bands they have had influence onto. At first sight, Pulsión is pure Industrial hypnosis based on the electronic manipulation of sounds together with irresistible rhythms, repetitive, machine-like, industrial, hypnotic, sometimes tribal, sometimes danceable, that mix up with voices and chants. Some of them are taken fom traditional arab and oriental musics (Mongolia, China,Tibet…) to be later electronically manipulated, others are simply speech fragments, as the one of a leader of a radical political party in Japan, Che Guevara, or an anti-occidental harangue from an islamist leader. But the idea of EG is not to transmit any political or ideological message, the spurces have been chosen for their strength and sonority. The first edition in CD is in digipack + booklet. There will be also a limited vinyl edition (500 copies) on mid September containing four tracks of the CD and two exclusive tracks for that format. Recorded in Beijing and Roma (2008-2009) by Arturo Lanz and Saverio Evangelista. All tracks composed by Arturo Lanz." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2009 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Desarrollos Geometricos |
CD |
"Recorded during 2010 and 2011, a few of its tracks have already been premiered in Esplendor’s latest performances in Europe. E.G. has developed a unique and personal style that has influenced many groups and is increasingly moving away from the clichés of Industrial Music. Arturo Lanz, who heads the group, thinks that they can no longer be labeled as “industrial”. “Our music is deep, powerful, primitive and hypnotic, using electronic instruments and new technologies”, says Lanz. “Desarrollos Geométricos” follows in the steps of their previous and impressive album “Pulsión” (2009), which was recently remixed (Re-Pulsión. 10”) by renowned musicians such as Frank Bretschneider or Atom TM. Repetitive and mechanic electronic rhythms are intermingled with recordings of voices, shouts, samples from traditional oriental music, percussions... Some tracks induce a kind of trance and you won’t be able to stop listening them over and over again." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Ultraphoon |
CD |
"Recorded in Madrid and Rome during 2013, this is the new album by the influential electronic duo ranked as industrial music pioneers. Ultraphoon is a leap ahead as for production and sound quality, with a stunning and brutal outcome, richly detailed nonetheless. Rhythms, noises and processed voices from different sources come together in hypnotic –bordering on trance– soundscapes along the lines of previous releases such as Pulsión (2009) and Desarrollos Geométricos (2011). Most of the meticulous mastering process has been carried out by Francisco López, internationally renowned as one of the top sound art and experimental music personalities, giving a new twist to the usual E.G. sound." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Fluida Mekaniko |
do-LP |
"The cult band based in Madrid and Rome, influential "industrial" pioneers of the pulsating, hypnotic and tribal rhythms since 1980 presents new album!: Fluida Mekaniko.
Since his previous album "Ultraphoon" (2013), Esplendor Geométrico has performed more frequently than ever during these last two years in different countries and festivals (for the first time in the US and Russia), while it was launched in Madrid a documentary feature film about the group directed by a renowned Spanish director within the avant-garde cinema: Geometría del Esplendor, which has just been premiered at the prestigious In-Edit festival in Barcelona, receiving an honorary award.
Fluida Mekaniko has been recorded during 2016 and contains 12 new tracks that, although they continue the line developed since Pulsión (2009), we also find here references to their most harsh and noisy sound of the eighties. Industrial Neo-tribalism where mechanical rhythms hypnotize, like mantras, inducing the trance. It highlights, and already is a distintive feature of E.G., the inclusion of voices and sonorities of African, Arab and Asian music.
DOUBLE LP Limited and numbered edition of 700 copies." [label info]
www.geometrikrecords.com
|
2017 |
€26.50 |
|
| |
40 Anos Nos Iluminan |
do-LP |
"In four decades, the career of Esplendor Geométric hasn't had interruptions. They haven't stopped composing, releasing albums or playing live (with more intensity since the nineties). In 40 years, E.G. have left a discography of 23 albums, as well as singles, contributions to compilations, and cassettes published in different countries (Spain, Germany, Japan, USA, France...) They have collaborated with other artists like Francisco López (Biomechanica, with Arturo Lanz), Hijokaidan (E.G.Kaidan), Maurizio Bianchi (with Saverio Evangelista)... They have performed in more than 100 shows in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Japan, USA, UK, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Chile... and they have a full-length documentary film about them, (Geometría del Esplendor José Ramón da Cruz, 2016), has been filmed and has received various awards. 40 Años Nos Iluminan is not just another EG album, as they have reinvented themselves by taking inspiration from their own long career since 1980. The new tracks included on 40 Años offer better sound and compositions full of details, sometimes subtle, opening a new path of exploration that goes beyond the typical current industrial music, loaded with clichés. Here, E.G. experiment with noise, recorded voices, striking collages, and their trademark hypnotic rhythms of industrial trance. 40 years marks a turning and evolution of E.G., which however still sounds like E.G. 40 Años Nos Iluminan is offered on a double-album package with 16 exclusive new tracks recorded in 2020. Four are versions-reconstructions of old EG tracks by close artists, like Atom TM, Most Significant Beat, Pragma (Clock DVA, TeZ), and Moral Order.
Double LP version.includes four-page insert with photos and notes; each copy has been individually customized (album cover sealed and labeled one-by-one); edition of 500 (numbered)."
https://esplendorgeometrico.bandcamp.com/album/40-a-os-nos-iluminan-vol-1
|
2020 |
€35.00 |
|
| ESSEIVA, KIKO C. |
Sous les Etoiles |
CD |
Für Klang-Abenteurer genau das richtige, das zweite Album dieses uns bisher unbekannten Soundtüftlers auf dem Schweizer Label. ESSEIVA kreiert hochdynamische Geräuschmusik mit vielen breaks & cut-ups und meist instrumentellen & konkreten Klängen, en detail quasi unbeschreibbar da zu komplex (zum Glück aber gibt es Rigobert Dittmann), von der Machart an alte NWW oder spannende Elektro-Akustik erinnernd. Empfehlung !
"Sous Les Etoiles (HINT04) ist nach Musiques pour haut-parleurs (Music For Loudspeakers) und Improvisations / Bricolages I-IV im Split mit Eric Boros (1000+1 Tilt) eine weitere Manifestation der Kreativität von KIKO C. ESSEIVA in Lausanne. Es ist ein komplexes Werk, in Szene gesetzt als experimentelles Cinema pour l‘oreille, mit einem ‚Prélude‘, 8 Episoden und einer ‚Fanfare de fin‘. Hervorstechend ist dabei die Plastizität der Klänge, ob knackiger Apfelbiss, knurrige Drones oder windspielerisches Klimpern. Das erinnert an Hanna Hartmanns Bildprägnanz, geht aber eigene, geräuschhaftere Wege. Ein weiteres auffälliges Ingredienz sind Stimmen, als gutturale Vokalisation, dann ein Frauenmund, der den Titel ansagt. Aber auch andere Klänge scheinen per Mund erzeugt zu sein, wenn auch verfremdet bis zur Unkenntlichkeit zu perkussivem Rippeln, zu Knarren oder Fauchen. ‚En rêve‘ wirkt wie alte Streichmusik, wobei der Geigenbogen jede Rauheit der Saite übertrieben ausreizt. Aus vielen Fugen flattert, knarrt und knarzt es, ein Metalldeckel eiert, Wasser gluckert, Dulcimersaiten flickern. Keine Landschaft tut sich auf, alles ist hier konkreter, detaillierter, informeller, in plastischer Nahsicht vor das Tagtraumauge gerückt. ‚Sous les étoiles toujours‘ überrascht mit einem Piano, dumpfen Glockendongs, wooshenden Drones, fragilem Klingklang. Zum Finale erklingt keine Fanfare, sondern kaskadierendes Tamtam, Cymbalschläge, Scherenschnippen, eine quäkende Hupe, Posaunengeblubber, alles Teil eines surrealen Orchesters der Dinge. Ich drücke gleich mal auf repeat." [Bad Alchemy]
"We are proud to release - four years after his first longplayer on Canadian imprint 'Manufracture' - Kiko C. Esseiva's second album 'Sous les étoiles'. The electro-acoustic-musique conrète compositions he has constructed during the past years are brilliant soundpieces that remind sometimes on Luc Ferraris electro-acoustic works but also the very narrative nature of some older Nurse With Wound albums. The way he mixes (almost) melodic elements into a complex structure of well arranged sounds and noises is simply beautiful. 'Sous Les Etoiles' goes even a step further than Esseiva's debut 'Musiques pour haut-parleurs', the tracks being audibly held together by leitmotifs, making it one big opus instead of being just a collection of tracks." [label info]
www.hinterzimmer-records.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| ETANT DONNES |
Royaume / Aimant + Aimant |
LP |
"Royaume / Aimant + Aimant- is second in the three part reissue series focussing on the works of Etant Donnes based around field recording and voice.
Run horse run
Sting bee sting
Fly fish fly
Burn miracle burn
How beautiful your eyes are when they look into the void
Marc Hurtado
Royaume (originally a CD on Touch, 1991) is made up of 4 tracks and is a kind of purifying travel through the four elements which symbolically refers to the light evoked by the colour green, an allegory of the grail and of the lightcarrier angel. As to the poems, they tend to amount to their essentials, as is the case in Matin which is both Taoist and surrealistic. Aimant + Aimant - (originally as a split 10”/CD on Danceteria,1992) presents itself as a magical alchemical mantra based upon the force of love, the force of life. Two pole like two bodies like two hearts like two magnets.
“Like true buffoons from ultra - world, Eric and Marc Hurtado succeed in achieving what many sages consider to be the very purpose of magical art : to create one’s own ritual and, being one’s own referent, to become a vibrating point in the cosmos and be a receptacle for natural energy, like those bright patches or that black point recurring in their magical music, real poemspaintings and irremediably aiming, like an insect caught between the circle and the cross, in the heat of the sun in an attempt to merge with the Whole”. Stephane Duval
Two pole like two bodies like two hearts like two magnets.
The wind, the sea, the breath, the fire.
Nothing more than nothing.
Everything is in everything.
Marc Hurtado" [label info]
|
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
| |
Cinq Portes Soudées |
CD |
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg472
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxfX574peL8
Etant Donnes is a French duo named after Marcel Duchamp's last major work. The group consists of brothers Marc and Eric Hurtado, born in Morocco and working mainly as performance artists and musicians. Their sound can be described as a mix of field recordings, found sounds and sometimes whispered, sometimes violent vocals. They describe their sounds like this: "Through Marc and Eric, it is the volume of each word that becomes an object-sculpture, together with the power of their bodies expressing their voices. Each event is a scream - indeed even the glissando - of the strength of the word that sometimes abruptly becomes a rock, a solid surface, not in the least fluvial, as is the narrative of a tale, novel or poetic epic. With both of them, there is no more trace of ancient prosodies, no more trace of the incomprehensible Sainte-Beuve who could claim: "I have to collect a volume of prose". The word, the voice, the volume take shape with each other, unveiling a theatre that theatre usually ignores, which has given it such things as a Samuel Beckett's Fin de Partie." Over the years Etant Donnes have collaborated with people like Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Alan Vega and Genesis P-Orridge. Cinq Portes Soudées was the band's fifth album, originally released on Die Form's Bain Total label in 1984 on cassette only. For this CD re-issue we have added a long bonus track not on the original album. Full tracklist: 1. Cinq Portes Soudées Part 1 2. Cinq Portes Soudées Part 2 3. Music from the film Des autres terres souples Part 4
Das fünfte Studioalbum (1984) des französischen Experimental- / Performance-Duos Etant Donnes "Cinq Portes Soudées" erscheint erstmalig als CD im Digipack-Format und mit Bonustrack auf
Klanggalerie. 1980 in Grenoble von den beiden Brüdern Eric und Marc Hurtado ins Leben gerufen, legte das nach einem Werk des französisch-amerikanischen
Dadaisten und Surrealisten Marcel Duchamp benannte Experimental- / Performance-Duo, das seitdem mit Genregrößen wie Genesis P-Orridge,
Alan Vega, Michael Gira, Mark Cunningham und Lydia Lunch zusammenarbeitete, schon ein Jahr später sein Albumdebüt "L‘Opposition Et Les Cases Conjugues Sont Rconcil" vor. "Cinq Portes Soudées", ein
zeitlos spannender Mix aus Industrial / Noise, Avantgarde- Klängen und Musique Concrete, war das fünfte Album der Band aus dem Jahr 1984, das
ursprünglich auf dem französischen Label Bain Total (unter Leitung von Philippe Fichot von Die Form) nur als Kassette veröffentlicht wurde. Für
diese CD-Erstauflage wurde ein langer Bonustrack hinzugefügt, der nicht auf dem Originalalbum enthalten ist ("Music From The Film Des Autres
Terres Souples Part 4").
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| ETIENNE, YVAN |
Feu |
CD |
"On Feu (APOSIOPÈSE apo10) there is a very striking long suite called ‘De La Charge’ which is like having your head inserted in the centre of a lengthy electrical discharge, making your hair stand on end with its wild tendrils of direct current, and threatening to clean out your pores once and for all with its vibrant force."
[The sound projector]
"Yvan Etienne is active as a sound experimenter interested in issues surrounding site-specific audio installations and as a composer proposing weighty reflections on perception and the physicality of sounds in space.
Etienne has not been lacking for collaborative work in recent years, undertaking projects and performance with the likes of Phill Niblock, Yann Gourdon, Richard Glover, Brice Jeannin, Patrice Grente, Julien Ottavi, Robert Poss, Paul Panhuysen, Marie and Verry Joachim Montessuis, to name a few, as well as acting as curator and director of the Ohcetecho aux Presses Du Réel collection. For the three tracks of his first solo album Etienne manipulates various field recordings, a Serge modular synthesizer and a hurdy-gurdy (whether ancient or modern is not known). The result is a sound simultaneously fluffy yet stinging, replete with ambient noise, drones and sparse sequences that feel grainy and menacing, hovering somewhere between organic and inorganic. The impressive scores are very dense and layered, building to a crescendo that is harmonious and addictive, despite the fixity of the narration. Strongly iterative, immersive and resonant, the work reflects a keen sense of spatiality and dynamics. The listening is pleasant but never too conciliatory, favoring moods that are rather spacey and sidereal, infused with vintage synths, tools made popular in the mid-seventies by artists such as Frank Zappa, Jon Hassell, Sonic Boom, Richie Hawtin and Vince Clarke that have now achieved “cult” status among fans of modular analogue gear." [Neural]
Composed, recorded and mixed by Yvan Etienne :
Serge Modular, Electronics, Field recordings, Hurdy gurdy.
Recorded at "2 princesses" & EMS/Stockholm.
Produced by Aposiopèse, 2014. Cd. Aposiopèse_10.
Artwork by Claire Willemann.
Layout + Lettering by Nicolas Bardey.
Release page : www.aposiopese.com/pages/feu_y_e.html
Artist website : wyy.free.fr
https://yvanetienne.bandcamp.com/album/feu
https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/feu
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Twist |
LP |
listen: https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/twist
YVAN ETIENNE
TWIST
A1 : Cinq réflectances inversées - 21:38
B1 : L’énergie du non - 18:59
_
Composed and recorded by Yvan Etienne.
Serge Modular, Field recordings.
CD : Mastered by Yvan Etienne / LP : Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Cut by Mike Grinser at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
Artwork by Gregory Weiss / Design : Yvan Etienne.
Produced by Aposiopèse.
For Serge Modular and field recordings.
French artist/activist Yvan Etienne, is engaged in research in the field of sound art. As a musician, he composes and plays pieces using electronic, phonography, analog synthesizers and the hurdy-gurdy. His sound art research questions the perception and physicality of sound spaces. Collaborations with Phill Niblock, Yann Gourdon, Richard Glover, Brice Jeannin, Patrice Grente, Robert Poss, Paul Panhuysen, Marie Verry, la novia, Perinne Bourel…
CD : Mastered by Yvan Etienne / LP : Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut by Mike Grinser at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by Gregory Weiss
"In an edition of three-hundred copies, here is the sophomore effort by French artist / activist Yvan Etienne. Twist is quite welcome as we haven’t heard from him since 2014’s Feu which was a great debut, also on Aposiopèse, who have been quietly putting out minimal sounds for nearly fifteen years now. There are two long tracks here, so let’s get right to it. From the outset it’s a textural affair, one of granular microsound and distant tone. The open mic is quite fresh, clear as it drags and burrows through a ground of hiss and light crackling. The first pregnant pause is stultifying but leads to an airy adjacent passage. Cinq réflectances inversées presents observations in staring into a mirror way too long (?) or the sense of stasis when one is at zero gravity knowing that might change at any given moment. Etienne manages to fluidly switch between left and right channels to keep your attention between vignettes. There’s a lot to contemplate about this modest composition in tonal slide and play on lightness. The blunt rise and fall of hum dips and writhes as heavy metal (not the genre) is toyed with. Everything induces a sense of slowness, until the clang of metallic objects enters the fray – suddenly there’s a sense of upheaval like a prisoner squirming in shackles. Obviously this is broken into five parts, that accounts for the quiet lulls, and each tells its own story. The last of these catches the listener in a moderate rainfall, with a sonar or scanner of some sort buzzing as it surveills the area. There’s a Orwellian sensibility embedded herein. L’énergie du non starts with a singular high pitch tone, that sounds as if it has been split down the middle. It grows in voluminosity and scope, spreading far and wide with various high and low tendrils of modulation. This shifts and winds, and continues for nearly six minutes – which is alarming. Once it dies out there is a lull, and a lower and more gravelly buzz begins and peters rather quickly only to linger in the background. Is this some sort of force field being tested (?), am I being told to beware/stay out (?), or have I landed in some transitory space where various transmissions are yet un-encoded. This low grade yet seemingly robust under-the-surface energy is supposedly of ‘not‘ though there lies the tension. It’s what you can’t see, but only imagine, that will have you conjuring any number of questionable entities. Fortunately about midway this becomes an homage to old school microsound clicks and hiss. And with each rotation this literally begins to swirl with a windy effect that brings the static energy into the center. The end is a mix of field recordings of stacking and cracking wood, of rain slick streets and a hi-tone that separates the real world from that which is just beyond our immediate scope." [TJ Norris / Toneshift]
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Twist |
CD |
listen: https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/twist
YVAN ETIENNE
TWIST
A1 : Cinq réflectances inversées - 21:38
B1 : L’énergie du non - 18:59
_
Composed and recorded by Yvan Etienne.
Serge Modular, Field recordings.
CD : Mastered by Yvan Etienne / LP : Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Cut by Mike Grinser at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
Artwork by Gregory Weiss / Design : Yvan Etienne.
Produced by Aposiopèse.
Artiste / activiste, commissaire d\\\'exposition, directeur de la collection Ohcetecho aux Presses du réel, Yvan Etienne élabore des installations intermédia, des dispositifs de diffusions scénographiques, des concerts. Conçus comme des espaces à expérimenter, ses travaux sont généralement liés aux contextes, aux spécificités in situ, acoustiques et architecturales des espaces investis. Ses projets explorent les propriétés immersives, invisibles, mouvantes et fugaces du son, pour rejouer nos appréhensions et construire un dialogue en écho avec des corps résonnants (visiteurs, architectures, contextes). Réalisés à partir de sculptures, de phonographies, de compositions instrumentales, électroniques, ses expériences convoquent réflexions intuitives et questionnement des stéréotypes de la perception.
En tant que musicien, il compose et joue des pièces utilisant la vielle à roue, les synthétiseurs analogiques, la phonographie et l\\\'électronique. Ses recherches questionnent la perception des corps résonants. Il a joué avec avec Phill Niblock, Yann Gourdon, Richard Glover, Brice Jeannin, Patrice Grente, Julien Ottavi, Robert Poss, Paul Panhuysen, Marie Verry, Joachim Montessuis.
En continuité de ses pratiques il œuvre à la diffusion des pratiques sonores et intermédia comme programmateur et commissaire d\\\'expositions indépendant. En tant que commissaire, il a organisé les expositions de Paul Panhuysen, Brandon Labelle, Christof Migone, Maxime Vernier, Phill Niblock, Henri Chopin, Feed me with your kiss au Consortium de Dijon, Resonant Bodies à l\\\'ISBA de Besançon et programmé les festivals Oh cet echo et Architectone (Salines royales d\\\'Arc et Senans), NYC Sound au CAPC de Bordeaux, ainsi que divers concerts.
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN |
Batelages |
LP |
"The debut album by this French jazz-avantgarde band was released in 1976. Weird free jazz/rock lunacy, with Captain Beefheart being a good reference point if you need it.
Eccentric to the max, this is definitely not something for everybody, but if you're into that RIO think you'll most likely love it.
500 copies, 180-gram vinyl." [label info]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Les trois fou's perdegagnent |
LP |
"Second album by ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN avant-rock / rock-in-opposition French pioneers. ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN had definitely moved up a notch with this release and things would actually get even better with the next release! Still, this album is quite a juicy steak that will take quite some time to devour with the end results exceeding beyond the initial anticipations." [label info] |
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| EVANS, GRANT |
Brittle |
MC |
"With a detached curiosity, Grant Evans drops us into his petri dish of mud, bacteria, and fetid slop. At first, we have no roadmap to the drowning noise that slowly trickles down the throat and presses against the ear drums; but Evans is no sadist. Yes, volatile coagulations and conflagrations abound with malaise at the beginning to each of the side-long works to Brittle -- itself a vibrant landmark in the Evans' rhizomatic back catalogue that slips through harsh wall noise, kosmische explorations, dronologist collage, and the like. But upon the discharge of that initial shard of tooth and blood, Evans tempers the atmospheric pressures and illumines a path by which to proceed. Beacons of monochord guitar. Radiant dispersions of glare and trill. Compacted bowed metal resonance. Interstitial ecological sounds from water, bird, and tree. Exhumed cassette minimalism. And a gasping, pulsing, morphing drone that bends around each of these sound objects. Such is the vivid unfurling of Brittle -- a meticulous and wondrous bricolage of the exploded organic. Parallels to be found in Chalk, Organum, Toniutti, and Grzinich. Grant Evans hails from the northeast corner of Georgia, from where he has produced an impressive array of works under various aliases and in collaboration with his wife Rachel. Together they had run the now defunct Hooker Vision imprint, whose curatorial vision was unmatched in their discovery of unknowable projects from the margins of the global cassette underground. Currently, they maintain a smaller cottage industry Adversary, solely dedicated to their own projects." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"On this new tape, the prolific Evans draws from the styles he has worked in heavily before: noise, electro-acoustic, and ambient, but Brittle bears the mark of all without sounding like any one in particular. The two lengthy pieces cover a significant amount of sonic territory, and he makes remarkably diverse and complex compositions from a world of unidentifiable sound.
The first half of the cassette, "Pills in the Reptile House," opens with Evans employing a loop of rattling sounds almost resembling a microcassette recorder left in a running washing machine. The sound is rhythmic, yet processed to have a hollow, strange quality to it as additional textures and processed noises are worked in. Evans eventually strips the mix back, retaining the scraping but in a more open space, blended with reverberating strings that could be either piano or guitar and shrill, harsher electronics.
The composition as a whole has a clear sense of structure and organization to it, even if the sounds Evans utilizes are anything but conventional. Sounds become shimmering, metallic, and a bit dissonant at one point, before the piece overall becomes softer and is largely characterized around gentle electronics. Changes are subtler toward the conclusion, the sense of structure is lessened, and the piece concludes on stuttering, digital-like vibrations.
On the other side of the tape, Evans opens "Lineage" with a more familiar bit of overdriven noise crunch. Paired with a passage of metallic banging noises, the sound is not far removed from the likes of classic Macronympha, but the harshness is short lived as he quickly shakes things up to a more spacious sound. Besides dropping the distortion, Grant introduces birdsong recordings and subtle loops of noise. The composition eventually takes on a futuristic, but pleasant quality to the sound, without a lot of change but still complex, tightly woven layers that vary. What initially has a sci-fi, futuristic quality to it eventually is shifted away into the cold, empty expanse of deep space.
Brittle’s name is a bit misleading, because I would characterize the sounds Grant Evans generates as being closer to mud and muck as far as tactile metaphors go. It is sticky, gritty, and at times ugly sounding, but that is exactly what makes it compelling. I have no idea how he made these sounds, since almost nothing is identifiable, but I am rather glad that he did." [Creaig Dunton / Brainwashed]
|
2015 |
€9.50 |
|
| EVAPORI |
Rehearsals for Objects |
CD |
"1000füsslers industriell gefertigte Releases erreichen einen neuen Maßstab. Neben Tietchens und der sehr schön angelegten Heizungs-CD ist Evaporis Beitrag zum CD-Labelkatalog ein weiteres ungewohnt klingendes Zeugnis Neuer Musik. Völlig losgelöst vom Digitalkrach oder jedweder PlugIn-Klangmasse erscheinen die hier versammelten Stücke wie alte Schneidetischexzesse eines digital aufgemöbelten Walter Ruttmanns. Die raumklangtechnisch ausgesteuerten Klänge und Geräusche werden mittels ihrer Aufnahmeposition verfremdet und steuern damit gegen den sonst allgegenwärtigen digitalen Verfremdungsprozess. Klanglich angesiedelt zwischen einer ausziselierten Kapotte Muziek Komposition und einer Esseiva Etude passiert im zeitlichen Rahmen dieser CD anfangs eine Menge: feine Schleifklänge wechseln teils in rapiden Wechseln ihre Soundzustände, lösen sich auf und bilden feine Schnittkanten, an deren teils gratfreien Oberflächen allerlei konkretes Material sich ansammelt, ehe es mit einem schnellen Schnitt in andere Ebenen gehoben wird. Der zweite Satz zeigt die stärkste Dekonstruktion mittels Audioschnitt und Collaging, weicht doch der geschickte Einsatz der Stille teilweise radikalen Rückwärtsrichtungen des Quellmaterials, ehe der letzte Akt der CD in teilweise recht droniges Basisbrummen gleitet und etwas schlüpfrig den Weg aus der Komposition weist. Evaporis Ansatz einer völlig raumklangbezogenen Kompositionsweise macht vor allem dann Sinn, wenn die ohnehin sehr liquiden und scharf gestellten (Rest)geräusche in teilweise verzweifelt wirkender Flucht ihre Plätze suchen. Die in endloser Rotation wiederholten Brummschleifen unter den gestreuten Sounds macht es fast schon wieder interessant, mal selber die Lautsprecher um einige Zoll im Raum zu verschieben und den damit verbundenen Akustiksituationen zu lauschen. Ganz schön interaktives Material." [Thorsten Soltau, AEMAG]
"The aim while composing was to create a sound landscape that is exclusively made up of recordings which are not processed by computer effects (so-called plug-ins). The sounds are influenced by the way they are recorded, e.g. by the positions of the microphone and the sound source in a room. The resulting sonic situations are the basis of the the composition. The sounds – most of them of an everyday nature – were transformed using computer editing only, in order to leave the recognizability of the sounds untouched, create tension and to arouse the listener‘s curiosity through different atmospheric cadences.
Recordings were made at Rauchhaus / Berlin, Fundbureau and Christianskirche / Hamburg
Mastering by Guy Saldanha
Artwork by Nicolas Wiese
Thanks to Celia Herrero and Christoph Lohse"
[label info / credits]
www.tausend-fuessler.de
"Das nenn ich doch mal eine Produktinformation: „Die größtenteils aus dem Alltag stammenden Klänge wurden am Computer ausschließlich durch Schnitttechnik verfremdet, um die Erkennbarkeit der Klangquellen offen zu halten, Spannung aufzubauen und durch verschiedene Stimmungsbögen bei dem Hörer Neugier zu wecken.“ Das hat man nicht oft, dass ein Geräuschkunstmacher auch mal an seine (potentiellen) Hörer denkt und dass er das Ziel seiner Bemühungen angibt - Stimmung, Spannung, Neugier. Oliver Peters ist in BA schon bekannt als AIC-Macher und, obwohl in Berlin aktiv, für seine guten Verbindungen zur Hamburger Szene, zur Hörbar, zu Guy Saldanha (Knistern), der hier das Mastering besorgte, zu Uli Rehbergs Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien, wo zuletzt seine LP Fumes (2007) herauskam, zu Gregory Büttner, der ihm auf 1000füssler bereits zum zweiten Mal ein Forum bietet. Was hier die Neugier weckt, sind Übungen, Turn- oder Tanzübungen von Gegenständen in einem menschenleeren Raum. Nur die vermeintliche Abwesenheit von Beobachtern oder Lauschern ermöglicht diese leicht gespenstischen, zumindest ominösen und odradekhaften Verspieltheiten. Es huscht, trappelt, kullert, von ganz feinen Drones umspielt. Vielgliedrig tockt, ratscht, schabt und klickt Holz an Holz, Metall an Metall, Was? an Was? -kreuz und quer durch den Raum, an Wänden und an der Decke. Odradek-Hockey? Odradek-Mikado oder -Kampfsport? Ein ‚interlude‘ zwischen ‚rehearsal I & II‘ lässt keine Atempause, sondern verdichtet sogar die Aktionen, mit fast menschlichen Zischlauten. Das hat nichts ‚Ambientes‘, sondern eine spielerische Dramaturgie, die allerdings ihr Geheimnis - wer sind die Spieler und was proben sie? - nicht Preis gibt, denn wir sehen nichts, wir können nur lauschen und rätseln." [Bad Alchemy]
"Oliver Peters, the man behind the AIC label and the musical project Evapori, likes his sounds to be free of computer plug ins. Take an object, place a microphone and record the object. The placing of the microphone is essential as it alters the sound. Take a whole bunch of objects, record them and then make a CD out of these recordings. The computer is merely a recording device, where, in good musique concrete tradition, cuts can be made, stereo adjustment and balancing the various sounds. That is most commendable, I think, as most computer plug ins do tend to sound too similar. What Peters does here, is not done a lot. Using natural space to create reverb, he carefully touches his objects and makes a very intense sound collage out of it. One that requires full attention. At times I was reminded of the live sound of Kapotte Muziek, but then multi-layered and with more concentration - but then of course the computer here can cut out all the unwanted sounds, which live is more difficult. By adding machine hum towards the end of 'Rehearsal 1', he manages to sound like drone music too. I think this is a great CD, but there is one thing I don't understand: why call this rehearsals? Rehearsal for what? It gives the impression that this is unfinished business, unless Peters wants us to cut further in this material, but somehow I don't think that this the case here. Why not go full on and state that these are 'compositions'? " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| EVAPORI / [-HYPH-] |
Bewegungen / Fragmentation itself |
CD-R |
First CDR release for this new Hamburg label, with three tracks by EVAPORI (Itzehoe) and HYPH (Hamburg), strong dynamic sound-collages based on human voice that remind on BRUME and massive floating soundscapes. Comes in special handmade package, recommended !
“ EVAPORI: moody and massively pulsating minimalism of a wide range of frequencies, beautifully swelling overtones and mysterious subliminals. calm in itself, yet constantly evolving. inspired by the general atmosphere of silent movies and e.muybridge.
-HYPH-: title is program. this is the fragmented, irritating, creeping and harshly surprising soundtrack into warfare. source material is 90% human voice, but you wouldn’t guess. strangely processed, vivid and challenging – 30 minutes of you_never_know_what’s_happening_next.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€9.00 |
|
| EVIDENCE |
Iris |
CD & DVD |
EVIDENCE ist der Projektname eines Duos von SCOTT SMALLWOOD und STEPHAN MOORE, dies die zweite Veröffentlichung mit 11 Stücken, die auf der DVD von verschiedenen Videokünstlern visuell "begleitet" wurden. Auf "Iris" dominieren flächige und loopige Arrangements, die wohl grösstenteils auf Feldaufnahmen basieren. Es ergeben sich mitunter rhythmische Muster, dröhnminimalistische (Anti)-Statik fusioniert mit field recordings...
"Iris, the second CD release from the duo Evidence (Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood) on the Deep Listening label, is also their first video release. The DVD has the same sonic material as the music on the CD, but it features video pieces by the duo's favorite live-video performers, including Benton-C Bainbridge, Betsey Biggs, Fi$h2000, Madeleine Gallagher, Dawn Haleta, David Lublin, Jonathan Lee Marcus, Olivia Robinson, skfl, Diana Reed Slattery, Jack Turner and Walter Wright. These pieces emphasize the spontaneity of the artists' live performances, the practice of using 'found' materials, and suggest the emergence of a regional aesthetic stemming from the recent hotbed of media performance centered around Troy, New York. Stephan Moore is a composer, improviser, audio artist, sound designer and software programmer from Marquette, Michigan, currently based in New York City. His work is grounded in the collection and investigation of environmental sound recordings and a fascination with the perception and properties of acoustic environments. Scott Smallwood deals with real and abstracted soundscapes based on a practice of listening, improvisation, and phonography. Ranging from sonic photographs, studio compositions, instrumental pieces, and improvisations, the resulting pieces are often textural, always mindful of space and subtlety." [lable info]
www.deeplistening.org
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| EX COCAINE / YELLOW SWANS |
Split |
LP |
"Two-storied USA duo institutions share war stories across twelve miles of raw wax, and the rest of us are lucky enough to eavesdrop. Missoula, Montana's Ex-Cocaine continue roping that weird rambling wind that seems to stir the soul and keep America mellow, and the pair of anthems they jam out here encapsulates the whole breadth of their sea-to-shining-sea cosmosis. Plainsong guitar lassoes around loose-limbed percussion flame-fanning, building and burning till a boss bonfire glows on the horizon, then they close out the side with a ragged and earnest Meat Puppets cover that's become a live staple of late. Real and roamin'. On the B, Yellow Swans channel a supreme slice of psychedelic eulogy that cuts twice as deep with the knowledge that after many a summer (they birthed in 2002-ish) dies the Swan. Pete and Gabe's DYS saga has spanned the decade and their impending non-existence will be lamented all over the world, so the more 11th hour record books they want to stencil with their electric synergies, the better for all of us. R.I.P.eace out. In a stunning "sexy legs" kaleidoscopic masterpiece art jacket by Religious Knife Maya Miller. Half on bleached olive vinyl, half on black. Edition of 600." [label info] |
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
| EXIT IN GREY |
Domination: Audiometry |
CD-R |
"Reissue of the debut 3"CDR "Audiometry" (2004) with an 18-min bonus track "Domination". Guitar drone ambient varying from almost monotonous raw and deep rumbles to gentle melancholic tunes... sonic waves and streams slowly come and pass away, leaving the listener in spellbound numbness." [label info]
"Four pieces of peaceful & harmonic waving deep drone-ambience from this Russian newcomer, extremely slow and minimal. Very much recommended for lovers of ALIO DIE, MIRROR, COLECLOUGH..." [Drone Rec. info 2005 for the mCDr]
|
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Moments ( Моменты ) |
CD |
Frozen Light presents new Exit in Grey album – "Moments". This album contains one long track comprised of two live recordings fragments: from the festivals "Notmusic - Itisnothere" (18.03.2017), and "Drёma VI" (21.12.2014). First part of the track is a sort of dark droning guitar ambient with Exit In Grey trademark sound; second part has more bright melancholic mood and synth sound. Space, knowledge, dreams, travel within and beyond yourself. Magic forest and endless spaces in anticipation of the wind.
https://frozenlightlabel.bandcamp.com/album/--12
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| EXPERIMENTALIEN |
Nine Triads |
CD-R |
"Slovakian-based artist I.v.Martinez is active in a variety of projects with different styles, but ExperiMENTALien is one of the more psychedelic ones. The nine tracks on this album fuse morphing digital dronescapes with subsonic pulsations that would make a great addition to the soundtrack of any remake of “Solaris”.
The shapeshifting nature of the sounds that drift in and out of harmonic fields is mirrored in the titles of the pieces, which – like the project name ExperiMENTALien – fuse several words. Trainput, Universelection, and Noiserenity are perhaps the most programmatic. The album constantly oscillates between associations with biomorphous and psychic images, which is why the “Solaris” reference immediately comes to mind: Couldn’t this be the sound of a thinking, living planet? You could think of this as the “Kosmische Musik” of Krautrock revisited through a post-industrial sensibility, but most importantly, the results sound convincing.
File under: drone, ambient, psychedelic" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"From Slovakia hails L.V. Martinez, who works with a variety of (unnamed) projects with different styles and one of these is ExperiMENTALien, as the spelling should be. There are nine pieces on this CD, hence the title, I guess, and I have no idea what he does, but my best guess is that Martinez uses a lot of sampling of sounds, lots of effects (boxes, digital, who knows) and effectively melts down his sources into nine nightmarish pieces of detailed nuclear meltdown. Quite noise based, very industrial, but without any of the images that may come along such a ride. ExperiMENTALien keeps matters relatively abstract; more like the soundtrack to a movie that deals with such matters as apocalypse, zombies, mad max, robotic slavery and what else have you in the department of blackness. Even when he keeps things at a more limited volume, such as 'Electrip', it's still forceful and alien (indeed). Long pieces, clocking in at six to eight minutes and sometimes that seems a bit long for the amount of sonic information it has to offer in a piece, but on a more mind penetrating level, the psychedelic side of all of this, I must admit this worked rather well. Nothing for the weak of heart or mind or both."
[FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| EXPLOPLASMATIC COAGULATION |
Harmonium |
CD-R |
"40 minutes of hypnotic and meditative (drone), split- second digital fluctuations spread for a few octaves – this is a new album Exploplasmatic Coagulation “Harmonium”. The album, inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s novel The Sirens of Titan will cast you into deep detachment and, like one of the novel’s characters, will bring you to Mercury to take care of harmoniums - creatures who change their psychophysical properties, influenced by every sound vibration. The album is good both for Tantric practice and for deep relaxation." [label info]
ss.semperflorens.net
|
2015 |
€9.00 |
|
| EXPO 70 (EXPO SEVENTY) |
Frozen Living Elements |
CD |
"It's been three years since Expo 70 appeared on the ”From Earth to Sirius” compilation and now they are back to Zoharum with a full-length offering. Their latest album is entitled ”Frozen Living Elements” and it features an expanded line-up. Apart from Justin Wright, Expo 70 were Jim Button on drums and Aaron Osborne on bass and additional synthesizers for the sessions and the result can be described as space rock power trio.
With three tracks spread over 45 minutes, the trio takes as on a cosmic tour de force. With influences ranging from analogue electronica through guitar drone to noisy psychedelia, Expo 70 manages to travel back in time to the 1970s, yet stay as contemporary as they can without sounding dated or irrelevant. The musicians transport us to their rehearsal room drenched in dry ice where they play their extended acid jams landing somewhere in-between SunnO))), Can and Sperm.
The CD is housed in an ecopak sleeve and is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover was designed by Justin Wright. "Frozen Living Elements" was mastered by Scott Colbrun. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| EYELESS IN GAZA |
Plague of Years : Songs and Instrumentals 1980-2006 |
CD |
'Songs and Instrumentals 1980-2006'. Noch eine EIG-Zusammenstellung, die aber mehr auf die experimentelle Seite zielt, 21 Stücke die die ganze Bandbreite der Band aufzeigen, mit einigen sehr raren Stücken. Special low priced !
"One of the great bands that emerged post punk... They were truly unique.... I still love them..." [Alan Mc Gee / March 2005]
"this CD deals with two sides of the group. first is its deeply lyrical vein, with summits like See Red and Lights of April, tracks that have almost never been included on "best-of" projects, despite the fact that they represent some of the most moving songs these musicians ever wrote. this collection also explores the group's more adventurous side through a number of instrumental pieces. this aspect of their output is little known and often neglected, even though it was there from their very beginnings. these two combining currents, where experimentation precedes lyricism (and the other way around), turn this album into a truly new way of (re)discovering Eyeless in Gaza. This unique architecture creates the impression that each side strengthens the other one's presence. probably for the first time ever, the 21 tracks so redistributed provide the band with irrefutable arguments toward its rebirth. Yes, Eyeless in Gaza is one of the most underrated groups. in this world of ours, will integrity finally pay off ?" [label info]
"Plague of Years is a single-disc retrospective by Peter Becker and Martyn Bates, aka Eyeless in Gaza. The duo began recording with minimal instrumentation -- Becker's piano and keyboards, some primitive drum machines, a guitar here and there, as well as a traditional drum kit (or at least the snares and cymbals) -- and made music in the post-punk era that was both challenging and hideously beautiful. The reason for that description comes from the sound of Bates' voice: nasal, emotionally overwrought, and often flat, it was a voice that expressed things in his utterly naked and poetic words that the heart could comprehend, but that the intellect often could not. Long before Morrissey ever warbled, Bates ripped the door off the closet of his fear, longing, love, and disappointment, framing it with colors that held many shades of gray, but also held out the glimmer of gold for hope. There are 21 cuts on this set, beginning with their earliest tracks from 1980's debut album, Photographs as Memories ("John of Patmos"), and the amazing "Every Which Way" from 1981's Caught in Flux, issued by Cherry Red, and moving through their utterly brilliant albums Drumming the Beating Heart, Song of the Beautiful Wanton, Orange Ice & Wax Crayons, and Back from the Rains. There are cuts from compilations, such as "To Steven" and "Sun-Like-Gold," that appeared as two parts of a three-part suite on Sub Rosa's Myths. Instructions., singles such as "County Bizarre" on NDN, and the gorgeous "Falling Leaf/Fading Flower" from the 12" Pale Hands I Loved So Well, which was a bonus disc tucked inside the Drumming the Beating Heart CD. There are also cuts here from Bitter Apples, the album they released for World Serpent in 1995, and Saw You in Reminding Pictures from the Ambivalent Scale label. This is but a taste, of course, since Eyeless in Gaza needed to be taken album by album, but one honest encounter with one of their songs will send the listener scrambling for more. The music here is beauty that is so out of place in this world, it can scarcely be borne." [Thom Jurek / Allmusic.com] |
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Sixth Sense |
CD |
Great Collection of all 7”es and 12”es from the best “experimental Pop”-Band ever, 25 tracks ranging from 1980 – 1985, many pieces for the first time on CD !
“....Martyn Bates and Peter Becker married a rare lyricism with technology in a unique way, enabling their work to still sound fresh and up to date. The booklet features a complete discography plus sleeve notes by the band.” [label info]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Summer Salt & Subway Sun |
CD |
Nach vielen Jahren erscheint zum Jahresende 2006 endlich auch NEUES Material des legendären britischen Duos von MARTYN BATES und PETER BECKER ! "Wyrd Folk" ist in aller Munde, aber EYELESS IN GAZA haben Folk- und experimentell beeinflusste Musik schon seit ihrer Existenz gemacht und einen einmaligen Stil etabliert...
die 11 neuen Stücke sind z.T. erstaunlich spröde, einige wirken eher sessionhaft-improvisiert mit langen Instrumentalparts und
kontrastieren aufs beste mit den so verehrten melancholischen Gesangstücken von MARTYN BATES..
"Originally, the intention was to put together a double album, centering around an “escalated excitement with the idea of cities as new, blank texts – contrasted with the kind of sense of alienation and loss evoked in such works as J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island.” The completed Summer Salt & Subway Sun works as a kind of survival or synthesis of these ideas – and also as an illustration of Eyeless In Gaza as ‘studio animal’, contrasted with their (newly re-discovered) life as a regularly gigging band. (– The band has been off the road since the late 80’s, but have recently gigged in Bruxelles, London, and Athens – with forthcoming gigs in Italy, Iceland and the U.S.). The album thus neatly encapsulates two key aspects of the music Eyeless in Gaza are presently creating – offering a balance of atmos/acoustic material and sprawling, rhythmic/semi-improvised spidery electric pieces. This has resulted in a heady blend of song based material juxtaposed with a distinctive brand of kaleidoscopic, “cityscaping” filmic musics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the latter, primarily instrumental pieces which gleefully reflect the band’s recent activity in cinema – in Patrice Chereau’s controversial Intimacy, and Jim Jarmusch collaborator Glen McQuaid’s poetic, sub Hammer short, The Resurrection Apprentice.
After the plaudits attributed to the 25th Anniversary release of No Noise compilation (“They were one of the great bands that emerged (from the) post punk (period)” – Alan McGee) Eyeless In Gaza continue to display a characteristic “fierce independence” of style and attitude – with the release of Summer Salt & Subway Sun, issued via the band’s own A-Scale label...." [website info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Caught in Flux |
CD |
"Originally released in 1981, this is the first time "Caught In Flux" has been available on CD. The album features 17 tracks that includes the very rare "The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers" 12", which was only available with the original vinyl." [label info]
www.cherryred.co.uk
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Photographs as Memories |
CD |
"Eyeless in Gaza are a classic slice of Cherry Red history and this release is surely going to satisfy the Eyeless in Gaza/ Cherry Red completists everywhere. Martyn Bates and Peter Becker married a rare lyricism with technology in a unique way, enabling their work to still sound fresh and up to date. The album also includes bonus tracks from the ultra rare Invisibility and other singles." [label info]
www.cherryred.co.uk
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Rust Red September |
CD |
"A welcome re-promotion for this early and much sought after classic Eyeless In Gaza album. Martyn Bates and Peter Becker married a rare lyricism with technology in a unique way, enabling their work to still sound fresh and contemporary. This cd is augmented by 6 additional bonus tracks. Finally, for those film buffs out there, Eyeless In Gaza were recently included on the soundtrack to the controversial 'Intimacy'." [label info]
www.cherryred.co.uk
|
1994 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Summer Salt & Subway Sun |
do-CD |
Erweiterte Neu-Auflage des letzten EIG-Albums, kommt mit einer kompletten Bonus-CD in einer dickwandigen / überformatigen Box mit 16 Seiten Booklet! 600 Stück.
"Martyn Bates offers the following commentary on this huge set of recordings. "For me, one of the key impulses at work behind this set of recordings is an understanding of "The City", where individuals are clearly a microcosm within the macrocosm -- a distinct sense of a
'person' as a player on a stage with activity going on below them, around them, above them and also within them. The feeling is of
something at work that is always subterranean … a sense of the invisible machinations of men and Gods. This is evidently something
material -- namely, work being done in the here and now. It is an expression of something non-corporeal, however … of something bigger than 'spiritual', you might say. And yet it is holistic, and 'of the body' somehow. For me, this is a 'big picture' that makes perfect
sense: this context of living, as a body and a sprit -- where the THE CITY is resolutely an outward manifestation of the human psyche. This warming and awe inspiring thought was with me during the writing, arranging and recording of this mammoth set of recordings." [EIG mailing list]
"Standard 2CD edition. Standard edition of 600 copies are packaged in a deluxe full color book bound box, 16 page lyric booklet , full color book bound cd cases. Eyeless are an earful. Messrs Bates et Becker have miraculously come trembling through the decades musically unscathed. And yay though it is within the office of many bands to have precedents in other bands, EIG really only sound like Scriabin saw. Or like Stonehenge weeps. Or like cumulus clouds unite to make bunny shapes. Caught in flux, as usual, EIG are absolutely in top form. Martyn is in brilliant voice and sounds like an angel, and the harmonic house in which Peter and Martyn domicile this angel is the Taj Mahal. Or is it as simple and small as a poor carpenter’s cup, which some would call a grail? Either way, this is dope! The familiar old chunking guitar and baleful organ-synth are there as well as the swelling minor chord miasma of texture and noise that no human could possibly evoke. Oh wait, that’s right, humans ARE doing it! Care to go on sublime, long-form instrumental excursions through the centre of the Green Man’s bindu? EIG got it! Been itching to rock out to well written, post punk pop tunes? EIG got it!! Have you and your family been craving that astrally projected experimental fondue pot of swirling beauty and skewed rhythm that makes you feel like you’ve crawled back to the womb and the best chill room ever was there? EIG got it!!! Have you ever wondered if anyone can combine virtuoso musicianship and studio effects in a truly magical way that doesn’t make it seem like everything has been CGI’d in? EIG GOT IT!!!! Ebb and flow; high and low; cooked and raw. See Martyn. See Peter. See Eyeless. GO!!! Pulchritudinous all the way…as in ravishing…as in splendorous…as in metal pipes rattled in a driveway while someone is playing the piano. So many soft little things. So much perfectly appointed emptiness. Such sweetly crafted, quiet headbangers. Prosetry in words and music. Songs and un-songs. Some cadences and atmospheres even smell a bit like cosmic third stream jazz. This must be the 4th stream. Float down it. For once 2 CD’s isn’t even enough. How can it be that 2 people have made their umpteenth truly sublime album? Rumour has it they bought the stratosphere." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€19.00 |
|
|
All under the Leaves, the Leaves of Life |
CD |
"Released 16/03/09. Originally released in July 1996, All Under The Leaves, The Leaves Of Life is one of the most popular albums of this cult band's career, including such defining moments as Monstrous Joy and the title-track.
The package features a reproduction of the original artwork, plus the inclusion of two bonus tracks, Luscious Word and The Carnal & The Crane . The album received ecstatic reviews on release. For example, New York's wonderful Big Takeover magazine would state that [Martyn] Bates has an utterly unique voice and lyrical cadence, a soaring counterpart for his and Becker s intricately woven organic and electronic instrumentation. Every song carries like a holistic message borne from high on the breeze. The refinement and grace of EIG bears no comparisons. Three Ships is simply transcendent. EIG are a treasure, as uncommon and stunning today as ever." [label info]
"... Every song carries like a holistic message borne from High on the breeze. The refinement and grace of EIG bears no comparisons. ‘Three Ships’ is simply transcendant. EIG are a treasure, as uncommon and stunning today as ever." [Gil Gershman]
www.cherryred.co.uk
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Mania Sour |
CD |
" ❖ Completed June 2014 and recorded at Hansa Studios, Berlin and at A-Scale Studios, Nuneaton UK, Mania Sour is an album that serves up a different twist on the soundworlds Eyeless In Gaza have inhabited of late – perhaps suggesting new parallels on the abrasive stylings displayed on the band’s early 80’s classic albums Photographs as Memories and Caught in Flux. Offering a glorious blend of uniquely Eyeless type e-guitars & full-on percussion, Mania Sour presents a brash, strident set of distinctively Bates/Becker style songs that snarl n’ soar with passion and bite.
❖ With the core of the album recorded ‘live’ in the studio Mania Sour is overall an electric guitar n’ drums fuelled album, and it’s worth noting that, in terms of it’s subject matter the album is definitely not the jeremiad you might think were you to judge by the title alone. The ‘mania’ here is that of time passing and experience, of appetite and urge, of perseverance/persistence & determination – a hard-won sense of righteousness at that which must not be allowed to sour.
❖ Addressing inner worlds, inner spaces, delicate and violent possession, sharpened perceptions, and, significantly, the cry of the eternal – the ‘first songs’ of the will and how they find voice in the world – the long-serving Eyeless In Gaza duo of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker celebrate all of this, kicking hell out of guitars and drums on Mania Sour along the way while also offering glimpses of the madness of joy and the ways in which all of us increasingly find that it is only you that can save your own life – and that:
“If we are everywhere complicit, we are also everywhere active ….”.
Listen to Aether Tears from the album on Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/a-scale/aether-tears
Mania Sour is released via A-Scale on August 4th, 2014 and directly available from
http://www.eyelessingaza.com + later through iTunes & Amazon + Rough Trade." [label info]
www.eyelessingaza.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Skeletal Framework (The Cherry Red Recordings 1981-1986) |
5 x CD BOX |
• The complete Eyeless In Gaza Cherry Red recordings, compiled and curated by Martyn Bates and Pete Becker.
• 5CD clamshell box set featuring sleevenotes and extensive song-by-song reminisces by Martyn Bates.
• Their entire 1981-1986 output for the label re-worked into five thematic suites by the band, bringing new life and light to familiar and much-loved material.
• Includes the classics ‘Invisibility’, ‘Veil Like Calm’, Kodak Ghosts Run Amok’, ‘New Risen’ and many more.
• A brilliant introduction for the curious and a fascinating re-visit for long-term fans.
During the first half of the 1980s, few artists cut a path as individual and self-contained as Eyeless In Gaza. Over six albums and several classic singles, the duo followed their muse in multiple different directions at once, unrestrained by any desire to fit in with whatever was going on around them. Bursts of primal electronica sat comfortably alongside reflective ballads and lo-fi recordings and polished productions were equally valued, all of it pulled together by Martyn Bates’ unmistakable vocals and a singular, minimalist approach to songwriting.
Curated by Eyeless In Gaza, and accompanied by Martyn Bates’ song-by-song reflections on their work, ‘Skeletal Framework’ presents the band’s entire Cherry Red output re-cast as five themed suites (or perhaps even playlists), each reflecting one of their many sides. The group’s best-known work sits comfortably alongside deeper album cuts and rarities with interesting results, as the duo guide us back and forth across recordings spanning almost six years of one of Cherry Red’s most distinctive artists.
Track Listing:
DISC ONE
VOLUME ONE: LOOKING DAGGERS (ROCK and RHYTHMIC)
1 Looking Daggers
2 Skeletal Framework
3 Half Light
4 September Hills
5 The Feelings Mutual 6 In Your Painting
7 Fixation
8 Continual
9 Scale Amiss
10 Faceless
11 The Decoration
12 Voice From The Tracks
13 Whitewash
14 True Colour
15 Out From The Day-To-Day
16 Plague Of Years
17 Taking Steps (Original Version)
18 A Keepsake
19 From A To B
20 Soul On Thin Ice
21 Seven Years
22 Knives Replace Air
DISC TWO
VOLUME TWO: ROSE PETAL KNOT (POP TUNES etc)
1 Others
2 No Perfect Stranger
3 Twilight
4 One By One
5 Sweet Life Longer
6 Everpresent
7 Two
8 China Blue Vision
9 New Love Here
10 Speech Rapid Fire
11 Changing Stations
12 Sun Bursts In
13 Point You
14 Clear Cut Apparently
15 Veil Like Calm
16 Welcome Now
17 New Risen
18 Pencil Sketch
19 Picture The Day
20 Rose Petal Knot
21 Invisibility
22 Pearl And Pale
23 Keynote Inertia
24 Taking Steps
25 Kodak Ghosts Run Amok
DISC THREE
VOLUME THREE: YOUR RICH SKY
(Approximate BALLADS and SIMILAR)
1 Drumming The Beating Heart
2 Lie Still, Sleep Long
3 See Red
4 Bright Play Of Eyes
5 Corner Of Dusk
6 Before You Go
7 At Arms Length
8 Catch Me
9 No Noise
10 Evening Music
11 Every Which Way
12 Stealing Autumn
13 My Last, Lost Melody
14 Far Lands Blue
15 Your Rich Sky
16 Only Whispers
17 Leaves Are Dancing
18 Back From The Rains
19 Between These Dreams
20 Flight Of Swallows
21 Catch Me, Count Me, Catch Fire
DISC FOUR
VOLUME FOUR: STILL AIR (ATMOS-SONGS)
1 Light Sliding
2 Dusky Ruth
3 Ill Wind Blows
4 The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers
5 Inky Blue Sky
6 Throw A Shadow
7 Tall And White Nettles
8 Sixth Sense
9 Lights Of April
10 Scent Of Evening Air
11 Transience Blues
12 Through Eastfields
13 Lilt Of Music
14 To Ellen
15 Tell
16 Still Air
17 She Moves Thru The Fair
18 Blue Distance
DISC FIVE
VOLUME 5: DREAMING AT RAIN
(EXPERIMENTS and IMPROV)
1 Big Clipper Ship
2 Dreaming At Rain
3 Pale Saints
4 Lies Of Love
5 To Steven
6 John Of Patmos
7 Avenue With Trees
8 Sun Like Gold
9 Sheer Cliffs
10 Letters To She
11 Jane Dancing
12 Three Kittens
13 To Elizabeth S
14 Falling Leaf/Fading Flower;Goodbye To Summer
15 Warm Breath Soft And Slow
16 You Frighten
|
2022 |
€49.50 |
|
| EZRAMO |
Come ho imparato a volare |
LP |
"Ezramo: voice, piano, prepared zither, bells. For this project Ezramo recorded the sounds of larvae (sarchophaga carnaria) during their transformation into flies. Through rough sub-real field-recordings, she explores, interprets and lyrically re-invents the concept of metamorphosis. Gatefold sleeve, offset printing on paper. Limited to 300 copies, handnumbered." [label info]
www.corvorecords.de
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| F-SPACE |
Preliminary Impact Report |
CD |
Das Projekt mit Ethan Port (ex SAVAGE REPUBLIC), Aleph Kali (ex CHROME) und SCOT JENERIK, bester hypno-Noise-Rock mit Industrial-Einflüssen !!
***The first CD from proto-industrial pyro-punk transformers: F-SPACE -- SCOT JENERIK and ETHAN PORT (SAVAGE REPUBLIC), ALEPH KALI (CHROME) & JOEL CONNELL (MAN IS THE BASTARD) . Six massive, surprisingly accessible tracks of violently passionate, harmonic noisescapes -- delivered with sonic intricacy and homicidal tendencies. Camped in the vicinity of EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN ,THROBBING GRISTLE, ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE, SWANS and GLENN BRANCA. The result conjures an apocalyptic, feral, destructive trance state implying a catastrophic act of nature, a march through the desert on the path to war, or an offender's mental state during a crime of passion.” [label info]
"Some view PIR as the statement Savage Republic never made: a vivid portrayal of destruction, beauty, and simplicity" [East Bay Express, August 2004] |
2004 |
€9.00 |
|
| FABRIS, FRANCESCO & BEN FROST |
Vakning |
LP |
"More recently best regarded as soundtrack composer, Ben Frost here follows work with interdisciplinary sound artist Francesco Fabris on the ‘Dark’ OST with a plunge into purest rock music, as in the actual sound of molten material rising to the surface and solidifying. With an
impressionistic-artistic license also found in work by Chris Watson, Jana Winderen or Giuseppe Ielasi, the duo uncompromisingly revel in the sounds of nature’s biting point, using various production methods to make audible the sound of the earth beneath our feet in the process of
creation, on location at Fagradalsfjall, Reykjanes Peninsula Iceland. Here’s label boss Lawrence English on the subject “As stable as we might choose to think it is, this planet is anything but that. A paper thin crust,
the zone in which we find ourselves, and mostly concern ourselves with, exists as a modest veil cloaking a dynamic seismic turbulence that is as powerful as it is unknowable. There are moments though where ruptures occur. The pressure from within carves its way to, and through, the surface of the planet simultaneously delivering destruction and virgin landscapes, as primordial as any we might care to imagine. It is here, in these places, where we can literally see the living
planet, that geologic time is condensed and world building is made visible, and audible to us, in an
unrestrained and provocative detail. These volcanic ruptures, such as those captured on Vakning by Francesco Fabris and Ben Frost, speak to the very living geology of Earth. These recordings, captured at close range, exist at a nexus where liquid rock becomes solid. They capture moments of transformation, of obliteration
and of creation, often all at once. These are recordings of a living, material planet, dynamic and
unrestrained.”
https://benfrost.bandcamp.com/album/vakning
|
2023 |
€27.50 |
|
| FAGES, FERRAN |
A cavall entre dos cavalls |
CD |
"Ferran Fages, electric guitar. Self-tought musician, started playing guitar in the rock scene, but in 1998 stopped for re-thinking the instrument and the music made with it. In 2002 starts from zero, a process where music allows harmony to circulate without being dependent of itself, where time is the reason for exposed materials, always as compositions, never closed, where space is enough for permanent changes, everytime it is played. 'a cavall entre dos cavalls' is a exemple of that. The record process took 2 years, where different ideas have been compressed, mixed and amplified. It's hard to see the way that each composition took because of the different changes everytime the pieces were played. But I think that the recording made in June, documents at some extent, a moment of the undergoing process, it shows the basic lines where I move when it concerns guitar playing. The sound of the instrument had a very big importance for the process. The guitar is tuned 2 octaves lower than what I normally use in the bass amplifier." [label info]
www.creativesourcesrec.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| FALX CEREBRI (FâLX çèRêBRI) |
Trials Textures Errors |
CD |
"Almost 7 years in making, finally this milestone of pioneering & legendary german noise outfit is released - more than 25 years after the last recorded FâLX çèrêbRi track, compiles several contributions to compilations, as well as outtakes, erratic experiments, live cuts and unreleased tracks.
Release date is 28th July 2014. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
"If it wasn't for a German guy named Graf Haufen I would probably not have started a record label, even when it was a cassette label at that time. This was thirty years ago, the summer of 1984. I had a made a booklet, a sort of 'discogs-on-paper', listing all Dutch cassette releases and Graf Haufen wrote about it in his German fanzine, Die Katastrophe. He then informed if I'd be interested in compiling a cassette with the 'loudest' Dutch electronic music acts, which became 'Katacome Vol. 3', which was then co-released by his Schrei Records and my own Korm Plastics label. The second release was 'Rite 64', a tape by Falx Cerebri, the musical project of Graf Haufen. I was envious of what he did: selling music, doing art, doing fanzines, mail-art, music, studying and I was surprised to learn he was even four months younger than I was. For a while I assumed he was much older. While I am hardly an archivist of any kind, I still have a mailer right here, containing all of the correspondence I received from him, including all his fine print catalogues and we see a friendship grow and crumble together. Graf Haufen went into Neoism, was a bit too critical about my releases and mail-art - quite rightly probably - and quickly we lost contact. He went into art and video circles and I stayed with music. In the late 90s I re-issued all of the Korm Plastics cassettes on CDR and tracked Graf Haufen down, then owning a video store in Berlin, who gave me some nice bonus material for the Falx Cerebri CDR re-issue. In the very early days of the Vinyl On Demand label there was talk of some highly limited Falx Cerebri LPs, but they never emerged, so this CD is the first true document available (the CDR also disappeared a long time ago, sadly). But, so you may ask, was the music all about? Was it really something special? Browsing his old catalogues, Graf Haufen was interested in what he called 'anti-musick', by which he understood not just industrial music, but also cruder forms of musique concrete. On 'Rite 64' it's all a bit more 'classic' industrial, with synthesizers, radio snippets, tape-loops and delay, and thus perhaps a bit more musical, but on this CD the emphasis lies more in the electro-acoustic aspect of his work. I played both this one and 'Rite 64' again, and while I still like the latter, this new compilation of pieces is stronger. Here we have quite a bit of contact microphone abuse, 'Scanning No. 2' for instance, vocal pieces, field recordings and synthesizer pieces, such as the 'The Eighth Enochian Key'. Rudimentary tape loops are used, but also cut-up/collage/montage techniques, scratchy records and all of that and it make up a more than excellent release. The only thing, but really that's just me, I would have liked to know more about these pieces, where they were released, live, unreleased etc. A documentation of some kind if you will." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| FANTOMAS |
Delirium Cordia |
CD |
"The third full-length album from the all-star line-up of heavy-hitters MIKE PATTON (TOMAHAWK, MR. BUNGLE, etc.), BUZZ OSBORNE (MELVINS), DAVE LOMBARDO (SLAYER, GRIP INC.), and TREVOR DUNN (MR. BUNGLE). One extended track broken into several pieces, Delirium Cordia showcases the band's quieter side, offering a soundtrack to a very dark, fever-induced nightmare. Ambience, chaos and confusion abound." [label info]
www.ipecac.com
|
2004 |
€14.50 |
|
| FANUM |
Kerpg |
CD-R |
First album of this Russian project from Moscow, also active as DASEIN. Very deep & low rumbling dark drones, two long pieces, recommended for lovers of the extreme isolationist low frequency drones as created by AMON or CLOSING THE ETERNITY. Comes with handmade inlay, packed in large black fabric cloth sack, 68 copies made and sold out at the label.
http://kerpg.ohms.ru
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| FAR BLACK FURLONG |
same |
CD |
Sehr poetischer Impro-Drone eines uns bisher unbekannten Kollektivs aus England, das meiste Material wurde im Freien auf akustischen Instrumenten eingespielt...
"Far Black Furlong' is a rapturous, symphonic work in six movements. The music describes tides - from the summer breeze through barley, to the shimmering stretch of a vast ocean extending to the shifting birth pangs of stars. Much of the music was recorded at outdoor locations - such as the barley fields of the Clun Forest - and is performed on acoustic instruments. FBF comprise of baroque oboist Mark Baigent, composer Richard Moult, dulcimer player John Letcher, the Candian flautist Amanda Votta (of the group The Floating World), Shropshire poet Bryony Lees, guitarist Ian Tengwall & Andy Cotterill on electronics." [label info]
www.icrdistribution.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD / CDR |
Sehr poetischer Impro-Drone eines uns bisher unbekannten Kollektivs aus England, das meiste Material wurde im Freien auf akustischen Instrumenten eingespielt; einer limitierten Auflage von 150 Stück liegt das erste Album der Band ("HAIDD 2") in remixter Form bei, ein one-tracker Kleinod mit subtilen endlos entfernten Drones, melancholisch schimmernd...
"Far Black Furlong' is a rapturous, symphonic work in six movements. The music describes tides - from the summer breeze through barley, to the shimmering stretch of a vast ocean extending to the shifting birth pangs of stars. Much of the music was recorded at outdoor locations - such as the barley fields of the Clun Forest - and is performed on acoustic instruments. FBF comprise of baroque oboist Mark Baigent, composer Richard Moult, dulcimer player John Letcher, the Candian flautist Amanda Votta (of the group The Floating World), Shropshire poet Bryony Lees, guitarist Ian Tengwall & Andy Cotterill on electronics. ’Haidd 2’ a beautiful 34 minute remix/reworking of their previous album." [label info]
"... They are a band of oboist Mark Baigent, dulcimer player John Letcher, flautist Amanda Votta, guitarist Ian Tengwall, Andy Cotterill on electronics, along with composer Richard Moult and poet Bryony Lees. Outside in Clun Forest - and I mean outside - they performed much of this work, thus adding the outside world as part of the music. The six pieces, I am told, describes 'tides from the summer breeze through barley, to the shimmering stretch of a vast ocean extending to the shifting birth pages of stars'. It seems to me that the music is largely improvised but in a quiet and peaceful manner. Perhaps a little less modern classical than the Mouldycliff piece, although they get close. And in a good ICR (and Die Stadt) mode there is a limited CDR of music from the CD that is remix/reworked by Cotterill. Perhaps because he doesn't seem to be very present on the CD (or the electronics are save for some delay that is used), he gets his way in a full out treatment of the material, adding spooky electronics to the material, or perhaps feeding the material through electronics. Long sustaining sounds that sound a bit creepy like a wait for something veil and nasty to happen, which of course (spoiler coming up) doesn't happen. However the drone like character of this piece brings us back to the start of this review. ICR does drone music of an outstanding kind, but it's not at all exclusively to that, and offer various fresh views on the subject at hand." (FdW)
www.icrdistribution.com
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| FARYUS & VADIM BONDARENKO |
8 Atmospheres |
CD |
"This album is the successful combination between two different worlds: bewitched electronics from Faryus and meditative parts of piano and clarinet from Vadim Bondarenko. In addition, this CD contains poetic video clip created by Alexander Sveshnikov.
Welcome to the inner ambient dimension!.." [label notes]
www.faria.ru
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| FATHER MURPHY |
Lamentations |
10inch |
"The release of 'Lamentations', presented on 10-inch vinyl, completes Father Murphy's 2015 'Trilogy Of The Cross'. Inspired by a far from orthodox reading of the Book of Jeremiah and by the tradition of the Holy Week Lamentations, the Italian duo recorded two long compositions that feel like classic Father Murphy, but at the same time reveal a substantial enrichment of the band's usually spare sonic palette. For this project core members Rev. Murphy and Chiara Lee teamed up with producer Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen)." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| FAUST |
71 Minutes |
CD |
" '71 Minutes' erschien in etwas abgewandelter Form 2001 als Teil der 5-CD-Box "The Wümme Years" mit verändertem Cover (schwarzweiß, anderer Schriftzug) und teilweise anderen Betitelungen der Stücke. Nach den Angaben auf der Website von Faust stammen die Stücke "Munic A" und "Munic B" (in der Wümme-Box heißen sie "Munic/Yesterday" und "Knochentanz") von 1975, die anderen Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 1971-1973.
Es handelt sich hier um eine ähnlich kuriose Sammlung wie "The Faust Tapes", vielleicht nicht ganz so wüst und durcheinander. Faust zeigen auch hier wieder ihre Ausnahmestellung in der Krautrockszene, wobei die Musik oft recht wenig mit "Rock" im eigentlichen Sinne zu tun hat.
Herausragend sind die beiden Teile oder Variationen von "Munic", vor allem "Munic A". Monoton hämmern sich elektronische Rhythmen, die eher einer Fabrik als einem Instrument entsprungen scheinen, ins Ohr, hämmern sich gnadenlos ins Hirn. Dazu ein ebenso monotones Schlagzeug, seltsame Stimmen und Geräusche - viel mehr passiert eigentlich nicht. Heutzutage würde man so was "Industrial Music" nennen. Ein zeitloses Werk, das man nicht ohne weiteres in die 70er Jahre einordnen würde!
Ansonsten gibt es hier seltsame Klangcollagen, gnadenlos sägende Gitarren bis hin zu punkigen Ausbrüchen ("Baby"), aber auch leisere, manchmal geradezu lyrische Stücke wie "Das Meer", "Party 8" oder "Psalter".
Insgesamt zeigt sich hier mal wieder, dass der Krautrock nicht einfach nur eine vorübergehende Erscheinung war, sondern die Entwicklung der populären Musik bis heute ganz entscheidend beeinflusst hat. Empfehlenswert!“ [Babyblaue Seiten]
“Re-released, now in digipak packaging. Combines the late 80s posthumous 5th & 6th Faust LPs: Munich & Elsewhere/Return Of A Legend LP ("various unreleased tapes intended for release") and The Last LP (the '71 "Faust Party" tapes ). Recordings are from Faust's classic era, 1971-3.” [label info]
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
|
C'est com...com...complique |
CD |
"Gewohnt mythisch: neuntes Studioalbum einer sehr lebendigen Krautrock-Legende.
Gegründet 1970 in Hamburg sind Faust eine der wichtigsten Protagonisten des Krautrocks und weltweit verehrte Pioniere avantgardistischer Rockmusik. "Es gibt keine mythischere Gruppe als Faust", schrieb der englische Musikexzentriker Julian Cope in seinem Genreklassiker "Krautrocksampler" und bringt damit auf den Punkt, was sowohl die Musik als auch den Habitus der Hamburger Band angeht: Sie sind immer schwer zu fassen. Für die einen waren Faust das Beste, was der Rockmusik je passiert ist, die anderen warfen ihnen Dilettantismus vor. Spätestens seit Postrock in den Neunzigern erleben Faust eine Wiederentdeckung. Ihr neuntes Studioalbum "C’est com ... com ... compliqué" produzierte der Soundtüftler Tobias Levin. Es wurde eingespielt von Jean-Hervé Peron und Werner "Zappi" Diermaier sowie Amaury Cambuzat (Ulan Bator). Gewohnt dadaistische (meist französische) Texte begleiten sporadisch ausufernde, repetitive Patterns. In der Musik vereinen sich scheinbar widersprüchliche Attribute: Sie ist wuchtig und sanft, monoton und melodisch, erdig und ätherisch - schlicht einzigartig." [label info]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Lady Sorrow |
7" |
"Während einer 3 tägigen Probe für die aktuellen Konzerte der Formation "Faust" im Clouds Hill Recordings, fand sich Jean Herve Peron im Regieraum ein, wo Johann Scheerer gerade das aktuelle Karamel Album "Maschinen" mischte. Jean Herves Frage, nach Hören des Playbacks, ob es sich um eine isländische Band handle, hatte eine längere Diskussion über Island sowie verschrobene Musik zur Folge, in der die Idee geboren wurde, dass die Gruppe Faust zum ersten mal in ihrer Geschichte ein Lied covert. Den Opener "Sorge" der Platte Maschinen. Einen Roughmix des Stückes findet man auf der CD zum amerikanischen Vice Magazin. Der finale Mix exklusiv auf dieser 7"." [label info] |
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Something Dirty |
LP |
"Mit Faust meldet sich eine der dienstältesten deutschen Bands zurück. Aber was heißt zurück? In den vergangenen Jahren war die Gruppe um Jean-Hervé Peron und Zappi Diermaier sehr aktiv. Auf "Something Dirty" legen die beiden Krautrock-Pioniere zusammen mit James Johnston (Gallon Drunk, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) sowie der englischen Künstlerin und Musikerin Geraldine Swayne ein weiteres außergewöhnliches Album vor. Hier geht es sehr hypnotisch zu, repetetiv, melodisch, erhebend, psychedelisch, bedrohlich, dadaistisch, ätherisch. Johnstons Gitarre sägt sich durch Diermaiers archaische
Beats, harmonisch angereichert durch Perons wuchtigen Bass und Swaynes psychedelisches Tastenspiel. Immer wieder besinnen sich Faust auf ihre avantgardistischen Wurzeln und experimentieren mit Stimmen und ungewöhnlichen Instrumenten. Aber das Beste ist: Faust haben es auf "Something Dirty" tatsächlich geschafft, die rohe Energie und Ungeschliffenheit ihrer Liveauftritte im Studio zu reproduzieren. Eine
atemberaubende Hörerfahrung! "Es gibt keine mythischere Gruppe als Faust" (Julian Cope)." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2011 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Something Dirty |
CD |
"Mit Faust meldet sich eine der dienstältesten deutschen Bands zurück. Aber was heißt zurück? In den vergangenen Jahren war die Gruppe um Jean-Hervé Peron und Zappi Diermaier sehr aktiv. Auf "Something Dirty" legen die beiden Krautrock-Pioniere zusammen mit James Johnston (Gallon Drunk, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) sowie der englischen Künstlerin und Musikerin Geraldine Swayne ein weiteres außergewöhnliches Album vor. Hier geht es sehr hypnotisch zu, repetetiv, melodisch, erhebend, psychedelisch, bedrohlich, dadaistisch, ätherisch. Johnstons Gitarre sägt sich durch Diermaiers archaische
Beats, harmonisch angereichert durch Perons wuchtigen Bass und Swaynes psychedelisches Tastenspiel. Immer wieder besinnen sich Faust auf ihre avantgardistischen Wurzeln und experimentieren mit Stimmen und ungewöhnlichen Instrumenten. Aber das Beste ist: Faust haben es auf "Something Dirty" tatsächlich geschafft, die rohe Energie und Ungeschliffenheit ihrer Liveauftritte im Studio zu reproduzieren. Eine
atemberaubende Hörerfahrung! "Es gibt keine mythischere Gruppe als Faust" (Julian Cope)." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
j US t (Just us) |
LP & CD |
"Die Hamburger Krautrock-Pioniere mit einem Überraschungspaket aus Avantgarde, Dada und Folk.
Die Hamburger Band Faust gehört zu den großen Namen, die der Krautrock der 1970er-Jahre hervorgebracht hat. Als Jean-Hervé Péron und Zappi Diermaier 1971 ihr Debütalbum vorlegten, wollte das in Deutschland niemand hören, im Ausland jedoch verkauften sich "The Faust Tapes" über 100.000-mal. "There is no group more mythical than Faust", schwärmte der englische Musiker und Krautrock-Kenner Julian Cope Jahrzehnte später. Mit "Just Us" setzen Faust ihren musikalischen Weg fort. Während Diermaier seinem Handwerk - Schlagzeug und Perkussion - treu bleibt, integriert Peron allerhand unübliche Klangquellen in sein Bassspiel, verschiedene Streichinstrumente, Klavier und sogar eine Nähmaschine als Metronom. Tracks wie "Nur nous" und "Ich bin ein Pavian" zeigen, dass Faust nichts von ihrer Vorliebe für Avantgarde und Dadaismus verloren haben. Ausflüge ins folkloristische Gefilde ("Cavaqui-ho", "Gammes") runden das wahrhaft faustische Überraschungspaket ab. //
j US t - pronounced "Just Us" - is the new album from legendary Hamburg band Faust. Founder members Jean-Herve Peron and Zappi Diermaier have laid down twelve musical foundations, inviting the whole world to use them as a base on which to build their own music. The tracks presented by Peron and Diermaier are clearly, intrinsically typical of Faust in their own right, yet offer enough space for completely different works to develop. Which is exactly what they hope will happen. Whilst Diermaier largely remains true to his habitual handiwork - drums and percussion - Peron, as we might expect, incorporates all manner of unusual sonic sources alongside his bass, various string instruments and piano, even using a sewing machine as a metronome. Tracks like "nur nous" and "ich bin ein pavian" show that Faust have lost none of their predilection for avantgarde Dadaism and improvisation. Peron and Diermaier actually surprise us with folkloristic excursions ("cavaquinho", "gammes"). In short, there is something for everyone to work with here. Peron and Diermaier await the results with bated breath. Faust will follow the same principle on the accompanying tour by inviting local artists to collaborate with them on stage." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
"Faust’s intentions have never been easy to discern. Over their 40-plus years of morphing, discontinuous existence, they’ve been so good at dodging expectations and confounding analysis that even when they’re playing it straight, you wonder if something else is going on. So when the press sheet for j US t (pronounced "just us") claims the band is "inviting the whole world to use [the album] as a base on which to build their own music," it’s hard not to get suspicious. Is this a decoy? Do Jean-Hervé Peron and Zappi Diermaier want you to imagine other music so you won’t focus on theirs? Is it simply a way to say "if you don’t like it, make your own"?
Perhaps Faust truly are earnest about wanting this album to inspire public collaboration. But the idea does point to something that’s always been intriguing about Faust’s music: it’s often just as much about what they aren’t playing as what they are. Their work is full of implications and innuendos, spaces waiting to be filled in. j US t doesn’t necessarily have more of that than most Faust albums, but implication does seem to be a main theme here. This is music in which every note suggests many more possibilities.
j US t begins by proclaiming more than intimating, and in this way it bears an uncanny resemblance to the last Faust effort, 2011’s stellar Something Dirty. That record began with three bold, practically rocking tunes, and so does this one. Based around simple riffs and looping beats, these songs are like free-form post-rock, sturdy in their rhythms but opened-ended in their direction. And despite how well-defined the base of each track is, there’s also tantalizing space in each one. Take "80Hz", whose simple two-note bass figure flows beautifully with the well-timed accents of Diermaier’s percussion and Peron’s sonic grab bag. At times it dips to near-silence, in other places it crests to frantic peaks, but throughout it maintains a tension that compels attention.
The balance between action and suggestion tips more toward the latter for the rest of j US t, in ways both fascinating and frustrating. Some songs maintain the attraction of anticipation, hinting at where they might go without ever fully abandoning other options. But others feel more flat than ripe, not so much flirting with tense silence as drifting into empty inertia. One in particular, the seven-minute "Palpitations", is mostly limp. Its intermittent percussion and electronic squiggles sound more random than impulsive, making it the only instance on the album where I find myself wishing I could already hear other bands filling it in.
It takes a few tracks to recover from that mid-album drop, but Faust manage to rebound on closer "Ich Sitze Immer Noch", whose slow, rising lope sounds like a sunny homage to Spiderland-era Slint. Like the bulk of j US t, it offers a lot worth hearing and just as much worth daydreaming about—in other words, it achieves the band's stated goals. Maybe Peron and Diermaier really did mean what they said." [Marc Masters / PITCHFORK]
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA |
Surfaces |
LP |
"Gianluca Favaron returns on Silentes with the second release in the prestigious “Private Sounds” series. Besides having published some solo works, Favaron is part of Under The Snow along with Stefano Gentile and collaborates with Ennio Mazzon on the Zbeen project. In the past he has released music as Ab'she and was part of Lasik Surgery along with Pierpaolo Zoppo. Among his most recent releases we remember his collaboration with Corrado Altieri entitled "The System of Objects". "Surfaces" is a modern electronic composition that was inspired by a series of Polaroids pictures taken by Favaron himself, whose basic idea is to create some patterns based on the repetition of small sound particles obtained with the fewest possible sources. The six parts of “Surfaces” were created recording the sounds of individual objects (... paper, scissors, stones, kitchen items, etc.), which were subsequently treated - mainly with two delay machines - and then assembled in the computer domain. A few digital sounds were added for good measure, but always trying to use the fewest number of sound sources in every part of the composition. The finished result is a series of particular sonic events that keep on chasing each other and give life to a microcosm populated with slowly evolving rhythmic loops that lull the listener into a sort of pleasant inner dance.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, "Surfaces" is a single-sided 12" record released in a standard edition of 86 copies. A special "Art Edition" is also available: the 13 copies of this edition contain a 30x30cm print reproduction from the Polaroid series that inspired the audio work, and the corresponding Polaroid picture." [label info]
http://13.silentes.it
"And then, finally, a solo work of Favaron, also on an one sided LP - both of these LPs are highly limited to less then 100 copies and are pressed on grey vinyl. Skip what I said about drone/ambient in Favaron's work, as on his solo LP he's taking the work he did with Corrado Altieri to another level. Here we have clearly acoustic sounds, which the cover describes as 'objects', and 'effects'. It seems to me these objects are being strummed, hit or banged and then sampled and fed through a bunch of effects. Here too we are dealing with the more louder areas of musique concrete, but unlike the CD with Altieri, the pieces are shorter here, almost in a sketch like fashion, going all over the acoustic spectrum, cutting in and out with the electronic transformations there of. The objects are used clear and dry, even when not revealing what these objects are, but in the process of mixing, all sorts of transformations are used to make a nice vibrant mix of all stages of the transformation
process. Not always very noisy, such as in the fourth (and longest) piece, but it's a fine mixture of loud and quiet, through some highly intelligent compositions/improvisations (hard to make up my mind here). I thought it was fine that Under The Snow was a single sided record, but here I wouldn't have minded a second side with more music. This all sounded great." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA & STEFANO GENTILE |
Entretien |
CD & booklet |
"The project sources from "in black" images taken by Stefano Gentile. Takes that flow in the most hidden sides of the soul. Gianluca Favaron gives sounds these images with notes that don't let space to imagination. Fields recordings and electronics to telle the same visions. The same soulmoods. The work is released with a A/4 16 pages booklet featuring the workshop by Stefano Gentile and a cd with sounds by Gianluca. The edition is 230 copies limited." [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA / ANACLETO VITOLO |
Zolfo |
CD |
"Zolfo" is born by the collaboration between Gianluca Favaron and Anacleto Vitolo. Both involved in many projects and music collaborations - Favaron with Corrado Altieri, Deison and in groups like Lasik Surgery, Maribor, Zbeen and Under The Snow; Vitolo with Doublebass player Francesco Galatro, Viola player Michela Coppola, Domenico Stellavatecascio (Internos) and many other.
The album was composed, recorded, and mixed between January and May 2016 and is a mix of several music elements and techniques, such as tape loops, cymbals, microphonic works and live electronic processing. The result is a combination of musique concrète, noise and drone music.
Gianluca Favaron:
As electroacoustic musician, his work focuses on the processing of concrete sounds using software made on purpose. Field-recordings, drones: an approach that uses different music languages, to elaborate, merge or transform sounds made by everyday objects into something different, both taking them out of context and/or processing and modifying them with various effects. .
In 2015 he has released the CD albums "Entretien" on 13/Silentes and "Forget About Any Non-Gray" on MFU /Concrete
Anacleto Vitolo:
Anacleto Vitolo A.K.A. AV-K / K.lust / Kletus.K part of several collectives such as X(i)NEON, Internos and Algebra del Bisogno, born August 2, 1985 in Battipaglia (SA), Italy.In 2010 and 2014 took part in “FLUSSI” festival sharing the same stage with some of the most important musicians of the contemporary electronic scene as Murcof, Thomas Fehlmann, Vladislav Delay, Retina.it, Emanuele Errante, Mokira, Mount Kimbie, etc. In 2013 signs a contract as Publishing Artist with FatCat. In 2015 takes part to MiRA festival in Barcelona with Andy Stott, Ben Frost, Richard Devine, Prefuse 73, Nosaj Thing and many others. He's the CO-Director of Manyfeetunder label, alongside with Vincenzo Nava ( dramavinile, UHVA) and Cogwheel Press Rec. Active with a lot of collaborations and releases.
credits
mfu/c 010 | sps1616
Gianluca Favaron : tapes, objects, microphones, analog and digital effects
Anacleto Vitolo: live electronics, cymbals, laptop, objects
"Crispy, crunchy, and crackly ~ these are the sounds of Zolfo. In real life, we hear such sounds in crumpling paper and leaves underfoot. In the electronic realm, they surface in cellphones, computers and amplifier feedback. Blend organic and electronic, as Gianluca Favaron and Anacleto Vitolo have done, and one will hear a padded melange, thicker than the timbres one is accustomed to hearing outside of a factory setting. So yes, that may be a church bell in the title track, stuttered and looped ~ but it may be the imitation of a church bell, the mind struggling to define and categorize what it is hearing.
To prepare this album, the artists used a wide variety of sources, from cymbals to laptops, along with the vague term “objects”. Favaron in particular is enamored with decontextualization. Just because something sounds like a singing bowl (“Infrasound”) doesn’t mean it is a singing bowl; and if it is, Favaron and Vitolo have found a new purpose for its thrum. And all the while, drones and hums intrude, eager to colonize the sonic field, while glitches and pops decorate the drones like sparkling debris in a raging river.
This is the thicker, busier end of the electroacoustic spectrum, a genre that lacks distinguishing tags, simply because there is so little of it. I call it particle accelerator music (PAM), as it sounds like agitated atoms. “Oblivion” highlights a scuttling sound, like that of the crablike creature racing across the floor in the medical lab of Aliens. Because the sonic field is constantly in motion, it’s hard to get a handle on the heart of these compositions; one drinks them like carbonation. On “Fold-in”, a welcome warmth is added by bells and horns, although the title makes one think of an egg dropped in batter. Thankfully, the metaphor fits. “Reflection” seems to contain power tools, sirens and broken glass, intimating a shattered mirror, or by extension, a shattered sense of self. Only in the album’s closing seconds does humanity make an appearance: pleasant banter and laughter, the lab coats packed away, the atoms free to collide, no longer performing under watchful eyes." [Richard Allen/A closer listen]
https://manyfeetunderconcrete.bandcamp.com/album/zolfo |
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| FE-MAIL |
Voluptuous Vultures |
10inch |
Wow, these girls are dangerous !! A slowly developing noise piece on side A, which begins very calm and droney and turns into something & harsh furious. The two pieces on Side B are also great with machine-like noise-structures, totally fragmented & effected voice-extracts, and more crazy cut-up sounds and weird concrete collages. Great record.
“Standard Edition of 470 on black vinyl in full color foldover jacket, features absolutely stunning photos of these 2 vultures! 10”
HOW CAN THIS MUCH NOISE COME FROM THESE 2 BEAUTIFUL CREATURES!!!!! Crazy Maja vocals! Insane Hild noise! More mayhem than one should be allowed to enjoy!!!! Psychocticly Hypnotic! September Release!” [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.50 |
|
| FEAR DROP |
No. 12 |
mag & CD |
Another great issue by Denis Boyers magazine (who also runs the FARIO-label) - even if you can’t speak french this is worth investigating because of the general nice-layout, photos, discographies, and of course the additional CD with the usual exclusive material !!
In the mag & on the CD: PLANETALDOL, MITCHELL AKIYAMA, FURUDATE, AIDAN BAKER, OLDINE, PHILIP JECK, MAIN, DITHER, BIG articles on E.G. LEWIS, ROBERT HAMPSON, PHILIP JECK, etc....
www.feardrop.net |
2005 |
€10.50 |
|
|
No. 15: SAIWALA - enquete sur l'esthetique musicale du vent |
mag & CD |
"Au sommaire : La belle ambiante, pour une cinématique des musiques bourdonnantes - Saiwala - Analogies : nature et musique - De l'arbre chantant à la harpe éolienne - Wind drops : Chris Watson et BJ Nilsen - Winds(c)haft : autour de disques de Francisco López, Alan Lamb, Yannick Dauby et Wan-Shuen Tsai, Tarab, Eric La Casa, Leif Elggren, Michael Northam, Bruno Moreigne - Les traces du vent dans le travail de Cédric Peyronnet / toy.bizarre - Vers la plaine. (par Denis Boyer, Julie Ramos, Jérôme Langlais, Cédric Peyronnet, Laurent Margantin)" [label info]
www.feardrop.net
"... My French, despite my name, is not really that good (anymore?), but I gather it as to be very obvious that all of these pages and pieces deal with wind, the sound of wind. In the magazine there are articles on drone music via three principle labels, Afe Records, Taalem and Drone Records, of nature and music history, BJ Nilsen & Chris Watson, an in-depth tale of CDs that deal with wind and Toy Bizarre. Probably a nice read, as far as I can judge that. We find many usual suspects on the CD, like Jana Winderen, BJ Nilsen, Michael Northam, Bruno Moreigne, Cedric Peyronnet, Francisco Lopez and Chris Watson, who all deliver their wind inspired pieces. The main power lies however with pieces by others, who use wind sounds to create more musical pieces. Some, I suspect, even use fake winds sounds coming from synthesizers. Here we find pieces by the [Law-Rah] collective, Thomas Koner, Tetsuo Furudate, Black To Comm and Philippe Petit. Frederique Bruyas has a spoken word piece on wind. Greatest surprise is to have a piece by Mike Harding, headhoncho of Touch, with a pretty rare musical piece of himself. The mixture of pure field recordings, processed field recordings and musical pieces is a great one, put together with some idea of how these things should be done. Excellent, even when the language is a bit of a barrier." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
No. 17: Arctic Antiphon - L'imaginaire musical des glaces |
mag & CD |
"Fear Drop 17 : Arctic Antiphon – 2014
L’imaginaire musical des glaces - Imaginary Ice Soundscapes
Revue + CD Polar Twist (10 morceaux inédits par : Thomas Köner, Final (J.K. Broadrick), COH, Jana Winderen, Netherworld, Marc Namblard, Harpagès, Galati, Halspirit, Aidan Baker.
Interviews : Thomas Köner, Jana Winderen, Alessandro Tedeschi
Articles : Musiques d’évocation : T. Köner, K.Schulze, Troum / A. Baker, J. Hudak et S. Mathieu, L. English, Øe & E. Coniglio, Materia Aurora, SleepResearchFacility, L. Marchetti, Tünel, M. Mantra, Penumbra, Lull, Biosphere, Galati, Parhelion, Netherworld, Glacial Movements (Bvdub, Oöphoi, Rapoon…).
Musiques d’exploration : J. Winderen, M. Namblard, D. Quin, J.F. Laporte, C. Olan
Musiques des Inuits : 55 historical recordings" [label info]
www.feardrop.net
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| FEAR FALLS BURNING |
The Amplifier Drone |
LP |
Second Vinyl-album by ex VIDNA OBMANA Dirk Serries, which sounds somehow like the meeting point of SUNN O))) and AIDAN BAKER or old ULTRA MILKMAIDS, completed with real heavy riffs, always drenched in some kind of feedback-ocean.... a mighty meditation.
“lp pressed on white vinyl, limited to 500 copies, with postcard. tonefloat is proud to announce a joint tonefloat/ikon vinyl release of the amplifier drone, a release to celebrate fear falls burning's upcoming spring tour. heavier and a good deal darker than the recent c release the carnival of ourselves. the amplifier drone has been recorded in collaboration with blues guitarist paul van den berg.” [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2006 |
€18.00 |
|
|
I'm one of those Monsters numb with Grace |
CD |
"... beide CDs sind da natürlich erstmal für die interessant, die die limitierten LPs nicht haben, aber, nicht nur für die: neben schickem cover-artwork (martina verhoeven + carl clover/aleph) und genau so schicker ausführung als pappschuber, kommen beide reissues mit je einem, dafür gleich ellenlangen (27.57 + 34.22) bonustrack: "and the land torn down" (live aufgenommen von ronald marien am 16. may 2006 bei den audio-unit living room concerts in hamburg) und "dead wisdom". ersterer in unbedingt vergleichbarer qualität zu den auf "the infinite sea of sustain" kompilierten 6 konzerten, allerdings, im gegensatz zu den meisten der dort versammelten (und auch im gegensatz zu dem auf "the rainbow mirrors a burning heart" konservierten live-set) vollständig auf langsamen, fast endlosen aufbau setzend; ohne breaks, ohne harmonische veränderung, fast ein suchspiel, was sich / ob sich überhaupt etwas verändert / ab einem bestimmten punkt (etwas) verändert hat. perfekte ergänzung der oben genannten und musterbeispiel für "wie lange laufzeiten gleichzeitig hypnotisch UND abwechslungsreich anlegen“. "dead wisdom" dann gleich vom start weg sperriger; passt ja, ist / war die original "numb" ja auch schon. und viele der sounds auf "dead wisdom" sprechen dafür, dass alle drei stücke aus der gleichen session stammen. siehe z.b. die von mir damals als fast twang / surf / dub abstraktionen etikettierten, leicht schrägen, abstürzenden flächen, die auch hier, schon innerhalb der ersten 10 minuten, auftauchen. und nach ungefähr der hälfte der spielzeit auslaufen und vorgeben, das stück beenden zu wollen. nach dieser antäuschung dann der echte auslauf, fast 20 minuten lang...
und tatsächlich: die "numb" bleibt auch in der extended version noch immer so ein ding ohne fassbaren anfang, ohne fassbares ende... irgendwie faszinierend." [N, Unruhr.de]
"when the carnival of ourselves and i'm one of those monster numb with grace were originally released, dirk serries had only just started recording under the name of fear falls burning. the albums turned out to be decisive in shaping his vision of an ongoing drone-manifesto: during several exploratory sessions initiated in mid-2005, he quickly expanded the project's catalogue by a staggering eight releases within a single year. these would take the cosmic, post-rock- and kraut-infused production of his early recordings into new directions and eventually lead up to his current, raw and unpolished symbiosis of hypnotic guitar power and percussive thunder. the carnival of ourselves was the first full-length to follow the double-album »he spoke in dead tongues« and pointed towards an immersive and ghostly ambient sound. an extensive european tour, however, catalysed the inclusion of rock elements and heralded the advent of a more edgey and tribal approach: i'm one of those monster numb with grace, especially, was an important record, as it aligned the more refined studio output of fear falls burning with its direct and passionate live sound.
as these strictly limited releases sold out in no time (resulting in numerous requests for a second print), tonefloat and fear falls burning decided to leave the legacy of the vinyl untouched and to reissue both albums on cd - featuring new cover designs and bonus tracks culled from the abovementioned sessions. the astounding quality of these discoveries from the vault should convince even those already in possession of a vinyl copy: the twenty-eight-minute »and the land torn down« (on the carnival of ourselves) at first seems to build into a dense, dirge-like drone-sheet but intruigingly cools off to a disturbing soundscape haunted by muffled feedback and echoes of theremin-chants. the monumental bonus track to i'm one of those monster numb with grace, »dead wisdom«, meanwhile, would have made for a complete album in its own right: thirty-four minutes of subcutaneous feedback hum lead the listener down a spiral staircase into a place of deep calm and tantric concentration." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
|
The Carnival of ourselves |
CD |
"... beide CDs sind da natürlich erstmal für die interessant, die die limitierten LPs nicht haben, aber, nicht nur für die: neben schickem cover-artwork (martina verhoeven + carl clover/aleph) und genau so schicker ausführung als pappschuber, kommen beide reissues mit je einem, dafür gleich ellenlangen (27.57 + 34.22) bonustrack: "and the land torn down" (live aufgenommen von ronald marien am 16. may 2006 bei den audio-unit living room concerts in hamburg) und "dead wisdom". ersterer in unbedingt vergleichbarer qualität zu den auf "the infinite sea of sustain" kompilierten 6 konzerten, allerdings, im gegensatz zu den meisten der dort versammelten (und auch im gegensatz zu dem auf "the rainbow mirrors a burning heart" konservierten live-set) vollständig auf langsamen, fast endlosen aufbau setzend; ohne breaks, ohne harmonische veränderung, fast ein suchspiel, was sich / ob sich überhaupt etwas verändert / ab einem bestimmten punkt (etwas) verändert hat. perfekte ergänzung der oben genannten und musterbeispiel für "wie lange laufzeiten gleichzeitig hypnotisch UND abwechslungsreich anlegen“. "dead wisdom" dann gleich vom start weg sperriger; passt ja, ist / war die original "numb" ja auch schon. und viele der sounds auf "dead wisdom" sprechen dafür, dass alle drei stücke aus der gleichen session stammen. siehe z.b. die von mir damals als fast twang / surf / dub abstraktionen etikettierten, leicht schrägen, abstürzenden flächen, die auch hier, schon innerhalb der ersten 10 minuten, auftauchen. und nach ungefähr der hälfte der spielzeit auslaufen und vorgeben, das stück beenden zu wollen. nach dieser antäuschung dann der echte auslauf, fast 20 minuten lang...
und tatsächlich: die "numb" bleibt auch in der extended version noch immer so ein ding ohne fassbaren anfang, ohne fassbares ende... irgendwie faszinierend." [N, Unruhr.de]
"when the carnival of ourselves and i'm one of those monster numb with grace were originally released, dirk serries had only just started recording under the name of fear falls burning. the albums turned out to be decisive in shaping his vision of an ongoing drone-manifesto: during several exploratory sessions initiated in mid-2005, he quickly expanded the project's catalogue by a staggering eight releases within a single year. these would take the cosmic, post-rock- and kraut-infused production of his early recordings into new directions and eventually lead up to his current, raw and unpolished symbiosis of hypnotic guitar power and percussive thunder. the carnival of ourselves was the first full-length to follow the double-album »he spoke in dead tongues« and pointed towards an immersive and ghostly ambient sound. an extensive european tour, however, catalysed the inclusion of rock elements and heralded the advent of a more edgey and tribal approach: i'm one of those monster numb with grace, especially, was an important record, as it aligned the more refined studio output of fear falls burning with its direct and passionate live sound.
as these strictly limited releases sold out in no time (resulting in numerous requests for a second print), tonefloat and fear falls burning decided to leave the legacy of the vinyl untouched and to reissue both albums on cd - featuring new cover designs and bonus tracks culled from the abovementioned sessions. the astounding quality of these discoveries from the vault should convince even those already in possession of a vinyl copy: the twenty-eight-minute »and the land torn down« (on the carnival of ourselves) at first seems to build into a dense, dirge-like drone-sheet but intruigingly cools off to a disturbing soundscape haunted by muffled feedback and echoes of theremin-chants. the monumental bonus track to i'm one of those monster numb with grace, »dead wisdom«, meanwhile, would have made for a complete album in its own right: thirty-four minutes of subcutaneous feedback hum lead the listener down a spiral staircase into a place of deep calm and tantric concentration." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Woes of the desolate Mourner |
CD |
"Ursprünglich als kleine durchsichtige 7″ auf gleichem Label erschienen gibt es Woes Of The Desolate Mourner nun in voller Länge mit Bonusmaterial auf CD. Der Titeltrack, hier nur mit seiner Gesamtspieldauer betitelt und gegenüber der Single eben uneditiert und deshalb um gute fünf Minuten länger rieselt wie feiner Staub von der Decke. Die Drones sind äußerst fein und kaum greifbar: wie aus einer ultrafein eingestellten Spritzdrüse. Sie setzen immer mit einem Sirren ein, einen Anschlag oder einen klar gegriffenen Akkord kann man hier nicht erkennen. Wie eine Farbe wirken die zarten Gitarrenklänge auf ihre Umwelt ein. Sie überziehen alles und verändern den Charakter der materiellen Welt. Litany In A Time Of Plague setzt dem Ganzen die Krone auf. In wahrhaftigen, seufzenden fast schon orgelartigen Klängen schraubt sich eine Spirale empor. Die beklemmende Atmosphäre erinnert an die ersten Synthakkorde auf Coils Astral Disaster Album. Jauchzend, isoliert, düster. Passend zum etwas pathetischen Titel des Tracks. Großartiger Reissue!" [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| FEAR KONSTRUKTOR |
Nonexistence |
7inch |
"Fear Konstruktor is Nikita Evsuk, a Moscovite and this is his first vinyl release. Two tracks of disturbingly dark droning ambience and industrial clatterings, that stay the right side of noisy! Fear Konstruktor is a brave new sound from Russia, inspired by brightness and vibrance of modern the world. However it contains retro-futuristic touch as seen through the prism of ultramodern devices. All that chik-chik and wao-wao are just words of the significant phrase...Listening to FK is being inside yourself and outside our Universe at the same time. Because those billions of living sounds are caught for you by the daring one. Limited to 300 copies on black vinyl, with insert." [label info]
www.peripheralrecords.co.uk
|
2011 |
€7.50 |
|
| FEARTHAINNE |
same |
do-CD |
FEARTHAINNE ist ein Band-Projekt mit den zwei Leuten von FAUNA, die mir ihrem Debut-Album kürzlich beeindrucken konnten. Auch hier sind ihre tracks episch angelegt und minimal instrumentiert, und nicht minder emotional wirkungsvoll. Nach einem fantastischen Poly-Drone Intro setzt sich ihr erhaben trauriger Akustik-Gitarren Folk (der an ruhigere NEUROSIS bzw. STEVE ON TILL oder MICHAEL GIRA erinnert) in Szene, der von Sehnsucht nur so durchdrungen zu sein scheint, begleitet von sparsamer Perkussion; auch Zither & Violine werden sehr schön integeriert. FEARTHAINNE entwerfen hier auf ihren urlangen Tracks die stets mehrere Teile haben, eine Art ambienten "Ritual Drone Folk" mit starkem Naturbezug, der einen nicht kalt lässt.. und wieder glänzt GLASS THROAT mit so einem wunderschönen grossformatigen Doppel-Klappcover aus speziellem Karton..
"I have the tremendous honor of announcing, what is to be our Winter Solstice 2008 release. From Cascadian soil, FEARTHAINNE will bless us with a pure nostalgia for being. A debut full length 2xCD, embracing four deeply potent healing crafts of acoustic mourning & regeneration. Featuring the two spirits of Cascadia's Ritual Black Metal atavism FAUNA.
Fearthainne's first release represents the nadir of a journey into earth. Conceptualized and written in wild environments in the West, this collection of songs is a picture of the labyrinth traveled by a human organism, seeking life outside the long shadows of unremitting gray. The seekers masquerading as musicians who have created this document have used these sounds as a conduit for the reconnection with being, and have chosen to make it available to those who might hear the voice of the Others speaking to them from within. Exclusively utilizing acoustic instrumentation, Fearthainne is the unending rain that calls forth the blossom, the harbinger of the organic future we inevitably face. A sonic expression of green in all its capacities, this project is a document of the search for Home, a declaration that we will never settle for existence in the meaningless maze of history.
As beings we have struggled for many years to imbue our lives with depth, bending our ears towards the chorus of elders that the natural world is. Brought to fruition in a culture whose theme is loss, we recognize the wisdom of Earth in the various shifts that will unravel these ten millennia of aberration, and celebrate the dawning of day for what is truly human. As participants in this calamity, we call forth those spirits of the land, sea and sky who have always borne witness to our cyclical lives, the deep mind of which we are only a part, to see us and hear our voices as we proclaim our allegiance to Life. May this blood that flows from us cleanse the land of its wounds. May our animal bodies shield our battered hearts as we break the hands of Time. May this be the end..." [label info]
"... But in Fearthainne, all of the buzz and lbuster have been replaced by delicate crystalline guitar, gruff emotive vocals, deep ominous drones, all woven into a slow, drifting, meditative mountain folk. On the same label that in the past has brought us mysterious sounds from At The Head Of The Woods, The Elemental Chrysalis, Ruhr Hunter, Alethese and Beneath The Lake, Fearthainne sound right at home, blending dense whirring minimal soundscapes, with gentle meditative folk rituals. Long long tracks that slowly blossom, smoldering, clouded in warm browns and cool greys, strings weep and moan, effects gently cradle the various elements, adding texture more than changing the sound. Mesmerizing, trancelike ruminations on nature, on death, on the beyond. Simple percussion demarcates sprawling folk strum and fields of lilting shimmer and and delicate flutter. The vocals are a strange contrast, almost atonal, moaned more than sung, reminding us of solo records by either of the Neurosis frontmen, giving the proceedings a much more ominous vibe, ritualistic and hauntingly spiritual. Gorgeous in its simplicity, mysterious in its minimalism, Fearthainne is the soundtrack to a land outside of time, of trees towering over a world unspoilt, clouds drifting across empty skies, night turning into day, the cycle of life continuing on, the world and the universe around it gradually moving into a new, more magical existence. Beautifully sublime. Incredible packaging, full color 6 panel oversized sleeve, amazing images of ancient forests, late night rituals, and the band gathered beneath a mighty tree, cradling a baby, dressed like witches, and looking like a band of bearded forest dwellers (which they may very well be!)." [Aquarius Records review]
www.glassthroatrecordings.com
|
2009 |
€18.50 |
|
| FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM (F.T.B.P.D.) |
Ahuenna |
CD-R |
"„AHUENNA“ ALBUM INFO: This album consists of a single, 45 minute long title. No computer, no digital sound preparer. Everything live. Contact microphone, sound effect units and various other sources. The entire piece was recorded at home in the studio of “Feine Trinkers bei Pinkels Daheim”.
Pure, live produced sound. “Ahuenna” is a typical album but still different. With
“Ahuenna” Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim has broken new ground and thus has the history of the project posted on.
ABOUT FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM:
Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim ist the experimental music project of J. Eberhard
and it’s based in Bremen and have toured everything from the Netherlands to
Switzerland and Russia extensively over the last 2 decades.
In the last 2 decades, the project released unique vinyl CD and cassettes in multiple
editions, usually personalised and with personalised hand-painted artwork.
Every show of Feine Trinkers bei Pinkels is an experience for itself - it's timeless, it's
a feast for the ears, and it's such a pleasure to see him doing all the work on stage
when you just lean back staring at him, with his aural earbuds tickling your eardrums.
Now, Yesterday or Tomorrow, and why do he have such an attention to detail - that's
the question you will ask yourself." [label info]
www.format-noise.com
|
2010 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
A Bug's Life |
CD |
"Jürgen Eberhard aka Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim celebrates 25 years of his artistic activity with the first full-length album on Zoharum entitled "A Bug's Life". keen observers of our activity certainly know his name, for instance from a common vinyl 7-incher entitled "Both Sides of The Looking Glass" shared with Bisclaveret duo or from the composition "Enigmatic Visions", which appeared on a commemorative compilation "07|100|15".
"A Bug's Life" is the tenth full-length album in the discography of Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim. It was being created, like the previous ones, for several years and is another conscious artistic statement. Seven compositions included here are of a collage nature and combine echoes of post-industrial ambient, drone music, musique concrete, field recordings and even plunderphonics. On his first studio album since "Die Legende vom Heiligen Trinker" from 2011, Jürgen Eberhard consciously continues his sonic quest on a depleted terrain and he manages to avoid traps of empty experiments. "A Bug's Life" is at the same time an atmospheric, and even accessible, album, and sonically elaborate and demanding of the listener." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM ist ein Projekt, das ja eher unregelmäßig in der Musiklandschaft auftaucht, dabei aber bereits recht langlebig ist. Das letzte reguläre Album von JÜRGEN EBERHARD unter diesem Banner erschien 2011. „A Bug’s Life“ – so hieß übrigens auch der Pixar-Film „Das große Krabbeln“ im Original – widmet sich dem Namen entsprechend den Geräuschen von Insekten, die Grundlage für die Soundgestaltung des Albums gewesen sein sollen. Hierbei sollte man aber kein dauerndes, möglichst naturnahes Gezirpe oder Gesirre im Kopf haben – quasi ein Field-Recording-Overkill, sondern Klänge, die extrem stark bearbeitet und verfremdet wurden, wobei am Ende dennoch der Charakter von Sounds, die von Insekten erzeugt werden – auch knisternde, schabende Geräusche –, erhalten bleibt.
Tatsächlich ist der Sound auf „A Bug’s Life“ aber relativ vielschichtig, teils auch wuchtig und massiv oder mit Drones durchsetzt, sodass das Ganze recht gut funktioniert und eben nicht an einen Abend auf der Terrasse erinnert. Auch Stimmen werden – verfremdet oder nicht – eingesetzt und Abwechslung kommt zusätzlich durch Stücke ins Spiel, die mit weiblichen Gesangslinien, die quasi als Zusatzinstrument fungieren, ausgestattet sind. Hier wäre wohl auch der Punkt, an dem man die Unterstützung von diversen Gästen wie u.a. MISS POLYESTER, FRL. LINIENTREU oder GENEVIÈVE PASQUIER erwähnen könnte. Das Klangspektrum reicht letztendlich von orientalisch angehauchten Sounds inklusive Rhythmus („Metallifekuwagamon“) bis hin zu düsteren Soundcollagen, die auch aufgrund der Bilder, die im Kopf entstehen, Unruhe auslösen können. Somit ist „A Bug’s Life“ eine spannende Sache für Freunde des Ambient oder der experimentellen Elektronik. Idee und Ausführung passen in jedem Fall hervorragend zueinander und die Qualität stimmt hier sowieso."
[Tony F. für nonpop.de]
"In der Geräuschmusik und überall sonst, wo mit Samples gearbeitet wird, sind Tiergeräusche eine beliebte Soundquelle, und zu den gefragtesten Geräuschproduzenten zählen seit jeher Insekten – was wäre ein sommerliches Kitschkolorit ohne das Zirpen von Grillen und Zikaden, und dass man aus dem Summen fliegender Insekten Noise und elektroakustiche Musik machen kann, ist hinlänglich bekannt.
Beliebt sind Feldaufnahmen, bei denen die Sounds weitgehend naturbelassen bleiben und nur gelegentlich etwas Struktur eingebracht wird wie bei Dave Phillips’ und Hasegawa Hiroshis “Insect Apocalypse” oder “The Progeny of Flies” von Daniel Manche und Andrew Liles. Seltener sind Aufnahmen, bei denen die Sounds so stark verfremdet sind, dass man ohne Hintergrundwissen die Quelle kaum erkennen kann. Etwas derartiges hat der feine Pinkel, ähm: Trinker Jürgen Eberhard vor Kurzem unter dem Titel “A Bug’s Life” zustande gebracht.
Die komplette CD wirkt wie ein Zoom, bei dem die Kamera dem lebenden Objekt so nah auf den Panzer rückt, dass man nur noch kleinteilige Strukturen in Übergröße erkennt, während größere Zusammenhänge nur noch zu erahnen sind. Vieles klingt wie ins Monströße vergrößert: Maschinell klingendes Summen, dass zeitweise in Noisewände übergeht, Detonationen, verursacht von einem enormen Insekt, das gegen eine überdimensionierte Scheibe knallt. Zirpen und Flattern, das eher nach einem Vogel klingt, und dem Tier, dessen rhythmischer Flügenschlag gegen Ende zu hören ist, möchte ich nicht im Dunkeln begegnen. So furchteinflößend es hier zugeht, hat die bizarre Szenerie auch irrsinnig Komisches zu bieten.
Neben all dem gibt es zahlreiche Stellen, an denen kaum zu erkennen ist, ob die Aufnahmen ganz unkenntlich gemacht wurden oder anderen, z.B. elektronischen Ursprungs sind. Dies gilt für geschliffenen Ambientsound und zirkushafte Melodien ebenso wie für den entspannten Ethnosound, der irgendwann ganz überraschend eine Sängerin begleitet (die meisten Stimmbeiträge von Geneviève Pasquier, Allseits vs Troum, Frl. Linientreu und Joke Lanz sind spoken words). Ebenso gilt dies für monströses Brüllen, dass hoffentlich von einem Wirbeltier stammt.
Aber warum eigentlich? Im Unterschied zu naturbelassenen Insektensounds lassen die Aufnahmen hier die Tiere enorm groß erscheinen und brechen so mit gänigen Wahrnehmungsgewohnheiten. Die nachhaltige, über den bloßen Schock weit hinausgehende Wirkung, kann im besten Fall in einem veränderten Blick auf das Tierreich münden." [J.G./U.S./African Paper] |
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| FELIX KUBIN |
II: Music for Film and Theatre |
LP |
YouTube Trailers:
youtu.be/i5AEq3FMOwM
youtu.be/n7dTsVsQpbA
Here's the long awaited 2nd volume of soundtrack works by German Pop and Avantgarde Futurist Felix Kubin on the Dekorder label, following 2008's "Music for Theatre and Radio Play".
Some of Kubin's most adventurous and far-reaching music stems from his commissioned works for films, theatre and radio plays. Freed from conventional song formats and genre stereotypes he effortlessly combines Musique Concrète noises, splashes of haunted virtual orchestras, Gameboy music minuets and voice collage interspersed with tons of suspense and gloomy industrial atmospheres.
"Music for Film and Theatre" compiles 11 tracks from Polish director Robert Florczak's "Makbet Remix" (based on William Shakespeare's "Macbeth"), a waltz from Schorsch Kamerun's "Des Kaisers neue Kleider" (by Hans Christian Andersen) and the complete soundtrack (including the actual sound design) for Anke Feuchtenberger's animation short "Somnambule".
Felix Kubin is a renowned composer and producer of radio plays based in Hamburg. In recent years he has released futuristic Pop Music on the legendary Zick Zack label, weirdo Big Band Jazz with Mitch & Mitch as well as the more experimental ode to the compact cassette "Chromdioxidgedächtnis". Over the past 10 years he has composed several major works for modern classical ensembles: "Echohaus" with ensemble Intégrales (released on Dekorder) "Falling Still" for Ensemble Resonanz and a boys' choir, premiered this year at Hamburg's Laiszhalle Symphony Hall and "Lunatyk" for Miłosz Pękala. His radio play "Orphée Mécanique" was awarded "Radio Play of the Year" in 2012 and "Best Audio Book 2014". Kubin's first recordings date back to his teenage years in the early 1980's (reissued in 2012 on the Minimal Wave label), followed by his electroacoustic noise duo Klangkrieg and the dada-communist Liedertafel Margot Honecker.
https://dekorder.bandcamp.com/album/ii-music-for-film-and-theatre |
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| FELIX KUBIN & ENSEMBLE INTEGRALES |
Echohaus |
CD |
"this latest project by the musician, composer and futurist felix kubin is a collaboration with the contemporary music chamber group, ensemble intégrales, and the reknowned german underground pop producer and sound engineer, tobias levin. echohaus was recorded in and around levin's electric avenue studio in the basement of westwerk in hamburg. a special recording technique was developed for the project whereby the musicians played simultaneously in separate rooms, connected to one and other only by headphones. this was done in order to achieve a lively,"cinematic" sound that made use of the particular dynamics of the rooms and amplified mechanical details. the rooms, each of which had a different acoustic character, were used as natural echo chambers. kubin and the composer burkhard friedrich provided the musicians with simple graphic scores or basic descriptions of the compositions; all subsequent material was developed on the fly. kubin was in the mixing room giving instructions and suggestions, while the musicians played and improvised, adding their own ideas to the project. no artificial reverb or effects were added to the recordings. the different types of rooms and microphones, noises inside and outside of the studio, as well as the unusual interrelationship between the physically isolated players became part of the process. after a five-day recording session kubin and levin created various mixes which kubin then edited over a period of several months. the final results mark yet another radical departure from kubin's trademark sci-fi pop sound, blending the aesthetics of academic contemporary music, film soundtracks and improvised music with a strong focus on room-specific natural acoustics." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Echohaus |
do-LP |
"This latest project by the Hamburg-based musician, composer, and futurist, Felix Kubin, (his second release on Dekorder) is a collaboration with the contemporary music chamber group, ensemble Intégrales, and the reknowned German underground pop producer and sound engineer, Tobias Levin.
Echohaus was recorded in and around Levin's Electric Avenue studio in the basement of WESTWERK, a former squat and cultural centre for non-commercial art and music in Hamburg. A special recording technique was developed for the project whereby the musicians played simultaneously in separate rooms, connected to one and other only by headphones. This was done in order to achieve a lively,“cinematic" sound that made use of the particular dynamics of the rooms and amplified mechanical details. The rooms, each of which had a different acoustic character, were used as natural echo chambers. Kubin and the composer Burkhard Friedrich, former member of ensemble Intégrales, provided the musicians with simple graphic scores or basic descriptions of the compositions; all subsequent material was developed on the fly. Kubin was in the mixing room giving instructions and suggestions, while the musicians played and improvised, adding their own ideas to the project.
No artificial reverb or effects were added to the recordings. The different types of rooms and microphones, noises inside and outside of the studio, as well as the unusual interrelationship between the physically isolated players became part of the process. All the tracks were recorded in one take without any additional layers or track-by-track recordings. After a five-day recording session Kubin and Levin created various mixes which Kubin then edited over a period of several months.
The final results mark yet another radical departure from Kubin's trademark Sci-Fi Pop sound, blending the aesthetics of academic contemporary music, film soundtracks and improvised music with a strong focus on room-specific natural acoustics." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
"Branching out into conceptual composition with Ensemble Intégrales, Felix Kubin acted as a sort of central engineer/conductor for this piece, with each instrument recorded live with no overdubs in separate rooms at the Westwerk cultural centre in Hamburg under Kubin’s supervision, and the results edited by him down into the resulting album. As a result, each room sound is almost as important as the tones recorded for the instruments concerned, and the results certainly resonate with the nuances of each space in the final mix, especially when listened to on headphones – which is probably the best way to appreciate the textures of the recording.
It’s also perhaps inevitable that the terms electro-acoustic and musique concrète will crop as reference points when describing both the techniques and sounds of Echohaus – and justifiably too. There’s plenty of scraping, creaking, twisting and plinking, honking, squittering electronics and keening breaths, mournful drones and pizzicato strings among the synthesized interventions, in between the electro-mechanical susurrus and thumping among gentler ripples on piano and violin, with vaporous electronic reflections trickling subtly or otherwise across the dissociated (but not disembodied) studio space. The improv is strong here, quite happy to let rip into spine-tingling moments very close indeed to the fingernail/blackboard interface.
So drumkits give their best falling down the stairs impressions (though it frequently does seem like that baskets full of household good are being given a good thrashing ), and there are moments where stereo-panned strings rise in counterpointed waves which could quite possibly drag the listener into a state of panicked delirium. What is particularly enjoyable are those moments where the music moves through space as Kubin manipulates the mix, with deep bass throbs and high-pitched whines circling the clatter of percussive motion across the soundscape he creates with the Ensemble’s sounds. Is that the sound of one room bleeding and/or receding into another, or is it just the natural echo? Who can tell, and does it matter too much?
To keep calling this sort of music avantgarde is perhaps to hang onto a term which sometimes seems to be almost backward-looking, given the decades in which this modernist form has developed (or otherwise) – but even so, the recording technique is, if not at the advance guard, at least experimental in some form or other. But so much for labels – this is largely a fine piece of work where dissonance and discordance, horripilation and disconcerted listening teeter into sometimes quavering moments of reflexive beauty. Echohaus engages the senses fully, and the way in which it was recorded and produced being ultimately secondary to the results, which, while often difficult – or flat-out challenging – listening, are certainly none the worse for that." [Freq.org] |
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| FELL, MARK |
Manitutshu |
do-LP |
"Total Running Time: 42 minutes
45rpm
In January 2011 Mark was invited by Erik Wiegand (aka Errorsmith) to make some presets for his new software synthesizer which he was building for Native Instruments. After developing about 40 sounds*, Mark decided to rework his UL8 project by extending the pattern generating systems used in its construction, which he then connected to the sounds produced in Erik's synthesizer. The result is this double 12" single, featuring 9 tracks and a remix from Mark's friend and colleague Mat Steel. The project ships with an A1 full colour poster. Recorded Rotherham (UK) and Sheffield (UK) March 2011. Mastered by Lupo at Dubplates and Mastering (DE) March 2011." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2011 |
€18.50 |
|
| FENN O'BERG (FENNESZ / O'ROURKE / REHBERG) |
Magic & Return |
do-CD |
"Zwei junge Klassiker der Liveelektronik von 1999 und 2002 wiederveröffentlicht. Als Bonustracks mit aufgenommen wurden der Beitrag zur Sonar‘99-Compilation und ‚Adidas Sun Tanned Avant Man‘, der nur auf der japanischen Edition von Return Of enthalten war. Christian Fennesz, Jim O‘Rourke & Peter Rehberg hatten bei ihren Konzerten 1998/99 und 2001 - alles Material entstand damals als Livemitschnitt - als Indieallstartrio den Versuch unternommen, Avant-Electronica, d. h. komplexe, beatarme, polymorph-pervers improvisierte und untanzbare ‚Konzertmusik‘, als Attraktion auf der Höhe des Zeitgeistes etwas breiter zu streuen als üblich. Mit falschen Erwartungen von einseitigen O‘Rourke-Fans, die von ihm akustische Gitarre (wie mit Mazzacane Connors) oder gar Sonic Youth-ähnliches erhofften, musste man zurecht kommen. Gegen Borniertheit und Schmalspurigkeit kann man letztlich nicht mehr tun, als auf die verführerische ‚Magie‘ der eigenen Qualitäten zu setzen. Die
Soundcollagen bis hin zum orchestral-opulenten ‚Fenn O‘Berg Theme‘ mit der Lizenz zu Betören sind geschichtet und verzopft eben nicht aus allem, was die Laptopspeicher hergeben. So beliebig und als bloße Summe ist Klangzauber nicht machbar. Ständiges Morphing und wuchernde Vielspurigkeit, Loops, Verzerrungen und Kompressionen, molekulare Diffusität, Einbrüche von Noise ebenso wie ungeniert melodiöse Einschübe von orchestralen Samples kitzeln die Empfänglichkeit und spotten - mit Schreibmaschinengetippe - dem Versuch, etwas derartig Logofugales in Worte zu fassen." [Bad Alchemy]
"All tracks by Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke & Peter Rehberg. Artwork by Tina Frank. Remastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, January 2009. The legendary Fenn O'Berg are resurfacing eight years since their last performance. Starting with this double CD reissue of their two albums; 'The Magic Sound Of...' and 'The Return Of...', originally released in 1999 and 2002. Fenn O'Berg (Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg) first hit the scene after a surprise appearance at the Nickelsdorf Festival in 1997. Throughout 1998 and 1999 the trio toured extensively throughout Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, as well as shows in North America and Japan. The highlights of these trips were presented on 'The Magic Sound'. Although they were not first group to utilise mainly mobile computing devices, they were the first to bring such a set up to venues that would not normally book or even be interested in such things. This resulted in some very polarised reactions from both audience and promoters alike. In many instances the group needed to 'escape' the city they played. In Rome Jim O'Rourke was even given an acoustic guitar and more or less forced to play a short acoustic set before anyone could leave the building. Despite all of this, there was a generally positive response, with some shows going down as local legend. However its worth considering that the technology at the tine didn't offer the convenience of 'plug in and play' of current operating systems and applications. This of course led to set of recordings like no other. Not only was the rule book ripped up but the tour book as well. Each show became an improvised twisted journey through the various strands of electronic music where popular music sources (some more obvious than others) clashed with more academic tricks, but never sounding like being part of either. By 2002, the groups live output was drastically reduced due to all three members schedules moving in different directions. Only two performances were committed that year, and although the sound was more polished and one could even suggest that 'they knew what they were doing', their polarising effect was still there. One show was a sold out over enthusiastic Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the other a miserable 'count them on one hand' turnout at a jazz club in Vienna. Edited highlights of these shows made up 'The Return Of'. Since then the trio has been on a constant pause. In October 2009 they will get together in Tokyo to record a new studio album planned for early 2010 release. This reissue is repackaged with new artwork by Tina Frank, and contains two bonus tracks from the same period."
[label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
In Stereo |
CD |
"Written and performed by Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke & Peter Rehberg. Recorded and mixed at Studio GOK Sound, Tokyo, October 2009. Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, December 2009. 'Thats right, they're back! After a hiatus of almost 9 years the legendary trio of Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg have returned with a new studio album. Technically the first studio album as previous releases were edits of live performances. They spent a week in Studio GOK Sound, Tokyo to lay down some stunning electronic works. Whereas previously the emphasis was on a chaotic blend of found samples mangled through their mobile computing systems to create a humorous oddball sound, 'in stereo' implements a more wider instrumental palette of analogue & digital synthesis, guitar, piano, bass and percussion. What they do maintain is the ability to make a near psychedelic audio blend where its impossible to determine who does what. Released as CD digipack and gatefold double vinyl which features an extra slice of classic fenn O'Berg magic beauty. 'in stereo' ...for you." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Is there something that you really want? That one coming release that excites you very much? In the world of reviewers: hardly. There is tons of music coming out every week, and everything is examined carefully (we do out best). But sometimes there is a release coming which even excites the overloaded reviewer. Say a new album by Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg, who work as Fenn O'berg. They released two albums almost a decade ago, classic works of computerized madness, culled from live shows. Mayhem, plunderphonics, laptop a gogo (recently re-issued as double CD - see Vital Weekly 685). Workload was also heavy for these musicians, always touring, recording, touring and recording. In October of last year they meet up again, for a week, in Tokyo, to sit together and record their first studio album. Six tracks and what a difference from the previous two. Its no longer laptop madness, but a fine blend of that with analogue sound material, guitar, piano, bass and
percussion. I must admit its not easy to spot these instruments in these pieces. The music has changed though. Its not a wild and vivid collage of sound, but more concentrated efforts of sound, more composed than improvised. I think they laid down all the various sounds in an improvised form and then mixed it together into quite dense music, which has partly an ambient character (in a rather unique way) and also a strangely psychedelic atmosphere. Sometimes the computer processed sounds play a role, such as in 'Part VII', but by and large its not easy to spot here. Its an excellent release, I must say. Especially the first four tracks are great here, where they really go out into their own form of psychedelic music. 'Part III', the opening of the CD is perhaps the standout track of the CD. An excellent release, as said, well worth waiting so long for, but let's hope the next one will come sooner."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| FENNESZ |
Endless Summer |
CD |
"New FENNESZ CD, his best release so far we think. Already being the most “harmonic” Mego-artist, this is a wondrous mixture of melodies & digital outburst & effects, which results in a unique sound we think. The harmonies are indeed a bit “lufty” at times and yes, this has really a summer feel somehow..."
[Drone Rec. info 2001]
"This reissue of Christian Fennesz's breakthrough classic Endless Summer has been remixed, remastered, and re-released with two extra tracks. Originally released in 2001 by Mego, Endless Summer brought his name and music towards the first steps of mainstream recognition with its micro sounds and warm guitar, harkening the dreamy serenity and quick-fading sentimentality of a California sunset. Following on from the more experimental Hotel Paral.lell and the Beach Boys homaged Plays single, Endless Summer brought the guitars more to the front, the electronics shimmered more, and the melodies shined more brightly. It went on to be a classic of its time, topping many end of year polls. This new definitive edition is newly mixed by Fennesz, resulting in a more open-sounding version of the tracks, especially the marimba driven "Caecilia" and the hypnotic "Before I Leave," and the towering "Happy Audio." It is also re-mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye, and has beautifully photographed artwork by Jon Wozencroft. In addition to the original 8 tracks, it contains 2 extra titles: "Badminton Girl," originally released in 2001 as part of the Split Series #15 12" with Main on Fat Cat Records, now out of print, and "Endless," which is previously unreleased until now." [press release]
www.editionsmego.com
" »Endless Summer« definierte zum Zeitpunkt seiner originalen Veröffentlichung 2001 den (spezifisch Wienerischen?) »sound of now« avancierter Electronica und markierte gleichzeitig den Höhe- und Endpunkt des »Vienna-Tones«-Hypes. Zu jener Zeit hatte er auch eine Goldene Nica der Ars Electronica in der Kategorie »Digital Musics« eingefahren, der Weg nach England zu Touch war vorherbestimmt und Fennesz wurde zu einem der wahrscheinlich populärsten heimischen Elektronikmusiker. Was wahrscheinlich auch der Tatsache geschuldet ist, dass Fennesz nie seine Gitarre vergaß und weniger die Möglichkeiten rein elektronischer Klangerzeugung in den Vordergrund stellte, als sich statt dessen um eine organische Verbindung zwischen Computer und Gitarre bemühte. Für vorliegenden Re-Release fanden mego und Touch insofern zusammen, als das Album auf dem ehemaligen Stammlabel erscheint, dazu kommen Fotos und Artwork von Jon Wozencroft. Als Bonus wurde »Endless Summer« von Fennesz neu abgemischt, es entstand eine etwas offenere und luftigere Version der Nummern. Dazu kommen zwei nicht mehr verfügbare Stücke. Tracks wie das Titelstück oder besonders »Caecilia« sind nach wie vor Genre-definierende Klassiker, ganz einfach." [SKUG]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
June |
LP |
"Der monat (oder eine frau)? "black sea", dieser granulierte edelstein, hat noch eine dunkle schwester. abseits seines trademark-sounds (=ohne diese hart zerspellten, gleichzeitig auch fragilen noisekonstrukte, die einen erheblichen teil seines soundspektrums beherrschen) erforscht fennesz auf der (konzeptuell einseitig bespielten) "june" die tiefen des hallraums. und das trotz der dunklen farbe der musik mit der leichtigkeit einer fingerübung: treffsicher die dynamik, spannend im aufbau, dabei flüssig ohne haken aber, (bei der musik und dem künstler kaum nötig zu erwähnen) natürlich ohne irgendwie seicht zu sein. der sound, eben ohne die harscheren anteile fast analog, sehr gitarre, sehr: weniger überlegung und planung, mehr bauch. und damit definitiv auch für die, die mit ihm sonst ihre schwierigkeiten haben. als teil der table of the elements "guitar" serie mit insgesamt 12 lps, alle einseitig bespielt, die andere jeweils reliefartig geprägt, in unterschiedlichen farben. und, bei 12 vös liegt das ja nicht so fern, von fennesz vielleicht genau so aus dem bauch heraus einfach mal nach einem der vö-monate benannt. vielleicht eine prüfung für manche(n) fennesz-freund(in), vielleicht ein weiteres beispiel für die anderes-label-mehr-freispiel-theorie. in jedem fall: sehr empfohlen." [N, Unruhr.de]
"9th installment in the Guitar Series Vol. 3 & 4. As much as any artist, he is responsible for establishing the laptop computer as both a compositional tool & concert instrument. Subsuming electro-acoustic strategies into a bedrock of pop, he terraforms vast new worlds of sound, within which both AMM & the Beach Boys can cozily coexist. His Guitar Series contribution, is a suitably lush transformation, as electric guitars flow into deep streams of sound." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
".. But unlike the blurred beauty of Black Sea, June is something else entirely, a creaking, clanging, chiming post industrial landscape of processed guitars, rendered here in the shape of distant pulsing buzz, in shards of jagged chords ringing out and dissipating into the ether, and deep groaning waves of blackened Wolf Eye-d rumble, imagine even a super softened Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, this is less blissed out shoegazey dreamscapery, and more carving dark sonic figures from deep shadow, ominous, sinister, haunting, all words that most definitely apply to past Fennesz recordings, but usually those elements were lurking beneath a shimmery sun dappled exterior, a soft patina of whirling muted buzz draped over a roiling black sea of sound below, but here, those sounds are allowed to creep to the fore, creating a seriously dystopian chunk of cinematic black ambience, the guitars unleashing a murky black fog, that while lovely cloaks all the other sounds in a mysterious blackened grit, but it is Fennesz after all, so the corrosive crumbling darkness does eventually get smoothed out, transformed into into a soft, rolling, burnished shimmer, deep tones dreamily undulating and floating weightless in an expanse of hushed thrum, but by then, the track is winding to a close. Dark stuff from Fennesz, and we like it. A lot!
Pressed on super thick, swirled milky brown vinyl. One sided, the other side with an awesome etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a
thick PVC sleeve, and of course, as always, VERY LIMITED! " [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Seven Stars |
maxi-CD |
"Der erste Solo-Release von Fennesz nach seinem hochgelobtem Album "Black Sea", das 208erschien, ist die neue 4-Track 10" Vinyl "Seven Stars". Mit elektrischen und akustischen Gitarren, Bass, Synthesizern und Computern fährt er auch dieses Mal damit fort, die Hörer zu fesseln und in seinen Bann zu ziehen. Fennesz selbst schreibt:"seven Stars wurde im Januar 2011 in Wien aufgenommen. Das Album habe ich innerhalb von drei Wochen eingespielt und gemixt. ,Liminal" und ,July" waren bereits bestehende Stücke, die ich weiter bearbeitet habe (Eine erste Version von ,Liminal" entstand 2010 in einem Hotelzimmer auf Bali). Eine andere Version davon spiele ich schon seit einiger Zeit live. Mein Freund Steven Hess, mit dem ich schon vorher zusammenarbeitetet, war zu der Zeit zufällig ebenfalls in Wien, und ich lud ihn ein, zu mir ins Studio zu kommen. Christoph Amann hat mit einer Auswahl großartiger Microphone die Drums aufgenommen, darunter auch sein tolles neues Josephson. Ich wollte eine Platte machen, die eine gewisse Leichtigkeit vermittelt und gleichzeitig neues Terrain betreten, indem ich bei einem Track Drums verwende. Dies könnte ich mir auch in der Zukunft vorstellen." Im September wird ,Seven stars" auch als CD erscheinen. Außerdem wird die dritte Kollaboration von Fennesz mit Ryuichi Sakamoto, Flumina, noch dieses Jahr erwartet." [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"Its been indeed a while since we last heard solo music by Christian Fennesz, the absolute genius when it comes to laptop music. His previous release was 'Black Sea' (see Vital Weekly 653) and the new one is a four track 10", recorded earlier this year. Fennesz says he wanted to record something with more lightness and one track he uses drums, played by Steven Hess. Fennesz himself plays acoustic and electric guitars, synth, bass and computers. Fennesz explores the route he choose for 'Black Sea' further. Moving away from the strict laptop music, by incorporating more clearly guitars and bass, which in 'Liminal' goes towards popmusic - although not really of course - and in 'July' makes a dense piece of improvised sounds. 'July' is the most ambient piece, dark but with shimmering lights. 'Seven Stars' is the piece with Steven Hess and has nice acoustic guitars, laidback percussion and fine granular synthesis. Almost a piece of lounge music. Excellent, all four. A pity, only four. Can'twait for the next longplayer." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
|
AUN: The Beginning and the End |
CD |
"Der Österreicher Christian Fennesz präsentiert mit seinem neuen Werk den Soundtrack zum Film "AUN: The beginning and the end of all things". Seine feinsinnigen Kompositionen unterstützen das Projekt des Regisseurs Edgar Honetschläger auf einzigartige Weise mit elektronischen Klängen und komplexen, jedoch berührenden Strukturen. Fennesz zeigt einmal mehr, das er ein Meister in seinem Metier ist. THEMA DES REGISSEURS 'AUN- Der Anfang und das Ende aller Dinge' erzählt die Geschichte der Frage nach der Zukunft, dem Wunsch der Menschheit ein neues Morgen zu erschaffen, der Angst und Abscheu vor der Apokalypse. Der Film macht den unerschöpflichen Fortschritt des jüdischen und christlichen Glaubens zum Thema. Dieser hat seit Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts die gesamte Welt erobert und der Welt eine Situation auferlegt, in der Probleme nicht mehr von Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft allein gelöst werden können. Glaube ist so viel mehr als Religion, soviel mehr als monotheistische Konzepte. Seelen und Geister existieren jedoch nicht nur im Film. Die Verleumdung und Ablehnungvon ursprünglichen Gesetzen führt zur Auslöschung von Individuen,als auch der gesamten menschlichen Rasse. AUN erfindet sowohl Rituale als auch Mythologien und verehrt den Schöpfer dieser Welt. Der Film stellt zudem die menschliche Schönheit mir der Natur gleich und will den Zuschauer erinnern dass ,alles menschliche Leben von der Natur erschaffen wird". AUSSAGE DES REGISSEURS 'AUN- der Anfang und das Ende aller Dinge'bezieht sich auf die Gedanken des späten Claude Lévi- Strauss. Dieser beschreibt in seinen Aufsätzen, die Einzigartigkeit japanischer Shintoisten, deren Götter die Natur schützen. Der Film konzentriert sich auf die Trennung von Mensch und Natur und imaginiert eine Welt, in der das Leben sinnlich gelebt wird. Auch stellt der Film Zusammenhänge zu dem brasilianischen Autor Clarice Lispector, dem italienischen Anthropologen Fosco Maraini und der japanischen Autorin Yoko Tawada her. 'AUN- der Anfang und das Ende aller Dinge' ist ein 100 minütiges Drama, geschrieben von dem österreichischen Schauspieler und Filmemacher Edgar Hönetschläger. Es ist eine österreichisch/japanische Co-Produktion, realisiert vom EdokoInstitut Wien und Ribo Ltd. Tokio in Zusammenarbeit mit KGP Wien. AUN wird unterstützt von dem österreichischen Film Institut, dem Wiener Filmverbund, dem ORF, der Provinz Oberösterreich, der Stadt Tokio,derTochigi Provinz,der Shizuoka Provinz und der Yamanashi Provinz. //
An original soundtrack [OST]
CD jewel case - 28pp full colour - 15 tracks - 50 mins approx
"This CD is the soundtrack to the film AUN, directed by Edgar Honetschläger. With stills from the film in the full colour 28 page booklet, the artwork is designed by Philip Marshall. You can see a clip here: www.aun-film.com
Intention:
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ tells the story of mankind’s quest for the future, his desire to create the tomorrow, his fear of and loathing for the apocalypse. It spins the Faustian theme twice and lays bare open the inexhaustible Judea/Christian believe in progress, which by the 21st century has taken over the entire world and has succeeded in maneuvering the globe into a situation that can’t be solved by means of economics and science anymore. Enlightenment’s merits have taken the West’s ability to sense what is not to be seen, what is only to be felt. Believes are so much more than religion, than monotheistic concepts. Souls and spirits exist not only in film. Denial and neglect of eternal laws lead to extinction – of the individual and the entire human race. AUN invents rituals as well as mythologies and worships the creator of it all – nature – by playfully laying out its dichotomy with human culture. The film equals mankind’s beauty with nature by announcing that ‘everything mankind creates in nature’. Sadly the hubris ends and gives the audience the chance to heartily weep for the world.
Director's Statement:
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ follows the strings of thoughts the late Claude Lévi-Strauss revealed in his anthropological essays throughout the 20th century, as well as those of Japan’s unique Shintoism who’s millions of gods inhibit and preserve nature. The film focuses on the dichotomy man/nature and envisions a future world where life will be nothing but sensual. It contains references to Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, Italian anthropologist Fosco Maraini and the Japanese writer Yoko Tawada.
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ is a 100 min., 35mm feature drama written/directed by the Austrian artist/filmmaker Edgar Honetschläger. It is a Austrian/Japanese co-production realized by Edoko Institute Vienna and Ribo Ltd. Tokyo in cooperation with KGP Vienna. AUN was supported by the Austrian Film Institute, the Vienna Film Fund, the ORF (Austrian TV), the province of Upper Austria, the City of Tokyo, Tochigi Province, Shizuoka province, Yamanashi province.
For AUN film distribution contact filmdelights.com distribution. With thanks to Edoko Institute, Vienna and Ribo Ltd., Tokyo" [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk |
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
|
17.02.12 |
BOX |
"LTD box set 500 copies (gatefold 2LP, CD of the album, DVD, 12 p. photo book) Christian Fennesz is an Austrian electronic musician, active since the late nineties, and influenced by artists like the Fripp & Eno of the 1970s and guitar-synth pioneer Chuck Hammer.
Fennesz uses guitar and laptops "to make multilayered compositions that blend melody and conventional musical instruments with harsh, irregular glitch-influenced sounds and washes of white noise." Over the years, Fennesz has played and collaborated with a number of artists including Mike Patton, Jim O'Rourke, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Keith Rowe, Peter Rehberg, Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) and David Sylvain.
In 2012 Fennesz also wrote the OST to the independent Austrian film, Aun, directed by Edgar Honetschläger, and based on the writings of Claude Levi-Strauss.
On this double LP Fennesz can be heard performing to a live audience at a concert held at the Museo Marini in Florence, Italy in February 2012.
The deluxe box set version includes, in addition to the 2LP, a CD of the performance, a 12 page photographic book, and a DVD featuring a 1927 silent film by German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann Berlin called Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Symphony of a Great City)." [label info]
|
2013 |
€111.00 |
|
|
17.02.12 |
do-LP |
"Christian Fennesz is an Austrian electronic musician, active since the late nineties, and influenced by artists like the Fripp & Eno of the 1970s and guitar-synth pioneer Chuck Hammer.
Fennesz uses guitar and laptops "to make multilayered compositions that blend melody and conventional musical instruments with harsh, irregular glitch-influenced sounds and washes of white noise." Over the years, Fennesz has played and collaborated with a number of artists including Mike Patton, Jim O'Rourke, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Keith Rowe, Peter Rehberg, Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) and David Sylvain.
On this double LP Fennesz can be heard performing to a live audience at a concert held at the Museo Marini in Florence, Italy in February 2012, backed by the images of the 1927 silent film by German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann Berlin called Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Symphony of a Great City)." [label info] |
2013 |
€29.00 |
|
| |
Becs |
CD |
"The last time Fennesz released an album on Austrian label Mego it was 2001 and the name of that release was 'Endless summer'. Now, in 2014 Editions Mego is extremely proud to release the conceptual follow up that landmark of abstract pop. Bécs (pronounced 'baeetch') is Hungarian for Vienna and is the first full length Fennesz solo release since 2008's 'Black Sea'. Eschewing the more drone orientated works of 'Black Sea', 'Bécs' returns to the more florid pop mechanisms as deployed on Endless Summer. 'Static Kings' features the extra leverage of Werner Dafeldecker and Martin Brandlmayer who deploy a range of atmospheric abstract effects to shape a bewitching sound world. The 10 minute centrepiece 'Liminality' (featuring Tony Buck on drums) is classic Fennesz: epic, evocative, beautiful, impossible. 'Pallas Athene' creates a sanctuary of hovering beauty which leads into the title track. Emotional and assured, the track Bécs' is an astonishing contribution to contemporary pop. 'Sav' (co-written by Cédric Stevens aka Acid Kirk) inhabits a less structural terrain as one enters a forest of small sounds and oblique atmospheres, where the closing 'Paroles', a gentle melody unravels amongst swirls of electronics and fried disruption. Bécs is not just an album or a series of songs, it's a world to inhabit, a landscape ripe with sounds, songs and that esteemed Fennesz signature. A singular work by a singular artist. All tracks by Christian Fennesz, except 'Sav' by Cédric Stevens & Christian Fennesz. Modular Synthesizer on 'Sav' by Cédric Stevens. Bass on 'Static Kings' by Werner Dafeldecker. Drums on 'Static Kings' by Martin Brandlmayr. Drums on 'Liminality' by Tony Buck. Recorded & mixed at Amann Studios, Vienna, 2013/14. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Cover design by Tina Frank." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Aside from a couple of respectable collaborations and some soundtrack work, Christian Fennesz hasn't released a proper solo album since the album Black Sea, which came out on Touch WAY back in 2008. On Becs, Fennesz returns to the label that introduced him to the world, in Editions Mego; and he pretty much continues along the same path that he set for himself on that last album he recorded for them, the much lauded Endless Summer from 2001. That was a fracturous record of polygonal melodies bathed in a candy-crush fuzz of pixelated, shoegazing blur, always alluding to the sunkissed glow of the California Dream, whatever that may be. Becs may not have the advantage of following up one hell of a single by Fennesz (in the very late '90s, he covered The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones, the latter of which was originally commissioned for tUMULt's Painted Black anthology!), whereby he contextualized his sonic dislocation within the lineage of rock'n'roll and all of its mythologies of dissent, rebellion, sex, and whatnot. Yeah, it's a tough act to follow; but Becs is a wildly adventurous album with a substantial parity when it comes to the risk/reward equation. A heavily flanged, blindingly bright corona of digital treatments surrounds the Fennesz' guitar sound at the album's introduction, with all of the soft melodies buried in twinkling electronics and mirrored refractions. Fennesz follows this with a detuned alarm-call pulse that forms an insistently crawling rhythmic structure blasted with a malleable distortion, which in turn he counterpoints with a gorgeous, cathedral drone of sustained harmonics. An incremental retinal burn of guitar distortion shapes the brilliant track "Liminality" built upon a beautifully bittersweet, slowcore guitar chord whose roots lie in Slint, Codeine, or maybe even the Durutti Column. Sparkling ambient passages beget discordant piano treatments akin to a computer-cracked Angelo Badalamenti which in turn beget more blossoming noise. Fucking brilliant." [Aquarius Records] |
2014 |
€13.50 |
|
| FENNESZ / DANIELL / BUCK |
Knoxville |
LP |
"Christian Fennesz, David Daniell and Tony Buck (The Necks) are three of the most recognized and respected players in experimental music from around the globe. In 2009 the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN brought the three together and encouraged them to collaborate at the festival. The aptly named Knoxville documents the results of that first collaboration. Recorded on February 7th, 2009, Fennesz (guitar and electronics), Daniell (guitar) and Buck (drums) channel their collective energies into a darkly atmospheric piece of music that ebbs and flows with remarkable cohesion. Minimalist drum passages scatter over the top of textured layers of guitar and subsumed melodic sequences, eventually giving way to warm beds of evolving, tactile drones. Sonic rain showers roll into full-blown thunderstorms of effected guitar and pounding drums only to yield a field of shattered electronic and percussive debris. The three retain a remarkable sense of unity for never having played together (aside from a brief soundcheck) while allowing plenty of room for each to express his individual personality." [label info]
www.thrilljockey.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| FERIAL CONFINE (=ANDREW CHALK) |
The full use of Nothing |
CD |
"A timely and welcome reissue of the first part of the trilogy of recordings by Ferial Confine dating back to 1985. Here sensitively remastered by Denis Blackham from the original master tapes at Skye Mastering and with a beautiful facsimile mini LP style sleeve, made in Japan. The Full Use Of Nothing was the first serious publication of music by
Andrew Chalk/Ferial Confine on cassette in the mid-eighties. Early experimentation in acoustic percussion and primitive multi-tracking techniques shaped the sound and spirit of these formative recordings, somehow very tentative but leading to an on-going fascination with subtle shifts in balance and nuances of sound within a limited palette, albeit in a wild and free series of performances here.
As the first part of the projected Siren re-issue trilogy; 'The Full Use Of Nothing' (1985), 'Meiosis' (1985) and 'First, Second And Third Drop' 1986), the primitive energy and somehow primeval expression of the first album is a vital key to the distinct changes and subsequent refinement that would follow afterwards and contains the pure essence of the project, from a different period almost 30 years past. It is therefore fitting this being the first part of the trilogy.
The Full Use Of Nothing is in an edition of 500 copies with Japanese language obi and features the original reproduced artwork by Andrew Chalk for the album. The CD was manufactured by in Japan. Layout by Magda Stepien, translations by Daisuke Suzuki." [label info]
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
First, Second and Third Drop |
CD |
"Fully remastered and repackaged second release of the final Ferial Confine album 'First, Second and Third Drop' by Siren Records (Japan). Here presented in Japanese mini-LP style sleeve with obi, mastered at Skye Masteringby Denis Blackham in 2012. 'First, Second and Third Drop', although never actually released when it was completed in late 1985, became the final cycle of music by Ferial Confine and marked a departure from the closing moments of the preceding album 'Meiosis' (Siren 022).
Its impression is austere and surreal, even though the instrumentation is limited to the use of bowed acoustic percussion and wind instruments and some tape treatments later in the album.
Ferial Confine is the alias formerly used by Andrew Chalk in the 1980s for his noisier endeavours. "First, Second and Third Drop" is an album that was recorded in January of 1986 and remained unreleased until now. After giving this disc several listens, I have to wonder why it wasn't released much sooner!
Although not as mellow as most of the work for which Andrew Chalk is known, "First, Second and Third Drop" is definitely not a barrage of noise, and really has little in common with most of his Broken Flag label-mates from back in the 1980s. The comparison that immediately comes to mind listening to this album is Organum's material from around the same time period, something which makes a bit of sense since Andrew Chalk was involved in Organum for a time. The first three tracks definitely have the metallic, tense atmosphere that I've come to associate with Organum's earlier material - high-pitched scraping noises, creaking metal and general uneasiness." [Soundohm/ press release] |
2016 |
€15.50 |
|
| FERRARI, LUC |
Labyrinthe de Violence / DANCE |
LP |
Ein bisher unveröffentlichtes FERRARI-Stück von 1975 (für eine Tape / Dia-Installation), welches zunächst rein elektronisch dronig pulsiert, bevor sich bruchstückhafte elektronisch Orgel-Klänge einschleichen. Sehr minimal & kurios. Einseitig bespielte LP, Restexemplare vom OEUVRES SONORES, April 2009.
"Danse was part of a sound & visual installation called Labyrinthe de violence. Previously unpublished, this radical experimental work has now been released on LP record in collaboration with the New Media Dept of Centre Pompidou (National Museum of Modern Art) in Paris for 'Œuvres sonores 2', a 2-day-event organised by Emanuele Carcano at Beaubourg on April 5th & 6th, 2009. Labyrinthe de violence was an installation for tape sounds and 2 slide projectors conceived in 1975 by Luc Ferrari. The installation was a visual and sound metaphore of violence within contemporary civilised society. Four different rooms with a central space created the spacial context of this work. The specific environmental sonority (1. Violence; 2. Pollution; 3. Profit; 4. Mechanism / Paysage / Danse) created for each of the four rooms naturally superposed themselves in the central space. Danse was one of those sonorities minimally constructed using 2 different sounds: a very low electronic drone deeply resonating for the whole duration with, in the end, the accumulation of deconstructed sequences played by Luc Ferrari on an electric organ. Documenting one of Luc Ferrari most beautiful and mysterious sonic works, this LP edition will be the first in a series of alga marghen projects presenting a still undiscovered side of the poetical universe of this foundamental composer. This 1-sided LP, issued in an edition limited to 500 copies only, will first be presented at Centre Pompidou in Paris and offered to the audience participating to the second 'Œuvres sonores' event." [label info]
|
2009 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Didascalies 2 |
LP |
"First record after our Luc Ferrari trilogy (see list below), Didascalies 2 is not to be
confused with Didascalies already published 3 years ago - it's another composition
unpublished and a premiere. This production will only released on vinyl.
'The other day I found a file from 1993, a score for 2 pianos entitled "revenir à la note
de départ" ["getting back to the initial note"]. So I decided to turn it into a new composition without changing a single note in it - it contained very little notes actually, which suited me just fine. So I called it Didascalies 2, in memory of what I had done the previous year: a piece for piano and viola entitled Didascalies tout court. That piece was played on two notes, one for the piano and the same one for the viola. It had an obsessive feel. Very, very obsessiiiiiiive !!!' Luc Ferrari " [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Ephemere I & II |
CD |
"Presented here for the first time, Ephemere I & II (for tape, or to be played with various instruments) are two previously unpublished masterpieces which represent for several reasons a very specific moment in the creative life and catalogue of Luc Ferrari. Even if Luc Ferrari's perfect skill in creating some of the most beautiful sonic works ever is now well known to the large audience appreciating his music, the undetermined character marking the two work present here for is quite surprising. Luc Ferrari was tempted in the mid-1970s by the idea of leaving the final realization of these pieces open to the performers intervention (a perspective he decided not to develop in future researches). Exercises d'Improvisation, a score conceived in 1977 and unreleased for almost 35 years (first recorded this year by the GOL collective with Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari for an LP soon to be issued on PLANAM), directly comes from the two works presented here. Ephemere I (or L'ordinateur ça sert à quoin? i.e. What's the use of computers) is a 27 minutes piece for tape only created in 1974, conceived as a kind of electronic drone superimposed by fragments of multi-language whispered voices that creates the thrilling effect of a sea-like continuum. Ephemere II (or Lyon 75 after the only recorded realization) is a 51 minutes tape piece with guitar improvisation. The electronic repetitive structure reminds some of the most radical works of American composer Terry Riley, while the guitar sounds, first resulting as live manipulated pointillistic impulses, develop into a blues sonority superimposing the tape drone and creating a heavy psychedelic atmosphere of the most sublime kind. The end of this long suite lead us back into more abstract and live-electronic sonorities. This very intense work can be placed in a context between scored music and totally improvised music. First press limited to 500 copies in tri-folded digipack sleeve. Please note: these 2 previously unpublished pieces revealing a hidden part of Luc Ferrari poetics are not included in the INA 10CD boxset. Only available on this CD edition." [label info] |
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Atelier de Liberation de la Musique |
LP |
"Alga Marghen proudly presents Luc Ferrari's Atelier De Liberation De La Musique, a collective he created together with Martin Davorin Jagodic, Philippe Besombes and Alain Petit in 1975 for a series of performances at the Galliera Museum in Paris. It was in those years that Luc Ferrari investigated open forms and created some of the most experimental and elusive works of his entire catalogue.
"Exercices d'improvisation", first recorded by Brunhild Ferrari with GOL, issued on PLANAM in 2010; but specially "Ou donc est-t-on?", a very complex piece soon to be documented on alga marghen including both "Dance", issued on alga marghen on the occasion of the presentations at Centre Pompidou in 2009 and "Ephemere", issued on CD by alga marghen in 2010, as well as the "Labyrinthe de la violence", an audio-visual permanent labyrinth for which Ferrari created four fantastic electronic music pieces soon to be published on Alga Marghen.
After these experiences the composer decided to discontinue these open practices for a more controlled work in the studio. And within the "Labyrinthe de la violence" installation Luc Ferrari conceived a series of electro-visual concerts to be performed by the newly created Atelier de Libération de la Musique. The collective included some of the most creative artists of the time: together with Luc Ferrari playing the electric organ we find on electric piano Martin Davoric Jagodic (whose masterpiece of electronic music titled "Tempo Furioso" was issued on Cramps in Italy that same year), on synthesizer Philippe Besombes and on sax, flute and clarinet Alain Petit.
These four artists met in February and March of 1975, rehearsing for a series of concerts to take place within the audio-visual labyrinth. It is the previously unheard recordings from these wild rehearsals which make up this incredible LP. The sound of Atelier de Libération de la Musique is a thrilling and overwhelming ride. Rattling, difficult polyrhythms play against droning, pulsing and simmering sonorities. These recordings are human and open, wild and incredibly ahead of their time." [label info] |
2018 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Photophonie (Bandes magnétiques inédites (1973 - 1992) |
LP |
In 2019, to mark the 90th anniversary of his birth, Transversales Disques is very glad to announce the release of « Photophonie » unpublished archives, spanning 1973-1992, revelatory collection of commercial, commission and secret music by electroacoustic music pioneer Luc Ferrari.
- « Photophonie » (1989) / Music for the photographic exhibition of Alain Willaume.
- « Il était une fois » (1973) / Commissioned by the G.M.E.B.
- « Trans-Voices » (1992) / Curated by the American Center, Paris.
- « Tu m'écoutes » - (1975).
« Affiliated with French Radio’s Groupe de Musique Concrète, co-founder of the GRM with Pierre Schaeffer in 1958 Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) major figure of musique concrète and electroacoustic music broke away to pave his own path of individualistic expressions of minimalist music, musical theatre, field recordings, orchestral music and soundtracks…»
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/photophonie
"Four staggering, previously unreleased Luc Ferrari works c.1973-1992 are cued up for the first time, marking what would have been the late, great electro-acoustic pioneer’s 90th birthday.
As co-founder of the GRM in 1958 with Pierre Schaeffer, and behind dozens of singular LPs during the 2nd half of the 20th century, Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) is by any measure one of the legends of musique electro-acoustique. As his treasured archive continues to turn out gems on the Recollection GRM series, Ferrari’s precious, poetic work now joins that of peers such as Bernard Parmegiani and François Bayle on Transversales Disques, the label run by GRM’s audio restoration engineer, Jonathan Fitoussi, with four pieces spanning psychedelic surrealism thru to a sort of late ‘80s sci-fi romance.
Known as the poet of the GRM and concrète disciplines, Ferrari’s exceptional recordings leant away from academic exercises to inventively express a synthesis of styles that simultaneously intersected minimalism, musical theatre, field recordings, orchestral music and soundtracks. The four pieces of ‘Photophonie’ beautifully and thrillingly speak to Ferrari’s grasp of the sonosphere and its omnipresent plurality with a deftness of arrangement and overarching vision that that sounds both of its era and also within its own parallel dream dimension.
Written for a photographic exhibition by Alain Willhaume, the opening, 25’ long first piece ‘Photophonie’ (1989) emerges like an MTV ident, and continues like some hypermodern deco-dance work, all fractured shrapnel and acres of negative space, but soon flows out into a remarkable tract of vast ambient space conveying the sensation of exploring an abandoned space station, only to find some whispering French and German characters surviving in its bowels. If weren’t told otherwise, this work could have easily been the modern day soundtrack to something like ‘Beyond the Black Rainbow.’
The other side scrolls back to 1973 with ‘Il état une fois’, a 17’ piece spanning field recordings thru to queasy drones and cartoonish honks which perhaps sounds more of its time, but then again recalls Rashad Becker’s music for notional species gone to an alien fairground, while an all too brief snippet of ‘Trans Voices’ (1992) gives way to a lather of sampled voices, choral drones and pulsating rhythm in ’Tu m’écoutes’ (1975) that holds among the darkest and proto-acidic/technoid works we’ve heard from Ferrari, at the least.
Whether you’re an expert or novice to Ferrari’s oeuvre, trust this one’s definitely worth your time." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€24.00 |
|
| FERRARI, LUC & BRUNHILD FERRARI |
Programme Commun |
do-CD |
"Sub Rosa presents two volumes of work from French composer Luc Ferrari and his wife and closest collaborator, Brunhild Ferrari. These two volumes are being released together and simultaneously, as a sign of continuation. For Luc Ferrari, this is the first full-length CD to come out after the trilogy Sub Rosa developed with him. What we have here is three substantial pieces: "Programme commun pour clavecin et bande magnetique" (1972), performed by Elisabeth Chonacka, "Didascalies" (1993) performed by Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven, Claude Berset, and Vincent Royer (in 2009) and previously available only on vinyl (note that "Didascalies" and "Didascalies 2" are two different compositions), and another previously-unreleased piece that he held dear, "Les emois d'Aphrodite" (1986-1998), performed by San Francisco's MC Band under his direction. Sub Rosa is also pleased to release for the first time the solo works of Brunhild Ferrari: "Derivatif" (2008), "Brumes du reveil" (2009) and "Tranquilles Impatiences" (2010), forming a trilogy on reconstruction from a memory that is still quite alive. These works are new bricks in the erection of a liberating oeuvre." [label info]
"Programme Commun' collects the first solo works of Brunhild Ferrari alongside three pieces by her husband and collaborator, the revered avant-garde composer, Luc, for the first time in a relationship spanning over 40 years. The first disc presents a trio of Luc Ferrari's works; the pondering electro-acoustic piece 'Musique Socialiste Ou Programme Commun Pour Clavecin Amplifie Et Bande Magnetique' (1972) featuring harpsichord and the clavecin (the earliest surviving electric-powered musical instrument) recorded at GRM in Paris, and written in honour of the socialist reform program; the lush minimalism of two pianos and violon, 'Didascalies 2' penned in 1993 and recorded 2008-2009; a lively and disjointed rock piece, 'Les Emois D'Aphrodite' revolving around punchy drum breaks, ebullient string harmonies, swirling synths and clarinet. Brunhild's trio were composed between 2008-2010 and haven't been issued on CD previously. They include the dynamic, vivid concrète movements of 'Derivatif' (2008); the surreal, between-worlds awakening of 'Brumes Du Reveil' (2009); the subtle microtonal fluctuations of layered tape, 'Tranquilles Impatiences' (2010)." [Boomkat]
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| FERREYRA, BEATRIZ / CHRISTINE GROULT |
Nahash |
CD |
L’aventure a commencé en 2011, Christian Zanesi directeur artistique de l’INA-GRM a eu l’idée saugrenue de commander à Beatriz Ferreyra et Christine Groult un duo improvisé avec des magnétophones dans le cadre d’un Week-end « retro actif » à la Gaité lyrique de Paris. Beatriz Ferreyra a ressorti son vieux studio analogique des années 70 avec quatre magnétophones Revox, augmentés d’une matrice analogique et d’une boite de synchronisation avec variateurs de vitesse conçues à sa demande. L’utilisation de la bande magnétique est très manuelle, elle met en relation énergétique directe le mouvement du corps avec le son qu’on façonne. Christine Groult, a eu envie de retravailler avec des échantillonneurs mais numériques cette fois ci et de tester les interfaces bon marché actuelles (plusieurs claviers, 2 pads, faders, potentiomètres, pavé tactile X-Y). L’utilisation de l’échantillonneur, outil incontournable des années 90, est très particulière et ludique, elle a tendance à être abandonnée. Or elle permet l’usage du son enregistré avec sa palette sonore singulière et personnelle.
L’interaction entre ces deux technologies très différentes a plu à ces deux compositrices et les a stimulé. Mais elles cherchent avant tout l’expression musicale. Elles ont donc travaillé ensemble à l’élaboration de l’improvisation. Une thématique commune et des images porteuses de sens les guident ensuite à la recherche des corps sonores et vers une configuration des outils de jeu.
Pourquoi deux versions ?
Il leur semblait intéressant de proposer à l’auditeur une expérience : deux improvisations différentes sont proposées à partir donc des mêmes sons, des mêmes dispositifs et de la même thématique mais en permutant les différents moments de la structure et en ajoutant des nouveaux complexes sonores. Qu’en est-il de la perception de ces différences en électroacoustique ?
Beatriz Ferreyra : studio analogique des années 70, quatre magnétophones Revox augmentés d’une matrice analogique et d’une boîte de synchronisation avec variateurs de vitesse conçues à sa demande.
Christine Groult : échantillonneurs, interfaces, claviers, pads, faders, potentiomètres, pavé tactile X-Y.
https://tracelabel.bandcamp.com/album/nahash
"Her latest release, in collaboration with French composer Christin Groult (to whom 'Un fil invisible' was dedicated) continues the sensory parade through changing states, this time seeming to focus on modes of physical movement, as opposed to chemistry. Improvisations for Ferreyra's four Revox tape recorders and Groult's multi-triggered samplers, the two tracks are different versions of the same piece that are equal in effect, so can feel a bit duplicative, but go some way to prove the aleatoric nature of the order of the events. Both works take its listener through a busy, erratic parade of modes of movement - smooth snake-like slithers, fussy butterfly flutters, splashing, trickling, galloping, zooming that combine to form tidal waves of sound that defy the laws of physics. Restlessly oscillating between recognisable natural sounds (water, kids’ voices, horses’ hooves, car engines) and synthetic ones, Nahash is best described as a somewhat literal embodiment of para-normal or super-natural where normality and nature are examined in a new light and found to be far beyond our understanding. But, descriptions in words of work such as this can feel a poor way to negotiate its transformative power. Liked Reinhold Friedl’s Golden Quinces…, Ferreyra and Groult's Nahash need not be aligned or exposed to other contexts, their compositions can work purely as enquiries into sound - where it can go, how it can change, and how it feels as it does so - where the best route to its comprehension is to listen." [The Quietus] |
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| FHIEVEL |
Vetri di carta |
CD-R |
Die S’AGITA CDR-Serie entwickelt sich zu einem feinen Überblick über den derzeitigen italienischen Experimental / Drone / field recording – Underground. Auch Nr. 15 beschert uns einen neuen Namen, hinter FHIEVEL steckt ein gewisser Luca Bergero, der sich in ganz minimal-magische Gefilde begibt. Aus dem Nichts tauchen seltsame Geräusche und kurze Drones auf, um wieder zu verschwinden, das alles gibt ein auf und ab von sanfter Atmosphäre... Nr. 15 in the S’AGITA-series, which developes to a great survey over the current italian experimental underground-scene... FHIEVEL creates minimal magic-area music, short strange noises and drones appear out of nothing and disappear, building a movement in a smooth atmosphere.., “sounds like silent elves gesturing inexplicably. lowercase psychedelia by luca bergero” [label description]
|
2003 |
€9.00 |
|
| FIBO-TRESPO / ANDERS GJERDE |
A hoax. a scam. a phony |
7inch |
Herrlich wirrer Rumpel- & Feedback-Noise von SINDRE BJERGA aka FIBO-TRESPO zusammen mit ANDERS GJERDE auf der einen Seite, ein nicht weniger obskures ruhigeres Stück mit Orgel / Synth / Analog-Gequietsche auf der anderen... filed under: finest obscure low-fi analogue noise !
"fibo-trespo is the project of dj/multi-instrumentalist sindre bjerga from stavanger/norway (owner of the gold soundz label and zine), mainly as a duo with kjetil d brandsdal and next to kdbs solo releases on corpus hermeticum, swill radio or ecstatic peace and their different collaborations in noxagt or the kjetil del brondo group one of the finest examples of nor-wave." (label info)
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| FIBREFORMS |
Treedrums |
CD |
"Long before KILN turned to the sunset-soaked textures of Dusker, and the sonic-carousels of "Thermals", they made music as fibreforms. Treedrums (1996) documents their transition from live performance trio to sound-art synergists, balancing symbiotic instrumental spaces of kit-drums and treated guitars with lost&found sound to evoke moments that are at once invigorating and tranquil. Seventeen years later, Treedrums is presented here as a re-amped, remixed, and properly restored archival edition of this once buried treasure of sonic curio. One-time numbered edition of 300. Includes two previously unreleased tracks from that early era. These will be housed in a Stoughton mini-lp gatefold sleeve along with an 8 page full color booklet." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
"...Following Berry I turned to Fibreforms, a trio of Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison and Clark Rehberg, who call themselves these days Kiln. They are from Michigan and somewhere along the lines they changed names. 'Treedrums' is an album from 1996, now nicely repacked (all of these releases look actually great, no rush jobs, nothing cheap). Repacked, but also 'economized, re-amped, remixed, and properly restored', so altogether a different release. I looked at the cover of the original on discogs and it might have been something I heard before. Their ambient is of a different nature; it's more the rockist agenda that is being played, and in particular the post-rock variation. All of this is instrumental of course, with lots of spacious guitars, reverb on the drums and much electronics. Think Tortoise, think Trans AM, Windy & Carl, but I also would like to mention something like O Yuki Conjugate; not because of the ethno rhythms, but of the ambience Fibreforms puts forward when the rhythm plays a more minor role. This ambient of the rock variation is actually very nice, certainly when it's part of a larger ambient bundle. It offers that bit of variation that you may need here. It also proofs that there are more ways 'to do' ambient than just computer processing field recordings. It sounds dated, perhaps, and then it also sounds entirely fresh. Great CD." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIEBIG, GERALD |
Pferseer Klangtrilogie |
CD-R |
"ACRS 1003: CD-R in transparent jewel case
Given that this album is part of the Rollator Series, dedicated to noise art, it starts with a surprisingly un-noisy performance of sound artist Gerald Fiebig reciting a poem. In the following tracks, though, meaning is reduced to noise as the recording of the poem is cut into tiny fragments. These are used in two 15-minute improvisations along with a miked-up violin bow and synthesizer drones which Fiebig uses to “play” the sculptures and paintings he found in the artists’s studios where these performances were recorded.
The performance triptych documented here was conceived for a project in which artists opened their studios in Pfersee, a city district in the artist’s neighbourhood in Augsburg (Germany), to the public. Performing in three different studios, Fiebig moved from “Word” (the poetry reading) to “Noise” (voice samples plus amplified violin bow and sculptures by Günther Posch) to “Tone” (voice samples plus violin bow samples plus synthesizer and paintings by Gerti Papesch. Using a technique pioneered on the album “Hörbar in Farbe” (http://attenuationcircuit.wix.com/attenuation-circuit#!__hoerbar-in-farbe), the colours and shapes of the abstract paintings were used as a “score” for creating drones with a synthesizer and KAOSS pad. Thus, the album is a gradual development away from language and meaning (signal) through fragmentation (noise) to a new kind of structure, somewhere on the edge between noise and (musical) signal. To give the listener an impression of Gerti Papesch’s paintings that were used for creating the final part, one of them is reproduced on the cover of the album." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| FIESEL, CHRISTIAN |
The Dark Orb |
CD-R |
Christian Fiesel (also known from Modul303 web radio) is an electronic musician, mostly into all kinds of ambient, dark ambient and drone. His work is based on musique concrete, treatments and analogue synthesizer sounds.
His approach to creating music is deeply moody, dark, creating small otherworldly spaces within the soundscapes.
Having about an hour long, The Dark Orb album is probably the most intense and expressive work from him. It can be described as cinematic dark ambient, with traditional electronic (analogue) music parts that give it a touch of originality and making it also a very enjoyable release.
https://essentiamundi.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-orb-em041
"Christian Fiesels musikalische Produktivität ist schon erstaunlich, ist doch The Dark Orb sein mindestens drittes Album (ich weiß nicht, wie vollständig seine Diskographie auf unseren Seiten ist) im Jahre 2018 - und als es erschien (Ende Mai), war das Jahr nicht einmal zur Hälfte vorbei! Aber wie eine Rezension höher schon zu lesen ist, sind hier Aufnahmen aus den letzten fünf Jahren versammelt.
Der Infozettel des Labels bezeichnet die Musik als „cinematic dark ambient“, eine durchaus passende Kategorisierung, bei der das „cinematic“ allerdings meist im Vordergrund steht. Über weite Strecken wirkt die Musik geradezu abweisend, und auch in den Momenten, wo die Musik Form annimmt, sich eine melodische Struktur herausbildet, scheint sie von Einsamkeit und Verlorenheit zu künden. Wie die akustische Umsetzung eines Schneetreibens klingt etwa Of Passing Clock and Time, bei dessen später einsetzender, Oboen-artig klingender, elegischer Melodie über einem stoischen Mellotron-Chor man sich vorstellen kann, selbigem aus einer nicht gut beheizten Hütte heraus zuzuschauen. Und bei den mächtigen, dunkel und drohend wabernden Mellotron-Klängen von Cinematic, die noch von einem klagenden Cello begleitet werden, fühlt man sich endgültig mitten in einer nächtlichen Schneelandschaft. Beide Stücke zeigen übrigens deutliche Reminiszenzen an die frühen Tangerine Dream, also ihrer Prä-Sequenzer-Zeit; diese Einflüsse zeigen sich auf diesem Album immer wieder mal.
Gänzlich oder zumindest weitgehend abstrakt wird es in Winds of East II, das phasenweise schon wie eine Geräuschcollage anmutet, wenn sich seltsames Rasseln oder Klackern in den Vordergrund schiebt. Ansonsten steht die Musik im Spannungsfeld zwischen melodischen und Ambient-artigen Klängen, wobei letztere in den drei abschließenden Stücken noch einmal verstärkt zur Geltung kommen.
Somit ist The Dark Orb ein schönes Werk elektronischer Musik, das geschickt bis ins Abstrakte reichende Dark-Ambient-Klänge mit Einflüssen aus der Frühzeit deutscher Elektronik verbindet. Auf Bandcamp kann man reinhören und neben der Download-Variante auch die auf 50 (!) Exemplare limitierte CD erwerben." [Babyblaue Seiten]
www.babyblaue-seiten.de/album_17436.html
|
2018 |
€8.00 |
|
| FILIVS MACROCOSMI |
Stalker (Сталкер) |
CD |
FILIVS MACROCOSM is the solo-project of Sergey Svistelnik aka Lord Gorgoroth from Ukraine, who is also a member of IN MEDITARIUM (known to all Droneheads through our Drone 7" release we hope!). This is a poetic & dreamy transformation of Tarkovsky masterpiece STALKER, using many original sounds from the film as a basis, effecting and processing the sounds and also dissolving them into noisy parts at times....
"Stalker is an elaborate puzzle. Its pieces are always scattered, and Filivs Macrocosmi relies on his listener to bring the final element of the puzzle along with him. One of Stalker's many treats is that it invites you to get carried away into your own thoughts, flowing with the images as it provides new questions to ponder... In that sense, the album is very much like a philosophical poem: a very simple surface covering innumerable layers of meaning. One extremely long ride in a cart, with clunking metal and water-whooshing sounds, is fascinating and hypnotic. FM downplayed the science fiction aspects of the movie, making the album more about philosophical and spiritual concerns leaving us at the threshold of the Room where all our most cherished desires come true. Welcome to your Self, an alien place guarded by barbed wire... Package - 3-panel fullcolor glossy paper cover. Ltd.ed. to 500." [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIN DE SIECLE |
Nine Barns |
LP |
Project from France doing a quite particular hybryd of dark electronic ambient, classical chamber-music and film-music, very nostalgic and melancholic... if you imagine RACHELS or SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU in a more cold ambient way, that could come near to what FIN DE SIECLE play here on 12 tracks, using piano, viola, samples, voices... (no real singing though), at time quite droney, and times very harmonic.
label: www.opn.fr
lim./numb. 300 copies |
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| FINAL |
The Apple never falls far from the Tree |
do-LP |
"from grind core pioneers napalm death and industrial metal duo godflesh to the wrist slashing sadness of jesu, the twenty-odd year career of justin k. broadrick has spawned a slew of uniquely recognisable formations. despite representing his very first steps on the scene, broadrick’s final moniker, focusing on dark electronic soundscapes, has occasionally seemed a side thought in comparison. after putting the project to rest for almost an entire decade, final however resurfaced stronger than ever in the new millenium with a string of improvisation based works as well as a hypnotic collaboration with fear falls burning. the apple never falls far from the tree continues this gradual return to the limelight, presenting final as an act comfortably sandwiched between uncompromising sonic explorations and the most far out corners of the post rock cosmos.
conceptualised especially for the vinyl format and complemented by lasse hoile’s congenial photography, broadrick has envisioned the new final full length as a classic double album, with each side based on a unique mood and compositional approach of its own: from the a side’s darkly glistening, occasionally dub infused soundscapes and the harsh noise propositions of the b side to the more luminous and drone-oriented second half of the album, the apple never falls far from the tree highlights the full scope of broadrick’s work. most of all, it constitutes a showcase of his singular approach to the guitar, which remains firmly recognisable as the main harmonic and melodic instrument despite being sent through a colorful array of effect channels.
the diversity and experimental nature of the material notwithstanding, the apple never falls far from the tree has turned out a continuous and coherent journey, eventually culminating in a piece of pure and beguiling instrumental folk. available in three different versions, on marbled (75 copies), clear (125 copies), and green vinyl (300 copies), in a deluxe gatefold picture sleeve. the release date is october 10, 2010, and available from the tonefloat store."
[label info]
www.tonefloat.com
"Its been a while since I last heard Final, Justin K. Broadrick’s solo project, following his involvement with Napalm Death, Godflesh and Jesu (all of which were never really my cup of tea). It was in those years when ‘Isolationism’ was a much used buzz word to describe music that was firmly rooted in ambient but with a noisy edge. Final, along with say Lull, was a project in which the guitar played an all important role. Broadrick didn’t use the name Final for nearly ten years but now picked it up again, and recorded this 2LP, especially for this format. Its like going back to something that you haven’t done in ages, but it still feels conformable. Although I expected four LP sides with a piece each, this is quite the contrary. The pieces are rather short, a few on each side, and each side has its own character. The harsher, analogue synthesizer like sounds are on the b-side, while the a-side is much more mellow, rhythmic even, certainly towards the end. The first record seems to be all electronic, synth based, but the second is all about guitars and effects. Broadrick strums away, while his effects pick up the signals and create long form, sustaining patterns with that. The isolationist music in optima forma (a fine reminder to play that double CD on Virgin again also, come to think of it). As such it seems nothing happened but maybe that’s of less importance: the music is still great. An excellent return. Hopefully more to come!"
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€30.00 |
|
|
It comes to us All |
LP |
Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh) breathes new life into his FINAL project for an album on Helm’s ALTER label. Formed in 1984 out of an obsession with the industrial, noise & power electronics acts of the early eighties, FINAL made its public debut at the legendary Mermaid pub in Birmingham when Broadrick was just 14 years old. A string of cassette releases via his Post Mortem Rekordings label established the name within the underground noise scene of the time until increased activity with his various groups (Napalm Death, Head of David and later Godflesh) meant that FINAL naturally fell by the wayside before the end of the decade. Broadrick reactivated the project in 1993 during the British ambient “isolationism” period and FINAL's sound became focussed more on texture, producing beatless ambient work with a number of albums for labels like Sentrax, Utech, No Quarter and Neurot. ‘It Comes To Us All’ is the first FINAL album to appear on vinyl since 2015’s ‘Black Dollars’ on Downwards and continues to explore the textural nature of Broadrick’s ambient work - this time through a filter of blown-out harmonic noise that reconnects the project with its harsher roots. Rather than channelling the angst of early power-electronics, the noise here rumbles along blissfully through 8 untitled tracks, sombre in tone and at times beautiful. Melodies sampled from pop music are put through a process of decay, stripped of their form and worn down with a rusty, melancholic afterglow. Reducing all its parts to slow-motion shadows of their former selves, ‘It Comes To Us All’ is an exploration of the decay of all living things that we face collectively, day after day.
https://final1.bandcamp.com/album/it-comes-to-us-all
|
2022 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
It comes to us all |
CD |
Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh) breathes new life into his FINAL project for an album on Helm’s ALTER label. Formed in 1984 out of an obsession with the industrial, noise & power electronics acts of the early eighties, FINAL made its public debut at the legendary Mermaid pub in Birmingham when Broadrick was just 14 years old. A string of cassette releases via his Post Mortem Rekordings label established the name within the underground noise scene of the time until increased activity with his various groups (Napalm Death, Head of David and later Godflesh) meant that FINAL naturally fell by the wayside before the end of the decade. Broadrick reactivated the project in 1993 during the British ambient “isolationism” period and FINAL\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s sound became focussed more on texture, producing beatless ambient work with a number of albums for labels like Sentrax, Utech, No Quarter and Neurot. ‘It Comes To Us All’ is the first FINAL album to appear on vinyl since 2015’s ‘Black Dollars’ on Downwards and continues to explore the textural nature of Broadrick’s ambient work - this time through a filter of blown-out harmonic noise that reconnects the project with its harsher roots. Rather than channelling the angst of early power-electronics, the noise here rumbles along blissfully through 8 untitled tracks, sombre in tone and at times beautiful. Melodies sampled from pop music are put through a process of decay, stripped of their form and worn down with a rusty, melancholic afterglow. Reducing all its parts to slow-motion shadows of their former selves, ‘It Comes To Us All’ is an exploration of the decay of all living things that we face collectively, day after day.
https://final1.bandcamp.com/album/it-comes-to-us-all
|
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| FINAL CUT |
Ballade de Bruits |
mCDR |
"frenchman based in belgium, final cut has used as base for these tracks environmental sounds he has done during his several wanderings. once at home, they've been heavily processed to form hypnotizing soundscapes. final cut is also the co-curator of the 3patttes label and earsheltering netlabel." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Behind Final Cut is a frenchman (no name) who lives in Belgium, where he runs the 3pattes label, as well as the earsheltering netlabel. Two pieces here, which we may see as noise ballads, I guess, looking at the title. Of the three recent Taalem releases, this is the one that is most noise based. Not entirely loud or something like that, but nevertheless a bit less subtle in the processing of field recordings. Final Cut transforms them into drone like music, which sound a bit like stringed instruments, ringing around in overtones. Quite gritty and angular, but quite nice also. Very upright and present." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| FIRE IN THE HEAD |
Carrion Wind |
CD |
"Since resuming recording this past Autumn, F/I/T/H’s work has taken a new direction. "Carrion Wind" is an ambitious work which consolidates the sounds explored with F/I/T/H and Sky Burial into a single project, focusing them into a complex and meticulously composed 63 minute industrial opus, a dark and ominous dirge, both beautiful and brutal, incorporating aspects of metal percussion, dark ambient, drone, doom and industrial electronics. Noticeably absent are Page’s vocals as F/I/T/H takes a more "restrained" approach favoring slow layering of synths, field recordings, guitar loops and electronics to build a tension which occasionally peaks at an explosive level comparable to the shorter tracks of F/I/T/H’s previous releases. Featuring a 4 Page booklet with artwork by Howard Forbes." [label info]
www.mutant-ape.co.uk
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| FIRST HUMAN FERRO |
Homo Shargey |
CD |
"Alexander Shargey (also known as Yuriy Kondratyuk) is a representative of passionate enthusiastic inventors who put their lives at stake to accomplish the mission for the future good of the whole mankind. Shargey belongs to a cohort of scientists who were the first to foresee the space conquering. They were great yet mocked-at dreamers and had to fight against all odds twice as hard. Shargey is a "recognized" space theoretic of unique unconventional genius. The name of a self-made engineer since decades has become well up to par with famous scientists like Tsiolkovskiy, Tsander, Korolyov.
Ukrainian First Human Ferro project led by Olegh Kolyada pays a long overdue tribute to its compatriot composing a well-crafted vintage dark ambient album with both poignant and mesmerizing layers of sidereal voyage.
Homo Shargey was pre-mastered by Italian ambient magician Vestigial. The packaging consists of a luxurious A5-sized digipak with silver finish and gloss varmish, conceptually designed by Marcin Łojek at Ibsen Design. Only 500 copies made.
This particular release is a cooperative effort of New Nihilism, fellow Requiem Productions and Triangle Records." [label info]
www.newnihilism.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Stardust |
CD |
"Dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the manned flight into space a Russian label Nitkie presents a new recording by a Ukrainian project First Human Ferro. "Stardust" is an ambient anthem tribute to the scientists, engineers and space pilots who contributed to the remarkable date. Their earthly dust is drifting like particles of god in the infinite space now, endlessly multiplying through the minds eye of the enthusiasts to come and carry the banner of scientific and technological revolution further. The album was recorded in 2004-2010 and featured by collaborations with Claustrum, Oda Relicta, and Louisa John-Krol. Designed by Marcin Lojek the release is limited to 500 copies in a digisleeve." [label info]
www.nitkie.ru
"Vor einiger Zeit hat OLEGH KOLYADA im NONPOP-Interview Bedenken geäußert, dass ihn sein Studium wohl zukünftig von musikalischen Aktivitäten abhalten würde. Dies scheint nicht der Fall zu sein, denn die Dichte an Veröffentlichungen, die auf den Ukrainer zurückgehen, hat eher noch zugenommen. Immerhin kümmert sich OLEGH mit seinem zweiten Hauptprojekt FIRST HUMAN FERRO nun schon zum zweiten Mal innerhalb kurzer Zeit um eines seiner Lieblingsthemen, den Weltraum. Erst vor wenigen Monaten erschien mit "Homo Shargey" (NONPOP-Besprechung) die Hommage an den ukrainischen Raumfahrtvordenker YURI KONDRATYUK, nun folgt mit "Stardust" eine allgemeine Reminiszenz an die bemannte Raumfahrt, die am 12. April 2011 ihren 50sten Jahrestag feierte; JURI GAGARIN umkreiste 1961 als erster Mensch in einem Raumschiff die Erde.
Von der Anlage her ist "Stardust" ähnlich wie "Homo Shargey": OLEGH hat Stücke zusammengestellt, an denen er schon seit einigen Jahren arbeitet und die klanglich gut zusammen passen. Die zehn neuen Tracks sind in den Jahren 2004 bis 2010 entstanden, und wie auch auf dem Vorgänger merkt man dem Album diese Zeitspanne nicht an, es klingt wie aus einem Guss. Neu sind dagegen die Gäste: OLEGH KOLYADA war ja schon immer ein Bastler, hat mit seinem anderen Großprojekt ODA RELICTA mehrfach bewiesen, wie er ganz unterschiedliche Puzzleteile zusammenfügen kann. Diese Eigenschaft schlägt nun auch bei FIRST HUMAN FERRO durch, denn "Stardust" ist eine wohldosierte Mischung aus Dark Ambient, majestätisch-sakralen Klängen und einigen weiteren Einflüssen von CLAUSTRUM und LOUISA JOHN-KROL, die – neben dem eigenen Projekt ODA RELICTA – auf dem Cover genannt werden. Mit dem Dark Ambient-Projekt CLAUSTRUM aus Lettland ist es nicht die erste Zusammenarbeit, wohl aber mit der australischen Folk Pop-Nymphe LOUISA JOHN-KROL, die das hier schon häufiger besprochene PRIKOSNOVÉNIE-Programm ziert.
Mit den ersten Tönen fängt die Reise an, alles klingt und riecht nach kühlen, fremden Welten und Sternenstaub. Flirrende Synthieklänge werden ab und an unterbrochen von Morsezeichen, später setzen auch bedrohlichere Klänge ein, dröhnend navigiert das Sonar durch unbekannte Sonnensysteme. Überraschend, aber nicht unpassend sind die sich langsam einschleichenden, klassischen Klänge, militärische Bläserfanfaren wie aus einem Filmsoundtrack mit Verweis auf das erste (Marsch)Album von ODA RELICTA (NONPOP-Besprechung). Die Stimmung wechselt im weiteren Verlauf, hinter bedrohlichen Drones lauert ein Knistern und Kratzen, der eingespielte Funkverkehr eines Weltraumspaziergangs mit dem Klassiker "one small step for man" klingt wie ein Original, und die zahlreichen Geräusche symbolisieren perfekt die Zerbrechlichkeit und Gefährlichkeit des Unterfangens.
Über klassischen, höhligen und grollenden Dark Ambient arbeitet sich OLEGH in geheimnisvollere Gefilde vor, russischer Funkverkehr kratzt zwischen militärischen Trommeln und weichen, gleitenden Drones, dann dringt "Stardust" endgültig in die unendlichen Weiten vor. Einzelne Signale verschwinden im All, hinterlassen trommelnde Schallwellen. Eines der beeindruckendsten Stücke des Albums ist "Spectra Of Sferics" (08), Weltraumgefühl mit wenigen Mitteln: nur ein leises Knistern, dazu fremde, schöne und schwerelose Töne. Die Feenstimme macht "Of Earth Pristine" (09) zum ätherischsten Stück auf "Stardust"; wenige Keyboarddrones, auf die die Stimme von LOUISA JOHN-KROL vor sich hinsummt. Erinnert ein wenig an JACK OR JIVE. Das eindeutig ergreifendste Stück ist das letzte und längste, "Stars Scattered Pain" (10) zusammen mit CLAUSTRUM. Wunderschön und glänzend wird der Moment im Spacefilm vertont, an dem in der Einsamkeit ein Planet sichtbar wird und die Crew ahnt, dass sie doch nicht den Kältetod sterben muss. Eine langsame und majestätische Melodie, viele Klänge und Geräusche dazugepackt, wie ein 'Best Of' des ganzen Albums.
OLEGH kann es halt, so einfach ist das. Seine All-Epen verkörpern immer die richtige Mischung aus Erhabenheit, Melancholie und düsteren Gedanken. "Stardust" sticht dabei noch einmal besonders hervor, weil zusätzliche Elemente beigemischt wurden, die einzelnen Songs – vor allem den drei letzten – ein besonderes Gesicht geben. Feines Album!" [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Heterodox |
CD |
"Old Captain’s owner, Olegh Kolyada, fights the sea and presents his Lost Generation victory in defeat. “Heterodox” is a dark ambient album born of the sound and the fury with heroes lonely and mad. A sparse, straightforward yet emotionally vigorous record with its own interior monologue, a discourse to be a silent interlocutor to. Restraining the interior the musician offers the nature symbolism via modular synthesizers and analogue junk approach to scatter one’s ego worldwide for good. Full of elemental primitiveness the heretic in his destructive folly challenges to claim a nihilistic vision of reality to engage the listener into an ever-present absurd. A 200-CD edition in a classical glossy Digipak co-produced by Old Captain and Gradual Hate Records." [label info]
www.oleghkolyada.com/label/
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIRST HUMAN FERRO FEAT. ALBIREON |
Prosa Profana |
CD |
" "Prosa Profana" is a follow-up to "Guernica Macrocosmica" and the 2nd post mortem dedication by Olegh Kolyada collaborating with Albireon neo-folkers this time. A low-key unison of dissonant ex-Soviet schlager melodies and forefront Italian vocals in a tender naive manner offer a unique nostalghic experience. The release comes in a beautiful digipak with a 12-page booklet.
Tribute:
Dedicated to my father Vasyl O. Kolyada (1950-2008).
Production:
Conception + composition + engineering + arrangement + alternative sampling & vinyl scraping (vinyl & tapes restoration, including the 1970-80`s ex-Soviet recordings by Ariel, Tsvety, Sinyaya Ptitsa, V.Obodsinskiy) + vocals engineering + lyrics in English/translation of P.Celan`s 'Die Niemandsrose' poem + improvisations upon Cl.Debaussy and M.Dietrich songs and ex-Soviet ‘Autumnal Marathon’ and ‘The Star Boy’ motion pictures themes by Olegh Kolyada (with Helena K`s contribution in piano & clavier parts), 2005-2008/Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Strings + trumpet + cello by Zhytomyr Chamber Orchestra, early 2000/Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Acoustic guitar on "Eye-Deep in Hell" and "Late August Flowers" by Pavel Voskoboyev, November 2007/Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Vocals in Italian + lyrics renderings + mandolin on "Every Time I Turn around (another Year is over)" by Davide Borghi; vocals recording and engineering + samples editing on "Eye-Deep in Hell" (children’s talking-away), and "Every Time I Turn around (another Year is over)" (rain and wind snippets) by Stefano Romagnoli, summer 2007/Carpi, Italy. Layout & artwork by Katia Ilieva, winter-spring 2007-2009/Sofia, Bulgaria.
Conception:
Prosa Profana unveils a humane feeling of nostalghia as that of sorrow towards present lack of integrity, commonness, and harmony. Homesickness and melancholy, grief and yearning, but also hope and belief nostalghia is a deep relation one cannot relinquish or renounce since it is the purest sacrificial nature of a man. Sacrifice as a consequence of nostalghia is a verdict to overwhelmingly materialized time, its impiety and de-spiritualization. Nostalghia is a confession, humble declaration of love as generally the highest art manifestation ever possible. Prosa Profana is our verdict to ourselves." [label info]
www.nitkie.ru
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| FIRST LAW |
Chaos Structure |
CD |
“The 5th full-time album of FIR§T LAW surprises once again with a huge amount of stylistic variety and proofs that he is the ultimate cosmonaut of the inner spheres. "Chaos Structure" is a hallucinetic maelstrom, every note and sound tells a different story and guide the listener to a journey through unseen areas of modulation and alienated reality where the time stands still. The hieroglyphic soundforms are structuring an audible world of an acoustic language. All compositions are cautious built to create a majestic flowing of a soundworld full of structures and outstanding melodies layered with percussion tracks. FIR§T LAW's music implicates inner spheres to build a new vision of a structured chaos with very intense and irresistible sounds. The complete release melts into an organic symbiotically ensemble and the world is shivering from beyond - Aural Innovasions at it's best!” [label description]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Velochrome |
CD |
...symphonic dark ambient with more neo-classical elements.
“The second full length album is the continuation of the Velochrome recordings that have been started with the Saturn Gnosis contribution of First Law. Voices from the edge of hearing, whispering ambient soundscapes and symphonic elements building deep organic compositions that blend beautifully into a grand enigmatic atmosphere of winding darkness blowing through controlled cycles. Music for connoisseurs!” [label press release]
label: www.loki-found.de |
|
€14.00 |
|
|
Terrorforming |
CD |
"The 6th full-length album of FIRST LAW is setting real moments of artificial and creative substance. Intermittent bass and percussive elements as well as thrilling sound structures arrange a wide aural spectrum from ambient to drones through analogue modulations to complex compositions with outstanding vocals on top. Conceptually don't get it wrong, this album is not about religious airheads getting their way. This is not about the threat terrorist attacks impose on any of us, nor has it the intention to proliferate violence as a viable way to change the status quo. At the least, as long your opinion stands against the opinion of the majority, you are pretty much out of luck. No, this album is about leverage; it is about deception and opportunity, by accident or by design; it is about resignation and self-delusion; but most of all, this album is about fear." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
A Future so bright |
CD |
"In its 20 years of existence -meanwhile the mastermind Andreas Wahnmann also has been active in several other musical projects- FIRST LAW released six full length CDs up to now and developed a trademark in sound research that is truly genre defying. The album title and the cover art for this magical 7th album stand in strong contrast to the musical content and the album manifests its ironical and deliberately conflicting nature right from the start. Deep and throbbing rhythmic patterns, endless layers of guitars droning and manipulated vocals are opposed by disturbingly beautiful melodies. The complexity of the recordings just emphasizes its depressing nature and takes the listener on a journey through sound and emotion. A FUTURE SO BRIGHT is nothing less than an outstanding sound-scape that flows like a hallucinatory maelstrom and marks the darkest release of FIRST LAW so far." [label info]
www.loki-found.de |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| FISER, LUBOS |
Valerie A Tyden Divu (Valerie and her Week of Wonders) |
LP |
It has been exactly ten years since Finders Keepers Records first liberated Luboš Fišer’s immaculate soundtrack music for Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (Valerie A Týden Divu) from the vaults of the Barrandov Studio in Prague. As the inaugural release of an ongoing discography of previously unreleased scores from the hugely creative “Film Miracle” that occurred during and after the Czech New Wave (CNW), this score will always retain a special place in the heart of the label as well as our listeners who consistently request an updated repress of this signi cant vinyl milestone. Having grown in status from an obscure and misunderstood socialist-era art house oddity, via the hands of risqué foreign uff merchants, to nally nd its rightful audience as a bona de surrealist cinematic masterpiece of world class standards, this 1970 lm adaptation of Vítezslav Nezval’s 1935 avant-garde novella (a lm that literally cross-pollinated Max Ernst’s A Week Of Kindness and Lewis Carols Alice In Wonderland) has garnered widespread critical acclaim. Inspiring ongoing generations of visual artists, musicians, writers and lmmakers - all of whom regard this truly individualistic and inimitable surrealist lm poem to be an indelible in uence - Valerie continues to impregnate their daily artistic referential fabric."
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| FISHOF, OHAD |
Music from the Documentary Film |
CD |
\"The album is based on the soundtrack created by Fishof for the unique documentary film, Wasted, by director Nurit Kedar The film is a collection of testimonies by soldiers who were positioned at the Beaufort fortress in southern Lebanon. Fishof\'s soundtrack functions as the glue that brings together the testimonies and dance segments; the horrifying bomb-falling routine of military life and the ceremonial silence and explosive force of the dancing men. The music, slow and accumulative, proposes a sense of claustrophobic, tense expectancy, juxtaposed with faint, processed echoes of realistic routine ?screeching and clacking of military equipment exposed to the elements; army boots crushing gravel in damp, dark bunkers; rustles of tin brushing against weapons.\" [label info]
www.tedermusic.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC |
VarunaGhat |
CD-R |
"To the food industry, water is increasingly turning into a lifestyle product. For Russian artist Sergey, it is source of great purity which should be treated thoughtfully and with respect. On “Nameless Droplet”, his recently released and already all but sold-out Mystery Sea debut with his main project Exit in Grey, the metaphors were still covered by dark clouds and hidden in musical metaphors. The album represented a shoreless sea slowly being sucked down a vast and increasingly vociferous vortex. Under his “Five Elements Music” disguise, however, the metaphors are facing themselves in a Kirlian mirror, their souls exposed and their true nature revealed.
Samples of various water recordings, therefore, are at the heart of “VarunaGhat”. For an artist who holds the traditional drone ethos even higher in his solo work than in his collaborational activities (which, on “Nameless Droplet” allowed for diversifications such as sombre guitar figures), this can hardly come as a surprise.
With its complexly vivid inner pulsation and a constant outward frequency, after all, the sound of water is essentially a drone itself and compliments the suspended harmonies of the genre perfectly. On the other hand, Sergey is not content travelling to the same places others have already visited. Just like Exit in Grey caused minor erruptions by fluently shaping their intangible compositions into very concrete textures, Five Elements Music finds a niche between a traditional and a progressive use of its field recordings.
Rhythm especially plays a vital role in this concept. There is a very simple logic behind this thought, as water in itself is silent and only becomes audible through movement. Whether it isparkles from a fountain, rushes through a ravine, gallops like fugitive horses or murmurs peacefully, Sergey concentrates on its pulse as well as its irregular gravitational centre. He doesn’t need all too many exterior extrapolations to achieve this effect and instead choses to leave most of the natural emmissions intact. His work lies rather in developping the samples through timbre and by allowing different sources to overlap and form new patterns.
Simultaneously, he contrasts these waterscapes with the expansions of his drones. The vast, twentytwo minute long opening track takes this to extremes, as a single recording is awarded emotions ranging from aggression to tranquil zeal, while the sky is increasingly covered by black cumuli and distant lightning flashes.
On the second untitled track, a sinus tone is softly stretched, forming a tender, wooly surface. Here, the basic technique is most apparent, as organic and surgically dissected material are brought together, while immobile frequencies clash with the underlying stillness.
One has to see this as a decided step against the arbitrary use of water in electronic music. Many recent releases have both shown the great effect it can still have, as well as the danger of ending up a cliche. On “VarunaGhat”, no drop of water is carelessly spilt. It relies on the beauty of its path through nature, yet changes its course whenever this offers a chance for creating new sensations. You need to listen closely to this album to actually become aware of this seemingly insignificant but really quite important shift. If you do, however, there are great rewards lurking underneath its surface." [ By Tobias Fischer / Tokafi ]
"Russian project Five Elements Music is a shoot coming from exit in grey's rich compost of sound experiments, and also Sergey's solo highly organic vehicle... the name comes from a vedic concept of "Five Elements" (ETHER, Air, Fire, Water, Earth) needed to have a global approach of reality, one that goes beyond appearances, words and consciousness for an enhanced experience of Life both on an emotional, physical & spiritual level... ETHER is the central element of this bouquet, holding all forms & colors, and the human body is the perceptual tool...
Five Elements Music paints a sound canvas, trying to reach a sort of supra-awareness through the manipulation of chosen sensible sonic fragments coming from some essential elemental sources...
-
On "VarunaGhat" we share a common mystery
with a pool of trembling water,
being both in a dormant state,
waiting to bloom while listening to its nocturnal flow...
an imperturbable stream
in phase with the world
we speak as a river,
our voices among stones, singing into the liquid
like a choral of fluctuating micro-energies...
In all those elements lies a detailed universe
Drink its traces, slip into its convolutions, sense its immanent drift
till your awakening..." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Isolation and Echoscopy |
CD-R |
Echte "human drones" gibt es auf diesem feinen Release von FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC zu hören - alle Klänge stammen von Originalaufnahmen des menschlichen Körpers ab, die weiter bearbeitet wurden. Anders als bei z.B. DANIEL MENCHE ensteht hier kein Noise, sondern pulsierende (Herzschlag?-) Dronescapes, die mit fein granulierten Mikrosounds versehen sind, dann aber auch mit unheimlichem Vokalmaterial und blubbernden, schmatzenden Sounds..
z.T. ist nicht mehr erkennbar, welche Körperteile oder Organe hier tätig waren, aber ein organisches Fluidum ist immer präsent. Faszinierend!
"One more exploration of elements by FEM this time is based on prepared sounds produced by human body. All kinds of crunches, gurglings and wheezes are plaited in sophisticated sound tracery with FEM's trademark sound. An interesting phisiological experiment - listen to what your body can make in the hands of the artist." [label info]
www.myspace.com/fiveelementsmusic
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Sylphstream |
CD-R |
Fantastic release of this solo-project of one EXIT IN GREY member, dedicated to the natural elements. Three longs tracks of ghostly, mysterious drone-muzak full of beauty. On of his masterpieces of transcendental soundscapes..
"First half an hour long track sounds a lot like another project of [S] - Ion And Sophus - very quiet atmospheric tunes accompanied by lo-fi field recordings. Second track starts to condense the sound and brings the feeling of being in a primeval night forest not in the best time... the campfire is playing tricks, the swamps are droning, the wood spirits are wandering around... The last third track continues this feeling drawing in the very inside of fire - here dominate the sounds of flames and charcoal crackles, little by little dissolving in their own echoes..." [label info]
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Nexus |
CD-R |
"Electroacoustic ambient made from field recordings. The album consists of two long tracks. The first one, unlike many F.E.M. recordings, has dense and saturated sounding. The second one is more smooth and calm in atmosphere, but not less in density of sound - several sonic layers collide and create multifarious wave pattern drawing inside like a swirl in which you can notice every tiny detail while drowning..." [label info]
"Nexus is an earlier album from the ever prolific [S], the same Russian sound artist who recently blew our minds with his zombified tape smoldering noise under the name Radioson, and continues to work with the drone based projects Five Elements Music and Exit In Grey. While there clearly a difference from the operations of [S] as Radioson, the boundaries between Five Elements Music and Exit In Grey are far more porous. Environmental recordings, found object manipulation, and electronics are all common within these two bodies of work, accreting into hypnogogic drones and pools of deep ambience. Nexus dates back to 2008, but is one that we've not had the pleasure to delve into until now; and it like so much of the work by [S], is a gem. Here we have an almost literal transubstantiation of five elements (presumably earth, water, fire, air, and ether) into sound itself. There's an incredibly rich tactility that ebbs and flows throughout these two longform pieces, which seamlessly melds brittle fracturings of ice, infernal rumblings of burning embers, and murky clumps of sodden earth. Out of these textures, resonant and mesmerizing drones emerge. While not quite as intense as Small Cruel Party, Nexus easily parallels the luminous, environmental soundscaping of early BJ Nilsen, Jonathan Coleclough, and John Grzinich. Hard to say how many of these cd-rs are left in the world. Our guess, probably not many." [Aquarius Rec] |
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Mystic Echo |
CD-R |
"Isolationist and somewhat vague ambient collage based on field recordings with ghostly and distant sound. Everything is imbued with sounds of wind, quiet but fairly tense. Heavily transformed resonating soundflows of winds in their enviroments... These are mystic echoes, pseudo-subterranean vibrations, faint sounds of surroundings, chime of bell and glass... Entangled in the light haze of air streams." [label info] |
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
|
CTOK |
CD-R |
"The album with Russian title "Stock" ("drainage") contains two tracks with soundscapes, based on the sounds of water. Unhurried laminating clear and processed field recordings create comfortable atmosphere, filled with drawling drones and resonances, and great number of small details (hissing sand, rivulets, stones and other artificially amplified natural sounds) carry away listener's attention, leaving him in a numb contemplation of the tangled sound flow." [label info]
http://www.ss.semperflorens.net/index.php/ss-line
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Pictures from Sand: Boiling Line |
CD-R |
"Two mini-albums on one disk. "Picures from Sand" is based on the sounds of sand: low-frequency gentle drones, layered and rustling, gradually accumulate slowly lingering resonances, then again turning into dry field recordings. The theme of "Boiling Line" is the sound of boiling water, but it's not that obvious at once: the noise of electric kettle transforms into wind moans, hi-pitched signals turn out to be seagull voices, and the sound of gurgling liquid is set off by monotonous low drones." [label info]
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Oborot |
CD-R |
"A project by Sergey Suhovik (Exit In Grey, Sister Loolomie, etc.), this time detouring from processed field recordings towards the arsenal of concrete objects. The instruments were record player, radio, metal, wood and stones. All came out into 4 long pieces with hypnotic textures painted by seemingly familiar sounds, but often twisted in spiral coils, sometimes going into the realm of ultra low frequencies, sometimes stretching to dark resonating spaces." [label info]
"The final release might be from the label boss himself, who goes by the name of [s]. (that
includes the . at the end), and who sometimes works as Five Elements Music, but also Sister
Loolomie for the somewhat stronger forms of ambient industrial music and Exit in Grey. As Five Elements Music his interest lies more in the ambient variations of ambient industrial music.
For the four pieces on this release he uses a vinyl player, radio coils, metal, wood, stones,
effects. On his previous releases [s]. melted all of that to some highly distilled, quite dark
drone music, but in these pieces there are faint traces of rhythmic particles (which I guess are hard to avoid when using a turntable), of rotating hiss, of metallic object dangling in the wind and field recordings of an indefinable nature. Some of these sounds are pitched way down, to get
the max out of the lower regions of the sub-sub bass sounds and you know what you get: a high
quality, dark drone release. Maybe it is all a tad noisier than some of his earlier work but of
equal fine quality." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.ss.semperflorens.net
|
2015 |
€9.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC / JIM HAYNES / ANDREA MARUTTI |
Tri-Ton |
CD |
"Three drone-centric artists from three different parts of the world... Five Elements Music is a Russian isolationist / ambient project spawned by one of the members of the similarly minded Exit In Grey; Andrea Marutti is an Italian dark ambient practitioner with a number of occultish recordings under the moniker Amon; and Jim Haynes is a Bay Area artist who "rusts things" and also happens to work here at aQuarius. Both Marutti's and Haynes' compositions are responses to the piece made by Five Elements Music. A massive tectonic rumble emerges from the onset of the Russian track, as if the resonant echo from a meteor striking the heart of Siberia were captured through the felling of a million trees. Out of these frequencies, Five Elements Music evolves this sound into a growling dissonance more dialed into those rasping drones that Oren Ambarchi or Birchville Cat Motel might broadcast from time to time. Over the 23 minutes, this track becomes steadily more placid and inviting, eschewing the desolate horror at the beginning for something beautifully introspective. Marutti builds from the bleak horror where Five Elements Music began, producing cavernous hues of black and grey on amorphous clouds of mist and fog. Marutti's work parallels those blackened static movements of Yen Pox and Inade. For Haynes' part, the theatrical cloak and dagger of Thomas Koner's isolationism comes to mind in his response to the Five Elements Music track, albeit constructed from his distressed textures and fluttering shortwave radio manipulation. Easily the most dynamic piece of this triptych, Haynes deftly transitions pools of nocturnal drones into snarling crescendos of volatile motors, turbines, and Kevin Drumm-esque guitar dissonance which morph into an evocative movement of super-slow-motion heartbeat rhythm and radio frequencies detuned into sweeping, ghostly sinewaves, captured from within one of those WWII era bunkers that dot the California coast. Haynes presented a version of this at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in a collaborative, expanded cinema piece involving a massive diorama, lots of old scientific gear, a couple of surveillance cameras, and a toy train. Alas, there's little video documentation of that performance, but the audio here works amazingly well on its own." [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIVE THOUSAND SPIRITS |
Quantum Consciousness |
CD |
PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR REALITY SHATTERED ! 5000 SPIRITS beziehen sich aufs holistische Quanten-Bewusstsein und widmen ihr Album dem LSD-Erfinder ALBERT HOFMANN, der am 11. Januar 2006 100 Jahre alt geworden ist. Hier tauchen sie tief ein in „atmende“ Strukturen, eine spirituelle ambience wie sie für ALIO DIE so typisch ist, angereichert durch fremdartige aurale Essenzen, wie Stimmen und leichte elektronische Effekte…
“After seven years of silence they will recurred to be heard again ...with 'Quantum Consciousness' they will not only overflowing the passed times but will leave frightened not only some listeners. Five tracks built in an unbroken journey of great intensity that Raffaele Serra ed Alio Die have characterized with an electronic refine touch and a flood vitality, always at the threshold of a mystery's whirlpool, some powerful electronic mantra that in these lands have already given some kind of dependance. Great artwork in gold print on dark green.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Schwarzschild Radius |
CD |
Nach "Quantum Consciousness" Teil 2 der Serie "Prepare to have your reality shattered", ein "kosmisch"-ambientes Klangefüge mit gleichen Anteilen von Elektronik und field recordings oder instrumental-handgemachten Sounds.... feine illumination-drones vom ALIO DIE-Seitenprojekt. 6 tracks, 54+ Minuten.
"The return by FIVE THOUSAND SPIRITS 'Schwarzschild Radius' CD, second part of a series, it is an unbroken journey of great intensity that Raffaele Serra ed Alio Die have characterized with an electronic refine touch and a flood vitality, always at the threshold of a mystery's whirlpool, an electronic mantra that in these lands have already given some kind of dependance. Great second chapter after the great 'Quantum Consciousness'. Out on Sempiterna Mutatio/Hic Sunt Leones. SM 009 CD" [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Towards Edentea |
CD |
"Towards Edentea is the new chapter into the metaphysical realms by Five Thousand Spirits.
Raffaele Serra and Alio Die navigate through different soundscapes with their usual strenght and inspiration, building up seven long tracks mixed together in a continuous and dream-like electrostatic forest. Enjoyable, refreshing and vitalizing electronics, that contemplate the abiss from a good point." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Melchiazek |
CD |
"The fourth chapter of the series, has long announced, is finally out. Melchiazek offers us 'music for imaginary movies' that Raffaele Serra has devoted much of his compositions .. here in the more obscure and dramatic vein, magnetic and mysterious.
Alio Die adds field recordings, loops, effects and edited the whole work.
An incredible machine of sounds, a great album for visions lovers and for fans of electronic music e dark ambient.
Prepared to see your reality shattered IV!!!
Wonderful artwork printed brown and bronze..
The cd comes in an elegant 3 sides digipack, LTD 300 copies." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| FJERNLYS |
Ascending Triads & Luminous Arcs |
do-CD |
„Schwarz, bordeaux und weiß sind die Grundfarben des Covers, der Schrifttyp lässt auf einen Bezug zum Jugendstil des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts schließen. Packt man die CD-Hülle aus dem Pappschuber, zeigt sich das Foto einer nordischen Seenlandschaft, die sich mittig spiegelt - ein Motiv, das das gesamte Artwork bestimmt. Wer Knut Enderleins bisheriges Schaffen in der Ritual-Ambient-Formation Inade verfolgt hat, wird hier einige vertraute Elemente wiederfinden, musikalisch jedoch beschreitet das neue Projekt Fjernlys neue Pfade. Während Inade thematisch von Ideen kosmischer Spiritualität und dem Okkultismus des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts handelt, entfaltet Fjernlys in Titeln wie "Intermediate Nature", "Trunkene Flut" oder "Nocturnal Wine" einen mystischen Pantheismus, die All-Einheit von Existenz und Welt.
Am Arrangement wirkten diesmal neben Knut Enderlein auch noch eine weibliche Vokalistin sowie zwei weitere Musiker mit. Für das Mastering zeichnete Andreas Wahnmann von Fir§t Law verantwortlich, dessen neue CD dieser Tage ebenfalls erscheint. Stilistisch bewegt man sich nicht mehr in dronigen Darkambient-Gefilden, sondern bemüht sich deutlich um Songstrukturen und eingängige Melodien - mit minimalistischen Mitteln versteht sich: Gearbeitet wird mit dezenten elektronischen Beatstrukturen,synthetischen Sphären, aber auch akustischen Elementen wie einem Bass. Drei verschiedene Stimmen tauchen auf, wobei der düstere Aspekt von Inade durchscheint, aber auch eine gelegentliche Leichtigkeit, u.a. durch die Präsenz einer Frauenstimme. Die Texte auf Deutsch und Englisch sind leider nicht durchweg verständlich und werden auch im Booklet nicht reproduziert - man bettet sich im Geheimnisvollen.
Mit pochenden Rhythmen, elegischen Sphären und finsterem Gesang füllt man eine Lücke, die Predominance nach ihrer Auflösung auf dem Loki-Label hinterlassen haben. "Flash Crimson", "All Sun's Ceaseless Falling" und "Rising Challenge" arbeiten auf diese Weise: Kosmisch-apokalyptische Chill-Out-Hymnen. Rituelle Drums tauchen bei "Lunar Sphere" und "Solar Loka" auf, während "Nocturnal Wine" wirklich poppige Qualitäten hat und darauf shließen lässt, dass sich die Hörgwohnheiten der Musiker nicht mit alten Lustmord-Scheiben erschöpften... Hier meint man durchaus einen Nachhall von Minimalelektronik der 1980er Jahre zu hören, oder die unterkühlte Melancholie früher Wavemusik.
Die zweite CD enthält Remixe des Materials, und zwar von Antlers Mulm, Bad Sector, Fir§t Law und Lovespell, allesamt aus dem Freundeskreis des Loki-Labels bzw. auf diesem Label verlegt. Dabei ist erstaunlich zu beobachten, wie diese Gruppen das Basismaterial ihrer eigenen Klangwelt angleichen: Bad Sector geht eher kalt-noisig vor, Antlers Mulm und Lovespell dagegen gestalten ihre Stücke eher relaxed-poppig. Und Fir§t Law führt eine spacig-trancige Not ein...“ [Ikonen mag]
“On their first album FJERNLYS emerges marvelous sounds and voices organically in songs and arrange a pleasant and relaxed sound to pure benefit with highest recognizing value. The songs layer cosmic and synthetic sounds and go on tracing according to the principle harmony in the music, their acoustic space seems very expansive, it is by no means over-crowded. The voices creep crosswise into sounds and effects to lunar spheres and solar places, exactly the correct nuance at refinement not only to remain in the ear but also simply very charming. Sometimes the central sequence takes surprising twists in some recordings and the density of sounds became touchable. Behind this project hides one of the INADE Masterminds, who recorded nine tracks supported from several musicians, those clearly possesses more songcharacter than the work which appeared from the Lightchannel so far. Fjernlys' attitude to music remains unfettered by stylistic frames and the album targets the style-encompassing essence of sounds. The five remixes and interpretations of ANTLERS MULM, BAD SECTOR, FIRST LAW and LOVESPELL on the second CD support the complex character of the whole release and expand the border to a new style of Ambient Songs. Ace - Clear - Pure.“ [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Four (One unearthly Room) |
do-CD |
"Five years after the last full-time album of Fjernlys, the Leipzig based outfit returns with new recordings. Fjernlys’ attention to detail is typically exquisite here: the looped bowing of a cello provides a droning bassline beneath pitch-bent chimes and melodic pads. Clear homogenic sounds creeping deep organic rhythms with lovely effects have been incorporated in a poetic ambiance guided by brilliant vocals. A collaboration with Peter Bjärgö on vocals for 'The Fervid Flood' intoning a new and inspiring way of recordings and production. FOUR appears to have abandoned tracks that aim to move bodies in favour of ambient songs that aim to move hearts. Atmospheric and sensitive Ambientsongs with accented percussion elements, vibraphone sounds and viola supplements to set the electronic soundscapes into wonderfully concentrated and organic pieces. Swimming beneath Fjernlys' ambient arrangements is a primordial cosmos of sonics: the falling of rain outside a window, the tumble of unknown random oscillations, a whirl of ebow guitars. The hustle and bustle of these sounds ground the grandiose orchestration on the record and give it an abstract sense of the transcendental space. On the second CD are remixes of 4 tracks from the album, revisited by Kammarheit, Peter Bjärgo, S.E.T.I. and Herbst9. Every single interpretation these artists made completes the puzzle of this release to its entire form of One Unearthly Room." [label info]
wp.loki-found.de
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| FLEURY-STEINER, BEN |
He dreams in Rivers |
mCD-R |
"Head of the gears of sand label, also known under the paradin and light of shipwreck aliases and for collaborations with aidan baker or oophoi, ben fleury-steiner proposes here two highly evocative droney pieces, as its title suggests it... full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by delphine ancelle-b." [label info]
http://taalem.free.fr/
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| FLORES, RAFAEL |
Nubes, Cometas, Rumores y Orugas: selected works 1994-2004 |
CD |
Einer der ganz aktiven frühen Industrial-“Cassettentäter” aus den 80ern war RAFAEL FLORES, der unter dem Namen COMANDO BRUNO arbeitete. Das Moskauer Label MONOCHROME VISION hat nun neueres Material zusammengetragen, welches nur in mini-CDR-Auflagen erhältlich war. FLORES Musik besticht durch die Verwendung mechanischer loops & „industrieller“ Geräusche, metallischer Drones & merkwürdiger verzerrter elektronischer Strukturen.....alles sehr hypnotisch, minimal & repetitiv, und manchmal recht abgründig....
das ist der 80er Jahre Noise-Minimalismus, wie man ihn von M.B., S-CORE oder TAM QUAM TABULA RASA geschätzt hat...
“First official CD album of Rafael Flores who hails from the depth of spanish noise underground scene, known for his early works released under Comando Bruno moniker. This compilation presents the latest decade of his sound experimentation, and shows quite diverse sides of his creative efforts, which ranges from collaged field recordings to noise ambient loops, from rhythmic structures to hypnotic electronic passages.“ [label info]
“....Rafael Flores first came to my attention in 1984 or 1985 when he worked as Comando Bruno, and was featured on many cassette compilations around the world. I even released a cassette of his, I think in 1986. Despite me xeroxing the cover, it had all sorts of stamps made by Comando Bruno, as he was also heavily into mailart. But my contact with Flores was rather small, and in the later half of the eighties we were no longer in contact and when people started to release LPs and CDs, he seemed to have disappeared. His cassette was re-issued on CDR (and sold really few copies, not that I was surprised), and suddenly Flores knocked on my door asking for a few copies. Since then we are not in contact, but it's good to know he's back. From the lost years, 1994-2004 he now releases a CD - his first in twenty-five years. It's great to hear this music without the hiss and static of a cassette. Flores plays industrial music, but one that strictly along the 'old' rules. He takes he sounds from rather primitive sources (such as the radio depicted on the cover), feeding them through electronics, chopping them into small rhythm particles (such as in 'Boucher 2' which sounds alike Esplendor Geometrico), but never the material dissolves into a mass of noise sound. Crisp clear, layers of electronic sounds, processed field recordings (in 'Para'), this is music that reminded me of the late eighties Asmus Tietchens. Forceful, yet intelligent industrial music. A major step forward and hopefully much more to come.” [Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| FLOWER-CORSANO DUO |
The undisputed dimension |
7 |
Ecstatic Power-Drone & Free-Noise vom Edinburgher Perkussionisten CHRIS CORSANO im Verbund mit MICK FLOWER (VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA, etc.), straigt & rumpelnd-wuchtig auf der A, wild improvisiert auf der Flipside.. what a furious duo !
"The unholy alliance of Mick Flower and percussive everyman Chris Corsano: Corsano has been widely hailed as the next chapter in the story of out-there drumming - he's played with everyone worth mentioning at the massive freenoisefolkpsych crossroads. Similarly, Mick's renowned for his work with Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, amongst many others. Together they construct a devilishly beautiful psychedelic maelstrom, Chris like a polyrhythmic octopus on the kit, Mick conjuring sublime lysergic ragas from the shaahi baaja." [label info]
"... It's lodged somewhere inbetween Jimi Hendrix and Thurston Moore, with a stop-off in outer Mongolia for posterity and has inhaled so much Opium that it no longer knows the difference between old and new, sound and silence. This is heady, involving music, breathtakingly visceral and daring you to bust your speakers with. I challenge you to find a more jaw-dropping 7" experience this year! Huge recommendation." [Boomkat]
www.no-fi.org.uk/label.php
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| FLUTWACHT |
Blut Lounge Vol. 2 |
CD-R |
Pounding rhythms, metal-sounds, vocals bathed in delays, power-drones & loops... raw & powerful & fresh Industrial-release on this new label from Romania, reminds on GENOCIDE ORGAN for example, but FLUTWACHT speaks clearly with an own voice...
”76 minutes of power electronics/harsh noise with distorted vocals and dark ambiental touches from the wellknown german projekt. Brilliant sound, one of the best Flutwacht release. CD-r in DVD case with pro-cover, limited to 100 copies.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Chain |
CD |
"A brilliant and pure industrial album by this German noise artist. Perfect sequencing and programming with a lot of analogue equipment. From dark drones to pure early Esplendor Geometrico-like rhythm-noise tracks; with fine voices and samples." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| FLYING SAUCER ATTACK |
Further |
CD |
„F.S.A. gelten schon seit Jahren als die Vorzeige Drone-Rocker, die feedbackende Hallwände mit psychedelischen Strukturen zu verbinden wissen... Dieses Album erschien 1994 und vereint zarte Akustik-Gitarren & Gesang mit himmelwärts strebenden sphärischen Gitarrenwänden, was sich mitunter in noisigere Gefilde steigert..
Old Album of the guitar-drone-rock-band from England, who create very sensible, emotional, at times noisy guitar-drones. Gatefold cover.” [old Drone Rec. info]
"Wish pulses and wish structure. Make the time to take the time to get stoned on reality." [label info]
www.dragcity.com |
1995 |
€14.50 |
|
|
same |
CD |
"1993 debut from Dave Pearce, with the assistance of Rachel Brook and Matt Elliot (aka Third Eye Foundation), which in retrospect is still the touchstone for the whole Bristol "scene" that emerged shortly thereafter. Roughly a blend of half "songs" and half far-out instrumental doodles, the record builds an atmosphere of dour beauty that sustains itself over the course of the entire program, no small thing. "My Dreaming Hill," "Wish," and "The Season Is Ours" are couched in fuzz and whispery reverb, but are beautiful and accessible tunes, able to stand on their own in any context. "Popol Vuh 1" and "Popol Vuh 2" are straight up tributes to the now much better known German masters, steeping in the hushed atmosphere of the best PV records (if not exactly the sound). The jarring cover of "The Drowners" is a strange interlude in the middle of the otherwise very cosmic second half, but most people seem to like it, so what do I know? 10 tracks, 50 minutes." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
1993 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Distance |
CD |
"Faint praise, revisited: those twiddly bits between the songs on "Loveless," lo-fi, wake and bake and other lifestyle choices before they became de rigeur. The domino effect never sounded this good." [label info?]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
1994 |
€13.50 |
|
| FLYING SAUCER ATTACK & ROY MONTGOMERY |
Goodbye |
mLP |
"Rauschige low-fi Drones, Pianotunes, rauhe Gitarrenflächen, feine Harmonien, insgesamt ein sehr experimenteller (Seite 1) und schöner (Seite 2) Release von der Feedback/Drone/Rock-Band und ROY MONTGOMERY." [old Drone Rec. info]
"Originally conceived as a "farewell" 7", this EP instead neatly wraps up old FSA business on one side and finds the band with new life on the other. "Goodbye" is a noisy and weird collage that definitely would have been the strangest A-side in FSA history. "And Goodbye" documents New Zealander Roy Montgomery's (Pin Group, Dadamah, Dissolve, numerous solo works) only appearance with the band in the form of a lengthy and beautiful raga, sort of like a group version of a track off of Roy's Temple IV. "The Whole Day" is new FSA, and is a lovely duet between guitar and sampler evoking previous glories such as "Distance" and "Popol Vuh I & II." Both formats feature all 3 tracks. 3 tracks, 24 mins. 12" is on red vinyl and is a fine RTI audiophile pressing." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
1996 |
€12.00 |
|
| FOR KINGS AND QUEENS |
One Day I discovered a Dreamachine |
CD-R |
"Subterranean Sonic is now available. It's called "One day I discovered a dreamachine" from For Kings and Queens. It's also their second release. It's a soundtrack of discovery and transformation. It's about time, relativity, fragility, changing, awareness and human consciousness. The production is more detailed and goes deeper into the sounds. Two long tracks over 41 minutes of music concrete." [label info]
www.subterraneansonic.de
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Elektroraum |
CD-R |
"The latest Album from For Kings and Queens „Elektroraum“
It contains 12 new electro acoustic works. They were recorded between December 2013 and January 2014 based on old demos and pieces from the last 4 years using field recordings, found sounds, guitar, synth and effect pedals.
Elektroraum
Der Anfang einer Hausmusik
Unruhiger Stuhl erster Teil
Blaues für nichts
Im Elektroraum
Unruhiger Stuhl zweiter Teil
Der Schnurrbart Friedrich Nietzsche
Die Bürde des Königs
Am Nordpol
Ein März Kind
Auf den Hund gekommen
Der dritte Teil eines Stückes
War es Bach?
Music and all instruments: Jens Kindermann
Artwork: Jens Kindermann" [label info]
"Jens Kinderman is the man behind For Kings And Queens, from Berlin, and he has released a bunch of releases before and now returns with an album of songs, which he 'demoed' in the last four years, but now fully works into proper songs. His primary instruments are the guitar, synth, effect pedals, found sounds and field recordings. Unlike his last release, which was all about voices, he goes back to his earlier releases and influences and it's not difficult to see such influences as say from Fennesz here. Many of these songs, except for the first, are rather short and to the point. He uses a bit of sound, loops that around, and adds further treatment to individual sounds as he mixes them along as the piece evolves. I thought the first piece, close to eight minutes, was a bit long for what it was and a bit unfocussed, but the other eleven were more to the point and sharp, exploring the right amount of sound sources and ideas per track, and then moving to a whole new set of sounds and ideas in the next, making this a highly varied work, which held my attention for the entire forty-three minutes. Maybe in terms of glitch (etc.) not the most innovative work, but I thought it was most entertaining record. Easily the best album by For Kings And Queens I heard so far." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.subterraneansonic.de |
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Marchantiophyta (2nd edition) |
CD-R |
"The new release is a psychedelic travel to a secret land called Marchantiophyta. It can serve as a journey to our inner state of mind. The combinations of experimental and conventional sounds create massive clouds of sinister atmospheres. The layered textures increase the tensions of exotic darkness. The sinister timbres are seductive and jarring. It is a shocking sample of an alternate reality. The music deeply penetrates into our subconsciousness and can reveal internal pictures. As sound springs served admissions from the rain forest, a coffeemaker, a glas of water, little tubes, contactmics, guitar, various synthesizers and some effects." [label info]
www.subterraneansonic.de |
2010 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Extended Voices |
CD-R |
"Music by Jens Kindermann except Pauline's choir uses a sample from Pauline Oliveros "Sound Pattern". Robert Ashley's visitor uses a sample from "She's a visitor" by Robert Ashley. Many thanks to Pauline Oliveros and Robert Ashley for the kind permission.
Cover drawings by Maria Cutugno.. " [label info]
forkingsandqueens.bandcamp.com
|
2013 |
€8.50 |
|
| FOR KINGS AND QUEENS & BARBARA KINDERMANN |
Schwarze Himmel von Metall |
CD-R |
"The new album Schwarze Himmel von Metall is a tribute to the Austrian poet George Trakl. It’s a 25 minutes roller coaster ride for four of his poets. The poets are sung and spoken by the soprano Barbara Kindermann and accompanied by For Kings and Queens with an abstract sound collage." [label info]
www.subterraneansonic.de
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| FORCUCCI, LUCA |
Fog Horns |
CD |
"Luca Forcucci is a binational Swiss and Italian composer and artist. His work observes the perceptive properties/relations of sound and space (and vice versa) through sound installations, visuals, compositions and performances. In order to explore the field of possibilities for sound in a context of music and art as experience, the works converge with dance, digital performance, poetry, architecture and neuroscience. In this context, he is interested by perceptionand consciousness.
His compositions have spanned through the years from electronic music, which was produced by Al Comet from The Young Gods, to field recordings collected around the world in urban contexts like Sao Paulo, Shanghai, San Francisco and natural ones like the Amazon forest or the Swiss Alps to name a few." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
"Sub Rosa is busy presenting new and young composers and here have a release by Luca Forcucci. "His work observes the perception of sound through an architectural approach in the relation of sound and space". He studied in Berlin, Paris (at GRM) and the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland. I am not sure if he has other releases available, but this is the first time I hear his music. The three pieces on this release are inspired by the fog horns he heard when he landed in San Francisco in Spring 2011. Obviously he recorded those and uses them as source material on these pieces. On the title piece he gets help from Goo Le Gooster on turntables, scratch, cuts and echoplex and in 'Winds' it's the cello of Michael Kott. When I visited San Francisco, a long time ago, I didn't hear fog horns, but I can imagine what they would sound like. the long sustaining and slowly shifting sounds of the horns over big distance, would already be enough to be music by itself, but Forcucci's treatments to the material enhance the mood further. Quite dark and desolate - like recorded from below the sea surface where metallic objects softly touch upon the microphone - in 'Winds' and hazy, fog like, not entirely clear for all to see in in 'L'Ecume Des Jours'. The title piece is the place in which happens most. Here the fog horns form a web behind a collage of field recordings - people talking and walking, bird calls and a bit of scratch like sounds. Oddly enough (but why?), I thought this was the least interesting piece of these three. Maybe the whole marriage of field recordings with a bit scratching just didn't work well; maybe it gave me an uneasy sense of being forcefully 'hip' to some extend? I don't know. But the other two pieces are really good." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| FORDELL RESEARCH UNIT / CULVER |
split |
10inch |
"split 10" on black vinyl limited to 100 copies.
one side each, one wonderful awesome brand new track from each.
i love FRU & Culvers sounds, so to show my appreciation and love for their musik, ive been lucky enough to get to put this wee installment of a 10" record out to add to their already vast, impressive and brilliant cosmik catalogue of releases on labels of awesomenesses such as matching head, pjorn 72, basses frequences, dead sea liner, kovorox sound, turgid animal, dead pilot, sick head, at war with false noise, small doses and blackest rainbow to name but only a few.
packaged in plain white disco jacket and paper inner with info card insert plus attached photos & art by Pete Burn and t." [Tom Newell]
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| FOSSILS / DARKSMITH |
Million Year Spree |
LP |
"Million Year Spree is the first in an occasional series of shared LPs where two like-minded souls meet under one umbrella. Hamilton, Ontario's Fossils have long been the reigning kings of no-fi acoustic sewage, producing an endless stream of outstandingly dire handcut confusion. Calfornia's Darksmith came to public attention last year via their peerless Total Vacuum LP (Hanson). Wilting electronics, floppy turntableism and sun-baked cassette protocol are combined and destroyed in a claustrophobic void. With additional mixing by Graham Lambkin and mastering by Jason Lescalleet Million Year Spree is the last word on being and nothingness. Hand-numbered edition of 400." [label info]
http://kyerecords.blogspot.de
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
| FOVEA HEX |
Neither speak or remain silent part 3 : Allure |
maxi-CD |
Dritter Teil der himmlischen Trilogie mit drei weiteren Stücken von mehrstimmigen Elogen in denen sich elektronische Flächen & mit Folk-Einflüssen vermischen, getragen & ultra-slow und von fast schon nicht-irdischer Schönheit.... das geht fast als sanftere & weibliches Pendant zu MARTYN BATES durch!
"Third and final part of the Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent series by Fovea Hex, the critically-acclaimed project featuring Clodagh Simonds, Colin Potter, Laura Sheeran, Cora Venus Lunny, Robert Fripp, Percy Jones, Donal Lunny, John Contreras, Michael Begg, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)." [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Here is where we used to sing |
CD |
"Fovea Hex are one of the mostintriguing phenomena in contemporary music. Despite the seemingly wilful nonchalance that has kept them under the radar so far (only 3 ep releases in 5 years, a mere fistful of appearances in France, Spain, Italy and Ireland, and their preference for elliptical, minimal design) the group have nevertheless developed an enviable cult status both in Europe and the United States, have performed at the personal invitation of David Lynch in the gardens of the Cartier Foundation in Paris and have attracted the free and willing participation of a genre and generation hopping rollcall of A-list luminaries including Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Carter Burwell, Donal Lunny, and Steven Wilson, as well as a who's
who of the electronic avant-garde including Roger Doyle, the Hafler Trio, Colin Potter and Michael Begg. Clodagh Simonds, the group's reclusive leader (if they can be called a
group, and indeed, if she can be called a leader) has recently emerged to announce the eagerlyanticipated first full-length album from Fovea Hex, Here Is Where We Used To Sing, which will be released on CD and digital formats on April 18th 2011. The album comrises 8 beautifully crafted songs and 3 short instrumentals that build on the fusion of formal composition, cutting edge ambient sound
art, incomparable song writing skill, and Simonds's emotionally rich and evocative vocals ("A voice that one could happily drown in for hours" remarked Pitchfork) that made their ep trilogy, Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent, so extraordinary. These "songs that don't go where you think" are immediately seductive, inhabiting a curiously elusive, many-layered
otherworld. They manage to sound both powerful and delicate, sophisticated and elemental, resonating with an understated emotional intensity so rare these days that it comes slightly as a shock. The balancing act is fragile, and nothing is quite what it seems, yet the group themselves are unlikely to
explain their methods or reasons. That task falls to fans and friends such as Matmos's Drew Daniels: "The starlit nocturnes of Fovea Hex bind electronics, drones and voices into song spells. Their intimacy and raw emotional power feel centuries old, but the experimental sound design can be shockingly modern. There is an intense focus to this music ¬ no clutter, no
cliches ¬ which is both ravishing and rare"
Simonds has gathered about her a now familiar troupe of collaborators for this album. A core ensemble of Simonds (vocals, keyboards, harmonium, psaltery, lyre, kalimba), Laura Sheeran (vocals, saw), Cora Venus Lunny
(violin, viola), Michael Begg (electronics, keyboards) and Colin Potter (electronics) are variously joined, replaced, augmented and superimposed by visitations from Brian Eno, Julia Kent (of Antony and the Johnsons), John
Contreras, Kate Ellis, members of Italy's Larsen, and, in keeping with the mystery that seems to veil the heart of the enterprise, further "friends who would prefer to remain nameless." True to their oblique nature, they even manage to credit an abstract contribution to the 10,000 year project; The Long Now Foundation (http://longnow.org/) "Three Beams", a limited edition bonus disk of 3 extended remixes allows full and free rein to the palette of ambient / experimental electronica at Fovea Hex's disposal. Works by Colin
Potter, Michael Begg and William Basinski perfectly counterpoint the highly crafted songs on the album with generously proportioned and sonically mesmerizing soundscapes.
One has to wonder how Simonds really feels now that the appearance of this singular album seems likely to tear apart forever the fabric of anonymity in which this extraordinary ensemble has until now been concealed." [label info]
"Certainly a project covered in mystery, Fovea Hex. In the last five years, they released three CD-EPs, all on Die Stadt, all with bonus remix CDs. A mystery in as far that we obviously know who is behind it. Clodagh Simonds is the 'leader' of the pack. She sings, plays piano, harmonium, keyboards, kalimba and lyre. Around her she has gathered a whole bunch of musicians, such as Michael Begg, Kate Ellis, Cora Venus Lunny, Brian Eno and Colin Potter. They add such instruments as cello, violin, treated bells, sonics and starry keyboards. If you thought that Fovea Hex would have moved on after their last EP, you're wrong. They still operate in that very same field of ambient music and folk tunes. The voice of Simonds is as heavenly as before and the music as sparse and to the point as before. Very fragile music, maybe even a pathetic (although I like to stress I hardly mean this in a negative way), highly emotional. Even without paying attention to the lyrics, one can easily feel the high
emotional level which is used here. I can imagine that playing this music when depressed is not going to help to lift that depression. Or perhaps it does. Very sad and yet very beautiful music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| FOVEA HEX + ANDREW LILES |
Gone every Evening |
7 |
"... Ihr bittersüßes Timbre, die fast mit Händen zu greifende Melancholie, sind einzigartig. Die Musik dazu, nur dröhnendes Harmonium und eine Handvoll schwarzer Pianoperlen, ist wie ein Rabenflügel, ein samtiger Saum, wie der Schatten, den diese Melancholie nicht abschütteln kann. In ‚Gone‘ verschwinden ein Baum, ein Bild an der Wand, die geliebte Katze, sogar der alte Teppich unter den Füßen und auch der Boden selbst. Eine Elegie des Verlustes, der diebischen und mörderischen Zeit. Von Geisterpiano und gespenstischen Stimmen umschallt, rezitiert Fabrizio Palumbo die Strophen, Simonds und Laura Sheeran singen den Refrain: Well
well well Nobody can tell Why why o‘ why Nobody knows. Das ist schon sehr tongue-incheek (wie Hitchcock das genannt hätte), purer Edward Gorey." [Bad Alchemy]
"DIE STADT is honored to inform you that a limited edition 7" vinyl single "Gone Every Evening" was released today April 1, (and no, we're not having you on...) 2008. The record features two collaborative pieces by ANDREW LILES & FOVEA HEX, with Fabrizio Palumbo as special guest. Featuring Andrew Liles, Clodagh Simonds, Laura Sheeran, Fabrizio Palumbo and Michael Begg, these two strange songs will find the way swiftly to your very core, quite by themselves, to simultaneously delight and only faintly unsettle you. Needless to say that everyone who enjoyed the 'neither speak nor remain silent' trilogy by Fovea Hex will also love this. It comes packaged in an attractive gatefold cover with printed inner sleeve designed by Andrew Liles in an edition of 500 copies of which only 250 copies will be available for wholesale." [label info]
"Following three excellent mini CDs produced with the top layer of sonic experimentalism, Clodagh Simonds teams with here Micheal Begg, Fabrizio Palumbo and Laura Sheeran, all under the guidance of Andrew Liles (rapidly climbing up to the top layer) to record two lovely tracks on a 7". 'Gone' is on side a, and 'Every Evening' on the other. The a-side has piano at the hearth of the piece and Simonds heavenly vocals solo with beautiful ambient like electronics humming sparsely about. 'Every Evening' has a strange narrative by Palumbo and multi-layered singing by Sheeran and Simonds and has a fairy tale like atmosphere, but with an unsettling undercurrent in the piece. This is beautiful too but much more spooky. Way too short on this format, one could only want some more after this. Fascinating, beautiful, small treasure." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label: www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| FRANCE SAUVAGE |
Jeux Vocaux des Bords de Dronne |
LP |
Brand new album from this French trio (Manuel Duval, Johann Mazé, Arno Bruil) playing electronic music in a song format. Great work !
And it’s a coproduction between these nine labels, Gaffer records, Tomaturj, Micr0lab, Les Loubards Pédés, Anarcho-Freaks Production, La République des Granges, Animal Biscuit, Grabuge, Les Disques du GranGousier.
Tout beau, tout neuf ! Le nouveau disque de France Sauvage (Manuel Duval, Johann Mazé, Arno Bruil) qui continue d’explorer les voies d’une musique électronique au format chansons – ritournelles bricolées dans un assemblage sonore rocambolesque et énergique. Entre rêve enfantin et cauchemar d’adulte, bal tragique et suicide électronique.
Très belle couverture ! Et il a fallu neuf labels pour sortir ce disque : Gaffer Records, Tomaturj, Micr0lab, Les Loubards Pédés, Anarcho-Freaks Production, La République des Granges, Animal Biscuit, Grabuge, Les Disques du GranGousier.
Recommandé !
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| FRANCIS, RICHARD & CLINTON WATKINS // ADAM WILLETS |
split |
7 |
Neuseeländische Mikro-Auflage von einer 7" mit "ESO STEEL" Richard Francis. Seite A zeigt ihn mit CLINTON WATKINS und das ist wirklich paradoxer "sanfter harsh noise" was die beiden machen.. es ist Noise auf einer anderen Ebene ! ADAM WILLETS noised anders, knarzend-flatterig und seltsam ätherisch abgehoben. Zwei super Noise-Drones !
"Emulsified dunes and slowmo mistrals committed to 7 inches of confinement somewhere in I Zwicky 18 by the antipodal trinity of the
mind-fucking club: CMR zone-clerk Richard Francis, Whitebass' Clinton Watkins and Saturn's Adam Willetts. Probably written in
1610¬11. First side blasts in with the sand-drinking mug-shot Francis/Watkins Hydrahead, conducting light-year syncopations,
cryptozoological moshpits and gale enemy forces through the doorway of your featherweight stucco homes. Flipside captures the carbonated
mind of Adam Willetts in the same place Anakin Skywalker must have been in just before he waltzed over to the shadier side of synapse- shredding psychedelic pop music. Deep-as-Hell Rotella decollages from made-up worlds where this stuff grows everywhere. On Earth it's
cryptobotanical. Hydrophonic Dagobah loops, bottom-end data obliteration, and general all-round friendship termination.
7" Vinyl. 150 Copies." [label info]
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| FRANCIS, RICHARD (ESO STEEL) |
Together alone, together apart |
CD |
Tief wummernder microwave / field recording-drone des Neuseeländers RICHARD FRANCIS (aka ESO STEEL), der hier herrlich rauschig & undurchdringbar tönt, v.a. in den mittleren Frequenzbereichen offenbaren sich feinste Details, ein Genuss! Filed under: mysterious drones opening mysterious ways!
"Tracks 1 and 2 recorded 2006-2007, track 3 recorded 2003 and previously released on V-A "Audible New Frontiers" CD (Physics Room-Radio NZ). Sound sources: field recordings of indoor and outdoor spaces; handling of fabric, wood and plastic; self noise of home stereo amplifiers, loudspeakers and record players." [label info]
"Sound artists like Matt Shoemaker, Loren Chasse, and Steve Roden are some of the very few who are successful in turning found objects and field recordings into thoroughly engaging compositions that don't rely upon the flashiness of techniques to make their work successful. Add New Zealand's Richard Francis to that gaggle as well.
It's been a while since any solo work has been available from Francis, who has previously recorded under the moniker Eso Steel; and more recently, he's been entertaining many a collaboration with his fellow NZ noiseniks such as Campbell Kneale and Michael Morley.
On Together Alone, Together Apart, Francis turns to the miniscule events of daily life whose peculiar sounds capture his imagination. It could be a crackle from rain falling or the distant surf of the Pacific Ocean or a creaking electric radiator or the hissing static from television snow. It's these small sounds which Francis has recorded and stretched into relatively longer compositions. These rattling, crackling streams of softened white noise move in a synchronous fashion, much like the way that a huge flock of starlings can gracefully circle in the sky without bumping into each other, all moving organically in three dimensions. Think Loren Chasse, as if he were reworking any of Bernhard Gunter's compositions, making them rougher, in line with Chasse's Hedge Of Nerves disc. Headphones are certainly recommended for this album, as the last track is awfully quiet... at least, it is when there's a record store full of people. Very well done!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.cmr.co.nz
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| FRANCK, YANNICK & PIETRO RIPARBELLI |
Whinny Muir |
CD |
"A single, long, deeply moving, slow and expanded drone-track, built on everchanging sonic masses, low frequencies, strong electric/electronic sounds, field recordings, feedbacks, buzzes, hisses, rough distortions, sunken organ chords, subdued inserts of strings orchestral parts. Alternation of progressive crescendos, ambiental stasis, sudden, dramatic and catching dynamic shocks... An involving and extraordinary "trip" across an obscure sonic path, convincingly assembled in collaborative form by italian Pietro Riparbelli (K11, PT-R) and belgian Yannick Franck (Y.E.R.M.O., Idiosyncrasia)." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| FREIBAND |
Replicas |
CD |
"Wenn ich das recht verstehe, dann entstand FREIBAND, eines der Soloprojekte des umtriebigen Frans de Waard, aus einem per Scrollrad erzeugten Geräusch, das ihn an Asmus Tietchens‘ Daseinsverfehlung (Stille Andacht, 1993) erinnerte. Der Hamburger hatte dieses Album aus den kratzenden Klängen fabriziert, die entstehen, wenn man eine Tonbandspule über den Tonkopf zieht, und die 13 Tracks allesamt ‚Freiband‘ getauft. De Waard wollte als einmaliges Projekt etwas Ähnliches probieren, woraus dann Microbes (Ritornell, 2001) entstand. Wie das bei FdW so ist, wurde daraus ein Fass ohne Boden, in das nun nach dem Gesetz der Unvermeidlichkeit auch Replicas (Monochrome Vision, mv19) eintaucht, das tatsächlich den Ausgangspunkt, nämlich Tietchens‘ Freiband-Tracks, als 13-faches ‚Re‘ remixt. Selbst das Cover ist eine Revision des Originals, jenem Haus mit Fenstern wie zwei aufgerissenene Augen und ein großes Maul. Inzwischen ist es eine Ruine mit eingeworfenen Fensterscheiben, herbstlich gesäumt von Ahorn. Wenn hier etwas einschlägig ist, dann A.C. Dantos Begriff ‚Aboutness‘ - Kunst ist immer ein Über-Etwas - , gesteigert, aber gleichzeitig auch implodiert, zu: Kunst ist Über-Kunst. But what is it all about? Schleifende, knisternde, pulsierende, blasende, kristallin funklende Geräusche, dazu - mit etwas Phantasie - aber auch paranormal, d.h. verhuscht und verzerrt ‚singende‘ oder ‚sprechende‘. Das leerstehende Haus wird da zum Geisterhaus, auch wenn de Waards nüchterne und spröde Akribie diesen hauntologischen Schluss selbst nicht nahelegt." [Bad Alchemy]
"Highly conceptual project that combines features of remix, recycling and plagiarism - the re-interpretation of classic album by Asmus Tietchens “Daseinsverfehlung”. All what can be heard on this CD, as always in case of Frans de Waard framework, is made from music that already existed: every sound, word in titles and even the cover picture - all is just processing and manipulation techniques. Freiband is one of solo projects by Frans de Waard. Besides Kapotte Muziek, Frans currently also plays in Beequeen duo with Freek Kinkelaar, runs Plinkity Plonk and other small labels, writes tons of reviews for the Vital Weekly newsletter. When just get some free time, he becomes active with various side-projects like Goem (minimal techno), Quest (ambient), Shifts (post-rock), Captain Black (remixes) etc." [label notes ]
"... Without getting too trippy or spacey, I would like to propose that this is the kind of music that alters your state of mind and being. Not the kind of album that you'll play in the background, 'cause it wants your full attention. It freezes your body and at same time makes you experience it from head to toe. In this way it has the same effect as most of Francisco Lopez' work has on me: it grabs you by the ears and sucks you right in." [SdT, Vital Weekly]
label-website:
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Capture |
mCD-R |
Auf MOLL, dem neuen mini-CDR Label von Frans de Waard, gibt es rares und besonderes Material von ihm in seinen verschiedenen Projekten. CAPTURE ist ein 18+ Minuten one-tracker mit einem Remix (das läuft dann unter FREIBAND) zur Präsentation der AUDIOSCOOP doLP. Frans verwendete verschiedenstes Original- Klangmaterial der Compilation und orientierte sich am Konzept der legendären CAPTURED MUSIC LP, um dieses schöne Poly-Schichten & Drone-Loop Stück zu erstellen, welches einen tollen Spannungsbogen aufweist...
"On March 14th 2008 the 2LP 'Audioscoop' was released, with a.o. a track by KapotteMuziek. At the presentation I did a remix in the style of 'Captured Music' (on Selektion), using a lot of the sound material from the 2LP. This has become 'Capture' "[label info]
www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html
|
2008 |
€5.50 |
|
|
True Type |
CD-R |
"Freiband is one of the many projects by Frans de Waard, one of the Dutch masters of experimental electronic music.
For True Type he has not made new music but he selected mp3 releases that needed a proper release because of quality. The 4 selected releases we find here are Reflection previously released on the now defunct mp3 label techNOH, the release Parallel for the 12K side label Term., remixes for the now defunct .Tiln/Antiopic mp3 label and EARLabs released on the now defunct mp3 label EARLabs (still working as review site) which contains remixes of the music by Jos Smolders.
The music is now finally available in full quality as it was supposed to be.
For the Freiband project he gets his inspiration from Asmus Tietchens making use of glitches and pops from scratched cd's and such. Because of this Frans himself would call this popmusic. True Type is a lovely collection of music which shows the diversity of the Freiband project very well.
True Type is limited to 100 pieces."
[label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
|
2009 |
€7.50 |
|
|
Stainless Steel |
LP |
"ini.itu is releasing a new vinyl only LP, the 8th of its catalogue, composed by Freiband
• Freiband is one of the long lasting projects of Frans de Waard, who is making music since more than 25 years under many aliases and in different line-ups, the most well-known being Kapotte Muziek ( with Roel Meelkop and Peter
Duimelinks ), Goem ( same team, different tools ), THU20 ( same, augmented by Jac van Bussel and Jos Smolders ), Beequeen ( w/ Freek Kinkelaar ), and more recently Wieman ( formerly known as Zèbra ) ( w/ Roel Meelkop ),
Ezdanitoff ( w/ Wouter Jaspers ) and Tobacconists ( w/ Scott Foust from Idea Fire Company ). Solo he has been active under his own name, Shifts and of course Freiband. His other activities include : editor and writer for Vital Weekly, programmer at Geluidswerkplaats in Nijmegen, organizer of the residencies Brombrom and director of the
labels Korm Plastics, Moll and Plinkety Plonk.
• the name Freiband itself is picked from Asmus Tietchens' album Daseinsverfehlung, on which he explored sounds created by rubbing tape freely on magnetic heads. Frans de Waard transferred the concept to the digital field and now mostly uses that name for his computer-based pieces.
What Freiband proposes here is 2 sides of radically reworked gamelan :
• Side A seems to progress through an acid bath and take the magnifying glass to enhance the digital decays, evoking various stages of textural corrosions. Through these aggressive and irreverent treatments, the naturally metallic harmonics are by twist and turns abruptly dismantled and fractured into crunchy, dense and fuzzy fireworks. Despite the stop & go transitions this hard-edged and raw piece still holds a nice unity across the digital errs and disturbances.
• on side B, through some arcane wirings, some machines end up spitting out shifting binary patterns with a somewhat alienating feeling. Proof that electronic music can be minimal and eschew the 4/4 dance floor pattern, in favour of
some dry and uncompromising “Unerforschtes Gebiet” between minimal beats and Steve Reich’ early tape compositions.
this LP further expands the horizon of ini.itu, successfully interrogating the link between south-east asian instruments and electronic contemporary music. Maybe something to file along Hecker, Pita, Mika Vaino, Fennesz or Alva Noto's Xerrox LPs.
p.s. Frans de Waard will also simultaneously release a companion 3” on his Moll imprint, with a totally different track from the
same sessions that couldn’t be included on the LP. That track is a spectral exploration of the higher frequencies, followed by a pile-up of gamelan sounds." [label info]
www.iniitu.net
"The LP thus both presents the quality of the gamelan style in its pure origin and 21st electronic avantgarde by one of Holland's finest sound artists. A superb ode to the importance of the gamelan music for the modern sound experimentations of the Western world." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
At home at last. Six Songs seek Shelter |
MC |
"Cassette-only release featuring 6 songs (recorded 2001-2008) from the archives of Frans de Waard's project Freiband. All songs previously unreleased. Color cover." [label info]
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Mutatis Mobilis |
CD-R |
"ACR 1028: CD-R in plastic case with transparent paper sleeve
Made in 2012, this release is a tribute to the creative experiments made possible in the 80s by the advent of the 4-track tape recorder, and whoever still owns one should get the limited cassette edition of this album. On a 4-track machine, listeners can create different mixes of these humming, pumping, whizzing ambiences that evoke steampunk-style industrial settings as well as the sounds of a harbour. On a normal tape deck, each side is a stereo track in its own right. The tracks from the CD can be loaded into a multi-track audio software, such as the freely downloadable Audacity, to digitally recreate the experience of the 4-track recorder for the 21st century.
Freiband used both source material of their own creation as well as material from Aalfang mit Pferdekopf’s album “Mutatis Mutandis” (ACT 1001 / ACR 1014) which is in turn based on sound sources by Freiband’s Frans de Waard. This collaborative spirit rooted in the 80s tape scene and continued in today’s digital world by the many collaborations on Attenuation Circuit, among many other labels, shows how important the 4-track recorder was as the first medium that made “studio” work accessible to a wide range of artists with an experimental approach to sound. With “Mutatis Mobilis”, the liberation of creative energies on the part of the producer is extended to the listeners. A seemingly old-fashioned medium is used for a musical work that offers active participation on the part of listeners, more so than most formats of the so-called interactive digital world." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"Freiband is of course Frans de Waard's guise for digital sound manipulations. This release is different from Freiband's others because it has a strong conceptual element. It contains two thirty minute tracks that divide up into four separate mono tracks on left and right channels, that could be mixed in a multitrack environment. Are you still with me? So yes, there are basically sixteen mono tracks on this disc. And you, as a listener, are invited to mix it up. So far so good. Nice idea, not new but hey, what's new anyway? But then: are you ready to go through all the trouble of doing a mix of your own? I don't think so. Even I (as a musician) think this is no good and I am not going to bother with it. So that's a bit of a problem then, right? Well, no. To my big surprise the idea of doing a mix yourself etc. is just plain nonsense. These are beautiful pieces of drone work, different on left and right channels, but blending together perfectly. A work with soft and gentle changes in texture, almost zen like in nature. There is no need whatsoever to mix this in a different way, because it is just right as it is. So that leaves me with a question: why state the concept when it has become obsolete? On the other hand it partly explains the process of creation. I leave it up to you to decide for yourself, but I do urge you to listen to this. It's very well worth it." [RM / Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Cubes |
CD-R |
"Frans de Waard has been long time active as musician since the '80s and released several albums under named artists and groups such as Kapotte Muziek and Zebra. He's also been working for Staaplaat for 11 years. To me though he's best known as the editor of renowned Vital Weekly and such I first came in contact with him. On "Cubes" he act under his alias Freiband manipulating the sound material from the Ukrainian project Dao de Noize and set loose a 37 minute flood of noisy experimentalism." [label info]
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| FREIBAND & COLIN TUDOR |
Pantones |
mCD-R |
"Colin was one of the founding members of Zion Train and a regular visit to the Amsteram shop I was once at. He liked experimental music and one day mailed me a bunch of sound material from his solo project Pantonal. I reworked them, but didn't mix it, which I left for Colin to do. He did it, quite nicely, and it has been several years with some label, who didn't go about to release, for whatever reason I don't know. But here it is, missing one mixed track, but hey, I'm only doing 3"s and business cards. Rhythm glitch music, or some such." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html
|
2008 |
€5.50 |
|
| FREIWILLIGE SELBSTKONTROLLE (F.S.K.) |
Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle / Teilnehmende Beobachtung |
LP |
"Before their debut album "Stürmer", originally out in 1982 and reissued by a-Musik, there were two 7"s by Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle. Both the eponymous 4-track EP (1980) by Justin Hoffmann, Thomas Meinecke, Michaela Melián and Wilfried Petzi and the 7-track EP "Teilnehmende Beobachtung" from 1981 were released on Alfred Hilsberg's legendary Zickzack Platten. With "Moderne Welt" and the literally endless "Deutschland, Deutschland", the rare "Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle" single contains two of the most brilliant tracks ever recorded in the Federal Republic of Germany. "Teilnehmende Beobachtung" was produced by Wirtschaftswunder's Tom Dokoupil and established F.S.K.'s status as one of the most singular (and back in those days controversial) phenomena in the (west-)german postpunk/pop/underground history. The LP reissue of these two 7"s comes with a printed inner sleeve and a 8 pp. booklet with extensive linernotes (in german) by Tim Klütz." (label info) |
2021 |
€23.00 |
|
| FREQUENCY CURTAIN (JOHN GRZINICH, RICK REED, JOSH RONSON) |
same |
CD |
Projekt von JOHN GRZINICH, RICK REED und JOSH RONSEN mit betörend-schwirrenden Drones aus analogen und digitalen Sinuswellenerzeugern..
“Trio consisting of John Grzinich, Rick Reed and Josh Ronsen, using both analogue and digital sine wave generators, processing and interventions from the radiophonic spectrum. Frequency Curtain formed as a collaborative performance group, for an independent experimental media showcase in Austin, Texas known as Intersect 4. The Frequency Curtain debut (at Intersect 4) was on August 25th of 2001. In order to prepare for the performance, the group held a series of private improvisation sessions for two months prior to the event. What resulted was a highly charged interplay of analog and digital electronic sounds. The four tracks on this CD are excerpts from extended improvisation sessions.” [label press release]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| FRET (=MICK HARRIS) |
Over Depth |
do-LP |
"MICK HARRIS (SCORN, QUOIT, PAINKILLER) returns after several years of hiatus with ten tracks of blasting landmine bass and interlocking shrapnel rhythms.
I’ve been asked to write a press piece for the dark lord MICK HARRIS.
Where does one even start? Especially for someone with decades of releases over various solo projects, collaborations and pseudonyms, whether it’s doing blast beats in the original NAPALM DEATH to crushing techno brutality as MONRELLA, or savage drum & bass as QUOIT. Then of course there’s the mighty SCORN and his numerous collaborations with fellow luminaries such as JOHN ZORN and BILL LASWELL (in PAINKILLER).
Rather than being tied to genres or scenes, MICK HARRIS is one of those producers who creates a whole sonic world uniquely of his own, in which varying tracks, styles and tempos take form, but yet in which everything sounds unmistakably characteristic of the creator. Needless to say his work has influenced legions of producers like SURGEON, REGIS, ONTAL, VATICAN SHADOW / PRURIENT, FAUSTEN, SHAPEDNOISE et al, and pretty much anyone in the world of powerfully dark, abrasive music you could name-drop. And yet after all this time, it is impressive that HARRIS still stands way above his successors and has never been surpassed in his own production/performance game.
After a hiatus of several years, he is back with a new album under the guise of FRET.
Working at a faster tempo than his SCORN material, the FRET project first surfaced years ago on the DOWNWARDS label, rooting it firmly in the dark, industrial and technoid world, and appeared more recently on Tresor (Kern mix by OBJEKT), maintaining the characteristic colossal bass-heaviness and textural depth.
And now a full album on KARLRECORDS, Berlin.
HARRIS fans will be delighted to know that despite the 130 bpm tempo, the newest FRET still resolutely avoids any straight four-on-the-floor kickdrums; every track lurches, stumbles, staggers and charges forth with beats in beautifully broken asymmetry.
We get 10 tracks of crushing, percussive destroyers, each itself a storm of precision chaos, with colossal low-end frequencies that’ll cause stampedes in the right circumstances. The classic HARRIS sound is there; searing waves of feedback distortion, intricate, interlocking rhythms and cold, abattoir atmospheres, especially track 6 “Stuck in the track at Salford Priors” which sounds like you’re being continuously suspended in the air from multiple explosions all around, each kickdrum throwing you up in the air, the next one going off before you can fall completely back to the ground.
The lazy-minded would probably lump it in with the term “techno”, but the disciplined brutality, blasting landmine bass and interlocking shrapnel rhythms are clearly HARRIS’ own trademark style, sitting somewhere between SCORN and QUOIT.
The tracks appear deceptively chaotic on the surface, yet each is meticulously and masterfully composed with great attention to layering and detail. MICK HARRIS fans rejoice, the dark lord still remains at the top of his game."
Derek Szeto / Fausten / Combat Recordings)
karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/over-depth |
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
| FRIEDL, HERIBERT |
BACK_FORWARD |
CD |
"This cd is solely based on recordings of the hackbrett (cymbalon). It is a research of playing and digital processing of the instrument itself. The tracks should show the changes of concrete sounds into abstraction, without losing the soul of the sound itself. On BACK_FORWARD musical movement happens in a clearly defined space. Even though the initial point and the endpoint are never the same, the path between is always equal.' Limited edition of 300." [label info]
www.nonvisualobjects.com
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| FRITH, FRED |
The Happy End Problem |
CD |
"The Happy End Problem beinhaltet zwei Tanztheaterkompositionen, die Fred Frith im neuen Jahrtausend für Amanda Miller und ihre Pretty Ugly Dance Company komponiert hat. Uraufgeführt wurden die Stücke im Stadttheater Freiburg, im May 2003 ("The Happy End Problem") bzw. im April 2004 ("Imitation" - die Tracks 1-9). Recht akustisch wirkt „Imitation“, welches von Streichinstrumenten, Gitarre, Piano und etwas Perkussion bestimmt wird. Dazu kommen sehr verhaltene elektronische Sounds und Klangspielereien von Patrice Scanlon. Für Frithsche Verhältnisse ist "Imitation" erstaunlich melodisch und zahm ausgefallen. Fast elegisch und sentimental, sehr klassisch-kammermusikikalisch und entspannt kommen hier die Klänge aus den Boxen. Einzig die Pianolinen entwickeln ab und zu eine gewisse betriebsame Hektik. Ansonsten schreitet die Musik getragen, sehr schlicht, fast karg dahin. Recht prominent in der Musik steht Carla Kihlstedts Violine, die häufig die Melodieführung übernimmt.
Das lange Titelstück ist dagegen etwas anders gestrickt. Deutliche elektronischer in der Ausrichtung, angereichert mit einigen Tonbandeinspielungen verschiedener Naturgeräusche, wirkt die Komposition fremdartiger und komplexer, wie ein großformatiges Klanggemälde, welches im zweiten Teil kurzzeitig zu einem recht wirren, schrägen und minimalistischen Elektro-RIO-
Kammerrockdurcheinander gerät. Trotzdem ist die Nummer vielleicht das elektronischste Stück, welches ich von Frith kenne. "The Happy End Problem" ist ein weiteres Beispiel für die Vielseitigkeit des ehemaligen Gitarristen von Henry Cow. Wer die Musik von Frith schätzt, wird mit diesem Album sicher keinen Fehlkauf tun!" [Achim Breiling / Babyblaue Seiten]
"A new recording, and instantly a Fred classic. Two, related, small-ensemble works for 6 and 7 musicians respectively - mostly strings of one sort or another, with percussion, flute and clarinet occasionally, and electronics. Fred, violinist Carla Kilsteht and percussionist Willie Wynant play throughout, providing continuity across the pieces as the music constantly unfolds into new textures and dialects. Melody, harmony and rhythm are omnipresent, though not always obviously colluding, and the music moves with constant assurance, never hesitating and never marking time. There are some affinities with Nicola Kodjbashias luminous Solitary Walker (which it predates) in its use of minimal instrumentation to maximum effect, popular materials, exquisite articulation and a kind of modest transcendence. The necessity and simplicity of these pieces conceals a catalogue of experimental techniques and novel ideas; there are those whod have squeezed a score of albums from this material. A gem. Buy it. Carla Kilsteht shines throughout." [label description]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Impur |
CD |
"In 1996, at the end of a two year residency, Fred organised an event at LEcole Nationale de Musique de Villeurbanne in France. He roped in as many of the students as he could, grouped according to their departments (early music, rock, African drumming, classical &c), and set them up in all the rooms in the building. The public wandered around creating their own mix, or sat in the courtyard listening to the sound drifting out through the open windows. For their part, each group of musicians played their own specially written music and occasionally were asked to improvise, all of them following a precise time-score prepared by Fred (55 minutes long). Synchronize watches. The whole thing was recorded on 4 A DAT machines and was later mixed - this was the result: an exiting, lurching and capricious beast with many heads, by turns an orchestra tuning up, a salute to Sonny Blount, a roiling chaotic mass of sound that splitting into layers colliding back together, pullulating, ululating, roaring and sometimes mewing like a kitten." [label description]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Technology of Tears |
CD |
"FRED FRITH erfand The Technology of Tears (ReRFRO011) 1986/87 für eine Choreographie von Rosalind Newman. Er konnte dabei auf Henry
Kaisers neuem Synklavier im Maximum an Samplingtechnologie jener Zeit schwelgen. Der Duktus ist hämmernd und zuckend, das Klangbild gesättigt mit synthetisierten Gitarren- und Geigensounds. Dazu schrillt im ersten Drittel ‚Sadness, its bones bleached behind us‘ John Zorns Altosax und Tenko skandiert kläffend ihre Kampfkunstschreie. Mensch und Automat, heiß und kalt, reiben sich im ostinat hackenden Chop-chop-chop des Maschinenbeats. Die beiden folgenden Teile behalten die Motorik bei, ein
tänzerisches Hmtata, aber zunehmend auch ein kniebrecherisches Zickzack, gespickt mit Tenkos Ha!s und Ho!s, mit repetitiver Gitarrenarbeit
und Geigenstrichen in Frith-typischer ‚Imaginary Folk‘-Manier, d. h. eingetaucht
in urbane Dynamik und auf sarkastische Weise futuristisch statt idyllisch und nostalgisch. Der Beat ist dabei so ‚imaginär‘ und dominant
wie bei Skeleton Crew. Christian Marclay stiftet Phantomklänge per Turntable, die den ‚Palace of Laughter‘ mit plunderphonischem Trubel rocken. Für ‚Jigsaw‘, ebenfalls eine Tanzmusik für Newman, die mit ähnlicher
rhythmischer Hartnäckigkeit motorische und dynamische Anstöße gibt, machte Frith das Meiste selbst, sogar die Schreie und skelettierten Gesänge. Vielspurig häuft er Gitarren-, Geigen-, Bass- und Drumloops und
diesmal stößt Jim Staley mit der Posaune dazu. Das Ganze hat einen Schwung, der immer und immer wieder angriffslustig gegen die Fassade
von Trägheit und Unlust rammt. Doch bis heute gilt: Man muss sich Sisyphos als glücklichen Menschen vorstellen." [Bad Alchemy]
"With an all-star line-up that features Tenko, John Zorn and Christian Marclay (with guest Jim Staley on trombone), Technology of Tears started life in New York in 1986 as a dance commission by Rosalind Newman. Fred took this opportunity to experiment with Henry Kaiser's brand new synclavier (the absolute state-of-the-art sampling and processing technology of the time - Henry had to take out a second mortgage on his house to buy it). It was the sophisticated sampling that fascinated Fred, and the piece is characterised by technological "comparisons" between real and virtual voices which constantly merge into one another. Tenko and Zorn tear through it all with breathless intensity. Parts two and three, which follow, couldn't be more different, for them Fred adopts a completely different methodology, playing everything himself mostly on low-grade instruments, then inviting turntablist Marclay to add plundered parts. Here is a completely different approach to "sampling": exploring dense layers of quotation intercut with melodies formed using random editing processes (with subsequent transcription and re-performance). Lastly there is Jigsaw, a later work, also made for Rosalind Newman, reflecting the frustrations experienced making Technology... where, every time Fred would complete a stable version, Rosalind would ask for changes (incidentally, sending the recording way over budget). This time Fred decided to make a modular piece that could be re-assembled in any way requested - and having no pre-determined structure at all. The original composition consisted of dozens of musical cells, each recorded separately in increments of between 3 and 12 measures; all at the same tempo, and in the same key. The idea was to play the elements separately and then ask Rosalind how she would like them constructed. Ironically, the test assembly, made as demonstration of what was possible, won instant approval, and no reconstruction was ever necessary." [label notes] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Nowhere Sideshow Thin Air |
CD |
"Three commissions for dance (3 different choreographers), one [2000] performed by Fred and Carla Kihlstedt, one [2001] by Fred and Carla with Fred Guiliano, (samples) and Gail Brand (trombone) and the last [2007[ with Fred, Hande Erdem (violin) and Theresa Wong ((cello). Layers and plateaux, modules and colour." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Impur II |
CD |
"Essentially a pretty great concert by a large 19 strong ensemble with Fred conducting as well as playing. Lots of rhythm, harmony, rock noise, exotic instrumentation, power, complexity and melodic writing, with stretches of chaos, eccentricity and theatre. Totally different, then, from Impur part 1 (ReR FRFC1) which was a deconstructed, spatialised simultaneity of musical events heard through open windows or by wandering through rooms; Impur 2 was an unannounced performance upon which audience members had to stumble (and then collect their friends - or not). The recording here was in fact made a little later, by the same people in a different artspace and has been edited and re-mastered by Fred for this release. It fits well in the aesthetic of earlier group records from Fred: Gravity, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Propaganda |
CD |
"Written for theatre in 1987 using a host of avian and mammalian voices, snippets of unidentified musical material and electroacoustic noise-sculpting, as well as invented and real instruments played by Fred. This was a hard time and the mood is intense, lean and not cheerful, though there are some gruesomely cheery inserts. There’s no fat but a lot of meat here." [label info]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| FRITH, FRED & JOHN ZORN |
The Art of Memory II |
CD |
"Art of Memory II (ReRFRA06) ist kein Nachfolger zu Art of Memory (Incus, 1993), sondern geht ihm voraus. Nachgeliefert werden nämlich Konzertmitschnitte vom Januar 1983 und Juli 1985 und man hört FRED FRITH & JOHN ZORN dabei in geräuschverliebtester Spiellaune. Der eine bekrabbelt Tableguitar & ein Casio Monophonic Keyboard, der andere tobt sich an Mundstücken & Vogelpfeifen aus, dass nur so die Spucke und die Federn fliegen. Zorn strebt in den Siebten Looney-Tune-Himmel, zumindest
bohrt er ihn ständig und hartnäckig an. Er quäkt, kirrt und schnattert wie die Ducks-Sippe in Aufruhr, die sprudelnden, oft schrillen Altosaxophontiraden wirken in diesem Kontext dann ebenfalls wie hyperventiliert.
Frith lässt entsprechend seiner Itchy & scratchy-Seite die Zügel schießen, lässt die Saiten flattern, macht den Kasper, der Krokodile verdrischt und Polizisten die Nase verdreht. Plinkplonk wird abseits aller explorativen Seriosität zur anarchistischen Zirkusclownerie, zum Geek-Spektakel, zum polymorph-perversen Sturm im Wasserglas, bei dem einem Caliban ein Bein stellt und der Inhalt von Harpo Marxens Manteltaschen um die
Ohren fliegt. Kein Gedächtniskünstler - der Titel ist ja offenbar von Francis A. Yates‘ The Art of Memory geliehen - könnte diese Splitter wieder sortieren." [Bad Alchemy]
"The long-awaited follow up to their first release on Derek Bailey's Incus label and a kind of prequel, going back to the time when Fred was playing home-made instruments and John was using mouthpieces and duck-calls as much or more than alto sax; this was back in the New York glory days when 100 new ideas popped up somewhere every day, and these performances lie right at the fringe of what most people would accept as "music". Anyone wanting to get back to one of the roots of what later became known as "noise music" will want this CD, since these performances encapsulate an approach to improvisation that has much more to do with listening to the world than perpetuating an existing musical tradition that works through safe, mutually understood, rules and conventions. AOMII is a vintage document from a lost era when innovation, energy and imagination were valued, and still had the power to shock and surprise." [label info] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| FROG |
Frog 2 |
LP |
"The music developped by Frog is a work on percussions of all sorts : electronic, metallic, or else.. bathing in atmospheres made of « humid » tessituras. The music is simple, and unlike Brume, accessible !
Except for the arrangement of rhythms, 75% of work is concentrated on textures, mainly electronic : analog and digital.
Electroacoustic is rarer here, most of the sounds being filtered by « vintage » analog synths using the whole usual range : VCO, VCF, VCA, envelope modulators etc.
Frog is at the same time background music and real music. You can listen to it making your spaghettis or with an active ear from your favorite armchair, if possible in the dark with a good glass of wine in your hand.
Voilà ! A multi-use simple music." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| FROM THE WHITE CHIMNEYS |
Nautilus with Wings |
CD-R |
Amorph-Drones, Ätherischer Ambient, Transzendental-Muzak! Ein neues Projekt von BEN FLEURY-STEINER (PALLADIN, LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK) und dem Dänen DANNY KREUTZFELDT. Einzelne Field-Recording Elemente sind auszumachen, ansonsten ist der amorphe Gehalt sehr hoch, lädt zum "Verschmelzen" mit dem Klang ein und zum Einnehmen einer "Binnenperspektive", in der die vielen Mikrodetails "sichtbar" werden.. NAUTILUS WITH WINGS nimmt am Ende nochmal gut "Fahrt auf", wird geräuschhafter und druckvoller, den Drones wachsen Flügel !
"Behind From the White Chimneys' curtains, we have a duet of inventive, vibrant experimental-ambient shapers, as it's actually an original collab of Ben Fleury-Steiner & Danny Kreutzfeldt... Wimington, Delaware based Ben Fleury-Steiner is the instigator of the fertile Gears Of Sand label, but also a craftsmusician & meddlesome passionate sound artist... present on many fronts, he has already a solid bunch of works to his credit, and that under versatile aliases (Eneg, Light Of Shipwreck, Paradin...) on GOS, Dissonance, Mystery Sea, Umbra, Taâlem, just to name but a few...
Danny Kreutzfeldt is Danish and equally productive, both in terms of creations (for Databloem, Tibprod, Practising Nature, etc...) and aliases...with early influences coming from a certain electronic scene (Basic Channel, Biosphere...), he quickly veered off to nurture his very own brand of detailed engrossing ambient...
Here on "Nautilus with wings", they join forces, and undertake a journey of discovery mainly stemming from a recent fascination with the hydrothermal vents of the Mariana Trench...
The resulting work is highly evocative... a compelling, almost physical dive with all senses wide awake...
Above, a ceiling of heavy waters
as only witness to a rusted sinking shell,
a compressed hull in streams of scoria...
Preliminary to an irrepressible descent, further below
an osmotic slow drowning in primeval liquid
till the hazy bottom...
There, bowels spit long columns of dust,
floating straps pointing to something else,
& silent yearnings...
"Nautilus with wings" is our inner ship,
and its elemental drift a cleansing gate
where our passing make us feel in peace with the world...
MS49 cd-r ltd to 100 copies and numbered
sleeve design and artwork by Chalkdc." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| FROZEN FACES |
Broken Sounds of a Dying Culture |
CD |
Re-issue of self-released first LP from 1997, plus tracks from the 7" "Religion of Hate". Project of Lina / DEUTSCH NEPAL. large cardboard cover.
"The year is 1996 I was surfing on cold waves through the very heart of Linkopia, night after night it was all the same. Sleeping in the Karmanik basement seduced by delerium echoing between white concretwalls. I could hear the equiptment slowly disintegrating as I put out the light, broken sounds of a dying culture. This might be the erosion of history eternally scraping on the crown of mankind...or was it just the decline of my personal belongings after years of abuse... and was there any difference between the two theories? I streched out my limb and pressed the record-button." - Lina Baby Doll.
Originally released by Entartete Musikk in 1996 as a limited edition LP. Now available in cd format with totally remastered sound, new artwork and bonus tracks from the Religion of Hate 7" in original extended versions. A must for all the fans of Lina's works who somehow missed the vinyl version! Fomat: CD, A5 folding cover" [label info]
www.wrotyczrecords.prv.pl
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| FUHLER, COR |
Stengam |
CD |
Wenig ist uns bekannt über COR FUHLER, aber durch die untenstehende Vital Weekly Review führt kein Weg an ihm vorbei. Auf STENGAM benutzt er ein Klavier, welches er mit elektrischem Geigenbogen und Magneten bespielt. Nach einem konkret-geräuschhaftem Beginn werden die Stücke immer welliger, schwingungsreicher und obertoniger, oder die Drones bekommen einen "metallophonen" und Gong-artigen Charakter. Herausragende Drone-Muzak die ohne Effektierungen auskommt, Anklänge an OREN AMBARCHI, RAFAEL TORAL oder ELLEN FULLMAN. Tip!
"Music by Cor Fuhler has been reviewed before in these pages, but one has to know where to look. Fuhler has been a duo with Gert-Jan Prins under the name of The Flirts, of whom I once saw a brilliant concert, but also improvising with anybody in the Dutch improvisation scene, and beyond, such as with Mimeo. His main instrument is the piano, but "he seeks to take it musically beyond usual perceptions, specializing in sustained sounds with use of various string stimulators: 12 ebows, rotating threads, spinning disks". In addition Fuhler also plays an EMS synthi AKS, as well as building his own instruments, such as a violin with keys: the keyolin. On his new solo CD, he plays an 'acoustic grand piano, using ebows and super magnets. No overdubs, no electronics, no electronic treatment'. Which is something I read on the cover after I heard the CD. Fuhler could have fooled me. I recognized indeed the piano, and yes, there are long sustained overtones, but just as easily I could have thought there was electronic treatment in these subtle walls of droning and sustaining sounds, with sparse interception by the piano itself. So there are none. Wow! Along the lines of Alvin Lucier, but in a much more musical context. Whereas much of Lucier's work stays on the somewhat clinical and conceptual sides of things, Fuhler expands beyond it, and makes great, careful music. It hardly sounds like a disc of improvisation music, as one may expect from this label, but more a disc of composed music. Great stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.potlatch.fr
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| FUHLER, COR / MATS GUSTAFSSON |
split |
LP |
"This lp consists of new works by two important musicians from the world of European free improvisation. Dutch pianist Cor Fuhler and Swedish saxophone player Mats Gustafsson have been exploring new possibilities for their instruments for the past twenty years. Not only by putting these instruments in radically different contexts, but more importantly by developing new ways of playing. Cor Fuhler (1964) mainly works inside the grand piano, stimulating the strings with all sorts of magnets, ebows and customised handtools. He is also an builder and inventor of musical instruments. His most known invention is the keyolin: a violin that can be played through a keyboard. Fuhler works in a wide variety of groups such as that Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra (MIMEO), Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra and his own Corkestra. Mats Gustafsson (1964) has broadened the textural possibilities of his instrument with an extended array of tongue techniques. On his work ÔSleeping Instructions' Ð included on this release Ð he plays baritone saxophone and electronics. He has made recordings using all sorts of saxophones, even the rare contrabass saxophone and slide-saxophone. Gustafsson playts in groups all over the world, most notably his trio The Thing, Barry Guy's New Orchestra, Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet and Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra. He is a regular collaborator with member of Zu, Sonic Youth and The Boredoms. While the explorations of these two musicians take them to very different musical and emotional terrain, the unrelenting sense of experiment is what connects them on this LP." [label info]
www.narrowminded.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| FUKUDA, HIIRAGI |
Seacide |
CD |
Hiiragi Fukuda turned a lot of “heads” with his 2013 album “My Turntable Is Slow” - released on NY label Selection Records. For many outside of his hometown of Tokyo, Japan it was their first introduction to the guitarist...
www.troubleinmindrecs.com
"Japanese experimental artist Hiiragi Fukuda returns with his third stateside issue, as Trouble in Mind Records reissues the guitarist-synthesist’s 2014 Seacide on LP and CD (originally issued on cassette by Sloow Tapes). It would be shortsighted to call Fukuda’s rhythms minimal, as that word only describes his recording set up for this release. With one synthesizer, one guitar, delay pedal, and microphone, the artist weaves patterns that bleed beyond repetition into open, breathtaking ceremonies. In the streaming embed below, you will find that Fukuda is a patient player, to say the least, as he works with limited note sequences as long as physically necessary for the next narrative set. Harmonic feedback might be that story, or a shift in pitch or slight lead line. If the listener follows the standard story that original krautrock artists sought a form of music that transcended traditional influences and rhythms, Fukuda reduces that line to its most orthodox interpretation, thereby opening its grand potential: this is music that speaks truly through its bare elements, shedding unnecessary move or obstruction. Seacide is available from Trouble in Mind Records on March 31." [Decoder Magazine]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| FUKUOKA, RINJI / MICHEL HENRITZI / LUCA MASSOLIN |
Weather Report |
LP |
"BACKWARDS is proud to announce a mind-blowing album of cosmic improvisation by the trio of musician / producer Luca Massolin (Golden Cup, Golden Jooklo Age), French avant-garde guitarist Michel Henritzi and Rinji Fukuoka, formely member of Overhang Party and currently of Majutsu No Niwa.
Recorded in November 2011, eight months after the Fukushima disaster, ‘Weather Report’ is an onirical yet political soundpiece, developed in two long movements, ‘A Chuva Obrigado’ and ‘Radioactive Arigato’.
The first side is a cornucopia of ghostly shapes and haunted tones, with Massolin’s dreamy organ and heavenly electronics blessed by Fukuoka’s elegiac violin lines. The piece evolves soon into an improvised blues for flamenco-like guitar (!!!), percussions and abstract electronics, building up tension until Henritzi’s lapsteel joins with waves of ectoplasmic electricity, and finally exploding into a blast of cathartic free noise.
The other side is when the piece starts vibrating, with Massolin’s electric bass pushing the whole thing into full-on shoegaze mode, Henritzi combining long, doomy drones and Fukuoka playing the most emotionally violin ragas you got to hear in an improvised studio album. There will be room for more ghosts until the end of this side, taking us to a landscape of wintry trees, empty streets, an abandoned city devoid of human presence.
This is the soundtrack of an echological disaster, a picture taken right after it happened, a warn about the risks of pushing the limits of human technology against nature. Images translated into sounds by improvised free music in its purest form: evocative, political, magical. How can you not be affected?
Limited edition of 260 copies of which 50 are on BLUE vinyl, and the remaining on standard black wax." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| FULLMAN, ELLEN |
Body Music |
CD |
ELLEN FULLMANN, Mitglied der DEEP LISTENING BAND mit Pauline OLIVEROS, arbeitet mit selbstgebauten “string instruments”, deren Drähte z.T. viele Meter lang sind, und erzeugt so schwirrende, hell klingende, reichhaltig-obertongenerierende drones. Komplexer Minimalismus.
„ Body Music is music for Ellen Fullman¹s unique The Long String Instrument,an 80-foot long instrument with approximately 80 strings. Fullman has been developing this instrument for longitudinally vibrating long strings over the past thirteen years. When she started making it, she saw it as "sculpture as music;" now she has come full circle in conceiving "music as sculpture." For the most part, the music in Body Music relies harmonically on the diatonic scale. Because of the prominence of overtone content, more complex harmony is suggested.” [label description]
label: www.xirecords.org |
1993 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
In The Sea |
do-LP |
"Ellen Fullman began developing The Long String Instrument in her St. Paul, Minnesota studio in 1980 and moved to Brooklyn the following year. Inspired by composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, Fullman's large-scale work creates droning, organ-like overtones that are as unique in the world of sound as her vision of the instrument itself.
Along with her 1985 debut album – appropriately titled The Long String Instrument – Fullman's only output in the 1980s would be two self-released cassettes, In The Sea and Work For Four Players And 90 Strings, recorded in 1987 at an unfinished office tower in Austin, Texas. This double LP collection features music from both cassettes as well as a previously unreleased piece from 1988 at De Fabriek in Den Bosch, Holland.
Ethereal and exquisitely paced, these rare recordings capture minimalism's quiet radiance. Within a musical landscape that has seen the rise of contemporary drone practitioners like Ellen Arkbro and Kali Malone, Fullman is sure to find a legion of fans.
Superior Viaduct is honored to present this long overdue archival release that marks a particularly vibrant period of Fullman's pioneering and timeless work." [label info]
https://www.superiorviaduct.com/products/ellen-fullman-in-the-sea-2xlp
"The breathtaking expanse of ’In The Sea’ was the 1987 follow-up to Ellen Fullman’s groundbreaking classic of 1985, ‘The Long String Instrument’. Only ever available on a hard-to-find tape, this is its necessary first ever reissue.
Collapsing millennia of musical practice and research into a singular sound, Fullman’s 2nd recording of her self-built instrument engulfs the senses in unfathomably complex overtones generated by 25m-long strings which are tuned to Just Intonation and played with rosined hands. Ellen’s sound effectively bridges the deeply mysterious sound of Indian classical music and the kind of contemporary minimalism explored by Ellen Arkbro and Kali Malone, and should be sought out by any listeners seeking sonic transcendence." [Boomkat]
|
2020 |
€27.50 |
|
| FUNCK, STEFAN |
Tau |
mCD-R |
Zweite VÖ für das neue Hamburger Label, STEFAN FUNCK hat hier wunderbare field – Mikrosounds aufgenommen... dabei entstanden geheimnisvolle, kalte Natur-Fliess-Sounds.... TIP !
„winter 2003 – stefan funck wandert mit dat und mikrofon (okm) über die felder norddeutschlands. sein akustisches interesse gilt dem schmatzenden taueis und dem klirren der vereisten äste im wind. digital bearbeitet entstand so ein 21 minütiger track der sehr leise beginnt und sich in ständiger mutation windet.– kopfhörer empfohlen –winter 2003 – equipped with dat and microphone stefan funck is walking across the plains of northern germany. he is acoustically interested in the cracking sounds of the melting ice and the clattering of icy branches in the breeze. The digitally arranged result is a track of 21 min, beginning very quietly and winding itself in perpetual mutation.– headphones suggested –“ [label description]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| FUNERARY CALL |
Nightside Emanations |
CD |
"First created in 1994, Funerary Call has established itself as one of the premier purveyors of archaic black atmospheres. With Nightside Emanations, Funerary Call presents his most organic and purely ritual experiences...8 tracks that spiral into darkness, led by the ceremonial fire rite of the opening track, then descending into even blacker, more ominous realms as the CD progresses. Extended pieces of opaque ambience are augmented by slow, foreboding, tribal percussion and sedated vocal incantations, full of ancient mysticism and creeping miasma. Material used in the recording process ranged from found objects such as rocks, scrap metal, antlers and bones, to an assortment of ritual implements; chimes, bells, gongs, rattles and kangling. The result is unequivocally one of the darkest releases you'll find under the Malignant banner and one of the more focused and complete recordings from Funerary Call. In 4 panel DVD digipak with stunning artwork by renowned Russian artist Denis Forkas." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Mirror reversed |
CD |
"It is with great honor that we welcome Canada's unique and by now legendary Black Ambient act Funerary Call to our family. For this new opus Harlow Macfarlane found inspiration from personal interpretations of the Tree of Death and what is considered to represent the reverse or occult side of the Tree of Life, a diagram of the negative forces or Qliphoth (Hebrew, Shells) assigned to each Sephiroth. They represent the counter-forces of the ten divine emanations as described by the ancient Qabalists and the paths or tunnels that connect to these infernal realms and the various demonic forces that inhabit them. The constant shifting of sounds and tones are a metaphoric reflection of these various "shells" and chaotic entities. Built as one continuous piece with various chapters, this new album serves as a vehicule for delving deeply into the shadow side. Artwork by Dehn Sora." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"The eerie and strangely evanescent theme opening the record draws the listener into a world of shifting shades and intermingled shapes that create a tableau of intense magical realism. The music evolves from the beginning, from minimal electronics designed like an abstract painting: they fade away into vaporous dispersion just when you think the frequencies are about to take a definite shape. They grow like the roots of a tree inside one’s head, asphyxiating common optical nerves and provoking a sort of dizziness of the internal organs; thus, the atmosphere here created becomes absorbent and eventually starts to grow inside you, but from above to the bottom. If we keep in mind the arborescent developed image, this glimpsing tree begins to take roots from the head and then seems to progressively take hold of your entire body by its trunk and branches.
It is the image of the tree of life and death which in some mythological and esoteric interpretations appears reversed in correspondence with the ontological aspects of individuation: one’s persona is shaped starting with cognition. As with most of hermeneutics this same aspect is based on ambivalence, so that this same root of self-development is the source of its degradation. Seemingly such ideas are musically suggested by traces of heavy-gripping tonalities or ironic, damping off percussive poundings. One who intends detachment from the illusion of progress searches to cut off from the root the body correspondent tree.
The ambiance constructed here traces allegorically the roaming of the intellect through the corners of its own metaphoric world. The music continuously acts as a vehicle for the listener: a meditative support which has the power to provoke the emergence of different mental states, all the more confusing and irritating as the mind has to confront ever-shifting frequencies.
Whether the intention of the artist has been to depict the kabalistic aspects of the Sephirothic tree, namely the malefic mirrored Qliphotic tree, is a matter of sheer interpretation. The record’s title would infer such a parallelism, but the evocative power of the music can gather esoteric hints that are generally valid.
“The Mirror Reversed” reflects the descent of the soul in its own created abyss. In part 1 of this one-track album, the Canadian artist acting under Funerary Call has offered us a multifaceted musical depiction of such a demanding journey. And even if a reversed descent is naturally an ascension, we will further wait for the soul’s ascending in part 2." [Iaha Crax / Santa Sangre]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| FURUDATE, TETSUO & Z. KARKOWSKI |
World as Will II |
CD |
"Re-Aktivierung des Labels von SCOT JENERIK aus San Francisco, der v.a. als Konzertveranstalter aktiv ist, mit dem zweiten Teil der Zusammenarbeit von Karkowski & Furudate (Teil I erschien auf Staalplaat). In Sachen apokalyptischer, orchestraler, irgendwie „neo-klassischer“ Komposition wohl mit das intensivste und extremste, was es zur Zeit gibt! " [Drone Rec 2002]
“Legendary composers Zbigniew Karkowski and Tetsuo Furudate complete their second installment of World As Will. This powerful collaboration results in a furiously intense music with Wagner-esque orchestrations and instrumentation with vigorous electronic manipulations, voice and mastery. A truly epic piece of work.” [press release]
"The orchestral madness it evokes makes Laibach (to compare with a group who have used loads of orchestral sounds) into childplay." -Frans de Ward, Vital Weekly, Amsterdam
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| FÜR DIESEN ABEND |
same |
CD-R |
Collaborative effort of GREGORY BÜTTNER (who also runs this new label from Hamburg: TAUSENDFÜSSLER) and STEFAN FUNCK: nice drone-layers & abstract floating soundscapes, always moving to some invisible point that disappears like a hallucination.. recommended !!
„für diesen abend" ist ein musikalisches zusammentreffen von stefan funck & gregory büttner (beide aus hamburg). jeder einzeln zuhause am rechner tätig, treffen sie sich regelmäßig, um ihre ergebnisse zusammenzubringen. störgeräuschen, feldaufnahmen, samples und computer generiertes werden zusammen und gegeneinander gestellt. – kino für das ohr – "für diesen abend" is an acoustic meeting between stefan funck & gregory büttner (both from hamburg, germany). each works at home on their computers, collecting and processing sounds from glitches, fieldrecordings, samples and electronics.
– cinema for your ears –“ [label description]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| G*PARK |
Sub |
do-CD |
"The most enigmatic of the Schimpfluch-Gruppe, Marc Zeier in the man behind G*Park; and here, he presents his first major album since the acclaimed 2008 album of cryptic electro-acoustics entitled Reuters. Many years in the making, Sub is a sprawling masterpiece of modern day musique concrete, reflecting the early pioneers' use of razor cut tape with a grandiose revelation of an existential horror. Zeier describes this album as the manifestation of amorphous conditions that lead to (or interfere with) representational forms or states of being. His examples of the shifting patterns from clouds of blackbirds or the clinging masses from algae blooms are rudimentary entry points for his rhizomatic, chimerical work.
For every malignant drone and turgid thrumming, Zeier will puncture his fluttering, frozen methane surfaces with jagged incisions, pneumatic hammerings, and decompressed gasps. This fragmented punctuation is a signature to the G*Park aesthetic, used highly effectively in mapping his clinical situations turned septic. The titles to the tracks on Sub address the physical attributes of the source material that went into each track, with some decidedly specific ("Swine", "Wasp", "Stone") and others nebulously abstract ("Purge", "Glow", "Pulse"). For Zeier, the exact nature of the sound object is informed more by a shadowy deconstruction than by a direct representation, thrust into an absurd existence as an abomination, a violation, a monster.
Sub locates itself near the psychological minefields of Luc Ferrari, Steven Stapleton's prediliction for windows, and the cruel x-ray visions from fellow Swiss aktionists Sudden Infant & Dave Phillips." [label info]
www.23five.org
"When the first G*Park record was released, on Schimpfluch, it blew my mind. For one, it didn't seem to fit on the label, with their harsh, cut-up styled aktionist music, and it seemed to be all ambient and quiet music. It's good to have expectations blown away. I followed him a bit, in the mid 90s, when he released some CDs on Zabriskie Point, but his output was quite sparse, so I missed out on his releases on Tochnit Aleph, but here's a new sign of life, in the form of an all new double CD on 23Five Incorporated. G*Park, the solo project of Marc Zeier, works exclusively with field recordings, which is offers either as a raw block of sound, or something heavily treated, layered and such like. Now, of course, there has been lots of field recording based music since the first G*Park LP, and we might have become a bit more critical, but boy, G*Park is still as unique as always. His music has a drone like character, from layering various events together, or simply taping events of such nature (gas lamps, heaters) and on top he placed animal sounds with a more haunting character. There seems always to be sudden move in here, like a violence lurking underneath, maybe a menace in these sounds, which makes this perhaps both narrative and scary. It's like a radio play, but entirely without words. A horror radio play if you with these sustaining sounds, loops of squeaking doors, and a swift montage to enter another room. Some hundred minutes of music here and it's not a minute too long, or too short. Very imaginative music, both in the way it's made but also a soundtrack for imaginary films. This is an excellent release, restating what great composer G*Park is." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| GABER, HARLEY |
The Winds Rise in the North |
do-CD |
One long multi-layer drone-minimalism piece (more than 100 minutes, in 4 movements) played on five strings, which reveals lots of inner micro-movements and developments (kind of intense micro-(dis)harmonics) with almost dramatic effects, a great piece by this modern US-composer. Originally released on Titanic Records in 1976 as do-LP.
Linda Cummiskey (Violine), Malcolm Goldstein (Violine), Kathy Seplow (Violine), Stephen Reynolds (Viola), David Gibson (Violoncello)
" "Natürlich verstehe ich" - so räumte Harley Gaber, der Komponist, ein - "dass dies nicht jedermanns Sache ist". Er meinte sein 1973/74 entstandenes und über hundert Minuten dauerndes Streichquintett "The Wind Rise in the North", dessen magische, rau schimmernde Klangwelt sich in vier Abschnitten nur extrem langsam wandelt - ohne erkennbare temporale Textur, ohne Eindeutigkeit und ohne Ziel. Man könnte beim Hören an das Lied einer verstimmten Äolsharfe denken, die, bespielt vom schroffen Wind an den Klippen Irlands, von den Unendlichkeiten des Meeres singt. Doch wer es versteht, konzentriert lauschend die subtilen energetischen Wandlungsprozesse wahrzunehmen, von denen diese Musik getragen wird, der schult nicht nur sein Ohr, dem fließen vor allem Heiß und Kalt zusammen. Es hat schon seine Richtigkeit, dass vom CD-Cover der geschmackvoll ausgestatteten Produktion flammenden Blickes, mit drittem Auge auf der Stirn, eine Gottheit die Dämonen im Zaum hält. Das gold-braune Thanka-Bild aus dem Umfeld des tibetischen Buddhismus öffnet den Assoziations-Raum, dem die Musik sich verdankt. Gaber selbst erlebte sein Werk als einen "Spiegel, in dem man sich selbst und dann auch dahinter schauen kann". (Kein Geringerer als Pierre Boulez hat übrigens mit Musikern der New Yorker Philharmoniker Teile daraus aufgeführt.)
Die 1976 dezidiert nicht in einem Studio entstandene Aufnahme des einzigartigen Quintetts für drei Violinen, Viola und Violoncello erschien nun digital remastered auf einer Doppel-CD bei der Berliner Edition RZ - bei einem Label mithin, das immer wieder für Glanzlichter der besonderen Art zu sorgen weiß. Bewundernswert sind die Konzentration und der Musiziergeist der fünf Interpreten. (Malcolm Goldstein spielt mit, ein Geiger und Komponist, für den John Cage oder Christian Wolff geschrieben haben und dessen Affinitäten zur New York School und der Kunst des Abstrakten Expressionismus evident erscheinen.)
Harley Gaber selbst wurde 1943 in Chicago geboren. Er gehört zur bunten Gilde amerikanischer Künstler, die prägende Eindrücke in Europa empfangen haben (in den 60ern u.a. bei Aldo Clementi, Franco Evangelisti, Darius Milhaud) um dann im Zeichen jenes spezifischen Freiheitsgeistes ihrer Heimat neue Wege zu beschreiten. Im New York der siebziger Jahre schien seine Kunstproduktion zunächst zu versiegen, um dann in Kalifornien in den Bereichen Photographie, Malerei, Klanginstallation und Mixed-Media erfolgreich und nachhaltig wieder aufzublühen. Zu seinem Quintett meinte Gaber, man möge es als Ganzes anhören wollen/können oder auch nicht. Ein verkrampftes Durchhalten würde dem Geist des Stückes jedoch nicht entsprechen. Und er gab der Musik einen Text des Dschuang Dsi mit auf den Weg, in dem es fragend heißt: "Die Wolken bewirken den Regen, der Regen bildet Wolken. Wer ist's, der sie hernieder sendet? Wer ist es, der weilt und uns diesen Segensfluss schickt? Der Wind entsteht im Norden. Er weht bald nach Westen, bald nach Osten; bald steigt er auf als Wirbelwind. Wer ist's, der ihn blasen lässt?" [Helmut Rohm, BR-online]
" Questions
How endlessly the heavens turn.
And yet the earth remains at rest.
Do the sun and the moon quarrel as to their positions?
Who rules over and orders all these things?
By whom are they in harmony?
Who effortlessly causes and maintains them?
Is there, perhaps, some hidden tension
that prevents them from being other than as they are?
Must the heavenly bodies move as they do, powerless to do otherwise?
Look how the clouds drop the rain!
And how the rain rises again to form the clouds!
Who moves them to this abundance?
Who effortlessly produces the primary orb and stimulates it?
The winds rise in the north and blow to the east and west.
Others move upward uncertainly.
Whose breath moves them?
Who effortlessly causes them to blow?
What is the cause?
[Chuang Tzu] " [from the label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2008 |
€21.50 |
|
| GAL |
Defragmentation / blue |
CD |
"Hinter GAL steckt der österreichische Komponist Bernhard Gal, der für 'Defragmentation/Blue' mit dem japanischen Architekten Yumo Kori zusammengearbeitet hat. Ihr Ziel ist die Erforschung der Interaktionen zwischen zeitlichen und räumlichen Bedingungen und ihre Begegnung mit menschlicher Wahrnehmung und Vorstellung. Diese Arbeit wurde zuerst im September 1999 in einer New Yorker Galerie (Studio Five Beekman) präsentiert, und ist GAL's zweite CD nach 'Bestimmung New York' (Durian, 1999). Wir hören hier: einnehmende, langgezogene & klare Wellen von sich überlagernden Tönen, denen man sich schwerlich entziehen kann, sowas wie Atem, Glockensounds dazwischen, seltsame Interferenzen von Frequenzen, die Zeit scheint stehen zu bleiben... hoch suggestible Musik, absolut hypnotisch & großartig!" [Drone Rec. info 2000]
"The Austrian sound artist and composer Bernhard Gal developed the concept for defragmentation-blue over the past two years in collaboration with the Japanese architect Yumi Kori. Their aim is to explore the interactions between temporal and spatial conditions and their impact on human perception and imagination. defragmentation-blue -- an audio-architectural exploration of time -- was exhibited for the first time in September 1999 at Studio Five Beekman, a music gallery in New York which is specifically committed to the presentation of multimedia-sound installation art.This is Gal's second CD-release. His first CD-release Bestimmung New York -- very different in concept and sound compared to his recent CD -- has been released on Austria's Durian label in 1999. defragmentation-blue is a minimalistic, yet haunting listening experience. Gal's use of psycho-acoustic phenomena creates a highly intense and entrancing atmosphere where time seems to stand still." [label info]
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
RGB / Experimental Videos |
DVD |
Seven experimental video-clips by this artist (full name is GAL TUSHIA) from Israel, with musical help by label-manager DAVID OVADIA aka MAURIN, made to "expand the boundaries of the ordinary visuals found in everyday life". Colourful movements & shapes appear in behind an almost dissolving surface, extremely coloured landscapes, nightdrives, strangely coloured birds, flickering lights in square-shapes, and the music consist of soft drone-loops, slow tribal beats & analogue sounds.
"Takes the viewer through a slow, hypnotic journey into "pixel", colored "reality". Its images are accompanied by experimental audio ambiance and minimal beats composed by Gal & Maurin." [website info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| GAL & MAURIN |
Daila live |
CD-R |
"A documentation of a live show from July 2006. The duo influenced by the latest middle east conflict, the result is two dark and deep meditative drones with a slow harmony movement that become dense and thicker till everything collapses back again." [label description ]
www.tedermusic.com |
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR & MATT DE GENNARO |
Long wires in dark Museums |
CD |
"Long Wires in Dark Museums was recorded live in performance in total darkness at two concerts in New Zealand’s North Island. Long pieces of polished piano wire were strung across the venue, and music is made by bowing the wire with rosined hands while walking.
The room is perhaps the most important instrument, as the sounds are delivered to the listener’s ears by the vibrating walls.
De Gennaro: “It’s not the wires themselves that make the sound, but the wall, railing or window frames at their end to which its vibrations are communicated.”
Galbraith: “The sound of the wires is the sound of the building”.
The first song is wire with guitar loop, the second wire with Alastair’s intimate violin whimpers and the final song is both players on wires, making a pure drone that envelopes the whole room. The whole disc leaves a stamp that’s narcotic, not academic.
Matt De Gennaro has studied art and sound acoustics and first experimented with wire music privately in his attic in the middle 90s. Alastair Galbraith is known for both his solo work and his tenure in the improvisational outfit A Handful of Dust." [label info]
www.emperorjones.com
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ |
Montauk Project |
CD |
...ambitionierter Release des “anti-mind-control”-Projekts GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, gewidmet dem MONTAUK PROJECT, das in den 70er & 80ern ein geheimes Forschungsprogramm der USA zur elektronischen Bewusstseinskontrolle gewesen sein soll (und bis heute existiert, wie man kürzlich auf NTV sehen konnte): Elektromagnetische Felder, Radarwellen, Quantenmechanik, Wetterbeeinflussung, etc... all das scheint sich hier in bedrohlichen elektronischen Klängen wiederzuspiegeln, man hat das Gefühl durchleutet & gescannt zu werden. Zu jedem Stück gibt es weitere Informationen zu Details des MONTAUK PROJECTs. Das ist zeitgemässer, gesellschaftskritischer Industrial wie wir ihn sehen wollen, jenseits der üblichen Klischees! Kommt im Spezialcover mit Vexierbild.
“Finally 3 years after the ‘Haarp’ CD, Galerie Schallschutz comes with another superior release and again with strong thematic content...We all know something is out there, but we're not sure exactly what. Galerie Schallschutz at long last, begins to provide some solid clues.
“Montauk Project”, also called the Phoenix Project during some of its phases, was a covert government's ultra-top-secret electromagnetic mind control and time experiment project that took place during the 1970's and early '80s at an abandoned Air Force radar base at the southeast tip of Long Island, New York.
Much evidence has surfaced indicating that the base and the subterranean facilities were and still are used for a tremendous amount of top secret, ultra-classified research and experimentation into interdimensional technology, quantum and particle physics, black hole simulation, super-powerful electrical and electromagnetic fields, weather control, psychotronics (interfacing mind and machine), particle beam technology (HAARP transmissions…), and electronic and drug- based mind control...! Galerie Schallschutz provide you with the perfect soundtrack to go further into this secret world. ENTER NOW !
ATTENTION: this recordings will change your mind.” [label info]
www.tesco-germany.org
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Kubark |
10inch |
"KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation" is an interrogation manual published in 1963. The 127-page report, originally classified as secret, is a comprehensive guide for training interrogators in the art of obtaining intelligence from "resistant sources". KUBARK --a CIA codename for itself-- describes the qualifications of a successful interrogator and reviews the theory of non-coercive and coercive techniques for breaking a prisoner. The long-range purpose of interrogation is to get all the useful counterintelligence information the source has. The short-range purpose is to enlist his cooperation to this end or if he is resistant to destroy his capacity for resistance and replace it with a cooperative attitude. Creating a sense of unfamiliarity, disorientation and isolation are the hallmarks of psychologically undermining a detainee in the purview of the KUBARK manual. Practices like starvation, keeping inmates in small, windowless cells with unchanging artificial light and forcing inmates to sit or stand in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time are useful instruments to reach the objective. Finally, the KUBARK manual is a work of historic importance and a fundamental source document for all Counterintelligence Interrogation in the world to this day..." [label info] |
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| GAMIL, SOLIMAN |
Ankh |
LP |
"This is the 2nd release for Touch by Soliman Gamil, after The Egyptian Music. Ankh is the Egyptian symbol of life, of fertility and of growth. From the rich tonality of 'Dance of Ka' to the exuberant 'Clown Dance', Soliman Gamil draws on ancient Egyptian culture to create soundscapes that transcend the stereotypes handed down from films like Cleopatra; in the process they also challenge the shrink-wrapped mentality of 'world music'. On Ankh, Soliman Gamil plays 17 different instruments on 15 new compositions written and recorded since the 1960s. The cover comes complete with full color artwork that features a painting by Panni Charrington." [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
1990 |
€15.00 |
|
| GAMLASKATTEN |
Voltage |
CD |
"Voltage" is the debut album and follow up to the well received "Brutalism" EP (auphnet024).
Using the momentum, this release is straight and aimed directly to the club floors. Heavy beats, moving sequences and a pace that you cannot escape. As it's predecessor the tracks are heavy influenced by oldschool EBM, dark techno and industrial elements.
Demanding your attention from the first bit to the last note!
https://audiophob.bandcamp.com/album/voltage
"Genre/Influences: Industrial-Techno, Techno-Body.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: This is a German solo-project driven by Ralph Gatzen. Audiophob last year released the EP “Brutalism” and now unleashed the debut album “Voltage”.
Content: The debut part of the work is mixing hard loops of Techno- and Industrial music. New elements are progressively emerging like Acid, Psy-Trance and finally solid EBM bass lines with screaming effects on top. It’s a diversified piece of music but totally adapted for dance floors.
+ + + : The opening part of the album has something visionary. Gamlaskatten is not just bringing Techno and Industrial together but there’s something extra on top. It sounds brutal and pretty sexy at the same time. The Acid sequences at the title track are pretty cool as well. The second part features heavy EBM bass lines creating a perfect, and aggressive, fusion between Techno and EBM.
– – – : The only single track that couldn’t fully convince me is the last one which definitely sounds as an ‘outro’.
Conclusion: I’m not used to hearing Techno-driven productions released by Audiophob but the harsh, Industrial, dark and intelligent approach of this artist is definitely appealing for the lovers of the German label." [Side-Line]
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| GAPIK, CEZARY |
Contrast I |
LP |
"The White Box label presents a release by Polish electronic experimental/harsh ambient drone musician Cezary Gapik. Gapik's deeply unsettling soundscapes go beyond the primal "power electronics" assaults (which the label adores and thrives on), of early Whitehouse and Sutcliffe Jugend. They go far beyond the capabilities of many of the supposed "dark ambient" artists releasing music today. Primitive forms have been discarded in favor of an articulate attention to detail, all for the benefit of the discerning listener. Fans of diverse, forward-thinking sound artists such as Philip Jeck, Kevin Drumm, Tim Hecker, Carlos Giffoni, Phill Niblock, Peter Rehberg, Fennesz and other SERIOUS people should take note. Gapik's sonic assaults and tonally perverse audio structures house such progressive depth, that upon discovering this music, White Box concluded there was simply too much good material to contain in a single release. Presented here is part one of a triptych; "Contrast I" comprises two pieces, and perhaps not surprisingly given its title, features two very different compositional approaches from the same artist. From the opening moments of side A's monolithic "#0473 [Tremor]," Gapik's music asserts an unflinching, confrontational prowess all its own; an articulate slab of cold, metallic sound, unrelenting, aurally oppressive and executed with total precision. If we're talking power electronics here (and as far as side A goes, we are), it doesn't get much more forward-thinking than this. Side B track "#0458 [Drowsiness]," offers an altogether different approach to its side A counterpart, its peculiar, clustered tones slowly creeping in and out of phase, seemingly designed to throw off the listener, traversing dark psychedelic territories. White Box will be releasing "Contrast" Parts II and III further into 2011. Limited edition vinyl release of 400 copies only. Features gorgeous sleeve art from Berlin-based painter Suse Kipp." [label info]
www.whiteboxrecordings.co.uk
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| GARET, RICHARD |
Areal |
CD |
"On AreaI, Garet continues his ongoing research with electromagnetic disturbances through radio. Garet treats the radio process of transmission and reception as a routing system for the audio signal, all the while deliberately agitating and distressing the nodes that direct the course of that signal. For example, an electrical motor might be situated near a radio's antenna disrupting its ability to properly receive a transmission that Garet is broadcasting from nearby. Through the controlled use of electro-acoustic techniques (some rough and volatile, some refined and delicate), he organizes the signal distortion, the crackling static, and the ever-present tendencies for feedback into swarms of chiming resonance, electrically sourced harmonics, tactile bricolage, and impressionist din. As much as Garet's process pushes the interaction of sound and electricity to the brink of self-immolation, Areal balances his crunched textures with extended passages of radiant blooms of blurry noise and drone, finding common ground between the glassine density from Rhys Chatham and the splintered excursions of Kevin Drumm." [label info]
www.23five.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| GARLAND, PETER |
Three strange Angels |
CD |
"This historic release presents the first recordings of the early music of Peter Garland, one of the most personal voices in the second generation of West Coast minimalists. Drawing inspiration from Native American and Mexican ritual music, Peter creates beautiful and lyrical sonic portraits. This long out-of-print masterpiece, considered by many to be Peter's greatest recording, was originally released in 1989 on WhatNext? as Border Music and is supplemented here by rare live recordings from the same period. Featuring new expanded notes by the composer and rare photos from the period, this is the definitive document of an American experimental classic." [label info]
www.tzadik.com
"An excellent compilation of small compositions which are evoking peace and attention in the listeners mind. Sometimes very similar to the later Musci/Venosta: "A Noise A Sound", ReR, 1992 but with much more native american influences. The collection works also as a concept album. Memorizing are the minimal flute melodies, the drumming and the recordings of buzzing wood pieces. Ritual music for untroubled thoughts. The perfect soundtrack for Antonin Artauds "Tarahumaras" or Carlos Castanedas "Teachings of Don Juan". Thanks for this." [TestPieYoming]
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
String Quartets |
CD |
"This CD presents the premiere recordings of two spirited and enticing quartets that draw on the composer's well-traveled ear and great sense of personal vision. Both works move with a unique sense of grace and a sincerity of expression that is purely Garlandesque -- marked by a sometimes lively dancing, a sometimes alluring stasis and an often sauntering gait that allow musical ideas to seem to appear intuitively and develop subconsciously. Performed and recorded beautifully by members of the renowned British new music ensemble Apartment House, which has for the past 15 years championed the music of such composers as Christian Wolf, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Philip Corner and many other experimental and avant-garde composers at major festivals throughout Europe. Peter Garland is a composer, world traveler, musicologist, writer and former publisher (Soundings Press). He studied music composition with Harold Budd and James Tenney at Cal Arts and maintained long friendships with Lou Harrison, Conlon Nancarrow, Paul Bowles and Dane Rudhyar. Since the early '70s, Garland's own music has been marked by a return to a 'radical consonance' and a simplification of formal structure influenced by Cage, Harrison, early minimalism and a great variety of world musics. His unique and highly engaging music has been performed around the world by such noted performers as pianists Aki Takahashi and Herbert Henck, percussionist William Winant, accordionist Guy Klucesvek and the Kronos Quartet and released on the Tzadik, New Albion, Cold Blue, Mode, Avant, Toshiba-EMI/Angel and other labels." [label info]
www.coldbluemusic.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| GASTRIC FEMALE REFLEX |
same |
CD-R |
Kanadische Noise-weirdness, völliges Hirngeschwurbel mit eigener Schönheit. Konkrete Collagen für die Ewigkeit. Wir denken an RATS WITH WINGS, RAYMOND DIJKSTRA, NWW, und andere low-fi concrete noise masters.....
“...The music is generally rather low-key with some wonderful bursts of noise...All kinds of weird instruments are being amplified and recorded through different devices, there's a bit of tape manipulation and electroaccoustic clatter and rumble... All mashed together and whipped up for your listening pleasure... You get flashbacks of "classic" NZ noise (Surface of the earth, Sandoz labtech etc...) and perhaps some of that Dylan Nyoukis or American Tapes madness.... numbered edition of 50 copies, the actual disc is beautifully handpainted and the covers are
individually made.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€7.50 |
|
| GAUCHISTE |
same |
LP |
"GAUCHISTE is a trio consisting of Tannon Penland, Tomas Phillips, and Craig Hilton. Tannon is based in Richmond, VA and is also in the instrumental group Loincloth who are newly signed to Southern Lord Records. Tomas as well as Craig are from Raleigh, NC and are prolific electronic musicians specializing in the sparse. (Absinth Records, Nitkie Records, AFE Records, and Young Girls Records to name just a few)
Out of a shared love of both metal and abstract minimalist forms, GAUCHISTE are two parts electronic genius and one part grim reaper. The sum of those parts is a self titled debut coming January 17th, 2012; seven songs that fuse Penderecki to Celtic Frost. At long last sounds of terror you can meditate to.
Little Black Cloud Records is honored to be a part of this ground breaking collaboration of styles and artistry. This release has been mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Scorn, Lotus Eaters, etc...) who specializes in making extreme music of all kinds shimmer and has worked with heavyweights such as Sunn O))), Earth, and Goslings.
The LP is limited to 100. The pressing color is black and carries a black label with handwritten notations to reflect side A & B (one upside down cross or two). The LP is housed in a plain black cardboard sleeve that is wrapped 3/4s of the way with cover art on heavy, high quality matte paper. A special insert has been created to sit within the cover to complete the artwork on the backside, much like a puzzle piece. The hand mirror cover art and layout has been designed by artist Kenneth Close and each record contains a digital download card.
The compact disc is also limited to 100 and also carries a mirror (compact) theme. The CD comes in a round metal tin with a plastic window in the center allowing the reflective CD to be viewed without opening the case. The liner notes are stored beneath the CD (accessible by removing the clear inner plastic that secures the CD in place) and the back of the tin case is stickered to complete the artful packaging." [label info]
www.littleblackcloudrecords.com
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
|
same |
CD |
"GAUCHISTE is a trio consisting of Tannon Penland, Tomas Phillips, and Craig Hilton. Tannon is based in Richmond, VA and is also in the instrumental group Loincloth who are newly signed to Southern Lord Records. Tomas as well as Craig are from Raleigh, NC and are prolific electronic musicians specializing in the sparse. (Absinth Records, Nitkie Records, AFE Records, and Young Girls Records to name just a few)
Out of a shared love of both metal and abstract minimalist forms, GAUCHISTE are two parts electronic genius and one part grim reaper. The sum of those parts is a self titled debut coming January 17th, 2012; seven songs that fuse Penderecki to Celtic Frost. At long last sounds of terror you can meditate to.
Little Black Cloud Records is honored to be a part of this ground breaking collaboration of styles and artistry. This release has been mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Scorn, Lotus Eaters, etc...) who specializes in making extreme music of all kinds shimmer and has worked with heavyweights such as Sunn O))), Earth, and Goslings.
The compact disc is also limited to 100 and also carries a mirror (compact) theme. The CD comes in a round metal tin with a plastic window in the center allowing the reflective CD to be viewed without opening the case. The liner notes are stored beneath the CD (accessible by removing the clear inner plastic that secures the CD in place) and the back of the tin case is stickered to complete the artful packaging." [label info]
www.littleblackcloudrecords.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sommet |
LP |
Gauchiste the black ambient, experimental band from USA was formed in 2009 and based in Raleigh, NC / Richmond, VA. Gauchiste is Tomas Phillips & Tannon Penland.
Tomas Philips known as the minimalist sound artist but also in written and in visual arts, he released albums on such labels as Line Imprint and Trente Oiseaux. He currently teaches literature at North Carolina State University.
Tannon Penland is a musician known mainly from the heavy metal scene, in bands like Loincloth - a Southern Lord label band that toured with Sunn O))) and released a couple of albums.
This is their second full length album and "Sommet", like the predecessor, contains their finely crafted dark music, that will transpose you to an outstanding soundart noveau of dark-noire ambiance. It combines elements that reminds of metal aesthetics and experimental music subtleties aiming at minimalism. Indeed, Gauchiste veers much closer to a dark abstraction, falling somewhere, between Japanese minimalism, Thomas Köner, Nurse with Wound and the heaviness in the relative silences of metal. "Sommet", brings this noir soundtrack quality to this mix with numerous collaborators, including Robert Donne of Labradford fame - the band is greatly proud of.
"Sommet" requires no more words, it speaks for each listener, for himself. But I dare to say it's an outstanding release. It is the kind of release that truly fulfills label's audio aesthetics. Animating the subtle vibration of the tree, which is breathing, beating. This release demanded also a very special package. The LP album is presented in shiny black Vinyl with folded cover in PVC envelope. Each copy includes the bandcamp download code!
Gauchiste: Tannon Penland, Tomas Phillips
Contributors:
Greg Elkins - Steel guitar
M. Moore - Vocals
Matt L. - Guitar
David Sanchez - Vocals
Robert Donne - Synth
Jenna Ottinger - Vocals
David More - Bowed cymbal
John Winston Phillips - Synth
Tracy Wilson - Vocals
Dave Witte - Drums
Drums recorded by Brett Bamburger, Dan Gargiulo
Mastering by: Ronan Chris Murphy (known for working with King Crimson, Gwar, Steve Morse, Terry Bozzio, Ulver...)
Graphically Designed by Doug Dobey for Dobey Design
https://essentiamundi.bandcamp.com/album/gauchiste-sommet-em047
|
2021 |
€23.00 |
|
| GEERKEN, HARTMUT |
Die weisse Leinwand ist ein rotes Tuch |
DVD-R & BOOK |
"Ein wilder Film aus dem Afghanistan der 70er Jahre, wo Hartmut Geerken bis zum Einmarsch der Sowjets lebte, collagiert und kombiniert mit den damaligen Medienbildern. Das seltene Dokument eines Fast Footage Films, hier zum ersten Mal in einer Edition veröffentlicht. Mit einem Textbuch und einer Originalarbeit von Hartmut Geerken. Für die Edition „mimas atlas # 8“. Auflage: 50 Ex., Berlin 2009" [label info]
www.hybriden-verlag.de
|
2008 |
€50.00 |
|
| GEERKEN, HARTMUT / MICHAEL RANTA |
The Heliopolar Egg |
5 x CD |
Documentary recordings of Hartmut Geerken and Michael Ranta's November and December 1976 tour of the Middle East and East Asia. Geerken is known for his long relationship with Sun Ra including compiling a discography), but he wears many other hats too: musician, film-maker, archivist. Ranta is a percussionist best known for his famous 'Improvisation Sep.1975' collaborative record with Toshi Ichiyanagi and Takehisa Kosugi. This is a CD reissue of an LP boxset, originally released in 2010 as the last release on the now dormant Italian label Qbico. The tour started in Iran before moving east to India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Korea, and ending in Japan. At their show in Osaka, they played together with Toshi Ichiyanagi. This edition includes the concert with Ichiyanagi, solo performances by Ichiyanagi and Shoko Shida, as well as a rare Delhi performance that was originally only included in the highly limited 6LP edition of the Qbico set. All the tracks overflow with rich multi-dimensionality, providing a glimpse of Ranta and Geerken's depth as performers.
Boxset. Includes a 12-page booklet with flyers from the period.
Limited edition of 500.
Disc 1. rec. November 25; Baghe Ferdows-Zafaranieh, Teheran, Iran. rec. December 1; Max Mueller Bhavan, Delhi, India. rec. December 3/4; Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta, India.
Disc 2. rec. December 8, German Cultural Institute in co-op with the Academy of the Arts, Dacca, Bangladesh.
Disc 3. rec. December 13; Abelardo Inner Green (open air) in co-op with the U.P. College of Music, Manila, Philippines.
Disc 4. rec. December 15; Korea Drama Center, Seoul, Korea.
Disc 5. rec. December 18, Goethe-Institute, Osaka, Japan.
www.art-into-life.com
|
2015 |
€50.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT + SCANNER + L. PETITGAND |
OLA |
CD |
Since 2014, when the Mind Travels [Ici, d'ailleurs] series was created, Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand have been working on one project after another with a great deal of sonic experimentation and with an unbroken passion. It is therefore not surprising to find the fifth album "OLA" from this collaboration on our collection dedicated to "ambient, neo-classical and industrial" music. After "Je vous dis" 2014, "Oublier" 2015, and "Like This Maybe Or This" in 2020, the group that we will call GN+LP is a figurehead of our sub-label and this new release "OLA" reinforces this association.
Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand have been music activists for more than 30 years, two very singular musicians, coming from two different schools and whose collaboration was far from obvious: the industrial and experimental scene for Thierry Mérigout (the last active member of the group Geins't Naït) and for Laurent Petitgand, well known for his movie soundtracks, especially for his collaboration with Wim Wenders. These two artists have different visions at first sight, but share common roots and a mutual respect. They were also recently featured in a documentary directed by Otomo de Manuel: "So Young But So Cold", a feature film about the Nancy Punk/No Wave scene.
For the album "OLA", the GN+LP duo is joined by an artist far from being unknown by ambient and IDM fans, namely Scanner alias Robin Rimbaud, to be pronounced /ˈrɒb.ɪn/ because, in spite of a French-sounding name, he is English and lives in London. The Englishman is a virtuoso of sound collage, a sound plastician, one of the most present on the electronic scene since the 90s. He has produced more than twenty albums on labels as prestigious as Sub Rosa or New electronica. A fan of collaborations, he has had the opportunity to work with many artists during his career, Kim Cascone or Alva Noto to name but a few.
We can say that this combination: Geins't Nait + LP + Scanner is explosive. From the first track, "MT26", we quickly understand the potential of this trio formula. After three rather calm introductory minutes, scattered with modified voices and field recording, the track progressively evolves with a rhythmic. The loops merge and repeat, sometimes disintegrating and filling up with industrial sounds and more or less heavy metals. This structure can be found on several tracks such as "OLA" or "MOUCHE", two hypnotic tracks of more than seven minutes that could remind us of Autechre or Muslimgauze. We also discover a tribute to Gilles Deleuze on the track "GILLES" in which GN+LP+Scanner rework the conference of this philosopher "What is the act of creation? Gilles Deleuze is regularly featured in Geins't Nait's work.
More industrial and colder than the previous albums "Je vous dis" or "Like This Maybe Or This", the album "OLA" is difficult to classify. Some tracks tend towards dark-ambient like "MORPHENG" "9.95MW", others are closer to techno like "BRA".
Dense and complex at first sight, "OLA" is a work to be experienced. Intense and immersive, GN +LP + Scanner's work gives off an atmosphere: a timeless sound space, the perception of a cold, mechanical but strangely reassuring world. A universe that some might compare to a combination of David Cronenberg's "The Fly" and Wang Bing's "West of the tracks".
https://mindtravels.bandcamp.com/album/ola
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
ET IL Y'AVAIT |
CD |
Since 2014, when the Mind Travels [Ici, d'ailleurs] series was created, Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand have been churning out project after project, constantly experimenting with sound. The album 'Et il y'avait' is the outcome of an exceptional creative collaboration between Geins't Naït, Laurent Petitgand and British artist Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud. Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand have been music activists for more than 30 years, two very distinctive musicians from two different schools whose collaboration was far from obvious: the industrial and experimental scene for Thierry Mérigout (the last active member of the group Geins't Naït) and film music for Laurent Petitgand, known in particular for his long collaboration with director Wim Wenders. At first sight, the two artists have distinct visions, but share common backgrounds... GN & L. Petitgand were recently celebrated in a documentary directed by Otomo de Manuel: 'So Young But So Cold', a feature-length film about Nancy's Punk/No Wave scene, which will be released in on [DVD + CD] as part of the More Over collection (Kas Product, Mathématiques Modernes) on the Ici, d'ailleurs label. As with the precceding 'OLA' album, the GN+LP duo is joined by an artist who is far from unknown to ambient and IDM fans: Scanner. The Londoner is a virtuoso of sound collage, one of the most active on the underground electronic scene since the 90s. He has released over twenty albums on labels as prestigious as Sub Rosa and New electronica. A committed collaborator, he has worked with a host of artists over the course of his career, including Gareth Davis and Alva Noto. Siril Tiebo, cellist, contemporary artist and performer, who appears on several tracks on "Idiot LP1" and "Idiot Scan", is also on board for this new album. This new album, "Et il y'avait", has a different feel to its predecessor, "OLA". Quieter and more atmospheric, "Et il y'avait" leans more towards dark-ambient this time round, but still features plenty of industrial sounds. "Et il y'avait' by Geins't Naït, Laurent Petitgand & scanner is highly recommended for fans of Coil, Caroline K or Nurse with Wound.
https://mindtravels.bandcamp.com/album/et-il-yavait
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT |
L'Or'n Cat |
CD |
Geins't Naït was founded in Nancy, France, in 1986 by Thierry Merigout and Vincent Hachet, both students at the Architecture School of Nancy. A year later Laurent Petitgrand joined the band. Their sound is often described as an equivalent of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil or Test Dept., but Geins't Naït is not pure classic Industrial. While Geins't Naït offers rough pieces of music as an extension of its punk attitude, Petitgand refines them to create some musicality within the post-industrial collages, adding guitars, piano, and classical instruments. Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand sharpen sounds, giving them a kind of balance and density and ensuring that the musical language evokes a deep experience. Their music is raw and fascinating, and largely influenced by Surrealists and Situationists. Their early albums were released by French label Permis De Construire, with L'Or'n Cat being the second, released in 1987. It features ten tracks which have been carefully remastered for this first ever CD re-issue by Martin Bowes. Full tracklist: 1. Canari Et Compagnie 2. Splendeur Mécanique 3. Attention Deux 4. Toutatoc 5. Comme Un Lou 6. Radio Nino 7. Attention Un 8. Dormir 9. Paolino 10. Aldo.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg387
"The mood is quite heavy and dark throughout, more so than so it seems on their debut album. Rhythms mechanically hammer away, along with grinding guitars. Interestingly some of the beats remind me of hip hop music but are played with the same ferocity as metal music. Geins t Naït is a band with many faces and many influences, which shows in the music. You could think that with all the variation and influences going on, the album would be too diverse, but thats not the case. Instead, it is all very much together, maybe even more so than on their debut album. It is pretty grim music, but please note the word pretty. This sort of heaviness is well spent on me." (Vital Weekly, April 2022)
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Get's |
CD |
"Vierte Folge des Reissue-Projekts auf Klanggalerie mit den französischen Industrial-Pionieren. Mit "Get's" erscheint das dritte Album von 1988 erstmals überhaupt als CD (im Digipack). Geins‘t Nait wurde 1986 in Nancy, Frankreich von Thierry Merigout und
Vincent Hachet, beide Studenten der dortigen Architekturschule, gegründet. Ein Jahr später trat Laurent Petitgrand der Band bei. Ihr Sound wird oft als Äquivalent zu Acts wie Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil oder Test Dept. bezeichnet, aber Geins‘t Nait ist kein reiner Industrial-Klassiker. Während
sie rohe Basistracks als Resultat ihrer Punk-Attitüde produzieren, verfeinert Petitgand sie, und erzeugt innerhalb der postindustriellen Collagen
Musikalität, indem er Gitarren, Klavier und klassische Instrumente hinzufügt. Geins‘t Nait und Laurent Petitgand schärfen Klänge, verleihen ihnen eine Art Ausgewogenheit und Dichte und sorgen dafür, dass die musikalische Sprache ein tiefes Erlebnis evoziert. Ihre Musik ist roh und faszinierend und
weitgehend von Surrealisten und Situationisten beeinflusst. Ihre frühen Alben wurden vom französischen Label Permis De Construire als Kassetten veröffentlicht, "Get's" ist das vierte von 1988. Es enthält 17 Tracks, die für diese erste Neuauflage sorgfältig von Martin Bowes remastert wurden. Unverzichtbar für Genre-Fans! Vierte Folge des Reissue-Projekts auf Klanggalerie mit den
französischen Industrial-Pionieren. Mit "Get's" erscheint das dritte Album von 1988 erstmals überhaupt als CD (im Digipack).
Geins‘t Nait wurde 1986 in Nancy, Frankreich von Thierry Merigout und Vincent Hachet, beide Studenten der dortigen Architekturschule, gegründet.
Ein Jahr später trat Laurent Petitgrand der Band bei. Ihr Sound wird oft als Äquivalent zu Acts wie Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil oder Test Dept.
bezeichnet, aber Geins‘t Nait ist kein reiner Industrial-Klassiker. Während sie rohe Basistracks als Resultat ihrer Punk-Attitüde produzieren, verfeinert Petitgand sie, und erzeugt innerhalb der postindustriellen Collagen Musikalität, indem er Gitarren, Klavier und klassische Instrumente hinzufügt. Geins‘t Nait und Laurent Petitgand schärfen Klänge, verleihen ihnen eine
Art Ausgewogenheit und Dichte und sorgen dafür, dass die musikalische Sprache ein tiefes Erlebnis evoziert. Ihre Musik ist roh und faszinierend und
weitgehend von Surrealisten und Situationisten beeinflusst. Ihre frühen Alben wurden vom französischen Label Permis De Construire als Kassetten veröffentlicht, "Get's" ist das vierte von 1988. Es enthält 17 Tracks, die für diese erste Neuauflage sorgfältig von Martin Bowes remastert wurden. Unverzichtbar für Genre-Fans!
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg451
Geins't Naït was founded in Nancy, France, in 1986 by Thierry Merigout and Vincent Hachet, both students at the Architecture School of Nancy. A year later Laurent Petitgrand joined the band. Their sound is often described as an equivalent of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil or Test Dept., but Geins't Naït is not pure classic Industrial. While Geins't Naït offers rough pieces of music as an extension of its punk attitude, Petitgand refines them to create some musicality within the post-industrial collages, adding guitars, piano, and classical instruments. Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand sharpen sounds, giving them a kind of balance and density and ensuring that the musical language evokes a deep experience. Their music is raw and fascinating, and largely influenced by Surrealists and Situationists. Their early albums were released by French label Permis De Construire, with Get's being the band's third album, originally released on cassette in 1988. It features 17 tracks that have been carefully remastered for CD by Martin Bowes. Full tracklist: 1. Sleep 2. Un Homme Et Une Femme 3. Zone 4. Grytm 5. Diner 6. La Callas 1 7. Désormais 8. La Callas 2 9. Aldo 00 10. Aways 11. La Plus Belle 12. Modern Art 13. Beautiful Machine 14. Tourisme A Paris 15. Tourisme En Turkie 16. Loory 17. Avant Tout.
"Its a seventeen-track album, which blends dense and murky industrial electronics, with hacking beat scapes and weird/surreal sound texturing. All making for an overwhelming, crude, odd, at points disorienting ride." (Musique Machine, August 2024)
"Electronics play a more significant role, perhaps not as much in the musique concrète way, but rather as a rough take on electronic pop music of the mid-1980s, melting it down, extracting loops and such. Some of these pieces remain a mere set of loops, with some rudimentary mixing, which made me think of some of these as ideas for further development. And, because this is released on a cassette, the semi-finished state isnt essential and is a peek at working methods and how they develop their music." (Vital Weekly, August 2024)
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
A Consommer Sans Moderation |
CD |
Fünfte Folge des Reissue-Projekts auf Klanggalerie mit den
französischen Industrial-Pionieren. "A Consommer Sans Moderation"
erscheint erstmals überhaupt als CD (remastered, im Digipack).
Geins‘t Nait wurde 1986 in Nancy, Frankreich von Thierry Merigout und
Vincent Hachet, beide Studenten der dortigen Architekturschule, gegründet.
Ein Jahr später trat Laurent Petitgrand der Band bei. Ihr Sound wird oft als
Äquivalent zu Acts wie Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil oder Test Dept.
bezeichnet, aber Geins‘t Nait ist kein reiner Industrial-Klassiker. Während
sie rohe Basistracks als Resultat ihrer Punk-Attitüde produzieren, verfeinert
Petitgand sie, und erzeugt innerhalb der postindustriellen Collagen
Musikalität, indem er Gitarren, Klavier und klassische Instrumente hinzufügt.
Geins‘t Nait und Laurent Petitgand schärfen Klänge, verleihen ihnen eine
Art Ausgewogenheit und Dichte und sorgen dafür, dass die musikalische
Sprache ein tiefes Erlebnis evoziert. Ihre Musik ist roh und faszinierend und
weitgehend von Surrealisten und Situationisten beeinflusst. Während ihre
ersten vier Alben vom französischen Label Permis De Construire als
Kassetten veröffentlicht wurden, erschien "A Consommer Sans Moderation",
ebenfalls als Kassette in den 1980ern auf dem US-Label Subterranean
Subliminal Subversion Music, die 14 Tracks wurden für diese erste
Neuauflage sorgfältig von Martin Bowes remastert. Unverzichtbar für
Genre-Fans!
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT & L. PETITGAND |
Je vous dis |
CD |
"Geins't Naït is a project initiated in 1986 with a first album released by Thierry Merigout (drummer with Kas Product on their 1981 tour) and Vincent Hachet, who quickly stepped back from this project to work on his film-maker career.
The L'or'n Cät album's release in 1987 marked the arrival of Laurent Petitgand, a singer-songwriter recognized for his composing work for (the late French singer) Bashung and original soundtracks for film directors such as Wim Wenders (including Tokyo-Ga, 1985, Wings of Desire, 1986, and the future The Salt of the Earth, scheduled in 2014), Paul Auster (The Inner Life of Martin Frost), as well as ballet music for Angelin Preljocaj (Liqueurs de Chair, Amer America).
Bases are thus set down. While Geins't Naït offers rough pieces of music as an extension of its punk attitude which deeply moved the Berlin scene years ago, Laurent Petitgand is busy refining them and creating some musicality within the post-industrial collages, adding guitars, piano or any classical instrument.
In 1993, following the release of C/O Lisa on the Permis de Construire label, noise gave way to a silence that lasted 20 years.
Coming from nowhere, Si j'avais su, j'aurais rien dit, a particularly tormented album which, against all odds, revived the project in 2011.
An album which showed an increasing alchemy between the two musicians whose different routes, this common project aside, seem to fit perfectly well now.
Now, and more than ever, the duo's approach is based on an in-depth field. To sharpen the sounds, give them some kind of balance, a density and a mark.
More than anything else, to make sure that music is a langage, an experience in the deeper meaning of the term.
In its form, the collaboration between Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand echoes the adventurous musics from the eighties and is the French counterpoint to experimental british scenes (Coil, Current 93, Test Dept) and german scenes (Einstürzende Neubauten, Sprung Aus Den Wolken), so much so that this new work is difficult to label in its totality, entering ambient or industrial fields, as well as minimalist or repetitive music.
Je vous dis is obvious in its ability for listeners to give life to the smallest element which is part of it, would it be a sample, a piano melody, or even the amazing work on voices, which, as well as instrumentation, assume a central part in the tracks balance.
Melancholic, with a retained violence, sometimes even with a fearsome violence, Je vous dis surprises and captivates in its way to subtly catch the listener, thanks to a disturbing nocturnal mood, but also to an unsettling humanity.
But this record is far from being an hermetical work : it's quite the opposite. Difficulty is not to get in this world, however particular or deviant it is, but to get out.
More than just music, Je vous dis is a visceral obsession about detail, a sound sculpture with changing forms and various aspects, an unsleeping creature with inscrutable soul.
As soon as one believes to have understood it, the next listening brings the listener back into doubt and questions.
As in a situationist movie for which that album would be a perfect soundtrack, each complete immersion offers its lot of news interpretations and details, with were unkown until now but are definitively obvious in the end.
A real masterpiece for the mind : complex, poetic and sophisticated, even in its darkest moments." [label info]
www.icidailleurs.com
"Years and years ago I worked in a space, which also functioned as a record store, and before, that I was a volunteer at another record-store/mail-order. In both 'stores' I saw the name Geins't Naït, but for whatever reason I no longer recall, I never played any of their records or CDs that we sold. Maybe it was because there was so much other great stuff to play? Let's keep it at that. So up until this CD I never heard their music properly, but in my defense, they didn't have any new release since 1993. The name Laurent Petitgand (not to be confused with Dominique Petitgand) I never heard before, despite the fact that he did soundtracks for Wim Wenders and Paul Auster as well as being a singer-songwriter. In 2011 he and Geins't Naït worked together for the first time and now there is a new album. But for me this is maybe a first introduction all around. And I am quite surprised. The label makes references to Coil, Current 93, Neubauten, none of which are really particular favorites
with me, but in these hands it works out differently and actually quite well. There is quite some drama in this music, through the use of samples, melancholic piano bits and the dark voice of Petitgand. Geins't Naït provide a rather minimal set of music - not as in 'empty', but as in 'repetitions', which makes rather odd pop music. Petitgand's voice is most of the time heavily transformed (vocoder perhaps?), which makes that a rather darker atmosphere hangs over these pieces. It bumps and collides but that I think is the beauty of this music, it's rather unusual atmosphere. Tacky and clichéd it seems at times but it works out quite fine. Maybe because there are some cliché's in here, but also some more unusual aspects, that it all makes up for something strange and estranged. A most enjoyable album, I thought. A fine introduction indeed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Das Duo mit dem exotisch klingenden Namen Geins’t Naït entstand irgendwann im Dunstkreis der legendären Coldwaver von Kas Product und existiert nun bereits seit fast dreißig Jahren, bei denen allerdings eine lange Pause mitgerechnet wird. Hierzulande überwiegend frankophilen Kennern ein Begriff, ist die Band auf der anderen Rheinseite kein Geheimtipp mit ihrem eigenwilligen Stil an der Schnittstelle von Punk- und Industrial-Einflüssen, Songs und Soundscapes sowie technoiden und klassischen Arrangements. Der Sänger und Komponist Laurent Petitgand arbeitet auf “Je vous dis” zum zweitenmal mit GN zusammen und bringt klassische, v.a. akustische Elemente ein. Das Label zieht Vergleiche zu den Neubauten, Coil und Test Dept., was natürlich eine respektable Messlatte darstellt.
Wollte man in dem ausgesprochen welchselseitigen Album so etwas wie einen roten Faden benennen, so ließe der sich eher noch in einer immer leicht aufgekratzten Wehmut finden, als im Sound, der leicht retrolasigen Akustikklängen ebenso Raum gibt wie hallunterlegter, leicht housiger Elektronik, bei der ich tatsächlich an Coil-Werke wie “Love’s Secret Domain” denken musste. Viele Songs wecken filmische Assoziationen und versprühen einen nostalgischen und oft auch ein wenig naiven Charme. In den Passagen vor dem Einsetzen zum Teil vertrackter Rhythmen lockern reichliche zitathaft integrierte Klangbrocken den Wohlklang auf und versetzen die Szenerie an einen nur schwer zu ortenden Schauplatz, den Petitgand mit seinen mantraartigen Stimmbeiträgen, die teilweise wie versoffenes Bellen klingen, dominiert.
Oft entfalten sich mehrere musikalische Erzählstränge simultan, und selbst da, wo es schlicht auf die Schönheit der Unordnung hinausläuft, entsteht nie der Eindruck, dass es um bloßes Muckertum geht." [U.S./African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/03/28/geinst-nait-laurent-petitgand-je-vous-dis/
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Je vous dis |
LP |
"Geins't Naït is a project initiated in 1986 with a first album released by Thierry Merigout (drummer with Kas Product on their 1981 tour) and Vincent Hachet, who quickly stepped back from this project to work on his film-maker career.
The L'or'n Cät album's release in 1987 marked the arrival of Laurent Petitgand, a singer-songwriter recognized for his composing work for (the late French singer) Bashung and original soundtracks for film directors such as Wim Wenders (including Tokyo-Ga, 1985, Wings of Desire, 1986, and the future The Salt of the Earth, scheduled in 2014), Paul Auster (The Inner Life of Martin Frost), as well as ballet music for Angelin Preljocaj (Liqueurs de Chair, Amer America).
Bases are thus set down. While Geins't Naït offers rough pieces of music as an extension of its punk attitude which deeply moved the Berlin scene years ago, Laurent Petitgand is busy refining them and creating some musicality within the post-industrial collages, adding guitars, piano or any classical instrument.
In 1993, following the release of C/O Lisa on the Permis de Construire label, noise gave way to a silence that lasted 20 years.
Coming from nowhere, Si j'avais su, j'aurais rien dit, a particularly tormented album which, against all odds, revived the project in 2011.
An album which showed an increasing alchemy between the two musicians whose different routes, this common project aside, seem to fit perfectly well now.
Now, and more than ever, the duo's approach is based on an in-depth field. To sharpen the sounds, give them some kind of balance, a density and a mark. More than anything else, to make sure that music is a language, an experience in the deeper meaning of the term.
In its form, the collaboration between Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand echoes the adventurous musics from the eighties and is the French counterpoint to experimental british scenes (Coil, Current 93, Test Dept) and german scenes (Einstürzende Neubauten, Sprung Aus Den Wolken), so much so that this new work is difficult to label in its totality, entering ambient or industrial fields, as well as minimalist or repetitive music.
'Je vous dis' is obvious in its ability for listeners to give life to the smallest element which is part of it, would it be a sample, a piano melody, or even the amazing work on voices, which, as well as instrumentation, assume a central part in the tracks balance.
Melancholic, with a retained violence, sometimes even with a fearsome violence, Je vous dis surprises and captivates in its way to subtly catch the listener, thanks to a disturbing nocturnal mood, but also to an unsettling humanity.
But this record is far from being an hermetical work: it's quite the opposite. Difficulty is not to get in this world, however particular or deviant it is, but to get out. More than just music, Je vous dis is a visceral obsession about detail, a sound sculpture with changing forms and various aspects, an unsleeping creature with inscrutable soul. As soon as one believes to have understood it, the next listening brings the listener back into doubt and questions. As in a situationist movie for which that album would be a perfect soundtrack, each complete immersion offers its lot of news interpretations and details, with were unkown until now but are definitively obvious in the end. A real masterpiece for the mind : complex, poetic and sophisticated, even in its darkest moments." [label info]
www.icidailleurs.com
"Years and years ago I worked in a space, which also functioned as a record store, and before, that I was a volunteer at another record-store/mail-order. In both 'stores' I saw the name Geins't Naït, but for whatever reason I no longer recall, I never played any of their records or CDs that we sold. Maybe it was because there was so much other great stuff to play? Let's keep it at that. So up until this CD I never heard their music properly, but in my defense, they didn't have any new release since 1993. The name Laurent Petitgand (not to be confused with Dominique Petitgand) I never heard before, despite the fact that he did soundtracks for Wim Wenders and Paul Auster as well as being a singer-songwriter. In 2011 he and Geins't Naït worked together for the first time and now there is a new album. But for me this is maybe a first introduction all around. And I am quite surprised. The label makes references to Coil, Current 93, Neubauten, none of which are really particular favorites
with me, but in these hands it works out differently and actually quite well. There is quite some drama in this music, through the use of samples, melancholic piano bits and the dark voice of Petitgand. Geins't Naït provide a rather minimal set of music - not as in 'empty', but as in 'repetitions', which makes rather odd pop music. Petitgand's voice is most of the time heavily transformed (vocoder perhaps?), which makes that a rather darker atmosphere hangs over these pieces. It bumps and collides but that I think is the beauty of this music, it's rather unusual atmosphere. Tacky and clichéd it seems at times but it works out quite fine. Maybe because there are some cliché's in here, but also some more unusual aspects, that it all makes up for something strange and estranged. A most enjoyable album, I thought. A fine introduction indeed." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Oublier |
CD |
"Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand's Oublier follows their 2014 Je vous dis album, which inaugurated the Mind Travels series on Ici d'Ailleurs -- a collection dedicated to ambient, industrial, and classical-influenced music. Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand exemplify the particular vision of the series, with a backroads music that's often unusual, always poignant, and underappreciated. Oublier is the finest illustration of that vision to date. Geins't Naït creates industrial collages in a similar vein to the early work of Einstürzende Neubauten or Throbbing Gristle, while Laurent Petitgand is best known for his many contributions to the films of Wim Wenders, including 2014's The Salt of the Earth, which won three awards at the 2014 Cannes film festival. These two seemingly disparate artists are united here by their desire to escape from all generally accepted standards of creativity. Regarding Oublier, one could pick out Laurent Petitgand's magnificent melodies or Geins't Naït's haunting, hypnotic dynamics of loops and manipulated samples, but it is ultimately up the listeners to find their own meaning and experience -- because one of Oublier's central qualities is that it situates listeners at the center of its universe so effectively and to such an extent that they actually become participants. Some will perceive a heightened melancholy, even a form of despair. Others will be seduced by the work's evident beauty and warmth. Whatever the case, its non-linearity favors total immersion and sometimes -- in the more intense moments -- totally letting go." [label info]
www.icidailleurs.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Make Dogs Sing |
do-LP |
"Geins't Naït is considered legendary at Offen Music. Releasing music since 1986, their last 3 albums have featured Laurent Petitgand (2011, 2014 & 2015). Now the label presents a collection of unreleased tracks that they hope will plunge you deep into the special world of GN & LP."
"Vladimir Ivkovic’s Offen Music have the privilege of presenting Geins’t Naït & Laurent Petitgand’s possessed Gallic atmospheres to the uninitiated with ‘Make Dogs Sing'; a collection of 13 new, previously unreleased songs that plunge us into GN’s etheric otherworld ahead of a reissued classics, upcoming on Low Jack’s Editions Gravats
Through the looking glass of Geins’t Naït & Laurent Petitgand the world appears seductively psychedelic. Taking in woozy waltzes and shimmering keys on the one hand, and a palette of pebbledashed electronics and mutant voices on the other, the group’s contemporary sound hints at some French analog to the film music of Wim Wenders or the eerier styles of mid-latter phase Coil, and works at a safer distance to the gnarled grooves of their cultish late ‘80s industrial releases, which are maybe better compared with Din A Testbild, NWW or TG.
Judging from the sounds on Make Dogs Sing, Geins’t Naït have matured somewhat since their critical early phase. Rather than pranging drums and psychedelic electronics, they now apply similar principles of dislocated mixing trickery and groove-focussed methods to a breezier set of cues taken from film music and experimental ambient spectres, resulting a uniquely dissociative effect as the albums slips down the wormhole, back first, with any glimpses of light fading in front of you until their slowly ravishing, narcotic effect takes hold.
By the end of the album you won’t be able to find a way out. But don’t fret, the effect will come to pass, eventually." [Boomkat]
|
2018 |
€25.00 |
|
| GELSOMINA |
same |
7inch |
Limitierte 7” auf dem finnischen harsh-noise Kult-Label von einem neuen finnischen Projekt, ein reinster Sägezahn-Feedback-Sturm der Hirn & Herz freibläst und öffnet für neue Empindungen.
“Debute 7" release from praised Finnish harsh noise artist. Taking more simple WALL OF NOISE method on this release. Strong and ultra heavy distortion walls with few layers of ear torturing details.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Santa Sangre |
mCD-R |
Rare GELSOMINA-release with frenetic noise (except the last of the four tracks which seems to use voice-material from the legendary film SANTA SANGRE, sold out at the label !
"Finnish harsh noise with power electronics elements and some drone touches. There should be NO pauses between the tracks. The disc + track titles refer to the legendary Jodorowsky's film "Santa Sangre". The last track is rather untypical Gelsomina with strange dark elements. Limited to 100 copies." [label info]
|
2006 |
€5.50 |
|
| GELSOMINA + NO XIVIC |
Furnace |
CD |
Das Titelstück ist ein furioses 25minütiges Power-Drone Monument, welches beide finnischen Projekte im Oktober 2006 live einspielten; eine harmonische delay- Bass Grundlage wird mit harsch-noisigem Brett garniert, danach folgen noch 2 lange einzelne Stücke von beiden Acts, pulsierend-beschwörender harsh-core Industrial von GELSOMINA, fantastischer "mysterious noise" von NO XIVIC.
" 'Furnace' is an unlikely yet strangely natural union of no Xivic, renowned sculptor of dark electro-acoustic soundscapes, and Gelsomina, Finland's most prolific harsh noise artist. The title track, also the main piece on the album, is a live collaboration recorded in late 2006, a grand opus of psychedelic noise with a peculiar 'kraut' flavour! In addition to this, both artists created exclusive tracks on their own to complete the album. In total, Furnace is a 44-minute blast of fire, brimstone and hazardous electric currents, and thus a fine completion of Some Place Else's tenth year of activity. CD in square DVD-box with full colour artwork and insert. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.someplaceelse.net
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| GENDREAU, MICHAEL |
55 pas de la ligne au no 3 |
CD |
MICHAEL GENDREAU, bekannt mit seiner Arbeit als CRAWLING WITH TARTS, mit seiner ersten Solo-CD: zwei lange Stücke mechanisch brummende drone-soundscapes mit repetitiven Mustern, deren Parameter sich allmählich verändern.
“ Long-time San Francisco based sound artist, internationally known from his extensive discography as Crawling With Tarts, releases his first full length solo work. 55 pas de la ligne au no 3 is a microscopic study of dense sonic landscapes buried within antiquated turntable motors and furnaces. Gendreau, an acoustician by profession, utilizes high sensitivity accelerometers to map detailed frequencies from a variety of old turntable motors and mechanics. This is a rare exhibition of the creative potential within this kind of technology. (Randy Yau's favorite album of the year... And soon to be Jim Haynes' too!)
” In its puzzling bellows, the 35-minute title track leads the listener astray as it rambles in its physics and amplified world of micro-sound. Here there are hints of data transfer and voice
channeling that has at once a startling approach and tectonic finish. The repetitive churning of teeny motorized units, in their climbing, distorted frequencies will have you hanging on each transition. Some of the finer sources play with the idea of scale, while at times these palm-sized worlds grow into 300 foot tall super coasters, and in moments they are again transformed smaller than a pinhead. 23five is ready to challenge our ears with visionary work that pushes the barriers of the noise/sound envelope.” [Vital Weekly 332]
label: www.23five.org
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| GENETIC TRANSMISSION |
Last |
CD |
" 'Last' is the latest Genetic Transmission album. Distributed only as a handful of CDRs a few years ago, it is only now that it appears as a regular CD release as part of the IYHHH series.
The idea behind the recording of this material was to the creation of sonic miniatures, short forms created from the acoustic preparations or electro-acoustic sources resulting in numerous sound experiments which Tomasz Twardawa has been known of. As a result, the album is composed of fifteen tracks in total, mostly shorter tracks, which are more than one hour of music.
'Last' is the end of a chapter, as the title indicates. This is the last studio album in the discography of Genetic Transmission. This one is the end and the summary of Tomasz Twardawa's activities under this banner. And also the last, 9th part of the IYHHH series, presenting interesting discoveries or unusual sounds from Polish artists in an unconventional way.
The album is released in an ecopack with a postcard and limited to 444 hand-numbered copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Chrzaszcz Brzmi W Trzcinie |
CD |
"The second in GT Series Archive is the album entitled "Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" (A beetle buzzes in the reed - a Polish tounge twister), originally published on a CDR on Tochnit Aleph in 2006. In a short time it was sold out and practically until today the material has not been available in any other form. "Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" is a recording of the session based on the most primal sound sources which are only arranged in a suitable structures so that they form a concise material; however, they remained unchanged and no post-production was applied to them. The album consists of 6 compositions, about 60 minutes of industrial sound space characteristic of the work of Genetic Transmission.
This reissue is strictly limited to 200 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| GENOCIDE ORGAN |
Live in Japan 2003/2007 |
DVD/CD |
"... Wer einige Youtube-Clips der Auftritte kennt, wird auf das Schlimmste gefasst sein, doch das Ergebnis kann absolut überzeugen: Montiert aus drei verschiedenen Kameraperspektiven, unterlegt mit Ausschnitten desrBackgroundvideos, bewahrt die DVD viel von der Liveatmosphäre in den japanischen Clubs 20000V und Die Pratze. Bemerkenswert ist dabei, dass den unterschiedlichen Locations enstprechend auch völlig verschiedene Programm geboten wurden: Zunächst das gewohnt harte Power Electronics Set, das sich auf Stücke von "In-Konflikt" konzentriert und einige ältere 'Hits' bietet - und schließlich ein eher atmosphräisches Set, das durchaus als Death Industrial bezeichnet werden kann und das schockierte japanische Publikum mit Aufnahmen aus Hiroshima und Nagasaki konfrontiert. Das ist Industrial-Culture in ihrer ursprünglichen Bedeutung und Funktion: den Finger in die Wunde der Gesellschaft zu legen, sie mit ihren eigenen Tabus gnadenlos zu konfrontieren. Dieses Set enthält zudem anderweitig unveröffentlichte Tracks und alternative Versionen.
Die DVD selbst ist dem Genre gewohnt roh präsentiert, im Menü pragmatisch gestaltet und insgesamt von erfreulich guter Qualität.
Die beiliegende CD dokumentiert Ausschnitte der beiden Konzert von 2007, die beide im 20000V stattfanden. Statt auf ein Best-Of zu bauen, wählte man erneut eher ungewöhnliche - und nichtsdestotrotz kraftvolle - Stücke aus, die erneut atmosphärische und aggressive Momente mischen. Am bekanntestens dürfte hier das kämpferische "Hail America" sein. Wer die letzte 7" nicht erstanden hat, wird sich vor allem über Track 9 freuen: "I kept my faith: Revelation of John".
Das in Zusammenarbeit zwischen Tesco und Teito (J) ästhetisch ansprechend produzierte Set ist gleichermaßen für Fans der Band wie auch für Genreneulinge interessant, die sich einen Eindruck vom Status quo der deutschen Industrial Culture verschaffen wollen. Gelungen!" [Ikonen Magazin]
"Finally, this long awaited document is finally available! Japan has been a wasteland for German "industrial" and/or "power electronics" bands for many years, but in 2003, Genocide Organ entered the motherland of noise. Invited by Teito and MSBR, Genocide Organ played two remarkable shows in Tokyo. The first in a typical noise/hardcore club called 20000V, and the second at a small theatre called Die Pratze. Because of the two different locations and atmospheres, G.O. prepared two completely different sets. While the material at 20000V featured tracks from what was, at the time, the forthcoming album "In-Konflikt," plus a selection of powerful, well-known tracks, the setlist at Die Pratze featured more "calm" and unreleased tracks integrated into a theatrical-type performance. Both gigs represent the repertoire of Genocide Organ, which makes this band more than just a phenomenon of one genre.
The two shows are presented here on DVD in their entirety, edited from three different camera angles by Frank Merten of Seismic Wave Factory, known for the visuals of Herbst9 and Land:Fire. The DVD is professionally mastered and features a fully animated menu.
In 2007, Genocide Organ returned to Tokyo for two more shows, both hosted at 20000V, and again, each show had a different setlist. The audio CD in this collection features a selection of the best tracks from both evenings. Many had never been released or played live before, while some "old favorites" appear here in completely different versions. The quality of the recording is amazing, and you will feel the full power of these two gigs.
This DVD/CD set is part of the GO RECON UNIT program - all those who order with their RECON CARD number will get special extras with their set. Those who have no ID card are able to get the card now in order to receive extras with future releases." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Live in Japan 2007 |
LP |
Vinyl Edition im Klappcover mit bedruckten Innenhüllen und A2-Poster! "....Ausschnitte der beiden Konzerte von 2007, die beide im 20000V stattfanden. Statt auf ein Best-Of zu bauen, wählte man erneut eher ungewöhnliche - und nichtsdestotrotz kraftvolle - Stücke aus, die erneut atmosphärische und aggressive Momente mischen. Am bekanntestens dürfte hier das kämpferische "Hail America" sein. Wer die letzte 7" nicht erstanden hat, wird sich vor allem über Track 9 freuen: "I kept my faith: Revelation of John". Das in Zusammenarbeit zwischen Tesco und Teito (J) ästhetisch ansprechend produzierte Set ist gleichermaßen für Fans der Band wie auch für Genreneulinge interessant, die sich einen Eindruck vom Status quo der deutschen Industrial Culture verschaffen wollen. Gelungen!" [Ikonen]
"This numbered & limited 888 copies LP features the best tracks from two G.O. Tokyo performances in 2007. The record comes housed in a gatefold cover with printed inner sleeve and contains an A2 poster. FAST PRE-ORDER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!" [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| GEORGE & CAPLIN |
Electronic Eulogy |
LP + 7inch |
Überraschend musikalisches auf Beta-Lactam Ring! GEORGE & CAPLIN arbeiten in 80er Jahre Tradition mit Drumbox, Gitarre, Synths, Gesang. Melodisch & melancholisch, nicht wirklich düster...
Elektronische Wave/Pop-Grössen vergangener Zeiten fallen einem ein, SOFT CELL, NEW ORDER, FOR AGAINST, aber auch die Label-Kollegen WHITELODGE...
Again a more „Pop“-oriented discovery on Beta-Lactam: rather simple electronic beats, backwards-guitars, harmonic synths, very melodic, we had to think on poppier / more electronic SAVAGE REPUBLIC or FOR AGAINST.....
“Third album by george&caplin and also available on vinyl with bonus 7"! This might be a future college entrance question, so pay attention: Ceramic Hello is to Soft Cell as what is to Ladytron? If you answered G&C, then you probably cheated, which is perfectly allowed as owning any of their 3 releases makes you a better person. Clearly one of the bright spots to rise up out of the so-called Electroclash debacle. Where groups like Chicks On Speed and Felix Da Housecat ultimately end up creating dance-floor anthems, G&C have been that weird brother hiding in the corner making minimalist masterpieces with dusty equipment. G&C's brand of minimal synth on Electronic Eulogy is a dark wave of another colour. Like underground synthesists of old, such as Ceramic Hello, or John Ruth, or even very early New Order, G&C's musical omniverse is a beatific one filled with lush, polychromatic chord progressions presented within a spare and melancholic framework. The wave is cold, but not blanched (as opposed to the repetitive sturm und drang of, say, Snowy Red or Suicide). An album of introspective quality, Electronic Eulogy steals seeds fostered in the glitch garden and grows them into a wholly unique and very melodious Tannen-baud. Those sweet electonyxx click, wash and whirr, counterpointed occasionally by acoustic guitar and/or vocals on a few tracks (a kind of perfectly flat and distant vocal delivery, somewhat like Dean Wareham. In fact, 'Dictionary Dream,' which happens to feature the guitar upfront, is something of a synth pop take on Galaxie 500). That's just the thing with G&C...they are like some long lost Factory or Cherry Red or 4AD cold/dark wave group, before there were deeply established camps within the synth and post punk worlds. Second Layer meets Shox? Minny Pops vs Insides? The Fast Set has a scone with early Arms Of Someone New? The opening 'Promenade,' with its brilliantly twisted boomerang timing structure and analog buzz, is like some kind of electro-crack. All in all, just lovely sequenced rainy day electronic head-music. It'll have you praying for rain.“ [label description]
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
He really got through to advertising |
CD |
"Black Series 20 - Ed. of 350 numbered copies. THEY really get through. g&c's backwards looping under-coat melodics seep like a musical IV into nourishment-hungry heads. Warm acoustics resonate over warbling electronics, palpitating into slow, sentient rhythms. "Dreamo" has already been co-opted by punk-dits, so g&c's get their own "Hemo" category, just so everyone can be called something ending in "-emo." Yes, Hemo: The blood. Fluid dynamics at its core purpose: pumping life into a system. Their sanguine essence of cosmic psychedelia blasts a new kind of human flower. Tiny sounds rise to peal at the surface, dueted by a disembodied vocal melancholia. These 7 tracks carve out a truly unique sonic geode that paints a plasma of pure loveliness. The blood has served them well, with an evolution marked this time by a particular subdued heaviness in the creases. Coming on like some unearthed Factory or 4AD artifact, g&c's organic nu-gaze halos continue to circle above; the blood infusing the machine with a soul. They really DO get through.
g&c "...we are really excited as it features loads of new sounds (from harmonica to flute), and a whole new perspective on george&caplin via collaborations with Sandusky, Robin Rozum (our talented multi-instrument neighbor), Joshua Gondrez (Time's Knowledge) and super-pumpkin engineer Jim Wilson (Airshow Mastering)." [label info]
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| GERECHTIGKEITSLIGA / GEHIRN.IMPLOSION |
Centaurea Cyanus |
7" |
"The legendary project GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA, which is now based in London and Berlin returns with a newly recorded song, after it had become silent around the groups former member Till Brüggemann. G.L., which now consists of Till Brüggemann and Ragnar present a very dark, intense and diverse piece of industrial music, which is a great follow up to glorious periods past and gone. HIEROS GAMOS GEHIRN. IMPLOSION from Bremen moves along dark and noisy paths. The sound is enriched with oppressive elements, which create an atmosphere of melancholy and sadness. DARK - EMO - NOISE 7 " single. White vinyl, printed insert cover, coloured. Ltd. edition: 199 (Verstand recs no. 10)." [label info]
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| GERRARD, LISA |
The Mirror Pool |
CD |
"Anfang der Achtziger gründete Lisa Gerrard zusammen mit Brendan Perry die legendäre Band Dead Can Dance. Ihre Alben erschienen auf 4AD und prägten den Sound dieses jungen Labels für mehr als eine Dekade. 1995 startete Lisa Gerrard parallel ihre Solokarriere und produzierte "The Mirror Pool" mit Hilfe des Victoria Philharmonic Orchestra. Seither avancierte sie auch zu einer der gefragtesten Soundtrackkomponisten Hollywoods (Ali, Black Hawk Dawn, The Insider, Gladiator, Whale Rider)." [Indigo]
www.4ad.com
|
1995 |
€10.00 |
|
| GERSH, GEOFF |
These Predicaments |
CD |
" 'These Predicaments' is the new CD by guitarist/composer Geoff Gersh and is his second solo release on the Deep Listening Institute label. Created for painter David Stoupakis’s solo exhibition at the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, ‘These Predicaments’ draws on drones, ambient textures and slowly developing melodies to bring another dimension to David’s otherworldly paintings and draw the viewer deeper into them.
Geoff uses manipulated field recordings, reel-to-reel tape recordings, zither and electric guitar, sometimes bowed with metal files, to create sonic landscapes that evoke the emotions of David's paintings and take the listener on a melancholic sonic journey.
New York based composer/guitarist Geoff Gersh explores the sonic boundaries of the electric guitar with and without the aide of electronic devices and found objects to produce sounds one would normally not associate with the guitar. He uses this approach when composing ambient/textural soundscapes for choreographers, filmmakers and other collaborators.
Geoff has worked with choreographers Lawrence Goldhuber, Cynthia Oliver, Karen Graham, Anabella Lenzu, Robert La Fosse, Benoit-Swan Pouffer and has an ongoing collaboration with painter David Stoupakis.
In November 2009, Geoff was awarded a Swing Space grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in NYC. During this residency he presented his composition ‘Memory In Night’, for 6 electric guitars bowed with metal files, in an old Wall St. bank vault 2 stories below street level. Also in November of 2009, Geoff performed with the German electro acoustic improvisation ensemble HKM+ at the Lodz Philharmonic in Lodz, Poland. In 2006, Geoff performed in Glenn Branca’s "SYMPHONY NO. 13 (HALLUCINATION CITY)" for 100 guitars that took place at Montclair State College in NJ. In 2009, he performed in Rhys Chatham’s “A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars” at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.
In 2005, he worked with composer Jonathan Bepler as a multi-instrumental performer for video artist Eve Sussman’s video-opera, The Rape of the Sabine Women, which premiered in NYC in February 2007. Geoff worked with Bepler again on artist Matthew Barney’s latest piece, Guardian of the Veil, which he performed in at Barney’s workspace in LIC, NY in 2007 and again in 2009 in Basel, Switzerland as part of Art Basel’s ‘Il Tempo del Postino’
Geoff has been playing the electric zither in the Off-Broadway show BLUE MAN GROUP since 1998. He has received grants from the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, SOS from NYFA, was awarded a New York Dance & Performance Award (Bessie) and received a Swing Space grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2009." [label info]
www.deeplistening.org
"The music on this release was composed for a solo exhibition of painter David Stoupakis in Los Angeles by one Geoff Gersh. I never heard of him, although this is his second solo CD of Deep Listening Institute. Gersh is a composer and guitarist, but also uses field recordings, reel-to-reel tape recordings, zither and bowed metal files. Not that I could tell really from listening to the five pieces on this CD. It doesn't sound like that at all. The music is best described as isolationist music - although I think hardly anyone uses that these days anymore. Dark ambient drone, then? Well, why not. The sounds on this release are highly textured, transformed by using electronics perhaps, and the result is a beautiful, dense release that also a light tone it, like floating a few centimeters above the ground. An excellent release of fine, dark drone music. Music to fill your environment with in a very peaceful manner, like great ambient music should do. The real thing, a textbook release. Some people (see elsewhere) should take note of such things." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| GERSTEIN |
Kiawaltz |
CD |
Kiawaltz” is commissioned and compiled by Old Captain to commemorate the early musical rituals composed by Maurizio Pustianaz, a famous Italian experimental artist known since 1984, and his project Gerstein, whose first recordings featured on this compilation represent solo melancholic piano ballads, experimental harsh sounds, synth-guitar powerful extravaganza within post-industrial style. These rare materials were obtained from the original 1986/89 tape releases issued 30 years ago by such labels as Misty Circles, Infektion Prod., Minus Habens Records, Broken Flag, Bekko Bunsen and Slaughter Productions. File alongside Psychic TV, Ain Soph. The layout is made by Mauro Berchi (Eibon Records) and the CD comes in a 4-panel gloss-laminated Digipak limited to 250.
https://oldcaptain.bandcamp.com/album/gerstein-kiawaltz |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| GHEYSEN, FILIP |
Tabletop Guitar |
CD / DVD / BOOK |
"Filip Gheysen (1979) is a musician and audio artist, living and working in Ghent, Belgium, with a passion for sound and experimental music. Using only a tabletop guitar, effects and the occasional autoharp, he creates abstract droning soundscapes, stripped of all unnecessary elements, focussing solely on the timbre and tone of his instrument. It's this timbre that is vital in his musical works, in that the harmonic spectrums of the drones and the enhanced sounds he typically produces with his electric tabletop guitar are progressively shifting. Synonymous with timbre is the quasi-poetic phrase tone colour. These elements are equally visible in Gheysen's visual art, consisting mostly of abstract prints and paintings. There is obviously a play with the tones of a colour, thus an inversion of the aforementioned musical term. This pertinent
in- and decrease of saturation and of temperature in the pictorial field is comparable to what is going on in his music.
Moreover, these are features which are obviously emphasised in the videos the artist has been creating since 2011. They show lines dance rather timidly, make turns or float along accompanied by passing spots and travelling smears in a scenery of inks and paint. The imagery, strongly reminiscent of his prints and paintings, is enlivened by humming guitar sounds. As an inspired symbiosis between his visual art and his music, the video clips constitute a logical step in Gheysen's intriguing body of work that doesnt cease to amaze. Although appearing here for the first time under his own name, Filip Gheysen has been very active in different projects. He is the founder of Glasvocht Records and has released albums under the monikers Picturesque, Teledroom (with Portables-guitarist Wio) and is a member of the band 4 Black Boxes (with Jürgen De Blonde aka Köhn and Tom Vangheluwe). Trained as a graphic designer, he has also studied printmaking at the academy of Ghent and had several expositions. Tabletop Guitar presents both his musical and visual art and adds a third field of interest. His videoworks are the culmination of his two main outlets, giving a new dimension to his art." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| GHOUL DETAIL |
Empathy for Nature |
CD-R |
"8 tracks - running time 58:44 minutes- inkjet printed 5" cdr w/ insert in a sleeve" [label info]
www.roilnoise.com
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| GIARDINI DI MIRO |
Il fuoco |
CD |
"Stummfilm-Soundtrack von Italiens Indie-Helden.
Giardini di Mirò stammen aus Cavriago, einer kleinen Stadt in Norditalien, und zählen zu den bekanntesten Indie-Bands des Landes. Nach einer ersten EP aus dem Jahre 1998 hat die Gruppe nicht nur Unmengen an Platten veröffentlicht, sondern auch wie verrückt getourt - in Italien und dem Rest der Welt - und mit Bands wie Cyne, Dntl, Hood, Alias, Apparat, Piano Magic, Opiate, Isan und Herrmann & Kleine zusammengearbeitet. Mit "Il fuoco" legen sie einen Soundtrack zu einem italienischen Stummfilm von 1915 vor, der 2006 vom Museo Nazionale Del Cinema in Turin in Auftrag gegeben und später zu diesem Album umgearbeitet wurde. Der Film von Giovanni Pastrone gilt als Meisterwerk des frühen italienischen Kinos. Sein neuer Soundtrack ist das sicher ambitionierteste Werk von Giardini di Mirò." [label info / Indigo]
"In unserer Erinnerung waren Giardini di Mirò die italienischen Post-Rocker, die ihren reduzierten Sound maßgeblich elektronisch unterfütterten und geradezu ummauerten. Es gab eine Symbiose aus synthetischen Bauteilen und instrumentalen Anleihen. Auf Il fuoco führt der Weg direkt in das schwarze Loch schwermütiger Gedanken und dieser Weg wird mit “echten” Instrumenten beschritten. Also ganz klar mehr Godspeed als Heimelektro. Die Elektronik ist die belegte Zunge im Hals des melancholischen Träumers auf Il fuoco; mal ein stampfend-fauchender Effekt auf einer Snare, mal ein sich britzelnd steigerndens Kratzrauschen als Hintergrund. New Orleans ist neuerdings in Italien, als schwelgerische Erinnerung. Großartig, wie Akkorde, Bläser und Drums zusammengehen auf diesem Album. Einfach, komprimiert und dicht. Fast ein bisschen, wie der schwarze Engel am Tor der Erkenntnis. Verneigung!" [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Good Luck |
CD |
"Willkommen zu Hause: fünftes Album der italienischen Indierock-Band.
Ihr letztes Werk führte die italienische Post- und Indierock-Band weit zurück in die Vergangenheit: Mit "Il fuoco" vertonten Giardini Di Mirò Giovanni Pastrones Stummfilm aus dem Jahr 1915. Ansonsten mussten die Fans fünf Jahre lang auf ein neues Studioalbum warten: "Good Luck" nimmt diese Hürde jetzt sehr optimistisch. Der Titel habe was mit der Landschaft zu tun, in der das Album produziert wurde, so die Band. Die Provinz Reggio Emilia, eine Gegend, die sich durch Minimalismus, Einfachheit und geometrische Formen auszeichnet. Die Songs wiederum entstanden on the road im Tourbus und wurden, zurück in der Heimat, zu Souvenirs des Unterwegsseins. "Good Luck" entstand in aller Privatheit, zusammen mit Freunden der Band wie etwa den Sängerinnen Angela Baraldi und Sara Lov (Devics) und dem Gitarristen Stefano Pilia.//
Giardini di Mirò really needs no introduction. Hailing from Cavriago, Italy, a small town near Reggio Emilia, the band released its first EP in 1998 and not only put out a ton of records ever since, but has been touring both Italy and the rest of Europe like crazy. So far, the band has released four full-length albums, the discography however also includes a multitude of EPs, remixes and exclusive tracks for compilations. While not working with the band, GDM's members engage in solo projects, tapping into sounds and genres, one would not necessarily expect from a band deeply routed in guitar music. The band also collaborated with and commissioned remixes from artists like Cyne, Dntl, Hood, Alias, Apparat, Piano Magic, Opiate, Isan and Herrmann & Kleine. Giardini Di Mirò has been on City Centre Offices' watch ever since the band started out. In 2010, CCO finally started to work with GDM, releasing the critically accaimed "Il fuoco", the band's soundtrack for Giovanni Pastrone's silent movie from 1915. As a first release in 2012, City Centre Offices now releases "Good Luck", the band's first proper studio album since 2007.
[label info]
www.city-centre-offices.de
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| GIFFONI, CARLOS |
Arrogance |
CD |
"Five chapters of sound inspired by one of the most powerful and complex emotions of humankind. Arrogance is a departure from the digital machine insanity of his previous full length release, Welcome Home (Important Records), for a world of total analog electronics, primal energy, walls of monumental sound and precise attention to layers - creating massive slowly evolving structures that are both beautiful and terrifying. Arrogance is the first CD release on the No Fun Productions label. Recorded live with no overdubs in Brooklyn during a 12 month period by Carlos Giffoni and mastered by James Plotkin. Cover artwork by award winning artist-designer Megan Ellis.' [label info]
www.nofunfest.com/nofunprod |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Eternal Noise |
CD |
Vier Stücke mit hyper-minimalen Analog-Drones, zwischen rauh-knarzigen Texturen und sanften Wellen a la ELEH.
"Carlos Giffoni knows no mercy. Of all the noise terrorists on the loose today, Giffoni causes the most upheaval. We know he specialises in brutal and invincible noise collages, but there is so much more to it than that. There is always a glimmer of hope that shines through the dense clouds of noise. His noise lives, broods and swings. His latest album for Bottrop-Boy is a true revelation in this respect, not just for the listener, but also for the artist himself. After all, the Venezuelan artist, who is based in New York, has conceded that this is a new style for him. With Eternal Noise Carlos Giffoni enters the holiest of holies, his noise nirvana. Even though Giffoni’s earlier works already sounded impressively organic, with Eternal Noise he is heading for new heights. His customary thick layers of noise sound more subtle than ever before. The four-part suite maintains physical impact, but all faces are turned to heaven, towards eternity. Rather than a noise exercise that sounds like a wrestling match in the dirt, this recording represents ascension towards the sun and open heavens. At times you will find yourself almost drowning in the feedback splashing against you, at other times you will find yourself breathlessly captivated by the peregrinations, whirls and swells of sinus tones. Giffoni is genuinely inspired by the avant-garde music of the 20th century and the results are miraculous.
How Giffoni creates his compositions is of no importance. This is all about their effect on your mood, the spectacle of your ravished soul. You find yourself asking how it is possible that such loud and intense music can be so tranquil and meditative at the same time.
Eternal Noise reconfirms Giffoni’s status as the uncrowned king of contemporary noise. Bottrop-Boy is proud to release this key work in Giffoni’s oeuvre." [label info]
".... The eternal is the easier word to parse. Giffoni here deals exclusively with shape-shifting drones, mostly around the lower partials of the overtone series. Each of the four tracks doesn’t evolve so much as amorphously change emphasis at a geologic or tectonic pace, almost a history of the Earth heard from the inside or the sound of individual molecules vibrating, a kind of nano-counterpoint. Even where there is a pulse within the drone, it serves not as a driving teleological force but rather as a mere marker of the passing time, alluding to the stasis of the most ambient of krautrock tracks. On top of that, Giffoni seems to be evoking a kind of throat singing where the vocal chords have been replaced by charged wires that crackle, buzz, and distort as they vibrate. Each overtone has its own individual color of noise, so the composite is like the gradual color shifts of oil on water or of a dissolving Gobstopper.
Were those flavors of noise not so harsh around the edges, this album could almost be meditative. It is fitting that the liner notes are mostly pictures of Japanese temples, since their serenity is clearly behind almost every sound here, even the harsh ones. And when each track cuts off suddenly, it feels as if you're being unwillingly wrested back into reality." [Dan Rucchia / Dusted Mag]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Dream Walker |
LP |
About 20 years ago, Carlos Giffoni quickly made a name for himself both as a noise guitarist and a laptop noisician upon arriving in New York (via Florida and Venezuela). His expertly curated annual No Fun Festival, as well as his No Fun label, further solidified him as a key figure in the international noise scene. The festival's success proved the formula for experimental and improvised music fests could work with the noise underground as well, but it also capitalized on the faster rate of connections being made between geographically disparate artists as a result of the (still relatively nascent) internet. Back then Carlos would play his laptop like a pinball machine, in contrast to the static stage presence of most laptop performers, and his solo music, like many others' at that time, expressed a less dark and dour vision of the implications of harsh noise. By the close of the 2000s, he had stopped doing the festival, switched gears musically to playing the lighter No Fun Acid sets, and moved to LA. Now he has re-emerged in a big way with Dream Walker, his first full-length since 2018's Vain (and only his second since 2010). Inspired by the masterful performances and diffusions he heard at the February 2023 GRM electronic music festival in Paris, particularly sets by old friends Lasse Marhaug, Jim O'Rourke, and Eiko Ishibashi, he began conceptualizing new music of his own in response, turning to synthesizers and other hardware to produce a work more firmly in the tradition of European electronic music than anything else he's done. Intended as a late night listen that evokes the edge of consciousness, with Carlos getting as close as possible to a trance state during the actual recording and mixing, each of the eleven tracks transition into one another rather than being standalone discrete pieces, forming two side-long suites that proceed like stages of a dream. Unabashedly tonal and repetitive, the glistening opener "Now Dream," the droning "Sleep Walker," and the closing triptych of "Lost in Descanso," "Sunrise," and "The Hidden Path" occupy a power electronics-ambient nexus that feels spiritually close to the Mego label. Elsewhere, "Ticking Clock" is reminiscent of Stereolab's non-easy listening vintage electronic side, while the two-part arpeggiated "Euphoria" recalls early Oneohtrix Point Never (which Carlos released on No Fun). The contrast between "One Breath"'s crackling opening and its remarkably fluid and soaring sustained synthesized chords is a distillation of the album's lingering tension between electronics' ability to project mechanical rupture as well as the organic and the infinite _or "walking between dreams," as Carlos himself puts it. Produced by Lasse Marhaug (who also mastered Carlos' first solo album, Welcome Home, back in 2005), released by Stephen O'Malley (who I remember DJing at the No Fun fest), with cover art and photos by personal friends, Carlos considers the album a family affair. But Dream Walker most of all heralds a maturation of the artist, and stands as a record that exists out of pure desire, rather than obligation or force of habit; a statement of reconnecting with music not by merely revisiting it, but by building on what's come before, both in his own work and in the music he loves. -Alan Licht, New York, December 2023
https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/dream-walker-2
|
2024 |
€25.00 |
|
| GILBERT, B.C. |
Monad |
7inch |
"Track listing:
A: Ingress 2:42
B: Re-Exit 2:42
Cut by Jason @ Transition
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
TS12 - the next in the series of vinyl-only Touch Sevens [TS11 and TS13 to follow in 2011] - is Monad by Bruce Gilbert, whose career stretches back to late 1960's British avant garde art & music scenes, and has since played an important and influential role with his involvement in various rock based formations, work for choreographic projects and art installations...
Instruments: Korg Monotron Analogue Ribbon synth, Zoom RFX-200, Korg Kaos Pad 2, Apple GarageBand " [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| GILBERT, B.C. & G. LEWIS |
8 Time |
CD |
"Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis were members of the innovative and highly influential band Wire, whose three late 70s albums - Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154 - were a fertile and increasingly abstract voyage into the possibilities of the post-punk musical universe. By 1980, the band were on the brink of losing their record deal with EMI and were starting to fragment into separate recording units. Ivo, a big Wire fan, met Bruce and Graham at a Bauhaus show, where the pair offered 4AD some material they had been working on. Shortly afterwards, the Like This For Ages EP was released under the name Cupol, followed by the full-length album 3R4, credited simply to BC Gilbert/ G. Lewis. All of Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis's 4AD material was subsequently collected on the 8 Time CD." [label info]
www.4ad.com/artists/gilbertandlewis
|
1998 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Ends with the Sea |
7inch |
"B.C. Gilbert / G. Lewis have always juggled darkness and light in their various collaborations (Dome, Cupol, etc.); Gilbert's pointillist melodicism counterbalanced by Lewis' menacing bass and sardonic lyrics. While the duo explores cinematic soundscapes on their album 3R4, here they return to more song-based territory with icy vocals, detached guitar lines and even a faint industrial vibe. Ends With The Sea provides a vital glimpse into the creative forces that even a band as daring and inventive as Wire could not contain.
This first-time vinyl reissue is recommend for fans of SPK, Chris Carter and Einstürzende Neubauten." [label info]
www.superiorviaduct.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
3R4 |
LP |
"In 1980, after three relentlessly creative albums, the members of WIRE were at an impasse, unsure of how to push themselves any further as a four-piece rock band. While frontman Colin Newman spent the band's hiatus mining WIRE's knack for intelligent and contorted pop songs, guitarist Bruce Gilbert and bassist / vocalist Graham Lewis joined forces for a series of experimental projects (DOME, CUPOL, etc.) where the primary motivating concept was "studio as instrument."
3R4, the duo's only LP under the B.C. GILBERT / G. LEWIS moniker and the very second album to be released on 4AD, eschews melody and structure in favor of ambient-noise soundscapes, metallic textures, and tense moods. If the brief "Barge Calm" tracks appear like sonic exercises, the longer pieces ("3.4…" and "R") are true exorcisms, conjuring supernatural found-sounds with the patience and deliberation of (un)holy men. Play this record loud and try not to think that it is the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch film.
Originally released on 4AD in 1980. This first-time vinyl reissue is recommended for fans of FAUST, David Cunningham and Thomas Leer & Robert Rental's The Bridge." [label info]
www.superiorviaduct.com
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
| GILLIE, FLAVIEN |
Rituels Domestiques |
mCD-R |
exactly 8 years and 1 day after his previous release on taâlem (as final cut, "ballade de bruits", see taalem.bandcamp.com/album/ballade-de-bruits-alm-73) and a few releases on various other labels (gruenrekorder or unfathomless for instance), we welcome once again french (but based in brussels, belgium) sound artist flavien gillié for three exquisite tracks showing his strong abilities to create deep drone tracks and field recording based soundscapes.
let yourself immerse in these three beauties...
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/rituels-domestiques-alm-127
|
2019 |
€5.00 |
|
| GINNUNGAGAP |
Return to Nothing / Nothing to Return |
mLP |
Teure aber sehr schön gestaltete Vinyl-Edition (nachdem die CD schon lange vergriffen ist) von diesen Aufnahmen von 2004 von STEPHEN O'MALLEYS vielleicht experimentellsten Seitenprojekt...
"Stephen O’Malley (SUNN O))), KHANATE) on guitar in live- improvisation with two others (GERRIT & T.WYSKIDA) working on electronics and gong & tympani, creating a strange atmosphere between floating soundwaves, dark drones & concrete detailed microsounds. Two long tracks that got more filled & dense & beautiful over the timeperiod.... Recorded March 10th, 2004, at the Flux Factory in Queens." [Drone Records]
"... Ginnungagap is a term from Norse mythology that means something like "seeming emptiness" and that's a great name for this project, which sounds like it emanates from some abyssal void or abandoned cave or something. Ambient sinister drone improv, reminding us a little bit of House of Low Culture or even Thuja, if they were more creepy and liquid-sounding. Ginnungagap is a trio consisting of Khanate / SUNNO))) dude Stephen O'Malley on guitar, Khanate's Tim Wyskida on gong and tympani, and Gerritt Wittmer (who runs the Misanthropic Agenda label, and records solo as Gerritt) on computer. Packaged in a gold-printed, flat oversized cardstock sleeve, this disc consists of two tracks: "Return To Nothing" being a live recording about a half-hour in length, followed by Gerritt's remix "Nothing To Return" for about 20 minutes more. Like so much Khanate / SUNNO))) related stuff, it's of course a limited edition release... " [Aquarius Records review]
"A live recording and alternate mix of a collaboration between GERRITT (GERRITT, Misanthropic Agenda), STEPHEN O'MALLEY (KHANATE, SUNN O))), LOTUS EATERS, BURNING WITCH, THORR'S HAMMER), and TIM WYSKIDA (KHANATE, BLIND IDIOT GOD). Recorded March 10, 2004 at the Flux Factory in Queens. Limited edition of 500, pressed on color vinyl." [label info]
www.misantropicagenda.com
|
2009 |
€23.50 |
|
| GIRNU GIESMES |
Bevardes Salos |
CD |
Das litauische Projekt GIRNU GIESMES gehört zum Urgestein der dortigen Industrial & Experimental-Szene, dies ist bereits das 10.te Album! Waren ihre frühen Werke stärker dem einem klassischen & elektronischen Industrial verpflichtet, so lässt sich BEVARDOS SALOS eher im Drone-Ambient ansiedeln - aber die "industrielle" Vergangenheit ist noch spürbar in diesen dunklen Kompositionen voller subtiler "brechender" und spannend arrangierter Sounds, die einen von der ersten Sekunde bannen. Da die Band in Westeuropa immer noch weitgehend unbekannt sein dürfte, sei dieses Album hiermit nachdrücklich für dark drone Fans empfohlen!
"The tenth album Bevardės Salos (Nameless Islands) by the Lithuanian post industrial pioneer Girnų Giesmės uniquely marks the jubilee of composing and is distinguished by its special maturity and professionalism. All tracks are indeed intricate, complex and original sound fabrics. Each frequency, sample or rhythmic we hear in them has been composed by the author himself without the use of any other source. Some tracks are in drone style, others in ambient, while the third contain dynamic, elemental rhythm. However, all tracks in the album have one common trait - they cannot be compared to anything else you heard before. Even the general mood of the album, although it is very close to human emotions, is practically indescribable in words. Most probably the title of Nameless Islands has been purposefully chosen for this musical journey, so that various listeners could explore and discover their unique vision emerging from the play of sounds." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| GITHEAD |
Profile |
CD |
Project of COLIN NEWMAN (WIRE), MALKA SPIEGEL (ex MINIMAL COMPACT) and ROBIN RIMBAUD aka SCANNER !
„Als GITHEAD 2004 mit ihrer Debüt-EP "Headgit" auf den Plan traten, überraschten sie eine Menge Leute. Nicht nur das ungewöhnliche Line-Up, sondern auch GITHEADs hypnotische Funkiness und ihr Gespür für Avant-Pop sind die essentiellen Faktoren, die GITHEAD auch auf ihrem echten Debüt "Profile" mit zusätzlicher Tiefe und Breite auffahren. Mit dem neuen Schlagzeuger Max Franken sind GITHEAD nun eine einzigartige Spezialeinheit, die weder vor emotionaler Energie (wie auf dem Opener "Alpha" und dem epischen "Raining Down), treibenden Grooves (wie in "Option Paralysis" oder der ungebändigten Bauschigkeit von "Cosmology For Beginners") oder gar der erhaben-poppigen Üppigkeit von "My LCA (Little Box Of Magic)" zurückschreckt.“ [label info]
|
2005 |
€14.50 |
|
| GLACIAL |
On Jones Beach |
LP |
"Glacial is Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), David Watson (Afternoon Saints), and Tony Buck (The Necks). The vinyl edition of the album presents the studio session in two twenty-one minute installments. The album is accompanied by a download coupon for DRM-free MP3s of the complete 48 minute studio session as well as three live bonus tracks." [label info]
www.threelobed.com
|
2012 |
€20.50 |
|
| GLASS OUT |
Never force a left handed Child |
mLP |
"LTCo presents the debut release, Never Force A Left Handed Child To Use Their Right Hand, by solo artist Andrew Dewar Ainslie, a UK-based composer given to creating atmospheric music from textures, tones and gentle oscillations with a somewhat melancholic or reflective slant. Comprising three songs, ‘Manifesto’, ‘Wild Strawberries’ and the side long title track, this adds up to over 30 minutes of music plus features the late Jhonn Balance on the piece ‘Manifesto’, delivering a very rarely heard reading of the Coil manifesto which was itself first broadcast on Holland’s VPRO station. The release is set to appear during April 2011 and will be strictly limited to 300 only, with the first 50 also featuring a CDR and a selection of hand numbered/signed additional inserts (the remaining 250 will also randomly include some extras). These are exclusive to the label's mail order wing and can only be ordered directly." [label info]
www.lumberton-trading.com
"Its all semantics of course, but this is announced as 12", mini LP, with three tracks, still spanning around thirty minutes and its the first in a series of six (which is going to include Philippe Petit/Cindytalk, Brian Conniffe, Human Greed, Main and Theme), although I am not sure what ties these together. I never heard of Glass Out, being the project of Andrew Dewar Ainslie. Main sales point here is the reading of the Coil manifesto by Jhonn Balance (from a rarely heard session by VPRO Radio) on the piece 'Manifesto'. Electronic music this is, with slow oscillating beats, melodies and spoken word. Quite gentle music here, slowly evolving and highly atmospheric. I am not sure if this is all done with a bunch of synthesizers (analog or digital), or if there was perhaps some other instrument in play here. But the thoughtful atmospheric pieces of music work pretty well here. Its a pity that its only three pieces since it would be interesting to see what other tricks this guy has up his sleeve." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| GLOBAL SYSTEMS SILENTLY MOVING |
Altering the Air |
CD |
"Quiet, flowing, rivers of murky low-fi atmospheric haze, with deep, distant, sub-bass pulses that seem to come from underground. Waves of shortwave noise roll up to the listeners feet like water on the shore. Introspective movements to get lost in. Repetitious, hypnotic sequences transmitted from an ethereal universe. All-pervading, and infinitely elastic. Widescreen glimpses into seven perpetually moving soundscapes that have no beginnings or ends. Epic patterns... rolling until the end of time. Lost souls wandering in a dense audio-fog. These are archival analog recordings made in Detroit (1996), and seem to be somehow affiliated with the "deepchord brotherhood" (recorded by/produced by DC), however... the actual artist here is not completely clear." [label info]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| GLORY FCKN SUN |
Vision scorched |
CD |
"Formed in 2003 as a conduit for intense ritualistic sonic exploration Glory Fckn Sun is the ecstatic psyche-noise trio of Antony Milton (guitar/electronics), Ben Spiers (guitar/violin/electronic) and improv percussionist Simon O'Rorke (gongs/percussion).
'Vision Scorched' collects together one studio track and two live pieces. These range through long form rumbling distorted deep space explorations (complete with supernova and the odd blackhole), intense yet ethereal harsh noise to close with a droning metaphysical raga-esque paean to the great cosmic inevitable of the collapse of the sun, And of light itself. Glory Fckn Sun have been described as having a sound that is like a cross between Flies Inside the Sun and Keiji Haino.
Nearly 2 years in the making and continuing in the PseudoArcana tradition of fantastical over-the-top packaging (...) 'Vision Scorched' is presented in a professionally bound 72 page picture book of sun related imagery with hand printed covers. This is a limited numbered edition CD of 200 copies." [label info]
label: www.pseudoarcana.com
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| GNOME & SPYBEY |
At Willie's Place |
CD |
"I get the honor of announcing Mark Spibey's collaborative release with Gnome (aka Tony D'Oporto). Gnome and Spybey's At Willie's Place will be released in July on Tourette Records in a limited edition of 400 copies. I've had the distinct privilege of hearing the album. It's a gorgeous journey from the heights of the clouds to the forest floor. It's an album of detailed synthetic warmth populated by remotely ethnic melodic figures which roam the tracks like living creatures. The album reminds of Ariel Kalma, the Residents at their most serene, Coil at their most reflective, Aphex at his most ambient, and Eno at his most melodious. It's mood music for those times when you just aren't quite sure what mood you're in, a beam of welcome morning light pouring through the window after a sleepless night of worry. At Willie's Place is the most vibrant record of electronic music I've heard in quite some time." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
"Mark Spybey goes on and on, here teaming up with somebody called Gnome, which is one Tony D'Oporto, of whom I never heard. Perhaps a spoiler to the end of the review, but Spybey is not a man to change his tune very much. And why should he? He's happy to play atmospheric music of any kind. Sometimes very ambient, sometimes a bit more krautrock inspired and like on 'At Willie's Place' somewhere in between all of that. The synths play moody, sustaining notes, with occasional arpeggio's, a dash of rhythm is faded in and out and that's it. There is hardly a sense of composition - Spybey and Gnome like the flow of sounds it seems. Now that may all sound like I don't like this record, which is not true. In terms of doing something 'new', I'd say its not on this record, but when we look at this in musical terms, its a great record. It reminded me of ambient house, more than a decade ago, with those arpeggio's, sea sounds, bouncing rhythm occasionally and spacious synthesizers. Music that was once vastly popular, and now is nowhere (although, who knows a revival might be imminent). Not something I hear everyday and that's why I was particular interested in this. Should I have more time in the slow summer period, I'll start my own revival and dig out some lost treasures (Aphex Twin, Silent Records) and play this one as if it were an oldie too." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| GOBEIL, GILLES |
Les Iointains |
CD |
" 'Les lointains noirs et rouges' (2008-09), 'Castalie' (2008), 'Bol-Hydre' (2011), 'Sibylle' (2010), 'Golem' (2013), 'Des temps oubliés' (2012). Gilles Gobeil has completed a master's degree in composition at Université de Montréal, after studying writing techniques. He has been focusing his work on acousmatic and mixed music since 1985. His works fall close to what is called Ôcinema for the ear.' Many of his pieces have been inspired by literary works and attempt to let us Ôsee' through sound. Gilles Gobeil has won over 20 national and international awards including the Ars Electronica (Austria, 1995, 2005), Black & White (Portugal, 2009), Bourges (France, 1988, '89, '99, 2009), British Design & Art Direction (UK, 2002), Brock University (Canada, 1985), Canadian Music Council (1985), Ciber@rt (Spain, 1999), CICEM (Monaco, 2014), CIMESP (Brazil, 1997, '99, 2001), Destellos (Argentina, 2011, '12), Luigi Russolo (Italy, 1987, '88, '89), Métamorphoses (Belgium, 2000, '02), Newcomp (USA, 1987), SDE Canada (1984), SOCAN (Canada, 1993), and Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden, 1994, '97) competitions. His DVD-Audio Trilogie d'ondes has won the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM)'s Prix Opus for Best Album in 2004-05; his CD Le contrat was nominated in the same category in 2003-04. Gobeil has received commissions from Codes d'accès (Montréal), DAAD (Berlin, Germany), empreintes DIGITALes (Montréal), Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB, France), Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM, France), Musiques & Recherches (Belgium), Réseaux des arts médiatiques (Montréal), Société Radio-Canada, Totem contemporain (Montréal), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Germany), from Folkmar Hein, Uli Aumüller, Camille Mutel, and Oscar Wiggli, and from performers Suzanne Binet-Audet, René Lussier, Arturo Parra, and Rick Sacks. He has been composer-in-residence in Banff (Canada, 1993, '95), Bourges (France, 1991), EMS (Sweden, 2013), GRM (France, 1993, 2012), Franz Liszt Academy (Weimar, Germany, 2010), Miso Music Portugal (2012), Musiques & Recherches (Belgium, 2012), PANaroma (Brazil, 2014), and ZKM (Germany, 2005, '06, '07, '09, '10, '12, '13), and guest composer at DAAD (Germany, 2008). Gilles Gobeil is a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), and co-founder of Réseaux, an organization devoted to producing media arts events." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2015 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Dans le Silence da la Nuit |
CD |
"“Derrière la porte la plus éloignée…” (1998), “Projet Proust” (1995-2001), “Point de passage” (1997), “Nuit cendre” (1995).
“… one of the most talented and sensitive jugglers of sounds we’ve heard” (Sonoloco Record Reviews, Sweden). “Since its release, Gilles Gobeil’s new disc, … dans le silence de la nuit…, attracts a lot of praises and attention. Dark and fascinating, his sonic universe routs bias and produces extraordinary sonic depth. Inspired by both readings (Proust, HG Wells, Verne) and travels (Venice), Gobeil’s compositions leaves the listener breathless with its moving images and secret atmospheres. 50 minutes expressly remastered for this edition, illustrated by Luc Beauchemin.” " [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
La Mécanique des Ruptures |
CD |
"Le vertige inconnu (The Mysterious Vertigo) was produced in 1993 at the studios of the Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB, France). It premiered in June 1993 at the 23rd Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Festival (France). Le vertige inconnu received the 1994 Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden) and was selected for the 1994 World Music Days (Stockholm, Sweden) and the 1994 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC’94) in Danmark. The piece was commissioned by the GMEB, with the assistance of the Canada Council [for the Arts].[v-94] Since, Le vertige inconnu was awarded the prize of international competition Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden, 1994) and the 2nd prize of the international competition Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1995)." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
1994 |
€14.00 |
|
| GODFLESH |
Decline & Fall |
CD-EP |
"J.K. Broadrick's most-recognized band, the influential and innovative GODFLESH, who formed in 1998 with bassist Ben Green, disbanded in 2002 and reformed in 2010, present 'Decline & Fall' 4 tracks on a 23 minute mini album." [label info]
www.avalancheinc.co.uk
"Listening to “Ringer”, the first track on Godflesh’s new Decline And Fall ep, it would be easy to imagine that this wasn’t in fact the duo’s first new record since 2001, the sound, as we were assured by folks who heard it before us, was very much like old Godflesh, and now that we -have- heard it, we most definitely concur. Sure there are some subtle differences, the production for one, less raw and abrasive, a bit warmer, as well as some strange sonic filigree that sounds like it could have been lifted off of a Jesu or Pale Sketcher record, and more dynamics too, with some cool psychedelic passages, and more minimal soundscapey bits, but at it’s core, and for the bulk of the ep, the new Godflesh hews pretty close to the old. The guitars gristly and crunchy and abrasive, the bass thick and buzzing and corrosive, the drum machine locked into churning, unwavering, industrial rhythms, Broadrick’s vocals the same sort of pre-Jesu bellow, the songs strangely catchy, with the occasional soaring melody draped over that instantly recognizable industrial machine metal, laced with shards of feedback, and arc of grinding down tuned crush. The whole thing tranced out and hypnotically headbangable, and a serious return to form, one that has us hankering for a proper full length." [Aquarius Records]
https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/album/decline-and-fall-ep
|
2014 |
€11.00 |
|
| GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR! [GYBE] |
Slow Riot for new Zero Kanada |
mLP |
\"Our second vinyl-only release from Godspeed contains two long songs, and sets the bar for the sprawling compositions that would characterise the group in the years to follow.
Side A is cut at 45rpm and features \"Moya\", a broiling cascade of upward scales that repeatedly explodes beyond its own threshold.
\"BBF3\" on Side B clocks in at 18 minutes, and was the band\'s most lyrical, multi-movement music to date - more elaborated melodic figures wind around an angry spoken-word field recording (infamously culminating in the recital of the speaker\'s poem - verses lifted straight from Iron Maiden).
Both songs were recorded with Dale Morningstar at the old Gas Station studio in Toronto.\"
[label info]
\"Nachdem Godspeed You Black Emperor!, kurz GYBE!, mit ihrem Album \"Lift yr. skinny fist like antennas to heaven!\" allgemein für Furore sorgten, wirft dies natürlich die Frage auf, was denn deren frühere Werke musikalisch bieten. \"Slow riot for new zero\" ist eine EP, die lediglich die zwei Titel \"Moya\" und \"bbf3\" enthält, die mit ihren jeweiligen Längen von 10:51 bzw. 17:45 Minuten, selbst für GYBE! Dimensionen relativ kurz geraten sind.
Auf ihnen wird nicht ganz so extrem wie beim nachfolgenden Longplayer das Konzept der \"Wall of Sounds\" ausgelebt. Zwar gibt es auch hier das mehrfache An- und Abschwellen von Soundkaskaden, die melancholischen Lieder entwickeln sich langsam, schleppend - doch einfache, monotone, aber zugleich traumhaft schöne Melodien geben dem explodierenden \"Krach\" eine Struktur, eine Linie zum Entlanghangeln. Wo bei Sigur Rós die Stimme für einen ausgleichenden Gegenpol sorgt, da setzt bei GYBE! das Zusammenspiel zwischen klassischen und elektrischen Instrumenten die Akzente.
\"Slow riot for new zero\" lebt so vor allem von der Stimmung, der Faszination des kontrollierten Lärms (nicht umsonst heißt die Übersetzung des hebräischen Zeichen auf dem Cover u.a. \"Chaos\") der von einfacher, fragiler Schönheit bis hin zu ohrenbetäubendem Crescendo reicht.\" [Kristian Selm, Babyblaue Seiten]
www.cstrecords.com
|
1999 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven |
do-LP |
\"Das neue, phänomenale Album der innovativen Post-Rock-Band ! Vier lange, ausufernde Stücke die nur noch manchmal entfernt an gängige „Rock“-Strukturen erinnern, vielmehr entwickeln sich zarte Anfänge aus z.B. Guitars, Streichern, Bläsern & Bass hin zu monumentalen Instrumental-Stücken; voller Harmonien und unterschwelliger Kraft, die manchmal fast explodiert.. es gibt auch atmosphärische Zwischenparts mit piano, field recordings, etc.. hier treffen sich GLENN BRANCA, RACHEL’S, und LABRADFORD. Intense !\" [Drone Records info 2000]
\"...like Antennas to Heaven After two years of constant touring and near-unanimous critical acclaim, Godspeed You Black Emperor! assembled a collection of new recordings that charted the creative evolution of the band as well as its literal physical movement on the road, criss-crossing North America and Europe.
Five expansive full-band compositions are framed by various field recordings, tape manipulations and ensemble pieces in a return to the narrative sonic collage techniques that marked their 1997 debut (F#A#8).
Four seamless sides of vinyl unfold a world of aching sadness and beauty, with musical quotes ranging from heartland americana to mitteleuropa folkways, all distilled through the unique sonic filters of Godspeed\'s pedal-crazy orchestral rock instrumentation.
Harrowing guitars, plaintive strings, pulsing basses and explosive drums combine with glockenspiels, horns and tape drones to form an overwhelming palette of sounds, always driven by fierce melodic momentum and intense emotional resonance.
GYBE! continued to paint on an impossibly large canvas, with an uncanny blend of world-weariness and naive exuberance that spoke volumes about the conflicts and contradictions permeating our political and cultural life.
The tension between humility and hubris conjured an epic scope and a raw hope that such sweeping gestures might survive with some semblance of substance.\" [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2000 |
€26.00 |
|
|
Yanqui U.X.O |
CD |
"Die melancholisch-monumentalen kanadischen Drone-Rocker mit einem neuen Wurf – hochpolitisch & systemkritisch im Gestus, druckvoll produziert von Steve Albini, die Songs stets dialektisch zwischen schwelender Ruhe und explodierenden Klangströmen bewegend – eines DER Alben des Jahres 2002.
For us one of THE albums of 2002, the canadian melancholic-monumental drone-rockers, with songs moving quasi dialectical between suspenseful near-silence and exploding sound-streams.."
[Drone Records info 2002]
“u.x.o. is unexploded ordnance is landmines is cluster bombs. yanqui is post-colonial imperialism is international police state is multinational corporate oligarchy. godspeed you! black emperor is complicit is guilty is resisting. the new album is just music. recorded by steve albini at electrical audio in chicago. mixed by howard bilerman and godspeed you! black emperor at the hotel2tango in montreal. available on single compact disc and double phonograph record. stubborn tiny lights vs. clustering darkness forever ok?” [from the Constellation website]
label: www.cstrecords.com
|
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
|
F# A# °° |
CD |
"Originally released on vinyl in a pressing of 500 on the Constellation label, F# A# ∞has been remixed and resequenced. Take the epic scope of Ennio Morricone, the artsy slash of 17 Pygmies, the desert tones of prime Savage Republic, bolster the mix with the rhythmic chugalug of The Ex and add the Canadian tradition of radio drama and you begin to get a hint of what this band are up to. With twin percussionists, three guitar players, violin, cello, glockenspeil and tape loops, godspeed you black emperor! can make a big rumbling sound or stretch out into delicate filigrees. The nontet has developed a reputation in their hometown for gripping multimedia shows at their recording and performance space Hotel 2 Tango. At the Lounge Ax twin film projectors emitted grainy backdrops while the band built up their cinemascope sound world. The original home recordings were made at Hotel 2 Tango and have been tweaked at Toronto's Chemical Sound studios (with the help of Daryl Smith of Slow Loris). Two new pieces,"Dead Metheny" and "Sad Mafioso," have been recorded for the compact disc." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
1998 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Allelujah! Don't bend! Ascend! |
LP + 7inch |
"We are proud to announce the first new recordings by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in a decade. Featuring two twenty-minute slabs of epic instrumental rock music and two six-and-a-half minute drones, ‘ALLELUJAH! DON’T BEND! ASCEND! provides soaring, shining proof of the band’s powerful return to form.
Having emerged from hiatus at the end of 2010, GYBE picked up right where they left off, immediately re-capturing the sound and material that had fallen dormant in 2003 and driving it forward with every show of their extensive touring over the last 18 months. The new album presents the fruits of that labour: evolved and definitive versions of two huge compositions previously known to fans as “Albanian” and “Gamelan”, now properly titled as “MLADIC” and “WE DRIFT LIKE WORRIED FIRE” respectively. Accompanied by the new drones (stitched into the album sequence on CD; cut separately on their own 7″ for the LP version), GYBE have offered up a fifth album that we feel is as absolutely vital, virulent, honest and heavy as anything in their discography.
We don’t have much time for mythology, but we’d be lying if we said the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 2010 didn’t signify a whole lot to us as a marker from which to look back on the past decade, to reflect on what’s been gained or lost within the confines of independent music culture and what’s been gained or lost in the socio-political landscape writ large. Godspeed’s music will do that to you. It is music that bears witness to, channels and transforms this predominantly terrible, infuriating, venal and nihilistically sad story we’re all living, sharing, resisting, protesting, deconstructing and trying to change for the better. We think GYBE has once again provided a uniquely moving and compelling soundtrack for these acts of analysis, defiance and ascension.
* * *
Hard to believe a full decade has passed since the release of Yanqui U.X.O., the last album by GYBE. Never a band to care for conventional industry wisdom, Yanqui was released shortly before xmas 2003 with little publicity and no press availability, no marketing plans or cross-promotions or brand synergies, with back cover artwork tracing the inextricable links between major music labels and the military-industrial complex. Driven by word-of-mouth from a passionate and committed fanbase galvanized by the group's sonic vision and its dedication to unmediated, unsullied musical communication, the album found it's rightful audience.
To suggest that such simple principles and goals have become harder to maintain and enact a decade later is an understatement. For all the contents and discontents – for all the "content" – of our present cultural moment, the idea of circumventing the glare of exposure, the massaging of media cycles and the calculus of identity management appears quaint, if not futile.
But Godspeed is looking to try all the same. The band wants people to care about this new album, without telling people they should or talking about themselves. They want to hold on to some part of that energy that comes with the thrill of anonymous discovery and unmediated transmission, knowing full well that these days, anti-strategy risks being tagged as a strategy, non-marketing framed as its opposite, and deeply held principles they consider fundamental to health as likely to be interpreted as just another form of stealth.
Truly, thanks for being open to hearing it.
Release date: 15 October 2012 (Europe), 16 October 2012 (rest of world)
Running time: 53:09
LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a tipped-on heavyweight gatefold jacket printed in full-colour process plus a spot metallic ink and spot matte varnish. LP dust sleeve is also 4-colour print. Package includes a 7 inch in printed dust sleeve (same audio appears in a different sequence on the CD) and a 12"x48" pull-out poster (printed full colour on both sides) featuring a collage of film stills specially-photographed and captured from the GYBE live 16mm projections." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
"Viel ist passiert in den letzten 10 Jahren und für Mythologien bleibt weder Zeit noch Kapazität, aber eines ist doch offenbar: wir würden lügen, wenn wir nicht zugeben würden, dass die Rückkehr von GY!BE im Jahre 2010 eine Zäsur, ein Punkt der Rückschau gewesen ist. Wie kaum eine andere Band haben die Kanadier uns in den letzten Jahren begleitet, und das ohne musikalisch wirklich sichtbar zu sein. Ihre Geschichte ist eng mit dem Label Constellation verknüpft und die gesamte Attitüde, der Kontext, in dem sich Constellation und damit auch GY!BE bewegen, haben einen nicht zu unterschätzenden Einfluss auf die Independent Musikkultur weltweit ausgeübt. Und so regt dieses neue Album von GY!BE eine Rückschau an, eine Auseinandersetzung, was Independentkultur und Selbstverständnis heute noch bedeuten und wohin sich die soziokulturellen Komponenten unserer Gesellschaft entwickelt haben und noch weiter entwickeln werden. Auf diese Weise wird ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" mit einer Bedeutung aufgeladen, wie sie schwerer kaum wiegen kann - und auf die weder Band noch Album direkt einen Einfluss haben - eine künstlerische Äußerung, die Bedeutung durch ihre bloße Existenz erlangt - da haben wir ihn doch, den Mythos, ohne dass wir es wollten. Und wir können es nur akzeptieren - dass dieses wunderbare Stück Musik (und das ist sie wahrlich, diese Platte - musikalisch ein Meisterwerk) schon jetzt ein Begleiter unseres Selbstverständnisses geworden ist, ein Moment des Innehaltens, des Reflektierens und damit Zeuge unserer eigenen Transformation, in der wir versuchen, das Kapitel unserer eigenen Biographie in diesem Buch aus überwiegend furchtbaren, korrupten, komplizierten und nihilistischen Geschichten neu zu schreiben und irgendwie in Hoffnung zu verwandeln. GY!BE haben es wieder einmal geschafft, einen Soundtrack für dieses Wechselspiel aus Analyse, Trotz und Befreiung zu liefern. Die Vinylversion von ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" besteht aus einer LP und einer 7". Die 7" enthält zwei Drones, die auf der CD in den Album-Kontext eingebunden sind, auf Vinyl aber separat vorliegen, um eine gute Qualität der Pressung zu erreichen. Die beiden Songs ,Mladic" und ,We Drift Like Worried Fire" sind final ausformulierte Versionen der beiden von den den Konzerten der Band bereits bekannten Tracks ,Albanian" und ,Gamelan". Die beiden Tracks wurden von Howard Bilerman im legendären Hotel2Tango Studio aufgenommen, während die Drones von der Band selbst aufgenommen und gemixt wurden. Alle wurden gemastert von Harris Newman/ Greymarket. Musikalisch knüpft ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" an das ziemlich exakt vor 10 Jahren im Herbst 2002 veröffentlichte, letzte Album ,Yanqui U.X.O." an und greift seine klangliche Ästhetik ebenso auf wie seinen Kontext.
Die Vinylversion von ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" besteht aus einer LP und einer 7". Die 7" enthält zwei Drones, die auf der CD in den Album-Kontext eingebunden sind, auf Vinyl aber separat vorliegen, um eine gute Qualität der Pressung zu erreichen. 180gLP IN TIPPED-ON GATEFOLD JACKET. INCLUDES 7" VINYL + 12"x 48" PULL-OUT POSTER!" [label info- Cargo translation]
|
2012 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Allelujah! Don't bend! Ascend! |
CD |
"We are proud to announce the first new recordings by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in a decade. Featuring two twenty-minute slabs of epic instrumental rock music and two six-and-a-half minute drones, ‘ALLELUJAH! DON’T BEND! ASCEND! provides soaring, shining proof of the band’s powerful return to form.
Having emerged from hiatus at the end of 2010, GYBE picked up right where they left off, immediately re-capturing the sound and material that had fallen dormant in 2003 and driving it forward with every show of their extensive touring over the last 18 months. The new album presents the fruits of that labour: evolved and definitive versions of two huge compositions previously known to fans as “Albanian” and “Gamelan”, now properly titled as “MLADIC” and “WE DRIFT LIKE WORRIED FIRE” respectively. Accompanied by the new drones (stitched into the album sequence on CD; cut separately on their own 7″ for the LP version), GYBE have offered up a fifth album that we feel is as absolutely vital, virulent, honest and heavy as anything in their discography.
We don’t have much time for mythology, but we’d be lying if we said the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 2010 didn’t signify a whole lot to us as a marker from which to look back on the past decade, to reflect on what’s been gained or lost within the confines of independent music culture and what’s been gained or lost in the socio-political landscape writ large. Godspeed’s music will do that to you. It is music that bears witness to, channels and transforms this predominantly terrible, infuriating, venal and nihilistically sad story we’re all living, sharing, resisting, protesting, deconstructing and trying to change for the better. We think GYBE has once again provided a uniquely moving and compelling soundtrack for these acts of analysis, defiance and ascension.
* * *
Hard to believe a full decade has passed since the release of Yanqui U.X.O., the last album by GYBE. Never a band to care for conventional industry wisdom, Yanqui was released shortly before xmas 2003 with little publicity and no press availability, no marketing plans or cross-promotions or brand synergies, with back cover artwork tracing the inextricable links between major music labels and the military-industrial complex. Driven by word-of-mouth from a passionate and committed fanbase galvanized by the group's sonic vision and its dedication to unmediated, unsullied musical communication, the album found it's rightful audience.
To suggest that such simple principles and goals have become harder to maintain and enact a decade later is an understatement. For all the contents and discontents – for all the "content" – of our present cultural moment, the idea of circumventing the glare of exposure, the massaging of media cycles and the calculus of identity management appears quaint, if not futile.
But Godspeed is looking to try all the same. The band wants people to care about this new album, without telling people they should or talking about themselves. They want to hold on to some part of that energy that comes with the thrill of anonymous discovery and unmediated transmission, knowing full well that these days, anti-strategy risks being tagged as a strategy, non-marketing framed as its opposite, and deeply held principles they consider fundamental to health as likely to be interpreted as just another form of stealth.
Truly, thanks for being open to hearing it.
Release date: 15 October 2012 (Europe), 16 October 2012 (rest of world)
Running time: 53:09
LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a tipped-on heavyweight gatefold jacket printed in full-colour process plus a spot metallic ink and spot matte varnish. LP dust sleeve is also 4-colour print. Package includes a 7 inch in printed dust sleeve (same audio appears in a different sequence on the CD) and a 12"x48" pull-out poster (printed full colour on both sides) featuring a collage of film stills specially-photographed and captured from the GYBE live 16mm projections." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com |
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Asunder, Sweet and other Distress |
LP |
"Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GYBE) returns with its first single LP-length release since the group's earliest days in 1997-99. 'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' clocks in at a succinct 40:23 and is arguably the most focused and best-sounding recording of the band's career. Working with sound engineer Greg Norman (Electrical Audio) at studios in North Carolina and Montreal, GYBE slowly and steadily put the new album together through late 2013 and 2014, emerging with a mighty slab of superlative sonics, shot through with all the band's inimitable signposts and touchstones: huge unison riffage, savage noise/drone, oscillating overtones, guitar vs. string counterpoint, inexorable crescendos and scorched-earth transitions.
Following Godspeed's return from a long hiatus at the end of 2010 to begin playing live shows again, and with the hugely acclaimed 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! release in 2012 marking their first new release in a decade, the group continued to perform regularly on their own headlining tours (and as headliners at many leading festivals), often including a new multi-movement piece in concert over the past couple of years. Known to fans and through live show recordings by the sobriquet "Behemoth", GYBE has gradually distilled this new work down to a fastidious and uncompromising essence in the studio, with the swing-time swagger of the opening unison riff in "Peasantry or 'Light! Inside of Light!'" giving way to increasing microtonal divergences and an exhilarating immersion in the harmonic power of massed amplified instruments, before collapsing into some of the most visceral and unalloyed noise/drone the band has yet committed to tape on "Lambs' Breath" and "’Asunder, Sweet'”. The album closes with "Piss Crowns Are Trebled", a classic 14-minute piece of vintage Godspeed, where ascending and descending guitar and violin melodies intertwine over gut-rattling distorted bass in 3/4 time, segueing into a pummeling four-on-the-floor series of sparkling, soaring crescendos
'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' finds Godspeed in top form; a sterling celebration of the band's awesome dialectic, where composition, emotion and 'note-choice' is inextricable from an exacting focus on tone, timbre, resonance and the sheer materiality of sound. The album is available on 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeve and insert poster, on CD in a 100% recycled custom paperboard jacket, and on all manner of formats in our fractured digital marketplace." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com |
2015 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Asunder, Sweet and other Distress |
CD |
"Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GYBE) returns with its first single LP-length release since the group's earliest days in 1997-99. 'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' clocks in at a succinct 40:23 and is arguably the most focused and best-sounding recording of the band's career. Working with sound engineer Greg Norman (Electrical Audio) at studios in North Carolina and Montreal, GYBE slowly and steadily put the new album together through late 2013 and 2014, emerging with a mighty slab of superlative sonics, shot through with all the band's inimitable signposts and touchstones: huge unison riffage, savage noise/drone, oscillating overtones, guitar vs. string counterpoint, inexorable crescendos and scorched-earth transitions.
Following Godspeed's return from a long hiatus at the end of 2010 to begin playing live shows again, and with the hugely acclaimed 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! release in 2012 marking their first new release in a decade, the group continued to perform regularly on their own headlining tours (and as headliners at many leading festivals), often including a new multi-movement piece in concert over the past couple of years. Known to fans and through live show recordings by the sobriquet "Behemoth", GYBE has gradually distilled this new work down to a fastidious and uncompromising essence in the studio, with the swing-time swagger of the opening unison riff in "Peasantry or 'Light! Inside of Light!'" giving way to increasing microtonal divergences and an exhilarating immersion in the harmonic power of massed amplified instruments, before collapsing into some of the most visceral and unalloyed noise/drone the band has yet committed to tape on "Lambs' Breath" and "’Asunder, Sweet'”. The album closes with "Piss Crowns Are Trebled", a classic 14-minute piece of vintage Godspeed, where ascending and descending guitar and violin melodies intertwine over gut-rattling distorted bass in 3/4 time, segueing into a pummeling four-on-the-floor series of sparkling, soaring crescendos
'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' finds Godspeed in top form; a sterling celebration of the band's awesome dialectic, where composition, emotion and 'note-choice' is inextricable from an exacting focus on tone, timbre, resonance and the sheer materiality of sound. The album is available on 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeve and insert poster, on CD in a 100% recycled custom paperboard jacket, and on all manner of formats in our fractured digital marketplace." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| GOEBBELS, HEINER / ALFRED HARTH |
Hommage / Vier Fäuste für Hanns Eisler |
do-CD |
"This long and extraordinarily fruitful partnership started here - continuing though the Sogennantes Linksradikales Blasorchester - where they picked up Christoph Anders with whom they went on to co-found Cassiber, with your humble reviewer. These are jazz inflected, punk inflected but mainly spirited and imaginative renderings of Eisler material, with more pieces by the duo who, between them, cover a lot of instruments and combinations of instruments and – ah youth – are never less than hurling themselves into the performances. Both LPs have been re-mastered by Bob Drake for this release." [label notes]
label-website: www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€19.00 |
|
| GOEM |
Robbed |
CD |
"In the hectic year 2001, Goem played around the world: at Mutek, in Japan, England, Austria, the UK, Spain, France and in between they worked on their 'Abri' CD, which was released later in 2001. Also they organised the 'Gast' CD, with various people (Matmos, Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier etc.) at the controls of Goem equipment. For the constant changing minds of Goem these activities were also marking the end of an era. The working methods of Goem had been well explored and nothing needed to be added. In the year 2002 they produced a three minute sound piece for an installation and after that: silence. With Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop in Rotterdam and Frans de Waard in Nijmegen it was not very easy to meet up, also due to their personal busy schedules. Still, in early 2004 Roel Meelkop and Frans de Waard recorded a remix of Esplendor Geometrico and Peter Duimelinks and Frans de Waard a 10" record for Auf Abwegen. Frans de Waard also recorded eleven new tracks as Goem for the Japanese Atak label. Expanding on the known concept, he now incorporated breaks in the music and some tracks do not rely on samples but on pure synthesizer tones. This record breaks away from the old Goem and walks new paths. Now it's Roel Meelkop who recorded 10 new Goem tracks, shedding light on his view of the way to go for Goem. All tracks are entirely based on stolen samples (the source should remain a mystery, but they can all be traced back to one CD...). With these samples Meelkop shows that Goem could walk other paths as well. Sometimes really minimal, sometimes almost poppy, all of the tracks share the same Goem style. Yet more possibilities for this Dutch trio... Goem as a trio will continue to exist and might record new material in the future." [label info]
"... The overall sound is of remarkable digital warmth and fullness, and far away from the standard vocabulary of clicks cum sine waves. Cleverly switching between up- and down-tempo passages, Roel Meelkop achieves a nice balance between various moods. Some of the tracks evoke a relaxed, at times even dub-like feeling, while others include odd contrasting elements, which give them an insistent, driving character. Goem's music is well structured and demands repeated listening to discover the complex micro-variations within the rhythmic patterns; but what makes 'Robbed' truly likeable is that it succeeds in blending these characteristics with a swinging, thoroughly pleasant overall atmosphere." [MSS / Vital Weekly]
www.smallvoices.it
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Audio.NL |
CD |
"Following the succes of the Komet – Audio.NL CD, the second release to re-issue old records from the by the now legendary Audio.NL label involves the two 12” records by Goem, as well as the only 7” on that label by Goem and Jos Smolders.
Goem started out late 1995 as yet another solo project by Frans de Waard who cobbled together a demo using an ancient device called the student stimulator (a basic pulse machine) and some sound effects. Intended to be just a few tracks/one-off project, it attracted attention of his fellow band member in Kapotte Muziek, Roel Meelkop. Together they reworked the demo and the resulting recordings were released as ‘Stud Stim’, the first foreign act released on Raster-Noton. Peter Duimelinks joined shortly after that, just before Goem’s debut concert in Barcelona in June 1996. From then onwards Goem released records on Mego, Staalplaat, 12K and Noise Museum and played concerts at Sonar, Mutek, Stop Stop, Ultrahang festival but also galleries, small clubs, squats and even a camping. In 1998 they started the Audio.NL, who released up to the early 2000’s some 30 different 12” records. After 2002 Goem ended, and Frans de Waard and Roel Meelkop each released a solo record as Goem after that.
Goem’s trademark sound was a minimal, pulsating sound at first generated by the student stimulator, but later also expanded to other sampled sources, including disco records, which was fed through analogue synthesizers (Korg and Roland) and a bunch of sound effects. A highly hypnotic blend of moving, pulsating electronics, often mistaken for minimal techno, but reaching much more for the minimalist tradition of Steve Reich meeting Kraftwerk.
This CD contains their two 12”s on Audio.NL, the ‘Motormix’ by Goem, a goem remix by Jos Smolders (both from the 7”, Audio.NL 003) and two previously unreleased tracks. All remastered from the original master recordings by Jos Smolders @ Earlabs." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
"On the last day before the gateway to year 2000, I went to a dark and small apartment in Mariensstrasse in Berlin to interview a band who had just given a full crowd quite some experience by transmitting obscure sound and subtle pulsating noises into the almost completely darkened room. The project was the Dutch trio called Goem. Behind the sonic equipments of Goem you found legendary Frans de Waard and two fellow compatriots and sound explorers Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop. After a few years of silence, it is now the time to (re)experience the strangeness of Goem with this album titled “Audio. NL” released on the Korm Plastics-label and effectively a collection of tracks from 12's from their own Audio.NL from a decade back. Goem is the side project of the same trio, who had collaborated in the concrete sound/noise-project Kapotte Muziek. Where Kapotte Muziek was more extrovert and upfront harsh expressions, the magic behind Goem is the subtle expressions sneaking into the
ears of the listeners – like a swarm of digital pulses penetrating you and scrubbing your skin on the inside. The album opens with the uptempo track "Motormix", reminiscent of early Panasonic. After this opener the album moves into an almost beatless universe of subtle soundscapes of glitches and noises. What an excellent trip back to one of Holland’s finest moments of sound art." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| GOGOOO |
Long, lontain |
CD |
"Gabriel Hernandez, das Gesicht hinter dem Namen GoGooo, hat ein außerordentliches Gespür für das Strecken einer kleinen harmonischen Idee. »Long, Lointain« (Baskaru) ist dadurch ein sehr freundliches, wenn auch in gewisser Weise unscheinbares Album geworden: Was sich hier an Tönen und Geräuschen tummelt, hinterlässt einen Gesamteindruck, der sich blendend mit der klassischen Ambient-Definition nach Brian Eno verträgt. Diese Musik also verschwindet scheinbar, schon während sie erklingt. Doch das Erlebnis wird dadurch andererseits ein sehr gegenwärtiges, das auf den bleibenden Eindruck zu Gunsten einer feinsinnig ausgestatteten Begleitung durch den Augenblick verzichtet. Die Art von Field Recordings, die Hernandez seinen geschmackvollen musikalischen Miniaturen beigegeben hat, ist recht stark konzentriert auf Regen und Schlamm, auf organisch schmatzendes Material, das dem kurz gehaltenen Longplayer in der abschließenden Zusammenstellung eine charmante persönliche Note verleiht. Andernorts hat man all das schlicht elektroakustischen Folk genannt – eine Beschreibung, die dem sanften, kuriosen und gewitzten Wohlklang von GoGooo tatsächlich gerecht wird." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Far-away sounds, close to the heart...
Delicately-played instruments whose sounds, once sampled and digitally treated, seem to permeate our ears from a distant world both strange and strangely familiar. And yet, the resulting music is intimate as can be, full of untold and evocative imagery.
GoGooo is Gabriel Hernandez, born in 1979 in Grenoble, France. Gabriel started making music because he wanted to accompany his guitar-playing cousin. Untrained, he turned to the computer, and thus came to life their duo Simagrée. Other collaborations ensued with Alain Basso (Sol III) and Daisuke Miyatani (Miyagooo).
"Long, lointain" [Long, far] is GoGooo’s first professional full-length release, following a number of net releases, CDR EPs and compilation appearances. 2007 is a coming-out year for GoGooo, with additional releases on labels such as (1.8)sec Records (Canada), Magic Book (Japan), EKO (France) and his own netlabel Rain Music.
"Long, lointain" features 10 short pieces exerting a fleeting charm, populated with field recordings, found sounds and skeletons of melodies, all delicately arranged to titillate and soothe your ears. This music can be compared to electroacoustic folk for its instrumentation, but is actually unique in style.
Gabriel Hernandez is also a drawing artist, photographer and video artist, and most of these other facets of his art are represented in "Long, lointain"s packaging, including drawings decorating the digipack cover and four short videos." [label info]
www.baskaru.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| GOH, LEE KWANG |
Good Vibrations. Solo Improvisations with Stereo DJ Mixer |
CD |
"Selected solo improvisations with stereo dj mixer. 'Goh Lee Kwang are one of the most prominent and well-respected experimental sound artist and improviser from Malaysia, working on wide range of contexts, from backing music for dance & theater to sound video installation. Over the last two years, he has begun frequently working on the 'Good Vibrations' recording. Original from Penang, Glk burst onto the scene in the beginning of 21st century as a electronic music maker. since then, he has gradually shifted his output into a more abstract vein, often abandoning the musical instruments entirely. glk previous recording include collaboration with Aziz, Tim Blechmann and many others, as well as numerous solo recording including Internal Pleasures, Punk guitar and Nerve Center. Based in Kuala Lumpur, who uses a range of names for performing including his real one, Goh Lee Kwang, is a immensely talented sound artist, as demonstrated by his solo work (records on PseudoArcana, Deserted Factory, and his very own Herbal), as well as his collaborations with Tim Blechmann, Olaf Hochherz, and many others (releases on Moka Bar, TiBProd, Herbal,Break the line !). Goh Lee Kwang recorded quite a bit of material for this project, six studio sessions (Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Krems, Kuala Lumpur, London, Amsterdam) plus two concerts (Paris, Stuttgart). From this materials, the artist hand pick the recording which represent the most closer to the original sound (of the mixer) without any process of filter and treatment, and the result is Good Vibrations (which is actually taken from a the Beach Boys title). The eyecathing design is the work of Herbal in house design team, created entirely from the photos of Lau Mun Leng taken in Rotterdam." [label info]
www.herbalinternational.tk
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| GOL & CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE |
Pandamoniahbleeumm!!! |
LP |
"Entering their twentieth year of existence, the GOL orchestra, together with the label Planam, celebrates and starts a new program of collaborations: the GOLlaboration series.Volume 2, Pandamoniahbleeummm!!!! marks the encounter with Charlemagne Palestine, pionneer of strumming music and piano maximalism, in the St. Eustache Church in Paris, known for its world famous church organ. The following battle, in form of a long incantatory improvisation, Charlemagne Palestine playing the church organ and GOL doing the electronics, bass, guitar, and the flutes part, combines many attributes of a pagan ritual. GOL was formed in 1988 in Paris by Jean-Marcel Busson, Frédéric Rebotier, Ravi Sharda and Samon Takahashi. The quartet embodies, within a post-dada spirit, a lost rural tradition. GOL plays flute, horns, guitar, violin, toys, selfmanufactured instruments, tapes, turntables, voices, various percussion instruments and electronics, an appropriateness of both traditional string instrument and handmade low fi equipment. GOL's first LP (GOL lp 01), issued in 1993, compiles their first items (88-92) based on vinyl- record's scratching, tape's cut-ups and acoustic instruments. The issuing of this LP was followed by a 9 years long hibernation. Since 2002, the band is back together to pursue its common research and play together of instinct and invention. Their music, electroacoustic oriented, is partially improvised and partly tense. At the time of a collaboration with roumanian composer Iancu Dumitrescu, GOL developped a score system knowned as ' layer's leaf '. Through this system, they could elaborate an hybrid music, between orchestral conduct and free interpretation of movements. Edition limited to 300 copies, also including a large insert with liner notes great graphics by Jean-Marcel Busson who also design the front and back cover." [label info] |
2009 |
€19.50 |
|
| GOLOWIN, SERGIUS |
Lord Krishna von Goloka |
LP |
"In 1973, Rolf Ulrich Kaiser's visionary powers acted as a catalyst for an authentic combination of acid, music and spirituality: the mystical LSD-fueled musical project Lord Krishna Von Goloka. For this adventure into Indian and Oriental mythologies and legends, Kaiser asked esoteric Swiss artist (he was a friend of Giger's), poet, specialist on Alpine folklore, and friend of Timothy Leary, Sergius Golowin, to join a group of musicians including Klaus Schulze and members of Wallenstein and Witthüser + Westrupp. It was perhaps mere coincidence that Golowin's classic treatise on witches, herbs, and magic mushrooms was published that same year (Magie Der Verbotenen Märchen); the book was fast becoming a cult item -- iit was secretly xeroxed in what was then-Communist East Germany, and later distributed in the hippie-underground there. Sergius Golowin's intellectual and spiritual world of occultism, popular legends, and shamanism were the foundation for the project. He was responsible for the lyrics, which consisted of incantatory recitations in German over the multi-textural compositions." [label info]
www.zyx.de
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| GOLYSHEV, NIKITA |
Solaris |
CD |
Auf dem Moskauer Label MONOCHROME VISION erscheinen nicht nur Fundstücke aus der Experimental-Historie, sondern auch Newcomer der russischen Szene. NIKITA GLOYSHEV spinnt feinste microwave-drones, die sich sachte verwandeln, mit leicht mechanischem Touch und untergründigem Brodeln versehen.
Ultra-minimal & wahrnehmungsverändernd...
"The debut CD album of one of the most promising russian underground musician, presenting his own unique vision of ambient music. Combining the deep layers of machine-like hum and minimal melodic keys, Nikita creates highly emotional and dramatic journey to the netherworld. Two parts of this one hour long suite are the partly presented in the program of Add Noise II festival on May 15th, 2007.
Beginning in 2003 as the part of duo aptly titled CD-R, Nikita Golyshev quickly became the one of the most promising electronic musicians on the russian underground scene. His output progressed from rhythmic noise mayhem to diverse and heterogeneous experiments, ranging from machine improvisation through bleak drones to pure processed acoustic minimalism. He released some CD-Rs and published many works online, as well as on his own Musica Excentrica, Electrosound and Share My Wings imprints. He finally recorded the debut CD album under his real name." [label notes]
".... 'Solaris' is his debut solo CD and it's hard not to see this as a soundtrack to the Tarkovsky movie, even when there is no such reference on the cover. The music spread out over two pieces of around thirty minutes could have been alternative soundtracks to that movie. Golyshev's plays some interesting under water and under world like drone music of a great kind. Golyshev keeps things minimal but too such an extent that changes appear at the right moment - the true power of drone music, I guess. Don't be a bore, don't let changes come to quickly, everything on the right moment. This version of 'Solaris' is great and surely the name Golyshev is worth keeping an ear open for. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| GOOSE |
Isabel |
mCD-R |
Klangschalen, Becken- & Glockensounds vermischen sich mit dem tiefen (genial effektierten) Rumpeln eines Hurrikans! Ein sehr kraftvolles & hypnotisches Stück, auch wenn (fast)-Stille eine grosse Rolle spielt.
"Also known for his Stolen Light noise project and his annual xmas compilations on his Zaftig Research label, Goose is Brett Lunceford's alias for his drone & dark ambient sounds. this track was quite an experience/experiment for him: "i recorded part of that track while hurricane isabel was coming through pennsylvania, hence the title of the track. all we got was a lot of wind and rain and not a lot of damage, but it was nice to record. i had just bought a tibetan singing bowl and i have played drums for about 20 years now, so i love percussion sounds. i was just hoping that the people downstairs from me would not be too annoyed as i was playing the cymbals and bells! this was a bit of a departure from my typical long form drones that i generally do as Goose, but i like it a lot." so here is this hypnotic & acoustic droney track. to make it yet more hypnotic, it's been carefully mastered by our beloved italian master andrea marutti. let yourself carry along by isabel..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| GOSLINGS |
Spaceheater / Perfect Interior |
CD |
“Spaceheater/Perfect Interior collects the first two EP's from husband-and-wife duo the GOSLINGS, originally released as short-run CD-Rs on low-fi/indie noise imprint Asaurus Records in 2003-2004. Working with a signature palette of melted, low-fi indie pop and muggy/smeared psych-drone ambience ground through overdriven amplifiers and shot out into pools of swirling basement shudder, The GOSLINGS adorn their gorgeous powermurk with eerie field recordings, ghostly subterranean vocals, and crackling cable buzz. If SUNN O))) had, in actuality, been a late-80's dreampop outfit on 4AD Records, or if cult shoegazers MEDICINE had ever collaborated with drone-axe sorcerers EARTH, the resulting fug may have been similiar to this black-sugar avalanche. Simultaneously ethereal and blown-out,angelic strains of four-track mud-majesty shaking the walls of the ancient well it's buried beneath.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| GOUGH, HELENA |
Knot Invariants |
CD |
"Rotated and submerged. Drawn tight below the surface. Remnants of hair, string and wood. Tied across and back. Knot Invariants is Helena Gough's third album. It was created using source material derived solely from recordings of cellists Anthea Caddy and Anton Lukoszevieze. Supported by EMS and Sound and Music." [label info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRABOWSKI, PAWEL / THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC / JAMES ECK RIPPIE + PAULO RAPOSO |
Product |
CD |
Das fast 20minütige geisterhafte, auf rückwärtigen Sounds basierende “But I’m not” von PAWEL GRABOWSKI eröffnet den (Drone)-Reigen auf dieser Zusammenstellung; Jorge Mantas aka THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC hat danach ein höchst kurioses 10teiliges Stück mit dem Titel “Love Songs for a Psychoacoustic Girl” beigesteuert, bei der er Frauenstimmen von verschiedensten Quellen zu sinnlichen Dronescapes verarbeitet hat, schliesslich JAMES ECK RIPPIE & PAULO RAPOSO, die ihr Stück experimentell cut-up / turntable-mässig beginnen, es dann aber schnell in konkret-flächige Gefilde mit mysteriöser Atmosphäre führen, inkl. found-sound Sprengseln von alten Platten wie es scheint... Insgesamt eine überzeugende Compilation, dieser 6.te Teil der PRODUCT-Serie auf Cronica !
Dazu gibts noch ein Quicktime von Video-track von THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC!
"elegantly packed with casey reas superb artwork arrives the sixth installment in the crónica's product series. this split opens with a long haunting composition from pawel grabowski, it settles with some ghostlike pieces with even a medieval feeling from the beautiful schizophonic and reaches its closure with natureza morta, a stunning piece teaming up paulo raposo and james eck rippie." [label info]
www.cronicaelectronica.org
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| GRAILS |
Black Tar Prophecies 1, 2, 3 |
CD |
"The collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the groundfloor '60s and '70s experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music has become. A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new languages in music. Grails' third full length recording, and first full-length since leaving Neurosis' label Neurot, is The Black Tar Prophecies. Seven of these nine tracks from this full length were released in small highly sought-after pressings of 12" vinyl on two European labels. The Black Tar Prophecies is a massive evolutionary step in the established Grails sound and it is shrouded in change and pain. The somewhat clinical studio sound and recording style which has established them a tremendous following has been replaced with a much more free and conceptual recording style. This method liberated the group in the studio and these recordings feel much more open, heavy and for lack of a better term, 'psychedelic.' We're not talking about the cliché co-opted psychedelic fashion, but psychedelia as a reckless embrace of new states of mind and possibilities." [press release] |
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS |
Bloodmoon |
CD |
\"As the harvest season is over the cold and dark autumn is already creeping upon us. In October, the Hunter\'s Moon sits high atop the sky, bathing the landscape in its eerie bright light. The hunters would welcome this change which gives them a better chance of catching their next prey. Meanwhile, the people sit by candle light in their cottages on the edge of the forest, awaiting their soon return. Deep inside the woods, others bide their time. Album in jewelcase with 16-page booklet.\" [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Sky |
CD |
\"The longtime gterma favourite \"Sky\" was originally released by Mathias as a double album in the year 2000 available through the then Klaus Wiese website. The Sky sessions are longform drones with an enormously uplifting character. For the new edition we condensed the best moments of the original release into a single mix and combined it with more recent drones produced in 2010 and everything was then remastered. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet.\" [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Alchemystery |
do-CD |
"Freestyle recordings are the order of the day as Mathias treads an improvised path into the colourful and enigmatic realms of the ever present mystery that is music. Traditionalists and purists beware, these sound sculptings will challenge any drone-ambient prejudice. Double album comes in a jewelcase with a 16-page booklet. Read more about the Alchemy Sessions on the Path of the Shaman page." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Tamanoshima |
CD |
"Travels on dim ethereal oceans of mystery should be familiar waters to those of you who have been following gterma for some time now. On Tamanoshima, Mathias brings us into unchartered vistas for a slightly mindbending and hypnotic journey into minimal soundworlds. A warm and glowing drift based on material composed in the summer of 2013. Album comes in the regular jewelcase with 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS & THOMAS WEISS |
Outland |
CD |
"A reflection from outer spaces in between the universe of our mind.
A miniature of the endless space from far behind mankinds tangibility.
To understand the real essence of the heart of the matter, often it is necessary to take a look from the distance. Just this distance shows structures and connections, which are otherwise impossible to see and grasp – because everyone himself is part of a certain situation. Therefore “Outland” stands for a journey into an “outer land”, to become an advanced view for realization. Luxury pack with artworks of Markus Vogt." [label info]
www.faria.ru
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| GREEN KINGDOM, THE |
Ether Hymns |
CD |
https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/album/ether-hymns
"These days, the former Russian label Dronarivm operates out of the Netherlands, so it's easier to purchase their releases. Buying directly from Russia may get you in trouble, as I recently read somewhere; in that case, it was a release from this label. Michael Cottone is The Green Kingdom, and it's the sixth album I hear from him. Ether, he says, "in the literary sense, can be defined as 'the clear sky; the upper regions of air beyond the clouds.', or more informally as 'air regarded as a medium for radio'", and I must say I was instead thinking about the informal sense, expecting, perhaps, some radio waves being processed, playing along with the atmospheric guitar music. That is not the case, but atmospheric it is. About his previous album, 'Voyayer', I wrote that the music is light, which is still the case. Unlike many ambient and drone composers, who keep their music all dark and moody, The Green Kingdom keeps it light and moody; or maybe melancholic is a better term—gently strumming away, looping a few sounds, adding reverb and the music drifting gently like the wind. The wind here is not a storm; there is a significant difference. I am not entirely sure of whatever Cottone adds to his guitar playing. Maybe nothing, save for many sound effects and a looper pedal. However, I can imagine there are also some synth pads used. I admit not being blown away by his choice of titles, 'Etheric Tide', 'Gathering Clouds' or 'Sun Domes', which sound a bit tacky to me, maybe too descriptive. This is some very pleasing music on a sun-like day as I experience today, a cold yet sunny Autumn day. It fits the season's spirit, and the light outside shines in the music. Best to sit back, relax and enjoy." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€14.00 |
|
| GREENHAM, LILY |
Lingual Music |
do-CD |
"Britain’s best known sound poet is Bob Cobbing, but it’s hard to come up with a list of other sound poets working in Britain in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s equally difficult to think of any female sound poets working anywhere. Lily Greenham was Danish, but spent her childhood in Vienna. After several relocations across Europe she settled in London in 1972 with her British husband (musician and poet Peter Greenham), where she lived until her death in 2001. Nearly all of her own writings and compositions date from after her arrival in London, but prior to her arrival in London she had been involved in two major European art movements. In the late 50’s she had been an active member of the early Wienner Gruppe, performing in their wild experimental theatre works and reciting the new poetry of young artists like Gerhard Rühm, Konrad Bayer and A.C. Hartmann, but before the Wienner Gruppe had established itself as the important art movement it was to become, she had moved on and changed her working practice.
In 1964 she was back in Paris for a second time, but this time she was working as a visual artist specialising in optical art. She was soon directly involved in group shows with the ‘Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel’. For the second time she was at the centre of an emerging art movement that was exploring new ground, but predictably enough she moved on. Once in London she began to record her own text based compositions that used a mixture of sound poetry techniques, electronics and multi-tracking. The term ‘lingual music’ that she coined for her compositions refers to her technique of using tape loops of text to create complex and dense musical structures. Her most well known composition in this style is ‘Relativity’, which was made in 1974 in collaboration with the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC. She also worked with quite a few musicians, both via the early LMC network in London, but also on an international scene. A list of musicians she worked with includes John Tchicai, Wolfgang Dauner, Bob Downes, Barry Guy, Hugh Davies, Max Eastley and Peter Cusack. This 2CD set compiles a wide variety of her own work, including live solo performaces, film soundtrack pieces, as well as many tape pieces. There are also examples of her performing works by Cobbing, Rühm and other sound poets, as well as recordings of her work with Bob Downes Open Music. The recordings date from between 1968 and 1984." [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| GRIM |
Message |
LP |
Grim is the one-man project of Jun Konagaya - formed from the ashes of White Hospital, his legendary early 1980s noise duo with Tomosada Kuwahara - which, accepting a long hiatus in the middle, has bridged the worlds of industrial music, power electronics, and noise for nearly three decades. Belonging roughly to the first wave of Japanese noise, Konagaya is particularly noteworthy among his peers for casting an eye further afield, drawing influences from bands like Whitehouse and SPK, rather than members of his own scene, as well varied reference points as far afield as the traditional folk music of Tibet. That understood, nothing was likely to prepare the context of Japanese noise for what was delivered by his 1987 EP “Message”.
It belongs to a body of three releases created by Grim during the 1980s, including the full length, “Folk Music”, issued by Eskimo Records in 1986, and the EP, “Amaterasu”, released by G.A. Propaganda in 1985. While its two predecessors are brilliant and more or less what you might expect from a seminal artist of Japanese noise, “Message” follows a markedly different path, delving toward the realm of pop and folk via a series of six songs that emit a stronger connection to Daniel Johnson, Syd Barrett, Sebadoh, and Tenniscoats than anything the noise scene has ever produced; it feels like walking through an ancient fairy tale forest, all hazy, magical and slightly eerie.
Dreamy and meandering, drawing on '60s psychedelia, DIY aesthetics, and folky undercurrents, Grim’s “Message” is a masterstroke in underground Japanese pop, pushing radically forward, while challenging the boundaries of the scene to which the project predominately belongs. Following the album’s original release in 1987, Jun Konagaya followed different paths beyond the world of sound, before unexpectedly relaunching an incredibly prolific career, returning to more explicit territories of noise. As such, “Message” remained a coveted, rare artefact of a road less traveled and a window into the diverse talents and temperaments that rest below all of his output.
One of the most distinct and unexpected artifacts of the Japanese scene during the period, rather than the full throttle fury for which it has been widely known, here we encounter the one-man project of Jun Konagaya weaving stunningly beautiful passages within the realm of pop and folk, incorporating elements of '60s psychedelia and Lo-Fi DIY, with Yukio Nagoshi, founding member of the Vasilisk unit, on guitar and percussion and A. Takahashi on vocals, with collaboration and technical support from Tomosada Kuwahara, partner and co-founder with Jun Konagaya of the legendary group White Hospital. First ever reissue of the album furthers these insights, extending the original EP with an entirely new body of noise-oriented reworks by Grim of the original six tracks, effectively doubling in length to a full-length release.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/message
"Hätten die subkulturellen Phänomene, die irgendwann von Juristen und Journalisten als Wreckers of Civilization oder England’s Hidden Reverse bezeichnet worden sind, ein Pendant in Japan gehabt, dann wäre Jun Konagaya alias Grim wahrscheinlich das zentrale Flaggschiff dieser Bewegung gewesen, denn sein Interesse am Abseitigen hatte – in Ansätzen bereits bei seiner Band White Hospital – Züge des okkult-autistischen Dandyismus, die man häufig bei den englischen Kollegen beobachtete.
Nachdem Konagaya bereits einige Erfahrungen mit lärmenden Soundcollagen gesammelt hatte, entdeckte er Mitte der 80er seine Leidenschaft für das Songformat und für eine Art folkigen Pop, der Schrägheit mit gut dosiertem Kitsch verbindet, und so erschien 1986 das heute als heimlicher Klassiker geltende Album “Folk Music” auf Grims eigenem Label Eskimo Records. Zu dessen Nachwehen gehört auch die im Jahr darauf erschienene EP “Message” (ebenfalls Eskimo), die mit einer Handvoll an Gästen eingespielt wurde und jüngst von Urashima Records neu aufgelegt wurde.
Während Grims Wurzeln in der Geräuschmusik in “Folk Music” noch deutlicher zu hören waren, könnte man diese in “Message” eher subtil in einer unterschwelligen Unbehaglichkeit aufspüren, denn rein stilistisch bewegen sich die sechs Stücke fast komplett im Bereich poppig angehauchter Folk-Lullabies, in denen sanfte Gitarrenakkorde und dazu passender Gesang, bei dem nicht immer ganz klar ist, ob man gerade eine Sängerin oder einen Sänger hört, das Bild prägen. Der Opener “Heritage” startet gleich mit Picking und lieblichem Gesang, und schon in diesem Stück fällt in der gefühlvollen Mollastigkeit eine galoppierende Euphorie auf, deren verhuschte Exzentrik durch die launige Trompete gegen Ende noch einmal extra unterstrichen wird.
Jedes der Stücke hat seine eigenen Marotten: Bei “Deep in Meditation” ist es das Zusammenspiel von Walzertakt und etwas, dass wie eine Melodika klingt, bei “Parable & Cole” das Paradox einer lieblich-pastoralen Monotonie als Kulisse intimer Flüsterstimmen. Bei “Mooncalf’s Walz” der leicht verzerrte Moment zu Beginn, der aber recht schnell einer noch fiepsigeren Lieblichkeit die Tür öffnet. Diese erreicht bei “Klara’s Song” den Höhepunkt an Kindlichkeit, und trotz psychedelischer Twangs schwebt über all dem eine 80er Jahre-Stimmung, die sich neben der rauen und sicher gewollt einfachen Klanggestaltung einem Esprit verdankt, den man nicht künstlich erzeugen kann. Man sollte als weitere Klammer aber auch das leicht unbehagliche Element einmal mehr betonen – eine seltsame Weltfremdheit, die sich in den allzuschönen Arrangements bei genauerem Hinhören offenbart und den Eindruck entstehen lässt, dass dieses Idyll nicht nur von Feen und Folksternchen bevölkert ist, sondern ebenso sehr von dämonischem Gesindel.
Heute werden gerne renommierte Sängerinnen und Sänger aus Folk und Psychedelic der Jahre um 1970 genannt, wenn man sich auf Grims hier durchgezogenen Stil einen Reim machen will. Wer allerdings zu Konagayas eigener Generation gehört und mit undergroundigen Songs der 80er und 90er sozialisiert worden ist, hat vielleicht spezifischere Assoziationen, und die können von Strawberry Switchblade über frühe Psychic TV und die Legendary Pink Dots bis zu den ersten folkigen Versuchen von Current 93 oder Death in June reichen – ein merkwürdiges Kuriosum, bei dem ich nie ganz über den Gedanken hinweg komme, wie nah das alles an einem potentiellen Pop-Hype vorbeigeschlittert ist. Interessant und hervorhebenswert ist dabei, das Grim eine solche Musik bereits perfektionierte, als diese auch in Europa erst im Entstehen begriffen war.
Der Wiederveröffentlichung, die diese Songs erneut auf Vinyl präsentiert, sind einige Remixe als Bonustracks hinzugefügt – ultranoisige Versionen, die die Spuren späterer Entwicklungen Konagayas tragen, die aber die süßlich säuselnden Stimmen immer noch geisterhaft im von Lärm erfüllten Raum schweben lassen." [U.S./ African Paper]
"Returning off the back of an incredible run of deep dives into numerous historical contexts of noise, Urashima brings us the first ever vinyl reissue of Grim's legendary 1987 EP, “Message”, now expanded to a full album's length.
One of the most distinct and unexpected artifacts of the Japanese scene during the period, rather than the full throttle fury for which it has been widely known, here we encounter the one-man project of Jun Konagaya weaving stunningly beautiful passages within the realm of pop and folk, incorporating elements of '60s psychedelia and Lo-Fi DIY.
This highly sought-after holy grail of the 1980s underground is issued by Urashima in a limited edition of 199 copies, and won't sit around for long.
Grim
"Message"(LP)
Since its founding during the late 2000s, the Italian imprint, Urashima, has become a definitive voice in the landscape of noise, sculpting a singular vision of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary bodies of experimental sound to have graced the globe. Already in 2022, they’ve delivered beautiful, ambitious limited edition releases like Controlled Death’s “Death Synth Box”, Merzbow’s “Collection 001-010” and “Hybrid Noisebloom”, as well as Masonna’s “Masonna Vs. Bananamara” and Hijokaidan’s “Zouroku No Kibyou”.
Beginning the label’s final push toward the end of the year is the first ever vinyl reissue of Grim’s legendary, highly sought after 1987 EP, “Message”, now expanded with new material to a full LP in length. An inexplicable hybrid of folk, indie pop, electronic music, and experimentalism, there’s almost nothing like it within the territory and context of sound within in which it rests. A true holy grail of the 1980s Japanese underground, with original pressings commanding crazy money on the collector’s market, this very limited edition of 199 copies is going to be gone in a flash. Don’t sleep!
Grim is the one-man project of Jun Konagaya - formed from the ashes of White Hospital, his legendary early 1980s noise duo with Tomasada Kuwahara - which, accepting a long hiatus in the middle, has bridged the worlds of industrial music, power electronics, and noise for nearly three decades. Belonging roughly to the first wave of Japanese noise, Konagaya is particularly noteworthy among his peers for casting an eye further afield, drawing influences from bands like Whitehouse and SPK, rather than members of his own scene, as well varied reference points as far afield as the traditional folk music of Tibet. That understood, nothing was likely to prepare the context of Japanese noise for what was delivered by his 1987 EP “Message”.
“Message” belongs to a body of three releases created by Grim during the 1980s, including the full length, “Folk Music”, issued by Eskimo Records in 1986, and the EP, “Amaterasu”, released by G.A. Propaganda in 1985. While its two predecessors are brilliant and more or less what you might expect from a seminal artist of Japanese noise, “Message” follows a markedly different path, delving toward the realm of pop and folk via a series of six songs that emit a stronger connection to Daniel Johnson, Syd Barrett, Sebadoh, and Tenniscoats than anything the noise scene has ever produced.
Dreamy and meandering, drawing on '60s psychedelia, DIY aesthetics, and folky undercurrents, Grim’s “Message” is a masterstroke in underground Japanese pop, pushing radically forward, while challenging the boundaries of the scene to which the project predominately belongs. Following the album’s original release in 1987, Jun Konagaya followed different paths beyond the world of sound, before unexpectedly relaunching an incredibly prolific career, returning to more explicit territories of noise. As such, “Message” remained a coveted, rare artefact of a road less traveled and a window into the diverse talents and temperaments that rest below all of his output. Urashima’s first ever reissue of the album furthers these insights, extending the original EP with an entirely new body of noise-oriented reworks by Grim of the original six tracks, effectively doubling in length to a full-length release.
Visionary, wild, and weird, this beautifully produced LP is issued in a very limited edition of 199 copies, and is an absolute must for any fan of Grim, Japanese noise, and '80s DIY psychedelic pop." [Soundohm] |
2022 |
€29.00 |
|
| GRKZGL |
Esque |
mCD |
Very complex digital experimental music from a new act from Montreal on this fine Canadian label, not easy to categorize, strange sounds & kind of rhythms everywhere…… recommended for explorers of the digital sphere….
“ 'Esque' is the first 3" mini-cd ep release on Angle Records. To create the music Grkzgl uses laptop, synths and bass, plus there is metal percussion on the last 6th track, which is the most noisy of all. Otherwise, the sound is in the atmospheric glitchy areas, loosely improvised but with a clear direction of where it's going, sometimes even a rhythmic patterns appear. Grkzgl is obviously inspired and influenced by the post-industrial ambience, not being too minimal or too harsh, but still merging all those styles into one whole piece, divided in 6 tracks which are mixed into each other. Very nice ep for this artist and hopefully more releases in the same format to come on the label.” [BR / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| GROBBING THRISTLE |
Hidden Strategies |
CD |
"Who would expect that under the name Grobbing Thristle are hidden mutated clones of Genesis P. Orridge, will be surprised by the amount of sound strategies used by the Poznań's ensemble. Despite that GT knowingly place themselves in continuum named by the creations of 20 Jazz Funk Greats”, their noise-electronic collages with every listening bring new musical universes.
On one of the levels Grobbing Thristle play steel symphony of postindustrial earthy Inferno. Noisy wind of clicks, cracks, laptop grinds, insect like microsamples and psychotic looped vocals lead into paranoic world like in novels of Philipa K.Dicka. The thing that scares here the most is by paradox, the most common and accustom element - voice. The words "...So yes I have to go now, so bye bye..." opening the album sound like a goodbye before descending into the abyss. But this is a hell of cybernetic robots - this is a music that brings pain. Fortunately for artistic might of the recordings GT knows how to dose it." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRODOCK |
Verwerfungen |
CD |
"Quaking, roaring and dominating constellations originating from Freiburg, Germany. Manipulated samples paired with waves of synthetic noise drones and atmospheric shreds of everyday sounds form the basis of GRODOCK's industrial ambiance." [label info]
www.obfuscatedrecords.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| GROWING |
The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light |
CD |
Neue CD des zum Duo geschrumpften Drone/Fuzz-Projekts, auf der sie sich weiterentwickelt zeigen… meist eher ruhig und sphärisch schön…
zarte und klare Frequenzüberlagerungen und –verästelungen, die sich mitunter in noise und monumental-droniges hineinsteigern..
„Takes Growing's expansive palette, blurring and disguising instrumental points of origin to a point where sheer sound defines itself with authority. Now a duo with Kevin Doria on bass and guitar and Joe Denardo on guitar, Growing have pushed into the manipulation of feedback, hiss and static; wringing out waves of delay from their amps while retaining an earthbound mastery of crushing riffage. These grainy textures contrast with a clean, pulsing lushness that carries traces of bird song and touch on natural environs and the passing of time." [label description]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
live |
do-LP |
"...72 Min Live 2xLP of complete drone bliss, contains two complete live shows. These recordings were released on cd through Archive Recordings and are long sold out. “While Growing continually return to that near-ambient tranquility, the record is a series of meandering excursions into MASSIVE slow motion, melted-riff soundscapes, notes and chords unfurl impossibly slowly, as if someone had doubled the gravity and the sound waves were actually visible, drizzling lazily to the floor like molasses or honey, rich golden globs of thick distorted throb. Like Earth and Skullflower meshed into one buzzing blurry soundfield, all muted melody and crunchy riffage, a pulsing swirl of feedback and guitarral grrrr! The sound is basically phenomenal…” (Aquarius) Growing is a band from Olympia, Washington that was formed by Kevin Doria, Joe Denardo, and Zack Carlson (who left the band following the release of their first album) in 2001. They play instrumental drone rock with elements of noise and ambient music. Their live shows are known for being incredibly loud, playing straight through their set without break or pause. They have released albums on Kranky, Animal Disguise, Archive and Megablade, and currently have a new full length album out on Troubleman." [label info]
|
2007 |
€19.50 |
|
| GRUBBS, DAVID |
Two Soundtracks for Angela Bulloch |
CD |
Zwei sehr experimentelle Collagen-artige Stücke vom Ur-Gestein DAVID GRUBBS, die als Installations-Material für Filme der kanadischen (Klang)-Künstlerin ANGELA BULLOCH dienen.
"David Grubbs (Bastro, Gastr Del Sol) has a long-standing history of collaboration and interest in contemporary visual arts. This new mini-album features two compositions commissioned by Angela Bulloch for two of her installation pieces. The two pieces on this CD accompany the works 'Z Point' and 'Horizontal Technicolour,' two major works that make use of - or, rather, are connected to -Antonioni's Zabriskie Point. 'Z Point' is based on original film material of the famous desert explosion from the final scenes, whereas 'Horizontal Technicolour' uses material filmed by the artist herself at Death Valley, a setting similar to the one used in the final scenes from Antonioni's film. The two pieces by David Grubbs are beautiful and intricate works in which the original Antonioni soundtrack, the translations of the film in other languages, and his own sound palette come together. They show yet another different approach to his diverse musical capacities and are maybe closest in spirit to his Thirty-Minute Raven mini-album on Rectangle. The CD comes with a 12-page booklet with previously unpublished stills from the Death Valley desert taken by Angela Bulloch." [label description]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRUBBS, DAVID & ELI KESZLER |
One and One less |
LP |
One and One Less is the first collaboration between David Grubbs and Eli Keszler and the first release in the UDPR series.
One and One Less consists of a performance and an installation, both of which draw upon a single source text—David Grubbs’s ongoing One Poem, and the LP is split between these two forms: the live performance for reader (Grubbs) and percussionist (Keszler), and a recording of the installation version from the MIT List Visual Arts Center.
The original installation (at the MIT List Visual Arts Center from October 10, 2014 to January 4, 2015 as part of the show Open Tunings) used recorded excerpts from One Poem to trigger a range of mechanical strikes within seven custom-made, sculptural sound boxes, each of which contained an elaborate mechanism of motors and speakers built by Keszler that acoustically filtered the voice, creating a constantly changing composition—one equally verbal and percussive. Subsequent to the live performance, the installation at MIT was intended as an aural afterimage, in which the clean visual disposition of the gallery space was contradicted by the intensity of the acoustically produced sound field.
This LP is printed in a limited edition of 300 copies and includes an insert with the text of David Grubb's poem-in-progress.
UDPR is a vinyl record series for the sound of poetry, curated by Michael Barron for Ugly Duckling Presse.
David Grubbs is Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. At Brooklyn College he also teaches in the MFA programs in Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) and Creative Writing. He is the author of Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, The Sixties, and Sound Recording (Duke University Press). Grubbs has released twelve solo albums and appeared on more than 150 commercially-released recordings. He is known for his cross-disciplinary collaborations with poet Susan Howe, visual artists Anthony McCall, Angela Bulloch, and Stephen Prina, and choreographer Jonah Bokaer. His work has been presented at the Guggenheim, MoMA, the Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou. Grubbs was a member of the groups Gastr del Sol, Bastro, and Squirrel Bait, and he has performed with the Red Krayola, Will Oldham, Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, and Loren Connors, among many others. He is a grant recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; a contributing editor in music for BOMB Magazine; director of the Blue Chopsticks record label.
Eli Keszler
Photo credit: Christelle Perrin
Eli Keszler is a New York-based artist, composer, and percussionist who situates his practice within the intersections of architecture, performance, installation, notation, and composition. Keszler’s installations and visual work have appeared at the Victoria & Albert Museum, MIT List Visual Arts Center, The Kitchen, South London Gallery, Barbican, Luma-Foundation, Tectonics Festival Reykjavik, and Centraal Museum in Utrecht among many others. Keszler has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, performing solo and in collaboration with artists such as Christian Wolff, Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad, Oren Ambarchi, Joe McPhee, Jandek, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Coleman, T Model Ford, and Ilan Volkov with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. His writing and work has appeared in BOMB Magazine, The New York Times, Wire Magazine, Frieze, and Modern Painters. He has received commissions and awards from Gaudeamus, National Public Radio, and the Foundation For Contemporary Art. Keszler is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music.
https://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/catalog/browse/item/?pubID=546
|
2017 |
€28.00 |
|
| GRUNTSPLATTER |
Pest Maiden |
CD |
Die ersten GRUNTSPLATTER-Aufnahmen (MC von 1999 und 7”) wurden auf PAC wiederveröffentlicht! Apokalyptischer Doom-Industrial, klingt hier noch recht „old-school“ analog.... endlose, verlassene, zerstörte Landschaften entstehen vor dem geistigen Auge... unheimlich und bedrückend !
"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE. Grim, opressive deathscapes. haunting atmospheres / impending doom / obsessively constructed heavy electronics detailing the plague devastation. Reissue of his early 7" + cassette release on Troniks (1999). Remixed & remastered for your ultimate death trip." [label info]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
The Eulogists Assembly |
CD |
10 tracks, im Booklet Zitate von Einstein, Jung, Artaud und H.G.Wells, Sounds die einen in den Boden drücken, furchteinflössend mächtig,
das ist die Reaktualisierung der Ur-Angst, dumpf, einnebelnd & betäubend.... das neue Album von GRUNTSPLATTER !
”Bringing "death industrial" to new, never before experienced levels, GRUNTSPLATTER throw us in a desertic, abandoned, outworldly land where the only sounds come from agonizing machineries, abandoned to their inevitable rusting processes. A flow of energetic noise bursts mixed with dark ambiences, a new sensational chapter in the GRUNTSPLATTER saga.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Passions of a Cripple |
LP |
Endlich der zweite Teil in der Vinyl-Serie von FORCE OF NATURE. GRUNTSPLATTER stehen für radikalen noise-ambient den sie hier noch verschärfen, verdeckte entmenschlichte Stimmen & Schreie kämpfen sich durch einen extrem verrauschten KlangSumpf, der quält und akustisch foltert.... kommt auf blau-schwarz marmoriertem Vinyl.
“Gruntsplatter continues to delve into the dark ambient and death industrial realm, this time combining his journey with harsh vocals buried deep within.” [press release]
“Gruntsplatter was started by American Scott Candey from the USA in 1994. He has been involved in numerous other projects, labels and magazines in the underground industrial scene, but Gruntsplatter is probably his main vehicle. I have heard only a small part of his extensive output, but the Gruntsplatter music I heard was usually dark and atmospheric, somewhere between noise and ambient.
The new limited vinyl record, which came out in the same month as a cd on Eibon Records, surprised me a little in its harshness. The six tracks appear to be denser and noisier than I'm used of Gruntsplatter. An important cause is probably the significant role of aggressive vocals on some tracks in a power electronics style. The mood is grim and menacing, a feeling which is conveyed in a consistent manner.
Some tracks are quite aggressive, like opener 'The Defoliant'. Others are more dirty obscure soundscapes with lots of sonic waves, rumbling machineries of death and distorted electronics, like 'Fire Behind Locked Doors' and 'Fracturing The Phantom Limb', where rays of light are not allowed to enter. My favourite piece is probably the loud and powerful 'Through A Hewn Throat', with a nasty in-your-face sound. A solid record with 26 minutes filled with a gritty sound and a torturous atmosphere.” [Funprox]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRÖHN, COSTA |
2+1 |
mCD-R |
"Während Asmus Tietchens nur manchmal dafür gehalten wird, ist COSTA GRÖHN tatsächlich ein Mann der Kirche, nämlich Pastor von St. Johannis-Harvestehude. Weit davon entfernt, ein heimliches Laster zu sein, ist sein offenes Ohr für die Dinge des Lebens um ihn herum eine Tugend, der man weitere Verbreitung wünscht. 2 + 1 (1000füssler 016, 3“ mCD-R) hat Grillen und Vögel erlauscht, Schritte, Stimmen, brausenden Wind, auch eine maunzende Katze, knisterndes Feuer. Draußen, daheim. Alles zart und geheimnisvoll genug, um unter die Rubrik ‚Ohrenblicke der Schöpfung‘ zu fallen (so hieß 2003 ein Projekt in der Hamburger Petruskirche, an dem Gröhn mitgewirkt hatte). Der Alltagsklang ist nicht allein collagiert, er ist detailreich bearbeitet, mit Vinyl-Samples beschichtet, mit fein schwebendem Feedback durchfädelt und durchwellt. ‚Discounterbeat‘ mischt das typische Piepen einer Supermarktkasse mit Drummachine und einem Hauch von Chor. Das hat seine eigene Art von Frömmigkeit. Weltfremd ist es definitiv nicht." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
"Costa Gröhn makes field recordings on the road, at home, in the city or in the forest. On "2+1" he processed recordings from his archive and added feedbacks and vinyl record samples to 2 and 1 soundscape compositions.
[P] January 2009.
1. Chirring calls at home 8'25
2. Within a circle of fire (disrupted playback) 3‘10
3. Discounterbeat 3‘44
About the Artist:
Costa Gröhn was born 1976 in Bad Segeberg (northern Germany). He is a pastor at the St. Johannis Church in Hamburg. He has been composing soundscapes and doing performances since 2000. Besides tracks for compilations and remix-projects, he has also released two full length CD-R albums "Im Gehölz" and "Bouboukas" on the Gruenrekorder label." [label info]
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| GUILLET, MICHEL |
Behind nothing |
CD |
“Michel Guillet, visual artist and musician, bases his works on the link between identity and everyday environment through installation pieces, objects, wall-paintings and soundtracks. His work challenges existing codes of representation and subconscious perception. As a musician, he produces solo work while also collaborating regularly on different projects with contemporary choreographers such as Marco Berrettini (he composed the music of Freeze-Defreeze with Manuel Coursin, of Blitz as well as the video ..Wild History of Danse on TV..). He also composes audio environments for visual artists such as Bernard Lallemand, Laurent Moriceau and Olivier Nottellet.” [label info]
“The music is quite dynamic, all over the sound spectrum, with great care for details, but its also quite loud, in a noisy sense of the word. And normally I am not a big lover of noise anymore, but such works as those by Guillet are quite nice: you can hear that it is made with great care and thought, which is something that lacks in the world of true noise. Composition is something that seems of interest to Guillet, and not 'let the machines run by themselves'. Loops of sound, abstract blocks and tiny segments are placed alongside each other. A rare thing to see musique concrete using such volume (which is not even close to say Merzbow), but still with great sensitivity towards composition. Excellent discovery”.
[FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| GUTHRIE, ANNE |
Gyropedie |
LP |
“Gyropedie,” Anne Guthrie’s third record for Students of Decay, takes us further into her hermetic practice, wherein expertly captured field recordings, French horn, and electronics are woven into potent and richly imagined electroacoustic environments. In Guthrie’s own words, “Quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West. Remnants of Midwest and East Coast soundmarks, instruments sold to lighten the travel load, sketched out and then buried under the new. Winter birds and crunching snow, frozen playgrounds, broken synths - I spent a year decoupaging over this, but of course it's still there. A second moon appears occasionally in the daytime, and there are frequent, murky transmissions. California has something alien about it I'm still trying to grasp. Primarily vintage, unabashed, corny, I find myself becoming an impressionist.”
Anne Guthrie is an acoustician, composer, and French horn player. She studied music composition and english at the University of Iowa and architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she completed her Ph.D in 2014. Her music combines her knowledge of acoustics and contemporary composition/improvisation. Her electronic music has focused on exploiting the natural acoustic phenomena of unique architectural spaces through minimal processing of field recordings. Her composition has focused on the orchestration of non-musical sounds, speech in particular. Her French horn playing has focused on electronic processing and extended techniques used in improvisatory settings, as a soloist and with Fraufraulein and Delicate Sen, among others. Her acoustics research has focused on the use of ambisonics for stage acoustics.
https://anneguthrie.bandcamp.com
"Anne Guthrie's third album for Students of Decay continues her trend of significantly transforming her vision with each new release, though the arc of her albums does consistently suggest an increasing aversion to conventional structure and musicality. In practical terms, that means that Gyropedie was primarily assembled from field recordings, though Guthrie's French horn does make a few ghostly and well-timed appearances. Notably, the sounds that Guthrie collected are entirely diaristic in nature ("quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West"), as she recorded and collaged a host of ephemeral and meaningful moments from her move from New York to California (birds, crunching snow, instruments that she had to sell, etc.). As Guthrie wryly notes in the album description, she found herself "becoming an impressionist." I heartily concur and believe that approach suits her work remarkably well. Given the deliberately abstract and elusive nature of the material, it took me a bit longer to become drawn into Gyropedie than it did for Guthrie's previous releases, but the album's second half contains some of the most tender, distinctive, and quietly beautiful work that she has yet recorded.
The opening "Threading A Closed Loop" is a bold and interesting way to introduce the album, as it slowly rolls in like a mysterious fog of ambient outdoor sounds, plinking strings, distant woodpeckers, murmured voices, bees, and an occasional strangled sound from Guthrie's French horn. It is frankly about as understated and impressionistic as an album can get, but it does gradually cohere into something quite intriguing and evocative (I especially like the part where it sounds like the bees bought a distortion pedal). The following "Hill, Mountain" undergoes a similar trajectory, initially sounding like someone fumbling with a microphone while a woman recites poetry over a distorted radio, but eventually it blossoms into an enigmatic scene that seems to capture the time-stretched sounds of a train passing through a gently hallucinatory landscape of singing birds and metallic drones. I believe the "broken synth" mentioned in the album description makes an appearance as well. Both it and its predecessor are subtly beautiful in their own ways, yet my favorite pieces are the ones that follow. In "Variation on Coral," Guthrie paints a lovely seaside scene, as a slow, lovely French horn melody lazily unfolds over a backdrop of gently gurgling and lapping waves, lysergically smeared chimes, cooing vocals, and a host of other curious sounds. The closing "The Goldbeater’s Skin," on the other hand, sounds like a duet between a quietly plinking and fitfully operational music box and a lovelorn French horn player in a particularly bittersweet mood, but it is further enlivened by an evocative array of breath-like textures and wounded-sounding squeaks and warbles. To my ears, it is unquestionably Gyropedie's most lovely and memorable piece, as the unexpectedly poignant horn melody feels like the beating heart of the album finally being revealed, yet it would not make nearly the same impact without the languorous and dreamlike journey beforehand. Granted, Gyropedie is an album that demands some patience and attentive listening to reveal its full beauty, but its fragile and tender fantasia of memory fragments is well served by that steadily deepening immersion." [Brainwashed]
"Threshold-dwelling lower case elisions of field recording and barely-there instrumental gestures by the wonderful Anne Guthrie, an occasional and prized presence on these pages.
Guthrie’s solo work has previously snagged our ears with the gorgeous ‘Codiaeum Variegatum’ album and ‘Brass Orchids’, both for Students of Decay over the past decade. She returns to the label three years after her previous, and collabs with the GRM’s François Bonnet and Seymour Wright, to offer her most sublime sort of sonic mulch and vapours in ‘Gyropedie’, where she appears to quiesce the enduring air of Satie’s proto-ambient music into a more natural, elusive ecology of cherry-picked small sounds that amount to a lushly absorbing whole primed for pastoral sound bathing in the comfort of your own home." [Boomkat]
|
2021 |
€18.50 |
|
| GUTHRIE, ANNE / RICHARD KAMERMAN |
Sinter |
CD |
"Sinter injects vast amounts of oxygen into the room, air swirling and echoing in huge spaces, light shimmering and hazy. In metallurgical terms, sintering is the making of objects from powder and powdery, especially with a metallic connotation, isn't the worst term you could use for much of this music. Field recordings (and, per the sleeve, domestic recordings) are mixed with electronics throughout; nary a French horn in sight though I think I pick up a bit of Kamerman's small clattering devices here and there. [] An extraordinary piece capping one of the finest recordings I've heard in quite a while. Excellent work'. Brian Olewnick. ErstAEU, a new sub-label to 'document the work of young American experimental musicians working in a post-electroacoustic vein'." [label info]
www.erstwhilerecords.com
Dusted Reviews
Artist: Anne Guthrie / Richard Kamerman
Album: Sinter
Label: ErstAEU
Review date: May. 15, 2013
"Erstwhile Records has just rolled out a new sub-label, ErstAEU. In the tradition of AMM, the AEU is not explained. Despite the paucity of officially sanctioned information — you won’t find any explanatory text on the label’s website — there’s a definite aesthetic angle at work here. The label’s first three CDs are all the product of American-born duos, and all of the participants are in their 20s or 30s. Conventional instruments aren’t completely absent, but they often take a back seat to captured or processed sounds, as well as disorienting manipulations of time and space. One thing the albums do not share is a particular methodology. Graham Stephenson and Aaron Zarzutski’s Touching is a straight-up improv encounter; Joe Panzner and Greg Stuart’s Dystonia Duos combines played and processed sounds into hard-shelled containers of noisy electrical activity; and Anne Guthrie and Richard Kamerman’s Sinter, an assembly of “field recordings, domestic recordings, composition, improvisation, and processing,” which inhabits some zone that doesn’t really have a name yet.
For clues about how to understand it, one can look to the album’s name. Sintering bonds powdered clay into a pot without melting it; even after it’s fired, the ceramic’s texture will make you think of clay. The disparate elements of “Civil Twilight: 5:23” — dancing electrical buzzes, slow-changing mechanical hums, under-the-breath counting, close-up paper shuffling, and distant outdoor sounds — likewise retain their essential individual characters even though they have been configured into a hefty yet spacious block of musique concrète. But the way the sounds hang together doesn’t tell you why they were made to sit in that configuration, or how you should respond to them. They just are what they are.
So you might either be thinking about now, “I gotta hear this record,” or “Why the hell would I ever want to hear this stuff?” You know who you are, and either way I’d tell you to listen to your inner voice. Having spent a lot of time with it, I’m on both sides of the fence. On the one hand, there’s “Re(Z)=Piper, Im(Z)=Andrej,” an amalgam of cleanly recorded exchanges in Italian (I think), fuzzy room sounds that might come from a mall or train station, and mightily distorted monk chants that sound like they’re being played Alvin Lucier-style from a busted speaker into a resonant room. I’d heartily recommend it to anyone who likes their noise non-macho and genuinely unpredictable. On the other, listening to “Porcellino”’s layers of distant banging and close metallic clanking is an exhausting Cage-ian exercise in using applied attention to pry interest from boredom.
The most rewarding piece is the longest, the last, and the one that feels most musical. Taking a cue once more from nomenclature, “Several Or Many Fibers” feels to me like a tapestry. I’m not sure that its journey — from footsteps and a hovering synth note through sounds of water striking different surfaces to a late burst of weather reporting — is intended to say anything at all. But the way these sounds succeed each other implies a narrative whose inscrutability makes there passage compelling." [Bill Meyer, DUSTED magazine]
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| GYDJA |
Ar Var Alda (In Ancient Times) |
CD |
This is Gydja's second appearance on the Winter-Light label, the first being on our '... that first season' DCD compilation back in 2017.
Now Gydja (Abby Helasdottir) returns to Winter-Light with her spellbinding new full length album, 'Ár var alda (In ancient times)'.
Thick, expansive drones, woven through with intricate percussive elements, unearthly vocals and atmospheric field recordings. An album of deep, primordial dark ambient comprising of 9 tracks, across four movements.
English translation:-
1: That which was not
2: A chasm gaped
3: Winters unmeasured ere earth was made
4: The Great Measuring Tree beneath the earth
5: Nine worlds I recall, nine giantesses
6: Down from Elivagar did venom drop
7: And waxed till a giant it was
8: And thence arose our giants' race
9: The sun from the south warmed the stones of
Composed, produced and recorded by Abby Helasdottir at Ultrasound between 2015 and 2020
Additional performers:
Lyn Goeringer: vocals on Ór Élivágum stukku eitrdropar and þar eru órar ættir komnar allar saman
Serena Helasdottir-Cole: percussion on Svá óx, unz varð jötunn, rainsticks on þar eru órar ættir komnar allar saman
Mastered by Robin Storey
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/r-var-alda-in-ancient-times
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| H.E.R.R. |
Fire and Glass - a Norwood Tragedy |
maxi-CD |
"This brilliant new four-track EP from the Anglo-Dutch masters of Neoclassical music relates to the incredible story of the Crystal Palace, an architectural jewel in the heart of Victorian London and itself a tragic metaphor for the rise and fall of the British Empire. Welcome to the Pleasuredome!" [label notes]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2007 |
€9.50 |
|
| H.H.T.P. & PORTABLEPALACE |
[Cavitation} |
CD |
Gemeinsames Improvisations-Projekt von DMITRY GELFAND (New York) und ANDREY SAVITSKY aka h.h.t.p. (Minsk), und KIRILL DOMNICH, drei lange Stücke seltsamste Computer-Musik mit „prepared piano“-Einsatz, es rauscht & flirrt fragmenthaft, einzelne Klangereignisse bahnen sich ihren Weg, gedämpft ruhig & spannend arrangiert, voller interessanter Klangeffekte....
“The interaction between computer science technology and freeform musical creative process becomes a central point in this international collaboration of three artists from Belarus and USA. The abstract soundscapes are obscured by intricate structures, acoustic phenomena and electronic effects, it's going to infinity and never repeat itself. The finest harmony of soundfield is credited to the principles of intuitive simulation, realised through the system of computer-aided instruments. Release date is 10 December 2005. Limited edition of 500” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAARVÖL |
Indite |
CD |
Haarvöl, a collective project based in Portugal with three permanent members, has been active in the field of experimental music since the end of 2012.
Haarvöl’s music is conceptually developed in the exploration of the properties of sounds in order to achieve cinematic and imaging environments. The sounds are not restricted to their medial origins: both digital and analogue sources are used and mixed in intricate compositions with special attention to detail.
The emphasis on non-illustrative interaction of sounds with images is evident in the videos purposely prepared for certain compositions. They can be viewed on the Vimeo page of the project (vimeo.com/haarvol).
In 2014 Haarvöl released their first album, “Hebetude”, at PAD - Easy Pieces label, where it is possible to hear the first attempts to embody all the premises the group want for their music.
"Indite" is Haarvöl’s new album and was composed during 2014. It is the second release, and so there are endemic links with the previous affirmation of their own sound. However, there is an effort towards obtaining a singularity in the new compositions. The tracks of the album try to form a homogeneous but not monolithic body of work to produce a diverse set of sounds with resonant similarities which do not repeat themselves, though. We find again the wide-ranging compositional structure already present in the previous album, that is, the use of non-hierarchical of analogue sounds as well as their electronic and digital counterparts in a joint effort to build the themes. The cinematic intentionality of the music attempts to reveal in detail the relationship with reality – here embodied by the intense use of field recordings as important components in the compositional process.
In Old English, "Indite" refers to the creative process of composing. This is perhaps one of the most relevant features of this new album: rather than the sonic intensity or wide experimentation, it is on the complex and dense composition of the themes that the rigorous structure, which decisively affirms the album, is built.
https://haarvol.bandcamp.com/album/indite
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| HABEEB |
Il cancello della morte |
CD-R |
Neues dark ambient noise-Projekt auf SOMNABULANT, einer der zur Zeit besten Adressen für elektronischen Abgrunds-Industrial. Meist wuchtige analoge Flächen & amorphe Soundeffekte.....dann wieder schwelend & paralisierend, monumentale Rausch- & Dröhnflächen....
lim. 200 und beim Label schon weg !
“Habeeb seems such an odd sounding name for this sinister dark ambient project from L. Kerr of Steel Hook Prostheses. This massive disc is definitely stronger and more focused than what little I've heard from the project in the past, building often lengthy tracks around smoothly flowing low-end hums and drones with subtle melodic undercurrents seeping in at times. "Creeping Death" gets a bit louder with biting high-end swells that peak out to faint distortion over rumbling bass and slightly more prominent "notes" in the middleground, whereas a few other tracks are much quieter and more subdued. "Rigor Mortis" is very delicately rhythmic with its repetitive low-end loop throbbing away, followed by "Tapping the Spine with Razorwire", which adds in very lightweight wisps of distortion against the brooding ambience of the core soundscape – certainly a bit more ominous. "Descension Into the Blackness" is a monolithic 19 minutes (nearly half of the disc's the entire running time), building up slowly with hugely resonant bass and distant percussive sounds reverberating in the background – getting slightly thicker/louder, but maintaining a very stripped down aesthetic that never sways too far from the course. Closer "Keepers of the Death Gate" is the only track I dislike, and I find it to be terribly distracting in contrast to the other tracks, opening with a sample of some sort of country-ish music with pitch-shifted speaking before giving way to a barely distorted loop with a few harsher spurts of thick distorted noise layering in to add to the industrial percussiveness. Even without the strange intro it would've been uncharacteristic of the release as a whole, but that first segment of the track really kills it for me. The CD-R comes in a slim DVD case with minimal artwork that's basically black and white and depicts some illegible text and a woodcut image of demons shoveling people into the mouth of hell. It's a simple presentation but as is usually the case with work from this label it looks quite clean and tasteful. A solid release pound for pound. I'm still a bit confused as to what that last track is all about, but the preceding 55 minutes is a consistent slab of damn promising dark ambient noise.” [Aversionline.com]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| HAERETICI 7O74 |
Haeretici, Schismatici, Excommunicati |
maxi-CD-R |
Document of a live show which took place in Tampere, Finland, January 2006, by this project of OVRO and NIKO SKORPIO: Loops, dark drones, strange digi-noises, deformed voices, all strange & surreal… infiltrating & sinking in your subsconsciousness…. Hard to say what it really is…
“Hæretici 7o74 is a duo of Ovro and Niko Skorpio. Joining forces, the artists bring together the more meditative and ritualistic elements of their solo works, blending it to something completely new. Recognizable, but distinct. Hæretici 7o74 concentrates on live performances, enjoying the organic and interactive feel of playing live, with its often surprising turns and twists.
Haeretici, Schismatici, Excommunicati is the band's first release, and contains the recording of the group's live performance at club Syntesia in Tampere, Finland in January 2006. Here, deep dark ambient soundscapes meet creeping rhythms and ecstatic oriental vibes. This is musical heresy, where the alchemical potential of not playing by the rules or expectations comes abloom. Purists, clinging on to their cherished dogmas in the dust of their crumbling temples, will be itching to burn these heretics alive.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| HAIGH, ROBERT |
Creatures of the Deep |
CD |
"A new album of piano driven ambient music from British composer Robert Haigh. Following in the path of his albums for the Japanese Siren label, Creatures of the Deep is an underground vantage of a meeting between the musical worlds of Harold Budd and Erik Satie. With a storied musical career that has ranged widely in style — from his industrial-avant-garde works on Nurse With Wound’s United Diaries label as SEMA to his legendary ambient drum and bass records as Omni Trio on Moving Shadow — Robert Haigh's work occupies a space between music and mystery. With Creatures of the Deep, Haigh is at the peak of his powers. Among noir, minimal, neo-classical landscapes are robust scatterings of bright reflection and a musical expression that is subtle and elusive yet uniquely Haigh’s in its voice and masterful execution. The closer we examine, the more is revealed, and the less is defined." [label info]
www.unseenworlds.com
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Creatures of the Deep |
LP |
A new album of piano driven ambient music from British composer Robert Haigh. Following in the path of his albums for the Japanese Siren label, Creatures of the Deep is an underground vantage of a meeting between the musical worlds of Harold Budd and Erik Satie. With a storied musical career that has ranged widely in style - from his industrial-avant-garde works on Nurse With Wound's United Diaries label as SEMA to his legendary ambient drum and bass records as Omni Trio on Moving Shadow - Robert Haigh's work occupies a space between music and mystery. With Creatures of the Deep, Haigh is at the peak of his powers. Among noir, minimal, neo-classical landscapes are robust scatterings of bright re+ection and a musical expression that is subtle and elusive yet uniquely Haigh's in its voice and masterful execution. The closer we examine, the more is revealed, and the less is defined. RIYL Nils Frahm, Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Chilly Gonzales, Omni Trio, Erik Satie, Nurse With Wound
www.unseenworlds.com
|
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Black Sarabande |
LP |
Robert Haigh's second full length LP for Unseen Worlds, Black Sarabande, is out today on LP, CD, and digital, uncovering a further layer of refinement to his music. It's no mistake that Haigh's releases have fluctuated between the underground and popular consciousness over the past forty years. This tension - between darkness and light, melancholy and solace, cacophony and clarity - is central to his work. With Black Sarabande, Haigh has gifted us with one of the quietest, most generous and vulnerable releases of his career.
Advance Press for Black Sarabande
"Robert Haigh’s latest album (under his own name) is a tender collection of spacious and textural piano pieces, full of rural ruminations and introspective intimacy." (9.0, scored review) - Zara Wladawsky, DJ Mag
"Having worked on mid-’80s Nurse With Wound albums, Robert Haigh thrived with Omni Trio’s pioneering ‘90s productions for Moving Shadow, but his piano work, both under his and the SEMA name, reaches even further. His latest collection embraces the resonant ambience and subtle electronic embellishments of Harold Budd’s and Brian Eno’s The Pearl.” - Uncut Magazine
“Robert Haigh's storied career reads like an almanac of ambient music. His latest is an unhurried flow of ambient piano pieces that, despite the implications of the title, are only momentarily dark and far from risqué, perhaps at times more suited for those soft intimate moments made for two, or most certainly personal reflections made for one.” - Slavko Bucifal, Exclaim!
“Everything I’ve ever written about any album, concert or piece of music is wrong. I know this because of something that happened while I was quietly listening to ‘Arc Of Crows’ by pianist Robert Haigh, a track taken from his new album Black Sarabande.” - Further
"'Why?'" - Philip Clark, WIRE
"This contemporary classical pianist’s music proves more unsettling the more you disturb its placid surface.
Depending on what release you discovered first, you might have believed there were two different Robert Haighs operating in the UK during the 1980s and ’90s. There was the pianist and composer who worked with Nurse With Wound and released elegant modern classical albums like 1987’s Valentine Out of Season. But what to make of the Robert Haigh behind the neck-whipping jungle breakbeats of the Omni Trio, a force throughout the drum ’n’ bass era in the UK? As that project drew to a close in the early 2000s, the more contemplative side of Haigh reemerged with a string of contemporary classical albums. They made for a perfect fit for New York’s Unseen Worlds label; his 2017 album Creatures of the Deep slotted well alongside pianists new and old, ranging from “Blue” Gene Tyranny to Lubomyr Melnyk to Leo Svirsky.
Haigh’s Black Sarabande explores terrain similar to Deep, mixing gorgeous piano melodies with a patina of electronics. But where that previous album evoked the properties of water, Sarabande feels grounded. It draws on Haigh’s childhood memories of UK coal country and the hardscrabble “pit village” of Worsbrough in South Yorkshire where he was raised. There’s a heavy atmosphere to these 11 tracks, never wholly enveloped in blackness but always threatened to tip over into it.
The opening title track is hushed, provoking comparisons to Harold Budd or Erik Satie. Yet as Haigh’s struck keys hover in space, they turn slightly discordant, like a chill settling into the skin. “Stranger on the Lake” strikes a balance between piano and electronics to luminous effect, its melody shadowed by ghostly overtones. Midway through, the ambient haze swells, and when it finally recedes, the piece is suffused with harp plucks and electronics, making you feel like you’ve left one piece behind and emerged in another one entirely.
Black Sarabande’s calm surface proves illusory the more listens you give it. Struck piano wires startle the surface of the otherwise-placid “Wire Horses”; a gush of strings arrives and just as quickly disappears into the woozy, fluttering ambience of “Painted Serpent.” There are moments when Haigh’s playing verges on silence, so that if you’re listening on earbuds, you might hear your own footsteps through the snow more loudly than the music. The gorgeous and brief “Air Madeleine” sounds as if you’re walking around a frozen pond in the countryside and seated next to Haigh on the creaky piano bench all at once, as imaginary a landscape (and interior) as anything Brian Eno could have conceived." [Pitchfork]
https://unseenworlds.bandcamp.com/album/black-sarabande
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| HAKOBUNE |
Believed Remains |
mCDR |
"probably the most well-known musician of the lot, HAKOBUNE is takahiro yorifuji, ambient musician now based in tokyo. active since 2007, his past works were released on various labels like install (operated by david tagg and brian grainger/milieu), u-cover, waterscape or hibernate. pure evocative drone!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
If it were to fade |
CD |
"The output of Japanese drone mainstay Hakobune could best be described as both heartwarming and sombre at the same time. "If It Were To Fade" follows this tradition and captures the sensation of being lost deep inside the endless distance of a great between. Album in jewelcase with 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Vitex Negundo |
CD |
"Three gentle guitar improvisations... meditations, enriched with Ambient loopsets and delicate sound layers from tape. Takahiro Yorifuji sets up the right mood to calm down. It's all that easy, the main thing is, the casette player’s working fine, the fingers will find the right notes all by themselves. Enjoy laid back listening.
Mastered by Daisuke Matsusaka." [label info]
www.empiricrecords.com
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| HALL OF MIRRORS |
Reflections on black |
CD |
Italienische dark ambient supergroup, ein Kollaborations-Projekt von AMON, NEFELHEIM und NIMH !! Dunkel, melancholisch, aber auch ausschweifend ausserweltlich & geräuschhaft..
eine perfekte Synthese der drei Projekte, exzellent!
"Recorded during the summer of 2005 by NEFELHEIM and DANIELA GHERARDI. "Reflections in Black" was the predecessor to the "HALL OF MIRRORS" project (a dark transmission from the hearts and minds of AMON and NIMH). Instruments used to make these sounds were constant companions of the artists for days-on-end. This document utilizes an immense range of synthesizers and obscure electronic equipment. Complex compositions created with various sequencers, backing tapes, field recordings, electric guitar, and masterful audio processing techniques, combined with expert assembly (mixing/digital editing). With "Reflections in Black", AMON and NIMH redefines the genera of dark ambient music. A definite buy for fans of Lustmord and darker/gothic atmosphere. Isolationistic music for midnight rituals. Post-millennium soundscapes. Intensely foreboding... like watching storm coluds gather on a late summer night. Darkest beauty personified." [label info]
label: www.silentes.net
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Forgotten Realm |
CD |
"Second “chapter” in the “Hall of Mirrors” saga, a project that hides the fervid minds of Giuseppe Verticchio/Nimh and Andrea Marutti/Amon. On this release they’re supported by Andrea Freschi (Subinterior, Konau…) and Andrea Ferraris (Ur, Sil Muir…), who gave their contribute with additional sound sources. Another long and fascinating journey among the ruins of lost and ancient civilizations, among desolate landscapes forgotten by time… To enrich the already busy electronic stratifications, among slowly evolving ambient sonorities and occasional parts of more sharp and “rough” elements of a Post-Industrial nature, we also find suggestive sound of reverberating flutes and dilated electric guitar parts, ending with delicate melodic arpeggios and evocative rhythmic accents of a vague cinematic taste. The adventure goes on…"[label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| HALO MANASH |
Wesieni Wainajat |
CD |
"Halo Manash has been working for the past three years in solid-shadows and un-lights to reach the posture of Mercurial Aqua-Aurorae. ‘Wesieni Wainajat’ presents a natural continuation for the group’s past Forest Music phase and their previous ‘Taiwaskivi’ album, in which the cresent-drop was just about to descent in the bottom of the sublunar-cup.
'Wesieni Wainajat' consists of three, long and brooding, repetitive trance-drone tracks interweaving various analog drone sources with elemental field-recordings. Each track serves as a vehicle in passing the threshold of consciousness and triggering the subliminal realms of hallucination and shape-shifting. As a whole the album is an evocative lunar-hymn reaching out toward one’s Mercurial Empire – and the One who is moist.
The album is available in two editions: 350 CDs and 50 cassettes (25 black & 25 transparent). Both editions include three hand-finished photo prints, an textual insert and silk-screen printed cardboard covers. Total running time: 39:11." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Se Its En |
CD |
"Se Its En is the first official release of Halo Manash and was originally released in an edition of 100 copies by Finnish underground record label Blue Sector in 2003. After a long period of unavailability the album is now re-released through our Stellar Mansion series.
The quintessential tunes for the tracks were received from in seven specific dreams and captured on tape during the following morning under the guidance of awakened subconscious forces. The album as a whole, however, should not be considered only as a self-centered work or a mere outcome of lucid dreaming sessions of the personnel involved; Se Its En serves as a continually living and assisting metaphysical implement that guides and enlightens travel in The Great Elemental Current. The seven surrealistic tracks were composed by using manipulated bowed string instruments, percussions, analogue synthesizer, human and inhuman vocalisations & other surreal recordings. Se Its En is the key to the gate leading to Sacral Meeting with Halo Manash.
The album is enclosed in a customised and silk-screen printed Stellar Mansion cardboard covers including an 8-panel black on black printed booklet and a silk-screen printed insert card. The regular edition is limited to 468 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
"Finland strikes back again! New project on a new label, which brings us haunting and secretful post-industrial drone-spheres with various subliminal effects... dark and beautiful." [Drone Rec. info 2003]
“ Halo Manash 'Se Its En' follows the same direction as I.corax (being a solo-project of the other member), but whereas I.corax is more like a continuous flow of sound, Halo Manash is more structured and minimal. Also the general soundscape isn't based that much on field recordings etc, but is mostly created by a guitar through a wild bunch of effect processors. There are even some kind of strange melodies that are spiced up with occasional lyrics of spoken word and simple, ritualistic percussions. There are two versions of 'Se Its En' available; a normal slimcase with pro-printed covers and an insert, and a version that comes in a cool hand-made black cloth bag (insert and covers included, naturally).” [orignal label description 2003]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Elemental Live Forms MMV - Initiation |
CD |
"Over a decade ago, HALO MANASH, an entity previously only known for its aural output, took the force and form of a live ritual perfomed by group of four mediums, in Tampere, Finland. ‘Elemental Live Forms MMV – Initiation’ is a recording of that first public Halo Manash live ritual, and also a complete, previously unreleased work in itself. The work was presented only a single time, also being the only time the involved personae of the group perfomed together as one.
The live ritual focuses on the boundless elemental form returning from metaphysical pilgrimage – it bridges the worlds of being and non-being. Ash and antler, blood and bone, drum and drone, tree and metal collide to create an intense audial journey between worlds – one of re-birth, initiation, and primal thundering.
Much more than a mere live recording, this seminal work, ‘Elemental Live Forms MMV – Initiation’ is now finally released in limited CD and cassette editions. The package, as an object of power, is handmade in the underground Aural Hypnox laboratories, featuring various guiding sigils, inserts and historical notes from the Halo Manash archives.
The album is enclosed in an oversized screen printed cardboard covers including a 4-panel booklet, 4-panel xerox-insert and eight, two-sided insert cards within a stamped envelope. Limited to 444 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| HAMILTON, SAM & JAN ANDERZEN |
Brombron 24: Time Banking |
CD |
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the twenty-fourth release in the Brombron series (missing numbers will follow later this year). Originally
a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a
certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Here we have Jan Anderzen from Finland, who works as Tomutonttu and is the leader of Kemialliset Ystavat. A true artist when it comes to cut, copy, paste and collage with sound (as well as images), cooking up a wonderfully naïve pastiche of sound. Sam Hamilton is surely the odd ball out in the
world of New Zealand’s experimental music. He likes punk, opera, techno and pop and collates them all together in his own unique blend of pop
music. Here’s two men who share a strong love of the wicked pop tunes and their twelve pieces are short and to the point. A classic pop record
length release, with likewise classic tunes.
Design by Sam Hamilton." [label info]
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| HAMILTON, TOM / BRUCE EISENBEIL |
Shadow Machine |
CD |
SHADOW MACHINE is the first CD by Tom Hamilton and Bruce Eisenbeil, who began playing music together in 2007. Coherence without predictability, speed without tempo, direction without a roadmap - an unlikely foray into the world of out-jazz and free improvisation.
It's a duo that thwarts expectations of its specific instrumentation. The artists hybridize the language of electronic sound through Eisenbeil's guitar and Hamilton's virtual analog synthesizer, and the live-in-the-studio tracks insure that the performances impart maximum physicality and spontaneity.
Their aim is to generate new forms, new ways of listening, new definitions of music. Equal rights for all sounds is one goal, and since each musician is a maximalist, a dizzying array of sounds and techniques are employed to sustain a visceral experience. Contrasting sonic elements are played one against another, simultaneously and successively. Modern jazz and improvised music have just now begun to really embrace the language and sounds of electronics; these two artists are positioned on the forefront of a trend that aims to subvert orthodoxy and challenge old assumptions.
Tom Hamilton has been composing and performing for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. He often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of "present-time listening" on the part of both performer and listener. Hamilton appears on synthesizer in his own ensembles, and has participated in groups led by Peter Zummo, David Soldier, and Michael Schumacher. He has recently performed with Thomas Buckner, Lisle Ellis, Chris Mann, Al Margolis, and Jacqueline Martelle. Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy. His CD London Fix received an award in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. He is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley's touring opera ensemble, and his work can be found in over 60 CD releases of new and experimental music.
The Wire has described Hamilton's music as "colourful and seductive," and Gramophone has noted that "the results bubble with energy, a veritable counterpoint of indeterminacy." And Hamilton is cited in Kyle Gann's American Music in the 20th Century as "New York's leading improvisor on analog synthesizers.
Composer/guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil was born in Chicago in 1963 and grew up in Plainfield, NJ. He began playing the guitar when he was four and performing professionally since he was 15. Throughout the 1980¹s he played jazz and R&B. Since then he has performed and/or recorded with: Cecil Taylor, David Murray, Evan Parker, Ellery Eskelin, Karl Berger, Perry Robinson, Milford Graves, Badal Roy, Andrew Cyrille, Edgar Bateman, Nasheet Waits, Lukas Ligeti and many others. He has twelve CD's released on a variety of labels, including: ESP, Nemu, Konnex, Cadence, C.I.M.P., and Nine Winds. Recent recordings include TOTEM, Inner Constellation, and Home Again. Guitar Player magazine has published a detailed article on Eisenbeil¹s history and musical inventiveness in the May 2009 issue.
About his work, Harvey Pekar in JazzTimes has said, "Eisenbeil is one of the most unique jazz guitarists to emerge in decades." Downbeat called his work "Strikingly original." And The Wire wrote that he has, "A distinctive voice. About as revolutionary as music can actually get." [press release]
www.pogus.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAMMER, JOSEPH |
Roadless Travel |
CD-box |
"LAFMS musician Joseph Hammer creates unparalleled works of tape manipulation. However, as yet there are comparatively few solo albums by this phenomenal artist. To rectify this situation, Art Into Life has decided to release Roadless Travel, his latest album. The album comes with a dense 24 page booklet of liner notes (essentially a full history of Hammer) by T. Sakaguchi, who has enjoyed a long friendship with him and is the foremost Japanese historian of the LAFMS scene. Liner notes - Takuya Sakaguchi. Translation - Alan
Cummings." [label info]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| HAMNSKIFTE |
Födzlepijan |
CD |
"First record from a mysterious Swedish duo, whose sound is inspired by, according to the band themselves, Burzum, Earth, Skepticism, Nortt and Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg. But imagine those influences channeled into something more medieval sounding, and WAY more post rocky, a sort of droning medieval slowcore laid beneath softly buzzing metallic rumble and shimmer, and you'll get an idea of Hamnskifte's sound. This is drone and ultimately slow meditative Black Metal with hypnotic medieval folk melodies recorded with guitars, drums, bass, organ, bodhran drum, bells and some self-invented percussion instruments. Originally released to the world in the spring of 2010 by, now-defunct, American label Starlight Temple Society, as a limited edition of 125 copies." [label info]
hamnskifte.blogspot.de
"Fodzlepijnan first appeared on the now-defunct Starlight Temple Society label back in 2010 as a limited-edition CDR release (we still have a couple of copies of this version in stock, as a matter of fact), and it offered a beautifully eerie and ghostly collection of funereal folk-rock and desolate, doom-laden slowcore from the mysterious Swedish duo known as Hamnskifte. The band seemed to have roots in both funeral doom and black metal (indeed, the band cited the likes of Nortt, Burzum, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, Earth and Skepticism as direct influences on their music), but their music didn't really sound like either of those forms, and in fact only marginally sounded like a metal band at all. Instead, Hamnskifte craft this strange sound that is more "post-rock" than anything, a mysterious, low-fi sound that creeps across the album using hand-made percussive instruments, organs, bells, and bodhran drums alongside their standard rock lineup of drums, guitar and bass. That original disc really impressed me when we first picked it up, and it's haunting blackened slowcore sound filled the office here at C-Blast for weeks after we picked it up. While the original Starlight Temple CDR came in a handmade package that consisted of a screen-printed silver envelope, an eight page booklet and foldout poster and was limited to just one hundred twenty five copies, the new CD version of Fodzlepijnan that just came out on the black metal label Myrkr presents the album in a handsome new six-panel digi-sleeve that includes a printed vellum inner sleeve for the disc.
At first, Fodzlepijnan opens with a brief intro of wheezing harmonium and martial snares playing a slow, haunting folky melody, the sound very neo-folkish and atmospheric, and that leads right into the first proper song, "Ther Skall Wara Gråt Och Tandagnisslan". It's here that Hamnskifte fully unfurls their sound, a combination of tranquil, almost funereal drumming that incorporates other shuffling percussive instruments into it's deliberate, processional-like tempos, moody strummed chords that seem to be emanating from sort of banjo-like stringed instrument, and swells of lush feedback and distorted guitar. The band weaves these sounds together into simple, dark melodies that sound more like something from Swans than anything vaguely black metallish. But there's also that doom-laden creepiness that lurks beneath the surface of these melancholy folk-dirges, a subdued heaviness heard in those slow-motion drums, waves of vast keyboard drift and that buzzing harmonium-like drone that makes a reappearance, and the deeper you get into this, the more that you can hear the band's admitted Skepticism influence, a vague funeral doom quality to this music that you hear more in the atmosphere and pace of the music than in any overt metallic qualities. It's all some surprisingly beautiful stuff, in fact. The following song "Wäsende" might be my favorite, another instrumental piece that resembles some particularly gloomy, darkened 70's psych-folk, with some of the prettiest acoustic guitar arrangements on the album, laid out over delicate droning organs and that slow, shuffling backbeat. Further in, the sound starts to get heavier as some muffled distorted guitars creep into "Foglarna Warda Fångna Medh Snaror", lending an undercurrent of clanging, doom-laden rumble to the song's hauntingly pretty folk melody and stretches of ghostly, cavernous drone. "Dageligh Beredelse Emoot Döden" has a more ominous feel, death-march drums and minor key jangle woven into a Goblin-esque groove, and closer "Uthi Thet Ytterste Mörckret" unfolds into a twelve minute kosmische trance of pounding tribal drums and slithering bass, moody acoustic strum draped over droning keyboards and sheets of electrical hum, the album closing within the sway of this last krautrock-tinged hypno-trance. Highly recommended." [CrucialBlast] |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| HAMPSON, ROBERT |
Vectors |
CD |
"Robert Hampson (geb. 1965 in UK) ist Gründungsmitglied der Bands "Loop" (1985-90) und "Main" (1990 -96). Nach dem Ende der Band "Loop", konzentrierte siche Hampson im Rahmen der neuen Band "Main" darauf, den charakteristischen Sound der Gitarre für sich neu zu interpretieren und umzuformen in dem er sich im Detail mit dem Stil des Instrumentes beschäfitgte. Er kreierte so neue und abstrakte Sounds. Je mehr sich die Band "Main" entwicktelte, desto mehr lösten sie sich von dem eigentlichen Sound der Gitarre und kamen ihrem eigenen revolutionären Stil nahe. Mittlerweile komponiert und spielt Hampson unter seinen eigenen Namen. Er widmete sich nun mehr und mehr der Akusmatik, einer Weiterentwicklung von natürlichen Klängen, aufgehend in einer Kombination dieser mit synthetischen Klängen. In einer gleichberechtigen Zusammensetzung dieser, gelang es ihm völlig neue Sounds und Ideen umzusetzen.Umbra :Das Phänomen der "Umbra" - des Kernschattens, ist es was die Arbeit an diesem Stück inspirieren sollte: Geräusche die in den Schatten anderer eingefangen zu sein scheinen, die immer mehr Form annehmen, sich entfalten und materialisieren bis sie selbst einen Schatten werfen.Ahead -Only The Stars (2007) beauftragt vom Label "Vibrö" für eine Performance im Planetarium de Poitiers in 7.1. Surround Ratio.Inspiriert von dem ,Austronauts of the NASA Mercury Missions" Programm und dem wohl größten Piloten aller Zeiten: Chuck Yeager. Ihm ist dieses Stück auch gewidmet.Nach einer Einführung der überwältigenden und beeindruckenden Jets-Sounds, ist das Stück durchsetzt mit Radio-Transmissionen, die den künstlerischen Rahmen dieses Werkes bilden.Dans le Lointain (2008) - Geräusche kurzwelliger Funktöne, aufgenommen von Hampson in den frühen 80er Jahren und neulich auf einer Kassette wiederentdeckt, wurden neu auf klassische Art und Weise bearbeitet und digital neu interpretiert. Der Titel des Werkes bezieht sich auf die Distanzen, die Radiowellen fähig sind zu meistern, so aber auch soll es die Zeitspanne darstellen, beginnend mit der Aufnahme auf Kassetten Anfang der 80er bis in die jetzige Neuzeit der High Technologies."
[label info / Cargo]
www.myspace.com/roberthampson
"A long time I met Robert Hampson and talked with him about the movie '24 Hour Party People'. What I didn't knew is that Hampson and his band Loop toured with the Happy Mondays, so he shed some extra light on those scenes involving the Mondays. I was thinking of the curious career of Hampson when listening to 'Vectors'. The rock days of Loop merging into the ambience of Main to the electro acoustic of Hampson, who no longer uses the name Main anymore. I liked Loop, I truly loved Main and sometimes I found myself thinking 'what is Robert Hampson doing these days?'. Its been some years since his last Main release, but apparently his into France these days. All three pieces here were recorded for things in France, festivals, commissions of INA GRM. Indeed a curious career. Robert Hampson - serious composer. Who would have guessed? One could see it coming I guess, as the last Main releases forecasted the music on 'Vectors': computer manipulated electro-acoustic music, brought to you in the form of an audio collage. If you need to compare it with something, then the whole microsound posse comes to mind, but Roel Meelkop in particular. Hampson shares the same sensibility of creating intense audio compositions, with slow curves, occasional rapid change and a keen ear for atmospherics. Crackling, ambient, computer treatments of acoustic objects. Well crafted compositions, that never seem to leap into the doodling that some of the 'real' (what is real anyway?) acousmatic composers in this scene seem to be doing. Challenging music of the highest order. Its only a pity that there is not so much of that from Hampson. Let's hope the next one is not three years away." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"... On Vectors, Hampson teases with repetitions of astronaut bleeps, electrical warblings, digitally vaporous static, and wisps of sound design that could build into something off of Hydra-Calm or Motion Pool, but
don't. Many folks (including some here) have been frustrated by Hampson's work after Motion Pool, and that sentiment probably won't be changed with Vectors. The three lengthy pieces on Vectors are all commissions with lofty goals of avant electronics; and two of the commissions came by way of the legendary GRM studio in France. In this context as opposed to the Loop / Main axis, Vectors turns out to be a smoldering musique concrete album with acousmatic allusions to the work of Michel Chion and Luc Ferrari." [Aquarius Records review]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| HANNO, YOSHIHIRO |
|
CD |
“Yoshihiro Hanno explores for years now a wide range of musics: soundtracks, contemporary music, free jazz , drum 'n' bass, fragmented electronica, hip hop... with a definite taste for fusion and destructuration in order to create a new form of avant-garde. Follow up to his precedent release 'April Remixes' feat. Oval,Christophe Charles... (SR196), here is .
YOSHIHIRO HANNO : STORY AND WORKS:
Yoshihiro Hanno trained in various kinds of music while still a student, developing his own musical character and feeling. Thus he was no novice when in 1997 he made his first album King Of May and also Hip Hop #3, a split 12" single with Bisk, both released by Sub Rosa under the Multiphonic Ensemble alias. In 1998 Hanno made the album Liquid Glass with ex-Japan member Mick Karn and
the compilation Shijin No Sh_z_ (Portrait of a Poet), the first solo album under his own name. He also composed the very successful successful soundtrack Flowers Of Shanghai for film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The following year saw the release of Cirque, his second album under the Multiphonic Ensemble alias. In 2000, Hanno was musical director of the Yomiuri TV soap opera "Eien No Ko" and wrote its theme song with Ryuichi Sakamoto.†He joined Ryuichi
Sakamoto's CODE.† Also in 2000 he released April under his own Cirque label, and composed the soundtrack for Jia Zhang-Ke's film Platform, which won an award at the Venice Film Festival.
In 2001, for the Music On Canvas series Hanno released the April Remix album featuring remixes by Oval, Takugi Aoyagi and Christophe Charles. With Bjˆrk, Ryuichi Sakamoto and others, he participated in the Radical Fashion event. He also made the music for Isao Yukisada's film Kanon. In 2002 he released Esquisse 1996 and Sulpice under his own label.” [press release]
|
2004 |
€12.50 |
|
| HAPSBURG BRAGANZA |
Hatchling |
CD |
"Phil Begg is a young british improviser and composer based in Newcastle. He became known in Belgium for the improvisation sessions that he was playing in every corner of the country during the summer of 2006. Armed with a few effect pedals, loopers and microphones, various objects and his mobile mono soundsystem, Phil amazed us with his intense improvisations. Whether brutal and powerful, whether quiet, flirting with some lowercase and minimal electronics influences.
Since we invited Phil to play at idioLABOAT festival in 2006 under the name of Chalfont, where he brought us his instant dives into abyssal psycho-active soundscapes and lightful envolées, we absolutely wanted to release one of his works on Idiosyncratics.
Hatchling is a slow-burning electroacoustic piece, integrating dense atmospheric collage of field recordings and concrete sound source
with highly textural drones and warm subtle harmonics. A very personal and breathtaking piece, both in the heritage of Francisco López and Charlemagne Palestine.
Artwork by Yannick Franck." [label info]
www.idiosyncratics.net
"Behind the strangely named Hapsburg Braganza we find one Phil Begg from Newcastle, who ended up on Belgiums Idiosyncratics, because 'he was playing in every corner of the country during the summer of 2006', armed with effect pedals, loopers, microphones, various objects and a mobile mono soundsystem'. I don't think I came across his name before, but the forty minute piece 'Hatchling' is indeed a very fine piece. The cover lists such instruments as Indian Harmonium, cymbals, acoustic guitar, piano, acoustic/concrete sounds and field recordings, which are specified on the cover). Somewhere there is mighty rainfall to be spotted, but otherwise the listed instruments aren't that easy to spot in this piece. The piece falls apart in three separate parts, which all flow into each other. The first part deals with electro-acoustic sounds, the second with the aforementioned water sounds and then finally a drone piece for overtones. The label calls this 'the heritage of Francisco Lopez and Charlemagne Palestine', which is quite understandable, especially when it comes to the drone piece that sounds like Palestine at his organs. The rain sounds are perhaps too obvious to be Lopez like I think. Overall, Begg does quite a fine job, and his piece, though not 'new', is one with a remarkable beauty. Moving and morphing into various genres, musique concrete, field recordings, minimalist music, this is one solid sound experience. Very nice work!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| HARRIS, MICK & MARTYN BATES |
Murder Ballads (Drift) |
do-LP |
For the first time on LP vinyl
Post-Isolationist - Deep Ambiance & Folksong re-emerge in this first vinyl outing of the classic 'Murder Ballads' (Drift) by M.J. Harris / Martyn Bates
Limited Textured Sleeve + Marbled Vinyls
"Leaving nothing behind but the wild birds to moan"
Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out - let alone create something even more
meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads (Drift) by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza,
& parallel solo career) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads (Drift) evolves Martyn Bates vocalisations / storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences.
Murder Ballads (Drift) created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporising into a truly original dazzlingly unique form.
Mick Harris traffics in the isolationist ambience of Lull, while Martyn Bates is the emotive voice of literate cult-pop duo Eyeless in Gaza. The unlikely pair - one given to terminally frigid drone, the other to impassioned, bittersweet voicings - finds common ground in folk music's most macabre tradition, the murder ballad. These ghoulish parables are awash in blood and tears, the strands of love, hate, birth, death, sin, and salvation entwined within like the roots of an ancient tree. Mothers callously kill their children; suitors slay their maidens without remorse; and fate exacts its cruel price from all.
The archaic murder ballads that leak from Bates' vocal cords are intensely sad and carnal. They tend to leap off cliffs of hollow effects
or drone darkly, offering neither a robust delivery nor an element of irony to take the edge off. The archetypal characters that live and die in them give life's full tragedy back to Harris' electronically numbed "post-isolationist" dreaming.
Drift (originally released in 1994) plays out an unbreakable and timeless cycle of bloody folklore (people) and hypnotic soundscapes
(the god who watches). The effect is chilling yet engrossing. Where most ambient music has barely enough courage to ring the doorbell
and run, Murder Ballads slips through the cracks of the unconscious and does its work with remarkable ease.
All the more reason to listen thoughtfully.
In 2021 - re-emerging nearly twenty years after its initial inception - somewhat surprisingly, Murder Ballads (Drift) still remains/exists in an area overlooked by other artists, an area that truly still remains the sole province of M.J. Harris / Martyn Bates.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/murder-ballads-drift |
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| HARTH, ALFRED 23 & WOLFGANG SEIDEL |
Malcha |
CD |
Harth/Seidel/Spera/Van Den Plas: Malcha
Format: CD
Country: Korea, Italy & Germany
Released: 01.10.2016
Tracklist
01 Gate 2 Not
02 Ceremony Behind Buddha’s Garden
03 Begum Of Oudh
04 Resilient Cup Of Crushed Diamonds
05 Send A Revolver The Night Before The
00 Interview
06 Delhi Green Mousse
Musicians
Alfred 23 Harth – ts, ss, dojirak, voice
Wolfgang Seidel – buchla music easel, prepared guitar, perc, vibes
Fabrizio Spera – dr, perc
Nicole van den Plas – voice, piano, zither, balalaika, kalimba, whistling
Credits
Compositions by Alfred Harth, Wolfgang Seidel-Meissner, Fabrizio Spera
Recorded by Wolfgang Seidel at Exrotaprint Studio, Berlin, 2015.11.13
Production, arrangement, mix & premastering by A23H at LaubhuetteStudio Moonsun, Korea
Mastering by Wolfgang Seidel at Exrotaprint Studio, Berlin, 2016
MALCHA
Berlin, November 2015. In einem Café in Mitte, in der Auguststrasse, sitzen Alfred Harth (seit 15 Jahren auch in Seoul), Fabrizio Spera (Rom), Elliott Sharp (New York) und ich – Wolfgang Seidel (Berlin). Am Abend vorher hatten Alfred, Fabrizio und Elliott ganz in der Nähe gespielt, zusammen mit Kazuhisa Uchihashi (Tokio) und Clayton Thomas (Sydney), die nun schon unterwegs waren zu ihren nächsten Konzerten. Mit beiden wäre die Runde noch globaler gewesen, was in der Improvisierten Musik allerdings nichts besonderes ist. Das grosse „I“ bei Improvisierter Musik ist Absicht. Improvisierte Musik als eigenes musikalisches Genre – so wie die Neue Musik. Improvisierte Musik als Genre, dass sich von lokalen Traditionen emanzipiert hat und in der Musiker aus aller Welt miteinander spielen. Wäre der Vorsatz „post“ nicht so inflationär an alles mögliche geklebt, würde ich diese Musik postnational nennen. Im alten West-Berlin hatte ich einen Bogen gemacht um die Jazz-Szene. Die war mir zu bürgerlich und von einem altbackenden Handwerker-Ethos mit strikten Regeln, was man denn geübt haben müsse, ehe man es sich erlauben dürfe zu improvisieren. Da passte ich mit meiner Psychedelic Rock-Sozialisation nicht hinein. Anfang der 80er, im Windschatten von Punk, wurden Genregrenzen für einige Zeit durchlässig. In diese Zeit fällt dann auch das bisher einzige gemeinsame Konzert mit Alfred und meiner damaligen Band Populäre Mechanik. Dann war erst mal wieder Pause, die erst zu Ende ging, als sich ab der Jahrtausendwende die Szene Improvisierter Musik entwickelte, die in Berlin unter dem Label Echtzeitmusik agiert.
Als einzigem "Eingeborenen" fiel mir der Part zu, zu erzählen, wie sich die Gegend in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten verändert hat. Eingeborener stimmt auch nur halb - als Westberliner habe ich diesen im Zentrum der „Hauptstadt der DDR“ gelegenen Teil der Stadt erst 1989 kennengelernt. Da war das Scheunenviertel genannte Areal hinter dem Hackeschen Markt grau und düster von verwahrlosten Häusern mit abbröckelndem Putz und leeren Wohnungen. Mich erinnerten die Straßen an das Westberlin meiner Kindheit, als die Spuren des Krieges noch überall sichtbar und die vorherrschende Farbe grau war. Das urbane Vakuum im Scheunenviertel füllte sich nach 1989 ganz schnell mit neuem Leben. In den leeren Läden entstanden Clubs und Galerien, bis die Gentrifizierung dem fröhlichen Experimentieren ein Ende setzte. Die Fassaden sind renoviert, die Läden elegant und teuer und die Galerien bieten Dekoratives für die obere Einkommensklasse.
Ein paar tausend Kilometer weiter östlich in Korea, ist die Welt noch geteilt. Im Schatten der euphemistisch DMZ – Demilitarized Zone – benannten Grenze zwischen Nord- und Südkorea, befindet sich Alfreds LaubhuetteStudio. Es klingt idyllisch, wenn er schreibt, dass Rehe dort herumstreunen und auf Fotos von seinen Exkursionen sieht er aus wie ein Botaniker auf der Jagd nach seltenen Schmetterlingen. Irgendwie erinnert mich das auch an die trägen Sommertage im ehemaligen Westberlin, wo man im Schatten der Mauer sein Bier trank. Solche dem Verwertungsdruck entzogenen Areale scheinen auf geheimnisvolle Weise der Kreativität besonders zuträglich sein.
Nach dem Frühstücksmeeting gingen wir drei – Alfred, Fabrizio und ich – dahin, wo die Stadt nur arm und kein bisschen sexy ist – in den Stadtteil Wedding. Dessen Wandlung vom Arbeiterbezirk zum deindustrialisierten Arbeitslosenbezirk hat viel leerstehenden Gewerberaum hinterlassen. In einer dieser ehemaligen Fabriken war ich mit meinem Studio eingezogen. Zwei Stunden später konnte ich zufrieden auf den Aus-Knopf der Aufnahmeapparatur drücken. Wohin diese musikalischen „Gespräche“ ohne jede Vorgabe oder Planung letztlich führen, ist immer wieder eine Überraschung. Begonnen hatte es vor fast fünfzig Jahren mit „herrschaftsfreier Musik“ – so das Konzept von Alfreds Gruppe Just Music. Ich spielte zur selben Zeit mit dem Beuys-Schüler Conrad Schnitzler "Total freie Musik". So stand es auf einem Poster. Über Conrad Schnitzler, der leider 2012 verstarb, hatten Alfred und ich uns näher kennengelernt.
Auf dem „Total freie Musik“-Plakat stand außerdem: jeder kann mitmachen. Bei anderer Gelegenheit war das Publikum aufgefordert, Transistorradios mitzubringen und während der Performance eifrig am Sendersuchlauf zu drehen. Die Verwendung von aussermusikalischen Geräuschen und die Technik der Collage sind für Alfred und mich früh zur Arbeitsweise geworden. Unsere CD Five Eyes ist so entstanden, als Collage aus Tracks, die wir uns um den halben Erdball schickten. Und nach Beendigung unserer Trio-Session im Wedding, war das noch nicht das fertige Werk. Zurück in Korea, ergänzte Alfred noch Passagen mit seinem Sopransaxophon aus dem 70er Archiv. Hinzu kamen gefakte Field-Recordings aus Indien. Nicole van den Plas schickte Gesangs- und Instrumentalaufnahmen (Voice & Bells, 40° Celsius und If Any, drei ihrer jüngsten CDRs) die sich wunderbar in das Gewebe von Klängen, das Alfred in seiner Laubhütte schuf, einfügten. Dieses Gewebe ist so dicht, dass ich erst nach mehrmaligem Anhören entdeckte, dass auch ein Track Eingang gefunden hatte, den ich ihm schon vor längerer Zeit geschickt hatte, in dem, als Erinnerung an unsere erste Westberliner Begegnung, die Sendekennung des RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor) zu hören ist. Genau das ist es, was den Spass an diesen Aufnahmen ausmacht. Man macht immer wieder noch Entdeckungen im Dickicht der Klänge.
Am Schluss wartet eine Aufgabe, um die ich mich gerne drücke. Eine Veröffentlichung muss einen Namen haben, die Tracks darauf auch. Bei Songs ist das ja einfach. Aber wir haben keine weitere Geschichte, die wir zur Musik erzählen. Bei uns ist die Musik die Geschichte. Wir machen abstrakte Musik und keine Programm- oder Illustrationsmusik. Wir denken beim Spielen an nichts ausser an die Klänge, die wir produzieren und wie diese sich mit den Sounds der Mitspieler verflechten. Conrad Schnitzler löste für sich das Problem, indem er irgendwann seine Kompositionen nur noch nummerierte. Er kam damit bis 830. Alfred löste das Problem, in dem er zunächst an unsere Café-Frühstücksrunde anknüpfte. Latte Macchiato? Nein „Malcha“. Er berichtete, dass das koreanische Getränk, mit dem man sich munter macht, Malcha heißt – ein grüner Tee, zu Pulver zerstampft und mit Bambusbesen wie Cappuchino aufgeschäumt. Da koreanische Restaurants gerade die neue Gründerwelle in Berlin sind, ist es nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis Malcha zum neuen Hipster-Getränk wird.
Damit war ein Titel für die CD gefunden. Es fehlten noch die Titel für die einzelnen Stücke. Ueber Indien war Alfred auf eine andere Bedeutung von Malcha gestossen: Malcha Mahal – ein 600 Jahre alter, verfallender Palast in Delhi. In ihm leben zwei Geschwister, ein Prinz und eine Prinzessin, isoliert von der Umwelt. Prinz Ali Raza und Prinzessin Sakina sind die letzten Nachfahren einer aus Persien stammenden Dynastie, die bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts über das Königreich Oudh herrschte. Nach vergeblichem Aufstand gegen die britische Kolonialmacht wurde Oudh besetzt und die Herrscherfamilie befand sich auf der Flucht, da sie sich weder den Briten noch dem unabhängig gewordenen Indien unterwerfen wollte. Die letzte Begum von Oudh fand mit ihren Kindern schliesslich Zuflucht im Malcha Mahal, wo sie 1983 auf wahrhaft fürstliche Art Selbstmord beging. Sie trank ein Pulver aus den Splittern ihres Diamantringes. Ihre Kinder leben seitdem von der Aussenwelt isoliert im Dickicht des Malcha Mahal Parks. Das klingt nach exotischem Liebesromanstoff, in dem sich die britische Begeisterung für Spukgeschichten mit der mindestens ebenso grossen indischen Begeisterung für Geistergeschichten mischen, auf der Folie einer Reminizenz an Extremaussenseiter, die aus aristokratischem Stolz ein Leben lang in einer Gegenwelt verharren. Spätestens jetzt war unser anfänglicher Berlinausflug definitiv über andere Assoziationsebenen auf Reisen geraten.
Wolfgang Seidel, 2016.5.31
www.molokoplusrecords.de
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| HARTMAN, HANNA |
Longitude / Cratere |
CD |
Zwei grossartige drone-artige musique-concrete Stücke der Schwedin HANNA HARTMAN, bei „Longitude“ mit beeindruckendem Klang-Material aufgenommen auf Segelbooten, bei Cratere bestehend aus (u.a.) : Atmen, Rauschen, Donnern, Vulcan-Granular-Sounds.... to discover !! (Sie bekam übrigens 2005 den Karl-Sczuka-Preis für eine andere Komposition, als Nachfolgerin von u.a. ASMUS TIETCHENS!)
“The second release of the year on the Komplott label is two pieces by sound artist Hanna Hartman. Until now the two compositions of the album,/ Longitude 013° 26' E / and / Cratere,/ which were originally commissioned pieces for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and DeutschlandRadioBerlin, have only been available to the public as radio broadcasts. The music is not dependent on the medium of radio however, but consists of concrete sounds composed as independent pieces. The material of the piece Cratere partly consists of recordings of the Italian volcano Etna, whereas much of the material on Longitude 013° 26' E - a longitude which runs through Berlin, Kap Arkona and the Baltic Sea - was recorded on sailing boats. The album cover is to be interpreted as a commentary between map and terrain, an abstraction which points to the difference between the origin of the sounds and its musical form. The terrain can be conceived through the map, the map through the knowledge and experiences which arise from the relation between the two. Hanna Hartman has received several awards for her music such as the recent Svenska Författarförbundet Radiopris (Swedish Writer Associations Radio Award) 2004 and the Karl-Sczuka Prize 2005. She will be presenting a sound installation at the GAS Festival (Göteborg Art Sounds, 1-8 October 2005). Longitude / Cratere will be released on September 23.“ [label description]
|
2005 |
€14.50 |
|
| HASEGAWA, HIROSHI (長谷川洋) |
Ascension No. 999 |
CD |
"Hiroshi Hasegawa's musical roots go back to the late 80s, where he started as a pioneer under the Japanese Experimental Electronic artists. Hasegawa is the man behind C.C.C.C., ASTRO, MORTAL VISION, TRANCE and other projects. He released also several works together with Akifumi Nakajima from AUBE.
Ascension No.999 is his first album under his real name (besides a split LP from 1988) and it's also his very first ultra-noise work! The sounds vary from experimental cut-up noise, over droning sound-walls, to screaming high frequency manipulations. Some passages even remind to early Säköh/Panasonic vinyls. Cover-design by Yoshihiro Nakano." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| HASTINGS OF MALAWI |
Vibrant Stapler obscures characteristic Growth |
CD |
A classic masterpiece from 1981, never re-released on CD before. Originally 1000 copies pressed on orange/red vinyl. 120 copies were sold through Rough Trade and Virgin Records. 800 copies were bought and later destroyed by the United Dairies label, makin this record even more rare. Hastings of Malawi were Heman Pathak, David Hodes and John Grieve. They recorded the album in one night in 1981 with no plan and no idea of what they were doing. They played drums, clarinet, synthesiser and piano but also made use of things that they found lying around the studio – old records, cookery books, telephone directories and a telephone. The recordings were played down the phone to randomly dialled numbers and the reactions added to the recording. All three had been involved in the recording of the first Nurse with Wound album Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella and had contributedmetal scrapings, piano, effects, clarinet and guitar during the session.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg405
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| HATAKEYAMA, CHIHEI |
White Sun |
mCD-R |
"japanese sound-artist chihei hatakeyama released his first solo cd in 2006 thanks to kranky. he has since released various other records on spekk or room40. his music could be described as structured soundscapes based on processed acoustic sounds, mainly acoustic guitar on this 3"." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| HATED BRUIT KOLLEKTIV |
Aktion One |
CD-R |
Noisiger Zusammenschluss dreier polnischer Projekte auf neuem Label, nach einem ironischen Jodel-Folk Song Einstieg breitet sich ein gut arrangierter Industrialnoise One-Tracker aus, eher im bassig / tiefnoisigen Bereich, mit sehr schönen atmosphärischen, fast dark ambienten Abschnitten.. Kommt in grossformatigem, dicken Postercover.
"HBK is an ephemeric project held among musicians behind Genetic Transmission, Moan and Nojsens. Three minds, three individualities, tree artists sharing one inspired vision. These are people we know for years so it became somehow natural to invite their bastard child to our NN therapy group finally, starting the "Harsh Kontakt" series of relases from now on.
The sound sculpture presented hereby has been captured at Bez Kontroli Fest 2007 as probably HBK's best gig to date. Expect the unexpected, as they have gone the whole hog, without no mercy to the audience or themselves. OK, it's all there: refreshing traditional industrial, warming harsh noise, stoned bruitist plunderphonics, and last but not least—good taste and the fucking clue, VSOP.
The packaging consist of a huge, A2-sized heavy stock poster folded to form A5 sleeve housed in a solid plastic wrapper. Limited to 250 hand numbered copies." [label info]
www.newnihilism.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| HATERS |
Hater Hole |
CD-R |
CD-R in bag with original holed papers from this performance, which happened on 28 of Dec. 1991 in NYC at Generator.
“A "clici-clic" is a hand-held hole-punch mounted with a contact-mic for amplification. The Haters (GX Jupitter-Larsen, Mitchal Goodman & Gen Ken) each used a clici-clic to pop hundreds upon hundreds of little holes through numerous sheets of paper & cardboard (including the Generator's lease!). For 28 minutes, the sound of the crushing was amplified into a fragile expansion of textural noises. Staged in the Generator freight elevator, this was The Haters 155th performance and the first time they employed the clici-clics as a sound making tool. The resulting holes were collected in a box and a selection is included with each package (while they last). GX Jupitter-Larsen started The Haters in 1979, after getting bored with playing in Punk bands. "People back then always talked about Punk as if was noise, but it was never noisy enough for me! However, awareness of my own audio fetish didn't appear for years. After a lot of trial and error, I would come to realize that my love for the sounds of destruction mirrored my love for decay." –G.X. Jupitter Larsen “ [label description]
|
0000 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Blank Banner |
CD |
“Noise as the Blank Banner of an Untitled Ideology” – drei Stücke mit typischer low-fi “destroyed music” von G.X. JUPITTER-LARSEN, wenige Kopien dieser Veröffentlichung auf dem legendären WE NEVER SLEEP – Label sind noch einmal erhältlich !
First CD of HATERS, on the legendary WNS-Label, last copies available....
|
1993 |
€13.00 |
|
| HATERS / GEHIRN.IMPLOSION |
... and in the end a beautiful memory remains |
7" |
"Auf 199 einmalige Exemplare limitierte neue split-7“ von den amerikanischen industrial-Pionieren „The Haters“ und den deutschen „Gehirn. Implosion“. „The Haters“ mit einem betörend intensiven industrial-Stück incl. GX´ Frau Jessica am Mikrofon. „Gehirn. Implosion“ mit einer epischen dunklen noise-Wand, krachig und laut. Die Single erscheint in grünem vinyl, mit gedrucktem cover, starker PVC-Schutzhülle sowie zwei inserts." [label info]
|
2008 |
€6.50 |
|
| HATERS / LA CYANESCENCE |
Untitled |
MC |
"Cassette C-60
Tracklist:
A1 Radio Abrasion Pt.4
A2 Radio Abrasion Pt.5
B Teonan Acatl
Notes:
Limited edition of 100 copies. Housed in a regular plastic box with added small poster on white kalki." [label info]
http://impulsystetoskopu.pl
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| HATI |
Recycled Magick Emissions |
mCD-R |
3-track EP with processed Gong-bangs that move and shift into each other quite nicely, and beautiful metalloid overtune-scapes that shimmer and drone softly... they're so good, this duo from Torun / Poland ! On the NEFRYT-sublabel in professional design!
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Zero Coma Zero |
CD-R |
Wir sind schwer begeistert von diesem neuen HATI-Release in der schönen NEFRYT-Reihe. Mit einem Riesen-Arsenal and Perkussions- & Gonginstrumenten und verschiedenen Hörnern, Flöten, etc.. hat HATI hier sehr anmutigende rituell-archaische Minimalismen geschaffen, die von einer ganz besonderen Stimmung sind. 9 Stücke, im goldbedruckten Deluxe-Cover, unsere wärmste Empfehlung!
“Recorded especially for Nefryt, new studio material this fantastic duo. A lot of exotic instruments and self-constructions built at this occasion!! On a top of minimal -conterporary - ethno! Great gold - grey A5 cover. Limited & numbered to 250.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Works for Scrap Metal |
CD |
Sehr schöne Edition (dickes Siebdruck-Falt-Cover, Booklet) und Verdeutlichung ihres Konzeptes "Recycled Sound Installation".
Alle erzeugten Klänge wurden auf Alltags-Schrott-Materialien (sowie daraus selbst gebauten Instrumenten) & rein akustisch aufgenommen.
Die Benutzung von "Abfall" in einer eigentlich sinnentfremdeten Art & Weise kann aus HATIs Sicht zu einer erhöhten Sensibilität & neuen Zugangsweisen für die Ästhetik der Alltagswelt führen, und somit das Bewusstsein verändern oder erweitern. Im Vordergrund stehen dabei Gruppenerfahrungen von Katharsis, die während der Konzerte stattfinden sollen (weshalb HATI auch v.a. eine live-Band sind).
"Works for Scrap Metal" beinhaltet eher ruhiges Material, HATI kitzeln dronig metallurgene & rauschende Pulses & Obertöne aus ihren Objekten, nicht nur live ist das ein Erlebnis, ein fast schon rituelles Eintauchen in die Mikrostruktur von Klang !
"New CD - includes music composed and performed on recycled instruments. Performed and recorded 'live in studio' by Rafal Iwanski and Dariusz Wojtas, Studio Eter, Torun, Poland. Track list: 1.Springs; 2.Barrels I; 3.Shakers; 4.Chaingong; 5. Barrels II; 6.Lidgong; 7.Coverchains; 8.Barrels III. Works for Scrap Metal is the intrinsic part of the project 100% Recycled Sound Installation. The booklet contains photos and 2 articles - by Rafal Iwanski and dr Darek Brzostek In the land of intonarumori ( historical outline of using recycled instruments in music on 20. century and nowadays). Texts in polish and english.The cover and the booklet are made of ecopapers = really nice edition." [label info]
"There's a really elegant economy of means about HATI's approach to music - out of quite humble, often improvised, acoustic instrumentation, they manage to create eloquent and evocative works. I'm tempted to dub what they do musica povera, after the arte povera art movement epitomized by the mixed media work of Joseph Beuys. But regardless of what you call it, HATI's music is innovative and inspired. As far as I'm aware, nobody else is doing quite what they're doing at the moment, although they have affinities with Z'EV (who's both toured and made an album with HATI) and ritual ambient acts like Terroritmo, COTA and Chaos As Shelter" [Simon Collins, JudasKissMagazine]
www.hati.info
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Die Mechanik, Die! |
CD |
Auf DIE MECHANIK, DIE! erweitern HATI ihr Spektrum und reichern ihre archaischen Gong- & Ethno-Drones mit elektronischen Gerätschaften an (v.a. dark ambiente Synths), sehr trancig & rhythmisch, ein Mitschnitt eines live-Konzerts in sehr guter Qualität.
"Trance dark electroacoustic sounds with excellent electronic machines! The album of the group from Torun - this time under the banner of Beast of Prey. A characteristic trance-gong-drone-music in the release "Die Mechanik, Die!" has been saturated with electronic sounds. Such HATI will suprise many of you! More than 45 minutes long album perfectly recorded during the performance in "the Mechanik" club in Gdansk. This time HATI famous for its acoustic sounds - made propably the darkest CD in its discography, the CD enriched with dark ambient tones. Tarry and heavy backgrounds perfectly harmonized with trance and mechanical instrumental variations of musicians move the imagination and bring nearer the world of the dying mechanics. From one side - harmonic and perfectly interrelated pieces of music, from the other side - increasing and intensifying athmosphere of the darkness which - like a rust - conquers more and more parts of urban areas. The title of this release speaks for itself." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
HATI has got already few albums released in Poland and Europe, also from the concert aspect is one of the most recognizable projects in our country and HATI's live performances take many people breath away. The group has been performing in many cities in Poland and also abroad: in Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands. HATI is a music group founded on sounds of acoustic instuments - traditional ones with the industrial instrumentarium. |
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
|
KA |
CD |
If you ever saw HATI live you know how intelligently contrived their compositions are - their vast array of ethnic instruments (mainly gongs & other metallic ones, but not solely) is controlled by them in a very professional way; and the dynamics between between softer and more spheric gong or metal parts and more rhythmic & ecstatic ones are perfectly set. These are studio-recordings made in August in Torun, Poland, their hometown. On eight pieces their totally handmade instrumental sound is spread far to create very versatile material. Seen as contemplative ritual music or focusing just on the beautiful sounds of real instruments, this is a perfect start to enter the HATI-universe if you don't know them yet!!
"... Ka is a much more varied, more sensual and, to my mind, more rewarding album than Works For Scrap Metal, a lot of which had the stern, austere feeling of ‘Industrial Régime’. The addition of harmonium in particular really extends Hati’s palette, and ‘Trans Muzik’ is easily the funkiest thing I've heard from this band. I wonder whether it isn’t time for Hati to try using the human voice – not lyrics and singing, but wordless chanting or humming? As far as I'm aware, they’ve never used voices. It’s just a suggestion. Anyway, Hati are playing in Britain for the first time next month, in London on June 12 with Z’EV and Raymond Salvatore Harmon, as part of the Equinox Festival, and I for one am very excited about the prospect of seeing them play, having admired them from afar for years.
The packaging of Ka is very nice, consisting of a cruciform cardboard envelope, rather like the sleeves favoured by the Finnish ambient label Aural Hypnox, with black-on-silver artwork." [Simon Collins / JudasKiss]
"... Primary sound source on the album is acoustic metal-percussions counting among others gongs of various kinds, steel barrels, metal discs and aluminum plates just to mention a few of the applied tools. The band itself terms their style as Trance-Gong - a quite hitting stylish term since the trio use the metallic percussive sounds to create this trance-inducing atmosphere that first of all draws associations towards the Gamelan-style of the Javanese territories. Apart from the sound pallets of metal percussion other important sound sources count bells of various kinds. Stylistic the music of the band are best termed as something in-between gamelan, ambient and ethnic minimalism. A quite fascinating and unusual album that probably won't find its fans on the dancefloor, but more likely demands for some horizontal listening." [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.myspace.com/hatitah
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Wild Temple |
CD |
"New studio album recorded by Rafal Iwanski and Rafal Kolacki with special guest Slawomir Ciesielski - great percussionist and drummer of legendary Polish rock band Republika (in 80. Republika was one of the most original European bands - thanks to their specific antimainstream rock & roll songs, with new wave-inspired music and lyrics). HATI forms a link between a personal interest in modern improvised and acoustic music with ritual and meditation. They worked together in 2010 on several tracks presented on the album and finally all material was recorded in big military objects in Torun from XIX century called Fort I. After the recording session the trio played one concert in Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun. " [label info]
www.monotyperecords.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Metanous |
CD |
" 'Metanous' is HATI's third album on Zoharum, but the first one including new material. Two years after releasing "Wild Temple" CD (MonotypeRec., 2013) the band is back with a new album which is a summary of the period 2011-2012 when the musicians performed as a trio of Rafał Iwański, Rafał Kołacki and Robert Darowski. It's the next time in their history when the duo changed their line-up to expand the sonic formula and create music of a slightly different nature. In the case of "Metanous" the weight of percussion is balanced by the sound of the didgeridoo which exists here not so much as an addition, but a fully-fledged instrument. As usual, you can hear many other instruments making up the sonic world of HATI from the very beginning of the band. Here you can find gongs, drums, bells, found objects, horns and other wind instruments. The sound generated in this new interaction is rich, song structures are usually complex, often based on a dialogue of characteristic
gong-based rhythms with didgeridoo and several other instruments played by Robert Darowski. Here are also acoustic drone explorations, equally important in the music of the group. Once again HATI reveals a new, hidden face. By re-building their line-up or inviting new members or collaborators (so far they include Z'EV, Dariusz Brzostek, Slawomir Ciesielski), Rafał Iwański and Rafał Kołacki still explore new sonic areas." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| HATI VS. LAL |
The Journey like never before |
CD |
"The clash of HATI's acoustic explorations with avant-garde, rhythmical electronica signed by LAL (2nd Hand Beatnix, The Witcher). It's one of the most electronically sounding projects ever done by HATI, which – as a band focused on playing live – uses mainly acoustic instruments. The mood of music changes from ambient, meditation and transcendence to experiment and rhythmical madness." [label info]
www.requiem.serpent.pl
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| HATTIFNATTER |
Barometrizm |
CD |
"Hattifnatter is a collaboration project by Evgeniy Savenko (Lunar Abyss, etc.) and M.M. (Kryptogen Rundfunk) formed in 2007 for free-form exploration of the psychoactive electroacoustic ambience and only now matured enough for this first full-length studio album. The material has been recorded in 2007-2013, infused and distilled, redefined and again sent to distillation and transformation to finally form into six compositions full of weird oneiric images.
Through the clouds of omnifarious rustles, hisses and crackles one can see the landscape built by analogue pulsations and multiplied echoed acoustic percussion clatter. Swarming in the bush of field recordings and random sound combinations are the little voices of the unknown creatures. The air of atonal guitar drones is soaked in melodic tunes, feedbacks and colourful multi-layered effects... Just like the doctor prescribed... Soulful mastering by Kshatriy (http://kshatriy.pro).
The physical manifestation of this release is made as a CD in a 4-panel cardboard digisleeve and as an audio cassette. The digital version can be bought on bandcamp, CDBaby and iTunes." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| HAUSCHKA |
A NDO C Y |
LP |
"Limitiertes Vinyl mit Remixen von DEVENDRA BANHART und ELUVIUM. Im letzten Jahr veröffentlichte HAUSCHKA (alias Volker Bertelmann) mit ,Abandoned City" ein Album von Klavierstücken, die von vergessenen Orten inspiriert wurden, die langsam verfallen und zurück in die Natur übergehen. Das Album war prachtvoll und einzigartig bewegend - Kritiker applaudierten und HAUSCHKA unterstrich einmal mehr seinen Status als Mitglied der Elite moderner Komponisten. ,A NDO C Y" ist eine Fortsetzung der Geschichte von ,Abandoned City", erzählt über zwei Seiten. Seite A versammelt fünf Tracks aus den Sessions zu ,Abandoned City"; eine Suite aus Songs, die sich zu einem ausnehmend stimmigen Ganzen fügen. Diese Songs verarbeiten minimalistischen Techno ebenso wie moderne Komposition, was die Tracks wie gemacht für Remixe erscheinen lässt. Auf Seite B interpretiert die Folk Ikone DEVENDRA BANHART ,Agdam" von ,Abandoned City" neu - zu Fragmenten aus einzelnen Klavierbeiträgen und aufbrausenden Synthies. Im Vergleich ist die Interpretation von ,Stromness" von ELUVIUM beinahe schockierend euphorisch, während Kaskagen aus Verzerrung sich über einzelne Klaviertöne ergießen. Als Download gibt es hier noch überdies ein atemberaubendes Livealbum, das Ende 2014 in Japan aufgenommen wurde. Die 40-minütige Performance teilt sich in zwei 20-minütige Improvisationen, die sich auf Themen von ,Abandoned City" gründet.
A NDO C Y is a continuation of the Abandoned City story, told as a tale of two sides. Side A features five tracks conceived during the Abandoned City sessions, a suite of songs that together form an exceptionally resonant whole. As with Abandoned City, these songs owe as much to minimalist techno as modern composition, which makes them particularly conducive to remixes. On Side B, experimental folk icon Devendra Banhart distills Abandoned City standout, "Agdam", to barely-there, fractured clusters of solitary piano strikes and swelling synths. By comparison, Eluvium's transformation of "Stromness" sounds almost shockingly euphoric, all cascading waves of distortion washed over a plethora of plucked piano pings. Included as a special bonus download is a stunning live album recorded in Yufuin, Japan in late 2014. The 40-minute performance is split into two 20-minute improvisations built on themes from Abandoned City. It's a gorgeous glimpse of live Hauschka, a world where songs you think you know become entirely new works of art at the mercy of Bertelmann's whims.
LIMITED EDITION OF 1,000 COPIES" [label info]
www.temporaryresidence.com
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| HAUSER, FRITZ |
Deep Time |
do-CD |
FRITZ HAUSER ist ein Schlagzeuger und Komponist aus Basel. Seine Komposition DEEP TIME, die viele extra hergestellte „Klangsteine“ und verschiedenste Uhren-Sounds verwendet, dient hier PAULINE OLIVEROS, DAVID GAMBER, URS LEIMGRUBER und FRITZ HAUSER selbst als Vorlage, um darüber mit accordion, saxophone, percussion und „expanded instrument system electronics“ zu improvisieren (Oktober 1994 in NYC). Zwei verschiedene Versionen sind so entstanden, in denen die Performer behutsame Impro-Drone-Tonkunst produzieren: jeder Ton, jedes Geräusch hat seinen Platz & seine Berechtigung, eine Art komplexe Reduziertheit wird hier etabliert...
„Pauline Oliveros, accordion & Expanded Instrument System; David Gamper, Expanded Instrument System electronics, misc. small instruments; Urs Leimgruber, soprano & tenor saxophones; Fritz Hauser, percussion
DEEP TIME is a tape composition commissioned in 1991 by the
Pauline Oliveros Foundation for Deep Listening Band. Fritz Hauser's tape features recordings of sounding stones (manufactured by Arthur Schneiter) and various watches and clocks (thanks to the Bucher family in Switzerland for permission to record that family clock!). The performers improvise with the tape. On October 26, 1994 Pauline Oliveros, David Gamper, Urs Leimgruber and Fritz Hauser recorded 2 versions of DEEP TIME. Both of these 32 minute recordings are included here.
Fritz Hauser is a drummer and composer from Basel, Switzerland. He has developed his sound language in varied ways. From solo concerts, in diverse ensembles, through multi-media projects (theater dance film radio) and many recordings, he has contributed to the development of the drumset from a mere timekeeper to an instrument in its own right.
Known internationally as a composer, accordionist and teacher, Pauline Oliveros's work in improvisation, electronic techniques, teaching methods, myth and ritual, and meditative and physical consciousness raising has changed the course of American music. She left the University of California at San Diego in 1981, at the rank of full professor, in order to support her ideas, creative projects and collaborations. All of her work emphasizes attentional strategies, musicianship and improvisational skills. Oliveros' compositions have been performed worldwide.
Composer/performer David Gamper is especially concerned with music performance electronics. He received a BA in mathematics in 1967 from Bowdoin College, and returned there in 1969 to study composition with Elliott Schwartz and establish their electronic music studio. He then went on to the University of California at San Diego where he studied composition with Pauline Oliveros and Roger Reynolds and received his MA in music. Since moving to New York in 1989 he has been working primarily with Pauline Oliveros. He is director of development for the Expanded Instrument System (a project of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation) and performs and records around the world with Oliveros and as a member of Deep Listening Band.
Urs Leimgruber has been active for many years in the areas of contemporary improvisation, composition, jazz and new music. One of his earliest associations was as a member of the electric jazz/free music group 'Om' with Christy Doran, Fredy Study and Bobbi Burri, and he later formed the 'Reflexionen' quartet with Don Friedman and Bobby Burri in New York. His own projects have included 'Ensemble Bleu', 'Xylem', e_a.sonata 02 with the ARTE saxophone quartet, as well as a long association with Fritz Hauser: as a duo with the ongoing Music for saxophone and percussion; in the Leimgruber/Roidinger/Hauser trio; a trio with Joëlle Léandre; and a trio with Marilyn Crispell. More recently he formed 'quartet noir' with Marilyn Crispell, Joëlle Léandre and Fritz Hauser and a trio with Jacques Demierre and Barre Phillips.” [label description & liner notes]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| HAVDIS |
The hidden Islands |
CD |
"Norwegian Havdis creates achingly beautiful aural paintings of a coastal world with streaks of romanticism and melancholy, a cold and unforgiving harsh environment of stark beauty and mystery for you to explore. Journey into the foggy waters and find a hidden archipelago to spellbind your soul. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Nightbreeze |
CD |
"Havdis and gterma would once again like to welcome all listeners back to the northern hinterlands, to experience the magnificent colours of the long summer nights, the strange shapes of the peculiar rocky landscape and the inward journey into the expansive ocean of the mind. Ten introspective pieces of twilight music. Album in jewelcase with a 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Novemberlys |
CD |
"When the darkness of the wilting season seems the most compact, when the abyss is staring back at us through the naked branches of every tree and the forests turn eerily silent, we are also reminded of the stark beauty that encapsulates us. It is the season of introspection, and of winter sleep." [label info]
gterma.blogspot.de
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAYLECK, ANDY |
The Disappearing Floor |
CD |
Interessanter US-composer mit erster CD! Die 10 Stücke hier basieren auf Field Recordings und mit Bogen gespielten grossen Becken oder Gongs. Bei seinen Feldaufnahmen nimmt er verschiedene Plätze auf oder versucht die physische Vibration von Gasen, Flüssigkeiten und Gegenständen akustisch abzubilden... das klingt meist nach ruhigen, metallischen Drones, irgendwo zwischen HARRI BERTOIA und T. TSUNODA....
Interesting US-composer with first CD ! 10 tracks based field recordings and gongs & cymbals played with a bow, he also tries to record the physical vibration of gases, liquids or solid objects...
[Drone Records info]
"Andy Hayleck has lived in Baltimore, Maryland since 1998. 'The Disappearing Floor' is Hayleck's first factory-made solo disc, gathers two years of patient and purposeful field recording in combination with bowed metal performance and carefully structured editing. The results are an exceptional series of pieces that breathe in short sips and massive whale-gasps through your speakers." [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAYNES, JIM |
The Wires cracked |
LP |
"The recordings for The Wires Cracked were completed in a frenzied two week period in October of 2012. I had mentioned in discussing a previous album's construction that I prefer to forget how I build any particular electro-acoustic amalgam. This is so that I don't get to precious with them, so that I could refine them further, so that the sounds themselves speak beyond their aggregate parts. With the album being relatively fresh in my mind, I can still recall various components to The Wires Cracked - the desolate howl of a metal screen activated by a desert wind, the hissing air compression from the cooling apparatus for a laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory operated by Stanford University, and the tremolo rhythms from a thin wire that still get me thinking fondly of Günter Schickert - but much of the caustic drone, thrumming reverberation, and tactile grit thoroughly escapes me. That's probably for the best, since these various parts speak to an existential rupturing, the collapse of the self, the aftershocks of dark energy, and a belief in the hope for renewal. About Jim Haynes: Describing his work through the pithy phrase, I rust things, Jim Haynes is an artist who has developed a vocabulary of decay that he has applied to photography, video, installation, and sound. Haynes' sound work draws from shortwave radio static, electric field disturbances, controlled feedback manipulation, and numerous textural scrapings, manifesting broken minimalism of magnetic drones and volatile tactility. This engineering of disparate materials and media seeks to evince the unpredictability of decay, to manifest its potential for a rough hewn beauty, and to bare witness to its inevitability. He has exhibited internationally at Electric Works (San Francisco), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art , the Bekerley Art Museum, The Exploratorium (San Francisco), WestSpace (Melbourne, Australia), Jack Straw Productions (Seattle), Eyedrum (Atlanta), Diapason (New York), and The Lab (San Francisco). Haynes has published his work through the Helen Scarsdale Agency, 23five Incorporated, Intransitive, Observatoire, and Elevator Bath. He has collaborated with Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), M.S. Waldron (irr. app. (ext.)), Keith Evans, Allison Holt, and Loren Chasse. Haynes is one of the directors for 23five Incorporated and is the sole occupant at the Helen Scarsdale Agency." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2013 |
€16.50 |
|
| HECKER, TIM |
Harmony in Ultraviolet |
CD |
Klang, schimmernd wie helles Licht! TIM HECKER ist nun auf Kranky gelandet, was seinem recht einmaligen Drone-Sound keinen Abbruch tut, im Gegenteil, HARMONY IN VIOLET erscheint uns wie der vorläufige Höhepunkt seines Schaffens: HECKER schafft es, seine digital-sphärischen Drones fast gleichzeitig wie einen monumentalen Noise-Sturm und doch höchst emotional harmonisch & zärtlich-melancholisch erklingen zu lassen....
"Hecker geht den auf seinen letzten Alben eingeschlagenen Weg weiter, baut ihn aus, erweitert ihn. Vielleicht ist "Harmony In Ultraviolet" nicht so hart wie das letzte Album "Mirages", aber Stücke wie "Chimeras" sind nicht weniger eindrucksvoll. Sie berauschen und entziehen den Hörer der Realität. Epische, weite und hocheindrucksvolle sphärische Momente brillieren da. Sie zeigen Heckers grosses Talent für Klangforschungen im Bereich der "spektralen" Musik. Überhaupt, Tim Heckers Klangkompositionen bewegen sich wie auf einem Farbspektrum: immer wieder werden neue Facetten und Färbungen abgetastet und herauspoliert. Feinfühlig, sensibel ebenso wie kalt, dunkel und zerfahren. Doch einerseits klingen die 15 neuen Stücke auf "Harmony In Ultraviolet" so bedeutungsvoll und geladen, andererseits aber so leicht zugänglich, durchschaubar... und bedeutungslos? Wie steckt man den Rahmen ab wenn man Heckers Musik beschreiben soll? Tim Hecker bewegt sich auf einem Feld von Ambient, Drone, elektronischer Musik, Noise und einem gefühlsmässigen Metal. "Harmony In Ultraviolet" ist ein Herbstalbum und erscheint genau zur richtigen Zeit. Denn zusammengefasst klingt es einfach wie der Herbstwind in all seinen Daseinsformen." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Call Canadian Tim Hecker's fourth full-length release (and first for drone-oriented American label Kranky) "ambient for bombardiers." Like onetime-tourmates Isis, Hecker's focus is on the molten core of metal—the drones, distortions, compressed crunching, and industrial noises that course underneath its notes and riffs. Not surprisingly, one of his earliest releases deconstructed and distended Van Halen's "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love" to more ambient ends. The display of WWII-era portraiture on Harmony in Ultraviolet's cover suggests a cenotaph to downed pilots (in actuality it's an anti-fascist memorial), while the overhead shot of Bologna, Italy, on the interior forebodes the imminent firebombing. Hecker's focus, though, is on the interior of that flying fortress, a blurry suite of movements rife with churns and buzzes. At these stratospheric heights, the guitar's distinct qualities are made fuzzy and uncertain via laptop and digital effects. If you melted off the pop structure from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless with some molten magma, you'd have a good idea of Hecker's sound.
Flow is maintained throughout, as Tim Hecker apparently understands that ever-tricky notion of fluid dynamics. He breaks up motifs (see "Palimpsest") with churning ebbs and digressions but keeps together the pinnacle suite, "Whitecaps of White Noise." And while Hecker has always been an adept craftsman, Harmony reveals his mastery of the idiom. Washes now feel oceanic, as epic and evocative ripples take shape out of unplumbed depths of feedback and distorted peals." [Andy Beta]
"....Harmony is, paradoxically, Hecker's most dramatic and most oceanic record. The former implies twists, arc, and carefully planned change intended to evoke specific effects; the latter suggests stasis, immersion, and a state of dreamy contemplation. Harmony manages to be both these things by surprising as it mesmerizes, with Hecker reigning in or tempering any jarring effects just enough to keep the self-obliterating sense of endless drone intact. One key is that the tension never really dissipates, varying only in degree and quality. The opening "Rainbow Blood" sets the scene with a screeching and trebly drone, like an orchestra tuning up in the darkened theater where Rebecca del Rio performed in Mulholland Drive, and for the next 48 minutes, Harmony keeps the pulse elevated..." [Mark Richardson / Pitchforkmedia]
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Radio Amor |
CD |
"... digitale drone-Schwebeflächen mit Harmonien & Noise, Stakkato-Eruptionen, aber alles träumerisch wie durch einen FETTEN Nebel-Schleier wahrgenommen. Very nice microdetail-ambience release from this canadian artist, dreamlike digi-drone-clouds as if perceived through a fat FOG-veil..
“Tim Hecker is considered one of the most talented and inventive i Canada's new breed of electronic musicians. Whereas his contemporaries often work within the confines of recognizable genres, critics and peers alike have been quick to note that Hecker's work has grown increasingly original and unclassifiable. If one were to draw a comparison, an apt description for "Radio Amor" would fall somewhere in between Fennesz's "Endless Summer" and Oval's "Diskont 94". Because of its combination of sheer experimentation and organic fluidity, this album rises to a level of synchronicity achieved by only a handful of albums in the past few years. Truly an exciting artistic achievement.
Having released two critically acclaimed full-lengths on Montreal's Alien8/Substractif imprint, Tim Hecker is set to make his Mille Plateaux debut this spring. Fans of the label family will already be aware of Hecker's work through his minimal techno alias, Jetone on Force Inc. "Ultramarin", Jetone's second outing, was one of Force Inc's more adventurous releases of last year. Unlike its predecessors, this release abandons the coma-like ether of structured rhythms for a much more rewarding world of white noise, trade winds, and a miasmic mixture of saturated piano and guitar melody. A mature work indeed, especially important in such an era of reckless cultural inundation. “ [press release Mille Plateaux]
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Norberg |
maxi-CD |
"....Imagine if you will sitting on the sand of some enchanted beach somewhere, precisely at the intersection between land and ocean, where the waters break upon the shore. This is like an endlessly crashing wave of drones and rumbles, the sound swirling around one’s ears, initially breaking into myriads of liquid cut-diamond arpeggios glinting in the pure sunlight and submerging the body in womb-like warmth; and then slowly and infinitesimally receding, the music clinging longingly, almost reluctant to let go. Paradoxically, one doesn’t feel stifled or as if grasping for breath; instead, there’s a feeling of timelessness and limitless freedom, as if one could be absorbed by the waters and somehow find oneself a part of every single drop of water in the oceans and seas. Also paradoxically, even though the drones drape one in the velvet of the deepest ocean depths there is contradictorily a fragile beauty, airiness and lightness evident throughout." [S:M:J63, Heathen Harvest]
"Recorded at the Norberg Festival (Sweden) amidst the mineshafts and cluttered buildings strewn throughout parts the city, this 21 minute live piece summarises much of what makes Tim Hecker’s music so vital and compelling. Adept at counter-pointing the most ferocious of distorted platters with smooth beds of ambient sound and potent melodic overtones, Tim Hecker creates music with a vast depth. On Norberg, this depth seems almost endless, as layer upon layer of sound are compiled into a swelling and all together visceral oceanic sound wave.
Recently touring Australia and New Zealand and performing at ROOM40’S annual festival Open Frame, this CD comes on the back of some incredible live performances in the Southern Hemisphere." [label info]
label-website: www.room40.org
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Ravedeath, 1972 |
CD |
"Tim Hecker's latest work approaches a form of secular musical transcendentalism from within the battered temple of spirituality. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and using a pipe organ as the primary sound source, this new piece is essentially a live recording. In reality, it exists in a nether world between captured live performance and meticulous studio work, melding the two approaches to sonic artifice as a unity. It is in parts a document of air circulating within a wooden room, and also a pagan work of physical resonance within a space once reserved for the hallowed breath of the divine. While the title of the piece 'Hatred of Music' might be a clue, the album is also partly an attempt to confront a pervasive negativity surrounding music. Historical rituals of destroying pianos, mountains of pirated CDRs pushed by bulldozers in Eastern Europe, or the melancholy of the digital music era began as sideline motifs which quickly informed the work on this record. They also really didn't at all. Despite that the context is wide open in such a form of musical abstraction, the substance of these immersive compositions showcases Hecker's continued mastery of organizing sound into a visceral near entity. It is an almost physical presence that the listener feels as much as hears. This work is a significant contribution to Hecker's oeuvre, one which spans over ten years of musical production. Ravedeath is an enigmatic document of beauty and force. The album was recorded mostly over the period of one day in July of 2010. Iceland-based musician Ben Frost assisted with the engineering and performs on this recording." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Dropped Pianos |
LP |
"This new Tim Hecker release is composed of sketch pieces recorded in 2010 in preparation for what would become the Ravedeath, 1972 album. All of the compositions are piano driven and minimal in nature.
This is not a new Tim Hecker album, but rather a peek behind the curtains into the working process. That these pieces stand on their own as compelling soundworks is a testament to the fact that Tim Hecker is at the absolute top of his game at the moment." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2011 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Dropped Pianos |
CD |
"This new Tim Hecker release is composed of sketch pieces recorded in 2010 in preparation for what would become the Ravedeath, 1972 album. All of the compositions are piano driven and minimal in nature.
This is not a new Tim Hecker album, but rather a peek behind the curtains into the working process. That these pieces stand on their own as compelling soundworks is a testament to the fact that Tim Hecker is at the absolute top of his game at the moment." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Norberg |
LP |
"This year Room40 celebrates 15 years of editions and events. As part of the celebrations we are re-issuing a number of editions in various formats that are out of print.
One of these editions brings together two of the pieces we’ve had the pleasure to publish by Tim Hecker. These two works were both created in conjunction with visits by Tim to Australia and were released in limited quantities.
The 7” edition of Apondalifa basically vanished upon release. It was also originally split across a 7”. On this new edition, cut by the wondrous LUPO at Calyx, the piece is available on vinyl for the first time in its extended format.
Tim remains a dear friend to us, and an inspiration! We’re glad to be revisited these astounding pieces and making them both available in this format for the first time!" [label info]
www.room40.org
"This album collects two long out of print releases that the beloved Tim Hecker produced for Room 40 quite a while ago - Norberg was a 20 minute EP from 2007, and Apondalifa was a 7" dating to 2010. These being Tim Hecker releases, we had much to say about these gauzy, blurry, buzzy expanses of muted digital glitch, disembodied melodies, sepia toned ambience, organic and electronic woven into swirling shimmering soundscapes. So here's a synopsis of the two reviews we penned a while back about about the two recordings that constitute this, yet another exquisite Tim Hecker production!
Norberg begins with an Oval like sweep of glimmering chimes and washed out whir, but quickly develops into something much more weighty, the chimes swallowed up by a warm whirring blur, a softly churning, slowly crumbling wall of blissed out guitar buzz, the buzz very gradually dissipating, leaving just the hiss and the whir, to drift like gossamer clouds in a deep blue sky. The sounds become softer and softer, muted and murky, underwater sounding, allowed to pulse and ebb and flow and sway softly back and forth, under a delicate patina of electronic crackle, an ultra distorted guitar way down in the mix unfurling ribbons of gnarled prismatic crunch, spread out over the hushed shimmer below, like the icy crust on a dying sun. Finally the hiss takes on a life of it's own, pushing all of the other sounds under the surface, the hiss made up of all manner of skipping static and layered white noise, impossible musical in its own right, the perfect climax to a surprisingly bracing expanse of buzzing blissful ambient sound.
Apondalfia is a gloriously washed out sprawl of warm fuzz and softly swirling melodic squalls, all of the edges smoothed out, but leaving plenty of grit, the guitars way more obvious than in the past, but it's hard to tell exactly what they're doing, they seem to be unfurling strange little woozy warped melodies, that seem to loop and layer and shift constantly, ringing out and bleeding into the various sounds around them, all beneath the thick sonic swells and a glacially churning shimmery sonic gauze. So beautiful and deliriously hypnotic!" [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€24.00 |
|
| HEEMANN, CHRISTOPH & GERARD HERMAN |
Project Pope |
LP |
Some Fine Legacy is proud to announce the first LP by Project Pope, the collaborative project of Antwerp artist Gerard Herman and Christoph Heemann, known from his solo output as well as many releases with Mimir, In Camera and Mirror.
Prior to Project Pope Gerard Herman has been producing a series of intriguing solo LP releases for the Entracte, Kraak and Opgewarmde Groenten labels.
Then in 2021 the two met for a week at Les Ateliers Claus in Brussels to produce this new masterpiece of distorted beauty. On two sidelong tracks Herman and Heemann explore and combine hypnotic piano loops processed with analogue electronics, slow motion drone rock and ethereal textures into a unique expression and entrancing experience that needs to be heard to be believed.
The result is equally strange and bewildering as the Clifford Simak novel the project name was inspired by.
Composed by Gerard Herman and Christoph Heemann
Artwork and Design by Gerard Herman
Music created by Gerard Herman and Christoph Heemann
Recorded at Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels Sep 2022
Mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Melbourne 2022
https://somefinelegacy.bandcamp.com/album/projekt-pope
|
2024 |
€23.00 |
|
| HEGARTY, ANTONY |
The Art of Antony: Swanlights |
BOOK + CD |
"Wunderschöne, üppige Kunst mit Songtexten im typisch künstlerischen Stil von Antony. Dieses Buch ist das ideale Geschenk für Liebhaber von Kunst und Musik. Antony Hegarty, Leadsänger der von Kritikern regelmäßig lobgepreisten Band ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS, präsentiert hier sein erstes Kunstbuch – eine prachtvolle Kombination aus Kunst, Liedtexten und anderen Medien (Malerei, Zeichnungen, Photographie und Collage), die sich gegenseitig ergänzen und einen interessanten Kommentar zur Musik, persönlichen Mythologie und der Gender Problematik von Antony liefern. Zum Buch gesellt sich die neueste CD von Antony, „Swanlights“, die gleichzeitig regulär veröffentlich wird. Antonys Kunst war kürzlich das Thema einer eigenen Ausstellung in London. Ende des Jahres wird Antony im MOMA eine Installation/Kunstperformance vorstellen. Das Debütalbum von ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS „I Am A Bird Now“ wurde seinerzeit von Mojo zum Album des Jahres gewählt; Antony erhielt den angesehenen Mercury Prize." [label info]
|
2010 |
€32.50 |
|
| HEINZE, STEFAN |
Pzzt 1982 1983 |
MC |
"Stefan Heinze PZZT 1982/1983
c-40 d.a.s. 014 2013 50 copies artwork eliab
Inox Kapell did under his born-name Stefan Heinze some different tapes in the early 80th, industrialpopique and wired stuff with sprechgesang and singing and instrumental waves, electronic-fluxus, glitsches, and early angst-pop. The tape is a selection of some songs that came out of this period of tonband, tape-recorder, organ and synths, panasonic-loop-tapes. All recorded in Collinghorst / Eastfrisia /north-Germany.
listen: http://dasandereselbst.org/listen/heinze_pzzt/heinze_pzzt.htm" [label info]
http://dasandereselbst.org
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| HEIRS |
Alchera |
LP |
"... Durch die bereits angesprochene Monotonie bekommen die Lieder eine wirklich unaussprechliche Brachialität verliehen, die aber nie auszubrechen droht, wie zum Beispiel ähnlich gelagerte Bands wie Pelican oder Explosions in the Sky. Auch verzichten die HEIRS komplett auf Gesang oder orchestrale Untermalungen, und so stehen sie mit ihrem kargem und brachialem, aber dennoch wahnsinnig emotionalen Sound so ziemlich alleine da. Spiralförmig ziehen die sechs Songs den Hörer immer tiefer in ein anderes Universum, lassen ihn dann wieder fallen, geben aber durch die stets aufkommenden und zutiefst befreienden Melodiebögen eine Hoffnung preis, die man so kaum gehört haben dürfte. Die HEIRS schaffen mit ihrem Debüt "Alchera" einen Postrock-Meilenstein, der sich vom Einheitsbrei stark abhebt, spielen mit dem Hörer ihr ganz eigenes Spiel, der nach dem letzten Song, dem ambienten "Russia" in einer Trance zurück gelassen wird, die er so schnell nicht vergisst. Natürlich wird "Alchera" vielen Leuten vor den Kopf stoßen, das ist ein ganz eigenes Universum, und lässt sich mit keiner Band aus diesem Genre vergleichen. Dabei haben die hier enthaltenen 45 Minuten Musik viel mehr, als man von einer Post–Band erwarten dürfte. Ein wirklich bemerkenswertes Debüt, das nicht nur frischen Wind mit sich bringt, sondern die neuen Scheiben von MONO, PELICAN und Co ganz klar hinter sich lässt. Eine wunderschöne Aufmachung gibt es obendrauf. Alles richtig gemacht." [In-Your-Face]
"Heirs is the marriage of dark and light. The pain and hopelessness of addiction vs the elation of freedom. The name Heirs originates from an ideal of "hunting and gathering" musical ideas, and formulating these ideas into an improved version. To write music without paying some sort of tribute to the artists influencing your everyday subconsciousness is a dishonest practice. The name stands as a allegory - to be the Heirs of a musical history and to expand on this, becoming a part of history themselves. Heirs began as a solo project by Damian Coward (Maps, Love Like... Electrocution) in late 2006, founded by a importunity to create a personal sound and direction. Heirs expanded its lineup during 2008 and consists of Brent Stegeman (Whitehorse, Love Like... Electrocution) and Ian Jackson (Damn Arms) on guitars, Laura Bradfield on bass and Coward on drums.
Heirs' debut full-length "Alchera" is a 43 minute movement of oppressive instrumental power, cyclic ritualism and bleak hallucinogenic revelation. Recorded at Head Gap Studios by Neil Thomason in the heat waves of Melbourne in January 2009 and mastered by James Plotkin (Isis, Khanate, Burning Witch), the 6 pieces recorded capture the band's live volume - a blanket of sound traversing a rolling dynamic landscape. Drawing influence from Michael Gira and his Swans legacy, the sledgehammer riffs and industrial pummel of Godflesh, and continuing Stegeman's incense shrouded low-end incantations from his work with doom dealers Whitehorse, combined with Jackson's reverb-soaked noise, Alchera strips bare the needless excesses of post-rock and heavy metal in favour of something much more concise and affecting. A lurching, drugged-out specter - holding solace in one hand, and vengeance in the other. From the seething metallic buzz and bluster of the opening track "Plague Asphyx", through to the crowning low-end droning turbulence of "Russia", the recording is an archetype for an existence shrouded in confusion, joy, disappointment and addiction. Heirs are touring Nationally throughout Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe/UK for the rest of 2009. Dates can be found on their website - www.heirs.com.au." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Fowl |
CD |
"Upon returning to Melbourne after 67 shows across Europe and Japan, Heirs commenced work on their second album, Fowl. With the baton of core song-writing being handed from drummer Damian Coward to guitarist, Brent Stegeman, Heirs turned their attention toward their electronic underbelly, honing in on the industrial vapour and blackened ambience that
permeated their debut, Alchera, distilling the underlying sense of melody with an arresting sense of dread. Fowl displays a deliberate shift towards a broader sonic palette, enabling the band to incorporate disparate inuences and approaches to create a sound that is uniquely their own.
Fowl deals with the human processing of the ornery – the filth we feed upon to entertain us, to sate our hunger, to gratify our sexual desires, to escape our reality or simply to facilitate our survival. Fowl is an exploration of the consumption of filth, the nourishment it provides and the way we excrete it back into the world, calling into question the notion of morality and its place in an increasingly faithless populace.
From wheezing blasts of industrial steam to weeping passages of gothic suspense, Fowl is a fully realised analysis of the repugnant. Its pugilistic rhythmic foundation, reverb soaked guitars, crackling electronics and deadpan dark-wave meditation create an abstract dronescape of industrial dirge and metallic ambience coalesced into an ambitious whole.
Recorded and mixed by Neil Thomason at Head Gap in June/July 2010, and produced by Brent Stegeman and Damian Coward, Fowl is a 45-minute journey inside the proverbial machine and represents a band confronting the visual and aural atrocities of the quotidian.
The VINYL VERSION comes with a fantastic design in three different colors (white with yellow, Black/Yellow - A Side / B Side, Black) in a heavy gatefold sleeves with thick printed inner sleeves and on 180g. The CD is available as a limited card pack. For fans of Swans, Controlled Bleeding, HTRK, Pelican, Godflesh & Nadja." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| HELDEN, JOHANNES |
Sketchbook |
CD |
Höchst introspektive und verhaltene erste Veröffentlichung (?) eines Schweden: angenehm warme Soundbrisen und -wellen mit manchmal konkreteren Feldaufnahmen, ein wahrer KlangHAUCH entsteht hier.
“..Based on field recordings Johannes made while traveling from Sweden to Russia via Norway, Sketchbook is a quiet, moody work of great atmosphere and devoid of all pretention. In an essay I wrote for the Digital Narcis label’s new website you will find the following statement: ‘’In my earlier days as an artist, I believed that there had to be something called ‘Kunstwille’ in German (i.e., the will to
create art) and a specific gesture (I called ‘the art gesture’ in my own terminology) to turn a given material into a work
of art. This can indeed bring about excellent results, but there is also an inherent danger in this when the will to create and the ‘art gesture’ become the masters, and artistic sensibility is lost. Nowadays I have come to distrust the ‘artness’ in art, and feel that I should do without the ‘will to create’ and the ‘art gesture’ to create art just the same way one eats, sleeps and breathes. I’m thinking of the descriptions of Kendo practice Mishima Yukio has put in some of his works: the real master has to forget the sword, the enemy, the will to kill the enemy, and the wish to be a master.’’ [press release]
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| HELL, RENE |
The Terminal Symphony |
LP + CD |
"Latest & possibly greatest moniker of U.S. noisenik Jeff Witscher (IMPREGNABLE, SECRET ABUSE, MARBLE SKY). Synthesized kosmiche sounds - but unlike many of his contemporaries, instead of delving into nostalgia, there is something decidedly modern about Witscher's compositions. The bubbling, effervescent synthesizer sequences & percussive patterns seem to twist & turn over each other with a near-techno precision. This is pure electronic music - songs created with analog circuits & half-baked patch cables, dusty cassette tapes & greased-up potentiometers. Ltd vinyl edition comes with a full-length bonus CD entitled Rogue Camera." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2011 |
€21.00 |
|
| HELM |
The Hollow Organ |
12inch |
"PAN presents four vital concrète incursions by nether field traveller Luke Younger aka Helm, marking his first transmissions since the studio rituals that birthed his highly acclaimed Impossible Symmetry' and Silencer' releases. The Hollow Organ' toes a deliberate line in the mud between his previous transgressions and a chokingly dank realisation of his most untoward, paralytic sound. Poised as a dark interpreter between the grotesque and the transcendent, he activates research gleaned from his petrifying live performances coupled with an increasingly squalid and visceral palette of anguished machine voices, sub-zero drones and bone-scraped rhythmic noise to divine unearthly space somewhere between semi-legal horror soundtrack and hyperstitious surreality. Its opening gambit, Carrier' is the most succinct and uncannily ambiguous; perilously close to Gas-like ambient pop but rescued from serenity by manic tape spool and excoriating, demonic vocal. The vortex of Analogues' proceeds, ploughed by stereo-twinned engines of churning tape loops to a pitch black, eschatalogical climax, and Spiteful Jester' feels like the unshakable onset of a panic attack, ratcheting the intensity with blank-eyed, stoic method. For ten minutes The Hollow Organ' drains last with an unnerving, quiet blood-letting of carmine iron drones evaporating ferric overtones whilst percussions clank in your blind spot behind the screen." [label info]
"More fantastic electronic weirdness from the Pan label, this one, the latest from Luke Younger, aka Helm, who crafts a dizzying expanse of blunted post industrial rhythms, and blurred psychedelic ambience, lazer blast blurts that sound like light sabers are tangled into strange shapes over throbbing low end pulsations, while all around clouds of hiss and static and thrum swirl and shimmer, noisy and psychedelic, but darkly hypnotic. Elsewhere the sounds splinter into weird avant musique concrete, blasts of noise swooping from speaker to speaker, a wildly ecstatic 'pipe fight', sculpted into an abstract psych-noise groove. Younger also delves into power electronics, with keening arcs of feedback, draped over a churning chordal thrum, peppered with bursts of strangely melodic static, sounding almost like Skullflower attempting to make dance music, and failing fantastically, before finally finishing things off with a haunting bit of deep drone loveliness, sinister shimmering clouds of muted rumbles ripple out in soft clouds, an ominous, haunting and harrowing sprawl of hushed mesmeric murk that might be the dreamiest bit of grim black ambience we've heard in ages!
Like all Pan releases, the packaging is stunning, a plain white sleeve in a clear PVC plastic jacket, printed in purple ink, liner notes on one side, the band name all tangly and geometric on the other. And yeah, limited too!" [Aquarius Records]
www.pan-act.com
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Impasse |
LP |
"Impasse is a sideways journey into the archives of London-based artist Luke Younger, a.k.a. Helm. Conceived six years ago in the wake of a Birds of Delay tour, the album originally saw the light of day in an abridged version as a mini-CDR on the Low Point label in 2008. This remastered and expanded reissue has the two original tracks along with two others from the same sessions that remained unmixed until a couple of years ago. Impasse appears as somewhat of an anomaly in the Helm canon when viewed alongside recent live performances and his work for labels like Pan and Kye. Where other works explore the mystery inherent in everyday sounds and acoustic phenomena, Impasse is significantly brighter in tone. Consisting of four loop-based pieces, the record invokes the same fantastic worlds found in Terry Riley’s or Boyd Rice’s early ambient pieces. Picture a functional family vacation, an explorer at the apex of his endeavors, a 4:00 AM drinking session with new liquids discovered. Bright corners, euphoric angles and ecstatic drones come together for an emotionally charged high that reflects these unique moments in the human experience. The beauty of Helm lies in its implacable curiosity, the way his music observes the current state of being. Released in a limited edition with artwork by Graham Lambkin, Impasse is another sublime offering from one of the UK’s sharpest cats." [label info]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Axis |
LP |
"London exploratory industrialist Luke Younger characterizes the creation of his latest collection, Axis, as a liberating return to roots: “It felt like going back to the beginning, it felt freeing.” Begun before the pandemic as a soundtrack to a dance performance, the initial vision was for something “visceral, with physical movement in mind.” When the project shifted to indefinite hiatus, he reimagined the material in the context of an LP, while retaining its sense of dynamic physicality. The result is grim and gripping, seasick throbs lurching in a low-ceilinged space, strafed with fractured clanging, hissing steam, and grinding spirals of granular haze. Noise in its most elevated and compelling form, from and for the body as much as the mind.
The album’s unique immediacy stems from Younger’s instinctual muse, reactivating raw methods with fresh energy. “I tuned back in to working with noise techniques again: more primitive equipment, cheap FX, contact mics, noise boxes.” Key guest contributions by Lucy Railton (cello), Mark Morgan of Sightings (guitar), Alex Tucker (vocals), and the late, legendary John Hannon (violin) further enrich the record’s bristling palette. Although half the tracks were begun pre-Covid at Hannon’s Essex studio, the rest were finished in Younger’s kitchen and living room during lockdown. The final tracks were then relayed to veteran mix specialist Randall Dunn, who further honed the material, adding a vivid spatial quality before entrusting the album to Stefan Betke (Pole) for final mastering.
From the hellscape metronome of “Moskito” to the insectoid warzone pulse of “Repellent” to the seething orchestral undertow of “Axis,” this is music of ominous gravity and worlds in peril. But it’s the closing cut, “Tower,” which Younger calls “perhaps the most dramatic piece of music I’ve ever made.” A lurking, blackened descension conjured on keys, guitar, and wormhole wah, the melody simmers and swells until suddenly exploding in a chaos of distorted blast beats. From their ashes the three-note riff slowly returns, like some astral dungeon synth exorcism, rising in a searing arc towards frenzied immolation before finally fading away in white fire and afterlife whispers."
"HELM has consistently been one of the most fascinating (projects) in British experimental music the past decade" - The Quietus Luke Younger, der unter dem Moniker HELM Alben veröffentlicht, die bereits Kult-Status genießen, hat beim Label DAIS angedockt. HELM hat bislang fünf Studioalben und drei EPs mit experimenteller Musik veröffentlicht, in denen er eine Beziehung zwischen akustischen, elektronischen und realen Klängen erforscht. Ab 2012 veröffentlichte er seine Alben beim renommierten PAN Label, darunter die von Kritikern und Fans gleichermaßen gefeierten Alben "Olympic Mess" und "Chemical Flowers". Der Londoner Industrial-Musiker Luke Younger aka HELM beschreibt die Kreation seiner neuesten Kollektion "Axis" als eine befreiende Rückkehr zu den Wurzeln: "It felt like going back to the beginning, it felt freeing." Das Ergebnis ist düster und fesselnd: Seekranke Klänge, die in einem niedrigen Raum taumeln, durchsetzt von gebrochenem Klirren, zischendem Dampf und mahlenden Spiralen aus körnigem Dunst. Lärm in seiner höchsten und fesselndsten Form, von und für den Körper ebenso wie für den Geist. Wichtige Gastbeiträge von Lucy Railton (Cello), Mark Morgan von Sightings (Gitarre), Alex Tucker (Gesang) und dem verstorbenen, legendären John Hannon (Violine) bereichern die schillernde Palette des Albums zusätzlich. Mix-Spezialist Randall Dunn verfeinerte das Material und fügte eine lebendige räumliche Qualität hinzu, bevor er das Album Stefan Betke (Pole) für das endgültige Mastering anvertraute. Vom höllischen Metronom von "Moskito" über den insektoiden Warzone-Puls von "Repellent" bis hin zum brodelnden orchestralen Unterton von "Axis" ist dies Musik von bedrohlicher Schwere und Welten in Gefahr. Aber es ist das abschließende Stück "Tower", das Younger als "perhaps the most dramatic piece of music I've ever made." bezeichnet. Ein lauernder, geschwärzter Abstieg, beschworen von Tasten, Saiten und Wurmloch-Wah, die Melodie brodelt und schwillt an, bis sie plötzlich in einem Chaos aus verzerrten Blastbeats explodiert. Aus ihrer Asche kehrt das dreistimmige Riff langsam zurück, wie ein astraler Kerker-Synthie-Exorzismus, der sich in einem brennenden Bogen zur rasenden Verbrennung steigert, bevor er schließlich in weißem Feuer und Jenseitsgeflüster vergeht.
"Mit einem an Bauhaus’ „The Sky’s Gone Out“ erinnernden Cover erscheint nach einer Reihe von Alben mit “Axis” der neue Longplayer von Helm, dem Einmannprojekt von Luke Younger, auf Dais Records. Younger bezeichnet sich auf seiner Bandcampseite als „sound artist and experimental musician“, dabei hat er eine lange und durchaus heterogene(re) musikalische Biographie (u.a. Hardcore mit The Lowest Form).
Auf „Axis“, ursprünglich vor der Pandemie konzipiert als Soundtrack für eine Tanzperformance, die dann doch nicht zustande kam, setzt Younger bewusst „primitives“ Equipment ein (“cheap FX, contact mics, noise boxes”). Hinzukommen Gastmusiker an Geige, Gitarre, Cello sowie Gesang von Alex Tucker.
Mit zerhäckselten Störtönen beginnt das das Album eröffnende „Para“, bevor melodische Passagen einsetzen. Das elektronische Gebrutzel, das sich immer wieder verdichtet, gibt dem Stück eine dissonante Unruhe. „Moskito“ mit seinem kuriosen, kargen und schleppenden Rhythmus, klingt anfangs nach Minimaltechno, dann lassen sich dissonante Streicher erahnen. “Crash” dagegen ist – dem Titel zum Trotz – ruhiger, besitzt fast schon Ambientcharakter. Hier sorgen Streicherpassagen für Momente der Melancholie. Dieses Innehalten wird mit den Zahnarztbohrersounds, die “Repellent” einleiten, beendet. Dann setzen verzerrte Beats ein. “Mole” knistert, als werde eine Verpackung geöffnet. Das ist ein dunkles Stück Geräuschmusik mit Streicherpassagen, die an einen Folk Horror-Soundtrack denken lassen. Auf dem düsteren Titeltrack hört man übereinandergeschichtete schabende und nach Sirenen klingende Sounds, die in einer Kakophonie untergehen. “Tower” schließlich ist ein im Kontext des Albums fast schon orchestraler, dramatischer Track. The rest is silence." [MG / African Paper]
|
2021 |
€23.00 |
|
| HELVACIOGLU, ERDEM |
Altered Realities |
CD |
"Meine erste Post aus Istanbul macht mich bekannt mit einem mehrfach preisgekrönten Elektroakustiker mit weltweiten Performance- und Installationserfahrungen, mit einem breiten Fächer an Sounddesigns für Film, Theater, Tanz, an Produktions- und Sessionjobs, an Auftrags-kompositionen, Kollaborationen (etwa mit Kazuya Ishigami von Neus-318) und Kompilationbeiträgen. Bei seinem Beitrag Kicking Memories zum Projekt Audio Elf beim ScoreCologne-Festival zur letzten Fußball-WM zeigte er polyglotte Fußballerinnerungen als global gemeinsamen Nenner. In seiner Performance Living in Istanbul zur Ausstellung BLUT & HONIG - Zukunft ist am Balkan (2003) operierte er u.a. mit Soundtracks populärer türkischer B-Movies und, ähnlich wie bei seinem CDDebut A Walk Through The Bazaar 2003, mit Straßenmusik und dem Alltagslärm von Istanbul, den er zusätzlich elektronisch abwandelt. Trash und Mischmasch ist das einzig ‚Folkloristische’ und ‚Balkan-spezifische’ dabei. Abwandeln, to alter, scheint Helvacioglus Leitmotiv zu sein - wo Blut [türkisch kan] war, soll Honig [türkisch bal] werden. Seinen neuen Arbeiten gab er Namen wie ‘bridge to horizon’, ‘sliding on a glacier’, ‘dreaming on a blind saddle’ oder ‘pearl border’. Sie entsprechen vollkommen dem impressionistischen, träumerischen,
eskapistischen Charakter der Klänge, die er mit einer akustischen Ovation Custom Legend 1869-Gitarre erzeugte und gleichzeitig liveelektronisch mit Multieffektprozessor, Midi foot controller und Audiomulch-Software so modulierte, dass Wohlklang betont schwerelos und frei veränderlich sich entfaltet. Der folkloristische, mehr kosmo-politische als rein orientalische Aspekt des Saitenspiels wird transferiert durch ein Hightechmorphing, das ungeniert Wohlfühlsignale ausstrahlt, Entspannung jenseits so erdenschwerer Trivialitäten wie EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen, unbewältigtem ‚Armenierproblem’ und ‚Beleidigung des Türkentums’. Ohne Scheu vor Kitschverdacht lässt Helvacioglu seine Gitarre harmonieverliebt und zart blinken und all seine virtuosen elektronischen Manipulationen scheinen das Ziel zu haben, zuckersüßen Tee zur Entspannung zu servieren und spielerisch Veränderlichkeit zu realisieren. Einfacher sagte es Ishigami: "Ich fliehe in den Klang, es ist die Flucht aus einer kleinen Welt in eine große." " [Bad Alchemy]
"Altered Realities is an album of solo acoustic guitar and live electronics. All of the compositions were recorded in real-time, directly to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) without any overdubs, mixing, editing, post-processing, or the use of previously recorded material. All of the textures were created based only on the acoustic guitar signal with no other sound source used during the recording. Within these textures, there are long sustaining single notes, beautiful shimmering chords and rhythmic clusters.
During the making of this album, Ovation Custom Legend 1869 acoustic guitar, TC Electronic Fireworx multi effects processor, Behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller and the software Audiomulch were used.
With no post-processing, no editing and no use of previously recorded material, the moment that is recorded is the moment that we hear on the cd." [label info]
www.newalbion.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Timeless Waves |
CD |
"NEW SERIES FRAMEWORK: An extension of our CONCRETE ELECTRONICS NOISE, a brand new mix-up of unusual conceptions of sound material by young unknown composers, well known not-so-young composers and old but clever composers.
Timeless Waves originally composed for a 47 channel / 53 speaker diffusion system running on The Morning Line, is a sonic work based on six basic human emotions. The CD is a stereo version of this multichannel work. The piece has been inspired by W. Gerrod Parrott's book "Emotions in Social Psychology" and has been commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-BA 21) for The Morning Line - an interdisciplinary art project by Matthew Ritchie, Aranda/Lasch and Arup AGU - and premiered in May 2010, when the project was exhibited at Eminonu Square in Istanbul. Sonically, Timeless Waves is based on the timbres of Togaman GuitarViol, Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, sine waves, various analog pedals and hardware fx processors. The music combines elements from genres such as electroacoustic, drone, noise, contemporary music blended with minimal melodies.
Erdem Helvacioglu was born in Bursa, Turkey in 1975. He is one of the most renowned 'contemporary electronic music' composers of his generation in Turkey. His music has been broadcast on national radios such as BBC, ABC, WDR and Radio France, among others. He has received commissions from the 2006 World Soccer Championship, TBA 21 The Morning Line, Borusan Center for Culture & Arts, Arter "Space for Art", The Association for the Art of the Harp, Novelum Contemporary Music Festival, International Istanbul Biennial(IKSV) and the world famous new music ensemble Bang on a Can-All Stars.
His sound installations have been included at museums and galleries such as 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Los Angeles Track 16, Indonesia Soemardja, Köln Museum für Angewandte Kunst, London Menier Gallery. His film music has been heard at Cannes, Sarajevo, Locarno, Seoul, Sao Paulo, and Sydney film festivals and he received the 'Best Original Soundtrack' award in the 2006 Mostramundo Film Festival. He has received prizes for his electroacoustic compositions from the Luigi Russolo, MUSICA NOVA and Insulae Electronicae
Electroacoustic Music Competitions.
Erdem Helvacioglu has collaborated with artists such as Mick Karn, Jacob Young, Elliott Sharp, Kevin Moore, Luo Chao-yun, Robert Scott Thompson, Stuart Gerber, Craig Green, Bill Walker, Nathan Larson, Nina Persson, Todd Reynolds, Kinan Azmeh, Jeffrey Roden, Ros Bandt, Stefan Ostersjo, Per Boysen, Sirin Pancaroglu and Saadet Turkoz.
Erdem Helvacioglu's music has been released on labels such as Locustmusic, New Albion, Aucourant, Quiet Design, chmafu nocords, Pozitif, Sargasso. His solo and duo albums have been included in the 'best album of the year' lists on All About Jazz, Textura, Cyclic Defrost, Blogcritics, Culture Catch, Perfect Sound Forever and Guitar Player magazines.
www.erdemhelvacioglu.com" [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| HEMATIC SUNSETS |
Aroma Club Adieu 5 |
LP + 12inch |
"Final release by Asmus Tietchens’ death lounge project Hematic Sunsets
Farewell greetings by Michael Rother, Felix Kubin, Heinz Funk, Okko Bekker and more
The Hematic Sunsets shut down the Aroma Club with a final release. The album “Aroma Club Adieu” features 12 exquisite pieces of death lounge electronic pop performed on electronic organs and entertainment devices of various kinds. Under the moniker Hematic Sunsets, legendary avantgarde composer Asmus Tietchens has explored his love of the Darth Vader organ sound – a cheesy, spooky, deranged but still catchy form of electronic pop. The body of work of Hematic Sunsets stands out as unique, displaced and in a sexy way out of fashion. As a bonus to the final album of the project artist friends of Asmus Tietchens have composed short hommages and farewell greetings that are included here in the form of a single sided 12” on white vinyl. Among those saluting are such illustrious musicians as Heinz Funk, Felix Kubin and Michael Rother." [label info]
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/aroma-club-adieu
"And so it ends for the Aroma Club, adieu, so long and farewell. The fifth album by Hematic Sunsets, with such illustrious members as Hans Tim Cessteu, Assistent Meuch, Titus Mascheens, Suse Mittach sen and Asmus Tietchens. Or if you are clever, just Asmus Tietchens since all the other names are anagrams. Hematic Sunsets, check the anagram, is Tietchens' love for cheesy electronic music, which resulted in five LPs and two Christmas songs. The organ plays an important and I would think one of those organs that people had in the '70s. Well, my cousin had one, complete with a ton of ditto cheesy rhythms and chords and a big speaker below; the easy two-finger method of play. I seem to remember my cousin was pretty apt at it. I'd love to have one. Tietchens loves the sound of such organs as well as other machines that produce similar cheesy stuff. In the early days of his record
releasing career, Tietchens did four albums for Sky Records, which had a more poppy electronic streak, and later he decided he enjoyed doing that stuff resulting in the fictitious Aroma Club, which, no doubt, in Tietchens mind was a place where you could drink coffee and smoke your cigarette. In the corner there would be such an organ and someone playing his take on lounge music, But, this is Tietchens, a man with quotes of Cioran on most of his record (replaced by Klopstock on Hematic Sunsets releases), so this Aroma Club is not necessarily full of colour and on second thought the lounge music is not so cheesy and lounge-like at all. It comes with a strange hook, a dark undercurrent, and on this fifth album it all seems a bit darker than before, maybe the dark times we experience and with all clubs closed (well, here in The Netherlands at least). This is, however, still great dark lounge music, with those minimal rhythms, and melodies, ranging from lightweight to almost industrial, showing the veracity of the music. Excellent album, once again.
As a bonus, there is a one-sided LP which gives space to friends of Tietchens to say goodbye and bow their heads to the Aroma Club. There is Okko Bekker (owner of the studio in which Tietchens works), Felix Kubin, Michael Rother (early Kraftwerk member, and of Neu and Harmonia), Jetzmann, Heinz Funk, Ebinger, Chestnut Ameis, Maik Willing & Der Botox Lucas Chor and Unknown Singing Objects, who all have their take on Hematic Sunsets; spacious guitars, obviously, for Rother and Kubin with some fun pop song madness, or the super slick jazzy flutes of Ebinger. Maik Willing & Der Botox Lucas Chor tops it all with a schlager (look that up for yourself) going out of control. This is all a fitting tribute to the fun side of Tietchens. It could very well that you think it's stupid, but I think it is great fun." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Auch wenn fast jede Veröffentlichung Asmus Tietchens von einem Cioran-Zitat begleitet und geziert wird, so hat sich schon immer auch Humor im Werk des Hamburgers gezeigt, was sich u.a. teilweise in der Titelgebung seiner Tracks widerspiegelte, jedoch war dieser Humor nie so dominant wie auf seinem „death lounge project “ Hematic Sunsets (auf dem seine anagrammatischen Mitspieler Achim Stutessen, Assistent Meusch, Hans Tim Cessteu, Mischa Suttense und Tussi Schemante heißen), auf dem Tietchens seiner Liebe zum – wie es in der Pressemitteilung heißt – „Darth Vader organ sound“ frönt; Attribute wie „cheesy, spooky, deranged but still catchy“ zeigen das Spannungsfeld, in dem sich diese Musik situieren lässt. Das erste Album erschien 1998, diese finale Veröffentlichung, auf der jetzt „Adieu“ gesagt wird, besteht aus einer LP mit neuen Kompositionen und einem weiteren, einseitig bespielten Album, auf dem Weggefährten „Tschüss“ sagen, da es sich „Ausgeduftet“ hat, wie es bei Jetztmann heißt.
Die Hematic Sunsets-LP ist voller kurioser und zum Teil natürlich durchaus „catchy“ Tracks: Da gibt es die skurril-zerhäckselte Stimme auf „Zum Geleit“, das in TOPY-Diktion betitelte „Thee Church Ov Aroma“ mit seltsamen Stimmen und unheinlichen Flächen, das fast schon zu düster für dieses Album ist. Auf „Ungesungene Tanzrückstände“ hört man monotone hochrfrequente Loops. Es gibt das großartig betitelte „Stuhlwasser“ mit Billigorgel oder die seltsamen Kirmesstimmen bei „Der im Keller“. „Liebelei“ mit cheesy Streichern und Gesang hätte den einen oder anderen Partykeller in den 70ern beschallen können. Auf „Schrittbinder“ hört man kuriose Schellen, „Fiasko“ wäre in einem Paralleluniversum vielleicht ein Soundtrack zu einer Krimiserie gewesen, zu einer Zeit, als es nur zwei Fernsehprogramme gab. Interessanterweise hätte man ein Stück wie „Dem Morgen graut“ durchaus auch auf einer reinen Tietchens-Veröffentlichung der letzten Jahre finden können. Das lapidar betitelte „Das war’s dann“ schließt die erste LP ab.
Chestnut Ameis eröffnet das zweite Album mit der seltsamen Kirmesmusik von „Speckpumpe“. Otto Bekkers lässt den Hörenden bei „Peyote-Melodie“ zu Bontempiorgel schunkeln, Unknown Singing Objects, die bisher ein paar Singles veröffentlicht haben, steuern eine seltsame Ballade voll “Blut” und “Knochenmark” bei. Auf “Phantomschmerz” ist Felix Kubin mit Retroscifi Lounge zu hören. Sehr schön ist “Martellato” des 2013 verstorbenen Heinz Funk. Jetztmann „endet lo-fi mit dementen Vocals.
Im beiliegenden Blatt wird die Geschichte des Aroma Clubs augenzwinkernd dargelegt. Höhepunke waren etwa „Mikadotanz-Abende“, „Kriechkeller-Parties“ und „Hodenbaden unter der fachkundigen Observanz von Dr. Kurt Euler“ – ob die Liedertafel Margot Honecker dabei Lieder schmetterte, bleibt unerwähnt." [MG / African Paper]
|
2020 |
€32.00 |
|
| HENNIES, NICK |
Work |
CD |
"Nick Hennies makes music from work - and work into music. Simply put, work is process and one of Hennies' goals as a composer is to shape the possibilities of a given instrument as well as its sonic imprint. The result is austere, lyrical solo percussion music that focuses on resonance, natural overtones, room acoustics and slowly developing structure. As Hennies' art matures, it has become clearer and more refined, whether appearing to be finely tuned adjustments to previous approaches or something altogether unheard. Hennies now lives in Ithaca, New York, though he was based in Austin, Texas for many years, where he was a member of the Austin New Music Co-Op and played drums in doom-folk outfit The Weird Weeds. Work is Hennies' latest release and first for the revamped Quakebasket label and it consists of two pieces. The first is a ten-minute solo vibraphone piece called 'Settle,' which as it evolves, brings out electrifying resonances that evoke the early piano music of Charlemagne Palestine or even the lush dogma of Brian Eno and Michael Nyman. Hennies has famously explored the shapely vibrational properties of woodblocks, making them truly sing in a way that few Western percussionist-composers have, so it should be no surprise that his coaxing of metal lamellae, cylinders and sustain pedal would result in a panoply of interlocking and unfolding shapes. These shapes are patently the result of refined action - striking, damping, and measuring intervals - but reducing their behavior to stimulus and response oversimplifies the comely beauty that his instrument produces. The bulk of Work is made up of the forty minute 'Expenditures,' which shows a side of Hennies' compositional strategy for ensemble (something that's been emerging gradually on recent releases). His vibraphone is joined by several Austin new music regulars, including bassists Ingebrigt HŒker Flaten (The Thing, The Young Mothers, Scorch Trio) and Brent Fariss, drummer Chris Cogburn, clarinetist Jon Doyle, trombonist Steve Parker, and violinist Travis Weller, with the horns and strings also doubling on percussion in the piece's closing minutes. As Hennies puts it, 'the goal of the piece is for the musicians to play sustained tones on the same pitches as the vibraphone and then eventually to play 'work music,' where the players each come up with their own phrase to be repeated until the end of the piece. 'Though the first fifteen minutes are rooted in gently nattering repetition and the ghostly shapes that emerge from ringing sustained drones, the ensemble's whispers at first seem to follow suit before their weight vis-à-vis personality emerges rather quickly. Thus, while initially this music might seem to espouse the arid mathematics of minimalism (albeit with rare poiesis), the individualism of each player as an improviser within a surprisingly unruly collective vision emerges. The effect is something like Gunter Hampel's Galaxie Dream Band playing Terry Riley's In C. Though far from a traditional avant-garde improviser and avowedly distant from free jazz, it's entirely fair to place Hennies' piece within the pantheon of conducted/directed improvisation from such minds as Laurie Scott Baker, John Stevens, Gavin Bryars and Radu Malfatti. As Hennies said in a 2011 interview with online journal Ni Kantu, 'What I really want to do is harness my natural inclinations rather than decide to 'do' certain things, and that's why there's a wide variety of music that I've put out recently. I'm a little self conscious that I have music that doesn't sound like it was made by the same person, but I would like to think that over several years there would be a palpable connection between these things. I would like to create a body of work that gives one an example of where I was at certain points, and this is one of the biggest influences I got from John Duncan, where he says that 'all of my work is about self-discovery and trying to learn about [himself].' As singular as Work may appear, it is a fascinating outgrowth from a decade-strong book of generative themes and processes, all reflecting on a committed, physical engagement with the implements of sound production." [label info]
"Percussion player Hennies belongs currently to one of my favoured minimalist composers. His pieces are deceivingly simple and highly hypnotic. So far, I think, the pieces I heard from him where solo pieces, for such instruments as snare drum and vibraphone, but here we have two pieces, one for solo instrument and one for small ensemble. In the solo piece 'Settle' Hennies has a multi-track recording of him playing the vibraphone in his 'usual' style. Stead fast with overtones ringing through. Maybe there is some sort of post-production in this music? Like out of phase placing of the various layers? Maybe, but I doubt that. It sounds more like an exercise in controlling the instrument and various ways to play the same thing over and over. Over the course of the ten pieces the piece gradually dies out, and reaches no particular place in nowhere land.
The small ensemble piece is called 'Expenditures' and is for percussion, sine waves, clarinet, contrabass, vibraphone, trombone and violin, in which Hennies himself plays the vibraphone. This piece starts out, for a long time, to be a piece for vibraphone solo again, or so it seems, but the sine waves play very nicely along and gradually the piece seems to be falling apart - like in 'Settle', dying out - and the ensemble takes over. A very spacious piece of music then evolves - seemingly out of nowhere, seemingly going nowhere. But it keeps unfolding. One could think this was improvised rather than composed but what do I know? Maybe it's somewhere in between? The instruments bending forever, making small gestures, plucking strings, maybe with objects and all such like. It has that jazz like feel, like that recent release by The Necks, but also electro-acoustic and modern classical. It's perhaps not something I would expect from him, but it sounds no less great!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| HENNIX, CATHERINE CRISTER (THE DEONTIC MIRACLE) |
Central Palace Music (from 100 Model Subjects for Hegikan Roku) |
CD |
"Central Palace Music, performed by Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble The Deontic Miracle, is the first in a series of archival Hennix releases to be issued via IMPREC. This previously unheard piece was taken from an eight day festival organized in the Spring of 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. The group features Catherine Christer Hennix on Renaissance oboe and custom sinewave generators, Peter Hennix on Renaissance oboe and Hans Isgren on sheng.
Central Palace Music is packaged in a deluxe letterpressed package and is being released at the same time as a recent recording of Hennix's new ensemble live at Issue Project Room.
"...Hennix has created a sound that reliably taps into our subconscious and frees us from linear time..." The Quietus
Catherine Christer Hennix (1948, Stockholm) is an artist, poet, composer and philosopher with a strong interest in logic and formal music theory. She was among the pioneers in Sweden experimenting with main-frame computer generated composite sound wave forms in the late 1960's and in the 1970's she was a key protagonist in the Downtown School along with La Monte Young and Henry Flynt, with whom she has collaborated with on numerous occasions. She pursued studies with raga master Pandit Pran Nath and led the just intonation live-electronic ensembles Hilbert Hotel and The Deontic Miracle, the recordings of the latter are presently being released by Important Records. She was a professor of mathematics and computer science and assistant to and coauthor with A.S. Esenin-Volpin for which she was given the Centenary Prize Fellow Award by the Clay Mathematics Insitute in 2000. Hennix's interest in drone music and the meditative, trance-like state it induces is apparent in her exploration of similar music in many other cultures and traditions, drawing inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku music and the early, vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus, for example.
In 2003 she returned to computer generated composite sound wave forms now called Soliton(e)s of which Soliton(e) Star was the first result. Subsequently she formed the just intonation ensemble The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage which performs Blues Dhikir al- Salam (Live at the Grimmuseum, vol. 1, Berlin, 2011, Important Records 2012). In 2012 Henry Flynt asked Hennix for a new, expanded realization of ISE for an installation at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, to be featured in his retrospective/ prospective show Henry Flynt Activities 1959 – at ZKM. In response Hennix realized a 4-channel composition, Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis, her first 4-channel computer assisted composition since 1969." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2016 |
€19.50 |
|
| HENRIKSEN, ARVE |
Strjon |
CD |
Drittes Album von ARVE HENRIKSEN für Rune Grammofon, eher bedächtig und melancholisch, eine Art ethno/world-ambient/drone-Jazz von allererster Güte !
"This is Norwegian Arve Henriksen's third full-length release on Rune Grammofon. On Strjon, Henriksen is joined by his Supersilent colleagues Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten, who also produced the album. Strjon brings together the various sides of Henriksen, from the zen-like solo pieces of his debut album Sakuteiki to the open-ended melancholia of Chiaroscuro to the dark, brooding lyricism of Supersilent. "Strjon" is the medieval name of Arve's hometown Stryn on the west coast of Norway, referring to a streaming river or water. The nature around Stryn is fantastic and the changes between winter and summer are quite drastic, from crashing avalanches in steep mountains to calm beauty and majestic tranquility. Some of the music dates back to sketches made by a young Arve Henriksen in these surroundings, later worked on by both Arve himself and Helge Sten. Arve Henriksen is without doubt one of Norway's leading instrumentalists and a master of the trumpet, as can be heard on his previous solo albums, numerous Supersilent albums and as a side player for musicians such as Trygve Seim, Christian Wallumrød, Dhafer Youssef, David Sylvian and Frode Haltli to name only a few. As Henriken himself explains: "Most of the music comes from my own 'library' of sounds and music created during my days at Stryn. At the age of 16 I started to make sketches and recorded lots of cassettes with improvised electronic sequences, and over the years loads of tapes and discs have been added to the pile of homemade studio sketches. My idea has been to look into this material to search for a history, for moods, perhaps to understand a little bit more and maybe discover some reasons for why I play like I do." Performed by: Arve Henriksen (trumpet, voice, keyboards and electronics), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and Helge Sten (guitars and bow)." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Places of Worship |
CD |
"Es kann auf viele verschiedene Weisen an den verschiedensten Orten gebetet werden. Musik kann sich überall eine Kirche errichten.
Mit "Places Of Worship" bewegt sich ARVE HENRIKSEN endgültig in die erste Reihe der Weltklassemusiker.
Der norwegische Trompeter hat seine Duftmarke über einige Jahre hinweg regelmäßig hinterlassen, nicht nur als Bläser für die stetig fordernde und langjährige Gruppe SUPERSILENT, sondern auch als Lieferant exquisiter Soloarbeit, die sich seit 2011 auf vier Soloalben erstreckt, die kürzlich als retrospektives Boxset auf Rune Grammofon erschienen.
Tief verwurzelt in der himmlischen Geologie seiner norwegischen Heimat hat sich die Musik von HENRIKSEN zu etwas Wunderschönem entwickelt, das die kosmopolitische Umwelt des 21. Jahrhunderts an natürliche Orte entführt. Auf "Places Of Worship" bewohnt HENRIKSEN beide dieser Welten und versammelt eine Serie von Tondichtungen und Stimmungsbildern, die sich um religiöse Gebäude und Ruinen ranken. //
Norwegian trumpet player Arve Henriksen has made his mark over many years, not only as the horn player with the consistently challenging and long lived group Supersilent, but also as the purveyor of exquisite and distinctive solo work. Deeply rooted in the sublime geology of his homeland, Henriksen's music has developed into something beautifully at one with natural habitats and reflecting the hybrid, cosmopolitan environments of the twenty-first century. On 'Places Of Worship' he inhabits the space between these two worlds, in a series of tone poems and mood pieces located around religious buildings and ruins." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2013 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Places of Worship |
LP |
"Es kann auf viele verschiedene Weisen an den verschiedensten Orten gebetet werden. Musik kann sich überall eine Kirche errichten.
Mit "Places Of Worship" bewegt sich ARVE HENRIKSEN endgültig in die erste Reihe der Weltklassemusiker. Der norwegische Trompeter hat seine Duftmarke über einige Jahre hinweg regelmäßig hinterlassen, nicht nur als Bläser für die stetig fordernde und langjährige Gruppe SUPERSILENT, sondern auch als Lieferant exquisiter Soloarbeit, die sich seit 2011 auf vier Soloalben erstreckt, die kürzlich als retrospektives Boxset auf Rune Grammofon erschienen. Tief verwurzelt in der himmlischen Geologie seiner norwegischen Heimat hat sich die Musik von HENRIKSEN zu etwas Wunderschönem entwickelt, das die kosmopolitische Umwelt des 21. Jahrhunderts an natürliche Orte entführt. Auf "Places Of Worship" bewohnt HENRIKSEN beide dieser Welten und versammelt eine Serie von Tondichtungen und Stimmungsbildern, die sich um religiöse Gebäude und Ruinen ranken. //
Norwegian trumpet player Arve Henriksen has made his mark over many years, not only as the horn player with the consistently challenging and long lived group Supersilent, but also as the purveyor of exquisite and distinctive solo work. Deeply rooted in the sublime geology of his homeland, Henriksen's music has developed into something beautifully at one with natural habitats and reflecting the hybrid, cosmopolitan environments of the twenty-first century. On 'Places Of Worship' he inhabits the space between these two worlds, in a series of tone poems and mood pieces located around religious buildings and ruins." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2013 |
€24.00 |
|
| HENRIKSSON, Ö. |
As the side-scene of reality melted, we slowly realized that the surrounding chaos of molecules and atoms no longer made sense to us |
CD |
"Neue Veröffentlichung auf dem LEIF ELGGREN-Label mit schwer zu beschreibenden blubbernden und elektronisch hin- und her schwirrenden Klängen, immer wieder tauchen aus dem Hintergrund undefinierbare Geräusche auf.. sehr mysteriös und fremdartig das ganze und angenehm zu hören.. von dem uns bisher unbekannten Ö.HENRIKSSON. File under: surreal acoustical environments !" [old Drone Rec. info]
"Extremely organic and flowing sound passages drift from one suspended perspective to the next, revealing new qualities and states to the sometimes ominous and distant sonic terrain. Its original sound design character immediately distinguishes this recording, an aural ecosystem flourishing with unknown abstract forms of life. [Anomalous Records]
label-website: www.fireworkedition.com
|
2000 |
€12.00 |
|
| HENRY COW |
Stockholm & Göteborg |
CD |
"The first new release for 30 years from this legendary audience-splitting British group, and the first featuring Georgina Born, the group’s bassist between 1976-78. Remixed and re-mastered from the original Swedish radio tapes.
‘Henry Cow, me favourite band in the world’ [Robert Wyatt, 1973]
Henry Cow were never going to fit in. Their compositions were way too composed and their improvising was way too improvised - a tendency that only got more extreme as time went on, as these recordings from 1976 and 1977 demonstrate. Stockholm and Goteborg fills in some of the missing history between In Praise of Learning (1975) and Western Culture (1978) and offers music that has not been heard on record until now. First is Tim Hodgkinson’s late and fiendishly complicated epic composition ‘Erk Gah’ (a working title), that took many months of sweat to learn and resolutely eschews any hint of riff, solo or modular assembly. At the other extreme are the two wide-ranging improvisations built around heady extended instrumental techniques, aleatorics, quotations, more-or-less randomly inserted prepared materials and a blithe disregard for genre rules. Between, constantly shifting ground, are a straight-ahead version of Phil Ochs’ No more Songs (one of only two covers ever performed by the band), an unreleased composition by Fred Frith, and a version of the Ottawa Song: a typical live set from that period. Finally, Stockholm is a snapshot of a band of exceptional talents having fun. And it reflects what the studio albums could not – that Henry Cow’s natural habitat was the stage - and the real-time pressure of public performance - because it was there that the music could live and breathe. And evolve.
Stockholm and Goteborg is the first volume of a 9 CD and one DVD set of unreleased material commemorating the band’s 40th anniversary.
Georgina Born. fretless bass, cello
Lindsay Cooper. bassoon, flute, recorder, sopranino sax, piano
Chris Cutler. drums, electrification (13) and piano
Fred Frith. guitar, xylophone, piano
John Greaves bass, voice
Tim Hodgkinson. organ, alto saxophone
Dagmar Krause. singing. "
[label info]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Ex Box Collected Fragments 1971-1978 |
CD |
"EX BOX is a free bonus CD issued to subscribers to the Henry Cow Box Redux and is NOT FOR GENERAL SALE."
Limited edition of 250.
However, ReR Megacorp also made this CD available for separate purchase. Copies sold to non-subscribers were not numbered.
● 1 : 1971 recorded in Cambridge
● 2 & 3 : remixes done at Cold Storage in Brixton for the first CD reissue of 'Legend' on the Minneapolis label East Side Digital in 1991.
● 4, 5, 6 & 7 : taken from a concert at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield on June 9, 1974. Rescued from an otherwise unidentified cassette.
● 8 : from the 1976 quartet tour of Scandinavia. From an otherwise unidentified cassette.
● 9 : extracted from material generated while working on side two of Unrest, and appeared as a bonus track on the ESD reissue. Recorded at The Manor, probably between the 14th and 28th February 1974.
● 10 and 11 were gleaned from one of the few surviving Orckestra recordings. Taken from an unidentified cassette. [was previously available on a bonus mini-CD given to subscribers of The Henry Cow Facsimile Box.]
● 12, 13, 14 : recorded in January 1978 at Sunrise in Switzerland. They weren't use for future Henry Cow releases, but later appeared on the ReR reissue of Western Culture as bonus tracks. [actually tracks 12 & 13 were also released as early as 1982 on Recommended Records Sampler].
● 15, 16, 17 : recorded on 20th February, 1977 at the TeatroOlimpico in Parma. Mastered from a cassette.
Assembled by Chris Cutler, then improved and mastered at Studio Midi-Pyrenees by Bob Drakein October 2019.
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| HENRY, PIERRE |
Malefices |
LP |
"Often evading the composer ’s official discography lists Cacophonic present this outstanding, commonly undetected Pierre Henry film score providing fans of early electronics, femme vocal manipulation and horror soundtracks with an indespensable “dream record” that ticks every box and crosses out every line in the rule book. Widely recognised as one of the original sonic architects of the movement known as musique concrete, having joined Pierre Schaeffer’s forward-thinking initiative as early as 1949, Pierre Henry was arguably the first musician to entertain the notion of this defiant musical revolution coexisting with traditional and poplular music. Initially using the mediums of modern dance and spoken word as a platform to contextualise his tape-music mutations (notably in unison with Maurice Bejart) Henry’s foresight to fuse accademic with thematic ideas lead to the birth of electronic sound design for film and theatre, expemplified most prevalently in the macabre.
The missing link between his earliest avant garde recordings and his later celebrated pop experiments with Michel Colombier and Spooky Tooth and rivaling the likes of Daphne Oram’s uncreditted SFX work for The Innocents this rare score to the 1962 Juliette Gréco vehicle Maléfices (aka The Hex or Where The Truth Lies) hears Henry at what is perhaps his most melodic, fragile and enchanting (especially for this unforgiving sheen-free formative era). Layering vocal tape loops and gossamer feminine voice treatments with plucked strings, white noise wind and brooding industrial treated piano textures Henry provides a series of conceptual poison peons to magnify this films intoxicated halluciogenic narrative. This concise set of complete set themes is presented here fully remastered for the first time alongide rare excerpts from two of the composer’s very earliest and least obtainable forays into theatrical sound design with instrumental parts of Henry’s first stereo reconstruction of Bejart’s Orphee from 1961 and his seldom heard concrete interludes from Darius Milhaud and Max Gérard’s Mariage De La Feuille Et Du Cliché from 1958, both of which command rapidly increasing ransom fees amongst serious electronic music collectors." [label info]
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Un Monde Lacéré |
LP |
"Transversales Disques announce the release of the never released before piece Un Monde Lacéré by electroacoustic music pioneer Pierre Henry. This piece is a special tribute to Jacques Villeglé and his work. It is the world opening performance of this opus, recorded in studio Son/Ré.
Pierre Henry was born in 1927 In Paris. He started studying music as early as the age of seven. In 1944, guided by Olivier Messiaen, he imagined and started composing music for the future. His meeting with Pierre Schaeffer was crucial for his creation. Inventing new technical composition processes which in time have become widely used on a large scale, he has constantly given this music a far reaching power no one expected at the start. He has also invented his own sound, as easily distinguishable as the sound of the most famous jazz musician." [label info]
"Starting 2021 off with a bang, Transversales Disques is back with an absolutely stunning LP, 'Un Monde Lacéré', comprising a never before released, long-form work by Pierre Henry. A mind-bending example of the heights of Musique Concrète, by one of its most important pioneers, it remains years ahead of its time and challenges the perceived notions of how electronic music is understood to sound.
Over the last few years, the Paris based imprint, Transversales Disques, has set a remarkable standard for archival releases, bringing us a treasure trove of previously unreleased recordings by Bernard Parmegiani, Pharoah Sanders, Luc Ferrari, Igor Wakhevitch, Philip Glass, Ariel Kalma, François Bayle, Ennio Morricone, and numerous others. While by no means the limit of their focus, the imprint has offered special attention to works by French pioneers of electronic music, particularly those associated with Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète (GRMC) and Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). This incredible initiative now extends to one of the most important composers of them all, Pierre Henry, with the stunning LP, Un Monde Lacéré.
Comprising a previously unreleased, long-form composition dedicated to the life and work of the artist Jacques Villeglé, Un Monde Lacéré is an absolutely stunning example of the heights of the late period in Henry’s visionary career. Transversales Disques has done it again, bringing forth an incredible body of sounds that doubles as a fascinating illumination of historical discourses between visual and auditory language in among the 20th and 21st century avant-garde.
Electronic music sprang from utopian dreams. Its creators deployed new technologies in an attempt to liberate composers and audiences from the cultural, economic, and educational limitations that had haunted the music of the past. For a great many artists, this all began with musique concrète / tape music, a musical idiom, first theorized by Pierre Schaeffer during the early 1940s, that deploys pre-recorded sounds - sourced from virtually anywhere - as its raw materiality. Truly revolutionary in every way, perhaps more than any other avant-garde form, musique concrète radically expanded the notions of what music is perceived to be, what it is comprised of, and by whom and how it is made. There’s a strong argument that it was so radical and ahead of its time, that we’ve yet catch up. Among the idiom’s pioneers, few were as important, influential, or forward thinking as Pierre Henry.
Henry was among the earliest adopters of musique concrète in France, joining Pierre Schaeffer at Club d'Essai studio at RTF in 1949, leading to a fruitful period of collaboration between the pair, and the subsequent founding of The Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète, as well as the first purpose-built electroacoustic music studio in 1951. A true maverick who deployed an intuitive and energetic attitude to the idiom, unlike many of his peers who increasingly veered toward the use of synthesis, Henry remained deeply dedicated to tape music until his death in 2017, often pointing to a relationship between the sound objects of music and those of spoken and written language. This was a notion echoed by many visual artists of his day, notably Jacques Villeglé, widely regarded as a pioneer of college and decollages, as well as for his alphabet of symbolic letters.
Born only a year apart, while working in different mediums, Henry and Villeglé belonged to similar creative zeitgeists and mindsets. Each embraced a decidedly avant-garde philosophy, while deploying ‘found” materials to create new, democratic languages. The common ground and mutual respect shared between these visionaries of collage led to several meetings over the years, as well as a number of shared exhibitions. The first, taking place in Poitiers at at "Le Confort Moderne" during 1999, produced the only widely available document of this creative connection, Henry’s album Apparitions Concertées, paired in its release with a catalog of Villeglé's ‘sound posters’.
Composed and recorded by Henry in 2008, Un Monde Lacéré is a long-form work - stretching across both full sides of the LP - paying homage to the life and work of Jacques Villeglé. Divided into 8 sections, the mastery of the composer’s craft is impossible to escape. Immersive abstractions comprised of intricate detail unfold within Henry’s controlled fury of energy. Sounds captured from a vast range sources - instrumental and non-instrumental - collide in fields of rhythm, tone, texture, and ambience, appearing at moments to be far closer to acoustic, real-time free improvisation than most recognizable forms of electronic music. If it were not for the diversity of the sounds themselves and the composer’s manipulation of the tape, the ear could be easily led to believe that it was witnessing an artifact of one of the wildest bands it had ever heard.
Filled with life, astounding energy, and remarkably forward-thinking creative attack, even at the age of 81, Pierre Henry, across the length of Un Monde Lacéré proves to have been one of the most vital forces in contemporary experimental music, all the while still bearing the utopian torch lit at the outset of avant-garde electronic music and musique concrète into his final years. Once again, Transversales Disques has raised the bar for the field of archival releases. A truly astounding piece of work that can, at long last, be heard."
[Soundohm]
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| HEROIN IN TAHITI |
Casilina Tapes 2010 - 2017 |
LP |
"Hailing from Rome, cult duo Heroin in Tahiti fuse analogue synths, garage-y guitars and skittering drum machines to gloriously lo-fi effect. This collection of previously unreleased tracks covers material recorded in their studio from a 7-year period. Their unique psychedelic vision touches on everything from beat poetry, house music and Ennio Morricone soundtracks." [Norman Records]
"Heroin In Tahiti is a duo from Rome, Italy hailing from the Roma Est scene, a sort of local community based in the crumbling and deteriorated neighborhoods which were already eternalized by Pasolini and Neorealist Cinema (think of Pasolini, De Sica, Visconti, etc.) The duo plays a variety of cheap guitars, analog synths, drum machines, and pedals, achieving a dirtiness which is tragically lo-fi and out-of-time at the same time: a "Spaghetti Wasteland", as they call it. In 2012 they released on Boring Machines their debut album Death Surf, a title which spoke for the music played on the record. The label said of the album: "Think of drinking a frozen daiquiri on a solitary beach while watching a poorly tuned TV broadcasting loops of If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968), while Mururoa tests are happening at the horizon." When mentioning Italian occult psychedelia, Heroin In Tahiti seems the best choice to sum up the sound and the references that stay at the core of this all-Italian scene. With albums like the mammoth double LP Sun And Violence (2015), the minimalist Canicola (2014) and the monolithic Remoria (GRA 001LP, 2017), Heroin In Tahiti became a cult band for their particular signature. Casilina Tapes 2010-2017 is the latest (and probably last) output from the cult Italian duo. It's a collection of unreleased tracks recorded in their basement studio in Rome in the last seven years while building up their thematic albums. The label listened to the single tracks at once and they found out there's a coherence between them even if they have been created in different periods. Actually, they show a coherence that only Heroin In Tahiti, with their kaleidoscopic vision of how Italy secretly sounds, can properly conjure up. Boring Machines calls it "total music". You may find elements which reminds of long lost Morriconian soundtracks for cheap westerns or giallos, library music to accompany documentaries on Superstudio radical architecture, urban tribalism, beat poetry festivals on the seashore, and house music. Recorded in Rome, 2010-2017. Artwork by Francesco de Figueiredo. Screen printed covers by Legno, Milano." [label info]
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| HERR LOUNGE CORPS + CADAVEROUS CONDITION |
The Breath of a Bird |
CD |
"Death In June collaborator Miro Snejdr aka Herr Lounge Corps teamed up with Death Metal weirdos Cadaverous Condition to create an epic, haunting piece of dark mood music cast into rather accessible songs. A soundtrack to dreams and even more so, nightmares.
The album also features a massive horror synthwave remix by GosT." [Bandcamp info]
Breath Of A Bird CD music contains a single disc. Cadaverous Condition used to be an extreme metal band from Austria. Their style ranges from old school death metal to acoustic guitar songs with typical death metal growl vocals the band themselves describe as "Death Folk" In recent years, the band have concentrated on collaborations, this new one combining their sound with the piano and electronic compositions by Herr Lounge Corps. Breath Of A Bird album for sale by Herr Lounge Corps & Cadaverous Condition was released Jun 08, 2018 on the Klanggalerie label.
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| HET INTERSTEDELIJK HARMONIUMVERBOND |
same |
LP |
"Het Interstedelijk Harmoniumverbond is the collaborative construction carrying Glen Steenkiste, Brecht Ameel, David Edren and Steve Marreyt on their quest for yet undiscovered dimensions of drone. Each member resides in one of four main cities in Flanders (Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges), they all play harmonium and share a genuine interest for temporality in music. Initiated from Steenkiste’s idea to expand the solo harmonium of Hellvete into a more dialectic and immersive format, this new league had its premiere on Eastern Daze V festival in November 2018.
The release is an uncompromised gesture claiming one of today’s main scarcities: the liberated and emancipated attention. The drone sound has a rare capacity to reflect upon the most delicate patterns of the human experience of time, hitting straight to its core: duration. Long, layered tones of four harmoniums stretch from past towards future, and from emotionally charged warmth of an ensemble to the coldness of post-human electronics. They trigger an uninterrupted flow of music and call for an intensified and extended ritual of contemplative listening on multiple levels. In regard to that, the recording process was carried out with an ambition to capture both micro sounds and detailed textures from each of the harmoniums, as well as the surround sound blended through the acoustics of space.
The record comes with the extensive liner notes by the renowned essayist Sven Vitse (in Dutch)." [label info] |
2019 |
€28.00 |
|
| HET ZWEET |
Het Zweet |
CD |
"Reissue of a classic tribal Industrial album by Dutch project Het Zweet, originally released in 1987, comparable to the music of Z'ev. Het Zweet (Sweat) was the band project by Marien van Oers, native of Breda in the Netherlands active from 1983 to about 1988. The music consisted of long 10-minute percussion pieces played on self-built instruments (shopping trolleys amplified with pickups, blown cardboard tubes etc.) with repetitive shouted vocals by Marien. The music was often placed in the industrial camp and linked with the likes of Test Dept. but in fact Het Zweet were more concerned with 'tribal' music, physicality and trance effects like Z'ev. During concerts he often performed together with other players. Marien Van Oers sadly passed away in 2013. This self-titled album originally came out on the great Dossier label in Germany in 1987. The bonus material included on this reissue consists entirely of previously unreleased material. There's three untitled tracks and two live excerpts presented as long experiences that belie their disparate origins with a unity of sound and purpose. Van Oers' percussive nous and distantly yelled chants certainly sound capable of working up a sweat in both the performer and any movement-minded listeners, but maybe the most striking thing about Het Zweet is how vital it still sounds, despite its age and relative obscurity." |
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
2XLIVE88 |
CD |
"Strictly from a personal perspective, it is great to see renewed interest in Het Zweet. I think that interest started when Staalplaat released an expanded version of Het Zweet's only LP (see Vital Weekly 1343), which Klanggalerie released on CD. A label from Greece, Modal Analysis, released a double LP with archival work, judging the content pieces from compilations and some previously unreleased work, plus a 1984 live recording. I haven't heard this one, but today, there is a CD with two live recordings from 1988. That is interesting as this is also the year that Het Zweet started to wind down his activities because of shifting musical interests. In 1988, Het Zweet supported Bourbonese Qualk in The Netherlands, and I am sure I saw them on a different evening, but I have no recollection. Therefore, I also have no idea if Het Zweet was also opening up that night. I believe this CD has the complete concert of that April 1, 1988 show in Club Utopia in Elsloo (I had to look that up), and it offers an exciting variation of the music Het Zweet plays. Mostly known for his more rhythmic music, that side still plays a significant role in the music here, ominous industrial drumming, tribal-like metal percussion (Neubauten, Z'EV), but a song like 'We Hear Your Soul' is more... an actual song, with Van Oers, Het Zweet's operator, singing, with a keyboard present, and some loops. Loops of instrumental bits return in other pieces, and by using delay, those also have a more tribal feeling. I was pretty surprised by this approach because I didn't know much about Het Zweet in the later stages of his career. It's an exciting variation here, with Van Oers going for what, I think, is a more song-based approach, next to the loops, tapes (slowed down voices; very 1980s) and metallic percussion. With some production value, this music could easily have found its way into the early catalogue of the Cold Meat Industry.
The other concert on this CD was recorded five days later, at Radio Militia in Belgium, and is about half the length, approximately twenty minutes. This is along similar lines, but interestingly enough, not a repeat of the same material, and a song like 'The Last Straw' sounds completely different, and so does 'Ein Kreuz Part 1'. In the surroundings of the radio station, it all sounds a bit more controlled than on stage. Both have their charm, and this latter-day Het Zweet opens for me a perspective I didn't know. It's a great historical document, prompting me to please once more for a Het Zweet box set with (almost all) his work." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| HETERO SKELETON |
En la sombra del pajaro velludo |
CD |
"Die Band selbst beschreibt ihren Sound als "Perez Prado am Tor zur Hölle" und darüber lässt sich gar nicht streiten. HETERO SKELETON aus Finnland liefern mit "En La Sombra Del Parajo Velludo" den Saxophon-lastigen Soundtrack zum Abstieg in die Unterwelt. Für Fans von Jazzpunk, wie ihn die FLYING LUTTENBACHERS spielen und für die, denen FAT WORM OF ERROR ein Begriff ist. //
Five unholy speaker cone movers from Finland (Helsinki and Tampere) choke up a hairball of churning sax driven maelstrom. In between the notes, crinkle-cut sound sax spuzz links rude-itude of the highest order. Fans of Finnish campfire/industrial act AVARUS take note, as the same disconnected fuckery pulses through this disc with enough extra forward thrust to kick start your fart.
This disc comes recommended for fans of jazz punk like the FLYING LUTTENBACHERS as well as stumble royalty like FAT WORM OF ERROR. Not just blind free jizz blowjobbery, but roid raged thuggery - click here for an unbelievable taste sensations!
Other discs on Jelle Crama's new label have cemented their songs in the waiting room of forever. The band describes their sound as "Perez Prado at the gates of Hell", and who am I to argue?" [label info]
www.loadrecords.com
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| HIDEG RONCS |
A Vihar / The Storm (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
released November 1994
"HIDEG RONCS is the voice of nature, the voice of the world stormstroke"
"The HIDEG RONCS raise from Budapest, Hungary, and possibly they are the very first real experimental 'underground'-band of this country as yet. Having existed since 1987 in various casts and developing different musical styles, they have now reached a point one could name their music as "natural noise" or "concrete, basic, pure sound". 'HIDEG RONCS' translates as 'cold wreck', but also has an ambigious meaning as 'nervous breakdown'. On their first vinyl the HIDEG RONCS play a kind of ritual music which has nothing to do with a 'gothic' feel to it, using basses, voices and nature-recording only: they go back to where the sound originates and search for the 'heart of hearing' ". [label info]
|
1994 |
€ |
|
| HIGGINS, GARY |
Seconds |
LP |
"The music business is full of funny stories -- and some of them aren't that funny at all. Take Gary Higgins. In the early 70s, he made a great record, the culmination of years of listening and playing and work. Then he went to jail for marijuana possession, a short stint, but still, the kind of crime that's almost not a crime these days. The record came out -- but without him to promote it, almost nobody heard it, until... 2005: Red Hash, Higgins' megaobscure psychedelic folk-rock masterpiece is reissued on CD, drawing all kinds of acclaim and selling thousands of copies. Shows are played, interviews are done. But how to answer the question, why haven't you made another record since then? 2009: Gary Higgins' Seconds. is here to answer the question. It's a beautiful acoustic-based record featuring careful, melancholy arrangements in the tradition set by his famous previous record -- but with a few unpredictable musical touches. Additionally, Seconds. weaves black threads of lyrical reflection into its sleeve in the shortlived Higgins tradition. His was never a hippie-dippy perspective -- back in the day, his songs featured a thoughtful, but worldweary, occasionally even paranoid perspective. And today, he opens Seconds. with the couplet 'I got demons on my back/they don't travel nice.' Gary is from the original singer-songwriter wave of rock and roll. There's no need for him to pretend that his songs are being sung from another point of view. And so Seconds. strings together moments of life, working through regrets and reflections on fallibility, the odd flashback, and a few hopes for the future over the course of seven deep songs. Whether the material has been gathered in the years since his reemergence in 2005 or over the longer stretch since the last released Higgins material, it flows with oneness. And accompanied by his fellow travellers (including a couple Red Hash players as well as his son), he's put together a bold and colorful statement of where he's at today. Seconds. ain't no Sweet Baby James, or anyone else for that matter. This is the sound of Gary Higgins, making music and digging it once again." [label info]
www.dragcity.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| HIGNELL, DANIEL ALEXANDER |
Semblances |
MC & booklet |
"Following on from 2009’s “Music for Film”, and 2010’s “Soundscape Studies”, Daniel Alexander Hignell’s third album is comprised of pieces written for his doctorate in composition, focused on sonic interjections into shared social space. The three works on offer are based on a 65 page text score, and utilize a modular synthesizer to create perpetually evolving, drone-based textures, combined with manipulated field-recordings, and bound together in avant-garde, minimalist structures. From these limited sonic materials, a rich sound-world is created, and repeated again and again in different contexts and modes, sometimes ambient, sometimes noisy, the work is a sea of perpetual yet barely perceptible changes.
Available on virgin white cassette with accompanying 60 page graphic score book.
For fans of: La Monte Young, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Charlemagne Palestine, Oren Ambarchi, Demdike Stare." [label info]
https://distantanimals.bandcamp.com/album/semblances
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| HIJOKAIDAN |
Emergency Stairway to Heaven |
pic-LP & CD |
"Cold Spring are proud to announce the new studio album from the legendary Japanoise act Hijokaidan. The set arrives on luxurious 12” picture disc and CD – both formats have completely different audio! 12” Picture Disc: The new studio album, four slabs of unique sounds that only Hijokaidan can provide. In the studio – the full line-up of JOJO Hiroshige, T. Mikawa, Junko and Futoshi Okano. CD: Live at Uplink, Shibuya, 20th May 2014 – JOJO Hiroshige: synthesizer, T. Mikawa: electronics, Junko: screaming. Live at Chikusa-za, Nagoya, 21st Dec 2014 – JOJO Hiroshige: electric guitar, T. Mikawa: electronics, Junko: screaming, Futoshi Okano: drums. Ltd x 750 copies only!" [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2015 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Zouroku No Kibyou (40th Anniversary Edition) |
LP |
’Zouroku no Kibyo is the first album by Hijokaidan, released in April 1982. It is a compilation of live recordings from 1981, when the extreme performances of Hijokaidan first attracted attention, and is a record of the chaotic inner energy of young people in their early 20s, influenced by rock, jazz, contemporary music, and avant-garde art, erupting outside. It was first released on the independent Osaka label Unbalance Records and came to be regarded as a historical masterpiece of independent recordings in Japan. It was later released on CD several times by "Alchemy Records," and was also released by the major Japanese label Teichiku Entertainment. An analog reissue of the album was released in 2006 by the German label Vinyl-On-Demand in the form of a double LP set. This will be the first time that the album will be reissued in its original form as a single analog disc, this time on Urashima in 2022. ‘’ JOJO Hiroshige Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise band with a turning lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki ‘’JOJO’’ Hiroshige, its one constant member, who is owner of the legendary Osaka-based Alchemy Records. The ensemble began at the very end of the 70’s as a performance art-based unit whose anarchic shows would often involve destruction of venues and audio equipment, food and garbage being thrown around, and on-stage urination. As the group's lineup changed over time, their focus became less performance-based and more musically based, fine-tuning their sound into a dense wall of white noise created by each member both for live performances and for studio recordings.
Zouroku no Kibyo resting at a fascinating juncture between space-harsh progressive, impro and noise, it was years ahead of its time when it first appeared becoming one of the great holy grails of Japan noise. Creatively thrilling - filled with emotive highs and lows - it’s a crucial piece in the puzzle of Japan’s wild and wonderful history of noise music. A truly stunning, visionary expanse of texture and tonality - pushing noise practice and the very notions of language into uncharted realms, improvising with a ferocity different from that of hard rock or punk, and a chaos unlike that of free jazz.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/zouroku-no-kibyou |
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| HILMARSSON, HILMAR ÖRN (HÖH) & SIGUR ROS |
Angels of the Universe |
CD |
"Der Soundtrack zu einem der traurigsten Filme aller Zeiten, von FRIDRIK THOR FRIDRIKSSON - das meiste Material stammt in typischer Machart von HILMAR ÖRN HILMARSSON (Synths, Streicher, Harfen), zwei Stücke sind von der islandischen Band SIGUR ROS, wobei das letzte Stück zum Abspann des Films („Bium Bium Bambalo“, das vorletzte auf dieser CD) so unsagbar zerbrechlich, TRAURIG und SCHÖN zugleich ist, daß es kaum anhörbar ist.
Deeply sad and melancholic soundtrack to one of the saddest films ever made – Angels of the Universe by FRIDRIK THOR FRIDRIKSSON. Most material is made by HÖH, two tracks come from SIGUR ROS." [Drone Rec. info 2001]
label: www.fat-cat.co.uk
|
2001 |
€15.00 |
|
| HILTON, CRAIG / TOMAS PHILLIPS |
Le gout de neant |
CD |
"Craig Hilton (guzheng, laptop). Tomas Phillips (laptop). Recorded at gouche studios 2009/2010. Hand printed screen print gouache on cardboard Cover 20x7in foldetd to 7inch. Ltd. & numbered edition to 500 copies. The collaboration between Tomas Phillips and Craig Hilton runs a fine line between composition and improvisation and digital and acoustic properties. Utilizing a series of low frequencies, isolated microsounds and processed guzheng improvisation, their work attempts to generate an immersive sound environment that allows space for the listener to be an active participant in the music, thus inviting a particular quality of engagement beyond the confines of casual listening. The opening track, “Sans mouvement I,” is a studio recording for solo guzheng; the following compositions utilize this material and continue adding layers while paradoxically stripping the compositional field to a minimalist tapestry of sonic events. Le Goût du néant marks their first joint effort. While not necessarily following the hopeless sensibility of Baudelaire’s poem – from which the music takes its name – this collection of tracks does exercise a certain austerity. And it is within such an atmosphere of “nothingness” (néant), the music might suggest, where “je contemple d’en haut le globe en sa roundeur” (“from heights I contemplate the roundness of the world”) – a deceptively simple goal." [label info]
www.absinthrecords.com
"On the improvised music label Absinth a rather unusual collaboration of two guys on a laptop, Craig Hilton and Tomas Phillips. I must add that Hilton also plays the guzheng and the whole first track is him playing that instrument solo. That ten minute recording is used in the subsequent three pieces. The guzheng is played to make beautiful sustaining sounds, and then these sustaining sounds are slowly expanded in the next three pieces. Phillips and Hilton know how to create a wonderful, rich sound from the basic source, and at times, I believe they add new layers of guzheng playing to the music. Curiously enough what you expect is what you don't get, at least my assumptions were wrong. I expected some glitch like drone/ambient music highly inside the world of digital music. That's not the case. These two men create music that is highly organic, with carefully layered constructions of real time events, a bit of loops hopping around, sustaining sounds from the addition of sound effects and three excellent atmospheric pieces of music arise majestically from a no-man's land. It all hardly sounds improvised, but more thoroughly composed, which perhaps makes it an odd ball for this label, but also a true beauty." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| HINSIDAN |
Nightshift |
10INCH |
4-track EP from this promising project, two pieces of very subtle / droney material, one remix on Side B by L'OMBRE, and one live-version of "Nightshift", this sounds like dark wave drone ambient with beats & vocals, hard to define but highly atmospheric and stunning!
"After their monumentual debut - the praised double album 'God Is In The Details / Music For Ghosts' [phisteria 2005], and hot on the heels of two limited album releases in Germany [Shapeshifter Blues on Verato Project] and US [Bleach Dye Yr Heart on Gears of Sand],
our very own animal rights avantgarde-drone-poltergeist-rockers return to phisteria, with this diverse 4-tracker that really pays hommage to the band's heritage. This limited 10'' EP of 250 copies is most likely to be a hot collectible for all eternity, we dare you to miss it!!" [label info]
"... Opening very slowly, the first piece titled "The first time we met the blues" (no worries, not any sign of Blues on this track!) builds steadily from inaudible drones to smoothing vibrant drones building a great atmosphere from early start, not too far away from British legends Zoviet France. As the first piece fades out, another swarm of drones build with the opening of following piece "Labyrinths of obsession", this time with a more abrasive approach. Soon after subtle acoustic drum-patterns penetrates to create a rhythm structure in the abstract composition. Side B of the vinyl opens with a remix of "The first time we me the blues" executed by Ant-Zen legend L'Ombre. The result is a completely different work based on repetitive downbeat rhythm textures assisted by discreet ambient melody in the background. Final piece on the album is a live recording from legendary Danish underground club "Ungdomshuset" (R.I.P.). Despite the fact that it has been recorded live the sound of the work is still nice and clean. The title-track "Nightshift" consists of vibrant drones and distant male vocals adding to the strange nocturnal atmospheres of the track. As was the case with the earlier efforts of Hinsidan the guitar plays an important role in the spheres of work, and the result again is utterly beautiful." [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.phisteria.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| HIRSUTE PURSUIT |
Tighten that Muscle |
CD |
"Music that smells like a man!
“I play Hirsute Pursuit at all of my DJ gigs” (Peter Christopherson)
“Tighten That Muscle Ring” features collaborators such as Bryin Dall of Thee Majesty, Boyd Rice of NON and Sleazy of Coil / Throbbing Gristle.
The music is real. The sex is real.
Created by Harley Phoenix and his musical partner, Bryin Dall, this is Gay Sex Music that offers no apologies. Enticing rhythms combined with raw sex and a commanding, deep, resonate voice, Harley has transformed explicit instructions for serving his pleasure into a musical orgy that hits the gay community where it plays, the dance floor and the bedroom. Sleazy dance beats pound along at tempos that encourage carnal exploration, while sounds of ecstasy cannot be ignored. You will be thinking Cock Thoughts (a song from the first album, That Hole Belongs to Me).
After starting with a MySpace page Hirsute Pursuit has become THE MOST PLAYED GAY MUSIC ON MYSPACE. Typical letters from fans tell Harley that after listening to his music, they HAD to go “get off”. While fans have been pleading for photos, Harley refuses to give in. Understanding the restraints of reality, Harley remains in the shadows, making Hirsute Pursuit the ultimate in musical fantasy.
Without any publicity or releases, Hirsute Pursuit has had over 140,000 plays in less than a year! Drawing fans from all musical genres, including House, Country, Rock, Hip Hop, etc. Primarily attracting a gay audience, recent fans also include female dominatrixes, middle-class housewives and straight guys (as is evidenced in the video, Boys Keep Swinging featuring Boyd Rice and James Pope, both straight). The raw sensuality has now crossed over into the heterosexual domain.
This is music you can fuck to, as well as bump and grind.
Harley Phoenix is currently preparing Hirsute Pursuit’s live show experience which will include actual musicians, dancers and video to give the audience members a complete sensory explosion.
Comes in a 6-panel digisleeve." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| HIS DIVINE GRACE / DE GRACE |
Revelation |
LP |
"After 11 years in the bleak realm of magick electronics. Moonchild Erik moves to the desolate woods of ambient post-black-metal. Exit HIS DIVINE GRACE, enter Erik's new project DE GRÂCE, featuring LaMort on chords and vocals. REUE UM REUE and LaMort's label JUST ANOTHER WINTER join forces to celebrate the transition, in the shape of a split LP between the dying and the newly-born." [label info]
www.tutrur.com/tutrur_html/rur013.html
|
2009 |
€7.50 |
|
| HISS TRACTS |
Shortwave Nights |
CD |
"180g Vinyl mit Kunstdruck und Downloadcode. 'Shortwave Nights' ist das Debüt von HISS TRACTS, einem neuen Duo aus David Bryant (GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, SET FIRE TO FLAMES) und Kevin Doria (GROWING, TOTAL LIFE). Die beiden trafen sich 2004 und begründeten eine musikalische Freundschaft, die in drei GROWING Alben mündete, die im The Pines Studio von Bryant in Montreal aufgenommen wurden und in mehreren Kollaborationen mit z.B. dem experimentellen Filmkünstler Karl Lemieux. Probebänder für ein Underground Film Festival in Lausanne 2008 wurden zur Basis für HISS TRACTS; David und Kevin arbeiteten zwischen 2009 und 2013 daran, doch vieles von der Magie der ersten Versionen ist noch immer greifbar. Kevin und David sind instrumentale Musiker von ungewöhnlicher Tiefe und Intensität. HISS TRACTS eröffnet neue kollaborative und erzählerische Pfade, um die beiden Musiker die Soundlandschaft von Komposition und Produktion erforschen zu lassen. Beide sind Gitarristen und die E-Gitarre erscheint als Quelle von 'Shortwave Nights', doch die Fülle an zusätzlichen analogen Quellen und Signalen stellt sicher, dass dieser Sound hier nicht mit gitarrenbasiertem Drone, Noise oder Postrock verwechselt wird. 'Shortwave Night' setzt sich über solch engmaschigen Genrebegriffe hinweg und lässt sich ebenso wenig in die vorherrschenden Subgenres einordnen. Wenn Drone jedoch der Orientierungspunkt ist, dann liegt das sicherlich an dem Mix, der die einzelnen Elemente zu einer Wall of Sound in Stereo vereint. Dies ist keine Elektro-Platte und 'Shortwave Nights' begibt sich auch nicht in die Welt von Ambient oder Wave, vielmehr lässt sich der Sound hier im breiten Abstammungsfeld von Post-Industrial und Musique Concrète verorten. //
Shortwave Nights is the debut album by Hiss Tracts, a new duo featuring David Bryant (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Set Fire To Flames) and Kevin Doria (Growing, Total Life). The two met in 2004 and struck up a musical friendship that led to three Growing records being made at The Pines (Bryant's recording studio in Montreal) and a separate collaboration between the two, initially in conjunction with experimental filmmaker Karl Lemieux (also GY!BE's current 16mm auteur/projectionist). Rehearsal tapes from a set of sessions for a Lausanne Underground Film Festival performance in 2008 became the foundation and starting point for Hiss Tracts; David and Kevin continued working throughout 2009-2013, but much of the material from their earliest session is still present, in one state or another, within the tracks on this debut album.
The sonic preoccupations of Bryant and Doria are well-known and well-documented across many highly acclaimed recordings over the past fifteen years, from the organic, group-based, semi-improvised collage albums of Set Fire To Flames to the glimmering, immersive minimalism of Growing and the more maximalist full-spectrum noise works of Total Life. David and Kevin are instrumental music practitioners of uncommon depth and intensity; Hiss Tracts opens new collaborative, procedural and narrative pathways for these fine musicians to continue exploring soundscape-based composition and production. Both are guitar players, and the electric guitar figures as both recognizable and unrecognizable source instrument on Shortwave Nights, but the deployment of a wide range of additional analog sources and signals ensures that there is no confusing this for a guitar-based drone, noise or post-rock record.
Shortwave Nights defies categorization by terms like "drone" or "ambient" and it does not easily slip into any of the predominant subgenres that have proliferated around studio-based soundscape work in recent years. Insofar as drone is a touchstone, this has mostly to do with the approach to mixing, which tends towards a transcendent/trance-inducing integration of elements into a unified, saturated, wall-of-sound stereo field. The album contains no beats or programming and very little that is identifiably loop-based or overtly sampled and sampler-driven. Occasional deployments of digital signal processing remain firmly in the service of Hiss Tract's overriding framework and commitment to analog sources and human instrumentation. This is not an electronic record, nor does it sit comfortably at either the pastoral or spooky/sinister poles of any ambient or 'whatever'-wave spectrum; it can perhaps best be placed within the broad lineages of post-industrial and musique concrète.
Meditative and visceral, humming with the electromagnetic atmosphere through which all manner of frequencies, transmissions and surveillances pass and collide, Shortwave Nights strikes an evocative balance between sonics captured-channeled-harnessed vs. composed-sculpted-performed, with an almost documentary rigour and restraint that nonetheless remains profoundly charged and engaged. Constellation is thrilled to introduce this new project with a brilliant debut album that has heavily infiltrated our brains and bloodstreams since Bryant and Doria first played us the nearly-finished recordings in the fall of 2013. Thanks for listening.
Release date: 13 May 2014
Running time: 44:28
Packaging notes
CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on thick 24pt. paperboard with a printed CD dust sleeve. LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a heavyweight jacket with black poly-lined audiophile dust sleeve, credit insert, pull-out art poster and download code for 320 kbps MP3 copy of the album." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| HITHLAHABUTH |
(drone) (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
a very own dimension of mind-enlarging sounds from this very unknown secretful german formation, first vinyl!
"LIMITED+NUMBERED FIRST EDITION OF 250 COPIES
on CLEAR VINYL; LINOTYPE-, DRAWN & COLOUR-PRINTED COVERS.
HITHLAHABUTH ARE AN UNKNOWN AND VERY MYSTERIOUS GROUP FROM GERMANY WHO HAVE BEEN ACTIVE FOR MORE THEN 10 YEARS. AS YET, THEY RELEASED ONLY A FEW OF THEIR WORKS ON THEIR OWN 'HITHLAHABUTH RECORDS' LABEL WHICH ALSO SERVED TO RELEASE THEIR SOLO (OFTEN UNDER DIFFERENT NAMES) & COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS.
HITHLAHABUTH IS THE NAME FOR "BURNING" OR "GLOWING" IN THE SENSE OF ECSTASY OF THE RELIGIOUS NOTION OF "CHASSIDISM".
DRONE RECORDS ARE VERY PROUD TO BE THE LABEL TO BRING OUT THE VERY FIRST VINYL-RELEASE BY THIS GROUP WHICH IS ALSO THIS IS THE FIRST RELEASE FROM THEM THAT HAS APPEARED ON ANY OTHER LABEL EXCEPT THEIR OWN HITHLAHABUTH RECORDS.
THE TWO TRACKS "DIDGE-DRONE" AND "DROWN-DRONE" WORK WITH VOICES, SYNTHS, DIDGERIDOO AND UNKNOWN SOURCES TO CREATE A VERY MYSTERIOUS MUSIC THAT IS FAR AWAY FROM THE CLICHE-LIKE 'DARK-INDUSTRIAL'. THEIR MUSIC HAS A VERY NATURAL TOUCH...MUSIC THAT SEEMS TO GLOW IN A PROFOUND WAY DOWN INTO YOUR EMOTIONAL PATH...THIS HAS A POSITIVE & SACRAL, NEARLY RELIGIOUS TOUCH INSIDE, WHICH COULD HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON YOUR BODY & SOUL.
"HITHLAHABUTH CREATE MUSIC ABOUT THE FESTIVAL OF LIFE"
DRONE RECORDS DR-17/ MAY 1996 |
1996 |
€ |
|
| HITOSHIRES |
Stella |
mCDR |
"HITOSHIRES is the project of sasagu ota, a japanese musician based in kyoto. sasagu decided to propose us some tracks after he discovered taâlem releases at the parallax record store in kyoto where most of the taâlem catalogue is available. just like his friend nobuto suda, sasagu's music seems quite simple but is highly effective. perfect droney ambient...!
"stella" is his very first release and will be soon followed by another release on tobira records." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| HIVE MIND / HOTOTOGISU |
split |
7inch |
Zweimal Noise-Muzak pur! Die HOTOTOGISU-Seite "Full Prince Charles" (live in Copenhagen, 12.2005) kracht low-fi und hochfrequent und kontrastiert so aufs beste mit dem analog rauschig-dronig wallenden Studio-Stück "Collapsed Shroud" von HIVE MIND, bei dem flirrende Effekte regelrecht abheben...
"Legendary Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards/GHQ) duo unleash a brain-scouring blast of white light/heat. Hive Mind head Greh Holger creeps out a negative graveyard of tonal droning. Limited edition release with very few copies available--act fast!" [label notes]
www.nofunfest.com/nofunprod
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| HLADNA |
Melting Water |
CD |
Lobenswerte Re-issue dieses frühen HLADNA-Albums, mehrschichtige Schwälle von metallisch-fliessenden Lava-Klang, heruntergetunte Gesänge, alles verliert sich in unendlich grossen Hallräumen... auch wild ekstatisch-krachige Parts kommen vor... frühe MAEROR TRI sind hier auch nicht weit..
"The reissue of early album from Saint-Petersburg noise artist Nikolay Kalmykov's project Hladna. Recorded in 1998-1999 and released as a very limited CDR, it is still one of the best records ever made by Russian industrial scene and the CD edition was long overdue. This is ritual ambient with some additions of noise and metal percussion, reminding of some classic Lustmord, Cranioclast or early Hybryds tracks, but the sound is more raw and harsh. The overall atmosphere of industrial decay is rather brutal and rusty than profound and mystical here, but there are obvious strong primordial currents in this music that wake up your archaic patterns. The release comes as a beautiful paper folder limited to 300 numbered copies." [label info]
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| HOARFROST |
Ground Zero |
CD |
"The „ Ground Zero” is a landscape developing from an unknown cataclysm presenting ruins and debris of steel, dust flying in the air, rust and slivers, tumbling down construction, where steel structures bend and fold like a pack of cards. A 37-minute story about the destruction of the concrete world is presented in 6 pieces in a dark ambient/industrial climate. Additionally the record also contains a video clip to „From here to ruins”. Graphical project by Praetorian." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Puppets of the Divine Coroner |
CD |
"The next studio offering from Hoarfrost, 46 minutes of music both in the tradition of CMI ambient, yet experimental, creative. Music that incorporates not only droney soundscapes and dark atmospheres, but also operatic vocals, dreamy melodies and more rhythmic structures. A surprising follow-up to 'Ground Zero'." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| HOARFROST & INNER VISION LABORATORY |
Decline |
CD |
"Both Hoarfrost and Inner Vision Laboratory are young projects, but it would be an understatement to call them 'newcomers.' Each of them has already released debut albums alongside numerous split releases, collaborations, web extended plays and compilation tracks. Thanks to them they gathered a substantial following among experimental music listeners.
It was just a question of time when the men behind the projects would collaborate on a release. The result is 'Decline' – a tale of descending into the pits of madness in 8 parts. Inspired by two poems, 'Madman' and 'Modern Icarus,' takes you on a journey into the realms of dark thoughts. With such a clear concept, it's no wonder that the music is cinematic, thus slowly building images in the listener's head. Face the stillness, but remember: something is lingering in the corner." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| HODELL, AKE & DAVID GRUBBS |
Igevär / Yellow Sky |
LP |
Rare Scheibe mit zwei unveröffentlichten Stücken des legendären schwedischen Sound-Poetikers AKE HODELL (unglaubliche Stimmen-Drones, von 1963 und 1965, extrem!), dazu hat HODELL-Fan DAVID GRUBBS eine theatralisches Hörspiel-artiges Stück komponiert! Weisses Vinyl, Klappcover, ausführliche liner notes.
"The first release by Kning Disk is a 12 vinyl, consisting of two legendary works (one previously unreleased) by Swedish text-sound pioneer Ake Hodell; Igevr (1965) and General Bussig (1963), coupled with a specially composed piece by the north American pop-experimental musician David Grubbs; Yellow Sky (2004). The cover is created by Swedish artist Elis E. Eriksson." [label info]
|
2004 |
€20.00 |
|
| HODGKINSON, TIM |
Pragma |
CD |
"Wer sich für experimentellen Rock interessiert, der sollte den sympathischen Engländer Tim Hodgkinson kennen, ist er doch schon seit den späten sechziger Jahren aktiv. Einst bei den vielgelobten Henry Cow mit von der Partie, machte Tim in den Achtzigern und Neunzigern mit Bands wie The Work (immer unterschätzt, doch eine grandiose Gruppe!) oder Momes oder mit dem Jazz-Core-Projekt Godd (den englischen) weiter. Nebenher bringt der Saxofonist und Komponist auch immer wieder Platten unter dem eigenen Namen heraus. "Pragma" schöpft sowohl aus seiner Erfahrung als Improvisationsmusiker als auch aus seinem Interesse für zeitgenösische Klassik. Wir hören sechs durchaus strenge (nicht anstrengende) Kompositionen für "taped voices" ("SHHH") oder für "Klarinette, E-Gitarre, Brass Instruments und Percussion" ("Repulsion"). Bizarr und wie immer bei Hodgkinson, nicht ohne Humor." [Łeeson]
" Tim is best known as a founding member of the legendary avant rock group Henry Cow [1968-1978]. Pragma is an intense fusion of contemporary classical music and rock energy. There are six substantial compositions focusing on horns, violins, percussion, voices, & small orchestral ensembles." Includes: "SHHH" (for taped voices, including fragments of Ana-Maria Avram's 'Archae'); "For Looking Inside" (for 3 prepared violas) & 4 others." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
| HODGKINSON, TIM & MILO FINE |
Teshuvah |
CD |
"TWO BLOKES FINDING SOUND IN THE MIDST OF
A Sort of Macrocosm
Insufferable and absurd. But, what else to expect? Because we are (imagine ourselves to be?) sentient, or rather, due to the manner in which western "civilization", an infectious disease which has managed to inculcate almost every indigenous culture on the planet, has manifested this sentience, we are an utterly disingenuous species. Our actions, in one way or another, are, for the most part (exclusively?) unintentional manifestations of what lurks beneath; unacknowledged, suppressed, repressed, willfully unknown. Our behavioral watchwords? Rationalization and justification. Why? Well, fear of course, Knowing we will cease to exist, or, perhaps more accurately, lacking the ability to fathom the eternal (or what we imagine it to be), we turn to so-called power, material wealth, fame and the like as pathetically meagre compensation. Now, there are those who would, in the current lexicon, argue that "it's all good", which is nothing but a rephrasing of essential tenets found in any number of belief systems/philosophies. And while there is no doubt that truly existing in the eternity of every moment, to treat what we generally separate into "good" or "bad"/ "positive" or "negative", as nothing but unified energy of which we are simply a part -- to, in other words, maintain a sense of calm and "being" regardless of life's circumstances -- would likely be ideal, or close to it. But, given the essence of humanity's overall conditioning and wiring, this state is, sadly, more or less impossible to attain, never mind sustain. Not to say that it isn't worth considering and attempting. But, in the meantime, let's drop the pretense; the state of the world -- inner and outer -- makes it clear that it is not all good, and to excuse our behavior is to propagate the missteps that personify humanity.
Certainly A Microcosm
Social gatherings are all, to one degree or another, insufferable and absurd. Fraught with rampant hidden agendas and their manifestations -- positioning (hierarchal maneuvering) and networking (careerism) -- and underscored by insecurity and thinly veiled desperation (a bit thicker for those with truly sociopathic tendencies), how could they be otherwise? And, having such a gathering in the name of "art" only compounds the unbearableness, because the meaningful realization of the creative impulse should have at least something to do with transcendence. Not "transcendence" as a marketing tool or an image mongering label, but transcendence. So, when a local academy hosted yet another insular affair -- in this case, a "festival of electronic music and arts" -- wherein the invitees ranged from graduate students to out-of-town guests (underwritten by their own academies to come and display their wares; that is to say, add yet another line to their curriculum vitaes), the resultant lack of transcendence can hardly come as a surprise. And, indeed, just on the surface, there's abundant evidence as to how brilliantly this event works at cross purposes. First, it's centered around technology, which, these days, as one knows, means lap top gimmickry (and slow downloads). Second, there's a preponderance of hackneyed and merciless expropriation of indigenous musics, a clear sign of wrong-headed political correctness. Third, as part of ever elusive "audience development", there is much pandering to rock/pop influences. Fourth, the programming style is all pastiche -- a little of this, a little of that -- catering to short attention spans. (And, do I need to mention how the curator and others high in the food chain, get to present their work in the better, more prestigious venues? I thought not.) In all, it's fascinating how an event so concerned with creativity is, for the most part, so utterly bereft of same.
Tim and I first met when he came to town with Konk Pack (a trio which also includes Roger Turner and Thomas Lehn) in the fall of 2007. In addition to playing a duo set with Roger that evening, I had served as a middle man of sorts in setting up the gig, which, due to the curator dropping the ball vis a vis communications, almost didn't happen. (And, even when it did, the evening itself was filled with an assortment of additional miscues, which Tim -- the group's de facto "tour manger " -- and I handled well, and, perhaps more importantly, with good humor.) Tim and I didn't talk a lot that evening or at brunch the next day, but, as evidenced by our on-the-spot problem solving and the exchanges we did have, there was an obvious overlapping of sensibilities and interests. Evidently, Tim thought so too. I was, however, surprised and amused when Tim let me know he was returning to participate in this, as we say in the states, "dog and pony" show (i.e., an empty showcase). (That he was a member of an ensemble not playing his music -- a hired hand, so to speak -- mitigated my surprise.) In his e-mail he expressed an interest in finding some time to hang out amongst the rehearsals and performances. I countered by suggesting we get together to play. So, we elected to attempt both, but, naturally, given logistical concerns (schedules and transportation) the path to something simple was replete with small stumbling blocks. Enter filmmaker/videographer Mike Yaeger. Part of my unexpected and last minute middle man duties on Tim's previous visit was to find accommodations for Konk Pack. For several reasons, three people would have been a bit much at my place. Particularly in the light of Roger having opened his home to me for several days in 2003 while I was in England, his staying with me was a foregone conclusion. Fortunately, in an inspired moment, I remembered Mike had a long standing admiration for Tim's work. So, I contacted him about the possibility of Tim and Thomas spending the night at his house. Having met and had quite a long conversation with Tim the preceding year, Mike was delighted. This time around (late winter 2008), Tim had already alerted Mike to his return, but Mike was unaware that I had suggested our getting together to play. This prospect was especially exciting for him, because, in addition to his abiding respect for Tim's music, Mike has expressed a deep appreciation for my work as evidenced by his recurring bursts of support. (That a virodha bhakti -- devotion by defiance -- undercurrent informs our relationship is not surprising, as it is a recurring theme in my interpersonal dynamics.) He was, therefore, very keen on videotaping our session. And, because the audio on his camera is of mediocre quality, he suggested, no, almost insisted that I record it with my DAT equipment (consisting of a recorder, mixer and four microphones). I, on the other hand, just wanted to keep things simple and make some music. But, Mike, in his unbridled enthusiasm, can be extremely persuasive, and so we compromised. I'd record it, but with a basic stereo mike set-up.
Looking at the festival schedule, I noted the first day I was available to hear Tim, and made tentative arrangements to meet and go out with him and Mike. But that, of course, entailed the concerted effort of entering a domain that, despite my efforts to place occurrences in a broader context, nonetheless so irritates my nerve endings. Thus, with as much of an accepting attitude as I could muster, and keeping open the option that there just might, might be something of interest to hear (which, as it turns out there was, but just barely), I entered the venue where Tim would be playing and, once inside the performing space proper, immediately detected the pervasive stench of heightened self-importance and the politics of music as, first and foremost, a career path. A sort of existential nausea washed over me. With a demeanor of subtle defiance, I found a place to sit as some vacant post-modern design-form morphed on the stage's screen. Within moments, I spotted an enthralled Mike, who, for all his perspicacious opinions concerning artistic endeavor, can, in certain circumstances, be quite a, shall we say, forgiving listener; and Viv Corringham, one of my regular collaborators, whom I mercilessly (and, if I may be so bold, justifiably) tease for regularly showing up at these sorts of affairs. (However, as she actually participated in this event the previous year, her presence was de rigueur. Moreover, given that Viv has a genuine arts degree, one readily recognizes the force of habit extending from a good indoctrination, er, education.) During breaks between pieces, and almost trembling with displeasure, I asked Mike when we could get out of there, phrasing it along the lines of, "When the fuck can we get out of here and get something to eat?". He seemed perplexed and annoyed, to the point where, a bit later, and subsequent to Tim and I having warmly reestablished contact, Mike indicated he wouldn't be able to give Tim a ride to the session on Saturday, because he didn't want to miss any of the concerts (and, additionally, would have his young daughter, Alice, in tow). With no other viable options, I said I'd fetch Tim and get him back afterwards. Slight tensions aside, the four of us decided to get together for a meal prior to to Tim's next appearance that evening. The dinner at a small Indian restaurant was lovely; the usual push-pull banter amongst new and old comrades (Viv having known Tim for quite some time). Naturally, a fair portion of the conversation centered around the event at hand. And while Mike would have loved to find an ally in Tim concerning positive aspects of the festival, Tim was having none of it, and even went so far as to regale us with some wonderful and revealing behind-the-scenes stories. As the evening went on, Mike, in particular, was concerned about getting to the next venue in time to get a seat. I was, of course, in no great hurry, never imagining, in the light of the afternoon event's modest audience, that the place would be filled to capacity. Much to my chagrin, however, that was indeed the case, perhaps in part because it was a smaller venue. (Despite his being a performer in the evening's second half, even Tim wasn't allowed entrance.) Thankfully, my companions forgave me for filibustering at the restaurant. And, as we were in good spirits, and the ushers a good audience for our persiflage, we enjoyed our time in the lobby. Expectedly, some people left during the interval, so there were more seats to be had. I stayed to hear Tim, and then beat a hasty retreat.
Encounter
Saturday. Mike bringing Tim after all. Cart the smaller drum kit upstairs. Set it up. Open the piano. Assemble the clarinet. Set up the recording equipment. And, naturally, wait. Chronicling via cell phone: delayed rehearsals, concerts predictably running late, the convolutions surrounding their finding a place for a quick meal before arriving, and Mike's ongoing "negotiations" with Alice. Having a sense as to when Tim had to be back "on the job", I started thinking we'd have no time to play at all. Another call, they're almost here. Arrival. Mike and Tim set up their equipment, and, given the time constraints, we eschew a sound check. Then, without a word, the music starts. Now, if I may back up a moment. Previous to his hearing me play clarinets with Roger the year before, Tim knew fuck-all about my music. And my exposure to his work was limited; the early progressive/art rock, the raucous, improvised environs of Konk Pack (which didn't involve much woodwind playing), and the frugal bursts characterizing his contributions to the festival. So my expectations (like assumptions, a tricky business) were of a spare, lyrically-tinged aesthetic, perhaps informed by some "noisy" eruptions. But, when Tim put his horn to his mouth, it was all technically sharp, inventive fire. And I was delighted, as much for the music that was there, that moment, and to come, as for the fact that my expectations had been wonderfully circumvented. Improvisation. My lifework.
Acknowledgments
Mike, thanks very much for all your help, and, particularly for suggesting, er, insisting that I record the session.
(And, thank you to Kevin Cosgrove, whose serendipitous mentioning the word "renunciant" in a conversation just after my having essentially finished these notes, brought the track titles into focus.)
-- © milo fine (july 2008) " [label info / credits]
www.rossbin.com
" 'Teshuvah' reflects a first meeting between of two experienced veteran improvisors: Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow, Konk Pack, etc.) and Milo Fine. The career of Fine goes back to 1969 when he started The Milo Fine Free Jazz Ensemble. Throughout his career he was dedicated to free improvised music. I guess both gentlemen are more or less of the same age. Also Hodgkinson has a longlasting relation with free improvisation, as it was already part of the Henry Cow. They combined rock and free improvisation. In the last few years Hodgkinson tours regularly with his trio Konk Pack (Roger Turner, Thomas Lehn). During a concert in Minnesota he met Fine and the idea for a duo-session came up. It was realized in Fine's home, on a day in march 2008. Two long extended and one short improvisation made it to the CD that has Fine playing piano, drums, b flat clarinet and voice and Hodgkinson on b flat clarinet. While listening one feels the joy they had in their fabulous interactions. Never a dull moment during these sparkling, catch-me-while-you-can improvisations" [DM / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| HOEDH |
Universum |
CD |
"Last studio-album and musical testament of T.H. Thiel ( ORDO CATHARSIS TEMPLI ), who died in April 2003, only few days after putting the final touches to this impressive album. Like only few ambient artists, HOEDH succeed to awake a feeling of longing and melancholy within every listener and at the same time HOEDH create a feeling of inner silence: a spiritual drowning into your soul. ( HOEDH hymnus 1996) UNIVERSUM was released as official - In Memoriam Album - in collaboration with Ordo Catharsis Templi, who s founder T.H.Thiel was." [label info]
"HOEDh was thee projekt ov thee German artist Thorn Hoedh who passed away on thee night ov May 15th-16th 2003.. he was involved in thee projekts: Delysid , DLS, Helix 12, Moksha, and Ordo Catharis Templi!! thee two albums shared here are some ov thee most beauteous dark ambient releases which one could hope to encounter!! Hymnvs was released in 1993 on thee Atmosphere sublabel ov Dark Vinyl which was dedicated to generally more rhythmic ambient music.. and Universum was released post-humously on thee Dark Vinyl Records label on thee first ov April 2004.. again here are presented more releases from thee astounding 23 Temple!!"
[vitaignescorpuslignum.blogspot.com]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| HOFFMAN, KAY |
Floret Silva |
LP |
"Wiederveröffentlichung einer raren LP von 1985 (bereits 1977 aufgenommen) dieser Schweizerin, die inzwischen als Tanz- & Trance-Therapeutin in München tätig ist (www.kayhoffman.de). FLORET SILVA benutzt Texte der „Carmina Burana“, jener Gedichtsammlung aus dem 12.Jahrhundert, und bettet diese in mittalalterliche Folk-Melodien und ein „progressives“ Gerüst ein, gesungen meist von JACQUELINE DARBY. Eine avantgardistische Hippie-Platte mit meditativ-mystischer Ausrichtung und wunderschönem Gesang." [Drone Rec. info]
"Sounding at times like Vashti Bunyan fronting Sunforest, "Floret Silva" is a haunting mix of medieval music and progressive / psych / folk with Latin lyrics straight from the Carmina Burana book.
The "Floret Silva" project was born when minimalist composer Kay Hoffman went to Italy in the mid–70s. Once there, she met with welsh soprano Jacqueline Darby, who had recently been working with the Italian avant–prog band Pierrot Lunaire. Jaqueline was working on new compositions with RCA producer Vincento Miccocci in Rome and she asked Kay if she was interested in getting involved in a new project. Kay agreed and Gaio Chiochio and Arturo Stalteri of Pierrot Lunaire also joined them on this new venture. Gaio travelled from Rome to play the guitar and other friends of Jacqueline also offered their collaboration.
In a short time, Kay wrote all the material, inspired by the Carmina Burana book and her love of Medieval and Renaissance music. Kay also contributed vocals, clavinet and piano and together with Jacqueline Darby – on haunting vocals – plus an impressive cast of jazz/rock/progressive musicians, they recorded "Floret Silva" during 1977–78, under the guidance of Vicento Micocci.
Sadly, RCA backed off and the album went unreleased until a copy of the masters found their way to Japan, where the great Belle Antique label put out the first vinyl edition of "Floret Silva" in 1985. In 2006, US label Robot Records resurrected it again for the first CD release.
After many years out of print on vinyl, we present a new edition of this lost piece from the 70s Italian underground scene. A visionary album which anticipated the sound practiced by many neo–folk bands some decades later.
RIYL: Jan Dukes de Grey, Vashti Bunyan, Sunforest, Wicker Man, Pierrot Lunaire, Opus Avantra, Current 93, Nico, Gal Costa, Wooden O, Giles Farnaby’s Dream Band…
Master tape sound
4–page insert with detailed liner notes by Richard Allen and photos.
"This album is like the prettier, more elegant companion piece to Nico’s somber medieval explorations on The Marble Index" – Brainwashed.com
"This should appeal to experimental psych–folk fans for sure, even if this unique treasure is really something outside almost any genre designation you’d care to come up with!" – Aquarius Records
"…An almost perfect fusion of styles that when combined with the archaic language is both haunting and entrancing reminiscent perhaps of the otherworldly atmosphere created by Bo Hansson on his Lord of the Rings album." – Richard Allen
Iste Mundus – Floret Silva – Exorcismus – Intermezzo (Chume, Chume) – Ich Will Truren – Rondo – Mai Tanz – Quot Sunt Horae – Tot – Sonus Dulcis Lyrae – Ouverture – Zum Fest – Intermezzo (Fagott Sommer Nacht Promenade) – Tempus Instat – Langueo (Vacillantis) – Chume, Chume – Nummus – Post Communio Sancti Cyrilli "
www.guerssen.com
"We've had the cd reissue of this gem before, but now for the very first time it's been reissued on vinyl, too! What does Floret Silva sound like, you ask? How about RennFaire gone Rock In Opposition? Italian prog meets medieval madrigals?? We're still puzzling about how to describe this wonderful, wonderful disc, a reissue of a rare lp which was recorded by composer Kay Hoffman in Florence, Italy in 1977, though not released until 1985, on vinyl in Japan only!
Hoffman and her collaborators, including members of the very excellent and arty Italian prog band Pierrot Lunaire, took a trove of medieval Latin poetry known as the Carmina Burana - poems written by anonymous authors around 1200 AD that are both religious in nature as well as very earthy and real, about such subjects as love and money - and set them to music. The settings are diverse (as befits the variety of these texts), and the results are often eerie and pretty and even a little bit groovy, with quirky chamber ensemble/prog rock backing and even the use of field recordings. Utterly magical for the most part, most especially due to the delicate vocals of Jacquline Darby. One song reminds us strongly of Stereolab, others call to mind (rather more obscurely) that Flamen Dialis album we've raved about before. This should appeal to experimental psych-folk fans for sure, even if this unique treasure is really something outside almost any genre designation you'd care to come up with!" [Aquarius Rec.]
“1977 avant/folk progressive masterpiece from minimalist composer Kay Hoffman. Includes collaborative performances from Jacqueline Darby and Gaio Chiocchio--members of the legendary, Italian progressive group Pierrot Lunaire. Originally slated for release on RCA/IT (Italy) in ‘78, the album was later rejected due to recording deadlines, release schedules, and requests by RCA for other artistic/musical considerations. However, many years later, Floret Silva did end up surfacing on a very different shore. Copies of the masters found their way to the highly eclectic Japanese label Belle Antique, whose musical director had heard rumors about the early project in the mid-1980’s. As a result, Floret Silva was finally released eight years after the completed sessions in 1985 as a small edition, but very well received LP (Belle Antique 8502, Japan). Apparently, not many copies of the record were exported outside Japan. This merely created even more mystery surrounding the recordings as well as rumors associated with a Pierrot Lunaire-related project. The recordings were based on the Carmina Burana--a collection of medieval poetry written by various authors of which little is known. Floret Silva was an attempt to find a voice for these anonymous authors in the late 1970’s in Florence. Now, nearly 30 years after the completed sessions, Floret Silva blooms again….this time in the US. Available for the first time on CD with remastered sound, including a 12-page booklet with full lyrics and English translations. A lost (but now reclaimed) gem from the Italian progressive underground.” [label info for the CD release]
|
2016 |
€22.00 |
|
| HOGAN, ANNI |
Kickabye |
do-CD |
"Von ihren frühen Tagen als Batcave DJane bis zu ihren Kollaborationen mit MARC ALMOND (MARC AND THE MAMBA, WILLING SINNERS, LA MAGIA) ist ANNI HOGAN eins der wahren Genies der Alternative Szene. Als Komponistin, Songwriterin, Produzentin, DJane und Promoterin half sie dabei, dem Sound der 80s eine Form zu verleihen. Ihre musikalische Karriere erstreckt sich über drei Jahrzehnte, in denen sich die großen Namen nur so am Wegesrand sammeln. Als DJane spielte sie mit SOFT CELL, THE THE, EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, TEST DEPT, JAPAN, NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS, ADRIAN SHERWOOD; als Pianistin und Keyboarderin hat sie live und im Studio mit SOFT CELL, SIMON FISHER TURNER, NICK CAVE, PAUL WELLER, BARRY ADAMSON, LYDIA LUNCH, ZEKE MANYIKA, SEX GANG CHILDREN, YELLO, CAGED BABY und natürlich MARC ALMOND gearbeitet. Ihr Solodebüt ,Kickabye" erscheint hier in ausgeweiteter Version erstmals als CD und wartet mit einigen Alternative Größen auf: NICK CAVE auf 'Vixo' (exklusiv!)), MARC ALMOND auf 'Burning Boats', FOETUS, BUDGIE (SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES) und GINI BALL. Auf der CD trifft die eigentliche ,Kickabye" EP (produziert von Jim ,FOETUS" Thirwell) auf zehn weitere Songs aus der gleichen Zeit. Mit neuen und exklusiven Versionen von MARC ALMOND Tracks. www.myspace.com/annihogan" [label info/Cargo]
"From her early days as a legendary Batcave DJ, through her work wth Marc Almond (Marc And The Mambas, Willing Sinners, La Magia), Anni Hogan is one of the true geniuses of the alternative scene. A composer, songwriter, arranger, producer, promoter and DJ, she helped to shape the sound of the 80s.
In a musical career spanning three decades she has worked with many successful artists in a variety of capacities. As a DJ she performed with artists including: Soft Cell, The The, Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, Japan, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Adrian Sherwood. On Piano and Keyboards she has performed live and in studios all over the world with artists including: Soft Cell, Simon Fisher Turner, Nick Cave, Paul Weller, Barry Adamson, Lydia Lunch, Zeke Manyika, Sex Gang Children, Yello, Caged Baby and of course Marc Almond.
Cold Spring is proud to present her debut release expanded and brought to the public for the first time on CD.
"Kickabye" features some of the leading lights of the alternative scene: NICK CAVE on 'Vixo' (exclusive to this release), MARC ALMOND on 'Burning Boats', FOETUS, BUDGIE (Siouxsie And The Banshees) and GINI BALL amongst others.
The first CD is the original "Kickabye" EP (produced by Jim "Foetus" Thirwell), plus 10 extra tracks from the same period.
The second CD is also tracks from the same period. 'Blue Nabou' features YELLO. Production by BARRY ADAMSON on 'Hopes And Fears', 'Wasting Time', 'Senseless', 'A Place To Belong', 'Everything We Do', 'Self', 'The Story So Far' and 'Each Day'.
This digitally remastered work contains new and exclusive versions of 'The Frost Comes Tomorrow' (originally released on "The Stars We Are" by Marc Almond), 'The Hustler' (originally released on "Mother Fist" by Marc Almond), 'Blood Tide' (originally released on "Violent Silence" by Marc Almond), 'Margaret' (originally released on "Untitled" by Marc And The Mambas)." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| HOHMANN, MARTIJN |
Donkere Kamer |
CDr + ART |
Field recordings made in Rotterdam, Breda, and Antwerp early 2022 and Groot Ammers summer 2021
Additional processing, editing, (soft)synths and mixing may-august 2022.
Little over a month after I was asked by Frans to do a piece for his new NDWICM label I got news that photographer Mark Rietveld had passed on by choice. The piece, which by then was more than halfway finished, already contained recordings from underneath de Schelde river in Antwerp made a few months earlier, on the very night I met up with Mark for the last time. The piece turned into a kind of homage.
Donkere kamer is a single sixty minute piece divided into five parts.
1. De man met de Zeiss
The Dutch equivalent of the Grim Reaper and also the man with the (Leica) camera. He who takes life and he who captures life. Death and the photographer converge.
2. De trein der traagheid
The title was taken from the wonderful book by Johan Daisne with the same name. A man wakes up in a train and finds himself, alongside two other passengers, the only ones awake. The three passengers leave the train and continue their nightly journey by foot. Slowly they come to realize they must have been in a train accident and are no longer walking the world of the living.
3. Sint-Anna onder de Schelde
Recordings made in the pedestrian tunnel that runs under the Schelde river in Antwerp. Crossing the river, a Styx Belgica.
4. Markdal
Frogs recorded in Het Markdal, a nature reserve in Breda. The Japanese word for frog is \"kaeru\", which also means \"returning home\".
5. Rietveld
Processed strings and recordings inside a reedfield in the Ammersche Boezem. The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul resides in the heart and so, upon death, the Weighing of the Heart occurred. Each human heart is weighed on a giant scale against an ostrich feather. Those souls which balance the scales are allowed to enter into A\'Aru “The Field of Reeds”, where they will exist in pleasure for all eternity.
Donkere Kamer (dutch for dark room) packaged in a deluxe photographic paper envelope style packaging that holds with five B&W photographs in a light tight bag, a 35 mm negative and inserts. Limited to 50 copies numbered and signed.
https://universaalkunst.bandcamp.com/album/donkere-kamer |
2023 |
€17.50 |
|
| HOIST |
Gravity |
CD-R |
"14 Track, 70 minute... Dub / Breakcore / illbient Vinyl effect CDr... in vinyl like sleeve and dust cover. Packed with chilled out rhythms and heavy beats. Hoist's collection of 3 Eps spanning his range of pianos, trumpets and slow bass." [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€7.50 |
|
| HOKURO |
Rôh mén rir néhââyâh - une âme sans fin |
mCD-R |
"hokuro is michael northam (who should need on introdution, see the page for the solo 3" we released a few years back), sachiyo honda (japanese performer based in brussels) and sabri meddeb (belgian sound artist). hokuro's recording sessions took place in brussels, belgium, in 2007-2008 using accordion, objects, strings, winds, voices and electronics. meddeb took the time to archive and mix these recordings in 2010 and here we are with this 24min track, a rich and complex soundscapes full of sounds and effects..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| HOLLYWOOD DREAM TRIP |
Second Album |
CD |
listen:
https://christophheemann.bandcamp.com/album/second-album
"As much as I try to 'follow' some musicians' actions, I don't always keep up. I am pretty sure I knew that Christoph Heemann (once of HNAS, Mimir, Mirror, but mostly of himself) had teamed up with Will Long (mostly of Celer fame, but also doing other ambient music projects, but also works with minimal dance music as
Long Trax). From the small discography of Hollywood Dream Trip, I understand that they work together whenever Will Long is in Europe—three albums in 2013 and two (digital) ones in 2021. One of the three from 2013 is 'Would You Like To Know More', a line from the Paul Verhoeven movie 'Starship Troopers'. They also recorded 'Second Album' in 2013 (no release is called 'First Album'), which they released as a CDR in an edition of 50 copies for the tour they did that year—now finding its way to a broader audience and quite rightfully so. Armed with a Moog Rogue, Roland MC-202, Lexicon PCM90, Electro Harmonix Random Tone Generator and tapes, they set out to record this forty-two-minute piece of slow-moving drones. There seem to be some field recordings in this piece, but they are hard to find here. In the beginning, there is a slow bump, like a heartbeat during sleep, which slowly alters as the piece evolves and the sound opens up. Becoming a tad lighter and brighter, maybe the heartbeat is the same, but it feels different because of the changing synthesiser sounds. It's not the kind of music I recommend when sleeping (in fact, I would never recommend any music during sleep, but that's my occasional insomnia speaking), as the overall tone remains dark. Especially around the thirty-minute mark, things roughen and could create a nightmarish scenario. It's not as relaxing as it could have been, which is good. This has all the markings of a live-in-the-studio recording, not trying to smooth things out too much. I enjoyed this work a lot, especially for that direct, in-your-face quality; nothing all too fancy, yet never anywhere close to being a full-on noise thing (far from it); just the sort of drone improvisation I love. (FdW)
"Stephen Meixner hat neben seiner Arbeit mit Contrastate und Soloaufnahmen auf seinem kleinen Label Black Rose Recordings in den letzten Jahren eine Reihe von Alben anderer Künstler aus dem weiten Feld der Geräuschmusik veröffentlicht – zuletzt wurden bei uns noch hervorragende Alben von rlw und Asmus Tietchens besprochen.
Nun wiederveröffentlicht er das zweite Album von Hollywood Dream Trip, einem aus Christoph Heemann und Will Long bestehenden Duo, das um 2013 aktiv war (und insgesamt drei Alben veröffentlichte), dem Jahr, in dem auch das lapidar „Second Album“ betitelte Zweitwerk in Aachen aufgenommen wurde. Ursprünglich war „Second Album“ nur als auf 50 Exemplare limitierte CD-R während einer Tour von Heemann und Long erhältlich.
Eingespielt u.a. mit Moog Rogue und einem Roland MC-202 beginnt „Second Album“ mit dunklem, reduziertem Dröhnen und Pulsieren, zu dem nach und nach melodische flächige Sounds hinzukommen, die anfangs im Hintergrund bleiben. In weiteren Verlauf der 40 Minuten zu einem lauter werdenden, an- und abschwellenden Drone steigern. Als vor etlichen Jahren auf diesen Seiten Hollywood Dream Trips „Would You Like To Know More?“ besprochen wurde, konnte man lesen, man könne den Namen des Projekts „aber auch als Hinweis auf das Unterbewussste, Somnambule sehen – auf das, was dem Verstand oft nur indirekt zugänglich ist. Letzteres kommt einem beim Hören der zwei etwa 20-minütigen Tracks dann auch schnell in den Sinn.“
Letztlich passen diese Überlegungen auch zu dieser Veröffentlichung. Das ist nämlich, um auf das zweite Substantiv im Projektnamen zu kommen, tatsächlich eine im wahrsten und beiderlei Wortsinne „traumhafte“ Musik“ und es ist ein interessanter Kontrast zwischen dem doch recht prosaischen Titel des Albums und dieser Musik, der fortwährend ein Moment des Ver- und Entrücktseins innewohnt. Man kann sich problemlos eine nächtliche Fahrt durch die Hollywood Hills vorstellen, während man die CD hört und an David Lynchs Haus vorbeifährt. Zu dieser durchgängig somnambulen Atmosphäre passt dann auch das von Christoph Heemann gezeichnete Cover." [MG/African Paper]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLOTROP |
Dead Bird Calling |
CD |
"The dead birds are calling. Holotrop unleashes the dark side of Transpersonal Musick, visions of this world coming to an end. In his compositions, drones mixed with ritual sounds result in tremendously powerful tracks which evoke the feeling of desolation which throws us back onto the essence of mere human existence. The crawling rhythms together with distorted vocals make the darkness settling on our souls almost tangible. Holotrop created a world without hope that we find ourselves in as we walk the path towards our own downfall and decay. In addition to the oppressive soundscapes, this work has been expanded to a philosophical compendium influenced by pioneers of anthropofugal thinking like Philipp Mainländer and Ulrich Horstmann. Freed from all cultural limitations, Holotrop dissects the abyss of human consciousness, leaving us in a desert of nothingness while the archaic soundscapes outline the entropy of all life along the lines of shamanic traditions. The dead birds sing their final song - the end is near!"
[label info]
holotrop.bandcamp.com/album/dead-bird-calling
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLTERBACH, MANU |
Aare am Marzilibad |
mCD |
Das kleine aber feine belgische Label EREWHON meldet sich mit zwei Releases zurück (die zweite VÖ ist die ERIC CORDIER CD), und einem neuen Namen für uns: MANU HOLTERBACH führt uns ins innere einer Flasche, die durch einen Fluss treibt; eine eigene Mikro-Welt von flüsterndem Rauschen, ans Glas stossenden Luftblasen & Aussengeräuschen... faszinierend ! „Für 18 Minuten teilt man die Audiosphere mit einer Forelle“ [Bad Alchemy].
“Manu Holterbach is a young French sound artist who proposes his many-faceted talents since already more than 10 years. He invents new instruments, spatialization devices and mutant loudspeakers that were showed around the world in diverse installations and performances, in solo or in collaboration with a.o. Sophie Durand, Pierre Berthet, Jean-François Laporte, David Maranha. You can listen to his beautifull "verres enharmoniques" instruments on his highly acclaimed CD recently released on cloudmirror, and to "parenthèses flottantes" a piece freely available online on Happy New Ears (look for the www.creaties link). He is actually working on a biography of the French composer Eliane Radigue. Manu also composes pieces realized with natural and industrial environmental sound recordings, like the one we proudly propose on erewhon, Aare am Marzilibad.
This piece realized in 2003 is a ready-made recording of a Swiss choppy river, the Aare, done with a microphone hermetically locked into a bottle. What you can hear is the sound of thousands of pebbles that knock together in the powerful stream. It illustrates perfectly Manu's focus on microscopic events and fragility.” [label description]
“Manu Holterbach, inventor of the electronic glasses (see Vital Weekly 472), works also with spatialization devices and mutant loudspeakers, but also installations and performances. For the piece presented on this miniCD, he locked a microphone hermetically in a bottle. He threw the bottle in a Swiss river, the Aare, and made this recording. If you open a bottle of some drink with bubbles, you might be fascinated at the sounds of the bubbles escaping. The first half of this piece sounds a bit similar, but if you listen carefully you can also hear voices from aside of the river. But they are far away, and as the piece progresses, they become louder. Perhaps the bottle washed ashore? It's a pretty single-minded concept that however works out very well. It's a beauty to listen to. Somewhere between highly filtered rain sounds and opening the next beer can.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| HOLTERBACH, MANU & JULIA ECKHARDT |
Do-Undo (in g maze) |
CD |
"Do-Undo is a project that emerged out of Q-O2 Werkplaats, a sound-art laboratory of sorts based in Brussels. Julia Eckhardt, one of the artistic directors of this workspace, has been building an archive of recordings, comprised of long-form viola pieces played exclusively in G. This archive, in turn, has been passed on to various musicians, who can use those recordings as they see fit. Enter Manu Holterbach, a French sound-artist, field recordist, and ingenious instrument builder, who had taken part in several Q-O2 residencies; and it was there that he met Eckhardt and was presented with part of the archive of those minimalist viola recordings to use as source material. Eckhardt's recordings seek the rich, if occasionally dissonant, overtones that have been central to the minimalist works of Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Ellen Fullman. And in his reconstitution of her recordings, Holterbach populates his compositions with field recordings whose turbulent textures and bristling movements sympathetically weave amidst the rasping drones from the viola. On a rather technical level, Holterbach's field recordings on his composition 'Two Stasis Made Out of Electricity' -- an arc lamp, the sounds of Parisian subways, an electric power plant -- all naturally buzz with the same G of Eckhardt's viola, without the benefit of digital pitch shifting. The resulting drones transcend any conceits of conceptualism and strategic intent, instead seeing no difference between the sounds of the environment (man-made or otherwise) and the sounds of the academy. As such, Do-Undo (In G Maze) will undoubtedly please those with an ear for the aforementioned Phill Niblock as well as the controlled impressionism of Andrew Chalk. A letter-pressed edition of a mere 300 copies." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"In Brussels we find a sound-art laboratory called Q-O2 Werkplaats which is run by, among others Julia Eckhardt, who is also a performing musician herself. Over the years she has build an archive of viola recordings played exclusively in G. People who visited the Q-O2 Werkplaats could use these recordings. One of them is Manu Holterbach, who works primarily inside field recordings. He brings to the table recordings of an arc lamp, the sounds of Parisian subways and an electric powerplant - all of which happen to be in G. too. All of this is combined in 'Do-Undo (In G Maze)' which is a lovely work of acoustic drones and field recordings. Quite an intense piece of work actually, that, despite the fact that this is all acoustic and field recordings alike, sound pretty much 'electric', rather than 'electronic'. A big buzzing, ringing enters your environment, with some excellent changes that add a further vibrancy to the material. Cut into two pieces, the first one seems to draw the attention to the acoustic side, while the second is more about the electrically charged sound. Think a refined meeting between Phill Niblock and Alvin Lucier and you get my drift. Limited to just 300 copies, so grab it while you can." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLTKAMP, KOEN |
Field Rituals |
CD |
" 'Field Rituals' is the first solo album to come from Koen Holtkamp, an artist probably better known as one half of ambient duo Mountains. Based in Brooklyn, Koen created the album slowly and as a love letter of sorts, taking in delicate field recordings and using them like faded photos representing his distinct memories of the people and places he chanced upon. Some may have heard the incredible ‚Make Haste’ which appeared on limited edition vinyl earlier in the year, but this was only a taste of what Koen has to offer on ’Field Rituals’.
Taking cues from the classic ambience of Brian Eno and fusing it with the instrumental subtlety of Sweden’s Tape, Koen has come up with an aural book on his subject matter. Each track feels entwined in the next and feels like a part of something much bigger. Sure we’ve heard field recordings, synthesizers and guitars before but rarely have these instruments been injected with such a lightness of touch and with such a delicate open ear. Each listen reveals more, like peeling back layers of onion skin – take the album’s epic centrepiece ’Sky Flowers’ for example, which blends slow-moving synthesizers with good-natured environmental recordings and shimmering strings. The result is explosive somehow, with the grandeur more usually exploited by Arvo Part being framed with a distant electronic ambience.
The slow-burning pace is probably the single most important facet and reveals an artist at ease with his musical choices, something unusual in a genre brimming with young hopefuls. A good comparison might be Stars of the Lid, but Koen’s music is more organic and more humble somewhat than the ex-Texan duo. In the end we are just proud that Koen has allowed us a look into this most personal of works." [label info]
"Here be the first full length album from Mountains-man Koen Holtkamp. You may recall we got in (and sold out) his contribution to
the A Room Forever series of LPs commissioning artists to match a field recording on one side with a sympathetic composition on the other. Where his offering there was a dark-hued, ominous crescendo of crackled drone sourced from acoustic guitar, Field Rituals has its
head in the clouds. Holtkamp begins the album with a lovely round of brightly rendered acoustic guitar finger picking with some tricked out ring modulation effects giving each of the tones a sun-flecked glow and funhouse mirror curvature. Sustained drones from loops of melodica and harmonica mutate into an ersatz harmonium with the soaring overtones and sweeping fluctuations of tonalities gently crashing into each other. The loops every once in a while coalesce into a rhythmic underbelly, but mostly they settle as a effervescent bubbling of overlapping delay patterns and softly shimmered ambience. On top of all of this, Holtkamp dapples everything with his shimmered guitar and occasional crackles of tactile objects (he mentions water, seeds, ice, and paper) as well as field recordings of giggly children romping in a playground. The effect is somewhere between the immaculate pieces from Keith Fullerton Whitman's recordings and the bright-eyed naturalist
wonder of the Jewelled Antler camp. Really gorgeous stuff from the ever impressive Type label." [Aquarius Records review]
www.typerecords.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Make Haste / Free Birds |
LP-Box |
"Third volume to be released in this amazing new series. Koen Holtkamp is from Brooklyn, NY and runs the Apestaartje label and records as one half off the group Mountains. "Room Forever. Concept and art direction by Joshua Zucker. Photography by Kurt Mangum. A Room Forever is an art project realized as a curated series of limited edition 12" record LPs. Packaged in a custom-made box with high quality digital C-print covers and letterpressed inserts, each record features an original musical composition on one side and a field recording on the other. Pressed in one-time editions of 300, A Room Forever takes a unique and personal approach to the vinyl record LP. Conceived as a physical manifestation of the Roadside Picnic Radio podcast, the project draws upon the rich history and mythologies of audio recording to produce a final object of art that will resonate uniquely within each listener. More than anything, A Room Forever is inherently about the act of listening."
Please note that these records are cut at the Dubplates & Mastering lab in Germany and are
designed to be played at 45 r.p.m.
[label info]
www.aroomforever.com
|
2008 |
€28.00 |
|
| HOLZKOPF |
Sharp like a broken Bone |
CD-R |
"ACL 1005: Limited edition of 50 in hand-painted unique packaging
AC 1005: Unlimited edition in plastic sleeve
This breakcore album by versatile Canadian electronic musician Holzkopf delivers everything the previous Attenuation Circuit releases deliberately left out in terms of repetitive beats. More minimalist than many minimal techno tracks, the album is exclusively based on percussive sounds – no layers here, no sine waves either. Still, a high degree of variety is ensured by tempo shifts of a sometimes brutal, sometimes subtle nature, as well as by a gradual shift from highly syncopated breakbeats well beyond the 180 bpm mark to almost danceable ‘4 to the floor’ beats. Using filters, equalisers, reverb, and time-stretch effects, Holzkopf gets an astounding variety of timbral nuances out of his electronic percussion sounds. Sometimes reminiscent of the ecstatic rumble of Balkan brass bands, the next second they sound like heavy industrial machinery in a disaster scenario. What links this refreshingly compact 28-minute album and its complete absence of monotony to the rest of the label catalogue is not the industrial connotations, however. It is the spirit of experimentation evident in the way Holzkopf models sounds to create intensive atmospheres, proving that atmospheric density and powerful rhythms need not be opposites. The limited first edition is not only hand-painted, but individually (and organically) designed with paint and wood shavings as an affectionate tribute to the literal German meaning of the name Holzkopf (‘wood head’)." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| HOLZKOPF & EMERGE |
Craft |
CD |
"This is not a split release, but an album of two co-composed tracks by
two apparently very diverse artists. Canadian artist Holzkopf is mainly
known for his leftfield take on drum’n’bass and improvised vocals,
while EMERGE is often labelled a “drone ambient” artist. Here, they
combine their respective mastery of synths and the processing of
sampled ambient sounds to create two textural, yet highly suspenseful
half-hour pieces.
The track titles “masonry” and “metallurgy” give the listener some
clues as two the sources of the sounds used. Y-Ton-G, a
long-standing presence in the German underground experimental music
scene and close collaborator of Asmus Tietchens, is credited with
supplying some of the source material for EMERGE’s samples, and given
Y-Ton-G’s predilection for the sounds of metal, these probably gave
shape to the samples featured on “metallurgy.” This is not to say that
any of this music sounds at all anecdotal. The great achievement of the
album is in the way it manages to combine seemingly concrete,
referential sounds with abstract, brooding frequencies. The mixture of
found and sythesised sounds, some of them by Holzkopf and others
supplied by mutual label mate and analogue-synth noisician ORiFiCE,
creates a kind of cinema for the ear which conjures emotionally
compelling atmospheres while never forcing any obvious visual
associations on the listener." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"Also on the next CD Emerge is present, but then in collaboration with Canada's Holzkopf, who sometimes works inside the area of drum 'n bass, but also takes on as easily noise and ambient. Also on the plate here are sound samples by Y-Ton-G treated by Emerge. Two long pieces here, each around thirty minutes, and maybe the titles give away something, 'Masonry' and 'Metallurgy', which one might conclude this deals with some sort of metallic ringing and singing. There is a loose structure in order here, in which these sounds seem to be improvised and everything arrives in a playful mood/mode. I am not sure how this was made; by mail or Internet I would assume, but it sounds like they have been together and improvised these two pieces on the spot. Feeding it through a variety of boxes and laptops, with (obviously) moments that could be weeded out by more rigorous editing, but it's a free flow of sounds that has its appeal. It's perhaps the kind of thing that you would find on a cassette release, but why not a CD? Why not! Indeed!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| HONEYMOON KILLERS (LES TUEURS DE LA LUNE DE MIEL) |
Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel |
CD |
"Fronted by the late Yvon Vromman, The Honeymoon Killers were a provocative band with a strong pop sensibility. This album made them the darlings of the music press all around Europe (including in the UK, a rare feat for a French-singing act), and their delirious live shows gained them a strong following. Les Tueurs also included vocalist Véronique Vincent, Gerald Fenerberg, Jeanf Jones Jacob and Aksak Maboul/Crammed originators Marc Hollander & Vincent Kenis.
The album originally came out in 1982. It was first re-issued on CD in 2003, augmented with 4 previously-unreleased live tracks from 1981 (with Aksak Maboul), a track recorded for a NME tape, and the 3 tracks from the "Subtitled Remix" EP (it had been strongly suggested to the band that they could broaden their audience if they recorded English versions of their songs. The Killers chose instead to “subtitle” them, or rather to add new, English-speaking characters to the songs: The Copter-hater, who lives a parallel story to that of the heroin of “Histoire à Suivre”, Mummy and Jason who comment the actions of the quarelling couple in “J4”, and Dr Stone, Max and Colonel LaFièvre, who turn the instrumental “Ariane” into a mini-space opera entitled “A Deep Space Romance”)." [label info]
www.crammed.be
Les Tueurs by Gilles Verlant:
"The main quality and the main problem of the Honeymoon Killers is that they saw everything in duplicate. It's a recurrent drama with Belgians in general and artists in particular: they are often seriously schizophrenic. Let's start with their name. The Honeymoon Killers, like Leonard Kastle's 1970 film about a couple of serial killers ? Or Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel, with this amusing contrast between menacing (Tueurs) and comforting words (Miel) ? They can't decide, so they'll put both names on the cover and the public will have to sort it out for themselves. And then who's the leader, or at any rate, who gets photographed for the press ? Is it Yvon Vromman, who is unshaven and ugly with his big round nose, but makes you die laughing (actually he's the one who'll die, far too early), a real bundle of nerves, the kind of psychopath which blows up in your face as soon as something goes wrong ? Or is it the evanescent Véronique Vincent, an ex-model and journalist ? In 1982 the New Musical Express doesn't think twice: the girl will make the cover. You can imagine Yvon's face: after all, he's the one who started this band! In the end, this internal competition will undermine them and make them explode in mid-flight. But there was even more schizophreny in the Killers: they were clearly going in several musical directions at the same time. Raw energy stemming from punk and new wave on the one hand, and serious musical skills of some band members on the other. What united them is the desire to have laughs, to experiment, to subvert influences without giving a damn about what's in and what's out (and maybe that's why their songs haven't aged, which is a thing you can't say about that many albums recorded back in 1981 !). Hey guys, let's make provocative versions of songs by Sheila and France Gall (two French pop stars from the '60s) ! They were only slightly more respectful with Charles Trenet's classic "Route Nationale 7", which went on to become a radio hit in France, while the press went apeshit.
In reality, the Honeymoon Killers were a band from the 21st century which had unfortunately fallen into a spatio-temporal flaw. Today, all the things they were fighting for with their little fists tightly clenched (and their little tongues firmly screwed in their cheeks) have become totally obvious: being quirky and imaginative, not taking oneself too seriously, bravely mixing electro-and-pop-and-world-and-jazz etc. The Tueurs must absolutely reform. Yvon, don't act stupid, come back, all is forgiven !
[GV writes books and television programs. He is the author of the definitive Serge Gainsbourg biography.]
www.crammed.be
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Special Manubre |
CD |
"Released at last for the first time on CD, the debut album by The Honeymoon Killers caused quite a bit of commotion when it first came out in 1977, on Marc Moulin's ephemeral Kamikaze label. At that time, the band consisted of an assortment of miscreants, taxi drivers, cooks, professional gamblers and other musical delinquents who performed a massacre on all genres, from rockabilly and punk to marching band music, French chanson and free jazz.
This reissue includes previously-unreleased live versions of Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun and Dick Annegarn's Bébé Eléphant.
In this early incarnation, Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel turned into something of a legend in Brussels. Fronted by the late Yvon Vromman, they scoured the bars and concert halls of the Belgian capital, preceded by a well-deserved reputation of being notorious troublemakers. The outcome of their shows was always unpredictable (they were known to throw raw meat at their audience). They were arrogant, ferociously funny, and developed a rather personal type of art brut (see the original 1977 press release below).
In 1980, core Tueurs members Yvon, Jeanf Jones Jacob III & Gerald Fenerberg and core Aksak Maboul members (Crammed founder) Marc Hollander & Vincent Kenis (of Konono/Congotronics fame) recruited each other to revamp their respective bands. Joined by vocalist Véronique Vincent, they recorded the classic avant-pop album Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel/The Honeymoon Killers, which earned them the privilege (then rare for an act singing in French) of becoming the darlings of the music press all around Europe, where they toured extensively before disbanding in 1985. Honeymoon Killers leader & songwriter Yvon Vromman passed away in 1989."
[label info]
www.crammed.be
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT |
A Doorbell of Earbows for Brefix |
LP |
Geheimtip aus den Staaten! Wer auf rauh-chaotische Collagenmusik mit hohem Objekt-Noise Anteil steht, die trotzdem stimmungsvoll atmosphärisch ist, sollte hier unbedingt mal reinhören. Die vier Stücke schwanken zwischen wirren, sehr konkreten Impro-Geräuschmusik-Passagen und eher dronigen Parts in denen auch vokales Material auftaucht, immer mit dem Hang, die wahrhaft ungewöhnlichen Klänge und Arrangements herauszuarbeiten...
"Grainy loop tracks, vocal tracks (which may or may not also be from tape), and surrealist music which isn't miles away from early Nurse With Wound. Richard Vergez (Drowning the Virgin Silence, Gray Girls, Mothersky), Duane Hosein (A Jealousy Issue, Hand Carved Gentleman, ex-Poison the Well). BRANDON SAMDAHL (Mr Entertainment and the Pookie Smackers) and ANTHONY MANGICAPRA bathe the entire thing in foggy reverb and mysterious scratching and shifting, which pulls it all together. It makes sense only as a dream transcribed onto recording equipment. The A side contains material previously released on The Huntington Chapters three-inch CDR (Small-Doses) and the B side is all previously unreleased recordings from the same sessions. Mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN." [label info]
"...The A side, previously released on Small Doses, is a tripped out burst of mysterious musical abstraction. Two tracks, clocking in
at about 18 minutes total, an abstract and spacious drift through some lost alien soundscape. The first track is all tinkling melodies, glistening high end, strange rumbling fluctuations way off in the distance, bits of creak and scrape, everything bathed in foggy reverb and warm wet swirls of tape hiss and atmospheric whir. Melodies creep in and out, as do bits of field recordings, it all feels like some cinematic bleary eyed wander through a hazy druggy flashback, a washed out world of lost memories and fragmented dreams. Here and there guitars grind and reverberate, and strange percussive sonic events drift into earshot, like an even more abstract Wolf Eyes maybe. Quite gorgeous and dreamlike. The second track starts out the same, a smear of high end
shimmer, but instead of spreading out into languid pools of blurry sound, things get decidedly more abrasive, the high end becomes
sharper, the percussion is more clattery and jarring, a disembodied voice intones some creepy monologue over the top, effects swirl and swoop, deconstructed riffs chug and churn, everything dizzying and disorienting, like the nightmare analogue to the opening track's dream.
The flipside also offers up two tracks, the first begins with a swirl of creaking metal, sizzling cymbals, clattery percussion, until suddenly the clang and crunch are transformed into a strangely rhythmic crunch, the metal sounding much deeper, more of a resonant bellow, all very chaotic and cacophonous, underpinned by deep distant rumbles. Which leads right into track number two, all birdsong and tinkling chimes, whispered voices, random sonic detritus, sharp slivers of momentary buzz, soft smears of static, very haunting and ominous and like the first side, quite cinematic. Beautifully packaged as always, pressed on thick vinyl, housed in full color sleeves with super striking artwork from HPK mainman Anthony Mangicapra. We know it's LIMITED too, just not sure to how many." [Aquarius Records review]
www.goat-eater.blogspot.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| HORCHATA VS. SIL MUIR |
same |
mCD-R |
Zwei wunderbar dichte & "volle" Dronedreamscapes, hyperminimal, vielschichtig & obertontänzelnd; für diese mCDR in der kultigen Taalem-Reihe fanden sich AMON, HORCHATA und ANDREA FERRARIS zusammen....
"latest project featuring andrea marutti (afe records, amon, never known, hall of mirrors with giuseppe verticchio/nimh), sil muir also features andrea ferraris, an italian musician coming from the hardcore and experimental scenes. together, they create some beautiful guitar-based ambient/drone soundscapes... add horchata's refined deep ambient layers and here you are!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| HORIST, B. / K.K.NULL |
Interstellar Chemistry |
CD |
Unusual and undescribable wild surroundings on this collaborative effort with great guitar-sounds which reveal a deeper beauty after a while.. ! And every track is different !
“ No laptop music here! Real instruments played by real musicians. Ah, the flowers of romance. In this instance, as it turns out, Bill is Horistaculturalist to Null's garden of unearthly delights. Boom Shankar: Null plants the seed, Bill grows the seed, and we EAT the seed. What in Hell's name am I going on about? Well, it's like this: Null provided sonic source material which Horist then organised, manipulated and added on to. So what happened? Scrumptious musical confectionaries with surprise flavour centers! Much of it is like IDM with the boring removed. More deep and less bleep. The drum machinations pound out strains reminiscent of Ikue More (ala Death Praxis) or latter day Bruce Gilbert with a bit of controlled early Nurse With Wound wail thrown in as if this amalgamation were the soundtrack to an old Atari video game (see also Haruomi Hosono). And then comes the second track! Horists' guitar techniques are exciting, weird, rhythmic, Harry Partch-like ('Luminous Lullaby'), indescribable, explosive, ugly and beautiful. And just when it gets nuts, a melancholy paean to Boards Of Canada cuts through the noisy silt to round the experience out. Tietchensian insect jitters skitter throughout the tracks, no two of which can be said to be quite the same. And this is the wonder of the whole thing; Bill has crafted a cohesive statement out of all these musical explorations which, in many ways, smells of the tectonics of "OG" electro-experimental records of the early 80's and late 70's. There is both a bold adventurousness and a wonderful simplicity to the compositions that is like re-embracing that pivotal moment when noise first made sense and all the Zeppelin records went into the bin. And then you needed a pack of cigarettes and had to fish through the bin to sell the Zeppelin records. It's like that! “ [press release]
label:
www.blrrecords.com |
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| HORN, MARIA W: / MATS ERLANDSSON |
Celestial Shores |
LP |
Through ebb and flow we drift
Infinite mountains in their twisted stratas
Sinews of wounded beasts solidified
In this theater of geologic fervor we rest
A ship lost in the polar sea
The heavenly eye of the ocean has seen the origins of this landscape
Its inclined angles and vertiginous depths
A primal dance of chaos
Dry crackle from frozen wood
Suspended calm in endless torment
Time inverted
Adrift towards the diamond abyss
–––––
The music heard on this album was originally the result of a commission to score the second half of the film 'Nico/Nico Crying' made by Andy Warhol in 1966. The commission was made by Art Cinema OFFoff in collaboration with B.A.A.D.M for a screening of the film together with a live presentation of the score in September 2021 at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. The recording presented here was made in the last week of that year and mixed soon after in January 2022. These recordings are essentially live-recordings performed by the composers together in the same room and recorded in a manner reminiscent of the record making process as it was in the late 1960s. The instrumentation used to make the sounds on this album consists of modular synthesis, zither, voice, contaminated field recordings and metal percussion.
Mats Erlandsson is a composer and musician part of the vibrantly re-emerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, and is associated with practices characterized by the extensive use of sustained sound. Erlandsson presents his work both as a solo artist and in collaborations, most notably together with Yair Elazar Glotman and Maria W Horn. Recent releases include 'Gyttjans Topografi' on XKatedral, 'Minnesmärke' on Hallow Ground and the collaboration 'Emanate' made with Yair Elazar Glotman on the label 13070. In addition to his own artistic practice Erlandsson holds a position as studio technician and was temporarily, from October 2022 to September 2023, the acting studio director at Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm.
The compositions of Maria W Horn implement synthetic sound, electroacoustic and acoustic instruments and audiovisual components, often devicing generative and algorithmic processes to control timbre, tuning and texture. She employs a varied instrumentation ranging from analog synthesizers to choir, string instruments, pipe organ and various chamber music formats. Acoustic instruments are often paired with digital synthesis techniques, in order to extend the instruments timbral capacities. Often based on minimalist structures, her music explores the inherent spectral properties of sound and their ability to transcend time and space, reality and dream.
Maria W Horn – modular synthesizer, sound treatments, percussion, textures and vocals
Mats Erlandsson – zithers, synthesis, percussion, vocals, textures and tape treatments
Written by Maria W Horn & Mats Erlandsson in response to a commission by Art Cinema OFFoff
Mixed by Mats Erlandsson / Mastered by Johannes Ahlberg at Saintpid mastering
Album design by Mathieu Serruys & Joris Verdoodt
Released in 2023 / Edition of 300 copies with download code / www.baadm.org
Thanks to Joris Verdoodt, Mathieu Serruys, Linus Hillborg and Christa Päffgen
https://baadm.bandcamp.com/album/celestial-shores
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| HOROLOGIUM |
A Handful of Dust and Ashes |
CD |
"A Handful of Dust and Ashes” is a collection of tracks recorded during various occasions, but united here by a peculiar sediment of dust and rust; it’s a journey in time to strictly limited “A Handful of Dust”, published by Cynfeirdd, and to “Opium”, amounts of which are long sold out and yearned for by those in search of lost time. The (re)collection is crowned by three tracks performed live in Barcelona and Bologna in 2008 and 2009. The artwork by Fab and Sophie embody fin de siècle that has never been that convincing and tangible.
Packaged in 3-panel digipack in new design" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| HOTOTOGISU |
Under the Rose |
LP |
"Hototogisu's first LP release on their own imprint Heavy Blossom. Under The Rose is a pair of incantations for the dark and vengeful animal spirits. Sung in two parts, malignant coronation and origami skulls are blackened arias, dizzying vortices and canyons of screams, guitars and chaotic rhythms. Arising from this richly recorded and mastered vinyl slab come black tarpits of malevolence and savage beauty, harking back to a pre-Christian universe of animating spirits and tutelary daemons. Comes in a black jacket with a full-color photograph attached to the front cover and thickly inked silk-screened backs. Edition of 600." [label notes]
|
2008 |
€20.50 |
|
| HOTOTOGISU + BURNING STAR CORE |
Volume One |
CD |
"Five tracks, totaling approximately fifty minutes by the time-defying duo of MATTHEW BOWER (SKULLFLOWER, RAMLEH, SUNROOF!, TOTAL) and MARCIA BASSETT (DOUBLE LEOPARDS, GHQ, ZAIMPH) collaborating with C. SPENCER YEH, ROBERT BEATTY, and TREVOR TREMAINE (the latter two of HAIR POLICE, EYES AND ARMS OF SMOKE, SICK HOUR). Originally released as a tour merch CDR, this edited and re-sequenced edition begins with an appropriate invocation and from there punches blindly through one stone cloud after another, coughs and gasps from exhaustion, stumbles and lies motionless. The ritual concludes with a moment of naked acoustic/instinctual spasm. Packaged in a black polycase with black-and-white inserts and a special randomly-selected one-inch button (five button variations in all). All different material from the companion volume HG/BxC II released by the Heavy Blossom label." [label info]
".... And what in fact happens, is a big sprawling chaotic blown out spaced out free rock noise jam. The addition of drums makes a huge difference, grounding the sound in 'rock', but said drumming is free and abstract enough to let the music breath and expand and spread out like a black fog. The opener is a static Dead C style jam, a simple plodding beat, cymbals and kick drum mostly, while all around, dizzying swirls of guitar fuzz and thick swaths of distorted synth, and in there to some damaged electronics and of course some of Yeh's FX drenched violin. The backdrop is a constantly shifting swirl of noise and sound, but the simple plodding rhythm makes it sound like some ultra gritty lost krautrock rehearsal tape.
The second track is a bit more unhinged, the background of the first song, brought to the fore and allowed to swallow everything up.
The drums this time are just an incessant clanging buried in the mix, like a railroad crossing bell heard from within a tornado. Part way through some of the noise seems to coalesce into sort-of-riffs, and suddenly it a strangely propulsive slab of white hot white noise, albeit with a bit of groove to it. The next track is the most melodic, a gothy, doomy sort of glacial dirge, almost like an ultra lo-fi Hawkwind, crushing drums and more of that noisy blown out squall jammed into every crevice. The drums drop out almost entirely for the next number, the guitars and synths and violins and vocals spread out into long effulgent streaks, super noisy, but strangely hypnotic and dreamy.
The final track is a sort of throwaway, a brief sputter of creaks and clatter, scrape and grind, angular and atonal, a blown out noise coda, but it's the loooooong tracks that make up the rest of the record that really hit the drone-dirge-noise spot.
Packaged in a cool, black plastic case with a black and white cover, black and white insert, and each copy includes a button, one
of 5 different designs chosen at random." [Aquarius Rec.]
www.dronedisco.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| HUDAK, JOHN |
On and On |
CD |
"Eine extrem überraschende Platte auf einem unserer momentanen Lieblingslabels, dem jungen italienischen Presto!? John Hudak scheint sich mit On And On vorgenommen zu haben, den Nachfolger für O’Rourkes Bad Timing zu schaffen. Scheinbar ohne Richtung und Verdichtung plunkern einzelne Gitarrentöne (sic! für Hudak!) im Raum herum, dem geneigten Hörer kommt nach etlichen Durchläufen die Erleuchtung. Genau, das muß alles so sein. Und nicht anders. Herrlich in seiner beharrlichen Intentionslosigkeit." [Zipo, Auf Abwegen]
www.prestorecords.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Miss Dove, Mr. Dove |
CD-R |
Zu den innovativsten, aber sicherlich auch am schwierigsten zugänglichen Neutönern gehört seit längerem JOHN HUDAK, der v.a. in den 80/90er Jahren mit ober-obskuren Tapes eine kleine Anzahl von Fans glücklich machen konnte. Seine stark konzeptlastige Musik basiert oft auf einem bestimmten Objekt-Sound oder einer Idee, die neue Zugangsmöglichkeiten für das Hören an sich erschliesst. Auf dieser (wie immer im exquisiten Cover ausgestatteter) AFE-CD sind Klänge von TAUBEN & dazugehörige Aussenaufnahmen verfremdet worden, das Ergebnis ist an seltsamem Klang & eigenartiger quasi-Rhythmik kaum zu überbieten..
"John Hudak has been interested in sound and music from the age of four when he began to play a variety of instruments. At the University of Delaware (BA, English 1981) and Naropa Institute for the Arts (1979), he studied video, photography, creative writing and dance. He then began to create taped soundtracks for his solo performance-art/dance pieces that later developed into sound-only pieces. In recent years, he has concentrated solely on sound, particularly natural sounds. Hudak’s current work focuses on the rhythms and melodies that exist in our daily aural environments. These sounds usually remain hidden, as we tend to overlook their musical qualities, or their musical qualities are obscured through mixture with other sounds. In simplified terms, what he is doing could be considered "re-framing what is already there so that it can be admired." His work has been published by labels such as Alluvial Recordings, and/OAR, Korm Plastics, Aesova, Intransitive Recordings, Digital Narcis, Presto!? and many others.
"Miss Dove, Mr. Dove" was especially created by John Hudak for a release on Afe. Here's a description of the album inception in his own words: "During the late spring of 2007, my family spent some time visiting relatives in the Czech Republic, in a small village outside of Prague called Pelhřimov. One morning there, I woke to the sound of many doves. The building we stayed in was directly across from another similar building, and the space between the two created a wide echo. The birds sat on the adjacent building, making their plaintive sounds, at the crack of dawn; their sound mixing with the sounds of people talking as they left for work, and the sounds of trucks idling while making their morning deliveries." The original field-recordings were manipulated via software treatments to create a one hour long composition which is intended to be played as background sound/music." [label notes]
"Since many years I closely follow the work of John Hudak. In the early days it came on cassette and then on CD and CDR. One thing has remained a constant factor in his music and that his interest to explore one theme per project. On cassette always two actually, one per side, but these days its one piece per CD/CDR release. On 'Miss Dove, Mr. Dove' he uses field recordings made in the Czech Republic, recording doves at dawn, while traffic and people on the street increases. These sounds are treated with some kind of unnamed software and the entire piece lasts an hour. 'It is intended to be played as background sound/music', it says on the press release, and that's quite right. The music has changes, but throughout they are quite minimal, with envelopes on specific sounds being opened with great care. Music to be played while doing something - reading being my preferred kind of activity. Non-intentional music, the perfect back-drop. Like Satie intended with his music for furniture. Ambient music as Eno intended, but of a somewhat stranger kind. The bird like sounds are rhythmical, cut-up and not endlessly flowing. Very nice. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aferecords.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Don't worry about anything, I'll talk to you tomorrow |
CD |
"Minimale ruhige elektronische Verfremdungen, absolut merkwürdige Sounds... außergewöhnlich auch das Konzept von HUDAK für diese CD: 'its pretty simple: my mother died about five years ago. someone returned me a one-of-a-kind tape that happened to have an answering machine message from my mother on it, saying 'don't worry about anything, i'll talk to you tomorrow.' that is the only sound source on the cd.'
Wunderbare, fremdartige "Alien"-Soundwelt, just great!!" [label info]
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| HUM |
Flesh of the Soul |
CD |
Nach vielen selbstveröffentlichten CDRs hier endlich die erste "grössere" Veröffentlichung von HUM, "Flesh of the Soul" besteht aus neun mantrischen Drone-Meditationen, die einen sehr sanft und fast unmerklich umschlingen....Musik wie das geheimnisvolle Wispern der Natur, wie der hörbar gemachte Gesang des Äthers. Klänge die das Mysterium der Existenz ausdrücken & wiederspiegeln, dunkel aber überhaupt nicht depressiv...
HUM schafft es immer wieder, die Drones nicht "banal" klingen zu lassen, sondern voller emotionaler Tiefe... und höchst authentisch!
"Being well-known to the inner circles of russian industrialists for his long-time work under different names, Hum didn’t have such an attention that he deserves until now, when Quag decides to change the situation and to offer the first CD of this brilliant russian talent. His mystical cold ambient explores the nature of soul and the soul of nature, the mysteries hidden in the sky, the earth, the water, the forest. Simple and minimalistic musically, Hum is very complex in its influence on a listener’s perception. Quiet unconstrained sound sorcery opens the higher realms of the unseen. Being far from dark and depression Hum is even more far from New-Age-like garbage. Recommended for those who wants to have a rest from darkness without dipping in syrup. The first edition of 300 copies in a special “Quag-pack” printed silver-on-black. IST 024 CD" [label info]
"Finally, after the numerous CDRs and one 7” on Drone Records, this is the first factory-pressed CD of this brilliant drone-ambient project. “Flesh Of The Soul”, which is definitely one of the best works Dmitry Chistov has ever done, is a real masterpiece of cold transcendental soundscapes. The album is filled with majestic melancholy, it is clear and soothing, there’s a plenty of veiled melodies and celestial harmonies hidden inside its simple sound structures. It sounds a bit nostalgic cause Dmitry uses only old-fashioned tape-technique and analogue synth loops, utilizing digital devices just for the final mastering, but the atmosphere is very special, reminding of early Zoviet France, Maeror Tri, Tesendalo or Aidan Baker. It could seem very peaceful and calm, but beyond this bright and peaceful surface the sorrow and darkness is hidden. The beauty of this music is enchanting and it is hard to resist its magical spells, so it might be difficult to fight the desire to play this album over and over in yearning to experience again the tender touch of this unearthly Flesh Of The Soul. The album is limited to 300 copies and comes in special package printed silver on black. Very recommended!" [press release / Indiestate]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ether Rider (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“Drone Records is proud to present HUM, another newcomer from the growing russian experimental scene, who had out before a few most promising self-released CDrs on his own label. HUM (originally a reduction from “hum-an”) sees his work as a representation of emptiness and sound, derived from tantric tradition. The basic intention is the “restoration of mythological time”. This release, being dedicated to “magic flight”, enlights on the first track with full vibrating “cosmic” drones, sounding like a swarm of low-pitched insects. The second piece CRUCIBLE is more loop-structured & noisy, with low-fi mechanized rumblings, filled with organic substances... two fantastic sound-samples that show the ability of drone-sound to lead your inner mind into the center of nothingness. Filed under: magic-flight drones. BLACK VINYL. MINIMAL DESIGNED WHITE COVERS WITH B/W PHOTO” [press release] |
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Caldron of winds |
mCD-R |
"Three beautiful tracks mixing dones and natural sounds from this talented & prolific russian artist (previous releases include a 7" on drone records and a cd-r on mystery sea). full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by cyril herry." [label info]
"..More field recordings can be found on the release by Hum, also known as Dmitry Christov from Russia, or perhaps his other aliases, such Sphogha, Maw, Mikosterion or Small Town Zombie, all of which I never heard. Hum had releases on Mysery Sea and Drone. There you are. Here he has three untitled piece of slow enveloping ambient/drone music. A bit of field recordings is set against some obscure electronics, which are hard to pin down. Synths? Computer process? Can't tell really. It's a nice lo-fi affair this one, not high and mighty on the recording side, but full of raw intent." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://taalem.free.fr/
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
The Spectral Ship |
10inch |
Eine Huldigung an den "Klang an sich", der nicht erzeugt wird, sondern seit Anbeginn da ist. HUMs Beitrag für unsere 10" Reihe über das Nicht-Erkennbare.
"Two great new pieces by this russian artist from the Moscow-area, most sensible & emotional drone-ambience, a graceful dance of acoustic reflections & resonances. "Spectral Ship" and "Tidal Fire" appear like universal mantras, revealing the basic HUM of the universe. These works seem to represent perfectly the concept of the SUBSTANTIA-series: Sound that exists but which is not originating from the impact of two subjects in contact. Sound that is simply "there", with no beginning or ending.
Edition of 500 copies on silver-coloured vinyl, with a full colour sleeve design by DANIEL CROKAERT / MYSTERY SEA." [label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| HUMAN GREED |
Black Hill: Midnight at the Blighted Star |
CD |
Drittes Album dieser Band aus Edingburgh, die sehr melancholische instrumentelle Sounds (z.B. von Cello, Piano) mit ambienten synth- drones verbinden... für "Black Hill" konnten sie zudem namhafte Leute (u.a. DAVID TIBET und CLODAGH SIMONDS) zu Gastauftritten bewegen, aber auch so wäre dies ein äussert lohnenswertes Album für Freunde der ruhig-atmosphärischen, fast schon cinematischen Musik. Ein mitunter wunderschönes, mitunter verstörendes Werk, wie ein Eintritt in einen seltsamen fremden Traum..
"Maybe a release with the help of David Tibet, Clodagh Simonds, Fabrizio Palumbo and Julia Kent might not be the sort of thing I would want to sort out, but I only found that out after I heard Human Greed's third album 'Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star'. Human Greed is a duo of Michael Begg and Deryk Thomas, and instruments are not given for them. The guests however contribute cello, voice, treatments and piano. I assume both Begg and Thomas are responsible for the electronics part of this project. The voices used are merely pushed to the background and seem to be reciting a small text every now and then. The piano and cello form nice counterparts in the ambient mass of sound, and warm interludes. This music, despite the occasional use of voices, is mainly instrumental music. Lots of sound effects, lots of atmospherics are captured here and as such resemble everything from Brian Eno to any and none in particular movement in the world of ambient music. Sometimes too forceful to be truly spacious, and sometimes with a sudden stop or change, but that adds, I think, to the quality of the album. Though not entirely new in approach, it takes the best from various directions in ambient music and makes a very nice hybrid form of it. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The third album by Edinburgh's finest exponents of often haunting, yet always touching, ebb and flow. Includes very special guest appearances by Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons, Blind Cave Salamander), Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Blind Cave Salamander, Larsen), David Tibet (Current 93) and Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex). Gathering together material quite possibly amounting to their most accomplished yet, 'Black Hill...' is akin to being caught in the trail of a shooting star heading to the very place where dreams, fears, hopes and an overwhelming sense of helpless abandonment teeter over the periphery of yet another rather enticing void. At once beautiful, melancholic, slightly bruised and foreboding, the music here never fails to captivate. Also features fantastic exclusive artwork from Deryk Thomas and Alan McGowan. Released November 2008." [label info]
www.lumbertontrading.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Fortress Longing |
CD |
"Human Greed's fourth album " Fortress Longing: The Internal Campaign for the Safe and Complete Return of the Sleeping Egyptian to the Desert" is night-music at its most acute - unsettling, uncanny, beguiling, bewitching, and often profoundly moving.
Founder Michael Begg releases the work on the back of an exhaustive wave of activity. The last 18 months have seen him pack out cathedrals with the sonic swells and squalls of Fragile Pitches, his collaborative project with Nurse With Wound's Colin Potter, contribute to releases by Blind Cave Salamander, 48 Cameras and Laura Sheeran, and also play a core role in the emergence of the debut album by Fovea Hex, Clodagh Simonds's cult ensemble, with whom he has performed and recorded since 2007.
Rather than thin the mix, however, the insights and juxtaposition of the various disciplines exerted by all this extra curricular activity have helped forge Fortress Longing as the definitive work of melancholic extremism.
(A term coined by the Polish press during the band's 2008 tour of that country) Begg is joined, once more, by erstwhile visual artist Deryk Thomas, and a handful of other performers and friends: Antony and the Johnsons cellist Julia Kent once more lends grace to the proceedings, whilst Fovea Hex colleague Laura Sheeran provides vocal arrangements and harmonies.
Nicole Boitos - who painted the blue lamb featured on the cover of the recording also provides a reading voice to Begg's texts, as does the Norwegian singer Tommy Aashildrod.
Further vocal chants and singing bowls are provided by Charlemagne Palestine collaborator and 48 Cameras leader Jean Marie Mathoul.
The record makes stunningly effective use of the broadest palette of acoustic and electronic tools yet proposed by Human Greed.
Pianos (treated, bowed, prepared), cellos, violins, dulcimer, autoharp, guitars, singing bowls, glass armonica, gamelan, all fold, dovetail, and swap identities with synthesised, processed and eroded digital files and field recordings gathered from the trips Begg undertook in researching the record to Ile de Re, Athens, Heraklion, Frankfurt, London and Poznan.
A number of formally spoken texts even allow Begg to seemingly make peace with the written word after almost a decade of self imposed silence.
The work moves as a single mass, shedding skins and identities as acoustic instruments increasingly take on the role more commonly occupied by ambient electronic beds, whilst the electronics, synths and signals, and manipulated samples and field recordings are teased into releasing their hidden melodic potential.
Again and again in Fortress Longing, the discipline of musical form that Human Greed has so thoroughly deconstructed and undermined in their decade long journey, rises out of the boiling, roiling landscape of restless foreboding.
The effect - particularly on the elegiac cello arrangement by Julia Kent on The Green Line - is simply heart breaking.
Human Greed has delivered a singular and hypnotic work of disagreeable beauty, and Begg the composer, author and producer, is in complete control of his craft." [label info]
|
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Hivernant |
CD |
"Michael Begg : After releasing World Fair (Omnempathy, 2014) I became a sketchbook. I had a few creases and the best way of smoothing them out was to take a swift, light touch and make marks on paper. I documented the landscape in East Lothian, and the watercolours were nothing more than the evidence of time spent looking. And that was enough. I sketched notes about silence, about space and place, music and recording. I took one step to the side and listened to the time rush by. I applied the same light touch to the studio. I sketched. It was enough. I somehow, briefly, removed ambition and purpose and found, in the winter, a moment of repose.
I now feel like some little winter animal, a hivernant, arising from sleep." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
"A very English sounding record, this Hivernant, oozing with dramatic dronescaping and cinematically empty ambience. In previous recordings and collaborations, Michael Begg has found himself in very good company alongside the likes of David Tibet, Colin Potter, Brian Eno, and Clodagh Simonds (amongst others), all of whom share a similar sense of melancholy and portent and resignation, as if it oozed out of the British sod and into their souls. Begg himself has stated that this album is the equivalent of watercolor sketches of a particular portion of Britain (East Lothian, to be exact), capturing the mood and psychic malaise which haunts that land through his darkened, impressionist compositions. Yet, these are most definitely not ephemeral vignettes. Begg carefully crafts the somber spaces with orchestrations of organ, piano, psalter, oboe, etc. that unfurl in and out of an electronic fog that has little in the way of the shoegazing reverberation of, say, Stars Of The Lid, though the arranged formalism and nocturnal pacing could find parallel there. His shimmering layers of sound will evolve into pure sonic forms of harmonically clashing drones only to dissolve into pools of melodic piano reminiscent of Eno's Thursday Afternoon or into a Tim Hecker-like tonal suspension of stained-glass sorrow, with the rather dramatic climax to be found on "Nana" that explodes with a sparse yet booming drumcorps. Hivernant is beautiful, haunting, languid, beguiling. Begg posits this a political album, though he admits an inability to articulate any specifics of these ideas. Yet, in the construct of an album that digs at the poetics of a very British sentiment without sinking into chest-thumping nationalism, his politics speak through the act of creation and not the polemics of division." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
World Fair |
CD |
"Michael Begg: This is my 5th record as Human Greed, 7th if you include the non-ensemble pieces Dirt on Earth and the OMEGA soundtrack I released last year for Moscow’s blackSKYwhite theatre company. This one has been cooking for two years and has seen me attempt to up my game with regards to formal musical theory and composition. There is a lot going on in there and I don’t know how to begin marking out its foundations for you. Possibly best just to remain relatively quiet on the matter and hope it can speak for itself over a few listens. However, the songcraft has its roots partly in the 16th century – from where also arises the preoccupation with melancholy and mortality- and there is much to be owed to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy, the singularity and heat death of the observable universe. That is all touched upon lightly, though I was keen to explore the potential for that science to be represented in a devotional mode more associated with faith.
The ensemble this time is notable particularly for the number of voices that come into the recording. This, in itself, is unusual for someone like me so closely associated with ambient drifts and drones.
So, aside from my long time partner, Deryk Thomas, Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry) gives a stylish reading of a traditional Scottish folk song, Scottish Jazz institution Sophie Bancroft joins the fold (I worked with her in the late 1990s running music and memory recovery workshops in dementia wards) and Sukie Smith from London’s Madam is also here. Nicole M. Boitos, sleeve artist for Swans, and James Blackstock, as well as my own Fortress Longing album shows that she, too, can hold a note. And I love her spoken word reading of the central World Far text on Waiting In A Car.
Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Monos) being a long time collaborator both through Fovea Hex and Fragile Pitches is once again on hand to contribute to the treatments and I am so thrilled to have worked with Steven R. Smith (Ulaan Khol, Hala Strana) on a composition called Chrysler. Steven’s work always, to me, sounds like an advancing desert storm and my vision of such a storm tearing down a city really came to life here. The sound of his home made spike fiddle! Wow!
Two gifted kids from the village helped out on the strings, and Pietro Riperbelli allowed me to plunder his archive of field recordings of cathedral interiors." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
World Fair, album of the year : "There used to be a trinity of Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Coil. Now the sonic gate keepers are a quartet; Nurse, Current, Cyclobe and Human Greed.” Was Ist Das (UK)
www.omnempathy.com
"This is the fifth album by Human Greed (or Michael Begg's seventh if you count the other ones under his own name) and he worked for the last two years on this, and that's something that shows here. While Human Greed is mainly himself and Deryk Thomas, there is a whole bunch of musicians helping them out, on cello and violin but mainly in the vocal department, such as Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry), Sukie Smith and Sophie Bancroft. If I understand well the album is about exploring 'the potential for that science to be represented in a devotional mode more associated by faith', and Human Greed harks back to the 16th century, both for that and the song craft here. It's not that easy to detect I must say, but then: I am no expert on 16th century music either. In the past I compared the music of Human Greed with Fovea Hex, and it's still on a similar line. The mood is a bit dark, with string instruments playing minor chords, aided by dark and moody soundscapes, field recordings, spoken words, and sweet sung melodies, although Human Greed is less folky than the music of Fovea Hex. There are also links to the musical world of Current 93, especially when things are a spookier and more textured here, Colin Potter and Andrew Liles may be inspirations here, and the whole thing has no doubt something very English about it. The creepy country castle atmosphere, the mechanics of a broken doll perhaps. Human Greed moves between the soundscape textures and the more song based structures of some of these pieces, and with pieces fading into each other, this sounds like one long trip, a journey if you will, moving through this fine, yet somewhat dark landscape. In good Fovea Hex tradition there is also a bonus CDR available, in which Begg and Thomas take the whole music of the CD apart and make an entirely new studio construction out of that. You hear little bits of the original in here, sometimes you may recognize a cello, or a violin, some voices but it's otherwise heavy on the use of sound effects to create even denser atmospheres; the cloud on the CD is perhaps more grey; here's it's more black. More abstract perhaps too, and less with a story to tell us. This is an excellent form of sound recycling - to avoid the word 'remix'. An excellent release, all around." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| HUMAN GREED / MICHAEL BEGG |
Omega:ost |
do-CD |
"Omega. A hoochie-‐coochie carnival for the end of time. Out from the sideshow shadows creep an astounding array of freaks, ageless hucksters, and mind-‐twisting curiosities. Raised from apocryphal texts, by black mirrors and prisms. Masters of the macabre spectacle, technical wizards, and true innovators of theatrical sleight-‐of-‐hand, Moscow’s blackSKYwhite – Fringe First and Total Theatre winners – return with their boldest, most audacious production to date, realised in the scale that this company deserves. Loud, exhilarating and utterly compelling. The recording is the result of an extraordinary collaboration between 2 obsessively singular voices; Human Greed’s Michael and the Moscow based Dimitry Aryupin, blackSKYwhite’s mercurial artistic director. For 8 months, with very little in terms of common language the pair threw themselves deep into the process of cooking up an aural bedrock on which to situate the extraordinary beings that populate the stage. Old testament excess, dustbowl carny gothic, and the captured wheezing and grunting of instruments worn out centuries on the road all figure in the soundtrack – and in doing so extend the range of Begg’s more familiar palette of electronics”. The record also features texts in English, Russian and Romani written by Begg and Aryupin. “O ushalin zhala war o kam mangela -‐ The shadow moves as the sun commands." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
"It has, rather appropriately, been 13 years since Moscow-based company blackSKywhite first appeared on the Fringe to terrify and amaze audiences with Bertrand’s Toys. In the intervening years, they have toured the world and other companies have perhaps become better known on the Fringe. But Omega is a very welcome reminder of just how high that bar has been set.
In a month when the city abounds with jugglers and acrobats, it is worth noting that Omega is not a circus show. Rather, it is a movement and dance piece that evokes a stylised circus, the freak shows of the past and a nightmarish post-Apocalyptic carnival. And yet the physical skill on offer here is no less impressive. Put simply, it is often impossible to believe that human beings can actually move like this. It is also rare to see a production as technically polished as this. Movement, music (specially composed by Michael Begg), sound and lighting all seamlessly combine to create something far more than a show: this is a true theatrical experience." [TV BOMB]
|
2013 |
€17.50 |
|
| HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA |
Means without ends |
CD |
Für Fans des ultra-langsamen Noise-Rocks a la SWANS, GODFLESH, etc. kommen HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA genau richtig! Ihr Slow-Drone-Noise aus herrlich verzerrten & scheppernden Snare-Drums, entmenschlichtem Schreigesang & dunkel Noise-Flächen klingt unfassbar abgründig & visionär, wie ein letzter Aufschrei vor dem Untergang.
"Various permutations of this disc have been floating around for a while, each in various states of completeness, but every one we'd heard sounded even better than the last. But this is the one, the final, finished product. The long in the works Human Quena Orchestra, the work of Ryan Unks, formerly of techgrind combo Creation Is Crucifixion, but don't be expecting grind, or even technicality, this all the way on the other side of the spectrum. Abject, filthy, pummeling, slow motion noise drenched doom. A plodding sonic monster, guitars, not just distorted, but treated and twisted into harsh, skin scraping, caustic slabs of sinister sound, a low end so thick, it's like dunking your head in a cement mixer, insane sounding drums, each snare crack like the recording of a million breaking windows, each kick drum the sound of a slowed down car wreck. And beneath it all, thick swells of black ambience, drifting and slithering, pulsing and swelling. A lurching, stumbling
blackened doom dirge behemoth.
Think Swans, Godflesh, Pitchshifter, that sort of machinelike apocalyptic industrial pound, mixed with some funereal ultra doom a
la Moss, Bunkur, etc., but filtered through a druggy psychedelia, with a minimal shimmery drone bent, that ends up sounding like a way
more brutal, way more harsh, tripped out, psychedelic, industrial version of Jesu, that sort of blissed out sun baked vibe, but as if
played by some misanthropic black metal horde, harsh blackened vocals, shrieking hysterically and growling demonically over the relentless amp melting metallic trudge. Every track is rife with layer after layer of undulating low end. Like being tossed about on a stormy sea, but instead of water, it's an endless expanse of roiling black sound waves, rumbling drones, and thick snarled streaks of throbbing bass.
The magic Of Unks' Human Quena Orchestra though is that this hellish harshness is balanced with a nearly equal amount of
meditative ambience, long stretches of deep shimmer, and even some of the harshest tracks are tempered by the swirling low end drift
lurking beneath. So brutally gorgeous.
Definitely essential listening for fans of all the above mentioned outfits, as well as Monarch, Nadja, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, Skullflower, Abruptum, Monument Of Urns, Trollmann, Khanate, The Body and all our favorite purveyors of crumbling downtuned beauty and dreamy damaged doom.
Packaged in a gorgeous hand screened multiple panel fold over sleeve with super striking ADD style microscopic super detailed artwork." [Aquarius Records]
label-website: www.daftalliance.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
The Politics of the Irredeemable |
CD |
Instrumental Apocalyptic Doom Ambience! Musik von erdrückender Intensität & urwüchsiger Kraft! Heftige Gitarren-Drones, wuchtige ultralangsame Pulses, Schreie, Noise... So brutal wie wunderschön. Gehört mit zum intensivsten, was es im Bereich "Industrial-Rock" der schleppend-zermahlenden Sorte zur Zeit gibt, natürlich muss man an alte SWANS denken, aktuell fällt uns sonst nur noch TRANSITIONAL, KHANATE oder BUNKUR ein. Das zweite Album!
"Ein bisschen Fantasie vorausgesetzt, stelle man sich folgendes Szenario vor: NAPALM DEATH wären keine Grindcore-, sondern eine Black-Metal-Band, und als Justin Broadrick sie 1986 verließ, um dann GODFLESH zu gründen, hätte er neben Industrial, Noise und Ambient eben auch einen Teil Black Metal in sein Projekt gebracht, aber mit dem Wissen, wie sich so etwas eben 2009 anhören müsste. Ein alberner Vergleich vielleicht, aber das aus Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stammende Duo HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA schafft es mit seinem zweiten Album, eine ähnlich bedrückende Atmosphäre aufzubauen, wie es einst GODFLESH konnten und das eben mit ganz ähnlichen, aber noch heftigeren Mitteln, denn auf einen nachvollziehbaren Rhythmus und eine Songstruktur muss man verzichten. Eine den Songs als Fundament dienende Geräuschkulisse, darüber Schreie, Noisefetzen und ein sich ständig wiederholendes brutales Riff, das nur alle zehn Sekunden zusammen mit einem Drumschlag auftaucht: „The Politics Of The Irredeemable" ist statisch und undynamisch, wie eine massive, undurchdringliche Wand, die so dunkel, hoch und breit ist, dass du ihre Dimensionen nicht abschätzen kannst." [André Bohnensack, OX-Fanzine]
"Human Quena Orchestra first took shape as a solo project from Ryan Unks, who had previously played guitar in the final lineup of the Pittsburgh metal band Creation Is Crucifixion. After moving from CIC, Unks began to work on a new project that would incorporate elements of black metal, crushing drone music, extreme psychotropic noise and psychedelic/krautrock influences into a sound that would be much heavier any of his previous projects. The first album from Human Quena Orchestra was released in 2007 on Daft Alliance; Means Without Ends was a disturbing, introspective slab of blackened industrial doom that stood out in stark contrast from the rest of the slow n' low extreme doom scene, utilizing layers of harsh textured distortion and electronics to create a caustic form of monstrous doom that shared as much of industrial music's cold, machine-like aesthetic as it did the ultra-slow riffage of the most extreme variants of doom metal. At the same time that the bands debut was taking shape, Unks was joined by another former member of Creation Is Crucifixion, Nathan Berlinguette (who was also a member of the dark ambient project M.Kourie and the deathdrone duo 5/5/2000). With the addition of Berlinguette's skilled application of dark ambience and expansive soundscapes, Human Quena Orchestra began to move into even more textured territory which has culminated with the second HQO full-length, The Politics of the Irredeemable, a series of apocalyptic visions and epiphanies of endtime realization, prophetic screeds that look to a future rendered pustulent and war-stricken by the failed machinations of the human race, presented as six chapters that enter your consciousness through a delivery system of extreme industrial dread. The Politics of the Irredeemable is crushing and oppressive, a crawl through abstract fields of low-end sound that move from punishing blasts of ultra-heavy machine-doom and earth-shaking tectonic riffs, to thick fogs of black electronic ambience that shimmer with subsonic pulses and celestial drones, the presence of malevolent electricity crackling in the air around the lumbering, nightmarish electro-sludge monstrosity of the Human Quena Orchestra. And at the same time, there are passages of immense beauty on this album that lurk at the peripheries of HQO's malevolent crush; the track "Aspirations" for instance, where pummeling slow-motion industrial percussions grinds in an infinite loop beneath a swirling nightsky of kosmiche synthesizers and heavenly, blissed-out ambience, the drums becoming like distant mortar blasts heard over the horizon as terrified screams ring out and stars fall dead from the skies. Total deathmachine grind ambience. The CD is packaged in a heavy gatefold jacket with murky, dismal images of blasted city streets and torched monuments, with lyrics and quotations relevant to the apocalyptic themes on the album printed on the inside jacket. Comes with three 1" color buttons featuring artwork from the album." [label info]
www.Crucialblast.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
|
A natural History of Failure |
CD |
"Emotional distance. Scientism. Abuse. Greed. Love. Self destruction. A study of modern, alienated, forced-individualists, wired together in our hell. Initially a collection of high-volume live pieces by Unks and Graham, this work was crafted into album form with contributions from a group of like-minded friends who performed together during the tours of the same name in 2009. Weapons-grade Trogotronic electronics utilized throughout. Four-panel poster sleeve. Photograph by Olli Keklinen." [label info]
www.utechrecords.com
www.utechrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Natural History of Failure |
LP |
"THQO is Ryan R. Unks, formerly guitarist of legendary Pittsburgh metal outfit Creation Is Crucifixion, who has been a key player in dark experimental music for more than a decade. A Natural History of Failure was released in 2010 on CD by Utech Records, a label known for its curatorial savvy and credible catalogue. This is the first and only pressing of this milestone on vinyl, in limited quantity." [label info]
www.handmadebirds.com |
2011 |
€18.50 |
|
| HUNGNESS, BRANNON |
Virtual Symphony |
CD |
Solo-CD des OBLIVION ENSEMBLE-Mitglieds, eine unglaublich komplexes orchestrales Werk, welches auf diversen live-Aufnahmen basiert, die aber nachträglich transformiert wurden. Sehr dicht und spannend, wie auch schon bei OBLIVION ENSEMBLE, aber weniger song-orientiert.
label-website: www.multimood.com |
1995 |
€14.00 |
|
| HUNGTAI, ALEX ZHANG / DAVID MARANHA / GABRIEL FERRANDINI |
Eight Black Horses Crown Snake |
CD |
"Through me you go into the city of grief, through me you go into the pain that is eternal, through me you go among people lost.
Justice moved my exalted creator; the divine power made me, the supreme wisdom, and the primal love.
Before me all created things were eternal, and eternal I will last.
Abandon every hope, you who enter here.
...after he had taken me by the hand, with a cheerful look which comforted me, he drew me within the secret place [the eternal world]."
-Dante, Canto III, The Divine Comedy
Alex Zhang Hungtai - Voice, Saxophone and Drums
David Maranha - Organ and Drums
Gabriel Ferrandini - Drums
Recorded in Cinema Passos Manuel 10th of March 2017
Mixed by Alex, David and Gabriel in Violante do Céu Studio
Mastered by Tó Pinheiro da Silva in Oeiras on 10th of November 2017
Cover photo from White Noise Book, Interior photo taken at Conservatório de Lisboa, both by António Júlio Duarte
We are self releasing it through david's label Violent do Céu, if you would like a CD version of the album please email david and he will post it to you. Unfortunately our self release budget is limited, but hopefully one day we can release this on vinyl.
davidmaranha@gmail.com
https://alexzhanghungtai.bandcamp.com/album/eight-black-horses-crown-snake
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| HUNT, JERRY |
Song Drapes |
CD |
"Born in Waco, Texas, Jerry Hunt was a friend of Jack Ruby, a pianist in strip clubs, a student of the occult and founder of his own mail order church at the age of 13. Jerry Hunt was also one of the great pioneers of live electronic music performance. Very much a modern-day shaman, he designed most of his own equipment and used it in unique ways to create backdrops for his magical performances that referred to, among many other things, exotic ritual, the esoteric traditions of Rosicrucianism, Aleister Crowley and modern science. The Song Drapes were some of Jerry's last and greatest creations—and this special first release, authorized by the Hunt estate, includes performances by two of Jerry's closest friends and collaborators, vocalist Shelley Hirsch and perfomance artist Karen Finley, and one track featuring the popular vocalist Mike Patton." [label info]
www.tzadik.com
|
1999 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Phalba |
CD |
"Composer and modern day shaman Jerry Hunt combined live electronics with esoteric spirituality in creating his own very unique ritualistic performances. This CD presents four rare compositions written expressly for James Fulkerson and the Barton Workshop, who had a long and intimate relationship with this elusive composer until his untimely death in 1993. Includes an extended piece for trombone and electronics, two colorful compositions for ensemble and a charming minimalist piece for violin and piano. Hunt's hypnotic sound world transfers brilliantly to this virtuosic ensemble, and they perform his challenging scores with passion and intensity. A wild new view from one of new music's legendary mavericks." [label info]
www.tzadik.com
|
2004 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Five Mechanic Convention Streams |
do-LP |
The final album released by the composer-performer Jerry Hunt before his death, Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams is a rare and foundational audio document of Hunt’s compositional process. The record collects five pieces from the artist’s “Ground” series, translating his characteristically variable and spatial scores into “recorded fixtures of activity using mechanic musical instrument arrays,” to eerie and mesmerizing results. Originally released by experimental label OODiscs in 1992, it is now available on vinyl for the first time from Blank Forms Editions. Its tracks are dense and unpredictable, a miscellany of arrhythmic bursts, fragments of spoken and whispered words, soft then fevered rattles and shaking, and a rare return to pianoforte for the virtuoso player. On “Talk (slice): double” a nervous, warped dialogue unfolds between Hunt and composer Rod Stasick, their voices alternately measured and monstrous. In “Transform (stream): monopole,” breathy whistles build against a shimmering stream of bells, rattles, and shakers in a fantastical cascade of percussion. Hunt revisits the piano in “Lattice (stream): ordinal” and “Bitom (stream): link,” oscillating between gentle, almost classical phrases and frantic, seemingly random play. His collaboration with violinist Jane Henry, “Chimanazzi (Olun): core,” extends similarly unorthodox playing techniques to the violin, involving the scraping, plucking, and playing of its strings. The unstable quality of these tracks belies the rigor of Hunt’s procedures; each of Ground’s five pieces, their “common ground core,” is derived from the angelic tables of sixteenth century English philosopher and occultist John Dee, adapted by Hunt as frameworks to layer, adapt, and renew in his compositions. With a complex arrangement of sensors and equipment, which the artist called “interrelated electronic, mechanic, and social sound-sight interactive transactional systems,” Hunt realized these derivative systems in the techno-shamanic performances for which he is best known. Ground distills these procedures into fixed songs, producing a vital and critical record of Hunt’s singular approach to composition.
Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams is released as part of Blank Forms’s extensive program dedicated to Jerry Hunt. This program includes the first institutional exhibition of the artist’s videos and sculptures, Jerry Hunt: Transmissions from the Pleroma, presented at Blank Forms from February 16th to June 11th, 2022; the publication of Partners, a memoir-cum-biography by the artist’s long-time romantic partner Stephen Housewright; the forthcoming anthology Blank Forms 08: Transmissions from the Pleroma; and Irida Records: Hybrid Musics from Texas and Beyond, 1979–1986, a deluxe LP boxed set and reader on Hunt’s briefly-lived independent label.
https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/ground-five-mechanic-convention-streams
|
2022 |
€37.50 |
|
| HUNTING LODGE |
The Will |
CD |
"HUNTING LODGE gehören zu den Urvätern des Industrial Genre ( neben SPK , TG und LUSTMORD..) "Will" war ihre 1.LP vor 25 Jahren auf S/M Operations (1983) und ist eine der wenigen, aber essentiellen Pflichttitel für jede Plattensammlung !" [label info]
www.darkvinyl.com
|
1992 |
€14.00 |
|
| HUNTSVILLE |
For the middle class |
CD |
Sehr schwungvoll-polyperkussive Instrumental-Melangen dieses norwegischen Ensemble, absolut hörenswert !
"Die drei Musiker von HUNTSVILLE - Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften und Ingar Zach - stammen allesamt aus Norwegen. Grydeland und Zach gründeten zusammen das Sofa Label für improvisierte Musik und tauchten schon zusammen in ebenso unzähligen wie vielfältigen Gruppen wie dem Improvisations-Ensemble NO SPAGHETTI EDITION oder gemeinsam mit dem britischen Keyboarder Pat Thomas im Quartett HISS auf. Die Tatsache, dass alle Mitglieder von HUNTSVILLE Multiinstrumentalisten sind, zeigt, dass die Band um Lichtjahre von einem konventionellen Trio mit Gitarre, Bass und Drums entfernt ist. Grydeland mischt akustische und elektrische Gitarre und am Banjo mit Fingerpickung, verschiedenen Bögen und obskuren Effektgeräten. Ebenso benutzt Kluften am Bass unterschiedliche Bögen, Stöcke und Gummibänder, während Zach dies mit den diversesten Klängen seines Drumkits untermalt. Am Ende ist es ganz unmöglich, herauszufinden, wer welches bizarre Geräusch zu Tage gefördert hat. HUNTSVILLE treiben den polyrhythmischen Zugang, wie ihn ORNETTE COLEMAN bei "Lonely Woman" kultiviert hat, auf neue Höhen. Verschiedene Tempi der Instrumente konkurrieren miteinander und kommen am Ende der Reise doch als homogenes Ganzes im Gehör des Zeugen an. //
_This is the debut release for Norwegian trio Huntsville. Huntville are Ivar Grydeland, (guitars, banjo, pedal steel guitar, etc.) Tonny Kluften (double bass, etc.) and Ingar Zach (percussion, tabla machine, sarangi box, shruti box, etc.) Grydeland and Zach founded the Sofa label for improvised music in 2000 and appear together in various projects on several of the label's releases. They have worked with Kluften since 1998, as the core of improvising ensemble No Spaghetti Edition and in the quartet HISS with British keyboardist Pat Thomas. The HISS CD from 2003, Zahir, shows the group's intense application of so-called free improvisation. The Huntsville project contrasts sharply with their earlier work, and this release reveals a quite different, more groove-based approach with strong elements of composition. Zach comments, "... during the last two or three years, our interest in country music and electronic music has developed into a sound we really wanted to investigate -- also Feldman and Cage, drone music, folk music..." The group's multi-instrumentalism means that this is no conventional guitar-bass-drums trio. On acoustic and electric guitar as well as banjo, Grydeland mixes finger-picking techniques with various types of bow, as well as acoustic and electronic devices. Tonny Kluften on double-bass uses various bows, sticks and rubber bands, while Zach produces a wide range of sounds on drum kit. They make striking use of a marvelous polyrhythmic approach pioneered by Ornette Coleman on "Lonely Woman," and Zach's locomotive groove is contrasted by the free tempo of plangent, folk-like acoustic guitar, in a kind of fractured descendent of the railroad blues. Alternately, the drums set up a tight and furious high-tempo, with the other instruments either at a slower tempo, or out of tempo completely. When the group lowers the energy levels, soft arpeggios on acoustic guitar are heard against percussive objects and a lone, rather erratic bass drum -- these effects are spare, haunting and quite beautiful. For The Middle Class displays a genuinely musical use of unexpected sounds and textures, allied with echoes of traditional genres in a radical new conceptual language." [press release]
"Pretty incredible long-player by the Norwegian trio of Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften and Ingar Zach, who’ve long been involved with the free improvisation world already documented by Grydeland’s Sofa label on a number of releases since 2000. Here, however, they utilise all manner of instruments from guitars, double bass, banjo, tabla machine and various others originating from India to explore a more recent interest in drone, country, folk and electronic music. Opening song, ‘The Appearance of a Wise Child’, tethered to around 15 mins worth of driving, hypnotic percussion and snatching some random vocals along the way, largely sets the tone for the remainder of the release. Organic textures snake around each other, rhythms staple everything to that juncture where everything points to an apex of unadulterated ecstasy, and discernible ur-strums combine with frenetic bows and scrapes for that only too important raw effect so hard to find in this day of software-generated sterilisation. Only second track, ‘Serious Like a Pope’ loses its grip slightly as the pace is whittled back to a near Fahey-esque approach rendered better on fourth and final cut, ‘Melon’, which furnishes us with a comparatively stripped and gentle touchdown to the proceedings. Nonetheless, Huntsville sound like their experience within such realms of music is paying off. The product of people who know their game without having let their imagination or yearning to voyage to new places suffer. Fucken dandy in my book, I have to concede." [RJ, Adverse Effect]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| HURTADO, MARC & ALAN VEGA |
Sniper |
CD |
"Alan Vega is literally a legend. Suicide, formed by the duo Rev and Vega is the spearhead of a punk trend which immersed all of a sudden in a fusion of waves and electronic loops. Since that period Vega became an icon for rock music and electronic generations... Vega’s flow, and the scansion of this white hot crooner sound fractured and charismatic. Everything is Rock, his leather jackets, his art and soul highly charged. So aesthetic, a rockabilly singing in a breathless style, wearing dusty pink and yelling metal make up. He is nowadays a Myth all around the world.
Marc Hurtado gained his experience in the 80’s with his brother Eric, they were called “Étant Donnés”. Their albums, films and performances are highly appreciated in Beauboug,the Fondation Cartier, the Rennes Transmusicales,the Barcelona Sonar Festival, the Kitchen in New York and The French Cinematèque. In the years 2000, Marc Hurtado produced some original soundtracks (for Philippe Gandrieux and Jessica Hausner), but he is also known for his collaborations with Lydia Lunch, Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV), Michael Gira (Swans), Gabi Delgado (DAF), The Hacker, Sky Saxon (The Seeds), Les Maîtres Musiciens de Jajouka, his project Sol Ixent with the German singer Saba Komossa (Delkom)... and of course Alan Vega. Hurtado recorded four tracks in the album Re-Up in 1999 and were together on stage in France and Europe (Centre Pompidou, Lieu Unique de Nantes with Christophe) and he also produced in 2009 the film “The Infinite Mercy Film”) dedicated to the art work of Alan Vega.
Sniper was born from this artistic collaboration and complicity, it was recorded in 2010 at the 6/8 Studios cherished by Suicide. This is a blazing star, an album made of fever and chaos but it also remind us the synthetic ballad you can find in Vega’s early solo albums.Whithout mentioning Lydia Lunch’s participation in “Prison Sacrifice” already a cult song, there is the sublime one “Saturn Drive Duplex” in its first original version which could lead to inspiration in the future. With at least 13 tracks of rage and shiver where words and electricity are intertwine to show this threatening apocalyptic and violent world but also the desire to flee towards new possibilities and to explore the universe.
This album follows the release of infinite Mercy, a monograph dedicated to the art work “Ghost Rider Man”, which came out in September 2010 at Presses du Réel and where you can find some texts from Marc Hurtado, Alan Vega, Henry Rollins, Ric Ocasek and Martin rev. Neon lights sculptures are on the outer cover and inside it, it’s a prestigious flamboyant release." [label info]
www.maquismusic.com
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| HURTADO, MARC & Z'EV |
Sang |
CD |
\"Marc Hurtado, voice and instruments (recorded by Marc Hurtado at Fire Music Studio, France). Z\'ev, percussions (recorded by Z\'ev in London, UK). Mixed and mastered by Marc Hurtado at Fire Music Studio. Art Direction and photos by Marc Hurtado.\" [label info]
monotyperecords.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| HURTADO, MARC WITH VOMIR |
2011 |
do-CD |
"Art edition with extra CD : 100 copies. Collaboration between Marc Hurtado, former of Etant Donnés, with Vomir (aka Romain Perrot). Marc Hurtado: Instruments, voice, mix, production. Vomir: static sound. Marc Hurtado, musician, film director, painter, poet and producer is the founder with his brother Eric Hurtado of the french multimedia band Etant Donnés, since 1977 he made 20 albums collaborating with people like Alan Vega, Genesis P Orridge, Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira, Marc Cunningham or Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. He released some records with his solo project Sol Ixent between 2002 and 2004 and recorded between 2005 and 2008 an album of Neue Weltumfassende Resistance with Gabi Delgado , he produced the album 'The Source' by Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Jajouka in May 2010 and released the album 'Sniper' with Alan Vega in November 2010. He made several soundtracks for films by Philippe Grandrieux, Jessica Hausner or Mathieu Dufois and released 'The Infinite Mercy Film' with Alan Vega in 2009 and the film 'Jajouka, something good comes to you' with his brother Eric Hurtado in the Moroccan village of Jajouka in 2012. The project VOMIR (aka Romain Perrot) exist since 2006 and is active internationally with multiple releases, 2012 confirmed his status of International Master of the Harsh Noise Wall genre, which described a monolithic static harsh sound. Marc Hurtado met Vomir in 2010 and felt immediately in love for his 'burning' static sound. He invited him to work on the album 2011 which is the outcome of 3 years of work putting in abyss their respective universes and trying to blow up all the sound barriers and perceptions of art. '2011 is a raw and savage album elaborated in total freedom with no consideration for time or space that surrounded us' (Marc Hurtado)." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2013 |
€24.00 |
|
| HYBRYDS |
Dreambient |
CD & DVD |
"HYBRYDS is a Belgian ritual-esoteric project, which in the early 90-s released it's most significant album "Music for Rituals" on the cult label Artware run by Donna Klemm (R.I.P.). They have reached the peak of creativity in 90-s with their classical discs "The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive" parts 1 & 2, "Soundtrack For The Aquarium", recorded for the Antwerp water park, "Dreamscapes From A Dark Side", "Tectonic Overload". In 2000 the female member of HYBRYDS, Yasnaia, leaves the band, and Magthea is busy with his project NA-DHA for some time.
The new album of HYBRYDS, "Dreambient" is based on exploration of the female characters from the Pagan past: archetypes of the seducer, the demon, the girl, the whore, the slave, the mistress, the priest, the mother... The music of the project has become more accessible for uninitiated listeners: traditional ambient-ritual basis is enriched with rhythmic electronics, melodic synthesizer tunes and even guitar parts. Vocals are now done by Madeline Arndt from the German darkwave/gothic band Schattenkinder.
Audio-CD is supplemented by a DVD containing a visualization of the subconscious flow of religious and erotic archetypes. The release is packed in a double-digipak with a booklet." [label description]
http://aquarellist.ru
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Ritual Anthology |
CD |
Aufnahmen von 1986-1993 von der belgischen Ethno / Ritual / Industrial-Band, welche eindrucksvoll ihren mal verträumt-mysteriösen, mal magisch-beschwörenden, meist perkussiven Stil präsentiert. Über die Hälfte der Stücke ist unveröffentlicht. Ziel dieser Musik ist die Erzeugung von Trance, welche den Zugang zu im Alltag schwer zugänglichen Bewusstseinszuständen möglich macht. Kommt im edlen schwarz-gold bedruckten Papp-Ausklapp-Cover.
"With this CD Aquarellist is proud to present the anthology of early ritual works of this fabulous Belgian project. This music immerses the listener into the space of RITUAL - the magical action aimed to reach the goals beyond the borders of the ordinary world. An action evoking deeper layers of consciousness, deeper memories not active in our everyday life. An action that helps to reveal our potential as powerful and miraculous creatures.
Hybryds present their visions of rituals in the form of rhythmical compositions built on repetitive percussive loops crowned with layers of numerous archaic instruments, aided by vocal spells and atmospheric soundscapes with minor electronic additions.
This material was recorded in 1986-1993 by Magthea & Yasnaia with the help of their friends: Ah Cama Sotz, Djen Ajakan Shean, Vidna Obmana, Clive Richards, Irae Deprofundo and Bobby Colombo. Three tracks from this CD were previously released on "The Rhythm Of The Ritual" CD (Charnel Music, 1994), one track was released as "The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive - Part 1" CD EP (3RIOART, 1991), and three other tracks are released here for the first time.
CD, limited edition of 600 in digipak from a corrugated cardboard, picture it is executed by a method of silk-screen printing
1- For the Nameless one
2- El Caballo
3- Je suis la premiere
4- Call for the Touareg
5- Fallen Angels
6- The ritual should be kept alive - part 1
7- The ritual should be kept alive - part 3
Recorded between 1986 and 1993.
Digital re-mastered 2009 by 3RIOART vzw from original material recorded on 4 track cassette and recordings live to DAT.
Credits:
Magthea,
Yasnaia,
Ah Cama Sotz,
Djen Ajakan S,
Vidna Obmana,
Clive Richards,
Irae Deprofundo,
Bobby Colombo.
Visit:
http://www.hybryds.com
http://users.telenet.be/3rioart/
Reviews:
http://maeror3.livejournal.com/80596.html"
[label info]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Mythical Music from the 21st Century |
CD |
"This is the second volume in the ongoing series of Hybryds reissues on Zoharum and it coincides with the 30th anniversary of artistic work of Sandy Nys and company. "Mythical Music from the 21st Century", the first full Hybryds release, collects tracks recorded between 1983 and 1986 scattered on various compilations. Yet they form the first representation of their venture into the world of sonic rituals and magic. Their perspective on sound still has not been imitated or copied and even after 30 years they still sound fresh.
In the words of Sandy Nys:
The first recordings were made in 1983. During the next years more recordings and musical rituals were created with different people in different places. In this first release about 20 people were involved. The recordings were a field trip, a diary of my life. The recordings became a story. The mythical story of NaHeMa. Most of the songs were sent for compilations on independent labels, yet the complete story was released in 1986 for the first time as a cassette on 3RIORECORDINGS (there was also a very limited edition in a box of 30 copies with the Dream Machine building prints.) In 1990 it was re-released by Nuit et Brouillard (France) as a cassette in a small box. In 1998 a limited picture disc in an edition of 666 copies was released by Triton (Germany). This version is shorter than the cassette one. This new CD release contains extras: the unreleased live version of "Sacred Voices," performed live on Radio Centraal and an unreleased mix of "Octahedron" by the Alpha Project.
The album has been digitally remastered from the original stereo cassette master by none else but Sandy Nys, who also provided the cover based on the previous editions. This is the ritual music at its best. Now you can enjoy it in the best digital quality." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Music for Rituals |
do-CD |
"Sandy Nys says about the album: "'Music For Rituals' was first released in a hand-made pouch, on the German label ARTWARE. The music was like the first tape release, made in different places with different people on a 4-track Tascam cassette recorder. I also started making mail art music with musicians from far away in the world (no internet back then) sending basic music on cassette which I used in the compositions. In this music, Yasnaia and her cello and voice became prominent as we started working together." CD 2 contains rarities and unreleased tracks: 1: Hybryds & Alpha project (previously unreleased)
2: From 3RIOTAPES cassette compilation 3 & 4: sax by Barry Edgar Pilcher, from 3RIOTAPES cassette release: Saxapulation 1984 5: Koto build by Michel. Played by Michel and Magthea. Soundsamples from 'Dabide No Hoshi: Bishôjo-Gari' ('Star Of David: Beautiful Girl Hunter' a strange S/M movie from Japan 1979) (previously unreleased). This 2CD album is packaged in a digipak and limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Belgian electronic-ritualists The Hybryds began producing their exotic, sensual mesmerism and ethnographic forgeries in the mid '80s, after ringleader Sandy Nys (aka Magthea) transitioned from the minimalist EBM of The Klinik into the far more supple forms of tape loops and ritualized performance. Their iconography was one that was very much a precursor to the modern primitive bacchanal of Burning Man and paralleled the philosophical fascination with Crowley that came out of the whole Psychic TV and Current 93 circle. As such, Hybryds were a project with one foot very clearly in the ancient and the other firmly adhering to the technological advances. The slow, gyrating rhythms interlace the patter from hand-drummed percussion on wood, skin, bone, and metal with the electronic structures from MIDI-driven samples draped with reverberantly sustained synth drones. Nys along with co-conspirator Leen Smets (aka Yasnaia) also wove this tapestry with wordless vocals, processed violin, phasing tape loops, and the sublimely eerie buzzing of Egyptian reeds. Music For Rituals was the band's first album beyond a couple of limited cassette releases, featuring input from fellow Belgian transcendentalist Vidna Obmana who like Nys had shifted from a hard-bodied industrialist into a liquid melange of ritualized ambience and gnostic mysticism. This album originally came out on the seminal German label Artware in 1992, has been remastered from the 4-track tapes, and is now fleshed out with an extra cd's worth of bonus material. Zoviet France, O Yuki Conjugate, Zero Kama, and even the more introspective albums from Coil would all be worthy comrades in arms with Hybryds." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Ritual should be kept alive |
CD |
"Zoharum continues reissuing past works of one of the most interesting projects coming from the 1980s underground - Hybryds. This album is the fourth instalment in the reissue series of Hybryds classic releases. It is an expanded reissue of ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive (1)” EP released back in 1991. That release featured only the first part of the title composition. The Zoharum edition was extended to a 70-minute full album with the other two parts of ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive” included plus one more bonus song.
Contrary to the previous releases (”Mythical Music from the 21st Century” and ”Music for Rituals” - both reissued on Zoharum – with lots of short pieces), ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive” contains slowly-evolving, long pieces which will hypnotise the listener with their sonic magic. Four songs on this album come from the same period, so it sounds very cohesive. And because three of them were not published before, ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive” v.2014 might be treated as a new album.
The album has been digitally remastered from the original stereo cassette master by none else but Sandy Nys, who also provided the cover based on the previous editions. This is the ritual music at its best. Now you can enjoy it in the best digital quality. The CD is housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Rhythm of the Ritual / Ein Phallischer Gott |
do-CD |
"Zoharum continues reissuing past works of one of the most interesting projects coming from the 1980s underground - Hybryds. ”The Rhythm of the Ritual / Ein Phallischer Gott” is the fifth instalment in the reissue series of Hybryds classic releases.
Sandy tells a few words about the period: In the 1990s only small independent labels existed which had their own area to cover distributionwise hoping to spread our music in the world. ”The Rhythm of the Rituals” (1994, Charnel Music) and ”Ein Phallischer Gott” (1997, Crowd Control Activities) shared some songs. There were no official media supporting this world of “underground” music. Acid and rave became popular in the “commercial” scene. Pro Tools was the magic word. But we made our music live on the 8-track. The only sequences were the drum machines. We stayed loyal to working the old-fashioned way. It's the more rhythmical and ethnical site of Hybryds, lots of percussion, played acoustically, or sampled and looped, or from drum machines. Some of the basic music was from the 1980s but by then we worked on a reel-to-reel 8-track tape recorder with a bigger mixing desk. Livewise we started to transfer to our cyberpunk period (as visible in the live version of ”Whisper”). Depending on the demand we had two live shows, the “magical” or the cyberpunk. It was also the time when Yasnaïa and me did the live shows alone. We did not work live on stage with others anymore. We had a manager, Patty Hele from Motherdance. It was easier to travel and perform with two people only. Yasnaïa released her solo album and started playing live with her solo project.
The first CD collects tracks from two studio releases ”The Rhythm of the Ritual” and ”Ein Phallischer Gott”. The live CD contains live versions of the studio CD (some taken from the live Obuh vinyl LP) and some extras, like an unreleased song ”Dusk Falling”." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Neben dem Backcatalog anderer Bands taucht in den letzten Jahren auch immer wieder ein Album der HYBRYDS via ZOHARUM auf. Mit „The Rhythm Of The Ritual/ Ein Phallischer Gott“ ist man dabei bei zwei Werken von 1994 bzw. 1997 angekommen, die nun ergänzt um Live-Aufnahmen aus der Zeit als Doppel-CD, wiederaufgelegt werden. Hierzu ist allerdings anzumerken, dass nur drei Stücke des „The Rhythm Of The Ritual“-Albums enthalten sind. Die drei anderen wurden bereits mit der (Wieder-)veröffentlichung von „The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive“ 2015 erneut ans Tageslicht befördert. Auch nicht alle Stücke von „Ein Phallischer Gott“ haben es auf diese Zusammenstellung geschafft. Dafür taucht z.B. das eindrucksvolle „Call Of The Tuareg“ auf – ein Compilation-Track aus jener Zeit. Auf die fürchterlichen, quietschbunten 90er Jahre Computer-Cover der Originale wurde zum Glück nicht zurückgegriffen. Stattdessen wurde dem Release ein absolut stimmiges Artwork verpasst, das sich in die aktuelle, künstlerische Darstellung der HYBRYDS einpasst.
Dass die vorliegenden Aufnahmen um die zwanzig Jahre alt sind, lässt sich tatsächlich nur schwer heraushören. Frei von damaligen Trends wirken die Stücke eher zeitlos. Die stark Ritual-, Tribal-lastige Musik wird zumeist von einem Rhythmus-Loop zusammengehalten, über den nicht durchgängig aber hin und wieder YASNAIAs Stimme gelegt wurde. Daneben erklingen Flötenklänge und Synthesizerpads, so dass der Gesamtsound mal organischer und mal elektronischer wirkt. Beteiligt waren an den Arbeiten damals auch illustre Gäste wie HERMAN KLAPHOLZ (u.a. AH CAMA-SOTZ) oder MOON FAR AWAY.
Die Live-Aufnahmen und Proberaumaufnahmen der zweiten CD stammen ebenfalls aus der Zeit – zumeist 1996. Neben anderen Stücken, sind hier auch einige Tracks noch einmal in der Live-Version vorhanden, die auf der „Studio-Seite“ bereits zu finden sind. Der Sound ist dabei bis auf einige Ausnahmen durchweg recht gut.
Wie oben dargestellt ist „The Rhythm Of The Ritual/ Ein Phallischer Gott“ keine Wiederveröffentlichung im eigentlichen Sinn, sondern eher eine Zusammenstellung von Stücken aus einer zeitlichen Periode, die in sich aber absolut stimmig und geschlossen wirkt und mit den zusätzlichen Live-Versionen und Outtakes einen gewissen Mehrwert mitbringt. Hörer, die sich für rituellen und Tribal-lastigen Ambient interessieren, sollten ruhig ein Ohr riskieren, da die Musik ohne Frage gegenüber der heutigen Konkurrenz mithalten kann – mindestens."
[Tony F. für nonpop.de] |
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| HYIOS |
Consuetudines |
CD |
"The alluring debut from Leipzig Germany’s Hyios, Consuetudines offers 7 lengthy compositions of cold ritual drones, arching trajectories, and visceral descents into subterranean caverns, where rich, kinetic textures and deep resonant tones move and morph in a fluid, serpentine fashion, sprinkled with the debris of an ancient culture and something more otherworldly and primordial. Leipzig has historically proven to be fertile ground for dark ambient and Consquetudines continues in the fine tradition set forth by such notable acts as Inade and Herbst9. In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Secret Lab. A great new discovery." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE |
The Shape of Space |
LP |
"In May of 2014, Canadian experimental / ambient guitarists Aidan Baker and Eric Quach (a.k.a. Thisquietarmy), who have frequently performed and collaborated together, recruited three drummers—David Dunnett (CA), Jérémie Mortier (BE), and Felipe Salazar (CO)—to accompany them for a performance at NK in Berlin. The resulting performance—a freeform, semi-improvisational study in rhythmic, psychedelic, atmospheric spacerock—was documented as a CD release on Belgium's Consouling Sounds under the moniker Hypnodrone Ensemble. Following a second performance in September 2014 at Incubate Festival in Tilburg, NL, Hypnodrone Ensemble, with the addition of Gareth Sweeney (IE) on bass, entered Golden Retriever Studios in Berlin to record a follow-up to their live debut. The results, edited down from several hours' worth of recorded material and mastered by James Plotkin, became the album The Shape of Space, released as a limited LP (100 translucent vinyl, 400 black vinyl) by new Berlin label Calostro Recordings." [label info]
calostrorecordings.bigcartel.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| I SNOR |
The Wolf Project |
LP |
"This record is a redefined version of the soundtrack -i Snor did for the eponymous contemporary dance act choreographed by Kenneth Flak and Külli Roosna, still performed around the world. Artwork by Pawel Nowakowski." [label info]
www.skratrecords.com
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| I.CORAX |
Kuilu |
CD |
"Kuilu' by I.corax, originally limited to only 40 copies is the last album released by Blue Sector in 2004. The album is finally available through our Stellar Mansion series. 'Kuilu' is a live recording of I.corax's first live performance held in NuKu, Oulu, Finland on 2nd of March 2002. These four slowly evolving compositions bring forth a mesmerizing and ethereal atmosphere; swirling analogue synthesizer, subliminal electronic-triggers, monotone yet dynamic rhythmic elements are accompanied with haunting un-organic textures, human words and field-recordings captured on tape in the woods under a crescent moon. All in all the material on this album is simpler and more straight forward than on the other I.corax releases. It presents a stimulating historical overview of the duos past practises; numinous passings through the chasms into and beyond the abyss. The album is enclosed inside a newly designed and silk-screen printed cardboard covers including three offset printed insert cards and a four panel booklet. Limited to 500 copies. AURAL HYPNOX [AHSM06]" [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Cadaver Pulse II: Mothelix Liquescent |
CD |
"The second official release of the Oulu based experimental music and sound art duo I.corax, originally released in 2003 is now also available through our Stellar Mansion series. 'The Cadaver Pulse II', running over 60 minutes is an etheric, bright and dreamlike sequel to the oozy 'TCP I'. The six helical compositions bring forth a unique analogue and organic atmosphere. Most of the material on this album was received, composed and recorded during intense three-day live sessions held in the Blue Vortex in March 2003 by using analogue synthesizers, samplers, human voice and a selection of wind and bowed instruments. The material was mixed and finalised in September 2003. The album is enclosed inside a newly designed and silk-screen printed cardboard covers including six offset printed insert cards and a four panel booklet." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
"Second release for I.CORAX on Blue Sector, the second part of “THE CADAVER PULSE”... analogue sounding dark ambience, very waving & gloomy harmonic, with very interesting higher sounds & effects which give it a very trancy & secret atmosphere.. RECOMMENDED for noisy dark ambient lovers!" [Drone Rec. 2003]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
From gOLDem flesh to silverb ONE |
CD |
"After a long period of unavailability we are proud to release the third official release of I.corax ‘from gOLDem flesh to silverb ONE' through our Stellar Mansion series. The album was originally released by Blue Sector in 2003 and presents material created exclusively for a live performance, taking place at KMY's 5th year anniversary on 27th of September in Turku, Finland.
The album was recorded live in studio while rehearsing for the performance, and presents a natural combination of surreal synthetic noises and drones, analogue synthesizers, hypnotically looping samples and heavily manipulated field recordings spiced up with various horns made of animal bones, bowed instruments and occasional human whispers and words. This is a monolithic, hypnotic and all-encompassing work in a field of abstract and experimental Finnish dark ambience; transformative aural alchemy that will spiral deep within.
The album is enclosed inside a newly designed and silk-screen printed cardboard covers including three offset printed insert cards and a four panel booklet. Limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
"Der neue Geheimtip für Freunde ausserweltlich dunkler Musik: Dies ist extrem visionärer und tranciger dark ambient Industrial aus Finnland, vielerlei Schichten repetitiver Muster und Flächen werden aufgetürmt und zu einem umschlingenden Waberkorpus geformt... okkult und unheimlich...schon der dritte release auf BLUE SECTOR." [Drone Rec. 2004]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| I:WOUND |
Punish the Guilty |
do-CDR |
"outside is india's inside is india's outside is india's inside is india's outside is india's inside". Pure field recordings from India mixed with some harmonic dark drones underneath & other additional micro-sounds. You listen to lots of people talking, singing, chanting, radio-jingles, bells & tablas playing, daily environmental noises & a live brass band. A work that needs some time to sink on you, but can then have an amazing effect.
" 'The Other Within' uses soundscapes of Indian field recordings 01/02 based on the writings of Ashis Nandy. 'Fire - A Meditation On Impermanence' is one long drone using recordings from the burning ghats in Varanasi and the brass band of the security police of greater Mumbai. Release comes as a double CD (non-silver) limited to 200 hand numbered copies." [label info]
www.thelocusof.blogspot.com |
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
| IA (ALEX COPELAND) |
Peak of Anchorite |
mCDR |
"IA is the project of us artist alex copeland who sent us a while back a handful of beautiful tracks, and also a great collaborative track (with julien demoulin) titled "the bay" alas 40min long. "the bay" was happily since co-released by ronda and our dear collegue from basses frequences (check this great disc here if you haven't yet!). luckily the solo tracks were of equal beauty and we were immediately hooked by some of them... "peak of anchorite" is a perfect example of IA's music: a kind of ancient, lo-fi drone that could remind the good old days of rapoon. a great newcomer to discover!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI |
Music for Tinguely |
CD |
"Ichiyanagi is the best known composer for domestic and foreign avant-garde music fans. Especially in his brilliant 60's, he made many great tape music. But most of them has not published on discs or issued for very small edition. This CD consists of his obscure three tape works. 'Music for Tinguely' was made from junk objects of kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely. 'Appearance' is live electronic music. It's not only premiere performance but also John Cage and David Tudor participated in performance. Very noisy and hard core!! 'Music for Living Space' was composed for inner space of 'Sun Tower' of World Expo in Osaka. Computer generated voice reads architect Kisyo Kurokawa's manifest. Strange!!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€21.50 |
|
| IDEA FIRE COMPANY |
Days |
7inch |
"The companion release to the excellent recent LP by Idea Fire Company 'Music From The Impossible Salon' with two pieces of piano, synth, voice and tapes. As delicate as the LP. 100 copies to be distributed by Plinkity Plonk, 100 copies to be distributed by Swill Radio." [label info]
"Karla Borecky and Scott Foust are members of Idea Fire Company from the U.S.A. The First Days on side A is played by the Borecky on piano and Foust on synthesizer. The repetitive melody on piano is as pure and simple as it can be. The repetition is luckily not straight and the listener can hear the nuances in the touch of the piano key. The synthesizer supports the piano melody in a subtile way. The piece of music has an intimate character which is calming me down. The other composition on side B called The Last Days has been played on Borecky on piano, Foust on tapes and voice, Graham Lambkin on tapes and voice and Matt Krefting on tapes. The composition has again the intimate character because of the piano playing, but it has more layers. Noise sound layers and fire-cracking come and go. It is like New Years Eve sitting in a dark room, everyone is hanging around and the party is somewhere else and they are waiting for nothing. Just touching the piano and play around. Great 7" and it is a pity that it is so short." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
Rags to Riches |
LP |
"An edited and remastered issue of a tape by the IFCO quartet - Scott Foust, Karla Borecky, Jessi Swenson, & Meara O'Reilly. Rags To Riches is a live record documenting pieces from 2003 through 2005. Showcasing some top-shelf unreleased works; "The Whole World," "Metropolis," & "The Bitter End." Older material is also included, a fierce version of "Artificial" from 2005's Stranded, as well as the notorious "Cycle-19." Additionally, there is a beautiful voice-based rendition of "Some Of Us" by IFCO comrades' The Shadow Ring. All these pieces exhibit a contemplative and well-informed use of electronics, radio, and voice. Interlaced with spoken title announcements in French, punching typewriter passages, and bookended perfectly with audience dialogue and Roxy Music. Their mechanical and uncompromising aesthetic is pronounced, as Rags To Riches reminds us all why Idea Fire Company are such an important contemporary outfit.
Edition of 285 copies, with color insert & essay by Scott Foust." [label info]
www.recitalprogram.com |
2013 |
€16.50 |
|
| IELASI, GIUSEPPE & HOWARD STELZER |
Night Life |
CD |
Sehr fruchtbare Zusammenarbeit in der Brombron-Serie: GIUSEPPE IELASI, Impro-Gitarrist aus Italien der auch das FRINGES Label betreibt, und der US-Amerikaner HOWARD STELZER, bekannt für seine "schwierigen" Tapemanipulationen und field recordings und ebenfalls Labelbetreiber (INTRANSITIVE RECORDS), kamen für einige Tage in Nijmegen im Extrapool-Studio zusammen.... so entstand "Night Life, wo low-fi noises der seltsamsten Art mit ruhigen Gitarren-pickings kontrastieren, oft bewegt sich die Musik im pulsierend-atmosphärischen Bereich aber mit stetiger Veränderung, cut-ups & nicht-alltägliche Konkret-sounds tauchen auf, sowie immer wieder Giuseppes ungewöhnliche Gitarrenarbeit, die sich kaum beschreiben lässt.....
"I am not sure wether the title of this disc refers to the time of recording, but if so the last track's title says it all: Losing our taste for the night life. I know for a fact that a Brombron project can mess up your daily rhythm pretty bad and that ending it feels almost as good as starting it. This disc by Ielasi and Stelzer has obviously had exactly the right amount of night time anyway. I have known and admired Howard Stelzer's work as tape jockey for quite some time now (aside of his activity as boss of the wonderful Intransitive Recordings), but Giuseppe Ielasi was a new name for me. He is a contemporary guitarist, using this instrument in all possible ways, but with a strong bias towards electronic manipulations. The result of this collaboration is absolutely fascinating: on one hand there are the harsh and explosive eruptions of Stelzer's tapes and on the other hand there are the more gentle and melodic guitar manipulations of Ielasi. This combination is truly excellent and invigorating. It has certainly been a while since I heard something this refreshing and exciting. I am not sure why this is; the use of sounds, the compositions, the tension, somehow everything just fits together so well that I am lost for words really. Simply beautiful and an absolute must!!!" [MR / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| IEVA |
La cascade de la montagne de l'aube |
mCDR |
"IEVA is the french musician samuel andré, at that time based in kyoto too. "la cascade de la montagne de l'aube [ 日ノ岡 の滝]" is a wonderful track made from drones and recordings done in japan (field recordings, a matsuri and old women singing traditional songs). wonderful!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| IF THOUSANDS |
Lullaby |
CD |
Stehende Klangwellen, Poesie, impressionistische & leicht fuzzige Gitarrendrones, ominöse Effekte und Geräusche.. best guitar-drones on SILBER von diesem US-Duo...
“If Thousands present a beautiful blanket of sound recorded as a soundtrack for falling asleep. Quite beautiful & soothing. Fans of Godspeed You Black Emperor & Stars of the Lid should like this one. File under: Experimental, drone, post-rock, sleep aids” [label info]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA |
Breathing |
CD |
IF BWANA ist das seit Urzeiten bestehende Projekt von AL MARGOLIS, der früher das SOUND OF PIG-Tapelabel und inzwischen POGUS Productions betreibt. Auf BREATING befinden sich drei lange Stücke mit komplexen nicht-elektronischen drone-soundscapes kreiert mit Cello, Didgeridoo, Tapes, Effects, Piano, Flöte, etc... 3 pieces of non-electronic drone-soundscapes based on „real“ instruments..
very much worth to invest one or two ears here..
“ Breathing is for 2 didjeridus, cello, oboe, and tapes. R.Ism V.2PF is for tape, 2 pianos, sampled flute, and electronics. Barump Poc is for winds, organ, chorus, tapes, etc., etc., etc. The "orchestral" piece. Assisting Bwanettes on this disc are Jane Scarpantoni, Dave Prescott, Brian Charles, Dan and Detta Andreana, Danielle Reddick, Paul Richards, and Debbie Goldberg.” [label catalogue]
label: www.pogus.com |
1996 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Gruntle |
CD |
Vier neue Stücke mit weiteren köstlichen Seltsamkeiten aus der IF BWANA-Welt, basierend auf Synths & normalen Instrumenten (violine, bass), Feedbacks und Sinustonwellen, zu hören gibt es konkretes & elektronisches Gegurgel & Gemurmele & insektoides Gewisper, insgesamt sehr geräuschhaft & speziell, Anklänge an SMALL CRUEL PARTY, JOHN HUDAK, etc.. kommt wieder im speziellen 3-teiligen & klappbaren ABSURD-Kreis-Cover !
"guess that most of you are used to al margolis's (aka 'if,bwana) more 'serious' electroacoustic soundscapes and expect 'gruntle' to be another fine addition to this style.. in a sense it is... a unique if, bwana
recording, collecting 4 tunes recorded between 95 - 02 which however refer more to the legendary if,bwana tapes sound (if there weren't a kinda remaster to the original tapes, would have been even more lo-fi hissing electroacoustics) where al's creative play w/ loops & enigmatic sounds together w/ the childlike artwork of nixilx.nijilx make it a wonderful trip in a bizarro world..." [label info]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
I, Angelica |
do-CD |
“Into the rackets are ya, punk?" "Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it." "Get outta here, ya punk." I headed down the steps and out the front door. "!@#$%^&* nogood goddamn !@#$%^&* noisemaker," I heard them mutter behind my back. (wow - I always wanted to write one of these). Yeah, I'm one of them.
So there you have it. I, Angelica, the noisy loud new double If, Bwana cd - trying to clear a backlog of recordings out - at a not double cd price. I, Angelica should be played loud. Real loud. Works for computer, electronics, voice (?), guitars, synthesizers.
Oh. So what else is there to say when a new If, Bwana cd comes out other than: "AAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." [label info]
www.pogus.com |
2001 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Tripping India |
CD |
IF, BWANA ist seit langer Zeit das musikalische Betätigungsfeld von Al Margolis, der in den 80er das SOUND OF PIG – Label betrieb (eines der größten Cassettenlabel für experimentelle Sounds ever!), und jetzt hinter POGUS PROD. steckt. "Tripping India" enthält drei konzeptuell & elektro-akustisch geprägte Stücke, in welchen mit Piano-Sounds, grummelnden Geräuschen, effektierter Percussion und field recordings hantiert.
www.pogus.com
"Consisting of 3 compositions, TRIPPING INDIA is the 3rd IF, BWANA release on Pogus. On this recording If, Bwana is joined by, among others, Paul Marotta (Styrenes/Electric Eels/Mirrors) on 3 Out of 4 Ain't Bad, a conceptual work for 3 different pianists, playing 3 different pianos at 3 different times to the same tape. The final version is for 3 pianists, no tape. PR-DR is an electroacoustic work for processed/manipulated percussion. The title piece combines audio "snapshots" of a wandering through India with multiple tracks of manipulated and processed drums and percussion. The end result is an "audio travelogue for 2 (highly) manipulated percussionists." [label info]
|
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Radio Slaves |
CD |
Bizarre, samplig-repetitive Soundwelten entwirft IF,BWANA auf "Radio Slaves", am ehesten vielleicht noch mit BIG CITY ORCHESTRA zu vergleichen, Typische Cassetten-Szenen Musik der 80er in Reinform, Re-issue eines Tapes von 1986.
"Originally issued as a limited edition cassette "Radio Slaves" on the Medicinal Tapes (France) in 1986, then re-issued on CDr by the Generator Sound Art (USA) in 2003, this album finally released on CD with some bonus tracks. Loopy and sampledelic, it will return the spirit of 80s into your ears. Great collage music from the pioneering american experimental sound project. Release date is 1st June 2007. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Assemble.Age! |
CD |
"Modern classical music meets industrial meets musique concrete.
The music of If, Bwana (Al Margolis) represents a vigorous, original and informed continuation of the experimental traditions of American music, responding as it does to the sounds and materials of late 20th and early 21st century American life with a keenly sensitive ear and a marvelous feeling for form, balance, and texture in music.
The five works on this recording all utilize and reprocess the performances (both studio and live) of the musicians and vocalists. Their work has been processed, edited, selected and assembled into strange and mutated pieces which in many cases are quite some way removed from the realms of the familiar.
Active since 1984 under the If, Bwana name, Al Margolis has been making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented compositions. He ran the cassette label Sound of Pig Music in the 1980s and co-founded and continues to run the experimental music label Pogus. Margolis plays bass guitar in the long-lasting, legendary punk/post-punk band The Styrenes. Recordings of his work have been released on the Tellus, Anckarstrom, Ants, Absurd, GD Stereo, Odradek, Monochrome Vision, and Pogus labels. Recent projects have included a sound art commission by WDR Koln, collaborations with video artist Katherine Liberovskaya on "Take-off", "Rant Dance". and "Frogfield", all of which have been shown internationally, and the premiere of "Three Songs in Search of a Voice", a "nohtopera" with MutaMYTHeatre - music by Margolis and text and voice, Lisa Barnard Kelley." [label info]
www.mutablemusic.com
"Al Margolis career as If, Bwana has been going strong for more than twenty-five years now and it has making strange turns. Originally, to put it crudely, If, Bwana was an industrial group, using raw sound collage/montage techniques, but it has grown over the years in a way that not many others do. While many of his peers took the route to more musique concrete, Margolis went into the serious avant-garde direction. Working with small ensembles and soloists with various instruments, he now composes that are seriously modern and, at other times, sounding improvised. The role of Margolis is that of the conductor. Not in the traditional sense, raising a baton, but the organizer. He tapes the music and then fiddles it about using the computer. Maybe the 'organizer' is a better word, or 'assembler', to stay in tune with the title of the CD. Sometimes he receives sound material, such as by Trio Scordatura, which he then organizes into a piece of music, such as the nicely woven drone like sounds of 'Ringing The Bell', and sometimes they all team up to play live, as in 'Cicada #1: EHG Version'. Its here that the music sounds more improvised, an 'real' instruments (voice, trombone, flute) collide with a nord modular and computer. In 'Six Minus 6' and 'DTTO' it seems we are dealing with a composed piece of music and its hard to say what the role of Margolis is. His working method seems to differ within each piece he does and that's something that is surely great as it makes a very release. Different approaches to a similar working ground. A fine work, yet again, of various interests (composed music, improvisation, musique concrete techniques) merging together. Quite a unique voice in this music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Red One |
CD |
"Please note: This release is packaged in hand stenciled 11” x 17” card type stock paper, folded, inserted into re-sealable plastic sleeves. There is no jewel case, tray card etc. There is a bar code.
After the last If, Bwana (Al Margolis) release on Pogus – the large-scale double cd E (and Sometimes Why), this brand new If, Bwana recording is a little more intimate. This release consists of six smaller works for one or at most two instruments – with the instruments all being multi-tracked for a denser, deeper sound.
Red One features performances by stalwart experimental/avant musician/composers such as Nate Wooley, trumpet, on Toys for Al (with Al Margolis on toy trumpet); Ellen Band’s vocals on Ellen, Banned; trombonist Monique Buzzarté on Xylo 2; bassoonist Leslie Ross on It is Bassoon; Lisa B Kelley, voice and Veronika Vitazkova, flute on Lisa Verabbit; and Al Margolis, toy trumpet on Toys for Nate.
To quote from Massimo Ricci’s Touching Extreme review of E (and Sometimes Why) - and an equally apt description here: “…enriching with a distinct human component – Al Margolis’ “academically improper” compositional conceptions. The ensuing music is intelligently awkward and typically difficult to categorize, barring the creation of a “Bwana” label: rich in disruptions yet engrossingly (and economically) minimalist at times, comprising twisted details that, in a general context of rationalism, increase the amount of question marks each and every time the discs are spun.”
This disc adds another chapter to the thirty-year journey of If, Bwana.
If, Bwana was born on New Year's Eve 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. A recent review of Margolis's work says: "Let it be declared that Al Margolis/If, Bwana is some sort of evil genius working with raw materials which are never adapted to a genre or a context, because they create one in that very moment. Those sources are radically altered up to an utterly unrecognizable state, anarchic manifestations moving in compact determination." (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes).
Al Margolis has been an activist in the 1980s American cassette underground through his cassette label Sound of Pig Music; was
co-founder of experimental music label Pogus Productions, which he continues to run. Active under the name If, Bwana since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition."
https://www.pogus.com/21068.html
"And finally there is label boss Al Margolis with a new release as If, Bwana, his moniker since the mid 80s. His 'Red One' looks very much like some tape release he could have done in the 80s, with paint images sprayed on paper and a rather 80s design, but the music is all new. In each of the six pieces he works with sound material which he received from others, and all that has to do with 'air'. Nate Wooley plays trumpet, Margolis himself toy-trumpet (both in the first piece), Ellan Band uses her voice (second), Monique Buzzarte trombone (third), Leslie Ross (bassoon), Lisa B Kelley (voice) and Veronika Vitazkova on flute (fifth) and Margolis again on toy trumpet in the sixth piece. Margolis keeps his If, Bwana name for when it comes to using recordings for acoustic instruments and reworking them into lengthy pieces of drone like sound scapes. Taking the working method from Phill Niblock he cuts the sounds right before they start and right after they end, and then starts to layer them on the computer. He pitches some up, some down, and in some tracks in the musical program he cuts out parts, so have a start/stop feel, like some instruments only play part of the time, and others are in a more continuous mode. Thus clever modern classical music is made of a highly atmospheric chain. It's a technique If, Bwana has been using for years now, and he mastered it quite well. Not as controlled as Niblock himself does this, but the music is more playful - for instance in the two pieces that use voice, especially 'Lisa Verabbit' connects to the world of improvisation/free forms of classical music. It's different, playful, but perhaps not my most favorite of this disc. I'd rather settle 'Toys For Al' or 'It Is Bassoon', which it's controlled sustaining sounds and sounds dropping in and out in very gentle way. Another fine release with a nice, strange visual esthetic. Not the next new move, but a further investigation into what we already know." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA / DAN WARBURTON |
I am sitting in Phil Niblock's Kitchen |
CD |
"Dan Warburton: subbass piano, Bwana remix & post-production. Al Margolis: post-post-production, passing traffic, kitchen noises. Mastered by Tom Hamilton. About the CD : 'To prepare for our concert at De Witte Zaal in Ghent, Belgium, on April 4th 2008 - a triple bill with Mecha Orga and Illusion of Safety organised by Esther Venrooy and Han van den Hoof - I took all the Al Margolis / If, Bwana CDs in my record collection, loaded them into the computer and timestretched each piece to last precisely 45 minutes that being the projected duration of our set), ending up with about 100 tracks of dense sludge which I systematically decanted and edited into a single span of music. Al Margolis then made the final mix the day before the gig by playing it back in the kitchen at Phill Niblock's apartment in Ghent - hence the title of the work, which refers not only to Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting In A Room, of course, but also to my own remix collaboration with Alan Courtis and Roberto Conlazo, I am not sitting in a room with Reynols (Absurd 43, 2004) - recording the ambient sounds of the space and passing traffic along with it. In concert he added live electronics and clarinet while I played violin. For this version, he repaid the compliment by adding a timestretched and pitchshifted piano piece of mine, Speed Study I (from Guy Livingston's Don't Panic: 60 Seconds for Piano, Wergo WER 6649-2, 2001). Anyone familiar with that work is highly unlikely to recognise it played 45 times slower, but you certainly feel it at times.' Dan Warburton" [label info]
www.monotyperecords.com
"A curious mixture between a taped composition and improvisation. The taped composition is a piece of music that Dan Warburton created using all the CDs he had from Al Margolis, stretching everything out to last 45 minutes - the duration of the concert. This lead to about 100 tracks, which played together, made a 'sludge' (Warburton's words, not mine), which Al Margolis then mixed, while sitting in the Kitchen of Phill Niblock (hence the title, also a nod to Alvin Lucier's piece, but that otherwise has nothing to do with this). Margolis also slowed down a minute piano piece by Warburton. That's the basis of this recording and if the 'sludge' is not enough, during the concert, Margolis played clarinet and live electronics, while Warburton played violin. So you see, like Zabelka, a cross-over between improvisation, composed music and electronics. But I must admit I liked this one more than the Zabelka disc. The sheer, closed
density of the recordings, in which he hear lots of sound action, blurry and sound debris like, along with the scraping of violin and occasional clarinet sounds make up a surprising fine disc. A rarity in the world of improvised music to have something that has a similar density. Excellent stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| IF, BWANA / GERALD FIEBIG |
split |
LP |
"ACV 1002: Marbled white vinyl 12” LP in unique hand-painted sleeve, limited edition of 100
File under: Drone, Ambient, Experimental
The second release in attenuation circuit’s Vinyl Series of split LPs in unique hand-painted covers brings together US experimental music icon and long-term label activist Al Margolis aka If, Bwana and German audio artist Gerald Fiebig. Their shared method of arranging recorded acoustic sounds into digital compositions led them to also share some of the sound material used on the respective sides of this album, which offers a richness of textures from quirky improv-style passages to calm drones and processed field recordings.
If, Bwana interweaves two tracks based on the sounds of very different wind instruments: Recorders, played by himself, and sounds of a church organ played by Fiebig at Mecklenburgisches Orgelmuseum, a former church turned organ museum in the North German town of Malchow. “Recorders in Augsburg” is a complex layering of several short melodic phrases played on the recorders, exploiting their higher registers in a way that makes them sound almost like lo-fi electronics although the sounds are not heavily processed. A very rhythmic, mercurial piece which eludes any attempt on the listener’s part to settle onto one continuous ‘beat,’ “Recorders” fades into “Fie’s Big Organ.” This piece layers pitch-shifted excerpts from the original organ session to create a rather tranquil, drone-ambient feel in the spirit of If, Bwana’s recent releases on his own Pogus label as well as Mutable Music and the live album “crossgrained” on attenuation circuit.
http://attenuationcircuit.wix.com/attenuation-circuit#!__crossgrained
Gerald Fiebig’s piece “Sustained Development” combines other excerpts from the acoustic organ and recorder material and combines it with both acoustic and electric guitar samples, provided by Mathias Huber and Jesus Jackson, Fiebig’s colleagues from his pop trio Jesus Jackson und die grenzlandreiter and processed by labelmate EMERGE. Other ingredients are electric organ sounds and field recordings made with an “electric recorder.” Fiebig’s subtle, quiet drone/ambient piece is mainly based on slow loops fading in and out, like breath or groundswell. Even more than the If, Bwana tracks, the sound processing on this side of the LP constantly plays tricks on the listener who wants to pinpoint whether any particular sound is ‘acoustic’ or ‘electric’ in origin." [label info]
"Although best known for their CDR and online releases, Attenuation started to release vinyl too, and this is their second release. Like the previous release this is split release, here with If, Bwana and Gerald Fiebig. Both of them have had a number of releases on this label. They use each other sound sources, but which leads to different results. On the If, Bwana side we find the sound of recorders as taped by Al Margolis, mister Bwana himself, and organ recordings by Fiebig. Apparently, according to the info, we have two pieces here, one of each instrument. In the 'usual' methods applied by If, Bwana all of these sounds are layered together, not unlike Phill Niblock would (with whom If, Bwana tours every now and then). Chopped into small loops, on a constant repeat mission, but never starting at the same time, forms a rather dense mass of sound. Many layers should be understand many, maybe even 1,000 or so. The recorder piece is slightly dissonant it seems and has an edginess which I don't think I heard before in If, Bwana's music. It just as easily moves over into the organ piece, which applies a similar technique, but which is slightly more 'melodic' and less dissonant and maybe more what you would expect of such drone like sounds. It's something I rather enjoy, very much. This is maybe the lo-fi version of Niblock, but it's one that works quite well.
Now Fiebig, on the other side, may use the same recorder and organ sounds, he also adds the acoustic guitar of Jesus Jackson (processed by Emerge), the electric guitar of Mathias Huber and an electric recorder which he played himself. Here more is indeed less. You could expect a lot more sounds, and even more density than If, Bwana does, but it's not something like that at all. Fiebig distributes the sounds quite sparsely over the course of his side. It moves very slowly, back and forth between the different sources and just sometimes you recognize the acoustic guitar, or the recorder. Sometimes playing together, but it seems that a lot of the times they are on their own, like stars at night - moving solely in the firmament. That seems to be the case here, with very occasional interaction. If that happens, in what seems to be the middle of the record, small melodies are formed around carefully placed crackles, slowly moving a gentle drone in to fade out in the end. Nice, gentle music
. Perhaps the most gentle music I encountered on this label. Pressed on white vinyl, which is perhaps not the most optimum for this delicate music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA / ROEL MEELKOP / THE NEW BLOCKADERS / KOMMISSAR HJULER UND FRAU |
Die Stille nach dem Schuss |
LP |
Tracklist
Hide Credits
A1 –If, Bwana Oct 1 Tenors
A2 –Roel Meelkop Windwerk
A3 –The New Blockaders Epater Simphonie (Excerpt)
A4 –Roel Meelkop Holzwerk
B1 –Kommissar Hjuler Und Frau Ich Bin Dein Neukopf !
B2 –The New Blockaders Variations Pour Une Porte Et Une Brouette
Performer – Gillham*, Rupenus*
Notes
LP in series FLUXUS +/-, limited to 79 copies, black vinyl and black labels.
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA / SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT / ELEKTROJUDAS / EMERGE |
Crossgrained |
do-CDR |
"ACC 1009: 2 x CD-R in DVD-case
The three solo tracks performed by If, Bwana on this live recording are based on sounds played on the bassoon, flute, and guitar and make a wonderful introduction to his work with layered, pitch-shifted acoustic instruments. This stuff is among the best you can get in contemporary drone music – rich in texture, sensuous, emotional, and still abstract enough to “clear the mind.” On another two tracks, If, Bwana is joined by his local support group at this July 2012 gig in Germany for an unlikely but happy marriage of his layered sound textures, 50 Hz hum, and lots of electroacoustic sound gadgetry.
Supporting If, Bwana at his concert in Augsburg, Germany on 4 July 2012, local artists Sustained Development, elektrojudas, and EMERGE teamed up for a free improvised set using sampled bass guitars, miked-up wave drums and induction coils, monotrons, and smartphone apps, also documented on this 2 CD set. Another two tracks resulted from the trio joining If, Bwana for a demonstration of the possibilities of experimental music, which are endless provided they are approached in an open-minded way. In this case, two very distinct idioms – calm, contemplative drones and fidgety, highly interactive glitch/noise improvisation – fuse perfectly thanks to the alertness of the players." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA WITH/AND/BY TRIO SCORDATURA |
E (and sometimes why) |
do-CD |
"If, Bwana is always Al Margolis. Trio Scordatura is Elisabeth Smalt, viola d'amore; Alfrun Schmid, voice; Bob Gilmore, keyboard/laptop. The new 2 cd magnum opus by If, Bwana (Al Margolis) has been almost 3 years in the making. It is the first time he has composed works (usually with prerecorded sounds) specifically for another ensemble. Gilmore's Girls, Ringing (Ano)the(r) Bell, and Diapason, maybe were specifically written for Trio Scordatura. Cicada 4AA was the first piece of If, Bwana's they played (though not written for them in particular). E (and sometimes why) and All for Alf(run) were both composed after the initial recordings and used materials from those sessions. The Tempest, Fuggit, used some of Trio Scordatura's sounds and combined them with an absolutely awesome, over-the-top performance/reading of a section of Shakespeare's The Tempest by Michael Peters (of Poemrocket). We hope that answers the burning question 'Why If, Bwana with/and/by Trio Scordatura' ? There may not be a better way to describe their involvement with this recording ? they played with If, Bwana and they played If, Bwana and they were played with and by If, Bwana. Trio Scordatura is an Amsterdam-based ensemble that specializes in vocal and instrumental music involving microtonal tunings and spanning a broad range of musical styles. The basic sound-world of female voice, viola and keyboard is expanded by other sonorities depending on musical context. Their concerts feature classics from the worlds of microtonal and spectral music, together with new commissions from a wide range of contemporary composers and sound artists. trio scordatura grew initially from a project to perform the works for intoning voice, Adapted Viola and Chromelodeon by the American composer Harry Partch. This music, composed in the early 1930s, involves voice and two instruments - a viola and a harmonium - that were adapted by Partch in order to play music in his elaborate microtonal scale with more than forty unequal divisions of the octave. Besides performing the early works of Partch, trio scordatura has formed close working relationships with a number of leading contemporary composers, among them Phill Niblock, the late Horatiu Radulescu, Alvin Lucier, François-Bernard Mâche and Lasse Thoresen. The trio has performed at the Sonorities Festival, Belfast, UK Microfest 2 in Surrey, the KlankKleur Festival in Amsterdam, Musica Sacra Maastricht, Roulette in New York, the Logos Foundation in Ghent, the Transit Festival in Leuven, and gives regular performances at the Karnatic Lab series in Amsterdam." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| IGOR BARDO |
My Sweet Nightmare |
CD |
"Igor Bardo is a Russian musician and sound artist, best known from Bardoseneticcube, one of the leading experimental/post-industrial groups from Russia.
My Sweet Nightmare is Igor Bardo’s debut solo album, containing about one hour of first class psychedelic electronic listening music. The surrealist soundscapes will be instantly embraced by fans of Bardoseneticcube, yet the artist manages to conquer heaps of new ground at the same time, and takes us on an adventurous journey deep down into the rabbit hole. Themes such as religion, psychedelia, sleep paralysis etc. are explored with eerie atmospheres, bliss-inducing frequencies and cutting edge studio experiments." [label info]
www.someplaceelse.net
"Some Place Else is a label based in Finland. My Sweet Nightmare is the debutalbum of the Russian soundartist and musician Igor Bardo. He is member of Bardoseneticube, an experimental/post-industrial group from Russia and is formed in 1998. This band released a lot of albums all over the world and they are wellknown as a powerful audiovisual live-performance act. The band ended in 2010. Bardo describes his album "My Sweet Nightmare" as a surrealistic album. The album is well composed and most compositions have a mix of recognizable sounds of musical structures like jazzy drums, religions chants or militaristic marches. He combines lots of different elements of music and sounds. Some tracks have an ambient noise style. The mixing between highly electronic sounds and fresh field-recordings and natural sound is well chosen. Old recordings of folk songs are mixed with ongoing electronic soundwaves and he creates a new old world. ?The end of the end? is a track with the shouting voice of Adolf Hitler. He samples his terrifying voice who evokes to destroy all Jews in the great German Reich with bombastic beats and chords. The song becomes more and more abstract and personal. But for me this song has nothing to do with a sweet nightmare. The track grabs my by the throat and my stomach starts turning. Real physical music, no more, no less. Highly recommended and real surprise for experimental ears and people with a strong stomach." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| IIBIIS ROOGE |
same |
LP |
Iibiis Rooge is the new superastral duo team bringing together the mysterious High Wolf (Not Not Fun Records, Winged Sun) with the seminal talents of Mr. Neil Campbell, better known these days as Astral Social Club (Fat Cat, VHF, Qbico, Important, Textile, Bottrop-Boy and countless other labels around the globe) and (ex-) member of Vibracathedral Orchestra, A-Band, and other obscure/legendary outfits.
The new self-titled LP is the debut album of the band (don’t call it "project") combining modern psychedelic High Wolf jams with the fucked up yet refined electronics and techno-infused beat choppery of the Astral Social Club – the result being a lot more then you might have expected from the two, transcending their combined talents into a multicoloured supernova. The strength of the album is an unexpected pop sensibility and airiness, while still being tighter and more consolidated than their regular solo outfits. Even the noisier elements are embedded in loose song structures with a carnivalesque air dominating the whole atmosphere.
While the duo’s solo outings are often camouflaging any melodies in oodles of electronic noises or lo-fi psych jams and hiss this is a fairly different affair with simple melodic textures always dominating the four tracks. The defibration of structures is still apparent but the music is constantly pulling itself together again. Where the Astral Social Club is sometimes willingly losing himself in electronic soundscapes and the High Wolf’s short & sketchy songs are rarely fully formulated by nature, all the positive aspects of their respective works are combined and complemented in Iibiis Rooge.
These gentlemen are the perfect match. A visible proof that (musical) online dating can be a highly prosperous activity
https://dekorder.bandcamp.com/album/iibiis-rooge
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ILLUSION OF SAFETY |
In Opposition to our Acceleration |
CD |
"Neue CD des Projektes von & um Dan Burke aus Chicago, eines der definitiv besten und interessanten Experimental / Post-Industrial-Projekte unserer Zeit.. Hier eher ruhig & ambient ausgerichtet, aber stets von brodelnder & spannender Atmosphäre geprägt..." [Drone Rec. info 2001]
“Illusion of Safety intrepidly charts the terra incognita where sound, silence, noise and music intersect. Using conventional instruments, sound generating devices and random objects, IOS hews sound sculptures that deliberately provoke, mesmerize and even affront listeners. 'In Opposition to our Acceleration' the latest offering from this project is a provocative 74 minute blend of ambient & improv. Using electronic synthesis, computer manipulation, musical references, manipulated instruments, amplified objects and subtle use of location recordings these primarily live pieces provide ambience as the term is truly defined - 'the distinctive atmosphere surrounding or suffusing person, place or thing'. This is the 14th full length IOS CD release beginning with 'Historical' (Staalplaat, 1991). Their work is hard to classify, often being called schizophrenic, due to the shifting nature of each composition, release & performance. This CD however contains no unwelcome surprise attacks, no abrupt shifts in character, and no abrasive passages. Gentle textures, subtle ambience & found sounds that may be described as uneasy beauty permeate these 8 unreleased live tracks (from 1996, 1997, 2001), and single studio composition 'Stillpoint' (2001), as featured on the Wiretapper 7 CD....Released in an oversize folio including 6 double sided postcards featuring the abstract, unmanipulated photography of IOS founding member Dan Burke.” [press release]
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de |
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
More Violence and Geography |
CD |
Re-release dieses Klassikers in Sachen amerikanischen Industrials, die erste LP von IOS von 1988 ! Mit Bonustrack!
“Rerelease of their very first self released vinyl only album from 1988. The 11 tracks display a much rawer and more 'industrial' feel with the use of harsh found sounds and voices, compared to recent works. Featuring new artwork by Dan Burke perfectly matching the albums title the CD also includes an unreleased live track (approx. 11 min. long) from the early 90's that didn't appear on the original album. Edition of 700 copies in folder cover and plastic sleeves.” [label press release]
www.diestadtmusik.de
https://illusionofsafety.bandcamp.com/album/more-violence-and-geography :
More Violence and Geography LP
This is the vinyl debut of a long-time cassette-making outfit that specialize in dense, throbbing electronic ooze littered with found voices, tape and record manipulation, loops, samples and all the usual audio debris you would expect. In other words, it's not exactly a new idea but if you tend to go for this sort of thing (as I do) when it's done well, then you ought to give this disc a try. Part of the album's strength is due to the relatively short length of the tracks, which tend to run no longer than the average pop tune. I also enjoyed the way IOS temper the rather morbid subject matter with a bit of humor. (Complacency Productions,-John Booth
Original release on Complacency 1988. Re-released on DIe Stadt DS52 in 2002. (reissue sports new cover artwork and adds "Unknown Quantity," an 11-minute live bonus track by Dan Burke from 1991) *All music composed and performed by IOS Main Core: Dan Burke, Mitch Enderle, Mark Klein, Mark Sorensen. With Alleyn Hoyt providing violin on Hayden. L'akstrumuncio providing backing tape for Techmort. Jef Bek on we can now tell you 2 things. Eliam was composed and performed entirely by Chris Block.
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Probe |
CD |
"This is the first re-issue OF ILLUSION OF SAFETY's PROBE since its only appearance in 1992. In a limited edition of 500 copies, Perdition Plastics is proud to reintroduce this notable work of contemporary composition. Veteran provocateurs, ILLUSION OF SAFETY, examine an audio landscape found between youth and innocence, manufactured entertainment, and suburban complacency. Using a pastiche of field recordings and suggestively composed elements, Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke strikingly capture ambivalence and their own personal interactions within this environment. PROBE was one of several early, pinnacle works to foreshadow the unique and prolific audio fingerprint of renowned producer/player, Jim O'Rourke, when still a compositional student in Chicago. This release fits neatly into O'Rourke's recent issuing OF forgotten and initial recordings. As the constant center OF ILLUSION OF SAFETY since 1983, Dan Burke has consistently edited and evolved more than 20 CDs from ambience to electronica, from sound collage to post-industrial noise. The complexity and restraint found within PROBE marked a compelling new direction for Burke and a great many others influenced by his music. ILLUSION OF SAFETY has been released by such labels as Die Stadt, Experimedia, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, and Waystyx among others. Collaborations include Cheer-Accident, Thomas Demuzio, Kevin Drumm, Ben Vida, and others. PROBE will be of interest to those who enjoy Hafler Trio, Throbbing Gristle, Luc Ferrari, etc." [label info]
www.perditionplastics.com
"This is not a review but merely a historical, personal ramble. In 1992 I started working for Staalplaat, buying and selling stuff, and helping out getting those strange packages done. One of the bands that already had a great package, before my time, was Illusion Of Safety, whose 'Historical' was packed in a leather pouch with a real bullet. Both Staalplaat and Korm Plastics, my own small venture, were in contact with Illusion Of Safety's main man Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke, who was then a main collaborator with Burke. This resulted in 'Disengage', still one of the top 10 releases by Staalplaat, along with 'Probe' by Illusion Of Safety. The first 500 were packed in a wooden box with a real Italian coin and toy money from former Eastern Germany (an additional 500 were sold in the same wooden box, but without the monies). Illusion Of Safety were on a peak with that CD, or perhaps a watershed mark (otherwise you may think they never reached another peak again) is a better word. Before that Illusion Of Safety was, perhaps, 'another' fine band of harsh and less harsh industrial music as a bigger outfit with a varying line up. Towards the end of the era of releasing cassettes, which culminated in the fine but highly obscure 'RVE' tape, Jim O'Rourke became a member, bringing a love of composed music to the table, not just musique concrete but also the like of Scelsi. The music of Illusion Of Safety changed and on 'Probe', as said being here just Dan Burke & Jim O'Rourke, this culminated in that first highlight. All of the influences from before and new ones, melted together in this great disc of musique concrete. Many field recordings are used, along with piercing electronics at times, bowed guitars at others. Sometimes stretching out seemingly ad infinitum, but then sometimes abruptly changing color, speed, intensity, mood, texture and/or atmospherics. An absolute great work of sound collage, bridging musique concrete, electro-acoustics, improvisation, industrial music and ambient. Still a highlight of a career, and great to see back in print - even when the cover is not on par with the original. [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Arguably the finest Illusion Of Safety record ever made, Probe
was the 1992 recording composed by Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke. The
former began Illusion Of Safety a decade earlier with a revolving door
personnel policy involving a handful of Chicago malcontents. O'Rourke
began working with Burke's project around 1989 or so, when he was
still a teenager and studying composition in college. Where many of
the Illusion Of Safety albums are full-frontal assaults on the psyche
of the listener (especially the groundbreaking album Historical with
its raw use of narration from torture documentaries), Probe is a far
more subtle and thus effective album marked by the extended use of
disturbed silences, predating such sound design techniques that David
Lynch mastered in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. This use of space
is definitely coming from the O'Rourke side of the equation (which
according to Burke was 50/50 on Probe), as O'Rourke's early solo album
Scend was released at about the same time as Probe with profound
similarities. Throughout the subsonic frequencies and unsettled spooky
drones, there are numerous punctures of analogue sourced micro- bleeping, errata from shortwave, scrabbling of tactile objects, field
recordings of traffic jams, children at play, carnival rides, etc. and
jittery digitally sculpted loops. As all of these elements slowly
unfurl over several lengthy chapters, Probe truly synthesizes the
aesthetics of both Burke and O'Rourke into a cohesive body of work,
with Burke's research into the dark and transgressive balanced with
O'Rourke's studies into the musique concrete of Luc Ferrari and Michel
Chion.
Staalplaat first released Probe in a wooden slipcase in an
edition of 500 copies. Those quickly went out of print; but
fortunately, Perdition Plastics has just reissued this brilliant
album, albeit in more conventional packaging..."[Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Fin de Siecle |
CD |
"Long overdue re-issue of this long out of print LP on Korm Plastics (kp 5495), and perhaps its fits the format of CD even better. Illusion Of Safety is Dan Burke, here with Kurt Greisch.
Since 1983 Illusion Of Safety has been the ongoing project of Daniel Burke, working alone and with various collaborators. They have released over 20 CDs on labels such as Complacency, Die Stadt, Experimedia, Odd Size, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, and Waystyx, and played over three hundred concerts in Europe and North America. IOS' work has been called ambient, post-industrial, electro-acoustic, noise, sound collage, improvisation, and power electronics, but they are unwilling to limit their work to any given style or method. The sonic character and affective substance of the music will often shift abruptly within each recording and live performance.
'Fin de Siecle' was part of the 'ambient series' of Korm Plastics and has some highly subtle music to offer, based on field recordings and quiet electronics. Part One and Part Three, the original sides of the LP, were recorded for a tour in 1995 and edited to release on vinyl. The CD version has an extended 'prologue' and 'epilogue' as bonus tracks, making the total CD 66 minutes long." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
"Behind the legendary project Illusion Of Safety, you find the two sound artists, Daniel Burke and Kurt Griesch. The two main pieces of present album "Fin de siecle", was created for an American tour back in 1995. Due to the time-limit of the vinyl-media which was the original release format, the pieces were cut and revised to fit the time-span of the vinyl. Now sixteen years later, the two pieces have returned from the historical archives to be presented on this re-issue on Dutch label Korm Plastics. The twosome has for this particular occasion composed two smaller pieces - an epilogue and prologue for the original album. After the abrasive "Epilogue"-piece, we move into first piece of the original "Fin de siecle"-release, simply titled "Part one". A 22-minutes running piece of ambient tranquility built on repetitive sound-drones until the closing moment where the piece culminates in a harsh grande finale. Second piece of the original vinyl is a lengthy work combining field recordings and trippy sound drones - a subtle piece of an almost inaudible character. Stepping to the last piece of the album, the "Prologue"-track is another recent created work for this re-issue. As was the case with the epilogue, this is a piece of a more upfront nature with long-stretched monotonous tone that because of its repetitive nature create a nice hypnotic atmosphere stretched over the 22 minutes run-time." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Surrender |
CD-R |
"I've been releasing things outside of the internet (no part of it), and one of them has been "Surrender", the newest outing by Illusion of Safety. Daniel Burke has made a "remix overview" of this work, and I had to let the cat out of the bag. More information can be found at the video link, including the mail box where money orders/hidden cash is to be sent. Do check it out! The video is exceptional! I've been told some of the processes in making it, and it's nothing short of deftly inspired! $7 postage paid in the US. $12 elsewhere. Available in pro cassette and pro CDR format.
I haphazardly spurred Illusion of Safety back into live action in 2008 when I asked him to do a show with me at the Empty Bottle. From there, we were both asked to perform for WTII's monthly showcase at Darkroom, wherein this clown video material first surfaced, so it's a pleasure for me to release the nexus of a soundtrack to this imagery, coming full circle.
"Illusion of Safety, just passing its 30th year since inception, is often regarded as the innovator of "ambient industrial". Despite having traversed nearly every arena of the experimental milieu, performed prestigious fests all over the world, and collaborated with some of widest ranging and heaviest hitting of the avante garde, core member/founder Daniel Burke has both shown a return to form and a veritable bouquet of new frontiers in his most recent outing, "Surrender". In just under 60 minutes, the listener is taken on a dizzying carousel ride where everything but the kitchen sink is employed to weave a deeply personal (abstract, wordless) narrative that comes off as minimalistic, condensed, and bombastic. But at the same time, it is a constantly shifting, complex and ornate grid iron amalgam of genuine enthusiasm and horror. Recommended if you like a complete disregard for the myopic trappings and short sighted formulae of contemporary sound art today." [label info]
nopartofit.blogspot.de
"Somewhere, an old T-shirt from Illusion Of Safety exists (the last we saw was affixed to Sigtryggur from Stillupsteypa some 10 years ago) with a deadpan/ironic catch-phrase "Illusion Of Safety gives you that soaring feeling" next to an image of a man tumbling headfirst out of a skyscraper window. Such a calculated juxtaposition of word and image was emblematic of the '80s art world (e.g. Barbara Kruger), often speaking to the underbelly of callousness, cruelty, violence and general amorality within consumerist society. Outside of this bold piece of iconography, Illusion Of Safety has operated within a more liminal state of mysteriousness through signifier and meaning. Even in their most placid albums of soft-focus ambience, the specter of some unknowable threat lurks in the background. More common in the Illusion Of Safety catalogue is an iron-fisted grasp of that sense of foreboding and dread through psychologically tense sound design. Over three decades in existence, this Chicago based project has been whittled down to its core member Dan Burke - with a few comrades-in-arms joining him occasionally - and is probably the longest running American industrial project, having produced a very impressive body of work. The 2014 album Surrender fits comfortably next to some of the masterpieces of the IOS back catalogue (e.g. Cancer, In Session, Historical, etc.) through the trademarked juxtaposition of noxious frequencies snaking in and out of harmonic phase patterns only to snap out of existence with a razor-cut edit into an electrical burst of tesla coil noise (for example). Disjointed rhythms, mediated collages, decontextualized field recordings, and psychoacoustic phrases map this album with incredible control and precision. Illusion Of Safety proves once again that they are one of the greats of industrial culture. Grab this album before it disappears, the pro-duplicated cd-r is limited to just 100 copies. Same for the cassette." [Aquarius Records]
"Among the few artists I have been following what seems now to be a lifetime (Asmus Tietchens, Main, Organum), Illusion Of Safety is probably among them the band I saw play live most. Dan Burke, the main man, is a most loveable chap and he always surprises me with his next move. His music doesn't operate in any particular style, but overlaps various genres. Improvised, industrial, ambient, musique concrete, and even a bit of techno beat thrown in. Here's a new album that proofs it. It's called 'Surrender' (which word always reminds me of the Cheap Trick song) and on a label called No Part Of It, meaning they don't want to be part of the world of Internet. There is a website, but there catalogue is hand scribbled on a sheet of paper and the CDRs - professionally designed - can be bought with a money order. Yes! That's what I like. Swim against the tide. Music wise Illusion Of Safety does something we haven't seen him do in quite some time. The collage styled music in which lengthy chunks of sounds are suddenly cut away by voices from radio and TV, a techno beats slips into view and sounds remarkable like the early 90s works such as 'Historical', 'Inside Agitator' or 'Distraction'. Quiet at times, but also quite bombastic at other times, filmic but without too many words. And if we hear any, it's about nuclear waste leakage. In that sense this album also harks back to the post-industrial sound of yesteryear. The balance between the very quiet and the very loud, between the ambience and the beats, is maintained very well throughout this release. Daddy's all right: surrender!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Pastoral |
CD |
Illusion Of Safety - Pastoral
CD only, 200 copies, Korm Plastics
While Korm Plastics publishes books these days, this is a surprise CD only release. We sent him this demo in 2011 & we all forgot about it. Pastoral is a welcome edition to the catalog showcasing a less aggressive stance from the project, a more organic subdued presentation, sounds to make a clearing, & open space. The recordings history is a bit blurred now but it is very likely tracks 1, 2, 3, & 5 are Kurt Griesch and Daniel Burke, post 1995 tour work. Track four uses an instance of Reaktor 5 VCS-3 software emulation.
Illusion of Safety
Since 1983, Daniel Burke and his many conspirators under the Illusion Of Safety banner have over the course of 40+ full length releases traversed most every facet of the avant sound plane, from early industrial pop deconstruction to blindingly minimal sound art to densely surreal found-sound collage, each unique approach bending and reconstituting the expectations and possibilities of each realm, creating uneasy music that is dense and dystopian and yet also beautiful. Performing over 300 live concerts throughout Europe and the states included No Fun 2008, the Wroclaw Industrial Music Festival 2009, Sonic Circuits in 2010, with Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2011 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and at the Crisis Data Transfer Pre-Party October 2023. Outside of IOS Burke has collaborated with Jim O’Rourke, Jon Mueller, Randy Greif, Darin Gray, Z’EV, Cheer-Accident, Thomas Dimuzio, Kevin Drumm, Bill Horist, and others.
https://kormdigitaal.bandcamp.com/album/pastoral
"I don't think it's a surprise that here at VWHQ, there is a person that likes Dan Burke's aka Illusion of Safety's output. Earlier this year, Korm Plastics (who said they'd never release music again) broke
the dry spell of releasing music by co-releasing the IoS/Z'ev collaboration on vinyl. Now they have a CD by Illusion of Safety. Combine that with a few other releases like Muziekkamer and the BOH Sampler, and those first words on the Korm website raise questions: 'Korm Plastics was a record label. These days, we publish books. About music.' Maybe Frans will explain it to me at some point.
But, back to what it is all about. Illusion of Safety / Dan Burke. It's a blind spot in my collection. I've seen him perform once in Aachen, but since that was something like 25 years ago, I really can't remember the details. So, it's Dan's recent output that I started to know and respect. And with this new album, "Pastoral", the concern is only getting stronger. Though I must say, it took me several listening sessions before it struck me at the right spots.
The five tracks with a total playing time of 58 minutes are hidden in serene packaging. Pictures of a morning or evening stroll in the countryside and the first sounds of "Invulnerable" are concrete staccato sounds. There was something wrong with the combination of those in my head. Still, as the track continued, field recordings started building a backing drone, and additional sounds formed the actual composition with a massive piano/guitar intermezzo, which has to be mentioned. All kinds of manipulated musical instruments create a flawless transition towards the second track entitled "Neolithic", and from here, it only gets better. Tracks 3 to 5 are droney soundscapes with a perfect balance between layers of minimal noise and drones and additional sounds projected on top of it. In total, 40 minutes of absolute poetic sounds. And there it struck me how I see Dan's music, in this release at least. Looking at the picture on the cover, you get an emotion, but zooming in on the picture, you can extrude air, sun, grass, sand, and a little forest in the back. And zooming in on the woods, you can see trees and then
branches... But zooming out, you get a 'walk in nature'... But what if you zoom out from there... "Thermogenesis", "Ground", and "Compelling" all cover a particular aspect of switching perspectives like this. At least, that's what I think.
Pastoral (noun): a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life. For me, the first tracks are about escaping what's terrible, and the last three are about embracing what's good. The illusion of Safety presents in one album that you can't make just one of those choices (escape/embrace) and that the result is great if you follow your heart. (BW)
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| IMCA |
same |
CD |
Das IMCA-Projekt, fertiggestellt 1991, kann exemplarisch sicher als eines der klassischen "Mail-Art" und "Tape-Exchange"-Projekte der 80er und 90er Jahre angesehen werden. Heutzutage ist es absolut erstaunlich, welche Ergebnisse rein analog durch tape-processing und Boden-Effekt-Geräte zustande gekommen sind...Feedbacks und scrapings, geräuschhafte Loops, meist im eher ruhig-minimalen bereich angesiedelt, Collagen mit seltsamsten Alltags- und Konkret-Sounds, immer wieder mechanisch-repetitive Strukturen, die archaisch und low-fi klingen... noch heute klingt das so "bizarr" und "advanced " wie irgendwas! Beteiligt ware 5 Leute von KAPOTTE MUZIEK, DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE und JOHN HUDAK. Die LP kam damals bei Korm Plastics heraus, es gab nur 98 Kopien davon. Ein lohnenswerter Re-issue auf dem griechischen ABSURD-Label.
"I have to admit that I have a love-hate relation with this album. I love the way this album was made. It represents a somewhat bygone musical age, a time with cassettes and without e-mail, when things worked perhaps slower, but perhaps also more intensely. The full story of how the IMCA project (International Musique Concrete Ensemble) came together is told in detail in the CD booklet. In short, in 1990 Frans de Waard started a mail collaboration with John Hudak and Jos Smolders for a cassette on Midas Music, and later a second one with Guido Huebner (of Das Synthetisches Mischgewebe), Ios Smolders and Isabelle Chemin, which was the LP released by Korm Plastics. The basic soundmaterial (created by De Waard) was mailed to the first recipient who would rework the material and mail it to the next recipient etcetera. Thus a network chain was born. The results were released on the original IMCA album, which came on glorious white vinyl and contained an explanatory booklet. The vinyl edition consisted of 98 copies; 77 of these were for the public, 21 for the makers, resulting in the fact that many people knew about it, but only a few actually heard the music. I remember I was supposed to help gluing the covers, but I can't remember if I did in the end. I was given a free copy, so perhaps I did. I love the way this re-release is presented; an old tattered cover of the LP was used for this CD, which gives it a nice archival touch. The booklet is well-designed (by Meeuw), contains some of the original notes and explains the recording process in detail. But now to the music: IMCA is not easy listening, it is in fact a very demanding, electro-acoustic record with extreme dynamics. These dynamics were a bit lost on the original pressing on vinyl, but due to Jos Smolder's remastering these are back in place, which means you'll get to hear the IMCA ensemble as it was meant to be heard. The opening track of the CD still gives me a headache: high pitched feedback shrieks
close to the level of irritation. It's hard to listen to this without turning the volume down. Luckily the electro-acoustic/musique concret of IMCA becomes more listenable after the challenging intro. The often dry sounds (dry as in untreated") are combined with long silences, with, at times, sudden blasts of concrete noise. Most of the used sounds seem to have their origin in noise (musique concret) rather than a musical source. Despite the many hands at the wheel of this album, the results are strangely coherent, which is a complement to those involved. In total 10 tracks are indexed, even though it's hard to tell where one ends and the other one begins. IMCA is probably best enjoyed in one long listening session in the right frame of mind. The final 2 tracks, which make up for the final 30 minutes of this CD, feature side A and B from the Midas cassette version with contributions from John Hudak. Here the sound is more traditional industrial if you like, with rhythms and a bit of
a Nurse With Wound touch. Not bad at all. This is an important archive release of an album made by adventurous musicians who actually live up to their name. Like back in 1991, I'm not sure if it's musically a classic, but I am very happy to have this in my collection." [Freek Kinkelaar, Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.void.gr/absurd
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| IN CAMERA |
untitled |
LP |
After many years of silence a new release on this small but fine south-german label ! IN CAMERA is the new project of CHRISTOPH HEEMANN (of MIRROR and HNAS–fame) and TIMO VAN LUIJK (ex NOISE MAKER’S FIFES, now ASRA & AF URSIN). They present here an improvised, minimal & very uneffected “concrete” instrumental drone-ambience, very slow & calm but also full of tiny details & “small sounds”. Quite different from what both did before, VOLCANIC TONGUE calls this “hand-carved drones”, which is an appropriate description definitely....
|
2005 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Frampton comes alive |
LP |
"Project of Christoph Heemann & Timo Van Luijk. New studio recordings + previously unreleased tracks from a VPRO radio session. Edition of 400 copies." [label info]
www.lasciedoree.be
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
| IN MEDITARIUM [IN MEDITARIVM] |
Uterus |
CD-R |
Willkommen zum Intra-Uterin-Industrial ! IN MEDITARIUM ist ein weiteres Projekt von Sergey Svistelnik (aka LORD GORGOROTH), der Ikone der ukrainischen dark ambient-Szene, der auch das kleine Label UKRAINIAN DARK SYNDICATE betreibt und hinter FIRST HUMAN FERRO steckt. IN MEDITARIUM klingt nach handgemachtem Ritual-Industrial, mit beschwörenden Katakombensounds & -gesängen, dumpf & dunkel & wummernd & höhlenartig.
„There is a lot of good music that comes from that country called Ukraine. Think Andrey Kiritchenko as just one example of an artist that made it bigtime. In Meditarium is maybe lesser known at the moment, but if you ask me, this is a project that has a lot of potential in the darkambient scene. This album contains of 4 long tracks (with the shortest being 9:17). The tracks are all very dark, very atmospheric. It will completely take you away into another dimension of this world. The dark dimension of Uterus. Beautiful sounds, dark and atmospheric, are combined with low chanting, tinkling bells, and long drones. This disc is the perfect music to listen to on a dark winternight, with the lights out, and either a very very good soundsystem or your headphones on your head. You will be instantly taken away into this beautiful world.” [Stefan / Electronic Music World
|
2004 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Drift in Sodom |
CD |
"Archaic, elemental, sodomite and penitent epos with deep waves of subsonic bass sounds, soft tinkling bells and melancholic chants. Meditation music for the darker minds. Olegh Kolyada`s 1998-2008 Panoptikvm Series including the tracks originally released as “Mare Internum” EP by Drone Records as a part of 7” series. Edition of 200 copies in 4 panel Digipak." [label info]
www.oleghkolyada.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| IN THE NURSERY |
Recordings 1981-1999 |
7 x LP BOX |
7 Lp Box w. Shirt & Booklet. Black vinyl ltd. 400. In The Nursery is the Sheffield-based musical project centered around the nucleus of twin brothers Klive and Nigel Humberstone and formed in 1981 together with Anthony Bennett. The trio were originally associated with the UK's industrial music scene, releasing the six-track When Cherished Dreams Come True in June 1983. The "Witness (To A Scream)" single and Sonority EP followed before the band moved to the Sweatbox label for the fearsome Temper EP. The full-length Twins was recorded without the departed Bennett at Bradford's Flexible Response Studio. ITN’s musical history spans 30 years and has constantly expressed their desire for progress and experimentation. Their sublime, cinematic music blends electronica, classical arrangements, orchestral percussion and soundscapes evoking a timeless quality.
regular black Vinyl edition Number 100-500
LP1 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1A Basement 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1A I'll Turn Away 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1A Patter 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1B Stone Souls 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1B Listen 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1B Dawn Song 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
LP1B Red Blue Yellow 1981/82 Basement Tapes 1981/82
Lp2 Live Melkweg 1985
LP2A Fabricata 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2A Iskra 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2A A to I 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2A And Your Eyes 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2A Workcorps (early version) 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2B Illuminata 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2B To The Faithful (Deceivers) 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2B Witness (to a scream) 1985 Melkweg Live
LP2B Deus Ex Machina 1985 Melkweg Live
Lp3: Tracks from 1986-1991
LP3A The Outsider (instrumental) TWINS (1986) 1986-1991
LP3A Breach Birth (Blockade Mix) TWINS (1986) 1986-1991
LP3A Twins (remix) TWINS (1986) 1986-1991
LP3A Blind Me (An Assault on Heaven in 4 Chapters) Stormhorse (1987) 1986-1991
LP3A Counterpart (pre drums mix) Stormhorse (1987) 1986-1991
LP3A Ostinato Koda (1988) 1986-1991
LP3B Blade (instrumental) L'esprit (1990) 1986-1991
LP3B Archaic Torso (instrumental) L'esprit (1990) 1986-1991
LP3B Cadence (unreleased) L'esprit (1990) 1986-1991
LP3B Epigraph (instrumental) Sense (1991) 1986-1991
LP3B Sense (instrumental) Sense (1991) 1986-1991
LP3B Dextral Sense (1991) 1986-1991
LP3B Memoirs 2 Sense (1991) 1986-1991
LP3B A Rebours (instrumental) Sense (1991) 1986-1991
Lp4: Tracks from 1992-1994
LP4A Desiderata (instrumental) Duality (1992) 1992-1994
LP4A Red Harvest (instrumental) Duality (1992) 1992-1994
LP4A Duality (instrumental) Duality (1992) 1992-1994
LP4A Corruption (instrumental) Duality (1992) 1992-1994
LP4A Pulse (extended demo mix) Duality (1992) 1992-1994
LP4A Mecciano (instrumental) Duality (1992) 1992-1994
LP4B Anatomy Of A Poet (instrumental) Anatomy of a Poet (1994) 1992-1994
LP4B Motive (instrumental) Anatomy of a Poet (1994) 1992-1994
LP4B Byzantium (instrumental) Anatomy of a Poet (1994) 1992-1994
LP4B The Golden Journey (instrumental) Anatomy of a Poet (1994) 1992-1994
LP4B The Seventh Seal (instrumental) Anatomy of a Poet (1994) 1992-1994
LP4B Blue Lovers (instrumental) Anatomy of a Poet (1994) 1992-1994
Lp5: Tracks from 1995-1997
LP5A Laten (unreleased) 1995 1995-1997
LP5A Grace (unreleased) 1995 1995-1997
LP5A Rescue (unreleased) 1995 1995-1997
LP5A Radiator (WIP) 1995 1995-1997
LP5A Tungsten (demo mix) 1997 1995-1997
LP5A Compliance (HTS 200 snare mix) 1996 1995-1997
LP5A Rainhall (unreleased) 1996 1995-1997
LP5B Mallarme (instrumental) 1996 1995-1997
LP5B Woman (instrumental) 1996 1995-1997
LP5B Caprice (instrumental) 1996 1995-1997
LP5B Precedent (instrumental) 1996 1995-1997
LP5B Cold Eyes 1996 1995-1997
Lp6: Tracks from 1998-1999
LP6A I Ask For Grace (instrumental) Lingua 1998 1998
LP6A El Secreto (instrumental) Lingua 1998 1998
LP6A Mute Harmony (instrumental) Lingua 1998 1998
LP6A The Living Tongue (instrumental) Lingua 1998 1998
LP6A Poema (instrumental) Lingua 1998 1998
LP6B StrR (MWMC wip) MWMC (1998) 1998
LP6B Luxuriate (MWMC wip) MWMC (1998) 1998
LP6B Arp Stuff (MWMC wip) MWMC (1998) 1998
LP6B Liberation (MWMC wip) MWMC (1998) 1998
LP6B Groundloop (divergent strings mix) Groundloop 1999
Lp7: Vinyl Tracks from 1983-85
LP7A A To I 3:33
LP7A Patter 4:32
LP7A Stone Souls 3:22
LP7A Mystery 3:56
LP7A Remain 3:10
LP7A Execution's Romance 5:22
LP7A E984 3:13
LP7B Witness (To A Scream) 4:07
LP7B Iskra 3:10
LP7B Sentient 4:05
LP7B Deus Ex Machina 5:52
LP7B Lost Prayer 4:42
LP7B And Your Eyes 6:33
|
2023 |
€145.00 |
|
| INADA, KOZO |
j[ ] |
CD |
"CD - 5 tracks - 45:30 min. 4 panels cardboard in plastic bag
Cat. number : sns-03 - Release date : feb. 07 2007.
Edition : 700 copies.
Kozo Inada is a japanese sound artist who has previously released records on various labels around the world (Staalplaat, Selektion,
Digital Narcis, V2). His last record published is a collaborative work with Philip Samartzis on the australian label Room40. His music is a balance between austere minimalism and immense spaces in sound that creates a very strong tension and keeps the listener captivated from the beginning to the end. For J[], he uses samples and loops of classical music as sound materials for Max/Msp treatments. The result is a densely layered and strong sound work, with slow rises and falls, hypnotic loops and some ruptures that give texture to silence. A sonic journey into aerial and hypnotic universes sometimes also visited by P. Niblock or Hafler trio." [label press release]
"My sympathy and love for the work of Kozo Inada didn't came straight away. His first few releases on Staalplaat were alright, but I didn't think brilliant. Coins dropped at a concert I saw by him in Barcelona. It contained the same sounds, but played at this immense volume, the listener gets sucked in it, and when the sound is gone, very fine particles remain and tease the listener further, until the next wave comes. Coming back I listened to his music with totally different ears. For reasons I don't know (it seems his private website needs updating) we don't hear much of him in the recent years, which is a great pity. 'J[]' is a new (?) work, or at least just released (on a totally different I'd like to add that Sonoris just also re-released David Maranha's 'Piano Suspenso', which we reviewed in Vital Weekly 175, so read that please). Moving away from the field recordings which Inada used in his previous releases, for this release he concentrates solely on classical music samples and loops. At first that sounded a bit cheap to me, clearly since they are not too difficult to recognize. Inada produces perfect loops that don't skip or anything, but make a sustaining wave of sound. In each of the five pieces things move slowly but steadily and Inada continues his working methods: from soft to loud, although it seems to me this time on a less radical level than before. It's again quite a powerful work, and opening up new worlds to explore for Inada. It would be great to see more of his work being available." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.sonoris.org
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| INADE |
Samadhi State |
CD |
Nicht aufs Unterbewusste, sondern aufs ÜBERbewusstsein spielt der Titel der fantastischen neuen INADE-CD an, im Samadhi-Zustand verschmelzen Subjekt und Objektwelt, das Denken hört auf, der physische Körper wird verlassen. Entsprechend klingt « Samadhi State » weniger dunkel als gewohnt, sondern extrem meditativ, versenkend, dronig-kosmisch... leider immer noch kein neues Studiomaterial, sondern eine Kollektion verschiedener rarer Aufnahmen der letzten Jahre für die 2005er Japan-Konzerte der Band.
“A Japanese edition of collected studio works from the last years, recorded during several sessions and rehearsals at the Light Channel.
Remixed, re-constructed and re-edited in 2005. This release was accompaning the Spring Equinoxe concert in Tokyo and is now available outside of Japan as well.
"Samadhi State" is illuminating the space of reality and the luminous arcs of dreams. Samadhi is a over-conscious experience that lies beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. The realisation made in Samadhi is numinous realisation. A perfect condition in vigil, a condition of absolute consciousness. It is the final goal of everything and the highest form of self-possession, in the sense of collecting all the faculties of the constitution towards reaching union or quasi-union, long or short in time as the case may be, with the divine-spiritual. Life in the spirit is not fading. If the restrictions of the empirical being are exceeded, the universal life is intensified. The life becomes cosmical and even hypercosmical. The Samadhi State neither guards nor dreams it is the fourth dimension, where the infinite eternity prevails.” [label info / liner notes]
www.loki-found.de
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Aldebaran |
CD |
“Erhabene Soundmonumente, wie schwarze Monolithen im leeren Raum stehend, produzieren INADE auf ihrer ersten CD... Langsam bauen sich die einzelnen Stücke auf und erzeugen eine unendlich weitflächige Atmosphäre, kalt und klar wie im Weltenraum. Im Unterschied zu den bisher veröffentlichten Tapes gehen INADE hier differenzierter zu Werke und setzen zusätzliche Effekte ein, welche die Musik noch erweitern... erdrückend intensiv!“ [old Drone Rec. info]
label: www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Axxiarm Plains (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
dark and mystical 'archaic music' concerning on the development of today's consciousness - this E.P. deals with russian painter & poet MAJAKOWSKI
Released April 1995
"Surely, one of the most intense projects from the new States of capitalistic Germany, INADE have released only two tapes so far which showed their ability to create a deep droning dimension of their own. This project rises vom Saxony and is one of the groups involved with THE LOKI FOUNDATION (which also includes the works of DAGDA MOR, MK ULTRA & IRON WILL).
This first vinyl-release of INADE is based on the ideas of Russian poet & painter MAJAKOWSKI. INADE describe the psychological and sociological process of breaking the bounds of modern society as MAJAKOWSKI wanted to do it - with the result of creating something new, becoming constructive in a positive and very conscious manner. This process is perfectly expressed by INADE's awesome monumental gloomy surroundings. Experience their unique 'movement and construction'!" [label info]
|
1995 |
€ |
|
|
Audio Mythology One |
CD |
"There’s more to the history of the incomparable Dark Ambient Sound Sculptors, Inade, than meets the ear. Audio Mythology One gathers unreleased material and compilation tracks, the shards and splintered remnants that litter the cosmic wasteland that is their sonic home. These are essential pieces of the vast network of sound manipulation that fills the blackened soul of night, the heart of primal urgency, haunting and dramatic, abounding with the ethereal mist of unease and dense ruminations that breathe and exhale awe with every resonant pulse. Masterful audio musings.
A.M. ONE is an introduction to the archive of INADE´s sound work. The first part of this series is focusing on unreleased and now finalised material from the recording period of „The Incarnation Of The Solar Architects“ album , V.A. compilation tracks and re-worked studio material of live backing tracks.
This regular and unlimited CD-edition comes in jewel case and 16-pg booklet. Mastered by Andreas Wahnmann/SECRETLAB." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Audio Mythology Two |
CD |
"The soul of Eternity has a voice. It has a smile that radiates dreams of ancient origin. Its yawn is vast and perilous: to view it is to sacrifice sanity. Infinite eons have passed through its throat, sometimes latticed with tectonic cosmic rumbles, sometimes threaded with dissonant whispers of devious design.
It is a place where Desolation strangles Hope with withered fingers. The soul of Eternity has a voice. It is pure sound convulsion; it is harsh sound vibration. It speaks through Inade. Though its playground is beyond conception, where space and beyond space merge, the foundation for translation is cultivated here, on Earth, by the Masters of Dark Ambient, Inade. Audio Mythology II collects more loose strands and bleak, back-alley diversions, and gives them life. This is the breath of lost souls as they sigh, of shadows as they break into song, of unimaginable gods as they murmur and scheme.
The saga of Sonic Pioneers continues with the second part of the collection from the archive of INADE´s sound work. This release focusses on re-structured session material (1997-2011), V.A. compilation tracks (2006-2009, partly re-worked) and finalised studio recordings of live backing tracks (2012-2013).
Available as limited vinyl edition with a different track order and mixing. The Cd will be included as well in slip case with the vinyl.
Edition of 300 copies.
The regular and unlimited CD-edition comes in jewel case and 16-pg booklet.
Mastered by Andreas Wahnmann/SECRETLAB." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| INANNA |
Day ov Torment |
CD |
Re-release of this classic death / drone-industrial album from 1993 (Staalplaat) by the solo-project of MIKAEL STAVÖSTRAND (who was also part of ARCHON SATANI at that time). New artwork design by NIKO SKORPIO (SOME PLACE ELSE, etc).
"Reissue of the massive Death Industrial album from this ARCHON SATANI side-project, originally issued by Staalplaat in 1993. INANNA were at the forefront of a new force in Doom Ambiance way back in the early '90s. This stunningly remastered and repackaged album brings alive one of the classic scene albums - a milestone in ultra grim and crushing death sonics, that paved the way for many Drone and Ritual Industrial bands around today. Mixed by J Havukainen (IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES)." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| INCAPACITANTS |
Extreme Gospel Nights |
LP |
"Incapacitants are the best noise band to ever come out of Japan; the group was formed in 1981 in Osaka, the solo project of Toshiji Mikawa, a member of the amazing noise group Hijokaidan. Mikawa, a bank employee who later became manager of one of the largest securities brokers in Japan, later moved to Tokyo, where he joined with government office worker Fumio Kosakai (also an occasional member of Hijokaidan, as well as a former member of C.C.C.C.) to make Incapacitants a duo. Mikawa and Kosakai are no ordinary salarymen, though. They've been making some of the most unremittingly ear-shattering racket for decades as Incapacitants, one of the most significant noise outfits to emerge from the Japanese scene in the early 1980s, and still one of the most radical and powerful. They've consistently been responsible for some of the most complex, chaotic, loud, and downright fun releases in the genre. Extreme Gospel Nights is a shocking cassette from 1993, released by one of the Japanoise-defining labels, Vanilla Records, whose sound is particularly exciting, agonizingly dense and full of detail. "Gospel" refers to the studio where the recordings were made; don't expect traditional spirituals, but rather some truly alien performances, complete with sporadic screaming of vivisected baboons drowning in the sonic sludge. There are two tracks here "Bitter Insect" on and the super lo-fi "Accelerated No(i)sebleed," in all probability recorded directly from the soundboard. Just pure, unadulterated electronic distortion of the highest quality done by two of the masters of all who have ever turned the knob on a distortion pedal. This is fun, terrifying, hypnotic, and fascinating all at the same time; their noise takes root not in violence or gimmickry, but in pure energy. It also serves as great example of just what makes well done noise so great: the layers of complexity that build upon each other reveal new and different textures and patterns on subsequent listens. Mastered by Mikawa and reissued for the first time on vinyl, with black label and black inner sleeve. Edition of 300 in deluxe silver silkscreen on black cardboard sleeve with an image of the Tomyodai lighthouse in the late Meiji era as cover art, insert on classic ultra-bright paper with glossy plastic coating with replica of original. Wrapped in tissue golden paper to replicate original tape release, includes sticker."
https://urashima.bandcamp.com
|
2019 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Repo |
LP |
The roots of noise can be traced back to the experimental works of composers like Luigi Russolo, who in the early 20th century introduced the concept of noise machines or "Intonarumori" and advocated for the inclusion of industrial and mechanical sounds in music. This laid the foundation for the exploration of unconventional and non-musical sounds as viable artistic expressions. In the 1980s, noise music gained significant recognition and prominence with the emergence of artists and projects like Merzbow, Whitehouse, and, of course, Incapacitants. These artists employed a wide range of techniques and sound sources, including electronics, feedback, tape manipulation, and found objects, to create intense and immersive sonic experiences.
Incapacitants has made an indelible mark on the noise genre with their relentless pursuit of sonic experimentation. Through their innovative use of electronics, amplification, and feedback, they have created a distinct and recognizable sonic signature. Their performances and recordings often encompass a vast range of frequencies and textures, immersing the listener in a dense and immersive sonic landscape. Repo, the enthralling album by the Japanese experimental project Incapacitants, is a sonic masterpiece that pushes the boundaries of noise music to exhilarating heights. Originally released on vinyl in just 300 copies by Japan's legendary Alchemy Records label in 1989, this record showcases the immense creativity and technical prowess of the man behind Incapacitants, Toshiji Mikawa, here still alone (Repo is the last album as a one-man project, as Fumio Kosakai, about two years later after this release, became a permanent member to make Incapacitants a duo). With its relentless cacophony and innovative soundscapes, Repo is a testament to the enduring power of noise as an art form.
From the very first seconds, Repo grabs your attention with an onslaught of piercing high frequencies and distorted textures. Mikawa's ability to manipulate sound is immediately apparent as they create a disorienting and immersive atmosphere. The side A evolves, incorporating layers of chaotic noise, visceral feedback, and unexpected sonic surprises, leaving the listener captivated and intrigued. The other side explore the concept of rhythm within noise music, defying conventions and embracing experimentation. The pulsating beats and distorted tones create a captivating sense of momentum, while unexpected disruptions and bursts of dissonance add an element of unpredictability. The juxtaposition of rhythmic elements and abrasive noise creates a dynamic listening experience that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Repo is an extraordinary album that drives the limits of noise music, showcasing Toshiji Mikawa mastery of sound manipulation and their unwavering dedication to experimentation. He demonstrates an incredible ability to create immersive and captivating sonic landscapes that challenge the listener's perception of what music can be. With its relentless energy and daring sonic exploration, Repo is a testament to the enduring power of noise as an art form, and a must-listen for anyone seeking an audacious and boundary-pushing musical experience.
“In a historical perspective Repo is also special. There were very few noise records that sounded like it in 1989. Albums by other Japanese artists like Hanatarash, Merzbow, Gerogerigegege and Hijokaidan, who despite the more sonic approach of noise to their western contemporaries, all featured more stylistic aspects to their work – tape loops, collage techniques, the use/abuse of conventional instruments, satirical takes on popular music, references to visual art forms. Repo has none of that, it is full-on noise. In this sense this album – and Incapacitants’ overall oeuvre – has stood the test of time incredibly well. It does not feel dated.” - from Lasse Marhaug new liner notes.
credits
released June 12, 2023
All sounds by Toshiji Mikawa
Remastered by Lasse Marhaug in 2023
«Repo» was originally released as LP on Alchemy Records in 1989
Special thanks to Nobuya Maehashi who kindly permitted to use his magnificent chart for the front jacket
Notes from 2001 by JOJO Hiroshige (with an addendum by T.Mikawa)
New comprehensive notes from 2023 made for this reissue by Lasse Marhaug
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/repo
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| INCITE |
Minimal listening |
CD-R |
First (?) release of this raw digital ambience project from Hamburg, clicks’n’cuts in quasi-rhythmic, dry & mechanic structures with some great sounds and effects, like a more noisy IKEDA or NOTO. filed under: Minimal listening !
“incite/ - gemeinsames Projekt von axiomatic integration und Gradient Communication - spielt mit changierenden repetitiven Mustern und minimalistischen Beats. Die Arrangements bewegen sich zwischen gebrochen groovig und experimentell. Bei einer Performance entwickeln sich im Zusammenspiel Sounds und Rhythmen live zu staubtrockener minimalistischer Hörmusik. Gegründet im Dezember 2002, spielten incite/ im Jahr 2003 15 Konzerte in Deutschland, den USA und Spanien.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| INDO |
Winter in Zangla |
CD |
"Indo returns with a harrowing and cold narrative of Hungarian explorer and Orientalist Csoma de Körös' long journey to Zanskar valley where he studied the mysteries of the Tibetan language and Buddhist wisdom in the 1820s. Journey with us through the narrow mountain passes into the secluded villages at the foot of the Himalayas under the watchful eye of King Virudhaka. Comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet.
This album is dedicated to the Transylvanian born Hungarian scholar Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. In 1816 he began his great journey on foot through Central Asia in search of the origin of the Magyar people. In 1823 he arrived in Zanskar valley where he began his research as well as work on the World’s first scientific Tibetan-English dictionary. The scientific community as well as the Buddhist community rightly hold him as the pioneer of Tibetan research. His legendary walk of life ended en route to Lhasa in 1842 in Darjeeling under the shadow of Mount Kanchenjunga." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| INDRA KARMUKA |
su'o / rana (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
first edition
limited to 250 copies, clear vinyl,
transparent cover artwork
released November 1996
"This is the first release by this trio from amsterdam, who seem to be deeply concerned with religious themes from the indian mythology.
'Indra Karmuka' is a notion from the sanskrit-language spoken in India. The two titles are pieces of flowing and transcendental droning music, which arrive at your cognitive system to stimulate you emotionally at the highest degree. indra karmuka work with bells, synths and strange minimal sources (not possible to define exactly) and create a deep natural touch inside it. note: one member of indra karmuka already released an lp on the korm plastics ambient-series as k-s-p (ky-sync-pulse)!
"it's time for a new engramm in your brain - with indra karmuka!" [label info]
|
1996 |
€ |
|
| INFANT CYCLE |
Playout |
CD-R |
Eine halbstündige CDR-EP mit 2 langen Stücken, nach vorne drängende Rasiermesser-Pulses, ständige Wechsel von Sounds & Stimmungen, reine klackernde Geräuschparts, wieder begeisternd und weiterhin zu entdecken!
"Limited to one rhythm-carved record playout groove, and operational record player sounds (augmented by violin bow and razor blade), The Infant Cycle creates a half-hour exploration through all the sounds possible. Harsher rhythmic timbres fly through into quieter microtonal terrain, the static interrupted by spasms of unstability. Numbered edition of 250 copies." [label info]
label: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Secret Hidden Message |
7inch |
"...oszillierend zart und schwirrend, bis ein auslaufgroove für unerwartete erdung sorgt; der sich der windende drone nicht unterwerfen will, statt dessen sich sammelt und ins reverb flüchtet (inklusive delay-feedback-stop). stück 2 auf der A-seite dagegen ein wolkig-voluminöser drone mit nervösen einsprengseln, durch die flüchtigkeit von wolke + sprengseln genau so wenig statisch wie der erste track „secret hidden mistake", bis urplötzlich die wolke hinter sich gelassen wird und der nackte ton bleibt. das stück auf der zweiten seite heisst dann nicht nur „trombone", sondern ist nach angabe auf dem inlay (alle instrumentalen zutaten werden gelistet) auch allein mit einer posaune gespielt. nun denn, wenn auch die instrumente genannt werden, über die produktion herrscht stillschweigen; so ist die posaune auch in keiner weise erhörbar... ...wie sie als fragmentiert lautmalerischer impuls wächst und wächst und schließlich in einem wind untergeht. höhepunkt!" [N, Unruhr.de]
"THE INFANT CYCLE is a long operating experimental project from Ontario (Canada), active since 1992 with many releases on MC & CDR on different labels and the home imprint THE CEILING.
The three pieces on this EP were created using sounds from various instruments as Trombone, guitar, windchimes, marimba, birdcage, etc.. The result sounds rather electronic & hypnotic, with bright shining drones & repetitive rhythmic patterns & loops moving into more amorphous & multilayered sounding electro-acoustics. In spite of the rather experimental working-methods the outcome is very compact & condensed. THE INFANT CYCLEs approach to sound is based on the belief that words and explanations can only fail to describe or explain it, what is needed is a non-verbal, intuitive understanding of the work: "The artist's ego must not inhibit the piece's effect. It is the sound you are hearing, not the artist." Is the artist playing the sound or the sound playing the artist?
Filed under: Multilayered Drone-Hypnotism
more info: www.myspace.com/the_ceiling
FOGGY VINYL; BLACK COVERS WITH DIFFERENT SIZED BLACK SPOTS ON IT & TRANSPARENT COVERAGE USING INFANT CYCLE-LOGO" [label info]
"This is the first release from drone records and the infant cycle that I am listening to and it is a happy surprise. I have to admit that drone music is not exactly my mug of coffee mostly because most of the times I find it different to concentrate to it due to the lack of information. This doesn’t apply here cause there is an interesting mix with electro-acoustic elements. Infant cycles is Jim DeJong active sinve 1992 in (from the infant cycle’s last fm page) “…exploring the relationship between sounds and their origins, as well as that which proceeds it”. Both sides of the 7” are very carefully structured. Side A has two tracks that could easily been understood as one, “secret hidden message” and “(and then the dog replied)”, both characterized by the persistence of DeJong in what I understand as detailed abstract linear narration, all sounds are collaged beautifully in medium durations that produce beautiful kind of loop effects though there is complete absence of repetition. As I read that some of these sounds come from a bird cage, wind chimes and cookery I can only suppose that they were time and pitch stretched. The second side is the most impressive though. “Trombone” is based on recordings of a trombone (obviously) that were manipulated and treated in a manner that brings to my mind of oval. There is a minimal techno element , at least in the first part, that is followed by an abrupt change in the composition. Despite of that the result is very cohesive. I have to admit that I have this feeling that I should know what the infant cycle do. This is very well-crafted, well thought and interesting 7”. Bull’s eye." [Fervent, Randeom E-Zine]
www.dronerecords.de
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
|
The Sand Rays |
CD |
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce the release of a new CD...
The Infant Cycle - The Sand Rays. We're happy to introduce the new full-length record from The Infant Cycle. The Sand Rays is to be played from the outside to the center, from whichever edge you choose. The Sand Rays is pinball rhythm reverberations from sliced vinyl record playout grooves, gravelly surface vibrations. The Sand Rays is exploiting broken cords, near-empty batteries, half-broken equipment. We loved it and think you will too. Just be prepared to be a bit more confused when it is all over, but don't worry: you'll be too busy wiping that silly grin off your face because you had such a fun time. The Infant Cycle, active since 1992, is the brainchild of Jim DeJong. He has released material on such labels as Drone, EE Tapes, Hands, Moloko+, Afe, Zhelezobeton, Blade, Abgurd, and his own The Ceiling. Additionally he is a former member of Mind Skelp-cher and (as The Infant Cycle) has collaborated with numerous artists including Aidan Baker, Orphx, and Dronaement.
Housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
"This label has released both on CD and vinyl. Perhaps its therefore a bit of an odd choice to release the new Infant Cycle on CD. Not because of the nature of the music, but due to the material which was used to create this music: like before Jim DeJong, the man behind The Infant Cycle, uses vinyl to create his music. Ah. You think vinyl and you think Yoshihide, Marclay or Spooky? Wrong. The Infant Cycle has nothing to do with turntablism like that. More along the lines of Vertonen, The Infant Cycle uses run out grooves which are taped and then fed through a line of analogue sound effects or perhaps synthesizers and then further treated, enhanced and altered on the computer. Actually I made that last bit up, as I think there are no computers used by The Infant Cycle. Its more likely that everything exists in the world of analogue sounds, with cheap low resolution sampling keyboards, four track recording machines and more analogue sound effects. The music is raw and densely layered with lots of icing on the cake, but this is not a work of endless spinning noise loops. Jim DeJong knows how to create music that is both noise based and yet still something to hear. Although throughout quite present, he is not shy to take matters into a more quieter area, and presents us a highly listenable release of music that is, for me at least, the logical step in what some call industrial music. Powerful, intense, rich of ideas and excellently executed." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Drop-Out Center |
CD |
" 'Drop-out Center' is the anniversary album of The Infant Cycle project celebrating 20 years of the personal creative journey of the Canadian musician Jim DeJong which began in November 1992 after leaving the band Mind Skelp-cher. During this time Jim has recorded and released a massive amount of material both on his own label The Ceiling and on other respectable underground labels such as EE Tapes, Drone Records, Afe Records, etc. and this is his second full-length album on CD after "The Sand Rays" (Diophantine Discs, 2009).
The album includes nine abstract compositions recorded with Jim's trademark approach. Using such sound sources as shortwave radio, vinyl surface, videotape, bird cage and also more "normal" instruments (bass guitar, electric mandolin, Korg Poly-800 synthesizer) he creates slowly drifting multilayered textures with sometimes unexpected stops and narration twists. Sharp crispy foreground sound is set off by gentle background waves of resonating feedbacks forming intelligent electroacoustic glitch / drone with scratchy tangibility, meditativeness and even a sort of romanticism. This is music that evokes imagination and easily paints images in the listener's mind... 'Turn on!' " [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru
"Jim DeJong from Canada celebrates twenty years of activities as The Infant Cycle, during which he released a whole bunch of CDRs, net releases, a bit of vinyl and one 'real' CD on Diohantine Discs (see Vital Weekly 695), and now his second on Russia's Zhelezobeton, a home which sheltered also some previous releases by DeJong. All the pieces here are from April 2011 and further explore the sound world we know from DeJong over the past years. The cover explains the nature of sound sources, which makes a great read. On one side we have 'vinyl playout groove', 'video record', bird cage and shortwave, while on the other hand we have an electric guitar, electric mandolin, bass, poly 800 but also field recordings. Plenty to choose from, and he does put his options to good use. The varied options for sound creation lead to a varied sound, but with one constant factor: atmospherics play an important role in all of these pieces. He layers a whole bunch of sounds together and then carefully mixes these. But it not necessarily leads to mere drone music. In 'Shiny Venus Part 2' for instance he loops the strumming of a bass-guitar a few times and then other sounds (mandolin, bird cage, field recordings) drop in and out of the mix. When he uses the 'playout' grooves (which are those grooves at the end of a piece of vinyl), it becomes more rhythmical obviously but spiced up with electronics and sometimes remain short, these pieces act more like interludes, except for 'Pipe', which is considerable longer. These moody tunes are indeed much more than just drone pieces. It's the sheer variation, the exploration of sounds to create these atmospheric tunes that make this perhaps the most mature record I heard from The Infant Cycle so far. Excellent stuff indeed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE & RAMUNAS YARAS / DELPHIUM |
Translation / Heart full of Soul |
do-mCDR |
Die Wiederkehr des britischen, vor langer Zeit (DR-24) auch auf Drone gefeatureten Projekts DELPHIUM! "Heart full of Soul" besteht aus fünf überwiegend aggressiven "pulse'n'noise"-tracks, basierend auf Gitarrenklängen (das merkt man kaum), harsch und metallisch-mechanisch rhythmisiert, mit wie immer sehr düsterem Unterton...
THE INFANT CYCLE dagegen arbeitete für die zweite mCDR mit RAMUNAS YARAS (aka ENDICHE VIS.SAT) zusammen, der Klarinett-Klänge beisteuerte; entstanden ist ein grossartiger, hitziger, fast flirrend-rhythmischer track, dronig-melancholische Zwischenspiele, sowie mysteriöse Klanglandschaften die auf verfremdeten Vogelstimmen, Radiokurzwellen & "feedback generators" bestehen... starke Kontraste auf einer hervorragenden Split-Veröffentlichung! Das ganze in schlankem Hochformat, ein sehr kurioses Cover, professionell gestaltet, lim. 100 !
"Heart Full of Soul," nearly 23 minutes, is one of Delphium's darkest and noisiest recordings to date. The very direct and engaging work features tracks ranging from droning dark ambient to distorted and expressive rhythmic beats. "Translation" is a 20-minute release consisting primarily of The Infant Cycle processing and supplementing avantgarde clarinet recordings by Ramunas Yaras. The resulting experimental (and somewhat rhythmic) pieces fall variously within the spectrum between ambient drone and noise. This release is presented as a pro-printed 2x3"CDr set, packaged in a special color folder sleeve, and limited to 100 copies. Delphium has been active since 1993, releasing numerous vinyl and CD releases on labels such as Drone, Moloko+, Hibou, and his own Aquese label. The Infant Cycle, active since 1992, has many releases on labels such as EE Tapes, Blade, Hands, and his own label, The Ceiling. Ramunas Yaras is a Lithuanian experimental composer and writer who is also known for his work in Endiche Vis.Sat and Magic Carpathians Project." [label info]
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE / ANTMANUV |
Unrelated Work Tapes / Beyond the Garden |
mCD-R |
"The second installment of the Periodical series. The Infant Cycle continues exploring the tense and fluctuating relationships between
crackles, hisses and acoustic generated drones, while Antmanuv (who has created a number of audio and visual works for labels such as Mutek, Crionica Electronica, Squrt and his own AntmanuvMICRO) supplies a haunting environmental piece based around discreet loops). More uneasy listening. Like the first edition, this is a "budget" release, limited to 80 copies." [label info]
http://theceiling.ca
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE / DRONAEMENT |
split |
CD-R |
Sehr gute 9-track CDR (3 Stücke von INFANT CYCLE, 6 von DRONAEMENT) auf dem KIRCHENKAMPF-Label COHORT! INFANT CYCLEs Stücke sind intensiv-atmosphärische Industrial-Droners mit mechanisch-wuchtiger Variante, welche hypnotische Strukturen mit bemerkenswerten Sounds & Effekten verbinden und eine pulsierende Spannung aufbauen, intensiv & schön !
DRONAEMENT begeistert wieder mit seiner Mischung aus field recordings und sublimen Melodien, die Stücke sickern allmählich ins Unterbewusste wo sie sich verzaubernd auszubreiten scheinen...
".. pairing the German sound artist Dronaement who uses a combination of field recordings and electronics, and the droney abstractionist Canadian artist The Infant Cycle." [label info]
http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE / JARED DAVISON |
Periodical I |
mCD-R |
Schöne kanadische EP mit zwei Stücken, INFANT CYCLE mit einem quasi-rhythmischen, elektronisch-sirrenden & sich windenden Soundknäuel, der uns unbekannte JARED DAVISON kreiert einen dunkel-loopig-mechanischen Soundscape aus „Oberflächenklängen“ von Vinylschallplatten, eine Art düsterer PHILIP JECK? Super !
“The most recent project embarked upon by The Ceiling is a series of split mini-CDRs (originally intended as a series of a 7"s, which remains in the artwork), between The Infant Cycle and other artists in the southern Ontario region of Canada, working mainly in the arena of CDRs, MP3s, and less in larger-circulation formats. The series intends to bring together artists working outside existing genres and subgenres, working in areas of their own. The intent is to unify the series with a sense of adventure and challenge, and not necessarily a stylistic consistency. The series is also intended to function somewhat as a sort of newspaper, a snapshot of where each project is at the time of issue. The series can be viewed as sidebar releases by the artists- perhaps a progress report.
THE INFANT CYCLE has been in operation since 1992, producing numerous CDRs, CDs, vinyl, cassette and MP3 releases, alongside many compilation appearances for labels all over the planet. The Infant Cycle creates eccentric sound-worlds from disparate strands of instrumental phrases, field recordings, and everything in between; composition mixing with improvisation, influenced by happy accidents and technical failures. The piece contained is a mixing of previously recorded tracks, rethinking the past and foreshadowing future releases.
JARED DAVISON has followed an uncompromising path from his time as founder and mainstay of the many incarnations of Mind Skelp-cher, through various short-term projects, to his current work under his own name. While quiet for the past few year, he is re-emerging with material focused narrowly on particular sounds isolated from their sources, and projected into unpredictable shapes and atmospheres. "Phonography" is an uneasy and sometimes violent soundscape based entirely on the crackle and hum hiding amidst the grooves of your favourite vintage vinyl.All releases in the Periodical series are "budget" priced releases of 80 copies only.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| INGENTING KOLLEKTIVA |
Fragments of Night |
LP |
"ingenting kollektiva members : diane granahan, kirston lightowler, tarrl lightowler, matthew swiezynski. edited and constructed by : diane granahan & matthew swiezynski (side a), kirston lightowler & tarrl lightowler, (side b). recorded in the drei gewsser barn, rain storm recording 25.12.2009 & drei gewsser studios 27.12.2009 & oiseaux invisibles studios, california 2011. instruments : bells, bowed tibetan prayer bowl, cello, field recordings, guitars, harmonium, loops, nightingale devise, portable 78 player (ravel's gaspard de la nuit, walter gieseking), psaltery, tenor sax, shakuhachi flute (watazumido-shuso). mastered by taylor deupree. the ingenting kollektiva is an homage to ingmar bergman and sven nykvist. fragments of night refers back 40 years to numerous recordings gathered around 25.12.2009 at drei wasser." [label info/credits]
" 'ingenting' translates from swedish as 'nothing', and this american collective draw inspiration from the cinematic master of nihilism, ingmar bergman, on their beautiful debut fragments of night. the two sprawling tracks dislocate the source material of guitar, bowls, psaltery, saxophone and field recordings through an organic crosshatching of delay and loop techniques. sombre melodies and sodden textures emerge out of their droning psychedelic improvisations as a sensible take on variation and repetition, coming to a comparatively violent climax at the end of side B with an abrasive arpeggio of tremolo-clipping violin scrapes. even with this crashing conclusion, the 'nothingness' which speaks
through the recordings is not an existential hammer declaring the death of god, but RATHER SUBLTE AND POIGNANT EXPOSITION ON LONELINESS." [Jim Haynes, THE WIRE]
"I don't think I heard about Ingenting Kollektiva, which members include Diane Granahan, Kirston Lightowler, Tarrl Lightowler and Matthew Swiezynski. Diane and Matthew play on side A and Kirston and Tarrl on side B. "The kollektiva seeks to issue recordings that are meditations on the quality of light, sound and atmosphere created by Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist". You could expect them to release DVDs which are promised for the future. Here on LP, they play a variety of instruments, like bells, bowed tibetan prayer bowl, cello, field recordings, guitars, harmonium, loops, nightingale devise, portable 78 record player, psaltery, tenor sax and shakuhachi. I am not entirely sure if I would have been able to pick out all of these instruments on the two lenghty cuts on either side of the record. What it doesn't mention is - perhaps - the amount of processing that takes place on this record. Everything seems melted and molted around some sort of treatment, acoustically (more on side b
than on side a it seems) and electronically (vice versa obviously). Obviously we are dealing here with highly atmospheric music, which fits the Mirror tradition quite nice. Atmospheric music but with a sharper edge, and a great sense of experimentalism. From the description one could think this more like wishy-washy new age type of music, but the darker textures of this record work quite nice. Maybe indeed a great soundtrack to a Bergman movie, overlooking some lakes in Sweden and lots of silence among the actors. Haunting and haunted indeed. I wonder what their own films be like. Very nice." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
An Anatomy of Melancholy |
LP |
"Recordings revolving around the atmosphere of George Büchner's Lenz and various melancholies provoked by Robert Burton, the recordings of Krzysztof Penderecki and the idea of Lontano (as from a distance / distant), the textures of Jordi Savall (La Guirnalda de Rosas inspired by a fragment from Saval's Mare Nostrum) and Ingmar Bergman. Recorded 2010-2015. May pain be my reward.
released November 19, 2015
Edited and constructed by Matthew Swiezynski
Artwork by Mathias Fludd
Design by Matthew Swiezynski
Mastered by Taylor Deupree
Electric guitar on Religious Melancholy in Defect by James Hamilton
Acoustic guitar on Lenz Two. Büchner guitar solo by Johannes d'Église
Field recordings by Tarrl Lightowler & Matthew Swiezynski
All tracks recorded in Arthur de Eriomém's rural library Casa di Memoria
Instruments :
64' jazzmaster, 72' telecaster, jazzmaster japonesque, twin reverb, vibro champ, pedals, samples, harmonium, bells, strings, and lp feedback" [label info & credits]
ingentingkollektiva.bandcamp.com/album/an-anatomy-of-melancholy
"An impressive literary, cinematic, and musical knowledge base is at the root of the Ingenting Kollektiva's inspiration for crafting their hauntological compositions of spectral minimalism. "May pain be my reward" is a line of text taken from an incomplete 1836 play by Georg Buchner, later adapted by Herzog in 1979 for film and various theater groups over the centuries; and that text becomes the central tenant to the Kollektiva's An Anatomy Of Melancholy, that mines the dissonance of Penderecki through the lens of the guitar-n-pedal, buzzsaw blur of Maeror Tri, Mirror, and even some of the less low-end centered works of SUNNO))). The backmasked incantation and the snippets of dialogue further the shadowy references to an occluded and arcane ritual of an otherworldly mysticism. Beautiful, spiritual, and haunted all at once!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| INNER VISION LABORATORY |
Future Chaos |
CD |
"Zoharum proudly presents the next collaboration with Karol Skrzypiec, the man behind IVLab. 'Future Chaos' is an archive recording, with a more industrial feel unlike his last melodic/orchestral releases. It has raw touch to it. More than 70 minutes of music to a post-nuclear apocalyptic SF movies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Perpetua |
CD |
"The focal point of the album is the condition of mankind entangled in the cycle of creation, stagnation and destruction. Creation is an idealistic picture, it dwells in an idea of fiat lux et facta est lux. It is a blueprint for the musical narrative that is comprised of unrestricted admiration of life, of order that is mankind’s objective, and ultimately of conflict which is the most inherent human condition. In the war of mankind against itself the ideals permeating creation become obscure and only annihilation brings forth a new illusion – a promise of another beginning.
The ubiquitous illusion is an all-encompassing device that folds these non-recordable events into a cycle. It is channeled in the unifying wave of music of Karol Skrzypiec – an artist more complete, yet still debating the finality of his form of communication. Syntactically, the latest release of INNER VISION LABORATORY is an effect of thoughtful construction. Perpetua is an unconventional harmonious image which draws also from beyond of the repertoire typically associated with the instrumentarium characteristic of its genre, the accord of the album’s narration, however, is not lost." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Relics |
CD |
'Inner Vision Laboratory' releases new studio album 'Relics' on Winter-Light label.
The inspiration for this album came from different science-fiction and post-apocalyptic books and movies, but also from the artists’ personal thoughts regarding mankind’s condition.
‘Relics’ is a musical illustration for the very distant future, where humanity has failed in its progress and moved to total annihilation. Relics are the only things humanity has left behind. Other higher advanced civilisations will come to visit our now desolate planet to collect these relics; these fading tokens of the past. They come to visit the Museum of Savages, who destroyed their own habitat and rendered their once beautiful planet uninhabitable.
'Inner Vision Laboratory' is a musical project brought into existence by the Polish artist/musician Karol Skrzypiec. Created in March 2005, stylistically the project qualifies as industrial dark ambient. Nevertheless, it also includes elements of ethnic music, classical music, et al.
'Inner Vision Laboratory' has released a series of albums on labels such as Rage In Eden, Zoharum, and Beast Of Prey, collaborating with other artists such as Hoarfrost, Roto Visage and Nepenthe. His other works include the highly acclaimed 'Anywhere Out Of This World', 'Perpetua' and 'Austeros'.
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| INNER VISION LABORATORY VS. NEPENTHE |
Ambit |
CD |
"Two years after well-received "Perpetua" album, INNER VISION LABORATORY returns to Zoharum with their new album entitled "Ambit". Not a solo venture, but a collaborative effort with young, but promising NEPENTHE project. The album was 3 years in the making when they were searching for a common language and fiddling with sonic matter using the Internet in this respect, they have created a monolith - a very cohesive, yet symbiotic world. It might be easily labelled as "ambient", yet they break the patterns of that style.
"Ambit" is composed of 7 compositions, clocking in at 50 minutes. It is composed of beautiful, yet unsettling melodies, for those who are fascinated with sounds coming from Cyclic Law and Loki Foundation labels, but also for new-comers to the genre. For those open-minded for something new and touching, a kind of music painted with the whole palette of colours and sounds." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| INNERISE |
Western Sky Music |
CD-R |
"Tarl Broad-Ashman has been using the name Innerise for his music since 1998. The music ranges from beatless ambient to vocal-led electronica, with two vocalists, Annie Rolph and Katherine Cobley, appearing on Innerise recordings to date. Having previously remixed fellow Make Mine Music artists Portal, Schengen and Yellow6, Innerise released their debut album “Western Sky Music” on Make Mine Music in 2007." [label info]
www.makeminemusic.co.uk
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| INOX KAPELL |
Werkschoh |
do-LP |
"Die Werkschoh = eine INOX KAPELL Werkschau zum Thema Insekten, da der Herr Kapell ja hauptberuflich mit den Insekten zu tun hat.
Die besingt er und dazu kleine Geschichten von Kindern, das Ganze kommt als Doppel-LP wie eine Art Revue/Hoerspiel zum Thema 6-Beiner von
1982 bis 2011. Dabei poppiges, krachiges, neue Welle, artiges, dada/fluxen/punken und Chansons..." [label info]
www.inoxkapell.de
www.kernkrach.de
|
2012 |
€23.00 |
|
| INSTANT DRONE FACTORY |
Critical Mass |
CD |
"Die Instant Drone Factory formierte sich 2005 beim Schiphorst Avantgarde Festival. Veranstalter Jean-Hervé Péron (Faust) hatte den Solokünstler Frank Gingeleit gebucht. Problem: Gingeleit brauchte eine Band, hatte aber keine. Den Schlagzeuger Christian Jäger und den Bassisten Thomas Gorny (beide Space Debris) sowie den Gitarristen Andrea Tabacco (Elton Junk) lernte er kurz vor dem Auftritt kennen. Ohne Soundcheck oder gar Probe gelang dem Quartett ein legendärer Auftritt. Das nächste Treffen der Instant Drone Factory fand im Studio statt. In der eintägigen Session zu „Critical Mass“ entstand ein unglaublicher Flow aus Soundscapes und scheinbar komponierter Songs. Die CD reflektiert auch die musikalischen Ursprünge ihrer Akteure: Psychedelic, Krautrock, Fusion, aber auch Jazz, Industrial, Post-Rock und die Zufallsmusik aus Geräuschen und Dröhnen. Obwohl in weiten Passagen experimentell, ist die CD einladend und zugänglich. Für jeden, der an authentischer, zeitgenössischer Musik zum Zuhören interessiert ist." [label info]
German-italian impro-psych-drone outfit with FRANK GINGELEIT.
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| INTERNAL FUSION |
Tribute to Hastia |
CD |
Die allererste "fabrikgepresste" CD aus dem Hause Taalem markiert neben der limitierten CDR die "Rückkehr" von diesem beliebten französischen Ethno-Elektronik Projekt, jetzt stärker dark ambientig und dronig ausgeprägt...
"we are very proud to present our very first
CD, the latest disc from INTERNAL FUSION.
active for almost twenty years, I.F. has only released a handful of productions: first two tapes on désaccord majeur's label, then "om vaira satta hum" a CD on staalplaat in 1996 marketed by the label as "a mix between lustmord, rapoon and muslimgauze". it was followed by a collaborative work with désaccord majeur (the tlon üqbar "la bola perdida" CD on staalplaat in 1999). a second CD was ready to be issued but for various reasons, it wasn't. it was eventually released later in two parts, first as a 3"cdr on taâlem in 2002 and a cdr (with two additional tracks) on Kokeshidisk in 2005. after some years of silence, INTERNAL FUSION came back to life in 2008. "tribute to hastia" shows his evolution: gone are the ethnic/tribal influences and the comparisons with rapoon/muslimgauze, the latest compositions are still evolutive & captivating, yet darker & more minimal, perfect mix between minimal dark ambient & experimental... his strongest work ever!" [label info]
www.taalem.com/lucioleditions
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Waissad |
mCD-R |
"fifteen years after his first 3"cd-r on taâlem ("NedenBahe", still available at taalem.bandcamp.com/album/nedenbahe-alm-3 ), what we said at the time is still relevant. internal fusion is still a rare artist even if he's more productive than ever these days (two digital self-released productions last year) and his music is still full of captivating atmospheres... deep sounds, strange voces, haunting atmospheres. let yourself dive into "waïssad"..." [label info]
"Belgium’s taâlem label continues to breathe new life into one of our favorite formats, the CD3″. Each season they release a new trio, representing a wide swath of sounds. The latest batch delves into tribalism, abrasion and haunted ballroom; listening to the releases in order is like walking through exhibits in a terrifying circus.
Internal Fusion hearkens back to a time when the lines between dark ambient and industrial were blurred. The 22-minute single-track Waïssad twists and turns like an injured acrobat, sounding at first like a joyous call from deepest Africa, delving into drums reminiscent of Skull Island, then descending into the mist, where monsters dwell. The voices are holy and hooded, like those of medieval monks. Slowly the fugue builds, marked by static rustlings and speaker-wandering percussion. The cover may be green and lush, but don’t be fooled; these lands are dangerous. Waïssad’s narcotic center may represent the time spent drugged, the victim of a blow dart; the slow awakening to tribal drums is lulling until it disappears, replaced by snakelike hisses and fractured drones. There’s no escaping; all fates were sealed long ago. [...]
These releases take different paths, but arrive at the same bleak destination. This is autumn, after all, and darkness is drawing near. Play these releases while reading your favorite dark horror tales; the ghosts will enjoy reading over your shoulder and listening with invisible ears." (Richard Allen)
acloserlisten.com/2017/09/30/a-taalem-trio-2/
" [...] As I was searching the old weeklies for previous reviews of Internal Fusion, as that is sometimes indeed done (usually after being sure there are actually some!), I found very few (Vital Weekly 348, 426 and 677), but also a few times as a point of reference, which I guess for a band that never released a lot music is quite something. It usually was done in combination with the words ‘pseudo ethnic’ and ‘drumming’, and other names never far away were Internal Fusion and Muslimgauze. In that sense this new one is a bit of a different batch of music. It starts out with something familiar, ethnic voices, lotsa reverb, but the tribalistic drumming doesn’t become part of this. Deep pounding drums are there at one point in the middle, but in the second half of the piece things become much more abstract; Internal Fusion discovering granular synthesis and feeding their own sounds into the machine, perhaps even the first ten minutes of ‘Waïssad’ to it, and let computer gremlins eat the whole piece and slowly we enter the belly of the monster. If this is something that Internal Fusion would explore further and incorporate in their usual brand of ambient drumming and deep moods, then it could blossom into a very rich new sound approach. [FdW, Vital Weekly]
www.vitalweekly.net/1098.html
www.taalem.com
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| IONE / PAULINE OLIVEROS |
Io and her and the trouble with him. A Dance-Opera in Primeval Time |
DVD |
"Written and directed by Ione
Music and sound design by Pauline Oliveros
A collaborative venture among artists of all types, this “dance-opera” is a multimedia panorama of experimental theatre and technical virtuosity that includes aerial ballet, masks, video projection, a sinister thousand-eyed monster, and a highly imaginative electronic soundscape.
The one-act story, set in primeval time, retells the myth of Io from a matriarchal perspective. Io, Argivian priestess, is transformed by a terrible spell and roams the world, lovely but tormented. While enduring entrapment by Argus, the terrible monster, she is befriended by the brilliant Bird who helps her discover the key to her escape. Only upon her arrival in Khemt (Ancient Egypt) does she begin to understand the true mystery of what her journey has been about and its meaning for the future of the world." [label info]
www.deeplistening.org
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| IONOSPHERE |
Angular Momentum |
CD |
Cosmic darkness. Alien voices. Quantum-physics processes..
“With the first full length work of this German project another remarkable release in dark and space ambient has earthed that accompanies with the classic works of this genre. The ten tracks on this album following their previous 10inch release on Avatar Records, creating a giant sphere full of thick and brooding soundscapes with thunderous eruptions, imploding stars, ghostly voices, powerful machine noises and pulsing rhythms. On "Angular Momentum" IONOSPHERE probing the darkness until it´s deepest core! Digipack CD.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Nightscape |
CD |
"Eight years since the last release in 2007, Ionosphere has now returned with its third full length album. It follows the path of previous works focusing on deep, shivering, cosmic sound waves and moves further with the inclusion of an emotional core. Expansive drones, drifting melodic soundscapes, ominous sonic undertones and vocal transmissions intersect with densely concentrated rhythmic pulsations that emphasize the sculptural nature and deep atmospheric scope of the 11 tracks.’Nightscape’ is a soundtrack that transports the listener on an epic journey far away into spaces and environments where lights and noises move and circulate slowly while the night embraces everything.
Comes in elegant 6-panel digi-sleeve." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"Schon in meiner Besprechung zu Sawakos „Nu.it“-Album schrieb ich, dass es wenig Musikarten gibt, die das Phänomen der Nacht so unmittelbar und quasi impressionistisch einzufangen wissen wie Ambient. Während die Japanerin die Nacht als ein verspieltes Abenteuerreich darstellte, in dem sich wohlige und unheimliche Stimmungen gegenüberstehen, bis alles wie in einem Film zum beruhigenden Finale kommt, erscheint die Nacht in „Nightscape“, dem dritten Longplayer des deutschen Projektes Ionosphere, wie ein unendlicher Raum, der nicht nur den Schlafenden scheinbar für immer in seine Dunkelheit zieht. „Watch the world fall into the endless night“ lautet das aus den Titeln des eröffnenden und des abschließenden Tracks zusammengesetzte Motto des Albums. Doch auch hier ist die Nacht kein Gleichmacher, der alles in einem monochronen Schwarz zu ersticken droht.
Ionosphere versteht es, sein Paket an Klängen in dichte, ausladende Dronehüllen von soghafter Schwere zu packen, die über weite Strecken eine molllastige Wärme aufweisen. Mal körnig, mal vibrierend, mal so glatt wie eine Skulptur und dann wieder so kantig wie das Gebirgsmassiv auf dem Cover ist die Beschaffenheit dieses Rahmens so wechselvoll, dass die epische Reise schon deshalb episodisch anmuten muss. Noch interessanter ist allerdings das, was sich unter dieser Hülle abspielt. Das können kleine, wie im Zeitraffer vorbeischnellende Klangschnipsel sein, die in „Vast Winds from Beyond“ gegen den Strom der Dröhnung anschwimmen, oder auch die kleinen Leerstellen und Hohlräume im ganz bezeichnend „The Silence Underneath“ betitelten Stück. Oft geht es jedoch merklich konkreter zu, und es ist eine der reizvollen Paradoxien des Albums, dass man über gerade diese konkreteren Sounds letztlich doch nur mutmaßen kann – ist es das Stöhnen eines Liebespaares, das in „Watch the World“ von der Nacht verschluckt wird, was sagt die grummelige Männerstimme in „Polarized Light“, woher kommt wohl das hintergründige Pfeifen in „Radio Altitude“, bevor es von einem bedrohlichen Pochen übertönt und endgültig im analogen Klangstrudel verschuckt wird? All dies und weitere Dinge verdanken ihre Faszination der Vagheit, mit der sie nur schemenhaft durchs Klangbild huschen oder wie von sehr weitem, aus der Ionosphäre, betrachtet anmuten.
„Nightscape“ ist seinem Thema entsprechend ein düsteres Album geworden, doch es wäre falsch, es darauf und auf die Wucht der hereinbrechenden Düsternis zu reduzieren. Mit gestalterischem Feingefühl ist hier ein v.a. eine Hommage an die ins Dunkel gehüllte Vielgestalltigkeit einer verwandelten und verzauberten Welt gelungen." [Uwe Schneider / African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/06/20/ionosphere-nightscape/#more-10344
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| IRIKARAH |
Endstation Steinbruch |
CD |
Well arranged "classic Industrial" dealing with 3rd Reich-topics.
"Re-issue of an extremely limited cassette (20 copies!), originally published by Andreas Arndt’s own label Keine Zeit Recordings in 1996. Six tracks of dark and disturbing Power Noise / Death Ambient, not far off the style of Brighter Death Now. Limited to just 300 hand-numbered copies in an outsized foldout package. Recommended" [Cold Spring]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
A happy collection of catastrophes |
CD-R |
“A varied texture of rhythmical power electronics and industrial noise on eight tracks. Recommended” [label info]
http://rapeartprods.com
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON |
Peripeteia |
LP |
Over the years, American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri has become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether it's through Irisarri's celestial long-form albums or his lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri's consistent dedication to his craft never wavers from the forefront. While Irisarri's compositions typically field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his recent debut album for Dais Records, "Peripeteia, portrays these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri's melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at odds with, yet gracefully complement each other. In Irisarri's own words, "My previous works internalize any exterior forces or circumstances, while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story." The emotional depth found throughout Peripeteia is impeccably on display with the track, Mellified. A collaboration with Spanish composer Yamila, the choral arrangements bring to mind the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, while her voice combines the Andalusian "Cante jondo" style with medieval modes, almost drowning in layers of octave fuzz distortion and dystopian synths patterns. On Arduous Clarity, the bright arpeggiating melody that churns throughout, offers the initial glimmer of optimism in an otherwise decaying tale of personal turmoil. This encouraging glimpse is short lived however, as the song Refuge/Refuse seemingly plummets into the mourning depths of somber despair. A chorus of voices steadily crawls from its desolate terrain - a sea of broken spirits, eternally resigned to strain and bellow their final lament. Fright and Control, a piece which is equally soul churning, seems to possess a satisfying resolve, as if after years of searching, one's very salvation has been laid to rest through the acceptance of mortality and the enlightenment in death. Irisarri's complexity is utilized to a forcible success, slowly pulsing throughout the foreground of his audience, further emphasizing the impending dread of resolve."
https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/peripeteia
|
2020 |
€29.50 |
|
|
Peripeteia |
CD |
Over the years, American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri has become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether it's through Irisarri's celestial long-form albums or his lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri's consistent dedication to his craft never wavers from the forefront. While Irisarri's compositions typically field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his recent debut album for Dais Records, "Peripeteia, portrays these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri's melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at odds with, yet gracefully complement each other. In Irisarri's own words, "My previous works internalize any exterior forces or circumstances, while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story." The emotional depth found throughout Peripeteia is impeccably on display with the track, Mellified. A collaboration with Spanish composer Yamila, the choral arrangements bring to mind the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, while her voice combines the Andalusian "Cante jondo" style with medieval modes, almost drowning in layers of octave fuzz distortion and dystopian synths patterns. On Arduous Clarity, the bright arpeggiating melody that churns throughout, offers the initial glimmer of optimism in an otherwise decaying tale of personal turmoil. This encouraging glimpse is short lived however, as the song Refuge/Refuse seemingly plummets into the mourning depths of somber despair. A chorus of voices steadily crawls from its desolate terrain - a sea of broken spirits, eternally resigned to strain and bellow their final lament. Fright and Control, a piece which is equally soul churning, seems to possess a satisfying resolve, as if after years of searching, one's very salvation has been laid to rest through the acceptance of mortality and the enlightenment in death. Irisarri's complexity is utilized to a forcible success, slowly pulsing throughout the foreground of his audience, further emphasizing the impending dread of resolve."
https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/peripeteia
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Peripeteia (clear) |
LP |
Over the years, American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri has become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether it's through Irisarri's celestial long-form albums or his lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri's consistent dedication to his craft never wavers from the forefront. While Irisarri's compositions typically field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his recent debut album for Dais Records, "Peripeteia, portrays these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri's melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at odds with, yet gracefully complement each other. In Irisarri's own words, "My previous works internalize any exterior forces or circumstances, while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story." The emotional depth found throughout Peripeteia is impeccably on display with the track, Mellified. A collaboration with Spanish composer Yamila, the choral arrangements bring to mind the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, while her voice combines the Andalusian "Cante jondo" style with medieval modes, almost drowning in layers of octave fuzz distortion and dystopian synths patterns. On Arduous Clarity, the bright arpeggiating melody that churns throughout, offers the initial glimmer of optimism in an otherwise decaying tale of personal turmoil. This encouraging glimpse is short lived however, as the song Refuge/Refuse seemingly plummets into the mourning depths of somber despair. A chorus of voices steadily crawls from its desolate terrain - a sea of broken spirits, eternally resigned to strain and bellow their final lament. Fright and Control, a piece which is equally soul churning, seems to possess a satisfying resolve, as if after years of searching, one's very salvation has been laid to rest through the acceptance of mortality and the enlightenment in death. Irisarri's complexity is utilized to a forcible success, slowly pulsing throughout the foreground of his audience, further emphasizing the impending dread of resolve."
https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/peripeteia
|
2020 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Midnight Colours (coloured vinyl) |
LP |
Green color vinyl version. Longtime enthusiasts of ambient music have much to celebrate as Rafael Anton Irisarri's cherished out-of-print cassette, Midnight Colours, returns in a meticulously remastered edition and makes its inaugural debut on vinyl. The significance of this album's announcement is accentuated by its historical resonance, coinciding with the same day in 1952 when the world bore witness to the first-ever test of the hydrogen bomb. Midnight Colours is far more than a mere album; it's an exploration of the enigmatic relationship between humanity and time. Conceived as a sonic interpretation of the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the world's existential vulnerabilities, Irisarri's work beckons listeners to contemplate the gravity of our existence and the delicate balance that envelops it. Known for his contributions to the ambient and electronic music genres, Irisarri often explores themes of introspection, nostalgia, and the interplay between sound and emotion. Recorded in 2017, when the Clock was at two-and-a-half minutes-to-midnight (and at the time, the second-closest to midnight since the Clock's inception in 1947), Midnight Colours permeates with the melancholy of memories resurfacing as one approaches the end of life: the regrets, the closure, the uncertainties, the anxieties. Originally released as a limited tape on the beloved Atlanta-based label Geographic North, Midnight Colours swiftly garnered praise and acclaim within the ambient music sphere. Now, with this newly remastered edition on his own Black Knoll imprint, fans, both longstanding and newfound, can rediscover the album's captivating beauty in unprecedented clarity and depth. The reissue of Midnight Colours features band-new artwork and design by the renowned Mexican visual artist Daniel Castrejón. A frequent collaborator and friend of Irisarri, Castrejón's imagery impeccably complements the album's mood and themes, extending a compelling invitation for listeners to explore its aural world visually. This landmark release serves as a testament not only to Irisarri's enduring impact on the ambient music genre but also as a long-awaited gift to those who have patiently anticipated the album's vinyl debut. |
2024 |
€33.50 |
|
| |
Midnight Colours |
LP |
Longtime enthusiasts of ambient music have much to celebrate as Rafael Anton Irisarri's cherished out-of-print cassette, "Midnight Colours," returns in a meticulously remastered edition and makes its inaugural debut on vinyl. The significance of this album's announcement is accentuated by its historical resonance, coinciding with the same day in 1952 when the world bore witness to the first-ever test of the hydrogen bomb.
"Midnight Colours" is far more than a mere album; it's an exploration of the enigmatic relationship between humanity and time. Conceived as a sonic interpretation of the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the world's existential vulnerabilities, Irisarri's work beckons listeners to contemplate the gravity of our existence and the delicate balance that envelops it.
"I wanted to capture the essence of humanity's relationship with time, both the anxiety and the serene beauty that coexists within the shadows of the night," explains Irisarri. "The vinyl format adds a tactile dimension to the experience, inviting listeners to physically engage with the music."
Known for his contributions to the ambient and electronic music genres, Irisarri often explores themes of introspection, nostalgia, and the interplay between sound and emotion.
Recorded in 2017, when the Clock was at 2½ minutes-to-midnight (and at the time, the second-closest to midnight since the Clock's inception in 1947), "Midnight Colours" permeates with the melancholy of memories resurfacing as one approaches the end of life: the regrets, the closure, the uncertainties, the anxieties.
Originally released as a limited tape on the beloved Atlanta-based label Geographic North, "Midnight Colours" swiftly garnered praise and acclaim within the ambient music sphere. Now, with this newly remastered edition on his own Black Knoll imprint, fans, both longstanding and newfound, can rediscover the album's captivating beauty in unprecedented clarity and depth.
"I've wanted to release 'Midnight Colours' on vinyl since it first came out, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to. The remastering process, brilliantly done by Stephan Mathieu, has breathed new life into the work, and I'm eager for listeners to experience it in this format."
The reissue of "Midnight Colours" features band-new artwork and design by the renowned Mexican visual artist Daniel Castrejón. A frequent collaborator and friend of Irisarri, Castrejón's imagery impeccably complements the album's mood and themes, extending a compelling invitation for listeners to explore its aural world visually.
This landmark release serves as a testament not only to Irisarri's enduring impact on the ambient music genre but also as a long-awaited gift to those who have patiently anticipated the album's vinyl debut.
The remastered edition of "Midnight Colours" and its vinyl reissue are now available for pre-order.
|
2024 |
€31.50 |
|
| IRM |
Order⁴ |
CD |
"IRM has already existed for over 10 years and are recognized as one of the most interesting Industrial bands around. This time Martin Bladh and Erik Jarl are joined by a third band member Mikael Oretoft on bass-guitar. This new work by IRM is a deeper delving into the psyche of the self inflictor - the core of inner regions violently exposed. Comprised by four tracks, each exactly 15 minutes in length we are thrown into a vortex of feedback, cymbaldrones, heavy bass-strumming, nightmarish pianotinkles and irreproachable synthwork. Demanding your attention all the way through - certainly not an easy listening experience - describing the course of events is impossible. It is again a mature and intricate work of incisive delicacies and theatrical ambiences. The sense of detail throughout is immense and the editing perfect. The clinical heaviness of earlier works are now transformed into a pure harsh, static soundwave which are most often cut off by another, slower, softer but in ways a more painful and dynamic one. The lyrics here are deeper cuts into personal matters. A man altering between life and death - a calculating and disillusive thinker and recluse who has lost the grip of reality, or perhaps found another? The strife for self-control turned into sick dedication, waging war on himself to receive recognition - the end comes nearer. Seldom have we heard a strange work like this which turns both lyrics and music into a full whole - stay away if deeper encounters with the human mind offends. The creative artwork was made by the renouned Swedish artist Stefan Danielsson, who also made the frontcover artwork for Whitehouse album "Racket"." [label info]
www.coldmeatindustry.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Closure |
CD |
"This album marks the end of a trilogy that started with the ”Indications of Nigredo” 12” (2008) on Segerhuva and continued with the ”Order4” CD (2010) on Cold Meat Industry. Four years on, IRM now release the grand finale on Malignant Records. While the last album flowed between opposites and extremes, this new opus marks a kind of a return to more familiar ground, where traditional song structure and melody occasionally appear and are more suited to the shorter track timing. That’s not to say that this is an easy listen – this can be an electrifying and highly charged listen, that feels visceral and almost physical in nature, and there’s plenty of nightmarish circumstance to wade through. But the omnipresent narrative feel ultimately gives these recordings a nuanced and soothing edge. People familiar with subjects associated with IRM, such as flamboyance, exclusion and theatrical immersion will also find a home here this time around. Harder to grasp is what kind of existentialist limbo the perpetrator here resides in. Redemption - not likely. The album also features the stellar performances of English cellist Jo Quail and Swedish percussionist Ulrik Nilsson. Includes 20 page booklet." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| IRM / SKIN AREA |
Purple Screen // Red Eruption / Red Discharge |
10" |
Harsh Noise with a sometimes jazzy (yes!) feel to it from SKIN AREA, who use also drums and bass and voice, in fact they begin with harsh noises and end up in an improvisation. Very strange and beyond good and evil. IRM create one long dark piece interesting soundwalls... new swedish noise on a new swedish label !
“ Two of Sweden's finest bands share this slab of vinyl. Skin Area delivers a 14-minute track that begs you to push the volumes louder and louder until your brain becomes one with the raging hardcore noises they produce. You'll wish there were drugs as hard and vicious as these sounds, but I'm afraid western science hasn't come that far yet... Skin Area's versatility might shock (and offend) some listeners who are unprepared to blow their minds on a regular basis.
IRM makes full use of the 10" format with what could very well be their finest moment yet -- a 12 min epic that expertly combines menacing electronics and more traditional sounds (this should be among the top-five of any best-power-electronics-with-glockenspiel list ever compiled). Since none of you are regular church-goers, why not make it your Sunday ritual to blast the neighborhood with this 10"? You will be rewarded.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| IROHA & FRAGMENT |
Bittersweet |
CD |
"An original member of seminal Birmingham experimentalists Final (alongside Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) and Nic Bullen (Napalm Death, Scorn), Andy Swan's new project, IROHA, mixes layers of textured guitar and basslines with heartbreaking melodies and brutally slow beats to produce songs of melancholic beauty. For their first release IROHA team up with the very talented drone/ shoegaze/ ambient artist FRAGMENT from france to create a stunning 6 song sound collaboration. The songwriting is excellent. melody and melancholy start to emerge from behind the concrete foundations and work their way to a very emotional climax. 6 songs (2 from iroha, 2 from fragment, one collaboration track and one remix) in 45 minutes with perfectly fitting beautiful vocals and a dignified feeling for good melodies. Enjoy!" [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Bittersweet |
LP |
"Out now! LP comes in thick glossy gatefold covers with special 3D effect. 150 on 180g heavyweight brown vinyl with black haze and 350 on 180g black vinyl. CD comes with thick cardboard covers.
An original member of seminal Birmingham experimentalists Final (alongside Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) and Nic Bullen (Napalm Death, Scorn), Andy Swan's new project, IROHA, mixes layers of textured guitar and basslines with heartbreaking melodies and brutally slow beats to produce songs of melancholic beauty. For their first release IROHA team up with the very talented drone/ shoegaze/ ambient artist FRAGMENT from france to create a stunning 6 song sound collaboration. The songwriting is excellent. melody and melancholy start to emerge from behind the concrete foundations and work their way to a very emotional climax. 6 songs (2 from iroha, 2 from fragment, one collaboration track and one remix) in 45 minutes with perfectly fitting beautiful vocals and a dignified feeling for good melodies. Enjoy!" [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| IRR.APP. (ext.) |
Kreiselwelle |
CD |
"Das ist nun - nach Ozeanische Gefühle und Cosmic Superimposition - der abschließende Teil von M. S. Waldrons Trilogie über den Freudo-Marxisten, Faschismusund Orgontheoretiker und Parawissenschaftler Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Reich war der Auffassung, dass der von ihm postulierte ‚Orgonenergie-Ozean‘ 'Lebensenergie‘ in Form von ‚Kreiselwellen‘ ausstrahlt, die sich visuell, thermisch, elektroskopisch und mit Hilfe des Geiger-Müller-Zählers nachweisen lassen. Waldron spielt entsprechend mit ‚Spiral-Klängen‘, Spiralfedern, dem Geräusch anbrandender, ‚lappender‘ Wellen, Luftwirbeln, aufziehbarem
Spielzeug etc. Rasselnde, pulsierende, blubbrig unkende, wie Whirlies sirrende und automatisch klappernde Geräusche mischen sich mit
elementaren zu einem unruhigen Gedröhn. Die an- und abflauenden Erregungszustände sind Teil eines Kontinuums von gut einer Dreiviertelstunde. Schritte zu Beginn und zwischendurch vage Stimmfetzen im Hintergrund deuten an, dass der Mensch in diesem Energiefluss, diesem Kontinuum von Wirbeln mitschwingt." [Bad Alchemy]
" irr. app. (ext.) is the sound-engineering project of Californian M.S. Waldron, whose liminal slippages and detourned croons have been spotted recently on stage in Nurse With Wound. Yet for all of the antics that are required for the NWW spectacle, Mr. Waldron still dedicates himself in the parallel pursuits of irr. app. (ext.) with a discography that reads more like a wunderkammer of uncanny investigations into futility declared as its reverse.
Kreiselwelle is the third and final installment to a body of works that irr. app. (ext.) has composed under the influence of Wilhelm Reich, the unorthodox 20th Century psychologist who proposed amongst many hypotheses, an interconnectivity between energy, organisms, and the entire cosmos. The title to this album translates as ‘spiral wave,’ a structuralist form which Reich had observed throughout nature within numerous systems, whether that be the grand arcs of galaxies down to the radial symmetries of micro-organisms. For Kreiselwelle, Mr. Waldron returns to the same collection of field recordings which began this trilogy that includes Ozeanische Gefühle and Cosmic Superimposition; however, he restricted himself to those sounds with spiralling origins: resonating springs, the sounds of the ocean cyclically churning over pebbles on the beach, the wafting of air around various objects, or simply a lamp-shade spinning in place.
The resulting recording develops as an organic sublimation of one sound transforming from one state into another and then another. Motorized sounds of mechanical toys set askew settle into a tremolo phase pattern of electrical vibrations. These in turn morph into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. Many of the sounds seem to have origins in objects that are broken, obsolete, or just plain wrong; but through Waldron’s deft alchemy, these sounds are allowed to flourish in this richly dark and oddly serene amalgamation." [label info]
"...[as] for the ultra-fantastic soundwork of Irr. App. (Ext.), this Californian composer has been baffling and perplexing the ears of international listeners for not a few years now, and his new Kreiselwelle, a single 45-minute work of strange process music, is a slow voyage into the unknown. Within minutes, we're taken far beyond the relatively familiar world of "dark ambient" and enter a murky field of immersive and twisted shapes, where possible danger lurks at every corner. Conceptually rooted in an interpretation of the works of Wilhelm Reich, Kreiselwelle is the third part of a trilogy and connect with the "spiral waves" of the title, derived all of its sounds from things shaped like spirals (such as metal springs, or the circular movement of the ocean). In like manner, M. S. Waldron's composition will probably suck you into a whirlpool of doubt and ambiguity."
[Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Kreiselwelle is the conclusion to a superb trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) who used the words, philosophies, and eccentricities of Wilhelm Reich as the springboard into a realm of post-Surrealist, post-industrialist, post-drone arena of sound design. While a prominent European psychoanalyst, whose ideas could be seen as an occasional counterpoint to those of Freud, Reich may be best known for his parascientific research into Orgone energy, which he claimed was central and unifying force of life throughout the universe. Much of this latter research has been discredited and unfortunately shed a cloud of incredulity upon his psychoanalytic work. While Reich's claims of cloud-busting and orgone therapy offer particularly strong metaphors, M.S. Waldron - the principle architect to irr. app. (ext.) - has looked more to the psychological aspects of Reich's work. Kreiselwelle translates from the German as spiral wave or gyroscopic wave, and points to the similarities which Reich had noted in the structures of microscopic organisms, turbulent wave patterns, and spiral-arm galaxies.
Through this trilogy (which also includes Ozeanische Gefuhle and Cosmic Superimposition), Waldron mirrors Reich's early cosmology through a compositional fluidity that alludes to contemporary drone fascination, constructed through overlapping collages, occluded field recordings, sustained tones from atypical instruments, and crosshatched synthetic noises. All three of these albums were sourced from the same set of field recordings, but each detours into its own particular wandering. Kreiselwelle begins with a very slow hypnotic strum across a detuned guitar with liquid tactility and a warped distance buzz filling in the gaps. Grand sweeps of slashing drones that could originate from an echoing chainsaw deep in the woods forms an unlikely crescendo with sympathetic tones, only to collapse into the softened white noise of cars passing by. Soon after, a rhythmic tapping of agitated electronics forms a motorik rhythm against the tapestry of audio fluidity, with all of the electro-shock bursts of a tesla coil. This in turn morphs into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. For fans of any of work of Nurse With Wound (after all Mr. Waldron is in the NWW touring ensemble!), H.N.A.S., and the more esoteric recordings of Organum; and certainly of note for those of you taken by Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Expo '70, Emeralds, or any of the darker, weirder, more fucked-up drone ensembles of recent days. Very highly recommended!" [Aquarius Rec.] |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Flux / Crayfish |
MC |
"A loose reinterpretation of the classic Organum/Eddie Prévost collaboration ‘Crux/Flayed’ released in 1987. Professionally manufactured cassette with J-card and printed translucent shell, limited to 200 copies. Released by Errata In Excelsis. Duration: 40 minutes." [label info]
www.irrappext.com
|
2011 |
€11.50 |
|
| |
Ozeanische Gefühle |
CD |
Damn, this is SO GOOD! IRR.APP (ext.) zeigt hier, dass er nicht nur strangeste eher elektro-akustische Soundscapes zusammenschustern kann, sondern auch sehr fliessende, aber leicht “gefährliche” und surrealistische dronescapes, die pulsieren, mäandern, rotieren und einfach LEBEN. In der Tat scheint hier alles in Grenzenlosigkeit zu zerfliessen...... High TIP for Drone-Heads !
“irr. app. (ext) is the work of California-based sound artist Matt Waldron, whose collected body of work is far too important to continue to be forgotten. During the past decade, only two full albums -- Dust Pincher Appliances (2003 on Crouton) and An Uncertain Animal, Ruptured; Tissue Expanding in Conversation (1997 on Fire, Inc.) -- have seen the light of day despite the fact that perhaps a dozen albums have been completed. The public silence for irr. app. (ext) was never by Waldron's design, as numerous recording deals collapsed, one after the other. The story becomes all the more of conundrum as these misadventures of neglect and ignorance occurred despite Waldron's high-profile collaborations with Nurse With Wound and Stilluppsteypa. If a humble organization like the Helen Scarsdale Agency can have its say, then we speak to remove whatever curses that have haunted irr. app. (ext.) in the past and provide the world with the opportunity to revel in the spectacle and the beauty that is Matt Waldron's art. Had things gone differently, Ozeanische Gefühle would have been one of the lost irr. app. (ext.) recordings. That would have been a shame for Ozeanische Gefühle stands as an impeccable composition of post-surrealist dronescaping rivaling such masterpieces as The Hafler Trio's Kill The King, Jonathan Coleclough & Andrew Chalk's Sumac, and Nurse With Wound's Soliloquy For Lilith.
The title has origins with Freud and earlier thinkers; yet Waldron came across Ozeanische Gefühle (which translates from the German as "oceanic feelings") in his studies of Wilhelm Reich who referenced the term to describe the natural state of every healthy organism as connected to and engaged with the world around it, with its energies flowing from the center outwards. For Waldron, Reich's ideas became the starting point for a metonymic exercise seeking to discover that which is near a signifier and spiral beyond each successive discovery along a complicated aesthetic thread by way of intuition and accident.
The album tumbles through a series of sympathetic dronings, field recordings, and performative gestures, continuously traversing the emotional polarities of psychological tension and externalized jouissance. The album begins with a heavily processed flutter of sustained woodwinds accompanied by thunderous rumbles in the distance before dispersing amidst Bernhard Hermann-esque slashings of discordant strings. Later on, the grotesque pathos of a Wurlitzer organ dissolves into a blackened emptiness that envelopes the complex resonant frequencies from Waldron's slow, deliberate performance upon bowls and bells. Despite the incredible depth of his source materials, Waldron displays an uncanny intellect that reflects all of his wandering passages through the lens of a melancholic ambience. Simply put, Ozeanische Gefühle is a wonder to behold.”[ Helen Scarsdale, June 2004]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"If anyone has the ability to carry the post-Surrealist torch of Nurse With Wound, it would have to be Matt Waldron through his irr. app. (ext.) project. Like Nurse With Wound's eccentric genius Stapleton, Waldron would never qualify himself as a Surrealist, but it's a good jumping off point to describe their respective works. With Ozeanische Gefuhle, Waldron establishes irr. app. (ext.) establishes himself as one of the most gifted sound-sculptors whose work have passed through the doors of Aquarius. If you've ever picked up any drone / minimalist / ambient records or even just anything that Andee has poetically described as 'completely fucked', then you owe it yourself to pick up Ozeanische Gefuhle. This review could ramble on and on, but let's cut to the chase and state the obvious, this album is brilliant.
Strangely enough, Ozeanische Gefuhle -- as great as it is -- almost disappeared into the ether, as it was slated for release a few years back on another label who just sat on it for years, much to the chagrin of Mr. Waldron. Fortunately, the good people at the Helen Scarsdale Agency rectified the situation and made sure this album got its due recognition.
The title itself is an allusion to Wilhelm Reich, who used the term to describe the natural state of every healthy organism as connected to and engaged with the world around it. Such ideas in lesser hands would result in limp idylltronica with New Age sentimentality; but this is not the case for irr. app. (ext.), who solidly grounds this record upon a fundamental drone, which slinks its way through numerous field recordings and performative gestures. Waldron's masterpiece emerges as a tidal current of electronic sound, rumbling through blackened spaces and soaring with divine expressivity. As good if not better than anything by Nurse With Wound, Organum, :zoviet france:, Phill Niblock, and the Hafler Trio. Yeah, it's that good!" [Aquarius Rec.] |
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| IRR.APP.(EXT.) / PANICSVILLE |
split |
LP |
Rare Split-LP des kalifornischen Kult-Projekts mit dem Chicagoer PANICSVILLE, auf farbigem Vinyl, soon to be rare !!
"Irr. App. (Ext.) crafts some of the most bizarre and beautiful sound pieces around. Based in California, Matt Waldron is also one half of the current Nurse With Wound live shows. Panicsville, headed by Andy Ortmann, delves in the deeper regions of the subconscious forging sonic scenarios to undreamt nightmares. Limited to 500 copies on 140 gram marbled vinyl. Packaged in pro-pressed jackets with artwork by Waldron & Ortmann." [label info]
"For those of you who have had the opportunity to witness the live reincarnation of Nurse With Wound over the past couple of years, there are two bald men making funny noises usually on either side of Steven Stapleton. One is Andrew Liles, who had run the table in terms of a release schedule in 2007 releasing 14 full albums of eccentric drones and abstracted collages, some of which were pretty darn good, but could maybe have used some editing. The other bald man is M.S. Waldron, whose slowly trickled releases are impeccable constructions of modern day Surrealism through audio sorcery, clearly not in any need of an editor whatsoever. Outside of NWW, he's been toiling away in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California under the unwieldy moniker irr. app. (ext.).
This split release with Chicago's Panicsville has been in the works for many years now, finally seeing the light of day in early 2008. The irr. app. (ext.) half of the equation slowly spirals from one assemblage of discombobulated field recordings, agitated ether, and curious atmospherics into another set of equally malformed sounds, much like a black-acid kaleidoscope. Yes, it makes perfect sense that Stapleton would want Waldron to assist in Nurse performances, as he clearly has talent at taking weird noise making to a sublime level of abstraction.
With a name like Panicsville, the expectations were of an obstinant noise project; but instead, this splatter of mechanoid gestures pocking sea-sick drones is a worthy companion to irr. app. (ext.)'s sidereal brilliance. So good in fact, that we may seek out further recordings. So good in fact, that you too should pick this thing up. Limited to 500 copies." [Aquarius Records review]
www.nihilistrecords.net
|
2008 |
€23.00 |
|
| ISHIGAMI, KAZUYA |
[A-Z-B-MEN] |
CD |
This work of Kazuya Ishigami contains 3 elongated electro-acoustic drones and ambient pieces including a new version of two 30-minute drone 2 works, originally released on the American cassette label Onmyodo Cassette in 2016. Presented in a foldout sleeve with plain card inner. |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| ISHIJIMA, AKEMI |
Time drops |
maxiCD |
Japanischer Composer, bekannt von der Variations 2 – Compilation vom selben Label... Diese erste CD (20 min. playtime) beherbergt zwei Stücke, die sich als intensive, “Zen-like meditations on sound“ beschreiben lassen, sehr klare und helle electro-acoustics mit Glockensounds, "Time drops creates a poetic correspondence with cosmic harmony". Sehr zu empfehlen!
|
2000 |
€8.50 |
|
| ISOLRUBIN BK (AKA LUSTMORD) |
Crash Injury Trauma |
CD |
"Investigation of an automobile death is frequently inadequately conducted by medical investigators, partly because important questions are not anticipated at the time of the investigation. There are many facets of the investigation and each one has far-reaching consequences. The importance of proper handling of an automobile fatality cannot be over stressed. The following components of investigation procedures should not be neglected: [1] Scene investigation with photographs. [2] Complete autopsy with recording of injuries by description, drawings and photographs. [3] Evidence collection - clothing, glass traces, oil, paint, rust, and blood spots. [4] Follow-up studies - blood typing, analysis for carbon monoxide (if fire), alcohol (always), amphetamines (especially in truck drivers), and other drugs (if indicated). “Crash Injury Trauma” is a shocking and disturbing album, unflinching and relentless in its fascination with violent car accidents. Tires skid and horns blare, followed by the sickening sounds of crashing metal and shattering glass, screams, sirens and heart-pounding bass. It’s a cruel, sadistic and horrifying tour de force in the ambient and power electronics genre. B. Lustmord released “Crash Injury Trauma” in 1993, as a side project, under the pseudonym Isolrubin BK. Following “Heresy” and “The Monstrous Soul”, and preceding “The Place Where The Black Stars Hang”, the album was recorded during what is now considered a pivotal period in the British artist’s career. Out of print for nearly a decade, this new 2009 edition has been remastered from the ground up, and is presented in completely redesigned packaging. B. Lustmord has been actively pushing the boundaries of sound for nearly 30 years and has a remarkably broad and diverse list of credits, including an extensive discography of his own highly regarded recordings, including fifteen Lustmord releases. He has collaborated with a wide variety musicians, ranging from Industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle and SPK to alt rock mainstays Tool and Melvins. He has also worked on television shows, commercials and games, including Unreal Tournament III and Assassin's Creed, as well as on more than forty motion pictures, including The Crow, The Craft, Pitch Black and Underworld. Based in Los Angeles, he is currently he is working on new Lustmord material as well as Puscifer, an ongoing project with Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWYuTULNZAE
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| ISOMER |
Zero Lounge |
CD |
“Here it comes! The follow-up to "serpent age", the highly acclaimed first CD by the australian artist David Tonkin, the man behind Isomer. Isomer does not remain in the field of dark rhythmic ambience; with the second release it explores new fields. This CD brings a blend mixture of classical industrial elements, power electronic noises and ritual soundscapes...it still has its very own touch and varies its style often but never losses the thin red led of an extraordinary brilliance in recording. Follow Isomer into the Zero lounge.” [label description]
“The "Serpent Age" release is a grandiose exercise of 'Black Ambient' excesses. Majestic sweeping passages of haunting dispirited sounds, distilled throughout its eight tracks, drags you kicking into a musical world pitched in total darkness. Echoes reverberate and throb whilst minuscule glitches fight for your attention. Fragments of a barely audible beat dissolve around intricate patterns of electronic waveforms. "Serpent Age" is recommended to be heard at night with the lights turned out and with no outside interference. Under these conditions it comes alive and envelopes you like a tender lover, holding and squeezing you tightly, never letting you go. Try it. You'll see what I'm getting at. This is one of the finest examples of 'Black Ambient' music I've heard in many a long time and, of course, is mega highly rated. Nice one Isomer. Nice one Tesco.“ [Aural Pressure]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Face toward the Sun |
CD |
Drittes Album für das australische "old school" Projekt, wellende und pulsierende Analog-Synths sind hier omnipräsent und werden mit agigatorischem Stimm-Material angereichert. Aggressiver und eher "true Industrial" als zuvor..
"Isomer's third cd with Tesco takes a sharp turn toward more aggressive territory, with the raw industrial hinted at in previous outings getting a proper airing. The dark ambient textures for which he is known still feature, but Face Toward the Sun forges new stylistic ground for the project. From the throbbing electronics of the opening track, through power electronics, walls of noise, violent vocal deliveries and carefully structured dark ambience, this is a characteristically varied album. Never one to shy from a dirty old blending of styles, a nice little martial ditty even makes an appearance for the militant in all of us. Face Toward the Sun was assembled from improvisations, previously unused material and nights of MS-20 hard-ons, making a lusty, varied album of industrial music. Some of the tracks here has been already presented on the well received DVD Cold Meat Live in Australia, where Isomer delivered one of the most surprising gigs of the festival. The studio versions of the tracks here will appeal to listeners of martial industrial as well as to an industrial dark ambient audience. Presented in a double gatefold digipack with potent imagery, total running time: 58 min. This cd comes highly recommended." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| ITAMOC / MARINA STEWART |
Sunshine Discord |
7inch |
"7" (black wax).
Limited Edition of 100.
Carefully mastered audio by Gavin Weiß @ SoundSupport Hamburg. Stamped and numbered cover sheet.
Comes with two special postcards.
First appearance of Marina Stewart on vinyl since 1986." [label info]
www.aemag.virb.com
|
2012 |
€9.00 |
|
| ITO & MIKAWA & YOSHIHIDE / VAN DER HEIDE & FURUDATE |
Aoyama Noise. Live at Cay |
LP |
"This album consist of two live perfomance in Japan at Aoyama Cay. Side A was played by Ito Maq, Mikawa Toshiji and Otomo Yoshihide. this track is full of Harsh Noises taht was made of a Rap top, a turntable and electronics. Side A was played by Edwin Van Der Heide and Tetsuo Furudate. this track contains silence sounds and Harsh Noise sounds." [label info]
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| IVERSEN, J-M. |
Singles |
CD-R |
Das norwegischer Explorer-Weblabel TIBPROD wird von JAN-M. IVERSEN betrieben, der zur Generation neuer unabhängiger „Networker“ gehört - seine Welt besteht aus digitalen Medien und ‚freien’ MP3-Releases. Auf SINGLES zeigen 24 Stücke das ganze Spektrum seines « experimental drone« - Sounds auf: alien ambience, minimale GeräuschKonturen, digitale Verfremdungen, sphärisch-sehnsuchtsvolle Flächen...... Widersprüchliches wird vereint. Die tracks hier sind oft bisher nur als MP3-Singles erschienen, Titelnamen entstehen durch Übernahme von nicht-verstehbaren Phrasen aus SPAM-mails. JAN IVERSEN entführt augenzwinkernd in eine autonome Zone freier Experimentierfreudigkeit, obskur und verwunschen, wie geschaffen um neue Erfahrungen mit SOUND zu machen....
|
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| JACASZEK & KWARTLUDIUM |
Catalogue des Arbres |
CD |
"CD - 8 tracks - 46:06
Track listing and notes:
1. Sigh (Les peupliers)
2. Green hour
3. A book of lake (Roselière)
4. Garden (Les sureaux)
5. From a seashell
6. Circling (Le pré)
7. Anthem (La forêt)
8. Kingdom (Les chênes, les bouleaux)
For the past decade or so, Polish musician Michal Jacaszek has been exploring a new, resolutely modern chapter in Eastern Europe’s long, storied love affair with classical music. His creations are painstakingly crafted collages of electronic textures and baroque instrumentation, harpsichords being swarmed by woolly static one minute and pulled apart by billowing wind the next. A push-and-pull tension runs deep and constant throughout. Ambient music is rarely so sonically challenging. Jacaszek has recorded for Ghostly International, Miasmah, Gusstaff Records and Experimedia and other labels. This is his first release for Touch.
Michał Jacaszek writes:
"When poets and writers declare their enchantment for the forms of nature, they often use musical terms as methaphors. Visual artists' creations often resemble graphic partitas, when recapturing the rhythms of landscapes.Confirming, in a way, these musical intuitions, composers write great music deeply inspired by birdsongs, wind rustlings, waves repetitions etc.
Making "Cataloguge des Arbres”, my ambition was to join this broad artistic movement devoted to natural phenomena and find my own way to describe trees: their forms, atmosphere and mystery. I have started with "open air" recordings, capturing mainly leaves'' rustlings - from different distances, in different locations and weather conditions. This collection of nature recordings was transformed into a kind of "organic drone" and becomes a main background for instrumental and voice improvisations. My initial inspiration here was Olivier Messiaen's' bird songs transcriptions for piano – the composer's work title "Catalogue d'Oiseaux" I have paraphrased on my album . A piano, clarinets, violin and percussion parts, performed by the Kwartludium ensemble, were electronically processed, and afterwards all this electro-acoustic material was turned into a collection of 8 soundscapes - forgotten songs performed secretly by my beloved trees."
composed, recorded and produced by Michał Jacaszek | additional composing and all instrumental parts performed by Kwartludium | Voice parts (tracks 1, 8) performed by 441 Hz chamber choir | Additional clarinet parts (tracks 2, 3) performed by Andrzej Wojciechowski Grand piano recorded by Cezary Joczyn at Gdańsk Academy of Music
Kwartludium are Dagna Sadkowska: violin | Michał Górczyński: clarinet, bass clarinet | Paweł Nowicki: percussion | Piotr Nowicki: grand piano
Biography:
Michał Jacaszek lives in Gdansk, Poland.
Author and producer of electroacoustic music, composer of soundtracks and theatre music, and sound artist. He is a curator of C3 Festival /Club Contemporary Classical/. Member of Polish Society for Electro-acoustic Music. Michał Jacaszek lives in Gdansk, Poland. Jacaszek gained Grand Prix at "Dwa Teatry" Festival for music composed for the play "Golgota Wrocławska" directed by Jan Komasa. "Walking underwater" a documentary by E. Kubarska with music by Jacaszek has recently been awarded The Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.
He has performed in USA (Unsound New York, Communikey, Hopscotch), in Canada (Mutek ), in Great Britain (Fertilizer Festival, Apha Ville Festival), in Nederlands (Urbanexplorer Festival), in Belgium (Fereejen Festival), Portugal, Sweden (Volt Festival), Slovakia, Germany, Ukraine and Russia (Electro-Mechanica Festival); as well as in Poland at the most important festivals: Heineken Opener Festival, Off Festival, Unsound Festival, Astigmatic.
www.jacaszek.com
www.kwartludium.com
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"From the outside it may seem that Touch always works with the same artists and to some extent that's probably true. What's wrong with that? They act as a proper record label, not working on a project-to-project basis, but push a limited of artists. But sometimes an entirely new name pops up, such as Michal Jacaszek from Poland, who is a composer of soundtracks and theatre music, as well as a curator for various festivals. His previous work was released by Ghostly International Miasmah, Gustaff Records and Experimedia, although I must say I didn't hear any of that. Here he works with a quartet called Kwartludium: Dagna Sadkowska on violin, Michal Gorczynski on clarinet and bass clarinet, Pawel Nowicki on percussion and Piotr Nowicki on grand piano. Much like composers have tried to describe animals through instruments (Messiaen, Saint-Saens), Jacaszek wanted to describe trees, 'their forms, atmosphere and mystery'. He started with the recording of leaves rustling and wrote the notes
out for the quartet and then, in the final stage, treated everything in a way that is owed to the world of electro-acoustic music. The 441 Hz Chmaber Choir performed some voice parts. Great story, fine music, which carefully balances on the modern classical on one side and electro-acoustic music on the other side. Jacaszek really makes his sounds - whatever source - to have a rustling character, such as in 'Garden (Les Sureaux)' - which rustles all around - the field recordings, the percussion instruments, but also the other instruments making similar gestures. Most of the time this is played introspectively, but not dark, doomy. It's airy music, open, like a mild summer breeze (and with today's sunny weather I can exactly know how that feels), meandering through space, without getting weightless or new age inspired. Jacaszek knows how to create music that is partly gritty, a bit dirty, just off the beaten track. I'm never too fond of anything that is even remotely modern classical,
but I must say: this is great!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| JACKMAN, DAVID (=ORGANUM) |
Verhalte Dich ruhig |
CD |
Re-release einer ultra-raren Cassette von 1996...
“ Long time announced rerelease of a very rare cassette (edition of 61 copies only) from 1996. The two pieces (with a total playing time of about 30 minutes) can be seen as the first step into a direction which later developed into the 'Laus' 7inch (DS17), 'Sternklare Nacht' CDR & 'Rabenfeld' CDR (Flugzeug Schallplatten) and also the Machine Gun pieces. Found sounds (here a real orchestra) overlaid and altered making this a very strange listening experience indeed. "For a live performance any number of musicians using any instrumentation play along with the tape as best they can" (from the liner notes of the cassette). Full color booklet.” [label press release].
www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Herbstsonne |
CD |
"A new work by David Jackman (Organum), Herbstsonne consists of a single 47 min. long track which is the result of recording sessions at RMS Studios South London in 2018.
Using the sounds of Tanpura, Piano, Organ and Bells the music perfectly captures the title of the piece which translates to Autumn Sun.
Precision editing by Alan Jones. Excellent artwork by Jonathan Coleclough." [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de/DS119.html
"Bevor David Jackman als Organum in der ersten Hälfte der 80er begann, hatte er eine Reihe von Aufnahmen unter seinem eigenen Namen gemacht, aber auch danach veröffentlichte er immer wieder als David Jackman. Während er als Organum aus zahlreichen Schichten zu bestehende, beeindruckende schabende Drones kreierte, die teilweise sehr krachig, später aber (auch) kontemplativ(er) sein konnten, arbeitete er bei anderen Aufnahmen mit Loops, z.B. auf den auf historischen Aufnahmen aus dem Imperial War Museum basierenden Veröffentlichungen, auf denen man dann tatsächlich „machine guns fighting“ hören konnte. Man denke auch an den geloopten Orchesterkitsch auf „Verhalte dich ruhig“, der in Verbindung mit Titel und Artwork eine durchaus sinistre Note bekam.
„Herbstsonne“ ist ein Album, das allerdings (ästhetisch wie musikalisch) sehr (stark) an die (reduzierten) Organum-Aufnahmen der vergangenen Jahre erinnert. Nach längerer Pause erschien im vergangenen Jahr das Album „Raven“, über das es hier hieß: „Waren die früheren Aufnahmen oft enorm verdichtet, so finden sich hier zahlreiche Momente des Innehaltens, Leerstellen – vielleicht auch der Leere (und das ist nicht als pejorative Beschreibung der Musik zu lesen, sondern als existentielle Aussage).“ Und nicht nur, was das Innehalten, sondern auch was die verwendeten Instrumente anbelangt, so könnte „Herbstsonne“ fast aus den gleichen Sessions stammen: Ein Klavier wird angeschlagen und der Ton verklingt, im Hintergrund hört man der Tampura, einer Langhalslaute, und einer Orgel entlockte Drones. Glocken setzen ein. Jackman hatte vor Jahren einmal gesagt, seine neuen Arbeiten seien von Wiederholung(en) geprägt. Waren auf „Raven“ 13 fast identische dreiminütige Stücke zu hören, findet auf „Herbstsonne“ die Wiederholung innerhalb des 47-minütigen Stücks statt.
Insgesamt finden sich bei Jackman kaum Hinweise auf Deutungen, Hinweise, wie die Alben einzuordnen sind (bezeichnenderweise nannte er in einem früheren Interview „the blind desire to make sounds“ als Motivation). Andere haben die Musik der letzten Jahre sicher nicht unzutreffend als Abschiedssoundtracks gedeutet und die Musik auf “Herbstsonne” lässt von der erzeugten Stimmung auch eher an den Herbst des Lebens und die näherrückende Begegnung mit dem Schnitter denken als an die noch wärmende Sonne, die die verfärbten Blätter illuminiert. Letztlich ist es aber völlig egal, wie man diese Veröffentlichung deutet oder zu verstehen glaubt, denn wie bei allen anderen Arbeiten Jackmans gelingt es auch hier, den Zuhörenden in einen Zustand zu versetzen, der im positivsten Sinne kaum greifbar ist." (MG - African Paper) |
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Silence in that Time |
CD |
"The follow up to last year's critically acclaimed album HERBSTSONNE (Die Stadt / DS119), SILENCE IN THAT TIME is a direct offshot of the former album, adding more sounds to the overall sound palette. Recorded at RMS Studios South London in 2019, the single 42 min. long track stands as another distinctively beautiful and haunting work in the artist's discography. Artwork by Jonathan Coleclough.
Running time: 42:08
Edition: 300 copies, Digisleeve
Release date: 09.02.2020" [label info]
"Nach dem Organum-Album “Sorow” aus dem Jahr 2010 herrschte erst einmal Stille und David Jackman schien verstummt zu sein. Dann plötzlich erschien 2018 mit „Raven“ ein neues Album und 2019 mit „Herbstsonne“eine Veröffentlichung unter eigenem Namen. Vor ein paar Monaten brachten Siren Records mit dem lapidar betitelten „Electronics“ ein erstaunlich noisiges Organum-Album heraus, das aus den Alben der letzten Jahre herausstach.
Das neue auf Die Stadt veröffentlichte Jackman-Album knüpft dagegen (stark) an “Herbstsonne” an: Der ganze 42-minütige Track wird durchzogen von dem kurz angeschlagenen und langsam nach- und verhallenden Klavier, man hört die leicht flirrenden Klänge der Tampura, Orgeldrones und Kirchenglocken, dazu kommt das Rabenkrähen, das auf “Raven” zu hören war. Jackman arbeitet (natürlich wieder) mit der Repetitio, die auch schon die „Holy“-Trilogie prägte, und während des gesamten Stücks fragt man sich immer wieder, ob man leichte (Ver-)Änderungen, Variationen hört. Nach etwa 14 Minuten gibt es eine kurze Pause, nach 27 eine weitere.
Wie auch auf fast allen anderen Arbeiten Jackmans finden sich so gut wie keinerlei Hinweise auf eine mögliche (Be-)Deutung. Bezogen auf „Herbstsonne“ hieß es auf diesen Seiten: “Andere haben die Musik der letzten Jahre sicher nicht unzutreffend als Abschiedssoundtracks gedeutet und die Musik auf ‘Herbstsonne’ lässt von der erzeugten Stimmung auch eher an den Herbst des Lebens und die näherrückende Begegnung mit dem Schnitter denken als an die noch wärmende Sonne, die die verfärbten Blätter illuminiert.“ Gerade das Verhallen, das allmähliche Verschwinden der einzelnen Klangquellen und Instrumente könnte auch hier solch eine Interpretation nahelegen. Zudem fällt bei näherer Betrachtung des Artworks auf, dass auf dem Cover von “Herbstsonne” D Jackman zu lesen war, auf “Silence In That Time” nur noch Jackman steht, also scheinbar auch der Künster langsam verschwindet. Hilft es, wenn man nun weiß, dass die titelgebende Formulierung dem Buch Amos (in der Übersetzung aus der King- James-Bible) entnommen ist, in dem der Prophet spricht: „For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.“ Bezogen auf die “Holy-Trilogie” sagte Jackman in einem seiner seltenen Interviews: “The first two parts of the threesome have an obvious flavour of Christianity, an ambience which probably does not merit much discussion beyond saying that it is an echo from my childhood. One gets old. One considers these things.” Im selben Interview hieß es auch auf mögliche Interpretationen: “I am just making my own music, nothing more. I am not offering a ‘position’. I do get a little tired of saying that. People expect far too much of a few sounds ” Wie auch immer – die “few sounds”, die Jackman auf seinen letzten Veröffentlichungen variiert, schaffen es (immer wieder aufs Neue) den Hörenden in eine ganz eigene, kaum greifbare Welt zu transportieren." (MG/African Paper] |
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| JAMES, PETER |
Fade in/Burn out |
mCD-R |
peter james is a british sound artist currently based in scotland. he's been releasing beautiful solo works for the past 20 years, mainly in the ambient genre. he was also a member of the belgium-based 48cameras collective.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/fade-in-burn-out-alm-139
"And serendipity it is this week. Two days ago, I wrote I never heard of Peter James (see elsewhere), and there he is again. Or is he not? Taalem says that he's a British artist, based in Scotland and that he was a member of 48cameras, whereas the 'other' Peter James runs the Australian Iceage Productions. What is furthermore confusing is the strong similarity between this one and the other one when it comes to synthesizers and the resulting drones. Taalem was (past tense now for this 3" series) a label concerned with all sorts of ambient music, and Peter James' music is entirely different from that of Pierre Julliard. James has a massive drone going for twenty-two minutes, which, following a quick fade-in, just goes up and up in volume and intensity. All dark from the start and allows for some mid-range frequencies, adding to the intensity. A solid piece, sure, but also not a very surprising piece in the world of massive ambient drones." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| JARBOE / JUSTIN K. BROADRICK |
J2 |
CD |
"Jarboe (SWANS) & Justin Broadrick (JESU, GODFLESH) team up again for this 6 song EP which can be considered the entry into the forthcoming larger denser work, which is an exploration into total sound over the parameters of traditional sound structure." [label info]
"Apparently this album hit the Billboard "New Age" charts! Not sure how or why, you wouldn't think that a collaboration between one of the Swans and a member of Godflesh would qualify as New Age (and it really isn't!). Downtempo electronica with some avant-garde elements, more like, with hints of doomic menace. If you're looking for the crushing metallic guitars of Godflesh, you won't quite find them, though many passages are deep and dark and spooky enough to remind us of Broadrick's current project Jesu.
The deal with this perhaps inevitable collaboration (inevitable given Broadrick's obvious Swans fandom, and Jarboe's openness to collaborative ventures, witness her earlier disc with Neurosis), is that it's JB making mostly electronic backgrounds for Jarboe to do her thing vocally... operatic excesses, and mewlings and moanings... so obviously you've got to be into "her thing". Some are, some aren't. The ambient, layered and looped wailings of the opener, "Decay", should separate the two camps pretty clearly. Some will find Jarboe's vocals to be full of mystery and emotion, others, simply irritating (though it's only on "Tribal Limo" that we really got annoyed with her, the track featuring weird Diamanda Galas yodelling over junky Gang Gang Dance-ish beats). That said, for those into Jarboe, there's a lot to like here.
And we can kind of see how, New Age or not, this could crack the charts on the strength some of the better cuts, like "Let Go" which
sounds a lot like Portishead or Bjork, Jarboe effecting a babygirl voice under a blanket of crackley drone, accompanied by a spare snare thwack..."[Aquarius Rec]
www.theendrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| JARDIN D'USURE |
Jardin d'Usure revoit le Daily-Bul |
CD |
"The Belgian duo Jardin d'Usure (Marc Moedea and Gabriel Severin) made their first CD in 1994 ("Musique Du Garrot Et De La Ferraille") where there was already a strong interest on so-called literary avant-garde movements, with, for example, some interpretations of dada poems from Raoul Hausmann, Hugo Ball and co. This time the duo is working on seven funny texts from another international avant-garde movement, the Daily-Bul (born at La Louviere at the end of the fifties). These sardonic and insane interpretations of texts from Balthazar, the Piqueray brothers, Pol Bury, etc. are accompanied by some strong electroacoustic pieces in Ultraphonist style (one of their other common projects)." [label info]
www.waystyx.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| JARL |
Out of balance |
CD |
MALIGNANT RECORDS bringt als Label nicht besonders viel heraus, aber wenn dann handelt es sich oft um äusserst hochkaratige Newcomer aus dem Bereich apocalyptic doom oder noise ambient. JARL ist auch so ein Fall: Die IRM-Hälfte brilliert mit dunkel-dröhnend-monumentalem noise-ambient, angefüllt mit repetitiv-hypnotischen Soundmustern, ein schwarzer Moloch aus Klang und Hitze! Anklänge an YEN POX, INADE oder GRUNTSPLATTER.
“Side project of Erik Jarl, member of the revered and immensely powerful heavy electronics outfit IRM. Jarl doesn't come with the aggression of that project, but it does evoke similar feelings of instability and dementia via more atmospheric means. The disc consists of 17 tracks in total, each flowing into each other, with the early pieces having an almost cosmic heaviness (a la Inade) - pulsing and weighty, the sounds of winds sweeping across a barren and distant orb. As it progresses however, the seeds of profound sickness and decay are planted and begin to blossom;the tones and textures becoming more surreal and unsettling, the drones a bit more persistent and penetrating, abandoning listeners in a white walled room to confront their inner demons and degenerating psyche.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Akatisi / Somnolens Part I-VI |
CD |
"Advanced Experimental Drone"-Musik von ERIK JARL (eine Hälfte von IRM), das grossartige TANTRIC-Album (aufgenommen bereits 2003); schwelende Geräuschfelder, wummernde Klangflächen, elektro-magnetische Mikrodetail-statik, zwischen Ent- und Anspannung, voller interessanter Sounds & kontemplativer Kraft !
"Solo material from soundartist Erik Jarl known by his works with power electronics monster IRM. Sustained static fields and repetitive patterns construct expressive layers of sound in contrasting colours. Delicately and ambitiously put together to a transcendental cycle - this is music for occidental meditation. Limited to 499 copies." [label info]
"....Over the 6 tracks and 45+ minutes Erik has taken the concept of drone music and revitalised and buffed this sometimes staid and boring music into a shimmering gossamer sheen. Drifting pastoral passages are continually looped into hypnotic rippling waves of sound that appear almost ethereal in structure. Slight faint jarring effects are carefully layered into the mix along with flecks of faint Industrial and ritualistic bias that reaches out towards black malevolent ambience before being drawn back clutching despondently at the air. "Akatisi / Somnolens" is music to meditate to. To dream sweet dreams to. To fully immerse yourself and lose all track of time to. Time becomes totally irrelevant, a non event, when listening to music that bathes and cloaks the senses in full spectrum of a rainbow. Erik and his amazing Technicolor drone overcoat.
Around this part of a review I suppose I’ve got to try and mention like minded recording artists in case the words I’ve written haven’t conveyed the musical style adequately enough. Fair enough…though it will be a difficult task…so having had a quick trawl through my record collection I offer up the following: MRSA-16, Troum and Elektro Nova. Elements of each can be found ever so partially on "Akatisi / Somnolens" but Erik has retained a unique individuality and foresight which has been stamped firmly across this recording. If his earlier works were his evolution then "Akatisi / Somnolens" marks his re-birth as a genuine musical maestro. Artist and label in a marriage made just for each other." [Aural Pressure]
www.the-edge.ws/pretentious/tantric-harmonies
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Amygdala Colours - Hemisphere Rotation |
CD |
"Jarl has a long discography behind him with more than 15 releases since his solo project started in the early years of the millenia. Describing his music as unbalanced, turbulent, withdrawn electronics that focus on isolation he's made an impact on the electronic scene defining an own explicit sound.
"Amygdala Colours - Hemisphere Rotation" is the second album on Reverse Alignment and follows the critically acclaimed "Case 1959 - Dyatlov". But where previous album explored the external mysteries of Dyatlov 1959 Jarl take us unto an internal trip through the structures and events of the cognitive mind with a main focus on the Amygdala, where the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions occur.
This album is built with layers of sound which slowely gets audible and disappears psychedelically. A variation of electronic and acoustic treatments has been used and the whole album is a mastodon track passing 50 minutes. As usual, the listener gets a mixture of drone, ambient and industrial that are molded perfectly into "that" typical Jarl-ish sound that sure wont dissapoint.
Accompanied with the musical expression comes astonishing work from Karolina Urbaniak who designed the cover. It is as if you could touch the music." [label info]
reversealignment.bandcamp.com
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Intensive Fracture |
MC |
First time released by Swedish label Abisko the record was immediately sold out. After long years, it is now re-released by Autarkeia label. Those closely following JARL music will hear perhaps the strongest and most dynamic sound of the Swedish ambient composer. Streams of robust multi-layer analogical sound slightly smack of Japanese sound masters CCCC. The Swede’s sound is more structured, the tracks evolve logically and rhythmically unlike harsh noise.
Lim. E 90 copies. Normal bias tape. C42 |
2016 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Inner Domain |
do-CD |
“Inner Domain” is a third (after “Tunguska Event” and “Negative Rotation/ Intensive Fracture”) release by Jarl on Zoharum label.
Artist himself often labels his music as withdrawn electronics focused on isolation. Psychedelic, chemical, unbalanced, from calm to destructive, insomnia with or without structure. In this case music was influenced by experiencing sleep paralysis. Each CD deals with either the hypnagogic or hypnopompic state. The before and after experience.
“Inner Domain” offers a bit more primitive and aggressive approach to sound but still has that psychedelic feel to it which hallmarks Jarl’s works. Originally intended for a double cassette release and recorded between 2007 and 2009 on either a 4 or 8 track recorder. Electronic sounds on album made with a wave form generator interwine with acoustic sounds with lots of delay. No computer was used during the recording process. Artwork made by Karolina Urbaniak
2CD album folded in 6-panel ecopack released in strictly limited edition of 300 copies
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/inner-domain
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Spectrum Confusion |
CD |
Spectrum Confusion is Jarl’s fifth album on Reverse Alignment, following on from 2019’s massive triple CD release Symptoms Variation/ Sensory Deprivation. And once again Karolina Urbaniak has masterfully created the cover artwork, as she’s done for the four earlier Jarl releases, also released by RA.
Spectrum Confusion consists of three long-form pieces showcasing his trademark psychedelic, hypnotic approach, but this time the presence of bubbling and pulsating sounds makes the music sound closer to the electronic experiments of Northern European avant-garde composers in conjunction with more melodic passages harmonically coexisting alongside the abstract elements. Jarl’s music has entered its more mature stage here, and Spectrum Confusion consolidates his reputation as one of the most interesting and original European electronic music composers.
Swedish musician Erik Jarl has been active since the Fall of 1999, principally as Jarl. He was also a member of post-industrial act IRM, of which Erik was one of the founding members. Jarl’s music has been released on several labels through the years, and he has collaborated with acts like Anemone Tube, Envenomist, and Skin Area. Erik Jarl composes his music through a total analogue approach with the use of synthesisers, analogue sequencers, waveform generators, and oscillators, as well as several echo/reverb and delay units.
https://reversealignment.bandcamp.com/album/spectrum-confusion
"More and more, the territory for Vital Weekly is that of modern classical music, improvised music and such; the last resort of physical releases, perhaps? I am glad that there is also music from Erik Jarl dropping on my doorstep now and then. Just for the sake of hearing something else, also because I have been quite a fan of his music over the years. After all these years of reviewing his music, I still have not a clear picture of what Jarl does. Maybe I believed he was a man of computer technology for a while, but I think that the modular synthesiser is his instrument of choice in recent times. When I was playing this CD, I used some more volume to drown out the clarinet rehearsals taking place upstairs, and it occurs to me that there is a slightly more cosmic streak to his music this time around. I doubt the volume is a contributing factor to that thought. I had this realisation, and I thought there was a straight line from Conrad Schnitzler's 'non-keyboard electronics' to the world of industrial music. Jarl's sonic paintings are dark and bleak; they are slow and minimal. Yet, it is also music of hope and light. This music is not the dystopian cosmic journey of a spaceship returning to the destroyed earth, but rather, well, such as I hear this, a celebratory trip back home. The spacecraft is in slow motion returning from whatever it was doing in space anyway. The additional reverb sets some of the moods here. It bursts and bubbles along the edges of the massive drones. Maybe because Jarl adds a melodic touch to his electronics, it made me think of that. I took a peek at Vangelis' recent tribute to Juno (the Jupiter moon, not the synthesiser), hailed in the daily, but I feel NASA missed out on Jarl's music for this occasion. His soundtrack would fit Juno much better than Vangelis' orchestral brushes. Alright, next time, Nasa, go to Sweden and talk to Jarl!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| JARL / ENVENOMIST |
Tunguska Event |
CD |
"Erik has teamed up with David Reed aka Envenomist to create a sonic reenactment of the Tunguska event. It was ”was a large explosion which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 07:14 on June 30, 1908” [Wikipedia]. It flattened 2,000 km2 of the forest and it caused glowing sunsets on the horizon. There are many theories concerning the cause of this particular event. Some scientists claim it was connected with an asteroid or comet that burst in the air above the region, others claim that it might have been a small black hole passing near the Earth. The mystery is still unsolved.
The music, presented here in five parts, is full of oily drones and industrial blasts intertwined with unsettling ambient textures. The sound on this recording is of complex and mature nature, which hardly comes as a surprise when thinking about years both musicians spent mastering their skills (David with Envenomist and Luasa Raelon; Erik both in IRM and Skin Area, and solo known simply as Jarl). It is an interesting piece of work for those who search for something on the fringes of electronic music. The CD is housed in an ecopak sleeve and is strictly limited to 300 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Erik Jarl is not a man to release a lot of music. I quite enjoyed his 'Parallel/Collapsing', way back in Vital Weekly 401, and since then he also was reviewed in Vital Weekly 470 and 860, and on a few compilations. Here he works together with David Reed, also known as Envenomist, who has had releases on Brise Cul, Segerhuva, Chrondictic Sound and Bloodlust! Certainly two dark drone meisters who meet up here. Their CD is about events at Tunguska, in 1908: a large explosion that flattened 2,000 square kilometres of forest. Why it happened it was not clear, so that's fertile ground for conspiratists worldwide: alien life form, asteroid or comet explosion or a black hole passing earth. Still a mystery that remains unsolved. I assume both gentlemen are at the controls of a bunch of synthesizers and sound effects and together they created five top-heavy pieces of dark synthesizer music. It's not of the pure drone variation, starting and then stopping at some point, but it comes in waves; like a sea at night: you hear the waves, feel a cold wind in the face, but you can hardly see a thing. Another difference is that there is a bunch of looped, percussive sounds. Usually without much variation they simply tick away time, rather than setting a beat. It's all spooky, mysterious and it could very well the soundtrack to the X-files or any other movie on the invasion of the body snatchers. It's music that fits early dark autumn evening very well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| JASCH |
Shimmer |
CD |
Knistern, vibratorisch wummernde & hell zerfliessende Streicher-Drones, in der Tat „schimmernd“ wie Licht; sehr schön wie sich hier Flächen überlagern, vermengen & gegenseitig auslöschen zu scheinen, ab und zu kommen „konkretere“ Streicher-Klänge an die Oberfläche... 8 Stücke sehr gelungene experimental drones von diesem uns bisher unbekannten Schweizer.
“SHIMMER from the swiss artist JASCH (catalogue number 6) marks a new step in the development of dOc as it is the first release without any involvement of label owner Pure (besides dOc8 "Die Instabilität der Symmetrie" which was a cooperation with Cologne based label Grob). It therefore stands for the label's conceptual shift from a platform for documenting solo and collaborative live works to a release possibility for like minded sound and video artists. SHIMMER features a mixture of organic and synthetic characters that build crystalline shimmering layered sonic spaces. A constant flow of steadily evolving palettes of rich sound drifts from standstill to hectic, from recognisable instrumental timbre to digital fragments, constantly changing spatial perspectives and acoustic appearance. the most notable sound source for these eight tracks are recordings of string instruments, even though echoes of voices and traces of field recordings evoke an intimate exchange with the sonic materials used for this work. All eight tracks were recorded during a 4 month time span in spring and summer of 2003. Most of the pieces are direct-to-disk live-recordings, a few were recorded in the studio. all pieces were improvised using custom made soft- and hardware and no edits were applied in postproduction. the main tools use process-based algorithms and open dynamic systems geared towards intuitive and instantaneous interaction.
JASCH is an active musician coming from the fields of improvisation with a background in jazz and electroacoustic music. He holds a degree in jazz doublebass and a masters in digital arts. He has been performing improvised, electroacoustic and audio/visual electronic works in a variety of settings in festivals and clubs all over europe and north america.
Beside his solo works he is member of DYAD, the critically acclaimed live project with american video artist Johnny Dekam, whose collaboration DVD with dOc label owner Pure is released just a the same time.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| JASENKA, ANTANAS |
Deusexmachina |
CD |
Entdeckung auf ELECTROSHOCK ! Aufregende, ausufernde Elektro-Akustik, mal in sphärische Gebiete driftend, dann wieder hochdynamisch und explosiv ausbrechend...
“....Then comes Antanas Jasenka and his "Deusexmachina", a disc of fantastic noise art. The album goes from moments of tensed-up silences and slow-building background noises a la Francisco Lopez to outbursts of finely chiselled harsh noise the likes of Merzbow or Sickness. A lot of action takes place between these two poles, cinematic scenes that pair found sounds with digital treatments to produce captivating sonic environments. In "Accsident" (sic) strings, brushes, and a voice sample are arranged into a post-rock interlude that degenerates in screams, electric guitar, and another build-up of tension. Jasenka has the artistry but most of all the flair to orchestrate an album in such a way that it anticipates the listener's reactions. He is constantly two steps ahead of you. The music of labelmates Artemiy Artemiev, Stanislav Kreitchi, or Anatoly Pereslegin sound highly distinctive because it has developed in a closed-up universe... [Francois Couture / All-Music Guide]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| JASON LESCALLEET'S DUE PROCESS |
Combine XXI / Combine XXII |
10 |
Ein Low-Noise-Maelstrom voller Rauschen & tiefen Feedbacks & Wummern mit einigen konkreten Elementen, die sich herausschälen. Nicht wirklich harsch, eher dumpf krachig und vielschichtig. JASON LESCALLEET im Zusammenwirken mit DUE PROCESS.
"Combine xxi, Combine xxii' is the second vinyl album documenting the ongoing collaboration between tape loop composer destroyer Jason Lescalleet and ron lessard, aka noise legend emil beaulieau and head of the pioneering rrrecords label. while due process has been lessard's longtime umbrella for collaborations (which previously have featured like-minded outsiders tom dimuzio and john wiggins), this current iteration of due process is an altogether different beast. using severely manipulated recordings of the duo's ear-splitting live concerts, Lescalleet creates a dense sound world, abstract and visceral. Consisting of two sidelong pieces, by turns both brutal and beautiful, this latest record is a testament to Lescalleet's ability to recast rough sounds in his blurry, tape-distorted image. lavishly printed on heavyweight lennox paper and lovingly letter-pressed by smudge ink in Boston, this 10' record is limited to 300 copies." [label notes]
www.webreakmore.com
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| JAZKAMER |
Chestnut Thornback Tar |
LP & CD |
"As Norway's premier noise troupe, Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre's Jazkamer project has a certain status to uphold.'Chestnut Thornback Tar' was originally the May instalment of the Jazkamer subscription series, and to my mind the record that best sums up the band's wide reach. 'Chestnut Thornback Tar' might not be for the faint of heart, but you'd struggle to find a more rewarding collection of intense, metal-drenched experimental noise. Limited Vinyl Edition with bonus-mix-cd!" [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2011 |
€17.50 |
|
| JAZZFINGER |
Mole & the Morning Dew |
LP |
"Their second release for Spirit of Orr, and their first purple vinyl release, Jazzfinger use this opportunity to disseminate two sides of ‘heavily indebted to visuals’ drone sound. The grainy delicacy of “Beneath Our Fathers Field” opens proceedings, the accompaniment to a silent piece of Egyptian rooted mystery-movie – the unreleased harmonium start-up of Balance/Christopherson’s dawn sessions. The three pieces on the record’s first side feel more connected to each other than almost everything else I’ve heard by this crew, its also their most aurally poetic. Jazzfinger manage to convince me I’m being haunted by humans with “The Swimming Heal”, swirls of birds flocking and diving over some Gretna-like landscape through the feedback. The two flipside pieces are built on repeated acoustic guitar parts, cliff-hanger menace in the Dictaphone gruffness and the fear generated in repetition. Picture an acoustic Jandek lost in sea fret, encircled by a host of cymbal bowers. Jazzfinger records do more than anything else I’m aware of to make yer eyes obsolete. 10/10" [Scott McKeating / Foxy Digitalis]
"It is with deep honor and wonder that we announce the release of this magical splaying of deep sound by Newcastle's mighty Jazzfinger. Truly Mr Jones and his crew are the bringers, the full cup, part of the good that balances our lives against dark evils. Without hesitation, the people who hold the world together. Feel their power, and be comforted. Limited to 600, purple vinyl." [label info]
www.spiritoforr.com
|
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| JAZZKAMMER |
Knitter |
7inch |
KNITTER is a very experimental roaring Collages-EP with ultra-fast & heavy microsound-cascades.....full of interesting sounds... very good & powerful stuff !
"knitter is the first 7" from this norwegian duo - guitarist, improviser and composer john hegre (also in der brief) and lasse marhaug, one of the most productive musicians in the international noise/experimental underground of the last 10 years (also in del and owner of the jazzassin records label) - this time with alexander rishaug who already participated on the last jazzkammer-longplayer pancakes (smalltown supersound)." (label info)
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| JENNIFER GENTLE |
Live in the House of God |
LP |
"Recorded in an empty, deconsacrated church sometime in summer 2003, this LP is another installment in an on-going series of records documenting the weird life of Jennifer Gentle in the foggy plains of Northern Italy. Basically the sound of JG's mainman Marco Fasolo going wild with an old, battered electronic piano and a bunch of sound effects, "Live at the House of God" is a side-long improvisation sharing the same spirit of those 20-minutes keyboard freak-outs Sun Ra used to record in the late Sixties. Alternatively spacey and noisy, the piece is a dark, often unnerving exploration in sound, shimmering all the way through with a distinct Krautrock / early Cluster vibe. The new owners of the church were horrified and outraged by the sheer loudness of the performance, but God liked it a lot. Record comes in a deluxe heavy cardboard sleeve, including one insert...
Strictly limited to 300 copies only!!!" [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€19.50 |
|
| JESU |
Why are we not perfect? |
maxi-CD |
"... Why Are We Not Perfect completes Broadrick’s transformation from atmosphere-obsessed drone metallurgist to neo-shoegaze aesthete. There’s heaviness of a very different sort oozing from the two-chord vamp “Farewell” -- it’s the kind of heaviness that derives from depth of production and emotional resonance, rather than piles of distorted guitar. You could easily fall into the cracks between those Björk-like fuzz bass hits on the title track. Its final lyric (“Why are we not perfect/ When we can’t live forever?”) is just one of the many simple profundities you’ll find buried deep within if you do... ] [Prefix mag]
"5 track EP (2 songs of which originally appeared on the vinyl only split 12" with Eluvium). JUSTIN BROADRICK has set aside the heavy foundation of pounding guitars prevalent in past recordings & brought to the fore elements of texture & melody that previously hovered at the periphery of his monolithic compositions. While this may prove frustrating to metal idealists, those with a greater sense of adventure will find the results both illuminating & heart rending." [label info]
"Not a brand new Jesu record, instead, this ep collects the three tracks from Jesu's split lp with Eluvium from last year, and adds two alternate versions to flesh it out a bit. Folks who missed out on that now out of print 12", or those amongst you who remain turntableless, will for sure want to pick this up, and Jesu fanatics, might just find this worth it for the two extra alternate takes. First the songs proper: Three new songs from Jesu, and as if we didn't already see Broadrick and Co. heading in this direction, they've almost entirely
jettisoned the heaviness, in favor of a blissy new wave-y drift. Really! No massive sludge, no blissed out crunch, in fact, most of this sounds like Jesu doing the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie, all drift and croon and no crunch and pummel, but it's really nice, and pretty, and still suitably Jesu-like.
Imagine Simple Minds or the Cure but raised on Slowdive and Chapterhouse and Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine, doing the theme song for Sixteen Candles 2008 (which if our calculations are correct would be more like Forty Candles). The first song would be a massive hit, sort of melancholy and romantic, dark and dreamy, but still sort of catchy and hopeful, like sunbeams barely making it through grey storm clouds. The final track sounds like it could be from that last scene in Sixteen Candles 2008, the one
where the boy and the girl finally make it to the dance after all of the crazy mishaps and misunderstandings and are finally sharing that
slow dance... lugubrious and fuzzy, and soft focus and so great actually. It's weird, and a bit unexpected, but as much as we love the
glacial crush of past Jesu discs, this new-wave-y drift really suits them, which is a good thing, since they seem to be heading even more and more in that direction with each new release.
The two extra tracks are definitely not -drastically- different, but different enough certainly to make them worth having.
"Farewell" gets even more washed out, the whole thing muted and over saturated, the chugging guitars, disembodied and more textural than
heavy, the whole song suffused with chiming harmonics and sun dappled soaring bittersweet melodies. "Why Are We Not Perfect", the above
mentioned Sixteen Candles 2008 closer, hews closely to the original, the change more in timbre and texture than anything, the vocals still weary and woozy, the beat a loping skittery shuffle, surrounded by shimmering clouds of effervescent streaks of warm buzz, swirls of backwards melody, all whirling softly and dreamily.
Beautifully packaged in a super thick oversized Japanese style mini lp cd jacket, with a thick printed inner sleeve." [Aquarius Records]
www.hydrahead.com
|
2008 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
Heart Ache & Dethroned |
do-CD |
"Das A und O des Justin K. Broadrick: zwei EPs des Industrial-Pioniers.
Es gibt wenige Künstler aus den Grenzgebieten der populären Musik, die nicht in irgendeiner Weise vom Werk Justin K. Broadricks beeinflusst wurden. Als Gründungsmitglied von Bands wie Godflesh, Napalm Death, Techno Animal und Final half er Genres wie Industrial und Death Metal auf die Beine, ist im Hip-Hop und Dub, Grindcore und Ambient zu Hause. Auch mit seinem Projekt Jesu war Broadrick seit 2004 sehr produktiv. Für Neueinsteiger und Fans erscheint mit "Heart Ache & Dethroned" quasi das A und O der bisherigen Jesu-Karriere. "Heart Ache" ist die wieder veröffentlichte Debüt-EP, auf der noch sehr viele Godflesh-Anklänge zu hören sind, aber auch die typischen Zutaten des Jesu-Sounds wie etwa hypnotisierende Strukturen, sich überlappende vielschichtige Melodien und andere klangliche Verschönerungen bzw. Brutalitäten. Mit "Dethroned" wiederum schließt sich der Kreis. Es ist die jüngste Jesu-EP, deren vier Tracks zwar bereits 2004 geschrieben, aber erst 2010 fertiggestellt wurden." [label info / Indigo]
www.hydrahead.com
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| JETZMANN |
Unter die Deutschen |
mCD-R |
"On his first solo release in some years, Hamburg based Jetzmann presents an exceptional, unclassifiable piece on AIC. In this combination of spoken word and abstract minimal electroacoustics, the considerable german poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) enters the stage with a ( prose ) text taken from his Hyperion. Hölderlin is often mistaken for Romanticism and has been ideologically misused for most miserable occasions. Totally opposed to that, Unter die Deutschen supports the continuously valid notion that the Germans are not necessarily to be trusted..... Jetzmann has published numerous records as member of various band projects, most notably with the duo
Jetzmann & Liquidsky on Soleilmoon, The Bog and Cashbeat / ZickZack." [label info]
www.0000-anti.info
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| JGRZINICH (JOHN GRZINICH) |
Ferric |
mCD-R |
"One 20min long piece created by this eminent american (but living in estonia) sound artist and based upon field recordings, a wind harp and various improvised wire and metal constructions. b&w printed 3" cd-r with artwork by john grzinich." [label info]
"The vastly growing empire of Taalem: an endless line of 3" CDR, a bit like the other endless line of 7"s on Drone, and covering many similar names and music. The first new one is by Jgrzinich, who has been active in the field of recordings for more than a decade now. These days he is in southeast Estonia, where collects his field recordings, along with rusty metal wires, a wind harp and such like. 'Ferric' is one piece of alternating drone music and back in the shack rusty metal shields, carefully swung together. Highly atmospheric, slowly in decay towards the end." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://taalem.free.fr/
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Phase Inversion |
CD-R |
"... A bunch of acoustic objects, bells, wood, metal, stones, are being played manually and then the sound gets processed with various electronics and layered into thick swirling drone pieces. Jgrzinich never stands 'still', its always on the move. Small crackles from field recordings, majestic drones from electronics, with always something new happening. This is a Jgrzinich as we would have expected. Perhaps a bit like the release by Steve Roden reviewed elsewhere, one could say that Jgrzinich doesn't change his mode of operation very much, which might be necessary by now. But without that one could easily say this is another damn fine disc. Perhaps not as aquatic as many of the other releases on Mystery Sea." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Currently involved in workshops, and coordinator for MoKS - Center For Arts and Social Practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in Southeast Estonia, John Grzinich is a nomadic mixed-media explorer whose main tool of expression is sound composition declined in various forms : manipulation of acoustic, environmental sounds & found objects, phonographies, construction of original instrument devices, site-specific installations & performances, collaborative sound actions...
Active since the early 1990s, he has collaborated with many artists & famous names in this sphere such as michael northam, Seth Nehil, Olivia Block... he travelled also intensively through Europe, and published CDs on a plethora of labels, namely for instance : Intransitive Recordings, Elevator Bath, Orogenetics (US), Cloud Of Statics, Cut (CH), Edition Sonoro (UK), Sirr (PT), CMR (NZ), Erewhon (BE), Prele, Tâalem (FR)...
For Mystery Sea, John Grzinich has plunged deep into its own creative process to come back with "phase inversion", an haunting & soothing thorough sound litany...
Sinking slowly within,
oscillating slightly,
in a continuous imperturbable movement
at the heart of an unseen core
lies a point of entry,
a source of multiple diffractions...
-
Rubbings, vesperal sighs,
microcollisions, metallic asperities,
elemental debris,
tiny fragments recombine in a wordless score...
-
"phase inversion" turns things upside down,
makes Below becoming the Above,
draws a precise, refined outline
where each detail is like the echo of a new path...
a cognitive retraction..."
[label notes]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Two Films |
DVD |
"and/OAR, Maaheli Editions and Paleosol Edition are extremely pleased to present two films by sound artist John Grzinich. 'Sound Aspects Of Material Elements', Black & White, 57 minutes HD, 16:9 Aspect Ratio. Concept, sound, camera, editing: John Grzinich. Equipment and support: MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice, Mooste, Estonia. Collaborative recordings made with: Patrick McGinley, Jim Haynes, Toomas Thetlof, Maksims Shentelevs, Kaspars Kalninsh, Eamon Sprod, Hitoshi Kojo, and Evelyn Müürsepp. 'Mimema' Color, 24:38 minutes, HD 16:9 Aspect Ratio. Concept, sound, camera, editing: John Grzinich. Equipment and support: MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice, Mooste Estonia. Format: DVD (All Region NTSC). John Grzinich has been conducting his own forms of sound research for over 15 years, including field recording, kinetic sculptures, electro-acoustic composition, performance, videography, group workshops and exercises in listening. Currently he lives in Estonia and works as a program and technical coordinator for MoKS, a non-profit artist-run center. He has published CDs of his sound works on international labels such as: SIRR, Mystery Sea, Staalplaat, Erewhon, Intransitive, Cut, Elevator Bath, Invisible Birds, Semper Florens and others." [label info]
www.and-oar.org
"The label Alluvial Recordings is apparently no more - I am not sure why - but now there is Paleosol Edition, and this first release is done in collaboration with And/oar (catalogue number on the spine being 49, on the disc itself 50) and is a DVD of two films of composer John Grzinich, which I think is an interesting thing. Just what would it be? Animation stuff, a documentary, a concert or, as it in fact turns out to be, a film that displays the field recordings being recorded. We see someone (perhaps Grzinich himself?) beating a pole, a campfire, electrical wire in a field, someone scraping large empty metal containers, and sometimes no human interference at all, like a stream and what seems to be a wire inside. All of this is short movements in 'Sound Aspects Of Material Elements', which lasts some fifty-six minutes. Sometimes I think I am being fooled and I see something but believe that I hear something else. That's always a great thing I should think, but perhaps I like this sort of illusions very much. The nice thing about this film is that following every segment the screen blacks out and we hear what's coming next, but yet not see it, so your mind starts guessing - I was wrong in almost of all these cases. Shot in austere black and white, this one is great. The other film is much shorter and called 'Mimema'. Here I don't think its about the action to generate material, but a more poetic film with people floating in water set against a great piece of drone music. Maybe this is all about hearing 'below the surface'? I am not sure, but it looks and sounds great. More poetic, less documentary like than the other one. Two quite different approaches to film, but both work quite nice." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| JGRZINICH / SETH NEHIL |
Confluence |
CD |
Zwei der besten Experimental-Droner & field recorder aus den Staaten in Zusammenarbeit, hier der zweite Teil nach STRIA (Erewohn), in dem es vor allen Dingen um Resonanzen und natürlichen Vibrationen von Klang-Objekten geht.. entstanden sind drei ruhige akustische Gemälde mit dronigem Unterbau, in denen es von konkreten, aber immer sensitiv eingesetzen, schwingenden Details nur so wimmelt.. fantastisch !!
Second part of a collaboration of these two of the best American experimental-drone composers, focused on resonances and natural vibrations of sound-objects.. created were three great acoustic paintings with a droning foundation with lots of interesting concrete & waving details that are always sensitively used.. fantastic !!
"In 1998, American composers John Grzinich and Seth Nehil initiated a process of recording and experimentation that would result in a pair of full-length CDs. The seed of the project originated in Austin, Texas with acoustic recordings of found objects played by large groups. By the end, it had expanded into a three-year, transcontinental exchange of intensive interaction, questioning and dialogue. These works further the artists' interest in physical materials and natural acoustics which are consequently composed into imbedded, altered and engaging structures. Taking form with the integrity of a living organism, these pieces invite the listener to find his way through the reticulated and stratified development of a subtly unfolding, organic sound-body. The first part of this project, "Stria", was published by the Erewhom label (Belgium) earlier this year. Intransitive is now proud to present part two, "Confluence". [press release]
label-website: www.intransitiverecordings.com |
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| JK FLESH |
Exit Stance |
12inch |
"Justin K Broadrick puts his club foot forward for Downwards on four trampling techno bombs gathered under the Exit Stance EP. With no prizes for guessing what the title is about, he further girds us against broken Britain’s grim future following his Suicide Estate 2LP for Hospital Productions.
This is some of Broadrick’s most direct, primitive, and ruggedly impactful gear, forged in the belly of the black country with charred traces of late ‘90s Brummie techno edged by sparingly used daubs of patented, pollutant synths and plasmic dubbing.
A-side; he offloads the rollicking hydraulics of Exit Stance, a rallying charge of tribal bass drums and cranky percussion from the Female/Regis skool, whilst the droning, beat-less squabble of Motivated By Jealousy takes an acute measure of blighty’s radgy pulse.
B-side; his Bullied By Love comes off as a grimacing answer to Ancient Methods’ industrial steppers, then Caveman goes on like a chips ’n curry sauce-fed analog to Muslimgauze-via-Vatican Shadow vibes.
Aye, we’re all fxcked. But at least we can dance about it with JK Flesh." [label info]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOAQUIM, VITOR |
La Strada is on Fire (And We Are All Naked) |
CD |
Elektroakustisch anmutende Stimm- & Gesangexperimente, schöne schwungvolle Loops, Knistern und Piano-tunes; in magischer, leicht melancholisierter Atmosphäre, inkl. Saxophon und Bass real-time Integrierung, 8 Stücke, jedes aussergewöhnlich und gut!
Another very good album from this portugesian composer, combining electro-acoustic voice-experiments with loops, more concrete sounds and real time saxophone & bass-sounds.
“Vitor Joaquim: piano, electronics, singer table
Martin Archer: saxophone on 3 & 4
(processed by Chris Bywater + Charlie Collins)
Rodrigo Amado: saxophone on 5 & 7
Victor Coimbra: bass on 4 & 5
Mariana F: voice on 1
Vitor Joaquim started performing improvised music in 1982 with Em’dio Buchinho. For some years he studied cinema and produced sound for cinema, video and advertising, while also working as a video director.
He first started composing for dance at the Lisbon Dance Company (CDL) with the choreographer Mark Haim that would later take his work to the Coogan Dancers of Munich. Since then Vitor Joaquim has been composing for dance, theater, cinema, video, installations and multimedia, having worked with such creators as: Andreas Stocklein, M—nica Calle, Mark Haim, Vera Mantero, Paulo Ribeiro, Maria Jo‹o Pires, çlvaro Correia, Luis Fonseca, Alfredo Kraus, Michie Nakamaru, Gerard Uginet, Vitor Garcia, S—nia Rocha, Keith Vyse, Ana Sendas, Joana Novaes, Sandro Aguilar, Stephanie Tiersch - Mouvoir and Rui Horta. Since 1990 he is teaching audiovisual techniques in Lisbon.
In 1997 his release Tales From Chaos, as Free Field, is considered by the Portuguese newspaper Pœblico as one of the 10 fundamental records of Portuguese electronic music.
In 1998 he becomes a member of the Electronic Music Foundation, by invitation of it's president, Joel Chabade.
In 2000 he produced the first EME - Experimental Music Encounters, in Setœbal, a festival dedicated to the new musical languages.
Live or recorded he collaborated with such musicians or collectives as Carlos Z’ngaro, Nuno Rebelo, Rodrigo Amado, Carlos Santos, Em’dio Buchinho, Ernesto Rodrigues, Jose Oliveira, Jeffrey Morgan, Marco Franco, Gregg Moore, @c , Ulrich Mitzlaff, Pedro Rebelo, Franziska Schroeder, Paolo Angeli, Martin Archer, Sergi Jordˆ, Harald Sack Ziegler, Miguel Carvalhais, Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) and Pure.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| JOB KARMA |
Ecce Homo |
DVD-R |
Ein ca. 10 minütiger Film mit neo-klassischem, melancholischen post-Industrial-Soundtrack von JOB KARMA. „Ecce Homo“ ist ein professionell produziertes Video (s/w Zeichentrick-Animation) und spielt in einer düsteren, komplett mechanisierten Maschinenwelt, deren Ästhetik etwas an GIGER erinnert. Jesus hängt hier nicht am Kreuz, sondern an den Röhren & Leitungen der „grossen Maschine“...
“Its a story about loneliness, individualism, media domination in modern society. The short movie based on the story about the last days of Christ. Autor of movie Arek Baginski - moved action from the past to the
new days, to the industrial and informatic time. Limited to only 150 numbered copies, exclusively printed by AUBE in special handmade packaging!” [label info]
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Punkt |
CD |
"New album from this Polish duo, who are gradually becoming the spearhead of landscapists of the genre. These two boosters of post-industrial tradition have forged 8 well-shaped and perversely tuneful pieces, which form an ideal soundtrack for an apocalyptic soap opera that eats up bits of our lives every now and then. Escape from...but where? Everywhere is the same in the giant guts of the mechanical Leviathan. The cosmos serves more and more darkness from the frighteningly far galactic preserves, the black hole gets bigger and bigger. But do not be afraid. The Mind Grinding and Oppression Machine (the fearful MGOM), choking and wheezing with its own enormity, gets jammed and broken more and more often. The fight goes on. As ever. 6-panel digipak with phenomenal cover design by Arek Bagiński." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOBIN, FRANCE & FABIO PERLETTA |
Mirror Neurons |
CD |
"Mirror neurons represent a distinctive class of cells that fire both when an animal executes an action and when it observes another individual performing the same action. Discovered by Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his team at the University of Parma while doing a research on the neural representation of motor movements in monkeys, the precise function and influence of these neurons has become one of the most important topic in neuroscience. They have been linked to many behaviours and abilities, from empathy to learning by imitation and language acquisition, as well as implicated in conditions such as autism and other brain disorders. These findings suggest that the mirror neuron system plays a key role in our ability to experience empathy.
Initiated by sound artists France Jobin and Fabio Perletta, Mirror Neurons is a media-project investigating the notion of empathy and physical distance. The entire album is the result of extended sound files exchange between Montréal (Canada) and Roseto degli Abruzzi (Italy). Each of the pieces is based on rough sounds and their consequent re-working, listening and reaction, processing and imitation. The ongoing process helped the artists to draw inspiration in terms of stimuli for the act of composing itself in two very distant cities, different climate, time zones and languages.
Like much of Jobin and Perletta’s recent works, Mirror Neurons explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible. In order to further develop the concept of distance/connectivity, visual artists XX+XY from Rome have been involved in the process. They created a multi-dimensional, generative and ever-changing sound visualization through the use of quiet textures and subtle movements emphasizing the slowed sense of time of the work itself. Thought to be performed live in a big space, the video aims to create an immersive environment and a unique occasion to reflect about the behaviour of our emotions and the importance of human interaction." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOHANNSSON, JOHANN |
IBM 1401, a User's Manual |
CD |
Nach den schönen TOUCH-CDs ein weiteres stark Filmsoundtrack-artiges Album des Isländers, dass uns stark an die emotionale Musik von ARVO PÄRT erinnert... sein Debut für 4AD !!
"Johann Johannsson ist Isländer und lebt in Reykjavik. Er ist Musiker (sowohl Solo als auch als Mitglied des Apparat Organ Quartets), Komponist, Produzent und Labelgründer (Kitchen Motor). Johannssons Name ist auch immer wieder in den Credits der Produktionen renommierter Künstler zu finden. So produzierte und schrieb er mit Marc Almond an dessen Stranger Things' Album, arbeitete mit Barry Adamson, Pan Sonic, dem Hafler Trio oder Jaki Liebezeit zusammen.
Als Komponist verzaubert er seine Zuhörer meist mit seiner stattlichen und eindringlich-melodischen Musik. Sein neues Werk ist bis dato seine am anspruchsvollsten instrumentierte und attraktivste Komposition. Die Idee zum Album basiert auf der Arbeit von Johanns Vater. Dieser war im Jahr 1964 als leitender Techniker bei einem der ersten Großrechnerprojekte Islands beschäftigt und es gelang ihm, den Rechner IBM 1401 mit einer Melodie zu programmieren und diese aufzunehmen. Diese Tonbänder, die Johann auf dem Dachboden seines Vaters fand, bilden das Herzstück des Albums. Für die Aufnahmen schrieb Johannson seine Komposition für ein Streicher-Sextett um und komponierte einen neuen finalen Satz." [Indigo]
"So here it is, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s eagerly awaited debut album for the 4AD label, and we’re very happy indeed to say that it’s the finest record he’s put his name to yet. I suppose the move from Touch worried some fans at first, but on hearing ‘IBM 1401…’ in it’s entirety it makes perfect sense as part of the 4AD catalogue. Jóhannsson found inspiration for the record after discovering his father’s IBM1401, a cumbersome 1960s computer system for which his father was a technician. Apparently these machines used to cost $2500 per day to lease and probably did a lot less than you’d think given the price, but Jóhannsson saw something intriguing to sample and in the same way that he utilised morse code receivers and ham radios on his Kitchen Motors disc, he uses IBM1401 training tapes as the thematic link on these tracks. An English voice can be heard describing the computer parts and how they work and how to engineer repairs on the machine and it’s peripherals, of course this is something that can ruin an otherwise good piece of music, but Jóhannsson in his restraint has managed to use the samples so cleverly that they actually become part of the music itself. The assertive voice becomes a symbol of nostalgia and that dusty sentiment, a picture of technology passed, or an electronic postcard from 1960, and never becomes there merely for the sake of it. Coupled with the simply stunning string arrangements they add a strange ethereal narrative, and while not telling a story as such, they bring vivid pictures to mind with great ease. Jóhannsson’s skill in merging sounds doesn’t end here either, as we heard on the stunning ‘Englabörn’ he can subtly blend his electronic production methods with the orchestral arrangements without it ever falling out of place. Synthesized chimes trip and fall in-between the orchestral swells and radiophonic bleeps to create soundscapes so breathtaking they can leave you totally lost for words. It would be almost offensive however to merely label ‘IBM 1401, A User’s Manual’ as cinematic, rather Jóhannsson has pushed the bar higher and taken the infant post-classical genre to the next logical place, creating an album which doesn’t just suggest visuals, rather with it’s oblique use of sampled voices and atmospheric sounds the visuals are there all the time and are simply left for us to interpret. A challenging, engaging and utterly breathtaking experience, Jóhann Jóhannsson has proved he is out there on his own. Essential purchase." [Boomkat]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Orphee |
LP |
"Der Komponist Jóhann Jóhannsson, Golden Globe-Preisträger sowie für den Oscar, BAFTA und Grammy nominiert, veröffentlicht sein erstes Album für die Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft: es ist eine Meditation über die Schönheit und den künstlerischen Schaffensprozess. Jóhannsson ist eine Galionsfigur in einer dynamisch wachsenden Szene von Komponisten, die sich frei und einfallsreich zwischen Filmmusik, klassischem Minimalismus, Ambient und elektronischer Musik bewegen.
Orphée schildert einen Weg von der Dunkelheit ins Licht, inspiriert durch die verschiedenen Versionen des antiken Orpheus-Mythos, von Ovid bis Cocteau. Die vielschichtige Erzählung über Tod, Wiedergeburt, Wandel und die Kurzlebigkeit der Erinnerung lässt sich auch als Metapher für künstlerische Kreativität deuten.
Orphée bietet eine vielseitige Klangpalette: Es gibt akustische Instrumente solistisch oder im Ensemble kombiniert mit Elektronik und den geheimnisvollen Lauten der »Nummernsender« auf Kurzwelle. Sie ist angelehnt an viele Facetten seiner vorangehenden Werke und bindet Musik für Solocello, Orgel, Streichquartett, Streichorchester und A-cappella-Gesang mit ein." [label info]
"Based loosely on Ovid’s interpretation of the Orpheus myth, the Icelandic composer’s latest work reveals the grandeur of his music outside of scoring films.
Orphée, the latest album by the Icelandic composer and filmmaker Jóhann Jóhannsson is billed as his first studio album in six years since the somber and excellent The Miners’ Hymns**. But during that time Jóhannsson has released eight records—three of which were scores to major films (including Sicario & The Theory of Everything) and the rest music for smaller film projects, one of which Jóhannsson directed himself. But with even The Miners’ Hymns itself serving as a score to a film, the particular criteria for which Jóhannsson deems a record to be a “studio album” as opposed to a “film score” is somewhat unclear. What is clear is that after years of albums on 4AD and small post-classical labels such as Fat Cat’s 130701, in moving to Deutsche Grammophon—the oldest and most significant classical music label left standing—Jóhannsson wants Orphée to be seen as a work of music propped up by nothing but itself and its own deserved grandeur.
Loosely themed around Ovid's version of the Orpheus myth, Orphée’s grandeur is made clear within seconds. Using only a few repeated parts of piano, violin, and some crackling sound treatments, opener “Flight from the City” takes off. It feels like film music in a way that most of Orphée does not; you could easily imagine it playing over credits, or an opening scene, or in a mid-film montage. But the palette, tone, and structure of Orphée vary greatly and much of it embraces a compositional approach akin to ’90s chamber experimentalists the Rachel’s and others in the post-classical mold on 130701 or Erased Tapes. “A Song for Europa” features more of those crackling sound treatments as well as a recurring spectral vocal sample, while the stately “A Deal With Chaos” or “The Radiant City” would be at home on the Rachel’s Music for Egon Schiele.
Apart from “Flight from the City,” the most unforgettable tracks on Orphée are where Jóhannsson adds more experimental textures, particularly in the penultimate diptych of “Good Morning, Midnight” and “Good Night, Day.” In a way, these two tracks play out the climax of the Orpheus myth: The former begins with dreamy slow-waltz strings and burbling sound effects that connote the gait of a person heading toward destiny unknown, before giving way to a close-mic'd solo piano piece that sounds like the ruminative thoughts of man by way of Satie-style impressionism. The latter, “Good Night, Day,” begins with repeated string warnings that plays as a realization of chased dreams lost, with a cello melody serving as an elegiac narrative counterpoint. On each, the blend of early 20th-century modalities and experimental recording approaches make them archetypal post-classical tracks.
Boldest of all is Orphée’s a capella closer “Orphic Hymn,” which features a breathtaking choral vocal performance by Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices of text from Ovid’s The Metamorphoses. Sung vocals are rarely found in Jóhannsson’s work, but the angelic arrangement makes you wish that he had found more opportunities to integrate vocals into the rest of the record. “Orphic Hymn” also brings Jóhannsson back full circle to British post-classical elder statesman Michael Nyman. The piece strongly recalls the longing of “Miserere” from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, a great example of how Nyman’s scores work as independent music woven into a film rather than applied to the surface of scenes.
It’s exciting to hear the freedom of Jóhannsson’s compositions in autonomous music, and with Orphée he’s reasserted himself as not a just an elegiac film score guy. As good as his cinema work has been, the act of telling someone else’s story puts limits on both an artist’s freedom to work and the impact of how they might be received, and Jóhannsson likely isn’t looking to become known as “the Next Thomas Newman.” The voice he uses on Orphée says otherwise, and provides a clear blast attestation that Jóhannsson is among the brightest lights of any member of the loosely grouped post-classical genre. [Pitchfork]
"Sometimes, some records, and I along with them, fall into this first-class trap, this uppermost attic, this top-notch shelf, where this reside, and then I fail to cover them in time. These are records, like this one, that are just too good, and so I blunder on my task to ‘seek them out’ for you, to provide the filtering of all the noise, and then to spread the good ol’ sermon of their beauty. Surely you have found this simply on your own. Of course, you are already a huge fan of Jóhann Jóhannsson, and automatically grab every single record he puts out, including the latest pressed by Deutsche Grammophon. Right? No wonder Orphée appears at the top of HC’s Reader’s Poll Results for best records of 2016. So why even bother covering it, you know? Yet, here I am, unable to resist the urge to give this wonder all the words that it deserves.
Jóhannsson has been pretty busy these past few years, working mostly on film scores and soundtracks. Even his last studio album, The Miners’ Hymns (130701, 2011) was a soundtrack of sorts. In fact, whether they were imaginary scores, like the one for Fordlandia (4AD, 2008) and IBM 1401, A User’s Manual (4AD, 2006), or real ones for independent films, like Copenhagen Dreams (NTOV, 2012) and McCanick (Milan, 2014), or full-blown Hollywood productions, like Prisoners OST (WaterTower Music, 2013), The Theory Of Everything OST (Blacklot, 2014) and, most recently, Arrival OST (Deutsche Grammophon, 2016), it’s easy to make a statement that Jóhannsson’s modern classical productions are indeed cinematic in nature. Painting these imaginary landscapes with his music is in his soul… it’s what he does.
Orphée, of course, is no exception. From the very first note and subsequent chord progression, we hear the music of Jóhannsson at his best. Full strings are at the center of the stage, dancing the slow waltz in a haze of melancholy, minor heartbreak, and remorse. Baroque and classical elements appear throughout the album, in the form of a pipe organ, symphonic themes, and orchestral accompaniment (AIR Lyndhurst String Orchestra). The work is concluded with the Theatre of Voices singing the lines from Ovid. The minimal pieces are complemented by fundamental electronic treatments, minor field recordings, and sounds of shortwave radio from the “numbers stations”. The atmospherics are resplendent with space and texture, structurally stitched in all the critical thematic places, driven forth by a coherent motif, carried further by the forlorn piano or the anguished cello at its heart (with Clarice Jensen of ACME and Hildur Guðnadóttir).
Orphée traces a path from darkness into light, inspired by the various re-tellings of the ancient tale of the poet Orpheus, from Ovid’s to Jean Cocteau’s. A many-layered story about death, rebirth, change and the ephemeral nature of memory, the myth can also be read as a metaphor for artistic creation, dealing with the elusive nature of beauty and its relationship to the artist, as well as the idea that art is created through transgression – by the poet defying the gods who have forbidden him to turn back towards his beloved as he leaves the Underworld.
Unlike Jóhannsson’s previous albums, Orphée did not start out with a conceptual narrative. Yet, at the root of the album is a theme of change that Jóhannsson has been dealing with in the last six years. He has left Copenhagen to build a new life in Berlin, absorbing the city with all of its new offerings, relationships, and inspirations. “Perhaps this is one of the reasons I was drawn to the Orpheus myth, which is fundamentally about change, mutability, death, rebirth, the elusive nature of beauty and its sometimes thorny relation to the artist,” explains Jóhann. “This album, my first solo record for six years, is an oblique reflection on personal change.” We’re all familiar with all this change and our struggle and final acceptance of some endings and new beginnings. Perhaps these sounds will accompany your journeys. A true modern classical composition which will surely withstand the test of time." [Headphone Commute]
|
2016 |
€25.50 |
|
| |
The Mercy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) |
CD |
Am 02. Februar 2018 veröffentlicht das Traditionslabel Deutsche Grammophon den Soundtrack zum im März 2018 anlaufenden Film “The Mercy”. Johann Johannsson komponiert nun schon den zweiten Soundtrack für den neuen Film des Regisseurs James Marsh.
Der Film ist ein biographisches Drama, in den Hauptrollen besetzt mit Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz und David Thewlis. Der Film erzählt von dem Geschäftsmann und Hobbysportler Donald Crowhurst, der in einem selbstentworfenen Boot an einer Solo-Segelregatta teilnimmt. Sein Ziel ist es, den Rekord für die schnellste Umsegelung der Erde aufzustellen. Mit dem zu gewinnenden Geldpreis möchte der unerfahrene Segler seine schwächelnde Firma aufbessern und seiner Familie ein besseres Leben ermöglichen. Die fesselnde Musik in Kombination mit der unglaublichen und wahren Geschichte über Donald Crowhurst ist ein Kino-Highlight. Das Album wird am 02.02.2018 veröffentlicht und der Film startet am 29.03.2018 in den deutschen Kinos.
https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/de/katalog/produkte/the-mercy-soundtrack-johannsson-569
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOHANSSON, SVEN-AKE |
Konzert für 12 Traktoren |
pic-LP |
"The unusual, famous ,Konzert für 12 Traktoren" was only performed a few times by twelve tractors built in the 50s and 60s. A symphony produced by old engines - according to this beautiful project Trost releases a special picture disc vinyl. Sven-Åke Johansson (Mariestad, Sweden, 1943) works as a composer, drummer, accordionist, poet, and visual artist. Longtime collaborator of the free improv scene in the German sixties with Kowald, Brötzmann, Schlippenbach, Reichel. He contributed to numerous exhibitions, publications and recordings. ,The tractors sing about a time passed by. but no future without memories. So the ,Konzert für 12 Traktoren" is as well a piece to praise labour". (Ebbe Gilbe) performed by 12 tractors, 2009 in Orust (SE) composed by Sven-Ake Johansson" [label info]
www.trost.at
|
2015 |
€29.00 |
|
| JOHN 3:16 |
Visions of the Hereafter - Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory |
CD |
"Philippe Gerber/JOHN 3:16 has played more than 500 shows in the UK and Europe with the London based band Heat From a DeadStar (2004 to 2009). HFADS was the first non-US act to sign a record deal with the Boston-based label Ace of Hearts Records (owned by Rick Harte, producer of Mission of Burma, Lyres, The Infliktors, etc). The trio released its first album ‘Seven Rays of The Sun’ in 2008. This album has been described as “abrasive, catchy, post-Wire post-punk” and “a Burma-esque adrenalin rush of banging drums, rumble bass and slashing guitars” (Big Take Over Magazine, USA).
JOHN 3:16 was started in 2007, as a studio-only project but after HFADS disbanded in 2010, JOHN 3:16 became the official live act of Philippe Gerber. The 5-track EP ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ (2011) was critically acclaimed and presented the JOHN 3:16’s newly musical direction “synthesizing many different styles and genres such as those designed as psychedelic-electronic analog circuit no-wave, industrial, ambient, shoegaze, pop, trip-hop...” (Terapija Webzine, Croatia).
‘Visions of the Hereafter - Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory’ is the first full length of JOHN 3:16 and is to be released via Alrealon Musique on October 22, 2012. The nine tracks were recorded at the Alrealon Studio/Laboratory(76). Carolyn O’Neill (Director of the Logan Square New Music Ensemble) co-wrote the track ‘Abyss of Hell/Clouds of Fire’ and William Schaff (Okkervil River, Songs: Ohia, Godspeed You! Black Emperor...) designed the original artwork." [label inofo]
www.alrealonmusique.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOSEFSON, MATHIAS |
Suihkulähde |
LP |
Erster Solo-Release von JOSEFSON aka MOLJEBKA PVLSE, auf seinem eigenen Label in schöner "letter-press"-Hülle. Ganz verschieden vom typischen M.P. Drone- und Geräuschsound wurde hier auf Seite A ein "ready-made" verewigt, der konkrete Klang einer mechanisch dröhnenden, röhrend-gurgelnden Maschine, ohne weitere Overdubs! Alltagsgeräusche in voller Aufmerksamkeit, auch das kann ein Erlebnis sein. "ALTE WEGE DIE WIR WANDERN WERDE NEUE SEIN". Auf Seite B dasselbe nach leichter Bearbeitung... Ein obskurer "Klangkunst"-Release, der zunächst verwirrt, dann begeistert!
"Side A of this album is a ready-made, a found sound. Except for adjusting the volume, the recorded source material is not processed with effects in any way. Side B is a processed version of the same track." [label info]
"Who, you may ask? Mathias Josefson is however not an unknown person in the realms of Vital Weekly, as he unleashed a whole bunch of recordings under the guise of Moljebka Pvlse, but for this new release he chooses to use his own name. Not an uncommon trend in the land of serious music. Perhaps it has also do with the nature of this record. One side has a found sound, the other is a reworking thereof. The found sound is not explained but it sounds to me like a fridge. I once tried to sleep somewhere next to a fridge, but the sound of it kept it me awake all night. Not a big problem, since I liked it quite a lot. Josefson's found sound side reminded me of this night. The drone of a machine, with all it's subtle varieties, the way it switches of in the end it is still a great listening experience. The 'processed' version of the track eludes me a bit I must say. Whatever there is that has been processed, I may have a trouble hearing it (and no, I am not listening on computer speakers, as
a disappointed artist once suggested). The processing are done probably very subtle, but they don't seem to be adding much to the other side. Now if I had two copies and a DJ set up I could perhaps check it out, now it's a bit more of the, albeit nice, same. The work of Josefson moves away from the ambient industrial park and this piece of sound art is a most promising start." [FdW/ Vital Weekly]
label: www.isoramara.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| JUILLARD, PIERRE |
Haga |
mCD-R |
pierre juillard is a french naturalist exploring different sound territories, with different collaborators, from field recordings, sound poetry to free improvisation. his solo output is mainly focused on field recordings. "haga" is a fascinating mix of sounds recorded near cherbourg, france.
"the name 'haga' comes from norse, an ancient scandinavian language, and would mean 'closed place'. this piece is a collage of recordings made in cap de la hague near cherbourg in august 2019. i tried to capture the diversity of the sound spaces in this small part of the french coastline, a concentrate of biodiversity: cliffs, rocky foreshores, immense sand or pebble beaches, monumental dunes, salt meadows… the history of the sites was also a common theme, from the fortifications of vauban to fossil bunkers, from semaphores watching the coastline to small craft harbours dear to jacques prévert. the beauty of this wild spaces, known as "the little ireland", hides another side: it’s one of the most endangered site on the planet, where massive amounts of nuclear waste are recycled…" (pierre juillard)
recorded at saint-vaast-la-hougue, tatihou, urville-nacqueville, baie de quervière, pointe de jardeheu, cap de la hague, goury, baie d'ecalgrain, vauville, dunes de biville, diélette
composed and mixed in october-november 2019
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/haga-alm-138
"It has been a long time since I last reviewed music by Pierre Julliard; Vital Weekly 863, a collaborative work with Frederique Bruyas; before that, a 3"CDR on the Kaon label, Vital Weekly 811). Taalem calls him a "French naturalist exploring different sound territories, with different collaborators, from field recordings, sound poetry to free improvisation. His solo output is mainly focused on field recordings". The recordings for 'Haga' were made near Cherbourg, France. This is a harbour town with a long history, and Julliard found sounds near the sea, with sea waves, bird sounds, the beach, but also, so it seems near the fortress. Pointing his microphones in various corners of buildings, the resonances of the natural world come to us in a slightly different way. I would think that Juillard restricts his music to natural recordings and not to processing his sounds in any way. Various events flow right into each other or are mixed, so a vivid picture of the place arises. A fine work of pure field recordings." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| JULIE'S HAIRCUT & SONIC BOOM |
N-waves |
CD |
"In late September 2005 Sonic Boom, alias Pete Kember – historical founder member of Spacemen 3, Spectrum and Experimental Audio Research – meets Julie’s Haircut at Studio Alpha in Bologna to cohoperate with them to the final editing of their new album (“After Dark, My Sweet” - 2006). This was a new starting point for Julie’s Haircut in the field of music research… only a part of 3 days of studio recordings was released in that album. N-Waves / U-Waves contains, for the first time, two takes produced in that session. Gemini, pt. 1 & pt. 2 is presented here in its first take. Scarfo Spanks DC is another completely unreleased improvisation. Two more songs complete the cd release of this ep. Sister Pneumonia and Ingrid Thulin, formerly released on the album After Dark, My Sweet, feature the band in two more studio improvisation together with Sonic Boom playing esotic electronic devices such as the Raagini (a sitar-simulator), Kraakle (a random electronic noise generator) and the famous EMS Synthi AKS synthetizer." [label notes]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| JULIUS, ROLF |
Für einen kleinen See |
CD |
Very carefully created Drone / Microsound-album from this german sound-artist, who combines his beautiful acoustics (mainly derived from field recordings) with "the gaze" of colours, objects, etc. - for many of his exhibited sound-sculptures the visual quality plays an important role too. For example, colours can fill in the gaps of a musical composition. So he also creates pieces for certain "objects" of the nature, like a small lake or a certain landscape. The music consists of drones and tiny bits & pieces of sound....
"Rolf Julius' works are always catalyzers for increasing attention to the things surrounding us. This has secured Julius an unmistakable place in the spectrum of contemporary art. He for himself is more influenced by people like Wittgenstein or John Cage...In a world meanwhile overflowing with artworks in energetic brush strokes and equipment playing fortissimo, his works murmur visually and acoustically as if they had always been present. The small sounds can originate in musical instruments, they can be natural sounds, and Julius often works with simple things such as buzzers. For Julius music is everywhere. It isn't important which sound-producing devices he uses. Julius often uses them in contradiction to the normal method..." [label info]
|
2003 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Music for the Ears |
CD |
"For a long time I've been thinking about how to create spaces into which one can retreat, where one can find quiet, where one can see, hear, where one is able to concentrate, where one is isolated from the world around but still is able to participate in itby means of art or Music or both' Rolf Julius, 1987. 'Futurism and Dadaism both made use of the synthesis of audio and visual arts to create a singular experience greater than the sum of its parts. This idea was further advanced by the Fluxus and Minimalism movements. Born in 1939 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Rolf Julius was profoundly influenced and inspired by these movements while he studied art in Bremen and Berlin. YEars later, after immersing himself in Musical works by artists like Morton Feldman, John Cage, and La Monte Young, Julius began to shift his focus from visual art to the synthesis of sound and visual art and nature, exploring the relationships between sounds and objects and environments. Julius soon discovered how sounds can influence vision, creating simple tones to be presented in conjunction with his early photographic work. Such experiments culminated in the creation of his pioneering work 'Dike Line' (1979), which combined visual images with texture-inducing tones. This piece was presented at the ground breaking exhibition 'Fur Augen Und Ohren' in 1980. Mythical in scope, this was the first major European exhibition attempted to map international research by artists exploring relations between sound and visual art, bringing together work by John Cage, Luigi Russolo, Nam June Paik, Joe Jones, Bill Fontana, Milan Knizak, Harry Bertoia, David Tudor and Rolf Julius. Over the next 30 yEars Julius went on to create some of the most meaningful and moving works in the grey area between Music and art, between sound and silence. Alongside Takehisa Kosugi, Terry Fox, and Akio Suzuki, he has emerged as one of the most important and influential sound artists of our time. Since the early 1980's Julius has referred to his compositions as Small Music, receiving international acclaim from those in the fields of contemporary art and Music for calling the origins of sound and vision into question. Small Music not only describes Julius' approach to composition (soft and compelling sounds from simple instruments and nature), but also a way in which to view his works and ultimately the world. Art historian Bernd Schulz once wrote 'if one recalls John Cage's central theme of 'silence' then Rolf Julius is the contemporary artist who approaches him most closely'. Julius' Small Music has the distinct ability to heighten our perception such that 'silence' becomes a positive quality of a place and a situation, and not just an absence of sound. Whether using photographs, ink drawings, audio compositions, or subtle and sometimes almost hidden outdoor installations, Rolf Julius' works serve as catalyst, increasing our awareness of the great beauty of the world that surrounds us. Western Vinyl is proud to release 'Music for the Ears' the first in a series of Small Music releases by Rolf Julius. With a goal of creating solitary sound environments, the Small Music series will culminate into a boxed edition of seminal works by this master sound artist. 'Music for the Ears' is comprised of two long tracks of gently weaving tones exploring the possibilities of spatial experience. The cover image depicts Julius' sound installation in a bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan where his Music is placed high in the air, by speakers hanging freely from the branches of the trees. As the Music suspends itself in the air, the tones sway in the wind floating ever so gently, caressing the Ears, the trees, the light, and clouds." [label info]
www.westernvinyl.com
"Now here's someone who is perhaps world famous in the world of sound art, yet hardly ever appears in Vital Weekly. Its, among other reasons, because he didn't release that music, but also because his music is usually heard in museums and galleries and not always on record. But the good news is that Western Vinyl will re-release eight of his old works, starting with 'Music For The Ears', which comes with the subtitle 'small music no. 1' and small music it is. 'Song From The Past', the first of the two pieces on this album sounds like one long tape loop of bamboo flute being played. Every now and then it stops and then it starts again. Music that is very undemanding - an environmental piece to fill your ambience. Or perhaps music to meditate by - if only I ever did that. The second piece 'Music On Two High Poles' is different. It might be played on a small, children's organ or a harmonium, cut into two loops of a varying length. Its a bit louder, or perhaps it just appears so: I turned
up the volume quite a bit for the first piece, so this one comes in louder. I think both pieces are designed to do the same thing: create a sonic environment. What I especially liked about it, and that's something you can only hear when the volume is quite a bit, is all the extra sounds that come along: the static hiss from the used analogue tapes that creates a nice additional sonic layer to the music. And which doesn't seem to make the music static but very much alive and vibrant. Excellent music. This is the earliest Rolf Julius recording, from 1979 and the start of a great career. Can't wait for the other seven releases." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
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Music for a Distance |
CD |
"Music for a Distance is the second release in the small music series. The title of the work in relation to the cover images (abstract photographs of Julius' wife resembling landscapes merging into a distant horizon) suggests a work of uncommon poetic perception and inspiration. With the opening track "Music for a Distance," Julius achieves a sensitive balance of unpredictability and deliberate design, at times resembling a symphony of insects, complete with crickets and cicadas and rustling leaves. Listening closely, you can hear old fractured melodies float by only to be hidden again under a thunderous sky and rain.
TRACKLISTING: 01. MUSIC FOR A DISTANCE 02. MUSIC IN A CORNER " [label info]
www.westernvinyl.clm
"Back in Vital Weekly we reviewed 'Music For Tears' by Rolf Julius, and we noted that he is quite famous in the field of sound art, but perhaps not that well-known in the world of Vital Weekly. Now that may of course change due to the good work of Western Vinyl, who plan a series of CDs with his 'small music'. 'Music For A Distance' is the second volume. Like before, or perhaps like always, we have no clue what it is that Julius does. The title piece was composed (or rather refined) over a six year period and its unclear what Julius does. Is it a bunch of field recordings? Like insects, crickets, cicadas, leaves, or perhaps something more mechanical? Played back from a bunch of CDRs perhaps, or something that creates the sound as they are, like small devices? What is sure that Julius' music is quite minimal. Not in a drone kind of sense, but hyperactive, with lots of sounds crawling like insects over eachother. Maybe there is a bit of sound processing? I really couldn't tell. Like 'Music For The Ears', 'Music For A Distance', which is with forty minutes the main piece here, creates an excellent sonic environment, and that's what Julius aims at. Could we call this ambient? Yes, perhaps we could. Music that fills your surrounding with a intelligent sound, and not some lift muzak, but never loud enough to be disturbing or confronting. There is also a difference between 'Music For The Ears' and this new work (apart from the time separated between recording - the main work here is from 2003-2009) and that's the volume of the music. Both 'Music For A Distance' and 'Music In A Corner' are quite audible, like those loud singing crickets in Japan, which are loud without being a nuisance. An excellent disc, once again!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
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| |
Raining |
CD |
" "Raining" ist der dritte Teil einer kleinen Musikserie und die erste Veröffentlichung, die nach dem Tod von ROLF JULIUS erscheint. Das Titelstück ,Raining" erschien ursprünglich als Teil der Installation ,Drawing (Dot)" von 2007. Spielt man das Stück mit großer Lautstärke ab, steht der Hörer mitten in einer Welt aus dichtem Regen, windgeschüttelten Bäumen und durchnässten Wiesen voller Leben. Wenn man das Stück jedoch durch den kleinen, flachen Lautsprecher abspielt, den JULIUS für die Installation benutzte, werden die Sounds zu sanften, zyklischen Mustern, wie eine üppige Landschaft, auf die man vom Flugzeug aus herabsieht. Das zweite Stück ,Weitflächig" ist ein Beispiel dessen, was JULIUS ,Musik für eine weite Ebene" nannte - aus einem kleinen Sound eine weite Soundlandschaft zu erschaffen. ,Music For A Glimpse Inward" tauchte ursprünglich 2005 als Teil einer Installation auf. Kleine Lautsprecher wurden am Rand eines sehr großen, leeren Raumes platziert. Die Musik erklang leise und vermittelte dem Betrachter so einen noch stärkeren Eindruck von Raum und Leere. Die Arbeiten von ROLF JULIUS wurden in wichtigen Museen auf der ganzen Welt gezeigt: im PS1 in New York (1983), 1985 auf der Pariser Biennale, auf der 8. Doucmenta in Kassel, im Hamburger Bahnhof, in Berlin (1998), in der Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh 2001, im Pariser Centre Pompidou (2004), in Japan und in den verschiedensten Galerien auf der ganzen Welt.
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Raining is the third installment in the small music series and the first posthumous Rolf Julius release. The title piece “Raining” originally appeared as part of the 2007 installation “Drawing (Dot)". When played on room speakers the piece engulfs the listener in a dense world of rain, wind rattled trees, and soaked pastures full of life. However, when played in the context of the small flat speaker which Julius originally chose for the installation, the sounds become soft and cyclical patterns, similar to a lush landscape being viewed from a plane many miles above. The second piece, “Weitflächig”, is an example of what Julius called “Musik für eine weite Ebene” (Music for a Wide Plain) - a method of "sketching" which allows small sounds to flourish into vast landscapes. “Music for a Glimpse Inward” originally appeared in a 2005 installation. With small speakers placed along the edge of very large empty room, the music played softly, heightening the listener's perception of space and stillness."
[label info]
www.westernvinyl.com
"Western Vinyl occupy themselves with the release of the archive of Rolf Julius. They started doing so when he was alive and continue doing so after his death, last year. This is the first release since then, from his archive. Julius is a man of 'small sounds', making 'small music' in mostly empty spaces with a minimum of equipment. His work could either be installations or compositions. Small speakers in small or large rooms, or even outdoors, using field recordings of say rain, such as the almost fifty-four title piece on this CD. Its very minimal music, of rain sounds and 'something else' which I found very hard to define, but it gives that electronic texture to the piece. That something which I think also very much defines music by Julius. More water like field recordings can be heard in 'Weitflachig' - music for a wide plain. Here too we hear insect like sounds, over water sounds. Are they tape loops, real time recordings? Its hard to say. 'Music For A Glimpse Inward' has insect and bird sounds and was originally a piece for small speakers in a large room. All of these pieces are very minimal, and show hardly any development. But that's hardly the point of Rolf Julius' music. Its more about perceiving space and silence and it works best when played softly in your space. Open up windows - if you are in a quiet surrounding I should think - and have this on repeat for a long time. It will definitely alter your perception of space and time. An excellent release - once again, and hopefully with more to follow." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
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| JUNIOR VARSITY KM |
InvalidObject Series (export) |
mCD |
Das irische FÄLLT-Label hat auf einen Schlag ein Kompendium zur neuen digitalen laptop / click / glitch / IDM – Musik herausgebracht ! Das sind 24 mCDs mit allerlei bekannten und unbekannte Vertretern dieses jungen Genres. Wir haben die meisten da, hier eine Übersicht ! Limitiert jeweils auf schamlose 250 Stck ! Preis pro mcD : € 9.50
Better priced now, last copies of this absolute compendium of IDM. € 9.50
“ The invalidObject Series was established in 2000 as a sublabel of Fällt to release a finite series of twenty four 3"CD/.mp3 works.
Offering a unique perspective on a diverse range of musical output at the turn of the millennium, the Series features work by some of the most respected artists operating within the field of '.microsound' and has been described as "a remarkable document of a vibrant artistic community and a critical moment in the evolution of digital music" (Philip Sherburne), "a showcase for the extraordinary range of practical approaches within contemporary electronic music" (Matt Ffytche, The Wire) and, simply, "impressive" (Rob Young, Editor, The Wire). “ [label press release}
|
2000 |
€9.50 |
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| JUNZO, SUZUKI |
Awake in the Wuthering Heights |
CD-R |
"New album by Suzuki Junzo, from famous japanese underground act MIMINOKOTO! factory-replicated CDr and printed artwork, limited to 100 copies only!" [label info]
www.licht-ung.de
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| JUPITTER-LARSEN, G.X. & ALLAN ZANE |
Banjax |
CD |
„...The Haters (G.X. Jupitter-Larsen) und WYRM (Allan Zane) haben die Sau rausgelassen und sie turnt gewaltig über Haufen gebohrte und gebrochene CD’s, CDR’s, Plattenspieler und Singles. „Banjax“ meint „beschädigen“, „ruinieren“ und so brummeln G.X. Jupitter-Larsen und Allan Zane kratzend ein Hohelied auf den Noise. Damit distanzieren sie sich abermals von den hochtechnisch abgeklärten Beamten ihrer Zunft. Sie betreiben keine Pflege des Vorhandenen sondern pflegen die Zerstörung. Es wird verwertet, was in den Reißwolf passt, die Fressgeräusche sind das Entscheidende .
The Haters (G.X. Jupitter-Larsen) and WYRM (Allan Zane) are in the fields of damaged civilisations rubbish. Under the sign of “banjax”, which means ‘damage’ and ‘ruin’, they break and drill and hammer CD’s, CD-R’s, turntables, 7”, forcing explosions of SM car crashes on scratched glass. It is a tribute to the noise beneath high-end. The sound is coarsely but extrem powerful in its production. A full lorry of destruction with pauses of contemplation between reduced lines turns along blending expectation with surprise...” [Peter Schlewinski]
“ ...The master-minds behind The Haters (G.X. Jupitter-Larsen) and WYRM (Allan Zane) have finally tag-teamed on a full-length CD--'Banjax'. A collaborative/conceptual (of course!!!) project, 'Banjax' will not only satisfy the appetites for those of the "aesthetics" of "noise", but also appeal to those with a sensibility for "dark ambience" to boot! When worlds collide, if you will... Standard edition of 900.” [label info]
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2005 |
€8.00 |
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| |
Banjax (artist's edition) |
CD |
„Dieses Jutesäckchen enthält den Harsch. The Haters (G.X. Jupitter-Larsen) und WYRM (Allan Zane) haben die Sau rausgelassen und sie turnt gewaltig über Haufen gebohrte und gebrochene CD’s, CDR’s, Plattenspieler und Singles. „Banjax“ meint „beschädigen“, „ruinieren“ und so brummeln G.X. Jupitter-Larsen und Allan Zane kratzend ein Hohelied auf den Noise. Damit distanzieren sie sich abermals von den hochtechnisch abgeklärten Beamten ihrer Zunft. Sie betreiben keine Pflege des Vorhandenen sondern pflegen die Zerstörung. Es wird verwertet, was in den Reißwolf passt, die Fressgeräusche sind das Entscheidende . 100 Exemplare der Künstleredition mit Originalunterschriften!
The Haters (G.X. Jupitter-Larsen) and WYRM (Allan Zane) are in the fields of damaged civilisations rubbish. Under the sign of “banjax”, which means ‘damage’ and ‘ruin’, they break and drill and hammer CD’s, CD-R’s, turntables, 7”, forcing explosions of SM car crashes on scratched glass. It is a tribute to the noise beneath high-end. The sound is coarsely but extrem powerful in its production. A full lorry of destruction with pauses of contemplation between reduced lines turns along blending expectation with surprise. CD housed in silk-screened drawstring bag with a signed and numbered print by both artists.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
“Artist's edition of 100 IN 2 PARTS as follows:
PART 1 (Audio/packaging): CD housed in silk-screened draw-string bag,signed and numbered print by both artists, AND MAIL-IN VOUCHER (TO SOMNIMAGE...) FOR PART 2.
PART 2 (Conceptual): To be aquired upon return of voucher...
"Destroyed Music"-- and then some!!!
Pre-orders are being taken now for this release. It will arrive sometime in November. Only 75 copies of the limited artist edition are for sale so act fast.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€24.00 |
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| JUPITTER-LARSEN, GX |
Big Time Crash Bang 2008 |
LP |
Passend zur Wirtschaftskrise & Abwrackprämie erschien Anfang 2009 dieses Album von "THE HATERS" G.X. JUPITTER-LARSEN, das komplett aus Sounds von Autounfällen / Crashes komponiert wurde. Das repetitive Gekrache bildet allmählich flirrende Obertöne aus, und erzeugt eine seltsam kathartische Hypnose...
Composed entirely of car crashes - tires squeeling, glass shattering, metal crunching, a total wreck. 500 copies - full color printed cover. 'My best LP yet!!!' (GX)
[label info]
"The next time someone makes that old joke about noise sounding like a car crash can offer this LP as proof: its nothing but the sound of car crashes, all mangled up as only GX can do it -- tires squealing, glass shattering, metal crunching, wrecked, totalled -- SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE SMASH CRASH SCREEEEEEECH SMASH SMASH CRASH -- quite possibly the perfect noise album. GX says its his best LP to date. Im inclined to agree -- wear your seatbelt. 500 copies." [Fusetron]
www.rrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Expanded Slam |
10inch |
" "Expanded Slam" and "Extended Slam", two new compositions by one of America's most consistently explorative and radical artists. Presented in a blazing gatefold package designed by Jupitter-Larsen, including an essay on the permawave, the polywave and the hoopla. Utterly delightful.
GX Jupitter-Larsen is an media artist, based in Hollywood, California, who has been active in a number of underground art scenes since the late 1970s. He has been involved in punk rock, mail art, cassette culture, the noise music scene, and zine culture. During the 1990s he was the sound designer for the performances of Mark Pauline's Survival Research Laboratories. His best known work is as the founder of the noise act The Haters, who have performed all over the world, and appear on over 300 CD & record releases.
Mastered and cut at D+M, Berlin
Edition of 500, vinyl only " [label info]
www.hronir.de
www.jupitter-larsen.com
"Hronir is a small German label, who released two things in the late nineties and five new items only this year. This 10″ is the latest release and is a noise record from G.X. Jupitter-Larsen. I have no idea why its released under his own name, and not by The Haters. Maybe it has to do with profiling as a composer? Maybe a wholly different reason. Two side long pieces here, ‘Expanded Slam’ and ‘Extended Slam’, which may or may not be extensions of eachother. Two sides of loud noise. The scraping of an object onto a surface perhaps, but then within a full distortion package. Loud, vicious noise music. Probably, if you have been paying attention, you would imagine that this is the kind of noise I don’t like, and you are probably right. But over the last twenty-five years I learned to appreciate The Haters quite a lot, and I think the sheer minimal noise of The Haters is great. It is loud and distorted, but also totally captivating. It also fits perfectly into whatever else Jupitter-Larsen does, in his performances and internet work, so unlike youngs boys fiddling with two distortion boxes in their bedroom, this is all encapsulating. Not just a record, but a statement." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
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| |
Empty Holes, Empty Homes |
BOOK & 5 |
"Sixth book from the most popular HATER is an amathopaedia of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and cryptograms, printed and perfect bound using traditional offset methods with recycled inks and fine recycled papers. Edition of 400. Includes a bonus Flexi Disc." [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
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| JUPITTER-LARSEN, GX & ACE FARREN FORD / LA SCRAMBLED DEBUTANTE FEAT. EMERGE |
Untitled |
LP |
"With this release, attenuation circuit goes one step further in its project of uniting diverse practitioners of the global noise/experimental underground in collaborative projects. In this case, the result is a remarkably cohesive album of finely spun drone music that works both at high and lower volumes, rather contemplative and quite removed from the noisier sides of the featured artists.
“Vertigone” by GX Jupitter-Larsen & Ace Farren Ford is composed of long tones in shifting higher frequencies, but not in the piercing CM von Hauswolff range. While relying on synthetic sounds, the microtonal richness is comparable to compositions based on acoustic instruments, as by composers such as Phill Niblock or If,Bwana. The magisterial calmness with which this strangely harmonic piece unfolds will certainly come as a surprise to those who associate GX Jupitter-Larsen’s name primarily with his noise work under the Haters moniker.
“Electric Jackass” by Le Scrambled Debutante featuring EMERGE is a fitting counterpiece for its flipside. While often into hectic cut-up collages, this time the plunderphonic collective fronted by Allan Zane, based in North Carolina, have decanted the material from an improvised session to distill the most introspective, even melancholic bits, such as some wistful accordion passages. The sound material supplied to the mix by their trans-Atlantic collaborator EMERGE introduces some more rhythmic elements that sometimes evoke the ghost of a deboned, yet partly revived drum’n’bass track.
File under: drone, ambient" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€17.00 |
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| JUSTEL, ELSA |
Mats |
CD |
" 'Gwerz' (2002). 'Du libe tu?' (1996). 'Mâts' (1999). 'Midi de sable' (2000). 'Alba Sud' (1997-98). 'Au loin bleu' (1997). 'Puntos, comas y refritos' (2002). 'Bastet' (2004). 'The electroacoustic works of Elsa Justel are striking for their rich morphological invention: canvases made of minuscule yet consistently varied sounds; stratified figures made of multiple simultaneous shots, intertwining with one another; tremblings turning into sharp and lightning objects; objects of all sizes, objects so diverse they relentlessly keep hold of your attention. This is undeniably a form of music demanding active listening, a state of awareness to the smallest palpitations, music that always has rich meanings to unveil, no matter how many times you listen to it. In fact, the more you listen to it, the more it becomes both mysterious and habitable. It is music to be cherished for its sophistication, vividness and subtlety. This music imitates nothing; it is there, warm and savant, controlled yet free, vigorous and intelligent. It adds to the real world a presence consisting of its own immanence. It is this presence that Elsa Justel has been trying to bring forth, through her unyielding work as a composer, and succeeding so rightfully that she immediately wins us over. I see Elsa Justel's music as surplus life, absolutely essential to our existence." Horacio Vaggione
[label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
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| JÜPPALA KÄÄPIÖ |
Rainbow Mask |
LP |
"Rainbow Mask" is a 12" record which contains a long piece on each side. The sound was originally taken from our first session in Geneva in Autumn 2006. Hitoshi processed Carole's viola and voice thorough various effectors in realtime. And we kept playing until the studio space was totally filled with our harmony and noises. Although the sound was quite rough, the experience in the space was strong enough to impress ourselves. ("Lunastus" in "Sporing Promenade" is also taken from a part of the session in the same day.)
We have listened, edited and forgotten the recording, again and again. Then finally the brewed results were contained in this record.
The process often happens during Hitoshi’s sound work. He seriously considers the effect as 'sound fermentation', that increases the astringency and richness of the sound, even if it's in decaying process.
Side A is a noisy psychedelic drone music which is closer to the original session. It may remind you some of Hitoshi's work, as "Spiracle" (if you know the name). Side B is a quiet work, like an ambient music. We played piano together while listening to the original session, and Carole acoustically overdubbed viola tracks afterwards. Then, the sound of the original session was mostly removed.
This side sounds nice by 45 rpm as well.
The mask on the cover was made by Carole, when she was 12 years old. The titles of each piece were also borrowed from this innocent craziness.
How about our "rainbow fermentation technique" which comes from the country of cheese and wine 'Switzerland', and the country of natto (fermented soybeans) and sake 'Japan'?" [label info]
www.omnimemento.com
"A swarmingly beautiful, miasmic piece of psychedelic drone folk! Juppala Kaaplo is the husband & wife duo of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo, the latter of whom had released a number of spectacular drone-smear constructions under the moniker Spiracle. Minimalism is certainly a key component to the Juppala Kaaplo sound, but it's the kaleidoscopic trills that you'll get from Terry Riley rather than the steely suspension from Organum or Phill Niblock. Certainly, Spiracle's last affair - the daydreaming ambient record Ananta - was a much friendlier form of minimalism, but we were still not entirely expecting the shimmering, prism-shot psychedelia of this album. A hypnotizing mass immediately emerges from the lp with lengthy repetitions of Carole's vocal that is equal parts Liz Harris and Tara Burke, haunting the forest-dwelling drones from various bowed instruments that Hitoshi stacks into sinewy passages. Throughout, long breathy gasps of aerated noises push to the foreground alongside a revolving set of church organ trills and arpeggiations that faithfully play homage to Terry Riley's classic Rainbow In Curved Air. The second side is a slightly more somber affair with violin and piano gliding out of an aggregate drone from those two instruments. Like the A-side, it's a wonderful bliss-out number albeit sodden from a rainy night out in the Finnish wilderness. Limited to 450 copies and highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Animalia Corolla |
CD |
"Most of us are living in an urban world, dominated by constant noise and contagious stress. Our ears are conditioned by this aggressive environment and have often lost the ability to perceive another discreet world surrounding us. It might be hidden but also swarming, vivid and incredibly musical. We are all able to prick up our ears to some birds chattering together, the wind shaking leaves, toads singing serenades or old spirits telling us their immemorial adventures…
Since its creation in 2006, Jüppala Kääpiö has tried to substantiate what they were hearing and feeling from animals, plants or even minerals that they met in their living places in different countries and during travels in different continents.
“Animalia Corolla” is a record of feasts of spirits gathered from the whole world. Their songs, dances and conversations about the synchronicity of their dreams have been transcribed in this album.
Jüppala Kääpiö is a Swiss and a Japanese duo. They settled in Brussels in Belgium in summer 2011 after staying in Switzerland, Canada, Mongolia and Japan. The life in multicultural/lingual situations naturally gave to their music a style which might be called cosmopolitan folklore music." [label info]
www.omnimemento.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Alpen Ocean |
LP |
"ALPEN OCEAN is the final recording of Carole Kojo (Swiss) and Hitoshi Kojo (Japanese) that they left behind as Jüppala Kääpiö, whilst resident in Switzerland.
The sound sources are rather familiar instruments and materials for us such as voices, handmade instruments, viola, organic materials and field recordings. However, the style has evolved to a hybrid of our early style: an intense harmonic drone music that has appeared in RAINBOW MASK, and another phase which might be termed as a cosmopolitan ethnic music, that has been archived in later recordings such as OWLORA MUSKARIA and ANIMALIA COROLLA.
The overlaid harmonies of a murmuring of trees, howling skies, roarings of the ocean and the gradual transformation that is accompanied by melodies may remind you of migratory birds travelling across the sky on a lost ancient continent, or the dream of sea animals that are in eternal slumber in a ridge of mountains.
This piece would be one of a high-water mark by Jüppala Kääpiö who have looked for sound which resonates throughout time and space, whilst regarding a life-size reality that is rooted on the earth.
This release is a limited edition of 250 copies. 30 copies of the special edition in a stencil design box includes an extra cd-r that contains same tracks with the LP and two unreleased tracks from our early period.
Since the move to Belgium where is a foreign county for both of us in 2011, we are investigating a passage to our next chapter in the new environment." [label info]
"So lovely is the work of Juppala Kaapio! That said, we must sadly report that the Japanese / Swiss, husband-and-wife duo have stated that Alpen Ocean will be their final album under the guise of Juppala Kaapio. Another project is in the works, and they are planning to unveil whatever this may be sometime in 2014. Many of the drone-clad works we champion hedge their bets with the power of the darkside; but there are plenty of choice examples of rapturous, celestial tones and holy minimalism that seek to enlighten rather than darken the consumers' mind. Juppala Kaapio's small catalogue of lovingly crafted minimalism figures somewhere between the summer solstice nature jams of the Finnish freak-folk types and the twinkling harmonics of Terry Riley and LaMonte Young. As for Alpen Ocean, a brightly hued psychedelia of a sunburst and snowblind tableau is rendered through the wide-eyed sense of awe and wonder after calmly sipping a cup of psilocybin mushroom tea. Carole Kojo's delicate falsettos waver into a meditative chorale through tape loops and delay amidst the slow kaleidoscopic arrangements of chiming bells, bowed gongs, glassy electronics, and a few pastoral field recordings thrown in for good measure. It all comes together into bright, rapturous drones that Juppala Kaapio's Hitoshi Kojo describes as "overlaid harmonies of a murmuring of trees, howling skies, roarings of the ocean and the gradual transformation that are accompanied by melodies which may remind you of migratory birds travelling across the sky on a lost ancient continent, or the dream of sea animals that are in eternal slumber in a ridge of mountains." Limited to a mere 300 copies!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2013 |
€19.50 |
|
| K-SPACE |
Infinity |
CD-ROM |
K-SPACE ist das Projekt von TIM HODGKINSON, KEN HYDER und GENDOS CHAMZYRYN, die für ihre dritte Veröffentlichung eine (soweit ich weiss) Weltneuheit geschaffen haben: Das 20 minütige "Infinity" klingt bei jedem abspielen (geht nur auf Computer) neu und erschafft sich quasi jedesmal selbst noch einmal, da eine auf der CDR mitgelieferte Software die einzelnen Klangelemente & Parameter jedesmal individuell "mischt". Enthalten sind perkussive & vokale Ritualsounds von diversen Schamanen, RADIK TYULYUSH (Mitglied bei der legendären sibirischen "throatsinging" Gruppe HUUN-HUUR-TU), ein ganzer russischer Chor aus Kyzyl, sowie diverse ethnische & klassische Instrumente die von den K-SPACE Mitgliedern eingespielt wurden. Die INFINITY-Versionen die ich bisher hören konnte klingen nach einer organischen Melange aus Ethno- und (Geräusch)-Jazz-Elementen, dunkler Geräuschmusik und rituellem Post-Industrial. Faszinierendes Konzept und sehr stimmiges Ergebnis !
"A first in formatting. This CD will only play on your computer, on the on the other hand it will always be different, every time you listen to it. K Space is Tim Hodgkinson (electronics, Hawaiian guitar, reeds), Ken Hyder, (percussion, voice) and Gendos Chamzyryn (voice and percussion), but this doesn't tell you much. There are also environmental recordings here, and deconstructed fragments, all pooled so that specially written software will compile and sequence 20minute pieces according to complex algorithms (rather than just randomly) that will never repeat. In other words there is no object here that will deliver what you know; there are materials that are constantly recombined so that each audition will be something unexpected. A great idea, brilliantly realised." [label notes]
www.adhocrecords.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| K11 & PHILIPPE PETIT |
The Haunting Triptych |
CD |
"The Haunting Triptych is a collaboration between Pietro Ribarbelli aka K11 and Philippe Petit, a haunted soundtrack giving an impression that some ghosts are lurking around. Dragging listeners inside a world full of malevolent creatures. The sound is heavy and claustrophobic and the downward spiral brings you to the final end where the last sound you hear before losing your senses is the beast eating your flesh." [label info]
www.boringmachines.it
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| K11 [= PIETRO RIPARBELLI ] |
The Sacred Wood |
CD |
"K11 (aka Pietro Riparbelli) can be compared and in our opinion is the new Bad Sector. Sound sources and intents are different but the end results are ending in a very similar sound layer. The sound sources for this album was recorded at the enchanting park of Monsters of Bomarzo. The park of Monsters of Bomarzo was devised by the architect Pirro Ligorio (he completed the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome after the death of Michelangelo and built Villa d'Este in Tivoli) on commission of Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino, only to vent the heart broken at the death of is wife Giulia Farnese. The park was born in 1552 as "Villa of Wonders" to be the only one of it's kind in the world. Incredible but true, the Park of Monsters remained in complete oblivion till 1954 and only few people was aware about all the fantastic treasures contained within the park for over 400 years! K11 was recording the soul of this park of Monsters and Wonders and after re-working the sounds he delivers us a trip between reality and dream. Psychedelic, ritual ambient music from an other space, from an other era, from an other land..." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| KA-SPEL, EDWARD |
Lyvv, China Doll |
CD |
"Edward Ka-spel, singer and frontman of The Legendary Pink Dots, may not need any more introduction. Ever since the early 80s' the Pink Dots are an unqiue group, that blend together modern electronic music with psychedelic music from the 70's, with as a landmark of its own, the apocalytpic lyrics and voice of Edward Ka-spel. As a solo artist his music is not so complex and varied regarding instrumentation, but they create a more private and intimate atmosphere. "Lyvv Chian Doll" was original released as a casette by Ka-spel on his own Mirrordot cassette label. Originally this cassette was intended as a simple live document, but during its compilation that intention became obscured. Ultimately only half of the material was live, and it featured much previously unheard work. For the CD version, only "The Horn Section" is live, while a number of sketches and small pieces have been inserted, recordings that cover the period 1982-1992, so do be patient with the occasional dubious sound quality. CD is packed in standard jewel box with transparant tray." [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
1993 |
€14.50 |
|
|
O'er A Shalabast'r Tyde Strolt Ay |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des schönen Albums von 2002, welches bisher nur auf Vinyl erhältlich war...
"Repress of the album packaged in a custom made gatefold case and fully remastered by Randall Frazier at Helmet Room studios. A shalabast'r tyde, like unto pantent leather shoes, really doth shyne up. Reflected in the waves are twinkling stars; a smirking harvest moon; herds of passing clouds & hazey pink dots, like legends burned against eyelids after a long stare into an errant brightness. Ka-Spel's penchant for musical procreation is further fathered via this, another outstanding experimental recording. Fading into a subatomic rumble, 'Shalabast'r' sneaks into a quiet Edwardian waltz that sneaks into a fragmented sampling autoclave. If nothing else, Edward's always been a little sneaky. Maybe that's why he wears sneakers." [label info]
”..Slowly he seems to be pushing his solo music forward by going more and more for instrumental music, and move away from the song structures that were a feature of his older solo work. From the intimate sing-song-keyboard thing, he seems now interested in apocalyptic sound fields, dense, dark but always with a dot of light at the end of the tunnel.” [Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Caste O' Graye Skreeens |
CD |
"When all's been said & all's been seen, face it, we are just machines". Last copies of this album on the now defunct World Serpent label. Consists more or less of the fabulous one-tracker "OUR CAPTAIN'S EYES" (53+ min.), a very subtle & dense track with various parts, partly pulsating or with little beats, partly free floating atmospheric & experimental, and also the typical KA-SPEL melodies & vocals appear.... this is like having 20 different tracks in one long surrealistic & weird journey... |
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Tanith and the Lion Tree |
CD |
"Finally, Edward Ka-Spel’s genius 1991 album is given the re-mastering treatment, complete with bonus tracks. Ballads coupled with a dark, malignant backdrop. A strange, mystical atmosphere carved out by texture and emotion. Housed in a matt-laminate digipak, this is the ultimate solo album from The Legendary Pink Dots’ frontman. Previously unavailable on CD for 15 years. Digipak." [label info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Textures of Illumina |
do-CD |
"Cuts from the now rare “Das Digitale Vertrauen” double CD, plus ultra-obscure “Atomic Roses ’95”. This is a 73 minute album. The first 1500 copies will include bonus material consisting of some re-recorded and re-titled Edward Ka-Spel classics such as “Suicide Pact” (“Suzy’s Eye Patch”) and “Even Now” (“Steven Cow”). New tracks are “Book of the Film”, “Broccoli” and “The Repeal of the Corn Laws”." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2002 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Permission to Leave the Temple |
10inch |
The idea of a release by the founder of The Legendary Pink Dots on Lumberton Trading Company had been mooted for a number of years. In fact, they were close to issuing a 7" around 2010, but this fell through due to the usual problems often facing small, more or less homespun, labels. The idea of still doing something with this prolific stalwart of music cut from those many folds where avant-garde abstraction locks horns with molten psychedelia, kosmische sounds, electronica and an approach to songwriting never afraid to go wherever the mood takes, however, never left. Attached to all of this, as always, are Edward's words, where wry everyday observations can mutate or be twisted into new forms given a distinctive surrealist slant. Collected on this limited 10" are five songs adding up to the length of a mini-album. Edward may well be one of the most active artists to have first emanated from the early 1980s cassette network, but Lumberton Trading Company is more than happy to play a small part in this continually unfolding, and always interesting, story. Edition of 500.
https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/product/edward-ka-spel-permission-to-leave-the-temple-10
"When you read these words, The Legendary Pink Dots are loading their van to tour Europe, following their tour of late last year in the USA. It's been a while since we last saw this band on stage, and it's about time we see them again. During the pandemic, the group worked hard on new music and brushed up the old music for a new release, so where does singer Edward Ka-spel find the time to make his solo music? I honestly don't know but take a look at their Bandcamp (https://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com/), and you'll find lots of music from his solo and with the mothership. It would be too simplistic to say that Edward Ka-spel is The Legendary Pink Dots in reduced form. Less Erik Drost's guitar and The Silverman's keyboards before or Randall Frazier's these days, Ka-spel's becomes altogether more electronic. Still, I believe that in his solo work, Ka-spel allows even more freedom to play around with sound and sounds (there is a difference there). There is more experiment, but it is also more personal. The distinctive voice of Ka-spel is the central point of attention in the five pieces on this 10", but he allows for a lot of room for an instrumental piece. Honestly, the three pieces on the first side and the two on the second flow right into each other, and there is, as far as I'm concerned, one long piece of music per side, in which Ka-spel tells his story/poetry and packs it with psychedelic coloured sounds. Joyful, over the top, reflective and personal. 'With My Blessing' opens with tinkling bell sounds, which gives the piece the charm of a music box in a baby's room, slowly morphing into something more dystopian with female vocals. Dystopian, perhaps, but Ka-spel's music is never without hope, I should add. However grim the world may be, there is always a ray of light in the music. As said, the psychedelic nature of his music is undoubtedly attributed to that. A 10"... the format of doom (too small for an LP, too big for a single)... it's too short for a full display of Ka-spel's talent to paint stories with sound and words. This is another great one, that much I know, but I also confess to being a long-term fan." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| KA-SPEL, EDWARD & THE SILVERMAN |
The Whispering Wail |
CD-R |
Early 2004 was a time of exploration for The Dots as they prepared "The Whispering Wall" and "Poppy Variations" albums. It wasn't unusual for sessions
and improvisations to last for hours.
"The Whispering Wail" focusses on synthesiser sessions of EK and The Silverman and produces a small voyage which we felt stood up in it's own right.
This cdr release enjoyed a decent enough quality, but with today's advanced tours we took the liberty of subtle enhancement.
It's wild and loud and at times utterly uplifting. Again, this one comes recommended. All pieces unreleased and unheard outside Chez Dots." [label info]
https://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com/album/whispering-wail
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| KABUKABU / KLEZMER CHIDESCH |
performs The KREV Underwater National Anthem # 3 / 4 |
7 |
Die "Nationalhymne" des Königreichs Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) in der afrikanischen und Klezmer Version! Der von LEIF ELGGREN und CM VON HAUSSWOLFF 1992 in Stockholm gegründete Staat besteht aus allen Grenzgebieten / Niemandslanden zwischen anderen Staaten, sowie besonderen Bewusstseinszuständen wie dem hypnagogen Zustand, dem Traum, dem "Territorium der Eskapisten" oder dem virtuellen digitalen Raum. Natürlich braucht so ein Staat auch eine Hymne, Teil 2 der vierteiligen Serie entstand im Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin im Oktober 2006 und enthält zwei wilde live-Versionen von KLEZMER CHIDESCH und KABUKABU..
"These recordings were regally made on 21 October 2006, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin at the opening of the Elgaland-Vargaland Embassy for Germany in the presence of the Kings, Michael I and Leif I, Consul Hans Ulrich Obrist (who made the inauguration speech) and the KREV Ambassador Bernd M. Scherer.
This 7” is the second in a series of vinyl acoustic versions of the National Anthems of Elgaland-Vargaland. See also the Mariachi version on Ash 7.2 ~ Ash International, 2007.
Genuflections to: Dorothea von Hantelmann and Vera Dorsch.
BERLIN AFROBEAT DYNAMITE...
Kabukabu
Vocals and percussion: Akinola Famson
Drums and vocals: Ekow Alabi-Savage
Bass and vocals: Patrick Frankowski
Trumpet: Daniel Allen
Keyboards: Matti Klein
Tenor/baritone saxophone: Michael Holder
Percussion and vocals: John Famodimu
2005, after the dissolvement of the then only afrobeat band in Berlin “Rhythmtaxi”, the city witnessed the birth of a new offspring of Afrobeat family christened “KABUKABU”(a slogan used in Lagos / Nigeria for Buses used in transporting the masses. The bus not only transports people from one point to another, but also serves as a medium of desseminating news and messages to the people). A band formed by Akinola Famson, Ekow Brown and Patrick Frankowski (pillars of Afro and Reggae scene in Berlin) alongside with other international outstanding musicians, who have dedicated their artistic life to improving on the legacy laid by Fela Kuti “God father of Afrobeat” , an explosive combination of Westafrica rhythms with Funk and Jazz Americas. Irresistable groove travelling round the globe. KABUKABU stands out as the only unbeatable “Afrobeatdynamite”. Through its new style of playing and the introduction of diverse musical acts as well as other indigenous percussive instruments, the band had added a new dimension into the way Afrobeat is being played, taking afrobeat to another level which conforms with the present musical demands of all music lovers without neglecting the original intention of “ANIKULAPO” the initiator . The band had created a musical delicacy termed “Explosive-Afrobeat” through its mix of HipHop, Reggae, Dancehall, Soul, Funk with african traditional elements. This new dimension enables the band to cooperate and work with other solo artist as well as Dj’s and Mc’s e.g. the collaboration work with exotical musicians like JIMI TENOR, TM STEVENS, MFA KERA…etc. With just one year of refining the left overs of Rhythmtaxi, KABUKABU’s just finished EP with “3 delicious tracks” will be release soon. So stay tuned and watch out when next the rhythm bus is passing through your area.
Klezmer Chidesch
Accordion: Jossif Gofenberg
Clarinet: Igor Sverdlov
Drums: Mark Szmelkin
Double bass: Alexander Franz
BERLIN KLEZMER: (the miracle called Klezmer) brings the most cheerful and heart-moving mood in the music halls with its rapid tempo. The four musical souls bring nostalgia, melancholy, love and amusement together in a feeling of life: The Klezmer. Their Klezmer music is particularly facet-rich, since all four musicians have professional music training and an experience of many years. The lovely Band from Berlin, that consists of trained musicians, who originally come from Ukraine and White Russia, plays the original Jewish instruments and the folks music of eastern Europe with a lot of soul and energy.
"We play very gladly at your weddings, birthdays and also all other occasions and guarantee for the fact that, our Jewish folks music that comes from the heart will inspire you will draw you along."
www.klezmerchidesch.de
[full label info]
www.ashinternational.com
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| KABUTOGANI |
Bektop |
CD |
"The 4th album by french producer KABUTOGANI is his most conceptual to date. Made entirely of mostly rhythmic glitch sounds (aka Clicks & Cuts), the album still has traces of melodies or tones - unlike many other minimal glitch productions. The cold, dry and noisy sound transports an almost morbid atmosphere. Experimental electronic music seldomly was so full of feelings - rather inconvenient ones, but feelings. This is what makes this album special. //
Das vierte Album des französischen Produzenten KABUTOGANI ist sein konzeptionell und musikalisch ausgereiftestes. Obwohl ausschließlich auf meißt perkussiven Glitch-Sounds (auch Clicks & Cuts genannt) basierend, finden sich - anders als bei vielen anderen minimalistischen Glitch-Produktionen - in jedem Stück Spuren von Melodien oder Tonalität. Der kalte, trockene und rauschige Sound transportiert eine beinahe morbide Atmostphäre. Selten war experimentelle elektronische Musik so voller Gefühle - wenn auch eher Gefühle der unbequemeren Art." [label info]
www.mille-plateaux.com
"Kabutogani is from France and the russian word on the cover means Vector. Maybe he likes his art to be Russian, as the package is red, black and white, like an El Lissitzky painting. This is fourth album, but my first introduction to his work. In the press release, Mille Plateaux, refer to some of their old stable to sell this album: Alva Noto, Frank Bretschneider, SND, Vladislav Delay, Pan Sonic (and, to be fair, also to Machinefabriek, which link is hard to be made). Music that is not at all alike that of Ametsub, as Kabutogani plays the harsher card of click and cuts. His beats are gritty, noisy, distorted, feeding it through digital effect processors (I have to be careful here, I know). In all of his tracks - twelve in total - there is some sense of melody, but usually kept in the background. Like Mille Plateaux, Kabutogani knows his classics too, and especially Pan Sonic seem to have a profound influence on him, but I give Kabutogani the benefit of a doubt, like the relaunched
Mille Plateaux itself." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| KADAVER |
God has left the building |
CD-R |
"Centuries of Hatred", "Blood and feces on the altar", "Deeper", KADAVER verbinden ihre Noise-Attacke mit eindeutigen Botschaften. Anti-religiöser und überhaupt "anti-everything" HarshNoise aus Israel !
"Kadaver is a 1man project by Michael Zolotov from Israel. Active since 2003 (yet the first release came out on 2005). The sounds of Kadaver shifts from dark and twisted ambient through industrial till harsh noise and power electronics. This is NOT art nor music. Kadaver is NOT an artist trying to "creatively express himself" via this format. This is a cancer. It’s sickness. It’s a warm streaming vomit of hatred towards life, humans and existence. It’s the knife in your hand when nightmares twist your dreams. It’s the emptiness that devours your meaningless being and bleed as tears of decay over it. This is not for anyone... This is Kadaver. Cd-r in DVD case with pro-cover, limited to 150 copies." [label info]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| KAFFE MATTHEWS & ANDY MOOR (THE EX) |
Locks |
CD |
Sehr ungewöhnliche Zusammenarbeit: die englische Avantgardistin mit dem Gitarristen ANDY MOOR von THE EX ! Alle Stücke sind „live in the studio“-Improvisationen: weirde loops, ungewöhnliches Gitarrenspiel, überraschende breaks, wild und ungestüm, aber auch mit dronig-schwelenden Passagen !
“Live convertor Kaffe Matthews and sonic guitarist Andy Moor first performed together as an improvised duo in London in 1998. The combination of Andys energetic guitar work and Kaffes serene, highly focused live sampling technique worked well... they produce a dark, textural sound with extremes in dynamics from barely audible blips and squeaks to massive walls of joyful noise often backed by bizarre rhythmic patterns and melancholic drones.
Their live performance is totally improvised, Kaffe sampling and processing Andys guitar sounds in real time and together building tension, with a restless energy that never allows the form to collapse.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAGEL, MAURICIO |
Duodramen |
CD |
"Mauricio Kagel is a conductor, writer, teacher and self-taught composer, initially influenced by avant-garde figures such as Boulez and Stockhausen. During the 1980s, however, his musical language became more conventional, although it could never be called nostalgic. Szenario, scored for string orchestra and tape, was conceived as an independent work, but quickly found a new role as musical backing to the Luis Bunuel/Salvador Dali silent classic Le chien andalou. Duodramen can be heard either as an orchestral song-cycle in the tradition of Mahler or as an operatic 'final scene' in the tradition of Wagner or Richard Strauss. Composed during 1989-90, Liturgien is Kagels take on a sacred service so as to illuminate its musical essence from a new perspective." [label notes]
www.naxos.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON |
Miramar |
CD |
Vier super-minimale und recht “trockene” drones dieses inzwischen in der Schweiz ansässigen Klangkünstlers, der wie z.B. ALVIN LUCIER den Raum als Instrument benutzt...
“ 'miramar' features new pieces recorded live in studio using analogue synthesizer, floor tom and small cymbals. Recorded with eight different room microphones, the room being extremely large, with 20-meter high ceilings. Each room microphone picked up a different frequency range, depending on its placement and how the room's resonant frequency mixed with what I was playing. In addition to analogue synthesizer and percussion, the room itself was thus the third «instrument» Jason Kahn used on this recording. Jason Kahn was born in New York, grew up in Los Angeles, moved to Berlin in 1990. He now lives in Zürich. His audio work is a mix of electronic and acoustic sound sources, produced with minimal percussion, laptop or analogue synthesizer. In recent years he has also created several sound installations. He started the cd label «cut» in 1998” [label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Vanishing Point |
CD |
"Vanishing Point is a 47 minute composition, which Kahn has dedicated to his daughter who died shortly before Kahn began working on this piece in 2007. For all of the phenomenological studies and stoic mesmerism attributed to much of his catalogue, Vanishing Point is a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and those aforementioned colored noises. Soon into the piece, Kahn introduces a flickered ghost of melody whose luminous tones manifest ever so slightly against his contrails of noise. The upper register hiss and statics of these layered noises slowly drop in pitch and frequency over the duration of the piece, revealing subharmonic rumblings and an oceanic current that tugs at the agitated textures of Kahn’s surface noises. This glacial, minimalist shift renders Vanishing Point elegant and meditative." [label info]
"Although we never use the classical music division between programmatic and absolute music, its good to keep it in mind. Most music in Vital Weekly is absolute, that is music without a theme, dedication but just what it is. Its music without a programm and programmatic music of course has a programm. Music by Jason Kahn is usually absolute, but 'Vanishing Point' is about the death of his daughter in 2007. She vanished at one point out of the lives of her parents, but Kahn also extents the title to the music: its about the vanishing of boundaries between electronic and acoustic sound. Kahn plays cymbals and analogue synthesizer here, and its a top Kahn solo work. The cymbals mingle in a great way with the hissy, white noise textures of the synthesizer. Slowly, peaceful, minimal that builds rather quickly, in the first one-third part of the work and then slowly over the course of the rest slowly fades out, always with small changes in white static noise, small crackles and such like, make this an absolute (forgive the pun) great work." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.23five.org
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON & ASHER |
Vista |
CD |
Extremst minimaler, rauschiger Drone-Ambient, so subtil und subliminal dass eine "neue" Empfindungsfähigkeit gefördert wird.. die spezielle Atmosphäre, die hier übermittelt wird, ist mit Worten einfach nicht beschreibbar...
"Aus Feldaufnahmen, die Kahn am Zürichsee und in den Schweizer Alpen machte, und Asher seinerseits vor Ort in Somerville, MA, und in den nicht so vornehmen Ecken des Bostoner Stadtteils Back Bay, entstand eine imaginäre Szenerie, die hauptsächlich aus Regen zu
bestehen scheint. Oder ist das Wind, der in Baumkronen rauscht? Oder doch nur Industriegeräusche von Motoren, Generatoren, Lüftungsanlagen? Oder beides? Es wummert, knirscht, brodelt und zischt so ununterscheidbar, dass man am Ende nicht mehr ausschließen kann, dass einem die Phantasie vielleicht durchgehend nur Streiche spielte. Der Drang, Geräusche als Dinge zu identifizieren und so gut es geht ein Was und ein Wo festzustellen, der ist doch sehr stark. Kahn fügt dem Rauschen, das nach einer halben Stunde in den Hintergrund rückt, während im Vordergrund ein dunkles Wummern Raum greift, ein flirrendes Cymbaltickling hinzu. Das siffende Rieseln und Zischeln bleibt aber, wenn auch etwas gedämpfter, so als ob der ständige Regen etwas nachlassen würde oder man selbst sich weiter in den Maschinenraum zurück gezogen hätte, wo das Brummen mollige Wärme auszustrahlen scheint. Ob diese Illusion aus Klang jetzt als ‚offener Kamin‘ taugt, der Gemütlichkeit verbreitet, oder als Regenvorhang, to read Krimis Noir by, das muss jeder selbst ausprobieren." [Bad Alchemy]
"The work on Vista began in the summer of 2006 with recordings made by Asher in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. Walking through the
alleys and side streets he recorded the various mechanical rooms, generators, ventilation systems and idling motors which were to be found
there. These recordings were processed and sent to Kahn.
Later that fall, Kahn sent Asher several pre-dawn recordings he had made on the shores of Zürich Lake. Asher processed these in keeping
with the methods he had used with his own location recordings so as to create continuity among the amassing material. Unprocessed wind
recordings made by Kahn in the Swiss Alps in the summer of 2007 comprised the final batch of material used on Vista. Asher and Kahn
spent the remainder of that year working on a final mix. Addressing the idea of hearing and seeing out and beyond spatial planes, title Vista references both the aural expanses of Asher's home on a hill in the town of Somerville and Kahn's trips to the Alps and Zürich Lake.
In processing and mixing the discrete details of a landscape, we hear them from a real physical distance. Through the incidental
combinations of processed local sounds and sound materials which are entirely foreign to us, an imaginative aural view is created which
obscures any relationship to a documentary account of the original locations recorded for Vista.
Jason Kahn is a sound and visual artist based in Zürich. His work includes sound installation, performance and composition. He was born in New York, grew up in Los Angeles and relocated to Europe in 1990.
Kahn has given concerts and exhibited his sound installations throughout Europe, North and South and America, Japan, Mexico, Korea, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Lebanon, Egypt, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. Kahn's work has been published by many other labels such
as his own imprint Cut , For4Ears, Sirr, Crouton, Korm Plastics, Creative Sources, Longbox Recordings, 1.8 sec records, Chloë and ATAK among others.
Asher (Thal-Nir) is still a relatively new sound artist living and working in Somerville, Massachusetts who has already garnered quite a bit of acclaim in just a few short years for his work using old cassette tapes and field recordings. He also uses processed acoustic and electronic instruments. His work has been published online by 12k / term, Con-v,
Laboratoire Moderne (EARlabs), and Homophoni, and on CDR and DVDR by Con-v, Leerraum, Conv, Winds Measure Recordings, Mystery Sea, The Land Of, among others.
DISCLAIMER: For full effect, turn up the volume and do nothing else but listen. You may very well find that this is ALL you will be able to do anyway... Despite the cover images on the packaging, driving while under the influence of this CD should be done with caution. This CD may induce a "thousand-yard stare" (a long, unfocused gaze), instances of "missing time", or audio hallucinations that could cause disorientation in the listener. Bottom line: friends don't let friends drive under the influence of Vista. This CD is for recreational use only. ENJOY." [label info]
www.and-oar.org
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON & RICHARD FRANCIS |
same |
CD |
"Just how many CDs did Jason Kahn release by now? Hard to say, but quite a fair bunch. He doesn't surprise me with his music that much anymore, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the music as such. Here he teams up with Richard Francis, once known as Eso Steel and running the CMR label, and these working under his own name. The two met for the first time in Auckland where they played together and then, a year later, again in Switzerland. Kahn plays percussion and analogue synthesizer, while Francis is on computer and electronics. Four pieces (between ten and sixteen minutes each) of great lo-fi humming sounds. A very special kind of drone music that sounds both electronic and acoustic. It seems to me that these are microphone recordings, which capture the atmosphere from the space they play their music in, and which adds a nice textured quality to the music. Minimalist in approach, but very fine in execution. Like said, Kahn doesn't surprise me with his music, but he sure knows how to please me." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The new album from two masters of electroacoustic improvisation, who are living thousands miles away from each other, but found
some common aesthetic views and originality of artistic expression. This materials were recorded live during their collaborative performances in various locations, consisting of four long tracks, presenting the unique interaction between technology and intuition.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES: Jason Kahn's work includes sound installation, performance and composition. He was born in New York in 1960, grew up in Los Angeles and relocated to Europe in 1990. He currently lives in Zürich. He has given concerts and exhibited sound installations throughout Europe, North and South America, Japan, Mexico, Korea, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Lebanon, Egypt, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. Kahn performs both solo and in collaborations, using percussion, analog synthesizer or computer in different combinations. He composes for electronics, acoustic instruments and environmental recordings. For larger groups of directed improvisation he has devised a system of graphical scores. Kahn creates his sound installations for specific spaces. The focus of these primarily non-visual works lies in the perception of space through sound.
Richard Francis has been releasing works on CD/vinyl, performing solo and in collaboration as a touring artist since 1996. He uses field recordings of natural and electronic sounds
and a signal generator to compose layered sound works of textural and tonal detail. He has released solo and collaborative works on a number of labels worldwide and runs his own label CMR through which he currently releases limited edition lathe cut records by New Zealand artists. In performance he uses a
computer and electronics and has toured Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, USA and Europe. Since 2003, Francis has composed works for sound installation, participating in group
and solo shows at galleries throughout New Zealand.
Jason Kahn: percussion, analogue syntesizer
Richard Francis: computer, electronics
First two tracks recorded live at Gus Fisher Gallery, Oakland on 22nd September 2007, third one - on 17th June 2008 at Werkstatt für Improvisierte Musik, Zürich, and the last one - at Le 102, Grenoble, on 19th June 2008."
[label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| KALLABRIS |
Off Mind |
mCD-R |
„Things happen. This is obviously wrong.“ Nach langer Sendepause eine weitere Kallabristische Exkursion in abseitige Bereiche! Schon die Verpackung (verschlossene Senftüte mit einer Art Zeitung darin die sowas wie philosophische Aphorismen bzw. logisch aufeinander aufbauende Widersprüche enthält) ist aussergewöhnlich genug, das akustische Sprach- und Musik-Material verwirrt und regt weiter an: verfremdetes endloses erkenntnistheoretisches Geschwurbel garniert mit seltsam halb-rhythmischen Mantra-Strukturen und ebenso seltenen Geräuschen.... wir sind begeistert vor so viel Geist im Nicht-Geistigen. Ein genialer Streich.
“Kallabris’ scientific research has always been outstanding: their North Pole expedition, the chemistry of change that can be experienced in mocha, the ondadynamical theory as a clue for the explanation of mental phenomena - just to mention a few, well-known highlights. This time, they go for the core of it all: epistemology covered with ontological speculations. The Apologia gives a rough, yet charmingly delivered sketch of the project -- impressions and reflections performed with an impressing beat. The Corpus Maior is a dance of condensed thought, a playful and enchanted rhythm that cheerfully leads to the Epilogus which, with its skeptical melancholy, makes plainly obvious how little is done when the answers are given. A tribute to quest, but in no means to discovery.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Music for very simple Objects |
10inch |
"Maybe the most mysterious & thought-provoking german experimental project with recordings derived from field recordings so bizarre it's difficult to find any words for it!
This work features very short sequences of concrete sounds, arranged in a structural and temporal way that the "known reality" is placed in a new frame & context, thus making it possible that the world behind may become "visible" through our acoustic senses.
What is usually familiar is suspended in order to make new experiences.
The used acoustic elements have been configured in a certain causal formation which is not consciously perceivable within the phenomenal order. The phenomenon hides the principle & substance of the sound-pieces.
" Sowohl das Reihungsprinzip selbst als auch die Substanz der Elemente bleiben in der phänomenalen Anordnung verborgen (also unbekannt) - das Phänomen verdeckt Prinzip und Substanz, weil weder räumliche noch zeitliche Ordnungen dazwischentreten können. - substantia innominata et principium innominatum." [Kallabris]
Great full colour artwork by Mal Hoeschen (Multer, Genesungswerk), edition of 500 copies, transparent fluor green vinyl." [label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
"... Eine Mischung aus minimaler Schwingrhythmik, Dronefacetten und kurzen konkreten Überleitungen erzeugen eine
Stimmung, wie sie hier im Büro zuletzt beim Hören alter S.B.O.T.H.I.-LPs auftrat.
Kallabris arbeiten zeitgemäß mit moderner Studiotechnologie, ihre konkreten
Geräuschhaftigkeiten dagegen, sei es das Knarren einer Tür oder das altersbedingte
Schnarren und Fauchen in Würde gealteter Haushaltshilfen, beweisen einen subtilen und
wohlbedachten Aufbau. Sinusähnliche Melodiefolgen, gepaart mit Synthesizerakkorden
bereichern das ohnehin klare, aber nicht kärgliche Arrangement. Umseitig bietet die Platte konkrete Abfolgen von Wasserrauschen und Metallperkussion, unterbrochen von kurzen
fensterähnlichen Harmoniefolgen, Stimmen und dem unterschwelligen Sirren bearbeiteter
Feldaufnahmen. Schön formal ausgearbeitet, mit einem starken Hafler Trio-Bezug zu Stille
und cinematischen Aufbau. Das Artwork zur Platte stammt von Genesungswerkinhaber Andreas Mal Hoeschen, eine fein ausbalancierte Gestaltung, die in Verbindung Musik > Titel > Interpret ebenfalls angenehm nichtssagend bleibt. Monatssieger auf ganzer Linie." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
"KALLABRIS sind eine sehr mysteriöse Formation, die schon seit den 80er Jahren im deutschen Industrial-Untergrund tätig ist und im CRANIOCLAST-Umfeld verortet war. Veröffentlichungstechnisch gesehen hielt man sich aber immer angenehm dezent zurück und besonders ihre an WERKBUND erinnernde 10“ „Hafalgar“ und die 7“ auf Drone Records mit der geheimnisvollen U-Boot-Thematik seien hierbei empfohlen. Das letzte Mal habe ich KALLABRIS bewusst vor rund 8 Jahren mit der 12“-Veröffentlichung „Shanghai Dortmund“ auf Genesungswerk gehört und der Sound war da ja schon fast grooviger Shanty gewesen. Um so überraschter bin ich nun, als ich die Nadel meines Plattenspielers in das neon-grüne Vinyl absenkte, denn „Music For Very Simple Objects“ hält, was der Name verspricht. Man hört eigentlich vordergründig nur eine Reihe von scheinbar wahllos angeordneten und sehr konkreten Geräuschen, die erst mit intensiver Beschäftigung ihre Tiefe und am Ende sogar kleine Harmonien offenbaren. Somit wurde das Thema dieser 10“-Reihe von Drone Records auf der Suche nach dem Verborgenen und Unbekannten wieder einmal perfekt umgesetzt. Auch die Gestaltung des Covers der 10“ durch Mal Hoeschen von Genesungswerk erfolgte sehr passend und so schließt sich der Kreis zum Anfang des Reviews wieder. Limitiert auf 500 Stück für wahre Sucher und Entdecker." [M.Fiebag / Black]
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Schön geht anders |
CD |
"On “Schön geht anders”: 29 tracks of sheer joie de vivre form this manifesto of musical positivism. Reductionist on their acoustic surface, constructivist in their compositional core, the tracks themselves and in their sequence point to a sociological base: a sociology of sound or a sound sociology driven by the rough necessities of political acoustics. Advanced 4-track tape recording techniques struggle with primitive digital technology, thus forming a class of sound which contains itself as an element and attribute. The sublation of music reveals the revolutionary nature of movement in which its end becomes the condition of its beginning. Yes, beauty may really work differently – but it is necessity that elevates the sound to a static sculpture of dynamics.
Biography:
Kallabris is a musical project that was begun in the mid 1980ies out of the scene around Coitra’s Clan. Since ist inception Kallabris has persistently neglected any usage of advanced recording technology. Ever since not technical or compositonal innovation is at the core of the group’s work but, the active engagement with the limitations and the objects of every day life. This sound positivism can result in stylistically varied outputs ranging from chanson or country blues to musique concrète – while all musics live by their surfaces. Save the surface and you save all.
www.kallabris.de" [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| KALORIFEUR |
Within the Hermitage |
CD-R |
The ABSURD-label from Athens always had a spot for the most WEIRD music & sounds you can imagine, and this CDR from KALORIFEUR is no exception: cheapo (Casio)-tunes, obscure singing and shouting, metal-object sounds, radio-waves, feedbacks and other undefinable instrumental noises, all played & performed in such a strange an anti-musical & positively anarchistic way that you can only wonder...
for people who like the most BIZARRE stuff, this will make you happy!
KALORIFEUR is (was?) a greek duo coming from Larissa.
www.void.gr/absurd
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF |
There are Actions which we have neglected and which never cease to call us |
LP |
"Every song written or improvised has an inside song
which lives in the shadows, in-between
the sounds and silences and behind the words, pulsating,
waiting to be reborn as a new song."
William Parker, I Plan To Stay A Believer (liner notes)
After 20 years of Kammerflimmer Kollektief, with 10 albums thus far, the time has come to take a trip. The Karlsruhe combo guide us through seven stations in an unfathomable Terra Incognita, where a listening space emerges at the intersection of improvisation and composition, a space where certitude slips out of reach, jouncing incessantly between precision and freedom, oscillating furiously between cut-up and palimpsest – and, just when we think we may have pinned it down, disappears altogether.
This album entitled "There are actions which we have neglected and which never cease to call us." is one for the fearless: wordlessly conjuring up enchanted places in the richest of tones, simultaneously confronting us with magic which captivates us and the excruciating realisation that we may never be released from its spell.
Mirror images come into view, images of ourselves: driven away, tormented by feelings of guilt, frozen in powerlessness – even when we believe we are still moving. There is always a mountain of things missed, calling out to us! The wetlands of the Upper Rhine Plain ("In my heart there's a place called swampland!"). Cuernavaca in the Mexican highlands. A Southern Californian stretch of Pacific coast. The Baltic Coast in Mecklenburg. A bunch of haunted places – all scenes of melancholy within us, between longing and memory, repeatedly searching for acts of liberation. This may not be the record to set us free. But it offers us a soundtrack for our melancholic state.
One thing is clear when it comes to the Kammerflimmer Kollektief. Regardless of any interpretive traps snapping shut, or the conceptual penetration of apparently pre-conceptual musical factuality: here is something which cannot be voiced: avant-garde, improvisation, psychedelia, whichever labels are stuck on the Karlsruhe collective, they all feel patently unsatisfactory. Like all music, their music can neither be narrowed down to concepts nor fixed semantically. It cannot be organised as language, with a sound or image corresponding to specific points observed by sender and recipient alike, yet it is no more pre-conceptual in the sense of: first come the conditions of music, then one learns to discuss them. The Karlsruhe artists practise other-conceptuality. This is cata-language. Music from who the fuck knows where.
These carefully unconsidered atheist jam supplications lead us into the darkest corners of our souls. Out of the night and into the night. The bass of Johannes Frisch creaks and hums, evolving into barely discernible undergrowth with a life of its own, yet still becoming the foundation of everything – a basso continuo, constantly leading into nothingness. Heike Aumüller's harmonium recognizes its original calling as aerophone and is elementally: wind. A wind which has so much to tell us: about the good and true sides of life, but even more about what tortures us, leaves us restless. Comforter and painful wound in one. Thomas Weber's whirring guitars and gadgets drag us into a wondrously reverberating space of special effects – protection is not all this underbrush may grant us.
Amidst all the excitement which awaits us on this short, yet infinite journey, it is worth remembering: as the shaman hangs out his magic roots to dry in the morning as preparation for the ritual ecstasy of the evening, so the Kollektief follow an everyday principle in their own ritual. In short: Be not afeard!
www.bureau-b.com/kammerflimmer_kollektief.php |
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF / STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS |
split |
10inch |
"Für den Auftakt der halluzinatorischen Wahrnehmungen gewidmeten Parakusis-Reihe des mit Bill Laswell gestarteten Karlsruher Labels, variieren Thomas Weber, Heike Aumüller & Johannes Frisch zwei Tracks ihres Staubgold-Releases Jinx, bei denen der Musik Flügel wachsen, die einen in eine Art ‚out of body experience‘ davon tragen können. ‚Jnx (Excursion)‘ klopft, rasselt und dröhnt und Aumüller kaut mit zittrigem Gesang die Luft weich, damit das Karlsruher Schamanen-Kollektief an der Weltachse entlang in die Anderwelt gelangt. ‚Both Eyes Tight Shut‘ (Instrumentalversion) bringt Strings -Frischs Kontrabass arco, Heike Wendelins Viola und Martin Siewerts Lapsteel - so in Schwingung, dass die Phantasie auf sanften Langwellen den Orbit verlässt und durch Outer Space driftet, nirvanasüchtig wie der finale Surfer in Dark Star. Zwei astrale Trips in der Tradition krautiger Space-Psychedelik. Hinter fest geschlossenen Augen öffnet sich die Tür des Cactus Tree Motels auf den Mäanderweg in Sound, der in Altered States lockt. Stringtheoretisch versiert zeigt sich auch das von BiP_HOp-Macher Philippe Petit versammelte 11-köpfige Ensemble STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Saiteninstrumente haben die absolute Mehrheit gegenüber der Fraktion aus Trompete, Saxophon, Vibraphon, Sampler und Petits Laptop. Nach einer ersten Duftmarke auf der BiP_HOp-Compilation Generation v.8 wird man hier entführt in
den ‚Forest of Spades‘ mit seinem von Streichern und Vibraphon gestreuten Nadelteppich, von Perceval Bellones süßem Saxophon in ein ‚Fantastique Alaska‘ und von Andy Diagrams Trompete auf Bergkämme, auf denen sich nicht nur die Wasser scheiden. Diese Fourth World hat ihren Magnetpol im Osten. Die Musik verflüssigt das Bewusstsein so, dass es dem Sehnsuchtshorizont stetig zuströmt. Wenn nicht auch die Anderwelt ein Kugel wäre." [Bad Alchemy]
"Kammerflimmer Kollektief/Strings Of Consciousness Split 10". Exclusive tracks on a strictly limited aficionados edition of 500. Both bands recently released a full-length album. Gatefold sleeve, elaborate artwork." [label info]
www.karlrecords.net
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| KAMPEN SKOLES MUSIKKORPS |
performs The KREV Underwater National Anthem |
7 |
Die "Nationalhymne" des Königreichs Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) in der norwegischen Version! Der von LEIF ELGGREN und CM VON HAUSSWOLFF 1992 in Stockholm gegründete Staat besteht aus allen Grenzgebieten / Niemandslanden zwischen anderen Staaten, sowie besonderen Bewusstseinszuständen wie dem hypnagogen Zustand, dem Traum, dem "Territorium der Eskapisten" oder dem virtuellen digitalen Raum. Natürlich braucht so ein Staat auch eine Hymne, auf dieser 7" hören wir den 24köpfigen Marschmusik-Verein "KAMPEN SKOLES MUSIKKORPS", einen der ältesten Norwegens. Unglaublich, aber WAHR. Aufgenommen im März 2008 von JANA WINDEREN.
"Numbered edition of 500. This 7' is the third in a series of vinyl acoustic versions of the National Anthems of Elgaland-Vargaland. See also the Mariachi version [Ash 7.2] and the Klezmer and Afrobeat versions [Ash 7.4], both issued in 2007 via Ash International. Kampen Skoles Musikkorps consists of around 24 musicians aged from 9 to 16. It was founded in 1906 and is the third oldest school marching band in Norway. Recorded on 12 March 2008 at Kampen Skole in Oslo. The KREV Underwater National Anthem was recorded under MS Reichenau on the occasion of the Annexation of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) including Überlinger See, Zeller See, Gnadensee, Untersee and the Insel Mainau (Island of Mainau), formerly a part of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, by the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland on Wednesday, 28 May 2008. In attendance were Kings Michael I & Leif I, The KREV Ambassadors for Basel, UK and Zürich; The Minister of Galleries and many others. Recorded using Dolphin Ear hydrophones and a Nagra Ares PÐ11 flash recorder whilst The Emmishofer Brass Band and The Diessenhofen Yodelling Choir performed With thanks to Adrian Notz at Cabaret Voltaire, Richard Tisserand at Kunstraum Kreuzlingen and Stefan M. Seydel at (((rebell.tv)))." [label info]
www.ashinternational.com
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| KANE, JONATHAN |
The little Drummer Boy |
maxi-CD |
"Do Jonathan Kane's fat-bottomed grooves take your breath away, make you lose your mind? Well, it's the holidays, and Jonny can give as well as he can take, so here's his gift to you, boys and girls. It's a classic, The Little Drummer Boy, done in his inimitable style, with layers of guitars, snow-drift-deep bass -- and you'd better believe there's drums. Hop into this sleigh -- it's jacked-up, tricked-out, it's got 850 horses and not a restrictor plate in sight. Yep, it's always a Blue Christmas when Jonathan Kane comes to town." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
I looked at the Sun |
maxi-CD |
"Jonathan Kane's rollicking, majestic and critically-acclaimed debut February set you up with his lustrous, deep-grooved sound; now comes the bare-knuckled knock-out punch. On the opening track, 'BQE,' Kane compliments his signature wall of guitars with the high-lonesome serenade of pedal steel, then puts that pedal to the metal and barrels through the psychedelic badlands of Mississippi Fred Mcdowell's classic 'I Looked at the Sun.' Add the Dixie-fried strut of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons to Glenn Branca's guitar armies and you're still only halfway to Kane's mind-blowing reinvention of both minimalism and the blues -- it's a blistering day's drive from anything you've heard before." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| KAPITAL |
No New Age |
CD |
"Rafal Iwański - tone generator, analog synthesizer, sampling unit, electronic effects
Kuba Ziołek - electric guitar, electronic effects, loop system
Kapital is an encounter of two artists that usually penetrate different musical genres and ideas. It is an encounter of two musical worlds: psychoactive electro-acoustic music generated with electronic instruments and found objects and extreme psychedelia based on the sounds of processed guitar. Zio?ek and Iwan'ski worked together for the first time during recording sessions of improvisational group Innercity Ensemble formed in 2011. In August of 2013 they recorded in Bory Tucholskie their debut album titled "No New Age" that will be released by Bocian Records in the March of 2014." [label info]
kapital0.bandcamp.com
www.bocianrecords.com
"Hati member Rafal Iwanski meets up with Kuba Ziolek (also known as Stana Rzeka) and they call themselves Kapital. It's one of his incarnations I didn't hear of before. They played in their homeland Poland, but also in New York, earlier this year. I understand that the material on this CD was recorded after playing three concerts, but they still play parts of this in their concerts. Iwanski plays tone generator, analog synthesizer, sampling unit and electronic effects, while Ziolek plays electric guitar, electronic effects and loop system. It's perhaps not really the kind of music you would expect on Bocian Records (known for radical improvisation, radical electronics), and I think that is mainly due to the guitar of Ziolek. While Iwanski plays his electronics in a deep, bouncing atmospheric bath of sound, Ziolek waves on top guitar lines that owe to the world of psychedelic music and perhaps less to whatever is radical in both improvisation and electronics. Having said that, this doesn't mean this is a bad album; it's just one that is a bit different from what we heard on Bocian so far. His guitar doodling reminds me of lots of seventies German guitarists, but it's whatever it is that Iwanski is doing that prevents it from becoming cosmic in any way. It's here where the album has its experimental roots and where I enjoy this more than I would do if it had leaning more towards krautrock. It seems as if Ziolek is the grandson of Manuel Gottsching, who has been surrounding himself with the crudest of current technology as opposed to the smoothest. That's what I like about this album. Old meeting new, vibrant pieces, spacious but gritty, atmospheric and disturbing. Quite likely one of the last releases on Bocian Records, as rumour has this label will cease to exist shortly." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| KAPOTTE MUZIEK |
N°103: Tilburg |
mCD-R |
KAPOTTE MUZIEK, wohl Frans de Waards frühestes Projekt, ist weiter aktiv - im September 2007 probierten sie etwas neues und spielten rein akustisch draussen quasi als Strassenmusiker in Tilburg!!
"On Sunday afternoon the 23rd of September 2007 Kapotte Muziek played their very first all acoustic concert on the streets of Tilburg as part of Acoustic Noise which was again part of ZXZW. Highly curious 15 minute concert, and the recordings are likewise curious, with people talking, bikes passing and us playing." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html
|
2008 |
€5.50 |
|
| KAPOTTE MUZIEK & RICHARD RAMIREZ |
Muziek - Mix - Memory |
CD-R |
LICHT-UNG gehört sicher zu den seltsamsten Labels der Welt, es verzichtet komplett auf Beschreibungen, Präsentationen, und oft auch auf die grundlegendsten Infos auf den Veröffentlichungen. Was sich erschliessen soll erschliesst sich an der Ratio vorbei. Das erste Stück auf dieser CD zeigt KAPOTTE MUZIEK in Höchstform, wenn sie das Quellenmaterial des US Harshnoisers R. RAMIREZ verwenden. Fängt sehr subtil an und steigert sich unter der Verwendung von Loops und merkwürdig elektronisch klackernden Sounds und Konkret-Geknirsche in noisigere Bereiche hinein, um wieder ruhig zu enden. Sehr fein!
RICHARD RAMIREZ darf dann auf dem zweiten Stück an KM-Material ran, erwartungsgemäss ein rauschender Maelstrom, der aber auch erstaunlich sanft bleibt, und in verschiedenen Intensitäten und Stärken erbebt, white noise Frequenzmischungen die wie in Spektralfarben schillern. Aufgenommen übrigens in Stralsund, vermutlich auf dem "Garage" Festival, Juli 2004.
..First album is titled "Muziek-Mix-Memory" and is a "versus"-album between Kapotte Muziek and Richard Ramirez. First track is the legendary trio of Kapotte Muziek, Frans De Waard, Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop manupulating
the source materials of composer Richard Ramirez. The intense work opens fairly quiet
with crackling sounds and field recordings of water. Bursts of noises attack the relative quietness of the opening, but as the track develops the noise washes in and after twelve minutes the work transforms into hordes of harsh noise until the final moments where the tracks dwells back into peace. Second track is Richard Ramirez' take on Kapotte Muziek. In contrary to the radical change in expression of Kapotte Muziek's contribution, Radical Ramirez constantly keeps the mass of noise on a quite high sound levels resulting in an almost 20 minutes piece of harsh noise/power electronics. During the work there are moments of slightly
easier levels but overall Mr. Ramirez creates a hard time for the receiving ears." [NM, Vital Weekly] |
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| KAR |
Piccolo racconto crudele sulla notte appena trascorsa |
CD-R |
Interesting drone / field / concrete atmospherics-recordings from this duo consisting of ADRIAN SCERNA (also active as –> ANOFELE) and MARCO CARCASI. “a jungle of magnified lowerglyphs math-looped in a hive of despair by the roman duo of Adriano Scerna and Marco Carcasi.”[label description]
“ Kar has had releases before on the S'Agita label, but that was a live CD. Here they offer a studio CD, with just one track of thirty seven minutes. Kar is a duo who produce also microsounding stuff but less refined than Fioratti/Belfi. Traces of old school industrial music can be detected throughout in the louder bits in this piece. Things are more straight forward, direct in your face approach. Processings take a much simple course and the overall approach is much more minimal. Things stay longer in the same vein. For those who think microsoundings are too soft, this is the one to get then... “ [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2003 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Sfrigor |
mCD-R |
Ziemlich weird, quietschende metall-scapes, dazu leicht überaffektierte Gesang im Hintergrund, später wird alles ruhiger und rauschiger, Trompeten tauchen irgendwo auf, und am Ende gar glocken/glasähnliche Sounds, ein äusserst überraschender & spannender wahrlich
experimenteller „impro-ambience“-Trip.....
“Kar is an italian duo, who presents here its first 3"cd-r after some self-released cd-r's and a pair of other cd-r's on the sadly defunct s'agita recordings. This 20min piece will surprise you as its sound evolves radically from the beginning till the end. It starts with some scraping & scratching sounds which could remind you some stuff like Organum, then moves to a more electronic domain with some glitchy sounds...” [label description]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| KARINI / PALADINO / SIMON FISHER TURNER |
Ghosts of Industrial Sunday |
CD + DVD |
"Here comes a new welcome entry in the ‘private sounds’ series of the now growing 13 catalogue. "Ghosts of Industrial Sunday" is a short film by Maria Assunta Karini and Francesco Paolo Paladino, whose music were composed by Simon Fisher Turner. This release consists of a video DVD, which contains the film, and a audio CD that features the original soundtrack and other compositions inspired by this project that Turner created on purpose; they are accompanied by an oversize 20 pages booklet that offers some images taken from the film and delves more into the concept behind it.
As a film, “Ghosts of Industrial Sunday” portrays those places attended by human beings in order to carry out their profession, while they are empty, for a limited period of time, during a break, on a Saturday or Sunday. These are places where the human presence, fatigue, pain, hope are palpable presences, where silence seizes the humble labor objects almost by magic and where things talk and expose without having to necessarily utter any words. The path chosen by the directors relates to a sort of secular “via crucis”, it is an objective progress through the human work’s granted moment of interruption in order to analyze it, to describe it and to underscore its dramatic sense, through the exclusive aid of inanimate objects.
The music created by Turner as a soundtrack to the film expresses a delicate tranquillity through notes of piano which are just mottled by the electronic elements in the background, while an unspoken sense of drama hovers in the air and the circular motion of the composition gradually absorbs the listener. Among the remaining tracks, is worth mentioning the evocative and intense soliloquy of "Piano For Double Lesson" and the hanging drones of the first part of "Some Lost Music".
Maria Assunta Karini, sculptor, photographer, writer and director, has shown her works in several major Museums, in Korea, Brazil and the United States. She has produced several short and medium length films, that have participated in the Cannes Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, MACBA Museum of Contemporary art Barcelona, MADC Costa Rica, and has been awarded numerous prizes at art and cinema festivals.
Francesco Paolo Paladino, script writer, musician and director, has received an award by F.E.D:I:C: at the 66th Festival of Venice. He has participated more than once in the Cannes Film Festival (Short Corner) and he has won the Houston’s World Film Festival and the New York Independent Film Festival.
Simon Fisher Turner has composed music for Derek Jerman, David Lynch, Mike Hodges, Michael Almareyda and several others authors. His recent soundtrack for “The Epic of Everest”, a film made in 1924, was nominated “Soundtrack of the Year” for 2013 by Mojo magazine. His CDs have been published all over the world." [label info]
http://13.silentes.it
www.silentes.net
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| KARKOWSKI / REHBERG |
Pop:Album |
LP |
Ein echt sinistres LINKSHÄNDER-Album auf Tochnit Aleph (wenn man es “richtig” rum hält, muß man die Scheibe mit der linken Hand rausholen) – und die erste Collaboration von PETER REHBERG aka PITA und dem „WHERE LANGUAGE ENDS, MUSIC BEGINS“-Performer ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI mit laptop-pure noise vom feinsten..
“the debut album by the collaboration unit of Peter Rehberg (aka Pita, wellknown member of the Laptop jet-set and head of austrian label Mego) and Zbigniew Karkowski (feared by concert-bookers worldwide, surely the most violent pre-cultural force in digital music). Data retrieved from the following live-actions: 271097 @ Chelsea, Vienna / 160199 @ ICC, Tokyo / 200199 @ Milk, Tokyo / 290199 @ UFO, Tokyo / 200399 @ Webbar, Paris (PR) / 200399 @ Bunker 301, Tokyo (ZK), edited @ Baby Studio, Vienna. During the performances they mostly blew the p.a. and speakers to bits... Limited left-handed edition, cover available inside-in or -out.” [press-release]
|
2002 |
€11.00 |
|
| KARKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW |
Nerve Cell_0 |
CD |
" 'Show me something new and I will begin all over again.' Erik Satie
This work is not music in a conventional sense, it does inhabit that world, but in a new way. The cello is treated fundamentally, as a resonating body, transmitting sounds elementally. The bow on a string, the flux of weight, pressure, speed and angularity releases a myriad of complex sound phenomena. The juxtaposition of multiple sounds on adjacent strings creates fluctuating and rhythmical beatings. The detuning of the instrument increases its pitch potential and basso profundity. In combination with computer electronics these elements are multiplied, extended and enriched. Nerve Cell-0 is a joyous, ecstatic, exhilarating and epic vista of sound. It defies categorisation. Play it very loud.
Anton Lukoszevieze
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI
Zbigniew Karkowski is one of the most influential electronic music composers
working today. Linking the worlds of modern composition and industrial music he is a pivotal figure in the development of advanced noise. Constantly on the road, he is a frequent performer on the geographical fringes of experimental music culture as well as a mainstay on the established festival circuit.
ANTON LUKOSZEVIEZE
Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze is one of the most diverse performers of his generation and is notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music. He is unique in the UK through his use of the curved bow (BACH-Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. Anton is the subject of several films by the renowned artist-filmmaker Jayne Parker and he is also a
member of Zeitkratzer. In June 2009 he was awarded the 'Millennium Star' medal, for services to Lithuanian culture, by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
www.subrosa.net
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| KARKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW & LIN ZHIYING |
Switch |
CD |
"Released on March 10th, 2008. 49 minutes, 2 tracks. Limited edition of 500 copies - each with a different cover art. Zbigniew KARKOWSKI, LIN ZHIYING. Recorded in Shenzhen-China, February 25, 2006. Edited and mastered by Zbigniew KARKOWSKI 2006. Design by Wojtek Bednarski." [label info]
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| KARL BÖSMANN |
Euphoria Mitte |
CD |
"With the whole bunch of very limited edition releases on such labels as Tosom, Domestic Violence Recordings, Verato Project and the luxurious LP made by Youdonthavetocallitmusic, the name of German musician Karl Bösmann is emerging since 2003. This is his second real CD after Unton (2005, Badbeatz Records) and includes several new compositions, showing the maturity and intensity of his prolific talent. Karl Bösmann irritates. His name alone, which reminds of Kafka's wayfarer to America, Karl Roßmann, is ambiguous. A mixture of sinister and typical german, where you can think of one of Alexander Kluge's Lebenslufe, which show in protocolar dryness the deceitfulness of fate. In fact did his debut Das Kind in der Küche (2004) exactly met this impression. The soundscapes between programmed music and abstraction - in more prosaic words, Bösmann constructs, in the good old tradition of electroacoustic music, with instruments played by himself, and completely without the fashionable chic of a laptop: minimal repetitive passages, especially drones that vibrate in themselves, that flash, shimmer and take a character and 3D-quality of its own. Phill Niblock and Ligeti could come to the back of your mind, a resonance that is an honour to both sides. Other musical influences ranges from AMM and Aube through Nurse With Wound and Organum to Ghédalia Tazartès and Xenakis and so sets his ambitions way over eye-level." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Karl Bosmann is a German post-industrial / electro-acoustic tactician who seems to from the Conrad Schnitzler mold of continuous
experimentation with his equipment in pushing it to expressive means, no matter how atemporal or atonal the resulting sounds might be. Our
previous experience with Bosmann had been through monolith drone- fields that swelled from electronics and possibly cymbals into
discordant dissonant crescendos somewhere between SUNNO))) and Sunroof! Here, Bosmann showcases a wide array of electronic circuity,
whose home-built, tone-bent aesthetics take after the sound poems of early electronic music coupled with the nondestructive strategies from the likes of Nautical Almanac. His electronic insectoid blips, click, and blorps percolate through live-wire electrical fields and the
humming cycles akin to fluorescent bulbs. Many of these tracks begin rather charmingly similar to something by Dan Deacon or Black Dice,
but Bosmann twists the demeanor of his electronics through anxiety- riddled tones that glow as if a background radiation, with all of the clicks then standing in for Geiger counter pulses to allude to the neutrino bath that he's unleashed through his electronics. The pierced
feedback mantra "Around The Sun" is a great recapitulation of what Arcane Device and Nurse With Wound have done with similar material.
Dotted through the experiments, Bosmann interjects collages of industrial-space field recordings coupled with overlapping male /
female spoken word bits, whose content and context are smeared to the point of abstraction following the Hafler Trio's many demonstrations of information overload." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| KASSEL JAEGER |
Toxic Cosmopolitanism |
LP |
"Mastered at 116 Bunker, Paris, October 2013. Design by Stephen O'Malley. Artwork by Cameron Jamie. Kassel Jaeger is a swiss-french artist based in Paris, France, and is a member of the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales). 'Toxic Cosmopolitanism' is his second full length release for Editions Mego. A release which explores and questions the very nature of the material experiments contained within. Each side consists of two clearly defined sections based on the same material. Side A comprises of 'Toxic Cosmopolitanism', a large scale work based on distinct sounds of different cultures, instruments such as the balafon, tremolo, gnbri, gee, tibetan gongs, pan flutes and the like are all deployed but rendered of the sonic properties identifying them to a specific region. The question that lies at the heart of this experiment: Is such a swirl a creative process or a destructive one ? This is the ambiguity of toxic cosmopolitanism. Exposure Scales 1-4 use sounds exclusively derived from the Toxic Cosmopolitanism material. Whereas TC is more about subjecting sounds to structure, Exposure Scales builds almost static textures. The results are an honest exploration of both culture and form. At once cerebral, enlightening and immensely rich in scope and sonic vision." [label info]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Meith |
LP |
"Black Truffle present Meith, a new composition in two parts from prolific composer/theorist François Bonnet. Usually operating under his Kassel Jaeger moniker, Bonnet is a major figure in contemporary electronics and electro-acoustic music, collaborating with artists such as Lucy Railton, Jim O'Rourke, and Stephen O'Malley, and releasing his work on labels including Editions Mego, Senufo, and Shelter Press. Always meticulously detailed yet immediately affecting, Bonnet's work situates itself at a very personal intersection between the traditions of academic electronic and electroacoustic music, and a more shadowy, underground group of approaches to experimental sound: kosmische musik, the tape murk of the 1980s underground, the haunted ambience of Christoph Heemann & Co. Meith immediately welcomes you into its densely layered sound world of electronic tones, positive organ, and unidentifiable field-recorded textures. Almost static yet constantly in flux, it deliberately opens itself up to repeated and varied listening: from a distance, its many voices cohere into a monolithic plane of sound, while closer inspection reveals myriad details and momentary events. Like a drop of ink spreading through water, harmonic material present in one voice gradually fans out into the whole arrangement, creating fleeting moments of unity amid the constantly shifting waves of tone and texture. Far from the austerity of some contemporary electro-acoustic music, Meith affects the listener as overwhelming organic; its individual layers are unstable and at times near-chaotic, imbued with life. Though it can appear almost formless, the piece undergoes major shifts throughout its duration, from the austere dissonance of the opening moments to the surging harmonies that appear midway through the second side before the piece gradually dissolves into a spectral glimmer."
https://kasseljaeger.bandcamp.com/album/meith
|
2020 |
€21.00 |
|
| KASSEL JAEGER & JIM O'ROURKE |
In Cobalt Aura Sleeps |
LP |
"Second outing from Jaeger and O’Rourke following the release Wakes on Cerulean on Editions Mego in 2017. Covering a vast terrain with delicacy and poise this new release unveils a spectral showcase for all manner of deep abstraction. The first side positions itself somewhere between stoned komische synth and more nuanced electroacoustic tactics, all weighted by a melancholic undertow. The second side builds on the tension of the former as an undulating drone teases all variety of matter to rise and fall amongst the foreign space it inhabits. The effect creates an enormous sense of deep space before subsiding into a smaller more anxious flickering world. All manner of machines fold into play; digital machines, industrial and analogue machines. The seemingly random yet ordered nature of events is reminiscent of the behaviour of the natural world providing this machine driven release a convincing organic feel. Whether invoking mirrors, distant galaxies or a pond of frogs it is a delightful challenge to focus and locate what is nature and what is nurture. To play this loud is to immerse oneself in a fascinating journey which carries the listener through an array of dizzying emotional states." [label info]
editionsmego.com/release/EMEGO-272
|
2020 |
€19.00 |
|
| KASTEL, SILVIA |
Air Lows |
LP |
Air Lows is the debut solo album by Silvia Kastel.
The Italian artist has been a fixture of the underground since her precocious teens, clocking up many miles in Control Unit with Ninni Morgia (“It’s like Catherine Deneuve dumped two cases of post-Repulsion psychiatric notes over Pere Ubu’s Dub Housing, lit the fuse and, ahem, stood well back” – Julian Cope), including collaborations with the likes of Smegma, Factrix, Gary Smith, Aki Onda and Gate (Michael Morley of The Dead C). Through her own label, Ultramarine, she has released music by the likes of Raymond Dijkstra, Blood Stereo and Bene Gesserit.
Both solo and in her work with others, Kastel has explored the outer limits and inner workings of no wave, industrial, dub, extreme electronics, free rock and improvisation. Air Lows – which follows the cassette releases Love Tape (2011), Voice Studies 20 (2015) and The Gap (2016) – is both her fullest and most refined offering to date, a work of vivid, isolationist electronics which draws deeply on her past experience but assuredly breaks new ground.
Prompted by a late-flowering interest in techno and club music, Kastel sought to create something which combines a steady rhythmic pulse with the otherworldly sonorities of musique concrete, and avant-garde synth sounds inspired by Japanese minimalism and techno-pop (Haruomi Hosono’s Philharmony being a particular favourite). The formal artifice of muzak / elevator music, the intros and outros of generic popular songs, the extreme light-heavy contrasts of jungle, the creative sampling of hardcore, and the very “human” synths in the jazz of Herbie Hancock’s Sextant and Sun Ra: all these things were touchstones for Air Lows’ conception and composition. All strains of music addressing – and complicating – the relationship between the human and the technological. By extension, visual inspirations also proved important: anime, and the avant-garde fashion of Rei Kawakubo. What does that shirt or dress sound like?
Though used sparingly, Kastel’s voice remains her key instrument, whether subject to dissociative digital manipulations as on ‘Bruell’, delivering matter-of-fact spoken monologues, or providing splashes of pure tonal colour. Recorded between her expansive Italian studio and a more compact, ersatz set-up in Berlin, Air Lows gradually takes on some of the character of the German capital: you can hear the wide streets and empty spaces, the seepage of never-ending nightlife, the loneliness. Air Lows is The Wizard of Oz in reverse: the glorious technicolour J-pop deconstructons of its first half leading inexorably to the icy noir of ‘Spiderwebs’ and ‘Concrete Void’. These later tracks are reminiscent of 2015’s magnificent 39 12”, Kastel in the role of numbed, nihilistic chanteuse stalking dank, murky tunnels of reverb and sub-bass. But there is contradiction and emotional ambiguity to Air Lows from the outset, and throughout: a sense of both infinite space and acute claustrophobia; energy and inertia; fluency and restraint.
|
2017 |
€16.50 |
|
| KATCHMARE |
Frieda Harris |
CD-R |
"An algid five tracks Occult homage to Lady Frieda Harris (mostly known as the artist behind Aleister Crowley's Thoth tarot deck) is the case with this new creation by Nick Hoffman aka Katchmare.
"Frieda Harris" Represents both progression and realization Hoffman explored on previous Katchmare albums that he recorded during winter time, as it substantiates in the 25 minutes album opener "Winterreise"- A gesture to the renowned Schubert winter piece in the shape of saturnine and freezing drones that shifts to "Unseen Chariot", a picturesque track that offers noise washes alongside silent intervals and sensory drones gliding in idiosyncratic space heaven. "Wind Canticle" comes next as a methodical winter hymn with bitter ceremonial qualities, whilst "Shifting Snow" is a short and intimidating segment before "Ulrikke" rigorously end this album with an evident observation: Destruction implies creation. Death implies life. Winter is Death." [label info]
www.hcbrecords.com
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| KAVE |
Dismal Radiance |
CD |
"Monstrously deep dark ambient. Evolving structures and unsettling atmospheres with a somehow "cinematic" touch for all the fans of CAUL, YEN POX, AMON and for anyone else into menacing, profound black ambience." [label info]
www.eibonrecords.com
"Imagine that you are standing in total blackness. There are no people. It’s as if you are standing in a large, cylindrical hall of emptiness where the echoing sounds around you are endless. Haunting shapes whistle by quietly and ominously. Streams of sound blow through as if there’s a wind fuelling this vision of nothingness. There’s the occasional splash of water. Rumblings can be heard in the distance. There’s no passion, no emotion, just a spooky and mystical atmosphere of desolation and helplessness. This black ambiance is the world of Kave, a mysterious band from Holland.
The atmosphere changes very little. “Dismal Radiance” is minimalist, even in comparison to a Blut aus Nord production where a similar soundtrack-type atmosphere prevails. The droning, spooky style is in fact more akin to Yen Pox and Troum. It’s very marginal with this style but I think I prefer the evolving atmospheres which those bands generate. But this is impressive too. Here there is no beauty in this blackness, nor is there any deviation or sign of escape from the bleak and apocalyptic aspect. As this album progresses, we find ourselves deeper inside the chasm with no sign of a beginning or an end. As the rumbling winds continue, the sense of solitude is intensified. We find ourselves staring into space but it’s not a space we can see. This album will neutralise you in its empty blackness.
There are eight tracks but it’s not that you would notice. It’s not stasis but let’s face it – we’re stuck in a void here. Those track titles are revealing and appropriate: “Tomb of the Black Sand”, “Corridors under the Sea”, “Dark Monoliths Rising” and “Encompassing Emptiness” are among them. Of all of them, “Bleak Phantasm” develops the most spiritual quality but as ever it floats away before another set of shapes set in and we are enveloped further in the menacingly tranquil scene.
Yes, there is a subtle evolution over the course of the album but we remain in the same dark place. The power lies in the absence of apparent human control over these frightening and monolithic structures that epitomise the sounds of “Dismal Radiance”. It is a very lonely experience. It is monotonous and desolate. Yet in spite of being depressive, nightmarish and overwhelming in its weightiness, its mesmerising consistency gives it the paradoxical quality of being inspiring. Some of us will see it that way. Others, I suspect, will not want to stomach this ambient and despairing soundscape." [Andrew Doherty / AVE NOCTUM] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAWABATA, MAKOTO / SHINSUKE MICHISHITA |
Sex, Voyage and Echo Chamber |
CD |
"Available in a full color custom made book bound sleeve. Acid. Meet LSD. LSD. Meet Acid. The reigning lords of the new psychedelic church cross guitars for a super-electric cosmic jam that causes even hurricanes to don ear plugs. More like the paintings of crazed banshees than songs, this shape-shifting set’s loud-quiet-loud transforms the spaciousness of the axe duel into a growling canvas of thunder. Walls of feedback and distortion moan like sinking U-boats. Fuzzed tones collide into cavernous micro black holes that seem to engulf the Earth. Bigger bangs birth savage suns of massive noise. A fierce metallic martini, best taken shaken AND stirred! Play loud!" [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| KAZIMIRA, DARJA & ZURA MAKHARADZE |
Songs from an obscure Matriarchal Tribe |
CD |
https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-an-obscure-matriarchal-tribe
"Utsnobi Matriarkaluri Tomis Simgherebi" is an improvisational cycle recorded by musicians Darja Kazimira and Zura Makharadze during the filming of the experimental, analogue film "Rue de la Lune" by the Irish director Juana Robles, dedicated to the comprehension of one matriarchal generation, embraced by the tendency to painful transformation and self-absorption, striving throughout the performance to get out of these boundaries, heal and to reborn. In this act, the musicians were also characters and all the music written for the film was created precisely at the moment of the live performance documented by the director in Tbilisi, in the studio house where the authors of this cycle live and work. In particular, we performed a bodily performance that unfolded on the ruins of the Karmir monastery, which can be seen directly in the film.
The performance and music in “Rue de la Lune” was captured in improvisational performances by Ambra Gatto Bergamasco, Sonia Ntova, Maximilian le Cain, Angelica Santander, Darja-Kazimira Zimina and Zura Makharadze, integrating their current or relevant art practice, localities and daily lives. The six artists represent in Rue de la Lune the Healer, the Widow, the Lover, the Jester and the Artist in a female household out of space and time going through dreamlike healing processes in desperate attempts to liberate themselves from subconscious dynamics that span multiple generations.
Instruments used in recording: voices, dissected tuba, suona, zurna, bass rebeck, double bass ģiga, rebab, chuniri, gongs, bass drum, dissected tom, daf, bones, xylophone, metal and wood percussion, wood sticks, homemade noisy things and a lot of random surfaces.
credits
released April 20, 2023
REVIEWS
This Is The Darkness
The latest release from the ever awesome Unexplained Sounds Group label is the impressive Songs from an obscure matriarchal tribe by Darja Kazimira & Zura Makharadze. By mixing together creative vocalism, electroacouustic improvisation, and Eastern ethnic music influences, they have created an album that sounds genuinely unique and is jaw droppingly good. This is an album that will transport you to another time and place, as it soothes and disturbs in equal measure. Incredible.
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| KDONOVAN |
Air Vent |
mCD-R |
“air vent is a project that takes natural sounds out of their specific location, the sounds of peoples personal spaces [via mobile telephone] & places them live via radio senders or the internet into new contexts, into diverse locations, into both similar & contrasting environments. the work stems from ideas based on the relationship between sound & the sound source; natural rhythms & patterns in everyday sound [background noise, dialogue, etc]; the fine line, & often friction between natural & synthetic sound in connection to space; audio & visual perception.
air vent was first realized with juni radio [www.juniradio.net ] at bootlab in berlin. phone calls were made hourly [almost like an alternative news] from berlin to various places throughout the world. participants were invited to 'air their space' for 5 minutes, free to make sound or use the telephone to record sound, in whatever way they wished. the project was further progressed during a residency with ‘the fear’ at hull time based arts [www.timebase.org ], from which these recordings were taken. visually, the performance made reference to a typical dj setup, using two telephones instead of turntables. calls were made to mobile phones around the world, recipients were asked to answer their telephone & simply to leave it to record the natural background noise of their immediate environment, to convey their specific time/space/situation through sound. these calls were broadcast at the htba a:nx performance space & sent live via the internet to other environments.” [label info]
mCD-R in special cardboard-box
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| KE/HIL |
Hellstation |
CD |
"After one year of recording and production, one improvised gig at the Genocide Organ concert in Leipzig 2010 and finally the 1st offical live dis/play at Mannheim 16.10.2010. Tesco can offer the 1st fullenght release of this new group with known individuals. B.Moloch and W.Herich, both active in Genocide Organ and Anenzephalia, joined new forces and started working on a more personal concept. The result is a dark oppressive sound. A display of a worldview that only seems to see hope in escapism, cynism or extrem scary solutions. Musically old school industrial music in its full range from power electronics to dark ambient tracks." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| KEIMVERBREITUNG |
the K sessions |
CD-R |
Neues Projekt in der Amplexus CDR-Reihe mit perkussiven & ethnisch gefärbten Experimenten, Improvisations-Geräuschmusik, etc.. unkategorisierbar, für Entdecker.
“Keimverbreitung is a new dimension in ambient-avantguarde music. Decadent atmospheres, rumorism, laments & electronic sounds....all mixed to create the perfect soundtrack for our unsound minds...to dscover it!” [label info]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| KEIN ZWEITER |
Teilstück für totalen Schwung |
LP & DVDr |
10 YEARS LATER - 10 STEPS AHEAD!
Above party lines – below the horizon of forgiveness...Kein Zweiter return stronger than ever! 10 years after the „Muskeln + Kraft = Überlegenheit“ album – a new release by Kein Zweiter!
And nine pieces that are very difficult to categorize:
- electronic music?
- dance-able?
- strong voices?
-still a bit sweat of DAF?
- uninspired 1980s pure-cult-machine
YES!
YES!
YES!
MAYBE!
NO!
KEIN ZWEITER STAY AS ORIGINAL AS UNIQUE!
“...fantastic, sticky, garish nobleman-fetish-fantasies and pre-communistic oaths of knights take possession of me…" (Felix Kubin)
Released as 12“vinyl including the „Eine Richtung – Eine Saat“ video on DVD-R, a postcard and an A4-inlay containing the lyrics & liner notes! Also available on Bandcamp!
www.90-prozent-wasser.de
"GORT KLÜTH, der Bände sprechende Vokalist und KLAUS-HELENE RAMP, der elektronische Musikverantwortliche, bilden zusammen das Berliner Duo KEIN ZWEITER. Dieses hat dieser Tage ihr zweites Album auf dem Label 90% WASSER herausgebracht. Und das hält sich, was die Aufmachung betrifft, elegant zurück. Das heißt, das mir vorliegende Cover ist schlicht in Pappkarton verpackt, auf dem nur der Bandname und der Titel der Platte aufgestempelt sind. Die Klebchen sind weiß, mit einem stilisierten K versehen. Mehr nicht. Doch mehr braucht es auch nicht ...
Gegründet wurde KEIN ZWEITER von den genannten zwei Herren bereits 1989. Allerdings dauerte es nicht allzu lang, bis es wieder still um die beiden wurde. Die Stille währte dann bis 1998. Dann taten sie sich wieder zusammen. Nach mehreren Anläufen inklusive einer unveröffentlichten 7inch begannen sie 2003 damit, ihre erste, hier bereits besprochene LP "Muskeln + Kraft = Überlegenheit" aufzunehmen, die drei Jahre später erschien. Darauf folgt jetzt, etwas verzögert, weil GORT KLÜTH einige Probleme mit der Obrigkeit hatte und deshalb dann und wann in Staatsvoll- bzw. Halbpension war, die zweite "Teilstück Für Totalen Schwung". Und die ist nun noch verstrickter, der Gesamtklang voller, die Arrangements komplexer und die Texte derart hintersinnig aufklärerisch, dass einem die Augen auf- ja übergehen, in Anbetracht bzw. Anhörung dessen, wozu die Sprache fähig ist. Doch zur Sache ...
Das Album nimmt sich zunächst, hört man es durch, verstreuter Teilstücke an. Da hören wir etwas vom Glied, von einem Kuchenstück, vom Tanzen, von Fügsamkeit und Widerstand, vom Wegsperren der Mütter und der Befreiung von den Vätern, von wilden Horden und vom Wagenmann, der dem, der sagt: Du sollst oder sollst eben nicht, den Kopf mit dem Hammer einschlägt. Da haben wir National- und auch nur Sozialismus, Aufbau, Zerstörung und Sexualität, die ja in all ihren Ausformungen eigentlich nie wider die Natur sein kann, aber auch schon mal wehtut ...
"Genitalmetamorphosenovid", das erste Stück, gibt dabei die Stoßrichtung vor. Da wird der römische Dichter Ovid herangezogen, bzw. wird ihm etwas angehängt, an das er sicher damals nicht dachte. Seine Meatmorphosen, könnte man meinen, bilden dann auch gleich das Album ab. Denn stehen die einzelnen Stücke ähnlich wie die Ovidschen Verwandlungen in keinem direkten Zusammenhang. Man könnte gar meinen, ihre Zusammenstellung wär völlig wahllos. Doch so ist das nicht. Nein. In Wahrheit sind alle Teile sowohl der Metamorphosen als auch die des Albums kunstvoll miteinander verknüpft … “Komm herein” (02) verbindet z.B. gekonnt und mit einem tiefschwarz humorigen Anfang ("ss die wirklichkeit/ die mich von hinten treibt") Faschismus und Homosexualität. (Die ersten zwei Buchstaben werden als Laute gesprochen.) "Die Saat" (03) trägt dann in seiner auf youtube zu bewundernden bildlichen Darstellung Anleihen an den vergangenen Realsozialismus zur Schau. Was dann den im zweiten Stück genannten Faschismus nun wohl um die Dimension des Sozialismus, der die Vorstufe zum Kommunismus sein sollte, reicher macht, also ganz allgemein Diktatur bedeuten dürfte oder repressives System. Sowohl textlich als auch musikalisch kann das mindestens doppeldeutig genannt werden. Und das ist auch gut so. Denn das Eindeutige, bzw. all die Vormünder, die sich stets auf der richtigen Seite wähnen, nerven ob ihres ausschließlichen Hoheitsanspruches enorm. Es bedarf nun mal keiner Oberaufsicht. Das hat sicherlich auch Ovid, als er, so wie GORT KLÜTH, und zwar als das Werk fast abgeschlossen war, in die Verbannung geschickt wurde, gerufen ... Ob die Kunst nun also Kot isst, bleibt eben ihr überlassen … Mit "Kreislauf" (04) holen KEIN ZWEITER dann noch einmal Schwung, um sich im "Tanzlied" (05) dem Tanzen zu widmen …
Die B-Seite umfasst dann noch vier weitere Titel. "Endstation Gürtel" (06), "Miteinander" (07), "Der Weg" (08) und "Der Wagenmann" (09) … Oh, der Wagenmann! Der hat es mir nun wirklich angetan. Dieses Stück Musik ist wohl das Epischste, das mir seit Jahren zu Ohren gekommen ist – sagenhaft. Man hört hier sogar einen klassischen Chor, der die Handlung der im Text beschriebenen Tragödie kommentiert ... großartig! Und dann ... dann fällt der Hammer ...
Aufgenommen wurde "Teilstück Für Totalen Schwung" zwischen 2007 und 2013 in Morgenitz und Berlin. Die Produktion übernahmen PAUL VIEBEG und JÜRGEN ECKLOFF."
[andrewkorsch für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€17.00 |
|
| KELLER, ALEX |
Sleep Room |
LP |
Elevator Bath is elated to announce "Sleep room", the electrifying new album from Alex Keller. This marks Keller's return to the label following his exquisite collaborative LP with Sean O'Neill and top-notch mastering work for releases by Adam Pacione and Thomas Bey William Bailey. His first solo album in nearly a decade (since 2015's ingenious "Black out"), "Sleep room" is a work of singular magnetism and well worth the wait.
Sources for these recordings include decommissioned computer server, vintage ECG POTS, modem/network router, non-functioning laptop, UV light insect trap, LED lights, power supplies, urban bus, commuter trains, homemade electromagnetic oscillators, stun gun, homemade Jacob's ladder, and vintage vacuum cleaner. All pieces (excluding the title track) are based on real-time studio improvisations, made with multiple homemade electromagnetic transducers often attached to gloves, as well as commercial electromagnetic microphones.
This uniquely peculiar array of both instrumentation and technique is nothing if not fascinating, and as a final product, "Sleep room" easily lives up to this intrigue. Though the album is utterly distinctive in its methodology, it is first and foremost a meticulously rendered, expertly produced collection of abstract sound art. Jolts of static and bursts of white noise collide with buzzing tones and distant drones; throbbing electrical pulses join with natural resonances and vibrations, fully utilizing the stereo field and frequency spectra. The album is also a highly individual statement with every facet of its creation bearing Keller's stamp: instrument building, recording, mixing, mastering, as well as cover art and photography were all performed by the artist. In other words, "Sleep room" simply resembles no one else's work. This album is the culmination of Keller's uncompromising creative integrity wedded to a total commitment to process. The results speak for themselves. Among so much rather pedestrian material which passes for experimental music in recent years, "Sleep room" stands out and stands tall as a challenging and sophisticated work, as satisfying as it is anomalous.
Alex Keller is an audio artist, sound designer, curator, and teacher based in Austin, Texas. His work in the media of performance, installation, and recorded release reflects his interests in architecture, the hidden, language, abstraction and music. Keller has focused on electromagnetic induction as a sound source since 2012. Spurred by his fascination with the invisible forces that surround us, as well as the ones we only imagine, he has created multiple generations of transducers that emphasize the gesture of the performer to find new ways to interact with the electromagnetic spectrum. His performance work is focused on inherently unstable technology, including crudely circuit bent devices, magnets glued to giant fans to create electromagnetic oscillators, and salvaged technology. By creating a situation where the results are unstable, the performer’s attempts to work with recalcitrant tech create an appreciable tension to the audience.
https://xalexkellerx.bandcamp.com/album/sleep-room
“ What could be interpreted as taking the unimportant (obsolete technology) and unintentional (electromagnetic interference) and sculpting it into something that is clearly deliberate and made with clear intent results in a mesmerizing album from an always fascinating artist.”
— Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed
“This is the purest form of industrial music imaginable: not the robots or construction equipment, but the wires and the sparks.”
— Richard Allen, a closer listen
"I found this a most enjoyable noise album, as it is noisy but listenable; it has a concept, and yet one could choose to hear without overthinking about the concept and enjoy the sheer noisiness of the music. Keller’s dynamics reach for the ultimate depth of the bass and some piercingly high-frequencies. My noise highlight of the week!"
— Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly
"After listening to 'Sleep room' many many times, I am still at a loss for the most connecting words to describe this composition. Would it be ok to just say "wow" and leave it at that?"
— Ken Lower, Lost in a Sea of Sound
|
2024 |
€13.00 |
|
| KENNEY, JESSIKA & EYVIND KANG |
Aestuarium |
LP |
"Jessika Kenney is a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of vocal traditions.
Eyvind Kang is a violist for whom the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline.
Aestuarium is a meditation on a psalm of lamentation and the unary tone in the metaphor of salt and fresh water, inspired by Gaelic psalmery, Tibetan notational gestures, and the microtonality of the tetrachord. Recorded on the shore of Colvos Passage in 2005 by renowned engineer Mell Dettmer.
Stephen O'Malley comments: "Amongst many other amazing pieces Jessika & Eyvind collaborated on SUNN O)))'s "Monoliths & Dimensions" album, Jessika leading the choir on the piece "Big Church" and Eyvind composing the acoustic arrangements for "Big Church" & "Alice". I learned an immense amount about music through these collaborations, specifically the idea of Spectral music through research and discussion/reference points of composers such as Grisey and Murail. Aestuarium is a beautiful piece of minimalist spectral music which has brought great pleasure to my ears over the years."
Originally released on CD by Endless Records 2005.
Ideologic Organ curation and art direction by Stephen O'Malley, manufactured and distributed by Editions Mego." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com/ideologic-organ/
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| KENT, JULIA |
Asperities |
CD |
There's something about that cello sound that keeps me mesmerized. And it's not a bias towards strings - after all I'm a piano player at heart - but rather something about the tonality and timbre of the low-end of those strings. In the right hands, the cello could be moody, stormy, and even dour. I think by now I have accepted my total fascination with melancholy instrumental music, and so it is the music with the cello to which I'm always drawn again.
The 'right hands' this time belong to none other than Julia Kent, a Canadian-born NYC-based cellist, who, after many years of performing and recording in groups, such as Rasputina, decided to go solo in 2007 with Delay. I was introduced and captivated by Kent's sound with her 2013 release on Leaf, titled Character. I was also lucky enough to witness Kent's live performance at the Unsound Festival New York, which I followed with an Interview, and so, you got the idea, I was hooked. Julia's fourth solo studio album, Asperities, is due out on October 30th, again on the amazing Leaf label, and I've got the privilege to spend more than a few hours inside her world.
I was thinking about the concept of difficulty. Whether in life or in nature – of conflict, of being troubled. The idea of friction. Also in geology, an asperity is some part of a fault line that doesn’t move that can create an earthquake, which is an evocative concept.
Asperities is layered, soaked and stratified, and then peeled back upon its core. The cello swirls in clouds of reverb, dancing around the stereo stage, temperamental, volatile and glum. Like the early dark clouds of an autumn downpour, the sonic whirlwind slowly gathers among the textured washes of its aural weather. The atmosphere is nearly electric, slowly building, growing, gnawing with every single piece. This tension finally breaks with my favorite track on the album, "Terrain", which erupts with glitchy percussive rhythm, completely unexpected and very welcome. This is a cinematic journey, meticulously sculpted to keep you on the edge.
A lot of the melodic material is based on semitones,” Julia elaborates. “So in the music there is an inherent sense of dissonance; that things are too close for comfort. More generally, it seems like a particularly dark time in the world right now, and I think that definitely had an influence too.”
This amalgamation of looped cello, electronics and found sound creates a perfect unity of all that is incredibly lovely about Julia Kent. The album is mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri (whom I actually witnessed doing so at his Black Knoll Studio), and is available as a CD, digital download, and limited edition vinyl LP. Highly recommended for fans of cello music in general, and especially works by Greg Haines, Peter Gregson, Richard Skelton, and Hildur Guðnadóttir.
[Headphone Commute]
|
2015 |
€15.50 |
|
| KEROVNIAN |
Far beyond, before the Time |
CD |
"Reissue of the long sold out and sought after Dark Ambient masterpiece from 1999, with 4 previously-unheard bonus tracks.
“Far Beyond, Before The Time” was the first genius offering of Kerovnian, spewing forth the bleakest, Blackest Ambient ever released. This music comes from the deep abyss, the bottomless wells, the blackest pits. Coupled with ultra low sonics, is the deep language of Kerovnian – words of a 1000 year old mixture of Persian and Greek. First released in 1999, “Far Beyond…” has received wide critical acclaim as an essential album of the genre. We’re very proud to finally reissue this masterpiece! The album was mastered by Denis Blackham. First edition was Ltd x 1000 copies. The 2015 edition comes with 4 bonus, previously unreleased tracks, recorded during the same sessions.
For fans of Lustmord, Inade, Atrium Carceri" [label info]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| KHAN, USTAD HAFIZULLAH |
Khalifa Kirana Gharana |
CD |
"2002 release; recorded 5/18/00. Ustad Hafizulla Khan (sarangi), Rik Masterson (tabla), Rosa Okada (tambura). "Just Dreams' reissue of the out-of-print CD-R originally on the Kirana West label. First recording released by the late Sarangi Master, Khalifa and son of Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan of the Kirana Gharana. Exquisite intonation, pure tone, graceful command of the bow, effortless speed over the complete range of three octaves. 'Tradition, love and devotion -- a beacon of the Kirana Gharana in our time.' --La Monte Young." [label info]
www.justdreams.com
|
2002 |
€17.00 |
|
| KHOST |
Corrosive Shroud |
CD |
"Khost is Andy Swan (Iroha, Final, Atrocity Exhibition),and Damian Bennett (Carthage, Deathless).
Corrosive Shroud is the second album from Birmingham band khost, following the 2014 debut Copper Lock Hell. The album has a singular theme: inside the hand-me-down concrete relics in which we necessarily live and from which we draw perceptions. The music is the sound of lightless blocks, oxygen-starved sheds and apparitions, using stark and unrefined found sounds stacked against Khost’s massively detuned guitars. The album includes Eugene Robinson of Oxbow and Syan who add their stories to the narrative, along with personnel Jo Quail, Daniel Buess, Gustave Savy and featuring a contribution from Tel Aviv-based Hostage." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Khost's Copper Lock Hell was a powerful debut where mammoth doom chords were pit against industrial electronics. Corrosive Shroud continues with Khost's customary slow, monolithic riffing; a half-paced grind pitched so low it just vibrates. But layered with that sound is bleak psychedelic textures, swirls of Japanese and mid-Eastern influences, ethereal chants all of which conjure up arcs of beautiful melodies. There is so much more to Khost than their room shaking hypnotic shudders but it just takes a little effort to hear them. 'Avici' continues the fascination with "avici hell", as recorded in the The Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha's Fundamental Vows, which began on Copper Lock Hell aided by the Gnostic electronics of fellow Midlands outfit Tunnels of ĀH, who feature former Head of David singer Stephen ĀH Burroughs. They're absent from Corrosive Shroud, but some other contributors such as Oxbow's frontman Eugene Robinson and cellist Jo Quail are carried over from Khost's debut, with fresh contributors including Syan, Daniel Buess, Gustave Savy and Chris Turner.
Guitars shudder amidst pummelling and crashing drums on the opening crawl that is 'Avici', combining a low grating voice with higher registered chants that carry an air of mystical otherworldliness. Those chants are woven, like a mysterious entity, throughout subsequent tracks such as 'Revelations Vultures Jackals Wolves', 'A Shadow On The Wound' and 'Black Rope Hell'. 'Revelations Vultures Jackals Wolves' unfolds to scorched earth guitar mangling, as background voices taken on a chant like shape, as violins weave amidst the clatter of crashing drums and cymbals. Bathed in feedback and frequencies it channels similar spirits to Skullflower in their most blackened death metal moments before the grind gives way to sombre cello movements. Khost's vocal delivery is steeped in an air of black metal; an impenetrable guttural rasp that that scrapes through the reverberating riffs of 'Black Rope Hell' - which almost sounds like another "avici hell" - before cavernous metallic clanking and ritualesque chants surround the monstrous roar and floor shredding tones of 'A Shadow On The Wound'. The oppressive onslaught of Khost belies a highly nuanced and layered sound that many can - and do - miss.
Khost are a Birmingham based duo featuring Andy Swan (Iroha, Final, Atrocity Exhibition) and Damian Bennett (Carthage, Deathless) and between them they have been part of Techno Animal, Final and 16/17. Khost almost seem to follow in the lineage of Kevin Martin's Pathological label. In fact, much of the drums and rhythm samples have been provided by Daniel Buess, the experimental musician and drummer behind avant jazz noiseniks 16/17 - and of course Oxbow who feature Eugene Robinson first surfaced via the Pathological release Fuck Fest. But, whatever, it's from 'Inversion', the fifth track on Corrosive Shroud, that Khost begin to seriously detour from their industrial doom sound with spacious detuned guitars seeking out the empty psychogeographic potential of vacant urban spaces and lightless structures. Sprawling guitar tendrils extend over pummelling low end bass recalling the loping rhythmic bass that underpinned the noise rock of Ice, Sweet Tooth etc, before it lurches to industrial atmospherics and the first appearance of Oxbow's Eugene Robinson with some brief spoken words. "Which way will the coin finally fall?" Syan asks posing a conundrum before the molten cyclical dirge textures of 'Forgery'. Oxbow's Eugene Robinson reappears at the tail end of 'Red Spot', an astounding piece of experimental clatter that passes from industrial free jazz via quaking guitar scrapes propelled by machine-like rhythm before slowing to bass laden industrial atmospherics featuring the spoken drawl of Eugene Robinson ruminating on Ballardian images of destroyed structures and empty living rooms. Khost really push the boundaries of their monolithic sound here, more than justifying their experimental metal tag here while the following track, 'Bystander', sees Khost at their most aggressive and forceful. From looped thudding beats it transforms into blistering waves of distorted guitar squall and shredded vocal howl, wrapped in mystical chanting, while from the "Conquer then run" 'looped phrase 'VMIH' launches into a series of words ending on the suffix "ate": capitulate, dominate, proliferate, emancipate, intoxicate, excruciate, repatriate, etc., over mechanised rhythms and stabbing bass pound like the onslaught of early Godflesh.
Just as Copper Lock Hell closed on a remix, Corrosive Shroud finishes on the 'Avici - Hostage Remix' which sees the Tel Aviv based drum and bass soundman Hostage exploring the mystical chants and chaotic rhythmic confusion found at the heart of the opening cut.
What with Skullflower, Tunnels of ĀH, Wicked King Wicker and now Khost, Cold Spring seem to be home to some of the most blackened psychedelic sounds, with their roots mired in the sound of the early industrial groups. On Corrosive Shroud, Khost drive their hypnotic monolithic grind further into multi-layered and noise drenched areas. They're certainly one of the most progressive experimental metal projects and if they must be regarded as doom metal I'd like to think of them as industrial doom. Who cares though, Khost are fantastic and Corrosive Shroud represents another astounding release from this uncompromising duo. Great stuff. For more information go to Cold Spring" [Compulsion Online]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| KINE |
Meditations in April Green |
CD |
"Kine is a collaborative effort of
Dao Anh Khanh - Vocals
Brett Zweiman ($50 Doller Trumpet) - Guitar
Amber Brien (PAS) - Garrahand
Robert L. Pepper (PAS) - Electronics, Synths (Flute on "Meditation3").
Kine was formed in April of 2012 during Vietnamese artist Dao Anh Khanh's visit to New York City where they recorded the 'Meditations in April Green' release. In February of 2013 Kine performed several gigs in Hanoi, Vietnam including including Dao Anh Khanh's 'Spring Festival', additional musicians included were Dan Henneberry (United Kingdom) and Dave Payne." [label info]
www.alrealonmusique.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| KINETIX |
Gestaltsystem 01: Possible Forms |
do-CD |
Interessanter Installations- / Konzeptkunst-Release dieses italienischen SoundArt-Projekts auf dem russischen Monochrome Vision-Label, in dessen äussere Audioform man interaktiv eingreifen kann GESTALTSYSTEM 01: POSSIBLE FORMS besteht aus 2 CDs mit exakt gleicher Länge (42:42 min) und exakt gleichlangen 8 Tracks (5:20 min). Beide sollen gleichzeitig abgespielt werden, wobei Lautstärke und Reihenfolge variiert werden können. Die schwarze CD enthält „metrische“ Ton-Elemente, die weisse CD „noise drones“, es entstehen fliessende digitalelektronisch-mathematische Soundscapes, die z.B. an IKEDA denken lassen... perfekt für die eigene Home-KlangInstallation.
“This release is a totally reworked version of "Possible Forms" previously produced as CDR in edition of 100 copies by Nova Ars Digitandi, and it's a part of "Gestaltsystem" installation.
It has unique conception of everchanging soundsculpture, composed by randomly juxtaposed audio fragments of the specially designed structure. This is the best digital sound art piece we ever heard, and it should appeal to all minimal electronic music admirers.” [label info]
"POSSIBLE FORMS is not a double-CD album, but it’s an audio-set composed by two CDs planned to be played simultaneously. It includes sixteen electronic compositions of identical length (5’ 20”) for a total time of 42’ 42” for each CD.
This work is conceived in order that every track of each record could play as second layer on every track of the other one. For this reason, the tracks hasn’t neither title nor a pre-arranged sequential order.
Macrostructure: the Black CD includes 8 tracks with metrical-tonal elements, while the White CD contains 8 tracks of only noise drones. Both CDs have the same peak level (0dB), so the listener can choose the respective volume of each CD. These recordings contain ultra/sub sonic frequencies; for this reason the author advices the listener not to play the CDs at high volume.
Microstructure: all the tracks are obtained from a special combination of forty different audio fragments, previously selected and extracted from various digital sources. The minimal form of the entire work was specifically created to facilitate the listening in combined modality, establishing this way a precise relationship between sign and function.
Vertical audio system: using two CD players (or CD-ROM/DVD players) in Random / Shuffle and Repeat modes, both players have to be started simultaneously. So, the two records can be played together ad libitum, generating sounds and sequences in continuous movement.
POSSIBLE FORMS uses sound strategies based on the calculation of auditive times and spaces in order to create a different kind of audio-logic design. In this sense this work can be intended as a device able to expand the ordinary possibilities of domestic listening." - liner notes
Composed 2001-2002.
Originally released as Kinetix (2) - Possible Forms on CDrs and limited to 100 copies.
Re-worked 2004-2005. This edition is limited to 500 copies.
|
2006 |
€8.50 |
|
|
White Rooms |
do-CD |
„Hinter Kinetix steckt seit 1999 der Komponist elektronischer Musik und Klangkünstler Gianluca Becuzzi. Er schreibt: “The artistic production of KINETIX is characterised by a strong experimental imprint, by the interest into the expressive possibilities offered by the digital technologies and by a clear aesthetic inclination towards minimalist forms and micro noises/sounds.” Und tatsächlich klingt die Musik, als würden Kunstwerke der minimal art vertont werden. In den 9 Stücken der CD 1 wird die Beziehung zwischen physischen und akustischen Raumverhalten durch die Aspekte Klangvolumen, Zeit und Häufigkeit klanglich hervorgehoben. Klare digitale Signale von Summen und Sirren, die sich im Wechselbad mit großräumlich hallenden drones befinden, rufen flächige Klänge und dreidimensionale Eindrücke hervor. Auf der zweiten CD sind sehr reduzierte Sounds zu hören, die für eine Klanginstallation entwickelt wurden. Hier ist lediglich der Raum der Interpret. Hochfrequente Geräusche, ein wallendes Brummen und beinernes Knirschen umschmeicheln die Stille.
Since 1999, KINETIX is Gianluca Becuzzi, electronic composer and sound artist active since the first half of the 80’s. He writes: “The artistic production of KINETIX is characterised by a strong experimental imprint, by the interest into the expressive possibilities offered by the digital technologies and by a clear aesthetic inclination towards minimalist forms and micro noises/sounds.” (from the website) Really, the music sounds like a study about a representational work of minimal art. The first CD includes 9 pieces dealing with volume of sound, time and frequencies to underline the relationship between physical space and acoustic space. Clear digital signal-buzz changes with wide open resounding drones evoking superficial sounds and three-dimensionally impressions. The 2. CD shows very reduced sounds conceived for a sound installation. Only the room is the interpreter. High frequencies circle abstract noises, playing with silence.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
“...Carefully constructed soundscapes of sine-waves gently moving in and out, with occasional crackles and soft whispering voices, certainly in the first part. It reminded me of some of Jos Smolders' older work in this direction (but much better recorded by Kinetix, but in Smolders' defense, he work with hissy tapes in his early days). In the second and third part Kinetix uses the voice of Alvin Lucier with his well-known ramble about rooms that he is in and you are not, but Kinetix uses it quite nicely. The fourth part is a stretched out drone piece with off and on rumbles and it moves all quite slowly. The previous works by Kinetix were nice, but couldn't convince me that much, but here it surely does. Not so much in terms of presenting something new, but it's a well-thought out disc, excellently produced, good concept and presented well. Thumbs up!” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
labelwebsite: www.smallvoices.it
|
2005 |
€7.77 |
|
|
Selected E_Missions |
CD |
"SMALLVOICES proudly present the first official cd album of new italian project KINETIX.
Since 1999, KINETIX is the new moniker of Gianluca Becuzzi, artist active since the first half of the 80’s.
This CD includes material written during the first years of KINETIX artistic activity (2000/2002). It’s constituted by six tracks (identified by graphic signs) presented in totally unreleased versions. This work can be considered as KINETIX official debut; the start point to approach to the KINETIX aesthetic and artistic dimension.
"Selected E_Missions" presents a collection of deep and wrapping digital soundscapes, dotted by micro-noisy granular material, resonant fields where time and space humble themselves in a single perceptive continuum.
The tracks are the result of a perfect organization of sound. Contemporary, abstract, cold, minimal, dense, intense and evocative drone music. First volume of the SMALLVOICES series of KINETIX releases.
Released in an elegant digipack." [label info]
www.smallvoices.it
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Final Archives |
CD |
"The final chapter for this project run by Gianluca Becuzzi well know for his old dark wave project LIMBO but also for his solo works and collaborations with Fabio Orsi. FINAL ARCHIVES is a sort of collection of rare tracks recorded from 1999 to 2006 totally reworked and remastered in 2009. From booklet notes:
ABSOLUTE GREY is the title that Kinetix gave at his graphic artwork selection exhibited with an ambient post-scoring specifically composed for the expositive space. The exhibition is made of ten grey scale serigraphies on white forex scheets (1 meter x 1 meter) and a composition of 20 minutes played through two lour speakers and one woofer covered with grey powder on top of a white cube. Absolute Grey is been presented at the sound art festival PX2_Piombino_eXperimenta_2006. RW MATERIALS is a collection of seven short tracks from the early Kinetix production. Noise gestaltmusic. A multidimensional concept created with sound layers and ambient concretism. These tracks help to the listener to understand the start point of the Kinetix sound research.
RESOUNDING SULPTURES is based on the concept of “composition for blocks of sound” made in 50’s and 60’s by Iannis Xenakis. For this reason traditional compositional criteria (harmonic-melodic / rhythmic-metric) will replace the various criteria of plastic / spatial forms. Part of the sound sources used for Resounding Sculptures were extracted from the works of Iannis Xenakis to whom this composition is dedicated." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"We land in more 'current' times with the release of 'Final Archives' by Kinetix. The first time I reviewed Kinetix it was a release called 'First Emissions' (see Vital Weekly 339). Gianluca Becuzzi was behind Kinetix, before starting to work under his own name. These pieces on 'Final Archives' (his final release as Kinetix I assume) is a collection of rare tracks recorded from 1999 to 2006, and were previously available on CDR and MP3. The music by Kinetix has nothing to do with the previous three releases, as this is all computer based microsounding music. Over the years I heard various of his releases with 'White Rooms' as a definitely landmark in his career (see Vital Weekly 503). These pieces presented here, the early days, Becuzzi was on the look out for his own take on that microsound principle, but didn't entirely made up his mind yet. Pan Sonic seems to be an all important influence on the middle work 'Rw Materials', with heavy beats, white static noise and field recordings, but in the two surrounding pieces, 'Absolute Grey' and 'Resounding Sculptures', he is already drawn towards say someone like Richard Chartier or Marc Behrens, although the latter piece is influenced by Xenakis, and its not difficult to draw a parallel to 'Persepolis': large chunks of sound and sheets of metal. 'Absolute Grey' is the most Chartier like, with soft static sounds and processed voice. This is not the final masterwork of Becuzzi, but it marks the nice end of someone who did some nice music under the name of Kinetix." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| KINKELAAR, FREEK |
WONDERSOUND. Discovering weird, wild and wonderful music |
BOOK |
Wondersound
discovering weird, wild and wonderful music
a book by Freek Kinkelaar
hard cover, 282 pages
For over thirty years, Freek Kinkelaar has been writing about music for publications such as Vital Weekly and renowned international magazine Record Collector Magazine. He has contributed liner notes for releases by labels such as Cherry Red, and also writes essays on music. Wondrous music.
This book, Wondersound, is about being amazed, challenged, bedazzled and caressed by music. It documents Kinkelaar's discovery of obscure vinyl, cassettes, artist records and vanity pressings covering avant-garde, noise, ambient, lounge and experimental music. The book's quire presents nearly 50 examples of exuberant vinyl and cassette packaging.
Featuring an introduction written by Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots, Wondersound offers a dozen articles on, amongst others, noise music, Brainticket, The Gerogerigegege, Gary Wilson, Japanese erotic music, Rozz Williams, Vagina Dentata Organ and labels such as Come Organisation and Industrial Records. Over 80 columns cover artists as diverse as The International Sex Opera Band, SPK, Su Tissue, Pierre Schaeffer, Derek Jarman, La Monte Young, Princess Tinymeat, Zoviet France and Robbie the Werewolf! Added are an interview, liner notes and essays on why not to read lyric sheets and how Kinkelaar not only met a member of The Residents but, in the end, became one!
With an aim to inspire and entertain, Freek Kinkelaar writes with a wicked sense of humour, a keen eye for Anorakian detail and a genuine love for music. Known for his own musical endeavours under various guises such as Beequeen (with Frans de Waard), Brunnen and a plethora of other names, Kinkelaar has been collecting weird, wild and wonderful music since 1980.
This book is an essential read for those with an open mind towards the beautiful strangeness of sound. Wondersound.
Design by Alfred Boland
BLACK AND WHITE
The book's quire of 50 images is printed in black and white. The book's front and back cover are printed in colour and the book's content is identical to the colour-printed version. The black and white version does not come with any of the additional extra's of the colour version.
image: http://kormplastics.nl/wondersound.html
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| KIRCHENKAMPF |
The secret life of machines |
mCD-R |
After a long time, new material from KIRCHENKAMPF, a one-tracker of 19 minutes length with dense “ambient industrial”, cold – metallic – electronic - worth to discover !
“full size colored slimline jewel cases available in five colors!) - the buzz, whirr and drone of the machine” [label info]
|
2005 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Babel |
do-CD |
Dunkle Drone-Ambience, hallend, wummernd, unheimlich...metallische Obertöne, endlose Flächen & Äthernoise ... wie fast immer sind es religiöse Themen, die ihren Ausdruck finden bei KIRCHENKAMPF; beeindruckend, wie das ganze am Ende in immer bedrohlichere, ausserweltliche Gebiete abdriftet... filed under: apocalyptic dark ambient.
" "Babel" follows the recent and well-received albums "Island of the Dead" (on Cohort) and "Transmissions" (which we released last year). It is an extremely dynamic and dense work that could generally be classified as experimental dark ambient. The theme here is the Tower of Babel and each disc takes a somewhat different yet complimentary approach: the first ("Red Babylon") is generally a rather heavy and intense recording, while the second ("Citadel of the Nevermind") is more droney and dream-like. A profound and monumental journey lasting well over two hours. 'kirchenkampf', the project of John Gore (Cohort Records, The Oratory of Divine Love, >wirewall<), has been active since 1986. Since that time he has released numerous recordings on his own and other labels. Additionally, John has collaborated with a number of others, including Steve Hall (Yen Pox), C. Reider, and Brett Smith (Caul). The CDs come packaged in a stunning printed gatefold sleeve." [press release]
http://discs.diophantine.net/
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Dark Planet |
CD-R |
"..this is a space travelogue starting with the sound of the ship as the crew slumbers. It moves to feelings of homesickness as the crew realizes just how far away home is. They finally arrive at the planet and experience a magnificent eclipse. They land on the planet and explore its often frightening landscape. The moon rises and bathes the planet with reflected light. Now they sit and wait for the first sunrise." [label info]
http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
|
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
| KIRITCHENKO, ANDREY |
Interplays, in between |
CD |
Der ukrainische Musiker mit einem hochinteressanten Glitch-Pop- & field recording - Werk, minimale digi-Rhythmen & Pulsationen, vielerlei Instrumente & Geräusche, alles zu einem kurzweiligen Ganzen verwoben ( 9 tracks ) mit z.T. durchaus eingängigen Qualitäten..... “Andrey Kiritchenko's second full length album is a beautiful and deep journey of electronic arrangements and accoustic subtilities. Using precise clicks and glitchs, field recordings and touching melodies, this key figure of the contemporary electronic scene proposes here a new masterpiece of frequencies made human, of intriguing but emotional electronic music.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| KIRKEGAARD, JACOB |
40 Days of Silence |
LP |
"An amazing new composition by the Danish sound explorer Jacob Kirkegaard, a soundtrack for the film of Uzbek director Saodat Ismailova, a journey into silence and its possible inner variations, an intimate and deep sonic journey, that takes us further into ourselves. Listen carefully and inmerse yourself into 40 days of silence." [label info]
www.vonarchives.com |
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| KISS THE ANUS OF A BLACK CAT |
Weltuntergangsstimmung |
CD |
"On their fifth album Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat have transformed from a drone-folk outfit into a kind of new wave ensemble. Nevertheless, their hypnotising and apocalypic qualities have remained. Frontman Stef Heeren recorded the songs for 'Weltuntergangsstimmung' with an old drum machine, analogue synthesizers and guitar. None other than the highly regarded An Pierlé adds wonderful backing vocals on a few songs." [label info]
www.zealrecords.com |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| KISSY SUZUKI |
Exploring the Seas of Consciousness |
mCDR |
"this is the first physical release for kissy suzuki, the drone-based side-project of french artist david teboul also known as linear bells (releases on twice removed, subterranean tide or his own soft recordings imprint).
"exploring the seas of consciousness" contains two deep and rich drone-based multi-layered compositions full of details... let yourself immerse in the seas of conscisousness..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2015 |
€5.00 |
|
| KITES |
Peace Trials |
CD |
"Rewired neural strum and groam from the one man operation known as Kites. One minute EZ sounds pump from your jambox, the next a squaretone boxes you upside the head. Very much in the tradition of new school noize croppers such as Wolf Eyes and Die Yellow Swans, but turbolaced with a mutant virus of melody and folkery. Yes, acoustica based acid melt. Features a (beautiful)collaboration with Erin Rosenthal from Udog. Kites has played with the cream of today's new sounds krewz including Wolf Eyes, Double Leopards, Hair Police and many others and is considered a master on his own homemade equipment." [label info]
www.loadrecords.com
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| KIVA |
same |
do-CD |
"CD 1: 11 April 1991 (Track 1): Keith Humble, piano, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, John Silber, trombone, violin, Mary Oliver, violin, viola. 11 April 1991 (Track 2): Keith Humble, piano, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, John Silber, trombone, violin. CD 2: June 1985 (Track 1): Keith Humble, DX7, electronics, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, electronics, John Silber, trombone, violin, electronics. Two Poems of the Absurd & Two Poems on the Absurd (tape collage by John Silber of KIVA performances) (Track 2): Keith Humble, DX7, voice, electronics, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, voice, electronics, John Silber, trombone, violin, voice, electronics, Mary Oliver, violin Eric Lyon, computer vocoder manipulations of John Silber's sounds.
The research-performance group KIVA was created in 1975 by the American trombonist John Silber and the French percussionist Jean-Charles François as part of a research project at the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California San Diego. During the period of its existence (1975-91) various members (often graduate students from UCSD) joined the two permanent musicians, John Silber and Jean-Charles François, to contribute to the groups artistic production. Two personalities had an important impact on the development of the KIVA aesthetical posture: the Korean dancer Hi-ah Park between 1978 and 1985, and the Australian pianist and composer Keith Humble between 1984 and 1991. The important contribution of the KIVA project to the artistic field can be defined as an emancipation of the classical performer from the role of interpreter of written music to one that involved being fully an actor of artistic creation through the direct production of sounds on instruments and related objects. This has been often characterized in the musical world as ?improvisation?. But the group would not adhere to the overtones associated with this word, implying spontaneous behavior or social interactions without specified aesthetical content. For KIVA the refusal to use any notation on paper was the occasion to access the complex and chaotic nature of sound objects. Through an everyday work in progress, the group was able to elaborate an original language constituted directly from working on sound matter. KIVA described itself as an experimental group dedicated to notationless music, mixed media, extended instrumental techniques. The group KIVA has always refused to publish its work through recordings. Every working session of KIVA was recorded on audio format, but this only constituted a tool for the reflection of its members. The real artistic object was always considered to be the contextual circumstances of a given performance, the reenactment, always different, of the working out of already elaborated sound materials. In this sense no particular instant can be regarded as constituting a work object of the KIVA experience. But the context today has changed, since two of the main important members have died (Keith Humble and John Silber), the other protagonists are getting old, and so are the few who have been fortunate to listen to KIVAs performances. The publication of a CD of selected performances of KIVA today makes sense, in that it documents an important historical moment and provides the artistic community with sonic references of this ephemeral type of work." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"Pogus keeps finding material in archives all over the world interesting music from many moons ago. Here they present a double CD by Kiva, a 'research/performance' group Kiva, which was started in 1975 by trombonist John Silber and percussionist Jean-Charles Francois, who both worked at the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California San Diego. Graduate students played along with them. Two persons became important, the Korean dancer Hi-ah Park and pianist Keith Humble. Kiva was about the 'emancipation of the classical performer from the role of interpreter of written music to one that involved being fully an actor of artistic creation through the direct production of sounds on instruments and related objects'. Yet they didn't want to call this improvised music. But I would. This is hardcore improvised music. Kiva apparently recorded everything and we get here three out of four pieces of such improvised concerts. One is supposed to have some sort of electronics, which I
somehow don't hear back in this recording, but perhaps its there. Otherwise these three pieces are explorations of trombone, percussion and piano. Not unlike AMM at times, but maybe also a bit more straightforward in their approach. Its actually quite nice altogether, but also quite a long sit through. The fourth pieces is a sound collage of Kiva playing music, set along tape manipulations of Antonin Artaud's poem 'Pour En Finir Avec le Jugement De Dieu' and vocal improvisations of Silber and Francois. An entirely different piece, even when it comes from the world of improvisation too, but it distinctly different. This is not music to just put on and do the dishes, this is something that requires ones full attention, and perhaps best had in one piece at a time." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| KLANK |
same |
CD |
"Two years in the making, aufabwegen presents the first ever studio album of Bremen-based MusikAktionsEnsemble KLANK. Co-produced by Radio Bremen’s contemporary music department and featuring singer Friederike Menz on various tracks, KLANK left its accustomed territory of energetic yet intimate performative stage action to enter the fine historic recording arena of Sendesaal Bremen. For this release the four members of KLANK focused on acoustic spaces and auditive situations recording hours and hours of material. While the opener RÅE N presents an almost architectural approach to the dense microtonal logics of noise and drone the three piece set of CONTAMINECHNO is a neat and surprising exploration of radioplayeske atmospheres and contemporary electronic music alike. The mono-ridden Der PRODUKTIVE KONSUMENT links the bobostertaglike assembling of ensembles at the computer with thoughts about various fields of consumerist homerecording while DIE MECHANISCHE CD for a moment neglects the data sound carriers and storage systems usually are used for, perceiving CDs, MDs and the like as sonic objects with their own musical quality. Closed by a brief passage through possible constellations within an improvising quartet, ÄÇEX, the release is, after all, linked to KLANK’s musical – live – practice.
Additional information: www.klank.cc/cd/
On KLANK (the Artist): KLANK is a music/performance ensemble based in Bremen, Germany. Founded by improvisers Reinhart Hammerschmidt and Hainer Wörmann, sound-performer Tim Schomacker and composer / instrumentalist Christoph Ogiermann in 2008, KLANK’s sonic universe combines various musical experiences, influences and approaches.
KLANK soon found common ground in both, the complex and dense logic of the interaction in playing improvised music and in researching the musical potential of various materials from everyday life. Be it kitchen utensils, office equipment, children’s toys or tools from whatever workplace – KLANK is able and willing to declare almost everything a musical instrument to expand the range of its sonic creations.
KLANK immediately realized that its music doesn’t just sound – but that it “looks like”, also. So the quartet started to focus on performative and site-specific concepts, establishing a unique brand of Klang-Aktionen (music- or sound-based performances) involving the use of body, voice, video and various theatrical elements.
Improvisations and conceptual pieces for quartet remaining the core of KLANK-Arbeit, the ensemble conceived and produced a series of music/theater-pieces and performances for larger ensembles. Collaborating with visual artists like painter/video artist Dina Koper or filmmaker Jan van Hasselt KLANK presented performance pieces like ANUNDFUERSICH (2011) and films like UND BEFREIEN SIE VON WAS (2012).
December 2013 will see a tour d’allemagne with french saxophonist Bertrand Denzler as the third installment of the bilateral THE FRENCH KONNEKTION program, an ongoing collaboration with Institut français de Brême." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLEISTWAHR |
This World is not my Home |
CD |
"The latest album from Gary Mundy (Ramleh), who has been using this moniker since the early ‘80s to further furrow the worlds of intense electronics, harrowing psychedelia and violent or claustrophobic atmospherics he is already known for. Less prolific than Ramleh, Kleistwahr began with several cassette releases on Gary’s own much revered Broken Flag imprint and has subsequently been afforded more releases by labels such as Noise War, Noiseville and Harbinger Sound. This World Is Not My Home collects seven pieces recorded between 2013 and 2014 of mostly instrumental sprawling guitar & electronic works. Released in an edition of 300 in a Broken Flag-type sleeve. Released in August 2014." [label info]
www.fourth-dimension.net
"Obviously because of its noise based content I could leave this to Jliat for closer inspection, but instead I played it, and meanwhile took out As Loud As Possible volume 1, an excellent book/magazine (Vital Weekly 756), which contained a very in-depth survey of the catalogue of Broken Flag, the mighty power electronics label from the 80s. The label's main band was Ramleh, a duo including Gary Mundy, also label boss, who, in order to fill up the early days of the catalogue, 'invented' a group called Kleistwahr, but which effectively was his own solo project. Over time that project disappeared, but in 2009 he returned with a LP for Noiseville, which I didn't hear, but according to that article was received with mixed reception. Now there is a new CD, a thirty-seven minute, of very loud, electronic music. Apparently Mundy uses guitar and electronics in Kleistwahr these days, which was hard to tell, I thought. Everything is cranked up to something very loud, but not without detail.
Kleistwahr is noise, yes, no doubts there, but it's not of the harsh noise wall variation. This obviously no longer has the shock it had so many years ago, and might even be called conservative to some extent. Who cares about something original these days? That must be something from the past. The music, while recorded and mastered better, has more power it seems than 'back then'. With Mundy adding vocals at the end of this, it sounds like Ramleh, and that happens to be one of my favourite power electronics from the 80s (before they picked up guitars, which, in my humble opinion, they shouldn't have done. Excellent release! The cover is a very nice CD version of the old label design. Maybe there could even be a series in this, re-issues, and new works? Where do we sign up?" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Return |
CD |
"Following the 2014 release of Kleistwahr’s latest album, This World Is Not My Home, also on Fourth Dimension Records, The Return is a remastered reissue of a limited edition LP originally on Noiseville Records. Both now long out of print and collectible, Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Breathless, Broken Flag, etc.) never felt completely satisfied with the Noiseville release, hence this revisit to redress the balance being more than justified. Here featuring two previously unreleased bonus cuts, ‘The Storm’ and ‘The Resounding’, the album has been digitally remastered by Gary to capture the intention originally in mind; to render the music at once powerful and dynamic in a setting where volume also plays a significant part of the sound. As with Gary’s long-running group, Ramleh, the music of Kleistwahr stems from a place both angry and anguished. Underpinned to a huge sense of existential despair, a sense of urgency and frustration likewise screams from this music. Long known for his part in creating a music subsequently known as ‘power electronics’, itself copied by hundreds of groups to lesser effect or duly seen as a wellspring of inspiration by countless others often removed from this form, along with Whitehouse and Consumer Electronics, Gary Mundy’s own forays here have always ventured far beyond such convenient trappings. Kleistwahr, his solo enterprise, pays testament to both this and, more importantly, Gary’s place as a progressive and highly accomplished visionary artist deserving far more than his status as a merely cult concern. The Return witnesses electronic music once more teased and reshaped into something highly original by one of the genre’s master craftsmen. Listen to it as loud as your ears can take. Packaged in gatefold Broken Flag-style sleeve. Released in late September 2015." [label info]
www.fourth-dimension.net
"Not only is there a killer new Ramleh double cd set on this week's list, but we also just got a first-time-on-cd edition of this, originally released on vinyl in Noiseville's awesome (and super limited) Outer Bounds Of Sound series in 2009, Kleistwahr being another project of legendary UK noise merchant Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Skullflower, Broken Flag collective) that fits nicely within the man's legacy of harsh electronic noise. Anyone digging Skullflower's more recent forays into blown out guitar skree (and we know there are plenty of you out there) will find much to love here. The four songs making up The Return contain all the air raid siren guitars and eardrum pulverizing feedback we have come to love, but things take a surprisingly beautiful turn on what was side two of the original lp, with warm droney keyboards weaving a haunting melody that perfectly compliments the album cover, a stark photocopied image of a building foundation sitting exposed in the snow surrounded by dead trees. Though the songs are instrumental, Mundy is able to perfectly convey a feeling of despondency and sadness, genuine emotions that definitely set Kleistwahr apart from the multitudes of floorcore outfits, all hunkered over effects pedals making lots of noise, but very little of it as compelling and emotionally charged as this." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Winter |
LP |
Kleistwahr is the solo project of Gary Mundy, the legendary power electronic and noise-rock musician who is a founding member of Ramleh and runs the highly influential Broken Flag label. Solemn drones and elegiac long-form passages gird Kleistwahr’s Winter, which often chimes, glistens, and glows through a unhurried constructs for organ, synth, guitar, and electronics. Yet Mundy pivots throughout with triumphant explosions of shrill noise, redlined overload, and harrowingly anguished vocals from the great unknown. Quintessential Kleistwahr.
Winter was originally published as part of the instantly out of print On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, an imprint founded in 2003 and dedicated to post-industrial research, recombinant noise, surrealist demolition, existential vacancy and then some.
With the necessary reissue of Winter, The Helen Scarsdale Agency will embark upon the reissue of much of that material from On Corrosion.
https://helenscarsdale.bandcamp.com/album/winter
|
2021 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Common Values |
CD |
"Since 2014 Gary Mundy of Ramleh and Breathless has been releasing most of his solo work through Fourth Dimension Records. Common Values is his seventh such album for the label (not including a reissue of 2009’s The Return album, originally released on vinyl by USA’s long gone by legendary Noiseville, and the LP reissues of the Broken Flag albums Mobility and Do Not also shipping in October 2022) and gathers another six mighty cuts that on one hand continue his penchant for exploring more serrated sonic landscapes and, on the other, keep those in check with a tempered approach to atmospherics that this time round is widened further by almost kosmische-like curdled organ playing,, electronic swirl, psychedelic guitar mainlined from one of Saturn’s outer rings, and occasional haunting yet despairing vocals that are more pronounced than ever before. Common Values is a title itself that simultaneously commands empathy as well as a wry nod towards the irony at work. If anything serves as a common thread in all of Gary’s work then it’s not only in his love of stratospheric sounds, but also this deep sense of anguish due to hoping things will improve whilst knowing that humanity is its own worst enemy. It’s this quality that binds his music together and is laid barest in Kleistwahr. Common Values sounds both like a basic recognition of a quality most individuals are possessed with whilst they tear each other apart because of perceived differences or a disagreement over fundamental truths. If Kleistwahr tread any line, then it’s right here. Common Values might well be illuminating this more than ever.
This is the thirteenth Kleistwahr album since 1983's Myth (reissued as a limited edition LP by Harbinger Sound in 2011).
Packaged as usual in gatefold-LP style sleeve in a characteristic Broken Flag design once again featuring fantastic photos by Chris Low, this album appeared in late October 2022 and is shipping now. 300 only."
https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/
"Gary Mundy might be best known as the man behind Ramleh (well, to the readers of these pages), but Ramleh is a group (I may have used this opening line
before). Kleistwahr is his solo project, and after a short period of activity in the 80s, releasing four cassettes (all re-issued on vinyl), he started again in 2010, and it's now the work he's most active with. His current Kleistwahr doesn't sound like the old incarnation, which was noisy and collage-like. The current Kleistwahr is noisy too, but a different kind of noise. Mundy uses a guitar, organ, synthesizers, and a plethora of sound effects and creates a multi-layered, orchestral sound. No doubt there is new technology available these days that allows him to use multiple layers in the music. As I noted before, Kleistwahr's music is not here to cheer anyone up. It is dark and grim, as opposed to dark and pleasantly atmospheric. The soundtrack for harsh times, and luckily (?) we have plenty of those these days. I wonder what the 'Common Values' are, according to Mundy. The titles of the pieces are puzzling, anyway. There is 'Time To Realise', 'Heaven Maybe Never', 'Toward A New
Land' or 'In Blood Covered Land', all of which don't provide clues but leave much to guess (and, yes, it sounds grim) Kleistwahr's music is not piercingly loud, but somehow pierces right into your brain. When vocals are used, they sound far away, like a cry for help or a howl of pain. Maybe the voice is that one thing that sounds like Ramleh. The harpsichord sound I heard before (Vital Weekly 1271) returns here and has that haunted house, shivers down the spine sound. The title track is the longest, and following the loudest start, the volume drops, and Kleistwahr is off to a collage of voices and suppressed sounds and is more a collage piece, as opposed to the others, which are layered and psychedelic noise pieces. An excellent album all around, and Kleistwahr goes from strength to strength." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLIER, CORDELL |
Phono 4 |
mCD-R |
"multi-talented american musician offers here a new side of his work: minimal lowercase/microsound that could remind you bernhard gunter or francisco lopez." [label info]
"... Its not easy to hear what is going on 'Phono 4'. This hoovers very much on the edge of near silence. Soft crackles, even more soft drone like sounds, some field recording. And all of this in the middle of the storm of silence. Turn up the volume really high or use the best headphones. Its great minimalist beauty, in the best microsound tradition." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.taalem.com
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| KLINE, PHIL |
Around the World in a Daze |
2 x DVD-A |
Ausschweifender & hochgelobter neuer Release von PHIL KLINE, den wir bisher nur von der sehr schönen "Glow in the Dark" CD kannten (1998). Dabei ist er in den Staaten sehr bekannt, hat in frühen 80ern eine Band mit JIM JARMUSCH gehabt, war Bestandteil des GLENN BRANCA.Orchesters, und hat als Klangkünstler in diversen Galerien Klang-Installationen "ausgestellt"... AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE wurde speziell für "surround sound" aufgenommen und zeigt auf 10 Stücken eine grosse Variabilität, verbindet Komponiertes mit "gefundenen" Quellen, meist geht es um minimale konzeptuelle Arrangements basierend auf vokalem, elektronischem und kammermusikalischem Material; von harmonischen, fast kitschigen Melodien bis hin zu übereinandergeschichten Tape-Flächen und obskuren Field Recordings, z.B. eine Aufnahme aus Afrika von Tausenden Graupapageien die mit seinem dronigen "tape choir" verbunden werden, und ein echtes "Madrigal" gibt es auch zu hören.
Auf der zweiten DVD ist dann Film-Material: MEDITATION (8+ min), ein Film / Musik-Clip mit PHIL KLINE, ein 35minütiges Interview mit ihm und einige Fotos. Kommt in einer übergrossen Doppel-DVD Hülle, mit ausführlichem Booklet.
"Leading new-music composer Phil Kline debuts a major work on this new surround sound DVD. Heard here for the first time, this 65-minute studio composition was commissioned by Starkland to premiere on this high-resolution surround-sound DVD. Daze is Kline's longest work and biggest commission to date. Daze is also likely the largest work so far commissioned for a high-resolution surround-sound recording. Performers include the uber-cool Ethel string quartet and violin virtuoso Todd Reynolds. Surround-sound tracks place listeners inside wondrous boombox choirs, an ethereal Ethel string quartet, a weird madrigal, hyper-dense bells (hundreds of thousands at one point), richly mournful multi-tracked vocals, soaring violinistics, and an immersive environment of 15,000 African gray parrots. The release also offers a second Extras DVD with a composer-produced music video and a 30-minute interview with Kline and John Schaefer. The custom 5"x10" digipak includes a 24-page booklet. The two DVDs contain a total content of 110 minutes. This release follows Starkland's groundbreaking surround-sound Immersion DVD, now recognized as the first commissioned high-resolution surround-sound recording. Immersion won praise from Sound & Vision, Stereophile, Billboard, etc. and was the #1 best-selling DVD-Audio at Amazon for nearly a year. The main disc offers Daze in several formats for various home playback setups: the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS 5.1, and high-resolution audiophile DVD-Audio, as well as a stereo version. Playback of the Daze music is accompanied by over 80 images shot by Kline."
[label description]
www.starkland.com
"..From the title you may deduce that space is a keyword in this production. Recordings for this project were done all over the world. But besides Kline is very interested in the spacial aspects of music and sound. He played with these aspects by using whole sets of boomboxes for the recording of most tracks. Besides this main interest, other musical items led him by constructing ten very different works. The lengthiest piece 'Pennies from Heaven' is the one I liked most. Because of the sound and because of the structure of the piece. The same descending scale is repeated and repeated again, transposed and multiplied, etc. The constant downward movement is very imaginative and brings about a meditative state. Also the opening piece 'The Housatonic at Henry Street' fascinates because of its multilayered and detailed soundspectrum. Other pieces use the human voice as the most important material, like 'The Wailing Wall' resurrected by the voice of Kline himself. Two other pieces have the violin in the center: 'Svarga yatra' and 'Grand Etude for the Elevation'. The beautiful concluding piece is built from field recordings done in Central Africa. Tracks differ also because for the different structuring principles that are used. But as said the pieces impress above all because of their soundqualities and spatial characteristics. Each piece is accompanied by its own series of photos. Nice photos often. From urban environments, to nature, etc, etc. But I didn't need them for enjoying the music, nor the other way around. And I couldn't bridge them in my imagination. While listening I felt a bit 'imprisoned' by looking at the same time at the pictures. Well, this also a spatial effect I guess. The second dvd has an extensive interview with Kline commenting on each piece. This gives a good insight in what Kline had in mind. Congratulations for Starkland for releasing this extraordinary and well-documented release." [DM, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| KLIVE |
Sweaty Psalms |
CD |
"KLIVE ist das Solo Projekt von Ulfur Hansson, einem jungen Musiker aus Reykjavik, Island. Er ist sonst Live-Musiker bei JÓNSI (Solo-Projekt des Sigur Rós Gittaristen) und Bassist der Noisecore-Band SWORDS OF CHAOS.
Was SWEATY PSALMS auszeichnet, ist vor allem der am besten „organisch“ zu nennende Sound. Obwohl grundsätzlich elektronisch produziert, ist das Klangbild überraschend akustisch. Hierfür sorgen zunächst einmal die quäkend-exotisch klingenden Blechbläser seiner 3 Live-Begleitmusikerinnen (2010 auf Tour als Support von KIRA KIRA). Vor allem aber die Aufnahmen von original isländischen Klangereignissen (engl. Field Recordings) machen den ganz eigenen Charakter des Albums aus: Schwer zu sagen ob es sich um einen Flaschenzug oder ein vertautes, schaukeldes Ruderboot handelte, es klingt jedenfalls definitiv nach Holz und Wasser. Es knarrt, flötet, klappert und planscht unbekannterweise, lediglich Möven sind zu identifizieren. Und die Percussion auf DON’T GIVE UP THE GHOST ist tatsächlich das vehemente Schlagen auf Töpfe und Pfannen der aufgebrachten Bevökerung vor dem isländischen Parlament nach dem Finanz-Crash 2008!
All dies macht SWEATY PSALMS zum einem klanglich und musikalisch auffälligen und wahrscheinlich bislang am wenigsten elektronisch klingenden MILLE PLATEAUX Album. Bislang. // KLIVE is the solo project of Ulfur Hansson, a young musician from Reykjavik, Iceland. He is also a touring member of JÓNSI ( Jon Þor Birgisson of SIGUR ROS) and the bass player of notorious noisecore band SWORDS OF CHAOS.
Digital Folk From Iceland. SWEATY PSALMS sounds like water and wood. It bubbles, whistles and rattles indefinitely, with merely seagulls to be spotted. SWEATY PSALMS has a strong organic feel, mixed with tongue in-cheek brass samples and orchestrations that compliment heavily processed field recordings. In fact, DON'T GIVE UP THE GHOST include sounds from the vehement battering of pots and pans outside the icelandic parliament, after the nations financial crash and burn of 2008.
It's inverted folkiness and warm concrete touch makes SWEATY PSALMS a remarkable album, and probably MILLE PLATEAUX's least electronic sounding album so far. So far!" [label info]
www.mille-plateaux.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLOOB |
Remarkable Events |
CD |
Here on 'Remarkable Events', Kloob has brought a darker, much more intense, rich feel to his music, quite different from some of his previous works. The tracks switch between dark and light and you can feel the influence of his recent Eastern travels, crackling in the air, in the field recordings, in the synth sweeps and patterns and in the sonic landscapes that the album creates and carries you along. Make no mistake, this is not an album filled with the chants of Hindu monks and the busy clatter of every day Indian life. It is an intensely spiritual album, which for its duration will take you along the same paths traversed by the artist himself.
Kloob wants to thank to Max Corbacho for his mastering work and Mark & Patricia from Winter-Light label for their great support and awesome involment in this album.
https://kloob.bandcamp.com/album/remarkable-events |
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Parallel States |
CD |
A welcome return to Winter-Light for Kloob with new work 'Parallel States'; his third solo album on our label.
‘Drifting helplessly in unchartered space. Gripped by fear and an inherent dread; the mind becomes wracked with feverish blurred visions. Intermittently slipping in to dreamlike sequences, spliced with harsh realities and the surreal. A sudden pulse courses throughout the body, triggering a magnificent view of the quantum limits. At once comprehending and understanding even the most intricate of macrocosmic notions.
Once the whole structure of mind, body and soul has undergone significant changes, the known boundaries of existence cease to impose such limitations.’
Ethereal soundscapes, deep-low drones, subtle-faint dub chords and gloomy atmospheres slowly slide in to assemble nebulous structures.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/parallel-states
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLOOD |
Negation |
mCD-R |
Nur selten erscheint neues KLOOD-Material, gemächlich und unaufgeregt verfolgt der Franzose Emannuel Haubry konsequent den eingeschlagenen Weg, so auch hier: zwei analog-elektronische Transzendental-Drone-Stücke, das eine einnehmend & warm & dunkel, das andere düster-geräuschhafter & in tiefsten Tiefen grummelnd....
“Klood is a french one-man project sometimes compared to early Ultra Milkmaids (he contributed to their "Mort Aux Vaches" CD) or Maeror Tri. The tracks on his first 3" (after several releases on various labels
such as Drone Records, Blade or EE-Tapes) shows two different sides of his apparently simple but highly evocative and emotional ambient music. First track is the bright one (who could even remind Angelo Badalementi's "Twin Peaks" soundtrack) while the second one is darker, slow and sinister...“ [label info]
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Retraction |
CD-R |
Zum letzten Mal gibt es einen Schwung neuer VÖs auf dem italienischen Handwerker-Label BLADE Records – wie immer in besonders aufwendig handgemachter, aber klobiger Coververpackung: Zwei quadratische Holzplatten wurden verschiedenfarbig mit einer Schablone besprüht und aneindergeschraubt, innen wartet ein schönes full-colour Cover.
Aber auch musikalisch kommt man hier auf seine Kosten: Nach langer Zeit (& fast zeitgleich mit der „Aversion“ auf EE Tapes) neues Material vom französischen Drone-Projekt aus Armentieres. Auf „Retraction“ sind 6 soft-dronige und gitarrig hell-schwingende Stücke versammelt, aufgenommen zwischen 1996-2003, zeitlos schön.. 65 min.
The last ever batch of Blade Records-releases brings us new material of the french drone-project KLOOD, timeless drone-compositions .. comes in special painted & screwed wood covers.
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| KLUCEVSEK, GUY |
Flying Vegetables of the Apocalypse |
CD |
Neun Stücke mit folkloristisch-melancholisch geprägter Akkordeon-Tanz-Musik, v.a. Polka- und Walzer-Bearbeitungen mit experimenteller Note und slovenischen Wurzeln. Mitspieler z.B. TOM CORA. Beschwingte Wehmut voller Virtuosität.
“ Composer and accordion virtuoso Guy Klucevsek is teaching his instrument to whoop and wheeze in strange new ways. He plays deconstructed, reconstructed art songs and dance tunes, translated into a metalanguage of his own making. His is a musical Esperanto fashioned from hocketed melodies, giddy arabesques; tone clusters; eerie difference tones; hypnotic phasing and locomotive ostinatos; low register drones punctuated by high register yips; and a rollicking, roisterous energy borrowed from dance forms and folk music the world over. Ensemble pieces for strings, percussion, guitars, and woodwinds, feature Bobby Previte, Tom Cora, David Hofstra, John King, Laura Seaton, and more.” [label description]
|
1991 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLUSTER |
Admira |
CD |
"Admira is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member and Tangerine Dream engineer Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Vulcano, also being released at the same time on Important, Admira is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group. Conrad Schnitzler founded Kluster in 1969 along with Roedelius, Mobius and often Klaus Freudigmann who had multiple roles within the group as a player, engineer and instrument inventor. Eventually Roedelius and Mobius left Kluster and continued on as Cluster while Schnitzler and Freudigmann continued as Kluster often exploring the communal aspects of music by bringing new people into the group." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Klopfzeichen |
LP |
"Angstmusik: Reissue des Debüts der bahnbrechenden deutschen Elektronikband.
Kluster war ein kurzlebiges Projekt der drei Musiker, Künstler und Performer Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Konrad Schnitzler. 1970 nahmen sie mit Conny Plank zwei Alben auf, die in ihrer experimentellen Radikalität bahnbrechend waren. Chaotische, apokalyptisch klingende (Geräusch-)Improvisationen (später nannte man diesen Sound Industrial), teilweise angereichert durch rezitierte Texte. Wer heute zum ersten Mal das 1970 auf Schwann AMS Studio (einem Label für Kirchenmusik) erschienene "Klopfzeichen" hört, bekommt Geheimnisvolles und auch nicht einfach zu Entzifferndes aus einer längst vergangenen Zeit mitgeteilt. Die drei "Verfasser" formulierten mit "Klopfzeichen" vor allem eine radikale Forderung: anarchische, völlige Freiheit der Kunst und der Musik. Klopfzeichen war mit Abstand das radikalste Album der frühen deutschen Popmusik-Avantgarde. Kluster-Musik war reine Angstmusik. Die Linernotes des Reissues stammen von Asmus Tietchens, erhältlich als CD, Download und 180g-Vinyl." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Eruption |
LP |
"Kluster was a short-lived project of three musicians/artists/performers: Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Konrad Schnitzler. They recorded two albums in 1970, unprecedented in their experimental radicalism. Chaotic, apocalyptic (noise) improvisations, a sound later termed industrial music. Kluster disbanded as Moebius and Roedelius found the financial risk of bringing out a third album too daunting. Schnitzler decided to go ahead on his own, releasing the material they had recorded together, without any information or credits on the pure black LP sleeve. Moebius and Roedelius continued as a duo under the name of Cluster." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Klopfzeichen |
CD |
"Angstmusik: Reissue des Debüts der bahnbrechenden deutschen Elektronikband.
Kluster war ein kurzlebiges Projekt der drei Musiker, Künstler und Performer Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Konrad Schnitzler. 1970 nahmen sie mit Conny Plank zwei Alben auf, die in ihrer experimentellen Radikalität bahnbrechend waren. Chaotische, apokalyptisch klingende (Geräusch-)Improvisationen (später nannte man diesen Sound Industrial), teilweise angereichert durch rezitierte Texte. Wer heute zum ersten Mal das 1970 auf Schwann AMS Studio (einem Label für Kirchenmusik) erschienene "Klopfzeichen" hört, bekommt Geheimnisvolles und auch nicht einfach zu Entzifferndes aus einer längst vergangenen Zeit mitgeteilt. Die drei "Verfasser" formulierten mit "Klopfzeichen" vor allem eine radikale Forderung: anarchische, völlige Freiheit der Kunst und der Musik. Klopfzeichen war mit Abstand das radikalste Album der frühen deutschen Popmusik-Avantgarde. Kluster-Musik war reine Angstmusik. Die Linernotes des Reissues stammen von Asmus Tietchens, erhältlich als CD, Download und 180g-Vinyl." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Eruption |
CD |
"Kluster war ein kurzlebiges Projekt von Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Konrad Schnitzler. 1970 erschienen zwei bahnbrechende Alben mit Geräuschimprovisationen: "Klopfzeichen" und "Zwei Osterei". Weil Moebius und Roedelius das finanzielle Risiko, ein drittes Album herauszubringen, zu hoch war, trennten sich Kluster, und Schnitzler veröffentlichte das gemeinsam eingespielte Material auf eigene Kosten. In der offiziellen Werkliste Schnitzlers wird das 1971 erschienene "Eruption" als erstes Schnitzler-Album mit dem Titel "Schwarz" geführt. Tatsächlich ist "Eruption" aber die dritte und endgültig letzte Kluster-LP. Das Album unterscheidet sich dennoch ganz erheblich von seinen Vorgängern. Auf Texte wird verzichtet, die Musik ist nichts weiter als sie selbst, und der Hörer kommt in den Genuss einer puren Geräuschsinfonie, deren geschickte Dramaturgie ihn bis zum Schluss konzentriert zuhören lässt. Kluster sind bei "Eruption" auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer musikalischen Ausdruckskraft. Die LP erscheint auf 180-Gramm-Vinyl, die Linernotes stammen von Asmus Tietchens." [label info]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| KNIZAK, MILAN |
Broken Music |
LP |
"Black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.
Original design + extra text.
Milan Knizak 1979's masterpiece never re-released before.
Milan Knizak (born 19 April 1940) is a Czech performance artist, sculptor, musician, installation artist, dissident, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art. Before everyone else - Christian Marclay, Philip Jeck, eRikm, Martin Tétreault, Otomo Yoshihide - there was Milan Knizak. In 1964, Milan Knizak, a member of Fluxus from behind the Iron Curtain, sat down on a sidewalk near the Charles Bridge in Prague, laid down a paper carpet right into the street, and starts tearing pages out of books and burning them... Around the same time, he began to create music from defective, worn, damaged or broken LP's. These Broken Music compositions, his classic collages of noises created during performances and happenings, are widely regarded as important sound art documents on record." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
"We had a cd reissue of this years and years ago, that's long out of print, but now here's a nice vinyl reissue of this pioneering 'turntablist' experiment from the '60s...
The Czech artist Milan Knizak began his art career without much success, getting himself thrown out of Pedagogic Uni Prague, Preliminary Art School Prague, and Art Academy Prague in quick succession. But during the mid '60s, Knizak affiliated himself with Fluxus and began experimenting with turntables, tape recorders, and the surfaces of vinyl in order to make a 'broken music,' predating the damaged turntable 'n' vinyl experiments of Christian Marclay by almost two decades! Originally he would just slow down and speed up his records to change to quality of the intrinsic music. But by 1965, he started to scratch the records, punch holes in them, sticking tape to the surfaces, dumping paint over whole record, burning them, literally cutting the records apart and gluing them back together. These would then be played on his turntable, and inevitably destroy the needle and often wreck the turntable itself! The collages that Knizak arrived at are nerve-wracking clattering works in which snippets of the original would emerge amidst erratic skips and asynchronous warbling. Certainly for those adventurous fans of Philip Jeck, "Metal Machine Music," and Marclay." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Broken Music |
CD |
"Milan Knizak 1979's masterpiece never re-released before.
Milan Knizak (born 19 April 1940) is a Czech performance artist, sculptor, musician, installation artist, dissident, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art. Before everyone else - Christian Marclay, Philip Jeck, eRikm, Martin Tétreault, Otomo Yoshihide - there was Milan Knizak. In 1964, Milan Knizak, a member of Fluxus from behind the Iron Curtain, sat down on a sidewalk near the Charles Bridge in Prague, laid down a paper carpet right into the street, and starts tearing pages out of books and burning them... Around the same time, he began to create music from defective, worn, damaged or broken LP's. These Broken Music compositions, his classic collages of noises created during performances and happenings, are widely regarded as important sound art documents on record." [label info]
www.subrosa.net |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Aktual Univerzita |
CD |
Milan Knízak canonical text Aktual University, dating from 1967, contains ten short lectures outlining the university's character - On Conflict, On Dreams, On Revolutions, On Love, On Belief, On Art, etc.
These lectures were to serve as inspirational schemes for lectures, seminars and discussions held at an ideal university.
In the first piece, Aktual University, Milan Knízak reads his own text, with Opening Performance Orchestra providing the musical accompaniment. It was performed live in October 2019 at the Movement-Sound-Space festival in Opava, where this recording was made.
The second track, titled Broken Suite, is a studio remix, in which Opening Performance Orchestra used fragments and quotations from Milan Knizák's compositions, conceived over the past fifty years, applying the "broken" method. The majority of them are made public for the very first time in the newly created Broken Suite.
The booklet features English translations of ten Aktual University lectures, as well as Milan Knizak's contemporary initiation text."
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/aktual-univerzita
"...On the other hand, ‘Broken Suite’ is a “studio remix” of the preceding madness, drawing on his “broken” method to realise a sweltering, omnidirectional mass of fragments and quotations from Knízak’s compositions, conceived over the past 50 years. The result will make NWW and Merzbow fiends weep with pleasure as its monstrous flux comes to resemble an orchestra tuning up in the depths of Beelzebub’s workshop. It takes on a very uncanny nature in 2022 when considering that Knízak’s work was a direct response to, and extension of, his political stance against the communist regime." [Boomkat review] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| KNURL |
Acetylphasia |
MC |
"After a long hiatus Alan Bloor comes back with a new release. One of the most evocative and sonically diverse works in his catalogue, it is worth waiting for! Each cassette, wrapped in a sanitary napkin moistened with glacial acetic acid, comes enclosed in a transparent plastic bag. LImited edition of 100 numbered copies." [label info]
https://thecatcherinnoise.wordpress.com
|
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| KOBI |
Dronesyndrome |
CD |
Drone-Impro aus Norwegen auf SILBER! KOBI arbeiten mit Synths, Guitar, Drums, Double Bass, Accordion, Cello, Dictaphone, etc.. auf den 9 hier enthaltenen Stücken schaffen sie Dronescapes und mysteriöse Klangkörper mit interessanten Texturen, zwischen Oberton-Drone-Äther-Sounds und „konkreter“ Impro .... zweite CD auf Silber für diese Gruppe aus dem ORIGAMI – Umfeld:
“Layers of deep drones and pulsating electro-acoustic manipulation. Listen closely and you'll discover whole worlds of subtle aural beauty that as a whole creates one of the most well crafted and enticing drone albums I've heard in a while. Improvisation and experimentation at its finest by Kai Mikalsen and his Norwegian crew.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Projecto |
CD |
Ein offenes Projekt von KAI MIKALSEN von ORIGAMI ARKTIKA, der hier mit diversen Leuten der norwegischen experimental /ambient-Szene zusammengearbeitet hat, wie LASSE MARHAUG, TORE H. BOE, ALEXANDER RISHAUG, PER GISLE GALAEN, FREDERIK N. SEVENDAL, JOHN HEGRE, und anderen..
“Kobi is a collaborative project between Kai of Origami Arktika & every known experimental musician from Norway. The results are powerful & emotionally charged sonic landscapes reminiscent of hallucinated orchestral works. File under: Experimental, drone, post-rock, electro-acoustic, ambient” [label info]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Acousticks |
CD |
"This album has been under construction for three years, and is released by Kai Mikalsens own label.
As usual, Kai Mikalsen has invited friends to lay instumental improvisations over his mix of soundscapes of processed sounds from common objects, location recordings and analogue synth loops.
Featuring: Kai Mikalsen, Tore H. Bøe, Michael Duch, Tie Qiao Li, Petter Flaten Eilertsen, Kjell Runar Jenssen and Anla Courtis." [label info]
www.looop.no/kobi
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| KODAMA (HITOSHI KOJO & MICHAEL NORTHAM) |
Turning Leaf Migrations |
LP |
Nach der limitierten CDR auf HITOSHI KOJO Label OCTPIA ("Les Chambres Nuages", 2005) die erste Veröffentlichung des Duos (mit MICHAEL NORTHAM) in grösserer Auflage. Auf dieser LP schaffen sie mit Hilfe von Objekt-Klängen, rituell wirkenden Gesängen, traditionellen Instrumenten & Field Recordings sehr "konkrete" und doch oft fliessende, höchst ungewöhnliche psychedelische Geräuschmusik, deren Komplexität oft kaum durchschaubar ist - diese Überforderung eröffnet aber die Möglichkeit sich über die Ratio hinwegzusetzen und sich ganz den sich stets verändernden Strukturen hinzugeben.. .. die Aufnahmen stammen von verschiedensten (Aussen)-Orten, das "Studio" ist die Natur, die Psychogeographie als "nicht hörbarer" und doch erfassbarer Faktor spielt hier eine grosse Rolle. Einzigartige Transformationsmusik !
"Kodama is the ongoing recording project of two well-known visual and sound artists -- Hitoshi Kojo and Michael Northam -- and this is their first widely available release as a duo. Recorded in various improbable locations whenever they crossed paths over the course of several years and then finally edited and assembled in a cluttered garage in the west side of Indianapolis. There is a decidedly more improvisational feel and crisp psychedelic aura to these recordings when compared to their other work and one can hear the influence of Ghedalia Tazartes in how the various recordings were stitched together. To quote Hitoshi Kojo: 'We are the spirit of forest. Our howling has been offered to the many goddesses of the valleys. Teething our emptiness they, licking the stars, until white holes appear in our sky through them towards regenerative guides of the tonal-morphic omni-verses. Using found objects to seduce voices from unlikely sources as well as traditional instruments of wind, wires and wood. Kodama weaves between emotional poetry and dynamic forces of noises. The recordings have a strong atmosphere of each location -- the top of a mountain in Switzerland, a campground in Ohio, Lofoten Island in Norway, the arctic circle in Finland, Niagara Falls, etc. It includes a lot of the dirts of the raw recordings, but also incredibly beautiful moments such as the session with an owl in a Slovenian forest, an alpine summit singing meditation under the vast galaxy, and an encounter with the small people through strange ritual...' - HK. Limited pressing of 500 copies. Covers & insert printed on 2-color offset press with illustrations and design by Hitoshi Kojo." [label info]
"... All captured mainly outside, like the top of a mountain, a campground or the Lofoten Island. In terms of music I guess this is the best record of the lot, most thoughout and musically engaging. A refined mixture of ritual music (without those magickal overtones), drone, microsound and field recordings, all done in an unique way." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€18.00 |
|
| KODJABASHIA, NIKOLA |
The Most of Now |
CD |
"Macedonian composer (tutors: Anatol Vieru, Tomislav Zografski, Sir Harrison Birtwistle and the Gyorgiâs Ligeti and Kurtag) with a unique voice, moving easily here between tape manipulation, ensemble and choral composition both contemporary and soaked in national folk influences to form a complex minimal, tangled music that answers to no genre but short-circuits straight to the 21st century ear combining the best qualities of melodic and developmental writing with ear-centred composition and a contemporary concern with collage, stasis and unaccustomed juxtaposition." [label info] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Explosion of a Memory |
CD |
"Performed by the Macedonian Symphony Orchestra with Balkan electro legend Kiril Dzajkovski, Chris Cutler (percussion), Nikola Kodjbashia (prepared piano), Patric Driver and Valere Novarina (readers). Text fragments are by Heiner Muller and Valere Novarina.
A four-dimensional explosion in which stretches of Baroque, folk themes and Byzantine liturgy exist contemporaneously with modern and post-modern materials - much as strata emerge where tectonic plates fold one time over another – settling eventually into long, beautiful, tonal stretches, lighter than air, that drift and attenuate to reveal, dreamily, the old simplicities. Immersive, timeless and unmistakably new, this music respects but definitively breaks with existing schools to explore instead its own geographically unique influences and contradictions.
‘Explosion of a Memory’ is a homage to my literary heroes: James Joyce, Heiner Muller, Valere Novarina, William Gibson, Euripides and Colin Teevan; it’s also a deeply personal epic about the complex relationship between childhood myths, history and perpetual homecoming’. NK
NIKOLA KODJABASHIA is one of the Balkan’s most respected and award winning composers. Born into a musical family in Skopje in 1970, he pursued his compositional studies with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Anatol Vieru, György Kurtág, and Rolf Gehlhaar. In the UK, he has scored and conducted music for numerous plays, including Sir Peter Hall’s Bacchae at the National Theatre, Walter Meieryohann’s Internationally acclaimed Kafka’s Monkey at London’s Young Vic, Wedding Day of the Cromagnons for the Soho Theatre, Helter Skelter/Land of the Dead and Monsier Ibrahim and the flowers of the Qu’ran for the Bush Theatre, and Jonathan Kent’s award winning Hecuba at the Donmar warehouse, Covent Garden. He is responsible for the music and sound-design for various BBC TV documentaries and his film compositions include Damianovski’s Dance with Me and Green Pages (Chicago Film Festival Award, UK première at Glastonbury Film stage, 2007).
His earlier ReR release, ‘Reveries of the Solitary Walker’ was hailed by John Walters in The Guardian as “…probably the best record of the year”." [full label press release]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOENIG, GOTTFRIED MICHAEL |
Zwei Klavierstücke, etc. |
do-CD |
Highly interesting piano- & violin- & very early pure electronic works from this german pioneer of electronic music, who worked from 1954-1964 in the legendary WDR-Studio for new electronic music...
"Doppel-CD mit electronischen und Software-generierten Kompositionen des Pioniers der elektronischen Musik, G.M. Koenig.
CD 1: Zwei Klavierstücke 1957 (WDR 1995) 14:13 [ Jan Marc Reichow, Klavier ]
Suite "Materialien zu einem Ballett" 1961 (WDR 1961) 20:48
Streichquartett 1959 (WDR 1961) 10:04 [ LaSalle Quartet: Walter Levin, 1. Violine; Henry Meyer, 2. Violine; Peter Kamnitzer, Viola; Jack Kirstein, Violoncello]
Terminus X 1967 (Institut für Sonologie in Utrecht 1967) 11:46
Funktion Grün 1967 (Institut für Sonologie in Utrecht 1967) 8:25
Funktion Gelb 1968 (Institut für Sonologie in Utrecht 1968) 12:43
CD 2:
60 Blätter für Streichtrio 1992 (WDR 1996) [ Trio Recherche:Melise Mellinger, Violine; Barbara Maurer, Viola; Lucas Fels, Violoncello ] " [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2006 |
€22.50 |
|
| KOJI, SAITO |
Prayer |
mCD-R |
"SAITO KOJI creates trance-inducing soundscapes based on guitar and effects. some of his past released were issued by gears of sand (ben fleury-steiner's label) or resting bell (one of the most interesting netlabels). his music is so hypnotizing you'll only have one thought at the end of this 3": press 'play' again!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Early Works |
CD-R |
"hree long tracks taken a cdr trilogy released in japan a few years ago and long sold out. extended and minimal yet beautiful guitar drones. 1st edition of 100 copies. comes with a full color pro-printed A5-sized carboard cover in a plastic sleeve & printed cd-r." [label info]
www.taalem.org
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| KOJO, HITOSHI |
Lux Ova |
MC |
" "Lux Ova" is a compilation album of my old recordings in the middle 90's before my first release "To Fill Up All The Coeloms By Radiance" in 1998 (re-released as "Sacrifice + Phosphorus" under "Spiracle" pseudonym in 2000).
"To Fill Up All The Coeloms By Radiance" was made with a particular theme 'catastrophe sound action' and 'initiation' in relatively a short period in 1997.
However I had remembered that a lot of other solo recordings had been blindly made mostly on cassette tapes between a so-called band period until 1995 and the "sound action" period in 1997.
While digging up the mass of cassette tapes, I had discovered some blindly therefore free and honest recordings that contained fertile texture like a origin of the sea, and few of them already sounded like later works as Spiracle.
I gathered them first, and treated on a computer to unify the utterly disconnected feelings of each recording, then compiled them to an album, and brought them back to a cassette tape again for the release.
The original sounds seem to be produced by acoustic instruments and organic materials such as voices, flutes, guitars, metals, ceramics, wind, water. However they were all melted into a mass of textures and tones through various effectors, and had simmered in samplers and a multi track tape recorder until they became bright coloured thick fractal soup.
The artwork in the folded insert was taken from colour pencil drawings ‘birth of stars’ and ‘medium’ that had been also blindly made between 1998 and 1999." [label info]
www.omnimemento.com
|
2010 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
High Tide Mirror |
CD |
"Inner resonance of planets... harmonies made from the distances between planets... melodies generated by their circular dances... Our bodies can become a receiver of cosmic music when we connect our roots to certain places on earth. However the electromagnetic field on the surface of the earth is unduly interfered nowadays. So our sympathetic ability is heavily oppressed by the violent moire. First, shall we let ourselves synchronize with the flow of the earth's fundamental magnetic field, immerse ourselves into the tonal dance with the sun and the moon? Then each of us will spontaneously begin to oscillate a unique vibration according to our character. It is the fundamental tone that becomes part of the universal harmony, and the first step to participate in the circular dance of the celestial orbs. Live sets recorded in autumn 2010 in Vevey Switzerland and Lyon France. Edited in winter 2011 in Brussels Belgium. CD in edition of 200 numbered copies (first edition), housed in a double envelope with hand-printed silk screen on 300g card stock. There are three versions of the cover: pale purple, deep purple and dark blue." [label info]
"Active as Plexia, Plexus, Spiracle and member of Bloxus, Juupala Kaapio, Libellula, Revenant and Turquoise (to lift off some info from discogs), but mostly reviewed here under his own name, Hitoshi Kojo with a new album here, of sets recorded in Vevey (Switzerland) and Lyon (France), edited later on in Brussels, where he lives these days. I must admit I never studied his website before, but now I did and learned he's into music, composition, installation, performance, painting, sculpture, video and photo 'and those mixtures' of which 'the extensive activities are based on his animistic sensitivity that all the matters and the spaces have their own memories. Touching the objects, Talking to animals and plants, Resonating with atmosphere in the space. Such daily activities since the childhood are the basis of his works.' His work is best described as drone like I should think and this new release is a fine example of that. Its hard to say however what he uses to create his drones, but my best guess would be that it is some sort of mixture of acoustic instruments and electronics, perhaps with the use of objects of an electro-acoustic nature. Something like that. It sounds pretty good, altogether. The six lengthy pieces here display a fine sensitive character, without falling too much in the trap of 'easy' drone music - the 'cigar wave form' as someone once called it. Kojo mixes together his sources in an elegant way, with ringing and singing overtones, bowing cymbals, strings and god knows what else. A delicate yet not always necessarily quiet release - powerful drones yet smooth when necessary. Excellent stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.omnimemento.com
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| KOLACKI, RAFAL |
Hijra. Noise from the Jungle |
CD |
"The new album by Rafał Kołacki entitled “Hijra. Noise from the Jungle” contains field recordings made during a trip to the temporary refugee camp called The Jungle in Calais, France. There lives about 4 000 immigrants where on a relatively small area various nations coexist creating an eclectic, unique sound culture. The album is a recording of music events, it is a kind of a subjective archive of an ethnomusical trip . Above all, it is full of emotions and feelings of people for whom creating art, music is very often the only form of recovering from homesickness.
The album is released in a 3-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies. The cover is designed by Mirt (rozpad.com). It is mastered by Marcin Dymiter." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| KOM |
Berry White |
CD |
"KOM are back with their first real full length. The new record BERRY WHITE doesn't change their opinion about music and how they want to reach people – but with these new 12 songs they maybe will get the attention of a wider audience they deserve. You still can't talk about 12 single songs because this record again just makes sense if you look at it as a whole piece of art. It's the homogeneity of artwork (handprinted cardboard sleeves for the cd version), lyrics, interludes and the real songs which makes the record unique and outstanding. They still write and play those little pieces of art far away from established genre clichés. You can call it a mixture of indie-rock, singer songwriter or postrock – but all of these bromides don't fit at all. They're very influenced by old 60's film music – but don't sound like that. They like to listen to ROBERT WYATT, HARMONIA or RADIOHEAD – but they don't copy them. They're just KOM – four guys from three cities in Germany who visit a small cottage in the woods every 2nd year to write a new refreshing record." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| KOMAFUZZ VS. PLETHORA |
Live at the Lo-Fi Seattle |
mCD-R |
Surrealistische Noisescapes, konkrete Metallarbeit und repetitive Samples, eine Live-Aufnahme vom PSYCHOCHRIST-Betreiber Stan Reed aka PLETHORA und KOMAFUZZ!
“The first live performance of PLETHORA in a special collaboration with fellow sound extremist komafuzz of KolorForm Records, very dreamy soundscapes that fill the imagination with deep thoughts.“ [label info]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| KOMMANDO |
Necroinvasiv |
CD |
THOROFON-fans aufgepasst! KOMMANDO war das prä-THOROFON-Projekt, enthalten sind hier Aufnahmen von 1993-1999. "...Wie man bereits dem blutigen Cover entnehmen kann, ist dabei ein Sound erstanden bzw. erhalten geblieben, der doch etwas roher und gröber ist als das, was man von THOROFON oder THE MUSICK WRECKERS kennt, wobei „Necroinvasiv“ nicht nur von musikhistorischem Interesse ist, sondern als eigenständige Veröffentlichung zu sehen ist. Dreizehn Tracks lang werden einem noisige Klänge um die Ohren gehauen, die immer mal wieder die Schmerzgrenze des Hörers ausloten, ohne diese dabei gar zu lange zu übertreten. Abwechslungsreiche und so weit ich das erkennen konnte, klischeefreie Samples, kräftige, krachige Rhythmusloops und einiges an Feedback lassen hierbei keine Langweile aufkommen, allerdings sind auch keine tanzflächenfüllenden ’Hits’ à la THOROFON zu erwarten. Kaum gezähmte oder stilisierte, sondern noch ziemlich brutal und ursprüngliche musikalische Energie und Wut ist es, was KOMMANDO einem entgegenschleudert und das ist, auch wenn es keine Musik für alle Stimmungen ist, gut so." [BLACK Magazin]
"They digged very deep in the UMB-archive, and finally brought some really rotten, dirty, sticky "audio-corpses", dated from mid of the 90`s,to the surface. The material had been digitally cleaned and partly restructured for being presented for the very first time on cd. Well arranged power-electronics with distorted screams and aggressiv vocals, leads to the roots of this pre-THOROFON project." [label info]
label-website: www.l.white-records.de
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOMMISSAR HJULER / MAMA BÄR / NINNI MORGIA / SILVIA KASTEL |
Live in Edinburgh |
LP |
"In April 2011 the two couples formed by Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Baer and Ninni Morgia & Silvia Kastel ventured for a tour in the UK; it was the first time they played together but their shared common visions, attitude and general craziness actually gave life to an inspired team. Every show was different; in Edinburgh, they decided to perform a piece originally written by Ninni Morgia & Silvia Kastel, "Jericho", that Papa Baer liked.
So before the show, the group pre-recorded a tape in a big theater-like room inside the venue, with a spoken version of the lyrics. On stage, Mama Baer projected a video made by her, depicting the four of them standing against a wall; the music starts off with Kommissar manipulating the tape, then the actual "Jericho" lyrics are sung by Mama Baer and Silvia Kastel while Ninni Morgia's bends,
buffs and brushes his guitar and Kastel's synthesizer starts growling out of the monster's belly. Tension, discomfort, love, pain, theatre? music? art? Four people, each of them immolates themselves for the cause.
This release is available in two editions (Art Edition & Standard Edition). DON'T MISS IT!!!" [label info]
www.ricercasonora.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| KONGO |
Blubber |
CD |
"Henrik Nordvargr Björkk and Peter Nyström are both well known figures in the realm of dark soundscapes. They have been providing their obscure sonorities for decades now and each new release by either of the two legendary artists is an awaited treat. With their new project KONGO, Björkk and Nyström set off on a journey where they delve deep into early industrial music: using cut-up technique, processing speech samples, looping distorted melodies and making Blubber the ultimate homage to Severed Heads and Cabaret Voltaire’s works. It’s hectic, obsessive, and crazy. And it’s got that punk feel to it – a perfect soundtrack to the fucked-up world we are living in. Comes with an amazing artwork by Kellerman Design in a digipack edition of 300 copies." [label info]
ur-muzik.blogspot.de
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| KONKETE ANTI WULST |
Unsichtbare Zwillinge |
CD-R |
"Surrealist collage is the name of the game that Glenn Hollstein and Holger Bischoff play, both in their cover art as well as in the 45-minute sound piece it enfolds. Church organs criss-cross with voices from faraway, sounds of unidentifiable objects and strange, disembodied frequencies. A labyrinthine, slightly halluzinogenic sound trip.
The attraction of this work is in the way that it combines concrete sounds in ways that make them unfamiliar, draining the referential from it not by processing, but by combining them with other sounds. So it is totally clear that one is hearing human voices, but it is impossible to make out in which language they are speaking. Likewise, hardly any other instrument or sound-source is really recognisable, although none of them are clearly of synthetic origin. An intriguing sound puzzle!
File under: Sound art"
[label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"Yes, it's really Konkete and not Konkrete Anti Wulst and it is a duo of Glenn Hollstein and Holger Bischoff, who have this sort of surrealist action in their music and art. I didn't hear from them before. Their credits go out to 'instruments, voice' and 'instruments, objects, tapes, voice'. Surrealist + music and I always think of Nurse With Wound with such a combination. That is only partly true in this case, as this duo operates on a much louder, noisier level. There is one piece here, forty-five minutes, of noise that is created with all electronics, all voices and all objects being treated with a chilling amount of reverb. In a way, to make a Nurse With Wound connection, I am reminded here of the '150 Murderous Passions' record, the Nurse With Wound/Whitehouse record (never properly re-issued). Maybe a bit less loud here, but with a similar approach to a wall of feedback/sound and far away voice material, as well as the rumbling of acoustic objects in the basement. It works best when the voices are a bit better to hear and it's less muddy, towards the end more than in the early parts of this piece. A very consistent piece of music for sure, perhaps not entirely new or innovative, but actually quite enjoyable. A grey rainy summer's day gets the perfect soundtrack!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€7.00 |
|
| KONRAD KRAFT |
Quadrat |
LP |
"Quadrat is the title of Konrad Kraft’s (aka Detlef Funder) newest album. In some ways this album constitutes a kind of continuation of his previous work, which started with Temporary Audiosculptures. A sound manifestation of imaginary, sculptural and graphic structures. Like before, the production concentrates, in a more diffused way than in his previous album, on adding compositorial characteristics to graphic-geometric structures.
The result is a formal Grammatik of complex sound structures existing of wanted and indeed unwanted sounds and improvised moments. Fragmentary passages join homogeneous ones, spatial agglomerations follow cut-ups, acoustic adhesion meets simmering hotspots. Quadrat is clearly more poetical than his last album. Reduction and occasional use of minimalistic tonality and rhythm are in the forefront, and invite for sound excursions. The dogmatic choice of electronic sound production as well as the extreme manipulation of field recordings, allows for the formation of an abstract electronic parallel world.
Detlef Funder alias Konrad Kraft Bio:
1979 – Purchase of first semi-modular synthesiser.
1982 – Creation of experimental and avantgarde music project “Konrad Kraft“.
Various tapes and CDs as well as compilation tracks are published.
1988 – 1994 Co-founder of the Düsseldorf based music label “SDV-Tonträger”.
1990 – 2011 Producer of electronic music (experimental, ambient, techno) and
work as DJ and live-acts worldwide (“Konrad Kraft”, “Gilgamesch”,
“D-Fundation”, “Detson Engineering” & “Four Carry Nuts”).
2004 – After a long break resumption of work as artist (fine arts and
painting).
Releases:
1992 Dino Oon & Konrad Kraft – “Environmental Studies“ (SDV-Düsseldorf) CD
1996 Konrad Kraft – Alien Atmospheres (Elektro Smog-Frankfurt) CD
2011 Konrad Kraft - Temporary Audio Sculptures and Artefacts (aufabwegen) CD
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Oval |
LP |
'Oval' marks Konrad Kraft's third release on the German label 'aufaabwegen/Cologne', and is his second release in his current series. Clear textures, wobbling rhythm structures and unexpected melodic particles develop into unusual soundscapes. Blurred and foggy layers give way to clear musical accents.During the recording of the album, KK used mangled and destroyed field recordings, only two software synths and a modular synthesizer. Making use of his favorite modules, he merged the two worlds of sound design, digital and analogue. The result makes interesting listening.
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/oval-2
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Accident in Heaven |
LP |
2nd re-issue of Konrad Kraft's mid 80s electronic underground recordings on TAL after "Arctica" in 2018. ACCIDENT IN HEAVEN was originally released in 1987 as a hand-made micro-edition of about 40 cassette tapes. It was only the third ever release on the short-lived now near legendary SDV label which had been established that same year by Konrad Kraft, Bernd Sevens and Dino Oon in Düsseldorf. Finally finding a more substantial and appreciative audience on vinyl over 30 years after its original limited release, ACCIDENT IN HEAVEN is a strong testament to the explorative experiments of Detlef Funder a.k.a. Konrad Kraft, whose homebuilt studio sound attempted to bridge the clinical roughness of Severed Heads and the psychedelia of Coil with the density and force of industrial, post-punk and prototechno. Concurrent with his ever-expanding production skills, KONRAD KRAFT's sound work in the second half of the 80s stayed firmly rooted within a highly stylised underground spirit. Both his music and also the freshly launched SDV label first and foremost served as a medium for communication. The vital urgency of ACCIDENT IN HEAVEN underlines the record's core narrative which arguably sounds even more futuristic today than it did 30 years ago.
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Nifbin Circle (coloured) |
LP |
Nifbin Circle is the fourth release by Detlef Funder, aka Konrad Kraft, on the Cologne label Aufabwegen.
Sounds generated with two apps on the iPad, provided the basic structures and the sound space. The strangely enraptured textures created in this way, with a subtle percussive touch, were partly combined with supporting beats in the course of further processing. Thus, after more than 30 years, tracks with rudimentary melodies and rhythms were created again.
Biography - Konrad Kraft (aka Detlef Funder)
1980, First tape productions in the field of Experimental/Industrial under the moniker Konrad Kraft.
1983, Assemblage of own first studio to realize tape recordings
1985 – 1994, Founding and managing Düsseldorf record store and label SDV-Tonträger.
Expanding the studio to 16 track facility; recording, production and release of various internationally renowned projects like Konrad Kraft & Dino Oon, Mynox Layh, TUU, Paul Schütze etc.
1992 – 1999, Various Voice-over productionen for german TV (arte, ZDF, ARD etc.)
1992 – 2006, Numerous productions iin the area of Techno/Trance for different labels, internationally booked DJ and live act
1999 – 2007, Founding and managing of 4CN-Studios Bochum for audio productionsa and mastering
2011, Konrad Kraft CD Temorary Audiosculptures And Artifacts released on Cologne based label aufabwegen
2016, Founding of „Paraschall“ label and studio for mastering and sound design.
Quadrat 12“ Vinyl released on aufabwegen
2016, Collaboration with Kai Angermann and formation of the duo Angermann/Kraft (prior Elektrofrühstück) and publication of CD Algorithm on Paraschall/Düsseldorf
2018, Reissue of Konrad Kraft Arctica tape on CD and LP via TAL, Düsseldorf
2019, OVAL 12“ Vinyl released on aufabwegen
2021, OBTAAL 2X12“ Vinyl Para002, Paraschall Records. Lim ed. of 250 copies with handmade cover.
2023, Nifbin Circle 12“ Vinyl, aatp09 is published by aufabwegen
2023, Stumm, Detlef Funder und Bernd Sevens, TAL Music (forthcoming)
2011- ongoing, selected live appearance at international festivals and venues, such as A/B Brüssels - Bel., Meakusma Festival - Bel., Image Movement – Berlin, Stadtgarten Cologne, Salon Des Amateurs – Düsseldorf, Weltkunstzimmer – Düsseldorf, BlackBox - Münster and more.
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/nifbin-circle
"Nach „Oval“ erscheint auf Auf Abwegen mit „Nifbin Circle“ das neue Album von Konrad Kraft und das insgesamt vierte auf dem kleinen Kölner Label. Kraft, bürgerlich Detlef Funder, dessen Pseudonym auf Conrad Schnitzler und Kraftwerk verweist, beschreibt die Stücke als „tracks with rudimentary melodies and rhythms“, resultierend aus der Arbeit mit „two apps on the iPad, [which] provided the basic structures and the sound space“.
Tatsächlich ist schon direkt der Opener „Flabdragon Level 3“ ein verspielt klingendes Stück, das fast schon an ein Depeche Mode -Instrumental aus den frühen 80ern, so in etwa zur Zeit von „A Broken Frame“, klingt, das man vielleicht in einer alternativen Realität als B-Seite einer Single verwendet hätte. B-Seite nicht verstanden als etwas (nur) Sekundäres, sondern im Sinne von weniger kommerziell, aber eventuell spannender als die A-Seite. Es gibt ein tolles Zusammenspiel von perkussiven Momenten und leicht melancholischen Melodien. Das darauf folgende Titelstück mit bassartigen Sounds scheint aus vielen Schichten und Ebenen zu bestehen. „Fanznel Re“ ist mit Knistern und melodischen Flächen etwas reduzierter und erzeugt eine leicht dunkel-melancholische Atmosphäre. „Imrobial Connected“ besticht durch pulsierende flächige Sounds und pochende Rhythmik „Ilsimits II“ lässt kurzzeitig an Coils „Paranoid Inlay“ denken. Auf acht Stücken kreiert Kraft eine ganz eigene wie eigenwillige Form von abstraktem Elektropop, dessen oben zitierte „rudimentären Melodien“, an denen er sich laut Selbstauskunft erstmalig seit 30 Jahren versuchte, überzeugen." (MG)
"There is a great interplay of percussive moments and slightly melancholic melodies... crackling and melodic pads create a slightly dark-melancholic atmosphere... Kraft creates a very unique and idiosyncratic form of abstract electro-pop, whose "rudimentary melodies" are convincing." (African Paper). |
2023 |
€23.00 |
|
| KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE |
1 (live Bremen 17.12.1999) |
CD |
Live-Aufnahme aus Bremen, vom 17.12.1999 !!
Great spherical drones played in collaboration by these two german masters of mysterious sounds! “ The first in a series of Live CD recordings by KONTAKT DER JUENGLINGE – a collaborational project by Asmus Tietchens & Thomas Koener. This one features their very first performance which took place on the 17. December 1999 in the Lagerhaus/Bremen. An approx. 46 min. long track that reveals something new with each listen. Edition of 500 copies with b/w bookprinted paper covers.” [label press release].
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de |
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Frühruin |
mCD & Box |
“A box to hold all four parts of the series 1,0,-1,n plus a mini CD for the first time featuring studio material by Köner and Tietchens. Limited edition of 500 copies of which only 400 copies are available for wholesale. The first 100 copies include a numbered insert only available through mail order. Playing time: 15:13 min.” [label description] |
2004 |
€18.00 |
|
|
n (live Amsterdam 18.05.2002) |
CD |
Unsere Lieblingsjünglinge bisher: n ist ein dumpf pulsierendes, von zäh-amorphen Klangmassen zusammengehaltes Machwerk..
Our favourite Juenglinge-release so far, n is a dull pulsating work being hold together by tenacious & amorphous sound-masses..
“ Fourth part in the ongoing series of live collaborations by THOMAS KÖNER & ASMUS TIETCHENS. This marks the end of the first phase in their mutual work feat. the familiar 'classic' cover style. The music was recorded on the 28. May 2002 at the 'Stedelijk Museum' in Amsterdam and shows the two treading on quiter grounds this time. Edition of 1000 copies Playing time: 43.38 min.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
- 1 |
CD |
Nr. 3 der Reihe (inzwischen bei MINUS 1 angelangt) wurde aufgenommen im Lagerhaus zu Bremen am 28.April 2001.
“Part three of the ongoing 'live only' collaborations between Thomas Köner & Asmus Tietchens, this is not to be confused with their CD '1' (DS34) which was also recorded at the 'Lagerhaus' in Bremen back in 1999. They played their second concert here on the 28. April 2001 and again it shows their mutual talent of building a sound landscape of striking depths that if the listener is willing will draw him in further and further with every new listen. The CD comes in a bookprinted cover in an edition of 1000 copies” [press release]. “Claustrophic music, but one that surely fascinating to hear. Comparing Tietchens' music to submarines has been done before (or rather, to his alter ego, which wasn't his alter ego, Werkbund), but this surely comes close.” [Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| KORBER, THOMAS / RALF WEHOWSKY |
Walküren am Dornenbaum |
CD |
"This three year-long collaboration begun in 2006 when Korber and Wehowsky embarked on intense recording sessions in Eggenstein, where the latter resides, lasting several days. The output from these sessions forms the basis of this work, augmented by additional field recordings and various electronic manipulations. Korber and Wehowsky used the same software which allowed them to exchange the pieces at any stage of the compositional process, so that every detail of the music could be shaped in a truly collaborative manner. The result obliterates the borders between improvisation and composition, spontaneity and careful planning. Tomas Korber (Zurich, 1979) received a basic training in clarinet and music theory alongside guitar lessons. He discontinued these studies after five years, shortly thereafter teaching himself to play electric guitar and use the computer and other electronic devices for music making. Korber has written compositions and played improvised music since the early 1990s. He is a prolific solo artist and performer; his work includes film scores and music for dance and theatre, as well as numerous collaborations. In 2009 he was awarded an artist residency in New York City by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Zurich. Ralf Wehowsky founded the group P.D. (later renamed P16.D4) in 1981 and the label Wahrnehmungen in 1980, which was renamed Selektion in 1982. P16.D4 was a highly influential and experimental group. Their concept of materialaustausch (material exchange) was developed long before the term Ôremix' was coined. They performed at punk and No Wave festivals as well as at the bastions of academic avant garde such as Ferientage Neuer Musik in Darmstadt. In the early 1990s Wehowsky adopted his RLW moniker. His quiet, highly complex style of composition is based on artifacts of instrumental and electronic lateral noises. First edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.entracte.co.uk
"Nur mit einigen Schwierigkeiten konnte ich diese laminierte Musik aus ihrer Verschweißung pulen. Aber wer würde bei dem Titel erwarten, dass einem da etwas leicht gemacht werden soll? Der Zürcher Bruitist ist durch Releases auf Cut und For4Ears, mit Mersault und dem Signal Quintet, ein seit 2003 wiederkehrender Name in der Noise Culture. Aka RLW reitet bereits seit 1980 ohne Furcht und Tadel auf den steinigen, dornigen Pfaden der Musique concrète und der experimentellen Klanggestaltung. Wobei ich immer schon lieber Spiel als Experiment dazu gesagt habe. Was die beiden da miteinander spielen, zielt, durch die Anweisung PLAY LOUD! forciert, auf das Hör-, nicht auf das Sprachzentrum. Wie es also in Worte fassen? Vinylglissandos und entsprechend verzerrte Samples, manchmal wie von gurgelnden Stimmen, mischen sich mit sirrendem Bohren, rau holpernden, rauschenden Verschleifungen, granularer Körnigkeit, zittrigem Mikrobeben, zischendem Brausen, streuenden Pixeln, aufwallendem und verhallendem Gedröhn zu durchwegs plastischen Eindrücken. ‚Leben in roter Landschaft‘ könnte auch ein Informel- Gemälde heißen, von Schumacher oder Tàpies. Die Ohren tasten über wulstige, körnige, löchrige Oberflächen, voller Grus und mit splittrigen, strohigen Einschlüssen. Als wären das Braillezeilen für brobdignagsche Fingerkuppen, oder eben Vinylauslaufrillen im Riesenformat. ‚Abstieg der Geisterseher‘ fiept zage, plinkt und flattert dazu drahtig. Tropfen hageln und prasseln, aus Liliputperspektive wird diese Perkussion zum katastrophalen Steinschlag. Zuletzt prasselt und knurscht noch einmal eine rote Landschaft, mit Effekten, als würde ein Tonband rückwärts gespult. Das ist nicht der Stoff, aus dem die Träume sind, sondern Reibungsflächen und Strahlungsimpulse des Materiellen." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOTKAVUORI, TAPIO |
Terra Hyperborea |
CD |
Wer sich für Archetypen, C.G. JUNG, rituell-archaische Musik, nord-europäische Mythologie & Runenmagie interessiert, sollte hier zugreifen! Der Finne TAPIO KOTKAVUORI hat zu magischen Praktiken rituelle Obertöngesänge & Didgeridoo aufgenommen, begleitet von anderen schamanistischen Instrumenten oder Objekten, und das ganze sparsam elektronisch effektiert. Kommt mit erklärendem Begleittext & Fotos & Videotrack.
“Tapio Kotkavuori is a Magister of the Temple of Set and he has an essential role in the practises and information sharing of northern magical context. He is also the author of two books on the subject of Left Hand Path. Terra Hyperborea contains a selection of Kotkavuori's sound-magical Workings recorded in 2001CE. At the time, recordings were made under the project name Vaskikäärme. These recordings have now been remastered and are publicly available in CD-format for the first time. The album contains also a high-resolution version of the Underground Tunnels-video. Musically artist himself describes Terra Hyperborea as "post-apocalyptic dark-ethno-ambient". Its semi-organic, semi-electric soundspheres are trance inducing, almost hypnotic, varying from soft mood adjustments to more focused incantations and chants. Kotkavuori's main weapon of choice in this battle against silence is didgeridoo, but tons of other instruments - such as vocals, rainstick, shaman drum, coffee maker, synthesizer, kitchen knives etc. - have been utilized as well. All in all, these recordings create a shamanistic ambiance with a dark twist characteristic to the Left Hand Path. They provide an inspiring background for mundane as well as Other Kind of activities. To some, this record offers an unique peek to the world of Black Magic. To others, it offers a lot more.” [label info]
label website: www.geminastella.net
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOUHEI MATSUNAGA |
For Gemini and back to Heian |
mCD-box |
Nice box on new label from Frankfurt am Main / Germany. Two pieces with nearly 21 minutes playtime of loops & samples arranged in an effectful way with much tension and strange sounds & ingredients... |
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| KOUW, MATTHIJS |
The Great Image has no Form |
CD |
“The structure being so large, in order for an impression leading towards a possible overview, the participant, of necessity must encounter the limits of what they are able to hold in front of themselves. In doing so, a sort of ’stretching’ must take place, and with it, a kind of ‘friction’, which provides the energy necessary for Work, on a small scale.” - Andrew McKenzie
On this album, Matthijs Kouw presents pensive and melancholic drone-driven music driven by his long-time interest in Daoism and inspired by his visit to the Wudang mountains in China in 2007, where he studied Chinese meditation and martial arts.
Much like the Chinese landscape painting that provides the artwork for this release, the drones on The Great Image Has No Form slowly coalesce, evolve, and morph into metastable structures that linger on, only to slowly evaporate and dissolve into the undifferentiated.
Daoism teaches us that the foundational cannot be named and identified, but rather has to be experienced firsthand. This album is an invitation to the listener to dwell in this space of the unnamable and the mysterious, and to embrace it wholeheartedly.
https://escrec.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-image-has-no-form
--
Review by Peter van Cooten in Ambientblog:
Esc.rec. is a Dutch boutique label and platform for ‘adventurous music’. Its output is diverse, often with a strong relation to art projects, and – indeed – the best way to describe it is ‘adventurous’. Though some of their releases could be defined as ambient music, most are more ‘adventurous’ (duh) than that – ‘experimental’ is a better description. Which is why you’ll only find a small fragment of their output mentioned here. Which obviously does nót mean the other releases are not worth checking out too!
Matthijs Kouw‘s The Great Image Has No Form may very well be their most minimal ambient release to date. Kouw is a Dutch experimental musician ‘exploring the relationship between movement and stasis – combining long-form drone with elements from acousmatic music, noise and microsound’. He does so on his solo work (often as MVK), but he also explores extreme minimalist drones in collaboration with Radboud Mens.
The Great Image Has No Form was inspired by Kouw‘s visit to the Wudang Mountains in China in 2007, where he studied Chinese meditation and martial arts as a result of his long-time interest in Daoism. “Daoism teaches us that the foundational cannot be named and identified, but rather has to be experienced firsthand”. This is perfectly captured by the five pieces on this album, ranging between 5 and 17 minutes, dwelling in the unnamed space of complex drones – the kind of sounds for which you need a certain detached state of mind to fully appreciate them.
It is ‘minimalist’ music, but these are nót minimalist drones: there’s a lot happening in the deceptively static sound field which is constantly moving and shifting. “The drones slowly coalesce, evolve, and morph into metastable structures that linger on, only to slowly evaporate and dissolve into the undifferentiated.”
The album comes in a stunningly beautiful foldout sleeve with artwork by Xia Gui, a Chinese landscape painter of the Song Dynasty who lived from 1195-1224. The beauty of this image is somewhat contradictory to the album title… The Tao that can be named is not the real Tao. Interesting enough to reflect upon while listening to Matthijs Kouw‘s sonification of the principles of Daoism.
https://clinamen.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-image-has-no-form |
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| KOUW, MATTHIJS & GAGI PETROVIC |
Recalcitrance |
do-CD |
After their track on the Moving Music compilation, 'Recalcitrance' is the second collaboration and first full-length release by Matthijs Kouw & Gagi Petrovic. This album will be released as Double CD and digital on April 16th, 2021.
"Philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers has studied the operations of states and their mobilization of technical practices to serve a presupposed general interest, which involves the production of rules and norms. Such rules and norms are blind to forms of knowledge that are denigrated as ‘local’ and ‘traditional’, and feature the correlative elimination of what does not conform and cannot be standardized – in other words, what is recalcitrant to objective evaluation. Anything that resists subsumption to technical rationality is seen as a threat to public order (Isabelle Stengers, In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism, pp.73-4).
The eight tracks on ‘Recalcitrance’ examine abstract topics that range from metaphysical speculation and psychological investigation to reflections on the process of creation itself. Taking a shared set of source sounds as their starting point, Matthijs Kouw and Gagi Petrovic invite listeners to trace the common sources of their pieces and to become recalcitrant themselves by experiencing the compositions in ways that defy what Stengers describes as technical rationality. Recalcitrant subjects ask new questions, thereby allowing the currently dominant reductionist mindset obsessed with productivity to be unsettled by space for reflection and quiet contemplation.
The album comes in beautiful artwork by Zeno van den Broek and Rutger Zuydervelt and is mastered by Jos Smolders.
https://gagi-petrovic.bandcamp.com/album/recalcitrance?label=13328016&tab=music
|
2021 |
€15.50 |
|
| KOVAC, BORIS / NEW RITUAL GROUP |
The Path |
CD |
"What’s remarkable about Boris is that he has carved out a musical form that transcends genre or even musical content; it’s a music of depth and feeling; and that’s what you hear beyond the notes or style. And he has gathered, over time, musicians who can realize that quality. This, for Boris, is a small group, only five people, so they can be looser, more personal than the larger ensembles. Though informed by chamber music, Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian folk music, and jazz, you can’t file this record in any of those categories. Lyrical and ostensibly simple, these exquisitely coloured and beautifully recorded compositions float, occasionally changing density, but always solid enough to be clear about what they are. The drums are especially subtle in this regard, more touch than motor, but they make themselves expressive, even forceful, when they need to. For the rest, the music moves as a sinuous wave, the parts distinct but not separated. It’s autumnal, that I could say." [label notes]
"Mit „The Path“ veröffentlicht der Jugoslawische Komponist und Multiinstrumentalist BORIS KOVAC ein Album, das eine gefühlvolle Verschmelzung von Chamber Music, osteuropäischem Folk und Jazz bietet. Die CD erscheint als Digipack via RECOMMENDED.
Mehr als 20 Alben hat der 1955 in der damals unabhängigen Region Vojvodina am Rande von Jugoslawien geborene BORIS KOVAC bislang veröffentlicht. Und obwohl seine Wurzeln in traditioneller Musik, Improvisation und Jazz verhaftet sind, verschrieb er sich doch auch der musikalischen Arbeit für Filme und Theaterstücke, für die er bereits mehrfach ausgezeichnet wurde. Mit seinen World- und Jazz-Ensembles RITUAL NOVA, LADAABA ORCHEST und dem LA CAMPANELLA ORCHESTRA spielte er mehr als 500 Konzerte in 30 verschiedenen Ländern. In den vier Instrumentalisten seiner NEW RITUAL GROUP fand er nun die idealen Partner um den acht Kompositionen seines neuen Albums „The Path“ auf knapp 50 Minuten zu einer nachdenklichen, zerbrechlich anmutenden Grundstimmung zu verhelfen. Hauptsächlich mit Kontrabass, Piano, Saxophon und Percussions instrumentiert, scheinen die vordergründig einfach gehaltenen Kompositionen durch den Raum zu schweben,
mal düster, mal gefühlvoll verspielt, aber immer kristallklar. Durch ruhige Klänge - so schreibt KOVAC im Booklet - will er dem Hörer ein Ausbrechen aus dem turbulenten Alltag erleichtern und der Natur und deren Ruhe ein Stückchen näher bringen. Ein wunderbarer Gedanke, der mit „The Path“ ideal umgesetzt wird."
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOWALSKY, GREGG |
Tape Chants |
CD |
"From GREGG KOWALSKY: “After my first album for Kranky, I was eager to adapt a new method of composing and performing as a way to distance myself from the digital realm. I felt limited by the unlimited possibilities of digital production, and I had spent the previous 5 years composing with the computer as my main instrument. In an effort to push myself I spent two years experimenting with tape loops, cassette players and recorders, analog synths, sine oscillators, mixer feedback, contact mics and various acoustic sound sources. Through these experiments I developed a series entitled Tape Chants, which is made up of performances and compositions using tapes as the main source material, as well as the mono speakers of various cassette players for the piece’s amplification. All of the cassettes are tuned to each other using the pitch control and halfspeed playback devices located on the Sony TCM 200DV cassette recorder. All of the compositions are constructed with tuned sinewaves as the starting point and the pieces are built using sources such as shruti box, percussion, gongs, etc. During the construction of the studio version of Tape Chants, I was interested in adding rhythmic textures to the once static drone compositions. The recorded version of Tape Chants does not try to replicate the surround sound component of the live performances, but there is a variety of different acoustic spaces located in the source material. Many of the same cassettes that were used in the several editions of the series were used to record this album." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
| KPT. MICHIGAN & SON |
same |
MC |
"Kpt. Michigan und sein 9jähriger Sohn Sergej waren auf Reisen in Frankreich, Dänemark und Deutschland. Die dabei gesammelten Field Recordings flossen schliesslich in die 8 Kompositionen des vorliegenden Tapes - field recordings of cicadas and underprivileged children, pianos played with 4 hands, sleep deprivation (Sergej), box'o'clock... mixed with a boat of sheer joy and happiness..." [label info]
http://someoneelsestapes.blogspot.com
|
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
| KRAKEN |
Chagrin |
CD |
Das belgische Duo mit dem vierten Album! Aggressiver und noisig-unterkühlter als die Vorgängeralben besticht "Chagrin" durch bedrohliche Stimmeinspielungen und einer unheimlichen 'Präsenz des Fremdartigen', die sich auch in den vielen nervenzerrenden Soundeffekten wiederspiegelt. Zum Ende hin gewinnt das Album an ritueller und dunkel-melancholischer Prägnanz...
"Just like on Amore all titles on their fourth CD Chagrin are in Dutch. Strange titles which present an insight in the (obviously) very sick mind of the Kraken. Floating dogs, Fear of meat and Your sister and the wrong leg are just a few examples of the mindsetting of this album.
Soundwise Chagrin can best be described as isolationist music, but with the remark that Kraken is a duo. You would expect true isolationism to be written by a single performer and because of this, the CD has so much more to offer. Deep droning sound layers, inaudible or at best incomprehensible lyrics, noisey ambience, field- recordings of an unknown origin and even a few rhythms. The Kraken might well be the Belgian Cthulu in disguise. Who knows ? After all, there are tentacles involved ..." [label info]
|
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
|
Drift |
CD |
"Trilogies always come in three parts, that is why they're called trilogies. And just like the latest two Kraken releases, the new album 'Drift' also comes in a minimal designed black and white cardboard cover. Which brings us to the conclusion that together with 'Amore' and 'Chagrin', the Kraken trilogy on Spectre has been completed.
Amongst the multiple meanings of the Dutch 'Drift' there is 'Temper' and 'Impulse' which are the emotional layers on this CD, but it also reflects to a ship being uncontrolable. As all tracks are related to oceans and oceanlife (amongst them are 'Fighting with cachalot', 'Whalebones are not umbrella's' and 'Sushi is murder') we can see what upsets Kraken . And the music fits their anger perfectly; A layering of dark ambience and deep opressive drones, spoken word in various languages and a pinch of noise.
Three emotions were Kraken's guideline while writing the trilogy and 'Drift' definitly is the most inhospitable and threatning of them. This third journey through the deepest caverns of their minds revealed a truth, more gross and repulsive than anyone can imagine. It's a small black hole which swallows everything, including hope. Let us find it and burn it ..."
[label notes]
Spectre label website: www.spectre.be
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Untitled |
CD |
"kraken is back and pulls us down into the abyss - a dark, cold and desolate place that is filled with the droning of oscillators. authentic field recordings mingle with evolving rhythms, and the underlying tension created by the poignant confessions of human beings adds to the unique flavor of kraken: equally fascinating, enchanting and disturbing, the sounds cut right through our souls. for fifty minutes, kraken keeps us in its tight grip and we all cannot resist but realize our own fugacity. fifteen years past the first kraken release, its epitaph is more actual than ever before: when gazing into the abyss for too long, one tardy realizes that he is part of it. from within the vast depths, raubbau brings to you the latest album, unnamed." [label info]
www.raubbau.org
"Lange Jahre haben wir die beiden Belgier auf NONPOP begleitet. Insbesondere ab Mitte der so genannten Nullerjahre waren JORIS VERMOST und RICARDO GOMEZ Y DE BUCK sehr aktiv, brachten regelmäßig ihre klaustrophobischen Tiefsee-Soundtracks zwischen Dark Ambient, Noise und Collage unter die Leute. (Ein Interview zur Arbeit von KRAKEN findet Ihr hier.) Mit "Strop" auf RAUBBAU (Besprechung) schien sich dann zu bewahrheiten, was KRAKEN aus Spaß bis dahin zu jedem Album sagten: Es sei ihr finales. Vier Jahre Funkstille ohne jedwede Ankündigung neuer Aktivitäten. Umso erfreuter war ich über die Nachricht von RAUBBAU, dass nun tatsächlich ein weiteres Album erscheint, passend zur Zurückhaltung einfach ohne Titel – "Untitled". "A dark, cold and desolate place" verspricht das Label, "equally fascinating, enchanting and disturbing" – diese Beschreibung deckt sich mit meiner bisherigen Wahrnehmung von KRAKEN. Und auch die gleichzeitig ästhetischen, aber sehr trostlosen Alltagsfotos, mit denen das Duo seit jeher seine Alben schmückt, deuten auf Kontinuität hin. Tatsächlich hat auch das aktuelle Werk eine hohe Wiedererkennbarkeit und liefert mit dem ersten Track einen der besten der Bandgeschichte.
"Untitled 1" beginnt überraschend mit einem deutschen Text: Eine furchtsame und angewiderte, rezitierende Frauenstimme (mit Akzent) berichtet von einem "schwarzen Loch, das alles verschlingt". Sie flüstert von Verfall, Drogen, Tot und Unrat – also vom ganz normalen Leben. Harsche, knirschende, aber nicht unschöne Sounds fügen sich darunter zu einem Ambientteppich, der wiederum abrupt von Billigbeats, von Surren und Knattern unterbrochen wird. Es folgt eine melodiösere Strecke mit Gitarrentönen, die weiterhin den Gegensatz des gesamten Albums aufrecht hält: schön vs. hässlich, Freundlichkeit vs. Verderben. Das Flüstern und allerlei mystische Geräusche spielen eine Rolle, manchmal erinnert das Stück gar an geknurrten Urfolk, um am Ende wieder von flächiger Trostlosigkeit eingeholt zu werden. "Untitled 2" wirkt als Collage aus diversen, organischen Sounds. Zwischen Field Redordings und Vocals schiebt sich ein Drone und bringt einige rituell anmutende Komponenten wie Stammesgeheul oder Kampfesrufe mit. "Untitled 3" besteht im Wesentlichen aus dem rhythmischen Peitschen von Frequenzen, ebenfalls mit entfernt unterlegten, menschlichen Geräuschen. Hypnotischer Dauerbeschuss wie intensives Hubschrauberdröhnen. In "Untitled 4" spielt erneut eine Frauenstimme – spanisch? – die tragende Rolle, spricht verzweifelt zu höhligen Sounds. Das Stück geht dann über in ambienthafte Drones und verströmt die das Album durchziehende, unheimliche Atmosphäre. "Untitled 5" schließt sich nahtlos an, als düstere Soundhöhle mit weiteren Vocals, hier kommt sehr deutlich das typische KRAKEN-Flair zum Tragen, der Bezug zur See mit Geräuschen wie knarzenden Schiffsbalken. "Untitled 6" schließlich ist überwiegend ein noisiges, ansteigendes Kreischen, das Abheben eines Düsenjets oder platzende Lungen bei Sauerstoffmangel im Wasser. Am Ende läuten die Totenglocken, mit denen die rund 55 Minuten auch begonnen haben.
Belgien steht ja bei der Fußball-WM hoch im Kurs. Musikalisch fällt mir in der Regel wenig zu diesem Land ein. KRAKEN allerdings sind ein Aushängeschild, und ich bin froh, dass sie sich wieder zeigen. Diese Mischung aus Trostlosigkeit und Eleganz, die Reduzierung auf menschliche Ängste und Triebe in Kombination mit der sich manchmal einschleichenden Unterwassersymbolik – das ist einmalig. 'Human Dark Ambient', vor allem im ersten Stück auf ganz hohem Niveau." [Michael We. / NON-POP]
|
2014 |
€6.00 |
|
| KRAUSBAUER, JOHN & R KEENAN LAWLER |
Spectre of Radiants |
CD |
R Keenan Lawler & John Krausbauer's “Spectre of radiants” is a droning, everlasting buzz of strings, gently undulating and intersecting.
Unconventionally played, as usual, the resonator guitars and the banjos, builds the perfect stream of sound to accompany your longest days.
Fitting in the ultraminimalist/drone panorama, this acoustic gem follow the lineage draw by authours like Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad or Elaine Radigue, mixing and confonting it with the direct attitude toward sound of people like Jim O'Rourke to finally build another chapter in the investigation on acoustic and physics that underline the very musical spirit of the authors.
R Keenan Lawler is a Louisville, Kentucky based multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer, and sound artist. Influenced and obsessed by post-punk, jazz, free improvisation, ancient and modern classical music, blues, nature, non-western music and a philosophy of "transcendence through sound." He is best known for developing a highly focused idiosyncratic language on the metal-bodied resonator guitar, extending its timbral and harmonic range far outside the usual role in bluegrass and blues.
Lawler has performed solo in the US and Europe, and has worked with a wide range of diverse artists including Matmos, Pelt, Rhys Chatham, My Morning Jacket, John Butcher, Susan Alcorn, Tatsuya Nakatani , Helena Espvall, Lukas Ligeti, Ignaz Schick, Phillip Samartzis, Jack Wright, Tim Barnes and John Krausbauer. His sound art has been presented in Moma/PS1, Brooklyn, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and in collaboration with artists Thaniel Ion Lee, Sandra Gibson, Valerie Sutherland Fuchs, and Russell Hulsey. He has shared stages with artists as diverse as John Fahey, Widespread Panic, Sudden Infant, Jim Carroll, and Vieux Farka Toure. He is presently performing solo, with various collaborators, and as a member of music collectives WET, Limited Hangout and Seismic Corruption Band.
John Krausbauer is a composer/multi-instrumentalist/improviser based in Oakland, CA and co-founder of the Los Angeles publishing label, Besom Presse.
A long time purveyor of the ur-drone and trance-psychedelia, his work involves audio transmissions for TOTAL/immersive sensory experience. Transcendence through repetition,
duration, alternate tunings, maximum volumes, and stroboscopic lighting.
He's performed and presented his music across N America, Europe, and Japan in a multitude of settings - from basements, sidewalks, and rock clubs to colleges, churches, and art museums. Over 20 recordings of his have been released on independent labels in the US, Europe, and Japan.
His group and solo music can be found on Important, Beta-Lactam Ring, ANTS, Fabrica, Debacle, Autumn, Thin Wrist (upcoming), and a number of other international labels.
His current music projects include the Ecstatic Music Band (a 10+ member-collective of strings players); solo music forvoice, violin, and synth; his collaboration with partner, Kaori Suzuki, with bells, voices, strings, tape; the Minimalist psych-punk group Night Collectors; his systems-based phase compositions; and ongoing duo collaborations with Kentuckian steel bodied resonator guitar player R. Keenan Lawler, NYC bagpipe player David Watson, and Tokyo based guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama.
R Keenan Lawler: National Steel resonator guitars
John Krausbauer: banjos
https://ants4.bandcamp.com/album/spectre-of-radiants
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| KRCFHL |
same |
do-CD |
The KRCFHL recording was made on September 28, 2005 by three well-known Russian sound experimentalists M.M. (Kryptogen Rundfunk), Evgeniy Voronovskiy (Cisfinitum) and Nikolay Kalmykov (Hladna). The musicians gathered in Evgeniy’s home studio in Moscow, spontaneously played and recorded this psychedelic set. The recording remained unknown to the public for 16 years, but worked as a fail-safe therapy for the kultFRONT label during all these years.
KRCFHL is a smooth immersion in the pulsating world of analogue synthesizers, embellished with the sounds of violin that does not sound like itself. Prior to this recording, the musicians performed several times on the same stages, either at post-industrial music festivals (a joint photo in the album’s artwork was taken on the Thalamus II fest, which happened in Pskov in May 2005), or in collaboration sets. After this recording, they didn’t practice any joint immersions, but the musicians worked on releasing other recordings.
In 2021 the recording became a double album thanks to four tracks from KRCFHL colleagues from the next generation of Russian sound experimentalists. Friends reimagined the recording from 2005, each in their own recognizable way. The first track was made by the project NOTUM, which was born in St. Petersburg, but is now developing in Berlin. The second remix was recorded by Xenia Lotus (Drone Liberation Front, a collaboration project with Tim Six) under the guise of her solo project BEZVLASTJE. The third rework was done by “the noise queen” Sveta Svetlo, aka SVETLO111. And the second disc (or side B on the cassette) is wrapped up by Ilya SYMPHOCAT.
The album artwork features photographs of an old wall in the vicinity of the Smolniy Convent in St. Petersburg. The place with the KRCFHL inscriptions has already become a point of attraction for pilgrims.
The album is released on 50 compact cassettes with a total length of 85 minutes. Additionally, the album is available on 200 double CDs.
KRCFHL is clear proof of how music and its magic only becomes more interesting over the years.
credits
released December 29, 2021
KRCFHL (parts I & II) recorded live by M.M. (KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK), Evgeniy Voronovskiy (CISFINITUM), Nikolay Kalmykov (HLADNA) on September 28th, 2005 at Evgeniy’s home studio, Moscow
~ kryptogen.bandcamp.com
~ cisfinitum.bandcamp.com
~ hladna.bandcamp.com
KRCFHL (NOTUM remix) recorded by Ikk Ygg in October 2021, Berlin
~ notumschaltung.com
KRCFHL (BEZVLASTJE remix) recorded by Xenia Lotus on November 25, 2021, St. Petersburg
~ soundcloud.com/bezvlastje
KRCFHL (SVETLO111 remix) recorded by Sveta Svetlo in October 2021, St. Petersburg
~ soundcloud.com/svetlo111
KRCFHL (SYMPHOCAT remix) recorded by Ilia Symphocat in October-November 2021, St. Petersburg
~ symphocat.com
Mastered by M.M. & ArSch
Photos by kultFRONT, Luiza Arroz, @cht00000, Vera Bezrukova
Design by kultFRONT
Co-released with ZHELEZOBETON Distribution Division: zhbd.bandcamp.com
https://kultfront.bandcamp.com/album/krcfhl
|
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| KREJCI, DAVID |
The Cleophone |
CD |
DAVID KREJCI ist ein US-amerikanischer Sound-Artist, der ein "Drone-Instrument" namens "The Cleophone" gebaut hat. Es besteht aus 12 Piano-Saiten die über einen Holzkorpus gespannt werden, wobei jede Saiten mit eigenem Pickup reguliert werden kann. Das Cleophone lässt sich mit verschiedenen Utensilien bespielen, es können auch rhythmische Muster entstehen. Hier verewigt wurde eine 33minütige ,virtuos-improvisatorische Session ohne spätere overdubs oder Effekte ; der Klang ist dronig und dynamisch, reich an Obertönen & Vibrato, leicht verzerrt & stereo-phasig aufgeteilt. For Drone / Minimal-Fans!
"Dave Krejci's earliest memory of music is that of trailing his mother while she vacuumed. Krejci would hum along with the vacuum's drone sliding in and out of pitch to create vibrations in his chest. This attraction to the visceral and hypnotic characteristics of sound has fed Krejci's fire for more than 25 years. His adulthood obsession with organs, Leslies, the Cleophone and pianos is nothing more than an adult extension of his vacuum-chasing days. Krejci grew out of Austin, Minnesota, a small hog-slaughtering town curiously full of musicians. "Classically trained" on the piano, Krejci spent the majority of his musical time writing his own compositions and playing piano in bands. In 1987, Krejci escaped the miserable town and fled to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota. In the late 1980s and early 90s, Krejci played Hammond organ for TwinTone/Prospective recording artist GREEN MACHINE, a psychedelic trio that produced several full-length CDs and 45RPMs. In the Spring of 2005, built the CLEOPHONE, an electronic stringed instrument built out of heavy piano strings, Rhodes electromagnetic pick-ups and a microphonic copper stand. The instrument is played through two Leslie Speakers and manipulated with piano hammers, bows, sticks, bones, brushes and ball-bearings." [label description]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| KREJCI, MARTIN / SEBASTIAN GIUSSANI / KEIKO UENISHI |
Counting Sheep won't cause you to encounter a Dream of a stray Dog (or will it?) |
CD-R |
"Don’t be fooled by the Zen-Dadaist title: what these three laptop artists from Munich, Augsburg, and Vienna/New York serve up is neither nihilist noise nor tongue-in-cheek collage, but a dense, yet transparent trip from monochrome lowercase static through lusciously harmonic territory into near-cosmic seas of drone.
Both sound and visual artists, Krejci and Giussani, both based in the South of Germany, have been collaborating on many occasions over the last decade or so. This has included full-on digital noise mayhem as well as conceptual performance art pieces, but this 30-minute trio with Keiko Uenishi, a sound artist from New York currently based in Vienna, is something else again. Recorded live in June 2011, the set has a thoroughly composed feel, both in the sense of “structured” and “calm and reassured”, yet full of excitement. Extraordinarily beautiful digital music – experimental laptop drones with soul.
File under: Drone, ambient" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| KRENG |
The Summoner |
LP |
LP : Laser-Cut Outer Sleeve in Fulltone Bronze & Black, incl. full Color Insert
"The Summoner comes 4 years since the last Kreng album Grimoire and 3 years since the massive retrospective box set Works for Abattoir Férme 2007-2011. A lot has happened in between, and this new recording can be seen as quite the departure from the aformentioned.
His most personal album to date, The Summoner is based around the 5 stages of mourning and is made after a year of losing several close friends. Hard enough material to work on, he decided to add a 6th stage, entitled The Summoning to be able to arrive at the finalé, Acceptance.
Conjuring up the spirit of György Ligeti, the first half of the album is made entirely of 12 string players being directed to play around, make noisey clusters and crescendoes, moving you between Denial, Anger, Bargaining and Depression. In fact, The Summoner is the first Kreng album NOT made by hordes of samples. Music to really dig deep in to.
Following into the second part of the album, twists and turns are taken and it's hard to know where exactly you are. The Summoning's haunting organs and smoke-filled chambers lead you in to an earth- shaking wall of guitars, drums and bass courtesy of Belgian doom band Amenra. Leaving you in a state of shock, the album closes in an incredibly heartfelt and quiet way with the fittingly named Acceptance." [label info]
www.miasmah.com
"The first release from Kreng since 2011, but well worth the wait. While the sound sources on The Summoner are quite the departure from his 2011 release Grimoire, the dark and disorienting atmosphere is still here. Here Caudron conducts a dozen string players, creating a twisted and droney orchestral mass that explodes and dies without warning, bringing to mind the terrifying works of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The song titles here, too, tell Caudron's story as the five stages of grief, going from "Denial" to "Acceptance". The first four tracks are dark, twisted, orchestral soundscapes, dynamic and haunted that slowly goad you into Caudron's warped world. The climax of the album is without doubt the titular track, sandwiched between "Depression" and the somber "Acceptance". The 15-minute long track features Belgian doom band Amenra (whose album Mass V we reviewed back in 2013) providing the slow, crushing trudge (with maybe the slightest, SLIGHTEST hint of uplifting melody) to bring the whole piece to a bombastic, epic zenith. Very few out there can capture the range of emotion and atmosphere that Kreng can - terrifying, cathartic, bleak, and maybe just a little bit uplifting. For fans of Gnaw Their Tongues, The Caretaker, and anything on the Miasmah label." [Aquarius Records]
"Es sind schon viele Alben aus Trauer entstanden, und viele handeln von der Trauer um eine geliebte Person. Alben, die das Trauern als solches zum Thema haben, sind seltener. Das könnte damit zu tun haben, dass die Frage nach den Mechanismen des Trauerns sehr theoretisch anmutet, aber sie ist auch komplizierter als man vielleicht denkt, denn eine Trauer, die sich weder in die Verdrängung noch in Selbstmitleid flüchtet, erfordert Leidensfähigkeit und ist keineswegs eine passive Angelegenheit.
Für den Belgier Pepijn Caudron ist das Thema auch keine theoretische Sache, denn der Grund für seine Beschäftigung mit dem Wesen der Trauer ist ein sehr persönlicher und rührt aus dem Verlust einiger ihm nahestehender Personen. Irgendwo stieß der Musiker auf die psychologische Beobachtung, dass Trauer häufig in mehreren, sich teilweise widersprechenden Phasen bewältigt wird. Zunächst schreckt der Trauernde davor zurück, den Verlust und den damit verbundenen Schmerz anzuerkennen und klammert sich mit unterschwelliger Verzweiflung an die Zeit vor dem Verlust. Da eine solche Verleugnung nur auf Zeit funktioniert, stellt sich bald so etwas wie Wut ein, Wut auf den Verlust als solchen, vielleicht auch auf die betrauerte Person, aber auch auf sich selbst und die eigene Unfähigkeit zu verleugnen und zu verdrängen. Mit der Phase des inneren Abwägens setzt der erste Schritt in Richtung Akzeptanz ein, dem allerdings meist eine Phase der Depression vorausgeht: Erst wenn diese durchlebt ist, kann der Trauernde den Schicksalsschlag akzeptieren.
Caudron erkannte in dieser Beschreibung so viel von seinen eigenen Erfahrungen wieder, dass er den Drang verspürte, seinen eigenen Weg durch die Trauer in einem Album durchzuarbeiten. „The Summoner“, das auf diesen Erfahrungen und Überlegungen beruht und doch noch einen Schritt weitergeht, stellt in der Diskografie des Musikers schon deshalb eine besondere Wegmarke dar, weil hier erstmals mit Studiomusikern statt ausschließlich mit Samples gearbeitet wird.
Die minutenlange Stille, mit der „Denial“ beginnt, könnte glatt für all das stehen, das der Trauernde, beide Hände auf die Ohren gedrückt, nicht wahrhaben will. Doch es ist eine trügerische Stille, in der sich klammheimlich eine unerbittliche Realität zusammenbraut, die durch ihr schwelend kreisendes Dröhnen, durch seltsame Stimmen und entferntes Gerumpel so bedrohlich wie ein düsteres Wahngebilde anmutet. Caudrons Erfahrung bei der Arbeit fürs Theater kommt ihm schon hier zugute, denn die leicht überhörbaren Details schwirren derart gekonnt im Raum herum, dass man auch als Hörer dieser Wirklichkeit kaum entweichen kann. Die darauf folgende „dialektische“ Folge von wenig Licht und viel Schatten weiß ebenfalls davon zu kosten – das trockenere, direktere „Anger“ mit seinen lauten und eruptiven Streicherkaskaden, das mit viel orchestralem Geklapper vor sich hinsuchende „Bargaining“, das weitaus eindeutiger dahingleitende „Depression“ und zuletzt die genügsame Ruhe des schlichten Pianos in „Acceptance“.
Mit „The Summoning“ geht Caudron über das Theoriekonzeot hinaus und markiert den Punkt, an dem der schwärzeste in den lichtesten Abschnitt übergeht. Wie um zu zeigen, dass an der Stelle etwas neues geboren wird, scheint er hier noch einmal das ganze Album zu bündeln und über sich selbst hinauszuführen, und es ist nicht unpassend, dass er dies nicht im Alleingang vollzieht, sondern seine Landsleute von Amenra mitmischen lässt. Das schleppende Schlagwerk, die kraftvollen, kernigen Gitarrenwände und das heißere Gröhlen der bekannten Doommetaller, die im Normalfall als niederdrückend empfunden werden, wirken hier fast so erhebend wie eine Levitation." [Uwe Schneider / African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/05/09/kreng-the-summoner/
|
2015 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Cooties |
LP |
"Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by KRENG.
Death Waltz Recording Company is delighted to take you back to the schoolyard for a dose of fun with Kreng's score to COOTIES. A group of elementary teachers – including Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, and Rainn Wilson – up against an army of feral kids infected with a mystery virus, bringing new meaning to the term “playground violence." Produced by Wood's company Spectrevision, COOTIES is already shaping up to be a modern cult classic, not least through its infectious music.
Composed by the avant-garde project Kreng (aka Belgian musician Pepjin Caudron) the score for COOTIES reflects a number of influences, from Bernard Herrmann's work for strings to spaghetti westerns through a trip hop filter set to “extreme foreboding”. Kreng's approach will surprise and intrigue, compared to many scores of its ilk. While it's synth-heavy, there are key roles for haunting vocal effects and violins, mixing both aesthetically beautiful and madcap cues to create waves of emotionally and viscerally powerful tunes. COOTIES stands proud alongside – and in some cases above - the crop of contemporary horror scores. Relax, put the needle on the wax, and let this record infect your ears. You'll be voracious for more."
mondotees.com/collections/deathwaltz/products/cooties-ost
"Oh man, we wanted to see this movie from the second we first heard about it. Kids in a primary school get a wicked case of the 'cooties', which transforms them into zombie like wee beasties, and it's up to the teachers to survive, and if need be (which need very likely does be!) dispatch of the hungry, demonic hordes roaming the playground. The trailer looks ridiculous and over the top (we haven't actually seen it yet), and very much like a grade school version of another awesome horror-school classic, The Faculty. Beyond that just being such an amazing concept for a movie, there's the added bonus of the incredible score by weirdo soundsculptor / dronelord / avant grade composer (and huge aQ fave) Kreng, aka Pepijn Caudron.
Longtime readers of the aQ list are also likely fans of the Miasmah label, which Kreng generally calls home. His releases on Miasmah are moody and murky and minimal, twisted and shadowy, waste and faded and gorgeously mysterious. And while all that sounds like the perfect ingredients for a seriously sinister horror score, since this is not your typical horror movie, Caudron gets to explore WAY out of his usual sonic comfort zone, whether it's long sprawls of DJ Shadow like beat driven grooviness (in one instance, the haunting main theme is played by what sounds like a sitar!), or swirly, symphonic exotica, or hushed, somber shimmer, it's all woven together into a proper album, that is a pretty fantastic listen, even sans the film.
The DJ Shadow comparison is actually pretty apt as beats and breaks surface throughout, but it's in the execution that things get and stay weird, in fact one of the best musical moments is when a loping beat limps along beneath a cacophony of detuned brass. But it is a horror soundtrack, so Carpenterisms abound (reworked in Kreng's inimitable style), there are plenty of tense, driving synth jams, barely there haunted house ambience, darkly delicate pianoscapes, strangely dubby drifts, some deliriously atonal 20th century sounding cacophony and bursts of what sounds like some rad eighties VHS soundtrack, all dayglo distorted, blaring and bombastic.
While not nearly as dark as some of the Miasmah releases, there's an ominous underpinning to the proceedings, even at it's most playful and melodic, it's fun and freaky, and like the best soundtracks, not only is a great listen, but has us wanting to see the movie even more than we already did!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€35.00 |
|
| |
Lowlife |
LP |
Nach "Camino" veröffentlicht Kreng seinen nächsten Soundtrack auf dem britischen Label Invada. Kreng ist das Projekt des Belgiers Pepijn Caudron. Dieser erstellt Soundtracks mit der Hilfe moderner Sampling- Technologie. Seine Scores bestehen zumeist aus düstern Klanglandschaften, die an die Werke von Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Cliff Martinez („Drive“) und Mogwai erinnern. „Lowlife“ ist das Spielfilm-Debüt des Regisseurs Ryan Prows, der die Handlung in der Subkultur Los Angeles ansiedelt. Sein Thriller bringt schräge Charaktere, absurden Humor sowie harte Action zusammen und ist zugleich ein kritischer Kommentar zu dem modernen Amerika.
Lowlife is the berserk, blood-spattered, and wickedly entertaining feature debut from Ryan Prows. Set amidst the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, Lowlife zigzags back and forth in time as it charts how fate—and a ruthless crime boss—connects three down-and-out reprobates mixed up in an organ harvesting scheme that goes from bad to worse to off-the-rails insane.
The score is pressed on purple coloured vinyl and housed in a deluxe sleeve with digital download card included.
Kreng is known for his previous score to CAMINO (also released on Invada Records), and for his score to Cooties, released on Deathwaltz Media Group/Milan Records.
As well as this, Kreng is also known for his critically acclaimed L’Autopsie Phénoménale de Dieu (2009), Grimoire (2011), and the lavishly designed retrospective compilation box Works For Abattoir Fermé 2007-2011 (2012).
www.invada.co.uk/products/kreng-lowlife-original-motion-picture-soundtrack |
2018 |
€26.00 |
|
| KRIEGER, ULRICH |
Fathom |
CD |
"NEW SERIES FRAMEWORK: is an extension of our CONCRETE ELECTRONICS NOISE, a brand new mix-up of unusual conceptions of sound material by young unknown composers, well known not-so-young composers and old but clever composers. 40 minutes of music, 1 photograph and a geometric form. Limited to 700 copies.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ulrich Krieger studied classical saxophone, composition, electronic music and musicology at the Manhattan School of Music (New York), the Universität der Künste (Berlin) and the Freie Universität (Berlin). Since the late 1980s he became more and more interested in American music and its different approaches (chance music, process music, just intonation,
multi-stylistic, minimalism, drone). In 1991 he moved to New York. In the 'Cage of Saxophones' series Krieger recorded the complete saxophone
and any-instrument works of John Cage for Mode Records.The first one focuses on drone music (Cage, Tenney, Niblock), while the second focuses on pattern music (Reich, Glass, Riley)
In the early 1990s he started working on a more electronic approach. He began developing an original amplification for the saxophone and various live-electronic signal processing set-ups. In the electronic experimental field he collaborated with rock, noise and ambient artists like Karkowski, Merzbow, Koener, Toeplitz. He also worked with the Berlin ensemble "zeitkratzer" for which he transcribed
Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.
Text of Light is a 2001 founded formation with Lee Ranaldo and Alan Licht, performing along with films of experimental film maker Stan Brakhage (1933-2003).
Metal Machine Trio began in 2008 together with Lou Reed and Sarth Calhoun as an experimental free rock project." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| KRIMINAALISET METSÄNHALTIJAT |
Anarkkia, Kaaos, Maailmanloppu! |
CD |
"A scarce recording by cult industrial noise group, Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat—which barely saw the light of day when it was originally released on cassette (Triangle Records 2008). The members of this shadow group of old-school industrial acolytes originally hail from Finland and from Karelia—a region and an autonomous republic of northwest Russia, between the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea. Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat claim to have built their sound on the bones of S.P.K. and Throbbing Gristle, through a prism of Japanese harsh-noise and Finnish hardcore-punk, spewing out a nihilistic nightmare of diffused synth hiss, commanding metal percussion, waves of harsh-noise, anarcho-punk attitude, and dissident power-electronics. An exciting and satisfying introduction to this band in preparation for Bloodlust's release of the Koskemattomuus CD." [label info]
http://bloodlust.blogspot.com/
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| KRISTOFFER NYSTRÖMS ORKESTER |
brakeHEAD |
CD |
"Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester (KNO) is a collaborative project between Peter Nyström (Megaptera/Negru Voda) and Kristoffer Oustad (V:28). A true sonic beat down, done in full Scandinavian style, with a battery of iron fisted rhythms hammering down in a thunderous downpour, and the caustic reverberations of the analog doom machine grinding and screeching in a symphony of clangorous and distressed beauty. This is an album that is as majestic as it is bleak, capturing the essence of old school Swedish industrial, but forging a new path towards a dark future.From auralpressure.com: "Brakehead" is a phenomenally majestic piece of dark ambience and noise that will leave you totally awe struck. The visceral raw power of the electronics is a thing of untamed beauty that heralds in a new era by which others must now be judged against." Guts of Darkness called this THE industrial disc of the year! Check out other reviews in the reviews section. A must for fans of Megaptera, Negru Voda, and all things Peter Nystrom. In stylish digipak." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| KRISTUS KUT |
Butterfly King |
CD |
"MInd Flare Media's first official release from Kristus Kut. Butterfly King showcases Kut's most recent advancements in his sound. Branching off from his earlier, more noise-influenced work, he enters a realm of voodoo-worshipping, highly sexual, dark, ritualistic ambient. Known for his elaborate performances, this work features a story revolving around sexual development and liberation. The album features seven tracks ranging from trance-inducing soundscapes to pulsing rituals of sound." [label info]
www.mindflaremedia.com
"Kristus Kut (dutch for Christ Cunt) was founded in 2008 and is inspired by rituals like voodoo, cantomble, santeria and lukumi. The band works with bass-guitars, bamboo, broomsticks, vocals and effects to create ritualistic, dark and esoteric energy. Every performance is an event on its own, a spontaneous moment which are sexual, wild and tough. For now Kristus Kut plays together with Jabu Warrior, who plays a berimbau, a single-string percussion instrument. Butterfly King is the first release at the label Mind Flare Media situated in the USA. The CD contains seven tracks. The first track is highly erotic by the voice of a screaming woman and dark tones and abstract beats. The second and third track refers to music like Zoviet France. Minimal beats on the berimbau and other percussion instruments with delay and echo. Nice subtile trance-creating compositions. "The Transformation of Love Honey for the Queen" has also a high ritual atmosphere with a repeating chants, beats and noise. Nice track as well, especially of lovers of the early Current 93 music. The second transformation track is more abstract and a nice mix of electronics and acoustic sounds, but also in the same atmosphere as before. The last track "Vagina Libertatis" starts with a voice repeating the word Kristus Kut and goes on for 21 minutes long and music elements are added with dark soundlayers, noise and beats on the berimbau. Twenty minutes stands for the period of Zen-meditation, but the words Kristus Kut are just words and not like a chant to get into a trance. Too bad, cause the rest of the album has this potential." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| KRYNGE |
Singe Binge |
CD-R |
"KRYNGE, the multi-collaborative international supergroup, was the brainchild of Zan Hoffman in 1987-88 and features recordings of his home taping friends reimagined. Acknowledging the debt the contemporary experimental music scene owes to the pioneering work of the tape-trading and mail art scenes, Attenuation Circuit celebrates the 25th anniversary of Krynge by re-releasing the original cassettes on CD in bi-monthly instalments. The Krynge series comes in a dedicated new design while also containing reproductions of the original cassette cover art.
Singe Binge is broken up into a few pieces alternating multiple voices (John Hudak [New Jersey], his girlfriend, Minóy [California], his mother, her friend and more). The other parts of the tape are RoLMo [Tennessee], loops and guitars and mush. Being the first tape in the series this is the kindest KRYNGE release, but it still is a hilarious example of the pleasures that can be found in the type of music/found footage collage perhaps most commonly associated with Negativland’s early work. Blending reverberating guitar sounds with wonderfully vintage 80s-style drum machine beats, TV sounds, over-the-top vocal renditions and the rest of the family talking, this recording is not only “home-taped” in the sense that it was not produced in a studio, but also in the sense that it paints a tongue-in-cheek, somewhat surreal picture of the way suburban boredom can provoke creative research." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Hiss & Hearse |
CD-R |
"KRYNGE, the multi-collaborative international supergroup, was the brainchild of Zan Hoffman in 1987-88 and features recordings of his home taping friends reimagined. Acknowledging the debt the contemporary experimental music scene owes to the pioneering work of the tape-trading and mail art scenes, Attenuation Circuit celebrates the 25th anniversary of Krynge by re-releasing the original cassettes on CD in bi-monthly instalments. The Krynge series comes in a dedicated new design while also containing reproductions of the original cassette cover art.
“Hiss & Hearse” – the rerelease corrects the spelling mistake of the original cover art, which read “Hiss & Herse” and sort of screwed up an otherwise great pun – lasts some 25 minutes and was probably intended for one side of 60-minute cassette. In what appears to be one solid block of noise and hiss, punctuated by occasional remnants of signals, musical or otherwise, the entire recording seems to celebrate the noisy medium of the cassette as a means of expression. This is not noise as in noise music as a genre, it’s more about noise as a symbol for a time when the cassette, for all its limitations, was still a precious means of communicating your musical ideas to others. This historical dimension is emphasised by the fact that one of the contributors to this tape, beside Swinebolt 45, was Zan Hoffman’s then collaboration partner Minòy, who died in 2010." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK |
Elusive Trajectories 2003-2006 |
CD |
"The series of archive recordings "Znaki / Die Zeichen" continues! The labels kultFRONT and ZHELEZOBETON present its fourth installment – the collection of compositions of the St. Petersburg-based noise project Kryptogen Rundfunk, recorded in 2003-2006. Most of these tracks were released on small-edition compilations of the same time, but some of them remained unpublished until now.
This album offers a fresh look at the early period of Kryptogen Rundfunk’s sound in all its diversity. Sharp injections of digital glitches are polished by dense electronic drone and radio noises, raw sound of Soviet analogue synthesizers pervades the space with low-frequency vibrations, drum machines rumble in a slow industrial dance with a sampler used instead of a vocalist... The textures of the tracks vary from dark abstract drone ambient to edgy dashing noise, sometimes passing the stage of funny delusional rhythmic sketches. Each composition here is a separate short story, from a 12-minute immersion into the depths of radio waves on a psychedelic submarine to a 1-second collage made of several found sounds.
Traditionally for the "Znaki" series the artwork was created by the media artist Oleg Paschenko (humanimalien.ru). Based on the cover design, a small edition of Kryptogen Rundfunk’s t-shirts has also been printed. The t-shirts are made of premium quality “penye” fabric and are available in all sizes between XS and XXL."
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK + HLADNA |
Rokton - Formanta |
mCD-R |
Auch HLADNA gehören zur unübersichtlich grossen Drone / Ambient / Experimental-Szene Russlands, hier im Verbund mit den ebenfalls aus St. Petersburg stammenden KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK live im Juli 2004. Beide benutzen uralte sowjetische Orignal-Synths bzw. Klang-Generatoren, die sich hervorragend ergänzen und knarzend-pulsiererende Drones produzieren, deren "historisch-futuristischer" Sound wohl einmalig ist... Professionelles Vollfarb-Cover.
"Hladna and Kryptogen Rundfunk - behind these names stand two St. Petersburg-based musicians playing experimental noise music. They both nourish a tender passion for old electronic instruments and often use them at their concerts and on recordings. One warm sunny day they gathered and decided to play on two analogue rhythm synthesizers "Rokton" and "Formanta". These are actually two identical instruments which were produced in the Soviet Union by two different factories. Each of them is the "brain" for electronic drum-kit, but can also be used separately - as a multi-channel tone-noise-generator or rhytm-machine. Kryptogen Rundfunk used his device smoothly, evenly and calmly while Hladna expelled from his more sharp and unpredictable sounds. Worth mentioning are Hladna's non-standard ways of making sound - on the last two tracks he opened the back plate of his synth and played not only using knobs but also getting inside and abridging contacts with his own hands (for which he was incidentally struck by the current a couple of times). Live recording without any processing, with all it's natural crackles and tasty overloads. Abstract electronics, minimalism and a little noise." [label info] |
2007 |
€5.50 |
|
| KSHATRIY |
Slepok Soznaniya |
CD |
"The project Kshatriy appeared on the Russian post-industrial scene in 2004 and up to present has participated in several compilations, as well as released some solo and collaboration recordings on limited edition CDRs. Muzyka Voln presents the project’s first "professional" compact disk with the album "Slepok Sonzaniya" (meaning "a mould of consciousness" in Russian).
This work is based on the concept of consciousness of a warrior, a galactic warrior of light, bringing to world pure knowledge, infinite silence, perfect balance, a moment of power and might, a flight of freedom, love, serenity, joy, light, unified time, eternal life, simplicity and bliss.
The music of the project can be described as fractal dark drone ambient with lots of patterns, woven from various sonic fibres: synthesized drones, processed field recordings, acoustic echoes and rhythmic loops. Calm and profound, filled with resilience and hidden power, like an endless ocean of tranquility, energy and beauty." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
"Kshatriy is the project by musician from Vsevolozhsk not far from St. Petersburg. Earlier his records were released on CDr, and album Slepok Soznaniya became the first work released on CD, before it I didn't know anything about this creative unit. With his music Kshatriy creates space dark and dull as well as beautiful and interesting. In anxiously boiling sound lava there merge deep electronic drone, processed field records and also unobtrusive hissing, crack and other noise effects. Musician himself writes that his creativity "is based on the conception of warrior consciousness... galaxy warrior of light, bringing to the world clear consciousness, unlimited silence, absolute balance, a moment of force and power, a flight of freedom, love, serenity, gladness, light, common time, eternal life, simplicity and bliss...". These words sound as nothing else but an unequivocal hint at trips "inside yourself" and the state of trans provoked by music. And it is so.
Slepok Soznaniya is a huge mental reactor with boiling up fragments of dark recollections, fused and crumpled into one heavy lump which dissolved all around in impenetrable swamp of its body. Rusty, smelling with dust and dampness postindustrial spirit spreads together with these sounds to colossal spaces around. Huge volume of theses spaces is one of the main special features of this music ruining all barriers inside the dark universe, and Slepok Soznaniya became a ticket to it. You peer into the darkness and don't see any limits, as if you have fallen under ground and found an alternative cosmos there. Beautiful, charming and sometimes even epic sound design making you hold your breath in long intriguing moments and make your heart beat quickly with resounding rumble and voluminous, heavy drone. It's worth to be heard." [Pi Micron, The Sound Proector]
http://www.soundproector.com/?cat=reviews&id=259
"Heaving, psychonaut droning from this Russian project, Kshatriy. The name of Sergey Uak-Kib's project is actually Sanskrit, as a now deracinated caste of warriors from ancient India. Uak-Kib posits something of a balance between the spiritual and the physical in the beliefs for this class of enlightened fighters. The holistic fortitude found in that statement seems to be furthered in the glowingly psychedelic artwork that has graced some of Kshatriy's other recordings. So much for first impressions, as this is fucking bleak. Anenzephalia bleak. Thomas Koner bleak. Lustmord bleak. Thrumming drones of Vulcan intensity and Promethean scale gird the entire album of Slepok Soznaniya. The thunderous cracks that introduce "Lights" are cataclysmic in nature, tumbling from deep space and smashing into the Siberian forest, unleashing shockwaves across the curved surface of Russian's landmass and creating elegantly harmonic ripples across the swampy taiga. Iron wheels grind on long-train tracks which lead to destinations unknown on the "Hymn To Kali," which is more of a dirge than a hymn through the slow, militant pound and evolving reverberant chord shifts for an ashen, musical negativity. The almost self-evidently named "Space Travel" surfs the solar winds with echoes of distant pulsars and glowing nebula clouds flickering through the endless expanses of nothingness.
We were awestruck by the work that Kshatriy produced for the 2014 Drone-Mind / Mind-Drone III compilation; and so we're delving into his catalogue. Slepok Soznaniya was originally released in 2009 on the bracingly good Russian imprint Muzyka Voln. Not all that much in the way of distribution west of the former Iron Curtain; so this one makes for a new favorite in the radiant black dronemusik camp." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Kshatriy |
CD-R |
"During the 10 years of its existence Kshatriy has earned a strong reputation on the Russian dark ambient scene. Among his works are 3 full-length CDs on our label Muzyka Voln, collaboration releases with Vresnit and Bardoseneticcube and also several tracks on compilations including the recently released LP "Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone Vol. 3" (Drone Records, 2014). This recording is the first finished studio material recorded by Sergey Uak-Kib in 2005. Initially it was released by the author himself as a small CD-R edition, all copies of which were quickly spread between friends and collectors. This year the album was taken out of the archives, remixed and remastered and we are pleased to introduce it to your attention in a renewed form. Cold, dark and empty cosmic-scale spaces turn into rare oases of living pulsations but this illusion of immersion in organic matter doesn't last long and dissolves in endless flows of sonic winds. The album features almost no melodic lines but its fractal-patterned structure gives the music the magical power that allows to keep the listener's attention captured throughout this short trip. The physical release is made on quality pro-CDRs in an edition of 77 copies in a sleeve of designer silvery cardboard." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
"On CDR we find music by Sergey Uak-Kib, better known as Kshatriy, who has released a whole bunch of releases before. This particular release is the first finished recording he ever did, in 2005, and of which he distributed a handful of copies to friends. We didn't review that one, but his later works found themselves into these pages. Now it's re-issued again, in an edition of 77 copies, and the four pieces span thirty-six minutes. The heavy transformation of any sound given, but most likely field recordings create Kshatriy’s music. I can easily see Sergey traveling the Siberian land and capturing some arctic wind into his microphone and melting these with field recordings of contact microphones scraping the permafrost. Did you say Thomas Köner? That's probably a valid point of reference, or indeed other in Isolationist one-man studios around the world, from say the mid 90s onto the present day. All atmospheric, all dark (how often do I use these words on a weekly basis, I wondered), but Kshatriy has it's own blend, certainly in these earliest recordings there is a nice raw edge to it. Not that smooth, but with a grittier, somewhat metallic undercurrent. Nice and rough." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€8.50 |
|
| KTL |
same |
CD |
"... erste VÖ des neuen Projekts von STEPHEN O'MALLEY und PITA. Sanfte Drones und geheimnisvolle Gitarrensounds, aber auch mächtige Sub-Bass-Walzen & Akkorde die eher nach SUNN O))) klingen, elektronisches Sirren & Rauschen.. die Synthese aus Laptop-Glitch & Drone Metal Doom..." [Drone Rec. info]
"Stephen O'Malley (strings, fx, amps) and Peter Rehber (goscs, apps, drives). Written, recorded & mixed by Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg at Fort du Murier & Vienne Wintergarden, Grenoble July 2006. Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, August 2006. 'Threatening new collaboration taking in parallel worlds of Extreme Computer Music and Black Metal. KTL is Stephen O'Malley (SUNNO))), Khanate) and Peter Rehberg (PITA).A six part collision amongst the increasingly fading prescences between the light and the dark. This work came about as the two were composing sound and music for a piece by Gisèle Vienne and Dennis Cooper, entitled 'Kindertotenlieder'. It must be stated that this CD is NOT the soundtrack to said piece, but a separate project. However, elements may appear in the finished piece which is to be premiered in Brest, France, March 2007. Pieces were recorded in a resistance fortress in southern France during a thunderstorm. Others in a wintergarden drenched in the sunlight.' Cover by SOMA." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
|
IV |
do-12 |
Japanische Luxus-Vinyl-Edition des vierten KTL-Studio-Albums, Gatefold-Cover mit Bonus-Single & bedruckten Innenhüllen..
"... Aller Dienste und Fesseln ledig, entfaltet sich da etwas zu voller Pracht und Größe, dass dem ähnelt, das Yeats einst in einer Vision gen Bethlehem schlumpen sah. Etwas prosaischer gesagt, lässt O‘Malley urige Bassriffs grollen und Gitarren sich durch jeden Widerstand fräsen, während Rehberg Synthie- & Orgelsound ballt, wie - ohne Pathos lässt sich das nicht beschreiben - wie Goyas Koloss seine Faust. Als ob er den ganzen Kongo darin zerquetschen wollte und damit den letzten schwarzen Blutstropfen aus dem Herz der Finsternis. Die Wucht und Düsternis, die hier sich vorüber wälzt, lässt sich mit Namen wie Fushitsusha, Nadja oder SunnO))) nur so ungefähr andeuten. Der Auftakt ‚Paraug‘ ist erst noch ein ominöses Rumoren, Rauschen und melodiöses Riffen, bei ‚Paratrooper‘ setzt sich das knurrige Biest dann ganz langsam in Bewegung, mit schwerem Tritt, den der Boris-Drummer Atsuo wie mit Taikotrommel als dumpfes Trauermarschbumbumbum schlägt, und ein Chor machtloser Engel stöhnt dazu ein ewig langgezogenes Oooooooooooo. Diese gut 21 Min. sind ein Prachtstück an erhabener Erschütterung der Sinne, in der Wirkung vergleichbar mit Guapos Aztekenkult. Im schnellen Marathontrott hetzt dann ‚Wicked Way‘ dahin wie ein barfüßiger Unglücksbote, denn jetzt folgt mit ‚Benbbet‘ eine weitere Viertelstunde von infamer Poesie, die erst noch liebkost, was sie zerstören wird, und dann Tritt für Tritt, nun fast schon mutwillig, einen knirschenden Tanz der Vernichtung übt. ‚Eternal Winter‘ überzieht die Spuren auf Shivas Tanzboden mit Eiskristallen, bis ‚Eternal Trouble‘ mit aufsteigenden elektronischen Molekülketten, einzelnen dunklen, monoton aushallenden Gitarrentönen und gedongtem Gong (erneut Atsuo) beharrlich Indizien der Unverwüstlichkeit liefert - der Trouble geht weiter. Produziert hat diese Dystopie übrigens Rehbergs einstiger FennO‘Berg-Partner, der unverwüstliche Jim O‘Rourke." [Bad Alchemy]
"Recorded and mixed at Studio GOK Sound, Tokyo, September 2008. Mastered at Pietthapraxis, Köln, October 2008. Stephen O'Malley: guitar. Peter Rehberg: computer & synthetizer. Atsuo: drums on 2 and gong on 6. Produced by Jim O'Rourke. Special Edition double 12 in gatefold tip on sleeve, with obi, mounted 7, and printed innersleeves. Japanese pressing, cut at 45 rpm." [label info]
www.inoxia-rec.com
|
2009 |
€49.00 |
|
| |
The Pyre : Versions distilled to Stereo |
LP |
Back in 2015, Shelter Press released the score of "Eternelle Idole", composed by Stephen O’Malley for the eponymous dance piece by french choreographer Gise`le Vienne. The record included a 24 pages booklet with photographs from the piece shot by Estelle Hanania. The label now release another chapter of this on-going documentation.
"The Pyre: versions distilled to stereo" is a score composed and recorded by KTL (Stephen O’Malley & Peter Rehberg) for the dance piece "The Pyre", written and directed by Gise`le Vienne.
The music created by KTL (Peter Rehberg and Stephen O’Malley) incorporates invisible and absent elements – ghosts, one might say. It proceeds from simulated diegetic sounds (which are part of the action) interwoven with real sounds - a musical creation that makes up an extra-diegetic sound score. This composition dizzyingly sculpts the space on stage and generates an impression of great spatial depth, which activates light-sculptures that in turn evoke the illusion of a tunnel, whose depth also results in a play of reflections.
Through these different media, the aim is to develop and shatter – without looking to resolve – the exceptional intensity that can arise from the dialectical tension between presence and absence, as well as from the characters that are seeking flight.
The music, originally performed on a multichannel spatialisized soundsystem has been distilled to this stereo version for home use, halfspeed mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
This record announces - and is one chapter - in the forthcoming release of the first monograph dedicated to the work of French choreographer Gise`le Vienne and documented by French photographer Estelle Hanania. This book - is one of Shelter Press’ most ambitious to date - catalog number 100 - will be released in Spring 2019.
https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/the-pyre-versions-distilled-to-stereo
|
2018 |
€22.50 |
|
| KUBISCH, CHRISTINA |
Five Electrical Walks |
CD |
"Christina Kubisch präsentiert mit »Five Electrical Walks« (Important Records) eine Musik, welche aus einem Fundus an Bestandteilen komponiert wurde, die sich zum einen praktisch selbst generieren. Abhängig sind sie zum anderen jedoch um so stärker vom neugierigen Empfinden der Menschen, die hier im Prozess der Klanggewinnung jeweils als Medium fungieren. Um elektromagnetische Felder hörbar zu machen, hat Kubisch bereits 1981 einen speziellen Kopfhörer entworfen, der hörbar macht, was sich den Sinneseindrücken üblicherweise vollkommen verschließt: Wer ihn auf den Ohren trägt, hört, was zweifellos da ist, aber was augenblicklich kein anderer mit seinen Sinnen erfasst.
Das Artwork zu den fünf Spaziergängen dieser Sorte wurde nun zum einen recht sachlich bis ansehnlich gehalten und zum anderen an manchen Rändern unscheinbar verziert von einigen der bemerkenswerten Zeichnungen, die Kubisch ebenfalls aus den elektromagnetischen Feldern gewinnt. Diesen haftet stets etwas sonderbar Geordnetes an, das sich in Reih und Glied auftürmt, um letztendlich doch nur eine vage, kantige Ahnung zu hinterlassen von dem, was sich in dieser durchdringenden Musik so geisterhaft und doch auch so förmig manifestiert. Die Klangskulpturen, die ihrerseits mal schlängeln, mal pulsieren, sind hierbei zu einigen Anteilen strikt ortsgebunden und beflügeln durch diesen individuellen Charakter die Sehnsucht nach einer eigenen Begegnung mit diesen Räumen und Plätzen, auf den Punkt gebracht durch die eigenen Worte von Kubisch zur Beschreibung von »Night Shift«, einer wunderbar finsteren Collage, die in verschiedenen Bahnhöfen und Flughäfen aufgenommen wurde: »What you see and what you hear seems to create a new, unknown reality.«
Man mag dieses Album als eine Dokumentation einer durch und durch künstlichen Addition zum menschlichen Wahrnehmungs-instrumentarium betrachten. Erfassen aber lässt es sich beispielhaft leicht und intuitiv: »Five Electrical Walks« ist ein wahrhaft inspirierendes Projekt, das den kindlich ungetrübten Synästheten in seiner Hörerschaft anspricht. Überhäuft wird man mit einer Vorstellungsverknüpfung nach der anderen, ohne jemals Kontrolle über das bunte, in einen zeitgemäßen Elektronik-Sound gekleidete Treiben zu erlangen: Die musikalischen Resultate, die sich durch einen sauber ausgearbeiteten Filter manifestieren, sind von einer zuweilen recht spröden, aufwühlenden Qualität, die dem Effekt der angesprochenen Grafiken recht deutlich entgegensteht. Ein noch größerer Kontrast im Rahmen einer Präsentation, die beide Ausdrucksweisen zu gleichen Teilen berücksichtigt, könnte die eindrucksvollsten Aspekte dieser Arbeit womöglich deutlich vertiefen." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Christina Kubisch is a first generation sound artist of the highest order. Kubisch has been working with electrical induction since the late seventies and in 2003 she began her Electrical Walk installations. Listeners wear specially built headphones that reveal electro-magnetic radiation emanating from the technological world around us. Five Electrical Walks is her first collection of compositions utilizing material recorded during Electrical Walks." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Night Flights |
CD |
"Reissue of this 1987 album, originally issued on Auf Dem Nil. "Night Flights is a groundbreaking work from one of the most influential of the first generation sound artists. For some reason, this staggering work has been left out of print for over 20 years. Night Flights has been remastered and includes updated liner notes from Christina Kubisch. Night Flights is being released in conjunction with Kubisch's release of new work for Important Records titled Invisible/Inaudible: Five Electrical Walks." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
La Ville Magnetique / The Magnetic City |
CD |
"24 Electromagnetic Walks in Poitiers. Produced at Studio Hoppegarten and Electronic Music Studio of the Technical University Berlin, October-November 2008. Liner notes and other info in French and English. The recordings of the 24 Electromagnetic Walks in Poitiers were made on August 14, 18 and 19 2008, using only Christina Kubisch's electromagnetic induction headphones and a portable recorder. The sounds have not been electronically modified. The only intervention was the use of a frequency filter. From the linernotes: Today there is a lot of interest in the musical world in 'mapping', the art of tracing the world we live in by means of maps which differ from those made for trade, commerce and business. The maps of the 24 Electromagnetic walks are visual and musical ones. 24 volunteers explored the hidden electromagnetic fields of Poitiers wearing a special headphone created by the artist. This wireless 'tool' captures and amplifies the magnetic fields above and underground the city. The visitors were free to choose their own, personal paths (itineraries) and were asked to draw them upon a map of the inner city. The length of the recordings vary between 6 and 79 minutes. Every recording is a kind of 'mirror' of the character and personality of the walker. Some people walked straight and without stopping through the streets, others often stopped and played around by moving their head (or body) when entering an interesting field, some followed the 'historical paths', others used the personal itineraries of their daily life, some just went by chance and took the exploration as a kind of acoustic adventure. The collection of 24 sound channels in Poiters is a collection of electromagnetic field recordings- an electromagnetic portrait of the city. Often what you can see normally and what you hear electromagnetically, is quite different: quiet streets burst out with strong electrical hums, the lively market place is quiet instead, the train station is a dense net of regular beats and clicks, the parking Carnot is the place where antennas fill the air with internet signals, the ATM machines of the banks hum musical chords and the security gates in the shopping streets surprise by their volume and intensity of continuous signals. The juxtaposition of the 24 itineraries was the starting point for he composition. Several times the visitors were at the same time at the same place, but exploring the sounds in different ways. The piece is a mix of all the recordings, sometimes letting them together in big clusters, sometimes following an individual walker along his way. The beginning and the end of the recordings was the tourist information center of Poitiers. The voices and the music which can be heard were recorded not with a microphone but as well through electromagnetic induction: a cable loop inside the office makes the sound audible as well outside the building. It's here, where the information of the historical city meets with the contemporary hidden electromagnetic world of Poitiers. The participants to the recorded walks: Jean-Pierre Courjaud, Quentin Debenest, Jean Hiernard, Daniel Clauzier, Emmanuelle Baud, Claude Thibault, Marion Berthier, Marie Fournier, Jean-Pierre Potier, Benoist Baillergeau, Jean-Luc Terradillos, Dominique Truco, Patrick Treguer, Jean-Christophe Desnoux, Dominique Pichon, Thomas Sillard, Marion Valière Loudiyi, Mélanie Ribot, Nicolas Bernard, Aurélien large, Marine Antony, Lilian Gerling, Anne Gérard, Christina Kubisch. Credits: Artwork By [Cover Design] - Christina Kubisch. Artwork By [Graphics] - Frederic Briand. Engineer, Mastered By - Eckehard Güther. Liner Notes - Christina Kubisch. Mixed By - Christina Kubisch. Photography - Christina Kubisch , Daniel Proux , Dominique Truco , Marion Valière-Loudiyi. Technician [Recording Assistance] - Marine Antony.' [full label info / liner notes]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Magnetic Flights |
CD |
"Two brand new pieces from one of the most exciting, active & relevant members of the first generation sound artists. Magnetic Flights is a perfect follow up to Five Electrical Walks (IMPREC167) and it is being released at the same time as a collection of two of Kubisch's unreleased archival pieces, also on Important.
Magnetic Flights is entirely made of electromagnetic field recordings of international airports and inside airplanes. The recordings of this piece were made by Christina Kubisch on her travels in 2007 from and to the airports of Bukarest, Manchester, Chicago, Seoul, Munich, Amsterdam,
Zurich, Frankfort, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Pisa, Milan and London.
The sounds were not altered electronically nor changed in any other way. The only tool ,which
was used for a part of it, was a filtering program (DINR)
All recordings were made with the help of special sensitive wireless headphones, by which the aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are detected, amplified and made audible. The headphones are custom made and have been develeoped by myself and constructed by the engineer Manfred Fox, Berlin. The sounds are much more musical than one could expect. There are complex layers of high and low frequencies, loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny signals, long drones and many things which change constantly and
are hard to describe.
Magnetic Flights consists of three parts with a short special sound at the beginning and another one at the end. The piece starts with an electromagnetic sound recorded just before departure and continues with the material of flight radiations recorded inside different airplanes. These electromagnetic fields slightly change pitch during departure and arrival, but remain quite constant during the flight itself. The relatively high and compact sounds gradually build up a dense layer of vibrations with continuous minimal variations.
In the second part some of the previous flight radiations gradually become filtered. The single signals mingle into a mix of small, short, nervous and very rhythmic signals. Their origin might be radio waves, communication signals with the tower , internet and atmospheric disturbances., but this is only a guess. The third part, the situation of arrival or transition, is a mix of typical electromagnetic sounds in the waiting areas of airports such as the deep vibrations of the screens of monitors which slowly fade in and out.
The piece ends with the electrical flickering of an electromagnetic field of unknown origin.
Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Trained as a composer, she studied painting, music (flute and composition) and electronics in Hamburg, Graz, Zürich and Milano, where she graduated. Her work can be described as the “synthesis of arts” - the discovery of acoustic space and the dimension of time in the visual arts on the one hand, and a redefinition of relationships between material and form on the other. Kubisch is best known for artistically and innovatively using techniques such as magnetic induction and ultraviolet light to create and realise her work.Since the 1970’s Kubisch has been experimenting with electromagnetic induction and was one of the first to use this method for creating sound installations. Some of her most well know works include the Electrical Walks series, where audience wear magnetic headphones, specially designed by Kubisch, with built-in coils that respond to electrical fields in the environment. Tapping into the electrical fields that result from light systems, anti-theft security devices, surveillance cameras, cell phones, computers, antennae, automated teller machines and other electric devices, she uses these visible sources to create unique and new sensory environmental experiences.
In the mid-1980s, Kubisch began to incorporate light as a compositional tool in many works, for example in the installation Skylines at the documenta 8, Kassel; the underground installation Klang Fluß Licht Quelle on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and more recently Licht Himmel a permanent light sound installation at Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany. Since 2003 Kubisch has begun to work again as a performer and collaborates with various musicians and dancers, one of whom is Lotta Melin, with whom she will be co-facilitating the Lisbon workshop. An internationally recognised artist, Kubisch has shown work at major international exhibitions and festivals (Venice Benniale, documenta 8, Kassel, Ars Electronica, Linz, Sydney Benniale, Sonar, Barcelona and Sonic Boom, London) performing around the world she has received numerous grants and awards and her music has been realised on various labels such as Cramps Records and Edition RZ. Kubisch has been visiting professor in Maastricht, Paris and Berlin and since 1994, is currently the professor for sound art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken, Germany." [label info]
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| KUBOTA, KAZUMA / S.I.V. [SELF-INFLICTED VIOLENCE] |
The first Cry / Atrocity of Sunrises |
7inch |
"Japanese cut up harshnoise legend Vs Polish epileptic cut up strong man!" [label info]
undergroundpollution.e-monsite.com
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| KUTIN, PETER |
Burmese Days |
LP |
"Over the past several years, Vienna-based composer / producer peter kutin has been working intensely at the little-explored junction between sound art and journalism / documentation. Focusing on sonic experiences in extreme or exceptional conditions. Kutin explores both the physical and psychological impacts of such extremes on how we hear. Later translating or orchestrating these experiences into sound. Despite his age, Kutin has already seen (and heard) many lost corners of the world, having realised field-projects that led him through deserts, jungles, mountain ranges, glacier gaps, war zones, volcanoes, protest marches and even into prison.
‘burmese days’ is not the traditional puristic field-recording album but more an abstract composition, which opens up a wide dynamic range of sonic perception, where electronic manipulations and timbres of selected traditional burmese instruments are interwoven with field recordings to form a captivating sonic essay – probably one of the most abstract and unexpected releases on Gruenrekorder .
Peter Kutin :
‘The following piece is mainly based on original field recordings from Myanmar taken between April & May 2012, half a year after the military dictatorship announced its withdrawal and indicated plans for a change towards a democratic – or a ‘hybrid military-civilian’ – system in Myanmar after more than sixty years of a military state and its repression. Suddenly it was legal for journalists to enter officially. When I found a timeslot and got the money and some contacts together, I set up a field trip following a journalistic and documentary approach. One of my main interests was to investigate whether the situation of people of ethnic minorities had already changed since the regime’s withdrawal. There were peace talks, but in fact most of the rebel groups were still at war with the military regime at that time. My route started at the border area between Myanmar and Thailand: topographically, this was a zone covered by a beautiful rainforest and all its richness of sounds; politically, it was a buffer zone : ethnic minorities, rebel groups, expelled people, opium and other drug smugglers and refugee camps.
At the end of 2012, US president Obama became the first American president to visit Myanmar in fifty years. He walked barefoot over the sacred marble ground of the golden Shwedagon Pagoda in the former capital, Rangoon, and warmly welcomed the newborn democracy. While I was there, ethnic clashes (some media referred to the terminology of an ‘ethnic cleansing’) started in the western Akran state. More than 30,000 people from the Rohingya (a Muslim minority) were chased from their homes. Many were killed in the violent clashes between Muslims and radical Buddhists. Not a single journalist was allowed to enter or get even close to the area. Freedom and Democracy are more elusive concepts or cachets than the media would like us to believe.
My recordings were first used for the production of a feature on Austrian national radio. I was a bit disappointed, feeling that the sounds had been used the ‘wrong’ way due to all the information within the spoken texts… In order I sat down and reflected on my recordings from an aesthetic point of view, thinking about how I could translate my personal experiences (heat, sickness, fear, jungle, rain, radical Buddhism, rebels fighting for freedom or more rights, the sound of mantras, gongs, bells and the language itself …). I also found out that the percussionist of Vienna’s Radio-symphonic-Orchestra has been collecting instruments from Myanmar since more than 10 years. So the use of some of these original Burmese metallophones (and their electronic transformations & manipulations) is now the constant element throughout the record, guiding the listener through different sonic stages. It is a piece about the vague state of the people’s identity – a life lived between hope, anger and fear, between the prospect of freedom and doubt of being betrayed.
‘Burmese days’ may be described as an acoustic diary, focusing entirely on sound and using almost no linguistic information. No interviews were used. The piece’s subtitles refer directly to some experiences.
For best result, it should be listened to at a high volume with good bass response.
‘Burmese days’ is originally written for
* traditional Burmese metallophones :
three Kye zees (high-range scaleed, rotating gong), three gongs of mid-range scale, one low-range gong; played by Berndt Thurner
* turntables :
I asked the Viennese turntablist dieb13 to cut a vinyl using only my Burmese field-recordings; he could choose from a selection
* live electronics (for treating the sound of the gongs) ; 4 channel spatialisation ; played by myself
‘Burmese days’ was premiered at Vienna’s Church of St. Ruprecht in June 2013 .
http://kutin.klingt.org/burmese_days.html" [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
"And then Gruenrekorder also expands to the world of vinyl with a rather unusual disc. Peter Kutin is a member of Dirac (see Vital Weekly 708 and 729) and had a solo CD (see Vital Weekly 818), which sees 'all field and studio recordings' by him, but also with Berndt Thurner on original Burmese metallophones and Dieb13 on additional electronics and turntables. If I understood correctly Kutin is the composer of this work that is partly a mixture of field recordings from Burma with some additional music from the musicians, all 'arranged and composed by Peter Kutin'. It's a pretty interesting work; one that works pretty well. The overtones from the metallophone collide nicely with the electronics from Dieb13 and mix well with the insect/bird sounds from the locations. Sometimes, and perhaps that's the best part, it's hard to tell whether we are hearing 'just' field recordings or perhaps also something else, something 'extra'. I guess that's where field recordings and 'music' - what's the difference, I wondered - blend together in a very natural way. 'Part 1' seems to be more about the instruments and 'Part 2' more about the field recordings - but perhaps I am wrong about this. Maybe that explains why this is on LP, rather than CD: to mark the difference between both sides. Excellent stuff all around! Great, moody music, carefully balancing sound art and music, field recordings and soundscapes." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€16.50 |
|
| KUUPUU |
Lumen Thäden |
LP |
Das neue Album der Finnin KUUPUU erscheint auf dem renommierten TIME-LAG RECORDS, im übergrossen & laminierten Gatefold-Cover.
Ihr gespenstischer "low fi wyrd Folk" (das Label nennt das "Pränatal-Folk) erinnert an eine schräge Version von JESSICA BAILIFF oder GROUPER, ähnlich zerbrechlich ertönen ihr elfenhafter Gesang und die sparsame Instrumentierung, zusätzlich aber haftet dem ganzen etwas "schamanistisch-beschwörendes" an... really strange stoff !!
"Although Finlander Jonna Karanka has been slowly leaking out little Kuupuu jewels for six years now, somehow it's taken just that long to materialize her first 'proper' album. Maybe it has something to do with the time she's devoted to her beautiful artwork, or her time spent in a highly impressive string of other bands, including Hertta Lussu Assa (with Islaja and Lau Nau), Anaksimandos, Avarus, and many others. But, you know, I always figured Kuupuu music didn't have much to do with 'time' anyway. It's music from another reality, to put it bluntly. A beautiful place no doubt, but somehow totally other. You could call this music a lot of things, all without really saying much. Post-everything? Pre-birth folk? Bedtime acid-art? Naive avant-garde loop witchcraft? Maybe something like a thousand memories & vague images folded into each other and spooled out infinitely like a sloppy film loop. The sound of tiny bioluminescent insects systematically devouring an urban cityscape in hyper-speed, while just as quickly slithering neon flora entwine the metallic gray remains, only to then be gobbled themselves by a leaderless army of pulsating micro-robots. Got that? Now play backwards in slow motion. Surreal might just be an understatement. Packaged in a stunning ultra-heavy laminated full color gatefold cover with full color art labels, all created by Jonna. Pressed on audiophile 180gm vinyl. Limited edition of 750 copies." [label info]
"Kuupuu is a bit like a Finnish Grouper, her songs are murky and mysterious, the sounds feel disembodied and otherworldly, her vocals are ghostlike and gauzy, but those Grouper-like sounds are filtered through her Finnish folk filter, having spent time in Avarus, Anaksimandros and a handful of other big time aQ faves. Nearly half the record is made up of hushed intimate lo-fi ballads, muted and muddy and almost underwater sounding, her voice and musical accompaniment bleeding into each other until it's sometimes almost impossible to tell which is which, but those stretches of bleary eyed balladic drift and muffled shimmery dreamdrone are peppered with chucks of weird soft noise, abstract rhythmic workouts and some strange very Finnish sounding bursts of what-the-fuck chaos: plenty of clattery tribal percussion, detuned guitars, demented music box melodies, field recordings and found sounds, tape manipulation, gongs and bells and birdcalls, looped acoustic guitars, super lo-fi tape recorded voices, swooping backwards melodies, and the occasional jagged shard of feedback or streak of fractured crunch, but somehow Kuupuu manages to tie it all together into something much more cohesive and lovely than you might imagine.
Definitely for fans of all things Finnish and foresty and folky and freaky: Avarus, Islaja, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat, Kiila, Shogun Kunitoki, Es, etc. And adventurous fans of Grouper might give this a try, if they're not averse to some weirdo noisemaking with their moody melancholia." [Aquarius Records]
www.time-lagrecords.com
|
2009 |
€23.50 |
|
| KUWAYAMA-KIJIMA |
01.05.10. |
CD |
Die beiden japanischen Streicher mit 5 live-Improvisationen auf Cello, Violine und Viola. Uneffektierte, hochabstrakte Klang.-Interaktionen von großer Dynamik und Expressivität.
“Kiyoharu Kuwayama (cello, violin) and Rina Kijima (violin, viola) have been creating rich, flowing live improvisations for some years. On previous efforts, they have recorded improvisational pieces under a highway interpass whereby the environmental sounds of the area are heard in the background of each piece. Much of this music is to be heard on the trente oiseaux, gg, and 20 City labels, to name a few. With this release, we hear a refinement of this sound as the improvisations found on this CD were recorded in the empty warehouse no.20. Gone are passing cars and other incidental sounds. This work gives us the chance to hear the beautiful interplay of these two gifted musicians that is flawlessly recorded and leaves no detail unheard or muffled. The CD is packaged between five beautiful double sided cards containing artwork from Kiyoharu that suggests alchemy and the melting of sound. An edition of 400.“ [press release]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| KÜPPER, LEO |
Electro-Acoustic |
CD |
Four great atmospheric & poetic compostions from this amazing composer, worth to investigate !!
“ Leo Kupper was born in Belgium in 1935. He worked with Henri Pousseur at the first electronic music studio in Belgium and is founder and director of the Studio de Recherches et de Structurations Electroniques Auditives in Brussels. The works on Electro-Acoustic are Electro-Acoustic Santur (1989), for 2 santurs, 4 micro-processors and electronic sounds. Guitarra Cubana (1988) is presented in the form of 3 sequences. The first two sequences combine guitar sounds and phonetic sounds, the last one uses only guitar sounds. Inflexions Vocales (1982) with Françoise Vanhecke (soprano) is a vocal composition for soprano with accompaniment by a stereo tape. The final work is Le Reveur au Sourire Passager (1977) with Jean-Claude Frison (reciter). La composition, à travers le poème, décrit un monde obscur, profond, incompréhensible et mystérieux. [label description]
Pogus website: www.pogus.com
|
1996 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Ways of the Voice |
CD |
Extreme Neue Musik von diesem belgischen Komponisten, von dem hier 4 Stücke (1984 bis 1998) verewigt wurden – spannende & anstrengende Stimm- und Gesangsexperimente zwischen Elektro-Akustik und Sound-Poetry, zum Teil anmutig schön, zum Teil verstörend... überwältigende und einmalige Musik !! TIP !
Belgium componist with four challenging compositions using the female voice as only sound-source. Beautiful, suspenseful, exhausting music.. very unique and stunning stuff !!
“Rezas Populares do Brasil, Anamak, Amkéa and Annazone, are vocal works. All the sounds on this disc originate with the Brazilian singer Anna Maria Kieffer. Two works, Anamak and Amkéa, have an "orchestral accompaniment", composed of tropical bird songs. Making use of elements of electroacoustic music and sound poetry, the music expresses wonder at Brazil's tropical beauty and, ultimately, an intense love of the abstraction of words and musical forms. “ [label description]
https://www.pogus.com/21018.html |
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Digital Voices |
CD |
"Leo Kupper was born in Belgium in 1935. He worked with Henri Pousseur at the first electronic music studio in Belgium and is founder and director of the "Studio de Recherches et de Structurations Electroniques Auditives" in Brussels. This is his 3rd release on Pogus and he remains a master at working with electronics and the human voice.
Of the six works presented on this CD, five involve the human voice. Sung by Barbara Zanichelli, Anna Maria Kieffer, and Nicholas Isherwood, their microphone recordings were integrated into Kupper's digital computer sessions - hence the title Digital Voices. The remaining work is for the santur.
All the songs on this recording are abstract, which allows both composer and singer a certain artistic liberty. Kupper's stated goal in this recording of digital songs is "to encourage the internationalization of spirituality through a musical language that accepts both sung and instrumental world sonorities that can be mixed with electronic sounds derived from the voices of the singers." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| KÖNER, THOMAS |
Tiento de la Luz |
LP |
"A tiento is a form of keyboard music that originated in Spain in the mid-15th century. "Tiento de la Luz" is Köner's second tiento, succeeds "Tiento de las Nieves" (2014) and precedes the upcoming "Tiento de la Oscuridad". While "Tiento de las Nieves" is a work for solo performer and live electronics, the instrumentation of "Tiento de la Luz" is expanded: in addition to Köner's distinct live electronics, there are two piano parts, percussion, and viola da gamba.
At the core of Köner's works is always a sense of place (topos) and tone colour. He often travels around the world and record sounds and images. Köner experiences the place and tone as unique voices of these locations, but he is aware that these associations are purely personal. His creative process and work evolve from an understanding of this sense of place and tone, the awareness of its radiance and his distinction of what it is not: it is not a realization that could be accomplished by the practice known as field recording. Similarly, the place, the seed around which Köner's creative process unfolds, can be neither a geographical, nor a temporal one. In fact, according to Köner, the “eternal present” (commonly associated with music or its experience) is a myth and simply does not exist, because the present never appears without a timeline. In the liner notes to this album, Köner even goes as far as to claim that "Music does not exist".
The only element that is independent and able to communicate itself according to Köner is tone colour. In the finishing words of the album liner notes, Köner states: "The textbook definition of tone colour can only describe what it is not: qualities of sound that are not related to pitch, volume, or duration. Tone colour is therefore the absence and yet the total presence. For example, a mother reading a fairy tale to her child is reading words made of letters - but the child hears the mother's “I love you“ in her voice. This is resonance. [...] Appearing as tone colour, sound has the potential to become its own resonance, effortless and luminous." [label info]
Stream: www.denovali.com/thomaskoner
Download: www.denovali.com/digitalstore
Facebook: www.facebook.com/artist.thomaskoner |
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
|
The Futurist Manifesto |
DVD |
"A colossal audiovisual adaption of Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto, by one of the uncontested master isolationists of the ethereal static sounds, a sonic symphony of the unconscious and a defiant decceleration critique of today society through the ultimate modern text. Thomas Köner has crafted the ultimate 4 bpm masterpiece." [label info]
|
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Aubrite |
CD |
Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. His music is often defined as dark ambient or drone, because of the use of low frequencies, material from gongs, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time its sound with constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, what makes it organic, human and almost comforting.
Köners soundscapes are no longer simply dark, the question now is that of a profound blackness. Such is the generic darkness of the abyss, the void and vacuum, the darkness of more than silence, of catastrophe and cataclysm, but also the soundscapes have utopian moments. It is a cosmological blackness, the black of nonbeing.
The more subtractive, the blacker the sound synthesis, Köner writes. Such blackness is non-music. Music will never be music until it ceases to represent and begins to sound like non-music or monochrome.
"Whoever hears the distortion of all sounds, will soon become Ultrablack. Whoever listens to this world, but has no affection for any of its sites, even to the place of Black Noise, may soon reach Ultrablack. Whoever understands the spirit of impartiality through ten thousand million partial tones, hears Ultrablack and can no longer be measured. No measures, no enclosures, no properties are the sign of ultrablack scores." Thomas Köner
Aubrite was first released 1995 on the label Barooni. Roland Speckle helped with production of the album. Aubrite is the name of a group of meteorites named for Aubres, a small achondrite meteorite that fell near Nyons in 1836.
https://forceincmilleplateaux.bandcamp.com/album/aubrite
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Aubrite |
do-LP |
Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. His music is often defined as dark ambient or drone, because of the use of low frequencies, material from gongs, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time its sound with constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, what makes it organic, human and almost comforting.
Köners soundscapes are no longer simply dark, the question now is that of a profound blackness. Such is the generic darkness of the abyss, the void and vacuum, the darkness of more than silence, of catastrophe and cataclysm, but also the soundscapes have utopian moments. It is a cosmological blackness, the black of nonbeing.
The more subtractive, the blacker the sound synthesis, Köner writes. Such blackness is non-music. Music will never be music until it ceases to represent and begins to sound like non-music or monochrome.
"Whoever hears the distortion of all sounds, will soon become Ultrablack. Whoever listens to this world, but has no affection for any of its sites, even to the place of Black Noise, may soon reach Ultrablack. Whoever understands the spirit of impartiality through ten thousand million partial tones, hears Ultrablack and can no longer be measured. No measures, no enclosures, no properties are the sign of ultrablack scores." Thomas Köner
Aubrite was first released 1995 on the label Barooni. Roland Speckle helped with production of the album. Aubrite is the name of a group of meteorites named for Aubres, a small achondrite meteorite that fell near Nyons in 1836.
https://forceincmilleplateaux.bandcamp.com/album/aubrite
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| KÖNER, THOMAS / ASMUS TIETCHENS / DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG |
Untitled |
maxi-CD |
"A Three track CD EP released in conjunction with a live performance on the 29th April 2012 on the MS STUBNITZ in Bremen. Initial copies were given away for free to ticket holders on the night of the concert. Exclusive tracks by all artists:
1. DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG 'Die Schnarrmaus des kleinen Fritz' 5'37min
2. ASMUS TIETCHENS 'L10RA' 11'03 min
3. THOMAS KÖNER 'Le Bateau Ivre' 3'48min
Limited edition of 500 numbered copies in full color slipcase cover." [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2012 |
€10.50 |
|
| KÖRPERWELTEN |
Avatars of Rape and Rage |
CD |
Ein gemeinsames Projekt von NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES und NORDVARGR welches mehrere Jahre in Arbeit war und die extremen Grenzgebiete von sexuellem Begehren & Ohnmacht, Sadismus & Perversion bis hin zur Todessehnsucht & Mord thematisiert. Pulsierende Noisescapes werden langsam aufgebaut und explodieren im richtigen Moment, unheimliche rasselnde, atmende Geräusche sind präsent sowie schleppende untergründige Pulses, Einsatz von gepeinigten Stimmen, Geschrei in einer Lärmwand, Sirenensounds, etc.. mit das Unheimlichste was es im Bereich "Industrial" in der letzten Zeit gab, das unangenehme Gefühl schleicht sich quasi von hinten an, da hier lange Spannungsbögen erzeugt werden. Es entsteht ein wahrer Trip in die Abgründe der menschlichen Seele, ein Album dass einen nicht kält lässt, das (in Verbindung mit der Artwork) tatsächlich noch schockieren kann, wie das Psychogramm eines Triebtäters, erdrückend intensiv!
"Having started the process way back in 2002, this collaborative project between Swedish powerhouse Nordvargr and US apocalyptic
industrialists Navicon Torture Technoloies finally sees the light (so to speak) in 2008, having been re-worked and re-structured as a
perilous 40 minute plunge into a black hole of sound. Waves of grim, doom filled atmospheric sludge crossbred with buzzing black drones,
grinding distortion, and a seething underbelly of rhythmic pulsations, ultimately delivering everything you might expect from these two acts. In 6 panel digipak, with extreme and controversial, Jonathan Canady (http://art.malsonus.com/) designed artwork sure to be banned if it falls into the wrong hands." [label notes]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| KÖTTER, DANIEL & HANNES SEIDL |
Stadt (Land Fluss) - A Radio Play |
CD + BOOK |
Ein Hörstück über den Klang der Großstadt. Bulldozer planieren die Brache, Wohnviertel werden eingezäunt, Stromkabel durchziehen das Bauland, eine Menschenmenge besetzt den Mittelstreifen. „Stadt (Land Fluss)“ macht die radikal vernetzte Stadt hörbar und die Auswirkungen ihrer permanenten Veränderung sinnlich erfahrbar. Welche soziale Dimension hat die Klanglichkeit einer Stadt? Wie klingt die Stadt, wie könnte sie klingen? Wer hat das Recht, den Stadtraum zu gestalten und seine Grenzen zu definieren? Stadt [Land Fluss] ist auf der Grundlage des gleichnamigen Musiktheaterstücks entstanden.
Komposition / Produktion: Daniel Kötter / Hannes Seidl
Electromagnetische Klänge: Christina Kubisch Musik: Sebastian Berweck, Martin Lorenz, Andrea Neumann
Text: Daniel Kötter / Hannes Seidl nach Zitaten von David Harvey, Kathrin Wildner, Thorsten Fausch und anderen
Photos: Nara Silva das Virgens Merlitz Graphik Design: Nafiseh Fathollahzadeh
https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18530
Das Morgen im Heute
Zum Hörspiel „Stadt [Land Fluss]“ von Daniel Kötter und Hannes Seidl
Ist unser Planet bereits vollständig kartographiert? Unzählige im Weltall kreisende GPS-Satelliten, die jeden Millimeter der Erde abgemessen haben dürften, drängen uns förmlich ein entschiedenes Ja auf. Dennoch: Wäre die Welt ein Gemälde, stünde die Sichtbarkeit aller Farbtupfer nicht zwingend für das Erkennen und Begreifen ihrer Zusammenhänge. Genauso verhält es sich im Kleinen mit der (Groß-)Stadt, diesem paradigmatischen modernen Mikrokosmos. Gebäude, Straßen, Parks, Kanalisationssysteme, Lichtsignalanlagen stellen eine visuelle und haptische Ordnung her, die ein schier endloser, aus Stimmen, Hupen und Sirenen geknüpfter Geräuschteppich ergänzt, hinterfragt und bisweilen wieder aufhebt. Und mittendrin: das Individuum.
„ … It always seemed to me that we should pay much more attention to the question of who produces and reproduces urban life…“: Nach einer Minute mit elektroakustischen Klängen, rufenden Kindern und einem vorbeirauschenden Flugzeug spricht eine Männerstimme über die Produktion und Reproduktion des urbanen Lebens. Wer zeigt sich dafür verantwortlich? Und wie? So beginnt das 2020 realisierte Hörspiel „Stadt [Land Fluss]“ von Daniel Kötter und Hannes Seidl nach dem gleichnamigen, abendfüllenden Musiktheaterstück von 2017. Im Werkkommentar zu letzterem fragt der Komponist Seidl konkret nach den akustischen Eigenschaften einer Stadt als gesellschaftlichem Raum: „In STADT (LAND FLUSS) spüren wir der sozialen Dimension der Klanglichkeit einer Stadt nach, die noch immer von Stadtplanern und Architekten vernachlässigt wird. Wie klingt die Stadt, wie könnte sie klingen? Wer hat das Recht, den Stadtraum zu gestalten und seine Grenzen zu definieren?“ Der erste Teil einer Trilogie – es folgten „Land [Stadt Fluss]“ (2018) und „Fluss [Stadt Land]“ (2019) – nimmt unterschiedliche Perspektiven ein und durchschreitet buchstäblich verschiedene Räume, um „die radikal vernetzte Stadt hörbar und die Auswirkungen ihrer permanenten Veränderung sinnlich erfahrbar“ zu machen. Die Bühne wird begehbar, diegetische Räume und deren Grenzen werden ausschließlich durch Trennwände angedeutet, während sich das ,wahre‘ urbane Leben draußen abzuspielen scheint. Eindrücke davon erhalten die Zuschauenden lediglich per Smartphone-Videos, so dass der stets im Wandel begriffene Organismus Stadt sich als imaginäres Gebilde entpuppt; ein Umstand, der in der Hörspielfassung besonders zum Tragen kommt.
Hier knistert es. Dem pausenlosen Rauschen und Knacken wohnt eine ungeduldige, auf den nächsten Augenblick lauernde Stimmung inne, in der sich Zukunft und Veränderung manifestieren. Für (An-)Spannung sorgen vorrangig die Klänge elektromagnetischer Felder, deren sonst unhörbare Schwingungen Christina Kubisch mittels Induktionsspulenkopfhörer hörbar macht. Im übertragenen Sinne wird das Aufdecken vorhandener, aber nicht vernehmbarer Klänge zu einer Handlungsmaxime: Im Heute liegt bereits das Morgen verborgen, den Zukunftsschlüssel haben wir gegenwärtig in der Hand. Und die Stadt? „Bulldozer planieren die Wüste, Wohnviertel werden eingezäunt, Strom durchzieht das Informelle, eine Menschenmenge besetzt den Mittelstreifen“, heißt es im Werkkommentar weiter. Wie sang die Band „Fehlfarben“ vor vierzig Jahren? „Keine Atempause. Geschichte wird gemacht. Es geht voran.“ Dass Einzelne bei aller Zielstrebigkeit auf der Strecke bleiben beziehungsweise aus der Spur geraten, findet in „Stadt [Land Fluss]“ eine musikalische Entsprechung, wenn Sebastian Berweck die Nadel seines Plattenspielers kleinschrittig über kreisende Rillen flanieren lässt. Gewissermaßen als Nebenprodukt entstehen dabei – zusammen mit den akustischen Beiträgen von Martin Lorenz und Andrea Neumann – flirrende Klangbilder, die der Idee von Soundscape bewusst widersprechen. Mit konkreten Objekten generieren Musikerin und Musiker wiederum eine abstrakte Klangwelt.
Und die gesprochenen Passagen? Sie erzählen von urbanen Problemen und Herausforderungen, etwa in der Hamburger HafenCity rund um die Elbphilharmonie. Das von Hannes Seidl und Filmemacher/Theaterregisseur Daniel Kötter nach Zitaten unterschiedlicher Provenienz erarbeitete, mitabgedruckte Skript fragt nach Chancen und Entwicklungen einer modernen, klimaneutralen, gerechten Stadt. Vieles scheint möglich. Alles bleibt offen – worauf die durchdachte, nachhaltige Aufmachung der beim Frankfurter Label Gruenrekorder veröffentlichte Compact Disc bereits hinweist: Undefinierte, voneinander nicht abgegrenzte, nur rudimentär kartographierte Räume künden von Freiheit. Was zunächst nach übertriebenem Pathos klingt, ist jedoch Programm. Alle können, dürfen, sollen mitdiskutieren, mitplanen, mitarbeiten. Es müssen Entscheidungen getroffen werden. Und genau darin liegen Vor- und Nachteil der Hörspielfassung gegenüber dem Musiktheater „Stadt [Land Fluss]“. Lässt letzteres durch seine interaktive Faktur noch eine Vielzahl an Versionen zu, zieht erstere als festgelegter Parcours tönende Mauern hoch, baut akustische Straßen und Parkanlagen, denkt klanglich über Mobilität nach. Die Entscheidung für eine Stadt ist notwendig – in einem Traumschloss lässt sich nämlich schlecht überwintern –, gibt aber zugleich andere Optionen preis. So könnte es also sein. Oder doch ganz anders?
Eine konstant anschwellende Spannung, die sich der oben erwähnten Klangerzeugung verdankt, drängt einerseits unaufhörlich nach vorne, während ihre kontinuierliche Wandlung andererseits für ein kontemplatives Moment sorgt. Zwischen Minute achtzehn und neunzehn findet eine ebenso geradlinige wie richtungslose klangliche Verdichtung statt, die sich im gesprochenen Text spiegelt: „Eine Unkontrolliertheit oder eine Informalität zu planen, ist eben schwierig. Planning the unplanned. Wie geht das?“, heißt es aus dem Off. Diese vordergründig mittels Sprache artikulierte Planbarkeit weicht allmählich einer um sich greifenden Klanglandschaft, die jeden Gedanken zu überwuchern scheint. In den letzten vierzehn Minuten dominieren Rauschen, Surren und Flirren – stoisch und doch voller Überraschungen. Die von Seidl geforderte soziale Dimension von Klanglichkeit gewinnt schließlich die Oberhand. Mit diesem konsequenten und überzeugenden Kunstgriff wird das gesprochene Wort ,denkende‘ Musik: „So, there’s a lot of power which resides it seems to me in thinking about the urban as a place to organise and as a place to come back together […].“ Gemeinsam eine Stadt erbauen. Für alle. Neben Ideen, Mörtel und Strom ist ein weiterer Aspekt entscheidend: zuhören. „Stadt [Land Fluss]“ redet nicht nur darüber, sondern macht es direkt vor." [Gerardo Scheige | MusikTexte 168]
A radio play on the sound of the city. Bulldozers flatten the desert, neighbourhoods are fenced in, electricity pervades the informal, crowds of people occupy the middle land. What does, what could the city of the future sound like? In “Stadt (Land Fluss)”, composer Hannes Seidl and media artist Daniel Kötter expand the discourse on the right to the city. The highly interconnected city and the radical effects of the permanent battle over its modification are turned into an acoustic experience. Stadt [Land Fluss] is based on the eponymous music theatre piece by Daniel Kötter / Hannes Seidl.
Composition / Production: Daniel Kötter / Hannes Seidl
Electromagnetic sounds: Christina Kubisch
Music: Sebastian Berweck, Martin Lorenz, Andrea Neumann
Text: Daniel Kötter / Hannes Seidl after quotes by David Harvey, Kathrin Wildner, Thorsten Fausch and others
Photos: Nara Silva das Virgens Merlitz
Graphic Design: Nafiseh Fathollahzadeh
|
2020 |
€14.00 |
|
| L'ENSEMBLE VOLTA |
Les Nuages de Magellan (Works by Tristan Murail) |
CD |
"Our third collection featuring the ondes Martenot and the most experimental, in part because the Spectralist composer Tristan Murail, to whom this CD is dedicated, was himself a student of - and performer on - the ondes and, in these pieces, he explores some of its less conventional byways. These works are united here for the first time, performed by a new generation of musicians more attuned to the raw, less academic approach to sound that Murail himself favoured. Works for solo Onde, two Ondes, Onde and Piano, two Ondes, percussion and electric guitar." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC |
Zone Sensible 2 / Dundee 2 |
CD |
Wer jemals selbst versucht hat, brauchbare 'field recordings' zu hervorzubringen, dürfte wissen wie schwer es ist, Störgeräusche auszuschalten, die gewünschte Klangquelle laut genug hörbar zu machen und überhaupt den "richtigen Moment" zu treffen... denn der Zufall spielt hierbei eine gewichtige Rolle, die Unkontrollierbarkeit der Klänge macht demütig...
Einer der absoluten Meister des Fieldrecording und deren Verarbeitung ist ERIC LA CASA, von dem hier 2 Stücke präsentiert werden, die sowohl gekonnteste Feldaufnahmen zeigen als auch die brilliante Transformation in eine Art naturale musique concrete:
ZONE SENSIBLE 2 benutzt Aufnahmen von Bienen, deren summender Chor oft gewaltig anschwellt und sich mit sirrenden, elektronisch wirkenden mechano-Drones vermischt, ein Stück voller Dynamik und Brüchen, welches am Ende wie ein einziger atmender Klangorganismus wirkt, epische 26:30 min lang.
Auf DUNDEE 2 dagegen entwirft er aus 30 verschiedenen Orts-Aufnahmen eine Art unterbewussten Klangspiegel der schottischen Stadt Dundee, wobei v.a. die stets vorhandenen, aber kaum jemals bewusst wahrgenommenen Sounds von Maschinen (Ventilatoren, Aufzüge, Sirenen, Kühlschränke) eine grosse Rolle spielen..
das soghafte Rauschen einer Stadt verläuft hier in langen auf- und abschwellenden Bahnen.
Fazit: Zwei geniale Kompositionen für das Kino im Kopf !
"For the best part of a decade, Éric La Casa's attention to sonic phenomena has resulted in some of the finest contemporary Musique Concréte to come out of France. A listener of the highest order, La Casa's methodology for sound recording allows for a versatile examination of both urban and natural environments and it is these interests which are captured on this new edition for Room40. With an ability to find unique perspectives on his sound subjects La Casa's site specific works 'Zone Sensible' and 'Dundee' seek to draw a detailed focus and expose unfamiliar, incidental and previously unheard sound worlds. Zone Sensible, exclusively composed from recordings of bees in the Olivier Darné's hives, located in the Saint Denis suburb of Paris, reveals a chaotic, frenetic microcosm that speaks to the density of the real, whilst hinting at our ears to experience a dance of oscillations - wings beating with boundless energy. As a contrast to this microcosm, Dundee, composed with recordings of Dundee city (during a 10 days residency at DCA museum), sees La Casa turn his microphones outward. Rendering a captivating sound map of sorts, Dundee' was developed in collaboration with USA Film experimentalist Ken Jacobs' 'nervous magic lantern', on a 6 channels device. From these recordings La Casa composed variations and movements in interaction with Ken Jacobs' processing - a contemplation from the real to abstracted life." [label info]
www.room40.org
"Two new works by Eric LaCasa, the active composer of musique concrete. By now he has a long list of releases under his belt, and on this CD he presents two new works. 'Dundee 2' is in three parts, while 'Zone Sensible 2' is one work. That one was commissioned by Les Instants Chavires (France) for a festival and uses solely the sounds of bees, recorded in a beehive. It starts out with the sound of bees, but soon starts to move about in some electronic after life. Or so it seems. Until now I always thought, but perhaps wrongly, that LaCasa only works with pure sound, always recorded in the fields (agricultural and urban), and never used that much sound processing, but perhaps I was wrong. Here its a much more electronic work that depicts the chaos of the beehive very well. Buzzing with life, sounds crawl about and its hard to figure out what is going on - except of course if you are a bee yourself. A work full of life.
'Dundee' was commissioned by Arika for 'Kill Your Timid Notion in 2007 and uses sounds of that Scottish city, which was played back on a six channel system, devised along with Ken Jacobs, an American film maker. Here we have the 'empty' spaces that resonates, sometimes interrupted by voices ('what are you doing in the parking, recording spaces'?, or station announcements) or by events we can longer trace back to its origin. Here it seems to me LaCasa uses no electronic processing, but the pure sound phenomena as captured on tape. A powerful work, even if you don't know the city of Dundee (at least I don't). What sets LaCasa aside from his colleagues in the same field, is that he composes with the material, rather than presenting them (for instance works like this on the German Gruenrekorder label), and that makes them all the more engaging to hear. I am not sure why 'Dundee 2' has been cut into three separate pieces, but like 'Zone Sensible 2', these are excellent pieces. LaCasa is
one of the true masters of working with field recordings." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
W2 (1998-2008) |
do-CD |
"A collection of previous released compositions and longtime sold out made between 1998 and 2008 and gather under two main theme, Water and Wind. + a few unreleased pieces. A geographic inventory, a sonic journal, a living alchemy, the pulsing of the world. With Les pierres du seuil, S'ombre, Spirale, Les oscillations, L'Inspir du rivage, Dans le feuillage du lointain, la clameur d'un bruissement, Quelque chose de cela, le désert, L'air au fond rouge, Les aubes sont navrantes." [label info]
www.herbalinternational.tk
"Essential compilation of now hard to find material from sound artist Eric La Casa, thematically separated onto two CDs around the themes of wind and water. These pieces are just as much shaped by geography as by time itself, with each track's vocabulary varying according to what was recorded then and there.
As always La Casa masterfully crafts compelling sound stories with these two elements, emphasizing narration over some purely static documentary exercise. The sound of breezes, flowing rivers, wind tunnels, rain drops and other storms are structured but never denatured, retaining all of their organic depth and beauty. Absolutely recommended, especially to those appreciative of G*Park." [Mechanoise Labs]
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC & CEDRIC PEYRONNET |
La Creuse |
CD |
LA CREUSE ist eine höchst gelungene Field Recording-Reise mit hohem Abstraktionsfaktor. Die Psychogeographie des französischen Departments LA CREUSE soll dadurch (sub)sonisch "verkörpert" und sinnlich erfahrbar werden, das Material wurde mit einem speziellen Remix- / Bearbeitungskonzept für jedes Stück konzeptualisiert. "Intelligente" Geräuschmusik aus einmaligen Klängen der Umgebung & Natur, fantastisch arrangiert !
"Our project is defined by its aim: to represent in sonic terms, and in duo, a particular environment – a triangular area in the north of the Creuse département in central France. In the first place, based on cartographic representations, we set about breaking down the chosen territory, an area between the Petite Creuse and Grande Creuse rivers, into specific sites. Secondly, we placed the map ‘under surveillance’, as it were, conducting sonic surveys in the selected sites. These surveys led us to a geophonic approach, each based on a development of specific auscultatory techniques, in which the wealth of sounds collected nourished our research into (sonic) territoriality.
The aim of the project was not to replace image with sound but to give that which surrounds us a (sonic) body; to give landscape a sonic corporeality. It might be that, being unrelated to notions of admiration that go hand in hand with seeing, a sonic evaluation can go some way towards confounding our a priori notions of landscape. Thirdly, the resulting data gave rise to an ensemble of exchanges/interactions, enabling formal variations. For one of these formalisations, musical composition, we chose the following protocol: each site was given a musical interpretation by a composer, his work being based on the site’s specific sound-bank. The composer then sent his piece to a second who, with recourse to his own bank of sounds, responded to the first interpretation. The second composer redefined the composition, adding his own sounds also. The final interpretation, therefore, is based as much on the layered listenings and recordings formed at the site itself as the musical conceptions of each individual." [label notes]
"As far as I remember I've never been to the area where Cedric Peyronnet (also better known as Toy Bizarre) and Eric La Casa recorded their work, the Creuse department in central France - maybe I saw it today when watching the Tour de France. However there is a booklet with this CD with pictures of the area, and in each picture there is a pair of microphones to be spotted. This is as close as you can make field recordings visual I guess. A pity that the booklet, a diary it seems, is all in French, with some general English translation on the cover. The area was divided into several specific sites which were recorded by one, and then sent to the other to work on it, to interpret the place. And vice versa of course. Each piece is started by one, finished by the other. Its not easy to hear who did what, but I think that the pieces finished by Peyronnet have a minimal subtle electronic manipulations, and that La Casa's pieces are entirely made with field recordings. I might be wrong however and no electronic processing took place. We hear rain, wind, footsteps and sounds from water, objects and other sonic events which are hard to be placed somewhere in terms of what one could recognize. Even when this is divided into nine pieces, it's best enjoyed as a complete picture: listen from start until the end, sit back and transport yourself through time and space - time is the length of the CD and the place is La Creuse. This rural and forest area is pictured quite well before your very eyes. A very refined work." [FdW / Vital Weekly ]
www.herbalinternational.tk
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET |
Inscape. Lille-Flandres |
CD |
"Es ist möglich mit ALLEN Orten Musik zu machen" - getreu nach diesem Motto und ihrer Faszination für die einmalige Perspektive die jeder Ort bietet, arbeitet das französische Duo beim INSCAPE-Projekt die spezifischen Klänge eines Platzes, Areals oder Gebäudes heraus. Bei diesen Aufnahmen vom AUDIOFRAMES-Festival in Lille (Oktober 2004) wurden an bestimmten Punkten des Auftrittsortes (ein altes Postgebäude) akustische Informationen eingesammelt und kunstvoll in "real time" zusammengeführt. So verbinden sich Aussengeräusche (Straße, Eisenbahn, Bahnhofslautsprecher, etc) mit denen im Innern des Gebäudes, Regen, und so weiter, zu einer einmaligen Komposition.
Wer urbane Field Recordings mag, sollte bei INSCAPE unbedingt ein Ohr riskieren!
Since 2003, their Inscape project, based on site-specific listening installations, has resulted in concerts from the United States to Australia via France. The project has been expanded in recent times to include installations in art galleries presented in conjunction with the ephemeral work of video-artist Yvan Clédat. Since, in our collaborations, we have worked principally on the notion of 'background noise', defined at once as that which designates a specific place (each place, each point defined by the uniqueness of its background noise, its own distribution of sounds, frequencies, textures etc.) and as that which remains when the sonic ensemble which dominates our attention (that which might ordinarily be said to 'interest' us) has been removed from the mass of sounds we hear, our projects are based on the idea that an analogy structures the relations between site, sound and reception, or hearing, of those sounds: sounds come at us, flood our ears in 360¡, defining as they do so a centre - which is none other that of the listening body. However, that centre remains a postulate, defined as it is from outside to in, from sound's invisible horizon. Instinctively, we define a site as such (or are unable to define it otherwise): as a spatial totality, centred on a point, moving or otherwise, inhabited or not.' 'Inscape-Lille-FLandres' was presented in Lille (Northern France) as part of the 2004 Audioframes Festival (October 2004)." [label info]
"Much more information, in English, can be found on the release by Inscape, the duo of Eric LaCasa and Jean-Luc Guionnet. As Inscape they deal with 'site-specific listening installations', 'principally on the notion of 'background noise'. The review of their CD can never really deal with all the implications of their project (otherwise I'd be retyping the entire booklet), but they more or less scan the environment where a project is by means of audio and video, which are used in a live concert or an installation piece. 'Lille-Flanders' was made in 2004 at a disused postal sorting office, now a cultural space and a list of sounds is in the booklet. Best is to sit back and let the music just roll about. Cars passing, trains, water meter, the rain falling, incidental music from the nearby train station etc. Its all there. Other than LaCasa's solo work, this is more a collage like approach on sounds, with a bit more rapid mixing than in his solo work. It makes a small, but significant difference and it makes a beautiful piece of music. A very fine and solid work of field recordings." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.monotyperecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC / JEAN-LUC GUIONNET / PHILIP SAMARTZIS |
Soleil d'Artifice |
CD |
Kaum zu beschreibende / zu erfassende Studio-Aufnahmen der drei Klangforscher, die - basierend auf einigen gemeinsamen Konzerten - Orts-spezifische Klänge von Räumen, Field Recordings, elektronische Sounds und Instrumentalklänge benutzen für ihre spannenden und jegliche Genredefinitionen sprengenden Geräusch-Felder zwischen Stille, Drone, Mikrosound & Field Recording...
"The trio of Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Philip Samartzis first performed in Australia in July 2005 during Liquid Architecture 6 where they presented a series of surround-sound concerts in Melbourne and Brisbane. Their aim was to formulate a set of responses that addressed the specific spatial and acoustic dynamics comprising each site of presentation through improvised exchanges, microphones and electronics, and multi-channel diffusion. The trio resumed their investigations between April and June 2007 through a series of concerts in France, Germany and the Czech Republic, which were used to interrogate form, space and time using a revised set of strategies around location sound, amplification, diffusion, and real-time processing within improvised exchanges. Their intention was to explore the interplay between sonic articulation and spatial intervention to afford alternating states of awareness between musical and non-musical sound to demonstrate the complex set of acoustic and spatial interactions occurring between the constructed and the natural. Soleil d'artifice is a culmination of these investigations. Recorded june 22th 2007 at studio-KOUZ (Paris). Mixed and mastered by Philip Samartzis, November 2007. Jean-Luc Guionnet : extended saxophone. Eric La Casa : microphones, prepared recordings, laptop. Philip Samartzis : electronics, field recordings, laptop." [label info] |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA COMUNIDAD |
Bastion 23 |
CD |
"second release of LC / german power electronics meets ambient noise parts in a mixture of noise / strength by political provokation" [label info]
"Control, Slogun, Sickness, MZ412 they all have something in common with La Comunidad . the pure fucking brutality and angry that these units can project. There is nothing happy or hopeful about this release. This German force are not a happy lot. This is about the disgust of ones world and surrounding and how a single source submits it to anyone that will listen. Not all of La Comunidad is full on noise sometimes there is a very suffocating Death Ambient assault going on here. You need to listen to the speeches and spoken word movements as much as the backdrop of the music to get the full picture.
La Comunidad likes the thought of War, Pain and Dispair. That much is very simple. Its not this vision alone that makes La Comunidad any more interesting then the bands listed above. What makes them a bit more out there is the distance and isolationist feel you get when listening to this. La Comunidad aren't to make this recording for your. Your here so someone can hear the deconstruction of a human soul on the bring of either greatness or insanity. Your never really sure and I hope to never find out. Just let the extremity of it all take you and change for ever.
L White has presented La Comunidad in a wonderful A5 full color 4 panel card package. The only thing is limiting it to 300 copies after all this hard work. L white is the Harsh Industrial/ Noise/ Power Electronic fans best friend as they give an outlet to very amazing projects such as there were others would never even look at them. Thank you for this L White and keep up the pain inducing release as I know I will keep on listening." [Clint Listing]
label-website: www.l.white-records.de
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA MORTE YOUNG / DRONE ELECTRIC LUST (DEL) |
split |
LP |
"A split with La Morte Young and Drone Electric Lust. File under psychedelic rock, experimental, drone.
La Morte Young is the meeting of Talweg (Eric Lombaert, drums + Joelle Vinciarelli, voice) + Nappe (Christian Malfray, electronics + Pierre Faure, electric guitar and tape delay) + Sun Stabbed (the same Pierre Faure + Thierry Monnier, electric guitar and tapes). Recorded live at 102, Grenoble, in May 2014 by Pali Meursault.
Drone Electric Lust is Kjell Runar Jenssen, drums, electronics + Lasse Marhaug, electronics + Per Gisle GalŒen and Fredrik Ness Sevendal, guitars.
A coproduction between Doubtful Sounds, Apartment Records, Dysmusie, Pica Disk, Killer and Up Against the Wall, Motherfuckers!" [label info]
doubtfulsounds.info |
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| LA NOMENKLATUR |
Le Triomphe de la Volonte |
CD |
"This was the ultimate composing in the 86-92 period. The martial side, and above all, the title of the project might not be interpreted like an adherence to the nazi propaganda as we can see it in the Leni Riefenstahl movie. Passion for cinema was greater than anything else. This project included all the emotions of a movie like drama, tears, violence, fear, and decision. Some tracks were in keeping with the life of the composer, and specially his romantic violences... a turning point in his life... like Leni Riefenstahl understood it later when the story of the cinema agreed with her, but not the History of mankind.
It was also the project of the renunciation because La NomenKlatur have seen a great deal of life like Minamata before it. The second part of the musical expression closed up. Silence was here for a long time.
Today, there is a true desire to retrieve the NomenKlaTurian accents because the history of our world in trouble gives some real elements for the new musical power of that band.... war, aggreed in the broad sense of the word, the one that Artaud use to define act of creation, would be the concrete expression of a wonderful horrible musical sense." [label info]
|
1992 |
€8.00 |
|
| LA POUPEE VIVANTE |
same |
LP |
"Four mouvements of electro-acoustic and vocal poetry projecting luminous shadows of a decadent fin de siècle. Performed by Timo van Luijk, Frédérique Bruyas and Arlette Aubin. Edition of 300 copies with printed inner sleeve." [label info]
www.lasciedoree.be
"Of a different nature is the music by La Poupee Vivante, which is apparently something new by Van Luijk, together with Arlette Aubin and Frederique Bruyas. The latter worked with Raymond Dijkstra before on a similar album of concrete sounds and poetry. Upon listening to this album, I could easily think Dijkstra had something to do with this too, as the improvised nature of these pieces may suggest such a thing. The electro-acoustic component is mainly small objects, a tuba or some other wind instrument, and lots of echo/delay on some of these. Not everything is played with great care, as some of this is rather loosely played; improvised for sure, and perhaps made by editing down lengthy sessions of this kind of. That makes that this album is less atmospheric and moody, but more experimental, or even industrial in some way, with all of this echo/delay manipulation. It's very hard to figure out what these poems are about, but that surely is one of those things that add that bit of atmospherics to this. It's not music with continuous spoken word, but rather finely scattered around the music. More music than poetry, I would think. Certainly altogether a more surreal record than the new Elodie one. Both of them are great, however, in their own respective fields. I didn't prefer one to the other, as both had fine quality in their own right. Fans of Raymond Dijkstra might take notice of La Poupee Vivante!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| LA STPO (La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux) |
Le Combat Occulte |
CD |
Rares und live-Material dieser französischen « Avant Post-Punk »-Band, die in ihrer aktiven Zeit ingesamt mehr als 30 Mitglieder hatte!! Anklänge an DDAA (die erste Single von LA STPO erschien übrigens 1986 auf Illusion Production!), VOLCANO THE BEAR, und die wildesten RECOMMENDED RECORDS-Sachen.....Grosse weirde wilde DADA-Energie!
“It's strange to think that a score of years ago the world was just emerging from the last of its new wave haze, only to enter a brave new era of over produced, digitally recorded schlock. La STPO was borne into this miasma of mediocrity with knives out. They have remained bastions of outré ever since their bloodied birth. Vive La STPO! To celebrate two decades of one of the finest, most fractured & indefatigable European avant post punk bands, BlRR has nailed together this 11 track retrospective of 7300 days in the life of La STPO. & rather than trying to shape this into some sort of "best of" or "greatest hits," BlRR & La STPO have done the reverse by leaning more heavily in on the group's more exploratory moments. This also makes for a better album that, in its own skewed way, fits together as if all recorded in the same session. As presented here, La STPO are truly Rock In Opposition. Unlike their Zeuhl spewing forbears, however, STPO are not trying to fuse jazz & rock. Their rock is in opposition of all things safely established, including Rock In Opposition. Jagged & bleated arrangements with familiar rock instrumentation clash to form screaming, dada-pregnant, contorted punk concertos. Oddly timed & full of changes, this is music to fall down escalators to. Sometimes this is music to lay at the bottom of escalators to. Just as your fingers begin to snap, STPO leaps off the page into a droning menace. A cadence of broken buzzsaw guitar hums ejaculate into soft & staggering staccato strings. La STPO's propensity for quiet tension gives the tumult of their caterwauls that much more weight. The vocalist is as likely to coo & chirp as he is to chant & caw. Reeds, vibes & trumpets walk freely with the rest, making this as dynamic & interesting a record as one could hope for in this hopelessly metering post rock era. Any group that can take The Ex to task & come out singing an aria afterwards is certainly worth falling down an escalator for.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Le Combat Occulte |
LP |
Stark limitierte Vinyl-Version! Rares und live-Material dieser französischen « Avant Post-Punk »-Band, die in ihrer aktiven Zeit ingesamt mehr als 30 Mitglieder hatte!! Anklänge an DDAA (die erste Single von LA STPO erschien übrigens 1986 auf Illusion Production!), VOLCANO THE BEAR, und die wildesten RECOMMENDED RECORDS-Sachen...
Grosse weirde wilde DADA-Energie!
“It's strange to think that a score of years ago the world was just emerging from the last of its new wave haze, only to enter a brave new era of over produced, digitally recorded schlock. La STPO was borne into this miasma of mediocrity with knives out. They have remained bastions of outré ever since their bloodied birth. Vive La STPO! To celebrate two decades of one of the finest, most fractured & indefatigable European avant post punk bands, BlRR has nailed together this 11 track retrospective of 7300 days in the life of La STPO. & rather than trying to shape this into some sort of "best of" or "greatest hits," BlRR & La STPO have done the reverse by leaning more heavily in on the group's more exploratory moments. This also makes for a better album that, in its own skewed way, fits together as if all recorded in the same session. As presented here, La STPO are truly Rock In Opposition. Unlike their Zeuhl spewing forbears, however, STPO are not trying to fuse jazz & rock. Their rock is in opposition of all things safely established, including Rock In Opposition. Jagged & bleated arrangements with familiar rock instrumentation clash to form screaming, dada-pregnant, contorted punk concertos. Oddly timed & full of changes, this is music to fall down escalators to. Sometimes this is music to lay at the bottom of escalators to. Just as your fingers begin to snap, STPO leaps off the page into a droning menace. A cadence of broken buzzsaw guitar hums ejaculate into soft & staggering staccato strings. La STPO's propensity for quiet tension gives the tumult of their caterwauls that much more weight. The vocalist is as likely to coo & chirp as he is to chant & caw. Reeds, vibes & trumpets walk freely with the rest, making this as dynamic & interesting a record as one could hope for in this hopelessly metering post rock era. Any group that can take The Ex to task & come out singing an aria afterwards is certainly worth falling down an escalator for.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Wir schwitzen Blumen / La STPO in Concerts |
LP |
"IF you’re shy, you especially need to pay attention in not too much exposing yourself!
Our illustrious society - the best-kept secret of the experimental musics in Rennes ! - skips away continuously for almost 30 years behind folding screens in the shape of sea horses, pieces deceiving the hearing and other fancies fruits of their harmonious inventiveness. The oblique, kinematic and double - bottomed compositions of the STPO join just as much the lineage of a certain 'rock in opposition' over-subtle and deserving the legacy of Albert Marcoeur and Etron Fou Leloublan for the texts and the odd atmospheres, as for the overexcited energy of the post-punk, like The Pop Group, or for the vocal eccentricities à la David Thomas from Pere Ubu!
This anthology of tracks, live recorded by KdB between 2006 and 2009 during three memorable concerts, because yes! our Shy society members are really great performers, reveal their capacity of this combo from Rennes to transform these long and over-subtle pieces in real playlets in which every musician embodies various roles, under the leadership of Pascal Godjikian, polymorphic storyteller who perspires of beautiful intensity. "Wir Schwitzen Blumen" presents five live pieces taken from the recent concert set of La STPO. "I Cuento Blumen" and "The Sound Of The City Seems Not To Disappear" come both from the album " Tranches de Temps Jeté / Slices of Thrown) time " released in 2005 on the american label Beta-Lactam Ring Records. The piece " Le Minisme " was recorded in 2009 for the compilation CD of the french label In-Poly-Sons " We All Believe in Utopia " ;; " La Vallée des Empreintes / The Valley of Imprints " a live track from the same period engraved here for the first time on a record, to our bigger satisfaction ! As for " Le Femme Immortel ", funny miniature between glossolalias and Dada choral singing, immortalized for the first time on a now impossible to find maxiCD, it is a vestige of their stage set of the 80s which they go on playing from time to time. So immerse yourself without further delay in the fantasy of this densely populated micro-society and rather than get lost in trying to raise the current direction of these river like compositions, let yourself be carried by the lush sonic textures and the inventiveness of the orchestrations of La STPO that function like lines of flight. Following the conclusion of the good doctor Faustroll: "What, however, should attract the attention of the naturalist, are some unexpected gaps, in no doubt spontaneous, of the bird to escape the net: here there is certainly an atavistic revival, and perhaps a return to wild instincts." [label info]
kdbrecords.free.fr
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
L'Imparfait multiple de Dieu |
CD |
"This is the band’s 7th full album – they have been around for nearly 30 years now and have always been difficult to classify, playing a weird mix of electronics, 80′s RIO & post-punk music. Just like Ptose, another French band of the era, they have often been compared to the Residents, although their music has a much rockier edge . On this brand new album, they show their most avant-prog side, notably on the very long opening track (27 minutes!). The music is very composed, with long instrumental moments, and is more melodic than before (in their own twisted way, of course) . Featuring guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, voice. Think Faust, Officer!, Pere Ubu, The Work, This heat… This odd territory being explored here for the very first time by Soleil Mutant, no need to say that we are very enthousiast about this recording!" [label info]
www.soleilzeuhl.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Les Explositionnistes |
CD |
"The ‘Shy peoples society at the parade of the birds’ (STPO) have been around since 1984 and I have had the pleasure to write about their intriguing music previously. It has been a while though, as La STPO’s last album ‘Les Liquidateurs’ was released three years ago. This album, ‘Les Explositionnistes’, note a trend in titles, was in fact recorded between 1993 and 1995 and first released in 1995. This
new release is a re-mastered version of the 1995 edition. Unfortunately I cannot compare the sound to the original version, but the new version on Exklageto sounds clear and direct. The shy people number (around) six and to me have always formed an intriguing link between say the archaic beauty of Déficit Des Annees Anterieures (with whom they share a home country, in this instance France, as well as a
love of four letter abbreviations - DDAA) and Magma (who also hail from France – let’s face it; where else would you find a big band playing prog-jazz mixed with avant-garde?). This album adds to their catalogue of unpredictable, eclectic, high-energy music. ‘Les Explositionnistes’ listens like an art
manifesto; several tracks are dedicated to/inspired by artists such as Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Barnett Newman, Asger Jorn and Lyonel Feiniger. The last name was a new one to me; Feiniger being a turn-of-the-century (we’re talking 1900 here) representative of Expressionism, which makes perfect sense in
the world of les explositionnistes. The cover is clear on the subject; depicted are a number of people (shy people?) who have just attached a bomb to a painting, ready to blow up the art world – ‘les explositionnistes’ indeed! Blowing up the art world is one thing, in fact the artists mentioned earlier certainly did, but what about blowing up the music world? Is La STPO the musical ‘explositionnistes’?
You could argue that La STPO plays expressionistic music: it bounces all over the place, energetic and devoid of basic musical ‘rules’ such as ‘try to keep one tempo per song’ or ‘do not create any complex breaks’. Good. Their songs are played on traditional instruments, such as guitar, bass, drums,
woodwind etcetera. There are no soundscapes or drones to be found, which in a sense is refreshing. As said, the music, especially when the tempo slows down, reminds me of DDAA, a group of artists I dearly love and on whose label, Illusion Production, La STPO released an EP in the 80s. But to be honest, La STPO (which my auto correct annoyingly keeps auto changing to STOP) rarely slow down. The music keeps a nervous, jumpy and unnerving edge throughout its ten songs. It reminds me at times of the
organized chaos of say The Mothers of Invention. Les Explositionnistes is exactly that: an explosive mix of instruments, structure and sound, aurally exhausting (to me), but rewarding – blowing up the world of music is something La STPO is more than capable of." [FK/Vital Weekly] |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA STPO (SOCIETE DES TIMIDES A LA PARADE DES OISEAUX) |
Tranches de temps jete (Slices of thrown time) |
LP |
Für jeden Recommended Records- und „AvantRock“-Fan ein MUSS, das neue Album dieser ungewöhnlichen Band, die auf französisch singen, sprechen und schreien und musikalisch fast schon theatralisch zu nennende „Szenen“ entwerfen, die irgendwo zwischen Geräuschmusik, Filmmusik & Experimental-Rock liegen.... wobei jedes Stück bis ins kleinste Detail ausgearbeit ist !
Nicht nur höchst kurzweilig, sondern auch anspruchsvoll und ästhetisch tönen diese Aufnahmen, die bereits im Jahre 2000 gemacht wurden...
Dies die limitierte Vinyl-Version....
“Ed. of 325 copies. Vol. 3 of Records are not for Baking In the midst of the world's fascination with so-called Electroclash, leave it to the old school to really show what post-punk is really about, while simultaneously turning the concept on its fractured head. LA STPO has the finesse and invention and the je ne c'est quoi to massage its victims into a quiet trance, only to pummel them seconds later. Slices Of Throw Time is like a Van Der Graaf arc between the bombast of Blurt/Ex/Dog Faced Hermans/Contortions/Birthday Party and the subtle, avant-composerly moments of Henry Cow/This Heat/Univers Zero/Faust. The punchy rhythm section, abetted by the squawky horns, makes for a music to which one can truly contort. LA STPO's musical muscle, however, is always backed up by solid jazz/classical informed chops that can and will chop any lesser outfit into nothing more than a pile of over-loud rock and roll dust. LA STPO infuses their punk with dynamics of both volume and texture, producing a slightly zeuhl flavoured post rock, which should, by all rights, land Slices Of Throw Time on many a critic's year end top 10 list. We all know this will not likely happen, but hopefully there is enough room in YOUR top ten list for rock that both rocks and explores.” [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2006 |
€17.00 |
|
| LAABAN, ILMAR |
Ankarkättingens slut är sängens början |
CD |
Obscure Swedish sound-poetry with some very old recordings, from one of the lesser known artists in this field where meaning of words meets with the noise of words... Comes with nice gold-embossed small book with texts, pictures and graphics, all in Swedish !
“Ilmar Laaban´s poetry, practically a class in itself in Sweden, traverses linguistic borderlands where words can get split and torn apart, reduced to something beyond words, perhaps more universal than words, but where the various components can just as often be reassembled in new words. The cycle of destruction and construc- tion always fascinated Laaban the word-wright and word-kneader, going through it over and over again to find the cracks and clefts from which an unexpected spring might well forth.” Like Tristan Tzara he holds to the maxim "thought is born in the mouth. Laaban´s poetry, which gives sound and form to the subconscious, is a poetry of utterance, and therefore speaks for itself. But the appended compilation of statements on the subject, from the writer himself, nevertheless offer a rewarding insight into his poetic method and reveal much about the associative pathways down which his imagination has wandered. This CD begins with two examples of Labaan´s surrealist recitation from the 40´s and 50´s, followed by some of his polyphonic text-sound poetry (which he started in 1967), and finally some sound poems from the 90´s. Ilmar Laaban was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1921. He studied Romanic languages at the university of Tartu and musical composition at the Tallinn conservatory. To avoid being drafted into Hitler´s army he fled to Sweden in 1943. He had already been writing surrealist poetry in Estonia, and continued in the same vein in Sweden, supporting himself as a freelance culture and art reviewer. His grasp and overview of the international art arena gave him an important role as a guide and source of inspiration for many artists who came in contact with him, not the least those in the circle around Fylkingen.” [label info]
www.fylkingen.se
|
1998 |
€12.50 |
|
| LABFIELD |
Fishforms |
CD |
Ein neuer Name für die Impro-Drone-Szene, dieses skandinavische Duo, die mit indischen "Sruti" und "Saranghi"-Boxen wunderbar füllige Drones erzeugen (klingt nach Harmonium oder endlosen Sitar-Loops), die sich in endlosen Wellen und Obertönen fortbewegen, dabei aber sehr nah und konkret erscheinen. Subtile Bass-Dumm Percussion wird eingesetzt, (was meist auch einen low-freq Drone ergibt, der aber unruhiger schwingt ) und in Stück 2 ist eine Folk-artige Akustikgitarre zu hören, ... sehr schönes Debut (von zwei etablierten Leuten aus der Impro-/Jazz Szene)!
" 'Phanta Rhei’ - everything flows. Whatever else might happen, life hurtles on and everything follows its natural course. Music is also subject to these ineluctable laws. While often breaking the mould, when everything is in its right place, the music follows its own course. As it does in the little experimental cabins of Laboratory Field, or LabField for short. This Scandinavian monster collective consisting of David Stackenäs (guitars, electronics) and Ingar Zach (percussion) knows exactly how to manipulate sound. At the same time, Ingar Zach is also creating a big stir with three-piece kindred spirits Huntsville.
Not fussed about getting their hands dirty, Stackenäs and Zach dig for sounds of gold with successful results. Sound waves emanate from their instruments slowly. This unstoppable flood of sound is not distinguished by brute force but rather by its boundless subtlety and inventiveness. The listener will completely find themselves submerged by an overwhelming stream. Bottrop-Boy is proud to release LabField’s first sound experiments onto the world.
Swedish guitarist Stackenäs and Norwegian percussionist Zach are known names in the European improvisation scene. They previously worked together in three-piece TRI DIM, together with saxophonist Håkon Kornstad. Two years later, Stackenäs and Zach decided to work as a duo, deciding on a radically different course. Improvisation, sound art, minimal music and drones are fused to form a completely unique style of performing. Zach plays, among other instruments, the unique electronic sruti and saranghi boxes. This is music that evolves quietly and often refers to the dronescapes of free improv pioneers such as AMM. The sounds which Stackenäs manages to conjure up from his guitars are unprecedented: softly humming, viciously rattling and intensely meditative. Zach answers these sounds with the hypnotic pulse of his bass drum and electronic sruti box. This is improvisational music replete with sounds branching in unpredictable directions and slowly smouldering drones. An aural rite of passage fit for these modern times." [label info]
"....The 24 minute opener “Gin” is built around the sustained presence of Zachs sruti and saranghi boxes – electronic facsimiles of Indian harmonium and fiddle, respectively. With these blissed out vibrations, augmented by bells and the sparse isolated booms of a bass drum, it has the feel of a slowly unfolding devotional ritual, but it’s saved from descending into ersatz spiritual tourism by Stäckenas’s jarring embellishments. Even without seeing him at work, it’s probably safe to assume Stäckenas is operating out of the Keith Rowe school of unconventionally manipulated tabletop electric guitar, producing grating textures resembling the hum and drill of an overworked air conditioning unit or the piercing whine of a wineglass rim.
For “Rin”, he switches to acoustic, with simple strumming phasing in and out of sync in left and right channels and a three note melody picked out on slide guitar – creating a satisfying mash of Country, raga and contemporary music that recalls Zach’s other trio, Huntsville. But, with the throbbing, sruti-drenched “Showa”, the album returns to its core mission to explore the bottomless reaches of drone, discovering dark, euphoric realms along the way." [Daniel Spicer / THE WIRE]
"... On the risk of being accused (again) that I heard this only once, I must say that the work he produced as LabField with Stackenäs is great. Absolutely great. Zach plays bass drum, percussion, electronic scruti-box and electronic saranghi-box and Stackenäs plays acoustic guitars, resonator guitar, preparations and low budget electronics. With a background in improvisation you would expect careful, quiet, intimate playing - and in a way they do that. But it's not tender, soft or hardly outspoken. I suggest putting the volume up and get immersed by their wall of machine sounds. They play their instruments using all sorts of motors, fans or other mechanized instruments to create a natural resonating yet acoustic sound. Especially in 'Gin', the opening track which spans two-third of the entire CD this works wonderfully well. Dense to bone (mm, that's no expression)... dense like clouds, like being in a factory and one hears all the machines humming at once. Not deafening loud, but well constructed, balanced, varied, not from one point of the factory, but one has the feeling of walking about, hearing new aspects of the machines or new combination of the machines. By contrast 'Gin', the shortest piece, is a like bridge between that and 'Showa', soft tinkling guitars and percussive sounds, until things start to heat up again for the final piece. Hardly improvised sounding at all, this is sophisticated drone music of an outstanding order." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LABRADFORD |
E luxo so |
CD |
“The fifth album from the flagship of the kranky fleet and (dare we say it) one of the most important bands in the world. "E luxo so" (grab your Portuguese-English dictionary) was recorded at Sound of Music studios in Richmond, VA like Labradford and Me media naranja and features contributions from a string quartet (Chris Johnston, Craig Markva, Jamie Evans and Jonathan Morken) and Peter Neff on dulcimer. Subtle blips of percussion and samples interweave through blurry guitars, bubbly electric piano and plangent organ and some gorgeous piano. Six songs. Labradford stand alone.“[label info]
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mi Media Naranja |
CD |
Ihr viertes Album von 1997, instrumentale, einsame, melancholische Wüsten-Psychedelik.
"With their fourth album, Labradford have once again broadened and varied their sound, while maintaining their distinctive identity. Mi Media Naranja adds a string section, Fender Rhodes electric piano and slide guitar to the trio's sound bank. It is the most cinematic of Labradford's recordings to date. The music alternately stretches, ripples or lofts its way past the listener as if it was coming off a screen and not through speakers. The sounds here are reminiscent of John Barry, Bill Evans and most of all, Labradford." [label info]
“....It's downright cinematic. There's simply no doubt about it. And yet, it's infinitely more interesting than anything John Williams ever wrote. Labradford have invented the musical equivilent of the mysteriously abandoned small town. Old signs hang loosely from their creaky hinges, most of the windows have been smashed out and the wind seems to blow harder than normal. It brings you down in a comforting way, like you've just stumbled across an old picture of a four-year-old you and your since deceased mother. More accurately, Naranja's like traveling the dusty backroads of Athens, Georgia and finding Michael Stipe and Vic Chesnutt laying dead in the dirt. Initially, you're shocked and horrified. Then you realize you're gonna be on MTV News. Luckily, Labradford seem content to let you tag along on their tragic magic carpet ride through seven untitled tracks of middle- of- nowhere lonliness accentuated by the reverb of twangy guitars and pianos. Just don't talk.“[Ryan Schreiber, Pitchforkmedia]
“.....Labradford moves into the desert, with this soundtrack for driving down dirt highways and through abandoned towns with the word "gulch" in their name. "Mi..." is a beautiful record that is much more pleasant to listen to than their previous efforts. The cold, experimental touches the trio worked into their music are still there, but subdued and downplayed.” [Opuszine]
|
1997 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Fixed/Context |
CD |
"Das neue Album der beliebten Ambient/Post-Rock-Band, diesmal sehr minimal und zart, wenig songorientiert, dafür eine sehr sanfte, magisch-dronige Atmosphäre..
...Very minimal and sad, with long droney sequences.... 4 long tracks, produced by Steve Albini." [Drone Records info 2001]
"To record their sixth album, the members of Labradford met in Chicago to work with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in June 1999. fixed::context finds the trio stripping off the string trios of the last two albums and working with interlocking sound sources and modifiers; Carter Brown's vintage synthesizers, organs and electric piano, the distinctive Duane Eddy plays Satie guitar of Mark Nelson and Bobby Donne's four and six string basses. Beginning with the 16 minute 'Twenty', Labdradford demonstrate grasp of the dialectic between organic sound sources, digital processing and composition. The guitar duet 'Up To Pizmo' shows a refocusing on basic elements like melody and twang while samples pulse below and keyboards waft above." [label info]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| LAGOWSKI |
Redesine+ |
CD |
"Following last year's reissue of Legion's "False Dawn" in anniversary 2CD edition, Andrew Lagowski returns to Zoharum with an album of new music. It is his first physical album in 7 years under his own surname following "Temporary Distractions" released in 2006.
A very strong release in Lagowski's discography and one of the best releases in Zoharum catalogue. Mastering: Łukasz Miernik
This release is presented in 6-panel ecopak and is strictly limited to 300 copies worldwide." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| LAIBACH |
Bremenmarsch: Live At Schlachthof, 12.10.1987 |
LP + CD |
"Laibach is art, but more than just art. Founded on 1st June 1980 in the then heavy industrial Yugoslavian town of Trbovlje (today a city in central Slovenia), the band took their name after the German designation of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana which was undesirable in Yugoslavia during the Tito's and post-Tito era. In 1987 Laibach signed a long-term contract with Daniel Miller's renowned London Mute Label and had finally found their musical home. The artists roster of Mute included such well-known artists as Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Erasure, Yazoo, Moby and also Kraftwerk. From now on the commercial success story of Laibach could also be written. Mute released Opus Dei. The album includes, inter alia, a specific 'Laibach' - interpretation of 'Live Is Life', the big single hit of the Austrian group Opus (one as a German version under the name 'Leben heißt Leben' as well as an English version under the title 'Opus Dei') and also the interpretation of the Queen track 'One Vision' (in German under 'Geburt einer Nation'). The sound of Laibach had become more commercial, the avant-garde and industrial parts gave way in favour to Laibach's 'militant classicism', the band had found its style. Laibach went on tour, now playing in larger halls and clubs in Germany. On 12th October 1987 Laibach made a stop at the Bremen Schlachthof. Here the live album Bremermarsch was recorded, which is now released 33 years later. In spring 2020 Laibach edited the 'old' original recordings and digitally mastered them in their studio. The recordings sound fresh and unspent, the sound is great, the mood in the audience as well. And that Laibach is performing the 'hits' such as 'Die Liebe', 'Life is Life' and 'Geburt einer Nation' ('Birth of a Nation') can almost be taken for granted."
www.mig-music.de/en/laibach-bremenmarsch-live-at-schlachthof-12th-october-1987-news/
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
| LAINHART, RICHARD |
Ten Thousand Shades of Blue |
do-CD |
meditative drone compositions from this US composer, to discover !
“ Lainhart¹s music rings true to the spirit of possibility that once defined electronic music. It brings with it a sense of past, present and future that transcends time, technology and cultural assumptions. It¹s a music that is beholden to no one, yet informed by a diverse sphere of appreciations, rich in both intellectual and emotional interest, at once distant and interior, actual and implied. The works on this disc are for (variously): multitracked, processed bowed tam-tam; multitracked, processed bowed Japanese temple bells; multitracked, processed voice; realtime interactive computer music system with bowed and struck vibraphone; and vibraphone.” [label info]
Experimental Intermedia website: www.xirecords.org
|
2001 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
White Night |
CD |
minimal ambience recorded 1974 ! Edition of 500
Ein wunderschön schimmernder, fast 30minütiger Drone von 1974 offenbart sich auf WHITE NIGHT, der aus vier sich umtänzelnden, schwingenden Tönen besteht. Obwohl hierzu Sinus-Töne auf einem MOOG-Synthesizer kreiert wurden, ergeben sich Obertöne und eine "wavende" Räumlichkeit, die das ganze eher nach Gitarrendrones klingen lassen, wie ihn heutzutage STARS OF THE LID oder ULTRASOUND machen...
Erschienen auf dem Label von TOBIAS FISCHER (FEU FOLLET) und MIRKO UHLIG (ex AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF).
"Back in 1974, one year before Brian Eno’s first landmark in Ambient-music, some young musician from New York wrote down a fragment of beauty’s hidden story with the minimal vocabulary of sine waves on the young black skin of a Moog synthesizer. The first release on CD features Richard Lainhart’s masterpiece in its original 29-minutes-version. There’s no single second to add, after this time everything is told though nothing has been said. Richard Lainhart about the work’s origin: "White Night" was composed and recorded in the late fall of 1974 at the State University of New York at Albany in the Coordinated Electronic Music Studio (CEMS). CEMS was created by my composition teacher Joel Chadabe with design and custom fabrication by Robert Moog and was, at the time, the largest integrated Moog modular synthesizer studio in the world. The piece consists of a dense, continuous four-note chord, each note in the chord recorded in a separate pass to one track on a Scully 4-track studio recorder. Each track consists of a single sine wave oscillator which is frequency modulated by a group of eight additional sine wave oscillators. Those oscillators are all tuned to different tones, each harmonically related to the fundamental chord tone. The amplitude of each harmonic oscillator is continuously varied under the control of an individual sequencer, and each sequencer is free-running - that is, the sequencers are not synchronized to each other, but rather running in their own independent timebases.The result is a continuously-changing complex harmonic waveform which modulates the frequency of the chord tone oscillator, generating a continuously-changing complex timbre based on the fundamental pitch of the note.
The center tone of "White Night" is 212 Hz, slightly higher than the G below Middle C. The other notes create a chord consisting of a perfect fifth below the center tone, a major seventh just below the center tone, and a major second above the center tone. "White Night" was composed without reference to the standard A-440 tuning system, as we had no such pitch reference in the studio; I just picked a center tone that felt right, and went from there. As such, "White Night" lives in its own pitch world.
The title "White Night" came about so: it was late December in upstate New York when I was finishing the piece, and a blizzard passed through town the night of the final mix. As I sat in the glow of the sequencers and tape decks in the University studio listening to the final version, I looked out the window and saw a security light on a building opposite the studio illuminating the blowing snow as it drifted off the roof. All I could see was the snow swirling in the light against the blackness; a moving painting continually drawn, erased, and redrawn, always changing, but always the same. It may sound bleak, but it wasn't - it was beautiful. It seemed to me that the image of the dancing whiteness perfectly matched the sound of the piece, and so I called it "White Night" to commemorate that evening of wind and snow." [label info]
www.exovo.org
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| LALI PUNA |
Our Inventions |
CD |
"2004 erschien ihr letztes Album "Faking The Books", dennoch ist Lali Punas Einfluss auf die elektronische Popszene immer noch spürbar. Gemeinsam mit The Notwist zeichnet die Band um Valerie Trebeljahr für moderne, experimentell angehauchte Popmusik verantwortlich. Mit "Our Inventions" rücken sie die Grenzen des Genres wieder mal ein Stück weiter. Der Song "Rest Your Head" schlägt eine souveräne Brücke zur vergangenen Bandhistorie. Hier pulsieren die Keyboards in warmen Wellen und begleiten Trebeljahrs Flüstern mit einlullenden Melodien - bis einen der Drumcomputer aus versponnenen Tagträumen reißt. Während das Vorgängeralbum förmlich auf die Bühne strebte, zeugt "Our Inventions" von intensiver, fast schon introvertierter Studioarbeit. Gleichzeitig unterstreichen Songs wie "Remember" und "Everything Is Always", was Lali Puna so besonders macht: überschwängliche Mitsingharmonien mit Feinschliff, die ihre Seele nicht hinter der Technik verstecken. Das Album schließt mit "Out There", Lali Punas Kollaboration mit Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra). //
More than half a decade has elapsed since the release of Faking The Books, Lali Puna's third (and hitherto most recent) long-player, but the band's impact on the climate of electronic rock music remains palpable. Along with sister-group The Notwist, this Weilheim quartet have helped map out the musical landscape for modern, experimentally minded pop music, and Our Inventions finds Lali Puna continuing to push the frontiers of their medium. 'Rest Your Head' serves as a perfectly poised re-introduction to the band and all they've become. Initiated by waves of glassy pulsations and warm, swelling synths, the song has the feel of a reverse-lullaby - gently winding its way through reposeful melodies, guided by the welcoming whisper of Trebeljahr's vocal until the final third kicks in with drum machine hits, and you're wide awake. While Faking The Books, with its vibrant riffs and extrovert tendencies, had the sound of a record begging to be played live, Our Inventions exhibits the hallmarks of an album spun from intensive studio-bound introspection. Two of the most explosive and ebullient songs here - 'Remember' and 'Everything Is Always' - confirm so much of what's special about Lali Puna: all the elements are at once precision engineered and delivered with absolute heartfelt conviction; perhaps never before have such jubilant pop hooks been so meticulously and fastidiously crafted, yet you can always hear the soul behind these machines. This is an album that's made for and about the modern world, concerning itself with the driving forces of progress and technological obsession. Trebeljahr's lyrics are suggestive of alienation and disenfranchisement from nature during the irony-laced title-track: "The birds in the trees/Singing our mobile melodies/What a sweet, sweet world", later stipulating that 'progress' never really gets us anywhere on 'Everything Is Always' ("Nothing new/These days"), while hinting at the ultimate bankruptcy of the all-devouring consumer age during 'Safe Tomorrow': "Never going anywhere/Don't stop by and get to know/Stuff your memory with facts/Save Save Save". The final song on the tracklist is 'Out There', a collaboration with the Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi. The version appearing here is an alternate rendering of the track that appeared on Takahashi's Page By Page album in 2009. Here Trebeljahr addresses the global financial collapse ("Their kingdom's past, their kingdom's gone/Just ruins and plain desert/It's all burnt down, we're left alone"), and sure enough, Our Inventions is a body of work that keenly engages with the concerns of its time, one that confronts the excesses and ever-accelerating pace of modernity. The sublime, virtuoso electronic arrangements of Our Inventions directly lock onto the record's recurrent key themes, depicting a world inundated with technology and consumed by a fixation on progress - simultaneously passing commentary on this state of affairs and overcoming it. When Trebeljahr intones "Things move on/I'm gonna work fast because tomorrow comes quick" it sounds like it's being sung from the perspective of someone who's already there." [label info]
www.morrmusic.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Our Inventions |
LP |
"2004 erschien ihr letztes Album "Faking The Books", dennoch ist Lali Punas Einfluss auf die elektronische Popszene immer noch spürbar. Gemeinsam mit The Notwist zeichnet die Band um Valerie Trebeljahr für moderne, experimentell angehauchte Popmusik verantwortlich. Mit "Our Inventions" rücken sie die Grenzen des Genres wieder mal ein Stück weiter. Der Song "Rest Your Head" schlägt eine souveräne Brücke zur vergangenen Bandhistorie. Hier pulsieren die Keyboards in warmen Wellen und begleiten Trebeljahrs Flüstern mit einlullenden Melodien - bis einen der Drumcomputer aus versponnenen Tagträumen reißt. Während das Vorgängeralbum förmlich auf die Bühne strebte, zeugt "Our Inventions" von intensiver, fast schon introvertierter Studioarbeit. Gleichzeitig unterstreichen Songs wie "Remember" und "Everything Is Always", was Lali Puna so besonders macht: überschwängliche Mitsingharmonien mit Feinschliff, die ihre Seele nicht hinter der Technik verstecken. Das Album schließt mit "Out There", Lali Punas Kollaboration mit Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra). //
More than half a decade has elapsed since the release of Faking The Books, Lali Puna's third (and hitherto most recent) long-player, but the band's impact on the climate of electronic rock music remains palpable. Along with sister-group The Notwist, this Weilheim quartet have helped map out the musical landscape for modern, experimentally minded pop music, and Our Inventions finds Lali Puna continuing to push the frontiers of their medium. 'Rest Your Head' serves as a perfectly poised re-introduction to the band and all they've become. Initiated by waves of glassy pulsations and warm, swelling synths, the song has the feel of a reverse-lullaby - gently winding its way through reposeful melodies, guided by the welcoming whisper of Trebeljahr's vocal until the final third kicks in with drum machine hits, and you're wide awake. While Faking The Books, with its vibrant riffs and extrovert tendencies, had the sound of a record begging to be played live, Our Inventions exhibits the hallmarks of an album spun from intensive studio-bound introspection. Two of the most explosive and ebullient songs here - 'Remember' and 'Everything Is Always' - confirm so much of what's special about Lali Puna: all the elements are at once precision engineered and delivered with absolute heartfelt conviction; perhaps never before have such jubilant pop hooks been so meticulously and fastidiously crafted, yet you can always hear the soul behind these machines. This is an album that's made for and about the modern world, concerning itself with the driving forces of progress and technological obsession. Trebeljahr's lyrics are suggestive of alienation and disenfranchisement from nature during the irony-laced title-track: "The birds in the trees/Singing our mobile melodies/What a sweet, sweet world", later stipulating that 'progress' never really gets us anywhere on 'Everything Is Always' ("Nothing new/These days"), while hinting at the ultimate bankruptcy of the all-devouring consumer age during 'Safe Tomorrow': "Never going anywhere/Don't stop by and get to know/Stuff your memory with facts/Save Save Save". The final song on the tracklist is 'Out There', a collaboration with the Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi. The version appearing here is an alternate rendering of the track that appeared on Takahashi's Page By Page album in 2009. Here Trebeljahr addresses the global financial collapse ("Their kingdom's past, their kingdom's gone/Just ruins and plain desert/It's all burnt down, we're left alone"), and sure enough, Our Inventions is a body of work that keenly engages with the concerns of its time, one that confronts the excesses and ever-accelerating pace of modernity. The sublime, virtuoso electronic arrangements of Our Inventions directly lock onto the record's recurrent key themes, depicting a world inundated with technology and consumed by a fixation on progress - simultaneously passing commentary on this state of affairs and overcoming it. When Trebeljahr intones "Things move on/I'm gonna work fast because tomorrow comes quick" it sounds like it's being sung from the perspective of someone who's already there." [label info]
www.morrmusic.com |
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| LAMMERS / USENBENZ |
Drawing in Sound |
LP |
Drawing In Sound is a live improvisation, created by sound artist Andreas Usenbenz and illustrator Christoph Lammers for the exhibition opening of "Wiese" ("meadow") by artist and curator Andreas Pytlik at Städtische Galerie Rosenheim in the spring of 2018.
Prior to the performance, the artists exchanged ideas, drawings and sound improvisations to find a way of approaching the topic of 'meadow' in the context of contemporary drawing and contemplative soundscapes. During the performance, illustrator and sound artist entered a dialogue: Usenbenz created subtle sound textures and phonographic collages of rustling hay, records, guitar sounds, field recordings, tapes and effect devices.
Lammers opened all senses to both space and sound. Reacting intuitively, focussing on the moment and with great physical effort he composed his images, formed structures from lines and shapes. Using charcoal, ink, brushes and his bare hands, he filled the 7 by 4 metre canvas, vigorously at times, then almost delicately, providing stimuli in turn picked up by Usenbenz. Ultimately, this "conversation" between the two artists gave rise to a different interpretation: Everything grows of its own accord.
Played and improvised by Andreas Usenbenz, using objects, lo-fi microphones, contact microphones, field recordings, guitar, ebow, looper, ipad, dictaphone, cassettes, tape loops, op 1, field kit. Drawn and performed on a 7 x 4 m canvas by Christoph Lammers, using different objects, ink, charcoal, brushes and his bare hands. Recorded live at Städtische Galerie Rosenheim. Additional sounds recorded and edited at home.
For this release, Lammers and Usenbenz extracted a small part of the huge artwork and carefully screenprinted every single copy by hand to the B-Side of the record. The A-Side contains the 21 miunte performance in full. The Title is handstamped on the label.
https://klanggold.bandcamp.com/album/drawing-in-sound-2
"Our regular readers may remember Ulm’s Andreas Usenbenz from Bells Breath, a lovely time-stretched recording that was also an installation. Last spring he teamed up with Munich illustrator Christoph Lammers for Drawing in Sound, a live performance during which the artists improvised with sound and brush. Now this performance has found its way to vinyl, each copy screenprinted with a segment of the original art.
The video causes one to reflect on the process of inspiration, especially one’s reaction to sound. Music can aid the focus of artists in other disciplines, from the obvious (yet often ignored) dancer in a nightclub to a choreographer to an author to a sculptor. Lammers is literally drawing in sound. Yet the feedback loop also contains Usenbenz, who reacts to Lammers’ art with additional nuances of his own: not just guitar, but tape and “rustling hay.” On the surface, one might ask, “Is this what the sound looks like?” or “Is this what the painting sounds like?” But the release offers only one interpretation; play it at home, and one may paint a different picture.
The title of the exhibition opening was “Wiese (Meadow),” which seems apt given the nature of the collaboration. Something grew out of (a seeming) nothing: curves on a white canvas, notes in a quiet room. But the value of the vinyl goes far beyond mere souvenir or objet d’art. Usenbenz’ piece is gentle and intimate, a perfect score for a new morning or a new year, a snow-covered landscape or the genesis of an artistic project. Flowing water implies life; birds the promise of spring; rustling hay the seeds of inspiration. Soft pings twinkle like stars on a clear night. As a single piece, the music allows listeners to sink into the undulations, providing deep rest or deep focus depending on the setting. When the notes eventually dissipate, the recording ends, but the creative fire has been lit." [Richard Allen/A Closer Picture] |
2018 |
€25.00 |
|
| LAMY, PHILIPPE |
Drop Diary |
CD |
"After numerous appearances on various netlabels, collabs with Pleq, and shortly after the publication of his debut solo CD “Slowfast” on Dronarivm, Philippe Lamy confirms all the hopes placed into him… Years of experience as an established painter and teacher in Plastic Arts, as well as his late coming to the music have allowed him to stand back, and feed his soundscapes with an extreme care for textures & densification…
This expert practice lead him to weave intimate bounds between his visual art, and his sound pieces…
With “Drop diary” he pushes everything further, close to some total synesthesia…
Mix of fluids, cross of breaths,
sketch of outlines, a succession of barely visible, furtive worlds…
Lines, strokes, fleeting & penetrating moments,
splinters of night…
Rubbings, drip, measure of time,
a notion of universal, permanent flux…
A way of sticking to it, be within its own heart…
Self ramifications…
Holes, folds, follow-up of curves…
The squeezed in words, dissimulated truths,
swirls, veiled cluster of stars…
So many mute guides…
A necessity of merging into, to understand,
to take on a new lease of our surroundings,
enriched by their own echoes, their murmurs…
Captured sources, origin points,
the calm of the brush, the amplitude of the move, like a gradual obviousness,
an amazing force, till going back up to the primary water, spurt of lives…
“Drop diary” records the vital impulse,
a compendium of emotions, it shows that elusive something, that essential which founds us, yet remains ungraspable…" [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
"The only time, I think, I heard of Philippe Lamy before, was when he did a remix of Pleq (see Vital Weekly 767), but here he comes up with an album of field recordings made in his painting studio and 'some sounds "outside"' as it is said on the cover. Entirely different cake here. Unlike many of the Mystery Sea recordings, the connection with 'water' is not easily made here in the music (except for some dripping in 'Au Revoir', the final piece on this release)å. Perhaps this is because there is a lot of processing applied to the music? Maybe it's because it's all quite soft? The latter for sure: this is indeed all quite soft and no doubt there is a lot of processing here. It makes that the music of Lamy is not easy to decipher. It seems there is an amount of motorized sounds, such as in 'Depot' for instance, but most of the times it's just very hard to know what is going on. The abstract level is very high here, and it results in something that is not always highly original,
but it sounds altogether pretty good and pretty intense. You have to stop doing whatever it is you're doing and listen with all your available senses to the music. You think Main here, or Kassel Jaeger, but then much softer, more pushed away and alienated, and that's mainly due to the soft spoken nature of the music. Maybe this harks back to the time when this sort of quietness was all new and great, but for me, I wouldn't have minded to have all of this a bit louder and more present. I like to play a CD straight away and not first having to fiddle around with my EQ to get the best out of it." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Entre Deux |
mCD-R |
"At first, philippe lamy is a painter and a teacher in plastic arts at the national superior school of architecture in toulouse, france. some years ago he began experimenting with music, now using his technique with soundscapes and field recordings. After numerous promising releases on various netlabels, he has recently confirmed the hopes many people placed in him with two cd releases on dronarivm and mystery sea. These two pieces were recorded and composed last year and show all his skills..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"The least dark is the release by Philippe Lamy, who also had releases on Mystery Sea, as well as Dronarivm, and bases his ambient music on the use of processed field recordings, just like Mathes does. But in Lamy's work there is room for a bit of air, a fine amount of higher pitched sounds, and is more glitch like perhaps. Maybe also a bit more abstract, with music being further removed from the original source material, which is no longer to be recognized. Maybe it's also the music that is less linear and more chopped into various bits, like an acousmatic composition. These two pieces are the most varied bits of music of these three new Taalem releases. Whereas the others are maybe more text book like ambient pieces, here we are dealing with some more in depth composition. That is not say that one is better than the other, as I quite enjoyed all three for what they are." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| LAND USE / MAURIZIO BIANCHI / PHARMAKUSTIK |
Spülfeld |
CD |
"First ever three way collaboration between Land Use (David van Ravesteijn ),Maurizio Bianchi and Pharmakusik (Siegmar Fricke).
Falsehood and misconception of mankind will be revealed.The time has come. This is the sound of Apocalypse.
Limited edition of 223 copies in slim DVD box with numbered insert." [label info]
www.menstrualrecordings.org
"If I understand well, who knows I does, Maurizio Bianchi gave up doing music and whatever is released now is just 'late'. Or not? Here we have a work - seventy minutes, one track - that has Bianchi on 'calutronic radio-sources', Land Use on 'neurotronics, manipulations' and Pharmakustik on 'atomic recombinations, photosynthesis' and the cover has, again, one of those difficult texts: "Sources of organic matter cause severe arsenic pollution. The palaeohydrological controls on contamination form the essential geochemical response within the acoustic document of Spulfeld. The geochemistry of streams received in the name of electroacoustic and concrete exploration strategy locates the source of contamination and the spread of fluid pollutants. In the case of defining environmental problems Spulfeld reveals the formational anomalies and geostatistical investigation of inorganic and organic particles". I am not sure to which Spulfeld it refers: 18546 Sassnitz or 25557 Oldenbüttel, both in Northern Germany, or just the area of 'dredged material disposal site', anywhere. Now this is the true world of ambient and industrial. Ambient since its all stretched out, as one piece of continuous electronics and industrial since its aim is not to please the listener, but to play music that perhaps depicting that wasteland, that post nuclear landscape, that bleak affair of dumping waste. The perfect soundtrack to a film depicting precisely that: dumping waste, endless lines of trucks with canisters with nuclear waste, of course in black and white. Lots of reverb, lots of synthesized sounds, but also with what seems to me a curious form electro-acoustic music. Not pleasant music but surely all elementary stuff. Not for the weak of heart and or to be played with candlelight." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LAND:FIRE |
Shortwave Transmission |
CD |
"Ist es wirklich schon fünf Jahre her seit das letzte Land:Fire-Album "Physical : Mental : Psychological" erschien? Ja, das Herbst9-Nebenprojekt von Henry Emich und Frank Merten hat tatsächlich so lang mit neuem Material auf sich warten lassen. Und trotz der grossen Zeitspanne ist das Thema des Albums ähnlich gewählt, geht es wieder um die Auswirkungen radioaktiver Techbologien. "Physical : Mental : Psychological" beschäftigte sich mit den Auswirkungen von 'Trinity', der ersten Atombombe 1945. Land:Fires neues Album "Shortwave Transmission" steckt den Rahmen etwas anders ab und beschäftigt sich mit dem Einsatz radioaktiver Substanzen in der modernen Kriegsführung, vor allem während der Kriege im Nahen Osten gegen Ende des letzten Jahrhunderts und den daraus resultierenden Folgen.
Das Duo zeichnet ein apokalyptisches Bild der Welt, das wir uns so kaum vorstellen können, waren diese Kriege doch zu weit weg oder sind schon zu lang her. Da erscheint es fast beschämend, wenn einem die Musik aus "Shortwave Transmission" gefällt. Dieses mit Sprachfetzen aus alten Aufnahmen angefüllte Inferno klingt wie der düstere Nachhall einer Menschheit, die sich selbst vernichtet hat und deren auditives Vermächtnis alles ist, was übrig geblieben ist und nun in Radiowellen transformiert durch den Äther schwebt.
Eine verlorene, einsame Melodie hallt knarzend vor sich hin. Bedrohliches Donnern macht Angst, genauso wie starkes, pulsierendes Rauschen. Blubberndes und kratzendes Grollen, von hellen, metallenen Tönen begleitet und mit unkenntlich verzerrten Sprachsamples führt zu einem abrupten Ende. Land:Fires Musik hat aber auch unweigerlich schöne Momente. Trostlosigkeit und Zerstörung sind nicht allumfassend. Der Schrei eines Raubvogels zum Beispiel oder die melancholische aber spärliche Melodie in "Most People Were Silent". Dieses Album ist eine Warnung, eine Aufforderung aufzuhören, bevor uns die Radioaktivität verschlingt. "Shortwave Transmission" ist kein Soundtrack für den Weltuntergang, sondern schon eher ein Nachruf." [Medienkonverter]
"Coming back with an all new album after more than 5 years the Alter Ego of HERBST9 delivers
another outstanding soundtrack about radiological warfare and it´s debris during the last century.
SWT is like a massive energy spike with a surrounding maelstrom of machine noises, rhythms, interferrences and electromagnetic waves. The complex arrangement of technical sounds creates a deadly atmosphere of fallout and devastated landscapes with an apocalyptic aura reflected by dissonant harmonies and deep shimmering ambient scapes. Presented in a 6 panel digipack. Mastered by Andreas Wahnmann." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"With a title like 'Short Wave Transmissions', you could perhaps easily think that the album of Land:Fire is along that of S.E.T.I. That is only partly true. There is indeed a lot of talking on this record, snippets from the radio, but the music is somewhat different. Land:Fire is an alter-ego of Herbst9, and it has been five years since he last released a record. This is all about radiological warfare, nuclear fall out and other somewhat unpleasant things in life. Here too we have some analogue synthesizers, computerized effects but also rhythm machines, which create a cold clinical and mechanical sound. That may seem like something negative, but its not. The music is very dynamic, moving back and forth between blocks of synthesized sound and soft spoken ambient textures, all spiced up with radio talk. Its not easy to say wether the music really reflects the radiological/nuclear holocaust theme (would you be aware if it wasn't told?), but there is certainly a spooky atmosphere surrounding this record. Excellent soundtrack to an imaginary film about these kind of subjects." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Incandescent Sonic Lodge |
CD |
"Re-edition of two limited CD-Rs from 2006/07 that were available on the band´s own label SWT. This edition includes the maxi CD “Incandescent” and the “Live At Sonic Lodge” CD, both originally released in very small numbers only. Now available again in a remastered and polished form. A purging, extreme listening experience that’ll leave you feeling as though you’ve just gone over an abandoned area of sonic assaults and monstrously frequency manipulation. ‘Incadescent Sonic Lodge’ is resoundingly bleak and characterised by biting distortion rhythm, with noise-oscillators and disfigured vocal samples floundering around the mix at every turn. This is another claustrophobic soundtrack of Land:Fire with dark atmospheres and fear loaded electronics with deep ambient soundscapes under it´s sonic surface." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| LANDING |
Fade In Fade Out |
maxi-CD |
"Neue Veröffentlichung der “heavenly guitar-spheres”-band, LANDING dringen hier auf 5 Stücken mit Gitarren, Echos und e-bows in endlose Weiten vor, himmelwärts schreitend und auch melancholisch-introvertiert – Bass, Percussion und Gesang erscheinen da schon fast als Beiwerk, fügen sich aber perfekt ein.
beautiful and elegant stuff ! Reminds on SLOWDIVE, LABRADFORD, FLYING SAUCER ATTACK.. 37 min !
New 5-track release, LANDING move with their music into endless heaven-spaces, very uplifting while being melancholic and introspective at the same time !!" [DRone Rec. 2002]
“ In one swoosh, Landing have constructed their finest and most representative achievement to date. Graceful and languid, Fade In/Fade Out sums up every last nuance about this band, rippling forth their detailed drone color splashes and songwriting surrealism from music made absolutely raw and in the moment. Fade In/Fade Out is the foundation to establish Landing as the humble heirs to the new space-gaze sound.” [label description]
label-website: www.strange-attractors.com
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Oceanless |
CD |
"THE new discovery in the area of spheric guitar ambient drone Rock, their second album now in stock ! Highly recommended for lovers of the genre." [Drone Rec. 2001]
“Landing is a truly vibrant, celestial-minded quartet of sound painters from Connecticut (via-Utah!). After releasing an ep (Centrifuge, 1999) and a full length CD (Circuit, 2001) on the great Music Fellowship label (responsible for recordings by The Album Leaf and Meisha), Landing touch down toting a truly mesmerizing, otherworldly document. Oceanless, their simply amazing second full length CD, is a dense canvas capturing graceful instrumental brushstrokes, lush audio pigments, and vivid surrealist portraits.” [from the press release]
label-website: www.strange-attractors.com |
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| LANE, CATHY |
The Hebrides Suite |
CD |
"How does history – past lives and past events- leave sonic traces and how can we hear them?
The Hebrides Suite is the result of an attempt to answer this question and the culmination of composer Cathy Lane’s three decade long engagement with the Outer Hebrides.
The Outer Hebrides form a 130-mile long archipelago about 40 miles off the north-west coast of Scotland. There are more than 200 islands but only a few are now inhabited. In the 2001 census the total population of the islands was 26,502. The best known of these islands are Barra (1078), Benbecula (1219), Berneray (136), North (1271), South Uist (1818) and Harris and Lewis (combined population 19,918). There has been an overall slow population decline in the islands over the last two hundred years, with peaks and troughs caused by economic and political fluctuations. In the 1840s poverty and famine lead to whole villages being evicted by landowners, often brutally, to make way for the higher profits of sheep farming. During these forced clearances many people took assisted passages to Canada and Australia and as far away as Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. In the twentieth and twenty first centuries much of the island lands are still owned by absentee landlords and the islanders’ struggles for self determination and economic and political control have continued.
The Outer Hebrides are the most strongly coherent Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) speaking area in the world. Gaelic is a Celtic language related to Welsh, Cornish and Breton. In 2001, 61.1% of the population of the Outer Hebrides spoke Gaelic (compared with 1.2% in the whole of Scotland). A handful of Gaelic speakers can be found in the United States, Canada and Australia most of whom are descended from nineteenth century emigrants. There is a strong Gaelic culture.
Religion is also a significant factor in the life of the inhabitants of the islands. The southern islands of Benbecula, South Uist and Barra are predominantly Roman Catholic. In the northern islands, especially Harris and Lewis, the non-conformist Free Church of Scotland and the still more conservative Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland are very influential. There is a tradition of Sabbath observance and few shops or transport services are available on Sunday although this is increasingly contested.
The emigration still continues, particularly among the young, as the islands offer few employment opportunities. Most present day commercial activities concern tourism, including heritage tourism; crofting; fishing and fish farming and weaving including the manufacture of Harris tweed, a cloth that has been handwoven by the islanders in their homes using pure virgin wool that has been dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides.
Each of the works in The Hebrides Suite uses a mixture of field recordings, interviews and oral history material from existing archives to explore aspects of island life past and present through the medium of composed sound." [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
"We cross the Atlantic again but go north, to the Outer Hebrides, a remote '130 mile long archipelago of islands about 40 miles off the north-west coast of Scotland'. Gruenrekorder has the previous two as part of their field recordings series, this one is in the 'soundscape series', so I assume that the material is not presented 'as is', but is used to compose a piece of music with this, with repeating blocks of sounds, mixes of various bits together, but with the overall idea that we stay in one place and we know more of the place. Cathy Lane does that in six pieces, all around nine to twelve minutes and each is about a certain aspect of the Hebrides, the wind, the sheep/the mill, life on the islands and such like. Sometimes, such as in 'Where Once Were Whales', about fishing, we also hear voices, talking about their trade, even when it's not always to understand what they are telling us, partly due to the dialect, partly due to the fact that the voices are layered. It perhaps adds to the mystique of the release? Unlike the other two, which are 'merely' audio travelogues, Lane actually composes with the material and makes some very strong compositions with it. Of the three releases, it's also the one which has the most documentation, explaining in detail what each piece is about. I quite enjoyed all three of these releases, but it was the Cathy Lane release that I especially enjoyed for it's more musical qualities. One to play again and again." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| LANG, KLAUS |
Sei-Jaku für Streichquartett (20 Jahre Inventionen III) |
CD |
„Die Entfaltung des Gegebenen“ – sehr leise und minimal konkret geräuschhaft klingt diese Interpretation eines Werkes von KLAUS LANG durch das ARDITTI STRING QUARTET, die hier ausschliesslich Streichinstrumente einsetzen (2 x Violine, 1 x Viola, 1 x ioloncello)... sägende, kratzende Geräusche, dann wieder einzelnes Knacken & Stossen...eine Atmosphäre des „kaum Erahnbaren“ entsteht, ein „etwas zieht herauf“...
„Dokumentation "20 Jahre Inventionen", CD III. Das auf dieser CD dokumentierte Streichquartett sei-jaku von Klaus Lang wurde am 30.6.2002 im Großen Sendesaal des SFB durch das Arditti String Quartet im Rahmen des Festivals Inventionen 2002 aufgeführt.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Organ Works Vol. 2 |
LP |
"The second instalment of Klaus Lang's organ works and once again, two monumental works that span over two vinyl sides.
"ABD" - contemporary vision of sacral chord progressions.
"Melrose abbey" - perverse art of mourning music.
Ultimate drone. Absolute torment.
Performed by the composer in Graz, Austria, 1997." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2015 |
€19.00 |
|
| LARKIAN |
Dotted Drives & Drone Delays |
12inch |
"Dotted drives and drone delays' by Larkian is a two tracks ep available on vinyl and as a digital download. Release date : 6th april 2013. Track listing : 1. First part 2. Second part. Total lenghth : 27:38." [label info]
www.deadvox.com
|
2013 |
€12.50 |
|
| LARKIAN & YELLOW6 |
Offtempo |
CD |
"Neither Larkian or Yellow6 are easily categorised, but both differ from each other. The mixing of the two styles creates something all its own whilst retaining the individual. By using an impressive range of effects and ways to play guitar ‘Offtempo’ offers various sound textures and landscapes, from shoegaze inspired reverb to atmospheric ambiences or epic post-rock melodies. At times, it is hard to say who played what, which is a good thing, showing it is not just a superposition of two different styles. The music tends towards the melancholy but maintains an air of optimism." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| LARSEN |
HMKE |
maxi-CD |
"Larsen's HMKE contains a Deathprod remix and an Origami Galaktika remix of two new Larsen tracks. The remaining two tracks are unremixed Larsen originals unavailable elsewhere and featuring their beloved cellist Julia Kent (also of Antony & The Johnsons.) The second track 'M,' a Larsen original, will be available on the forthcoming Larsen album Seis but as a Lustmord/Larsen collaboration and not in this original form."
[label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2005 |
€11.50 |
|
| LARSEN & Z'EV |
In V.Tro |
CD |
"The album combines both the live recording of the first ever Larsen & Z'ev In V.Tro live performances with extreme aural-mixes by Z'ev of Larsen's In V.Tro studio sessions.
Larsen and Z''ev In V.tro is a soundtrack for micro-cinematic images that document the studies on cells of the Istituto di Anatomia Umana Normale (Basic Human Anatomy Institute), between 1935 and1985. Visuals are from a studio by professors Dario Cantino and Antonio Barasa, teachers of these Scientific Institutes. By browsing great quantities of original footage on films kept in the local University with a scientific and reasoned view, Cantino and Barasa wanted to go back over the stages of history and techniques of in vitro cultures and their documented shootings, to pay tribute to the Maestro of anatomical discipline, professor Giuseppe Levi. Not only professor Levi had the intuition of the great potential of the in vitro studies of cells, using the technique developed by american zoologist Ross G. Harrison, he also enforced his studies on cells with cinema techniques, using single frames taken by optical microscope edited and sped up, obtaining a cinematic footage.
These exceptionals scientific documents still represent today a useful tool for studies and researches in a lot of medical branches like Cellular Biology, Histology and Microscopic Anatomy.
Larsen and Z'ev were waiting for the right concept to work together on combining Larsen's soundscaping to Z'ev's esoteric approach to rhythm and percussions and the chance of having access to these rare footages gave them the perfect context to apply their naturally cinematic and cellural music to, reproducing this way lab sperimentation and biological procedures to create life outside a living organism with the use of introspective and minimal, but richly arranged, semi improvised sounds and textures." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| LARVA 108 |
99.09 / Inside the Stones |
CD |
" ”99.09 Inside the stones” is a collection of the most significant tracks made by LARVA 108 during the first 10 years. 12 songs for 60 minutes. A soundtrack for walking alone through a winter snowstorm or between the trees during a grey day of november. Experimental, electronica, drones creates organic gloomy atmospheres." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| LASIK SURGERY |
Cyclo |
CD + DVD |
"Tense electronic plots, calm ambiental stasis, inserts of sharp and harsh metallic sonorities, distorsions, filaments of subliminal melodies, masses of dark and penetrating low frequency drones. The journey of Lasik Surgery starts with a whirlwind of atmospheres and perpetually prismatic sonorities that have a big impact on the listener. This project was born from the minds of Pierpaolo Zoppo/Mauthausen Orchestra, the memorable noise-power electronic author who firmly came back to the fore in the recent years, and Gianluca Favaron, a skilled master controller and sound assembler with a long experience, already active under other aliases (Ab'she, Under the Snow, Metal Music Machine). The first exciting chapter of Lasik Surgery - a name that will surprise us again in the future for sure - comes with a free DVD that includes two videclips created by ENRICO BRESSAN." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| LAST DOMINION LOST |
Towers of Silence |
CD |
"In Mumbai there are a number of brick towers, into which the Parsi people of India throw their dead ones, bound for their final journey up to heaven inside the vulture's bellies. This habit of sky burial derives from the Zoroastrian cult of Ancient Iran, where heaven was imagined as a very physical place. The towers, which remind of archaic silos, are called Dakhma or in English Towers of Silence.
LAST DOMINION LOST leave it to the listeners to guess where “Towers of Silence”, the allegorical title of their new album, really refers to – the fatal nature of physical life? The awkward edges between biological mortality and the idea of an eternal afterlife? The dreadful content which you may find inside what people built up? It's all open. One thing that LAST DOMINION LOST clearly show is how loud and infernal the silence of ending can be imagined. Screams of rage and anxiety intermingle with the shoutings of warriors – if the latter is not rather the croaking of vultures, who gather around corpses – until all is buried under an avalanche of infernal noise.
More than 20 years after the recordings for their debut album “The Tyranny of Distance” (Tesco, 2004), LAST DOMINION LOST come up with brand-new material recorded between 2012 and 2014, brilliantly mastered by James Plotkin in June 2014. Besides the core band members Jon Evans, John Murphy (Krank, Ex-SPK, Shining Vril) and Julian Percy (Ratbag), “Towers of Silence” includes guest contributions by Ash Wednesday (Ex-Einstürzende Neubauten), Till Brüggemann (Gerechtigkeits Liga) and Annie Stubbs among others." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Towers of Silence |
LP |
"In Mumbai there are a number of brick towers, into which the Parsi people of India throw their dead ones, bound for their final journey up to heaven inside the vulture's bellies. This habit of sky burial derives from the Zoroastrian cult of Ancient Iran, where heaven was imagined as a very physical place. The towers, which remind of archaic silos, are called Dakhma or in English Towers of Silence.
LAST DOMINION LOST leave it to the listeners to guess where “Towers of Silence”, the allegorical title of their new album, really refers to – the fatal nature of physical life? The awkward edges between biological mortality and the idea of an eternal afterlife? The dreadful content which you may find inside what people built up? It's all open. One thing that LAST DOMINION LOST clearly show is how loud and infernal the silence of ending can be imagined. Screams of rage and anxiety intermingle with the shoutings of warriors – if the latter is not rather the croaking of vultures, who gather around corpses – until all is buried under an avalanche of infernal noise.
More than 20 years after the recordings for their debut album “The Tyranny of Distance” (Tesco, 2004), LAST DOMINION LOST come up with brand-new material recorded between 2012 and 2014, brilliantly mastered by James Plotkin in June 2014. Besides the core band members Jon Evans, John Murphy (Krank, Ex-SPK, Shining Vril) and Julian Percy (Ratbag), “Towers of Silence” includes guest contributions by Ash Wednesday (Ex-Einstürzende Neubauten), Till Brüggemann (Gerechtigkeits Liga) and Annie Stubbs among others." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Abomination of Desolation |
CD |
"Desolation: total, utter, without remit. Departure, loss, absence, yawning valleys of noise. The overture moans from the terminal ward. The humiliation of the cadaver, the scouring of abandoned houses and rubbish heaps, a planet blasted by the fruits of hubris. The last sigh of bathos: "It is finished“.
Such is the subject matter and sentiment of this follow-up to the much acclaimed albums “Snowdrops From A Curate's Garden“ and „Towers of Silence“ which put Last Dominion Lost firmly on the throne of post-industrial music. “Abomination of Desolation” is consistent with their development into a dark and profound direction, and yet saturated with the noise and feedback that taps deep into the genre’s conscience: Metallic percussion and the screams of terror, ritual chants and anxious atmospheres, all used and abused in order to create the most accurate soundtrack of desolation.
By the fans, “Abomination of Desolation” will be met with mixed feelings – as recordings began with John Murphy in 2015 and through his untimely death that year had to be finished without him, the acknowledged grandsigneur of post-industrial music. The album’s theme and musical approach were originally intended by John for a KRANK release: An electronic album, reflecting on John’s experiences when he was first hospitalized, comatose, and hooked to a breathing machine which was constantly creating bizarre sounds.
The result stands as a brief and concise display of the group’s ability to create an unmistakable old school sound with contemporary production value. The album runs for ten tracks clocking in less than 40 minutes total and features new member Till Brüggemann (Gerechtigkeits Liga), as well as guests Nikolas Schreck, Lori Goldston and John Murphy’s beloved wife Annie Stubbs among others. With a firm electronic/analogue backbone, a delicate contrast of percussions of various origins and uncanny vocals, this is a truly dark affair, and while towards the end of the journey some more aggravating feedback loops crawl in, it never gets upfront aggressive.
With the crisp mastering job of Hunter Barr it is safe to say that “Abomination of Desolation” will not lag behind its predecessors at all, but forge their deserved status as genre icons."
https://epicureanescapism.bandcamp.com/album/abomination-of-desolation
"Nachdem der Name Last Dominion Lost ursprünglich rückwirkend für Aufnahmen verwendet wurde, die John Murphy, Jon Evans und Dominic Guerin Anfang der 90er gemacht hatten, wurde in den letzten Jahren aus Last Dominion Lost eine aus Murphy, Evans sowie Julian Percy bestehende und in Berlin ansässige Band, die eine durchaus an den Ursprüngen des Industrials orientierte Geräuschmusik spielte, aber dem 21. Jahrhundert klanglich angemessen agierte. Über „Tower Of Silence“, das eigentliche Debüt, hieß es dann auch auf diesen Seiten, „dass Last Dominion Lost einen transparenten Klang schätzen, keinen Soundbrei, der vielleicht kurzfristig dem Hörer die Ohren zum Klingen bringt, dessen Effektivität sich aber schnell abnutzt.“ und man kann diese Einschätzung auch bzgl. des Nachfolgers – zwischendurch erschien das 2011 aufgenommene Livealbum „Snowdrops From A Curate’s Garden“ – „Abomination of Desolation“ äußern, denn wenn eine Reihe von Vertretern atonaler Geräuschmusik auf maximale Verzerrung und Statik setzen (am offensichtlichsten bei dem selbst so betitelten Wall Noise), beschreiten Last Dominion Lost einen anderen Weg, bei der statt Statik Dynamik oder besser gesagt: Unruhe herrscht – und das ist bei diesem „uneasy listening“ durchaus als Kompliment zu verstehen.
Mit einem dem Buch Daniel entliehenen Titel, der auch schon Morbid Angel und Clark Ashton Smith inspirierte, macht die Band deutlich, in welche Richtung das Album geht. Von Labelseite heißt es auch: „Desolation: total, utter, without remit. Departure, loss, absence, yawning valleys of noise. The overture moans from the terminal ward. The humiliation of the cadaver, the scouring of abandoned houses and rubbish heaps, a planet blasted by the fruits of hubris. The last sigh of bathos: “It is finished“.” Diese Sätze scheinen nur auf den ersten Blick hyperbolisch, denn natürlich kann bzw. muss man das Album auch vor dem Hintergrund von John Murphys Tod lesen. Murphy hatte Konzept und musikalische Ausrichtung ursprünglich für sein Projekt Krank angedacht, um seine Krankenhauserfahrungen zu verarbeiten. Beendet wurden diese Aufnahmen von Percy, Evans sowie Till Brüggemann von Gerechtigkeits Liga, der seit einiger Zeit festes Mitglied von Last Dominion Lost ist.
Letztlich ist das dystopische Musik, bei auf der der Stimme wenn nicht unbedingt eine zentrale, dann doch nicht zu unterschätzende Rolle zukommt: So etwa die Schreie, die auf „Overture To Desolation“ zu hören sind, während es scheppert und Glas zu zerbrechen scheint. Man hört aggressiv-derangierte Vocals auf „Dimunitive Cruciform“, irrsinnig dämonisches Stimmengewirr auf „Irrumatio Del Mortis“ oder aber im Hintergrund schreiende Personen auf „Bludger’s Kill“. „Devil’s Path, ein fast schon leicht atonales, analoges Ambientstück , wird von Flüstern durchzogen, „Beyond The Valley Of The Flies“ knüpft daran musikalisch an. Auf dem von ritueller Perkussion durchzogenen „Blueprint for Urban Warfare“ erklingen schmerzverzerrte Vocals, die eine psychische wie physische Auflösung zu illustrieren scheinen. Lediglich “Cursed Earth” erinnert vom Gesang an Power Electronics. Das ist vielleicht im positivsten Wortsinn pathologische Musik. In Anlehnung an Throbbing Gristle könnte man auch von einer “Journey through a diseased body” sprechen. Die Landschaften, die hier vor dem Auge des Hörenden entstehen, sind wahrlich (ver)wüst(et).
In Klarkash-Tons Prosagedicht “The Abomination of Desolation” heißt es:„Of this horror, many tales are told, and nearly all of the tales are different. Some say that the thing has neither visible form nor audible voice“, Last Dominion Lost haben dem Grauen eine mehr als adäquate Stimme gegeben." [MG/African Paper] |
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| LAST INDUSTRIAL ESTATE |
Last Industrial Estate |
CD |
"Last Industrial Estate is one of the various projects of Anders Peterson of Ghost Sound and gterma fame, a warm and melancholic twist upon the dark ambient canvas. LIEs is an ode to the remnants of the industrial era and expands upon of the self-titled album released on Kalpamantra netlabel earlier this summer. The album now features a more sinister edge which stands out like a jet-black pool of oil upon an overlooked dusty tarmac. Album in jewelcase with 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| LASWELL, BILL |
Lo. Def Pressure |
CD |
"some more bill laswell... yes indeed, with a massive masterpiece called lo def pressure remember the indian project 'city' of light', the drum'n'bass highlited projects oscillations 1 & 2, mix it together and add a massive killer-like dub bass and 70's jazzy fusion keyboard «riffs», you will be close to the final result..? what 'lo def pressure is about: no non-sense, no bullshit, straight devoted to jungle beats pieces respectively from 23 and 24 minutes. two invitations to cyber-ethnics anthems, no time to chill, this is a non-stop hard-kicking fusion for the new millenium. 'lo def pressure'is shurely what you always wanted to ask for ...without daring. from new-york to new delhi, kingston to london this is a virtual trip through space and time. fasten your seat belt, lo def pressure airline wish you a nice more or less 50 minutes fly !" [label info] |
2000 |
€13.50 |
|
| LASWELL, BILL & PETE NAMLOOK |
Outland |
6 x CD BOX |
The 'Outland' album series was a collaborative endeavour by the visionary US bassist-producer Bill Laswell and the late German musician Peter Namlook that pushed the boundaries of dark ambient and electronic music. Spanning five albums released over a thirteen year period from 1994, this new boxset serves as a testament to the creative synergy between the two masterminds.
At the time the duo joined forces, the New York-based Laswell was already a famous producer with a massive client list that included cutting-edge rock, pop, funk, jazz and electronic artists, but he had also founded the Axiom label in 1989 and been responsible for groundbreaking work in genres that included ambient, dub and world music. Namlook was recognised as a pioneering figure in the ambient techno scene, having founded the label FAX +49-69/450464 in his native Frankfurt in 1992.
'Outland' became a fusion of their individual musical sensibilities that resulted in a unique set of releases. At the heart of the series is an exploration of sound as a vehicle for emotion and contemplation, with Laswell's signature basslines and experimental soundscapes interweaving seamlessly with Namlook's ethereal textures and intricate sonic layering. Each album is characterised by a sense of expansiveness, taking listeners on a voyage through rarely charted sonic dimensions. All have the ability to evoke a wide range of emotions and have their own distinctive sonic palette, ranging from ambient tranquility to cosmic intensity.
'Outland' has endured as an influential touchstone, its impact felt not only in its captivating soundscapes but also in its invitation to engage in deep introspection and cosmic contemplation. With each album, the duo beckoned listeners to transcend the mundane and embark on a sonic voyage into the extraordinary, where sound becomes a conduit for spiritual and artistic expression.
The lavish matte-finish boxset opens to the 5 "Outland" albums in separate matte sleeves, with all-new designs, and all audio completely remastered. This box also contains a new addition to the OUTLAND series - an album of dense, bass space drone by Bill Laswell, entitled "Blackland". The boxset also contains an exclusive card with an essay about the project written by BIll Laswell, July 2023.
........................................
Their collaboration actually began after Namlook discovered that several samples from early Fax releases had been utilised for Laswell's own projects, prompting an initial forthright exchange that quickly turned into a deep mutual admiration. "We started to send music back and forth, Frankfurt to Brooklyn and back again," explains Laswell. "There were so many recordings and different collaborations that several of them turned into a series. In addition to 'Outland', there was 'Psychonavigation', 'The Dark Side Of The Moog' and more."
For 'Outland', he recalls that "I had done an Asian tour with my friend Akira Sakata where I managed to record a lot of traditional music in Mongolia, which is heavy drone singing and the ultimate ambient. When I was in Europe, I brought these recordings to Pete and we worked on them in Frankfurt. That was the start of 'Outland', which then continued for another four releases."
He also reveals that Namlook told him about the very start of his career. "He was playing guitar and working in a bank. Every day, on his way home with his guitar, he would pass a river and stop and play with the river flowing. I think that's where his ambient obsession began. I recorded a piece with Bernie Worrell entitled 'By A River (for Peter)', which is the first track of the box set compilation 'Die Welt ist Klang: A Tribute to Pete Namlook', which was released in 2013, a year after his death."
CD1: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Mongolian voices and instruments by Nicky Skopelitis & Oz Fritz.
CD2: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Ethnic sounds recorded in West Africa by Oz Fritz. Recorded at Klanglabor, Frankfurt.
CD3: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Recorded at Klanglabor, Frankfurt & Traben-Trarbach.
CD4: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Recorded at Klanglabor, Frankfurt & Traben-Trarbach.
CD5: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Recorded at Orange Music, West Orange,NJ, and Klanglabor Hödeshof.
CD6: Bill Laswell: Bass, effects. Engineering: James Dellatacoma. Recorded at Orange Music, West Orange,NJ (Bassmatter, BMI).
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/outland
"Quite a catch and a very pleasantly surprising one. I would not have imagined that Cold Spring Records, known for all their darkness, would dip into ambient electronic pioneer Pete Namlook's (1960-2012) work, particularly his piece with Bill Laswell. The latter is a bass player and producer with a massive body of work, mainly outside Vital Weekly (Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit' is a VW HQ favourite, sometimes), both on bass and production duties. Pete Namlook played electronic ambient music, usually without too many rhythms, but he wasn't too shy to put a full set on. Namlook's catalogue is massive, as at one point, he released a CD every month on his FAX +49-69/450464 label. He had a line of collaborators with whom he worked a lot (Klaus Schulze, Tetsu Inoue, and Richie Hawtin, for instance). With Bill Laswell he recorded five parts of 'Outland', which are now re-issued with a bonus disc of a new work, 'Blackland', by Laswell. There was more work by the two, 'Psychonavigation', which also spanned various CDs (and maybe something to come in the future?), which is one I really enjoyed. I could call myself a Namlook fan, yet I also know I heard maybe 50% of his work. Back in the day, I couldn't afford to buy everything I wanted, and Namlook's output was, as said, massive. From the original 'Outland' albums, I only heard two. It is interesting to play these six works as they provide an excellent picture of the diversity of ambient house music, at least in the approach of Namlook and Laswell. There isn't one kind of ambient house. The word 'house', as in 'house music', is a loose term anyway in this respect, indicating dance music. Ambient House never relies too much on strict dance beats but uses more complex rhythms, such as on 'Outland Two - African Virus', which is more exotic, wilder and sometimes indeed more African. 'Outland Three' (no subtitle) has rhythms that are a bit more straightforward and minimal, but it's not something for the dance floor. On 'Outland Four', the beats are more dub-like in some of the pieces (as with all of these pieces, it moves through various ideas and textures per album), another interest of many ambient house musicians. On the other side of the musical spectrum, we find music devoid of rhythm, spacious synthesizers, minimalist drones, and perhaps something ambient in the truest sense. As with many Namlook releases, there is a certain directness about the music, indicating that the music is one long session, a live-in-studio approach, with mixing and editing afterwards. There is not much extra information in this release explaining methods. The whole live-in-studio approach might be something that is only in my mind. Each album is a trip, and so is the whole five-plus hours of this. I played this for the first time in one row on a lazy Sunday, sipping tea after a long night. Ambient music is the preferred waking-up music for me. Maybe with the idea that my living room is a sort of chill-out place today, as some of this music is clearly the intended soundtrack for such a place." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€47.50 |
|
| LASWELL, BILL VS. SUBMERGED |
Brutal Calling |
LP |
"Diese Kollaboration von Bass-Master Laswell
mit dem Drum‘n‘Bass-Finsterling und OHM Resistance-Macher Kurt Gluck war 2004 zwischen der Photo Op Before A Long Hard Fuck-Split-10“ (2003) und Todd Bridges On Lockdown (Temulent Remix) / Summery Execution (Corrupt Souls Remix) (2005) als CD beim japanischen Label Avant erschienen und wurde nun durch einen Laswell-Aficionado für Vinyl-Liebhaber neu aufgelegt. Optisch verfinstert mit Totenköpfen Schwarz auf Schwarz, wird nun auch deutlicher sichtbar, dass die beiden New Yorker mit ihren Breakbeats und dem untergründig grollenden Bassbeben einen Nachhall von 9/11 inszeniert hatten. Auf Anschlag, was die Raserei der Beats angeht, hallt in Tracks wie ‚Mass graves‘ oder ‚Decapitation strike‘ Panik wider. Venetian Snares zerrt ähnlich an den Nerven, Brutal Calling greift aber direkter an, durchwegs fiebrig überdreht und bei ‚Lockdown on bridges and tunnels‘ mit einer WahWah-Gitarre, die Hals über Kopf Treppen hinab kreischt und blind nur noch dem Fluchtinstinkt gehorcht. Laswell zeigt hier den zerstörerischen Aspekt Shivas (wie in Chaos Face, Death Cube K, frühe Painkiller, Time Zone), den Crooklyn-Pol der Existenz, zu dem die Deep Vibrations seines Sacred Dub, die Healing Force seiner Ambient-Mantras, Innerrhythms und Space-Psychedelix (Asana, Charged, Divination, Equations Of Eternity, Pete Namlook, Tabla Beat Science, Jah Wobble) die Gegenkraft bilden.
Wobei nach Laswells Philosophie wohl nur unterschiedliche Aspekte der gleichen Kraft ihr Spiel treiben. Seine Basslinien pulsieren nämlich hier wie dort mit der gleich sonoren und souveränen Vitalität und Funkiness. Falls Brutal Calling den Fall der babylonischen Türme
kommentiert, dann jedenfalls nicht larmoyant.
Und wie sehr auch Glucks D’n’BHysterie sarkastisch helterskeltert, durch Laswells Bass werden selbst Kalis Tanzzuckungen auf dem round Zero zu Dynamiken der Transformation." [Bad Alchemy]
www.karlrecords.net
|
2006 |
€20.00 |
|
| LATER DAYS |
InvalidObject Series (do) |
mCD |
Das irische FÄLLT-Label hat auf einen Schlag ein Kompendium zur neuen digitalen laptop / click / glitch / IDM – Musik herausgebracht ! Das sind 24 mCDs mit allerlei bekannten und unbekannte Vertretern dieses jungen Genres. Wir haben die meisten da, hier eine Übersicht ! Limitiert jeweils auf schamlose 250 Stck ! Preis pro mcD : € 9.50
Better priced now, last copies of this absolute compendium of IDM. € 9.50
“ The invalidObject Series was established in 2000 as a sublabel of Fällt to release a finite series of twenty four 3"CD/.mp3 works.
Offering a unique perspective on a diverse range of musical output at the turn of the millennium, the Series features work by some of the most respected artists operating within the field of '.microsound' and has been described as "a remarkable document of a vibrant artistic community and a critical moment in the evolution of digital music" (Philip Sherburne), "a showcase for the extraordinary range of practical approaches within contemporary electronic music" (Matt Ffytche, The Wire) and, simply, "impressive" (Rob Young, Editor, The Wire). “ [label press release}
|
2000 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
Songs of the Watchmaker |
CD |
"Wayne Jackson (aka Later Days) is intrigued by the complexity of emergent systems, both natural and computational. In the summer, this fascination leads him to create obscure computer music software. In the winter, it sends him outside to hunt mushrooms.
Songs of the Watchmaker is his debut full-length, which follows his 3”CD (Do, 2000) on the esteemed Irish label Fallt. Working with his own custom built software, Wayne has created a sinister yet playful album of squiggly audio drawings harvested from his sonic garden." [label info]
http://scarcelight.org
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| LAVELLE, BRIAN |
Supernaturalist |
CD |
Der Ambient-Geheimtip BRIAN LAVELLE schafft behutsame Klangfigurationen, die wie Schatten im Raum liegen; verträumt bis mysteriös schimmern seine akustischen Gebilde aus "electronics, field recordings, synth, piano & bass guitar", alles driftet wie in Trance dahin...
"Exclusive new output from this ambient/electronic artist from Scotland, UK. On ‘Supernaturalist’, Brian Lavelle presents 4 long brilliant compositions (70 minutes), minimal at first hearing, but with full maximum impact: bare to multi-layered drones, gentle to hallucinogating field recordings with natural elements, ambient noises and real instruments (piano, bass…). A classic album with style, hauntingly beautiful!! Full metallised CD housed in the usual 7” folder cover, ‘pâle bleu’ (pale blue), in an edition of 300 copies only. Mastering, photography and design by Brian Lavelle." [label info]
EE Tapes website: www.eetapes.be
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The petrified Forest |
mCD-R |
"Following his recent "fallen are the domes of green amber" cd on diophantine discs and released just before "supernaturalist" on ee tapes, scottish sound artist brian lavelle delivers here two highly evocative ambient/experimental tracks full of melancholy..." [label info]
"Brian Lavelle recently surprised us 'Supernaturalist', and the two pieces here were recorded just before that and show the best side of his: manipulating field recordings and very much altering them into microscopic detailed pieces of ambient drones. Slowly changing patterns of what seems to be rain fall, deep bass sounds in 'The Wood Turned Dark And Silent' and more synthetic in 'This Twisting Glade', which sounds like a church organ being dissected. Very nice." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/the-petrified-forest-alm-51
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS & CEVIN KEY |
9 Lives to Wonder |
DVD |
"9 Lives To Wonder, A Film by cEvin Key documents the time that cEvin Key spent with The Legendary Pink Dots recording their seminal album of the same name. A first-person look into the process of musical creation, and the life that happens around it." [label info]
www.metropolis-records.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS & KETVECTOR |
The Shock Exchange |
LP |
"The Shock Exchange presents an encounter between two of the most interesting and unique projects of the current neo-psychedelic and electronic music panorama.
The Legendary Pink Dots need no introduction, and on Side A they once again solidify their status as musical pioneers with all new songs and swirling psychedelic arrangements led by the charismatic voice of Edward Ka-spel.
Side B is dedicated to the progressive and psychedelic electronic project kETvECTOR, born from the mind of Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy / Bahntier) together with Stefano Rossello (Bahntier), showcasing many facets of the project; from electronic free jazz to ambient experimental and esoteric avant-garde.
The album also features paintings by Franke Nardiello (aka Groovie Mann) of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.
A transparent vinyl release exclusively for record store day 2015, not to be missed!" [label info]
www.rustblade.it
"When the first Compact Disc was released more than 30 years ago not many people were expecting that the LP would still be around in 2015. And even more, that it would make a come-back in the digital age. The LP today is not a mass product as it was back then, but more of a luxury product. Real music lovers want to experience music. Not just listen to it, but use all 5 senses. The tangibility, the artwork, the smell of it, it is all part of the experience.
The Italian Rustblade record label is specialized in limited releases like picture discs and special packed albums. The Shock Exchange is a transparent vinyl split LP limited to 299 copies. The beautiful cover paintings were made by Franke Nardiello (a.k.a. Groovie Mann) of My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult.
But most important is of course the music. The A side contains 3 tracks by The Legendary Pink Dots. The English/Dutch band celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. They are not the only band to last that long, and there are bands that are even older. But from their very first cassette release in 1980 there hasn't been a year where they did not release anything. In several years even more releases, and adding to that also solo releases and side projects such as The Tear Garden and Mimir. Also to this day they are still playing live regularly.
The current lineup of the band consists of founder members Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards) and Phil Knight (a.k.a The Silverman, keyboards & electronics) as well as Erik Drost (guitars, bass) and sound engineer and wizard Raymond Steeg. The last two years the band was in a very productive phase with lots of releases, including a few releases on Rustblade: Chemical Playschool Volume 15 (2013, CD box set), The Curse Of Marie Antoinette (2013, picture disc) and 10 To The Power Of 9 (2014, 2 LP / CD). During their 35 years of existence the band's sound changed, but there are a few elements that have been there from the beginning. First there is the typical sound of Edward's voice. Second his lyrics: strange little stories with (black) humor, inventive word playing, bizarre twists and a very English reserve. Never judging but always observing. Third is a sense of melancholy, a longing for the unreachable. Fourth is a psychedelic element. Fifth is the creative use of synthesizers and samples: they use their gear to create unique sounds. Sometimes alienating, sometimes very powerful.
The first track is very much in line with their previous releases, a more electronic driven song. The other two tracks are more minimalistic and melancholic.
kETvECTOR is the name of the collaboration between Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy, Bahntier) and Stefano Rossello (Bahntier). This collaboration is meant to explore new frontiers. The first two tracks are based on an electronic rhythm. The third track has human played rhythm guitar and bass guitar, and the fourth track has no rhythm, it is more ambient. All tracks are instrumental. They are like musical sketches: with abstract lines and shadows, but not fully colored. It reminds me of Tuxedomoon, probably because of the wind instruments that were used as well as the Peter Principle like bass guitar in the third track. The kETvECTOR side sounds like the soundtrack to a movie. In particular some kind of road movie, travelling on long straight roads through wide open spaces to strange places. The kind of road movie without a happy end. Where the main character never finds what he is looking for in the end, because it is the search itself that keeps him going.
As a whole The Shock Exchange is not an easy album, and it takes an open mind and several listens before it reveals itself. But with every time you play it, you discover something new. In the end “difficult” albums are also the most pleasing ones.
[Erik Gibbels (edited by Astrid de Ronde)/ BACKGROUND MAG]
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS (LPD) |
Live at La Luna |
DVD |
DVD – Version of the video-cassette that appeared in 1998.
“Recorded in 1997 near the end of their “Hallway of the Gods” tour of Canada and America, and originally issued in VHS format in 1998, “Live at La Luna” reveals like never before the magical atmosphere of sound and light created by Edward Ka-Spel and his talented crew. Captured by a pair of roving cameramen and a center camera filming from the balcony, the performance is presented as an ever-evolving collage of music and faces, from the keyboards of The Silverman to the saxophone flourishes of Niels van Hoorn, from the rhythm-n-bass section of Ryan Moore (Twilight Circus Dub Sound System) and Edwin von Trippenhof to the inimitable vocals of Edward Ka-Spel. It runs 60 minutes, and includes the following songs: 1. Hallway Monologue 2. On High 3. Spike 4. Love in a Plain Brown Envelope 5. Destined to Repeat 6. Harvest Babies 7. Velvet Resurrection 8. Hellsville 9. City of Needles Regrettably, there were several minor glitches in the audio part of the program we were unable to completely repair. We don’t think they detract in any way from the performance, but an attentive listener may notice them. For this reason we have included a disclaimer on the outside of the packaging to warn consumers of the defects. Nevertheless we feel the uniqueness of this release, combined with its low price, will please the loyal followers of this legendary group.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Paris in the Fall |
DVD |
"Spectacular and exciting DVD release from 2009. On Soleilmoon Recordings. Imagine a club packed like sardines in a can and three cameras hovering over the throng. Possibly LPDs finest, and most intense, visual document so far." [TeKa info]
"Hearing that our 2009 Paris show was to be in small space called Le Klub, I admit being unable to stop a smile spreading across my face. During the soundcheck in another Paris club years earlier, a record label representative was experiencing problems over a guest list at the door. Filled with anger, he burst into the hall ranting and cursing in Parisian pidgeon English..... “THIS KLUB IS FUCKEEENG!” Those words instantly entered Dots-mythology – an utterance used to let off steam in the face of frustration on the road (and always with a French accent). Legendary Pink Dots played a two-night residency at Le Klub, and the utterance was never needed. The first night was an intimate affair, while the second, which drew a weekend crowd, felt like a rock show in a shoebox. It was this second night that was filmed by Johanna Barda and her camera team. --Edward Ka-Spel. Coinciding with the Legendary Pink Dots’ 2011 European tour (which includes a night in Paris) comes this live DVD. The performance took place on November 13, 2009, in an intimate Parisian nightclub, with a lineup featuring Edward Ka-Spel, Silverman, Martijn de Kleer and Niels van Hoon. Raymond Steeg worked the soundboard. The first 200 copies come with a limited edition set of five postcards, and are available exclusively from Soleilmoon, Speakerfire and The Terminal Kaleidoscope. Tour dates for The Legendary Pink Dots: April 9, Nijmegen Merleyn / April 15, Liège Le Tipi / April 16, Bruxelles Magasin 4 / April 17, Munich Feierwerk / April 19, Paris Divan du Monde (+ [bleu]) / April 20, Bordeaux Heretic Club (+ [bleu] / April 21, Lyon Sonic (+ [bleu]) / April 22, Marseille L'Embobineuse (+ [bleu]) / April 23, Zofingen Oxx Club / April 24, Nürnberg Z-Bau / April 25, Hamburg Hafenklang / April 26, Frankfurt Das Bett / April 27, Cologne Underground / April 28, Moscow China Town / April 29, St.Petersburg Clubzal / June 10, London Meltdown Festival, South Bank Centre / June 13, Leipzig Wave Gothik Treffen Festival." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Chemical Playschool 15 |
CD |
"The Legendary Pink Dots are back with there highly anticipated new album. Chemical Playschool is a concept in which more then ever an indulgence in extended ballads and psychedelic improvisations allows Edward Ka-Spel’s voice to engage us with his unique brand of storytelling, and the use of synthesizers brings to mind vintage space rock adapted for the modern age. The album opens with the beautifully epic “Immaculate Conception” where Ka-Spel transports us into a world of stars and planets surrounded by voices and distant echos. In “The Opium Den Parts 1-3″ we find a melancholy piece with classic LPD folk essence, arriving then at the ritual tribal ballad “Ranting and Raving”. Chemical Playschool is able to surpass all of our expectations for a band always able to surprise as they lead us through their peculiar dream world. A truly inspired release representing one of the most beautiful concepts created by this eclectic and mythic band." [label info]
www.rustblade.com
"a new voyage into the Chemical Playschool after over 10 years of being locked outside the laboratory. Songs, labyrinths, and colours so vivid you'll never wash them out of your mind." [Edward Ka-Spel]
"Over the years in their thirty plus career, there have always been 'Chemical Playschool' releases by The Legendary Pink Dots. These are works which are a bit different than their more regular, song based studio work, but not as experimental as some of the releases that they put out themselves. In songs on any of these 'Chemical Playschool' releases, there is always a fair amount of experimentation, while Edward Ka-spel's voice is never really far away. Take the opening piece, 'Immaculate Conception', which starts out with a two note synth and Edward's voice, but then after a while starts drifting into a cosmic synth work with floating and drifting melodies, and Ka-spel's voice backwards - a feature from the old days rarely seen on the more current releases. It's here where the Dots are at their best - in my humble opinion. Not drifting in a more krauty version or too spacious with experimental ideas, but an excellent balance between both ends. Rhythm machines seem not really apparent on this new CD and it all dwells heavily on the use of keyboards, electronics and maybe even field recordings, radio sounds and such like. Even Erik Drost's guitar seems to have a more remote place in the total picture, with a prominent tinkle on the strings in 'The Opium Den Parts 1-3', but otherwise more filling out spacious playing with sustaining tones. 'Chemical Playschool 15' is another fine trip - pun intended - and certainly a road these should take more often." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
|
The Gethsemane Option |
CD |
"The Legendary Pink Dots is an Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band formed in London in August 1980. Although far outside the mainstream (in terms of their music and career path), LPD have released more than 40 albums, have a devoted worldwide following, and tour frequently.
The core members of the group, Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards, songwriter) and Phil Knight (a.k.a. The Silverman) (keyboards, electronics), are joined by Erik Drost (guitars) and Raymond Steeg (live sound engineer). The band’s debut for Metropolis Records, entitled The Gethsemane Option, is a seven song, hour long exploration in textural ambience and rock experimentalism. Featuring Ka-Spel’s distinctive vocals and lyrical imagery blended with hypnotic guitar and synth washes and spellbinding bass pulses, The Gethsamane Option is a musical laudanum induced fever dream. An enthralling, captivating release." [label info]
www.metropolis-records.com
https://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com/album/the-gethsemane-option-2
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
10 to the Power of 9 - Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Die Kult-Fomation meldet sich mit einem großartigen Konzeptalbum zurück,
erscheinend auf RUSTBLADE als limitierte Colored-Vinyl-Edition (499 Exemplare)!
Selten passt das Attribut legendär so gut wie auf die Gruppe um EDWARD KA-SPEL und
PHIL „THE SILVERMAN“ KNIGHT, die seit nun mehr als drei Dekaden für ihren
unverkennbaren, einzigartigen Soundkosmos verehrt wird, bei dem Psychedelic-Heads,
Dark Waver und Freunde experimenteller (Elektronik-)Klänge gleichermaßen auf ihre Kosten kommen. Mit ihrem neusten Machwerk legen die LEGENDARY PINK DOTS den ersten Teil
einer komplexen Story über Konspirativität, Magie und Spiritualität vor. Minimale Synths,
Gitarren, synkopische Beats, die Verwirrung stiften, psychedelische und transzendentale
Geräusche, welche wie gewohnt von der charakteristischen Stimme KA-SPELs begleitet
werden. „Ten To The Power Of Nine Vol.1 ”ist ein dunkler und außergewöhnlicher Trip in die
musikalische Psyche der LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, die hier wieder einmal ihren Status als
absolut unverkennbare musikalische Ausnahmeerscheinung bestätigen." [label info]
www.rustblade.com
"For more than thirty years I have been following The Legendary Pink Dots, of which maybe twenty years close to the fire. I have written a lot about the Dots; about their music, the various incarnations, the old work versus the new and how some of the new albums released on smaller scale are more experimental than the bigger scale releases. When I was listening to '10 To the Power Of 9' (a culmination of two earlier LP releases under the same name), I was thinking about the latter notion - small/big, experimental or not - and thinking this is perhaps no longer the case. Whereas on the older yet recent works the stomping ground of krautrock was used a bit too much for my taste, the more experimental works were relegated to CDR, but on '10 To The Power Of 9' there is a fine balance between the experiment and the accessibility. A song like 'Malice/Freak Flag' shows this inside one piece: noisy guitars, spacious synthesizers, spacious guitars and mayhem, within these twelve minutes a lot
happen. It seems as if Edward Ka-spel's voice is more 'above' the music, more reciting than singing; the emphasis is more on the poetry than the pure song format. But all of that embedded within the experiment of the music. I quite enjoyed this album for its variation. The more song-like structures of 'Open Season', 'Room For Two' and 'Your Humble Season' or the title piece, but also a psychedelic outing as 'The Elevator', which remind me of the band's various incarnations of the piece 'Premonition'. It seems to me that The Legendary Pink Dots have found their ground better in a work like this. Highly varied, a display of their various incarnations and throughout a hauntingly beautiful release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€23.50 |
|
|
10 to the Power of 9 - Vol. 2 |
LP |
"This is the Second Volume of a complex story about conspiracy, magic, and spirituality. Minimal synths, guitars, syncopated rhythms that are making weird, psychedelic and transcendental noises which are of course accompanied by the distinctive voice of Ka-Spel. Lying on your sofa, pumping up the volume and just dream away on their ethereal sounds. 10 to the Power of 9 is a dark and exceptional trip into their warped and bizarre musical psyche." [label info]
www.rustblade.com
"Die Kult-Fomation meldet sich mit dem zweiten Teil der Konzeptreihe über Konspirativität, Magie und Spiritualität zurück, erscheinend auf RUSTBLADE als limitierte Colored-Vinyl-Edition (499 Exemplare, minzgrünes Vinyl)!
Selten passt das Attribut legendär so gut wie auf die Gruppe um EDWARD KA-SPEL und PHIL „THE SILVERMAN“ KNIGHT, die seit nun mehr als drei Dekaden für ihren unverkennbaren, einzigartigen Soundkosmos verehrt wird, bei dem Psychedelic-
Heads, Dark Waver und Freunde experimenteller (Elektronik-) Klänge gleichermaßen auf ihre Kosten kommen. Vor gut einem Jahr erschien der erste Teil dieser Konzeptserie einer komplexen
Story über Konspirativität, Magie und Spiritualität. Minimale Synths, Gitarren, synkopische Beats, die Verwirrung stiften,
psychedelische und transzendentale Geräusche, welche wie gewohnt von der charakteristischen Stimme KA-SPELs begleitet werden. „Ten To The Power Of Nine Vol.2“ ist abermals ein dunkler
und außergewöhnlicher Trip in die musikalische Psyche der LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, die hier wieder einmal ihren Status als absolut unverkennbare musikalische Ausnahmeerscheinung bestätigen." [Broken Silence info] |
2015 |
€22.50 |
|
|
10 to the Power of 9 (special ed.) |
2 x CD bag |
"Deluxe limited edition of 99 copies issued with an extra CD in a cardboard sleeve. The album CD is included in a jewel case and compiles both volumes of the vinyl. Issued in a black velvet bag with a glow-in-the-dark pin and a transparent plastic postcard." [label info]
www.rustblade.com
"Endlich als CD und limitierte Box-Edition erhältlich. Die Kult-Fomation meldet sich mit einem großartigen Konzeptalbum zurück,
erscheinend auf RUSTBLADE als CD im Jewelcase und als lim. Box mit Sammlerinhalten.
Selten passt das Attribut legendär so gut wie auf die Gruppe um EDWARD KA-SPEL und PHIL „THE SILVERMAN“ KNIGHT, die seit nun mehr als drei
Dekaden für ihren unverkennbaren, einzigartigen Soundkosmos verehrt wird, bei dem Psychedelic-Heads, Dark Waver und Freunde experimenteller
(Elektronik-)Klänge gleichermaßen auf ihre Kosten kommen. Mit ihrem neusten Machwerk legen die LEGENDARY PINK DOTS den ersten Teil
einer komplexen Story über Konspirativität, Magie und Spiritualität vor. Minimale Synths, Gitarren, synkopische Beats, die Verwirrung stiften, psychedelische und transzendentale Geräusche, welche wie gewohnt von der charakteristischen Stimme KA-SPELs begleitet werden. „Ten To The Power Of Nine Vol.1 „ist ein dunkler und außergewöhnlicher Trip in die musikalische Psyche der LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, die hier wieder einmal ihren Status als absolut unverkennbare musikalische Ausnahmeerscheinung bestätigen.
Die limitierte Box-Edition enthält zustäzlich zur normalen CD noch eine Bonus-CD mit exklusiven Songs, einen Anstecker (leuchtet im Dunkeln) und eine transparente Postkarte, verpackt in einem Samtbeutel." [Broken Silence info]
|
2015 |
€40.00 |
|
|
Chemical Playschool 11, 12, 13 |
3 x CD BOX |
"Chemical Playschool 11, 12 & 13 represents the most ambitious Legendary Pink Dots project embarked upon in their 21-year history. The intention was to create a massive, disorientating journey with constantly shifting textures and atmospheres, while retaining a unity. Hence, the rather controversial decision was taken to apply a single code to each volume. It is not a collection of “greatest hits”, nor does it have any potential for radio airplay. Work began on the three CD set in September 2000 with a trawl through the Pink Dots’ vaults for unfinished material and improvisations. With a target, established singer Edward Ka-Spel applied the finishing touches to many of these pieces. Following this stage, countless new songs were composed and recorded according to what the proposed voyage required. Ultimately the whole thing took one year with small details being added on an almost daily basis. With the completion of this project, LPDs now intend to take things even further. But to where? Stay tuned…" [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2001 |
€42.00 |
|
|
Pages of Aquarius |
CD |
"The Legendary Pink Dots is an Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band formed in London in 1980. Although far outside the mainstream, LPD have released more than 40 albums, have a devoted worldwide following, and tour frequently. Distinctive vocals and lyrical imagery blended with hypnotic guitar and synth washes and spellbinding bass pulses to create an enthralling, captivating release." [label info]
"The problem with the Age of Aquarius is that nobody seems to know when it's due, or indeed whether or not it's already begun. According to the song 'Aquarius' from hippy musical Hair, the dawning will come when "The moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars." Unfortunately, as astrologer Neil Spencer has noted, the moon enters the seventh house daily, while Jupiter and Mars are aligned several times a year. Other astrologers have argued for Aquarian start dates ranging from 1447 right up until 3597.
In the popular imagination, however, the Age of Aquarius will always be associated with the “love generation” counter-culture of the 1960s, and represents the utopian new age that their flower power shenanigans were supposed to usher in. In other words, it should be here by now, and it manifestly isn't. As Legendary Pink Dots' mainstay Edward Ka-Spel notes, if this is Aquarius page one then love, peace and good hair are hardly qualities in the ascendant. "It wasn't supposed to be like this," he writes. "Are we in for another 2,160 years of this?"
Ultimately though, Ka-Spel's conclusions are optimistic. What we're actually living through are the death throes of the Pisces Age, he argues; it's brutal and painful, but it won't last. The way to get through is by letting go, on both a personal and societal level, and in order to do this we need to look unflinchingly at where we are now, what is holding us back and what will help us move forward.
So the album's opening track, 'Mirror, Mirror' tackles introspection, narcissism and self-loathing alongside the hard but necessary task of looking closely at your own self and putting the work in to improve. Stinging synthesiser blasts reflect this flinching process over driving electronic percussion, before a melancholy mellotron passage suggests a degree of sorrowful self-acceptance has been found. On 'The Greatest Story Ever Told,' a swarm of buzzing clockwork wasps soundtrack rising existential dread before the song shifts into a litany of reasons not to worship God, or indeed watch his movies on TV, all set to a queasy rendition of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful.' The Age of Pisces is often identified as the Christian era, and early Christians identified themselves using two fishes as a symbol; among other qualities, Aquarius is associated with the decline of religion and the rise of technology. "We worship technology," Ka-Spel whispers ambivalently at the close.
How the glorious analogue squelching of 'D-Train' fits into the concept I'm not sure, but 'Credibility' and 'Trending' take a look at the world around us, the former cursing "Damn your eyes, austerity" over lullaby-like piano, while the latter looks at the mysterious force of the zeitgeist as represented by popular topics on social media. Watching "the great sea ripple," Ka-Spel wonders who or what is driving the trends, directing our thoughts and attention as one linked collective organism.
The album concludes with two multi-part epics. The near-eighteen minute 'Don't Go There- Page Aquarian- Jacob's Ladder' begins in haunting yet propulsive style, discussing surveillance culture and "cameras everywhere" before shifting onto memory as a form of observation, returning to the theme of looking unsparingly at your own past actions and how they've led you to where you are now. A collage of found sound leads into a passage of spare percussion over which Ka-Spel considers the stars and the notion of destiny, before the final section finds tentative piano chords reverberating over the sound of a gathering storm. Here considerations of mortality and the afterlife are resolved into the need to make peace and find some kind of acceptance.
For CD listeners, that's where the album ends, but it would be a shame to miss out on the sixteen-and-a-half minute 'The Weight of Water Parts 1-4,' which is only available on digital and double vinyl editions. A dry, steady pulse beat supports slabs of musique concrete and some non-judgemental meditations on self-destructive behaviour, before a frantic flurry of low piano notes in a repeating, claustrophobic loop successfully simulates a panic attack. This then shifts into an oceanic evocation of waking at 3am with the realisation that your life has been wasted in deceit and acquisitiveness, before the instrumental final section captures a zen-like sensation of beatific release, with acoustic and electronic textures beautifully balanced against each other.
Aquarius of course is the water bearer, and 'The Weight of Water' effectively sums up the pain and difficulty of this period of transition. There's no need though to take the astrological metaphors literally; this album can be enjoyed purely as an unsettling and moving 83 minutes of music, and for those who do listen closely to the words, Ka-Spel's dry sense of humour undercuts any tendency towards new age pretentiousness.
Their long history could make some wrongly see the Legendary Pink Dots as unapproachable or worse, irrelevant. But Pages of Aquarius is an album that stands on its own merits. Even if you've never bought a Pink Dots record before, this is a progressive, provocative and ultimately positive statement about the world we're all living in today." [The Quietus] |
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Traumstadt 2 |
do-CD |
"The Legendary Pink Dots are an Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band formed in London in August 1980. In 1984 the band moved to Amsterdam, playing with rotating musicians and having, as core members, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight aka The Silverman. The band was originally called One Day... but subsequently changed the name to The Legendary Pink Dots, apparently inspired by pink dots on certain keys of the band's main recording studio piano. In the 1980s the band released albums on Mirrodot and In Phaze; in 1985 they signed with Play It Again Sam for the release of The Lovers. Their music touches on elements of neo-psychedelia, ambient music, electronic music, tape music, industrial, psychedelic folk, synthpop, post-punk, progressive, jazz, noise, pop, and goth rock, with a distinctly experimental/avant-garde bent; their sound has evolved over time and remains distinctive, making it difficult to place the group into a concise style or genre. The group's overall sound combined with Ka-Spel's distinct lyrics and singing have earned comparisons to Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett; the group also has links to the sounds of krautrock bands such as Can, Faust, Brainticket, Magma, or Neu! The first cassette Only Dreaming was an edition of nine copies, two of which had beautiful three-dimensional handmade covers. Only Dreaming was abandoned rather than deleted as the recorded output by The Dots expanded massively within months of the band's inception. The Traumstadt series collects compilation appearances by the group, with Traumstadt 2 maybe being the best of these collections. It focuses on rare tracks from 1984 to 1988 and was originally released on cassette by the band's own Mirrordot label. For this CD re-issue, it has been remastered once again and this much-loved album now sounds better than ever before."
https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/traumstadt-2 full listenabel, auf LPD BC auch
|
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Four Days |
do-LP |
https://witchcatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/four-days
From Edward Ka-Spel "1990. Summer. Both EK and The Silverman were hopelessly addicted to vinyl but didn't have the money to feed their habit. A little bird whispered to Phil that another collector in the North of Holland had the 3 (Lard free) albums he desired the most AND the aforesaid had just discovered the Pink Dots. It was true , but Henk - the owner of those 3 elusive discs already had already amassed a huge collection of Dots' titles. Consequently we agreed to make a cassette release just for Henk (who is still a dear friend). Yup an edition of just 1, with Edward's partner at the time, Elke, making the cover. It took four days.
However Henk insisted the world should hear it, so another 99 cassettes were made. later it was 3,000 cds on The Dots' own TEKA label, and then a Polish re-release, and even a handmade cdr version."
34 years after it's initial release, The Legendary Pink Dots "Four Days" emerges as a limited edition Double LP. Containing six bonus tracks, and a special remaster.
Paying tribute to the initial cassette release, the gatefold sleeve is adorned with Elke Skeltzer's stunningly unique artwork, which was scanned from the original cassette cover and inserts that were packaged in a plastic baggie along with said cassette.
The records come in 3 different colors, Classic Black, Clear Desert Brown, and Citrus Mixed. 100 Copies of each available.
Music by EK & The Silverman
Words by EK
Mastered by EK
Dedicated to Henk
Recorded in 4 days in Nijmegen in 1990.
Original cover art by Elke Skeltzer
|
2024 |
€49.50 |
|
| |
Four Days (brown vinyl) |
do-LP |
https://witchcatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/four-days
From Edward Ka-Spel "1990. Summer. Both EK and The Silverman were hopelessly addicted to vinyl but didn't have the money to feed their habit. A little bird whispered to Phil that another collector in the North of Holland had the 3 (Lard free) albums he desired the most AND the aforesaid had just discovered the Pink Dots. It was true , but Henk - the owner of those 3 elusive discs already had already amassed a huge collection of Dots' titles. Consequently we agreed to make a cassette release just for Henk (who is still a dear friend). Yup an edition of just 1, with Edward's partner at the time, Elke, making the cover. It took four days.
However Henk insisted the world should hear it, so another 99 cassettes were made. later it was 3,000 cds on The Dots' own TEKA label, and then a Polish re-release, and even a handmade cdr version."
34 years after it's initial release, The Legendary Pink Dots "Four Days" emerges as a limited edition Double LP. Containing six bonus tracks, and a special remaster.
Paying tribute to the initial cassette release, the gatefold sleeve is adorned with Elke Skeltzer's stunningly unique artwork, which was scanned from the original cassette cover and inserts that were packaged in a plastic baggie along with said cassette.
The records come in 3 different colors, Classic Black, Clear Desert Brown, and Citrus Mixed. 100 Copies of each available.
Music by EK & The Silverman
Words by EK
Mastered by EK
Dedicated to Henk
Recorded in 4 days in Nijmegen in 1990.
Original cover art by Elke Skeltzer |
2024 |
€55.00 |
|
| LEICHTMANN, HANNO |
The African Twintower Suite |
LP |
"October 2005: Seminal German director Christoph Schlingensief (R.I.P. 2010) shoots his latest feature film “The African Twintowers" in Lüderitz/Namibia with Irm Hermann, Klaus Beyer, Robert Stadlober, Patti Smith........
Autumn 2006: Schlingensief approaches Berlin musician/composer Hanno Leichtmann (Groupshow, Static, Denseland) regarding a soundtrack for the film. There were hours and hours of raw material; the concept being a movie with few dialogues and music throughout - a 90 minute psychedelic collage; an associative visual and sonic trip.
With the help of John Nijenhuis aka Sir Henry as well as a trio of musicians playing indian music (tabla, sitar, tampura), they started to improvise in Leichtmann's recording studio projecting film sequences on a wall. Within 4 days and nights an enormous amount of tracks had been recorded and several rough mixes had been compiled.
After a while though, Schlingensief decided to shift the concept. The film transformed into an art installation with 18 monitors showing sequences simultaneously (presented at the Berlinale and Steirischer Herbst), and later on, a kind of “Making of..." with 90% off-comments by Christoph Schlingensief and very little music was made.
Thus, “The African Twintowers Suite" represents a lost soundtrack; compiling the most interesting recordings, newly edited, layered, collaged, shortened and mixed between 2009 and 2010." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| LEITMOTIV LIMBO |
Spiritual Disturbance |
CD |
De la Catessen Records presents Spiritual Disturbance from Elijah Värttö's project Leitmotiv Limbo. Currently based in Port Adelaide, Australia, Leitmotiv Limbo has developed, slowly but surely, over the past few decades, through international travel and relocation, including five years in Estonia (2008-2012), where Värttö set up the Servataguse Muusika concert series. Spiritual Disturbance was recorded in 2020 and released privately as a small run of recycled cassettes -- this CD version is the first widely available Leitmotiv Limbo release since their 2018 split cassette with RNPno2 on Finnish label Hyster Tapes. Central to the Leitmotiv Limbo ethos are Värttö's self-made instruments, built from discarded, repurposed, and found objects, such as loose springs and other metallic implements. Affixed to wood sourced from a disused and dismantled piano frame, their deep resonance, both percussive and timbral, positions Värttö's approach within a trajectory of instrument builders/creators -- you can hear echoes of the music of artists like Z'ev, Hal Rammel, and Rod Cooper in the shattered textures and industrial drones of tracks like "Submersive", for example. There's also a tactility to the performances here, a haptic resonance, and a strange, viscous sensuality to the material. Värttö recorded Spiritual Disturbance in a church hall in Adelaide, on a four-track, using room mics and direct line input, and it's made up largely of one-take performances on Värttö's self-made instruments, with minimal intervention, at times, from analog filters and a drum synth. The combination of the evacuated tonalities of the instruments, plus the cavernous reverb of the recording space, gives Spiritual Disturbance a distinctly ritualistic sensibility; poetic and primitive, but eloquent in its exploration. It also brings to mind mysterious projects like Organum, Morphogenesis, Metgumbnerbone, perhaps even an acoustic Voice Crack, where conceptual rigor meets unpredictability via real-time improvisation. Spectral and haunted, Leitmotiv Limbo's Spiritual Disturbance is a compelling collection of oneiric expression, and an eloquent articulation of a unique, invented universe. Includes four-page booklet; edition of 300.
https://leitmotivlimbo.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-disturbance
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Superior State |
LP |
Superior State is the second Leitmotiv Limbo album released by Port Adelaide’s De la Catessen Records, after the 2022 CD Spiritual Disturbance. This time, Leitmotiv Limbo’s isolationist studies have been bumped to vinyl, which feels like the perfect format for these twelve miniatures. The project of Adelaide artist Elijah Värttö, Leitmotiv Limbo has, over the past few decades, tracked a history of quietly insistent experimentation, embracing several technologies – invented instruments; analogue filters; drum synth – to sketch desolate, cavernous structures, sometimes performed in reverberant spaces, such as church halls, which gifts the recordings a ritualistic air.
For Superior State, Värttö is more intently focused on rhythms and pulses, resulting in a beautifully sculpted collection of poetic vignettes. You can hear some trace elements, here, of the minimalist techno-not-techno of artists like Pan Sonic, or Studio 1/Freiland, in their reductionist ethos. But also, in the insistence of Värttö’s attention to detail, and his careful focus on a delimited number of elements, the twelve pieces on Superior State recall the work of mysterious German outfits Werkbund and Mechthild Von Leutsch, or the solo explorations of artists like Asmus Tietchens, Achim Wollscheid and Goem.
It's intensely evocative music, recalling all kinds of phenomena, both man-made and natural: electricity pulsing through wires; the humming of the central nervous system; the quiet hiss of deserted computer laboratories; the pulsations of plant life; the molecular vibration of atoms. Värttö has tapped into the poetry of the programmatic on Superior State, and he’s sharp in his grasp of the significant effect that the incremental shifting of a few simple parameters can have on the overarching structures he’s building here. Indeed, that poetry is echoed back in the beautiful liner notes by Adelaide artist Michael Hocking. Alive, flickering with incident, Superior State is energy transmitted, coursing through the collective’s veins.
Music recorded in a room on Nile St, Port Adelaide across six evenings, of one week in January 2023. Instruments of analogue electronics were built, performed and recorded by Elijah Värttö directly to 4-track tape, with two room mics. The instruments form four quarters, as two hemispheres mirrored. Each hemisphere has a symmetry of structure, albeit comprised of differing materials.
Detail of artwork: spray paint on metal by Elijah Värttö
Mastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi
Design by Sam Songailo
℗ Elijah Värttö 2023
© De la Catessen Records 2023
"While I recognized the Leitmotiv Limbo immediately, I was surprised that I had already reviewed four previous releases by Elijah Värttö's music project (Vital Weekly 951, 1152, 1219 and 1336). All of these were on cassette, but now it's time to do the next step and release an LP. The music is ready for it, I'd say. Värttö sounds like a Finnish name, but he's from Adelaide, just like the label here, who also re-issued the 'Spiritual Disturbance' cassette on CD. The press information talks about "invented instruments, analogue filters, drum synth" and influences of Pan Sonic, Studio 1 (Wolfgang Voigt rather than the dub label), Freiland, but also Werkbund, Asmus Tietchens, Achim Wollscheid and Goem. Some of these names I am very familiar with, and while I can't say these people don't influence him, I also believe that maybe, except for Werkbund and Tietchens, I don't hear these influences to that extent. Rhythm plays an undeniable part in the music here. Still, there is only some of that 'techno that isn't techno' of Pan Sonic or Goem here (more the latter than the first, in 'Parading Brutality', for instance), nor the conceptual edge of somebody such as Wollscheid. In these twelve pieces, I hear more of a nod towards mid-80s industrial music, where you can find albums by Tietchens of similar musical interests. Also, given the more loop-like approach, a group like Dome (in 'Relative Space', for instance). This LP is a giant leap forward compared to the previous cassette works. There was naivety in his older work, which was most enjoyable, but rightfully, it was time to move on. Leitmotiv Limbo now exercises more control, more composition, if you will. There is less of that 'roll the tape and see what happens' approach, but the music here is to the point. There is no endless wailing about, but each of the twelve compositions is just that. Not too industrial, never noisy, but with a studio-as-instrument approach, exploring uncharted territory on the sonic map. I can hardly wait for the next one." [Vital Weekly]
https://leitmotivlimbo.bandcamp.com/album/superior-state |
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| LEJEUNE, JACQUES |
Early Works 1969-1970 |
LP |
"This LP of early compositions by Jacques Lejeune features three seminal works: D'une Multitude En Fête and Petite Suite, originally released on the Perspective Musicales series in 1970, and a previously unpublished composition, Géodes, from the same period. These three pieces (not included in the recent Parages and other electroacoustic works 3CD set) are some of Lejeune's earliest music for tape and may be considered a "prequel" to his later, more thematic works. Still, his concise musical narrative is ever-present in these first recordings. The sidelong D'une Multitude En Fête (1969) refers to multitude, number, celebration and any crowd situation as a form of ceremony — all evoking a circular gaze, as topics of the different aural events and their anecdotal development emerge, leading to the dream, as a story we tell to ourselves. Géodes (1970) features percussion improvisations by Lauréat Dionne with Jacques' tapework inflecting prisms deep into its thundering, rhythmic core. This concert version appears on vinyl for the first time. Concluding the album is Petite Suite (1970), with each section referencing a traditional musical form using both anecdotal as well as instrumental flourishes. The original drum and guitar elements performed here by Michel Foudrinoy and Jean-Pierre Vassout. These pieces have been compared to Pierre Henry's bold rock themes in Messe Pour Le Temps Present and also recall the peculiar atmospheres of some of the great, early Nurse With Wound records that would follow. In contrast, Lejeune's early approach was heavily steeped in sonic narratives, combining unusual and ambiguous events to create a sound world uniquely his own. Early Works 1969-1970 explores the first precision splices by one of the true visionaries in musique concrète." [label info]
www.robotrecords.com
|
2015 |
€26.50 |
|
| LEONARDSON - MARGOLIS - VAN NORT |
Vendlam |
CD-R |
"Recorded live in concert in Poughkeepsie, New York, in July 2013, this free improvisation brings together three very different sets of sound sources and artistic temperaments. Using violin, the experimental “springboard” and the GREIS software (Granular-Feedback Expanded Instrument System), Eric Leonardson, Al Margolis and Doug Van Nort create dense, doom-laden sedimentations of sound with immediate emotional impact.
Al Margolis plays the violin and synthesizer in an approach very different from his work as If, Bwana. Eric Leonardson performs on the springboard, an experimental instrument he created in 1994 to explore the sonic potential of coil springs and other readily available materials. The inaudible vibrations of these materials are amplified by a piezo disc contact microphone. Played with cello bows and homemade friction mallets, they produce extraordinary. Doug Van Nort performs on a laptop using his self-created GREIS improvisation environment (pronounced ‘grace’), created in MAX/MSP." [label info]
File under: Free improvisation
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2014 |
€7.50 |
|
| LEPENIK |
Atoll K. |
CD-R |
Tonto-Label-Betreiber ROBERT LEPENIK mit seiner ersten (?) CD-R, auf der orchestrale Arrangements und found sounds sehr schön digital dekonstruiert und prozessuiert werden.. "atoll k" ist der letzte film von stan laurel & oliver hardy, in dem sie stark gealtert und von schwerer krankheit gezeichnet agieren. fernab der kunstfiguren "dick und doof" versuchen die protagonisten ein image ihrerselbst aufrechtzuerhalten, das vom leben schon längst eingeholt wurde. der krasse gegensatz zwischen konstruierten idealbildern und dem davon unbeeindruckten "wirklichen" leben hat mich zu der arbeit an meiner cd "atoll k" inspiriert. das cover zeigt eine fotomontage: stan laurel im film "a chump at oxford" vor dem beinahe 30 jahre später entstandenen kunstwerk "sternenhimmel tuch" vonsigmar polke. ein chump, im film gefangen, in einem flüchtigen anfall von genialität das wahre, wirkliche leben erahnend.“ [label-Beschreibung]
www.tonto.at
|
2000 |
€11.00 |
|
| LERMAN, RICHARD |
A master of scale and other pieces |
CD |
RICHARD LERMAN erforscht gerne konzeptuell seine akustische Umwelt mit selbstgebauten Instrumenten oder gewagten Installationen. Hier sind 4 seiner Stücke (Zeitraum 1981-1997) mit detaillierten Beschreibungen seiner Arbeitsweise veröffentlicht worden. Hochinteressant & abstrakt..
“ a collection of concert pieces all using self built transducers and other instruments. includes "Entrance Music" (1981 recorded in Utrecht with Richard playing self-build instruments (including a 40 foot long amplified slinky played with a violin bow, an Audubon bird call, an early version of a plinky and others), twelve self built microphones & transducers along with tape delay; "A Matter of Scale" (1986) recorded inside the Houston Astrodome with the players (including the late Jim Pomeroy) placed on various bases
while performing with tiny hand held instruments like the plinky and
amplified drinking straw; "Old Friends with Pitch to MIDI" (1994) recorded in New York as a trio with Tom Hamilton on synthesizer, Bertrand Moon on guitar and Lerman on amplified bicycle, a plinky, a soda straw, amplified tuning forks, plastic cups transduced through harpsichord wire and other object; and "Changing States 6" (1997) which is a duet for percussionist and suspended and amplified metal microphones caused to sound by heating them with a small jeweler's propane torch. Richard Lerman has been active in music since the 1960's and yet only having two previous releases: "Travelon Gamelon" LP on Folkways and "Within Earreach" CD on Artifact Recordings (both sold out from the labels). His work has also been featured on such notable anthologies as "Echo. Images of Sound II" on Het Apollohuis and the book and CD package "Site of Sound: Of Architecture and The Ear". He regularly performs and does installations in the United States and Europe and recently had a selection of his Super 8 films show at MOMA in New York. Richard Lerman currently teaches at ASU in Phoenix, Arizona. "Essential listening for lovers of granular metallic music and spacious twittering." [The Wire]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT |
Musique du Crepuscule |
CD |
Dramatic & expressive neoclassic / chamber music from this quintett using mainly strings, lots of minimal & repetitive string-structures are build, all instrumental. Their music has been compared with ARVÖ PÄRT, STEVE REICH, PHILIPP GLASS and GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR, but we also think of WIM MERTENS and RACHELS.
"Musique du Crépuscule" is a vision of night wrapped in mystery: a night haunted by spectral chants, under the spell of epic, poignant strings and sustained by hypnotic piano pulsations. Its nocturnal universe oozes with hybrid ink, enveloping hidden emotions tainted with melancholy and voluptuousness. A neo-classical or post-nocturnal piece, "Musique du Crépuscule" has many different faces. It alternates between violin riffs, dark cello projections and the complaints of a lone piano, highlighted by enigmatic echoing voices. The moonlight slowly reveals a name in the ethereal infinity: Les Fragments de la Nuit." [label info]
"Michel Villar (piano) and Ombeline Chardes (violin) both hailing from France are the talented musicians who set up this project. They’ve been joined by a few more musicians and guest vocalists. While releasing their debut-cd on Equilibrium Music they have already been involved in various soundtrack compositions for independent cinema, animations and documentaries. The soundtrack-influence is easily recognizable while the piano and violin parts also bring us to make a link with neo classical music. Les Fragments De La Nuit sounds like a journey through darkness and the name of the project perfectly fits to this goal. Most of the songs remain instrumental version filled with low piano keys and sad feelings emerging from this melancholia. Mysterious chants emerge to the surface on one of the pieces, but the music remains like encaged in an atmosphere of endless darkness or should I say an endless night. The different fragments of this night have been expressed with a gift for melancholia coming from musicians with talent!" [Side-Line]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Demain, C'etait Hier |
CD |
"Lush nocturnal neo-classical pieces forming an epic soundtrack that runs from quiet, melancholy-driven moments to stirring, violent passages and eerie moods. A unique universe, where compositions that evoke Arvö Part, Philip Glass or Godspeed You! Black Emperor seem haunted by the disturbing evil ghosts of Magma now and again." [label info]
www.equilibriummusic.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Musique de Nuit |
LP |
"Ombeline Chardes (Geige) und Michel Villar (Klavier) sind Filmkomponisten. Aber eben auch LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT. Um ihre Musik auch live darbieten zu können, entschlossen sie sich, ein Quintett aus drei Geigen, einem Cello und einem Klavier zusammenzustellen. Ihre bisherigen Alben "Musique Du Crépuscule" (2008) und "Demain C'etait Hier" (2010) erhielten gute Kritiken und machten sich mehr als gut auf vielen europäischen Festivals. Mit ihrer Musik, die zwischen Tragik, Epos und Atmosphäre pendelt, setzt sich die Band über musikalische Grenzen hinweg: pulsierenden Klavierakkorde führen Cello und drei Geigen an und treffen hier und dort auf weiblichen Chorgesang. ,Musique De Nuit" versammelt neu aufgenommene Tracks sowohl aus den frühen Tagen von LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT als auch brandneue Stücke. Das Album ist ein Zeugnis über das Können der Band, zeitgenössische klassische Musik aus ihrem strengen Korsett zu befreien und mit stilistischen Referenzen an Post-Rock, Pop oder sogar Metal zu füllen. Das erinnert an die Arbeit von Komponisten wie STEVE REICH, PHILIPP GLASS oder ARVO PÄRT mit solchen Gruppen wie GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, BALANESCU QUARTET oder MAGMA. Im Herbst 2011 haben LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT Teile zum Soundtrack des Tilda Swinton Films "We Need To Talk About Kevin" beigetragen. Die LP kommt im festen Cover mit dicker Innenhülle auf 180gr Vinyl mit Downloadcode!" [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2012 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Musique de Nuit |
CD |
"Ombeline Chardes (Geige) und Michel Villar (Klavier) sind Filmkomponisten. Aber eben auch LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT. Um ihre Musik auch live darbieten zu können, entschlossen sie sich, ein Quintett aus drei Geigen, einem Cello und einem Klavier zusammenzustellen. Ihre bisherigen Alben "Musique Du Crépuscule" (2008) und "Demain C'etait Hier" (2010) erhielten gute Kritiken und machten sich mehr als gut auf vielen europäischen Festivals. Mit ihrer Musik, die zwischen Tragik, Epos und Atmosphäre pendelt, setzt sich die Band über musikalische Grenzen hinweg: pulsierenden Klavierakkorde führen Cello und drei Geigen an und treffen hier und dort auf weiblichen Chorgesang. ,Musique De Nuit" versammelt neu aufgenommene Tracks sowohl aus den frühen Tagen von LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT als auch brandneue Stücke. Das Album ist ein Zeugnis über das Können der Band, zeitgenössische klassische Musik aus ihrem strengen Korsett zu befreien und mit stilistischen Referenzen an Post-Rock, Pop oder sogar Metal zu füllen. Das erinnert an die Arbeit von Komponisten wie STEVE REICH, PHILIPP GLASS oder ARVO PÄRT mit solchen Gruppen wie GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, BALANESCU QUARTET oder MAGMA. Im Herbst 2011 haben LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT Teile zum Soundtrack des Tilda Swinton Films "We Need To Talk About Kevin" beigetragen. Die CD kommt im besonderen Doppel-Pappsleeve." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| LETHAL DOSE 50 |
21st Century Awakening |
CD |
“The poison dose injected into the veins of persons sentenced to the death penalty in some states of the U.S.A.… but LD50 is also a Belgian trio which has been existing for years in the fields of electronic musics. After a self-released first tape and first CD-R, the first full-length CD by this talented unit. Using some digital instruments – synths, samplers- as well as some analogue ones –synths, rhythm’n box, effects,… LD50 develops an atmospheric music which is at the same time dark but warm, cosmic and experimental, melodic and deep, meditative but aware, often underlaid by some sampled voices and sound-collages, sometimes intermingled with/ intersected with some hypnotic rhythms. Being fully mastered and definitely original compared to some nowadays releases from the dark-ambient genre, “21st century awakening” will both appeal to the nostalgics of the 70ies and 80ies sonorities (old-school space-electronics from the 70ies and 80ies) such as TANGERINE DREAM, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS..as well as to the lovers of some nowadays dark ambient acts such as SCHLOSS TEGAL, INADE, HERBST 9 or FIRST LAW… LD 50 is certainly the sole musical project able to set a bridge between these two tendencies, these two sounds, these two periods. “21st century awakening” will appeal as much to the soul as to the body, to the mind as to the heart. At first listening, this record may seem a little bit strange to you, like being out of phases, but the following listenings will draw you into an endless spiral similar to the one painted on the sleeve. Allow yourself enough of freedom for that. CD re-mastered by Christian RENOU, housed in an original A5 size silk-screened fold-out cover. Paintings by Leyla ERSEN.64 minutes/10 tracks” [label description]
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| LETHE |
Catastrophe Point #5 |
CD |
"The latest in Kuwayama Kiyoharu's signature series of compositions that explore the charged, mysterious atmosphere of disused industrial sites. For this album, LETHE turns his attention to an abandoned warehouse by a pier in his hometown of Nagoya, Japan, using objects discovered in situ to perform a ritual of sonic resurrection. He brings a dead space back to life, giving it a voice and allowing it to speak. Metal chains, sheet metal, broken machinery, and factory debris are bowed, struck, and dragged across the concrete floors of the massive hall, reverberating and responding as Kuwayama and his microphones scuttle across the desolate terrain. Growling cello and unstable horns underscore the torrents of percussive clatter. Catastrophe Point #5 is a haunting album of volatile, malevolent ambience. For fans of Christoph Heemann, Surface of the Earth, The New Blockaders, Z'ev, or Organum." [label info]
www.intransitiverecordings.com
"Metgumbnerbone is not a reference that pops up all that much, nor is it one that would mean much to anyone who isn't a complete dork
about British esoteric experimental musics. But that's where we'll start for this review because that's the reference that one such dork had to make here at Aquarius (it was Jim if you must know). Metgumbnerbone was a shadowy collection of dour Brits (including Richard Rupenus of The New Blockaders) who took up residence in an abandoned factory somewhere in Newcastle and constructed a bleak ritualist music out of the refuse found within. Scraping metal and atonal horns crafted out of plumbing material abound in the Metgumbnerbone vocabulary. Such is the case for Lethe as well, the found-space project of Japanese improviser Kuwayama Kiyoharu. However, as Metgumbernone's post-electrical scrabblings were the result of a collective effort, Lethe's spatializations emerge from an orchestra of one. It seems impossible that he did not overdub many of these sounds, but the production so fully embraces the cavernous space of his choosing that Lethe's pieces sound as if they were constructed in a single take.
For Catastrophe Point #5, Lethe used an abandoned grain warehouse located on the outskirts of Nagoya, Japan. Much more than an
ambivalent shuffling or wandering scattering of clunky sounds, Lethe amasses sympathetic scrapings from pieces of metal, large and small, as they are dragged, bowed, and beaten throughout the space. Long form drones emerge throughout the performance as if he's triggering a resonant frequency of the space, echoing against itself. It's true that many of these sounds resemble those found on the impossible to find Metgumberbone records, but other references would be Organum's Vacant Lights album, Z'ev's finer moments, the recent John Grzinich constructions, and even Yoshi Wada's bellowing recordings of his Earth
Horns. Excellent!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Catastrophe Point #7 & #8 |
do-CD |
"* standard edition includes:
* 3-panel letterpress sleeve by ben owen, assembled by invisible birds
* liner notes by giancarlo toniutti, letterpress printing by ben owen
* all compositions by lethe
* photos by kuwayama kiyoharu
* sleeve design by invisible birds & kuwayama kiyoharu
* letterpress printing by ben owen at middle press, brooklyn
* liner notes written and designed by giancarlo toniutti
invisible birds continues lethe's catastrophe point series with a 2cd set which includes 2 recordings in his series, one recorded in switzerland in 2004 and the other recorded in scotland in 2006. lethe's series take place in abandoned industrial sites, using drones, chains, an occasional instrument, objects
found in the space, but most importantly the resonant qualities of the space. the wire magazine explained this series "the music sounds like it's taking place in a vast, pitch black aircraft hangar of the soul".
yannick dauby said "these are kiyoharu's obsessive abstractions dealing with physical substance and volume".
the packaging for this release was done in collaboration with kiyoharu kuwayama and letterpress printer ben owen
with the hope of achieving something that reflects the beauty and intensity of the work.
lethe: [l. lēthē, a use of gr. ληθη forgetfulness, f. ληθ, ablaut-var. of λαθ, root of λανθαυεσθας to forget. in gr. ληθη is not the name of the river, though it occurs
as a personification; the river is ληθης 'water of lethe']. 1. gr. myth. a river in hades, the water of which produced, in those who drank it, forgetfullnes of the past. hence, the 'waters of oblivion', or forgetfullness of the past.
2. [?influenced by l. lēt(h)um.] death. rare.
3. atrib. and comb., as lethe-flood, lake, wharf; lethe-wards adv. (oed definition)" [label info]
http://invisiblebirds.org/
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| LEWIS, E.G. |
All Under |
CD |
"All vocals and instruments recorded and produced by Edvard Graham Lewis at Tip Top Studio, Uppsala,Sweden Between 2003-13. With contributors, Thomas Öberg, Pauline Svanerö, P.T.Kirk, Richard Sporrong. Mastered by Russell Haswell. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin. Cover and inner images by Edvard Graham Lewis. Sleeve Design by David Coppenhall. 'All Under', the companion release to 'All Over' compiles soundtracks to films, installations and a self penned short story. This is familiar terrain for Lewis who, along with Bruce Gilbert produced the early interactive audio-visual installation 'MZUI' at London's Waterloo Gallery in 1981. Since this period Lewis as been involved in countless soundtracks to all manner of cultural artefacts. The haunting score to Gunilla Leander's 2003 short film 'All Under' was improvised in real time with a sampler and FX processing and recorded on to mini disc. The results are a viscous ambience of swirls, feedback and distortion. This material was then adapted for an immersive 3 screen installation of the same visual material which features combinations of 6 nude bodies (4 men, 2 women) fighting and wrestling, filmed underwater. The soundtrack here crawls further in the depths as electronic phrases swim amongst a foreboding ambience. Both of these works encapsulate the same disembodied effect of the visual material as hovering, uncanny sound worlds seep into the listeners subconscious. The Eel Wheeled' features Lewis' reading one of his own bizarre stories underscored with a suitably disorientating soundtrack sourced from sound effects of the Prime Sounds SFX Library. This version was re-mixed by Thomas Öberg (member of Bob Hund and 27#11). 'No Show Godot' concludes the set. A soundtrack to a 'sky movie' (road movies be warned) completed in 2013. Coming out of the initial sub aquatic environments of the opening works, 'No Show Godot' takes us on a spiralling high before folding into a gritty godly industrial mantra which comes along as a perfect means of tying up these two concurrent releases as a symmetrical whole." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| LIBEREZ |
All tense now Lax |
LP |
"Hermetically sealed and reveling in tumult, All Tense Now Lax is the most significant and developed work yet forged by Liberez. Based in main orchestrator John Hannon's remote studio No Recordings in Rayleigh, England, Liberez have expanded their palette from previous outings on Alter to produce a perfectly engineered machine that consumes the beholder." [label info]
www.nightschoolrecords.com
"It has become increasingly rare, in recent years, to hear 'industrial' records that fully merit the name. Like most experimental musical terms, it is a descriptor that has become useful only in small doses: usually in reference to artists utilising mechanical and oppressive sonic textures. This usage, however, only conveys a part of what industrial music was originally about. The great early industrial bands manipulated sound in such a way that it retained the flawed feel of human direction whilst simultaneously building a shrine to the electronic. Listening to the finest Throbbing Gristle records, for example, one is overcome by an atmosphere that is almost entirely alien and discomforting precisely because of its human element; something that even the most applause-worthy of (largely digitally based) industrial artists of today are incapable of quite accomplishing.
This, perhaps, is what makes a vaguely 'industrial' outfit like Liberez such an enticing proposition. A group that blends the electronic with the acoustic, and works on foundations provided more by improvisation than by the meticulous organisation of much contemporary experimentalism, Liberez have been stalwarts of the deepest depths of the murky UK underground for some years now, rightly eschewing genre terms in favour of constant reinvention and re-articulation of their musical aims. All Tense Now Lax, however, sees Liberez reach new heights (or lows, depending on the way you want to perceive music so undeniably gloomy) in their apparent quest to capture the beautiful in the most disjointedly unnervingly fashion possible.
Liberez’s determination to manufacture contrast is impressive from the album’s opening seconds. Intro track ‘
Of Milk’ fades in with eerie piano and ends with concrete drone, fading into the slow building tumult of ‘_Захвална породица’, complete with some mid-period Skullflower guitar wailing and clanking percussion. This is a pattern that continues throughout, with sections of fragile sound collage – rendered particularly effective by the regular presence of moaning violin – being presented along spiralling channels of paranoid distortion.
At its most overblown and overwrought All Tense Now Lax is less disturbing and more genuinely frightening. ‘How Much for Your Brother?’ is a gross exhortation of primal malevolence, retching through its four minutes with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and the abrasiveness of a sandpaper razor. At the other end of the scale, ‘Stop Your Breathing’, the following track, mutters and groans through disembodied fragments of noise, which eventually (and briefly) end up coalescing into a faintly beautiful climax. The combination of these two styles alongside one another is exhausting but powerful, like a stripped down Godspeed You! Black Emperor at most minimalistic and effective best.
All Tense Now Lax, then, is brilliant precisely because of the way it flits disconcertingly between the two extremes presented in its title, between the constant and unrestrained tension of technological progress and the contrasting looseness of our day to day existence alongside it. The overall result is an enormously adept capturing of the conundrum of the 'industrial' in a post-industrial landscape." [Benjamin Bland / Drowned In Sound]
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| LICHT, ALAN & AKI ONDA |
Everydays |
CD |
"Debut collaboration of New York artists and long-time duo partners ALAN LICHT & AKI ONDA, whose combined history connects artists straddling the pop and experimental worlds, including Fennesz, Loren Connors, Takemura Nobukazu, Lee Ranaldo, and Toriko Nujiko. In the past decade their montage-inspired solo work---Licht's permutational guitar and tape pieces on Rabbi Sky and A New York Minute, Onda's field recording recontextualizations on Bon Voyage! and Ancient & Modern---has co-existed with their experimental sound/visual projects Text of Light (Licht) and Cinemage (Onda). "Everydays" is five grandly formed soundscapes that mix Onda's poetic/textural cassette sounds and the rhythmic/lyrical pull of Licht's guitar. Morphing from recognizable structures to dissonant hammered chunks and rapid cut-ups, the album perfectly weaves their signature applications of sound diaries, minimalism, grainy fidelity, looping and free blues into a dynamic and ambitious statement." [label notes]
www.family-vineyard.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LICHT-UNG |
Kristall |
7 |
LICHT-UNG ist ein Label, Lyrik- und Soundprojekt für experimentelle Kunst aus Leverkusen mit etwas exzentrischem Anspruch. Auf 'Kristall' findet sich eine spannungsgeladene A-Seite basierend auf Feedback-Sounds, sowie ein wirklich kristallklarer microsound-drone auf der Rückseite.
"LICHT-UNG (German for "glade") is the name of a label, art- (publishing lyrics, pictures, etc.) and sound project from the western part of Gemany with a very peculiar and rather dadaistic approach. The two pieces on "kristall" seem to be based mainly on feedback- and metal or glass sounds that are carefully put together for a queer-sounding trip. Side A ("Listen to the music playing in your head") consists of humming, growling drones, low siren-like sounds and high-frequency feedbacks, powerful and absorbing and very abstract, while never turning into sheer noise. Side B (with the odd title "Heute war ich bei den weißen Elefantens") delivers a crystal-clear noise chant and metallic overtones processed with obscure effects. File under: high-tension & crystal Drones
BLUE VINYL WITH BLACK STRIAE. COVERS WITH SILKSCREEN-PRINTED TEXT & VISUAL, SILVER-PRINTED BLACK INLAY"
[press release]
"Ein beigelegter Pin, eine liebevoll bedruckte Rückseite und ein gespraytes Cover schaffen auf
Anhieb Sympathie, die Musik nicht weniger. Licht-ung ist Fakt- und infobezogen recht
schweigsam, zwar sehr betriebsam und eher in der unorthodox-verzettelten Ecke der
experimentellen Musik tätig, hier allerdings geradezu lieblich und freigeistig, wofür die Namen der beiden Stücke geradezu bürgen.
»Listen To The Music Playing In Your Head« ist analoge Feedbackverdrahtung a la David Lee
Myers mit ordentlich Rauschen drauf, ein wenig Mikroakribie im Stile von V/VM und last but
not least so differenziert fern, dass man meint, einem zeitlich langgezogenen Bremsvorgang
der Untergrundbahn in Hamburg zu lauschen. Charmant und reicht allemal für einen kurzen
Sprung ins Unterbewusstsein, hingegen die B-Seite trägt dem Namen des Releases eher
Rechnung: »Heute War Ich Bei Den Weißen Elefanten« ist ein in der Tat kristallklarer elektroakustischer Drone auf der Grundlage eines transponierten Glockenspiels. Die Tonspur ist dabei genauso aberwitzig halluzinogen wie der Titel des Stückes, aber augenzwinkernd hintergründig. Es schlingert und scheppert auf den Frequenzen und letztlich fällt doch alles in die große Stille. Eines der etwas obskureren Werke auf Drone Records, aber sehr fein aufbereitet und mysteriös wie der Musiker dahinter." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Gieb Fahrt! |
mCD-R |
3" CDR, 1 TRACK, 1 VIDEOFILE, 12 MINUTES. LIMITED AND NUMBERED EDITION OF 150 COPIES. MINI DVD BOX WITH 2 INLAYS. licht-ung, a art (lyrics, pictures, etc.) and sound project from Germany. The name stands always for his very own art. Strange, peculiar, dadaistic. licht-ung have several releases on his own label, some are splits with artists like Government Alpha, Stilluppsteypa, Aube. There is also a 7" on Drone Records, that shows the lower side.
This TOSOM release contains a 12 minute piece, in the best japanese Noise tradition. Very harsh, very intensive, very loud. The second track is a short video file for your PC.
lichtlaterne. wenn der regen nebens cafe faellt. und jemand spaziert. einen brief schreibt, und geburtstag hat. endlich, finalmente, sind wir drin. wir koennen tanzen, klettern, sehen den fluß. seine schiffe.
auch fuer sie scheint eine ampel. die post spart hilfe die ganze nacht lang auf. waere sie nicht gewesen, haette viel dort bleiben muessen, denn wir koennen nicht alles behalten. wir konnten nie alles loslassen. nur alles haben wir verloren. die maserung bleibt wie eine spur in der tuer. in einem anderen land. Du lebst." [label info]
"... So Johannes is to contemporary noise what Da Vinci was to the renaissance? The 3inch has a strange short video of 6 seconds and a 12 or so minute harsh noise work which mixes harsh rumble with high pitched feedback. The noise piece is competent to the point of a total refinement of what harsh noise should be, and that's praise not criticism, it winds and weaves through a sonic landscape at times quixotically so much so that the piece IMO could have been longer - but it pays to leave your audience wanting more - which I do (though not sprouts!)." [Jliat / Vital Weekly]
label: www.tosom.de
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Die Weiße |
10 |
Konsequenter als auf DER WEISSEN geht es wohl nicht: Total weisses Cover, weisse Label, weisses Vinyl, als Inlay ein leeres Blatt (weisses) Papier. Auf der Platte: White Noise! Aber durchaus variantenreich, als rauschige Distortion-Walze wie auch als fast Sinuston-artige Feedbacks, mitunter feedbackt es so sehr das fast wieder Stille erreicht wird. Und dann sind manchmal auch Mickey-Mouse Stimmen & andere herrlich zerschredderte Quellen-Sounds (Pop-Musik) hörbar.
www.licht-ung.de
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| LICHT-UNG / IRIS GARRELFS |
split |
10inch |
Split 10" in a tiny edition of this excentric german art-project with the british soundartist IRIS GARRELS. Two pieces with ominous dronescapes, strange clouds of rather dull moaning sounds, pulses, crackles, resonance-bubbles, quite exciting in their indeterminableness.
Great record, very much recommended. Comes with colour-photo sticked on, and inlay. Numbered ed.
Background to IRIS GARRELFS recordings: "(Talking) Space to Space is an ongoing radio project. Using captured natural radio emissions from celestial objects, Iris reshapes these sounds into an audio composition and flings them back to the stars in a radio broadcast. A poetic gesture, a sensual fiction which takes the past, re-shapes it in real-time and travels with it into the future. The piece was originally performed on Resonance FM in June 04 and as part of Radio Art Riot during the Frieze Art Fair, October 04. An extract was also featured as part of Radio Day of European Cultures in October 05. An extended version was listed for the PRS New Musci Award in 05. An extract wil be released on 10" vinyl by German art label lich-tung in spring 06." [website info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| LIDDIKOATIGHT & LEIF ELGGREN / KAAOS IN ECCENTRIS |
split 7 |
7 |
Weird Single on this finnish label: KAAOS IN ECCENTRIS is an experimental improvisation-trio who build strange semi-electronic sound-sculptures that are at the same time chaotic and structured, whereas LIDDIKAOTIGHT, a project with KOUHEI and other japanese freaks, in “telephatic collaboration” with LEIF ELGGREN, create a mind-explosive ambient-noise composition, & with lots of unexpected sound-effects over a hiss-loop.
Liddikoatight = Kouhei Matsunaga & friends, here in telepathic collaboration with Leif Elggren.
Kaaos in Eccentris = Niko Skorpio, Ibrahim Terzic, Ovro & Mockingwyrd.
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| LIFE GARDEN |
Songs from the other Side of Emptiness |
LP + 7inch |
"Life Garden was formed in Phoenix, Arizona during the fall of 1989 by George Dillon, Su Ling and W. David Oliphant. The group was the reinvention of post-industrial band Maybe Mental (1982-1987) and delved into an ineffable territory; where language failed, their music found root.
Life Garden's sound focused on creating a space that would transcend people to a world of beauty, intensity and mystery. Each release was loosely guided by one member, Caught between the Tapestry of Silence and Beauty (1991) was focused towards the poetry and vocals of George Dillon who sadly passed away after the completion of the album.
During this period LG began to shift from using synths and samplers to an all acoustic approach. Over several months Su Ling and David developed a unique improvisational style using digital multi-effects and loopers to process Su's vocals and a variety of percussion, string and wind instruments. This became the foundation of the LG sound and is heard thoughout 'Songs from the other Side of Emptiness'.
The LP + 7inch includes music from the following bodies of work-
Worlds Whirl Beneath The Sun Volume 1 (1990),
Pry Open My Mouth With The Red Knife Of Heaven (1992)
Seed (1993) and Ahitanaman (1995).
Artwork by Yuske Imai
Remastered by Wouter at Brandenburg Mastering"
lullabiesforinsomniacslabel.bandcamp.com
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| LIGETI, LUKAS |
Afrikan Machinery |
CD |
"Lukas Ligeti is a young drummer and composer of deep musical lineage who has developed into one of the most interesting compositional voices working today. For his second Tzadik release Lukas focuses on electronics. Using the marimba lumina, a new instrument invented by the legendary electronic pioneer Don Buchla, he fuses electronic, acoustic, traditional, avant-garde, European, American and African influences to create a unique post minimal world of spinning polyrhythms and hypnotic textures. Beautiful and endlessly listenable." [label info]
www.tzadik.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK |
From the idle Cylinders |
CD-R |
Kraftvoller Guitar-Drone mit wummernder & stampfender Drum-machine und heftigen Gitarren-Loops, ekstatisch, geisterhaft, nicht von dieser Welt... erinnert an NADJA, klingt für unsere Ohren aber zum Teil auch wie eine Metal-Version von RAPOON !
LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK ist das Solo-Projekt von BEN FLEURY-STEINER, der auch hinter PARADIN und dem GEARS OF SAND-Label steckt, eine echte Überrraschung!
"Light Of Shipwreck is a one-man band operated by Ben Fleury-Steiner, a Deleware-based drone artist and owner of the excellent Gears of Sand Recordings imprint, which has released discs from some of our favorite ambient/drone/drift artists including Encomiast, Cordell Klier, and Aidan Baker. It was actually through Aidan Baker that we found out about Ben's Light Of Shipwreck project; knowing that we're fanatics for "heavy ambient" sound, Light Of Shipwreck was recommended as something we should check out. At first expecting something more along the lines of the kind of floating ambient rumble that marks so much of my favorite Baker solo stuff, I was pleasantly surprised by how percussive the tracks I heard online from LOS were, the dense, ominous feedback drones and heavy rumbling ur-riffs floating freely over a mechanistic tribal-rhythm freakout. We ended up getting in touch with Ben from Light Of Shipwreck and it turned out that he had a nearly hour-long disc that he wanted to have released through our Crucial Bliss imprint, and here we are: a three-track full length of rich, crushing power-ambient, titled From The Idle Cylinders, a reference to the American Objectivist poet George Oppen whose work is a consistent influence on Light Of Shipwreck's imagery, with huge slabs of resonant sheet metal shimmering in an ocean of heavenly feedback and reverberating guitar drone, and surges of droning tribal Krautrock percussion floating along with distorted ambient doom powerchords and washed out vocal cord bliss, each track running upwards of 20 minutes in length. A totally breathtaking piece of music, like Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Can, and Earth swirled together into an austere, hypnotizing heavy-trance masterpiece. This limited edition CD-R of From The Idle Cylinders comes packaged in the signature Crucial Bliss foldover card sleeve with the disc itself attached to the sleeve on a plastic hub and featuring striking photo design, in a print run of 200 copies." [label info]
"Haunting super rhythmic industrial soundscapes laced with a propulsive locomotive shuffle of programmed percussion, keening high end and hissing whirs of smeared almost jazziness, looped and cyclical, some sort of disembodied krautrock/spacerock like a more mechanical Necks jamming in a thick cloud of Birchville Cat Motel fug. A groaning creaking percussive framework beneath a sky full of shimmering black clouds.
All three tracks begin all abstract and drifty, the first "I Rode And Am Riding On An Ocean Of Violent Lights", quickly explodes into a fog of jagged edges and swirling squalls of chaotic percussion and overlapping drones, while the second, "I Watched And Am Watching
A Cold Dead Sun Rise Then Explode" coalesces into a serious chunk of glorious Ur-kraut, a simple stripped down rhythm spread out over a
massive expanse of low end whir and phantom drone drift, gorgeous and mesmerizing, with a dark dreamy melody, both ominous and lovely, think a super mellow druggy Circle, or a slightly more noise rock Necks...
The final track begins with subtle Eastern sounding percussion, before giving way to some Fear Falls Burning massive glacial guitar drone, eventually splintering into glimmering harmonics, the rest of the twenty minute track, a tangle of the two, shuffling skittering rhythms wrapped around slow burning solar flare guitar. So good.
As with all Crucial Bliss releases, the packaging is gorgeous, a dvd sized fold over thick cardstock sleeve, full color inside and
out, the cd attached to a plastic hub affixed to the sleeve... and LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES!!" [{Aquarius ]
www.crucialblast.net
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| LILES, ANDREW |
All Closed Doors |
CD |
New work of this British bizarre-ambience composer, who is still to discover! This evokes an eerie darkness, with melancholic piano tunes, as a whole a surrealistic, day-dreamy atmosphere..
“With a title such as ‘Largactil and Dilaudin for the Soul’ this newest release from British composer Andrew Liles should give an indication of the eccentricies from where this recording is coming from. One track of stark resonating piano followed by the slow warming of the orchestra that draws you in. Once there, it tip toes, echoes and dissolves with each track re-emerging more fractured than the next. Intricacies of creaks, dull thuds, traditional instrumentation and then subtle ambient drones. ‘All Closed Doors’ could be the aural equivalent of living in a disused cupboard; dusty and empty - dark and damp. Perhaps the definitive song on the album, 'What Never Will Be' is a bizarre ghostly version of the 'que sera sera'. Edition of 500 copies.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
In my father's house are many mansions |
CD |
Grossartiges meist surrealistisch-dunkles Material auf dieser ANDREW LILES – Remix Compilation von vielen namhaften v.a. britischen Projekten!
"Various artists remixing, re-ordering, adding and subtracting the recordings of Andrew Liles.
Paul Bradley Journey Remix
Colin Potter All Doors Open
Aaron Moore Auto Manipulator - Trumpet Mix
Jonathan Coleclough Aviophilia
Ruse The Ether Reel Rendered
Band of Pain Apathy in the UK (Blast# 3)
Bass Communion Something to do with Hans Bellmer in a Pub at Last Orders using 15th Century Rural Magic
Aranos Auto Manipulator - Gong Mix
Darren Tate Lite
Irr. App (Ext) Ape Greasing Resonant Curvature Around Antiseptic Orifice
The Hafler Trio Song of the Ergophile
Unsong Te Whare Ao Aitu (Waits In Double Bed)
vidnaObmana 8 O'Clock
Nurse With Wound Soliloquy for Lile(s)th
Freiband Reis"
[label credits]
“...In fact so busy, that his latest CD is a remix project. On this poetically entitled disc (Liles loves his titles) we find a host of well-known Liles-friends such as Paul Bradley, Colin Potter, Jonathan Coleclough, Bass Communion, Aranos, Darren Tate, Irr. App., Hafler Trio, Nurse With Wound, Vidna Obmana and Freiband paying aural tribute to the man. Each of these artists re-work one of Liles tunes with often-impressive results. At times the mixes remain close to the original gentle collages (like the mixes by Bradley or the very recognizable piano theme Potter uses) or more like soundscapes such as the tracks by Coleclough, Tate, Nurse With Wound (a Soliloquy no less) and Bass Communion. Ruse and The Hafler Trio deliver trademark, more abstract versions and Freiband submits, compared to the other tracks, the noisiest piece of them all. It is interesting to note that as much as these tracks are made by individual artists with individual styles, this CD still sounds as a coherent project, which makes for enjoyable listening and is probably why this is released under the name Andrew Liles. Another intriguing and highly enjoyable addition to the already impressive Liles-catalogue.” [FK / Vital Weekly] Address: http://www.adverse-effect.com
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
|
The Dying Submariner |
CD |
THE DYING SUBMARINER besteht, wie es der Subtitel bereits andeutet, aus 4 Stücken hallgeschwängertem Piano – das sind dronig-düstere, melancholisch-sphärische und disharmonisch-verstörende Schwingungen, oft mollgetönt, sein düsterstes und minimalstes Werk bisher.
“Leviathan low end growls belch a hazy pitch into the sea, rendering daylight useless to penetrate the unknown depths. Andrew's concerto for piano and reverb conjures many spirits, including that of wrathful Poseidon. The piece (in 4 movements) also conjures the spirit of nothingness. A sense of complete loneliness prevails in the echoey death throes. The faint scent of forebears fascinated with watery graves and abandon lingers from the wake of such pieces as Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking Of The Titanic and many of Harold Budd's early works, though Liles’ fitful concerto paints his submariner's demise more as a dissonant, prolonged struggle than as a melodic, majestic descent. Spatially, the work tends to build into shifting layers similar to Charlemagne Palestine, Henry Cowell's clusters or La Monte Young's Well Tuned Piano (though Andrew's work is not based on a microtonal system). The ringing resonances sometimes fan out as distinct harmonic phrases, and sometimes the notes simply propagate and clash with the reverb creating ripples of pure metallic sound, even to the point where the piano's strings melt into the sculptural, welling up more like tidal pools alongside Bertoia and Dumitrescu. A beautifully disturbing wet suit suite of sonic sound.“ [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Black Hole |
CD |
Teil 2 der VORTEX VAULT-Serie ist weitaus weniger bizarr als der Vorgänger, sondern eine dunkle surreale Reise in eine Schattenwelt, die verwunschen & unzugänglich scheint wie eine Halluzination...
Part 2 of the VORTEX VAULT-series appear to be much less bizarre than the predecessor. "Black Hole" is a dark surreal voyage into a shadow-world, inaccessible and enchanted like a hallucination...
"Black Series 6 - Ed. of 300 numbered and signed copies. 'The Vortex Vault' will be in part a collection of unreleased, unearthed and dusted down material from the vast Andrew Liles archive of unused studio material. 'The Vortex Vault' will also include brand new recordings, conceptual and collaborative pieces, special guests, kraut rock psyche outs, space rock, the odd and unlikely, Norwegian, the obscure and arcane, aircraft, cicadas, the absurd and nonsensical. 'The Vortex Vault' is a platform to release radically different and eclectic material. Expect the unexpected, the minimalist and excessive, the demure and deranged. The first in the series will be 'Black Paper', The second in the series will be 'Black Hole', and in no particular order will be followed by 'Black Beauty', 'Black Mamba', 'Black Pool', 'Black Sea', 'Black Panther', 'Black Sheep', 'Black Widow', 'Blackout', 'Black Market' and finishing with 'Black End" [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Black Sheep |
CD |
Part ten in the VORTEX VAULT-series, embrace thee Disparity!
Many different tracks are spread on "Black Sheep" (13!), the already 10th part of the VORTEX VAULT-series, which are characterized a lot through all the guest-musicians for collaborate with LILES. "Black Sheep" has excellent dark ambient & droney stuff but also violin-based tracks (that sound very much like ARANOS, but seem to come from ANNIE KERR), weird narrative & voicecrafted material and something that sounds like badly played Krautrock-Ambient-Wave. Damn.
"Black Series 14 - Ed. of 300 numbered and signed copies available September 1, 2007. Many thanks to Michael Liles and Esme Haynes who narrate on track 1, David Janssen who plays on track 2, Steven Wilson who re-constructed track 3, Annie Kerr who stroked strings on Tracks 7 and 10, Wolfgang Weiss who narrates on 11 and Gregg Sharpen and Colin Potter who inadvertently contribute to track 13. 'The Vortex Vault' will be in part a collection of unreleased, unearthed and dusted down material from the vast Andrew Liles archive of unused studio material. 'The Vortex Vault' will also include brand new recordings, conceptual and collaborative pieces, special guests, kraut rock psyche outs, space rock, the odd and unlikely, Norwegian, the obscure and arcane, aircraft, cicadas, the absurd and nonsensical. 'The Vortex Vault' is a platform to release radically different and eclectic material. Expect the unexpected, the minimalist and excessive, the demure and deranged. The first in the series will be 'Black Paper', The second in the series will be 'Black Hole', and in no particular order will be followed by 'Black Beauty', 'Black Mamba', 'Black Pool', 'Black Sea', 'Black Panther', 'Black Sheep', 'Black Widow', 'Blackout', 'Black Market' and finishing with 'Black End'." [credits & label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Somnambulance to Dream General |
CD |
Bevor Mr. LILES v.a. durch die Beteiligung an NURSE WITH WOUND einem grösseren Hörerkreis bekannt wurde, werkelte er jahrelang recht versteckt an seiner bizarr-surrealistischen Soundwelt herum, hier bestehend aus Synth-Drones & sperrigen Elektronoises, Pianosequenzen, Sprachmaterial, traditionelles englischsprachiges Gesangsmaterial (wie Kinderlieder und Abzählreime, die ein nostalgisches Flair verbreiten), melanchronische Instrumentalquellen, wirre found sounds und Versatzstücke aus Jazz, etc. etc.
SOMNAMBULANCE ist eine Neubearbeitung einer CDR-Compilation mit frühem Material - gleich 21 Stücke fanden den Weg auf dieses äusserst kurzweilige Album, schwankend zwischen Düsternis und anregender Exzentrizität. Als Einstieg in LILES recht einzigartige, verschrobene Klangwelt wohl ideal !!
"Somnambulance" is a reworking of an album of odd and obscure tracks that was released in a microscopic edition on CD-R before. For this CD, Mr. Liles has provided his funniest and possibly most controversial artwork as of yet. You get an hour of music of many different styles: Andrew Liles' trademark of eerie and spooky sounds is there; also electronics and a whole range of instruments are placed in between sketches and longer tracks. And if all this weren't enough, you get three bonus tracks that didn't appear on the CDR at all. After a long line of collaborations, finally a new album by Current 93 and Nurse With Wound man Liles himself!" [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Miscellany Deluxe |
do-LP |
Kollektion alter und ältester Aufnahmen des exzentrischen Briten! Dies ist die "einfache" Version im Gatefold-Cover.
"Much of the music included in this set is exclusive to this vinyl version of ‘Miscellany’. Andrew Liles has compiled a comprehensive anthology including as much varied, interesting and unreleased material as possible. He spent many an afternoon sifting through piles of cassettes seeking the oldest and arguably most definitive pieces of music from literally hundreds of hours of tape.
The earliest recordings on these discs date back to 1984. ‘Find a New Husband’ was made on Liles' fathers very cheap Amstrad tape-to-tape system. The tape machine ceased to work properly shortly thereafter. This track was the result or many hours of rewinding and re-playing and re-recording, and thus began Liles fascination, obsession and addiction with tape-manipulation, sound FX and recording techniques.
Listening back to some of these works reminds us of the archaic and laborious fashion in which music used to be created and assembled. In hindsight the merits of working with tape compared to digital technologies seem to be the random nature of what would happen. Tape bleed, mishaps, the low-fi quality and errors seemed to give unique and often unpredictable results. Many of Andrew Liles' early experimentations and accidental consequences are included in this collection.
Also included are selections from his two self-released cassettes under the name Lividity. The Lividity tapes were given away to friends and sent as demos to assorted labels. Some 20 years later it is very doubtful that any of them exist other the two remaining copies Andrew Liles has kept tucked away in some forgotten corner." [label info]
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2009 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Miscellany Deluxe (Box Edition) |
3 x LP-Box & T-Shirt |
Limitierte Box-Version - neben der auch einzeln erhältlichen do-LP gibt es noch eine weitere LP mit weiterem Material so wie ein synapsenkillendes ROSAfarbenes T-Shirt, alles in einer silbernen Box!
"Much of the music included in this set is exclusive to this vinyl version of ‘Miscellany’. Andrew Liles has compiled a comprehensive anthology including as much varied, interesting and unreleased material as possible. He spent many an afternoon sifting through piles of cassettes seeking the oldest and arguably most definitive pieces of music from literally hundreds of hours of tape.
The earliest recordings on these discs date back to 1984. ‘Find a New Husband’ was made on Liles' fathers very cheap Amstrad tape-to-tape system. The tape machine ceased to work properly shortly thereafter. This track was the result or many hours of rewinding and re-playing and re-recording, and thus began Liles fascination, obsession and addiction with tape-manipulation, sound FX and recording techniques.
Listening back to some of these works reminds us of the archaic and laborious fashion in which music used to be created and assembled. In hindsight the merits of working with tape compared to digital technologies seem to be the random nature of what would happen. Tape bleed, mishaps, the low-fi quality and errors seemed to give unique and often unpredictable results. Many of Andrew Liles' early experimentations and accidental consequences are included in this collection.
Also included are selections from his two self-released cassettes under the name Lividity. The Lividity tapes were given away to friends and sent as demos to assorted labels. Some 20 years later it is very doubtful that any of them exist other the two remaining copies Andrew Liles has kept tucked away in some forgotten corner." [label info]
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2009 |
€60.00 |
|
|
Anal Aura Gram |
LP + 7inch |
Wiederveröffentlichung einer raren CDR (Bonus zur Aural Anagram CD) von 2003, plus 7" mit Remixen von STEVE SEVERIN! 300 Stück im edlen, massiven Cover. Soon to be rare!
"An edition of 300 copies on 180 gram blue vinyl and packaged in a custom made book bound sleeve. Available late August 2009 (delayed from original release date due to nefarious pressing plant.) Anal Aura Gram” is a vinyl version of the long deleted CDR that came in limited quantities with the 2003 album “Aural Anagram” and also features a bonus 7" disc of two remixes by Steven Severin (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Glove). How many lives would be saved if every one had an Anal Aura Gram? Andrew does offer a sort of audio high-colonic by flushing unwanted polyps with his unpredictable attacks and decays. Liles has developed a compositional technique that makes individual sonic shifts as compelling as the music itself. The tones arise from submarine-crushing depths into the tails of comets, except when they are suddenly transported into the gut of a mountain. Or into the strangely populated belly of a whale. Harmonicas within crystals within faerie fyre? Inside every out-worldly dream-drone is a debris field of small, lovingly constructed noise stabs which strike like matches or coil like cobras. Fizzling, sighing, groaning under-carriage sounds ping and rattle in and out like the quiet clamour of an old house, next to an old church, built on an ancient Indian burial brothel. It is like listening to a hologram of a black hole devouring radio signals. Finally, time to get Anal!" [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Ouarda (The subtle Art of...) |
CD / DVD |
"We are pleased to announce for the first time on a digital format the release of a dual disc expanded edition of the critically acclaimed LP 'Ouarda (The Subtle Art of Phyllorhodomancy)'. 'Ouarda' features contributions from amongst others Danielle Dax, Rose McDowall and Edward Ka-Spel.Side One of this disc is an audio CD including an extra track and slightly remixed version of the LP. Side Two of the disc is a DVD which includes - A film by Michael Tang with musical adaptations by Colin Potter, Old Tom's Marrow - A film by Andrew Liles and three amazing 5.1 mixes by Freida Abtan. Packaged in a beautiful Super Jewel Box with a full colour 8 page booklet with stunning Liles artwork." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Monster Munch |
7inch |
"The first musical release in the 'MONSTER' series is the 'MONSTER MUNCH E.P.' The 'MONSTER MUNCH E.P' is an 8 track 7". Side one of the single is playable at both 45 and 33.3. The single comes in a beautiful card fold out sleeve that measures 14" by 14" with 'exotic' artwork by Andrew Liles. The record is pressed on candy coloured red vinyl and is limited to 300 copies. ‘MONSTER’ started in 2009 with the ‘GONZO’ download and t-shirt and two button badges. Planned for the coming months are a book and CD called 'DREAMY GORGEOUS MONSTER and a DVD ‘THE PHANTASMOGORICAL MONSTER THEY CALL TOKOLOSHE’. The first LP 'THE MIRACULOUS MECHANICAL MONSTER' will be released in May and a Mini LP 'THE MULDJEWANGK' in the summer months. The 'MONSTER' series of recordings and ephemera are unexpected musical adventures and all tie together as one cohesive 'MONSTROUS' anthology." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2010 |
€11.50 |
|
|
As if Punk Rock never happened / Pretty vague cunt |
pic-7" |
"As If Punk Rock Never Happened is a 7" picture disc that is Andrew Liles' contribution to International Record Store Day. The disc also doubles as a cynical "commemorative" item for the Royal Wedding on April 29, 2011. Get it for your grandmother in your local record shop... she will love the B-side "Pretty Vague Cunt." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2011 |
€11.50 |
|
|
Muldjewangk, Morgawr & other Monsters |
CD |
"Andrew Liles is an incredibly prolific musician working in the same vein as artists like Nurse With Wound and The Hafler Trio, releasing his oblique, idiosyncratic Surrealist sound compositions at a terrific rate to a fanbase who must have a good deal of disposable income. This disc is part of a larger collection of “Monster” themed works by Liles, from more music to wristbands, shirts, guitar picks and so on. This ‘brand’ seems to be presented with a certain sense of humour and a bit of a nod and a wink.
The bestiary to hand on this disc is a curious one, and we scuttle sidelong into it with the excellent digeridoo-drenched tribal oddness of ‘Swamp Thing’, which is surrounded by two more free-form pieces comprising creepy spoken-word stories, children singing and so on. In fact the longer you delve into ‘Muldjewangk, Morgawr & Other Monsters’, the more this becomes an obvious underpinning stylistic theme, the spoken word elements in a dozen languages (all real? I can’t tell) and spooky chanting/singing in children’s voices crops up repeatedly throughout.
Following the slightly helter-skelter opening sequence, things take a murky turn into the spaced-out and strange. ‘Pine Cold Emerald Lights’ is morose and Slavic – lamenting violins lurch around under a male voice imparting something Cyrillic. But then we’re led to meet the monster, more children’s voices intoning ‘followfollowfollow’ over and over, and we’re deep in the jungle.
More and more twists and turns follow, clattering, off kilter drums, sonorous tones and more half-heard narrations, a terrifying diversion into drum & bass, intonations and incantations. It’s all grist to the Andrew Liles mill, a genuine feeling of a confused stagger through a cryptozoological safari park while feeling like it’s all done with a sly grin. Also worth noting is the seeming lack or concealment of overtly electronic sounds or techniques, other than effects. This gives a really organic, earthy feeling, the twists and turns in the composition feeling like a natural shift. The one point where electronics show up – the queasy breakbeat section in ‘Gin Tumbler Landfill’ – it comes in like a radio being tuned to that accidentally and then is abruptly interrupted with a sudden shift to violin and piano, as if switched off in disgust.
I don’t really know much of Andrew Liles’ work away from his collaborations with NWW and Current 93 so this was an interesting listen for me, imagining the crossovers and identifying the stylistic differences. He’s definitely a point on that post-industrial Surrealist continuum, and long may he remain so." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Fast Forward through Time (Illusion Four) |
LP |
"180g Vinyl. Hier kommt der erste Vinylrelease seit 20 Jahren (!) auf United Dairies, dem legendären Label von Steven Stapleton! Die 'Through Time'-Serie gründet sich auf Ideen rund um das Konzept der Zeit - das Verrinnen der Zeit, Zeitreisen - und teilweise auf die Texte von John von Neumann, besonders auf seine Ideen des selbsterneuernden universellen Aufbaus und seine Vorlesung 'The General and Logical Theory of Automata'. Dies ist der vierte und letzte Teil der 'Through Time"-Serie. Die LP ist strenge limitiert auf 500 Stück - keine NURSE WITH WOUND/United Dairies Plattensammlung ist vollständig ohne sie! //
The year 2014 marks the first vinyl release on Steven Stapleton's legendary United Dairies label in over 20 years! The 'Through Time' series is based on ideas around the concept of time, the passage of time, time travel and also in part on the writings of John von Neumann. This LP is the fourth and final part of the 'Through Time' series, and strictly limited to 500 copies. No Nurse With Wound/United Dairies collection is complete without it! The record is pressed on audiophile virgin 180-gram vinyl and the sleeve features beautiful front cover art by Babs Santini (a.k.a. Steven Stapleton)."
[label info]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Mother Goose's Melody or Sonnets for the Cradle |
do-LP |
"Menschliche Sprache und weirde found sounds spielen auch auf „Mother goose’s melody“ wieder die Hauptrolle. Das ganze nimmt durch die britisch akzentuierte Erzählerstimme LORD BATH eine dunkel-märchenhaften, verschrobenen Charakter an....insgesamt ein bizarres „bad fairy tale“-Album mit Elementen aus plunderphonics, dark ambient und Hörspiel, welches LILES Ausnahmestatus im Experimental-Sektor mehr als bestätigt!" [Drone Rec. info on CD release 2005]
"Andrew Liles is a prolific solo artist, producer and remixer. He has been recording since the mid 1980’s and has appeared on well over 200 releases. His work has been used in Theatre, Film, Radio and T.V. He has also worked in some capacity with the following groups and individuals: Danielle Dax, John Murphy (S.P.K.), Nurse With Wound, Current 93, The Hafler Trio, Steven Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees) and Cosey Fanni Tutti of Throbbing Gristle." [label info]
“This project from the fabulous Andrew Liles is dedicated to the notion that nothing good ever happens in a nursery rhyme, even when enunciated with such gleeful relish by guest narrator Alexander Thynn, the seventh Marquess of Bath. Scratching kittens have to be placated, half-awake children are left to wander around the town at night, and we all know about the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. Aided in a couple of places by Sion Orgon from Thighpaulsandra’s group, Liles takes his time over teasing out the darker strands to be found woven into childhood’s brighter moments, carefully stacking eerily sustained tones, desiccated samples and disembodied voices against Lord Bath’s exuberant delivery. The results feel like a compendium of forgotten folklore awaiting its future.” [The Wire]
www.hallowground.com
|
2015 |
€29.50 |
|
| |
It's only Pain |
LP |
"It's Only Pain is Liles' first 'general' release since 2018. All the lyrics used on the album were written by Liles' father, Michael Liles. They were discovered when clearing out his spare room after his death in 2017. The poetry was written sometime in the late 70's and has been given a life here. As with most Liles releases this recording covers a lot of styles, from heavy rock to psychedelia, and even a track that wouldn't be out of place in a West End musical. It is a compelling album full of unlikely twists and turns, a unique homage to his dead father's memory and words. Contributions come from Karin Park, Faust's Jean Hervé Peron, ex Mayhem frontman Maniac and Mared Lenny (the critically acclaimed Welsh singer known as Swci Boscawen). This album is issued in two sleeve designs, here are also various different vinyl colours, these will issued randomly, the edition is limited to just 250 copies."
"Andrew Liles, an important post-millennial part of the Nurse With Wound/Current 93 ‘family’, releases music at a fairly breathtaking rate, yet It’s Only Pain is described by label Dirter as his first “general release” since 2018. Never mind the taxonomy, clock the concept: all the LP’s lyrics were written by Liles’ father in the 1970s, discovered after his death, and are interpreted – often translated from English – by multiple guest vocalists. Many are already in the musician’s collaborative orbit, some are more surprising. My recollections of Mared Lenny’s late-00s music (frankly pedestrian Welsh language indiepop under the name Swci Boscawen) did not mark her as someone with a future appearing on NWW solo projects, yet here she is on opening song ‘Skid-Row Schizoid’, narrating bilingually over a song that’s a bit like if Van Der Graaf Generator had been an influence on Fourth World music.
Liles’ taste for dramatic arrangements can border on kitsch but more often charms. Karin Park, synthpop soloist and Årabrot member, leans into her roles with terrific relish, initially reading over sawing strings and clanging piano on ‘A Thousand Minds’ before adopting an operatic register for ‘Beyond The Cosmos’ and ‘Humanist’. Faust’s Jean-Hervé Peron hams it up spiritedly over ‘Down The One Side’s stern gothic folk and ‘Bywyd Llonydd’ revels in its diverse guestlist: Matt Davies, owner of a Welsh record store and a fine ‘dramatic reading’ type voice; Maniac, ex of black metal originators Mayhem; and Awen Schiavone, author of a children’s book about a penguin named Pedro." [Noel Gardner / The Quietus]
|
2021 |
€30.00 |
|
| LILES, ANDREW & DANIEL MENCHE |
The Progeny of Flies. Tres Muscae Consummunt Cadaver Equi Aeque Cito Ac Leo |
CD |
Untertitel: "TRES MUSCAE CONSUMMUNT CADAVER EQUI AEQUE CITO AC LEO" - "Die Nachkommen dreier Fliegen können ein totes Pferd schneller konsumieren als ein Löwe". Was das Label hier aufgeregt und ziemlich passend "brutal kosmisch" tituliert, entpuppt sich als eine dicke Drone-Suppe mit (wahrscheinlich) LILESschen Synth- und Piano-Sprengseln, man kann sich kaum auf diese nebligen Sounds konzentrieren, immer wieder wird das Bewusstsein eingelullt und quasi ausgeschaltet... vier lange Stücke. Minimal, dronig, und wie immer bei LILES mit einem dunklen surrealistischen Flair...
"Ed. of 500 copies in a book bound CD case.. Kold Krush Groove, y’all. Literally! Individually Liles and Menche have torn the experimental world many new ones, but as a unit they achieve a critical mass so monumental that they deserve their own Hollywood-style canoodling name. That name: Linch-Me-Eels. The graceful ferocity that oozes out within the first few seconds is such that…well, let’s just say that if you called friends and told them you were on the moon, they would believe you. A vicious, celestial-cathedral rumble gapes its maw and spews forth into a sluggish river of electro-magma, reshaping landscapes once carved out by Cremaster Cycles and the gravitational forces of the planet Solaris. While Menche’s test-tones defying low-end slowly compresses the woofers into diamond earrings, an emerging theme for tack piano cautiously stabs at the din. And just before cowboy-robot-gone-mad Yul Brynner shows up to kill all humans, the piano slinks away to make room for the buzzing progeny of the flies, whose crescendo of wing-beats quietly, subtly rises and rises the swarm to Jupiter and beyond the infinite. After multiple listens a Xen(akis)–like state is realized and there should be a giant Star Fly-Child in your living room. Brutally cosmic!!!" [label info]
"I have been a fan of the works of Mr. Liles and Mr. Menche for a while now, so this CD of their first ever collaboration is most welcome. And it looks great; packed in a hard carton slightly oversized CD sleeve with typical Liles-artwork. The 65+ minutes that form The progeny Of Flies are divided into 4 parts. Opener Eggs (signifying the first stage of the fly life cycle) features the now typical Liles-sounds augmented by Menche's higher and harsher frequencies. In one word beautiful. The second track 1st To 3rd Instar features low frequency pulses before subtle piano chords (and reverbed pedals) set in. Again full marks to Liles and Menche. "Pupar" (the third track) starts off with a horse's neigh. After that surprising intro we're in a world filled with bass tones with plucked strings and percussive elements. Closing track Metamorphoses (to end the fly theme) features a low, almost prehistoric growl and Menche's more noisy elements which builds up to a climax. The track ends with piano and the buzzing sound of a fly. This CD, subtitled "tres muscae conummunt cadaver equi aeque cito ac leo", which loosely and very cryptically translates into "three muscular complete corpses indeed quick justice and lion" is a gorgeous piece of work; beautiful, restrained and highly recommended!" [FK / Vital Weekly]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| LILES, ANDREW & JEAN-HERVE PERON |
Fini! |
CD |
"Introducing the debut collaborative release from sometime Nurse With Wound/Current 93 member, Andrew Liles and Jean Hervé Peron of Faust. Neither of these artists needs any introduction and all expectations are overtaken with this incredible album. Here is something that sounds like both a Krautrock album and also like nothing else you can imagine. Its twists and turns keep surprising and thrilling you several listens on from the first. The words "classic" and "masterpiece" would not be out of place here. Both Faust and NWW are touring all over the world in 2008, and the profile for both of these legendary acts has never been higher. This release is packaged in a gloss-laminated digipack, with beautiful artwork by Liles." [label info]
"When mayhem artists like Nurse With Wound 's Andrew Liles and Faust 's Jean-Hervé Peron conspire, the result might be described as acousmaniac. Fini! is an arsenal of fun that comes on like a vibra-gun blast to the pineal gland. The glorious studio tomfuckery of "The Drummer is on Valium," Fini!'s opening cut, let's us know in no uncertain terms that Krautrock hasn't stopped mutating after all these decades, nor has it been successfully recycled by the archons of mainstream airwaves. That's one thing that makes Fini! delightful. It comes on like an artifact from an alien culture excavated by reanimated Dadaists from five feet of moon-dust. Touch not the obelisk lest centuries of Germanic gnosis light up your central nervous system like Meister Eckhart's pinball machine. This wanton little orgone-grinder is enhanced with blasts of blago-bung plus multi-lingual spoken word. "Congo Bongo La La La," coming in shy of two minutes, stands out with brilliant eccentricity, teasing us with a slow build up of La La La before the Congo Bongo briefly shakes the bachelor tree house until it disgorges all the monkeys. While most cuts are incredibly brief, leaving the listener a little hungry for more, much more, and seeming to be the disc's connective tissue, "Shake Your Hooves" rises up like a delirious five-minute ethno-pagan evocation of Pan.
A sweet release like this demands its own context, maybe a dainty tea-party of genteel aristocrats at which you, stripped naked with cabalistic signs emblazoned on your shaved body, spin Fini! at maximum ear-bleeding intensity before setting fire to the curtains and riding off on a white ass. You can claim that you did this at the behest of "It's Too Loud," which sounds like it was recorded on a Messerschmitt. If this impromptu circus doesn't result in the New Aeon of Amon Düül IV, all is lost. Out of this world!" [Steve Aydt / Weirdomusic.com]
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| LILES, ANDREW AND KENJI SIRATORI |
Black Paper |
CD |
Erster Teil der wahnwitzigen VORTEX VAULT-Serie, 12 CDs aus ANDREW LILES Archiv, aber auch neues Material wird präsentiert.
Das ganze wiederum in der Beta-Lactam BLACK SERIES, die mit einheitlichen überformatigen schwarze Edel-Cover zu beglücken vermag. BLACK PAPER heisst also der erste Teil, wo LILES mit dem selbsternannten japanischen CYBER-Poeten KENJI SIRATORI kollab(or)iert, der wie's scheint zur Zeit mit jedem in der Experimental-Szene ansässigen Werktätigen eine Zusammenarbeit anstrebt. So hört man hier SIRATORIS Cyber-Gedichte (auf japanisch; auf englisch übersetzt wären übrigens genauso unverständlich - denn er scheint ein spätes Kind der Cut-Up Technik zu sein). Als wäre das nicht schon genug irrlichternder & funkelnder Wahnwitz, so zeigt sich auch LILES in Bestform, wenn er mit Synthklavier und Xylophon und durchdringenden Analog-Noises (=?) bewaffnet die letzten möglicherweise noch vorhandenen Reste gutgläubiger Erwartungshaltung des Hörers vernichtet, hier in irgendeiner Weise 'verstehbare" Musik hören zu dürfen. Genau darin aber, geneigter DRone Records-Kunde, liegt vielleicht die Genialität dieses Albums. Wir können das aber gerade nicht entscheiden und vertagen die Diskussion auf unbestimmte Zeit...
"Black Series 1 - Ed. of 300 numbered and signed copies. 'The Vortex Vault' will be in part a collection of unreleased, unearthed and dusted down material from the vast Andrew Liles archive of unused studio material. 'The Vortex Vault' will also include brand new recordings, conceptual and collaborative pieces, special guests, kraut rock psyche outs, space rock, the odd and unlikely, Norwegian, the obscure and arcane, aircraft, cicadas, the absurd and nonsensical. 'The Vortex Vault' is a platform to release radically different and eclectic material. Expect the unexpected, the minimalist and excessive, the demure and deranged." [label info]
"andrew liles, from the uk, is an experimental sound artist with a pretty diverse output. i'm only familiar with a few of his releases, but they ranged from sound art, to ambient soundscapes, drone, experimental electronics and the occasional foray into noisier directions. some good points of reference, as far as his ambient and drone works are concerned, would be andrew chalk and vidna obmana, two artists he's also happened to work with. kenji siratori is a japanese cyberpunk author who's had a hell of an outpouring of non-paper releases last year. this is mostly because he pimped himself out by "writing to as many industrial, ambient, ebm and goth bands he could find, including "reviews" of them in his idiosyncratic style, and asking to collaborate. (this) scattergun approach proved successful, despite his reviews of non-sequitirs and non-sensical cyberspeak being interchangeable" [discogs.com]. after all was said and done he'd put out fifteen total albums, including three that are on net labels and are availiable to download for free at smell the stench and dystonia. the bulk of them have been in the form of collaborations, most notably with gx jupitter-larsen (the haters), torturing nurse and henrik nordvargr björkk (hh9, folkstorm, mz.412, et al.). i would be surprised if that last one is anything short of amazing. i...must...stop...buying...things... black paper opens up with barometer ii, a beautifully haunting piano piece by liles, which siratori soon begins speaking over. his words are all spoken in japanese. emphasis on spoken. this could be poetry or god knows what, but it sounds great. he's got this gruff sounding voice that immediately made me think of splinter's voice from the teenage mutant ninja turtles movies. i love it. there's some great layering of his vocals near the end, too. vtr is one of the least musical (most experimental) cuts on here. there's a whole mess of noises, electronic bleeps and textures from andrew, and kenji's vocals are affected, in parts, and panned all over. it easily has the most overall stuff going on at once, but it works well, due partly to how andrew progresses it. if that was the album's exercise in maximalism (i think i just made that word up), the title piece is its most rhythmic. half of this piece features with some very catchy xylophone (i'm guessing) playing, the rest focuses on kenji's vocals, manipulated the most here. one of my favorite parts is where its just him with no music, and there's also his sped up vocals shooting back and forth between the speakers. jaguar is black paper's absolute highlight. over liles' sparse backdrop there's a vocal track in the left speaker, a different one in the right, a repetitious one in the center and then another, different track in the center. it's completely hypnotic, wonderful and memorable. then when that piano comes in towards the end, jaguar achieves total brilliance. it all strikes me as being rather noir, while maintaining an underlying sense of beauty. the next two tracks mainly feature andrew doing some nice, slightly stark, experimental electronic work. the closer, barometer iii is vocal less and revises the pianos from barometer ii, but adds some terrific electronic noises over it. there's actually two separate collaborations by kenji siratori with the title black paper, the other is with tardive dyskinesia. that may cause a bit of confusion, but this one is only available from andrew liles' website or beta-lactam ring. it's part of andrew's 12 cd set, the vortex vault, limited to only 300 copies. once those 300 are gone, that's it. no reissues. i think if you get one from andrew it will be signed by him. i'd also recommend his collaboration with gx. while it's not as memorable as this one here, there's some mighty fine noise by him, and who doesn't like mighty fine noise? after hearing all of this from kenji i've definitely become interested in his literary work...at the very least it should be interesting. smooth sailing review " [unknown writer, taken from the Beta-Lactam website]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
| LILITH |
Orgazio |
CD |
SCOTT GIBBONS
Since he started doing performance in 1988 with the New Elementals in Dallas, Texas, SCOTT GIBBONS has written several soundtracks, dance pieces and sound installations for art galleries. He took a double major in Philosophy and Religious studies and a AM in History of Religions. His field is music as it relates to the religious experience and (in this context) contributed to altereted states of consciousness. SCOTT GIBBONS concentrates his musical activities to LILITH at the “Disciple Divinity House of the University of Chicago”. He became since a few years a reference to all the english Dark Ambiant Scene.
ALEISTER CROWLEY (1875-1947)
LILITH second album is inspired by an organisation of the English writer and black mage Aleister Crowley (right). Before World War II this highly ambiguous caracter infiltred the Golden Dawn of the Outside sect, which ranked Nobel Prize winner W.B. Yeats and the creator of Dracula, Bram Stocker among its members. After he had dissolved this sect, Crowley went on to found his own: Astrum Argentum; he organized orgiatic rituals (which in Italy will lead to the death of one person; Crowley is subsequently banished from the country). He goes by the names THE BEAST or 666, and writes “Magic in Theory and Practice” among other books. When world war II is declared, he suggest a sure means to victory to Churchill.
MAGIC FORMULAS + COSMIC RECORDINGS
ORGAZIO combines structures taken from Crowley ‘s magic formulas with his own voice (rare documents); it also use real cosmic recordings (courtesy of the Adler Planetarium of Chicago). Some of these sounds appear on the limit of audibility; other create an eerie phenomenon of “disconnection”.
[label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
1994 |
€13.00 |
|
| LILJEKVIST, JAN |
Dr. Jayne Insane & the gutbucket Philharmonicks |
CD |
strange strange strange music by this Swedish composer ...
“...is the latest project by the composer Jan Liljekvist. Born in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1962. Started out learning to play woodwind instruments (flute, clarinet, saxophone) at an early age. Continued with percussion, guitar, violin and viola. Played in big bands, chamber and symphony orchestras, composed theatre and film music. Has been touring in Europe, singing and playing the guitar in THE SHOUTLESS. Collaborates with the artist and painter Sten Backman in freeform group PLANLOS IRR plus in electro/improvisation project BUGMAN. Does session work playing the violin on death metal records (MÅNEGARM, MORTIFER). Has been working as the musical director of a theatre company and touring with the group TVÅ FISK OCH EN FLÄSK, (hem.passagen.se/tvafisk/), playing Swedish medieval folkmusic. Studied electro acoustic composition with Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Rolf Enström, Anders Blomkvist and Erik-Mikael Karlsson at the EMS Studio in Stockholm. The music on the record consists of pieces composed and performed during recent years.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| LILLIOS, ELAINIE |
Entre Espaces |
CD |
" 'Elainie Lillios's music reflects her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion and anecdote. Her music explores many sound worlds; sometimes referential ones such as the human voice, cars, wind chimes, or water. Other times her materials are less obvious, like crunching branches, walking through snow, or pebbles shuffling in water. Her compositional output includes electroacoustic works, music for instruments with live interactive electroacoustics, and collaborative immersive multimedia audiovisual installation environments. Her research interests include sound diffusion as the performance practice of electroacoustic music, audio spatialization employing Ambisonics, critical listening as a creative aid and Deep Listening.' 'Dreams in the Desert' (2001), 'Arturo' (1998), 'Hastening Toward the Half Moon' (2004), 'Backroads' (2002), 'Threads' (1998), 'Stumbling Dance' (1998-99), 'Listening Beyond' (2007)." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com |
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LILLY JOEL |
What lies in the Sea |
CD |
" 'What Lies In The Sea' is the fruit of a ten year collaboration between singer Lynn Cassiers and keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin, and is the first release for their duo Lilly Joel. Both musicians are free spirits and true, much-lauded innovators in their respective fields.
Belgian singer Lynn Cassiers is as much a singer as she can be called a sound sculptor, using her voice, microphone, and electronics to create soundscapes.
Pianist Jozef Dumoulin (Belgium) redefined the Fender Rhodes keyboard through a scope that is at the same time fully contemporary, eclectic and highly personal.
This recording marks a milestone on their path as a band and crystalizes a moment in a universe that was carefully shaped and daringly explored. The music is straightforward, fresh and original - the focus never being the attempt to be part of some distinct genre, but only to be honest towards one's own place in a ever changing world. There are reminiscences of experimental music, jazz, rock, electro, pop, traditional music and contemporary classical music, which is totally normal considered who's at work here. Anyhow, all those influences are fully digested and serve as countless small bricks that are used to make a new big image, that stands on it own and can be watched as such.
Lynn Cassiers
Quoted to be 'one of the most remarkable voices of our improvisation scene' (enola), Lynn Cassiers' universe is one that covers a wide diversity of styles. Lynn is recognizable by her songlike approach in contexts that can range from noise over ambient to free jazz. She's part of impro-rock band Tape Cuts Tape on the sides of ex-deus guitarist Rudy Trouvé and improv-jazz drummer Eric Thielemans, and also performs with her solo project 'The Bird, the Fis and the Ball'. Besides writing music for theatre and her various collaborations with great artists and ensembles such as Marshall Allen, Octurn and The Brussels Jazz Orchestra, she is a steady member in different bands on the actual music scene of Western Europe.
Jozef Dumoulin
Known for his open and luminous approach to the piano and to music in general, always anchored in tradition without being burdened by it. Besides the Fender Rhodes solo, his own projects include The Red Hill Orchestra (a trio with Ellery Eskelin and Dan Weiss) and a duo with Benoît Delbecq. Highly-demanded as a sideman, Jozef Dumoulin has recorded and toured with the finest of musicians in the domain of jazz, improvised music, rock and traditional music. He currently lives in Paris." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| LIMITED LIABILITY SOUNDS |
Glassworks |
CD-R |
Adam Mankowski has been active working as Limited Liability Sounds since 2006, creating unexpected musical works with a various of artists and labels. On Glassworks Mankowski connects himself to one of the tools of our daily lives: the Glass, extracting five pieces of experimental ear candy.
https://tidesofcluster.bandcamp.com/album/glassworks
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| LINDBLAD, RUNE |
Death of the Moon |
CD |
Obskure historische Aufnahmen von 1953-1960 von diesem sehr unbekannten schwedischen Composer, der ein Pionier war im Gebrauch und Entwickeln von Multimediaeinsatz und –ideen. Seine Musik ist ziemlich strange & surreal, fast unbeschreibbar, field recordings, Radiosounds, Geräusche allerlei Art, ruhige Trompeten, Flöten, geisterhafte Atmos, konkreter Irrsinn...(?) Auf einem Konzert 1957 wurde seine Musik als "pure torture" betitelt. Dies ist eine Wiederöffentlichung einer LP die vorher auf RADIUM erschienen ist.
#############
label-website: www.pogus.com
|
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
| LINEKRAFT |
Apocalypse Factory |
CD |
"Aggressive sounds through acoustic devices such as Hi-Fi system or audio headsets should constitute a blatant violation of the Merzbow-O`Ridge agreemenrs which restricts the use of noise to industrial and space music with an accompainment of at least 60% of FM synthesis waves."
review NOISE RECEPTOR:
Linekraft – Apocalypse Factory + Liberated Treatment Area Of Bedlamite CD/ MC Aussaat 2017
Linekraft is the solo project of Japanese artist Masahiko Okubo but rather than being of a ‘Japanoise’ type, this is raw noise from the industrial end of sonic expression. Appearing to be predominantly derived from rough and ripping junk metal sources, it is assumed the material has been further edited and mixed in a studio setting. Apocalypse Factory is the latest album and is the eleventh release since 2008.
The only material I have previously heard from the project is the Bouryoku Kikai CD from 2012 (reviewed here), with Apocalypse Factory being an effective continuation of a partly composed and partly improvised approach. Each of the seven albums tracks is between four and eight minutes in length, and providing ample variation within an experimental industrial noise style. Apocalypse Factory-1 is an early album standout with multitude of elements including pulsing loops, squelching noise and chaotic sonics which are highly detailed and engaging in its tonal layering (and elevates to nastier intent through the middle and late sections). For variation Polluted Body includes slightly off kilter programming and jumbled dialogue samples, while Public Bondage is another noteworthy piece which flits between wonky loops, burrowing noise and pounding industrial structures.
Liberated Treatment Area Of Bedlamite is 10 minute bonus cassette, limited to 50 copies and only available directly via the record label. Featuring a single track (repeated both sides of the tape), sonically it slightly deviates from the sound found on the parent album. With reference to the title, the word ‘Bedlamite’ is an archaic English word for a lunatic or insane person, and fits nicely with the sonics on offer. Musically speaking it is a sprawling, murky yet overblown mass of sound with semi-buried junk metal clatter, while a deep rhythmic pulse provides depth and cavernous/ windswept atmosphere.
Although Apocalypse Factory leans towards a rough and raw approach rather than a clean and composed sound, it is still not harsh noise by any stretch given it effectively sits at the mid-point between industrial and noise. Displaying a high degree of experimentation in its delivery of raw and energetic industrialized noise, from this description alone it is assumed you will already know if this is likely to be to your liking. But certainly Linekraft embody a sound and approach where you can literally hear both the obsession and commitment of the artist.
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| LINGUA FUNGI |
Melankhton |
CD |
"Aural Hypnox welcomes Lingua Fungi to the label roster. Lingua Fungi has been working in the field of acoustic drone and ambient since 2001 and is run by J. Padatsu, who has during the years appeared in the Zoat-Äon live lineup, is currently member of Halo Manash and joined Aural Hypnox label in 2013. The fourth full-lenght album of Lingua Fungi, entitled Melankhton is released through our Sublunar series.
Melankhton is a sonic interpretation of particular illness narratives and a study in experimental anthropology based on fieldwork material gathered especially for this project. The narratives and sounds expressing them reflect the shifting states of the turbulent minds visited by Melankhton.
The album was recorded in 2006 using exclusively acoustic instruments and sound sources mixed with processed field recordings. The album consists of five long tracks with sounds varying from maniacal percussive rhythms to dreamy drone passages.
The album is enclosed in a customised and silk-screen printed Sublunar series cardboard covers, including a 4-panel cardboard booklet and a silk-screen printed insert card. The regular edition is limited to 449 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Azure Beyond |
MC-BOX |
"In addition we are glad to release another unearthed ep Azure Beyond by Lingua Fungi. This ep was recorded originally in 2011 and is now released through our Underworld Editions.
It offers a glimpse into a more tranquil and minimalistic facet of Lingua Fungi. Two-piece composition performed with zither, harmonium and bells, 'Azure Beyond' is a slowly evolving and organic drone painting of the mind and matter diminishing in to a single point in an azure infinity - a gravitational collapse in an ever-expanding vastness.
The cassette is housed inside oversized, silk-screen printed cardboard covers including five insert cards and a pack of incense (15g) created especially for this release by Mount Hypnox. Limited to 133 copies" [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Flowery Dreams |
CD |
"Magical journey through the strange dreams in beautiful flowery scenery, drifting and melting. No sharp line between sorrow and joy, dark and bright moments. Lingua Fungi takes us along on the trip to the land of subconscious. Real instruments - flutes, guitars, bass, mandolin and different kind of ethnic percussions mixed with ambient soundscapes. Glossy varnished digipack designed by Michal Karcz. First 222 copies comes with additional handnumbered CDR EP "Spore Prints" which gives 25 minutes more of this amazing music. The price is the same as normal version." [label info]
www.waroffice.org
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Tlapallan Pantonal |
CD |
" Tlapallan Pantonal is a personal interpretation of Central American mythology. This album is inspired particulary by the myth of Quetzalcoatl - one of the most important and greatest gods of Mesoamerican Indians. More than utilizing the sound of native american music tradition, this record is made entirely around the mood that the Great stories personally evoked. Sounds vary from purely abstract ambient to acoustic folk passages. Yet another very interesting record of Lingua Fungi and on the excellent WAR OFFICE PROPAGANDA label!!!" [label info]
www.waroffice.org
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| LINGUA FUNGI & SHRINE |
Strange Growths / Wander |
CD |
"Lingua Fungi’s sound is calm, soft and tasty- enriched with acoustic instruments and brilliant percussions. Long and mature compositions with clear sound drifting in timeless trance.
Shrine’s sound is more ambient/industrial, darker, with more samples and a bit noisy. He is presented by two long compositions dealing with dualism.
The first one –“There” is lighter, dedicated to the human part, light, life, while the second one-“Back” is darker, massive and gloomy. It’s representing machinery, industrial part of our life, the loss of everything human. In other words-Hell.
The collaborative work is released in 3 panel digipack with conceptual design." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LINIJA MASS |
Triumph Stali |
10inch |
Martial und kraftvoll wie gewohnt...diese zwei neuen Stücke des russischen Projekts, das die Fahne des „Industrial Futurism“ weiter hochhält. Hat was triumphales, diese alles zermalmende low-fi Klangwalze, mit Maschinengeräuschen, Sprachsamples und orchestralen Arrangements & russischen found sounds....
“Brand new tracks from one of the best and the oldest russian industrial projects. Repetitive mechanical patterns with voice samples in the unique Linija Mass style, abrasive analogue sounds to create an aura of futuristic art revolt. The release comes packed in a nice cover printed on a special thick grey verged paper, limited edition of 330 copies. Total time - 20 min, 2 tracks.”[label press release]
|
2004 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Trud |
CD |
"Der Angriff is proud to present the reissue of all three early albums from the famous russian old-school analogue industrial noise project by Alexander Lebedev-Frontov (also involved in Stalnoy Pakt and Vetrophonia). Having been previously available only on tapes and long deleted vinyl, those records now are the ones of the most sought after collectibles of russian industrial culture heritage. Each CD is packed into the cardboard black&white package with a poster, which is different to each album. "Trud" (1997) has an exclusive previously unreleased bonus track, "Proletkult" (1999) has a track which has been missed on vinyl edition and appeared only on a tape and CDR, and "Mekano-Faktura" (1999) offers as bonus a track from a rare 7". All the sound material have been remastered from the original source tapes. Each title is limited to 400 copies only. A must for all fans of pure and true industrial art!" [label info] |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mechano-Faktura |
CD |
"Der Angriff is proud to present the reissue of all three early albums from the famous russian old-school analogue industrial noise project by Alexander Lebedev-Frontov (also involved in Stalnoy Pakt and Vetrophonia). Having been previously available only on tapes and long deleted vinyl, those records now are the ones of the most sought after collectibles of russian industrial culture heritage. Each CD is packed into the cardboard black&white package with a poster, which is different to each album. "Trud" (1997) has an exclusive previously unreleased bonus track, "Proletkult" (1999) has a track which has been missed on vinyl edition and appeared only on a tape and CDR, and "Mekano-Faktura" (1999) offers as bonus a track from a rare 7". All the sound material have been remastered from the original source tapes. Each title is limited to 400 copies only. A must for all fans of pure and true industrial art!" [label info]
"Great 'mechanical industrial' from St. Petersburg. Real metallic machine-sounds mixed with russian voices. Retro-Futurism at its best!" [original Drone Rec. info, about "Mechano-Faktura"] |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Proletkult |
CD |
"Der Angriff is proud to present the reissue of all three early albums from the famous russian old-school analogue industrial noise project by Alexander Lebedev-Frontov (also involved in Stalnoy Pakt and Vetrophonia). Having been previously available only on tapes and long deleted vinyl, those records now are the ones of the most sought after collectibles of russian industrial culture heritage. Each CD is packed into the cardboard black&white package with a poster, which is different to each album. "Trud" (1997) has an exclusive previously unreleased bonus track, "Proletkult" (1999) has a track which has been missed on vinyl edition and appeared only on a tape and CDR, and "Mekano-Faktura" (1999) offers as bonus a track from a rare 7". All the sound material have been remastered from the original source tapes. Each title is limited to 400 copies only. A must for all fans of pure and true industrial art!" [label info] |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| LISA CARBON |
Trio de Janeiro |
LP |
Twisted programmings, a unique humour and futuristic improvisations are some of the characteristics of Lisa Carbon's sound, which has been copied by many throughout the years.
Partly recorded in San José (Costa Rica), Lisa's hometown, 'Trio de Janeiro' was then mainly completed under the guidance of her long time companion Atom TM in his Frankfurt studio.
When the first Lisa Carbon recording was released back in 1992 (the Lisa carbon trio: opto freestyle swing, 12", pod communication), the german magazine "frontpage" gave it one star (out of 6) and declared it "not music." magazines come and go, but Lisa is still here. the music was controversial, and while for some it was the most unhip thing to listen to, for others it was an enlightenment. much has happened since then and Lisa Carbon ignored styles and trends, and instead created them. in 1995, musical fashion caught up with her. Her music, once declared unmusical, had become the hype to follow when UK's "Rephlex" released her second album "Polyester" after a two year delay. Lisa's sound was still fresh, so fresh in fact that it was even emulated by those who used to be trendy in 1992. but Lisa grew tired of the unprofessionalism in the music business, and so joined producer Atom Heart's label "rather interesting" in 1997, and the album you have in front of you was born.
"Trio De Janeiro," musically in the vein of its predecessor, became one of rather interesting's most successful releases and soon afterwards saw its release on Haruomi Hosono's "Daisy World" label in Japan (1997). Now that we have crossed into the millennium, you can see and hear that "Trio De Janeiro" still sounds amazingly current. this re-release contains the two bonus titles "Tempo Feliz" and "Song For Frank Brown," which up until now had only been available on the 1997 japanese release. also the entire album has been extensively remastered to match today's audio standards and to give you, the listener, the full enjoyment of this timeless masterpiece.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/trio-de-janeiro
|
2001 |
€18.00 |
|
| LISTENING MIRROR |
Resting in Aspic |
CD |
"Formed at the beginning of 2010, Listening Mirror is a collaborative ambient/drone project of Jeff Stonehouse and Kate Tustain, a hybrid of their various disciplines and an attempt to extract some beauty from the noise that surrounds us all every day. Early material was composed of field recordings, combined with improvised piano and vocals. Throughout 2010/11, highly limited editions and now sold out/deleted EPs appeared on DIY labels such as Rural Colours, Heat Death, Audio Gourmet, Arew and also a postcard on the Hibernate series.
In ‘Resting in Aspic’ Listening Mirror have selected pieces from some of these previous releases and have included the full and unreleased version of ‘The Organist’. Everything has been remastered by Wil Bolton and is available in a limited run of 200 CD’s. The sounds present on the album are everything from blissed out drifting soundscapes to darker tones, all culled from various sources such as field recordings, acoustic guitar, percussive instruments, BC8 synth, Kate’s vocals and piano." [label info]
www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
"A duo of Jeff Stonehouse and Kate Tustain, who started Listening Mirror in 2010, using a variety of field recordings, improvised piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, BC8 synthesizer and vocals. During 2010/2011 they released some limited works on labels as Rural Colours, Heat Death, Audio Gourmet and a postcard on the Hibernate series. The latter now releases a limited CD, which brings those out of print releases together again, along with the full version of 'The Organist' and one new piece. Of course a man/women duo playing with field recordings and instruments, producing drone and ambient music, will easily point towards Celer. If I wouldn't have known what I was playing I could have easily thought this was something by Celer. Perhaps with one difference and that's the somewhat more extensive use of the female voice in here, which chants wordless, like an angelic choir. But in the pieces where this is not the case, its damn close to Celer. Is that a problem? It very much depends what you want. If you think there is not enough Celer, or atmospheric, drone, ambient music in general, then you would probably not mind more music alike that and then certainly Listening Mirror is another fine addition to what you know. On the other hand, if you want something new, a style to expand, a fresher point of view on what you already know, then this might be somewhat of a disappointment. Listening Mirror just don't seem to expand on anything that we already know. Where do I stand? Hard to tell. I was looking outside, seeing a grey clouded sky, with a bit of rain, reading a book and actually quite enjoying this music. Nicely produced atmospherics. What more do I want, right now? Probably nothing. Let's worry about the revolution in music another day." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| LITTLE ANNIE |
Diamonds made of glass |
12 |
Direkt aus einem DAVID LYNCH – Film könnten diese drei Stücke von LITTLE ANNIE aka ANNIE ANXIETY (aus dem United Dairies-Umfeld) stammen; jazzig-angehauchte düstere Bar-Musik in herb-sinnlicher Schönheit... Seite 2 enthält eine remixte Version von von „Diamonds“ von CHRISTOPH HEEMANN. Cover-painting: Annie Bandez.
"Little Annie (a/k/a Annie Anxiety Bandez) is known for her own records and collaborative work with Adrian Sherwood, Keith Leblanc, Crass, Coil and Nurse With Wound. This, her first release of all-new material in a number of years, includes songs written in collaboration with Larry T. and Joseph Budenholzer, and a remix by Christoph Heemann. It marks a change of direction for her.... 'Her voice touched something immeasurably old in him, something that slept deep. It lulled the surface parts of his consciousness to sleep, allowing what was far more ancient to awaken. Like the town, with its elaborate pretense of modern active life, the upper layers of his being became dulled, soothed, muffled, and what lay underneath began to stir in its sleep. The big curtain swayed a little to and fro. Presently it might lift altogether....' by Algernon Blackwood." [label info]
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| LLARKS |
Reflections |
MC |
www.lamour.se/label/
Llarks new album Reflections features extended use of guitar-orchestrations, micropolyphony, holy minimalism, and ghost-piano. It is a delicate and patient album focusing on gentle transitions of tone colors, unfolding atmospherics, and a quiet sense of nostalgia. Guitar, trumpet and piano by c.jeely
www.lamour.se/2017/11/08/llarks-reflections/
|
2017 |
€7.00 |
|
| LLOYD, DALE |
Akasha_for Record |
pic-LP |
"A welcome return from Dale Lloyd with this, his first new release in three years. Akasha_for Record is a two-part composition, filled with highly dynamic intricacies very carefully arranged. Rich micro-detail meets subtle emotional resonance in a spellbinding work created specifically for the vinyl format. Akasha_for Record is an opulent listening experience, indeed, and one that will reward close, repeated scrutiny. The record's artwork consists of two gorgeous, lightly manipulated, full-color photographic images by Lloyd. The sound/vision combination of Akasha_for Record is truly intriguing and utterly beautiful. Dale Lloyd is well known for phonography, composition, graphic design, and curatorial skills for his highly acclaimed and/OAR label. He has recorded for numerous labels over the years, including Elevator Bath, and/OAR, Alluvial Recordings, Mystery Sea, and Room40. Lloyd lives in Seattle, Washington. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 216 copies." [label info]
"... One of the two sides opens with a modulating hiss that harmonizes with a sinewy drone and gets punctured by a series bone-numbing electrical charges for something that could have some unsavory context had it been generated by John Duncan, but then again it could be a field recording of a grain-slew with minor post-production techniques. In fact, each of the pieces on Akasha For Record have this sense that they could be the results of well-situated field recordings like those of Tarab or Eric La Casa, as the smudges and grittiness of these recordings allude to
such strategies. Another track shimmers like the vibration of a loose piece of metal on an industrial HVAC, with the timbres generating a
surprisingly fluid and beautiful resonance like something Andrew Chalk would actively seek out. There's greater evidence of field recordings
on the tracks that do feature the roar of surf and a cold wind intermingled with the softened white noise of sand getting pushed around. Lloyd had devised this album to complement the crackles that get magnified through the picture disc - a medium which notoriously wears heavier than most pressings of vinyl. The album certainly works well with its medium. Beautiful stuff, and super limited to 216 copies." [Aquarius Records]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Organisms (for Rolf Julius and John Hudak) |
CD |
"Organisms, created between 2004 and 2005, is a unique release for the artist in that it brings to the fore some of the many ambiguous elements and processes he has employed in his work over the years. Organisms is a collection of seemingly organic, micro-environments created from transmuted field recordings of everyday human activity and computer generated electronic sounds. So, contrary to what might seem otherwise, no animal sounds were used in the making of this work. From December 1st through the 4th, 2005, Organisms was presented as part of Susan Robb's Aqua Art Sound Broadcast: Hidden iPod Transmission installation which took place at the Aqua Hotel in Miami, Florida. Only recently - many years after Organisms was finished - was it decided that the CD release would partially serve to pay respect to sound artists Rolf Julius and John Hudak, in recognition of their micro-environment work that pre-dates this one. Listening to Organisms while the CD player is set to 'random shuffle' and
or 'repeat' modes is highly recommended. This release is limited to 100 copies but is not a CDR! Due to a recent manufacturing revolution that allows for smaller CD editions to be made, and/OAR has been going this route for a certain percent of it's scheduled releases since 2011." [label info]
www.and-oar.org
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| LOCKWELD |
Industrial Requiem |
CD |
"Very dark & raw atmospheric noise from a new US project from Ohio. Recommended for all who like harsher drones (like GRUNTSPLATTER, RUHRHUNTER, MEGAPTERA, ..). The label calls it “dark power electroinics”." [old Drone info]
“.. using such elements as power sanders, electric saws and other devices of limited destruction, only matched by tortured vocals and droning analog sounds..” [from the press release].
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| LOCKWOOD, ANNEA / RUTH ANDERSON |
Sinopah |
CD |
Ein wunderbares field recording-Stück von der Neuseeländerin ANNEA LOCKWOOD gibt es hier zu entdecken - das 45minütige WORLD RHYTHMS (1975) benutzt Sounds als „physische Manifestationen der Energien die uns und unsere Umgebung fortwährend formen“, also der Kräfte, die unsere Körperrhythmen unbewusst beeinflussen. Zu hören gibt es Sounds von vulkanischen Eruptionen, Erdbeben, Pulsar-Radiowellen, Geysiren & Flüssen & Wellen, Feuer, Atem, etc., die sie äußerst feinsinnig und sensibel zusammengesetzt hat..
Als zweites Stück auf der CD (23.30 min) entwirft RUTH ANDERSON ihre ureigenste meditative Sound-Poetry, wo sie aus geflüsterten Vokalen eine geisterhaft-abstrakte, an Atemgeräusche erinnernde Klang-Textur formt.
“ Annea Lockwood's World Rhythms originated as a ten-channel live improvisation in which the audience was surrounded by ten loudpeakers. The recorded sounds include volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, radio waves, geysers and pools and tree frogs. These sounds are a physical manifestation of energies that shape our environment constantly, energies of which we are not always aware, but which powerfully influence and interact with the rhythms of our bodies. Ruth Anderson's i come out of your sleep follows a tradition of sound poetry, or text-sound, begun in part by Kurt Schwitters's Ursonate and expanded by composers such as John Cage, Charles Amirkhanian and Jackson MacLow. The piece is based on the speech vowels in Louise Bogan's poem, Little Lobelia.” [label-info]
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Experimental Intermedia label-website:
www.xirecords.org
|
1998 |
€15.00 |
|
| LOCRIAN |
Rain of Ashes |
CD |
"Following the release of their highly acclaimed "drenched land" CD (on Small Doses & At War With False Noise), Locrian toured intensively in the US in July 2009 and went into WMUC studios located at College Park, Maryland to record, with no overdubs and no other takes, what became much more than just a session. “Rain of Ashes” is a journey, not of complex feelings, but of realizing the decay and collapse you have just witnessed is real and will never go away. Instead of completely pummeling the listener, the piece slowly rips the listener apart until there is nothing left."
previously released on cassette on fan death records, the two tracks have been properly mastered at Chicago Mastering Service by for a more intense and definitive experience.
Available now on its definitive edition (400 copies), "rain of ashes" is packed in a jewel case with 8 panels booklet and obi strip." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Crystal World |
do-CD |
"A marked change had come over the forest, as if dusk had begun to fall. Everywhere the glacé sheaths which enveloped the trees and vegetation had become duller and more opaque. The crystal floor underfoot was occluded and gray, turning the needles into spurs of basalt. The brilliant panoply of colored light had gone, and a dim amber glow moved across the trees, shadowing the sequined floor. At the same time it had become considerably colder.
The Crystal World, the third studio album from Locrian, is an epic journey. Titled after JG Ballard’s 1964 novel that tells the story of a physician who specializes in leprosy sent to a remote African outpost to discover a jungle that is slowly crystallizing and encroaching upon everything it touches. Disc one comprises six tracks while disc two consists of one extended piece, Extinction, that picks up on the intensity of disc one and sustains it for close to an hour. On The Crystal World, Terence Hannum, and André Foisy, are joined by Steven Hess (On, Pan American, Ural Umbo) on percussion and electronics. Hess’ contribution pushes Locrian deeper into the abyss of despair rendering a sound that is darker, bleaker, and engulfing than any of the group’s previous releases. Locrian continue the conceptual trajectory of blackened drone that the group initially embarked on during their first studio album Drenched Lands (2009). Masters of layering, The Crystal World finds the group manipulating tones and textures that transport the listener to an apocalyptic wasteland. At times, the layers are serene and somber, at other times they are chaotic.
The Crystal World is Locrian's essential release, finding the band creating a sound all of their own. A sound that evades simplistic analogies to black metal, power-electronics, noise, or other categories. This is the album that will stun fans of the bands previous works with how far the group has come from their early releases. Presented in a Stoughton gatefold sleeve with art by Vberkvlt.
Vinyl edition out on Utech Records in 2011." [label info]
www.utechrecords.com |
2010 |
€19.00 |
|
|
Return to Annihilation |
CD |
"Ein Kapitel wird geschlossen – ein neues Kapitel aufgeschlagen. Nur wenig scheint so reichhaltig wie die Chroniken LOCRIANs. Nach “The Clearing“ und den Split-Alben mit MAMIFFER und Christoph Heemann folgt nun also “Return To Annihilation“. Eine Herausforderung dieses Albums bestand für die Band darin, dass Terence Hannum mittlerweile viele Kilometer von André Foisy und Steven Hess entfernt wohnt. So tauschte die Band zunächst Ideen via Email aus, bevor sie sich für drei Tage ins Studio einschloss, um das Album aufzunehmen.
Entlang des ersten Durchlaufs fällt auf, dass die Musiker auf “Return To Annihilation“ noch fokussierter gearbeitet haben. Die große räumliche Distanz, mit der die Bandmitglieder umzugehen lernen mussten, scheint doch eher eine nahe Ferne gewesen zu sein. Das Zusammenspiel ist noch konzentrierter, die Improvisationen sind noch besser abgestimmt. Zudem hat man das Gefühl, dass LOCRIAN durch ihre verschiedenen Kollaborationen und Tätigkeiten in den diversen Nebenprojekten Facetten freigelegt und entdeckt haben, die gleichzeitig als eine Art Türöffner für ihre neuen Ideen fungieren. Ihre schöpferischen Ressourcen zeigen sich ideenprall und die Frische sowie die Freude beim Kreieren von Musik sind dem Album deutlich anzuhören.
Das erste Stück “Eternal Return“ eröffnet hymnisch. Verschachtelte Synthesizerspuren, krachendes Schlagwerk, vorpreschende Gitarrensounds und ein bis in die tiefste Innerwelt berührender, fauchender Schreigesang lassen den Kurs des Albums erahnen. Doch jene Richtung führt nicht über vorgebahnte Wege. Es werden Schneisen ins Unterholz geschlagen, die Pfade ins Unbegangene oder hier konkret ins Ungehörte eröffnen. Im Fortlauf folgt “A Visitation From The Wrath Of Heaven“. Mächtige Electronics verrätseln diesen nächsten Gang, dazu rummst Steven Hess mit seiner Herzschlagtrommel, bevor der Gesang das Stück zu einem choralartigen Wunderwerk aufbaut, um kurze Zeit später abrupt abzubrechen. Und bereits hier lässt sich vermuten, dass sich LOCRIAN bei den Aufnahmen gegenseitig noch stärker angetrieben zu haben scheinen als auf den Vorgängerveröffentlichungen. Bei “Two Moons“ werden von Sekunde zu Sekunde andere Aspekte in den Vordergrund gerückt, dadurch entsteht ein dröhnendes Gebilde, welches sich von allen Stücken wohl am stärksten Einhegungsversuchen entzieht. Die Besonderheit dieses Albums liegt neben der Unvorhersehbarkeit auch darin, dass die Amerikaner ihrer Impulsfülle nachgeben, jedoch dabei niemals ihren Wiedererkennungswert verlieren. Der Wechsel von stürmischen und ruhigen Passagen wirkt nicht konstruiert, sondern entwickelt sich natürlich. Das Titelstück “Return To Annihilation“ führt den choralartigen Gesang fort, dazu hämmert ein Bolz-Drum, die Gitarren krachen Gewitter ähnlich. Ein orchestrales, dröhnendes Brausen zeigt dessen Entladung. Das Ambient lastige, rauschhaltige “Exiting The Hall Of Vapor And Light“ zieht hinter diesen Gewitterwolken auf und beruhigt das vorher Aufgewühlte. Dem schließt sich kontrastierend die Krachsinfonie “Panorama Of Mirrors“ an. Den Abschluss bildet das 15minütige “Obsolete Elegies“, welches alle Weggabelungen und Wetterlagen des Albums vereint und final den tiefsten, sich selbst beschleunigenden Wirbel in die eingeschlagene Schneise bricht.
“Return To Annihilation“ ist durchwirkt vom Überraschenden aus dem Dunklen. Es umgürtet die Arbeit der Amerikaner. Hervorgerufen wurde es durch wahre Passion, die sich in der dem Album inhärenten Wucht offenbart. Viele Bands verlieren im Laufe der Jahre die Dunkelheit der Anfangstage und verwalten ihre kreative Ausbleichung. Nicht so LOCRIAN – das Dunkle wird hier nicht abgeschabt, sondern in seinen Stufungen neu ausgeleuchtet. André Foisy sprach davon, dass “Return To Annihilation“ das bisher wichtigste Album in der Bandgeschichte sei. Das schürt Erwartungen. Von einem Höhepunkt, vom Gelungenen kann immer dann gesprochen werden, wenn Erwartungen ihre Einlösung finden. Wenn das Ergebnis übergroße Schatten auf hohe Erwartungen wirft, kann vom Bleibenden gesprochen werden. Dieses Ergebnis wird sich auf die Erwartungen im Vorfeld der nächsten Veröffentlichung aufprägen. Eine Klimax gen Unendlichkeit – oder die nimmer endenden Chroniken LOCRIANs." (D.L./ Blackmagazin]
"For a band so devoted to endings, the noise metallurgists of Locrian are surprisingly keen with beginnings, too. More than a year ago, Relapse Records announced they'd signed the Chicago-and-Baltimore trio. The move seemed surprising at the time, but not because Locrian’s electronics-and-effects-driven approach was at odds with the more orthodox heavy metal roster at Relapse; in fact, the label’s two decades are dotted by momentous dalliances with experimental music. Instead, before signing to Relapse, Locrian released a lot of music, a strategy that worked for a band putting out very limited editions on rather small labels but maybe not one meant for a fringe act now signed to an imprint as large as Relapse. Just how many Locrian eight-tracks or singles could and would Relapse actually handle?
Since the deal, though, Locrian have only issued three titles-- a re-release of one such short-run record bundled with new material, a glacial collaboration with kindred lurkers Mammifer, and a beautiful piece with German sound art veteran Christopher Heemann. After many consecutive years of several albums, splits, and singles each, Locrian went almost silent-- just not behind the scenes. All along, they were sketching, building, and refining Return to Annihilation, their proper Relapse debut and step into a much bigger spotlight. It's an auspicious new phase of their existence: Return to Annihilation is the most provocative and engaging Locrian album to date, a brilliant mystery that evades simplistic definitions by turning their historical din and destruction in on itself and, sometimes, back again.
In initial interviews for Return to Annihilation, Locrian-- multi-instrumentalist André Foisy, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Terrence Hannum and drummer Steven Hess-- spoke about the influence of Genesis on their new work. It felt to some like trolling, as there was no way the intricate (and sometimes awkward) prog rock of Genesis might have a substantive pull on music so ostensibly moonless and monolithic. But Return to Annihilation is intrinsically elusive, with twists so compelling and layers so deep that each listen reveals a half-dozen new facets. The title track, for instance, is a three-part suite. Locrian begins with the primal, repetitive wallop of Swans, repurposed with industrial accessories. Despite the aggressive delivery, it feels tunefully poppy, beckoning the listener forward just before the song shifts into a cataclysmic drone. Smothering electronics battle with piercing guitars, shaping a stalemate of willpowers. Hess’ drums goad the band forward again, hitting a climax that’s dense but buoyant, like the phosphorescent coda of a melodramatic post-millenial black metal epic. Though this is a triptych of distinct sections, the parts are strangely cohesive, blending into one another as a balance of extremes.
For 50 minutes, Return to Annihilation runs like a whirlwind journey that you must mentally revisit when it’s done playing. Indeed, during the last three months, I’ve listened to this record a few dozen times, and each trip through only seems to solicit more questions about the material itself-- about its balance between corroded metal and coruscated drone, about its strange sense of enveloping atmosphere and unstoppable propulsion, about the completed puzzle and its complex constituent pieces. Sometimes its 15-minute closer, “Obsolete Elegies”, feels like an exhalation of relief, with muted piano and long-tone violin suggesting Pelt plundering the workshop of La Monte Young; other times, the quaking electronics and plodding guitar of the same piece intimate a hangman’s anthem, a steady gaze directed over and over again toward another imminent death.
What’s most rewarding about Return to Annihilation is this sense of narrative and emotional limbo, or the feeling that supposedly staunch binaries-- birth and death, beauty and brutality, triumph and defeat-- function exclusively in interrelated arcs. Sure, there are entire tracks here that feel more nihilistic or uplifting than others. The neon guitars and escalating drum patterns of “Eternal Return” are exultant enough to soundtrack an action movie’s climax, while “Exiting the Hall of Vapor and Light” fashions a great, gray canvas from static and distortion, a diorama of nothingness. But in every instance, defeat and relief seem only to be dissolving through one another, not pushing one another from the frame. The guitars in “Vapor and Light” slink into patterns that don’t resolve, but for an instant, they bubble into the sort of ebullient loop that you might hear on a Dustin Wong record; it’s like glimpsing light at the end of a tunnel that’s so big you didn’t even know you were surrounded. And “Eternal Return” takes shape around bitterly shouted imprecations and swells of background noise so strong they sometimes threaten to push the ascension off track. Return to Annihilation forever demands that you decide for yourself-- or, of course, don’t.
In the past, Locrian albums have seemed to me almost uniformly doomed, with their lyrics about industrial decay and blizzards of irascible tones creating an atmosphere of general oppression. But Return to Annihilation implicitly urged me to revisit those earlier records and to listen for, if not foreshadowing, signs that there’d been more ambiguity and complexity at work than I’d first supposed. And there is: The great Drenched Lands seems more forgiving than I’d perceievd, as if its excoriation of society is more of a way out than a mere self-excommunication. Moments of The Clearing, particularly the electrostatically foreboding “Coprolite”, sound in retrospect as if they are trying to climb out of the dark, even if they don’t succeed. Return to Annihilation, then, feels like a perfect nexus of Locrian’s past and future. This is the rare album that reveals new depth within a catalog that already seemed so deep and ruminative while proclaiming rather unlimited possibilities for a band nearing the end of its first decade. It’s a beginning refashioned from expired endings-- as it turns out, an essential Locrian idea." [Pitchfork]
www.relapse.com
www.relapse.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Infinite Dissolution |
CD |
"Experimental, avant-black metal artisans LOCRIAN return with Infinite Dissolution, another dark and cinematic work of exceptional aural artistry. More epic and foreboding than anything in the prolific trio's catalog, Infinite Dissolution was produced by Greg Norman (Pelican, Russian Circles) and is a multi-part concept album dealing with the struggle of mortality. A seamless and harrowing blend of dark ambience, drone, black metal, post-rock, and experimental electronics, Infinite Dissolution is the perfect manifestation of modern, forward-thinking experimental music." [label info]
www.relapse.com |
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| LOCRIAN & MAMIFFER |
Bless them that curse you |
do-LP |
"Bless Them That Curse You captures an unprecedented balance of claustrophobia and solace. It's a strange alchemy to render something both inviting and alienating; it requires a special kind of skill to create music that sounds like it's rattling apart at its seams, unraveling in a torturous but compelling fashion. It demands an acknowledgement of the fine line between noise and racket, between tension and tedium. Finding an interpersonal chemistry to pull it off can take years of searching and refinement. Initiated by a history of record swapping and mutual admiration, Chicago's Locrian and Seattle's Mamiffer managed to accomplish such a feat. Since their inception, Locrian's sound has thrived on harnessing emotional resonance through texture and space. Highlighting a specific melody or beat in their music is unnecessary; their ability to trigger unease, fear, despair, and paranoia by playing with dynamics in timbre and timing is the central fixture in their work. While the Chicago trio's approach is certainly unorthodox, they are not without sonic peers. Seattle duo Mamiffer similarly explores new territories in sound by marrying fragmented elements of neoclassical, drone, and proto-industrial dirge into compositions that are beguiling, haunting, and occasionally violent. Originating as a solo project for pianist Faith Coloccia, the project grew to encompass husband Aaron Turner and a rotating cast of guest musicians. Coloccia's work, by nature, is malleable and suited towards the collaborative process. The collaboration between the two groups yielded some of the most beautiful material Locrian has ever recorded, and inversely pushed Mamiffer into the most caustic of new territories. Composed and recorded in Chicago at the renowned Electrical Audio studio, the album is the result of two disparate approaches arriving at one cohesive voice. It's at turns contemplative and reserved, unnerving and unsettling, thunderous and feral. Aided by the engineering prowess of Greg Norman, the mixing skill of Randall Dunn, and the auxiliary instrumentation of Alex Barnett (Oakeater) and Brian Cook (Russian Circles), Bless Them That Curse You is a richly textured study in an unconventional creative process, blending fine-tuned synchronicity with spontaneous brute force. Limited edition of 550, packaged in deluxe LP fold out designed by Faith Coloccia. Double LP on three sides. Clear and grey
brown vinyl." [label info]
www.utechrecords.com
|
2012 |
€29.50 |
|
| LOCRIAN / HARPOON |
split |
7inch |
"Two of Chicago's more notable loudness enterprises deliver one song each on green marble vinyl—"Ancestral Brutalism" by LOCRIAN (ANDREW SHERER of VELNIAS guests) and "To The Tall Trees" by HARPOON (their first release with bass player DJ BARRACA). Lulled Into A Boiling Rage describes Locrian, "Droning and forbidding sounds carried on air at top volume. Time seem[s] to slow down, waiting for the band to lurch toward their next choad rattling note. A perfect soundtrack for a desolate piece of arctic winter." About Harpoon, Cerebral Metalhead said they occupy a "middle ground between Phobia's d-beat leaning grind and Pig Destroyer's more metallic assault" (though, to be fair, they also said "When did A-Ha start playing grindcore?" so, you know, caveat emptor, motherfucker). Bonus material is included via enclosed digital card. With full-color double-sided insert, letter pressed cover." [label info]
www.hewhocorruptsinc.com
|
2009 |
€11.50 |
|
| LOCUSTA MIGRATORIA |
same |
LP |
"LM likes drone doom with spicy sauce
LM grows geriatric spice under cracked bells
LM loves gnashing of doors but not brushes
LM defines its space with its beak -shaped scepter
LM travels still but always with an ascending parachute
LM has some special manners consisting in clustered larvae
LM has the ring modulation but does not abuse from it either
LM has for company these things hidden in the resurgent folds
LM emits very curious issues with his inside cracking voice
LM conducts impulses through the maze of the worst carnivorous fantasies
LM disguises its pretense in the form of stellar stuck twins
LM puts pressure between the plate and the organ of Corti of his enemies
LM winds through plasters that clog your maxillo-mandibular ivory
LM is the grain of sand of the meshed order and the antidote against all quackeries
LM is a laboratory from which escapes a virus that spreads from Valladolid to the bridge of
Lézardrieux
LM…" [label info]
kdbrecords.free.fr
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| LONG DEAD SEVENS |
White Waltz & Other Stories |
do-CD |
"Produced by Boris ‘Mephisto’ Wilsdorf, Einstuerzende Neubauten’s producer. Two CD edition (contains the bonus album "The White Waltz Companion Disc" limited to 400 numbered copies in a full color book bound case and 16 page booklet. Somewhere betwixt the brooding, 10 gallon groan of 16 Horsepower; the baroque drawl of Blue Ruin; the whiskey smell of Bad Livers and The Bad Seeds’ beef scented brand of western gothic hangs a wanted poster offering reward, dead or alive, for the atmospheric, detailed twang of Long Dead Sevens. Oh death and grief and sorrow and murder shine like a tin star polished with the bullets of Nick Cliff’s baritone croon. Yet deep in the black heart that lies beneath banjo, fiddle, slide guitar, piano and derringer; somewhere near the unmarked grave of the coward Robert Ford; in a place that smells of salt peter and rancid tonic, the high lonesome is joined by the growling din of collapsing new buildings. A theatrical steam-industrial moan echoes through the mesa heralding an age not quite ancient and not quite modern. Colts and Mausers unite to shoot ‘em up in this dark, enveloping, weirding wild west operetta. Yippee Ki-Yay!
Paul J. Rogers - acoustic/electric guitars, percussion, melodica, sound sculpture, backing vocals
Nick Cliff - vocals
Jennifer Hames - piano, violin, organ
Ian Turner - bass guitar, banjo, steel slide/resonator guitar, 12 string
Nick Hames - drum kit, percussion
Sarah Miller - guest backing vocals"
[label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| LONGHI, JEROME |
Sonameon |
12inch |
"It’s ever hard to find some words about a debut. There’s nothing to compare. Yes, of course, there could be thrown in some names, or it could be mentioned that Jerome Longhi grew up in a musical family and learned playing guitar at seven...started his 1st Band as kid and now ownes a production studio. But is it important that way? Maybe the fact, he was just fed up from guitar music. With the thought, that the broom chamber would fit his sound to leave the domestic fields of Rock for a while." [label info]
"This downtempo debut 12” from producer Jerome Longhi offers us listeners a welcome break from the need for adventure in our lives, like an idyllic seaside postcard that becomes fleetingly real. The immersive new-age prelude of A-side’s ‘Sonameon’ is a slow, shimmering synthy sunrise, not unlike the new-world ambience of ‘90s Future Sound of London, with misty-morning, exotic-girl chants, vocodered warbling, and ponderous beats that rise and fall from the other side of a coma. A shade darker on the B-side, on ‘Sonomeon’ a maudlin piano phrase leads into a rain-drenched trip-hop number with a sinister ‘someone’s coming’ bass-line keeping watch over an assortment of skulking rhythms, distant birds and a mild synth wash that lends an ‘80s B-movie vibe. It’s not the most adventurous of listens, but nor has it any such pretensions; its charm lying entirely in its lack of exertion, and the refinement of its lilt and lift over the course of its eighteen minutes." [The Sound Projector]
www.empiricrecords.com |
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| LOON |
same |
CD |
"Loon's tunes cast pterodactyl shadows. The guttural guitars travel at the speed of Swans, languidly pounding out metal blasts that would make Sir Lord Baltimore scared. Their juxtaposition of ballsy femme vocals and black metal rasp generates an intense texture dynamic within the syrupy, trudging riffs. Loon is a quaking heaviness, like Hannibal crossing the Alps on Marshall stacks, though the loud is tempered with interesting production and unique arrangements. Loon's sonic crush soars with the loftiest flocks."I have no idea how this record hasn’t gotten more praise, it just might be the most underrated metal album of the past year. I think a lot of that is simply because nobody knows it exists, it’s self-released, and there’s no website to order from. Thankfully, they sent it to us to share with all of you. This Providence, RI three-piece features members of Megasus, Moonshine, Wake Up On Fire, etc. They play the best possible brand of slow, driving doom metal with the occasional passage of occult folk thrown in."
LOON was conceived of on the shores of Grout Pond in the Green Mountain National Forest by Mis Zill (vocals/guitars, former member of Moonshine, Wake up on Fire) and Anne Marie Ticaric (drums/vocals) in October of 2007. They were soon after joined by bassist Paul Lyons (Megasus) and began to write heavy, melodic songs in a bitterly cold warehouse in Providence RI. These songs are collected on the self titled debut LP released in December 2010. LOON has toured through much of the east coast and across the midwest, and plans to record and tour more in 2011." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
"Witchy doomy heaviness from Rhode Island, home of ultra avant doom heavies The Body, electro rockers Six Finger Satellite, spastic hyper noiserock duo Lightning Bolt, and hardcore legends Dropdead, among others, but female fronted doom rockers Loon have way more in common with the current crop of heavies like Jex Thoth, The Devil's Blood, Sub Rosa, Blood Ceremony, Cauchemar, Christian Mistress and Purple Rhinestone Eagle, and fans of any of those bands will definitely dig Loon's stonery psychedelic grooves, and pop flecked Sabbathy doominess, but Loon definitely have their own take on that sounds, beyond the doom aspect, which is really pretty minimal, sure it IS doomy, but it's way more groovy, there's also a serious slowcore vibe going on, a downer pop woven into the group's more metallic heaviness, which ends up reminding us of a way heavier more traditionally metal True Widow, which is totally NOT a bad thing. And then there's the vocals, which are amazing, slipping from demonic screech, to sweet melodious croon, powerful and intense, and often reminding us of country chanteuse Neko Case surprisingly enough. So if you can imagine Neko Case singing for a Sabbathy doomy downer pop stoner metal combo, well then, you might have an idea of what Loon has going on. And while the vocals might be the best we of the bunch, in terms of actually singing, the songs are pretty fantastic too, spacey and psychedelic, groovy and heavy, a little bit proggy, super hooky, with just enough pop, the guitar sound buzzy and crunchy, the drums powerful, the whole sound hooky and heavy, doomy and sort of dreamy at the same time. After a gorgeous hazy bit of psychedelic acoustic guitar, the record finishes with the nearly 10 minute "Grackel" which is the perfect Loon track, mixing all the various elements, the Neko Case like vocals (sounding surprisingly twangy here!), the shrieked demonic howls, the groovy Sabbathy riffage, the super melodic poppiness, the dirgey slowcore, all culminating in a woozy washed out feedback drenched spacey psychedelic outro, that could have (and probably SHOULD have) gone on for ANOTHER 10 minutes. Definitely a new favorite. Anyone into ANY of the above mentioned bands should for sure check this out." [Aquarius Records]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOOP |
A Gilded Eternity |
do-CD |
" "A Gilded Eternity", das letzte Puzzleteil der LOOP Re-Issue Serie kommt ebenfalls neu gemastert als Doppel-CD. Neben dem originalen Album auf der ersten CD, versammelt CD2 bisher unveröffentlichte Demos aus der Zeit, in der auch das Album aufgenommen wurde." [label info]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO |
A sudden pest of droning pseudoinsects |
4 x 7inch |
SOUNDART pur! Sehr ästhetisch-kunstvolle Veröffentlichung eines neuen spanischen Labels in winziger Auflage von 100 Stück: Vier 7"-Singles in edlem weissem Vinyl in weissem Klappcover - die Aufnahmen wurden von LOPEZ für eine Rotterdamer Klanginstallation bereits 1994 gemacht, zur vollen Entfaltung kommen die Klänge bei gleichzeitigem Einsatz und Mix mit vier Plattenspielern. Auch einzeln abgespielt verschaffen sich mächtig-minimale Microsound-Dronescapes in vier verschiedenen Frequenzbetonungen & Klangfärbungen Raum.
"4x7 set, new release from F.L on Spanish label EOZOÖN editions. 4x7s to be played alone or mixed and re-eq'd with four turntables (highly recommended!!) Sounds cover a large frequency range for maxim effect!! Stunning all white folder with 4 x white vinyl 7s. 'A sudden pest of droning pseudoinsects' was presented as a sound installation in the event '220v Klankpark' at the Museum Park of Rotterdam (Summer 1994), organized by v2_Organisatie. Composed and recorded at Messor Studios (Madrid) in 1994, remastered at Mobile Messor in 2002." [label info]
|
2006 |
€38.00 |
|
|
Untitled # 74 |
CD |
Das vergriffene Album von 1997 (Table of the Elements) wieder erhältlich ! Definitiv eines der besten vom umtriebigen Spanier ! The sold out album from 1997 available again, definitely one of his best !
„Certainly ranking as one of the most challenging recordings of all time, this is a re-issue of the 1997 recording originally available on the table of the elements label. The most intense and elementary ambient work I've ever heard" (Scientifica Intercosmo, Germany)
"Neither ambient nor isolationism, this music goes far beyond that" (Self, Spain)
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Untitled single piece 1 (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
first edition:
white vinyl, ultra-violet stamped label,
stamped white covers, 250 copies
released December 1996
second edition:
white vinyl, stamped covers, 300 copies
"This is more than just two musical pieces on a record! This is something experiment for your mind & body! This is like being underwater, experiencing a new acoustic dimension! Francisco Lopez from Madrid is a scientist
and sound-researcher who has been culturally active since 1983. He has released lots of cassettes in the 80's and now begins to release more and more work, also on cd's. His works are more conceptual and cognitive experiences
than conventionally approached music. This unique piece of work consists of ultra-deep frequencies that can -nearly- not be heard anymore but felt! It's the first part of a
4 e.p.- series (others will appear on banned prod., cohort records and povertech industries, all usa) to be released this and next year. This music manifests for a unique sensual
experience! "this donisis will change your view on what music could be!" [label info] |
1996 |
€ |
|
|
Untitled #205 |
10" |
"Based exclusively on end grooves from vintage records, 'untitled #205' is a straightforward and joyful exploration of the potential for reincarnation of these unintended sonic structures into new life. More a tool than a final product, it delves into static, noise and rhythm with a hopeful perspective. The untitled #205 mix on the a-side brings us 18 minutes of hissy, textural sound in dissolution, ranging from ryhthm to noise. The b-side has the 20 original loops López constructed out of old vintage 78s so if you buy 20 copies of this 10" you might be able to recreate the track." (F.Lopez) Limited edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Untitled #275 |
CD |
"A two part work based on a radical reconception of the piano. 'Movement 1' is a composition created for Reinier van Houdt that utilizes some extreme preparations, it is a 20 minute tour de force. 'Movement 2' is a studio sound transformation of the initial piano part, where one hears the exploded and recombined sonorities of the piano taking on an immersive sonic dimension as one has come to expect of López's work in the last years. The collaboration with pianist Reinier van Houdt has produced an intruiging and original work of instrumental music, a highlight in López's oeuvre. It is his second release on Unsounds." [label info]
www.unsounds.com
"From the many works of Francisco Lopez only very few are created for real instruments and with real players, but 'Untitled #275' is such a work. A work created with Dutch piano player Reinier van Houdt of the Ensemble MAE. Two movements, of which one leads to another. In the first movement Lopez created a work for Van Houdt on a mechanically-prepared piano and the second is a 'evolutionary studio transformation' of the first movement. The first movement starts out loud with a repeated fast banging on the piano for some five minutes, followed by a movement that is very soft, but also repetitive, to return for some more banging and a long fourth part of sheer silence, ending on a sparse note. An intriguing piece of modern composed music. In the second movement, the piano sounds return and sound indeed like a piano - most of the time. Sometimes they are slowed down, sometimes they are pitched in a different way. None of this movement gets very silent, but the dynamics are pretty extreme from time to time. Lopez creates a very spacious piece here of long sustaining sounds, with the use of additional reverb and plenty of equalization to create a different kind of piece. Towards the end a more computerized treatment arises from all of those which sound a bit more crackling with a deep end solemn bang on the can below. Now I'm not sure if Lopez consider collaborations like this on a more regular basis, but I hope he does. Field recordings might be his main trade, its here, in works like this, when we hear him do something out of his usual ordinary, and I think he does that pretty well, so it should be explored more." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.unsounds.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Untitled #281 |
CD |
" 'Untitled #281' was created by extreme mutation and evolution of bird calls from original recordings carried out over a period of fifteen years (1995-2010) in multiple wilderness locations of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. The most dramatic antithesis of any 'birdsong' piece you could imagine. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion." [label info]
"You have to take the CD out of the box, so you can read the complete liner notes on the cover, which is a nice thing. For this particular composition - almost close to thirty-two minutes - Lopez uses recordings of bird calls which he recorded from 1995 to 2010 in 'multiple wilderness locations of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. Not unlike other recent works by Lopez (the ones I heard that is), it seems to me that Lopez uses new pieces of software to treat his soundmatter, as he calls it. It has that granular synthesizes sound from max/msp and Lopez uses it quite radically. Things can get pretty wild in here, as we are warned on the cover that 'digital clipping in this an aesthetic decision and is explicitly intentional'. Especially in the first half this is a very present feature. But this work isn't of course all about noise; it opens with that Lopezian silence - except it's more audible; no contradictions there. After a firm break
around thirteen minutes things become silent for a while again, but never completely silent. Towards the end is the only section with what seems to be the original bird calls mixed with processed version thereof, with the latter gradually taking over. This is another fine Lopez work, with perhaps less of the mysterious ways of his earlier, connecting more to computer music scene (like Roel Meelkop or Marc Behrens)" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Untitled # 300 |
LP |
"Pressing of 300 copies on crystal-clear 200-gram virgin vinyl packaged in a custom letterpress jacket printed, die-cut, and hand-assembled at Studio On Fire in Minneapolis, with particular care taken to retain the fine detail of the cover's microscopic type. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than 30 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion' --Pedro Higueras, Sonom Studios. 'Untitled#300 is an LP based on multi-track field recordings I did in 2011 of a large colony of seagulls in a group of small islands right in front of the Moroccan-Algerian border, together with hydrophone and contact mic recordings of sea creatures underwater from the same location (side A and B of the LP, respectively). Being interested in going beyond a traditional 'soundscape' perspective, I've played freely with mixing and editing, in an unorthodox way, different multi-channel recordings I did. Side A ('abovewater') is the large seagull colony. In side B ('underwater') what you hear is predominantly millions of very small shrimp-like crustaceans, dolphin sonar (the beating pattern of the first section), and occasional fish (the 'frog-like' calls) --Francisco López. Original environmental sound matter recorded in the Chafarinas Islands off the coast of Morocco, summer 2011. Edited, mixed, and mastered at mobile messor, The Hague, the Netherlands, summer 2012. Field work carried out with the collaboration and support of the SIGEIN-Chafarinas research group (Integral Ecological Management System of the Chafarinas Islands), directed by Francisco J. Acosta (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) and coordinated by Javier Zapata (Spanish National Park Service)." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2015 |
€26.00 |
|
|
Untitled # 274 |
CD |
"Untitled #274 was composed by Francisco Lopez and performed by Kasper T. Toeplitz at GRM Studios in Paris, France. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion. Kasper T. Toeplitz has worked with academic research organizations, such as GMEM, GRM, IRCAM, and Radio-France, as well as with experimental musicians, such as Éliane Radigue, Zbigniew Karkowski, Dror Feiler, Tetsuo Furudate, Phill Niblock and Art Zoyd. Citing Giacinto Scelsi and Iannis Xenakis as influences, his early work was mostly written for traditional instruments." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
|
La Selva. Sound Environments from a Neotropical Rain Forest. |
etched LP/USB |
"Full-lenght original audio piece (71 minutes) on 24-bit / 48kHz digital USB flat memory-card with non-audio blank etched vinyl. Limited 500 pieces edition black vinyl, numbered and signed by Francisco Lopez.
La Selva:
An immersion into the sound environments of a tropical rain forest in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. An astonishing natural sonic web created by a multitude of sounds from rain, waterfalls, insects, frogs, birds, mammals and even plants, through a day cycle during the rainy season. A powerful acousmatic broad-band sound environment of thrilling complexity. And above all, a tour de force of profound listening." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Untitled # 284 |
CD |
“Behind every image, something has disappeared. And that is the source of its fascination. Behind virtual reality in all its forms [...] the real has disappeared. And that is what fascinates everyone. According to the official
version, we worship the real and the reality principle, but — and this is the source of the current suspense — is it, in fact, the real we worship, or its disappearance?”
[Jean Baudrillard, “Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?”
Translated by Chris Turner, Seagull Books 2009]
“untitled #284” was created in 2011 by extensive evolutionary transformation of original environmental recordings made in Lisbon during the year of 1992. These sources were recovered for a commission of the Teatro Municipal Maria Matos, where the composition was premiered on 16 July 2011.
Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. Over the past 40 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.
He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, workshops and sound installations in 70 countries of the six continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 150 international artists) has been released by more than 350 record labels worldwide, and he has been awarded four times with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival.
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-284
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
1987 |
CD |
Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For almost forty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.
He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with environmental recordings, workshops and sound installations in over seventy countries of the six continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with hundreds of international artists) has been released by nearly 400 record labels / publishers worldwide. He has been awarded four times with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival and is the recipient of the Qwartz Award 2010 for best sound anthology.
https://universaalkunst.bandcamp.com/album/1987
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & ALBERTO NOVELLO |
Neocortical F-Bars |
CD |
‘neocortical f-bars’
by francisco lópez & alberto novello
01. francisco lópez - untitled#383 [36:44]
Created at ‘mobile messor’ (Madrid, Los Angeles, Den Haag) and ‘Dune Studio’ (Loosduinen), 2019-2020
(c) Francisco López 2020 – www.franciscolopez.net
02. alberto novello – 37:00 [37:00]
Created at ‘Ni Dieu, Ni Maitre Studios’ (Trieste, Italy), 2020
(c) Alberto Novello 2020 – www.jestern.com
Pieces created from shared source materials.
Photograph & artwork by Francisco López.
(p) 2020 Two-Headed Snake – t-hs.bandcamp.com
https://t-hs.bandcamp.com/album/neocortical-f-bars-by-francisco-l-pez-alberto-novello
"Neocortical F-Bars (recorded with Alberto Novello) has the distinction of having been released as a CD in 2020 on López’ hard-to-find sister label Nowhere Worldwide (typically distributed through Norman Records). A much different animal, this release pops and pings like injured playback devices from the last century. Midway through López’ side, a tempo develops, eventually lifting the piece from abstraction to form before a final reduction to static. Novello substitutes fizzes and whorls, occasionally slipping into silence while preparing the next movement. The tone is as cold and septic as its cover, ending in Geiger fuzz." [A Closer Listen]
https://acloserlisten.com/2021/01/30/francisco-lopez-two-headed-snake/
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & LAWRENCE ENGLISH |
HB |
CD |
"Fieldrecordings und ihre Transformation ins Ungewisse: Den Arbeitsweisen von López/English entsprechend, wurden von beiden Seiten Fieldrecordings aus Costa Rica bzw. Australien angefertigt und gegeneinander unter Musique-Concrète-Prämissen in den Jahren 2005-2008 gemischt. »HB« ist ein recht typischer Release für die beiden Soundkünstler, in dem sich Soundkartografien aus den hinteren Winkeln des Planeten durch die heimischen Boxen schlängeln. Irgendwo tauchen Geräusche aus der Stille auf, verdichten sich zu einem unbestimmten Rauschen, ob aus der Stadt oder aus dem Dschungel, wer weiß das schon genau? Einmal mehr werden hier sonische Cluster aufgezogen, deren Paradigma Ambivalenz sind und zum Hineinkippen in diesen komplexen Klangkosmos zwingen. Stille wird zum pädagogischen Tool: Denn dort, wo nichts zu hören ist, beginnt man, sich selbst zu hören." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG]
"Francisco López - the most mysterious sound artist ever, the man who has elevated aural enigma and sonic displacement to artform status - joins forces with Lawrence English, the leading figure of the Australian experimental music scene, for a puzzling cd. What is 'HB'? 'It's two quite unusual found sound pieces and two musique concrète works based on each other's works', explains English. In other words, López and English each submitted to the other a field recording piece, then composed a new piece from the other guy's field recording. The result is resolutely sombre going on obscurantist: occulted birdsongs, unidentified tremors, delicate but disquieting sounds from a jungle that could be either of the wild or urban kind. This soundworld lies somewhere between mystery and mystification. Francisco López is globally acknowledged as one of experimental music's main creative forces. Relying on a deep listening of the world around us, his music translates into a physical experience of hearing and sound. Also an installation artist and theoretician, he performs all over the world. At his concerts, the audience is usually blindfolded. Lawrence English is a sound and visual artist, composer, critic, festival organizer, record producer (Tujiko Noriko, Tenniscoats, The Rational Academy) and label head (Room40). He explores the limits of perception and the relationship between sound and structure. His recent CD 'Kiri No Oto' (Touch, 2008) has garnered critical acclaim. 'HB' is his second release on Baskaru, following 'For Varying Degrees of Winter' in 2007." [press release]
www.baskaru.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & NOVI_SAD |
Titans |
CD |
"Sound artists Francisco López (Spain) and Novi_sad (Greece) have explored together the blurred territory between reality and the creation of self-contained sound enviornments through a long process of transformation f sonic materials. Working with the same shared field recordings carried out in the region of Ancient Olympia in Greece, they have created two individual pieces with extreme dynamics, at times obscure and dense, but laden with hidden complexity and a few surprised for the most adventurous listeners." [label info]
www.gh-records.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & RICHARD FRANCIS |
In de blaauwe hand |
CD |
Nice collaboration of these two artists who also once had EPs on Drone Rec. (R. FRANCIS as ESO STEEL) - this studio work made at EXTRAPOOL studios is a one-tracker with a very subtle & droney fluidum, layers of sound develop very very slowly, changes & cut-ups are set and lead to interesting developments but never in a harsh way... a full meditation / transcension drone that goes from silence / void to abundance and back again.
"Francisco López (Spain) and Richard Francis (New Zealand) have created "in de blaauwe hand" upon invitation from Extrapool for a brief working residency in Nijmegen, to develop a collaboration piece for the Brombron CD series. Working with very small seed source sound samples that were exchanged between them, two intermingling compositional paths unfolded in two parallel small studios. In a short ¬but very intense- period of time a whole world of very delicate and subtle materials arose. The whole piece (a single one-hour track) merges without mix a dreamy geography of subtleties and complex organicities that is more the result of aesthetic affinities than pre-structured plan. In that sense, this is a composition born from the sound themselves, following the paths indicated by them. And a surprising one.
Over the last twenty years Francisco López has been developing a powerful and consistent world of minimal electroacoustic soundscapes, 'trying to reach an ideal of absolute concrète music'. To date, his catalog comprises more than 140 sound works, which have been released by one hundred record labels from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, UK, Norway, Greece, Russia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Japan, China, Australia. He has toured extensively throughout Western and Eastern Europe, North, Central and South America, Japan and Australia doing acousmatic performances, and he has received commissions from a number of reknown institutions and organizations, such as the Dutch and Spanish National Radios, the Goethe Institut, V2 Organization (Rotterdam), Yale University Theater (New Haven), the Ralph Lemon Company (New York), the Zeitkratzer Ensemble (Berlin), Creative Time (New York), Quartier Ephemere (Montreal) and Sound Traffic Control (San Francisco).
Richard Francis has been releasing works on CD/vinyl, performing solo and in collaboration as a touring artist since 1996. He uses field recordings of acoustic and electronic sounds and a tone generator to compose textural and tonal sound works. He has released solo and collaborative works on a number of labels worldwide and runs his own label CMR through which he releases limited edition lathe cut records by New Zealand artists. In performance he uses a computer and electronics and has toured Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, USA and Europe. Since 2003, Francis has composed works for sound installation, participating in group and solo shows at galleries throughout New Zealand. He has collaborated for recording and/or performance with many artists including Bruce Russell, Francisco Lopez, Jason Kahn, Mattin, Birchville Cat Motel, Gate, MSBR, Tetuzi Akiyama, Lawrence English, Rosy Parlane, Howard Stelzer, Jason Lescalleet, Jay Sullivan, Empirical, Pumice, Kuwayama Kiyoharu, Phil Dadson, Anthony Guerra, Sean Meehan, Ishigami Kazuya, Antony Milton, James Kirk, MHFS, Tim Coster, Paul Winstanley, Takefumi Naoshima, Toshihiro Koike.
Design by Richard Francis"
[label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & XABIER ERKIZIA |
Elektra Bidasoa |
CD |
"A collaborative project between two seasoned sound artists dedicated to a profound listening of sonic phenomena. Created with original recordings from power plants along the Bidasoa river in the Basque Country, Erkizia and Lopez have built vivid straighforward and transformed sound environments from a myriad hums, rattles, crackles, and drones from the wide variety of machinery and industrial electrical facilities inside the power plants. A macro and microscopic journey into a detailed and crisp virtual sound world from the generation of electricity." [label info]
http://fernsrecordings.free.fr
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / AERNOUDT JACOBS |
Lith |
do-CD |
"For LITH, López and Jacobs shared their original sound recordings from the Brazilian Amazon, Mexico and the UK and created four compositions with each others recordings." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / ANDREY KIRITCHENKO |
Mavje |
CD |
Verpackt in dicken, seltsam geschnittenen Karton, kommt diese bemerkenswerte Collaboration auf KIRITCHENKO’s NEXSOUND-Label heraus. Schichten aus „organisch“ rauschenden Flächen wühlen sich wie Insekten durch den Äther, im Sub-Bass Bereich bewegen sich tänzelnde Helikopter-Drones vorbei, nach plötzlichem break aber kommen auch dumpf konkret-knirschende Akusmen zum Einsatz, aus denen sich neue bedrohliche metallo-dreamscapes schälen....
= Der LOPEZsche Klangkosmos wird hier angenehm erweitert !
“Spanish 'absolute concrete music' artist Francisco Lopez known for his releases, performances and installations world-wide joined together with Ukrainian cross-genre experimental sound artist Andrey Kiritchenko on this CD. Lopez decomposed and reworked field and furnishings recordings made and processed by Kiritchenko in his living space. Over the last twenty years Francisco Lopez has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss
of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.,,,,” [press release]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / MICHAEL GENDREAU |
Untitled # 185 / Drowning |
LP |
Split-LP des ex-CRAWLING WITH TARTS Mitglieds MICHAEL GENDREAU mit dem spanischen Puristen FRANCISCO LOPEZ - Vinyl-Kratzer & Rauschen von Auslaufrillen uralter Platten, aber auch die Geräusche der Mechanik & Motoren von antiken Plattenspielern dienten als Klangquelle für diese Bearbeitungen, ein Meer von low-fi Knirschen, Rascheln & Geknister, von multiplen 'white Noise'-Flächen und rhythmisch-repetitiven Mustern, so ungewöhnlich & wie überraschend im Verlauf...
"Francisco Lopez is perhaps best known for his dynamic studio and live performances that sway between crushing silence and dynamic, shifting volume swells. Over the course of 25 years, Lopez has developed and honed a refined audio lexicon. Michael Gendreau entered the experimental sound community in the early 1980s with his project Crawling With Tarts. As a solo artist, Gendreau caught everyone¹s attention with the 2002 release of his CD 55 pas de la ligne, composed of recordings based on old turntables and one-of-a-kind LPs.
For this LP, Gendreau, a trained acoustician, used extremely refined microphones--designed for acoustic and vibrational research--to record sounds such as turntable motor hum, belts, and run out grooves on records more than 70 years old. His side is an incredible journey through a forest of alternately prickly and soothing sounds. Lopez used similar source material for his side, creating a refined oceanic wall of sound constructed from crackle, hum, and scratches. This LP is in a numbered edition of 500 copies and signed by both artists." [label website info]
"Francisco Lopez has previously collaged vinyl crackle and hiss with aplomb on his untitled 92, and Michael Gendreau has worked with similar material on his 55 pas de la ligne au no. 3. both return to the materiality of vinyl run out grooves and the internal mechanics of the turntable as sources for this exceptional split release, with each artist applying their own conceptual and aesthetic sensibilities to the sounds. Lopez amplifies and overlays tactile sounds of hissing vinyl into an industrial din whose crescendo abruptly cuts to a wheeze of spiralling surface noise. Where lopez concentrates on the output of his turntable, gendreau focuses on the mechanical object itself, deftly recording the belts, motors and cranks of antique turntables, and using sensitive microphones to explore the ghostly musical pssages that creep between the rumble of wooden resonance and crackle." [Jim Haynes, the Wire (November 2006)]
"....His piece, 'Untitled #184' is audible throughout, and is a densely layered carpet of sound all sorts of sounds coming from vinyl. It hisses, pops and cracks in all sorts of ways, but never in an overtly rhythmic manner. It seems to me that Lopez created all of this by making many layers of sounds and removing any possibility of repetition. The piece by Gendreau uses similar sounds, but here musical elements leak through, or perhaps are created by the various possibilities of playing the records with motors, swift speed change and such like. Whereas Lopez creates a mass of sound, Gendreau presents an audio collage. Two possibilities of working with material like this. Two great examples of those possibilities. Richly textured and no doubt will go down for the very adventurous DJs." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / ZAN HOFFMAN |
Concert for 300 Magnetic Tapes |
MC |
"Cassette release limited to 300 copies only. Created from live performances in Spain (Madrid, Alcalá de Henares and Gijón) in 1994, using 300 tapes received from around 200 different artists from the international home-music cassette network. Remixed and mastered at Messor Studios, Antonio García Studios (Madrid) and Zidslick Studios (Louisville, KY) in 1994. Re-edited, re-mixed and re-mastered by Francisco López at Mobile Messor (Paraguay) in 2010. After years of exchanging self-released music on cassette and collaborating via post, Francisco López and Zan Hoffman embarked in 1994 on a somehow surreal small tour of live performances in Spain. By mixing their own sonic materials and recorded stuff on cassette received directly from hundreds of underground artists worldwide, they carried out live recombination shows with eight cassette decks and a shared mixing board. A synthetic/distilled edit of the most interesting moments arising from those live composition sessions is now released on this cassette by The Tapeworm." [label info]
|
2011 |
€8.50 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO WITH VALENTINA LACMANOVIC |
With/In |
CD |
"Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion. He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, workshops and sound installations in over sixty countries of the five continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 150 international artists) has been released by more than 300 record labels worldwide. He has been awarded four times with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival and is the recipient of the Qwartz Award 2010 for best sound anthology. Since 1999 Valentina Lacmanović has researched dances from different cultures through their ritual, folk, classic, and contemporary aspects. From 2001 onwards, her work has been focused on the creation of dance-theater and multimedia performances where Eastern and Western worlds meet. She has worked intensively on creating performances inspired by dances of trance and collaborates with artists from various disciplines. Profound research into dances of trance and ritual versus performing spaces since 2003 gave new direction to her work as an art director and performer. Her investigations into whirling dance led to insights into its origins and practice extending beyond Sufi meditation that supply an inexhaustible source of artistic inspiration and contemporary creativity, ultimately resulting in the project Shedervish, which marked an important change in her artistic development. “With/In” features one long track created by Francisco López with original sound matter recorded from body, clothes and immediate surrounding space during ritual whirling by Valentina Lacmanović. As subtle as the almost invisible image that appears on the back cover, this work translate the dancer’s breath and movements into music. One of the most interesting concepts in López later works and surely one of the best entries in his ever-growing discography." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"It's been recently slow (?) - it seems - with releases by Francisco Lopez. Here he has new work which the cover notes 'created with original sound matter recorded from body, clothes and immediate surrounding space during ritual whirling by Valentina Lacmanovic'. She is dancer, who studied in Croatia, France, Spain, Turkey, India and The Netherlands where she now lives. "Her main focus is a contemporary view of dances of trance, and research on convergences and divergences between contemporary western and oriental performing arts, in collaboration with musicians, video-artists, film-makers, dancers, and experts in fields of science, including physics, anthropology, ethnology, and psychoanalysis." The ritual aspect is important. I assume the music from Lopez here is both a musical registration of what she does - a field recording of dancing - as well as maybe a soundtrack to one of her dances? Either way. The immediate surrounding aspect is because she moves around, obviously, which makes we hear lots of aspects of her dancing. Her feet on the floor, her dress moving about or a lengthy section using her voice, breathing heavily. Lopez creates lots of loops out of this, smaller and longer and quite usually plays a lot of those at the same time. He filters them radically, occasionally, and sometimes a few drop in or out of the mix, so that quite a vibrant mix remains. The effect of swirling remains present throughout and throughout there is always 'something to hear', but that's recently with most of the Lopez CDs. It moves from the quite low end range to the very high end range and everything in between. A fine work by Lopez, and maybe the most innovative element here is the choice of sound input." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| LORIS |
The Cat from Cat Hill |
CD |
"Patrick Farmer (objects, snare, tapes), Sarah Hughes (zither, piano, e-bow) and Daniel Jones (turntable, piezo discs, electronics). Recorded by Patrick Farmer at Middlesex University 09. Mastered by Robert Curgenven." [label info]
"Another theory here is that when musicians from the field of improvisation get together on a regular basis they might want to use a band name. I guess that’s the idea here with Loris, a trio of Patrick Farmer (natural objects, e-bow snare, tapes, wood), Sarah Hughes (chorded zither, piano, e-bow) and Daniel Jones (turntable, e-bow, piezo discs, electronics). Their music is largely based on drones from the zither, snares and on the other hand each members supplies a sufficient amount of crackling sounds, from those objects and the turntable. They make an excellent combination here. The overall sound being quite densely layered, quite deep, with lots of the bass end, but with those high end crackles every now and then. Seeing this mastered by Robert Curgenven might give you a clue as to what Loris is about as there are quite some similarities between Loris and Curvengen. Great release, I’d say." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.anothertimbre.com
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| LOTUS EATERS |
Mind Control for Infants |
CD |
Sehnsüchtig erwartete (nach der tollen 12” und der überaus gefragten 7” auf Drone) erste CD des US-Dronepsychfolk-Trios von Aaron Turner, Stephen O’Malley und James Plotkin. Auf sechs unbetitelten Stücken entwerfen sie fragile tagträumerische Kompositionen mit vielen Akustikgitarrensounds im Vordergrund und diversen verhaltenen Background-Eruptionen.. hat eine ganz eigene hypnotische Note... first CD by this wonderful experimental dronepsych-trio, six daydreaming compositions with many acoustic guitar sounds and more strange background-eruptions.. has a very own hypnotic note..
“..Contemplative as it is calming, Mind Control for Infants nonetheless demands mood-altering interaction and mind-controlling attention. Sparse and spaceless they may be, but much like contemporaries/labelmates Tribes of Neurot, the Lotus Eaters are far from "easy listening." In the LE world, low-end gurgles co-exist with (delicately treated) strums of the guitar and sub-aquatic plunges of reverb, the result mountainous as it is minimal, without genre as it is without boundary.” [from the label description]
label-website: www.neurotrecordings.com
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
same (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“The LOTUS EATERS is a kind of droning trio of known musicians from the States, in which we find STEPHEN O’MALLEY [(SUNN O)): , BURNING WITCH, KHANATE], AARON TURNER [label founder of HydraHead-Records in Boston, member of ISIS], and JAMES PLOTKIN [one of the most creative & experimental underground – guitarists around, being member of O.L.D., SCORN, TRIFID PROJECT, and now ATOMSMASHER, and working currently in many solo- and collaboration projects] with only one 12” vinyl-release and few concerts to date. The two untitled pieces of this, their first 7” E.P. consists of concrete rumblings & ambience, something like accordeon–drones in the background, a voice/singing appears from the distance, and acoustic guitar-elements, added by some strange effects going on in the background.. the atmosphere is one of a melancholic, but in a way also mellowed “different state of mind”, a very unique melting plot of characters & music !” [press release July 2002]
WHITE VINYL WITH YELLOW SPOTS. PRINTED FULL-COLOUR COVERS DESIGNED BY SELDON HUNT. INNER-COVER IS YELLOW PRINTED. SECOND EDITION OF 300 COPIES.
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Wurmwulv (black) |
do-LP |
"Lotus Eaters is Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), KTL, etc.), James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, etc.) and Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, etc.). Previously issued on CD, Plotkin has remixed, remastered and rearranged Wurmwulv for this vinyl edition using alternate takes from the original recording sessions. The 2LP also includes reworked material from Lotus Eaters' self-titled 7" released by Drone Records. 52 minutes and 29 seconds on 3 sides of direct metal mastered 200 gram virgin vinyl, the 2LP has a drawing by Turner etched on side D. Housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket designed by O'Malley, Wurmwulv features Stephen Kasner paintings printed on linen-textured woven paper, a spot varnished interior and flooded pockets. The Kasner paintings and Turner drawings included were created specifically for this vinyl edition of 1,000. Reconfigured for vinyl, Wurmwulv is a solvent-soaked carpet ride into loose soil. Worms writhe over cilia as moist roots lick and graze skin. The dampened howls of wolves reverberate through water freezing into creaking crystals. When oxygen levels reach a critical low, a cacophony of clanging metal provides an inhalation of humid air." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2011 |
€27.50 |
|
| LOVESLIESCRUSHING |
Girl.Echo.Suns.Veils |
CD |
"space/ambient/drone from a veteran progenitor. scott cortez’s guitar is processed nearly to the point of unrecognizability, leaving behind veils and walls of shimmery droning bliss. glossolalic female voice glides spectral and luminescent through the walls of sound; sheets of noise; glossy, ethereal. lovesliescrushing makes noise sound beautiful.
leave all the accidents: find beauty in grit, in dust, in noise. in the mess.
formed in 1991, lovesliescrushing took the my bloody valentine / cocteau twin template and added a new twist: turning the formula inside out by using the detritus, the residue from other songs, the scraps of a song, a single note, a single chord here, a melody there or a dense wall of guitar. take the parts most bands consider throwaway accidents, filler, those little parts between songs on loveless and work them to reveal their realization as a full-blown song. ‘the formula’ is simple, almost childlike. remove the drums, the bass, use no synths or keyboards, remove all of the typical rock/pop shoegaze trappings, use what is left and record on a 4 track porta-studio. simple.
that they were able to weave this all together, despite removing everything, would have made most bands run in terror. yet in that manner, lovesliescrushing found its sound.
GIRL ECHO SUNS VEILS gathers music from the vast backlog of the lovesliescrushing library. some of it has appeared before, some of it is unreleased. all of this material was reworked and perfected by cortez until he decided it was ready for release. the music is almost two decades old, but sounds like it was recorded yesterday by one of a handful of newgaze, ambient bands (fennes, belong) that have become stylish recently. llc sounds completely contemporary, and yet llc was doing it back in the early 90s, without studios, without laptops! perhaps that is the most shocking aspect to their music. it is a testament to the work of lovesliescrushing, an obscure band that could and did.
lovesliescrushing can sound like a jet engine tuned to an am radio station tuned to an orchestra tuning up or a gigantic blurry drone cloud.
GIRL ECHO SUNS VEILS is a comprehensive look at an invisible band’s influence on the space/ambient/drone scene." [label info]
www.projekt.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Xuvetyn |
CD |
INK19: “Xuvetyn is glorious from start to finish, very much in a loveless-era My Bloody Valentine-gone-ethereal vein. Genius. This is some of the most amazing music ever to come off four tracks. Loveliescrushing’s music is soaked in shimmering, fuzzy, noisy brilliance. Beautiful female vocals waft through the hazy, swirling fog of layered feedback-drenched, processed guitars. This is ethereal lo-fi at its finest”
"VEILS OF GORGEOUS GUITAR WASH AND ANGELIC GOSSAMERY VOICE. BEAUTIFUL AND GRANDIOSE ORCHESTRAL SUBTLETY AND CHILDLIKE NAIVETE, BILLOWY, FUR-LINED, MILKY SOFTNESS TO A BLASTING METALLIC ROAR. 75 MINUTES OF SPACEY DRUMLESS IRIDESCENT TEXTURES AND ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDSCAPES.
MELISSA’S VOCALS ARE GLASSY SHIMMERING AND EVANESCENT LIKE SNOWFLAKES MELTING IN YOUR HAND. SCOTT’S INFAMOUS GUITAR DAMAGE CONJURES IMAGES OF AN AURORA’S PHANTASMAGORIC MAJESTY OR A JET ENGINE’S INTENSITY. GUITAR AND VOICES SCULPTED, MANIPULATED AND PROCESSED INTO BEAUTIFUL NOISE. ANOTHER GEM OF LO-FI BRILLIANCE GLEANED FROM A 4-TRACK." [label info?]
|
1996 |
€14.50 |
|
| LT. CARAMEL |
Early tape works |
do-CD |
"Pierre Blanchard aka Felipe Caramelos, der 1961 geborene Bäckersohn aus Annecy, und sein Projekt LIEUTENANT CARAMEL ist ein schönes Beispiel für einen Elektroakustiker, der trotz der Anerkennung, die er auch im Establishment der Geräuschkunst fand, seinen Reiz und seine Glaubwürdigkeit als Artiste maudit im Patchwork der Minderheiten nicht verlor. Early Tape Works (mv08, 2 x CD) greift zurück in seine Kassettentäterjahre und versammelt als ‚Après les horreurs...‘ und ‚Suit naturellement la beauté‘ Stoff, der ursprünglich bei den Tapelabels Audiofile (L‘Odyssee Du Lieutenant Caramel, 1985), SPH (Et Ca Vole!, 1993), Acteon (Du Plomp plein les siles, 1985, Je ne veux plus voir le ciel, 1988) und Old Europe Cafe (Les Bonnes archives du Dimanche, 1986) erschienen war. Die beiden Halbzeilen des Titels scheinen eine direkte Umkehrung von Rilkes Zeilen aus der Ersten Duineser Elegie zu sein: Denn das Schöne ist nichts / als des Schrecklichen Anfang, [den wir noch grade ertragen, / und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, / uns zu zerstören. Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich.] Überhaupt scheut Blanchard nicht vor literarischen und philosophischen Bezügen zurück, stellte sich schon als Kurator des Festivals Bruit de la Neige in die Tradition Russolos und der Dadaisten, zitiert Debord, wenn er Russisches Roulette den Spektakeln des Kapitalismus vorzieht, und wenn er auf die unheilbare Freiheit ohne Gott pocht, schwingt darin das Ni Dieu ni maître sowohl des Anarchisten Auguste Blanqui wie auch des Chansoniers Leo Ferrer mit. Bereits in den 80ern inszenierte er als Ministrant der unheiligen Dreifaltigkeit Lautreamont - Jary - Breton sein Cinema pour l‘oreille als Theater der Seltsamkeit, aus Lärm- und Stimmfetzen surreal collagiert und geloopt. Hier bietet es sich dem Zahn der Zeit als harte Nuss." [Bad Alchemy]
"Lieutenant Caramel is the musician and film director at the same time, he shoot movies for ears with microphone. The continuous search for poetic images, frantic interchange of subjects, twisted and broken mosaic of fuzzy elements, the breathtaking incoherence of perception, the mark of primitive life, the total absence of organization and rational thoughts. All this breathes, moves, obtains the voice and gradually becomes meaningful. Theatrical view of musique concrète, humorous and surrealistic collection of masterpieces recorded in the ten years. Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase" [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2006 |
€16.50 |
|
| LUASA RAELON |
The Enigma of Fatality |
CD-R |
Neuentdeckung auf dem englischen CDR-Label IMMANENCE (die bis vor kurzem noch FLESHMADEWORD hiessen). LUASA RAELON nennt sich dieses Projekt, hier werden analog-noises mit dunklen soundscapes & Samples verbunden, insgesamt sehr dynamisch-krachig mit atmosphärischen Parts, think of TELEPHERIQUE, or CONTAGIOUS ORGASM.
“ This is the latest release from the talented hands of David Reed of Luasa Raelon. Building upon the noisier elements more prominent in his earlier work, The Enigma Of Fatality takes Luasa Raelon along a slightly different path, which is darker and less immediate in its presentation. The harshness has been augmented with rich fields of sounds, adding great longevity and depth to this powerful, yet often subtle album.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
The Poison City |
CD |
Willkommen unter Tage. Extrem hallender, donnernder, metallisch sirrender Kontemplativ-Ambient, tausend Echos von analog-elektronische Sounds, aber auch elegische Synths sind auszumachen... doom-drone Industrial aus US.
“Welcome to the poison city. A place where nuclear radiations colour the sky with green clouds, mutating vegetation suffocates the
sun and asphyxiating miasms coming from abandoned toxic wastes endanger life.........
LUASA RAELON is definitely one of the most interesting realities of US dark ambient/death industrial scene, combining low-rumbling
drones with extemporaneous noise bursts to create a pretty personal & recognizable sound. This poison city IS a terrible place, trust me..” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUCIER, ALVIN |
I am sitting in a Room |
CD |
"In this fascinating exploration of acoustical phenomena, Alvin Lucier slips from the domain of language to that of music in the course of 40 minutes and 32 repetitions of a simple paragraph of text. In I am sitting in a Room, several sentences of recorded speech are simultaneously played back into a Room and re-recorded there many times. As the repetitive process continues, those sounds common to the original spoken statement and those implied by the structural dimensions of the Room are reinforced. The others are gradually eliminated. The space acts as a filter; the speech is transformed into pure sound. All the recorded segments are spliced together in the order in which they were made and constitute the work. I am sitting in a Room was composed in 1970 and was first performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that same year. A second version was made in 1972 to accompany the dance, Dune, performed by the Viola Farber Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since that time, numerous versions of this composition have been realized in various ways by other musicians, including a Swedish radio broadcast version. This recording was made by Alvin Lucier on October 29th and 31st, 1980, in the living Room of his home in Middletown, CT. The material was recorded on a Nagra tape recorder with an Electro-Voice 635 dynamic microphone and played back on one channel of a Revox A77 tape recorder, Dynaco amplifier and a KLH Model Six loudspeaker. It consists of thirty-two generations of Alvin Lucier's speech and was made expressly for Lovely Music, Ltd." [label notes]
www.lovely.com |
1990 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Music on a long thin wire |
CD |
Bei diesen Aufnahmen von 1979 erzeugte der kreative Konzept-Minimalist ALVIN LUCIER stehende Sounds mit einem langen, aufgespannten Metalldraht, einem Elektromagneten und einem audio oscillator (genaue Beschreibung im Booklet), Die Sounds entwickeln sich in unvorhersagbarer Weise und sind reich an Obertönen und Feedbacks..
“A 50-foot length of taut wire passes through the poles of a large magnet and is driven by an oscillator; the vibrations of the wire are miked at either end, amplified and broadcast in stereo. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four different frequencies; what results is not the low drone one might expect from a long, vibrating wire, but a complexity of evocative, ethereal chords. First released on Lovely Music in 1980, Music on a Long Thin Wire is a classic example of Alvin Lucier's investigations into the physics of sound and the sonic properties of natural processes.” [label notes]
www.lovely.com
|
1992 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Almost New York |
do-CD |
"CD 1 - Twonings: Charles Curtis, cello; Joseph Kubera, piano; Almost New York: Robert Dick, flutes; Broken Line: Robert Dick, flute; Danny Tunick, vibraphone; Joseph Kubera, piano
CD 2 - Coda Variations: Robin Hayward, tuba
Pogus is extremely delighted to release this 2 CD set of recordings of works by Alvin Lucier.
He is one of the key experimental artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is one of my favorite composers. A unique and individual artist: No one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier.
Lucier writes about the genesis of the works on this release:
"Since the early 1980's I have made a series of works for conventional musical instruments. Before that time I had been mainly occupied with the exploration of such phenomena as echoloca-tion, brain waves, room acoustics and the visual representation of sound. Often these works required special equipment-hand held pulse wave oscillators (Vespers), differential amplifiers (Music for Solo Performer), horseshoe magnets (Music on a Long Thin Wire). Then players began asking me for pieces. Now I needed to find a way of achieving the same poetry with acoustic instruments as I did with electronic means.
"One of the things I discovered was that players could create rhythmic patterns by closely tuning with electronically generated pure waves or with each other, producing audible beats. Often, to get continuous motion, I have one or more voices sweep up or down at various speeds against fixed sustained pitches. As a wave approaches a sustained pitch the audible beating slows down to zero when it reaches unison, then speeds up again as the wave leaves the pitch. Almost New York employs slow sweep pure wave oscillators, Broken Line, flute glissandi. In Twonings two different tuning systems collide and in Coda Variations slight variations in pitch are heard chronologically."
Recorded by Charles Curtis, Joseph Kubera, Robert Dick, Danny Tunick, and Robin Hayward - some of the leading new music performers of our era, these works are essential additions to the Alvin Lucier oeuvre, as well as satisfying anyone interested in great experimental music." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"Usually press texts say lots of things which is just the sort of thing record label use to exaggerate to drum up interest for their artist. But when Pogus writes about Alvin Lucier 'an unique and individual artist: no one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier', I can only agree. I sang praise for the work of Lucier before. His ongoing investigation into sound phenomena, with or without the use of instruments has been going on for more than forty years now, and brought him the status of a well-known composer. And when you are well-known, people will ask you for pieces, for them to perform. On 'Almost New York' we find four of those pieces, three on disc one and one on disc two. We have hear instruments we came across before in Lucier's work, such as piano, cello and flute. In 'Twonings' for cello (performed by Charles Curtis, who himself performed more work by Lucier, and released a 2CD by Antiopic - see Vital Weekly 498) and piano, we don't have any sweeping oscillations to be followed, but two closely tuned instruments, but with enough variation in pitches to clearly distinguish differences. In the title piece we have one player and five flutes, who follows two pure wave oscillators and moves between playing five flutes, not simultaneously of course. 'Broken Line' is, then again, more alike the first piece, but then staged for three instruments, flute, vibraphone and piano. The most radical work here is the piece 'Coda Variations', which takes up the entire second disc. Robin Hayward performs it on tuba. Based on eight notes from a Feldman piece, Lucier subjected them to seven sets of permutations of sixty-three notes each. No sine waves to play along, just the sound of single notes played at one time each, for almost fifty minutes. An intriguing work. Of these four pieces, there is only one which we could label as 'traditional Lucier' work, but the three others display probably just as well what Lucier, less the pure waves and all four are simply four more great pieces. Indeed: no one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Still and Moving Lines |
CD |
"Pogus is absolutely delighted to offer this new release featuring Australian new music ensemble Decibel performing four works by Alvin Lucier, three of which are previously unrecorded.
Ever Present (2002), the only work offered here that has been recorded before is for flute, saxophone, and piano with slow sweep pure wave oscillator and is considered by many to be Lucier’s most musical work. Carbon Copies (1989) is for saxophone, piano, flute and playback; the work investigates musicians imitating their environments. Hands (1994) is for organ with four players. The performers use their hands to subtly alter the harmonics produced from the pipes of an organ. Shelter (1967) is for vibration pickups, amplification system and enclosed space and finds Lucier offering the sounds of outside a performance space. All these works as always are amazing examples of Alvin Lucier’s fertile mind and exploring, experimental sensibility. One of the true originals.
Alvin Lucier was born in 1931 in Nashua, New Hampshire. He was educated in Nashua public and parochial schools, the Portsmouth Abbey School, Yale, and Brandeis and spent two years in Rome on a Fulbright Scholarship. Lucier has pioneered in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers' physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. His recent works include a series of sound installations and works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in which, by means of close tunings with pure tones, sound waves are caused to spin through space.
Decibel are world leaders in the integration of acoustic instruments and electronics, pioneering electronic score formats, including the Decibel Scoreplayer App, incorporating mobile score formats and networked coordination performance environments. The ensemble has collaborated with composers such as Werner Dafeldecker, Agostino Di Scipio, Alvin Curran, David Toop, Marina Rosenfeld, Lionel Marchetti, Andreas Weixler and Johannes S. Sistermanns and worked with iconic Australian composers Jon Rose, Alan Lamb, Ross Bolleter, Warren Burt, Eric Griswold and Anthony Pateras. Decibel have contributed the Australian premieres of works by Fausto Romitelli, Tristan Murail, Alvin Lucier, Peter Ablinger, Mauricio Kagel and have toured monograph concerts dedicated to Alvin Lucier and John Cage." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| LULL & BETA CLOUD & ANDREW LILES |
Circadian Rhythm Disturbance Reconfigured |
CD |
"From England to the United States and back again... it all started as a simple drone project between LULL (aka Mick Harris of SCORN, ex-NAPALM DEATH), and BETA CLOUD (aka Carl Pace), based on the concept of how insomnia can effect your thought patterns. Billows of powerful bass drones set to indistinct flourishes of temporary insanity, it was released as a limited 3" CD in 2008. Now proudly presented in a deluxe digipak edition on cold spring, the original track is there, but also included is a fierce remix track by none other than legendary sound artist Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND), with stunning new packaging and artwork. Fans of Lull and Beta Cloud will really sink their teeth into this one; what Liles has created here is not a simple remix but a raging, deconstruction as only he can do. A captivating listen for dark ambient and harsh noise fans alike." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS + OGNI VIDENIJ |
Mohalociya Eroja |
CD-R |
"Continuation of the series of collaboration live recordings. This disk presents a fragment of a pu-erh session in Zanza-room on the night of December 13th, 2014 with minimal editing, in one track. The sonic flow is formed mainly of analogue modulations with hybrid processing and flavoured with strings, winds and voice. On a winter night with a teapot of pu-erh we remembered everything about mosses and lichens, night swamp fogs and former trips, and made the wishes for the future, twisting potentiometers to the beat of thoughts. String drones and bell chimes turn into atomized analogue crackles and rustles, sometimes pink noise and timbral waves blend in multi-layered cocoon of moss. Recommended to listen on wideband audio systems as well as in earphones, and if there's a chance to use both at the same time - surely use both simultaneously. The disc is packed in a cardboard sleeve with a hand-made stamp, each copy is numbered." [label info]
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS / VANUM |
Ulm-Gra / Pelena Sna |
CD |
"This split-release of two Russian projects was delayed almost for two years, which makes it even more interesting. Lunar Abyss presents two tracks of solo immersions of Evgeniy S. in the droning waves, saturated by tube cascades, and the third track is recently found unreleased fragment of a concert from 25.10.1999 in the Experimental Sound Gallety - 21, the remarkable performance for the project which provided material for creating two albums: "Cosmologamma" and "Zeleznaya Voda"... Later come four pieces by Vanum from the city of Tolyatti, which continue the shamanic mood and isolationist discourse. The compositions are based on the sound of Soviet analogue synths with minimal processing which makes them airy, bright and hypnotic at the same time. This is not relax music, it mesmerizes and brings to a pleasant stupor, full of psychedelic vigor, a veil of a dream calling up visions... The CD is packed in a cardboard sleeve with a hand-made stamping, each copy is numbered." [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM |
Tuntury |
CD |
Mit "Tuntury" betritt man verschiedene Bereiche einer ANDERNWELT, die einen staunen lässt und verzaubert! Zunächst klingt es wie in einer futuristischen Wartehalle einer fremden Dimension, dann wiegt man sich berauscht in allerschönsten Backwards-Harmonien wie im Mutterleib (das wunderschöne "YASNITSA"), bevor verfremdete Gesangstimmen zur rituell-schamanistischen Zeremonie rufen... in der zweiten Hälfte überwiegen dann die eher ruhig-dronigen Passagen. Wir meinen: Ein Meisterwerk des rituell-experimentellen Drone-Ambients, mit grosser surrealistischer, halluzinogener Kraft!
"The new album of one of the oldest Russian dark-ambient projects Lunar Abyss Deus Organum is a collection of six sonic pictures of the world of thundra-yoga. Each composition is like a complex multidimentional mosaic build of layered sounds of completely different nature: field recordings, samples, synthesizers, singing, tape noises, etc. These layers not just sound along, but slowly and relentlessly create a slowly twisting deep sonic spiral, stretching listener's attention out to several directions at once. Hallucinatory ambient of double dosage." [label info]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Bereg Teploj Vesny |
CD-R |
"First part of the dilogy of "Spring banks" (the title translates from Russian as "Bank of Warm Spring") is a new release from Lunar Abyss and the third release by Russian label Vetvei. The continuous tapestry was recorded during the night of May 8th on the "ex-mental stage" of the international open air festival "Systo Togethering 2006" held in the woods of Leningrad region. E.S. used tapes, loops, concrete sounds, ocarina, voice and N.N. used computer, sound-generator and tape recordings, so they were telling the tales of alchemical process at the banks of mythic rivers reflected in dreams of animals who awake in dreams from rivers-voices and heavens-birds. Frequency moves in the body of voice and outside, pulsations, permanent ambient movements-trans-formation, a journey tale with a shaman to the dwellings of primordial elements. The artwork features views of Finnish gulf opening in early May morning. Cardboard sleeve unique for each copy, 3 cards." [label info] |
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Tryakusta |
CD |
"New album from Saint-Petersburg L.A.D.O. project is result of 3 live records mixing: July 1, 2010 in art-apartment "Vmeste" - a meditative sound performance "Ring Time" - feat Kshatriy; July 4, 2010 a morning concert in "Zelenogorsky Festival of ambient music vol.1"; July 14, 2010 a meditative sound performance "Diamond Sandman - 12th floor" in the art-apartment "Vmeste". An incredibly deep multilayered Drone Ambient with plenty of colorful patterns. A dense self-observing stream, that takes away all the dependences and rushing through an endless self-similar spheres. Mastered by Kshatriy. Full-colored six-panel envelope Vresnit & Vetvei Art." [label info]
www.vetvei.ohms.ru
"I believe I once saw a concert by Lunar Abyss Deus Organum, open air, small square in St. Petersburg, in which the surrounding sounds of the environment (cars, people walking and talking, birds) added a sort of nice texture to the proceedings on the small stage. I don't recall if it was an one man band, or more, but perhaps that was due to the nature of the afternoon when this took place: some ad-hoc bands were formed and played. There was an amount of instruments on stage, all filed under 'electronics' and a microphone for some kind of overtone singing. Not this concert, but three others were moulded into one forty-two minute piece of music, which is on the release 'Tryakusta', all from july last year. Lunar Abyss Deus Organum has that sort of sound that ties ambient and industrial firmly together: many layers of electronic sounds, a sort of overtone singing and field recordings. Once the mighty wheel is in motion, this goes on and on, in a positive manner. A full on drone sound
that lasts for the entire forty two minutes. Maybe we hear three concerts at once I thought. Quite a refined work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Uzor |
CD |
"The third "real" CD by LADO combines tracks recorded in 2002-2004 and due to various circumstances initially spread over various compilations and EPs ("Heilige Feuer III", "Thalamus II", "Holy Mother Russia", "Listopad Vot On", "Brusnika"). Now the circle is closed and this CD represents the pieces almost in the same order as they were created. The album reflects a certain period of creativity and especially author's interest in proto-Eurasian cultures. Sounds like the best album of the project, although it is a kaleidoscope, creating a new pattern for the hearing. The compositions are created from acoustic and electronic structures, drum and noise loops, voice samples, scientific & journalistic recordings and deep wave drones." [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Atanimonni Aitnatsbus |
10inch |
"Behind LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM (= also known as LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET or just LUNAR ABYSS) we find Russian artist EVGENY [Biosonar] SAVENKO from the vivid St. Petersburg experimental & post-industrial scene. Since more than a decade he's producing a unique style of music combining elements of droning ambient industrial, traditional folklore and electronic, tribal/trancy psychedelism, adding pure sound-experiments often based on field recordings. A strong DIY-attitude (self-released albums usually have handmade covers with ornamental drawings & paintings) is connected with a shamanistic and pan-religious philosophy. Meditation, Trance, the wish to explore the own unconscious areas by ecstatic experiences and a deep connection with nature are his main characteristics.
The two pieces "Atanimonni" and "Aitnatsbus" were especially recorded for our 10"-series and give a wonderful example of the typical L.A.D.O.-style: two long tracks (total 23+ min.) of stunning multi-layered compositions, using lots of detail-sounds from domestic and wild animals, mountain winds and brooks, forest shelters and a destroyed missile garrison, soviet analog synths, north saami female voices / singings, subtle (neo) classic harmonies, bells & gongs... hyper-dense & fluid at the same time! Both tracks end up in endless grooves (water & fire) to symbolize the connection to timeless energies. Lim. 500 with artwork by ARTYOM OSTAPCHUK (KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK / ZHELEZOBETON label), comes on sky-blue, crystal & white mixed vinyl.
"Recordings of field recordind sounds were made in the summer of 2009 in the Carpathian mountains and the land of lakes in Karelia, during a miraculous journey, full of joyful inspiration. Party of analog synthesizers recorded by sound-poet Lesnaya Pogan during a cold winter 2010 in Moscow." [Evgeny Savenko]
[label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
"lunar abyss deus organum hat mit „brusnika“ auf der dr-77 in der früheren 7“ serie von drone-records einen der teile herausgebracht, der mir von allen 100 beiträgen der serie am besten gefällt. nun ist das projekt mit „atanimonni / aitnatsbus“ als sub-16 auch auf der substantia innominata 10“ serie vertreten.
lunar abyss deus organum ist dabei alles andere als ein projekt, das auf lang durchlaufende schichtungen, melodiebögen oder ähnliches setzt oder im gegenzug (bearbeitete) fieldrecordings oder konkretere musikschnipsel in den eindeutigen vordergrund der arbeit stellt. im ersten eindruck sind viele der arbeiten von lunar abyss deus organum vielmehr eine zunächst undurchschaubare collage aus all diesen elementen; eine collage, die aber nie übervoll erscheint, der es sogar gelingt, trotz manchmal fast wie brüche wirkender betonungen nie die stimmung und atmosphäre zu gefährden und so drones aufzubauen, die durch fast überraschende wendungen immer wieder neue bilder aufbauen können.
auch „atanimonni“ folgt dieser tradition und wiegt die hörer dabei über sehr lange zeit in der trügerischen sicherheit, der schaukelnde, wellenartige bassdrone mit dem das stück auch beginnt, könnte, wenn schon nicht ewig, dann aber zumindest für die dauer der seite begleiter bleiben. und natürlich, gerade, wenn man vergessen hat, dass es jemals anders sein könnte, wachsen dessen rauere begleiter über sich selbst und den bassdrone hinaus, bauen eine geräuschhafte kakophonie auf, brechen wie urplötzlich ab und münden in einem nur ganz leise hörbaren, durch die rille auf analoge art geloopten wassersample. zumindest hier dann also das erhören derer, die sich eine derartige musik mit noch viel längeren laufzeiten wünschen...
„aitnatsbus“ geht, in gewissen sinne, einen umgekehrten weg: die geräuschhaften komponenten stehen hier zu beginn fast ganz frei (wenn auch nicht so laut wie kurz vor ende von „atanimonni“) und fangen sich erst allmählich über zunächst bassigen dann knurrenden drones und fast unhörbar schleicht sich eine weibliche stimme hinein, die, auf ähnlich verführerischer art wie schon auf der „brusnika“ 7“, einen schnipsel aus einer dieser typischen melancholischen osteuropäischen volksmusikmelodien immer und immer wieder wiederholt. perfekter dynamischer aufbau und eigentlich unmöglich erscheinender kontrast zwischen den wälzenden drones mit ihren geräuschhüllen und der sehnsuchtsvollen stimme. eigentlich. und am ende verweht nur noch der gesang und was bleibt ist das (wiederum analog geloopte) feuer..." [Hellmut Neidhardt / N]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
O.D.A.L. |
CD |
"The ending of 2015 is marked by the release of a landmark album by L.A.D.O., the whole year was full of live gigs and studio recordings, but none of these consonances was included in the album, waiting for the next year to be published. More over: the album is a mystical machine manipulating with the aspects of time and concepts of sound in time. If you're familiar with the project for a long time, you'll surely remember the typical timbres and vibrations, but you'll also feel their other, secret aspects. If you're just getting to know L.A.D.O., the album will be a splendid illustration of the creative direction. A simple yet effective method of transforming the sonic flow is reflected in the album's title "O.D.A.L." and in the title of the tracks. Shamanic drone ambient with the abundance of layers of all kinds of origin, multi-dimensional worlds of consonances and acoustic phenomena. Perfectly fits for psychedelic tea parties and drowsy journeys in the depths of the cell memory riding the mitochondria. The edition is limited to 222 numbered copies. Handmade sleeve adds warmth to the relationship between the artist and the listener." [label info]
https://lunarabyss.bandcamp.com/album/o-d-a-l |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM / BOEVYE CIKADY / PUSTOTA |
Vetry Pamyati (Winds of Memory) |
CD-R |
"Three live fragments recorded in various years, of the three projects by one person, previously unreleased. L.A.D.O. - calm, almost soporific drone ambient, remote echoes of reindeer breeders tribal songs and howls of wind in the night. Boevye Cikady - a hurricane of digital twists and wildness of information flows, matted in funnels of noise whirls. Pustota - live version of the track "Ravens at the Sea" - dense natural noise, rumpus of crows in spring and a storm in winter city of Yalta, all mixed on the basis of mountain wind. Each copy is handmade and handnumbered." [label info] |
2010 |
€11.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM / HATTIFNATTER |
Ostrov |
CD-R |
"The new album, compiled from the autumnal home sessions and field recordings made with the project Hattifnatter (E.S. from L.A.D.O. and M.M. from Kryptogen Rundfunk). Spacey walks in deserted places, city streets and parks. Sound canvases - immersions, once in saturated bioactive environment, then minimalistically laid-back, a bit sorrowful flows and currents. Handmade artwork." [label info] |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Boloto |
CD-R |
"The continuation of subnatural theme is presented in the new swamp album by LADO & Hattifnatter. A journey to the world of hobgoblins and water spirits. Vibrant engulfing soundscapes are mixed with laid-back light melodic noisy pieces, narrating about helobious existence and non-existence. Trip ambient, easy noise, ritual electroacoustics. Each copy is handmade and handnumbered." [label info]
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR MIASMA |
Crystal Covered |
CD |
"From the vintage sounds of The Last Drop Of Weight to the lightness of Cream, through the intense immersion of Circle Mountain and Crystal Covered, Panos Alexiadis shows what he is capable of. Crystal Covered is the outcome of his solo work. His previous releases lead you to this, an inner travel full of colors, warm and in some ways, psychedelic. A new, deep, intense fix for all lovers of Expo 70 and Emeralds' drones." [label info]
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/crystal-covered
"Behind Lunar Miasma we find one Panos Alexiadis (of Heavensore and Insult Recordings), whom we already heard on a collaborative 3"CDR with Ondo (see Vital Weekly 715), but here a full solo work. He plays, according to the cover, analog synths, guitars and effects. Five lengthy pieces which display a true love for the seventies cosmic music. No sweet arpeggio's on these keyboards, but sine waves and sabre tooth tones, free floating in a weightless space. A bit raw but also quite moody. Sometimes chilling cold such as in 'Circle Mountain', but also all cosy and warm such as in the title piece, which is lengthy sustaining chords and oscillating sounds. Almost ambient house music, but that beat never arrives, and that's fine. A perfect album to either go to bed with, or wake up music to stay a new day a fresh. Nothing new under the sun, but played with great care and style, further deepening the ideas of cosmic music. Emeralds fans should pay notice." [Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| LUNDVALL, TOR |
Sleeping and Hiding |
LP |
"Originally recorded in 2005 and intended as the third and final chapter in the series which included the beautiful albums Last Light and Empty City, Dais Records is proud to release the latest album from Ghost Ambient composer TOR LUNDVALL. Dark and beautiful soundtracks for afternoon daydreams and moonlit forest walks. Limited to 500 hand numbered edition." [label info]
www.daisrecords.com
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
|
The Shipyard |
LP |
"Tor Lundvall has graced us with yet another remarkable album this year. Previously, Lundvall had introduced himself to Dais with his masterpiece album Sleeping & Hiding and struck lightning twice with the resilient The Seasons Unfold box set and now we are humbled to be crafting the strings with the curation of his most recent effort. The Shipyard was recorded during the dramatic season change-over of '09/'10, during which time Lundvall was immersing himself in portrait studies of local maritime themes and nautical life at the docks. This instrumental collection of songs composed the soundtrack to the final renderings of these conceptual ideas put side by side, for which semblance he is most know for. Limited to 500 hand numbered vinyl copies (comes with a free MP3 download coupon) with artwork by Tor Lundvall." [label info]
www.daisrecords.com
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
|
The Park |
LP |
"In 2012, ambient composer Tor Lundvall and Dais Records presented his second instrumental masterpiece entitled The Shipyard (2006’s Empty City being the first). After its release and universal praise, Lundvall had confided that there was a third instrumental album nearing completion entitled The Park.
Fostering his natural habitat of the wooded landscapes of Eastern Long Island, Lundvall again set about capturing his portrait studies and composing a lurid and abstract soundtrack to accompany his source of inspiration.
In Tor’s own words…"I first thought about making an album about a quiet park during a morning walk back in the frigid February of 2011. Song titles started popping into my head long before any music was recorded. 'Symbols on Pavement' was the first title that came to me, but ended up being the last piece recorded.
Like most of my previous albums "The Park" follows a timeline, in this case, beginning on an early spring morning and ending on a late summer evening. The track sequence also maps out the shifting light and weather patterns during the course of a day. For the first time in years, I've incorporated field recordings into the music, other than the sounds recorded from outside my studio window. I carried my portable recorder with me during bike rides and walks through my favorite parks, recording birds, insects, lawnmowers, wood chippers, field games, and other less definable sounds.
Parks have always been my sanctuaries and my greatest sources of inspiration since childhood. Although this album is not focused on one park in particular, the music resonates strongly with memories of my favorite childhood park, The James A. McFaul Environmental Center in Wyckoff, New Jersey. The McFaul Center is a place of quiet beauty, but it is also filled with shadows and secrets, especially deep within the Nature Trail. The final track, 'Closes At Dusk', is an homage to the siren which shrieked every evening from behind the towering pines."
Limited to 300 vinyl editions (along with a free MP3 download coupon) with artwork by Tor Lundvall." [label info]
www.daisrecords.com
|
2015 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Yule |
LP |
"Upstate New York artist Tor Lundvall's music often evokes a sense of soft-focus autumnal melancholia but nowhere is this atmosphere more explicit and evocative than his self-released 2006 holiday album, Yule, newly reissued by Dais Records. Inspired by childhood memories of "cold, dark evenings" waiting for his mother outside shops and supermarkets while seasonal songs drifted faintly on the frozen air, the collection feels appropriately hushed and hypnagogic, half-remembered melodies heard through falling snow. Steady muted rhythmic pulses wind through wintry landscapes of icy synthetic textures, glass bells, and distant metallic echoes, occasionally framed by Lundvall's soft, dazed vocals, narrating scenes of "slushy, illuminated train stations" and "the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the season has ended." It's a music of barren branches, crescent moons, and willowy figures shuffling and shivering on their way somewhere, viewed from a fogged window passing by, or high above. As with Lundvall's signature oil paintings, Yule's sonic vignettes are works of observation, poetic glimpses rendered in gradients of color and quiet. He has referred to his music in the past as "ghost ambient" and, although his songwriting here skews more foreground than background, the phrase aptly captures the haunted, half-light quality of these fragile tracks. 10 miniatures of wreathed streets and silent woods, of twinkling store windows seen from a distance, the sensation of being outside of life looking in - the sentiments that seeded Lundvall's vision remain undimmed: "There was a special melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me."
https://torlundvall.bandcamp.com/album/yule
"Das damals noch über World Serpent vertriebene Minilabel des in Neuengland ansässigen Malers und Musikers, auf dem seine frühen Aufnahmen erschienen, trug im Namen schon die Jahreszeit, die am ehesten die von Musik und Bildern Lundvalls hervorgerufene Atmosphäre zu illustrieren schien: Eternal Autumn Editions. Seine visuellen wie auch akustischen Arbeiten strahlten nämlich immer eine gewisse Melancholie aus und auch eine seltsame (un)heimliche Atmosphäre, in der Absenz und Präsenz, „the weird and the eerie“, zusammenkamen. Lundvall selbst sprach vor Jahren einmal von „Ghost Ambient“ zur Beschreibung seiner Musik.
„Yule“ erschien ursprünglich 2006 auf dem kurzlebigen nordamerikanischen Label Strange Fortune. Eigentlich eine EP, wurde diese Veröffentlichung schon damals durch die Langversion von „The Falling Snow“ (gekürzt in einer 4-minütigen Version auf dem Eisteddfod-Sampler des französischen Labels Cynfeirdd erschienen) ergänzt.
Bezogen auf „Yule“ sagt Lundvall, er habe die „special, melancholic beauty“ der Zeit abseits des Weihnachtsstresses zum Ausdruck bringen wollen (und – möchte man ergänzen – abseits des exzessiven Konsumrausches, der Batailles Überlegungen zum Potlatsch fast ad absurdum führt).
Auf „Yule“ finden sich instrumentale Tracks wie „Busy Station“ aus Rauschen, vereinzelten Pianotupfern und seltsamen Geräuschen oder „The Train Home“ mit seinem gedämpften Pulsieren. Auf „12AM“ erklingt perkussives Rasseln, „Snowy Morning“ ist eine verrauschte melodische Fläche und Glocken scheinen zu läuten. Auf „Fading Light“ meint man irgehdwo eine Stimme zu hören. „White On Grey“ klingt fast wie Radiorauschen und ist vielleicht das ambienteste Stück. Es gibt auch Stücke mit Vocals wie „Christmas Eve“: ein Pusieren wie Schritte durch den Schnee, verhallte entfernte Geräusche und eine aus ein paar Tönen bestehende Painomelodie. Dann singt Lundvall mit fragiler Stimme über ein Mädchen „staring at the moon/candle light fills her room“. Auf „Yule Song“ ist die Stadt still und leer. „January“ enthält entrückte Vocal/Choral-Samples und dann heißt es: „Darkness falls early now/The city’s tired“. Zum Schluss bietet dann “The Falling Snow” noch einmal 20 Minuten, die einen tatsächlich glauben lassen, man gehe durch eine schneebedeckte Landschaft, in der schemenhafte Entitäten irgendwo die Tasten eines einsamen Klaviers drücken." [MG/African Paper]
|
2020 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Yule |
LP |
"Upstate New York artist Tor Lundvall's music often evokes a sense of soft-focus autumnal melancholia but nowhere is this atmosphere more explicit and evocative than his self-released 2006 holiday album, Yule, newly reissued by Dais Records. Inspired by childhood memories of "cold, dark evenings" waiting for his mother outside shops and supermarkets while seasonal songs drifted faintly on the frozen air, the collection feels appropriately hushed and hypnagogic, half-remembered melodies heard through falling snow. Steady muted rhythmic pulses wind through wintry landscapes of icy synthetic textures, glass bells, and distant metallic echoes, occasionally framed by Lundvall's soft, dazed vocals, narrating scenes of "slushy, illuminated train stations" and "the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the season has ended." It's a music of barren branches, crescent moons, and willowy figures shuffling and shivering on their way somewhere, viewed from a fogged window passing by, or high above. As with Lundvall's signature oil paintings, Yule's sonic vignettes are works of observation, poetic glimpses rendered in gradients of color and quiet. He has referred to his music in the past as "ghost ambient" and, although his songwriting here skews more foreground than background, the phrase aptly captures the haunted, half-light quality of these fragile tracks. 10 miniatures of wreathed streets and silent woods, of twinkling store windows seen from a distance, the sensation of being outside of life looking in - the sentiments that seeded Lundvall's vision remain undimmed: "There was a special melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me."
https://torlundvall.bandcamp.com/album/yule
"Das damals noch über World Serpent vertriebene Minilabel des in Neuengland ansässigen Malers und Musikers, auf dem seine frühen Aufnahmen erschienen, trug im Namen schon die Jahreszeit, die am ehesten die von Musik und Bildern Lundvalls hervorgerufene Atmosphäre zu illustrieren schien: Eternal Autumn Editions. Seine visuellen wie auch akustischen Arbeiten strahlten nämlich immer eine gewisse Melancholie aus und auch eine seltsame (un)heimliche Atmosphäre, in der Absenz und Präsenz, „the weird and the eerie“, zusammenkamen. Lundvall selbst sprach vor Jahren einmal von „Ghost Ambient“ zur Beschreibung seiner Musik.
„Yule“ erschien ursprünglich 2006 auf dem kurzlebigen nordamerikanischen Label Strange Fortune. Eigentlich eine EP, wurde diese Veröffentlichung schon damals durch die Langversion von „The Falling Snow“ (gekürzt in einer 4-minütigen Version auf dem Eisteddfod-Sampler des französischen Labels Cynfeirdd erschienen) ergänzt.
Bezogen auf „Yule“ sagt Lundvall, er habe die „special, melancholic beauty“ der Zeit abseits des Weihnachtsstresses zum Ausdruck bringen wollen (und – möchte man ergänzen – abseits des exzessiven Konsumrausches, der Batailles Überlegungen zum Potlatsch fast ad absurdum führt).
Auf „Yule“ finden sich instrumentale Tracks wie „Busy Station“ aus Rauschen, vereinzelten Pianotupfern und seltsamen Geräuschen oder „The Train Home“ mit seinem gedämpften Pulsieren. Auf „12AM“ erklingt perkussives Rasseln, „Snowy Morning“ ist eine verrauschte melodische Fläche und Glocken scheinen zu läuten. Auf „Fading Light“ meint man irgehdwo eine Stimme zu hören. „White On Grey“ klingt fast wie Radiorauschen und ist vielleicht das ambienteste Stück. Es gibt auch Stücke mit Vocals wie „Christmas Eve“: ein Pusieren wie Schritte durch den Schnee, verhallte entfernte Geräusche und eine aus ein paar Tönen bestehende Painomelodie. Dann singt Lundvall mit fragiler Stimme über ein Mädchen „staring at the moon/candle light fills her room“. Auf „Yule Song“ ist die Stadt still und leer. „January“ enthält entrückte Vocal/Choral-Samples und dann heißt es: „Darkness falls early now/The city’s tired“. Zum Schluss bietet dann “The Falling Snow” noch einmal 20 Minuten, die einen tatsächlich glauben lassen, man gehe durch eine schneebedeckte Landschaft, in der schemenhafte Entitäten irgendwo die Tasten eines einsamen Klaviers drücken." [MG/African Paper]
|
2020 |
€22.00 |
|
| LUNDVALL, TOR & LEILA ABDUL-RAUF |
Ibis / Quiet Seaside |
7inch |
"Over the past few years, Tor Lundvall has thoughtfully displayed his ambient sound works in connection with Dais Records, releasing two retrospective multi-disc box sets and two full length albums. Apart from his collaboration with Tony Wakeford on Autumn Calls, collaborations with others have been extremely rare. Tor and multi-instrumentalist, Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum / Hammers of Misfortune / formerly of Amber Asylum) first got in touch in late 2011. Their exchanges eventually led to a musical collaboration of both like-minded artists joining in to illustrate their unique and personal visions of nature, life and art.
During a visit to Lundvall's home in May 2012, Leila wrote a spontaneous track on Tor's Winter Piano entitled Ibis. Tor recorded and engineered the track along with Leila's vocals. Later that month, Lundvall added various sounds and ambient washes to the mix. A solo version of Ibis, featuring the original piano / vocals but with additional horn, was released on Abdul-Rauf's debut LP Cold and Cloud on Saadi Saati Records in 2013 (Lundvall also designed the sleeve and created the cover art for this LP). The earlier, collaborative version of Ibis has remained unreleased until now. It was agreed that a 7" was the perfect format.
On the reverse, Lundvall has written a new piece entitled Quiet Seaside constructed around Abdul-Rauf's guitar riffs which Lundvall also recorded during her 2012 visit. The track captures Tor's signature lush keyboard and ambient whirl. The early mix was sent to Leila who worked in her slow-moving brass performance and textured tone scales to make this work as introspective as it is beautiful. Limited edition of 300 vinyl copies featuring artwork by Tor Lundvall. Release due on August 5, 2014." [label info]
www.daisrecords.com
|
2014 |
€11.50 |
|
| LUSSIER, RENE |
Completement Marteau |
CD |
For René Lussier, this album is an unexpected assembly:
“I gathered four compositions from commissions to which I responded with a maximum of freedom. They all testify to a long process of gossiping and pecking. As a proud patentee of out-of-the-box music, I have grouped them together under the title Complètement marteau, as in crazy stiff, unbridled and surprising, but also as in handcrafted, patiently and laboriously, with my self-taught tools.”
The Burletta series (2009) and the BanQ piece (2015) were recorded for a clown theater show and an architectural projection, respectively. Pour modifier vos options personnelles appuyez sur l’étoile * (quartet for guitars and electric toothbrushes, 2019) and Le clou (double bass quartet, 1999), were performed by the ensembles that commissioned them, but never recorded.
Despite the years between them, these pieces fit together easily, thanks to similar compositional processes. A pointillist approach runs through the album, with motifs divided among several voices, the sum of which draws the rhythmic and melodic phrases. All multi-movement pieces, they are interspersed here between the paintings of the Burletta suite, as if in a playful setting. BanQ and Burletta benefit from a large orchestration, with a whole lot of homemade percussions made of rubbing, mouth noises, cake spatulas, barbecue spits and styrofoam on a wet window. There is also the recurring and inimitable presence of the daxophone, an idiophone invented by the German musician Hans Reichel.
Born in Montreal in 1957, guitarist René Lussier is one of the leading figures in innovative Quebec music. He divides his practice between composition, improvisation, soundtrack, songwriting, directing and producing. He has produced some sixty film scores, the extraordinary soundtrack for Robert Lepage’s Moulin à Images (2008-2012) and some thirty recordings, including Le Trésor de la langue, Grand prix Paul Gilson in 1989, a fresco on speech and history described as a masterpiece by critics. He has initiated or been a member of numerous ensembles that have allowed him to tour throughout the world, including with British musician Fred Frith (Nous autres, Keep the Dog, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet). René Lussier has received the Freddy Stone Award “…for his artistic integrity, innovative spirit and contribution to Canadian new music” and the Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award “for outstanding achievement and excellence”. In recent years, he has composed for the stage, sounded installations by filmmaker Pierre Hébert, written for the ensembles Hard Rubber (Vancouver) and Bang on a Can (New York), as well as for his own René Lussier Quintet (festivals and Japanese tour in 2018), with whom he is about to record a second disc. Since 2003, he has been living and working in the countryside, where he has built a working laboratory. His activity is as effervescent as ever, in the tireless pursuit of an eclectic approach guided by experimentation.
https://renelussier.bandcamp.com/album/compl-tement-marteau
"Neues Album des kanadischen Multiinstrumentalisten und Komponisten RENÉ LUSSIER. „Completment Marteau“ erscheint als CD auf RECOMMENDED. 1957 in Montreal geboren, entdeckte LUSSIER schnell sein Interesse für Musik, lernte diverse Instrumente und schloss sich 1973 der Progressive-Rock-Band ARPÈGE als Gitarrist an. Durch seine Zusammenarbeit mit der ihn bis heute prägenden Free-Jazz / Avantgarde-Band CONVENTUM 1976 widmete sich der Künstler in den folgenden Jahren vor allem der Neuen
Improvisationsmusik und spielte bis 1985 bei Gruppen wie QUATOUR DE L‘EMMIEUX AND
LES REINS, NÉBU oder G.U.M. Zwischen 1982 und 1984 begleitete Lussier als Gitarrist auch
die Sängerin PAULINE JULIEN und gründete mit seinem erfolgreich im Improvisationsduo
auftretenden und international tourenden Partner JEAN DEROME das renommierte Label
AMBIANCES MAGNÉTIQUES, wodurch vor allem FRED FRITH auf ihn aufmerksam wurde,
welchen er von 1989 bis 1991 mit dessen Band KEEP THE DOG als Gitarrist begleitete.
In den folgenden Jahren entstanden diverse Alben und Kollaboration mit u.a. MARTIN
TÉTREAULT, CHRIS CUTLER, ROBERT M. LEPAGE und PIERRE HÉBERT. Desweiteren schrieb
er Soundtracks für mehr als 35 Filme und wurde für sein Album „Le trésor de la langue“, das
sich mit der Zweisprachigkeit in Québec beschäftigt, mit dem Grand Prix Paul-Gilson
ausgezeichnet. „Completment Marteau“ ist das neue Werk eines renommierten und
erfahrenden Künstlers, welcher nach wie vor voller Kreativität und Experimentierfreude ist."
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUSTER |
Abandon |
CD-R |
Early project by C. REIDER. Excellent surrealistic electronics & soundscapes with enough weird acoustic objects, everythings drowned in an atmosphere of strange- & alienness.... reminded us on some old ABNER MALATY works....
“An extremely eclecic collection of instrumental sound-works originally recorded to 4-track in the mid to early '90s, later resurrected, restructured, modified and altered to digital 8-track in late 1998. Kind of a "from the vault" release, this contains all the pieces that didn't make it to any "real" release, and other rare or previously unheard tracks updated and recontextualized. Considering its nature, it's actually one of the most coherent and flowing of all Vuzh Music releases. Goes from strange, electronic dance music to thick, very tense ambient / noise works, to percussive, imaginary tribal improvisation, to quaint, simple acoustic guitar pieces. Includes excellent collaborations with Eyelight, Kirchenkampf, Samarkand, and the first collaboration with caerie since the Unseelie Court.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| LUSTMORD |
First Reformed |
do-LP |
"Lustmord is a Welsh electronic musician, composer and sound designer based in Los Angeles. Active since 1980 he has released a prolific body of work across various labels such as Touch, Hydra Head and Blackest Ever Black. Often credited for starting the dark ambient genre with his 'Heresy' album in 1990, Lustmord's music has been described as sweeping and profound, a vast dreamlike soundscape that utilises organic and real-world scenes as source material. Lustmord and Cargo Records are happy to announce the launch of Vaultworks. Originally an imprint intended to release short editions of live CDs at his live shows, it is now launched as a wider platform for his work in general. Kickstarting a planned series of new releases and reissues is the first time Vinyl and CD release of his soundtrack to Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed, starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried and Cedric Kyles. The release features extended versions of the score formatted as a standalone album. The double vinyl edition includes an extra track "Venice" which was featured at the Venice Film Festival red carpet event. The CD edition has tracks formatted to crossfade into each other for a continuous listening experience." |
2019 |
€27.50 |
|
|
[O T H E R] |
CD |
Das zehnte Studioalbum »Other« der Elektronik-/Industrial-Musikpioniere Lustmord wurde 2008 veröffentlicht und ist bis heute das einzige Lustmord-Album mit Gitarren, gespielt von Adam Jones (Tool), King Buzzo (The Melvins) und Aaron Turner (Isis). Das Album erschien ursprünglich auf dem unabhängigen Plattenlabel Hydra Head Records, das von Isis-Frontmann Aaron Turner gegründet wurde und früher Bands wie Converge, Pelican, Jesu, Sun O))) oder Boris beherbergte.
Wie ein Journalist es damals formulierte, ist »Other« ein "düsteres Beispiel für einen vollendeten Künstler, der genau innerhalb der Parameter arbeitet, die er sich im Laufe der Jahre selbst gesetzt hat." Dieses Album zeigt Lustmord von seiner charakteristischsten Seite, und das eisige, unheilvolle Gitarrenspiel von Jones, Turner und Ozborne fügt sich perfekt in die tiefen Klanglandschaften ein, die diese beängstigende und doch inspirierende Reise ausmachen.
Tatsächlich sind die Songs so kraftvoll, dass es Williams dazu bewegte, zwei Ambient-Remix-Versionen und eine Dub-Remix-EP zu erstellen, die die Klänge dieses Albums so weit wie möglich erforschen. Im Jahr 2022 arbeitet Lustmord für The Others (Lustmord Deconstructed) mit Künstlern wie Godflesh, Mono und Zola Jesus, um nur einige zu nennen, an Neuinterpretationen der »Other«-Songs zusammen, die ebenfalls jetzt erhältlich sind.
Reissued in all its incarnations plus re-interpreted: Electronic/Industrial music pioneer LUSTMORDs tenth studio album [ O T H E R ], originally released in 2008 and to date the only LUSTMORD album with guitars on it, performed by Adam Jones (TOOL), King Buzzo (THE MELVINS) and Aaron Turner (ISIS). [ O T H E R ] originally came out on independent record label Hydra Head Records, founded by ISIS frontman Aaron Turner and former home of bands such as CONVERGE, PELICAN, JESU, SUN O))) or BORIS. As one journalist put it at the time, [ O T H E R ] is a "grim example of a consummate artist who is working frmly within the parameters that he has laid out for himself over the years." This album shows Lustmord at his most characteristic, and the icy, ominous guitar playing of Jones, Turner and Ozborne resonates perfectly within the deep soundscapes that make up this frightening yet inspiring journey. As a matter of fact, the material on [ O T H E R ] is so powerful that it moved Williams to create two ambient remix versions of it, and one dub remix EP exploring the sounds of this record to the greatest extend of his ability. In 2022, and also available now, LUSTMORD further collaborates with artist such as GODFLESH, MONO and ZOLA JESUS, to name but a few, for THE OTHERS (LUSTMORD DECONSTRUCTED) on re-interpretations on [ O T H E R ] tracks. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre.
[press release]
|
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
[O T H E R] |
do-LP |
Reissued in all its incarnations plus re-interpreted: Electronic/Industrial music pioneer LUSTMORDs tenth studio album [ O T H E R ], originally released in 2008 and to date the only LUSTMORD album with guitars on it, performed by Adam Jones (TOOL), King Buzzo (THE MELVINS) and Aaron Turner (ISIS). [ O T H E R ] originally came out on independent record label Hydra Head Records, founded by ISIS frontman Aaron Turner and former home of bands such as CONVERGE, PELICAN, JESU, SUN O))) or BORIS. As one journalist put it at the time, [ O T H E R ] is a "grim example of a consummate artist who is working frmly within the parameters that he has laid out for himself over the years." This album shows Lustmord at his most characteristic, and the icy, ominous guitar playing of Jones, Turner and Ozborne resonates perfectly within the deep soundscapes that make up this frightening yet inspiring journey. As a matter of fact, the material on [ O T H E R ] is so powerful that it moved Williams to create two ambient remix versions of it, and one dub remix EP exploring the sounds of this record to the greatest extend of his ability. In 2022, and also available now, LUSTMORD further collaborates with artist such as GODFLESH, MONO and ZOLA JESUS, to name but a few, for THE OTHERS (LUSTMORD DECONSTRUCTED) on re-interpretations on [ O T H E R ] tracks. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/o-t-h-e-r
|
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
| LUSTMORD & NICOLAS HORVATH |
The Fall |
do-LP |
"The Fall is a deconstruction of November by Dennis Johnson.
Written for solo piano in 1959, November is the first example of minimalist music composition and was the inspiration for La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano (1964). The 66 minute piece is a collaboration between legendary artist Lustmord and renowned classical pianist Nicolas Horvath, in which they reduces Johnson's original November to its core element and place it in a landscape of complimentary sound. The Fall echo's November but with further resonance.
Recorded in May-June 2019 in Los Angeles, and Misy-sur-Yonne, France.
Lustmord Active since 1980, born of the original 'industrial' scene of the period. With its own distinctive approach, blurring the line between music and sound design Lustmord's work has featured in 45 motion pictures including The Crow and Underworld and also in video games, television and commercials. Recently Lustmord scored the music for Paul Schrader's movie First Reformed. While Lustmord is often credited for creating the 'dark ambient' genre there is much more nuance to its work than what that label implies. The music is not dark, but is a light that shines into and upon the darkness. Notable collaborations amongst many include Tool, Melvins, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, Karin Park and Robert Rich.
Nicolas Horvath An unusual artist with an unconventional résumé, pianist and electroacoustic composer Nicolas Horvath is known for his boundariesless musical explorations. Horvath is both an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music - he has commissioned numerous works (including no fewer than 120 as part of his Homages to Philip Glass project in 2014) and collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world, including Alvin Lucier, Mamoru Fujieda, Jaan Rääts, Alvin Curran and Valentyn Silvestrov - and a rediscoverer of forgotten or neglected composers such as Moondog, Nobuo Uematsu, Germaine Tailleferre, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Hélène de Montgeroult, Jean Catoire, Karl August Hermann."
|
2020 |
€22.50 |
|
| M.B. & SOSTRAH TINNITUS |
Peripherycal Minimaltronics |
CD |
"Peripherycal Minimaltronics is the collaborative project of MB (Maurizio Bianchi) and Sostrah Tinnitus, made up of fellow Italian ambient/experimental artist Mario Costa. This album is presented in its full ambient richness through both artists applying varied techniques from sources such as old electronics, magnetic tapes, electroloops and other obscure found and forgotten objects. Recorded in Goa, India, these 6 tracks reflect the vibrant biodiversity of flora and fauna of the place, all brought about by the complex electronic textures and treated sounds of piano sounds, chirping birds, fading footsteps and distant echoes." [label info]
https://4ibrecords.com/2018/06/04/mb-sostrah-tinnitus-peripherycal-minimaltronics-cd-out-now/
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B. (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) |
Mectpyo - Blut |
do-LP |
"2LP in gatefold sleeve. Edition of 300 copies. At the beginning of the metabolic year 1980, after Maurizio Bianchi finished the embryonal experience as Sacher-Pelz, he decided to undertake the concrete-synchronized course as M.B., a long-lived acronym that will accompany him along his next way of neuro-synthetic experimenter. His first ever release was the private cassette-tape entitled 'Metcpyo-Blut'. An hematopoietic experiment decomposed during the months of March and beginning of April 1980 at Mectpyo Studio. Proposed here in its original layout, this 2LP set holds intact, at a distance of almost three decades, the epicentre of M.B. sonorous universe, projected towards an euphonic cacophony. 'Mectpyo-Blut' consists of two tragic sections imbued with synthetic chloroform: the 1st, 'Maidanek Bakterium-Musique Belzec', exhales an icy atmosphere conveying a sense of mystery and annihilation. The 2nd, 'Mutant Brain-Mord Banhof' assembled the most disparate electro-hypnotic levitation's into a vertical rationality, bold, morbid and haunting. Psychic-cerebral works, they seem to spring from a neuro-atomic continent, with unreal outlines, where its influence artificially expands the ankylotic tissues by environmental arthrosis. Edition limited to 300 copies in full colour gatefold sleeve, reproducing various graphic materials from the original cassette edition. Attention: this is the real thing, top powerful and modern in its integral length (and not a meaningless edited excerpt as other unexperienced labels in demand would have cheaply proposed you!)." [label info]
|
2010 |
€32.50 |
|
|
Endometrio |
LP |
"First ever vinyl reissue of the highly coveted classic LP by Italian noise composer/ sound visionary Maurizio Bianchi. Originally released in an extremely limited private press quantity in Italy in 1983, Endometrio showcased M.B. at his most crucial turning point, delving into the uncharted waters he aptly titled 'bionic music', blending organic electronics with contorted sounds of the human body to compose one of the most interesting ambient records to date. Copies of the original LP are practically non-existent and hard to come by, therefore making this reissue an important addition to any experimental aficionado's audio library. Complete with current liners and artwork insert from Maurizio Bianchi, limited to 500 hand numbered editions." [label info]
|
2010 |
€19.00 |
|
|
Hibernum |
CD |
"Exclusive work by Italian noise legend Maurizio Bianchi.
A marginal division of the whole existence in four palpable seasons, marked by pestilential changes in emotional hemisphere.
At the end, the hibernating organisms organize a reproducing molecule of environmental for a silent "hybernum".
‘Hibernum’ contains 3 lengthy, slowly shifting atmospheres for private meditation.
Mastered by Siegmar Fricke for Pharmakustik
Photography by Gerald Wack
Design by Jan Van den Broeke." [label info]
www.eetapes.be
"Odd. That is, in one word, the career of Maurizio Bianchi. Its perhaps about time someone did a book on him, or a decent website. Apparently he is now for the second time in hibernation, releasing no longer new music, but sometimes I wonder to what extend he actually did release new music in the past years? The information on the covers is not always very clear either. Take this 'Hibernum'. It says: "devised and decodified between the years 1995-2022" on the outside, which seems a bit strange to me already, but on the insert we read 'frozen granularity treatments and mastering by Siegmar Fricke 2011'. Now the name Fricke popped up on a lot of the second coming releases of Bianchi, and its never really clear what his involvement is. Just mastering or is it also additional composing, or perhaps even more? Maybe that's why a book would be a great idea to clarify all of that. On 'Hibernum' we find three long tracks of chilling electronics, of which the first is 'Primaveram/Aestatem' quite a drone piece, and much of the second one also, but it ends in quite a chilling highly processed rumble of metallic sounds (the 'granularity treatments' I wondered, and for much of the music anyway I was thinking to what extends computers play an important role for Maurizio Bianchi in his second life?). The title piece sounds like a mass of humming frogs, which are slowly being eaten by a giant killer machine - more drone like again, a bit static, and like the first a bit over-long, before moving into a different cold field of electronics - as cold is indeed the keyword for not just this release, but for pretty much a lot of the music composed by Bianchi in the last thirty years, with or without the help of who-ever. Throughout 'Hibernum' was a bit long I thought but nevertheless one of his better works of recent years - actually like so many!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Weltanschauung |
LP |
"At the beginning of 1981 Maurizio Bianchi sent some demo tapes to the Come Organisation in England; after that, they extracted and blended together the sounds to get the final work.
The title « Under The Victory Banner », an anachronistic and detrimental track for the rest of the album has been replaced by the title of the same set « Plutoniumetrio » edited in 1982 by the Come Organisation for the compilation « Für Ilse Koch », which fits much better with the other tracks.
The Come Organisation was a record label founded in London in 1979 by William Bennett, initially as a vehicle for his group Come, and later to specialise in extreme electronic or controversial music, in particular for his subsequent group Whitehouse, but also for other groups including Maurizio Bianchi, Nurse with wound or Charles Manson. When Whitehouse went on hiatus at the end of 1985, Come Organisation was dissolved." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
Weltanschauung was first released by William Bennett's Come Organisation in 1982, with Bennett changing MB's nom de plume to Leibstandarte SS MB. These recordings have long been controversial, given that one of the tracks overlayed Third Reich speeches on top of Bianchi's wall of noise, although both Bennett and Bianchi denied responsibility for having done so. Bianchi's frigid electronic orchestrations drip with sinister echoes of bone-chilling vibrations, throbbing rhythms, deranged anti-melodies, and horrifying atmospheres. For this reissue on Rotorelief, Bianchi has replaced the offending track from the Come Organisation original with the thoroughly grim track "Plutometrio" recorded during the same sessions, sans the Nazi speechifying. Such additions were unnecessary in the first place (whoever was to blame), and Weltanschauung is much better off without them.
(Aquarius Rec.) |
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Noise-O-Rama |
CD |
"First official press of early 80's Maurizio Bianchi's private cassette tape. 80's M.B. recordings at their very best. Welcome to NOISE-O-RAMA. Limited edition of 200 copies only." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B. (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) & M.D.T. (MUSEO DELLA TORTURA) |
Genologic Technocide |
CD |
"These recordings show the most extreme side of M.B.:not very much ambient oriented, but a strong industrial noise opera reminding us the masterpiece from 1981 "Symphony for a genocide".
Comes in jewel case in a limited edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.spatter.tk
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B. / COALMINER + ALLIES |
Antimateria |
LP |
Allies:
GNAW THEIR TONGUES (Netherlands);
RICHARD RAMIREZ (USA, founder of Black Leather Jesus); TORTURING NURSE (China)
ZENABI (Philippines);
GRODOCK (Germany);
TOSHIJI MIKAWA (Japan, founder of Incapacitants);
MANY BLESSINGS (USA; with Ethan Lee of Primitive Man);
UNSIGNIFIED DEATH (Thailand)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI is one of the founders of early industrial and noise music and should be familiar to the most. For ANTIMATERIA he contributed two brand new, merging pieces in which he approaches the theme through sounds of iluminescent and rushing keyboard clusters. COALMINER establishes several harshnoise tracks, for which they collaborated with the most diverse artists of the genre, from different countries. in the next few days, the various supporters will be presented here.
Art by: Paul van Trigt, M.B. and Bruno Erber
https://grubenwehrfreiburg.bandcamp.com/album/antimateria
"Schon vor etlichen Jahren haben Kernphysiker verschiedene Untersuchungen zu den Klängen von Antimaterieteilchen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse sind mittlerweile vermutlich Legion und mir weitgehend unbekannt. Wenn im Zuge dessen allerdings so etwas wie der Sound auf der vor einigen Monaten erschienenen Compilation “Antimateria” möglich ist, dann wäre ich prinzipiell dafür.
Auf der LP “Antimateria”, die wenn man genau sein will ein zwischen Kollaboration, Compilation und Split-Release angesideltes Objekt darstellt, arbeitet auf der ersten Seite das hierzulande hoffentlich bald wesentlich bekanntere philippinische Harsh Noise-Duo Coalminer mit einer Reihe an Acts zusammen, die trivial formuliert fast wie ein Who is Who internationaler Lärmkünste anmuten. Die Resultate offenbaren einen starken verbindenden Rahmen, unterscheiden sich aber im Detail sowohl in der klanglichen Beschaffenheit (Rauheit versus relativ glatte Politur, oder besser leicht abgemilderte Rauheit) als auch in der Struktur (Fluss versus Stakkato und alle Zwischenstufen).
Den Auftakt bildet ein Track, den die beiden (wie vermutlich in fast allen Stücken) in Mail Art-Manier zusammen mit der ursprünglich mal als Band gegründeten und heute von Junkie im Alleingang betriebenen Shanghaier Institution Torturing Nurse und dem deutschen Noise- und Experimental-Act Grodock aufgenommen haben. Nach wenigen brummenden Sekunden bricht eine Lawine aus Schutt und Geschrei auf die Ohren nieder, und was anfangs noch eher wie im Fluss wirkt, in welchem man die Schreie von Kindern und Schmerzgeplagten hört, wird irgendwann von einem ohrenbetäubenden Donnern und Rattern und Rumpeln zerstampft. Anschließend geht es in Zusammenarbeit mit Richard Ramirez und dem Landsmann Zenabi zunächst etwas zurückgenommener zur Sache, man hört verhaltenes Brodeln und Kratzen, bei dem sich zum einen die vielzitierte Noise-Wall mit rauer Tapete abzeichnet, aber auch das, was ungeübte Ohren gerne einen “Kaputte Boxen-Effekt” nennen. Das ist aber nur die Kulisse, auf der sich viele andere zum Teil entgrenzte Dinge wie schwindelerregender Drehungen oder höllisches Gekeife aus einem riesigen Mund ereignen.
Die qualvollen Schreie zeigen sich am eindrücklichsten in dem Track, den Coalminer zusammen mit dem aus dem experimentellen Black Metal stammenden niederländischen Projekt Gnaw Their Tongues und dem Amerikaner Ethan Lee McCarthy alias Many Blessings aufgenommen hat. Hier mischen sich die Todesschreie in ein furioses ambientes Rauschen, das mit der Zeit immer mehr zu einem kleinteiligen, schnellen Flickerbild mutiert. Zusammen mit Toshiji Mikawa (seines Zeichens Mitgründer der Incapacitants) und dem von Bangkok aus operierenden Polwach Beokhaimook alias Unsignified Death schließt die erste Seite mit einem Track, in welchem eine anfangs fast noch angenehm klingende Wall durch hochtönendes Feedback, beängstigendes Lachen und herausgekotzte Vocals zum Einsturz gebracht wird. So wird Antimaterie zu einem Fest für die Ohren.
Zu einem kompletten Tapetenwechsel (ohne Raufaser, pun intended) kommt es beim Auflegen der zweiten Seite, denn die beiden jeweils rund zehnminütigen Stücke, die Maurizio Bianchi hier unter seinem Kürzel M.B. abliefert, könnten zum bisher gehörten kaum eindrucksvoller kontrastieren. Was vom Label als “sounds of iluminescent and rushing keyboard clusters” beschrieben wird, erweist sich als Labsal von flirrender ambienter Struktur, deren helle, obertonreiche Gestalt immer in Bewegung bleibt. Im Verlauf der beiden Stücke entfalten sich – beim zweiten “Yangnay” mehr noch als beim eröffnenden “Gnayang” – leisere und lautere Abschnitte, in denen kleine Unregelmäßigkeiten, die manchmal wie Tonstörungen anmuten, für eine im besten Sinne unspektakuläre Dynamik sorgen. Und durchgehend sorgt eine sonnengeblendete Flimmerästhetik für ein fast nostalgisches Deja-Vu zu klassischen Synthesizer-Kompositionen besserer Zeiten.
Weit davon entfernt den Veröffentlichungsturnus v.a. im Harsh Noise zu überblicken schätze ich, dass “Antimateria” zu den herausragenden Releases in diesem Bereich zählt. Das betrifft natürlich primär die Coalminer und seinen Kollegen gewidmete Seite, aber auch in dem hier adressierte Dunstkreis tut ein Blick über den Tellerrand, hinter dem Bianchi seine sanften Keyboardsounds spielt, sicher ganz gut. Tolle Platte, die hoffentlich nochmal neu aufgelegt werden wird." [U.S./African Paper]
"First off, this album has six different vinyl versions, ranging from 10 copies in pristine white to 90 copies in red/brown flamed. Some are with additional CDs, some without, but Grubenwehr really put some effort into this release. I give compliments to you guys; your effort and energy paid off.
The two sides of this album are unrelated to each other. With this, I mean, it's not artists remixing each other or collaborative work using each other's sounds or so. It's 20 minutes per artist, and I think I have never had a better opportunity to present two fully different definitions of noise music in the same review to you, the reader. First of all, Side A: Coalminer. A duo from Manilla. Philippines, on their four tracks, work together with friends from all over the world. How about (and it's just half of them) Torturing Nurse, Richard Ramirez, Gnaw Their Tongues and Unsignified Death? And the music
is so intense!!! I couldn't tell you the content of the lyrics, but the titles kinda imply it. "Dissection", "Gaping Crevice", "Decomposition" and "Electrocution". I mean ... It's probably all lullabies for the sick and twisted (pun intended).
The reverse side contains two 10-minute pieces by M.B., a.k .a. Maurizio Bianchi. M.B. started working on his art in 1979 using pre-recorded sounds and, in 1980, worked more with the generation of his own sounds. He is absolutely one of the pioneers of early industrial and noise, and on the two pieces presented here - "Gnayang" and "Yangnay" - he approaches the theme of "Antimateria" through sounds of luminescent and rushing keyboard clusters. How does that translate to sound? Two lengthy pieces in which not much happens but where a lot happens. It sounded like a combination of organs and vocoders and was never-ending, always moving. I had a few moments where I was drawn into the atmosphere of Wendy Carlos works, but then more of a static/non-static drone. IF M.B.'s interpretation of the subject was that while nothing happens, a lot happens, and at the same time, because a lot happens, nothing happens, then he succeeded cum laude. Beautiful works, but in all honesty, It's an acquired taste." [BW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| M.B. / DEDALI |
Electro Tones |
CD |
""Elektro Tones" is a collaboration between M.B. / Maurizio Bianchi and DEDALI (Alessandro Bosello).
Italian legend M.B. / Maurizio Bianchi is one of the most important and influential artist of the Industrial / Experimental music scene.
M.B. has released a huge amount of recordings since his beginning in 1979 and has also collaborated with many important artists such as Merzbow, Saverio Evangelista (Esplendor Geometrico), Aube and many others.
Dedali / Alessandro Bosello makes deep atmospheric armaghedon music. He is the creator of the music for the three chapters of the infamous multimedia series "La Fin Du Monde".
He also runs the cult music label menstrualrecordings since 2005. Many seminal works by M.B. were released on the menstrualrecordings label and this is their first collaboration.
"Elekro Tones" took four years in the making and is one of the most evocative M.B. collaborations to date.
Ancient acoustic revelations mixed with visceral modulations offer without fear a pulsating spiral of ascending rational obsessions where neuro electrical impulses are dangerously pushed into unforgiving zones.
"An over abundance of electronic tones mixed with great care through selective and visceral modulations between acoustic applications and circumspect sandings. This is "Elektro Tones" album." [label info] |
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B.(MAURIZIO BIANCHI) / LAND USE |
Psychoneurose |
CD |
Collaboration der wiedererstarkten Industrial-Legende mit LAND USE, einem neuen Projekt aus NL.... zu hören gibt es hier rauhe, ratternde Klang-Emanationen, die sich in immer neuen Verformungen in den Äther wälzen.... Licht-verschluckend und zähflüssig wie schwarzer Teer....unser definitiver Favorit unter den neuen MB-Veröffentlichungen der letzten Zeit !
“Italian Avant-Noise legend M.B. and Land Use collaborate on dramatic, subterranean wall-of-noise constructions and swirling textural storms, dense and complex arrangements, shifting and shimmering tones barely under control, streaming toward some distant and indefineable precipice. Not noisy, but way too tense and corrosive to be called ambient. These vibrant monoliths of sound shift the listeners pysche into a restless sort of zen, a blissful chaos - truly mind and mood-altering. Bianchi released early records on Whitehouse's Come Org. label and has been active since the 1970's. And a recent and conspicuous absence from the experimental music world has been broken by several recent releases of surprising freshness and relevance. It is unclear where MB leaves off and Land Use begins but Psychoneurose is definitely a clear and brilliant return to early MB techniques with several refinements in delivery and focus. Psychoneurose will be the clear weapon of choice for those who prefer their ambience with teeth and their Power-Electronics with more of the deep, vaster textures than violence.” [label description]
“....Thank God, we gave Psychoneurose a listen, as this record is so spectacular that perhaps we will be searching out some of those other records to see if they are as good as they were claimed to be! .....in returning to the all-encompassing, utterly blackened, subterraneanly frigid, nightmarishly grim, soul-crushingly bleak, death-shroud ambience that Bianchi had produced back in the day. Expansive, Frankensteinian drones constanly broadcast a black energy, marred with tactile corrosive noises and synthetic twitches which could only be made by the same anaglog technology of Bianchi's classic recordings. So until those aforementioned albums come back in print yet again, Psychoneurose holds its own as a worthy substitute.” [Aquarius]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
TSE-K |
LP |
Nach der schönen "Psychoneurose" schon die zweite Zusammenarbeit von LAND USE mit BIANCHI. Zwei lange dark-drone Stücke, sanft walllende sub-marine akustische Massen in denen sich alles verliert: Stimmen, Sirentöne, Klackern, tauchen am Rande der Wahrnehmung auf um in endlosen Weiten wieder zu verschwinden...
"Maurizio Bianchi is back on vinyl! A new special limited edition from Small Voices and the father of Italian industrial music, together with Land Use from Holland in this new chapter of his legendary career. An oppressive meditative obscure early-industrial symphony based on two monolithic pieces of thick throbbing stuff. A long deep trip into the darker meanderings of the human mind... good luck!" [label notes]
"...Let's be honest, we have no idea what any of that means, but it is clouded in mystery, and in that way definitely represents the sounds contained on TSE-K, which at its very core is a minimal drone record, a gorgeous one at that. nothing really harsh or heavy, more dark and soothing and dreamy, but within the swirling low end tones and softly whirring rumbles lurk all manner of melody, and of texture, overtones create strange rhythmic pulses, the sounds occasionally coalesce into
thick shimmering throbs, before slipping back into the drifting blackness below. In the case of TSE-K, headphones are most definitely like a diving bell, letting the listener sink into the inky blackness, and observe the various sonic elements and subtle melodic activities that are all tangled up in the blackened layers of warm ominous murk. The flip side offers up more of the same, but the drone element is a bit more subtle, more of a backdrop for slivers of feedback, and grinding bits of textural buzz, more colors, the shades of black bleeding into browns and reds, not quite as abject and cold, streaks of glowing warmth shooting through a wide open expanse of greyed ambience and abstract post industrial minimalist drift." [Aquarius Records]
www.smallvoices.it
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Neural Frequencies |
mCD |
"Spectral modulations refer artificial synthesis of psychophysical filters, while electro hypnotic segmentations unclose multiple external stimuli of pauperized dimensions. The neural degree is shading the higher method of frequencies, but the turgescent preceptive instruments autoregulate the recognizable discomfort. The normalization method is already remitted to the infected acquisition: it's the lacerating beginning of the epileptic end." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2007 |
€8.50 |
|
| M.B.[MAURIZIO BIANCHI] + [P. ANDERSSON / NORDVARGR / JARL] |
S.F.A.G. / S.F.A.G. - De-Composed |
do-CD |
"ANTE-FACTS : after the disintegrative period of my production (from “Symphony for a Genocide” to “Das Testament”), the purchase of a misanthropic echo-machine and the consequent decay of the electric-analogue machinery, my efforts was redirected to a pre-recording sound sublimation, so I started to re-compose the electronic metastasis of early times, filtering through dehumanizing effects of the echo-machine, keeping attention particularly to the explanatory process of my ancestral subjectivism.
FACTS : the modulatory shaking of S.F.A.G is the oxygenating prelude to the irradiating bionic music later developed through levigating works such as “Endometrio” and “Carcinosi” and represents a milestone in my pre-apocalyptic production which later will culminate into the horrid of “Armaghedon”. The exegesis of this work reflects a strong attachment to smooth and round effects of the roughness of the frantic early days, but with a constant preference for the symbiosis between well pre-ordered sound masses and not well defined radio broadcasts, like nebulae drifting in a space in trembling condensation.
POST-FACTS: The interest of Gary Mundy of the British “Broken Flag” label (who later would have released the esoteric "The Plain Truth")
gave me the incentive to make him listen to the demo tape which was of his liking so that in January 1983 he decided to publish the album as a tape with the title "SFAG 1981" (the year relates to the link with the date of the beginning of my vinyl production). In the early 90's Tegal Records was releasing a non-authorised "truncated" version on CD,
but this new version of OEC maintains the integrity of the entire work and was completely digitally remastered by Peter Andersson (Raison D’être) [Maurizio Bianchi].
The Original album is accompanied by a second CD with 3 de-compositions using extracts of the original S.F.A.G. recordings done by 3 well knows Nordic industrial artists :
Peter Andersson [Raison D'Être]
Henrik Nordvargr Björkk [MZ.412]
Erik Jarl [IRM]
For same samples go here :
http://www.oldeuropacafe.com/main.php?nav=pd&prdct=10261" [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| MAATH |
No Survivors for the New World |
CD |
Endlose Dröhn-Felder, einsam und verlassen; heller schimmernde Zeitlupen-Pulsier-Nebel, die sanft klagen; MAATH steht für melancholisch-traurigen dark ambient mit Anklängen an APOPTOSE, RAISON D’ETRE, etc.. Debut-CD dieses italienischen Projekts und für Freunde des Genres definitiv zu empfehlen.
“Based upon the concept of coma, sleep and suspended animation, "No survivors for the new world" gently brings you through a dormant world, where dreams flow freely around you, leaving a coloured trace in the cold and dark void. Melodic dark ambient of the finest kind, and one of the most impressive debuts I've heard in a long long while.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| MACHINE LISTENER |
Sentient System |
CD-R |
Machine Listener began with such a name, due to a project that is based on exploring and exploiting inherent characteristics from machines, and making compositions from them. In the beginning, it seems that everything from home printers to huge factory generators were used as sources. Their electromagnetic signals or the frequencies they emitted, or simply the noises they make, were the basis of compositions by sound artist Matthew Gallagher. Eventually, of course, Gallagher moved into sourcing the potential of synthesizers, both as machines and as instruments.
It can be assumed that Machine Listener's pure synth LP ("Endless Coil"), now out on Tusco Embassy, where we can guess that machines were used for their proper intention, came after "Sentient System", released in extremely limited quantities by filth-noise veteran Wyatt Howland (Skin Graft) on his own SK SK label in 2014. It is not up to us to say how "Sentient System" was created, but it is safe to assume that a little of both of these approaches were traversed, and as a result, "Sentient System" could be considered the apex of Machine Listener's adventures with mechanical, aleatoric components of industry.
Whatever the case may be, "Sentient System" is unlike any other recording you'll ever hear. It is both excellent in terms of composition and also permeated with a conceptually sound "hands off" approach, with caterwauling animal behavior, screeching panic signals and pervasive cicada hum. Some segments of these soundscapes could fit perfectly as cerebral, revelatory moments in a particularly head-fucked horror film, hewn with a certain feeling for a desolate science fiction future, or simply in mindscapes where pure noise is the end and the means. The release stands on its own, and apart from the rest, but at the same time is extremely important in adding to the legacy of industrial noise.
Originally limited to a criminally low quantity of copies, we here at NO PART OF IT are extremely excited to bring this release to a wider audience.
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/sentient-system |
2016 |
€9.00 |
|
| MACHINEFABRIEK |
Vloed |
CD |
" 'Vloed' is a collection of (slightly edited) live performances, recorded between 2006 and 2008 in Amsterdam and Den Haag. "All performances find Machinefabriek in fine form, offering up thick billows of warm guitar shimmer, fluttery staticky ambience, and at one point some uncharacteristically heavy super distorted metallic guitar, but here, it's not so much metal as simply a mighty drone, thick and throbbing and super intense. There are long stretches of near silence and super minimal high end drone, glimmering slow building crescendos, squalls of distorted choral buzz, warm whirring metallic reverberations, shimmery and dense black dronemusik, all the stuff we love about Machinefabriek" (Aquarius). Beautifully remastered with a 20-minute bonus track, 'Vloed' captures the immersive live experience of a Machinefabriek concert. Presented in a stunning matt digipak with modified artwork." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Some time ago I had the pleasure of reviewing an album by Dutch sound artist Rutger Zuydervelt alias Machinefabriek. It was the album titled "Daas" that combined elements of ambient, modern classical, drone, noise and field recordings. Next album from Machinefabriek also released on Cold Spring is titled "Vloed" (Dutch word for "River") is a collection of slightly edited live performances from the period 2006-2008 recorded in the Dutch cities Den Haag and Amsterdam. The album consists of three live pieces and one bonus track titled "Vrijhaven" that was until now only available as a download-version. The album opens with the piece "Allengskens" recorded live in June 2006; a nice and atmospheric ambient track running 18 minutes. The track is repetitive, consisting of drones primarily based on guitars and pedals. Another important part of the piece is the electronic spheres creating some dreamy overall textures. Next piece titled "Drijfzand" running 13 minutes opens slowly with minimal high frequency sound drones that slowly builds up to halfway through the track where processed choir-samples penetrates and moves along in loop-based manners before it slowly fades out with high-pitched noises ending the track. "Vrijhaven" is a more cynic and cold track build on guitar-drones that whines and waves adding a great hypnotic experience throughout the 21 minutes runtime. Final piece is the titled track "Vloed" recorded live back in October 2007 at Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Another beautiful ambient-based piece built on guitar
timbres waving and lulling the listener into deep trance for 22 minutes until it slowly fades away. Astonishing album from one of Holland's most interesting contemporary ambient artists." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Daas |
CD |
"The tracks on "Daas" have been carefully picked to form a provoking, haunting journey. What the tracks have in common is a sense of nostalgic graininess. As with the music of Philip Jeck, The Caretaker or William Basinski, these tracks are full of degrading melodies and dusty ambience. 'Daas' is the previously unreleased opening track of the album, and features contributions by the great Richard Skelton. 'Flotter', 'Koploop' and 'Grom' were previously available on small run self released EPs, while 'Onkruid' was a track previously released on 'A Room Forever', as an expensive and extremely limited 12" boxset. All are now brought to a wider audience. Presented in a matt laminate digipak." [label info]
"Next album comes from a project that also saw the daylight in 2004 just like aforementioned from Fire In The Head, though this is one of the few things in common between those two projects. Expressively we move right to the opposite side of the sound spectre here. Machinefabriek is a Dutch project from the Rotterdam-based sound artist Rutger Zuydervelt. The composer began his sonic explorations as a young boy taking lessons in piano and guitar but after that he went to the Art Academy of Arnhem, probably giving him the artistic and abstract approach to composing. Machinefabriek's music combines elements of ambient, modern classical, drone, noise and field recordings. His latest album titled "Daas" is an excellent piece of experimental ambient. There is a trend in the ambient world to combine the sound of ambience with modern classical, but in many cases the two styles do not melt and therefore doesn't float as one whole. Machinefabriek manage to integrate the acoustic elements into the digital spheres with a hauntingly beautiful end-result. Everyone interested in ambient music should keep an eye on this one." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Ranonkel |
CD |
"After countless self-released 3" CD-Rs, here's the second more widely distributed full-length album by Holland's Rutger Zuydervelt presenting six tracks of post-industrial ambience. Zuydervelt works with live instruments, mostly piano and guitar, and intense computer processing to create gloomy instrumentals. This is Machinefabriek's real follow up to Marijn - which is now available on vinyl through Burning World Records. Zuydervelt on Ranonkel: "Ranonkel is the real follow up to Marijn. A bit more subtle and crystallized. And a little bit better of course in my opinion. The track "Zink" was released earlier as a 3-inch, but it fitted in so good with the rest of the tracks that I could not resist including it on Ranonkel." [label info]
www.burningworldrecords.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Marijn |
LP |
"After countless self-released 3" CD-Rs, heres the first more widely distributed full-length LP by Holland's Rutger Zuydervelt presenting six tracks of post-industrial ambience. Zuydervelt works with live instruments, mostly piano and guitar, and intense computer processing to create gloomy instrumentals. Zuydervelt's tracks develop very slowly and he takes all the time in the world to push them to the level of density his music requires. The album starts with the snaps and crackles of "Kreukeltape", its treated piano giving the track a distinct deteriorating charme. "Somerset" features Zuydervelt on guitar and has a very physical presence to it, mostly through the noisy digital hiss in the background. In "J'espère Zuydervelt delicately layers feedback and white noise on top of a repeating piano theme. The magnum opus of "Marijn" is the 18 minute album ender "Lawine" though. Zuydervelt starts looping piano, but soon departs from there and plays a menacing melody followed by a transistory section that leads to the grand finale: A five minute noise orgy that sounds like plugging headphones into the turbine of an Airbus. This is quite a surprise when compared to the overall quiet nature of the remainder of the LP, but it sums up a very dense and satisfying album." [label info]
www.burningworldrecords.com
|
2007 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Veldwerk |
CD |
"Sublime drone music and field recordings by Rutger Zuydervelt. 'Slovensko I & II' are best seen as a travel diary, recorded in Slovakia. RZ made 'sound snapshots' with a small digital recorder. A major influence both while recording and assembling the tracks was Chinese sound artist Yan Jun. 'Rusland' is a sound collage comprising field recordings and sections of live performances made in Russia. An incredible adventure and culture shock with long train journeys, bizarre venues and amazing people. 'The Breaking Water' can be heard as a sonic portrait of Rotterdam's famous Erasmus bridge. It includes recordings taken from both on and beneath the bridge, along with further sounds from the river that it crosses, the Nieuwe Maas. 'Floor & Radio' is a contrast to the outdoor pieces recorded for the the installation 'Licthung' in Radolfzell, Germany. Contrasted against the outdoor silence was the squeaking floor in the guest house and the distorted signal and static from the radio. Sometimes there's music in everything. Makino Takashi asked RZ to perform a score for his film 'In Your Star'. After a screening in Tokyo, a studio version was recorded. The result is 'Apollo', a sonic journey to space and beyond. Digipak." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
" 'Field work' is the translation of this 'new' CD by Machinefabriek. It has pieces of music that deal, one way or another, with field recordings from various travels Machinefabriek made and I put the word new between '' because all but one of this pieces were released before, mostly by Rutger Zuydervelt himself as 3"CDRs but 'Slovensko' as a 7" by Champion Version. I am not sure, but I seem to have reviewed them all, so in the same spirit of this CD, I'll re-run my reviews.
(Vital Weekly 651): Recently Machinefabriek played in Russia four concerts as part of the Dutch Punch festival. Everything was duly recorded, but not released as such. The 3"CDR 'Rusland' is an extensive re-edit of all the concerts plus some additional home recording. The guitar plays the all important role here, like in more of Machinefabriek's recent work Soft tinkling, with slowly enveloping pedal work. On top there is a bit of cracks and pops and with sparsely orchestrated field recordings. A thoroughly relaxing piece of music, but one in which there is more sound than in 'Drawn'. Nice release and on the website there is another twenty-five minute piece waiting for you.
(Vital Weekly 714): For 'The Breathing Bridge' he uses sounds taped at the Erasmus Bridge and the river Nieuwe Maas, both in Rotterdam and creates two pieces of music with that, although it wasn't easy to see the distinction between both. As with many of his recent outings, Zuydervelt is all about atmospheric music, but arrives there from different ends. Sometimes with musical instruments and sometimes with field recordings, such as in this case. For the most part the music humms at a low, bass end level, until it bursts out somewhere halfway through the second piece, after which things die out again.
(Vital Weekly 709): Despite a plethora of releases, Rutger Zuydervelt never ceases to surprise. Not always I must admit, as there is a distinct style of his own, but sometimes he does something out of the ordinary. 'Slovensko' is such a thing. In September 2010 he went on holiday to Slovakia, armed with his camera (he is a designer after all) and these days also with a digital recorder. He collected a bunch of field recordings which he, back home, edited into the two parts of 'Slovensko'. No guitars this time here, but pure field recordings, edited, cut, mixed together into two lovely collages of sound. Motor sounds, dogs, voices, fences and metal gates and some more obscured sounds are put together in quite a cinematic manner. Not just a continuing ambient sound but a wonderful play of various sounds. This may very well be the first time that Zuydervelt worked so solely with field recordings. And with some fine result.
(Vital Weekly 756): This work contains excerpts of an audio-visual installation which you can actually still visit, up to December 5th at the Galerie Vayhinger, Radolfzeil, Germany. The work is a collaborative effort of Rutger Zuydervelt and Steve Roden, both responsible for the music an Sabina Burger, who did the visual component for this work. The later shows reflection of trees in water, or rain drops falling in water. The music is a duet between Roden and Zuydervelt and seems to be combining the best of both ends: the acoustic sounds of Roden (chimes, bells, cups) and Zuydervelt's careful electronic manipulation thereof. The music and film go together really well, I'd say. Poetic, silent and light. An excellent three way combination. (FdW)
(Vital Weekly 768): When I opened this up in Itunes it gave the correct title and as 'genre' it read 'soundtrack', which is quite funny. Apollo and soundtrack: how can be not avoid thinking of Brian Eno? Rutger Zuydervelt is not Brian Eno, simply because the theory side of things lack in his work (so far!), but music wise he is probably quite close to the work of the master of ambient. In this case he presents an 'alternate' edit of the soundtrack for Makino Takashi's film 'In Your Star', which I haven't seen, but its based on the Nasa flight control samples at the beginning and some highly atmospheric music, but with a slight edge to it. There are at times some piercing sounds, a glitch like rhythm here and there and it is strong atmospheric music of great stellar quality. Spacious, to stick with the theme of space travel, like the processed sound of a rocket flying over low. A particular strong work with a slight change of sound, which proofs that Zuydervelt is on the move again.
Great package too.
For all of you who missed out on these limited releases or who think CDRs suck (or vinyl for that matter) now in glorious 'ever-lasting' CD format. An excellent choice of pieces that really fit together very well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Stroomtoon |
CD |
" 'Stroomtoon can be translated as 'the sound of electricity'. The album was constructed with hours of material I recorded while experimenting with a new live setup, using an analogue tone generator and some looper pedals. The pure sines of the generator and the static and crackling sounds of that old and dusty machine gave me a nice myriad of sounds to work with, creating endless loops and textures. The original idea was to use parts of these recordings in unedited form, but playing around with these soundfiles was so much fun, and gave me so much possibilities that the end result became much more layered and detailed, while still keeping the raw energy of the original material intact. Hopefully you, the listener, will find this an electrifying album.' Rutger Zuydervelt was born on 28 July 1978 in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands), but now resides in Rotterdam. He started working as Machinefabriek in 2004. The name (meaning 'machine factory') was on the façade of a building Rutger passed everytime he went shopping for groceries. Except for a few piano and guitar lessons when he was young, Rutger didn't study music. Instead, he graduated as a graphic designer. The sleeves of his releases are practically always designer by Rutger himself, being a crucial part of the music." [label info]
www.nuun-records.com
"A full on new release by Machinefabriek, solo and in the conventional format of a real CD. It seemed a rarity recently. Rutger Zuydervelt uses his trusted set of effect pedals, field recordings, mixer, computer but leaves away the guitar in favor of an analogue tone generator, radio and korg monotron, which you see everywhere these days. With this relatively easy set up Zuydervelt creates fine electronic mood music. I would like to add 'as only he can do' but that's not the case. He creates fine electronic mood music as various people can do, and Zuydervelt belongs to the top league of the genre. That much I can say, and this new album, with four shorter pieces and one long one (LP length, perhaps a LP version is imminent somewhere?) is a pretty strong affair. Moving away from the ambient atmospheres of his earlier work, he now has some very nice pieces of sustaining tones, crackles, hiss, static and puts them together in a lovely collage of sound. Not through rapid editing, but slow
fading into new worlds all the time. These five pieces flow in natural way into each other, especially since the first piece is the longest, and already moving through various phases here. Altogether a great album, and surely one of the best of Machinefabriek in recent times. Changing the menu slightly, which is always good in my book, while staying close to what he normally does. Excellent all around." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Vergezichten |
10inch |
"Musicians like Rutger Zuydervelt have a special relationship with presets - sounds, rhythms and samples that are inbuilt to keyboards or synthesizers. Presets are the opposite of individualism in music, they are commodities, sounds off the peg. Self-respecting musicians never use them, or perhaps use them precisely because they shouldn't. Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek is a master of self-made sound and time-stretching, sensitively handling organic recordings and samples on countless releases, and regards preset sounds in an organ or a cheap keyboard as a tonal find, as a part of the cacophony of every day life. He uses the chugging of a Bontempi rhythm box or preset strings like field recordings, with the same calm and matter-of-factness as the murmur of ventilation or the hum of a refrigerator.
These Bontempi-rhythms plus the computer-stretched sounds of saxophone (Espen Reinertsen) and voice (Mariska Baars) are the base elements of Vergezicht 1 & 2. It is stunning how Zuydervelt manages to produce depth and meditative calm with this supposedly soulless material. Never-ending expanses and the mechanic rhythms overlap and start shifting, slowly and imperceptibly before the beat gets nervous, starts to stumble to finally come to a standstill with the slowly swelling bass. The track is held in suspense, rattling and rustling. Ghostly squeaking breezes in, then another stop with a soft beat of the drum. Slowly, the track builds itself up again with filtered grooves and prolonged notes.
On Vergezicht 2, the Bontempi-rhythm sets in again, after seven minutes of rising and subsiding expanses and the breezy, ethereal soprano, this time slowed down alongside warm basses and single notes from the piano. Then a momentary halt, almost too beautiful and too clean for this track. Soon an ominous siren call floats above the euphony and restores order by friction. This subtle irritation is part of a complete acoustic pattern. It is not possible to imagine Machinefabriek's music without the irritiating moment, the doubt turned into sound.
The Dutch word 'Vergezicht' means view or panorama. And it is a wide acoustic panorama opened by Zuydervelt here that reveal presets in new light." [label info]
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Dubbeltjes |
CD |
"Zoharum welcomes multitalented Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek to its fold. We are very happy that Rutger decided to choose our label to release his new compilation of rare works entitled "Dubbeltjes". It consists of 11 track recorded between 2008 and 2013.
Rutger Zuydervelt talks about "Dubbeltjes": Short playing time formats, like 7-inches and 3-inch cdrs, are great to work with. More than on regular albums, the durational limitations are useful to experiment with and to create really focused, cristalised pieces.
Most of these tracks focus on a very limited palette of sounds. "Hilary" and "Jeffery" for example, are constructed using solely trombone recordings from (you guessed it) Hillary Jeffery (of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble). "Huiswerk" Part 1 and 2 were made using a simple setup of electric guitar and sampler. And probably a suprise in my discography are "My Funny Valentine" and "Oh Doctor Jesus", two jazz classics, in collaboration with bass clarinet player Gareth Davis. All these sets of songs have a very specific quality to them.
These tracks are among my personal favorites. Most of them aren't available on a physical format anymore, so it's great to gather them on the album 'Dubbeltjes'. The tracks are presented as pairs or trios, as they appeared on their original releases. It's up to you, the listener, to either experience these combinations seperatly, hear the album in continuous play, or use shuffle mode to make new combinations.
"Dubbeltjes" is released in a 3-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Here at Vital Weekly a lot of music released by Machinefabriek is discussed, but there is a lot more than doesn't make it here, as Machinefabriek is also very active in the field of highly limited vinyl, lathe cut and cassette only releases. Luckily he is well known enough to have every now and then a compilation of these rarities, such as 'Dubbeltjes' ('dimes'). Here we have two pieces from compilations plus two 7"s, a lathe cut 5", a cassette and a 3"CDR, twelve pieces in total. Of these, I reviewed the lathe cut 5" with the jazz standards 'My Funny Valentine' and 'Oh Doctor Jesus' (Vital Weekly 789), which didn't sound like jazz anyway. One of the nicer things about such compilations as this one is that all of these pieces are relatively short and to the point and we hear Machinefabriek occasionally experimenting with form, such as 'Ontrafelde Tonen 1', which is more like musique concrete than his signature ambient guitar sound, which are present here, such as in 'Ax'. All of it
gets a place in here, with a nice variety. At forty-eight minutes not the longest of anthologies you could imagine, but it's compiled to be entertaining, listenable and varied, all of which in the comfort of Machinefabriek's drone inspired music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Drum Solos |
LP |
"Drums (played with sticks, mallets, bow and tuning forks) and processing by Rutger Zuydervelt. "Driven by my love for solo albums by drummers and percussionists like Jon Mueller, Wil Guthrie, Nick Hennies and Burkhard Beins, I've made 'Drum Solos'. It's my take on a solo drum record, despite the fact that I lack the talent to hit a steady beat or a play a drum roll. Instead, I used the sounds of a drum kit as a sounce for further processing. I booked a rehearsel room with a drum kit, and recorded as much sounds as I could in one afternoon. Hitting, bowing, stroking, whatever ways I could find to create sounds, I recorded. And these soundfiles were chopped and screwed til it sounded like what you hear on the album. Each track focusses on one part of the drum kit. I like to think that purposefully employed limitations like that make me more creative, and my work more focussed. It's part of the aim to make my music as minimalistic and 'pure' (whatever that may be) as possible. In this case it resulted in a short but varied and at times meditative album that might not have any virtuoso drum acrobatics on it, but shows its quality on a more subtle level." ~RZ. Another great experimental and droning Machinefabriek album. Sleeve printed in metallic pantone gold ink. Limited edition of 300 copies on black vinyl." [label info]
www.backwards.it
"It shouldn't be a surprise that the ever prolific Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) hasn't found the time to do everything that's he wanted to do in his artistic career. With his hundreds of recordings that have poured fourth in mostly tiny editions as well as his collaborations, he's rarefied the sounds from guitars and electronics into cracked crescendos of half-melodic smears of drone and noise full of doleful cavernous swells and dark-star explosions. Yes, we've long been smitten by his work; but we'll admit that we were a little skeptical of an album entitled Drum Solos that began with the preamble that Zuydervelt had long wanted to study the art of percussion but never found the time. Fortunately, this is not a half-assed first attempt at trying to make avant-garde percussive tumble like Will Guthrie or Eddie Prevost; rather, it's perfectly beautiful Machinefabriek album using the drumkit as the source material. With much filtering and signal processing, Zuydervelt broadcasts echoing tones of slow-unfurling sonar pulses across a bed of soft shimmering ambience and rumbling atmosphere. The cymbals seem to be the only part of the kit that he's left mostly free of processing; but even so, he's bowing the cymbals to create those same textured drones that Organum produced many moons ago. Rhythm is mostly shed in lieu of weightless tone-float and spiralling, ghostlike re-appearances of his reconfigured drum sounds. It's hardly what anyone would ever consider when thinking of a drum solo record, but in the context of a Machinefabriek album, it's pretty damn majestic." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
|
The Measures Taken |
CD |
"After last year's two releases (a compilation of rare tracks ”Dubbeltjes” and the reissue of a collaborative album with Dag Rosenqvist entitled ”Vintermusik”) a renowned sound artist Rutger Zuydervelt returns with a completely new album called ”The Measures Taken”. It is the score for a dance performance by choreographer Alexander Whitley and visual artists Marshmallow Laser Feast.
”The Measures Taken” was originally commissioned by the Royal Opera House (it premiered there in May 2014). The spectacular performance involves a lot of hi-tech interactivity between dancers and projected visuals. The theme of man vs/with machine is magnified by the music, which combines warm melodic pads with glitchy white noise and (more than on any other Machinefabriek release) propulsive rhythms. Now you can enjoy the music from the performance on a physical album which is also striking without the use of the visual side.
The album is released in a 3-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies. The cover is based on the original by Rutger Zuydervelt. It was mastered by Łukasz Miernik. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"It seemed 'quiet' lately when it came to Machinefabriek. It might have been not since Vital Weekly 925 that we last reviewed something - which, in the world of Machinefabriek, not equals: didn't release anything - but I do know he's busy with on-site pieces, installations and in the case of 'The Measure Taken', music for a choreography by Alexander Whitley and also, at the same time, visual artists Marshmallow Laser Feast. This piece was commissioned by The Royal Ballett Studio programme and premiered in April 2014 in France and also performed in London. There's a short introduction piece, followed by the four parts of the piece. Obviously I haven't seen the dance piece, or the visuals, but judging by the music, there has been a shift in Machinefabriek's music. Some of the 'old' Machinefabriek is still present here, the long ambientesque soundscapes is of course something that is still present, but it seems as if Machinefabriek now handles the form of sound collage more and more, building towards crescendo's and then drops out radically. Another important addition is the use of rhythm in 'Part II'. A kind of click 'n cut rhythm that is not unlike that of, say, Carsten Nicolai. It's quite surprising but it works out very well. Topped with some noise bits here and there, this is surely on the more varied releases by Machinefabriek in quite sometime. If you aren't the biggest fan of Machinefabriek but like to check out a release every once in a while, then make sure you check out this one." [Fdw/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Stillness Soundtracks |
CD |
"Trained as a graphic designer, Rotterdam's Rutger Zuydervelt started releasing as Machinefabriek in 2004. In 2006 he released his first official full length album, 'Marijn', which was voted by the Wire as one of that years bests electronica albums. Since then, his discography expended rapidly, releasing on international labels such as 12K, Staalpaat, Important, Experimedia, Type, Home Normal, Dekorder and Glacial Movements. His improvised live performances has seen stages across the globe, including Japan, Canada, Russia en Israel. Besides making albums and playing gigs, Zuydervelt regularly works with film makers and choreographers, as well as producing on installations.
'When Esther Kokmeijer approached me with the idea of making the scores for a series of short films she was working on, I didn't hesitate. Having seen a lot of her photography, I immediately knew how inspiring the footage she shot in Antarctica and Greenland would be. And this expectation proved to be correct. In quite a short period (we had set a deadline, to show the result at an open studio date) we swapped sketches and edits of the videos and audio, until the combinations felt perfect.The 'Stillness' films aren't documentaries in the sense that they tell a clear story. We're seeing the Arctic through Esther's eyes, slowly passing giant icebergs and simply being amazed be the impressive and seemingly endless landscape. While in other films it's mostly the other way around, in 'Stillness' the narrative, if there is any, comes from the music. When making these soundtracks, the idea was to guide the viewer through the images with a sense of abstract story telling. Instead of the original first thought of making dark, cold soundscapes, the bleak mountains of ice are now colored by lush arrangements and even quite romantic themes. Esther and I released the videos on a usb-stick, in a limited edition of 100, that was sold out in no time. Now the scores are presented on 'Stillness Soundtracks', including two exclusive tracks. It speaks for itself that there's no better label to release this then the Glacial Movements label, so I couldn't be happier.' Rutger Zuydervelt, April 2014." [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
15/15 |
LP |
"A threesome of coloured vinyl by WORM Records. These records are extraordinary not just because of their appearance (bright yellow, blue and pink vinyl), but also because of their unique origins. The a-sides of the records were recorded for Soundpiece, a soundinstallation under the floor of the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam. WORM invited the composers Machinefabriek, Pierre Bastien and Dyane Donck/Daisy Bell to compose a piece for this. The results are three soundartworks/tape compositions that are made for public space, but are impressive as an isolated piece of art as well. Towards the end of 2011 the pieces rang out at fixed times during the Soundpiece installation and something that stands out well, are the different approaches taken by the three composers.
Machinefabriek is the project of Rutger Zuydervelt. Machinefabrieks music combines elements of ambient, modern classical, minimalism, drone and field recordings. He already has a massive discography, with many of these titles self-released, but also including albums for well renowned labels and numerous collaborations.
Soundpiece is a soundinstallation in the public space of the Schouwburgsplein in Rotterdam and utilising 32 speakers covers an area of 30 by 30 meters. This enables the compositions to be spread at low volume throughout the entire square." [label info]
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| MACHINIST |
Viens avec moi dans le Vide |
CD-R |
"Featuring five tracks, this record touches on ambient and drones, besides subtle melodic patterns that are more prominent than with previous Machinist releases. VIENS AVEC MOI DANS LE VIDE opens up the auditory point of view of the listener at an open and wide panoramic vista of emotions with a sharp focus on the horizon.
available in the shop." [label info]
www.betontoon.com
|
2010 |
€10.50 |
|
| |
Of what once was |
CD |
"Machinist is the musical project of Dutch artist Zeno van den Broek. On Of What Once Was, his first real cd after several CD-R releases, shows two sides of the man. With a background in architecture he creates music with a clear focus on the urban environment and the immersive experience of space. In Mono tone in d he creates a minimal piece of guitar drones inspired by the work of Yves Klein and in the piece Of what once was we hear an improvised piece of guitar combined with field recordings. A dense emotional piece which is a closing of a chapter in his career, and an opening to a new one." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
"From The Netherlands hails Machinist, and when
reviewing his previous CD 'Viens Avec Moi Dans Le Vide', I closed the review with "Its about time he moved to doing real CDs, I'd say", which may or may not have been heard by Moving Furniture Records. Zeno van den Broek from Rotterdam is Machinist and this new album has two pieces of music, of which the first one is inspired by 'Monotone Symphony' by Yves Klein, a painter who painted monochrome one-color paintings, but who also scored some music. In 'Monotone Symphony' "a chamber orchestra plays only one note for twenty minutes, followed by an equal measure of silence". Machinist, being one man, uses a guitar, tuned in D and the variation is in the length of tones and different shapes of resonance. I thought this was a wonderful, open piece of music. A piece that reminded me very much of Machinefabriek (nowadays also from Rotterdam), with looping guitar tones, in various stages. From high end peeps to low end bouncing rhythms, this piece has a great quality, even when it perhaps sounds a bit Machienfabriek like. The other piece is 'Of What Once Was', an improvised piece which he played in various concerts in which he presented the more fixed piece 'Viens Avec Moi Dans Le Vide'. This is a more louder piece of music, also build around the guitar, but with more distortion and small howls of feedback. Apparently there is also field recordings in this piece, as well as computer generated tones, but they were harder to detect. In this piece, the influence of Machinefabriek is less apparent. Maybe 'Of What Once Was' is a bit long and it could have been edited a bit down, although, in his defense, I could say the longitude is also a necessary ingredient of this kind of music (and what cause some people to hate 'drone' music). Although, perhaps an extended bonus to the first piece." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MACLEAN, STEVE |
Frog Bug Guitar Computer |
CD |
"Steve is back with a truly original and unusual CD; very different from his other work - featuring, as the title proclaims, frogs and insects - recorded in the field - and guitar -, all subtly and intelligently processed (which is where the computer comes in); not to alter the sounds so much as to lock them together into complex rhythm and pitch relationships. The result sounds somehow 'natural' but yet spookily integrated. Then MacLean treats each track, or episode, differently, coming at them from different angles, sometimes even letting the computer add 'its own' percussive parts to the mix. This work, while bearing the hallmarks of complexity and chaos, has a deep underlying order that never quite gives itself up to the analytical side of the brain. A quiet landmark in the fusion of soundscape, performance and computer mediation that breaks new ground in the pursuit of open but organised form." [label notes]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| MACLEAN, STEVE & CHRIS CUTLER |
The Year of the Dragon |
CD |
"A collection of 5 songs and 4 instrumental pieces that explore equally - and simultaneously - spontaneous performance values, close compositional detail and extensive processing. Made out on the rocky coast of Maine with just a TV eye keeping tabs on a world skidding to hell in a handcart, all the basic work was done by MacLean and Cutler with Julie Thompson (voice) added later alongside additional parts played by Frank Gross (bassoon), Michael Bierylo (laptop, samples, circuits) and Titus Abbot (bass clarinet and saxophone). These are complex, focused pieces, some highly rhythm-rooted - mostly at rapid bpm rates - generally wide open with a close receptivity to timbral nuance and non-linearity." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MADE OUT OF BABIES |
The Ruiner |
CD |
"Made Out of Babies' third album The Ruiner is their most inspired and complex album to date. While the album retains the group's trademark ferocious hybrid of PJ Harvey, Jesus Lizard, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Big Black, it also finds the band's musical exploration showcasing something unsettling and unique." [label info]
www.theendrecords.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| MAEDER, MARCUS |
Annex |
mCD |
"In architecture, an annex is an extension to a main building. Likewise, the pieces on this mini CD complement and supplement the approaches that Marcus Maeder presented in his latest work titled subsegmental. Here, too, the musical pieces are composed of very short sound segments reproduced at such low speed as to stretch out and form vast soundscapes. Maeder processes and shapes this acoustic topography, giving it a distinctive, surreal quality and populating it with strange beings and events. Those who enter the annex are confronted with highly suggestive soundscapes featuring objects springing out of the inaudible realm of darkness to form a cosmos of micro-events, only to escape perception again, like a ghostly presence brushing past in the dark. Marcus Maeder is a sound artist and composer. He studied Art at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Lucerne and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Philosophy at the University of Hagen. Maeder runs the music label domizil, which he co-founded in 1996 with Bernd Schurer. He has worked as an editor and producer for the Swiss radio station DRS and has been working as a curator at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts since 2005. His artistic work focuses mainly on computer music and the artistic and media extensions of the term. As an author, Maeder has written on a number of topics in the fields of sound art and digital media." [label info]
www.domizil.ch
"Earlier today I was not at home, but in a friends house waiting for something. The weather was hot, and I lay down on his couch. In my bag was ‘Annex’ by Marcus Maeder, and I decided to play it. Around the house there was a lot of activity of people constructing a new house on one side (or perhaps putting an annex to it?) and on the other side motorized objects doing gardening work. Maeder’s music wasn’t very loud on, but it merged wonderful with the sounds coming from outside, even with all the windows closed. I fell asleep. Later on, now, I am at home again, listening again to ‘Annex’ in a more quiet surrounding of early evening (windows open). I am to understand that this work is an extension (for that is what an ‘annex’ is, in an architectural sense) of ‘Subsegmental’ (see Vital Weekly 702). I am not sure if Maeder draws from the same sounds as on ‘Subsegmental’, but he uses ‘very short sound segments reproduced at such low speed as to stretch out and form vast soundscapes’ – I
couldn’t have this any better myself. The four pieces (sixteen minutes in total) emerge on the near silence, especially ‘Plateau’ is very quiet, much alike the eleven pieces on ‘Subsegmental’. Perhaps without many differences between this one and that one, but its simply beautiful stuff. Maybe its too early to play this music and I should wait until full darkness has set in, but its tranquility is simply great as it is." [FdW, Vital Weekly] |
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| MAEROR TRI |
Language of Flames and Sound |
CD |
"Finally we are going for the re-edition of this great Maeror Tri album ! Power for the right side of the brain! Our world is dominated by the left brain hemisphere ! M.T. is here supporting the theory that it is necessary to stimulate and challenge the right hemisphere in order to get back to an equal activity of the two brain sides ... Best Shamanic Meditation music of the industrial era ! Maybe the best and more intense Maeror Tri album !
all material PRODUCED by MAËROR TRI [...] from 1992 to 1996 Comes packed in a special brain-shaped folder in a limited edition of about 500 copies !
Here some notes by the authors :
“our world is dominated by the left hemisphere of the brain. due to intensive support of the left side of the brain over the last millenniums the human mind has progressed its ability to communicate verbally, to think logically and in a practical way, to behave in a linear and systematic way. this was the basic advantage which became, as a cynic would say,
the "crown" of the creation of the human race.
the right hemisphere of our brains, which is processing in a non-reducing, holistic way, is responsible for non-verbal, spatial thinking, for visualisation, intuition and emotions,
and for music and atmospheric perception / cognition ! the abilities of our right hemisphere have been heavily suppressed in the past millenniums by the dominance of the left hemisphere of the brain. science proves that the human brain works on the best level when
both hemispheres are stimulated with the same intensity.
maeror. tri [...] support the theory that it is necessary to stimulate and challenge the right hemisphere in order to get back to a state of
equal activity of the two sides of the brain.
the activity of the right brain can be increased through exercises and stimulation.
listen, feel & realize!”
maëror tri [...] march 1996"
[label info]
"Here is the second pressing of Maeror Tri's 1996 album Language Of Flames And Sound, which has long been noted for the brain-shaped
packaging (faithfully restored in the second edition) and also has the distinction as being Maeror Tri's noisiest recording. This German trio began in the early '90s as a bleak, Dark Ambient project that brought a simple, if elegant use of effects-driven melodies to post-industrial noisescapes proposed by the Hafler Trio, Lustmord, and Illusion of Safety. While there are plenty of drawn out periods of flanging drones, spectral hiss, and those evanescent melodies which have become the trademark for the post-Maeror Tri project Troum, Language Of Flames And Sound brutally slams down on the distortion boxes, turning these languid, pseudo-Goth drones into thickened buzzsaws of melodic guitar noise that's not all that far from where black metal has progressed in recent years. An album like this should also make Aidan Baker blush as so many of these sounds have been mirrored in Najda. Throughout these megawatt explosions of radioactive noise splattering the all-consuming, ever dark ambience, Maeror Tri set down grinding loops of mekanoid pulsations that get at the band's Industrial roots. It's nice to have this back in print, although it's pretty " [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Yearning for the Secret(s) of Nature |
CD |
"Dass die Aufnahmen dieses in einer 300er Auflage wiederveröffentlichten Tapes schon fast zwanzig Jahre auf dem Buckel haben, hört man in keiner Sekunde! Da hat jemand eine wirklich sehr gute und feinfühlige Re-Mastering-Arbeit abgeliefert.
MAEROR TRI sind ja immer noch in reduzierter Besetzung als TROUM unterwegs und Herr Knappe betreibt das allgemein bekannte Drone-Label mit angegliederten Vertrieb. MAEROR TRI waren sicher damals eine der interessantesten und auch aktivsten Industrial-Bands der Kassettenszene, die schnell den Sprung auf Vinyl und später auch auf CD vollzogen und hervorragend gemeistert haben.
Ihre Musik ist sehr spirituell, meditativ und extrem fließend. Nicht wirklich Ambient, dafür gibt es einfach zu viele krachige Eruptionen, noch nicht Drone, was man heute darunter versteht, sondern eine Art psychedelisches Ritual, das positiv, neugierig und befreiend wirkt und in keinster Weise destruktiv oder mystisch verklärt ist, wie es ja seinerzeit sehr beliebt war.
MAEROR TRI sind sicher eine der Wiederentdeckungen dieser Zeit und heute noch genauso spannend und unberechenbar wie damals. Vielleicht auch die einzigen legitimen Nachfahren des Krautrocks? Leider auch schon wieder lange Geschichte ... Wunderbar ..."
[Carsten Vollmer, OX-Fanzine]
"Born as an obscure cassette on Fool's Paradise (London 1993), this exclusive and essential work by Maeror Tri made a brief appearance earlier as a CD-r on EE Tapes (Saint Nix 2001) before it quickly vanished into oblivion.
Due to popular demand it has finally been made available again as a limited CD release!
Repolished in sound and housed in a new designed jacket, 'Yearning....' has now
become of full value between such masterpieces as 'Myein' or 'Language of flames and sound'.
Don't miss it this time.......
Restoring/remastering work by Anders Peterson @ghostsounds.net
Art design by Alan McClelland @eyelyft.blogspot.com"
[label info]
www.myspace.com/eetapes
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Multiple Personality Disorder |
CD |
"... this debut CD by the German trio Maeror Tri is a devastating experience in sonic art. In the realm of Soviet France, Cranioclast or The Hafler Trio, its's hard to call such constructed wedges of noise music, this is something else. In fact I think it just scared four people who entered the Ultima Thule shop, leaving with bewildered and perplexed looks on their faces! Be they atmospheric or intensive, Maeror Tri offer a challenging sound that defies description." [Alan Freeman, AUDIO, 1993]
"Maeror Tri als der J.G. BALLARD der Musik." [Vi-Va-Vogel, Auf Abwegen]
"Some music is related to a period, because of the sound of the amplifiers, recording possibilities, effects and synthesizers. The technic colors the sound during that period and gives is that time limit. I cannot say that about the re-release of the timeless sounds at the CD "Multiple Personality Disorder" (MPD) of the not anymore existing German group Maeror Tri. The groups existed from 1998 - 1996 and has the following members Stefan "Baraka [H]" Knappe, Martin "GLIT[s]CH" Gitschel and Helge Siehl. Stefan Knappe and Martin Gitschel continues to make music with the group Troum and releases music with the vinyllabel Drone Records. From 1998 - 1993 Maeror Tri released a lot of tapes. The music for the first CD Multiply Personality Disorder was recorded in 1991 and released in 1993 by Korm Plastics as a limited edition of 600 in the serial Introductionaire to promote the music of new musical artists. For now the re-release has been done by the Purplesoil from the Czech Republic. During the musical project the group examined the different states of mind and characters by means of music and they want to confront the listener with the totally different states of mind and feeling of people with MPD. The CD exist of five compositions, with different moods, from ambient and atmospheric to aggressive and anxious. And really I was confronted with the different moods some with MPD. The meaning of the album has been successful. During that same period I was working in a psychiatric hospital with people with so-called personality diseases. I worked also with people with MPD and they presented themselves with totally different characters, behaviour, clothing, sexual preference and sound of the voice. I was really very difficult to work with these people because I had to deal with one person, but sometimes during daytime with three or four different persons. Most of these people had very bad childhood experiences and they try to deal with the some treating or stressful reality with different personalities. For now MPD has become more on the background but this release is really a good flashback of that period and a successful experiment of Maeror Tri." [JKH / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Emotional Engramm |
CD |
"The reissue of a long-forgotten classic MAEROR TRI album with stunning new artwork and newly remastered sound. Back in 1997, it turned out to be the last album by this experimental trio of German droners composed of Stefan ‘Barakah’ Knappe, Martin ‘GLIT[s]CH’ Gitschel and Helge Siehl. The former two later formed TROUM (Zoharum releases: “Autopoiesis / Nahtscato” and “Seeing-Ear Gods” (A Continuous Journey
in Six Parts) and the latter 1000SCHOEN. During their nine-year existence, they recorded a handful of albums and cassettes with their unique mixture of minimalism, industrial, ambient and drone, exploring the brains of potential listeners. „Emotional Engramm” is MAEROR TRI's most refined effort to date. After years of experimenting, the group came to a characteristic sound composed of layers of
electrically/electronically-treated acoustic instruments. Their organic sound achieved the most accessible form on „Emotional Engramm”;. Clocking in at just under 80 minutes, the seven tracks presented here show Maeror Tri at its best.
The reissue is presented in a lavish 6-panel digipak designed by Marcin Lojek (Ibsen Design, New Nihilism label, Mantichora and Schmerz bands) with a foreword by Martyn Bates (EYELESS IN GAZA).
The album has been faithfully remastered by Lukasz Miernik (Dead Cat Mastering)." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Originally released in 1997 on the now defunct Iris Light imprint out of England, Emotion Engramm was the final album from Maeror Tri - the haunting, post-industrial drone trio that was the precursor to the equally haunting, post-industrial drone DUO Troum. This record - more so than any of the other Maeror Tri albums - engaged the complex structures that Troum would later push through their interlocking, shadowy melodies and slow-motion, effects-heavy drone. At the same time, the concepts that went into Emotional Engramm are more closely related to the clinical psychological themes of the Maeror Tri albums Multiple Personality Disorder or Language Of Flames & Sound, as referenced by the titular engram (purposefully misspelled in the title), a Scientology term for a mental image embedded into the brain by any type of trauma - physical, emotional, psychic, or otherwise. Far from prescribing the teachings of Scientology, Maeror Tri uses that concept as a jumping off point in conjuring "resonance of control, impact, fortuity, the randomly instigated yet inedibly etched emotional memory: Kodak ghosts." It's easy to read particular passages within the frozen din of washed-out guitar noise, spectral melodies, tectonic bass rumblings, and metallic slashes of grim electronics as the seizures within the psyche that might get caught in an infinite loop for the inner-mind. Some of those images provide an emotional resonance that's deeply sad and full of despair, while others are enraged with a blackened hostility. As we mentioned, many of the ideas and strategies that went into this album continued to develop through Troum; but even so, this stands as one of the best albums that either Maeror Tri or Troum had produced." [Aquarius Records]
"Recorded between 1993 and 1996, this is the final release of MAEROR TRI - packaged to suggest that this music is a kind of empty canvas for engrams, for letters, words, scribblings (both significant and insignificant) to emerge upon. "Engrams" somehow brings to mind Scientology; resonances of Control, Impact, Fortuity, the randomly instigated yet indelibly etched emotional memory: Kodak Ghosts...
The pure idea of Scientology is that of a beautiful catharsis; a steering thru the engrams, the 'de-control' of the mind and the re-acquisition of it's disparate componants...an insight...tools for your own endevour....for self-development......access towards some kind of re-affirmation of scattered aspects of being.
MAEROR TRI here paint an expanse of (admittedly low-fi) sheets of sound; abstraction that is only truly completed by the sensitized listener, adrift, in darkness, volume filling/consuming the room (it doesn't function as ambience, I found...), waver of rain in radioactivity, ether tears of trains of thought, the long forever letters of minutia that you hand-write to dear friends half a world away all flooding back now, into your mind's ear; books - someone else's thoughts.....worlds that consume, yet are mere cyphers, scribbles that are understood somewhere in an unthinking space within the mechanism of each individual's fleeting moment upon the 'wheel of the quivering meat conception'. This MAEROR TRI CD; non-representational, perhaps easily dismissed by anyone who has no time to 'stand and stare'..... ... .... well, for God's sake, stop ... and stand and stare ... put your ear to the world, and listen to the song of the nightingale ..... .. no; listen to all the birdsong .. ... know that words, and sounds, are but tokens."
[MARTYN BATES for SOFT WATCH for the 1st ed.]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Mind-Reversal |
CD |
"Special edition in deluxe digibook. Strictly limited to 270 copies! Welcome, to the early days of this really cult formation! ‘Mind Reversal’ has been recorded already 20(!) years ago, and only backwards-sound was used for this album. This is the fourth edition of a magic album which was released first as MC only in 1993, and then re-released on CDr in 2000. This edition is the first release on proper CD and comes placed in a special deluxe Digibook with exclusive artworks from a talented painter from St. Petersburg. 58+ minutes. This edition contains the bonus-track ‘Dusa’, from the 2000 CDr re-release." [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Mort Aux Vaches: Hypnos/Transe |
CD |
"tracklist: 1 (mind) - initiation, 2 (mind) - alternation, 3 (mind) - expansion
upc 821272307822. photographs by salt. release date: 31october2k12
15 years after its original release, 17 years after its recording, raubbau is delighted to present the highly anticipated reissue of this classic maeror tri album.
history lesson part 1 - the band: maeror tri were a three-headed band from bremen who stemmed from the german diy tape scene of the 1980s. with their unique brand of music, which they performed on 'real' instruments but made it sound purely electronic, they stirred the attention of a wider audience and accomplished considerable crossover success. praised by the critics, their disbandment in 1996 was much bemoaned. nevertheless, ever since a number of archive and re-releases have compensated the fans for their loss, as well as the output of the maeror tri successors troum (still a major attraction in the drone/experimental ambient genre) and the audio & visual & paintings project 1000schoen.
history lesson part 2 - mort aux vaches: a long-running series of specially-packaged albums released by cult label staalplaat, all of them recorded as live sessions for a dutch radio station. mort aux vaches has so far featured around 70 artists, among them many big name acts such as merzbow, zoviet france, roger rotor and many others.
history lesson part 3 - the album: the aptly subtitled hypnos/transe (spelling deliberately chosen) was considered a magnificent legacy when it was posthumously released, combining all the elements that had made maeror tri special: their tracks sound strangely different anytime you listen to them, the elements never clearly reveal themselves but retain a fascinating secrecy, beautiful and demanding at the same time.
the track titles of hypnos/transe reveal the concept of music affecting and altering the mental state of the listener. the 'initiation' accordingly uses a long build-up structure, starting with soothing ambient sounds, but continually integrating more and more layers of drones and culminating in an entrancing shamanic rhythm. 'alternation' is in a darker mood, with low-end rumbling and sonorous mock chants appealing to the deeper realms of the psyche. 'expansion' is easily the noisiest track of the three, with eerie scraping thumps and squealing sounds (wind? whales? bombs?). the psychogenic trip comes to its conclusion after 55 minutes, and one thing is for sure: after this listening session, you won’t be the same person as you had been before. this fine reissue comes well right for a new generation of listeners to discover a musical gem which has long been a sought-after, high-priced collectors item - and also one may with good cause say that the new artwork is much easier on the eyes than the original’s bright pink." [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Meditamentum (I & II) |
do-CD |
After a successful reissue of a long-lost classic "Emotional Engramm", MAEROR TRI returns to Zoharum and New Nihilism with another album. This time it is a double, deluxe reissue of both volumes of "Meditamentum" (released previously on Holonom and Manifold respectively).
Unavailable for many years, "Meditamentum" is a collection of tracks culled from tape releases and rarities hidden on many compilations. It spans the whole existence of Maeror Tri, starting with 2 tracks from 1989 ending with 3 tracks from 1996. It is a sort of "best of" Maeror Tri, as it tells the story of the bands progress. From rough edges of "Peak Experience" to dreamy soundscapes of "The Beauty of Sadness".
"Meditamentum" is also a document of the underground tape scene of the 1980s and 1990s, and of a genius of MAEROR TRI as purveyors of mind-altering sonic experience. It's "Music for the Brain" at its best.
The release is presented in a lavish gatefold Japanese vinyl replica designed by Marcin Łojek (Ibsendesign, responsible also for the cover for Zoharum's reissue of "Emotional Engramm"). Each volume is extended with a bonus track making the whole collection 155 minutes long and comprising of 23 tracks. The sound is greatly enhanced by our remastering wizard Łukasz Miernik. "Meditamentum" is co-released by Zoharum and New Nihilism to give you the maximum sonic experience. This double CD is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Whenever there is no new music to digest, I return to my collection and see what I have - I guess a pretty normal activity if you love music. I tend to play music label or group-wise, so a while ago I pulled out all the Maeror Tri CDs I have - which I guess is pretty much all of them in their original released form - and had that on play for a couple of days. Not much later it was the turn for Troum, Maeror Tri successor - and I decided that I liked Maeror Tri better, even when the differences are pretty small. Just a matter of highly private opinion, but I am bringing this up, since today I got this double pack of the two 'Meditamentum' releases. The first volume was released by Holonom and then re-issued by Manifold, who also released a second volume of it. Both of these releases compile tracks that were scattered on compilation cassettes in the very early Maeror Tri, the years of inexpexerience and lots of experiment. It's years that I have close to my heart and very early on I was in contact with the band and liked their music straight away. I reminded me of Zoviet*France and was regarded back then as ambient industrial. Through all these twenty-three tracks (two are new bonus pieces, also from compilations, but on the previous volumes) you can follow their early steps from Maeror Tri on CD one which spans 1989-1992 and their more refined sound on CD two, 1992-1996, when their music gained more and more depth. Still all highly ambient, right from 'The Threat' (1989) to 'Res Magnifica' (1996) with endless sustaining sounds, drones, processed field recordings and harmonium/guitar/percussion sounds and sometimes bringing the sound back, deep into the earth. Tons of effects have been used, but all with the right amount. If you are a Maeror Tri fan you may have the original releases, but worth here for the bonus tracks and the excellent remaster. Or if you are curious what the hell all the fuzz is about this obscure band in it's day worth all these re-issues, then this is also your place to start." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Hypnobasia |
CD |
"Musicians of the now-defunct Maeror Tri have already had many opportunities to work with Zoharum on both releasing their new recordings and reissues of their older material. Our catalog contains titles by Troum ("Autopoiesis / Nahtscato", "Seeing-Ear Gods" and "Dreaming Muzak"), 1000Schoen (double split with Polish Ab Intra), and also their original project Maeror Tri ("Emotional Engramm" and "Meditamentum"). Together with musicians we remove blank spots in their discography by restoring their older recordings.
Maeror Tri was a project operating since the mid-80s until 1997, when they released their last album entitled "Emotional Engramm." In their works they penetrated such genres as minimalism, ambient and industrial music, and borrowed drone aesthetic from classical music. In addition to seven regular albums on CD and LP, they released a number of cassettes. They contained much rawer recordings compared to those from the trio's regular albums.
One of these two tape albums is "Hypnobasia" originally released in 1992 by the Italian label Old Europa Cafe. It was the fifth tape in the discography of Maeror Tri. The following rerelease is expanded with 3 additional tracks lifted from various artists compilations from 1989-1992. All the recordings have been remastered for this release.
The album is released in a 2-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 350 copies. The cover is designed by Marcin Łojek (rozpad.com). It is mastered by Łukasz Miernik. The whole production process is overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"MAEROR TRI war ein Trio, das vom Ende der 80er-Jahre bis zum Jahr 1997 aktiv war. Nach einer Reihe von Veröffentlichungen, die sich in dem Rahmen Dark-Ambient, Industrial, Drone, Experimental einordnen lassen, war mit dem 1997er-Album „Emotional Engramm“ jedenfalls Schluss. Zwei Mitglieder, MARTIN GITSCHEL und STEFAN KNAPPE, machten danach mit TROUM weiter; HELGE SIEHL veröffentlichte in den Folgejahren als 1000SCHOEN.
Gerade zu Beginn der Existenz von MAEROR TRI wurden eine Reihe von Tapes veröffentlicht, von denen einige bereits auf CD wiederveröffentlicht wurden. Die noch vorhandenen Lücken möchte nun das polnische ZOHARUM-Label schließen, indem es zum einen „Sensuum Mendacia / Somnia“ und zum anderen „Hypnobasia“ wiederveröffentlicht. „Sensuum Mendacia / Somnia“ umfasst dabei das „Sensuum Mendacia“ Tape und die MAEROR TRI-Stücke des „Somnia Et Expergisci“ Split-Tapes, das damals zusammen mit NOSTALGIE ÉTERNELLE veröffentlicht wurde. „Hypnobasia“ wurde noch um drei Tape-Compilation-Stücke aus der Zeit ergänzt.
Gemeinsam ist beiden Veröffentlichungen, dass die Gitarre prägendes aber nicht wahrnehmbar dominierendes Element ist, wobei das Klangspektrum von Drones und Noise bis hin zu Akkorden und melancholischem Einzelanschlag der Saiten reicht. Die zupackendere, Richtung Industrial und Noise tendierende Seite von MAEROR TRI deckt hier definitiv „Hypnobasia“ ab, hier wird mit rhythmischen Elementen, Noise und bearbeiteten Stimmen gearbeitet. Ruhiger, flächiger, klanglich weitläufiger und auch melancholischer erscheint dagegen „Sensuum Mendacia / Somnia“. Der Klang erscheint bei beiden Veröffentlichungen als organisches, mit vielen Unebenheiten und Wendungen ausgestattetes Gebilde. Hochgezüchtete, digitale Soundwälle oder gar symphonische Elemente sucht man hier jedenfalls vergeblich. Im Klangbild mag man hier und da vielleicht den Staub der 90er-Jahre und die vielleicht noch nicht ganz ausgereifte technische Ausstattung erkennen; dennoch haftet dem Sound eine gewisse Zeitlosigkeit an, die das Wirken von MAEROR TRI auch aus heutiger Sicht als spannend erscheinen lassen kann." [Tony F. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Ultimate Time |
CD |
Musicians of the now-defunct Maeror Tri have already had many opportunities to work with Zoharum on both releasing their new recordings and reissues of their older material. Our catalog contains titles by Troum ("Autopoiesis / Nahtscato", "Seeing-Ear Gods" and "Dreaming Muzak"), 1000Schoen (double split with Polish Ab Intra), and also their original project Maeror Tri ("Emotional Engramm" and "Meditamentum"). Together with musicians we remove blank spots in their discography by restoring their older recordings. Maeror Tri was a project operating since the mid-80s until 1997, when they released their last album entitled "Emotional Engramm." In their works they penetrated such genres as minimalism, ambient and industrial music, and borrowed drone aesthetic from classical music. In addition to seven regular albums on CD and LP, they released a number of cassettes. They contained much rawer recordings compared to those from the trio's regular albums.
The fourth release in this series is "Ultimate Time" originally released in 1994 by the Italian label Old Europa Cafe. It was the tenth cassette in the discography of Maeror Tri. The following rerelease is expanded with an additional track lifted from the compilation "The Art of Marginal Talent" released in 1997. All the recordings have been remastered for this release.
The album is released in a 2-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 350 copies.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/ultimate-time |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Venenum / Timeless Transcension |
CD / DVD |
This is Infinite Fog's 4th step in reissues of Maeror Tri albums. 'Venenum' is a peaceful drone album recorded between 1989 and 1991. 'Venenum' was released in 1992 as a tape and reissued on limited 200 copies CD in 1999 by the short-lived French label ÜNE (r)ecords. This version is carefully remastered and packed in a deluxe hardcover digibook with booklet. Besides the CD, there is also a great surprise for all fans: a bonus DVD with 'Timeless Transcension', an experimental video created and released by the band in the 1992 year on VHS.
The outstanding artwork was created especially for the album by a young painter and designer from Saint-Petersburg, Anton Bogdanov, who did a great job for the 'Peak Experience' and 'Mind Reversal' reissues before.
https://infinitefog.bandcamp.com/album/maeror-tri-venenum
|
2018 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
The Singles |
CD |
Reissue of MAËROR TRI(...)'s full vinyl singles / EP's recorded from 1993-1996 (except for their first one, "Saltatrix" on Drone Records - DR01)
"Am Tag, als die Stil- und Genrebildung geprägt wurde, waren drei Nordlichter besonders aktiv. Unter der Bezeichnung Maeror Tri revolutionierten sie fortan Sound- und Hörerfahrungen. Zielgruppe der drei war stets die rechte Hirnhälfte. Wundervolle Edelsteine aus dem tiefen Ozean wurden fortan geborgen, auf 7“ gepresst und sind heute nur noch schwer erhältlich. So ist es im äußersten Maße begrüßenswert, dass den Hörern nun dies wieder zugänglich wird. Bleibt zweierlei festzuhalten. Zunächst steht unverrückbar, dass sämtliche in der Folge schier unzählige Epigonen lieber ihr Bestreben nach Ausdruck auf den Hobbykeller bzw. auf die Untermalung des letzten Urlaubsvideos richten sollten. Zweitens steht ebenso unumstößlich fest, dass Maeror Tri eine Ausnahmeerscheinung und somit eigentlich unvergleichlich waren!" [Leonie D./ TAUCHER Nr. 02]
What can I say? They were my fave Drone/Industrial unit in the nineties and when this came out 15 years ago, it didn't last for too long until it was completely sold out...
So by popular demand, here's the reissue, no more no less !!
May the Force be with You !!
Photography (unknown location) by Jan Kees Helms
Mastering at Illlektrik Toolz by Herman Klapholz
Design by Jan Van den Broeke
Tags: Drone - Industrial - Experimental
www.eetapes.be
"Probably there is only one group that started as a cassette only band, who will successfully release their entire back-catalogue on real CDs (not CDRs) and that is Maeror Tri. They started out in the late eighties as a three piece ambient industrial group, and released a whole bunch of cassettes and subsequently also 7"s and CDs. In the late nineties one of the three band-members left and the name was changed to Troum. Their 7"s are now collected on this CD, for the first time and complete as such (so the originals can go to Ebay now, although I have no idea how well sought there). One 7" is missing and that's the one that they released on their own label, Drone Records (which started the label) and which will be re-issued soon. It's good to see this released as last, as the music of Maeror Tri can best be enjoyed in the digital format, away from the scratchy, hissy vinyl, of which the duration was sometimes also too long for a 7". This collection starts out with quite a raw Maeror Tri, with metallic banging but as the CD progresses, some of the more classic Maeror Tri appear: dark and dense and intense, with much layering of sound effects, percussive sounds and many obscure sound-sources (I once saw them playing an accordion on stage, feeding it through a whole line of sound effects). These singles, three 7"s and one 10", can easily be classified among the best they ever did and with the enhanced quality of the CD, this is a much wanted item. Time to plunder their cassette releases and release those on CD. Do I hear the word 'boxset', anyone?" [Fdw/Vital Weekly - original review to the first ed. 2005] |
2020 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAES, LAURA & KRISTOF LAUWERS |
Kitch'n Glitch |
CD |
"Cling Film –Mitbetreiberin LAURA MAES hat hier zusammen mit KRISTOF LAUWERS Küchengeräte, die Küchengeräusche von sich geben, akusmatisch verwurstet, und eine hochspannend tönende subtile Soundwelt ins Leben gerufen...zwischen elektronisch anmutenden Drones und ganz trockenden Geräuschen, ein Küchenkontext ist kaum noch zu erahnen... TIP !" [Drone Rec. 2003]
“All kinds of kitchensounds were blended for your exquisite taste. Don't expect loud mixers or banging on kettles, but rather subtle manipulated and cut-up sounds, sometimes creamy and soft, sometimes crispy and cold. caffeine free.” [label info]
“ A first release on her own label by Laura Maes, who runs Cling Film together with Kevin van Volcem (aside from all the organisational work they do in their surroundings). As the title of this disc already suggests, all the raw material was recorded in a kitchen
(Laura's) and later manipulated in the studio. With a total duration of just over 37 minutes, this is a dense work, that requires close
attention from the listener. There is a lot happening here and more often than not, it is pretty subtle. One of the most interesting
phenomena for me is the way Maes and Lauwers move with their sound from sheer electronic to acoustic and back again. From raw material to its manipulation or vice versa. The seven tracks are well placed and spaced, so one can listen to the whole CD as one work without a problem (this has defenitely got my preference). All tracks have strong compositions and very good timing and, most importantly: it's very juicy (and I mean this in the most positive sense!). Another one that is highly recommended. [MR for Vital Weely] Adress: www.clingfilm.org
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAGGI, PHIL |
Blue Fields in Paramount |
CD |
Nach der schönen IDIOSCAPES-Compilation die zweite Veröffentlichung für das belgische Label aus Gent. PHIL MAGGI ist Mitglied diverser Bands (z.B. ULTRAPHALLUS) und legt nach zwei CDRs seine erste "fabrikgepresste" CD vor. Seine subtilen wie ätherischen Drones werden mit field recordings aus Zagreb angereichert (Akkordeon-Folk eines Strassenmusikers, Sounds in einer Kirche), immer wieder sind im weiteren Verlauf effektierte Echo-Gitarren oder Rückwarts-Harmonien eingesetzt, die dem ganzen einen verträumt-sehnsüchtigen Anstrich geben... sehr schön, to discover !
"Blue Fields in Paramount is a very personal and fascinating opus, a beautiful introduction to the style of this talented artist, that could be qualified as 'dark psychedelia for daydream believers'. It has been mastered by James Plotkin (Khlyst, Khanate, Old, Phantom) and is out now as a limited to 300 copies ekopack release with a fantastic artwork by czech artist Jan Karpisek." [label info]
"The album contains a 39 minutes track that is formed by totally different mini suites made with loops, fields recordings (he did his sessions in a church and in the streets of Zagreb) and sampled contemporary classical music. The track starts with a dark ambient drone mood with tones inserts and follows with Zagreb sounds mixed with backward classical music. Suddenly anxious atmospheres take a hold thanks to synth sounds coupled with an orchestration of sampled/treated breaths. The tracks changes skins different times and each one is renewing like a phoenix born from its ashes and Phil succeeds into keeping the listener's attention high thanks to interesting sounds, light melodies and tension. I liked it..."" [Maurizio Pustianaz, CHAIN D.L.K.]
www.idiosyncratics.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| MAGIC CARPATHIANS PROJECT |
Ethnocore 2: nytu |
CD |
"Their third album, the first available on a domestic label Magic Carpathians are centered around the duo of Anna Nacher and Marek Styczynski, he a founding member of the now defuct Polish ethno-folk group Atman. Following the disbanding of Atman, Anna and Marek continue to create forest music, although the Magic Carpathians benefit from an infusion of traditional rock instruments and electronics, and a host of guests. Recorded and mixed at the Krakow Radio Station Recording Studio by Aleksander Wilk between May and November 2000, Ethnocore 2: Nytú was composed and arranged by Anna and Marek, with Tomasz Radziuk (ex-Atman), Jan Kubek, Ramunas Jaras, and Wadada and Marek Miczyk (both of the European festival group Suns of Arqa). Also figuring into the composition are field recordings made by Anna and Marek during their travels to India and Nepal in autumn 1999. Traces of nytú - a mythical, archaic technique of vocalization given in the language of Slavonic rituals, nowadays almost completely lost and forgotten - can be found in the remnants of ancient Carpathian culture and some archaic pagan rituals which have been stored within the folk religious tradition among the Carpathian villagers. The important common tradition of singing across Eurasia makes similar the vocal technique from Mongolia, the Altai region, Central Asia, Ukraine and the Balkan region. Anna has been working on reviving the tradition of nytú through individual research and "Reclaim the Voice" workshops, run for women exclusively (which have garnered enough attention in Poland that Cosmopolitan published a brief article on Anna and the voice workshops). Phrases muttered in disbelief during their first US tour ; "Patti Smith fronting Art Ensemble of Chicago", "Yoko Ono meets Miles Davis" & "Don Cherry with Amon Duul"." [label info] |
2000 |
€15.00 |
|
| MAGICICADA |
Everyone is Everyone |
CD |
Klasse Debut eines neuen US-Projekts: MAGICICIDA steht für eigenwillige und variantenreiche „intelligente“ Experimentalmusik jenseits jeder Schublade, da gibt es höchst sphärische und hallumtoste Stücke die aus einem ganzen Arsenal an verschiedensten Soundquellen basieren, seltsame folkartige Ethno-Gesänge und Handgespieltes, Loops & andere Endlos-Effekte, manchmal steigert sich das in harsh noise – Bereiche rein, alles sehr druckvoll & abenteuerlich. TIP für Explorer !
“Magicicada is the musical life of Atlanta musician/sound designer/photographer, Christopher White. “Everyone is Everyone” is an organic, experimental work that blends traditional, as well as folk and eastern, instruments with found objects, samplers and field recordings to create a work that varies from delicate, cinematic soundscapes to harsh electronic environments. The instrumentation includes (but is not limited to): pump organ, voice, contact mics on faulty electrical lines, melodica, toys, iron balls rolling on wooden floors, accordion, cellophane, air cans, tape decks for the blind, guitar, shruti box, MARTA (Atlanta’s public transit), synths, oven door (percussion,) cellos, zurna, paper, frogs in the backyard, and the remains of Hurricane Denis shaking the roof. The Arigato-Pak style covers are beautifully printed by Stumptown Printers on (peacepunk approved!) 100% recycled , Environment 120# cover.” [label info]
"As many people as possible should experience his single-mindedly self-willed experimental-ambient sounds." - laut.de (Germany)
"Everyone is Everyone" is variegated, brisk and well crafted, a teapot of deviated psychedelia, rancid electronica and sounds coming from forgotten offshoots of Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from outer space", all of the above floating in a broth of Biota and Zoviet France with exhausted batteries. White lets us share some of his fun - and the drones of "Cause" are blood-icing in their beauty." - Touching Extremes (Italy)
"With an organic approach to creation, these eastern and folk influenced experimental works rival some of the strangest electronic ambient out there - from drifting soundscapes to meditative trances."-Just Add Noise
“....Every track on the CD is noted with long lists of recording notes, and if you read them, they give the impression of someone who is also frantically moving about. Not caring about how or why, this is best described as 'outsider' music. It moves along lines of improvised music, eastern and western folk music, lo-fi singer songwriter stuff and minimalist patterns on the cello, but never going to be anything close to being accessible: there is a strong element of experimental music to it, but at the same time things remain highly listenable. Again, great stuff.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.publicguilt.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| MAGNETICA ARS LAB / MAURIZIO BIANCHI |
LoopKlängeNoise |
CD |
"MAGNETICA ARS LAB is the musical project founded in Cagliari (Italy) by Arnaldo Pontis, computer specialist and electronic musician, active for a long time in the electronic experimentation and sound. He was a member of TH26, Machina Amniotica and many other musical projects.
"LoopKlänge Noise" is the magnificent result of his collaboration with the father, founder and precursor of industrial sound in Italy: MAURIZIO BIANCHI / M.B.
Subtitled "Verses Without Words" and inspired by the work of Vasilij Kandinskij and by his theories about necessary contamination between visual art and music, "LoopKlängeNoise" quotes two of the most important books from the author's abstract expressionist years: "Klänge" (München, 1912) and "Verses Without Words" (Moscow, 1903).
Following the original structure of the book "Verses Without Words" the artists recorded 13 double-titled tracks, in which the "second title" is an hommage to Kandinskij's 13 pictorial works originally included in this book.
Magnetica Ars Lab and Maurizio Bianchi invited some of the best projects from Sardinia's and few important artists from Italian electronic, experimental and industria music scenes. "LoopKlänge Noise" is the result of a great collaboration release featuring exclusive guest artists / musicians on each track: Fausto Rossi / FAUST'O, SIMON BALESTRAZZI (T.A.C.), CORRADO ALTIERI (Uncodified, Monosonik, Th26), RAIMONDO GAVIANO (Svart1), MAUTHAUSEN ORCHESTRA, NICOLA BOARI (SLP), NICOLA LOCCI (Exagonal), MASSIMO OLLA (Noisedelik), ALEX NASI (Colonel XS), ROBERTO BELLI (Brigata Stirner), Kaiser Schnitt Amboss Laszlo and more.
The CD is available in a limited edition of 300 copies in slim DVD box, + a 16-page booklet with info and great photos by FABRIZIO TEDDE. All (unpublished) photos were taken by Fabrizio from industrial mining areas of the Sulcis region in Sardinia.
The booklet includes also few excerpts from writings and quotes by John Cage, Klaus Schulze, Wu Ming, William S. Burroughs, Jean Baudrillard, Luigi Russolo and more.
"We fought for painting, but painting alone will not suffice. I had the idea of a synthetic book that removed half of the old, narrow conceptions, breaking down the walls between the arts.... and finally prove that the problem of art is not a problem of form but a problem of spiritual content." Kandinskij" [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| MAGWHEELS / STONE GLASS STEEL |
Pane |
CD |
MAGHWEELS, bekannt durch eine CD auf Ad Noiseam, teilt sich dieses Album mit den schon länger aktiven Sample-Meistern STONE GLASS STEEL. MAGWEELS: majestätische Drones, rückwärtige Sounds, mysteriöse Klangwände, die Geheimnisse verbergen zu scheinen. Exzellent !!
STONE GLASS STEEL: Überraschend ruhig, hochkomplexe ambience-Strukturen voller Details.
Excellent split album with majestic guitar wall-of-sounds, backwards noises, mysterious ambience - structures.. RECOMMENDED for monumental drone-lovers !!!
“One full album by Magwheels and 40 minutes of reconstruction by Stone Glass Steel (first material on CD since 1993). Post rock guitars meets noise meets sampling” [label descr.]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAIDA, CLARA |
In Corpore Vili |
CD |
1. Composer:
Clara Maida
2. Title:
in corpore vili
3. Performers (Studios):
Ensemble Resonanz,
Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin,
Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain,
Arditti String Quartet,
Heather O’Donnel
(Elektronisches Studio der Technischen Universität Berlin;
Studio für Elektroakustische Musik der Akademie der Künste, Berlin)
4. Format:
Audio CD, Digisleeve, Booklet German/English
5. Total time:
67:28
6. Catalogue #:
ed. RZ 10017
7. EAN Code:
4029455100178
8. Release date:
30. January 2010
9. Tracklist:
(1)
1. Mutatis mutandis (2008)
2. Psyché-Cité/Transversales (2005/06)
(2)
1- Fluctuatio (in)animi (2006)
(3) 2- Ipso facto (2006)
(4) 3- Via rupta (2005)
(5) 3. ...who holds the strings... (2003)
(6) 4. Doppelklänger (2008)
Eine ko-produktion zwischen Berliner Künstler Programm des DAAD, edition-rz und Deutschlandradio Kultur
"In den ersten Jahren zielten meine kompositorischen Forschungen darauf, die unbewussten, psychischen Energieflüsse, die zum Werk führen, samt ihrer Strukturen nachzuzeichnen. Parallel zu einem analytischen Ansatz, der den Zugang zu diesen unbewussten Aktivitäten begünstigt, studierte ich psychoanalytische Literatur, um mir ein musikalisches Denken zu erarbeiten, das einer psychischen Komplexität gerecht würde, die sich nur in gewissen Handlungen und unwillentlichen Äußerungen oder in Phantasien und Träumen äußert. Aus diesen Studien entstand ein strukturelles und formales Potential für eine Musik, die noch zu schreiben war, da allein die Plastizität der Klangwelt in der Lage schien, die Beweglichkeit und Instabilität heraufzubeschwören, welche die Gestaltung der Elemente des Unbewussten unablässig verändern.
During the first years of my compositional research, my goal was to mark out, in my music, the flux of the psychic energy at work in the unconscious and its underlying structure. At the time, I was going through an analytical process favouring access to this unconscious activity, and my readings in the field of psychoanalysis were helping me in the effort to elaborate a musical thinking likely to account for this psychic complexity, which only appears through unintentional acts and words, or in fantasies and dreams. A whole structural and formal model for a potential music was emerging then, since only the plasticity of the world of sound seemed to be able to suggest this mobility and instability, which endlessly alter the configurations of the components of the unconscious." [credits / label info]
www.edition-rz.de
www.edition-rz.de
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| MAIN |
Ablation |
CD |
"There has been a recent surge in activity from Robert Hampson, with all manner of solo recordings and performances popping up. Its only logical that he reactivates his beloved Main project. As we all know, Main laid the foundations during the 1990s for much of love of abstract guitar treatments in electronic music throughout the 2000s.
Hampson has teamed up with Stephan Mathieu to create a stunning new album. On ‘Ablation’, Mathieu adds extra tonal colour and an obscure rhythmic palette to Hampson’s exacting treatments and detailed use of layered concrète sounds to create an emotionally charged and fascinating work.
Old fans of Main will not be disappointed, and neither will new followers of experimental audio.
Packaged with images by Grebo Gray with layout by Dave Coppenhall, and expertly mastered and cut by Rashad Becker." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| MAKSYMENKO, MICHAEL |
Business Cide |
CD |
"Michael, founder and brain behind the extraordinary Swedish post-Beefheartian group Kraljursastalten, and world-class ice-hockey player, here collects his extraordinary songbook including much of the two celebrated '70s releases by Kraljursastalten (the Reptile Institution: Michael plus the telepathic twins Stefan and Thomas Agaton), with later recordings from his solo record and released and unreleased pieces with Henry Kaiser, John 'Drumbo' French, Sten Standell, Andy West and others. Wild lurching swing complexity, ridiculous tempi, great rhythms, sudden mood changes, fine compositions and music that is always to the point: no fat, just coffee and cigarettes. Classic. Genre: Unpopular. Influences:
Anatolij Tarasov, chief-coach and master-trainer of the Soviet national Ice-hockey team 1958-1972, inventor of "collective telepathy at high speed"." [label info]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| MALANGA, GERARD |
Up from the Archives |
CD |
"GERARD MALANGA: HIS LEGACY
New York poet, photograph, performer with the Velvet Underground, Gerard Malanga, was Andy Warhol's close friend and his first assistant in the golden age of the 60' Factory (paintings: Red Jackie, Brillo Box, Mao, Flowers... all the films - including Sleep, Empire, Chelsea Girls... - the Velvet Underground era...).
What we present here is really his unique legacy.
FROM WARHOL TO BURROUGHS...
First hand documents from the personal archives of Malanga - it contains rare documents with voices of Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, the American poet Gregory Corso, Jack Kérouac, Willard Maas ...
Some come from unknown documents recorded by Malanga himself during the shooting of Warhol 's films...
Other great document: Gerard Malanga, poetry reading at Leo Castelli Gallery, l964... for the first exhibition of Warhol's famous "Flowers"
All begin with a conversation between William Burroughs and Malanga, about "dreams"...
UNPUBLISHED MUSIC FOR GERARD
This record also contains unpublished music by Angus MacLise (... Velvet Underground before Velvet Underground and La Monte Young Orchestra with John Cale and Tony Conrad) and new pieces by Iggy Pop and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth). It ends with Gerard and dj Olive, live at the 'Cooler' of New York, last year...
the loop is looped." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| MALDUR ATAI |
Borgata |
CD |
"A brutal murder was committed in Ostia beach near Rome on 2 November 1975. A car ran over a man, turned around and repeated the act. Pier Paolo Pasolini was the victim. The murderer was found and confessed to murdering Pasolini. However, later on, he claimed he was forced to do it. They threatened they would kill his family otherwise. Them naturally being the cops. Since the truth emerged only several years after closing the case, the majority linked the death of the famous society figure, poet, essayist and filmmaker with his outrageous movie “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom”.
A friend of Pier Paolo stated that Paolo had been going to Ostia beach to meet some strangers who had stolen some rolls of “Salò”. A few bloodied fragments of the script were found in the pocket of Paolo’s jacket. More specifically, this was a leather folder containing a few bloodied pages. The murder case was investigated by a team of three detectives. And a strange thing happened then. One of the detectives stuck to a completely different version of the murder than the rest. He blurted it out to the media saying that “everything is much more complicated than someone’s trying to make it appear”. He was removed from the case by the authorities and subsequently disappeared. After a while the case was forgotten by the media.
However, fifteen years later, Sergio Citti, the aforementioned friend of Paolo, told Paolo’s biographer, a journalist, that he was the only one who could actually disclose the actual circumstances of Paolo’s death. He recalled that a stranger came to his door introducing himself as a detective on Paolo’s case. The man looked deeply stressed, handed Sergio some pages of notes pointing out that they contained information on the cause of Paolo’s violent death. Without saying a further word the man left. Later Sergio saw the man’s photo on TV news. They announced that a police officer was missing. Sergio was shocked by this and threw himself into reading the notes. These were pages torn out from the diary, indicating that the writer was the officer of the special commission investigating the circumstances of Paolo’s death. He was called to recognise the body in the site of crime. He found a leather folder in the pocket of Paolo’s jacket. Some of the pages were missing, others were sunken with blood. The words in capitals on the folder said “The Third Secret of Fatima”. In the middle of the folder there was a clear text fragment with words “Bring me some wine, La Popessa. In a second, Sir”. The following text was illegible because of the blood stain half page large. Then one could read “Pope Pius XII feels sick. He is short of breath. He attempts to sit down, lowers his feet from the bed onto the floor but lacks any strength to stand up. La Popessa blows out the candles and leaving the Pope’s bedroom closes the door behind her”. The next pages were evidently torn out. The following page contained Scene No. 57, “A horrible stench pervaded the Pope’s death venue, while his face was morbidly pallid. As a doctor, I recognised the classic aftermath of tasting the cup of the Borgia”. No more text ensued. All the following pages, except the last one, were torn out. And THE LAST one was empty. The diary-author recollected that standing in this murder site he came to realise that someone in an awful hurry was terribly reluctant to let anyone see the content of the folder.
Sergio read the entire diary of the detective. He had a clear idea what folder was meant. Once Paolo had mentioned to him that the shock caused by “Salò” was nothing in comparison to the fiery response his next film “The Third Secret of Fatima” would receive. He also hinted that the script covered not only the past, but also the future. The events shown in the film had indeed taken place in the past, and were meant to make the audience realise the horrible things awaiting them in the future. During their last meeting, Paolo hinted he was meeting someone important and, before closing the door, winked saying a strange thing – “Just remember the Satan entered Vatican in 1972”. The next day Sergio received a call from the police and leant the horrible news that Paolo had been brutally murdered. Sergio was invited to recognise the body. It was Paolo. Later on, Sergio was questioned about his last meeting with Paolo and the details he could remember.
Sergio provided Paolo’s biographer with more details of the diary of the missing detective and the information that he remembered from the TV reports. They said nothing unusual had been found at the detective’s place. All things were where they belonged. The detective’s garments were lying nicely folded in wardrobes and drawers. The money found in the place made the police think the detective could not have been gone away. The only suspicious thing was the diary put open on the desk. All pages were missing, except the last one. And that was empty. A glass of water knocked down next to the diary perhaps implied a scene of rush or drama.
Sergio then assumed that the stranger and the missing detective were one and the same person and the pages came from that same diary. The torn out pages contained the detective’s notes and assumptions, as well as other interesting and important details of the investigated case. The detective wrote that the name of the script found in the pocket of the filmmaker’s jacket - “The Third Secret of Fatima” - caught his attention. He did some investigation whether the murder was somehow connected to the script. He turned for help to the Vatican Curia. In the extensive official letter the detective asked for more information on the third secret of Fatima, for he had suspicions this could have been connected to the murder of the famous filmmaker. The official response was short. It read: “We sincerely regret the demise of the famous filmmaker. However, it is not in our competency to explicate the secrets of the Divine. This is a higher reality that is not subject to the mortals”. It was signed by Paul Marcinkus, the head of the Vatican Curia and the third most powerful person in Vatican.
Later on, the detective received an anonymous letter from Vatican. The letterhead contained Vatican water marks. It read: “I am aware of your document. If you wish to find out more, please come to the specified derelict church at the given time”. The detective went to the meeting place in the dark rural site in the midst of the vineyards. The church had no doors. There was only a stone arch that looked either neglected or under reconstruction. Upon silently approaching the pulpit covered by a thick layer of dust the detective called out. He heard a hushed invitation from the pulpit to come closer. The voice agreed to reveal all known information on the condition that he will stay unknown. The detective concurred.
Then the voice told him quite a number of interesting things about the third secret of Fatima. There exists a great power, a group of interests, aware of the ancient prophecy of Tibet predicting the recurrence of maldur atai cult. They seek to prevent the said return so that the truth is not revealed. They elaborated the plan of taking over Vatican and impeding the advent of the Messiah. This long-term strategy included such tasks as replacing the white popes with the black ones from the ranks of the Jesuit Order generals. The secret document in particular stressed that a very powerful element in the form of a child had been sent to the Earth, and would play a vital role in all spheres of influence as well as coordinate and rule all political, military and shadow forces resisting the advent of the redeeming Messiah. The agents of these spheres of influence suspect that Messiah is the maldur atai cult predicted by the legend of Nepal. It is believed that a man wearing a white long robe of the Pope was seen in the third apparition in Fatima. The children who witnessed the Marian apparition were scared to death. They recounted they had seen one more man in black, huge as a gorilla. The face of the man in a white robe was deadly pallid. He said nothing. He was foaming at the mouth. The man in black uttered the following words to the children: “I will make an entrance as a child exactly five years from now, I will break all the holy seals and make the world ready for the advent of the beast. And upon my arrival I will gain confidence of the most powerful in the world”. The children were frightened to death seeing the dreary face of the tall man. They named him a “Gorilla”. For many years afterwards the appalling man stayed in the children’s dreams and they screamed “Gorilla”, “Gorilla”, “Gorilla” in their sleep. The man in the pulpit suggested the adepts of maldur atai cult had sent a sign of warning from another dimension. The third secret of Fatima might have warned the humankind about the upcoming dreadful scenario. The man also said that the events of Vatican in the last decades implied a quite a number of parallels with what was revealed in the apparition in Fatima. The year 1972 was crucial for the Holy throne. The mysterious man did provide further explanations but suggested the detective read the press. The media was brimming with the coverage of these events. They concerned a few persons associated with the illuminati, Vatican, NATO, Zionists, cocaine and banks.
The biographer asked Sergio whether he suspected that Paolo had been murdered for he had received information from unknown sources about the global conspiracy predicted by unnatural powers and had based his film script on this information? Sergio replied that Paolo had always liked to keep to himself both his creative ideas and his lovers, who might have included the members of clergy from Vatican. However, it was obvious that these events had nothing to do with “Salò”, while – to Sergio’s regret - Paolo was not completely open. All this was somehow connected to the filmmaker’s new film titled “The Third Secret of Fatima”. It has never been made. Only after reading the fragments of the detective’s diary, Sergio drew attention to this and realised what was happening in the head of Paolo when he was leaving to meet the strangers. Furthermore, why did they try to hide so much that the Pope’s life was threatened in Fatima and that the man who disclosed the attempt was named “Gorilla”? The biographer of Paolo’s life told Sergio that he had investigated the subject of the maldur atai cult and he found it strange - or perhaps it was only a coincidence - that both the last page found in Paolo’s jacket and the last page of the diary found in detective’s house were empty. Just like the pages found in the cells of the missing maldur atai adepts in Nepal. Or at least that’s what the local legends told. Sergio replied: “It is true that the coincidence is indeed weird”.
Later the Paolo’s biography was published in small run. It contained all collected information about the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the filmmaker. The book titled “Borgata” did not receive a wide acclaim, although the promotion campaign and its headings loudly claimed that the book reveals the hitherto unknown circumstances of the murder of the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, that the cause of the death is not “Salò”, but “The Third Secret of Fatima”, that the unshot movie was suppressed by reality and who killed Pier Paolo Pasolini. All these revelations made way to this book.
“Borgata”, the forth full-length album by Maldur Atai, centres on the events described in this unpopular book." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Checkpoint |
CD |
"This is the first full album of industrial/ambient project Maldur Atai, titled Checkpoint. This dose of music of nearly one hour emanates strong and solid atmosphere that grows, develops and changes during each exquisitely constructed track. The notional indexes of the album touch upon a variety of religious aspects. Yet, they all are related to violence in religion and religion as an arcane or masked violator acting in informational reality. This album reveals religion as a system marketed and propagated by invisible conspirators. The system marked by powerful structure, network and techniques. It exists as a secret institute in the informational field of hallucinations, entices with its promises and attractive images, however, in reality opens horrible nightmares, marauds and kills. What is worst in this matrix is that it chooses children as its main target. The adults have been conditioned in their childhood so that they would sacrifice their children to the system later. Checkpoint is a filtration camp where the children's souls are met by elitist creatures of the arcane society wearing black mantles and hiding their faces. They lie, they enslave, they manipulate and they involve you in the vicious circle with almost no hope of retreat. Checkpoint is an abstract, universal and purified vision of Maldur Atai in which many will recognise their own very personal experiences and the symbols of the everyday secret war." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Alarm Valhalla |
7inch |
"The second single of Maldur Atai is much sharper than the first. Expressive ambient and martial, powerful WWII samples generate a darkly uncanny and psychedelic atmosphere. Like the first single, this one is also characterised by its astonishing completeness. It seems any addition would disturb this especially precise and well-balanced harmony of tracks." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| MANDELBROT SET |
All our Actions are constantly... |
CD |
Irgendwo zwischen GODFLESH YOU BLACK EMPOROR, MOGWAI, SLOWDIVE und MY BLOODY VALENTINE liegt der epische Sphären-Instrumental-Rock von MANDELBROT SET....
"MANDELBROT SET sind eine laute Band, sie lieben dröhnende Bässe, benutzen Samples und wechseln die Instrumente während der Songs, hauptsächlich sind sie aber gerne einfach nur laut. Gegründet von Ex-HENTAI Keung, komplettiert von Drummer Simon und Multiinstrumentalistin Melisa, vereinigen die drei ihre Liebe zum Constellation Label mit elektronischem Equipment, Live Sampling und Effekten, mit einer aggressiven Rhythmik im Stile von SHELLAC und mit melodischem, epischem Krach (der sogar Kevin Shields neidisch machen könnte), zu einer gewaltigen, kreativen Energie, die man auf "All Our Actions Are Constantly..." um die Ohren geschleudert bekommt." [Cargo / press release]
“Mandelbrot Set are a loud band. They like their drones and their converse-gazing, they like to use sample pedals and to change instruments during sets, but mainly they like to be loud, and they like to do it differently. Formed by Keung, from the ashes of his previous band, Hentai, of whom Drowned In Sound remarked "It's a relief to know that not all angsty teenagers listen to Radiohead and spend the rest of their adolescence trying to emulate Muse. Some of them stick Boards Of Canada stickers on their guitars, acquire DD-5 sample pedals and violin bows, and proceed to work the Mogwai-esque quiet / loud / louder / apocalyptic dynamic till their ears bleed." Mandelbrot Set take their love of all things on the Constellation label, their penchant for electronics, effects pedals and live sampling, their Shellac-esque rhythmic aggression, and combine it all into a wall of noise, melody and epic structure that would make Kevin Shields envious. Joined by Simon on drums and multi-instrumentalist Melisa, the disparate influences and creative energies of the three combine to create a inspired palette of sound and texture, a dense cloud of harmonic resonance, yet timed with enough space and clarity for all the individual elements to shine through.” [press release]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| MANGROVE KIPLING |
In between stability |
mCD-R |
New project on this new label from Berlin’s SCISS, creating repetitive small drone-explosions, scrapes & hisses & whispering voices, all well executed and with special cardboard box. Tip !
“this piece comprehends several variations on editing the environment, heard through a classic instrument, the guitar, which occupies 95% of the sound field. The computer allows the mixing process of the different samples, the latter creating the breathing of the machine. The instrument gives voice to the machine. The spatialization of the different sources in the audio field can be then organized as an orchestra in which each instrument would be an edited part of a guitar sound, played simultaneously as if by severals musicians following a pattern. Each sound has its own identity and only varies when added to another, or more, which creates the dynamic of the piece. It is the freezing of fragments revoicing a moment, in another language.” [press release]
|
2004 |
€7.00 |
|
| MANIFESTO |
Rust |
CD |
"Silken Tofu is proud to present RUST, the third album by Swedish artist Magnus Zetterberg aka Manifesto. Emotional and mental decay, self-contempt and depression being the main themes, RUST consists of seven brooding
yet introspective tracks, following the proud death industrial tradition of other Swedish artists as Megaptera, Mental Destruction et al.
After releases on such labels as Plague Recordings and Quartier23, this is the most accomplished and mature work of MANIFE STO." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Exit |
CD |
"Being a part of the alternative scene since more than 15 years past, Magnus Zetterberg's Manifesto has created a trademark of bleak and dark electronica, industrial textures and blackened ambient that satisfies a diverse taste of listening with it's manifold expression. Catching up with this act in 2008, in connection with the release of the album Core, the label found it only natural to get in touch again. Since then, Manifesto has released material on such labels as Silken Tofu and Bone Structure (to mention a few) and played live across northern Europe.
Exit is the finalization of four years of transformative work where turbulence, creation and re-creation sets the thematics. The entering track unfolds existence as elusive and impermanent and onwards the harsh sides of reality push us towards entropy." [label info]
ralignment.tictail.com
"Manifesto is the solo project of Swede Magnus Zetterberg who has been issuing material under this name since 2000. Having previously released a series of albums, splits, live recordings and ep’s, ‘Exit’ is his latest 19th release and follows 2012’s ‘Rust’ album on Silken Tofu. Sonically Manifesto deal with soundtrack styled ambient music of a darker hue (aka ‘dark ambient’ for a more straight forward genre descriptor), which also fits within the recognizable traits of such music coming from northern European spheres.
Musically speaking dank sub-orchestral drones provide the sonic bedrock, which is then augmented with a meticulous level of textual sonic detailing. The sound palate is also embedded with a high degree of mechanized tonality and jagged industrial based distortion in a few fleeting moments. Evidently Magnus has had formally trained in sound engineering and music production, with the results of this being absolutely demonstrated within the refined dark ambient approach on display. 5 tracks are featured, with each ranging from 5 to 13 minutes and which play out as variations on established dark ambient genre traits, where some pieces are dour and brooding, whilst others featuring driving and rhythmically pounding undercurrents. Yet collectively the greatest impression of ‘Exit’ is a strong ‘cinematic’ atmosphere and specifically that of a dystopian science fiction type motion picture.
Although not necessary turning the tables of what can be expected from dark ambient music in 2016, this is still a complex, diverse and enjoyable listen, to very much constitute a soundtrack to a non-existent film. Mini gate-fold cardboard sleeve rounds out the packaging." [Noise Receptor]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MANINKARI |
Un Souffle de Voix |
CD |
"Maninkari is an instrumentalist duo combining different ways of improvisation and composition related to ambient, dark & minimalist music, jazz and surreal. The music of Maninkari lives in medieval alchemy, this album works primarily on a research for atmosphere. Dark and repetitive music, mixtures of drum, viola and santoor and looking for a mystic paroxysm.
These songs were originally intended to be released as a sideproject under the Ephemerole banner but as time grew it became the next Maninkari album." [label info]
www.neuropa.be
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Continuum Sonore |
CD |
"You'll get in "Continuum Sonore" in well-known territories: deep alto with ethnic percussions. You're in a Maninkari record, no doubts.
But that's where the french duo will left the obviousness. After a handfull of critically acclaimed records on labels such as Conspiracy, Three:Four and Neuropa to name a few, Maninkari offered to Basses Frequences the chance to release something different: a drone album. If the band already used deep, continuous sounds in its previous works it never handle them with such extended, pure approach. They didn't used drums nor percussions apart on the intro, but their usual kind of traditional instruments (cymbalom, alto, bodhran) and manipulated fields recordings, to create solar or nightmarish drones. The band totally reached its goal and offered us a majestic piece of drone that I'm really proud of." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2012 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Phantasmes |
LP |
"Phantasmes is a 50 minutes experimental movie written and directed by Thomas Pantalacci. “A sensory experience between dream and reality, fantasy and eroticism, awakening and sleep…”
For that purpose, the band Maninkari wrote a two-part - one per side - 39 minutes soundtrack with multiple pieces. The tracks are not marked out because here, even silence is vital. It doesn’t soothe the tensions, but amplifies the feeling of oddness of the music. Dark ambient, syncopated drumming, dissonant chords… Maninkari use all the sonority spectrum, mixing aggressive high-pitched violin with deep and voluptuous bass sounds.
Playing on the thin border between dreaming and awakening, Phantasmes is a mental and physical record; seductive, disturbing and lustful.
Includes a download code for a free download of the album." [label info]
www.three-four.net
"The brothers Charlot return here (see also Vital Weekly 843 and 815) with thirty-nine minutes of music which they recorded for a '50 minute experimental movie written and directed by Thomas Pantalacci' and which is described as as 'a sensory experience between dream and reality, fantasy and eroticism, awakening and sleep…'. Usually Maninkari use a lot of percussion, but it seems that in their more recent musical outings they also use other instruments, such as viola, cimbalom, keyboards and samples. And yes, lots of effects. They easily reach for that bit of reverb, to add that extra layer of 'space' and 'mystic' to the music. Thank god, however, not always, and they use it wise and sparsely. Of course I haven't seen the movie, but I can imagine, based on the soundtrack, what it will look like. Dark and moody, but not always as 'loaded' as you would expect. Maninkari also leave room for quieter moments, sparser moments if you will. Sometimes a simple drone is all that we are left with, or even some crackles - it might be the vinyl. But then sometimes the music start to expand, growing, bigger and takes on dramatic courses. For instance on the b-side, somewhere half way through. When that happens, it usually involves percussion, loud and clear - manually and not mechanically played. The dramatic changes in the music made me surely curious about the film. There is a lot of tension in this piece of black vinyl. Excellent mood enhancher." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
|
L'Océan Rêve dans sa Loisiveté |
CD |
"Around the theme of the ocean symbolising the subconscious, the hidden world and a very personal concept of "loisiveté" a combintion of idleness "oisiveté" and law "loi", Maninkari continues exploring a weird and dreamlike world.
As usual, the Charlot brothers resort almost exclusively to the use of acoustic instruments with oriental origins (bodhran, cymbalom, santoor, zurna).
Percussion instruments especially the bodhran play melodic or textural figures, whereas stringed instruments become repetitive to a point where they embody the rythmics.
The combination of repetition and oriental tones create a heady sound continuum providing the 10 nameless tracks with a mantra-like resonance. A short breathing in the middle of the album with an organ and birdsong is the only quiet moment of this tormented (but without violence), and meditative (but without bliss) record.
The permanent state of tension recalls the rigours of law and repetition provides the calm alternative of idleness "l'oisiveté". The ocean offers all of it's grandeur to this introspective journey." [label info]
www.three-four.net
"The two brothers Charlot who call them selves Maninkari have been reviewed a couple of time before in these pages and their music is always build around percussion, but not solely consisting thereof. I must admit I didn't quite get the wordplay in the title: "around the theme of the ocean symbolising the subconscious, the hidden world and a very personal concept of 'loisivete' a combination of idleness 'oisivete' and law 'loi', Maninkari continues exploring a weird and dreamlike world", I read in the press text. This duo has recorded a few soundtracks, but this works stands by itself. Manikari uses a variety of percussion instruments of oriental origin such as the bodhran, cymbalom, santoor and zuma, but also stringed instruments played in a percussive way. That's something that creates overtones, which accounts for the humming textures. I am not entirely sure what is played live here and what is added by way of editing and post-processing. There is surely a bit of reverb added to create more drama and more moods, or perhaps this was recording in a more empty, open space. There is a tribal aspect to their music, but Maninkari doesn't force this upon the listener. There aren't any signs of sigils and Crowley quotes. The music of Maninkari reminds me of Rapoon, Muslimgauze (less political of course), but also Desaccord Majeur, to give a French point of reference. I thought it was a bit odd Maninkari doesn't use any titles for their pieces, but perhaps I liked that. No reference which clears your head and think of titles yourself for these dark sound scapes. It is surely another fine addition to their already impressive catalogue of works." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Continuum Sonore part 7>14 |
CD |
"Maninkari, a duo hailing from France, should be a well-known one for ambient lovers. They have already released six albums on renowned labels such as Conspiracy, Neuropa or Basses Frequencies. Their influences range from classical music through jazz and free improv ending with ambient and drone. Therefore, it is not easy to classify them as a modern post-industrial electronica combo.
The duo works quite intensively. They have just prepared the second volume of their 2012 ”Continuum Sonore” album. What enchanted us about Maninkari while listening to part 7-14 ”Continuum Sonore” compostion of is their easiness in creating beautiful, but haunting melodies drowned in cinema-like atmosphere. It is not surprising as the duo have created music for films of Thomas Pantalacci. Their other advantage is varied instrumental textures. Apart from regular synthesizers and not so common persussion, they use atypical instruments, such as bodhran, viola, cimbalom, santoor. It brings them closer to the neoclassical genre. The CD is housed in an ecopak sleeve and is strictly limited to 300 copies. The cover was designed by Maninkari. ”Continuum Sonore 7>14” was mastered by Łukasz Miernik. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Un Phénomène De Reliance |
CD |
After a few years, Maninkari returns to Zoharum with a new, already third studio album for the label. "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is a kind of concept album, it's something like a suite, consisting of four separate compositions. There are no spectacular twists or unexpected musical revolts here. The duo of Charlot brothers continues to follow the path chosen by them, masterfully developing the formula they developed years ago. We are dealing here with illustrative music, extremely vivid, strongly influencing the imagination of the audience.Certainly, it could serve as the soundtrack to an unspecified movie based on a somewhat dreamlike plot. It would be great as a sound for a performance or ballet. The French use classical instruments with quite a lot of freedom, and at the same time with impeccable virtuosity, to create a rather peculiar musical abstract, based on compositions that are characterized by incredible lightness, harmony and melodic beauty, at the same time giving the impression of fleetin, airy miniatures. where each note seems to sound only for a moment before disappearing into a huge space, filled with silence. Trying to properly describe what "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is, we can use the terms "ambient" or "chamber music". However, neither of these expressions will fully represent what is contained in this publication. At the same time, it is worth devoting special time to, somewhere in the privacy of your home, to be able to concentrate on the pleasure of listening and exploring this very intimate, personal and captivating music.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/un-phenomene-de-reliance
######################
"Genre/Influences: Experimental, Ritual, Cinematic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Frédéric and Olivier Charlot -who are also involved with other projects like Sphyxion, are back on track unleashing a new opus of Maninkari.They already released several albums but this is their third one on Zoharum.
Content: The work features 4 songs which have been progressively built up by the mix of authentic instruments and electronic treatments. The viola injects a deeply, atmospheric, darkness to the work while the rhythmic make it all sound Ritual.
+ + + : I like Maninkari for their authenticity, the use of acoustic instruments not only adding an artistic touch to the work but also a poignant, atmospheric, touch. The title song is a true masterpiece whereon the Charlot brothers have found a perfect balance between the different instruments. The viola is absolutely terrific here. You also can notice improvised passages but the work remains constantly accessible.
– – – : It needs a few minutes before you totally get into the poignant sonic universe of Maninkari. So you better be a little bit patient.
Conclusion: Subtle improvisation with a styled, acoustic, touch on top." [Side-Line]
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Un Phenomene De Reliance |
LP |
After a few years, Maninkari returns to Zoharum with a new, already third studio album for the label. "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is a kind of concept album, it's something like a suite, consisting of four separate compositions. There are no spectacular twists or unexpected musical revolts here. The duo of Charlot brothers continues to follow the path chosen by them, masterfully developing the formula they developed years ago. We are dealing here with illustrative music, extremely vivid, strongly influencing the imagination of the audience.Certainly, it could serve as the soundtrack to an unspecified movie based on a somewhat dreamlike plot. It would be great as a sound for a performance or ballet. The French use classical instruments with quite a lot of freedom, and at the same time with impeccable virtuosity, to create a rather peculiar musical abstract, based on compositions that are characterized by incredible lightness, harmony and melodic beauty, at the same time giving the impression of fleetin, airy miniatures. where each note seems to sound only for a moment before disappearing into a huge space, filled with silence. Trying to properly describe what "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is, we can use the terms "ambient" or "chamber music". However, neither of these expressions will fully represent what is contained in this publication. At the same time, it is worth devoting special time to, somewhere in the privacy of your home, to be able to concentrate on the pleasure of listening and exploring this very intimate, personal and captivating music.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/un-phenomene-de-reliance
######################
"Genre/Influences: Experimental, Ritual, Cinematic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Frédéric and Olivier Charlot -who are also involved with other projects like Sphyxion, are back on track unleashing a new opus of Maninkari.They already released several albums but this is their third one on Zoharum.
Content: The work features 4 songs which have been progressively built up by the mix of authentic instruments and electronic treatments. The viola injects a deeply, atmospheric, darkness to the work while the rhythmic make it all sound Ritual.
+ + + : I like Maninkari for their authenticity, the use of acoustic instruments not only adding an artistic touch to the work but also a poignant, atmospheric, touch. The title song is a true masterpiece whereon the Charlot brothers have found a perfect balance between the different instruments. The viola is absolutely terrific here. You also can notice improvised passages but the work remains constantly accessible.
– – – : It needs a few minutes before you totally get into the poignant sonic universe of Maninkari. So you better be a little bit patient.
Conclusion: Subtle improvisation with a styled, acoustic, touch on top." [Side-Line]
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| MANTRA, MICHAEL |
Amanita Lake |
do-CD & DVD |
"Two hours and a half of music collected on a double CD set that also contain a DVD video. Two long tracks of sublime and evocative pseudo-abstract and multicoloured ambient textures, built with “discreet” and repetitive background microstructures layered with continuous and infinite variations worked out from “clusters” of sounds and “sketches” of melodic sequences made of light sonorities, “delicate” and “quiet” as well, but also hypnotic and warm… Fragile harmonies and mild dissonances in a timeless sonic continuum that enwraps and “rocks” the listener, among infinite spirals and floating waves in an everlasting movement… Another new, mind-boggling masterpiece, absolutely unmissable for all the lovers of Michael Mantra’s music." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| MARANHA, DAVID & Z'EV |
Obsidiana |
CD |
"David Maranha, hammond organ. Z'ev, stainless steel discs, bass drum, maracas. Recorded live at zdb, Lisbon, 24 june 2010. Certain musicians names can speak for themselves, before even a note of music has been played. Their reputations proceed them, although of course there will also be those ignorant of both reputation and name. David Maranha - solo or with Osso Exotico - explores the territories opened up half a century ago by John Cale and Tony Conrad. Z'ev is the grandmaster of industrial/ tribal percussion. The fusion they create together is a magma of movement and stasis before which only legless cripples will remain motionless." [label info]
www.sonoris.org
"A meeting of minimalists, I'd say, but minimalists with a maximum output. I saw David Maranha once in concert at his organ, loud and long, and minimal, like Terry Riley on speed. Z'EV is a man to play percussion on stainless steel discs, bass drum and maracas and most his playing is minimal, letting tones do the work in the space it is played in, leading to heavy bouncing sounds. These two heavy weights plays a concert at ZDB in Lisbon on June 24 2010 and the result is this thirty-five some piece. It starts out moody and slow, silent with Z'EV playing the stainless steel discs, waving the listeners into some kind of obscure magic ritual which is about to take place. Tones bend in various directions and slowly the hammond organ on Maranha comes in and from then on things evolve in quite a natural way, but once everything is in place it no longer carries that ritualist tag, but unfolds itself as a great psychedelic piece of music. Terry Riley meets the Velvet Underground. When Z'EV picks up the maracas to play the bass drum, Maranha starts adding some fine clusters in the lower region, and both knit a very dense pattern of closely linked tones. Maybe just a bit short with a bit too abrupt ending, and next to being at the real concert, I can imagine the CD is best substitute." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| MARANHA, DAVID / FERRANDINI, GABRIEL |
A Fonte de Aretusa |
LP |
"A fonte de Aretusa is the convergence between the legendary organist David Maranha and the free-form young revelation drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Based in Lisbon, Portugal this duo started in 2010, with regular rehearsals and concerts that lead to this first album that captures a bloody free live act where the music is pulsing and vibrating over a droning flow of sound. 42 minutes (here divided in two, due to vinyl restrictions) of a massive attack to the listener among free percussive frames and brutal organic drone merging together into a powerful and permanent movement of vivid music captured in one of their first live performances at ZDB venue. 150g LP, 400 gr carton cover with black inner sleeve." [label info]
www.mazagran.org
|
2011 |
€17.50 |
|
| MARCHETTI, LIONEL |
Knud un Nom de Serpent |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des erfolgreichen MARCHETTI-Albums von 1999 (soweit wir wissen sein erstes full-length Solo-Album), ein in höchstem Maße forderndes Collagen-Werk mit Aufnahmen von schamanistischen Ritualen & ritueller Musik, inspiriert von MIRCEA ELIADE.
"Having seen Marchetti perform live with Jerome Noetinger, this CD comes as somewhat of a surprise. Starting with African music, followed by part of a French chanson and parts of spoken word, this work obviously needs a different approach. After reading the press release, things become clearer: Marchetti has a strong interest in shamanism and tries 'to make the listener live with my mythology, more aware of the world's potential forces'. Collage seems to be the method to achieve this goal. All tracks consist of numerous citations from music from all over the world and all over the times. The result is a work that one can listen to over and over again, because of the richness of its ingredients. Others can probably not stand the complexity..." [Roel Meelkop, Vital Weekly]
"Back by popular demand ! Lionel Marchetti's classic album of harrowing tape music from 1999, Knud un Nom de Serpent (Le Cercle des Entrailles), was published by Intransitive in 1999, quickly sold out, and remains the most requested title to be resurrected from our back catalog. We're thrilled to make Knud available again, now with a striking new cover design and an appreciative essay by Bhob Rainey (nmperign, The BSC). The gripping drama of Knud un Nom de Serpent illustrates Marchetti's idea of popular music as Shamanic ritual, a gateway to ecstatic altered states. Armed with fierce wit and a razor blade, he smashes together sounds from all over the world into a hallucinatory cyclone of Jamaican reggae, French chanson, American avant-garde vocalists, Thai pop songs, nature recordings, spoken text, and more. The result is a chilling work of furious, obliquely narrative tape-collage and tense, frightening scenes. As Marchetti explained to The Wire magazine, 'I've always been interested in the idea of the medicine man. Someone who by sheer force of imagination transports you into another world, part artist, part healer. Maybe that's what a composer is.' Lionel Marchetti (France, 1967) is a self-taught composer of musique concrète. He has built his own recording studio, and has composed in the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris since 1993. Marchetti also performs improvised music with microphones and loudspeakers as a duo with Jérôme Noetinger, as part of the group quintetAvant, and with the collective Le Cube, which performs live music and interactive film. Marchetti's book La Musique Concrète De Michel Chion was published by Éditions Metamkine in 1998. Also available: int031 Lionel Marchetti & Seijiro Murayama 'Hatali Atseli (L'Echange des Yeux)' CD." [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Alpha Z Centauris |
MC |
"I started recording sounds when I was 17 years old, in 1984 when by chance someone gave me a K7 tape recorder with 2 diverse speeds... I discovered recording sounds was already a full and poetic act which was able to be used for the experimental music which i was dreaming of. In 1987, after one month of hard work in a summer camp restaurant I bought a 4-track stereo tape recorder and I started a lot of experiments in my little flat in Lyon (France) : via an old Radiola radio from the 50's, my hifi system, an old synthesizer, my clarinet (I tried to play in water), a rhythm machine, a bad (good?) microphone etc. At that period I knew nothing about Revox tape recorders and the idea of tape montage. Nevertheless, when I started Katakomb (which is a part of a series of my first 33 little musique concrete compositions, I discovered how incredible was the changing of speed for a recorded sound, or all synthesizer sounds, voices... and the beautiful possibility to reverse all sounds - I was discovering the 'power' of a recorded sound. For me, the act of recording became an incredible acceleration to join a new poetic 'world' : Katakomb was the first composition which was talking to me from a 'nowhere' place as if, as a composer, I became a 'stranger'. Satan and Alpha Z Centauris are composed as little free musique concrete studies and they follow what I started in 1987 : the idea of an accumulation of little aphoristic studies which can communicate all together even if they are composed in diverse periods and studio places. I have, since that period and always today, numerous little study compositions following that direction and I am happy to build around them, via a first edition of my archives on Mirror Tapes which has founded a new architectural place of montage and perceptions.' L.M. *A professionally duplicated & factory sealed C30 cassette tape with tape inlay professionally offset printed in full-colour. Limited Edition : 250 copies only." [label info]
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
La grande vallee / Micro-climat |
LP |
"I wonder if my fascination for clouds (without being an obsession) may have risen at the end of the '80s as, whilst composing 'Micro-climat', I would regularly wander between the Vercors mountains and the high plateaus of the Monts du Forez discovering, through my eyes, body, breath, active observation and walk, that natural forms when constantly changing and yet swollen with a unity of matter (in this instance, water) open one up to a deep, fundamental breath and a clear field for the mind. The sky and its forces: our ally. A model for a natural music which, although fixed, as in musique concrète (a rule of the genre), moreover on a recording tape, will remain charged with such a poetic quality that (isn't it its role or rather its reality?) it will ensure a perpetual renewal for our senses, so as to reach another idea of the world, far more open and richer than what we could have imagined." --Lionel Marchetti, 2011.
"Lionel Marchetti is a major figure of the 'third generation' of concrète musicians, a term he values. Listening to these works, imbued with poetry and traversed by micro-narratives, one can indeed retrieve the original concrète spirit, the one that draws from the sonic world, with ears wide open, so as to extract a fertile, rich and multiple substance then shaped and conveyed towards a formal and musical abstraction. Lionel Marchetti has mastered this process, but his real distinctive feature is a truly unique talent for setting climates (as one sets traps) and keeping us on constant alert. The two pieces in this record perfectly illustrate the entrancing dimension of Lionel Marchetti's music, whose charm leads us, through each successive listening, to become voluntary captives so as to better liberate ourselves." --François Bonnet, Paris, 2020.
"La grande vallée": Musical composition, design and sound production carried out at the INA grm Studios (Paris) in 1993/95; Original audio recordings in the Drôme and the Mont Ventoux areas "Micro-climat" is the first movement of the Sirrus cycle (Micro-climat, Passerelle, Sirrus) composed in 1989/90; Musical composition, sound design and production, audio recordings in 1989/90 at the CFMI studios in Lyon (Lumière University, Lyon 2). Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi; Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, November 2020; Translations: Valérie Vivancos; Layout: Stephen O'Malley.
https://lionelmarchetti.bandcamp.com/album/la-grande-vall-e-micro-climat
"A long-standing member of Groupe De Recherches Musicales, the French composer, Lionel Marchetti, is one of the great contemporary exponents of musique concrète and acousmatic playback, having worked in the idioms since the late 1980s - producing dozens of solo and collaborative releases - and written extensively on the subjects. He is regarded as among the most important figures within the idiom’s third wave.
Recollection GRM’s LP, La grande vallee / Micro-climat, dives back toward the earliest days of the composer’s catalog of works. The album’s first side comprises the work La grande vallee, which was created at GRM between 1993 and 1995, before its original release in 1998 as part of Metamkine’s legendary Cinéma Pour L'Oreille series.
Drawing on a vast range of recordings from diverse sources - many taken from the natural world - over the works’ 20+ minutes, Marchetti weaves a startlingly imagistic and hauntingly musical tapestry of sonority. Shadows of ambience rise and fall amongst long tones and bristling textures, sculpting a space to be occupied fully, and where the boundaries between obscurity, clarity, and abstraction fade within expanses of brilliantly balanced organisations of sound.
The entire second side is given over to an earlier work, Micro-climat, created by Marchetti in 1989 and 1990 at the CFMI studios in Lyon, but remaining unreleased until 2001, when it appeared on his CD only release, Sirrus, issued by Auscultare Research. While radically different and arguably more explicitly experimental in its material presence than La grande vallee, the work similarly speaks from Marchetti’s intimate relationship with the natural world, drawing much of its inspiration and source material from his wanderings during this period in the Vercors mountains and Monts du Forez in the south of France.
Building on heavily processed tones and textures that dance with interspersed environment sounds - locatable and unplaceable - the work’s engrossing structures pulse with energy in a careful balance between pure abstraction and the ephemeral trace.
Largely unknown outside of France and a small number of devoted fans of experimental electronic practice, Recollection GRM’s LP, La grande vallee / Micro-climat, presents Lionel Marchetti as a crucial and welcome voice in late 20th and 21st century musique concrète.
A deeply poetic channeling of the natural world through rigorously experiential techniques, with its two works appearing for the first time ever on vinyl, it’s a vibrant and engrossing listen from start to finish that shouldn’t be missed. Like all things from the label, it’s bound to go fast so grab it while you can." [Soundohm]
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| MARCHETTI, LIONEL & SEIJIRO MURAYAMA |
Hatali atsalei (l'echange des yeux) |
CD |
"For his second album on Intransitive, Lionel Marchetti returns to his favorite subject: music as an essential element of ritual and ecstatic trance states. Unlike his Knud un Nom du Serpent cd (to be reissued in Spring 2008), which offered a critique of avant-garde and popular music as an extension of the transcendental impulse, Hatali Atsalei is more literally an experience of ritual. Using percussion, wind instruments, field recordings of natural sounds, and most importantly the voice of collaborator Seijiro Murayama, Marchetti once again gives us a multi-leveled engagement with the elemental urge to converse with nature and to use sound as a means to achieve altered states of consciousness. Referencing narrative radio art, musique concrete and acoustic ecology, Hatali Atsali is a fascinating work that reveals more layers with each listen." [label info]
"... Marchetti uses fire, water, wind instruments and percussion along with the voice of Seijiro Murayama, the percussion of ANP. It's a work that is not like many around in the fields of musique concrete. Usually it's a strictly composed piece of music from daily sounds and field recording, heavily processed, but Marchetti and Murayama take it into a theatrical field and makes things very visual by using sound only. The crackling of fire, the far away drum sound, the splashes of water and the voice make you feel almost part of the ritual, but you remain an outsider. It's hard to tell what the ritual is about, but you can watch/listen with full fascination. It's a work that grows in the listener. It's brief at thirty-three minutes, but as soon as it was over, I played it again and it started to grow on me further. It's highly captivating visual music, very much along the lines of Etant Donnes' 'Bleu' CD - and that's possibly the only thing I can compared it with. A true beauty, fascinating and captivating." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.intransitiverecordings.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| MAREGIANO, ANNE |
CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE, THE GOLDEN SOUND |
DVD |
"Born in New York City, composer, performer, and visual artist Charlemagne Palestine was a contemporary of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass in the avantgarde classical music scene of the 1960s and 1970s. On stages filled with his own home-made stuffed animals, Palestine performs his trance-like strumming music. He is often referred to as a minimal composer, but rejects that in favour of maximalism. Anne Maregiano's documentary about Palestine, The Golden Sound (2011), allows the artist to tell his own story while putting his music and performance, in long, unedited takes, at the centre of the film' - Michael Garrad, (Close Up) Bonus Films: 'The Red Suitcase' by Anne Maregiano (2011). 'Body Music 'by Charlemagne Palestine (1975). 'Charlemagne 2 : Piltzer' by Pip Chodorov (2002). 'Sound Recording: March 7, 1975' by Charlemagne Palestine. Book (44 pages) with texts written by Ingram Marshall, Roland Spekle, Pip Chodorov and Anne Maregiano. Photos by Kathleen Agnoli, Elaine Hartnett, James Lapine, Charlemagne Palestine. English with French subtitles." [label info]
"Il est 19h30 au Louvre le 6 mars 2001. Charlemagne Palestine descend les marches du grand auditorium avec sa valise en toile rouge. Il porte un grand chapeau Weston, plusieurs écharpes bariolées, un pantalon orange et des chaussures rouges. Il pose sa valise devant le majestueux piano Bösendorfer et en sort une grenouille, un petit singe, un ours, un perroquet… quelques peluches rescapées des poubelles de l’histoire. Charlemagne débute son concert devant une salle pleine. Il ne faut pas plus de cinq minutes de Strumming Music pour qu’un spectateur se lève et crie au scandale. Le concert s’interrompt, Charlemagne lui suggère de quitter la salle. Après un échange musclé, l’homme à lunettes se rassoit. A la fin du concert, je revois la même personne félicitant Charlemagne de sa performance. Que s’est-il passé ? Qu’est-ce qu’il lui a fait changer d’avis : l’origine ukrainienne de l’artiste, son appartenance à l’avant-garde new-yorkaise au début des années 70 (Tony Conrad, La Monte Young, John Cale, Taylor Mead, Terry Riley...), son expérimentation électro-acoustique à Los Angeles (Morton Subotnick, Ingram Marshall), son art vidéo (Nam June Paik), ses accointances avec le cinéma expérimental (Stan Brakkage) ou son exil vers l’Europe. Le film vient de commencer… » Sous la forme d’une confession intime et sur fond d’archives d’époque (vidéos, photos et musiques inédites), Charlemagne nous livre sa quête de « l’or sonore". [Anne Maregiano] |
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| MARGOLIS, AL & DAN BURKE |
Live April 5, 2008 - Le Bonheur, Brussels, Belgium |
CD-R |
"Guess I owe it to Mecha-orga who upon landing in athens after a mini european tour phoned and asked for a usual meeting at Varsos in Kifissia to combine our recent news with our beloved sweets and coffee... It was a pleasant shock to find a raw live cdr recording of the Margolis-Burke set waiting for me as a surprise from Al & Dan. And no matter that I might long some 15 more or less years to see (mostly out of my stupidity of not asking earlier) an If,bwana (Al Margolis)-Illusion of safety (Dan Burke) release on absurd but the result is a documentation of an enchanting evening in a space that was full of those soundscapes that landmark & explore the sounds of Al & Dan's universe as we know it so far why don't you go in search of it?" [label info]
www.noise-below.org
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| MARGOLIS, AL / IF, BWANA |
REX XHU PING |
CD |
Mehr Musik aus AL MARGOLIS Genre-losen experimentellen Zwischenreich, hier auf sechs Stücken in verschiedensten Besetzungen solo oder in Interaktion, meist in ruhigen, fast meditativen Sphären, z.B. das wunderbare zweite Stück FROG FIELD, das auf klangvollen Xylophon-Loops basiert. Aber eine gewisse Bizarrheit (Instrumentierung, Sprache) ist immer präsent... vielleicht das bisher ausgereifteste und zugänglichste Werk des legendären Cassetten-Täters (SOUND OF PIG)......
“New Al Margolis release features Margolis¹s compositions for tapes, electronics, voice, drones. Rex Xhu Ping (pronounced rex shoe ping) features Margolis (tapes, electronics, clarinet, and sundries), Laura Biagi (vocals), Dan Andreana (speaker, tapes), Detta Andreana (tapes, bowed cymbals), and Orchestre de Fou.
A recent review of Margolis¹s work says: "Let it be declared that Al Margolis/If, Bwana is some sort of evil genius working with raw materials which are never adapted to a genre or a context, because they create one in that very moment. Those sources are radically altered up to an utterly unrecognizable state, anarchic manifestations moving in compact determination." (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes)
[label description]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
An Innocent, Abroad |
CD |
Zwei grossartige neue Stücke von IF BWANA aka AL MARGOLIS, der im Frühjahr 2008 auch endlich mal in Euopa live zu sehen war (z.B. im Hamburger B-MOVIE). AN INNOCENT ABROAD lässt sich als höchst strange & surreale Geräuschmusik charakterisieren, basierend auf der Stimme von LISA BARNARD und Flöteneinspielungen, in einer NURSE WITH WOUND-ähnlichen Machart bearbeitet und collagiert.
"The new Al Margolis/If, Bwana cd is comprised of Issue, for electronics and multi-tracked voice, and An Innocent, Abroad, a 40 plus minute work for electronics, vocals, and flutes. An Innocent, Abroad can be best described as a Sonic Oratorio: an assemblage, a construction of an event that never happened or will happen. A live installation for radio, perhaps. There is no "meaning" to the text. All parts were drawn or are inter-related to the original vocal track, recorded by Lisa Barnard, which is no longer present. The text/voice part has been multi-tracked and now represents five "separate entities". The electronic parts have been extracted and processed from the original vocal track. The five flute parts were performed by Jane Rigler and Jacqueline Martelle, and was be improvised by them. They recorded to the separate voice tracks. None of the performers heard the entire piece that they worked on. Lisa Barnard is a vocalist and performance artist. Most noted work is her interpretations of her dreams into original performances for Deep Listening Institute's annual Dream Festivals. Jacqueline Martelle is a flutist and arts administrator, living in New York City since 1996. She performs new music and has recorded on the Mode and Centaur record labels. Jane Rigler, flutist, composer, educator and producer is an active featured performer in contemporary music festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe as a soloist as well as within chamber ensembles
Al Margolis was one of the prime movers in the cassette underground scene of the 1980s (between 1984 and 1991 his Sound Of Pig label released over 300 cassettes of music by the likes of Merzbow, Costes, Amy Denio, John Hudak and Jim O'Rourke) and is the éminence grise behind twenty-three years of music under the name If, Bwana. He is the man behind the Pogus label, as well as label manager for Deep Listening, XI Records, and Mutable Music." [label info]
"The resulting texture sounds more like a Horatiu Radulescu piece performed by Morphogenesis." [DW]
www.pogus.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MARHAUG / ASHEIM |
Grand Mutation |
CD |
"Orgelspiel trifft Laptop-Electronica - spannende Ambientkompositionen im Stil von Johann Johannsson. Hat sich das britische Touch Label mit der Spire"-Serie schon absolute Kompetenz in zeitgenössischer Orgelmusik erworben, so setzen sie mit "Grand Mutation" einen vorläufigen Höhepunkt. Die beiden Schweden Lasse Marhaug und Henrik Assheim nutzen zwei konträre Klangquellen zur Umsetzung ihrer Kunst: Henrik Assheim spielt auf einer großen Kirchenorgel, während Lasse Marhaug mit elektronischen Equipment diese Sounds manipuliert. Das Resultat ist mehr als die Summe der einzelenen Teile. Eine Mischung aus erhabener Ambientmusik, Neo-Klassik und Soundtrack arbeiten die fünf langen Stücke mit dem Raumklang und dem Volumen der Töne. Ein spannendes Hörerlebnis der modernen Avantgarde und Electronica!" [Cargo]
"Lasse Marhaug and Nils Henrik Asheim started their collaboration in 2004 at the All Ears festival in Oslo, Norway. This turned out as a fruitful meeting between two musicians of very different backgrounds. Marhaug's feedback to Asheim's organ sounds in the Oslo concert started to reflect how the work was to develop. Asheim is working with half-stops and subtle playing techniques that create multiple layers of sound with a vibrating or fluctuating character, as well as with the power of the full organ. Marhaug's tools belong to the world of sine wave oscillators and noise generators. The aim was to set a sonic frame into which they could both gradually tune. The two musicians met again in June 2006 just before Oslo Cathedral (which contains Asheim's favourite instrument) closed down for a few years of renovation work. One day of soundcheck and musical work and one night of recording produced an improvised flow of one hour, afterwards structured into five tracks. The recording was made in a live setup on the organ loft. Nils Henrik Asheim was sitting at the organ console and Lasse Marhaug right behind, playing his electronics through a loudspeaker system in order to make the electronics and the acoustic organ sound blend as close to each other as possible. Sound engineer Thomas Hukkelberg used two custom-built condenser mics for the organ, two Shure KSM 44 for the electronics and two Neumann U87 by the altar for the ambience. He used a Millennia Media HV-3 preamp and an Apogee AD-16X converter. The recordings were made at night to avoid unwanted ambient city sounds. The final mix was made by Marhaug in January 2007." [press release]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MARHAUG, LASSE |
Spaghetti Western Rainbow |
CD |
"Hailing from the land of the rising snow, Lasse Marhaug has become one of the most commanding and respected sound artists in Norway. As a musician and composer he has contributed to cd, vinyl and cassette releases for labels throughout Europe, Asia and America. Aside from solo work, Marhaug contributes to several ensembles including Nash Kontroll (iDEAL) and a large Jazkamer unit (Smalltown Supernoise) with black metal legends Enslaved. Having collaborated with artists from varying fields of musik (Sunn O))), Aaron Dilloway and Maja Ratkje) Marhaug's reach extends into musik for theatre, installations and video.
A salvo to Ennio Morricone, Spaghetti Western Rainbow stands testament to the Italian composer's enduring influence. Morricone collaborator Sergio Leone established the spaghetti western genre in 1964 with A Fistful of Dollars. The director used Morricone again to score the remaining two films in his three-part account of greed and violence (For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.) Leone's critics were struck by his brutal depiction of an unromantic West, but his singular style, camera angles and extension of time made his work different from any western that had come before. Lasse Marhaug exacts Leone's slow, beautiful power and love for expanse with shades of Morricone's subtle witchery to create what will inevitably be considered one of his masterworks. Harsh, dry passages blend with drifting soundscapes, bird calls and an asseverate guitar figure that promotes an invigorating context for film musik.
Issued on Utech Records [001] as a micro pressing of 100 cdr copies in the winter of 2004. Lasse Marhuag first performed this music as an improvised laptop work for Chicago radio station WNUR. This edition finds the original piece remastered and divided into two tracks that open and close the album. Two unreleased tracks have been added to cpmplete the disk. Artwork inspired by the film The Great Silence." [label description]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| MARIACHI AZTECA PRINCIPAL |
performs The KREV Underwater National Anthem # 2 |
7 |
Die "Nationalhymne" des Königreichs Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) in der mexikanischen Version! Der von LEIF ELGGREN und CM VON HAUSSWOLFF 1992 in Stockholm gegründete Staat besteht aus allen Grenzgebieten / Niemandslanden zwischen anderen Staaten, sowie besonderen Bewusstseinszuständen wie dem hypnagogen Zustand, dem Traum, dem "Territorium der Eskapisten" oder dem virtuellen digitalen Raum. Natürlich braucht so ein Staat auch eine Hymne, und auf dieser 7" finden sich gleich 4 Versionen, eingespielt in typisch mexikanischer Weise auf schwungvoller Trompete & Akustikgitarre bei der Eröffnung der "mexikanischen Botschaft" des Königreichs in Mexiko City im August 2002.
"These recordings were made during the inauguration of The Embassy of The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland in Mexico City on August 30, 2002 in the presence of the Krev Ambassador Magalí Arriola and invited guests at Colima 244, Colonia Roma, Mexico City." [label info]
www.ashinternational.com
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| MARIAE NASCENTI |
Raise your Paw to the Sky and break the truce |
CD |
Second Mariae Nascenti's long awaited full length album on Final Muzik is out, and we're proud of it! Produced by Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen), "Raise..." is without any doubt the best ever recorded work of Mariae Nascenti: pain, loneliness, immagination, dreams, blood, souls and flesh collide together in this emotional wonderful album. You can file it under (some) Coil or Current 93 early recordings, or it could remind you a few N.W.W. song-oriented chapters. That's ok... but "Raise..." develops though vital energy a devastating tabula rasa of feelings, through another-dimension melodies, "found" songs, silences, sudden spoken texts, obscure nightmare soundtracks and cold nocturnal music for black'n'white memories. Limited edition of 1.200 copies, digipack, including video-track and mini-booklet. Featuring musicians from Larsen, Northgate, Blind Cave Salamander, Femina Faber / Ludmila, DsorDNE, and many, many other artists and Ango's friends: Final Muzik says "THANK YOU!" to all of you for this amazing album, sisters and brothers!" [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| MARSEN JULES |
Golden |
CD |
"Den Sommer begrüßt das Genesungswerk friedlich mit diesem Album von Marsen Jules. Auf GOLDEN treffen sich Gitarre, Piano und Elektronik zu einer harmonischen ménage à trois. Gelegentlich unterstützt von Ziehharmonika, Flöte und Geige finden sie sich nach einer Winterwanderung vor dem Kamin ein. Leise knisternd entzündet sich ein Feuer und vertreibt die Kälte aus unseren Gehörgängen. Akustikgitarre und Piano zeichnen die melodischen Linien, während sich die Elektronik einfühlend der Klangfarbe des Interieurs annimmt. GOLDEN ist wahrlich ein treffender Titel , funkeln und glimmen doch bei allen sieben Stücken die Klänge, ohne ihre Hörer je zu blenden. Sehr intim, sehr nah, zugleich klar und transparent taucht die Schönheit der Instrumente den Sommer in ein neues Licht." [label info]
Electronica-Ambience reminding at times of newer ULTRA MILKMAIDS or a more poppy WILLIAM BASINSKI...
"Close followers of these pages will already be intimately familiar with the work of Marsen Jules, responsible as he is for two of the loveliest albums we've had the pleasure of stocking these last few years. His debut album "Herbstlaub" strolled into an autumnal tundra of layered strings and neo-classical arrangements that best brought to mind the work of Arvo Part, attaining both critical and commercial acclaim from all quarters of the music scene. His dense follow-up "Les Fleurs" approached similar terrain but with a more colourful sound-pallette, creating an aural bloom of dense orchestral reductions that kept the minimal composure intact despite the rays of aural sunlight allowed to seep into Jules' unique, inspiring studio. This long awaited new album "Golden" takes little time in declaring its place as a worthy successor to both its predecessors - it's a breathtaking collection of pieces that begin from the same neo-classical starting point and unfurl in different directions, taking in acoustic guitar, barely audible electronic pulses, dense orchestral reductions and heavy filtering along the way. You'd find it difficult to get past the album's incredible opening track "Birkengefluster" without finding yourself incredibly moved by what's in front of you - another shimmering weave of elongated midnight strings and subliminal melodies consorting to force you to abandon all resistance in the face of its relentless beauty. By the time second track "Wharend" wheezes into life with its prepared piano passages and other-worldly washes of sound, you'll be unable to acknowledge anything else in your surroundings bar the music. Marsen Jules is just one of those rare artists who manages to achieve so much with such limited material at his disposal - it's both the simplicity and timeless quality of the 7 long tracks here that make "Golden" not only one of the most beautiful albums you'll hear this summer, but also one that you'll find hard to let go of come autumn. Sublime music - essential listening.'' [Boomkat]
www.genesungswerk.de
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| MARSPITER |
Vigila |
CD-R |
Wagner auf Valium in einem “desolated landscape”! Slowmotion Orchester-Arrangements treffen auf Wüsten-Drones, das ganze hat einen sehr martialischen, düsteren Anstrich....
“Mars is an ancient Deity with many faces and many names. Resurrected here in a twilight gloom hovering over a mythical battlefield. The idol cracks and the voice of Ares reverberates through a mountain-valley. Operatic ritual warfare.” [label info]
“Promising debut release from an up-and-coming U.S. artist working in the field of dark ambient incorporating orchestral elements. Deep and massive soundscapes of twisted echoes, subterranean drones, barely audible voices and wind sounds combine with subtle orchestrations adding to the dramatic nature of the sounds. Pro-duplicated disc and beautiful full colour sleeve in standard jewel case.” [KAOS KONTROL]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| MARTIN, KEVIN RICHARD |
Sirens |
LP |
When I was 22 I managed to acquire Techno Animal’s Demonoid 12” at a local record store, Rocking Horse Records. I can still recall the intensities of sound that marked the first moments of listening to it. The sense of bass as a tactile surface, that rolling groove and the howling sine waves and dub sirens that scorched with a type of sonic burning sensation that to this day makes my hairs stand on end. A year later I heard Ice’s Bad Blood, from there I discovered The Bug through a release on Wordsound, a band called God, a sound movement called isolationism and much more; all of these projects had one nexus point - Kevin Richard Martin.
In 2015, Kevin and I book-ended a series of concerts at Berghain for CTM festival. For his performance, Kevin debuted a new work I’d heard very little about called ’Sirens’. I remember two things distinctly about the performance. The first thing is he opened the set with a blazing passage of bass and dub sirens that instantly transported me back to those initial moments of encountering his work. The second was the feeling of absolute, crushing bass. Not before, or since, have I felt a sense of sound pressure like this. Unlike his other work with The Bug for example, the consistent bass carrying in the space was literally breathtaking and there were moments when it seemed difficult to see clearly as my eye sockets were vibrating in a way I’d never experienced.
Sirens, which documents the intensities surrounding the delivery and early days of his first child, carries in it a sense of deep affect. The album, unlike the live work, traces out a dynamic sound world that is both tender and caustic. It charts the emotional rollercoaster that is the arrival of parenthood, heightened through the complex circumstances of his wife's emergency procedures during the birth and two further life threatening operations for his son, in the first month of the child's life. Within each piece, microcosms of sensation unfold, Kevin clearly and deftly manoeuvres us through the tumultuous journey. Seconds become hours, and hours become seconds; Sirens somehow creates a sense of time that is without anchor and is foggy in a way that is profoundly unique (and frankly pleasurable).
Kevin Richard Martin has remained a point of constant inspiration for me over several decades now. To have the opportunity to share his first ever solo recording, one that arguably opens an entirely new side of his practice, brings me the utmost pride. His work has impacted so very much on me at various points and I know I am not alone in this situation. His new work, Sirens is a life journey transposed into sound that is truly personal, but effortlessly universal. It is the start of a new chapter for Kevin and one that I know will only strengthen his place as one of the critical voices in contemporary electronic music.
- Lawrence English, March 2019
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/sirens
"Kevin Martin has tapped into a kind of unfathomable strain of desolation this year, first on King Midas Sound’s ‘Solitude’ - one of the most painfully lonely albums of recent times, and now on the first album under his own name, ’Sirens’, released by Lawrence English’s Room 40 label. It’s a startling record lost in its own thoughts, the soundtrack to personal tragedy and rebirth somehow mirroring Hildur Gudnadottir’s recent score work for Chernobyl, but in much more personal space.
Despite being a more or less constant presence on our radars since the late 90’s when we first opened our doors (actually, from way before that - 1995’s 'Macro Dub Infection' comp and 97’s 'Köner Experiment' are both foundational records here) - and despite a constant barrage of bangers under myriad guises (but mostly as The Bug), various strains of Martin's work seem to have only just recently converged into something entirely distinctive. Both ’Solitude’ and ’Sirens’ are neither showy nor self indulgent - this is music that’s ice cold yet intimate, barely-there - but utterly compelling. While its easy to make sudden impact with scudding basslines, here Martin takes a more lonely route into numerous strands of contemporary music; from dub to noise and across the abyss between, into a dimly lit corner that somehow brings out the best we’ve heard from him in over 20 years. It's nothing short of an isolationist classic." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| MARTINEZ, ISRAEL |
Exorcizios |
CD |
Ein neuer Komponist / Klangkünstler aus Mexiko, der sich zwischen bizarren musique-concrete Passagen & spannungsgeladener Elektro-Akustik bewegt... to explore & discover, special priced !
"Israel Martínez (Guadalajara, Mexico. 1979) is sound artist, empirical composer and he has a degree in communications. He works for different fields: composition of experimental - electroacoustic music, installation and sonic intervention as well as video and analysis of the impact of sound in society.
He has participated in diverse sound art, electroacoustic and experimental music festivals in Mexico in the last years as Visiones Sonoras, Mutek, Muestra Internacional de Arte Sonoro, Instrumenta, Interface and SONOM. He has also performed and his works have been played at different festivals and concerts in England, Spain, France, Austria and Colombia. Recently Israel won the Award of Distinction of Ars Electronica 2007 in the Digital Musics category for his work "Mi vida". Israel is also co-founder of the Mexican electronic alternative music label Abolipop and producer of "pop" project Nebula 3." [Virb-info]
www.abolipop.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| MARTINIS, SOCRATES |
Au Seuil de la Liberte |
7 |
"field recordings & objects composed by Socrates Martinis, 2009. title refers to the same painting by René Magritte, 1937. on gorgeous coloured vinyl." [label info]
http://absurd.noise-below.org/
"The same person who is working as Nixilx.nijilx, Blanco Estira Nuestro and Helice Peid is working as Socrates Martins and for his 7" he took the title of a painting by Rene Margritte from 1937. On these pieces he plays 'field recordings and objects', but all of this highly obscured through extremely lo-fi transformations. It seems like captured on a cassette (or perhaps a whole bunch of cassettes), which add a low resolution to the material. It moves low over the surface of sound and is truly obscure record, but also a captivating one, I think. Maybe because one doesn't have a clue what's going on here, it leaves lots of space to contemplate about that. A record that poses more questions then the answer it gives. Which I guess if you call yourself Socrates Martins is the whole idea. Beautiful obscurity." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
| MARUTTI, ANDREA |
Traces 94-95 |
mCD-R |
The first release in a new & cheap priced mCDR-series on the re-build TAALEM – label from France comes from ANDREA MARUTTI, the man behind AMON and NEVER KNOWN. Here he presents older material that shows already his skill to build sensible atmospheres..
“you might not know this name but if we tell you that this is the man behind the great dark-ambient projects Amon and Never Known, we think you'll see who andrea is...here he proposes us three tracks recorded some years ago and mastered very recently especially for this release, a bit close to the old Never Known sound. not really dark-ambient, a liitle more experimental yet still melodic.” [press release]
www.taalem.com
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/traces-94-95-alm-1
|
2001 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Sleepless Nights / Lysergic Mornings |
mCD-R |
we welcome back the italian artist ANDREA MARUTTI (also known under the Amon or Never Known aliases, head of the sadly defunct Afe Records label too). andrea was the very first artist to have a 3" on taâlem, and that was exactly 18 years ago!
andrea proposes here a rather psychedelic yet dark and ambient journey in 2 parts...
notes by andrea marutti:
“Sleepless Nights | Lysergic Mornings” is particularly important both for taâlem and me, because it comes exactly 18 years after my “Traces 94-95“, which on December 3, 2001, inaugurated the now incredibly long series of the label’s publications, and also because it represents my first proper release since I re-built my studio and started working on new music during the recent years.
“A Cypher For Glitchbusters” and “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”, the two tracks featured on the EP in a seamless sequence, were created on purpose of a release on taâlem and were especially designed to fit the 3″ MiniCDr format.
In January 2019, as a sort of ‘personal experiment’ on myself, I worked on this music exclusively by night. For about one week I decided to sleep no more than a few hours each day during the late afternoon, and stayed awake all night to work with my synthesizers, sampler, effects and so on.
The resulting lack of rest put me in a particular state of mind, where I was less focused on the search of an ‘audiophile’ quality to the music, suggesting me to experiment with, and concentrate on, what would be usually considered ‘errors’. I intentionally included some glitches, tape hiss and various defects, and also used field recordings and other sounds which I originally recorded on cheap cassettes during the early ’90s, when I had an habit to slow down sounds with two tape decks and I usually re-recorded the same cassettes hundreds of times.
Both titles are inspired by this ‘experience’, and the tracks have a sort of ‘psychedelic quality’, or at least that is the impression they still give me months after their creation.
“A Cypher For Glitchbusters” is an attempt to describe with just a few words the practice I mentioned a few lines above, while “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is both an hommage to a quite more famous sonic breakfast – which I guess needs no further explanation – and a personal dedication to my closest friend who has been supporting and helping me ever since my memory can remember.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/sleepless-nights-lysergic-mornings-alm-131
"The first disc is by the Italian artist Andrea Marutti, who used to run a label called Afe
Records and also records as Amon, Spiral, Never Known and Lips Vago. His latest 3” for Taâlem
is, as the title implies, a hallucinogenic drone that throws in some weird wrenches as it gets closer to the end. Marutti works in the post-Lustmord “dark ambient” mode here, starting out with ominous blankets with low throb and slow-motion watery threat. After several minutes, the curtains lift and with cleansing light comes children talking and roughly-recorded scrape that seems like it jumped in from a different record. It’s a neat tonal shift, one that continues into Marutti’s second track,
“Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”. That title is, of course, a nod towards Pink Floyd, though its
unclear who Peter is or what the Floyd connection is. This track is another drone, though lighter in mood than the opener. The strangest part os the very end, in which the sound fades and dissipates, leaving a coda of digital glitches as if someone accidentally bumped the microphone or a cord went bad… and then abruptly hits an “off” switch. Weird." [HS/VITAL WEEKLY]
"Abnormal mind expanding landscapes
Andrea Marutti is one pioneering sound art and ambient drone music producer with a large catalogue of recordings published on his own indie label (AFE — Another Friendly Edition) and well noted niche publishers such as Eibon and Nextera.
Part of his new efforts are welcomed by the Belgium based label Taâlem (whose production is mostly devoted to experimental and underground electronic music with a fancy for droney artefacts). Among those last offerings sleepless nights | lysergic mornings plays with convincing technical abilities and inspirational inclinations on the wave of radical minimalism and eerily moving vaporous soundscapes—with Vance Orchestra and Quest. As stated in the press release the psych-out and extra-sensorial dimension is put to the front in those dense, ominous clouds of sounds and sustained electronic chords. The ensemble has a beautiful and striking vintage organic feel which give a heart ahead of the electronic curves. Repetition of phrases, looped textures are subtly punctuated by abstract micro-noises and musique concrète sounds. Somewhere between Deathprod, early Cluster I & II, Folk Rabe, and early Vidna Obmana." [Igloo Mag] |
2019 |
€5.50 |
|
| MARUTTI, ANDREA & FAUSTO BALBO |
Detrimental Dialogue |
CD |
"Andrea Marutti and Fausto Balbo have met in 2005 at Lab12 in Vigevano; both active in music making since more than fifteen years, their friendship has grown over the years on the fertile ground of the interest that they share about electronic experimentation and their wide and open-minded listening habits.
"Detrimental Dialogue", their very first collaboration, deeply explores various types of analogue and digital synthesis (additive, subtractive, Physical Modeling, FM, Phase Distortion, Granular, etc.) and live electronics elements.
Recorded together in the authors' studios and then worked out in seclusion between 2007 and 2009, the tracks on "Detrimental Dialogue" were subsequently redefined during a one-week long collective mixing session rigorously made with analogue equipment and precious outboard effects at Fausto Balbo's studio.
The album presents four experimental electronic pieces whose exact classification eludes us since their musical contents are rich of the most disparate suggestions.
In a formula full of its own natural-born personality, we find elements that recall prominent experimental forms - sometimes pseudo-abstract - rich of fragments, loops and "clusters" of sounds that bear a pronounced and exhibited synthetic matrix.
"Atmospheric", dilated and generally quiet sequences are alternated with more structured, dramatic and progressive moments that shake the listeners and emotionally involve them with a more orthodox path, without giving way to conventional or stereotyped solutions.
The artwork created by Stefano "Sicksoul" Rossetti enrich this nice work offering an "alien" rendition of the music, and once again "Space Is the Place"!" [label info]
www.aferecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| MARUTTI, ANDREA / CARLO GIORDANI |
Impressioni Organizzate di Ansie Liquide |
CD |
Building on 15 years of friendship, and nearly a decade working together, two fixtures of the Italian experimental music scene, Andrea Marutti and Carlo Giordani, come together with their collaborative debut full length release, "Impressioni Organizzate di Ansie Liquide" (Organized Impressions of Liquid Anxieties) - a rippling body of sonorous abstraction - issued by St.An.Da./Silentes.
The origins of the album date to 2011, when Andrea Marutti was asked by the filmmaker and cultural agitator, Massimo Indellicati, to compose soundtracks for a series of experimental short films - "Aquology - Oceano interiore" - centred around aquatic and science fiction themes. Intent on intervening with his own practice in electronics and synthesis, he asked field recordist, engineer, and software designer, Carlo Giordani, to come on board.
While the film project was never fully realized - only small fragments of Marutti and Giordani's initial collaboration were used - their creative relationship bore fruit, bringing them together regularly over the subsequent years, each pushing and expanding the other's approach toward sound into new territories. The album - the result of an enduring process of reworking of the cumulative material that resulted from their collaborations between December 2013 and January 2020 - melds these two distinct sensibilities into a single, palpable force.
"Impressioni Organizzate di Ansie Liquide" rests at the sublime juncture of shifting materiality and perception; where the organic transforms into the otherworldly and the synthetic bubbles with life. The collision of two highly individualized creative practices - built from a vast pallet of sonority - across its breadth, the locations of source and the intervening hand shift in and out focus, gathering as an expanse ambience and event that gives the impression of being guided by chance occurrences and responses of its own making.
Amplifying the incidental into the mystical and metaphysical, this work challenges the very notions of how we locate the meaning of music and art. Unified by the thematic vision of water that first brought Marutti and Giordani together, the album culminates as a series of evolving, abstract images, alluding to the embryonic fluids that give way to life. Drifting long tones, buzzing electronics, and woven textures of ambiguous sound, rumble and dance between the foreground and distance, penetrated by punctuations drawn intermittently from Marutti's synths and Giordani's deft snapshots of the world.
Like its subject, "Impressioni Organizzate di Ansie Liquide" is an immersive, languid realm, filled with elegant, poetic beauty, that bristle with unknown elements and the lingering potential of danger. A remarkably sensitive reminder of the creative potentialities that rest at the heart of electroacoustic, concrete, and field recording based musics, doubling as a vision of their possible futures, Marutti and Giordani have created an album that simultaneously drowns the ear and fortifies it with breaths of fresh air.
The album is presented on a glass-mastered CD limited to 200 copies which is housed in a deluxe six panel digipack with black finish, and features pictures by Stefano Gentile.
Andrea Marutti was born in 1970 in Savona and currently lives in Milan, Italy. He began his experiments with music in the early '90s using mainly tapes and objects. A few years later he also started to use synthesizers, samplers and other electronic devices, and founded the Lips Vago Digital Studio.
His most well-known projects are Amon and Never Known. During the late '90s and early '00s several of his releases in the field of Ambient / Dark Ambient music have been published by labels such as Eibon Records, Nextera, Amplexus, Silentes, Drone Records, Taâlem, etc. on CD and other formats.
For some time he was also responsible of other projects dealing with different styles of electronic music ranging from Lo-Fi, Weird and Cheap Electronica to IDM (Wolkspurz & Ramirez, Lips Vago) to Dada, Noise and Nonsense (Spiral).
With the turn of the century he started recording and releasing Experimental Ambient tracks under his own name, in duo with Giuseppe Verticchio/Nimh as Hall of Mirrors, with Davide Del Col (Ornament, Echran, Antikatechon) as Molnija Aura, and again in duo with Andrea 'Ics' Ferraris as Sil Muir. Later on he was also involved in two collective projects: Maribor with Giuseppe Verticchio, Maurizio Bianchi, Stefano Gentile, Pierpaolo Zoppo and Gianluca Favaron, and Meerkat with Andrea Ferraris, Davide Valecchi/aal, Fabio Selvafiorita, Luca Bergero/Fhievel, Logoplasm, Luca Sigurtà, Matteo Uggeri/Hue and Adriano Zanni/Punck.
During the years he also had the chance to collaborate with many other friends, musicians and artists: Fausto Balbo, Madame P, Aidan Baker, Femina Faber, a034, Moan, OvO, Sparkle in Grey, Amalia Del Ponte, K11, Subterranean Source, Raffaele Serra, ODRZ...
Between 1995 and 2013 he has ran Afe, a label devoted to experimental electronic music. During its existence, Afe has released dozens of works by many renowned international musicians: Maurizio Bianchi, Bad Sector, Maeror Tri, Telepherique, De Fabriek, Ultra Milkmaids, Aidan Baker, Logoplasm, Bestia Centauri, True Colour of Blood, Dronaement and many more.
After a few years of hiatus, in late 2017/early 2018 he re-built his studio in a new location and began to work on new projects.
Carlo Giordani is an electronic engineer, working in the field of Information and Communications Technology; he is a project manager and consultant, specialized in big data architectures, database consolidation and data warehouse migration. Previously he has worked as a geophysicist, developing data processing software related to electromagnetic fields.
Despite his technical training he has always been interested in photography and sound. One of his passions is to capture sounds, process and stratify them, dissect them with an acoustic microscope and force them to become compositions.
He began his activity of 'sound hunter' in 1981: armed with a Marantz Superscope portable cassette recorder, he used to record rain and thunderstorms. Due to the limits of the technology available to him ar the time, he reluctantly abandoned his project quite soon.
After a break which lasted almost twenty years, in 2001 he successfully resumed his activity of field-recordist, publishing many works on the Internet in a short time (some of which are now available on his personal website) and two audio CDs (namely "Sanglisente" and "La voce degli Alberi", which translates into "The Voice of Trees"); he has given lectures, live performances in selected venues and on the Internet, and has curated transmissions for Framework Radio.
Among the many other projects he has been involved in during the recent years, his contribution to three documentaries deserve a special mention. For these productions he collected and provided sounds which were essential in the narrative process:
- "L'oro bianco e altri racconti" ("White Gold and Other Tales"), a five days expedition to record the dams of Venerocolo and Pantano dell'Avio Lakes in the Brescia district, Italy;
- "Ragazzo" ("Boy"), with sounds recorded at Lagoscuro, above the Mandrone refuge in Trentino, Italy;
- "I compagni sconosciuti" ("The Unknown Companions"), with sounds sourced in an old farmhouse in the lower Brescia area, a house as a musical instrument.
In 2019 he was also present with an installation entitled "È buono e si sente" ("It's Good and You Can Hear It") at the event "Forme" at the Fair of Bergamo , Italy.
store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa2024.htm
|
2020 |
€12.00 |
|
| MARY X |
An Industrial Tribute to Eraserhead |
CD-R |
"Reminiscent of the eighties era of cassettes, the Mail Art, the industry's most insane music, noise and field recordings abrupt more rugged. His first work was published in RIR. And their aesthetic obsessions are confusion, anger, marginal world, and all the contradictions of this society bastard. His greatest influences are Whitehouse, Karkowski, Crass, Merzbow, Geometric Splendor and the personal universe of David Lynch..." [label info]
www.gh-records.com
|
2013 |
€8.50 |
|
| MASKED DIODE |
same |
mCD-R |
"MASKED DIODE is an industrial noise unit in Japan. There are several splendid noise units that are not yet known in Japan. MASKED DIODE Diode is one of some such units. The first really power-electronic orientated Japanese noise stuff with vocals! Sometimes harsh and with a lot of power, sometimes more ritual!" [label info]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| MASONIC YOUTH |
Going down |
7inch |
Melancholic low-fi (electronic ghost-folk?) stuff from this dutch project, quite obscure and nice!
"A Danish 33rpm 7" release from this spooky Dutch group. Includes samples from Erik Satie, Klamman & Abraxas an www.incubala.org. Comes with a two-sided 11" x 17" gatefold poster featuring a glory and hilarious Chick tract parody." [label info]
label: www.smittekilde.dk
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| MASONNA |
Freak |
LP |
Cascades of electronic noise, a psychedelic touch and vocal belching mixed together constitute the ingredients of Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna. Maso Yamazaki founded his project in 1987, with a charismatic and glamorous personality who become a cult figure in “Japanoise” scene. Masonna’s abundant productions on his own legendary and astonishing label Coquette were presented in very limited edition, sometime totally confidential (one sole copy), and reflect his predilection for 60’s psychedelic music revisited in its own very peculiar way. He transforms his voice into noise, feeding the microphone back through a process of extreme distortion. His shouts become clipped bursts of overloaded sound, doubled and extended by a delay that displace the sounds into stuttered blasts of static.
Freak is an ultra-rare cassette originally released in 1995 by Coquette in an edition of 36 copies in a special gold paper and now return for the first time in a flabbergasting vinyl format fully remastered!
This mature work is very brash, earsplitting and mad. The distortion and effects on the vocals are top notch, they in combination with his awesome screaming create a complete audio assault. Sometimes pleading sobs are heard. And they are all, regularly, philologically broken, retouched, stiffened. And they mingle in the vortex. Or at most they come back to be slaughtered a little more only to be thrown back again, finally in the centrifuge. Everything is scraped, fast and beautiful and focuses an electrically overcharged universe, punctuating the thrilling and vocal sonorous power with some quite moments and brief interruptions, conferring a very particular dynamic to this work.
Originally released as single side tape C30, this vinyl edition divided into two parts of about fifteen minutes each is limited to 299 copies and comes with A3 size poster with Masonna in “action pose”.
Freak is an absolutely astounding piece of work by one of the great pioneers of extreme noise from Japan! This is bound to be a revelation for anyone and it can’t be missed!
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/freak
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Filled with unquestionable Feelings |
LP |
Cascades of electronic noise, a psychedelic touch and vocal belching mixed together constitute the ingredients of Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna. Maso Yamazaki founded his project in 1987, with a charismatic and glamorous personality who become a cult figure in “Japanoise” scene. Masonna’s abundant productions on his own legendary and astonishing label Coquette were presented in very limited edition, sometime totally confidential (one sole copy), and reflect his predilection for 60’s psychedelic music revisited in its own very peculiar way. He transforms his voice into noise, feeding the microphone back through a process of extreme distortion. His shouts become clipped bursts of overloaded sound, doubled and extended by a delay that displace the sounds into stuttered blasts of static.
Filled with unquestionable feelings along with Freak is an ultra-rare cassette originally released in 1995 by Coquette in an edition of only 36 copies and now return for the first time in a stunning vinyl format fully remastered!
The two sides of the cassette / vinyl are completely different from each other. Side A can be considered a classic Masonna piece, where it reaches its full artistic maturity here. This side is very brash, earsplitting and mad. The distortion and effects on the vocals are top notch, they in combination with his awesome screaming create a complete audio assault. Remind also to his first period as Open your cunt and Like a vagina tapes. Everything is scraped, fast and beautiful and focuses an electrically overcharged universe, punctuating the thrilling and vocal sonorous power with some quite moments and brief interruptions, conferring a very particular dynamic to work. Side B is completely different. The voice disappears (or is no longer heard because it is covered or transformed by feedback). The structure is more compact and organized but eventually becomes far wilder, building up to pointillistic bleeps and dense layers of electronic fizz that unexpectedly cut to near-silence; these bear many uncanny resemblances to the simple melodic improvs and incessant ostinatos of Terry Riley.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/filled-with-unquestionable-feelings
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Masonna Vs. Bananamara |
LP |
Absolutely incredible and visionary - not to mention an engrossing, challenging, and thrilling listen - Masonna Vs Bananamara vinyl reissue stands high among the most significant of the year, allowing us to witness where it all began for a hugely important artist’s lifelong commitment to an exploration of noise music. This beautiful pressing - issued as a deluxe vinyl edition of 299 copies - is the first ever reissue of this masterstroke of noise, faithfully reproducing every aspect of the original 1989 release on Vanilla Record. Truly stunning and historically monumental within the genre, it can’t be missed by any fan of Japanese experimental music and noise
Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna , is one of most prolific, adventurous, and respected noise artists, making dozens of releases on his own legendary and astonishing label Coquette, presenting them in very limited editions, sometime totally confidential (one sole copy), and reflecting his predilection for 60’s psychedelic music revisited in its own very peculiar way. He transforms his voice into noise, feeding the microphone back through a process of extreme distortion. His shouts become clipped bursts of overloaded sound, doubled and extended by a delay that displace the sounds into stuttered blasts of static. From noise lines to minimal, warbling expanses, to the ambiences and schizoid thinking effects, it’s a journey into a versatile mind who we clearly never heard enough from.
Masonna claims that his interest in making noise is rooted in childhood encounters with the sounds of destruction on tv. Initially playing in Japanese punk band The Sadist, active since the mid '80s, as vocalist under aliases of Rin with his buddy and guitarist Michio Teshima, who founded Vanilla Records in 1985 to release the band's works. In a very few years Michio's label will become a reference point for all Japanese noise projects, releasing artists such as Violent Onsen Geisha, C.C.C.C., Incapacitants, Solmania, Aube, Merzbow and needless to say Masonna.
On 1988 Masonna released debut album Like a Vagina on cassette by Coquette (reissued on vinyl by Urashima last year), an overdriven blast of psychedelia and harsh noise, that would rattle everything in its wake. Masonna Vs. Bananamara, Masonna’s second release, was originally issued , of course, on Vanilla Records in 1989 in a tiny vinyl edition of 290 copies. Given its iconic status and rarity, it’s little wonder that it currently commands heavy figures on the secondary market. In classic DIY form, it was recorded at home by Masonna on a variety of instruments, with hallucinatory vocals, and used no mixing and overdubbing, rendering a startlingly visceral and dense effect.
Across the album’s two sides - containing a mind boggling 29 tracks - Masonna transforms his voice into noise, feeding the microphone back through a process of extreme distortion. His shouts become clipped bursts of overloaded sound, doubled and extended by a delay that displace the sounds into stuttered blasts of static, heavily underscored by explosive blistering guitars, and cascades of electronic noise, culminating as one of the most striking and emotive gestures in the entire genre of noise.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/masonna-vs-bananamara
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/masonna-vs-bananamara
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Maso+Onna=Masonna |
LP |
Masonna, the brainchild of Yamazaki “Maso” Takushi, holds a revered place within the Japanoise scene alongside peers like Merzbow, Incapacitants, CCCC, Violent Onsen Geisha and Hijokaidan. The project, named Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, epitomizes the extreme end of the noise spectrum, intertwining cascades of electronic disarray with a distinct psychedelic touch and violent vocalizations. The new limited edition vinyl reissue of "maso+onna=masonna," originally released on cassette by the Coquette label in 1989, breathes new life into this landmark recording, which has long been the subject of underground lore for its intense, almost mythical presence in the world of noise music.
This reissue, limited to just 199 copies, captures Masonna at one of his most pivotal moments, offering two tracks that span roughly 20 minutes each. This format, with one piece per side, creates a compelling dynamic, allowing the listener to fully immerse themselves in the sprawling auditory landscapes that Masonna weaves.
Side A delves into the tumultuous depths of distortion and feedback, showcasing the bracing intensity for which Masonna is famed. Here, Takushi's vocal manipulations become ferocious outbursts of sound, transformed through extreme distortion and delay into frantic bursts of static. The noise is relentless, taking the listener through a labyrinthine journey of high-pitched screeches, electronic burbles, and blues pulsations with disturbing whispers and hallucinating screams. The psychedelic undertones shimmer through the soundscapes, blending chaotic dissonance with moments of quasi-structured sonic phenomena. It's an experience that demands full attention, rewarding the listener with an enthralling fusion of harsh electronic noise and vocal contortions.
Side B, in stark contrast, starts on a different trajectory. Opens with an incredible clutter of guitar and vocal, before the mayhem dissipates, buried under thick blankets of feedback and electronic distortion. This side is more organized yet still unrestrained, reminiscent of the controlled chaos in Steve Reich's minimalist compositions. The side's progression towards increasingly intricate and textured environments makes it a compelling counterpart to the more immediate assault of Side A. Occasionally, the tumult subsides briefly into near-silences before exploding back into intense noise, creating a captivating ebb and flow that punctuates the album’s overall dynamism.
This album is not just an essential listen for seasoned aficionados of Japanoise but also for anyone beginning their journey into the world of extreme sonic art. Masonna's approach has often been characterized by a predilection for the Sixties' psychedelic ethos, reinterpreted through his unique and abrasive lens. The visceral impact of his work is not diminished by the passage of time; rather, it continues to challenge and expand the boundaries of auditory experience. Behind the chaotic onslaught lies a surprisingly controlled universe. Each sound event, meticulously sequenced, contributes to a broader, almost cosmic narrative. The startling transitions between full-scale electronic assaults and fleeting moments of near-silence add a layer of unpredictability that demands repeated listens. This duality — the interplay of chaos and momentary calm — enables the album to traverse the realms of both dreams and reality, encapsulating the full spectrum of human consciousness and cosmic escapism.
Historically, "maso+onna=masonna" holds a monumental status, not just within Masonna's amazing catalogue but also within the broader genre of noise music. Its original release on the Coquette label, a hub for Yamazaki's extreme artistic outputs, involved handmade cassettes produced in ultra-limited editions, contributing to its mythological status. This vinyl reissue honours that legacy, offering a carefully remastered version that maintains the raw energy and emotional breadth of the original recordings. In Masonna's hands, the human voice becomes a tool of profound sonic devastation. It’s transformed into noise, fed through a process of extreme distortion and manipulated until it becomes an instrument of sheer power. The vocalizations, almost unrecognizable at times, blend into the relentless feedback and electronic fuzz, creating a soundscape that is as unsettling as it is exhilarating.
For fans of Japanese experimental music and noise, this reissue is nothing short of essential. It stands as a pivotal document in the evolution of noise music, representing Masonna’s masterful ability to transform extreme sound into a compelling and dynamically rich experience. The album immerses the listener in an electrifying blend of vocal and electronic power, juxtaposed with meticulously placed quiet moments and interruptions that elevate the listening experience to something near transcendent.
In conclusion, "maso+onna=masonna" is a revelatory journey into the depths of noise, showcasing why Masonna, alongside the likes of Merzbow and Hijokaidan, remains a cornerstone of the Japanoise scene. This reissue offers both a historical snapshot and a visceral listening experience that is bound to resonate with fans of experimental and extreme sonic art. It’s a vivid testament to Masonna's artistic vision and his relentless pursuit of the outermost boundaries of sound. This limited edition vinyl is a rare opportunity to experience Masonna's groundbreaking work in its full, remastered glory, and it is a must-have for any serious collector or enthusiast of noise music. Don't miss out on this unique auditory artifact; it’s an experience that is as intensely compelling as it is historically significant.
credits
released September 20, 2024
All material recorded, performed and produced by Masonna
Originally released on cassette by Coquette in 1989 in Kyoto, Japan
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/maso-onna-masonna
|
2024 |
€26.00 |
|
| MASSACRE |
Killing Time |
CD |
"Another legendary release. Fred's first full-on group after Henry Cow - following soon after his move to America - was a power trio with Bill Laswell (bass) and Fred Maher (drums), both from Giorgio Gomelsky's house band Zu - later to become Material. Massacre was loud and their pieces tended to be short, make their point and end. They used the time-honoured structure of bebop: an intricate head followed by high energy explorations of rhythm and timbre (aka noise). But the authority of playing skills remained very much to the fore - hence, perhaps, the term Punk Jazz which was applied at the time. However, this is unequivocally rock. A fully re-mastered reissue of the original Japanese release, plus the five extra tracks that appeared on the long out of print, Rec Dec CD and two, previously unreleased tracks, including The Shadows-Massacre, FBI." [label info] |
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| MASSTHISHADDHU |
Shekinah |
CD |
Re-Edition of a rare cult album first out on Steven Stapleton's (NWW) own label UNITED DAIRIES in 1988. Plus as bonus for this special re-issue, a never heard, unreleased track of 30 minutes!
Masstishaddhu members were Sean Breadin, Mike Watson and Richard Rupenus, all of whom were also members of METGUMBNERBONE; Richard is also a member of TNB...
Tribal & Droning Psychedelia from over three decades ago - a very special album to be re-discovered.
Mastered from the original tapes by Colin Potter (NWW).
Shekinah comprises two side-long slabs of highly experimental music in the early Coil / Current 93 / Organum vein with touches of Eastern (or is it North American?) mysticism thrown in for good measure.
‘For The Dead & Unborn’ is a wild, chilling and uninhibited chant-cum-invocation featuring wordless vocals set against a hypnotic backdrop of percussion and bowed instruments.
‘Angels Gather Here Between Purity Of Heart and Hopeless Despair’ is taken at a much slower pace with far less accent on the chanting and more emphasis on the bowed strings and singing / ringing percussion and at times had me glancing nervously over my shoulder!
- AUDION
Shekinah could be described as very dark Gothic Ritual Folk with a sprinkling of occult allure.
The title, cover and music all suggest bloodied altars, unfathomable rituals and mystical learning.
The low and buzzing drone underscores a lava flow of chants, cellos and percussion.
Whatever words are spoken during this procession of yearning melodies and utterly ethereal voices is perhaps best left for the Gods.
Whatever secrets the music holds, they are simultaneously a fountain of spiritual beauty and unknowable terror.
It's as if its character changed with my dispositions: if I was feeling fear then fear is what I heard.
If I was feeling joyous, then the joy of the Gods shone down upon me and relaxed every fibre of my being.
- BRAINWASHED
In the ‘80s underground, Ritual Ambient and Tribal Ambient were both coming to fruition and although they had a rough framework there wasn't yet a concrete basis for how the genres were set to develop.
Masstishaddhu exploited this potential to create a music that sounds like a well-executed modern Free Folk album - in 1988, a good decade before the New Weird America scene (spearheaded by the likes of Sunburned Hand Of The Man) began revolutionizing the idea of Folk music operating under rhythmic constraints.
In this sense Shekinah is undoubtedly unique, perpetuating the 'ritual' side of ambient through disconcerting vocalizations and chants.
It is deeply embedded within the Folk influence that uses atmosphere to sculpt instrumental improvisations, again, much like well-executed modern Free Folk does.
- A TERTIARY SOURCE
"Wiederveröffentlichung des Masstishaddhu-Albums Shekinah auf Old Europa Café
Veröffentlicht am 11. Januar 2021 von Michael
Old Europa Cafe bringt das ursprünglich auf Steven Stapletons Label United Dairies 1988 veröffentlichte Album „Shekinah“ von dem Metgumbnerbone-Seitenprojekt Masstishaddhu, bei dem auch Richard Rupenus von den New Blockaders mitwirkte, auf CD neu heraus. Mit den teils perkussiv-tribalen Momenten, seltsamen Blasinstrumenten und merkwürdigen Stimmen, die zwischen Kehlkopfgesang und Delirium changieren, lässt sich das Album in die Tradition industrieller Ritual-Musik einordnen.
Shekinah“ klingt in Passagen, als sei der Nekrophile-Records Backkatalog (der im Laufe des Jahres von Vinyl-On-Demand wiederveröffentlicht werden wird) von David Jackman neu abgemischt worden. Neben den zwei ursprünglich enthaltenen je eine Albenseite füllenden Tracks enthält die CD ein bisher unveröffentlichtes 30-minütiges Bonusstück, das einen stärkeren Free Folk-Charakter zu haben scheint." [African Paper] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE |
Totem Two |
LP |
"Echoing like a long lost Werner Herzog soundtrack Totem 2 is a record of subtle Meditations and Deep electric Hallucinations from the Crystal Caves of the Northwest to the orchestral desert portals of Turkey. Totem 2 finds MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE exploring the disappearance of the Mystic and the schisms of our age. In times when forces move against our souls these are the first sounds of music that can only be described as NO-AGE , a resistance is making itself known. Featuring members of EARTH, ASVA, BURING WITCH, THE DIMINISHED MEN, and more and special guests from SECRET CHIEFS 3 and the thriving Istanbul music scene. MMOB has now solidified into a 7-piece cosmic psych force. Like a reverse dark side of the New Age sound, on the Totem series Master Musicians of Bukkake perform ritualistic electric excursions into the outer and inner reaches. Relying more on the electric power of psyched guitars, analog synth chants, and exotic heavy percussion. This Totem Trilogy echoes with the delusions of a west coast death cult. Outer spaced gamelan, dusty fuzz rock from celestial deserts, meditations of a deranged Krishna gathering, and the Blurry acoustic guitar majesty of The Cascade mountains all reveal themselves here in epic form." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Elogia de la Sombra |
maxi-CD |
"Two tracks, 31 minutes. Southern are very excited to present the latest release in our Latitudes series from Master Musicians of Bukkake. Recorded at Southern Studios by Harvey Birrell on 17 April 2010. Additional tracking and mixing at Aleph Studios in Seattle. Produced by Randall Dunn. Mastered by Mell Dettmer. Artwork by Randall Dunn and A.Turner. Elogia de la sombra is the 24th recording in the Latitudes series. Edition of 1000 copper foil-stamped and hand assembled CDs and 1000 LPs.
Master Musicians Of Bukkake are an enchanting collective, comprising a fine pedigree of musicians from bands as diverse as Earth, Sun City Girls and Burning Witch. With an amalgam of global influences drawn from music, philosophy, mysticism, and the kitchen sink, they are difficult to pigeonhole, but this is to their credit as Master Musicians are entirely original and when they come together, the result is truly magical.
I see Master Musicians Of Bukkake as a kind of sonic playground, allowing an even greater form of expression for these like-minded individuals. Call it the Exotic Other. Needless to say, the prospect of watching all of those musicians perform together live is always an event. We just had to get them to the Southern Studios to record a Latitudes session, knowing full well that they would adapt to the improvised nature of these sessions with great ease, and with great results!
The finished piece is two lush tracks, the first a sumptuous canyon of melody and timbre and the second an arcane tribute to NEU! and such Krautrock pioneers. Both tracks are testament to their musical prowess. Absolutely mesmerising." [Lauren Barley]
Track Listing
1. Tainted Phenomena
2. Elogia de la sombra
Running time 00:30:59 minutes
www.southern.com/southern/label/LTT
|
2010 |
€11.50 |
|
|
Elogia de la Sombra |
mLP |
"Two tracks, 31 minutes. Southern are very excited to present the latest release in our Latitudes series from Master Musicians of Bukkake. Recorded at Southern Studios by Harvey Birrell on 17 April 2010. Additional tracking and mixing at Aleph Studios in Seattle. Produced by Randall Dunn. Mastered by Mell Dettmer. Artwork by Randall Dunn and A.Turner. Elogia de la sombra is the 24th recording in the Latitudes series. Edition of 1000 copper foil-stamped and hand assembled CDs and 1000 LPs.
Master Musicians Of Bukkake are an enchanting collective, comprising a fine pedigree of musicians from bands as diverse as Earth, Sun City Girls and Burning Witch. With an amalgam of global influences drawn from music, philosophy, mysticism, and the kitchen sink, they are difficult to pigeonhole, but this is to their credit as Master Musicians are entirely original and when they come together, the result is truly magical.
I see Master Musicians Of Bukkake as a kind of sonic playground, allowing an even greater form of expression for these like-minded individuals. Call it the Exotic Other. Needless to say, the prospect of watching all of those musicians perform together live is always an event. We just had to get them to the Southern Studios to record a Latitudes session, knowing full well that they would adapt to the improvised nature of these sessions with great ease, and with great results!
The finished piece is two lush tracks, the first a sumptuous canyon of melody and timbre and the second an arcane tribute to NEU! and such Krautrock pioneers. Both tracks are testament to their musical prowess. Absolutely mesmerising." [Lauren Barley]
Track Listing
1. Tainted Phenomena
2. Elogia de la sombra
Running time 00:30:59 minutes
www.southern.com/southern/label/LTT
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Totem Three |
CD |
"Following the tremendous success that was Totem 2, Important offers you Totem 3. LP pressed in an edition of 1000. This is the final offering before entering the new wave of the failed future from MMOB. Totem 3 journeys from quiet Bardo womb choosing meditations and instrumental mantras to the delusional glee of Kali Yugafied Indian rock. Totem 3 is the most diverse and heartfelt of the Totem Trilogy. A steady pulsating musical mirror prison expressing the atrophy of our 'Modern World' through no-age hallucinations of passionate and unfolding melodies. A blissful mirage filled caravan with no destination pushing onward through a mercurial blue sanded desert between what is and what was. A place where disembodied nomadic djinn join in lament attempting to push through the cell phone interference with a message of no return." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Totem One |
LP |
"Vinyl reissue of the impossible to find first release in MMOB's Totem trilogy. Edition of 1000 copies. Like a reverse dark side of the New Age sound, on the Totem series Master Musicians of Bukkake perform ritualistic electric excursions into the outer and inner reaches. Relying more on the electric power of psyched guitars, analog synth chants, and exotic heavy percussion, Totem One echoes with the delusions of a West Coast Death cult. Outer spaced Gamelan, dusty fuzz rock from celestial deserts, meditations of a deranged Krishna gathering, and the blurry acoustic guitar majesty of the Cascade mountains all reveal themselves here in epic form on Totem One. Every sound and note played was put to tape by a group with a singular purging purpose. Totem One also features Vocals by MMOB honorary member Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Far West |
CD |
"On Far West, the MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE mark a turn from their Totem Trilogy. If the Totems were an expression of yang energy, then the Far West cycle is the yin that took seed within the trilogy. What happens when you travel so far east looking for enlightenment that you pass your destination and are headed west again? The mania of being lost in the mountains of the Cascade Corridor, searching aimlessly for the Northern Pacific coast. A spiritual Donner party of sorts, feeding off fantasy and mirages and imaginary shamans. Far West is the soundtrack to this expedition to the caves of light we all travel into with hopes of acquiring redemption, only to realize our bodies have dissolved—gone like rain from the sky, snow from the ground, thoughts from the mind. The sound of Far West is a progressive folk record inspired by Paul Giovanni's Wicker Man soundtrack, early Canterbury prog folk, the suspenseful soundtracks of Goblin and Ennio Morricone, Gerry Goldsmith's interwoven dark orchestrations, and Pacific Northwest folk rock. The Master Musicians of Bukkake take an earthly and shamanistic approach to these influences and infuse it with Krautrock pulses interweaved with acoustic guitars, intricately layered rhythms, hazed-out modular analog synths, brassy stabs, and cultish choirs. A true psychedelic, audiophile experience to dissolve your body in. Far West also features backing vocals by Sub Pop! recording artists ROSE WINDOWS, a deluxe cover illustration by Simon Fowler, and the amazing photography of ALISON SCARPULIA." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com |
2013 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Further West Quad Cult |
LP |
"Prefigured by the inclusion of a secret extra pocket in the original packaging of Far West (IMPREC 386CD/LP, 2013), this painstakingly crafted complimentary LP is intended for synced playback with that release. With two turntables or other playback devices, the listener can experience fully unique quad playback. Further West Quad Cult LP offers deeper journeys into the cave where the self dissolves. It also stands alone as an inverted Far West universe, and the listener is invited to enjoy it by itself as well. Liquid synth journeys into the void. All tracks dubbed and manipulated from Far West source material. All music by Master Musicians of Bukkake. Additional sound design and synths by Randall Dunn and Timm Mason. Produced, recorded, and mixed by Randall Dunn at Avast!, Seattle, WA. Includes fold-out poster by photographer Alison Scarpulla." [label info]
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
| MASTER MUSICIANS OF JOUJOUKA (JAJOUKA) |
Apocalypse Across the Sky |
do-LP |
"Available on vinyl for the very first time: the 1992 album „Apocalypse Across The Sky“ by the legendary MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA. Produced by BILL LASWELL, remastered for vinyl by HELMUT ERLER at D&M Berlin and according to Songlines one of the essential recordings of the ensemble.
No matter if you consider the MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA a “4,000 year-old rock‘n‘roll band” (WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS) or even „6,000 years old“ (ORNETTE COLEMAN) – without doubt, the music of the ensemble in all its incarnations over the centuries is deeply rooted in Sufi mysticism, paganism and the cult of the goat-god Boujeloud. According to a myth, many centuries ago Boujeloud appeared to a shepherd called Attar, an ancestor of today‘s ensemble leader BACHIR ATTAR, and till today every year at the end of Ramadan a fire in honour of the goat-god is ignited. This pagan root aside, the music performed in several hour long rituals on traditional instruments like tebel and tariyya (drums), ghaita (a woodwind instrument), lira (flute) and gimbri (stringed instrument) reveals hypnotic, trance-inducing qualities and is considered to have magical and healing properties.
In the 1950s, BRION GYSIN along with PAUL BOWLES were among the first westerners to witness such a ceremony, and it was GYSIN who invited the MASTER MUSICINS OF JAJOUKA to play in his restaurant in Tanger, and who later (in 1967) brought BRIAN JONES to the small village of Jajouka where the ROLLING STONES guitarist recorded the ensemble for what became the first „world music album” and that raised interest in the MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA in the western world. Since those days, a wide number of creative minds like WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, ORNETTE COLEMAN, MARC RIBOT, FLEA, TALVIN SINGH or the ROLLING STONES have worked with THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA who are now performing regularly outside Morocco.
In 1991, iconic producer BILL LASWELL also embarked on a trip to the small village of just 800 inhabitants in the Rif mountains to record the group for his AXIOM label - „Apocalypse Across The Sky“ is, unlike other LASWELL projects that bring together different cultures and genres, a pure document of the ensemble, raw and unpolished but exquisitely recorded, and ranks according to the world music magazine Songlines among the essential recordings of the legendary MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA and is now available on vinyl for the very first time!
Musicians
Bachir Attar (Leader) - Ghaita, Gimbri, Lira, Vocals
Mohamed Bacari - Ghaita, Gimbri, Lira, Vocals
Ali Nachat - Ghaita, Gimbri, Lira, Vocals
Larbi Lalli Attar - Ghaita, Lira, Tarija, Vocals
Mohammed El Hammadi – Ghaita, Gimbri, Tebel, Vocals
Ali Mojdoubl - Ghaita, Liria, Tarija, Vocals
Tahir Bokzar - Ghaita, Violin, Lira, Vocals
Abdellah Sandaoui Attar - Ghaita, Lira, Tarija, Vocals
Abdellah Attar - Ghaita, Tebel, Vocals
Lahesen Brital - Violin, Tarija, Vocals
Abdeslam Bokzar - Tarija, Vocals
Abdellah Shirioui - Tarija, Vocals
Mokhtar Jaghdal - Tebel, Vocals
Mostapha Attar - Tebel, Vocals
Abmed EI Himdi - Tebel, Vocals
Abdellah Bokzar - Tebel, Vocals
Womens Group
Rahama Attar - Bendir, Vocals
Menana Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Rahama Attar - Tarija, vocals
Hadoush Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Rahama Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Yamna Attar - Tarija, Vocals
Produced by Bill Laswell
Recorded at Jajouka in the foothills of the Rif Mountains of Morocco on november 8, 9 and 10, 1991
Coordination and production assistance in Morocco: Nicky Skopelitis
Assistance in Tangier and Jajouka: Cheerie Nutting
Engineered by Oz Fritz
Assistant engineer: Carl Glanville
Mixed at The Hit Factory, New York
Remastered for vinyl by Helmut Erler at D&M, Berlin
https://zehra.bandcamp.com/album/apocalypse-across-the-sky
|
2020 |
€27.00 |
|
| MATHES, JEREMIE |
Oiarzun |
mCD-R |
"the work of french artist jérémie mathes is based on captation and manipulation of vibrant matters of acoustic origins through various field recording techniques and the use of music instruments as sound generators.
this 3" is only his fourth published work, after two albums on mystery sea and another one on the sadly defunct basses frequences imprint." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Perhaps it was indeed some time ago since we last saw new releases by Taleem, who excuse themselves for the recent 'long pause'. In their series of mini ambient albums it's time for two that can be classified as musique concrete meeting ambient. The first is by Jeremie Mathes, who previous work was released on Mystery Sea and Basses Frequences, and who uses recordings here from an abandoned farmhouse and inside 'le semaphore de calleloungue', which is in the national park of the calanques. There are water sounds, which run through more of this work (pun intended), sonic debris, crackling of leaves and all of that some highly dark and mysterious sounds that lurk underneath. Slow approaching violence, perhaps. It's all quite dark and highly atmospheric. Just like pretty much all of his work so far, which is of a consistent highly quality." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Arkhaios |
10inch |
"These two new 10" releases (of LP length) lead to an area where words and rational thinking are suspended, and a connection with deeper parts of your mind begins...
JEREMIE MATHES is a French field recording artist (known for some excellent CDs on Unfathomless) living in Cambodia since some years. For "Arkhaios" he combined cavernous object drones (recorded at an abandoned factory site) with various instrumental sounds from ancient Khmer instruments (Tro u, Khim), all highly processed. You get the impression as being under the earth in a place populated by metallic amoeba or other smallest creatures, inside sewerage ducts or an deserted mine, exposed to the circulation of air...
This is the spirituality of the underworlds! "Dissolving time, space, mangling sounds collected into a simulacrum of altered realities. A oneiric junction between the concrete world and other unknown
territories." [J. Mathes]
ed. of 300 copies, black vinyl, Artwork by Stijn Deprez, based solely on pictures realised by Jérémie Mathes." [press release]
https://soundcloud.com/drone-records/jeremie-mathes-tomleiki
############################################
"The two pieces are based on same materials s "Uunartoq Qeqertoq" for the Drone Mind Serie LP [vol 04] on Drone records, and on my album "Fallow Memory" on Unfathomless label: A coalescence of acoustic sound sources recorded in an industrial complex of abandoned factories in South of France between 2010 to 2015.
In-situ improvisations inside reverberant metal tanks, deserted warehouses that I had the possibility to infiltrate during my exploration of the site. Generating sound in these empty spaces mainly by using found objects, combined with instruments that I've brought as a Tibetan bowl, small bells, percussions, cymbal, a bow, and a violin. Capturing the inner substance, the hidden vibrant matter of various types of metallic structures, machinery, tubes, and pipes o extended my sonorous palette.
All of these elements were used exclusively in the composition of my pieces. Dissolving time, space, mangling sounds collected into a simulacrum of altered realities. A oneiric junction between the concrete world and other unknown territories. Recorded, edited and composed by Jérémie Mathes [2017/ 2018].
Artwork by Stijn Deprez, based solely on pictures realised by Jérémie Mathes." [artist info]
www.substantia-innominata.de/SUB-27.html
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| MATHIEU, STEPHAN |
On Tape |
CD |
“Obwohl diese Arbeit im Stockholmer Fylkingen entstanden ist und als Intro eine ganz konkrete Geräuschkulisse aufbaut aus Zischen und Fliegengesumm, schält sich allmählich eine Musik heraus, die eher instrumentalen als elektronischen Charakter zeigt. Zuerst gibt sich das von Magnus Granberg gespielte Saxophon zu erkennen. Es ist, erst nur als dünnes Fiepen, dann immer sonorer, eingebettet in dröhnende Geräuschmanipulationen von Andreas & Johan Berthling und Tomas Hallensten. Die bilden zusammen das schwedischen Trio Tape, auf das der Titel doppeldeutig anspielt. Der Saarbrücker Komponist selbst kommt in der 19. Minute als gelernter Drummer ins Spiel, der mit perkussiver Aleatorik tapsig dunkle und metallisch flirrende Akzente setzt. Damit gewinnt der anfänglich eher ambiente Dröhnminimalismus improvisatorische Direktheit, die als flatternd pulsierende stehenden Welle auch präsent bleibt, wenn Mathieus Perkussion wieder aussetzt. Dafür erklingen hell vibrierende Glockenschläge, die lange nachhallen. Zum Finale läst sich diese Musik auf in einer als Natur und Alltag kenntlich gemachten ‘Wirklichkeit’, in Vogelgezwitscher und Kinderstimmen.“ [BAD ALCHEMY 45]
“Stephan started building this piece from recordings provided to him by Swedish trio Tape and saxophonist Magnus Granberg. Adding his own subtle drumming, field recordings and a focus on reworking the sound material exclusively with classic editing techniques this is a beautiful album that weaves elements from the electronic and acoustic worlds to a seamless whole. A very clear and uncomplicated atmosphere around this piece distinguishes it from a lot of electronic music.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Radioland |
CD |
“Radioland is Stephan Mathieu’s long awaited 5th full length studio work, following his acclaimed The Sad Mac cd from 2004. Exclusively based on real-time processed shortwave radio signals, Radioland takes the listener on a carpet ride across endless, majestic shimmering landscapes. Radioland is a mesmerizing reflection on the bubble of information thats all around us, all the time, by one of the truly unique minds in today's abstract digitalia.” [label info]
"Mathieu solo. Maybe the 'The Sad Mac' was the last one? I honestly don't recall. But of course things haven't been quiet for him. In the recent years he toured quite a bit with his 'Radioland' work. Here he plays with real time processed shortwave signals. Picking up from a simple receiver, feeding it into his self-built max-msp patches and transforming the signals into what is best described as 'Mathieu music'. Stephan Mathieu, whom I like to regard as one of the true masters of ambient glitch music, produces music here that is once again of absolute great beauty and expands beyond the 'softer' side of ambient music and goes into a bit more louder area, working with overtones created through multi-layering of such sounds. However, don't expect this to be harsh music or in fact static music. Mathieu knows how to move stuff around, finding small details in the music, amplifying them, lifting them out of the music and giving them life on their own. The minimalism of the godfathers of this kind of music (LaMonte Young, Palestine and Niblock) resonate through the computerized (but oh so warm!) version of Mathieu. What a great CD! And what a lovely package. A continuing peak in quality." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.die-schachtel.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
To describe George Washington Bridge |
10inch |
"To Describe George Washington Bridge" is Stephan Mathieu's 2nd Dekorder release in the 10" format (reflecting his interest in old 78rpm records) after 2009's sold out "The Key to the Kingdom", and, we're happy to say, again it features two of the composer's most outstanding short pieces. Both are recorded utilizing similar methods as used on his most recent album "A Static Place" on 12K Records yet they are presented in an even more condensed and melodic way. As source material he used transcriptions made from the marvelous 25x 12inch 78rpm set G.F. Händel. "Twelve Concerti Grossi" performed by the Busch
Chamber Players in 1946, and a Columbia 10"
record from 1912 with Händel's usual smash hits
from "Messiah"." [label info]
www.dekorder.de
"Just as on 'The Key to the Kingdom' (reviewed in Vital Weekly 666) and 'A Static Place' (see Vital Weekly 766), this one deals with picking up sounds from old 10" records through ancient gramophones. What happens beyond that is a bit unclear (sound being picked with microphones and using spectral analysis and convolution), but no doubt some form of computer processing which stretches the material to what is perhaps now trademark Mathieu music. Very spacious music, drone like, minimal. Mathieu finds much of his inspiration in colorfield paintings (Rotkho, Newmann) and his music reflects that, I think: quite an uniform mass of sound with the slightest changes boiling on and below the surface. Yet Mathieu always knows how to add a bit of melodic shimmer to his music, which makes it move a bit out y'r standard drone music. Quite a bit. Mathieu knows how to capture a fine mood in a relative short time span, as each side last about five minutes. Very refined as usual. But I guess you didn't expect this to be objective, or let alone critical?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| MATHIEU, STEPHAN & EKKEHARD EHLERS |
Heroin |
LP + 12inch |
"Between Christmas 2000 and New Year 2001 producers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu recorded an album of warm, soft, delicately crackling electronic music in the space of that week. It was christened with the ambivalent title "Heroin" and was released on CD via the label Brombron in 2001 and later in 2003 re-issued on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork on double-LP with remixes the pair had commissioned as expansions.
17 years later Heroin sees its first vinyl release to include all 13 tracks from the original CD track-list on this LP + 12“ set. The centerpiece "Herz" finally receives its long deserved vinyl treatment (side C, at 45rpm) and on the flip side Thomas Brinkmann contributes a mirror in a magnificent remix of that very piece on side D.
Ehlers and Mathieu were both highly prolific solo artists during the period 2000-2004, and in just two years after the initial release of "Heroin" each had produced over half a dozen new solo recordings: among them the serial masterpiece Ehlers' "Plays" (Cornelius Cardew, Hurbert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, Robert Johnson) released as 5 stunning LPs in a series on Staubgold, while Mathieu's 'Full Swing Edits' spread over five 10" records plus his album 'FrequencyLib' on Mille Plateaux, 'Die Entdeckung des Wetters' on Lucky Kitchen and ‘The Sad Mac’ on Atsushi Sasaki’s Headz label were greeted to critical acclaim.
Both artists were expanding their conceptual sonic approaches in the glow of developing laptop technologies which would to these times in 2020 seem quite primitive, but these two in that period used the state-of-the-art to aid and abet their conceptual visions, while at times the duo used unorthodox experimentation - yet always had a distinctively melodic and musical form at its heart and soul. Ehlers can be seen as a conceptualist, as a meta-musician who interrogates the mediums and methods of sound production - reflecting on the conditions and possibilities of improvisation (e.g. "Plays Albert Ayler") and exploits ideas of mutation and distortion of popular aesthetics played out within a ghostly form of divine pop beauty in his project März.
Mathieu, originally a drummer and co-founder of what has come to be known as the Berlin 'Echtzeitmusik' scene. His approach could be similarly described as working a critical analyst and researcher: Subtly and precisely working in the realm of processing as a method of intervening in melodious/harmonic analog sound sources.
Ehlers and Mathieu may not think too much about their singular productions and publications outcomes, but instead concentrate on the process and musical personality that characterizes their gesture- style itself stays in the background - and they usher a music from small minimal sound sources coaching a patient music of slow intervention - much like a refraction of light than a concrete painting or a blurred photograph - beatus accident.
And indeed, "Heroin" is an album that embraces the happy accident being made up of reduced, often very catchy and very direct micro hooks which seem laser-guided into a space accepting obvious melodic beauty in what feels like an observation of musics unfolding and revealing it's DNA, embed with for a kind of yearning for innocence and naiveté - as if Satie were on the jukebox in "The Crying of Lot 49". Not to say the music is "reduced", but rather: 'restricted' and born from acceptance of limitations, and the artists allowing the sounds to just "be.." with some incremental degrees of coercion.
The album not only sounds like that of 2 producers who are both dreamers and scientists, but that Ehlers and Mathieu chose to work with these means in a dialogue together to reduce pop music to its musical/tonal core, it is not Pop music anymore, rather a ghostly pointilistic itteration of song. "Heroin" is located at this transition, around that point at which tracks, that were or could have become pop compositions, irrevocably slip into a static harmonic nirvana. We are invited to follow the arch of Heroin in a slow-motion morphine musical haze.
Heroin sounded timeless when originally released and proof is that it remains so, one wishes that Ehlers and Mathieu would convene again for a week, a month or an entire year to continue this process of slow rumination, picking affectionately over the sounds they both love - and then maybe when everything is condensed, evaporated they would write more songs with those sonic refractive elements that remain.
Remastered by Stephan Mathieu, March 2020. Vinyl cut by Lupo @ Loop_O. Design by Caro Mikalef for Cabina."
https://schwebung.bandcamp.com/album/heroin
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| MATTIN & RICHARD FRANCIS |
Lisa Says |
LP |
"LP clear vinyl 33 rpm
release date: 18.09.2012
artists: MATTIN & RICHARD FRANCIS
title: Lisa Says
order no.: aatp38
time: ca. 50 min
sleeve designed by Richard Francis, comes with text insert. Clear vinyl 300
handnumbered copies.
On “Lisa Says”: This LP captures the first transcontinental collaboration between artists
Mattin and Richard Francis with sounds recorded in Stockholm, Berlin and Auckland, NZ. The mixdown portrays the current state of affairs in composed noise: filtered gritty sound blocks flow and float with no seeming direction
when sudden breaks puncture the structure and create something like a melody. Well, almost. The music is accompanied by a text insert that
documents a skype conversation between the two artists discussion the methods and aesthetics connected to this release and their ways of working in general.
Mattin Bio www.mattin.org
Mattin is a Basque artist working with noise and improvisation. His work seeks to address the social and economic structures of experimental music production through live performance, recordings and writing. Using a
conceptual approach, he aims to question the nature and parameters of improvisation, specifically the relationship between the idea
of “freedom” and constant innovation that it traditionally implies, and the established conventions of improvisation as a genre. Mattin considers improvisation not only as an interaction between musicians and instruments,
but as a situation involving all the elements that constitute a concert, including the audience and the social and architectural space. He tries to expose the stereotypical relation between active performer and passive
audience, producing a sense of strangeness and alienatio in that disturbs this relationship.
Richard Francis Bio www.richardfrancis.net.nz
Richard Francis has been releasing works on CD/vinyl, performing solo and in collaboration as a touring artist since 1996. He uses field recordings of acoustic and electronic sounds and a tone generator to compose sound works.
He has released solo and collaborative music on a number of labels worldwide and runs his own label CMR through which he releases limited edition lathe cut records by New Zealand artists. In performance he uses a computer and electronics and has toured Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, USA and Europe. Since 2003, Francis has composed works for sound installation, participating in group and solo shows at galleries throughout New Zealand. He has collaborated for recording and
performance with many artists, and has had recent published collaborative CDs with Jason Kahn (USA/Swiss) and Francisco Lopez (Spain). Collaborations for recording and/or performance: Bruce Russell, Francisco Lopez, Jason Kahn, Mattin, Birchville Cat Motel, Gate, MSBR, Tetuzi Akiyama, Lawrence English, Rosy Parlane, Howard Stelzer, Jason Lescalleet, Jay Sullivan, Empirical, Pumice, Kuwayama Kiyoharu, Phil Dadson, Anthony Guerra, Sean
Meehan, Ishigami Kazuya, Antony Milton, James Kirk, MHFS, Tim Coster, Paul Winstanley, Takefumi Naoshima, Toshihiro Koike." [label info]
"A project in two parts, one the actual music, as recorded on July 3 2008 in Berlin and one the conversation as a piece of text from August 31 2011 in which Richard Francis and Mattin talk about the recording from three years before, about their methods of working together but also with others. A fascination they have in common is about white and pink noise, and sustaining those sounds. It's an interesting text to read, as it clears up some interesting things but it's not entirely necessary to read the text to like the music I should think. The buzzing, cracking and sustaining sound, which sometimes hoovers closely above the threshold of hearing, reminds the listener of your ventilator or heater buzzing, or the faint noises from afar late at night. If I understand right, this record is for Francis an end to the way he working and for Mattin the start of a new working method, a more conceptual approach if you will. This record contains some very minimal music, with very few sound elements, but are fascinating to hear. Crackles of vinyl (not from the pressing), field recordings very remotely humming and the white/pink noise slowly washing ashore and moving away. All of this in a very quiet and contemplating way. If you think Mattin is all about noise then you should surely try this record for a change. Maybe this is more what you would expect from somebody like Richard Francis, but this is a great improvised electronic record. Excellent head space music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MATTIN / DION WORKMAN |
Via Vespucci |
maxi-CD |
Sehr druckvolle digitale Drone-Sandsturm Musik, zunächst leise beginnend und anschwellend, dann aber zu voller Grösse anwachsend,
es pfeift und knistert und zischt wie unter einer Haube.... leider etwas zu kurz aber beeindruckend gut !
“Via Vespucci is a live recording by two of the most interesting fellows in the sound art circuit lately: Dion Workman, originally from New Zealand but now, NY resident and Basque artist mattin. Via Vespucci is the result of the confrontation of mattin and Dion Workman last year in New York. The 19 minute piece sees Dion Workman taking the pace of this electronic crescendo whilst mattin balances the crucial moments adding more emotion to the ambience. Dion Workman has started Sigma editions and label and has worked with Rosy Parlane and Julien Ottavi among others. mattin has been around in the improvisation scene in order to mess up things and provocate a bit with his old computer. He has worked with the likes of: Eddie Prévost, Rosy Parlane, Mark Wastell, Oren Ambarchi, Radu Malfatti, Junko, Dean Roberts, Klaus Fillip, Bruce Russell, Taku Unami, Matt Earle, Dieb 13, Campbell Kneale, Xabier Erkizia, to name but a few.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAXIMIN, BERANGERE |
Land of Waves |
do-LP |
On her 6th album, the French electroacoustic composer BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN explores the idea of a kaleidoscopic world - a sonic aggregation of living creatures, plants, minerals, nature and buildings, using various sound objects, small percussions, synths, electric gui-tar, voice and electronics.
Working out of her private studio since 2008, BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN has developed her own ap-proach to sound art and electronic music, composing dense, immersive pieces with immediate im-pact. On five albums – released to critical acclaim on TZADIK, SUB ROSA, CRAMMED DISCS and CRAIG LEON’s ATLAS REALISATIONS label - she has revealed a taste for mixing disparate sounds together with a sense of detail, effusive, lyrical playings with the digital material and tight nuanced writing. BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN’s music engages the listener in consideration of space and textures, the sound ambivalence and its independence from its original source being at the center of her work.
During her career, the French composer has obtained commissions and residencies in National Music Research Centres such as Paris' Ina-GRM, Stockholm's EMS and received a grant from the ‘Villa Medicis Hors Les Murs’ program in New York City (Cultures France). She has performed in notable festivals, venues and concert halls from Paris’ Présences Electronique festival, London’s Hayward gallery, NYC’s Roulette, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie’s e-Phil series to major international festivals in Eastern Europe. Beside her solo performances, she also regularly shares the stage in duo with FRED FRITH.
“Land of Waves”: three words evoking territories of plains and curves connected with each other by canals, footpaths, tunnels. The four parts of the album lead the listener into a hybrid land where the jungle meets the city … a succession of reliefs, surfaces, textures, layers create a large mosaic as if on a concrete wall which seems solid and definitive but is in fact penetrable, alterable.
For “Land of Waves”, BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN took inspiration from recordings she did in various city parks, abandoned properties and limits with the suburbs during her travels in Europe, the di-versity of sources, the variations of events and the contrasts between day and night they offered, and reinterpreted them in the studio.
Recorded, composed, arranged, mixed and produced by Bérangère Maximin at the Home Sweet Home Studio/BM and Studio Polyphone, France, 2019/2020.
Sound objects, small percussions, analog and digital synths, guitar, digital chimeras, voice.
* Recomposed and mixed by B.M. featuring Fred Frith (electric guitar) and B.M, Colin Johnco, Kirikoo Des and Roméo Poirier as Swibekico Quartet (electronics).
Mastered by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin, 2020.
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-waves
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| MAXWELL, JULES |
Cycles / Nocturnes |
do-LP |
"Cycles is the latest album of work by Irish composer Jules Maxwell whose music has featured at London's National Theatre, The Royal Opera House, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and The Roundhouse. Most recently he has been working with the band Dead Can Dance and in 2021 he released an album entitled Burn with singer Lisa Gerrard. Cycles is an exquisite album of meditative instrumental music. It is quiet and circular in nature but deeply atmospheric and dramatic at moments. Cycles will be released on Friday 25th March on Berlin based label Ghost Palace. A limited double vinyl edition will also be available featuring the Cycles album and its predecessor Nocturnes."
"Heute morgen, kurz nach fünf, kurz nach Wecker klingeln. Noch ist es verdächtig ruhig und entgegen meiner Gewohnheit, eines jahrelang antrainierten Automatismus folgend, schalte ich nicht erst den Wasserkocher und dann Deutschlandfunk ein. Sondern ich lege, während der Tee vor sich hin zieht, „Cycles“ von Jules Maxwell auf. Genauer gesagt, die erste der Doppel-LPs.
Mit dem Opener „Deeper Sleeper“ in den Tag zu starten ist ungewohnt entspannt, denn sogar noisy Kinder und Jugendliche verstummen mit einem „Ohhh“ und bewegen sich auf einmal fast lautlos. Wer hätte das gedacht. Warum ich das jetzt in einer Review erwähne? Weil diese Szene vermutlich am besten beschreibt, was Jules Maxwell auf dieser Platte für eine Stimmung erzeugt. „Cycles“ ist ein ruhiges, meditatives Instrumental-Album, welches mit den ersten Tönen den Pulsschlag entschleunigt. Dennoch schafft es Maxwell Spannung aufzubauen. So, dass der*die Hörer*in ganz bei und in der Musik bleibt.
In „A Rose On The Road“ führt ein Klavier, wie ein langsamer, rhythmischer Glockenschlag in den Song ein, im Hintergrund bauen sich sphärische Klänge auf, werden intensiver, dringlicher und bauen eine Dramatik auf, die ab rund dreieinhalb Minuten von einer Geige (oder ist es eine Bratsche, ich tue mich schwer damit das rauszuhören) aufgenommen wird. Nach rund fünfeinhalb Minuten haben sich die Klänge, die Töne, vereint und lösen sich auf, so dass ein sanfter Übergang zum nächsten Song geschaffen wurde.
Und das, was ich hier für diesen Song beschrieben und versucht habe in Worte zu fassen, ist exemplarisch und findet auch in den anderen Songs statt. Immer anders, aber dennoch ist das Album eine Einheit und als solches zu hören. Zu hören ist Jules Maxwell zur Zeit auch Live. Er tourt mit Dead Can Dance. Termine findet ihr hier.
Doch kommen wir zur zweiten LP, die sich im Gatefoldcover befindet. Hierbei handelt es sich um die, digital schon im März vergangenen Jahres erschienene LP „Nocturnes“. Jetzt auf Vinyl sind „Nocturnes“ und „Cycles“ vereint und auch musikalisch bilden sie eine Einheit. Eventuell ist „Nocturnes“ stellenweise ein wenig verspielter, zum Beispiel in „April 1964“ oder auch „Virgin Territory“ wird im Laufe des Songs verspielter. Grundsätzlich wird aber die Stimmung, die Jules Maxwell auf „Nocturnes“ kreiert hat, in „Cycles“ aufgenommen und intensiviert.
Und wer jetzt bei den Stichwörtern meditativ und ruhig denkt, es wäre sicherlich nicht so seine*ihre Musik, dem*der empfehle ich mal reinzuhören. Denn die Platte berührt, egal ob man jetzt vorwiegend Progressiv Rock, Metal oder Radio-Pop hört. Wer’s nicht glaubt, spule nochmal zurück zum zweiten Absatz, oder hört halt mal rein.
Erschienen ist das Vinyl auf dem Label Ghost Palace und liegt mir als Testpressung in schwarzem Vinyl vor. [Vinyl Keks]
|
2022 |
€26.50 |
|
| MC LEAN, STEVE |
Bridges |
do-CD |
"These recordings collect together works spanning two decades of composition and experimentation that balance traditional musical resources (the band, compositional skills, instrumental techniques, acoustic and amplified instruments) and the new technologies (computers, software, processing). The first CD showcases polyrhythmic, careful compositions (like those on his last ReR CD, Opposite of War), which still no-one has tried to emulate. The second is more meditative, abstract and electronic, moving from Koto through electric and acoustic guitars - with and without radical effects processing - to piano and virtual orchestra, putting various softwares through their paces." [label notes]
label-website: www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€19.00 |
|
| MC PHERSON, DONALD & TETUZI AKIYAMA |
Vinegar & Rum |
CD |
"Originally released in 2006. Recorded in New Zealand in 2004, this is the duo recording of New Zealand guitarist Donald McPherson and Japanese guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama. A beautiful meeting of two virtuoso acoustic guitarists, both thoroughly schooled in the vast world of improvising. Donald McPherson, a native New Zealander, has released a number of extremely limited lathe-cut folk records. Tetuzi Akiyama is often associated with the improvising community in Tokyo generated around Tokyo's Off Site venue. But Tetuzi's sound owes just as much to the country blues guitarists of the '30s. His sound has taken the blues form into a new world of minimalist improvisations. His loose playing side-steps the usual clichés of the guitar in both the free improv and traditional folk scenes. Tetuzi has a varied number of very different projects from free improvisations, working with musicians across the globe, to hard minimalist electric blues boogies. Vinegar & Rum finds Tetuzi and Donald playing melodic folk improvisations that grow and morph into compositions that upon each listening uncover some new layer of beauty. Both playing on acoustic guitar, they have a level of communication and understanding that allows a musical connection to grow and blossom into a full-length recording of delicate melodic mayhem. The CD is limited to 1000 copies, with two extra tracks that do not appear on the vinyl version." [label info]
www.boweavilrecordings.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MCDOUGALL, JAMES |
Between no Ground and the Bay Leaf Tree |
mCD-R |
"after a bunch of releases under the entia non alias on respected labels like u-cover, dataobscura, test tube, resting bell or sentient recognition archive, australian sound artist james mcdougall has recently decided to use his real name for his musical output, maybe to denote a small departure from his first releases who were a bit more on the glitch side. more focused on field recordings, these two tracks are a perfect example of the captivating soundscapes mcdougall creates..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"James McDougall used to work as Entia Non and had releases on U-Cover, Dataobscura, Test Tube, Resting Bell and Sentient Recognition Archive but since some time he works under his own name. Here he has two lengthy pieces made from 'process bowed bass guitar and field recordings'. He moves out of the more collage like works of field recordings into more stretched out fields of mood music. Highly drone based - say the territory formerly inhabited by Uhlig - where the bass provides the drones - en masse - and where the field recordings seems to be a bit buried beneath and below. Slight crackles of leaves, that kind of work. Quite pleasant stuff really, if nothing really new under this particular drone sun. Crafted with some intelligence and with great care, that's for sure." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| MCDOUGALL, JAMES & HIROKI SASAJIMA |
Injya |
CD |
" “Sometimes, the impossible is a basket of new unlikely seeds – realizing the geographical difficulty of working in unison on the same site, we opted for using at least common geologic context, not knowing where this could lead us…
What could come indeed out of distance, sensory communion, a mutual love for depicting the relief of things, its tactility ?…perhaps as with the best abstraction, a fertilizing stream, something perhaps larger than what the initial elements could have implied…something surprising even to us…
“Injya” is the encounter of our combined wanderings, and most probably the emergence of an imaginary entity powerful enough to engage us in a strange way…”(James McDougall/layout by Daniel Crokaert)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"Both of these artists can be regarded as 'new kids' on the block of field recordings, coming to the foreground in recent years with a plethora of releases on labels as Sentient Recognition Archive, U-Cover, Dataobscura, Test Tube, Resting Bell and Mystery Sea - the latter doing a solo release by both of them. On their subdivision Unfathomless they have a collaborative disc of music, based on field recordings made in their own locale (the Akigawa Valley/Otake Limestone Caves, Japan in Sasajima's case and The D'Aguilar Mountain Range, North West of Brisbane, Australia in McDougall's case) and then 'equally developed'. 'The sensitive issue of not occupying the same token sites was acknowledged and it was opted instead for a common geologic context' - whatever that means. Its a release that has some questions: for instance: is there any processing and if so to which extent? How does this collaboration work anyway? Are recordings from both locations simply played together, or has there been any kind of mixing going on? Its all not easy to say. I think there has been some form of processing, mainly just EQ-ing, bringing out more high or low end frequencies, especially in the third and fourth pieces. Also I think that in all four pieces they have searched for specific characteristics of the provided sounds and set them together, with some extent of mixing. I also kept thinking: why should I bother thinking of what they did or didn't do: these four pieces are very good, a culmination of field recordings that, once together, make great sense. Not minimal, hardly changing music, but vibrant, always on the move, full of tension, evocative and beautiful. Excellent, if not always the most original, but that is perhaps quite hard." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| MCDOWALL, DREW |
Collapse |
LP |
"Drew McDowall’s back story reads like a primer of psychedelic fiction woven into statements of the unbelievable, superhuman and outright insane. Somewhere in the chaotic madness, comes an artist such as McDowall with total control and absolute calm within his songs and artistic method.
Growing up in the gangs of 1970’s Scotland, Drew McDowall started to shy away from the daily violence once punk took hold of the counterculture youth. Drew McDowall quickly scrambled to form his own punk band in 1978 with his then wife, Rose McDowall, called The Poems. Shortly lived, the Poems released a single and various tracks but more importantly, the band allowed McDowall to network with other local musicians in Glasgow, such as Orange Juice, and allowed him to travel down to London thus forming friendships with Genesis P-Orridge, David Tibet and countless others, bringing Drew into the fold of the experimental revolution happening in the UK brought upon by Throbbing Gristle and executed by bands such as Psychic TV and Current 93.
During the 1980’s, McDowall found himself in the ranks of P-Orridge’s Psychic TV and collaborating with the mysterious duo comprised of former Throbbing Gristle creator Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson and the enigmatic John Balance who had been creating esoteric and progressive electronic music under the title of Coil. It was during his formative collaborations with Coil that McDowall saw himself shift from occasional contributor to austere full-time member of the arcane outfit. McDowall’s impact on the band’s sound was apparent as the releases transformed from their previous avant pop signature to a more complex and methodic electronic imprint accompanied by even more abstruse subject matter than previous years. McDowall would continue honing his compositional skills with Coil until the release of the band’s two most broad-minded albums, Astral Disaster and Musick to Play in the Dark.
The past decade, Drew McDowall found himself living in New York City and re-appropriating himself within the local music scenes he found himself contributing to. In 2011, alongside his friend and collaborator, Tres Warren (Psychic Ills), McDowall found himself exploring his passion of meditative drone and abstract sound patterns in their project Compound Eye. In recent times, McDowall’s production work has provided the music world with some of the most outstanding remixes for bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Azar Swan and Long Distance Poison as well as his well-received scores he composed alongside artist Tamaryn for the works of Bret Easton Ellis. Outside of his collaborative duties, McDowall formed an audience as a solo artist, playing countless performances and showcases around New York’s electronic music haunts.
Dais Records approached Drew to solidify his standing as a leading electronic musician with the recording of new material neatly wrapped up in his debut album entitled “Collapse”. Recorded in 2015 in Brooklyn, NY, McDowall’s synonymous modular synthesizer compositions are augmented by obtuse sampling cut-ups and contributions from Nicky Mao (Hiro Kone / Effi Briest) rounding out the lumbering sequential knot work that has become synonymous with McDowall and craft." [label info]
www.daisrecords.com
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
| MCFALL, CHRISTOPHER |
The Body as I left it |
CD |
"CD edition limited to 500 copies. This collection of works was assembled in 2009 and was composed using piano, a broken phonograph player, field recordings and sampled material. I think that this release embodies a certain diversity in terms of content because at the time I was recording these works I was experimenting with several different approaches to developing new compositions involving the use of a more melodic approach to things. Once the release was completed, I had several thoughts in reference to a title and the title 'The Body As I Left It' seemed the most appropriate to me given the circumstances that had occurred during the time of it's creation. (text by Christopher McFall) On this new series of recordings Christopher McFall enriches his personal urban ethnographic work with a palette of concrete musical materials and the sounds of failing playback equipment. This combination has yielded an album which succeeds in remaining a recognizable development in the work of this composer, while revealing a whole range of sensibilities which were previously not heard in his recordings. Once again Christopher has created a work of great subtlety which contains a sense of narrative while eluding any simple descriptives or conclusive understanding of its contents. (text by Asher Thal Nir)" [label info]
"Not much information on this new release by Christopher McFall. 'composed in Kansas City, MO 2008-9', 'untitled i-vii' and the title. Not even the website of Asher's label Sourdine is mentioned on the package. Let the music speak for itself. McFall has had already a bunch of releases on Gears Of Sand and Entr'acte, and also in the digital domain his work can be found. Up until now I believed his work was mainly based around the extensive use of field recordings and processing thereof. The empty land around Kansas City, the empty warehouses and silos, but here, perhaps for the first time, it seems that McFall also uses musical instruments, primarily, I think, piano sounds. These too are processed, and mingled with the field recordings and voice material. Its an interesting new phase McFall enters here. The overall musical touch brought to the table is gentle, quiet and altogether alters the music of McFall quite a bit. The sound is deepened, without losing its original focus. The musical elements are a great supplement to the field recordings, but perhaps that could also be said vice versa. An excellent work. This music indeed speaks for itself." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MCFALL, CHRISTOPHER & ASHER |
An amber hollowed Night |
mCD-R |
"a multi-layered track created by two prolific and very talented us sound artists.
christopher mcfall first issued a bunch of netreleases on respected labels such as alg-a, conv, earlabs or test tube then physical releases on entr'acte, 1000füssler, mystery sea or sourdine (asher's label). he likes to collaborate with other sound artists too (with ben fleury steiner or more recently with luigi turra on mystery sea's sister-label unfathomless). he's known for his rich soundcsapes full of treated field recordings.
asher's output shares many labels with his partner (earlabs, conv, homophoni, mystery sea, and/oar...) and also produces multi-media dvd releases...
here's what christopher mcfall says about this track made with four hands: "this release is entitled 'an amber hollowed night.' the reason i proposed this title is that it accurately describes the feelings and environment that i was experiencing when I was assembling the tracks that comprised the final multi-track format. i was composing late at night in my studio and then taking the work that i had done for any particular evening and walking with it in the streets of kansas city to listen and access the results. effectively, this collaboration came to fruition as a result of asher sending me piano fragments taken from a series of recordings entitled 'passages' that was recorded in vermont in 2007 and audio from an installation entitled 'materials for spaces'. i worked extensively with these tracks and combined them with a series of field recordings that i had compliled and recorded to treated tape. the source material for the field recordings were primarily from the train yards here in kansas city, whereby the digital field recording was eventually transfered to treated audio tape. the individual tracks were then manipulated more in the computer and multi-tracked together to form the final recorded track. these recordings were compiled and rendered into 'an amber hollowed night' in the fall and winter months between 2007 and 2008."
[label info]
www.taalem.com
"The final new release is by Christopher McFall and Asher, both highly active with numerous releases in various formats (mp3, CDR, CD). They both have sound input, Asher gives his piano music and McFall field recordings from Kansas City. In the first stage the sounds were treated on tape and then later on the computer. Its probably exactly the kind of piece you would expect from them. Hissy, low in volume, but also highly beautiful. I don't think it adds that much to what you may already know from either of them, but as so often with things like this, that hardly matters. People like McFall and Asher have carved out a very specific sound of their own and work within that very well. A highly atmospheric piece of music." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| MCGUIRE, JOHN |
Works for Instruments |
do-CD |
Fünf Stücke des US-Komponisten (der Schüler von PENDERECKI und STOCKHAUSEN war) aus verschiedenen Perioden (das älteste, DECAY entstand 1967-1970) in neuen Einspielungen. Klassisch instrumentierte Minimal-Music, die interessante strukturelle Merkmale aufweist (Überlagerungen, Verdichtungen und Wellenbewegungen von Tönen, Akkorden & musikalischen Themen) und entsprechende psychoakustische Wirkungen (mehrdeutiges Hören, unendliche Kreis- und Zirkelbewegungen...). CADENCE MUSIC, EXCHANGES, DECAY, FRIEZE, und MUSIC FOR HORNS, PIANOS & CYMBALS.
" 1. Composer:
John McGuire
2. Title:
Works for Instruments
3. Performers:
Ensemble Modern • Julia Rempe Sopran • Pellegrini-Quartett:
Antonio Pellegrini, Thomas Hofer Violine • Fabio Marano Viola •
Helmut Menzler Violoncello
musikFabrik: Hermann Kretzschmar, Paulo Alvarez, Irmela
Roelcke, Eun-Ju Kim,
Ulrich Löffler, Jürgen Kruse Klaviere • Christine Chapman,
Jodie Lawson, Charles Putnam,
Rohan Richards Hörner • Dirk Rothbrust, Carlos Tarcha Schlagzeug
4. Format:
Audio CD, Digisleeve, Booklet German/English
5. Total time:
CD1 44:33 • CD2 58:46 • T: 103:20
6. Catalogue #:
ed. RZ 20003¬4
7. EAN Code:
4029455200038
8. Release date:
December 4, 2008
9. Information / Press Release:
Jede der Kompositionen des amerikanischen Komponisten John McGuire beschreibt auf ihre Weise einen mehrdimensionalen Klangraum, in dem der Hörer verschiedene Blickwinkel einnehmen,
mithin ein und denselben Klang in verschiedenen Gestalten wahrnehmen kann.
Each of the compositions of American composer John McGuire describes, in its own way,
a multi-dimensional sonic space which the listener can take in from various vantage points and, in so doing, experience the very same sound in different guises." [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2008 |
€21.50 |
|
| MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO |
Lonely Soldier |
12 |
"Lonely Soldier" is the new single from seminal electronic band Meat Beat Manifesto. Led by sound sculptor and producer extraordinaire Jack Dangers, the group is continually evolving. On "Lonely Soldier," Dangers ties together many strands of his wide-ranging work, from dub-bass and psychedelic background reverberations to crate-digging breaks and Jamaican toasting. "I feel closest to the dubstep trend," says Dangers. "I feel like dub has always been part of my sound."
Meat Beat Manifesto's musical invention has generated a long string of influential futuristic classics, including such tracks as "God OD," "Psyche Out," "Helter Skelter," "Radio Babylon," "Edge of No Control," and "It's The Music." The single, "Prime Audio Soup," (from the album Actual Sounds and Voices), was featured in the sci-fi fantasy blockbuster The Matrix and on its platinum-selling soundtrack." [label info]
"[Meat Beat Manifesto] have consistently merged hip-hop rhythms with industrial overtones and a myriad of samples to devastating effect." [Trouser Press]
www.planet-mu.com
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| MECANO |
Waving Goodbye |
CD |
MECANO is a post-punk band who statrted in 1978 as a punk band from Amsterdam. They release a 7" vinyl called Face Two Face, and after that the band sound moved to post-pnk like Joy Division. Singer and band leader Dirk Polak is a poet who did few records until 1983, when stopped music to work with paiting and art.
The band turned a cult classix of genre (main in Brasil, Israel and Greece). After a while the band reunion in the 90´s to a new album, and after that they did more 2 albuns. That cd was realised to 45 year anniversary for special last tour of the band before stop do live concerts. That Cd is only special for Brazilian audience in São Paulo/ Brasil at Madame Club 9-sept-2023
It was a special mastering and that cd compilation has 4 old band classics + 3 unreleased and new tracks. Mastered by Marcelo Gallo and design by Luciano Arnold.
1) LINKS - by Mecano (Dirk Polak/Pieter Kooyman/Cor Bolten/Tejo Bolten/Ton Lebbink)
2) MECANO - by Mecano (Dirk Polak/Pieter Kooyman/Cor Bolten/Tejo Bolten/Ton Lebbink)
3) NOBLE BLISS - by Mecano Un-Ltd. (Dirk Polak, Sin Banovic, Mick Ness)
4) ROBESPIERRE RE-MARX - by Mecano (Dirk Polak/Pieter Kooyman/Cor Bolten/Tejo Bolten/Ton Lebbink)
5) STATEMENT OF THE ARTIST AS AN OLD MAN - by Mecano Un-Ltd. (Dirk Polak/Mick Ness)
6) TABOU d'ESPRIT - by Mecano Un-Ltd. (Dirk Polak/Mick Ness)
7) TO LIFE-S REUNION - by Mecano (Dirk Polak/Pieter Kooyman/Cor Bolten/Tejo Bolten)
tracks 1-2-4-7 old classics
tracks 3-5-6 new and unreleased tracks
format: CD
release date: 09/9/2023 EXCLUSIVE CONCERT CD
code: W168
barcode: 7893595414955
style: post-punk
label: Wave Records
waverecordsmusic.com
https://waverecords.bandcamp.com/album/mecano-waving-goodbye-cd
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| MECHA / ORGA |
56:24 |
CD |
Filed under: polyphonic power-drones! Griechisches Projekt mit einem sonoren Drone one-tracker, der an HAFLER TRIO oder NIBLOCK erinnert, Obertöne überschlagen und überlagern sich wellenartig, das ganze wird allmählich immer lauter und massiver in einem fast unmerkliches Crescendo, das furios anschwillt, zum Ende hin gewinnen die Drones eine schon unangenehmen Druck & Präsenz ! Intensiv und definitiver TIP!
“...as if a garden being planted and you are watching all the process from the bare earth to the colourful result, comes “56:24”... generating a drone layer which slowly starts the cultivation process where layers upon layers slowly build a delicate atmosphere and the way they expand and grow draws an even more colourful result, as if a swarm of insects spreads the pollen in our garden, helping it grow even more beautiful and even more colourful, lasting in a flabbergasting droning result... or at least, such was the atmosphere last march in Halandri where Yiorgis Sakellariou (aka Mecha-Orga) premiered this piece for us. And it was John Pallas, who by the time the set ended proposed absurd the cd release and didn't leave until we 3 shook hands... such also was our life in our 2006, like a fertile garden, with lots of releases and trips here and there, always ending with our occasional meetings at cafe Amarrylis in Kifissia for coffee (Mecha-Orga) & Shitloads of alcohol (absurd) or at “Varsos Kifissia” to enjoy our sweets & cofee (Mecha-Orga), hot-cold chocolate (absurd). and as a friend wondered of how the future will look like, we thought nice to picture Mecha-Orga on the cd's front cover sleeve, as a middle aged man, thinking of how he'll create his next piece-live set and a grey haired absurd on the cd label, probably in a meeting w-someone to discuss an upcoming release or project in one of editions_zero's side-ghost labels, book publishing houses, etc etc etc... comes highly recommended if you fancy instant trips to colourful droning soundgardens!!!” [Nicolas Malevitsis]
"The name Mecha/orga keeps popping up in Vital Weekly and though not entirely a household name, it should be one, at least some day. His new CD could be of great help to achieve this. Mecha/orga is the name chosen by Yiorgis Sakellariou from Greece, who works since time under this guise (and plays regular music as well under various other guises and in various other capacities). The work, indicated by it's length, was created one afternoon in february last year, and played live there after a couple of time. No bullshitting about. The length becomes the title, and the listener can come up with his or her own story. Mecha/orga plays drone music. On a laptop. How much more simple can it get? Or rather does it have to be complex? No it doesn't. Over the course of the fifty-six minutes and twenty-four seconds Yiorgis Sakellariou plays a slowly unfolding piece of drone music, which seems to be growing in intensity throughout. When you think nothing more can be added, he adds another layer. And another. And another. Most suitable to play in the dark, at night and ghostly activities will surely occur. Or during the day, outside and watching plants grow. Multi-purpose music, I'd say. Great stuff. Powerful music." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.void.gr/absurd
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MEELKOP, ROEL |
Momentum |
CD |
Second release on HERIBERT FRIEDLS new label !
“To many Roel meelkop is a musician of microsound music, with releases on Trente Oiseaux, Staalplaat, Intransitive, but he was originally trained as a visual artist and even sold a painting once. Since he is involved in music he has also a built a number of sound installations. The once I saw all involved multiple speakers, sometimes hidden in the ceiling or in trees, and the music moving over the speakers. It's an entirely different thing to make music for this than for the stereo set up of a CD release. But on this new CD (and for once one that hasn't been lying around for years), meelkop reduces his multiple speaker installations to a stereo mix, taking it out of the original concept of the installation, but to be enjoyed as music for the home. As per usual, meelkop doesn't tell us much about the actual installation, and the titles leave not much to know either. So with everything removed other than the music (a very meelkopian thing to do), we are left with six pieces from the period 1997 to 2004, which continue his work explored before on his releases up-to the recently reviewed '5 (Ambiences)', when things got more 'ambient' (see Vital Weekly 488). There are hints here of the forthcoming minimalist and ambient style, such as in lengthy 'Sined', from 2002, with it's soft outbursts of sine wave sounds. Overall this is a most enjoyable CD, and if there should have been any differentiation between work on CD and installation, meelkop has successfully managed to wipe these differences out. These pieces work also quite well outside the context of installations.” [Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly]
www.nonvisualobjects.com
|
2005 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
5[zwischenfälle] |
CD |
"5(zwischenfaelle) is the latest release by dutch electronic musician ROEL MELLKOP. It is a special release in Meelkop’s catalogue because it is consist of five piece that were originally used in the context of sound installations running over a certain period of time in specific special surroundings. For 5(zwischenfaelle) Meelkop has set himself the task to compress these soundscapes into five dense and still minimal audio pieces that could work outside the context of the original installations. 5(zwischenfaelle) is focussed on single sound events and stark beautiful dynamic movements in a certain area of sound and does not have the bruitistic research-like feel of other solo works by Meelkop. 5(zwischenfaelle) makes for concentrated unpolished ultra minimal listening with maximum effect. For all friends of Bernhard Günter, Francisco Lopez, Joe Colley/Crawl Unit or Marc Behrens this is a definite work!
Roel Meelkop (Tegelen, NL, 1963) studied sculpture and painting at Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam, NL. He graduated in 1990 and in the years after that he concentrated mainly on painting. Five years later, he decided to expand his views on art and philosophy and applied for a postgraduate course at the same academy. He graduated from this course in 1997. By then, Meelkop had abandoned painting altogether in favour of working with sound. Before this he had already been working with THU20 on experimental sound collages and electronic music. This practice was extended and now includes sound installations and performances as well.
Nowadays, Meelkop regularly plays live performances around the world, either solo, or with one of the three musical projects he is involved with: THU20 (musique concrete), Kapotte Muziek (electro-acoustic music) or GOEM (electronic music). His solo music is a unique combination of the aforementioned styles. Besides his live activities, Meelkop has a long list of releases to show for his creativity and productivity in the studio. Another area of interest for Meelkop is sound in space. The relation between space and sound and the unique artistic possibilities this offers have urged him to create several installations, not only in exhibition spaces, but also in public spaces. Most of these installations are created specifically for the spaces that will hold them and are based on Meelkop’s impressions from these spaces. In most cases the work is not visual but auditory, thus expanding the existing space in a way that visual art will never achieve. Central issue in these installations is the experience of space and time at a specific place and time. Aside from his artistic activities, Meelkop is also active as organiser, curator and programmer of contemporary sound art and electronic music in Rotterdam, NL and as a reviewer for the email magazine Vital Weerkly." [label info]
"ROEL MEELKOP ist als Soundtüftler und inzwischen auch Kurator für zeitgenössische
elektronische Musik in Rotterdam nicht ohne
Vergangenheit in der niederländischen Szene.
Seit 1986 arbeitet er in dem Audio-Art-Kollektiv
THU 20, seit 1995 tritt er regelmäßgig mit Kapotte Muziek auf und veröffentlicht desweiteren seit 1997 mit Frans de Waard und Peter Duimelinks als GOEM sowie Arbeiten unter seinem Namen und seinem dubbigen minimalacid-
elektro Alter Ego slo-fi. Zu 5 (Zwischenfälle)
(AATP18, digipak ltd. 500) selbst ist zu
sagen, dass er hier Stücke aus spezifischen
Soundinstallationen aus dem Zeitraum 2005-
2006 überarbeitet und damit aus dem eigentlichen
Kontext gerissen hat. Allesamt unbetitelt,
werden 4 längere Tracks jeweils von einer
kleinen Präambel ein- und ausgeläutet. Das
räumliche Element fließt hier dennoch erfolgreich ein, durch Pausen wie auch durch überraschende Klangkontraste. Die Abstraktion
des eigentlichen Ausgangspunktes nimmt
fluchtartig zu, aber so, dass die Statik des Raumes nicht gefährdet wird. Verhallende Geräusche vielschichtig arrangiert, unerwartete
Klänge, undurchsichtige Hintergrund-lautmalereien. "Zwischenfälle" ist hier ein sehr gut gewählter Untertitel, da eine beruhigende Wirkung nicht von diesen Aufnahmen ausgeht." [cs / Bad Alchemy]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MEELKOP, ROEL & MECHA/ORGA |
Rotterdam 54:21 |
CD |
"This first collaboration between Roel Meelkop and Yiorgis Sakellariou consists of three pieces, two solos and one duet. Unusual and groundbreaking combination of modified field recordings and twisted sound of old analogue synths shows the distinct and personal approach to the electronic composition, shaped throughout the years of studio practice. Release date is 29th December 2012. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Roel Meelkop may not have been born in the city of Rotterdam, he's been there for more than half his life now, so he probably knows every in and out, and is a perfect guide for the city and the extended harbor. He toured the city, armed with a tape recorder and with Yiorgis Sakellariou, also known as Mecha/orga to tape the beauty and the ugliness of the big city. Afterwards they went down to Worm, Rotterdam's finest when it comes to staging experimental music, or more in particular to their in-door CEM studio (who moved since 1959 all over the country, Hilversum, Arnhem, Amsterdam and now Rotterdam), where we have some vintage synth modules. Here the sound was treated further and then stuck together as a collage of electronic music. Then it was played live a couple of times and ended up on a silver shiny disc. Thirty minutes together and then fifteen Meelkop solo and nine minutes Mecha/orga solo. Probably I am not the right person to shed any light on this release - too close involved and all that. But this is one damn fine release. The collaborative piece flows all into eachother with the solo ones. Whereas in the collaboration they use the collage form, setting field recordings aside from the electronics at one point, mixing and filtering them together at another point, making an intense, rich form of collage. In his solo piece, Meelkop seems to be concentrating on sustaining sounds from motorized objects, slowly filtering and fading several together, while Mecha/orga is more on the field recordings side of this matter, which is no doubt more his line of business. An excellent collaborative work and a story that will continue this year, not with the same line-up, but from these fruitful weeks in The Netherlands in April 2012." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| MEERKAT |
Kapnos |
CD |
"In 2003 Maurizio Bianchi and Matteo Uggeri / Hue met through Afe Records; three years later Maurizio asked Matteo for a musical collaboration, which grew up quickly under the design of a long term project called "Between the Elements", a sort of music transposition of concepts that lies in the empty spaces between the natural elements, which are over-abused terms in the New Age music scene.
Two albums were published in 2008: one about the concept of "clouds" ("Nefelodhis", by MB and the post-rock band Sparkle in Grey) and one about the concept of "desert" ("Erimos", by MB with Hue and Luca Bergero / Fhievel).
One year later, the third chapter entitled "Kapnos" – Greek for "smoke" - is finally available. The industrial master contributes to back notes and concept, but keeps his hands far from the musical matter, leaving it to the expertise of ten of the most interesting experimental musicians of the Italian scene, united under the cryptic name of Meerkat.
The Meerkat ensemble is formed by a group of musicians working in the field of experimental music, drones, microsounds and field recordings: Adriano Zanni / Punck, Matteo Uggeri / Hue, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero / Fhievel, Davide Valecchi / Aal, Andrea Ferraris / Ics, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti (Logoplasm), Laura Lovreglio (Logoplasm) and Andrea Marutti / Amon / Never Known.
The tracks on "Kapnos" present a surprising homogeneity in spite of the different attitudes of the artists, which mixed their experiences in each track creating new unforeseen connections, working in pairs or in threesome on each track.
The Meerkat members also joint their efforts releasing the CD, which is in fact published by Afe (Andrea Marutti), Grey Sparkle (Matteo Uggeri), Nighthawks Tapes (Paolo Ippoliti) and Ctrl+Alt+Canc (Adriano Zanni).
Under these premises, "Kapnos" represents an unique effort in the swarming Italian music scene of the '00s." [label info]
"...The music is excellent - a fine mixture of styles and interests from these guys. All the elements one would expect are there, the field recordings, drones, ambience, microscopic detailed sounds. Great stuff here." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aferecords.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| MEESE / MAMA BAER / HJULER |
Alaska Kid jagt Dr. No |
CD |
Catalog-Nr.: Plus 107
Format: CD, Album, Digipack
Country: Germany
Release date: November 2019
Genre: Fluxus
Tracklist
01 Jobeuysseph (9)
02 Osten
03 Melancholie
04 Süden
05 The Island
06 Westen
07 Alcoholisme-brut Nr. 1
08 Norden
09 In fremdem Herbst (1)
10 Meese_Trumpy
11 Khmerzen (4)
Notes
Jonathan Robin Meese (* 23. Januar 1970 in Tokio) ist ein deutscher Künstler. Seine Werke umfassen Malerei, Skulpturen, Installationen, Performances, Collagen, Videokunst und Theaterarbeiten. Dabei thematisiert er überwiegend Persönlichkeiten der Weltgeschichte, Ur-Mythen und Heldensagen. Jonathan Meese lebt und arbeitet in Ahrensburg und Berlin.
Mama Baer (* 29. Oktober 1981 in Niebüll als Andrea Katharina Ingeborg Göthling, verheiratete Hjuler) und Kommissar Hjuler (* 30. Juni 1967 in Flensburg als Detlev Hjuler) sind ein deutsches Künstlerduo. Sie arbeiten seit 1999 gemeinsam in den Bereichen Musik, Malerei, Assemblage, Collage, Installation, Performance, Experimentalfilm und Konzeptkunst. Sie sind Vertreter der jüngsten Fluxus-Bewegung und seit 2009 feste Mitglieder der NO!art-Movementjobeuysseph.
www.molokoplusrecords.de/finder.php?folder=Label&content=79
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| MEGAPTERA |
Staring back at you |
CD |
Rares Material des schwedischen Death Industrial Kult-Projekts!
"In a final celebration of Megaptera’s 15 year anniversary, Malignant presents the definitive last statement from this prominent and highly influential death industrial project. Staring Back At You concentrates on demo versions, outtakes, and rare songs from various arenas, including the compilations Zyklon B, Beating the Meat, Slaughter Age ’95, The Book ov Shadowz, Death Odors II, as well as material from the Deep Inside mLP, and more. These tracks capture Megaptera at their grittiest, creepiest, and most horrifying...a grinding, lurching monstrosity fueled by the madness, violence, lies, wars, and disease that plague the world. Lmtd to 800 copies, and coming in a 6 panel digipak designed by Mårten Kellerman, this has been re-mastered by Magnus Sundstrom, with additional boosting courtesy of Thomas Garrison. Staring Back At You is final nail in the coffin for Megaptera, and may they rest in peace, but continue to deliver nightmares, maddening thoughts, and the darkest of obsessions. Track listing: More Disturbance (demo version), The Passage (demo version), Disoriented (Totally Different demo version), Lurking Fear (Pre-damaged demo version), Frozen Corpse, The Final Day (excerpt), Morior, Mass Murder, Antropofagi, Deep Inside." [label info]
label: www.malignantrecords.com
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| MEIRINO, FRANCISCO & DAVE PHILLIPS |
We are none of us |
do-LP |
"Francisco Meirino (Phroq) & Dave Phillips (Schimpfluch Gruppe) have collaborated on this extremely dynamic electro-acoustic studio album. Through meticulous arrangement of electronics, processed sound and field recordings they create a dark and unsettling audio narrative. 'We Are None of Us' exemplifies these two masters at the best of their craft. This 2xLP version contains 2 additional tracks not included on the CD and comes with download card for bonus live track, a recording of their full performance at Ertz Festival, Bera, Spain, 11 sept. 2010. Released in a limited edition of 200 copies." [label info]
www.misanthropicagenda.com |
2012 |
€29.00 |
|
| MEIRINO, FRANCISCO & KIKO C. ESSEIVA |
Focus on Nothing on Focus |
LP |
"A unique work stemming from a studio collaboration between Francisco Meirino and Kiko C. Esseiva. Using the same source material each artist composed one side of the LP. Assembled in 2012 and 2013 from hours of multitrackrecordings using reel-to-reel tape recorders, emf detectors, piezo transducers, analogue synths and various homemade sound objects. Discover, compare, enjoy the work of these two sound artists ! High Quality 180g Vinyl with excellent sound - not at least due to the cut done by Flo Kaufmann. Numbered edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.aussenraumrecords.com
"Whether it’s relevant or not I don’t know, but immediately before listening to Focus on Nothing on Focus by Francisco Meirino and Kiko C. Esseiva in order to make notes for the final review, I watched a documentary about Joy Division. The record is a 12″ vinyl black void with a black label which you might think is a precursor to the abyssal darkness contained within. In fact after Joy Division’s bleak visions born of greyscale Manchester streets steeped in rain and the bedroom’s so cold, you turn away on your side, it was a relief to enjoy some movement, vibration and a surprising selection of fleeting semi-colours.
four men on a bridge
Assembled in 2012 and 2013 from hours of multitrack recordings as a duo, each artist was given one side of the record to present his individual composition using the original material as the building blocks. As the first release on Andreas Unterkircher’s Ausenraum label, the black and white cover picture of electrical equipment cut up and interrupted, repeated and sliced, slid out of place and readjusted, then partially contained within a perfect circle seems an apt metaphor for the processes etched into the grooves here.
she filled her time pushing the pram round Salford
There is an interesting YouTube video of Meirino and Esseiva playing together as a duo in an art gallery or something similar. They are set up against a side wall on a long table next to each other. Various people are seated in the white space, others walk in and out informally. Being able to see all this taking place, the physical approach of each artist is interesting and illuminating and offers some understanding into why each side of this LP sounds as it does.
tear us apart
Meirino stands bent over his black boxes of plugs and wires activating switches and summoning up raw electrical bleed and grime from the insides of these dark objects. He turns a torch on and off at intervals, and the completion and termination of the circuit is heard as a visceral thud. Essevia remains seated at his desk and, amongst other things, manipulates a tape recorder thoughtfully and subtly, reacting and operating within and against the bodily groundedness of the sputtering sound shrapnel exhibiting a concentrated intelligence and sense of purpose. Whether this performance formed part of the substrata from which this LP was carved I don’t know, but it is certainly an informative document.
it’s a picture of a tomb
For me all Meirino’s music seems to exist in a landscape with enhanced perspective and a very remote vanishing point: In other words the sounds are stretched out from incredibly distant thuds occurring below the horizon to crackles and clicks right up against the eardrum, as if generated inside the speakers themselves independently of anything else.
growling like a dog
Meirino places us on a ship negotiating a sea of fluctuating plasma. Creaks and groans from the rigging and the swell of undulating static gives way to scuttling creature in the hold. Early on a filament of light, a laser emission like a bowed violin note repeats a few times as a vestige of the sun’s benediction. Later, work of some secret nature takes place. Something rattles back and forth along rails as machines hum. Excited wings vibrate against the microphone and objects drop and roll across the hard floor. People talk, but the men’s voices are rudely cut off and are no more. A crescendo of metal and tooled desolation builds from nothing to form a rattling, prison riot cacophony then… suddenly we are in some dead pond where the water (or some other analogous fluid) carries sounds from afar. Unknown denizens of this inky pool signal to each other ever more frantically, again a crescendo… Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… Run-off groove…
Ian’s dead
Esseiva is an artist I have never heard before. Seemingly his compositional hand is more controlled than Meirino’s and the work focuses more closely on fewer competing strands. This approach yields a completely different experience, yet obviously both sides of the disc are united by their common provenance. Differences aside each promise is fulfilled in its singular entirety.
I came off the phone and went back to the table
Kiko C. Esseiva pledges breath and motors and grinding gears. A ribbon of steady sound unfolds and fades just once. This is a workshop in which the instruments that make this music are being built, and the very building of them is the music itself, and after they have finished playing, the dismantling of them is also the music itself. Sheets of steel and other substances are beaten in frantic rapidity. Tiny hammers pound. Insectoid nano-mosquitoes plague the workspace. Cut. Fibrillating electricity. Cut. A buffeted wire fence with mechanical animoids squeaking and chirruping in iron filing nests. Steel wool ruffles and frazzles. Cut. Dead air. A ball bearing rolls around an uneven plane causing other objects to become infectiously agitated and inexplicably animated. An organ plays itself, just once. Vibrating glass planes, jars, flasks and light bulbs. Cut… Near silence… Readjust to the tiny flecks of vinyl crackle not being part of the whole… And yet in a way they are… It all is… Run-off groove… Click… Click… Raise the needle.
unknown
pleasures" [Chris Whitehead / Sonicfield] |
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| MEISSNER / SLAVIN / SACHS |
Into the Void |
CD |
Eine Art "Hör-Film" dreier Audio & Video-Künstler aus Israel & Österreich basierend auf einer Spurensuche im jüdischen Viertel in Krakau... besonders das 11teilige "Into the Void" von SEBASTIAN MEISSNER ist sehr hörenswert: field recordings & Erzählungen werden verwebt mit dunklen Drones, Piano-tunes, Klezmer-Fragmenten, teils in langen sphärischen Stücken, teils cut-up mässig...
RAN SLAVINS "Segments from the Snow" klingt Electronica-lastiger, aber auch bedrückend atmosphärisch & voller interessanter Sound-Arrangements & stakkatohaft-mechanischer Samples & Volksmusikverfremdungen...
ERAN SACHS (u.a. Mitglied bei LIETTERSCHPICH) schafft mit "Memory Gaps" einen geräuschaft-melancholischen Raum, basierend auf zwei traditionellen jüdischen Klarinetten-Stücken, field recordings & Interviewfetzen...
kommt mit Booklet und ausführlichen Liner-Notes....
"presence/absence:::into the void is a reflection upon the history and the recent changes in the krakovian neighbourhood of Kazimierz. The center of this meditation is the seemingly contradictory development of the last few years, which is showing that the attempts to re-animate jewish culture. The piece is working on the basis of an attempt of reversing the seasons: from summer to winter the 700-year-old Jewish district of Krakow. What struck Meissner at first sight, was the glaring contrast between the rich though often neglected presence of the material culture and the dreadful absence of the community exterminated during the Nazi days.
Four months later, on 26 June 2003, at Krowoderska52 club in Krakow, Sebastian Meissner, Ran Slavin and Eran Sachs offered the final effects of their research in the form of series of pieces. They carefully crafted crunchy steps, freezing wind, cracking ice and conversations into a mesmerising film for ears’. The imaginative power of the music was reinforced by Slavin's video impressions — equally apt in conjuring up desolate though meaningful a digital environment referring
to Nowa Huta —the empty large defunct metal industry zone....
Sebastian Meissner: works as music composer, sound designer and photographer in Vienna. Over the years his audio-visual works has been presented by curators of prestigious festivals and exhibited in international galleries
such as Transmediale, Sonic Square, Podewil, Portikus Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Goethe Institute Buenos Aires, Kulturhuset Stockholm and Forsythe Ballet. His music and sound compositions -
as Random Inc. - are released on music labels Mille Plateaux, Ritornell, Kompakt, Crónica and Beta Bodega.
Ran Slavin: Works as film-maker and as audio-visual artist from Tel Aviv. His last opus in video is one of the most brilliant films that came from Israel during the last years : INSOMNIAC CITY. Premiering with the first part at the Venice Biennial of Architecture in 2004 and continuing with part 3 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and international venues. Working with experimental cinema, digital and acoustic music, video art and live video/sound performances. Operating between contemporary art and new music, his visual work has been described as intense urban surrealism. His audio visual work is a culmination of balanced relations between sound and video, their interconnections. His work has been shown at the Pompidou, Jeu De Paum, Transmediale, Istanbul Biennial, Cinematheques in Israel and Paris, festivals in Berlin, Slovenia, Amsterdam, Austria, New York, China, Israel, London, Ukraine. His music and videos released on the music-media labels Mille Plateaux, Cronica, Sub Rosa. www.ranslavin.com
Eran Sachs: works as composer, improviser, sound-artist and curator in Jerusalem. He plays this machine regularily in the Doom-Dub-Noise outfit Lietterschpich and John Zorn's "Cobra" improvising ensemble in Israel. His works have been released on Mille Plateaux and various labels in Israel. As a sound-artist his works tend fuse the sonic with the political, as in the case of "Yannun Yannun", which portrays the harrasment of Palestinian villagers by fanatic settlers. He founded and managed the Yad-Vashem bookstore - the only holocaust dedicated bookstore in Israel." [press release]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| MEIXNER, STEPHEN |
The Dictatorship of the Viewer |
CD |
Nach dem beeindruckenden “Between the lines”-Album hier das zweite Solo-Werk von ex-CONTRASTATE Stephen MEIXNER, ein 55 minütiges Stück in 18 Sektionen, deren Reihenfolge frei einteilbar sein soll. MEIXNER nimmt wieder Bezug zu aktuellen sozio-politischen Diskursen, wenn es hier um Autonomie & Kontrolle im Künstler-Rezipienten-Verhältnis geht. Musikalisch sind dichte, meist auf analog-elektronischer Grundlage basierende Tracks enstanden, ruhig & dunkel & weniger melodramatisch als man es von CONTRASTATE gewohnt war....
“From the ashes of leading experimental outfit Contrastate comes the self-named srmeixner project. Stephen Meixner was one half of the driving force behind Contrastate until their demise five years ago, and his latest project is a vehicle for him and various collaborators; the line-up is ever changing, with Stephen calling on whoever he feels is right for the music he is working on at any particular time.
Few acts working in the area of electronics/experimental music come close to achieving the richness and diversity that srmeixner creates. Live electronics and field recordings are utilised to create a sonic soundtrack to an apocalyptic world, and this is the logical step on from the music that Contrastate created.
After a few singles and the 2003 debut album “Between the Lines” on the prestigious label Dirter Promotions, we are proud to present “The Dictatorship of the Viewer” - inspired by the 2003 Venice Biennale. The core of this track was initially composed and structured together with Adrian Morris as a live piece which was first performed February 2004 in London and then later extended, added to and re-worked.” [press release]
www.findesieclemedia.com |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| MEIZTER, K |
Travelling Light |
CD |
Solo-Album des B.S.E.-Mitglieds, der hier neue Wege einschlägt, wie immer bei HORUS in exquisiter Cover-Aufmachung.. "Auch wenn die erkleckliche Verbindung von Dark Ambient und Rhythmus keine Erfindung von K. MEIZTER ist, deuten Tracks wie Play It As It Lays in eine mir bisher unbekannte, aber recht interessante Dark Trip Hop Richtung und vielleicht ist ja auch der Titel Teil des Programms, dass man sich nicht um Genregrenzen scheren soll. Irgendwie wird hier das Kunststück zelebriert, dunkle Soundscapes mit Rhythmen zu versetzen, ohne diesen ihre düstere Spannung zu nehmen, denn die Befürchtung, Dark Ambient mit falsch eingesetzter Rhythmik zu verhunzen ist wohl nachvollziehbar. Stellenweise geht das Ganze dann sogar etwas in Richtung Industrial, wobei dies vor allem an den verwendeten Samples liegt und z.B. bei The Local Group nach einer guten Minute unterbunden wird, um wieder mehr loungetauglichen Klängen und Rhythmen Platz zu machen. Überhaupt hängt es auch auf diesem Album zum Großteil von den verwendeten Samples ab, in welche Richtung die Atmosphäre geht, wobei man hierzu sagen muss, dass ebenso wie Drumcomputer und Bass auch die Samples gut platziert eingesetzt worden sind. Travelling Light erschafft so ziemlich neuartige Klangkonstruktionen, die man sich eventuell ausmalen kann, wenn man sich ein Remix-Wars Album von GOLDFRAPP und HERBST9 vorstellt, bei dem der BRYN JONES der Baghdad -Ära auch irgendwie seine Finger im Spiel hatte. Travelling Light klingt genauso, nur eben ganz anders. Am besten anhören! Wegen seines außergewöhnlich ruhigen Charakters ist das schöne Some Battles On vielleicht nicht der repräsentativste Anspieltipp, also sollte man auch zumindest noch Honesty Through Paranoia sein Gehör leihen." [KMF]
"K. Meizter makes his solo debut with Travelling Light after five successful years in BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE. Still lurking in the realms of dark ambient, K. Meizter now sets foot towards more experimental grounds focusing on melancholy melodies and twisted rhythms.
Travelling Light takes you on an intriguing journey through the Universe of Mind and comes
with elegant and thought-provoking artwork
presented in a special hand-numbered oversized booklet. The album has been mastered by
Mika Goedrijk (of This Morn’ Omina) at Atomic Studios and in some parts it would remind best times of this ritual group! References: Hybryds, 4th Sign of the Apocalypse, TMO." [label info]
www.horus.cz
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| MELANCHOHOLICS |
Solar Cafe |
LP |
By combining found noises and field-recorded nature with minimal fragile surfer-tone post-rock-guitars, drones and fuzzy low-end bass-lines, Melanchoholics create mad extensive soundscapes and almost cinematic soundtracks to psychotic euphoria and intoxicated wastelands.
After releasing on Drone Records, MNDR and deafborn, Solar Café is their final low-end manifesto for low-end connoisseurs.
Vinyl 12" contains download code including CD only Track "Nuclear Welfare" + bonus material "Postnovoletna Depresija" and "Disgusting however fascinating"
Solar Café is the third and final chapter within the discography of MELANCHOHOLICS. It was recorded and mixed by MELANCHOHOLICS between 2006 and 2010. The Cover Artwork as of Solar Café was done by Derek Roczen. It's based on a series of stunning photos Benedikt shot during research for a documentary on the long waiting period for the summer solstice in the village of Flateyri situated in Iceland's Westfjords. Hence the album title “Solar Café”. Almost one year later Benedikt died of cancer at the age of 32. Melanchoholics managed to complete the album shortly before Benedikts departure. The album is released on 29.12.2014 via Eibon Records (CD) and Deafborn Records (12” 180g Vinyl). The vinyl-version of Solar Café is limited to 400 hand numbered copies. The album was mastered separately for CD and Vinyl by Michael Schwabe @ Monoposto.
Sound of Solar Café
On Solar Café Melanchoholics once again have set their attention directly to the lurid sides of human personalities: desperate internal fears. Simplistic structures and melodies fleshed out well with subtle textures and voices. The feeling is one of lamentation and dreariness as the sounds trudge along. Yet there is a warmth and smokiness to it as well. There is a colourful darkness before that day comes... the moment to celebrate the return of sunlight.
www.melanchoholics.de
"It's been a long, long time since I reviewed 'A Single Act Of Carelessness' by the German band Melanchoholics (see Vital Weekly 530). This trio was Benedikt on guitars, Philip on bass and Lutz on electronics; was, because the band no longer exists, so it seems, following the passing of Benedikt Bjarnason a few years ago. The music on 'Solar Cafe' was recorded from 2006 to 2010 and then it took some more time to finish the release. But the result is certainly great. With their previous release I compared it with the old ambient industrial music that was en vogue in the late 80s, when bands started to play guitars with cello bows, adding bits of conversations, made it all more atmospheric, but at the same time also with that dark, noisy undercurrent never far away. Music like passing dark clouds over an abandoned industrial lot, but Melanchoholics add more spacious guitars to the recipe, owing a bit to the world of post-rock. In 'Presence of Absence' they depict with the guitars vast
open territories while the steady slow beat is like an oilrig. Get my drift? It's music that I quite like actually. It's both abstract and musical; it's both atmospheric and noisy - from time to time. It has that great cinematic quality to it. It's experimental music just the way I like it; like very much, actually. Perhaps one could argue there is not a lot of difference between this and the previous release, but with such as small output: who cares? One could care however about the fact that this band is no more and the musical development has come to an end. That's perhaps the saddest conclusion one could draw from this release. Sad but beautiful that's how it ends here with the final piece, 'Minus 1 One'." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Drittes und letztes Album der Melanchoholics. In der Besetzung Gitarre, Bass und Elektronic / Fieldre-cording hatte das Trio seit 2003 zwei CDs, eine 7″ und verschiedene Soundtracks veröffentlicht, verbunden mit europaweiten Touren, abrupt beendet durch den plötzlichen, krankheitsbedingten Tod von Gitarrist Benedikt Kristofer Bjarnason in 2010, mitten in der Arbeit an der nun vorliegenden Veröffentli-chung, damals erst gut zur Hälfte fertiggestellt. Die Arbeit an der Veröffentlichung blieb liegen, der Veröffentlichungsdeal mit einem US-Label platzte und erst mit der Erkenntnis, trotz des Verlustes weitermachen zu wollen (bezeichnenderweise als Minus1one), beschlossen Bassist Phillip und Elektroniker Lutz, “Solar Cafe” als Vermächtnis der bisheri-gen Bandgeschichte zu vollenden und zu veröffentlichen. Wohl wissend, dass es Veröffentlichungen von Bands, die es gar nicht mehr gibt unterhalb eines bestimmten Bekanntheitsgrades und zwangs-weise ohne Live-Support definitiv schwer haben.
Aber, trotz dieser Widrigkeiten, es hat sich definitiv gelohnt, diesen Schritt zu tun: “Solar Cafe” zeigt die Fähigkeiten der damaligen Melanchoholics gegenüber den bisherigen Platten auf einem neuen Stand; die bandeigene Art der Komposition, gleichzeitig wie auf dem Sprung befindlicher wie in der Zeit erstarrter Tracks zu komponieren, die zudem viel von tatsächlichen Songs zu haben scheinen oh-ne wirklich welche zu sein, ist auf “Solar Cafe” zu neuer Perfektion gereift. Und über allem eine Atmo-sphäre, die nicht trefflicher als durch den Bandnamen zu beschreiben ist: keine gefühlte oder gar auf-gesetzte Düsternis, vielmehr eine Art von wehmütiger Melancholie, die möglicherweise am stärksten durch die irgendwo zwischen Arpeggio und Anschlag changierenden Gitarren und die immer wieder präsenten, funkspruchartigen Fieldrecordings verursacht wird, unterlegt durch Flächen und Bassschü-be im Untergrund. “Solar Cafe” ist damit auch in seinen ruhigsten Abschnitten keine flächenartig ange-legte Musik wie die so vieler Anderer, die im Feld der experimentellen Musik ohne Schlagzeug bzw. Drumprogrammierung arbeiten: der paradoxerweise wie erstarrte Fluss dauernder Bewegung bleibt stets bestimmendes Moment.
Rein musikalisch betrachtet, den ohnehin nicht zu beziffernden menschlichen Verlust bewusst ausge-klammert, definitiv ein herber Verlust, dass nach diesem Höhepunkt, passenderweise auf zwei Formaten veröffentlicht (Vinyl + CD), in dieser Form nichts mehr zu erwarten ist. Was bleibt ist diese wirklich gelungene Platte und die Chance, dass das Nachfolgeprojekt Minus1one vielleicht andere, aber ebenso interessante Wege verfolgen wird. Und jetzt: ihr." [Hellmut Neidhardt / Black mag] |
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Solar Cafe |
CD |
"By combining found noises and field-recorded nature with minimal/fragile post-rock-guitars, drones and fuzzy low-end bass-lines, Melanchoholics create mad extensive soundscapes and almost cinematic soundtracks to psychotic euphoria and intoxicated wastelands. After releasing on Drone Records, MNDR and Deafborn, Eibon Records proudly presents their final low-end manifesto for low-end connoisseurs. On Solar Cafe, Melanchoholics once again have set their attention directly to the lurid sides of human personalities: desperate internal fears and simplistic structures and melodies fleshed out well with subtle textures and voices. The feeling is one of lamentation and dreariness as the sounds trudge along. Yet there is a warmth and smokiness to it as well. There is a colourful darkness before that day comes... the moment to celebrate the return of sunlight. Comes in matte-varnished digisleeve." [label info]
www.eibonrecords.com
www.melanchoholics.com
"It's been a long, long time since I reviewed 'A Single Act Of Carelessness' by the German band Melanchoholics (see Vital Weekly 530). This trio was Benedikt on guitars, Philip on bass and Lutz on electronics; was, because the band no longer exists, so it seems, following the passing of Benedikt Bjarnason a few years ago. The music on 'Solar Cafe' was recorded from 2006 to 2010 and then it took some more time to finish the release. But the result is certainly great. With their previous release I compared it with the old ambient industrial music that was en vogue in the late 80s, when bands started to play guitars with cello bows, adding bits of conversations, made it all more atmospheric, but at the same time also with that dark, noisy undercurrent never far away. Music like passing dark clouds over an abandoned industrial lot, but Melanchoholics add more spacious guitars to the recipe, owing a bit to the world of post-rock. In 'Presence of Absence' they depict with the guitars vast
open territories while the steady slow beat is like an oilrig. Get my drift? It's music that I quite like actually. It's both abstract and musical; it's both atmospheric and noisy - from time to time. It has that great cinematic quality to it. It's experimental music just the way I like it; like very much, actually. Perhaps one could argue there is not a lot of difference between this and the previous release, but with such as small output: who cares? One could care however about the fact that this band is no more and the musical development has come to an end. That's perhaps the saddest conclusion one could draw from this release. Sad but beautiful that's how it ends here with the final piece, 'Minus 1 One'." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| MELVILLE |
17 TV Themes |
do-CD |
“2 x 17 masterpieces as a soundtrack for the cinema in your head and beyond: The hammering automatic rhythm of an Elka organ introduces us to Melville's film-music masterpiece, slowly moody echo-laden guitar lines, spooky keyboard chords, honey sweet theremin-sequences and lascivious female voices add to a "Blues noir", melodic and harmonic fireworks of references build up and make clear where we are. The cineastic escapades of the 50s and 60s and their heroes salute you: Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Michel Serrault… all these stars are cast for this sparkling masterpiece on celluloid, which is neither B-movie nor blockbuster, but rather builds up to something new each time you listen to its soundtrack. Melville sets straight limitations to his genre, but he gives his listeners the freedom to choose: What used to be a horror movie in the vein of Dario Argento yesterday might be the diary of a psycho killer in the 50s in moving pictures. Melville produces soundtracks, soundtracks for the cinema in your head. He invites each listener to direct his own movies, to trip on Melville's soundwaves depending on what mood you are in. While film connoisseurs will be thrilled and find clear cineastic references, the living room of the average listener will suddenly smell of gun powder and lead while a francophile gangster blonde will aspirate erotic confessions.
The second CD of the album is an image of the first one. It contains the exact order of tunes as the first CD but interpreted and remade by artists chosen by Melville. These artists come from all musical genres, ranging from earthy blues to avant-garde electronics and metal: The (ethno-)pop-project Binder&Krieglstein from Graz follows the Viennese avantgarde composer Jürgen Hofbauer, Reflector's doom laden metal stands next to Peter Plessas' innovative electronics, "New York-certified" theremin godess Dorith Chrysler and some acts from the avant-garde label "tonto", blues guitarist Christian Masser is followed by the minimal electronic freak marufura fufunjiru and Mego-darling Dr. Nachtstrom. An opulent array of innovative artists which clearly appreciate the genius and the brilliancy of the original.” [Soul Seduction]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL |
Concussions |
do-CD |
Mächtige Klangschwälle aus ratternder Perkussion umtosen einen wie ein Ozean, polyrhythmisch verzwirbeltes Stakkato-Gedröhn zwingt in die Knie. Das ist frisch und klischeelos, MENCHE erweitert wieder seinen eigenen und unseren Horizont !
MENCHE goes PERCUSSION !! No words needed, this blast has to be experienced !!
"Daniel Menche is usually known for creating towering infernos out of densely droning layers of incinerating sound. For his new Concussions project the sonic stakes are taken higher, soaring into a relentless world of propulsive pulse, where powerful, poly-rhythmic percussion pound and merge together. The result is an intense avalanche of overdriven noise blasts that actually rock hypnotically in a periodic way that is seldom heard. This ain't no drum circle to be sure, and fans of the recent Boredoms material or the primitive metal banging from Einsturzende Neubauten / Test Department industrial strength era will be pummeled by an accelerated experience with this opus! Daniel takes the perpetual beat engine of 49 locomotives, rides down the 20 untitled tracks and stampedes off a cliff? This is the true METAL! Flex your muscles!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Field of Skin |
CD |
"Eine weitere, 74 minütige Geräuschirrfahrt: wieder wurden alle Geräusche von somatischen Quellen abgeleitet, hier aber überwiegen düstere, isolationistische Stücke (das Label spricht von "ERASERHEAD-like"), die trotzdem noch extreme Kraft ausstrahlen. Aber es gibt auch wieder konkretere Soundausbrüche auf dieser CD....great power!" [old Drone Rec. info]
“Quieter, more subtle statement than "Screaming Caress", his previous CD. The smoothering atmosphere produced is all the more intense for the restrained power that underlays the dark sound sculptures” [Soleilmoon]
www.soleilmoon.com |
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Scattered Remains:Early Remixes |
do-CD |
Zusammenstellung von frühen & raren Material, meist von nicht mehr erhältlichen Compilations, alles von 1994-1999. Der oft noch eher „noisige“, rauhe, mit mehr konkretem Touch arbeitende MENCHE.... Nice priced, alles re-mastered!
“Keeping track of the musical output of Daniel Menche has never been easy. Besides his numerous albums and singles, released by an
eclectic range of labels, he has contributed countless tracks to compilations, many of which reached only the smallest of audiences.
Scattered Remains tracks his progress from 1995 through 1999, collecting the best of these pieces, now fully remastered, onto two full-length CDs. With the passing of time it has become nearly impossible to find many the original releases these tracks came on,
making this rarities collection a must have for long-time fans and new converts alike. Besides the material culled from CD compilations, three tracks previously only available on vinyl appear in digital form for the first time ever. The list of labels involved reads like a who’s who of cutting edge music in the 90s: Banned Productions, Ash International, 23five, Noise Museum, Self Abuse, Isomorphic, KAON, Shirocoal, Suterfuge, G.M.B.H. and of course, Soleilmoon. Best of all, it’s a great value: Two CDs for the price of one. What’s
not to love?” [press release]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Wings on Fire |
CD |
In MENCHE’s Musik scheinen archaische Urkräfte entfesselt zu werden, die eine sehr direkte Wirkung auf den Körper haben, denn immer hat die Musik etwas extrem physisches, fast unausweichliches. Für WINGS ON FIRE scheint er perkussive Elemente aufgesaugt zu haben, man hört sich wiederholende Drone-Töne und dahinter sich gigantisch aufschwingende Noisewände, die komplex poly-rhythmisch / loopige wall-of-sounds ergeben... vom Grundgedanken ähnlich wie AUBE: aus einem Sound oder einer Instrumentenquelle wird alles an akustischer Energie herausgeholt was möglich ist! So erhaben und elementar zugleich !
“Scorching and searing drones, heated and flaming rhythms and a burning ritualistic sonic force to be reckon with. This is Daniel Menche's "Wings on Fire" and this noise inferno soars with volume and intensity that makes it the unheard soundtrack for the flight of Icarus- that is if his wings did not melt and he did actually fly to the sun. This is Daniel Menche at his most ferocious sonic exploration. Call it extreme ambient or gorgeous noise, Wings on Fire is a must have release to incinerate the speakers and melt the listener to a beautiful submission of sonic power.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Melting Gravity |
LP |
Daniel Menche follows up his triple CD opus Sleeper with the razor drone constructs of Melting Gravity. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Menche is an iconic musician with three decades working with intense noise, immersive ambience, and turbulent field recordings. With Melting Gravity, Menche continues to carve his spot as a figurehead in the experimental community.
The title of Melting Gravity refers to an allegory on the human pursuit of transcendence with all of its connotations to weightlessness, ascension, flight, out-of-body experiences, and just getting high. Gravity, on the other hand, becomes that which negates and nullifies those transcendent pursuits. In the context of this particular allegory, gravity is the devil. Music, long a vehicle aimed towards transcendent ideals, becomes the weapon to defeat gravity, to defeat the devil. Daniel Menche wields the weapon of music in composing the mercurial grandeur that is Melting Gravity.
Implementing an elegant arc of acceleration and dissolve, Menche presents a slow-motion tumble of drones from his signature manipulation of FM synthesis, oscillators, and sustained tones from various stringed instruments. The tangles and tendrils of these extended frequencies are bright and liquid, rich in harmonic complexities though mottled with a scrap metal discord. Menche balances these slippery, luminous overtones with a dub-inspired lattice of recursive bass tones. Read as an industrial mantra or as amplified minimalism, Melting Gravity stands as an exemplary work in Menche’s storied catalogue of recordings.
Daniel Menche’s lengthy discography contains over 60 albums, many of which have been published by some of the most esteemed experimental record labels. Over the years he has worked with Editions Mego, Sige, Touch Music, Alien8 Records, Ash International, Utrecht Records, and many others. He has collaborated with Mamiffer, Andrew Liles, KK Null, John Wiese, Aaron Bradford Turner, Joe Preston, Anla Courtis, Zbigniew Karkowski, Kiyoshi Mizutani, and Kevin Drumm. He has performed extensively in North America, Japan, Europe, and Australia.
- Jim Haynes
https://sigerecords.bandcamp.com/album/melting-gravity
|
2019 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Kataract (Alpha Mix) |
LP |
"Edition of 300. Daniel Menche: Waterfall recordings and electronics. All waterfall field recordings were captured around the Pacific Northwest of USA. Mixed and recorded throughout 2007-2009. Mastered in the analog domain at Stereophonic Mastering, Portland Oregon. Artwork and illustrations by Emily Hyde. Photo art reproduction by Circle 23. Design by Johnny Pinkhouse. Another sizzling power blockfrom Menche. This time capturing the intense force of various Pacific Northgwest waterfalls to create a mind blowing audio sculpture. This single track slices itsway through the sonic spectrum over 39 minutes of high end processing. One hell of beauty if beast! Packaged in stunning, almost disturbing artwork. This vinyl edition differs from the previous CD edition and features the original Alpha Mix of Kataract." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Blood of the Land |
mCD |
" "Blood of the Land" brings Daniel Menche back to the field recording territory by utilizing storm recordings. Throughout 2009-2010 there were several storms that occurred around Daniel Menche's house. Wind storms, snow storms, ice storms, rain storms etc etc etc were recorded and captured and then mixed and densely layered all within the notorious "House of Menche". Which is covered by thick trees and mass bamboo. Just like a garden of sound, Daniel Menche hand picks the sounds of storms hitting his house and trees as recorders were place all around outside of his house in the middle of these stormy nights. "Blood of the Land" is a calm and intense composition of these storms that builds to a overwhelming state of pure sonic nature. Daniel Menche has presented the drama of these storms in all their bloody glory." [label info]
www.fernsrec.com
"And what about Daniel Menche? He continues as ever. In 'Blood Of The Land' he doesn't use any soil recordings, which you may expect with such a title, but 'storm recordings recorded throughout 2009-2010 all around Oregon, USA', which mixed together into a twenty minute piece of heavily processed field recordings. I might be mistaken, but when I played this earlier today, in the morning, I thought I could feel a cold breeze in my house. I must have been imagining this, but for a short moment (well, actually a bit longer) I thought I could actually feel the music breezing through my house. Which I guess is the best when it comes to having an audio illusion. This piece could have been a bit longer for my taste - although I never like biking through a heavy storm, the sound is always nice to hear." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Guts |
CD |
"More voraciously bestial soundwork coming from Daniel Menche -- this time, his chosen theme is the piano, in which he attacks, investigates and dissects with the precision of an autopsy surgeon, adding a whole new meaning to the concept of prepared piano, or should we say, unprepared piano, for an all-out assault. Guts lays out quite possibly some of the finest slabs of Menchian sonic mayhem to date. Slightly different track sequence over CD and vinyl formats due to time constraints. Mastered in the analog domain at Stereophonic Mastering, Portland Oregon. X-rays from a Chihuahua dog named Arrow." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Ohne wirklich ermessen zu können, wie hier der Einfluss nachträglicher Manipulation am Rechner aussieht: Menches Arbeit an den Eingeweiden eines Pianos präsentiert sich auf erhellende Weise komplett anders als die Reinhold Friedls. Menche hat sich schon immer in einer dynamischen Traverse bewegt, die Ambient und Noise in eins setzt, in der Intensität in lineare Verbindung mit “Volume” tritt. So wild-martialisch wie Titel und offizielle Beschreibung klingen, geht es hier nämlich gar nicht zu. Stattdessen scheinen Menches rohe Fieldrecordings (auf Soundcloud) von Wetterphänomenen, Stürmen und Regen, Wind in Wäldern, in den vier vinylseitenlangen Tracks (der letzte auf CD gekürzt und vorangestellt) durch: in unmerklich morphenden Prasseltexturen (Two), mal mit subtil-verblüffender Saitenresonanz (Three), immer busy, groß und raumgreifend, davor mit sirrendem Bohrgeräusch, das zu einem flackernd-schepperstotternden Schiffsbauch mutiert, die am elektronischsten wirkende Arbeit (One), um schließlich durch die Hintertür (Four bzw. 2×4) doch noch bei Friedls schabender Metallverdauung anzukommen, ohne je dessen Fingernagel-auf-Tafel-Effekt anzustoßen. Entspannend!" [Multipara/de:bug]
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL & MAMIFFER |
Crater |
CD |
"There are profound forces that enmesh the minds, bodies, and souls of these venerable artists. Mamiffer unfurls darkened hymns and sprawled abstractions authored by Faith Coloccia in partnership with Aaron Turner. Daniel Menche stands as a stalwart noise technician of many years, with his blood and sweat permeating all of his adrenaline fueled recordings and performances. Collectively, they design sound to slip between the formally defined practices of metal, noise, song, and drone, offering a phenomenological essentialism that amplifies and exaggerates the earthly ele- ments of water, moss, soil, and fire. This can be a sonic transubstantiation of field recordings and in situ object documents from Coloccia and Turner’s home on Vashon Island, Washington; and this can be the aestheticized forms of mythic poetry cast through austere melodies for guitar, piano, electronics, and plainsong chant.
The communal production took four years to develop with a few performances that spilled forth. Menche, for one, abhors the notion of collaboration, preferring to qualify this as a documentation of their friendship. “’Collaboration” sounds so... business like or formal or something of a technical term. We’re just friends making acoustic sounds together and recording nature with our hikes together. Then we eat pizza and laugh.” This relational intimacy and interpersonal development brings an understanding of each other’s strengths, and from that understanding, the conviction to extract out the very best that each has to offer. From Menche’s perspective, Coloccia projects a nearly religious capacity for harmony and melody; Turner has grace and fury in his DNA;
And Menche quips about his own work: "I’m a chainsaw artist making those touristy statues of grizzly bears but instead of wood I’m using sound.” Ellipses of guitars and piano sparsely populate this album. Upon appearance, these forms are progressively dissolved into a dislocation of machined noise and wintry drone, abraded with the tactility of stone and iron. It can become difficult to determine where the province of negation ends (e.g. emptying the musical structure as a simulacrum of the sublime) and that of accretion begins (e.g. layer upon layer of noise, pressure, and volume to feed a collapse). In this liminal iceblink, the work of Mamiffer and Menche is resoundingly heroic, tragic, haunted, cold, and beautiful. To Menche, though, “this is a very humble recording. When we’re old and grey and come across this in a old dusty box, we’ll have a warm smile. Maybe we’ll play it on our death bed?!?!" [label info]
sige.bigcartel.com
"Daniel Menche, Faith Coloccia, and Aaron Turner have been close friends for quite a long time now, with this album emerging as the first fruits from their communed relationship. And as collaborative projects go, Crater is a superb document showcasing how each of these equally talented folks in disparate facets of the dark arts (noise for Menche, hallowed / haunted plainsong for Coloccia, and heroic riffage from Turner) can work so effortlessly and gracefully. Glacial harmonic drones expand from field recordings, church organs, abraded stone & steel, and guitars only to be disrupted by heavily hammered piano melodies that in turn are gristlized by the collective noise strategies, machines, and snowstorms. Alternately, meditative and explosive, imposing and rapturous. Brilliant through and through." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL / WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS |
Raised Coils of the Giant Serpent of Eternity / I Heard only the Eternal Storm |
LP |
" “I traversed the worlds, I ascended into the suns, and soared with the Milky Ways through the wastes of heaven; but there is no God. I descended to the last reaches of the shadows of Being, and I looked into the chasm and cried: ‘Father, where art thou?’ But I heard only the eternal storm ruled by none, and the shimmering rainbow of essence stood without sun to create it, trickling above the abyss.” So declares Christ in the opening section of Jean Paul’s 1796 text “Speech of the Dead Christ”. The text served as inspiration for the music presented on this split album by Daniel Menche and William Fowler Collins, and in the instance of the above quote, also functions as an apt description for it - immense, harrowing, and numinous. Like the procession of images conjured in Jean Paul’s twisting passages, the sounds made by Collins and Menche unfurl in a trail of drifting shadow punctuated by convulsive spasms of light.
Opening the album with a harmonious set of gently spiraling tones, Daniel Menche’s piece “Raised Coils of the Giant Serpent of Eternity” offers only this brief moment of serenity before a headlong dive into a cacophonous abyss of darker dimensions. Suspended in pools of liquid bass, layers of molten brass hover, dissolve and reappear. Pitches rise and fall, intersecting for brief periods of melodic convergence before crumbling again into heaving slabs of rumbling dissonance. Closing out the piece a low and solemn tone emerges from the roar of Menche’s spectral orchestra, seeming less like resolve, than the final flickering breath of a dying star.
Conversely, William Fowler Collins’ offering on the second side remains in a state of subdued tension for much of its duration. Primarily constructed around the emanations of decayed strings, these glimmering filaments seem in perpetual retreat from comfortable stasis or momentous upheaval. Swaying over a backdrop of inky black, disharmonious clusters gradually pile one over the other, pulling apart and recombining, eventually forming a jagged and unsettling crest. From here bilious clouds of humming static overtake the disintegrating strings, appearing long enough to set the stage for the conclusion of the narrative. Much like the opening Menche’s piece on the reverse side, Collins’ gently cascading sheaves of brushed guitar that close out the album serve as a small enclave of comfort in the otherwise lightless caverns through which he and Menche have driven the listener." [label info]
sigerecords.blogspot.de
|
2014 |
€21.50 |
|
| MENTER, WILL |
Always Sound |
BOOK / 3 x CD |
200pp Book with
3 Audio CDs.
ALWAYS SOUND
A 200 page book of photographs, texts and documents, including three CDs, drawn from the soundworks, but recomposed as three related but internally coherent compositions.
WILL MENTER
A contemporary of Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy, Menter is one of a handful of sound artists with strong links to the land art movement. Now best known for installations that explore the untransformed sounds of natural materials, wood, slate, water, ceramics, stone and air, he also collaborates regularly on cross-platform projects with dancers Aurore Gruel and Mure Natale, and ceramicist Jane Norbury - with whom he has developed many of his sound sculptures and performances since 2000.
He came to this work in steps: between 1975 and the early ‘80s, he was a driving force behind the Bristol Musicians’ Co-operative, investigating novel approaches to improvisation and varieties of multimedia collaboration; within a decade, his work had extrapolated to the point at which his music and sculpture had become inextricably entwined. Intermediate projects included Cân Y Graig (Slate Voices) which explored the world of slate, and the quarries of North Wales (also featuring the first extensive use of his slate marimbas); and Strong Winds and Soft Earth Landings for which he worked with a group of Zimbabwean artists, extrapolating the sounds and principles of the mbira.
In 1998 he relocated to France, where he still lives and works.
Between 2000 and 2003 he released a series of four solo CDs, mixing the sounds of his sculptures with environmental recordings and musical performances; his fifth CD, Song Sculptures (2004) was a suite of songs written for Sianed Jones, arranged for eight sculptures, percussion and contrabass; and a sixth accompanied his book, Bits of Wood, published in 2007.
“The book part of Always Sound brings together my work of the last ten years in a way that examines the unifying ideas and motivating forces as well as the nuts and bolts of individual projects and installations. The accompanying CDs have been assembled from in situ recordings of my installations and sculptures, musical performances, studio edits of live recordings and the sounds of nature. Each is realised as an integrated whole in which the sequence of pieces is as important as the content of each individual piece, and each has an elemental theme: CD1 - Land Sea Air; CD2 - Night Day and CD3 - Gravity Breath. Working across different art forms has come naturally to me and I don’t see it as a big thing. Nevertheless, I do sometimes forget how habit- and discipline-based our appreciation of art is. Without thinking about it, we listen to music and natural sounds differently, finding them beautiful in different ways. But sometimes it’s interesting to listen to music as if it were natural sound and natural sound as if it were music. We can find and then feed different areas of ourselves that way, if we have the patience”.
[label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2013 |
€30.00 |
|
| MERCY (STEVE MACLEAN) |
Future(s) |
CD |
"This CD of songs, grittily arranged and produced is noticeably more straight-ahead than ReR’s usual releases though it sits comfortably within the broad range of Steve’s tirelessly experimental output. This is a project with a long history: Steve and his main collaborator Todd Dadaleares have been writing, recording and performing together for longer than MeRCy’s 20+ year existence and David Fields (drums) and Tim Inman (keyboards) are also long servers. New, for this phase of recordings and concerts, is 5 string bassist Greg Goodwin who steps into the previous incumbent, Mark Dickey’s, shoes. MacLean scores the music, in scary detail, and Dadaleares supplies the words. This is America, so they all have day jobs: MacLean as professor of music technology and performance at Berklee, Dadaleares in health robotics, Inman as a computer consultant and Fields in industrial art. You can listen to samples on the download site, so I’ll not attempt any further to describe what they do, just give it a listen." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| MERRELL, TODD / AIDAN BAKER / PATRICK JORDAN |
Nagual |
CD |
Verzaubernde Rausch-Drones und subtile Gitarren-Loops und Tupfer, ganz zart & betörend sensibel ist dieses Trio bei einer Aufnahme in HARTFORD, CT vorgegangen, die Teilnahme AIDAN BAKERs (NADJA) ist unüberhörbar. 600 Stück wurden aufgelegt und mit dem besonderen ARCHIVE-Artwork von SELDON HUNT ausgestattet.
"long playing ambient dronescape focusing the combined efforts of Todd Merrell on shortwave radio and electronics, Patrick Jordan on shortwave radio and processing and Aidan Baker (Nadja) on guitar. Recorded live in 04 in Hartford. Comes packed in heavy stock center open sleeve with environmental mirror image landscape artwork courtesy of Seldon Hunt. Pressing of 600 copies." [label info]
"... This live set finds Baker handling guitar duties, but you’d never know it from the sound, augmented by short wave radios, electronics, and various bits of processing, the sound here is deep and dark, a crumbling and epic expanse of rumbling shimmering low end. Roiling clouds of murky melodic fragments, distant swells, throbbing low end pulses, barely audible bits of static and washed out glitch. Very cinematic, if you were watching a film that was almost entirely dark, with just barely visible shifts in the various shades of black and grey. Lovely though, minimal and haunting. Think Coleclough, Chalk, Lustmord, that sort of ambient darkness.
But the second track is an entirely different beast. Simple guitar strums, minimal melodies, the strings struck softly, the metallic buzz and clang ringing out into the ether, some sort of underwater slow motion Fahey, smeared and soft and dark and dreamy.
The final half of the track, the guitar disappears completely, leaving streaks of feedback that sound like the cries of gulls, grinding slow motion slabs of shifting low end, whirling windlike whirs, almost like a manufactured nature recording.
The guitar returns for the third track, drifting gently, while the background noise builds into a slow motion wash of sound, the track culminating in a cloud of chimes and reverbed percussion, seasick swirls and struck steel strings, before slipping languidly into the final track, a lugubrious underwater crawl, all of the sounds muddy and indistinct, a sonar like ping buried way down in the mix, underneath it all a thick blanket of constant whirring drones, quite lovely.
Packaged in one of those cool, 6 panel, gatefold aRCHIVE
sleeves, glossy paper, super striking image of forest and clouds,
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!!" [Aquarius Records]
www.archivecd.com
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| MERZBOW |
Offering |
CD |
MERZBOW auf TANTRIC HARMONIES? Aber es ist mal wieder ein “anderer MERZBOW”, der Noise fügt sich als ein Element in fast gemächliche, rhythmisch-pulsierende Strukturen ein, die trotzdem vor Energie nur so strotzen. Meditativer Noise !
„material originally made for Masami Akita's MERZBOW concert in Tokyo. It is inspired by the novels of Juran Hisao, especially his dark detective story called 'Kinro' (Golden Wolf). Opening with dark ambient drones "Offering" moving through massively dense frequencies mixed with killer beats to the wall of pure noise. A hypnotic journey to the dark core of subconsious.“[label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Here |
CD |
"The undeniably premier Japanoise artist Masami Akita with 54 minutes brand new noise manipulations and audio deconstructions.
3 lengthy tracks blistering walls of relentless noise from the heat of last summer - ultra heavy and brutal electronic assaults!" [label info]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Eucalypse |
CD / object |
MERZBOWs Hommage an den vom Aussterben bedrohten australischen Eukalyptus-Baum! Kommt in einem noch nicht dagewesenen, aufschiebbaren runden Holzcover, massiv & bedruckt, mit 4 runden farbigen Inlay-Karten. Wohl eines der spektakulärsten CD-Covers ever ! Das Material (5 Stücke, fast 60 Minuten) ist höchst psychedelisch, pulsierend, in jeder Sekunde expandierend, mitreissend und zermürbend zugleich....
"A complete winner here from electronics wizard Masami Akita and Solielmoon Recordings. The music is some of the most psychedelic that I have heard from Mr. Akita, a panoramic kaleidoscope of metal machine noise and psycho New Age synthoblasters. This is the 360 degree apocalypse of the mind. The Merz is letting loose. This is a man who has recorded a lot of music in his lifetime. I would be very surprised if Merzbow himself is able to keep track of the vast volume of material that he has put out over the years. Sometimes, you don't really remember it after listening a few times. This one is really dramatic and sticks in my mind very clearly. I can very distinctly remember the first time that I listened to it while driving. The music is meant to echo the reality of the destruction of Eucalyptus trees, which is apparently a very terrible problem on the Earth that is disrupting the ecosystem. I can accept that, and it doesn't hurt that this story was told to me via this amazing release. The first track is an amazing psychedelic journey that by itself would make this release worthwhile. Track two opens with violent crashing blending into radio signal white noise static, and industrial sounds that echo the hectic feeling that Merzbow is trying to evoke. This is completely harsh and distinctive, some of the most compelling material from this artist since the noise heyday of the mid-90s and popular releases such as “Pulse Demon.” Each track (all sharing the title “Eucalypse”) has a separate and distinct theme that works very well one after another. The over-arching theme of ecological destruction comes across in a very sincere and horrifying manner through the amazing synthesizer and noise work on this release. It sounds like Jimi Hendrix going through TG's pedals in the ninth circle of hell as everything comes crashing down. It is awesome. The packaging is made out of Eucalyptus wood, ironic considering that the release is trying to decry the practice. Ol' Merz didn't cut the damn thing down himself though, so it all works out in the end. Accompanying this beautiful, awkward, and coaster-shaped wooden box are several round cardboard photographs of Eucalyptus trees with information about the release on the back. The entire thing is completely breathtaking. I assume that this is in some sort of absurdly limited edition, so if you come across this one snatch it up, it's great." [Heathen Harvest]
"The Tasmanian Blue Gum tree, Eucalyptus globulus, is native to Tasmania and southern Australia. Eucalyptus trees are uniquely suited to the varied ecologies of Australia, and there is no other continent more closely associated with one genus of tree. Its leaves are the food of choice of the koala, and its flowers attract bees and hummingbirds. Out of approximately 300 identified species, Blue Gums are now the eucalyptus most frequently found in other parts of the world. Throughout the tropics they are known for their ability to dry out swampy areas, making them a valuable weapon in the fight against malaria, a disease caused by parasites carried in female Anopheles mosquitos, which breed in standing water. Eucalyptus globulus was first brought to India in the late 18th century. Large plantations were establish in Kerala in 1863, but other than small amounts of oil distilling, little use has been made of the fast growing trees. Instead, they have thrived in the moist, foggy hills, spreading far across the landscape and transforming the ecosystem in the process. With their deep roots they lower water tables, depriving native species of the moisture necessary to survive the annual dry season, while the anti-bacterial properties of the “blue gum” secretions they drop on the soil further suppress the germination and growth of other plants. An ancient and intricate web of life has been disrupted, and native plants, insects and animals are being driven to extinction. Humans, who have long been a part of the local ecosystem, are adaptable and will survive, but the biodiversity of an entire region is under threat from a single exotic species. It is truly a eucalyptus apocalypse. It is a eucalypse. At Soleilmoon, packaging and presentation are never overlooked. This release is presented in a hand-crafted round wooden box with screenprinted swiveling lid. The box contains one CD and four round, full-color cards. Only 1000 copies of this handsome CD have been made." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2008 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Marmo |
CD |
"After two vinyl releases finally a digital album by the master of Japan-Noise on OEC.
This album is entitled "Marmo" (Marble for Italian) and is devoted to the Italian and particularly the Venetian marble.
Masami was visiting and playing in this magic Italian city several times and was impressed by all the marbles used in the Venetian buildings and paintings ...
The 3 tracks composing this album are entitled "Merzbotanica-parallela", "Botanica parallela" is a book written by the Italian author Leo Lionni who is also the inventor of such botanic science, a parallel iper-real botanic where imagination is more reliable than reality ....
A real psychadelic tribute by the Japanese master of noise to Venice and Italy ....
Enter this new “Merzcolored-Merzbotanic-Merzpsychomuzak” full of scratching rythms and psychoactive noises and let your brain explode.
Special folding cover with Venetian marbled paper effect and golden letterings." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Tamayodo |
pic-LP |
"This limited release represents a true gem for all Merzbow fans. The tracks included on this lush 180 gram vinyl will take listeners by surprise, showcasing a new and eclectic side of sound artist Masami Akita. Tamayodo in fact presents us with unreleased works rife with unheard of rhythmic noise, power electronics and piercing feedback [...]" [label info]
www.rustblade.com
|
2013 |
€29.00 |
|
|
Storage |
2 x pic-LP & CD |
First ever vinyl re-issue of this classic Merzbow album.
The first two track were originally published on LP on the ZSF label in 1988.
Masami Akita creates in Storage a very experimental and atmospheric album with a masterful use of scraping sounds and metal percussions but also with a very effective use of silence.
A strongly hypnotic and creepy sounding early analog Merzbow album.
The third track is harsher and is a full on wall of electronic noise.
The third track was published as an extra track for the CD reissue issued in the Merzbox is re-issued here for the first time ever on vinyl.
Re-re-mastered by Masami Akita from original cassette at Munemihouse, Tokyo, in 2016.
A must have.
Limited edition of 304 copies in heavy weight double picture disc with new stunning artwork by Masami Akita.
Also included is the CD of the album.
The beautiful glossy cover is a replica of the original 1988 edition.
Includes a numbered insert.
www.menstrualrecordings.org/merzbow_storage.html |
2016 |
€38.00 |
|
| |
Lowest Music.2 |
LP |
Lowest Music 2 is made by 4 track reel tape recorder with different loops and recorded by Monoural hand tape recorder on 1982 at home.
For the first time original 1982 version has been released on vinyl and no changes of pitch were made in the mastering process. The record has been pressed on 140 gr black vinyl with black label and black inner sleeve and comes in a deluxe silver silkscreen on black cardboard sleeve, limited to 199 copies w/insert. |
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| MERZBOW & THE HATERS |
same |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der wohl bisher einzigen Collaboration dieser beiden Noise-Legenden, die 1987 als MC erschien! 3 lange Stücke elektro-statisch aufgeheizter Lärm mit Kaskaden und Schichten von Feedback und schlingernden Krach-Effekten, tiefbassigen Dröhn- und Sirenen-attacken und auftauchenden obskuren found sounds. Wahnwitzige Loops bilden quasi-rhythmische Elemente, geschredderte Sprach-schnipsel drängen nach vorn. Absolut kurzweilig und ungewöhnlich, eine eigene Sprache aus reinen Geräuschen.
Listen with new ears, create your own new neurons !
"First released on cassette in 1987 it became a noise classic. out of print for almost 10 years it is now been resurrected to it's full digital glory by john wiese. featuring a remixed version of jopa by gx and using all the original artwork from the cassette" [label info]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| MERZBOW & Z'EV |
Spiral Right / Spiral Left |
CD |
"In the planning (and many faxes, emails and discussions in person) for 20 years, finally this stunning collaborative release for Cold Spring from Japanese Noise king Merzbow and legendary elemental sound artist Z'EV is here. The tracks were created in London and Tokyo, with each artist remixing the other's original sounds. Two tracks weighing in at 22 minutes and 28 minutes respectively! Dark Ambient Noise in a special textured card digisleeve." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Two of present world's most border searching sound experimentalists join forces on this one. The result is nothing short of mindblowing! Japanese king of harsh noise, Masami Akita alias Merzbow manipulates and (mis)treats modern machinery into a sick but hypnotic world of aural machismo. The ear shattering noise-expressions from Merzbow is combined by one of the true legends of early pioneering industrial Z'EV. The album sounds like a blend between contemporary sound art of the extreme kind and electronic psychedelia circa early Pink Floyd. The combination of concrete steel percussions and ultra-aggressive drones of noise extremity works very well and pulls the listener into an opposite kind of listening trance in comparison to the folk world of "We bring you a king with a head of gold : Dark Brittanica II". Two excellent albums from Cold Spring." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MERZBOW + KAORU SATO |
Kyoto Oct. 21 2018 |
LP |
First collaboration ever between noise legend Merzbow and visionary/provocateur Kaoru Sato of R.N.A. Organism (Vanity Records) and EP-4.
Side A: live recording of Merzbow and Kaoru Sato’s first live collaboration ever. Recorded October 21st 2018 at Metro club in Kyoto for a three-label showcase with avant-garde imprints Slowdown, Phonon and Kyoh Records.
Side B: Solo sessions by each artist that took place after the joint performance on the same night. Edited and mixed in their respective studios.
https://wrwtfww.com/album/kyoto-oct-21-2018-lp-version
|
2019 |
€22.00 |
|
| MERZBOW / ASKEW |
Level |
LP |
"The first in a series of concept split albums, LEVEL brings together two artistic audio projects on one unique vinyl-only release.
Side one features MERZBOW, one of the most prolific and respected artists in the world of experimental noise.
Side two features ASKEW, a collective of artists, musicians and producers from the Rustblade label headed by Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy, Bahntier) and Jeff “Squigg” Smith (Ohgr, Hate Dept).
Both projects embrace a sonic philosophy based on free experimentation and improvisation utilizing analog instruments such as modular synthesizers, as well as environmental audio samples and unique noise producing objects. The results are a wall of sound and noise that move the listener through emotional and cathartic sonic waves.
A real treat for lovers of free and structured noise, and those in search of sonic extremes. 40 minutes of Pure Noise."
www.rustblade.com/product/level-limited-vinyl/ |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| MERZBOW / CARLOS GIFFONI / JIM O'ROURKE |
Electric Dress |
CD |
"Electric Dress covers the full spectrum of sound color possibility, from totally brutal walls of destructive noise to beautiful minimal synthetic interplay, analog drone and shifting alien electronics. A total face melting collaboration recorded live in Tokyo using an array of analog synths and a variety of custom analog equipment, including Merzbow's classic home made spring-junk metal instrument. Warm, varied, and obsessive this is what industrial music should have been, the sound of infinite machines demolishing a planet and creating a new structure where live organisms have been eradicated. Edited and mastered by Jim for maximum sonic annihilation." [label info]
"Until early last year I collected everything by Merzbow and I gave up because I found it frustrating that many releases I could play once, whereas I would want to hear them more than once. Time waits for no one. Occasionally I listen to new Merzbow releases, when they land on the Vital Weekly desk and I still enjoy them. Likewise while on the subject of collecting music by a specific artist, Jim O'Rourke comes close to having a lot of, and if Merzbow is the king of noise than Jim is the king of... well, of what actually? Music perhaps. So shear excitement on my face when this landed here, a recording of Jim O'Rourke together with Merzbow and Carlos Giffoni recorded at the Uplink Factory from last year. This has classic stamped all over it. Merzbow playing his EMS synthi 'A', home made instruments and effects, Giffoni on custom synths and analog filters and Jim on synth and microphone. For Merzbow a rare thing to go back to his analogue days and a rare gig for O'Rourke who now concentrates on making films in Japan. How much more historical can it get? And oh yes, this is noise, as spelled N-O-I-S-E. Nothing for faint hearted. An hour blast, but one that goes through various stages, moods and textures. As analogue as Merzbow in his best analogue days ('Cloud Cock OO Grand', 'Rainbow Electronics'). Piercing music. Industrial music as it should be and as such nothing new under the sun but even in this old sun it's nice and warm." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MERZBOW / M.B |
Merzbow meets M.B. |
LP + 7inch |
First ever collaboration album between the two most important noise artists on the planet!
7" is a noisy split.
Xeroxed cover with numbered insert.
Lp is green/blue/yellow splatter vinyl and 7" is fuchsia.
www.menstrualrecordings.org
"Masami Akita and Maurizio Bianchi are without question amongst the pioneers of harsh, abrasive electronic music. Both of their careers began quite prolifically around the same time, and since Bianchi's return in the late 1990s have continued as such, with both producing a massive number of albums each year. These two albums act nicely as reference points on their long careers, with the 10" capturing pieces each submitted for the Mail Music Project compilation, here appearing unedited for the first time, and the LP being a recent collaborative work that stands amongst both artists' best material as of late.
The material on Merzbow Meets M.B. is recent work from both acts as a true collaboration, and the bonus included 7" makes for a nice split release to compare to the 10" as far as the individual artists' work goes. "Dissonant Abstraction" initially is all roaring, cavernous Merzbow noise, but kept restrained and under control. Low register swells and patterns make for an ersatz rhythm, with haunting passages of synthesizer clearly marking Bianchi's contributions. His work here has shades of his more recent new age material, but it works, balancing out the harsher end of Akita’s harsh noise. In some ways it sounds like each artist’s solo work mixed together, and it is rather effective.
The other half, "Surreal Distortions," is overall more in the noise spectrum of things, with muffled, bassy noises and thin analog electronics. There is not the same hints at melody as on the other side, and instead focuses on harsher textures. Bent oscillators and electronic chirps mark this a clearly analog piece, and with the occasional use of phasing and flanging it calls to mind some of CCCC and Astro's best work. Here it feels more like a collaboration between the two, with Akita’s use of chaotic mixing and Bianchi’s use of synthesizer sounds.
The 7" single included with the LP features each artist contributing their own recent solo works as well, and while both are excellent, neither are surprising. Merzbow's "Fragment B" is all scraping metal and bleeping electronics, so in some regards is a throwback to his early 1990s junk noise sound without the overly loud electronics. An occasional rhythm sneaks in here and there, but for the most part it is pure chaos. Bianchi's "28th Flux" has the bleakness of his early works, but a more modern, higher fidelity sheen covering the pained electronics and darkness.
(...)
As both artists are ridiculously prolific, and I personally have a fondness for their earliest work in both cases, I tend to only occasionally dabble in either of their new releases. In this case, the recent collaboration work is exactly what I hoped it would be, mixing the best sounds of both artists together splendidly. Coupled with the vintage material on the 10", and it makes for a pair of releases that demonstrates the best facets of these two long respected artists."
[Creaig Dunton]
"Masami Akita from Japan and Maurizio Bianchi from Italy are both active inside experimental music since roughly the same time, the late 70s. They both came from the world of cassettes and have a legendary status by now. Merzbow is probably the more well-known musician, due to the fact that he plays many concerts all over the world, and both have a ton of releases under their belt. The difference is, perhaps, that Bianchi has moved more over the musical spectrum and Akita is more a man of strict noise. There has been a split release by them on the same label earlier this, but as far as I recall not a joint release. Here we have a LP of collaborative music with a bonus 7" of solo pieces. It seems to me Merzbow is taking the lead here, as this is all more in his territory than in that of Bianchi. You can figure out what Bianchi does here, as sometimes his chilly electronics leap out of the noisy hot bed that Merzbow created. When this is less apparent, it seems like a fine Merzbow record, and not like a Merzbow plus someone else record. That perhaps is the odd thing about this record, but says nothing about the quality. If we turn to the 7", then we'll see that Bianchi can be noisy too. His solo piece is quite loud, like a power drone stuck in a high voltage charger. Organic? Organ-like! This is a fine reminder of the old M.B. from the early 80s when this sort of violence was common ground for M.B. and he was the unquestioned master of the genre. For his solo piece, Merzbow also goes back to his earlier days and comes up with something that reminded me of his days, circa S.C.U.M.: various unrelated tapes and electronic sounds are stuck together and make up a fine musique concrete tres brut. Heavily cut up and chopped up into a fine pieces, grinded together. Excellent noise music throughout." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€26.50 |
|
| MERZBOW / SCUM |
Scissors for Cutting up Merzbow |
3 x LP / 2 x CD set |
In an interview with Arthur Potter, Akita explained that the album "is an attempt to cut up and mix all of the Merzbow sounds I've done" and that SCUM "is an experiment in changing the context of our own music to create new forms. It's like the disposal of Merzbow into the air."
[By disposal] I mean the ongoing process of production. Nothing is really destroyed or disappears, as recycling is part of production. It's a natural and necessary part of post-capitalism. There should be no illusion of only production, as was the case with early industrialization. Present re-production systems point in the direction of a future hyper-dimension of physics. We no longer use a dialectical approach in our disposal/recycling system, only a forward movement to the reproduction of re-production.
(Masami Akita)
First ever official vinyl re-issue of this classic 1988 Masami Akita side project.
Originally published on LP in 1989 by Masami Akita own label ZSF Produkt.
Re-issued in an expanded version on CD as part of the Merzbox in the year 2000.
This re-issue includes the expanded version on 3 LP and also on 2 CD.
Remastered from original tape.
Limited edition of 200 copies.
www.menstrualrecordings.org/merzbow_scum_scissors_for_cutting_up_merzbow.html
|
2018 |
€49.50 |
|
| MERZBOW KAPOTTE MUZIEK |
Works 1987-1993 |
Korm Plastics KP 3050 |
"Both of these projects hardly need an introduction. Merzbow is since the late ‘70s the project of Masami Akita working in the field of noise music, having released a few hundred CDs/LPs/cassettes by now.
In 1987 Kapotte Muziek was then the solo project of Frans de Waard, after Christian Nijs left the group early ’87. De Waard concentrated on working with other musicians, and started trading tapes with a few musicians he was already in contact with, and one of them was Merzbow. The first release was a cassette, which was released in two versions, one of Merzbow’s ZSF Produkt and one on Belgium’s Therapie label (although none ever showed up, so perhaps it didn’t happen). In October 1989 Merzbow was invited to play at V2 in ’s-Hertogenbosch and a subsequent small tour was done in The Netherlands, playing in Utrecht and Nijmegen. On october 3rd 1989 Merzbow played in the evening in a small student club, Diogenes, and in the late afternoon as a duo with Kapotte Muziek. The first 20 minutes were released on one side of the LP ‘Documentation/Collaboration’, whereas the second side has ‘recycled’ versions of those recordings. For their next project Merzbow Kapotte Muziek took all the recordings from that day and reworked them in an extensive process into the LP ‘Continuum’.
This 3CD set compiles all of these recordings and more. It includes (CD1) the first cassette, ZSF Produkt version, (CD2) has for the first time the complete live recording from the collaborative concert at Radio Rataplan plus two compilation pieces that were made around the same, and (CD3) the complete ‘Continuum’ LP, as well as three highly obscure compilation tracks, including the long reworked ‘Radio Rataplan’ from the very obscure ‘Dutch Tour’ double cassette by V2_Archief.
All expertly remastered by Jos Smolders at Earlabs, all lovingely designed by Meeuw, in a carton box with three CDs, poster, shrinkwrapped and sticker." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
Edition of 300 copies only
"In history, a certain type of very conservative – reactionary even - history, key moments and people are outlined, but no longer do we learn the kings and queens, we concentrate on oral histories of last week. So whilst seemingly radical in fact everything in music is still well and truly reactionary ideology. Artists still are identified with and seek to make seminal work, as our Tracey sickly maintains. So when in the late 1970s one Masami Akita stated “I threw all my past music career in the garbage. There was no longer any need for concepts like 'career' and 'skill'. I stopped playing music and went in search of an alternative.” The rest one could say really was history! Only a history that has been both ignored and wonderfully misappropriated into what is now the current noise “scene” of incompetent misfits who imagine their work to be art in the great western tradition. What this 3CD set demonstrates is the origin of this ‘scene’ or site of dissemination of the
meaningless and banal of contemporality. The ipad generation were not yet born when Akita and de Waard began a series of interchanges released originally on cassette and vinyl. The ‘history’ of this process is detailed here http://kormplastics.nl/kp3050.html. The consequences of this (and other events) of the time are in a real sense more profound. As if the ideas of a previous generation failed to generate, and how the fin de siècle became an eternal return of the (same) trivial misunderstanding, and failing to understand. The process of this collaboration is obviously a deconstructive one as any current art student would argue – though by virtue of wikipedia and a downloaded paper with Harvard references. So in fact this contemporality changes, in Damian
(Peter 1007-1072 not Hirst 1965 -?) fashion, the past to render the noise of Akita and de Waard as meaningful in its reaction to – from the past – of this future we now inhabit. The brilliance of such mutilation of past events not via some modified DeLorean but by the simple expediency of a logical inversion - the logic of the ipad’s NOT gates. (The garbage becomes art and so art becomes garbage….) One might therefore admire Akita and de Waard’s work as contributing to the current ‘scholasticism’ – or perhaps conversely to Damian’s condemnation of philosophy as the work of the Devil and the self flagellation of ‘noisers’ in small bars all over the mid-west. Either way – by not excluded middles they are genius’s. A logically non exclusive OR. And to end - by the by - I’ve been criticized for not describing the sound in a review – so what does this sound like – it sounds like the work that is yet to be produced by a sound ‘artist’ somewhere!" (jliat)
|
2012 |
€25.00 |
|
| MERZBOW VS. NORDVARGR |
Partikel III |
CD |
"The third and final part of the Partikel trilogy is finally here! Another beautifully constructed collaboration from the two noise giants - Japanoise King Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) and Swedish Overlord Henrik Nordvargr Björkk (MZ.412, Folkstorm, Toroidh). The styles on Partikel III' range from total noise barrages, to intelligent electronics, to subtle dark ambient pieces. Essential! Presented in a luxurious matt laminate digipak." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| META MEAT |
Infrasupra |
LP |
meta meat presents its second musical work: INFRASUPRA
the theme of this album is the equilibrium between our aspirations to reach a new 'suprahuman' omniscient condition and our inner 'infrahuman' material essence. how do modern 'civilised' technological humans (supra) still do cohabit with their animalistic truth (infra)? our desire for carnal flesh versus our quest to become a more 'godlike' creator are challenging our physical / metaphysical co-existence in this more and more virtual world. this work also pays tribute to those we used to refer as 'primitive' and now were renamed out of guilt: 'first people'. we wish to invoke the forgotten pulses and spirits of the 'lost tribes' - those primary nations which we wiped out or colonised, some still in resistance - as inspirations for our future.
the music of INFRASUPRA explores its dichotomous theme by proposing a mix of crude acoustic instruments with raw samples and sophisticated electronic sounds. self-invented rhythms are played with various percussions (daf, bendhir, hand drums, toms, etc...) then combined with various digital elements. somekilos and phil von succeeded in creating 10 neo-archaic / electro-ethnic ritual mini stories, offering with this masterful second album a unique and original musical endeavour.
https://metameat.bandcamp.com/album/infrasupra
meta meat - trampled [official video]
youtu.be/Q_1YEH84qTs
somekilos: electronic, hand-drum, toms, cymbals, daf, wooden rattles, voices
phil von: electronic, daf, bendir, cajacuerda, voices
mastered by norscq
layout by stefan alt
released in collaboration with le label beige. www.facebook.com/lelabel.beige
this is ant-zen act421
https://ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/infrasupra
|
2021 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Infrasupra |
CD |
meta meat presents its second musical work: INFRASUPRA
the theme of this album is the equilibrium between our aspirations to reach a new 'suprahuman' omniscient condition and our inner 'infrahuman' material essence. how do modern 'civilised' technological humans (supra) still do cohabit with their animalistic truth (infra)? our desire for carnal flesh versus our quest to become a more 'godlike' creator are challenging our physical / metaphysical co-existence in this more and more virtual world. this work also pays tribute to those we used to refer as 'primitive' and now were renamed out of guilt: 'first people'. we wish to invoke the forgotten pulses and spirits of the 'lost tribes' - those primary nations which we wiped out or colonised, some still in resistance - as inspirations for our future.
the music of INFRASUPRA explores its dichotomous theme by proposing a mix of crude acoustic instruments with raw samples and sophisticated electronic sounds. self-invented rhythms are played with various percussions (daf, bendhir, hand drums, toms, etc...) then combined with various digital elements. somekilos and phil von succeeded in creating 10 neo-archaic / electro-ethnic ritual mini stories, offering with this masterful second album a unique and original musical endeavour.
https://metameat.bandcamp.com/album/infrasupra
meta meat - trampled [official video]
youtu.be/Q_1YEH84qTs
somekilos: electronic, hand-drum, toms, cymbals, daf, wooden rattles, voices
phil von: electronic, daf, bendir, cajacuerda, voices
mastered by norscq
layout by stefan alt
released in collaboration with le label beige. www.facebook.com/lelabel.beige
this is ant-zen act421
https://ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/infrasupra
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| METAORGANISM |
I:Baphomet |
CD-R |
Neues Projekt mit der finnischen Experimental / Elektronik- Legende NIKO SKORPIO; Sinustongeneratoren, Oszillatoren, Feedback, in spezieller Schaltung "systemisch" verbunden...
"Metaorganism was conceived — or discovered — in Kuuskulma studio while conducting various experiments with sinewaves, oscillators and feedback.
Metaorganism is based on — or communicates through — a network of digital and analog devices transmitting information to each other, back and forth. In the system, a minor change in a supposedly insignificant parameter may unexpectedly change the overall course of the sound. Everything affects everything — as above, so below...
At some point of its development, the system will reach a state of balance where it seems to become self-reliant — independent, evolving — and in a sense a communicating entity which becomes conscious of itself. The Manifestation occurs, through sound.
A series of recording sessions were held, with the attempt to experiment with the system to serve certain 'hermetic' purposes, to influence the nature of Manifestation, ie. what exactly is invoked in/through the sound.
I:Baphomet is the first in what is being planned as a series of Metaorganism audio documents." [label info]
www.someplaceelse.net
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
| METEK (FEAT. VMOOD AND PYTHAGORA) |
Psychedelic Noise |
CD-R |
"The title of this album gives a pretty accurate description of its musical contents. Starting from a long “montage” of hissing noise textures, it very gradually unfolds into ever more diversified sounds, occassionally including voices, but only slightly brushing the boundaries of conventional musical structures. And in the end, everything dissolves again into the background noise of the universe.
What sets this album apart from most other noise music is the fact that it avoids any aggressive, confrontative, “harsh” postures. Instead, it often operates at a very quiet sound level, prompting the listener to actively listen out for signals embedded in the noisescape. This is precisely what creates the ‘psychedelic’ aspect of the music, where the listener’s brain imagines (to avoid the word: hallucinates) potential musical structures from the raw data fed into the ear by Metek and their two collaborators.
File under: noise, sound art" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"METEK konnte man in den letzten Jahren immer wieder mal am Lieferanteneingang von Shit Noise Records rumlungern sehen, entsprach aber zu wenig der dort geschätzten pupertären Pornophilie. Auch mit Psychedelic Noise (ACLE 1017, CD-R), das auch wieder Beiträge seiner alten Gesinnungsgenossen Dan Pålsson (aka PYTHAGORA) und VMOOD enthält, stillt Fredrik Nilsson einmal mehr nur bereits etwas sublimiertere Bedürfnisse. Etwa die Lust, in Noiselandschaften Abenteuerurlaub zu machen. Was eine gehörige Widerstandsfähigkeit voraussetzt hinsichtlich rauer Winde und Elektronenstürme, dröhnender Wetterumschwünge und unwegsamer Wege, die sich nur knurschend bewältigen lassen. Dazu ist garstiger Regen quasi garantiert, sonnige Idyllen dagegen fast schon ein Grund, das Reisebüro zu verklagen. Der Grund des Hierseins sind schließlich brausende Impulse und lärmige Verwerfungen, in denen Pressluftgehämmer, Sandstrahl, sausende Motoren und allerhand industrialer Ohrenfraß widerhallen, als eine Art wetterwendische Natur höherer Ordnung. In der hagelt es Katzen, knattern Nattern, plinken Bluesgitarrensaiten wie rostiger Draht, kauen Kobolde Schwedenhappen, zerreißen schartige Partikel die Luft. Als hätte unser erklärtermaßen anime- und mangabegeisterter Schwede eine japanische Gebrauchsanweisung zur Hand für seine naturburschikose Blockhüttenpercussion und vogelbezwitscherten, kochlöffelklapprigen Kochkünste." [Bad Alchemy]
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| MGR (MUSTARD GAS AND ROSES) |
Nova Lux |
LP |
Solo-Album des ISIS-Gitarristen M. GALLAGER auf dem neuen Berliner Label VIVA HATE, dies ist die lim. Vinyl-Version der bereits auf NEUROT erschienenen CD ! Wenn man MGR zuhört, weiss man wer für die melancholischen Stimmungen bei ISIS zuständig ist. Sehr reduzierte, rein instrumentelle Gitarren-Klänge, die
unglaubliche Einsamkeit & Trauer ausstrahlen....
„MUSTARD GAS AND ROSES (kurz MGR) ist das Solo Projekt von ISIS Gitarrist Mike Gallagher, der sich durch den Bandnamen auf Kurt Vonneguts semiautobiographischen Roman ,Slaughterhouse Five" bezieht. Das Album umfasst fünf unbetitelte Stücke mit einer Spielzeit von 52 Minuten. Gallagher wurde bei Track#1 von Greg Burns (RED SPAROWES) am Pedal Steel und bei Track 4 von Octopus (DÄLEK) durch dessen geniale Sampletüftelei unterstützt. ,Nova Lux" schifft sich, nicht untypisch für Neurot, durch eher ruhige Ambient-Post-Rock Gewässer und steht dabei ISIS sehr nahe. Gallagher generiert majestätische Atmosphäre mit telekinetischer Kraft, die auf Gitarrenarbeit basierenden Songs lassen in Verbindung mit Homerecording-Electronica Landschaften erwachsen, die deutlich greifbar auftauchen und sich dann doch wieder in unscharfer Formlosigkeit verlieren...“ [Cargo]
"...Okay we blew it. We did. We let this MGR record slip right under our radar. And we regret it. We do. As we've said before, the only thing better than discovering some new record that totally kicks your ass, is discovering some record you ignored or missed for some reason, only to have your ass kicked retroactively. Such is the case with MGR. And to prove just how sorry we are, not only are we listing this disc (a few months late) but we also got a super limited cd-r direct from the band reviewed elsewhere on this list.
Not sure why we didn't give this a listen when it first came out, our defense, as flimsy as it may seem, is that we thought MGR was the abbreviation for manager, so we just sort of figured, that was kind of a dumb name so why bother. MGR actually stands for Mustard Gas And Roses and is the work of one M. Gallagher from postrock metal heavyweights Isis, and is actually quite amazing.
Imagine Isis with all the bombast stripped away, all traces of metal removed, leaving only sinewy minor key guitars to drift over vast expanses of droning shimmer, skeletal but incredibly lush. Dark, moody, melancholy soundscapes, the background a warm swirl of sound, guitars drifting in the fuzzy haze above, unfurling gorgeously melancholic melodies, while all around huge swaths of sound shimmer and shift. There's some lap steel, but it's just another gauzy layer of sound, there are beats here and there, but those already minimal rhythms are processed into indistinct throbs and minimal shuffles and buried way down in the murk, making those tracks sound like some sort of post rock Gas. So good." [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Nova Lux |
CD |
Wenn man MGR zuhört, weiss man wer für die melancholischen Stimmungen bei ISIS zuständig ist. Sehr reduzierte, rein instrumentelle Gitarren-Klänge, die unglaubliche Einsamkeit & Trauer ausstrahlen....
„MUSTARD GAS AND ROSES (kurz MGR) ist das Solo Projekt von ISIS Gitarrist Mike Gallagher, der sich durch den Bandnamen auf Kurt Vonneguts semiautobiographischen Roman ,Slaughterhouse Five" bezieht. Das Album umfasst fünf unbetitelte Stücke mit einer Spielzeit von 52 Minuten. Gallagher wurde bei Track#1 von Greg Burns (RED SPAROWES) am Pedal Steel und bei Track 4 von Octopus (DÄLEK) durch dessen geniale Sampletüftelei unterstützt. ,Nova Lux" schifft sich, nicht untypisch für Neurot, durch eher ruhige Ambient-Post-Rock Gewässer und steht dabei ISIS sehr nahe. Gallagher generiert majestätische Atmosphäre mit telekinetischer Kraft, die auf Gitarrenarbeit basierenden Songs lassen in Verbindung mit Homerecording-Electronica Landschaften erwachsen, die deutlich greifbar auftauchen und sich dann doch wieder in unscharfer Fomlosigkeit verlieren...“ [Cargo]
“With Mustard Gas & Roses, guitarist Mike Gallagher (of renowned dirge architects ISIS) unveils a compendium of sparse ruminations culled from years of underground musical experience. An artistic—and entirely instrumental—departure from band-based disseminations, Gallagher’s solo debut is nonetheless in accord with the general aesthetic of ISIS, exploring the same telekinetic atmosphere via more personal and austere means. “ [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.50 |
|
| MGR VS. SIRDSS |
Impromptu |
CD |
"MGR, short for Mustard Gas and Roses, is ISIS guitarist Mike Gallagher's solo vehicle for ambient instrumental experimentation. His 2006 debut, Nova Lux, a critical success that drew comparisons to K.K. Null and Robert Fripp, featured contributions by members of the Red Sparrows and Dalek. MGR has recently shared the stage with the likes of Pelican, Mono, and Destructo Swarmbots.
David Scott Stone, who adopted the moniker SirDSS after doing time in the '90s with Slug and Get Hustle, has recently recorded with Big Business and the Melvins. A musician not afraid to take a long, hard step outside of how music is normally created and interpreted, Stone uses both conventional (modular synthesizers) and unconventional (micro-phoned sheet metal and bowed cymbals) to create unique and disturbing sounds. Impromptu, previously only available on a limited-edition CD-R, is a beautiful, compelling collage of instrumental improvisation and flowing soundscapes." [label description]
"Long slowly unfurling whorls of abstract steel string tangle, huge slow burning electric guitar shimmers, drifting amidst glistening sonic cobwebs, silver streaks of minimal feedback, while in the distance some sort of industrial apparition grinds and clangs, creaks and keens, beneath an outerspace world of dreamlike ambient guitarscapes, radiant sine waves and thick luminous layers of crumbling melody. So nice." [Aquarius Records]
www.neurotrecordings.com
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| MGR Y DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS |
Amigos de la Guitarra |
CD |
"Last year, Mike Mare of Destructo Swarmbots and Mike Gallagher of MGR and Isis fell in love. From across the room at The Toolbox, Gallagher's rakish grin and platinum-plated construction helmet caught Mare's ever-discerning eye. Gallagher was similarly impressed with Mare's state-of-the-art hairdo and glistening pecs. "I was immediately impressed with Mike's state-of-the-art hairdo and glistening pecs," Gallagher recalls. "Mike's rakish grin and platinum-plated construction helmet caught my ever-discerning eye from across the room," Mare adds. In the months that followed, the Mikes played a few shows in Brooklyn, held hands in public, and took a romantic carriage ride around Central Park. The civil procedure was performed hastily at Boston City Hall in August 2007, with a more elaborate ceremony (for friends and family) performed by Robert Goulet in Las Vegas shortly before his tragic passing. Once officially wedlocked, the two Mikes decided to consummate their vows the only way they knew how: With their guitars. They lovingly recorded a single 42-minute song entitled "Amor en el Aire" at Deadverse Studios in glamorous downtown Union City, New Jersey, with Alap Momin, a.k.a. Oktopus from hip-hop revolutionaries Daelek." [label info]
www.neurotrecordings.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| MICROMELANCOLIE & STROM NOIR |
49°05'19,3 |
CD |
"The album of the enigmatic title "49°05'19,3"N22°34'04,0'E" is the result of the collaboration between two artists signed to Zoharum: Emil Mat'ko aka Strom Noir from Slovakia and Robert Skrzyński aka Micromelancolié from Poland. Both have two albums and participated in several compilations released on our label on their account. Their collaborative album is a piece of work suspended between two stylistics penetrated within their own solo projects, and at the same time it is perfectly complementary. On one side we have the guitar/electronic passages so characteristic of Strom Noir, and on the other the sonic structures prepared from defects and scraps that has been explored for several years by Micromelancolié. Two untitled compositions float slowly and are contemplation of places a bit distant to urban civilization. "49°05'19,3"N22°34'04,0'E " is a sound postcard from the mysterious place hidden in the title. Where is it? The answer is in the music itself, and in the coordinates composing the title of this collaborative album." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MIEVILLE, EMMANUEL |
Magnetic fields and shrouded flux |
mCD-R |
Harsh field recording ambience? All sounds here seem to be derived from field recordings, but were then processed heavily.. this resulted into two quite intense pieces, with lots of details & great effects...rarely water sounded that harsh!
"french composer/phonographer mixing musique concrete, field recordings and drones for two haunting pieces. full-colour printed 3"
cd-r with artwork by delphine ancelle-b." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIGONE, CHRISTOF |
Sound Voice Perform |
Book & CD |
“With contributions by Brandon LaBelle, Martin Spinelli, and Allen S. Weiss. "Sound Voice Perform” documents the performance, sound, and video works of the Canadian artist. Working since the mid-80s, Migone weaves together a multitude of media, from radio to telephones to digital objects, to form a stunning and highly dynamic practice. Combining an acute sonic sensibility with performative usages of the body, video, and the voice, his work engages corporeal presence with a subtle invasion, unsettling speech and gesture through investigative and theoretical poetics. Including documentation of works and a full length CD of audio works compiled from over the last 15 years including previously unreleased material. With essays by Allen S. Weiss and Brandon LaBelle, an interview with the artist by Martin Spinelli, "Christof Migone — Sound Voice Perform" is the first monograph on this unique artist.“ [Errant Bodies/Ground Fault]
|
2005 |
€17.00 |
|
| MILITIA |
Everything Is One |
CD |
" “Only sheep need a leader”. Aller derzeitiger Ideologie-Feindlichkeit zum trotz halten MILITIA an ihrem Ideal eines „positiven“, zeitgemässen Öko-Anarchismus fest und schlagen hier auch musikalisch neue und sanftere Wege ein, wenn sie harmonisch-polyphone Synth-Sequenzertunes mit eher hintergründiger Perkussion und vielen „handgespielten“ Elementen & Instrumenten verbinden.
MILITIAs Musik ist aber auch immer noch beseelt von (heroischem?) Kampfgeist und Glauben an die (bessere?) Utopie, von pompösen Neo-Klassik- & Sprach-Samples, aggressivem Gesang und dickstem melancholischen Pathos. Musikalisch überzeugender Anarcho-Industrial!" [Drone Rec. 2005]
“ Five years after the succesfull “The Black Flag Hoisted” CD finally thenew MILITIA CD!!! It contains 13 tracks (62,35 minutes) of the best MILITIA recordings ever. Beside the known and typical MILITIA percussions, samples and voices this time the tracks include a larger variety of different instruments: violins, accordeons, horns, clarinets played partly by guest musicians. Even a soprano singer takes part as guest musician. The CD comes in a special oversized foldout cover.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| MILLIMETRIK |
Northwest Passage's New Era |
CD |
"Millimetrik is Québec City resident Pascal Asselin. Pascal’s music unites his love of hip-hop, electronica and ambient music, but takes these influences to somewhere entirely his own. Over the course of four albums, Millimetrik’s music has evolved, becoming less concerned with ambient textures and atmospheres, and more richly layered, warm and melodic. 2008’s “Northwest Passage’s New Era”, his first full-length release for Make Mine Music featured contributions from Ulrich Schnauss and Port-Royal. Pascal also records as half of Le Chat Blanc Orchestra." [label notes]
www.makeminemusic.co.uk
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| MILLIS, ROBERT |
Relief |
LP |
"Our man Millis is a Climax Golden Twin and a noted curator of globe trotting / time traveling esoterica, amongst other accolades. In the former category, Millis and Jeffery Taylor steadily release some of the most headscratching amalgamations of avant-rock, decontextualized temple music, heightened-state minimalism, and collaged field recordings this side of the Sun City Girls (including the soundtrack to the cult film Session Nine); and in the latter, Millis has published a number of acclaimed anthologies for Sublime Frequencies (Scattered Melodies, This World is Unreal Like a Snake in a Rope, Phi Ta Khon, The Crying Princess, etc.) and Dust-To-Digital (our personal favorite, aptly titled Victrola Favorites). With his fingers in so many jars of jam, it can seem like an uncommon occurrence for Millis to release solo work although he is one to smear his sticky hands all over himself in performance, installation, and collaboration. Thus, The Helen Scarsdale Agency is delighted in presenting his latest opus, Relief.
A fever dream of blurred harmonics and ethnomusicological spelunking, Relief repeatedly returns to variations on a peculiar yet beautifully serpentine drone, whose twinkling acoustic properties meld the hallucinatory mouth-music of the Bangladeshi Murung people and the curved air hypnosis of Terry Riley. Millis bookends and interrupts his mysterious miasma with comedic interludes snatched from his lauded collection of antique 78s, maudlin piano tone-clusters, and teleported crescendos of spectral ballroom waltzes. More Nurse With Wound than The Caretaker, this polyglot raga-drone of daytime somnambulism and psychedelic slipperiness speaks to the uneasy borders at psychological, cultural, and geophysical states of being. Oh, to be a human on this planet." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Polyglot might be just the right word to describe what Robert Millis and his Climax Golden Twins have been up to for the past two decades or so. An album might be a ramshackle collage of blisterfuck noise-rock, another might be a graceful set of murder ballads, and yet another might hypnotize the listener through an alpha-state minimalism. And then, there's Millis' acclaimed collections of olde-timey '78s and raw field recordings of indigenous folk songs, much of which has been released through those tasty labels Sublime Frequencies and Dust-To-Digital. The solo work from Millis tends more toward the dronemuzik and hallucinatory collage axis of CGT's multi-headed agenda, although he has been known to strum out a sadsack blues number that might straddle the worlds of Alan Bishop and Roscoe Holcomb; but here on the impeccable new album Relief, Millis tunes in and drops out with a blearily psychedelic album of forgotten sounds, ghostly fragments, and Pacific Ocean drones. The album begins with a comedic outburst from one of Millis' 78s with a helpful direction to "hear the secret sentence played out on the talking typewriter" followed by a jaunty clatter of a manual typewriter all wrapped in scratchy-vinyl, crackling goodness. Immediately, the album delves into a swarming tone-float of harmonic overtones pecked with trilling glissandos. The source for this sound has got to be a plung - a Bangladeshi mouth-organ used specifically by the Murung peoples living deep in the rainforest, as this sound is uniquely atonal and wrigglingly eerie in its wavering notes. Millis furthers this wooziness by rarifying these sounds into the holy minimalism conjured by LaMonte Young, Angus Maclise, and company. After swimming here in these golden pools for a good five or six minutes, Millis drops the needle on a dramatic orchestral swell that would be the envy of the Caretaker's sunken ballroom recordings. A couple of hip-swaying recombinations of temple music rhythms and Les Baxter exotica glide in and out of Millis' glassy-eyed shimmeriness and post-Eno piano constellations. The album's finale is an impressionistic driftscape of languid, temple bell & gong tones stretched into a gorgeous, expansive cloud of lush harmonics giving way to a metronomic wooden rhythm that leads to a set of solitary piano notes suspended over Mariana trench diving-bell ambience. Limited to 400 copies, and comes with the requisite download code. So fucking good." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
This World is unreal like a Snake in a Rope |
DVD |
"A film by Robert Millis. Folk cinema from the eternal never-ending collage that is India. A journey through the ancient Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu featuring Hindu trance ceremonies, street music, festivals, nagaswaram improvisations, impossibly loud cities, ancient temples, processions, devotions, decay, fireworks, abstractions and more. India is impossible to know: it is impossibly old and impossibly new, impossibly rich and impossibly poor, quiet and chaotic. Offered here is one perspective, raw, captured live and in the moment, with an emphasis on India's complex and mesmerizing sounds. DVD features a bonus photo gallery with over 100 images. 50 minutes/Color; digipack; all-region DVD; NTSC format. Limited one-time edition of 1,000 copies." [label info]
www.sublimefrequencies.com
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
| MIMETIC DESIRE |
Sacred Aim |
DVD |
" 'desire is the location of resistances to the norms of the culturalorder. mimetic desire begins by transforming models into obstacles and it ends up by transforming obstacles into models.' (mimetic, 2006)
mimetic is the solo project of jerome soudan - a drummer for european industrial and experimental bands such as von magnet or column one. his classical background is best seen by his playing of orchestral percussion and computing pieces for contemporary music performances (with art zoyd & kasper t.toeplitz). he has also composed music for dance companies like ndt2 in the netherlands. in france, he wrote a pre-thesis about industrial music for the university of lyon (1993). also while in france he contributed to the industrial music scene by organising festivals and concerts in paris. in addition he developed a network for musicians in europe and he continued this network while living in berlin.
after several releases on various european labels, mimetic has released his first dvd via a collaborative effort between ant-zen and parametric. 'sacred aim' feeds the eyes with a big collection of video clips that combine small scripts, visual effects, flashing colors, black & white pictures, moving puppet animations and more. this dvd follows mimetic's recent big tours in europa, u.s.a., canada and japan, in addition the dvd features bonus material - including an interview, a documentary about his eastern european tour, two concert tracks from canada, and some other special surprises.
if you are familiar with mimetic's powerful mix of electronica and beats, symphonic textures and incredibly well-placed samples then you now have the opportunity to stimulate your aural senses. if you are not familiar then go discover an artist who is something else - a fine addition to the audio & visual world of ant-zen." [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2006 |
€7.50 |
|
| MIMIR |
Mimyriad |
CD |
2007 repress. "Jim O'Rourke first joined Mimir for Mimyriad in 1992. It was completed and released as the first Streamline CD in 1993. In 1998, a radically remixed and re-edited version was issued as a limited edition Streamline LP. This new CD release contains a remastered version of the Mimyriad LP material and comes in a reworked and updated package. '...peering down, he tried to gauge how close he might be drifting to solid ground, but the darkness made it impossible to judge. He found himself tensing, then consciously willed himself to relax. When he hit, he had to be relaxed. The spatter of brilliance that was the space port was almost dead ahead. A blackness intervened to shield out the spaceport lights and he hit the ground, knees buckling under him...'" [label info]
www.dragcity.com |
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| MINADEO, JOSEPH & CURT BROWN |
Wood Land |
CD+ booklet |
Wood Land is a story of a nameless worker caught in the mundanity of placid bureaucracy. Wood Land is a story of buried towers and subtle rebellion. Wood Land is a story of unsubtle rebellion and totalitarian overthrow. Wood Land is a story of deep space awakening and astronaut spiders. Wood Land is a story of return and reconciliation. Wood Land is a story.
Scored by Joseph Minadeo and written by Curt Brown with imagery by both.
Sonically, 'Wood Land' was an extension of Joseph Minadeo's first foray into
ambient - 'sounds from a photograph', a 'Pearl'-esque LP of Lanois affected piano and placid
drones. 'Wood Land' extends that premise and gives a hazy nod towards Noto and Sakamoto's
collaborative soft digital clicks and sustained piano.
Airy atmospheres are constructed with multiple piano layering plus guitars dissolving into despondant
organ, synth sequencing and minimal drum padding. Slow cadences of hope and light
are countered with ominous sonatas. Indescernible Vocals, courtesy of Gabriela Kropf,
are mixed into the mellotron choirs.
'Wood Land' features deluxe packaging with a perfect bound booklet of 28 pages, matte digipak, housed
in a slipcase.
Joseph Minadeo is a composer behind the former Akron, Ohio (now Los Angeles) based Patternbased label.
He is also a member of the post-rock outfit Low in the Sky. He recently moved to California
to dig deeper into art and music.
Curt Brown is an Akron, Ohio based artist and is a co-founder of Rubber City Noise, a collective
that runs a record label and arts space in Akron. Current projects include Black Unicorn and
Cane Swords among others.
Several tracks from 'Wood Land' were used in the global collaborative documentary film 'One Day on Earth' (along w/ Sigur Ros, Beirut, Cut Chemist and Mum).
Design by Kevin Carr and Charlie Wagers.
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/wood-land |
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| MINAMATA |
Niigata 2002 |
CD |
"Reissue of the third tape of this legendary French group, originally recorded in 1985 and released on the cult French label LES NOUVELLES PROPAGANDES as N.P.002 in 1986. Two tracks coming from compilations recorded at the same period "Wo sind Sie ?" und "Nacht und Nächte", plus one unreleased 17 minute-track recorded in 2002 were added to these 40 mns. Pure old-school industrial and hardcore electronics with lots of metal sounds & percussions and echoed screamings. This is truely the sound of agaony… Housed in nicely designed digipack. 9 tracks/Total length : 69’36. Release date: April 2007." [label info]
www.nuitetbrouillard.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MINIMAL COMPACT |
Deadly Weapons |
CD |
"Wiederveröffentlichung des 1984er-Albums der israelischen Kultband. Angeführt von Sänger Samy Birnbach (alias DJ Morpheus) waren Minimal Compact eine der inspirierendsten Bands der 1980er-Jahre. Sie verbanden funkige Rockrhythmen und prägnante Gitarren mit den musikalischen Aromen des Nahen Ostens. Die aus Israel stammende Band konnte in Europa und den USA auf eine leidenschaftliche Anhängerschaft zurückblicken, einige ihrer Songs, wie das auf "Deadly Weapons" zu findende "Next One Is Real", wurden zu Clubhits. Das Album markierte 1984 den internationalen Durchbruch der Band."
[label info]
"Minimal Compact's 'Deadly Weapons' - a disc of lingering textures- is a confluence where the streams of flair and ideas meet equally. It's an iconoclastic album, a collection of songs which are effortlessly assimilated yet tap normally suppressed emotions. If there is any simple division in music it's between compositions which lubricate the biological instincts -sex and the rest- and those that mine the, uhm, soul. Post Joy Division, I can only think of three rock bands who've successfully penetrated the shadows of existence in their individual ways: Nick Cave, Holy Toy and Minimal Compact. Heavy stuff, eh ? Piss off ! It's as easy as putting a record on a turntable. Though quite why the group should join the shortlist is uncertain: the majority of them are Israeli, so we have no obvious cultural connections on the surface. Compact's approach is harmonically impacted. And even at their most blatantly neo-traditional, like on 'The Howling Hole', the minaret motifs might make for a strange musical geography but the intent is instantly recognisable at some subcutaneous level. (...) Does this make the music 'difficult' ? Not unless you're a paraplegic who can't put a disc on a turntable. So damn well do it now." [Jack Barron / SOUNDS, 1984]
www.crammed.be |
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| MINTON, PHIL + AUDREY CHEN + GUY SEGERS + PETER JACQUEMYN + TEUN VERBRUGGEN |
Quintet |
CD |
" 'Now let's make music with more holes in it.' (Audrey Chen)
These recordings in two movements
SR310 MINTON / CHEN
SR311 MINTON / CHEN QUINTET
can be taken as, on the one hand, pieces for two voices and improvisation chamber orchestra (which is what the musicians felt throughout the recording session) and, on the other hand, pure free improvisation.
Phil Minton / voice
Audrey Chen / voice + cello
Guy Segers / electric bass
Peter Jacquemyn / double bass
Teun Verbruggen / drums + percussions
Things get dislocated, gather themselves, spread across areas of varying intensities. More intimate or more complex song. closer to the sacred, left untouched by mediation, even slightly incomprehensible, though mostly
ambivalent and reality-piercing. At times, the music seems to lead us to a meaning that is deeper than the textual level. or is it the depth of another possible song? That's when the music takes us to areas that seem perpetually urging, more than their simple addition of voices and instruments." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| MIRROR |
Still Valley |
CD |
“Re-release of DS78 incl. one extra track. One of Mirror's finest works recorded by Andrew Chalk, Christoph Heemann and Jim O'Rourke between May 2002 - January 2005. The music on 'Still Valley' might seem calm on the surface but something mysterious is going on underneath. Edition of 1000 copies in dye-cut cover similar to the LP version.” [label info]
„...schwelgen in ewigen Momentaufnahmen, die das Gefühl eines ungemein zärtlichen Fingers aufm Auge zurücklassen. Mirror zerfleischen dabei alle Konzepte einer Temporalität, verlassen sich auf ihre flüchtigen Flächen von nirgendwo und wandeln im Raum wie deine verblasste Liebe zu Herbstbeginn. Zeit ist vergessen und Erinnerung findet während 'Still Valley' etwas anders statt als üblich, sie greift tief ins Nie-Gedachte und friert alle Referenz zum Jetzt rigoros ein. Meisterhaft.” [Ed Benndorf]
“...Mirror is here on the most calm moment, even when they are a trio here (core members Christoph Heeman and Andrew Chalk helped out by Jim O'Rourke), in a trio of tracks (one more than the original vinyl) that are utterly relaxing. Soft organ tones paint the living room in a deep warm color, slowly swirling and changing shape. While some of the other Mirror works are a bit more darker and dronier, this is their most relaxing piece of work. Utter minimalist and probably nerve racking to the uninitiated, but I think this is a stunning beauty. But as a devotee of Mirror (he hastened to admit), things can't go wrong anyway.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| MIRRORRING (LIZ HARRIS & JESY FORTINO) |
Foreign Body |
LP |
"Mirrorring is Jesy Fortino, who has recorded under the Tiny Vipers moniker, and Liz Harris, better known as Grouper. The recordings on this album came about through a songwriting session in Portland, Oregon. The resulting sounds are contemplative, reflective, and introspective, creating a feeling as much as a song, a mood as much as a tune. One could try to assess what part of the album each artist was responsible for, but that would prevent one from seeing the proverbial forest for the trees. Foreign Body was recorded and produced in 2011." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky |
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| MIRT |
Most |
mCD-R |
In eine geheimnisvolle und melancholische Soundwelt entführt uns MIRT (Seitenprojekt von ONE INCH OF SHADOW) mit wunderbar konkreten und transparent-organischen Klängen, die auf Feldaufnahmen einer grenznahen Eisenbahnbrücke basieren, die später durch einsame Akkordeon und Klarinett-Sounds ergänzt werden... magisch emotional!
“ One Inch of Shadow leader's solo project. Fields recordings from big inactive railway bridge. The bridge is on Polish - German border. Fauna & flora of The Odra River, "industrial" echos of the bridge & sounds of accordion and clarinet recorded at studio. 24 minutes deepest experiences. Magic of place & sadness of existence.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Heading South |
LP |
"Backwards proudly presents the new album of great Polish artist MIRT!
Heading South is the eighth Mirts' album. The record was created with great help of TER between 2011 and 2012. Like its predecessors it is to some extent a concept album. This time, derived from exotic vision of class B old adventure films and cheap comic stories. As usual this inspirations are barely visible and immersed in typical for Mirt hazy and dark mood. This are only some hints and whole album leaves a much wider scope for interpretation.
After instrumental Artificial Field Recordings Mirt intended to record album with songs and after several earlier attempts he fail again, leaving only two track with voice. Don't miss this superb gem! Available in two editions: 100 copies as yellow vinyl and 200 copies as black vinyl." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| MITRE |
Sympathy for Agamemnon |
mCD-R |
DREAMLAND RECORDINGS ist ein neues ambient/drone-Label aus Australien, die mit einer hochkarätige mini-CDR-Reihe auf sich aufmerksam machen! Die zweite VÖ kommt von MITRE, in einem frischen Chicagoer (?) Projekt, die reine Gitarrenriff-Vibrationen erzeugen, verzerrt, mit e-bow, gezupft, mit gewissen Psychedelic-Flair..und einer wahrhaft verträumten Atmo... "Deep resonant drones, walls of feedback guitar hovering on the horizon of a distant storm" [label info] |
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIXED BAND PHILANTROPIST |
The impossible Humane |
LP |
"Limitiertes Vinyl-Reissue des einzigen Albums der Industrial-Kultband.
Aufgenommen in den Jahren 1984 bis 1986 ist "The Impossible Humane" das einzige Album von Mixed Band Philanthropist, einem Nebenprojekt der The New Blockaders. Ursprünglich war die Platte 1987 auf dem deutschen Label Selektion erschienen und ist natürlich längst ein begehrtes Sammlerstück. Das Label Staubgold macht dieses Juwel aus Industrial und Musique concrete in einer Kleinauflage wieder erhältlich. Das Reissue enthält zwei Bonustracks, die der 7-Zoll-Single "The Man Who Mistook A Real Woman For His Muse And Acted Accordingly" entnommen wurden. Am Album war das Who’s who der damaligen Industrial-Szene beteiligt, u. a. Nurse With Wound, Organum, Andrew Chalk, The New Blockaders, Etant Donnes, H.N.A.S., P16.D4, Asmus Tietchens, Controlled Bleeding, Smegma und Merzbow. "A totally great listening experience", meinte das Magazin "The Wire". Die Vinyl-only-Produktion ist auf 400 Platten limitiert." [label info]
www.staubgold.com
"Recorded from 1984 to 1986, "The Impossible Humane" is the sole album by The New Blockaders side project Mixed Band Philanthropist. Originally released on the German Selektion label in 1987 and impossible to find nowadays, Staubgold makes this rare gem of Industrial goes Musique Concrete available again in a strictly limited edition of 400 copies. Furthermore the reissue contains two bonus tracks taken from the 7" single "The Man Who Mistook A Real Woman For His Muse And Acted Accordingly".
The album is assembled of exclusive source material by the who's who of the Industrial music scene of the time, including contributions by Nurse With Wound, Organum, Andrew Chalk, The New Blockaders, Etant Donnes, H.N.A.S., P16.D4, Asmus Tietchens, Controlled Bleeding, Smegma, Merzbow and many more. "A classic chunk of destroyed musique concrete. Assembled from a variety of musical and spoken sources, this is a nonstop barrage of genius. Filled with headsnapping changes, sexual innuendo and general confusion, it's a totally great listening experience," said The Wire magazine.
Idwal Fisher wrote: "This car crash tape collage still stands today as one of the best examples of the genre. Its perpetual barrage of split-second samples are a dizzying mess of '60's Pop songs, scrapes, industrial whirr, uncategorizeable racket, ghostly voices, electronic beebles and burrs, sped-up records, tape whizz, machine rumble, snatches of Reggae, bucket damage, kazoo farts, Disco spots and about three-thousand or more (I'm guessing) other samples that really shouldn't work but, by some slight of hand or genius, actually do. On paper snatches of steel bands shouldn't be found on the same side of tape as Geordie MCs, Michael Jackson, pneumatic drills, early Merzbow and '50's Doo Wop but here they are and it works. Totally. Then comes the added bonus of being able to listen to this to the point of ad nauseam, mainly due to the fact that there are so few reference points that every listen brings something new." [label info]
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| MIYASHITA, YU |
Noble Niche |
CD |
"Mille Plateaux presents an album by Japanese noise/glitch artist, Yu Miyashita. By definition, Noble Niche is a glitch album. So why doesn't it sound like one? Well, this album is based on the most neglected type of glitch sound: noise. Naturally, noise is not exactly easy listening, and Noble Niche is no exception. However, it is not to be confused with rather provocative or even trashy (Japa)Noise. Instead, Yu Miyashita managed to apply the fine (glitch) aesthetics known from many classic Mille Plateaux releases to digital noise. The sounds suggest that Yu managed to make digital data audible that was never meant to be played back with an audio player. Ever listened to a CD-Rom? This music is highly abstract, with no more than traces of musical chords, not even enough to get any real world associations: a life support machine, perhaps, or a Japanese pachinko hall in hell. Often intense and powerful, sometimes delicate and fragile -- food for audio junkies desperate for the next unheard sound." [label info]
www.mille-plateaux.com
"The other release by Mille Plateaux brings back their old sub-division to mind: Ritornell. Should that still have existed then Yu Miyashita's release would have fitted perfectly here. This is music made from glitches, but unlike some of the previous Ritornell peers, these glitches are moulded into noise. However not the sort of noise we leave to Jliat these days, but noise of a more varied type. Like the fast forward speeding up of tapes, along with heavy layers of drone like sounds, like totally distorted samples of organs. Say the classic Kid 606 sound, but without any drum sounds in close range. Wall of noise, psychedelic and captivating. I think Yu Miyashita is from Japan, and his (?) music sounds like entering a pachinko hall - those Japanese entertainment/gambling centers, with lots of rambling machines with their silver balls and loud music on top. There are at times quieter moments, like the dark opening op 'Scrypt'. Yu Miyashita builds on the earlier experiences of the label, does that in a more heavy manner than the previous lot and that makes it quite a great CD. But I wonder what he would do next. More of the same seems not the right thing, I'd say, as this is a statement by itself." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| MIYATA, RYOSUKE |
In a Drainage Outlet |
mCDR |
"ryosuke miyata is a japanese composer based in tokyo. previously known under the miche alias, he had a handful of digital releases mainly issued by japanese netreleases.
in addition to sudying the piano since he was a little boy, ryosuke miyata's influences include classical music, video-games soundtracks and healing music.
owing to his childhood years spent mainly creating and otherwise being immersed in reverie, fantasy and fiction, his music creations are steeped in themes such as daydreams come true, lasting impressions and interpretations of childhood memories.
with a signature sound that denotes a sense of nostalgia and illusion, his music creation process combines piano, guitar, bass and other traditional instruments with computer-based elements such as sound processing, sampling and field recordings.
"at a drainage outlet" is a nice collection of four sweet and delicate drone-based compositions..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"The second release is by Ryosuke Miyata, from Tokyo. He worked Miche before and Japanese net labels as such released his music. As a young man he played the piano and these days cities as inspirations 'classical music, video-games soundtracks and healing music'. I am not sure which video games that might be but it does not translate to some dirty 8bit computer noise. But somehow the computer does play a role in this music, along with indeed the piano. There are four pieces on this release, all inhabiting the world of drone music but in all of these we hear the stretched out sounds from piano or guitars, treated with software, in combination with field recordings. A bit dark, but not as dark as some of his peers, this is all rather gentle music, staying on the 'nicer' side of drone and ambient music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI |
Inferior's Betrayal |
do-LP |
Reissue of the self-produced K7 in 1994 on Kiyoshi Mizutani's Ulcer House label.
https://fernsrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/inferiors-betrayal
"The first time I saw Merzbow in concert, in 1989, during his first European tour, I perceived them as a group. Masami Akita, Reiko A and K. Mizutani (although he arrived a bit later on tour) were a trio, even when Akita already seemed the leading man. Mizutani was present on various Merzbow releases from the 1980s but left in the early 90s. Since there have been several solo releases, not as many as Merzbow, since long Masami's solo vehicle, but that number is hard to surpass. 'Inferior's Betrayal' was first released on cassette in 1994 by Ulcer House. I am sure I heard that one, but not for long. With Merzbow, Mizutani was the guitarist, and I always assumed (but am not sure of) this is also his preferred instrument in solo work, next to sound effects. But, somehow, I also believe he uses field recordings or objects and contact microphones. The first piece, 'A Calm', is such a piece that sounds to me as if he's scraping contact microphones over rusty shovels and feeding that a bunch of sound effects. Interestingly enough, in none of the five pieces, Mizutani sounds like Merzbow, save perhaps for the feedback orgy of 'Parasite'. Sure, there is noise and a bit of feedback, but the main focus is not on that. Mizutani's music sounds like an exploration of acoustic sounds drifting into an electronic world. One could say that this is electro-acoustic music, but Mizutani adds an element of improvisation. All of these tracks are long and could be edited, but I would think endurance is part of the idea. A piece such as 'Composition' sounds like a Fluxus-inspired bang on a can (and plastic bags) and has a collage-like approach more than the four others. I enjoyed this double record, with music I hadn't heard in a long time and reminding me that I should dig out some of his other cassettes; perhaps Ferns will reissue these as well? That would be great." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI & KIYOHARU KUWAYAMA |
Interlude |
CD |
"Kiyoshi Mizutani: feedback. Kiyoharu Kuwayama: handmade electronics, contact mic & mix. and/OAR (via either/OAR) is very pleased to present what is without a doubt among the very best of both artist's electronic-based work. Throughout much of this highly charged release, brooding clouds of swarming tones and drones envelope the listener, either inducing a hypnotic trance or a deep contemplative listening state. This work is the result of a mail exchange. At first, Kiyoshi created the feedback sound in the studio using a suspended microphone, mixer and some effects. Sometimes drum sticks, steel and wooden chair were used to influence the sound. Kiyoshi's recorded sound was sent to Kiyoharu who then processed the materials and edited and mixed the sound with his own materials. Kiyoshi Mizutani started his sound career with the noise project Merzbow until the late 1980s, After leaving Merzbow, Kiyoshi started releasing solo work under his own name - gradually shifting away from noise to mostly recording and releasing straight environmental sound documents. Apart from Kiyoharu Kuwayama and Masami Akita (Merzbow), Kiyoshi has also collaborated with Daniel Menche and Hideaki Shimada. Apart from and/OAR, Kiyoshi has had his work released by such labels as Ground Fault, CMR, Monochrome Vision, Auscultare Research, E(r)ostrate, Artware Production, Engraved Glass, Flenix, among others. Kiyoharu Kuwayama (aka Lethe) is known for creating and recording work in highly resonant spaces or charged atmospheres (abandoned warehouses, Shinto temples, etc). Kiyoharu is also known for his involvement with the duo Kuwayama - Kijima (Kiyoharu Kuwayama : cello, and Rina Kijima : violin) who are formidable players, so well attuned to each other that their improvisations cannot be distinguished from highly complex compositions. With a particular interest in ambient sound and locations that inspire improvisation, they take advantage of the natural reverb of each location (under a bridge at night, an abandoned warehouse), and even change their position while playing to create beautiful and charged performances." [label info]
www.and-oar.org
"There is, like with most releases by Kiyoharu Kuwayama not a lot of information on the cover (or websites) with details about the recording, but more than some other times. Kiyoharu Kuwayama plays "handmade electronics, contact mic & mix" and Kiyoshi Mizutani just gets credit for feedback. Mizutani was in the 80s a member of Merzbow, and after leaving Merzbow he did a couple of releases, ranging from the heavy noise field to field recordings, including collaborations with Daniel Menche and Hideaki Shimada. Kuwayama is perhaps best known as Lethe and has created a bunch of releases that deal with large spaces in which he plays cello, metal objects and electronics. This release with Mizutani is one that was generated through mail, which I think is a rarity in his catalogue. Mizutani recorded feedback using a suspended microphone, mixer and effects, influencing the sound with drum sticks, steel and wooden chair. Kuwayama then processed this material and did further editing. The result is excellent. The feedback produced by Mizutani is never 'loud and dirty' as one could easily think these things would be (think harsh noise walls), but refined and varied. The sustained sounds move through your home space in an excellent way, and Kuwayama treats them with great care. The ten pieces flow into each other and form a great unified wholeness, which reminded me of the best of Arcane Device. A highly varied disc of music, excellent treatments and fine composition." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MLEHST |
Vilification of the english peasant class |
LP |
Eigentlich müsste MLEHST Preise gewinnen für die ausser-gewöhnlichste & einfallsreichste Titelgebung. Der Titel dieser LP heisst übersetzt etwa "die Herabwürdigung der englischen Bauernklasse".... klanglich ist das wieder äusserst herausfordernde, zermürbende Musik, mit eher hochfrequenten, Sinuston-artigen Drones, Cut-Ups, Feedbacks, insgesamt weniger krachig und "auskomponierter" als auf den Tapes der 90er, obgleich es auf der B-Seite harsche Rauschfelder gibt . Exzellent !
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce the release of a new LP... Mlehst - Vilification of the English Peasant Class.
After an extremely active period of recording between 1992 and 1998, Mlehst returned in 2005 to bring back his unique experimental noise music in a fashion as focused and intriguing as ever. "Vilification of the English Peasant Class" is a 3-track LP composed of invigorating and often unsettling music replete with drones, feedback, and cut-ups. The first side is very structured and precise, whereas the second side presents a more improvised and intense variation on the themes presented in the former. This is sure to appeal to fans of noise, drone, and experimental music in general.
Releasing an extensive number of recordings since 1992, England's Mlehst has always managed to capture the more experimental regions of noise music. His own Bandaged Hand Produce label was rather prolific in this realm as well. With his return in 2005 (and the establishment of Belief Recordings) we can only hope this trend will continue. Mlehst has released on a variety of labels over the years, including Self Abuse, Mother Savage, Absurd, Drahtfunk, Nihilist, and The Locus Of Assemblage. Additionally he has collaborated with or been released on splits with Runzelsturn & Gurgelstock, Brume, Smell & Quim, Crack Fierce, and Macronympha.
Pressed on clear vinyl and housed in a clear sleeve with sticker affixed to the front. Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MNEM |
For Delta Relics |
CD |
....die erste “echte” CD der finnländischen Analog-Drone-Meister, die sich wieder auf Reisen in abgründige archaic-drone Texturen geben...
“Audacious plunge into the undercurrent textures of sound overwhelming with archaic and primal influence yet appearing unprecedented and downright fresh in the present day. Finest sonic massives emitting complex syntheses of post industrial, electro-acoustics and harsh ambience; intensive layers of drones and abrasive loops laying foundation to diverse analog sound sculptures. Utilising old reel-to-reel recorders and analog gadgets has given this Finnish duo an almost trademark sound, now presented on their first full length release with highly acclaimed vinyl releases (Drone Records, Kaos Kontrol) already under their belts. Beautiful full colour sleeve in standard jewel case masterly designed by Stephen O'Malley (Malignant Records, Southern Lord, etc.).
Website: http://www.kaos-kontrol.org/mnem“ [label press release]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
|
No Cosmic Ox |
7inch |
Fourth release on NEGATIVE FOUNDATION, the MNEM-label. MNEM music sounds so basic, so raw, so “old” in a way, its raw ambient-noise full of strange mysterious details....
“It was conceived using reel-to-reel tape recordings and loops, microphones, pedals, and 8-track mixing.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Engrama |
LP |
Wiederveröffentlichung der lange vergriffenen fantastischen ersten 10" des finnischen Projekts & Drone Records-Artist, dazu ein langer Bonus-track aus dem Jahre 2000.
"This material is a re-release of their first 10" which originally came out on Kaos Kontrol in late 1999, limited to a mere 100 copies, and as this work certainly is one of their best we promptly decided to make it available again, this time with a long bonus track recorded in 2000. Undoubtedly calmer than the "Golyma" LP yet still intensive experimental industrial with post-electroacoustic undertones. Organically flowing drones and hypnotic, grinding loop sounds of vintage analog sound processing via old reel-to-reel tape recorders and treatments. Some even time-stopping moments included here. Limited this time to 270 copies in black sleeves with cut n' pasted front and back covers." [label info]
www.segerhuva.se
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Hegonon |
LP |
"Judging by the name of one of the two members of Mnem, Juri Kaprov, Mnem is Russian or from
the Ukraine. The other member calls himself 1W, so that's not really helpful. Sentimental is a label run by Edward Sol, who for his other enterprise Quasipop is usually forthcoming with information, but for whatever reasons not this other label, so it's all a bit mysterious and perhaps that’s the point of course. From Discogs I learned that at the core of Mnem's sound there are old reel-to-reel recorders and 'analogue gadgets'. The sound they arrive at it is best called 'old school industrial', with a strong influence of Maurizio Bianchi, or rather his Sacher Pelz moniker from before that.
Quite some disturbing sound, full of hissy distortion and the sound is pretty crumbled and loop based. It rotates and rots away; one could almost hear the magnetic particles falling of those old tapes. The analogue gadgets might be a bunch of monotron synthesizers, the slowed down
percussive sounds from some pots (the reel-to-reel is particularly useful for slowing down sounds) and all of this comes in a loop based way. Mnem add a bit of sound effects along the way, just like MB did, creating dense clouds of sounds from the nuclear fall-out zone. It is by all means an old sound, but not something I for one hear a lot these days (perhaps not keeping up with all the M.B. re-issues), so I quite enjoyed this crude set of pieces; all six of them. And just like them oldie days it comes with a mysterious cover collage, but no concentration camps or pornography this time, so
we've moved forward by now in that department." (FdW/Vital Weekly) |
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| MNORTHAM (=MICHAEL NORTHAM) |
Automnal 2003 |
CD |
Selbstironisch zählt Aural-Nomade MICHAEL NORTHAM in den credits auf, an welchen 13 Orten er von August 2001 bis Herbst 2003 sein Studio betrieb & wohnte (darunter Wien, Grenoble, Indianapolis, Montreal, London, Aachen..). Die drei Stücke auf AUTOMNAL 2003 sind von drei verschiedenen Orten während dieser ‘Tour’ des Sound-Globetrotters par excellence. Zu hören sind ....
....wunderbar feine Licht-Drones, immer auf der Kippe zur Übersteuerung, in denen sich sowas wie Klang-Inseln bilden, die sich gegenseitig umtänzeln & durchdringen...
.... sehr volle & dunkel-dichte Klangnebel, in die sich leise Naturgeräusche mischen & andere kurz auftretende Klangobjekte als Kontrast
.... sehr sanfte Sphärendrones, hauchzarte Streichelklänge, die Resonanzen zu atmen scheinen...
Fazit: Meisterhafte field-recording drones, unsere wärmste Empfehlung!
"Highly indicative of the nomadic life that international sound artist Michael Northam has come to know over the past 5 or so years, this release represents a sonic recollection of his life dispersed across a vast geography, pinpointing three specific locations and moments from his long journey:
- Glacier du Trient, Switzerland / France
- Eagle Creek, Indianapolis
- Ils Grosbois, Montreal
At times, this hypnotic release presents meditative, invigorating, and eerie translations of places and experiences in ways that only Northam can poetically convey.
Originally dispersed among friends in 2003, as a limited edition "spontaneous document" CDR, this work is now re-issued on CD so it can finally be enjoyed by more people. And deservedly so." [label description]
www.and-oar.org
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Molecular knot phase one |
mCD |
Ein polyphoner Wahnsinns-Drone erfreut uns auf dieser wunderschön gestalteten und verpackten 5” mCD, ein wahres Meer aus Klängen verbirgt sich hierin..... am Ende scheint sich alles in hellem Licht & reinen Schwingungen aufzulösen......20 min one tracker... TIP !
'A massively layered sound work that evolved from a live percussive session with Seth Nehil on a variety of zithers and objects from 1999 at the Mizpah chapel, Portland, Oregon.' 'The inspiration to make the 'molecular knot phase' work comes from readings of Rupert Sheldrake. His example of protein molecular folding used to explain the possible existance of morphic fields was for me also fascinating possible explanation of how I consider the construction of my sound work.
This 'molecular' model pushed me to take on what I considered 'normal' musical morphologies and via my personal system of sound 'composting' arrive at a completely new sound where the overtly musical form vanishes into a deeply folded sonic space. For this 'phase' I have used percussive sources created by Seth and myself.' [label info / M.Northam]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| MNORTHAM / BRUME & TBC |
Steps towards the hairy night / Strandwasser Ozean Remix |
CD-R |
Nice release on the TBC-Label WACHSENDER PROZESS from Hamburg which comes with an archaic looking handmade papyros-paper artwork. MICHAEL NORTHAM has a long piece here mixing long drones with sounds from the Zion National Park. BRUME & TBC collaborate on different pieces and sound like being just under the surface of water, hissy and mushy... |
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| MODELBAU |
Four Squared Wheel |
CD |
"Modelbau is one of the many names Frans de Waard (Kapotte Muziek, Goem, Wieman, Freiband, etc) uses for his music. Moving Furniture Records is proud to release the first proper CD by this project after many tape releases and a couple of CD-R’s.
Frans de Waard in his own words about Four Squared Wheel: Somewhere in 2012 I had the idea that it was time for that all needed change, having played around with laptops for a decade or so. Actually it was something that was in the air for some time, as I already used cassettes in my work with Kapotte Muziek and in some of my solo concerts. With Modelbau (and yes, that is a deliberate misspelling of the word) I set a few parameters, such as using many cassettes, small synthesizers, little to no laptop and recorded as much ‘live’ as possible, plus to do only digital releases. Some of that still goes, but the digital releases only went out of the window pretty quickly. In 2012 I played a concert as Modelbau, carefully planned into a fifteen-minute composition and released the first (digital) album. Other work came along and I didn’t do much again as Modelbau, until in June 2014 I got various offers for solo concerts and while preparing those, I had a bunch of material recorded, which was released by various labels on cassette (Barreuh Records, Lichtung). During one of these rehearsal/recording sessions I picked up some guitar effect, which was in my way and thought it would be good to use that also in the set-up. Since then the palette seems to be complete; while preparing for concerts I record everything and select pieces from that to be released, with little to no change, save for doing a better beginning or ending when needed. In that respect the almost one hour long ‘Four Squared Wheel’ is a bit of a different work. It wasn’t recorded as part of a rehearsal, but rather in a more elaborate set-up in my studio, using my Philicordia organ, a microphone, guitar amplifier, guitar effects, mixing various signals on the spot into this piece, while retaining that ‘live’ feeling. It has four distinct parts with considerable gaps of silence in between. They are intended to stay as such. ‘Four Squared Wheel’ is the most drone based/ambient recording by Modelbau to date, and not something that would be easily re-created in a live situation." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MODELL, ROD & MICHAEL MANTRA |
Radio Fore |
CD |
"The long awawited reissue of this classic album originally released by AMPLEXUS in 2003. Sold out for years, finally you have the choice to hear these fabolous "suspended-sounds" from two masters of ambient music. Published in jewel box with totally restored artwork. A must!!!" [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| MODERN WITCH |
Babylon |
LP |
“Babylon” is the twin-LP to last year’s “Hollywood”, the second and last part of the MODERN WITCH retrospective on TuT/RuR.
The story of MODERN WITCH began 7 years ago in Denver, Colorado, when graphic artist Mario Zoots, singer Kristy Fenton and house veteran Kamran Khan started recording experimental music together on an old VHS camera. In the space of a few years, a couple of very limited tape and CD/R releases on labels such as Disaro and Clan Destine Records, and a series of spooky performances both in Europe and on the American continent, the trio has become a true underground reference for creepy, ritualistic dance music, in the muddy but oh so fascinating waters between Witchhouse and Minimal Synth. Drunk on 80s cold wave, bathed in suburbian occult decadence and haunted by dead celebrities, “Hollywood” and “Babylon” are a feast of thaumaturgic synth lines, nonchalant but captivating mpc 1000 – sequences, drugged-out spoken words and ghostly voices. American Angst or Minimal Doom electronics at their best!
www.tutrur.com/tutrur_html/tut026.html
|
2014 |
€9.00 |
|
| MOEBIUS |
Tonspuren |
LP |
"Fast ein Popalbum: das 1983er-Solodebüt des deutschen Elektronikers.
Seit 1969 gehört Dieter Moebius zur deutschen Elektronik-Avantgarde. Er bildete gemeinsam mit Hans-Joachim Roedelius das wegweisende Elektronik- und Ambientduo Cluster, war Teil der sogenannten Krautrock-Supergruppe Harmonia (mit Michael Rother) und arbeitete unter anderem mit Brian Eno und Mani Neumeier (Guru Guru). Es dauerte dennoch bis zum Jahr 1983, bis Moebius mit "Tonspuren" sein erstes Soloalbum herausbrachte. "Tonspuren" ist ein Album der Minimalismen, der Miniaturen und der strengen Form. Die zehn durchweg kurzen Stücke sind präzise konstruiert: Über minimalistischen rhythmisch-harmonischen Grundspuren entwickelt Moebius tonale Variationen, die manchmal sogar kurz davor sind, zu veritablen Melodien zu werden. "Tonspuren" ist fast ein Popalbum, denn die radikal abgespeckten Stücke sind angefüllt mit harmonischen Elementen gängiger populärer Musik. Der Begleittext stammt von Asmus Tietchens." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| MOEBIUS & TIETCHENS |
same |
LP |
"Erste Kooperation der beiden Elektronik-Avantgardisten seit 1976: Mit Asmus Tietchens und Dieter Moebius haben zwei Künstler zusammengefunden, die zu den ganz Großen der deutschen Avantgarde-Elektronikmusik gehören. Beide sind seit den 70er- Jahren dabei, Moebius als Mitglied von Kluster/Cluster und Harmonia sowie solo und in zahlreichen Kollaborationen (u. a. Brian Eno, Mani Neumeier); Tietchens fast ausschließlich als Solokünstler, anfangs in den Bereichen elektronischer und konkreter Musik, später dann vornehmlich im Gebiet der abstrakten Geräuschmusik. Das vorliegende Album ist ihre erste Kooperation seit 1976. Mit ihm lösen Moebius und Tietchens ein Versprechen ein, das sie sich vor 35 Jahren gaben: "Wir müssen mal eine Platte zusammen machen." 13 Stücke transportiert das Album, 13 Ideen, wie sie heterogener kaum sein können. Kein Stück ähnelt dem anderen: Von der hingehauchten Skizze bis zu derb zupackender Rhythmik ist so gut wie alles zu hören, was die beiden Altmeister der E-Musik in ihren Arsenalen haben. So klingt zeitgenössische, neue Musik. Das Vinyl erscheint mit Download-Code. //
About the musicians: With Asmus Tietchens and Dieter Moebius, two artists counting among the greats of German avant-garde electronic music have come together. Both have been active for well over thirty years: Moebius (since 1970) as
a member of Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, as well as solo and in numerous collaborations (Brian Eno, Mani Neumeier, Conny Plank, Mayo Thompson and many more), and Tietchens (since 1976) almost exclusively as a solo artist, beginning in the fields of electronic music and musique concrète and later mainly in the realm of abstract music. “Moebius+Tietchens” is now their first collaboration in 35 years.
With this album, Dieter Moebius and Asmus Tietchens fulfill a promise that they made 35 years ago. That is, in 1976, when the five musicians of Liliental completed the recordings for their eponymous album (released 1978) and again scattered to the winds, Moebius called out to Tietchens from the already moving car: "We have to make a record together sometime." At least that is the report of an ear-witness. Whether or not it's true… In any case, both
decided in 2011 to record the album which is now to be released. Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia), since the early years of Cluster, has
neither lost his curiosity nor his eagerness for experimentation. On the contrary: He has downright cultivated them. Tietchens is not
only a true aficionado of the Cluster's music and friend of the duo, but has also released countless albums of electronic music and
musique concrète since the 1980's – like Cluster, initially on Sky Records – then later only in the field of industrial and abstract
music. Their album may come from out of the blue, but the large amount of overlap in the music of both artists made it a forgone
conclusion to finally make good on the aforementioned promise. Thirteen pieces carries the album. These are thirteen ideas that could hardly be heterogeneous – no two pieces are similar. Moebius and Tietchens show us what they are capable of together. From the rough sketch to densely gripping rhythms, one can clearly hear just what these two old masters of electronic music have in their arsenals. This is not a result of the routine that comes with so many years of experience, nor a thin portion of tired old recipes for success. Other than for a few faint echoes of a bygone era
(perhaps as a sentimental reminder), Moebius+Tietchens“ is an album that could only emerge from the here and now. It is contemporary, new music. Unfortunately, this time there was no ear-witness as Moebius and
Tietchens said goodbye after finishing these recordings. So we do not know if they made a new agreement similar to the one from 35
years ago. Let's hope so." [label info]
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
"Erste Kooperation der beiden Elektronik-Avantgardisten seit 1976: Mit Asmus Tietchens und Dieter Moebius haben zwei Künstler zusammengefunden, die zu den ganz Großen der deutschen Avantgarde-Elektronikmusik gehören. Beide sind seit den 70er- Jahren dabei, Moebius als Mitglied von Kluster/Cluster und Harmonia sowie solo und in zahlreichen Kollaborationen (u. a. Brian Eno, Mani Neumeier); Tietchens fast ausschließlich als Solokünstler, anfangs in den Bereichen elektronischer und konkreter Musik, später dann vornehmlich im Gebiet der abstrakten Geräuschmusik. Das vorliegende Album ist ihre erste Kooperation seit 1976. Mit ihm lösen Moebius und Tietchens ein Versprechen ein, das sie sich vor 35 Jahren gaben: "Wir müssen mal eine Platte zusammen machen." 13 Stücke transportiert das Album, 13 Ideen, wie sie heterogener kaum sein können. Kein Stück ähnelt dem anderen: Von der hingehauchten Skizze bis zu derb zupackender Rhythmik ist so gut wie alles zu hören, was die beiden Altmeister der E-Musik in ihren Arsenalen haben. So klingt zeitgenössische, neue Musik. Das Vinyl erscheint mit Download-Code. //
About the musicians: With Asmus Tietchens and Dieter Moebius, two artists counting among the greats of German avant-garde electronic music have come together. Both have been active for well over thirty years: Moebius (since 1970) as a member of Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, as well as solo and in numerous collaborations (Brian Eno, Mani Neumeier, Conny Plank, Mayo Thompson and many more), and Tietchens (since 1976) almost exclusively as a solo artist, beginning in the fields of electronic music and musique concrète and later mainly in the realm of abstract music. “Moebius+Tietchens” is now their first collaboration in 35 years. With this album, Dieter Moebius and Asmus Tietchens fulfill a promise that they made 35 years ago. That is, in 1976, when the five musicians of Liliental completed the recordings for their eponymous album (released 1978) and again scattered to the winds, Moebius called out to Tietchens from the already moving car: "We have to make a record together sometime." At least that is the report of an ear-witness. Whether or not it's true… In any case, both decided in 2011 to record the album which is now to be released. Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia), since the early years of Cluster, has neither lost his curiosity nor his eagerness for experimentation. On the contrary: He has downright cultivated them. Tietchens is not only a true aficionado of the Cluster's music and friend of the duo, but has also released countless albums of electronic music and musique concrète since the 1980's – like Cluster, initially on Sky Records – then later only in the field of industrial and abstract music. Their album may come from out of the blue, but the large amount of overlap in the music of both artists made it a forgone conclusion to finally make good on the aforementioned promise. Thirteen pieces carries the album. These are thirteen ideas that could hardly be heterogeneous – no two pieces are similar. Moebius and Tietchens show us what they are capable of together. From the rough sketch to densely gripping rhythms, one can clearly hear just what these two old masters of electronic music have in their arsenals. This is not a result of the routine that comes with so many years of experience, nor a thin portion of tired old recipes for success. Other than for a few faint echoes of a bygone era (perhaps as a sentimental reminder), Moebius+Tietchens“ is an album that could only emerge from the here and now. It is contemporary, new music. Unfortunately, this time there was no ear-witness as Moebius and Tietchens said goodbye after finishing these recordings. So we do not know if they made a new agreement similar to the one from 35 years ago. Let's hope so." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOHAMMAD (MMMD) |
Zo Rel Do |
LP |
"Zo Rèl Do is the first volume of a trilogy that explores the sounds of the geographical area between 34°N - 42°N & 19°E - 29°E. In this new adventure Mohammad further enrich their monolithic, resonant and deep-dark melodic sound with rhythmic shreds, seismic vibrations that echoes past and future rituals. Volume 2 entitled Lamnè Gastama and Volume 3 Segondè Saleco will be released later in 2014 - early 2015. Edition of 450 copies." [label info]
www.antifrost.gr
"Of the two releases by Mohammad, 'Zo Rel Do' was already released in spring and 'Lamne Gastama' was just released; both of these are part of a trilogy that explores the geographical area between 34 and 42 degrees North and 19 and 29 E, which, if I'm not mistaken is roughly the area of the Mediterranean Sea. Mohammad is a trio of Nikos Veliotis (cello), Coti K. (contrabass) and Ilios (oscillators), and they describe their music as 'chamber doom, religious, extremely dark, harrowing, monolithic, born in heaven, sonic rape, electrocution', a lot of their music deals with low frequencies and dark textures, but I think there are some important differences between both releases. 'Zo Rel Do' seems to me less 'heavy' than the 'Lamne Gastama' one. On the latter the two stringed instruments are played 'con furioso', 'tres fort', like it is a vicious animal that need attacking. In 'Tik Tromakton' the oscillators from Ilios start out and it seems one of the rare occasions we hear him. Maybe, yet I might be entirely mistaken, but with many of the subtle low frequencies Ilios uses in his music, it might be better to witness this in concert at an appropriate volume, which may be lost at home (unless you want some domestic disturbance). The four pieces on 'Lamne Gastama' seemed to be more intense than the ones of 'Zo Rel Do', and evoke a feeling of oppression. Maybe even a very odd take on doom metal I was thinking. Having said all of that, I don't think 'Zo Rel Do' is a more lightweight record, but it certainly reflects a different life in that geographical area I think. The seven pieces here are a bit shorter than on the other one, and while 'Grabe' and 'Kabilar Mace' are quite forceful, 'Urso Nesto' seems to be entirely build of field recordings and 'Marik' reaches for a more contemplative mood, or even a sense of mourning in 'Samarina'. Both are excellent releases and with humble apologies to my neighbours for playing this at a considerable volume in the last few days." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Lamnè Gastama - 34ºN-42ºN/19ºE-29ºE Study Vol.2 |
LP |
"Lamnè Gastama is the second volume of a trilogy that explores the sounds of the geographical area between 34°N - 42°N & 19°E - 29°E.
In this second volume Mohammad descend further down into the bowels of darkness unleashing sonic monoliths and Promethean melodies and rhythms. Lamnè Gastama, a veritable tour de force including Hapsía the first ever vocal track by the trio so far featuring Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ.
Segondè Saleco, the third volume and final catharsis is expected in spring 2015. Tirage limité de 450 copies." [label info]
www.antifrost.gr
"Of the two releases by Mohammad, 'Zo Rel Do' was already released in spring and 'Lamne Gastama' was just released; both of these are part of a trilogy that explores the geographical area between 34 and 42 degrees North and 19 and 29 E, which, if I'm not mistaken is roughly the area of the Mediterranean Sea. Mohammad is a trio of Nikos Veliotis (cello), Coti K. (contrabass) and Ilios (oscillators), and they describe their music as 'chamber doom, religious, extremely dark, harrowing, monolithic, born in heaven, sonic rape, electrocution', a lot of their music deals with low frequencies and dark textures, but I think there are some important differences between both releases. 'Zo Rel Do' seems to me less 'heavy' than the 'Lamne Gastama' one. On the latter the two stringed instruments are played 'con furioso', 'tres fort', like it is a vicious animal that need attacking. In 'Tik Tromakton' the oscillators from Ilios start out and it seems one of the rare occasions we hear him. Maybe, yet I might be entirely mistaken, but with many of the subtle low frequencies Ilios uses in his music, it might be better to witness this in concert at an appropriate volume, which may be lost at home (unless you want some domestic disturbance). The four pieces on 'Lamne Gastama' seemed to be more intense than the ones of 'Zo Rel Do', and evoke a feeling of oppression. Maybe even a very odd take on doom metal I was thinking. Having said all of that, I don't think 'Zo Rel Do' is a more lightweight record, but it certainly reflects a different life in that geographical area I think. The seven pieces here are a bit shorter than on the other one, and while 'Grabe' and 'Kabilar Mace' are quite forceful, 'Urso Nesto' seems to be entirely build of field recordings and 'Marik' reaches for a more contemplative mood, or even a sense of mourning in 'Samarina'. Both are excellent releases and with humble apologies to my neighbours for playing this at a considerable volume in the last few days." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Pèkisyon Funebri |
3 x 10inch BOX |
"Leaving behind their folk based trilogy, Mohammad return to their own original material. Heavy and concentrated, majestic and dark, ethereal and subtle, Pèkisyon Funebri marks a new era in Mohammad's existence, unfolding earthly murmurs and ghostly chants over their distinctive seismic diapasons. An exhilarating procession through highly charged sonic plateaus, from the burning core to the silent skies." [label info] www.antifrost.gr
"The PAN label's premier purveyors of “chamber doom” return with a new cycle for longtime alibis, Antifrost, following their acclaimed folk trilogy of LPs between 2014-15, and the still-resonating tones of Som Sakrifis (2013) for PAN.
If you’ve encountered any of the aforementioned, you will have a very good idea of what to hope for in the 3-part Pèkisyon Funebri; namely a majestic sense of struggle against the flattening feeling of despair and fatigue that haunts our times.
This is music which appears to carry the weight of the world on its shoulders whilst wielding a cello and bow in its heavy limbs, dredging the psyche for signs of life which are found and coaxed from their holes to emerge as churning low-end gestures who reinforce their dual resonant frequencies in slow, wide vortices aimed at centring and quaking your thorax.
Subterranean in their prostration but sidereal in hope against the frustrations that we can only imagine must be felt in Greece right now, Pèkisyon Funebri is a masterful reminder that even at the lowest ebbs there is solace and resilience to be found if one remains faithful to the search.
Huge recommendation." [Boomkat]
"Is “all-encompassing” a cop-out term? Greek trio MMMD, a.k.a. Mohammad, have been eating us alive since 2013’s Som Sakrifis, and as someone following underground music back then, reading various interpretations of its sonic power was enthralling because its uncompromising, sensory-depraving tones assured that our reflections came out of our own visceral reactions rather than out of our interactions with any sort of external text. Our own Birkut began his immersive review of Som Sakrifis with an image of being alone on an island off of Cambodia with nothing but a winking, far-off light for assurance. Som Sakrifis in this allegory was both enveloping darkness and faint, hopeful light. What, then, is Pèkisyon Funebri? And what kind of status quo does its long-form drones conjure? What kind of hope, if any, does it offer a listener?
MMMD’s music has always reminded me of Howard Shore’s scores for The Lord of the Rings films, and as such, my listening has always been guided by that association. For me, Som Sakrifis was heroic music, war music, music by which pastoral hobbits fought against evil wizards and abominable orcs and glowing eyeballs, when outcomes of such battles meant everything to every thing, big or small, dwarf or elf, human or tree. Its overwhelming oppressiveness brought me into a breaking world, vied over by many, but plagued by absolutes. With Pèkisyon Funebri, MMMD has signified a formic return after a brief cartographical break from its regularly scheduled programming. It’s a quiet return at first, as opener “Az álmok itt érnek véget (rész 1)” culls an open landscape, a place where blood has been shed by neighbors who have found themselves equal under a force more terrible than God. “Qoxra” follows, a tremor-inducing dirge for everything that has been lost since “Liberig Min.” What follows is as nerve-wracking as it is steadying, and while my complete ignorance of Greek language obscures my semiotic reading of Pèkisyon Funebri as a multi-movement piece, my feeling is that its slow, plodding drones are of great human import somehow.
Unlike its stylistic predecessor, Pèkisyon Funebri is broken down into many long form movements. There are hiccups here, moments of letting up that are later infiltrated by solid, unyielding sound. “Sorsa” is punctuated by muted pulses, for instance, offering real moments of reprieve from this conjured world’s constant gravity while amplifying more sinuous, time-defying stretches of obligatory crying out like on “Malproksime” and closer “Erdia Da.” Whereas Som Sakrifis felt like that riddle about what has four legs by morning, two by afternoon, and three by evening, Pèkisyon Funebri asks “What’s in my pockets?” Its massiveness, sustained by a bold confidence in potentially liberating non sequiturs, signals a subtle change in trajectory toward a shadowy asymptote; this may not be MMMD’s magnum opus, but its power is great and its cohesion as a work is palpable. And like Som Sakrifis, its reach is absolute. Uniquely, its staying power suggests that MMMD’s reach can transcend time, bridging a Middle Earth and a dying one.
A function of drone as a form is that it grabs and sustains our attention in its steadfastness. It slows us down. It directs our attention. It soundtracks our movements, placing new and unusual stresses on our actions in time. As an electroacoustic genre, its affectiveness relies on subjectivity, while its deliberateness is a sign that begs some kind of reflection. Is Pèkisyon Funebri all-encompassing then? I’m not sure. Its reaches in reality are relatively short as its audience is limited by dedication and access, but its potential, I think, is a unifying one, even if it unifies primarily by pressing down on everything equally. Much like Barry Lyndon’s Epilogue, Pèkisyon Funebri reminds us of our fundamental equality amidst violent inequity: “It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled. Good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor. They are all equal now.” So what do we do from here while we are alive? Well, as TMTer Mukqs once said, “Just sit and listen.” Let it all sink in. Let it make your bones shake. Let it change how you walk. Let it bring you down when you feel too proud. Let it pull you up when you feel too small. Let it be and let yourself be changed by its unrelenting resonance. If even for a moment, let it make you feel something so that you have proof of your own dignity when forces of evil threaten it. Let it play. And let it outlive its own dark cloud." [Jackson Scott, Tinymixtapes]
|
2016 |
€58.00 |
|
|
Segondè Saleco - 34ºN-42ºN/19ºE-29ºE Study Vol. 3 |
CD |
"Mohammad proudly present Segondè Saleco, the third and final installment of a trilogy that explores the sounds of the geographical area between 34° - 42° & 19° - 29°. Segondè Saleco is the final catharsis which signals a dramatic change of atmosphere in the trio's signature sound. It includes 'Sagaraki' featuring Erifili Giannakopoulou on vocals. The first and second volumes, Zo Rèl Do (Lp/Cd) and Lamnè Gastama (Lp/Cd) were released in spring and fall 2014 respectively.
Chamber doom, Sonic rape, Religious, Extremely Dark, Harrowing, Monolithic, Born in Heaven, Electrocution, The opposite of a nightmare: Words used to describe Mohammad's music. Mohammad produce their sound through custom made instruments, bringing together low frequencies, inter-modulations, dark textures, and distant folk nuances. Mohammad are Nikos Veliotis, Coti k & ILIOS. They operate as Mohammad since 2009." [label info]
www.antifrost.gr
|
2015 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Lamnè Gastama - 34ºN-42ºN/19ºE-29ºE Study Vol.2 |
CD |
"Lamnè Gastama is the second volume of a trilogy that explores the sounds of the geographical area between 34°N - 42°N & 19°E - 29°E.
In this second volume Mohammad descend further down into the bowels of darkness unleashing sonic monoliths and Promethean melodies and rhythms. Lamnè Gastama, a veritable tour de force including Hapsía the first ever vocal track by the trio so far featuring Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ." [label info]
www.antifrost.gr
|
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
| MOHANNA, NICKOLAS |
Phase Line |
CD |
"Commissioned for the sound exhibition FOAM, this piece oscillates through a variety of media saturated sources. From electronic billboards, kiosk stations and traffic control devices, these sharp reductions are knotted into sculptural arpeggiation, to stretch the mood and spatial impressions. Within this sonic territory, the shifting range of layers solidifies the piece, manifesting a vivid panoramic sensibility. In juxtaposing these concrete sounds, the piece sections into a detailed expanse with a rough interplay of rhythmic and yet muted fractal designs. These two tracks continue to show the working palette of Mohanna, relying on the intersection of deconstructed found sound and hypnotic processing. Also working as a visual artist, producing drawings and videos as accompaniments to sound pieces, Mohanna continues to draw upon the chance interactions within city environments as the source material for his textured forms. The recording was exhibited at a number of spaces which included: Wysing Arts Centre, Project Number Gallery, ANDOR. Limited edition of 200 copies in a full color custom gatefold." [label info]
www.runoffeditions.com
"Following another lengthy gap, here's a new work by Nickolas Mohanna. The previous work we'd reviewed was 'Parallax View' (see Vital Weekly 873) and looking at his discography there was only a cassette in between that release and this new one. His CV shows continuous activity, mainly in galleries in Japan, France, UK and the USA. The two pieces here were commissioned for the sound exhibition 'Foam' and 'this piece oscillates through a variety of media saturated sources. From electronic billboards, kiosk stations and traffic control devices, these sharp reductions are knotted into sculptural arpeggiation, to stretch the mood and spatial impressions'. There's more text, which I won't quote in full, but it seems to me that much of this was recorded using Mohanna's modular synthesizer set-up, but unlike 'Parallax View' the two pieces here, total length just under thirty-four minutes, seem to be less cosmic/krauty/space-like, but perhaps all a bit more experimental and less easy to access
.
The other day I was playing a whole bunch of old Conrad Schnitzler records and I recognize his 'non-keyboard synthesizer' work in the two pieces by Mohanna. Lots of knob fiddling in order to create dense patterns of synthesizer sounds. I am not sure if these synthesizer sounds are being triggered by any kind of external sources, but me thinks it is. Maybe (or perhaps most likely?) the busy sounds of the big city? It's hard to say what it is actually, but it's perhaps not really necessary to know either; it's a great work of busy electronic systems, buzzing around like bees. Like big city traffic." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOHR (aka MØHR) |
Eine Form abstrakter Eleganz |
CD-R |
"The master of power loops strikes with his first CD-R release. On this showcase you will find some of the finest examples of structured power electronics. Esplendor Geometrico on valium.
(250 copies)" [label info]
www.vuzrecords.de
|
1999 |
€9.00 |
|
| MOLASSES |
Trouble at Jinx Hotel |
CD |
" 'Trouble at Jinx Hotel' is the fourth album from sprawling Montréal ensemble, Molasses. This inspired example of the group's utterly original music displays the raw, world-weary voice of old Americana, the abandon of improvisation and experiment, the spiritually-charged atmosphere of church music, and the adventure of the avant-garde... all swirling around the musings of singer-songwriter Scott Chernoff." [label info]
www.alien8recordings.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE |
lode lvx (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
" Hinter MOLJEBKA PVLSE steckt Mathias Josefson in Stockholm. Lodelvx (DR-91, 7“ EP, schwarzes Vinyl) mischt dröhnende mit klackernden und dongenden Klängen zu ‚atmenden‘ Schwingungen. Mein Traumauge sieht bei ‚lode‘ die sonore Welle als sich in Zeitlupe windenden Körper und die perkussiven Tupfen als Zeichnungen im Schuppenkleid einer Riesenschlange. ‚lvx‘ summt sich einfach nur selbst, eine Noir-Schönheit, die sich auf schwarzem Samt räkelt." [Bad Alchemy]
"For some years now Stockholm based artist MATHIAS JOSEFSON has delighted the drone scene with his highly minimal excursions into drone territory. From harsh noise to soft & gentle ambience
the aim is to reach a basic level of sound conscience. In doing so the "human mind" and the "sound mind" interact to build a symbiotic entity. MOLJEBKA PVLSE is Josefson’s sound art project where he often collaborates with KARIN JACOBSON. The two pieces "lode" and "lvx" are great examples of breathing drone structures which seem to be derived from real string or wind instruments.
Harmonic & mysterious, dense & aspiring.... this is indeed music like a lode of illuminations...
Filed under: BREATHING DRONES
more info: www.moljebka.com
BLACK VINYL, BLACK SILKSCREENED BLACK COVER, WITH EXTRA EMBOSSED WHITE INLAY" [label info]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Fall in Woodland Cemetery |
mCD-R |
"With his first works released on well-known labels like cold meat industry, eibon records or fin de siècle media, mathias josefson's moljebka pvlse has fastly gained a strong reputation in the dark ambient/industrial world. including more & more field recordings in his sound, josefson soon departed from his typicial "swedish roots" to more droney sounds like his more recent productions on mystery sea, gears of sand, drone records or this very 3". minimal yet captivating droney field recordings!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Zojo |
CD |
"The Moljebka Pvlse album Zojo was recorded during the Mathias studies at the Royal Institute of Art. He was inspired by the longest night of the year in Stockholm, the day when there is almost no daylight. His ambition was to make an acoustic album of minimal music without any musical instruments. Moljebka Pvlse setup long nylon strings across his entire studio at school, which he then plucked and bowed and recorded with his favorite contact microphones on that very night. These recordings became the fundament of the album and set the tone for the rest of the work. Moljebka Pvlse are very grateful for the contribution by the Japanese artist Michiko Kashiba on this album." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
"Three long pieces on Mathias Josefson's album 'Zojo', which he released under his moniker Moljekba Pvlse. Its been quiet from my end of the telescope for Josefson in recent years, but its good to hear his music again. Not that there is much change, I must admit, as Moljekba Pvlse still does what he does best: creating drone like music, based on metal sheets, with contact microphones and played with bowes. Perhaps the sound was enhanced with the use of electronics, but I am not entirely sure. The odd, new, element thrown in now is the use of voice (by Michiko Kashiba), which adds some wordless singing to the music. The sounds ring in the world of overtones, and it all happens in a rather gentle manner, which sometimes goes a bit up the scale, such as in 'Daylight', when it all sounds a bit like a violin played inside the motor of an airplane. Maybe all three pieces are a bit too long, and could have been say five minutes per piece shorter. But throughout however a very refined album of
textured drone music. For those who like Organum, I'd say." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
A Transformation |
CD-R |
"Longtimer drone act Moljebka Pvlse, mainly headed by sound artist Mathias Josefson (Skare, Negru Pvlse), found himself travelling to Israel in 2008 to perform and to scavenge for sounds in the field with co-worker Karin Widin. On A Tranformation the collection from that travel has been thoroughly examined, dismantled and restructured together with freshly added material that has transcended it's older form to a new being finalized.
The physical edition comes in two professionally made versions. One in 6-panel digipack (limited to 100 copies) and the other in 4-panel DVD digipack (limited to 50 copies).
Recorded east of a concrete sea by Mathias Josefson and Karin Widin.
Reconstructed, produced and mastered by Mathias Josefson at Eleventh Planet." [label info]
reversealignment.bandcamp.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE & HOROLOGIUM |
Kaukasus |
CD |
Die Kaukasus-Region dient auf dieser Zusammenarbeit des schwedischen Projekts MOLJEBKA PVLSE mit den uns bisher unbekannten HOROLOGIUM als inhaltliche Inspirationsquelle.
Trancige Mantra-Drones, hypnotische perkussionsartige Strukturen, überwiegend sehr dronig-rauschig-minimalistisch, spirituelle Atmo. SEHR schöne Verpackung: Gefaltete / Bedruckte Papphülle in Leinen, mit Siegellack verschlossen. [Drone Rec info 2006]
“The highest mountains in Europe have been a place of constant national conflicts ever since. 'Kaukasus' by Moljebka Pvlse and Horologium is an album devoted to this magical and spellbound region, known for its natural beauty and cultural variety. 45 minutes of experimental ambient music on a limited to 555 copies CD edition, which as always comes in a splendid packaging: 260 x 360 cm poster folded in two (13 x 18 cm). A linen clothing is added for your aesthetical pleasure.“ [label info]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE / SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING |
Ravha / Electricity Gardens |
CD |
Split & Collaboration vom beliebten schwedischen "Experimental Drone"-Projekt mit den uns bisher unbekannten 17 MIGS OF SPRING aus Tel Aviv. Eröffnet wird das Album durch ein sehr langes, ungewöhnliches Stück von M.P. mit vielen eher konkreten field recordings, welches wieder dessen grosse Variabilität aufzeigt; es folgen ein echtes Collaboration-Stück beider Projekte und 5 Stücke von 17 MIGS OF SPRING, die sich zwischen dunklem drone-ambient und aggressiven Analog-Industrial bewegen.
"It is not every day you find reviews of albums released by Israeli labels in Vital Weekly. Topheth Prophet is an independent Israeli label formed in summer 2002 whose aim is to spread the knowledge of the Israeli noise scene to the outside world. The label focuses on styles ranging from harsh noise across power electronics to dark ambient. This 13th release from the label deals with drone-based ambient music. On this particular release one of the presented projects has its origin in Sweden. It is a split album between Israeli project SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING and Swedish project MOLJEBKA PULSE. The album opens with the 27 minute long track titled "Ravha" from the latter mentioned project. The brain behind Moljebka Pvlse is the Swedish sound artist Mathias Josefson who explores the sounds of both acoustic and electronic origins, quite often with the starting point taken in found sounds and field recordings. The "Ravha"-track is a nice example of Mr. Josefson's ability to transform the sounds of reality into a world of drone-based minimalism. Opening with a mixture of concrete natural sounds and buzzing drones the expression slowly turns more and more harsh as the field recordings develops into noisy drones including spoken words. At a point the concrete sounds fades away or turns into sonic abstraction. The track moves into pure drone ambient minimalism. Nice work.
Seventeen Migs Of Spring is an Israeli project consisting of three members, Gurfa, K-76 and B-74. As was the case with aforementioned Swedish project the conceptual approach of this Israeli project is sonic drones based on concrete sounds. Compared to the Swedish project the Israeli projects goes further to the extremes with sounds of a rather noisy kind. Especially four or the five tracks get quite harsh with the use of an on-going mixture of static noise and radio-based shortwave frequencies. Inbetween the two projects comes a collaborative track that successfully combines the style of the two projects. Everyone interested in drone based ambient with focus on concrete sounds should definitely check out this album. " [NM, Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.tophet.org
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| MOLLUSK |
Aeon Synapses Connect |
CD-R |
"Mollusk is a project from sound artist Per Åhlund, known from previous releases on Reverse Alignment (with Skare and Kahl) and Johan Boberg, musician and composer that has been working with varied forms of approaches towards music. Schooled by Stockhausen and Coltrane, Johan has been part of the electronic music scene since the '90s and has, just like Per, become a very much active part of EMS and Fylkingen in Stockholm.
During 2016, Reverse Alignment release a series of three Mollusk albums where "Aeon Synapses Connect" is the first, followed by "Astral Mechanics" (June) and "The Cloud Expedition" (September).
With Mollusk the duo create "modular soundscapes resonating within the organic machinery feedback"." [label info]
reversealignment.bandcamp.com
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Astral Mechanics |
CD-R |
"After releasing "Aeon Synapses Connect", Mollusk (Per Åhlund and Johan Boberg) now enter it's second episode in their three-part series.
This time the listener will discover a more contemplating side of the project, appealing more to a wider audience with a touch of ambient soundscape.
Where "Aeon Synapses Connect" were an outburst of experimentalism, "Astral Mechanics" has a more soothing character and a drifting feel.
Following "Astral Mechanics", Reverse Alignment releases the last part of the Mollusk trilogy,"The Cloud Expedition", in October.
"Modular soundscapes resonating within the organic machinery feedback".
Professionally made CDr w/4-panel digipack in a limited edition of 100 copies." [label info]
ralignment.tictail.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Cloud Expedition |
CD-R |
"After two albums from Johan Boberg and Per Åhlund on Reverse Alignment this year we now release Mollusk finale: "The Cloud Expedition".
Beginning with the superexperimental meltdown "Aeon Synapses Connect" Johan and Per took the step into the domains of hyperyoga and touched upon the feets of deities in "Astral Mechanics".
"The Cloud Expedition" takes off where "Astral Mechanics" ended. New experimental sounds in the genre of classical ambient unravels together with Mollusk skills in glitch and click. This sometimes reminds of the "Opto files" conducted by Alva Noto and Opiate, sometimes calling for an undefinied position among genres. With Mollusk sonic treaments you're always up for a nice suprise.
"Modular soundscapes resonating within the organic machinery feedback". [label info]
ralignment.tictail.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MOLOCH |
Die Isolation |
CD |
"A new opus comes from the woods of Carpathia. It is a despairing portrayal of the souls that are lost in the winter woods. Hypnotic sounds, like a thousand blades in a dance of a winter blizzard, leaving thousands of cuts digging into the body. Heart-rending screams of freezing flesh, summoning death, dissolving within echoes on the mountains. This album delivers cold, misanthropic and desolate mid-tempo, Nordic-influenced Black Metal, alongside melancholic Dark Ambient tracks. Crunchy distorted guitar minimalism, primal thrashing beats, and an overall raw necroish execution are reinforced by howling, tortured, grim vocals that recall the old Burzum era.
For fans of Burzum, Striborg, Xasthur, Trist, Darkthrone." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| MOMMUR CHASMA |
Parelspanner |
CD |
A new promising ambient-project from Amsterdam / The Netherlands rising from the ashes of drone-band INDRA KARMUKA is MOMMUR CHASMA, doing a kind of obscure ambient-electronics where analogue drones and bizarre collageous samples meet, somewhere between NURSE WITH WOUND and VANCE ORCHESTRA maybe.. worth to check out !
“The Dutch group Mommur Chasma is a group that creates sounds based on improvisation and itself-creating structures. Using synthesizers, microphones, all kind of electronica and environmental sounds they create a sometimes dreamy, sometimes estranging atmosphere in which the sounds and rhythms lead their own existence. The music varies from low drones to more clearly noisy soundstructures. It's two members played before in Indra Karmuka.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| MONOCUBE |
Vibramina Maeroris |
CD-R |
"Solemn drone ambient unleashing into drone noise. Depressive feedbacks, hollow rumbles and exhausting hi frequencies, cold and twilight. Sleeve." [label info]
www.operatorprod.narod.ru
|
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
The Rituals |
CD |
"Following a recent appearance on Drone Mind Vol 5, Ukrainian act Monocube makes his way into the halls of Malignant for his second, full length recording, featuring nine tracks and just over an hour worth of material ensconced in shadowy, enveloping atmospheres, intact with all the hallmarks of classic dark ambient: arcing, cinematic textures, elegiac melody, and timestretched drift. As The Rituals progresses, it becomes increasingly populated by something even more ominous and bleak; undertones of ancient tribalism and fiery invocations arise, mixed with the blackened soot of distant factory churn and the burning remnants of an ashen wasteland. Featuring collaborative tracks with Treha Sektori, Apocryphos, and Asmorod, The Rituals is an immersive and compelling work, seamlessly bound together in an embrace of darkness.
Tracklisting: Visiones III, Drowned Sun, Downwards (feat. Apocryphos), Totem Incantation, Fires Shifting - Nocturnal Motion, Through Our Blood, Father Fenris, Anthracite Glow (feat. Treha Sektori), Initiation (feat. Asmorod)." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
"Imagine a deep void, devoid of light, black to its very core, soundless, airless, empty and infinite. There’s no beginning or end, no past or future. The terms of time and space are so irrelevant here. A void that sucks you like a vacuum, and you can’t tell if that body of yours is still solid, or if you’re broken into atoms and only your consciousness remains as something that can still be described with actual words. Or perhaps even this doesn’t exist anymore.
What a cliché, huh. How many times have we dealt with such visions in the dark ambient genre. Mr Lustmord, Sir, you made a mess in many (well, ok, not so many) people’s minds and now your sons, and sons of their sons, generation after generation, paint these same visions. Very slightly changed over the years, sometimes more concrete, more cinematic, sometimes more abstract. In one occasion the music may be more melodic, while in another it may take a more droney direction. Noises, harmonies, ritual, oriental, glacial moods, it may all vary but the foundation is more or less always the same. The dark ambient community doesn’t mind being fed with more of the same though. At least I don’t. I don’t look for innovations anymore, I don’t need anything groundbreaking – that expectation ended about ten years ago. Now I just look for an atmosphere that will speak to me. For a mixture where all the ingredients are served in perfect proportions.
The reason why I write all this, is because Andrzej Gładuszewski of the Ukrainian project Monocube managed to reach a perfect balance, at least to my taste. The album doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes I wonder if there are any dark ambient artists who still believe that they can create something truly “new”, something that in a few years from now will be considered a milestone. Guess not so many. This concerns most musical genres anyway. Only for dark ambient musicians things are even harder, because, contrary to pop, rock, or even neofolk if we consider the subject on a more underground level, the dark ambent genre from its definition is devoid of so-called “catchiness”. Of course I’m speaking in generalisations, because sometimes you may stumble upon a catchy ambient tune or theme. Yet even if that is the case, only us, the fans of the genre, may consider it so. For the majority of the listeners it’s still music that’s difficult to digest. By all means, I don’t mean to say that Andrzej is not an ambitious guy. I guess that his efforts are focused on something else: on capturing that very core that not many have managed to capture before. I feel like this core becomes smaller and smaller with every passing year, but he managed to reach it. Hit it like a world champion in archery or something.
It’s all because of the sound, which is of the highest quality, the feeling that Andrzej obviously has in his heart, his understanding of the genre and the potential receivers of this music. He knows exactly how to avoid boredom or irritation. The tracks differ from one another, each tells its own story and it doesn’t take much time for the listener to distinguish between them. You want some delicate darkness based on guitar sounds of a distant post-rock provenance? You got it in “Visiones III”. Deep and anxious bass drones, but still without bursting with horror? “Downwards” (composed with Apocryphos). While in “Totem Incantation” you’re dealing with strange noises, whistles and murmurs. Its chaotic, ritual character makes me think of the Aural Hypnox label, especially since my ears tell me that it was composed using solely physical objects, including the human voice. “Through Our Blood” introduces acoustic guitar and the exceptionaly eerie “Father Fenris” brings forth a crawling dread straight from the centre of the Earth. The main dish we find at the very end however. “Initiation” was made in collaboration with Asmorod, and Nicolas’ presence is very significant here. These solemn synth melodies are so specific they can’t be mistaken for anything else. After all, Asmorod is responsible for “Hysope”, one of my favourite ambient albums ever and… well, possibly the last “milestone” I was discussing above.
This mélange doesn’t seem as if made solely to put all the artist’s ideas and dark ambient influences into one recording. It forms a story, where each track is another chapter. Or it’s like different views of the same idea. Andrzej captured the essence of the genre and was able to carve in it in a very creative way, so a big applause from me for that. And “The Rituals” is a big step forward when compared to the previous “Blue Dusk /// Red Dawn”. At the moment it’s one of the best dark ambient albums of 2017." [Santa Sangre]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| MONOPIUM |
The Goat & the Dead Horses Circus |
CD |
" ”The Goat & Dead Horses' Circus” is a new child for MONOPIUM. After a great debut album “Mesmerized.” The surrealist titles hint at the fact that the album is filled with abstract music and slightly degenerated, out of this world sounds. Twelve compositions introduce the listener to the world of magical fairytales. Welcoming you to an adventure based on a soundtrack of deranged improvisations; experiments with cut-ups and exotica. The tracks have been graced by guest appearances by two extraordinary artists: Euski (ROMA AMOR) and EmmA WyrD (CHRONIQUE NOCTURNE) The cover was designed by Robert Schalinski (of Column One fame)." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Michal Majcher is the man behind Monopium (great name I thought). Active since 2007, he released his first album, "Mesmerized' on Beast Of Prey in 2009. I don't think I heard that one. The music here on 'The Goat And The Dead Horses' Circus' is easily classified as 'odd'. Zoharum describes this "neo-cabaret, post-industrial electronics, musique concrete, drone and even free jazz, it draws associations with incidental musics for film noir, surrealist cinema and the dadaists" and I couldn't agree more. Not something I necessarily like throughout, I must admit, as it carries some traces of gothic, pathetic undercurrent here and there, the sort of adult stuff about fairytales, but because it sounds quite different from what is usually on our plates, but still could easily be classified as 'experimental' by our own standards, this is certainly something I played with a lot of interest. It's quite heavy on the percussion side of things, but also have tape manipulation, cello, voices and maybe field recordings - more water sounds here. A hotch-potch of instruments, and such perhaps of styles (although of course that's not necessarily per se), this makes up indeed a curious CD, of all those things mentioned, and to which one could also add perhaps ambient and plunderphonics. Nice one for its daringly, different content." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| MONOS (DARREN TATE & COLIN POTTER) |
Window |
CD-R |
Unser bisheriger Favorit von MONOS ist diese CDR namens WINDOW – das Fenster zu unbewußten Phantasien? Sehr tagträumerische field recordings mit viel viel Hall, endloser Space umfängt Dich... zwei lange Stücke.
Our favourite MONOS-release so far, the window to unconscious phantasies? Very daydreamy field recordings with much much reverb, totally lost in space.. two long pieces named “THAT DREAM” and “ALONE”.
label: www.icrdistribution.com
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Above the Sky |
CD |
"Finally the ‘new’ album from Monos sees the light of day. Spanning a period of almost four years and involving their one and only public performance, the trio of Darren Tate, Colin Potter and Paul Bradley finally agree that everything is where it should be and the CD is released. Two long contrasting tracks; the familiar and unfamiliar, the context changed, the final result very different, yet at the same time completely natural and cohesive." [label info]
www.icrdistribution.com
"Over the past few years, Darren Tate has been wandering into
some wildly weird electronics, broadening the scope of his aesthetic
beyond the seminal recordings he made with Andrew Chalk (amongst
others) as Ora, and more recently through Monos. For the most part,
Monos has been a collaborative project between Tate and Nurse With
Wound engineer extrordinaire Colin Potter, but at other times, we're
pretty sure that Tate is the only one behind the wheel. For Above The
Sky, the Monos line-up includes Tate, Potter, and fellow British
dronescraper Paul Bradley; and this record is a top notch, vintage
sounding Monos disc for sure.
The extended pieces found on this album were culled from the
one and only live Monos gig in 2006, the handful of recordings from
that gig were processed, recreated, forgotten about, rediscovered, and
processed again throughout various starts and stops over the next four
years. The resulting album is surprisingly coherent, presenting itself
as a sinewy mass of undulating drones dappled with various textures,
shadowy events, field recordings, subtle instrumentation, and then
some. The ghostly ambience that introduces this album is sublimely
beautiful, like the druggy drones of Nurse With Wound (e.g. Soliloquy
For Lilith) or the permafrost laden expanses of Thomas Koner or even a
darker version of Leyland Kirby's much-lauded hauntological ambience.
Distant sound elements of scraped metal echo to the foreground, as the
latent sounds from some occluded ritual in some forgotten place.
Shimmering acoustic clouds of resonance peel away into field
recordings of numerous birds flitting about. Later on, semi-melodic
phrases hover near the event horizon dominated by ominous electrical
vibrations and dilated drone fields. Seriously, this is fantastic stuff!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Age and Transformation |
do-CD |
"To say that this has been planned for some time would be a bit of an understatement. The original Age and Transformation was released by Darren Tate in 2004 on his own Fungal imprint (and issued again in 2005). Both were released as CDRs in editions of 100 copies. Around 2006 the subject of doing a reissue was discussed, and discussed/planned/discussed, and now 6 (six!) years later Age and Transformation with an exquisite Colin Potter remaster along with an entirely new piece, Aged and Transformed remixed from the original is just about here. Darren's work has always been that of a drone eccentric, and proof positive of that is the micro-editions released since 2003 on his own Fungal Records. True modern-day psychedelia, drawn out drone excursions, electric guitar scraping and expansion, synth noodling harbored into small private recordings for the chosen few. The limited number of those exposed to Darren's view, which was not intended to be exclusive, just small updates as to where/what was happening with Darren in terms of gear, mood and circumstance. There is an inherent feel that little editing takes place, just captured recordings with the reel-to-reel on. Tate has worked extensively with other collaborators: Andrew Chalk (together known as Ora), Colin Potter (as Monos), Paul Bradley, Andrew Liles, and Ian Holloway to name a few. Collectively a solid block foundation of great U.K. drone artists. In a collaborative setting, there may be a bit more judicious editing employed for better (or for worse) depending on where one sits in appreciation of refinement over improvisation. Which brings us to Age and Transformation. Two tracks, both around the half-hour mark and presumably recorded in one take each. The first track ('Untitled') contains all elements of what makes a Tate recording effective: gentle guitar scraping, echoed city recordings, air vibrations oscillating an overall nocturnal hush that shrouds the whole piece. The second track (again, simply 'Untitled') is undoubtedly one of Tate's finest solo moments. A defining impressionistic recording captured in the middle of the night. It opens with the sound of a freeway , a very distant light traffic flow filtered through the forest. A lonesome organ sonata, languid chords with silence in between weave in and out at various points throughout. Tate sitting by the window capturing the sounds of the freeway, voices, haunting arias both human and industrial. The second disc is a reworking by Colin Potter. Extracted from the quiet of Age and Transformation, the first track 'Aged' is an encapsulation of the entire recording with the small dervishes, organ melodies and drone wrapped up in an almost tidy nine minutes. The second, 'Transformed,' is over 40 minutes of water tower acoustic sustained tones, layered subtle guitar hum... a perfect complimentary refinement on a classic ambient improvisation." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Sunny Day in Saginomiya |
CD-R |
"Bearbeitete field recordings, die eine trancige, verwaschene Atmosphäre ausstrahlen, und ein konkreteres Stück mit vielen hellen Metall / Gong / Glas? –Klängen... neues Album basierend auf field recordings von D.SUZUKI vom englischen Kultprojekt." [old Drone Rec. info]
"A unique project from the group of Darren Tate and producer Colin Potter. This project features recordings by Daisuke Suzuki (Lost Shadow, Siren Records). One track is based on a field recording and the other on an improvisation with some small objects. The overall tone of the recordings evokes a much more urban sound landscape than on previous Monos releases, but Colin and Darren's careful mixing and embellishment on the records lends a surreal if not slightly sinister atmosphere to the proceedings." [Edition - label info]
"Sunny Day In Saginomiya is a Monos album that originally came out in 2001 on the American label Edition... (yes, the ellipsis is a part of the label's name) and it's been out of print for a very long time. Darren Tate of Monos has just reissued this as a super limited cd-r on his own Fungal imprint. Here's what we had to say about the album way back when:
Darren Tate has been releasing an impressive catalogue of tiny edition cd-rs by his project Monos, which began as a solo project although more recently he has partnered with Colin Potter (who had worked with Tate in the organic drone ensemble Ora). Working in Potter's ICR studios (which has not only produced likeminded work from Organum, Jonathan Coleclough, and Andrew Chalk, but also the Dadaist collages of Nurse With Wound), Monos applied thick patinas of reverb and electric synthesis to a set of field recordings provided by another occasional Ora contributor, Daisuke Suzuki. The first half of the album couples reverb saturated field recordings of birds with some eerie spectral guitar drone work from Darren Tate, recalling some of the early Main albums. The second half is far more Spartan as Monos works their magic on a Daisuke Suzuki recording of bells, gongs, and rattles occasionally marked by ascending delay patterns and gradually overcome by the analog electronics found on Nightfall Sunshine. Quite lovely." [Aquarius Rec]
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| MONTESSUIS, JOACHIM |
Chapel Perilous |
LP |
"After a prolific 2011 with a handful of splendid releases on CD, DVD and cassette + collaborations with the likes of Charlemagne Palestine, Julien Ottavi and The Master Musicians of Joujouka, “Chapel Perilous” marks the debut vinyl release and first proper solo album by the Paris based audio/visual artist and curator of the exquisite Erratum label. 23 tracks, totalling approx. 35 minutes, compiled from recordings made in the course of the past eight years, de- and recomposed for this album in early 2012. Drawing on his voice as the main tool, Montessuis delivers a frantic opus of cut-up noise poetry, making “Chapel Perilous” le chef d’œuvre of his extending body of work." [label info]
www.fragmentfactory.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| MONTGOMERY, GEN KEN |
Drilling Holes in the Wall |
CD |
"Archive materials from one of the most mysterious musicians in electronic underground, dating from 1988 to 1991. Each piece composed by Gen Ken Montgomery is the result of domestic alchemy, transforming some ugliest environmental sounds into artistic images
of impressive beauty. His instruments are just prepared toy synth, but also from time to time laminator, icebreaker, radiator, film projector and so on. These recordings were made in Conrad Schnizler studio in West Berlin, and also live on stage there, in time of Germany reunion.
Gen Ken Montgomery has been active in the experimental, electronic and noise scenes since the early 80s. Montgomery was the founder of Generations Unlimited and an original co-founder of Pogus Productions, respected experimental music labels. In 1989, he founded Generator, the first sound art gallery in New York City, where he created a home for sound artists and noise makers who were part of the thriving international cassette culture of the 80s. Since 1996 he has published recordings by sound artists in collaboration with Scott Konzelmann (Chop Shop) releasing them through Generator Sound Art." [label info]
"Gen Ken Montgomery’s ‘Drilling Holes in the Wall’ is less an ambient record than it is an opus among the work of an experimental sound artist – being two divergent concepts – the latter more among artists of the ilk of Daniel Menche, who choose to create using a circus of instrumentation to perform certain plays before moving on to not just new locale, but new tools for performance sculpting. This retrospective of work is a troupe of electronic pulses, glitches, groans, explosions, susurrations, and endless other sonic perturbations.
Suppurating at first, “Drilling Holes in the Wall” bloats with unhealthy ichors pressing the sores with throbbing ululations that are lanced with synaptic lacerations of noise, using sound to sonically cut and carve away tumorous flesh. Every digital strike is never the same with each collop dissected bringing new electronic whimpers unexpected; the infinitesimal filigree of surgical strikes of sound is like the marginalia of some robotic surgeon. Sound fuses, splatters, roars, and blazes contorted shapes in a linear-spatial sculpture. There is no empathy here, nothing to relate to human experience. Gen Ken Montgomery’s first track is more Opus No. 1, a matrix of half an hour of disassembly, reassembly and alien interdiction upon frequencies we recognise. It comes as great surprise to find the liner notes disclose a recording date of 1990 as it could easily sit in this milieu.
Two years prior to that and the next two tracks – the latter of which and its two succeeding ones being unreleased - divulge more montage of digitally modelled scintilla, though here in more unified form, if only by sinewy electrical strands of frazzled computer nightmares of the surreal kind. Unidentifiable and humanly unpronounceable vespers are strobed and shuffled to the pulpit for recitation but there is no quantifiable bourn to address, only to witness and wonder.
The last two tracks are the shortest but of the familiar distortive and displacing concurrence sound forms previously expressed. They scurry and quiver across the mottled surface of Gen Ken Montgomery’s odd musical conglomerate. The incision of human vocals in the last track is a bizarre feeding of radio station into tesla coils that seems a poor accompaniment to the unearthly welding going about it, and before it.
Nonetheless, if you enjoy chewed electronics unlike anything you have previously heard, Gen Ken Montgomery is for you." [Heathen Harvest]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Birds + Machines |
CD |
"With the enthusiasm of a born-again composer, I reviewed music I composed in the 80s, giving special attention to pieces that fused electronic sounds with everyday recorded sounds and noisy songs." - Gen Ken
I knew of Gen Ken Montgomery long before I ever met him, in fact one of the first tracks to attract me to his music is on this cd. And then I did meet him, etc etc. (Ken was a co-founder of Pogus, by the way). So it is with special delight that Pogus can release this cd of Ken's works from the 1980's.
I think that what Rene van Peer writes in his notes for this disc sums up much of Ken's work indeed:
Gen Ken Montgomery's sound worlds are full of activity. Not in the sense of sinuous melodies and chord progressions that try to set flea-hopping records. The sounds conjure up images and atmospheres of workshops where people busy themselves with assembling and repairing a variety of contraptions. Places where humans and tools intermingle, where technology (both hi and lo) appears as a trusted and respected companion. It is as much accepted as an integral part of the human sphere as a dog or a cat might be - and it sounds equally homely.
That is not to say that all sounds you'll hear in his music are commonplace, mundane. Many of them are immediately recognizable. Many of them can be traced to their source, even through dense veils of modification. Some derive clearly from instruments, some from birds. But many are absolutely singular, there's no telling what produced them. And to tell you the truth (my truth): it doesn't really matter. Regardless what sounds or sources form the components of this music (everyday or extraordinary objects; musical instruments or electronic tools; his own voice or environmental recordings), what is important is the mind that processes them and welds them together into the independent entities that we call songs.
It is evidently an open mind that enjoys toying with sounds. His music sounds as if he works with what he finds. Obviously he has prepared materials to be used. But the way he puts everything together makes the impression of someone following his judgment of the situation on the spot. These are not guided tours, mapped out beforehand. These songs are explorations. Trips into an unknown. They aren't, however, excursions done in seclusion. Everywhere he goes Ken Montgomery creates a buzz. He creates a sphere of sound around him that feels humane, sociable. A warm cloud of sonic strangeness. But a loud cloud, too, mind you." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"Although never really 'away' from the scene, Gen Ken Montgomery's career has been up and off the radar quite a bit, but these days he feels like a born again composer. He has been around since 1980 and recently reviewed the first decade of his career, and compiled this overview from these years and released it on Pogus, a label he was one of the founding fathers of (a fact I was unaware of). Heavily under the influence of electronic music, from all sorts of directions.
From industrial music to Conrad Schnitzler and
the serious sixties avant-garde, but also working, early, with field recordings (bird sounds return in various pieces). This collection spans all of these interests and makes up a highly varied disc of experimental, electronic music. The free spirit of these pieces, mostly made through improvisation with synthesizers, electric violin, found sounds, is partly crude, inherent to the period it was recorded I guess, is great. Not every track is great, 'Crema Di Roma' just gets on and on a bit too much for my liking, but there is enough great music here in this package to enjoy. If you missed out his own early tapes and records, and 80s styled electronic music was just discovered, then this is a must have. All others already made a note to fill in the gap in history." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Postcards 1981-1986 |
do-LP |
Gen Ken Montgomery, a New York-based Visual Artist and Sound Composer is absolutely genuine; he has no training in traditional music or art. He was never a follower of any direction or school. Instead he founded his own school of off-beat DIY-electronics, driven by irresistible curiosity and ingenuous enthusiasm for sound experimentation and process-oriented performance.
His music is dense and full of polyrhythms and counter harmonies with singular control over layers of randomly pulsing, bleeping synthesizers and drum boxes. As a composer in the early eighties Ken was creating multi-channel sound works often performed in total darkness.
He began his sound explorations with electronic toys, cheap synthesizers and household gadgetry for which he had a special fascination. His ever present objects of affection are electric machines including an ice crusher (ICEBREAKER), aquarium pump, refrigerator, shoe shine machine, hand massager and a laminator (The Sound of Lamination).
Postcards has 41 (!!) tracks; 22 tracks on LP 1 compiled from his first tape Gen Ken & Equipment (1981), his second tape Collaborations (1982), his third official tape Kalkreuth Keks (1986), recorded at Conrad Schnitzler’s Studio, and several live recordings under the name KMZ with Michael Zodorozny of Crash Course in Science. Postcards LP2 includes 19 songs from the 4th official tape Beatmusik 1981-84 (SoP186) released by Sound of Pig, New York, songs from 1984 on his 5th release Room to Roam on Out Of The Blue, Berlin, plus 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same time period, one also as KMZ.
Gen Ken & Equipment was self-produced in an edition of 150 tapes in 1981 and led Montgomery to corresponding and trading tapes in the international Cassette Culture and Mail Art network, leading to relationships and collaborations with such luminaries in the underground music scene as Conrad Schnitzler, Giancarlo Tonuitti, CHOP SHOP, David Lee Myers (Arcane Device), Al Margolis, John Hudak, Francisco Lopez, AMK, Istvan Kantor (Monty Cantsin), G.X. Jupiter-Larsen (The Haters), Rod Summers (VEC), Maurizio Bianchi, Masami Akita alias Merzbow, CM von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren among others.
“Cassettes were an inexpensive and practical way of getting feedback from the developing international community of sound/noise/music experimenters. Cassettes allowed for spontaneous freedom and experimentation without the burden and commitment of releasing vinyl which was expensive to mail and costly to press in editions of less than 500”- gkm
Montgomery used the earliest Casio keyboards, self made electronic gadgets, cheap drum boxes and his favorite instrument, the Korg MS-20 synthesizer. The mixture of noise/pop/rock/electronic and soundscapes all on one cassette show how musical genres hadn’t become entrenched in the Cassette Culture scene yet. “Do it!”, “Small World” and “Treat The Hell Out of It” (released as a flexi-disc included with Onslaught Magazine (Artwerk) in 1982 are examples of the songs he composed at this time.
In the early 80s in New York City there were still small record shops such as Venus Records, Bleecker Bob’s, Soho Music Gallery and 99 Records that sold artist produced cassettes and fanzines. Independent mail order distributors like Rough Trade and Aeon Records carried Montgomery’s cassettes and On-Slaught Magazine, Option Magazine, Factsheet Five and other small DIY zines listed them or reviewed them.
Montgomery’s interest in structured improvisation and avante-garde theater theatre led to the formation of KMZ with his friend Michael Zodorozny from Crash Course in Science. KMZ performed regularly at the legendary Pyramid-Club in NYC. Tracks from KMZ and collaborations with other artists such as Stephen Spera and Stefan Tischler of Port Said can be found on his 2nd tape Collaborations.
Between 1982 and 85 Montgomery spent time in Berlin combining performance art and electronic music where he had the fortune to meet and develop a relationship with Conrad Schnitzler who has had a major impact on his life and work.
His third official Tape Kalkreuth Keks was recorded in Conrad Schnitzler’s studio during a 2-week stint in the dead of winter 1986. These 8-track recordings incorporated the violin, guitar, and keyboards with analog synthesizers, processing, voice and the “new” sounds of the Yamaha CX5M music computer. Three of the tracks on Postcards are from these sessions.
A 4th cassette Beatmusik, released on Al Margolis Sound-of-Pig-Label (SOP186) in 1988 featured a selection of tracks recorded between 1981 and 86. In 1989 Lord Litter from Berlin also released a fifth Gen Ken-tape called Room To Roam, also with recordings from 1984. A selection from these two tapes can be found on the additional accompanying 7”inch.
In 1987 Montgomery, along with David Prescott and Conrad Schnitzler started the label Generations Unlimited. Two cassettes of cassettes of minimal electronic music, Stepping Through Rooms and The One Sided Triangle were released on Generations Unlimited and in1988, GENCON, a collaboration with Conrad Schnitzler was released on vinyl.
His involvement in the late 70’s and 80’s Cassette-Culture and the Mail-Art movements led to his creation of the first and arguably still the most important Sound Art gallery in New York City in 1989: Generator. Located in the East Village, then in Chelsea, Generator’s wide scope and novel approach toward audio art made it a vector-point for some of the most interesting and important artists from around the world. Gen Ken also founded A.T.M.O.T.W.— Art is Throwing Money Out The Window — and Generator Sound Art Inc., and he co-founded the seminal experimental label Pogus Productions.
The past three decades many of Montgomery’s cassettes, records and CDs have been released in limited editions on small labels outside of mainstream distribution on such respected labels as De Fabriek (Holland), Staalplaat (Holland), Tellus, Mark Lane’s Artwerk, Banned Productions, XI Records (all USA), Firework Edition (Sweden), Old Europa Café (Italy) and Discos Esplendor Geometrico (Spain). Other recorded works are available on his own A.T.M.O.T.W. label, Generator Sound Art and on Touch Radio.
Montgomery continues to produce music and soundworks while also producing visual art, collage, bookmaking, and international correspondence art. As The Minister of Lamination (a.k.a. Egnekn) he is the world’s foremost practitioner of sonic Lamination Art and he continues to mail postcards to friends and collaborators throughout the world.
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2012 |
€27.50 |
|
| MONTSEGUR, JEANNE / NATURE MORTE |
Restes d'une chose brisee |
10inch |
"More than just a record, “Restes d’une chose brisée” is the outcome of an intimate collaboration between music and writing. Based on a series of thirteen short texts by young French writer JEANNE MONTSÉGUR, this symbiotic work unfolds like a Dantesque journey. On each step of the way NATURE MORTE’s abyssal drones echo the desperate intensity and ruthless honesty of Jeanne’s words, opening her wounds to chasms, sustaining the inner conflict and the baring of feelings by an almost unbearable tension which, when it finally breaks, strikes the listener as surely as the incisiveness of her words. At the end of the voyage there is hope, seeping between the lines and through the grooves as the drones recede and give way to luminous reeds, leaving the reader-listener shaken, colder and gloomier than before, but maybe a little wiser too." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
| MOOR, ANDY |
Marker |
CD |
"Der Londoner The Ex-Gitarrist als Fotokünstler mit Blick für chaotische Muster und komplexe Strukturen und als Meister seines Instrumentes, solo, mit Overdubs und einmal multitrack. Einige der 15 Tracks entstanden zwar für Theater- oder Filmsoundtracks, aber ohne die Fesseln des Funktionalen, das meiste ist spontan aus dem Handgelenk geschüttelt, gespeist von Erfahrung und Einbildungskraft, nur Augen, Ohren, Hände. Es gehört etwas dazu, das wohl meist-gespielte Instrument im Weltall so zu entstauben, dass es nach dem Anfang des Buches Genesis klingt - ein Ding, auf das man einschlägt und dissonante Geräusche entlockt, das aber noch nicht mal einen Namen hat. Das mehrspurige ‚Naming the animals‘ kehrt an diese noch undefinierten Anfänge zurück. Schon ab dem zweiten Track ist Marker aber mit Gitarrenkultur aufgeladen, meist repetitiv und mit logisch strukturierter Harmonik oder simplen, aber effektvollen Rezepten (‚From e to f‘, ‚Repeat suite‘). Zwischen diesen Polen zieht Moor seine Saiten stramm. Repetitiv, drängend, und gleichzeitig dissonant, so präpariert, dass es rau, roh, stumpf klingt (‚Uganda fly‘, ‚Stop/pause‘). Dann ausgedünnt, reduktiv, nur einzeln blinkende Lichtpunkte am Nachthimmel, 3 Uhr nachts. Oder flirrendes Gekrabbel und Surren, das zu Gamelandingdong aufklart (‚Weather‘). ‚About face‘ hört sich an, als ob ein Alien sein extraterrestrisches Motorrad zu kickstarten versucht. ‚Truth in numbers‘ und ‚Small things under glass‘ erzielen mit einfachen Zahlenreihen rührende Wirkung, während ‚Myrka‘ mit schmutzigen Fingernägeln an der Schallmauer stöchert. Gitarrenfreund, was willst Du mehr? Spandexhosen?" [Bad Alchemy]
"On this his debut solo Cd, andy moor explores a wide spectrum of his unusual guitar style, resulting in an exciting, varied and challenging collection, ranging from melodic solo guitar pieces to atmospheric soundscapes, and wild outbursts of radical sound." [label info]
".... Andy Moor is in the pages of Vital Weekly known as an improviser with the likes of Kaffe Matthews, but in the real world he is of course the guitarist of The Ex, my all time favorite dutch punkers. Favorite just for the fact that they don't stay inside that little closet called punk, but get out and do so many other things, playing with musicians from Africa and from the world of improvisers. Moor might very well be responsible for the latter move of The Ex, so a solo CD by him is perhaps more than welcome. He plays electric guitar with objects and hardly any effects. Over the past five years he off and on recorded his pieces, and this collection shows a wide variation of moods and textures. Some in punk fashion, but mostly in a melodic style, uptempo, downtempo, melancholic and distorted. Fifteen tracks, spanning over fifty-four minutes, that might sound a bit much, but Moor effectively holds your attention, when moving through all these pieces. Mostly solo guitar, but also overdubbed and layered, there is a lot to discover here. Not masturbation but a great card. Less is Moor." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.unsounds.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOORE, AARON |
The Accidental |
CD |
Erste Solo-CD des VOLCANO THE BEAR – Mitglieds, 7 Stücke mit betörenden Drone-Texturen, Piano-Minimalismen, Keyboard-Drones, Vibraphon & Becken-Tupfer, alles sehr “privat”, intim und ruhig... perfekte Mitternachts-Musik.
".. as a founding member of the english experimental group volcano the bear, aaron moore has been a part of creating some of the most stimulating and diverse music of the last 10 years with releases on nurse with wound’s united dairies label, and the american label, beta-lactam ring records, to name but two.
‘the accidental’ is moore’s first solo release and is in stark contrast to his drumming and vocal work with volcano the bear.
using such instrumentation as bowed and beaten vibraphone, cymbal, chord organ, thumb piano and keyboard, mainly concentrating with one instrument per track, moore has created an album of mesmerizing beauty.
shifting, woozy soundscapes, blurred drones, soft conjuring, and deep meditations - perfect for late night headphone trips.
on ‘three guineas’, a keyboard is used to create a new lullaby in which we are reminded of years past.
the majority of these recordings, made at his home in leicester on a digital 8 track and one microphone in 2003 were intended for an aborted collaboration with oren ambarchi. they then sat on his machine for a year or so until, with the nagging of friends, he set about doing something with them.
some of the tracks, he felt, needed the hand of another so he sent some tracks to friends andrew liles, luke fowler and alex neilson to collaborate on. they in turn sent the finished tracks back to moore where he set about editing them for inclusion on ‘the accidental’.
the title, ‘the accidental’ comes from the fact that were it not for the original aborted collaboration attempt with ambarchi, moore would not have recorded this music.
moore is continuing his work with volcano the bear and his new duo, dragon or emperor, as well as planning several collaborations in the coming months. if a follow up to ‘the accidental’ is to happen, then maybe it will be on purpose next time?!" [label info]
www.elsieandjack.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| MOORE, ANTHONY |
CSound + Saz |
CD |
"Touch.40 live at Iklectik. I received an invitation to perform at the 40th anniversary gathering, June 2022. Previous works for the label, 'Arithmetic in the Dark' and 'Isoladrone2020' illuminated the landing strip for a new work. It should be continuous -- a further play on moving and remaining. I wanted to balance the digital output of a CSound orchestra with an analog instrument and chose the Turkish saz, a sound I've loved and lived with for the last six decades. I prepared the ground for the live performance with a graphical interface for CSound and an EBow for the saz (along with some short pre-recordings of picking and strumming). Then, a few days before the concert, I got Covid. On the suggestion of Jon and Mike I recorded a live performance-for-one, (myself at home) which was played back at Iklectik. Unedited, unchanged, here it is."
Three pairs of thin, wire strings on the Turkish saz are struck, and the resulting sound is harmonized, filtered and then sustained in an infinite but gradually shifting chord of harmonics. In addition, an EBow is used to excite the strings in real time. This sound is natural, untreated, and adds layers to the sustained chord. Subsequently, two Csound programs running in parallel are "fed" the natural sound of the saz and the output is heavily affected with filters, resonators, vocoders etc. These sonic gestures are allowed to take over as the original chord fades to leave the more transparent sounds of the Csound outputs. The organum returns with much warmer low end. The saz transformations thin out to leave a keening call. And finally, the last minutes are filled with a deep chord which fades to silence.
Anthony Moore (b. August 1948) is a composer/musician, now based in the UK, formerly professor in Cologne for sound art and music working on the social and technical history of sound. He operates across many genres; ambient drone, musique concrète, electroacoustic, songwriting, and immersive, multi-channel sound installations. He continues to compose, perform and release work on various labels such as Touch, Drag City (Chicago), P-Vine (Tokyo) and others. Anthony Moore conducted a lengthy interview with Julian Cowley for The Wire, which appeared in October 2022 edition.
https://reflectionsonsound.bandcamp.com/album/csound-saz
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| MOORE, R. STEVIE |
Phonography |
CD |
"The first time I heard R. Stevie Moore was when the Residents played me goodbye piano - which would have been sometime in early 1978. Soon after that, I got in touch with him to import some copies for Recommended - followed over the years by many of his other releases. Phonography was Stevie's first, and a masterpiece. Terminally idiosyncratic but with all the compositional qualities of great pop. R Stevie Moore is a gifted songwriter and marches to his own drum - as this strange and compelling record attests. It's been out of print for some time and we have taken the opportunity to restore it to its original form and carefully re-master it. A classic." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| MOORE, STEPHAN |
To build a field |
CD |
"Stephan Moore is a composer, audio artist, and sound designer in New York City. He has graduated from from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Western Michigan University, and Interlochen Arts Academy. His creative work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity.
Recent performances and installation artworks make use of a large multi-channel array of his hemispherical speakers. He performs regularly as half of the electronic duo Evidence, and with a variety of musicians, live-video artists, and dancers. He has created custom music software for a number of composers and artists, and has taught courses in sound art and electronic music at Maryland Institute College of Art, Peabody Conservatory, Massachusetts College of Art, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Simon's Rock College of Bard.
He is currently the Sound Supervisor of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company." [general info about the artist / Deep Listening site]
Stephan Moore has spent the last five years touring with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a core member of their live band, alongside such notables as Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, John King, and William Winant. At the same time, he has been collaborating with a
number of younger choreographers to create sound scores for their performance works. To Build A Field collects the best of these pieces, drawn from six of his commissions by four very different choreographers. The CD's title refers to Moore's view of his role in these collaborations: designing and executing sonic structures that define the emotional and rhythmic topography of time. Each track negotiates a balance between acoustic sound sources and electronics, live performance and studio composition, and human vs. algorithmic control of sound materials. Time is continually bent into new
shapes, challenging the listener, and his collaborators, to think beyond the easy comforts of a regular tempo, and confront rhythm as texture instead of a reliable grid.
"Brooklyn-based sound artist Stephan Moore's recent musical work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity. He develops his own performance software and builds point-source loudspeakers for use in his performances and sound installation work. His current ongoing collaborations include the Xenolinguistics performance project with visionary video artist Diana Reed Slattery, projects with choreographers Yanira Castro and Kimberly Young and performance artist Kyle DeCamp, sound design for the Nerve Tank theater collective, and the performing/recording duo Evidence with sound artist Scott Smallwood. He curates a concert series at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio called Experiments in the Studio, and co-curates an annual month-long Floating Points festival of performances and sound installations at the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, pairing the permanent sixteen-channel installation of his Hemisphere speakers there with diverse artists. Moore has been commissioned to create sound installations and performances for a number of dance companies and site-specific venues. He has been awarded residencies by Hunter College, the Experimental Television Center and Wave Farm for his work in music and new technology. His performance and exhibition credits include Tonic (NYC), Axiom Gallery (Boston), Zeitgeist Gallery (Boston), Deep Listening Space (Kingston, NY), ffmup (Princeton, NJ), Massachusetts College of Art (Boston), Yale University, Princeton University, The Tank (NYC), Roulette (NYC), the Music and Alternative and X-Disciplinary Approaches in Sound Festival (Sheffield, UK), Sound Practice (Dartington, UK), Music Without Walls? (Leister, UK), Disjecta (Portland, Oregon), Warehouse 23 (Boston), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn), The Chocolate Factory (Queens), ACM/Siggraph, International Conference on Musical Perception and Cognition, International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the Acoustical Society of America's semiannual meetings, American Theater in Higher Education's annual conference, International Society for Electronic Arts, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and the Burning Man Festival, among many others. As an improviser and musician, he has appeared on stage with John Paul Jones, Pauline Oliveros, Alex Waterman, Keith Rowe, Michael Haleta, MV Carbon, Andrea Parkins, Zach Layton, Troy Pohl, Curtis Bahn, David Linton, Mikel Rouse, Maria Chavez, Newton Armstrong, Seth Cluett, Ikue Mori, Kenta Nagai, Larry Polansky, Jesse Stiles and Joan La Barbara, among others." [label info]
www.deeplistening.org
www.deeplistening.org
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| MORRICONE, ENNIO |
Escalation |
LP |
"In 1968 the Maestro Morricone was at the height of his career scoring Sergio Leone’s classic “Once Upon a Time in the West”. For the soundtrack of Roberto Faenza’s cult debut movie ESCALATION, set in swinging London, 1968, Morricone teams up with fellow composer Bruno Nicolai and the vocalizations of Alessandro Alessandroni’s “Cantori Moderni”, making this one of his least minimal soundtracks.
Containing the legendary tune DIES IRAE PSICHEDELICO, this is one of the most essential Morricone soundtracks of all- time.
- TRANSPARENT YELLOW VINYL
- LIMITED EDITION 500 COPIES " [label info]
www.dagored.net
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| MORTHOUND |
Off the beaten Track |
CD |
"it might have been in the air after raubbau’s extensive box set and the subsequent live performances, it sure has been hoped for by more than a few, and here it is confirmed, the first morthound album in over 20 years: the title somehow gives it away, this is an absorbing exploration of the dark ambient realms, a sometimes outright frightening dip into the pit, yet composed with the expert knowledge of a now seasoned producer. way off the beaten track, morthound returns triumphantly to the fold. so the question is naturally, which of his own traditions as morthound would bj nilsen explore on this comeback - the industrial/noise-heavy, the brute, the cold ambient, the psychedelic, the ritual, or even the academic/experimental attitude of his post-morthound career? the answer is: all of the above, but enveloped in a totally coherent, updated approach, subtly taking up the threads and weaving them into a good 45 minutes of flawless dark atmosphere. the path off the beaten track starts in a tense, minimal and unexpectedly bass-heavy fashion with 'the device', before the epic 'between midnight and dawn' brings in the somber layers of synthetic darkness that are classic morthound; in 'the munich manual' we are confronted with weird off-key elements, and 'disquieted' turns out a malicious death industrial tune seething with distortion; 'disembodied voices' portrays emptiness as sound and 'the black forest' finishes the album with almost harmonious, calming beauty. the challenge of a comeback album after that many years is obviously to handle the balancing act between picking up and respecting your own legacy on the one hand side, and creating something meaningful for the present on the other. with 'off the beaten track the light don't shine' bj nilsen has succeeded in both, created an album that will find avid followers in different generations of listeners, and has all the potential to become a genre classic." [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| MORTIFICATION TO THE FLESH |
Le Tresor Maudit |
CD |
"First official CD-reissue, previously released in 1988 as vinyl LP on Bog-Art label (cat. # BOG 101) in an edition of 300 copies. Digi-slim sleeve, including all six tracks from the original vinyl + bonus tracks.
Even though it was released in a strictly limited edition (original copies of the LP are now sold at very high prices), "Le Trésor Maudit" reached a huge cult-status within the industrial scene. Following the best 80's German music tradition, the band put together different styles into an unique sound, strong and suggestive at the same time. Rhythmic, hypnotic “new wave” (with female vocals) meets courageous experimental music, classic industrial and art-electronics.
Mortification To The Flesh: Annett Falkenheiner, Hubert Haverkamp, Imelle Von Dohlen. Featuring, amongst others, contributions by (!) Al Margolis and Giancarlo Toniutti. An essential album for the fans of German industrial music and underground new wave." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MOSER |
same |
CD |
"Der Perkussionist der Einstürzenden Neubauten auf einer Entdeckungsreise der Klänge:
Rudolf Moser war in der Vergangenheit in Bands wie Die Haut tätig und ist seit 1997 festes Mitglied der Einstürzenden Neubauten. Mit "Moser" legt der Klangforscher, Instrumentenbauer und Komponist sein erstes Soloalbum vor: 16 Stücke, die ohne Text auskommen, 16 Miniaturen, deren Spannungsbögen sich allein aus den Assoziationsmotiven von Sounds und Klängen herausentwickeln, extrahiert aus Federn, Hackbrett, Gläsern, Aluminiumröhren, Reifen, einer verstimmten E-Gitarre und einem Wurlitzer. Rudolf Moser entwickelte sich über die Jahre zu einem Spezialisten für Film- und Werbemusiken. Und obwohl einige der Tracks auf diesem Album im Rahmen von Filmmusiken entstanden sind, hören wir keinen Soundtrack, zu dem uns der Film fehlt, sondern wunderbar eigenständige Kompositionen, die sich um Klangmotive herum aufbauen, während die Melodiebögen eine Entdeckungsreise der Klänge beschreiben. So entstehen Sounds aus einer ganz eigenen Welt, die die Musik auch beim leisen Hören über Kopfhörer zu einer ganz persönlichen Erfahrung machen." [label info]
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| MOSER, MICHAEL |
Resonant Cuts |
do-CD & BOOK |
"Neu im Juli 2010: Konzert und Klanginstallation, hrsg. von Carsten Seiffarth und Michael Moser
Umschlag ed. RZ 10018-19
21x16 cm, 63 Seiten, s/w- und Farbfotos, Texte englisch/deutsch.
Limitiert auf 500 Kopien
CD-1 Concert Installation
Ensemble Polwechsel und Gäste:
* Burkhard Beins: Schlagzeug
* Martin Brandlmayr: Schlagzeug
* Werner Dafeldecker: Bass
* Axel Börner: Trompete
* Theo Nabicht: Kontrabassklarinette
* Wolfgang Musil: Live-Electronik
Live-Aufnahme vom 24. Juli 2008 im Kleinen Wasserspeicher, Berlin
Total time: 65:59 min
CD-2 Sound Installation
klang und raum
aussenraum innenraum
raum als resonanzraum
raumresonanz als filter
Aufgenommen im August 2008 im Kleinen Wasserspeicher, Berlin
Total time: 60:03 min" [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2010 |
€30.00 |
|
| MOTT, NICK |
The Visitors |
LP |
"I'm not entirely sure whether The Visitors are us, the people who put us here, or our future selves. But the music they make is a ritual feast of rain soaked crackling sci-fi environments, orchestrated tap-dancing pools of tape hiss, destroyed electronic soliloquies, precariously stacked slices of malfunctioning melody, rusting springs of elastic horror synths, duets between time stretched fluttering bells and ancient machines, subliminal and writhing bass contortions, collaged violin orchestras, blown out percussion and buried drums, dusty piano splicings, choirs of angels and demons, and creaking vertical conversations between brass and breath......" [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
|
2012 |
€16.50 |
|
| MOUTHUS |
No Canal |
CD |
"Guitar, drums and electronics. There are no further requirements for turning the world on its head. Since their inception in 2002, Mouthus from Brooklyn have delighted and enraptured their audience. Thundering noise eruptions, mail-fisted guitar drones, infernal drumbeats and an indomitable drive are these devilish duos hallmarks. This is undiluted rock ‘n’ rock for noise junkies. When it comes to live performances, Mouthus are unbeatable. Nevertheless, in order to nourish the other parts of the soul, Mouthus alternate their teeth-grindingly loud shows with recordings into which rage and energy are consummately channelled. No Canal follows a different path altogether. Guitarist Brian Sullivan and drummer Nate Nelson lead the listener on a journey of exploration. Past bricked-up walls of sound and through a swamp of drones the duo descries a terra incognita, a dark world of sound in which innocent idylls of nature are soon subjected to the destructive forces of industrialisation.
Initially, pastoral guitar parts are heard, pursued by drums in the distance. This is ethereal music in the tradition of bands like Popol Vuh. The promised land is hidden behind low mist and impenetrable green. But all hope proves idle: torturing guitar feedback and tribal drums soon tear the dream apart. The industrial torrent of sound seems unstoppable. This is music that reveals itself as a tired, technological beast with a slow heartbeat and creaking limbs. The subliminal menace and naked demise remain audible and tangible. This is a story that has to be told. Mouthus cannot be silenced.
No Canal is packed in the beautiful 'envelope' packaging, designed and hand printed by Jason Dodg" [label info]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| MOUTHUS & YELLOW SWANS |
Live on Conan Island |
LP |
Live-Collaboration Dokument dieser beiden US Guitar-Drone / Electronic / Free Form Noise-Duos, die zu viert ein furioses Klangfeuer entfachen, low-fi feedbackend rauschend ekstatisch, verzerrter als verzerrt.. irgendwo im Noise-Brei sind sowas wie Vocals, Percussion, und langsame elektronische Pulses auszumachen.
"An inevitable match made in Hades. Four titans workin' it out in the primordial mulch & all the gods are cowering in their presence. The dual intertwining guitarattack impacts & fragments into the dense concrete percussion forest surrounded by a shroud of pulsing caterwauling skree. A harum-scarum locomotive ride of thick, bombastic & heavy proportions." [unknown reviewer]
"The ultimate East coast/West coast soundclash as Oregon’s Yellow Swans and Brooklyn’s Mouthus present a smouldering document from their onstage interactions on their Fall 2006 US tour.
The sound of Mouthus’s splat&clatter percussion and sheets of severely altered guitar and voice noise paired with Yellow Swans’ raucous axe-mangling and sublime noise processing make for a gargantuan oil tanker of sound that can’t avoid enveloping the listener.
‘Live On Conan Island’ is a range of monstrous caverns of free electro skronk, alt-percussion and wailing guitars from live collaboration between two of Load's hottest noisemongers. Gigantic!" [label info]
www.no-fi.org.uk/label.php
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON |
Strung |
LP |
JON MUELLER auf Abwegen: Für seinen Beitrag in der Guitar-Series von TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS muss der Perkussionist auch an die Gitarre - und begeistert mit einem kraftvollen, loopig-hypnotischen Track... klares Vinyl !
"Peripatetic composer, performer, improviser, and designer Jon Mueller is a busy guy, and both the rock and experimental music scenes are the richer for it. As a drummer, he propels the ecstatic whorl of Collections of Colonies of Bees and the occasional guitar army of Rhys Chatham; alternately his solo project, Metals, is the most harrowingly intense percussive barrage you'll ever encounter. He also finds time to collaborate with artists ranging from Wilco's Glenn Kotche to Swans' Jarboe. Whether it's minimalist bombast, free-improv interplay, or electro-acoustic finesse, Mueller's got it covered. But what can he do with a guitar? In Strung, Mueller doesn't play the guitar; he scrambles its molecules. Laying down a photon-blast of sound, he initiates a relentless, rapid-pulse attack signal that summons wave upon wave of white noise. Think inexorable alien invasion -- The Day The Earth Stood Still, with Lou Reed as Klaatu and Metal Machine Music as the message. Earth doesn't stand a chance." Pressed on clear vinyl with great Savage Pencil etching on the b-side." [label info]
"Already noted before: Table Of The Elements love Jon Mueller, and who doesn't? Here he leaves the drum kit for what it is and plays guitar, as an addition to the labels Guitar Series Vol. 3, an one-sided LP (the other side has an etching, which is a bit hard to see in transparent vinyl) of Mueller playing the guitar as if it was a mechanical beast. Perhaps with rotating blades? A ventilator? Mueller cuts out, in a rhythmical manner, sounds and thus one strum arises, repeated, until the full guitar orchestra falls in, with full blown drones. A very consistent idea that is worked out well, and makes this sound like a great album, coming from a great tradition: from Lou Reed to Glenn Branca to Earth. At the same time it also sounds like a Mueller record, with amplified hums. Perhaps a bit too short, as this seems over before it has properly started, it seems. The built-up takes some time because it keeps shifting back and forth, adding a strange movement to the piece. This is a great record, showing a new side for Mueller I think." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Metals |
CD |
Beeindruckendes Album desPerkussionisten JON MUELLER, der das Spektrum der gängigen Drum-Sounds erweitert und auch die Vibrationen und Drones von grossen Gongs & Bass-Trommeln einsetzt. Von der Intensität und Herangehensweise erinnert "Metals" an DANIEL MENCHE, nur dass hier alles "handgespielt" ist , v.a. Dingen geprägt durch Trommelwirbel-artige Wellen, die sich mit Obertönen vermählen; genial minimal & trancig, von grosser Kraft & Intensität...
"Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements. Now he applies these techniques to his latest solo effort, to stunning effect: Metals is, as its name suggests, a bold, all-percussion foray into heavy metal. No theatrical silliness here; just sheer exhilaration; the fundamental power of loud, organized, precise rhythms; ringing, heavy anti-melodies. It's this sound, in the many forms it has taken over the years that continually inspires new philosophies, drives independent thinking, and causes hundreds of thousands of people to bang their heads. Jon Mueller takes it, shapes it and makes it his own." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Whole |
CD |
"Der Avantgarde-Perkussionist übersetzt tradiertes Handwerk in Musik: "The Whole" mag sein Debüt für das Label Type sein, doch ist es bei weitem nicht Jon Muellers Einstand in der Szene. Über seine Mitarbeit in Bands wie Collections Of Colonies Of Bees und Volcano Choir mit Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver sowie mehreren Soloalben und Kollaborationen hat sich der Mann aus Milwaukee einen Namen als hervorragender Schlagzeuger und Perkussionist gemacht. Als Nachfolger seines Werks "Metals", einer Sammlung klassischer Heavy-Metal-Rhythmen, und den ausschweifend schönen "Physical Changes" war es für Mueller Zeit für ein grundlegendes Statement. Fasziniert von einfachen und akustischen Klängen, ließ sich Mueller sogar vom alten Kunsthandwerk der Shaker, einer amerikanischen Religionsgemeinschaft, und vom Quilt-Handwerk beeinflussen. Beides einfache tradierte Handwerksformen, die aber immer wieder misinterpretiert wurden. Diese fehlgedeutete Simplizität ist ein Leitmotiv von "The Whole". Mueller erschafft mit Schlagzeug, Dulcimer und seiner Stimme einen Sound, der gleichzeitig originell und verführerisch ist, der Spuren der Vergangenheit und Echos der Zukunft trägt.//
The Whole might be avant-percussionist Jon Mueller's first album for the Type imprint, but it's far from his scene debut. Working in a plethora of bands for many years (including Collections Of Colonies Of Bees and Volcano Choir with Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver), Mueller has honed his sound to a distinct peak, and over the course of umpteen solo albums and collaborations has cemented his status as one of experimental music's most revered drummers. Following his epic works Metals (a collection of classic heavy metal rhythms) and the expansive and surprisingly beautiful Physical Changes, both for the esteemed Table Of The Elements label, Mueller embarked on the heady process of creating a "defining" work. Intrigued by ideas of simplicity and acoustic sound, Mueller's research drew him to Shaker crafts and quilt-making, both deceptively simple practices rooted in the transmission of ideas. Over time, these experiences were interpreted in many different ways, almost certainly inaccurately, and this miscommunicated simplicity is at the very center of The Whole. Through a rolling, unamplified snare drum (a piece of kit perfected over a year of intense practice), booming low toms, hammered dulcimer and his own voice, Mueller creates a sound that is wholly original and totally beguiling. There are traces of folk traditions and lines drawn to the avant garde idiom, but Mueller's sound is so singularly perfected, it is hard to connect him to specific peers. The Whole is an album that sounds like both a relic of the past and an echo of the future. The ideas are anchored in memory and tradition, yet the sound is alien and sometimes impenetrable. Over time, as the messages are stripped back, an unabashedly gorgeous piece of work is revealed. Like a good book, it requires patience and contemplation to show its beating heart." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Alphabet of Movements |
LP |
"With the music of Milwaukee-native Jon Mueller, patience is the key. His radical snare workouts are meditative master-classes in drumming, but require a distinct offering of time and attention to truly enjoy the dense clouds of sound his music creates. After crafting 2010's critically-acclaimed The Whole, Mueller decided to put together a live set that, while not reflecting the over-dubbed nature of the album itself, reflected the philosophy held within. The result was "I Almost Expect To Be Remembered As A Chair," and Mueller proceeded to perform this piece at various venues across the USA. Utilizing a unique snare drum set-up, which finds the drums mounted on small amplifiers, Mueller's enviable focus is put center-stage and his resolve transferred absolutely into this dense, moving 20-minute piece. Here, the composition has been recorded to tape with a tireless attention to detail by Greg Norman at Steve Albini's legendary Electrical Audio studio. The haunting, resonant drones spring to life with a surprising clarity, and the silo's natural reverb gives the percussion a deeply human quality. On the first piece, Mueller sticks to his chosen snare, slowly ramping the buzzing rhythm into near-cacophony. By the time the piece is fully formed, you barely notice the change you have witnessed, but are surrounded by a cloud of thick, resonant, cavernous drones. The second rendition moves the composition to gongs and sees the dense resonance enhanced by the instruments' singular plethora of harmonics. It is hard these days to emerge with music that could honestly be described as original, but Alphabet Of Movements is a truly singular piece of work. The focus that Mueller injects into his composition is unmatched, and his interpretation of drone and noise is absolutely on its own. Listen, absorb, and let the sounds permeate; you'll be coming back for more in no time at all. Cut at Berlin's Dubplates and Mastering." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Death Blues |
LP |
"Find Yourself. Impatience. Death Blues. Acceptance. Impermanence. Iron String. The six songs that comprise Jon Mueller's Death Blues are each their own doorway to both a bold new musical statement from the renowned drummer percussionist and an unprecedented journey into a conscious contemplation of death -- and the life that surrounds it. Released in tandem with a multi-part manifesto, Death Blues transcends its own existence as 34-minute, earth-cracking rock album. Much like Mueller, whose landmark solo work stands alongside his role in notable bands Volcano Choir (and previously, Collections of Colonies of Bees), Death Blues embodies the acknowledgement that there's more to experiencing music than simply just listening. Conceived and largely executed in its recorded form by Mueller himself -- adding hammered acoustic guitar and bold vocal patterning to his ever-evolving mastery of percussion -- Death Blues is audibly (and intensely) personal. However, the very act of recording was the first step in a discourse that Mueller began over a year ago, forming a band of brilliant performers from his Milwaukee, WI hometown that would go on to perform Death Blues at Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC and at two sold-out Death Blues events in Milwaukee, where a labyrinth led the audience into a multi-sensory and participatory experience culminating in a climactic performance of the album. It was as close as one could get to being next to Mueller at that moment of discovery: of the inevitability of death as the impetus to become more present in each moment and of the necessity of building his own path to sharing that idea. Death Blues is being collaboratively released by Taiga and Hometapes and is available as a limited edition LP packaged in a deluxe litho-wrapped jacket that includes the Death Blues manifesto; 500 hand-numbered copies of the highest fidelity pressed on 200g virgin vinyl." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON & JAMES PLOTKIN |
Terminal Velocity |
do-LP |
"Jon Mueller and James Plotkin first combined forces on Physical Changes, scorching the leading LP side of Mueller's 2009 multi-format collaborative investigation. Forging Mueller's blistering percussion and rolling hills of drums with Plotkin's searing guitar and melting electronics, a sturdy alloy was formed. When both musicians were asked to perform at the Utech Records Music Festival in June 2011, at which they appeared as a duo, the pair spent the proceeding days spontaneously unfurling Terminal Velocity. Recorded in rural Wisconsin just outside of Mueller's native Milwaukee, Terminal Velocity is an effort of concentration. On the brink of implosion, the duo reduces dense washes of percussion and guitar to thick crusts, at times deceivingly with a whispered intensity. Sizzling drums meet electronic warbles as two great forces restrain each other to a constant speed. Mastered by Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200g virgin vinyl, Terminal Velocity is presented in an edition of 500 copies. Packaged in a heavy Stoughton tip-on gatefold, the jacket is hand-numbered on the spine and features a textured paper to enhance Karlynn Holland's graphite drawings the album accompanies." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2012 |
€31.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON & JIM SCHOENECKER |
The Interview |
CD-R |
"Jon is the percussionist and Jim plays synthesizer. Debut recording from the duo now known as mouths singing bowls, vibrating drums and a synth so cold it could re-freeze the polar caps. A minimalism that patiently builds from a whisper to muted holler. Transfixing to say the least. Edition of 200. Published: august, 2005." [label info]
www.longboxrecordings.com |
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON & MARTIJN TELLINGA |
Bowl, Helicopter |
maxi-CD |
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the 13th release in the Brombron series. Jon Mueller and Martijn Tellinga have started a collaboration to explore the musical dialogue between the instrumentalist and realtime computerperformer. Their mutual interest in the outlining and structuring of improvisation, both in sonic properties and compositional shape, resulted in an ensembled playing that is partly responsive, partly autonomous." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| MUELLER, JON & Z'EV |
HYDratioN |
LP |
"LTD edition of 300 hand-numbered copies. Hand screened jackets printed by Neil Burke at Monoroid. For years, both Z'EV and Jon Mueller have explored these possibilities, both within traditional forms, and singling out specific elements within those forms. For Z'EV, an entire book, called Rhythmmajik, was written about the properties of rhythm, while his history pairs him with a wealth of collaborators, from Carl Stone, Glenn Branca, and many others, as he pursued the quest for rhythmic elements in many things, few of them being actual drums. For Mueller, it's about what happens with drums in different spaces, used in different contexts, from improvised collaborations with Jason Kahn, Asmus Tietchens, and Lionel Marchetti, to more composed and bombastic work with Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio and Collections of Colonies of Bees, to the distorted pop sensibilities of Volcano Choir." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| MUENNICH / ESPOSITO / JUPITTER-LARSEN |
The Wraiths of Flying A |
CD |
"A three-way collaboration by Chicago based sound artist and renowned researcher in the field of Electronic Voice Phenomena Michael Esposito, Hamburg based operator of the Fragment Factory label Michael Muennich and long-time conceptual/performance artist, filmmaker, writer and core member of The Haters GX Jupitter-Larsen from Los Angeles. The origin of this project was a field investigation conducted by Esposito at American Film Studios, Santa Barbara, CA, additional sounds recorded by Michael Muennich at Fragment Factory, Hamburg during 2011
2012, edited and processed by Michael Esposito, Michael Muennich and GX Jupitter-Larsen in the course of 2012. Edition of 300 copies." [label info]
web.comhem.se/elggren/fer/fer.html
"Over the last few years I am more and more 'exposed' to the music of Michael Esposito, or should that be 'the work of'? It's work/music that has to do with the voices of the dead, the EVP, and he works with a variety of musicians. Here with GX Jupitter-Larsen (best known as The Haters) and Michael Muennich, the label boss Fragment Factory. Not always all three of them together, but in various combinations. You could try and figure out which these combinations are, but the print is rather fine here. The release is dedicated to Audrey Munson, an actrice of the silent era, who after the arrival of the talkies spent the rest of her life in Ogdenburg Psychiatric Institution. Maybe that's where Esposito caught her voice - from beyond of course? For reasons unknown to myself, I expected something that was more noise based, but that's not the case here. It's, in fact, all rather subdued, quiet, with loops of found sound, hissing, ticking, with voice material dropping in and out of the mix in some of these pieces, such as the very nice title piece. It all seems devoid of real noise and that's great, I think. It's more like a radio play of highly obscured sounds, always looping around (perhaps one could hold that against the total release? Without being necessary), with all of these ghostly voices spooking around. Its however not really an unsettling release - these seem like friendly ghosts to me. An excellent release, like I think most of Esposito's releases of late a very good." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MULO MUTO |
Decomposing Cacophonies |
CD |
“Decomposing Cacophonies” was recorded in Zurich (CH) in July 2017 by Attila and Joel during a long session. The duo embarked on a metaphysical exploration of the cycle of life and more specifically, reflected on how organic matter decomposes. This experiment was transposed into sound and subdivided into different moments that accompany decay. It is violent, at times calm at other times agitated, it may be noisy as well as dreamy; definitely deadly and ready to get recycled into the apparently never-ending cycle of inorganic and organic restoration. We live to die in order to let other beings live. We die to live in order to let other beings die.
The album was mixed shortly after the recording and mastered in January 2018 by Attila Folklor between the plains and the mountains of Ticino.
The pictures were taken by Joel during the Autumn of 2017 around the Mittelland, while Huere Giulio carefully took care of the layout.
From Luce Sia’s press release:
LUCE SIA is happy to announce its release n. 052, made in collaboration with the Swiss label L’è Tütt Folklor Records! Mulo Muto’s new album “Decomposing Cacophonies” is a 66 minutes crescendo of magmatic and piercing sounds, divided in 8 acts, that creates an intense and powerful ode to putrefaction.
«You will have with this means All the glory of the world, And therefore every darkness will go far from you. It is the strong force of every force, because it will win every thin thing, and It will penetrate every solid thing.» (From “The Emerald Table”)
Out now on digipack CD, limited to 190 copies!
Decomposers:
• Attila Folklor: electronics, synths, electroacoustic devices, loops
• Joel Gilardini: treated guitars, synths, electronics, loops
Thanks to Sacha, Nebo and Huere Giulio. Recorded by Attila Folklor and Joel Gilardini.
Mixed and mastered by Attila Folklor.
https://lucesia.bandcamp.com/album/052-mulo-muto-decomposing-cacophonies
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| MULTER |
Wenn Schauzeichen erscheint, sind die SYSTEME gekuppelt! |
10inch |
MULTER tauchen einen hier in ein Bad aus sirrend-rhythmischen Electronics und gleissenden Gitarren-tunes – sehr trocken und eindringlich, auf den Punkt gespielt, hell erleuchet irgendwie. MULTER drown you here into a bath made of high-pitched rhythmic electronics and shining guitartunes, very dry and intense, illuminated somehow...
“ 3 tracks of sliding beautiy: electronic beats plus guitar drones and shrieking synth noise, ca. 20 min. hand stamped cover, lim. 500” [label info]
www.aufabwegen.de
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Berge im Bunker |
CD |
"The two tracks on this release are based on the music that was originally composed for the Berge im Bunker exhibition by Barbara Meisner that ran from August 2008 to May 2009 in Dortmund. The collage is a repeating, light melodic environmental soundscape that creates an unheimlich feel, while incorporating all [multer] elements: loops, electronica , drones... Still it is not a typical release for the German duo as it is their most minimal effort up to date. The music will get the best out of your imagination.
CD (NO CD-R) limited to 200 copies." [label info]
www.consouling.be
"Zwei Stücke mit auditiv ähnlich gelagerter Faktur. Der Soundtrack zu einer Installation rückt [multer] von der gegenwärtigen Theorie einer Konzeptband in den unheilvollen Kunstbetrieb. Dabei sind die Klänge von [multer] unter dem Corrige von N seit jeher Träger von Stimmungen und emotionalen Miasmen, deren Inhalte sich durch das Goutieren im
klanglichen Zusammenspiel noch mehr aufzuladen scheinen. »Berge Im Bunker« klingt aber so
wenig kunstaffin als nach einem gewagten Experiment in Zeit und Raum. Die Musik ist
defizitär sparsam, die Verwendung hochauflösender Echoschleifen geradezu gewollt
zeitbrechend. Was sich nach einer minimalen Tapete für stehendes Kunstgut ausnimmt,
funktioniert auf der Hörebene ohne visuelle Kontrapunkte ebenso. Das Album wirkt in den
zwei Titeln gekonnt zerbrechlich, die Gitarre surrt melodramatische Arpeggien ab während
der Raum sich durch sanfte Gongklänge in eine mantraartige Struktur verdickt, die sich nur
durch den immerwährend wiederholenden Absatz markiert. Wiederholung, das sah selbst
Cage als wichtig und nötig an denn nur so kann sich Veränderung einschleichen. Hier brechen [multer] mit dem gewohnten Bild einer rhythmisch veräderten Musik, die sich auf
»Berge Im Bunker« mit einem Male in ein Zerrbild ihrer selbst verwandelt. Nicht für jeden ein Gewinn, aber ein grandioses Zusammenspiel von Kunst und Konzeption.
5/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Köln 4/11/2006 |
CD-R |
"One of the best known unknown artists of the german experimental hard-to-classify scene publishes here this document of a one track concert, recorded at the Kulturbunker, Cologne during a concert series organized by Till Kniola / Auf Abwegen in Late 2006.
The trio of Neidhardt (guitar/Amps), Geiter (keyboards, live mix) and Hoeschen (field recordings, live mix) performed in their unique style what can be loosely described as memorable post-rock drone. A piece which just keeps growing and developing for close to an hour.
The last full length release by [multer] was the sound installation soundtrack ‘Berge Im Bunker’ (consouling sounds, 2011) which was prefaced by the marvelous but vinyl only ‘Kopenhagener deutung’ album (genesungswerk, 2003). Next year shall bring a release of a studio version of this track as well as other projects concluding with the publication of entirely new material and accompanying live performances.
For those interested what happened between [multer] activities there is the meanwhile impressive back-catalogue of Hellmut Neidhart aka ‘N’ solo and also releases on Thomas Geiter’s own label inselkind-schalltraeger worth more than a listen.
Issued as a limited & numbered cdr with special artwork directed and produced by [multer] and as an unlimited digital dl." [label info]
https://klappstuhl.bandcamp.com/album/k-ln-04-11-2006
"Klappstuhl Records zeigt sich, nach ersten Anzeichen 2012 und 2013, seit 2015
zweifelsfrei wiederbelebt, ohne merkliche Gesinnungsänderung zur kassettentäterischen
Vorgeschichte in den 80ern (& 90ern). Köln 4 | 11 | 2006 (SP 012, CD-R) wirft nun sogar ein halbes Pfund in die Waagschale. Durch ein silbernes Cover aus Eisen. Zu hören sind, live im Kulturbunker, Thomas Geiter: keyboard, mixing, Mal Hoeschen: fieldrecording, mixing & Hellmut Neidhardt: guitars, amps, Letzterer
einschlägig bekannt als N, die drei gemeinsam als [multer]. Sie tasten sich mit blasender, wischender, dröhnender Vorsicht voran. Dröhnend? Es ist das fast ein Singen wie von einer Harmonika, ein sublim changierender Silberstreif am tief gelegten Kulturhorizont. Ein knatternder Helikopter unternimmt einen Aufklärungsflug. Kleine Alltagsgeräusche, Schritte, Vogelschreie, Entengeschnatter,
Glockenspiel und Turmuhrschlag oder erst glucksendes, dann anbrandendes und
lappendes Wasser akzentuieren als Einsprengsel der Welt da draußen das langwellig sonore, surrend noch unterstrichene Fürsichsein in einem Tagtraumzustand. Ein fernes Akkordeon spielt 'Caravan', die N-Gitarre schnurrt. Zwei
Stimmen referieren über den Ausnahmezustand und die Schamlosigkeit, die künstlerisches Schaffen ermöglichen, und über das 'Nein' des ästhetischen Menschen. Nietzsche trapst als Nachtigall: Es giebt zwei Zustände, in denen die
Kunst selbst wie eine Naturgewalt im Menschen auftritt, über ihn verfügend, ob er will oder nicht: einmal als Zwang zur Vision, andrerseits als Zwang zum Orgiasmus. Beide Zustände sind auch im normalen Leben vorgespielt, nur schwächer: im Traum und im Rausch. Vinyl knurscht, der Harmonikadrone kurvt und sirrt. Und träumt von der suggestiven Kraft der Musik, ihrer "suggestion mentale"..." [Bad Alchemy] |
2016 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
Basisrealität/Armutsgewöhnungszuschlag/Wolkenkuckucksheim |
3 x LP |
"The three part LP set is the first new studio material by [MULTER] in 10 years and it can be easily seen as the culmination of their artistic approach and search to date. Over six sides of black vinyl, attentively mastered by Fear Falls Burning, the group employ their strategies. a great sense of place is embedded into the sound thorugh carefully placed field recordings. a common-sense lyrical aspect becomes part of the scenery. heavy guitar drone-layers form a dense and almost overwhelming wall of sound. Distorted rhythms drive onwards and electronics counteract the seqeunce of events in the next instance. a beautiful, mature and very personal work." [label info]
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/basisrealit-t-armutsgew-hnungszuschlag-wolkenkuckucksheim
|
2021 |
€46.50 |
|
| MUMMIES AND MADMEN |
Glow Dark in the Sun |
CD |
CD reissue of this cassette, originally released by Coventry's Slob Tapes in 1984, featuring two lengthy pieces of garbled electronics, distant planet serrated guitar churn, basement Wobble-esque bass, primitive rhythms and the kinda spoken word that wouldn't seem out of place on a record by The Fall or The Shadow Ring. Originally recorded as a one-off, these tracks feature connections to what at the time seemed like a fervent enough local scene via the involvement of not only Slob Tapes' founder and early Attrition live percussionist Bob Oliver, but also Alan Rider of Stress and the Adventures In Reality label. Serving as another document of an incredibly fertile time in music, this album perfectly illustrates just how far some of those concerned could go with limited resources.
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2024 |
€12.00 |
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| MURAYAMA, SEIJIRO & ERIC LA CASA |
Paris: Public Spaces |
CD |
"Seijiro Murayama is a drummer-percussionist-voice performer currently working in Japan again after living for a number of years in France. Éric La Casa is a French sound artist well known for site-specific field recordings with a strong improvisational element. The two have been working together on numerous projects for nearly a decade. For six months starting in January 2012, La Casa and Murayama took portable tape recorders out to parks, subway stations, streets and other public spaces in Paris and separately made individual recordings in the same place and time frame, then edited the recordings. The result is the 12 tracks on this CD. Murayama frequently produced his unique vocal sounds while recording. This odd and unexpected voice sneaks into the varied and lively sounds that fill the public spaces, creating curious accents." [label info]
www.ftarri.com
"A most curious work here, but not unrelated to what I noted before: sometimes improvisers set themselves to work outside and use the natural sounds that surround them to be part of whatever they are recording. An extra layer of sound/music if you will. Here Murayama and La Casa do something similar, in the city of Paris. La Casa takes credit for 'field recordings' and Murayama for voice and recordings. Basically they go some place, with two portable recorders, and record the environment. Murayama adds with his mouth sounds to the recordings, but does that in a very subtle way, mostly almost unnoticed. He breathes, sighs, whispers or just makes crazy soft sounds with his mouth, maybe something a small baby would do. Maybe it's an imitation of sounds he's surrounded by, or maybe something he draws inspiration from. The space in which all of this happens is usually a bit hollow, adding an extra layer of musical information, a bit of reverb. Each track start with a cue to start, which is perhaps a bit annoying after a while, but on the other hand it also gives the idea of the start of an action, so the start of a piece, rather than seemingly random cut from a bunch of field recordings. That makes all of this quite a fascinating musical trip. Bird chirping, a marching band, fireworks, a construction site and sometimes just seemingly empty places. Murayama's contribution is rather mysterious most of the time, but that sort of is exactly quite right for this kind of music. A rather beautiful release. It would make you want to visit Paris straight away and go to these locations, close your eyes and listen again. But then, keep in mind, that this is not really a sounding travelogue, or just a piece of improvised music. It's a bit of all and at such a rather unique item." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURCOF |
The Versailles Sessions |
CD |
"Vom Barock zur Elektronik: Wassermusik des mexikanischen Elektronikers:
Seinen Titel verdankt das Album dem Ort, wo alljährlich "Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes" stattfindet: das Sound-, Licht- und Wasser-Festival im wohl berühmtesten Schloss der Welt, dem Château de Versailles bei Paris. Der mexikanische Elektroniker Fernando Corona alias Murcof hat für den großen Fontänenabend im Jardin de Roi extra eine Suite geschrieben, "The Versailles Sessions" dokumentiert das Ereignis. Die sechs Kompositionen für das Projekt stammen alle aus dem 17. Jahrhundert (u. a. von Jean-Baptiste Lully, François Couperin) und wurden für das Projekt von Barockmusikern auf Originalinstrumenten eingespielt. Was wie eine Verabschiedung von elektronischer Musik klingt, ist in Wahrheit eine Fortführung von Techniken, die Corona über die Jahre entwickelt hat: die Verarbeitung bestehenden Materials - nur, dass dies jetzt aus dem 17. Jahrhundert stammt. "The Versailles Sessions" sollen dennoch nicht als Nachfolger des Albums "Cosmos" (2007) gesehen werden, eher als Zwischenprojekt zum 2009er-Werk "Océano". Das Album erscheint auf CD sowie als Doppel-LP in limitierter Edition." [label info / Indigo]
"In the summer of 2007, Fernando Corona completed a site-specific commission for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, an annual festival of sound, light and water at Château de Versailles in France. A suite of music was composed specifically for the grand evening fountain display in the Jardin du Roi. The Versailles Sessions is an aural document of the event, to be released this winter on specially priced CD and limited edition double vinyl.
The six compositions prepared for the project derive entirely from recordings of 17th century baroque instruments (including harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute and violin) and a mezzo soprano. GetSound, who commissioned the project, hired musicians specialized in baroque music in Paris.
“We recorded pieces by Lully, Couperin and others,” says Corona of the sessions. “They were played traditionally, but we also experimented quite a bit with the music and instruments. It was a great learning experience - the musicians were amazing - very open minded and willing to have fun.”
The recording process may appear to be a departure for an artist known primarily as an electronic musician, but in fact it’s a continuation of techniques Corona has perfected over a number of years.
“It’s more or less done in the same fashion as my previous work: processing of previously recorded acoustic material. The only difference is the actual source material being so specific to 17th century baroque music and instruments. And since the recordings are the starting point of the composition process it naturally took me to a different place.”
Corona’s initial interpretations of the source material didn’t quite go according to plan.
“When we did a rehearsal about two weeks before the actual opening, it was pouring with rain so I wasn’t able to make the necessary tests. But being there and seeing the space and the installations (big disco balls and video projections on water fountains), I realised I was going in the wrong direction musically.
“The location demanded a different approach: more openness, more time for the sounds to develop and for them to resonate in that big space, so I went back home and during those remaining two weeks I reworked the whole commission into what it is now.
“The recordings I used as source material are very rich and cover a wide range of timbres, so I had lots of options as to how to approach the music making process.”
The Versailles Sessions should not be considered as the successor to 2007’s monumental Cosmos, rather as a special project while we await Murcof’s next album proper." [label info]
www.theleaflabel.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Utopia |
CD |
"When Fernando Corona released Martes, his first album as Murcof, back in 2002, it was a bolt from the blue: a work of such clarity and strength of character that it became an instant genre classic. The album’s reputation spread by word of mouth, and it continues to sell as strongly now as it did when it was released, subsequently becoming one of The Leaf Label’s biggest selling albums.
Corona is currently putting the finishing touches to his second Murcof album, scheduled for release in September 2004 on CD and DVD in full 5.1 sound. But before that comes Utopía, a specially priced collection featuring sympathetic reworkings of tracks from Martes, the two tracks from 2003's exceptional Ulysses 12", both tracks from the Utopía Remixes 12" (April 2004) and two further previously unreleased Murcof tracks, ‘Una’ and ‘Ultimatum’. More a companion piece to Martes than a prelude to the new album, Utopía distils the essence of the first album into sinuous new forms.
The remixers employed here are a typically global bunch for The Leaf Label, including Sutekh (Context Free Media/San Francisco), Supersilent producer Deathprod (Rune Grammofon/Oslo), Icarus (The Leaf Label/London), Corona’s Mexican collaborator Fax (Static Discos/Mexicali), Jan Jelinek (Scape/Berlin), Geoff White (Force Inc/USA) and Colleen (The Leaf Label/Paris) delivering her first ever remix." [label info]
www.theleaflabel.com
|
2004 |
€11.50 |
|
| MURIDAE |
Under the Fable of Meaning |
CD |
"A variegated and original universe of electronic visions; leading ryhthmic parts, cosmic suggestions, echoes of filtered human voices and hints of concrete noises extraordinarily mixed with catchy electronic progressions, among pulsating basses, sequencer patterns and winning melodic arpeggios… A surprising “mix” of ideas that “draws” from a wide range of stylistic influences, an extraordinary deep impact sound quality rich in dynamics, for an uninterrupted flux of incredible emotions…" [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURMER |
We share a Shadow |
CD |
MURMER gehört zu jener neuen Generation von Field Recording-Spezialisten, die mit Hilfe von Computerprogrammen eine ungeahnte Detailfülle & Klangdichte in ihren Kompositionen erreichen. Auf "We share a Shadow" (2 Stücke, 46 Minuten) erklingen z.B. wunderbar vielschichtige Metall-Drones, Vibrationen von langgezogene Sirenen-artigen Tönen, rückwärtige akustisch glitzernde Resonanzen, krispelndes Rauschen (Regen?)... etc. - ein einziger Genuss, diese neuartige Drone-Musik in Perfektion, das Selbst scheint sich aufzulösen in diesen Sounds! Die Auflage beträgt leider nur 300 Exemplare, kommt im handgetönen Wasserfarben-Cover.
"Murmer is the pseudonym for Patrick McGinley, a man with several passports which have taken him to many a foreign land in search of found sounds of the unsettled, the forgotten, the mysterious, and the beautiful. His field recordings of activated environments (e.g. resonant industrial spaces, windswept telephone lines, bowed branches, gasping ventilator systems, etc.) originate from all of the locations where he has traveled; yet, the documentation of these sounds is the not the terminus of McGinley's work. He is far more interested in extracting a particular emotional, transcendent, or metaphysical kernel from those sounds, and then recontextualizing that germinated sound into sympathetic compositions of magnificent dronemusik.
We Share A Shadow continues where Murmer left off with the exceptional Husk album (in collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough), in spiraling his manipulated field recordings as a slow revelation of the environmental sonorities that undeservedly go unnoticed each and every day. Singing frequencies of a bowed piece of metal undulate against a grey tapestry of rain and rasping insects. Golden overtones from shimmering drones quell what agitated textures reside in McGinley's active field recordings, rendering the aggregate sound a nocturnal opiate with considerable potency.
As Murmer, Patrick McGinley has produced a handful of releases on ICR, Ground Fault, Drone Records, and Absurd; and he has performed in venues both large and small across North America and Europe. He is also the host the Framework radio show on Resonance FM, dedicated to the consecration of field recordings and their use in composition.
We Share A Shadow is strictly limited to 300 copies, featuring hand water-coloured artwork and letterpress printing." [label description]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"BACK IN PRINT! We thought this gem from the Helen Scarsdale Agency was going to stay out of print forever, but due to a fortuitous pressing plant glitch (when are those ever fortuitous?), a small second pressing has now been made available! Here's what we've said about this album when it first came out in 2007:
Proprietor of the Framework radio show on Resonance FM for many years now, Patrick McGinley has implored his listeners to "open your ears and listen" to the world at large, presenting an impeccable series dedicated to field recordings and its use in composition. So, it goes with out saying that the field recording and the found object are commonplace within McGinley's own sound art constructions which he records under the moniker Murmer (and not Murmur, mind you!). Given his predilection for wandering throughout the European countryside for all that it has to offer (not just limited to environmental sound), his recorded output has been somewhat limited. We Share A Shadow is his first proper solo album in almost three years, although his collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough did stand out as one of the dronemusik highlights of 2006. Consisting of two very long pieces, We Share A Shadow is a notably restrained album whose dark beauty reveals itself with a slow and deliberate pace. The first untitled piece opens with sheets of cold rain scuffing the smooth arcs of bowed metals, whose Feldman-like swell and collapse recalls the late period work of Bernhard Gunter. As the rain gently fades, a composite drone emerges out of those rasps and vibrations from the bowed metals and intensifies through dissonant timbres subtly agitating the shimmer and filigree of the gilted drone. Throughout, windswept debris ricochets across the stereo field casting an ominous cloud onto the sustained tones. The second piece is an even darker affair with a motor grinding against a piece of metal in the distance while a somber, almost doomscape piano plods in the foreground. With plenty of low frequency rumbles and spectral activity lingering in the background, this piece is almost like KTL remixing Xenakis at 16 RPM. Needless to say, this is an incredible album.
Gorgeously packaged in hand water-colored / letterpressed sleeves, SECOND PRESSING ONLY 175 COPIES!!" [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
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Specular Reflection (Liquid Solid Redux 2000-2010) |
mCDR |
"patrick mcginley, alias MURMER, is an american sound artist living in europe since 1996. now establisehd in estonia (like his friend john grzinich), his work has always been based upon found sounds and found objects. his work concentrates on the framing of sounds from our environment which normally pass through our ears unnoticed and unremarked but which out of context become unrecognisable, alien and extraordinary.
his past works were published on various labels like ground fault recordings, icr (a collaboration with jonathan coleclough), drone records or helen scarsdale agency. he's also a member of the REVENANT collective (together with john grzinich, yannick dauby, hitoshi koji and many others) and has a weekly radioshow named "framework" devoted to field recordings.
"specular reflection (liquid solid redux 2000-2010)" is a kind of experiment for patrick, he has recreated an exquisite drone track from 2000 (previously released on a cdr published by absurd) with modern techniques, as opposed to the rawer material he had at the time. rain sounds, bells, let yourself immerge in "specular reflection"... |
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
|
What are the Roots that clutch |
CD |
"It was a cavernous tone that broadcast from a ventilator duct that inspired Patrick McGinley to begin collecting field recordings and working them into his slow-arc compositions. At the time when he heard that particular tone in that particular city at that particular time, he had no gear to recording device on hand. Over the next fifteen years (and counting) McGinley has eased into a peripatetic lifestyle, wandering the European countryside and forests (but never straying too far from the thrum and spark of civilization) in search of the same epiphany with his head rattled to the sound of a cavernous air duct.
Around 1996, McGinley adopted the moniker Murmer for his compositional work; and though his work often steps into the quieter realm of sound construction, much of his field recordings and resultant compositions privilege interference and disturbances that occur within any given sound ecology. Those sounds could be the elusive tone from that ventilator, the polyrhythmic chorus of chirping frogs, the abstracted roar from an Arctic wind tearing across the Black Sea, or the metallic skree from a bowed antenna perched atop a Soviet-era observatory. What Are The Roots That Clutch marks McGinley's first full album in nearly 5 years, but it marks an elegant continuation of his previous album We Share A Shadow. The five chapters of this album can't easily be associated with any specific location; instead McGinley overlaps and crosshatches his field recordings and abstractions into acousmatic passages with ghostly, half-melodic qualities. Even the two unprocessed recordings of the album are impossibly complex in their accretions of sound. McGinley's composed pieces embrace lithe, mysterious drones whose mossy, damp atmosphere perfectly situate with tactile crunches, tactile events, and signal noise generation. Eels and leaches would not be out of place in such an environment; but the subaquatic murk snaps into a hallowed manifestation of ritualized minimalism at the album's finale -- one that LaMonte Young and Angus Maclise might have conjured in 1968 with clattering percussive elements and a hypnotic blur of harmonic drone.
What Are The Roots That Clutch is limited to 400 copies and comes housed with letterpress artwork." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Patrick McGinley just carries on. Working as Murmer since 1996 he has a strong love for the world of field recordings and electronics. Since quite some time now he lives in Estonia and walks the woods to tape his sounds, takes them home and then transforms them in whatever mysterious way. Five long pieces, from mere six minutes to eighteen minutes. The two pieces that stay under ten minutes are 'unmanipulated found sounds', the other three are 'composed from found sounds, found objects and live room feedback'. Its easy to tell the difference between one and the other. The 'pure' pieces are indeed pure pieces in which we hear the obscure sounds of motors, ventilators, or otherwise objects moved by say wind, while in the other three, McGinely chooses for a slow built up of events. A simple, single sound starts up and then slowly more and more sounds are added, sine wave like sounds leap slowly in and then at one point you'll notice that the entire piece seem to have changed and you
have a full on, minimal yet maximum output sound, such as for instance in the fifth (untitled) piece when the pots and pans in the kitchen start to vibrate and we have an interesting minimalist clutter piece, that is halfway between a drone piece and a Velvet Underground jam. Maybe that's where the real surprise of this release is, in that development of field recordings towards very interesting (and very good) minimalist, electronic music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"In looking at his discography alone, Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) might not seem to be such a prolific artist; although he's certainly dedicated his entire existence to the pursuit of the field recording, its use in composition, and avant-garde sound practices in general. Each week, McGinley produces the ever enlightening Framework radio series dedicated to those very topics, starting out of Resonance FM in London with syndication now reaching several dozen adventurous radio stations across the globe. He's also active in curating a quarterly series of small cd-r editions of sound ecology, phonography, and field recording based sound art; and he also is an active participant in the Estonian avant-garde, as he's currently planted himself in the university city of Tartu. What Are The Roots That Clutch is his first full album in nearly seven years. Has it really been that long? That said, McGinley did work on a brilliant collaborative project with John Grzinich and Yannick Dauby, and he released a 3"cd-r for Taalem, both of which came out earlier this year in 2012. McGinley quips that he put the recordings aside to this record for well over a year, which may account in part for the delay; but ultimately, all of the recordings from Murmer are timeless. What Are The Roots That Clutch is no exception.
The field recordings that McGinley collects hedge towards disturbances in any given sound ecology, as found in the abrasive textures from a busted exhaust vent comingling with the Aeolian harmonics from the sustained gusts streaming down from the North Sea. McGinley does include two relatively unaltered field recordings (probably some minor filtering, but that's all) within the thoroughly abstracted and droned out compositions. One of these features a very eerie fundamental harmonic drone, obviously being activated by the wind and coupled with a glistening rattle and an unfurled flapping. The three elements here make for a surprisingly musical, if totally alien sounding piece that's akin to the Alan Lamb wire recordings. The album's 17 minute centerpiece is a slow building blur of industrial resonance and densely layered aquatic filigree that melts into chunks of clattering ice (it could be wood or glass... but ice is just so much more poetic to consider given the context); but the album's finale is where McGinley really gives us something to sink our teeth into. A comparatively harsh stutter of electrical abrasion builds up to a crescendo through water-tank rumblings and fire and / or water textures. At the peak, McGinley snaps to a downright psychedelic raga of back-masked belltones, harmonium drones, and percussive clatter that all comes together in a minimalist chorale on par with anything that Angus Maclise mustered in his dervishes and mantras.
As great as McGinley's last record was, What Are The Roots That Clutch might be even better. Handsomely packaged in letterpress artwork whose ochre-yellow hue matches the color of an Estonian farm house he's quite fond of. Limited to 400 copies." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Songs for Forgetting |
LP |
"I work very slowly, hence songs for forgetting has been in development for a very long time. The first element, a large sand timer, was recorded in Cologne, Germany in August, 2007. Further field recordings were made of rain dripping through Soviet-era gutter spouts in the small Estonian village of Tõravere (which happens to be home to northern Europe’s largest optical telescope) later that same month; daytime fireworks (mascleta, set off for sound rather than light) in Valencia, Spain (March, 2008); a pebble beach in Étretat, France (June, 2008); underwater life in a branch of the Andelle River in Perruel, France (May, 2009); and, more recently, the rain gutters at my current home in Põlgaste, Estonia (September, 2013) and the stridulation and footfalls of an inadvertently disturbed ant colony on Kemiö Island, Finland (July, 2014).
But the force that brought all these recordings together was an inadvertent tendency towards instrumental recordings, which feature in each of these ’songs‘. These instruments were all unfamiliar, and in some cases they were not ‚instruments‘ at all, in the literal sense of the word, but objects or spaces that nonetheless lent themselves to being played. I encountered them around the same time as the recordings mentioned above were being made, and recorded my explorations and improvisations, sometimes alone, sometimes with other players.
The first of these instruments was small and zither-like. It was, I learned only recently, a miniature Ukrainian bandura, and it was in an apartment in Berlin where I stayed during a visit in August, 2007. The apartment was the home of another sound artist whose name, Jeff Gburek, I’d known for years, but whom I had never (and still have not) met in person. He was out of town at the time; he didn’t know for years that I played and recorded his instrument (although, thanks to this release, he does now).
The next instrument was an old radio antenna, on the roof of the aforementioned observatory telescope in Tõravere, which sang a predetermined melody when you bowed it, which I did together with a native of that village, Piibe Kolka, in August, 2007 (Piibe’s bowing can be heard in ‘the third song for forgetting’). And in December of that year, in Vienna, Austria, I recorded an improvisation with the debris and trash under a small pedestrian bridge with Lasse-Marc Riek, who coincidentally co-curates the Gruenrekorder label, and visual artist Elffriede (this action can be heard in ‘a fourth song for forgetting’).
In February of the next year, while staying with Maksims Šentelevs in Riga, Latvia, I experimented with one of the many instruments in his collection, a small kora. And a year later in February, 2009 I recorded another tabletop zither, given to me by an old housemate from my time in London, the singer-songwriter Sam Semple, playing it with a small motor also given to me by Max from Riga.
With all the elements collected, the songs began to come together, very slowly, beginning in that summer of 2007, and finishing only now as this release is being prepared. They were built often in response to specific emotional situations, situations that demanded some forgetting themselves, so the title can be read two ways: what you forget is up to you.
A brief word about some elements of the design of the physical version of this release, which is the work of Vahram Muradyan, using elements from my own collection of found objects and detritus, which are printed and embossed on sleeves made for us by the Räpina Paper Factory, here in southeast Estonia, using 100% additive-free recycled fibre: the front image is a reproduction of a leaf skeleton that I have had for some years – I can’t remember exactly where or when I found it, but I believe it is an aspen leaf from an Estonian forest. I have fond memories of recording aspen leaves in these forests, as they tremble in the wind. The maple and grape leaves that denote sides A and B of the vinyl were collected for their colors while traveling in France one autumn. The writing on the inner sleeve comes from one of several old school notebooks found in a mill ruin near my home, water-damaged and sun-faded, and mostly illegible. These notebooks make me think of memory and its loss, the fading away of the past. Included with the physical version is an original fragment of one of these notebooks.
Without the following people (along with those mentioned above) this release would not have been possible: Tuuli Tubin McGinley, Oliivia Tubin McGinley, Lasse-Marc Riek, Roland Etzin, Joshua Kunisch, Vahram Muradyan, Felicity Ford, Helmut Erler (who mastered the album at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin), and Mihkel Peedimaa (from the Räpina Paper Factory, who made and donated the sleeves). Furthermore, this release has been produced with the help of a number of supporters, to whom I express my sincerest gratitude: Ariel Vitello, Bob Maier, Carole Kojo, Daniel McGinley, Eckhard Kuchenbecker, Greg Burrell, Hao-Tsun Kuo, Hitoshi Kojo, Irvic D’Olivier, James Bailey, Jonathan Coleclough, Julia Kümmel, Lauri Laanisto, Maren Möhring, Mark Stanley, Martin Clarke, Mike DePolo, Paul Fay, Udo Noll, and my colleagues at Resonance FM."
[Patrick Tubin McGinley, April/October 2016]
"The American ex-pat Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) has now taken up residence in a rural village in Estonia after many years of wanderings and explorations. To this day, he continues to roam any and all environments, collecting field recordings and his own interventions with a particular place. It has been almost five years since his last solo work, but McGinley remains a steadfast champion the field recording within composition through his weekly Framework radio series, broadcast on Resonance FM and beyond through numerous radio and online outlets. Songs For Forgetting highlights McGinley's talents in molding and shaping tone and subtle melody from deep within the fundamental sounds of a particular environmental sound. At the same time, he'll interject actual instrumentation. The playful clatter of McGinley tinkering with a zither ringing in the vein of Harry Partch set in motion against a humid chorus of cicadas and spellbinding dronescaping. Witness the psalter-like halo blossoms on the second half of the record, where we find McGinley bowing a Soviet era antenna mounted at the top of an near-space observational telescope. The resulting harmonics and pastorally minimalist drones are drop-dead gorgeous, as richly sonorous as anything Pauline Oliveros and Charlemagne Palestine would compose through more conventional means. Songs For Forgetting manifests into a beautiful record, packaged in an suitably rough-hewn, embossed sleeve that was fabricated at the Rapina Paper Factory in southeast Estonia. McGinley has included considerable notes and ephemera, turning this into an wondrous objet d'art." [Stranded Rec.]
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| MURMURISTS |
I cannot tell you where I am until I love you |
CD |
"Two years in the making, I Cannot Tell You Where I am Until I Love You is the first release on Alrealon by Anthony Donovan. Combining spoken word with scenes culled from an involved admix of musique concrete, electro-acoustic and industrial, the album takes the listener through a complex series of dissociated communications, where attempts at congress and connection are stymied by language itself, with all signs failing to signify. An alienated love story of sorts is voiced by protagonists Bryan Lewis Saunders, Michael Holloway, Pixyblink, Jaan Patterson and Jo Pearson; each being asked, during the initial creative process, to perform their characterisations in isolation, with no inkling of the final project. In similar fashion, Donovan invited improvisers like Stephen Flinn, Antonio de Braga, Zafer Aracagok and Adrian Beentjes to react to certain concepts, instructions and suggestions. The results of these experiments were added to Donovan's own material, and worked into a single album-length, thematic composition. Donovan is an artist, musician, composer, improviser and writer based in England. He works solo, either as Murmurists or under his own name, and is associated with projects such as Destroyevsky, Ou_pi Golgotha.undead, Ampersand, the.clinamen and Spidey Agutter. An ardent collaborator, he has worked with the likes of John Zorn, Jochen Arbeit, Geoff Leigh, PAS, Steve Beresford and Damo Suzuki. Donovan co-curates the respected labels Classwar Karaoke and suRRism-Phonoethics with Jaan Patterson. His interests are all either obscure or opaque, but morally authentic.
credits
released September 2, 2013
Composition, libretto and artwork by Anthony Donovan
Individual performances improvised by individual performers
Voices: Bryan Lewis Saunders as Nibiru Haemosex, willing to relocate; Pixyblink as Soprano Gory (mid 30s, factual size); Michael Holloway as Ornette, East Mids (44) seeks similar; Jo Pearson as slavejaynie; Jaan Patterson as Breathing Steven; Zafer Aracagok as Yo-Yo o.n.o. and Ed Coyle as Ovum Anon (convincing) previously here as Fibonacci ALH84001 / Musicians: Adrian Beentjes, Antonio de Braga, Anthony Donovan, Stephen Evans, Stephen Flinn, Jack Martin, Neil Packer and Noel Taylor
Recorded in England, America, Germany, Turkey and Canada during 2007 – 2011
Mastered by Zafer Aracagok
Dedicated, with love and thanks, to Annie Dee" [label info]
www.alrealonmusique.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN |
Wonders never cease |
CD |
"Four years in the making, the music of Brendan Murray’s latest/greatest album of cinematic drone anthems, Wonders Never Cease, was honed during live concerts around New York and New England. Recorded in situ, each track was painstakingly (re)assembled and embellished back at Murray’s studio. While it cannot accurately be called a ‘live album’, the adrenaline thrill of live performance is palpable as soon as the opening howl charges out from the speakers. From the laminal scorch of the opening track, through an electric fizz storm and a breathy hymn for what sounds like harmonica and folding chairs (?), the eyes-wide-open bliss of Wonders is exhilarating. Soulful, melodic and intimate, this is electro-acoustic music as gloriously life-affirming and natural as a sunrise." [label info]
"The very last concert I saw in 2006, was on new year's eve, and by Brendan Murray, the unknown hero of experimental music. Due to some technical problems, it wasn't the grand finale of a great night, but he worked himself cleverly around the problems and did a more than suitable ending. Murray has a new CD to present, 'Wonders Never Cease' and I lost count a little bit, but it's perhaps his fourth or fifth solo release, and hopefully this will put him on the map for good, as he is ready for it (well, actually since his first CD, but that label disappeared all too quick). Murray plays around with the notion of drones in a clever way. The opening piece 'Hymn One' starts out as a loud beast, almost in a violent way, but when Murray pulls back the volume, things develop in a beautiful way. Heavily layered, with throughout changing patterns, which especially in 'Seas' works quite well, almost in a Steve Reich like manner, it is hard to believe that this actually a live album, even when its and pieces were reworked in the studio. It's a clever drone album, since it by-passes the Mirror et al as Murray's music is much more upfront and present, and that very same quality makes it also anything far from ambient music. 'Wonders Never Cease' is Murray's finest album to date and hopefully puts him on the map of great experimental composers." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.intransitiverecordings.com |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Commonwealth |
CD |
Dröhnminimalismus pur! Poly-Drones die sich in endlosen Wellen umeinander legen, regelrecht anfangen zu schlingern. Aufs "erste Hören": Statik. Beim genaueren Hinhören: Eine unendliche Klangfülle, tänzelnde Obertöne, schwingende Frequenzen in multiplen Schichten, stetige Veränderungen und Verschiebungen. Der Drone-Gott steckt in den Details! Eine sehr feine Aufnahme des Bostoner Klangkünstlers BRENDAN MURRAY!
"Nie wurden Sehnen mehr gedehnt als über Murrays 49 Minuten Commonwealth. Nur Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue oder Jean-Francois Laporte erzeugen solch sture Dronegebilde, in denen schüchterne Obertöne zu gigantischen Kolossen mutieren und Langatmigkeit den klaren Ton angibt. Harmonieansätze tauchen in diesem Wall aus Gitarre und analogen/digitalen Soundmanipulationen nur ganz spärlich auf und entblößen sich rasch als hilflose Wegweiser vergangener Genres. Nostalgie spielt allerdings keine Rolle, Commonnwealth schabt nach vorne, dezentriert Zeit und vermag sogar den Bewegungsapparat zu blockieren. Liest sich eventuell zu statisch, wirkt unter der Oberfläche aber äußerst drastisch. " [Ed Benndorf / DE BUG]
"Brendan Murray has become a central figure in Boston’s sound art vanguard through a reputation of exceptional live performances and a growing catalogue of slow-shifting compositions for rarified drones. A single crescendo terminating at the end of 49 minutes, Commonwealth is an epic investigation into subtle harmonics and overtones expressed through layered slippages of pure sound. Conceived through guitar, analog synthesis, and plenty of digital manipulation, Commonwealth expresses a rare confidence in Murray's finely tuned detailing of sinewy tonalities and sculpted megalithic surfaces. Murray himself has qualified this album as a "sincere bow to 'classic' minimalism," and Commonwealth is a worthy parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Iannis Xenakis." [label info]
"We've ballyhooed Brendan Murray's exceptional, yet perennially overlooked drone & din work in the past; but nothing could have prepared us for Commonwealth. Damn, this guy is good. No, wait; he's fucking great! After a handful of cd-r productions, a Twonicorn cassette, and a fine cd release on Intransitive of processed shimmer, shifting frequencies, and some low-end girth rumblings for our bligatory SUNNO))) reference, Brendan Murray has produced his best work to date with Commonwealth. Compositionally, it's incredibly simple: a drone goes up, and it goes down. It lasts a little under 50 minutes. But buried with this single minded composition, there are thick spun rumbles, reflective vibrations, sympathetic sub-harmonics, and rich tonal frequencies. Out of the constant tectonic whir that introduces Commonwealth, shimmering clusters sound like a battery of reed organs or hurdy-gurdies, slowly modulating into heavier, deeper drones. We've been told that the source material for these sounds is guitar, although you'd be hard pressed to hear anything guitar-shaped anywhere on the disc. It's far more like the hallowed minimalist sound of Charlemagne Palestine and La Monte Young. Dare we say, it's better? Yes, Murray's drone hums like a perfectly tuned machine, with multiple pistons purring in a steady progress along Commonwealth's compositional arc. When Murray shifts the focus of the album downward, which begins not even halfway through the piece, the descent is noticeable; but it actually becomes Murray's most fertile work within Commonwealth. Here, low rhythmic thrumbs crawl beneath
the surface of the slowly collapsing drone, precluding its inevitable terminus. Perfect trance-enducing dronemuzik. Fans of Aidan Baker, Andrew Chalk, and Phill Niblock should definitely take note!" [Aquarius Records ]
"... Much louder and less subtle, this is loud drone music, one of the kind that Niblock plays live. Although playing music on headphones is not something I usually recommend, this piece sounds pretty fine on headphones, pressing air against your ears, making a thunderous storm, which shoots right in your brain. Towards the end the volume drops a bit in favor of more heavy weight bass sounds, forming the natural ending to a heavy work. Murray delivers, once again, a mighty fine album that will be another step forward in recognizing him as a true master of the genre. Fans of classical drone music be aware - this is the classic of the future." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.23five.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN / PERISPIRIT |
split |
LP |
"Semata Productions & Razors and Medicine are pleased to announce the first long playing record release of both Brendan Murray and Perispirit. Murray has been making waves around Boston, the USA, and the world since 1999. Perispirit, the collaborative project of Ricardo Donoso and Luke Moldof formed in late 2007, is known by their dynamic live performances and two cassette releases.
Brendan Murray's "Birches and Marksman's Graves (Voice and Computer #1)" is a clear summation of his interest in controlled drones and gestural improvisation with a step into the unknown. Murray is always keen to transform and manipulate an instrument sound color to the point of non-recognition, utilizing a single source for this piece: the voice of Noell Dorsey. The piece opens with dissonant clusters, moving up and down generating momentum, keeping the music physical while still highly controlled. Vague hints of melody lie underneath the cracks trying to seep through but are swallowed up by the turbulence. It gradually gives way to extended technique vocalisms that call to mind sound poetry and at times even the Sprechstimme of Schoenberg. Later the swirling tones return with a combination of both the higher and lower pitch clusters. It sounds like falling infinitely downward.
Perispirit's side offers a statement that is equally focused but bares little if any resemblance to Murray's piece. It can be described as more active than their previous material, utilizing quick sectional transitions, relying on three key components: harsh noise, delicate melodic work, and degraded lo-fi manipulations. The piece begins with dynamic harsh cutups that pay attention to sound spacialization and stereo field manipulations inspired by the likes of Sickness and Pain Jerk. The momentum grows and is quickly brought down to almost nothing creating a feeling of aural blue balls. The process is resumed and then the piece breaks into looping guitar passages with a subtle electronic underpinning. The layers build than disappear. The noise returns building to a heightened peak of frustration until it drops off and we are left with the sound of lifeless monotony. Gradually a wall of drone begins to creep in and eventually overtakes all else.
Edition of 250 pressed on 160 gram off white vinyl featuring full color LP jackets & labels; mastered by Kris Lapke." [label info]
www.semataproductions.com
|
2010 |
€21.50 |
|
| MUSIC OF TRANSPARENT MEANS |
Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn |
LP |
https://transparentmeans.bandcamp.com/album/chord-from-the-second-delphic-hymn-emerging-like-an-infant-from-the-house-of-truth
Discovering Music Of Transparent Means was one of the three or so genuine revelations from my fifteen years of living in Adelaide, Australia. I was in my twenties and had spent some time wondering why the city I was surviving hadn’t offered much in the way of genuinely engaging and affecting ‘experimental music’ (all terms used advisedly) during my tenure. I’d also somehow glommed onto the work of a number of American composers and polymaths – La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt, Phill Niblock, Maryanne Amacher – and somewhere in the back of my head, I was looking for a similar music, locally made, that combined the rush and roar of the best rock music, its volume and its joyous love of kicks and freedom, with the temporal and experiential obliterations of the best minimalism.
So, finding Music Of Transparent Means (MOTM) was a heavy deal. A loosely shaped ensemble, MOTM was really the conceptual and aesthetic expression of éminence grise, Alex Carpenter, a fiercely intelligent and disciplined musician, composer and thinker who balanced that intensity with a genuine warmth and kindness in the personal realm. (The latter is far more important, in the end, than the former, and it’s one reason why I still listen to MOTM.) Alex had come up through time-honoured traditions – playing in rock bands as a teenager, studying classical guitar, finding himself embedded in, and ultimately chafing against the ‘classical guitar scene’: “It was a culture with limits. I didn’t just want to work on perfecting the Bach suites and discuss endlessly the merits of one particular arrangement over another one.”
Instead, Carpenter leaned towards composition over being ‘just’ a guitarist. The means of his expression were many and varied, but he recalls that he “also wanted loud, engaging sounds, alternative tunings, sustained notes and beating nuances that come from multiple instruments and sound sources.” A concurrent interest in the work of La Monte Young and his peers – Carpenter wrote an essay, “La Monte Young: Towards Absolute Music”, as a student in the nineties, which was an early, oft-referenced discussion of Young’s work - proved that Carpenter had intellectual chops to burn, as well, but as his colleague and peer Luke Altmann wryly comments, “he had an endearing love of the ridiculous and was the first person you’d look for at a party.” I can’t help but feel that you can sense that in the joyous sensory over- stimulation of MOTM – the music is, quite simply, a head-fucking blast to listen to and swim through.
Besides being the person releasing the album you’re now holding in your hands, Altmann was also a key facilitator for Carpenter, via the former’s De la Catessen Gallery. “Before I started presenting concerts at De la Catessen in ‘05, I meekly asked Alex if he would play there, since I couldn’t see the venue working without him. He agreed, and presented a series of concerts over the next two and a half years which really defined that period locally.” Carpenter’s final concert at De la Catessen, before relocating to the USA in 2007, was the launch of the album Chord From The Second Delphic Hymn. Initially planned as a lathe cut LP, the lathes proved unlistenable, and Carpenter returned to the CD-R format, via his label Vanished. There’s a sense, with this new LP release, of a project finally completed, come to full fruition.
Altmann’s description of “Chord...” is apposite: “As a listener it seems to hover and vibrate. Gravity is acting on it, but it’s failing. Its bubble-like surface swirls and endures, it is resolute but unresolved. But as a performer it’s another story - this beautiful object has an enormous mass and it takes intense physical exertion to keep it in the air. Each keyboard player has a sequence of notes, a sort of mantra, to play over and over, taking longer and longer to complete the sequence on each cycle. However, each note must always be repeated as rapidly, loudly, and consistently as possible, to create as close as can be to a continuous sound, before moving on to the next note. It is utterly exhausting and physically exhilarating.”
Carpenter expands, also taking into consideration this album’s b-side, “Emerging Like An Infant From The House Of Truth”: “The idea in both pieces (and in other pieces I wrote around that time) was to isolate a particular harmonic and textural “field” (for want of a better term) that was complex and engaging, and explore as many nuances as possible within the timeframe of the piece. Also to utilize these fields as channels for perceptual exhaustion and meditation.” I was once part of an MOTM performance – I can’t quite remember whether it was “Chord...” or another piece, but to be fair, we are talking 15+ years ago – and I readily concur with Altmann’s description of performing, and Carpenter’s focus on exhaustion and meditation: it’s tiring but thrilling, and strangely meditative, to be caught within the midst of all sound.
I also remember, once, sitting with Carpenter, and discussing an ideal of music that felt like a “bright white light shone directly into your face.” I mentioned it to Carpenter recently and he said, “I love this metaphor, and I remember talking about it with you! From memory it came from Baudrillard’s phrase “unbearable incandescence,” which I like because it seems to represent my feelings on sound as a resource musicians tap into. We perceive (and value) partial components of this overall “thing” - whether that be within a piece or an entire historic era. These components change, and there can be a flow to that changing, moving image, but the flow can also be interrupted by our preoccupation with a particular “snapshot” of the image.
“Put another way, I see sound as an unbearable incandescence because it is a resource that offers infinite possibilities, and as such we cannot take in all possibilities simultaneously. It needs to filter through our media. But to me it demands a certain reverence and curiosity. We’re aren’t using sound; it is using us.” Ask Carpenter to expand on this, and to explain what he wants people to get out of this music, and he continues: “The sensory overflow of the music that is on many levels quite forceful and unrelenting is an invitation for the listener to let go of the messages and concepts they might normally seek to have confirmed in music. To let go of the composed, performed data.”
I keep returning to the idea of a kind of blissful, obliterated exhaustion as core to the MOTM experience. It’s something Carpenter seems to agree with: “The goals of MOTM essentially centered around the exhaustion of perceptual habits. Given the pervasiveness—and to a certain extent, unconsciousness—of our expectation for music to render the themes, forms and meanings of habitual response, exhaustion was considered an important stage to reach. Only by becoming exhausted with the cultural categories normally sought and emphasized in music, could we really be given an opportunity to move beyond them.” I guess MOTM, and Carpenter, exhausted Adelaide, too – it was sad to see him go in 2007, as much as we all knew that he was destined for much bigger things, and that Adelaide’s cultural conservatism in the ‘00s was no great working context for someone so dedicated to music that sat outside of both the culturally dominant forms and those that presented as legibly counter-cultural within the dominant lexicon. But I learned from MOTM how to be in time and in sound; how to move through and give in to the experience of the sonification of our corner of the world. It was a lesson in possibilities.
|
2023 |
€28.00 |
|
| MUSLIMGAUZE |
Iranair Inflight Magazine |
CD |
“ Iran Air Inflight Magazine limited edition of 700 special package in a digipack. The title "Iran Air Inflight Magazine" refers to the Iranair civil aeroplane shut down by the American military. For the artwork we used found east European airforce propaganda material and the Iran air logo.This Muslimgauze will be hard to categorise: all is new material, pure Muslimgauze, percussive but not the dance style nor the ambient dub or distorted sound’s much more a new minimal repetitive and dry sound, most of the music is arranged percussion and some Arab text fragments appear every now and then. This album shows strong links with the first muslimgauze released on Bryn Jones own label limited Records, but also clearly shows his way of working shortly before he passed away.. Again Bryn has proven to make music in a clear Muslimgauze style which jumps across a wide variety in genres.” [press release] |
2003 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Zuriff Moussa |
CD |
Eine der eher “poppigen”, fast schon tanzbaren releases von 1997, jetzt wiederaufgelegt im edlen Design. Limited Edition of 800, comes in new cover and special paper.
"Instead of the drones and mostly beatless atmospheres of many previous Muslimgauze recordings, Zuriff Moussa presents quite a danceable switch for Bryn Jones. Dedicated to a Palestinian martyr, the album sounds like a cleaner version of Techno Animal, with Eastern influences instead of dub. "Turkquoize Label" and "Brazil Marijuana" are surprisingly infectious, with distorted breakbeats and the patented Muslimgauze phased-channel drone. There are 24 tracks spread across more than an hour, so there isn't a large amount of time for each track, though several are presented in suites, like "Anti Arab America." For messed-up beat fans who are able to find it, Zuriff Moussa is close to a crucial purchase." [John Bush, All Music Guide]
|
2004 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Uzi Mahmood |
do-CD |
"Bryn Jones died January 14, 1999. The man best known as Muslimgauze was 37 years old, and at the peak of his career. During his short life he recorded an astonishing number of albums, some 200 at last count, a great many of them in years immediately preceding his death. Indeed, his output was so great that his labels couldn’t keep up with the virtual flood of music he produced. It’s no wonder new material continues to surface so long after his passing.
“Uzi Mahmood” was recorded to satisfy a specific request. Soleilmoon wanted a 12 inch single that DJs could play in nightclubs. The idea was to introduce Muslimgauze to a potentially enormous new audience. The request was made in the autumn of 1999, in a phone call lasting less than five minutes; Bryn was never one for small talk. He was all business, and he could record a complete album in three or four days, sometimes faster. Two weeks after agreeing to record a disco album for Soleilmoon, “Uzi Mahmood” was delivered to the label. But instead of the agreed on two or three tracks, he sent an eleven song compact disc, followed a week later by a 90 minute digital audio tape containing the entire CD plus two more pieces. Four songs were eventually selected for the experiment, and in the spring of 1998 a dirty-and-dubby 12" EP was released. Two more songs were later used to replace a pair of corrupted tracks on the master tape for “Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gass”, released on CD in 1999. The music was well received by fans, but the hoped-for dance floor revolution never happened, and the little record with the unconventional beats went out of print a few years later.
Fast forward to the present: The year is 2010 and the four song EP has been out of print for more than five years, seven more songs lie waiting in the vault, still unreleased, and the two tracks tacked onto “Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gass” are the only ones in wide circulation. Which is why Soleilmoon is so very pleased to finally be releasing all thirteen songs together on one record. “Uzi Mahmood” is 90 minutes of the sexiest, most booty-shakin’ Muslimgauze music ever heard. We released a limited edition gatefold triple LP in November. Now it’s available as a two CD set. Disc one has the eleven tracks from the original master, disc two has the two extra songs that came on the DAT. The cover art is by plazm design (plazm.com)." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Tandoor Dog |
CD |
"In 1998 Staalplaat and Muslimgauze were on a conquering spirit. Bryn Jones (1961-1999), the man behind Muslimgauze delivered new works, almost on a weekly basis and was more than happy to see them released straight away. Unlike others, Staalplaat was never shy to release larger works, lumping various works together, such as the 9CD “Box Of Silk & Dogs”. Allowing free reign in editing, the 4LP box set ‘Tandoori Dog”, contained the LP of the same name, which saw only eight out of the ten original pieces. Now released as a sole CD, the complete, ten track “Tandoori Dog” is released on a limited CD, spanning in total sixty minutes of music. Muslimgauze didn’t fail in this highly productive period. Peaking as never before, his music here carries all that makes Muslimgauze the unique artist he is. Taking his influences from what can be loosely called the Middle East, but extending that to as far as Pakistan, Jones samples freely percussion, instruments and voices and adds these to his own sequences and instruments, such as the tabla. The melting pot that is the studio blends this together, in hypnotic pieces of music. Captivating, minimal, groovy, but rather than being slick and commercial, this is the roughly shaped electronic world of Bryn Jones. All of this motivated and inspired by events in the Middle East, as reflected through the titles Jones picked for his work. A strong pre-occupation with the fate of the occupied people in the Palestinian lands and an unashamed love for such controversial groups as Hezbollah. With the re-issue of “Tandoori Dog” another keystone work by Jones is finally being available again." [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2013 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Turkish Berlina |
CD |
"The recently unearthed 'Turkish Berlina' dates back to 1997, shortly after Muslimgauze played Berlin; the master was labeled, simply, remixes. As with many of Bryn Jones' remixes of his own work, these ten untitled tracks range from hauntingly familiar to strikingly new versions of already extant Muslimgauze material. Surely we've heard some form of the haunting vocal loop on the first track before? The dense, busy, distorted break that takes over the second track, that's
new, isn't it? Or maybe we have it backwards, maybe what feels new here should be familiar and vice versa. Even for dedicated Muslimgauze fans these ten remixes hover tantalizingly on the border between the known and the unknown. Here the balance between Jones' source material, the music of the Middle East and elsewhere, and his own electronic, sometimes abrasive additions and distortions slides over much closer to techno than much of Muslimgauze's output, whether on the extended dubby pulse of the third track or the headspinning broken beats of the eighth and ninth. Jones had mentioned in the past being uneasy trying to represent the breadth of Muslimgauze's music live, preferring to emphasize percussion and backing tracks. These versions, then, coming on the heels of live performance, might just offer a glimpse at what Muslimgauze was like live. 500 copies." [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2013 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Mazar-I-Sharif |
CD |
" 'Mazar-i-Sharif' is to polite society what a dozen angry Rotweillers are to a cafe full of poodles: An explosion. The diamond collars scatter across the tiles and the fur turns red as the perfectly clipped poodle-butts are torn apart by a pack of rabid Jerry Springer Spaniels. Your politically correct end-of-the-century tea party is officially OVER, and anyone thinking Muslimgauze is about to make a calculated move to new age radio should call a taxi right now because the missiles are already in the air.From the intense noise-and-rhythm barrage to the shocking cover image of a young boy with amputated arms, there is no part of this compact disc that will not offend someone. Yes, of course there are groovy Middle Eastern beats, and music loops are top notch as usual, and the true die-hard fans of Muslimgauze will not be disappointed, but we expect that there will be fewer of them after they hear this record. Track listing: 1. “Rezin Of Joy” – 13:39 2. “Sulymaniyah” – 4:17 3. “Mosul” – 12:13 4. “Bandar Abbas” – 9:57 5. “Zahedan” – 5:31 6. “Mazar-I-Sharif” – 7:56" [unknown source/label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Syrinjia |
do-CD |
"Syrinjia was first issued in 1998 as a limited edition of 850 vinyl LPs. It has been sold out since winter 2002. Bryn Jones (Muslimgauze) always intended for us to release it on compact disc after the vinyl edition was gone, and today we’re happy to announce the fulfillment of his dream with the release of “Syrinjia” as a double CD. Ever the prolific composer, he recorded 20 songs for the album, of which only the first nine were included on the LP, leaving the rest to be released at a later date. Although Muslimgauze was never known for making particularly dance-oriented music, “Syrinjia” was a rare exception to the start-stop noisy feedback-driven assault that defined his style. This change in direction, more a detour, really, was the result of a simple request put to him to make an album that DJs could play for people who might not normally appreciate what he was doing. Rather than look at the request as a demand to compromise or sell out to commercial requirements, Bryn took it as an opportunity to explore a completely different foundation from which to work. While it could be said that the majority of his songs find their inspiration in Arabic or Islamic traditions, “Syrinjia” breaks the mold by looking west towards Jamaica and its vital reggae scene. The beats are rock steady and a sinuous bass line bubbles underneath at a rolling boil, and it’s standing room only once again on Air Palestine flight 132 to Kingston. A limited edition collectors version of “Syrinjia” was issued on CD on July 12, 2004. It was presented in a luxurious handmade silk folder with inserts made from recycled silk fiber. The entire run of 518 copies was sold in the first week of release. This regular edition is presented in a standard jewelbox and comes with a friendly price." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2004 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Abyssinia Selasie |
CD |
\"Although Bryn Jones’ work as Muslimgauze certainly numbers dub within its influence, rarely is that influence treated as directly or centrally as it is on many of the tracks found on Abyssinia Selasie. A rarity among the material Jones left behind after his death in 1999, this release features unreleased material Jones had titled, unlike many of the tapes he had submitted but hadn’t gotten around to preparing for release.
The opening title track alone, with its steady bassline and dopplering, insistent beeps, is as close to an unadulterated dub track as Jones ever came, even as the separate coda “Benzedrine Wallah” starts cranking up the outbursts of percussion. Not every song on this trim, focused collection goes in that same direction, but even elements like “Arab”’s wobbling percussion and female vocals share a similar sensibility. Even the stark “Mind of a Suicide Bomber” is more coolly menacing than overtly hostile, although as always with Jones’ work and his positioning of that work it’s hard to know how seriously, or sympathetically, we should take him.
Unfortunately Jones isn’t around to ask, either to take to task or to praise, but he has left us with such a depth of material (and was so generally taciturn in life), that we are left with only that to evaluate. The last track here is titled “Mea Culpa,” and while it starts out as a fine example of the warmer, more head-nodding sound of Abyssinia Selasie before metamorphosing into a truly out-there echo chamber, after a brief break in the middle it surges back to life with the dubbiest bassline of the album, bathed in somehow welcoming static. Jones’ work as Muslimgauze remains as enigmatic and rewarding as ever.\" [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Narcotic |
do-LP |
"Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the muslimgauze spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines contrasting radically with the eerie sounds from organic noise, distortions and minimal jams.
The opening track "Medina Flight" bangs on with a metallic sounding looped drum track that blares with distortion at some points while background voices chant out vocals nearly throughout. The track is flavored with other harsh sounds and even a few woodwind sounding instruments before subsequently breaking down and starting back in several times. "Believers of the Blind Sheikh" is a 10-minute middle-eastern sounding dub track sprinkled with live drum sounds and more occasional vocal samples of unknown conversation. "Saddams Children" leans more toward traditional instruments, but one can hear the gurgle of electronics lightly in the background. The instrumentation of the album is amazing. When I first started seeing that Muslimgauze released so many albums in such a short amount of time, I naturally thought that the quality might fall suspect, but Narcotic is a solid piece of work that covers quite a chunk of the electronic music spectrum, although a lot of the rhythms tend to fall on a little harder side. It manages to blend ethnic and electronic sounds into quite an interesting mix.
The images of a surrealistic desert land inhabited by the bizarre and general strangeness abounds in between the strong rhythm usage and cinematic atmosphere unbound, subsequently the decisive progression from the album increases this sensation. The listener easily gets submerged into this opium like state, suscintly guided by the beats and echoes from oriental sounds that wander in and out of the speakers and far away and so close from the mind.Interesting and atractive the album keeps a middle ground status, half experimental and other half adapted for the tribal and linear structure common to Muslimgauze, the listener will find quite another of the many faces of this enigmatic artist." [label info]
"....this album is largely percussion focused and very atmospheric but not necessarily in the way albums like Vote Hezbollah or Mullah Said are. Narcotic focuses much more on dubby, washed out and dense atmospheres that make you feel like you're wandering through an arabic street on a hot summer's day. a truly amazing record to me, featuring extremely memorable tracks like the hypnotic Gulf Between Us (which the 23 minute long extended mix of is excellent, by the way), Effendi, the fabulous and completely entrancing Believers of the Blind Sheikh and all 3 excellent Narcotic suite tracks. just an absolute gem of a record and the one that always sticks out the most to me, due to it's unique atmosphere and immensely coherent tracklist.
a definite recommend. start here if you've never heard Muslimgauze before, as it's probably one of his most accessible and gives the best overall view of his sound in my opinion. it's a perfect mix of the ambient dub, percussion and hypnotic soundscapes i love from him." [StoneInFocus]
|
2020 |
€29.50 |
|
|
Jackal The Invizible |
do-LP |
Listeners who know much of anything about Bryn Jones' work as Muslimgauze know that he was prolific in both his work and in the way he sent out his work to labels and other interested parties. Fittingly enough for an artist that feverishly productive and often taciturn to the point of frustration, he didn't tend to give much more information than handwritten track titles on the sleeve of a DAT. Why he would submit multiple copies of the same or similar tracks to those he worked with, often in totally different configurations, is now a permanent mystery, but it does lead to Jackal The Invizible, essentially a compilation of material from multiple other releases that Jones had also submitted at the time on its own DAT. All of the songs here were released at least 20 years ago (a few over 30) and as with practically all Muslimgauze releases they were limited and/or hard to get ahold of now. Jackal The Invizible is both a way to issue those tracks on vinyl as the Archive series has been consistently doing, and in interesting look into how Jones would organize and sequence his albums. The track listing here was faithfully reproduced from the way Jones titled these tracks on this submission, which is how you get Fedayeen's "Bharboo of Pakistan Railways" here called "Fedayeen Bharboo of Pakistan Railways 2001". This compilation as with most of his work was submitted without comment, so it can be asked, was it intended to be a compilation? Had he at some point decided he preferred these tracks in this arrangement rather than on their other tapes? Did he produce so much work and/or was so disorganized he simply forgot this batch had been mailed off before? Did he have a standing arrangement with his postal worker and just handed him whatever was closest to the door each week? The new juxtapositions can be quite striking; shifting suddenly from the harshly distorted blurts of "Resume and Shaduf Fatah Guerrilla 1999" to the cooly nocturnal atmosphere of "Abu Nidal 1987" and then to the dubby bass pulses and rattling hand percussion of "Hand of Fatima 1999" is an experience unlike much else in Jones' oeuvre, even though all three modes are ones he has worked in before. Engineered and mixed by J. Delf. Mastering by Rinus Hooning. Edition of 700.
|
2021 |
€29.50 |
|
|
Veiled Sisters (GOLD) |
3 x LP |
It's by some strange inversion that since his untimely death in 1999 Bryn Jones' Muslimgauze project has become evermore enigmatic as his publicly available recordings have become evermore vast. The Mancunian artist's sudden passing at the age of 37 prematurely resolved a body of work that remains as experimental as it is diffuse, with an informal archive that was left spread between favoured labels and confidantes. And though this monadic project never abided by genre specifications, it all feels as if it is taking the critical pulses of its time and rendering them into something other than the sum of its obscure compulsions. Jones' double album 'Veiled Sisters' from 1993 is no exception, and it persists as a magnificent outlier in his singular and bewildering discography.
Originally released by the label Soleilmoon, an early and lifelong supporter of Jones' work along with Staalplaat, the album is a notable example of the uniquely recombinant fragility and fervour of Jones' work. This 3LP edition marks the album's first appearance on vinyl. Like much of the Muslimgauze catalogue, 'Veiled Sisters' is dedicated to the Palestine Liberation Organization, with its two halves—Sister One and Sister Two—calling on the history and conflicts of the modern Islamic world through opaque titles and snatches of musical oration.
Forgoing the raucous timbre and abrasion that Jones could occasionally employ, this album balances a medley of shrill instrumental bursts with a complex patterning of ambient atmospheres. 'Veiled Sisters' moves with a hypnotic gait across its extended runtime with a dynamic ensemble of electronics grounded in a pulsing yet evasive combination of low-slung kicks and dub-soaked bass. The hissy wash of drums, both played and machined, decorate a restless patina all over, and the cacophony of samples send impressions scattershot into Jones' idiosyncratic yet readymade psychedelia. With a quiet intensity that is not often captured this succinctly in the Muslimgauze catalogue, this new edition of 'Veiled Sisters' is a reminder of the haunting wonder that Jones was capable of manifesting.
https://alter.bandcamp.com/album/veiled-sisters |
2022 |
€55.00 |
|
|
Turn on Arabic American Radio |
do-LP |
The relationship between Bryn Jones’ music as Muslimgauze and the track/abum titles he would provide (sometimes right on the tapes he would send in for release, but often determined later, sometimes even giving two different pieces months apart the same title, accidentally or not) has always been a little mysterious. Jones himself can no longer be asked, and as we continue to investigate the swathes of material he provided, you hit sources like the DAT or DATs that make up the contents of the new double LP »Turn On Arab American Radio«. Nine tracks, the first LP/four tracks titled »Turn On Arabic American Radio,« and the other LP/five tracks labelled only »Arabic American Radio.« None of them sound particularly radio-esque, although given the simultaneous vastness and ornate focus of Jones’ Muslimgauze work that gap between name and sound is far from atypical.
Instead here the de rigeur percussion loops that underpin this particular set of tracks, while occasionally clipping into the fierce distortion that Jones either loved to use or couldn’t get away from, steer away from both the more consistent application of that distortion as well as the Middle Eastern and Asian influences he often used. It’d be a stretch to call anything here basic boom-bap production but they come closer to it than a lot of Muslimgauze production. And while those loops are, as always prominent, they’re not actually the focus; settling into steady vamps as structures for Jones to pursue an extended and often more gentle exploration of the other sample sources he has here. There are stringed instruments, the sound of water, but most prominently or strikingly the human voice. Nothing is in English but tone and the occasional word ('familia', 'passport') still provide guides. There are ululations, snatches of melody; but most often speech, dialogue, often tense and harried sounding. Is this what Jones was thinking of or referring to with his Arabic American Radio?
As with so many other questions about Muslimgauze, we’ll never know the answer to that one. (Most pertinently in this case we might wonder who appears here, and what the context of these recordings is. But Jones never provided that with his submissions.) Here, even though those inexorable loops pound on, indefatigable, that emphasis on some of the people Jones chooses lends a measured gentleness to much of »Turn On Arabic American Radio«, at least within the context of his body of work. The last thing you hear at the end of the second LP is one last question from one of the many speakers on this peculiar Muslimgauze radio, echoed away into infinity. We may never have answers, but those questions continue to resonate.
https://www.discogs.com/release/25889791-Muslimgauze-Turn-On-Arabic-American-Radio
|
2023 |
€33.00 |
|
|
Veiled Sisters |
do-CD |
It's by some strange inversion that since his untimely death in 1999 Bryn Jones' Muslimgauze project has become evermore enigmatic as his publicly available recordings have become evermore vast. The Mancunian artist's sudden passing at the age of 37 prematurely resolved a body of work that remains as experimental as it is diffuse, with an informal archive that was left spread between favoured labels and confidantes. And though this monadic project never abided by genre specifications, it all feels as if it is taking the critical pulses of its time and rendering them into something other than the sum of its obscure compulsions. Jones' double album 'Veiled Sisters' from 1993 is no exception, and it persists as a magnificent outlier in his singular and bewildering discography.
Originally released by the label Soleilmoon, an early and lifelong supporter of Jones' work along with Staalplaat, the album is a notable example of the uniquely recombinant fragility and fervour of Jones' work. This 3LP edition marks the album's first appearance on vinyl. Like much of the Muslimgauze catalogue, 'Veiled Sisters' is dedicated to the Palestine Liberation Organization, with its two halves—Sister One and Sister Two—calling on the history and conflicts of the modern Islamic world through opaque titles and snatches of musical oration.
Forgoing the raucous timbre and abrasion that Jones could occasionally employ, this album balances a medley of shrill instrumental bursts with a complex patterning of ambient atmospheres. 'Veiled Sisters' moves with a hypnotic gait across its extended runtime with a dynamic ensemble of electronics grounded in a pulsing yet evasive combination of low-slung kicks and dub-soaked bass. The hissy wash of drums, both played and machined, decorate a restless patina all over, and the cacophony of samples send impressions scattershot into Jones' idiosyncratic yet readymade psychedelia. With a quiet intensity that is not often captured this succinctly in the Muslimgauze catalogue, this new edition of 'Veiled Sisters' is a reminder of the haunting wonder that Jones was capable of manifesting.
https://alter.bandcamp.com/album/veiled-sisters |
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Martyr Shrapnel |
CD |
"Written, played. and recorded by Muslimgauze. Mastering by Yuriy Bulychev. Design by Zavoloka. Photography and production by Dmytro Fedorenko. Grad shrapnel and destroyed machine-gun cartridge were kindly provided by Maryna Fedorenko and Georgiy Potopalsky. Martyr Shrapnel was originally released by The Muslimgauze Preservation Society in 2012." [label info]
"2012’s ‘Martyr Shrapnel’ was released by The Muslimgauze Preservation Society as part of their mission to bring unreleased material from Bryn Jones’s vaults to light in the wake of his death at the end of the Nineties. Consisting of material recorded between 1996 and 1998 (including six tracks that appeared on 2012’s ‘Analog Zikr’ cassette) it’s characterised by deep, liquid bass and inventively arranged vocal snippets that show Muslimgauze to have been an early progenitor of dubstep." [Norman Rec's] |
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| MUSTERION |
The Black Lodge |
CD |
Uns bisher unbekanntes Projekt auf HORUS, mit erster (?) Veröffentlichung unter diesem Namen. THE BLACK LODGE ist keine einfache Zusammenstellung von Musikstücken, sondern eher ein theatralisch-szenischer Soundtrack zu einer dunklen Geschichte oder Vision, mit Bezug zu LOVECRAFT, BURROUGHS, KEROUAC, GINSBERG. Das klingt sehr neoklassisch & dunkel instrumental, ist aber auch in elektro-akustischer Weise mit Stimmen & allen möglichen Geräuschen versehen, liegt also zwischen Neo-Klassik / Filmsoundtrack und Elektro-Akustik. Das ganze Werk wirkt wie in einem Traum oder einer Halluzination gehört… Grossformatige Hülle & Kunstdruck-Booklet, nummerierte Auflage von 500 Stück !
"The Black Lodge", a world beyond, is the place were Agent Dale Cooper is trapped. He travers through memories, dreams, Tibet, the works of H. P. Lovecraft and more. The Agent possesses the body of the late Jerzy Grotowski as he do his last journey among the walking dead. The visions of Cooper are seen, heard and felt in this avant-garde and exquisitely dark ambient album from Musterion, Simon AA Kölle (Za Frûmi, Abnocto). The Black Lodge is a place of murder, dreams, mystery, darkness, ancient machines, old memories and horror. A shrieking violin swells into a chaotic babel of sound; a pandemonium that would have lead most men to doubt their own shaking sanity. Inarticulate cries that only mutes can utter, and that rises only in moments of the most terrible fear or anguish.
With extreme attention to details this profound opus of the mind leads the listener away from the normal world and into the world of the Black Lodge. Garmonbozia!“ [label description]
“....In order to induce such a hallucinatory listening experience Musterion creates music using a wide array of instrumentation ranging from traditional and classical acoustic instruments to purely electronic based sounds. Though many songs are shadowed by dark ominous drones the music in each song reaches way beyond the range and habit of standard dark ambient music. Musterion has striven to bring experimentalism to dark ambient music and has successfully created a cinematic environment previously only pursued by too few capable musicians. Musterion “The Black Lodge” is definitely the most powerful full length album I have heard Simon AA Kölle participate upon. Fans of Simon’s previous work as Za Frumi will find the cinematic quality of the music familiar though be informed that the scope and intricateness of the songs far exceed Simon’s work with Za Frumi. I highly encourage dark ambient fans that like music that reaches beyond standard drone music to check out Musterion as well. Anyone with a fetish for H. P. Lovecraft or other dark occult inspired narratives is also encouraged to discover Musterion. Musterion is an invitation to close your eyes and be led into a world of shifting shadows, intrigue, and horror. This excellent release is limited to 500 hand signed copies so collectors be aware of the limited nature of this release.” [Heathen Harvest]
www.horus.cz
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| MUTANTUM |
EXP² |
CD-R |
Another new finnish project, nine tracks of industrial transcension, long waves of overwhelming ambience.. very much recommended!
“ EXPerimental. EXPerience. EXPression. EXPosition. EXPlosion. EXPloration. EXPansion. Surf the brainwaves and dive into the sonic seas of Mutantum, a musical project by Mikko Muranen. Last time around it was the moment for sonic sideshow, now Mutantum is diving deeper. The music on EXP is more focused than on the further reaching sonic realms of Sonic Sideshow (debut release), the style is now more in the depths of ambient noise. All of the tracks are sonic voyages deep into the inner mind. The majority the basic material are natural and unnatural sounds twisted off their original form. The organic feel is also a mean to get these noises somewhat pleasing to the ear, instead of really harsh noise. The rhythm in itself is not as strong element as on Sonic Sideshow. Many of the tracks do have pulse, but there are no rhythm machines, sequences or drum samples this time around.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| MV&EE MEDICINE SHOW |
The Uranian Ray |
LP |
"This beautiful vinyl LP edition MV & EE MEDICINE SHOW's 'URANIAN RAY', originally released on the legendary CHILD OF MICROTONES label in 2004, is a stunning 'get-hi-fidelity' remastered reissue prepared on the spirited channels of the SPECTRASOUND mastering system developed by MATT VALENTINE himself. Therefore a fresh take on a previous favorite, the lunar brother to 'MOON JOOK" hand picked from their catalog by SPIRIT OF ORR, capable of achieving a glorious exit velocity, and slightly rearranged for the time limits & opportunities vinyl provides. Limited single pressing on black vinyl." [label info]
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MY BLOODY VALENTINE |
EP's 1988-1991 |
do-CD |
" "EP's 1998-91" draws together their four EP releases, "Feed Me With Your Kiss", "You Made Me Realise", "Glider" & "Tremelo", alongside 7 additional rare & previously unreleased tracks. New pics and liner notes by Kevin Shields.
Disc One
You Made Me Realise EP
1. You Made Me Realise
2. Slow
3. Thorn
4. Cigarette In Your Bed
5. Drive It All Over Me
Feed Me With Your Kiss EP
6. Feed Me With Your Kiss
7. I Believe
8. Emptiness Inside
9. I Need No Trust
Glider EP
10. Soon
11. Glider
12. Don't Ask Why
13. Off Your Face
Disc Two
1. To Here Knows When [Tremelo EP]
2. Swallow [Tremelo EP]
3. Honey Power [Tremelo EP]
4. Moon Song [Tremelo EP]
5. Instrumental No.2
6. Instrumental No.1
7. Glider [Full Length Version]
8. Sugar
Previously Unreleased
9. Angel
10. Good For You
11. How Do You Do It" [label info/credits]
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
m b v |
LP & CD |
"In November 2012 Kevin Shields announced plans to release a third My Bloody Valentine album in an interview with NME. He stated plans to release it on his website before the end of 2012, and said the album’s release would be followed by a series of live shows. On 24 December 2012, it was announced via the band’s Facebook page that the album had been
completed three days earlier on the 21st. On 27 January 2013, during their first concert since 2009, the band played a new song labeled “rough song”, according to a photo of a setlist that looks to be sitting on the soundboard. During that same concert, Kevin Shields told the audience that the third album “might be out in two or three days”.
Housed in a gatefold sleeve in the left side and pressed on 180 gram vinyl. The CD comes in a card sleeve with an 8-page booklet.
This vinyl album has been recorded as an analogue album. It was recorded on 2 inch 24 track analogue tape and mixed onto half inch analogue tape and mastered with no digital processing involved.
The vinyl is a true analogue cut, i.e. it hasn't been put through a digital process during the cutting process unlike over 90% of all vinyl available today.
"The vinyl will be limited due to manufacturing restrictions."
Manufactured in the UK.
[label & website info]
www.mybloodyvalentine.org
|
2013 |
€30.00 |
|
| MY CAT IS AN ALIEN |
The Dance of Oneirism |
do-LP |
"Limited edition of 300 copies in 3 different screenprinting colours. Record 1 on black vinyl, Record 2 on black vinyl. Silver, Blue and White screenprinted vinyl (on D side), each of 100 copies. Comes with a 24 pages art book, an insert and a postcard. From the extended foreword insert by David Keenan: "Our co-ordinates are fixed, or more properly suggested, by the listing of instruments. Self-made double-bodied string instrument, handmade pocket harp, pedal effects, wordless vocalizations, modified analog drum machine, mini-keyboard, alientronics. [...] The session was recorded - instantly composed - in MCIAA's "Alien Zone", situated in the Western Alps, and it sounds it. The central fact of MCIAA's music has always been space but they have never sounded quite so far away, so removed. [...] Occasionally there is the sound of strings, strange steel resonances that populate the music like ghosts, the ghosts of Roscoe Holcomb's high, lonesome sound, of Dock Boggs and the sanctified steel of Washington Phillips. Ash Ra Tempel met Timothy Leary in the Alps [...] The transmissions are fuzzy up here and at points it makes for a music of almost terrifying quiet. It is minimal, sure, but MCIAA are not so much interested in repetition as in eternal expansion. [...] The Dance Of Oneirism is a music of unknowing, a dance with a phantom, the letting go of a dream." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2015 |
€28.00 |
|
| MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / PESTREPELER |
Solar Anarchy / As Wolf |
pic-LP |
"My Cat Is An Alien are the brothers Roberto and Maurizio Opalio, who have been spreading their unique brand of mysterious guitarnoise improv across the globe for ten years. Pestrepeller are a barely-existing band of part-time musicians from the UK. The core trio is Harley Richardson, Ed Pinsent and Savage Pencil, occasionally joined by guest musicians. The band started life as Ultrasonic Attack Wave Pestrepeller around 1995 or 1996, and made Rodent and Insect Eliminator for Sympathy For The Record Industry. Sonic Boom, the genius behind Spaceman 3, remade this early record by processing it through his VCS3. Apparently he liked its complete lack of musicianship. A second LP Nug Yar was a limited press LP for Gary Ramon's Prescription label and sold out instantly, because only 99 copies of it existed and the print run was pre-sold to Coil fans. The trio played live in London precisely three times. Soon the band split up in acrimonious circumstances due to artistic disagreements, but reformed about two years later, met in the studio and recorded what became Isle of Dark Magick with Peter Hope-Evans, the blues harmonica player who used to be in Medicine Head in the 1970s. This session was released on CD by Important Records in 2006. Pestrepeller meet, play and record very infrequently, because they don't have enough time outside of their other pursuits in work, life, and art." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / STEVE RODEN |
Cosmic Debris Volume 2 |
CD |
Interesting collab of two artists / projects that work in totally differents fields of sound-art creation...
"CD re-issue of the second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.II sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Californian visual and sound artist Steve Roden. What makes this collaborative release so peculiar is the natural interactive exchange occurred between the artists, and that came out from the concept behind the experience itself. Roden's contribution thus represents the unique experience of hearing him literally 'playing' guitar chords. His first track, "E-bows and Rainbows", developes through the minimal and reiterated sound architecture of Roden's so-called 'possible landscapes', where singular source materials such as objects and field recordings are abstracted through electronic processes to generate new audio spaces, characterizing the artist's aesthetic in sound works; the following "My dog is a Yufo" is so far a pretty unheard aspect of Roden's ability to shape a fascinating intimate piece only with an old electric guitar and his own fingers, and it also demonstrates how a true artist can re-create his own personal universe, no matter what kind of source utilized. On their side, MCIAA deliver another piece of 'cosmic debris', centered on multilayered echoes of voice, toy piano, space drones raising from a distant horizon, and their own physical gestures performed during the recording, which reproduce themselves through the air, re-play and give birth to echoes of real time that overcomes its own essence, becoming field recording itself, mirror and spectre of its immutability. Their track entitled "Everything waves like cosmic debris" also features Ramona Ponzini's Japanese bells contribution." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€6.66 |
|
| MYERS, DAVID LEE |
Superpositions |
MC |
"Witness the common phenomenon of feedback such as produced inadvertently through poorly configured microphones and loudspeakers in public amplification situations: the sound coming from the speakers finds its way back into the microphones and produces an uncomfortable squealing sound. The component elements are electronic and acoustic, the latter involving air movement and vibration of physical objects. But internal electronic feedback is quite a curious animal, something distinct from electroacoustic feedback. It can operate – feed back – eternally, but make no sound; vibrate no air, reach no ears. It is this silent marching of electrons, antlike, about some elaborate roadway perhaps only known to themselves which is so fascinating to an artist.
The introduction of the early guitar effects devices was the real opening of an interest in sound and music for me. The initial impression of an Echoplex tape-delay (ca. 1966) still reverberates, as it were – I put down my guitar and focused on this thing itself; who needed a guitar now? A sound goes in one end and comes out the other, somehow transformed into a modified clone of itself; partially the same, but evolved. And it is significant that this transformation is a manipulation of the sound’s time-path. Most audio effects boxes – and all of those which interest me most – are based on manipulations of time, that strange entity which even the most advanced scientific analyses have yet to explain convincingly. Since childhood this inexplicable thing called time has puzzled and excited me, and in the effects device the question comes forth along with a satisfying aesthetic pleasure. Further, the concepts of time manipulation and feedback come together in the ancient ourobouros symbol which was intended to speak of several things at once: self-referral (consciousness), recurrence, and eternity. Feedback is far more than a public address system in misalignment; it is a core principle of universal importance.
DLM
David Lee Myers (aka Arcane Device) releases his latest album of Feedback Music, titled Superpositions. These pieces have been created through the use of specially configured electronic components, none of which are designed to produce sounds on their own. Rather, audio processors are wired so that their inputs are fed their own outputs, as well as the outputs of other processors, via a series of matrix mixers. The whole assemblage is played as a real-time instrument, producing tones and patterns ranging from subtle sound washes to cacophonous deluges. Superpositions is a meditation upon the unseen forces and energies inhabiting the subatomic world.
“David Lee Myers finds his sounds in the off-screen space of feedback networks. By patching the output of an electronic audio device, such as a mixing board, back into its input, Myers is able to conjure and navigate within this space… He takes snapshots of the sonic entities populating these spaces then arranges them into etheric photo-mosaics.” (Kim Cascone)
David Lee Myers is a sound and visual artist living in New York City. Since 1987 he has produced electronic music via his custom ”Feedback Machines“ under his own name, as well as Arcane Device. Myers has had dozens of recordings released by Starkland, ReR, Generator, Line, Silent, Pogus, RRRecords, Staalplaat, Monochrome Vision, and many other labels. Collaborations have been produced with Gen Ken Montgomery, Thomas Dimuzio, Ellen Band, guitarist Marco Oppedisano, Dirk Serries, and noise maestro Merzbow. Two Albums were created with legendary electronic pioneer Tod Dockstader, and four others with Hamburg’s master sound manipulator Asmus Tietchens, with a fifth in progress. Myers has performed his sounds and visuals at New York’s Generator, The Kitchen, Roulette, Experimental Media Foundation, the Knitting Factory, Clocktower, MoMA/PS1, Outpost Artists Resources, Trans Pecos and Silent Barn, as well as the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, and the Boston Museum of Modern art, among others.
All tracks produced by David Lee Myers 2016-17 on original electronic feedback systems.
Created live-to-recording with no overdubs.
Cover photo by DLM.
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/superpositions
|
2017 |
€9.00 |
|
| MYRNINEREST |
Jhonn, Uttered Babylon |
LP |
"MYRNINEREST ist der neue halluzinogene Cartoon aus der Feder von David Tibet, der gern außerhalb von CURRENT 93, mit den Künstlern und Freunden arbeiten wollte, die er am meisten bewunderte.
' "Jhonn," Uttered Babylon', ihr eindringliches Debüt mit James Blackshaw und David Tibet, handelt von Davids Freundschaft mit dem verstorbenen Jhonn Balance von COIL, seinem Tod und wie er den Freundeskreis um Jhonn in Mitleidenschaft zog.
Sämtliche Lyrics stammen von David; die Musik von James. Das Album wurde im Februar 2012 mit James Blackshaw an der klassischen Gitarre und am Harmonium und mit David als Sänger aufgenommen.
Beide Formate, LP und CD, beinhalten die gleichen Songs, doch mit verschiedenen Mixen von verschiedenen Künstlern.
Die Tracks haben auf beiden Formaten verschiedene Titel. Die Vinyl-Version wurde von The Bricoleur gemischt und kommt in einem Vollfarb-, Reverse-Board Hülle mit einem 4-seitige Booklet mit den Songtexten und zwei Reproduktionen von Kohlezeichnungen von Jhonn Balance.
Das Gemälde auf dem LP-Cover ist ebenfalls von Jhonn Balance." [label info]
www.myrninerest.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
*Jhonn*, Uttered Babylon |
CD |
"MYRNINEREST ist der neue halluzinogene Cartoon aus der Feder von David Tibet, der gern außerhalb von CURRENT 93, mit den Künstlern und Freunden arbeiten wollte, die er am meisten bewunderte.
""Jhonn," Uttered Babylon", ihr eindringliches Debüt mit James Blackshaw und David Tibet, handelt von Davids Freundschaft mit dem verstorbenen Jhonn Balance von COIL, seinem Tod und wie er den Freundeskreis um Jhonn in Mitleidenschaft zog.
Sämtliche Lyrics stammen von David; die Musik von James. Das Album wurde im Februar 2012 mit James Blackshaw an der klassischen Gitarre und am Harmonium und mit David als Sänger aufgenommen.
Beide Formate, LP und CD, beinhalten die gleichen Songs, doch mit verschiedenen Mixen von verschiedenen Künstlern.
Die Tracks haben auf beiden Formaten verschiedene Titel. Die CD Version wurde von Andrew Liles (CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND) gemischt und kommt als vollfarbiges Digipak mit 20-seitigem Booklet mit den Albumtexten und Reproduktion von Kohlekunstwerken von Jhonn Balance.
Die beiden Zeichnungen auf CD und Booklet stammen ebenfalls von Jhonn." [label ifo]
www.myrninerest.com
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| MYSTERY OF THE BULGARIAN VOICES FEAT. LISA GERRARD |
BooCheeMish |
BOX - set |
The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices will release their first album of new studio recordings in over two decades on May 25th, 2018. Better known to many as Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (Grammy winner for “Best Traditional Folk Recording”), ‘BooCheeMish’ sees the esteemed Bulgarian choir performing together with erstwhile 4AD Records label mate Lisa Gerrard (co-founder of the duo Dead Can Dance) on several tracks, thereby uniting two of the most distinctive vocal acts working in music. Gerrard, who is also well known for her movie soundtrack work on films such as ‘Gladiator’ and ’The Insider’, has often spoken about the influence the choir exerted on her singing technique when she discovered their music in the early 1980’s.
In successfully connecting Bulgarian folklore with other traditions and cultures, the album manages to retain the unique identity of the voices, vocal styles and techniques of the individual choir members, even when allying them with acoustic accompaniment such as stringed instruments and various types of percussion, including beatbox.
Once described as “the marriage of the avant-garde and the Middle Ages”, the magic of the ensemble stems from its success in mastering Bulgaria’s diverse, age-old vocal traditions while simultaneously sounding strikingly modern and original, thanks to the unique choral music structure - multi-part a cappella arrangements that transform its collective sound into strange colours as if something other than the human voice is being heard.
themysteryofthebulgarianvoices.bandcamp.com/album/boocheemish
|
2018 |
€68.00 |
|
| |
BooCheeMish |
2 x CD & BOOK |
The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices will release their first album of new studio recordings in over two decades on May 25th, 2018. Better known to many as Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (Grammy winner for “Best Traditional Folk Recording”), ‘BooCheeMish’ sees the esteemed Bulgarian choir performing together with erstwhile 4AD Records label mate Lisa Gerrard (co-founder of the duo Dead Can Dance) on several tracks, thereby uniting two of the most distinctive vocal acts working in music. Gerrard, who is also well known for her movie soundtrack work on films such as ‘Gladiator’ and ’The Insider’, has often spoken about the influence the choir exerted on her singing technique when she discovered their music in the early 1980’s.
In successfully connecting Bulgarian folklore with other traditions and cultures, the album manages to retain the unique identity of the voices, vocal styles and techniques of the individual choir members, even when allying them with acoustic accompaniment such as stringed instruments and various types of percussion, including beatbox.
Once described as “the marriage of the avant-garde and the Middle Ages”, the magic of the ensemble stems from its success in mastering Bulgaria’s diverse, age-old vocal traditions while simultaneously sounding strikingly modern and original, thanks to the unique choral music structure - multi-part a cappella arrangements that transform its collective sound into strange colours as if something other than the human voice is being heard.
themysteryofthebulgarianvoices.bandcamp.com/album/boocheemish
|
2018 |
€48.00 |
|
| MYSTERY SCHOOL |
Triangle of the Sun |
CD |
"Triangle of the Sun" is an instrumental work that references the male/sun energy - the morning star. It is a land where drones and drum beats live in harmony while creating a vibratory trip through these energies. The three pieces represent the phases of the sun from morning to twilight. Through the use of specific musical frequencies the music allows the listener a meditative journey through the intellectual/logical with hints of South American mythology and magic.”[label info]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| MYSTIFIED |
M |
do-CDR |
Nice collection of older & newer material of this currently very active US low-fi & experimental drone project. Lots of different stuff to discover, some reminds on raw ZOVIET FRANCE-like sounds, some is more electronically refined and based on sampled material or synths (then it sounds like a low-fi version of COIL), some sounds more digitalized & abrasive... not easy to classifiy, from deep rumblings to more electronica-sounding stuff, but always dark & brooding ..
"2 disc collection featuring a retrospective of older & unreleased material plus a disc of all new tracks. 22 tracks - total running time 1 hour 33 minutes - 2x5" dual hub, inkjet printed cdr w/ insert in a tin." [label info]
http://roilnoise.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| MYSTIFIED & MARTYN SCHMIDT |
An Effort of Memory |
CD-R |
"ACE 1002: CD-R in folded cardboard sleeve
Many albums in the Attenuation Circuit Eco Series are split releases, but this hour-long composition is a true collaboration with 50 per cent input from both US-based drone artist Mystified and German poet and sound artist Martyn Schmidt. Starting with a poem, Schmidt’s voice morphs into pure vocal improvisation and breathing, both processed to amalgamate with Mystified’s acoustic drones. The result sounds at times like La Monte Young meeting Morton Feldman or like Norwegian experimental jazz singer Sidsel Endresen imitating deep bass strings with her voice.
Using feedback loops, the sound of whale bones played as percussion instruments on a Danish island, and jackhammers from local building sites, Schmidt „encoded, stored and retrieved“ (as the back cover says) lots of samples along with the music by Mystified he was reacting to - encoding, storing, retrieving being the three steps of memory as conceptualised by psychology. Connecting psychoacoustics back to his poetic roots, Schmidt also quotes (on the cover-artwork) the poem “Andenken” (Memory, or Remembrance) by Hölderlin. Memorising, forgetting, and recreating sounds and words turn out to be different sides of the artistic process, and the drone as a music that forever seems to dissolve and congeal, to ebb and flow, to move and stand still, seems a perfect sonic metaphor for this." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"A collaboration by Thomas Park's project Mystified and Martyn Schmidt, a German poet and sound artist. There is a short spoken word prologue, a sixty-two minute piece of music, and short epilogue. In the main piece, 'An Effort Of Memory', uses, according to the information, 'feedback loops, the sound of whale bones as percussion instruments on a Danish island and jackhammers from local building sites', of which Schmidt made the samples which he combined with the music of Mystified, resulting in this hour long sound collage of all things atmospheric. Forget the word jackhammers (or building site), as there is nothing 'industrial' or loud about this. The music here is all atmospheric, dark in the full moon night, and everything flows into each other. The music may seem an amorphous mass of sounds mixed together, without real beginning or end, and perhaps (I might be wrong) without much compositional planning. More like a go with the flow kind of music, which is nothing strange in this particular musical underworld. None of the sound sources are easily recognized here, if at all, but all is transformed into a long, sustaining mass of atmospherics, and works very well. A cold day today, autumn has arrived it seems and this is the soundtrack for such seasonal weather. Nothing new, but it works very well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| MYTRIP |
Keeper |
LP |
"The new Mytrip full-length album “Keeper” is a work of progress and growth, of pushing oneself out of comfort zones while managing to stay true to a carefully nurtured and developed aesthetic. A continuation of the sound hinted at in “Filament” (Amek, 2016) and Angel Simitchiev’s recent work with other projects, “Keeper” is a more rhythmic and loop-based work that explores and juxtaposes a plethora of atmospheres and moods, thus resulting in a sonically and emotionally complex and mature piece of music that manages to communicate its author’s singular vision.
The backbone of “Keeper” was originally written for a live performance at the Bulgarian National Radio in October 2018. Self-recorded with the intention to be preserved as a live album, most of the music retains the original structure, feeling, and intensity of this first performance but was further explored and expanded during recording sessions and selected live shows throughout the next year. Some ideas were dismissed while others were expanded on. As a result, “Keeper” has become a record that is polished and meticulous, while sounding and feeling utterly real, raw, and immediate."
https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com/album/keeper
"It has been a couple of years since I last checked in with the activities of Mytrip, but their 2016 album Filament was an excellent release which has received occasional spins over the years. In my review from 2017 I noted it: ‘operates at the border regions between dark ambient, drone, (modern) industrial and (abstracted) experimental techno, therefore encompassing a sound that defies easy categorisation’ (full review here). Keeper is the brand-new six tracks album and while continues also substantially builds on the earlier sonic framework by blending its elements in more varied yet unified way. Also, according to the promo blurb, the core of the album has its basis in a 2018 live performance at the Bulgarian National Radio, which has been further expanded and reworked.
Eyepiece opens the album with amorphous and ethereal drones blended with jittery programming and functions to immediately draw focused attention, before the mid-track it twists off in a different direction with sustained synth melodies. We Are All Shadow People follows and has a sense of stationary motionlessness resulting a series of duelling looped textures and abstracted synth lines. In then arcing away from this stasis, Unsealing Colossus divergently features widescreen vistas with sweeping ‘wind textured’ drones, muted melodious pulses and other semi-fractured rhythmic elements. Blood Black Like Water is then as brooding as the title suggests, based around a murky aquatic churn and throbbing base pulse, while a slow bass kick edges the track forwards. Upheaval shifts the mood again and is extremely filmic in tone, given its driving / throbbing techno pulse and maudlin cinematic synths, while the album’s concluding piece Warmth Patterns, is perhaps the most melodious track of all, with interweaving ‘glimmering’ textures (and perhaps draws a fleeting compassion to the likes of Fennesz).
Each of the six album tracks sits at around the five-minute mark, meaning the total run time is around 30 or so minutes, yet given its compositional variation it nebulously feels to be much longer than this. Equally the abstracted line-work found within nature as illustrated on the the cover is a suitable visual metaphor for the flowing complexity of the music. More varied, freeform and self-assured than Filament, Keeper is equally immediate as it complex in sonic construction, meaning it draws attention on first listen and maintains it on repeated rotations. Recommended." [Noise Receptor]
"Angel Simitchiev is the man behind Mytrip and also acting as the label boss here and as such we know him as a man who loves mood music of the somewhat darker variety. It has been a while since I last heard a full-length work by Mytrip (Vital Weekly 1059 I believe) and I wrote that he "no doubt plays guitar, electronics and field recordings", but that was based on nothing, to be honest. There is a picture of Mytrip on the insert, just second before he starts performing and there is no guitar in sight. A laptop, some 'gear' and that's all. Maybe there has been a shift towards different instruments in recent years that I am not aware of. In the music, this shift is quite clear. The music was written for a show in Studio 1 of the Bulgarian National Radio and later on, some fragments were dropped and others expanded upon. The dark mood from field recordings tuned and turned in drones is a still a presence but rhythm also plays a role now. Not stomping around, but carefully placed when needed, and omitted on other occasions. In 'Upheavel' the "rhythm" sounded like a Muslimgauze sample from the 'Azzazin' era. There is a warm glitch effect to most of the music here, which makes a nice effect for a change. It is perhaps a reminder of the warm days of laptop glitch from a long time ago, but Mytrip cleverly combines this with the best of processed drones and spacious dark ambient music, stringing together another hybrid of what ambient can be. Not something that is entirely new but with the addition of rhythm samples coming up with six fine slabs of dark mood music, which, strange as it may seem, never is the sound of despair, but of light and hope. Maybe I am all wrong but that's how it all sounded to me. Great record, all together." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
| MZ.412 |
In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi |
CD |
"First of 5 albums in the MZ. 412 reissue series, with a new album planned for next year. 1995 bore witness to the resurrection of nefarious Swedish horde MZ. 412 (previously manifest as Maschinenzimmer 412) - Nordvargr, Drakh, Ulvtharm and Shaitan. This ground-breaking, genre-defining album saw the inventors of "Black Industrial" blur the boundaries between Black Metal, Ritual Industrial, Dark Ambient and Power Noise. "In Nomine..." captures the darkest sides of Satanism, death and ritual sacrifice. An enduring, blasphemous statement of True Swedish Black Industrial. This remastered version features two previously unreleased tracks, alternate versions and all new artwork. Housed in a matt digipak with spot varnishing." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Swedish label Cold Meat Industry was one of the leading labels to release industrial-based ambient-albums that was often termed black ambient or death ambient. One of the true legends from the label was Swedish artist known as MZ. 412 who together with compatriot artists Deutsch Nepal and Brighter Death Now was a leading artist to form the style of Cold Meat Industry. Now more than one decade later British label Cold Spring has taken the trip back to the past to the early days of MZ. 412 and now releases all five albums from the master of black magic. Mz. 412 was originally born as Maschinenzimmer 412. Brain-man behind was Henrik "Nordvargr" Bjorkk who has also released solo-albums under the name Nordvargr with among others collaborations with noise artist Merzbow. Mz 412 circulates in-between spheres of industrial, power electronics and dark ambient with a black metal edge. Maschinenzimmer 412 was developed in 1989, where the shortage MZ. 412 became actual from 1994 forward. All five re-issues have been remastered and comes in a neat package: A black designed digipacinner sleeve with minimalist front-design and early satanic artwork painting on the inner sleeve. First two releases "In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi" (1994) and "Burning the temple of god" (1995) is ritual works of martial rhythm textures and subtle drones of crushing power electronics. What is remarkable by these two is the elements of black metal expressions that suits well into the black atmospheres. On the next album "Nordik battle signs" from 1998 the expression seems darker and more heavy. Elements of black metal has disappeared. Instead the expression is more brutal with crushing power electronics. The album among others contains the absolutely astonishing pieces of ritual brutality "Satan Jugend II : Global conqueering" and "In hoc signo vinces". As we move to next album "Domine Rex Inferum" the expressions turns more subdued with focus on black ambient expressions until the final tracks where hell breaks loose with destructible power electronics. Last album in the box originally was released five years after the aforementioned previous album "Domine Rex Inferum". The album titled "Infernal affairs" moves away from the subtle textures of "Domine Rex Inferum" and thus takes the listener in to more upfront and bombastic textures of Industrial with elements of utterly dark ambient and cynic black noise. Hordes of samples from humans whispering, conversing and sometimes screaming in pain saturates the album meanwhile black whooshing drones creates a cinematic atmosphere. An absolutely astonishing boxset demonstrating why MZ 412 is considered one of the true kings of the Swedish black industrial-scene launched from Cold Meat Industry. A true milestone!" [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MZ.412 /TREPANERINGSRITUALEN |
X Post Industriale / Rituals 2015 e.V. |
do-LP |
On October 31 2015 "MZ.412" and "TREPANERINGSRITUALEN" performed two memorable "Rituals" at OEC's label festival
the "X CONGRESSO POST INDUSTRIALE" at Club Kindergarten in Bologna - Italy.
Those sounds are finally fixed into solid and heavy vinyl for all those who will re-live those rituals in the next million of years!
Co-released by OEC & AnnapurnA
Gatefold-Cover plus Poster
Artwork by Thomas Eklund / TxRxP
Mastering by Henrik Bjorkk / Nordvargr
Black Vinyl limited to 500 copies.
Each vinyl side includes one long "Akt" (Ritual) by the 2 projects
Tracklist:
A. MZ. 412 - Akt I
B. MZ.412 - Akt II
C. T x R x P - Akt I
D. T x R x P - Akt II |
2017 |
€32.00 |
|
| MØHR & MAEROR TRI |
Hafenstadt |
CD |
" On “Hafenstadt”: This music was originally planned to form a part of the third tape box in the MØHR interpretation series of ZNS TAPES. In this series different artists got an individual 30-minutes-piece of basic material by MØHR to be interpreted it in any way: Using it as a backing tape and adding some more tracks, getting inspired and doing something unique in the spirit of the basic material, deconstruct and arrange it anew. The invited artists had any opportunity to re-work the source material. For the actual release the basic material was placed on side A and the interpretation on side B, enabling the listener to compare the basic and the final sound. Three tapes were compiled as one tape box linked by a loose theme. The first box, Bürokratie, contained works by DAS KONZENTRAT, BESTATTUNGSINSTITUT and SUICIDE COMMANDO (released in 1990), the second, Kulturschock, contained works by ANDREW CHALK/DARREN TATE, ECTOPLASMIC EMBRYO EXPERIENCE and FLAGRANTs D’ELI (released in 1991). The third one, which was to contain Hafenstadt by MAEROR TRI (as well as material of PBK and THE HATERS), has never been released due to the sudden end of ZNS TAPES. We’re convinced that this combination of basic stuff plus musical reworking is still an interesting and exciting experience for the audience, maybe especially after more than 20 years in the archives. (Andreaz Vogel)
MØHR biography
MØHR existed between 1986 and 1994 as the solo project of Andreaz Vogel. Previously he had been active as a bass player and drummer in various post punk and noise rock groups.Since its inception the main aim with MØHR was to create a dense and energetic sound without the use of conventional instruemnts. With this wall of sound the listeners were almost under attack and forced into a dark and brooding listening environment, both on the recordings and in the live situation. Andreaz also ran the important tape label ZNS TAPES.
MAEROR TRI biography
MAEROR TRI existed from April 1988 to the end of 1996, coming from the very north-western part of Germany. The three members were influenced by (post) industrial, noise rock and experimental ambient and found a way to establish their very own drone based style, using often guitars but also other instruments plus all kinds of (self build) objects and masses of sound effects. Their symbol, the triangle “Wheel” stood for ‘consciousness’, moving & shining in different colours and speed. The sound was meant as a tool for the listener to open the mind for transcension & sensitization: ‘We want to transmit a total openness, the bursting and overcoming of all mental barriers, the breaking out of the enforced subject “Tunnel-Reality” of modern society. ‘ Out of MAEROR TRI evolved the projects TROUM and 1000SCHOEN that are still very active." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
www.aufabwegen.com
"Mohr was the work of German avant tape-machinist Andreaz Vogel who ran the ZNS Tapes label in the late '80s and early '90s; and our introduction to this work dates way back to the very second Drone Records single, released in 1993. This was about the time when Vogel pretty much called it quits on sound construction; but given how many great artists had been introduced through the Drone Records series of singles, Mohr's work had always been intriguing even as it had been quite elusive in the global cassette underground at that time. By the end of Mohr's tenure, Vogel had embarked on three mail-art pieces in which various audio sculptors and sound destroyers would rework / deconstruct a 30 minute track from Mohr. The second in this trilogy was notable to those Andrew Chalk enthusiasts as an unknowable Ora cassette from 1992. The third - and never released - cassette was to include Maeror Tri, The Haters, and PBK. With Hafenstadt, we now have a glimpse back into the gristled, contorted, and mangled tape construction that Mohr had been producing in conjunction with a pretty stellar set of black hole implosion of x-ray drone courtesy of Maeror Tri. Vogel took something of a Fluxus approach to his industrially bent constructions, purposely avoiding musical instruments in favor of the found sound that got flung into orbit in a spiraling descent of his tape loop dub and squeaky wheel rhythmic errata. These are deliberately raw and malformed cyclical patterns for a DIY musique concrete. Maeror Tri's brain-crush of sustained reverb and backwards masked flares of dark energy bury much of the insistent hypnosis from Mohr well beneath their grim wall of leaden noise and nuclear winter drone. It's always a wonder to behold the early works from Maeror Tri, and here it's nicely paired with Mohr's mangled hypnogogia." (Aquarius Rec)
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| N [XX] (HELLMUT NEIDHARDT) |
Rote Fuhr [N41] |
LP |
"N is the moniker of Dortmund-based German experimental guitarist Hellmut Neidhardt. September 2015 marks the release of a new solo record and a collaboration album, N(41) „Rote Fuhr“ and N(42) + Dirk Serries „Kehr“.
„Rote Fuhr“ is special. Musically it finally brings together the more noise orientated approach of „Saarn“ and „Heven“ with the deep droning of records like „Prora“ (empiric records), „Goor“ and „Oie Kirr“ (both: Denovali). Also using white noise in a musically way, like a cold storm breaking loose, whiping away everything around and pushing it into abyssial, dark and glowing drones. With a destroyed arpeggio slicing some parts of „Rote Fuhr“, with a stacking of layers between noise and organ-like drones, all stenched together with micro-melodies to a symphony of brutal beauty.
Coda: this record mainly transports anger. An anger felt during a short tour of N with his labelmates Petrels and Talvihorros during a very dissappointing showcase in front (or better: not really in front) of some really ingnorant people. The next night made Hellmut instantly quit the intended setlist and let the anger run through the amps. And so finally finding a home for some motifs being played live since 2011... In a way they were never played before. ... Hellmut was very angry that evening, but very happy with this result. And just to be sure: this is a live-record. Recorded at Schlegels / Dortmund / Germany by Andreas Brinke as the recording engineer." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2015 |
€27.50 |
|
| N.STRAHL.N / METEK |
Drowning Devices |
CD-R |
"five tracks of subtley menacing, creepy combination of pulsing electronics, droning vibration, and field recordings evoking a claustrophobic, lysergic-fueled fevered dreamscape. Comes in a DVD case, the disk is pro burnt and printed." [label info]
"... The thematic approach here seems to be 'life under water', and more special the life inside a submarine. Both artists feel quite the same what the other wants and together they drum up five pieces that fit together quite well. The field recordings are difficult to pin down - but seem to me made in tunnels to get that reverb and that also keeps the sound 'outside', as recorded through a tube. To this they add their own electronics and sound effects. It starts out a bit noisy, but quite soon moves into a musical area where ambient, industrial, and microsound meet up. At times the amount of reverb used is a bit too much, but the claustrophobic nature of the music comes out quite well. Certainly when played through headphones this comes quite close. There is not much difference between the tracks that were finished by Metek or by N.Strahl.N, which might be a bit problematic - faceless perhaps - but together it makes quite a strong album. Something for the lovers of more present drone music, and those who love the Mystery Sea releases." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| NADJA |
Skin Turns to Glass |
CD |
So ziemlich alles was NADJA in ihre Frühphase jemals herausgebracht haben, wird dieser Tage wiederveröffentlicht, so auch SKIN TURNS TO GLASS; die drei Stücke erschienen 2003 als CDR auf Nothingness Records und präsentiere NADJAs unnachahmlichen "Ambient Metal"-Sound, vom emotionalen Charakter her betrachtet sind das Drone-Stücke mit Hang zum Unendlichen und Dunkel-Kosmischen, als stilistische Mittel werden Metal-Elemente benutzt..
Als besonderes Schmankerl gibt es hier noch einen wunderbaren vierten, unbetitelten Track (fast 30 min lang), der NADJA von ihrer ambient-experimentellen Seite zeigt, mit endlosen Wellen von an- und abschwellenden Soundflächen......
"Dirge-like metal riffs & heavy, minimal percussion w/ ethereal melodicism & something of a shoegazer asthetic, creating a swirling amorphous wall of sound that strives to be both obliterating & uplifting. 3 tracks with a running time of 80 minutes." [label info]
"....So why buy this one? Or the two forthcoming releases? Or the 30 or 40 past releases? Well, if you're like us, we can't get enough of the sound of Nadja. And like we mentioned above, we HAVE figured out a way to make this sound go on forever. Each record, takes the dense blissed out buzz, the lurching doomic trudge, the gloriously effulgent majesty of Nadja, and stretches it out just a little bit further. Each time adding something crucial that wasn't there before. On Skin Turns to Glass, the songs are evenmore meditative and repetitive, looped endlessly, the riffs churning mantra-like, a buzzing slow motion hynorock, separated by spaced out stretches of glimmering ambience, and deep cavernous drones. Every Nadja record we're tempted to declare it the best yet, but we'd bet you if we went back to one of the first releases, we'd immediately think that it was in fact the best one. Such is the magic of Nadja, the sound they've created, the soundworld, each piece is as important as any other, the sound wouldn't be complete, in fact can naver be truly complete, until there are no more records, no more songs, no more pieces to add to the ever expanding puzzle. Hopefully that will never happen.
Includes an unlisted bonus track, nearly thirty minutes of shimmering doomic minimalism, droning dark bliss, that explodes in
the last minute or so, in a flurry of incendiary white noise, a drum damaged blown out psychguitar metallic meltdown, that ends quite abruptly, leaving us to wait patiently for the next movement, coming soon..." [Aquarius Records review]
label-website: www.theendrecords.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Trembled |
CD |
"Trembled has returned, triumphantly. Released by Utech Records [046] in the summer of 2006 on limited cdr. The principal live recordings from Toronto have been remixed/remastered and include a rare performance of Swans "No Cure for the Lonely." The core of the release, though, is “Tremble”, a cascading improvisation of drift and atmospherics revealed to audiences on an occasional basis. The track is telling of the fluidity with which Nadja create and why the band has become so highly regarded. “Breakpoint” and “Corrasion” complete the set. Exclusive material has been added in "Stays Demons" and a second version of "Tremble" recorded by Scott Slimm in Philadelphia. Illustration by Justin Bartlett. The ultimate document of Nadja at their most electric and empyreal." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Desire in Uneasiness |
CD |
".. Zwar gibt es auch hier wabernde, monotone Texturen galore, allerdings schieben sich hier auch immer wieder mal unterschwellig feine Melodien durch das Geräuschdickicht. Der übliche Shoegazer-Doom wird mit etwas feinfühligerem Ambient-Feeling zu brutalem, subtil variierenden Soundscapes verwoben. Wühlt innerlich ziemlich auf." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Following a wave of recent reissues and re-recorded versions of older CD-R titles, Desire In Uneasiness is an album of all new material from the acclaimed Canadian dreamsludge weavers Nadja. Five colossal jams of eternally-fuzzy, ethereal dirge that are powered by the interlocking bass guitars of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, who set loose a wave of monstrous grinding bass riffs amidst a fog of beautiful, swirling electronic effects. Desire also marks the first Nadja album to feature a live drummer in place of the drum machine programming that has driven the band's previous recordings, and the difference in the band's sound is apparent from the first crushing beats of album opener 'Disambiguation'. The organic drumming here takes Nadja's music into new realms of spacious jazzy exploration, dubby rhythms and cavernous psychedelia, while also delivering some of the band's most grooving, crushing hypno-bliss yet.
Desire also stands out from the rest of the Nadja catalog for it's bizarre artwork that Aidan commisioned from his friend The Reverend Aitor. Aitor's bright, bold lines and textured magic marker artwork gives the gatefold jacket we've presented this disc in the look of a twisted children's book on acid, with weird images of chickens, trees growing through chairs, and more. The package is a sturdy 4-panel gatefold jacket printed by Stoughton, and it looks killer." [label info]
www.crucialblast.net
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Corrasion |
do-LP |
Vinyl-Version des Albums / CD von 2007. Kommt mit neuer Version des Titelstücks und Bonus-Track. 400 Stück gibt es nur, feines Klappcover, schweres Vinyl, und die Musik? "das vielleicht bisher eingängigste NADJA-Album, himmlische Melodien & wuchtige Arrangements, wundersame Drone-Sphären und geisterhaft gehauchter Gesang, im Spannungsfeld & Treffpunkt von Metal, Post-Rock und Sphären-Drone... Wiederveröffentlichung / Neu-Arrangements der Stücke einer CDR von 2003." [Drone Rec info]
"Basses Frequences is damn proud to finally give the vinyl treatment to what is certainly Nadja's finest full-length recording. "Corrasion" has Nadja in full doom mode; it is an extraordinary mix of slow, heavy, and layered guitar riffs and the ultra-dense-yet-melodic-drones that have become Nadja's trademark. "Corrasion" has been re-mastered for the vinyl release and includes an exclusive, extended version of the title track as well as the outstanding "numb" to expand on the 2007 CD release. Strictly limited to 400 copies on 180 gram black vinyl ( and 100 on 180 gram blue vinyl - sold out ) packaged in a full-color gatefold sleeve." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/corrasion
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Under the Jaguar Sun |
do-LP |
"Packaged in a full color custom made book bound gatefold sleeve with 180 gram vinyl. Note: The vinyl version features three mixes by Nadja and one mix by Edward Ka-Spel using the 2xCD set as source material so the music is very different from the CD version. “Night and day, you are the one. Only you beneath the moon or under the Jaguar Sun…” Now you’re messing with a sun of a bitch. Let’s count backwards. The second disc in this set “Quetzalcoatl” diffuses into the air an alien vocabulary of electronicesque gargles and hums. A soundtrack made from the residue left after a subterranean dowsing for the echoes of collapsing stars. These disembodied post-transmissions form up in a Minerva’s Web of sunken Titanic ghosts, slow moaning as from distant caverns. Disc one of the set, “Tezcatlipoca” is the actual collapsing of stars. Or, perhaps the exploding majesty of every day’s new sun being reborn, as it once again defeats those Xibilba’s and rises to arc through its dominion again. This monstrous soul goes from grumbling angrily to mowing the heavens. Parts even cross into early Swans territory with aggressively fractured pacing. But all roads lead to the final track which is an epic length doom metal anthem of sweating proportions. Wave after wave of crushing fuzz slowly pummel speakers into diamonds and rust. A relentless solar rotorvating blasterpiece. Which brings us to part 3 of this 2 CD set. Both CD’s have been composed to also be played simultaneously, in a much more useable fashion than the Zaireekas of the world. So, if “Tezcatlipoca” is overground and “Quetzalcoatl” is underground (or, more likely, the reverse) their combination must be all things….and no things. Maybe the sound of the end of things. The resultant juxtaposition is a colossal celestial being smiling down on all he tramples." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2010 |
€26.50 |
|
|
Ruins of Morning (SOLD OUT) |
10inch |
"RUINS OF MORNING shows NADJA in a very experimental & dark poetic mood. Their contribution for the "Substantia Innominata"-series (dealing with / drawing inspiration from the "Unknown", "Unnameable" or "Not-Knowable") comes in two long parts based around one musical theme that appears again and again (a great dark harmonic phrase moving through different levels through this epic track), linked by very beautiful drone-sections & more noisy outbursts. Song-orientation and a more experimental sound-art approach are thus combined perfectly.
The phantastic lyrics from Aidan Baker point in a very poetic way to an utopian new morning where material values play no role anymore, but a new state of sensual being is settled in an almost J.G.BALLARDian way, when perceptions of the environment (sky, lights, sun) and the beloved (eyes & skin) fall into one.
Or is this a nocturnal boundless dream-phantasy? The wish / fear to return to mothers womb, a state where everything is one (one is all) again?
These lyrics open up a scope of vague possible interpretations witch match up perfectly with the impressing music; a music that describes "The Unknown" in strong metaphors of surrealistic psychic states of being.
Experience the avantgardish drone-metal duo at their most dark & beautiful and on their very first 10" ! Edition of 500 copies on GOLDen vinyl, fantastic artwork by Marcin Lojek (ibsendesign.pl). One track in two very long parts, playtime 40+ minutes!!" [label info]
RELEASE DATE 10. APRIL 2010 !!
www.substantia-innominata.de
"...In this series things evolve around 'Unknown', 'Unnameable' and 'Not-Knowable'. Nadja plays one piece, cut in two. Here they use more guitar like sounds, as Aidan Baker is the guitarist and vocals, while Leaf Buckareff plays the bass and Nadja find themselves in the shady zone where drone meets metal. The a-side is a mellow piece, if that is an appropriate word for the world of Nadja, but the b-side opens with a wall of sound type of drumming and then another wall of guitars, playing some of the darkest, slow metal music. Hardly drone like, which seems to an entirely different thing, but I must say there is something to say for the fact that this is drone like: the whole piece, both sides, works wonderfully well as a piece of dark ambience, the apocalyptic version of drone music. Not for the weak of hearth and mind!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Autopergamene |
CD |
"Call it drone-doom-dirge-shoegaze or any other in vogue nomenclature you like. It doesn’t matter. The music is so sublime and superb that we consider a waste of time trying to further categorize the spiraling sounds exhaling from a NADJA album. They are simply the true originators of this bred of blissful, seriously intense and ominously ethereal heavy sounds.
Autopergamene finds the duo at the peak of their sonic language of slow-blooming, heavily nuanced ambient guitar constructions and epic heaviness. From blissful, paced and almost orchestral hymns to lush acoustic guitars and super distorted, fuzzed out rumbling sludge riffages. Breathtaking.
Lavishly assembled in a custom 6-panel digisleeve packaging housing a 6 cards set with beautiful watercolor paintings and artwork by the gifted Portuguese artist L Filipe dos Santos. Superb mastering via James Plotkin. Limited to 800 copies." [label info]
www.essence-music.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Dagdrom |
CD |
"Dagdrøm is Nadja’s first proper full-length since their 2010 release Autopergamene (Essence Music) and, replacing their habitual drum machine, features live drums courtesy of Mac McNeilly from The Jesus Lizard. While Nadja retains their signature overblown sound and heavily distorted guitars, these songs are more concise and structured, tempering their experimentalism and ambience with a more straightforward “rock” sound and compositional style. As such, Dagdrøm looks both forward and back—a departure from Nadja’s usual sound and style, it also harkens back to the noise rock scene of the ’80s and early ’90s and bands like Big Black, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and, of course, The Jesus Lizard, all of whom were influential on Nadja’s sonic development.
Originally from Toronto and currently based in Berlin, Aidan Baker (guitars, woodwinds, vocals, drum machine) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals, accordion) create music variously dubbed dream sludge, metalgaze and ambient doom—atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze, and experimental / ambient with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead, Southern Records, Robotic Empire and their own label, Broken Spine Productions (to name a few). The group has toured and performed extensively around the world, appearing at such diverse festivals as Incubate, SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn and Unsound." [label info]
http://brokenspineprods.wordpress.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Flipper |
LP |
"Over the roughly ten years of their musical activity, Nadja has undoubtedly become one of the most well-known and influential Drone bands around – and rightly so. Their unique soundscapes, characterized by epic soundscapes, radiating synths, and hushed vocals have a truly mesmerizing effect and capture you with their bizarre beauty.
On this album, Nadja explore new territory and focus on the endless ocean of the mind. Aidan and Leah are joined by Peter Broderick on violin, and Angela Chan on viola.
Tracklist:
A1 - Drown (10:08)
A2 - Song For The Sea (12:38)
B1 - Wrapped In Plastic (12:15)
B2 - Hands (9:00)
As the name already suggests, this album is dedicated to dolphins, with all profits being donated to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation.
All releases on Oaken Palace Records are produced by a Gold Standard carbon-neutral and ISO14001-certified company. The sleeves are made of 100% sustainable paper, and non-toxic printing colours are used.
Limited edition of 500 on 180g clear vinyl.
All records come with a free download code." [label info]
www.oakenpalace.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Tangled |
7inch |
"A limited 7" of industrial/grind/black metal tunes released on Broken Spine Productions. Purchase includes a download code. Available digitally here here." [label info]
|
2014 |
€8.50 |
|
|
Paradox Incubate 15.09.14 |
LP + CD |
"Featuring prolific multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker, Nadja is a project of immense heaviness, a soul-absorbing collision of doom metal and shoegaze. During the 2014 edition of the well known Incubate Festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands, Nadja performed at the Paradox club. This LP features recordings from that impressive show. Edition of 300." [label info]
www.consouling.be
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Queller |
CD |
"Second edition on CD. Strictly limited to 450 copies housed in our luxurious, sturdy tip-on mini-LP gatefold packaging. Features slightly modified and expanded artwork, including a silkscreened poster and die-cut bellyband.
Nadja’s absolutely unique and incredible splicing of extreme doom, shoegaze and experimental music that the Canadian duo – currently based in Berlin – likes to call dreamgaze is of such beauty and heaviness that it can crumble skyscrapers and mesmerize souls in absolute bliss and colossal majesty.
Calmer and more structured when compared to their other albums, Queller is their newly crafted masterpiece where the band explicitly dives back into the new wave and post-punk era to combine those influential sonorities with an amalgam of immense and gorgeous sludging heavy guitar constructions. As the mastermind Aidan Baker wisely says, “Killing Joke, Joy Division and Wire reinterpreted through the Nadja spectrum”.
The ethereal, lush and slow-motion heaviness of tracks like “Dark Circles” and the crushing blasts of “Lidérc” per se are true statements of an album of epic proportions. Nadja at its absolutely best.
Fantastic artwork by Error! Design and mastering by James Plotkin." [label info]
www.essence-music.com
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Stone is not hit by the Sun, nor carved with a Knife |
CD |
"Nadja return with The Stone Is Not Hit By The Sun, Nor Carved With A Knife, their first release for Gizeh Records. The Canadian/Berlin-based ambient doom duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff continue their ultra-prolific output with a monolithic record which explores the depths of heavy noisescape-related music. Encompassing distorted riffs and hypnotic rhythms the album sonically attempts to continue on from the more structured elements of the duo's recent Queller album (2014), coupling that approach with Nadja's more traditional sprawling, dense and challenging sounds. The relentless fuzzed-out textures repeat and build into a blissful and cathartic whole - a place to be completely immersed. In the deep, glacial and all-consuming world that Baker and Buckareff provide the listener with here, there is a will to dissolve, to let the record wash right over you or perhaps even through you. At times crushingly beautiful, The Stone Is Not Hit By The Sun, Nor Carved With A Knife is brought to life by its clever restraints with quieter interludes serving a perfect purpose against its more intense, heavier moments. The album's intriguing title comes from a runic inscription on an Icelandic burial stone but the phrase also appears on the Eggja Stone which provided some of the lyrical content on the record. Nadja have a habit of transcending genres and indeed throughout their career, they have been incredibly difficult to pin down. The Stone Is Not Hit By The Sun, Nor Carved With A Knife is a welcome addition to that hefty catalogue and stands up tall against their most impressive work. Aidan Baker - guitars, vocals, drum machine; Leah Buckareff - bass guitar Recorded in the autumn of 2015 at Broken Spine Studios, Berlin. Mastered by James Plotkin. Artwork by
Aidan Baker and Richard Knox." [label info]
www.gizehrecords.com
"The CD was mistakenly manufactured with only 3 track markers when there should be four. So, the correct tracklisting should be 4 tracks, as it appears on our Bandcamp page:
https://nadja.bandcamp.com/album/the-stone-is-not-hit-by-the-sun-nor-carved-with-a-knife
The fourth track is a bonus track exclusive to the CD and not on the LP at all." [Aidan Baker]
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
SV |
LP |
https://brokenspine.bigcartel.com/product/nadja-sv
"Comprised of a long, single 42 minute composition, this album combines Nadja's layered, textural noise with polyrhythmic drum patterns that, in their structure, approach industrial that might almost be danceable. Pounding, punishing machine-like hypnotic pulses, harsh cymbals and caustic textures grow together and collide in a massive metallic maelstrom of piercing doom-dirge heaviness. It's a surprising, yet rewarding departure from your typical Nadja dose of slow-blooming, nuanced ambient guitar constructions. The CD comes in a miniature-LP sized custom 6-panel digisleeve with gorgeous artwork by Seldon Hunt and mastering by James Plotkin. Limited to 600 copies." [label info]
www.essence-music.com
|
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
| NADJA & TROUM |
Dominium Visurgis |
CD |
"TRANSGREDIENT RECORDS TR-07
RELEASE DATE : 15. May 2010
8-PANEL DIGIPACK w. METALLIC COPPER PRINT
FORMAT: FULL-LENGTH CD PLAYTIME: 49:30 min
FILED UNDER: DRONE
NADJA & TROUM "Dominium Visurgis"
This is something you could call a "dreamlike liaison". When the Canadian "avant metal / drone doom"-duo NADJA (who name TROUM as one of their early influences) and the German post-industrial / experimental drone pioneers TROUM (years ago active as MAEROR TRI who are still discovered by many drone-fans these days) combine their exceptional styles, they form something even vaster as usually known from them. These three long collaboration tracks were recorded as a result of a spontaneous improvisation in April 2008 "live in the studio" near the Weser-river in Bremen, Germany, and suck you in with their powerful & emotional drone melancholy that works in many micro-& macrocosmic ways, using electric & acoustic guitars, bass, accordeon, drum-machine & voice." [label info / press release]
"In dieser ersten Zusammenarbeit von Troum (Baraka[H] + Glit[s]ch) aus Deutschland und Nadja (Leah Buckareff + Aidan Baker) aus Kanada schaffen beide Bands etwas, dass vielen derartigen Kollaborationen eben nicht gelingt: den eigenen Stil beizubehalten und gleichzeitig offen zu sein, zentrale Elemente des musikalischen Partners gleichberechtigt einzubinden und eine echte Mischung entstehen zu lassen. Sei es aus dem Wissen darum, dass dies nur in einer direkten Konfrontation geht, sei es aus anderen Gründen und allein der glückliche Zufall hat es bewirkt, Troum und Nadja haben mit „Dominium Visurgis“ keine e-mail Zusammenarbeit auf CD gebannt, sondern sich tatsächlich im Studio getroffen und die vorliegenden drei Stücke in enger Zusammenarbeit komponiert und aufgenommen. Denn nur die dann entstehende derartig intensive Interaktion (und eigentlich: die daraus resultierende gegenseitige Inspiration) lässt eine Atmosphäre entstehen, die noch über die eigentliche Musik hinauszustrahlen scheint, den Wirkungskreis der Musik erweitert. Bei aller Qualität, die die VÖs beider Bands sonst haben, „Dominium Visurgis“ ist etwas besonderes. [Hellmut Neidhardt aka "N", Unruhr]
"...Ein dröhnender, träumender Urozean, ein Fluss ohne Ufer, brandet, brodelnd
und pfeifend, an Urgestade, die erst noch im Werden sind. Das Pfeifen lässt
einen für einen Moment das Schreien von Phantommöven über der summenden,
wogenden, atmenden Panthalassa halluzinieren. Der ‚atmende‘ Blasebalg erklingt
nun auch als webendes Akkordeon neben klingelnden Gitarren. Die beiden Duos
sind komplett zu einem Quartett verschmolzen. Man starrt gebannt auf, ach was,
durch seine Schuhe hindurch beinahe bis zum Nabel der Welt." [R. Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
"To some these two names represent the absolute top of the drone music, and who am I to disagree? Troum, the follow-up to Maeror Tri and Nadja, the duo of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, have both presented themselves through a line of releases, displaying the finer sense of drone music, through the use of guitars, accordeon, voice, rhythm machine effects and such like. In April 2008 they did a spontaneous improvisation in the Troum studio, which now is released on CD. This is indeed the top of their scene: guitars are set to play drones, through the use of e-bows, through lots of sound effects, loop stations and all such like. They do the usual slow built up towards a mighty crescendo, fly through air, and then land safely through a long decrescendo. Headspace music. Perhaps not the kind of music for a sunny day like it is today, but more for grey, rainy days. They are mood musicians and one has to be open to these particular dark moods, but if you open up then they are more than
willing to transport you through these dark woods. An excellent work, hardly to believe one of some afternoon improvisation." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"... On albums like this, one again realizes just how many shades Troum’s self-repeating, subtly changing structures contain. When joined to parts provided by other talented artists, they shine with incredible power and enchantment, which one has to admire, totally captivated. This is precisely what happens on Dominium Visurgis." [Jiituomas, kuolleenmusiikinyhdistys.net]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NADJA & VAMPILLIA |
The perfect World |
CD |
"Staggering collaboration between Nadja and Vampillia. LP is pressed in an edition of 500 with the first 100 copies on color vinyl.
This collaborative album combines Nadja's wall of guitars with Vampillia's operatic vocals and classical instrumentation to make a hybrid of doom and neo-classical music. This version of the release for Important Records features a new song, Avalanche, and brand new mixes of the original tracks from the rare Japanese tour edition." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The perfect World |
LP |
"Staggering collaboration between Nadja and Vampillia. LP is pressed in an edition of 500 with the first 100 copies on color vinyl.
This collaborative album combines Nadja's wall of guitars with Vampillia's operatic vocals and classical instrumentation to make a hybrid of doom and neo-classical music. This version of the release for Important Records features a new song, Avalanche, and brand new mixes of the original tracks from the rare Japanese tour edition." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€22.50 |
|
| NADJA / AIDAN BAKER / LEAH BUCKAREFF |
Trinity |
CD |
Als NADJA zusammen mit ALLSEITS in der "Friese" in Bremen auftraten, gab DIE STADT diese CD heraus, mit dem wohl ersten veröffentlichten Solo-Track von der weiblichen NADJA-Hälfte LEAH BUCKAREFF! Dieser erscheint tatsächlich wie ein Gegenpart zu AIDAN BAKERS Musik-Kunst, ist aber bassiger & abgründiger, pulsierend & gefährlich ... allein dieses Stück "Socorro" wäre das Geld wert! Ansonsten gewohnte Klasse !
"A special NADJA CD also feat. one solo track by both members Aidan Baker & Leah Buckareff. Released in conjunction with a live performance on 20. April 2008 in Bremen. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies in full color sleeve. Total playing time: 38:35 min.
Track listing:
1. Aidan Baker 'Carrizozo' 10'31
2. Leah Buckareff 'Socorro' 10'42
3. Nadja 'Jornada del Muerto' 17'22 " [label info]
"Die Stadt always takes great care of their artists. Once you belong to the label, the label will carry all your releases, and when in Bremen, Stadt of Die Stadt, the artists will play and there is a CD for the occasion. This trinity of a matter of one plus one is three. Nadja is the duo of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, so they can do three things on the same night. On April 20th (a day with historic significance... Bebe Barron died that day this year for instance) they visited Bremen and on 'Trinity' there are two solo pieces and one duo piece. It's interesting to see how things add up, or perhaps don't. Nadja is in full form here, with a loud rocking piece: the drum machine hammers time away, while guitar and bass play distorted, meanwhile looping their sound. A strong 'hole' in the sound adds an odd angle to the piece. A far cry away from Baker's solo piece, made of carefully strummed guitars which are looped around. Drones are faded in over the course of ten minutes and things remain subtle. In the middle, literally, is Buckareff solo for bass. Also starting out quiet things are unmistakably but the distortion pedal is already lurking underneath and adds a more noisy tone to the music. If these names don't mean anything to you, but see their music all around, then this is absolutely a fine place to start. Trademark pieces everywhere." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NADJA / NETHERWORLD |
Magma to Ice |
CD |
10. Ausgabe in der FEAR DROP / FARIO - Split & Collaboration-Serie, diesmal sind die kanadischen Drone-Metal Überflieger NADJA und der italienische POLAR-AMBIENT Act NETHERWORLD in interessanter Kombination zu hören - 3 Stücke von NETHERWORLD, ein langes von NADJA welches eine einzige gigantische Drone-Blase darstellt, und eine fast 10minütige Zusammenarbeit). Kommt im überdimensionierten Vollfarb / Aufklapp-Cover! Eine Verbindung von "heissem" und "kaltem" Ambient wie man sie nur selten auf einer CD finden wird.
"Talented Italian ambient composer Alessandro Tedeschi runs the Glacial Movements record label and plays music as Netherworld. His fascination for polar landscapes and soundscapes makes him close to industrial ambient pioneers such as Thomas Köner, Rapoon, Biosphere and Lull. Icy, windy, droning and deeply "protomelodic" at once, his music is a poetic translation of the ice floe. For this record, he used processed fragments of classical music. Nadja is the drone / doom / ambient duo of Canadian musicians Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff. Their behemoth of sound is a construction of heat, weight, loop and vapour. Here, they had to break Netherworld¹s ice and find a way to the red core of Earth. The common track brings heat onto ice, which warms up, crackles and soon melts. As a conclusion, the long piece by Nadja is total heat. This is Nadja "unrhythmed", which means pure lava. This CD features exclusive graphic concepts and artwork by Alan McClelland (www.eyelyft.com) " [label info]
"French label Fario is not very active: this is their tenth release in about as many years. The label is an off shoot of the excellent (but en Francais) magazine Fear Drop, whose only goal seems to release a CD with the meeting of two artists. They present each a couple of solo pieces and one collaborative piece. Lopez & Roden, Troum & Christian Renou, Rapoon & Desaccord Majeur and Vromb & Telepherique went ahead (among others) and here it's the turn for Alessandro Tedeschi, also known as Netherworld, and owner of the Glacial Movements label and Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, from Canada and best known as Nadja. Netherworld's three pieces are an excellent sound example of his own label: glacial movements. A very apt description. Still music of slow moving, utter deep movements. A turtle moves faster I think. A deep bass rumble in 'Closing To A Glacial Dawn'. Sounds like Biosphere or early Thomas Köner, but surely with a fine twist of his own, apparently all made with snippets of classical music. I skipped the collaboration to save that until the end and first heard the piece by Nadja, which spans nineteen minutes. A giant explosion takes place, and it sounds like a 180 degrees turn around from the Netherworld tracks. Yet that is only deceiving the listener. Yes, Nadja is much louder, but it's the same side of the ambient at work here: long sustaining sounds, feeding through effects, creating a ringing effect in your ear. Absense of rhythm is noted. How exactly their collaborative effort was recorded is a bit unclear but both ends meet up well here. There is the glacier like sounds of Netherworld, amplified of course to compete with the harsher sounds of Nadja, who mix in their own blend of guitars and electronics. Placed as the fourth track on the CD it makes perfect sense, forming a perfect bridge between the trio of silence of Netherworld and the solo outburst of Nadja. A perfect collaboration." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
labelwebsite FARIO: http://www.feardrop.net/fario.html
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NADJA / PICASTRO |
Fool, Redeemer |
LP |
"Fool, Redeemer is semi-collaborative split release between Canadian acts Picastroand Nadja. Having toured together and shared a stage many times over the course of the last half-decade, the two bands thought it was time to finally release something together. Nominally a split album, with side A featuring tracks by Picastro and side B a sidelong track by Nadja, members of both groups contributed to each other's songs. And a certain mutual influence seeped into the compositions, Picastro's dark-folk appearing at the beginning of Nadja's track "Venom" and Nadja's trademark drone/dirge tendencies lending a heavier, noisier edge to Picastro's songs. Nadja is a Canadian duo made up of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals), alternately based in Toronto, Canada and Berlin, Germany. The project, originally formed in 2003, creates music which has variously been described as 'Ambient doom,' 'Dreamsludge,' and 'Metal-gaze,' combining the atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze and experimental/ambient music with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has toured extensively around the world and released numerous recordings on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead Records, Beta-Lactam Ring Records, Blocks Recording Club, and their own fledgling label, Broken Spine Productions. Toronto-based Liz Hysen's (guitars, vocals, piano, violin) Picastro has existed in various forms with various players (including members of Final Fantasy and Rockets Red Glare), since 1997. Currently active as a trio, Hysen is joined by Brandon Miguel Valdivia (drums, percussion), and Nick Storring (cello, guitars, woodwinds, electronics). Picastro creates stark, brooding, discordant song which draw on folk and psych traditions, noise, and post-rock. The band has released four full-length albums on such labels as Pehr Records, Polyvinyl and Blocks Recording Club." [label info]
http://brokenspineprods.wordpress.com
"A split release by Nadja, well-known in the pages (and outside I guess) and Picastro, a Canadian group around Liz Hysen's (guitars, vocals, piano, violin), with a fleeting membership, but here a trio of Hysen with Brandon Miguel Valdivia (drums, percussion) and Nick Storring (cello, guitars, woodwinds, electronics). Nadja of course is a duo Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals). There is however an overspill between both bands as they play on each other tracks - semi-split.There is something to say to put both of them on a disc together. Picastro plays music that is also 'heavy', but also with an interest for folk like music, psychedelics and post-rock. The violin and cello wail about, and the band plays on. This CD is cleverly constructed: via two psych rock pieces we arrive at 'Darnia', a more meditative piece of percussion and strings and a mellow song for acoustic guitar and strings in 'A New Souls Benediction'. The tinkling takes over for 'Venom' - the twenty-three minute excursion carried out by Nadja, which starts out with equal low strumming and whispering vocals, before slowly erupting into a wall of sound which is the trademark of Nadja, complete with drum overload towards the end of the piece. It marks a full and complete album." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| NADLER, MARISSA |
Little Hells |
LP |
"... in den Songs selbst liegt es, weil aus ihnen immer noch die edle, beschwörende Kraft spricht, die Geschichten, die sich so sacht vor einem aufbauen, dieses „you can feel the beat of yesterday“. Ja, immer noch und vielleicht noch nie so selbstsicher der Mut und das Bekenntnis zu den Vergangenheiten, zum Gescheiterten, zum Unglücklichsein und zur Trauer. Und wie wunderbar das alles in diese Songs eingeschrieben ist, dass man selbst das düsterste Lamento noch für Tage im Ohr behalten kann. Darin ist die NADLER virtuos: das Schwierige, Unsagbare mit leichten, tänzelnden Bewegungen einzufangen, für einen Moment ein bisschen die Last zu nehmen, von sich und vom Hörer. Ihre Stimme, das ist ein beinahe substanzloser Hauch, den sie nur flüchtig von Wort zu Wort schickt, und kaum etwas damit ertastet und doch alles und jeden damit berührt. Wo sie in den Vordergrund tritt, da ist auch alles Umliegende göttlich angeweht...." [Roy L, NonPop]
"We are proud to announce the latest release from renowned Boston singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler: Little Hells. On her fourth solo album, Marissa Nadler finds multiple ways to envelop the listener in splendid gauzy moods without becoming monochromatic. “The songs take on different personalities at different points in time,” says Nadler. “If a song is good, you should be able to do it in any style and transform it, take a risk and have some fun.”
A master of creating rich dreamscape atmospheres, Nadler’s voice shines and glides even more with a full band accompanying her. Produced by Chris Coady, the starry musical guests include longtime collaborator Myles Baer, Simone Pace (Blonde Redhead), and Dave Scher (Farmer Dave). Few contemporary artists can match the stunning ride of Marissa's reverb vocals that are a journey into themselves on every rose tinged track. Little Hells displays a brighter leap in musical maturity and attention to detail, as the fantasmagoric sounds delve into melancholy nuggets, sometimes erotic, sometimes gutting, but filled with a gorgeous sense of serene hope more so than previous album, Songs III: Bird on the Water." [label info]
"The fourth record from Boston's most enchanting female songstress has left us breathless and almost at a loss for words! Ms Nadler really hits the nail on the head with this effortless marriage of hauntingly rich vocal cascades and captivating song writing. Quite the magnificent album, Little Hells features Nadler joined by a full band whose rhythmic weight anchors each song as her reverb-shrouded vocals drift into the dawning sky. If you've a penchant for lonely country charm with a gothic twist, and melancholic hymns possessed by a familiar nostalgia, this is soooo for you! Conjures visions of Victorian churches on golden plains at midnight, flickering shadows in hallways of rickety old barns. As far as production goes, we've never heard Nadler sound so dense and layered with such an array of instrumentation embracing the core slide guitar, bass and drums. And yet for all the gothic folk elements at the heart of this record, Little Hells is perhaps Nadler's poppiest release to date. Stunning!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.kemado.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| NAGAMATZU |
Neural Interval |
do-CD |
" ”Neural Interval” collects all the three tape albums from Nagamatzu: ”Shatter Days” (1983), ”Sacred Islands of the Mad” (1986) and ”Igniting the Corpse” (1991). It also adds ”Space Shuttle Shuffle” 12'' (1987) and an unreleased version of ”Lift Off” as bonus tracks. It gives you an insight into still little known work by this excellent duo (or trio at times) who should have been a mainstay of 4AD, Beggars Banquet or Factory back in the 1980s. We hope that thanks to the vinyl reissues of Dark Entries and Zoharum CD anthology the band will achieve such a kind of recognition they truly deserve.
The CDs are housed in a digipak with an additional poster booklet inside. This edition is strictly limited to 500 copies. ”Neural Interval” was mastered by Łukasz Miernik and George Horn. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| NAHR |
Vargtimmen |
CD-R |
First release for a new Leipzig-based label – a german town with a quite vivid scene for experimental & post-industrial music. NAHR is the project of the label-owner Patrick Franke, and the whole release (which comes in a nice silkscreen printed sleeve) is inspired by the film from Ingmar Berman. He presents here very much recommended & sophisticated ghost ambient, far away drones & metallic effects, a fantastic debut ! Contains one track of around 40 min.
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| NAKATANI, TATSUYA |
Confirmation |
LP |
"Nomadic percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani travels worldwide, his performances blooming with ceaseless expanse. Although Nakatani is a valiant collaborator, joining with other musicians, dancers, filmmakers and beyond, solo percussion is the root of it all. Simply stated in Nakatani's own words, this album is "Confirmation of all of my acoustic solo percussion performance since 1998. Recorded live at Nakatani-kobo in Easton Pennsylvania USA during snow season of beginning of 2015. No overdubbing and used the fewest effects possible on this LP."
Confirmation is Nakatani's third release on Taiga. We initially saw the vibrant color of his collaboration with Mary Halvorson and Reuben Radding on MAP Fever Dream. Followed by Nakatani Gong Orchestra, a woven blend of heavy vibrations from his one-off group experiments on the road. Now we have number three, solo percussion, the foundation of his practice, charged with thunders, screams, sparks and countless other ineffable sonic textures.
Mastered by James Plotkin, cut direct to copper & pressed on 200g virgin compound, Confirmation is Nakatani's first solo percussion album to be released on LP. Housed in a custom heavyweight yellow paper jacket with silver & metallic black foil stamping made at Studio on Fire in Minneapolis." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2015 |
€23.50 |
|
| NALLE |
The Sirens Wave |
LP |
180 gram deluxe gatefold vinyl version.
"Imagine for a moment the Wicker Man manned by the late Teiji Ito -- resident avant composer for Harry Smith & Maya Deren -- with psych-folk giants Comus sitting in for good measure and you've got some idea of what Glasgow avant folk trio Nalle have put together on their mesmerizing sophomore effort, The Siren's Wave. Centered around Hanna Tuulikki's rich and expansive vocals, with a heady, kaleidoscopic mix of vintage whirling oscillators, Moog synths and buzzing harmonium, alongside the intrepid string explorations of Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy, these six pieces continue the long trek through other worlds of sound to form a dense, cohesive suite that meshes everything from Japanese gagaku, European plainsong, Near Eastern modal drones and more. With Siren's Wave, Nalle have procured a special place where folk conventions are curiously uprooted & seamlessly meshed with otherworldly avant tendencies. Features members of The Family Elan, Scatter & the One Ensemble of Daniel Padden." [label info]
www.locustmusic.com
|
2008 |
€18.00 |
|
| NAM-KHAR |
Sur Chöd |
CD |
The Ritual/Drone collective Nam-Khar return to our Winter-Light label with their latest inner outing entitled 'Sur Chöd'.
This is Nam-Khar's second release with Winter-Light, after the very successful and well received 'Secret Essence/Sangwa Dupa' album in 2018. The music has evolved ....
"Sur Chöd" is composed of 6 long-form pieces, each piece transforming and morphing in to a musical entity within it's own right. The traditional percussive elements are still there in the music, deployed in full force alongside more subtle uses of these instruments. It is the use of the drone and bass elements that have changed on this release. The small vacuous pockets which Nam-Khar use so well are soon filled with warm, thick drones, synthesised sweeps and enlightening cosmic sounds. It once again creates that space for the listener to move into for contemplation and reflection, to energise and focus through the welcome isolation space created by Nam-Khar's atmospherics. Pushing the inner-traveller ever further onwards, along different trodden paths.
Ritual ambient, dark ambient, drone, industrial and subtle tinges of dark-jazz await the listener on this deep and diverse release from Nam-Khar.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/sur-ch-d
"Two years after its first album on Winter-Light label, Nam-Khar is back with the “Sur Chöd” full length, which seems as a natural evolution of the project, yet while keeping its specific style of Eastern aural mysticism, the project is infusing a handful of fresh spicy ingredients to their music.
Already on the first track based on the sounds and echoes of horns and gongs you may notice a subtle yet quite atmospheric layer of the shade and colour I cannot recall it was present on “Secret Essence/Sangwa Dupa”. But it is with the second piece, “aDre” that all the fun begins. Of course the word “fun” should be filtrated by sensitivity of an introversive dark ambient supporter, like me for that matter. How the drones flow, blend and morph one into another… It is made with all the principles of the genre, takes you far above the Himalayan peaks and lets you float blissfully. If you know me a little, you know that I’m not so fond of the pitch-black side of the genre. There always should be at least a faint glimpse of light, an atmospheric or oneiric foothold, so to speak. On “Sur Chöd”, Nam-Khar finds a perfect balance while maintaining this “tibetan” spirit from the previous releases they managed to create a veil of still mystic, yet a more universal aura. Something that cannot be limited by the monikers related to a certain culture. It is as profound as the Nature itself. It still can be overwhelmingly dark, like “Dregs Pa”, yet I feel this time it is a facade, an opening gate for the unknown, vast realms of the world beyond.
How the drones intermingle one with another forming these beautifully esoteric structures may at some points recall the darker works by Klaus Wiese or Mathias Grassow and since I’m a die-hard fan of both German artists, I can’t be more happy of that fact. “gNod sybyin” is evidently the best example. Along with these specific eastern drums and a silky glacial background it results with possibly the most sublime composition of the whole album.
On this album Nam-Khar has evolved into a five person ensemble. I’m not sure exactly how the personal constellations looked in the past (most of the time I was convinced that it is a one-man project, to be honest), but I suspect there’s some fresh blood on the board this time and this different perspective is noticeable, yet it doesn’t conceal what Nam-Khar is about. Nice example of stimulating diversity in favor of the project’s coherent style is “Gangs chen mdzod lnga”. Atmospheric scapes, reverbed tinkles, ritual sequences and silence being a crucial part of the whole composition. No single unwanted sound.
The final track has been made in collaboration with Akoustik Timbre Frequency, the project by Priapus23, who’s also known as a CEO of a ritual dark ambient label Sombre Soniks. And this is another “Sur Chöd” highlight, an unconditionally stunning fusion of divine drones, unrushed beats and a handful of tiny ornamentations. This one may not be exceedingly intricate, but in this case the artists prove that simplicity is a virtue and I found myself listening to “T’ew Rang” several times in a row, on repeat.
I would say it’s Nam-Khar’s best work up-to-date. I still appreciate “Secret Essence/Sangwa Dupa”, as I wrote in a review that album was more than decent, but I have to admit that I find some moments too “straightforward dark” to me, so I have to be in a proper mood to play that CD. “Sur Chöd”‘s palette of emotions is far more broad and giving even more possibilities for your own inner journeys. Where will it take you? Check for yourself." [Santa Sangre mag] |
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| NAMBLARD, MARC |
Nuits de Guyane |
CD |
" 'Nuits de Guyane' is a sound collage of night time ambiances from Guiana (France), focusing on the calls of amphibians.
Field recordings realized in the forests and savannah near Sinnamary and Saül, close to the Saint-Elie trail and Savane Roche Virginie, from November 15th to December 10th 2014, between the dry season and the 'little rainy season'." [label info]
http://www.kalerne.net
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| NAMENLOSIGKEIT |
1 |
12inch |
"From the mystic north dark depths of the Netherlands we offer you Namenlosigkeit. A 180 grams black vinyl produced in total isolation on the wild plains of the Iniaheide. Established without mordern sources of computer technology on a modular synthesizer system." [label info]
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS |
Terror's Horns |
LP |
"Da ist es wieder, das französische Psychedelic Dronefolk Duo. Ihr 2013 wiederveröffentlichtes Album The Snowbringer Cult hat mich damals aus den Socken gehauen. Das war das reinste Hitfeuerwerk und in dem Jahr nicht umsonst als zweitbestes Album noch vor dem damaligen Release meiner Lieblingsband Troum plaziert. So konsequent hittig gehts diesmal nicht zu, aber dafür noch ein wenig verspulter. Hits gibts aber mit dem eher psychedelisch-folkig gehaltenen „Sun Tower“ und dem eher ambient-dronigen „The Rising Portal“ dann auch noch. Insgesamt so spannend und visionär, daß ich das nächste Album jetzt schon kaum erwarten kann." [Sibylle Bölling/Pretty in Noise]
"After a string of Natural Snow Buildings reissues, each more elaborate then the last, Ba Da Bing presents their first ever release of new material from the band. For a group known for its use of horror imagery and lyricism, perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that this album clocks in at just under 45 minutes. If there ever was a release that served as the proper entry point for Natural Snow Buildings, Terror’s Horns is it. It would be a stretch to call this Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte’s pop record, for Terror’s Horns continues the duo’s tradition of combining many layers into sometimes blissful, sometimes contemplative, often menacing conditions. Stringed instruments trill, percussion gongs, feedback hisses and vocals maintain near monotone as if in a cultish trance. The songs still unveil themselves slowly, and the album’s progression lends the impression of descending down through the depths, past hidden cavities and chambers never to be unseen once experienced. Terror’s Horns features new artwork by Gularte that pays tribute to the backwoods horror of massacres involving chainsaws." [label info]
"Yes, there are a plethora of insanely limited editions published for and by Natural Snow Buildings and their satellite projects; but with their recent dealings with Ba Da Bing, the problematic availability has been alleviated somewhat. Of course, there was a tiny cd-r bonus edition that was coupled with this album but only available in pre-order direct from the label. No shops got any of those; so, we apologize in advance that we cannot offer that version. HOWEVER, we do have this amazing album itself, from aQ fave death-folk explorers Natural Snow Buildings.
There's long been a haunted thread that traces through all of the work from the French duo of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte, whose long-form tangles of ritualist drone-rock minimalism and sprawling, opiated psychedelia harks back to International Harvester, Flying Saucer Attack, and Kemialliset Ystavat. Here on Terror's Horns, Natural Snow Buildings plumb the depths of an emotional gloom and shuddering despair with this epic, cinematic album. The two have long specialized in expansive tracks of shimmering guitars, woodwinds, and bowed instruments that could be psalters, zithers, and / or violins, all of which blossom into sublime masses of dronological impressionism; and on Terror's Horns, Natural Snow Building engage in a sound far more elegiac and funereal and heavier than heard on any of their previous recordings. The freak-folk transcendence of NSB still will embrace the unsettling falsetto of Ameziane and the percussive clatter of Gularte, with the swirling psychedelia tumbling downward in lush cinematic collapse, with heavy minor-key chords and reverb saturated rhythmic plod providing plenty of parallels to the early days of Barn Owl and the latter days of Earth. Beautiful as always, these Natural Snow Buildings, if much darker than in days gone by." [Aquarius Records] |
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Terror's Horns |
CD |
"Da ist es wieder, das französische Psychedelic Dronefolk Duo. Ihr 2013 wiederveröffentlichtes Album The Snowbringer Cult hat mich damals aus den Socken gehauen. Das war das reinste Hitfeuerwerk und in dem Jahr nicht umsonst als zweitbestes Album noch vor dem damaligen Release meiner Lieblingsband Troum plaziert. So konsequent hittig gehts diesmal nicht zu, aber dafür noch ein wenig verspulter. Hits gibts aber mit dem eher psychedelisch-folkig gehaltenen „Sun Tower“ und dem eher ambient-dronigen „The Rising Portal“ dann auch noch. Insgesamt so spannend und visionär, daß ich das nächste Album jetzt schon kaum erwarten kann." [Sibylle Bölling/Pretty in Noise]
"After a string of Natural Snow Buildings reissues, each more elaborate then the last, Ba Da Bing presents their first ever release of new material from the band. For a group known for its use of horror imagery and lyricism, perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that this album clocks in at just under 45 minutes. If there ever was a release that served as the proper entry point for Natural Snow Buildings, Terror’s Horns is it. It would be a stretch to call this Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte’s pop record, for Terror’s Horns continues the duo’s tradition of combining many layers into sometimes blissful, sometimes contemplative, often menacing conditions. Stringed instruments trill, percussion gongs, feedback hisses and vocals maintain near monotone as if in a cultish trance. The songs still unveil themselves slowly, and the album’s progression lends the impression of descending down through the depths, past hidden cavities and chambers never to be unseen once experienced. Terror’s Horns features new artwork by Gularte that pays tribute to the backwoods horror of massacres involving chainsaws." [label info]
"Yes, there are a plethora of insanely limited editions published for and by Natural Snow Buildings and their satellite projects; but with their recent dealings with Ba Da Bing, the problematic availability has been alleviated somewhat. Of course, there was a tiny cd-r bonus edition that was coupled with this album but only available in pre-order direct from the label. No shops got any of those; so, we apologize in advance that we cannot offer that version. HOWEVER, we do have this amazing album itself, from aQ fave death-folk explorers Natural Snow Buildings.
There's long been a haunted thread that traces through all of the work from the French duo of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte, whose long-form tangles of ritualist drone-rock minimalism and sprawling, opiated psychedelia harks back to International Harvester, Flying Saucer Attack, and Kemialliset Ystavat. Here on Terror's Horns, Natural Snow Buildings plumb the depths of an emotional gloom and shuddering despair with this epic, cinematic album. The two have long specialized in expansive tracks of shimmering guitars, woodwinds, and bowed instruments that could be psalters, zithers, and / or violins, all of which blossom into sublime masses of dronological impressionism; and on Terror's Horns, Natural Snow Building engage in a sound far more elegiac and funereal and heavier than heard on any of their previous recordings. The freak-folk transcendence of NSB still will embrace the unsettling falsetto of Ameziane and the percussive clatter of Gularte, with the swirling psychedelia tumbling downward in lush cinematic collapse, with heavy minor-key chords and reverb saturated rhythmic plod providing plenty of parallels to the early days of Barn Owl and the latter days of Earth. Beautiful as always, these Natural Snow Buildings, if much darker than in days gone by." [Aquarius Records]
www.badabingrecords.com
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| NATURE OF DISLOCATION |
Elements |
mCD-R |
"NATURE OF DISLOCATION is a japanese collective gathering various multimedia artists (video, music, photo, performance). music is created by HIROKI SASAJIMA (who's already put out some solo netreleases) and TAKAHISA HIRAO. the sound of NATURE OF DISLOCATION is simple and pure ambient..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| NAVARRO, ALEXANDRE |
Arcane |
CD |
Wunderbare Echo-Gitarren, die polyphon ins Endlose wallen sind die meist verwendete Basis für die Kompositionen auf "Arcane", das ist das erste echte CD-Album für ALEXANDRE NAVARRO. Tip für Guitar-Ambient / Drone Fans..
"After several ep releases on various labels and netlabels (Mandorla, Archipel, Realaudio, IOD) since 2004, Alexandre Navarro is proud to release his first CD album Arcane for SEM label. Arcane means esoteric, hidden or mysterious... While not necessarily a conceptual approach for the album, Arcane creates this sense of mystery through a blend of electric guitar experimentation, melody and field recordings. A guitarist since the age of 15, Alexandre Navarro has been working with electronic tools for several years (laptop, sampler, software...). For this album, however, he found it necessary to make more of a direct connection with the music; more organic, lofi and instrumental, where the guitar naturally played a central role throughout the recording of the album. With the exception of a few other instruments (organ, sampler, flutes), the album was exclusively recorded with a microphone, a guitar, a valve amp and some effects. In some ways, Arcane has something tribal and primitive at its core. It is directand essential, addressing the mysteries of creation, birth, death, life in general, in a poetic and nostalgic way. March 2008 - CD Digipack printed to 500 copies." [label info]
www.semlabel.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES |
Insanity |
do-CD |
Ukrainian industrial label OLD CAPTAIN presents INSANITY, a double CD reissue of the classic cassette by NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES, originally released by LSD ORGANISATION in 2000 AD. Disc One contains the original cassette material, with a previously unreleased bonus title track, retooled for this edition. Disc Two features never before released material covering the project's formative years. From these meagre beginnings, NTT would go on to work with labels such as MALIGNANT RECORDS, EIBON, and ANT-ZEN, along with many others (who have not stood the test of time), until its dissolution and final releases in 2009. INSANITY serves as a revealing historical document of a notable American power electronics project between the years 1997-2001.The release is remastered by John Stilling (Steel Hook Prostheses studio) and comes in a 6-panel matte-laminated Digipak limited to 300.
https://oldcaptain.bandcamp.com/album/navicon-torture-technologies-insanity
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| NEBELUNG |
Mistelteinn |
LP |
When ten years ago Nebelung released its debut Mistelteinn on the now defunct Dresden label Eislicht – known for its genre defining releases in neofolk –, it received wide attention despite all its technical imperfections. Through the haze of a band taking its first steps into acoustic music and singing, the album seemed to manifest a nature mysticism as pure and heartfelt as it is seldom experienced. Sold out soon after its initial release, and never rereleased, the album now finally gets a new treatment. Partially rearranged, and completely rerecorded, the songs on Mistelteinn are presented here in a new light. The delicacy of the picked guitars, the mournful melancholy of the cello, and the warm sonority of the matured voice all show the notable musical craftsmanship Nebelung has acquired over the decade of its existence. Where the official release revealed merely a glimpse of its beautiful and pristine wilderness, this rerelease finally pulls the listener deep into its world, singing nature’s hymn, clear and unimpeded.
credits
released July 15, 2016
All songs written by Nebelung in 2004.
Initially released on Eislicht (EIS044) in 2005. Exclusively rearranged and rerecorded for this release and format between winter 2014 and summer 2015.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Thomas List at Big Easy Studio in Hennef. All percussion by Jaroslav Töppich. Front picture by Aline | Sphæra Satvrni Art. Layout by Christopher Duis | 1gemachtes.
Stefan Otto
classical guitar, vocals, accordion, steel string acoustic guitar, chimes
Thomas List
steel string acoustic guitar
Katharina Hoffmann
cello
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| NECKS, THE |
Townsville |
CD |
"Ein Kontrabass wiederholt immer wieder ein kaskadierendes Motiv, unaufdringliche Einladung, doch mit einzusteigen. Und Lloyd Swantons Partner tun es - einmal mehr, wie so oft in den gemeinsamen 20 Jahren. Chris Abrahams streut Pianonoten ein, entspannt perlend. Und Tony Buck federt und sirrt mit Besen und Cymbals. So bricht THE NECKS-Zeit an, unverwechselbar. Diesmal wieder live im heimischen Australien, in Thuringowa am 15.2.2007. Nicht ganz so lakonisch betitelt wie piano bass drums vor 10 Jahren, aber ebenso
schlicht nach dem benachbarten Townsville
(ReR Necks8). Aus Wiederholungen und kleinen Variationen ergibt sich der hypnotische Sound des Trios, immer ein wenig anders, aber wie nach der selben ungeschriebenen Formel gewebt. Intuitiver Minimalismus, der sich, einmal angestoßen, prozesshaft entfaltet. Für jedes Konzert steigen sie an einer anderen Stelle in den Fluss ohne Ufer, dessen unerschöpfliche
Quelle sie selber sind. Buck tickelt und klickt als verlässliche Unruhe, Swanton zupft und plonkt seine dunklen Tontrauben und Abrahams klimpert seine Arpeggien, harft die Klaviatur auf und ab. Als ob die Klangwelt ein- und ausatmen würde. Das Tempo wird leicht angezogen, indem Buck die Schlagzahl erhöht. Ohne dass der Spielfluss selber beschleunigt würde, nur die Oberfläche rippelt sich, mal mehr, mal weniger. An den gut 53 Minuten ist nichts Dramatisches und nichts Hyperbolisches. Aber es gibt ‚gefühlte‘ Verdichtungen der Webmuster, Akzentverschiebungen zwischen
der drei Polen. Mit der Paradoxie, dass
selbst bei merklicher Beschleunigung eines
Spielers, die Synchronität nicht aufgehoben
wird. Wer The Necks einmal gehört hat, kriegt sie schlecht wieder aus dem Hirn. Eine Play-it-again-Droge, die tagträumerisch, zeitvergessen, süchtig macht." [Bad Alchemy]
"The Necks in quiet mood recorded at a concert recording in Townsville, Thuringowa, Northern Queensland. Though many Necks’ pieces open with - or eventually arrive at - some discernable groove, Townsville just floats in a state of suspension from beginning to end. It’s like watching the ocean as wave follows wave follows wave: each the same; each different; assymetric. Bassist Lloyd Swanton who, on this occasion, provides the motif that set Townsville running says he had had no idea where it would lead: ‘One of the deep joys for me’ he said, ‘after twenty years of making music with this group, is that we’re still completely unable to predict where our pieces will go.’
[label notes]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Silverwater |
CD |
"Their first studio CD for three years - named for an industrial suburb in Sydney, famous for its correctional facility - Silverwater ranges further and wider than the Necks' earlier releases, exploring a more sectional structure that counterposes more extremes and contrasts, and has a greater sense of forward motion, than usual, though still retaining the long, hypnotic single-track iterative form for which the band has become famous. Layers and skeins of overdubs and textures give way in places to almost empty stretches, and there is much play with asynchronous time. Paradoxically, for a band famous for its slow, cycling, repetition, the Necks show again that they work hard not to repeat themselves." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"Hot damn. A new Necks album. They're one of our favorite bands EVER, and this is (one of the many reasons) why. Silverwater provides 67 minutes of the Necks' unique, hypnotic, keys/bass/drums bliss, all one track of course as is their wont. Over the course of those 67
minutes, though, the music made by this Australian trio varies quite a bit. Their trademark tranceiness is present, always, but at the same time this new album (their first studio record in, like, 3 years) seems more programmatic and propulsive than we're used to from these guys, taking off in directions we haven't necessarily heard from them before, but still sounding more like the Necks than anything else.
Yet, parts could be mistaken for an underground ambient psychedelic jam from the likes of Sylvester Anfang, almost. And we'd say this is
the Necks record to get Bohren & Der Club Of Gore fans into 'em. Other comparisons we've perhaps made before would be to Circle (in their non- metallic Miljard mode), Supersilent, Alice Coltrane, and AMM... anything that can elicit references to the likes of those is,
obviously, amazing.
Eerie wavering drones delicately unfurl near the start, quiet and pretty... that gives way to a section that's almost ceremonial, like some percussive ritual. Sparse and deliberate, drums-only for a stretch, to be joined by deep, plucked bass notes... it could be some kinda krautrock jazz... and it does get "jazzier", sort of, with electric organ coloration, and cyclic piano plinkings, but also electronic-y gritty glitchiness overdubbed... Silverwater's shimmering textures and minimalist pulsations are simply beautiful, enthralling. It's a glorious 67 minutes, all right.
If you know the Necks, you know you need this. If you're new to the Necks, please do yourself a favor and check this out. Next to seeing them live (which some of us have been lucky enough to do, oh my god they were good), this will demonstrate quite effectively why we hold them in such high regard." [Aquarius Records]
"67:15, ein Track. Der Einstieg in den
Necks-Sog geschieht diesmal über Hammondorgel,
Electronics, flickernde Percussion. Dann ein ultrarepetitives, trillerndes Pianomotiv von
Chris Abrahams, ganz sparsam der Kontrabass
von Lloyd Swanton, knatternd rollendes
Drumming in immer wieder wiederholtem Muster.
Lange spielt Tony Buck das allein, bis der
Bass wieder mit langsamen Schritten sich anschließt. Dann auch zarte, gleichmäßige Cymbalschläge und die Wiederkehr von Hammond
und Piano zugleich. So gleitet man in den nun
wieder vollen Klang hinein. Alles an The Necks
ist gleitend, fließend, repetitiv, hypnotisch.
Mandalas aus Schwebklang und Puls. Buck klappert mit Muschelschalen, Abrahams schlägt immer nur ein, zwei Noten an. Die Electronics
kommen wie ‚from nowhere‘, dazu das nun schon bekannte perkussive Klackern, wohl nicht von Hand. Die schlägt die Sekunden auf der Cymbal zu dröhnender Orgel und Pianomonotonie. Was macht Swanton? Lässt er einen Ventilator die Basssaiten beklackern? Jetzt steigt der Bass als Bass wieder ein, das Klackern geht aber weiter, dazu kommt jetzt - wenn die Uhr nicht geschmolzen wäre, würde sie 30 verstrichene Minuten anzeigen - eine Gitarre. Buck macht mit einem Drumriff dem mäandernden Dröhnfluss Beine, Abrahams hält mit einem Pianoloop schritt, dazu Walking Bass und der klackernde Automat. Und die Gitarre, jetzt deutlich. Dann dünnt der Klang aus auf das Klackern und zwei Klavierspuren, eine davon hell und verzerrt, dann übermenschlich trillernd. Dann doch auch wieder Bass und schnelle Cymbalschläge, aber nur kurz, als eine nicht realisierte Möglichkeit des Fortgangs.
Es spielen nur die Automaten, trillernd,
klackernd. Jetzt der zweite Anlauf von Bass
und Drums, auch das Piano, dann nur das Piano.
Es hat die Ausdauer, gegen die Automaten die Wende einzuläuten. Bass und Drums verhungern
aber ein drittes Mal, die Orgel hält als einzige, monoton pulsierend, den letzten Lebensfaden. Ganz im Hintergrund tauchen
Drums und Keyboards als weitere Lebenszeichen
auf. Jetzt weitere Orgelschwaden, wieder
und wieder, bis der Puls endlich von einer
Rhythmusgitarre verstärkt wird und kräftig genug, den Bass wiederzubeleben für einen simplen Vierklang. Dazu das Geschrammel über
sonorem Orgelfond und, für die finalen drei Minuten, tickende Cymbal, Pianonoten und Arcostriche, die diese vier Noten gemeinsam anstimmen. Bis zuletzt nur Cymbal und helle Pianotropfen bleiben. Was für ein Spannungsbogen, mit einer herausfordernd schmalen Brücke von Hier nach Da." [Rigobert Dittmann / Bad Alchemy]
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Aether |
CD |
"Another remarkable performance from a group that has no peer and belongs to no genre or movement. Minimal in an essential and structural sense, they succeed where more formal attempts founder, in re-forming subjective time in a way that is genuinely gripping and as far from theoretical as great interpreters can get. Applying extraordinary technique in a remarkably discrete way, they here transfigure a single chord over a long duration, imperceptibly arriving far from their starting place meanwhile all values are subsumed into, and work only at the service of, a music that seems almost unplayed, emergent, inevitable. After all the statements are made there is a resurgence here of the sublime, in the last place you'd expect it, and through the unlikeliest means. An important project." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mindset |
CD |
"Now in their 24th year, the Necks’ release Mindset, their 16th album - and first LP, featuring two starkly contrasting tracks: the pulsating, raw, Rum Jungle and the slower building, rather hypnotic Daylights.
Polyrhythms imbue both pieces with powerful forward motion, embroiled with which ethereal piano patterns interweave with bass, drums, electronics, churning Hammonds and noise-guitars.
Drummer and percussionist Tony Buck writes: “Mindset shares some elements in common with our previous album Silverwater [2009], mostly in some mixing approaches and rhythmic devices - a reflection of our ongoing fascination with polymetric material and varying simultaneous pulses... but it's a whole other thing again, and the two tracks are very different from one another - Rum Jungle captures the live approach of the piano, bass, and drum trio a lot more, while Daylights features a bed of electronics and little sounds that slowly converge, coalescing into a multi-layered, multi-tempo, swirling soundscape.”
This release is supported by tours over the next three months in North America, Australia and Europe..." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Hanging Gardens |
CD |
"Completely unique, stunningly musical, technically impressive & breathtakingly simple. The Necks have defined an endlessly productive area of performance that is at once both minimal and gripping, obvious yet profoundly subtle. Easy to say, hard to achieve. It can take time for a group with a completely original idea to find its public & The Necks have been pursuing this one for over a decade in their native Australia - but it doesn't age, it just matures. " [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Drive by |
CD |
"New studio recording by the great rhythm minimalists. Somewhere between Hanging Gardens and Aether, this is a steady moderate tempo piece with some beautiful floating chords and inspired drum passages. The usual masterful playing and restraint; forward movement and stasis. A classic band." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Music for the feature film: The Boys |
CD |
"Sound-track to the prize-winning movie. The Necks break with convention here and put several shorter pieces on one CD. All gems and all pared back to the reiterative imperfection that is the Necks' unique and glorious signature. This a band that seems to be coming into its golden age. Prodigious music and highly recommended." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mosquito / See through |
do-CD |
"On the one hand, they seem to be releasing too many CDs - on the other, they are so different and so good you really need to have them. This time they offer two long pieces, both exquisite, of which Mosquito is, in my opinion, destined for greatness. Since the demo arrived in the office it's been on continuously. Minimal, with every sound perfectly imagined and perfectly placed, it achieves almost total timelessness. Essential." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"The Necks: are they inspiring or monotonous? This is the most commonly asked question with regard to their music. Unlike traditional jazz groups, this Australian trio opts for single songs that span the entire radius of their discs. The question, though, of whether they're inspirational or not is insignificant, because they've been regarded as the most sought-after jazz musicians in all of Australia. Between the three of them -- Chris Abrahams (keyboard/piano), Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd Swanton (bass) -- they have contributed to over 150 albums. That's quite an impressive number, considering how reasonably unknown they are; or perhaps that's only here in the United States.
Nonetheless, I have a feeling that the critical acclaim of their last few albums has slowly started to diminish this oversight. Their latest offering, which is a double-disc set called Mosquito / See Through, should fit in nicely with the rest of their catalog and continue to gather new supporters. They will simultaneously keep those existing fans happy since their basic concept has not been too heavily deviated upon. In the same fashion as the rest of their work, these two songs are slightly over an hour long in duration. And like a Robert Ryman painting, The Necks present them in very minimal fashion.
First in line, "Mosquito" is a hypnotic song that moves along at a leisurely pace until slight variations are allowed to flourish from within. Reflective piano is the highlight of this song, but there are gentle pulses of bass, a sometimes non-existent ride cymbal, and hanging wood chimes to accompany it. The inexorable subtlety of Abraham's piano is enough to lull you into a mindless state of sedation. Only during Talk Talk's best moments have I heard the piano sound so warm and charming.
"See Through" is the next long piece. Unlike its predecessor, it has oddly been broken up into several segments. During certain moments, there is at least a one-minute gap of complete silence before we are reintroduced to the song again. That aside, it's unquestionably the more interesting of the two songs. Where "Mosquito" focuses on lighter situations, "See Through" is a much darker and complex affair. The sound of jazz is almost completely concealed, and in its place we are left with stimulating atmosphere. The piano is still the focus here, and the drums, once again, fill in the empty space.
Heaven only knows where this album will take you if you allow it to do so. My only suggestion is that it not be behind the wheel of a car, for fear that you'll fall asleep and hit a road sign. I imagine that if you ever have the chance to take a train ride where you can view the countryside, Mosquito / See Through would be the ideal soundtrack. It has a way of blending in with its surroundings while never becoming overwhelming. And though most people might label this music as pretentious and self-indulgent, I would argue that it's some of the most stirring minimal jazz I've heard." [Tiny Mix Tapes]
|
2004 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Open |
CD |
"Die unvergleichlichen THE NECKS mit ihrem nunmehr 17. Album ihrer 26-jährigen Karriere.
THE NECKS haben etwas geschafft, was nur wenigen Künstlern gelingt: einen singulären Stil
zu kreieren, dabei eine ganz unverkennbare eigene Handschrift entwickelt und doch mit jedem
neuen Album nicht einfach bewährte Rezepturen neu aufgekocht, sondern durch feinfühlige
Neujustierung der Parameter neue Nuancen offenbart. Das leitende Motiv bei „Open“ waren –
nach dem vergleichsweise dynamischen, stellenweise eruptiven „Mindset“ von 2011 –
Stille und meditative Klarheit, die etwa „Drive By“ innewohnte. CHRIS ABRAHAMS (Piano),
TONY BUCK (Drums) und LLOYD SWANTON (Bass) setzen im Laufe der 68 Minuten einen
repetitiv-hypnotisierenden Klangfl uss aus leichtfüßig swingendem (Post-)Jazz, repetitiven Grooves à la JAKI LIEBEZEIT (CAN) und elektronischen Sounds in Gang, der elegant innerhalb der selbst gewählten Koordinaten mäandert und bei aller scheinbaren Reduktion und Schlichtheit unter der subtilen Oberfl äche eine komplexe Struktur offenlegt. Wie immer bei den Australiern. //
OPEN will be the Necks’ 17th album, and the 11th released by ReR. Here the band returns to the territory for which it is best known: a single, glacially mutating, long-form piece that runs for a little over an hour.
The previous record, “Mindset”, said bassist Lloyd Swanton, “reached some pretty intense levels at times, and though we never overtly discussed it, I think that on Open, by contrast, all three of us were taken by the idea of working in a field of significant stillness. At least, after a couple of days’ recording, it became clear that the music was leading us in this direction.” Feeding into the ground plan are floating arco harmonics, minimalist funk, iterative piano figures, subliminal and liminal pulses, twittering electronics and at one point an arco bass choir. It is unequivocally a studio work, with layer laid on layer, while still, miraculously, remaining architecturally spare." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"The Necks might be our favorite jazz group, most of their records/performances being single hour long pieces, always a lush, patient, slow build, all texture and mood, super dynamic, but in a way most bands can't pull off, just bass drums and piano, their sound dense and dark, doleful and lovely. The last few Necks records have found this minimal band getting a little maximal, their slow build eventually erupting into something dense and driving and almost psychedelic, as if in response to that, Open finds the group and their most hushed and abstract, with the first few minutes featuring a field of tinkling chimes, spare pointillist piano, and only the occasional flurry of bass notes, spacious and mesmeric, as we usually find ourselves saying about these guys, we would have been happy if there was no slow build at all, and the whole record was just this glistening, glimmering sprawl of abstract free jazz drift.
But there is a method to their madness, and at about the eight minute mark, the song shifts dramatically, an electronic pulse, some simple hi-hat rhythms, the occasional bass drum, and nothing else, weirdly hypnotic and barely there, the sound soon joined by a buzzing hum, a snare crack here, some bass thrum there, the sound blossoming into a sprawl of subtle tribal drumming, and more shimmering chimes, soon the piano comes back in, and the song begins to take a more jazz-like shape, albeit one that's still quite free and abstract, the lilting piano melody offsetting the busy drumming, the sound shifting again soon after, with a snare roll that sounds almost like radio static, the bass and low notes on the piano unfurling a dense rumble, those chimes tying everything together again, before settling into something much more tranquil and serene, only to return to that strange electronic pulse / hi-hat section, which slips from jazzy shimmer, to abstract free form almost-psychedelia, the snare locked into another roll, adding a buzzy thrum, the sound finally settling into some hushed, laid back jazziness, wreathed in a dreamy droned out shimmer, gradually fading to silence.
Recommended, as always!" [Aquarius Records] |
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Vertigo |
CD |
"The release of a new Necks album is always news. This is our 12th to date - and their 18th. While most ensembles are driven by personalities, the Necks are powered by an idea. A very large and simple idea - which now seems completely obvious…. but only because the Necks thought of it and made it work. Now their pleasure (and ours) is sequentially to re-imagine and explore that idea – the prime directive of which seems to be to be that each unfolding step and every passing detail of any performance be allowed to evolve organically out of the musical conditions established at its moment of departure. In other words, we are in the territory of chaos and catastrophe theory; of hurricanes and butterfly wings… And, since one can never step twice into the same river, each beginning has led to wildly unpredictable and variant outcomes; and imperceptibly: you never hear the changes until somehow they have already happened. “We end up, Lloyd Swanton writes, ‘in a very different place from whatever our initial notion … had been.” In the case of Vertigo, we are dropped straight into an almost Feldmanesque musical universe, in which sounds - seemingly disconnected - are already there; creating space rather than inhabiting it. Then, without trying, they mutate. Not mechanically and not according to any pre-determined process - because it’s always clear that what we hear is being played by human beings; that it’s music. A special kind of music that is not pushy or demanding or demonstrative, but rather co-operative, spatial, ambiguous. A music that leaves room for its listeners." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"Die unvergleichlichen THE NECKS mit dem nunmehr 18. Album ihrer 28-jährigen
Karriere. THE NECKS haben etwas geschafft, was nur wenigen Künstlern gelingt: einen singulären
Stil zu kreieren, dabei eine ganz unverkennbare eigene Handschrift zu entwickeln und doch
mit jedem neuen Album nicht einfach bewährte Rezepturen neu aufzukochen, sondern durch
feinfühlige Neujustierung der Parameter neue Nuancen zu offenbaren. CHRIS ABRAHAMS
(Piano), TONY BUCK (Drums) und LLOYD SWANTON (Bass) setzen auch auf ihrem neuen Album „Vertigo“ den Maßstab sehr hoch an. Der prägende repetitiv-hypnotisierende Klangfluss
aus leichtfüßig swingendem (Post-)Jazz, repetitiven Grooves à la JAKI LIEBEZEIT (CAN) und elektronischen Sounds, der viele ihrer alten Alben prägte, ist auch auf dem aktuellen Album zu hören. Elegant und subtil erschafft das Trio aus Australien hier abermals ein Meisterwerk. Wie kaum einer anderen Band gelingt es den Musikern, dem Hörer einen „Weg“ vorzugeben, ihm aber genug Freiraum für eigenes Hören und Interpretieren zu lassen. Ganz große Kunst!" [Broken Silence]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
|
The Necks Box |
8 x CD BOX |
"Formed in Australia the late 1980s by Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck and Lloyd Swanton, the NECKS have been hailed as "one of the greatest bands in the world" by the New York Times.
The Guardian said: “Entirely new and entirely now...They produce a post-jazz, post-rock, post-everything sonic experience that has few parallels or rivals." And Critic Richard Williams wrote in his book Blue Moment: "I think the new music I would find it hardest to do without, fifty years after Kind of Blue, is that produced by The Necks”.
8 of their best CDS are now in this sturdy box, at a very interesting price:
CONTENTS
Hanging Gardens
Drive By
Aether
The Boys
Chemist
Townsville
Silverwater
Mindset." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"Die unvergleichlichen THE NECKS mit einer tollen und hochwertigen Werkschau in Form einer 8-CD Box. THE NECKS haben etwas geschafft, was nur wenigen Künstlern gelingt: einen singulären Stil zu kreieren, dabei eine ganz unverkennbare eigene Handschrift entwickelt und doch mit jedem neuen Album nicht einfach bewährte Rezepturen neu aufgekocht, sondern durch feinfühlige Neujustierung der Parameter neue Nuancen offenbart. Dies lässt sich wirklich auf alle Alben der Band übertragen. CHRIS ABRAHAMS (Piano), TONY BUCK (Drums) und LLOYD SWANTON (Bass) sind bereits seit 1989 als Band aktiv und veröffentlichten 16 Alben. Weit über die Grenzen ihrer australischen Heimat ist die Band bekannt. Nun erscheint eine kleine Werkschau
mit acht Alben der Band in einer hochwertigen Box. Inhalt: „Silverwater“ (2009), „Townsville“ (2007), „Chemist“ (2006), „The
Boys“ (1998), „Drive By“ (2003), „Aether“ (2001), „Hanging Gardens“ (1999) und „Mindset“ (2011)." [Broken Silence]
"Wow, if you DON'T have all these Necks cds, and you might not 'cuz some have been hard to find lately, then this box set is Christmas come early. Treat yourself! Eight of the aQ-beloved Australian minimal trance drone-jazz masters' ReR releases, circa 1999-2011, together in a handsome box. This hefty cube contains Silverwater, Townsville, Chemist, Drive By, The Boys, Aether, Hanging Gardens, and Mindset - each of which has received rave reviews on our list over the years (three of which were Records Of The Week, though all easily could have been). If we pasted in our reviews of all of them here, this review would be waaaay too long. So we'd just suggest if you're curious, please look 'em up on our site. Basically, though, it's a great chance for anybody who has slept on The Necks to get a big dose of some of the best, most original and hypnotic instrumental 'jazz' music ever.
Of course, they have other releases you should get too - we'd love a box set of their earlier stuff, and even this set is missing some Necks releases that came out during that 1999-2011 time span. Still, more than enough music here to keep you entranced for a long time..." (Aquarius Rec)
|
2015 |
€60.00 |
|
|
Vertigo |
LP |
"The release of a new Necks album is always news. This is our 12th to date - and their 18th. While most ensembles are driven by personalities, the Necks are powered by an idea. A very large and simple idea - which now seems completely obvious…. but only because the Necks thought of it and made it work. Now their pleasure (and ours) is sequentially to re-imagine and explore that idea – the prime directive of which seems to be to be that each unfolding step and every passing detail of any performance be allowed to evolve organically out of the musical conditions established at its moment of departure. In other words, we are in the territory of chaos and catastrophe theory; of hurricanes and butterfly wings… And, since one can never step twice into the same river, each beginning has led to wildly unpredictable and variant outcomes; and imperceptibly: you never hear the changes until somehow they have already happened. “We end up, Lloyd Swanton writes, ‘in a very different place from whatever our initial notion … had been.” In the case of Vertigo, we are dropped straight into an almost Feldmanesque musical universe, in which sounds - seemingly disconnected - are already there; creating space rather than inhabiting it. Then, without trying, they mutate. Not mechanically and not according to any pre-determined process - because it’s always clear that what we hear is being played by human beings; that it’s music. A special kind of music that is not pushy or demanding or demonstrative, but rather co-operative, spatial, ambiguous. A music that leaves room for its listeners." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"Die unvergleichlichen THE NECKS mit dem nunmehr 18. Album ihrer 28-jährigen
Karriere. THE NECKS haben etwas geschafft, was nur wenigen Künstlern gelingt: einen singulären
Stil zu kreieren, dabei eine ganz unverkennbare eigene Handschrift zu entwickeln und doch
mit jedem neuen Album nicht einfach bewährte Rezepturen neu aufzukochen, sondern durch
feinfühlige Neujustierung der Parameter neue Nuancen zu offenbaren. CHRIS ABRAHAMS
(Piano), TONY BUCK (Drums) und LLOYD SWANTON (Bass) setzen auch auf ihrem neuen Album „Vertigo“ den Maßstab sehr hoch an. Der prägende repetitiv-hypnotisierende Klangfluss
aus leichtfüßig swingendem (Post-)Jazz, repetitiven Grooves à la JAKI LIEBEZEIT (CAN) und elektronischen Sounds, der viele ihrer alten Alben prägte, ist auch auf dem aktuellen Album zu hören. Elegant und subtil erschafft das Trio aus Australien hier abermals ein Meisterwerk. Wie kaum einer anderen Band gelingt es den Musikern, dem Hörer einen „Weg“ vorzugeben, ihm aber genug Freiraum für eigenes Hören und Interpretieren zu lassen. Ganz große Kunst!" [Broken Silence]
"We've lost count at this point of how many albums The Necks have released, but we haven't lost sight of the way they have remained on top of their game with each and every release. There is no such thing as a bad or mediocre release by Austrialian avant-jazz minimalists The Necks. Vertigo keeps the streak alive, and in many ways it's one of the darker releases by The Necks, filled with hypnotic and pulsating piano and soulful free-jazz like percussion. In one 43 minute track they remind us once again they are among the most intense and talented music makers on this planet!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Travel |
do-LP |
Travel, the 19th studio album by Australian improvisational trio The Necks, documents their recent practice of starting each day in the studio with a 20-minute trio improvisation. The recordings offer some of their most ecstatic and captivating music cut to tape.
As bassist Lloyd Swanton puts it: “It’s a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day, and some lovely music has resulted from it.” Although a straight “live” improvisation has never been recorded in the studio by the band, these tracks (save for some light overdubs and post-production) feel closest to their 30 years of celebrated live performances.
In 2017 Stephen O’Malley’s Ideologic Organ label released the band’s lauded Unfold, which first offered up this uncharacteristic studio work: four sub-20-minute pieces - instead of the typical 60+ minute arc for which the band is known - along with an obfuscated track list which leaves play order to the listener’s hand. The album quickly sold out, and persists as a treasure in collections or as a high-priced ‘Want’ on Discogs.
Travel marks a return to this double-LP format, offered in a beautiful gatefold package that features photography by Traianos Pakioufakis and impeccable mastering by Doug Henderson.
Produced by The Necks
Recorded by Tim Whitten, Studios 301, Alexandria, Australia
Mixed by Tim Whitten, Forbes Street Studios, Woolloomooloo, Australia
Mastered by Douglas Henderson, micro-moose-berlin, Germany
Photographs and design by Traianos Pakioufakis
Thanks to Jordan Verzar, Regina Greene, Lee Paterson
https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/travel
"For the last 25 years, the Australian trio have created a radical new open form for musical improvisation with hour-long performances that touch upon motorik rock, minimalist composition, drone and more.... " THE WIRE
|
2023 |
€39.50 |
|
| |
Travel |
CD |
Travel, the 19th studio album by Australian improvisational trio The Necks, documents their recent practice of starting each day in the studio with a 20-minute trio improvisation. The recordings offer some of their most ecstatic and captivating music cut to tape.
As bassist Lloyd Swanton puts it: “It’s a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day, and some lovely music has resulted from it.” Although a straight “live” improvisation has never been recorded in the studio by the band, these tracks (save for some light overdubs and post-production) feel closest to their 30 years of celebrated live performances.
In 2017 Stephen O’Malley’s Ideologic Organ label released the band’s lauded Unfold, which first offered up this uncharacteristic studio work: four sub-20-minute pieces - instead of the typical 60+ minute arc for which the band is known - along with an obfuscated track list which leaves play order to the listener’s hand. The album quickly sold out, and persists as a treasure in collections or as a high-priced ‘Want’ on Discogs.
Produced by The Necks
Recorded by Tim Whitten, Studios 301, Alexandria, Australia
Mixed by Tim Whitten, Forbes Street Studios, Woolloomooloo, Australia
Mastered by Douglas Henderson, micro-moose-berlin, Germany
Photographs and design by Traianos Pakioufakis
Thanks to Jordan Verzar, Regina Greene, Lee Paterson
https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/travel
"For the last 25 years, the Australian trio have created a radical new open form for musical improvisation with hour-long performances that touch upon motorik rock, minimalist composition, drone and more.... " THE WIRE
|
2023 |
€16.50 |
|
| NECROPHONIE |
1996-2006 |
10inch |
Projekt von ATRAX MORGUE und DEVIS.G, attraktiv für Minimal-Elektronik (aber die schleppend-noisige Variante) & "old school"-Industrial-Freunde, Rhythm-Box und lauter fiese Analog-Synth-Noises auf der A-Seite & eine röhrende Industrial-Walze auf der B-Seite.
Edles Cover, mit Lederband zugebunden, nummeriert & im Innern Prägedruck. Japan-Import.
"Necrophonie is a collaboration project of M.Nothing a.k.a. Atrax Morgue, and Devis G. a.k.a. DeV, Lvnvs, Teatro Satanico. This is their first 10 inch vinyl released in 2006 from Japanese new label "Dogma Chase". Greasy electronic noises are discharged with muddiness reverberation like as leaking from stoned coffin. One side is filled with poisonous shadow as unreleased new track recorded in 2006. The other side is more rusted industrial noise mainly inorganic rhythms and heavy layered paranoid electronics and comes from long deleted cassette tape collaboration as Atrax Morgue/Lvnvs on Slaughter Productions (spt69) recorded in 1996. Special corset styled foldout sleeve with an inside message and full color printed insert. Hand-numbered limited edition 300 copies. details & photos : http://www.molehill.jp/dogmachase/news.html" [label info]
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| NECROPHORUS |
Imprints |
CD |
Das neue NECROPHORUS-Werk, introvertierter und elektronischer als seine RAISON D'ETRE-Veröffentlichungen, ohne das "Gothic"-flair, dafür umso "kosmischer"......verwirbelte Orgel-artige tönende Harmonien, aber auch Spielwiese für etwas "abgefahrene" elektronische Sounds, field recordings, sogar Akustik-Gitarrenklänge..
aber alles geschieht in sehr ruhigen, magisch-meditativen Bahnen ...
"Beautiful, sensitive and electrified. 'Imprints' by Necrophorus goes beyond the previous album 'elinrós' (2005) and further investigates the aural landscape of imagination and mysticism. 'Imprints' vibrates a fresh air mixed of three dimensional electrified organic field recordings and minimal immersive sequenced organ sounds thus creating the psychedelic atmosphere of virtually being inside the music, inside the magic circle of the aural landscape. 'Imprints' is the fifth CD album from Necrophorus/Peter Andersson (Sweden) who is most known for the project raison d'etre with several masterpiece releases on the Swedish legendary Cold Meat Industry label. Inspired by the impressions of his visit to the amazing landscapes of Iceland summer 2006, Peter Andersson has created a new astonishing aural output. 'Imprints' consists of three variations of the same impression: two of them are pure studio composisitons while the third variation is improvised as 'live in studio' recording. Format: CD, folding cover. Total time: 50:16 minutes" [label info]
www.wrotyczrecords.prv.pl
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Underneath the Spirit of Tranquility (Redux Version) |
CD |
"Underneath the Spirit of Tranquility” (redux version) by Necrophorus (Peter Andersson from raison d'être) is a painted story canvas for the otherwise unreachable astral world. Adorned with esoteric ambiences, one feels as though embarking on a path of inner ascension while breathing the immaterial tranquilities. This redux version of 'Underneath the Spirit of Tranquility' (originally released 1996) has been carefully re-mixed for enhanced experience and spiced with two additional tracks. The artwork consists of drawings by Elinros Henriksdotter. Comes in a folding cover with 6 extra charts. Strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.wrotycz.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| NEGATIVLAND |
Escape from Noise |
CD |
"If there is one Negativland CD that someone you know owns, it’s probably this one. This 1987 SST Records release was a surprise college radio hit, and, some say, years ahead of it’s time. "Escape From Noise" is one of our bestselling and most accessible projects, where we took the tape splicing skills honed on "A Big 10-8 Place" into ever more musical directions. In 1999 Seeland Records reissued "Escape From Noise" in a reworked package designed for the CD format. Negativland always intended the original cover artwork to be for the LP format only, and we were never happy with the "original" painted cover image reduced to such small size on the first CD issue. This new version features that artwork full size as the front cover, with the remainder of the artwork reformatted throughout the package by ace designer and Negativland satellite member Dan Lynch. This new version of "Escape From Noise" is not remastered or remixed in any way, nor is there any extra material added." [label info]
www.negativland.com
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEGATIVLAND & CHUMBAWAMBA |
ABCs of Anarchism |
maxi-CD |
"Once-ever collaboration between these two culture-jamming groups, one of whom happened to have a much bigger megaphone, which they were kind enough to let the other one shout through on this 22-minute EP. Three collage pieces in which both dig at each other in the same sandbox." [label info]
|
1999 |
€9.00 |
|
| NEGRU PVLSE |
Fervere |
CD |
"An album that was long in the making. The creative minds of Mathias Josefson (Moljebka Pvlse) and Peter Nyström (Negru Voda, ex-Megaptera) join forces again to return 13 years after their first album Madeira (2002, Old Europa Cafe). Fervere in Latin stands for ‘boil’ or ‘seethe’ and these expressions accurately capture the one hour content of Negru Pvlse’s sophomore release: dark, dense and often rhythmic soundwaves that Megaptera’s mastermind is known for and the unique and more dreamy ambient parts by Mathias Josefson. The whole, however, presents itself as a distinct and independent work of a fully developed band, and not as a mere collaboration. Fervere is a complex yet highly addictive work that will make you realize the long wait was well worth it!" [label info]
ur-muzik.blogspot.de
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH |
Amnemonic Site |
CD |
Erstes Solo-Album von SETH NEHIL seit 5 Jahren... geheimnisvoll tönende Soundwelten warten auf ihre Entdeckung, Klänge kommen von Objekten & Aussenaufnahmen...
"Perhaps Seth Nehil is better known from his collaborative work than for his solo work. He worked with jgrzinich and Olivia Block, but his last solo work was from 2002. In the years between he worked mainly on different projects that couldn't be released on CD, such as multimedia installations. The new work 'Amnemonic Site' is covered with obscurity. Besides his name, the title, labelname and catalogue number, the cover holds no information. 'Play Loud' it says on the label, which always raises the question here: why? I usually like to make up my own mind if I want to play music loud or not. The whole time I was playing this CD, I couldn't stop thinking 'what are these sounds'? It's of course a question that I constantly ask myself when playing new music, certainly when covers are as obscure as this one, but in Nehil's case, it can be anything really. Are these field recordings? Perhaps. Or closely miked objects? Also likely. And what about the nature of sound processing? It seems likely there is some. How and to what extent? And do I also detect some real instruments, like wind instruments, or perhaps organs? It's all likely. Each of the pieces is a large mix up, I imagined, of all of these. There is field recordings, closely miked objects falling to the wooden floor, but also long sustained sounds of wind instruments. It all makes up a particularly strong CD, that is very much alike the latest Olivia Block release, in which a similar treatment of 'real' instruments and field recordings is used, and Nehil easily reaches to a similar height in his 'Amnemonic Site'. Full of tension, he offers a strong interplay between all of his soundsources and it's easily the best release I heard from him to date." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.alluvialrecordings.com |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Flock & Tumble |
CD |
Mit diesem Album erweitert der amerikanische Composer das bisher von ihm Gewohnte auf kurioseste Weise! Diverse Objektgeräusche und subtiler Einsatz von Stimmen und Gesängen, so obskur wie nur selten zuvor vernommen, field recordings & kaum Erkennbares, wohl auch elektronisch bearbeitet, vieles bleibt im dunkeln und macht FLOCK & TUMBLE umso geheimnisvoller und wunderbarer, von der Wirkung ungefähr so wie BIOTA, vom "Feeling" hat es was von THUJA, TIP für Leute die was wirklich Neutönendes suchen !
"Seth Nehil is an American artist involved in various projects ranging from compositions for dance, installations, multimedia performances, publications and visual art. Over the years, he has collaborated with other significant sound researchers (John Grzinich, Olivia Block, Michael Northam, Matt Marble and Brendan Murray) and has released many CDs on international labels such as Kaon, Alluvial and ...Edition.
It's not so easy to describe the music of Seth Nehil: like a compound of several substances, obtained by capturing natural and urban sounds, manipulated instruments, as well as by electronic treatments and textured objects.
Flock & Tumble is another fine example of his new direction : shorter tracks with an almost song-like structure and a large sound palette that includes the human voice as material. Flock & Tumble explores haphazard clusters, abrupt shifts, percussive rattles and gentle clouds." [label info]
"Throughout the years we have reviewed much of the work of Seth Nehil, who belongs with people like JGrzinich and MNortham to the main players of the US drone scene, which finds itself largely based in field recordings, but also acoustic instruments and just a little bit of electronics. All of this is collected and played and then put together into pieces of music. Music that is not easy to describe as it simply defies categorization, which is always good (and difficult for such reviewers like me, who like to use them). Partly we could say the music is improvised on the side of the instruments, percussive mainly. Then afterwards, or perhaps before hand, field recordings are put to it, something set in a loop, although not always 'on', and sometimes dropping out of the mix, in order to return later. If a word applies to this music, then 'organic' would, I think, be appropriate. Organic in the way the material is put together: from various sources, but it seems to fit together like it always was. Organic also in the sense of playing the instruments and the use of field recordings. This leads to some pretty strong pieces of music, in which we also recognize someone like Af Ursin or Yannick Dauby. Dense and delicate." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"An important demonstration of Nehil’s abilities, this is a classic sleeper which deserves immediate exposure, well beyond the small circle of experts to which music like this is usually addressed." [Touching Extremes]
www.sonoris.org
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Furl |
CD |
" 'Furl is the sequel to Seth Nehil's critically acclaimed 2009 release Flock & Tumble, also on Sonoris. Continuing his exploration of physically charged, acousmatic sound, these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble. Clusters of bell-like tones pierce hazy, corroded atmospheres. Animalistic yelps, distant pings, percussive bursts and glassy swells all merge in this unique sound-world. These five pieces are both rigorously-assembled and gracefully sparse. Furl will be a welcome addition to the expanding catalogue in Nehil's futuristic organic paradox. What others had to say about Flock & Tumble : Extraordinary a wonderful sense of confidence in the material, an ability to go somewhere quite new.' - Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear). 'Not too often you come across something that just sounds like little else.' - Brian Olewnick (Just Outside). 'An important demonstration of Nehil's abilities, this is a classic sleeper which deserves immediate exposure, well beyond the small circle of experts to which music like this is usually addressed.' - Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes). Biography : Seth Nehil is an artist, performance-maker, and composer with a practice that crosses between sound, performance-events and the visual arts. In recent years he has created large-scale sound performances, collaborated with choreographers including Liz Gerring (NYC) and Linda Austin (Portland, Ore), and has published music on various international labels, including Sonoris (France) and Senufo Editions (Italy). Seth Nehil has also been an editor of arts publications, an organizer of performance festivals and a curator of exhibitions. He currently teaches sound, video and art theory at WSU Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest College of Art." [label press release]
www.sonoris.org
" 'Furl' is already the follow-up to last years 'Flock & Tumble' (see Vital Weekly 684) and continues his shift away from the field of drone music. Like it says on the press release 'these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble'. The music of Seth Nehil has moved into the field of acousmatica. More than on the previous it seems to me that Nehil is working with real instruments (played by himself or others), which are transformed, thanks to the computer no doubt, but he cleverly stays away from the regular type processing that the schooled composers use. Instead he creates quite vibrant pieces of music that bounces off into various directions and moods. Even a quiet piece like 'Hiss' has this vibrancy, with slow changes in sound and volume. As said its not easy to recognize the instruments he uses (piano? guitar? percussion?), but he works with them in a great way. He's now entirely away from the field recordings and drones and works in a modern classical approach. A piece
like 'Swarm' sounds a stage piece with various voices from behind and slaps and bangs on the piano and percussion, with the addition of electronics making glissandi. Yet he has sprinkled the thing with his own magic - the sort of obscuring the sounds and that gives his music something of its own. Its hard to say what that is exactly, but it doesn't sound like anything else, which is the best compliment a composer can get, I guess. Its by far the best Nehil CD I heard and a fine career move." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Bounds |
LP |
On “Bounds”: „Bounds“ consists of 11 electro-acoustic compositions, whose first versions were constructed by Seth Nehil for the “Concerts in the Dark” series at Moers Festival 2012 curated by aufabwegen. In 2013 Seth did the final versions and added some new pieces. “Bounds” is an exciting trip through sound manipulation, treated drums and very detailed textures. The overall atmosphere is dark but the way the sounds are arranged and connected speaks of an almost scientific clarity.
Bounds is a new, more synthetic direction for Seth Nehil. Originally composed for a festival of music in complete darkness, these pieces treat recorded sound as infinitely malleable and transformable. Starting with acoustic percussive sources (drums, gongs, cymbals, vibraphones, etc.), recordings were warped beyond recognition, exploring the juncture between rhythm and pitch. Sonic impulses were subjected to micro-editing techniques to produce new, alien forms which were then fragmented into grains, pulses and tones or built up into rhythms, loops and cycles. Convolution reverb was used extensively to color timbres and place sounds into unusual spaces. These eleven short tracks are full of expanses, interruptions and repetitions. These are dynamic compositions that sound like nothing else.
Seth Nehil – Biography 2014
Seth Nehil (b. 1973) is a sound and video artist making concerts, performances and installations. Nehil meshes manipulated acoustic recordings, voices, instruments, granular synthesis and field recordings into richly detailed spaces. His compositions draw equally from classic musique concréte, film sound design, hip hop production and noise to form a uniquely hybrid sonic world, full of off-kilter rhythms, sudden junctures and explosive bursts. “…A shapliness that’s unusual in abstract music… hugely satisfying.” – Brian Marley, The Wire
In addition to recorded and live-mixed sound, Seth Nehil has collaborated with dance and video artists, choreographers, and theater companies to produce original sound scores, multimedia performances and video installations. He has created his own original performance pieces, bringing together multi-screen video, multi-channel recorded sound and live performers to explore quasi-narrative spaces between cinema and dance. He is currently conducting research for an experimental documentary on the use of “attack therapy” and the historical roots of child behavior modification.
Seth Nehil has released over 15 albums of experimental sound on international labels, including Sonoris (France) and Senufo Editions (Italy). He has given concerts across Europe, Japan and the US. Nehil received an MFA in Music/Sound from Bard College. He teaches sound design, sound art and video at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Washington State University and Portland State University.
www.sethnehil.artdocuments.org
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH & JGRZINICH |
Stria |
CD |
Fast schon beängstigend schöne Drones & „archaic surroundings“ von den beiden konkreten Klangsphärikern aus den USA.. zwischen stehenden, sich stets modulierenden Klangwolken und konkret-fliessenden Sounds...
Sehr schönes Cover auch, einer der definitiv besten DRONE-CDs des laufenden Jahres !
Absolutely wonderful new release, nicely packed
and designed and for a good price!
“...The exploratory focus of stria/confluence is the idea of resonance; the phenomenon of natural vibrations that give rise to intensified or stable structures within sound bodies and fields. In the production of these works, the composers' approached resonance in both the acoustic sound behavior and the social phenomenon in group interaction and/or participation within the context of sound generating activities. It was again applied to the studio in the use of massive multiplications and layerings, resulting in deeply transforming, evolutionary sound fields.. ”[from the press release]
"Strangely enough, we had never managed to get any of these records in stock when it originally came out in 2002 as the companion
to the now out of print album Confluence, which had been released on the Intransitive label. Stria is one of many collaborative projects
between these two impressive sound artists, straddling the realm of dronescape delirium and dislocated field recordings. Seth Nehil and
John Grzinich first began working together in the humidity of Austin, Texas in the revolving door collective of Alial Straa, which also
proved formative for Michael Northam and Olivia Block. But as all of these folks wandered to various corners of the globe (Grzinich in
Estonia, Nehil to Portland, Block to Chicago, and who the hell knows where Northam currently calls home), the collaborations have become
impressively focused projects, even as they take several years to complete. Like its companion piece, Stria centers upon the idea of resonance, spread across three longform pieces. The first of which collects various bowed tones from a huge ensemble of musicians and twists them all into a sinewy mass of slowburning drones and gradual progressions. The reference in the liner notes to Alvin Lucier makes
complete sense in view of this impressive dronesmear crescendo on par with anything that Jonathan Coleclough or Organum had mustered. The second piece is more in keeping with Grzinich's recent work with clattering stone and found objects in concrete bunkers, as scrabbling sounds and tactile noises echo back and forth against murky atmospheres. The final piece returns to the drone work with motors
agitating long thin wires with phase shifting oscillations and eerie turbulence rattling what otherwise would be some very pretty ambience,
but instead becomes a sublime listening experience. An excellent piece of work all around." [Aquarius Records]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH & MATT MARBLE |
Ecllipses |
CD |
Mysteriöse Geräuschmusik pur! Tolle Zusammenarbeit der beiden Herausgeber des exzellenten FO A RM - Magazins. Materialien und Objekte werden so bearbeitet, das lebendige fliessend-konkrete Klänge entstehen, deren Herkunft man nur erahnen kann. Alles ist in ständiger Bewegung, die Stücke nehmen z.T. dramatische, dronige Formen an, um dann wieder in Mikrosound-artige Fragmentsounds zu fallen, mal klingt es nach schwingenden selbst-gebauten Instrumenten, dann nach rauschenden field recordings... geniales Zeug zum genauen Zuhören & Sich-Versenken !
"First collaboration release between two American 'sound composters', Seth Nehil and Matt Marble. A dynamic whirlwind tour through states of ellipsis and eclipses, abrupt ruptures, reuniting and igniting. Where nothing is static for too long. Through an invigorating admixture of instruments, field recordings and various found matter, a compelling and mysterious world comes alive to spark the imagination." [label notes]
"Naturalist aktionism? Sure, let's call it that. We can't really
say that the Hermann Nitsch and Gunter Brus bloodletting as grand
allegory is applicable to this collaboration between Portland based
sound artists Seth Nehil and Matt Marble; but a rigorous body of work
is definitely at hand. These two are the editors of the sound art
journal FO A RM, and have both generated impressive bodies of
conceptually minded compositions through field recordings, found
objects, the almighty drone, and hand-built instruments. Here, Nehil
and Marble wax poetic about the overlay of tactile sounds to emphasize the ruptures, holes, and negative spaces which may have been present on each layer of sound. So, instead of a gaping piece of unbroken ambience, Ecllipses is a tense and discordant album of rollicking textures which bristle and scrape against each other. Nehil and Marble revel in tumbles and scrabbles of what could be a revolving metal drum filled with various pine cones, twigs, and pebbles. Elsewhere, they focus upon churning bowed steel-strings, which offer buzzing clouds of softly rendered acoustic noise; and then soft pluckings of what sound like softened dulcimers drift into prolonged echo, hinting at avant- folk drones of Jewelled Antler (especially the Ov recordings) and Kemialliset Ystavat. Barring a minimal amount of signal processing and ring modulation, the album flourishes in the sodden palette of natural objects: wood, grass, leaves, soil, and rock."" [Aquarius Records review]
www.and-oar.org
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| NEPTUNE |
Gong Lake |
CD |
Kraftvoller und mit experimentellen Überflügen ausgestattete Noise-Rock einer Combo die an THE EX, alte SONIC YOUTH oder COP SHOOT COP erinnern, nur ist alles noch irgendwie verdrehter und verrückter, ohne dass sie jemals den Drive verlieren oder ins totale Chaos abdriften..
"Behold: Neptune, the most harrowingly original band on this planet -- or the next. Its three members are, in turn, musicians, sculptors, scientists, blacksmiths, electricians, and industrial machinists; relentlessly inventive, possibly sane. Together, they construct all of their instruments, forging guitars and drums out of circular saw blades, gas tanks, oil drums, bike parts, VCR casings, and miscellany from the trash. Electronics, and even cords, are homemade as well. The combined effect is a bizarre, post-apocalyptic mélange of steel, iron, wire, rust, rivet, knob and cable; it's lunacy, arc-welded for maximum destruction. Concerts are seizures of motion. Wearing 40-pound guitars assembled entirely from scrap metal, the members don't play their instruments -- they battle them, like mechanized Golems. But make no mistake, this is not simply art with sharp edges and serious customs issues. Neptune rocks. Hard. Recalling the slapdash angularity of The Fall, the rhythmic ack-ack blasts of This Heat, and the sheer proto-clangor of Einstürzende Neubauten, they count as one of the best experimental rock bands of any era. Their dynamic, expertly wrought songs and skilled improvisations don't start; they explode. Gong Lake is the band's first unlimited CD release, and with it the world will discover what fans of their live shows have known for years: Neptune is otherworldly." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| NERELL, LOREN |
Taksu |
CD |
„Fourth World Ambient“ nennen die liner-notes die Musik von LOREN NERELL, der wieder aus einem reichen Fundus an field recordings schöpft, die er auf BALI gemacht hat... Musik in „ewiger Gegenwart“, ohne Anfang oder Ende, ohne Vergangenheit oder Zukunft, als reine atmosphärische Schwingung.
“ Loren Nerell's association with Soleilmoon Recordings dates back to his 1996 release "Lilin Dewa", as well as the more recent "Indonesian Soundscapes". "Taksu" takes cues from both of these albums, blending environmental sounds and Balinese instruments together into a glowing, amorphous cloud of spine-tingling sound. Two musicians come to mind when listening to "Taksu": Jon Hassell, who popularized Fourth World music, and Brian Eno, the father of Ambient music. While sounding nothing like the work of either artist, Loren Nerell's music takes inspiration from both of them. His music is evocative of mist-covered mountains and slow-motion waterfalls, so it owes something to Hassell. But it also pays tribute to the patient genius of Eno, with its endlessly evolving atmosphere, in which there is no beginning or end, only the present. The crowning touch on this project came from Steve Roach, stalwart Ambient Music pioneer and long-time friend of Loren's, who came in to provide the final spacial treatments and mastering of the CD. In his liner notes for the CD booklet, Djam Karet founder Chuck Oken, Jr. describes the music as a "sound pool" that the listener is immersed in. His words couldn't be more accurate, and it's no exaggeration to say that putting this record on is like waking up at sunrise, deep in the tropical Balinese rainforest, surrounded on all sides by the sounds of the jungle. To describe ambient or atmospheric music as "a soundtrack" is clichéd, but it's really the best way to talk about "Taksu". It truely is a very special album, and one that asks to be seen, not merely heard.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€12.50 |
|
| NERTHUS |
Urban |
CD |
Nerthus isn't a new name to audiophob as a track of this project was already on the first release from our label "-∞ dB" (auphcd001). Furthermore Nerthus provided a remix to Spherical Disrupteds remix cd "Barriere" (auphcd006). But you might also know the project from its earlier releases, for instance at Art Konkret and recently on Polymorph Records. "Urban" is the latest work of this project and we are proud to have it on our label. On the first look, the 8 tracks on this CD might be more rhythmic than Nerthus' previous releases but nevertheless it still keeps the ambient mood. On your way through urban land- and soundscapes: don't forget to have a look at the artwork provided by Nethus himself. (auphcd007)
https://audiophob.bandcamp.com/album/urban
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| NERVE NET NOISE |
Meteor Circuit |
CD |
Japanisches Duo mit einem dynamischen Mix aus Stille und analog-synthetischen Sounds, die sich in seltsamen Klick- und Pfeif-mustern anordnen. Weder harsch noch ambient, klingt teils nach mutierten Vögeln, .. oder so... extrem in seiner Konsequenz und oft hart an der Grenze zum Erträglichen. IN SEARCH OF EXTREMISTS-POP? here you are..
"Following two albums on Kazunao Nagata's cult Zero Gravity label and last year's stunning "Various Amusements" CD on Hronir (and, of course, the infamous "160/240" on Meme), "Meteor Circuit" is the first Nerve Net Noise CD published in the US. Nakamura records more accessible techno-pop under the alias Tagomago. He also records using the alias Toki-Meki Science for Nobukazu Takemura's Childisc label. The band describes their sound as "electric noise music, but not academic, not mere noisy sound. We think that our music is not so much noise music as new kind of pop music"."
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| NEST (Otto Totland & Huw Roberts) |
Body Pilot |
10inch |
"Nest is the collaborative project of Huw Roberts (Wales) and Otto A. Totland (Norway). Using a combination of acoustic instruments, field recordings and sample manipulation, the two work together to create instrumental music linked closely with their environments.
While unmistakably a Nest record, the material on 'Body Pilot' marks a more restrained, pared back development of Nest's sound. The palette used to craft these pieces is sparser than on previous recordings, placing greater emphasis on the nuances and subtleties of each sound.
'Stillness' opens proceedings on familiar ground. Gently sustained strings rise from a near inaudible hum and are accompanied by slow, resounding piano notes. The pace is glacial, each sound unravels and unfolds in sequence painting a vivid picture of the record's opening scene. The muted greens of an open plain as it tapers into the distance and the pearl-white of the sky, featureless save the bas-relief of a distant mountain range. The landscape resonates in sympathy with the beckoning drone of a propeller engine.
On 'The Dying Roar', we find ourselves borne aloft amid turbulent skies. Brass and woodwind instruments swirl and eddy, growing in intensity until, like the ground disappearing below, they blur and fade into nothing. The engines are cut and we glide silently into the white. Solo piano plays out the piece and closes the first side of the record.
In sharp contrast with the pieces preceding it, "Koretz's Meteor" opens with the haunted drone of an electronic synthesiser. Unidentifiable sounds and effects clamour for space around the rising growl, sweeping from left to right, submerging and resurfacing. A camera shutter opens and closes, cicadas sing in the night, what could it be, that burns so bright?
'Body Pilot' comes to a close with 'The Ultimate Horizon', a detached, isolated piece of music. Sounds speed up and slow down like the on / off of a propeller, sub-bass rises and falls, passing above and below hearing level. The track fades as we travel beyond the infinite." [label info]
www.serein.co.uk
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| NETHERWORLD |
Kall. The Abyss where Dreams fall |
CD |
".... In a tradition that is anchored, at the same time, in avant-garde, ritual soundz and dark-ambient, with a typically Italian touch, NETHERWORLD gives a peculiarly and elegantly organic and palpable feel to sounds that, in the hands of others, would maybe fall flat …and it is as if the sound universe conjured by the magic of NETHERWORLD was strangely…how could one say? OCCUPIED. Each moment, each twist and turn of this sound adventure bears infinite richness and elasticity, at all times …those are rather ‘busy’ sound layers but each of the elements has sufficient breathing space and can differentiate itself from the other surrounding components. This antagonism represents one of NETHERWORLD’s greatest strengths. Another noteworthy antagonism: this tendency to propose us ambiences that are excessively introspective, subdued, withdrawn into themselves, but which, at the same time, expand, subtly dilate to occupy an incommensurable space. Upon the first notes (or pulses??) of the opening track, ‘’KALL’’, this infinite abyss, envelops us and our dreams sink, dissolve, reinvent themselves…The sound propositions found on’’KALL’’ have enough movement and density to please the ones fond of depth in their music, but the overall ‘purified’ feel will please the most discerning purist. For the occasion, MONDES ELLIPTIQUES once again used the mastering talents of JOHN SELLEKAERS @ METARC and it is CHRISTIAN SA LETTE who put his savoir-faire in our service for the design of the sleeve and images. Limited to 441 copies! Deluxe cardboard sleeve." [label description]
"Netherworld is Alessandro Tedeschi and on the album 'Kall - the abyss where dreams fall' he shows his interest in cool ambient and drone related kind of music, that slowly and patiently unfolds in the space. The music is presented in four tracks that are called 'Kall', from part one to part four. What's most present in the 14 minutes of the first piece is the pulsating drone atmosphere, that sounds very gentle and is put in the front, while from time to time there are other sounds too that are appearing in the background and are adding a specific and slightly tribal sounding sense to the track. The sense of tribal ambient music is even more present in the second piece, while in the third longer piece of 21 minutes, there are motives similar to those in the first track - slowly unfolding layers of sounds that are coming from the cooler corners of the ambient spectrum, a kind of atmosphere that is present through the whole album. 'Kall - part 4' is no exception in the sounds that Netherworld uses in the music on this album. The fourth part is as smooth ambient music as the previous parts, it is the smoothest track, with almost 8 minutes of few slowly shifting layers of a kind of sustained, unusual, calm and sometimes linear sounding and spreading ambient music, a kind of aesthetic and approach to the music that is mostly present on the whole album, that is not a typical ambient aesthetic, but it crossovers the border-lines between the ambient and drone kinds of music." [BR / Vital Weekly]
www.angle-rec.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEU! |
Neu! |
LP |
"Reissue of this Krautrock icon (sometimes referred to in title as #1), originally released by Brain in 1971. Painstakingly remastered from the original master tapes. Neu! were formed by Kraftwerk members Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger who took the sparse early Kraftwerk electronic sound and utilized many effects like lock-groove rhythms and minimalist melodies currently used by today's electronic artists. Neu! created a new kind of rhythm that bridged the gap between rock n roll's syncopation and dance music's four-on-the-floor beats." "Neu!'s groundbreaking debut challenged rock n' roll by using feedback, processed effects, repeated riffs and incessant rhythms -- laying the cornerstone of what would become today's electronic music." [label info]
www.groenland.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| NEUFELD, SARAH |
Hero Brother |
CD |
"Sarah Neufeld is a violinist and composer based in Montréal, Canada. Best known as a member of Arcade Fire, she is also a founding member of the acclaimed contemporary instrumental ensemble Bell Orchestre and has performed and recorded with many other groups, including The Luyas, Esmerine and Little Scream.
Neufeld began developing pieces for solo violin in a more formal and focused sense in 2011, though she has made improvisation and solo composition part of her process and practice since first picking up the instrument at a young age. Neufeld counts Bela Bartok, Steve Reich, Iva Bittova and Arthur Russell among the formative influences for her solo work, in tandem with an ear for the textures and sensibilities of contemporary electro-acoustic, avant-folk and indie rock music.
Neufeld's debut solo album Hero Brother indeed channels all of the above, flowing through shifting atmospheres and oscillating between restrained, stately ambience, emotive études, and raw kinetic energy. Small touches of wordless vocalisation, harmonium and piano supplant the violin in a few places. The album was recorded in Berlin by pianist and producer Nils Frahm, with Neufeld's performances captured in a number of locations with site-specific acoustics, including an abandoned geodesic dome, an underground parking garage, and the legendary Studio P4 orchestral recording hall at the broadcast complex of the former GDR. Hero Brother will be released on Constellation Records in August 2013.
Sarah has recently premiered her solo music at BAM (Brooklyn), the WSO New Music Festival (Winnipeg) and Wavelength Festival (Toronto), of which Exclaim magazine wrote "the highlight of the night was most certainly Sarah Neufeld, whose compositions range from Reichian to folksy without skipping a beat; she uses violin squeals, growls, scrapes and slides to express varying emotions and stomps the stage beneath her for percussion.
Packaging notes
CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on thick 24pt. paperboard with a printed CD dust sleeve. LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a heavyweight jacket with black poly-lined audiophile dust sleeve, credit insert, pull-out art poster and download code for 320 kbps MP3 copy of the album. Artwork by Tracy Maurice." [label info] |
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| NEW BLOCKADERS & VARIOUS ARTISTS |
Viva Negativa! A Tribute to the New Blockaders Vol. II - Europe |
do-CD |
"Volume II in a series of UK / European / US and Japanese artists’ tributes
to the pioneering UK Noise group The New Blockaders including exclusive
tracks by: Asmus Tietchens, RLW, Achim Wollscheid, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Sudden
Infant, Dave Philips, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Kommissar Hjuler, Mama
Baer, Freiband, Vortex Campaign, Grunt, Lasse Marhaug, Jerome Noetinger,
Christian Renou, Pita, Giancarlo Toniutti, Zbigniew Karkowski, Alexei
Borisov, Cisfinitum, etc.
Artwork by Richard Rupenus (TNB)
The New Blockaders are a group who, more than any other, define the essence of true Noise music both in art and in act. Their influence on the current crop of popular crossover Noise artists such as Prurient and Wolf Eyes is
immeasurable. Emerging at the beginning of the 1980s alongside the Industrial grind of Throbbing Gristle and the harsh, abrasive Power
Electronics of Whitehouse, TNB stood out through a purity of vision. Their first record, 1982’s Changez Les Blockeurs, is noise in its most rudimentary form: metallic grating sounds and analogue feedback redefined what could be
classified as music. Its abstract form and Dadaist construction challenged all that had appeared before. It’s anti-music approach presented a recording closer to the theory-driven work of Einsturzende Neubauten than their
supposed contemporaries. They would appear rarely and when they did it would be in anonymity. The records would emerge even more infrequently with little information and in tiny runs. Collaborations in recent years with artists such as Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Merzbow have bough their anti-sound
to a younger and diverse audience. The metal-bashing of K2, the awkwardness of Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, the density of Macronympha and the
abrasiveness of Merzbow all owe something to the anti-music of TNB. They can truly be credited as pioneers of Noise music as we know it today." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
Reissue of parts of the LP box on VoD, with some extra tracks by Jerome
Noetinger, Kommissar Hjuler and more.
"The New Blockaders, Noiseinfanterietrupp und frühe Vordenkerform bruitistischer Lärmcollagierung bekommt auf dieser Compilation ein frühes Denkmal neu aufgesetzt. Die vorliegende Kompilation, 2006 in ähnlicher Form auf dem VOD-Label veröffentlicht, bekommt hier eine gänzlich neue Formung mittels exklusiver Bearbeitungen und Widmungen und einem Mastering von Asmus Tietchens. Die versammelten Werke, allesamt bezogen auf die Tributisierung der NB reichen dabei von archaischer Klangformung bis hin zu penetrierenden Digitalschwaden kurzgeschnittener, fingernagelgroßer Klangpailetten. Achim Wollscheid, RLW, Tietchens selbst, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck in einer Paradestellung dafür was analog gegen digital bedeutet und Giancarlo Toniutti sind nur einige wenige, deren Beiträge sich sattsam an der Tatsache weiden, die frühen Ausläufe des Industrial in ihrer Glanzzeit als Musiker der selben Kunstgattung miterlebt zu haben. Wenngleich einige wenige Durchläufer überbleiben (wie z.B. Achim Wollscheids geradezu unhörbare Symphonie für geschredderte Samplebänke, die in ihrer Konsequenz zwar mutig genug ist, aber zu sehr hinter den anderen Beiträgen zurückkbleibt sowie Freiband’s programmatisch betiteltes »Nichts«, das geradezu unverschämt mager die Möglichkeiten gecrushter Feldaufnahmen untersucht und geradezu hingeworfen wirkt), sind die Beiträge von RLW (mit Einbindung der kompletten Familie in den Prozess der Manifestierung), Mama Bär (welche ihre kongenial platzierten Schreie gegenüber einer Metallbastonade tapestriert, um auf die Kontraste von Vokal und Bruit aufmerksam zu machen), Kommissar Hjuler (dessen Beitrag das Sujet allzu sehr ad absurdum führt, aber in seiner vehementen Konsequenz auch nicht davor zurückschreckt, Kinderlieder einzubinden) sowie die musique concréte-Arien von Jérôme Noetinger und Das Synthetische Mischgewebe (die mit ihrer Collage aus atonalen Kracherzeugern einen ähnlich bewegenden Ablauf schaffen wie seinerzeit Ruttmanns »Weekend«) in ihrer Klangwerdung geradezu vorbildlich beschaffen. Ein insgesamt sehr überzeugender Re-Release für all jene, denen die 10 Platten der VOD-Ausgabe zu teuer waren. 5/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Viva Negativa ! Vol. III : USA |
do-CD |
"Die NEW BLOCKADERS sind eine Gruppe, die mehr als jede andere die Essenz des wahren Noise sowohl in Kunst als auch Musik definiert. Ihren Einfluss auf die aktuellen Crossover Noise Künstler wie PRURIENT und WOLF EYES ist nicht zu verkennen. Seit ihren ersten Schritten Anfang der 80er in der Gesellschaft des Industrial Grind von THROBIING GRISTLE und den kantigen Power Electronics von WHITEHOUSE, standen THE NEW BLOCKADERS immer für die Reinheit ihrer Vision. Ihr erstes Album, "Changez Les Blockers" von 1982, ist Noise in seiner ursprünglichsten Form: metallisches Knirschen und analoges Feedback definierten die Grenzen von Musik neu. Die abstrakte Form und die dadaistische Konstruktion stellten alles Dagewesene in Frage. Die Band sollte nur selten und dann anonym auftauchen. Alben kamen noch unregelmäßiger und meist in kleinen Stückzahlen. Kollaborationen mit Thurston Moore von SONIC YOUTH und MERBOW in jüngerer Vergangenheit haben den Sound von THE NEW BLOCKADERS auch einer jüngeren Generation nähergebracht. Das Metallgehaue von K2, die Ungemütlichkeit von RUNZELSTIRN&GURGELSTOCK, die Dichte von MACRONYMPHIA und die Kantigkeit von MERZBOW sind nicht ohne die Einflüsse der Anti-Musik der NEW BLOCKADERS." [label info/ Cargo]
"Volume III in a series of UK / European / US and Japanese artists’ tributes to the pioneering UK Noise group The New Blockaders including exclusive tracks by:
Z’EV, The Haters, Controlled Bleeding, Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke, Wolf Eyes, Macronympha, Emil Beaulieau, AMK, Idea Fire Company, John Wiese, Daniel Menche, Damion Romero, Aaron Dilloway, Lockweld, Prurient, Richard Ramirez, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Jason Kahn, mnortham, Carlos Giffoni, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, etc.
Artwork by Richard Rupenus (TNB)
The New Blockaders are a group who, more than any other, define the essence of true Noise music both in art and in act.
Their influence on the current crop of popular crossover Noise artists such as Prurient and Wolf Eyes is immeasurable. Emerging at
the beginning of the 1980s alongside the Industrial grind of Throbbing Gristle and the harsh, abrasive Power Electronics of Whitehouse, TNB stood out through a purity of vision. Their first record, 1982’s Changez Les Blockeurs, is noise in its most rudimentary form: metallic grating sounds and analogue feedback redefined what could be classified as music. Its abstract form and Dadaist construction challenged all that had appeared before. It’s anti-music approach presented a recording closer to the theory-driven work of Einsturzende Neubauten than their supposed contemporaries.They would appear rarely and when they did it would be in anonymity. The records would emerge even more infrequently with little information and in tiny runs. Collaborations in recent years with artists such as Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Merzbow have bough their anti-sound to a younger and diverse audience. The metal-bashing of K2, the awkwardness of Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, the density of Macronympha and the abrasiveness of Merzbow all owe something to the anti-music of TNB. They can truly be credited as pioneers of Noise music as we know it today.
Disc One:
Z'EV "Chips Off The New Block"
Keith Fullerton Whitman "September 27th, 1960"
Alan Courtis "Happy Blockaders Time"
Controlled Bleeding "The Latest Hole In My Head"
Plethora "Last Night I Dremt Of Anti-Fest... This Morning I Woke Up Deaf"
Macronympha "Riding Down Lost Highway"
The Haters "Mantra To Rot"
Emil Beaulieau "Anti-Vartan"
Lockweld "Catharsis Bomb"
Daniel Menche "Smoldered Blockaders"
John Wiese "Annul"
Broken Penis Orchestra "The Kill Lump"
Jason Kahn "Rille"
Disc Two:
Idea Fire Company "Les Heros De La Barricade Finale"
mnortham "Plotting Course On The Field Of Nothingness"
Thurston Moore "Corion Sound for TNB"
Jim O'Rourke "407 Seconds Over"
Damion Romero "Broken Block"
Prurient "Majdanek Slaughterhouse"
Richard Ramirez "Cultural Blockade"
Blue Sabbath Black Cheer "Untitled"
Carlos Giffoni "Richard Walks Into The Sea"
AMK "Phlegm Angst"
Aaron Dilloway "Machine Rape (Blitzkrieg)"
Wolf Eyes "Fisted Gadgets" " [label website info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| NEW BLOCKADERS (THE) |
VIVA NEGATIVA Vol. 1 |
4 LP - Box |
Full-Colour box w. 4 LPs containing TNB remix-material from ASMUS TIETCHENS, SRMEIXNER, DANIEL MENCHE, CISFINITUM, FREIBAND, HATERS, KARKOWSK, ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS, MSBR, CONTROLLED BLEEDING, OREN AMBARCHI, DIETER MUH, Z'EV, KK NULL, etc.etc. first part of this monstrous compilation project !! lim. 500 - only 250 for free distribution !!
“Viva Negativa! – A Tribute To The New Blockaders” incl. collaborations with/reworkings by 75 avant garde//industrial/noise artists: Oren Ambarchi, Anomali, Ashtray Navigations, Emil Beaulieau, Benzo, Maurizio Bianchi, Cisfinitum, Controlled Bleeding, Dieter Muh, Evil Moisture, Freiband, Grunt, The Haters, Jason Kahn, Zbigniew Karkowski, Komafuzz, Kraang, Lockweld, Massimo, Daniel Menche, Thurston Moore, MSBR, Nocturnal Emissions, KK Null, Pita, Plethora, Prurient, Richard Ramirez, Scanner, Silvum, srmeixner, Asmus Tietchens, Treriksroset, Vortex Campaign, V/Vm, Keith Fullerton Whitman, John Wiese, Nobuo Yamada, Z’EV.” [label info]
“....It's an overwhelming project, by it's size, it's quality both in music and cover art. A compendium of international noise music, a bold statement, which should belong in every home and an excellent example of how these things should be made.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€55.00 |
|
|
VIVA NEGATIVA Vol. 2 |
4 LP - Box |
Full-Colour box w. 4 LPs containing TNB remix-material from C. RENOU, MNORTHAM, AUBE, RLW, VIOLENT ONSEN GEISHA, AMK, DAMION ROMERO, DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE, SPIRACLE, MERZBOW, WOLF EYES, INCAPACITANS, JIM O'ROURKE, DAVE PHILIPPS, BROKEN PENIS ORCHESTRA, LASSE MARHAUG, G. TONIUTTI, etc. etc. second part of this monstrous compilation project !! lim. 500
- only 250 for free distribution !!
“Viva Negativa! – A Tribute To The New Blockaders” incl. collaborations with/reworkings by 75 avant garde//industrial/noise artists: AMK, Art Break, Aube, Bloxus, Alexei Borisov, Broken Penis Orchestra, Cheapmachines, Courtis, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Aaron Dilloway, Embudagonn 108, Eshak, Government Alpha, Idea Fire Company, Incapacitants, Lasse Marhaug, Merzbow, Kiyoshi Mizutani, mnortham, Jim O’Rourke, Dave Phillips, Plexia, Putrefier, Christian Renou, RLW, Damion Romero, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Spiracle, Sudden Infant, Giancarlo Toniutti, Brendan Walls, Withdrawal Method, Wolf Eyes, Achim Wollscheid, Violent Onsen Geisha” [label info]
“....It's an overwhelming project, by it's size, it's quality both in music and cover art. A compendium of international noise music, a bold statement, which should belong in every home and an excellent example of how these things should be made.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€55.00 |
|
| |
Das Zerstoren, Zum Gebaren |
CD |
Live-Mitschnitt auf dem 2007er "All Tomorrows Parties" - Festival, welches von THURSTON MOORE (!) kuratiert wurde. Mal wieder das letzte Konzert EVER....
"After 25 years of the blockade, we are left with the final live document from The New Blockaders. Recorded in 2006 by Damion Romero at Thurston Moore's All Tomorrow's Parties, Nightmare Before Christmas." [label info]
label: www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEW BLOCKADERS / THE HATERS |
Zero is the Journey |
CD |
Was passiert, wenn zwei Vertreter des Nihilismus sich vereinigen? Nein, KEINE Krach-Orgie, sondern eher ruhig-schwelende, recht hochfrequente Summ- & Sinusstöne werden hier geboren, die sich allmählich mit Hintergrundnoises verbinden... a well done, more serious work !!
A surprisingly non-noisy collaboration, rather minimal drone- & sinus-frequencies, interlaced with different background – noises....
“This is the sound of noise & chaos completely imploding in on itself to create a new dimension of nihilism...expect the unexpected!” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.50 |
|
| NEW BLOCKADERS / THURSTON MOORE / JIM O'ROURKE |
The Voloptulist |
maxi-CD |
"Some sick, cold atmospherics on this first time colaboration between The New Blockaders, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke and guest Chris Corsano. Track one - TNB with Thurston Moore - is a brooding death tone overlaid with grinding, scraping noises that become increasingly beast-like as the track progresses. Track two - TNB with Jim O'Rourke - is more subtle but equally as menacing. Manipulated white noise and radio waves collide head on at the two minute mark with some muffled, claustrophobic percussion, courtesey of Corsano. Short, sweet and tense as f**k. Recommended." [label info]
"...The disc is divided into two pieces, the first being the collaboration with Thurston, which turns out to be a particularly obscure drone piece, constituted from hissing feedback tones, tape crackle and some sort of chaotic, mechanical sound sources. The piece evolves infinitesimally over the course of its fourteen minutes, rendering an uncompromising, though highly textured vision of analogue sound sculpting. The other, shorter piece '840 Seconds Over' continues in its predecessor's campaign of high frequency feedback manipulations this time with the addition of some caterwhauling noise oscillator free jazz and typically virtuosic improv drumming from Corsano. It's a real force to be reckoned with, and the crispness of Corsano's kit works perfectly against the hiss and fizz from the tape-heavy, droning elements. It's all over rather too soon (the whole thing clocks in at just over twenty-one minutes), but you can hardly expect anyone to keep up these levels of intensity for prolonged periods, can you? Superb, top-flight noise." [Boomkat]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| NEW HUMANS |
AKA NEW HUMANS / VITO ACCONCI / C.SPENCER YEH |
Semishigure semi011 |
"Noise surrounds and permeates us, and no one is more responsible than the New Humans from that loudest and noisiest of metropolises: New York. From installation art to ear splitting live concerts, this infernal power trio lead by artist Mika Tajima eschews no collaboration, no matter how insane. Guitarist and artistic leader Tajimi is supported by electronics specialist and voice acrobat Howie Chen, drummer Eric Tsai, as well as a large number of guest musicians. The New Humans like nothing more than to drag friend and foe with them into their noise avalanches.
Semishigure proudly presents the fourth release, a unique live collaboration with artist Vito Acconci, a pioneer of body/conceptual art, and vintage experimentalist C. Spencer Yeh. This album consists of two concerts that took place during an exposition of the collective at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York. Two electrifying, memorable performances that just had to be registered on CD.
The last time American performance legend Vito Acconci collaborated with a band was more than ten years ago, when he worked with punk rock brigade the Mekons. A similarly untainted, classically grim punk attitude shines through in his spoken word performance with the New Humans. “You in the Background” is the name of their jointly raised middle finger to the world. Floating on the ominously swelling waves of noise created by the New Humans, Acconci throws all frustrations overboard. Captive to a feverish, shamanic trip, Acconci speaks of each and everyone’s search for their own identity. Acconci has made a special selection from his audio works for the occasion. Texts such as “Now do you believe the dirty dogs are dead” (1978) and “Cry, baby!” (1977) still sound like screams for enlightenment and liberation. C. Spencer Yeh’s plaintive violin careens into the impenetrable wailing wall of feedback. The New Humans not just voice, but scream their anger of life under the Bush regime, and in Acconci they have found a worthy ally.
C. Spencer Yeh and the New Humans go the whole hog on the second live concert, an immensely loud drone séance lasting half an hour. Like no other, radical violinist Yeh manages to infiltrate any collective, be it Dream/Aktion Unit, Comets of Fire or Smegma. Through his trademark exorcising Velvets violin sound Yeh manages to create unbearable tension with the New Humans’ sound avalanches in hot pursuit. During the performance, a glass sculpture is destroyed and the noise of its breaking amplified. At any moment the waves of noise terror threaten to submerge Yeh, but he stands firm. Thank God this all-engulfing live experience has been registered for posterity!" [label info]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEWMAN, COLIN |
Bastard |
do-CD |
WIREs COLIN NEWMAN reissued auf seinem SWIM Label das Soloalbum "Bastard" aus dem Jahr 1997. Damals von der Presse als richtungsweisendes und bahnbrechendes Album im Elektro/TripHop/Techno-Bereich hoch gelobt, klingt es über 25 Jahre später immer noch grandios und aktuell. Erstmals auf LP (eco vinyl) überhaupt, CD-Version jetzt mit zusätzlicher Disc expanded mit vielen Bonustracks. - Obwohl das Album (das den Titel Bastard trägt) eine große Bandbreite an Stilen aufweist - Deep, Techno, funky Beats, Drum'n'Bass - ist es auch, wenn überhaupt, eine Rückkehr zu Newmans "Rock"-Wurzeln, da mehrere der Tracks Schwaden von E-Gitarren enthalten, die die Rhythmen untermalen. Die Platte fasst Newmans Hör- (und Aufnahme-) Gewohnheiten in den letzten Jahren vor der Veröffentlichung und die eklektische Natur des Swim-Labels zusammen, das er mit seiner Frau Malka Spigel betreibt. Alle Stücke auf Bastard wurden von Colin Newman und Malka Spigel geschrieben und von Immersion produziert. - "The language of Bastard is house, techno, breakbeat, drum and bass, and doubtless post-rock." - Colin Newman 2023 * "A fascinating trip across the musical barriers!" (Modern Dance) *"Scattercore breaks with swathes of electric fuzz... spiritualised infected with the dance virus... droning, blissed out mantras..." (MixMag) - CD2 info: Tracks 1-4 taken from 1995 EP Voice. tracks 5-8 originally appeared on swim team #1 and swim team #2, tracks 9-12 previously unreleased and exclusive to this edition.
|
2024 |
€18.50 |
|
| NEWS FROM BABEL |
Box |
3 x CD-Box |
Wiederveröffentlichung der beiden NEWS FROM BABEL LPs, plus Material einer raren 7", in schmucker Box!
"Vieles auf "Letters Home", dem zweiten und letzten Album von News From Babel, versprüht, nicht zuletzt dank unterkühltem Gesang von Robert Wyatt, den spröden Charme, der mich an die Lieder von Kurt Weill erinnert. "Heart of Stone" beinhaltet Elemente von tanzanregender Klezmer-Musik, die nahtlos in Kammermusik-Chanson-Klänge übergehen. Auch der zurückhaltende, an Dagmar Krause angelehnte Gesang von Sally Potter weiß zu überzeugen, wobei, wie beispielsweise auf "Banknote", wiederholt Folklore mit gehobenem, an die 30-er Jahre erinnerndem Liedgut vermischt wird. Im Text von "Moss" wird Beweis geführt, dass das einzig Wahre und Unverfälschte nur im Kontakt mit Mutter Erde und mit Natur zu finden ist, während die ersten drei Lindsay Cooper/Chris Cutler-Chansons sich nacheinander mit Themen wie Unfreundlichkeit des Daseins, Herzen aus Stein und Kälte des Geldes auseinandersetzen. Die Atmosphäre dieser Platte wirkt durch den sparsamen Einsatz von Blasinstrumenten, Harfe und Schlagzeug mit ein wenig Keyboards ziemlich spartanisch, nicht selten traurig, aber nicht abweisend. Im melancholischen Lied "Dark Matter" werden Pop-Anleihen aus den 50-ern hörbar. In dem rhythmisch flotten, reichlich mit Harfen-Arpeggios versehenen "Fast food" kann sich der Hörer am zweitstimmigen Gesang von Dagmar Krause erfreuen. Sehr einnehmend klingt auch die im dunkel-stimmungsvollen "Late evening" von Harfe und Piano begleitete Stimme von Frau Krause, die dort kurzzeitig auch im Duo mit Robert Wyatt zu hören ist. Durch die nüchternen bis depressiven Texte und schnörkellose Darbietung ist "Letters Home" recht dunkel und melancholisch geraten, bleibt dessen ungeachtet in vielerlei Hinsicht gelungen und damit empfehlenswert." [Siggy Zielinski über "Letters from Home"]
"Reissue on 2 CDs of both long out of print LPs, re-mastered and repackaged, in a slipcase with an extra illustrated CD of the 7" single that was issued only to subscribers with the original release. Stretched songs and studio work. 'Work' was Lindsay Cooper, Chris Cutler, Dagmar Krause and Zeena Parkins, and followed the vein breached by Art Bears, though with a very different musical emphasis. 'Letters' added Robert Wyatt, Sally Potter, Phil Minton and Bill Gilonis. Music by Lindsay Cooper, words by Chris Cutler. With full text and illustrations." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€23.00 |
|
| NEZNAMO |
Aiwyâstô |
CD |
"If somebody still doesn't know, behind the Neznamo project stands the Moscow-based musician Dmitry Shilov who stepped on the path of ritual ambient music in 1996 under the stage name of Unknown. After releasing five albums on the "Strely Peruna" ("Perun's Arrows") label, the project temporarily fell in a lethargic sleep but woke up again in 2006 with a renewed name and approach.
As Neznamo Dmitriy has released several mini-albums on his own label Moonsun Productions, as well as a number of collaboration works with several other acts from the Russian drone underground: Misery, Bardo, Lunar Abyss, Siyanie, etc… For those interested in the project's roots and branches we can give some more keywords: Temnozor', Medve Na Meche, Peal Grim, Magickal Things.
"Aiwyâstô" is Neznamo's first full-length album and first "factory-pressed" CD. The album consists of one 42-min long composition recorded in a deep transcendental state. Covered in ornaments of unhasting vibrations, flickering and parallel sound layers, dense string drone permeates the whole track. This music is for lovers of deep inner self diving. Towards the depths of pitch-dark sound where one can see all forms dissolving in emptiness and being reborn by it again in an endless game of space and imagination." [label info]
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/releases.html
"The shadowy figure behind Neznamo is the same Muscovite who offered up the Peal Grim cd from a couple months back. That was the album sporting the disclaimer "This record is not recommended to listening for depressively inclined persons" and Aiwyasyo is a blackened ambient record of a similar disposition. This album is not as exasperatedly bleak as the Peal Grim album, but it makes for another really amazing entry in the canons of contemporary Russian dark ambient works. Synth, guitars, and spectral emanations may or may not be in the mix for the bleak electrical pools of Aiwyasto. Sawtooth hums and buzzes gird the semi-melodic fugues that swirl, rumble, and brood over 40 minutes into this overwhelmingly sublime expanse of Ur-drone majesty that's not all that far from the likes of Troum / Maeror Tri, Aidan Baker's more turbulent solo works, and the cosmological grimness of Inade. Very nice, indeed." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEZNAMO / KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK / LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM |
Magnitnaj Zmij |
CD-R |
"A triple split from the projects which played together in the cultural center "Dom", Moscow on February 17, 2009, containing the material recorded live at that event. Neznamo - archaic drone ambient with live flute. Kryptogen Rundfunk - gritty noisy electronics filled with radio interference, samples and analogue signals. L.A.D.O. - multi-layered fractal psychedelic ambient." [label info] |
2009 |
€11.00 |
|
| NEZNAMO / SIYANIE |
Sonans |
CD-R |
"Live improvisation from Dmitry Shilov (NEZNAMO) and Sergei Ilchuk (SIYANIE) with guest appearance of Pavel Kuzmin. Recorded in Otgoloski Festival 11/25/2011. The weave of soft soundstreams, chants, overtones, ritual drones and recitations.
Triune Sound of Universum that long even after you stop the record. Lo-fi Drone Ambient.
CD-R, 111 copies, 6-panel envelope.." [label info]
www.moonsun.info
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL |
YPGPN (A young Person's Guide to Phill Niblock) |
do-CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der do-CD, die 1995 auf Blast First erschien und Material des Drone-Meisters von 1978-1994 versammelte.
"YPGPN (Young Person's Guide to Phill Niblock) is the long-awaited re-release of a 2 CD-set that was a joint production by the UK based Blast First label and The Wire magazine in 1995. It includes the following works: Held Tones (1982-94) Barbara Held, flute; Didjeridoos and Don'ts (1992) Ulrich Krieger, didjeridu; Ten Auras (1994) Ulrich Krieger, tenor saxophone; Ten Auras Live (1994) Ulrich Krieger, tenor saxophone; A Trombone Piece (1978-94) James Fulkerson, trombone; A Third Trombone (1979-94) Jon English, trombone; Unmentionable Piece for Trombone and Sousaphone (1982-94) George Lewis, trombone and sousaphone. Phill Niblock and his music have been with us now for quite some time. In 1972 he guided an audience that had come to the New York venue the Kitchen for a concert of his compositions, to his loft... Now, some thirty years later, Niblock's work continues to draw new audiences. What is extraordinary about this, is that the principles of his music have not changed much over the years; that with the long timespan covered by each piece and the sparseness of the musical material and its elaboration, one could be forgiven to think that it is at odds with contemporary hasty tastes. In fact, just because of that, it has the power to draw attention to itself. The apparently immobile string of tones that is basic to his compositions, has a singular mesmerizing quality." [Rene van Peer]
www.xirecords.org
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Touch works, for Hurdy Gurdy and Voice |
CD |
Der legendäre New Yorker Minimalist mit drei schönen Drone-Stücken, dicht und voll, mit „Leierkasten“ (track 1) und reinen Obertongesängen (track 2 & 3), die moduliert werden...
"1. 'Hurdy Hurry' (15:20, October 1999) Jim O'Rourke, hurdy gurdy (samples); 2. 'A Y U', a.k.a. 'as yet untitled' (21:30, October 1999) Thomas Buckner, baritone voice (samples); 3. "A Y U, Live", (21:30, October 1999/2000) Thomas Buckner, baritone voice (samples and live). All were completed with Protools software in a Macintosh computer, and are 24 tracks mixed to stereo. There are two versions of the voice piece, one the original tape piece, the other a version with three added voices, live, plus four tracks of pitch shift on each, done in Robert Poss's (Trace Elements) studio. Phill is a sixty-something New York-based minimalist composer and multimedia musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade-hopping. He says: 'What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly.' The stills in the booklet are from slides taken in China, while Niblock was making films which are painstaking studies of manual labor, giving a poetic dignity to sheer grueling slog of fishermen at work, rice-planters, log-splitters, water-hole dredgers and other backbreaking toilers." [label press release].
|
2000 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Six Films (1966-1969) |
DVD |
"Deluxe tri-fold Limited Edition of 500 copies. NTSC, PAL, All Region DVD, Stereo, run time: 86 minutes, 4:3 format. Die Schachtel in collaboration with O'artspace is proud to present a deluxe DVD featuring Six experimental Films by Phill Niblock from the late Sixties. Anybody familiar with the name of Phill Niblock would probably characterise his work by the sound of long sonorous drones producing rich overtones, usually combined with a visual element, as Niblock before moving into composition was an active photographer and filmmaker. While he usually is known for his Films from the movement of people working series alongside performances of his music, Niblock's early works stand apart as unique objects. The integrity and consistency of his style is fully on display in these seldomly seen screened 16mm sound Films wonders, that are: MORNING (1966-69) from an idea by Phill Niblock and Jean Claude Van Itallie, filmed by PN, text by Lee Worley and Michael Corner, with members of the Open Theater Group.Black and White 16mm film. THE MAGIC SUN (1966 - 68) with members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, music by Sun Ra and the Arkestra. Filmed with a high contrast Black and White 16mm film. DOG TRACK (1969) A film by Phill Niblock, with a found text read by Barbara Porte. Color 16mm film. ANNIE (1968) A portrait of the dancer Ann Danoff, with a sound collage sound track. Color 16mm film. MAX (1966 - 68) An image collage film-portrait of Max Neuhaus, with a collage sound track by Max Neuhaus. Black and White 16mm film. RAOUL (1968 - 69) A portrait of the painter Raoul Middleman, with extensive use of time-lapse film technique. The sound track is improvised by Raoul Middleman and Phill Niblock. Color 16mm film." [label info]
www.die-schachtel.com
|
2009 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Brazil 84 |
DVD |
"Brazil 84
16mm film & music by Phill Niblock (77 minutes)
“Three Orchids” for 3 orchestras (2002-03)
Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, conducted by Petr Kotik
“Two by Tom,” for 2 orchestras (2005)
Trio Scordatura (Amsterdam) and the Nelly Boyd Ensemble (Hamburg)
“Three Orchids” (2002-03)
Trio Scordatura
Phill Niblock (b.1933) is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. He makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, or computer driven abstract images floating through time.
Brazil 84 is from Niblock’s series “The Movement of People Working.” 16mm, unedited long shots, carefully framed to compress single movements, shot in rural and urban settings, capturing people in their working environments, men and women using their hands and body to an eternal working choreography that seems tuned to the microtonal universe of Niblock’s music.
All these images are timeless, they could have been shot today, in the ‘60s or even earlier in the century. All these images have a perfect timing, a perfect framing, captured not as a document but more as a choreographic gesture, as visual music. The images are raw, the colors are saturated and the sound seems to happen in your head.
Phill Niblock says: “In 1984, I returned to Brazil, deciding to travel the coast, closest to the ocean, from Salvador, Bahia, to as far north as I could get in the time I had. That turned out to be Natal, 1000km away. I was the sole film crew, carrying the camera bag and tripod, loading the film, reading the light and occasionally applying sun screen. The film from that trip is the material on this DVD. And it was beautiful to see that country and those people.”
Originally silent, Niblock chose to add his music as the soundtrack, as he often does during screenings of his films. These works, specially compiled for this release, are presented in both stereo and surround mixes.
For this DVD, a new transfer was made of the original 16mm film, which was then restored under Niblock’s supervision.
The Digipak package contains an 8-page booklet of essays by Niblock, Bob Gilmore (music), Carlos Casas (film) and Johan Vandermaelen (the recordings)." [label info]
www.moderecords.com
|
2014 |
€24.00 |
|
|
T H I R |
DVD |
"A milestone film from American composer and filmmaker Phill Niblock, presented for the first time in DVD with two alternate soundtracks. T H I R is a mesmerizing and hypnotic film from his Environments series shot in upstate New York in 1972. This film is one of Niblock's finest and undiscovered jewels. A must have classic release." [label info]
www.vonarchives.com
|
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Exploratory I |
LP |
Matière Mémoire present the new work of Phill Niblock: EXPLORATORY. One of the most beautiful and powerful works that Phill Niblock has ever offered. Phill reinvents and probes the oceans of drone music possibilities deeper than ever. This piece has been performed and recorded for over a year by many great musicians around the world, under the supervision and direction of Phill: Arditti String Quartet, David Watson, Lucy Railton, Phoenix Ensemble Basel, David Maranha, Ben Richter, David First, Andre Goncalves, and many more.
Matière Mémoire is now releasing the first two volumes by Arditti String Quartet, David Watson (Vol. 1) & Phoenix Ensemble Basel (Vol. 2).
https://www.matiere-memoire.com/page-d-articles/phill-niblock-exploratory-vol-1
SOUNDOHM:
Phill Niblock
"Exploratory l & II" (2LP in bundle / CD)
Only a handful of years after their launch in 2018, the Belgian Imprint, Matière Mémoire, has quickly ascended to become a label to watch. Focused on releasing new works by some of the most important figures in contemporary experimental music - Carlos Casas, Susana Santos Silva, Torbjörn Zetterberg, Hampus Lindwall, Charlemagne Palestine, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi, and numerous others - their catalog features a thrillingly diverse array of ambitious sounds.
Among the artists offered a more dedicated focus within central Matière Mémoire’s output, is legendary minimalist composer Phill Niblock. 2019 witnessed the label’s release of Music For Organ, followed by his collaboration with Franck Vigroux and Kasper T Toeplitz, BestiaIRE, in 2020, and then Browner his contribution to their ambitious MMXX series, later that year. Now they’re back with a stunning double bill of LPs from Niblock, Exploratory I and Exploratory II, comprising a sprawling set of sonic exploration performed and recorded over the course of an entire year by Arditti String Quartet, David Watson and Phoenix Ensemble Basel. Issued in limited editions on transparent and clear red vinyl respectively, as well as in a CD edition that collects both, in his 88th year Niblock remains as visionary and ambitious as he ever was.
A composer, filmmaker, photographer, and tireless supporter, Phill Niblock is a pillar of American experimental music. For the last fifty years, there hasn’t been a time when he wasn’t there. Few haven’t, in one way or another, been touched by his music - carefully crafted, constrained works of durational tonality and shimmering harmonics - and his many efforts. For much of his career, Niblock has been focused on live performance acoustic phenomena, refraining to release his music in recorded form until the early 1980s, and then at an incredible slow and considered pace. Consequently, while more constrained that most artists of his generation, his output has been defined by a remarkable sense of clarity and depth, with each album album amounting to near perfection. Thankfully, over the last five years, pace of releases has begun to quicken, nearly doubling his discography during that period. Matière Mémoire’s latest double batch, the LPs Exploratory I and Exploratory II, takes us deeper into the incredible world, further expanding our access to his work for acoustic instruments, first unveiled by seminal albums like Nothin To Look at Just a Record, Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock, and Four Full Flutes, and increasingly returning to occupy a central place in his practice during recent years.
Exploratory I and Exploratory II belong to a larger body of extended works performed and recorded, under the close supervision and direction of Niblock for more than a year, by a remarkable cast of international players including, but not limited to, Arditti String Quartet, David Watson, Lucy Railton, Phoenix Ensemble Basel, David Maranha, Ben Richter, David First, and Andre Goncalves.
The first instalment, Exploratory I, features two distinct iterations - each offered a full side of the LP - one by Arditti String Quartet - the famous UK based ensemble founded 1974 by Irvine Arditti, Levine Andrade, Lennox Mackenzie and John Senter, focussed for nearly half a century on supporting contemporary composers by rendering their works in the closest possible way to their original vision - and the second by David Watson, the seminal New Zealand, New York based, experimental musician and bagpiper.
Like so much of Niblock does, the LP unveils a startling sense of scope - especially via the interplay and contrast by the renderings - from incredibly constrained means, each built from layers of sustained tones that reconfigure the notions of drone in real time. Imbued with remarkable tension and intensity, subtle shifts of harmonics bend time, moving at such a glacial pace that it’s sometimes impossible to know if they are tricks of the ear, creative considerations embedded within the work, or byproducts of mental and physical states of the players, with Arditti String Quartet’s side occupying a lower register and thicker sense of range, standing in contrast to Watson’s, that bristles in its spareness in ways that only his instrument can produce.
Of the three rendering, Exploratory II has what is arguably the broadest timbral range. Created under Niblock’s supervision by Phoenix Ensemble Basel - currently one of the most important contemporary music groups based in Switzerland, running for more than 20 years with a cast of roughly 25 musicians in its ranks - the half hour long piece (also the longest of the three featured across the Matière Mémoire’s two LPs) swells with oceanic depth, moving subtly between the appearance of stasis, beneath which remarkable power and diversity lays, and moments that build with tension, like a storm about to explode.
With Niblock’s work over the last 40 years occupying such a high bar of quality, it’s impossible to have favorites or designate one as better than the next, but Exploratory I and Exploratory II are easily some of the most exciting of his recordings to have emerged in recent years. Imbued with the power, depth, and range that only acoustic instruments can unleash, they are a stunning immersion into of world of brilliant creativity via the constraints of durational tone.
Issued by Matière Mémoire in two editions of 300 copies - Exploratory I on transparent vinyl and Exploratory II on clear red vinyl, as well as in a CD edition that collects the material from both LPs, they’re impossible to recommend enough.
|
2021 |
€26.00 |
|
|
Boston/Tenor/Index |
LP |
Boston/Tenor/Index, presents for the first time some of the earliest works by the American composer Phill Niblock, including three never before released pieces: "Index" (1969), "Tenor," and "Boston III" (both from 1972). Until now, it's been impossible to encounter Niblock's compositions from earlier than the 1960s, a reality thankfully rectified by the long overdue publication of this Boston/Tenor/Index LP on Alga Marghen. "Tenor" (1972) represents the first evolution of Niblock's musical thought towards the aesthetics of microtones, overtones, and drones which the composer would develop in following decades. The piece was recorded by the photographer Martin Bough on tenor saxophone and gradually dubbed back and forth by the composer in his New York studio. "Boston III" (1972) was recorded at the Intermedia Sound studio in Boston with Rhys Chatham (flute, voice), Martin Bough (tenor saxophone), and Gregory Reeve (viola, voice); the composer himself also contributed with his voice. The LP also includes "Index" (1969), an improvised sound performance by the composer himself. Guitar (both its body and strings), fingers and fingering fuse in a vehement action around which barely listenable sounds and resonances vibrate. Considering the extended pulsation as an organic blend of impulse, rhythm, drive, strength, vitality and passion, the end of this sole solo in Niblock's complete oeuvre is not defined by the fixed duration of the piece but as the consequence of the tiredness of the performer. The music changes according to the loudness of playback. The interaction of the upper harmonics changes especially, with much richer overtone patterns being produced at louder levels. Edition of 450 copies, including an insert with liner notes and photo.
[press release]
#########
"Alga Marghen returns with what might just be their most historically significant release to date, “Boston Tenor Index”, comprising three, never before released compositions - “Index”, from 1969; and “Tenor” and “Boston III”, both from 1972 - by Phill Niblock, that represent some the earliest works in his catalogue to have ever appeared.
Truly stunning in audio terms, and an absolute revelation toward understanding how Niblock arrived where he did a few short years down the road, it’s easily one of the best things we’ve heard all year.
Over the course of nearly three decades of activity, the Italian imprint, Alga Marghen, has continuously cast light into the shadows of historical sound practice, offering particular focus to underappreciated artefacts at the juncture of visual art, sound-art, experimental music, and sound-poetry. With each subsequent release, the label has helped to reform our understanding of the 20th century, and the voices that made it what it was. Over the years, they’ve brought forth an unprecedented range of early and archival material by seminal composers like Charlemagne Palestine, Walter Marchetti, Philip Corner, Henri Chopin, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Max Neuhaus, Eliane Radigue, and numerous others. While surprising to think, until now they have yet to touch upon the towering legacy of Phill Niblock. Their latest LP, “Boston Tenor Index”, takes a deep dive into some of the earliest work ever released by the American composer, comprising never before released works three works in his catalogue, “Index”, from 1969; and “Tenor” and “Boston III”, both from 1972. Creatively striking, while casting crucial light on Niblock’s beginnings as a composer, it’s a truly remarkable body of sound and easily among the most important archival releases that we’ve encountered so far this year.
After roughly a decade of working as a filmmaker and photographer, during the late 1960s, while collaborating with the Judson Dance Theater in New York, Phill Niblock embarked upon a new career as a composer. Over the coming decade, he would begin to slowly assemble a singular body of works that layered microtonal drones - meticulously recorded from acoustic instrument - that culminated as some of the most remarkable gestures of tape collage and musical minimalism to appear during the second half of the 20th century. With a small number of exceptions, the earliest of these to appear as albums - “A Trombone Piece”, “A Third Trombone” (“Nothin To Look At Just A Record”, 1982); “Second Two Octaves And A Fifth”, “First Performance” (“Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock”, 1984), "P K", "S L S", "P K & S L S", "Winterbloom Too" (Four Full Flutes, 1990) - were composed and recorded during the late 1970s. Until now, it’s been almost impossible to encounter Niblock’s compositions from earlier than that period, a reality thankfully rectified by the long overdue appearance of the works that comprise “Boston Tenor Index”.
We jumped for joy when we saw this one announced, and are still overjoyed, numerous listens in. Alga Marghen has done us a great service with this one, bringing some of the earliest known pieces by Phill Niblock to our ears. As far as archival releases go, "Boston Tenor Index” is as good as it gets and as essential as they come. A revelation of the highest order." [Soundohm]
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| |
Boston / Tenor / Index |
CD |
Boston/Tenor/Index, presents for the first time some of the earliest works by the American composer Phill Niblock, including three never before released pieces: "Index" (1969), "Tenor," and "Boston III" (both from 1972). Until now, it's been impossible to encounter Niblock's compositions from earlier than the 1960s, a reality thankfully rectified by the long overdue publication of this Boston/Tenor/Index LP on Alga Marghen. "Tenor" (1972) represents the first evolution of Niblock's musical thought towards the aesthetics of microtones, overtones, and drones which the composer would develop in following decades. The piece was recorded by the photographer Martin Bough on tenor saxophone and gradually dubbed back and forth by the composer in his New York studio. "Boston III" (1972) was recorded at the Intermedia Sound studio in Boston with Rhys Chatham (flute, voice), Martin Bough (tenor saxophone), and Gregory Reeve (viola, voice); the composer himself also contributed with his voice. The LP also includes "Index" (1969), an improvised sound performance by the composer himself. Guitar (both its body and strings), fingers and fingering fuse in a vehement action around which barely listenable sounds and resonances vibrate. Considering the extended pulsation as an organic blend of impulse, rhythm, drive, strength, vitality and passion, the end of this sole solo in Niblock's complete oeuvre is not defined by the fixed duration of the piece but as the consequence of the tiredness of the performer. The music changes according to the loudness of playback. The interaction of the upper harmonics changes especially, with much richer overtone patterns being produced at louder levels. Edition of 450 copies, including an insert with liner notes and photo.
[press release]
#########
"Alga Marghen returns with what might just be their most historically significant release to date, “Boston Tenor Index”, comprising three, never before released compositions - “Index”, from 1969; and “Tenor” and “Boston III”, both from 1972 - by Phill Niblock, that represent some the earliest works in his catalogue to have ever appeared.
Truly stunning in audio terms, and an absolute revelation toward understanding how Niblock arrived where he did a few short years down the road, it’s easily one of the best things we’ve heard all year.
Over the course of nearly three decades of activity, the Italian imprint, Alga Marghen, has continuously cast light into the shadows of historical sound practice, offering particular focus to underappreciated artefacts at the juncture of visual art, sound-art, experimental music, and sound-poetry. With each subsequent release, the label has helped to reform our understanding of the 20th century, and the voices that made it what it was. Over the years, they’ve brought forth an unprecedented range of early and archival material by seminal composers like Charlemagne Palestine, Walter Marchetti, Philip Corner, Henri Chopin, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Max Neuhaus, Eliane Radigue, and numerous others. While surprising to think, until now they have yet to touch upon the towering legacy of Phill Niblock. Their latest LP, “Boston Tenor Index”, takes a deep dive into some of the earliest work ever released by the American composer, comprising never before released works three works in his catalogue, “Index”, from 1969; and “Tenor” and “Boston III”, both from 1972. Creatively striking, while casting crucial light on Niblock’s beginnings as a composer, it’s a truly remarkable body of sound and easily among the most important archival releases that we’ve encountered so far this year.
After roughly a decade of working as a filmmaker and photographer, during the late 1960s, while collaborating with the Judson Dance Theater in New York, Phill Niblock embarked upon a new career as a composer. Over the coming decade, he would begin to slowly assemble a singular body of works that layered microtonal drones - meticulously recorded from acoustic instrument - that culminated as some of the most remarkable gestures of tape collage and musical minimalism to appear during the second half of the 20th century. With a small number of exceptions, the earliest of these to appear as albums - “A Trombone Piece”, “A Third Trombone” (“Nothin To Look At Just A Record”, 1982); “Second Two Octaves And A Fifth”, “First Performance” (“Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock”, 1984), "P K", "S L S", "P K & S L S", "Winterbloom Too" (Four Full Flutes, 1990) - were composed and recorded during the late 1970s. Until now, it’s been almost impossible to encounter Niblock’s compositions from earlier than that period, a reality thankfully rectified by the long overdue appearance of the works that comprise “Boston Tenor Index”.
We jumped for joy when we saw this one announced, and are still overjoyed, numerous listens in. Alga Marghen has done us a great service with this one, bringing some of the earliest known pieces by Phill Niblock to our ears. As far as archival releases go, "Boston Tenor Index” is as good as it gets and as essential as they come. A revelation of the highest order." [Soundohm] |
2024 |
€15.50 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL / ANNA CLEMENTI / THOMAS STERN |
Zound Delta 2 |
LP |
A new piece by minimalist / experimental composer PHILL NIBLOCK (1933 - 2024), co-composed and performed by ANNA CLEMENTI & THOMAS STERN. Intense, menacing layers of thick drones and alien sounds.
In summer 2022, within just a few weeks and by pure coincidence, 2 proposals regarding PHILL NIBLOCK albums arrived: one suggesting an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release (more on that when the time has come for it), the other email was from ANNA CLEMENTI saying she and THOMAS STERN were working on new pieces that PHILL NIBLOCK has written for her … when "Zound Delta 2" was complete, PHILL sent photographs for the two artworks, we met twice to discuss details, but unfortunately he died unexpectedly early january this year so the album now is, sad as it is, a posthumous release … an intense goodbye from one of 20thcentury most iconic composers.
Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock (1933-2024, USA) was an artist whose fifty-year career spans minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation's record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock's signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de l'Elysée. The following year Niblock was honoured with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.
phillniblock.com
Anna Clementi
Italian-Swedish singer Anna Clementi grew up in Rome, where she first studied the flute and completed acting training before moving to Berlin and studying experimental vocal music and experimental music theater with the composer Dieter Schnebel at Hochschule der Künste (now UdK Berlin). Anna Clementi sees herself as an "actress of the voice" rather than exclusively as a singer. In this way she also articulates the diversity of her artistic expression, with which she is always searching for new connections between voice, gesture, language, dance and theater.
During her decades spanning career, Anna Clementi has performed at the most important festivals, has premiered numerous works, many of which have been composed especially for her, and worked with Fast Forward, Michael Hirsch, Rupert Huber, Christian Kesten, Alexander Kolkowski, Olga Neuwirth, Josef Anton Riedl, Iris ter Schiphorst, Dieter Schnebel, Laurie Schwartz, Elliott Sharp, and many others.
A special focus of hers is the work of John Cage, whose pieces she has performed worldwide.
www.annaclementi.com
Thomas Stern
Born in Bremen, Thomas Stern moved to Berlin in 1984 where he joined Mona Mur with Alex Hacke and F. M. Einheit (both from Einstürzende Neubauten, with which Stern also worked as live sound engineer for many years). Around 1987 he co-founded the Berlin set up of Crime And The City Solution (Mick Harvey, Alex Hacke a.o.). Over the years, he has has collaborated with artists like Ulrike Haage, Phew, Nick Cave, Ton Steine Scherben, Meret Becker, Nina Hagen, Jaki Liebezeit, Ben Becker, N.U. Unruh, Gry, Iris ter Schiphorst, Automat, Swans, Hans Joacxhim Irmler and many more, on the road or in his own Sternstaubstudio.
www.thomasstern.de
credits
released April 12, 2024
Anna Clementi: voice
Thomas Stern: slide guitar, bass and soundprocessing
Composition by Phill Niblock, Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern
Recorded and mixed by Thomas Stern at Sternstaubstudio, Berlin
Mastering and lacquer cut: Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin
Cover photography by Phill Niblock
Layout and design by kaidoh
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/zound-delta-2
The information tells us about two Niblock proposals arriving simultaneously with this label in the summer of 2022. One is "an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release", which we will hear of later (I'd rather see a CD reissue of 'Niblock For Celli/Celli Plays Niblock' or 'Nothing To Look At Just A Record'). The other proposal was from Anna Clementi, working with
Thomas Stern on a piece by Niblock for them called 'Zound Delta 2'. Clementi is the voice here, and Stern plays slide guitar, bass and sound processing. It's not a traditional Niblock piece, in some ways, at least. For starters, there's a different kind of building of the piece. This time, it's not starting and ending as a wall of sound, but from isolated voice material, the piece starts building, and other instruments, assuming slide guitar and bass here, add to the density of the piece that it arrives after some ten minutes. From here on, the music remains dense, but there are changes within the colouring of the piece. The two versions of the piece are pretty different. The first has a relatively linear building of the piece, whereas the second version, halfway through adds other voice sounds (or even acoustic sounds or field recordings) and then the piece starts building again, but not with the same density. The voice is the primary instrument in this version, whereas in the first
version, the voice is on an equal level as the other instruments; or perhaps processed along in similar ways. I have a slight preference for the first, perhaps, because this seems closer to Niblock's sound world, and in the second, the music veers towards improvisation a bit more. Both pieces make up for some interesting variation in the well-known Niblock territory, and that alone is great, but the results are excellent also. (FdW)
|
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Zound Delta 2 |
CD |
A new piece by minimalist / experimental composer PHILL NIBLOCK (1933 - 2024), co-composed and performed by ANNA CLEMENTI & THOMAS STERN. Intense, menacing layers of thick drones and alien sounds.
In summer 2022, within just a few weeks and by pure coincidence, 2 proposals regarding PHILL NIBLOCK albums arrived: one suggesting an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release (more on that when the time has come for it), the other email was from ANNA CLEMENTI saying she and THOMAS STERN were working on new pieces that PHILL NIBLOCK has written for her … when "Zound Delta 2" was complete, PHILL sent photographs for the two artworks, we met twice to discuss details, but unfortunately he died unexpectedly early january this year so the album now is, sad as it is, a posthumous release … an intense goodbye from one of 20thcentury most iconic composers.
Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock (1933-2024, USA) was an artist whose fifty-year career spans minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation's record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock's signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de l'Elysée. The following year Niblock was honoured with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.
phillniblock.com
Anna Clementi
Italian-Swedish singer Anna Clementi grew up in Rome, where she first studied the flute and completed acting training before moving to Berlin and studying experimental vocal music and experimental music theater with the composer Dieter Schnebel at Hochschule der Künste (now UdK Berlin). Anna Clementi sees herself as an "actress of the voice" rather than exclusively as a singer. In this way she also articulates the diversity of her artistic expression, with which she is always searching for new connections between voice, gesture, language, dance and theater.
During her decades spanning career, Anna Clementi has performed at the most important festivals, has premiered numerous works, many of which have been composed especially for her, and worked with Fast Forward, Michael Hirsch, Rupert Huber, Christian Kesten, Alexander Kolkowski, Olga Neuwirth, Josef Anton Riedl, Iris ter Schiphorst, Dieter Schnebel, Laurie Schwartz, Elliott Sharp, and many others.
A special focus of hers is the work of John Cage, whose pieces she has performed worldwide.
www.annaclementi.com
Thomas Stern
Born in Bremen, Thomas Stern moved to Berlin in 1984 where he joined Mona Mur with Alex Hacke and F. M. Einheit (both from Einstürzende Neubauten, with which Stern also worked as live sound engineer for many years). Around 1987 he co-founded the Berlin set up of Crime And The City Solution (Mick Harvey, Alex Hacke a.o.). Over the years, he has has collaborated with artists like Ulrike Haage, Phew, Nick Cave, Ton Steine Scherben, Meret Becker, Nina Hagen, Jaki Liebezeit, Ben Becker, N.U. Unruh, Gry, Iris ter Schiphorst, Automat, Swans, Hans Joacxhim Irmler and many more, on the road or in his own Sternstaubstudio.
www.thomasstern.de
Anna Clementi: voice
Thomas Stern: slide guitar, bass and soundprocessing
Composition by Phill Niblock, Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern
Recorded and mixed by Thomas Stern at Sternstaubstudio, Berlin
Mastering and lacquer cut: Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/zound-delta-2
|
2024 |
€14.00 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL / SUN RA |
The Magic Sun |
DVD |
Ein unglaubliches Dokument von 1966 wurde von ATAVISTIC (wieder?)-veröffentlicht, ein 32minütiger Experimentalfilm von PHILL NIBLOCK über/mit SUN RA und sein „Orchester“ mit wildem impro-Soundtrack .. dazu gibt es reichlich Material aus den 60ern und philosophische Verkündigungen vom cosmic thing himself .... müsste auf allen neueren DVD-playern und Fernsehern laufen.
"The classic 1966 film by Phill Niblock featuring Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra, plus rare & exclusive Sun Ra footage, photos & audio 'proclamations'! Composer, photographer and filmmaker Phill Niblock's classic of experimental underground filmmaking with a sensational soundtrack by pianist Sun Ra and the members of his Solar Arkestra. Shot in the mid '60s, when the Arkestra was based in New York, this film was produced using a unique negative process and ultra-tight close-ups on the moving hands and mouths of the musicians. The result is a virtually abstract music film, mastered from a new print in all its incredibly sharp black & white glory. The Magic Sun DVD also includes a luminous, largely unseen photo gallery accompanied by 14:00 of unheard, self-recorded Ra audio: a truly 'inside' auto-bio interview; TRT approx 32:00. NTSC Region 0.“ [label info]
www.atavistic.com
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| NICO |
BBC Sessions |
12inch |
"Previously only available as a vinyl release on John Peel’s and Clive Selwood’s Strange Fruit label during a brief period in 1988, this four track vinyl EP was the first of two sessions Nico performed for John Peel (the second was in 1974), and was recorded live for BBC Radio One’s Top Gear on 2nd February 1971 and broadcast the following week. This haunting session is Nico at the height of her creative powers as testified by those who saw her solo concerts accompanying herself on harmonium around this time."
https://store.gearboxrecords.com/products/nico |
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
| NID |
Manga Myggor, Mycket Öl |
CD-R |
“Re-release of one side of a rare split-cassette by NíD and D.A.R.K. originally released in 1996 in a ltd. edition of 50. NíD are masters at ambient and dark soundscapes. They hail from the area of improvised industrial electronics and harsh noise. Makes your ears drown in sound.“ [label info] |
2001 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Plate Tectonics |
CD |
Aufnahmen eines Konzertes aus Arnheim, Niederlande, vom Dezember 2002, in Studio-Qualität. Allertiefste dumpfe Dronescapes & verlangsamte Stimmen, Klassik-found sounds, glockige Klänge, obskure Vinyl-loops, immer dunkel & ominös & in einem dynamischen Feld voller unerwarteter Sounds. Eine recht einmalige Verbindung von Vinylloop-Plunderphonics, tiefbassigen Dronescapes und Geräuschen von selbstgebauten, oft ober-obskursten Gerätschaften und Objekten.
"Crawling back into the wound: NID 1995 – 2007. NID is an experimental group whose aim it is to challenge conventional concepts and structures of electronic music by experimenting with the source of sounds. The music is created on the spot, making each performance a genuine and unrepeatable event. It has been described as moving sound-objects, improvised electronic noise, or broodng ambient music. It has been compared to an underwater-journey, a pathway to the inner self. Given enough volume, it certainly affects the body as well as the mind. In which way remains open to the listener’s psyche. NID was formed in 1995. Over the years the core-members have performed in art-galleries, rock-clubs, bars, water-reservoirs, cinemas, as well as at industrial and electronic festivals and in record shops. In 1998 they were invited to play onboard the MS Stubnitz when it was anchored in the harbour of Stockholm as part of the “European Culture Capital” activities. They were also involved in the 2001 Six And More & R:IP jubilees, improvising with 30 other electronic free-jazz musicians. As for the group name… A “nid” is a curse or insult with homosexual connotation that was frequently in use in the Viking age. It brought a depth to the concept of honour and shame. It could be used as a challenge or simply to ridicule another (which was a challenge per se). It could reveal anyone else to be no better than he was, and it undermined social structures. NID disbanded in 2006. Chris Sidgell continues in various projects, most notably his solo project B-Tong. Jürgen Eberhard releases music under the name Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim. This is NID’s one and only proper CD release. The sound on this work may appeal to fans of Lustmord, New Blockaders or collage post-industrial in general/experimental ambient. The music on this CD was recorded live in Arnheim by Mars Wellink
(Vance Orchestra). The cover was done by Katja Wahl..." [band info & press release]
"While not new, we only just discovered NID, and our discovery came about in a very random manner, considering various related works were right under our nose. We listed a killer 4 way split 12" a while back called One Man Drone, and our favorite track from the spit was a piece by a group called B(degree)Tong. We later discovered that the man behind B(degree)Tong was previously a member of German experimental sound-collective NID. But what we did not know was that NID was sometimes also known as Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim, a group who had various releases on the Drone Records label, one of which is included on the recent tUMULt collection of out of print Drone singles. So now it's sort of come full circle and we have this, the only proper full length recording (as far as we know) from the group NID, aka Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim and it's pretty amazing. Pretty bizarre too, but then with a (sometime) name like Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim, what else would you expect?
Three looooooooong tracks. Each an epic, incredibly varied soundworld, blending found sounds and field recordings with drones and intense blasts of layered sound. The opener begins with a muted cacophony of birds and crickets, before disappearing into a roiling
black cloud of rumbling low end and distant droning guitar buzz. It almost sounds like sticking your head out of a speeding car, the wind whipping by and causing all sorts of distortions, but blurred into an impressively massive wall of sound. Within all this whipping sonic wind and rumbling whirs, are strange bits of percussion, the clang and bang of metal on metal, shakers and simple rhythms, they drift
briefly in the eye of the storm, before the drone drops again, even more furious than before, until it fades out amidst the dreamy
shimmer of female vocals and haunting minor key melodic buzz. Really intense and strangely beautiful.
The second track is another deep cavernous roar. A bit smoother than the previous number, but not for long, bit of metallic buzz surface amidst the undulating rumbles, with some serious dynamic spikes, some of which sound like brief bursts of SUNNO 0))), and others are even lower and more aggressive bits of low end exploration. There are bits of static and random buzz here and there, but mostly it's black and dark, a massive growling beast, slowly uncoiling into a monster that blocks out the sun. Near the end of the track, the darkness abates and in its place is a strange skipping stuttering snippet of music, wrapped in hazy distortion and looped into a mesmerizing rhythm, repeated over and over and over, gradually crumbling and becoming more and more distorted before erupting into a final burst of chest rattling low end, finally slowing down and sputtering to a halt.
The final track is over twenty minutes and is the most melodic of the bunch. Beginning with a looped cycle of xylophone melody, over
a throbbing low end pulse and streaks of keening distant guitar and bits of operatic female vocals. Very ominous and mysterious sounding. When suddenly everything stops, and there's a guy with a British accent ranting over someone ransacking a kitchen, breaking glass, clanging cutlery, and suddenly it's gone, and we're back in some new dronescape, a mumbled voice looped into a haunting mantra, beneath distant thunder like rumbles, and little blurs of high end melody, indistinct, but gradually building in intensity. The drones drift away leaving birds and voices, and some strange bits of hiss and skree, before transforming into a plodding doomdrone beast. A simple stretched out rhythm over cavernous thrums and the sound of subway cars, everything pulsing and throbbing, a bizarre bit of dark
collage, that manages to be strangely musical and completely hypnotic.
An amazingly weird record, and absolutely essential listening for the drone obsessed, which we would assume should be most of you..." [Aquarius Records]
"Posthumous release by this Swiss-German trio dedicated to mostly drone-bound sounds, noise manipulation, foggy samples and dialogue snatches. Here, three lengthy pieces encircle some fantastic voyages through muted hum, looped voices, gentle vibrations and the stench of noxious ooze. The last one, ‘35000 Feet Below the Ocean Surface’, clocks in at almost 22 minutes and hints at a leather-clad NWW surveying a desert of black ash. Which works a treat for me." [RJ, Adverse Effect]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| NIEDOWIERZANIE |
same |
LP |
Debut-Album dieses 1-Mann Projekts aus Marseille (currently residing, like everyone else, in Berlin), ein sehr eigener Stil aus harmonischen Instrumental / Drone / Neo-Klassik Elementen, schleppend-rhythmischer Elektronik, Field Recordings und Effektbearbeitungen. Hier kommt etwas zusammen was eigentlich nicht zusammengehört, aber es funktioniert & klingt wie aus einem Guss! Mal ist der Sound schneidend wie Glas, dann verflüssigt sich alles wieder, durchtränkt von einem subtilen melancholischen Fluidum...
Edition: 200 Stück auf weissem Vinyl.
"In spite of all their growing differences, there are still hidden places, elusive dimensions where East and West meet… For instance in the highly introspective music of the Marseille/Berlin based solo project NIEDOWIERZANIE, presenting here its first official album in the shape of five long instrumental pieces of neo-classical sound sculptures. Flirting both with IDM and contemporary music, mixing organic compositions (using a wide range of string, wind and self-made instruments) with electronic cut-ups and field recordings from the artist’s native Marseille and his extensive journeys through India, these intense, complex and luminous crescendos evoke the works of artists as diverse as COIL, MIRROR, MIASTO NIE SPALO and ARVO PÄRT. 12" LP - white vinyl - lim. edition of 200 hand-numbered copies." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Paradies |
CD |
" 'Paradies' is the latest Niedowierzanie album. This is the first CD release in rich discography of the project, after three vinyl releases and two cassettes. It is a unique project with a Polish name run by a Frenchman who lives in Berlin. The sounds presented on Niedowierzanie albums are equally cosmopolitan. The influences of modern classical, electronic music and folk can be heard here.
This album is a dramatic soundtrack, ranging from slow and lazy patterns to abstract noise crescendos and drowning melancholic loops, using mostly cello, accordion and mandoline along electronic treatments. It was composed and recorded in Berlin, as a memory of the south, the Mediterranean coast, the lost wanderings under the burning summer sun. This is probably the most cinematic and melodramatic Niedowierzanie album to date.
The CD is housed in gatefold sleeve in the vein of Japanese-style vinyl replica and is strictly limited to 300 copies. The album is mastered by Demian (O Paradis)." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| NIETO, MIKEL R |
Dark Sound |
BOOK & CD |
"The book contains Ecopolitik, an introduction as an epilogue by José Luis Espejo, a letter to the Huaorani people, two research texts and one bertso, descriptive texts and photos of recordings, a possible chronology, a glossary, a compilation of several texts with testimonies, reports and declarations from different people, groups, institutions, and publications in reference to the impact—direct or indirect—of the noise from the oil industry during its various phases of development on the people, the environment and the fauna. More info at dark.mikelrnieto.net
34 recordings in one track. In a black polycarbonate CD.
Final editing, mastering and carbon print from Ireland by Slavek Kwi.
Tracklist
01. Nyctridomus albicollis
02. Lipaugus vociferans
03. General Electric CF34-10E
04. Hypsiboas lanciformis, Hypsiboas boans and Unidentified Oil Extraction Machines in the Distance
05. Pogonomyrmex barbatus
06. Paraponera clavata
07. Atta cephalotes
08. Ectatomma tuberculatum
09. Termitidae procornitermes
10. Eciton burchellii
11. Gryllidae and Unidentified Frogs
12. Lophostoma yasuni
13. Leptonycteris yerbabuenae
14. Yamaha Enduro E40X
15. Unidentified Underwater Animals
16. Honda GX160
17. Unidentified Underwater Survivors in Produced Water
18. Changlin YZ26
19. Electric Generator at Tiputini Biodiversity Station
20. Electrical Substation at the Yasuni Research Station (Ten Meters Distance)
21. Electrical Substation at the Yasuni Research Station (One Meter Distance)
22. Air Conditioner for the Electrical Substation at Yasuní Research Station
23. Chevrolet S10
24. CAT MD6420B Drill
25. Cummins KTA19G4
26. HongSheng CYJ-83-37HB
27. CAT 3512 DITA
28. MTU 396
29. Shale Pump SP1614
30. Tiger Rig ZJ30LDB
31. Oilon Wisedrive WD32-34
32. Maxon Oxytherm LE
33. Preamp Battery Blackout
34. Radio Jungla 94.3 FM Through Several JBL Control 1 Pro in Repsol-YPF Access Control"
176 pages, dark paper, black ink, hardback. languages: huao, basque, spanish and english"
www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=15050
"In the product page on the label’s website the description of this release ends with this warning: “Partially legible. Sunlight reading recommended”. It’s hard to fail recognising that this warning is absolutely appropriate, until you realise that it’s a black book, with black opaque pages, printed with black lucid ink, housing a black CD. And it doesn’t stop there, as it doesn’t have a fixed sale price, but its price is determined by the crude oil Brent price at the time of purchase, so the author and label warn that if you buy the book you’ll “contribute to the destruction of the planet.” With these creepy premises, a curiosity about the content of the work immediately arises. And after a few attempts, the reader can find the right angle and light to (struggle to) start reading realising that it’s a remarkable collection of essays, pictures and documents on the oil industry’s impact on the Ecuadorian natural environment. This is coupled with a CD with 34 recordings in one track from the Ecuadorian rainforest (the whole work is part of the Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder). It progresses from delightful natural sounds to industrial machines slowly disrupting them. Then reading, meanwhile, some testimonies or a detailed chronology perfectly let this whole suppressed world to (painfully in every sense) re-emerge from its current status. The pervasive “black”, eventually, doesn’t hide anymore, but becomes the mandatory colour to engage with, in order to learn and understand what has been hidden, but must now be revealed." [Neural Mag.]
"I have listened several times to the CD Dark Sound by Mikel R. Nieto over the past month and have been intrigued by the purpose of the recordings presented by the album. — Dark Sound is a CD length single track album of field recordings taken by Mikel R. Nieto mostly in and around the Ecuadorian rainforest within areas associated with the colonisation and domination of contested areas that were found to have oil reserves. The album traces the relationships between a number of different indigenous groups who have resisted becoming associated with Western European and global models of capital, in favour of continuing the heritage and lives they had prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the late 15th Century.
The single track CD contains a wide number of field recordings from across various situations that the recordist encountered whilst investigating the noise and culture of Ecuadorian oil mining operations and the impact it has had on the biophonic soundscape and ecology of non-native human, native human, and nonhuman populations. The album comes with an accompanying black paged book with black glossy lettering throughout which makes it impossible to read other than in bright sunlight; a statement upon the darkest of dark geological substrates; crude oil, as well as a comment on the practices of obfuscation that have continued in pursuit of capital gain through oil drilling by corporations. This has led to a number of significant historical, political events including the death of Alejandro Lebaka, a Basque man who in the 1980s took it upon himself as a missionary to position himself as “the voice of the voiceless” (Lebaka in Nieto, 2016: 53) but in his attempted defence and support for a number of native groups, specifically the Huaorani (literally meaning those who speak our language”) which is to say, the native people of the Ecuadorian rainforests, was killed by spears from a group of Huaorani referred to as Tagaeri who no longer wished to partake in the violent systems of control forced upon the Huaorani.
The book provides a significant overview to the political history and issues encountered as a result of the colonisation, and pacification of the indigenous people of Ecuador in pursuit for oil whilst also raising a broad ranging investigation into acoustic research and/or phenomena that are a consequence of the oil operations and their effect directly and indirectly on the Ecuadorian ecology.
The album itself, contains a number of ethnographical and environmental field recordings that include weather events, insects, birds, fish and small mammals and security guards, diesel turbines and high security perimeter fencing. The recordings range from acoustic captures to hydrophones to ultrasound and contact microphones in an attempt to reflect the wide range of acoustic, para-acoustic infra and ultrasonic phenomena that are comprised, altered and ruptured in the pursuit of capital.
The book is highly politicised and the recordings only further emphasise the massive transitions from small tribe to mass industrial practice and the absolute refusal for some to be forced to be adapted and co-opted into a military industrial complex and capital based system of goods exchange and parasitic raping of newly discovered lands." [Mark Parker]
|
2016 |
€44.00 |
|
| NIHILIST ASSAULT GROUP |
Silent Movie |
LP + DVD |
"Documents the only known live performance (at No Fun Fest) of the alias of THE NEW BLOCKADERS. The DVD contains silent footage only and one must spin the vinyl simultaneously in order to hear the sound while witnessing this futile destruction. DVD also features additional commentary by G.X. JUPITER-LARSEN of THE HATERS. Edition of 500." [label info]
|
2010 |
€20.50 |
|
| NIHILIST SPASM BAND |
Breaking Wind |
LP |
"As nicolas was heading for his roaring forties birthday, we were wondering whether we should issue a release to celebrate the occasion or should we throw a party or whatever. On the one hand lots of radical changes had taken place in the rekem HQ during the last year and found the four of us in a state of flux. On the other, a release idea to which you can always return and use as a sound diary, was bringing shivers from the absurd heyday and ultimately we couldn’t resist the idea of doing one. Whom to invite for it? Without any second thought, the name of the Nihilist Spasm Band stuck to our minds. A band of friends who -for nearly half a century- hold regular Monday-night meetings/improvisations, their music has been a companion to our explorations in the world of obscure music, ever since our first encounter with it almost 23 years ago. And the recording and title the NSB suggested to us couldn’t have fit any better, marking a crossroads in our lives with their free-as-the-wind sound that will now accompany new journeys." [label info]
rekemrecords.tumblr.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ [BJ NILSEN] |
Invisible City |
CD |
"BJ Nilsen gehört schon seit langem zum Artist Roster des englischen Labels Touch und hat sich auf dem Gebiet der field recordings einen Namen gemacht. Mit seinen Vorgängeralben ,Fade to White" und ,A Short Night" wusste der Schwede Kritiker zu überzeugen und hat daneben auch mit dem führenden UK-Soundtüftler Chris Wattson und der isländischen Cellistin Hildur Gudnadottir zusammengearbeitet. Sein neues Werk ,The Invisible City" vereint wieder field recordings mit elektrischen Klängen, wobei er sich auf die Übergänge zwischen Natur und Menschen konzentriert - und diesmal auch Technologien einbezieht. Zusätzlich kommen akustische Instrumente wie Cello, Gitarre oder Orgel zum Einsatz. Entstanden ist ein dunkles, hypnotisierendes Werk mit spannenden Soundstrukturen. Die Außenaufnahmen entstanden in Schweden, Island, Norwegen, UK, Japan, Portugal und Schweden. www.myspace.com/bjnilsen"
[label info / Cargo]
"Recorded and Mixed during 2008-2009 in Berlin.
All tracks composed by BJNilsen using Tape Recorders, Computer, Organ, Acoustic Guitar, Electronics, Viola, Subharchord. Field recordings from; Sweden, Iceland, Norway, UK, Japan, Portugal and Germany. The Subharchord was recorded in the EAM Studio @ Adk, Berlin. Viola played by Hildur I. Gudnadottir." [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"By now BJ Nilsen (or rather BJNilsen) is a mainstay on the Touch label. He is not a man of many words, or big concepts. I am not sure what the title 'The Invisible City' refers to, but it does have a detailed list of all of his sound sources per piece. Its an interesting read of 'amplified chair dragged across floor, window shutters, steel whistle coffeepot, dead trees leaning against each other, train, footsteps in snow, crows, rain' but also acoustic guitar feedback, tapeloops of found sounds, pitch regulated viola, B&K Sine Random Generator Type 1204, virtual Hammond Organ and such like. The titles of his pieces do not give away much either: 'Gravity Station', 'Phase And Amplitude', 'Scientia', 'Virtual Resistance', 'Meter Reading', 'Into Its Coloured Rays', 'Gradient' and the title piece. If necessary at all, one could consider Nilsen to be part of the crowded scene of people who create atmospheric, drone based music through all sorts of means, but at the end of the chain there is always the computer: all pieces list 'various DSP' at the end. That renders some of the sounds, if not all, beyond recognition. As said this music is highly atmospheric and finds its origin in drone music. This is a fine disc, don't get me wrong. There is some excellent music on here, that is at times more daring then the usual 'field recordings and drone music', with some nasty frequencies here and there, and some sudden changes. That is what sets BJNilsen apart from many of his peers. But somehow I also had the impression that 'heard it already' is also part of this. It seems to me that BJNilsen created some fine work which is already in his line of work, rather than making the next move. That perhaps is the only downside to this release. If you are not familiar with his work, then this is good release to get to know his work, and perhaps if you can never get enough, then this will proof no disappointment either. An absolute great disc." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Distant Brilliance |
10inch |
"BJ NILSEN releases his very first 10" vinyl record in a career spanning more than twenty years, and the result is simply a must for anyone interested in experimental electronic music. "Distant Brilliance" contains two new tracks, namely "The Question" and "The Answer", which were composed especially for this release on 13 and were recorded at Odd Phasing and Echoes, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 2019. Packed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with images created by Stefano Gentile, the layers of abstraction and decay in the artwork were the catalyst for the music, which comes as a welcome addition to both the label's and the artist's ever-growing catalogues."
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2034_bj_nilsen_distant_brilliance.htm
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA |
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna |
CD |
Zweite Zusammenarbeit der Skandinavier, und wieder wird eine geheimnisvolle, einsame & endlose Soundwelt erschaffen, die seltsam entrückt wie frühe WERKBUND-Sachen auf uns wirkt....
Wie DEUTSCH NEPAL oder KARJALAN SISSIT scheinen auch der ex- HAZARD- (und die Isländer von STILLUPPSTEYPA sowieso) eine geradezu obsessives Verhältnis zum Alkohol zu besitzen, die in diese Aufnahmen mit eingeflossen ist; wie der lange Absturz nach der rauschvollen Ekstase, surreal halluzinierend und beklemmend...
"In Scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the Swedish drone artist BJ Nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. In recent years, Nilsen has turned to his Icelandic neighbors Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (collectively known as Stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna marks the second collaborative document of abject minimalism that these three have composed; and like its predecessor Vikinga Brennivin, this album is spiked with drunken thought. Any alcohol induced euphoria has been tempered by perturbing blackouts, moments of cruelty, and an all-consuming nihilism. Beyond their shared Scandinavian heritage, their expressionist urge for the frigid drone, and their penchant for drink, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa intend this recording as an open ended experience, wandering through their sound without the burden of any exegetical text that may get in the way.
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna resolves itself as a grim kaleidoscope, where the bleakness of the wintry Scandinavian landscape and the langour of a drunken escapade constantly mutate through the highly refined sensibility of dronescaping. Sonar pings announce the beginning of this album, with its echoes returning as an amorphous fog and locating little but a gloomy pall upon the event horizon. Clattering electronics scurry across the barren sounds like death-watch beetles upon the tundra; and creaking doors offer something much more foreboding than what Pierre Henry envisioned for musique concrete. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna adheres to the psychological dis-quiet through sound design that Alan Splet provided for Eraserhead or that Nurse With Wound achieved on Salt Marie Celeste. Yet for all of their tendencies for brooding and desolation, BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa retain a compulsion for a glacial beauty through their intoxicated visions of the sublime.... " [label info]
"...On the same Helen Scarsdale Agency label the second collaboration between B.J. Nilsen and Stillupsteypa. One perhaps wondered if the latter were still around, because the last thing we heard was the previous work with Nilsen (see Vital Weekly 460) and again alcohol abuse in the Scandinavian territory is the main theme here. It's a firm continuation of the previous album. Using also field recordings this is much along similar lines of the Jim Haynes album and far away from the last thing we heard from Stillupsteypa (which was close to being a disco band). A winter landscape, frozen roads, empty swirling through a desolate country is what is on this album. They captured the stale wind and put it to music. If the term Isolationist music hadn't been invented before, it should be done for this album. Droning landscapes, quietly humming, and even at times using a faint trace of a melody, such as in 'Undir Ahrifum/Sunderlaus' (all credits are in Swedish and Icelandic - two entirely different languages) with something that might very well a guitar. And sometimes it seems nothing is happening at all, such a breeze, such as in 'Supbröder/Drykkjufelagar', humming quietly. This album is a great one, excellently produced, but perhaps not holding something that is entirely new to the world of electronic music, but rather carries on a tradition, which sometimes is fair enough." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"For a country whose entire population is only half that of San Francisco, Iceland has an exceptionally prolific arts community. One could easily look to the big Icelandic names in pop music (i.e. Bjork and Sigur Ros); but there's also slightly lesser known (but even more adventurous) music from the likes of Johann Johannson, Apparat Organ Quartet, and the entire output of the Kitchen Motors institution. But our personal favorite from Iceland remains Stilluppsteypa, whose dada drunkenness and black humor has developed arctic undercurrents to their increasingly bleak drone-based work. On Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna, the Stilluppsteypa duo of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson have hooked up once again with the Swedish sound artist BJ Nilsen, perhaps best known for his triumphant elemental drone work as Hazard released through Touch. Sigmarsson sums up the communal idea behind this album as a "love for drones, Scandinavia, and alcohol." Of course, he then proceeds to type a polysyllabic onomatopoetic bunch of drunken text that makes our extend-o-spelling of doom seem trite by comparison.
The previous collaboration Vikinga Brennivin was an homage to the Icelandic firewater of the same name; yet it held a clarity and singlemindedness rarely attributed to alcoholic excess. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna has that same contradictory dualism of conceptually relating to being fucked up without totally losing a grip on reality. Or perhaps these three Scandinavians have gotten so loaded that they drifted into a parallel universe of liquid physics and amorphous gravity. Needless to say, Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna is another masterful album of alchemical drone, that's even darker and more morose than its predecessor. Sonar pulses and crackles of wood break up the jet-black atmospheres of frozen electronic drones, resonant frequencies, and hallucinatory echoes rippling way out on the outer regions of the event horizon for this sonic black hole. At times falling close to the constant spiralling of Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste, and times recalling the best isolationism of Thomas Köner. Somber, magnificent, and exquisitely constructed!" [Aquarius Records] |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Vikinga Brennivin |
CD |
"Nordische Drone-Collaboration von BENNY NILSEN (ex HAZARD, MORTHOUND) und STILLUPPSTEYPA: 5 Stücke, durchdrungen von schwelenden, geheimnisvollen Drones und etwas konkreteren Soundabdrücken, sehr spannend, hypnotisierend, betäubend..... „schöne Klaustrophobie“ meint Frans de Waard.......
“...Focusing the perception of natural sounds through a reconstruction of time and space, Nilsen has rendered the commonplace sounds of wind, rain, and snow as stealthfully seductive and quietly menacing drifts of frozen sound. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen, Sigmarsson, and Thorsson brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended soundfields breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece....” [from the label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
“Drinkers out there: pay attention, because our favourite drunks are here and they celebrate their favourite drink: brennivin. Never heard of? No problem. It's an Icelandic liquor made of potato and flavored with cumin, which burns down your throat - and I know: the only two
times I was really sick of alcohol in the last 10 years was of brennivin. The first time I got this poison served was at Stillupsteypa's house - no wonder, they are from Iceland and like everybody from there they drink. A lot. An insane lot. These days Stilluppsteypa is Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson and they team up with BJ Nilsen - our man in Sweden (and known from Touch releases, more than his drinking habits, at least here). Of course it's hard to tell wether one would think of the booze if it didn't have that title, nor is it easy to relate the music to the drink. The five lengthy pieces here all deal with a hermetically closed sound. Processings of field recordings perhaps, but no longer recognizable
as such. Some ten or so years ago, someone invented the term 'isolationism' for this kind of music, but basically it was what everyone else called 'ambient industrial', but somehow 'isolationism' sounded better. It's certainly an appropiate term for this CD. It's either music you hear when you try to make it home after a night of heavy brennivin intake and if that didn't do the trick it's music you hear in your head when you wake up. It's almost claustrophobic music, but beautiful claustrophobia. Lovers of Nilsen's other work, or Thomas Köner's old work, should keep an eye open for a CD packed in copper-plates inside a jewel case.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The cold winter nights stuck above the Arctic Circle have become the perfect climate for extended bouts of intoxication for many a Scandinavian. As a result, the capacity for the Icelandic duo Stilluppsteypa to consume alcohol is the stuff of legend. Alcohol has soaked into every fiber of their being; but its manifestation in their music (and their personalities for that matter) is closer to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde allegory, as a raging alcoholic squirms just beneath the surface of a stoic Scandinavian temperment. Of course, where these two personalities come into conflict is where the art of Stilluppsteypa is realized. A schizoid tension runs throughout Stilluppsteypa's impressive catalogue of terminal drones, sputtered rhythms, and atomic fractures; and often this tension is dished out with a smug dollop of black humour and Dadaist absurdity. So, it's hardly unusual to come across Stilluppsteypa celebrating Vikinga Brennivin, the stringent Icelandic alcohol that has undoubtably killed some of their collective brain cells. Yet it was the stoic BJ Nilsen -- the Swedish electron wrangler whose best known for his work as Hazard -- who invited Stilluppsteypa to collaborate on Vikinga Brennivin. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended dronescapes breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece." [Aquarius Records]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Passing Out |
CD |
Dritter Teil der nordischen "Drone & Alkohol-Intoxikation"-Trilogie, die den Zustand des Wegtretens zwischen Wachheit und Dämmerzustand klanglich adäquat wiederspiegelt; im tiefen Drone-Morast erscheinen Traumbilder, -gedanken & akustische Sequenzen der Realität auf. In paradoxer Weise ist man dann in der Lage, sowohl unbewusste wie bewusste Geistes-Inhalte zur gleichen Zeit wahrzunehmen...(sagen die Erzeuger dieses Albums). PASSING OUT ist ein One-Tracker von fast 70 Minuten, tiefgrummelnd-bassig und sonor und von mysteriösen, atmend-ächzenden Sounds durchzogen....
"The first chapter found the drink. The second came after a night of intoxicated shouting. The third chapter is inevitable: Passing Out.
The Nordic sound artists BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa have authored the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the psychotropic effects of alcohol. In doing so, they have issued a brief statement in defense of their research: "It's been four years and three studies, Passing Out being the final. Even in its most general, colloquial usage, Passing Out indicates the occurrence of a state that is incompatible with active behavior. It is possible that the individual could experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time while encountering Passing Out."
Yes, Passing Out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of twilight further dimmed by the distant Arctic sun in wintertime and the blackened numbness of too much drink. With one singular track that spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely dialed-in modulations and vibrations. Spectral guitars, maudlin tunes from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these subharmonic drones. All of these tease at the edge of perception, sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and oblivion.
The Swedish born BJ Nilsen defines his work as "focused upon the sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound." He has numerous recordings on Touch and has collaborated with the likes of Chris Watson, Christian Fennesz, and Z'ev. The Icelandic citizens Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson are Stilluppsteypa, whose electronic abstractions engage absurd theatrics that mar the pristine surface of minimalism..." [label info]
"....The complete and total isolation of the music, the long passages of seemingly no action (there is just one piece, clocking it at 68 minutes), with then a sudden break, a melody filters in, the radio starts humming and field recordings - that backbone of so much in Vital Weekly and certainly here - make this an album of not just pure drones or just processed field recordings, but the strange elements thrown in, give this album a stranger, almost alien feel to it. If it's the equivalent of passing out is a bit hard to say: the act of passing out on alcohol prevents you from remembering anything. This is however their best album to date and makes a strong trilogy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"...Deep resonant vibrations abound, with some creepy breathing in your ear whisperings that may be those Leif Elggren vocals that Benny
was talking about. Gradually, all of these deep drones and shadowy overtures glide into a slumbering descent. But the Icelandic weirdoes
in Stilluppsteypa couldn't just let the album drift away without their absurdism forcing through the door, as they blurt with a clinical repetition of blooping electronics smashed and grabbed from Raymond Scott circa Manhattan Research. It's an unsettling climax to the album, but one that works brilliantly through Stilluppsteypa's expert use of electro-acoustic black humor. But it's drone that dominates the album, as angelic wash and devilish rumble collude to end this magnificent album. Oblivion never sounded so good. Passing Out is beautifully packaged with letterpressed and silkscreened artwork. Very nice." [Aquarius Records review]
www.helenscarsdale.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Big Shadow Montana |
LP |
"After producing their frozen trilogy of intoxicated dronemuzik for the Agency, these Scandinavian gentlemen have ventured into more absurdist territories through fictionalized soundtracks for imagined Mondo films and science fiction serials. It is in this context that BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa present the apparitional Big Shadow Montana, an album of slow-motion delirium manifested in occluded smears, nocturnal gasps, and arcane tones from a variety of analogue synthesizers. Amidst the near constant wash of bleary-eyed etherealism, Big Shadow Montana cycles through several sonic themes and leitmotifs, displayed in varying states of clarity. In these transitions between half-remembered phrases and bleary-eyed thrumming, the album emerges as if it were the aftermath from a protracted bout of metaphysical channel surfing. Flickered impressions flash in conjunction with Breton's manifesto of Surrealism in the form of the memories from happily drunk escapades in the heart of winter, the sidereal spells cast by the innerspace travelers Klaus Schulze and Coil, and the nagging questions of existential portent: 'Was that bassline from Goblin, or was it German Oak? Maybe something from Faust IV?' The trio of Nilsen, Sigmarsson, and Thorsson elegantly twist and bend these fleeting images into a spiraling symphony of bubbling electronics and spectral drones that mutate on both sides of the record into lugubrious yet carnivalesque waltzes. When this first appears, it is the echoing undercarriage of a simple melody, bobbing amidst rattling chains and cascading cymbal crashes only to dissolve into sequences of cold-war era tone beacons and empathic swaths of maudlin sound design. At the second occurrence, the melody washes ashore on the Iceland beach, where nude Viking men and women try in vain to get a tan when the sun is just barely going to rise above the horizon in the winter months. It is a pyrrhic jubilation of calliope harmonies set down by organs and synths turning a pale-blue hue in the wake of all that white skin shivering underneath the arctic sky." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Recently this trio was undercover present as Evil Madness (see Vital Weekly 773), an exercise in disco, and perhaps some of that experience rubs off in this new collaborative work - I believe the fourth or fifth time they work together. Up until now their work together was deep atmospheric excursions into the space we call drone music, but something has changed. Maybe its the re-arrival cosmic music that put them back at their analogue synthesizers and organs? The press text supplied hints certainly towards that. Certainly an album with more open spaces than what they produced so far. A far cry from monolithic blocks of highly computerized drones, this buzzes in an analogue way, carrying small melodies around, rattling percussion in the background, or the air sucked into a harmonium. Somewhere on the b-side (no track titles, so 'Big Shadow Montana' should be seen as one piece) it leaps into one of those pre-set rhythms found on organs with meandering, somewhat cliched melody, which
actually sounds very sweet. It adds, once more, that lovely cosmic ring to the music. This album sees them leaping out of the old fashioned drones in return to something that is perhaps even more old fashioned, but which sounds like a fresh start again. It holds a great promise for the future." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Collaborations in the experimental scene come and go, so it's so great to see one that has some longevity. This is album number seven from BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa, and the fourth released by the discerning Helen Scarsdale Agency label. Since this trio (Benny plus Sigtryggur and Helgi of Stilluppsteypa) unleashed their drunken drone trilogy through the aforementioned Agency, they've been venturing into all sorts of delirious bouts of murky psychedelic collages and imagined soundtracks. There were the weird ruminations upon a found cassette, turned into a mondo filmscore on Man From Deep River; and then the sci-fi opus of synth meanderings found on Space Finale. Now what may be the best to emerge since that earlier alcohol-inspired trilogy is this, the mercurial and hauntological album Big Shadow Montana. Two long-form pieces make up the album, with the A side standing as a hallucinatory foreshadowing of what is to come on the flip. Here, ghostly drones broadcast directly out of the haunted ballroom from The Shining, flickering with half-received transmissions, bumps in the night, and any number of other worldly sounds. Bits of structure emerge in this slow-motion churning of drone, shadow, and filigree coming across somewhere between the fucked up collages that seem to bring all of the Teenage Filmstars records to a close and the subterranean drone-rock sensibility of German Oak. When the record flips, a cosmic stream of vintage synths slump toward oblivion paralleling what has been done by Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never (both of whom have released work alongside this trio on Editions Mego), but before this can venture any further down the rabbit hole of Schnitzler and Schulze references, Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa slip into a faux-exotica guise with cheap Casiotone melodies swaying to and fro through old Les Baxter and Martin Denny records. It's a signature move for Stilluppsteypa, if anyone remembers how they mustered a similar strategy on The Best Possible Yet back in 1997. But the maudlin organ harmonies and percolating tone-bloop oscillations are much more confident here, emerging perfectly out of the drone fog like those organ-led numbers on that Deathprod boxset, only to slip into a twin engine thrum of inner-space expansion. In listening back to the second side of the album, it's clear that the first is a lengthy dub of the second, recast and recontextualized as a percussive ghost. Totally captivating through and through, and with a damn trippy cover sporting a vibrantly hypnotic, candy-colored mandala. Yup, it does have a download card. Yup, it is limited. Yup, it is highly recommended." [Aquarius Records] |
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA / MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT |
SOV GOTT / Oskar Kastaniens Sterne am Tag |
LP |
Ein Fliesen-Cover auf LICHT-UNG! Und die Musik ist auch seltsam & betörend !
Collector’s item with thick glazed tile sticked on cover (especially burned for this release) ! On one side we find a great collaborative piece by BENNY NILSEN (aka HAZARD) and STILLUPPSTEYPA with thick massive drones, on the other abstract soundscapes of crackles & strange electronic low-fi lumberings from MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT, who is one half of LICHT-UNG and also running the label of the same name.
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
| NIMH |
The Missing Tapes |
CD |
"After the extraordinary 4CD box-set, "Together' s Symphony" (with MAURIZIO BIANCHI), Silentes Minimal Editions is proud to present the incredible new solo effort by NIMH. Stratospheric sounds from another dimension, where multi-cultural sound-worlds collide. Processed electronic emulations of traditional Thai (and other indigenous) instruments, esoteric percussion, breathing, drones, feedback, shortwave radio, disembodied voices floating in air, and hazy field recordings all combine is a most intoxicating manner. With THE MISSING TAPES, NIMH returns to a more adventurous style, pushing the boundaries of sonic innovation past anything that we've heard before. An amazing 50+ minute sonic-travelogue of electroacoustic experiments. Ambiguous music for those who want something completely unique." [label info]
label: www.silentes.net
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
The Unkept Secrets |
CD |
"After few months of distance from the escape of "The Missing Tapes" and the relative "Rework" by Aube, Nimh (Giuseppe Verticchio) sets aside the ethnic-lysergic visions that have characterized the previous album and continues along the distance of sonorous search and fascinating experimentation electronic, already undertaken with works which "The Impossible Days" and "Subterranean Thoughts", ulteriorly expanding just the range of sounds and instruments set, revealing the own "secrets" through new, dark but stylistically a unclassifiable CD, in which it arranges with extraordinary originality and in an absolutely personal and unknown elements of drone music, dark ambient, electronics, ritual, ethnic, field recordings, and enriching in particular every track with the recurrent presence of evocative sounds of electric guitar in varied filtered and elaborated way. The search goes on..." [label info]
"This is an other perfect Nimh record, a world of magnetic, somnanbulic, fuzzing, moving electronic textures and drones covered by glacially melancholic guitar parts. These recent years there have been many descent projects published under the dark ambient - prog electronic label, but The Unkept Secrets is exceptional, reaching a degree of composition and complexity rarely obtained in this specific genre. Meridians opens the album with an intimate, colourful, extatic droning minimalist guitar composition with lot of reverbs and reasonances. A majestic, almost hallucinatory electronic piece. Narrative voices & mysterious abstract noises also come into the mix. As suggested by the title, Visions in Black is a haunted, gorgeously dark piece with abundant guitar's fuzzed out static notes, ghostly dark noises. The composition ends up with an almost funeral electronic choir. Strangely beautiful, the sound of the apocalypse or forgotten memories. The call reaches the listener into a parapsychological world made of echoing guitar tricks, floating electronic waves. A more dreamy-like composition, perfectly executed and really vibrant emotionally and physically speaking. Linga is just fantastic, a real buzzing drone trip with tribal-ethnic elements. An immersive medley of acoustic / electronic elements, it makes me think about shamanic sermons & ceremonials. The title track opens the way to a really sinister, dark musical ritual that turns into a shimmering, suspensful incantation dominated by harsh guitars and doom-like epic drones. The ending nightmare is a claustrophobic, intoxicated electronic piece for loud guitars, creepy noises and acoustic exoticism. The last tune is a more relaxed, tranquil affair after an intense musica ride throw lost deep memories. A totally absorbing electronic mantra, a real pleasure for the ears. Clearly among my all time favourite experimental electronic records with a things from Maurizio Bianchi, Maeror Tri and Aeolian String Ensemble. So recommended."
[Prog Archives]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Travel Diary |
CD |
"Finally collected on a single CD, and released in a completely re-edited and re-mastered version enriched with new sounds and parts, Silentes present all the music created by Giuseppe Verticchio/Nimh during 2001/2002 using ethnic instruments only, in a total “unconventional” way, with the addiction of treated/processed field recordings. A real challenge beyond every stylistic and “geographical” border; an original and evocative dark-shaded ethnic-electronic-ritual music, born from the “voice” of ancient and often unknown traditional ethnic instruments mostly collected in the Far East, without using synthesizers and any other electronic/synthetic source at all. An absolutely original “Travel Diary, unpredictable and unrepeatable…" [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
This crying Era |
LP |
"Synästhesie Schallplatten proudly presents Giuseppe Verticchio aka Nimh for the first release, attending for March, 2012. First time vinyl release for Nimh, this guy has a solid experience and has collaborated with some genius of dark ambient / done, like Maurizio Bianchi, Mathausen Orchestra, Andrea Freschi... This Lp compiles some New material, and some material released on Silentes on K7 or cd-r released in the past 10 years. Hand-numbered edition of 100 copies, 180 gram black vinyl + insert. Nimh's biography : Born in Rome in 1965, Nimh, computer programmer, starts to play electronic music in 1994. In 1996 he moves in Koh Samui, Thailand, where he lives about one year. During this period he starts to know and love oriental traditional music, so he begins to collect various ethnic instruments and to use them in his CDs. Starting from 2001 he realized many CDs under the name of ?Nimh?. His music combines a wide spectrum of influences, he has recorded and released many works of different nature containing elements of experimental music, ambient, dark-ambient, industrial, electronic, isolationism, ritual-ethnic music. After some CD-Rs available only in limited edition, since 2004 Nimh published a lot of official CDs released by labels such as Amplexus, Silentes and Eibon, alternating solo works with side projects (Hall of Mirrors, Maribor?) and collaborations with other artists. The most important collaborations include Maurizio Bianchi/M.B., Mauthausen Orchestra/Pierpaolo Zoppo, Andrea Marutti/Amon, Nefelheim, Amir Baghiri. In these years of activity Nimh collaborated in various way open projects, partecipation to CDs and compilations, live performances, audio editing and mastering works?) with other artists/projects in ambient-electronic-industrial-experimental-ethnic musical scene, such as Aube, Eidulon, K11/Pietro Riparbelli, New Risen Throne, Vestigial, Hue, Raffaele Serra, Andrea Ferroni, Stefano Scala, Andrea Ferraris, Andrea Freschi/Subinterior, Claudio Ricciardi (ex member with Roberto Laneri of the historical harmonic chant ensemble Prima Materia?)." [label info]
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Beyond the Crying Era |
CD |
Brand new label release 22nd February 2019. NIMH - Beyond The Crying Era CD.
Nimh is an avant-garde ,deep ambient, industrial electronic project formed by the multi- instrumentalist and sound designer Giuseppe Verticchio. Nimh has evolved on the territories of truly ecstatic-drone ambient music since the 90s with a vast catalogue of releases published on various independent labels such as Afe, Silentes, Eibon Records.
On 'Beyond The Crying Era', NIMH has brought together a selection of dark/ambient/experimental tracks.
This album is rich with darkened ambient music, created by the use of a cinematic collage of rumbling drone pieces, heavily layered melodic textures, field recordings, voices, sustained sounds and doom-laden guitar.
Haunting, melancholic, intriguing and engaging, 'Beyond The Crying Era' is an incredibly atmospheric release which will capture the imagination of many sound travellers. It's an extended edition of a much shorter version, which was originally released as a vinyl LP limited to 100 copies. The tracks have been recorded over a 10 year period. All tracks compiled for 'Beyond The Crying Era' have been carefully re-edited and remastered for this CD release, on the Winter-Light label.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-crying-era
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| NIMH & ANTIKATECHON |
Out Hunting for Teeth |
CD |
"I've got an email from Giuseppe with exciting information, that he recorded together with Antikatechon 49 minutes of sound. It was very intriguing. I haven't heard the music, but my imagination already started. What can we get from fusion of NIMH and Antikatechon? How does it sounds? Who has left the stronger imprint on this album? Is it compact or rather splitted into two different parts? Such questions absorbed my mind. Of course I will not answer now for all the questions, but this what I have listen have been successful beyond my dreams. Both acts are well known and critically acclaimed, and the union of musical sensivities of NIMH and Antikatechon made the album, which..." [label info]
rageineden.org
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| NIMH & RAPOON |
Post-Folk Lore Vol. 1 |
CD |
"Two highly respected and prolific artists join forces for this collaborative release on our Winter-Light label.
Nimh (Giuseppe Verticchio) & Rapoon (Robin Storey) recording together for the very first time, combining both of their key musical elements and forging something very new and different in the process.
'Post-Folk Lore Vol.1' is comprised of 4 long pieces created through shared recording sessions between their respective UK and Italian studios. Using traditional instruments, alongside sampled elements and synthesised sounds, Rapoon and Nimh open the door to this newly created Post-Folk space."
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/post-folk-lore-vol-1
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| NIMH + M.B. |
Secluded Truths |
CD |
“Obscure atmospheres and industrial influences in this second audible amalgam between M.B. (Maurizio Bianchi) and NIMH (Giuseppe Verticchio). Endocrine insulation for diagnostic firabilities. Please take note that this album is available exclusively on TOGETHER'S SYMPHONY BOX (cat.no. SMEBOX-1).” [label description] |
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| NIMH / MAUTHAUSEN ORCHESTRA |
From unhealthy Places |
CD |
"The energy, the genius and the intransigence of the music of the hystoric “cult” power electronics project Mauthausen Orchestra/Pierpaolo Zoppo, united to the originalty, the eclecticism, the rigorous experimental research carried on since fifteen years by Giuseppe Verticchio, mostly with his “Nimh” solo project… Disturbing images of unhealthy places, nocturne landscapes covered with fog, psychotic nightmares, tormenting and delirious, described with sonorities of great impact and incredible dramatic force… A dark and long itinerary, to be covered wrapped in the spirals of a time that progressively seems to slow down and stop, folded on itself, just like suspended in the void, without offering any way out… A sonic adventure for brave souls… Elegantly packaged in a digipack." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NINTH DESERT |
Collision h |
mCD-R |
The project of CYRIL HERRY, who also works as a film-maker (in example for TROUM). COLLISION H is a fabulous one-tracker using many layers of cloudy sounds & subdrones, evoking a haunting atmosphere. Comers in a nice oversized cardboard-cover, numbered ed. of 60.
"Collision h is made of various types of handled, stretched, retracted, skinned sound matters… Sequences extracted from sacred chants are confronted here with electronic frequencies and field recordings which collide and injure themselves but are forced to cohabit inside the same time and of the same space, similar to conflicting data assimilated by one and only memory." [label info]
" 'Collision H' enthält eine lange, 20 minütige Soundcollage die ziemlich dunkel und tief erscheint. Feld-Aufnahmen, rabenschwarze Ambiancen und schwere elektronische Frequenzen wabern und brodeln irgendwo ganz weit unten im Berg herum. Nur ein leichtes Drönen erinnert immer wieder an diesen Klangkanal, der so dunkel und trostlos ist, dass man, wenn man ihn entdeckt hat, auf keinen Fall hinuntersteigen möchte. Die Aufmachung hingegen ist hell und simpel. Die kleine 3 Zoll CD-R ist in eine schöne Kartonhülle zum aufklappen eingefasst. Eine gelungene Veröffentlichung." [Creative-Eclipse] |
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| NITSCH, HERMANN |
Day 3 of |
LP + CD-R |
"Packaged in 12" deluxe gatefold sleeve with 12" full-color printed inner-sleeves. Day 3 of Vienna Aktionist Hermann Nitsch's magnum opus total experience in a 6 Day excess, a Baccanalian rite that is sub-titled the Orgies Mysteries Theater. Two separate editions exist for Day 3 in a 12" Gatefold Jacket. Part two of this edition includes a 220 Gram Vinyl pressing of the Finale of Day 3. The second CD is a CD-ROM Cinepak movie compatible with the Windows media player and Quicktime: 220 Gram Vinyl. DMM Quality Pressing. Limited Edition 500 copies." [label info]
|
2001 |
€35.00 |
|
| NIXILX.NIJILX |
Aputi |
mCD-R |
Probably the last release of this greek musician under the name "NIXILX NIJILX" before he changed the project-name to HELICE PIED and the Drone Rec-EP was released. APUTI is a dense work dealing with (near)-silences and drones, using earthy pulses from time to time and very far away drones, all created in an organic way.
"A highly atmospheric, "close listening" microsonic work created using processed electric guitar, voice, toy drums and field recordings." [label info]
|
2006 |
€7.50 |
|
| NLC / EISENLAGER / OCCUPIED HEAD / WILFRIED HANRATH |
Thing |
CD-R |
In 2022, attenuation circuit starts a new series of four-way split albums called THING. The aim is to provide a medium for exchange and presentation of a great variety of artists. As each artist spreads the copies to their network, listeners also get to know the other artists featured on the same disc. The title references the fact that the CDs are physical objects – things! – but also refers to the 'thing' or 'ding' in old Norse and other Germanic languages, which designates the place of a popular assembly or the assembly itself and thus alludes to the 'meeting-place' character of the albums on (or around) which the four artists and their audiences meet, if only virtually.
With the second instalment of the THING series, attenuation circuit presents four artists that offer their various, but always rather deep and spacious takes on ambient. EISENLAGER have previously released download albums on attenuation circuit; both Occupied Head and Wilfried Hanrath have released on the label and were also featured live at attenuation circuit's “re:flexions sound-art” festival. In addition to these three German-based artists, Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites from France make their first appearance on the label with their contribution to this compilation. A continuous presence in the international experimental music underground for decades, Julien ASH of NLC first inspired label head Sascha Stadlmeier to open attenuation circuit – up until then only a release platform for his own music – to other artists in 2010. Therefore, attenuation circuit is very happy to welcome Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites to the label roster with this new track in their new duo line-up of Julien ASH and Alois L., which started in 2021 after NLC had stopped their activity for more than a decade.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing-2 |
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| NO BUSINESS FOR DOGS |
Lovely Objects |
LP |
"2011. Juun, pianoguts. Steven Hess, drums, electronics. Bernhard Breuer, drums. Alfred Reiter, sound. If there is a record, that could be simply described with the word strange, then this would be definitely the one. This quartet, consisting of Juun (ex - Der Boese Zustand), Steven Hess (Pan American, Locrian), Bernhard Breuer (from seminal techno trio, Elektro Guzzi) and Alfred Reiter (sound), provided to be one of the most original formations in experimental music of today. Lovely Objects offers punctual but sometimes also groovy drum parts, filtered through intimate electronics, harmonized with bowed and striking piano strings (piano guts), provided chamber textures and increasingly unique atmosphere. Magnificent balance between improvisation and fixed music material, create one of a kind compositional style and musical language, whose structure and sense request numerous listening in order to be discovered properly. Very distinctive and very powerful masterpiece, created by three very strong personalities. This (pink) vinyl is housed in handmade silkscreened cover. Limited to 200 copies." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
| NO FESTIVAL OF LIGHT |
Tautologia |
CD |
"tautology it is not just a word that was chosen to fit the new cd by no festival of light. it is a well chosen term, meaning an 'always valid, universal unconditioned truth' when used within logic. within linguistics tautology refers to 'a series of self-reinforcing statements that cannot be disproved because they depend on the assumption that they are already correct'. in conclusion: the album 'tautologia' by no festival of light is about the truth, not about the possibility whether you can handle it or not. fredrik bergström is a name which - if you didn't know it already - you will never forget from this moment on. his solo projects include n.f.o.l. as well as p/d(b) and as a member he has been recording / performing with deutsch nepal, mortiis, ordo rosarius equilibrio, sator absentia, second skin and tarmvred. this broad variation of music activities are part of the origin of fredrik's search for truth and the sound and complexity of 'tautologia' is a logical as well as truthful reflection of this quest. two longer soundscapes entitled 'tauto' and 'logia' define the framework for what can only be defined as the truth. preconditions include, but are not limited to field-recordings, analog sequences, voices, minimal rhythms, recorded atmospheres and imaginable emotions. raubbau is very proud to present the first full release by no festival of light since 2001. and we can say in all sincerity that waiting twelve years was worth it: every second! packaging: cd gatefold sleeve - heavy white cardboard with grey print." [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2013 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Divide et Impera |
do-CD |
No Festival Of Light is the best kept secret in the annals of dark industrial Swedish tradition. For decades Fredrik Bergström’s guilty pleasure lingered at the backyard of the world to sporadically cast a shadow of minimalist ritualism and evaporate in enchanted air again. An unorthodox approach and such deceptively simple music itself stirs all the senses to trigger morbid addiction, affection and unconscious share in blasphemous conspiracy. The 2CD set manifests rhythmic and ambient mind-numbing versatility of the project ranging from the debut “Divide Et Impera” (1994) mixed by Jouni Havukainen / In Slaughter Natives, to cryptic “Tape 1” (1996) originally released by Slaughter Productions, to various arcane compilation tracks featured on labels like Abyss, Slaughter, Thaglasz, Art Concept, to rare unreleased two live sets in Belgium and the USA in 1998/99. “Within the pleasures of the flesh, rests the Salvation of the human spirit”. For the lovers of early Cold Meat Industry and Slaughter Productions era, projects like Morthound, Ordo Equilibrio or Kranivm. A 2CD edition in a 4-panel gloss-laminated Digipak in edition of 300 copies. Co-released with Eibon Records. The special edition comes with a T-Shirt.
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| NO XIVIC |
I do blame you |
mCD-R |
Noisiger & apokalyptisch wummernder als auf der Drone 7”, tönt es bei diesem One-Tracker des finnischen Projekts. Metallische Sirenen & knisternde Lava-Massen von Sound in diesem
Gänsehaut-Drone-Sumpf ! Ein einziges Knirschen, Dehnen & Ächzen. Grosses Hörkino !
“no Xivic is Henkka Kyllönen, a finnish artist you may have discovered thanks to his untitled 7" released last year by Drone Records, described by the label as "underground 'dronish' experimental sounds, based on long & moving metallic drones mixed with higher, near-distorted frequencies and low rumblings. this results in pure & elegant floating dronescapes that never stands still, giving you nothing to fix upon from your completely immersed mind.". "i do blame you" might be harsher & noisier than this previous piece of vinyl. here, no Xivic proposes us a near 24min long track, perfect blend of noise and dark ambience, piercing frequencies and rumbling drones. "try this in supermarket or some place filled with people ! (works everytime)" [label info]
|
2004 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Uneksija |
CD |
Nach der tollen 7” auf Drone und einigen CDRs hier das erste CD-Album für das finnische dark ambient / minimal drone Projekt...
“Excellent debut full length album from this Finnish artist, presenting a very challenging work ranging from surreal minimalism to deep dark ambient and post-industrial elements. Long pieces introducing a wide selection of sounds and styles, from bleak pianos to haunting soundscapes and infinite drones; also used scarcely yet effectively are human voices. Beautiful full colour carton digisleeve.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOBLE, LEE |
Darker Half |
LP |
"An album composed of four long ritualistic drone lullabies, "Darker Half" sounds like the music in the mind of a feverish 13 year-old kid who fell asleep with the TV on, transmitting horror movies and national geographic documentaries about remote tribal ceremonies. First Lee Noble album originally released on cassette on Bathetic Records in 2010. Limited to 300 copies one sided LP." [label info]
www.blackmoss.tk
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS |
Tiissue of Lies |
do-CD |
"Nocturnal Emissions, das Klangkunst-Projekt von Nigel Ayers, hat seit Ende der 1970er Jahre zahlreiche Schallplatten und CDs in den Grenzbereichen von Industrial, Ambient, Noise, Musique Concrete und Soundcollage veröffentlicht, stets multimedial verschränkt mit Elementen aus Film und Video oder Collagen. In Derbyshire wurde Nocturnal Emissions vom ehemaligen Londoner Kunststudenten Nigel Ayers mit seinen Kollaborateuren Danny Ayers und Caroline K. gegründet. Das 1979
zusätzlich gegründete Label Sterile Records verstärkte die Verbindung von Konzeptkunst, Kommunikationsguerilla, schwarzem Humor und
Subversivität. "Tissue Of Lies" wurde erstmals 1981 veröffentlicht und zeigt Nocturnal Emissions mit ihren Industrial-Wurzeln sowie Klängen zwischen
Noise und elektronischem Dada, ähnlich dem frühen Schaffen von Cabaret Voltaire oder Throbbing Gristle. Neben den acht originalen Songs sind auf der zweiten CD über 50 Minuten bisher unveröffentlichtes Material des Projekts enthalten. |
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Tissue of Lies Deluxe |
do-CD |
Nocturnal Emissions is Nigel Ayers' sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music. Their sound art has been part of an ongoing multimedia campaign of guerrilla sign ontology utilizing video art, film, hypertext and other media, particularly collage. The project was initiated in Derbyshire in the late 1970s by Nigel Ayers, a former art student who, during the period, lived in London, together with collaborators Danny Ayers and Caroline K. In 1979, Nocturnal Emissions also founded Sterile Records. Sterile Records’ approach was a combination of the experiments of musique concrète and Fluxus combined with the critical eye of conceptual art and the spontaneity and energy of punk rock. The dark humour of industrial music and the incomprehensible nonsense of various ultra-leftist political fractions were an essential part of the mix. Sterile Records used both commercial and non-commercial media to deliver anti-capitalist messages, multi-coloured noise and information overload. The label was effectively dissolved in 1986, when Ayers founded Earthly Delights. Tissue of Lies, the group's first album was released on February 13th, 1981. It shows their Industrial roots with sounds between noise and electronic dada, similar to early Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle. Klanggalerie are now proud to present you a deluxe 2 CD edition of this highly influential album with over 50 minutes of previously unreleased music. Full tracklist: CD 1: 1. When Were You Last In Control Of Your Dreams And Aspirations? 2. You Tempt Me 3. Limited Holocaust Engagement 4. Down The Sink 5. Shrubbish Factory 6. Slow Decay 7. Faith Invaders 8. Backwards Man Regressive Music CD 2: 1. From Puberty To Serenity 2. Bad Machine 3. Live At The Crypt.
|
2024 |
€19.50 |
|
| NOCTURNE |
Working Ecstasy |
do-CD |
"New material from this French master of industrial, this is the fourth release by Nocturne on OEC. Two albums full of analogue sounds, droning noises, rumours as building collapsing while bombing, sensations like driving in an endless tunnel, far alarms, electricity, S/M & B/T/K feelings, cold and freezing voids mutating into hot layers of concrete, far sampled voices. and much more. A very homogeneous work in perfect Nocturne style." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| NODDING GOD (DAVID TIBET & ANREW LILES) |
Play Wooden Child |
LP |
NODDING GOD were formed 666 years ago by Andrew Liles, David Tibet, and The UnderAge Shaitan-Boy in a Boys-Only preparatory boarding school in Babylon, since shut down by unfortunate events that took place there, in the night, in the dark.
Their first album, WOODEN CHILD, is released on House Of Mythology in May 2019. Sung 93% in Akkadian by David, who has studied this language for many years, this New Baby God Who Nods - a Nodding God, a Godding Nod - WOODEN CHILD is powered by Stars and Cuneiform and Pop and Drop and One Thousand Liles In One Thousand Axes.
Nodding God’s Virgin Boards Appearance will be at the Islington Assembly Hall on Saturday May 11, where they will PLAY WOODEN CHILD in its entirety; the event is presented by Old Empire & Born Again Concerts, in association with Mythology.
Joining Andrew and David on the boards will be Reinier van Houdt and Michael J. York on Analogue Synthesisers and Drone Planks and Organ Lords, with FluorescentFilms by Davide Pepe and Lasers by Rob of StanWaxLasers. The UnderAge Shaitan-Boy is, unfortunately, under Police Curfew and will be unable to attend this time, despite legal representations to the authorities to allow him to appear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62KVH4bEe8k
"Die meisten der in den letzten Jahren entstandenen Projekte David Tibets außerhalb von Current 93 – die Zusammenarbeit mit ZU als ZU93 auf dem kammermusikalischen „Mirror Emperor“, das opulenter instrumentierte mit Youth aufgenommene „Create Christ, The Sailor Boy“-Album (beide Alben erschienen ebenfalls auf House of Mythology) oder die Hommage an John Balance zusammen mit James Blackshaw – waren musikalisch sicher nicht so weit von Current 93-Arbeiten entfernt. Anders dagegen verhält es sich bei dem aus Tibet, Andrew Liles und dem anonymen „Shaitan Boy“ (ein anderer Otto Avery?) als Nodding God eingespielten Album – ein Projektname, der auf eine von Tibets frühe(re)n Obsessionen verweist.
Schon die Ästhetik macht deutlich, dass die Stimmung eine andere ist: Pazuzu(s) als Springteufel vor pinkem Hintergrund und die Darstellung der drei Beteiligten als Cartoonfiguren. Das spiegelt sich auch in der komplett elektronischen Musik wider. Wie soll man das nennen, was man auf den sieben Tracks hören kann? Retrofuturismus? Progressive auf einem C64 komponiert? Auf dem Opener „Trapezoid Haunting“ hört man Tibets elektronisch verfremdete Stimme, die aus Ištars Gang in die Unterwelt vorträgt (der akkadischen Version der sumerischen Göttin Innana). Dazu erklingen repetetive Synthpassagen, Arpeggios und auch die folgenden sechs Tracks sind ähnlich ausgerichtet. „Natron Skipping Rope“ lässt an Jahrmarktsmusik denken, man hört Lasershots. Auf „Xanthosis Sabbat Clock“ kann man inmitten des Akkadischen englische Wörter erahnen (“quicksilver”, “Mercury”). „Salamander Candy“ wird zwischendurch von seltsamen Schreien durchzogen. Bei aller Verspieltheit haftet manchen der Tracks allerdings durchaus ein Moment des Unheimlichen an, was auch, aber nicht alleinig, an der durch die Bearbeitung so nichtmenschlich klingenden Stimme liegen mag.
Sucht man im umfangreichen Werk Tibets nach (muikalischen) Referenzen, so kommt einem vielleicht noch am ehesten entfernt der „Love Dance Of The Nodding Folk“ in den Sinn, aber letztlich wird auf “Play Wooden Child” eine ganz eigene Welt entworfen. Tibets Arbeiten waren/sind häufig geprägt von einem Kontrast(ieren) von Erhabenem und Profanem: Zum 5-Uhr-Tee erscheint Pazuzu an der Tür. Der Gegensatz zwischen der ausgestorbenem akkadischen Sprache, von der auch Linguisten nicht genau sagen können, wie sie ausgesprochen wurde, und der pinken Ästhetik und der Musik könnte wahrscheinlich nicht größer sein. In einem anlässlich der Veröffentlichung gemachten Interview fasst es Andrew Liles vielleicht auch ganz gut zusammen: “For me Akkadian just sounds great, otherworldly, something Christopher Lee would recite at some nefarious ritual in a Hammer movie. High camp or high art – it’s all interchangeable for me.”
Wer das Album direkt beim Label bestellt hat, bekommt eine Zwei-Track-CD, auf der neben der Albumversion von “Calcination Totem Station” noch ein Remix des Tracks namens “In A Foreign LandScape” zu finden ist. Diese etwas dunklere Version wurde für den Soundtrack von “In A Foreign Town” komponiert, einem 11-minütigen Kurzfilm, der eventuell zu einer auf Kurzgeschichten Thomas Ligottis basierenden Anthologieserie ausgeweitet wird." [Michael Göttert / African Paper]
|
2019 |
€29.50 |
|
| NOETINGER, JEROME & LIONEL FERNANDEZ |
Outer Blanc |
LP |
Highly electrified guitar, anamorphosed, perforated, and tainted by all sorts of effects, implodes its rage and its urgency in the magnetic nets of a tape recorder as cannibal as it is destructive. From various recordings Lionel Fernandez & Jérôme Noetinger have created and produced these ten pieces: big, biting, dangerous and acerbic – like the intoxicated meeting of a chainsaw and a microphone. Real garage music: grease, gutted car bodies and outdated alternators, like a soundtrack ripped from an unreleased Tobe Hooper film.
Lionel Fernandez and Jérôme Noetinger: a musical encounter between two important and uncompromising figures in contemporary experimental music in France. This duo emerged during an evening of the label Premier Sang programmed at Instants Chavirés (Montreuil) in the 2010s… A few years and a few furious concerts later and it is now on the Sonoris label that they are releasing their first record.
Guitarist of the pioneering french free noise/no wave band Sister Iodine, Lionel Fernandez uses an out of norm practice of the electric guitar in a group or as solo playing, “a guitar used as a flame thrower thrashed and fiercely held up as machette totem, he chops through darkness with unsane anti-riffs and carved blocs of dirty sounds, where gargle in slow combustion gangreened micro-textures » (Le Non_Jazz)
He also plays in other deviant combos such as Antilles, Cobra Matal, Ibiza Death, Haine, Porsche, Discom, Minitel, Mauser M etc and has collaborated either live or on records with Masaya Nakahara, Meyna’ch/Mütiilation, Andy Bolus/Evil Moisture, Stephen Bessac/Kickback, Hendrik Hegray, Tujiko Noriko etc..
Jérôme Noetinger is a composer, improviser and sound artist who works with electroacoustic devices such as the Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder and magnetic tape, analogue synthesisers, mixing desks, speakers, microphones, various electronic household/everyday objects and home-made electronica.
From 1987 to 2018, he was the director of Metamkine, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the distribution of improvised and electroacoustic music. Between 1987 and 2014 Jérôme was a member of the editorial committee of the quarterly journal of contemporary sound, poetry and performance, Revue & Corrigée. For ten years from 1989, he was a member and programming co-ordinator of exhibitions, gigs, and experimental cinema at le 102 rue d’Alembert, Grenoble.
_
Lionel Fernandez, guitar, electronics
Jérôme Noetinger, Revox B77, electronics
10 tracks, 42 minutes, master by Fred Alstadt at Studio Angström
##################################
"Une guitare hautement électrifiée, anamorphosée, trouée, et salie par toutes sortes d'effets, implose sa rage dans les filets magnétiques d'un magnétophone à bandes, cannibale et destructeur. A partir de divers enregistrements et de pistes rapportées, Lionel Fernandez & Jérôme Noetinger ont créé et produit ces 10 pièces grasses et acides, moites et caverneuses, sorte de rencontre intoxiquée entre une tronçonneuse et un micro. Une vraie musique de garage, entre cambouis, carrosserie éventrée et alternateur périmé, comme la bande-son arrachée d'un film inédit de Tobe Hooper."
credits
released September 9, 2021
Jérôme Noetinger, magnétophone à bande Revox B77, électroniques.
Lionel Fernandez, guitare, électroniques.
Enregistré aux Instants Chavirés par Benjamin Pagier, à Paris à Blckout Studio, et Rives
Masterisé par Frederic Alstadt à Studio Angström
Artwork par Unglee Izi
Sonoris 2021
https://sisteriodine.bandcamp.com/album/outer-blanc-2
|
2021 |
€18.00 |
|
| NOETINGER, JEROME & SEC_ |
Testacoda |
LP |
"Jérôme Noetinger is an improviser and composer of electroacoustic music based in Rives (near Grenoble), France. He plays Revox, tapes and radio. SEC_ is the moniker of Mimmo Napolitano, an electronic musician and sound engineer from Naples, Italy. He plays Revox, no-input feedback, laptop, electronic devices. Together these two play the kind of improvised electronic mayhem that put Europe on the map. Testcoda features two separate recordings of shapeshifting electronics. One side recorded at Oblomova, Napoli (Italy) on 12.04 2011, the other at Le102, Grenoble (France) on 07.12.2011. All recordings were then edited and mixed by SEC_ and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
'Surfing the entire sonic palette, these two titans of the mid-electronic age have the kind of rapport that comes with the best improvised music. Overlapping gestures and inter-twining sonic debris results in the kind of playful extremity that is impossible to ignore. No gear worship here, just the glory of free electronic sound, 21st Century style. A staggering display of reconstructed utopia'. Mark Harwood." [label info]
www.bocianrecords.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| NOGOCIELLA |
Satanismo Di Basilica Concattedrale Di San Marino |
4 x MC |
"Oh - how we waited for so long (both you and the label) to reveal new material by
the secret Italian producer Christine Nogociella who debuted our beloved and already massively sold out VOWHO003. Now she returns with an epic journey through satanistic rituals she has been part of long time ago (as she proclaims). A massive drone-laden 4 x MC (240 minutes duration in TOTAL!) and possibly the most thrilling work we released so far on our label. This orange translucent 4 x MC is limited to 50 copies and will be distributed by Drone Records only. Check their site to grad yourself a copy. This is a legendary painful release that will change your mind entirely." [label info]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| NOGRAY, FREDERIC |
Nelki |
CD |
"Der Pariser Klangdesigner FRÉDÉRIC NOGRAY, bisher bekannt durch minimalistische Elektronik (Panotii, N-REC, 2003), die er auch einsetzte als Schallfolie für die bildende Künstlerin Laëtitia Bourget (Optical Sound, 2003), gibt sich mit Nelki (prl004) ganz der Faszination
durch die reinen Schwingungen von Kristall-Klangschalen hin. Auch wenn er deren dröhnendes Om von tibetanischen Klöstern in normannische Kirchen versetzt, wo es in kreisenden Sinuswellenschwingungen sich himmelwärts schraubt, feiert ihr sublimes Wummern, das Luft und Stein und Fleisch durchbebt, zuerst einmal nichts als das Dröhnen selbst. Dass die Schalen von Teelichten im Innern orange leuchten, verstärkt gleichzeitig mit dem meditativen den feierlichen Aspekt, der mit kunstreligiöser Aura eine frei schwebende Spiritualität zelebriert. Das brahmanisch-zen-buddhistisch getönte Sehnen nach universaler Harmonie hat zwar zur Zeit mit dem Dalai Lama eine Pop-Ikone, aber bei Nogray schwingen eher kristall- und musiktherapeuthische Unter- und Obertöne mit, die Entspannung, Loslassen und Dämmerschlaf versprechen." [Bad Alchemy]
"Music for crystal singing bowls.
Frédéric Nogray diverts his rock crystal crucibles from their usual function in the silicon industry to generate an ample and tactile music, a music that succeeds as much in making the listener's intellect wander as it does in moving the material itself. Although entirely acoustic, this music is powerful, the different-sized bowls being generators of distinct waves operating in the range of frequencies from infra- to ultrasonic. Because of their superimposition and the acoustics of the space they are in, chimeras or interferences are born. A musical event partaking simultaneously in the creation of perception and corporal experience. Recorded by Eric Cordier decembre 2007 in churches Normandy, France." [label info]
http://www.prelerecords.net/prl004/prl004.htm
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Wuritagu |
mCDR |
"french composer, frédéric nogray pays a particular attention on sounds in their intrinsic qualities and for what they are: vibratory phenomenon. but also for their broadcasting into the listening space, our perceptions on it, and different states of consciousness induced by listening. along his musical works with crystal singing bowls and/or feedbacks, he creates dreamlike sonic compositions from field recordings. his past works were released by various international labels such as kaon or 3leaves.
all sounds used for "wuritagu" were field recorded on the north coast of honduras during may 2012, in and around la ensenada and triunfo de la cruz. wuritagu, el lago negro is a lake between these two garifuna villages. surrounding the lake there are mangroves. at one end the lake is separated from the caribbean sea by a beach. at the other end, a small road connects the two villages. all sounds were recorded at different moments of the day and at night.
"wuritagu" is a powerful field recording-based composition where you can feel the raw energy of the jungle…" [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Of course everybody - me at least - is wondering what Taalem will do next. When Drone Records released their 99th 7" single they stopped. With these new releases on Taalem we also reach number 99 - Frederic Nogray does the honours and here we start. We know his music from releases on Kaon and he seems to be someone whose interest lies in the use of field recordings. Here he uses sounds recorded at the north coast of Honduras in May 2012 close to a lake of the same title. This twenty-one minute work is made from various recorded during various times of day and night. I assume these recordings were layered together as it's all quite full with sound. The lower end of the seashore sounds colliding with the high-end singing of insects makes a particular scary move, I thought, especially if, at one later point, planes or helicopters are part of it. It's all, in general, a bit louder than is usual, a bit cruder and with the constant pressing force of water sounds something you could easily drown in." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| NOGRAY, FREDERIC & YANNICK DAUBY |
Panotii Auricularis |
CD |
"inging birds recorded in Taiwan, France and Honduras in conversation with an analog filter in feedback and a modular synthesizer. With this work, Frédéric Nogray and Yannick Dauby confront nature recording to the edge of its musical possibilities." [label info]
ui.universinternational.org
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| NOISE CLUSTER / STIGMATE |
Extreme Sleepwalking |
MC |
"Extreme Sleepwalking" by Noise Cluster (der bekannte postindustrielle Trompeter & Xxena) and Stigmate from Italy are ready.
Nightmareish Sounds and Rhythms on black c40 Tapes in hand dyed, blue cotton bags with cover art by Fabian Blobel and a card with more pictures inside. Lim. to 50 copies
https://grubenwehrfreiburg.bandcamp.com/album/extreme-sleepwalking
Die beiden Projekte, die sich auf dem vorliegenden Tape zusammen dem Phänomen des Schlafwandelns widmen, sind schon länger in der elektronischen Musik Italiens aktiv und lernten sich doch erst vor kurzem kennen. Sowohl die Römer Flavio Derbekannte und Arianna Degni Lombardo (Noise Cluster) als auch der Sardinier Nicola Locci (Stigmate) sind Hörer und gelegentlich Mitwirkende einer bekannten Radiosendung für experimentellen Lärm (Elettrodo auf Radio Onda Rossa) und wurden so aufeinander aufmerksam.
Trotz ihrer unterschiedlichen Arbeitsweise – Noise Cluster kombinieren gerne Digitales mit akustischen Sounds wie denen der Trompete, Stigmate ist leidenschaftlicher Bastler an analogem Gerät – entdeckten sie schnell die Gemeinsamkeiten, die für eine spontane Kollaboration sprechen. Diese hat mit dem auf 50 Tapes und digital erhältlichen “Extreme Sleepwalking” nun ihr erstes Resultat herausgebracht, und dieses klingt in der Tat so, als wären die drei schon immer eine feste Band gewesen.
Schlafwandel wird gerne metaphorisch für einen apathischen Zustand verwendet, und eine solche Bedeutung klingt durchaus an, wenn das Label in Anspielung an die immer noch aktuelle Pandemie von “the nightmares, bad dreams, and gloomy and depressive feelings this particular historical moment has brought about” spricht. Die Musik selbst – und das von dieser inspirierte Artwork von Fablian Blobel – hat allerdings einiges von echten heftigen Alpträumen – schon gleich zu Beginn, wenn Schreie und andere angstinflößende Elemente über einem schmissigen, kratzigen Loop aus den Boxen dringen.
Auf “Extreme Sleepwalking” herrschen die Mächte des Grauens, und das kehrt auch der straighte Takt des Openers “Mindbender” nicht unter den Teppich, vielmehr hat man den Eindruck, dass die schleifenden und prasselnden Industrialsounds erst auf ihren endgültigen Ausbruch warten. In “Sleep (Mutation)” erzeugen schrille Sounds eine futuristische (oder paläontologische) Klanglandschaft, die droht, in Elektroclash umzukippen, was aber – auch dank elektrifizierter Noiselawinen und Flavios wie meist recht smoothen Trompete – nicht passiert. “Moving Target” startet spannungsvoll pulsierend, doch die vielen Soundideen und Melodiefragmente führen all das noch mal in eine andere Richtung. Die hier spürbare Nervosität kehrt später in “Dim Light” wieder, das eher an die grellen Scheinwerfer schweren Kriegsgerätes erinnert.
Alle Tracks offenbaren einen komplett eigenen Charakter und bleiben in ihrem Verlauf selten unverändert: Die beiden mit Knacken und Knistern beginnenden Teile von “Death Vision”, die irgendwann zu einem monumentalen Inferno an brachialem Pauken und Ariannas gehauchter Stimme anwachsen, finden später ihre (nur scheinbar friedliche) Erdung, bis sich der kratzige Kreis wieder schließt – diese Stücke, bei denen riesige Metallandroiden durch die Landschaft marschieren, würden in großen Hallen funktionieren und müssten, im Unterschied zu etwas subtileren, zurückgenommeneren Stücken wie “Where Am I?” oder “The Fall”, nicht einmal durch ihren ausgeklügelten Detailreichtum überzeugen.
Der “Brain Damage” im abschließend so betitelten Track entpuppt sich als starker Sog, der einen mit Pauken und (buchstäblichen) Trompeten in eine traumhafte Parallelwelt zieht, die an die pathologischen Visionen am Ende von Hoffmanns Der Goldene Topf denken lässt. Dies gelingt wohl v.a. deshalb, weil der Track ein wirklich kraftvolles und mitreißendes Album abschließt. (U.S.)
|
2021 |
€9.50 |
|
| NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES |
Monomania of Instinct (live June 1998) |
CD-R |
"Endlich was neues vom Brüsseler Geräuschmusikkollektiv um GEERT FEYTONS. D.h. leider keine neuen Studioaufnahmen, sondern ein Mitschnitt einer theatralischen Multimedia/Sound-Performance von 1998 aus Stockholm. Zu hören gibt es knirschend-dronige Klänge kreiert auf ihrer selbstgemachten Instrumenten und Soundsculptures, theatralisch-verzerrte Rezitationen, das ganze klingt sehr dynamisch & bedrohlich. One track, > 65 minutes." [Drone Records info 2004]
"Bachelard's animalistic aggression theory and what not - some scary shit going on here - one long throughly indigestible and stomach-churning track (65 minutes), but this is all the better for its uncompromising and unnerving severity. Noise-Maker's Fifes were unique and its founder Geert Feytons (RIP) will be sadly missed. Edition of 250 copies in fold-out slipcase cover. Co-released with Gold Soundz label." [label info]
"..a frightening miasma of non-musical elements. A succession of shrieks, shouts and
screamed words appear and disappear as clouds of rampant drones, electronic and concrete
sounds make their surreptitious appearance?." - Jose Marmeleira, Foxy Digitalis
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Zona Incerta |
10inch |
Die Nummer 3 der S.I.-Serie kommt von der Brüsseler Performance-Gruppe NOISE-MAKER’S FIFES! Verschiedene Aufnahmen der Choreographie „Dyonisos’ Last Day“ und Feldaufnahmen afrikanischer Insekten dienten als Basis für zwei komplexe Geräuschsoundscapes. Höre mit neuen Ohren, mit anderen Hirnzellen als bisher !
“NOISE-MAKER’S FIFES is an experimental performance group from Brussels who do impressive shows with many selfbuild instruments and surrealistic sound-theatre-choreographies. The first side on “Zona Incerta” is based on the choreography “Dyonisos’ Last Day” from 2003 and uses various live-material from this and other different performances. The second side is created from insects field recordings made in Kenya. ZONA INCERTA builds a very dimension of its own, totally hazy and foggy sounds ebb and flow in and out...water and metal-sounds are recognizable in the sound-field, high insect-frequencies intertwine with all kinds of strange noises and animal sounds... The Unknown is also the world of other creatures who perceive a totally different world. Listen with new ears, with different neurons.” [press release]
RELEASE DATE: 28. APRIL 2006 !!
GENERAL LABEL CONEPT: “Substantia Innominata” is the brand new release-series from Drone Records. We are proud to present this as a 10” VINYL series along with subsequent re-releases on CD. This new series doesn’t focus on a special concept or ideology regarding the music, but on a certain theme. The theme for this 10” series is based on “The Un-known, The Un-nameable, The Un-speakable, The Un-thinkable, etc.: Various aspects related to “The Unknown”. Basically the grey matter (psychic or physical, which are bound to result the same) surrounding us / within us, but can’t be understood or recognized through the normal senses (though some may perceive it on a subconscious level). We could name it “The Unconscious”. The chosen name for this series, “Substantia Innominata”, was inspired to the fact that this Latin name represents a certain region of the brain which has unknown functions and remains a mystery for its role and existence. Therefore this name reflects well the intense fascination for this impalpable concept of “the unknown”.
The invited artists for this series were asked to work around this theme, to let themselves be inspired by its abstraction. The artwork for this series will be created by the various visual & graphic artists. All in full-colour or silkscreen covers. The 10” vinyl pressings will come in an edition of 500 copies for each title.
“...now the Belgian collective has developed a totally unique style where the successions of electroacoustic events are organized according to a logic which fuses a highly skilled compositional ability and the exploration of psychic dimensions where anguish and fear dominate.” [Massimo Richi / Touching Extremes]
"Ähnlich einer Kette von Plunderphonictrickserei und schamanistischem Tranceinschlag bereiten NMF auf der 10“ sorgfältig zwei Stücke naturalem Ambientes und Feldaufnahme vor dem Hörer aus. Beide Seiten beginnen relativ leise und zögernd, ehe eine Mischung aus synthetischer Grundbetonung und relativ uneffektierter Klangmaterie auf dem Stereofeld erscheint.
Die A-Seite geht dabei stärker in die dunklere Seite des Releases ein, vereinigen sich hier Synthesizerspuren und dekonstruierte Feldaufnahmen zu einer Klangmasse, die den Hörer unerwartet einlullt und dabei ein Gefühl erzeugt, den einzig wahren State Of Trance zu erreichen. Der Klang wirkt weder schwer noch betont Räucherstäbchenambiente-betont, sondern wirkt wie eine intelligente Schnittmenge aus Felddokumentation und improvisatorischer Klangkaskade. Die ganzseitige B-Seite (tatsächlich finden sich auf der 10“ zwei lange Stücke) erzeugt ein ähnliches Szenario, allerdings tritt die vormals vornehm zurückgehaltene Effektierung der Klänge stärker zutage. Ab der Plattenmitte entstehen seltsam mantrische Muster, dem Klang einer Orgel nicht unähnlich, ergänzt um zahllose weitere Elemente, die sich aus Feldaufnahme, Drones und leicht angezerrten Obertönen zusammensetzen.
Eine sehr schöne Platte, die ohne den nötigen Pomp einer überschminkten Musikerwartung daherkommt. Neben der RLW von Substantia Innominata mein derzeit favorisiertes Release." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Intervisage (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
the most impressive newcomer in a while - profound and mysterious dreamscapes full of atmosphere...
first edition
250 copies, orange vinyl,
handmade jute-sleeves with
coloured photo inside!!
released May 1997
second edition
300 copies, black vinyl,
printed sleeves released May 2000
"This group from brussels has grown to one of the leading experimental improvisational outfits of the last few years. often performing live throughout europe (they have just finished
a polish tour), they excite the audience with their complex and overly suspensed noise-works that lack comparison. in a very short period of time, they have released 4 cd's and one 10",
as well as a few tapes on their own label. this first 7" for the group shows them at their most refined ambient/atmospheric level, mysterious and threatening at the same time, with an ever
growing tension. squealing and growling noisescapes for a deep view inside the dark side of your mind! "We think: Intervisage
seems to be a psychological tool to discover the undefined spheres of your mind." [label info]
|
1997 |
€ |
|
| NOISES OF RUSSIA |
Experimental Structure |
CD-R |
Von dieser extrem interessanten russischen Performance-Gruppe sind Releases nur schwer zu bekommen. Hier ein Mitschnitt aus St. Petersburg vom Oktober 2008, als sie hinter TROUM auftraten und mit diversen Gastmusikern eine theatralisch-expressive Stimmung heraufbeschwörten, sehr dunkel & geräuschaft & voller Spannung..
"Nowadays Noises Of Russia is one of the most known groups on the Russian experimental post-industrial scene, mainly because of their numerous concerts and CDR-releases, published by their leader - Gosha Solnzev aka 1g0g ("Van Gog") - on his own label ElectroIndustria. This release has captured one of such concerts which took place at the Experimental Sound Gallery (ESG-21) in St. Petersburg in October 2008... This concert was peculiar because of the non-traditional band line-up which aside from 1g0g included some of his friends: musicians Nikolay Kalmykov (Hladna), M.M. (Kryptogen Rundfunk), Igor Potsukailo (Bardoseneticcube) and Evgeny Savenko (Lunar Abyss Deus Organum), and also VJ Alco (video projection) and Grigory Glazunov (ODDDance Theatre, butoh dance). By common efforts these comrades performed totally improvised material quite typical for the "St. Petersburg post-industrial wave" and combining elements of collage, industrial, noise and ambient. Field recordings and voice manipulations, metal percussion and rough analogue signals, guitar semi-melodies and various sound effects - all this is harmoniously blended in the unified psychedelic soundsphere." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| NON TOXIQUE LOST (NTL) |
OGRE-SSE |
LP |
Sehr authentischer, gesellschaftskritischer deutscher 80er Jahre-Industrial dieser vergessenen Band (vor kurzem gab es jedoch schon eine LP auf Wachsender Prozess), zwingende elektronische Rhythmen und Pulsationen, Schreigesang mit zynisch-verzweifelten Texten, Noises & Effekte am richtigen Fleck, eingespielt als richtige „Band“... die Stücke sind meist unveröffentlichte Tracks aus den Jahren 1983 bis 1985 und zeigen die Vielfalt der Band, unser Lieblings-Release bisher auf V.O.D. !
If you like classic 80“s Industrial this is a true must-have !!!
„13 Songs aus dem Zeitstrom herausgerissen (1983-1985). Sie waren bisher nicht auf Schallplatte und wurden auch noch nie im Radio gespielt (einige davon waren jedoch schon auf internationalen "cassetten-samplern" in den 80er Jahren veröffentlicht worden !) Diese "style ist irrelevant" Kompositionen sind jetzt zu einem deutschen (damals noch: "die BRD") Film zusammengeschweisst. Man wird mit wilden Schreien konfrontiert und es gibt heftige Sound-Angriffe, die in den Zustand von "...keine Lösung" einmünden. Man nannte das damals "ursprünglichen industrial Punk". Und das ist NON TOXIQUE LOST. Und es ist auch Musik um einen Traumzustand zu erreichen..“ [label info]
“13 songs pulled out of the stream of time (1983-1985). they have never been on record or on air (nevertheless, some have been released on international. cassette-compilations in the '80s !). these "style is irrelevant" compositions are now molded together into a german (at that time "the frg") movie. you will be confronted with strong shouts and there will be violent (sound) charges, which run into the state of "...no solution". back then they called it "primal industrial-punk". and that's non toxique lost. it's music that will put you into a dream state as well....”
[press release]
“....The most unknown one is possibly the band Non Toxique Lost, even when Achim Wollscheid was a band member. Non Toxique Lost existed in the earlier parts of the 80s and in recent days (having released a 7" on Klangalerie as-well as some CDs on Dossier Records). Back in the old days, they released a now sought after LP, aswell as tracks on compilations, but never gained the fame of Die Tödliche Doris or P16.D4. The line up is pretty 'normal', with Sea Wanton (vocals, electronics, effects), S. Schütze (violin, bass), A. Wollscheid (electronics, guitar, effects), H. Wöhler (live effects) and Jammin' Unit ( live effects). Rhythm-machines play an important role, over which the band-members semi-improvise their sounds. Semi, because I think some of this stuff was pre-planned, and that in some way or the other they rehearsed their songs. Especially when the lyrics can be heard through all the noise and effects, Non Toxique Lost sound like the lost brother of Throbbing Gristle. Quite nice, these orgasmic explosions of rhythm and noise. Definitely one of the nicer bands that got lost, and certainly in demand for more re-issueing.” [Fdw / Vital weekly]
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Terre et Argent |
LP |
Nachdem die letztjährige Erstauflage sofort weg war, sind jetzt nochmal 300 Stück nachgepresst worden, wieder im Siebdruck-Cover !
Material from the early 80’s, the first band of ACHIM WOLLSCHEID!
“Old school industrial from legendary 80ies tapes of this german group. Impressing mix of aggressive vocals, kicking guitar and rhythmical synthesizer work. Limited edition with spraypaint cover by tbc of 100 copies. After that comes the normal edition with fullcolor artwork. Extensive linernotes.”[label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Chrrroooooom ! |
CD |
"NTL are one oft the most important bands of the German Industrial scene of the 1980's. Most of their albums were released as cassettes only - six of those can be found on this CD. All material here has never seen a release
outside these tapes: "Made on Cuba", "NTL", Rekonstruktionen", "Tavo Ctas Esna", "Ware11" and "Wladiwostok 111984". Compiled by Sea Wanton, this CD is filling an essential gap in the band's discography. Very harsh Industrial sounds from the Golden Age of German 1980s, traces of Einstürzende Neubauten and Sprung aus den Wolken. A perfect companion to the SBOTHI CD released in October this year - both
featuring Achim Wollscheid. Limited to 300 copies only." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| NONO, LUIGI |
20 Jahre Inventionen V : Quando Stanno Mordendo, etc.. |
CD |
Three impressing pieces from NONO which show his highly political engagement, questionning what art & music can do in the face of the apocalypse. His music creates an utopian dislocatedness, full of intensity and power. The longest piece here is "Quando stanno morendo" (37+ min, composed 1982), mainly based on four ethereal female voices. The third piece from 1960 ("Omaggio a Emilio Vedova") is short and shows his early electronic experiments. Great stuff !!
"Eine CD mit drei Konzertmitschnitten von Kompositionen Luigi Nonos beim Berliner Festival "Inventionen.
Die Live-Elektronik, mit der Nono in den frühen 1980er Jahren im Freiburger Experimentalstudio erstmals arbeitet, dient ebenfalls der Entrückung der Musik: Die Musik rückt aus klaren räumlichen und klangfarblichen Zuordnungen heraus. Die beiden Instrumente, Bassflöte und Violoncello, sind durch die elektronische Verarbeitung in ihrer klanglichen Charakteristik kaum noch zu erkennen. Töne und Gesten lassen sich ins scheinbar Unendliche verlängern und im Raum bewegen. Gesamtspieldauer: 52:41
Tracks: * Quando Stanno morendo (diario polacco no. 2) - Konzert 1983 * Canciones a Guiomar - Konzert 1991 * Omaggio a Emilio Vedova - Konzert 1991" [label info / credits]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| NORDERVAL, KRISTIN |
Aural Histories |
CD |
"Kristin Norderval cut her musical teeth touring with Einstein on the Beach in 1992, went on to record works of American composers such as Tania Leon, David Lang, and Anne LeBaron, improvised in the New Circle Five with Pauline Oliveros and Susie Ibarra, and co-founded the electro-acoustic duo Zanana with trombonist Monique Buzzarté. Now she has released a solo CD of her works for voice and laptop.
The composer writes: “Aural Histories is a compilation of works for voice and electronics. None have lyrics, but they all have stories. Some are improvisations recorded in one take with live sampling and audio processing in real-time; others are electronic compositions with varying degrees of vocal improvisation; and still others are through-composed electronic works. Some use the voice alone as sound source, and others contain pre-recorded and processed sounds of machines and electronic equipment, from coffee machines and microwaves to incubators and antique motors.”
Zooming further out, alongside singers and composers including Meredith Monk, Anne LeBaron, Juliana Snapper, and Mendi and Keith Obadike, Norderval’s work fits within […] a contemporary U.S. feminist opera that seeks to denaturalize singing, listening, and sound. This is work that faces rather than masks sound’s dependency on material transduction. Furthermore, it never forgets that sound always sounds in a three-dimensional setting even when played through speakers or headphones, as will be the case with this CD. […] For Kristin Norderval each sound’s specific location in space is a significant compositional parameter. Aural Histories is not a linear sound trajectory; instead it is an invitation to step into any of its ten different scenes. The doors are open to you, the listener: please enter." [label info]
www.deeplistening.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| NORDVARGR |
Untitled Navigations I |
CD |
Long one-tracker that clocks at almost 50 minutes length. Excellent eerie dark drones with a very floating movement & processing of sounds... one of his definite masterpieces !!
"New album of the northern wolf, leader on the Swedish scene of dark sounds. Co-creator of such projects as MZ412, TOROIDH, or FOLKSTORM for the second time appears on Beast Of Prey.
Untitled Navigations I was recorded live in the Villa Bohult studio, and is one massive ambient piece of slow moving darkness. As the soundscape evolves, rythmic patterns appear and merges with the crackling of broken records and deep resounding frequencies. Partly based upon Nordvargr´s previous attempts to alter sleep patterns, this recording also contains theta/delta waves, but the reason for this is not revealed. Untitled Navigations I is presented exactly as it was performed, without any overdubs or post production. Prepare for another dark journey into the mind of the nordic master of darkness.
Unconventional release in special white cardboard with silver printing. Unusual shape of the package that folded makes 150mm x 150mm size. Inside there are 3 different inserts showing winter landscapes. All very snowy and icy, handmade and numbered to 300 copies." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| NORDVARGR BJÖRK, HENRIK / MARGAUX RENAUDIN |
Anima Nostra |
CD |
"Henrik Nordvargr Björkk is the colossus behind the world renowned acts Pouppée Fabrikk and MZ.412.
Combine the ritual aspects of MZ.412 and the darkest ambience from Nordvargr, with vocal materials and a rising spiritual awakening, and you get Anima Nostra - a collaboration between Margaux Renaudin and Henrik N Björkk that marks a new era in the vast cannon of the latter and as well as the former. Anima Nostra is also a visual experience, with artwork that will guide the open mind into deeper understanding.
The album features guest vocals by death metal mastermind Nader Sadek, recorded inside the sacred Sneferu pyramid in Cairo. Included is an alternate version of MZ.412's 'Mourning Star'; an even more ominous behemoth than the original, this track perfectly complements the rhythmical structures contained in the album. A remarkable synchronization of minds.
Comes in a magnificent, metallic-print adorned 6-panel digipak, with 8-page booklet, containing stunning alchemical artwork throughout by Renaudin." [label info]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| NORMAL MUSIC |
A short exhibition of Normal Music |
CD |
Experimenteller minimal-Techno / IDM mit Drone-Elementen, sehr dicht, fliessend und saugend....
“Rhythmic explorations on the edge of madness. Micro field recordings and drones with a beat. Like Pole before he sucked, and Pan Sonic but more surreal. "Normal Music uses dubby, clicky rhythms from the best clicks and cuts tradition in combination with the best ambient sections from labels as such as Chain Reaction...If this was on ~scape, these boys would be on the cover of The Wire and playing the big festivals." - Vital Weekly "Minimal beats, gentle atmospherics and acoustic instrumentation all combined nicely...the kind of music one can listen to while making drunken love to your neighbor. Buy two and share." - Urb
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| NORTHAM, MICHAEL |
Memory of A |
mCD-R |
Ungefähr zur gleichen Zeit wie die SUHINA 10" in unserer SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA-Reihe erschien diese mini-CDR bei TAALEM. Enthalten ist ein ca. 21minütiger one-tracker mit röhrenden, fast mechanischen Drones, die er auf einem "tubular zylophone" einspielt; die Statik des Beginns ist aber nur eine scheinbare, wenn sehr schön schwingende metallische Obertöne dazukommen, wallende organ-drones und sich fast auflösende rauschender Regenklänge... ein sehr feines Stück!!
"Micheal Northam travels a lot and presents here a work that was recorded in India in december 2007, with his microtuned tubular zylophone along with winter rain. Its unclear what (or if at all) he has done with the recordings, but its a pretty neat work. Maybe a bit more rougher than usual, but the various shifting tones of the metallic object he is playing, along with the processed field recordings make this a slow yet always evolving piece of work. A classic Northam piece of drone like acoustic sounds and field recordings. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"artwork: delphine ancelle-b. based on cassette recordings on a microtuned tubular zylophone while under an unusual winter rain at the adishakti center, vazhakulam, pondicherry, india (december 2007). mixed at the hobbit hole, kreuzberg, berlin (july/aug 2008.
michael northam could be considered as much as a sound artist as a world traveller... his work is the continuation of more than fifteen years of visiting, working with and learning from over ninety artists (jgrzinich, yannick dauby, loren chasse, martin franklin, francisco lopez or hitoshi kojo/spiracle to name a few) over fifty locations in twenty-five countries!
a perfect example is this piece recorded in india then mixed in germany, probably rawer and rougher than some of his other works..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| NORTHAM, MICHAEL & JATIN VIDYARTHI |
Golden Shadow |
CD |
"A document of the Khoj residency, Jatin and myself took a bit of time (with the help of the Khoj crew) to make a short edition of a collection of our sessions and recordings we did together... Strange mix of improvisation, minimal acousmatics and field recordings (perhaps the first project of its kind from India)." [label info]
www.semperflorens.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NORTHAUNT / SVARTSINN |
The Borrowed World |
LP & CD |
"Inspired by Cormac Mc Carthy´s novel 'The Road', the two Norwegian masterminds Haerleif Langas and Jan Roger Petterson joined forces to create this stunning split album. This release brings finally new recordings since Northaunt´s 'Horizon' from 2006 and Svartsinn´s 'Elegies for the End' from 2009 (both CDs released on Cyclic Law).
'The Borrowed World' is the soundtrack for a world in decay, directed by the emotive and grandly melancholic signature of both projects. This is isolationist ambient music that unfolds its meditative atmosphere with majestic and melodic waves of droning sounds, environmental field recordings from the icy landscapes of the deepest North and magnificent Cello recordings of Amund Ulvestad.
The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from it's shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone.
This is the gatefold vinyl version that includes the CD as well in slip case. Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
The Borrowed World |
CD |
"Inspired by Cormac Mc Carthy´s novel 'The Road', the two Norwegian masterminds Haerleif Langas and Jan Roger Petterson joined forces to create this stunning split album. This release brings finally new recordings since Northaunt´s 'Horizon' from 2006 and Svartsinn´s 'Elegies for the End' from 2009 (both CDs released on Cyclic Law).
'The Borrowed World' is the soundtrack for a world in decay, directed by the emotive and grandly melancholic signature of both projects. This is isolationist ambient music that unfolds its meditative atmosphere with majestic and melodic waves of droning sounds, environmental field recordings from the icy landscapes of the deepest North and magnificent Cello recordings of Amund Ulvestad.
The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from it's shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| NORTHERN VALENTINE |
The Distance brings us closer |
CD |
Band aus Philadelphia mit drei (!) Gitarristen (sowie Synths & Streicher), die sehr subtilen & warmen, fast "flüssigen" Gitarren-Drone-Ambient machen mit leichter experimenteller & geräuschhafter Note, Anklänge an LABRADFORD, ULTRASOUND, ULTRA MILKMAIDS, WINDY & CARL..
"Northern Valentine is husband & wife Robert & Amy Brown along with friends who join them from time to time. They have been writing & recording music since 1997 & have released material previously on acclaimed label Gears of Sand as well as on their own label Baresound. We are glad to have them added to the Silber roster. They are from Philadephia, Pennsylvania & they love to play live shows. Depending on the performers, live shows can range from quiet and meditative drones to loud & fuzzy instrumental post rock, often within the same set. Recommended if you like: Labradford, Windy & Carl, Ennio Morricone, Eluvium, Mogwai, Seefeel, Earth, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Spacemen 3" [label info]
"So this is one of those records where the cover totally gives away what’s hiding inside. These Philadelphia drift-heads sent us this disc a few weeks ago, and we were totally blown away. The music so nicely reflects the cover photograph: beautiful, expansive oceanic horizons, almost glowing with a looming grayness. With keyboards, violin, three electric guitars and a bass, this five piece really hone in on a super liquidity, an organic, fluid type of drone composition. Their third album out of four, The Distance Brings Us Closer resonates with long, lush tones and delicate melodies that seem to blend and form chords in mid air. Always moving and turning like fog creeping along the forest floor, Northern Valentine has a distinct sound that kinda reminds us of a more darkened and coastal Windy and Carl playing with Rameses III in some giant cathedral. Very dark and mysterious, the record travels through blissed out walls of trance inducing drones and into more textural noisy Fennesz-like atmospheres. Though they call themselves a post-rock band, the guitars and instruments used are so dripping with reverb and delay that it might be more accurate to describe Northern Valentine as a dark and drifting ambient group. At least that’s how they sound on this particular record, as word on the street is their other albums have drums and are more propulsive and less drifty. Either way we dig what they’re doing A LOT, and couldn’t wait to share it with all of you! If you like anything Type records related or that recently reviewed Elegi, you’ll love this too! Completely and utterly recommended!! " [Aquarius Records review]
www.silbermedia.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOS PHILLIPE |
same |
CD |
"Nos Phillipé is the debut full-length album by the east London duo of the same name.
Nos Phillipé (Jonathan Webb and Robert Hopps) construct highly immersive compositions by combining processed raw material, sound collage and electroacoustic improvisations around a cohesive and focused sonic narrative.
Throughout the three pieces on the album, Nos Phillipé interweave an array of carefully crafted drones, tones, heavily distorted effects and detailed layered textures to create an intensely claustrophobic and tangible aural environment. These three pieces act as the constituent parts of the duo’s definitive sound to date.
Formed in late 2004 the pair’s recorded output consists of one self released limited edition CD-R and a CD (’Shh… Camille’) released on Mark Wastell’s Confront Collector’s Series label in January 2008. They have also shared live billing with the likes of Oren Ambarchi, Evan Parker, Sudden Infant, Henrik Rylander, Max Eastley, Jason Kahn, Eddie Prevost, Charles Hayward and Lol Coxhill amongst others." [label info]
www.blackatlas.org
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOSTALGIE ETERNELLE |
Notre Debut |
CD |
"Nostalgie Éternelle was a German duo active from 1986 to 1991. Stefan Heinze (well-known as Inox Kapell) and Dieter Mauson (later member of Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide, with Siegmar Fricke) recorded a large number of songs in just few years, distributing them mainly through self-released tapes and international cassette compilations. “Notre Début” is a collection of twenty (!) remastered tracks from Nostalgie Éternelle solo cassettes and compilation tapes, 1988 – 1991, now available on CD for the first time in a handnumbered digi-slim sleeve. Classic 80's dark minimal synth-wave, distant obscure vocals, thrilling synthscapes, including influences from icy electronic music and d.i.y. industrial. “Notre Début” is also an open window to know better 80's cassette-scene and culture; n example, four songs have been previously released on two tapes in 1988, on my old Discipline Produzioni cassette-label: releasing this CD has been a great chance to bring them back to life, together with songs published at that time by 80's cult labels such as Insane Music, Jar, EE Tapes, Headkleaner, Weed Music and more. A cold, dark “Goodbye!” to 80's decade and a claustrophobic “Hello!” to the upcoming 90's. Someone told us that 2011 will be the year of Nostagie Éternelle comeback: If so (fingers crossed), “Notre Début” will be the best introduction to this precious, interesting, original 80's electro-wave band." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
"Die zweite Welle der Kassettentäter bekommt endlich und wohlverdienterweise ihre eigenen Re-Releases, mit dabei auch das Duo NOSTALGIE ÉTERNELLE, das von Mitte der 80er bis in die frühen 90er aus INOX KAPELL und einem Teil von D.S.I.P. bestand und fleißig verschrobene, Minimal-Elektonik produzierte und in der ganzen Welt verbreitete. Somit ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass hier keine "komplette" Kassette wiederveröffentlicht wird, sondern einzelne Tracks die auf diversen Compilations zu finden sind und den Werdegang perfekt nachzeichnen. Den Charme dieses Duos macht sicher der naive, aber stets konkrete Umgang mit der damals noch nicht so ausgereiften Keyboards und Samplern (Casio SK-1 rules!) aus. "Schräg" nannt man das irgendwann mal... Es wurde einfach sessionartig produziert und veröffentlicht. - Welchen Stellenwert hat soetwas heute? - Es sind schöne Erinnerungen die sonst verblassen würden und für die Generationen danach ist es Geschichtsunterricht was alles möglich war und ist, wenn man nur einfach mal anfängt was eigenes zu machen! (7)" [Carsten Vollmer/OX]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Sans Fin |
LP |
"NOSTALGIE ETERNELLE (,ewige Sehnsucht") (NE) wurde im Oktober 1986 von Stefan Heinze und Dieter Mauson in Leer / Ostfriesland gegründet. Dieter hatte zuvor in diversen NoWave und PostPunk-Bands Bass gespielt. Stefan hatte schon über längere Zeit Elektronikmusik gemacht und seit 1982 einige Tapes in geringen Auflagen veröffentlicht. In der ersten Zeit spielte NE vor allem auf diversen Festivals in Ostfriesland. 1987 begann die Band erste Aufnahmen im ,Heimstudio' zu machen, die dann auf Cassettensamplern zuerst in Deutschland, dann in ganz Europa und später in Japan und den USA veröffentlicht wurden. Verbreitet durch Fanzines, Flyer und Briefe bestand in den 80ern eine riesige internationale Cassettenszene. NE wurde ein Teil von ihr. Viele Freundschaften entstanden, die teilweise bis heute bestehen. Die Szene veranstaltete Festivals - vor allem in den Niederlanden und Belgien. Im Sommer 1991 verlies Dieter Mainz und kehrte in den Norden zurück. Er zog nach Hamburg und gründete dort eine Familie. Zunächst glaubten Stefan und Dieter über die Distanz mit NE weitermachen zu können. Es entstand ein letztes Tape (COURAGE AND DESPAIR) das einzige Studiosolotape. Danach stellte NE seine Aktivitäten ein, doch die Freundschaft zwischen Stefan und Dieter blieb. Über die Jahre redeten Inox und Dieter immer von einem Neuanfang von NE. Und 2009 trafen sich die beiden, 18 Jahre nach ihrer letzten Aufnahmesession, wieder im Studio von INOX in Wespbaden. Die ersten neuen Stücke entstanden. Im Januar und Februar 2011 wurde weiteres Material im neuen Heimstudio von Dieter in Hamburg-Altona aufgenommen. In diesen Sessions in 2009 und 2011 entstanden die Stücke für das Vinylalbum SANS FIN (,ohne Ende"), dass nun - im Januar 2012 - auf HAFENSCHLAMMREKORDS in Hamburg erschienen ist. Im Juni 2011 war bereits NE-Archive-Material auf einer Vinyl-EP auf dem belgischen Label EE-Tapes, sowie auf einer CD mit dem Namen NOTRE DEBUT auf FINAL MUZIK in Italien erschienen. Ein weiteres Doppelalbum mit Musik von 1988 bis 1991 ist auf dem französischen Label INFRASTITION in Arbeit. NOSTALGIE ETERNELLE is back!" [label info]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Magie Fragile |
LP |
"NOSTALGIE ÉTERNELLE (ewige Sehnsucht) wurden 1986 in Leer / Ostfriesland von Stefan Heinze (Inox Kapell) und Dieter Mauson gegründet. Verwurzelt im Punk, NDW, Industrial, NoWave, Post-Punk und der Elektronikmusik beginnt das Duo ihre Musik auf nationalen und internationalen Cassetten-Samplern zu veröffentlichen und Konzerte in Ostfriesland zu spielen. 1989 erfolgt dann der Umzug ins Rhein-Main-Gebiet. Es werden nun auch Konzerte im Ausland gespielt. Nach einigen Tapes und Beiträgen zu Vinlysamplern zieht es Dieter 1991 zurück in den Norden (Hamburg). 1992 löst sich das Duo aufgrund der räumlichen Entfernung auf. Der Kontakt bleibt über die Jahre bestehen. 2009 fassen die beiden den Entschluss ihre musikalische Zusammenarbeit fortzusetzen. Inox wohnt inzwischen in Berlin (und zweitweise noch in Wiesbaden) und Dieter noch in Hamburg. Wie in den Anfangstagen singen beide Bandmitglieder und während Inox zumeist für die Elektronik zuständig ist, spielt Dieter vornehmlich Bass und Gitarre. In der Folgezeit werden Alben mit Archivmaterial der Band in Belgien, Italien und Frankreich veröffentlicht. 2012 erscheint ein Vinyl-Album (Sans Fin) mit neuem Material auf Hafenschlamm Rekords in Hamburg. Das Duo beteiligt sich auch wieder an internationalen Compilations, die auf Vinyl, CD, Tape und als Freedownload in Belgien, den USA, Brasilien und Spanien erscheinen. Seit 2012 spielen NOSTALGIE ÉTERNELLE auch wieder Konzerte. Einige kleine Touren haben sie in den letzten Jahren durch Deutschland, die Niederlande, Belgien und die Schweiz geführt Wieder auf Hafenschlamm Rekords erscheint nun im September 2015 ein weiteres Vinyl-Album (Magie Fragile) mit neuem Material. Einige der Songs sind bereits liveerprobt." [label info]
www.hafenschlammrekords.de
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| NOTHING |
Silence came back in, filling jagged spaces |
CD |
Wohl kaum ein anderes Label zeigt eine so enge Verbindung zwischen DOOM Metal/Rock und dark Ambient/Industrial wie EIBON Records aus Italien, das Label des CANAAN – Masterminds Mauro Berchi! NOTHING, das Projekt von Jason Walton & Stephen Johnson, präsentieren hier nach „the grey subaudible“ ihre zweite CD auf EIBON. Teils mächtiger, teil sphärisch-melancholischer doom ambient industrial, mit überraschenden ethno-parts, aber auch fast songstrukturaufweisenden Stücken. Insgesamt ein sehr ominöser, eigenständiger Hybryd....
“A disharmonic journey through the mid-world spheres. Fragments of corrupted melodies melt with post-nuclear tribal rhythms. Quiet semi-silences turn into crystal-clear ambiences, then suddently leave space to bursts of noise. Shamanic-like chants evolve into caressing violins, then fall into pits of ultra-droning dark ambient. ...S.U.R.R.E.A.L... ...G.H.O.S.T.L.Y... In clear-trayed jewel box.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| NOVAK, YANN |
Relocation. Reconstruction |
CD |
"Relocation.Reconstruction is derived from the sound elements of the three installations in Yann Novak's solo exhibition Relocation at Lawrimore Project (May 2009). In the original exhibition, Novak explored the multitude of emotional states experienced during and after the relocation of one's life. With this latest work, Novak continues his exploration into this theme a year after the initial event that inspired him, with the new insight that although he has arrived at his destination, the relocation process is far from over. By utilizing the altered sounds of the previous works as a point of departure, Relocation.Reconstruction retains some of the moods and themes of its predecessors, but reconstructs them into a slowly evolving, immersive composition. Textures, tones and faint melodies drift in and out of audible perception, never standing still, always in a state of becoming and disintegration. Through the development of this static, yet dynamic state, a familiar sense of melancholy arises from these simultaneous experiences of discovery and loss." [label info]
www.12k.com
"On 12K sub-division Line we come across Yann Novak, whom we mainly know from his releases on his own label Dragon's Eye Recordings (which is effectively started by his father but re-launched by Yann). Primarily his work deals with installations, whereas the releases are the documents thereof. 'Relocation.Reconstruction' is 'derived from the sound elements of the three installations in Yann Novak's solo exhibition Relocation at Lawrimore Project'. Its impossible to say what Novak uses sound wise here. It might be anything from field recordings, computer software to heavily treated instruments, but these forty-two minutes don't give a clue. Its an one piece work that slowly moves - relocates, perhaps - from the dark opening ground of the first thirteen minutes, but in which slowly dark, hidden melodies seem to slip in and then, ever on the move, it arrives in a much lighter territory, which forms the last eleven minutes. One could think of a transition from night to day, dark to light, from a crowded city into an empty field, earth and moon - well, you get my drift here? Its an absolutely fine piece of some of the more darker drone music around, entirely crafted through digital means (I guess), but with a great warmth to it. Very nice." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Hollow.River |
mCD-R |
"apart from several releases on his own (but now on hiatus) dragon's eye recordings label, us multimedia artist yann novak had a cd release on richard chartier's imprint line, and earlier this year another one on the ever excellent hibernate label.
for this release, novak proposes us a minimal yet dense 20min track where you'll hear lots of details in the background. immersive drone...
"hollow.river" is formed from a collection of field recordings and photographs taken during the thaw of the piney creek near banner, wy. through the use of digital filtering and processing, these documents of the creek thawing are transposed to create a hybrid state between its covered and uncovered states. this hybrid explores a new state outside the natural thawing process.
"hollow.river" is presented here in stereo with some compositional elements added to make it more suitable for home listening." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
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| |
Ornamentation |
CD |
"Source material includes field recordings captured throughout the United States and Canada from 2006–2016 and modular synthesizer recordings, all digitally altered. Yann Novak is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Ornamentation is Novak's first physical release on Touch and continues his investigations of presence, stillness and mindfulness through the construction of immersive spaces, both literal and figurative." [label info]
"For his latest release, Ornamentation, the man behind Dragon's Eye Recordings, lands on another highly regarded UK label, Touch Music. This is the imprint, of course, that brought us recordings by Fennesz, Simon Scott, Anna von Hausswolff and Lustmord, just to name a few released in 2016! Besides Richard Chartier's Line label, for which Novak has already released back in 2010, and Fabio Perletta's Farmacia901, on which an Undefined collaboration with Chartier appeared in 2013, Touch has been a place, in my opinion, that would always suit this Los Angeles-based sound designer. Add the obligatory cover art by Jon Wozencroft, and the mastering ear by the one and only Lawrence English, and you've got yourself a very nice little package, archiving a live performance, presented in LA in fall of 2016.
As is expected from this master of drone microsound, the sound on Ornamentation is abstract, its structure absent, the future obsolete, and stillness absolute. Here we find ourselves in the present moment, immersed in tranquility, nominal hum, and crackling transformation. The vibrations of this continuous din fully penetrate your being, enveloping your ears with endless sonic buzz, until they merge with your consciousness and become as one with all of the silence. This is where sound nearly ceases to exist, as your mind pushes its perseverance to the outer edges of awareness, where it melts into the void of daily noise and harmonious drones, like fuzz of the power lines, or the whir of your laptop fan, or the purr of your neighbor's refrigerator.
Using field recordings from his archive, captured in various settings in the last decade on numerous low fidelity devices, processed through a complicated chain of effects, along with a recording of a modular synthesizer, Novak creates atmospheres that are also pregnant with a conceptual message. On Ornamentation Novak "resists modernism’s problematic relationship to race, class and labor, and attempts to decouple contemporary minimalist sound work from this historical precedent." The title of the album mirror's Adolf Loos' 1913 manifesto, "Ornament and Crime", in which the author claims that human desire to embellish our environments, personal spaces, and bodies with decorations is a primitive impulse, which we must avoid.
Loos devalued the labor traditionally associated with aesthetics and beauty, and equated ornamentation with the degenerate. In this context, one could consider ornamentation as a way of viewing decay. His examples as such (tattoos, fashion, style, painting, et al.) predictably fell along divisions of race and class, coding modernity as the next outward manifestation of white, capitalist patriarchy.
Attending to some of Loos' claims, Novak constructs a composition with a focus on the labor thereof, rather than the extracurricular process of adornment and garnish, that would often distract a listener from its inner core. On Ornamentation Novak concedes to the necessary conventions of today's modern sound art, but focuses solely on the beauty of the labor itself, as the primary aesthetic. This is a beautiful recording on the meditation of sound and time, which will mesmerize as well as challenge one's senses. Recommended for fans of simplicity, purity, and calm." [Headphone Commute]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOVI_SAD |
Jailbirds |
CD |
Das zweite Album für dieses griechische Minimal / Drone-Projekt, der gerade auch in der MORT AUX VACHES-Reihe zu Ehren kam; verschiedenste hyper-minimale Drone-Felder und Field Recording-Sprengsel formen, teils sehr wuchtig & bassig wummernd. Anklänge an ILIOS, FRANCISCO LOPEZ, etc..
"Limited to 500 copies and housed in our plastic-free gatefold sleeves with spine. art design by cs08. Novi_Sad's work came to our attention via our good friend Susanna Bolle (Non-Event and Rare Frequency) in Boston. A superbly keen ear, Bolle felt that his work and our label should connect. Though Nov-Sad's has only a few years of practice behind him, the quality and maturity of all of his efforts is striking. The proposed Jailbirds material for Sedimental was totally complete and not only of the highest quality but also of a truly unique vision. What is significant in his work is the multiplicity of its action on the listener. It is a density of sound, acting in three-dimensions, not as auditory 'sound effect' but as music with depth both physically and in functionality. Its intensity and purposefulness based in specific conceptual foundations and enhanced by a mastery (and transcendence) of technical means collapses amplified environmental recordings, drone manipulations, structured ambient soundscapes, microtones and overtones into unified whole. Sedimental is truly excited to be an early anchor of this young composer and sound artist's serious oeuvre. Novi_Sad (Thanasis Kaproulias, b. 1980) is a graduate student from the Economic University of Piraues. He lives and works in Athens, Greece where he began generating sounds in 2005. His debut album Misguided heart pulses, a hammer, she and the clock received worldwide critical acclaim. Recently, Novi_Sad did a recording session at the prestigious VPRO studios in Amsterdam, for the Dutch National Radio which will be released by Staalplaat [NL] in the Mort Aux Vaches series. A recent piece called Dramazon is available on TouchRadio from the publishing house Touch [U.K]. He is currently working on a project based on various methods of audio analysis called Sirens in which he explores the aesthetics of information on sound by using quantitative data from major stock market crashes in history." [label info]
www.sedimental.com
"...The attraction of his music lies, I think, in the combination of microsound and dark ambient music. There are the cracks and hisses of micro world, but also the thunderous deep ambient drones which can be top heavy, like in the opening ‘Komdu! Hvert?’. Field recordings, the call of the birds, leak through here, as the deep bass dies out very slowly for the rest of duration of the song. ‘Torched Estates’ starts out with some nasty high pitched sounds, but throughout the pieces moves into various heights and depths, and it strikes me that this is the more complex piece of the two on this release. Many heavily processed field recordings are present, but then also sometimes naked and pure.
Whereas the first is built around one theme, is the second piece more a collage of various moods and textures. Quite loud microsound altogether, and thus a strong break with tradition. Great one." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOX |
Opus Unending |
CD |
Croatian artist Jurica Santek joins the Winter-Light label with his project 'Nox' and the release of his 'Opus Unending' album.
'Opus Unending' is traditional dark ambient, focused on low, sub tones with touches of industrial and horror recordings. Downtune and lo-fi, the feel shifts more towards that of the original dark ambient and death industrial artists from the early period of these genres.
The project was born in 2019 as a collection of previously recorded experimental and field sounds. The album is composed as a randomisation of those sounds that were carefully collected for that specific purpose; later to be used for the construction of an entire album.
The main focus is on dark, isolationist soundscapes but also as music without distraction, that can be used as a background meditative for various purposes. The aim is to reach a fluid dark atmosphere that is pleasant and meditational to listen to, but that is also having dark and unnerving moments.
Lovers of dark ambient, will be familiar with Jurica's 'Aegri Somnia' project, having released two albums on the Cryo Chamber label. He has also recently released a pure dark ambient album 'Dead Pact', on the much respected Kalpamantra label, under his Efil project.
The album was recorded between 2019/2020 in Zagreb/Čakovec, Croatia.
All tracks written, produced and recorded by Jurica Santek.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/opus-unending
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2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Abyssal Codex |
CD |
Croatian artist Jurica Santek (Nox, Aegri Somnia, Efil) returns to our Winter-Light label with his second full length album 'Abyssal Codex'.
'Abyssal Codex' follows in the footsteps of his previous 'Opus Unending' album, released via our Winter-Light label. This is traditional dark ambient, with the focus still aimed on low, sub tones, edged with industrial and horror recordings. The music is still downtune and lo-fi, interspersed with harsh sounds and natural elements.
'The main focus is on dark, isolationist soundscapes but also as music without distraction, that can be used as a background meditative for various purposes. The aim is to reach a fluid dark atmosphere that is pleasant and meditational to listen to, but that is also having dark and unnerving moments.'
The album was recorded between 2021/2022.
Field recordings were taken from Krapina/Opatija/Čakovec, Croatia.
All tracks written, produced and recorded by Jurica Santek.
The album has been mastered by Cruel Sound Works.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/abyssal-codex
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOZAKI, TOMONARI |
The Fall of Icarus |
mCDR |
"currently residing in tokyo, japan, tomonari nozaki creates abstract yet melodic and melancholic soundscapes using destruction techniques discovered with reel-to-reel tape-llop splicings and other analogue experimentations.
at first these two tracks had different titles but after listening to them again, tomonari wanted to have the titles to remind of the story of icarus. in his mind the first track is the image of icarus flying towards the sky and falling into the sea while the second track is icarus falling from the sky then flying towards the sky after his death. this is not the original icarus myth though, just images tomonari had!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| NU & APA NEAGRA |
Omag |
CD |
Rumänische Underground-Psychedelia auf dem Berliner Label LOLLIPOPPE SHOPPE (die auch schon VOLGA und KARPATY MAGICZNE herausgebracht haben)! Ethno- & Folk-Einflüsse, field recordings, dichte & dunkle Atmosphäre; das Spektrum reicht von ruhigen, sehr anmutigen Passagen bis hin zum ekstatischen free-impro Chaos und elektronischen Bearbeitungen, immer weird & eigen, was ist das nur für Musik? Aber lassen wir jetzt noch den staunenden Rigobert Dittmann sprechen: "Ähnlich wie The Magic Carpathians Projekt lässt mich der Sazspieler
und multiinstrumentale Alleskönner Sasa-Liviu Stoianovici im rumänischen Timisoara bedauern, dass ich so wenig Musik aus den östlichen Nachbarländern kenne. Omag (The Lollipoppe Shoppe, LSCD 08) ist nämlich wieder ein stellenweise beklemmend schöner und durchwegs spannender Beitrag zur ‚Imaginären Folklore‘, mit dem selbstverständlichen Einsatz von Loopsampler, Mikrokorg und Fieldrecordings neben der Saz und der Kurzhalslaute Cobza, von Vlad Sturdzas E-Gitarre neben Maultrommel und Szilander Farks Sitar, von Calin Torsancs Reeds & Klarinette neben Alexandru Hegyesis bundloser akustischer Bassgitarre. In den Lauten und dem näselnden Gebläse scheinen Wurzelfäden bis hinab zu prototürkischen, ja sogar thrakischdionysischen und panischen Zeiten zu flattern. Aber in der elektroakustischen Verschwurbelung wird diese Aura von altem Balkan und mythischer Zeit ganz eingemischt in ein psychedelisches und surreal-kosmisches Tripping. Dass Alan Holmes, der walisische Produzent von Gorky's Zygotic Mynci und Gitarrist der Faust verehrenden Ankstmusik-Band Ectogram, einen Mix von ‚Peste munte‘ anfertigte, deutet auf ein Raumzeitnetz hin, in dem sich Nu & Apa Neagra, was übrigens Nein & Schwarzes Wasser heißt, ideell bewegen.
Beim Titelstück ertönt arabesker Gesang zu Sazgeschrammel und dem Zwitschern und Gurren von Vögeln inmitten polymorphender, von einer Furzelwelle angekurbelter Mixadelic. Mit ihrem Balkantouch setzen Nu & Apa Neaga aber einen eigenen Akzent, den ich mit ‚schwerst halluzinatorisch‘ nur andeuten kann. Die Wirkung entspricht einer ziemlich kräftigen Dosis Mutterkorn, die Uhr läuft rückwärts, der Duft von Ziegenbock ist stellenweise schwindelerregend, es wachsen einem Flügel, die einen auf Wolken aus Fuzz und Klingklang schweben lassen, während ‚over the mountain‘ eine Flöte schallt, die nichts davon weiß, dass der Große Pan tot ist. Eine Gitarre auf Speed (‚Galop in 2/4‘), eine Orgel im Opiumrausch (‚Plinsul lui V.‘), dann ein
reedgetrillertes Loopdelirium, in dem ein Wortfetzen mitkreist (‚Cobzar
pneumatic‘). Der Geist von Muslimgauze hetzt vorbei - ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’ (‚Seara‘), Stimmen kaskadieren auf einem Orgeldrone (‚Umbra si copacul de fier‘). Man durchquert eine Bahnhofshalle, in der die elektrisierte und maultrommelbetwangte Luft Turbulenzen bildet (‚Tambal ruginit‘), und taucht dann ganz tief ein in plunderphonischen, von Stimmen durchraunten und dunkel beflöteten Tapesalat mit Sitardressing (‚Cinci suprapuneripareri‘). Zuletzt jamt Greatful Dead, grillenbezirpt, ungeachtet ständiger Lautsprecher-durchsagen, gefangen zwischen Gestern und Übermorgen (‚13, pentru caracter‘). Vielleicht ist ja das der große Reiz unserer neuen alten Miteuropäer, dass sie noch nicht so durchrenoviert sind, noch nicht so up-todate, dass ihre Kunst des Erbens statt völliger Amnesie doch noch Träume und Räusche mit einschließt, die unserem Speed-Way of Life spotten." [Bad Alchemy]
"NU & APA NEAGRA wurde von Sasha-Liviu Stoianovici (Saz-Autodidakt, Maler und visueller Künstler) und dem Bassisten Alexandru Hegyesi in Timisoara, Rumänien gegründet. Die Gruppe arbeitet mit traditionellen Motiven, improvisiertem Gesang und elektronischen Klängen und ging aus dem NU-Projekt, einem 'free form folk' Projekt hervor, das seit 2001 aktiv ist.
2006 spielte die Gruppe erstmals in Deutschland in Clubs und auf Festivals und präsentierte ihre selbst veröffentlichte CD "At Gardina".
Seit dem hat das Album positive Reaktionen und airplay erhalten, unter anderem im Freien Radio Kassel, Radio Blau Leipzig und beim amerikanischen WFMU Sender.
Nach Umbesetzungen formierte sich die Gruppe 2007 neu als NU & APA NEAGRA (apa neagra = schwarzes Wasser) und arbeitete an dem Album "OMAG", das in Berlin und Timisoara aufgenommen wurde. Der dunkle Charakter der Aufnahmen wurde beeinflusst durch Exkursionen in die Wälder und Berge Rumäniens. Fieldrecordings, alte Instrumente und Aufnahme-Experimente erschaffen eine raue Ethno-Psychedelia, die charakteristisch ist für den Sound der Band. Der Album-Titel "OMAG" ist inspiriert durch eine Pflanze der traditionellen rumänischen Pharmakologie (Aconitum napellus, dt.: Blauer Eisenhut). Neben 13 Aufnahmen beinhaltet das Album einen Mix von Alan Holmes (The Ectogram, Parking Non Stop).
Sasha Liviu Stoianovici – saz, voice, instruments, tape loops
Alexandru Hegyesi – accoustic bass
Vlad Sturdza - guitar
Calin Torsan - woodwinds
www.nu-apa-neagra.ro - www.myspace.com/projectnu
Formed in Timisoara, Romania, by Sasha-Liviu Stoianovici (self taught saz-player and visual artist) & Alexandru Hegyesi, the NU & APA NEAGRA sound project deals with a mix between traditional tunes, improvised vocals and spacey electronics. It started in 2001, as NU, being at the time more of a folk/free form music project.
Representing Romanian underground psychedelia, the group toured Germany twice in 2006, presenting their cdr 'At Gardina', which, in the meantime, received some great reviews. The group played club gigs and also festivals. NU's music has had airplay at radio stations like WFMU or Freies Radio Kassel, among others...
After some changes and studio work in 2007, NU 'reincarnated' as NU & APA NEAGRA and released the OMAG album at the German indie label Lollipoppe Shoppe in June 2008. The tracks have been recorded both in Berlin, Germany and Timisoara, Romania. The sound has became darker, being influenced by various trips in the mountains and forests of Romania. Field recordings, ancient instruments, strange overdubbing techniques, they all create a rough ethno-psychedelic sound, definitely a trademark of NU & APA NEAGRA. The title of the album is inspired by the very poisonous plant Omag, found in the traditional pharmaceutical universe of Romanians (Aconitum napellus). There are 13 original tracks, the 14th one being a deep and strange mix done by Welsh Alan Holmes (Ectogram, Parking Non-Stop). Live shows in central Europe are planed for autumn 2008." [press release]
www.lollipopshop.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Descantecul Apei negre |
CD |
"As if it were taken from a story which has not been written yet, this new album of NU & APA NEAGRĂ remains true to its original influences - the Romanian & Turkish folklore and the electroacoustic madness of the 20th Century. With field recordings, pseudo sampling and instruments such as caval, divan saz, prepared cymbalom, synthesizers and vintage sound effects, to name just a few, the group offers a vertical approach towards the sound, one that explores the cultural and primary layers of Balkan & Carpathian spaces which are put into an occidental equation. A sort of amorphous sound psychism, whose depths reveal all of a sudden some recognizable fragments, which could help reconstruct an archaeology of all four musicians' trajectories." [label info]
www.myspace.com/projectnu
"Mich wundert es nicht, dass die Banater Heide beste Schwarzerde bietet für weirde Folklore. Alexandru Hegyesi, Călin Torsan, Vlad Sturdza & Sașa-Livio Stoianovici, in Temeswar zuhause, machen mit Cimbalon & Bassgitarre, Klarinette & Pfeifen, Zither, Gitarre, Ebow, Glocken & Percussion bzw. Saz, Cobza, Gusle, also Lauten von den türkischen Crossroads auf dem Balkan, aber auch mit Korg, Moog, Harmophon und noch mehr Percussion und Effekten eine Pilgerfahrt. Zum Schwarzen Meer? Es scheint eher so, als wäre das Ziel kein Ort auf dieser Welt, sondern ein mystischer Ort, oder eine Anomalität in der Zeit. Da kreuzt sich spacewärts orientierte Sonic Fiction mit klanglichen Phantomen der Vergangenheit. Einer verleugneten Vergangenheit, denn warum sonst sollte der Hahn dreimal krähen ('Al treilea Cântat al cocoșilor')? Im Vorwärtsdrang wirbeln in einer halluzinatorischen Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen alte Klänge auf. Uraltes Saitenspiel, Pfeifen, Schellen und Getrommel, auch raunende Gesänge, die, sich überlappend, durch die Erinnerung wabern, durch die Zeit kaskadieren, mit Echos von den Karpatenwänden und Klangfetzen, die sich in den transsylvanischen Wäldern verfangen haben, oder an den Mauern von Piteşti verstummt sind.
Lautengeschrammel und Hackbrettgedengel bringen das Blut in Wallung, Stimmfetzen werden zu einem Krähenschwarm, die Zeit kreist in sich selbst. Beim anfänglich orientalisch anmutenden 'Alt Pelerin' (Noch ein Pilger) schält sich wehmütiger Gesang von Maria Balabaș aus dem Dröhnfluss. Ich denke, schwarzes Wasser meint nicht das Marea Neagrä, sondern ein Wasser, das die Vergangenheit löscht. Doch vielleicht ist es, wie bei Telephos und Amfortas die Lanze, als das, was verwundete, auch das Heilmittel. Daher die Wiedertaufe mit schwarzem Wasser. 'The Black Water' badet lang in harmonisch rauschenden Spacewellen, mit Bassklarinette, Kaval und Pfeifen als bukolischem Widerhall, mit zartem Zither- oder Gitarrenklang, knurrigem Moog, jaulenden Synthies. Ist das jetzt Ruderschlag? Oder lappt die Zeit rückwärts? Man wird mitgerissen in dieser psychedelischen Odyssee (wie Dave Bowman beyond the infinite). Bei 18:50 reißt das Band.
[Schluck]" [Bad Alchemy]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| NULL, K.K. |
Atomik Disorder |
CD |
Very powerful new work for the NEUROSIS-Label, ultra-fast pulsating harsh elecronic patterns, fiercing sound-effects, metallic clanks, abrasive ambience-fields, manic percussion.. this is Industrial for the new Millenium !
“From the mind-eye of KK Null, a sonic warfare battling for future human consciousness. Fans of Scorn and Merzbow, join ranks now. The latest offering from the legendary and prolific KK.Null, renowned for his solo works and his "progressive hardcore trio", Zeni Geva (which has produced more than 10 albums, recorded two Peel Sessions for the BBC). Over the course of his 20 year career, KK Null has produced collaborative works with musical innovators like Steve Albini, Merzbow, John Zorn, Fred Frith, James Plotkin, Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Seiichi Yamamoto, Jon Rose, Atau Tanaka, Zbigniew Karkowski and Masonna.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
|
ERG per GALAXY |
CD |
Kinetische Energie in NOISE umgesetzt? KK NULL benutzt hier ziemlich extreme & hohe Frequenzen, die um die Wette knirschen und fiepsen.. hat was mächtiges, zermalmendes, reine Energieströme werden sichtbar... kosmischer harsh noise.....ein elektrisch-monumentales Klanggewitter.... dann aber auch viel leiser, seltsame Strukturen & Pulsationen ausbildendend... Galaktische Trance? No easy listening, aber ziemlich einzigartig, KK NULLs Tonkunst !
“ERG: A measurement of kinetic energy.
A snowflake falling on Earth = 1 erg.
ERG per GALAXY: The total amount of kinetic energy in a galaxy. Kazuyuki calls this album one of the best works he's ever done. We here at Opposite Records are incredibly excited about this release! One of the finest works of KK Null's career, he modestly calls this "high-quality cosmic noise." A fierce expression of Nulltronics created without synthesizers, guitar, or computers. I say it brings to mind radio transmissions from other planets and electrical storms being shaped by KK's hand. Intensely trance-inducing.” [label info]
|
2002 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Ergosphere |
CD |
Sometimes the music of KK NULL is the best that can happen to yourself at certain moments, with its high tension-high pitched-and highly artificial sinustone sounds, miles away from the usual harsh noise..... this sounds like spreading Adrenaline, but it's pressed and forced into steel-forms. NULLs sound never looses a kind of futuristic atmosphere, an almost floating character and quasi-composed delevopments.... Maybe like MAIN on Speed.. or sometimes it feels like being the witness to an intergalactic cosmic WAR, or like being involved in an utopian pinball-machine.....
[Drone Rec. 2006]
"Ergosphere was recorded live during Kazuyuki Kishino's (Zeni Geva, etc.) tour of Russia in late 2005, specifically on his only two solo dates, live at Moscow Palace of Youth in Moscow Russia October 5, 2005 and 'Festival Hea Uus Heli' Kanuti Gildi Saal in Tallinn Estonia on October 7, 2005. An uneasy balance of lull and divide." [label info]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Prime Radiant |
CD |
"Januray 2005 : Insane new effort from japanese master of sound Kazuyuki Kishino. Adeluxe helping of symphonic noise, structured ambience, broken down rhythmics & scattered pitch sculptures." [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Fertile |
CD |
"Mit über 100 Veröffentlichungen ist Kazuyuki Kishino aka KK Null einer der etabliertesten Avantgarde-Musiker Japans, der unlängst einen internationalen Ruf genießt. Eigentlich ein klassisch ausgebildeter Butoh-Tänzer, arbeitet er seit 1985 als Improvisations-Gitarrist, sowohl Solo als auch mit seiner Band Zeni Geva. Für fünf Alben hat er dabei zusammen mit der Produktionslegende Steve Albini gearbeitet (Big Black, Nirvana, Joanna Newsome), weitere Kollaborationen für etliche weitere Alben beinhalten Zév, James Plotkin, Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth), und John Zorn. Für "Fertile" bewegt sich KK Null auf neuen Pfaden. Eine Kombination aus spontanen, sogenannten "field recordings" (den Aufnahmen in der freien Natur) und elektronisch manipulierten Sounds aus dem Studio, geben gleichsam bewegte Kompositionen wie Klanglandschaften wieder. Dabei stammen die Natursounds aus dem japanischen Kakadu National Park und reichen von Buschfeuern bis hin zu den Klängen der Insekten. [Cargo press release]
"The veteran Japanese noisician (and guitarist of heavy prog act Zeni Geva) K.K. Null is back with his first solo album on the Touch label, and it's one of KK's best solo efforts we've heard to date. Perhaps inspired by labelmate Chris Watson (with whom he collaborated a few years ago, in conjunction with Z'ev), K.K. has
brought some field recordings (birds, bugs, frogs, fire...) he made on a trip to a national park in Northern Australia to this project,
mixing those with his own studio-conjured electronic sounds. No wonder, then, that Fertile is a spooky soundscape of nocturnal hiss and buzz, parts of it sounding like video games played by insects, others ominous with ghostlike voices buried beneath... chattering rhythmic components underlie what sound like shortwave freakouts, tracks often building to stactic-y explosiveness, droning and noisy, extremely dynamic and distorted. You could almost imagine that this is what a hybrid of a John Carpenter soundtrack and a Japanese noise record would sound like. Null calls it "cosmic noise maximal/ minimalism." We don't know what to call it, exactly, but we like it" [Aquarius Records]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
BaryoGenesis |
CD |
"the album opens up with the sound of insects & birds which i recorded live at wetland in Kakadu National park in Australia, that symbolizes organic life/organism (including our human bodies) composed of baryons. then, abstruct electronic noise overlaps them and takes you into a journey through deep inner and far outer spaces at any scales. however, you don't have to care about what i say here, just i hope this music inspires you as much as it does myself, and enjoy with your open mind and free imagination!! technical note : all the music on this album was basically composed and
created in my home studio and it was performed live along with some improvized processing, playing a synthesizer and my voice on top of that." [KK Null]
"KK Null would have been king of noise if Merzbow wouldn't be on the throne. Ever since his work with ANP and Zeni Geva he loves to work with the raw end of music and sound, which has become increasingly more abstract and less rock based than say in his Zeni Geva days. Unlike Merzbow there is a stronger rhythmic component in his music which forms the backbone of his music. It's however not a rhythm of stomping kind, techno like or any such like, but more the repeated action of highly splintered sound fragments, which are looped. On top KK Null plays a brand of harsher noise textures of freaked out psychedelic electronics. Other than Merzbow - again - KK Null's sound is much more detailed and clearer, even in the endless stream of information that his music is. Four strong heavy blasts of noise, and the tracks are pretty long, but in order to get this music working right, it only seems natural to give it such a length. Here too we can wonder about the progress of the music, since it's certainly not Null's first CD, but with a discography that is considerable smaller than Merzbow's that is hardly a problem." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.vivo.pl
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Gamma Ray Burster |
CD |
"Gamma ray burster" is the newest masterpiece of KK Null, one of the most influential artists in japanese Noise and Experimental music. Rhythmic and pounding analogue sine waves combined with experimental electronic sounds, flirring, whistling, crackling, rumbling and noising inside Your head. on "Gamma ray burster" you can enjoy noisy tracks with even danceable parts, as well as pure noise and avantgardistic experimental Cold Electronics. This album contains all kinds of different experimental Noise styles, what makes the 52 minutes very enjoyable and entertaining. let you take you to a trip into another galaxy. Far from here. Very far!" [label notes]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Akumu |
CD |
"Japanese experimental music legend Kazuyuki Kishino now presents his new CD album entitled Akumu (Nightmare). On this album Kazuyuki tests his own limits into the darkness and focus all his artistic skills on creating a personal cinematic audio nightmare. Akumu is like being caught in a spiderweb that sticks and creeps to your skin, there is no escape. Akumu is a truly imaginative and terrifying electronic album that gives us a new and unique edge on the artist and sound master Kazuyuki Kishino's universe. This is the dark masterpiece of K.K. Null...Deluxe 6 panel digipak comes with beautifull stylish design/photography by Salt." [label info]
"Akumu finds KK Null once more dragging the listening into a heady, shifting and highly effective audio movie for the mind with his distinctive mix of electronica, ambience, noise matter, field recordings & heady cinematics.
As the albums artwork of frozen spiky organic matter and thawing firns suggest this has a very cold, barren yet alien beauty to it. And to my mind the album it rather brought to mind a soundtrack for travels through a strange isolated high radiation zone- like something from Tarkovsky Stalker but with more of twisted sci-fi angle. A few examples of this come with the opening track that switchers between eerier gong/ bell tone laden gothic ambience & sudden seering sound oveloads. This pictures in ones mind a deserted & overgrown market square that's still strangely ringing with the towns bells, with the sudden power-up’s and boil tones akin to been engulfed by radiation high spots that make your Geiger counter go mad. Track five is an building and kaleidoscopic audio slice of cold, mechanical, gone-haywire electro dread and intensity bringing to mind walking through a deserted car factory that’s starts operating on it’s own. As Null buildings up a detailed & at times jarring sound tapestry of purring, buzzing, scuttling, static hits, circuit board mournfulness and stale radiation heavy drone feeds. Really through out the album walks wonderful between tension, dread, jarring moments and general very heady and detailed audio scaping.
Another masterfully structured and built slice of internal soundtracking from KK Null which with repeat listens reveals more sonic facets and deeper atmospheric emersion." [Roger Batty, Musiquemachine.com]
www.hentai-vital.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| NULL, K.K. / Z'EV |
Artificial Life |
CD |
Strong mixture of metallic gong & percussion-drones with electronic analogue-noises.. some material is quite mellow, some has outbursting movements... no boring moments... definitely recommended for friends of both projects.
“Percussion and percussive elements compose the majority of the source material on this collaborative disc. However, the five pieces on this disc are anything but traditional percussion. With tracks ranging from dense, complex rhythms that sound like angry gnats to sonorus bowed metal and shifting sine waves, these recordings emphasize why these artists have earned their places in the pantheon of experimental sound artists.” [label info]
“....Recently both were on tour in the UK, and on that occasion this CD was produced and in a way can be seen as a continuation of a recent work they did with Chris Watson (see Vital Weekly 503). Both are works of playing together, but in the case of the release with Watson, it was Z'ev putting the stuff together afterwards based on the sound material offered by KK Null and Chris Watson, whereas in this case Null and Z'ev where together and played the music in an improvised way. That means there are differences to be noted. The Touch CD was much more densely shaped with a wide variety of sounds being blurred together into fine woven pattern, whereas here electronics play a main part but separately from the percussive elements thrown in by Null (who gets credit for electro-percussion) and Z'ev. Less dense, but with a lot of variety. From the tribalism third piece (all are untitled) to the abstract and quieter second and fourth piece, these two gentlemen play a fine piece of music. Throughout they know what they are doing and it may seem that Z'ev is the man who plays the 'solo's' here, meaning he gets a more distinct sound, but it's a wonderfully varied and intelligent disc. No wonder they are heavy weights.” [Fdw/ Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Brombron 17: Extra Space, Extra Time |
CD |
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the seventeenth release in the Brombron series. Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Since almost forty years Z'ev belongs to the absolute fore front of experimental music. Playing percussive music he gained a lot of attention, but in more recent years he returned to working with electronic tape manipulation. One aspect is working with other people, such as Francisco Lopez or Kasper Toeplitz. In his collaboration with KK Null he plays electronic drums.
KK Null (born Kazuyuki Kishino in Tokyo) is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist. He began as a guitarist, but soon added composer, singer, electronic musician and drummer to his list of talents, and also studied with the Butoh workshop.
Null joined the noise/progressive rock band Ybo2 in 1984, issuing several albums and EPs throughout the remainder of the decade. Later he founded more bands, such as Absolute Null Punkt (aka ANP) and his most well known one, the self-described "progressive hardcore trio" Zeni Geva. From that point he also produced albums for other artists, created his own record label (Nux Organization), played live and collaborated on albums with many other musicians, including John Zorn, Yona-Kit, Steve Albini, Boredoms, Seiichi Yamamoto, Jim O'Rourke, Merzbow, Fred Frith, James Plotkin, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide, Jon Rose, Atau Tanaka, Zbigniew Karkowski, Z'EV, Alexei Borisov, Earth. Noisegate and Philip Samartzis, as well as supporting such artists as Sonic Youth and Mike Patton on tour." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
"Next and 17th album in the Brombron-series is an interesting collaboration between two legends of the noise and industrial-scene. Z'EV (aka Stefan Joel Weisser) has been around in the experimental music scene for a long time already. His brand of scrap-metal and found object percussion originates back to the early seventies. Creating his own instruments from various metals and plastics, he has placed himself at the forefront of the movement that became known as "industrial". He was among others one of the described forefront industrial pioneers in the legendary "Industrial Culture Handbook" (1983). In the more recent years, he has returned to working with electro-acoustic manipulations. Fellow artist at the extrapool studios is one of the top composer's of Japanese noise scene. Starting his career in the early 80's by performing guitar improvisations in the clubs and streets of Tokyo, Kazuyuki Kishino a.k.a. K.K. Null continued by collaborating with among others Merzbow and others from the extreme noise scene of Tokyo. The two quite different noise artists has come out with a very interesting album as the result of their studio-days at the Extrapool. The expression on the album "Extra space, extra time" seems like a very nice combination of the style of both artists. Percussion patterns derived from metal materials and other sorts of acoustic banging circulates hand in hand with rumbling noises changing between full throttle and subtle. What makes this release certainly interesting is the way that the twosome manage to blend noisy textures with handmade percussive patterns. Hordes of noise drones and pulses moves alongside the intense tribal drum patterns of Z'EV. The main parts of the six works of the album carrying the title "Extra space, extra time", opens slowly with distant sounds that builds over time until powerful drum patterns set in to create a trancelike atmosphere. Thus despite the abrasive nature of the album, the works has a great appeal thanks to the excellent rhythm textures created by one of Industrial music most steady-going percussion artists, Z'EV. A masterful collaboration on this one!" [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND |
Huffin' Rag Blues |
CD |
"Nach Plattentiteln wie »Funeral Music For Perez Prado« oder »Livin’ Fear Of James Last« zieht es Steven Stapleton nun auch musikalisch in Gebiete, die von Drone und Industrial so weit entfernt scheinen, wie es überhaupt nur geht: »Huffin’ Rag Blues« (Jnana) nämlich präsentiert Nurse With Wound mit unerwarteter Schlagseite Richtung Lounge. Es handelt sich dabei um eine überaus humorvolle Angelegenheit, für die die dargebotenen Stilmittel recht ordentlich durch den Wolf gedreht wurden und nur selten die typische Verschrobenheit anderer NWW-Releases vermissen lassen. Der Umgang mit Funk und Exotica erfolgt so, dass die Musik wie ein schwülheißer Fiebertraum erscheinen kann – komplett mit Schmachtgesang und Tiergeräuschen. Gegenüber Stapletons besten Projekten der vergangenen Jahre – etwa dem hypnotisch monotonen »Salt Marie Celeste« (2003) – ist »Huffin’ Rag Blues« freilich ein ganzes Stück luftiger und letztendlich auch weniger gewichtig geraten: Zuweilen ist der Spaßanteil der vorliegenden Platte recht gewöhnungsbedürftig, erneuert zum anderen aber den Glauben an eine vordergründig unverbissene Kunstmusik." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Nurse With Wound is the main recording vehicle for British musician Steven Stapleton. Since 1978, with collaborators such as David Tibet (Current 93), John Balance (Coil), Colin Potter and Matt Waldron (Irr. App [Ext]), Nurse With Wound has released dozens of albums that draw on nearly every genre of music. The only constant is that one never knows what the next album will sound like. Stapleton and Andrew Liles form the core of the band on Huffin' Rag Blues, and the direction to which they are heading is the lounge! Huffin' Rag Blues is unlike any Nurse With Wound album in recent memory as they veer into the space-age bachelor pad. Guest vocalists Lynn Jackson and Freida Abtan channel Peggy Lee, while Matt Waldron also lends his golden pipes to one song. This is truly exotica as imagined by the twisted genius that is Nurse With Wound." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Alice the Goon |
CD |
"June 2009, new reissue. United Jnana are pleased to announce the next installment in our ongoing Nurse With Wound reissue series, 'Alice the goon'. Originally released in a limited vinyl edition in 1995, it was expanded for its CD debut in 2000. This version replicates the 2000 reissue With a 4 panel digipak. Tracks: (I Don't Want to Have) Easy Listening Nightmares (9:28) ¥ Prelude to Alice the goon (12:51) ¥ Untitled (7:24)." [label info]
"Alice the Goon was previously a vinyl-only issue of 500 pieces, available to a lucky few at the Nevers Festival in France. It was hard to come by and selling for high prices on auction websites. Fortunately, for the Nurse With Wound fans not so lucky to be in France, Stephen Stapleton has agreed to allow everyone a chance to hear this music again. The CD features the two songs from the original release plus an additional, untitled piece which many call simply 'Alice the Goon.' The first track sounds like it would fit right in on the Sylvie and Babs release; imagine an old phonograph player belting out a brass-laden instrumental. The second track is a little less involved. The third track, however, sounds right out of A Missing Sense. There is little movement and many drones in this song that could certainly lull you to sleep."
[Paul Kustos]
www.durtro.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Chromanatron |
pic-LP |
"Chromanatron is the new album from Nurse with wound, collages of no less than 5 albums by the mythical German band from the late 60s SAND. These five psyche-experimental-krautrock albums include their first oddity Golem, that NWW discovered a long time ago and represented straight away a great source of inspiration for him.
A great dedication to Sand, and hat-in-hand, chapeau bas ! to Nurse with wound for this once again unique masterpiece.
Chromanatron is part of the series INXODEM released by Rotorelief. It is a series of new albums from Sand as well as a reissue of their obscure and rare album Golem. This series of albums is called INXODEM, the series title having one letter for each album. Current 93 is also part of the project with When the may rain comes, cover versions of the original track from Sand.
All paintings and collages of the INXODEM series are created by Babs Santini aka Steven Stapleton." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2013 |
€24.50 |
|
|
Chromanatron |
CD |
"Chromanatron is the new album from Nurse with wound, collages of no less than 5 albums by the mythical German band from the late 60s SAND. These five psyche-experimental-krautrock albums include their first oddity Golem, that NWW discovered a long time ago and represented straight away a great source of inspiration for him.
A great dedication to Sand, and hat-in-hand, chapeau bas ! to Nurse with wound for this once again unique masterpiece.
Chromanatron is part of the series INXODEM released by Rotorelief. It is a series of new albums from Sand as well as a reissue of their obscure and rare album Golem. This series of albums is called INXODEM, the series title having one letter for each album. Current 93 is also part of the project with When the may rain comes, cover versions of the original track from Sand.
All paintings and collages of the INXODEM series are created by Babs Santini aka Steven Stapleton." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Terms and Conditions apply |
do-CD |
"A release that collates material from the period 2008 - 2011. Including for the first time digitally 'The Bacteria Magnet' and 'Rushkoff Coercion' E.P.s, previously unreleased remixes and exclusive tracks. Comes in deluxe 6 panel digipac with art from Babs Santini." [label info]
TRACKLISTING: 01. CRUISIN' FOR A BRUISIN' (BACTERIA BITCH MIX) 02. BEI MIR BIST DU SCHÖN 03. THRILL OF ROMANCE? (BURGO PARTRIDGE MIX) 04. THE BOTTOM FEEDER RUSHKOFF COERCION 05. SARAH'S BELOVED AUNT 06. BUM BRUSH EFFECT 07. CRUISIN' FOR A BRUISIN' (BLACK BOMBER MIX) 08. BEI MIR BIST DU SCHÖN (MŽŽ MŽŽ) 09. BUM BRUSH EFFECT (LONG VERSION) 10. BELOVED AUNT WITH EXTRA CHEDDAR DISC #2: 01. TICKETY BOO NWW/FRITZ MÜLLER 02. DRIFTIN' BY NWW/LARSEN/FRITZ MÜLLER 03. ROCK BABY ROCK NWW/LARSEN/FRITZ MÜLLER 1 04. ELECTRIC SMUDGE NWW/FREIDA ABTAN 05. CACKLES NWW/FREIDA ABTAN 1 06. OPIUM CABARET
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2014 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Lumb's Sister |
CD |
"Newly remastered from the original analogue tapes by Denis Blackham. "This music was originally conceived as raw material for the film project 'Lumb's Sister' by Chris Wallis. During the long evolution of his movie, Chris decided to use alternative source sounds and subsequently none of these pieces ever made it onto the completed film." [label info]
"Back in 1990, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Sol Invictus issued a 3lp set of their works, all of which was suitably occult and suitably dark. By the middle of the decade, both C93 and Sol Invictus had reissued their own material on individual discs, but Steven Stapleton / Nurse With Wound never did until some 25 years later. As such, that boxset became quite a prize possession for NWW aficionados; and it was originally composed to be the soundtrack to a film by Chris Wallis, an occasional contributor to Nurse With Wound and Current 93 in the late '80s. The film itself had been notoriously unfinished for decades, with cans of film getting lost over the years; and when Wallis finally got around to completing a cut of the film, the original soundtrack was unused, instead Wallis picked over various bits from the Nurse With Wound catalog as the score. So, Lumb's Sister the Nurse With Wound album has nothing anymore to do with Lumb's Sister the film by Chris Wallis. Stapleton's response? "Aw, shucks." A quintessentially obscurant recording of quintessential Nurse With Wound strategies, Lumb's Sister laces eerie vocalizations that are often sped up conversations on tape machines amongst distended drones from various bowed metals, elongated vocal utterances, and stringed instruments that all amass into a bellowing darkly illumined thrum. Its closest companion in the Nurse With Wound catalogue would be the elegant piece of minimalism found on Soliloquy For Lilith and the Tibet / Stapleton drone-chant epic The Sadness Of Things. This cd version contains much more material than the original lp, also including Nurse With Wound's subtle variation of Coil's "How To Destroy Angels." As with anything that Stapleton touches, this is a work of genius." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€19.00 |
|
|
Dark Fat |
do-CD |
"Brand new 2CD set in beautiful 6 panel gloss laminated digipac. Pre orders are being taken now for shipping on May 10 after a small delay.
Dark Fat is a celebration and documentation of 10 years of NWW shows but to call Dark Fat a live album is far too simplistic. It is an entirely new recording constructed by combining the most interesting moments of the past decade into unique tracks. We have M.S. Waldron to thank as he is archival commandant of the NWW oeuvre and since 2006 has recorded everything and we mean EVERYTHING. He has recorded all the live shows, sound-checks, rehearsals, off-stage events and even covertly recorded the private conversations of the band. These recordings have been studiously and lovingly crafted into a unique sonic tapestry by Waldron and Stapleton with delicate embroidery and filigree added by Liles and Potter. Listen in the Dark and soak up the Fat." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Homotopy to Marie |
BOOK / 2 x CD |
Double-CD version includes 30-page metallic hardcover book (15 x 20 x 2cm) containing color and black-and-white art by Babs Santini (Steven Stapleton). Rotorelief present a reissue of Homotopy To Marie. the fifth album by Nurse With Wound, originally released in 1982. Music and sleeve created by Steven Stapleton. The album is "a step on from the Dadaist rock of Merzbild Schwet, with much use of tape manipulation and classical avant-garde techniques". The album, which combines tape edits with resonating gong tones and disembodied children's voices to create a sonic collage, is far removed from the harsh improvisations of the group's early albums. The title of the brief closing track derives from a passage from "Les Chants de Maldoror" (1869), a surreal poetic novel written by Le Comte de Lautréamont. This appropriation of a phrase from Maldoror is shared in common with the title of Nurse With Wound's debut album, Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella (1979); both phrases appear in Lautréamont's work. The album was first issued on Stapleton's own United Dairies label on vinyl, cassette, and later in remastered compact disc including an extra track "Astral Dustbin Dirge". This masterpiece reissue is the official full, double album from the original recording sessions. The four tracks from the original LP are accompanied by additional recordings from the same period.
|
2018 |
€27.50 |
|
|
To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl |
LP |
Long awaited vinyl reissue of NWWs classic 2nd album. This yellow vinyl version Is exclusive to Cargo. Packaged in an outer sleeve that replicates the original United Dairies issue and also has a replica of the Steven Stapleton designed insert. Info: To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl is the second album by Nurse With Wound and the last to be made by the founding trio of Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak. The album also features contributions from French avant-garde musician Jacques Berrocal. It was recorded by The Bombay Ducks, an alias for Nicky Rogers and Vic Ball, the former of whom had facilitated the recording of the group's first album, Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella (and, therefore, unintentionally, the group's formation - see article for details). The album's title comes from Tolerance's album Anonym link The sessions were characterised by tension amongst the trio with Pathak leaving the group almost immediately after the album was completed - Fothergill told author David Keenan that Pathak's contribution to this record was minimal. Stapleton and Fothergill disagreed over the production of She Alone Hole And Open (named after a line from "Pini Pini" by Arto/Neto) and Stapleton has expressed regret at allowing the track to be compromised by Fothergill's intervention. Before long, Fothergill would also leave the group as he and Stapleton began to clash over the releases on the group's United Dairies label, which was now issuing music by other artists such as Whitehouse and The Lemon Kittens.
|
2020 |
€23.50 |
|
| |
She and Me fall together in free Death |
do-CD |
The long awaited reissue of the legendary She and Me Fall Together In Free Death album, with over 45 minutes extra material, most previously unreleased. Housed in a deluxe 2 CD digipak gloss heavy gauge, on United Dairies, with new art by Babs Santini, remastered by Colin Potter.
The CD accompanies the fabulous album release by Logical Absurd.
#########
"Nun hat das sympathische Label aus Portland auch noch das legendäre englischen Experimental-Projekt mit neuem Material auf Vinyl verewigt, übrigens die erste VÖ in den USA! : Dieses Album mit dem genialen Titel enthält ein einziges urlanges Stücke auf Seite 1 = ein stoisch-schleppend-monotones & leicht zermürbendes krautiges Instrumental (natürlich mit einigen obskuren Sounds angereichert), während sich die Seite 2 mit drei Stücken wesentlich abwechslungsreicher und experimenteller darstellt: ein folkig-droniges Stück mit Gesang von Steven Stapleton (!), ein famoses Collagenstück mit vielen Hühner- & Tier- & Menschen-Sounds (!), und erotisch-surreale, verstörende Klänge am Ende, wie sie wohl nur NWW produzieren kann!
Das ganze kommt im Vollfarbklappcover mit Abbildungen von bizarren Stapelton-Skulpturen." [Drone Recoords info zur LP 2003]
“ ----- YO! Have you ever wanted to fall? Fall like...free death? Well, now you crackers don't have to because Nurse With Wound has done it for you! Beta-Lactam Ring is pleaseder than a pie full of babies to announce the arrival of Nurse With Wound's newest dog in heat; an artfully appointed and limited vinyl release called "She And Me Fall Together In Free Death." While lacking violins, this newest secretion offers plenty of sex and loads of dada. Our most beloved resident Nurse has finally worked his way up to a Doctorate Of Madness (DOM). All those years of musical dissection have paid off and have revealed a sonic surgeon skilled at sewing sounds into solid sentience. NWW isn't afraid to bring the pain and play that beat as his krautrock konstruktions kontinue to klimb. NWW also brings the paean as some of his concret hardens into something of a Homotopy to a Homotopy. And let's not forget the creepy SEX!!! But never mind the bullocks, here's Steve "Misdemeanor" Staple ton singing! Go ahead, gossip folks, but our pussycat gets his vocal freak on covering Patty Waters' "Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair." Of course, Steve goes to the floor and turns this old school avant joint on its head! Steve's lungs know how to work it in a droney dirgilicious R. Stevie Moore/Jandek style (can you hear David Stoughten anyone?). U know U can't resist because THIS Nurse, well, she's a bitch and supa dupa fly! Besides, dis be mad rare and whatcha gon' do when it's gone? That's right, you gon' be throwin' yo hands up and stickin chickens! The new album by Nurse With Wound is the first American release.” [another obscure & unique press release from Chris Mc. Beth, BLRRecords]
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND / GRAHAM BOWERS |
Excitotoxicity |
CD |
"The third studio album release from NURSE WITH WOUND & GRAHAM BOWERS. "ExcitoToxicity" ... an excess of most things, both mentally and physically, although exciting and pleasurable, can easily accelerate and rapidly become toxic ...
on a cellular level, deadly. We have thrown caution to the wind and gone overboard on the quality of the 8 Panel DigiPak artwork design and packaging for this release ...
why? ... Graham liked all Steven's proposed paintings for the album ... so Steven decided we should feature them all ..." [label info]
on a heavy board in full gloss, on a matte background. |
2014 |
€16.50 |
|
| N[27] / TZESNE |
theBelt |
LP |
"N is the moniker of Dortmund-based German experimental guitarist Hellmut Neidhardt. June marks the release of two new records, including a second collaboration with Tzesne (ES). After a first very fruitful collaboration with Basque sound artist Txesus Garate alias TZESNE for the album CARRISSALS, released in 2011 by Denovali Records, the artistic vital necessity to exchange and work together carried on. In contradistinction to their collaborational debut Carrissals, where warm and dark qualities of drone interweaved – blended with Tzesne’s distinctive field recordings – they left the bright nature of that imaginary sundried place in Spain behind to take a leap into the harsh environment of the post-industrial landscape, being the inspiration of their upcoming release named THE BELT. Both artists share the interest of reflecting the conditions of a chosen location. Usually a an existing place gives inspiration for N’s sound research as distinguished from Tzesne, who collects field recordings from a wider area and manipulates them in the phase of post-production to a rather diffuse imprint. Way more heavy and dark is the impression, which THE BELT causes, right after giving a listen to its first minutes. The smell of bygone plants is synaesthetically floating within the soundscape, though trails to the dawn of a new era are roughly outlined. The four-track album features the tracks “Weaving A Wall”, “Beton”, “Bold Backwards” and “IkKky”. Limited to 100 LPs." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2014 |
€28.00 |
|
| O PARADIS |
Pequenas Canciones de Amor |
CD |
"The 1st thing that comes to mind when I hear O Paradis is Novy Svet and lookie lookie Jurgen Weber from just that project worked and wrote some of the material. It has the same campy cabaret vibe as Novy Svet. Though there are more eastern and gypsy elements into the Folkish overtone. I all honesty the 1st track was a tough listen to get through. There are moments were I really wonder where O Paradis are going with this.
They are very akin to Spiritual Front in song structure and ideals as well. I do like the lazy horns and heavy bass elements that add an avant jazz overtone. ‘Pequenas Canciones De Amor’ being in Italian some of the time is a bit hard for me to follow from time to time but there are really some beautiful track especially when the female vocals are mixed with the very lounge sung male vocals.
A truly shining moment is the Bob Dylan song so well done by the mighty Johnny Cash called " its aint me, Baby”. The additional accordion piece which is incorporated really adds to the fullness of the track.
Sometime I think O Paradis really want to be Novy Svet as some of the more dark ambient/ martini/ martial moments could come off one of their releases. I was always a sucker for Novy Svet so it’s something I greatly missed. I'm shocked that labels like Punch, WKN or Soleilmoon didn’t jump at the chance to release this title. Some of these tracks I think are in Spanish like Novy Svet did from time to time as well. As ‘Pequenas Canciones De Amo’ goes along the CD get stronger and stronger and a more complex beast that is hugely expansive and almost epic at times, which also include moments of even stirring neo-classic movements. This new label Tourette based of Texas USA have given a release to stand up with the bigger labels mentioned above. It comes in a wonderful digipak as well. Just to add to the magic of it all. I will be looking forward to hearing more from O Paradis and Tourette in the future." [Clint Listing /Judas Kiss]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| O PARADIS & NOVY SVET |
Entre siempre y jamas suben las mareas, duermen las ciudades |
CD |
"...Mareas, Duermen Las Ciudades". 15 Tracks, recorded in cooperation with the traditional folk project O PARADIS, NOVY SVET adds the distinctive voice. Beautiful arrangements satisfying the fans but also the lovers of mediterranean folk." [label info]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| O YUKI CONJUGATE |
OYC25 |
CD + DVD |
"O Yuki Conjugate: 25 Years of Willful Obscurity Soleilmoon Recordings announce the release of “OYC25”, a CD & DVD celebrating a quarter century of UK ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate.
In October 1982 the youthful O Yuki Conjugate played their first gig at the now-defunct Newshouse pub in Nottingham, England to seven
people and a dog. Three incarnations, seven albums and 25 years later all members past and present got together in a West London studio to
record an album in an afternoon as a way of marking this unlikely anniversary. The result- lovingly remixed by producer Rob Jenkins- is OYC25, five tracks of post-industrial, fourth world-ish, dirty ambience.
OYC25 finds the band in fine form, with an abundance of dub-like bass, micro processed rhythms and plangent pads. The package includes a full length DVD of live recordings and rare footage that offer a unique insight into the band’s history, together with a complete alternate mix of the album. The whole thing comes in a gatefold sleeve beautifully designed by Fitzroy&Finn and includes a specially
commissioned essay on the band by Dr Philip Shaw, Senior Lecturer in English at Leicester University.
NOTE: The DVD is a region-free double-sided disc with NTSC on one side and PAL on the other. It is fully compatible with all DVD players worldwide. Find O Yuki Conjugate on the web at www.oyukiconjugate.com." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
"A while ago I had to move everything from one side to the room to the other to put a new floor in. Then then everything back. The first thing I did was re-connect the CD player and when I more or less blindly took the first CD from a pile, which I thought would be nice to play when dragging around piles of CDs and it turns out to be 'Sunchemical', a CDEP by O Yuki Conjugate. I liked it so much that I had it on repeat for a while that afternoon and even stuck it to my ipod. I am hardly surprised that this band exists twenty-five years when recording 'OYC25' in 2007 (I presume), as I already seen a note about a box set of works from the past. O Yuki Conjugate's releases over those years have not been many but they had truly a great sound of their own. An excellent combination of ambient music along the lines of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell, ethnic music percussion, a bit of industrial music and later on techno/house. The members were all active in various other bands such as A Small Good
Thing and Sons Of Silence, and still get together every now and then to record. For this recording all members from the past and the present came together to record an album during an afternoon. This album was then mixed by Rob Jenkins into a very fine piece of music. The improvised nature of the music is all gone and replaced by a great mixture of slow percussive moods, ambient tapestries of synthesizer sounds, flutes and flowing guitars, feeding through a bunch of sound effects, and a bit of weirdness to prevent it from becoming a new age cliche. O Yuki Conjugate are still, after twenty-five years, masters of the genre. And as a bonus (?) there is also a DVD inside this package with archive material. We see O Yuki Conjugate on tour in 1993-1994 (like a home video tourist movie actually with excerpts from concerts and interviews), a great concert from 2007 of OYC as a trio and a video about the recording of the 'OYC25' album, which looks great too. An alternative mix really, and a
fine interaction. In the extra (extra bonus?) section more live stuff, but then from 1982 (without film of course), a strange short comic like thing plus another alternative mix of 'OYC25' - which of course is a bit much if you first heard the CD, then saw the live recording of it, but just one day you might grab this and want to check it out - just like any good bonus on a DVD, I guess. A project loaded with just great music, and some funny background images. Just the sort of way a jubilee should be done." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
|
The Euphoria of Disobedience |
CD + object |
"Just one short decade after making their last album, UK ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate release a new CD called “The Euphoria of Disobedience” on their OYC Limited label. This calls for a celebration, and indeed an explanation. O Yuki Conjugate have released four studio albums and innumerable spin-off and side projects since their first gig in Nottingham in 1982. Currently in their third incarnation, the ever-youthful OYC have cancelled their hip replacements and are going all-out for superannuated ambient glory with their latest CD. Started in 2002 and completed in late 2005, “The Euphoria of Disobedience” explores an area OYC have christened “dirty ambient”, multi layered, hyper textural and distinctly gritty. Less obviously ethnic than previous OYC releases, the perfumed garden of Eno’s classic ambience is replaced by rough edges, noxious odours and abrasive textures. The result is a jagged beauty. “The Euphoria of Disobedience” is available only as a numbered limited edition of 1000 in a unique digipak fronted with a hand cast resin “ice” tile. With all its cracks and roughness it’s not like anything you’ve ever seen before. “The Euphoria of Disobedience” marks a new period of activity for OYC who are making their long deleted back catalogue available as downloads via iTunes and their own site (www.oyukiconjugate.com) as well as completing more releases in this unusual spate of activity." [label info]
|
2006 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Sunchemical |
12inch |
"O Yuki Conjugate have been active since 1982. Initially embracing Post Punk currents, they evolved into early pioneers of Fourth World music and still very active havung never stopped evolving. In the mid 90s their music briefly crossed over with the fringes of the club scene as their “Equator” album became something of an ambient classic. Signed to ultra cult Dutch label Staalplaat, a label as far removed from the club world as one might imagine, they nevertheless decided to release a club friendly 12” with a remix from Charles Webster that became an E Music classic. Perhaps the least known of his remixes, this ten-minute epic take on their ambient masterpiece will melt the hardest heart.
The original Staalplaat 12” is almost impossible to find so Optimo Music is delighted to make it available again in a slightly reconfigured version. Three divine Sunchemical takes from OYC and a Charles Webster remix that a quarter of a century later sounds as if it might just have been created. Comes in a full colour sleeve designed by Andrew Beltran."
https://optimomusic.bandcamp.com/album/sunchemical-ep
|
2021 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Sleepwalker |
do-LP |
"Beside guest vox by Keeley Forsyth, post punk/ambient vets Andrew Hulme and Roger Horberry turn sandmen on the gloaming ‘Sleepwalker’ session, which doubles as the soundtrack for Hulme’s film of the same name.
Conceived as an audio-visual project alongside Alex Egan and Stuart Hardie - the latter of whom who also did the art for their recent ‘Tension of Opposites’ tape - ‘Sleepwalker’ is exemplary of OYC’s current direction, with plangent keyboards and processed guitars describing nocturnal headspaces in an allusive style that’s warranted cult interest to their music since the early 80s.
Initially issued on underground German label Auf Abwegen, and now on vinyl for the first time with three bonus recordings, ’Sleepwalker’ is exactly the sort of material that benefits from an analogue host, committing their plasmic tones and hallucinatory ethers to black crack with properly immersive results. While created as a soundtrack, for which we’re sure it beautifully serves its purpose, the album’s suggestively evocative space leaves lots to the imagination and lends itself to colouring your own dreams and life-as-a-film adventures." [Boomkat]
|
2021 |
€36.50 |
|
|
Equator |
CD |
British post-industrial / ambient group O Yuki Conjugate arrives on Other Voices Records with CD and Cassette run of their previously CD-only 1995 release Equator. Coming four years after their lauded Peyote release, the group split and reformed into their Mk II phase with the two original members Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme, along with Malcolm McGeorge, Dan Mudford & Pete Woodhead (who later went on to form Sons Of Silence on Leaf Label).
Making use of the emergent technology of the early 90’s, Equator was one of the first albums to be mixed with digital equipment, weaving together a blend of studio, live and location recordings to create their own deeply immersive, enveloping soundscapes. Brooding atmospheres unfold underneath a wide range of ethnic percussion and deep, meditative basslines - existing in a unique cross-section of Hassell inspired 4th world mystery, Industrial landscapes, and the rich middle-eastern projections pioneered by Muslimgauze.
It's a deeply hypnotic work that joins the dots between the late 80's industrial scene and the smoked-out chill-out rooms of the '90s, released on the brilliantly haphazard Staalplaat label who ensured O Yuki Conjugate remained total obscurity in their home country. Now revisited, this expanded edition features an additional 30 minutes of material, together with new glorious artwork from artist and actor Frederick Schimmelschmidt.
Great for fans of MUSLIMGAUZE, PAUL SCHUTZE, ZOVIET★FRANCE, RAPOON
Produced by Paul Schütze and OYC
OYC on this occasion :
R. Horberry / A.Hulme / M.McGeorge / D.Mudford / P.A.Woodhead
with
J.W.Gardiner (soprano sax)
P.Schütze (percussion and Keyboards)
R.Jenkins (bass on track 3)
Instrumentation:
tongue drums, bass, thunderegg, voice, keyboards, samples, wireless, stratus, airtubes, skin, percussion, marimba, digital edits, dharbouka, roto-tom, sholak, finger cymbals, rain stick
Recorded and mixed in London Oct 92 - June 94. Live Mix (tracks 5 and 9) by C.E.Webster. Location recordings (Vietnam and Morocco) by Jez Higham.
Painting: 'Silence' by Frederick Schimmelschmidt
Layout by Oleg Galay
A Final Image Nocturnal Broadcast
(c) 1995 O Yuki Conjugate
(p) 2021 Other Voices Records
https://othervoicesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/equator-vox-68-cd-mc
|
2021 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
A Tension of Opposites Vol.3 & 4 |
MC |
listen:
https://oyukiconjugate.bandcamp.com/album/a-tension-of-opposites-vols-1-2
Volume 3:
'A World Without Zeros'
Tracks 1 - 5 by Andrew Hulme, Hull & London 221-2 (43 minutes)
Volume 4
'Inversion'
Tracks 6 - 16 by Roger Horberry, York 2022 (37 minutes)
with
Joe Lamb - saxophone
Two years after the first two volumes of A Tension of Opposites (ATOO) were issued OYC return to the form they created to house their looser more exploratory works. ATOO allows them to expand their musical horizons and release their music more expediently.
The original ATOO was born out of 2020's virus state where both OYC members were left working in isolation. Two types of music emerged spontaneously, and rather than try to combine them OYC decided to present the results separately, two sides of a contrasting whole.
In need of a suitable format and frustrated by their usual lengthy release schedules, OYC returned to the quick and dirty compact cassette – the place they started back in the 80s.
ATOO is 'Dirty Ambient', a phrase coined by OYC for the process of working quickly and instinctively, embracing errors and honouring imperfections. It's also a jibe at what is sometimes a hideously manicured genre.
VIEW SHORT FILM HERE
vimeo.com/815575259
Brand new cassette release, second in the series of releases called 'A Tension of Opposites'.
86 minutes of completely new music, effectively two albums in one.
Housed in dual colour black and white shell, with folded Maltese cross packaging, full colour design printed on uncoated 240gsm card, inside and out.
This edition is a complement to 'A Tension of Opposites Volumes 1 & 2' and is limited to 300 copies.
"Now in its 40th year of existence, O Yuki Conjugate is still going strong. Going through various line-ups, but with Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme as the common thread in their history. Their new cassette is a follow-up to the first instalment of 'A Tension Of Opposites' (see Vital Weekly 1275) and the result of working in isolation. The first one was at the height of lockdown and covid, but an idea they
liked to repeat. Hume has five pieces on the first side, Horberry ten on the second, and you try to spot the differences in approach and do the maths as the total is the sound of O Yuki Conjugate. They label their music as dirty ambient, which is about the "process of working quickly and instinctively, embracing errors and honouring imperfections. It's also a jibe at what is sometimes a hideously manicured genre." It's easy to hear the typical OYC elements in the music here, the percussion, the bass sounds, the sparse synthesizers, the slightly exotic feeling and the 'dirty' elements, a bit of tape hiss, for instance. As before, Horberry likes to keep his pieces short and tends to be rhythmic. Hulme has four shortish pieces and one long piece, and, again, his music is a slightly more abstract ambient drift. Remember that these 'differences' aren't significant, as Hulme's pieces have a fair share of rhythm, just as Horberry's music is highly atmospherical. Hulme's pieces are, perhaps,
more a collage of various sounds and textures, generally mixed in a free-floating manner, whereas Horberry's are kept together and have a song-like structure. Indeed, these approaches make up the music of O Yuki Conjugate. Let me end with the same conclusion as before; you can mistake this for a group effort, which is undoubtedly the point." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| O'MALLEY, STEPHEN |
Eternelle Idole |
do-LP |
"September 2015 marks the release of Stephen O’Malley’s ‘Eternelle Idole’, long awaited documentation of the score of Paris based choreographer Gisèle Vienne's eponymous artistic ice skating choreographic piece of the same name.
Composed of 47 minutes of music spread over 2 vinyls and enhanced by a elegant and chilling photoset by Estelle Hanania, the record features some - familiar - O’Malley collaborators such as Steve Moore, Daniel O'Sullivan, Peter Rehberg, Jesse Sykes, Bill Herzog & Randall Dunn.
Recorded between Brest (FR), Seattle (USA), and Rotterdam (NL), the score sees Stephen O’Malley taking several creative detours, utilizing modular synthesizers and programming as key elements for much of the composition. And while a 3 minutes hole (Track 3) will extract the music from any temporality, emerging eerie phrases of keyboards and piano draw a white monochrome stage for a young girl’s stark and emotive elegy.
Not to worry then… clavichord and guitars weave the darkness, supported by Jesse Sykes prophetical voice, summoning the utter walls of the threats from the external world.
Mirroring the music score, Estelle Hanania presents 16 photographs from the choreographic piece, enlightening how much ice-skating can be about grace and sustain, geometry, telemetry, distance and perfection, as well as possible falls, gloomy shadows.
Metal against ice, tights and knots, spirals and scratches, shouts and winds : field recordings mold a crispy atmosphere while instruments draws some ovals shapes such as lakes, ice skating ring, cosmos belt… and a terrestrial cloud passage and eventual landing platform for a flying saucer." [label info]
www.shelter-press.org
|
2015 |
€32.00 |
|
| O'ROURKE, JIM |
The Visitor |
CD |
"JIM O’ROURKE returns with his first new solo album since 2001. All the classic O’Rourke-isms are here, for you musicologist types: percolating banjos, smooth electric leads, organic, kicking drum sounds, the flickering of shakers to the left and right, mellow but ominous woodwinds, sounds that indicate “vintage” (before turning left and running out the door), sonic jokes, sonic tear-jerkers, sonic jerkoffs, all wrapped in spacious yet subtle left to right placement of everything in the picture. There’s moments of low comedy next to high drama and juicy melancholy with a seeming lack of regard for proximity. Plus—sudden surging rhythms! The Visitor is sort of “O’Rourke Does O’Rourke”—Jim re-contextualizing everything he’s done over the years, and throwing out the bullshit. The one thing you won’t hear is his voice—perhaps another O’Rourkian self-examination? Or maybe he’s just saving it for all the name-calling on his next album." [label info]
"You probably can't find a musician with a wider breadth of sound, or more sonically varied releases, than Mr. Jim O'Rourke. During his vast career he's made everything from harsh noise to delightful pop, was part of one of the more influential groups of the last few decades, Gastr Del Sol, collaborated with Nurse With Wound, became a member of Sonic Youth, was at the forefront of the '90s experimental electronic renaissance, made some crunchy rock albums with his Wilco pal Jeff Tweedy, and the list just goes on and on.
These days O'Rourke has slowed down his output considerably so a new release is both much more anticipated as well as a total unknown as to which side of Jim O'Rourke will be on display. With The Visitor, O'Rourke emerges with his first new full length in many years and wow the wait was worth it! The Visitor is one long track clocking in at
around 37 minutes but it almost serves as some kind of early morning daydream song cycle with a spectrum of nuanced sounds that make us
think of Van Dyke Parks arranging a John Fahey album or what a more restrained James Blackshaw record might sound like.
The record starts with very hushed noodling guitar and as the piece goes on the sounds expand in richness as extra flourishes of bells, piano and other lushness flesh out O'Rourke's delicate guitar playing. Hard to avoid this cliché, but The Visitor really is a total journey, at first you don't really know where it's going and you're not sure if you necessarily want to follow but as the piece evolves it completely grabs a hold of your attention until you are lost in its slowly unfurling sonic voyage. Highly recommended!" [Aquarius Rec.]
www.dragcity.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Hands That Bind |
LP |
"In addition to his day job transforming pop music with his own records, as well as those of Gastr del Sol, Loose Fur and Sonic Youth over the past few decades, Jim O'Rourke has been contracted for several dozen film scores over the years as well. It makes sense -- his abilities as an improviser, composer and producer allow him to interpret cinematic moments with a unique understanding for their construction and how they work. It doesn't hurt that Jim's a well-versed cineaste, a complete and total fan of watching films, which has given him a preternatural understanding of the role of music in movies. What doesn't make sense is how Hands That Bind is the first film soundtrack of Jim's to ever receive worldwide release! He's worked with filmmakers of international repute, like Olivier Assayas, Allison Anders, Werner Herzog and Kôji Wakamatsu! He served as music consultant on Richard Linklater's 2003 laff-fest, School of Rock! He's played in ensembles of award-winning documentaries and films alike! ... Made for an indie film that's been seen by festival audiences and not enough others, the soundtrack for Hands That Bind is a moody, atmospheric delight. Jim's roots in composition via tape-editing have evolved into a sophisticated assembly of found-and-processed sounds that achieve highly musical, near-orchestral majesty as they hang in the very air of the drama that unfolds in Kyle Armstrong's Hands That Bind. Described as a 'slow-burn prairie gothic drama' set in the farmland of Canada's Alberta province, and starring Paul Sparks, Susan Kent, Landon Liboiron, Nicholas Campbell, Will Oldham, and Bruce Dern, Hands That Bind is a spellbinding trip to the existential bone of rural working life in North America. As conflict rises over the hard-worked patches of land that provide a mere and mean existence, a desperate air settles in, as a series of mysterious, often supernatural occurrences rock the small community. O'Rourke's vaporous, serpentine musical backdrops and atmospheres reflect the obsessions and distractions of the film's principles; moods of all sorts seen or otherwise implied. Additionally, the music highlights cinematographer Mike McLaughlin's closely observed accounting of the farmers' environment, as well as the striking widescreen images of the big sky country with unnerving flair. For fans of Jim's ongoing steamroom series as well as collectors of soundtracks, Hands That Bind will provide hours of engrossing listening..." [press release]
https://jimorourke.bandcamp.com/album/hands-that-bind-original-motion-picture-soundtrack
#################################################
"The experimental producer and composer’s score for the prairie gothic film is luminous, faintly menacing, and clouded with uncertainty.
In Kyle Armstrong’s Hands That Bind, horror is hiding in plain sight. The film, which premiered in 2021 and is due for theatrical release this fall, is set amid desolate Alberta farmlands—a space whose relentless flatness you might assume allows for few mysteries. Straight roads stretch endlessly toward the horizon; barns outnumber trees by a wide margin. Any approaching threat ought to be visible from miles away. But in the world of this carefully paced prairie gothic, unsettling events arrive from out of nowhere, leading to more questions than answers. Who, or what, is mutilating the farmers’ cattle? Who’s in the black sedan making ominous drive-bys? And what are those lights swirling in the sky?
The crucial question, which drives the film’s grippingly human drama as well as its more cryptic events, is philosophical in nature: whether we can ever truly be certain about anything. “My opinion isn’t going to solve anything for you, because my opinion is that I don’t know,” remarks a bartender played by a scene-stealing Will Oldham, as he turns off a Scratch Acid song on the stereo. “Certainty is the rare exception to the rules of life. Whatever’s easiest to swallow is what most folks gravitate towards. Even if you lie to yourself, as best as you can, and look for something you call true, well, whatever your theory is, it’s probably wrong.”
Jim O’Rourke’s soundtrack is perfectly calibrated to this unforgiving space squashed between parched fields and blown-out sky. His palette—detuned piano, watery vibraphone, and a muted, amorphous shimmer that might be harmonium or synthesizer—matches the film’s dusty tones of beige and pewter and mobile-home brown. A high-end fizz resembles the incessant whine of crickets; the occasional spritz of static mimics the strange electrical phenomena on screen. Closer in spirit to the longform drone works of his Steamroom series than the fingerpicked Americana of Bad Timing or the mischievous classic rock of Simple Songs, O’Rourke’s instrumental score is, much like the landscape of the film, flat, faintly menacing, and miserly with its details. (Another comparison point might be the Boxhead Ensemble’s 1997 soundtrack to the film Dutch Harbor: Where the Sea Breaks Its Back, featuring O’Rourke alongside Chicago luminaries like Ken Vandermark and Douglas McCombs.)
It begins gently enough, with a high, lonesome harmony reminiscent of a freight train’s distant whistle. An acoustic bass plucks out a tentative melody. These opening passages move with pastoral ease. But the music quickly sours, clouded with uncertainty, as dark, shapeless figures clamber up from the lower register to disturb the tranquil upper reaches. Light is one of the film’s unspoken subjects—the implacable sun beating down on sere crops, the bokeh-like orbs cutting curlicues in the night sky—and O’Rourke’s soundtrack has similarly luminous properties. He favors soft attacks that come on like a backlist mist, and streaks of dissonance that flash out and disappear, swallowed up in the dull radiance.
The 38-minute score cycles through just a handful of themes and motifs, stirring them occasionally, as though to keep them from sticking. Halfway through, with “A Man’s Mind Will Play Tricks Upon Him,” brushed cymbals and plucked bass kick up a groove beneath a chiming piano melody; it’s one of few places where the record approaches anything resembling a song. But the moment is fleeting. In the concluding “One Way or Another I’m Gone,” the drumbeat returns, but this time there’s no lightness to it. It plods sullenly as jabbing tritones, a constant throughout the album, hint at a nameless evil. The soundtrack ends as it began, hovering in a nebulous interzone, neither major nor minor—ambiguous, ambivalent, unresolved.\\\" [Pitchfork]
##############
Eight years after “Simple Songs”, his last solo outing with the label, the towering talent of Jim O’Rourke returns to Drag City with “Hands That Bind”, the first LP in his long career to offer a proper release to his soundtrack work.
Composed for the director Kyle Armstrong’s 2021 film of the same name, the album\'s eight sublime musical complements interweave subtle melodic elements, bristling electroacoustic structures, and moody ambiences, collectively bridging the distance between O’Rourke\'s experimental work and his deft hand in the realms of pop. As absolutely brilliant as they come.
On the occasion of the release of “Hands That Bind” we are glad to announce a promotional sale with 15% off for members and 10% off for everybody on all available Drag CIty items, valid until Sunday at midnight or while stocks last.
The endlessly fruitful relationship between Jim O’Rourke and the Chicago based imprint, Drag City, traverses the better part of the last thirty years, with the label providing platform and support for one the great musical voices of our age. Beginning with his band Gastr del Sol\'s seminal second LP, “Crookt, Crackt, or Fly”, and running through his legendary suite of pop masterstrokes, - “Bad Timing”, “Eureka”, “Halfway to a Threeway”, and “Insignificance” - his involvement with projects like Loose Fur, The Red Krayola, and Mimidokodesuka, and a great deal more, his output with Drag City is a truly remarkable thing to behold, providing a snapshot into a restless creative mind within a collective body of intoxicating sounds. His last, 2015\'s “Simple Songs” build on the instrumental trajectory established by its predecessor, “The Visitor” (2009), but his latest, “Hands That Bind”, however, charts a new, surprising path. Composed as the soundtrack for the director Kyle Armstrong’s 2021 film of the same name, the album’s subtle melodic elements, played against bristling electroacoustic structures, bridge the distance between his more experimental work, largely housed in recent years on his own Steamroom imprint, and the pop-oriented work historically located on Drag City. Absolutely stunning from its first sounding to the last, “Hands That Bind” is yet another creative milestone from Jim O’Rourke that’s impossible to get off the turntable once the needle drops. Ten out of ten and not to be missed!
Jim O’Rourke is among the great voices of his generation. He is a true musical polymath, whose diverse efforts, since his emergence within the Chicago scene during the late 1980s, have continuously altered the creative landscape. Across more than a hundred albums, he has carved a relentless path, refusing conceptual stasis and the boundaries of genre and idiom, producing a body of work with such a profound impact and influence, that is so striking, forward-thinking, and important - while displaying a consistently unparalleled bar of quality - that it transcends the basic notions of art; becoming a network of sound, mirroring the pathways of an endlessly curious and uninhibited mind. O’Rourke’s music is thought unfolding in real time. Unbridled creativity in pursuit of the unknown.
Since his move to Japan during the late 2000s, O’Rourke’s recorded works have generally veered toward two polarities - direct, jointly billed, conversant collaborations with peers like Haino Keiji, Peter Brötzmann, Oren Ambarchi, Giovanni Di Domenico, Mats Gustafsson, Akira Sakata, Kassel Jaeger, and Fennesz, among numerous other, and privately created solo efforts falling under the banner of Steamroom - increasingly only issued as direct digital downloads. There has, however, been another body of work rumbling below the surface that has yet to receive a single proper release. Over the last few decades, O’Rourke has been composing several dozen film soundtracks for widely celebrated filmmakers like Olivier Assayas, Allison Anders, Werner Herzog and Kôji Wakamatsu. At long last, this mysterious area of the artist’s creative explorations begins to be more accessible with the release of “Hands That Bind”, composed for the director Kyle Armstrong’s 2021 film of the same name and his first film soundtrack to receive a proper release.
Anyone who knows much about O’Rourke is aware of his deep passion for film. Since his teens on the outskirts of Chicago, he has remained a devoted cinephile, which naturally, being the person and artist that he is, has cultivated an intimate understanding of the place and operation of music within the idiom. Any doubts to this end will be quickly laid to rest by the profound beauty and subtlety of “Hands That Bind”, composed for a “slow-burn prairie gothic drama” set in the farm-land of Canada’s Alberta province, that stars Paul Sparks, Susan Kent, Landon Liboiron, Nicholas Campbell, Will Oldham, and Bruce Dern, within which a series of mysterious, often supernatural occurrences, rock the small community.
Into these narratives and happening, O’Rourke composed eight sublime musical complements ranging from moody and atmospheric electroacoustic marvels that interweave long-tones and textural elements, drawn from diverse resonant sources, to more explicitly musically melodic and percussive pieces like “A Man\'s Mind Will Play Tricks On Him” and “One Way or Another I\'m Gone”, that return the ear to O’Rourke’s roots in post-rock and jazz. Joined collectively, these works evolve at glacial pace into a freestanding journey of startling proportions, building bridges within a single structure across the versatility and range that the artist has historically reserved for more discreetly located works, notably his poppier efforts for Drag City, and his more experimental works released on Steemroom.
Immersive and intoxicating, while displaying an understated elegance that only O’Rourke is capable of, whether regarded as a complement to moving image or a freestanding musical gesture, “Hands That Bind” is an absolute musical masterstroke of unparalleled brilliance, building on his long history of tape collage to construct a profoundly sophisticated assembly of found-and-processed sounds into orchestral majesty. Issued by Drag City as a beautifully produced LP, this is O’Rourke at his best. Ten out of ten and impossible to recommend enough. [Soundohm + press release ]
|
2023 |
€27.50 |
|
| OBJEKT / URIAN |
Agitation |
CD |
"After more than six years OBJEKT/URIAN from Germany release their long-awaited second CD on Tesco Organisation. Being part of the local subculture scene this step was obvious! Objekt/Urian's sound is a post-industrial old school one, the regards and influences of the early waves of the genre are not to deny. Music, content and ambitions might have changed according to the perspectives. But we can find a combination of yesterday's and today's music culture within OBJEKT/URIAN. They stroll down the old paths by building instruments by themselves as well as they use analogue technology. The result is a quite distinct sound yet it always reveals the nearness to power electronics and noise. The incredibly blurred and ugly aspect of social and political issues is almost foist on the listener with the aggressive vocals. The tracks Chamber Music and The price we have to pay have already reached some sort of scene-hit status at local events. They will also be on this CD. The listener may perceive the broadness of sense and the profundity of the slogan ...he who attacks first, dies second. The CD comes in a nice embossed digipak." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| OBJEKT4 |
Space Jungle Slums |
CD |
Das letzte reguläre Album von OBJEKT4, welches am Ende einen sehr eigenen Stil ausgebildet hatte.. klarer kalter Glitch, Licht-Drones, maschinelle Loops, schleppende Bewegungen & fragmentarischer Aufbau..
"Objekt4 was formed in 2003, to explore the fields of ambient music. The sound of Objekt4 ranges from bleak industrial ambient to downbeat chillout tracks. Hovering around the fine line between music and ambience, the fine line between reality and fiction.
Experimenting with and re-arranging sounds of everyday life, creating shape-shifting forms of unknown dimensions. The "Space Jungle Slums" cd consists of two sessions recorded between 2005-2006, rooted in the realms of experimental chilled downbeat music. The title consists of one word from which each session was built upon.
All music composed, recorded and mastered by Anders Peterson." [label info]
www.ajana-records.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| OCCHIO QUARTET |
Momente 2 |
CD |
"Occhio Quartet are:
Limpe Fuchs (percussions violin)
Zoro Babel (drums)
Elmar Guantes (bass)
Hans Wolf (piano)
For more information about Occhio Quartet please visit their website: www.occhio-quartet.de" [label info]
www.sevenleggedspiders.co.uk
"A few years ago the Seven Legged Spiders & Co-label surprised with the release of a solo record by Limpe Fuchs, called "Pianobody 2002". Limpe Fuchs is one of those veterans of the krautrock scene (Anima), who are still in business. The label returns now with its second release, featuring once again Limpe Fuchs. "Momente 2' is a live recording dating from 2008 by the Occhio Quartet, being: Zoro Babel (drums), Limpe Fuchs (percussion, violine), Elmar Guantes (bass) and Hans Wolf (piano). We are offered three pieces, all about 15 minutes. The players treat us on some very free and inspired improvisations. Can't tell you much about this group. Zoro Babel grew up with the music of his parents Paul and Limpe Fuchs. No wonder you can find him on some releases of Anima. I know also of a record by Markus Stockhausen he participated on. But I don't know much of his other musical whereabouts. Even less I know of Guantes and Wolf. As a quartet I suppose they spent already some time together, as their improvisations speak with a clear and distinguished voice. All members take equally part in their explorations, especially the three gentlemen. Very fresh and pronounced improvisations. The first one "11.02 bis 11.17" comes most close to jazz idiom, with exuberant playing by Babel. The second one "12.04 bis 12.28" starts with a great percussive intro by Babel and Fuchs and bass player Guantes. The piano of Wolf is dominant throughout, with classical touches especially near the end. In the third improvisation they calm down, and concentrate on small motives and simple sounds, leaving room for silence. All pieces prove that this quartet is able to really communicate through a musically interesting process." [DM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| ODA RELICTA |
Lux Aeterna |
CD |
" “Lux Aeterna” is a chamber requiem that follows a classical arrangement with soprano, bass and tenor vocals juxtaposed with angelic chants of the Child's Choir, piano and organ passages of simple composition yet true purifying power. A collaborative release of Twilight Records and Gradual Hate Records. The CD comes in a grey/black digipak. The Requiem “Lux Aeterna” was originally composed by Mykhayil A. Shukh in 1988. It was premiered in Donetsk (Ukraine) in 1990/1991. The recordings took part at the festivals in Gori (Georgia) and at «Vorsel Meetings» (Ukraine). Re-recorded, re-engineered and re-arranged by Mykhayil A. Shukh & Olegh Kolyada at Oda Relicta HQ in 2010." [label info]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| OFFTHESKY / PLEQ |
A Thousand Fields |
do-LP & 7inch |
A Thousand Fields is the first collaboration between Denver, Colorado based artist offthesky (Jason Corder) and Warsaw, Poland based musician Pleq (Bartosz Dziadosz). From the opening restrained "Ashes of America" with intermittant ominous strings through the industrial landscape of "drown under..." with it's glittering glass and harmonious drones breaking through, this work of ambient tapestry sees each artist pulling the best work from one another. Both are veteran experimental and ambient recording
artists with dozens of recordings to their credit. Featured on a multitude of labels that read like a roster of contemporary ambient and soundscape recordings - Home Normal, Ephre, Taalem, Databloem, dataObscura, Basses Frequencies, Constellation Tatsu to name just a few.
This recording feels like a potential has been met. What has been hinted at in solo and prior collaborations meshed together with an influence of equal parts minimalism, fourth world ambience, field recordings, drone, and experimental composition to a stunning degree.
Composition is thrilling when notes are allowed to breathe, to vibrate. A single piano string, the circular slow melody of a violin, as on the nostalgic "Delicate Exit" or the delicate assembly of abstract beauty - distant harp, an interrupted string section, shuffling of feet, a ghostly echo as on "simulacromancer".
This is a 2xLP set, mastered by Carl Saff, cut at 45 rpm. It is housed in a tip-on style heavy gatefold sleeve with OBI strip featuring artwork from Pyhai. The first 300 copies will include a bonus 7" entitled "Still Your Bones" (INFX 062 S) with 2 exclusive tracks. The entire pressing is a 500 copy edition, available in white 180g vinyl (limited to 100 copies **White vinyl Sold Out**) and the remaining 400 copies will be on black 180g vinyl.
Includes unlimited streaming of A Thousand Fields via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/a-thousand-fields
|
2015 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
A Thousand Fields |
CD |
A Thousand Fields is the first collaboration between Denver, Colorado based artist offthesky (Jason Corder) and Warsaw, Poland based musician Pleq (Bartosz Dziadosz). From the opening restrained "Ashes of America" with intermittant ominous strings through the industrial landscape of "drown under..." with it's glittering glass and harmonious drones breaking through, this work of ambient tapestry sees each artist pulling the best work from one another. Both are veteran experimental and ambient recording
artists with dozens of recordings to their credit. Featured on a multitude of labels that read like a roster of contemporary ambient and soundscape recordings - Home Normal, Ephre, Taalem, Databloem, dataObscura, Basses Frequencies, Constellation Tatsu to name just a few.
This recording feels like a potential has been met. What has been hinted at in solo and prior collaborations meshed together with an influence of equal parts minimalism, fourth world ambience, field recordings, drone, and experimental composition to a stunning degree.
Composition is thrilling when notes are allowed to breathe, to vibrate. A single piano string, the circular slow melody of a violin, as on the nostalgic "Delicate Exit" or the delicate assembly of abstract beauty - distant harp, an interrupted string section, shuffling of feet, a ghostly echo as on "simulacromancer".
This is a 2xLP set, mastered by Carl Saff, cut at 45 rpm. It is housed in a tip-on style heavy gatefold sleeve with OBI strip featuring artwork from Pyhai. The first 300 copies will include a bonus 7" entitled "Still Your Bones" (INFX 062 S) with 2 exclusive tracks. The entire pressing is a 500 copy edition, available in white 180g vinyl (limited to 100 copies **White vinyl Sold Out**) and the remaining 400 copies will be on black 180g vinyl.
Includes unlimited streaming of A Thousand Fields via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/a-thousand-fields
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| OGIERMANN, CHRISTOPH |
LebendDurchführungen 13/14 |
MC |
Eines von drei stark limitierten Tapes des Bremer Komponisten auf dem kleinen Bremer Label TWISTED KNISTER, welches durch spektakuläre Zigaretten-Automaten Releases bekannt wurde. Rar und Radikal wie irgendwas, neutönende Klangkunst mit starkem Sprach-Bezug. Intensive, konkrete Noise-Poetry.
www.myspace.com/twistedknister
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
|
LebendDurchführungen 15/16 |
MC (C-10) |
Eines von drei stark limitierten Tapes des Bremer Komponisten auf dem kleinen Bremer Label TWISTED KNISTER, welches durch spektakuläre Zigaretten-Automaten Releases bekannt wurde. Rar und Radikal wie irgendwas, neutönende Klangkunst mit starkem Sprach-Bezug. Intensive, konkrete Noise-Poetry.
www.myspace.com/twistedknister
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
LebendDurchführungen 17/18 |
MC (C-10) |
Eines von drei stark limitierten Tapes des Bremer Komponisten auf dem kleinen Bremer Label TWISTED KNISTER, welches durch spektakuläre Zigaretten-Automaten Releases bekannt wurde. Rar und Radikal wie irgendwas, neutönende Klangkunst mit starkem Sprach-Bezug. Intensive, konkrete Noise-Poetry.
www.myspace.com/twistedknister
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| OGNI VIDENIY |
Sounding Emptiness |
CD-R |
"The Northern city of Archangelsk has given the Russian ambient scene several beautiful projects and among them is certainly Ogni Videniy (Russian for "Fires of Visions"). Their previous releases came out on such labels as Vetvei and BioSonar^Labyrinth and this is already the fourth album, not counting a collab with Six Dead Bulgarians "2137" (Vetvei, 2011).
The album is dedicated to the phenomenon of emptiness in its Buddhist meaning: not as absolute "nothingness" but rather as endless potential manifestation of everything existent in the world. Unlike previous works with more ritualistic feeling, this album shows Peter A. experimenting with more abstract electronic sound. Here one finds almost complete absence of traditional singing bowls, bells and pipes - instead the space is seized by home-made analogue sound generators, processed field recordings and mysterious textures. Plangent background drones fixate the perception and the forefront is filled by gurgling, croaking and swarming microsounds creating an utterly psychoactive shroomy atmosphere inhabited by enigmatic entities." [label info]
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/releases.html
|
2014 |
€8.50 |
|
| OGROB + VOMIR |
Diffusions intradermiques et enregistrements en cavités corporelles |
LP |
"Diffusion of noises via loudspeakers attached on the rib cages of four women. Mix of internal noises, bodily fluids' noises, with the streamed noises. Transmitting bodies, bodies as loudspeakers. Captations via a hydrophonic microphone placed within their vaginas." [label info] |
2015 |
€19.50 |
|
| OLD CASTLE |
Artwork 51 |
CD |
Artwork 51" is the second album for Zoharum, a group formed by musicians known from the Rapoon, Pas Musique and Promute projects (also previously released by our label). The intercontinental trio consistently continues and develops its formula of psychedelic electronics, using quite similar instruments and sound objects. Just like on the "Welcome to Graceland" album, you can hear echoes of music close to the achievements of Cluster, Deuter or Neu. Here everything seems to be even more coherent, refined in terms of sound and composition, although at times able to surprise the listener with ingenuity and openness to cross-genre experiments ... The album consists of 7 compositions in total, written for nearly 40 minutes of trip, based on the kraut formula, implemented during improvisation, which, fully resounding, can put the listeners in a kind of trance.
Limited to 300 CDs in digipack.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/artwork-51
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| OLEK |
Suicide Prevention |
CD |
"Somewhere between psychedelia, techno, electroacoustics, and post-rock, Suicide Prevention is the product of a 14 year old pact of music or death. Like a dual with the past, the record was motivated by an ineffable will to live. It is made up of a series of propositions for reasons to act. Though musically eclectic, the album meticulously weaves a coherent symbolic gesture. Filled with rich textures, warm and noisy acoustic recordings, complex synthetic algorithms, and haunting nostalgic melodies, this album addresses the organic sensibility of the listener.
Alexander Wilson (01ek) is an interdiciplinary artist, musician, theatre director, and theorist based in Montreal, Canada. He composes electro-acoustic music, produces experimental videos, interactive media and architectural installations, and directs physical theatrical events in immersive environments. His artistic propositions invariably materialize philosophical interrogations into the structure of meaning, the potential for human agency, and the metaphysics of the body, space and time. Co-founder of Parabolik Guerilla Theatre, he is currently directing $ymbolocaust, an experimental play which will open in May 2007, in Montreal. His interactive architecture installation, Hinge_Dimension, a collaboration with interaction designer and architect Karmen Franinovic, was commissioned by the Enter_Unknown Territories media-arts festival, in Cambridge UK (April, 2007). His multichannel audio-video collaboration with filmmaker Seth Poulin, Decay Line, is premiering at Elektra 8 festival, Montreal, May 2007. Alexander is half of the experimental music duo, Élan d'Amérique, with Alexandre St-Onge. In 2006, he directed the ambitious, Social Reproduction Machine (version 3), a technological micro-theatre installed in the back of a rented moving-truck, parked in downtown Montreal. In 2005, Alexander composed the operatic soundtrack of the Parabolik Guerilla Theatre production, A Ship to Namuh, directed by Melanie Verville. In recent years, Alexander has realized many videos and installations for which he also composed the original music, such as the Social Reproduction Machine (version 2) (interactive video-installation, Gallerie Bourget, 2006), Genesis: Three Magi (Centre SKOL, 2005), Execution (Centre SKOL 2005) and Anti-Sacrifice (presented at the Amsterdam Film Experience festival in October 2006), and Holey Space, Sync!, and Dance With Me, Society for Arts and Technology, 2000- 2002. Alexander is currently completing FQRSC and SSHRC-funded research into the dynamic relations between the body, meaning and space-time, as part of his Masters in Fine Art, at Concordia University, Montreal."
[label info]
www.oral.qc.ca
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE |
Accordion & Voice |
CD |
"Pauline Oliveros (b. 1930) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. Her instrument is tuned in Just Intonation and she often includes it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly titled Sonic Meditations.
A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the U.S. west coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recordings.
“Accordion and Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-frame house in a meadow just below Mount Tremper at Zen Mountain Center. I had a wonderful view of the graceful saddle mountain top. When away on a performance trip I would imagine the mountain as I played Rattlesnake Mountain. I followed the feelings and sensations of my many experiences of the mountain - the changing colors of the season, the breezes and winds blowing through the grasses and trees. Horse Sings From Cloud taught me to listen to the depth of a tone and to have patience. Rather than initiating musical impulses of motion, melody and harmony I wanted to hear the subtlety of a tone taking space and time to develop. The tones linger and resonate in the body, mind, instrument and performance space. My thanks to Important Records for bringing these pieces to be heard again.” - Pauline Oliveros 2007 " [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
The Wanderer |
CD |
" 'The Wanderer' was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussion, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. 'Horse Sings From Cloud', written in 1975, is one of Oliveros' best known works. Like most of her 'Sonic Meditations', it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2014 |
€15.50 |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE & AMERICAN VOICES |
St. George and the Dragon |
CD |
Hazy dreamy clouds of accordion drone recorded in a reverberant chapel.
"Pauline Oliveros is internationally acclaimed as a composer, accordionist, teacher and innovator of the technique called Deep Listening. 'Deep Listening' unfolds through the
interaction of the performers as they are influenced by special tunings and the space around them. In 1991, Oliveros was invited by Neely Bruce, director of American Voices, to conduct Deep Listening training sessions with them in the chapel of the Pomfret School in Connec-ticut. This chapel was specially chosen
for the sessions because of its rich and reverberant acoustics. After two weekends of workshops, Oliveros and American Voices recorded several Deep Listening/Sonic Meditations in the Chapel. A special solo performance by Pauline Oliveros on her 'just-intonation' accordion was titled St. George and the Dragon, an interaction with the the chapel's acoustics, which included a noisy squirrel who joined in! Oliveros is again featured on the accordion with American Voices for In Memoriam, Mr. Whitney, a moving meditation for those departed." [label description]
|
1994 |
€16.50 |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE & MIYA MASAOKA |
Accordion Koto |
CD |
" 'Listening to this recording session I am lifted to a world both evanescent and yet somehow connected to a distinct culture of music making in the 21st century (Miya Masaoka) 'Though an unlikely combination - accordion and koto - it is not so much about the instruments as about the energies of the music that comes from the intensity of listening - listening as close to now as possible. We know that our consciousness is delayed by a fraction of a second that the brain interprets as now - however the body is instantaneous in its perception. Thus the phenomena of playing and becoming conscious of what has played - been played - is a continually surprising experience in such improvisation'. (Pauline Oliveros)
Miya Masaoka, musician, composer, performance artist, has created works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her performance pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects, as well as the physiological responses of plants, the human brain, and her own body. Within these varied contexts of sound, music and nature, her performance work emphasizes the interactive, live nature of improvisation, and reflects an individual, contemporary expression of Japanese gagaku aural gesturalism. Masaoka's work has been presented in Japan, Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe and she has toured to India six times. Pauline Oliveros's life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities it the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills. She has been celebrated worldwide. During the 1960's John Rockwell named her work Bye Bye Butterfly as one of the most significant of that decade. In the 70's she represented the U.S. at the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan; during the 80's she was honored with a retrospective at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.: the 1990's began with a letter of distinction from the American Music Center presented at Lincoln Center in New York: In 2000 the 50th anniversary of her work was celebrated with the commissioning and performance of her Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_tunes. Oliveros work is available on numerous recordings produced by companies internationally." [label info]
www.deeplistening.org
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE / DAVID GAMPER |
At the Ijsbreker Jan 24, 1999 |
CD |
“Pauline Oliveros, "Godmother of Ambient" gives JdK the premiere live recording from her sold-out concert at the Ijsbreker, Amsterdam in January 1999. Working with electronic music-magician, David Gamper on his EIS system, they created transparent layers, crystalline structures slowly evolving and mesmerizing the listener in timeless forms. This is the pinnacle of the Oliveros/Gamper collaborations, music that through its depth, reveals ever more profound expression.” [label info]
|
1999 |
€14.50 |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE / DAVID ROTHENBERG / TIMOTHY HILL |
Cicada Dream Band |
CD |
"Flames will destroy everything
at the end of the universe.
It may already be destroyed.
A cold cricket cries in the pile of wet leaves.
He wanders back and forth, unable to get past regret.
Go along with it
Stumble in rain,
Walk on alone.
At the end of the trail is a warm cabin with a single fire.
There you may dry out those lonely years.
Case 29, The Blue Cliff Record
2013 marked the arrival of millions of periodical cicadas to the New York Metropolitan area. These musical insects appear only once every seventeen years. On the occasion of this auspicious event, David Rothenberg performed a series of concerts together with composer and deep listener Pauline Oliveros, overtone singer Timothy Hill, and live singing insects brought in from the trees. The ensemble of digital accordion, clarinets with electronically enhanced nature sounds, and harmonic singing is certainly a trio unlike anything heard before. Even Pauline, with eighty-two years of music making, confessed she had not heard anything like it. The ensemble headed to the famous Dreamland Studios just outside of Woodstock to commit three and a half hours of music to digital memory. For the album they picked their favorite 64 minutes and 32 seconds. Joëlle Léandre said “I love this trio, it’s wonderful, special!” "[label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
"Last year Gruenrekorder released the album ‘Bug Music’ by David Rothenberg. He has a love for the rhythms produced by birds, insects, etc and made a record based on these rhythms coming from nature, joined of vocalist Timothy Hill and guitarist Robert Jürgendal. The album by the Cicada Dream Band is a sort of a next step. The band combines the talents of Pauline Oliveros (V-Accordion), David Rothenberg (bass clarinet, clarinet, iPad, creatures) and Timothy Hill (voice). They made their recordings in august 2013 in New York. “2013 marked the arrival of millions of periodical cicadas to the New York Metropolitan area. These musical insects appear only once every seventeen years. On the occasion of this auspicious event, David Rothenberg performed a series of concerts together with composer and deep listener Pauline Oliveros, overtone singer Timothy Hill, and live singing insects brought in from the trees“. That is how it started. It inspired the three for long extended
dialogues with these natural sounds, and about an hour of this material is selected for this album. Although I like their improvisations, their way of combining it with animal sounds did not really do it for me. Although...this last sentence I wrote after one or two listening, but now that I’m listening again it begins to reveal its beauty. Like the beautiful lines they play along the whistling of an European blackbird in ‘Room at the Inn’. The music becomes more and more óne and intriguing after repeated listening. Besides the vocals by Timothy Hill fascinate and inspire. He is a new voice for me. He worked with a variety of artists like John Cage, Bill Frisell, Jeff Buckley, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Madan Gopal Singh, and not to forget David Hykes. Okay, I’m pretty much in favour of the dreams of Rothenberg." [DM/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE / FRANCISCO LOPEZ / DOUG VAN NORT / JONAS BRAASCH |
Quartet for the End of Space |
CD |
"This recording consists of 8 electro-acoustic compositions. 2 pieces by each of the 4 composers. The works span a vast sonic terrain, challenging listener and performer alike through a seamless blend of Deep Listening and Absolute Noise, moving between ever-fluid improvisation and carefully controlled sound manipulation.
The quartet convened for two improvisational sessions between February and May of 2010, with López sitting in on a Triple Point (Oliveros-Van Nort-Braasch) recording session and bringing his finely crafted sonic objects-as-instruments, further spanning the electro-acoustic divide that has become Triple Point’s calling. The four later re-formed for their debut concert at the Deep Listening Institute in Kingston, NY in September of 2010. These sessions have since become raw material for the individual artists to construct new visions of this shared sonic body through extensive and thorough evolution of the recordings - personal reflections culled from a collective tapestry.
Pauline Oliveros has influenced American music extensively in her career spanning more than 60 years as a composer, performer, author and philosopher. She pioneered the concept of Deep Listening, her practice based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation, designed to inspire both trained and untrained musicians to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations.
Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. Over the past 30 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.
Doug Van Nort is an experimental musician and digital music researcher whose work is dedicated to personal and collective creative expression through noise, free improvisation and generally electro-acoustic means of production, from the lo-fi of broken electronics to the hi-tech of custom signal processing algorithms. Recent projects have spanned telematic music, laptop ensemble compositions,, immersive electro-acoustic works, interactive sonic installations and machine listening systems.
Jonas Braasch is an experimental soprano saxophonist and acoustician with interests in Telematic Music and Intelligent Music Systems. He has performed with Curtis Bahn, Chris Chafe, Michael Century, Mark Dresser, Pauline Oliveros, Doug van Nort and Stuart Dempster among others. His saxophone style expands the traditional repertoire by incorporating various non-western elements and extended techniques." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| OLSSON, KRISTIAN |
Att Vara Där Jag Var Innan Jag Var Jag |
CD |
The much acclaimed and sold-out debut LP of Kristian Olsson (Alfarmania / B.O.T.C. / Survival Unit etc.) is now made available on compact disc through Old Captain. Originally released in 2010 on the Swedish label Nattmaran in a limited edition. "Att vara där jag var innan jag var jag" contains 10 tracks making for a neck-breaking journey down a rabbit hole paved with rusty metal, the only light coming from cobwebbed, broken lead glass windows. And just when you think you are about to land in a bone-infested, giant badger’s nest, the winding hole takes another turn, and you fall backwards down a chute filled with sharpened rods which have impaled all who have come this way; a never-ending fall into a bottomless pit of despair. The acoustics contained in the tracks are a bit clearer than Olsson’s trademark style, but expect nothing less than a relentless 43-minute gut-punch with an iron-clad skeleton fist. Inspired by drastic changes in the artist’s personal surroundings, the recording is an obituary of a special time in the annals of the Sundsvall catacombs which this artist has frequented for far longer than what the doctor ordered. Recordings were made with the expert operation of the usual electronic nightmare arsenal of the Styggelse satanic whore-lord, in addition to thighbone flutes, bowed cymbals, metal barrels, chains, whips, and just about every other abominable material or implement this filth-pig heathen could assemble from the recesses of his anti-human haunts. With the determination of a snake, the stealth of a panther and the grace of a one-legged terminal patient on an ether binge, Olsson crushes expectations and excels through outright excellence. Limited to 250 copies in a 4-panel matte-laminated black & white Digipak with limited edition of two postcards put into random packs. |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ligranorex |
CD |
"Dark ritualistic post mortem works from Kristian Olsson (Alfarmania / Survival Unit) made in 2012. Originally released as private cassette in small circulation. Here released with one additional track from same period." [label info]
"Kristian Olsson – of Alfarmania and Survival Unit infamy – should really need no introduction. Ligranorex is a solo recording, but not a new one. Originally issued on cassette in 2012, it has been reissued here with an additional track added for good measure.
In a general sense, Kristian’s solo recordings are not light years away from those of Alfarmania; however, a clear differentiator is that his solo recordings are far less aggressive and more ritualized in scope. The opening 22-minute title track, despite its ritualized undercurrent, is overall quite noisy and tonally blustery, begging comparison to Alfarmania works. But from second track Sippurator, the catacombic and esoteric depths at the core of this album are revealed. Here a track of dank cavernous ritualized atmospheres is fully realized, where shuddering darkness comes to life and seems to articulate the psychic membrane separating the real from the unreal and the waking state from the dream. Floating subdued male chants allude to human form, but equally these could be from a netherworld beyond the edges of waking perception. Later, cyclic bass drones provide greater movement to the composition, but the general mood is of drawing you into its fold. Haruspex announces itself with the wailing of a thighbone trumpet, dank and slow-paced ritual percussion, and sparse ceremonial chimes. These sit at the forefront of sound that articulates cavernous archaic depths sonically receding far off into the distance. Spanning 21 minutes, the mood and pacing is slow and drawling, whereas throughout the middle and later sections the percussive pulse becomes more urgent, coupled with a prominent ascending/descending drone loop. Although lerul is noted to be a bonus track, it fits perfectly with the flow, mood, and balance of the album. Grey-hued and tonally stark soundscapes are releveled and further infused with archaic ritual atmospheres. Yet with its incessant bass throb and wavering sustained drones, it at times begins to resemble a slightly more ritualized version of Anenzephalia’s subdued heavy electronics offerings.
Packaging wise, the six-panel digi-pack is exquisitely presented with a selection of Kristian’s artwork, including the same artwork used for the cover of Issue No.3 of Noise Receptor Journal." [Noise Receptor] |
2019 |
€12.50 |
|
| OM |
God is Good |
CD |
"Nichts hat sich verändert, ist man versucht zu denken, beim Hören des vierten OM-Albums. Dabei hat sich sogar eine ganze Menge getan: Mit Schlagzeuger Chris Hakius hat 2008 direkt das halbe Line-up das Duo verlassen (GRAILS-Drummer Emil Amos kam als Ersatz), OM haben zum zweiten Mal das Label gewechselt, sind von Southern Lord zu Drag City gegangen und erstmals hat sich Bassist und Sänger Al Cisneros (wie Hakius einst bei SLEEP) zwei Jahre Zeit mit einem neuen Album gelassen.
Davon abgesehen aber: nichts hat sich verändert. Wobei ... Mit „God Is Good“ scheint die Transformation von einer autark agierenden Rock-Rhythmusfraktion hin zu einer Art, nun ja, musikalischen Gebetsmühle endgültig abgeschlossen zu sein.
Trotz des Albumtitels ist zwar nicht davon auszugehen, dass Cisneros und Amos jetzt an ein Gott-Konstrukt glauben, die Struktur ihrer Musik nimmt aber zunehmend die Form religiöser Chantings an.
Dass das extrem basslastige Schlagzeug dabei Drone-Charakter hat und Cisneros’ Stimme zu den einlullendsten überhaupt gehört, unterstreicht das Hypnotische in OMs Musik nur noch. Auf der Bühne können OM zwar immer noch extrem laut werden – sind dann aber nicht weniger paralysierend – auf „God Is Good“ passiert das aber noch seltener als zuvor." [André Bohnensack, © by Ox-Fanzine / Ausgabe #86 (Oktober/November 2009]
"It's been years now -- just about two, judging from the sun. OM have done their time in the desert, and ever-changing, are returned. Today, they say, God is Good. Are you surprised? Perhaps you've haven't understood what OM was saying to you. But perhaps you felt something... It's true that the one way pursued by OM leads in many different directions. It is a mystic path. Songs come from innumerable sources, filtering through the external and the internal. OM albums are rituals, personal convictions transcripted into verse. Playing the music is visceral, emotional, a catharsis of soul and spirit. As the ghat liberates soul from body to the ultimate, so too do OM strive to disengage from the finite object of their objective mortal self to rest in the empty and timeless witness. And in doing so, they seek to release you as well. As ever, dynamic relationships and the slow building of mood are attenuations that shape the structures of God is Good. With careful microscopic increase, the energy grows through the four songs, leading towards moments that one could interpret...revelation? Oblivion? Awakening? Since 2004, OM have burned their name into the annals, trolled the fertile crescent, faithfully made more out of what little was put into their hands, forged three full-length albums from white-hot evaluations of the infinite. The duo that is OM is composed of bass and drums and whatever else comes into their mind that will serve the song and do it justice. Al Cisneros has been pursuing the pure note as OM (and previously with Sleep) for many years now, but this is the first OM record to feature the battery of Emil Amos, who replaces Chris Haikus in the chair. You can go to the shelf and study it: there are comparative religions, philosophy, metaphysics, mythology, and history. Turn around, and there is OM. Their vibrations of the philosophical and the physical are meant to move you. Believe." [label info]
www.dragcity.com
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
| OMEI |
Black Eyed Angels |
CD-R |
Absolutely stunning, eerie & threatening dark ambience... whispers, dark pulses, endless echo-voices, mighty hiss-fields, anxious spoken words evoke an atmosphere of abuse & violation.. if youre looking for real good doom ambient check this out !
"Nightmarish dark atmospheric soundwork from this Sickness side project." [label info]
|
2002 |
€9.00 |
|
| OMENYA |
Ancient Rites |
CD |
Wonderful OMENYA-work with their mystic ethno-ambient soundscapes, slowly percussive structures, floating drones, guttural voices, deep vibes.... somewhere between or similar to RAPOON, ALIO DIE, URE THRALL / ASIA NOVA..... comes on a new czech label, with beautiful fold-out design showing archaic stone-paintings.... a fabulous one-tracker, very much recommended !!
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Transmissions / Transitions |
7" |
Schöne Single vom US ritual / esoteric ambience Projekt, und gleichzeitig erstes OMENYA-Vinyl ! Seite A sehr spacig-elektronisch-rhythmisch, Seite B ethnisch-atmosphärisch.. handgemacht (bemalte, besprühte & collagierte) Cover!
“Finally, the long awaited Omenya debut on vinyl. Adds a new side to the band´s output, one side rhythmic, one ambient. Hand-made sleeve and hand-painted centre labels! Ltd. ed. 100 copies.”[label info]
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| ON (SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU & STEVEN HESS) |
Your naked Ghost comes back at Night |
CD |
"Das renommierte Electro-Duo trifft auf den Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten:
Bei dem Projekt On handelt es sich um die Kollaboration zwischen dem französischen Komponisten und Produzenten Sylvain Chauveau und dem in Chicago lebenden Percussionisten Steven Hess (Haptic, Pan American). Das Duo wählte schon immer recht seltsame Wege, seine Arbeit zu präsentieren. Doch das Prinzip ist einfach: Die beiden nehmen ein Album auf, um es dann einem Dritten zur Überarbeitung zu geben. Der Remix ist dann das fertige Werk. 2003 wurden über drei Stunden Arbeit vom norwegischen Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten alias Deathprod bearbeitet. Stens charakteristischer Schmuddel-Ambient wird ohrenfällig, wenn er Hess und Chauveaus Kompositionen in einen Sumpf aus tiefem Hall und synthetischem Rauch taucht. Hess’ perkussives Dröhnen ist zum entfernten Summen eines Insektenflügels gefiltert und Chauveaus präparierte Gitarre wird zur tektonischen Unterhaltung zweier Kontinente. Man weiß nicht immer, wann On aufhört und wo Deathprod anfängt, aber das ist auch das Geheimnis dieser Produktion." [label info]
"..Those familiar with Deathprod will instantly recognise Helge Sten’s dense atmospheric structures and minimal and haunting soundscapes. It is, indeed, his presence which is felt the most on this record, as he manipulates Chauveau’s guitar textures into vast sonic plains and retains very few recognisable traces of the original sound sources. Hess’s percussions are even more treated and only seem to appear as occasional seismic pulses, sending shockwaves deep within the sound formations, or as distant textural touches. Album opener Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night And Flies Around My Bed is based on a slowly evolving warm and opaque drone upon which are added a few brushes of distortions stretched to the point where they become extremely polished and sleek. Erotique, which follows, opens with the distant rumble of percussions, but darker forms soon roll in and give this piece a stark desolate feel at the opposite end of the scale of what its title suggests.
Later on, on Facade, Sten uses metallic percussions as main element, progressively drawing them out into a much more compact and dense cloud of noise over the twelve minutes of the piece, while retaining the rich hue of the original component. Elsewhere, In The Forest Of The Night appears as dense but it is sign-posted with regular pulses which, while never dragging the piece out of its original torpor, brighten up its path. Too Many Demons Still Haunt This Land and The Lonesome Poetry Of Mark Rothko, which closes this album, are much darker and incredibly vast, as persistent winds blow upon barren landscapes and swallow the most vivid sonic details which attempt to arise, leaving these two pieces in a permanent state of darkness. The latter especially, stretching over seventeen and a half minutes, is an incredibly haunting moment, which, after over twelve minutes of deep-space like noises, begins to open up to a more peaceful and almost melodic sound form.
With Helge Sten applying his touch and aesthetic to the original pieces recorded by Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess, it is totally impossible to even envisage what these may have sounded. And while the sound sources were created by the pair, ultimately, this album sounds like the work of Sten. This however never hinders its impact in any way, the resulting compositions working extremely well together to create an intense and moody journey through some of the most stunning atmospheric soundscapes heard since SAWII." [The Milkfactory]
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Your naked Ghost comes back at Night |
do-LP |
"Das renommierte Electro-Duo trifft auf den Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten:
Bei dem Projekt On handelt es sich um die Kollaboration zwischen dem französischen Komponisten und Produzenten Sylvain Chauveau und dem in Chicago lebenden Percussionisten Steven Hess (Haptic, Pan American). Das Duo wählte schon immer recht seltsame Wege, seine Arbeit zu präsentieren. Doch das Prinzip ist einfach: Die beiden nehmen ein Album auf, um es dann einem Dritten zur Überarbeitung zu geben. Der Remix ist dann das fertige Werk. 2003 wurden über drei Stunden Arbeit vom norwegischen Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten alias Deathprod bearbeitet. Stens charakteristischer Schmuddel-Ambient wird ohrenfällig, wenn er Hess und Chauveaus Kompositionen in einen Sumpf aus tiefem Hall und synthetischem Rauch taucht. Hess’ perkussives Dröhnen ist zum entfernten Summen eines Insektenflügels gefiltert und Chauveaus präparierte Gitarre wird zur tektonischen Unterhaltung zweier Kontinente. Man weiß nicht immer, wann On aufhört und wo Deathprod anfängt, aber das ist auch das Geheimnis dieser Produktion." [label info]
"..Those familiar with Deathprod will instantly recognise Helge Sten’s dense atmospheric structures and minimal and haunting soundscapes. It is, indeed, his presence which is felt the most on this record, as he manipulates Chauveau’s guitar textures into vast sonic plains and retains very few recognisable traces of the original sound sources. Hess’s percussions are even more treated and only seem to appear as occasional seismic pulses, sending shockwaves deep within the sound formations, or as distant textural touches. Album opener Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night And Flies Around My Bed is based on a slowly evolving warm and opaque drone upon which are added a few brushes of distortions stretched to the point where they become extremely polished and sleek. Erotique, which follows, opens with the distant rumble of percussions, but darker forms soon roll in and give this piece a stark desolate feel at the opposite end of the scale of what its title suggests.
Later on, on Facade, Sten uses metallic percussions as main element, progressively drawing them out into a much more compact and dense cloud of noise over the twelve minutes of the piece, while retaining the rich hue of the original component. Elsewhere, In The Forest Of The Night appears as dense but it is sign-posted with regular pulses which, while never dragging the piece out of its original torpor, brighten up its path. Too Many Demons Still Haunt This Land and The Lonesome Poetry Of Mark Rothko, which closes this album, are much darker and incredibly vast, as persistent winds blow upon barren landscapes and swallow the most vivid sonic details which attempt to arise, leaving these two pieces in a permanent state of darkness. The latter especially, stretching over seventeen and a half minutes, is an incredibly haunting moment, which, after over twelve minutes of deep-space like noises, begins to open up to a more peaceful and almost melodic sound form.
With Helge Sten applying his touch and aesthetic to the original pieces recorded by Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess, it is totally impossible to even envisage what these may have sounded. And while the sound sources were created by the pair, ultimately, this album sounds like the work of Sten. This however never hinders its impact in any way, the resulting compositions working extremely well together to create an intense and moody journey through some of the most stunning atmospheric soundscapes heard since SAWII." [The Milkfactory]
CD-version available too, 16 Euro !
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Something that has Form and Something that does not |
CD |
"Der US-Schlagzeuger Steven Hess und der französische Instrumentalmusiker Sylvain Chauveau bilden zusammen das Projekt On, "Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not" ist ihr drittes Album, auf dem sie ihren abstrakten, experimentellen Sound zu neuen Höhen verhelfen. Wie schon auf früheren Werken wurden die aufgenommenen Improvisationen einem Gastmusiker überantwortet, der mit ihnen machen konnte, was er wollte. Diesmal war es der Experimentalpionier Christian Fennesz, der das Gehörte überarbeitete, neu arrangierte und komponierte. Fennesz kennt das Duo seit 2004, und es war nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis auch er sich mal ans Werk machen durfte. Die Quellsounds behandelte er mit einer gewissen Leichtigkeit, die ihnen das Atmen ermöglichte. Teilweise hört man Raumgeräusche, die zum Rückgrat intensiver, sich langsam aufbauender Dronescapes werden. Nein, "Something That Has Form..." ist sicher kein Easy Listening, das Album erfordert Hingabe und Konzentration, die allerdings mit der Offenbarung reiner Schönheit belohnt werden." [label info / indigo]
" ‘Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not’ is the third album from Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess under their On moniker, and continues their excavation of abstracted experimental sounds. As with the previous records, improvisations were recorded in a studio in Chicago and then handed to a guest musician to rework in whichever way they saw fit, and this time around the guest musician is none other than experimental pioneer Christian Fennesz. Christian’s association with the band goes way back – he performed with them in 2004 as a trio so it seemed almost inevitable that a collaboration would emerge at some point, but this treatment truly takes the notion of collaboration to another place entirely.
Unlike ‘Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night’ (which was handled by dark-ambient master Deathprod), Fennesz has treated the source sounds with a distinct lightness, allowing them to creak and breathe. Occasionally you can hear the room itself ticking in the foreground – hands on drumsticks and feet on pedals. The sounds become the backbone of the intense, slow-building dronescapes that Fennesz pulls from the original recordings. We are treated to piercing noise as the album opens with a choir of feedback, but the cacophony gradually disperses to allow pulsing harmony and Steven Hess’s propulsive, metronomic drumming.
When we close on the blissful near 20-minute ‘The Sound Of White’, echoes of Fennesz’s best work drifts through the crackle and pulse of Sylvain Chauveau’s prepared guitar and Hess’s distant percussion. These hypnotic patterns slowly rise and fall, giving the listener time to truly hear each subtle shift. This is not an exercise in easy listening – rather here is an album that demands close attention, and one where the beauty truly is in the details." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Something that has Form and Something that does not |
LP |
"Der US-Schlagzeuger Steven Hess und der französische Instrumentalmusiker Sylvain Chauveau bilden zusammen das Projekt On, "Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not" ist ihr drittes Album, auf dem sie ihren abstrakten, experimentellen Sound zu neuen Höhen verhelfen. Wie schon auf früheren Werken wurden die aufgenommenen Improvisationen einem Gastmusiker überantwortet, der mit ihnen machen konnte, was er wollte. Diesmal war es der Experimentalpionier Christian Fennesz, der das Gehörte überarbeitete, neu arrangierte und komponierte. Fennesz kennt das Duo seit 2004, und es war nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis auch er sich mal ans Werk machen durfte. Die Quellsounds behandelte er mit einer gewissen Leichtigkeit, die ihnen das Atmen ermöglichte. Teilweise hört man Raumgeräusche, die zum Rückgrat intensiver, sich langsam aufbauender Dronescapes werden. Nein, "Something That Has Form..." ist sicher kein Easy Listening, das Album erfordert Hingabe und Konzentration, die allerdings mit der Offenbarung reiner Schönheit belohnt werden." [label info / indigo]
" ‘Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not’ is the third album from Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess under their On moniker, and continues their excavation of abstracted experimental sounds. As with the previous records, improvisations were recorded in a studio in Chicago and then handed to a guest musician to rework in whichever way they saw fit, and this time around the guest musician is none other than experimental pioneer Christian Fennesz. Christian’s association with the band goes way back – he performed with them in 2004 as a trio so it seemed almost inevitable that a collaboration would emerge at some point, but this treatment truly takes the notion of collaboration to another place entirely.
Unlike ‘Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night’ (which was handled by dark-ambient master Deathprod), Fennesz has treated the source sounds with a distinct lightness, allowing them to creak and breathe. Occasionally you can hear the room itself ticking in the foreground – hands on drumsticks and feet on pedals. The sounds become the backbone of the intense, slow-building dronescapes that Fennesz pulls from the original recordings. We are treated to piercing noise as the album opens with a choir of feedback, but the cacophony gradually disperses to allow pulsing harmony and Steven Hess’s propulsive, metronomic drumming.
When we close on the blissful near 20-minute ‘The Sound Of White’, echoes of Fennesz’s best work drifts through the crackle and pulse of Sylvain Chauveau’s prepared guitar and Hess’s distant percussion. These hypnotic patterns slowly rise and fall, giving the listener time to truly hear each subtle shift. This is not an exercise in easy listening – rather here is an album that demands close attention, and one where the beauty truly is in the details." [label info]
www.typerecords.com |
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| ONDO |
Mahavishnu |
CD |
Geheimtip aus Schweden aus dem Doom-Drone-Metal Bereich: ONDO erschaffen den absoluten Katakomben & Gruft-Sound, auf tiefsten Höllenschlünden scheint ihr frei-flottierender Angst-Metal-Drone zu stammen, das ganze klingt sehr eigenständig und authenthisch & tief melancholisch....
"The majestic debut full length album from Sweden's Ondo. Intricate, textured doomed drone, blackened ambience and lush nocturnal electronica, delicately crafted into a dark cinematic vision. A shadow dreamscape of overpowering density, akin to an intoxicating fusion of early Earth, Raison D'Etre and a touch of the shimmering haze of Fennesz, perhaps? Presented as a limited edition of 500 copies only, in dvd presentation box with full colour art." [label info]
".... Whereas that cd-r was a single looooong song, this disc is split into distinct movements, each a bleak and caustic chunk of truly ominous ambience. Actually, there is so much stuff going on, and this is so dark and heavy, it’s almost disingenuous to call it ambient music. This is cinematic abstract free noise drone music. Heavy enough to worm its way inside the ears of drone inclined metalheads, but dark and blissed out enough to keep the drone obsessed in downtuned druggy nirvana.
The label mentions early Earth, Raison D’Etre and Fennesz, and damn if all three of those don’t definitely apply. Pretty melodies are buried under slabs of grinding buzz, chords are woven into undulating sheets of fuzzy sound, everything is hissy and glitchy, with a gauzy sheen. Imagine Earth 2 as reimagined by Christian Fennesz and you might be getting close. Chords and notes, churn and throb, blackened sounds pulse ominously enveloping crystalline shimmers and music box like melodies, voices and samples are chopped up and distorted, riffs are pulled apart into washed out smears of sound. Some of the tracks definitely border on serious doom territory, while others are blurred distorted dreamscapes, all skittery and smeared, dark pianos, radio distortion and amp buzz, distant melodic whir, all tangled into something creepy and beautiful, strings draped over crumbling industrial crunch, all woven around heaving heaviness, rendered in slow moving swells. Way recommended for fans of things slow and low, dark and doomy, murky and mysterious.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Packaged in a white dvd style case, with a full color cover and printed black and white insert." [Aquarius Records review]
www.paradigms-recordings.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Sol |
CD-R |
"ONDO started in 2007 under the rule of C-J Larsgarden who had been performing under name PACTA before that. Since then the project has released several albums ranging from good to excellent. Style of the project is varying from work to work from raw Drone Doom with Industrial touch to abstract Drone Ambient with melodies and melancholy.
Sol album is filled with bells, reversed sounds, spectre piano melodies and other hissing and whistling beauty of unknown source as well as sounds of bonefires and voices from afar. The most similar projects as we see it are OMENYA, raison d'etre and, of course, some tracks of TROUM.
Format: CD-r Edition: 100 copies." [label info]
www.abgurd.com
|
2010 |
€9.00 |
|
| ONODERA, YUI |
Synergetics |
7inch |
Zwei Stücke mit feinsten ozeanischen Drones, basierend auf Piano und Gitarre. YUI ONODERA ist ein Musiker, Filmemacher und Konzert-organisator aus Tokio, und auch mit eigenen Label "Critical Path" aktiv!
"YUI ONODERA is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Tokyo, who runs his own label 'Critical Path' to find "new ways to listen to sound" and who is also active in organizing concerts, composing soundtracks for experimental films and in designing sounds for contemporary dance & Butoh.
On "Synergetics", he presents two tracks of very minimal and quiet oceanic drones, based on guitar and piano. The music shimmers like light-reflections on water in extreme slow motion, when single recognizable tunes appear. Music for full concentration and contemplation, almost feathery and warm.
File under: Silence-Drones. BLUE-WHITE VINYL. MINIMALLY SELF-MADE PRINTED COVERS WITH INLAY." [press release]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Le Jardin |
mCD-R |
Es gibt wohl zur Zeit nur wenig ambient / drone Musik, die subtiler, zarter und fragiler daherkommt als die Kompositionen des Japaners YUI ONODERA. Auf "Le Jardin" werden weich wallende Klänge von Gitarre & Violine und tieffrequent pulsierende Synths verwendet, aber auch solche die durch "electroanalysis sound of water" entstanden sind (was immer das genau sein mag). 4 Stücke die eine besondere Atmosphäre hervorzaubern, die im Kern auf die totale Stille & Ruhe zu veweisen scheint..
So viel authentische Schönheit & Transzendenz verträgt man kaum...
"minimal & melodic drones composed by this japanese artist who's just released a 7" in the Drone Records series. full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by cyril herry." [label info]
label: www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Entropy |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des ersten ONODERA-Albums von 2005 (als CDR erschienen auf seinem eigenen kleinen Label), zu dem wir vermerkten: "A new project from Tokyo with minimal “concrete” & drone-compositions....extremely nice & dense......hyper-subtle stuff.... ..derived from field recordings, guitar-sounds, electronics. Definitely Recommended ! 10tracks/total time 47m11s."
"A new label from Japan, this Trumn and the presentation is nice: sturdy card stock, like a small folder. The first one is by Yui Onodera, no stranger in the land of the weekly (see for instance the weeklies 590, 608 and 611), with his carefully constructed sonic silence. He uses field recordings, electric guitars and computer processing for his music - lots of computer processing. The result is a work in ten parts, all untitled, all flowing right into eachother. Each is a block by itself - static without many moving around and each has a similar built up, fade in, fade in and stays where it is, so small gaps of silence appear between the songs, but essentially, I think, its a one unified work. Highly microsound, and nothing new as such in that particular line of music, but Onodera does things pretty well, I think. 'Entropy', in all its silence-ness is a great work." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.trumn.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| ONRUST |
Tagore | Luthuli |
12inch |
"Onrust is Dutch for unrest, turmoil, agitation, disquiet. Wendy Mulder, the sole member of ONRUST has been succesfully exploring the wondrous world of analogue synths, drum machines, strange pedals and cable spaghetti for a while now. She describes her music as spherical electronic industrial but that just doesn't do her work justice. Think of a hypnotic yet minimal and old-school sounding mixture of Orphx, Esplendor Geometrico and Pan Sonic instead, combining cold industrial beats with a distinct feminine sublety and attention for detail.
Tagore/Luthuli is her first vinyl release, after having released the 3"cdr Nelson/Marquez (Usain Bolt Records) and a split tape with Belgian droner Monnik (Wool-E Tapes/Consouling Sounds) and having been featured on 2 compilations." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| OORCHACH |
Chtonikka |
CD |
Zweites Album für diese uns bisher gänzlich unbekannte Band aus Litauen - ihr elektronischer Post-Industrial wird gefüttert von pulsierenden dunklen Synth-Flächen, hypnotisch-repetitiven Beats (mal subtil mal bombastischer), Noises / Samples und beschwörenden Vocals & Geflüster das eher im Hintergrund bleiben und dem ganzen eine rituelle Komponente geben... Anklänge an DEUTSCH NEPAL, MEGAPTERA, etc.. recht "klassische" Sounds also, aber überzeugend arrangiert, entfaltet CTHONIKA eine sofortige, düstere Sogwirkung.
"Chtonikka is the second album of OORCHACH, Lithuanian post industrial project. Six new tracks are dedicated to the arcane world Chtonikka whose vision the author conveys through the gloomy industrial loops, coarse and dirty lo-fi sound. Powerful tribal rhythms provide the tracks with vehement dynamics, while the album as a whole smacks of strong archaic mood." [label info]
".... This album is full of visions, but it does not give you neither questions nor answers. If you need them - search for yourself. It is meditative wade in the wet grass. Still, once you see the vision of Chtonikka, you won't be able to return to your "normal" life. This darkness infects you and stays deeply in the head. But you know that one day it will strike and then you'll leave everything and go, following the footsteps of the ritual. There, where nobody would find you." [Terror.Lt]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA |
Radio Music (extended) |
CD |
"The composition Radio Music Extended, performed by Opening Performance Orchestra, draws upon the concept John Cage brought to bear in his piece Radio Music from 1956. In collaboration with the Tesla Museum in Trest, whose collections include unique exhibits of radio electronic and audio-visual devices, the 72-minute piece Radio Music Extended came into being during a private live performance in July 2018. The seven members of Opening Performance Orchestra and two alternating guests operated 13 historical radio sets, dating from between 1935 and 1961. Over the past 60 years or so, the content of the broadcast band of the airwaves has significantly changed, yet the acoustic environment has remained highly variegated, providing a novel quality of sound. Used radios at eight workstations for the performers: Empo Radio, Major 413 (1940) Tesla Jalta 28063 'T61' (1961) Bezdra Special 47 (1947) Philips 450 A-14 (1938) Tesla 420U (1956) Iron Brno, Penta (1941) Blaupunkt Ideal Radio, S6640 (1940) Microphona MK304 (1935/36) Philips BA21 1U Grandezza (1954) Tesla 306U Talisman (1954) Tesla 406U Vlatva (1952) Resla Copélia 1107A (1961) Resla 409U (1954)."
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/radio-music-extended-based-on-john-cages-radio-music
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| OPIUM |
Floatdownstream |
CD-R |
Das besondere an OPIUMS Transzendental-Ambient sind die ethnischen Original-Sounds, die sehr dezent und hintergründig im Klangfluss sichtbar werden (Didj, Perkussion, östliche Blas- und Streichinstrumente, Feldaufnahmen...
Behutsame Dreamscapes, die gleichzeitig entrancen und sensibilisieren. Referenzen: TUU, ALIO DIE, GRASSOW....
“An appealing and inspired work of classic ritual ambient music, with obscure and dilated sounds... Extraordinary and evocative atmospheres, for a sonic continuum based on articulate electronic waves, flowing pads, voices, percussions, ethnic strings and wind instruments, sitar, didjeridoo, natural noises recordings... Elegant, catchy, moving... Absolutely not to miss.“ [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Etere |
mCD-R |
"Known for his solo albums on respected ambient labels like hic sunt leones or silentes, as well as numerous collaborations with stefano musso/alio die (sola translatio) or francesco paladino (nosesoul), italian ambient master teo zini describes opium sound as "a river of different frequencies". a perfect definition of "etere": luxurious ambient with multiple layers & samples, ethnic percussion and field recordings... "
[label info]
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Algorithms |
CD |
Very nice work again from Italian's OPIUM, quite dense & almost "cosmic" ambient, but with enough variation and a slight experimental edge, using concrete sounds that are perfectly arranged in the mix, but also slow & more "ethnic " percussion & pulses... somewhere between STEVE ROACH, OÖPHOI, ALIO DIE and darker stuff like HERBST9...
"Classically elegant and extremely refined ambient music. Multi-dimensional sounds that are warm and enveloping. An emotional travelogue, starting dramatically, then taking the listener down a slower path, comfortably easing you into a long and fascinating sonic trip, where the sounds grow wide and large, and finally crumble inward, then regenerate, returning for another phase. A new sonic alchemy, and an entirely new world of soothing sounds for the adventurous listener to visit." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| OPIUM / SOSTRAH TINNITUS |
Stain |
CD |
"Warm, involving, deep and penetrating sounds... Flowing sounds patterns, vibrating drones permeated by a discreet sense of tension, evolving in dark, obscure, foggy, nocturnal atmospheres, violated by raven voices, mysterious noises and sounds of metal objects in motion... And then concrete noises, confused and elusive melodies, feeble light flashes, buried echoes of human voices, distantr whispers, sudden passages of rough sounds, undefined nuisances, subliminal and hypnotic sequences, just like a recollection of unreal and dusty sounds from an old carillon... An extraordinary and not to be missed journey in the darkness, lead with great skill by two of the most remarkable artists coming from the Italian ambient/dark-ambient scene of the last decade." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| OPSVIK & JENNINGS |
Commuter Anthems |
CD |
" 'Commuter Anthems' ist das zweite Album von EIVIND OPSVIK und AARON JENNINGS; aber ihr erstes für Rune Grammofon. EIVIND OPSVIK stammt ursprünglich aus Oslo, lebt aber seit 1998 in New York. Er fing an, Schlagzeug zu spielen, als er noch sehr klein war, legte sich im Teenagealter auf den Bass fest und experimentierte mit einem Vierspur-Aufnahmegerät. AARON JENNINGS aus Tulsa, Oklahoma, ist mit Leib und Seele Gitarrist und Liebhaber von allerlei Computersoftware. Er zog nach Beendigung des Colleges nach New York, um dort in einer Vielzahl Musikprojekte mitzuwirken. Im Laufe seiner Karriere hat sich Aaron immer mehr auf Free Jazz und Electronica gestürzt, dieser Tage jedoch kennt man ihn mehr als einen Musiker, der sich im Reich der experimentellen Popmusik bestens auskennt. Wie mit vielen Rune Grammofon Releases ist es auch schwierig, ein passendes Genre-Etikett auf 'Commuter Anthems' zu kleben. Beide Musiker stammen aus einem Jazz-Background, aber das ist nur ein kleiner Teil des Gesamtkunstwerkes. Einflüsse aus Folk und Country machen ,Commuter Anthems" zu einem sehr relaxten Album, während Gitarren, Standbass, Concertina, Orgel, Steelgitarre, Banjo und verschiedenen Aufnahmetechniken und Softwarespielereien eine cineastische Geschichte erzählen, die von einem verträumten experimentellen Pop-Orchester umgesetzt wird." [label info]
"With "Commuter Anthems" Eivind Opsvik and Aaron Jennings present their second album. Their first one, "Floyel Files" (NCM East) dates from 2005. Mister Opsvik comes from Oslo, living in the States since 1998, and playing bass in too many groups and projects to mention here. To put it simply, he is deeply involved in the New York Downtown scene. Jennings is a guitarplayer who has his roots in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But who is also living nowadays in New York. To give a first hint for what they are up to on their new album, we can say it fits perfectly within the well-defined aesthetics of the Rune Grammophon label. "Commuter Anthems" is an interesting melting pot of a great many influences: easy listening, film music, muzak, jazz, pop, Bill Frisell, postrock, etc. It is evident that Jennings and Opvsik take their inspiration from almost everywhere. But nowhere the music sounds meaninglessly eclectic. No, they succeed from their various inspirations and experiences to create a very original musical universe, that result in a very satisfying musical experience. Opsvik plays double bass, electric bass, drums, percussion, piano, organ, theremin, vocals and software. Jennings: electric and acoustic guitars, lap steel, banjo, concertina, vocals, software and electronics. In some tracks they helped out by Ben Gernstein (trombone), Rich Johnson (trumpet) and Peter Opsvik (flute). So you understand this a real studio-product. But the music is very open and sounds loosely constructed, sometimes even in a collage-like way. The music they create is very accessible on the hand, and may pass by without noticing it like some ambient music, when listening superficially. The reward comes from listening with more concentration. As said above they use a great diversity of sounds and instruments, and they paint very colorful pieces with good feeling for style and a great sense for detail and finesse. Also their music is very well constructed in an inventive and original way, far from any cliché. Funny to find this sense for musical adventure within this friendly and comforting music. A great album. [DM / Vital Weekly]
www.runegrammofon.com |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| OPTICAL MUSICS |
The First Words. Recordings 1984-1987 |
do-CD & BOOK |
"Optical Musics is a pioneering Greek avant-experimental project, founded by Costis Drygianakis and a group of people, formed in Volos. They were early experimenting with musical forms like free improvisation and electroacoustic experimentation etc, creating a highly personal musical idiom. From 1984 to mid-1987 the group started to make their most absurd home recording. The line-up of the group changed several times acted like an open collective, with the line-up of the group, focused more on experimentation with custom instruments, child instruments, synthesisers, bass etc. The most sophisticated recordings was used for the the disc “Optical Musics Volume 1” LP, released in 1987. Some other recordings of that period was used / recycled in personal works by Kostis Drygianaki like “Post-visual landscapes” (EDO, CD, 1999) and “Eantaisglossaistonanthroponlalokaitonangelon” (EDO, CD, 1999).
The “First Words: recordings 1984 – 1987”, that is presented here, is including 27 unpublished works of the group, maybe their more rough material, which were then a work-in-progress or “unfinished” tracks, covering a wide range of musical experimentation (free improvisation, minimalism, avant gard). With this publication, we are very happy to bring to light recordings of Optical Musics, a group that at that period did not get the publicity they deserved, but in the future their music influenced a younger generation of people in Greece that involved in the Greek experimental music scene.
Optical Musics’s “First Words: recordings 1984 – 1987” is out as a 2x CD with a book (Greek + English version) of 64 pages, full with information and images of that period. The recordings include alphabetically the musicians: Takis Agrigiannis, Kostas Anestis, Giannis Argyropoulos, Eleni Barouksi, Costis Drygianakis, Christos Kaltis, Aleksis Karavergos, Kostas Kostopoulos, Nikos Ksirakis, Kostas Pantopoulos, Thanasis Chondros, Aleksandra Katsiani. This release is a collaboration of the labels moremars, Hxoi Kato Apo To Spiti and Noise Below."
www.moremars.org
"These two releases are very much connected. The double CD and booklet provides a proper
historical context for the Greek band Optical Musics, in their earliest years, 1984-1987, while on cassette main member Costis Drygianakis performs 'a reconstruction of underestimated and
mislaid recordings from the period 1984-1987', so perhaps something we would have called back
then 'recycled'; taking recordings apart and put them together in a totally different way. Best
turned to the two CDs first, and the highly informative book that comes with (64 pages, 7"x7" sized) this music. I reviewed their 'Volume 2' before, all the way in Vital Weekly 66, and it's is possible that I also did 'Volume 1' when Vital (without weekly) was printed on paper, but I guess we have to wait for the complete volume to re-appear (later this year!). Back then in VW 66 I had some problem with saying something sensible about the group, but now I learned that they started in 1984 as a fleeting membership group and that they were inspired by visual elements, scores, photos, to play their improvised music, or better taking their cue from John Zorn's 'I compose improvised music', and apparently using the studio as an extra instrument. I must admit that notion is a bit beyond me when hearing this. I gather I was expecting something along the lines of P16.D4 is that respect but that seems not to be the case. Much of what they do sound improvised, composed or otherwise, leaving space for non conventional instruments, such as 'pruning shears, ground connector, drawer, children's toys, next to bass, guitar, lots of drums and percussion and a variety of organ sounds (casio MT65 and PT 30) and synthesizer, the trusted Yamaha DX-7. As we progress through the recordings it becomes evident that the band learned to play and structures become more complex, layered together (as opposed to the two-track stereo recordings on the first disc), allowing a bit more (free-) jazz elements; sometimes it is all electronic and almost musique concrete, and at other times it is more like free rock, although Optical Musics never hammer away. It is, all in all, quite a diverse release, and while not
always something that I enjoyed (too random at times), it was a fine archival release."
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| ORA |
Morgendämmerung |
10inch |
Poetisch schöner, mit field recordings durchsetzter “mysterious drone-ambient” vom britischen Projekt......
”This 10inch vinyl only release by ORA, a group project which mainly consisted of Andrew Chalk, Colin Potter and Darren Tate - who both later moved on to become MONOS - active between 1991 -1998 features two hauntingly athmospheric tracks from their rare 'New Movements In G' CDR (150 copies) originally released on Darren Tate's own Gnome Records label in 1998, and were not included on the two Ora retrospective CD compilations 'Final' and 'After The Rainfall' (both on Colin Potter's own ICR label). For these recordings Ora were: Darren Tate, Colin Potter, Lol Coxhill, Daisuke Suzuki on the A-Side 'The Sun Sheds A Golden Tear', and Darren Tate & Colin Potter on the B-Side 'The Impregnable'.
Cover photography by Darren Tate. Inner sleeve artwork by Helen Potter. Cover design by Jonathan Coleclough. Edition of 500 copies in full color sleeve on clear vinyl.....”[label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| ORATORY OF DIVINE LOVE |
Meditatio |
CD |
"...Meditatio is a circle in the world, pointing us through to something ineluctable, indubitable, something which empirical scepticism must pre-suppose in order to grumpily dismiss. It is hard to explain this CD in words because it transcends them into experience so marvellously. The sounds ebb and flow like tides with the moon to carry us into different valences and intensities of emotion, space and presence. The whole CD feels like a prelude or an aftermath, all at once, a sustained moment drawn out for almost an hour like a tantric orgasm (though of course less pyrotechnic!). That I find myself resorting to outlandish metaphysical analogies to try to explain this release can be taken as a sign that it is worth your purchasing and meditating on. This is ambient music which truly captures the powerful consciousness-transforming potential of this genre of music. Recommended, recommended, recommended, recommended." [Henry Lauer, Heathen Harvest]
"One of the children of John Gore (aka 'kirchenkampf'), The Oratory Of Divine Love presents here their third CD: a fifty-plus minute track of ambient electronic drone that, with gradual progression, features melodies and voices filtering in and out throughout the sound. Though a generally contemplative recording, the piece is quite engaging and will elicit the attention of all who enjoy experimental and drone musics. Previous recordings under this name have been issued by EE Tapes and Waystyx. Housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORCHARD [AIDAN BAKER, GASPAR CLAUS, FRANCK LAURINO] |
Serendipity |
do-LP |
"It was only a matter of time before Stéphane Grégoire - artistic director of the label - regained his now well-known desire to bring about improbable meetings between artists he really likes. This new project goes by the name of Orchard and is in the succession of This Immortal Coil and Numbers Not Names. These projects are quite apart in the label's catalogue and could be described as daring bets with one simple objective - to give life to an intuitive idea. At the end of October 2016, the four musicians in question - Aidan Baker (Nadja), Gaspar Claus (Pedro Soler, Angélique Ionatos, etc.), Franck Laurino (Zéro) and Maxime Tisserand (Chapelier Fou) - met for the first time. The recording took place at the l'Autre Canal in Nancy (France). The sessions were intensive and created an extremely specific context in which the musicians were confined. This atmosphere spontaneously brought about strong cohesion which led the group to produce a real break with its environment, easily freeing themselves from the closed-in walls of the studios to imagine an organic music rather like the photographs by Francis Meslet which illustrate the cover art."
"Another supergroup curation by ici d’ailleurs director Stéphane Grégoire, Orchard consists of Nadja’s Aidan Baker, Pedro Solo’s Gaspar Claus, Zéro’s Frank Laurino and Chapier Fou’s Maxime Tisserand. The quartet, strangers at the time of curation, hit it off with strong improvisations of ambientish post-rock - not unlike ol’ Tortoise. Appropriately, beautiful photos of an orchard comprise the artwork." [Norman Rec]
|
2017 |
€22.50 |
|
| ORCHESTRAMAXFIELDPARRISH |
The Silent Breath of Emptiness |
CD |
Geheimtip für Freunde von orchestralem Ambient.. dieses wallende Meer entstand "live in one take", basierend auf Gitarrenklängen (diese sind allerdings kaum noch auszumachen); 50 Minuten lang.
"(fs7) - Limited edition full color digipak with obi strip. The first new full length orchestramaxfieldparrish work since 2002's highly revered 'Tears' is now scheduled to be released January 1, 2008, titled The Silent Breath Of Emptiness. This new recording consists of an improvised solo electric guitar soundscape originally intended for an exhibition of local area visual artists that never came to be. This piece was totally improvised, recorded live and captured in one take and then divided into 4 parts. No overdubs were done so as to not augment the original intention of the piece. A reconstruction of the entire work is included as the fifth track. Recorded and mastered in 96K 24 bit audiophile audio. Beautifully presented in a full color limited edition digipak with matte varnish. First edition includes a handmade obi strip of vellum only available direct here and not through other distributors.." [label info]
www.faithstrange.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Crossing of Shadows |
CD |
"orchestramaxfieldparrish's Crossing Of Shadows is a dark collection of lamentations originally recorded in 2006 and only released in a small private pressing in 2007 and has now undergone a remix and remastering. This new edition of six improvised electronic compositions is based on field recordings both left unprocessed and severely reprocessed, with added guitar, piano, voices and electronics, creating a musical path beginning from a place of extreme darkness and culminating in a point of light and hope. Recorded and mastered in 96K 24 bit audiophile audio. Included is a reconstructed version of 'Thirst' which first appeared on the Caligari - An Exquisite Corpse dvd release through the Chain Tape Collective.
There are two limited editions of this release, with the first being a hard cover book bound artist edition. This First Edition is 75 copies and will have elegantly handcrafted covers made from the finest papers and photographic printing. The Second Edition is for 225 copies and will be in a Japanese style mini lp sleeve. Total one time press of 300." [label info]
www.faithstrange.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| ORCHESTRAMAXFIELDPARRISH PRESENTS AERA |
To the last man / Index of Dreaming |
do-CD |
"... The two halves of this album are individually named possibly as an indication of content or possibly as a thematic device for Mike’s overarching driving concept. Either way they encompass a sumptuous and engrossing set of ambient music. Utilising, slow snowfalls of drones, showers of micro-tones and some well chosen field recordings Mike has created a set that fills a room with a cushion of sound
It’s difficult to give you a straight and easy description of the music. It is, by turn, the purest of ambient - like Eno at his best - before morphing into the most uncomfortable of atmospheres - dripping with discomfort and trepidation. His music is as slow and stark as the winter months and as lush and vibrant as the summer ones. Always recommended." [Wonderfulwoodenreasons]
"Faith Strange Recordings has just issued it's first double cd as of January, 2009. This is a new electronic excursion filling two full cds of recordings from orchestramaxfieldparrish and issued under the project name of orchestramaxfieldparrish presents ÆRA.
A beautifully detailed and rich sonic palette exploring the fleeting aspects of memory and dreams. These recordings manage to strike an artistic balance between adventurousness and a neo-classical sensibility, combined with a keen perception of aural sculpture. In a genre that brims with derivations, To The Last Man / Index Of Dreaming is something way ahead of the curve.
Issued in a limited edition 2xCD package in a Japanese style double mini lp gatefold sleeve. Two hours of wide open vistas and introspective private rooms." [label info]
www.faithstrange.com
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
| ORCHIS |
A thousand Winters |
CD |
"ORCHIS is an English Dark Folk band consisting of Tracy Jeffery (who also sings with Cunnan and J Greco's SQE), Amanda Prouten and Alan Trench (Cunnan, SQE, Twelve Thousand Days(with Martyn Bates), Temple Music). We have so far managed to release four albums to date starting in 1994 with The Dancing Sun (cryptanthus /World Serpent), which was more a collection of formative pieces than anything else, then in 1997 the concept album that was A Thousand Winters (cryptanthus / World Serpent). Mandragora (Trisol), an alchemical album based around the themes of life, death and the transmutation of the soul followed in 1999 and in 2001 Trait (a ‘best of’ released through the Russian Brudenia label). Relocation and various tedious problems put ORCHIS on the back burner for a while whilst we buried ourselves in other projects like the busy bunnies we are; we raised our heads out of the mire again in 2007 with the ‘Other Days’ download ep via the (now sadly defunct) Woven Wheat Whispers legal folk download service... There have been numerous compilation album appearances over the years, with some tracks turning up on the ‘Trait’ album. We like to think, as the Fairports had it, that we are Nicely Out Of Tune - there was the odd perfect take, but those were never the ones that went on the albums - rather it was the ones that kept to the True Spirit....
For now, we are happy, to inform you about the important, re-release of the second long-play, from this Esoteric Dark Folk band!.
A TOUSAND WINTERS it is improbable result of the deep mystical experiences embodied in studio work! It's a сonceptual album, with Grand Theme: The story of one part of Europe is extraordinarily like every other part; a thriving pagan culture that at first laughs in derision at the priests of the desert messiah, and then is slowly submerged by the rising tide of christianity until all that remains is folk memory and old tales and songs. The cult of the Nazarene has built many truly awe-inspiring cathedrals from the blood of the people of Europe whilst incorporating and subverting their culture into that of the Blood of the Lamb.
We can to tell that on music, it is mystical dark folk with an impurity of a classical English psychedelia of the end 60th or "Psychic TV" pouring "Allegory and Self" / "Trip Reset", probably to draw parallels with early works In Gowan Ring, but these words and comparisons it will be final a little what to describe music of great group! This inexpressible travel one way...
Now this album also the important part of history Neo-Folk of music to which we again have possibility to touch...
So, ORCHIS again with us and returning begins with "A THOUSAND WINTERS" which we with pride represent in 6 pannel-digiCD with a bronze stamping." [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Trjejt |
CD |
"Brudenia/Cryptanthus released this great compilation of the British neofolk act, handnumbered to 1000 copies, some years ago and due to the raising demand for ORCHIS material, we are glad to be able to offer you this jewel. It contains 16 tracks from the first 3 Orchis albums and rare tracks from 3 compilations." [label info] |
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| ORD |
Withered Bones |
CD |
ORD is another artist from Russia to appear in the Zoharum catalog. Behind the project is Alexey Shipilov, the owner of the label Status Prod. The musician can boast of quite a lot of phonographic achievements, which undoubtedly consolidated his position on the Russian experimental scene, with time going beyond its borders.
The material on "Withered Bones", the album released in Zoharum, is the result of several sessions recorded between autumn and winter 2020 at the "Yunost" Music Center and mixed in the summer of 2021 in the studio by Andrey Volkov.
We are dealing here with ritual music with a deep meditative influence, based on traditional acoustic instruments (singing bowls, flutes, tubular bells, caratals, tambourines and other percussion instruments) with the support of field recordings, samples and effects. Through its own music, graphics and live performances, ORD demonstrates his bond to the Buddhist ritual tradition and shamanic practices that preceded it, which gives a certain color and can be an asset. However, it can undoubtedly be successful in the mind of the recipient who is not too familiar with Buddhist meditation practices. It is worth reaching for this album to explore new areas of music.
CD released in an edition of 300.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/withered-bones
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORGANUM |
Die letzte Musik vor dem Krieg |
7inch |
Schöne geräuschhafte NEUE Stücke von ORGANUM, scheppernd-schrottige Konkret-Noises wie sie wir lieben vermischen sich mit ruhigem Klavier und Horn-Attacken...
“Two brand new pieces from 2003. Piano on side A and tibetan horns on side B add new sound colours to the classic Organum drones. Edition of 500 copies in picture cover.. Playing time: 6.39 min.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.50 |
|
| ORGANUM / Z'EV |
Temporal |
CD |
Zwei Urgesteine der untergründigen Experimentalmusik in Zusammenarbeit - dritter Teil... hier "wird man quasi in eine imaginäre Rothko Chapel teleportiert, magisch ‚beleuchtet‘ und ‚bemalt‘ mit Lichtstrahlen und Farbwolken aus Klang. Es gibt da durchaus ein Moment des ‚Kampfes um die Seelen‘, nur dass Organum & Z‘ev nichts verdammen und nichts versprechen und ihr Angebot in nichts besteht außer einer Anmutung von Intensität, die wie ein schwarzer Monolith, wie ein dunkler Spiegel da steht, auf dem, wenn man ihn behaucht, Wörter auftauchen - PERL - ATOM - POEM - MORAL - PORTAL - TREMOR." [Bad Alchemy]
"Their Third collaborational work following 'Tinnitus VU' mini CD on Touch and the full length 'Tocsin' album on Die Stadt (DS77).
Z'EV started out with reworking basic sound material from the Organum archive back in 2006, which resulted in a collaborative mixing of the material until early 2008. The finishing touches were then left to David Jackman between March and June 2008. The overall tone on 'Temporal' owes more to the 'classic' Organum sound than to Organum latest works, the trilogy: 'Sanctus' (Robot Records), 'Amen' and 'Omega' (both Die Stadt). The album makes for a multi-layered and intense listening experience.
First edition of 600 copies in digisleeve.
Total playing time: 47:29 min.
Track listing:
1. 'Glory Sorrow' 12'15
2. 'Eagle' 12'07
3. 'Thunder' 23'04"
[label info]
"For their third release, following 'Tinnitus' (Vital Weekly 411) and Tocsin (Vital Weekly 459) Z'EV and Organum took some time. Again their modus operandi has changed. For the previous release they went into the studio to improvise and then each took the material home to mix that material. Here it says on the cover 'we worked side by side in Peckham in front of my computer [...] and/but/so Then David took it upon himself', assumingely to finish the material. At the fundament of this recording lies the reworking of basic sound material from the Organum archive back in 2006 by Z'EV and perhaps Z'EV has a much stronger interest in the older work of Jackman then in his later material, say the more dramatic keyboard works of his recent releases. Here, on 'Temporal' the metal sheets of years ago are revived into pieces that are less direct than the old Organum ('In Extremis') and more complex through the use of various layers and filters of sound. In 'Thunder', the longest of the three pieces, things get a bit lost but in 'Glory Sorrow' and 'Eagle' (both around twelve minutes) things are well concentrated and form two great pieces of rawly shaped drone music. Both Organum and Z'EV never cease to amaze me." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| ORGANUM ELECTRONICS |
Quietude |
CD |
"Organum Electronics ‘Quietude’ is another intense aural experience. A dense work, consisting of buzzing washes of electronic sounds, reminiscent of the very first Organum recordings. In common with other recent works, the piece uses a carefully chosen set of sound sources, overlaid and structured to form a tapestry of shifting textures. Recorded in 2021 and edited by Alan Jones at RMS Studios South London, the CD comes in a 4-panel Digisleeve with graphic artwork by Jonathan Coleclough. UK-based composer and visual artist David Jackman began his career in the late 1960s in the experimental group Scratch Orchestra, co-founded by Cornelius Cardew. He started recording solo work in the late 1970s, mostly on self-released cassettes in very small numbers. In the early 1980s he established his main project, Organum, which evolved into a new version under the name Organum Electronics in 2019. Five OE albums have been released by Japanese imprint Siren Records. ‘Quietude’ (DS128) is the first OE release on Die Stadt.. This is the second of seven albums scheduled for release on Die Stadt up until the end of 2024. As well as several albums under the OE moniker these will include works under David Jackman’s own name." [press release]
"David Jackman sprach einmal bzgl. seiner sogenanten „Holy“-Trilogie davon, diese Arbeiten seien geprägt von „a lot of repetition; more accurately, near repetition. It is a quality which I find most elegant.“ Dieses Motiv der (Fast-)Wiederholung zeigte sich auch auf Alben wie dem 2018 erscheinenen Organum-Album „Raven“ oder auf den unter eigenem Namen erschienenen Alben „Herbstsonne“ und „Silence In That Time“. Die dort zu hörenden verhallenden Klavierakkorde, manchmal mit Glockenläuten, Orgeldrones oder dem Krähen von Vögeln, waren eine fast schon zirkuläre, vielleicht auch meditative Musik.
Dann erschien plötzlich mit Organum Electronics 2019 ein Album, das dieses Zurückhaltende, Meditative rabiat beendete. Über den Nachfolger „Stilness“ aus dem Jahr 2020 konnte man hier lesen: „Frühere Organumaufnahmen (z.B. die auf L.A.Y.L.A.H.) waren geprägt von einer Unruhe, die neuen Aufnahmen sind auf gewisse Weise etwas statischer, ganz so, als wolle Jackman seine eigene Interpretation von Wall Noise spielen. Auf 35 Minuten wird der Hörende von einem massiven Drone umgeben.“ Hier klang Jackman plötzlich wieder, wenn auch unter „elektronischer“ Fokussierung, so „noisy“, wie auf seinen frühe(re)n Aufnahmen.
Nach insgesamt fünf Alben unter diesem Projektnamen auf Siren Records kündigte Die Stadt aus Bremen vor einiger Zeit eine umfangreiche Reihe mit weiteren Veröffentlichungen an: Im Abstand von drei bis vier Monaten werden bis 2024/2025 insgesamt sieben Jackman/Organum-Alben (von denen zwei Doppel-CDs sind) veröffentlicht werden.
Gerade erschienen sind die ersten zwei Alben dieser Reihe: Die Tradition der (manchmal kurios geschriebenen) Einworttitel fortführend, sind „Quietude“ und „Darcknes“ – natürlich, möchte man sagen – von Ästhetik wie auch vom Klang sehr eng miteinander verbunden: Auf „Quietude“ gibt es einen langen Track (hier 40 Minuten lang), der den Hörer unter sich zu begraben droht (ganz im Gegensatz zu der im Titel angesprochenen „Ruhe“). Es gibt immer wieder leichte (Ver-)Änderungen, kaum wahrnehmbare Verschiebungen in der Textur, so dass diese Lärmwand –
das Label spricht nicht unzutreffend von „buzzing washes of electronic sounds“ – sich durchaus (ver-)ändert. Was im Gegensatz zu den fünf vorhergegangenen Alben auffällt, ist, dass tatsächliche neue (bzw. alte) Elemente hinzukommen. Plötzlich tauchen auf „Quietude“ nämlich inmitten des Surrens und Dröhnens Glocken auf, die auf früheren Aufnahmen zu finden waren.
Das gleichzeitig veröffentlichte Album „Darcknes“ besteht aus einem 48 Minuten langen Track, auf dem neben dem Läuten von Glocken auch noch das Krähen von Raben zu hören ist.
Es ist mit Hinblick auf David Jackmans Zurückhaltung hinsichtlich öffentlicher Äußerungen letztlich müßig, herauszulesen zu wollen, was seine Konzeption hinter diesen Aufnahmen ist, aber letztlich spielt das auch keine Rolle, schließlich sagte er selbst einmal vor vielen Jahren in einem Interview mit Paul Lemos: “Really, there’s no mystery to the music; I just make it because I want those sounds to exist. There’s no other reason.” Ich habe in einer früheren Besprechung von Jackmans Arbeit einmal – in Anlehnung an eine Studie zum literarischen Expressionismus, in der u.a. die Prosa Benns dieses Attribut bekam – diese als “absolut” bezeichnet. Man kann gespannt sein, was die nächsten Veröffentlichungen bringen werden." [MG / African Paper]
"It's never easy to review music by David Jackman, not work under his own name, or work as Organum, or as it is these days, Organum Electronics. He used the latter on five releases by Siren Records, and when they announced the fifth would be the last, I assumed (for no particular reason) that would be the end of that name. Maybe because Die Stadts hasn't been too active with new releases, I didn't realise they could release more work, as basically it's the other go-to place for Jackman to release his music. They announced a series of seven works by Jackman, and their announcement didn't say whether they'll all be by Organum Electronics. The first two are. I didn't return to the five previous albums, partly out of the usual lack of time and maybe because I thought of this as
making a fresh start. Listening to these two new releases, I remember what the previous ones sounded like. Here also comes what I find 'difficult' about reviewing Jackman's work, and that's a lot of it is very similar, but then, if you see the cover, four panels with the band name and the title, and nothing else, you know the man likes repetition. And yet, most curious indeed, one is never too sure if the repeat is a one-on-one copy or a slight variation thereof. These two works may sound the same, but they aren't. In 'Darckness', some field recordings pop up, church bells, among the dense mass of electronic sound, whereas 'Quietude' seems all electronic throughout. Both seem to have been cut from more extensive work, ending quite abruptly. The overall sound design is quite similar in both pieces, and they share a general grimness about these works, as with many of his works. Think of this as being locked up in a factory, with sounds buzzing everywhere, and reminding me of the early harshness of Organum, sans electronics: dense, minimal and dark. Can I finish with 'another excellent work'? It's most likely I have used that before in connection with Jackman's work, and I will probably repeat that in the future." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Darcknes |
CD |
"Organum Electronics ‘Darcknes’ is the sibling album of ‘Quietude’ (DS128). It is a similarly dense work, consisting of buzzing washes of electronic sounds, reminiscent of the very first Organum recordings. In common with other recent works, the piece uses a carefully chosen set of sound sources, overlaid and structured to form a tapestry of shifting textures. Recorded in 2021 and edited by Alan Jones at RMS Studios South London, the CD comes in a 4-panel Digisleeve with graphic artwork by Jonathan Coleclough. UK-based composer and visual artist David Jackman began his career in the late 1960s in the experimental group Scratch Orchestra, co-founded by Cornelius Cardew. He started recording solo work in the late 1970s, mostly on self-released cassettes in very small numbers. In the early 1980s he established his main project, Organum, which evolved into a new version under the name Organum Electronics in 2019. Five OE albums have been released by Japanese imprint Siren Records. ‘Darcknes’ (DS130) is the second OE release on Die Stadt. This is the second of seven albums scheduled for release on Die Stadt up until the end of 2024. As well as several albums under the OE moniker these will include works under David Jackman’s own name." [label info]
"It's never easy to review music by David Jackman, not work under his own name, or work as Organum, or as it is these days, Organum Electronics. He used the latter on five releases by Siren Records, and when they announced the fifth would be the last, I assumed (for no particular reason) that would be the end of that name. Maybe because Die Stadts hasn't been too active with new releases, I didn't realise they could release more work, as basically it's the other go-to place for Jackman to release his music. They announced a series of seven works by Jackman, and their announcement didn't say whether they'll all be by Organum Electronics. The first two are. I didn't return to the five previous albums, partly out of the usual lack of time and maybe because I thought of this as
making a fresh start. Listening to these two new releases, I remember what the previous ones sounded like. Here also comes what I find 'difficult' about reviewing Jackman's work, and that's a lot of it is very similar, but then, if you see the cover, four panels with the band name and the title, and nothing else, you know the man likes repetition. And yet, most curious indeed, one is never too sure if the repeat is a one-on-one copy or a slight variation thereof. These two works may sound the same, but they aren't. In 'Darckness', some field recordings pop up, church bells, among the dense mass of electronic sound, whereas 'Quietude' seems all electronic throughout. Both seem to have been cut from more extensive work, ending quite abruptly. The overall sound design is quite similar in both pieces, and they share a general grimness about these works, as with many of his works. Think of this as being locked up in a factory, with sounds buzzing everywhere, and reminding me of the early harshness of Organum, sans electronics: dense, minimal and dark. Can I finish with 'another excellent work'? It's most likely I have used that before in connection with Jackman's work, and I will probably repeat that in the future." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| ORGHANON |
Figures in slow Motion |
CD |
"Sergio Calzoni's talent in chiselling electronics like a master craftsman has already been made very clear in COLLOQUIO's albums. This time he flies alone, and what a flight this is.... ORGHANON's debut album offers a melancholy-filled trip through a congealed world where figures slowly drift in the thick air. Gentle melodies, superbly constructed electronic patterns, experimental passages create vast sonic scenarios that would perfectly fit in a Jim Jarmusch/Alejandro Inarritu's movie. Not only the sheer, marvellous quality of the songs but also a very strong feeling of walking into a brand new, undiscovered sonic territory will leave you breathless. Only a few times in our entire "career" we've been so completely dragged into a record like into "Figures in slow motion". Miss it at your own risk." [label info]
www.eibonrecords.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORIGAMI GALAKTIKA |
One |
CD |
"Everything is one, unique, peculiar – the message besides the new album from norwegian artist. Absolutely essential collection of his new works is released now on the CD in glossy and beautifully designed digifile.
Origami Galaktika is Benny Braaten, A.k.a. b9. Established in 1994 Origami Galaktika is celebrating 20 years of ambient soundscapes. A journey that has brought deep spiritual sounds to close to 20 countries. A variety of venues ranging from art galleries, pubs, punk places, churches, to concert halls etc.
How many ambient acts do you know that have played Sunset Strip, Los Angeles? Or the French quarter, New Orleans? A vinery in Aesch, Switzerland? In the woods outside of Gdansk, Poland? Everything from youth clubs to tea-houses in Slovakia? Vancouver, Toronto, the middle of the praries where hardly anybody has ever been?
Supported extreme metal bands, opening metal festivals? Supporting The Legendary Pink Dots more than 50 times and played with: I: wound, (r), Daniele Brusaschetto, The Angels Of Light, Dave Phillips, Nocturnal Emissions, Francisco Lopes etc…
In addition to Galaktika, Braaten is also working with the historical music projects Folket Bortafor Nordavinden (The People Beyond The North Winds) and Skvalthr. He is also having music history "lectures" where he tells us about and demonstrates ancient musical instruments… He is also hosting tonings and drum journeys. Braaten is also working on music for a dance performance to be performed in May 2014.
The new album "One" is a bridge between the "old" and "new" Galaktika. Featuring two older (previously unreleased) pieces and 6 brand new ones. After many years of mostly sample based live performances, Origami Galaktika today is mostly accustic and no sampler is used in the live performances these days." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Behind Origami Galaktika we find Norway's Benny Braaten, who has been doing music for a great many years. He toured with Nocturnal Emissions and The Legendary Pink Dots and releases his records around the world, albeit quite sparsely. I must admit I am never sure how this whole Origami business works, but it's a larger group of people working together, although it seems that Origami Galaktika's Braaten is mostly working solo. I saw him a couple of times and his music is highly atmospheric and generated on relatively lo-fi equipment: electronics, field recordings and four track cassette tapes. Atmospheric and drone like is what he offers us. There was a time when we called this ambient industrial music, when we played the cello bow on the guitar and added lots of reverb here and there. That is, essentially, what Origami Galaktika still does. On this grey, rainy day this is probably the perfect soundtrack for the mood one can find oneself in. A usual piece by Origami Galaktika starts with a drone and on its way gathers more drones in small variations and a box tricks is opened and small variations on a theme appear. I was thinking about the fact that it sounds like something I heard a lot, even when perhaps not very recently; if that the lack of innovation is a real 'problem' (to whom, I wonder). True, Origami Galaktika doesn't necessarily change tactics, but he does a great job in what he does. If you like say Troum or Maeror Tri, and you like your sub consciousness tickled than Origami Galaktika is surely something you must hear, if you don't know them already. 'One' is one great CD." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORIGAMI GALAKTIKA / I:WOUND / INDERST ELIA |
Monolake |
CD |
OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM.....ethnische Elemente & field recordings, sanfte harmonische drones, Glöckchen, Samples von alten weisen Frauen (so scheint es), ultra langsame dumpfe hypno-percussion... geisterhaft durch den Äther wehende softe Loops, dunkel aber nicht depressiv....eher eine „heilige“ Atmo ausstrahlend...
insgesamt eine sehr ansprechende dronige Landschaft, in die man vollständig versinken kann.....
Live-Collab. dieser drei Projekte in äusserst ansprechender Qualität auf dem vielversprechenden neuen Prager Label PURLPE SOIL....
“One very subtle long ambient track (clocking in at just under 70 minutes) resulting from a live collaboration between these three acts in Mir, Oslo, 2000. An excellent quality live document. Originally released on CDR by Amber Music For The Tattooed Frog, this CD edition is presented in a stunning 6-panel matt digipak with inserts.” [Cold Spring]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| ORIGAMI REPLIKA |
Kommerz - MERZBOW in the Hands of Origami Replika |
CD |
This CD sees Origami Replika (a now defunct part of the ever changing cultural Origami collective/phenomenon) made up by three of Norway's most diehard noise heads -- Lasse Marhaug, Tore H. Boe, and Mads Staff Jensen. Recorded in 1997, this effort is entirely based on sound sources from the back catalogue of Merzbow. With no back-bending, knee-scraping humility, and with a pure love for all source sounds, Origami Replika have shaped classic Merzbow sound into all-new compositions. These are innovative and highly potent re-workings of the harsh sound waves, recommended to all those who still have a healthy addiction to the Merzbow sounds of yesterday. Thick and meaty, the blasts emanating from the speakers are filled with lusty, fetishized, organic heavy noise and experimental Dadaism, ready to be devoured by the faithful disciples. Originally planned for release on another label, and now finally unleashed on Segerhuva, this is a CD that has been tried and tested over and over again. These recordings, created almost a decade ago, have been remastered by Lasse Marhaug, and it is safe to say that this CD has stood the test of TIME. After nine years, it sounds remarkable - a solid chunk of the classic, living breathing Noise Object that some call religion. Bottom line -- the NOISE FETISH is still very much alive and well. This time it comes from a somewhat unexpected source. Indulge!
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| ORNAMENT |
Unicorn Lullaby |
CD-R |
Wiederveröffentlichung dieser schönen ORNAMENT-CDR mit recht einfach gestricktem, aber sehr wirkungsvoll-hypnotischen loop-ambient/drones, warm und dunkel, zwischen TAM QUAM TABULA RASA und AMON? Feine Fullcolour-Cover-Artwork auch ...
sehr zu empfehlen!
„Unicorn Lullaby" was self-released by Ornament in a few copies back in 2000 and is now published by Afe in a fully remastered and repackaged version that showcases the author's visionary attitude. Due to the poor distribution of the original version, this is probably Ornament's less know work, but it's probably his best attempt at Dark Ambient music contaminated with Industrial elements. If we look for some kind of internal reference wondering through the whole Afe catalogue, this can easily be found in Never Known's "Dawn of an Era", but "Unicorn Lullaby" has of course a personality of his own. According to his author, "Unicorn Lullaby" is an oniric / visionary concept in sounds, a travel to and back from an imaginary collapsing world where the "Unicorn Shaped Labyrinth" is the entrance / exit. "Noctifer" is the star shining above this imaginary world, while the gear-sounding "High Density of Grief" is a representation of the slave-citizens forced to work in a consuming production-chain and "From Concealed Gardens" tries to describe its mysterious flora and fauna. After entering the imaginary world, the protagonist wakes up ("I Opened My Eyes in the Liquid Room") and fight against his "Fiendish Ego" as the world begins to collapse ("Under Shivering Columns") as predicted by ancient priests who were charged with heresy ("The Heretics' Heritage"). This heritage is the only key that allows the protagonist to survive the ordeal and return to the place where he belongs as only a few traces of past life surround him ("Only Life Remains"). The distinctive overall sound of the album is subtly achieved with a rich shady substratum of distant sounds that are intentionally and elegantly kept in the background and are fully appreciable at a mid volume level.” [label description]
www.aferecords.com
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORPHANAGE COMMITTEE |
Sol in Solus |
LP |
The Orphanage Committee is the brainchild of Orphan S.C. Wallace.
The committee in itself can be seen as a singular abstract entity, while its different faces show themselves in their different aspects of music or variety of genre they create.
Second vinyl LP for label resident Orphan Wallace!
'Sol In Solus' is a concept album about nature and self-reflexion.
An overall organic suite in ten parts comprising multi genres and instruments conceived and performed by this talented local electronic artist!
Guest appearance by Michiel De Malsche on A: V.Topsoil Girl.
Back to nature!
'For the Sun is our Force of Habit,
Giver and Taker of Life,
For our Solus is the Merit,
The Way, the Truth, the Light.'
Tracklist
A: I.Tiny Rivers II.Mother Tree III.Le Fort IV.Bound Like Blood/My Very Last Chance V.Topsoil Girl
B: I.Aquarius II.Forest Spirits+ III.As Long As I Have My Sense Of Wonder IV.Earth, Bind, Oxidize V.My Darling Thunder
Tags: abstract, ambient, experimental, field recording, minimal, modern classical
#################
" 'Sol In Solus' is already the fourth release by Belgium's Orphan S.C. Wallace, also known as The Orphanage Committee. He writes, "The committee in itself can be seen as a singular abstract entity, while its different faces show themselves in their different aspects of music or variety of genre they
create, " which may account for the slightly varying approaches in sound. The title means The Sun Alone, a concept album "about nature and self-reflexion". Ten parts spread over two sides of the record, each flowing into the next. Instruments aren't mentioned, but if I have to guess, I'd say there is an abundance of sampling going on, and many of these are samples from real instruments. Lots of percussion, keyboards, strings and such, and the result is again a diversification from his earlier work. The music is atmospheric again but in a slightly more orchestral sense of the word. The Orphanage Committee isn't using big-time-sustaining sounds but melodic sampled electronics. One name that sprang to mind was Fetish Park, but I forget which CD of theirs. The whole thing has an air of modern classical music but an artificial version. I admit not seeing the relation with nature easily here, or, come to think of it, self-reflection. Only when he mixes some field recordings do things become more nature-based, obviously with these forest sounds. It is all quite pleasant to hear, maybe too lovely and light at times; perhaps I love a bit of darkness, a bit too much, and there isn't always that much of it here. Having said that, there is enough to enjoy here, as each of the ten sections works very well as part of a whole, and there is some excellent variation in the music here. Another record by The Orphanage Committee, another variation in approaches, another winner." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| ORPHAX |
De Tragedie van een Liedjesschrijver zonder Woorden |
CD |
" “De tragedie van een liedjesschrijver zonder woorden” (The tragedy of a song writer without words) is the first normal CD by Orphax. This album contains music that has been written between April 2005 and July 2007 and retouched again in 2008 and 2010. The period these songs were written was one with many transitions in the live of van Erve. It was the end of his student years, the begin of his working years, a period where he struggled with an at that time unknown disease, a period where he was searching for answers to questions he didn't know. Inspired by this he wrote these wordless pieces.
The music on this release, at first planned for release in 2011, shows yet another look into the ever expanding work by Orphax. Even more than his other work this one is dealing with small details in the composition creating an environment that feels comfortable but at the same time grabs you by the throat. The music goes from minimal droning sounds to isolationist soundscapes and experimental ambient moods.
Orphax is the project by Sietse van Erve, born in Tilburg, living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Orphax works in the field of experimental electronic music once started out with ambient music slowly incorporating drone elements he now has a focus on minimalist music and lo-fi droning sounds. With every release he tries out new ways to get to his goal to create a psychedelic mind influencing atmosphere.
So far he has released several CD-R releases both private as on small labels such as Cut Hands and Verato Project, Broken20 and Moving Furniture Records.
In the past he was performed and worked with artists such as The Village Orchestra, Jos Smolders, and Erstlaub. He also shared the stage with musicians such as Charalambides, Sindre Bjerga, Zebra (Frans de Waard & Roel Meelkop), Staplerfahrer, Dirk Serries and many others.
Limited Special Edition with bonus CD only available directly through Orphax." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
"A while in the making, this 'tragedy of a song writer without words', which was already recorded between 2005 and 2005, later reworked, in 2008 and 2010 and then left in the hands of a less reliable label, but now being released as a CD on Orphax' own label, Moving Furniture Records. Orphax, you should know, is the work of Sietse van Erve and perhaps the easiest thing to say is that he is a computer musician, and one of the few I know who works extensively with AudioMulch, a sort of build your own musical software, along the lines of Max/msp or pure data. He has released a whole bunch of things, mostly CDRs and downloads, but now his first CD, and perhaps I am listening to this differently, but it sounds great. Do I listen better, more closely because this is a CD? I would hope it doesn't make any difference, but the five pieces, all with titles in Dutch, showcase what Orphax does best. Creating glitch like music, with microscopic changes, deep end drones and it works heavily on the mind. You could wonder wether something 'new' happens here, but that's not the point I think. Orphax plays some glitch based music which is firmly rooted in minimalism and has a tendency towards noise, but unlike some of his previous releases, the element of noise is very much under control here: it's there for sure, it serves the purpose of the music but it doesn't get in the way of whatever is going on, the drones, the ambience. Carefully building sound constructions, these six pieces is each a beauty to hear. This is, and I am not exaggerating here, by far the best Orphax release I have heard. It's a great decision to have this on a real CD, a show of confidence." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€11.50 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO |
Osci |
LP |
Italienischer Newcomer auf SMALL VOICES mit einer von Nostalgie und Melancholie durchdrungenen Drone/Ambient-Produktion, field recordings und traditionelles Folk-Material wird z.T. loopig verwebt mit Gitarren- & Synth-Klängen, 3 nostalgische Postkarten runden das verträumt-nostalgische Bild ab... für Atmo-Melancholiker.
“SmallVoices is happy to present a new Italian promising artist: Fabio Orsi. 'Osci' is a two long tracks album (remixed by Gianluca Becuzzi/Kinetix) of ambient drone music, field recordings and experimental melancholic soundcapes... Using processed folk music parts (taken during folkloristic festivals, typical of the Apulian folk tradition), Fabio creates a dreaming atmosphere crossing between balls and bellows, silence and spirituality, everyday life: at home, in a church, in the countryside, at the small-town feast. All these sounds mixed and processed through digital machines: an encounter between modernism and tradition. Image a sort of mixture between Alio Die's ambient works, William Basinski's melancholia, Phil Niblock's experimentalism. Fabio Orsi plays: guitars, samples, field recordings, laptop. The black heavy weight vinyl was packaged in an elegant sleeve and including 3 postcards.” [label info]
“Osci is a deep hole into the ground of the loved/hated traditional music. It is a snatch with the past, watching it from unusual perspective, with deforming lens under coloured lights. Osci never meets "Art", it is something like a hack. As the sickle relates about the man, but it's completely unconcerned with their destiny. He speaks the speech of crickets and ants. Time no exist. Telephone are not used to ring and the bees are assembling a "flying saucers" with the elements of an old washing machine. Telephone doesn't know how to ring and voices are gliding in to the dark from mouths full of soil and cheap beer, talking about obscene love proposals. Under the Sun we reverse a big stone and the name of a girl crawls out, into the grass. Someone picks up it from the ground, and put it on the neck as an amulet. Violin's strings clasp the heart in an August night. Flames itching the flesh with pain. Finally our body shows infinite chances. Inside and outside. Every single pore is a hole. Inside is outside. A blink. We would like to shake the skin from bodies, jumping in the fire. A blink. Then we leave by car, disappearing on dusty roads. Sentenced to a slow craziness. All the rumours pushing under the scab. Where the streets are swelling as the veins and the buildings are collapsing, we plant a microphone, cold as a needle.” [liner notes]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Find Electronica |
CD |
FABIO ORSI is another artist using long endless-delays / loops, like AIDAN BAKER or FEAR FALLS BURNING, but his drones are "lighter", more electronica-like so to say, the atmosphere evoked is less dark, more peaceful and calming. FIND ELECTRONICA presents 3 pieces that are maybe his most meditative & and sweet ones, perfect as background-ambience in the truest sense, using much more synth-elements as before..
"In only two years of work Fabio Orsi has achieved critique and fans, imposing his name as one of the most promising and representative of the entire Italian independent scene. A drift began with the excellent vinyl LP "Osci" (SmallVoices 2005), followed by the famous split CD "For Alan Lomax" (A Silent Place, 2006) together with Italian My Cat is an Alien and a couple of cooperations with Gianluca Becuzzi: "Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines" (A Silent Place 2006) e "The Stones Know Everything" (Digitalis Industries 2007). Today, as final confirmation of his talent, A Silent Place is proud to present this new Fabio Orsi solo. "Find Electronica" is a wonderful album finely full of lyric, structured as a long drone/ambient suite divided in two portions which are the frames of the articulated central track. A strictly personal exercise on the "Weird Folk" theme, hypnotic and seductive. The "found" electronica meets the humoral sonorities made by the six chords, projecting enchanted landscapes on a vibrant horizon, with an intimate sensibility. Abstract and emotional, deep and dreamy, "Find Electronica" is a great album: an essential step in the ascending Fabio's career. Another great/small gem from that "silent place" in the deep Italian South." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Random Shades of Day |
3 x CD |
"Fabio Orsi has been winning the hearts of many listeners over the past few years with both his solo and collaboration releases. It's not often I find a new artist that interests me, and since my first listen to 'before long, before anyone, the stars will be walls in my mind' I've been hooked.
This set includes two CDs of previously unreleased and out-of-print material spanning Fabio Orsi's career. Drones, keyboard, guitar, distant vocals and field recordings can be found over the first two discs. Included are Fabio Orsi's first EP (I'm Here), 1000 Days Red, Faded on the Blowing of Winter, six previously unreleased tracks and more.
CD3 is a brand new full length record entitled 'Random Shades of Day'. This new full length continues on from 'Wild Light of the Moon' with beautiful drones and relaxing ambience. This is easily some of my favourite work that Fabio has ever done, and Part III is also some of his darkest. Easily the finest release to date." [label info]
www.privilegedtofail.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Light was the Day |
mCD-R |
"Known for his elegant and melodic drones based upon field recordings and guitar, "light was the day" is a perfect example of ORSI's skills!" [label info]
www.taalem.org
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Von Zeit zu Zeit |
LP |
"In few years of work Fabio Orsi has achieved critique and fans, imposing his name as one of the most important and representative of the whole international experimental and electronic independent scene. Backwards proudly presents his new work titled Von Zeit Zu Zeit.
This composition was recorded live in Berlin (2010) and after edited and mastered by Fabio Orsi in late 2011. Orsi plays synth, guitar and filters and, for once, he just puts aside the warmth of the melodies and the samplings from the endless Alan Lomax archives, so close to the culture of his homeland. This time, he proposes two obscure and - partly - cold tracks, comparable to the kosmische musik - as if Fabio had embraced that "Central European" humus breathed in Berlin.
This cold, this early darkness turns into an oneiric remembrance, a daydream... The hovered sounds of these two compositions make the listener's mind float in the space and, mostly on the second side of the record, the music gets warmer, rarefied and ambient, with a seductive hypnotic power." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
|
The new Year is over |
3 x CD |
"Nine long and extraordinary tracks collected in a triple CD, among fluctuating ambient atmospheres, hypnotic rhythmic progressions, circular and motionless stasis, acid psychedelic escapes, evocative electronic reflections... Slow suites of "classic" ambient music suspended and dilated, soft and wrapping sonorities alternated with evocative and dramatic crescendos, through progressive sounds layerings, drones, pulses, distant echoes of human voices and subliminal perceptions of ethnical vibrations... A long and absorbing journey through distant sounds and universes, a timeless music without boundaries...
Monumental opus by one of the most brillant italian artist. Simply a milestone.
Limited edition of 300 copies in cartonsleeve." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"One of things I wondered about when listening and looking at 'The New Year Is Over' is why a set of three CDs? Track titles don't show evidence that these belong to each other per se, but of course music wise it does. Nine lengthy cuts of what Fabio Orsi does best, playing ambient soundscapes, highly atmospheric. He employs synth, effects and guitar according to the cover. That's easy. The outcome however isn't as homogenic as one should expect. I thought it would be along those lines where we have nine similar approaches to the same idea, but that's not the case. A piece like 'Endlisch' on the first disc is almost noise ambient, with a touch of rhythm buried underneath and marks the end of a CD that seems anyway a lot louder than we are used to. Its a diametrical opposite piece to 'Dust In One Hand, Love In The Other' (track two, disc two), which is a very soft floating sailboat, the last track of a more silent CD. These two works could have fitted one disc, but I can see why it's decided not to do that. The third disc has three pieces which have a slightly more rhythmic, looping feel about it, and bridges I guess the two previous CDs in an effort to go from very quiet, introspective material to more loud movements in 'The Lonesome Era (part 3)'. This CD is a showcase of the various aspects of atmospheric music that Orsi is familiar with and as such he does a great job in displaying that. You could argue wether three is a crowd and such a showcase could have been one CD, but I think its better to have it over the course of three separate discs and show the smaller variations in there." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Wannsee |
LP |
"RICERCA SONORA proudly presents, as its third release (RS3), a new FABIO ORSI work titled “Wannsee”.
Wannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee (Greater Wannsee) and the Kleiner Wannsee (Little Wannsee), are located on the river Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee bridge. The larger of the two lakes covers an area of 2.7 km2 (1.0 sq mi) and has a maximum depth of 9 m (30 ft). (quote from Wikipedia)
Recorded at Wannsee locality in October 2011 and edited, produced and mastered by Fabio Orsi, "Wannsee" is a composition - divided in three parts - of field recordings in its purest form. A nostalgic work done exclusively with environmental sounds captured on location.
One-time pressing of 200 copies only, one-sided black vinyl, in white sleeve with UV varnished printing and one insert." [label info]
www.ricerasonora.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Qui Vicino |
CD & booklet |
"Born in the province of Taranto, in southern Italy, after many years spent in Naples and now based in Berlin, Fabio Orsi sits among the most interesting names of the European electronic and experimental scene. Following his early output on A Silent Place and Smallvoices, his music works have been published by many other labels worldwide, including Last visible Dog, Porter Records, Boring Machines and Silentes. His talent has become an estabilished reality thanks to his abilities in finding a nice balance between experimentation and melody, sounding intimate and abstract at the same time, using drones of a concrète and electronic nature, acoustic instruments, field recordings, synthesizers and computer treatments for his compositions. In addition to his solo work, we would also like to mention his many collaborations with Italian saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Valerio Cosi and Gianluca Becuzzi a.k.a. Kinetix, and ex-Limbo, that projected their visions into a different perspective.
"Qui vicino " does not contain any note or credit, just a touching dedication from which we deduce the intimate nature of the composition. Ideally divided into two parts of roughly equal duration, the track offers a dark evolving guitar drone that slowly take shape and then dissolve to recreate itself in a more placid and radiant way.
"Qui vicino " is released in a limited edition of 250 copies that comes with 16-pages A4 booklet containing stunning pictures taken by Orsi himself." [label info]
13.silentes.it
"Also on the short size, length-wise, is the release by Fabio Orsi: thirty-three minutes but it comes with a great A4 sized folder (16 pages) of his photography, which is something I really like. Earlier this year his father died and this package is dedicated to him. Orsi is from Italy but now lives in Berlin, for quite some time now, and has had many releases on such labels as A Silent Place, Small Voices, Last Visible Dog, Porter Records, Boring Machines and Silentes. His primary instrument is the guitar, which he uses to create drone sounds, along with field recordings and electronics. Sometimes he also uses synthesizers, acoustic instruments and computer treatments. On this new release there are no credits and we don't know what he does, but my best guess would be that he uses just his guitar and electronics. The piece is divided in two parts, both going from very silent to mildly loud, in one long crescendo per part. This is the kind of music we know Silentes best for, and perhaps also Orsi himself. A damn fine gorgeous drone piece, dark, melancholic, waving, meandering about, over empty deserts, windy plains on part clouded day, or just launched into deep space like a spacecraft onto the destination unknown. This is not a release in which Orsi shows us a new direction in his music, but which further carves out his niche of ambient tunesmith of longitude pieces. No surprises here, but a wonderful release and beautifully packed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Sterminato Piano |
LP |
I've known Fabio Orsi for almost fifteen years now, artistically and humanly. Since the days of "Osci" his first album released by SmallVoices, my label at that time, up to some essential records published by A Silent Place, another label that I managed, in a period that seems almost unrepeatable. Each of his work, whether in music or photography, is always a certainty for me, but lately also a surprise; in fact Fabio Orsi has learned to surprise himself and surprise us: this new creature is different from his previous releases, but is always touched by that talent and crystalline class that distinguishes him; after all these years, I can affirm it without fear of appearing too enthusiastic or even partisan. The new work "Sterminato Piano" settles among the best things of Fabio Orsi, but also in some ways, among the most unexpected and original. After eight years in Berlin, his return to Puglia (south of Italy) is restoring new life and new creativity and new energy. In fact, the new album is full of energy and warmth, with patterns, sequences and dancefloor beats of our dreams. Amazing cover artwork wizardly made by Italian illustrator Mastereaster.
https://fabioorsi.bandcamp.com/album/sterminato-piano
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Late Afternoon Tapes |
CD-R |
recorded, edited and mastered in my studio, Litoranea salentina, March 2022
fabioorsi.bandcamp.com
cover collage by Robert Kerber
“Für gewöhnlich versuchte er, einen winzigen Augenblick in der Zeit festzuhalten, aber manchmal fand er Vergnügen daran, kleine Geschichten zu erzählen”
robertkerberart.wordpress.com
With this album, the labels attenuation circuit, run by EMERGE, and Grubenwehr Freiburg, run by Grodock, launch a new series of co-releases, marked by their catalogue code with the label 'initials' ACGF, but especially by their over-sized artwork in the format of a 7'' vinyl single sleeve. The aim is to give artists a broader exposure across the various networks of the two labels.
Fabio Orsi, who divides his time between Berlin and his native Southern Italy, makes ambient music in the best possible sense of the term. Not in the sense that it is music that just textures the air as some kind of acoustic wallpaper or furniture and doesn't actually deserve attentive listening. But rather music that attunes itself to the slow changes in atmospheres, light and weather conditions, the ambience in the sense of the (natural) world that surrounds and in many ways (still) defines us. “Late Afternoon Tapes” with its slowly meandering guitar-based textures will not only appeal to fans of guitarists like Robert Fripp or Christian Fennesz, but also – and the “Tapes” in the title may be a conscious hint at that – to anyone who enjoyed William Basinski's “Disintegration Loops”. When it's late afternoon, the light fades into an eventual darkness. This is music to go gentle into that good night, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, or at least Fabio Orsi's music “makes time pass a little less painfully” (Anne Clark).
File under: ambient
"Last week, I wrote about the Silentes label and Fabio Orsi, these are very active people. Here we have a CDR release. It marks the beginning of a collaboration between Attenuation Circuit and Grubenwehr Freiburg. As I commit these words to the screen, it is not yet late afternoon, but the idea behind the music is evident. Daylight fades, the day ends, and there is a soundtrack for that. 'Thursday Afternoon' from Brian Eno is such an appt title in this respect. Orsi's recent music is all about synthesizers, sequences and arpeggio. I am not sure if that is the case with this new release. Maybe he returned to his guitar and loops? Or perhaps it is a combination of both? I suspect the latter to be the case here. These five pieces sound not unlike Eno or Fripp, solo or together, and are something of a departure for Orsi; or a sidestep. The music is slow, with minimal changes. A few notes are hanging in the air thick of cloudy drones. The result is fuzzy and hazy music. I enjoyed this very much, but I guess Orsi can't do much wrong in my book. For me, this is not the soundtrack of the end of the day, but rather the start of the day, my favourite moment to play ambient music. In that sense, this is music for every day, all times of the day, depending on what the listener chooses." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€8.50 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & MAMUTHONES |
The First Born |
CD |
Der neue italienische Ambient-Star FABIO ORSI wieder in Kollaboration, und zwar mit MAMUTHONES aka ALESSIO GASTALDELLO, Mitglied von JENNIFER GENTLE. Es fängt harmonisch & recht harmlos an mit Synth/Organ-wellen und Vogelgezwitscher, dann aber setzt Perkussion ein, die Drones werden prägnanter, fuzziger, das ganze bekommt einen hypnotisch-trancigen Sog, der einen langsam immer mehr gefangennimmt... Super !
"... Dunkle Soundlayers verweben sich mit atavistischer Percussion, ins Endlose schlingernde Feedback-Schleifen von beklemmender Dichte wälzen sich wie höllisches Miasma durch die Lautsprecher, irgendwo blitzen weit aus der Ferne erhellende Keyboard-Tupfer auf, um sich später zu treibenden Rhythmussektionen zu verfestigen." [SKUG]
"THE FIRST BORN is (quite aptly) the first collaboration between Fabio Orsi (more than a recurring name in the In A Silent Place catalogue) and Mamuthones - better known to friends and family as Alessio Gastaldello and founding member and drummer of Jennifer Gentle, the Italian psych band signed to Sub Pop Records. After six years with the Jennifers, Alessio split amicably in late 2006 and reinvented himself as Mamuthones, a one-man project delving into primitive percussive jamming and equally primitive one-finger astral keyboard-playing. After a telematic chance meeting with Fabio Orsi, now the crowned prince of the Italian experimental noise, this album slowly started taking shape via e-mails and file-sharing. Built around a series of percussion-cum-keyboard sonic landscapes performed by Mamuthones and enriched by deep, droney electronic layers later added by Orsi, THE FIRST BORN contains four long tracks of dark, brooding modern psychedelia. From the splashing cymbals and martial beat of the title track to the hypnotic surge of "The infinity within" or the ritualistic feast of "The battle", the whole album feels like an ancient sea ebbing and flowing on some distant alien shore, making for a curiously disjointed listening experience, at the same time peaceful and menacing. The ever-shifting sonic textures evoke both the starchildren krautrockers of old and more recent outer-world explorers but always keep a strong personal identity, firmly rooted in the current weird Italian take on space rock. Released in extra heavy and luxurious package!" [label notes]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & VALENTINA BESEGHER |
Hunt me Tender |
DVD |
" 'I put a hand over roots and leafs of trees and threaded my stare in between the openings of nature, i found you and felt the beauty sliping between my fingers, why did you ask me to go? Why did you leave me alone?'
“Hunt me tender" is an audiovideo project by Fabio Orsi and Valentina Besegher. The work explores with super8 and sound recordings the slow steady flow of the events, lights and shadows in everyone's life as well as a "crystallization of life", a kind of captivity of the soul into an embalmed body.
The super8 films have been taken from the family archive of the musician Fabio Orsi and edited by the visual artist Valentina Besegher, who shooted the original movies of the embalmed animals in their natural habitat, the plants and the woods. Fabio Orsi uses field recording, instruments and environmental drones." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"More music by Fabio Orsi can be found on the DVD he did with Valentine Besegher. A private document, since the original footage hails from the family archive of Orsi and were shot on 8mm. She did a slight treatment to the films, but it shows us plants, animals and family life. Orsi provides a sound track of field recordings, environmental drones and instruments. It sounds like an organ drone being treated in the beginning, but switches over to the most percussive bit I have yet encountered from Orsi after ten or minutes in order to move back into more atmospheric drones as the piece evolves. Altogether its quite a diverse piece of music, of nice atmospheric music and likewise filmic material. Pretty dark at that too. Nice one." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & VALERIO COSI |
We could for Hours |
CD |
FABIO ORSIs organ-& harmonium-like drones are contrasted here by Saxophon-tunes, the sound is very polyphonic & broad, with a slight ethno-feel to it, somehow static and in motion at the same time..
four tracks with about 40 minutes of length, but you will definitely touch the repeat button after its finished.... and if you take heavy hallucinogenic drugs to this music, you will probably end up writing a label text as this:
"We Could For Hours is instability. It represents the will to open the gates of unknown. It is the dark, whispered sounds and hidden truths. Chaos. And now here it starts, everything takes form, sensations rise, objects acquire colours, distorted vision but still a vision of reality. Everything dances and follows the rhythm of music, an unknown tribal dance. Silence. Sounds follow themselves but always hidden in a veil of mistery, words are mute, everything is listening attentively to the enchanting melody of nature. Mind, free from human limits, goes straight towards a long journey and meets the supernatural and then sinks into the knowledge oblivion. Everything is nothing. Nothing is the time. Time becomes memory and memory brings us to happy thoughts that rise first, then fall in the end. Hallucinations. The precariousness feeling is overwhelming us, tollings of a clock without hands are molesting our ears and they scan the slow and endless flowing of life. Too late to be back. There's no possibility. We have to live desolate countrysides burnt by an August sun. Lysergic vision. Void." [label notes]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORYELLE DEFENESTRATE-BASCULE |
156=Musick=Babalon=Kaos | The HermAphroditic ChAOrder of the SILVER DUSK |
CD+CDR |
"(esoterick ambient, shamanic ritual musick)
Orryelle. The traveller, shaman, sound alchemist + 33 musicians. 79 minutes of alchemic sound that will put you in a trance. Close to Psychic TV ('Themes' era), Hybryds, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud, Endvra, Exotoendo..." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| OSSASERPIA |
Mvsic for Solve et Coagvla |
CD & book |
"Vladimir Igoshin (Ossaserpia) has created Opus alchymicum, spectacular account of the »work« of the musickal alchemists who developed a symbolic kind of psychochemistry, aimed at producing the gold of mystical illumination through celestial musick. See theories by Robert Fludd (Robertus Fluctibus) and Rosicrucian theories of the monochord. Very unique drone chamber musick with some strange industrial elements. Vladimir Igoshin is known for his contributions to HCD compilations such as Lust From The Underworld and/or AL: 100th Anniversary. Special art-work for an oversized hard-bound book (A5) designed by fantastic Madeline von Foerster! Special limited edition consists of 500 hand-numbered copies in hand-made box covered with rustish top-notch embossed Quilt 120g paper. The oversized embossed hard-bound book (A5) printed on Gmund Kaschmir cream 170g and embossed CD sleeve-jacket again on Quilt 120g paper. Very rare print for all fans of occult & alchemy! Special limited box on request only!" label notes]
"Genre: Dark Ambient / Drone / Neo-Classical (Chamber) / Industrial.
In today’s climate where record labels seem intent on cheaply mass produced releases to make a few quick bucks it comes as a relief to find a record label that actually cares about the presentation to match the music they release. Stepping into the, highly deserved, limelight is the Czech HORUS CyclicDaemon record label founded by Martin Mrskos. All their releases, well the ones I’ve been lucky enough to track down, have been impeccable in every respect. What went before though has been overshadowed by this latest release by the artist Vladimir Igoshin recording as Ossaserpia. I doubt many labels would have the balls to put out a recording housed in an actual hard bound book, A5 sized, in quality 120g paper and beautifully illustrated by the artwork of Madeline von Foerster. My eyes still can’t take it all in. I’m not by any means up on Art by any stretch of the imagination but I knows what I like and I like what I see set before me. The illustrations saying more than any amount of words can possibly describe. Which they need to as there are no words to accompany the pictures. A wise decision as it leaves the listener to use their own creative imaginations to make of it what they will as they listen to the music. For this book is best used in conjunction with the recording. Which I suspect was the way it was meant to be. Separated both are superb stand alone products. Together they open up undiscovered realms that feeds the senses. The touch, smell and sights of the book complimented by the aural grandeur that Vladimir has composed.
Based on the theories of Robert Fludd (Robertus Fluctibus), 1574-1637, a Kentish Anglican alchemist, mathematician, astronomer, cosmologist who wrote thirteen published works in his lifetime and the Rosicrucian theories of the monochord. Please Google these for I have not the time, nor the intellect required, to go into great detail here, the music expands on the theory that alchemists developed a symbolic kind of chemistry aimed at producing the gold of mystical illumination through celestial music. Clear as muck then. The concept may well be shrouded in unintelligible mystery to a Neanderthal knuckle scraper like myself but even I could see what the artist has tried to envision through his music. Featuring, what I can only call, a Medieval vibe mixed in with modern Industrial noise and drone sensibilities the twelve tracks are a treat for the ears. Though you will need to give it a couple of spins to really get inside every nuance that Vladimir has created.
From the off perceptions are challenged by the dirge drones and assorted muted ‘noise’ effects that spread like wildfire from the speakers. The bass tones are heavy duty and tinted with a dark apparel. Move past this introduction and the speckles of Neo-Classical / Chamber music begins to shine forth and suddenly the music takes the semblance of form as Vladimir throws all manner of different black musical combinations into the cauldron that bubbles with an intensity you never realised possible. You are treated to a music born of fire and brimstone from an age past brought to life in the present day. As your eyes scan and feast on the pictures of storm clouds, dragons and entwined couples the music conjures them in the minds eye. At its heart the music is surprisingly downbeat and steeped in dark oppressive moods where tranquillity appears smashed to a pulp. For all the unsettling swings the music takes, and it takes a lot, it ends on a note of triumph. A glimpse of fortitude winning against all odds.
Unlike many recordings that have tried to re-create the whole ‘magical’ dark ambient experience ‘Mvsic For Solve Et Coagvla’ is the only one I’ve encountered that has actually got under the skin of its subject matter. I’ll not pretend that it is by any means an easy recording to get into and many of you may be put off by the way Vladimir has tackled the subject in such an uncompromising way. This might have been the Achilles heal for a lesser experienced musician but Vladimir’s music is created in such a way that through repeated plays you become more accustomed to the sounds until finally the clouds break and the full visionary aspects opens up before your ears. If there was such a thing as a perfect 10 for both presentation and music working in harmony and tandem with each other then ‘Mvsic For Solve Et Coagvla’ would be it. I tell you now that it will be one of the most sought after recordings for music lovers and collectors alike this year. With only 500 numbered copies you’ll need to act fast…or live to regret it." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest]
label-website: www.horus.cz
|
2006 |
€26.00 |
|
| OSSATURA + TIM HODGKINSON |
Dentro |
CD |
"Somewhere between Musique Concrete and a kind of abstract improvisational work, using extended techniques and electrification that disconnects sound from any recognisable source. A fascinating first record that sits between studio improvisation and extensive post production processing composition." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
| OTAVAN VERET |
same |
CD |
"Otavan Veret is another new addition to the Cyclic Law family. Hailing from mystical Finland, the project is from the minds of Kaarna (Tervahäät, Slave's Mask, Anima Arctica Label etc..) & Kivelä. Their first self titled album is a conceptual journey towards the vastness of the universe, where one would simply seep into and become one with these amorphous territories. A calm, epic, massive and monotonously rich curtain of ritualistic sonorities escalates as radiant timbres morphs like an aurora borealis amongst stellar luster. Ever present is the uttermost distance, deep as lethargy, soothing as still waters and affective as phantoms.
Edition of 500 copies in 6 panel Digipack. 3 Tracks. Running Time 50:00" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| OTTAVI, JULIEN |
The Black Symphony |
CD |
"The new solo work by inventive French soundartist is the true symphony, divided into several parts titled like 'Adagio', 'Allegro', 'Menuet', etc. but without any hints to traditional instruments or classical orchestration - just the pure white noise structures. A mediactivist, artist-researcher, composer / musician, poet and tongues destroyer, experimental film maker and anarchitect, founder and member of Apo33, Julien Ottavi is involved in research and creative work, combining sound art, real-time video, new technologies and body performances. Since 1997, he develops a composition work using voice and its transformation through computer. Active developer of audio/visual programs with Puredata, he has also developed since many years DIY electronics (radio transmitters, oscillators, mixers, amplifiers, video transmitters, etc) in the perspective of knowledge sharing on technological development. His practices is not limited to the art spheres but crosses different fields from technological development to philosophy / theoretical research, biomimetic analysis & experimentation. Release date is 20th July 2013. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| OTTE, HANS |
Minimum:Maximum / Orient:Occident |
CD |
Aufnahmen von 1973 und 1977 vom poetischen Klang-Puristen und Minimalisten HANS OTTE. Stimme, Glockenspiel, Radiowaves, instrumentelle Geräusche, werden zu reduzierten aber wirkungsvollen Klangbildern verwoben, eine direkte Umsetzung von verwobener Klang- und Lebensphilosophie spiegelt sich hier wieder.
“minimum:maximum (1973): texts / sounds / pictures. An environment (simultaneous concert in Stockholm and Bremen) for two organists: Karl-Erik Welin and Gerd Zacher, keyboard instruments. orient:occident (1977): for two woodwind-players and tape: Ingo Goritzki, oboe; Hans-Wilhelm Goetzke, clarinet. "Perhaps best known for his piano work 'Book of Sounds' these two works by German composer Hans Otte were composed in the 1970s. In that decade his aesthetic creed became increasingly clear: 'the search for the character and individuality of sound as such, which must be rediscovered and re-experienced independent of superimposed structures. The composer understands the dialogue with sounds as the discovery of their nature.' (Ute Schalz-Laurenze). While Hans Otte was an enthusiastic, one might say visionary promoter of fellow composers, such as John Cage and David Tudor, whose impacts had registered to the general public long after their force reached the surface, he nevertheless remained deeply committed to his own music. Otte's writings, simple lines that say: 'words are just something added on'; 'all great things laugh'; 'when something is reminiscent of nothing'; and, 'it's really something -- that voice that was once in the mouth,' all direct us to his music, because: 'everything always happens: Now.' It is Otte's music that betrays his particularity of thought to what (is everything), how (it happens), and when (is now). Words are just something added on. Collectively, these aphorisms reflect an aesthetic that dispenses with words which may address themselves to an understanding of the world. Here, however, the world to be understood is indescribable. What is everything? When is now? How does it happen? The message is that words tell, music is. Listen. The titles of these works: orient:occident and mnimum:maximum, suggest a relationship between seemingly disparate things to remind us of Otte's adage: 'It is the gardener who owns the garden.'" [label info]
wwww.pogus.com
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| OTZEPENEVSHIYE (Оцепеневшие) |
Razryv Svyazi (Disconnection) |
do-CD |
"At last! The first major solo release from Otzepenevshiye in 11 years of the band's existence! The project was shaped in 2006 by Evgeniy Voronovskiy (Cisfinitum), Dmitriy Zubov (Hypnoz, Zuboff Sex Shop) and Ivan Napreenko (Sal Solaris, Θ16), but after some time transformed into a duo of Ivan and Arnold_pR (Reutoff, Myrrman). Otzepenevshiye have recorded many compositions published on compilations on various occasions by such labels as Heliophagia, Ewers Tonkunst, Old Europa Cafe, etc. The only full-length album "For a Knife" was created in collaboration with the band Vir' (2013, Zhelezobeton Distribution Division): zhbd.bandcamp.com/album/for-a-knife And only now many scattered pieces, like cold drops of condensate, have accomplished their cycle and gathered in two dazzingly freezing snowflakes.
Powerful and catchy guitar riffs, relentlessly sharp industrial rhythmics, minimalistic pads and authentic field recordings – these are the lattice points of the sound of Otzepenevshiye. The need to use understandable terms makes us turn to such tags as industrial doom metal, drone-doom or doomgaze, but anyway we can't avoid the word "doom" here. Yes, this music has darkness inside, there's suffering, there's a feel of real experience, but also a clear conscious gaze towards the other side of the rubicon. Otzepenevshiye know how to get to the very depths and see the blackness that contains the infinite cosmic absolute.
Apart from solo recordings, the second disc features tracks created in collaboration with Circle Of Unexisted and Vir' and remakes of compositions by Banda Chetyryokh and Thergothon. The material of this album was released in small cassette editions by NEN Records, including several bonus tracks. The track-list of this double-CD edition was specially adjusted by the musicians for the sake of maximum immersion."
https://zhelezobeton.bandcamp.com/album/--2
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| OTZEPENEVSHIYE / VIR' |
За Ножом / For A Knife |
CD |
"Otzepenevshiye were formed in 2006 and by now have already recorded a conceptual split-album with Allerseelen and Neutral (2008, Ewers Tonkunst / Indiestate), have taken part in a series of releases of the Heliophagia label and contributed to several compilations. The band consists of members of the well-known Russian post-industrial projects Sal Solaris and Reutoff... Vir' dates from 1996, having released some self-made demos, split-releases and two full-length albums: "Lower Forest" (2006, Indie-Go!) and "Horna" (2008, Mosquito Records)... The creation of a collaboration album was conceived by the members of both bands during their collective gig in Kazan'. Through the mutual exchange and editing of material they managed to record not just a split but something more that combined the planes of both acts and surpassed their traditional sound, not always resembling the individual works of both projects. The style of the album is really hard to define but to mark the relative field we could use such tags as sludge / drone doom / industrial / dark ambient... Roaring guitars and the powerful drive of a live drum kit turn into measured industrial drum-machine rhythms, a clatter of iron sheets, synthesizers and field recordings, then again giving room to overdriven strings and profound insane vocals of Sergey Milushkin (Vir')... Metaphysically this album is a kind of optical device, a magic lantern with opaque glass - matching the anguish and desperation of Russian life. However looking more closely one can distinguish amazing patterns on the black soot of this glass behind which shines the everburning living fire." [label info]
"There’s no surprise in that Otzpenevshiye and Vir’ succeed in producing together something fine and new: the latter is a well-established name by now, and the former constitutes from members of Sal Solaris and Reutoff. The album starts with dark ambient that turns into guitar-drone driven, almost doomy layer, to which is then added a set of matching drums and screaming vocals. The result is nevertheless not exactly doom metal, but something between that and ambient, and simultaneously something different from artists like Sunn O))). As the disc moves to the second track, a leap takes place, to instrumental, Megaptera-like post-industrial. After that comes guitar-led, spacey wave-sound, reminiscent of a mixture of Troum and drum machine. Later on there’s for example noise-spiced dark ambient, and at the magnificent end, the disc returns to the early doom moods. Everything is excellently done, but the jumps from one genre to another every track eat away the power of the record. It sounds more like a compilation from various bands than a singular album. Really good tracks, but more suitable for listening in small segments than as a whole." [Jiituomas @ Kuolleen Musiikin Yhdistys] |
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| OUBYS |
Terra_Incognita |
LP |
" 'Terra Incogita’ is Oubys’ first release on Testtoon Records.
Following up on his two acclaimed CD releases on the U-Cover label, ‘Terra Incognita’ delves into even more vast territory.
Essentially exploring different spaces and different modes of energy, ‘Terra Incognita’ uses a distinctly analogue production and mastering design to lure the listener into a trance-like lullaby, a hypnotic state of altered consciousness if you will. At the same time though, the music plays with a direct expression of organic elements, earthing the listening experience, thus giving it a solid base. The sound of the album should be felt, should be experienced. At maximum volume or at low volume, a beautiful paradox reveals itself. A continuous counterpoint of energy materializing and matter being transformed into energy draws this music into different directions all the time.
Mellow washes alternate with sharp, almost piercing sounds, deep sub-tones alternate with hiss. Oubys’ intention is to confront and subdue, to make space be felt and to translate and transmit energy." [label info]
www.testtoon.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD |
Polished Glass Autobahn |
7 |
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL gibt es nicht mehr. Es lebe OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD! Während wir noch über die Bedeutung des Bandnamens nachdenken, ertönen auf der ersten Single überraschend abgehackte Beats und eine Vibrato-Gitarre wird über Akustigitarren malträtiert (sehr seltsam das alles), während die B-Seite "Galactic Masada" mit herrlichen tänzelnden Backwards-Gitarren, Organ-Drones und Rauschwellen auftrumpft. Das ist wirklich mal ein starker Kontrast zwischen A-und B-Seite..
"Debut single of the new project by Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel / Black Boned Angel). Campbell says “Shoot. The goddamn funkiest noise record ever? Like a bop-off between Rudolph Grey and Terminator X. Grinding psychedirgecore plastered over ghastly electrosplatter and ambivalent fake-americana strummage. And that’s just side one! Side two grovels in halls of gravel, blurring the line between this world and the next... like Aldous Huxley writing a book about how he lost his marbles whilst listening to Hawkwind. Like, like, like...EVERYBODYDANCENOW!)” Sure to pack the dance floors in Hades." [label info]
www.myspace.com/dirtyknobbyindustries
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Fucking Dracula Clouds |
LP |
"Stunning new LP from Campbell Kneale's post Birchville Cat Motel project. Continues with the vibes set on his superb LP for Dekorder, total psychedelic filth noise. Two side long heavy pieces of gushing electric destruction, one sound lurches in and tears down another one, which it rebuilds an even more ferocious version of the original sound. Pressed on 180gram vinyl. Limited to 400 copies in pro printed wrap around sleeve on 400gsm silk card." [label info]
www.blackest-rainbow.moonfruit.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
I hate even Numbers |
LP |
"Parallel universes mangle and mash into a superheated cloud of galactic debris and non-recyclable plastic. After a slew of genre-confounding 7" releases, Our Love Will Destroy The World unravels his own history of nearly everything in this, the mere third full length offering under his world destroying moniker. Smearing the already dotty line between twinkle-toed rave music and excoriating drone cacophony, "I Hate Even Numbers" weighs in like a three-legged gargantuan in a one-man morris dance. Blessed with a deep conviction that 'nowhere' is somewhere definitely worth going to, crippled, hobbling, clunkbeats and bubblepulses contest every frequency to the death underscored (overscored?) by mega-electrified guitar tuning exercises, shattering a passage to a brand new India. Everything louder than everything else, everything dissolving in the powerful acid of the sound next to it - a frybrained avalanche of audio M&Ms. Profound, elevating, and mercilessly, relentlessly UP!
Our Love Will Destroy The World is the new one-man project by New Zealander Campbell Kneale after disbanding BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL. In the past Kneale has released albums on Ecstatic Peace, Corpus Hermeticum, Last Visible Dog, Conspiracy and his own Celebrate Psi Phenomena label. He has colllaborated with Lee Ranaldo, Neil Campbell, Bruce Russel, John Olson (Wolf Eyes), Yellow Swans, has toured throughout Japan, Europe, America and Australia and also records und the names BLACK BONED ANGEL and Ming.
"I Hate Even Numbers" is the 2nd LP by this new project for the Dekorder label (his 4th altogether) after last year's monolithic "Stillborn Plague Angels" album.
Limited edition of 400 copies!" [label info]
www.dekorder.com
"A quartet of new releases on Dekorder display the label's nicer senses of finding interesting new names as well as keeping the old. The old is represented by Campbell Kneale, previously working as Birchville Cat Motel, now trading as Our Love Will Destroy The World. The music also saw some changes, which are even more apparent on this third album under the new guise. Kneale dances the vitus dance here. The five pieces are all evolving around revolving sounds. Hectic, nervous, jumpy, this hardly classifies as 'dance' music. There is a bit of drum computer in here, but not a 4/4 one and there is a total chaos in all these jumpy sounds which are looped together. Occasionally we hear some guitar noise underneath all of this bumping stuff, a vague reminder perhaps of the more droney and noisy days of Kneale. I thought this was a pretty nice record, a decisive step forward (or side-ward is perhaps a better word), and do something new and do that well. This album reminded me of the album Richard Youngs put out on Dekorder: that same wicked sense of rhythm." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Beautiful Monolith two |
7" |
"No Progression. No Movement. No Entertainment. No Narrative. No Musical Journey. No Drone. No Collector Scum. No Reviews. No Fans.
Just electrified bloodbaths and blitzkrieg ragas from Nowhere, New Zealand, in search of fleeting moments of infinite density; where everything is louder than everything else, time slows to a crawl, and brains under stress slip into warm, prickly comas.
Primitive electronic bumps and cannabanoid-campfire pulses clump into clusters and march like stars on their gigantic skyward axis. Think Coltrane, Think Public Image, Think Amon Duul, Think Conrad, Cale, or MacLise. Think Prandit Pran Nath being chewed up by Hanatarashs tropical piranha collection.
Fluorescent, super-dense, trance-music to scare away the fools who buy records from the “drone” section." [label info]
www.quasipop.org
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
| OUSTAD, KRISTOFFER |
Filth Haven |
CD |
"As one half of Swedish/Norwegian industrial duo K.N.O., Kristoffer Oustad is no stranger to the Malignant roster, and yet within the broader context of the K.N.O. sound, his exact contributions were never fully known, or at least immediately recognizable. Listening to his debut solo recording, it becomes evident that the more emotive and moody qualities within those recordings seemed to be his primary responsibility. The 7 tracks that comprise Filth Haven operate on a palpable psychological level and are perhaps some of the most personal and deeply emotional recordings Malignant has released. Oustad shows an innate ability to craft intricate and detailed pieces of grey hued, analog darkness that feel suspended in time… dreamlike and meditative, yet always hinting at something ominous on the horizon, as gradually shifting textures, drifting tones and haunting melodies intersect in a hazy, somnambulant procession. While the method for composition (analog synths, guitar, and field recordings) may have been the same, each track is uniquely different than the next, but in the end, feels tightly bound together by a cinematic framework that sinks deep into your consciousness. An absolutely astounding and rewarding work for those that appreciate all manner of dark music." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
"Filth Haven is the first full length release published by the Norwegian Kristoffer Oustad under his own name. In the past Oustad has offered several albums and compilation works under the moniker of Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester (a power industrial duet formed with Peter Nyström of Megaptera) and Plague Machinery and the post-metal, avant-garde industrial project V:28.
Filth Haven is an ultimate bleak, demonic and epic soundscaping inferno. Massive, absorbing and grimy, the dark instrumental music rituals offered here are made of brooding droney chords, treated found sources, ultra-sonic electronic assaults, micro signals, harsh noises, disembodied chants and treated hypnotic-like percussive elements. The whole orchestration is amazingly captivating and exceptionally turbulent, as if we enter in complete nightmare-ish hallucinations which send us back to primordial origins or to some forgotten cosmic events. ‘Filth Haven’ is a tremendously hell-ish narrative album, a sublime illustration of infernal scenes of extravagance and final desolation we can appreciate in terrifying painting visions of John Martin, John Charles Dollman or Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, just to name a few. The apocalyptic mood is interrupted by rare field recordings as in the otherworldly Acheron-like droning sound tapestry of “Row me over.”
Mesmeric splendor, compelling musical procession and dark contemplative estates that will ravish addicted fans of isolationist ambient music and anything related to post-industrial experimentalism. With this album Malignant Records proves one more time that they figure among the most iconic producers of shimmering industrial ambient music. Filth Haven is definitely a recommended album for collectors as well as beginners in the genre." [Philippe Blache, IGLOO MAGAZINE]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| OVAL LANGUAGE / RLW / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE |
Sprechzimmern (Hommage an Carlfriedrich Claus) |
CD |
"Distance, busyness, sporadic communication occupied with other topics are often the reason why common interests are discovered only late and by accident. Carlfriedrich Claus, sound poet and graphic artist with a largely concealed output, working in the no-man's-land of Annaberg-Buchholz, near Chemnitz, Germany, was with some exceptions only discovered after the fall of the wall. Creating a work of vocal utterances not only composed with great sophistication, but underlined with intense philosophical research.
How could we not be enthusiastic and even euphoric when digging through the layers of his multi-faceted body of work that has progressively been published as deserved, which wasn't the case during the GDR regime that had him withdrawn his title of a professional artist. Concentrating on a few basic elements, intuition and chance as creative tools backed by intense theory and contextualization, working methods we all strive for ourselves. It was just a matter of time and time it took, but it was worth it, to do our own take inspired and in homage to this great man to whom we feel so linked.
This is not a collaboration of working on each other's sound files, it rather is to let each other know, to compare where each participant's exploration is positioned and how the distinct works could be arranged together in order to allow for a varied but continues listening session. A process of filtering and combining, adding and eliminating, varying density and permeability.
a homage to Carlfriedrich Claus
of fermenting language / aggregated resonances / swoosh-combined speech transparency:
historical-philosophical vibration / distorted densification = experimental retail salesman
/ articulating principal latency / private suspect statesmanship / destructive-combinatorial / an evening live in annaberg - buchholz: tol & rlw & dsm / chronicled, condensed and constellated in 2014.
full coloured artwork based on an original drawing by Guido Huebner (dsm)
edition of 300" [label info]
scrotum-records.de
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| OVRO |
Revisited |
CD |
Auf "Revisited" benutzt OVRO Feldaufnahmen aus St. Petersburg und Moskau, die sie von einer Reise mitbrachte. Die wallend-raunigen Drones der Metro, obskure TV-Schnipsel, Kirchenglocken, der Besuch eines "Eis-Tempels" und die Benutzung von Metallflöten, Kaffee-Bar Geräusche, Altai-Folklore in einem Museum... aus all diesen Soundquellen schafft sie eine faszinierende "zweite Reise" für den Headspace, so dunkel, dicht und traumverwebt spannend, dass hier quasi Genre-freie Musik ensteht, zwischen drone ambience, Geräuschmusik und atmosphärisch-experimentellen Hörspiel.
"The wondergirl of Finnish dark ambient soundscapes is back with a new album. Revisited is based on field recordings made during Ovro’s tour in Russia in 2006, subsequently processed and treated in the studio. Revisited is a powerful aural travelogue. It will lull the listener to a state of receptive trance, and then starts working on the subconscious mind. Let yourself go, lose yourself in the sound, expect lucid dreams, out-of-body experiences, alien apparitions and a shower of sound massaging your body throughout. Revisited is loosely related to Estraier, a 2006 EP of which only a handful of copies were given out. Compared to Estraier, Revisited is extended, mutated and more elaborate throughout. While the beginning is similar, the paths taken turn out somewhat different and thus the outcome is all new. CD is packed in beautiful 4-panel digisleeve. Edition of 1000 copies." [label info]
www.someplaceelse.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Horizontal / Vertical (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"OVRO has already been called "the wondergirl of Finnish experimental music" and with this, her first ever vinyl-release, she really proves this! On HORIZONTAL / VERTICAL deep waving droning noises are set against vortexing echoes & swirling digital effects, derived from what could be instrumental sources or object recordings, moving the willing listener into a surrealistic subconscious dimension. Especially on the second side the contrasting conrete material can fill your imagination with "something" that "happens", so captivating & condensed!
This music spreads like an unconscious aural travelogue in different spatial directions (horizontal & vertical). What makes OVRO so special is her capability to create very "cinematographic" and "narrative" drone-atmospheres or landscapes, with great care for even tiniest details.
OVRO is also a part of the SOME PLACE ELSE-association, together with NIKO SKORPIO.
Filed under: Subsconscious Travel-Drones
more info: www.someplaceelse.net/artists/?id=ovro
WHITE VINYL. HANDMADE COVERS PASTED UP WITH NEWSPAPER-SHEETS & FILMSTRIPS" [label info]
www.dronerecords.de
"Auch OVRO, die mit Horizontal / Vertical (DR-93, white vinyl, red labels) erstmals auf Vinyl zu hören ist, bekennt sich zu einem ‚Anderswo‘, das als Label Some Place Else eine Adresse in Venäjänkangas hat, in den Hinterwäldern von Turku. Dort hat die junge Finnin Musik veröffentlicht - Malice in Underland (2003), Gegendurchgangenzeit (2005), Mosaick the Serpent / Vipera Aurea (2006) und Revisited (2008) und weiteres als Hæretici 7o74, einem Duo mit Niko Skorpio - , die jedem, der sie hörte, in die Zwielichtzone
zwischen Tag, Traum und Alptraum entrückte und Geheimnisse zuflüsterte, wie sie Dichter als Krikelkrakel einer anderen Macht zu Papier bringen. Schon das Video zu ‚Equation Impossible‘ macht eine Faszination durch Stummfilmhorror und Schwarzweißfilme von Polanski deutlich. Hier suggiert ein aufgeklebter Filmstreifen auf den handgefertigten EP-Hüllen eine cineastische Qualität der ominösen Klänge, die ins Bewusstsein einsickern wie nichts Gutes. Eine grummelnde Basswelle, wischende, fast krächzende und kaskadierende Loops, die rückwärts und linksherum gegen das Gebot
der Zeit verstoßen. ‚Undergrounded‘ und ‚Elevatored‘ steht auf den Auslaufrillen. Man steckt in einem Untergeschoss fest, und das leise Klopfen und Scharren vor der Tür lässt einen zittern, dass sie nicht aufgeht. Oder ist es nur der eigene Puls im Ohr, und schon zittert der furchtsamen Nachtwache in der Hirn-Morgue sprichwörtlich ‚jedes Blatt‘?" [Bad Alchemy]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| OVUM |
Eld |
CD-R |
Ein one-tracker (51 Minuten) vom schwedischen dark ambient-Projekt, Zeitlupen-drones und leicht sirrende elektronische Effekte, die ganz langsam niedersinken.... windartige, verhallte Filterrauschsounds verstärken eine Atmosphäre des Unendlichen und Transzendentalen. Sehr schönes Artwork (2-fach Vollfarb-Pappklappcover mit GLUT darauf), insgesamt ein exzellenter dark-drone-ambience Release! TIP !!
“OVUM is the main project of Karl Midholm from Sweden, his style may be best described as a mixture of Industrial-Ambient and Drone Music. "Eld" was created in 1999 using recordings of fire as the only sound source. Such recordings were subsequently run through filter banks and effect units, resulting in one fifty minutes long track of evolving beautiful drones. The album was originally intended as part of a various artists set dealing with the four elements that unfortunately was never released. After five years from its creation, it finally see the light of day as another Blade Records / Afe Records co-production.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| OWWL |
Tree speaks to Stone; Stone speaks to Water |
CD-R |
"two parts of Bonn’s German drone duo OWWL are more of antagonists than partners. While both might cite similar influences spanning from glacial drones to hazed out ambient there is a huge difference in perception. For one half the music is the sonic equivalent to modern art, for the other it is a vessel for mystic progress. This might be a reason for the unusual instrumentation: Mick Schulz shapes the feedbacking of his guitar with numerous effect pedals, Stefan Otto plays an 1890’s Reed Organ. The key to their work is concentration, like refining Malevich’s black square through alchemical processes. The results are drones that are radically minimalistic, densely atmospheric and subliminally fragile." [label info]
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| OÖPHOI (OOPHOI) |
Hymns to a silent sky |
CD |
Neues Werk, dem “Himmel” gewidmet...pure Meditations-drones, langsam kreisende Frequenzverschiebungen, sanfte verhallte aurale Schlagschatten..... die “beste Kunst”, sowohl visuell als auch akustisch, produziert immer noch und täglich neu, die Natur... diese Natur-verbundenheit scheint OÖPHOI mit seiner Musik ausdrücken zu wollen....
“A silent, impassive sky is watching us. An impending sky full of signals that we should learn to read and perceive. A sky which reflects our moods, hopes and fears. A sky which can recall our deepest memories.
I want to dedicate these hymns to all the people who feel attracted by the beauty and the mysteries of the Sky.” [Oophoi, 2005]
"An album of epic, deep, evocative space music that stretches out in front of you in its own infinite universe of sounds. The music is deeply connected with the mysteries of the sky: clouds moving slowly, delicate and dramatic colors merging together beyond the horizon line, winds carrying voices and sounds from distant times. A remarkable work full of poetry. According to general reactions - Oophoi's best album so far. Total Time: 60:21 “ [label info]
www.nextera.cz
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mare Tranquilitas |
CD |
One of the best OÖPHOI-CDRs, recorded in 2001, now re-released by czech label NEXTERA!
"The most mysterious Sea of the Moon inspired this monumental work of Italian droning artist Oophoi. The music leads us through different levels of space ambient music, from vast and resonant alien soundscapes to mystic and solitary drones for bass flute and electronics. At times reminiscing of Robert Rich's first works, with sustained and undulating chords. Mare Tranquillitatis is a masterpiece of slow atmospheric space music!" [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Potala |
10inch |
Die Nr. 7 in unserer 10"-Vinyl Reihe ist auch gleichzeitig das allererste Vinyl für Gianluigi Gasparetti aka OÖPHOI, der auf seinem eigenen Label UMBRA schon unzählige CDRs herausgegeben hat und in der "meditativen" Ambient-Szene längt kein Unbekannter mehr ist. POTALA ist heiligen Plätzen in Tibet gewidmet, mit seinen tief summenden & hallenden Drone-Mandalas öffnet OÖPHOI unendlich weite Räume der Imagination...
www.substantia-innominata.de
" #7 in der 10"-serie substantia innominata von drone-records, die sich mit dem unbekannten, dem nicht zu benennenden, dem nicht auszusprechenden, dem nicht denkbaren und weiteren aspekten des unbekannten beschäftigt (genauer und ausführlicher dazu auf der website) bzw. den einzelnen künstlern genau dies als musikalische aufgabenstellung voranstellt. und: die cover werden hier nicht von den künstlern selbst erstellt, wie in den erstauflagen der bekannten 7"-serie auf drone; es werden separate cover-designer benannt, so dass inhalt und form von immer wieder neuen paarungen entwickelt werden.
ex-maeror-tri 1000schoen, helge siehl, war für die „potala" zuständig und ob er jetzt auch für die auswahl der vinylfarbe verantwortlich war oder nicht, und ob man jetzt farbiges vinyl für wichtig hält oder nicht; im gegensatz zu vielen ach-komm-lass-uns-die-platte-bunt-machen haltungen ohne erkennbaren inhaltlichen zusammenhang zu was auch immer, bilden das diffus blaurote, eigentlich multicolor-cover und die wirklich gelungen transparent hellgrüne 10" eine extrem schicke einheit (fotos sind hier nur krücke, tut mir leid). mit oöiphoi „potala“ backcoverden das cover aufgreifenden, ansonsten unbeschrifteten labeln als verbindung; schon mal perfekt.
und wie eigentlich immer, wenn auf drone-records etwas veröffentlicht wird: der musikalische inhalt entspricht der visuellen qualität. oöphoi lässt zwei flächenmonster los, zunächst dunkler, auf seite 2 etwas aufgeklärter, beide in dieser unwiderstehlichen mischung aus kälte, einsamkeit und unwirtlichkeit, dabei aber trotzdem umgeben mit einer aura aus warmer offenheit; schwer zu beschreiben, wer es gehört hat weiss, was ich meine. spannender ambient mit innerem halt und dynamik; schwer empfohlen; diese serie oöiphoi „potala“ vinyllohnt, ebenfalls im auge/ohr behalten zu werden; unbedingt." [N, Unruhr.de]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| OÖPHOI / TAU CETI |
Subterranea |
CD |
Schon das zweite Album mit wahrhaft wallender Klang(a)morphologie – amorphe, tief-meditative hauchzarte Sounds die in der Unendlichkeit verschwinden... und wieder geht es um die Umsetzung mythischer Themen aus der unbewussten Vergangenheit des Menschen. Anklänge an GRASSOW, ALIO DIE,..
"After their acclaimed debut CD release "Celestial geometries" released in 2001 on Amplexus, considered as one of the best space albums ever, Italian sound sculptors Oöphoi and Tau Ceti are back with the long awaited second CD "Subterranea", inspired by a book about the myth of Agharti, the hidden realm located in central Asia. Vast sonic explorations with synths, flutes, stones and shells, ranging from subtle and mysterious atmospheres to highly
dynamic passages, describe this out of reach underworld. The last part of the long suite "The chamber of eternity" features the
unique sound of the tibetan singing bowls of Klaus Wiese. After the outer space adventures of their first CD, "Subterranea" deals with the inner space." [label info]
www.nextera.cz
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| PACIFIC 231 |
Ethnicities |
CD |
Das Industrial-Projekt von PIERE JOLIVET, der auch Bestandteil der fantastischen VOX POPULI! gewesen sein soll. "Ethnicities" ist eine Zusammenstellung von bisher unveröffentlichtem Material.
"'Ethnicities is an electro-acoustical scope of unreleased recordings of Pacific 231's post-industrial period. Successive and consecutive cuts were made until he put together the concept of the album as: pluri-cultural diversity of the sounds, tropical steams, exotic journeys & electronic man-made build-up manipulations, urban dins and industrial mazes, ' Ethnicities ' is a psychedelic and unexpected patchwork from Pacific 231." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com |
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Stif(f)le |
CD-R |
Drei Mitschnitte von den P231-Konzerten 2007 in Russland sind hier dokumentiert, wesentlich minimaler und droniger als man es gewohnt ist, frequenzmodulierte analog-synth drones in spiralenförmigen Drehungen erfüllen den Raum...
"Pierre Jolivet has been producing music since 1981. His most recent CD Palestine has been released in 2007 in collaboration with Rapoon. This album is based on the performances will take place in the Moscow, St.-Petersburg and Yaroslavl, during the russian tour organized by Monochrome Vision label. The concept of Stif(f)le is to encompass a space by creating a virtual world based on the use of digital technology. Since first performance, nearly 25 years ago, progress has been made in creating and controlling the performance in a real time environment. The equipment consists of a single laptop, connected through MIDI to an upper torso
exoskeleton and a data projector displaying the visual in sync with the sound feed. Abolishing the instrument liberates the performer as motion sensors on the body facilitate gesture found in dance or in sculpture. The minimalist aspect of the performance makes the spectator closer to an altered state of consciousness, a format used since the early sixties repetitive school of music to include the public as part of the event as a cerebral feedback loop." [label notes]
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
1983-86 Compendium |
do-CD |
"Pacific 231 is active since 1981, starting with a limited edition Psychic Euthanasia tape recorded in total stereo, Pacific 231 was involved into VP 231 for a few years alongside Vox Populi!. His first LP "Unusual Perversions" was released in 1984. After some references, VP 231 was terminated following the double LP L'Enfer est Intime international compilation. Today, Pacific 231 is the co-producer on all his productions. From 1987 "Power Assume" second LP on Bunker Records in Canada to his most recent release ! This DCD Compendium* is a selective collection of early 80's Pacific 231 works. More than 48 hours of recordings coming from reel-to-reel tapes has been unveiled and carefully converted to recover two hours worth of material. The production has been split in two parts as the 1st CD is Studio and the 2nd is Live. As a matter of interest, for the "Unusual Perversions" fans out there, a good percentage of the archives are circa 1984 and unreleased. * A compendium is a concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of knowledge. A compendium may summarize a larger work." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| PACIFIC 231 & BARDOSENETICCUBE |
The Traditions of Changes |
CD |
"PACIFIC 231 is the brainchild of French multimedia artist Pierre Jolivet, currently residing in Dublin, Ireland. While Pacific 231 has its roots in the 1980’s industrial noise underground, Pierre Jolivet has since then consistently sought out and found new sounds and new compositional themes, venturing into unfamiliar aesthetics but always maintaining the rare quality of a steady evolutionary path.
BARDOSENETICCUBE was formed by Russian artist Igor Potsukaylo in 1998. In his work, surrealism is key: “pure psychic automatism willing to express the real functioning of the reflection orally, written or in any other form. Dictation of mind without any control from the intellect, outside of any aesthetic of moral considerations.” (André Breton)
One of Russia’s leading experimental drone acts, Bardoseneticcube has a quite extensive discography, having released on labels such as Drone Records, Aquarellist and Monochrome Vision.
This collaborative composition consists of 6 movements, leading the listener through a utopian sonic maelstrom in a modern re-interpretation of some sections of ‘New Atlantis’ (Francis Bacon, 1624-27). Psychedelica, field recordings and abstract electronics create a ‘New Language’ with a slippering affect from quietness and by dint of colliding utter chaos.
NOTE: Preferably listened to in total for coherence and surreal storytelling projection.
Limited to 300 copies
Packaged in a 6-panel A5 folder with soft-touch finishing and UV spot varnish." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
"Wenn zwei Musiker einen völlig konträren Ansatz verfolgen, kann eine Kollaboration zu ungewöhnlichen Ergebnissen führen oder grandios scheitern. Nur eines ist sie niemals: vorhersehbar. Igor Potsukaylo alias Bardoseneticcube ist nach eigener Einschätzung der geborene Surrealist, der sich von seinen Ideen und Assoziationen eher treiben lässt, vergleichbar einem Schreiber der ecriture automatique, der seiner Feder und den Worten freien Lauf lässt. Pierre Jolivet alias Pacific 231 ist Komponist, der dem Soundmaterial begegnet wie ein Bildhauer seinem Steinblock, wenn er schon längst die Idee des künftigen Werks vor Augen hat. Einer fürs kreative Chaos also und ein anderer, um ebendies in eine verdauliche Form zu bringen.
„The Traditions of Changes“ beginnt mit diesem reizvollen Knack- und Frickelsound, die auch der versierteste Noisefan zunächst an einen Defekt denken lässt, zumal das erste der vier Stücke auch noch sehr leise anklingt und Hochfrequentes enthält. Interessant, wie ein dünner Hochtöner diesem minimalistichen Szenario Struktur gibt. Bis zum Ende des ausgiebigen Auftaktes und zum Übergang in etwas heterogeneres Material, wäre der unkonzentrierte Gelegenheitshörer längst in Tiefschlaf verfallen, denn es braucht einen gewissen Grad an Involviertheit, um in den chaotisch vor sich hin mäandernden Soundfetzen aller Coleur, die sich in alle Richtungen im Raum verteilen und gelegentlich in menschliches Geschnatter münden, die durchaus vorhandenen Kompositionsmuster zu erkennen. Im Verlauf erweist sich das auf zahlreichen Feldaufnahmen basierende Soundpanorama allerdings als ausgesprochen vielschichtig und reich an Überraschungen und Variationen.
Laut Eigenangabe ist „The Traditions of Changes“ von einem Klassiker der utopischen Literatur, nämlich Francis Bacons „New Atlantis“ inspiriert und von der Idee, eine neue Sprache zu erfinden. Nun ist die Idee, die verbale Sprache durch Sound zu ersetzen, nicht neu und hat die Menschen immer wieder beflügelt. Was die beiden Musiker hier absolvieren ist jedoch weniger eine solche Sprache selbst, als der Versuch eine solche zu entwickeln – ein work in progress mit einem noch offenen Ende, dass durch surreale Komik und originelle Soundideen überzeugt." [Uwe Schneider / African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/05/16/pacific-231-bardoseneticcube-the-traditions-of-changes/
"It seems that Pacific 231 has been around forever, but maybe there was a hiatus for some time. I remember Pierre Jolivet from France, but living in Dublin for quite some time now, as an active participant in the eighties underground cassette scene, and on lots of compilations with his own, not always unique brand of industrial noise, but back in Vital Weekly 888 I got the updated Pacific 231 sound, which I enjoyed very much: minimal electronics, psychedelic and intense. Here he has a collaboration with Igor Potsukaylo, who works as Bardoseneticcube, a name we have seen before a few times; he is a man of atmospherics, drones and the louder edges (outer edges?) of ambient. Jolivet supplied the 'field recordings and analog structures', while Potsukaylo takes credit for 'electronic construction'. Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” inspires the music, or as they call 'an utopian sonic maelstrom'; a maelstrom it surely is. No sound effects have been spared in this work. Everything and
everyone, or every possible level, there seems to be something happening. You get distracted, follow the loops, but then on a different level something else seem to be happening. A lot of it stays in the same place, yet a lot of it seems to be moving all the time. Yes, that is confusing, but then such is the nature of this music: very confusing, but pleasant at the same time. Music that is one large head trip for you, providing of course you are open to such buzzing activities. I can easily imagine or even agree if someone would say: but, look; now this is all way too much. If you don't let this in, you might easily be annoyed by the mass attack of sound. So, open your mind, and flow the waves, the ever-cascading waves of this massive music, then you'll be in for onehellofa trip to the backside of the moon. That, or maybe a rollercoaster to New Atlantis." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| PACIFIC 231 & RAPOON |
Palestine |
CD |
Surprising collaboration between the french Industrial pioneer and RAPOON, very hypnotic beats & strange sounds with an "oriental" feel, this is the electronic dervish-trance !
"Palestine is a face-2-face in memoriam between Pacific 231 & Rapoon to the late Bryn Jones 1961-1999 a.k.a. Muslimgauze. The production also support the justified struggle for a truly free Palestinian nation, a key issue for a middle-east liberated from foreign ingerance.
Music was the modus operandi Muslimgauze wanted to carry the message and music is the medium we want to continue to convey the legacy. This regular edition is in-fact also a special edition due to the special screen printed Protex-Box / Lever Kick-out box and for the black coloured playing side of the CD! " [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| PACIFIC 231 & VOX POPULI |
Aramesh |
CD |
Neues Material (16 Stücke) des legendären französischen Projekts um AXEL KYROU. ARAMESH klingt erst einmal beat-lastig & rhythmisch-pulsierend, aber alles ist seltsamst effektiert und mit vielen elektronisch klackernden und stimm-basierenden Sounds durchtränkt, so dass ein wunderbarer Flow entsteht, alles versinkt in langen Brandungswellen von angezerrten Klang... daneben gibt es im Wechsel wie auf früheren Veröffentlichungen ambient-experimentelle Zwischenparts & Stücke, (das ist dann wohl eher der VOX POPOLI Teil), mit orientalen Untertönen, field recordings z.B. von Tieren & nächtlichen Atmosphären und weirden elektronischen Samples.. insgesamt sehr experimentell, elektronisch & eigen... das ganze wurde BINAURAL aufgenommen, Kopfhörer sind empfohlen!
"Aramesh is the latest collaborative work between Pacific 231 & Vox Populi! A synthesis of East meets West colliding with the most experimental sounds & collages. Building-up stacks of multi-directional creations using the latest Binaural Technology to immerse the listener totally within." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| PACIONE, ADAM |
Dobranoc |
pic-LP |
"Dobranoc contains more than 40 minutes of new music utilizing field recordings, guitars, shortwave radio, analog keyboards & Moog filters. Haunting and yet serene, overflowing with contemplative and melodic tones, these are mostly long-form pieces: 'Always' builds slowly into a monolithic block of sound, while in the title track, layer after layer of warm atmosphere appears and then unravels into a sea of tranquility. This is three-dimensional music, strikingly elegant, from a modern master of the art. This picture disc LP is adorned with Pacione's lovely full-color macro photography circa 1995. The colorful sounds and images are bound together into a unified abstraction, dreamlike in its beauty. Adam Pacione has been a fixture in the upper echelon of ambient drone for the last five years with releases on Elevator Bath, Infraction, and his own Bee Eater Recordings imprint. Pacione is also a highly skilled photographer with solo exhibitions and nearly a lifetime of experience under his belt. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 268 copies." [label info]
"Adam Pacione's blissed ambience has quietly enthralled us over many years now; and he continues his relationship with the exceptional Elevator Bath label, who has issued this wondrous album through an ongoing series of picture discs that previously included work by Rick Reed, our own Jim Haynes, and Dale Lloyd (reviewed elsewhere on this list). Pacione claims a bunch of sources for Dobranoc, including guitar, field recordings, analogue synth, Moog filters, and shortwave radio. He seems intent on extracting particular, harmonious colors from each of those materials and working them into a monochromatic blur of softened dronescaping and hushed ambience. The faintest of half-melodies work through Pacione's stately compositions; and it's
easy to become lost in these extended moments on Dobranoc. Throughout, Pacione streams a series of delicate textures that could be snow
coming through the radio, or it could be a light shower of rain that settles behind much of Pacione's sustained tonal flutterings. No
matter the source, the slight abrasions of these sounds act as a ghostly counterpoint to the purity that Pacione gets out of his drones. The resulting wanderings through his radiant soundfields have much of the sense of mystery that Zoviet France managed on Shadow Thief Of The Sun or that emerged from the more minimal explorations of Stars Of The Lid. The picture disc features two blurred macro-lens images sporting oversaturated colors abstracted through the lens; and these are suitable visuals to accompany Pacione's ethereal work.
Limited to 268 copies." [Aquarius Rec]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
From Stills to Motion |
CD |
"An age of virtual audio saturation, of pre-articulated sound. Expressivity, once an array of possible voices, is ever more probabilized. Originality, once primary criterion, is cast from the platform, problematized. Wondering, late in modernity's day, what does it take to make a noise that matters? A keen-eared recontextualizer, an alchemist who can make sound, found or unfound, to walk its own way, outside the ready-made parade. Adam Pacione is one such new recruit to a group of like-minded musicians, kindred spirits Brian Grainger (Milieu), Mike Bennett (Zimiamvian Night), and Kiln, who have brought the ferment from their sound stills to the Infraction table. That label is now streaming a vital strain of new backwoods ambient, this latest from deep in the heart of (Ft. Worth) Texas -- experimental, but harmonically-inclined, apparently lo-tech, but substantially audiocratic. Pacione's distinction lies in drawing the vectors of several lines of musical enquiry into a trajectory which leads to a suggestive affective place. Echoes of the enviro-drone clan, low-lying labels like and/OAR, Twenty Hertz -- old familiars of Infraction, the silhouettes of whose kinfolk -- Keith Berry, Paul Bradley -- are heard remotely. Pacione starts from base material, conventional instruments, mainly guitars, the odd analog synth and sample, but no tone is left unturned. Like a tenderized but still chewy analog to recent Kranky fuzz-blur harmonizations, his source-sounds quietly exult in altered states -- compressed, granularized, weathered, distressed... in a word (Pacione's) 'grexed.' Grex comes from cross-breeding -- environment traits spun with the string-steel of source, further fleshing out, the familiar contour lent unfamiliar edge. A delicate and intricate weave results -- a warp to the weft, dissonance offset by harmony, consonance subverted by pitch-bend. Basinski may have modeled the suggestivities of disintegration, mate Milieu pointed the emotive caché in sepia-stained sonorities, and Boards brothers the heart-swoop from modulating detune." [label info] |
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| PADDEN, DANIEL |
Pause for the Jet |
LP |
"DANIEL PADDEN kannte ich bisher als einen der Volcano-The-Bear-Bären. Nach Glasgow umgezogen, ging er auf Solopfade, erst als The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden und mit Pause for the Jet (Dekorder 026) zum zweiten Mal unter dem bloßen Familiennamen. Seine Vorlieben für schräge Sounds aus fernen Ländern, für seltsamen Kraut- und wagemutigen Artrock sind darauf collagiert zu Songs und Instrumentals mit surrealen Haupt- und Nebenwirkungen. ‚Crow Crow Growth‘ mischt das Timbre von Charles Hayward mit Saitengezupfe und Ethnopercussion zu einem wehmütigen Folksong. ‚Sponge Shipwreck‘ lässt 33 Sekunden lang den Geist von Harry Partch erscheinen, ‚The Ghostly Whole‘ nur den Geist einer alten Kirchturmuhr, während Ratten pizzikato Kontrabass knabbern. Die Residents und Nurse With Wound haben ähnliche Seancen abgehalten, ähnlich von Recording Angels behütete Träume geträumt. ‚Three Farewells‘ mischt Posaune, Bassklarinette und Cello und loopt dazu einen elegischen Gesangsfetzen, bevor mit ‚The Liar Inbetween‘ wieder ein fast straighter Song erklingt, auch wenn die Begleitung erst nur seltsam verzupft und verschrappelt daher kommt und sich dann doch elektrisch verdichtet. Auf ‚The Shadow Of Lunch‘ tutet eine asthmatische Harmonika, die Kopfstimme dazu wackelt auf hölzernen Stelzen. Auf rostig schnarrenden Twangs schwimmt ‚Narwhal‘ dahin, um auf morbiden Trommelschlägen zu stranden. Katzenjämmerliche Salonmusik quietscht in allen Scharnieren, bevor Padden nach ‚Arc Fankle‘ mit seiner stotternder Percussion und ‚Bustle‘ mit seinem Bassklarinettengebrummel a capella ‚English Again‘ anstimmt. Seltsam, aber seltsam schön." [Bad Alchemy]
"Since 1995 Daniel Padden has been a member of Volcano The Bear, with several highly regarded album releases on Nurse With Wound's United Diaries label, Textile and Beta-Lactam Ring Records. After his move to Glasgow he started The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden as an outlet for his solo recordings with releases on Catsup Plate, Secret Eye and Textile. When The One Ensemble slowly metamorphosed into a band of its own, Padden started to record his solo output under his birth name, with last year's "The Isaac Storm" on the Ultra Exzema label being the first seminal result.
Over the years Padden has developed a strong fascination for obscure musics from all over the world (re his recent "Epiphanies" article for The Wire magazine): mouth organ love-songs from Thailand, The Ramayana Monkey Chant from Bali, Khene pieces from Laos; so-called world music from Burundi to Bulgaria.
Combining these interests with his love for British Folk and Art Rock (This Heat, Robert Wyatt), Kraut Rock (Faust), Free Jazz, the surreal collage techniques of Nurse With Wound and the odd humour of The Residents, he has developed a totally unique and highly personal musical vision without ever sounding overambitious or directionless. Gorgeous song-writing is seamlessly transformed into pure fuzz or string drones, suddenly interrupted by some improvised reeds or collapsing percussion, all within the blink of an eye, and never losing its natural flow, "Pause for the Jet" is already an auspicious aspirant for our "Record of the Year"."[label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| PAIK, NAM JUNE |
Works 58-79 |
CD |
“ this is a wide panorama of Nam June Paik work as musician - Hommage à John Cage (1958-1959), Étude for Pianoforte (1959-1960) and Simple (1961) are good exemple of neodada music and de-structuration in the late 50', this is basically irreverent audio-collages. Prepared Piano for Merce Cunningham (1977) captures an improvised performance by Paik on a de-tuned piano. while Prepared for Merce Cunningham was later mixed and edited for use by Cunningham, this raw, straight -to-tape version is favored by Paik. Duett: Paik/Takis (1979) this is the only piece already released (by 20 years ago on a limited vinyl edition) Paik improvises on piano and voice, while Takis performs on his metal sculptures.” [label info]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| PAIN JERK |
Neurotten |
LP |
Kohei Gomi began experimenting with home recording in the 1980s and got so lost in extreme sonics under the Pain Jerk moniker that his output inevitably spilled out into the wider world. By the mid-90s, he was one of the most prolific and influential noise units operating out of Japan, hurling maelstroms of chaotic chunder and deranged grime at anyone who could handle the extremes. Pain Jerk became one of the leading figures in the "dynamic" style of Japanese noise or Japanoise and is also the owner of the noise tape label AMP that during the 90s releases about fifty cassettes of his amazing noise project.
Among his works released in his most prolific period, Neurotten stands out without a doubt, reaching cult status and instantly becoming a classic of the genre. Recorded in 1996 and published the same year on the legendary Slaughter Productions by Marco Corbelli aka Atrax Morgue, in only 80 hand numbered copies in a special A5 tin-foil sleeve with translucent insert and instead some using a red cardboard insert accompanied by a small curved iron rod, similar to a dentist's tool and now it has become a worship object for the most avid collectors.
The assault here is very high-end heavy: relentlessly aggressive. The sound severs and bleeds more than it beats and bludgeons. Side A is divided into two tracks, Gushcore and Teen-Wreckage, of incredible beauty. Nothing compares to the sounds emitted by vinyl grooves composed with a mysterious configuration of constantly flowing noise - always recorded live without overdubs. Devastating, unfriendly harsh noise: the hardest rock that is pierced by the sharpest diamond! With only one track on side B, which takes 23 minutes, we encounter one of most iconic compositions from his wide discography: Disembowel. Hearing impaired volumes that duel, bouncing sound structures displacing the ego and generating many difficulties in brain processing. There’re a lot of rips and chaos, pulsating pulses of recycled transient sounds and some loops, muffled high tones that twist into spastic shapes capable of breaking the faint speaker cones.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/neurotten
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
| PAIN JERK & JOHN WIESE |
Mental Peace Liberation Front |
CD |
"First part of collaboration series between Japanese harshest live electronics noise master Pain Jerk and one of the finest American noise & experimental musician John Wiese. Released in 2007, "Chocolate Grinder" 7" (Helicopter) and "Terrazzo" CD (Harbinger Sound) are following after this album. massive hyper-sonic and heavy fucked-up harsh blast, crashing and throbbing pulse electronics, full throttle cut-up with hi-range frequency. we're sure this has the best moment of all of their sessions. highly recommended! Comes in jewel case with obi, cover designed by Ono Masahiko aka Solmania." [label info]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| PAINTING PETALS ON PLANET GHOST |
same |
LP |
"Debut recording from Italy's Opalio brothers (My Cat Is An Alien) and Ramona Ponzini. An esoteric and mesmerizing trip through space, minimalism, and emotion. Each track recorded at a different mystical location in the western Alps, and centered around Ramona's beautiful vocals, all of which are sung in traditional Japanese. Maurizio & Roberto add sparse accompaniment by means of toy piano, alien keyboard tones, antique accordion, percussion, tape effects, and some particularly evocative acoustic guitar. The whole thing comes off alternately as deeply meditative or chillingly haunted, depending on your attention & mood. Silence, space & ritual are hugely important here, with notes & words hovering frozen in time... while the My Cat Is An Alien moniker might leave some folks scratching their heads, here the Painting Petals On Planet Ghost name nails it : fragile, beautiful, cosmically isolationist, and totally spooked... pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl, and lushly packaged with letterpress printed cover & insert. Printed with copper ink on exquisite & massively thick handmade ivory art paper, each sheet cast one at a time & air dried. Hand numbered edition of 560 copies." [label info]
www.time-lagrecords.com
|
2005 |
€29.50 |
|
| PALADINO, FRANCESCO & OPIUM (NOSESOUL) |
Angel Ghost & Human Shades |
CD |
FRANCESCO PALADINO sagt, er habe eine Stimme in sich gefunden, die nicht seine eigene ist....hier lässt er sie heraus…
Mantra-artiges Gemurmel, Geflüster, Gewinsel, so etwas wie Wolfs-Heulen.....das alles aber höchst sensibel vorgetragen und mit den elektronischen OPIUM-Flächen vermählt......eine höchste ungewöhnliche „Ambient“-Produktion, für Entdecker !
“An unique collaboration between the processed "nose music' and 'lamentations' by Francesco Paladino and the ambient layered electronic textures By Teo Zini/Opium. A very good ambient work, introspective and dreamy.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE |
From Etudes to Cataclysm for the Doppio Borgato |
do-CD |
"After the epiphany of An Aural Symbiotic Mystery by Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Conrad (SR204) this is the first solo work by Charlemagne on Sub Rosa - the first but probably not the last - because we would like not only to release some new important material like this one - but re-release too a series of his classic works (most of them, unfortunately, are unavailable). From Etudes to a Cataclysms is one of the most important work 'till this day. An impressive composition of more than 140 minutes based on an unique instrument - a double piano on which one keyboard is played by the feet." [label info]
"Several years ago Martin Kaufmann of Kaufmann Pianos in Brussels told me he had seen and heard an amazing and unique instrument in Italy A piano with 2 separate bodies ! One with a normal grand piano body having 88 notes to be played with the fingers, and below this
piano was a second piano also with a grand piano body which could play simultaneously the lower 37 notes of a grand piano with pedals for the feet. Having known my music for years and that i had been a carilloneur where one plays with both fists and feet simultaneously Martin Kaufmann thought that the Borgato would be perfect for my music. The inventor of this unique instrument was Luigi Borgato from Padua who developed this instrument with his wife Paola I was intriqued and through an intermediary, the Italian pianist Roberto Posseda visited the Borgatos in Lonigo where they have their workshop and found that their instrument was perfect for my body and my music.
We immediately decided to organise recording sessions in a local church for one week and "From Etudes to Cataclysms" is the result !"
[Charlemagne Palestine, October 2007]
www.subrosa.net
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Mother of us all |
DVD |
"A concert from Charlemagne Palestine (piano, voice, glass) recorded live at École Nationale Supérieure d'Art de Nancy, France, on June 27th 2009. Under the artistic direction of Antonio Guzmán. DVD Free zone. PAL. Dolby stereo." [label info]
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Relationship Studies |
LP |
"Relationship Studies LP includes 2 seminal electronic music radical realizations by Charlemagne Palestine, or Relationship Study No. 1 (1967) and the generally titled Electronic from the same year. Sounds in motion like race cars, motor cycles, war planes, rocket ships excited Charlemagne sonic imagination when we was still a young teenager. Then came the experience of listening to the electronic music of Tod Dockstader, Alwyn Nikolais, Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaffer, Xenakis and Poème Electronique by Edgar Varese. Immediately fascinated Charlemagne Palestine bought a primitive electronic equipment and started to experiment, creating his original electronicesque language. The two previously unreleased 18 minute masterpieces presented here directly come from this early period of intense experimentations in a fluid ever-changing mix of adding and filtering white noise and simple sine tone generators. Both pieces are late night compositions created at the electronic music studio of the New York N.Y.U. Intermedia Center using Buchla 100 and Buchla 200 systems. Even if dating back from the mid-1960s these intense sonorities might very much recall the best early power electronic scene from the late 1970s, in particular to the first brut music works created by Maurizio Bianchi. For sure they represent a very unique and inspiring approach to electronic creation, sounding more and more actual and surprising nowadays. Edition limited to 350 copies." [label info] |
2010 |
€23.00 |
|
|
Strumming Music |
3 x CD |
"These unpublished pieces are probably his most contemporary music work, build on the same principle with other instruments of what he discovered on piano with Strumming mid-70.
This is an unique variation of the way to compose. A perpetual rise in a continuum of sound.
In the beginning were the Bells
All of the Strumming Music manifestations seem to have originated from Charlemagne's physical relationship with the colossal carillon bells in the tower of St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York. I met Charlemagne Palestine in 1968. The intensity of his listening impressed me as the intensity of his playing would later, when I heard him play on the carillon and the bells to "his church". I realized later, when Charlemagne had started to develop his series of piano pieces called Strumming, that he was assaulting that concrete ceiling and literally pushing through its three feet to release the sonic energy in the piano, much as he had with the carillon. Charlemagne's interest and work in electronic music increased in the late 60's and in 1970 he decamped to southern California where he became a graduate student working with Morton Subotnick. It was during this year at CalArts (1970-71) that Charlemagne developed an approach to the piano that was not only extremely repetitive and physical but predicated on the theory that, given the right stimulus, the instrument had a voice of its own and could produce a whole array of high overtones that seem to jump out on their own as if by magic. Over the next few years he developed and polished the music that came to be known simply as "Strumming."
The rapid alternation between single notes and chords and different registers became a technique that he seemed to own, and it really only worked with this magic piano. "Strumming" was the physical technique; the melodies and harmonies that resulted made the music breathe and feel alive. After a while, the ear doesn't distinguish between notes that are sounded by hammers and those which are harmonics, generated by the natural resonance of the piano and just appear because of the acoustical situation. extract from liner notes by Ingram Marshall
Charlemagne Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against audiences' expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. A composer-performer, he always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is best known for his intensely performed piano works." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Bells Studies |
LP |
"High up in a tower, accessible only by a spiral staircase that led to a concrete platform above the whole city, for seven years Charlemagne Palestine's HellsBells became the sonic mainstay of NYC 53rd and 5th. This LP collects some of the most relevant recordings from those early days.
Side A presents 'Bells Studies', the complete reel-tape that gives the title to the whole LP, an intense pulsating work built in five movements starting with slow hypnotic large sonorities and accelerating into more dense and maximal explosions.
Side B collects some shorter Studies: 'Bells', the two parts of 'Confiscated Bell Tape' and an excerpt from 'Dumb Bell Tape'. each track recorded by the composer in one single take around 1965 and never heard again for the last 50 years!
In 1963 while attending the highschool of music and art in NYC, 15 years old Charlemagne Palestine was asked if he'd be interested in playing a carillon with 26 bells at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church down the street from the Museum Of Modern Art everyday of the week at 5pm to 5:30pm. Charlemagne decided that he loved these voluptuous Taylor bells that clanged all over 53rd Street and 5th Avenue everyday from 1963 to 1970 when he left NYC to study and teach at CAL Arts.
Charlemagne soon became known as the 'Quasimodo' of Midtown NYC, and his dissonant and ''klanggdedangggebannggg'' style of playing attracted a diverse group of fans from Moondog to John Cage to Tony Conrad among others. Charlemagne Palestine was able to continue to play his clanging bell soap operas for seven years dinggdonggingggg every late afternoon and sunday mornings!
Published in an edition of 350 copies only with original photos from the recording sessions." [label info]
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
|
CharleBelllzzz at Saint Thomas |
CD |
"HelllszzzBelllszzz! alga marghen proudly presents 'CharleBelllzzz at Saint Thomas', a CD in tri-folded digipak sleeve including the original Bells Studies by Charlemagne Palestine. Sixth chapter of the 'Golden Research' series, these previously unreleased tracks are both some of the earliest recordings by Charlemagne and some of his darkest and most accomplished works ever.
'Bells Carillon' and 'St Thomas Bells', both recorded at unidentified dates between 1966 and 1968, are maximal bells pure resonating frontal attacks, building up in a structure that is already anticipating the later Strumming campaigns. Unique and clashing dissonances created like a spontaneous outburst, 'instinctively' and 'right away'. Charlemagne played the bells right next to his body. The sounds became physical, visceral, each crack of the clapper was like a small earthquake.
In 1963 while attending the high-school of music and art in NYC, 15 years old Charlemagne Palestine was asked if he'd be interested in playing a carillon with 26 bells at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church down the street from the Museum Of Modern Art. Charlemagne decided that he loved these voluptuous Taylor bells, high up in a tower and accessible only by a spiral staircase, that clanged all over 53rd Street and 5th Avenue every day of the week from 1963 to 1970 when he left NYC to study and teach at CAL Arts. Charlemagne soon became known as the 'Quasimodo' of Midtown NYC, and his dissonant and 'klanggdedangggebannggg' style of playing attracted a diverse group of fans from Moondog to John Cage to Tony Conrad among others. Charlemagne Palestine was able to continue to play his clanging bell soap operas for seven years dinggdonggingggg every late afternoon and sunday mornings! World premier edition of these legendary seminal works!" [label info]
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Cathedrale de Strasbourg |
do-LP |
"This 70min organ concert was recorded in 2012 in Strasbourg Cathedral during the 'Transes' symposium at HEAR. This was a unique performance in the cathedral's history and an important performance for Charlemagne Palestine, showing him at his best, slowly developing a wild crescendo and filling the gigantic space with his own ritual full of trance and ecstasy.
Recorded in Strasbourg - 15/11/2012 at Cathédrale de Strasbourg, during 'Transes' event at Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin, Strasbourg, recorded by Philippe Lepeut, mastered by Frederic Alstadt. Photo : Tony Trichanh. Limited edition 500 copies. Gatefold cover + download." [label info]
www.erratum.org
|
2016 |
€33.50 |
|
|
Godbear |
LP |
Black Truffle Records present the first official vinyl reissue of Charlemagne Palestine's Godbear
- Godbear is a 1987 solo piano recording originally scheduled to sit alongside Sonic Youth and Swans in the catalogue of Glenn Branca's Neutral Records
- Revisiting his signature piano style in 1987 after several years focusing on visual art, Godbear presents three distinct variations that demonstrate the development of Palestine's piano music performed on the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, the 'Rolls Royce' of pianos
- A classic release, and one that, because of the variety of approaches surveyed within, serves as an ideal introduction to Palestine's ecstatic and mysterious sound world.
- Godbear is presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve designed by Stephen O'Malley and has been remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.
Black Truffle is pleased to present the first vinyl release of Charlemagne Palestine's Godbear, a 1987 solo piano recording originally scheduled to sit alongside Sonic Youth and Swans in the catalogue of Glenn Branca's Neutral Records but eventually released on CD by the Dutch Barooni label in 1998. Although Palestine has worked in an enormous variety of media, his long form performances for solo piano are perhaps his most acclaimed works. Palestine immersed himself in the study of overtones throughout the 1960s, working first with carillons and then with electronic synthesis, searching for the 'golden sound'. Beginning in the early 1970s he continued his exploration of the complexities hidden within seemingly simple tones and intervals on the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, the 'Rolls Royce' of pianos. With the piano's sustain pedal constantly depressed, Palestine hammers out rapidly repeated notes, allowing a complex cloud of overtones to rise above the percussive texture of the struck keys. Initially working with simple intervals such as octaves and fifths, Palestine gradually expanded the harmonic range of his piano performances over the years, while still retaining their ecstatically single-minded nature.
Revisiting his signature piano style in 1987 after several years focusing on visual art, Godbear presents three distinct variations that demonstrate the development of his piano music after the classic recordings of the early 1970s. Occupying the entire first side, The Lower Depths stages a slow descent from the piano's mid-range to the Bösendorfer's cavernous additional low octave, building into a thundering swarm of booming overtones. Breaking entirely with the stereotype of clinical minimalism, Palestine's journey to the depths embraces passages of darkly romantic melody before slowly ascending to its starting point. The version of Strumming Music performed here condenses the developmental arc of the piece into eleven minutes, fanning out from a single octave to a complex harmonic wash that calls to mind Palestine's enthusiasm for Debussy and Ravel. Timbral Assault is like an evil twin of Strumming Music, transforming its insistency and harmonic complexity into aggressive intensity and creeping dissonance, foreshadowing Palestine's later collaborations with Christoph Heemann. A classic release, and one that, because of the variety of approaches surveyed within, serves as an ideal introduction to Palestine's ecstatic and mysterious sound world.
- Francis Plagne |
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
STTT THOMASSS |
MC |
"In memory of the late polymath avant-garde artist Tony Conrad (1940-2016), longtime friend and coconspirator Charlemagne Palestine returned to the site of their first encounter for a tribute performance on what would have been Conrad's 77th birthday. Charlemagne Palestine is a composer, performer and visual artist born in Brooklyn in 1947. Often labeled as one of the founders of minimalism alongside Glass, Niblock, Reich, Riley, and Young, he prefers to call himself a "maximalist", eschewing the clinical stereotypes of the former term in favor of a full-blown erotics of possibility that in its ritualistic performance conjures a sense of sacredness without specificity. But before the intoxicating overtones of the Strumming Music (SR 297CD, SSH 003LP) for which he is best known, before the stuffed animals and snifter of cognac that have become his trademark onstage, Palestine's first solo performances were as carillonneur of the Saint Thomas Church at 53rd Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan. From 5:00 to 5:30, every day between 1963 and 1970, Palestine operated the 26-bell carillon, starting with the hymns he was expected to play before shifting into improvised "klanggdedangggebannggg" sessions that would form the basis for his incantatory repetitions to come. Palestine hammered the instrument's keys with his fists and pounded its pedals with his feet, effectively playing the entire building while relishing the corporeal thrill of the ceremony. Soon known as the Quasimodo of midtown NYC, his performances became a sonic mainstay of the neighborhood, attracting a diverse group of fans including Tony Conrad who, then living in Times Square, one day introduced himself inside the church. The artists became fast friends and collaborators, with Palestine recording some of Conrad's work on the carillon and contributing music to his film Coming Attractions (1970). On March 7th, 2017, Palestine climbed the spiral stairs of the Saint Thomas Church's bell tower once again. This cassette features a full recording of STTT THOMASSS ''''"'"DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGzzzzzzz ferrrr TONYYY'''''''', preceded by a brief incantation delivered one month later at a Tony Conrad memorial."
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & RHYS CHATHAM |
Youuu - Mee = Weee |
3 x CD |
"166 minutes with Charlemagne Palestine:
piano Bösendorfer, orgue Yamaha and voice
Rhys Chatham: trumpet, loop pedal, electric guitar.
This is the first recorded collaboration between Charlemagne Palestine and Rhys Chatham. And it's precious. After the musical meeting with Tony Conrad (SR204), and with Z'ev (SR340), this new Sub Rosa sessions creates a form of trilogy.
Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham began his musical career as a piano tuner for avant-garde pioneer La Monte Young as well as harpsichord tuner for Gustav Leonhardt, Rosalyn Tureck and Glenn Gould.
He soon studied under electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick and minimalist icon La Monte Young and was a member of Young's group, The Theater of Eternal Music, during the early seventies; Chatham also played with Tony Conrad in an early version of Conrad's group, The Dream Syndicate. In 1971, while still in his teens, Chatham became the first music director at the experimental art space The Kitchen in lower Manhattan. His early works, such as Two Gongs (1971) owed a significant debt to Young and other minimalists.
His concert productions included experimenters Maryanne Amacher, Robert Ashley, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, and early alternative rockers such as Fred Frith, Robert Fripp, Arto Lindsay, and John Lurie. He has worked closely with visual artist/musician Robert Longo, particularly in the 1980s, and on an experimental opera called XS: The Opera Opus (1984-6) with the visual artist Joseph Nechvatal.
By 1977, Chatham's music was heavily influenced by punk rock, having seen an early Ramones concert. He was particularly intrigued by and influential upon the group of artists music critics would label No Wave in 1978. Members of the New York City noise rock band Band of Susans began their careers in Chatham's ensembles; they later performed a cover of Chatham's "Guitar Trio" on their 1991 album, The Word And The Flesh. (This parallels the way that members of fellow NYC noise rockers Sonic Youth began their careers in Branca's ensembles; Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth did play with Chatham as well.)
Chatham began playing trumpet in 1983, and his more recent works explore improvisatory trumpet solos; these are performed by Chatham himself, employing much of the same amplification and effects that he acquired with the guitar, over synthesized dance rhythms by the composer Martin Wheeler.
Charlemagne Palestine
Charlemagne Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against audiences' expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. A composer-performer, he always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is best known for his intensely performed piano works. He also performs as a vocalist. Palestine's performance style is ritualistic; he generally surrounds himself (and his piano) with stuffed animals, smokes large numbers of kretek (Indonesian clove cigarettes) and drinks cognac.
Works/Selected Discography
Four Manifestations on Six Elements (Barooni, 1974), Strumming Music (Shandar, 1977) was revolutionary in that it turned "strumming" into an avant-garde technique, and minimalism into highly dynamic (and noisy) music. Palestine improvised on a piano emphasizing otherworldly overtones. Schlingen-Blaengen (New World, 1998), Karenina (Durtro, 1997), Jamaica Heinekens In Brooklyn (Barooni, 2000), a symphony of drones and found sounds." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Youuu - Mee = Weee (First) |
LP |
"This is the first recorded collaboration between Charlemagne Palestine and Rhys Chatham. And it's precious. After the musical meeting with Tony Conrad (SR204), and with Z'ev (SR340), this new Sub Rosa sessions creates a form of trilogy.
From their 3CD set, First released as limited vinyl LP." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & SIMONE FORTI |
Illuminations |
LP |
"the three previously unreleased recordings on this lp were made between october and december 1971. the first take titled "illumination" is for two voices moving in the space with small bells and crystal glasses while simone forti plays the molimo, a corrugated tube meant for connecting the gas stove. the second take titled "wed oct 13th 1971" has simone and charlemagne in a song dialogue as animals do. it was also at cal arts that charlemagne palestine first encountered a bosendorfer imperial piano of vienna. he played it often as simone danced during their "illuminations". take three is a song sang in falsetto while playing the bosendorfer imperial in an arpeggiated style that predates the "strummings". listening to these "three takes" 40 years later they oooozza timeless carefree mystical magical dreamy atmosphere that evoked the times of the late 60s to early 70s in charlemagne and simone part of the california art scene. illuminations were a unique open spontaneous form of performance, ritual and prayer. edition limited to 365 copies with an essay by both charlemagne palestine and simone forti, as well photos of the performances reproduced on the lp front sleeve." [LABEL INFO]
|
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & Z'EV |
Rubhitbangklanghear Rubhitbangklangear |
LP |
"Second time in 20 years Palestine and Z'ev are performing together. First time they're recording it! Unreleased material from Charlemagne's lair, a place now called Charleworld, where both fellows spent 3 days in June 2010. Part of our Sub Rosa/Laboratoire Central sessions.
'i first started to play the bells while at high school of music + art in the sixties at st. thomas church across the street from the museum of modern art in manhattan!! i played everyday for years!! in the eighties
i met z'ev in amsterdam!! i'd known him for 20 years before he suggested one day that we perform together, which we did at lem barcelona in 2007!! later after seeing and hearing the carillon at my studio in brussels he suggested that we perform and record together there, which we did in 2010!! here's / hearsz what we did!!!!' charlemagne palestine " [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Rubhitbangklanghear Rubhitbangklangear |
do-CD |
"Second time in 20 years Palestine and Z'ev are performing together. First time they're recording it! Unreleased material from Charlemagne's lair, a place now called Charleworld, where both fellows spent 3 days in June 2010. Part of our Sub Rosa/Laboratoire Central sessions.
'i first started to play the bells while at high school of music + art in the sixties at st. thomas church across the street from the museum of modern art in manhattan!! i played everyday for years!! in the eighties
i met z'ev in amsterdam!! i'd known him for 20 years before he suggested one day that we perform together, which we did at lem barcelona in 2007!! later after seeing and hearing the carillon at my studio in brussels he suggested that we perform and record together there, which we did in 2010!! here's / hearsz what we did!!!!' charlemagne palestine " [label info]
www.subrosa.net
"Unter den Minimalisten ist Charlemagne Palestine sicher derjenige, der im etablierten und institutionalisierten Musikbetrieb weniger als seine Kollegen wahrgenommen wird. Die Auftritte und Aufnahmen Palestines hatten bzw. haben – nicht nur wegen dem Moment des Repetetiven (der sich auch im Titel widerspiegelt) – (auch) immer einen gewissen rituellen Charakter, etwa wenn z. B. die Stofftiere aus der extensiven Sammlung Palestines auf der Bühne drappiert wurden (vgl. die Rückseite der CD) und er sich den obligatorischen Cognac (der hier das Cover ziert) einschüttete. Und auch Z’EV hat sich sowohl musikalisch als auch schriftlich (in Rhythmajik, Practical Uses of Number, Rhythm and Sound, das bezeichnenderweise ursprünglich von Temple Press veröffentlicht wurde) mit dem, was Musik alles bewirken kann, auseinandergesetzt. Über das zuletzt genannte Werk schrebt Z’EV, es handele „not about music but spells out the use of rhythm and sound and proportion for Trance, Healing“.
In den Linernotes der Doppel-CD schreibt Palestine, er und Z’EV hätten sich 20 Jahre gekannt, bevor sie 2007 den Entschluss fassten, zusammen aufzutreten. Die auf „RubhitbangklanghearRubhitbangklangear“ enthaltenen Aufnahmen stammen aus dem Jahr 2010 und wurden in Palestines Studio in Brüssel gemacht. Auf der ersten CD finden sich die gemeinsamen Arbeiten: Während Palestine auf seinem Carillon -eine Art überdimensionales Glockenspiel- Melodien minimal variiert spielt, schlägt Z’EV seine schweren Bass-Trommeln. Was anfangs noch nebeneinander herzulaufen scheint, fügt sich im Verlauf der 18 Minuten zusammen; das Stück entwickelt sich zu einem repetetiv-perkussiven Mantra, das fast schon sakralen Charakter hat. Die zweite Duoaufnahme beginnt wesentlich zurückhaltender: Während die Glocken behutsam und langsam geschlagen werden, sind Z’EVs Beiträge kaum noch rhythmisch zu nennen, klingen so, als spiele er eine riesige Klangschale. Der dritte Track enthält dagegen erratischer klingende Perkussion, man meint, Z’EV wanke vom Cognac beschwingt durch eine Fabrikhalle, das Carillon ist hier stärker im Hintergrund. Das ist das vielleicht atonalste Stück auf dem Album. Die zweite CD enthält die Soloarbeiten und auch wenn diese nicht wirklich schlecht sind, so fallen sie im Vergleich zur ersten CD etwas ab, wobei die schiere physische Präsenz Z’EVs, die sich auf dem 46-minügen Abschlusstrack zeigt, schon beeindruckt und den Hörer – je nach Disposition – vielleicht tatsächlich in Trance versetzen kann." [M.G./African Paper]
"Here's two men who have been around since the 60s and both considerable ties to the underground, perhaps Z'EV more than Palestine. But neither have been elevated into the world of high art and are easy to approach. They met in Amsterdam in the 80s and have played a concert before, but only in 2010 they actually recorded material together at Charleworld, Charlemagne Palestine's own place, where has a carillon set up. The picture on the back shows what this looks like. Palestine up in the air playing the bells and Z'EV on the floor with his percussion. In '#3' the playing is somewhat chaotic and aided by natural reverb, but it's my least favorite piece of the three collaborations. In the other two we find an interesting drone like layer, played by Z'EV on a large skin drum and which adds a great texture to the more controlled playing of Palestine. In "#2' Z'EV only seems to rub the skins and makes it even more intense and creepy. I stopped the music because I wasn't sure if I was just hearing the music or something outside happened. That's the great mark of quality, I think. Those two long opening pieces would have been great enough by themselves. There is also a second CD with solo works. Palestine is brief here, just under eight minutes with a fine piece of carillon music, and 'Solo Z#1' sees Z'EV exploring more of those drone like sounds like on the second duo duo piece while his second piece lasts forty six minutes and we hear him like at least I remind me from the first time I heard his music (mid 80s). Banging metal percussion, aided with natural reverb, in what seems now proto-industrial music from an acoustic perspective. Excellent stuff here, this is the Z'EV I haven't heard in quite some time. Great package of excellent contemporary music all around." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE / GRUMBLING FUR TIME MACHINE ORCHESTRA |
ggrrreeebbbaaammmnnnuuuccckkkaaaiiioooww!!! |
LP |
"In 2013, when Daniel O'Sullivan was invited to curate the sixth installment of Ravenna, Italy's Transmissions festival, his first request was for Charlemagne Palestine, the shamanic world-maker, sacred toy emissary, and one-time student of Pandit Pran Nath associated with the New York '60s minimalist scene and known primarily for extended performances with Bösendorfer piano, cathedral organs, and falsetto voice. After Transmissions O'Sullivan invited Palestine to play a two-night residency at London's Cafe OTO, the second night of which was a collaboration with Grumbling Fur, the duo of O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker. The performance at OTO was a ritualistic union of crystalware, processed strings, live tape manipulations, Indian harmonium, shimmering piano clusters, bleating cattle, a Japanese orgy, disembodied vocal harmony, and rousing choruses often led by sing-a-ma-jigs (singing Fisher-Price toys affectionately referred to as "the singing assholes"). A continuous flow of overtones and plainchant sieved through mutant simulations of processed pulses, orbiting strings, and heliotropic vocal mantras. Following 2013's Glynnaestra and 2014's Preternaturals, both of which The Wire listed in its top avant rock albums of their respective years, this is the first incarnation of the Grumbling Fur alter-ego Time Machine Orchestra, an alias put together to explore extended drone works, improvisation, and automatic composition. Recorded at Cafe OTO and Fur Island and assembled by Grumbling Fur. LP pressed in an edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2015 |
€25.00 |
|
| PALO ALTO |
Difference and Repetition - A Musical Evocation of GILLES DELEUZE |
do-LP |
"This new album (the tenth in their discography) was born from two ambitions: to pay tribute to Soft Machine's Third on form (4 sides / 4 titles) and to philosopher Gilles Deleuze (Difference and Repetition is the title of his thesis) on the contents. The 4 long pieces of this double concept album were developed over 2 years and each has a different style and climate. Bold and kaleidoscopic, Difference and Repetition perfectly synthesizes the musical and literary obsessions of Palo Alto.
Palo Alto
Formed in Paris in 1989, Palo Alto released his first album (a cassette) on the Italian label Old Europa Cafe in 1990. The year 2020 is therefore an opportunity to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this first stone, the founder of a discography rich with 10 albums. The band is now composed of Jacques Barbéri (also a science fiction author), Laurent Pernice (ex-member of the French industrial band Nox) and Philippe Perreaudin (also coordinator of several compilations and reissues: Legendary Pink Dots, Un Département, Nino Ferrer Revisited, Ptôse, Hardy Fox…).
Literature, and particularly science fiction, is a leitmotiv in the band's work. Antoine Volodine, Thomas Pynchon, Philip K. Dick, Lewis Carroll or J. G. Ballard have been invoked many times.
In recent years, Palo Alto has multiplied musical collaborations with, among others, The Residents, Ptôse, Klimperei, Tuxedomoon...
From industrial music to inextricable electronic ramifications, by making a detour through improvisation, the musical universe of Palo Alto is multifaceted. Their new album is no exception to this rule… "
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/difference-and-repetition-a-musical-evocation-of-gilles-deleuze
"Palo Alto aus Paris gibt es seit 1989 und mit "Le Clos" erschien 1990 ein erstes Album (auf Tonbandkassette), dem bisher ein gutes Dutzend weitere gefolgt sind. Das Projekt um Jacques Barbéri nennt als Einflussgeber Tuxedomoon, Art Zoyd, The Legendary Pink Dots, Coil, The Residents, Can und Cabaret Voltaire, und betätigt sich vornehmlich in experimentell-elektronischen Gefilden, verunreinigt seine Musik aber auch mit Punkig-Schrägem, New-Wave-Artigem oder Modern-Kammermusikalisch-Klassischem. Ich machte erstmals mit dem 1998 beim Musea-Unterlabel Gazul Records erschienenen Album "Transe Plan" Bekanntschaft mit der Formation, und auf jenem geht es auch weitestgehend elektronisch und experimentell zu.
Zum 30sten hat man dann das wohl bisher ambitionierteste Projekt verwirklicht. Ein Doppelalbum hat man sich vorgenommen, von der Form her wie "Third" von Soft Machine, also mit vier seitenlangen Nummern, welches sich mit dem Werk des 1995 durch Selbstmord verstorbenen französischen Philosophen Gilles Deleuze befasst. Dazu hat man sich einige musikalische Gäste gesucht: Den von Deleuze beeinflussten SF-Schriftsteller Alain Damasio als Vorleser, Richard Pinhas, der einstmals bei Deleuze studiert hat, an der E-Gitarre, Thierry Zaboïtzeff am Cello und Rhys Chatham an der Trompete. Das fertige Werk wurde schließlich Ende 2020 vom Belgischen Label Sub Rosa als 2xLP oder CD veröffentlicht.
Mit Soft Machine hat die Musik eher wenig gemein. Aber, es ging ja auch nur darum ein ähnlich ausladendes und gestaltetes Album zu veröffentlichen. Ein paar jazzig-rockige Spuren sind auf "Difference And Repetition - A Musical Evocation Of Gilles Deleuze" aber auch auszumachen. Ansonsten ist dies eine Art von elektronischer Musik, oft rhythmisch voran schreitend, bestimmt von programmierter Perkussion, vornehmlich aber dominiert von allerlei Synthesizererzeugnissen und bisweilen heftigst verfremdeten Saxophonklängen, in die je nach Stück weitere Blasinstrumente, Cello, Bass, E-Gitarre und Textrezitationen eingewoben wurden.
Vor allem im dreiteiligen "Triptych" verliest Damasio Texte, einen eigenen bisher unveröffentlichten über Deleuzes Tod (der auch im Inneren des Digipacks abgedruckt ist), aus Deleuzes Buch "Capitalisme et Schizophrenie" (1980) und aus seinem Roman "Les Furtifs" (2019), durchaus engagiert und intensiv, ganz im Stile des "Concerto Delle Menti" von Pholas Dactylus. Man kann, auch wenn man den französischen Text kaum folgen kann, nur gebannt zuhören.
Die restlichen Stücke sind vorwiegend instrumental gehalten, nur im einleitenden "The Tears of Nietzsche" wird kurz ein Text von Richard Pinhas’ verlesen (aus "Les Larmes de Nietzsche – Deleuze et la musique“, 2001), und sind recht stark von den jeweiligen Gastsolisten geprägt. Im eben genannten ersten Track ist Pinhas’ E-Gitarre klangbestimmend und die Nummer klingt dann über weite Strecken wie das recht typische Gitarrendröhnen, welches auch auf den Soloalben des Franzosen meist zu hören ist. Palo Alto, insbesondere Berberis Sax, sorgen aber für eigenen Charakter. In "Rhizom" knarzt Zaboitzeffs Cello erst bedächtig, dann immer wüster, eingebettet in eine hypnotisch dahin schreitende Space-Elektronik, in der das 'Tibetanische Horn' Barberis aber auch exotische Akzente setzt. Im abschließenden Titelstück ist dann Rhys Chatham tonangebend, allerdings nicht an der E-Gitarre, sondern mit einer heiser-krächzenden Trompete, übrigens oft begleitet von einem Damenchor (genannt 'Les Bottines'), der stellenweise fast für Zeuhl-Atmosphäre sorgt.
Eine recht schwer zu kategorisierende Musik ist auf "Difference And Repetition - A Musical Evocation Of Gilles Deleuze" zu finden. Als dynamischen Avant/Kammerprog, dröhnenden E-Gitarren-Elektrorock, krautige Elektronik oder als pulsierendes Electronicagemenge könnte man das bezeichnen, oder als eine dichte Verschmelzung dieser Ingredienzien, angereichert mit allerlei freiem Klangbasteln. Das Ergebnis ist jedenfalls reichlich originell, intensiv, voluminös, packend und auf jeden Fall sehr progressiv. Ich denke einmal, dass Avantprog-Freaks bzw. Zaboitzeff- und/oder Pinhas-Fans, die zudem die weiter oben genannten Vorbilder (oder einige derselben) schätzen, von "Difference And Repetition" (übriges auch ein Buchtitel Deleuzes) begeistert sein sollten. Ein später Höhepunkt des Progjahres 2020!" [Babyblaue Seiten]
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| PAN AMERICAN |
White Bird Release |
LP |
"... Die große Frage bei so reduzierten Klängen (trotz ein wenig Gesang) lautet natürlich: Wie halte ich so was gleichbleibend spannend? Nelson gelingt das erneut durch unterschwellige Einflüsse von Dub, wobei man kaum von wirklicher Rhythmik sprechen kann, eher von einem gut spürbaren Pulsieren, das den Stücken aber die nötigen Konturen verleiht. Hinzu kommen verfremdete Gitarrensounds - wie sie sich auch auf Robert Fripps Ambientplatten finden lassen -, was ausreicht, um „White Bird Release" zu einer äußerst atmosphärischen, überraschend emotionalen Vertonung von Stille werden zu lassen, entspannend, aber nicht unaufregend und vor allem niemals austauschbar. Ein ästhetischer Hochgenuss und beseelt von einer abstrakten Form von Schönheit, die man nur auf ganz wenigen Ambientplatten in dieser Güte zu hören bekommt. [Thomas Kerpen, OX-Fanzine]
"The sixth album from Mark Nelson's longtime solo project follows his Quiet City album on Kranky, and more recently the For Waiting, For Chasing release on the Mosz label." [label info]
"Labradford had long been the American precursor to the lugubrious noir that Bohren & Der Club Of Gore had masterfully grafted with doom. But now that Labradford has quietly ceased activities, guitarist Mark Nelson has fully embraced his solo project Pan American, which had been running concurrently with Labradford for the past seven or eight years. Without Bobby Donne's lonesome bass as a foundation to work with, Nelson's Pan American has relied heavily upon glitchy electronic rhythms and dub-injected studio tricks with varying degrees of success. Perhaps now that Labradford is no more, the Pan American project has taken on a greater sense of purpose as White Bird Release is easily the most accomplished Pan American record to date. There's much less of that dubby electronica to be found on this album; but when employed, Nelson's skeletal pulses enjoy a rich noir ethos resembling those scarce moments of darkened prog-rock dirge for organ and drums offered up on that Deathprod boxset a few years back. But for the most part, Nelson seems comfortable with the Fripp & Eno style streams of pastoral guitar ambience dotted with softened static, smokey vibes, and gracefully arcing drones. The album is based on a letter from Dr. Robert Goddard to H.G. Wells written in 1932 and concerned with the possibility of space flight. While many of the obvious references to White Bird Release harken to the deep space cosmology from the '70s (e.g. Fripp & Eno, Cluster, Schulze, etc.), Nelson's work is not a departure from this rock travelling around the sun, but rather a glance upward to the heavens, while remaining firmly grounded below. The cd has one extra track not to be found on the vinyl." [Aquarius Records review]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
|
For waiting, for chasing |
LP |
„Mark Nelson, früher Labradford, hat es gefunden, so scheint es. Pan-American-Alben waren immer großartig, aber man spürte immer die Verbundenheit zu seiner alten Band, die Weite und Schwere der Songs. Das ist jetzt anders und es fühlt sich nach einem großen Schritt an. Nelson klingt elektronischer und denkt dabei immer noch akustisch, spielt seine dronigen Trümpfe anders aus, ist nicht mehr offensichtlich vom Berliner Dub beeinflusst, lässt das Knistern der Steine für Minuten im Track einfach stehen und betupft diese ungelenken Gebilde nur sehr zurückhaltend mit weichen Haltegurten. Die Sehnsucht nach Stille klang nie so aufregend. Ein großes Album.“ [Thaddi / DeBug]
"For Waiting, For Chasing was originally issued in a limited pressing by the Stefan Németh (Radian) curated Mosz label in 2006. This is the first time it is being made widely available and also the first time it is being issued on the vinyl LP format. As Mosz eloquently stated at the time of release, "...it is not about the process or the media, which have been used. It is about how elements and structures are put in a detailed relation to each other, ending up in a slow-moving, breathing organism. Filaments of percussive elements condense to polyrhythmic elements, layers of sound, instruments and field recordings merge to build up a mystic parallel, not so much fictional world." Perhaps the most skeletal and minimal of all of the works in the PanAmerican canon, it may also be the most compelling. Released on CD and 140g black vinyl." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
For waiting, for chasing |
CD |
„Mark Nelson, früher Labradford, hat es gefunden, so scheint es. Pan-American-Alben waren immer großartig, aber man spürte immer die Verbundenheit zu seiner alten Band, die Weite und Schwere der Songs. Das ist jetzt anders und es fühlt sich nach einem großen Schritt an. Nelson klingt elektronischer und denkt dabei immer noch akustisch, spielt seine dronigen Trümpfe anders aus, ist nicht mehr offensichtlich vom Berliner Dub beeinflusst, lässt das Knistern der Steine für Minuten im Track einfach stehen und betupft diese ungelenken Gebilde nur sehr zurückhaltend mit weichen Haltegurten. Die Sehnsucht nach Stille klang nie so aufregend. Ein großes Album.“ [Thaddi / DeBug]
"For Waiting, For Chasing was originally issued in a limited pressing by the Stefan Németh (Radian) curated Mosz label in 2006. This is the first time it is being made widely available and also the first time it is being issued on the vinyl LP format. As Mosz eloquently stated at the time of release, "...it is not about the process or the media, which have been used. It is about how elements and structures are put in a detailed relation to each other, ending up in a slow-moving, breathing organism. Filaments of percussive elements condense to polyrhythmic elements, layers of sound, instruments and field recordings merge to build up a mystic parallel, not so much fictional world." Perhaps the most skeletal and minimal of all of the works in the PanAmerican canon, it may also be the most compelling. Released on CD and 140g black vinyl." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| PAN SONIC & CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE |
Mort aux Vaches |
do-LP |
"Vinyl re-issue of the work initially released on CD by Staalplaat in 2000. First time on vinyl, remastered, with new cover design (a 1974 drawing by Charlemagne Palestine).
This is the first release in the 'GodBear' series, a project consisting in the re-issue of existing works and production of unreleased material by Charlemagne. In partnership with the Charlemagne Palestine Foundation." [label info}
"Pan Sonic + Charlemagne Palestine’s 20 year old drone album finally takes a new life on LP with this first pressing via Godbear following Staalplaat’s long sold-out CD
Forming the 2nd meeting on record between Palestine, Vainio and Väisänen after their 1997 hook-up with Pita (Peter Rehberg) on ‘Three Compositions for Machines’, their follow-up is slimmed down to the legendary pianist and Finnish wave shapers for an exceedingly tense, minimal, excursion marrying glacial microtonal chords licked with underlying, rhythmic subbass disturbance and occasional, off-key, distorted moraine that buckles the microtones from below.
Both sides of the equation maintain a tense equilibrium throughout the album, which, while originally divided in five parts, played thru seamlessly, whereas this new vinyl cut dedicates nearly a side per piece. Across its taut body Palestine and Pan Sonic sustain gossamer fine chords and swollen, sometimes unruly bass, appearing to under-do each other and never making any moves, but the tension just gives at point, sinking into subbass mire and slipping trains of thought out of line. It’s perhaps not entirely typical of either of them, and achieves a modest mix of their respective sensibilities." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€34.00 |
|
| PANHUYSEN, PAUL |
Partitas for long strings |
CD |
Sehr schöne Drones von diesem Klang- und Installationskünstler, der mit langen aufgespannten Drähten / Saiten arbeitet...
“ Partitas for Long Strings is the first album in 12 years¬ and the first CD ever¬ to document Paul Panhuysen¹s work with long string installations. Since 1982 Panhuysen has created over 200 such installations. For the partitas on this album there were two aspects of central interest to him: different tunings and density of sound. He made an installation in the large space of Het Apollohuis, stretching four strings lengthwise and attaching them to the wooden wall on the far end, which served as a resonator. He did not use automatons or electric amplification. He played the strings by brushing them, walking back and forth at an even pace. His aim was to make
his playing as continuous and even as possible. For each partita he recorded his playing four times, superimposing these recordings over each other and listening to the earlier recordings over headphones whilst playing. The total sound of each partita is produced by sixteen strings. The three partitas differ in the systems according to which the strings are tuned. These tunings can be regarded as the score for each piece.” [label info]
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Pendulum Change |
LP |
"First vinyl LP edition by Dutch sound and visual artist Paul Panhuysen since 1986. In terms of sound art, Paul Panhuysen is well-known for his long string installations, yet he has produced a vast amount of other sound installations using different materials and sound sources ranging from various instruments to animals such as birds. This LP contains a recording of the installation "Pendulum Change Ringing", displayed at Pand Koloniale Waren in Hasselt (Belgium) in 2012. The installation consists of twelve engraved Turkish metal platters, each mounted onto a black plastic bin, and placed in a 20 meters long row. The rim of each platter is hit by a metal pendulum operated by a tiny electromotor. Each hit causes the platter to resonate with a rich sound texture full of dissonant overtones. During the recording, the twelve pendulums are activated one after the other. The paces at which they swing differ due to their rods having different lengths. This causes interlocking rhythmic patterns to emerge that become more complex with each step and never stay the same. Hits aggregate into clusters, then thin out again. The sound is not chaotic, yet its regularity is hard to comprehend. "You might call Pendulum Change Ringing a typical Paul Panhuysen piece: it works according to a system, quite a simple one in fact, but its effect surpasses that apparent simplicity by far." (René van Peer)
Edition of 300 copies. Full-color sleeve with photos of the installation and liner notes by René van Peer. Black poly-lined inner sleeve." [label info]
www.edition-telemark.de
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| PANIS, RAPHAEL |
Meta |
CD |
"Raphaël PANIS is a composer and a searcher, fascinated by sound : his works take the listeners at the heart of the vibration, into the intimacy of the microscopic disturbances.
His studies at Annecy CRR ans Paris CNSMDP (new technologies section with Louis NAON) allowes him to create his own instruments for live performances. He associates his sound installations with plastic works for various centers of art. He also composes for dance.
"Meta" consists of a multiplication of the sound layers (stratas), reminders and variations around sound elements, similarity and disparities to create a rich and coherent hearing universe." [label info]
rpanis.blogspot.fr
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| PANTALEIMON |
Heart of the Sun |
CD |
Eine gar illustre Schar von Musikern & Projekten remixten für dieses Album Songs von ANDRIA DEGENS aka PANTALEIMON, daneben gibt es einige "echte" Kollaborationen und vorher unveröffentlichte Stücke von ihr. Folkiger, "magischer" Ambient in wunderbaren & wundersamen Variationen, kein Stück ist doppelt vorhanden...
"The whole thing started when Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex) asked if she could remix 'Under The Water.' Of course, I said yes. When she came back with such remarkable music, and casually mentioned, 'Oh, why don't you ask a couple of other pals to do remixes?', it gave me the idea for this album. It is not simply a remix album, but a collaborative project. I chose friends I admired as artists and who inhabit creative spaces that are connected in some way and on some level to me and to each other. I gave away my 'babies' to go out to play with the likes of Andrew W.K., Stephen O'Malley, Lilium, Carter Tutti, Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, The Bricoleur, Plinth, Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen), and, of course, Fovea Hex. Even though I had an inkling that the mixes would fit together as one coherent whole, I had no idea just how much they would complement one another. There are also some previously unreleased tracks including a cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's 'Even If Love,' which didn't quite make it on Mercy Oceans for aural reasons. However, this cover version has been gently manipulated and star-mangled by Susan Stenger (Band of Susans)." [label info / credits]
".... The sparse, delicate hazy folk of Pantaleimon remixed? Don't worry there are no cheesy beats, awkward turntables or sloppy hands on any of these songs. In fact the first time we listened we had no idea that any of these songs were in fact remixes. Maybe it's because we hadn't heard any of these songs in their first incarnation. But wow, we were drawn in immediately. Andria Degens is making such beautiful and haunting music as Pantalimon that we almost hesitate to mention that she's married to David Tibet of Current 93, as her own music more then stands on its own. But if folks who haven't heard her before and are C93 fans check this out then the more ears that hear Pantaleimon the better!
While the sound is similar to the music of folks like Fursaxa, Grouper and Christina Carter, there is much more immediacy, focus and a connection to folk history in the songs of Pantaleimon. While less hazy then some of her peers there is a seemingly sonic mist hanging
over her songs which stops you in your tracks. There is also a rustic quality in these stripped down songs that makes us think of Bridget St. John and Hala Strana recording a record together. Plenty of folks help out by adding sounds and ambience but all do so with much subtly and respect. Who knew Andrew W.K. could be so subtle, his tasteful keyboards are heard on the record's opener, and the list of other contributors/remixers reads like a who's who of the musical underground (Colin Potter, Andrew Lilies, Stephen O'Malley, Fovea Hex, Lilium, etc). Heart Of The Sun is becoming the record we listen to both early in the morning and then late at night as we surrender to
sleep. So beautiful!" [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Under the Water |
7 |
Sammlerstück ! Einseitig bespielte Single auf klarem Vinyl, mit kunstvollem Siebdruck auf der B-Seite. Instrumental-akustische Folk-Ambience mit Gesang, nicht unähnlich z.B. FOVEA HEX..
"Here's a gorgeous one-sided single. 'Under The Water' is an alternate version of a song scheduled for release on an upcoming solo LP, and it's a brilliant, mystical breath of air of pure longing. The lyrics are simply structured and circular, the music is a mix of accoustic plucks and drones, and the mood is wonderfully doleful. Nice package too." [BYRON COLEY, WIRE]
"BLUESANCT is very pleased to announce that the next release in our ART SINGLES series will be by PANTALEIMON. Like the MOUNT EERIE 7", it will be a beautiful single, with an exclusive recording on one side, and a screenprinted image of the song on the other side.
For those not familiar with PANTALEIMON's work, it is essentially the work of ANDRIA DEGENS. She creates gorgeous acoustic soundscapes of droning ambience accompanying beautiful folk melodies. Besides her work as PANTALEIMON, Andria is also a frequent guest on the recordings and in the live emsemble of one of my favourite all time projects, CURRENT 93 and her music will be featured in the upcoming GUS VAN SANT film." [label info]
www.bluesanct.com
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| PAPIRO |
Avventure lontane |
LP |
PAPIRO is a "Swiss Sicilian" with a cellar full of antique synthesizers. This record brings you weird electronica with an easy-listening touch, full of strange artificial 70's sounds and sinus-tones and a nice drone-piece at the end, reminded us on stuff from FELIX KUBIN, the label-owner said "somewhere between PEREY & GERSHON KINGSLEY, ENNIO MORRICONE and HIGH LLAMAS. For those of you who like the ancient early synth-sounds. Comes in a "glow in the dark" -handpainted cover, on the same label that brought us MIRROR & IN CAMERA.
"....-Papiro's music owns much to the works of Roedelius, Asmus Tietchens (on his Hematic Sunset albums) or even Bruce Haack, but comes off original enough to stand on its own. As a whole, this album is perfectly suited for any retro-styled party. All hail therefore to the groovy glow-in-the-dark cover, which fits the music like a dream." [FK / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
| PARA-NOISE-TERMINAL |
Fraktale (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
this duo from Hamburg brings nature's sensibility into your mind, pure organic atmospherics instead of today's usual sensual overkill...
"LIMITED + NUMBERED FIRST EDITION OF 250 COPIES.
HAND-MADE SLEEVES; BRIGHT BLUE VINYL.
THIS DUO FROM HAMBURG, EXISTING SINCE 1992, WORKS WITH LOTS OF HANDMADE INSTRUMENTS AND ANALOGUE SYNTHS. THEIR MUSIC IS BASED ON THE NATURAL ROUGH SOUNDS OF LARGE METALLIC 'OBJECTS', SUCH AS STONES, WOOD, AND OTHER OBSCURE SELF-BUILT SOUND SOURCES. PARA-NOISE-TERMINAL IS ABLE TO ENCHANT THE LISTENER WITH A VERY SENSIBLE ATMOSPHERE OF PURE SURROUNDINGS. PARA-NOISE-TERMINAL OFTEN PERFORM LIVE IN VARIOUS LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT GERMANY. IN 1993 THEY PERFORMED IN WALES AND IN 1994 THEY PERFOMED AT THE SOUNDWORK EXCHANGE FESTIVAL IN LONDON. ON THIS, THEIR FIRST VINYL-RELEASE, PARA-NOISE-TERMINAL OPERATE WITH RECORDED VOICES AND DRONING SOUNDS (TRACK 1: "FRAKTALE DER MASSE") AND PRESENT THE MOST SUBLIMINAL AND ENCHANTING TECHNO-PIECE THAT MAYBE WAS EVER RECORDED (TRACK 2: "URMASSE") !
"ENCHANT YOUR MIND WITH PURITY PARA-NOISES"
DRONE RECORDS DR-13/ JULY 1995 [label info]
|
1995 |
€ |
|
| PARADIN |
Coma Digenean |
CD-R |
Recht frisches “experimental ambience” – Projekt aus den Staaten mit sehr dynamisch-lebendigen Drone-Sphären, kreiert aus Analog-Synths, Klangschalen, gebogenem Metall, präparierter Gitarre... ein one-tracker (50+ minuten) der aber durch verschiedene Teile läuft...
definitiv kein Einheitsbrei und noch zu entdecken !
“Earlier this year I had my first encounter with the music of Paradin, aka Ben Fleury-Steiner from the USA. He released 'Flesh Of Caverns' on Mystery Sea (see Vital Weekly 472), which means you have to find him the areas of deep and dark ambient music. His previous releases I never heard. Paradin uses synths, singing bowls, bowed metal and treated guitar here on 'Coma Digenean', a single piece that consists of five different parts and sees a continuation of the previous Mystery Sea work. However it should be noted that Paradin doesn't play very strict ambient music, but is rather interested in creating a large atmospheric cloud of sound; this is something in which more happens than just one single drone, but various sounds move around each-other, all creating this atmosphere. In that sense there is more happening here than on an average ambient album, and that the sound is more up there and present. Spooky and mysterious music that certainly has a cinematographic quality. Very nice ambient music that makes a bit of difference from the rest.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.gearsofsound.net
label: www.gearsofsand.net
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| PARALLEL LINES |
White Fur / Black Cathedral |
LP |
"Parallel Lines ( /// ) is a Canadian improv-instrumental jam band comprised of Eric Quach (Destroyalldreamers, thisquietarmy) from Montreal on guitar, Ryan Ferguson (Sianspheric, Electroluminescent) from Hamilton on synthesizers, and Pascal Asselin (Below The Sea, Millimetrik) from Quebec City on drums. With 1000 km separating the 3 members and several years of crossing each other’s paths, sharing the stage with their various projects – the concept is simple: whenever the occasion arises during their busy schedule – jam and press record!
In 2011, Parallel Lines met at the Christ’s Church Cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario to record their next album, which is now available as the first release on Oaken Palace Records. Eric Quach’s typical, haunting guitar sounds blend with spaced-out synth loops and pulsating drumming, creating a sonic landscape that leaves you with a bright and relaxed smile on your face. This is music to dream and drift away, a must-have for fans of Quach’s solo projects and, in fact, for everyone who enjoys psychedelic music!
The Animal: Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus)
Polar bear
Parallel Lines dedicate their album to the most famous animal of their home country, namely the polar bear. All profits are donated to Polar Bears International, the world’s leading polar bear conservation group.
As of 2008, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) reports that the global population of polar bears is 20,000 to 25,000, and is declining. In 2006, the IUCN upgraded the polar bear from a species of least concern to a vulnerable species. It cited a “suspected population reduction of >30% within three generations (45 years)”, which shows the urgency of conservation efforts. Risks to the polar bear include climate change, pollution in the form of toxic contaminants, conflicts with shipping, stresses from recreational polar-bear watching, and oil and gas exploration and development.The IUCN also cited a “potential risk of over-harvest” through legal and illegal hunting.
If you want to learn more about polar bears, check out the extensive resources at Polar Bears International." [label info]
www.oakenpalace.com
|
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
| PARALUX |
La Laguna / Lux-ed |
DVD-R |
"PARALUX is a nickname known for collaborating with her images on the live concerts of Tzesne. This is her first published work. Two video pieces that are produced far away from from the speed of the live context, two re-composed films made from the material collected from her performances. Video-ambient to be enjoyed at home!" [label info]
"The first release by Paralux, an 'one woman visual band' with the DVD-R as her first release, containing two short films with soundtracks. The music is dark but in 'Lux-ed' there is a very nice, desolate trumpet that almost sound like 'The Last Post', against a wall of dark humming synthesizers. Visually it is a bit of an assembly of pictures that don't seem to make much sense. In 'La Laguna' the sea plays an important role, both in the visuals as well as in the music. It seems that what was filmed was also taped and only slightly processed. Wind blows straight into the microphone. I must admit I liked the music from the first film and the images of the second. Both mastered the excitement of ambient music, but in both pieces there is also something lacking. Nevertheless it's a most promising start." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.seriesnegras.org
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| PARHELION & ZAC KEILLER |
Farthest North |
CD / DVD |
"Farthest North is the result of a musical collaboration between Canada's Parhelion and Australian sound artist Zac Keiller. The idea originated while they both were treading similar thematic ground with their individual projects, mainly, that of using the far north as an artistic muse. The end result of their effort is a record that, through the prism of its authors, focuses on capturing the essence of this extreme landscape, eschewing the romanticized and instead focusing on the stark, cold immensity and volatility of a place located at the ends of the world. Teetering between the hauntingly sparse and the occasionally chaotically dense, the music attempts to mirror the landscape's primitive elements through its sonic interpretations, weaving together both a personal and impersonal narrative drawn from the geography, atmosphere and psychical character of one of the most forlorn realms known to men. Comes with a bonus DVD of a special collage of the album tracks set to abstract nordic landscapes for a uniquely immersive audio visual experience.
Edition of 500 copies in 6 panel Digipack. 7 Tracks. Running Time 43:10. DVD Running Time 21:58." [label info]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| PARIKRAMA |
Manusyaloka |
CD |
"The drone tapestries of Parikrama can once again be heard as they have finally materialized here in the Manusyaloka, or our human realm again. After having seemingly phased out of our world the travellers have visited the vast continents circling Mount Meru and on their way back nearly got lost in the thick vegetation of the age old Himmaphan forest, having there encountered bizarre creatures that defy description. Seasoned gterma veterans will know what to expect. Comes in a jewelcase with 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Silent Bon |
CD |
"Long before Buddhism spread into the Himalayas the region was at the mercy of frightening spirits and powerful divinities. Seetyca and Artin Mucht join the bonpo shamans in search for traces of the old faith, now consumed by the benevolent teachings of Lord Buddha. These are stark aural landscapes with a mystic touch, yet clear as crystalline ice. Allow yourself to be lost in the world of Parikrama. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| PARKINS, ZEENA |
Between the Whiles |
CD |
"Dass ZEENA PARKINS schon mit allen von SONIC YOUTH über YOKO ONO bis zu BJÖRK kollaboriert hat, stellt ein für alle Mal unter Beweis: die klassische Harfe ist in Wirklichkeit ein Rock’n’Roll Instrument! Engelschöre sind von gestern, denn ZEENA PARKINS ist der JIMI HENDRIX der verstärkten Harfe. Mit mehr Höhendrang, mehr Glitzer, Geschrei und Gequietsch als jemals zuvor wirft sich ihr neues Album ?Between The Whiles“ kopfüber in virbrierende Soundwellen, die einmal mehr ihre künstlerische Vision und technische Vielseitigkeit hervorheben. Die Klangweite ist immens und es gibt an allen Ecken etwas zu entdecken ? wer tief hinuntertaucht, wird mit Armen voller Schätze zurückkehren. "There's great fixity and coherence to the mini-essays she develops. In the end, it's classical NYC avant garde - garrulous, multi-faceted, ironic and open." - The Wire "Zeena Parkins is my favorite living harpist... kucks of sonic gristle that she pulls from it are dandy as jack. A truely ginchy exploration of forgotten string potential." ? Spin." [label info / Cargo]
www.myspace.com/zeenaparkins
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| PARLANE, ROSY |
Iris |
CD |
Three movements of dense magic ambience with concrete / microtonal element from this New Zealand-artist, known from his SIGMA releases.
"Rosy Parlane lives in New Zealand; he began playing music with the avant-garde rock trio Thela. Thela released two CDs, Eponymous and Argentina on the label Ecstatic Peace! He subsequently began working with abstract electronic based music, both as a solo artist and as Parmentier with fellow Thela collaborator, Dion Workman. His full and intricate soundscapes are comprised of sample-loops, pianos, guitars, and field recordings manipulated via digital means. Parlane has released two solo albums on Sigma Editions, and a collaboration with Christian Fennesz on the Australian label, Synaesthesia [Live, SYN001]. Iris is the result of a concentrated period of activity and artistic development that will introduce Rosy Parlane to an audience hungry for innovative music. He both challenges and invigorates the current bias towards immersive sound, without ever losing sight of the human touch." [press release]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
The Peetom Files |
7 |
Klasse Single des Australiers mit sphärisch-warmen digital electronics und vielerlei Zwischentönen, kraftvoll und erhaben.
„the second solo-record by the now london-based rosy parlane after his highly acclaimed 1998 debut on sigma editions, an outstanding label for electronic music which parlane runs together
with dion workman, also his partner in parmentier. side 1 contains his most percussive piece to date; although completely electronic, it might remind you of the fact that he is also known as a drummer: back in good old nz in the 90s, rosy parlane played the drums for thela, empirical and pit viper, and recently he recorded with his colleague eddie prevost. imagine here some b-boy taking over the ritornell-headquarter; it crackles and grooves. the flipside however is a very warm and droney number - comparable to his recent collaborations with fennesz and pita; which develops a dense, almost sublime beauty. this would fit at a swinging afternoon at phil niblocks loft, i guess. a soundtrack á miniature. [press-release]
www.tonschacht.com
|
2001 |
€5.50 |
|
| PARMEGIANI, BERNARD |
Rock |
LP |
Limited edition (500 copies) remastered from the original master tapes by Jonathan Fitoussi.
This is the first release by the French label Transversales founded by Sebastien Rosat and Jonathan Fitoussi. The never before released soundtrack of the film “Rock” (1982) directed by Michel Treguer and composed by Bernard Parmegiani (1927-2013).
Major figure of electroacoustic music and member of the historic GRM where he composed among others his masterpiece, “De Natura Sonorum”, Bernard Parmegiani produced also a large number of jingles, soundtracks, and indicatives.
On listening to Rock, one is reminded of John Carpenter or François de Roubaix: a work which mixes the sounds of the TR-808 drum-machine, Synthi AKS, Farfisa organ, and Clavinet. Remastered from the original master tapes.
Includes exclusive liner notes.
"The first release by Transversales is the original soundtrack of the film Rock, composed in 1982 by Bernard Parmegiani (1927-2013). Parmegiani was a major figure of electro-acoustic music and member of the historic GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) where he composed numerous important works, among which is the masterpiece, De Natura Sonorum. The work of Parmegiani, a virtuoso of the magnetic tape, is widely known to the public even without their knowledge, through the famous title he composed for the TV program Stade 2, for the French radio France Inter, and also through the jingle adopted by Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris (1971-2005). Bernard Parmegiani produced a large number of jingles, soundtracks and indicatives, but Rock stands apart in his repertoire. He recorded it without any outside constraints in his own studio. On listening to Rock, one is reminded of John Carpenter or Francois de Roubaix: a work which mixes the sounds of the TR-808 drum-machine, Synthi AKS, Farfisa organ and Clavinet. Remastered from the original master tapes. Includes exclusive liner notes. Transversales specialize in the reissues of long lost tapes, rare original soundtracks and library music." [Stranded Rec.]
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Memoire Magnetique Vol. 2 |
LP |
Transversales is very glad to announce the release of « Mémoire Magnétique, vol.2 » spanning 1966-1993, revelatory collection of short and secret music by electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani.
The second volume of this compilation allows us to discover some of unreleased rarities from Bernard Parmegiani’s personal archives and unpublished recordings which were composed for the screen or the performing arts.
Remastered high-resolution audio transferred directly from the original tapes.
Exclusive liner notes and pictures.
Musique originale composée, interprétée et enregistrée par Bernard Parmegiani.
Production exécutive : Jonathan Fitoussi & Sébastien Rosat.
Mastering à partir des bandes originales : Jonathan Fitoussi.
Direction artistique & graphisme : Jean-Philippe Talaga.
Traduction : Michèle Parent.
(P) 2021 Transversales Disques ®
sous licence exclusive de Claude-Anne Parmegiani
A1 / "Témoignages" - 1972.
Générique pour la série télévisée de Pierre Houdain.
A2 / "Pop secret" - 1970.
Version remixée pour concert de la musique créée avec le groupe
"Third Ear Band" au Royal Festival Hall, Londres.
A3 / "Voyage Conseil" - 1970.
Musique pour la publicité de : "Voyage Conseil".
Version non utilisée.
A4 / "Lion d'or" - 1988.
Générique pour l'émission radio de Georges Léon diffusée sur France Culture
le 22/02/1988.
A5 / "Flash sports" - 1975.
Indicatif de l'émission télévisée éponyme diffusée sur Antenne 2.
A6 / "Spot pub" - 1971.
Spot publicitaire non identifié, non utilisé.
A7 / "Journal TV 2" - 1981.
Indicatif du journal télévisé d'Antenne 2.
A8 / "Stade 2" - 1976-1986.
Indicatif de l'émission : "Stade 2".
Antenne 2, émission sport. Animation : Peter Foldès.
A9 / "L'art au monde des ténèbres" - 1982.
Série documentaire télévisée de Mario Ruspoli.
A10 / "Sonal Roissy" - 1971-2005.
Signal sonore de l'aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.
B1 / "Bongo fuego" - 1967.
Film d'animation de Peter Foldès.
B2 / "Electrorythmes" - 1966.
Version remixée pour concert ; film de Peter Foldès avec la chorégraphe Marpessa Dawn.
B3 / "E Pericoloso sporgersi" - (élément) - 1991.
Musique radiophonique ; commande de France Culture.
B4 / "Une mission éphémère" - 1993.
Film d'animation de Piotr Kamler.
B5 / "Une honorable partie de Gô" - 1978.
Série documentaire télévisée de Jean-Emile Jeannesson,
"Lettres du bout du monde".
B6 / "Sonal Roissy" - (inédit) - 1971.
Maquette de signal sonore pour l'aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.
Version non utilisée.
https://bernardparmegiani.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-2-1966-1993
"Belonging to a growing body of previously unreleased work culled from the archives of Bernard Parmegiani, the always incredible Transversales Disques returns with “Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2”, the second instalment in their series of albums focusing on the composer’s work for film, television, and the performing arts.
An inevitable revelation for even the most devoted of Parmegiani’s fans, we’re also making it available as part of a specially priced bundle with brand new represses of “Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1” and “Rock (Bande originale du film, 1982)” for those who missed them the first time around.
So good.
Over the last few years, the Paris based imprint, Transversales Disques, has set a remarkable standard for archival releases, bringing us a treasure trove of previously unreleased recordings by Pierre Henry, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Luc Ferrari, Igor Wakhevitch, Philip Glass, Ariel Kalma, François Bayle, Ennio Morricone, and numerous others.
While by no means the limit of their focus, the imprint has offered special attention to works by French pioneers of electronic music, particularly those associated with Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète (GRMC) and Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Central to this modus operandi is the work of Bernard Parmegiani. Back in 2017, they brought us the composer’s incredible 1982 soundtrack, Rock, created for Michel Treguero’s film of the same name, followed by the LP, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 in 2018.
After three years of waiting, the label is back with the second instalment of rare sounds by Parmegiani, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2, accompanied by brand new represses of Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 and Rock (Bande originale du film, 1982), which have been out of print since their initial release. As a special celebration, we’re offering them individually or together as a specially priced bundle. They’re 20th Century electroacoustic music at its absolute height, hugely historically important, and not to be missed.
Bernard Parmegiani’s contributions to electronic and electroacoustic practice are now regarded as among the most important in the history of 20th Century Music, but this wasn’t always the case. For much of his career, the composer lingered in the shadow of his more famous peers at Groupe de Recherches - Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, François Bayle, etc. Some of this was a consequence of circumstance and idealism. Gifted with a deep belief in access and humor, Parmegiani believed in the profound potential of electronic and electroacoustic sound, seeking to integrate it into everyday life, particularly through forms of mass distribution activated by radio, film, and television. A great deal of his output was created for these contexts - remaining unreleased on physical formats - while he supported himself as a sound engineer and as the head of the Music/Image division of French television. It is into this rarely heard body of recordings which Transversales Disques takes us once again.
Like the first instalment, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2 culls its material form the composer’s personal archives and unpublished recordings of material created between 1966 and 1993, focusing specifically on his output for the screen and the performing arts. Standing as a largely unacknowledged counterpoint to more famous works like De Natura Sonorum, La Roue Ferris, Dedans Dehors, Chants Magnétiques, and Chronos - created during same period covered by the collection - these works unveil a lesser-known vision of Parmegiani, one that embedded himself in the subconscious landscape of the French public, with sounds that were often heard without acknowledging their genius or source.
Comprising 16 revelatory tracks, of relatively short lengths - from 13 seconds to just over 8 minutes - Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2 covers a brilliant range of material, from sci-fi tinged arpeggiating synths, brooding minimalist expanses, semi psychedelic meanderings away with free-flowing texture, pastoral meditations, playful, percussive musique concrète, pieces that flirt on the edges of kosmische and Berlin school electronics, and so much more.
Encountering the composer in the throes of his deepest passion - working alongside the visual realm - just when you’d thought you’d heard it all, Transversales Disques digs up more gold from the archives of Bernard Parmegiani, expanding our vision of the astounding talent and range of one of the most important sonic artists of the 20th Century.
These previously unreleased rarities have been remastered from the original tapes in high-resolution audio, and come complete with exclusive liner notes and pictures. As engrossing as records come, and an absolute blast to listen to. Not to be missed!
Across 17 despite works, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 spans 24 years of Parmegiani’s output of music designed to integrate with the screen, drawing on a framework the composer developed for research and mutual exchange between sound and image. It should come as no surprise, given the overwhelming creative talent which Parmegiani possessed, that these efforts more than stand on their own when separated from the images with which they were designed to speak. The LP is an overwhelmingly powerful body of revelatory sound.
Not unlike his soundtrack for Rock, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 pushes the boundaries of what the work emerging from Groupe de Recherches is often perceived to have been, if not the very notions of what qualifies as avant-garde. Imbued with Parmegiani’s overwhelming humor and playfulness, it offers nods to a countless range of musical idioms and fields of practice - often painting a dark, dystopian technological, rhythmic landscape with aural touchstones ranging from techno, Kraftwerk, and John Carpenter soundtracks, with a peppering of the clown show, reminding us that Parmegiani began his career as a mime.
There’s no question that Transversales Disques is taking the high road, bringing us into wild, wonderful, and often overlooked bodies of organized sound which rewrite almost every standard narrative of history. These works are some of a Bernard Parmegiani which all too few heard, belonging to a way of working which captures the idealism closest to his heart.
Absolutely brilliant creatively - a challenging field of imagination and an endlessly thrilling listen. Transferred directly from the original tapes with exclusive liner notes, if you missed the first pressing, don’t sleep. This is an absolute must for any fan of Parmegiani, GRM, soundtracks, and electronic music at large."
[Soundohm]
https://bernardparmegiani.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-2-1966-1993
|
2021 |
€26.50 |
|
| PARMERUD, AKE |
Growl |
CD |
"Composer Åke Parmerud is from Göteborg, which is also the home of underground labels such as Fang Bomb, Release The Bats, and Beläten, names on which we can always rely to provide solid blasts of depressive post-industrial noise and drone music. Parmerud isn’t exactly cut from the same cloth, being as how he’s a prize-winning and classically-trained electroacoustic maestro, but there are moments of tasty darkness on his Growl (empreintes DIGITALes IMED 15132) collection which appeal to a macabre chap like myself. La vie mécanique, for instance, is a pretty effective critique of modern industrialisation, or at least an observation on it, and takes the hoary old dystopian cliché of “modern man becoming machine-like” and dusts it down for an update that involves samples of machinery blended with Techno music. In this lively composition of clattering beats and metal, it’s far from clear where the factory machines leave off and the dancefloor begins; it’s intending to convey something about the body being broken down into smaller units, much like the cogs of a machine being taken apart. Parmerud also makes a commentary on the contemporary use of machines (laptops, presumably) for making music. I wish he’d be a little less equivocal about it, both in his notes and his music, but it’s a nifty statement.
Maybe serious composers shouldn’t dabble with Techno. However, if you think men of Parmerud’s generation should leave the kids’ music alone, you’ll be even more appalled by the idea of Growl itself, where he drily observes “metal music is big in Sweden” from his lofty position, and borrows some ideas from his youngest son who plays in a metal band. This might be Aron Parmerud who plays his “axe” for Marionette, a Death Metal band who made a couple of albums for Listenable Records. What the composer has done here is zero-in on the throat-shredding vocals that characterise a lot of the music in this genre, and through arranging samples of voices shrieking “Hell Is Us! Die We Must!”, has built a virtual “growlers choir”. With the dark techno backing, electronic effects, and gloomy ambient tones, this works surprisingly well, even if it sounds too “expensive” and well-produced for a genuine metal album and has far too many interesting dynamics. He also misses the claustrophobia and genuine sense of doom. But even so Parmerud turns in a strong piece of work, and in any case he wasn’t setting out to produce a metal album.
What else are the “young people” interested in these days? Vinyl records, of course! So listen in to 2011’s Grooves if you want to hear what Parmerud can do when sampling the black stuff. The source material for this was the vinyl collection of his friend Kai Hanekken; in fact the composition seems to have been a by-product of a digitisation project requested by said Hanekken, who urged the composer to pick up the gauntlet and create a composition. He gave in. What gets sampled are run-out grooves and vinyl “noise”, i.e. crackles and clicks and such; Parmerud seems to have been only too aware that doing this was already something of a well-worn cliché, but again he liked the challenge and wanted to see if he could invert it and bring new life into the idea. Although best heard at high volumes and played back through a multi-channel system, Grooves still succeeds on your home CD player and delivers a suffocating density which is clearly one of this composer’s trademarks. Continuity is severely disrupted by the multiple edits, and the speed with which the layers of abstract noise pile up is incredibly alarming. You’ll feel like you’re trapped on an enormous spinning black disc of death.
Also here: 2014’s Electric Birds derived from birdsong samples (yet another instance where Parmerud had promised himself he would never make a piece like this), and Transmissions II, the most recent composition. It derives from a multi-media work where, if seen live, a singing choir are able to manipulate sound signals in real time. Some fascinating complex electronic layers result, and it sounds a lot more contemporary than some of the formal music that often gets released on this label, and is every bit as convincing as any given Mego release from the last few years. Sometimes proper composers make a ninny of themselves when they try and get “with it”, but Åke Parmerud has nothing to be ashamed of here." [The Sound Projector]
|
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| PARODI, CLAUDIO |
Prima del terzo |
CD |
"One of my favourite walk is in the harbour of my hometown, because of the sound brought by the wind. For long time I have day-dreamt about including that sound in my own music. I got to the point reading the poem Prologo al buio by Erri De Luca (from Opera sull’Acqua e altre poesie, Einaudi 2002). In the poem there is a Hebraic quote from Genesis, before the third verse (hence the title of my composition, the Italian for “before the third”): “vrúah Elohím merahèfet al penè hammàim”, that means, translating from the Italian translation by De Luca, “and the wind of God breaths on the faces of the waters”. The music was already there, it was just a matter of recording it.
Nothing against pure field recording. But, as the inspiration came from the very root of Hebrew culture, I felt to go deeper. My dear friend Prof. Maria Rosa Montiani taught me everything of the very little I know about Hebrew culture.
I planned five field recordings, one for each Hebrew word (in Hebrew, “al penè” is written as a single word). Referring to the map of the harbor, the recorder was placed five times from top right to bottom left, imitating the direction of Hebraic writing. The date and the length of the field recordings were chosen following the value given by qabbaláh to each word. As an example, vrúah is 4, so the first field recording (four minutes plus two seconds fade in and two seconds fade out) happened on the fourth hour of the fourth day of Cheshvàn, the second month of Hebrew calendar, that is, on October the 20th, 2012, 23.16, and so on for five months.
The field recordings were later re-shaped in studio imitating the Ashkenaze ductus of the letters of the words: panning for left to right and reverb to no reverb for top to bottom.
(Claudio Parodi, March 2013)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| PARSONS, DAVID |
Puja |
CD |
"Perhaps mainly known for his panoramic and almost cinematic Himalayan soundworlds, on Puja David continues his more recent tradition of travelling the inner horizon. And in so doing, he also invites us listeners to undertake similar journeys of our own. Puja is a mysterious and magic constellation, fuelled by the spirit and discipline of the age old Asian cultures and philosophies."
https://gterma.bandcamp.com/album/puja
"This is one of those albums where it’s difficult to single out one track, or even one moment that will stay with you longer that the other ones. It’s rather something that you absorb in its entirety and don’t really want it to end, even if you don’t listen to it carefully and attentively for the whole seventy four minutes. David Parsons (do not confuse with Alan Parsons) returns with his second offering for the gterma label.
The first recordings of this composer from New Zealand date back to the early eighties. He released some albums for the legendary Fortuna Records and its sister-label Celestial Harmonies. Well, honestly speaking, I wasn’t in a rush to get familiar with this one. I was rather expecting some New Age mumbo-jumbo with an Eastern touch and perhaps a few ambient incrustations here and there. And you know what? I wasn’t that wrong, except for the fact that the ambient layers are more intense and cover the New Age frames, so they do not dominate the work that is called “Puja” (in Sanskrit it means “ritual prayer”).
What surprised me the most were the occasional darker trips, like in “Offerings 3” where the deep drones having something in common with aliquot singing are merged with ritual bells and sequences that even Lustmord would be proud of. It’s a peculiar combination that introduces a feeling of anxiety into this sublime communion with the gods. A fear of them perhaps?
The artist is juggling with moods from track to track, as another “Offering” is a peaceful and ethereal composition with samples of female chanting, but not in the way you’d expect – it’s intermittent, delayed and reverbed, but still nicely fitting into the calming textures. You can meet these contrasts more often within the space of the whole album, but you don’t feel confused, as it’s all gives the impression of a very coherent and thought out work.
That is also why I discussed distinguishing certain tracks or fragments. Because of the sound and the mood that is a derivative of the concept, it all sounds quite monolithic and dense. Focused like a ritual that requires patience, stillness and self-meditation. Of course, you can use “Puja” as muzak as well, and I doubt David Parsons would be particularly disappointed with such a treatment – but it works both ways. Consciously or unconsciously you can feel that something has changed in the environment. That a touch of mystique has penetrated into your regular day like any other day.
Since it’s a gterma release you know what to expect from a technical point of view. A CD only, no digital version. And, as always, a booklet with some beautiful photos completing the musical side." [Santa Sangre]
" “Puja” (started by the composer with nothing particular in mind) is David Parsons’ first album using software synths only, as he decided purchasing a fine collection of soft-synths in years previously eventually making his studio now reside in a Mac Mini. The depth and versatility of a lot of current software quite astonished him, as did the ability to manipulate samples and oscillators in completely surreal ways, which all proved quite inspirational (as also happened for “Stupa”). David spent about a year programming the software with hundreds of sound patches and from this new library “Puja” is the first to emerge.
The name of the album only suggested itself after the project was completed. The track names, simply “Offerings” 1 thru 7, are offerings in the sense of a Hindu/Buddhist puja (prayer ceremony) and feel most descriptive of the 73-minute most subtle constructed and captivating sonic content. In the mesmerizing, gradually evolving, elevating and rather hypnotizing textural waves/drone tapestries, many enchanting sounds pass by such as those of praying monks, sampled sitar and a few refined, subtle rhythmic elements.
Soon, a sense of mystery and spiritually simply reveals itself to and washed over the listener. There actually are many sounds buried fairly deeply in the mix of this inward journey so that with repeated listening new things will be discovered depending on where the listener’s attention is centered at any given moment. As David let me know, the mix itself is very much biased towards headphone listening.
The Gterma label refers to “Puja” as a charming piece of work, something I can only fully agree upon." [Sonic Immersion]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Chakra |
CD |
Chakra is David's third album on gterma. The album carves and weaves its way through the mysteries surrounding the seven Chakras starting at the crown and working towards the foundation. Headphones strongly recommended.
https://gterma.bandcamp.com/album/chakra
"After “Puja” and “Stupa”, “Chakra” is the third album by New Zealand-based composer David Parsons on the Swedish G-terma label.
This time around, the tracks on “Chakra” were very much gear-inspired. David purchased a couple of Synthstrom Deluges, a locally made portable synthesizer, sequencer and sampler from Wellington designed for the creation, performance and improvisation of electronic music. This brilliantly designed piece of gear -running on an internal rechargeable battery- offers pretty much unlimited sampling storage and more composing tracks than one would ever need. In addition, they can also control all David’s other hardware and software synths. About 70% of the album’s music was created in the outdoors during holiday down south with this portable gear.
It ended up as a 62-minute inner journey (overall a bit more rhythmic than Parsons’ last releases) of slow progressing, minimal-angled and lush swirling sound waves. These meet up with David’s signature aural Tibetan and Asian flavours as well as some occasional monk chants. Its effect is dreamful, hypnotizing, and immersive and even becomes fulfilling when the intrinsic power trail of the 10-minute delight “Manipura” washes over the listener. Thereafter, David’s takes his listeners to great heights with the atmospheric, minimalist painting “Svadhisthana” (moving into “Himalaya’s” pure soundwaves), then rounds out the fascinating journey beautifully with the rhythmic-spiced, intense “Muladhara”.
The excellently mastered “Chakra” is a winner on all fronts making a great addition to Parsons’ discography. Headphone-listening is strongly recommended." [Sonic Immersion]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| PARTCH, HARRY |
Plectra and Percussion Dances |
LP |
"Born in Oakland, CA, but raised in New Mexico, Partch learned mandolin, violin, piano, reed organ, and cornet as a child. Clearly a unique talent, even that early on, Partch went to USC Music School but was dissatisfied with his teachers, and instead studied music on his own where he learned to reject many of the Western constructs of music and began experimenting with using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first Western composers of the 20th century to use microtonal scales. These recordings were some of the first made after Partch settled in Sausalito and founded his legendary Gate 5 studio. Debuted in 1953 on KPFA radio, these compositions still sound otherworldly and cutting edge today. Essential American 20th Century composer Harry Partch, on Jeanne Dielman" [label info]
"The instruments: Kithara, Surrogate Kithara, three Harmonic Canons, Chromelodeon, Diamond Marimba, Bass Marimba, Cloud-Chamber Bowls, Eroica and Wood-Block, Adapted Viola, Adapted Guitars."
"This group of three pieces, intended by Harry Partch as a single triptych, was performed several times in the 1950s, incompletely and with an incomplete ensemble. Partch himself discusses the work in these terms in an included spoken introduction from 1953, worth the price of admission in itself. This release marks its first complete performance, and the group of performers, simply called Partch, is ideal: they have studied Partch's music in depth, including his often difficult notation system, and they know it well enough to make it fun. Which it should be and is here. The Plectra and Percussion Dances are accurately titled. They were actually intended for dancers, and a performance that included them would be the next stage in the revival of an eminently worthwhile work, but they work without them. They're for varied small ensembles of plucked and percussion instruments that periodically join forces into larger ones, and the rhythms are constantly varied. The most fun is the central section, Ring Around the Moon, where a speaking voice is added and does such surprising things as end one section with the words "Well, bless my soul!" and another with "Shake hands now, boys, and when the bell rings, come out fighting." More even than an important Partch premiere, this is one of those rare releases that presents Partch's music in its proper playful spirit." [Allmusic com]
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| PAULSEN, TERJE |
From a nearby Bay |
mCD-R |
"terje paulsen is a norwegian sound artist whose previous digital and physical productions were released by mystery sea, impulsive habitat, conv, resting bell or gruenrekorder. you'll guess then that he mainly deals with experiments and field recordings. he usually works with simple instruments and equipment and sounds from found objects.
for this powerful track, terje has also used his own voice, which is a very new things for him. these whispers in norwegian language add a little mystery to the track." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2015 |
€5.00 |
|
| PAVONE, JESSICA |
Knuckle Under |
LP |
"Violist Jessica Pavone's Knuckle Under is the result of an exercise in mono focus, the result of a medically enforced hiatus from playing her primary instrument. She returned to the viola after a 21 month lay-off determined to play only the sounds she most wanted to hear. That turned out to be long tones, often played with such force that one imagines a puff of rosin rising from her strings as she bowed them. 'But Not Here' gets through just three rustic sounding notes before a delay unit sprays one out like a prism. She repeats the phrase, and another note splits and gets trapped in an effects pedal's hall of mirrors. The simplicity and sheer noisiness of the music feels remote from the scrupulous craftsmanship exhibited on her last solo record, Hope Dawson Is Missing, even though they share a tune. 'Plutonium', the piece in common, reveals the flexibility that Pavone finds in folk material. On the Tzadik disc, it unfolds into a stately art song; here, mournful low tones turn as bushy as a wolf's winter coat under the influence of amplification. Pavone is, as ever, scrupulously focused, wringing everything she can from one piece of material before moving on.' Bill Meyer, The Wire, Issue 368. Knuckle Under is Pavone's first recording to be released on vinyl. Mastered by James Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200g virgin vinyl in an edition of 300. The jacket was letterpress printed, diecut and hand-assembled at Studio on Fire in Minneapolis." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2014 |
€23.00 |
|
| PBK |
Descent |
CD-R |
"Among the artists from the late-80s experimental tape underground who inspired the music of EMERGE and the founding of Attenuation Circuit, PBK is one of the most important. Therefore, we are extremely proud to present in a digital format for the first time his first solo release “Descent” from 1988, which the artist aptly describes as “dramatic atmospheric space-drone with plenty of analog synthesizer, via Dave Prescott, who once ran the Generations Unlimited label, releasing works by Conrad Schnitzler, Morphogenesis, etc. Prescott owned one of the largest modular synths ever assembled and puts it to striking use on this tape. Combined with PBK's Moogs, loops and drones, and howls of anguish provided by the irrepressible Minóy, all echoing around in the strange space of a Radio Shack mixer's spring reverb.”
“Minoy’s bedroom isolationist approach produced something that seemed otherworldly, spiritual and more like paintings, which was my own background. I took Minoy’s approach as my own model,” PBK says about their late-80s collaborations. This eminently emotional yet perfectly poised masterpiece of “noise ambient”, as PBK came to call his approach to music, is stunning proof that the international tape underground brought forth truly new sounds in electronics that are second to nothing but the most revered academic work by the likes of Stockhausen or Xenakis, and certainly opened up these ways of exploration to larger numbers of people. As fellow composer and Sound of Pigs tape label activist Al Margolis/If, Bwana says about the late Minòy (1951 – 2010): “i heard Minoy’s work before i had ever heard Stockhausen’s Hymnen – so that my take on hearing Hymnen was that it fit in this continuum …not the other way around!!!”
[label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Phillip B Klingler: that's what PBK stands for. No secret but just in case you didn't know this and that might happen, since PBK might not be a household name these days. Unlike the late 80s when he rose to small fame in the underworld of home-brew cassette releases. He never went 'away' or in hibernation, but perhaps was not always as visible in this twenty-five year career. I am not sure if this re-issue of one of his earliest cassette releases is part of a longer campaign to re-issue earlier works, or perhaps part of an anniversary of some kind, but its great to hear it again after so many years. 'Descent' is perhaps his first true solo release, and sees him take inspiration from Minoy and David Prescott, rather than Stockhausen of Xenakis (I am using the press text, thank you). At David Prescott's he taped a whole bunch of synth sounds and spread these out over the four tracks of his machine and then started to mix them, adding more synthesizer sounds, tape loops and such like, and the result is one of the earliest instances of 'ambient' meeting 'industrial'. It has that spacious character of ambient music, like being in a stream of sounds (as in a stream of consciousness) but at the same time has an angular character, a certain aspect of being nasty, that remote, desolate, empty industrial waste land image that makes it 'industrial'. Composing is perhaps not the sort of thing that applies here, but rather a surrealist take on mixing odd tracks of sounds together in two long form pieces of music. Intuitive playing and mixing, a surrealist approach to the art of composing, that is what PBK is best known for and here he does a great job at it. An early work, but what a fine piece." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Warfare State / Appeal |
do-MC |
"All sounds collected and assembled by PBK in 1988-1990.
Extra tracks:
"CNT Oct 1910" (1989 - first appeared on Tape Iz Flesh; Thu Second Cumming)
"Sanctuary" (1990 - first appeared on The Electronic Cottage International Compilation Cassette Series: Volume One)
Edition of 100 numbered copies.
Double side box comes packaged inside an aluminum foil slipcover." [label info]
http://impulsystetoskopu.pl
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| PBK & TELEPHERIQUE |
Noise-Ambient Connection |
CD |
"Noise music exists for many years, but there are still some individuals who are assiduously following their own approach, avoiding any external influence, creating something new and inspiring to get rid of any standards, giving us
the idea of unique sounding. Phillip B. Klingler (PBK) is the one such musician.
In his 20 years of activity, he walked against the number of noisescapes, painting them over with some secret traces of beauty and beyond. He released some solo works but also collaborations with Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana), Slavek Kwi (Artificial Memory Trace), Asmus Tietchens, Jeph Jerman (Hands To) and even
Artemy Artemiev (the son of famous Russian ANS-synth explorer). PBK proposes premium quality music with manifold edges: some hypnotic ambient pieces, some crazy noise collages, but mostly just unclassifiable abstract sound-sculptures. His early works were released on tapes by his own PBK Recordings label and sold out for many years, in the early 90s N D Records published his first couple of
CDs: endless labyrinths of dissonances, amorphous soundscapes unfolding from the complex schemes of machine improvisation and stochastic processes. Telepherique is the seminal German project existing since the late 80s and exploring the grey area of the electronic underground. The main person behind
it is Klaus Jochim who also was responsible for now defunct tape label Drahtfunk Productions. Besides his own production under various monikers like Technostria and Das Konzentrat, he released some great collaboration tape albums with artists like Brume, Kapotte Muziek, S.Core, Tesendalo, De Fabriek etc.
Telepherique uses a lot of synthetic sound sources and sequences, creating unsettling atmosphere from the structured electronic patterns ranging from intense rhythmic work to creepy ambient out-of-body soundscapes. They got initial support from labels like Ant-Zen and Noise Museum, later released some albums
through Old Europa Cafe, S.S.S.M., Afe Records and Waystyx. The name Telepherique means "funicular railway" in French, but indirectly also the intention gaining a view from a higher level. This particular album is the first ever collaboration between PBK and Telepherique, it represents yet another breakthrough in the
search for a music that is comprehensively exploring 21st century ambient music." [label notes]
www.monochromevision.ru/
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| PBK & ZANSTONES |
Mantis Fog Desert |
CD |
"The new collaboration of PBK and Zan Hoffman (Zanstones) is the experiment in perfect interaction between noise music, ambient approach and electronic sound, with organic and sometimes even psychedelic output. For both artists, being active in the underground music scene for many years, this album is very distinct and peculiar showcase of their endless creative potential.
Release date is 27th December 2011. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| PEAL GRIM |
same |
CD |
Peal Grim is one of the names of Dmitriy Shilov known for the projects Unknown, Neznamo and Magickal Things. Peal Grim explores the theme of dramatic experiences of the human life using acoustic and electric guitars, overdrive, distortion and spatial effects. Their sound creates clouds of guitar drone, noise and ringing, assuming different shapes in the acoustic atmosphere: sometimes floating like an impenetrable fog, sometimes rolling like a gigantic front of thunderclouds, sometimes creeping over a dark pit of overwhelming melancholia…
These five compositions were recorded over the course of three years from 2007 to 2009 and were mastered by Sergey Bulychiov (kshatriy.pro) in 2014.
"This record is not recommended to listening for depressively inclined persons".
[label info]
"So, this album begins with the caveat: "This record is not recommended to listening for depressively inclined persons." Now, that is far more enticing than "may cause drowsiness" (which has been affixed to less than inspiring new age / ambient records in days gone by) or Pulp's reverse psychology of "Please do not read the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings" or any number of unimaginative variations on "play loud or not at all, motherfucker!" There is also something rather charming about this translation about "depressively inclined persons" which may just be an utterly commonplace trigger warning in the Peal Grim's native Russian. What we have behind this is a pretty fucking bleak album of crumbling, corrosive blackened ambience that actually morphs into an ominously tranquil, making for an album that could be rather soothing in a dark, wintery kind of way. Peal Grim is the work of Dmitry N. Shilov, who has orbited in the pagan neofolk and mystical ambient underground of Moscow for a good part of the last two decades. In spite of this background, this album has all of the feel of the ambient passages from the best of the best black metal albums, making us think that he must have been buzzing riff with corpse paint instead. Nonetheless, this is a densely layered album of skeletal guitar figures that are blasted out in blackened fuzz, while spiralling down a soul-sucking maelstrom with a stately minor key lament throughout all the atmospheric depression. A properly replicated cd in an edition of 100 copies." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| PECORELLI, DANIELE / MARK SCHAUB |
& |
LP |
" &, first production of the newborn Anomala Soundscapes wants to be a programmatic manifesto of what the label intends to
realize. The debut album of a new label has the difficult task of giving the editorial imprint in one fell swoop. Vinyl was chosen as the
format and split album as a formula. The format of the vinyl was not chosen for the alleged better listening quality compared to than
other media, but rather and above all for to recover a certain now rare “listening ritual”.
The & project was intended to be released as a vinyl record from its very origin. Each side separately presents the work of one
of the two musicians, neither of whom had heard the work of the other until the release.
Who’ll frame my memories in ash Daniele Pecorelli
We are our consciousness, and our consciousness is the form and content of our memory. What happens to our memories the
moment we die? They become an electrical residue that fades away. As we are conscious that our memory is falling apart, a new
consciousness arises that in turn disintegrates into kaleidoscopic fragments until they dilate into the final moment of our recorded time.
Combustion Mark Schaub
Material, rough, sometimes unprejudiced, dark but carnival, tries to render the idea of transformation in an informal way without
emotional variations. In particular chemical transformation, the allusion to fire is made explicit by the title. The transformation is an
action of opposing forces and from the tension develops the passage that explores all the audible frequencies (even inaudible) trying
to materialize the intimate tension of the matter and the dissolution of the same in the final suspended and almost incomplete."
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| PENDULUM NISUM |
same |
LP |
"Pendulum Nisum are Reto Mäder (Ural Umbo, Sum Of R, RM74) and Mike Reber (Herpes Ö DeLuxe) from Bern, Switzerland. The 8 pieces on their debut album are built on majestic organic drones and hypnotic, sinister melodies - a complex structured sound built from horns, organ, piano, analogue synthesizers, shades of guitar sounds, voices, found objects, electro-acoustic processes, and, most of all, an unusual strong presence of field recordings. The powerful but warm and gloomy sound, based on acoustic instruments and electronic sound treatment clashes in a challenging way with the carefully selected natural sounds (thunderstorms, rain, city noises) chosen from the huge sound databank that Reber has collected within the last decade. Reto Mder works solo as RM74 and in the groups Ural Umbo (with Steven Hess from Chicago) and Sum Of R. In 2006 he collaborated with Ralf Wehowsky
RLW for the Crouton release Pirouetten. He produced albums for Rhys Chatham (The Bern Project, 2009) and for Herpes Ö DeLuxe (Kielholen, 2007). Since 2006 Reto Mder has run the label Hinterzimmer Records together with Roger Ziegler. Mike Reber is member of the band Herpes Ö DeLuxe. Since 1995 they have worked in a musical field between atmospheric noise, electronica bruitiste, sombre soundscapes and harsh drones. Hinterzimmer Records released their two last proper albums Kielholen and Ember. Reber also used to work as performance artist during the 80ies and 90ies and has acted in several theatre pieces." [label info]
www.hinterzimmer-records.com |
2011 |
€17.00 |
|
| PENJAGA INSAF |
Sarna Sadja |
CD |
"For several years Ingo Sauerbrey made extensive travels through Indonesia, always carrying recording equipment to collect sounds as an audio diary. During periodic return trips to Germany, he started to work on the recordings with electronic devices. Some sounds were edited, cut and transformed, while others were kept completely intact. To name a few sound sources only recordings from Water Puppet and Shadow Theatres, Gamelan and various welcoming and fighting dances like Kecak, Jegog and the Tarian Caci were used for this album. Some of those impressive performances were made of 60 to 90 men chanting and dancing while a bamboo orchestra used 4 meter long bamboo sticks playing bass drums on it. SAMA SADJA is waving together the sounds of living traditions, religions and languages with spherical ambient pads and electronically edited drones from the field recordings. This is an contemplative and intimate soundtrack from the deepest heart of South East Asia." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"Brussels' label Ini.itu specializes in music that deals one way or the other with Indonesia, the land, the people, the nature. They should be paying attention to this release by Ingo Sauerbrey, who plays music as Penjaga Insaf. For years now he has been traveling to Indonesia armed with a recorder to tape original Indonesian music from puppet theatres, gamelan and such like, but also from countries such as Vietnam which he uses in his compositions. I didn't study the booklet very hard when I started to play this and I thought at the beginning this was some kind of ambient act using lots of digital synthesizers and a bit of percussion and some heavily processed voices, but as the album progresses the field recordings become clearer and clearer. Sauerbrey reworks the recordings pretty neatly, not beyond recognition, so you always have a clear picture of what is going on. He mixes these together with a fine blend of digital synthesizers, borrowed from the world of ambient dance music.
The whole thing is pretty densely layered and it seems like is something going on all levels at the same time. Probably just as colorful as traditional puppet play. An excellent release of highly imaginative music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| PENNY RIMBAUD'S L'ACADEMIE DES VANITES (CRASS) |
Yes Sir, the Truth of Revolution |
CD |
"CRASS WAS THEN - THIS IS NOW. WAKE UP TO IT
CRASS' album, 'Yes, Sir, I Will', was possibly the most angry and hard hitting attack on the political/military/industrial complex ever consigned to vinyl. Written by Penny Rimbaud in 1982 at the height of the Falklands conflict, it seethes with righteous indignation over what he saw as a pointless but vicious exercise in vote catching by a government whose popularity was severely on the wane. So powerful was this critique that it led to threats of prosecution by that very same government, threats which were typically used by CRASS to further their attacks on it and its tyrannical leader, Margaret Thatcher.
Over thirty years later, in 2014, Rimbaud was asked to participate in the Rebellion Festival, a yearly punk gathering held in Blackpool, UK. Realising that the opening date of the festival closely coincided with that of the euphemistically named 'Great War', Rimbaud and the festival organisers agreed that as an appropriate response they should open the event with a performance of 'Yes, Sir, I Will'.
In preparing for this performance, Rimbaud began to question the relevance of some of the content of 'Yes, Sir'. It seemed to him that much of it was pertinent only to the time in which it was written, a time when a genuine social uprising had appeared to be a very real possibility (one that was violently and conclusively squashed during the miners' strike of 1984). But times change and there was, he now felt, an element of aggression within the work which veiled its essential message of love and peace; it was a passion that could all too easily be mistaken for blind anger. With this in mind, and inspired by John Lennon's 'All You Need is Love', he set about rewriting 'Yes, Sir' from what he describes as a more Taoist viewpoint. Through replacing screams of anguish with laments of love, he was largely able to satisfy his wish to change 'Yes, Sir' into an expression of compassion, that being the hugely demanding realm of love in its unconditional form.
For the Rebellion performance of the now retitled 'Yes, Sir, the Truth of Revolution', Rimbaud was joined by CRASS' lead vocalist Eve Libertine plus a group of leading musicians from the London jazz scene with whom they'd worked extensively in the past. Named 'L'Académie des Vanités', the band consisted of Eve Libertine/vocals, Penny Rimbaud/vocals, Louise Elliott/sax, Kate Shortt/cello, Jennifer Maidman/guitar, Phil Robson/guitar, Thad Kelly/bass and Gene Calderazzo/drums. The live recording of that show, presented here, captures all the tense excitement created by presenting a primarily punk audience with complex poetics of love, accompanied by equally demanding freeform, improvised jazz. However, as had generally been the case with CRASS' output, wild, willing and worrisome, it would be wise to expect the unexpected. Equally, through its progressive and colourful imagery, the vibrant packaging designed by Gee Vaucher shows a refusal to harp back to the illusory golden past of punk dreams and conceits.
'We are poets, armed with the cobblestones of love, unconditional, uncompromising, beyond need of proof.' However, if proof is needed, it will most surely be found in the content of this radical, imaginative release." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| PEPE WISMEER |
Le Stridor de l'Escargot |
LP + CD-R |
.. kaléidoscope maîtrisé d’influences éparses et vastes, l’univers très personnel de pepe wismeer désarçonne par son irrésistible beauté et sa mélancolie ambigüe. mêlant rêverie entêtante avec son ambient bizarroïde et délire expérimental psyché sombre, le duo entraîne dans son ballet et en son cœur les fantômes des legendary pink dots, coil, the cure ou même arvo pärt ...
"This is a 1-off pressing of 100 copies on high-quality vinyl, printed labels AND an extra (free) CD-r E.P., with an original photographic insert (numbered by the artist). The LP itself has a special "DJ-confusion" cut (where the track marks do not coincide with the actual tracks themselves) and was done as an homage to Throbbing Gristle's "D.O.A." who pioneered this mischievous tactic around 35 years ago with their own DJ-confusion cut." [label info]
www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| PER ASPERA |
Nil Desperandum |
CD |
Drittes Album dieses uns bisher noch unbekannten polnischen dark ambient-Projekts, das auf NIL DESPERANDUM eine ureigenste Vision von dunkler elektronischer Ambience entwirft, wo sehr minimal & bedächtig instrumentierte Synth-Parts of ebenso spärlich eingesetzte Sakral-Gesänge stoßen, es später aber Bezüge zu 9/11 gibt und die Klänge rauher & experimenteller werden. Ingesamt wirkt das alles sehr ausgereift & überlegt komponiert, 7 Stücke die aufeinander aufbauen.
Sehr ambitioniert und fesselnd !
"The third and the most complete release by one of the most talented ambient artists hailing from Poland these days. Unifying vast array of elements, Per Aspera once again achieves remarkably introvert but vibrant style.
Eerie industrial atmosphere seamlessly blends with serene harmonies of almost orchestral form. Cinematic, monstrous drone formations morph into pulsating abyss of dissonant disturbances and uncompromised sonic experiments, overlaid by subtle beauty of human voice and minimalist acoustic instrumentation.
All those skillful, multiformal explorations establish Nil desperandum one of those albums of complex yet stable musical concept—reflecting the incoherencies of human nature and its immanent affection to chaos and order merged together. Per Aspera tends to render tragically compound heritage of the mankind, being constantly shaped by cultural, ethnic and religious or ideologic discrepancies.
Definitely not your average dark–ambient buzz, this album stands out of the dull cliche. The sound may appeal to the admirers of T. Köner, Parca Pace, Nocturnal Emissions or Neubautens to name a few but still, expect no pattern follower.
Complemented with special A5–sized glossy digipak designed by Ibsen studio, this CD is limited to 500 copies only." [label info]
".... Whilst it’s ridiculously difficult to be overly innovative within the dark ambient genres, one of the skills a composer must demonstrate is the ability to keep the listener engaged whilst producing a sound that doesn’t show immediate comparisons to one or another artist from within this genre. Thankfully Per Aspera does a fantastic job at both and has created a set of recordings that smack of originality whilst containing a myriad of well executed compositions, rich textural sounds and a wonderfully imaginative evolving plethora of atmospheres that flow from the album. As a dark ambient release this is as good as it gets and sets an impressively high standard immediately, with a faultless album being produced from start to finish. For those who relish in the shadowy undercurrent of rich dark ambient soundscapes ‘Nil Desperadum’ delivers a fabulous journey into this style of music and is welcomed addition to the genre itself and as such is a near prefect introduction for a relatively unknown artist and a label which promises great things, if this is anything to go by." [Judas Kiss]
www.newnihilism.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| PERE UBU |
London Texas |
CD |
"A great live recording of the sadly short-lived version of the band that existed between the arrival of Eric Drew Feldman and the departure of Chris Cutler. By far the best recording of the Scott, Cutler, Maimone rhythm section, I think, and the whole band is on intense concert form: David racked up to 11, Eric working equally on foundations and fine details as to the out-there manner born and Jim Jones somewhere in the stratosphere. Coming back to it, this was a pretty great band. The songs are economical, tightly arranged and take no prisoners. And there's that live energy - the closest we can get to being when and where we weren't. Studio recordings can't do this. Mastered by Bob Drake, and it stings like a bee - with a beret. Play it loud." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| PERLON |
same |
CD-R |
"Neben der hervorragenden BAD ALCHEMY 7" gibt es auch diese CD-R des Berliner Trios (guitars, electronics, percussion) auf eigenem Label, Zwei Stücke: "Terlenka" (47:33) und "Argon" (25:14). Die Musik könnte man als "strange & complex improvised atmospheric music with noisy outbursts" bezeichnen... mit viel sensiblem Gespür für Effekte und Entwicklung in den Kompositionen, verbinden PERLON alt & neu... hier treffen sich Geräusch- und Improvisationsmusik. Ähnlich von der Konzeption her, wenn auch völlig anders klingend, wie z.B. T. FURUDATE..
Berlin-based trio with first CD, a meeting of noise- & improvisationmusic, with very suspenseful moments." [Drone Rec. info 2000]
|
2000 |
€12.50 |
|
| PERRY, BRENDAN |
Eye of the Hunter / Live at the ICA |
do-LP |
Out of print since release in 1999, Dead Can Dance"s Brendan Perry"s debut solo album "Eye of the Hunter" is being reissued this summer and has been expanded to now also include his 1993 live show as part of 4AD"s infamous 13 Year Itch week of concerts at London"s ICA, a live show that has to date only been available as a very rare promotional cassette. Having mutually disbanded Dead Can Dance so he and Lisa Gerrard could focus on their own material (a hiatus that would last seven years between live shows and sixteen between albums), Brendan"s debut built on his renown as a solo performer, having often played just he and an acoustic guitar during his band"s otherworldly live shows. Indeed, Dead Can Dance"s first official live album, 1994"s Toward The Within, captures just this with three Brendan solo tracks helping to set the scene for what came next. Backed by the band of Liam Bradley (drums), Glen Garrett (bass guitar) and Martin Quinn (pedal steel), Brendan performs the guitar, a 12-string guitar, mandolin and keys to achieve a rich, gothic sound while the album"s incredible production elevates his vocals to Scott Walker and Tim Buckley levels of delivery; two clear influences, the latter"s "I Must Have Been Blind Here" is thoughtfully covered here. A record that has been out of print on vinyl since its release in 1999, people have been asking for it to be repressed for long enough. Having been remastered at Abbey Road, fans will be delighted to hear that not only is Eye of the Hunter finally being reissued but that it"s also being expanded to include Live at the I.C.A.. A true collectible, this extra album has previously only been available on a rare as hen"s teeth promotional cassette, recorded during the 4AD label"s infamous 13 Year Itch residency at the storied London venue in 1993. Chris Bigg"s fantastic art remains front and centre, upgraded to a gatefold sleeve for the LP with the transparent teal coloured vinyl matching the album"s palette.
https://brendan-perry.bandcamp.com/album/eye-of-the-hunter-live-at-the-i-c-a
|
2023 |
€44.50 |
|
| |
Eye of the Hunter / Live at the ICA |
do-CD |
https://brendan-perry.bandcamp.com/album/eye-of-the-hunter-live-at-the-i-c-a
Out of print since release in 1999, Dead Can Dance"s Brendan Perry"s debut solo album "Eye of the Hunter" is being reissued this summer and has been expanded to now also include his 1993 live show as part of 4AD"s infamous 13 Year Itch week of concerts at London"s ICA, a live show that has to date only been available as a very rare promotional cassette. Having mutually disbanded Dead Can Dance so he and Lisa Gerrard could focus on their own material (a hiatus that would last seven years between live shows and sixteen between albums), Brendan"s debut built on his renown as a solo performer, having often played just he and an acoustic guitar during his band"s otherworldly live shows. Indeed, Dead Can Dance"s first official live album, 1994"s Toward The Within, captures just this with three Brendan solo tracks helping to set the scene for what came next. Backed by the band of Liam Bradley (drums), Glen Garrett (bass guitar) and Martin Quinn (pedal steel), Brendan performs the guitar, a 12-string guitar, mandolin and keys to achieve a rich, gothic sound while the album"s incredible production elevates his vocals to Scott Walker and Tim Buckley levels of delivery; two clear influences, the latter"s "I Must Have Been Blind Here" is thoughtfully covered here. A record that has been out of print on vinyl since its release in 1999, people have been asking for it to be repressed for long enough. Having been remastered at Abbey Road, fans will be delighted to hear that not only is Eye of the Hunter finally being reissued but that it"s also being expanded to include Live at the I.C.A.. A true collectible, this extra album has previously only been available on a rare as hen"s teeth promotional cassette, recorded during the 4AD label"s infamous 13 Year Itch residency at the storied London venue in 1993
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| PETERS, STEVE |
Three Rooms |
CD |
Exquisites Soundscape-Album mit drei Stücken, die völlig verschiedene Ansatzpunkte haben; ob field recordings, Objekt-Geräusche, der eigene Atem, PETERS entwirft stets sehr subtile und langsam dahingleitende Stücke mit faszinierender Aura...
"We are very proud to present the music of Steve Peters, which Alvin Curran once described as "pure, restrained, and rigorously beautiful."
Originally composed as sound installations, these three delicate pieces - or rooms, as the title states - are the result of very personal investigation regarding the interaction between physical spaces and the experience of listening. The selected compositions on the disc seem to emanate themselves from these spaces to continuously create room(s) for the listener, intensifying quietly and subtly our awareness. In "Delicate Abrasions," all of the sounds are derived from tactile interaction with the interior surfaces and materials of an old warehouse building in Santa Fé, New Mexico: nails, dust, sliding door, concrete, metal, glass, and wood. These seemingly inert materials yield a beautiful music hidden within the walls (and ceiling, and floor) of this otherwise mute and neglected space. "Center of Gravity" was composed for an installation with artist Susan York of one of her "graphite rooms," which evoke the contemplative space of a Japanese rock garden. The sound was made entirely with Steve's own breath and real-time electronic processing. Each individual breath was treated as its own miniature composition. These short pieces are then layered and punctuated by silences of random length. The final piece, "Mountains Hidden in Mountains," is made entirely from one strike of the densho (meditation bell) at a Zen Buddhist temple in New Mexico. The sound of the bell never quite dies away, instead revealing the complex dance of overtones in the air and ever-deepening pure waves. It was adapted as a participatory sound installation in a faux bell tower at the Santa Fé Art Institute in 2004." [label info]
www.sirr-ecords.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| PETERS, STEVE & STEVE RODEN |
Not a Leaf remains as it was |
CD |
"In 1995 Steve Peters and Steve Roden toured as a trio with singer Anna Homler; sometimes they would vocalize behind her, and they liked the way their voices blended together. They then spent about 15 years saying that “someday” they should record a voice-based project together. Aside from the physical distance between them, the problem was always: What would we sing? Neither wanted to write or sing lyrics.
Inspiration came in the form of a book of Japanese jisei – poems allegedly written by monks on their death bed – printed in both English translation and Romanized Japanese. Phonetically pronouncing the Japanese reminded Peters of the technique Roden has used of systematically chopping up the syllables in English texts to transform them into sound poems. Since neither of them speaks Japanese, it seemed like a good place to begin.
The two of them applied for a residency at Jack Straw, a non-profit recording facility in Seattle that gives grants of studio time. They had no exact plans other than they intended to avoid electronic instruments, or directly referencing the poems’ literal meaning, or imitating any Japanese musical idioms or “Zen” stereotypes. Culling some of the poems that made references to sound and noting them on 3x5 cards, Peters and Roden sorted the cards into four groups according to the seasons of the year that the poems represented, divided the cards between them, and taped them to their music stands. They then sang random fragments from the various cards - a word here, a line there, maybe backwards, maybe the English translation. They made no effort to keep the poems intact or retain any of their meaning, instead treating the material simply as phonemes to put in their mouths.
All of the music was improvised in the studio, built up one track at a time. They worked intuitively, with no structural guidelines beyond using the texts. Three days later they emerged from the studio, not quite sure what they had done. After letting the material rest for several months Peters and Roden determined that Doug Haire, who recorded the sessions at Jack Straw, was the obvious choice to do the mixing. The album was completed in the fall of 2011.
12k is known to be a label of understatement and restraint, however, Not A Leaf Remains As It Was is arguably the most hushed and delicate record in the label’s catalog. Every sound on the album’s four tracks, be it the artists’ voices, a pump organ or melodica hangs by a thread, played ever so slightly, with utmost care. Noises, created from turtle shells, leaves, and bells shuffle and flutter, as if they are quietly alive, in the background providing a textural backdrop to the sublime tones and ghostly voices." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2012 |
€15.50 |
|
| PETERSSON, MATTIAS |
Mimer |
CD |
Neuer Composer auf Fylkingen! MATTIAS PETERSSON hat Aufnahmen in einer stillgelegten Eisen-Mine in Schweden gemacht und aus daraus entstandenen Loops kraftvolle Kompositionen zusammengeschustert, irgendwo zwischen elektro-akustischem glitch-Noise und spannendem Maschinen-Ambient..
“This release is the debut album of the 31 year old composer and sound artist Mattias Petersson, based in Stockholm, Sweden. He works mostly in the area of experimental electronic music, but he has also been involved in more pop-like projects as arranger, composer, producer and musician. The music on this cd is based on field recordings made inside the defunct iron mine Mimer, in Norberg, Sweden, during the summer of 2001.
Mimer concists of seventeen tracks that cross reference each other in various ways. Each track is based on one of the nine loops that were selected from these original recordings and then treated with different processing techniques. One basic idea was to recreate some of the original sound environment from the days when the mine was running, and also to capture the decay and corrosion of the once very powerful, but now silent and abandoned, machines, containers and silos in the closed mine.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| PETIT, PHILIPPE |
Henry: The Iron Man |
LP |
"I first head Philippe Petit's Henry the Iron Man on WFMU in March of 2010 while driving through the meadowlands on the New Jersey Turnpike. The air was freezing and the sky a depressing cement gray. The music perfectly matched the frozen, decimated landscape. Then, as I took the exit ramp to the even more decrepit route 1 &9, the mood shifted, and I was lifted out of the darkness. Some sort of transformation was taking place, and the bleak numbness of winter soon gave way to hope and the strange feeling that Philippe and I would work together soon.
Fast forward to December 2010. Philip was now on Aagoo records and I was playing the test pressings of Henry. The same surprise and wonder that I had felt on the New Jersey Turnpike surfaced once again. Where do the manipulations start and stop? Is that popping sound Philippe's tweaking or dust on my cartridge? I was left guessing whether to approve the tests or not; and for me, this uncertainty is part of the pleasure of hearing the record.
Philippe’s work on vinyl informs both his creative process and the final product itself. He captures the accidents caused by vinyl manipulations and shapes them into sonic sculptures—creating order from a sum of circumstantial parts. The physical texture of the vinyl album also gradually changes over time. With each repeated listening, Philippe’s album gathers the patina of age. The cracklings become warmer, the sounds become altered, and the album’s identity evolves with every revolution of the plastic disc. My guess is even if your turntable is falling apart this record will be fun to play." [label info]
www.aagoo.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Henry: The Iron Man |
CD |
"One lost lemonish night sleepwalking on a lost country road I dreamt that Shinya Tsukamoto was working on a blurred remake of "Eraserhead", and I was to soundtrack the grotesque mutation of Henry into an "Iron Man". I decided to manipulate and take advantage of the vinyl material to fondle crackles and released noises, to process textures and their resonances into vertiginous travellings of sound ; conjuring up flashes of disturbing black & white grainy sounds, behind-the-scenes close-ups, rapid nightmarish stop-motion effects.
I embarked on a visceral musical voyage, an intricate and imaginative soundtrack gathering both organic and sonic elements and giving life to a noisy magma where unexpected clicks stumbled over interferences, where digital accidents happened and drones and acoustic resonances filled the spaces in time. The music sprang on me and got caught in my eye.
A few years ago BiP_HOp had started a series called "Reciprocess", thus to celebrate 10 years since the inception of the label + my 25 years of activism/DJing I composed a 70+ minute soundtrack, cut it into pieces which were sent to friends to add their spices to. The Wire magazine liked the idea and agreed to give it away with their issue # 301, in March 2009.
AIDAN BAKER & Philippe Petit
CHAPTER 24 & Philippe Petit
COSEY FANNI TUTTI & Philippe Petit
SIMON FISHER TURNER & Philippe Petit
KLANGWART & Philippe Petit
DOUGLAS BENFORD & Philippe Petit
MARKOVO & Philippe Petit
BELA EMERSON (feat. vocals from RANDALL FRAZIER) & Philippe Petit
KUMO & Philippe Petit
EUGENE S. ROBINSON & Philippe Petit
SEVERIN 24 (feat. vocals from KATHY COMPTON) & Philippe Petit
JASON FORREST & Philippe Petit
LYDIA LUNCH & Philippe Petit
JEAN-HERV� PERON (art-Errorist/Faust) & Philippe Petit
STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Hervé Vincenti & Philippe Petit)
SYBARITE & Philippe Petit
JESU & Philippe Petit
dDAMAGE & Philippe Petit
Born in Marseille, South of France, where I started Djing, animating radio shows and editing zines in the 80s. In the 90s I contributed articles (under the pseudonym Candy Apple Grey and Filth Simpson ) for such magazines as Ruta 66 (Spain), Merlin’s Music Box (Greece), Maximum R&R (USA), What Wave, Cryptic Tymes (Canada), and French-written Taktik, Rage, Rocksound, Best, 491, Abus Dangereux, and many many more that no one will remember of… In those days, I had some fun and interviews w/ such bands as Nirvana, Fugazi, L7, Neurosis, Fuzztones, Babes In Toyland, Mudhoney, Pixies, Cynics, Dum Dum Boys, Alice Donut, Brood, Grotus, Fleshtones, Buzzcocks, Nick Cave, Sting Rays, Poison Idea, Jon Spencer, Soft Machine, Lydia Lunch, No Means No, Godflesh, Steve Albini, Gallon Drunk, Melvins, New Bomb Turks, and many other “noisy-rock” luminaries. In 1991, I started Kinetic Vibes Music, a Garage Punk zine and label releasing music by: Willie Loco Alexander, Pleasure Fuckers, Dead Moon, Bevis Frond, Lust-o-Rama, Ultra 5, Overcoat, Cryptones, Devil Dogs, La Secta, Dirteez, Tommyknockers and some other… Still available the mythical compilation “Electric Carnival” gathering 23 bands from 10 countries. In 1993 I founded the experimental label Pandemonium Rdz. Working with the likes of Guapo, Zeni Geva, Ground Zero, Condense, Cows, Headcleaner, Drive Blind, Double Nelson, Alboth!, Melt Banana, God Is My Co-Pilot, Samiam, Burning Heads, Cerberus Shoal, Flying Luttenbachers, Unsane, Bästard, Kepone, Ron Anderson, Ruins, Hint, Andy's Car Crash, Spaceheads… That is well documented there and many releases are still in print: www.pandemoniumrecords.com 41 records later, I needed to rejuvenate and started a new label: BiP_HOp was physically born in 2000 and will document avant electro for the century to come... A webzine, a radio show, organizing live events, and above all a label documenting the state of electronic art and sound design, unconventional sound adventures, modern ambient, contemporary alliances between acoustica vs. digitalia... Musics challenging the ears and the mind. www.bip-hop.com In 2000 Philippe Petit became Dj/ip@bip-hop.com chosing to use my e-mail address to keep contact with the listeners… Under this moniker I have been invited to play festivals and some of the best venues in Europe, Northern america, and even recently Mexico. According to me a DJ is not only an instrument for dancing but as a living musical library I should also take the audience to a new cultural trip / discovery. I want to entertain listeners and to open new "doors of perception", to create a virtual world to enable them to forget about their own existence for a short while. Sometimes I feel an urge not to be solo onstage which led me to start the duo Ear_Thrillerz. ; the now defunct group Deviationists ; and most actively these days the international collective : Strings Of Consciousness. www.stringsofconsciousness.info Today I still animate a radio show for Radio Grenouille which is the biggest non-commercial local radio www.grenouille888.org/dyn/ I still write in Noise Magazine. A bi-monthly mag, printing 25 000 which can be found in newstand all around France and is the best one dealing with Rock, indie rock, metal, post rock, punk, stoner doom, industrial, experimental, prog, Noisy music. Also a website (3000-3500 unique visitors/day) http://www.noisemag.net/ " [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| PETITE PORTE DE BRONZE |
En travers du chemin |
CD-R |
“Now here is something which I know nothing about. I never heard of Petite Porte De Bronze, and the website from the label doesn't
mention this yet. Except that I got this CDR from someone who has the same name as my brother (and I am pretty it's not my brother who made this). There are in total ten tracks on this release, which are just over thirty-two minutes. Let me start by saying I liked this release but I am a bit clueless why I like this. Making music out of skipping CDs, cable hum and other mistakes that occur in the process of making music is of course not new since Oval's second CD, but Petite Porte Bronze do a nice job turning these 'mistakes' into small ambient textures, with a mild rhythmic undertone, pleasent dissonant keys. The ten tracks are relatively short and sketch like, almost like they are not really mixed it's entire form. This adds a nice rough shape to them. A well-known path is chosen here, but nevertheless a nice one indeed.” [FdW, Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.tonto.at
|
2002 |
€11.00 |
|
| PETRELS |
Haeligewielle |
LP |
"Haeligewielle is the debut solo record of Oliver Barrett of Bleeding Heart Narrative. It is a swirling cataract of a record, a deluge of beautiful noise and crushing melody, which ebbs and flows beneath the surface. Utilizing bowed strings, bent electronics, found percussion and occasional vocals, the record unfolds over seven tracks and fifty minutes, from the portentous drone of the opening ‘After Francis Danby’ and shimmering ‘Silt’ through the work-song-like ‘Concrete’ and cascading rhythm of ‘Winchester Croydon Winchester’. Haeligewielle tells a forgotten story, buried underneath the stones and water." [label info]
www.denovali.com
"Petrels has provided us with what has to be the strongest solo debut from a musician so far in 2011. It’s as if Barrett has launched his solo career as Petrels by giving us his own Sisyphus narrative, and somehow it sounds dreadfully authentic – no small feat. Haeligewielle is an album so dense and immersive you sometimes feel as though you are drowning or being smothered, but that’s exactly the way it’s supposed to feel." (Brendan Moore, Fluid Radio)
"Haeligewielle (holy well, sacred spring) is an album of creation and destruction, holiness and human honor. Its characters and etimologies dance around each other like fish in a waterspout. The album is a masterpiece of narrative, a blackened ship with a broken mast that defies the storm and in so doing discovers its own dark destiny." (Richard Allen, The Silent Ballet (8.5/10))
"Haeligewielle is Oliver Barrett’s (also of Bleeding Heart Narrative) first solo album as Petrels. It is a song of water, a song of stone. These two elements form the album’s thematic core, entwined in the story of the central figure of William Walker, the Winchester diver; but they also inform the album’s sonic makeup – onrushing, buoyant, coursing and at times dense and abrasive. It’s a record that excavates, and extrapolates outwards from, a particular and resonant historical undertaking and in its jubilant expansiveness grants it mythic, numinous life." (Matt Poacher, The Liminal)
|
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
| PHAENON |
Submerged |
CD |
Debut-Album eines neues polnischen Dark Ambient-Projekts, extrem kosmisch, spacig und dunkel, rauschend & unendlich weitläufig hallend... ein one-tracker von über 65 Minuten, Anklänge an YEN POX, INADE, AMON... absolut kontemplativer Space-Sound...
"With the debut release from Phaenon, it is immediately evident a heavyweight has arrived. The brainchild of Polish born, but current Maryland resident, Szymon Tankiewicz, Submerged is a dark ambient tour de force. Visually and sonically enveloping, this is an album of space and texture, slowly revealing a psychoactive soundscape of majestic, arcing timbres, circadian buzzes, and expansive drones. Heavy, and cosmically weighty in the beginning, Submerged evolves into something more minimalist and serene, radiating a celestial beauty, yet becoming even more bleak and suffocating as it progresses over it‘s 66 minute time frame. Experienced from start to finished, there’s a palpable sense of drifting and drowning, of being carried away into an endless, interstellar vacuum. An exciting new project, and a must for dark ambient purists. Check out Phaenon‘s myspace page for excerpts of new works at www.myspace.com/szymontankiewicz, as well as the Malignant myspace page for an excerpt of Submerged at www.myspace.com/malignantrecords. In stylish 6 panel digipak, artwork by K. Enderlein (LOKI), mastered by Thomas Garrison..." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHALLUS DEI |
Black Dawn |
CD |
"Ein in dichte, undurchdringliche Dunkelheit gehülltes Szenario, in welchem sich nur schemenhaft kleine Details zu erkennen geben. Erst mit der Zeit scheint sich das Dunkel etwas zu lichten, nach und nach geben sich immer mehr Gegenstände zu erkennen, die langsam aber merklich in Bewegung geraten. Und doch bleibt all dies so rätselhaft und unklar wie zuvor, und ganz auflösen wird sich das Dunkel ohnehin nicht. Was bleibt ist der Eidruck einer diffusen Bedrohung. So in etwa könnte man sich eine schwarze Morgendämmerung oder ein schwarzes Erwachen vorstellen. Phallus Dei haben für ihr neues Album einen wahrlich passenden Titel gewählt.
Phallus Dei besteht als Projekt bereits seit Ende der 80er – damals noch als Solo-Projekt von Oliver St. Lingam, doch bald kamen andere Musiker hinzu, und seit langem bilden Lingam, Marc Ernsting und Richard Van Kruysdijk eine feste Band, die sich aber immer wieder Gassänger und andere Kollaborateure aus ganz unterschiedlichen Ecken ins Boot holt. Dies und ein wahrscheinlich ohnehin recht breit gefächertes Interesse an Musik sorgt bis heute dafür, dass die Gruppe ihren stilistischen Ort auf fast jedem Release immer wieder neu definiert hat, und so kann man auf Phallus Dei-Platten phasenweise rituellen Industrial, Ambient, Crossover oder, wie zuletzt bei „A Day in the Life of Brian Wilson“ melancholische Songs in teilweise akustischer Instrumentierung hören. In einer schwer zu definierenden düsteren Verschrobenheit findet man erst mit der Zeit ein vage verbindendes Element.
Das vor kurzem wieder beim alten Stammlabel Dark Vinyl erschienene „Black Dawn“ wirkt von der musikalichen Gestalt her wie eine radikale Antithese zum besagten Vorgänger, denn während „A Day in the Life of Brian Wilson“ äußerst eingängig war und einen leichten, luftigen Sound hatte, findet sich auf dem aktuellen Longplayer die schwerste Dröhnung, die man von der Band bislang zu hören bekam. Gleich das eröffnende „Slewed“ besteht vordergründig betrachtet aus einer tonnenschweren, statischen Klangdecke von zähem, klebrigem Material. Assoziationen zu mittlerweile klassischen Sunn O)))-Alben oder deren Zusammenarbeit mit Boris liegen nahe, auch wenn man aus Distinktionsgründen sicher obskurere Vergleiche finden könnte. Doch Phallus Dei klingen elektrifizierter, schaffen ein meliertes Amalgam aus Gitarrendöhnen, Beckenrauschen und Elektronik.
Am interessantesten jedoch sind die vielen Beigaben, die die vermeintliche Statik durcheinanderbringen und immer wieder für Dramatik sorgen: kurze, hektische Rhythmen, die so schnell von der Bildfläche verschwinden, wie sie erschienen sind, eine Schuttlawine aus bedrohlich heranrollenden Sounds, desolates, rituell angehauchtes Pochen, seltsame Hochtönereien. Ist „Slewed“ noch mehr „black“ als „dawn“, so ändert sich dies zumindest bei den nächsten beiden Tracks, bei denen sich die einzelnen Komponenten weit mehr an die Oberfläche wagen. Bei „Starman“ ist dies – nach einem längeren Vorlauf aus verrauschtem Pulsieren und hypnotischem Celloeinsatz – das Tenorsaxophon keines Geringeren als Peter Brötzmann, dessen Spiel perfekt mit dem Rest interagiert und zugleich für die emotional entfesseltsten Momente sogt.
Das Cellospiel von Jacqueline Hamelink prägt auch das folgende „Zauberwald“, das mit seiner beklemmenden Atmosphäre fast einen Gegenpart bildet. Durchgehende Rhythmen und die einzigen Sprachfetzen auf dem Album geben diesem Stück vorübergehend die Klarheit eines luziden (Alb-)Traums. Das fast zwanzigminütige „Krieger“, das Phallus Dei wieder im Alleingang bestreiten, knüpft in seinem zähen Bombast an den Opener an. Würde das Album nach der ersten Hälfte des Songs enden, hinterließe es den Eindruck eines äußerst fatalistischen Zyklus, doch entrückt über der Dröhnung schwebende Synthies und das Hauchen einer sanften Stimme lassen schon ahnen, dass die doomige Schwere nur ein retardierendes Moment darstellt – eine Erwartung, die sich im kraftvollen Drumeinsatz erfüllt. „Stigmata“ (das auf der mir vorliegenden CD-Version enthalten ist, auf der 2LP-Version findet ich stattdessen der Track „Corpus“) sorgt mit dem tiefen, ornamentalen Saxophonspiel Niels van Hoorns und verspielter Elektronik für einen ereignisreichen Abschluss. Letzteres stammt aus der Ideenschmiede Merzbows, der dem Charakter des Stücks jedoch keinen derart individuellen Stempel aufdrückt wie die anderen Gastmusiker.
„Black Dawn“ ist ein ungemein intensives Album, das garantiert ganz unterschiedliche Hörergruppen jenseits von Genregrenzen zu begeistern versteht, wenn es denn die entsprechende Verbreitung erfährt. Sanfte Gemüter, die beim Vorgängeralbum gerade die relativ leichte, stellenweise fast poppige Gestalt mochten, sollten sich diesen Brocken jedoch mit einer festen Grundlage im Magen zu Gemüte führen. (U.S.)" [African Paper]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHANTOM SHIP |
Spheres |
CD-R |
"Here at Winter-Light, we have been a follower of Phantom Ship for quite some time now. So we are extremely happy to announce that the second release on the Winter-Light label is that of 'Spheres' by Phantom Ship.
'Spheres' is the third studio album from Italy's Phantom Ship, following on from the self-released I.G.N.O.T.O. , in 2012. As with the previous releases, one gets the feeling when listening to 'Spheres' of being a passenger. A passenger aboard this vast, ghostly vessel that eerily glides through the galaxy, or across the thoughts and expanses of the inner mind; equally just as distant. Aboard this vessel, you become an observer. A witness to the might, power and wonders of the universe. A coming together of great forces; clashes between energies of immeasurable magnitude, such as on the track 'Orbiting Iron Spheres'. On this offering, quite possibly his best to date, we are treated to 6-tracks of symphonic and celestial awe. The universe is indeed a haunted house and Phantom Ship is one of its bigger spectres.
In the words of the artist himself - "'Spheres' is inspired by the eternal dialogue between the inner and the outer sphere of the human psyche."
"The hidden harmony is better than the visible" - Heraclitus Of Ephesus
The sounds were forged by Roberto Faloci at the Port of Shadows Studio, Perugia, Italy in the Winter of 2013/14. All tracks have been mastered by Peter Andersson of Raison D'Etre. The front cover design and original art concept was conceived by Roberto Faloci. The artwork and layout was produced by Midnight Sun Studio, as well as the promotional video.
1. Intro - 2. Orbiting Iron Spheres - 3. Warp7 - 4. Plasma Core - 5. Chakras Chant - 6. Cygnus
This professionally factory produced CD-r comes in a beautiful 6-panel digipack. 6 tracks with a total running time of 45:30 mins. The release is strictly limited to 150 copies." [label info]
www.winter-light.nl
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| PHARMAKON |
Bestial Burden |
CD |
"Four days before New York noise musician Margaret Chardiet was supposed leave for her first European tour as Pharmakon, she had a medical emergency which resulted in a major surgery. Suddenly, instead of getting on a plane, she was bedridden for three weeks, missing an organ.
“After seeing internal photographs taken during the surgery, I became hyperaware of the complex network of systems just beneath the skin, any of which were liable to fail or falter at any time,” Chardiet said. “It all happened so fast and unexpectedly that my mind took a while to catch up to the reality of my recovery. I felt a widening divide between my physical and mental self. It was as though my body had betrayed me, acting as a separate entity from my consciousness. I thought of my corporeal body anthropomorphically, with a will or intent of its own, outside of my will's control, and seeking to sabotage. I began to explore the idea of the conscious mind as a stranger inside an autonomous vessel, and the tension that exists between these two versions of the self.”
Consumed by these ideas, and unable to leave her bed, Chardiet occupied herself by writing the lyrics and music that would become Bestial Burden, the second Pharmakon LP for Sacred Bones Records. The record is a harrowing collection of deeply personal industrial noise tracks, each one brimming with struggle and weighted with the intensity of Chardiet’s internal conflict." [label info]
www.sacredbonesrecords.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Contact |
LP |
"The release date of Contact marks the ten-year anniversary of Margaret Chardiet’s project, Pharmakon. While working on her newest release, she began to evaluate the project as a whole. Though the content of each record has been very different and specific, the pervading question, which has underlined them all, is what is means to be human. Her last album, Bestial Burden, focused on the disconnect between mind and body, looking at the human as an isolated consciousness stuck inside of a rotting vessel. For Contact, she wanted to look at the other side of the spectrum – the moments when our mind can come outside of and transcend our bodies.
Because an album is itself an object, she struggled with how to convey the transcendence of the physical, through a physical medium. She started to study trance states and equate her live performances to them. In trance states, music and the body are used to transcend the physical form and make contact with some outside force. In the live setting, she used sound and her body to create an exchange of energy and make contact with outside forces - humanity, empathy, the audience. This energy/empathy exchange has always been at the heart of a Pharmakon performance, but she felt that on records, it wasn’t translating. They were one-sided and flat – declarations rather than conversations. She decided to structure the compositions of each side of Contact after the four stages of trance: preparation, onset, climax, and resolution. By using these stages as a biorhythm for the album, she animates it, and instills the intention of communion into the music.
Release date: 3/31/2017" [label info]
www.sacredbonesrecords.com
"Each track of the new Pharmakon LP can be heard as a violent scuffle between mind and body. Even when her visceral noise achieves moments of transcendence, it still strikes you in the gut.
Through a decade of performing and recording as Pharmakon, Margaret Chardiet has made music that heaves, throbs, and decays. Harnessing the drilling power of electronics and the elasticity of her screams, she’s concocted visceral noise in New York since she was a teenager—first on small-run tapes and CD-Rs, then on more widely-available albums for her hometown label Sacred Bones. As her profile has grown, her sound has remained physical, the aural equivalent of organs pumping life into a body while nature takes a toll on its flesh. The physicality of each Pharmakon album emerges in Chardiet’s choices of cover art. Her 2013 LP Abandon showed maggots swarming on her lap, suggesting a theme of bodily decomposition. For 2014’s Bestial Burden—influenced by an illness that required emergency surgery—she placed animal organs on her chest and torso, as if her own innards had broken through her skin.
On the cover of the third Pharmakon full-length, Contact, Chardiet is no longer alone. A mesh of greasy fingers cover her face, her hair tangled in between them like a spiderweb catching flies. Perhaps Contact, then, is about reaching out and connecting with others. Alongside the heavier, more claustrophobic Bestial Burden, this new collection sounds spacious. Chardiet has opened her psychic soundscapes to give the outside world more room to enter. And that’s a well-timed goal, given how current political strife has pushed people to work together rather than turn inward.
In press materials, Chardiet says Contact is about “when our mind uses the body in order to transcend or escape it.” (Or, as she recently expanded, it’s “about stepping outside your experiences as a human and looking at humanity in an objective way.”) The ultimate objective, she writes, is “Empathy! EMPATHY, NOW!” Achieving that isn’t easy. The music on Contact is stressful and tense, rife with conflicts that aren’t always resolved. At one point, Chardiet even seems ready to admit defeat, singing that “Despite all our scrambling rejections/We cannot transcend all of our instincts/Just animals, lost in a confused dream.” But she never gives up. Each track can be heard as a violent scuffle between mind and body, and Chardiet compellingly mines that primal contest for drama and catharsis. The music hammers with industrial heft, vibrates with nervous pulse, and envelops with tactile atmosphere. Even when her songs achieve moments of transcendence, they still strike you directly in the gut.
Contact benefits from Chardiet’s agile voice, which feels more prominent than ever. Her howls and screeches are central to four of the album’s six tracks, naturally humanizing the music while standing strong inside the electronic clatter. On “Nakedness of Need,” ominous noise is shifted by her blasting shrieks, while during “Transmission” her screams bounce around the din like wolves surrounding prey. That song’s lyric comprises just five lines, framing communication as paramount: “I had a conversation/It lasted nearly an hour/Held no words/And carried the weight/Of the state of things so held.”
Chardiet’s sounds are in a constant tug of war on Contact, and that clash seems to be the point. Just as there’s often more to learn from a journey than its destination, for Pharmakon the battle outweighs the result. Perhaps that’s why Contact’s closer, “No Natural Order,” actually resembles a battlefield. Crashes and pounds rattle while Chardiet peals out angry breaths, undaunted by the sonic assault. In the end, her chants could pass for political slogans—“No divine law, escape!/No positive law, revolt!/No natural law pertains:/Only empathy, untamed”—and it sounds like a victory." [Marc Masters / Pitchfork]
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| PHARMAKUSTIK |
Neurochemie |
LP |
"It consists of 8 pieces that involve complex arrangements of clinical ambiances and experiments in granular modulations...Some works also contain modified robotic, vocoded electronic voices and dismembered rhythmic particles. The Neurochemie album in a way sums up all the experiences of previous Pharmakustik-releases by concentrating on total modulation of sound and its effect on the nervous system using a wide range of plug-in effectors and many external sources. The album represents Siegmar Fricke perspective of Pharmakustik-sound 2010." [label info] |
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| PHELIOS |
Human Stasis Habitat |
CD |
"After two outstanding CDs on Malignant Records, Martin Stürtzer returns with his new PHELIOS album ´Human Stasis Habitat´. Its predecessors opened the gates to a transcendent journey with huge sound walls of cosmic doom and ritualistic percussion; the new album moves deeper to the core from which the monolithic audio sculptures of PHELIOS rise. ´Human Stasis Habitat´ is a constant maelstrom of sound waves utilising majestic and ominous dronescaping, underlaid by intense bass tones and loaded with echoes. These add a vast emptiness to the textural darkness, enlarging its stoically cosmic aura in the most splendid way. It is the perfect soundtrack for an aural journey far beyond the Earth and our imagination, into the deepest spaces where the dark is light enough." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHIL VON |
Blind Ballet |
CD |
"a blind man feels his way, guided only by the sensations of sounds around him, walking through composite landscapes, sometimes concrete or musical, sometimes unreal, fictitious or synthetic, mutating constantly but layering like brushstrokes of sonic paint along his hesitant steps. from dusk to dawn, he wanders on a path sprinkled with touches of natural elements; water, air, earth, fire, glass, with the perceptions of humans; murmurs, breaths, crackles, snatches of voices, with manifestations of sudden granular waves or aural perfumes from unknown distant lands. here he perceives presences, there he guesses mysteries. maybe a bigger story is somehow slowly unfolding before his stimulated ears.
with this solo album, sprawling somewhere in between melodious electronica, lush ambient, musique concrète, and abstract experimental sounds, phil von took a break off von magnet's shores. now he confides within us these intimate imaginary ballets, inviting us to contemplate his invisible trances, some of which he composed for dance, street theatre and performance. twelve individual parts created for different occasions have been carefully concerted for this exceptional artist's first solo release since years. a captivating acoustic puzzle suitable to open up the listener's imaginary eyes. you are asked for a dance - please accept the invitation." [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2015 |
€13.50 |
|
| PHILLIPS, DAVE |
? |
CD |
"Assembled between April and June 2009 as part of a therapeutic process during a period dominated by severe disturbances of loss, mental abysses and despair, "?" is the new gospel from Swiss experimentalist Dave Phillips, co-founder of grindcore legend Fear of God, a member of the sense perplexing Schimpfluch-Gruppe and the pulverizing force behind the Rudimentary Peni one-man-doom-drone worship act Dead Peni, among numerous other projects.
"?" offers a 79 minutes album of field recordings oriented compositions that feature murky cello, piano and accordion parts, nocturnal voices, a vast array of concrete snippets and more resonances of existences that give Albert Aylers' "Music is the healing force of the universe" new depths and meanings. "?" sees Phillips observing and carefully dissecting his human psyche into ten intimate and innovative music pieces, confronting them with the bile and degradation of the omnipresent while deconstructing his own ravage with a binding urge to cleanse. And it's a fascinating insight to listen to." [label info]
www.HCBrecords.com, www.topheth.org
"Noise. There are people out there, mainly youngsters devoted to noise, who think that I don't like noise. They are mistaken, and should check their history lessons. But these days, noise doesn't have my full attention anymore. I just heard too much of that, I guess, in those grey forgotten days. However sometimes I see something that is maybe 'noise' live and sometimes it blows me away. Sudden Infant for instance, very recently, and last year Dave Phillips. The former member of Fear Of God, a grindcore band, is connected to the Schimpfluch gang these days and his concert was a carefully constructed set of noise and silence. I may not have cared for the political overtones of his work, his noise went down pretty well. Its therefore with some anticipation that I played his new CD '?'. It was recorded 'during a period dominated by severe disturbances of loss, mental abysses and despair' and yes, we are not in for some fun for the next eighty minutes. Normally I would complain about the
length of such a release, but somehow it all seems to make sense here. The shortest piece is just over one minute, the longest just under sixteen. And it seems to be without the sort of noise those earlier mentioned youngsters care about: Phillips uses loops, piano, concrete sounds, very little sound effects, so all the sounds are as a dry as possible, cello, accordion and voice material (sighing, moaning, crying) and the sounds of torture the human body. Like I said, nothing conservative noise here, but quite a depressing album altogether. Low bass sound here and there, obscured field recordings and such like make up the backbone, and top these repeating sound fragments of instruments and voices. Bleak, dark stuff. Not much information on the cover to go by, but depression has not be made that clear in quite some time. A creepy record, not for the weak of heart and mind. That's true noise for you." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Proceed with Inquiry |
DVD |
"The contained DVD comprises video works, live performances and collaborations by radical Swiss sound artist DAVE PHILLIPS, sonically active since 1987, part of the notorious SCHIMPFLUCH GRUPPE (with Rudolf Eb.er, Joke Lanz) since 1991, having left his signature in numerous bands, projects and collaborations.
DAVE PHILLIPS uses sound as a means to activate primordial emotions otherwise hidden underneath the debris of civilization. His concept is called “Humanimalism” accordingly, meaning a state of mind that overcomes religious, material und supremacist charges of evolution, acknowledges itself as part of a whole and has grown into an empathic, conscious and connected creature allowing emotion and instinct their equal part in decision-making.
This collection presents his multifaceted work in composition, performance, psycho-acoustics, sonic rituals, voice, video, field recordings, objects and electronics, etc. in a yet unknown complexity and coherence of motion pictures. His performance work is revealed in all its undiluted brutality, the urgency and topicality of his work and his message is clearly evident, captivating and intensely documented.
Along with DAVE PHILLIPS’ video works created between 2014 and 2016, the DVD is a document of unique solo live actions and the notorious Paris 1996 performance of SCHIMPFLUCH-GRUPPE, as well as recent collaborations with G.X. JUPITTER LARSEN, and video artists PAKISE AKIN, JAN VAN HASSELT and REMOTE-CONTROL RECTUM, who in turn created their visual interpretations of PHILLIPS' audio works. It all amounts to a mind-expanding experience, playing with altered perception and throwing back the viewer onto his own vision." [label info]
"...Merely approaching, let alone summarising, the work of Dave Phillips is near impossible. Active for 25-odd years in multiple artistic fields (including appearances on almost 200 releases), his contribution here to the DVD component of the release is characteristically challenging. The work is delivered in three parts: video works, live performances, and collaborations.
The video works are varied with clear effort put into editing and sound composition. They’re often jarring and disorienting, always intimate, and personal. Some are abstract and intangible while others are precise and brutally polemic. There is slap-to-the-face activism in spades, including a sobering piece on humankind’s exploitation of the Earth and its animals (‘How sad, that nature speaks and we don’t listen.‘). Phillips’s use of footage depicting animal vivisection, cruelty, and industrial slaughter is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, as is the screaming text (‘Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance!’). But these pieces are clearly meant to shock and are more about our complacency and willingness to let them happen than about the actions themselves.
The collaborative works are interesting enough, though they are not as strong as Phillips’s solo contributions. He seems to supply audio primarily over his collaborators’ mostly impressionistic visuals. Many could display rather comfortably on a screen in a respectable art gallery.
The live performances are highly entertaining and showcase a theatrical grotesquerie typical of the Schimpfluch-Gruppe of which Phillips is a core member. Indeed, the best of the live recordings here has him on stage with Rudolf Eb.er for a Schimpfluch-Gruppe action in Paris. Contact mikes in mouth, their faces slam repeatedly and unceremoniously into bowls of spaghetti. It’s bleakly humorous and very uncomfortable.... " [Heathen Harvest]
silkentofu.bigcartel.com/product/dave-phillips-proceed-with-inquiry-dvd |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Sixth Mass Extinction |
LP |
"black vinyl lp in embossed sleeve, edition of 300. comes with a free 8 page newspaper featuring articles that offer a broad view of what homo sapiens has achieved in terms of coexistence and in taking care of its home.
1.
Things Falling Apart 21:12
2.
Radical Hope 20:12
about
things falling apart - composition for three PA’s (stereo version):
the original 6 channel piece was commissioned by bad bonn kilbi festival düdingen switzerland 2018.
radical hope - live action (studio version):
this incarnation of live action was initiated in january 2016 and has developed since. triggered by a broken heart, it’s a critical analysis of subjective behaviourisms, self-reflections, self-criticisms and conclusions thereof. the subsequent translation of derived intentions into ritualised actions include purging, activating learning and healing processes, self-betterment, empowerment and hair-burning. has since morphed into a piece about the relationship of the human as a species with planet earth as a cherished entity, such as a loved one, a friend, a partner, a companion, a parent or a family member, a home or an origin.
all audio by dp. decomposed may to november 2018 for schimpfluch. mastered by riccardo mazza. artwork by brett wagg using photos by dp.
https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/sixth-mass-extinction
Dave Phillips INTERVIEW by CHAIN DLK
( By Vito Camarretta - August 11, 2021)
dave dp phillips long story short
fields of re/search: existences and behaviourisms humanimalistically. works that oppose the omnipresent restriction and reduction of life and living, that activate primordial shared emotions otherwise hidden under the debris of civilization, inviting rumination, encouraging intervention, endorsing catharsis, liberating, cleansing. therapeutical stimulation is acknowledged. sonic activism, ritual protest music, humanimalism
methods: audio de/construction, composition, sonic rituals, psycho-acoustics and performance
tools: voice, body, fieldrecordings, electronics, objects, video
reason for this interview: his recent release “to death” (7th July 2021, Misanthropic Agenda)
enjoy the reading!
Chain D.L.K.: Hi Dave! How are you doing?
Dave Phillips: Quite alright. I moved house earlier a month ago, I’m settling in…
Chain D.L.K.: I heard you recent ‘to death’ and I honestly think it’s a listening that I would likewise honestly recommend in this historical stage… but before focusing on it, even if those well-informed readers of our zine, whose memory has not been reset yet, don’t really need any introduction, how would you introduce yourself, your sound art and its direction(s)?
Dave Phillips: Puh. Well. My music is rather free, abstract, “cinematic”, and personal. It sounds more organic than it does electronic. What I seek in sound/music is altered states of consciousness, states of trance and liberation, cathartic and purging kind of highs, some sort of elevation. Sound for me is communication, so I like it to have some sort of narrative, intentionality, something shared. I’m interested in the effect of sound as much as its aesthetic form. Sonically I’m inspired by contemporary (classical) composition, the sounds of insects, traditional music, improvisation/free music, bass music, as much as the energy of radical punk and metal. Literature is a big inspiration too. My sound work is often accompanied by topical contexts that touch on environmental and existential issues but are more driven by the interconnectedness of things, the thing that some call chaos, this enormous ecosystem that we are a part of, the kind of free life that is uncontrollable and beyond our systems of control or scientific measurement or language. I call my music “ritual protest music” – I protest against the reduction and restriction of life – I describe my way of approaching sound as “sonic activism”. Uhm, long “introduction” but there you go…. just open ears…
Chain D.L.K.: The last outputs I vividly remember of yours, who reached somehow my desk (I often don’t know how or why some sonic entities reach my desk, besides the fact someone delivers them to my mailbox), has been a super limited split with Emerge on Nazlo, that was a tribute to Dmitry Vasilyev. Have you ever met him? Which tracks did he leave in your memory?
Dave Phillips: I met Dmitry Vasilyev a bunch of times. The last time was in September 2018 when Dmitry had organized a tour for me and emerge in Russia. We met in Sevastopol before embarking on a tour together. The day before our tour began, we went swimming in the Black Sea and Dmitry drowned. The tape you speak of is a reaction to that tragic loss. Dmitry’s enthusiasm for and energy invested in experimental music was amazing…
Chain D.L.K.: I have to amend… There’s also a CD from Attenuation titled ‘Post Homo Sapiens’, but I honestly haven’t unfolded it yet… What a shame! Can I get excused for that? What should I expect?
Dave Phillips: Of course! Post Homo Sapiens imagines a world where insects and plants rule.
Dave Phillips imagephoto courtesy of Jesse Newman
Chain D.L.K.: I enjoyed the reading of some of your texts (ref: https://www.davephillips.ch/texts), the last of which includes many interesting and praiseworthy ecologist thoughts and reflections, but it dates back to 2015. Are you writing some new text for the recent evolution of human history?
Dave Phillips: “For the recent evolution of human history”, haha. Besides writing, I collect and present texts too, and my texts sometimes take from articles and books that touch me. For the “sixth mass extinction” LP (2019) I collected a bunch of articles that together offer a picture of how humans are doing in terms of coexistence with other beings on this planet. It’s probably no surprise that we’re not faring very well – what we seem to be good at though is causing mass extinction and destruction. Said articles were accompanied by a profound text by professor Jem Bendell on “navigating climate tragedy”. For an upcoming split with sist en 343 called “thinking future coexistence,” I used a text by Charles Eisenstein on what happened since corona blessed us – this should be out in the autumn. I am supposed to write something for an upcoming compilation, but I haven’t got there yet…
Chain D.L.K.: So let’s go back (or forward) to ‘to death’. I remember the words of a Tibetan monk on this subject, who said that we have to notice that when a baby comes to life cries, and we smile, when a person comes to death (let’s say so) sometimes has a smiling expression on his/her face, while we cry. Is this somehow ironic viewpoint close to the meaning of death you were referring to on your last release?
Dave Phillips: Yes, very much so! Accompanying my father on his last journey was a profound experience that demystified death to an extent where it mostly wasn’t this “horrible thing” that people often seem to associate with it, but something quite different…. somehow magical, often peaceful and serene – my father was smiling a lot as he lay dying – and also somewhat unbiased, more to do with “life (in all its stages) never fails to amaze me”, where often opposing angles together make the whole.
Chain D.L.K.: I think that most of the weirdest consequences of this likewise weird pandemic crisis can be interpreted by using the filter of human fear of death. How did this situation influence your ‘to death’?
Dave Phillips: I was living in such intense reality bubbles at the time of the pandemic that the pandemic itself seemed to be happening on a side-stage, it didn’t seem to have that much impact on me. In hindsight, though, I realize it played into my perception more than I acknowledged. It affected my perception of the world. The slow dying of my father seemed to go hand in hand with the dying of something that somehow defines us as humans, as we grow more and more separate and distanced from one another and from purpose and freedom – as we have from the “natural world” at large, a separation that we are imposing on us more and more. That’s a slow dying. I mean, the empire is failing and falling, it will crash, no doubt, it’s just a question of when and how. And it sure won’t be pretty. People, please remove your filters!
Chain D.L.K.: I also enjoyed the fact that in the title, there seems a first part missing. You can expect an ‘Hymn to death’, an ‘Ode to death’ or even a ‘Yell to death’! But it’s as it is… just ‘to death’! How did you draw inspiration for it? I read it was somehow related to your father’s last moments (of course you have my deepest sympathy).
Dave Phillips: Thank you. Yes, it’s mainly inspired by my father’s illness, which was devastating and my being his carer for the last 15 months of his life. I witnessed his person being eaten away by disease – in a way, he was gone before death gave him peace. At the same time, I found myself in a role that made sense on so many levels, and somehow I managed to pull it through – I’m so glad I did. Taking care of the old is like taking care of the young, is like education, is like a purpose in life – outsourcing that to a paid service or a job or some system is missing out on profound experiences, on things essential, maybe on things that define us as animals or mammals or tribal beings. Something that teaches more than schools or universities can, but also demands more. So really it’s more about the journey, the path, the story of accompanying someone all the way “to death” and all that it sets free. My father’s wish was to die at home, and I’m glad that my siblings and I made that wish come true.
But this journey also leads to other related topics. There are many readings of the title. The ode/hymn “to death” is certainly in there, probably poking at the wish to demystify death as the huge taboo that it still is. the title also addresses what we’re doing to planetary life – to plants and other animals. Thus, also what we’re doing to ourselves: when I view my father’s disease in a global context, it’s a common cause – nowadays. The main causes of death in our times show us how sick our allegedly “civilized” way of life makes many of us. So much human waste. We are “civilized to death”. And then there’s what this is all doing to us emotionally and existentially – areas where many of us seem more dead than alive, where we merely function and follow rules. The slow death of human potential through our educational systems and through our imposed “normality” is part of that. The death of freedom through total control of life, as per recent events. I mean, life IS uncertain – that’s the exciting part, isn’t it? All our puny attempts to create “safety and security” are laughable if they weren’t so devastating in what they actually do to us – but we’re like animals born in captivity. Our established political and economic systems seem rather dead too – I mean, an economy that functions linearly is just grossly inadequate for a world and lives that happen in cycles. So there are many paths and pointers “to death”. I can also turn it around: if death is the only certainty in life, then a tribute to death is a celebration of life!
Chain D.L.K.: What are the reversed words in the opening ‘A Cycle Completed’ to say?
Dave Phillips: The tone matters more than the words. What do you hear?
Chain D.L.K.: Death is maybe the aspect of existence that keeps the strongest taboos still on. Do you agree with such a statement of not?
Dave Phillips: Yes, that’s also why I wanted to make an album that demystifies that, that steers us away from this taboo, from this conditioned denial or shame, this refusal to face all aspects of existence. I wanted to describe death as what it is, part of a cycle as natural as birth, something to encounter and to know, not something to primarily fear. On the contrary, I feel the awareness of death is one of the driving forces of life, it brings out deep emotions which frankly make me feel very alive. Death the experience has many beautiful aspects to it, at least in my experience. To reduce death – or this album – to just something “dark and scary” is merely scratching the surface – it’s looking away. If we could include death in the bigger picture as something normal, we may enjoy more freedom in our lives…
Chain D.L.K.: That piercing scary and somehow beastly scream on “To Death We All Go, The Sooner The Better”… how did you grab it, if it can be said?
Dave Phillips: I often start a recording based on notes I made or impulses, ideas about sonics, and sentiments. The tape starts running and… I try to put these sentiments into sound, and then… often things happen, I get carried away…. I go places, I enter different states of being, it’s like I travel like I’m somewhere else. Then sometime later, thump, I land again, it’s like I’ve returned from far… and sometimes it even translates onto tape ;o)
Like this album. I didn’t plan to do something about this particular topic, or about my father. I had a bunch of ideas noted, things I wanted to work into, but nothing like “to death”. Then I started recording. It was like a trance. It just poured out of me. The basic recordings happened within about ten days, basic structures of pieces were completed the following week. When I started listening back to what I had done, I was surprised. Then I realized what it’s about…
Chain D.L.K.: Paraphrasing and quoting the title of one of my favorite tracks of the album, what’s the real catastrophe you wanted to represent or maybe exorcize?
Dave Phillips: “The real catastrophe is that humanity continues”. It refers to the coronavirus and a reason why it might’ve appeared. I mean, we humans have vastly overpopulated this planet, and we are a very sick civilization, we’ve taken a couple of wrong turns too many, and we’re destroying not only our home but also that of all other inhabitants and them with it. It’s time we became extinct, or at least drastically reduced in numbers. We, humans, are the catastrophe… haha… it’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek, my sense of humor, though I reckon part of me means it ;o)
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any moment of ‘to death’ that you want to keep deliberately indecipherable?
Dave Phillips: Honestly, I try to be transparent with all that I do. My intentions, sentiments, feelings, it’s all there really. I don’t try to be cryptic or mysterious. On the other hand, it’s very subjective – I’ve put things out into the world that I thought were obvious and then find myself surprised by very different interpretations. So in this work, there are wordings, for example, that are only my own words for this particular moment, this context, they are subjective and not telling in terms of a narrative, so they needn’t be clear, they are only relevant in terms of opening spaces, it’s your own words or sentiments that take you through those spaces, and that’s fine.
Chain D.L.K.: Any plan to lend or adapt ‘to death’ for other forms of art (theatre or video art maybe)?
Dave Phillips: Not for now. The way this album poured out of me, the way it happened, this format is quite right for now. Emotionally, I’m quite elsewhere now anyway, also thanks to having this album happen.
Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress?
Dave Phillips: Always :o) I’m currently finalizing two pieces for a 7″ for a young Portland label, and a comp track, but there are other pots cooking too…
Visit Dave Phillips on the web:
https://www.davephillips.ch/about
https://dave-phillips.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/dave-phillips
vimeo.com/davephillips
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Should A Seeker Not Find A Companion Who Is Better Or Equal, Let Him Resolutely Pursue A Solitary Course; There Is No Fellowship With The Fool / Cicada Trance |
do-CD |
"should a seeker not find a companion who is better or equal, let him resolutely pursue a solitary course; there is no fellowship with the fool"
dave phillips' trajectory as an experimental recording artist began in the mid-80s, with a punk background that expanded to wilder and more nuanced territories as a solo artist.
having utilized field recordings, both raw and arranged, for over 20 years, not to mention his well-established work with bombastic body sounds, surrealist strings, and tribal percussion, phillips has honed his use of source material in a way that comes off more as a soldier's sense of duty than anything resembling a hobby. with "should a seeker... / cicada trance", he returns with two badly needed physical issues of integral field recording-based pieces that were previously only available for digital download.
"should a seeker..." was initially published as a digital release on the radical matters label in 2008. it is a structured arrangement of sounds with reptilian, amphibian, and insectan origin, remastered for physical release in 2023. for over 56 minutes, gurgles, primal roars, and screams from creatures of the night swirl in and out of the stereo spectrum in complex, yet somewhat rhythmic patterns, for an almost hyperreal effect.
from dave phillips about cicada trance:
the main insect featured here is the first one that drew me to another world, through its sound. a piercing high ringing frequency that seems to go on and on, often alternating with a slower, winding kind of motion, until the sound rises, peaks and drones again. some of these cycles are short, a minute or two a round, others seem to go for an hour, their winding down phase often partly silent; many play in 10 to 20 minute cycles. their song can differ from one region to the other, like dialects. their sound can be heard for miles. it’s ear-splitting loud when you’re close.
i’ve been wanting to do this piece for a long time, maybe since i returned from my first half year in thailand, early 1995. one recording herein is from then.
mostly i don’t see these musicians. many locals all over south east asia told me that these are cicadas. a few others gave other names. i never verified any further. i hear individuals and tribes, not really species. besides, there are all sorts of sonic individuals in these recordings, and i don’t think they care much about what we call them.
recorded in thailand, vietnam, indonesia and south africa, most of these are daytime sonic activities, one is nocturnal. all play in hot climates, frequently during the hottest time of day. two are desert inhabitants (kgalagadi), the others live in the humid heat of tropical rainforests.
i often wonder what goes on in these creatures when they’re playing. when they sing or stridulate, or whatever you want to call it, it’s vibration, it’s ongoing, repetitive. it’s being in the very immediate here and now. the common scientific explanation is “mating call” (another scientific favourite is “territorial call”). this may explain one of many reasons, but reasons apart from “functional” ones seem excluded.
i could imagine these singing ringing cicadas create trance states. like being high on life, ultimately immersed in the present moment and their immediate surroundings and celebrating it. maybe their sound creates altered states of consciousness also in other beings.
immersion - to be part of something
assembled jun ’21 - jan ’22 in zug and brugg, switzerland
dedicated to the most important beings on this planet - insects
alternate headphone listening is recommended
www.davephillips.ch
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/should-a-seeker-not-find-a-companion-who-is-better-or-equal-let-him-resolutely-pursue-a-solitary-course-there-is-no-fellowship-with-the-fool-cicada-trance
"As we all know, you can easily find noise music in nature. I am not a biologist, but I think cicadas exist in many countries, warm countries or just during the summer in some others. They are fascinating creatures, and many musicians have used recordings of them. Dave Phillips is the latest, and we know him as give or take, a man of noise music. In 1995 he spent six months in Thailand, and ever since, he has wanted to do a piece of music using recordings of cicadas. This now comes as 'Cicada Trance' and a work with a very long title, 'Should A Seeker Not Find A Companion Who Is Better Or Equal, Let Him Resolutely Pursue A Solitary Course; There Is No Fellowship With The Fool'. That piece was originally released in digital form by Radical Matters and used sounds of reptilian, amphibian, and insectan origin. Let's start here, as this is the first piece in the box. I think that the insects make up the backbone of the piece via long-form sustaining sounds, and on top of that, there are animal sounds, roaring and screaming, sometimes rhythmic, but I am unsure to what extent Phillips uses sound effects. There are none (so I believe, at least), and it's all a matter of overlaying sounds until a musical dialogue arises. This is quite a long piece at fifty-six minutes, but it's a great excursion. Strangely, I thought that this was indeed very much a Dave Phillips piece. It's loud but dynamic, and in some of his work, Phillips uses similar sounds but then of a different origin, such as his mouth or body.
Dynamics are not part of the other six, six minutes longer. Here Phillips uses just recordings of cicadas from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and South Africa and places these together. Whereas 'Should' rocks back and forth, and sounds repeat, disappear but also return, no such thing happens here. It's piercingly high frequencies going on and on, just like they do in nature. It is almost like a harsh noise wall, but one realizes that this is all nature's (true!) forces. If you listen closely, and I did as I found this very compelling music, one notes minimalist changes or even melodic singing, especially in the second half. Here too, I can easily see this as a piece of music by Dave Phillips, but this time using only field recordings, and at that from various recordings from one animal. It is recommended to be heard by headphones, which I tried, but I must admit I thought it was too much at least the cicada piece. The other one worked great with headphones. What a blast!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| PHOLDE |
In the subset of all elements |
mCD-R |
Es klingelt glas- und metallartig über wellenden dark drones, Hallräume öffnen und schliessen sich, dumpfe Grotten-Pulsationen schaffen eine schamanistisch-rituelle Atmosphäre... drei neue Stücke vom kanadischen Projekt in der essentiellen mCDR Reihe des französischen Labels!
„pholde had various releases before, including one on our belgian friend Mystery Sea. deep scrapey metallic drones, simply beautiful...full-couloured printed 3"cd-r in a slim crystal box.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| PHRAGMENTS |
Earth shall not cover their Blood |
CD |
"You’ve seen it before. Certain bands or artists delivering their finest work with their first recording. Then, in futile attempts to capture some of the same magic, becoming formulaic and stale, rehashing ideas and never really achieving the same caliber of work. Others, expanding on the elements of their prior releases, and through a natural maturation process, get stronger with each release. That would certainly be the case with Phragments. With their third full length studio CD, this Slovakian duo have made remarkable strides not only in quality but in scope. Equipped with an enriched sonic palate, Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood mixes forceful brass and dark orchestral strings with rolls of powerful tribal percussion, somber wind instrumentation, ominous atmospheres, industrial clangor, and a strong and commanding vocal presence, particularly on tracks like “Over Deadlands” and “The Kin of Cain”. Cohesive, complete, and epic, this is a release that will open some eyes to new found authority of Phragments. Yours to discover. In 6 panel digipak." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHURPA |
Mantras of Bön |
CD |
"Zoharum would like to present the latest album by the band entitled "Mantras of Bon." It is an extraordinary release, even for such an extraordinary and unusual project as PHURPA. More than 70 minutes of music here is divided into two parts. The first one, featuring Alissa Nicolai on vocals, shows the band from a completely different angle; the other one presents the most important and interesting sessions recorded over the past few years, with a recording from CTM festival where they impressed the audience with "kuntunzangpo."
"Mantras of Bon" is an excellent introduction into the adventures with PHURPA, the world of Tibetan music filtered by contemporary reinterpretation free from rigid rules. It may enchant both those looking for interesting sacral music and the ones searching for a new form of sonic statement.
This 3-panel ecopak release is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"It's been a while since I last heard Phurpa, the musical project of Alexey Tegin, but Phurpa is a real band, who play ritual music inspired by that from Egypt, Iran, Tibet and use instruments from the latter culture. On this new release, they have five pieces, three of which are live recordings, as Phurpa plays around frequently. In the first two pieces Alissa Nicolai is the guest singer. She wails and screams about and makes that Phurpa sounds different than before. More Diamanda Galas I thought. Phurpa seems to be adding a set of curious sounds that come across like a stale wind over a vast empty plain. In the other three pieces the more traditional Phurpa sound is present. Much overtone singing as well as throat singing in 'Mu-Ye', the final live piece, as well as in 'Kuntunzangpo'. In both no other instruments seem to be present, but in 'Mi Dub' there is also some percussion. The music is very intense, but for me lacks the immediate presence of the musicians. I can imagine a situation in which this would fit perfectly - dimly lit, incense, dark, and musicians surrounding the audience, cavernous space - and such circumstances one simply doesn't have at home. That is something I regret when listening to this. It makes this music more difficult to get in to, I think. I especially liked the three Phurpa pieces at the end, for all their sparse intensity and perhaps less the two with Nicolai, which seemed a bit forced." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| PICCHIO DAL POZZO |
Abbiamo tutti i suoi problemi |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der zweiten (und letzten) LP von 1980 von dieser legendären italienischen ProgRockExperimental-Band, die komplexe und unerwartete Arrangements und Strukturen, perfekt eingespielt, nur so aus dem Ärmel schüttelten... Anklänge an HENRY COW, ZAPPA, etc..
"One of the most original, impressive and highly respected of all the experimental groups to have come out of Italy in the 1970s, Picchio dal Pozzo were also one of the early invitees to the canonical 'Recommended Sampler', and would have been in RIO, had RIO lasted another year - and had the group not folded up and disappeared before anyone had realised it was there. In the last decade the record was reissued briefly in Japan, then It disappeared again. We have now re-mastered it and put it back into the public domain, where it belongs. Copying no one, though there is some Zappa influence - Picchio had a unique and highly developed style of composition that was not only out of step with it's own time but which sounds contemporary still. Highly composed and devoid of jazz phrasing and riffs with solos, this record achieves maximum musical effect with minimum instrumental means through close attention to timbre, dynamics and expressed tempi and a kind of deep complexity that sounds simple but changes with each listening. A lot of ideas subtly developed - rather than experimented with; a one-off classic." [label description]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| PICK-UP |
From here to anywhere |
mCD-R |
"Pick-up is a new duo of Martin Luiten (Girlfriends, Uw Hypotheek Advies) on guitar and Frans de Waard on laptop. Two gorgeous pieces of digital blues? Well, whatever. Forthcoming is a LP on Important Records and one on Plinkity Plonk." [label notes]
www.kormplastics.nl/moll
|
2008 |
€5.50 |
|
| |
Mouthless |
LP |
"... So hat FdW neuerdings mit Martin Luiten, der vorher mit Girlfriends aktiv war, einen neuen Partner für ein weiteres Projekt namens PICK-UP, von dem nun gleich zwei Tonträger Kunde geben. Das Debut Mouthless (imprec 123, LP) erschien bei Important Records in
Newburyport, MA, einem Label, das mit seinem Faible für Psychedelic, Noise, Avantness und Orginalität Daniel Johnston, Jad Fair, Kimya Dawson, Diane Cluck, Merzbow, Acid Mothers Temple, Fe-Mail, Larsen, Angels Of Light, Kluster, Pauline Oliveros, Grails und Conrad Schnitzler zu Bettgenossen machte und auch schon einiges von Beequeen herausgebracht hat. Luiten spielt Gitarre & Electronics, so dass FdW, der diese Klänge, ein Fahey‘eskes Twanging und Picking, an seinen Laptop verfüttert, um gitarristische Loops und elektronische Drones mit zusätzlicher Modulation und Ornamentierung aufzumischen, quasi an sein Gitarrenprojekt Shifts anknüpft. Bei ‚Klemmend‘ vibrieren Stimmengewirr und Beifallklatschen als klickernder Rauschvorhang hinter Luitens countrybluesigem Strumming." [Bad Alchemy]
"Pick-up is a new duo of Frans de Waard (Beequeen) on laptop and Martin Luiten (Girlfriends, Uw Hypotheek Advies) on guitar. Limited edition of 300. Hand made cover artwork. This is the 9th release in our Arts & Crafts series which pairs music with handmade artwork by the artists responsible for the recordings." [label info]
"Hot on the heels of their first album comes this bright orange-colored vinyl follow up. 'Mouthless' however was recorded prior to their first release, so this is really - with some delay - Pick Up's debut. The concept of Pick Up is simple; the music is based upon the (resonator) guitar playing by Martin Luijten, which is reworked via Frans de Waard's laptop. At times field recordings are added. 'Mouthless' contains 4 long tracks. The title tracks opens the proceedings with gentle John Fahey-ish picking. Luiten uses a resonator guitar (also known as a Dobro) on this album. The body of this guitar contains one or more metal cones, instead of wood, which makes the sound louder and gives the guitar a distinctive blues-grass sound. The style of Luiten's fingerpicking is friendly and traditional, using the occasional slide. After a while looping and gentle feedback sets in, which makes 'Mouthless' a wonderful, restrained track. In contrast, the second track 'Klemmend' is far more chaotic with dominant field recordings of what sounds like a kindergarten. In the background the guitar is fighting to be heard. Side two opens with 'Magnifying Glasses', which features reflective guitar playing by Luiten only, showing his versatile skills. Very nice. If you like this sort of guitar picking I can highly recommend any of the early Takoma LP's by John Fahey. On the second track, 'Tracing', the electronics set in again with looping. A mirror image of side two, here too the sound is less structured. As a whole, this is a very fine album (with an original combination of electronics and resonator guitar), even though you could argue that it would have been an idea to put the two more quiet tracks on one side and the more chaotic tracks on the other. But that is just a thought. Packed in two heavy cardboard sheets (like the previous Pick Up album) with a hand-colored paste-on sheet, this looks very sturdy indeed. And, if you're lucky, you will find the album in luminous orange vinyl (the first 100 of a total of 300 copies) inside." [FK, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| PIERMATTEI, EZIO |
From Afar It Looks Like An Oriflamme |
MC |
Italian sound artist Ezio Piermattei is an active musician since 2010, releasing works under different aliases like Autopugno, Hum Of Gnats, Poisucevamachenille. In 2014 he started releasing music under his real name, through labels like Chocolate Monk, My Dance The Skull, Steep Gloss and through his own Tutore Burlato label.
His "From Afar It Looks Like An Oriflamme" captures some of the most delicate compositions by him. Detailed narratives are mixed with a big variety of field recordings, object and instrument sounds, as well as tapes. Ezio Piermattei delivers us two long compositions, with a cinematic point of view, humour and sound detail.
"From Afar It Looks Like An Oriflamme" released on 80 numbered cassettes.
more info: www.moremars.org/product/ezio-piermattei-from-afar-it-looks-like-an-oriflamme/
https://moremars.bandcamp.com/album/from-afar-it-looks-like-an-oriflamme
|
2021 |
€9.00 |
|
| PILEWICZ, ANNA & RAFAL IWANSKI (X-NAVI:ET) |
Aqualuna - Alchemical Transformation through Vision and Sound |
CD + DVD |
"AQUALUNA project refers to primordial, organic pictures and sounds connected with the element of water and the Moon. It integrates dreamlike aquatic and lunar pictures which follow in succession, parallel to music composed for the film. To intensify the reception, the Authors, among other actions, made an efficient use of the synesthesia effect. The film is kept in the poetics of a dream, it constitutes a symbolic story about transformation. From the darkness, from a bright spot of the Moon-the jellyfish, a woman is born, breathing under water. The woman is dreaming and from her dream emerge oceanic spaces full of deep-sea creatures. In the depths of the ocean or human consciousness the alchemical transformations occur, leading in the final stage to the birth of a new transformed self. The video was created with the use of the following items, materials and devices: diascop, camera, computer, colorful liquids, glass, transparent objects and some pictures discovered elsewhere. Featuring: The woman in the water - Katarzyna Marta Chrzanowska.
The soundtrack was composed and recorded with the use of the following instruments and sound sources: analog synthesizer, analog filter machine, digital drummer, spring drums, rattles, cymbals, bells, stones, shells, metal objects, field recordings and electronic effects." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| PILIA, STEFANO |
Action Silence Prayers |
CD |
"This solo work by the 3-4hadbeeneliminated guitarist Stefano Pilia can aptly be defined 'ecstatic', in the purest sense of the term. Each guitar note seems to emanate from beneath an invisible surface, lingering for a few moments only to drop back down and be replaced by another; different harmonics emerge creating a restless resonance, and tiny clusters of melody appear and disappear before fading in the haze of a gorgeous drone." [label info]
www.die-schachtel.de
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| PILLOW |
From Dusk to Dawn |
CD |
"best known as the keyboarder of italy's premier post rock combo giardini di mirò, wowing fans and sceptics alike with their formidable long players and impressively intense live performances, luca di mira finally returns as a solo artist. "from dusk to dawn" is the second album he pursued on his own. 6 years down the line, pillow's sound has changed quite drastically, yet glows with the same shocking deepness. focusing on a unifying, even more orchestral sound, di mira creates his own melancholic universe. centered around the epic "silent journey", pillow demonstrates in each and every track, how music should be approached in these troubled times. merging subtle piano fragments, overwhelming string arrangements, minimal guitar melodies and even 4/4 beats, pillow has written a soundtrack no one will ever forget." [label info]
www.city-centre-offices.de
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| PIMMON |
Smudge another Yesterday |
CD |
"The Preservation label presents Smudge Another Yesterday from Sydney's Pimmon. Pimmon is the alias for electronic composer Paul Gough. In the last decade, Pimmon has forged an international reputation for creating dense, challenging and engaging electronic music. This release picks up and goes further from the point where the acclaimed Secret Sleeping Birds left off. Smudge Another Yesterday is an exploration of the song behind the noise; the secret whispers hidden in the static. Within these vast and spacious works are endless fragments shaped and distended into magnetic states of subtle movement and pulse. From beautiful, foreboding pieces sung by hidden choirs to crackling, lava-flow like ambience, the mood swings of Smudge Another Yesterday are steeped in bristling commotion and stirring intimacy. It is a startling return from an individual and distinct artist. Smudge Another Yesterday was mastered by renown Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi. Pimmon has previously collaborated with other celebrated artists of his field -- including Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi, Kid606 and Keith Rowe -- and has recorded for various labels around the world including Tigerbeat6 and Fat Cat." [label info]
www.preservation.com.au
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| PINK VENOM |
Waste of the World |
CD-R |
"6 Track 50min... Harsh Ambient / Drone / Industrial CDr... Guitarist from Syrinx's solo project, very dark, dense, rhythmic set of tracks, distorted but ambient like a mellow movie going horribly wrong. Limited to 80 copies." [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| PIPELINE ALPHA |
Evocation of Seth |
CD |
Erstes (?) Album eines deutschen Projektes mit dunkel-tribale Sounds & ethnischen Gesängen, was eine rituelle Atmosphäre heraufbeschwört; viele Sprachzitate / verzerrte Lyrics tauchen auf, wodurch das Werk mitunter einen Hörspielartigen Charakter bekommt und wie ein verwunschener, hitziger Fieber-Traum wirkt. Titel wie "Tanzende Skorpione", "Pesthauch in der Oase" oder "Wüstendämonen" verweisen auf oriental-okkulte Phantasien. Hörenswert und eigenständig, dabei aufwendig aufgemacht im Pappschuber mit Postkarten, etc.
"PSYCHEDELIC SUSPIRIA DRONE. comes in a lavish and handmade style. Limited Edition 222 / 8 TRACK 69:44min.CD. Label: Triage Industries. Pipeline Alpha gives you sophisticated pychedelic Drones originated in psychotic ethnic Ritual-Livesessions with analog effectmaschines, his voice and primitive synthesizers. His unique Low-Fi sound is his organic vision of music, which try to combine archaic dreams of natur with the synthetic world of matrix. For him every session is a evocation. Pipeline Alpha aka the mighty alpha-whale is also a filmmaker and poet, who likes to tell you storys about men living in bardo dealing with sinister old gods to free their beloved or to ruin fiends and natur." [label info]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| PIPELINE ALPHA VS. MESSIAH COMPLEX |
Darking lights of Babylon |
CD-R |
Split-album. The German project PIPELINE ALPHA (from Wupptertal), being fascinated with old myths, offers two droney landscape tracks combining analogue / dark cosmic synth-work, vocal / choral invocations, acoustic & electric guitar/bass, shortwave/radio-sounds, ending in obsessed noise.. MESSIAH COMPLEX creates a very long noise-orgy with interesting developments & dynamics..
"EPIC AURAL DRONE NOISE / SPLIT RELEASE 3 TRACK CD. Limited to 119 copies worldwide / Screened Cardboard DVD Box / Printed Inlaycard on Special Paper / Numbered Edition!
Pipeline Alpha starts with a smooth eerie analog drone like mirror or organum called "flabbergasted" 11:21 minutes followed by "Ishtar" an wisphering voicesound with a organic bassline and ending with orgastic screaming from sinister god: "Ishtar" 20:51 than followed by a devastating brutal but differentiated noise storm from MESSIAH COMPLEX
called "beta-minus" 31:37 wich ends so sophisticated with quiet boiling basses like all begun." [label info]
www.amid-the-waves.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| PITRE, DUANE |
Bridges |
CD |
"Duane Pitre's new album, Bridges, features two pieces taken from a suite of analogous compositions by the same name, and was composed by Pitre in 2012. The two pieces that comprise the album are meant to work together in sequence as a composite work; or they can be isolated and listened to on their own. The title derives its name from the original concept for this work, which was to bring together aspects of traditional Eastern music (such as compositional form and tuning) with Western musical traditions (such as in the church music of the Middle Ages and modern classical music). The result is an album that merges the ancient with the new, while creating a sound that is wholly its own.
CD is housed in a 6 panel digipack on thick board stock with a matte laminate coating & spot-gloss.
Duane Pitre - compositions, cumbus, ukelin, mandolin, computer, & electronics
Oliver Barrett - cello
Bhob Rainey - soprano saxophone
Written/arranged/recorded/mixed August-November 2012
Mastered by Altered Ear." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Live at the Stone. ED09 for String Ensemble |
LP |
"ED09 is an evolving, long-tone composition by Duane Pitre. The work’s current score calls for 12 or more performers from the string and/or woodwind categories, along with the possible addition of bowed electric guitar (played by the composer).
Approximately half of ED09‘s score instructs the performers to execute specific notated pitches that coincide with conducted hand signs, while the remainder of the score allows the performers to make minor decisions that affect the pace and texture of the piece. These decisions are based on a structure consisting of set playing methods, technique restrictions, fixed pitch classes (the ‘pitch pool’), and spontaneous conduction (aka real-time ‘mixing’)–resulting in slow-shifting harmonic movement over a long duration.
Essentially, the score enables all of the performers to approach a performance of the piece in the same manner, thus creating a group of musicians that thinks and plays as a cohesive unit. The result is a piece of music that is focused, yet fluid, minimal, yet dense–yielding a sound that is not unlike slow-motion chamber music.
ED09 is an exercise in discipline and freedom, in the refinement of music, and in communal focus. The piece involves a temporary community of musicians with a central goal stripped of self: to become one.
180gr vinyl, edition of 350 (280 black / 70 clear)." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/ed09-for-string-ensemble-live-at-the-stone
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| PITRE, DUANE / PILOTRAM ENSEMBLE |
Organized Pitches Occuring in Time |
CD |
Klassischer Instrumental- & "Tone Generator"-Drone, minimal und zart, wenig abgründig oder dark ambientig, hat eher etwas "chamber-music"- artiges, mit vielen tonal gleichschwingenden Mitspielern auf Klarinette, Saxophon und Violine, die Stücke sind durchkomponiert.
"Organized Pitches Occurring in Time consists of two 25 minute pieces of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score by Duane Pitre, titled Ensemble Drones. With their form reminiscent of works by La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music and their tonality touching on the floating works of Terry Riley, The Ensemble Chord in Eb with a Minor 7th and a Pump Organ Base & The Ensemble Chord in C with a Major 7th and a Guitar Base are aural tapestries based on a minimal tonal palette with their instrumentation consisting of guitars, alto saxophones, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, tone generator, and pump organ.
The Ensemble Drones composition varies from the traditional sort as it is rule-based with the score consisting of a set tonic, set pitch classes, playing methods, technique restrictions, and spontaneous conduction. The score is a structure for the performing ensemble to improvise on—order spawning chaos producing order that is different on each occasion of a performance or recording. Ensemble Drones is discipline and freedom, both within each other, the first major focus of the work. Variance is the second major focus of the composition; with instrumentation, ensemble performers, tonic, pitch classes, and the physical space varying from performance to performance, the results can never be the same.
One way to view Ensemble Drones is like a compositional “body,” as in the composition taking human form. The score is the skeletal structure that gives the "body" its general shape and feel. The pump organ, for instance, could serve as the circulatory system, the bass clarinet as the muscles, cello and saxophones as the internal organs, the electrically generated tones as the nervous system, guitars as the flesh, viola as the skin, violin as strands of hair, and the listener—the listener acts as the eyes. Not in the sense of vision, though—each listener will "view" the same compositional body differently, and, in return, the body will view itself differently with each new set of eyes. This helps to analogize the last major focus of the Ensemble Drones score/composition, which is perception." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| PITRELEH |
same |
LP |
"Full length collaboration from Duane Pitre & ELEH.
Pitreleh use high resolution analog and digital tools to create music utilizing natural vibrations and harmonics as rhythm and melody. Inspiration is drawn directly from vibrational waves (sound, gravity, water).
The electronics, of which both pieces are constructed, are tuned using pure intonation which utilizes the prime numbers: 1-3-5-7.
An art edition of 300, available exclusively from Imprec, will be packaged in a 5 color, screen printed jacket.
Pitreleh performs Sept 2, 2013 at Issue Project Room with Tashi Wada and Charles Curtis.
Duane Pitre, Eleh and Pitreleh will perform Sept 28, 2013 at the Cleveland Museum Of Contemporary Art." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€19.50 |
|
| PLANNING FOR BURIAL |
Desideratum |
LP |
"New Jersey gloom band Planning For Burial will release its first full-length in almost four years this May on SF-based dark music label The Flenser. Titled Desideratum, this album is the band’s first full-length since 2010′s cult hit Leaving (Enemies List).
Simultaneously straddling the line between being completely nostalgic and futurist sounding, Planning For Burial is the product of a single wunderkind taking healthy obsessions with certain influences and filtering them through a droning, gloomy spyglass that evokes only the most concrete blues (the emotion not the music) this side of the gray waters of the Atlantic. While Planning For Burial gets lumped in with the whole wave of “bedroom recording artists” (which is where the project toiled for years until Leaving finally was released), the mastermind behind the project sets himself apart from his peers due in no small part to his background in sound. Planning For Burial’s brand of dark shoegaze/gloomgaze is hard to categorize, but it’s sound contains elements of slowcore, shoegaze, doom, drone, 90′s alt rock, 80′s goth, and black metal, while never being defined by any one of those genres.
Over the course of the last four years, Planning for Burial has been sporadically popping up in live venues (sharing the stage with a wide breadth of musical compatriots from Chelsea Wolfe to Deafheaven while seeming out of place at none) along the east and west coasts and releasing a slew of EPs and splits on various labels. Now, as Planning for Burial gears up to release Desideratum, the band will also perform a series of live shows – tour dates can be found below. PFB commented,
Expected to ship on or before May 13th.
LP comes in a heavy jacket with a heavy inner sleeve. The CD version comes in a case-wrapped jacket with an inner sleeve. CD/LP package can be ordered below.
The colored vinyl edition is Half & Half Oxblood/Swamp Green and is limited to 200 copies. Inspired by a gloomy Jamison bottle." [label info]
theflenser.com
|
2014 |
€21.50 |
|
| PLAYING WITH NUNS |
Frolicking through the Meadow |
CD-R |
"4 Track 33min, Drone / Harsh Ambient / Noise PRO-CDr. Playing with Nuns is one of our favorite soundscape noise creator, lends us another awesome release that blends all sorts of sounds and textures. Artwork by Glowingpixie.
Limited to 80 copies" [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2011 |
€6.00 |
|
| PLEQ |
Good Night |
maxi-CD |
"CD single of one of the most promising artists in the electronica/glitch scene. The title track comes from the forthcoming album "Ballet Mechanic" (scheduled later this fall on Basses Frequences) and 3 exclusive remixes by electronica stars Offthesky and Pjusk and french Philippe Lamy. The most interesting part is that this CD is not just a collection of various remixes, because once put together, you have a real progression in the ambience: each track is a subtle deconstruction of the original track, degrading the feeling step by step, like the deliquescence of the sweet pleasure of a good night sleep when you wake up slowly." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| PLEQ & PHILIPPE LAMY |
Gravitation |
mCDR |
"these two artists have already been on taâlem before: pleq for hiscollaborative disc with japanese artist hiroki sasajima ("witch-hunt", may 2012, alm 86) and philippe lamy for his solo disc ("entre deux", june 2013, alm 91). they have already worked together several times since 2011. here they propose us an excellent track with a rather raw and industrial feeling, yet full of strange textures..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"...I started out with Pleq and Philippe Lamy's work 'Gravitation'. They both had works before on Taalem, Pleq with his collaborative disc with Hiroki Sasajima (see Vital Weekly 839) and Lamy's 'Entre Deux' (Vital Weekly 890). They work together since 2011, and their twenty-plus minute piece is very nice, and hardly be part of the world of spacious drones, which we more commonly find on Taalem. These two inhabit a world of computer processing along the lines of acousmatic music, musique concrete, feeding field recordings to the zeroes and ones of the computer and cook up a nice, vibrant piece of music. In a constant drift this moves about and may have ambient qualities - especially in the constant flow that is part of this and perhaps in the treated field recordings, it's also
very much a work of musique concrete. Spacious collage music, very energetic and one of the best in the Taalem catalogue." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| PLEQ + HIROKI SASAJIMA |
Witch-Hunt |
mCDR |
" "witch-hunt" is a wonderful collaborative track between pleq, the polish busy bee (past productions were released by several international labels like basses frequences, u-cover, dataobscura, somehow, audio gourmet, rural colours or ephre imprint) known for his ambient/glitch productions and the japanese field recordist hiroki sasajima we already know on taâlem thanks to the nature of dislocation 3" we released a few years ago (see here). his previous release were out on mystery sea, unfathomless, impulsive habitat or semper florens. this 24min long track is a beautiful blend of the two artists' skills, perfect mix of drones, field recordings and a few glitches..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| PLOOG, JÜRGEN |
Tapes von Unterwegs 1971-1976 |
LP |
"Recorded & edited by Jürgen Ploog on different flights between 1971 & 1976 on a portable tape-recorder. Final selection, montage & editing by Robert Schalinski.
Like his literary fellow traveler William S. Burroughs who made tape experiments a few years earlier, the German Beat writer Jürgen Ploog (born 1935) began experimenting with tape recorders in the 1970s. Due to his career as a transcontinental pilot Ploog was constantly on the go. “My life was a series of interruptions both geographically (outwardly) and psychologically (state of mind) with exposure to different countries and the constant effects of jet lag.” This 40-minute cut-up is the result of his experiments. Passages of Ploog’s spoken text get mixed with Indian television voices, while sounds of Buddhist rituals are heard through an open hotel window. Radiograms, birds, recordings of airport and street noises, people noise and that of machinery … assembled, superimposed … scraps pulled out/torn, shifted and copied … questioned and documented … an alchemical experiment, a journey of sounds …
“Cut-up as a drug that leads to a different relationship with language, just as a hallucinogen leads to an altered relation with the so-called reality. The result is a fundamental shift of meaning. ‘Shift linguals’ was the motto in a continuous process with an open end …” J.P.
"This tape is a recording of many voices simultaneously under the spell of the urban Moloch. They moan, marvel, murmur and curse in a mixture of sounds that would became independent and found its own cadence. A sound that could turn drunk, melt on the tongue, mingle with the juices of the body and eventually turn into sweat and piss. The traveler lived with it as with microbes sucked up and gulped with every swallow.”
“When I look back now at those years, I see that they were a ground-breaking departure for me, not towards other, newly rising ideologies but into an unspecified way of writing and perception — because reality is based on perspective and seeing, thus opening the possibilities of an enhanced imagination and a vision of life under conditions which are not determined and pre-recorded. It may be said that these were the accounts of only the first steps. That in my case this was related to traveling to far-off continents and may just have been a lucky coincidence. At the same time it is obvious that it was difficult for me to record the exoticism of travel as merely a fortunate occurrence that gave me the chance to slide into remote scenery. The whiskey on the rocks at the beach of a tropical island is after all only the Technicolor-version of the beer in the pub back home. The challenge was to navigate under limitless technical possibilities and across the open space of digital deserts that spread rapidly …” J.P.2014
Jürgen Ploog - born 1935, lives in Frankfurt and Miami. He was a pilot for Lufthansa for 33 years. With Jörg Fauser and Carl Weissner he was co-founder of the legendary little-mag Gasolin 23. A friend and literary associate of William S. Burroughs, he is considered a father figure of the German-language literary underground." [label info]
www.90-prozent-wasser.de
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| PLOTKIN, JAMES & PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE |
Death Rattle |
CD |
" “Death Rattle” is the noise of two forces of nature in collision. Like a pair of clashing typhoons, Philadelphia based avant guitarist James Plotkin and Norwegian free jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love generate chaos, disturbance and a terrifying beauty in their first ever collaborative recording. Free jazz and metal-edged rock never chimed so exhilaratingly together before. ‘Paal’s precision and constant invention/reinvention is mind-blowing, only matched by its intensity,’ James enthuses. ‘There’s a very fluid feel to what he’s doing despite the ferocity. Instead of trying to match the chaos, I opted to build a more solid foundation of repetition and melody for him to launch from. I really appreciated the role reversal of drummer and guitarist!’
James Plotkin’s distinctively extreme, aggressive guitar sound has been a constant presence in underground music since the late 1980s, when he founded the metal/industrial band OLD. As a solo artist and as a member of outfits such as Scorn, Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst and most recently Jodis, he has plotted a nomadic trail through new metal, dark ambient, industrial, noise, grindcore and drone rock. Sought out by Michael Gira, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Franz Treichler, Francisco López and many more, he has also remixed a wide range of artists from KK Null and Sunn O))) to Pelican, Earth, Nadja and Neu!. ‘I've wanted to work with Paal for the better part of a decade,’ comments James. ‘Stephen O'Malley had played one of Scorch Trio’s discs in the van during a Khanate tour and I could hardly believe it was only one drummer at work.’
Paal Nilssen-Love is one of the most intense drummers working on the planet right now. He grew up in Stavanger, west Norway, where his parents ran the city’s thriving jazz club. In theory he’s now based in Oslo, but there’s a huge global demand for his percussive threshing machine. He’s often travelling on a relentless round of musical projects and festival appearances – notably with Mats Gustafsson in The Thing, his Chicago trio with Ken Vandermark and Ab Baars, the Hairy Bones group with Peter Brötzmann and Toshinori Kondo, a trio with Massimo Pupillo and noise artist Lasse Marhaug, plus duos with Peter Brötzmann, Terrie Ex, John Butcher and others." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Death Rattle |
LP & CD |
" “Death Rattle” is the noise of two forces of nature in collision. Like a pair of clashing typhoons, Philadelphia based avant guitarist James Plotkin and Norwegian free jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love generate chaos, disturbance and a terrifying beauty in their first ever collaborative recording. Free jazz and metal-edged rock never chimed so exhilaratingly together before. ‘Paal’s precision and constant invention/reinvention is mind-blowing, only matched by its intensity,’ James enthuses. ‘There’s a very fluid feel to what he’s doing despite the ferocity. Instead of trying to match the chaos, I opted to build a more solid foundation of repetition and melody for him to launch from. I really appreciated the role reversal of drummer and guitarist!’
James Plotkin’s distinctively extreme, aggressive guitar sound has been a constant presence in underground music since the late 1980s, when he founded the metal/industrial band OLD. As a solo artist and as a member of outfits such as Scorn, Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst and most recently Jodis, he has plotted a nomadic trail through new metal, dark ambient, industrial, noise, grindcore and drone rock. Sought out by Michael Gira, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Franz Treichler, Francisco López and many more, he has also remixed a wide range of artists from KK Null and Sunn O))) to Pelican, Earth, Nadja and Neu!. ‘I've wanted to work with Paal for the better part of a decade,’ comments James. ‘Stephen O'Malley had played one of Scorch Trio’s discs in the van during a Khanate tour and I could hardly believe it was only one drummer at work.’
Paal Nilssen-Love is one of the most intense drummers working on the planet right now. He grew up in Stavanger, west Norway, where his parents ran the city’s thriving jazz club. In theory he’s now based in Oslo, but there’s a huge global demand for his percussive threshing machine. He’s often travelling on a relentless round of musical projects and festival appearances – notably with Mats Gustafsson in The Thing, his Chicago trio with Ken Vandermark and Ab Baars, the Hairy Bones group with Peter Brötzmann and Toshinori Kondo, a trio with Massimo Pupillo and noise artist Lasse Marhaug, plus duos with Peter Brötzmann, Terrie Ex, John Butcher and others." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2013 |
€22.50 |
|
| PLURALS |
TriTone |
LP |
"Tri Tone is Plurals' first studio recording as a trio following the most recent releases which feature live or session material. The last studio release was 2014's Bugenès Melissae - two tracks of calmer, more reflective music, standing aside from the bulk of the group's output which tends towards noise as the ultimate splitting-point after a period of collected density.
On Tri Tone that density is an end in itself. It is slow music that maps out its space carefully in coming together. It may be the gentlest and most patient of Plurals' albums, though it required the longest and most detailed sonic wrangling to complete. Two pieces were chosen from three hours of recorded music, and were contracted and expanded again by turns until eventually the finished versions took shape.
Plurals' studio improvisations typically expel a significant amount of aggression and intensity in their early stages, holding closer resemblance to live performances. With such force expunged however, the following material sees them exploring lengthy passages of audio cogitation rarely delivered live.
Mastered & cut by Frederic Alstadt at Ångström Mastering, Brussels." [label info]
"Silken Tofu seems to be taken by the music of Plurals; as a follow-up to a double CD
'Atlantikwall' (see Vital Weekly 1076), they now release a LP. This LP is the first studio recording of them as a trio, and the first studio recording to be released since 2014. This trio of improvisers (Daniel Mackenzie, Michael Neaves and David Hamilton-Smith) use a variety of tools (guitar, synthesizers, keyboards, vocals, tape machines, radio and reed and string instruments) and then go about to do their improvised work. For this record they recorded some three hours of music and extracted forty-eight minutes spread out over the two sidelong pieces. I can't judge if that is a lot or not. The music on both pieces is quite dense, rich with sound and also mostly not too loud. That seems to me a bit of break with what I know from them so far, which was always bit more towards the noise of lo-fi drone music. Like
always the changes within the pieces is quite minimal; Plurals take their time to slow go from one point in their piece to the next. In 'Sun Lock' for instance a simple drone starts out and little by little they add more and more sound, while the original drone lingers on, and towards the end it is very much changed and no longer recognizable. It ends as quiet as it started. Hard to say how much post-production and
editing took place here. Surely something, I would think, but for all we know, it is released as it was played back then. ‘Bas Fond' on the other side is more from the drone rock side of Plurals with mildly distorted guitars played long form drones. A record with two sides, obviously, showing two different sides of Plurals, not as obvious. From what I heard from them, this is the most refined work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| POLE |
Steingarten |
CD |
"This is Berlin-based producer Stefan Betke's sixth full-length release, and his second release on his own ~scape label. Pole presents music that could be architecture, with his elegantly spare form that reaches out into space. After minimalist experiments with elements of hip-hop and dub, Steingarten has hardly any concrete references. What has remained, though, is the minimalism so characteristic of Pole. Built around little loops, his arrangements dispose with any kind of ornamentation. A stark contrast with the album's title and cover -- which shows a picture of the famously ornate, gingerbread-style castle Schloss Neuschwanstein. But despite some funky grooves, this is no dancefloor record. And despite its simplicity, the music never comes across as meager or repellently cool. This might be due to the fact that Pole has found a perfect middle point between avant-garde and pop." [press release]
"Eine Form von Sounddesign: Pole vereint Minimalismus mit groovy Beats.
--------
Stefan Betke alias Pole ist seit Ende der 1990er-Jahre national sowie international als einer der führenden und stilprägenden Produzenten elektronischer Musik bekannt. Nach Minimal-Experimenten mit Dub- und Hip-Hop legt er mit „Steingarten“ ein Album vor, das kaum konkrete Referenzen aufweist. Geblieben ist der für Pole so charakteristische Minimalismus. Um kleine Loops werden Arrangements aufgebaut, die auf jegliche Ornamente verzichten. Umso stärker wirkt der Kontrast zu Titel und dem Cover der Platte, einem Foto des verschnörkelten Schlosses Neuschwanstein.
Trotz einiger Funk-Grooves ist „Steingarten“ keine Dancefloor-Platte, und trotz extremer Schlichtheit wirkt die Musik an keiner Stelle karg oder abweisend. Denn Pole findet eine perfekte Zwischenform, die Pop und Avantgarde ausbalanciert. Die Beats sind groovy, aber nie aufpeitschend, und die Melodien werden fragmentarisch als harmonische Tupfer eingesetzt. „Steingarten“ ist eine Form von Sounddesign, das sich abseits von bekannten Behaglichkeiten seine eigene Welt schafft." [Indigo] |
2007 |
€16.50 |
|
| POLIO |
Concrete |
CD-R |
Alles andere als „konkret“ klingen die drei Drone-Stücke auf dieser CDR von Peter Wright aka POLIO; spheric dreamscapes at its best !
“ Before relocating to the U.K. earlier this year, Mr. Wright finished this fourth POLIO release back in Christchurch, NZ. "Concrete" is an apt title; these are digital deconstructions of recordings made live in a bunker (apparently before an audience as distant chatter is
heard on the last track), and to my mind there's a palpable sense of weight, gravity. At first these suspended "pure tones" just sort of
hangs there, but the recording progressively resolves itself beautifully & becomes more open, then somewhere during the second track descends to an altogether deeper/sub-conscious level....oohmm .....close your eyes....still literally quite heavy but exquisitely layered and hallucinatory. Enveloping, but not stuffy. This is huge.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Soyuz |
CD-R |
“ Polio was originally intended to be a studio-only project dealing with the dregs of home-recorded detritus and recycling it all inside droning digital straitjackets. However, 2002 saw Polio out in front of audiences of at least 15 people on a couple of occasions which presented new challenges and resulted in a swag of new recordings awaiting their moment on a CD plonked inside a wrapping of cheap manilla paper with a neat schematic of a spacecraft on the front. Any excuse for pictures of space vehicles...
Soyuz presents the bulk of a live Polio performance at Lyttelton's appropriately off-kilter Wunderbar recorded to digital hard disc by the omnipresent David Khan, and one unlisted piece of studio deconstruction to finish the disc. Polio live is a mix of pre-processed drones, live loop & sine-wave manipulation & general knob-twiddling on the effects units. Sort of like those energy drinks you can get with extra crap thrown in to what is essentially sugar & water, Soyuz is like Gemini, but with extra minerals (?!)... ahh, hell, it's a hard thing to write blurbs with a hangover, but you get the picture hopefully...! The bottom line is if you loved Gemini, you'll definately like this disc. A further installment in the Polio saga will appear shortly on Norwegian imprint Humbug, but for starters why not sink your teeth into this beauty...” [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| POLLYPRAHA |
Jule |
mCD-R |
"the first track we heard from POLLYPRAHA was on the compilation the japanese artist YUI ONODERA put out in 2006 on his own CRITICAL PATH label. months later, we were offered this "jule" suite, three tracks between metallic strings sounds and processed field recordings, showing POLLYPRAHA's contemporary music influence (steve reich or gyorgi ligeti for instance)." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| POOK, JOCELYN |
Untold Things |
CD |
"The Real World Gold version of Untold Things includes two bonus tracks: Adam's Lullaby and Ave Maria, sung by Natacha Atlas.
"I wanted Untold Things to reflect the live work I'd been at the time," says the classically trained, thirty-something Londoner. Pook sees the recording as a natural progression from her long association with Real World, where she'd been a keen participant in the legendary creative jams that are Recording Weeks and worked as a string player and arranger for Peter Gabriel. (As a former member of The Communards and co-founder of the all-female sextet Electra Strings she has also helped flesh out the sounds of PJ Harvey, Paul Weller, Morrissey, Nick Cave and Siouxsie Sioux).
Where her previous albums, 1997's 'Deluge' and 1999's 'Flood', were written specifically for theatre and film - the former for Canadian dance company O Vertigo, the latter for Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' - 'Untold Things' is very much Pook's own creative vision. Encouraged by Real World's penchant for blurring boundaries, she channelled her trademark combination of classicism and innovation into an exhilarating gem of an album, one which pulls off that rare coup of putting listeners in touch with their deeper feelings. 'Untold Things' will, no doubt, be the source of many an epiphany. You could say that it has a spiritual, even magical, quality, as befits one who is constantly changing artistic shape - and whose surname is the Celtic word for fairy.
Pook's soft speech, translucent skin and Pre-Raphaelite curls might fit the stereotype of a classical musician (and, if you like, a latter-day Titania), but they belie a background in performance-based work that's seen her create 'atmospheres' from found objects like answer-machine messages and corrugated iron. And though Pook insists she is proudly rooted in the formal, classical music tradition, she still hankers after the cutting edge. Her influences - Laurie Anderson, Steve Reich, Holger Czukay and her friend Michael Nyman - are also shared by her like-minded ensemble. "Most of my string section are friends who go way back and who, like me, are also composers. I tend to work with people I've got chemistry with and then build around what they play. That means all sorts of instruments and voices creep in."
"There's a juxtaposition of vocal styles," states Pook, who has always favoured eccentric opposites. On 'Untold Things', she pits her English choral plainsong and early music leanings against multi-ethnic traditions, and offsets the spacious, tranquil nature of some tracks with the pulsing, dervish-style rhythms of others. It turns out the vocals are not words at all. "Because words are so incredibly powerful," Pook explains, "I tend not to use them. I prefer to treat voices like instruments. So we've used a made up language on two of the songs; there's one piece which developed from a phrase Parvin Cox once sang to me over the phone. On others I've recorded texts backwards, because I love the strange, kind of uneasy quality you get. I find it really peaceful."
'Saffron' is the title track for 'In A Land of Plenty', a major new BBC TV drama series which aired at the time of the album's release. "It's about a family who are my generation, born in the Sixties and growing up into the present day. It's very beautifully shot, very impressionistic, which is unusual for television" Pook states. But it started out as a poem written by a mother for her daughter, its lyrics reversed by Pook and Pappenheim before being featured in a short dance film. All of the songs on 'Untold Things' have been reshaped and sculpted to perfection. Or at the very least, as near to it as Pook will admit.
"I could go on fiddling with all these pieces for years," she grins. "But with what I've learnt over the past year, especially from doing 'Eyes Wide Shut', I've been able to go back and rework some of them. I'm more confident in what I'm doing now, which has really helped me to develop. And Stanley (Kubrick) was just so amazingly positive and flattering about my music. The experience of working with him was truly powerful."
"I'm not somebody who conceptualises," she offers. "I just do it and see the connections afterwards. I know people will think there's a religious element to this, which isn't something I want to comment on. But I do think there's a sense of faith, of loss and yearning, which is inherent in the music. Hopefully, it moves you." And in keeping with her Celtic surname, Jocelyn Pook has made an album with translucent wings." [label info]
www.realworldrecords.com
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| PORTION CONTROL |
Progress Report 1982-1986 |
do-LP |
"This material from PORTION CONTROL clearly demonstrates their early experimentation
both as ‘musicians’ and with at the advent of analogue electronic machines. The eclectic
material ranges from cassette portastudio material recorded in Peckham and Kennington,
South London to high end studio recordings.
The punk roots show as PORTION CONTROL demonstrate unrivalled creativity breaching
the gap between UK industrial, early ambient and the formative signs of electronic dance
music. The music features rising appegiators, proto bass lines (a true PORTION
CONTROL signature) dark sound design and recurring beats and rhythms... many elements
that became the bedrock of future darker electronic music.
During this highly charged period PORTION CONTROL established themselves at the
forefront of the Formative, Underground UK Electronics scene." [label info]
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2015 |
€27.50 |
|
| POSCH |
Gruen_Anger Rudeboy |
CD-R |
Strangely deconstructed digital-Reggae (!) & dub-sounds, each track contains parts of BOB MARLEY’s „could you be loved“. The cool “laid back” feeling is somehow destroyed through the pure electronic / digital sound, really insane stuff ! Obscure Experimental-Electronica on Austrians TONTO-label, to be discovered.
"gruen anger rudeboy": ausgangsmaterial sind samples von northern-soul u. rocksteady-nummern, die durch den filter von liebenau-songstrukturen laufen und mit liebenau-samples durchmischt/ergaenzt/ersetzt werden. auch hier ist wieder in allen tracks bob marley´s "could you be loved" eingebaut. die enge verbindung der stuecke zur band liebenau wird im cd-titel angedeutet. waehrend liebenau ein bezirk/stadtteil von graz/das ganze ist, ist gruenanger der name einer siedlung in liebenau/ein teil davon. die im anglo-amerikanischen raum uebliche methode der regionalen zuordnung von musik als mittel zur schaffung von "credibility" (compton, kingston,...) wird 1:1 auf die oesterreichische situation uebertragen.“ [michi posch]
www.tonto.at |
2000 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
Jakomini rue |
CD-R |
Merkwürdiger Elektro-Pop auf TONTO von Michi POSCH. "jakomini rue": ein versuch die klassische guit/b/dr-konstellation als ein-mann-band mit soundedit/rebirth/deckII nachzuempfinden. alle 5 tracks basieren auf proberaumaufnahmen/songfragmenten aus der liebenau-spaetphase; im fall von "t.h.girl i.t.w.w.world" u. "autofahrer/auswaerts" handelt es sich um werksgetreue, lupenreine (eigen-)coverversionen. die verwendeten micro-samples stammen teilweise von liebenau u. fleischpost, teilweise von diversen 70ties dub-aufnahmen. in jedem track (manchmal wenig, manchmal gar nicht mehr erkennbar) kommen 2 o.3
anschlaege des gitarren-intros v. bob marley´s "could you be loved" zum einsatz.“ [label info]
|
1999 |
€11.00 |
|
| POST SCRIPTVM |
Raspad |
CD |
"Post Scriptum fiel mir zuerst mit einer CD auf dem französischen Label Hermetique auf, das vor allem durch die Veröffentlichungen der Powerelektroniker Propergol bekannt sein dürfte. Bereits auf dem ersten Album waren dick verwobene Schichten von atmosphärischem Noise und gelegentliche energetische Ausbrüche zu verzeichnen, man hatte jedoch etwas das Gefühl, hier halte sich jemand bewusst zurück. Die aktuelle CD "Raspad", die nun auf dem Industrial-Kultlabel Tesco erschienen ist, knüpft stilistisch an das Debüt an, erscheint jedoch etwas differenzierter und dramaturgisch raffinierter. Man ist bei der bräunlich-monochromen Covergestaltung geblieben, die auf dem matten Digipak zu voller Geltung kommt. Der zunächst verhaltene Aufbau der Soundscapes erscheint hier als Methode, um eine fast nervenzerrende Spannung aufzubauen. Manche Störfrequenzen werden lange durchgehalten, so dass sie langsam ins Unterbewusstsein des Höreres einsickern. Vor allem das erste lange Stück 'crepusculum' erinnert so an die Hohphase von Schloss Tegal: morbid, befremdlich, düster. Wer mit Propergol nicht nur die krachigen Tanzflächenfeger kennt, wird die Verbindung zwischen beiden Projekten erkennen. In beiden Fällen geht man fast cinematografisch vor, was u.a. durch den massiven Einsatz von Samples bedingt ist. Auch sind die Strukturen von Post Scriptum nicht unbedingt immer repetitiv, wie man es von Postindustrial gewohnt ist, sondern abwechslungsreich, voller Entwicklungen. Positiv fallen die gelegentlich eingesetzten apokalyptisch-rauhen Metalperkussions auf, die man länger nicht vernommen hat in diesem Bereich. In Track 5 'Exacerbation' kommt dann alle aufgestaute Energie zum Ausbruch: mit flirrenden Hochfrequenzen, pumpenden Subbässen, Ethnosamples und verzerrt-aggressiven Vocals erinnert man hier zeitweise gar an Genocide Organ. Zugleich sorgten Propergol hier für ein kraftvolles Mastering, das die zahlreichen Stereoeffekte gut herausstellt. Es erscheint also wenig erstaunlich, dass Post Scriptum den Schritt in den größeren Aufmerksamkeitsbereich geschafft haben, denn 'Raspad' ist ein geschlossenes und stilistisch überzeugendes Album, das zahlreiche Hörer verdient." [IKONEN]
"Raspad is Russian for disintegration-zerfall. This is the third full length album by Post Scriptvm. It was mastered by Jerome Nougaillon(Propergol) Dense, thickly-layered industrial ambient music, exploring the abysmal pathology of modernity--illusion of progress, dissolution of memory, abandonment of higher meaning and paralysis of the will. The advanced lethargy of human spirit. Rich structure of music plays subtle tricks on the listener's subconsciousness, and the mood slowly drifts from quiet melancholy to visceral intensity. An example on how to use analog and digital equipment in creating a special way of sound, a brilliant example of innovative music outstanding form the mass of releases."
[label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Gauze |
LP |
"LP reissue of the first full-length album by Post Scriptvm, recorded in late 2001 and originally released as CD-r. Unlike the project's later works that are characterized by subtlety and meticulous production, Gauze is an unvarnished, gritty 4-track recording of lo-fi death ambient from the wasteland of southern Brooklyn, NYC, enshrouded in the lingering haze of razed buildings and burnt human remains. The boundary between what is considered normal everyday life and sheer insanity, carnage, personal and social collapse-true horrible face of humanity-is but an ephemeral layer of gauze that can be torn in a heartbeat, throwing reality out of balance, violently and irrevocably. "This game is prompted by a rip in the fabric of life." [Gauze] has the same hypnotic and overwhelming power as a strong fever dream. It hauls you into a contorted world of loose association, an industrial landscape in which humans lose their form and randomly merge with animals and bizarre machinery, where perception is warped and hours flicker by in an instant. -Nulll Oppressive drones and bleak atmospheres, interjected with twisted samples and cavernous, haunted basement noises. [Gauze] has a very cool old school feel to it that's been sadly missing within the 'death industrial' genre. -Jason Mantis/Malignant Records "Gauze" is a hazy swirl of dark ambient, subtle ritual elements, esoteric samples and mild death industrial textures. The deep tones and the cryptic vocals samples and chants combine to make some truly eerie atmospheres. -Scott Candey/Worm Gear "Gauze" sounds quite a bit like a live recording, like being immersed in a real-time psychosis simulation. -Industrial.org Post Scriptum construct their pieces from a varied mixture of drones, analogue sounds, post-industrial samples, strongly maintaining a claustrophobic atmosphere at the same time...thick with an uneasy sense of a catastrophe about to happen. -Corridor of Cells Ragged dark ambience full of trepidation and strangeness, as scratched into the flesh of weird, dimly lit corners of aural resonance. -SEVEN Tracklist: Cunctator Trepan On the brink Pore The Binding Vox Calamantis Gentle Diversions."
www.tesco-germany.com
"Gerade hat Kollege ENDSAL die aktuelle Live-Werkschau "Séance" (Besprechung) des russischen Industrial-Duos POST SCRIPTVM gewürdigt. Nun möchte ich noch ein paar Infos zu "Gauze" nachschieben, um die Diskografie komplett zu machen. Es handelt sich um die allerersten Aufnahmen von POST SCRIPTVM, die ursprünglich im Jahr 2001 auf CDR erschienen sind. TESCO ARCHAIC DOCUMENTS, eine Serie des Mannheimer Industrial-Labels TESCO, presst hier ältere – teils auch unveröffentliche oder live entstandene – Werke auf Vinyl, und so ist auch "Gauze" als nicht mehr erhältlicher Baustein des Gesamtwerkes nun als LP wieder zugänglich. Womit wir auch wirklich alle Veröffentlichungen der in den USA lebenden Russen auf NONPOP geehrt hätten.
"Cunctator" (01) startet mit einem höhligen, gefährlichen und vibrierenden Drone. Dumpf klingende Sprachsamples und ein kratziges Geräusch ergänzen den Track, ab der Mitte tauchen sporadisch sakrale Mönchsgesänge auf; eher Atmosphäre als Musik, sehr stimmungsvoller Dark Ambient. Das Frickeln und Bratzeln in "Trepan" (02) formt sich nach und nach zu Frequenzdonner. Auch hier tönt eine Sprech- und später schamanische Singstimme aus der Gruft. Mit metallenem Scheppern ergibt sich auch ein erster Ansatz von Rhythmus, der in "On The Brink" (03) weiter verfolgt wird. Gelooptes Kratzen hält Drones zusammen, später übernimmt diese Funktion ein Herzschlag – das Stück ein geisterhaftes Schweben. "Pore" (04) besteht aus weitem, maschinellem Rumpeln und Dröhnen, dezent von noisigen Sounds unterstützt, die in "The Binding" (05) zunehmen: Zwischen Weltuntergangs-Blitzen ruft eine russische Frauenstimme ganz sicher den Notfall aus. Wasserplätschern, Wind und schwimmende Drones lassen "Vox Calamantis" (06) ruhiger wirken, in wiederholende Loops fügt sich eine nachdenkliche, mahnende russische Stimme ein. Und zum Schluss besteht "Gentle Diversions" (07), ganz klassisch, überwiegend aus rotierendem Dröhnen zwischen Noise und Industrial.
Für mich sind POST SCRIPTVM einer der besten und intelligentesten Industrial-Acts auf dem Markt. "Gauze" hat bereits alle Grundbausteine für die spätere Entwicklung. Klanglich noch recht roh und rau, man könnte auch sagen 'old school', wirkt das Album fast wie eine Liveaufnahme. So unmittelbar und direkt. Ich habe permanent das Gefühl, mich in einem dunklen Schiffsbauch zu befinden, schwankend, zwischen stampfenden Maschinen. Diese LP gehört natürlich, wie alle anderen Veröffentlichungen von POST SCRIPTVM auch, in den Plattenschrank. Nicht nur als abzuhakendes Frühwerk, sondern als spannender Ausgangspunkt für folgende Meilensteine." [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN |
The Abominable Slowman |
LP |
This release by Colin Potter, “The Abominable Slowman”, is the logical follow-on from his previous 2015 LP “Rank Sonata”. Like that album, there are elements that were recorded many years ago, but this work also contains new music. Again, the emphasis is on rhythm, although the rhythmic components range from conventional drum sounds to strange electronic and/or mutated outbursts, often accompanied by squalling guitars. As to what this sounds like, keywords would be soundtrack, experimental, ambient, electronic psychedelia, contemporary, drone…. There’s constant experimentation throughout the album, a search for never-before heard sounds to create obscure atmospheres and a pleasantly disturbing feeling of disquietude.
The LP is housed in a beautiful grey cardboard sleeve, hand-printed by letterpress, and die cut to reveal the printed inner sleeve, which features a number of pictures of The Abominable Slowman during the recording of the album at IC Studio’s current London location.
“Colin Potter has been a central figure in the UK’s DIY and post – industrial underground since the late ‘70s. His ICR label, founded in 1981, blurred the lines between post – punk experimentation, crude pop, Krautrock – inspired drone work and contemporary electronica, with releases by everyone from DIY legends The Instant Automatons through Chris & Cosey of Throbbing Gristle , experimental composer Trevor Wishart, drone soundists Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate and Bryn Jones’s Muslimgauze. He has also been a key collaborator with both Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, working in the studio with both groups since the late ‘90s as well as serving as a member of Nurse With Wound’s current live line – up. From the late ‘90s to the late ‘00s Potter’s IC Studio, based in a Victorian Water Tower outside Preston, was a lightning rod for musicians working beneath the radar and a focal point for the nascent UK drone scene. Recent years have seen an upsurge in interest in Potter’s solo works.”
|
2017 |
€17.50 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN & PHIL MOULDYCLIFF |
Grey Skies on Asphalt |
CD |
"Edition of 300 numbered copies. Colin Potter is sitting in a room, different than the one you are in now, and he is piloting that room to the crushing depths of inner space with fellow sound artist Phil Mouldycliff. The wizard will see you now. There methods seems so innocent at the outset with the simple layering of a street scene over the sounds of intermission spill-off (or whatever), but the quiet, ambient din of crowd soon becomes a decaying continuo beneath a soft filigree of high-lonesome guitar (?). Then bells and all sorts of micro manipulations follow, building to gelatinous crescendo and subsequent diminuendo. There is a sort of oceanic, Sinking of the Titanic texture coughing up from the underneath, and a deliciously Nursey dynamic in the way tiny rings of feedback propagate out form sonic pebbles thrown in the drink. And, of course, fantastic little discoveries are made with each new pass. This may be what it sounds like when noise goes through the digestive tract. Who knew it would be so damn beautiful?" [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN & THE HAFLER TRIO |
A pressed on Sandwich |
CD |
Erste Zusammenarbeit der beiden Urgesteine britischer Experimental-Drones / Elektronik, ein one-tracker von ca. 53 Minuten Länge. POTTER bearbeitet die H30-Sounds, das sind organisch-elektronische Oberton-Klangstrahlen, die sich glitzernd & oszillierend ins Ätherische winden, ruhig & klar & zur Versenkung einladend....
"CD is packed in special paper wallet & released as the limited edition of 1010 copies. This nutritious fare was prepared by Colin Potter at IC Studio, Preston, UK in 2005, using the finest Icelandic ingredients supplied by The Hafler Trio." Colin Potter explains: "I attended The Hafler Trio performance of 'How To Slice a Loaf of Bread' in Preston and was very impressed on many different levels. During a discussion with Andrew McKenzie after the event, he suggested that we might try a joint project. Shortly afterwards he sent me some of the original source material from the performance. It was my intention to preserve the overall shape & sense of the material, but at the same time move it to another (sonic)..” [label info]
“Do any of these two artists need really an introduction? I don't think so. Both are big shots in the world of experimental music. Early 2003, shortly after the re-discovery of The Hafler Trio, the trio did a performance in Preston called 'How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread'. The performance was attended by Colin Potter, who lives and works in the same city. Afterwards it was suggested that the two should work together, but McKenzie being Iceland and Potter in Preston made a tete-a-tete not easy. Andrew McKenzie mailed Colin Potter the original source materials for the concert, which Potter happily reworked into 'A Pressed On Sandwich'. The original performance was also released (see Vital Weekly 404), so there is something to compare. Both The Hafler Trio and Colin Potter are masters of drone music, but there are some subtle differences. The Hafler Trio seem overall more monochrome in approach, with so it seems for the listener who doesn't know any better, whereas Potter seems to be using more sound effects to create the soundscapes that he does, maybe less organic and more electronic. As said, the differences are quite subtle here, and there is certainly no hierarchy, both are masters of the genre. Potter's mix is perhaps a bit more dense and obviously more concise (The Hafler Trio release spans three CDs), but it moves as gentle and dark as the original. Great collaboration.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Fucking brilliant. Yeah, you should expect that these two high caliber sound sculptors would manage something great; and they do not disappoint. As for the obligatory introductions, Colin Potter may be best known from his ongoing contributions to Nurse With Wound over the past two decades, but has been privy to some of the finest in British dronescaping thanks to his work in Ora and Monos. The Hafler Trio is the creation of Andrew McKenzie, a sound research project which has been investigating the impact of sound upon the body, mind, and spirit through the lens of a Byzantine gnosticism. A couple years back, Potter had the good fortune of witnessing the Hafler Trio's How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread performance in Preston, England in 2003; after the show, Potter and McKenzie struck up a conversation, whence McKenzie suggested that the two collaborate. Shortly thereafter, McKenzie sent Potter a collection of the source material from that very performance as the foundation for their collaboration. Potter stated his intentions clearly, that he wanted to preserve the shape of the material while pushing it into another space. It's an understatement to say that Potter merely achieved his intention; as A Pressed On Sandwich ranks as one of the best things that he's worked on, on par with his work with Steven Stapleton on the existential void of Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste. Yeah, it's that good! Of course, McKenzie ultimately stretched out his own material of monumental dronings over a whopping six discs on the twin set of triple cds also entitled How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread (all of which are long out of print); so Potter's redux is a bit easier to digest, but certainly no less an album! You'll encounter the drone supreme here on A Pressed On Sandwich with electrified tonal vibrations, undulating phase patterns, and oceanic gasps of sublime expanses. The album starts off with a very cold, shivering feel but eventually transitions into a dynamic interplay of tones that simultaneously capturing the solemnness of church organ droning (with all of the overtones of holy symbolism) and the unnerving purity of feedback (with all of the allusions of technology on the brink of collapse). We mentioned it before, and we'll mentioned it again: fucking brilliant." [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| POUSSEUR, HENRI |
Parabolique d'Enfer |
CD |
"This recording will be Sub Rosa's first posthumous recording of Henri Pousseur. It is the sixth release (out of eight) in their catalog devoted to this composer's experimental and electronic works. It also marks the end of the trilogy of the Parabolic works (following the 1972 unreleased recordings and the 2001 collective performance). This time around, we have a piece built through another major Pousseur work: Leçon d'Enfer (composed in 1990-1991 around Arthur Rimbaud). This previously-unreleased version was realized by Henri Pousseur in Cologne in 1992. This release was important to Henri Pousseur, as it concludes, in a sense, the Paraboles trilogy, after 1972's 8 Etudes Paraboliques (released as a 4CD box set comprised of all the études to be used as the basis for all current and future mixes) and 4 Parabolic Mixes (2001), on which four composers -- Robert Hampson, Philip Jeck, Markus Popp, and Pousseur himself -- tackled those source tapes. This suite of works was gradually pushing composition further into the territory of destruction and abstraction. This final installment, a mix made from the 1972 Études, as it should be, integrates a major external element (something already planned in the initial design), another work by Pousseur, "Leçons d'Enfer," a complex piece of musical theater dedicated to the memory of Arthur Rimbaud and composed in 1991 for the centennial of the poet's death. This work, over 100 minutes long, was written for two actors, three singers, seven musicians (clarinet, alto saxophone, tuba, harp, piano, and two percussions), tapes (including traditional Ethiopian music and field recordings from that area), and electroacoustic devices. With this version, Henri Pousseur shows how the deep impression left by a work in constant mutation can take different guises. The Rimbaud pictured in this flux is neither the promising teenager, nor the striking genius, nor even the desperate man struggling in vain in an empty landscape; it is an appeased hybrid breathing the ebullient air of the final times." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| PRAXINOSCOPE |
same |
pic-LP |
“Praxinoscope is a new project which sees the duo Roberto Opalio (one-half of My Cat Is An Alien) and Ramona Ponzini (close collaborator of the Italian space-brothers). While in the debut album as Painting Petals On Planet Ghost (out in early September 2005 on Time-Lag Records) Ramona will focus on her Japanese vocals alongside both brothers' acoustic tunes, here she plays little Japanese percussions and wind chimes, creating a resonant texture over Roberto's alien wordless vocals and space electronics. The material comes from a whole session recorded in a mysterious location of the Western Alps, directly transferred to cd using neither overdubs nor outtakes, practice which the Opalio bros have made us addicted to. For the entire lenght of its 40 minutes, the piece will stifle you the breath because of its so pure essence and intimate mood; a mystic, suffocated chant reminding the silence of ancient rituals, the ultimate exorcism to avert the Infinite Pain. Limited edition of 500 copies only as vinyl picture disc 12" LP with psychedelic artwork!” [label info]
“…..This project traverses a similar terrain as MCIAA, but is perhaps closer to Roberto's brilliant solo album, "Chants From Isolated Ghosts". Opalio's vocals star here, taking the limelight and thriving inside it. Effects drench his voice making it something truly not of this world. These lunar oceans of sound are magnificent and totally enthralling. It's as though he's a cosmonaut trapped inside a glass box, unable to travel the reaches of space. Such confinement derails your mind and Opalio sounds like a person struggling against himself. At times, hearing this is almost too much - there's simultaneous discomfort and exorcism happening and you can't quite focus intently on either. You are a passive player in this exercise, lost in the crevices Opalio and Ponzini create. I cannot discount Ponzini's contributions to this 40 minute piece, either. While it may seem minimal on the surface, her various "Japanese percussions" (mostly chromatics, cymbals, and the like) add a great deal of needed texture to counterbalance Opalio's haunted wails. It is reminiscent of the way Finnish master, Keijo, works in a lot of percussive elements to his tracks. And it has the same effect. Praxinoscope is a great new project from the always wonderful My Cat is an Alien. This is one of Opax's finest releases. Bringing to mind the vocal transcendence of the Skaters, Praxinoscope are proof that you don't need any instruments to make amazing sounds. This is wonderful, wonderful music” [Brad Rose, FOXY DIGITALIS]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| PRESTON, JOE & DANIEL MENCHE |
Cerberic Doxology |
LP |
"Joe Preston and Daniel Menche's Cerberic Doxology represents a new LOW in collaborations. A new LOW in depth, a new LOW in bottom frequencies, and a new LOW in drone, noise, heavy, metal, Basso Profundo, and Gregorian Chant. Cerberic Doxology is an album of rich subtleties and dramatic textures: a dense, dark, tonal topography surveying the dizzying heights and cavernous depths of the human voice. Constructed of only sonorous and rumbling vowel sounds, its absence of consonants still resonates with layers upon layers of audible friction. This new version of Cerberic Doxology represents a work that is slightly shorter and quicker in pace to fit the vinyl format. What's presented, then, is a piece foregrounding the seamless mastery of Daniel Menche's ambient and textural recording work. Limited to 500 vinyl copies, the Cerberic Doxology EP is an 18-minute analog piece. The B-side of this limited edition pressing contains 20 different samples from the work featured in 20 separate locked grooves. Daniel Menche and Joe Preston appear as vocal co-collaborators with The Man Choir on SunnO)))'s Southern Lord release, Monoliths & Dimensions." [label info]
www.discouragerecords.com |
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| PRIME / PREVOST / O'ROURKE |
Alpha Lemur echo two |
CD |
Auf MICHAEL PRIME’s Label erschien diese CD mit zwei langen, älteren Mitschnitten: LEMUR wurde 1994 in London aufgenommen und zeigt O’ROURKE, PREVOST und PRIME bei der „Arbeit“, bei ALPHA haben O’ROURKE und PRIME noch Verstärkung von ADAM BOHMAN und ANDY HAMMOND, aufgenommen 1991 in Catford. Improvisierte Musik mit verschiedenensten Elementen vermischt mit minimal-droniger Ästhetik..
Strong CD on Michael Primes own label, with two live-recordings.
|
2001 |
€13.50 |
|
| PRIME, MICHAEL |
Domestic Science |
CD |
Das aktuelle Album auf Prime's eigenem Label. Wieder benutzt er Umgebungssoundquellen, erschafft aber hier eine gänzlich andere Soundwelt als auf den anderen Werken. Als Soundquelle durften herhalten: ein "electric radiator" (Heizung), ein Kühlschrank, eine Waschmaschine, und..... Klingt zwar auf dem Papier trivial, das Endergebnis seines processing ist aber eine äußerst merkwürdige & reduzierte Soundsprache, mal zwitschernd wie mutierte Vögel (or whatever), dann hoch-frequentes Schleifen, brummiger White Noise wie Fahrtwind, alles sensibel und wenig brachial, eher kompositorisch wie TOY BIZARRE z.B. .. |
1998 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Requiem |
LP |
Für „Requiem“ hat der unterbewertete Experimental-Composer aus England Sounds von NEGATIVE ENTROPY (sein Projekt mit Geert Feytons von den NOISE MAKERS FIFES), eine „sound sculpture“ von LEN LYE, und „the voice of Miro“ benutzt. Herausgekommen ist dabei eine fantastische, geisterhaft dröhnende Komposition die eine unglaubliche Weite und absorbierende Atmosphäre besitzt und sehr spannungsreich verläuft. Drown-Drones ! Schöne Artwork im Klappcover – ein Muss für jeden Drone-Freund!!
Fantastic new album by MICHAEL PRIME, creating ghostly, otherworldy dark drones which rich details and an unbelievable width and absorbing atmosphere ! very much recommended !
“A new album by Michael Prime who is another prolific sound composer for many years. Being an active member of Morphogenesis he also collaborated with among others: David Jackman/Organum, Jim O'Rourke, Eddie Prevost, David Toop, Adam Bohman. He's also one half of Negative Entropy a collaborational project with G. Feyton (Noise Makers Five) and is running his own label Mycophile. Recorded between December 1998and December 2000 'Requiem' is one of his most intense works so far and quite different from his more enviromental studies. Dedicated to M, H and LL. Pressed on 180 gramm vinyl the record is coming in a full color gatefold sleeve. Limited edition of 700 copies.” [label press release]
|
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
| PRINZIP NEMESIS |
My Name is Assumption |
CD-R |
"A trip through India, captured through field recordings, poetry, and songs – this is what this album is about. Instead of relying on the so-called ‘pure’ soundscape of an exotic country like so many practitioners of ‘phonography,’ Prinzip Nemesis recreate their impressions and the moods they experienced on their trip in compositions that carefully interweave the field recordings and ‘found music’ by street musicians with music for electric guitars, pianos, and synthesizers.
This is a great acoustic travelogue that is second to none but the best works in the genre, for example by Luc Ferrari. Prinzip Nemesis are wise enough to know that sounds do not always speak for themselves, so to tell a story with sounds, you still need words - and music, in this case a kind of goth-rock/electro-pop/ambient hybrid style that is always in the service of the overall atmosphere of the whole album, which really feels like one long piece. Prinzip Nemesis manage no small feat: They have created a piece of acoustic art that transcends the boundaries of phonography, poetry, and music in a way usually only found in the most sophisticated radio art compositions while remaining totally accessible and entertaining to all sorts of listeners." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"If I tell you that this release deals with sounds recorded traveling through India, you may form already an idea what this will be about. Right? Human interaction, sounds from nature and that's it? That's not the case here, or perhaps only partly. Prinzip Nemesis, of whom I think I didn't hear before, takes these field recordings from India and brings into the context of 'music', by adding guitars, pianos and synthesizers. Not a collage of sounds from an exotic country but pieces that stand by themselves, in which a voice (by Birgit Merk, one half of Prinzip Nemesis) sings, recites and whispers additional lyrics, along with looped voice material. She and her partner Marc Fischer add more or less a pop tune to the field recordings. This is not y'r usual field recording turned music (say in the classical, Luc Ferrari sense), but lushly played and with a fine sense of naivety. I am not sure if it works well in every track, as I seemed to like the more adventurous pieces, such as
'Namaste' best: here we have a collage of fire recordings, a bit of piano and synthesizer and the looped greeting that makes up the title. Not altogether, but spread out over the course of ten minutes. Sometimes I don't seem to get along with it, such as the guitars and singing in 'Mumbai'. It's a most curious release; a daring experiment that works and sometimes it doesn't, which makes it a successful release in my book." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| PROCER VENEFICUS |
How the Heather Moonlit Shivers |
do-LP |
"JAW is very proud to present the long awaited first vinyl release of the unchallenged master of acoustic fog music. "How The Heather Moonlit Shivers" is the bleakest PROCER VENEFICUS to date : yet the unmistakable nebular ambiance remains, the darkest of night with all its swirling ghosts seems to close in on the listener and urges the trembling hand to finally switch on the light." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| PROPELLER |
Rame |
CD |
Debut-Album des Solo-Projekts von “ex-Zoviet France”-Mitglied MARK SBYBEY, war lange vergriffen, wieder erhältlich !!
„Propeller is a Vancouver based collective of no fixed membership save the hands of Mark Spybey. Spybey is known for his work as Dead Voices On Air, who have released several albums for Invisible Records. He also worked with Download and Zoviet France.
Rame was a quick fire collection of sonic fragments, isolationist doodles, half truths, archived recordings and low fi ambience.....
Propeller started it's life in England, 1992. It was there that Spybey recorded with his childhood friend Richard Sanderson, who is a mainstay of London's vibrant free improvisational scene. The pair recorded versions of songs that they had worked on in the late '70's, as well as numerous pieces inspired by their fascination with spontaneous composition and noisy improvisational music. It is hoped that these recordings will be cleaned up and released.
Spybey resurrected Propeller's Do It Yourself Disposable Music ethos when he was invited to submit a 30 second piece for a CD Rom project in 1995. Why become so fascinated by first take spontaneity? Propeller seeks to create compact music. Music that expressively captures a moment in time or a dynamic (between the musicians, between the musicians and their instruments and between the music and the listener ). It's deliberately ambiguous in intent. You won't find deceptive melodies or catchy hooks here. It's not gratuitous noise either. It's carefully sculpted once recorded and laid out for the listener to play with. To explore.“ [label info]
|
1996 |
€13.00 |
|
| PROPERGOL |
Tormentor |
7 |
Der neue Stern am Industrial & harsh noise -Himmel heisst PROPERGOL: Intelligent gemachter, psychologisch inspirierter Power-Noise mit Struktur (aus Frankreich).
“First 7" and vinyl release for this French confirmed project. "Tormentor" is dealing with usual PROPERGOL’s intimate obsessions and again music is nothing less than a reflection and an exploration of his confused and chaotic innerworld… Tracks are made of nervous, repetitive and hypnotic pulsations as well as noise injections and vocals in the typical PROPERGOL’s style made of anger and despair underlying his personal oversensitivity… With this 7", PROPERGOL takes you both to a trip to places overwhelming with imagination and to a mental journey on the sinuous and unhealthy roads of neurosis when your own imagination is becoming your most intimate enemy. Like a nice musical score on schizophrenia… Deluxe packaging on a glossy fold-out cover plus postcard. “ [label description]
www.nuitetbrouillard.com |
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Paradise Land |
CD |
"new propergol...spec.pack. - incl. 3 postacrds ...A deaf & sepulchral sound // The door suddenly opens A voice announces : it's ongoing // Preparations in silence There will be no good bye // Defective electrical installations direction : airport // Anxiety-provoking situation Flight-plan : Direction> PN - (48° 52' 36'' S 123° 23' 36'' W) Feverous take-off then cruising phase // Engine shutdown... Silence... Fly over & scope of the disaster // In top view, mankind tears away A rupture, a break with civilization // Separation / isolation - arrival Final approach phase - Stabilization - Ejection... .. . What happens now? ----------------------------------------------------------------- end of transmission." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
"Allein, dass PROPERGOL ein neues Album veröffentlicht, geht fast schon als Überraschung durch. Liegt das letzte offiziell gelistete doch schon sechs Jahre zurück. Zwischendurch hat sich JÉRÔME NOUGAILLON mal um die Klänge von Kollegen (wie zum Beispiel POST SCRIPTVM aus Russland) gekümmert, aber ansonsten musikalisch recht zurückgezogen gelebt, 2012 immerhin ein Stück zu einem Sampler beigesteuert und den 25sten Geburtstag von TESCO – siehe Video unten – mit einem Liveauftritt gewürdigt. Nun ist eben "Paradise Land" erschienen, das aktuelle Werk des Ein-Mann-Projektes, schön verpackt im Din A5-Format, quer, edel und mit drei ästhetischen Postkarten.
Die eigentliche Sensation ist aber der radikale Stilwechsel. Weder Power Electronics noch aggressive Noiseorgien, sondern überwiegend angenehmer und warmer Ambient!
Stimmsamples, die nach Quietschen und animalischem Knurren einsetzen, spielen eine wichtige Rolle auf "Paradise Land" und tauchen deshalb gleich zum Beginn im Opener "Running Scored" (01) auf. Wehende Geräusch-Drones sorgen – hier wie auf dem gesamten Album – für eine sehr räumliche Atmosphäre, die Collagen – vor allem aus vielen Stimmen – und andere, meist natürliche Elemente wie zum Beispiel Uhrticken sorgen für Bezug zur Realität. "911 Dispatche" (02) verstärkt den Eindruck von Ambient; die wabernden, angenehmen, synthetischen Drones haben etwas Strahlendes, Kosmisches. Dazu stoßen weitere Stimmsamples, die für mich stets wie Bahnhofs- oder Flughafendurchsagen tönen, sowohl vom Klang als auch vom Stimmduktus her. In "Ymene" (03) steht längere Zeit eine Art Unterhaltung mit hallenden Stimmen im Raum, durchbrochen nur von wenigen Sounds, und geht über in eine lange Ambientfläche. Etwas bedrohlicher nun liegen wie Insekten vibrierende Drones über einem Grundbrummen. Regen und gewitterähnliche Klänge ("Torquenada", 04) bilden den Übergang zu sehr maschinellen, kurzatmigeren Gebilden aus Tönen.
Es folgen mal mehr geräuschorientierte, mal mehr flächige Ambientstrukturen, zwischendurch auch (wenige) noisige Elemente wie Pfeifen und Fiepen mit entsprechenden Verzerrungen. Rhythmische Strukturen hat sich PROPERGOL für "Bushman" (08) und "Impossible Landing" (09) aufgehoben, dann aber richtig losgelegt. Diese beiden Tracks sind als 'Songs' zu bezeichnen, haben etwas Technoides, bilden das Vorspiel zu einem nie einsetzenden Rhythmusgewitter mit tuckerndem Beat – groovender Minimal-Techno! Das längste Stück am Ende ("Bleu Nuit", 10) mischt noch einmal Vieles: eine verfremdete Stimme (die an Sprachausgaben alter Computer erinnert), Geräusche wie schweres Atmen (der Monolog eines Sterbenden?), weitere Solostimmen und Bahnhofsatmosphäre, um dann in angenehme und erneut rhythmische, federnde Ambientmusik überzugehen.
Es fehlen zwar inhaltliche Infos zum Album, woher zum Beispiel die Stimmen kommen und was genau die Thematik ist. Macht aber nichts. Die Klangmalerei funktioniert so gut, dass jeder Track ein Gemälde ist und eine Reihe von Assoziationen zulässt. Ich stelle mir ein Kontrollzentrum vor, und zwar in allen Facetten, mit Kommunikation, dem Raum selbst und den Informationen, die durch Leitungen übertragen werden. Einige dezente Hinweise (durch Titel und die knappe Labelinfo) könnten auch so verstanden werden, dass sich der Hörer an Bord eines 9/11-Fluges befindet. Dafür ist "Paradise Land" aber musikalisch fast zu gut verdaulich. Streckenweise könnten auch die Belgier von KRAKEN mit ihren Unterwasserthematiken Pate gestanden haben.
Sehr elegante, kluge und erzählende Ambientmusik mit vielen Stimmen und Field Recordings. Sticht in diesem Genre deutlich aus der Masse der Veröffentlichungen heraus. Fans älterer Alben sollten nur wissen, dass dieses ganz anders, viel weniger brutal klingt." [Michael We., NON-POP]
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| PROPHECY SUN / EMERGE |
Spirit Dream |
CD-R |
"This album, possibly the most vocal-based release ever to come out on attenuation circuit, is a unique blend of improvised songs by Canadian performance artist prophecy sun and the electronic treatment of her voice by EMERGE.
Apart from being a dancer, video, and installation artist, prophecy sun is a master theremin player, an improvisational looping maestro and an experimental throat singer. Although on this album she uses only her voice, all of these practices feed into the way she uses it and how she constructs her songs out of words and, more often, just vocal sounds. The dreamlike, spectral quality of the theremin, the recurring patterns of the loops, and the wide range of vocal timbres available to the throat singer are all there in this music. EMERGE delicately treats the vocal material to create a dense, yet fragile sonic environment in which sun’s vocalises can take root and grow. For anyone who wants to discover the richness of experimental female vocals, this is a good place to start, on a par with Björk and Joan La Barbara." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"A new artist for me hails from Canada and calls herself prOphecy sun. She is also a 'theremin player, an improvisational looping maestro and an experimental throat singer'. Attenuation Circuit calls this on par with Björk and Joan La Barbara. Here she performs five solo pieces, followed by three by Emerge, label boss for this label, and then eight relatively short collaborative pieces by the two of them. It seems, but I might be wrong that Emerge also uses voice material in his solo pieces, making this perhaps the most voice based released on this label. Voice, but not necessarily song based, even when some of the pieces are very short. All of it remains pretty much in the world of abstract music. I am not sure about this. I quite enjoyed it, even when I am not always the biggest fan of loop devices in relationship with vocals of a more abstract nature. It easily leads to 'heavenly choir sounds' and sometimes this happens with prOphecy sun too. Emerge, in his solo pieces, goes out into an even more abstract land and stretches out voice material in slow, cascading drone material. It's of course stuff that works together quite well. The looped voice material of prOphecy sun and the more abstract electronic processing of Emerge, which are made into not very long pieces, each with it's own specific character and some fine variation among these pieces. Very elegant collaboration." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€7.50 |
|
| PROSCENIUM |
Weltschmerz |
CD |
"Melancholic dark neo-classic album, with piano and temporary dark ambient elements. Reminds the listener sometimes to David Tibet and bands like Predella Avant, Elijah's Mantle or Ozymandias. PROSCENIUM are coming from Sweden and would fit perfectly into the line up of their Swedish colleagues like Protagonist, Sephiroth, Ordo Equilibrio... too, despite focusing more on the neo-classic aspect. "Weltschmerz" is their second album, after their debut in 2005 ("Behind the Curtain")." [label info] |
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| PROTAGONIST |
Songs of Experience |
CD |
"in 1794, william blake published ‘songs of experience’ as an addendum to ‘songs of innocence’, to complete the picture
of ‘the two contrary states of the human soul’ - the state in question here being the constriction of the human spirit, the
suffocation of creativity by the force to conform.
after magnus sundström aka the protagonist had released his debut ‘à rebours’ in 1998, the sky seemed the only limit for this musical entity. but, to much disappointment within the industrial scene, for the next seven years only a couple of compilation appearances would be heard from the protagonist. then, in 2005 two cds came out via cold meat industry: the aptly titled ‘interim’ ep and the album ‘songs of experience’ (which was actually not entirely a new album, but in parts consisted of reworked versions of the aforementioned compilation tracks and a couple of tracks from the previous ep).
the music on ‘songs of experience’ resolved all doubts: the protagonist is a devoted artist, putting quality over quantity, and the result had been well worth waiting! as if no period of inactivity had ever discontinued the creative flow, the protagonist reassumed the path of the debut: orchestral splendour, rigid drumming, dramatic string works and an increased presence of haunting, eerie atmospheres, pushing the album towards the darker edges of the neo-classical spectrum. vocal deliveries are rather sparse and restricted to short spoken parts this time around, but feature prolific
guests again: tomas petterson of ordo rosarius equlibrio lent his unmistakeable voice to the protagonist’s most wellknown track, ‘strife’, a truly bombastic marching tune. jonathan grieve of contrastate can also be heard on one track, the heart-shattering ‘sick rose’. among all the opulence, romantic leanings all over, though the whole composition takes a decidedly bleak direction. the adapted literature features not only blake, but also baudelaire (here’s the symbolist theme again) and no other than the master himself, mr. william shakespeare. all in all, music and content combine into one
impressive libertine’s manifesto, proclaiming the power of free thought and the mistrust of authorities!
for this well-timed re-release, raubbau gathers together not only the original album, but also the exclusive tracks from the ‘interim’ ep, thus presenting the entire bundle of cmi-released protagonist tracks. until today, the protagonist stands out unique among neo-classical artists for the sheer brilliance of composition and the authenticity of his preoccupations - he is really serious about seriousness. history has been revealed, let beauty unfold!" [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2012 |
€6.00 |
|
| PROYECTO MIRAGE |
Turn it on |
CD |
"proyecto mirage was founded in 1990 by alicia h. willen and francisco planellas. they were initially influenced by the classic electro-pop of the early nineties (a sound which is still present in their side project bubble gum) but the duo was also attracted to industrial-music projects like s.p.k., whitehouse and - of course - esplendor geométrico. their first release saw the light of day after nine years, and their creative output since then has evolved into more complexity. the hard-floor oriented aggressiveness was enriched with electronic ingredients of all kinds - ranging from electro and electronic body music to techno, drum'n'bass, or even sounds similar to those of experimental 'bridging artists' like aphex twin and pan sonic. artists who share p.m.'s taste for alarming atmospheres, broken melodies and distorted rhythms.
'turn it on' is the conclusion of more then ten years of progression. lashing high-speed dance floor blasts ('cannibal party'), distorted eighties nostalgia (6 6 5, 9), straight breakbeat excursions ('welcome to life'), pounding four-to-the-floor industrial anthems ('salvation', a collaboration with italian experimental/folk mastermind spiritual front), disturbing experimental-core ('darker bex') - this album is a perfect amalgamation of all facets of the electronic assault culture - all of which is welded together to form a powerful statement that encompasses severity as well as humorous wickedness - nobody expects the spanish inquisition!
this is what they are, this is where the project is today - take it or leave it.
always keep in mind: proyecto mirage is not just an illusion but a concrete reality!" [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| PRURIENT |
The Black Post Society |
CD |
"The Black Post Society" embraces and accepts the depression of not having anything left to hunt. The mask without a face to hold. The depression of the hunter after the deer is killed. It is better to be hungry than to have eaten. As fantasy shatters under the whip of reality, erotic malaise settles in the nest of the mind inverting this dormant fuel to rekindle the endless cycle of sexual chaos. Black Industrial / Power Noise from this highly respected US act!" [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| PSEUDO CODE |
Europa |
CD |
"PSEUDOCODE (1979-1982) were a coherent unit of 3 individuals (Xavier S., Guy Marc Hinant and Alain Neffe), non-musicians even, combining emotions with electronic experiments, mostly improvised. They called it 'potlatch music' and were only trying to express themselves through
sound rather than pleasing an audience. Within just a couple of years they released a fine body of work on vinyl and cassette (Insane Music, Pseudo Records, Sandwich Records) and international network compilations (Datenverarbeitung, Ding Dong, Korm Plastics, Grafika Airlines, Third Mind, Trax,....) and were even noticed by fellow experimentalists such as Harold Budd or Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire). They could have been bigger than.... Unfortunately the story didn't last for too much longer and everyone moved on with
his life before any breakthrough of some sort.... Buy with confidence: these classic tracks between hope and despair deserve a second
life within a renewed 'Europa', now much worse off than 30 years ago...." [label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| PSICOPOMPO / LORENZO ABATTOIR / HERMANN KOPP |
Synchronicity (Theory of Carl Jung) |
CD |
"Psicopompo is the death guide that accompanies the dying to the afterworld. Synchronicity is the occurrence of two or more events that appear to be meaningfully related but not causally related. From the conceptualization of these two themes combined, German composer/musician Hermann Kopp (of Jorg Buttgereit’s Nekromantik and Der Todesking soundtracks) and Italian Noise Experimentalist Lorenzo Abattoir (Nascitari) merge their unique compositional techniques and source equipment (Hermann Kopp: Violin, Tambourine, Electronics / Lorenzo Abattoir: Shruti Box, Timbal & electronics), leaving the results entirely to chance. The final result is the unity of an audio event joining together 2 separate executions of melody and rhythm without any post production or added effects, bringing out the forlorn emotions of being on the journey to the new world upon death." [label info]
https://4ibrecords.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| PSYCHIC TV |
Batschkapp |
CD |
"Recorded at Batschkapp, Frankfurt, West Germany, 10th December 1984. Originally issued as a bonus CD for the first 1000 copies of 'Were You Ever Bullied At School - Do You Want Revenge?' (CSR27CD, 1999). That first edition sold out immediately and has not been available in any form for 12 years. Personnel: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Paul 'Grimsby' Reeson and John 'Zos Kia' Gosling //
Aufgenommen im Batschkapp Frankfurt am 10. Dezember 1984. Ursprünglich war das gute Stück die Bonus-CD für die ersten 1000 Stück vom ,Were You Ever Bullied At School - Do YOu Want Revenge?" Album. Die erste Pressung verkaufte sich sofort komplett aus, so dass die Musik in dieser Form volle zwölf Jahre nicht zu haben war. Bis jetzt. Mit dabei: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Philipp Erb, Matthew Best und Dave Martin." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Ov Power |
CD |
"Live at Klecks Theatre, Hamburg, 16th September 1984. Originally issued as a vinyl bootleg in 1985 in an edition of 500 copies. Completely remastered and expanded. Psychic TV at their most Industrial. For thee realization ov this project Psychc TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, John 'Zos Kia' Gosling, Paul 'Grimsby' Reeson and Alex Fergusson.//
Live im Hamburger Klecks Theater am 16. September 1984 aufgenommen. Ursprünglich 1985 als streng auf 500 Stück limitiertes Vinyl Bootleg veröffentlicht. Komplett neu gemastert und aufgepolstert. PSYCHIC TV auf ihrem Industrial Höhepunkt. ,OV Power" wurde realisiert mit: Genesis P-Orridge, John 'Zos Kia' Gosling, Paul 'Grimsby' Reeson und Alex Fergusson." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Paramartha |
CD |
"Recorded 22nd September 1984 at Pandora's Music Box, Rotterdam. Originally issued as two bootlegs in 1985 - 'Paramartha' and 'Unclean', now remastered and cleaned from the two, to create the full live show, not heard before it its entirety. Participants: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Paul 'Grimsby' Reeson and John 'Zos Kia' Gosling. // Aufgenommen am 22. September 1984 in Pandora's Music Box in Rotterdam. Ursprünglich 1985 als zwei Bootlegs - "Paramartha" und "Unclean" - veröffentlicht; jetzt neu gemastert, aufpoliert und als eine komplette Liveshow zu haben, die niemals so komplett zu haben war. Mit dabei: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Paul 'Grimsby' Reeson und John 'Zos Kia' Gosling." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Hacienda |
CD |
"PSYCHIC TV, 5th November 1984, Manchester. This was PSYCHIC TV’s first show at NEW ORDER / FACTORY’s legendary HACIENDA club! For this event Psychic TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, John Gosling (Zos Kia, Coil), Paul Reeson, and Alex Fergusson. This is the complete show with unseen photos! Ltd x 1000 copies.
Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Enochian Calls
3. I Like You
4. Unclean Monks
5. Unclean
6. Roman P.
7. Southern Comfort
8. Godstar
9. Thee Starlit Mire
10. Thee Shining " [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Live at the Marquee |
CD |
"PSYCHIC TV’s complete, unheard show, recorded at the prestigious Marquee Club, London, 20th May 1986. For this event Psychic TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Mouse, Matthew Best. Ltd x 1000 copies, featuring an 8-page booklet of unseen photos.
Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Ov Power
3. She Touched Me
4. Just Like Arcadia
5. Supermale
6. I Like You
7. Riot In Thee Eye
8. Interstellar Overdrive
9. Unclean
10. Godstar
11. We Kiss
12. Roman P.
13. IT " [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Thee fabulous Feast ov Flowering Light |
CD |
"PSYCHIC TV in a unique line-up – a unique show, recorded 19th May 1985 at Hammersmith Palais, London. For this event Psychic TV were: Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, Max Prior, Mouse, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Dave Ball (Soft Cell), Rose McDowall (Strawberry Switchblade, Sorrow, Coil, Current 93). This is a completely unheard show, with unseen photos! Ltd x 1000 copies.
Track Listing:
1. I Like You
2. Just Like Arcadia
3. Godstar
4. Unclean
5. Baby’s Gone Away
6. Southern Comfort
7. We Kiss
8. Thee Starlit Mire
9. Ov Power
10. Gen Poetry
11. Tribal" [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Alien Be-In |
12inch |
"Dark Entries Editions is venturing into new waters with a remix EP of Psychic TV’s classic Acid House song “Alien Be-In”. Psychic TV was formed by Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson after the breakup of Throbbing Gristle in 1981. After various line up changes, the band shifted direction to dance oriented songs influenced by the Acid House scene in America. By 1988 experimental electronic musician Fred Giannelli, of Turning Shrines, joined the band and over the next 2 years started to record songs for “Toward The Infinite Beat”. The album was a mix of deep, multilayered tracks full of bright and hypnotic dance numbers, providing the soundtrack to the rave culture that sprung up in the UK in the 90s.
“Alien Be-In” was written in early 1989 on an E-mu Emax Sampler and an Alesis MMT-8 sequencer. Vocal samples were taken from a tape American investigative reporter Don Bolles sent to Genesis. A didgeridoo rides throughout the song, heavily modulated by a Gristleizer creating a hypnotic effect. Near the end of the song the breakbeat slides out of time yet the band chose to leave this in because it sounded strange and fit the concept of the track. Genesis played a spaced out Echo Violin and the band used 360 degree panning rotation devices. For this reissue Fred Giannelli takes a stab at remixing the mono mix of the original sequence sourced from the Emax floppy discs. On the flip are two brand new mixes, the first from Los Angeles based producer, Silent Servant, who updates the classic with his modern brand of driving EBM techno. The second remix is a team effort from Silent Servant and veteran producer John Tejada, that re-creates the original melody using a Roland TR-808 and TB-303, paying homage to early Chicago Acid House artists like Lil Louis and Robert Owens.
All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The 12” is housed in a mind-alerting, metallic silver die-cut sleeve and a neon green label that pops through, featuring the psychic skull transformed into an alien cone head label all designed by Eloise Leigh. Each copy includes a 2-sided 11x11 square insert with black and white photo of the band from 1988 and liner notes by Fred Giannelli." [label info]
www.darkentriesrecords.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| PUNCH INC. |
Fightclub |
CD |
"the bielefeld based live / studio project punch inc. was founded in august 2000. both protagonists, a. brinkert and a. glöckner are equally responsible for synthesizer, sampling and programming (both have played in various projects since 1992). a. glöckner (aka moctan) experimented with electronic dance music and supported local industrial projects like ars moriendi, asche, morgenstern and monokrom, while a. brinkert (aka bipol) achived recognition as an innovative bass player and sound constructor with klang, womp and templegarden's. during various sessions both generated the idea to merge these musical outputs into a collective venture. since the beginning the name punch inc. has stood for hard, intransigent and propulsive industrial that is supported by tribalistic and technoid beats.
the mercilessness of an industrial civilization is punch inc's main influence, and they always place an emphasis on the rhythmic overkill. fightclub: a visualization of the fate of most everyday humans: struggle for assertiveness, combat the inner and outer predator, fight - not for the chance of winning but for survival. fightclub: machines designed for personal wars, emitting dense, grinding soundwalls that are wedged into never ending beat pulses. fightclub: mankind's biggest enemy is shutdown and here are eleven arms to make you move onward...
if this album doesn't make you roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty then you need to check your pulse!" [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| PUNCTUAL TRIO |
Grammar |
CD |
Lou Mallozzi: turntables, CDs, Microphones, Oscillator
Fred Lonberg-Holm: Cello
Carlos Zingaro: Violin
Recorded by Pete Wenger at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, 28 May 2003.
Mixed and Masterd by Lou Mallozzi and Fred Lonberg-Holm at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, 23 June 2004.
Produced by Lonberg-Holm, Mallozzi and Zingaro.
@2003 Mallozzi / Lonberg-Holm / Zingaro
Lou Mallozzi (b. 1957)
Lou Mallozzi is a Chicago audio artist who has been dismembering and reconstituting language, sound, and gesture on stages, sites, CD, and radio since 1986. His background is in performance, intermedia and installation art, and since 1996 an increasing amount of his attention has been focused on improvised music. Using microphones, turntables, CDs and analog mixing, he collaborates with numerous instrumentalists in improvised frameworks. These collaborators have included Carlos Zingaro, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Vorfeld, Mats Gustafsson, Jaap Blonk, Sebi Tramontana, Terri Kapsalis, Michael Zerang, Guillermo Gregorio, Birgit Ulher, Hal Rammel, and many others. He has performed in this context at the Come Sunday Festival (Munich), the Logos Foundation (Ghent), Podewil (Berlin), The Empty Bottle (Chicago), Candlestick Maker (Chicago), The Renaissance Society (Chicago), Kraakgeluiden (Amsterdam), and others. He has also composed several sound poems and structured improvisational works for soloists and ensembles, including Jaap Blonk, Barbara Lüneburg, and the ensemble Intégrales.
In addition to his improvised music projects, Mallozzi also produces intermedia and sound performances, radio art works, and sound installations. These have been presented at numerous venues since 1986, including the PAC/Edge Performance Festival (Chicago), the Chicago Cultural Center, Experimental Intermedia (New York), the TUBE audio art series at the Einstein Kulturzentrum (Munich), Spritzenhaus (Hamburg), Suoni/Sound 2000 (Isola d'Elba, Italy), The Subtropics Experimental Music Festival (Miami), the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (Indiana), Percorsi 98 Festival (Montegrosso d'Asti, Itlay), the Sound Canopy public art project (Chicago), Donald Young Gallery (Chicago), Gallery 400 (Chicago), the Bechtler Gallery (Charlotte), Randolph Street Gallery (Chicago), Aether Fest (Albuquerque), New American Radio, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich), Kunstradio/Radiokunst on ORF Vienna, Sender Freies Berlin, ABC Radio (Sydney), the Resonance FM Festival (London), and others. Among his collaborators in these realms are Sandra Binion, Mark Booth, Heinz Weber, Antonia Contro, and Maurizio Pellegrin.
Mallozzi has two CDs on the Penumbra Music label: Radiophagy (three radio works from 1990 - 1996) and Whole or By the Slice (electroacoustic collaborations with Hal Rammel). A CD of improvised music with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Carlos Zingaro is forthcoming on Rossbin Records (Italy). He also appears on Guillermo Gregorio's Faktura and Cornelius Cardew's Material (both on HatArt, Switzerland).
Mallozzi has received a number of grants and fellowships, including a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study Center (Italy), four Artist Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, and grants from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Governor's International Arts Exchange Program.
In addition to his artistic career, Mallozzi is co-founder and Executive Director of Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, and he is on the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Fred Lonberg-Holm
Composer, improvisor and anti-cellist Fredrick Lonberg-Holm currently resides in Chicago. Defying categorization, his work deals only with the context of the specific musical situation in which he finds/places/builds for himself. A former composition student of Morton Feldman and Anthony Braxton, and cello student of Ardyth Alton and Orlando Cole, his ongoing projects include the groups Terminal 4, The Boxhead Ensemble, Pillow, and the Lonberg-Holm/Kessler/Zerang Trio. He is also currently a member of the Guillermo Gregorio Trio, the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, XMARSX, and Witches and Devils (music of A. Ayler). He also has been coordinating and directing performances of his Light Box Orchestra, a non fixed structured improvising ensemble utilizing a light based cuing system . In addition he has also performed in ensembles led by Anthony Braxton, Ken Vandermark, Anthony Coleman, Georg Graewe, Wolfgang Fuchs, and John Zorn. As an improvisor he has recorded and or performed with numerous musicians including Jaap Blonk, John Butcher, Gunter Christmann, Axel Dorner, Hamid Drake, Barry Guy, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lytton, Jeff Parker, William Parker, Mischa Mengelberg, Ikue Mori, Mats Gustafsson, Paul Lovens, Paul Rutherford, Sten Sandell, Hamid Drake, Jim O'Rourke, David Stackenaas, Willie Winant, Carlos Zingaro, and many others. He has also performed/recorded with the rock groups God-is-my-Co-Pilot, Wilco, the Flying Luttenbachers, Chris Mills, Janet Bean, Super Chunk, Bobbie Conn, Ahmed Elmotassem's Legal Fiction, L'Altra, US Maple, Freakwater, Lake of Dracula, Plastic Scorpions, Zeek Sheck, Smog and others. Concert works have been premiered by William Winant, Carrie Biolo, Joe Fonda and Bottoms Out, Duo Atypica, the Schanzer/Speach Duo, New Winds, Paul Hoskin, Kevin Norton, the E.S.P. Ensemble and others. He has performed throughout the US and Europe as both a soloist and ensemble member. His scores for dance have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Dance Theater Workshop as well as many other venues. Film credits include music for a Playboy Channel short and the independant feature Animals, by Michael DiGiacomo. He has recorded for the Avant, Pogus, Occa, miguel, Explain:, Locust, Meniscus, Nuscope, Curious, Random Acoustics, Skin Graft, Hat Art, Buzz, Knitting Factory Works, Drag City, Ecstatic/Yod, Nine Winds, Atavistic, Rastascan, Box Media, 8th Day, Tzadik, Truckstop and What Next? labels as well as many others.
CARLOS “ZINGARO”
Born 1948 in Lisbon, Portugal; violin, electronics.
Carlos Zingaro undertook classical music studies at the Lisbon Music Conservatory from 1953 to 1965, and during the two years 1967/68 he studied church organ at the High School of Sacred Music. Also, during the 1960s, Zingaro was a member of the Lisbon University Chamber Orchestra. In 1967 he formed Plexus, the only Portuguese group at the time to have developed a new musical approach based on contemporary music, improvisation and rock; the group recorded a 45rpm single for RCA-Victor in 1968.
From 1975 onwards Carlos Zingaro has performed with a wide variety of improvising musicians, including: Barre Phillips, Daunik Lazro, Derek Bailey, Joëlle Léandre, Jon Rose, Kent Carter, Ned Rothenberg, Peter Kowald, Roger Turner, Rüdiger Carl, Dominique Regef, Evan Parker, Günter Müller, Andres Bosshard, Jean-marc Montera, and Paul Lovens. In 1978 he was invited by Wroclaw Technical University in Poland to participate in the 1st Instrumental Theatre Meeting, and in 1979 he won a Fulbright Grant and was invited by the Creative Music Foundation in Woodstock, New York to participate in meetings, classes and performances with such composers as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Leo Smith, Tom Cora and Richard Teitelbaum (a regular collaborator). He also gave lectures on New Notation Concepts, Movement and Sound, and the inter-relationship of Improvisation and Body Attitude. As a soloist, or with other musicians and composers, Carlos Zingaro has performed at many of the most important new music and improvising festivals in Europe, Asia and America.
A substantial level of Carlos Zingaro's musical activities are associated with theatre, film and dance. In 1975 he completed Stage Design studies at the Lisbon Theatre High School and later served on the board of directors of the School. From 1974 to 1980 he was musical director for the Lisbon-based theatre group Comicos, being responsible for most of the original music scores performed during the period. In 1981 Carlos Zingaro received the Portuguese Critics Award for best theatre music and in 1988 he worked with the Italian theatre director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti on his Kafka Trilogy. He has also been stage and costume designer for several other theatre productions. He has produced several film scores and worked extensively with dancers and dance companies such as the Gulbenkian Dance Company, the Opéra de Genève Dance Company, Michala Marcus, Aparte, and Olga Roriz.
Carlos Zingaro was a founding member of the Lisbon-based art gallery Comicos, his work has been exhibited, and he has received several prizes for his cartoons, comics and illustrations, samples of which can be seen on a number of CD sleeves, for example, Musiques de
scène.
www.rossbin.com/rs019.htm
"Is there a mode (maybe mood, posture, or circumstance) in which you are required to set yourself in order to appreciate (maybe absorb) freely improvised music? If you are attending a live show, the location, smells, company, and certainly the visual aspects of the show contribute to your "experience." When you are merely listening to a purchased recording, what are the rules for your listening experience?
Do you meditate in a quiet room? Can you listen to it in your car? Walking with an iPod? Washing dishes? How does the experience of the improvisation mesh with your current environs? Don't ask me for answers, but consider all the stimuli that invade your senses every hour of every day. Maybe that's why the relentless beat-beat-beat of pop music is so simple... because no one's actually listening.
My point is this: no two listeners can have the same response to very highly interpretable music like what the Punctual Trio produces on Grammar.
The cast of players includes cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, the newest member of Vandermark 5 (plus Wilco, Terminal 4, The Boxhead Ensemble, Pillow, and the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, to name just a few); Lou Mallozzi, a sound artist from Chicago who lists Mats Gustafsson, Jaap Blonk, Sebi Tramontana, Michael Zerang, and Guillermo Gregorio as collaborators; and Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro, who has partnered with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Leo Smith, Tom Cora, and Richard Teitelbaum.
Simple review: you cannot dance to this disc, but I give it a ten.
The trio benefits from its choice of instrumentation. Lonberg-Holm's cello, which is seemingly at home in a range of settings from jazz standards to rock to free music, mixes well with Zingaro's violin's scraping, plucking, single notes, and complex travels. They are attuned to silence and space, as on the opener, or odd pulse and song forms, as with "Punctuation. Mallozzi doesn't drown you with samples or electronics; he places them in the mix as if he were Treg Brown, the sound editor of 1950s Warner Brothers cartoons. If you listen closely to "Punctuation, you may find yourself actually embedded inside a cartoon.
But then again, your experience with these sounds will probably be nothing like mine." [All About Jazz]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| PUPILLO, MASSIMO |
Our Forgotten Ancestors |
CD |
Massimo Pupillo is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, mostly known for being a founding members of ZU, with whom he released 18 albums and played more than 2000 shows around the world. He has also kept a very open and multidisciplinary approach that led him to work with some of the most acclaimed figures in today's world of arts: Romeo Castellucci, Chiara Guidi (of legendary avantgarde theatre group Societas Raffaello Sanzio), american choreographer Meg Stuart, french opera star Marie-Agnes Gillot, contemporary dance group Dewey Dell, world reknown dancer Yaman Okur, etc.
He has collaborated live and on record with avant-garde musicians and composers such as Alvin Curran ( founder of Musica Elettronica Viva in 1966), with world-famous piano duo of Katia & Marielle Labeque, with classical music virtuosos such as Viktoria Mullova and Giovanni Sollima. He has also recorded with Canadian soprano and orchestra conductor, Barbara Hannigan. Working with Katia Labeque he has had the huge honour of an album artwork designed by Storm Thorgerson, founder of Hipgnosis, probably one of the most important designers in music. With Katia Labeque, he has played and arranged tracks of an album of Moondog music that was released on the most important classical label ever, Deutsche Grammophon. Also with Katia Labeque he presented a special project at Paris' Philharmonie in 2016, working, between others, with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Bryce and Aaron Dessner (The National). In the world of electric/ rock music he has collaborated with some of the most important names in the international scene, such as Mike Patton ( Faith No More), Stephen O' Malley ( Sunn O)) ,Thurston Moore, Jim O' Rourke (Sonic Youth), Guy Picciotto & Joe Lally (Fugazi), FM Einheit ( Einstürzende Neubauten) , Buzz Osbourne (Melvins) Damo Suzuki (CAN), etc. In free-improvised music he worked with Peter Brotzmann, Toshinori Kondo,Tony Buck ( The Necks) etc..
In the experimental music scene he has collaborated with Oren Ambarchi, David Tibet (Current 93), Thighpaulsandra (Coil), Christina Vantzou, Daniel O'Sullivan, Andrea Belfi, Abul Mogard,, Mick Harris (Scorn), Gordon Sharp (This Mortal Coil & Cindytalk) etc...
Between ZU, solo work and collaborations, he released more than 80 albums and played more than 3000 shows all over the world. As in 2022 he just recorded a collaboration with world famous iconic actor Malcolm McDowell called "Songs Of Stone" that will be released in september on italian label Subsound Records, and is currently working on a sound installation with Roger Ballen, one of the most influential and important photographic artists of the 21st century.
We know it
engraved in our cells
The origin
To feel the primordial song
We need to have
A childish interest
For the universe
Living In a hint of islands
Far and true
Atlantic and remote ones
A hint, that's enough
To find each other
Where time didn't exist
When there was only space
When there were mountains and seas and sky
And unnamed creatures
With roots like plants
Who extracted new forms of language from the force
To make the passage on earth more tender
To find a song that could ease the burden of love
Of this multiform creature that welcomed us
To expand ourselves like jellyfish
And make distance accessible to us
Making a continuous motion
Transforming this perpetual vibrating into our fusion
Since the origin
In a silence
Made sound
And then meat
Swimming on seabeds of ice and fire
A language that dances the dew of dawn
And sings the hidden streams
An origin where we find our ancestors
Timeless faces
Who breathe the depths of the sea and move the mystery
Meet them everywhere
For those with eyes to see
And ears to hear
Lived in the handed-down word
And in the tolling of the sky, that we call hail
On the journey back
Your hand is shaken
And your conscience accompanied
In crowds so endless
And inhabited
By a primordial solitude
Where our home will be a fire of inaccessible glaciers
In the stillness of a love that expands in a restless cosmos
With that hint still clinging
Of distant and real islands
From which the primordial song comes
Recorded and mixed by Massimo at Theresa House 2021/23
Beautifully mastered by Lorenzo Stecconi at Triple Sun 2023. Sleeve design by Rutger Zuydervelt
Front cover photo by Fridtjof Nansen
An Inuit woman with child on her back, Gronlandshavet, Kap Seen Bille
Taken during Fridtjof Nansen's expedition to Greenland, July 1888 - May 1889
https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/our-forgotten-ancestors
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| PURE |
Home is where my harddisk is Vol. 1 |
CD |
Eine Label-Neugründung gibt es von Peter Votava, dem Mann hinter PURE, zu vermelden. Die dritte VÖ auf dOc RECORDINGS stammt von PURE selbst, mit zwei Live-Aufnahmen vom Winter 2001/2002 aus Hamburg (HÖRBAR!) und Porto.
“Consisting of two recordings of PURE´s live appearances in winter 2001/2002. The first track is the entire recording of a gig at the HÖRBAR, a monthly club in Hamburg, Germany that takes place in a small old cinema. Playing in the movie room created a very intense atmosphere as compared to other venues. The 38 min improvised piece interweaves low frequencies with orchestral sounds into dense, unsettling structures, only to dissolve them in its peaceful finish. The second track is an excerpt of a concert given at ANIKI BÓBÓ, Porto, Portugal. Its minimal algorithmic patterns slowly evolve into a swaying string figure that is finished by processed vocal parts.” [label info]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ification |
CD |
"Mir ist PURE durch seine Releases auf Mego, Feld und dOc Recordings ein Begriff, andere kennen Peter Votava schon aus Ilsa-Gold-Zeiten, als Loop- und Sub/Version-Macher und Electronica-Veranstalter. Auf Ification (Crónica 038) schafft der Ex-Wiener und jetzige Berliner erneut mit dröhnminimalistischen Mitteln sieben Soundscapes. Die lassen einen eintauchen in dark-ambiente Dunkelwolken (‚Blind Flight‘) oder lethargisch und wie unter einem Bann dahin driften durch eine Nacht, die kein gutes Ende verspricht (‚End‘). ‚Iron Sky‘ ringt mit zähen und drückenden Verstrickungen wie Laokoon mit den Schlangen, die fatalen Beats schlägt - wie auch bei ‚After the Bomb‘ - Martin Brandlmayr, die Stimme ist die der Bolzn-Screamerin Alexandra. Die hatte auch schon in der Geisterbahn von ‚Sonomatopoeia‘ gestöhnt, zu giftigem Sirren, Theaterdonner und Gewummer, während die krachig verzerrten und gewellten Impulse des Auftakts ‚Fire‘ auf der Gitarre von C. de Babalon basieren. Die dystopische Melancholie von ‚After the Bomb‘ entsteht durch gedämpfte Drones, silbrig durchfunkelt, voller sirrender Frequenzen und mit dem fernen Nachhall von Sirenen und Gefechtslärm, den Brandlmayr mit Besenschlägen und Cymbalbeats andeutet. ‚Approximation‘ nähert sich mit dunklem Stöhnen - wie von den Sirenen der Titanic oder Tubas des Jüngsten Gerichts - und diskant schrillenden Strings, spärlich durchsetzt mit perkussiven Akzenten, dem Bereich der Klassik, mit offenbar ungescheutem pathetischen Effekt. Wer in Pures Elevator
Noir einsteigt, muss sich auf einen Trip ans dunkle Ende der Gefühlsskala gefasst machen." [Bad Alchemy]
"After more than ten CDs and several vinyls under different aliases, projects or collaborations that ranged a multitude of musical styles over the last 15 years, Pure's newest release is now proudly presented by Crónica. Three and a half years later than scheduled, and six years after his previous studio CD release “Noonbugs” on Mego, Pure returns with his fourth solo full-length album — “Ification” — the outcome of a long period of live work (documented in the first two volumes of the “Home Is Where My Harddisk is” series), residencies — in France, with Johnny Dekam, where the “Reqoil Displaced Peaceoff” DVD was produced — and collaborations — the “Heart Chamber Orchestra” with Erich Berger, an audiovisual performance based on the heart-beats of an orchestra of 12 musicians. “Ification” presents a collection of seven highly diverse tracks that revolve around dense, filmic and eerie atmospheres, without ever drifting into obvious or simple harmonies. As in his previous work, Pure takes from music history whatever serves his narrative needs and appropriates it through his." [label info]
"Something entirely different is the latest album by Pure, from Vienna. He works under various guises, and this is fourth Pure CD, following 'Noonbugs' on Mego for four years ago. Seven pieces of electronic music, six of them recorded with the help of others, like Christoph de Babalon on guitar samples, Martin Brandlmayr on drums, the screams of Alexandra von Bolzn and Anke Eckardt on bass guitar. What Aubrey lacks in variation is made up here by Pure. The heavy start of 'Fire', into to post nuclear war zone with no survivors of 'After The Bomb' (an appropriate title), Pure takes the listener on a ride that ranges from subtleness to the utter crude, which ends with the nightmares of 'Iron Sky'. Excellent music for b-movies that deserve a-music. Certainly not always 'pleasant' in terms of nice background music for your living room, but unpleasant music to make your life a bit easier and less painful." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
www.cronicaelectronica.org
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| PURE & ULTRA MILKMAIDS |
s[E]nd |
CD |
"Warm, atmospheric soundscapes melted with stereophonic complex drones. Both of their styles fuse and bleed into one another with perfect consistency." [label info]
"Collaboration vom Mego-Artist Peter Votava (PURE) mit den Milkmaids, auf dem Ant-Zen Sublabel, "intelligenter" Ambient oder wie soll man das nennen? Digitale, aber warme flächige sounds & samples, manchmal eher konkrete, leider unbeschreibbare Digital-klänge - eine meditative & zugleich fremdartige „other dimension“ wird hier entworfen, auf 7 famosen tracks... " [Drone Rec. info 2000]
|
2000 |
€8.00 |
|
| PURE SOUND VS CARSTEN VOLLMER |
American Trilogy |
mCD-R |
"The roots of Pure Sound are in the 1980s British Post-Punk movement. They tell stories with words, field recording collages and instruments. Carsten Vollmer takes their recordings and cut them in pieces. The result is the pure sound of the noise of a radio transmission." [label info]
www.fieldmuzick.net
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| PYRAMIDS WITH WRAITHS |
Magpie & Raven |
LP |
"Einseitig bespieltes, opakes Vinyl in bedrucktem Transparentpapiercover in PVC-Hülle plus Downloadcode auf Aurora Borealis. Von der Optik ganz eindeutig ein Sammlerstück, musikalisch ein weiteres Beispiel für die Art und Weise, wie Pyramids andere Musiker in ihre Ideen einbinden und dann trotz deutlich erweiterten Musiker-Line Ups fokussierte Werke entstehen lassen können. Wer die „Pyramids with Nadja“-Zusammenarbeit mochte und da besonders diese Stimmung dauernd vor dem Ausbruch, mit hervorgerufen und unterstützt durch diese windartigen Sounds, der sollte sich auch auf „Magpie & Raven“ (musikalisch) zu Hause fühlen: am Anfang sind da diese Klavierakkorde und ein erstes Erscheinen der Stimmen, die für die Stimmung des Gesamtstücks noch sehr wichtig werden sollen und überraschenderweise, kaum dass man sich auf diesen Auftakt eingelassen hat, setzt die volle Orchestrierung ein und steckt das Dynamik-Feld ab. Auf diesem herrscht im Weiteren eben wieder dieser Wind, hier unter einem offenen Himmel voller Graustufen mit diesen einsamen Stimmen und ihren Anrufungen als Zentrum, bald wieder unterstützt durch das Piano des Auftakts. Diese wenigen Elemente (und der Reiz des Wechsels zwischen Männer- und Frauenstimme) reichen völlig, die absolut unwirkliche Stimmung über die gesamte erste Hälfte von „Magpie & Raven“ zu tragen, bis sich der Wind wieder stärker aufschwingt und sämtliche Gitarren und das Schlagzeug ein zweites Mal anruft. Was dann folgt ist ein Beispiel, wie musikalisch Noise klingen kann, wenn er denn so erzeugt wird: ein Mahlstrom von Feedbacks unterschiedlichster Couleur, die so klingen, wie ein Loch in einem Staudamm (vermutet) klingen würde. Darauf irrlichternde Treble-Fetzen, die bald so etwas wie eine eigene Struktur über dem Ganzen bilden und der Rücksturz in die (Un-) Wirklichkeit. Nicht ohne eine letzte Ansage der Priesterin. …Statement." [N / Blackmagazin]
www.aurora-b.com
"Magpie & Raven' sees Pyramids at their most sprawling and with moments of ultimate bombast. With piano provided by Clay Ruby (Burial Hex) as an integral part, the 25 minute plus track weaves around this motif with massive guitars and a spoken word performance that is truly epic before everything dissolves in a maelstrom of organic noise as Wraiths eviscerate the previous musical section to its very atomic particles before all comes together again and the track ends with a sense of calm conclusion.
This amazing release is presented as a limited edition one-sided clear vinyl LP in a signature AB vellum-style sleeve with artwork by noted tattoo artist Simon Erl. The multi-layered artwork can all be seen as one whole when held up to the light. Comes with an MP3 download card. Housed in heavy PVC outer sleeve. Edition of 350." [label info]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| PYROLATOR |
Niemandsland |
LP |
The musician Kurt Dahlke is not only a member of the bands Der Plan and Fehlfarben, founding member of the group DAF and co-founder of the label Ata Tak, he has also released a stellar line of solo works under the name Pyrolator for which he enjoys great critical acclaim. What began in 1979 with the first release "Inland" continues it's lineal thread with new work "Niemandsland" – the sixth album within the Land series.
It was 1979, some 43 years ago, when Pyrolator released Inland, an instrumental protest album, as he liked to think of it. Autumnal protests against nuclear weapon stations, against the entire structures of the war generation, but without the pathos of the rebellious songs which soundtracked the 1968 movement. Apart from a few samples, there were no words at all.
Now, more than four decades later, Kurt Dahlke alias Pyrolator returns to his origins. But not, this time, in protest: "The clock already stands at ten past midnight and we have arrived in no man's land. Neither the student movement nor the rejectionist stance of punk changed anything. Avarice has emerged victorious and no future is nothing more than an empty cliché. This is what global reality looks like. The principle of cause and effect."
This is also a back to the roots story for Pyrolator in the musical sense. Niemandsland was created exclusively with modular synthesizers, the computer merely a recording device. All of the tracks were played live and direct – neither storable nor replicable.
The sixth album in Pyrolator's Land series is more than just a bridge to the past and the music to be found there. It has a formal language all of its own, meandering between the beauty of crystal clear melodies and restrained ambient moments on the one hand and rugged, dystopian brittleness on the other. A cycle revolving between the hope of a revolution for humanity and arrival in no man's land.
https://pyrolator.bandcamp.com/album/niemandsland |
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| PÄRT, ARVO |
Berliner Messe |
CD |
"With a number of modern classics already to his name, notably the Symphony No. 3 [Naxos 8.554591], Tabula Rasa [8.554591], Fratres and Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten [8.553750], culminating in 1982 with his largest work thus far, the St John Passion [8.555860], Arvo Pärt has during the past 20 years consolidated his reputation as one of the most significant composers at work today with a sequence of magnificent sacred choral works. The present recording provides an overview of Pärt’s mature idiom with works written on either side of the Passion, and in which a gradual expressive opening-out and harmonic enrichment of the composer’s musical vocabulary can be detected. The Magnificat is perhaps Pärt’s most immediately appealing choral work whose alternation of solo and tutti sections imparts a powerful spiritual aura." [label info]
www.naxos.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Tabula Rasa |
do-LP |
"Der in Berlin lebende Este Arvo Pärt gilt als einer der wichtigsten Komponisten der Nachkriegszeit. Sein Post Moderner Stil bedient sich gleichermaßen althergebrachter und neuer Methoden und brachte ihm den Ruf eines Visionärs ein. Tabula Rasa ist eine seiner am weitesten verbreiteten Kompositionen und eine gutes Beispiel für seinen ausgereiften Stil. Andächtig, zeitlos und düster zugleich, mit Harmonien, die aus einer anderen Welt zu kommen scheinen, zeigt sich hier warum Pärt sich als Ausnahme Komponist des späten 20.Jahrhunderts etabliert hat. ARVO PÄRT: TABULA RASA: Concerto for 2 violins,prepared piano and string orchestra (1977) SYMPHONY No. 1 "Poliphonic" (1964) COLLAGE ON A THEME B-A-C-H (1964) PRO ET CONTRA: Concerto for cello and orchestra. (1966) (1) Crtomir Siskovic and Victor Kuleshov - Violinen Petr Laul - Piano (4) Vadim Messermann - Cello Congress Orchestra Conductors: Paolo Gatto (1), Vladimir Norets (2 - 4) Sound engineer: Gerhard Tses Petersburg Recording Studio, November 1995 The Berlin based Estonian Arvo Pärt is one of the most important composers of the post-war era. His postmodern style is equally inspired by traditional as by new methods and has earned him the reputation of being a visionary. Tabula Rasa stands as one of his most widely-performed compositions, as well as a fine example of his mature style. At once reverent, bleak and timeless, rich with otherwordly harmonies, it shows why Pärt has established himself as an exceptional composer of the late 20th century. ARVO PÄRT: TABULA RASA: Concerto for 2 violins,prepared piano and string orchestra (1977) SYMPHONY No. 1 "Poliphonic" (1964) COLLAGE ON A THEME B-A-C-H (1964) PRO ET CONTRA: Concerto for cello and orchestra. (1966) (1) Crtomir Siskovic and Victor Kuleshov - violins Petr Laul - piano (4) Vadim Messermann - cello Congress Orchestra Conductors: Paolo Gatto (1), Vladimir Norets (2 - 4) Sound engineer: Gerhard Tses Petersburg Recording Studio, November 1995
TRACKLISTING: 01. LUDUS 02. SILENTIUM 03. KANONS 04. PRELUDE AND FUGUE 05. TOCCATA 06. SARABANDE 07. RICERCAR 08. MAESTOSO 09. LARGO 10. ALLEGRO" [label info]
|
2012 |
€19.50 |
|
| QUATTRO BRAVO EBALLIEROS |
1995-2005 |
CD |
REUTOFF zeigen hier ihre verborgene, humorvolle Pop- & drogenschwangere Seite: die verschiedenen Stücke ihres Seitenprojekts QUATTRO BRAVO EBALLIEROS wurden inspiriert von solch bewusstseinsverändernden Praktiken und Substanzen wie Schlafentzug, Vodka, Bier, Absinth, etc.. sie klingen wie eine weirde russische Version von NOVY SVET oder DDAA, oder frühe 80erJahre Homerecording-Projekte....obskurer Gesang, südländische Melancholie, sehr unterhaltsam und definitiv zur Regression einlandend! Credits in russisch & englisch.
“First official CD from this Reutoff side-project known for their brilliant track on "Tutti A Casa - a tribute to Ain Soph" compilation. This is a special compilation to celebrate 10 years of QBE existence. Formed back in 1995, long before Reutoff started, this weird urban-folk/apocalyptic-chanson project with a touch of psychodelia and russian alcoholic madness have recorded more than a dozen albums for private use which are now waiting to see the daylight. Each album is a documentary of a night alcohol fuelled session. The 22 best tracks from those albums chosen by the fans have been included in this compilation, 4 of them have been remixed and rearranged especially for this release. The music reminds of Novy Svet, Mushroom Patience, late Ain Soph and sometimes even NWW, but it has more tragic russian feel and weirdness inside. This compilation could be considered as a herald for the complete album releases on Steinklang and Indiestate which are planned for 2006. The first edition of "1995-2005" is limited to 300 copies in a special package printed silver on black.” [label nfo]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| QUELLET, ISRAEL |
Oppressum |
CD |
"Quellet's music is not really outsider sound art, but it shares strong similarities with it. It explores a debarred universe almost impossible to escape. A minute - albeit extreme - exploration of sound (particularly through saturation), mystical discourse and excesses. However, the composer is also pictured as a regular guy living in a Swiss town, a guy who likes to toy with the local church's organ, accompanied by his wife. Sound materials come from a number of sources: the local church's organ, rented or borrowed percussion instruments (bass drum, timbales, gong, djembe), various objects being struck (his oil tank at home struck with hammers and iron ods), pipes, faucets, telephone touch pads, power tools, sound-producing toys, voice, mouth sounds, throat sounds, and wheelbarrows." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Soni Sclavus |
CD |
Already the second album from this young Swiss composer, and like "Oppressum" its quite a beast on 11 tracks, using sounds going direct into your face, piercing pulsing organ-tunes, rumbling distorted rhythmic excesses, loopy metallic bangs, all kinds of impetuous weird sounds in between, animal sounds, backwards voices & whisphers and something like sound poetry. Very difficult to classify, "experimental" in the truest sense, after this session you maybe simply don't know if you like it or not, but it was NON-ORDINARY music like hell!
"Israël Quellet: a short biography. Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1972. He worked in the psychiatric field for several years. at 16, he discovers on his own some different soundworlds, such as Miles Davis's electric era, Sun Ra, Dub, German cosmic music, Magma, Zappa and many more. In 1997, he stepped into the action and, following the advice of a sound engineer friend, bought microphones, a digital mixing board, and studio monitors. Basically, he turned part of his basement into a soundsmithing studio. That is when he started to create, out of his immediate surroundings, sound works that have little to do with what is "normally" being done. Appreciated by composer Jorge E. Campos, Quellet is supported by the Centre Pierre Schaeffer in Paris. In 2003, he contacted Sub Rosa. Three years later, he was releasing his first public recording. This present one is the second (probably of a trilogy). It explores the very common object and have a great deal with the problem of saturation and noise." [label info]
"Israel Quellet's 2nd album for Sub Rosa is not the unexpected surprise from an unknown artist that this Swiss sound-maker's debut disc was (for both us, and the label, read our review of it to see what we mean, we started off by saying "who the heck is Israel Quellet?"). But, that's because THIS time 'round, when we saw
Quellet's had a new recording coming out, we were already eager to hear it. Much like its excellent predecessor, it's about compositions
(improvisations? explorations?) limited to specific sound sources, each track featuring the use/abuse of a certain instrument or two, or perhaps a non-instrument, and to Quellet, his methods are his music, this is the focus, to the extent that the tracks are identified
thusly... For example, track 1 is "for organ and percussion". Track 3 is "for fitness rower". Track 7 is "for footsteps and knocks on stairs, and vented carbon dioxide". He makes use of organ on here quite a bit, as well as percussion and less frequently voice,
electronically treated (and in French). Actually much of this seems electronically treated, or in some way distorted, with "saturation" factoring into several of his pieces, occasionally achieving Merzbowian levels of noise (on track 6, "for percussions and saturation" especially!). All in all, this disc can be heard as one man's playful but moody, quasi-industrial homebrewed take on 20th (now 21st) century classical music. With so much somber organ and repetitive thunderous percussion, many of these tracks seem quite
ominous, you can start imagining DIY Nitsch-style "aktions" happening in Quellet's backyard.
As with Quellet's prior album, this is varied and fascinating throughout, and surprisingly listenable. Truly experimental (and
successfully so) music for curious ears made by someone with curious ears too. Recommended!!
Oh, and by the way, on our list this week there IS a cool Sub Rosa disc from a hitherto unknown (to us) artist, look for Pierre Berthet's Extended Loudspeakers, it's also AQ recommended." [Aquarius Records]
www.subrosa.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sounds from there |
CD |
"Quellet's 4th opus on Sub Rosa: a new complex and mysterious work for symphonic bass drum, symphonic tympanies, organ, tibetan horn, homemade horn, triangle, tubular bells, shocks inside the church,anvil metal tank and church bells. A challenging listen, but so rewarding.
Israel Quellet: a short biography
Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1972. He worked in the psychiatric field for several years. At 16, he discovers on his own some different soundworlds, such as Miles Davis's electric era,Sun Ra, Dub, German cosmic music, Magma, Zappa and many more. In 1997, he stepped into the action and, following the advice of a sound engineer friend, bought microphones, a digital mixing board, and studio monitors. Basically, he turned part of his basement into a soundsmithing studio. That is when he started to create, out of his immediate surroundings, sound works that have little to do with what is 'normally' being done. Appreciated by composer Jorge E. Campos, Quellet is supported by the Centre Pierre Schaeffer in Paris. In 2003, he contacted Sub Rosa. Three years later, he was releasing his first public recording." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| QUIN, DOUGLAS & DAVID ROTHENBERG |
Before the War |
CD |
"David Rothenberg, an innovative musician and acclaimed environmental writer joins composer and sound artist, Douglas Quin, 'the Audubon of audio'. Together, they blend the indigenous energy of the world's primal cultures with the exploratory spirit of improvisation, in a musical adventure built around and within the powerful soundscapes of a living earth. Rather than simply echoing the tones of nature's voices, this 'earth jazz' moves from a deeper resonance, attuned to the ways nature moves, ebbs and flows. There are echoes of Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and North African melodies, with an ECM-like tone of atmospheric virtuosity; these grooves seem to represent momentary glimpses of conversations that have no real beginning or end. Rothenberg's sensual woodwinds and the fluid support of Russ Gold on percussion and Bill Douglass on bass and flutes complement Douglas Quin's soundscapes with a sensitivity and flair that makes clear that this is music that includes, rather than imitates, nature...The result is an invigorating blend of exotic textures and deep heart that speaks equally to lovers of world music, jazz, and the vibrant sound of our wild surrounding world." [label info]
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| R.O.T. |
L'Ecurie |
LP |
Eine wunderbare, sehr mysteriös und seltsame tönende Platte! Auch nach mehrmaligem Hören weiss man noch nicht so recht, was hier eigentlich passiert. Sehr dronig und ambientös und vielschichtig "folkig-organisch"; etwas low-fi & fliessend improvisiert erscheinen die Dronescapes, dick & undurchdringlich und auch psychedelisch...erinnert an ruhigere VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA z.B...
"r.o.t. has gained a quality reputation in the underground scene during their six years of existence. this led to a splendid cdr- and tape discography. "l'écurie" is their first long player. each side contains two jams that sound like calm and fluently movements through sound at one time, then like a somewhat more brutal treatment at another point. the album shows nicely how r.o.t. works as a (live) band. it's not about well-thought sound poetry here, but about spontaneous improvisation where random incidents are considered as an extra band member. a slow bass that wanders gently through the acoustic droning, when suddenly an alarm clock starts to ring, followed by new almost-quietness and laidback noise. r.o.t. stands for an original approach of sound sources and a continuously seeking for the "moment". side a was recorded in an abandoned administration building in jette, a small town near brussels. the space was run by young students for six months and renamed the place "l'écurie", the french for stable. r.o.t. improvised in the dusty kitchen during three long days, mostly during the nights as well. the tracks on the b side are takes from improvisations in an horse stable. there again the album's title refers to l'écurie. this time at an old farm which is called ferme du biereau (louvain la neuve). the farm is also known as a nice venue and spot for artists en musicians." [label info]
www.kraak.net |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ceci n'est plus avioth / ils chantent pour vous |
LP |
Eine one-sided LP dieser merkwürdigen belgischen Combo, die sowohl ihr Instrumentarium als auch ihren Proberaum auf vielfältige Weise für geräuschhaft-dronige (& absolut disharmonische) Improvisationen nutzen zu scheinen, ein knarziger Analog-Drone & Obertöne halten diese low-fi Geräuschmusik zusammen...
"Since the start of this free-music collective in 1998, R.O.T. rogressively took the shape of a mainly acoustic big band introducing a lot of different analog sound sources (guitars, organs, wind instruments, percussion, objects, modified electronics, etc...). This new record is perhaps R.O.T. at its most minimal. 'Ceci n'est plus avioth' is their first vinyl release since their well acclaimed LP on (k-raa-k)3 in 2006, which brought them to the attention of The Wire and Thurston Moore. The one-sided LP comes in a jacket silkscreened by Jelle Crama and is limited to 175 copies, so order fast!" [label info]
www.morctapes.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| RABELAIS, AKIRA |
Hollywood |
CD |
"The birth of Akira Rabelais' 'Hollywood' has its roots in the composer's lifelong interest in field recordings and in the desire to create a piece of work dedicated to Los Angeles: Texas born Rabelais has used a Tascam recorder to capture almost four hours worth of sounds on Hollywood Boulevard, between Betty Grable's and of Rod Serling's stars. These original recordings have been lightly edited, cut and mastered into a composition that encapsulates the sounds of casual chats, drunken tourists, peddlers, passing cars, music coming from surrounding shops. An extremely dynamic and always changing soundscape dedicated to 'the pleasure of being present'. Akira Rabelais, composer and software developer based in Los Angeles, has released records on Ritornell, Orthlorng Musork and Samadhisound. He has collaborated, among others, with Björk, David Sylvian, Harold Budd and Stephan Mathieu." [label info] |
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Eisoptrophobia |
do-LP |
Akira Rabelais’ supremely moving eisoptrophobia album issued on vinyl for the first time, 17 years after it was first released on CD. Harnessing Akira’s own smudged recollections of childhood brought to life via treated solo piano pieces by Erik Satie and Bartok, it’s a haunting mutation of sound that comes hugely recommended if you grabbed his peerless Spellewauerynsherde reissue last year, or indeed any of his releases for David Sylvian’s Samadhisound label. Followers of The Caretaker’s work or Stephan Mathieu’s classic 'Radioland' album should also dive deep into these exquisite, bittersweet memories of secret histories lost in time.
First released in 2001 on CD by Ritornell, a sub-label of Mille Plateaux, ‘eisoptrophobia’ was an early iteration of Akira applying his Argeïphontes Lyre software to classical music, opening a fascinating schism between the original object and his modern, subjective perspective in the process. Made up of spellbinding, uniquely decayed renderings of solo piano pieces, it forms a poetic farewell to the 20th century and a reluctant embrace of new technological possibilities.
The original piano recordings of Satie and Bartók pieces were made at Wave Equation Studios in Hollywood, California, and subsequently transformed by Argeïphontes Lyre with beautifully elusive results. The recognisable melodies here ring out in myriad new ways, sometimes fractured and indented by patinas of crackle that echo the original contours, while, at othere, smudged into mind-bending obfuscation or spectral, timbral thizz. They have the uncanny capacity to resemble exhumed artefacts, dug up after decades of decay, and riddled with potently psychedelic mycelium ready to spore on the listener’s mind. But they also capture that elusive yearning for early life; the distant crackle of AM radio playing in another room, scratched records, a piano playing, somehere.
The title eisoptrophobia itself means ”fear of mirrors“, in an interview with L.A. weekly back in 2002, Rabelais explained that he picked it as a way of articulating his dread of limitation. ”I exist in a much larger space than what I am physically. But if I were to look into the mirror, I would suddenly pull back into my body.” A feeling not unlike the experience of sitting through this remarkable album before suddenly being snapped back to your surroundings.
First time on vinyl, Black 2LP housed inside a deluxe, thick spine gatefold sleeve. Lacquer cut at D+M, Berlin, photography by Jacqueline Roberts, design by Michael Worthington
|
2018 |
€26.00 |
|
| RACH, MARTIN WITH LYNN WAILS |
My Heart |
CD-R |
"For everyone who secretly thinks that contemporary music is not emotional enough, composer Martin Rach offers some relief with this four-part composition, however ironically. “My heart” contains lots of heart indeed, quite literally in the form of the words “my heart” spoken by Lynn Wails, which serve as key ingredients of the electronic sounds created by Rach.
The music that Rach extracts from “my heart” makes a point of being determinedly abstract, with high-frequency shifts strongly reminiscent of CM von Hausswolff, for example. The contextualisation of these sparse textures, beautiful in their clarity, does however invest them with new emotional content. It’s not romanticism, as might be expected when “heart” is the issue, but rather the humour sparked by Rach’s unexpectedly leaving the ‘serious abstract composer’ pigeonhole by making such a clear conceptual gesture.
File under: drone, ambient, sound art" [label info]
emerge.bandcamp.com/album/my-heart
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| RACHEL'S |
Selenography |
do-LP |
"Die Gruppe aus dem Chicago/Louisville-Umfeld (SHELLAC, RODAN, JUNE OF '44, SONORA PINE, etc..) mit ihrem 4.ten Album (nach´Handwriting', 'Music for Egon Schiele' und 'The Sea and the Bells'). Eine instrumentale, herbstlich schimmernde Mischung aus klassischer Kammermusik und Geräuschparts, alles rein instrumental. Viel Piano & Streichinstrumente, wunderschöne Cover-Artwork. Deeply recommended!" [old Drone Rec info]
"The fourth album from these deft neo-classicists brings a collection of songs that have been staples of their breathtaking live performances, yet had never made it to tape. An integrating of live and electronic textures recorded in various locales between july '97 and January '99." [label info]
www.quarterstickrecords.com |
1999 |
€21.00 |
|
| |
The Sea and the Bells |
do-LP |
"Ihr '96er Album, klassisch angehauchte Instrumentalmusik von warmer Melancholie & Nostalgie, mitunter mit exprimentellen Drones angereichert... in Vinyl gegossene Schönheit! Wäre auch perfekte Filmmusik..." [old Drone Rec. info]
"Rachel's is a collective of musicians based in Louisville, KY. Since releasing their first Quarterstick Records cd in 1995, the group has performed in libraries, churches, rock dungeons, ballrooms, gardens, bowling alleys, and movie theaters across North America and Europe. They have often worked with filmmakers, dance companies, stage productions, printmakers, and photographers. Their recordings and shows have elicited numerous descriptions including "subversives with a cello”, “classical post-rock," "post-classical”, and "lo-fi Louisville loafers." [label info]
www.quarterstickrecords.com
|
1996 |
€21.00 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE |
Jouet Electronique / Elemental I |
mLP |
"alga marghen proudly presents two sublime pieces by Eliane Radigue, 'Jouet Electronique' (1967) for feedback on magnetic tape and 'Elemental I' (1968) for feedback of natural sounds on magnetic tape. Both works, released at Pierre Henry's Studio Apsome in Paris, were never published before. Between 1967 and 1968, Eliane Radigue was the assistant of Pierre Henry in his studio, mainly for the editing of 'L'Apocalypse de Jean'. He also put her in charge of organizing his sound archive according to different criteria. It was an endless work... there were incredible sounds, a true sound library! Eliane Radigue really enjoyed to do this work, even if it took a long time... So, sometimes, she decided to set the machines of the studio to do some little work on her own. 'Jouet Electronique' and 'Elemental I' were born this way as a kind of recreation during her time as a studio assistant. Working with feedback is something that Eliane Radigue learned through Pierre Henry. Do you remember 'Voyage'? There's that fluid part which is made of feedbacks constructed with a microphone... Everything had to be set at a precise distance from the loudspeakers because that is the specific problem with feedback, you have to be at the right distance... Afterwards, these high tone recordings were slowed down in order to discover the deeper character of their colour. This work with feedback was in the end quite limited and what the composer preferred, as a way to produce sounds, was working with two reel tape machines. The first was set on the recording mode while the other was playing and it was the accidents happening in this phase that made the feedback richer. With some fine-tuning you could reach very beautiful results: low pulsations, very high-pitched sounds, sometimes the two at the same time or long sounds. All of these sounds could be slowed down or accelerated, which gave her a beautiful material to work with. With 'Jouet Electronique' Eliane Radigue had a lot of fun, hence the title... As far as 'Elemental I' is concerned, it was the first attempt at something which was very important to her based on the theme of the basic elements: water, fire, air and earth. Eliane had the chance to record in open air thanks to a small Stella Vox that Arman gave her in the beginning of the 1960s. At the time she was still living in Nice and every now and them she went for a walk to do some recordings: the sea, the wind, the rain, the fire... Eliane Radigue continued this way to built her very minimal sound library, not more than ten reel tapes... This was the starting point and in 1968 she used these recordings for her work with two reel tape machines. First pressing limited to 300 copies, with a text by Emmanuel Holterbach and a photo portrait by Arman." [label info]
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| |
In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis |
LP |
"Alga Marghen presents the last chapter from the Feedback Works documentation series, a brand-new LP including "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Danse des Dakinis", two previous unreleased tracks by Eliane Radigue. Among the works of fixed duration from the feedback period, "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is the link between "Jouet Electronique" (ALGA 029LP) and "Opus 17" (ALGA 045LP), and allows you to understand the evolution of her approach. "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is a game of mirroring symbols which glide into a non-measured, bent and elastic, temporality. Eliane Radigue's working method and her aesthetic direction are evident in this work from 1969: her very own unique temporal space of sonic experiences. Even though it bears the same name as the third part of "Adnos III", "Danse des Dakinis" is a peculiar work in Eliane's oeuvre. Conceived in a short time, with all kind of tapes from the composer's past work, it fluently shows a kaleidoscopic vision of Radigue's sensibility for sound. In 1998 she put together a curious self-portrait in sound. There is a feedback ostinato conceived around 1969 and which refers to "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Opus 17". All through "Danse des Dakinis" you plunge into the sound of a creek recorded at Mills College campus that brings you back to the field-recordings from the beginning of the 1960s, made on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Such elements construct "Elemental1" (ALGA 029LP) as well. There are also some discreet interventions on the ARP 2500 synthesizer. It is indeed a peculiar work, which doesn't have the same features of her other compositions, especially at that time of her compositional path. There is an explanation for the composer producing this kind of sound material in 1998, and not limited to the sound waves of the ARP synthesizer. Invited to a workshop at Mills College in 1998, Eliane Radigue could not load herself down with her bulky instrument on such a trip. So, she left with just a few tapes taken from her own collection, drawn from different periods, and composed "Danse des Dakinis" with those old elements. There is tension in this composition, a certain wildness, an unpredictability of elements, those which are recognized as fundamental elements, which give structure to the universe. "Dance des Dakinis" is an intimate and wild symphony, alive and unpredictable, which is to be the next-to-last gesture of the composer before completely stopping her work with electronics." [label info]
"There is no artist, working in the contemporary field of experimental sound, that is more important than the French composer Éliane Radigue. She is a shining light, who, for more than half a century, has quietly blazed trails with a body of work that is as creatively visionary as it is sublime. Back in the 2010s, Alga Marghen launched a crucial archival series, dedicated to some of Radigue’s earliest and previously unavailable works, many predating her first LP, 1983's “Songs of Milarepa”, by more than a decade. Having already delivered four LP of this material, they return with their fifth and final instalment in the series, “In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis”. Perhaps the most fascinating of the group, the first work was composed in 1969 in the period between the creation of two of her earlier works comprised within Alga Marghen’s initiative, “Jouet Electronique” and “Opus 17”, while the second draws on material recorded during the 1960s and then further intervened with, “Danse des Dakinis” was conceived and created in 1998 by Radigue as a self-portrait in sound. Absolutely essential on every count, we couldn’t think of a better place for this series to end, further illuminating the remarkable beginnings of one of our greatest living composers in truly eye watering ways.
Born in 1932, Éliane Radigue began her musical endeavours in Paris during the late 1950s and early '60s, working under Pierre Schaffer and Pierre Henry, before quickly outstepping her mentors. Initially working predominantly in tape, during the early 1970s she made the radical switch to modular synthesis, beginning a decades long exploration of the ARP 2500 that drew on her practice as a Buddhist and pushed the notions of musicality endlessly forward, taking the entire landscape of experimental sound with her through a series of sonic mediations that bound life and art.
During the early 2000s, Radigue set aside her synth, embarking upon a hiatus from music, before taking the unexpected step of beginning to compose works with and for acoustic instrumentalists. By the the early 2010s, this new phase in her career had begun to emerge as the sprawling work, “Occam Ocean” series, arguably bringing her more acclaim and adoration than any other point in her long career. Fittingly, it was during roughly this same moment, beginning with “Jouet electronique”, that Alga Marghen embarked upon their archival series dedicated to Radigue’s earliest and previously unavailable works, offering a unprecedented and much needed sense of dimension to the breadth of her career. Followed in rapid succession by “Feedback Works”, “Vice-Versa, etc…”, and “Opus 17” - each mining the period when the composer worked predominantly with magnetic tape - it’s been nearly a decade since the last LP appeared, making the emergence of their final instalment in the series. “In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis”, that much more sweet.
Comprising two free standing works, the first, “In Memoriam-Ostinato”, foreshadows the pacing that would soon come to define Radigue’s unique approach to composing sound. Measured and slow, it is an immersion into an extending state of contemplation, manifested in organizations of sound; a game of mirroring symbols that bend and elongate time, inviting the ear to get lost. As Radigue recounts: “This piece was commissioned for a Happening, Mémorial. It was a sort of secular procession to the castle of Verderonne, a beautiful place. The pools bordering the edifice were lit, and everyone was dressed or draped in mauve. It terminated in one of the grand salons of the castle where I played “In Memoriam-Ostinato”.”
While considerably more concise than many of the durational works through which Radigue would come to make her name, the 23 minutes that make up “In Memoriam-Ostinato” are not encompassing or lacking in depth. Where it differs is within the presence of slighter darker temperament and mood. Across the work’s length, low rumbles of textural noise form a bedrock - feeling a bit like the death knell of dying electronics - into which strange, warbling tones of feedback pulse and dance with a palpable sense of tension. Like so much Radigue’s work over the years to come, “In Memoriam-Ostinato” actively obscures a consciousness of the artist’s hand. It's so elegant and risk laden, that were it encountered by chance, without context, it might be perceived as the generative form of an abandoned radio station within an alien landscape.
Rounding out the collection and not to be confused with the third part of “Adnos III”, which bears the same name, “Danse des Dakinis” is quite possibly the only work of its kind in Radigue’s remarkable body of work. Drawing on a wealth of tapes she created during the 1960s, the work was created in 1998 as a kind of self-portrait in sound; a kaleidoscopic vision of Radigue's sensibility for sound, a memoir, and a hall of mirrors prismatically reflecting the multiples sides of self. The piece, because of the many phases in her career from which it draws, is a fascinating hybrid that uses field-recordings from the beginning of the 1960s, made on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and capturing the sound of a creek recorded at Mills College campus, feedback elements from 1969, as well as later interventions on her ARP 2500 synthesizer.
Standing outside her larger body of composition, while intrinsically bound to it, “Danse des Dakinis” nods toward the dakini, a female deity in Vajrayana Buddhism or a female demon in Hinduism, establishing a curious bond between wrathful female forms and the elements of nature which double, in Buddhism - a central force in Radigue’s life and work - as the absence of ego or mental obstacles, where nature itself is revealed. Here, once again, we encounter the composer in a darker meditative state, weaving the sounds of nature into those of her Arp and feedback to create a complex internal world that blurs the lines between abstraction and raw emotion, electronics and organic sounds.
It’s hard to not feel a little bitter sweet about the long overdue emergence of Éliane Radigue’s “In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis”. On one hand, it’s a truly incredible and deeply illuminating body of work. On the other, it signals the end of Alga Marghen’s decade long immersion into the composers crucial, previously unreleased body of feedback works from the 1960s. Still, we couldn’t think of a better way to end than here. It’s one of the most intriguing and engaging of the group. Absolutely fantastic from the first to the last." [Soundohm]
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| RADIOHEAD |
The King of Limbs |
CD |
"Unbezwingbare Größe: achtes Studioalbum der englischen Alternative-Rock-Helden.
Sie gelten als stilprägendste britische Band der 90er-Jahre und haben sich mit Alben wie "The Bends" und "OK Computer" in jede 90er-Jahre-Best-of-Liste gespielt. Die Rede ist natürlich von Radiohead. Die 1986 in Oxford von Sänger Thom Yorke gegründete Band veröffentlicht mit "The King Of Limbs" ihr achtes Studioalbum. Die acht Stücke des Albums wurden erneut vom Erfolgsproduzenten und Quasi-Bandmitglied Nigel Godrich betreut, der bereits "OK Computer" produzierte. Die Internetplattform "Laut.de" urteilte: "Mit jedem Durchlauf wächst der tiefe Schatten, den Radiohead mit ihrer zeitdiagnostischen Qualität samt eigenbrötlerischen Veröffentlichungswillen auf die Musikindustrie geworfen haben, bis zur unbezwingbaren Größe heran." [label info / Indigo]
www.xlrecordings.com |
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| RAGAMATIC |
Umbilicus |
CD-R |
"Don’t be fooled by the Latin titles, Ragamatic is all about Indian sitar music, played by Reiner Heidorn and fused with his electronic drones and beats.This is a powerful, deeply hypnotic mix that avoids all “ethnic” clichés. Although Heidorn quotes it, you do not necessarily have to be into classical Indian music to enjoy this music. The atmospheres created here are equally related to trip hop and drone ambient music." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| RAINEY, BHOB & RALF WEHOWSKY |
I don't think I can see you tonight |
CD |
Schon lange nicht mehr hat man RALF WEHOWSKY (aka RLW) so höchst verzückt abstrakt, sphärisch & dröhnminimalistisch erlebt. Seine Collab. mit BOB RAINEY lebt von sirrenden, flirrenden, kurz unbeschreiblichen Soundeffekten, die in eine Drone-Geäst gewebt werden, dass es eine reine Freude für den brachliegenden Geist ist. Mitunter werden field recordings und benutzte Instrumente erkennbar..
Daneben gibt es eine Fülle von auch sehr konkreten Geräuschen, Wendungen, cut-ups, etc.. hier kann man sich nicht einlullen lassen, diese 3 Kompositionen erfordern (& erzeugen?) höchste Bewusstheit und Konzentration!
"The Bhob Rainey/Ralf Wehowsky collaboration overcame many gruelling attempts, musical dead-ends and a five full years to realize its outcome and man, was it worth the wait! Both artists sit firmly in their unique and highly regarded (and earned) musical positions these days and are both truly fearless in attempting and pursuing new musical activities for themselves. Here are three powerful, often hair-raisingly intense pieces that allow no room for complacency on the part of the listener.... at all. Here is what Dan Warburton says in the newly posted February issue of Paris Transatlantic: 'Listen to how the title track emerges slowly from a shell into which fragments of recognizable noises are being sucked as backwards sound files, taking nearly seven minutes to reach the open air, where distant sounds of children at play, footsteps and tiny smears of saxophone multiphonics and all manner of sonic building blocks both recognizable and tantalizingly inscrutable are gradually brought together to construct the musical equivalent of a Gothic cathedral... from where I'm sitting this is one of the most important works of electronic music (or musique concrete, if you prefer) to appear this decade.'" [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| RAIONBASHI |
In Teufel's Küche? |
10inch |
"... The music is great, yet hard to define. Is it musique concrete? Perhaps one could say it is. There is the use of piano sounds, various objects picked up with contact microphones and perhaps some voice material. But what Raionbashi does with this material is not drown it in electronic processing, but built in various layers of unprocessed nature. Lots of layers it seems, but with various moments of silence built in. I perhaps wrongly expected some noise, but this is far from it. This is some great obscured music (as opposed to obscure music), with some intense moments. Not easy listening, but one that grows every time you play it ." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
" 10" Vinyl published by Absurd (Greece) and Ignivomous (USA). Follow-up release of 2006 'Kollekte' LP on Hanson Records (USA). All Voices, Noises, Instruments, Body-Functions & Apostrophes by DL. Performed, recorded and mixed 2005-2008 at No-Go-Area, Berlin. Mastered at Clunk, and cut at D+M, Berlin, by Rashad Becker. Edtion of 500 copies. 33rpm." [label info]
" "In The Devil's Kitchen." So translates the German title, the
first that we've stocked from Daniel Lowenbruck, who both records as
Raionbashi and runs the Tochnit-Aleph mail order service out of
Berlin. He's also a long standing member of the Schimpfluch Gruppe
whose provocative recordings and performances directly channel the
Vienna Actionists such as Hermann Nitsch, Gunter Brus, and Rudolf
Schwartzkogler. Where the Austrians were pushing their transgessive
acts through art world channels, Schimpfluch has their origins in
punk, industrial culture, and (at least for the case of Schimpfluch's
Dave Phillips) metal taken to a Dada extreme laced with theatrical
ultra-violence. So begin these deconstructed tapes and mangled silences.
Lowenbruck cites that the sources to his Devil's Kitchen
include 'noises, instruments, body functions, and apostrophes.' The
discernible sounds are a piano being struck by a hammer fist on the
lower octave of the keys, a police whistle blowing out the condenser
mic on a Walkman, and some downpitched vocal howls that come across as
way more demonic than those wolf growlings on Ben Frost's album By The
Throat. Between these recognizable elements, Lowenbruck cuts and
pastes with monochromatic noises that puncture grey curtains of leaden
hiss. Compositionally, certainly hits the mark with the guttural
musique concrete from the Schimpfluch Gruppe, somewhere between the
machined ruptures of Dave Phillips and the unsettled ambience crafted
by the impeccable G*Park; or less self-referentially stated, somewhere
between the sound poetry of Henri Chopin and the corroded tape work of
Joe Colley. Limited to 500 copies and highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records]
www.tochnit-aleph.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| RAISON D'ETRE |
When the Earth Dissolves in Ashes |
CD |
" 'When the Earth Dissolves in Ashes' gathers 75 minutes unique material formerly live only performed at different locations during 2010 and 2011: Zürich, Wuppertal, Rotterdam, Cologne, Leipzig (WGT), Cherkassy and more. The starting point for these live tracks is mainly the sounds used for 'In sadness, Silence and Solitude', 'Metamorphyses' and 'The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice' looped and mixed live together with on spot improvised sounds, thus shaped into new never before heard sonically expressions. Comes in very nice 6panel Digipak Total lenght 75 minutes 35 seconds.
Biography: Raison d'être formed in 1991 as a tool of expression with the goal of self-realization. Behind the project is the highly respected and multitalented sound artist Peter Andersson. For almost two decades now, and with a vast number of CD releases on the Cold Meat Industry label, raison d'être have been supplying listeners with overwhelming dark ambient industrial landscapes of beauty and sorrow. Listening to raison d'être is like a lucid journey into the dark hidden domains of your inner self. But this is not all. Peter Andersson host not only one but up to nine other projects representing different sides and sounds of the Andersson character. The most well known except for raison d'être are Stratvm Terror, Necrophorus, Bocksholm and Atomine Elektrine." [label info]
www.coldmeat.se
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
|
The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice (Expanded Edition) |
do-CD |
"Ewers Tonkunst is happy to announce its another collaboration with famous swedish industrial music mastermind Peter Andersson made ten years after long sold out Panzar “Human Degeneration” CD. This time it's a reissue of his main project Raison D'Etre latest studio album initially released in 2009 on Cold Meat Industry. 'The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice' is not only vibrating on the surface of your skin. It is alive and breathing, a creature with a knife that cut deep wounds in your body while your soul shatters for air. It is a psychosomatic and transgressive disease opressed by a compulsive behaviour manifested in dualities - the one of your body and mind - and states of metamorphoses - mind becomes flesh become
wounds become fluids become stains. Play it loud if you want to become the martyr. Play it low if you are the innocent victim. There are no levels in-between. Violent and intense, it is a hell of an ordeal. But withstand and you are promised bliss. This version of the album has been expanded with an extra disc
containing 60 minutes of previously unreleased early-versions-of-the-original-album-tracks. The release comes in a special foldout 6 panels digisleeve and includes 2 full colour inserts." [label info]
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Prospectus I (Redux Version) |
do-CD |
"Long time sold-out, finally here comes the re-edition of this cult and seminal album!
A stunning blend of the modern soft gothic sound and the timeless chants of Catholic rituals. It is at once a beautiful sound, yet also filled with melancholy. Archaic layers of string sounds, bells and choirs are intermingling with heavy drums and industrial loops creating an unsettling and threatening background atmoshere whilst spleen and sweetness forms the foreground.
'Prospectus I' became the first CD album by raison d'être, originally released in 1993 by Cold Meat Industry. In order to celebrate the 20th years anniversary it has now been made available as a reduxed and enhanced 2CD album.
All the sounds has been restored and re-recorded from source and all the tracks has been carefully mixed to maintain the true feeling and atmosphere of the original album but with the modern standards for high quality audio. 'Prospectus I' with related tracks can for the first time be experineced with superior audio quality and well balanced mixes.
The first disc mirroring the tracks of the original album and the second disc contains a major selection of tracks from the 'Prospectus I' session previously available on the 'Lost Fragments' and 'Collective Archives' collections." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2013 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations (Redux Version) |
do-CD |
" 'Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations' takes the listener deep below the world of the ordinary into the catacombs of the subconscious, the worlds lying within us so few ever live to explore.
This is music meant to stimulate the mind, to inspire one in their explorations of self and solitude.
Layers of ethereal atmospheres and the collage of choirs, strings, bells and occasional voices slowly bleed together to create music for society whose spirituality has been rendered impotent.
Soaking in this world, one is left with the impression of overwhelming sadness and profound desolation.
This is the sound of all hope nullified.
'Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations' is an expedition into the hidden parts of the inner self and is bridging feelings of deep melancholy to blessful joy as it seeks for the true essence of human existence.
Original released in 1995 by Cold Meat Industry the album has now been restorded, re-recorded and mixed to render the modern standard of sound quality still maintaining the perfect balance between subtle and harsh, dark and pure of the original mix.
'Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations' is accompanied with a second disc bringing tracks from various compilations from the period together to form a strong twin album.
A unity with double joy: Wallow in the melancholy!
The album comes in a 6-panel digipak with awesome photos by Martín Pels.
Mastered according to the K-14 level standard." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2013 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Mise en Abyme |
CD |
"TRANSGREDIENT RECORDS TR-10
6-PANEL DIGIPACK using photos of Roberto Conte
FORMAT: FULL-LENGTH CD PLAYTIME: 58:50 min
FILED UNDER: DARK AMBIENT, SOUNDTRACKISH POST-INDUSTRIAL
Transgredient Records is very proud to release the newest studio-work by this well known Swedish ambient industrial project, continually re-newing the dark ambient genre since 1992.
"Mise en Abyme" is the first raison d'être studio album in over 4 years, following a very special "initation concept" with an emphasis on the experience of sequential psychological states with cathartic effects - diving into the deepest regions of the subsonscious in order to return with a fresh and 'empty' mind. All the previously beloved elements of raison d'êtres music are here: spacious deep drones, touching sacral choirs, ritualistic sounds from gongs and bells and other awesome integrated field / object recordings - all impressively enhanced to reach a new level of masterful atmospheric composition. Moving from dramatic tension and threatening uproar to meditative beauty, this near hour long album reveals various changes and details, while always sounding monolithic (all of one piece), expressing almost unbearable sensations of melancholy, vastness and contemplation. The idea behind this album, in the words of the artist: " 'Mise en Abyme' is an inner journey down to the most hidden and dark parts of the Self. 'Mise en Abyme' literally means 'placed into the abyss' and conceptually the album contains ingredients from 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante or any similar stories/myths around the katabasis theme. Instead of being linked to religion, history or morality, it is purely a psychological and therapeutic trip to the underworld, investigating the subconscious. But even in the darkest and chaotic places in the depths, there are small shades of light, hope and understanding; one can be enlightened and purified upon returning to the conscious world."
TRACKLISTING :
1. ABYSSOS
2. INFERNOS
3. KATHAROS
4. AGRAPHOS
video teaser: http://youtu.be/pmnvden-DBo
www.raison-detre.info // www.facebook.com/raisondetreofficial" [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Alchymeia |
CD |
"It’s with great honour that we present the latest album by Swedish dark ambient stalwart raison d’être. This time Peter Andersson scrutinizes the paths of Carl Gustav Jung's notions of archetypes and the individuation process. Just like Mise en Abyme, the previous raison d'être album from 2014, Alchymeia is diving deep down to the shadows of the unconsciousness, and back to a dawn of the true Self. Confronting the shadow within is the darkest time of despair. There seems no way forward, only down. All is blackening and decomposed. Suddenly, through an enantiodromia, the ever deepening descent into the unconscious transmogrifies and becomes gradually illuminated. The melancholia is being purified. Alchymeia is in a sense the “raison d'être” of raison d'être, a shadowy journey through our unconscious the individuation process and archetypes. This release also marks the first time a raison d'être album will be available on vinyl. Artwork by Nihil." [label info]
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Prospectus (Sublime ed.) |
4 x CD BOX |
30 year anniversary boxset of this contemporary classic of Dark Ambient soundscapes. Originally released in 1993 on the now defunct Cold Meat Industry label, the album soon became a staple of the CMI sound and raison d’être subsequently became a household name in the genre and an inspiration to many. Offered in this massive 4 CD boxset is a completely new re-recording of the original album, made in 2022, in order to obtain the highest sound quality and mix of this 30 year old opus. Disc II contains additional unreleased session tracks, also re-recorded in 2022. Disc III gives us the original album in a remastered version and finally Disc IV offers additional session tracks from the period in their original versions.
“Prospectus I” is a stunning blend of modern ethereal gothic sonorities and the timeless chants of monastic rituals. A refined blend of melancholy touching higher realms. Archaic layers of string instruments, bells and choirs are intertwined with percussive elements and industrial loops creating an unsettling background atmosphere whilst spleen and bittersweetness form in the foreground. Co-Released with Yantra Atmospheres.
Edition of 300 copies. 4 CDs in sleeves, housed in rigid box with lid, matt lamination. Includes a fold out 12 page booklet. 43 Tracks. Running Time; CD I 55:01, CD II 73:13, CD III 54:07, CD IV 71:12
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/prospectus-i-
sublime-edition |
2023 |
€46.50 |
|
| RAMIREZ, RICHARD VS NEUROPATHIC FORCE FEEDBACK |
untitled |
CD |
"A very interesting noise collaboration between the master of american harsh-noise and a new german noise project." [label info]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| RAMLEH |
Switch Hitter |
10inch |
Überraschender neuer Release der UK-"Industrial / Impro / Rock"-Legende, hier sehr psychedelisch / hypnotisch noise-rockig & an alte SPLINTERED erinnernd...
"Black Rose Recordings and Broken Flag present the new 10" single by the legendary group Ramleh. Limited to 500 with black and white artwork this is their first new material since 1998 and it doesn't disappoint. Powerful droning intensity, motorik rhythms and warped guitar riffs dominate these two songs with one containing Ramleh's distinctive distorted vocals weaving in and out of this inventive chemistry. "Switch Hitter" could almost be described as a full on dissonant rock track, but Ramleh's desire for experimentation and improvisation lifts it way above the general rock mindset. Ramleh have been active since the early 1980s, first as one of the UK's pioneering power electronics groups and then towards the late 80s they, along with Skullflower, laid the foundations for the UK's improvisional noise rock scene. In fact Gary Mundy from Ramleh was also one of the founding members of Skullflower (there was an overlapping membership of both bands, yet Ramleh always managed to retain their own unique identity regardless of musical genre). They returned to the live scene last year with well received shows in London (one with Whitehouse the other with Merzbow), and New York, whilst a new album release and planned re-issues from their back catalogue are due late 2009 proving they have not lost any of their energy, excitement and ability to explore all possibilities." [label info]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
It's never alright |
7inch |
For many years now Fourth Dimension Records has forged a strong relationship with both Gary Mundy and Anthony Di Franco of Ramleh by virtue of support for their respective solo endeavours, Kleistwahr and JFK. After having released a large proportion of their albums under these guises it then only made sense that a Ramleh record itself for the label would be mooted. This single grew out of these discussions and follows on from 2019's critically acclaimed The Great Unlearning 2LP on Nashazphone, which itself saw Gary and Anthony not only reunited with Stuart Dennison, Martyn Watts and Philip Best, but also collaborating with Philip's wife (and Consumer Electronics partner) Sarah Froelich and delivering perhaps their most immediate and surprising work to date. Made available as a good old fashioned double-A side on 'punk rock green vinyl', both 'It's Never Alright' and 'Kerb Krawler' maintain these high level proceedings, too. If you ever wondered how Noddy Holder might sound if fed through the Ramleh mangler, then 'It's Never Alright' will help flesh out that thought with its city-destroying stomp attack colliding head on with the kinda untamed keyboard splurge the group is more generally renowned for exorcising. Before you then begin to prod at those question marks arising from the melee, 'Kerb Krawler' helps to reel you back to a psychedelic orbit nobody but Ramleh know how to navigate. Proof positive, should it be necessary, that these boys won't be donning mirror adorned top hats any time soon. Typical for Ramleh as they stand now, both songs represent just two of the many sides they're now given to exploring. Bold, serious, playful and once again illustrating exactly how easily they straddle the line of being great musicians never afraid to turn that notion on its head by rising to new challenges, this single pays testament to their current upward curve. Limited to 500. Due in November 2019. |
2019 |
€8.00 |
|
| RANK ENSEMBLE |
Papilio Noblei |
CD |
"Rank Ensemble is Solmund Nystabakk (guitar, voice), Elena Kakaliagou (French horn, voice), Saara Rautio (harp, ukelele, spring drum), James Andean (piano, electronics, flute, melodica). The music of Rank Ensemble is highly original, the sense of originality is increased due to the unusual combinations of instruments. The music falls between all possible chairs — one moment it is close to academic avant-garde, the next moment it is collective improvisation and instant composing, the next it is electronic explorations." [label info]
www.leorecords.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| RANTA / ICHIYANAGI / KOSUGI |
Improvisation Sep. 1975 |
LP |
Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi originally got together in the summer of 1975 for an open-air concert in Sapporo. The concert felt like a great success but was unfortunately not recorded. As the desire arose to record together, they managed to arrange a studio session in the NHK Studio in Tokyo, with presence of sound engineers.
What was supposed to be a soundcheck for this session became the session itself: a haunting 50-minute séance of intense avantgarde improvisation using a large instrumentation and live processing (tape echo, ring modulation, phasing). A trident travelogue of the momentum masterfully controlled by the ensemble spirit, transcending the boundaries of psychedelic underground.
Official reissue of this underground classic from 1975, originally released in a tiny edition on the small Japanese Iskra label.
As the original master tapes of these recordings seem to be lost, the master had to be taken from an unplayed original LP copy. It was carefully restored and mastered by Jos Smolders with amazing result.
Audio restoration and mastering: Jos Smolders/EARLabs
Lay-out: Meeuw
Translation: Alan Cummings
Production: Timo van Luijk
https://metaphon2.bandcamp.com/album/improvisation-sep-1975 |
2022 |
€25.00 |
|
| RANTA, MICHAEL |
Yuen Shan |
do-LP |
"16 track composition for pre recorded sounds and live percussion performed by Michael Ranta (entirely different work from the Yuen Shan CD released in 2005). All material previously unreleased.
LP version : 2 LP's in gatefold sleeve with insert. Edition of 300 copies.
Yuen Shan (Round Mountain in Chinese) was conceived in 1972 and finalized in
2014. It's a musical cosmogony in four cycles based on different levels of ancient
Asian spiritual principles and mechanisms. A major work in Ranta's oeuvre (his
first solo release in almost 25 years), highly personal and spiritual." [label info]
www.metaphon.be
|
2015 |
€32.00 |
|
| RAPOON |
The Bush Prophet |
CD |
"We are happy to present you the third Rapoon release on Ewers Tonkunst. “The Bush Prophet” is a brand new album from this legendary and highly influential project, which unique style of blending industrial, ethno-rhythmic and cut-up techniques has gained international recognition and made Rapoon one of the main artists in its genre. This work has an accent on more dark, hard and anxious sound constructions than most of its recent albums, it is full of tension and scepticism, but with no lack of inner hope though.
Like it’s last year Soleilmoon release “Melancholic Songs Of The Desert”, it deals with isolationism and the myth of democracy. Manipulated by media and bombarded with political spin we live in a world where our political choices are reduced to almost zero. Faced with a hostile world and lies from every direction is it any wonder that there is a need to retreat to try and find some peace and humanity. The voices on the television make promises and soothing noises then wage unjust wars in our name. The lies fall like honey and nothing changes.
These songs are a retreat into the one place that no government has yet found a way into, the free and open spaces of the mind. They are spontaneous and mediative reflections looking for an inner peace in a world made ugly by hatred and war. They symbolize a kind of "walkabout" and a reconnection with a lost sense of belonging spiritually, intellectually and physically with the world we inhabit. The music here looks for a sense of inner being that one can only find in quiet isolation.
The release is limited to 500 copies and comes in a stylish digisleeve with artwork by Robin Storey." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Dream Circle |
CD |
"The long-awaited re-issue of the very first album of Rapoon initially released by now long defunkt Death Of Vinyl Entertainment in 1992. “Dream Circle” was out just after Robin Storey left Zoviet France and it has a lot of common with his former project’s late 80-es/early 90-es sound, especially with the same DOVe label release “Shadow, Thief Of The Sun”, which is now maybe the most sought-after CD of Zoviet France. “Dream Circle” is a bridge between the old and new projects, a kind of a witness to this difficult times. It’s dark, esoteric and dense, with a lot of haunting loops, frightening whispers and subtle trance-inducing rhythms. Though it’s nearly 20 years old, it sounds fresh and actual, as now the spiral of time made its turn bringing us closer to this point of eternal dream circle, just one level higher (or lower, who knows). The release limited to 500 copies comes in a mini LP-like embossed cover with inner sleeve, both printed gold-on-black." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Messianicghosts |
CD |
"Reissue of a long time lost classical Rapoon album published in 2002 by the Austrian label Klanggalerie. Remastered and extended re-release of Rapoon´s CD-R only release "Messianic Ghosts" on Syntactic, plus the Birethen and Amüz 7" tracks from the Syntactic 7" plus two brand new tracks as well." [label info]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Time-loop Anomalies |
CD |
"Time-Loop Anomalies", the next Rapoon offering on Zoharum after "Disappeared Redux", contains more than an hour of eerie, ethereal music lingering on the borderlands of dreamworld and reality. Robin Storey, the man behind the moniker, delivers yet again a subtle woven masterpiece, both being a bold step into the new world and in the vein of his earlier projects continuing recurring themes in his artistic work.
Robin says:
"Time-loop Anomalies" is a collection of single tracks and 'starts' in the creative process drawn together and composed into a cohesive collection of pieces. Many times in the method of composing new works different directions and musical elements are created and then honed down into a direction which is built upon and re-enforced throughout the "narrative" of a album. "Time-loop Anomalies" is a collection of short stories put together and given a unifying theme which binds the various elements.
The pieces span a wide timescale, but, in the spirit of quantum mechanics, they are tossed together and create new and different perspectives through the workings of chance and composition. There are hundreds more "starts" that resurface and disappear as time goes by. These are some that made it to the final stage of the creative method and got to be published.
Sputnik remix is my own personal favourite as it is autobiographical, in the sense that I remember looking into the starry skies when I was very young and seeing the little pinprick of light travel through the heavens. It left a deep impression of loneliness and separation upon me ...bleak but beautiful..." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Seeds in the Tide Vol. 1 |
do-CD |
" 'Seeds in the Tide' collects all the rare tracks released on compilations, small or limited formats. The first disc entitled "Keepsakes and Oddities" contains tracks recorded between 1993 and 1999. The second one is a reissue of the ultra-limited CDR version of the well-known "Messianicghosts" album which inclides the original version of the four tracks from that album that are significantly different from their later variants." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
|
To West and Blue |
CD |
"Not a reissue, not a compilation, but something complete new. "To West and Blue" is 50th Rapoon album and 5th Rapoon release on Zoharum label. And this one will become a staple in our CD players for long time. 7 long, slowly evolving tracks appealing to your subconscious side. An album that is definitely not to everyone's tastes. This one gradually grows on you until you are captivated by its haunting beauty. But there is an underlying uneasiness in it. A sort of clash between reality and a ghost world or a world that is long-gone. With choral voices hidden beneath layers of treated sounds, "To West and Blue" is a stand-out album among Rapoon numerous releases.
Robin Storey talks about this album: These pieces are about the area grew up in in the UK. A peninsula of land which stuck out into the Solway Firth. Surrounded by the sea when the tide was in and surrounded by endless mudflats when the tide was out. When the water covered the ground the line between the sea and the sky was almost non-existent. A diaphanous boundary. The sea came in from the West where the huge skies hung without end in a vault of blue.
The 7 tracks presented on "To West and Blue" were mastered by Maciej Bartkowiak. The cover is based on photos by Robin Storey and the design was handled by Maciej Mehring. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet.
The CD is housed in gatefold sleeve in the vein of Japanese-style vinyl replica and is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Seeds in the Tide Vol. 2 |
do-CD |
"In December last year "Seeds in the Tide Volume 01" saw the light of the date and met with loads of interest. As promised we continue the series with the second installment in this collection of Rapoon rarities. This time, apart from compilation tracks, "Seeds in the Tide" features three (yes, three) rare releases. The first one being "Live at Klanggalerie" tape from 2000; the other 2 being "Pell Mell" and "Ep Et Vee" EPs, all the three released in very small quantities. "Seeds in the Tide Volume 02" is therefore your chance to grab these titles, not on eBay (where they fetch enormous sums), but in one collection at a reasonable price. All in all, the second volume contains 150 minutes of pure sonic bliss with a quality sign, just like any Rapoon release is. Once again, the tracks were faithfully restored by Maciej Bartkowiak. The paintings on the cover is by Mr. Robin Storey himself and the design duties were handled by Zoharum in-house designer Maciej Mehring. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet. Note: this is the second volume in the series. Next year Zoharum is releasing the next volume covering rare tracks from years 2004-2007. This release is strictly limited to 500 copies. Release date: 25.11.2013" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Psi-Transient |
CD |
"New album of this English world famous ritual ambient project - 'Brief moments of seemingly grasping something previously hidden from view. Snow melting on a deserted concrete platform at a station with no name in an urban wasteland. White trees, limbs outstretched as if barring the way into the deeper woods and the darkness. Bone sentinels. A faint memory of once knowing and now forgotten. Elusive and dreamlike the ghosts return.' (Robin Storey). Limited edition of 400 copies." [label info]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Fires of the Borderlands |
do-CD |
"It's been 16 years since the release of Rapoon's masterpiece entitled "The Fires of the Borderlands".
This special edition is comprised of two discs. The first is the main album which is mastered from the original tapes, therefore, it sounds significantly better to the 1998 version. The bonus disc is a 40-minute live recording for the San Francisco-based radio KFJC which again proves that Robin Storey has mastered the ability to creating haunting sonic atmospheres.
This expanded edition of the album is packaged in a digipak sleeve and is limited to 500 copies worldwide." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"In the wake of so many dreadfully digital concoctions of insipid ambient music from the mid to late '90s, a good Rapoon album was a breath of fresh air. The warmth of his analog processes, tape-loop and delay mechanics, and some good-old cassette grit thrown in for good measure was a gnostic beacon to the days of a post-industrial zeitgeist from a previous decade, or century, or millennium for that matter when it came to the best albums from Rapoon. Any sense of timeloss and historical displacement would be considered a victory for most artists; but for Robin Storey and his long-standing Rapoon project, that's been a common parlance from his work. The Fires Of The Borderlands may be Rapoon's best known album, as it was put out originally through the Relapse subsidiary Release back in 1998. It's long been out of print; and it also ranks as one of his better releases. Here, we've got the Polish 2cd reissue of that album, fleshed out with a remastering job from the original tapes and a bonus disc featuring an hour long performance on KFJC down in Silicon Valley.
The album is flush with slow-motion billowings, night-ocean tidal wash, and sibilant blurs, all crafted from Storey's refined use of tape-loops and delay pedals. There's nary a reference to anything infernal or hellish to the hypnogogic cascade of Rapoon despite the album's title. At times, Storey engorges his reverb-drenched loops into a galvanized thrum of drone portent equivalent to the bunker hermeticism of Maeror Tri. But as with most of Storey's work he transcends a gothic nihilism through his application of ghostly dub reflections that could harken to the echoes of some pneumatic lung wheezing in the corner or a derelict monk chanting to a long-forgotten deity. Beautiful stuff.
The live in the studio session is equally as good with Storey lining the wash with distant tribal rhythms and wooden flute gestures thrown in for good measure." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Fall of Drums |
CD |
"It has been a year since the release of highly-acclaimed album entitled "To West and Blue". After various archive releases (the second volume in the rarities collection entitled "Seeds in the Tide" plus expanded reissue of a classic album "The Fires of the Borderlands") and new albums on other labels ("Psi-Transient" and "Conduits And Estuaries"), Robin Storey aka Rapoon presents a carefully woven new masterpiece called "Fall of Drums".
The new Rapoon album marks his return not only to the analogue electronics territories, but also to ethnic rhythms which he was known for in the very early days of his solo project. We are back to Middle Eastern territories, to deserts, opium hallucinations and ghosts whisper amidst the sand. 4 long hypnotic tracks of staggering beauty take us on an hour-long journey into your subconsciousness. In other words, it is another top quality album from Robin Storey.
The CD is housed in gatefold sleeve in the vein of Japanese-style vinyl replica and is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Seeds in the Tide Vol. 3 |
do-CD |
"Third part of "Seeds in the Tide" out now.
The third volume in our ongoing series of albums collating Rapoon's rarities from 2003 and 2004. As always it's composed of 2 discs. The first one features two rare releases; number one is ”Monomyth: Par Avion” CDR (limited to 199 copies only) is a source material for a collaborative album with Birds of Tin, and number two is ”Jane from Whitley Bar” 7” vinyl plus a number of tracks from compilations. The second disc is a real treat as it contains a previously unreleased recording from a 2004 gig in Vienna.
The CDs is housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover was designed by Maciej Mehring based on Robin Storey's paintings. "Seeds in the Tide Volume 3" was mastered by Łukasz Miernik. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
|
A pale blue Door |
BOOK + CD |
"Robin Storey, best known for his musical avatar Rapoon, has written his first book, a 68 page short story about a group of characters navigating an unfamiliar and changing world. “A Pale Blue Door” takes place in the past, the present and the future, and may involve time travel. The people in the story are trying to live their lives as best they can, but a mysterious spaceman floats in and out of view, affecting them in different ways, and never quite touching the ground.
“A Pale Blue Door” is a tightly written, well paced tale that reveals its secrets slowly. Robin Storey’s prose is concise and economical, engaging and seductive. The book begs to be read again and again.
Accompanying the book is a 60 minute Rapoon CD, also titled “A Pale Blue Door”. The compositions utilise recordings of stars, manned space missions, radio signals and emissions made available through NASA’s official website. There are also field recordings made on the marshlands of the Solway Firth in Cumberland.
Extract:
The wind moaned outside the frost rimed windows. It whipped up small eddies of snow and made swirling snow devils in the frigid air.
The landscape took on a surreal, lunar aspect in the moonlight and shadows were deepened in the silvered light.
Something moved in the shadows.
Something not human. It headed for the house with the pale blue door and left no footprints in the snow.
Silently in the sleeping night it drew closer and closer.
Billy woke with the certainty that there was someone else in the room. He sat up and looked towards the end of the bed. In the shadows and gloom he could just about discern the outline of a lumpy squat figure. His eyes grew accustomed to the light and the shadows retreated. He could see that the figure was about five feet tall and had a barrel chest and a thick limbs. The face remained in the shadows but it had a strange luminescence to it. Slowly it seemed to move forward and the face became visible. Billy shuddered. There atop this squat frame was the pale head of a pig. Small dark eyes regarded Billy without emotion.
As silently as it had appeared it vanished again into the shadows. Billy was covered in sweat and shaking. That terrible face was one he had seen before and it left him with a feeling of dread.
He sat staring at the place where the figure had been long after he could no longer see it.
The image burned onto the back of his eyes and some primeval horror clawed at his subconscious. Billy knew intuitively that this horror had existed for as long as man had been alive. It was ancient and mythical and spoke across aeons of time, perhaps even space. He continued to stare into the emptiness until a faint crackling sound brought him back to the present. He listened and tried to understand where the strange noise was coming from. After a long while he realised that the sweat which had poured from him when the dreadful vision had appeared was turning to ice on his body. He leaped from the bed and grabbed clean clothes and pulled them onto his freezing body. He pulled off the soaking bed clothes and tossed them into a far corner of the room and dragged the bed through the doorway into the living room. He went back to the bedroom to get fresh bedclothes and emptied his wardrobe onto the newly located bed, then he got planks and nails and boarded the room shut. He would never set foot in that room again.
The wind blew gently across the marshlands. The short grass rippled like the tide in the sweet smelling breeze. She sat on the turf in her best Sunday dress clutching a small posy of wild flowers she had gathered on the way. Her hair had been cut recently and a few stray strands broke free from the neat bob. She pushed them back in place with her small hands. She wanted to look her best.
Her father fussed around with his photographic equipment. Arranging tripods and lenses and polishing each item in turn with a giant yellow duster, taking great pride in his work and his treasured gadgetry.
She sniffed the air and it smelt sweet and warm. and warm." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
|
What do you suppose? (the Alien Question) |
do-CD |
"The mainstay of our label, or Robin Storey aka Rapoon that is, returns with the next release of archival recordings. In this case, it is the third reissue of an earlier album, which has been expanded in the new version with an additional disc with previously unpublished material. This album is coming in 1999. "What Do You Suppose? (The Alien Question) ". Different among the works of this release rapoon, because it is based primarily on the word. Canvas of this project are the theories related to aliens and their presence on the planet made by William Cooper. Music is therefore subordinate to the text, it is much more withdrawn than on other Rapoon releases, but it does not make it one-dimensional. On the contrary, by moving the centre of gravity to the verbal layer, Robin Storey redefined his compositional language.
The bonus disc called "Project Blue Book" is the new album mixed in the current year, which uses the original tracks to the "What Do You Suppose? (The Alien Question)," but this time it is devoid of the narrative. The result is not even an alternate version of the original, but a completely different album, where accents are distributed differently. More ethnic trips here, but it will also include pieces for lovers of shimmering ambient.
The CDs is housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover was designed by Maciej Mehring based on Robin Storey's paintings. "What Do You Suppose? (The Alien Question)/Project Blue Book" was mastered by Maciej Bartkowiak. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€16.50 |
|
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Song from the End of the World |
CD |
"Robin Storey otherwise known as Rapoon, and ex member and co-founder of legendary northern group Zoviet France, comes back in the frozen lands of Glacial Movements after his vision of an Europe covered by ice in "Time Frost" (2007). The English artist this time faces a theme recently discovered, and that could dramatically change the destiny of our planet.
Evoking visions of mad scientists, French researchers are set to revive a mega-virus dormant for 30,000 years that they discovered in the permafrost of the Russian Arctic. The researchers, from the French National Center for Scientific Research, say they will take precautions to revive the specimen under safe laboratory conditions. They published a paper detailing their research in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The group of researchers is headed by Jean-Michel Claverie, who runs a laboratory at the French center. The French scientists, who awakened another Siberian virus, known as Pithovirus sibericum, in a petri dish in the lab in 2013, warn that climate change may awaken dangerous viruses in areas of the far north where soil or permafrost is melting and believe it is better to ‘know the enemy’. They found it near the same area as the latest discovery, which they named Mollivirus sibericum. This is the fourth prehistoric virus found since 2003. Source: ancient-origins.net
Buried deep beneath the ice lies Armageddon Locked in a frozen world it waits There are songs and myths of the coming end The voices are raised in supplication to gods and nature A cold wind howls the ice slowly melts Without understanding of time It waits This is my song from the end of the world Robin Storey, 2016 " [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
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Downgliding |
CD |
"This is the third release on our Carpe Sonum Novum sublabel.
released September 28, 2015
These recordings began with playing Xpand 2, the software instrument included in Pro Tools.
I was listening to the electric piano instruments and tried out a few different settings until I got the sound that became the inspirational building block for these compositions.
A kind of sonar ping.
Lost, lonesome.
A sound resonant with searching and finding.
A hopeful enquiry sent into the depths awaiting reply.
I was reminded of listening to Pink Floyd's Meddle when I was a youngster and the emotional impact sounds and music had when i was just a listener.
Just listening is an important part of composition. Karlheinz Stockhausen said as much.
So did the guys in Can.
Just listening is sometimes the hardest thing you can do.
Just listening is sometimes the most important and rewarding thing you can do.
In these recordings I tried to just listen.
The sea ebbed and flowed." [label info]
www.carpesonum.com
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
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Seeds in the Tide Vol. 4 |
do-CD |
"Zoharum releases the fourth part in the series of RAPOON's archival recordings entitled "Seeds in the Tide". Like the previous three, this album is divided into two parts. In the first one we find songs from the years 2005-2007 from rare, limited releases, various artists compilations plus a remix of Rapoon made by the project Xela. This first disc, almost 75 minutes long, features a variety of recordings presenting Robin Storey's project from different angles.The second disc is a recording of the next concert from Rhiz in Vienna. This time it is a little shorter, only 45-minute-long appearance, very consistent, strongly contrasting with the first disc." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
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Waiting by the River |
CD |
"Klanggalerie are very happy to announce a new collaboration with Rapoon after a far too long 12 year break. Waiting By The River is the all-new album by Robin Storey that takes the project into previously uncharted territory. Founded in 1992 after Storey left Zoviet France, Rapoon soon became an outstanding ethno-dark ambient project that has gained a cult following all over the world. More than 50 albums have been released over those 25 years, some more beat driven, others more playful and with ambient sounds and ethnic influences. Rapoon has never stopped evolving - think of Cultural Forgeries, an album full of unplugged acoustic music. Or Downgliding, full of compositions on the piano. In 2016, Rapoon presents you an album full of songs. You will hear guitars, vocals, stories are being told. A very different approach to Rapoon and one you've never heard before. Needless to say, the trademark Rapoon sound is still there. But this time you get a little extra. Another milestone in the band's discography. Low stock. "After the austerity of the 1950’s we entered the 1960’s with huge optimism and the belief that anything was possible. We had a new world opening out in front of us. A world of rapid technological advancement. A world of new foods. A world of new cars, new jobs, new possibilities. We were going to the moon. We were promised holidays on the moon. It was to be a world of plenty. You believe these things when you are five years old. The booming sixties came and went. We landed on the moon. The seventies saw a decline in economy and in hope. First Thatcher, then Blair, then Cameron went on to destroy everything that had been built for the people after the second world war. Now it was all for the privileged The moneyed. The few. An old lady sits by a billabong under a clear blue sky. She talks with her ancestors who wait by the river. As they have waited for millennia. She sings an ancient song. The water trembles." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2016 |
€14.00 |
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Wanderlust |
CD |
Winter Light is proud to announce the release of Rapoon ‘Wanderlust' CD, a brand new studio album containing 10 all new and original tracks. Robin Storey aka Rapoon needs no introduction, having released around 60 albums alone under his avant-garde project. Robin has collaborated with many artists over the years and for this release additional vocals for the album have been supplied by the Russian folk singer Tatyana Stepchenko aka TOLOKA.
As the title indicates. ‘Wanderlust’ is the endless yearning, the search for questions and for answers, the horizon ever drawing onward with the lure of what lies beyond. The pull of the mountains and the deserts and the infinitive light of the stars, shining from the distant past. We travel…..
The album is released in a full colour, 6-panel digipack. Artwork and cover design by Midnight Sun Studio with original paintings from Robin Storey.
The CD is comprised of 10 original tracks with a running time of 70:08. Strictly limited to 400 copies.
www.winter-light.nl
"During the cold and eerie autumn season, the best thing that could happen is a record which could easily transform bad weather and dark emotions into something dreamy and wonderful. Rapoon is a fine example of this dreamy atmosphere, and its new record, Wanderlust, is the biggest gift for anyone who wants to participate in this magical travel through a state of wandering.
Wanderlust has been released by a small and obscure Dutch label, Winter-Light. The imprint has released some other releases including two from Seetyca and some other bands. The atmosphere and sound of Wanderlust perfectly describes the goals of Winter-Light as I see them: to spread highly somnambulant music usually in ambient or drone form, refusing anything radical or anything political, instead just focusing on someone else’s dreams or nightmares and exploring that kind of emotion in audio form. The mind of someone sleeping is rather obscure, led by unconscious, filled with many different layers, and Wanderlust is just like that too. It’s hard to simply describe this album in simple terms, but it’s crucial to say that this Rapoon effort is about a lot of things; it’s filled with many elements and every song seems like a different dream.
Rapoon
One big aspect behind the music of Wanderlust is rhythm. The album starts with a beat which pulses like an ocean and leads to an evolution of cascading samples. The structures behind each individual song seems to remain similar throughout the album, with seemingly only samples driving it to the end. Speaking of samples, it’s difficult to recognize their origins, and that seems to be a good element—to a fault. In that way, samples seem to be much more obscure and strange, which is definitely unique. In other songs of Wanderlust, simple synth melodies are used with an equally straightforward yet effective rhythm, creating a stronger style of that ethereal sound. Sometimes, Robin Storey‘s music even sounds sacred, especially with the addition of classic instruments. In other cases, songs on Wanderlust sound more playfully mystical—almost cinematic in scope, like vintage film scores. Gloomy synthesizer sounds create a mood of desolation. Listening though the album, you get the impression that the whole thing is alternating between elevated emotions, ethereal visions, and genuine melancholy.
‘Calling Ghosts’ is unique to the album as it begins with something similar to female Slavic chanting and works its way into a violin performance, distant samples, and some other instruments. Listening to Wanderlust, it‘s difficult to miss just how varied it really is, which is a quality that unveils itself in its fullest glory through Storey’s patented epic atmospheres, especially on ‘You Look Like Something’, whose twelve-plus minutes are filled with strange ambient artifacts.
Rapoon’s Wanderlust is a dreamy landscape full of majestic vibes, strange but suitable samples, and sounds of exotic instruments. Its general atmosphere and the sounds that create it are often so foreign that they feel almost alien in nature—something that Storey is becoming exceedingly talented with at his age. It is the perfect album for this autumn as we work our way into winter, and it‘s intended to be played by a listener every evening just before sleep. The effect of it should be unforgettable."
[Heathen Harvest]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
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Un Flic |
CD |
Cigarette smoke curled into the air which was filled with the sound of many typewriters, all clattering away, yet the sheets of paper remained blank. Everything was black and white and every shade of grey in between. The men and women wore pristine white shirts and black trousers. The ceilings were low and opressive. The cigarette smoke hung in the metal rafters. These was the offices of the Existential Police force. The sign, which curved in an arch above the exterior entrance, read “We Know you Did It” Officer Delane Trelawney looked down at her next interrogation sheet. She was tired. It was almost the end of her shift. The space which was labeled “suspects name“ read Elizaveta Ektimova. The space which was labeled :”reason for interview” read Dissident. Officer Trelawney sighed and looked across the desk at the figure sitting in the upright chair opposite her. The figure was that of a thin young woman with very black hair and very pale skin. Her eyes were set far apart and deep.They were almost black. Officer Delaney spoke: “Give me the answers....................Give me the answers” a long pause... “You know why you are here...............give me the answers” The young woman leaned forward slightly and when she spoke it was as if from very far away. Her voice sounded like a badly tuned radio, her words modulated on a carrier wave which came from another place, perhaps even another time,. “there are no answers”..... “we live in the dark”........ “we live in a dream”........ The words sent a chill through officer Delaney and a thought rose from deep within her ,like a bubble rising up from the depths of a dark lake. It rose and rose until it burst on the surface and for a moment Delane Trelawney saw above her a beautiful blue sky with pure white cotton wool clouds floating in it. Along the shore of the lake arose green hills and behind them mountains towered up into the vault of blue. Topped with snow they were pink in the afternoon sun. Delane Trelawney gasped at the beauty and just before she began to sink again into the inky depths she said “I remember “............ “I remember ”............. “tell Charlene”........ ” tell Charlene”......" Robin Storey, 2017 Brand new album by the legendary Rapoon. Robin Storey, co-founder of Zoviet France and a very prolific solo artist since his departure, is combining his love for krautrock with his love for French film. An hommage to the Nouveau Vague cinema with a soundtrack that for the first time incorporates real drums! Another radical change for Rapoon. Always evolving, always progressing.
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2017 |
€14.50 |
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Sanctus Equinox (Mercury Rising 1 ) |
CD |
We welcome back Rapoon for this, his second release, on our Winter-Light label.
Many people will already be familiar with Robin Storey. Not just for his pioneering work as founder of the industrial group :zoviet*france: in 1979, but also of course for his solo-project Rapoon, which began life in 1992. Now, 25 years after the inception of his solo ambient project, Rapoon is still very much with us and still very much active.
In celebration of this, his 25th Silver Anniversary, we are releasing a triptych of new work from Rapoon entitled ‘The Mercury Rising Trilogy’. The Mercury Rising Trilogy will comprise of three brand new studio albums, all with exclusive material. The albums will bring a new feel to Robin’s work, that of a more off world spacious feel, jazzy in parts with a ceremonial thread running throughout. Each album interlinked by this feel and theme, as the titles suggest, but with each one still having it’s own unique identity.
Here we present to you the first part of the Mercury Rising Trilogy, ‘Sanctus Equinox’.
What if you had created a race of sentient beings and then simply abandoned them, having no further use left for them? What might become of them and what sort of world would these replicants create for themselves, if left to their own devices?
‘Sanctus Equinox’ is a portrayal of that world, a painted landscape of the secret rites and ceremonies practiced by it’s inhabitants. Celebrations and rituals created to overcome the sense of loss and abandonment, after being discarded by their creators, deemed to have no further worth. Scattered across the many moons in their new solar system, they gather en masse to worship under alien skies, bathed in the fractured light of moons and suns. Dressed in splendid costumes, they sing and dance along great winding, standing stone pathways; a procession of vibrant colours and chants moving hypnotically towards stone circles raised high to the heavens.
As the solar winds blow across now empty plains, time stands still as chants of ‘Sanctus Saves….’ echoes through the air.
Processed vocals, atmospheric pads, sub bass patterns, strings and old school sci-fi sounds all exquisitely layered to produce an album of intense beauty. The feel is one of ceremonial celebration and ritualistic joy. A ray of shining hope in the lives of a forgotten people.
winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/sanctus-equinox |
2017 |
€13.00 |
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|
Offworld OP1 Equs: Mercury Rising 2 |
CD |
"Rapoon returns to Winter-Light for this, his third release on our label.
In celebration of this, his 25th Silver Anniversary, we are releasing a trilogy of new work from Rapoon entitled ‘The Mercury Rising Trilogy’. The Mercury Rising Trilogy will comprise of three brand new studio albums, all with exclusive material. The albums will bring a new feel to Robin’s work, that of a more off world spacious feel, jazzy in parts with a ceremonial thread running throughout. Each album interlinked by this feel and theme, as the titles suggest, but with each one still having it’s own unique identity.
Here we present to you the second installment of the Mercury Rising Trilogy - 'Offworld OP1 Equs'. The trilogy began with 'Sanctus Equinox', released through Winter-Light in November 2017. The journey now continues.......
Every 150 years the moons align and block out the light entirely from the small inhabited planet of Offworld OP1. Too cold even for the androids to survive they move en-masse to the farthest moon Celios and wait out the winter in the relative warmth.
The ice crystals in the nearby gas planets rings reflect the meager light of the far sun and throw rainbows down to the surface of Celios… a sign…
The androids have built their shelters in the shape of the six pointed star with a circular perimeter representing the outer rings of home system Saturn and the sun that moved.
Looking back along the aligned moons they diminish in intensity until Offworld is just a shadow, a memory. Waiting. It will take six months before the the first light shines again on Celios and another six before the androids will return. Celebrations await that return…. for now there is only the slow resignation of winter and a promise of it’s end.
Spacious synth sweeps glide through the air, whilst icy piano tones play out, filling the spaces with crystallised sounds. Drums crack and fall away, a lo-fi saxophone plays a sombre song to itself, as alien voices raised to the skies chant the mantras of a temporarily dislodged Offworld race of sentient beings.
The Glass Mastered CD comes in a full colour 6-panel digipak and is strictly limited to 300 copies.
The album comprises of 7 new tracks, total running time 55:35."
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2018 |
€13.00 |
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Sol Laude (Mercury Rising Trilogy 3) |
CD |
Rapoon returns once more to the Winter-Light label....
In celebration of his 25th Silver Anniversary, we have released a trilogy of new work from Rapoon entitled ‘The Mercury Rising Trilogy’. The Mercury Rising Trilogy comprises of three brand new studio albums, all with exclusive material. The albums will bring a new feel to Robin’s work, that of a more off world spacious feel, jazzy in parts with a ceremonial thread running throughout. Each album interlinked by this feel and theme, as the titles suggest, but with each one still having it’s own unique identity.
The trilogy began in November 2017 with 'Sanctus Equinox', which was then followed by 'Offworld OP1 Equs'. The Mercury Rising Trilogy now draws to it’s conclusion with 'Sol Laude' thundering it’s way through the universe, leaving it’s impression trailing across the cosmos like a giant comet’s tail. Deep industrial, space ambience and majestic choral bursts are interspersed with retro sci-fi electronica, emotive piano elements and off-world jazz.
Rapoon's signature sound and structures are still very much evident on this release, but yet again Robin brings a different feel to the listener that has beautifully evolved across this triptych of his latest work.
The replicants have followed a well known path. Disagreements and divisions began to grow and sectarianism proceeded to develop. Soon it was an all out war of religious intolerance. Fighting took place and many died.
Quietly , and without being noticed, those who held no radical religious beliefs gathered their things and slipped away in small ships and set course for a new life somewhere far away from the division and hatred that had developed in what was once a united community. They journeyed for many years and eventually found somewhere new. An indigenous lifeform of primitive primates seemed to be the most advanced species on the warm planet with blue seas and green forests. It was almost Utopia.
Some of the replicants sang a song of thanks for safe passage and arrival. A white moon shone down.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/sol-laude-mercury-rising-3 |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ghosts from a Machine |
3 x CD |
The compilation “Ghost From A Machine’ has been initially issued by the record label Vinyl-On-Demand. It contains alternative versions of the pieces, which were created while early albums of Rapoon, mainly "Raising Earthly Spirits", "Fallen Gods", "Vernal Crossing", "Easterly 6 Or 7", were in the making. All those pieces were put together by Robin Storey and Frank Mayer and created an entirely new album, released on 3 vinyl records. For 10 years since the premiere, that release has become a rare collector’s item and surely a delight for a refined collector.
The new edition, prepared together by the author and Zoharum Records, is visually and sonically referring to the first issue, creating a sort of a replica, available for the first time on 3CDs.
Issued as an 8panel digipak the volume is limited to only 500 copies.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/ghosts-from-a-machine |
2020 |
€20.00 |
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Ten Four: Centred Horizons (lim. blue vinyl) |
LP |
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Rapoon, the solo project of Robin Storey. Rapoon is no stranger to our Winter-Light label, as followers of his music will know all too well.
On Ten Four: Centred Horizons, we invited Robin to create 4 ambient pieces, each one ten minutes in length.
The resulting tracks are a mix of long form drones and processed sounds blended with Robin\'s instruments and percussive elements. Whilst each piece stands alone in it\'s own right, a common thread and feel that is ever present in each track, draws them together as a whole, setting the listener adrift .....
The ghost line between sea and sky
Falling sideways
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/ten-four-centred-horizons |
2022 |
€28.50 |
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Ten Four: Centred Horizons |
CD |
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Rapoon, the solo project of Robin Storey. Rapoon is no stranger to our Winter-Light label, as followers of his music will know all too well.
On Ten Four: Centred Horizons, we invited Robin to create 4 ambient pieces, each one ten minutes in length.
The resulting tracks are a mix of long form drones and processed sounds blended with Robin's instruments and percussive elements. Whilst each piece stands alone in it's own right, a common thread and feel that is ever present in each track, draws them together as a whole, setting the listener adrift .....
The ghost line between sea and sky Falling sideways
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/ten-four-centred-horizons
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2022 |
€14.00 |
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| |
Time Frost |
CD |
"Time Frost" is an imaginary record of the mutation process of sound locked in ice and transformed over millennia. Like ghosts of music trapped in the ever-changing permafrost. The album was originally released in a series of publications from Glacial Movements. Virtually unavailable in any form for many years, over time it has become a hard-to-find rarity, sought after by fans of the British project. This reissue changes that state of affairs. The material included on this CD was remastered by Robin Storey. For the publication, the graphic design was also changed, this time based on photographs by Rapoon founder.
CD in a six-panel digipack, edition of 350 copies
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/time-frost
"Eine neue Eiszeit breitet sich aus; ihr Zentrum liegt (Vielleicht ist auch hier der Klimawandel am Werk, der für paradoxe Effekte sorgt.) im sonnigen Italien, genauer gesagt beim kürzlich vorgestellten Label GLACIAL MOVEMENTS RECORDS, ins Leben gerufen von ALESSANDRO TEDESCHI mit dem Ziel, sich speziell den Klängen eisiger Welten zu widmen. Nach dem Sampler „Cryosphere“ und einer Silberscheibe von TEDESCHIs eigenem Projekt NETHERWORLD hat unlängst die dritte Veröffentlichung des jungen Labels das kalte Licht der Polarsonne erblickt. Waren bereits auf dem Sampler keine Unbekannten vertreten, so ist mit Klangtüftler ROBIN STOREY von RAPOON, seines Zeichens Mitbegründer des Musikkollektivs ZOVIET FRANCE, weitere Prominenz an Bord gekommen. Und STOREY schafft es mit „Time Frost“, dem eisigen Thema inhaltlich einen neuen Aspekt abzugewinnen, indem er ein aktuelles (manche möchten vielleicht sagen strapaziertes) Thema aufgreift: den Klimawandel.
Während über die wahren Ausmaße dieses Phänomens (Ja, nein, vielleicht - und wenn ja mit welchen Auswirkungen?) diskutiert wird, spielt STOREY ein Szenario durch, in dem die Folgen der Erderwärmung paradoxerweise zu einer neuen Eiszeit in Europa geführt haben, unter deren Gletschermassen die Ruinen der menschlichen Zivilisation begraben liegen und auf ihre Entdeckung durch zukünftige Archäologen warten. Stellvertretend für die im Eis begrabenen Überreste dieser untergegangenen Kultur stehen bei STOREY Soundfragmente aus der berühmten „Schönen blauen Donau“ von JOHANN STRAUß, deren Aufnahme er passenderweise aus einer anderen Zukunftsvision entnommen hat: dem Soundtrack des KUBRICK-Films „2001: Odyssee im Weltraum“, der gänzlich aus bereits vorhandenen Werken aus Klassik und Moderne besteht. Bei STOREY indes bilden die Fragmente von „An der schönen Blauen Donau“ so etwas wie die Ausgangspunkte der fünf Stücke, in denen dann die ursprüngliche klassische Komposition bis zur Unkenntlichkeit verfremdet und verzerrt wird – die akustische Wiedergabe einer Vorstellung von Musik, die über Jahrtausende im Eis eingeschlossen und in ihrem kalten Gefängnis der Eisdrift, den Bewegungen und Verwerfungen der treibenden Gletscher, ausgeliefert ist. So wie das Eis sich in diesem Prozess immer wieder verformt, gestaucht und gestreckt wird, sich übereinanderstapelt, bricht und wieder neu verschmilzt, so verformt und verändert sich auch die darin eingeschlossene Music: „Like ghosts of music trapped in the evershifting permafrost“.
Eine eigenartig berührende Zukunftsvision, und wenn man das Ganze unter diesem Oberbegriff noch etwas weiter denkt, könnte man sich neben „2001: Odyssee im Weltraum“ noch ein weiteres Mal an KUBRICK, beziehungsweise an SPIELBERG erinnern. Das Ende der Science-Fiction Parabel „A.I. – Künstliche Intelligenz“, die KUBRICK aufgrund fehlender technischer Möglichkeiten immer wieder aufgeschoben und schließlich STEVEN SPIELBERG zur Umsetzung „vererbt“ hat, führt den Zuschauer in eine ferne, eiszeitliche Zukunft, in der die Überreste der Zivilisation von Eismassen und gefrorenen Ozeanen bedeckt sind; und wer die entsprechenden Szenen vor Auge hat, dem fällt es leicht, sich bei „Time Frost“ ähnliches vorzustellen.
Spannend ist die Idee, ein Musikstück vor einem elektronisch-eiskalten Hintergrund die Verformungen und Transformationen des ewigen Eises mitmachen zu lassen. An der Umsetzung ist nicht zu meckern; was schließlich herauskommt ist angemessen eisig, bekommt für die Idee einen Novitätsbonus – und ein Hauch von Knistermusik ist auch dabei. Europa ohne uns. Und wenn man schon einmal in dieser herrlichen Untergangsstimmung ist, dann sollte man gleich die Lektüre von ALAN WEISMANs „Die Welt ohne uns“ anschließen, in dem die Menschheit gleich gänzlich verschwindet (inklusive der Archäologen), so dass man alle Hoffnung auf die Entdeckung ihrer Ruinen auf außerirdische Forscher setzen müsste. " [Caillean K. für nonpop.de]
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2023 |
€13.00 |
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| RAPOON & PROMUTE |
Machine River |
CD |
"Not only is Robin Storey aka Rapoon a very prolific solo artist, but also he collaborates with many musicians from all over the world. He has already worked with Mykel Boys, Wyrm, Pas Musique, Kinder Atom, Cisfinitum, Pacific 231 et al. This time he teamed up with Shaun Sandor aka Promute to create 8 haunting tracks.
The CD is housed in an ecopak sleeve and is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover is based on paintings by Shaun Sandor's daughter and was designed by Maciej Mehring. "Machine River" was mastered by Maciej Bartkowiak. The whole production process was overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| RAPOON + PACIFIC 231 |
Tour de Force |
CD |
" “Il est d’usage d’appeler monstrueux l’accord inaccoutumé d’éléments dissonants, mais j’appelle monstrueux toute originale inépuisable beauté.” Alfred Jarry cité par Claude Maillard-Chary
The first meeting of Robin Storey (Rapoon) and Pierre Jolivet (Pacific 231) took place back in 2007, when Old Europa Cafe released their split album "Palestine", dedicated to the memory of Bryn Jones (Muslimgauze). This time they team-up for a fulltime real collaboration, presenting their unique musical visions. The album is quite different from both artists' traditional styles, showing up the kind of synergetic effect embraced in sound. The long form, contemplative and mind expanding tracks are sequenced in time eliminating journey.
Limited edition of 500 copies in special packaging - custom made of metallic coated ruby color paper with white ink silkscreen print, assembled by hand.
Comes with the set of 6 postcards with oxide textures photos and ancient style drawing over them." [label info]
www.alone-at-last.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| RAPOON / RELAPXYCH.0 |
Amplified Transparency Reflection / Lost Terrain |
LP |
"Auf „amplified transparency reflection", der dronig-ambienten white label seite der rapoon / relapxych.0 lp auf dröhnhaus sind sie da. diese ausgefransten, oszillierenden ränder die der ruhe des kerns trotzen. und wie kleine fische immerzu um den rand des großen dunklen kerns huschen. und eine ruhige unruhe einbringen, die von der erfahrbarkeit des zentrums ablenkt. wie ein wispern, das da ist, aber nicht zu verstehen. und genau deshalb alle aufmerksamkeit auf sich zieht. mit dem unterschied, dass die wispernden flächen der „amplified transparency reflection" ihr geheimnis auch dann nicht preisgeben wollen, wenn sie verschiedentlich an kraft gewinnen. noch mit den rändern beschäftigt müssen die ohren stattdessen irritiert feststellen, dass auch dieser vermeintlich ruhige kern weder das eine noch ein homogener monolith ist: einzelnes pulsen, wie ein hervorplatzen, an- und abschwellende präsenz, alles oft unter dem deckmantel des wisperns; abgelenkt durch die ränder. und plötzlich verlässt die dunkle kugel ihren standort, besetzt harmonisch andere bahnen, fällt wieder zurück, eine ½ sekunde perkussion, wie vom himmel gefallen. und aus.
auf der black label seite dann zwei exkursionen ins „lost terrain": aufschiefernde klaviertöne mit gehaltenem pedal, sich selbst zerschleifend. dazu botschaften jenseits von verständnis, der collagenhafte bruch und sturz in den sumpf einer wirbelnden fläche (+, entschuldigung, muss aber sein, so eine irgendwie klf / „chill out" referenz)und zack, das (wann?) verlorene terrain zurückgeholt. schnellst beendet, um platz zu machen für den zwilling (als „spatialXpansion remix): schräger, verstimmter, tiefer im spiegelkabinett. ausserweltlicher, unwirklicher; der zwilling, der sich zurückhält, nur um bei genauerer betrachtung noch viel mehr tiefe zu haben als der, der immer zuerst spricht. aber eben auch eine mit den gefährlichen stellen, den untiefen, den abgründen.
individualbearbeitungscover, farbinlays, 200 stck. perfekt." [N, Unruhr.de]
"...eine 3 Track LP , die Gestaltung der Cover wurde von behinderten Kindern übernommen und alles im Allen dient einem Caritativen Zweck , auf 200 Stück limitiert , jedes Cover ein Unikat." [label info]
www.psych-kg.de
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Amplified Transparency Reflection / Lost Terrain (standard ed.) |
LP |
"Auf „amplified transparency reflection", der dronig-ambienten white label seite der rapoon / relapxych.0 lp auf dröhnhaus sind sie da. diese ausgefransten, oszillierenden ränder die der ruhe des kerns trotzen. und wie kleine fische immerzu um den rand des großen dunklen kerns huschen. und eine ruhige unruhe einbringen, die von der erfahrbarkeit des zentrums ablenkt. wie ein wispern, das da ist, aber nicht zu verstehen. und genau deshalb alle aufmerksamkeit auf sich zieht. mit dem unterschied, dass die wispernden flächen der „amplified transparency reflection" ihr geheimnis auch dann nicht preisgeben wollen, wenn sie verschiedentlich an kraft gewinnen. noch mit den rändern beschäftigt müssen die ohren stattdessen irritiert feststellen, dass auch dieser vermeintlich ruhige kern weder das eine noch ein homogener monolith ist: einzelnes pulsen, wie ein hervorplatzen, an- und abschwellende präsenz, alles oft unter dem deckmantel des wisperns; abgelenkt durch die ränder. und plötzlich verlässt die dunkle kugel ihren standort, besetzt harmonisch andere bahnen, fällt wieder zurück, eine ½ sekunde perkussion, wie vom himmel gefallen. und aus.
auf der black label seite dann zwei exkursionen ins „lost terrain": aufschiefernde klaviertöne mit gehaltenem pedal, sich selbst zerschleifend. dazu botschaften jenseits von verständnis, der collagenhafte bruch und sturz in den sumpf einer wirbelnden fläche (+, entschuldigung, muss aber sein, so eine irgendwie klf / „chill out" referenz)und zack, das (wann?) verlorene terrain zurückgeholt. schnellst beendet, um platz zu machen für den zwilling (als „spatialXpansion remix): schräger, verstimmter, tiefer im spiegelkabinett. ausserweltlicher, unwirklicher; der zwilling, der sich zurückhält, nur um bei genauerer betrachtung noch viel mehr tiefe zu haben als der, der immer zuerst spricht. aber eben auch eine mit den gefährlichen stellen, den untiefen, den abgründen." [N, Unruhr.de]
www.droehnhaus.de
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| RASAL'ASAD |
Space.Scape |
CD |
Dreamscape-Synth-Ambient aus Portugal, zum entsubjektivierten wegdriften und meditieren perfekt ! Low price!
“Lush long synth washes, providing the perfect soundtrack for some stargazing or cloud watching. Music that is best enjoyed lying on your back and devoting your time to anything else but listening, dreaming and sleeping your day away. Nice stuff, along the lines of labels as Hypnos or The Foundry.....[Vital Weekly]
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| RATKJE, MAJA S.K. / JON WESSELTOFT / CAMILLE NORMENT / PER GISLE GALAEN |
Celadon |
CD |
"A record of slowly evolving beauty that gradually unravels its meditative design. Recorded in Norwegian sculptor and painter Emanuel Vigeland' s (1875 -1948) mausoleum in Oslo in 2013. A recording space that is famous for its acoustics and its long and full-sounding reverb. These three tracks utilize both the delicacy and the power of acoustic instruments and human voice in relation to the unique recording space. This is a record that is otherworldly and eerie but also with a great primal expressive force. Performed by four artists from different backgrounds coming together to create this singular set of music. Maja S.K. Ratkje - Voice and Bells. Jon Wesseltoft - Accordion Organ and Harmonium. Camille Norment - Glass Armonica. Per Gisle GalŒen - Zither and Harmonium. Recorded at Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum May 2013 by Thomas Hukkelberg. Mixed and mastered by Maja S.K. Ratkje." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| RATS WITH WINGS |
Out Vile Jelly ! |
CD-R |
Die australischen Flügelratten sind wieder da, noisen herum und meditieren grob, und weg sind sie! Ein irrer Mix aus überdrehten Analog-Electronics, hirnverdrehenden Samples und Instrumentalparts (e-bow –whatever)! Schon recht speziell...
“A brand new dense and all-cooked-up electronic stew from mr. Wings out of Sydney, Australia. 4 shorter tracks (clocking in at ca 30 mins) originally slated for a release on now-defunct label Nidnod + a 45 min track which really melts yr brain.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Aide-Memoire |
do-LP |
A collection of material taken from diverse CDR-releases from this die-hard experimentalism project from Australia. Always disturbing, always challenging, always low-fi & mysterious, always unsettling, strange & alien in an almost absurd way. You could compare it to MLEHST or LICHT-UNG maybe, speaking of the approach....electronic micro & macrosounds, crackles, hums, squakings, sounds from objects, field recordings, drones... do not try to understand or analyse this, just let it in. This is one of the not-understandable records that will be searched for in maybe 20 years. Or maybe not. We think its great stuff ! Import from Australia in a tiny edition, handmade cover with broken CD on it.
"double LP of material taken from CD-R releases: The Fish Rots From The Head (unreleased), Southern Oscillation Index (HoLR) CDR-RWW (MIR), Ratified Loopholes (AEN), Ashtray Cabbage (Fiend), Get And Put (Deadline), Out Vile Jelly! (Gold Soundz), Night Science and Underground Australia compilations (Cipher Productions). [package has a damaged CD glued to the cover]" [label info]
|
2006 |
€20.00 |
|
| RATSIMANDRESY, NADIA / MATTEO RAMON AREVALOS |
Messiaen et autour de Messiaen for Onde Martenot and Piano |
CD |
"A signature collection of exquisite works for onde Martenot and piano by Olivier Messiaen, N'Guyen Thien Dao, Jacques Charpentier and Tristan Murail, exploring the many voices of this extraordinary instrument. The onde (or ondes musicales or le Martenot) was first demonstrated at the Paris Conservatoire in 1928 and immediately attracted the attention of Varese, Milhaud, Koechlin, Jolivet, Honegger and Messiaen, who all wrote for it - cumulatively ensuring its survival. Seven years younger than the theremin, the onde is a far more sophisticated, complex and versatile instrument, not least because of the combination it offers of pitched and glissando tones, and the wide range of filters and different resonating media through which it can sound: loudspeakers, gongs, sympathetic resonating strings and reverberant enclosures. The compositions here exploit every unearthly aspect of the instrument and are beautifully performed: a remarkable and exquisite collection." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| RAUMERKUNDUNG |
Flug 4-5-6 |
mCDR |
RAUMERKUNDUNG ist das langjährige Projekt von Lutz Pruditsch (TARKATAK, TRÜMMER), und Robert Steinberger (Labelboss von DISASTER AREA), bisher sind sie nur durch live-Auftritte aufgefallen. FLUG 4-5-6 verbindet analoge soft-Schwingungen mit untergründigen Drones, field recordings und wall of sound-Gitarrren zu einer dunkel-psychedelischen Irrfahrt..
“ raumerkundung is lutz "tarkatak" pruditsch (guitar, sampler, tapes, contact microphones) and robert steinberger (guitar, metal, radio, contact microphones). existing since 1990, the duo has only released one tape on the trümmer kassetten label and contributed to some compilation tapes. they have played live on many occasions with, amongst others, illusion of safety, stillupstyppa or kapotte muziek. this 3" is their first "digital" release. "raumerkundung is an offshoot project of tarkatak ambient-droners concerned with trying to materialize the radiance of a specific space or location, offering an aural environmental reading of it... they are essentially a live
exploring unit using two guitars and various effect devices, applying the spirit of art-installations... and as such, their recordings remain sparse till now... the three pieces of the this 3" start with a short soft fluid quasi dub phase that quickly gets disembodied to become a patch of fragile emanations, wall breathings, and air susurrations... like a cloud of glimmering particles... of a very volatile nature, the sounds expand and seem to reveal more along their inherent decaying process... filigree echoes, underlying organic interferences and undercurrents blend symbiotically leading us in a perceptual exchange with the outside, while we step in..." (chalkdc/mystery sea)
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| RAVENSTINE, ALLEN |
Waiting for the Bomb |
CD |
Allen and I worked for several years together in the second coming of Pere Ubu before we both decided to quit at around the same time. I carried on playing – and running this label; Allen became a commercial airline pilot and designed simulator stress tests for other airline pilots. Now retirement has brought him back to music and modular synthesis and - in this unusual recording - he arrives at a hybrid musical form that is more or less without precedent: discursive, digressive and disrupted by generic and emotional shifts; a music in which real-world sounds and real-world instruments occasionally argue with - or complement - the electronic current; there’s agon here - and narrative. Narrative. Narrative. Narrative. For a largely abstract and instrumental recording, that’s a real achievement. These pieces – and the interactions between them – cumulatively capture an historical moment - allusively and elusively, out of the corner of their eyes - and, I dare to say, that’s not just an achievement, it’s a great achievement.
https://allenravenstine.bandcamp.com/album
/waiting-for-the-bomb
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| RAWLINGS / STELZER / TALBOT // GRIVAS / ZIOUTOS / MALEVITSIS |
live documents |
CD-R |
Experimentelles Trio mit dem Intransitive Records – Betreiber, diffizile Knirsch-, Knack- und Kratz-symphonien, die zeigen wie unglaublich experimentell-elektronisch-akustisches Sounddesign heute klingen kann !
"This boston trio uses turntables, tapes, cello and electronics to squeak and scratch out bizarre soundscapes. – also highly recommended." [label description]
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| RE-DRUM |
S |
CD |
"An excellent piece of work by Pavel Aleshin whose drone soundscapes were released by Oophoi's record label Umbra and Slovakia-based Black Orchid Productions. The album explores the area of sacral and infinite, hence the title. S can be seen as the symbol of them.
Re-Drum was founded in 2002 by Pavel Aleshin. The sound of Re-Drum varies from deep drone/noise soundscapes on the first albums to light, warm, even melodic textures in the last works.
For fans of Robert Rich, Lustmord, Troum, Maeror Tri, Lull, Yen Pox
DISCOGRAPHY
'Fragments of the Faith Forgotten' MC 2003 (Black Orchid Productions)
'In the Shadow' CDR 2004 (Black Orchid Productions)
"_" CDR 2005 (Black Orchid Productions)
'Four Whispers for the Bees' CDR 2005 (Umbra)
'Inhalation' CDR split with Rattus 2008 (Black Orchid Productions / Minorlabel / Ambsine)
'S' CD 2009 (Zoharum)" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Eclipse |
CD-R |
"ACR 1030: CD-R in plastic case and transparent paper sleeve
Re-Drum aka Russian artist Pavel Aleshin claims that his music sounds like “a broken AM radio in the heart of a ghost city,” and this album goes a long way to substantiating this claim. The sound quality is not at all broken, but very clear. Yet the slow drift of long, sustained electronic sounds reverberating in what could be imagined as empty passageways, certainly invokes a deserted nocturnal cityscape or, as one title claims, “night in a dead Lunapark.”
Contrary to what might be expected from these statements and also from Re-Drum’s earlier releases of deep drone/noise soundscapes, the music on “eclipse” does not have a particularly scary edge. It may convey a certain sense of yearning and melancholy, but the overall feel is one of warmth and calm contemplation. And there is indeed quite a lot to contemplate in these four compositions, all about 10 to 15 minutes long. While the music makes full use of the psychedelic potential of repetitive microtonal drones, in other layers of the composition there is also a lot of interplay going on between sampled acoustic instruments and undecipherable ambient noises. Great music for a state of wide-awake trance." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| RE-DRUM / B°TONG |
Hush! / Ascending in the Light of an alien Sun |
CD |
"The split album between Russian RE-DRUM and Swiss B°TONG. Each project has prepared 30 minutes for this special release.
Avid Zoharum observers already know Pavel Aleshin's project called Re-DrUm. 5 years ago we released his album "S" and it was our 7th release. In the meantime, he has been touring extensively plus released one full album, a digital EP and offered his music on a split release with Rovar17. Now Pavel returns to Zoharum with 3 new tracks of contemplative nature. They are full of slow acoustic sounds and field recordings. His sound on "Hush!" is less droney than on "S", but much more organic and laid-back.
The second part of this release belongs to Chris Sigdell and his renowned project b°tong. In contrast to Re-DrUm, "Ascending in the Light of an Alien Sun" is a different affair - a dark, brooding affair full of oily drones and treated sounds. Again, composed of 3 songs, it takes you on a trip to the desolate factory inhabited with ghosts of its previous owners.
This special project is released in a mini-vinyl sleeve and is strictly limited to 400 copies worldwide." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| RE-DRUM / EMERGE/ SVART I / LEFTERNA |
split |
MC |
Re-Drum I EMERGE / Svart1 I Lefterna - Split
recycled C90 cassette in clear jewel case, limited edition 50 copies
emerge.bandcamp.com/album/split-20
Grubenwehr Freiburg / attenuation circuit ° GFAC 1001 ° 2022
grubenwehrfreiburg.bandcamp.com ° attenuationcircuit.de
A
EMERGE - empty seat
Re-Drum I EMERGE - Einfarbiger Dom
(live @ DOM, Moskva, 14.09.18)
Re-Drum - Zum Verlust der Muttersprache
dedicated to Dmitry Vasilyev
track 1 & 3 previously released on
Monochrome Visions by Korm Digitaal in 2018
re-dr-um.bandcamp.com
immerge.bandcamp.com
B
Svart1 I Lefterna
1 - 4
Svart1 (Raimondo Gaviano)
Lefterna (Boban Ristevski)
svart1.bandcamp.com
bobanristevski.bandcamp.com
credits
released May 29, 2022
https://grubenwehrfreiburg.bandcamp.com/album/split
With this album, the labels attenuation circuit, run by EMERGE, and Grubenwehr Freiburg, run by Grodock, launch a second series of co-releases. The split tapes in the GFAC series, all using recycled tapes, are aimed at pairing new or lesser known artists with already more widely connected practitioners in the experimental underground scene.
The first tape in the new series emphasises the collaborative spirit on another level as well, because each side features collaborations by two different artists, so four artists in total are heard on one tape. On side A, it's label head EMERGE and Re-Drum. Touring the Crimea and Russia in 2018, EMERGE was present when concert organiser and head of the Monochrome Vision label Dmitry 'Dima' Vasilyev died. The shock and grief over this loss is present in the titles and music of the solo tracks by EMERGE and Re-Drum ('Zum Verlust der Muttersprache' is a German catchphrase referring to getting heavily drunk, 'up to the point of losing one's mother tongue'), which were already released on the Dima tribute compilation 'Monochrome Visions' in 2018, and their collaborative live performance at Moscow's DOM which concluded the tour became a memorial concert for Dima. (The German title 'Einfarbiger Dom' translates as 'Monochrome Dome'.) The fact that such a tour would now be impossible due to the war only adds to the sense of grief and loss conveyed by the Re-Drum/EMERGE side of the tape. Yet the collaborative release itself by a Russian and a 'Western' artist, at this time, is a gesture of hope that personal and cultural relations will prevail.
As for side B, Svart1 is Raimondo Gaviano, who works in the fields of ambient, dark ambient, industrial, techno, live-performances and visuals. In the duo with Lefterna, the project name adopted by the extremely prolific collaborator Boban Ristevski, Svart1 enters into a long-form dialogue. By composing one four-part piece for the whole duration of the tape side, they offer an interesting contrast to side A which is made up of shorter pieces which, in themselves, are more fragmented, interspersed with alienating samples and found sounds.
File under: musique concrète, dark ambient
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| REBEL POWERS |
Not one Star will stand the Night |
CD |
"In 1998, Acid Mothers Temple went on a swing of the UK that sowed the seeds for a new cosmic unit, Rebel Powers. Kawabata, Makoto, Cotton Casino and original AMT drummer Koizumi Hajima met up with David Keenan, guitarist for Glasgow's Telstar Ponies and prominent scribe for London's premier new music mag The Wire, and holed up in South London's Moat Studios to let the heavenly river flow. Rebel Powers explore minimalist sound layering via two long, improvised tracks. Sustained guitar notes resonate and sarangi buzzes swirl while chiming waves of concrete percussive clatter and plaintive vocal wails slowly build momentum. Sounds are methodically layered and gently peeled away, revealing a ringing guitar chord or two at its very core. Pools of sound shimmer and meticulously waver as each note strikes its placid surface, building and building an ominous mood with glacial intensity towards the psyche's breaking point. Imagine the sort of dark themes and tolling guitar found on Popol Vuh's soundtrack to Nosferatu, oozing ever forward and serenaded by the hypnotic call from the mythical Siren. Minimalism is certainly the order of the day, but a sort of minimalism that has been rendered catatonic, eerie, otherworldly. With just guitars, percussive rustles, intermittent sarangi and vocals, Rebel Powers evoke a meditative sphere to get lost in for days. Aside from sarangi, there are no overdubs present, and the music was completely improvised." [label info]
www.strange-attractors.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| RED FAVORITE |
same |
LP |
"Jeremy Pisani recorded these 11 tracks between 1996 and 2003. As a resident of western Massachusetts, he shared stages with acts like Sunburned Hand of Man (=vaguely focused free folk), P.G.Six (acid folk, reviewed on next page), MV & EE Medicine Show (=avant music), Flaherty & Corsano duo (=avant music), Dredd Foole (=guitarist / s-sw, -havn’t hear him yet-) and Joshua (psych-folk) has maintained a curiously low profile.
The combinations of fingerpicking guitar meanderings with additional textures and some murmering voice (like on “First”) fits well with music like early Tower Recordings, Six Organs Of Admittance, Currituck Co., etc. Jeremy described his music well as “A soundtrack for dreams, chemical endeavours, human afflictions and distant memories”.
Acoustic guitar is the main instrument, often as acoustic guitar meanderings, with textures and fingerpicking improvisations, combined with some additional instruments like amplified guitar and banjo. On several tracks the guitar is combined with mellotron : on “Routine”, “Cistern”, “Wingshot”, and on the slightly loaded “Flight”. There are also touches of collages with other sounds (like with a distant phonograph on “Agrippa”). The production and mixing is well done and in a combination of songs the concept has been made optimal. I heard for instance an original use of changing the environmental echoes or tensions in the recordings on “Stormwatch”. “Pallid” has also a strangely mixed sound, which has some surreal effect, probably benifits from a less perfect recording. And “Flight” which has a somewhat dense tension is mixed as outro into the quieter acoustic fingerpicking solo. In between tracks with more tension are various very moody instrumental tracks like “Routine”, which has also flute and mellotron. A strange track is “Green Hill Beach” which starts with waves, then has guitar improvisations (amplified and acoustic), some voice whispers, and then evolves to more and more electro-acoustic and electric guitars echoes, to a point of saturation with effects, then calms down as if filtered again to amplified guitar meanderings only. In general I can say that those people who liked the experimental approaches from Six Organs of Admittance should check this artist too. But also fans of Joshua / P.G.Six might notice here a wonderful undiscovered talent.
The last hidden 12th track is a beautiful solo fingerpicking instrumental closer in Middle Eastern mode. A release which definitely deserves to be heard with an official publication." [Psychedelic Folk]
"Red Favorite, a cycle of compositions for guitars, electronics and voices created by Jeremy Pisani was first released as a limited edition CD on Spirit of Orr and is now offered, as it was originally conceived to appear, on an LP. He moved closer and looked through the peephole. And he saw: the world stretched out before him, a quiet and gentle space with a broad expanse of grass that practically glistened in its greenness. A sparkling brook ran through the meadow in the middle distance, and now he saw that the grass was dotted with the pale blue and soft yellow of many blooming flowers, which, half hidden in the grass, stared out at him like so many frightened eyes. On a distant hilltop stood a grove of small pink trees, covered and obscured by the astonishing pinkness of their blossoms. The world had a sense of freshness, as if it might only be minutes old -- washed clean by a careful springtime rain, dried and scrubbed by a solicitous breeze, burnished to its brightness by the rays of a gentle sun. It was an uncomplicated place, a very simple place. But what it had was quite enough; it had all it needed." [label notes] |
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
| RED PANDA |
Ferrimagnetic |
CD-R |
Guitar/Drone Ambient Noise, very spheric & monumental, low-fi and meditative. Think of ULTRASOUND, DUAL, STARS OF THE LID, etc... Definitely recommended !
“The music on this release has existed spread across about 12 cassette tapes for nearly ten years. Red Panda has been founded in order to document these recordings. The music was not written as "red panda", in fact it wasn't FOR anything. These are bedroom recordings from 1995 and 1996 done on a busted 4 track (3 track), a home stereo, and a 4 track (all 4 tracks actually worked).
One interesting side effect that happened is that the song "Cyanic Pull" could not be found on any of the cassettes, but was eventually located on a very scratched CDR. Nothing could be done to repair the song, so it has been left with skips and scratches intact. There are also moments throughout the record where the tape bleed is evidenced by backwards detuned voices, and radio static (a side effect of home stereo recording). In the end Ferrimagnetic is a late night record full of pastoral hiss and hum, and shimmering guitars. For fans of early Flying Saucer Attack, Azusa Plane, and Too Pure era Seefeel.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€7.00 |
|
| REED, RICK |
Dark Skies at Noon |
CD |
Einigen vielleicht bekannt von der schönen BETA LACTAM 10” „Music for the Rothko Chapel"; hier drei neue Stücke von RICK REED, der von KEITH ROWE (Gitarre & Radioempfänger) sowie TRAVIS WELLER (Violine) begleitet wird. Dronige Improvisationen mit bizarren analogen Sounds, Klangfelder voller elektrischer Transmissionen, der Aether aufgeladen mit ominösen Radio-Schwingungen...
“Rick Reed is a self-taught composer/improviser who has been working in the Austin underground music scene for the past 25 years. Dark Skies at Noon is his definitive statement. Over the years, Reed’s sound has taken on a life of its own – that of a magnificent monster capable of both ferocious intensity and lulling tranquility, yet perfectly controlled under Reed's masterful care.
Dark Skies at Noon's title track was utilized by legendary filmmaker Ken Jacobs as soundtrack to some of his recent works. And it is an apt accompaniment to Jacobs' surreal, otherworldly images (the Jacobs/Reed collaboration is ongoing). The second piece in this collection is a live recording (made by Tom Carter of Charalambides) featuring ex-AMM guitarist Keith Rowe in a stunning duet. The album's closing piece is pure Rick Reed, demonstrating his wholly unique sound and compositional style in an ear-bending, yet always restrained blur of sine waves, field recordings, short-wave radio, and Moog synthesizer.
Reed has defined his sound while performing solo and with various groups including Frequency Curtain and the Abrasion Ensemble. Since the mid 90s, Reed has released several LPs and CDs on labels such as Ecstatic Peace, Beta-lactam Ring, Pale Disc Japan and Elevator Bath.
Packaged inside two elegant printed sleeves of 100% recycled paper, this compact disc has been issued in an edition of 328 copies.” [label description]
“...Very nice work throughout indeed, perhaps his strongest until now.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Dreamz / Blue Polz |
pic-LP |
Rauschig-repetitive Analog- & Mechano-drones, füllig & dicht auf Seite 1, ruhiger & ätherischer auf Seite 2, kreiert mit Analog-Synth, Sinustone-Generator und Kurzwellen-Radio. Das sind quasi die Soundtracks für 2 von RICK REEDS abstrakten Gemälden, die auf dieser picture-disc abgebildet sind. Schöne Arbeit des Texaners mit starkem 70er Jahre Drone & Minimalismus-Touch.
"Beautiful picture disc LP featuring two full-color reproductions of visual works by Rick Reed and two new side-long solo compositions. Reed's fascinating, highly evolved world is represented well by these two new pieces, each of which offers up the kind of droning intensity and unsettling beauty that this veteran noisemaker has come to be known for. Reed's work is very obviously that of an experienced craftsman - one whose sound is a reverent nod to early electronic music underscored by an enduring sensibility for atmosphere and ethereality.
Dreamz began life as the soundtrack for a live visual display by filmmaker Ken Jacobs, which was performed live by Jacobs and Reed at the 2007 New York Film Festival. The record’s flipside, Blue Polz, was also inspired by the work of a filmmaker (originally conceived as a kind of alternate soundtrack to a piece by Fred Worden). All of the music was created using an EMS Synthi A, plus 2 sine wave generators and a shortwave radio. The artwork comes from two original paintings. Reed has been active in the visual arts for more than 20 years; his work is utterly abstract, beautifully enigmatic. These images are the perfect accompaniment to Reed’s otherworldly audio counterparts.
In addition to his solo work, Rick Reed has participated in a number of productive collaborations over the years with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (in Frequency Curtain), the Abrasion Ensemble, and SIRSIT. He currently resides in Austin. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 260 copies." [label info]
"From the improvisation world of Texas comes Rick Reed, who has been around for quite some time, playing with Keith Rowe (it's this Rick from that AMM title), the Abrasion Ensemble and Sirsit, of whom I never heard. He has had various solo releases on Elevator Bath before. These two pieces here were part of something bigger: one as a 'live visual display by filmmaker Ken Jacobs', and the other one could be an alternative soundtrack to a piece by one Fred Worden. Reed uses a EMS Synthi A, two sine wave generators and a shortwave radio. The first side, if I detected that alright, is a very minimal piece of soft flowing, high pitched tones. Like far away insects chirping whilst the dawn sets in. Over the course of the side dawn gets dark and insects quiet out. The other side start out in the middle of the dark night but it stays night: dark humming organ like drones, which are filtered out over the course of the piece, until some chorus like sounds drop. Of these four sides, this is the most single minded, and for me the least interesting, even when it's not bad either. Two fine to great records, lovely picture disc and highly limited. Yummy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
|
The Way Things go |
do-LP |
"Here, finally, is the gorgeous presentation that astronomy domine Rick Reeds music so richly deserves: Two black vinyl LPs, pressed on
180-gram virgin vinyl, with full-color labels, inside black poly-lined sleeves, housed in a matte-finish full-color gatefold jacket adorned
with Reeds vibrant and fantastically evocative paintings. Included with each copy of this set is a full-color download card featuring
access to high-quality MP3s of the complete contents of the vinyl records. This package has been issued in an edition of 515 copies.
- - - -
Welcome to an atmospheric realm of blurred synth drones, textural shortwave radio, and vivid sine waves. Welcome to the highly
individual sonic world of Rick Reed. For around 25 years now Reed has been toiling away, composing, performing, and fine-tuning his craft of very personal and powerful electronic meditation. And his expertise is plainly evident. His is incredibly engaging music with an almost physical presence. Reeds level of mastery is virtually unparalleled - it seems that no one else can combine these elements with quite the same finesse, with the same ear for arrangement, or with the same sense of purpose.
If Rick Reed is not yet a household name it is likely due to his relatively slim body of work. 'The Way Things Go,' then, is an attempt at resolving this issue, for here are 83 worthy minutes of top-shelf electronic tonalities. 'The Way Things Go' covers a span of eight
years of work, and yet the material flows very naturally from one piece to the next. Yes, the evolution of technique is on display here,
but Reed found his voice some years ago and his stylistic development has therefore been suitably subtle and deliberate. This is the work of a composer who is extraordinarily familiar with the sounds at his disposal and whose editorial skills are equally honed.
Massimo Ricci, inspired by one of the pieces in this set (Hidden Voices, has noted:
I can't stress enough the importance of composers like Reed, who thrive in semi-obscurity and without the praises given to people [worth] less than half their value, continuously finding alternative interpretations of the word 'emotion.'
The observation is astute and the idea of an emotional presence is crucial to understanding Reeds work. His music is sometimes noisy,
sometimes tranquil. Harsh frequencies give way to beautifully sustained tones. Jarring textures and lilting melodies are both to be
found in this sphere. Above all, though, Rick Reeds work is challenging. There is no easy classification for music of this complexity. The curious listener is best advised to investigate personally.
In addition to his solo work, Rick Reed has participated in a number of productive collaborations over the years with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (in Frequency Curtain), the Abrasion Ensemble, and SIRSIT, among others. Reed's music has previously been released by labels such as Ecstatic Peace, Beta-lactam Ring Records, and Elevator Bath. He currently resides in Austin." [label info]
www.elevatorbath.com
"Over the years Rick Reed has played with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (as Frequency Curtain), Abrasion Ensemble and Sirsit but also explored the world of drone music as a solo artist. Hard to say what he does to create his drone moves. One could easily think of a bunch of analogue synthesizers, or perhaps heavily treated field recordings. Maybe its all computer work? One look at the cover though and its revealed: moog and EMS synthesizers, sine wave generators, shortwave radio, found radio sounds and voices. The pieces on this double album are from anywhere between 2001 and 2010 - the title piece. Its both an excellent overview of his work and a very coherent body of work. One could easily argue that in those ten years Reed didn't progress at all, and that his approach to composing stayed rather the same. That's one way of looking at it. One could as easily argue that it all makes up for a very consistent approach that reveals a fine craftsmanship in creating dense electronic landscapes. In
those ten years Reed never released much work, so its hard to say that he is overproductive and that 'it is always the same'. I thought this was all excellent music, a fine cross road of musique concrete and electronic music.Taking the best out of cosmic music, drone and experiment and put that into all immersive music. Music that sucks you totally into in it, like a hot bath, especially when you play it loud. Very refined." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
The Symmetry of Telemetry |
LP |
Elevator Bath and Sedimental are honored to co-release the newest work from legendary Texas-based electronic musician Rick Reed, arguably the linchpin of Austin's experimental scene for the past few decades. Reed's distinguished reputation has been justifiably lauded and this new collection of works is thus cause for celebration. The Symmetry of Telemetry, Reed's first new release since 2018, was recorded at his home studio during 2020 and 2021. Reed employs Buchla and Moog synthesizers, organ, vocoder, and found radio sounds. "I've long been fascinated by the radio" says Reed. "But usually more atmospheric blasts like short wave static, rather than accidental juxtapositions of ironic voices or music." Reed's mastery lies in his matchless ability to combine these disparate elements into tightly organized audio collages, each bearing his stamp of singularity. The resultant album contains three new stories conveyed as highly distinctive, personal electronic music. Side A's "Dysania" is an atmospheric rumination on the lethargy so prevalent during the early days of the pandemic. Tinged with melancholy, it is an occasionally serene but deceptively complex study -- and one of Reed's finest compositions to date. Side B kicks off with "Space Age Radio Love Song," a dense pastiche of Buchla bleeps and bloops with frequent radio interruptions and a ring-modulated vocal coda. It's a varied and surprisingly vulnerable construction, a love song in its essence. Side B ends with the moody and intriguing "Leave a Light on for Tony," dedicated to the great artist of light projections, Tony Martin, who passed away the same day Reed finished this piece. The gorgeous artwork on the album's cover consists of two recent paintings by Reed, the most fitting visual accompaniment imaginable for his music (and vice versa). The images are presented here on a heavy, full-color jacket with spot gloss printing, designed by Colin Andrew Sheffield. The vinyl is housed in a poly-lined inner sleeve with beautiful full-color labels.
https://richardkreed.bandcamp.com/album/the-symmetry-of-telemetry
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| REED, STAN / GREGOR JABS / FRANK ROWENTA |
Apoplexia 1973 |
CD |
Schon fast sowas wie ein geräuschmusikalisches Hörspiel über Schizophrenie, ein einziger verstörender Psychotrip! Interview-Stücke mit Psychiatrie-Patienten (von 1973) werden verwebt mit Bombardements von akustischen "Alltagswelt"-Informationen, TV, Film & Radiofetzen & Musikphrasen, vokales Material, und elektronischen Sounds, alles heftigst effektiert und übereinandergelegt zu einer überwältigenden Schizophonie, die das Wesen dieser Krankheit spürbar & erfahrbar macht!
"Based on the reel to reel tapes from Klinischen Anstalten Aachen from 1973, this collaboration explores the intimate nature of several patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and their journey through the surreal mental landscape that a diseased mind finds itself lost in so many times. Interviews with patients are woven into dreamscapes of sound, some nightmarish, others almost childlike. Ironic samples scattered throughout the work create a beautifully disturbing listen. What movies will play in your own mind? What voices will speak to you from the inside? Stan Reed is the owner of PsychForm Records & PsychoChrist Productions. His own recording projects include PLETHORA, The Broken Penis Orchestra, The Broken Human Machine, and Blue Sabbath Black Cheer. Gregor Jabs is a new and upcoming German sound artists who records with the psychedelic outfit known as Grillhaus. His first solo CD, Stamen, is also now available on Jeans Records. Frank Rowenta has been involved with surreal sound projects since the early 90's. He is one half of the super group Rowenta/Khan, formed Grillhaus with Mr. Jabs, has recorded several solo CDs and has now started the Jeans Records label out of Aachen Germany, which promises to yield many more audio oddities in the future" [press release]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| REFORMED FACTION |
I am the Source of Light, I am not a Mirror |
3 x CD-box |
Das dritte Werk der ehemaligen 2/3 von ZOVIET FRANCE, die sich nicht mehr "REFORMED FACTION OF Z.F." nennen dürfen und nun kurzerhand als "REFORMED FACTION" weitermachen. SOLEILMOON hat sich wieder eine besondere Artwork / Verpackung ausgedacht: Eine schmucke Alu-dose mit Prägung, darin drei CDs, ein Button mit dem ans RAF-Logo angelehnten R.F.-Zeichen, ein Klamottensticker, Farbbooklet, und eine golden bedruckte Inlaykarte.
Auf den 3 CDs sind ganze 52 (!) Stücke verteilt, das wirkt manchmal wie ein hochkreatives, experimentelles Potpourri, eine Wundertüte aus Ideen, Fragmenten & Skizzen und ist wohl (wie auch früher bei ZOVIET FRANCE) in langen Sessions entstanden. Neben gesampelten Material jedweden Ursprungs & Synths kommen vielerlei Instrumente, auch Drums, Bass & Gitarre zum Einsatz, oft wird es rhythmisch oder loopig (manchmal tribal, dann wieder eher Electronica-lastig), orientale Anwandlungen (Sitar) sind vorhanden, die Fülle von Stilen & Genren, die hier berührt werden ist schlicht überwältigend, irgendwo im multidimensionalen Musikraum zwischen RAPOON, ZOVIET FRANCE und den chaotisch-rhythmischen Sachen von DOWNLOAD oder BEEHATCH. Wow.
"Reformed Faction are Robin Storey and Mark Spybey. Their new release “I Am The Source of Light, I Am Not a Mirror” follows their 2007 Soleilmoon release “The War Against”, and is their third album. Their debut release “Vota” was released in 2005 by Austrian label Klanggalerie. The band has played live in both North America and Europe. Reformed Faction did not set out to record a triple album, but that is exactly what they have done. Reformed Faction do not talk about making music. They make music. They assemble and record and use improvised material to stimulate the development of composed pieces. The music was assembled in the same way that the CD package was: through active collaboration. “What folks probably don’t realize is that we have always embraced technology. We use technology, we aren’t governed by it. We have to learn how to use equipment in our own way, which means that instruction manuals are never referred to. We make music. We try not to theorise, and we avoid interpretation or analysis of our music like the plague.” This is an homage of sorts, to the last 40 years of music making. Robin began as a guitarist, Mark as a drummer. Throughout their careers they have neither deliberately nor consciously eschewed the use of conventional instruments or traditional compositional techniques. They do not regard themselves as an “experimental” band, preferring to leave the laboratory safe in the hands of physicists and technicians. A long time ago :zoviet-france: declared that they could, if they wished, create the perfect pop record or the archetypal country record. Both Mark and Robin were profoundly influenced by the music of rock bands in the seventies while boldly assimilating ideas from world music in the belief that all musical sources exist to be appropriated. In the same way, over the years, they have embraced technology. This is “anti-restictivist” music. “We realized a long time ago that as soon as we left :zoviet-france: our cover was blown. We could no longer hide under the false mantle of anonymity.” For Reformed Faction, each album is an attempt to develop ideas. The three CDs that comprise “I Am the Source of Light, I am Not a Mirror” are collages, each intended to be listened to in their entirety. The contributions of various friends have been assimilated into the recordings. The East German band Scatology and the American band Not Breathing both contributed to the process. Tommy Grenas of the Los Angeles band Anubian Lights, who Mark met through Damo Suzuki, came to stay with the band and also joined in the recording sessions. The recordings took on a life of their own. Picture the backdrop: the rainy landscape of northern England, the collection of classic seventies albums from the likes of Faust and Can, and the band’s preoccupation with the cultural and political legacy left by the dissolution of the eastern block countries. Reformed Faction spent time in the city of Dresden, where they met the artist Ira Tannheuser, who supplied the images used in the booklet accompanying the CD. The finishing touches were generated by Shaya, an enterprising Afghan trader and fan of Reformed Faction who trekked through the fabled Thar desert in the Sind province of southern Pakistan, and there discovered a long-forgotten depository of hand made metal boxes that had been manufactured 30 years ago in the town of Mithi. They were initially made for storing detonators but had never been used. Shaya had them embossed with the Reformed Faction logo by a local metal worker and then shipped them half-way around the world to Soleilmoon and told us to do something with them. The boxes are still partially encrusted with the sand of the Thar desert. “I Am The Source of Light, I Am Not a Mirror” is released in two configurations. Both come with three CDs in screen printed slipcases, a 12 page full-color booklet featuring the work of East German artist Ira Tannheuser, a screen printed insert describing the edition, a metal badge and a sew-on cloth patch.The first edition is limited to 100 copies and is available exclusively via Soleilmoon’s mailorder service. Besides the aforementioned goodies it includes a 3 inch CDR with an unreleased track presented in a hand numbered screen printed slipcase. The box is made entirely of sand-cast aluminum, and features the Reformed Faction logo on the lid. The second edition, which comes with everything included in the first edition except for the 3 inch CDR, is limited to 300 copies and is presented in a box made from sand-cast aluminum sides attached to a sheet metal top and base. The lid is embossed with the Reformed Faction logo. We are Reformed Fraktion. We are from the North of England. We travel. With open eyes." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2009 |
€44.00 |
|
|
Until |
CD |
"Until… by Reformed Faction is a new set of recordings built around the ideas of abstract compositional instructions similar in meaning and intent to those used by Karlheinz Stockhausen in such works as “From the seven days”
Eager to create a diverse and ever changing catalogue of works Reformed Faction here embrace improvisation, a feature fundamental to all their recordings, with a different focus and sensibility allowing sounds to evolve slowly and sub-conciously across a unrestricted timescale.
Stockhausen himself was influenced by Satprem’s writings on the nature of auditory vibrations as here quoted from “The Adventure Of Consciousness”
“the more one descends the ladder of consciousness, the more do the auditory vibrations get broken up. On the vital plane, for example , can be heard the disordered vibrations of Life, jarring, syncopated, like certain types of music which come from this plane. The higher one rises, the more do the vibrations harmonise, unite, spin out like certain great notes of Beethoven’s String Quartets, which seem to draw us vertiginously, with held breath, to the resplendent heights of pure light”.
Reformed Faction are Robin Storey and Mark Spybey , both ex-members of zoviet*france and both with long established and productive solo careers as Rapoon and Dead Voices On Air respectively." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The World Awake / 11 Stueck |
do-CD |
"The World Awake! / 11 Stueck is a new double album from Reformed Faction, the duo of Robin Storey and Mark Spybey. It follows the triple CD release for Soleilmoon, ‘I am the Source of Light I am not a Mirror,” in 2009.
Robin Storey was born in 1955 in Cumbria, England. He studied fine arts at Sunderland University and took classes in electronic and experimental composition, joining with friends to perform the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (a key influence, as were the Krautrock bands of the early 1970s). In 1979 Storey formed the pioneering industrial group :zoviet*france:, remaining a member until 1992: The same year Storey issued the first Rapoon album, Dream Circle, its entrancing fusion of Indian ragas, African rhythms and experimental textures anticipating the evocative soundscapes of the many releases to follow. Also a noted visual artist and animator, Storey's work has been exhibited throughout the world and is in the collections of many major galleries.
Mark Spybey was born in North Yorkshire, England in 1961. He has always worked in mental health care. After a long time as a member of :zoviet*france: he moved to Canada and worked under the names Dead Voices on Air and Propeller. He collaborated widely, toured and was vocalist of the acclaimed band Download (ex-Skinny Puppy). He was also a member of Sofortkontakt!, led by the late Michael Karoli of Can, appearing at Can’s 30th anniversary shows. Spybey has worked with a variety of artists who inspired his music, including Damo Suzuki of Can, Faust, Michael Rother (Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk), Dieter Moebius (Cluster and Harmonia), Genesis.P.Orridge (Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV), James Plotkin, Martin Atkins, Mick Harris and The Legendary Pink Dots. He returned to the U.K in 2000. The World Awake! Was originally intended for a vinyl release and recorded from improvisations made on one day in November of 2009. 11 Stueck was compiled from improvisations made on December 1st 2009, with drummer Christian Alderson and bass player Oscar Ruiz Fernandez. The Austin Texas based musician Tony D’Oporto, aka Gnome, also appears on one track. The work references the writing of Henry Miller, in his aptly entitled essay, “With Edgar Varese in the Gobi Desert.” “The World Awake! Just to repeat that to yourself five times a day is enough to make an anarchist of you. How would you awaken the world – if you were a musician? With a sonata for rusty tin openers? Have you ever thought about it? Or would you rather remain asleep?” “We have been educated to such a fine – or dull – point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it’s all about. We don’t trust our five senses. We rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation.” Varese said, “What should be avoided; tones of propaganda. As well as any journalistic speculation on timely events and doctrines. I want the epic impact of our epoch, stripped of it’s mannerisms and snobberisms…. Imagination is the last word.” This first edition of “The World Awake/11 Stueck” is presented in a high-quality screen printed perfumed sleeve with printed slipcases for each disc. It is limited to 444 copies." [label info]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Years of Lightning, Day of Drums |
CD |
"Brand new album from two former :zoviet*france: members Robin Storey (Rapoon) and Mark Spybey (Dead Voices on Air). This is the fifth album of their joint project which has been formed in 2006 and now gathers more and more attention from the audience which it really deserves. Obviously the duo is on its best creative form today and this work proves it totally. Delicate improvisational loop/collage technic which became a face of :zoviet*france: of its golden mid-80s era is brought here to a new level of sonic wizardry making a perfect balance between great operational technical skills and living breathing musical canvas. An absolute masterpiece of experimental electronic sound art which is far from both formal approach of concrete music and total lack of structure typical to pure improvisationists. Very recommended not only to :zoviet*france: / Rapoon / Dvoa fans but for much wider circles of true music lovers! This edition is limited to 450 copies and comes in a full colour digisleeve with two inserts." [label info]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| REFORMED FACTION [OF SOVIET FRANCE] |
The War Against... |
CD |
"REFORMED FACTION is a band featuring ROBIN STOREY (RAPOON) and MARK SPYBEY (ZOVIET FRANCE). Their second album 'The War Against...', was cultivated from hours of improvisations made whilst watching Werner Herzog movies and drinking red wine. Spybey would record Storey and then manipulate the sounds, combining rough mixes of the pieces with sounds of his own. Themes from the recording sessions were played in live concerts and then reworked for the final version of the album. This 2012 reissue of "The War Against" is presented in a tastefully screenprinted slipcase." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| REHBERG, PETER |
Peter Rehberg at GRM |
LP |
Shelter Press and INA grm are pleased and moved to present two previously unreleased recordings of Peter Rehberg, two live performances given at the GRM which, each in their own way, vividly illustrate the extent of his sonic palette. On July 22, 2021, Peter Rehberg passed away, leaving a great emptiness in his wake. Many initiatives have already celebrated or will soon celebrate his memory and the titanic work he put at the service of so many artists - a whole musical community, in fact -- through Editions Mego. INA grm, Shelter Press and Stephen O'Malley, who are continuing some of the collaborative Editions Mego sub-labels (Recollection GRM, Portraits GRM and Ideologic Organ), wanted to pay tribute more specifically to the musician Peter Rehberg, and to his immense talent. Peter Rehberg, as an artist, has collaborated with the GRM on numerous occasions, both with Stephen O'Malley (as KTL) and solo. This release features two concerts given for the GRM, each time as part of the Présences électronique festival. The first concert, given on March 15, 2009 at the Maison de la Radio in Paris, marked the first collaboration between Peter Rehberg and the GRM and the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship. The second concert took place on March 6, 2016. Between these two concerts, seven years have passed, seven years in which the ties between Peter Rehberg and the GRM have been strengthened, seven years in which Peter Rehberg's music has flourished. What is striking in these two concerts is how Peter Rehberg's unique musical sensitivity and "grammar" can be heard beyond the instruments. For while the first concert is pure laptop music, the second is extended to the field of modular synthesis. However, in both concerts, the elements that are so personal to Peter Rehberg's music are present and combine in a layering of sonic abrasions, raw sensations and a sensitivity that is as much about formal awareness as it is about the invocation of overwhelming emotions, even though a little hidden behind a radicality that is always a bit provocative. Peter Rehberg offers us a "portrait music", a music that gives some clues about the personality of its author and whose absence continues to deepen an inconsolable sadness.
A1. at GRM (2009) (21:24)
B1. at GRM (2016) (17:33)
|
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| REIBEL, GUY |
Douze Inventions En Six Modes De Jeu |
LP |
"Format: LP (180gr, insert, download code, 500 items)
Release date: december 4th 2015
Guy Reibel is one of the most enigmatic figures in the post-war electronic music scene. He started out with a double qualification: he first became an engineer – due to the pressure of his parents – and then studied composition with Olivier Messiaen in Paris, the teacher of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Francois Bayle, to name just a few…
Pierre Schaeffer, the director of the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales at Radio France), very soon offered him a position: he was not only responsible to edit and work out the famous Solfège-3LP-Box that was the practical part of Schaeffer’s theoretical manifest “Traité des objets musicaux”, he also codirected with Schaeffer the class for electroacoustic music at the National Music Conservatory.
During that period Guy Reibel worked intensively in the studios of the GRM. He did not only compose some milestones of electronic music, he also developed a very music-based theory of electronic music: he included his ideas of musical gesture and game theory already in the sixties long before anybody else discussed those issues.
His theories as well as his education as a musician with absolute hearing etc. soon brought him in conflict with other members of the GRM, who at that time more and more emphasized the media nature of electronic music. Guy Reibel – who was for long time considered to be Schaeffer’s successor as the director of the Group – lost the competition with Francois Bayle and in consequence not only quit the GRM but also electroacoustic music. He kept his composition class at the conservatory, toured the world as conductor of his newly founded Groupe Vocale de France (who realized the first complete recordings of Ligeti’s choir-work) and also took over a director’s position at Radio France. Meanwhile his electronic music almost disappeared. There were two or three LPs available on the early GRM series, later only one CD. Guy Reibel became in some ways the Trotzky of the GRM, who was removed from the acoustic photos of the group. Now, decades later, these struggles are over, and the GRM generously offered the possibility to use their studios for the digitalisation of the old tapes. So Guy Reibel and Reinhold Friedl could digitize his whole archive of his electronic pieces in late 2014.
This vinyl is one result: “12 Inventions …” is now being released for the very first time: a milestone in electronic music and a perfect example for Reibel’s musical austerity: very defined and limited musical material results in concentrated and dense forms. The unusually vital character of the music is also due to Reibel’s use of hybrid sound production: he very often combined amplitude envelopes of acoustic sounds and noises (especially and very often of polysteron) on synthetic electronic sounds.
A few of the “12 inventions” are even played at least partly live: TM+, the legendary first live-electronic French group, was founded in 1977 by three of Reibel’s students: Denis Defour, Lurent Cuniot and Yann Geslin. They were almost the first purely electronic group that also toured Europe extensively with their analogue synthesizers. A separate vinyl of this group is also up to be released on Karlrecords’ Perihel series soon!
But this LP documents how Guy Reibel succeeded to compose a music that combines the density and purity of electronic music with an unbelievable sound sensuousness. A real listening experience, here released for the very first time!
Reinhold Friedl
All music composed by Guy Reibel
Commissioned by ina-GRM, Groupe de Recherches Musicales, Radio France, 1979
Tracks 3, 6, 8, 11 played by TM+, Trio Instrumental Électroacoustique: Laurent Cuniot, Denis Dufour, Yann Geslin, recorded at Grand Auditorium, Maison de la Radio, Paris, May 7, 1979" [label info]
www.karlrecords.net |
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
| REICH, STEVE |
Four Organs / Phase Patterns |
LP |
"This classic minimal music album is now available again on vinyl for the first time since the 70s.
In recent decades Steve Reich's music has been presented internationally at major venues, performed by high-profile musicians including the Kronos Quartet, guitarist Pat Metheny, and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. But in 1970, when the music on this LP was recorded, Reich's audiences gathered in museums and art galleries to hear his work interpreted by the composer himself and a group of friends.
"I am interested in perceptible processes" Reich had written in 1968. "I want to be able to hear the processes happening throughout the sounding music.' Four Organs is a radical realisation of this goal. Against the steady rattle of maracas, individual tones within a single chord are gradually lengthened. No changes of pitch or timbre occur, and the drawn out nature of the process provoked outrage at some early performances, when audiences found themselves caught up in a decelerating loop, being dragged towards stasis. Phase Patterns, composed a month later, relies on a phasing technique developed during Reich's earlier experiments with magnetic tape recordings, which he allowed to drift out of sync. Identical figures initially in unison shift out of phase, generating unexpected patterns.
When these pieces first appeared, on the adventurous French record label Shandar, they were regarded as defining works within a musical movement that had developed during the late 1960s. Reich was seen as a pioneer of minimalism, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Philip Glass, whose music also featured in the Shandar catalogue. With hindsight the term is inadequate and inappropriate when applied to much of Reich's subsequent oeuvre, which includes rich and varied works such as The Desert Music for voices and orchestra, Tehillim - a setting of Psalms, and his multimedia opera The Cave. But these two works from 1970 are purely minimalist, in a way that the visual artists and sculptors who formed Reich's early audiences would have recognised.
These pieces may have clear affinity with conceptual art as well as the minimalist aesthetic, but Reich's allegiance is to making music rather than sound art or acoustic research. Characteristically, after creating Four Organs Reich looked for antecedents in musical history, and found them in the medieval organa of Léonin and Pérotin. His subsequent work has found acceptance and a substantial following within the established institutions of composed music. He has become a major composer.
In the same year that these Four Organs and Phase Patterns were written Reich travelled to Ghana to study with a master drummer. On his return to New York he started work on Drumming, an hour-long distillation of his interest in African and Balinese music and their polyrhythmic processes. It forms an impressive culmination to his use of phasing technique and is widely acknowledged as a minimalist masterpiece. But if it is the radical edge of uncompromising hardcore minimalism that you are after, this reissue of Four Organs and Phase Patterns delivers two key examples.
"Obviously music should put all within listening range into a state of ecstasy" Steve Reich in 1969." [label info]
www.aguirrecords.com
"Two of our favorite pieces of all time from minimalist composer Reich, available again! Both pieces were recorded in 1970, one at the Guggenheim in NY and the other at the University Museum in Berkeley. This is electric organ overdrive! Four Organs not surprisingly is a piece played on four electric organs (with Reich playing one as well as his good friend Philip Glass...), while beneath the organs is the repetitious shaking of maracas. The short pulsations of the organ gradually stretch out, lasting longer and longer, creating a totally dynamic tension that evokes standing in a massive and grand church that's empty except for the mesmerizing sounds of the organs lulling you into some sort of a trance. Phase Patterns manages to increase the tension with the four players using identical organs and playing to a precise strategy that Reich has calculated. These pieces predate and predict so much of the minimalist electronic and experimental music to come over the next three decades." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
| REICH, STEVE / ENSEMBLE AVANTGARDE |
Four Organs / Phase Patterns / Pendulum |
LP |
"Three early compositions (1968-1970) by Steve Reich, one of the most prolific exponents of minimal music, in stunning interpretations by the critically acclaimed Ensemble Avantgarde. Available on vinyl (180gr, gatefold sleeve incl. download code) for the first time ever!
Steve Reich (born 1936) is undoubtedly one of the key figures in 20th century contemporary music and along with Terry Riley or Philip Glass one of the founding fathers of so-called minimal music. With classics like “Music For 18 Musicians”, “Drumming” or “Different Trains” the American composer proved himself one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history" (The Guardian). The four pieces on this collection date back to the time before his famous master pieces (1967-1970): “Four Organs” and “Phase Patterns” build on short, repeated patterns that gradually go in and out of phase with each other, creating “a shimmering matrix of sound that is both hypnotic and fascinating in detail” (Allmusic.com) and anticipate Reich’s later trademark sound. “Pendulum Music” is a process piece where only a few starting parameters are given: four microphones are suspended within an array of amplifiers and speakers, then set in motion - the shifts in feedback as they move in space create the music, the results differ with each new performance (as can be experienced listening to the 2 versions here). Reich’s early works are presented on this LP in stunning interpretations by Leipzig based Ensemble Avantgarde whose dedicated, inspired renditions of essential masterpieces of modernism (documented on CDs on reputated labels such as Wergo or Hat Hut Records) won them the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Prize and the Schneider-Schott Prize of Mainz." [label info]
www.karlrecords.net
|
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
| REIDER, C. |
Aughtet |
CD-R |
Stunning work from C.REIDER where he works with human language which is processed & computerized extremely.... listen to totally fragmented voices, like in a dissociative or psychotic process, when language looses its meaning or gets a new one....the whole creates an unsettling atmosphere....very much recommended !
“c. reider's tendency to manipulate the human voice into weird patterns is explored to its fullest on this release. Voice samples from friends were rendered into rumbling guttural grunts, incoherent alien poetry, spiky shards of plosives, singing where once there was no singing, and smooth grains of foreverness. 99% of the sound sources on this recording come from someone's mouth.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| REJECTIONS |
Clone EP |
MC |
"The Clone EP was actually recorded in late 2011 and followed close on the heels of the Concur EP, which was released on Tiny Lights in December 2011. It is therefore a reaction to that first EP, a desire to keep moving forward artistically and a reflection of where my my head was at during the time I was mixing the tracks together. Where the Concur EP was essentially a series of remixes using samples from my brother's band I Concur to create something new while reflecting the spirit and energy of those songs, The Clone EP is very much a fresh piece of work, starting with nothing but an interest to make beat driven music and to keep revising and editing the same samples until I came up with three linked but unique tracks, hence the title of the EP. Therefore the techno rhythms of Clone 1 almost seamlessly morph into the broken beats and noise of Clone 2 which in turn dissolve into the drone soundscapes and reverb drenched percussion of Clone 3. They are cannibal and brethren, feeding off one another and mirror image at the same time.
The sound of the three tracks is again very much a reflection of that period of time as well. I had recently discovered for myself just the potency of Sandwell District, in all of their sounds, images and guises. At the same time I was grinding my way through a number of long term influences such as Mika Vainio, Throbbing Gristle, Public Image Limited, Burial, Ben Frost, Autechre to name but a few, trying to do my best to endure the typically bleak British weather and the tendency for reflection and introspection which typically invades ones consciousness as we near the end of another year. Limited to 100 copies." [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| REMI |
Geist der Utopie |
CD-R |
Very experimental / difficult digital noise-music, all kinds of scratching sounds, hisses & sinus-tones and short silences mixed together for a suspenseful listening experience. Very collaged & fast cut-up stuff with pressure and tension. A project from Austria on Austria’s premier electronic-avantgarde label TONTO. |
2001 |
€11.00 |
|
| REMOTE VIEWERS |
To the North |
CD |
"With their 9th release The Remote Viewers unveil a radically different sound. Recorded live in one studio session, with the rhythm section of John Edwards & Mark Sanders, this recording is a document of a band coming out of transition and rediscovering a group voice, to interpret the unique compositions of David Petts.
David Petts : tenor sax
Adrian Northover : soprano sax
Sue Lynch : tenor sax
Caroline Kraabel : alto & baritone saxes
John Edwards : double bass
Mark Sanders : drums
Rosa Lynch-Northover : marimba" [label info]
www.theremoteviewers.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Nerve Cure |
CD |
"With this, their 10th release, The Remote Viewers
continue to confound expectations. Nerve Cure trumpets a worldly perspective on the band’s core make-up. Not as aggressive or percussion-centric as the manifold and at times, rockified Sinister Heights (2009)or To The North (2010).....
the musicians bridge an avant relationship with an initiative that incorporates investigational-like chamber, dappled with angular phrasings and a glimmering sense of intrigue." [label info]
www.theremoteviewers.com
"The Remote Viewers started as a trio of Adrian Northover, Louise Petts and David Petts, around 2007. It was the start of a fruitful period, that with 'Nerve Cure', results in their tenth release. Nowadays The Remote Viewers turns around the nucleus of Adrian Northover (soprano & alto sax) and David Petts (tenor sax). For this release they were assisted by Rosa Lynch-Nothrover (piano, percussion), Sue Lynch (tenor sax, flute), John Edwards (double bass, harp) plus Adam Bohman (bowed objects on 'Long Weekend' and Caroline Kraabel (baritone sax on 'Grids'). It is my first meeting with this group. Gradually I became more and more enthusiastic about their music. For sure it is evident this music is carefully structured and played, but it didn't move instantly. I needed time. The approach is very minimalistic and academic although there is humor and wit in it.. There is also something Henry Cow-ish in this music, listening to tracks as 'Forgotten Corners' and 'War with the Outer Countries'. The playing is economic and the arrangements are sober, delicate and to the point. Saxophones are prominent, but the coloring by harp, flute, are very okay. It is more in vein of composed chamber music than leaning on jazz or rock. It is of great efficiency and discipline. As cold and emotionless this music appeared to me in the beginning, how warm it is now. Interesting stuff." (DM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| RENALDO & THE LOAF |
Behind closed Curtains |
do-CD |
"Absolutes MUSS für all RENALDO & THE LOAF fans: Zum ersten Mal auf CD : die gesuchten Aufnahmen der "Tap dancing In Slush" EP und der "Behind closed Curtains" LP von 1978 .
Diese allerersten Aufnahmen liefen noch unter ihrem früheren Bandnamen PLIMSOLLLINE, bevor man sich in RENALDO & THE LOAF umbenannte.
Zusätzlich zu diesem knaller gibt es noch eine Bonus CD mit dem Titel "Rotcodism". Hier findet ihr die ersten Aufnahmen von Renaldo&The Loaf." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2014 |
€21.00 |
|
|
The Elbow is Taboo & Elbonus |
do-CD |
" 'The Elbow is Taboo' was Renaldo & The Loaf's fourth album and was released by Ralph in America, Torso in The Netherlands and Some Bizzare in the UK in 1987. You can hear a great technological step forward immediately. Also, the list of analogue instruments played on this album seems endless. Included is one of their most popular songs, "Hambu Hodo" which was also released as a 12" single, and a cover version of the song "Boule!" by French band Ptose. Sadly, it turned out to be their last album, the split followed soon afterwards. As with the other re-issues of this great band's recordings, we offer this new and remastered edition as a double CD. "Elbonus" features not only the legendary 12" of Hambu Hodo, but also the unreleased 7" mix. There's also the the material that was issued on the scarce Hambu Hodo Tak Awa CD-R given away to 5 personal friends and some further unreleased stuff. A must-have. Track list: 1. A Street Called Straight 2. Boule! 3. The Elbow Is Taboo 4. Hambu Hodo 5. Dance For Somnambulists 6. Here's To The Oblong Boys 7. The Bread Song 8. Critical / Dance 9. Extracting The Re-Re 10. El Boaca Pella 11. Hambu Hodo (7" Version) 12. Writing Postcards (From Italy) 13. Mouldy Bread On Bent Street 14. Just Lazy Zen, Martin 15. Doctor Vesner 16. Returning The Re-Re 17. Howl On The Bowline (A-Shanti 18. Then At Iona Lanthem 19. Hambu Hodo (12" Single Version)" [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2016 |
€19.00 |
|
| |
Gurdy Hurding |
CD |
"Possibly the thing in the world that you never expected to happen, but luckily you were wrong: Klanggalerie are proud to present you the brand new album by Renaldo & The Loaf. 30 years after "The Elbow is Taboo", Renaldo & Ted The Loaf have created another fabulous record. 13 songs in classic RATL style with an incredible cover by the wonderful Poxodd. All the RATL trademark sounds are there, but of course technology has not passed unnoticed, so there is a 2016 approach to the music, too. This is what the band say: "Olleh! Hard to believe almost 30 years have passed since Elbow Is Taboo but finally we have decided it’s about time for a brand new album. So... (surprise!).... Gurdy Hurding is soon to be released by Klanggalerie . With a wonderful cover design and artwork by Poxodd, the collection of 13 tracks is scheduled to be released on October 25th. Renaldo & Ted". British avantgarde at its purest by who was often called The English Residents. Track list: 1. Henri Rise 2. Pessimistoc Song 3. A Convivial Ode 4. Scent Of Turnip 5. The Moment Is Lost 6. Gurdy Hurding 7. Improbable Legs 8. Carrot Ballet 9. Asper Dorsalis 10. Djinn House 11. Gladsome Vane 12. Early Twirly 13. Optimism" [label info]
"The style of Renaldo and the Loaf is immediately recognizable, with goofy voices and exaggerated accents, bizarre lyrics involving topics like garden gnome bedmates or a hatred of soap, non-obvious chords and melodies, acoustic instruments played abnormally and extreme sound manipulation to make everything sound unnatural. On Gurdy Hurding, the duo’s original bizarre vigor is still strong, although there are some technological enhancements. (...) Gurdy Hurding is a true statement of the duo’s fun yet uneasy spirit with an emphasis on creating interesting sounds and a relentless devotion to manipulate each one until it’s sufficiently peculiar."
(The Pulse, November 2016)
|
2016 |
€14.50 |
|
| RENOU, CHRISTIAN |
Flou |
CD |
„So let your soul speak, wake up or die.“ Das inzwischen eigenständige Sub-Label von Cold Lands bringt nun eine Reihe von „fabrikgepressten“ limitierten CDs raus, die von Drone exklusiv vertrieben werden !
Der ex-BRUME C. RENOU spinnt hier auf sechs neuen Stücken einen weiteren, wenig angenehmen Trip in die Untiefen des Selbst zurecht, spannungsreiche Geräuschmusik die immer kurz vor der Explosion zu stehen scheint, eiskalt und hart an der Oberfläche, aber von tiefer verzweifelter Emotion im Inneren geprägt... authentisch spricht hier RENOU ein erkaltetes, versteinertes Selbst an, wo der feurige wahre Kern nur noch im Verborgenen glüht.....
Im Inlay übrigens eine Gesamtdiskographie von BRUME / RENOU !
Six new pieces of RENOU’s inner soul-trip music, hard & cold on the surface, but with a hidden, very emotional inner side.... fabric-pressed CD by the COLD LANDS-Sublabel, exclusive distro through Drone Records !
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Gone with the Wound |
mCD-R |
Finally, new material from RENOU, very eerie & threatening stuff with rising drones & alienated voice-material. So good & intense..
"Years and years ago, Christian Renou was known as Brume, but already since six or so years he works under his name, and changed his sound a little bit. As Brume the sound collage was his main interest, but under his own name, he seems to have developed a love of sustaining and droning sounds. 'Gone With The Wound', in two parts is no different. Elements of collating sounds are still there, but throughout the pieces, the long journey is the central theme. Still quite powerful stuff. Part one is loud and clear present, whilst the second part uses more covered up sounds." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"it's a great pleasure for us to welcome Christian Renou in the taâlem series. active for more than 20 years, first under the Brume alias, he has released many discs (and countless tapes in the old days) on many international labels like Staalplaat, Release, Ground Fault, Drone Records, Old Europa Cafe and more recently Fario or Waystyx.
this in two parts is a highly evocative journey with constantly evolutive sounds between experimental, ambient and drone... processed recordings from various different sources for a captivating & fascinating result." [label info]
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Ex-Voto |
CD |
In den Liner-Notes zu EX-VOTO erklärt CHRISTIAN RENOU das Scheitern seines Anspruchs, mit Beendigung von BRUME alle narrativen & lyrischen Elemente hinter sich zu lassen und die reine "Struktur von Klang als Molekular-Zustand" zu erforschen (seitdem benutzt er Computer zur Sounderzeugung & Aufnahme). Alles Nachdenken und Philosophieren über Musik half ihm nicht, den "wahren" Kern zu finden, denn "Mikro"- und "Makro"-Struktur sind letztlich ein und dasselbe, selbst die abstrakteste Form von Klang erzeugt Narration sobald sie ertönt. Diese frustrierende Erkenntnis führt aber zu einer neuen Freiheit in der Komposition, letztlich ist all seine Musik einfach "Seelen-Musik" und nichts anderes.
Auf EX-VOTO geht RENOU neue Wege und benutzt geräuschhafte Feldaufnahmen aus einer Kirche (dort gespielte Violinenklänge & Gesang). Es gibt wunderbare melodische Parts und elektro-akustische Noise-Elemente, Wasser- und Strömungsklänge, irgendwo taucht pathetischer Frauengesang auf, Verfremdung und Re-Kontextualisierung setzt RENOU wieder in sagenhafter Art und Weise ein. So viele verschiedene Ebenen & Stimmungen hier sind zu erfahren , kurz: EX-VOTO ist ein beeindruckendes Werk mit mehreren Bedeutungs- & Erfahrungsebenen, für mehrmaliges Hören wie geschaffen..
Wie auch für viele der BRUME-Alben gilt: unsere wärmste Empfehlung !
"Ex-Voto - a votive offering to a saint or divinity. ‘I see words’. With ‘ex-voto’, Christian Renou has forsaken his analogue machines to encourage a fresh approach via digital technology. As Renou states in his liner notes – he cannot escape narrative structures in his music – his sounds are so evocative of soundtracks without an actual film – encouraging the listener to conjure their own accompanying images.
Yes, it is incredibly melodic, hauntingly so, though at times this is broken by shards of noise and implacable clicks. Midway through ‘ex-voto’, alien beats provide a base for further evocative outpourings of human vs. machine visions. The introduction of strings brings an elegiac quality to the composition. Renou, when creating this narrative, did not deny the ghosts of history in the name of progress…
The disintegration and contamination of a guitar motif appears alongside chopped rhythms and often indistinguishable words. These distant, half-remembered voices babble incoherent noise which battle against the sweet, sweet cracked melodies which pitter-patter and dance around your head. An underlying, delicate metallic whirring plays against a near indecipherable reverie, before the initial guitar melody rears its head for a final time. Layer upon layer of hubble, bubble, toil, but no trouble, ensures this body of work to be Renou’s masterpiece [Frans de Waard / Vital claimed that this more melodic route was something that he’d like to hear more of, whereas Barry G. Nichols / Whiteline blog / Spekk recording artist, extolled the virtues of Renou’s ‘genius’ with this recording] 'I see death'. The cd is packaged in the usual high standard expected of elsieandjack. spot varnish and silver ink over beautiful photography and simple layout, printed on thick cardstock - plus Renou’s liner notes printed on a vellum overlay.
Remember, there is a hand-numbered edition of 100 with laser-etched jewelcases only available direct from Christian Renou and elsieandjack." [label info]
www.elsieandjack.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| RESGESTAE |
Etat d'Urgence |
CD |
"RESGESTAE is the project of Nicholas P., an experimental musician living in Athens, Greece. Using samples, field-recording, etc. he creates post-industrial, cinematic soundscapes, incorporating true political, social and economic elements. "Etat d'Urgence" is no more than a social control soundtrack, an experience in our daily lives of fear. Recommended to all those who like POST-SCRIPTUM and PROPERGOL.
RESGESTAE is the project of Nicholas P., an experimental sound-artist living in Athens, Greece. He started creating post-industrial music in 2005 with a dark-ambient project called [distopia] which released a couple of full-length albums, split-releases and a few EP's on various independant labels.
From 2010, being infatuated with the dark-ambient and "horror" concept, Nicholas started experimenting using wave editing software, working with field-recordings and other sound samples. RESGESTAE was born. The name could be translated to "things done", or the space of time that occurs from commiting a crime to the sentencing for that crime.
RESGESTAE is influenced by contemporary politics viewed from a social prism. Nowadays, everything ranging from a discovery of a virus to the theoretical definition of a new field of economic competition is a political act that affects everyone's social life. He's also influenced by the works of W.S.BURROUGHS, F.NIETZSCHE, Aldous HUXLEY, CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE, Jacques MESRINE and various street articles.
RESGESTAE's purpose is to compose contemporary power-electronics with both "cultural terrorism" and an esoteric aesthetic. For him, the "typical" power-electronics sound , mixing harsh electronics and up-front vocals has gone into hiatus. His purpose is to use extreme frequencies, samples and drones to form a deep sub-sonic landscape. This creates a cinematic experience incorporating true political, social and economic elements. That's why this first release deals with media control, the deep state, technoscience and biotechnology. "Etat d'Urgence" is no more than a social control soundtrack, an experience in our daily lives of fear." [label info]
www.nuitetbrouillard.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| RESIDENTS |
Not Available |
CD |
"Aufgenommen 1974, ursprünglich 1979 veröffentlicht und jetzt als Re-Issue mit sieben zusätzlichen Minuten, die ursprünglich herausgeschnitten wurden. Während es mindestens eine Million Geschichten über die RESIDENTS gibt, gibt es eine über die Entstehung ihres zweiten Albums ,Not Available", die heraussticht. Die Karriere der Band war noch jung, als der deutsche Avantgardist N. Senada der Band seine ,Theorie der Obskurität" darlegte. Sein Plan umfasste die Vervollkommnung von Projekten, die von niemand anderem als dem Schöpfer selbst gehört werden sollten. Die RESIDENTS sahen den Kern dieses Ideals: dass es nicht einfach ist, Musik aufzunehmen, ohne die Zielgruppe dafür im Kopf zu haben. Die Band beschloss, dass ein solches Projekt ihnen dabei helfen würde, selbständiger an die Musik heranzugehen. ,Not Available" wurde 1974 aufgenommen und gelagert. Einige Jahre später, 1978, gerieten die RESIDENTS in Zeitdruck, als darum ging ihren Opus ,Eskimo" aufzunehmen. Die Plattenfirma holte ,Not Available" aus den Archiven und veröffentlichte es. Überraschenderweise störten sich die RESIDENTS gar nicht daran, da die Aktion ihrem ursprünglichen Plan in keinster Weise entgegenlief. www.myspace.com/theresidents" [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Meet the Residents |
CD |
"Re-Issue des Klassikers von THE RESIDENTS, der ursprünglich 1974 auf Ralph Records erschien. Der komplette, abgefahrene RESIDENTS Trip begann mit diesem Debüt! In den riesengroßen Sound-Fleischwolf wurden seinerzeit Versatzstücke von FRANK ZAPPA über CAPTAIN BEEFHEART und RAYMOND SCOTT bis zu SUN RA geworfen. Dieses Release ist der beste Ort, um die wilde und wundervolle Welt der RESIDENTS zum ersten Mal zu betreten. www.myspace.com/theresidents " [label info]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Coochie Brake |
CD |
"Vor einer Million Jahren fiel einen riesiger Felsbrocken aus dem Himmel und landete mitten in Louisiana. Naja, zu der Zeit war es noch nicht einmal Louisiana. Was auch immer: der Felsbrocken stürzte auf die Erde, schlug hart auf und ließ einen riesigen Abdruck zurück. Nach und nach füllte sich Abdruck mit allerlei Dingen, doch es ließ sich nicht leugnen, dass der Abdruck noch immer sichtbar blieb. Der Abdruck füllte sich genug mit Wasser, um einen urzeitlichen Sumpf namens ,Coochie Brake" entstehen zu lassen. Ein paar Jungs schlugen im Coochie Brake ihre Zelte auf. Sie kletterten auf die riesigen Granitbrocken, die nach gesundem Menschenverstand gar nicht da sein sollten. Sie erforschten die Höhlen. Sie saßen still und ließen ,The Brake" sprechen, wie nur dieser Sumpf es kann. Diese Teenager wurden erwachsen. Und wurden zu THE RESIDENTS.
A million years ago, a big rock fell out of the sky and landed right in the middle of Louisiana. Well, it wasn't Louisiana at that time. But that rock fell, and it hit hard making a giant dent. It gradually filled in but no matter what, it still left a dent. And that dent held just enough water that it became a primeval swamp known as Coochie Brake. Some young guys used to camp in Coochie Brake. They climbed the massive granite boulders that common sense said should not be there. They explored the caves. They sat still and let the Brake speak to them as only the Brake can. Those teens grew up to become The Residents. Vinyl version." [label info]
www.mvdb2b.com
[label info]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Coochie Brake |
LP |
"Vor einer Million Jahren fiel einen riesiger Felsbrocken aus dem Himmel und landete mitten in Louisiana. Naja, zu der Zeit war es noch nicht einmal Louisiana. Was auch immer: der Felsbrocken stürzte auf die Erde, schlug hart auf und ließ einen riesigen Abdruck zurück. Nach und nach füllte sich Abdruck mit allerlei Dingen, doch es ließ sich nicht leugnen, dass der Abdruck noch immer sichtbar blieb. Der Abdruck füllte sich genug mit Wasser, um einen urzeitlichen Sumpf namens ,Coochie Brake" entstehen zu lassen. Ein paar Jungs schlugen im Coochie Brake ihre Zelte auf. Sie kletterten auf die riesigen Granitbrocken, die nach gesundem Menschenverstand gar nicht da sein sollten. Sie erforschten die Höhlen. Sie saßen still und ließen ,The Brake" sprechen, wie nur dieser Sumpf es kann. Diese Teenager wurden erwachsen. Und wurden zu THE RESIDENTS.
A million years ago, a big rock fell out of the sky and landed right in the middle of Louisiana. Well, it wasn't Louisiana at that time. But that rock fell, and it hit hard making a giant dent. It gradually filled in but no matter what, it still left a dent. And that dent held just enough water that it became a primeval swamp known as Coochie Brake. Some young guys used to camp in Coochie Brake. They climbed the massive granite boulders that common sense said should not be there. They explored the caves. They sat still and let the Brake speak to them as only the Brake can. Those teens grew up to become The Residents. Vinyl version." [label info]
www.mvdb2b.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Mush-Room |
CD |
"Musik ursprünglich geschrieben für die 2013er Performance MUSH-ROOM von Grace Ellen Barkey und Needcompany (einer belgischen Theater/Tanz Company).
THE RESIDENTS inspirieren mit ihrer Mischung aus Percussion und Elektronik zur Bewegung und vereinen klassische Einstellung mit moderner Experimentierfreude.
Ein Muss für jeden, der die Performance gesehen hat oder jeden, der sie nicht gesehen hat und seiner eigene Choreographie vor dem inneren Auge entwerfen will." [label info]
www.crypticorp.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Duck Stab! Alive! |
2 x 10inch / DVD BOX |
Als The Residents im Jahr 1978 die 33-RPM-EP "Duck Stab!" Im 7" Format veröffentlichten, war das für die Gruppe eine nette Abwechslung von den sich über Jahre (1975 -1979) hinziehenden, anspruchsvollen und experimentellen Aufnahmen an ihrem epochalen Eskimo Album. Außerdem brauchte das Label Ralph Records, eine Einnahmequelle um die lange Phase ohne ein "echtes neues" Album zu überbrücken.
Zur allgemeinen Überraschung wurde die EP ein Hit und verkaufte mehr als 50.000 Einheiten in wenigen Monaten. Die Nachfrage ließ auch in der Folge nicht nach und so drängte Ralph Records The Residents eine zweite EP - "Buster & Glen" - aufzunehmen, die dann schlussendlich zusammen mit "Duck Stab!" als LP-Release zu einem Klassiker und großem Verkaufserfolg wurde.
Einige Jahre später, zwischen 1981 und 1988 übernahm Night Flight, eine damals populäre Sendung im US-Kabelfernsehen, Video-Clips von The Residents in ihr reguläres Programm auf - insbesondere "Hello Skinny", das legendäre Video zum "Duck Stab! / Buster & Glen" -Album. Für viele Fans der Band war Night Flight der erste Berührungspunkt mit The Residents.
Im Jahr 2016 feierte der Sender unter dem Namen Night Flight plus fröhliche Wiederauferstehung als Internet Streaming-Service und bat The Residents anlässlich des 40ten Jubiläums des Programms um einen Video-Beitrag. Da die Gruppe ohnehin an einer Live-Version von "Duck Stab!" als Teil ihrer 50ten Jubiläums-Tour im Jahr 2022 arbeitete, bot sich "Duck Stab! Alive!" als eine naheliegende Wahl an, um daraus eine Show für Night Flight plus zu produzieren. Und so begaben sich The Residents unter der Leitung von Regisseur John Sanborn und Kameramann Frazer Bradshaw vom 19. bis 21. Mai 2021 in die 25th Street Studios in Oakland, Kalifornien um die neu ausgearbeitete Performance "Duck Stab! Alive!" live im Studio aufzunehmen.
Die spektakulären Ergebnisse dokumentiert auf zwei 45 RPM 10"-Vinylplatten sowie einer Video DVD bilden den Inhalt dieser aufwändigen und limitierten Sammler-Box.
Weltweit auf 3.000 Stück limitiert!
The Residents released DUCK STAB! as a seven inch, 33 1/3 rpm EP in 1978. For the group, the relatively lighthearted EP represented a break from the much more experimental Eskimo recordings which consumed the majority of a four-year period from 1975-79; for Ralph Records it was a much-needed revenue source at a time when the band was not producing much product. To everyone’s surprise, the EP was a hit, selling 50,000 copies in a few months. The demand was so high that Ralph insisted the band record a second EP, Buster & Glen, which they paired with DUCK STAB! to make an LP, which was also quite successful.
Several years later, Night Flight, a program featuring alternative programming on the USA cable channel, aired Residents’ video, including the Hello Skinny music video based on a song from the DUCK STAB! / Buster & Glen album. The program aired from 1981-88 often highlighting The Residents to the extent that many of the group’s fans cited Night Flight as their initial introduction to the band.
Fast forwarding to 2016 when Night Flight resurrected itself as a streaming video service, Night Flight Plus. In recognition of their long-standing connection, Night Flight invited The Residents to create a program in celebration of the service’s 40th Anniversary on June 5, 2021. Since the band was already rehearsing DUCK STAB! as part of their upcoming 50th Anniversary Tour, the forty-year-old EP/LP seemed like a perfect choice for Night Flight.
With a professional camera crew, led by director John Sanborn and director of photography Frazer Bradshaw, The Residents performed the reworked DUCK STAB! ALIVE! music over three days from May 19-21,2021 at the 25th Street Studio in Oakland, CA. The results, as you can hear and see on the discs of this limited boxed set, are spectacular.
https://www.grand-chess.com/duck-stab-alive
|
2021 |
€79.50 |
|
| |
Sam's Enchanted Evening |
do-CD |
The Residents are an American art collective best known for their over 60 studio albums that were recorded over a period of over forty years. They also created some outstanding multimedia works, mainly three CD ROM projects and ten DVDs. Working as an anonymous collective, their identitites were kept secret until in 2017 Hardy Fox revealed himself as their primary composer. Hardy died in October 2018, but the group continue to record and perform. Sam's Enchanted Evening is a theatrical performance by Randy Rose, lead singer of The Residents. It was performed between October 2011 and March 2012 in Berkeley, California and New York City. Rose's only companion on stage was long-time Residents collaborator Joshua Raoul Brody on piano. A one-man cabaret performance consisting largely of re-interpreted renditions of popular songs from the mid-to-late 20th century, interpreted by Rose in the guise of "Sam the Stranger", it was the first Residents-related performance piece to be credited to an individual member of the group. Full tracklist: 1. Introduction 1 2. The Ballad Of Davy Crockett 3. Sam's Opening Monolog 4. Teddy Bear's Picnic 5. Monolog - Favorite Songs 6. September Song 7. Sixteen Tons 8. Monolog - The Nightgown/The South 9. Ode To Billy Joe 10. Ring Of Fire 11. Monolog - I Got Married 12. True Love Never Runs Smooth 13. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry 14. Monolog - Creosote 15. Willow Weep For Me 16. Monolog - Little Sam 17. Livin' La Vida Loco 18. Introduction 2 19. Who Do You Love 20. Moon River 21. Walk On By 22. Tracks Of My Tears 23. Monolog . Duane & Ronnie 24. Born To Be Wild 25. Monolog - Drafted 26. Chinatown By Chinatown 27. Mack The Knife 28. Monolog - Vietnam 29. Paint It Black 30. Monolog . Torture 31. The Windmills Of Your Mind 32. End Monolog 33. Happy Trails 34. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Rehearsal).
Soloperformance von Residents-Leadsänger Randy Rose als CD im Digipack auf Klanggalerie. In San Francisco beheimatet und seit Ende der sechziger Jahre aktiv, zählen The Residents, deren Mitglieder ihre wahre Identität seit Anbeginn geheim hielten und sich dabei stets in bizarren Kostümierungen präsentierten, zu den experimentierfreudigsten Formationen der zeitgenössischen Musikszene, die ihre Veröffentlichungen zudem auf dem bandeigenen Label Ralph Records präsentierten. So erschienen von der für ihren höchst eigenwilligen Mix aus Experimental-Rock, Elektronik und Avantgarde / E-Musik bekannten Band, die 1974 mit „Meet The Residents“ ihr wegweisendes Albumdebüt vorlegte, bis dato mehr als sechzig Studioalben (mit zumeist gesamtkünstlerischem Konzept). „Sam‘s Enchanted Evening“ ist eine Performance von Randy Rose, dem Leadsänger von The Residents. Zwischen Oktober 2011 und März 2012 in Kalifornien und New York City aufgeführt, war Roses einziger Begleiter auf der Bühne dabei der langjährige Residents-Mitarbeiter Joshua Raoul Brody am Klavier. Die Ein-Mann-Kabarettaufführung bestand größtenteils aus neu interpretierten populären Liedern des 20. Jahrhunderts und wurde von Rose in der Gestalt von „Sam the Stranger“ vorgetragen.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg449
|
2024 |
€19.50 |
|
| REUDENBACH, MICHAEL |
Szenen, Standbilder, Werke 1991-2009 |
do-CD |
"zur selbstverständlichkeit wurde, dass nichts, was die kunst betrifft, mehr selbstverständlich ist, weder in ihr noch in ihrem verhältnis
zum ganzen, nicht einmal ihr existenzrecht." mit diesen worten eröffnet adorno ende der 1960er jahre seine "ästhetische theorie".
"An Klangsetzkästen aus Zeit lassen diese Stücke denken: äußerst sparsam bestückt mit munkelnden Tonzeichen, Geräuschfundsachen, ins Irreguläre kippenden Pulsationen, skelettierten Nachtschattenereignissen. Und in dem, was an Stille ins Unendliche sich weitet, kann man lauschend den Nachhall eines existenziellen Bebens gewahren. Die Interpreten agieren hochakkurat und mit heilig-nüchternem Ernst." (Für die Jury: Helmut Rohm; Quelle: Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Bestenliste 2-2013)
CD 1
trio. studie für klavier, violine und violoncello 10:49
choral für stimme und fünf instrumente 7:49
und aber. musik für streichquartett 16:24
kommen — überschreibungen für 5 stimmen 11:36
trio 3 für bassetthorn, bassklarinette und klavier 10:08
mirlitonnades pour petite flûte 2:45
59:43
CD 2
zählergesang für ensemble 10:47
schnitt & fortsetzung für flöte, harfe, gitarre, klavier und pauke 10:26
duo pianism für zwei klaviere 8:12
ahto. musik für 8 instrumente 12:30
stratton für ensemble 11:34
szenen, standbilder für vier instrumente 9:24
62:55
[label info / credits]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2013 |
€21.50 |
|
| REUTOFF |
Gute Nacht, Berlin |
CD |
Zweites Album der russischen dark ambient Industrial – Koryphäen, eher ruhig–introvertiert-melancholisch wie auf den frühen Tapes, mit deutlichem WW II - Bezug. Die Musik wirkt wie ein Epitaph, das voller niemals zu überwindender Trauer die Erinnerung an die Schrecken der jüngeren Geschichte wach halten will...
“....Fifth opus from the Russian trio, 'Gute Nacht, Berlin!' as the previous 'The Fourth Face' 10" and 'ReuTRauM III' 7" is also released by the Austrian label HauRuck! This is the 2nd CD in the Reutoff discography. Released just a few months after 'Unseen Rituals', 'Gute Nacht, Berlin!' is musically very close to the previous mentioned album. The ambiances are the ones we expect when listening to this band: sometimes ritual, hidden... sometimes floating, atmospheric... but always with the undescribable 'something' specific to Reutoff that sets them apart from other bands...
No need to give more details, as the whole album is brilliant. Nevertheless I can't prevent myself from underlining the beauty of the second title 'die sunden der vater'. Just let yourself be carried away by the magnificent soundscapes and the drawn out melody... A very long (11 minutes) industrial ambient piece that is certainly one of the very best Reutoff titles I have ever heard!
The album also features two new versions ('Libera me (edit)' and 'Allegoria No. 3') of excellent tracks present on the first tape of the band ('Das Absterben' released in 1998), re-released a few months ago on CD-R by the Italian label By Blade. For those who do not own this tape or the very limited CD-R, this an excellent opportunity to listen to two compositions based on ancient works...
'Die rote fahne' also deserves to be mentioned... Built upon a combination of small, minimalist and repetitive noises with a rather epic Russian song (extracted from or mixed with a film?), this original composition will endlessly intrigue the listeners... The CD comes in a nice full-coloured digipack and is obviously highly recommended, while waiting for the soon to be released fifth part of the ReuTRauM series...” [NathalieF., Heimdallr]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
ReuTRauM VI |
7 |
REUTOFF continue their “ReuTRauM”-series with this EP on italys collector & re-publishing Industrial-label BLADE. Containing two tracks “AUGE” and “ERLE” this shows the Moscow-trio at their finest skills, two slow and sensible tracks with a doomy, neoclassic “fin de siecle” -atmosphere. Only 300 copies. |
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Deprivatio |
CD |
Ganze fünf Jahre nach "Gute Nacht, Berlin" endlich das neue Album der Moskauer Ambient Industrial / Elektronik Band, die es wie wenig andere verstehen eine wirklich hoffnungslose Atmosphäre zwischen Misantrophie und trister Melancholie aufzubauen...
"... Reutov ist eine von Moskaus kleinen Satellitenstädten, die haupt-sächlich aus Industrieanlagen besteht. Ihr wird von den Band-mitgliedern, die alle in der Nähe leben, eine ganz besondere Atmosphäre zugeschrieben, die man beim Hören der Musik als trübe Industriemelancholie zwischen Zerfall und Science Fiction begreifen könnte; eine Stimmung, wie sie in Deutschland manche alte Häfen oder Güterbahnhöfe ausstrahlen. Ein Faible für den Klang der deutschen Sprache, das sich auch in vielen deutschen Songtiteln ausdrückt, hat aus dem 'v' am Ende der Stadt das doppelte 'f' für den Bandnamen werden lassen.
Wie immer ist auch dieses REUTOFF-Album eine Antwort auf die Frage, wozu eigentlich Dark Ambient erfunden wurde. Die fantastisch-düstere Stimmung erwächst stets aus der Musik der Russen selbst, und nicht – wie bei vielen Genrekollegen – aus den großen Worten, die begleitend zur Musik gemacht werden. Aber – endlich eine Veränderung – "Deprivatio" ist nicht mehr so durchweg archaisch wie noch die ersten Arbeiten, es ist ebenfalls nicht mehr so homogen industriell wie die beiden letzten Alben "Unseen Rituals" (2002) und "Gute Nacht, Berlin!" (2003). Die neue CD ist die bislang dynamischste, abwechslungsreichste, aufregendste und futuristischste Veröffentlichung von REUTOFF.
Hypnotisch ist der Beginn. Zum Dauerloop eines Kindersummens gibt eine rauchige, weibliche Sprechstimme auf Englisch Anweisungen, was zu tun ist: "Stellen Sie Sich vor, Sie sitzen in einem riesigen Theater mit schwarzen Sitzen und können nur eine einzige Sache sehen..." So düster und geheimnisvoll die ersten Sounds, so beruhigend sind die Worte. Später passt sich die Musik an und entspannt sich Richtung Downbeat, garniert mit verhuschten Männerstimmen und noisigen Geräuschen. Der Opener bereitet die futuristische Atmosphäre, die das ganze Album durchzieht. Noch häufiger im Verlauf der knapp 73 Minuten kommt sich der Hörer vor, als würde er durch einen von STANISLAW LEM entworfenen Park lebender Maschinen wandern. Auch das intelligente Songwriting – wenn man bei einem zehnminütigen Dark Ambient-Track davon überhaupt sprechen kann – offenbart sich gleich zu Beginn. Überraschungen wie eine eingeflochtene und beinahe folkige Akustikgitarre sowie versteckte und vertrackte Melodien und Rhythmen machen aus einem langen auch einen sehr abwechslungs-reichen Soundteppich. Es folgt ein eher klassisches Dark Ambient/Noise-Stück, dessen Drones in Verwandtschaft zu SAL SOLARIS gleißen und schimmern wie Sonnen im Weltall. Großes Kino, im wahrsten Sinn des Wortes, denn REUTOFF-Alben werden immer gerne mit der Stimmung von Filmmusiken oder Filmen – unter anderem "Stalker" von TARKOWSKIJ – verglichen. Und selten traf dieser Vergleich so zu wie bei "Deprivatio", auch bedingt durch die technisch hervorragende, satte Produktion.
"American Whores" geht dann wieder einen gänzlich anderen Weg. Die Collage bringt zu einem Bass, der auch MASSIVE ATTACK oder MOBY alle Ehre machen würde, ganz unterschiedliche Samples zusammen. Musik der 1920er-Jahre, fast eine Minute lang solo. Dazu verdichten sich die Trainerin eines Fitnesskurses und ein Kirchenprediger mit Chor – in Kombination mit dem Namen des Songs – zu einer infernalischen Amerikakritik. Nie wirken solche Samples belanglos, sie unterstützen bei REUTOFF immer die Atmosphäre des Tracks.
Auch der einzige deutsch betitelte Song, "In Die Leere Gehen", ist eines der Highlights: Hier ein strahlendes Universum mit synthetischen Engelschören, dort düstere Gewittercluster, die glauben machen, dass sich die Hölle öffnet – fehlt nur noch ein Sample von Luzifer persönlich. "Sun Of Sleepless" ist mit seinen knallenden und knirschenden Beats eine weitere Empfehlung für die Macher des nächsten Endzeit-Streifens; mit laut wehenden Fahnen geht die Welt unter. Und zum Abspann verglüht "25-th Hour" wie die letzte Moll-Hoffnung eines im futuristischen Kerker eingesperrten VANGELIS. Für so viele Höhepunkte übersieht man gerne die wenigen schwächeren Momente, etwa die Mischung aus Ethno und Dark Ambient mit piepsigen Loops menschlicher Geräusche ("Nemesis").
Alles an "Deprivatio" atmet russische "Metropolis"-Atmosphäre. Das Individuum zwischen Experiment, größenwahnsinniger Industrie, Verlassenheit und Zerfall. Damit ist die neue REUTOFF-Veröffentlichung längst nicht mehr nur ein Stimmungsbericht aus Reutov, sondern ein Abbild des neuen, modernen Russlands. Genreuntypische Experimente, die gekonnte Verknüpfung diverser Samples und Abwechslung in Tempo und Klangbild sorgen dafür, dass "Deprivatio" eines der besten und ausdrucksstärksten Dark Ambient-Alben der vergangenen Jahre ist. Es macht außerdem sehr neugierig auf die angekündigten Kollaborationen im Herbst." [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
"Finally, since five years after their 2003 “Gute Nacht Berlin” on Albin Julius HauRuck!, here is the long-awaited full-length solo CD from this most well-known Russian industrial project worldwide. “Deprivatio” is a sad story of a person surrender to the enemy environment, it’s about idle struggle with time and fatigue, about constant withering of passions and imminent vitality deprivation. Being maybe the most hopeless and sad work for the band, this album is paradoxically their most rhythmic and dynamic. There are more noisy drum loops and electro sounds here than martial drum patterns and old school noise, but their unique deep and profound melodic main themes are still remain as the basement for the brilliant new tracks of despair and downfall. The ascetic b&w artwork was done by Murad Ibatullin known for the recent “Iznutri” compilation. The release comes as a jewel box with 6 panel booklet, the first 100 copies come with 33x21 two sided poster." [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
ReuTRauM IV (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"This Russian trio comes from a suburb of Moscow (called Reutov), and this, following some cassette-releases, is their vinyl-debut and first release outside of Russia. As one of the pioneers of the Russian industrial-scene REUTOFF create an ultra dark visionary music, using elements of ambient as well as rhythmic industrial. "WAILED", the A-Side, begins with atmospheric, but rather unpleasant samples & sounds, before harsh electronic beats come in; "VEILED" on the B-Side however, is a perfect example for the group's ability to build unsettled, sinister & creepy dark ambient industrial sounds, with an overall atmosphere of despair & deep melancholy, maybe mirroring today's "Russian soul". There is no light in this darkness, maybe only behind it.
"The space of Reut as the dream of regret"
TRANSPARENT GREY VINYL, HANDPRINTED BLACK SLEEVES WITH PHOTOGRAPHS ON EACH SIDE" [label info]
|
2000 |
€ |
|
| |
No One's Lullabies |
CD |
"No One's Lullabies" is the 9th album by Reutoff, one of the best-known Russian projects on the international post-industrial scene. Over the course of one hour they will be performing their "lullabies" which won't let you sleep though... The whole panopticon of borderline mental states will unfold before the eyes of our attention. Every track is a masterfully performed decadent dance of emotions and feelings. Steady industrial rhythms, an unhasting but assertive semi-drunk waltz, circus-like grotesque with wicked medieval shades, comatose jazz swinging in dark tones and epic electronic doom that could also fit well in the repertoire of their brother-project Otzepenevshiye - all imbued with remarkable spirit and slightly inflamed imagination.
The material entitled "No One's Lullabies" was initially produced as a cassette mini-album by the German label Sea State in 2014 in a small edition of 80 copies in unconventional handmade packaging. The extended version with four additional compositions was put out by Reutoff on their bandcamp page as a web-release. Now we're glad to present the CD version of the album for the happy owners of CD-players and optical drives! The CD-edition contains an exclusive bonus track with a live version of one of Reutoff's rare compositions. The disc is packed in a matte 4-panel cardboard digisleeve, artwork features paintings by Fabrice Billard, the chef of Divine Comedy Records.
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
"If someone were to ask me, which post-industrial artist gives you the biggest pleasure when you listen to their music, I would never mention Reutoff. If somebody else were to ask me which project is in my opinion the most daring in its experiments or simply the most innovative in the scene, Reutoff wouldn’t be my pick either. But if you were to ask me about the musician who combines experimental with so-called “catchiness” the most effectively, well, I’d have to think about mentioning this Russian duo.
They’ve been active for about 18 years, releasing a variety of materials, also in collaboration with other artists in their famous Kreuzung series: a collection of names such as Deutsch Nepal, Troum or Der Blutharsch. “No One’s Lullabies” was originally released on tape, thanks to the Sea State label from Leipzig. Zhelezobeton gives us an extended edition on CD, with five additional tracks and a cover image painted by Fabrice Billard, the owner of the Divine Comedy label.
For many years Reutoff’s line of work and constructing additional sound structures has more or less been the same. They take a nicely crafted industrial background, a mid-tempo rhythm theme, often looped and encrusted with other trinkets and little diamonds, so that most of the tracks possess a slowly yet nicely building tension that leads to a culmination, abundant in sounds and atmospheres. Not all of the tracks though: Reutoff is not a project that always chooses the easy and proven ways – check this splendid dark ambient of a non-obvious feeling in “Nameless Tune With No Fate”.
This is also one of Reutoff’s huge advantages. That you can’t describe their atmosphere in one or two words. You need to build the whole story in your mind, different for each track. It may be dystopian sci-fi straight from Orwell or Bradbury novels; a dark yet epic, sometimes even strangely romantic story, similar to, say, “Blade Runner”. After all, titles like “New World Disorder” or “Requiem for Android” cannot be a coincidence. On the other hand in some track you may notice a somehow optimistic… no, not a good word – a note that breathes with hope. Saying that not everything is lost, that there are still new and mysterious worlds to explore even though our planet is lost.
I feel this modern sci-fi element is pretty solid in Reutoff’s works, which is even more interesting considering the fact that when it comes to technical matters a strong analogue vibe emanates over the whole of “No One’s Lullabies”. This is specific for many post-industrial artists coming from Russia, that while they’re faithful to classic samplers and synths, they’re able to achieve such a fresh effect. Reutoff, Cyclotimia, Sal Solaris, some Cisfinitum efforts. This offering is no different, and once again provides us with a certificate of the uniqueness of the Russian post-industrial scene." [Stark/Santa Sangre mag]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| REUTOFF & SAL SOLARIS |
Eigengrau |
CD |
"Joint release by Russian post-industrial projects Reutoff and Sal Solaris. The working title of the record is «Beyond the principles» and refers to the psychoanalytic concept of inner human life guided by two principles; that of reality and pleasure. The sober, cold cosmic ambient of Sal Solaris expresses the principle of reality that restrains the drive of our wild souls while the emotionally rich and turmoiled post-industrial of Reutoff matches with the impetuosity of human desire. Does the domination of these principles mean that a human creature is crucified between the desire and impossibility of its realization? This album taken as a whole is a hypothesis, that there is a place where a person can be free from itself. With our eyes closed we behold the inner utterless "intrinsic grey", Eigengrau, that shines beyond any principles.
Edition of 500 copies in Foil Stamped 6 panel Digipack with 4x12" poster. 8 Tracks. 1:15:00" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| REUTOFF VS. DEUTSCH NEPAL |
Kreuzung Vier |
CD |
Der vierte und letzte Teil der KREUZUNG-Serie! Sechsmal flirrender, hektischer, düsterer Elektro-Industrial & Dark Ambient der intelligenten Sorte. Hiervon gibt es leider nur 400 Stück!
"The fourth issue in a series of collaborations between Reutoff and their friends. This issue includes 3 tracks from Reutoff based on the source material by Deutsch Nepal and 3 tracks suite called “Jigsaw Puzzeling With A Dismembered Reutoff” created by Deutsch Nepal using the sounds delivered by Reutoff. The release comes in a special "Kreuzung" series package made of brown kraft carton with a full colour stickered artwork/info cover and Reutoff logo embossed on the back, the CD is housed in the same carton die-cut inner envelope. 6 tracks, 50 mins in total. First edition of 400 copies." [label info] |
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| REYNOLS |
10.000 Chickens' Symphony |
7inch |
One of the most famous and immensely requested EPs on Drone ever by this unique group from Argentina, finally re-released!!
“First 7" for this obscure group from Buenos Aires that has existed since 1993, as they entered the international cassette scene with a kind of abrasive ambient sound. Since then, they have released several cassettes & CDs on various labels, did concerts in their home country and recently worked with PAULINE OLIVEROS. For their first 7", REYNOLS did field recordings of (at least) 10.000 chickens and effected them to create a deep-frequency drone with bits of chicken sounds in it for side 1. As a contrast, side 2 shows the more original face of the recordings, a storm of unbelievably high & shrieking sounds (similar in a way to FRANCISCO LOPEZ insect recordings), which are at last also being manipulated to increase the astonishing orchestral noise the chickens produce. A very successful field-recording experiment made of pure animal sounds!!! [original Drone Records press release] 300 COPIES ON WHITE VINYL & FULL COLOUR PRINTED COVERS DESIGNED BY REYNOLS.
(originally released in January 2000)
|
2003 |
€7.00 |
|
|
10.000 Chickens' Symphony (first ed.) (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"First 7" for this obscure group from Buenos Aires that has existed since 1993, as they entered the international cassette scene with a kind of abrasive ambient sound. Since then, they have released several cassettes & CDs on various labels, did concerts in their home country and recently worked with PAULINE OLIVEROS. For their first 7", REYNOLS did field recordings of (at least) 10.000 chickens and effected them to create a deep-frequency drone with bits of chicken sounds in it for side 1. As a contrast, side 2 shows the more original face of the recordings, a storm of unbelievably high & shrieking sounds (similar in a way to FRANCISCO LOPEZ insect recordings), which are at last also being manipulated to increase the astonishing orchestral noise the chickens produce. A very successful field-recording experiment made of pure animal sounds!!!
RED VINYL WITH YELLOW/GOLD DROPS, DIFFERENT COLOURED COVERS." [press release]
|
2000 |
€ |
|
| |
Fire Music Reloaded |
CD |
Fire Music Reloaded, by REYNOLS
Fire Music was composed by Reynols in 2002 with fire recordings made at Tigre (Río Capitán) and different locations in Buenos Aires city and around. With some of this material, a CD EP appeared in Japan in 2002 through the Digital Narcis label, however the complete version of this piece remained unreleased for decades. In a recent research the masters of the whole work were found and rescued from the group's archives. So twenty years later, finally the full version of this piece is now ready to see the light on a brand new CD album carefully released by German label Aufabwegen. Fire Music Reloaded stands on the most conceptual side of Reynols' catalogue, along with works such as: 10.000 Chickens Symphony, Whistling Kettle Quartet, Computer Music, Gordura Vegetal Hidrogenada or Blank Tapes. In its four parts journey, the group explores a wide range of frequencies coming from fire as the only sound source. A release which pays tribute to the igneous aurality. Let your ears get on fire!
REYNOLS
Reynols is one of the most notable experimental music groups to ever emerge from Argentina. The band started in 1993 in Buenos Aires and was formed by Miguel Tomasín, Roberto Conlazo, Pacu Conlazo and Alan Courtis. The project counts over 150 releases by labels from Japan, Europe, USA, Oceania and Latin America. Reynols has been tagged as a “cult group” by British magazine The Wire, while the French festival Sonic Protest proclaimed it as groupe phare (lighthouse group) of inclusive music. Throughout 2003, Reynols occupied the 1st place on the “Top 10 Downloads” section of former website Space-Rock (UK). A year later, their song “Manisero Mufuso” was #1 on Larry “Fuzz-O” Dolman’s Blastitude Top10 (USA). Japanese magazine Studio Voice included Reynols’ album Barbatrulos in their “Best 100 Western Alternative Music Records” ranking, and Reynols/No Reynols among the “300 Legendary Discs” of all times, while The Wire ranked their boxset Minecxcio Emanations 1993-2018 in their 2019 Top50.Reynols has appeared in countless exhibitions, radio shows, TV shows, magazines, newspapers, books and documentary films from around the world. Reynols has collaborated live and in studio with acclaimed artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Lee Ranaldo, The Nihilist Spasm Band, Damo Suzuki, Paul Dutton, John Oswald, Michael Snow, Alan Licht, Birchville Cat Motel and Acid Mothers Temple, amongst others
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/fire-music-reloaded
"Die aus Argentinien stammende und seit der ersten Hälfte der 90er aktive Band Reynols hat ein umfangreiches Werk veröffentlicht, das zwischen Stilen und Genres hin- und herspringt: Von skurillem Noise-/Anti-Rock bis zu Drone. Das jetzt auf Auf Abwegen erschienene Album „Fire Music Reloaded“ ist eine vollständige Version der 2002 auf dem japanischen Label Digital Narcis Corporation,. Ltd. erschienenen 20-minütigen EP „Fire Music“. Vielleicht spielt die sehr niedrige Auf Abwegen-Katalognummer auf das Alter der Aufnahmen an. Reynols bearbeitete -wie der Titel vermuten lässt – den Klang von Feuer; insofern knüpft diese Veröffentlichung mit der Konzentration auf ein Ausgangsmatrial an die „10.000 Chickens’ Symphony“-7” auf Drone oder etwa „Whistling Kettle Quartet“ an.
Der erste kurze Teil mit seinem helllen und transparenten Klang lässt einen denken, ein knisterndes Feuer brenne im Raum und hier wirkt das Ausgangsmaterial (scheinbar) wenig bis gar nicht bearbeitet. Teil 2 dagegen ist eine dichte wie verdichtete Klangwand, in der man zwischendurch immer wieder das Knistern von Flammen hört. „Fire Music Part III“ ist wieder fragiler, hier lässt das Knistern der Flammen an einen Gang durchs Unterholz denken oder an das Zirpen von Zikaden. Darauf folgt Teil 4 als dunkles Dröhnen und Brummen: das ist ein zähflüssiger Klangsud, so als lausche man dem Ächzen eines Gletschers und man fühlt sich durchaus an den frühen Thomas Köner erinnert. Die neun Minuten von „Fire Music V“ sind hektisch, während Teil 6 das Album fast schon mit einer Art Noisestück beendet: Der Track ist eine Kakophonie, bei der man sich vorkommt, als stünde man in einer Turbine. Diese nun vollständige “Fire Music” ist sowohl in ihrer konzeptionellen Konsistenz als auch in ihrer (zumindest partiellen) Heterogenität beeindruckend." [MG / African Paper]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| RGV |
Aliseum |
mCD-R |
RGV = Ruben Garcia. Wieder ein neuer Name auf Dreamland! ALISEUM ist die Umsetzung von Impressionen (oder auch Sounds) des Timanfaya Nationalparks in Lanzarote. Mächtig dronende, kilometerweit entfernte, mit hell klingenden Schwingungen versehende Kraftfelder, alles gerät in hellste Schwingung und Vibration, erinnert an MNORTHAM, LOPEZ! TIP !!!
„ a drone of low density & depths, invoking hard sand and rock soil, only the intense temperatures beneath our feet remain to haunt.”
[label info]
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| RHUCLE |
Beautiful Fragments |
mCD-R |
active for a couple of years only, tokyo-based rhucle has already an impressive body of work, mostly cassettes but also some cd-r's on labels such as white paddy mountain, assembly field or still*sleep. his tracks usually mix field recordings and long synthetic drones for a highly emotional result...
taalem.bandcamp.com/album/beautiful-fragments-alm-119
"And finally there is music by Rhucle, also from Japan, apparently Taalem’s heartland for this kind of
music. Here too I am introduced to his music, even when he had releases before on White Paddy
Mountain, Assembly Field and Still*Sleep. For his music he uses field recordings mixed with long
sustaining electronic washes of sound, or vice versa. Perhaps. I have no idea what comes first for him.
He plays here three long pieces with an average length of seven minutes. All three pieces are gentle
streams of sound. A guitar? Who knows? Maybe it is a guitar, sound effects, but for all I know an organ
and sound effects, or heavily processed field recordings being cooked up with some that are still fresh
and which simmer through the gentle flow of drones. This is quite easy listening, perhaps the easiest
of these four excursions into the world of ambient music." (FdW) |
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| RICHTER, MAX |
The Blue Notebooks |
CD |
"Following releases by Set Fire To Flames and Sylvain Chauveau, Max Richter’s ‘The Blue Notebooks’ was the fourth release on FatCat’s 130701 imprint, established as an outlet for more more orchestrated, instrumental material.
Richter is a British-based, German-born pianist and composer. Following 2002’s highly-acclaimed ‘Memoryhouse’ - performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and released on the BBC’s classical label, Late Junction - ‘The Blue Notebooks’ is his second solo album, a distinctive and adventurous work that is beautifully recorded and cinematic in scope.
Opening with a text from Franz Kafka over a sparse piano melody, the album moves through gorgeous, heart-wrenching string swells of ‘On The Nature Of Daylight’ (which quotes a tune from ‘Memoryhouse’); through to sparse but lyrical piano pieces; hazy, swirling atmospherics, avalanche pulse-beats and partially occluded melodies that recall Aphex twin’s ‘Ambient Works’ albums; and to reverberant organ / choir recordings.
Utilising piano, cello, violin and viola, alongside electronic beats (made using a variety of antique electronics and Reaktor), spoken word passages and the occasional field recording, other sounds were generated via old guitar pedals and vocoders. The organ music was made for a chapel near Tourtres in South-West France, whilst the environmental sounds are mainly recorded around London. The tone of the album is generally domnbeat – a series of bittersweet articulations that seem suspended somewhere between a certain dreamy sense of wonder / awe and a heavy melancholia.
Peppered across Richter’s music like diary entries (and backed with attendant typewriter clatter) are a number of literary texts or ‘shadow journals’ (lifted from Kafka’s ‘the Blue Octavo notebooks’, and from Polish author Czseslaw Milosz’s ‘Hymn Of The Pearl’ and ‘Unattainable Earth’). Apparently chosen by Richter on instinct, they were recorded by acclaimed British actress, Tilda Swinton, who has starred in films including ‘Adaption’, ‘Orlando’, ‘The Garden’, and ‘The Beach’. These brief passages muse over time, memory, and the impermanent nature of things.
With Richter playing piano, the other featured players here are his regular collaborators, Louisa Fuller (violin), Natalia Bonner (violin), John Metcalfe (viola), Philip Sheppard (cello), and Chris Worsey (cello).
Born in 1966, Max Richter trained in composition and piano at Edinburgh University, at the Royal Academy of Music, and with with Luciano Berio in Florence. The Richter family moved to the UK from Germany when Max was a young child, leaving the wider part of his family distributed around Germany. This sense of a lack of roots had an effect on his musical formation - “I have always had a sense of belonging, in some way, to the middle of Europe but not specifically to any one place…” he explains.
On completing his studies, Richter co-founded the immensely successful contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus, where he stayed for ten years, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe and Steve Reich. Richter was also pro-active in developing the group’s use of live sampling.
“I have always listened to a broad range of music. In my early teens I was listening to a lot of classical standard repertoire as well as 20th century work. During this time I also built and customised a number of analogue electronic instruments and was immersed in the early electronic music scene.” In 1996 he worked closely with The Future Sound of London on their release ‘Dead Cities’. Initially involved as a pianist, he ended up co-writing a track (which they subsequently titled ‘Max’).
Following this, Richter collaborated with FSOL over a two-year period on the album ‘The Isness’, with his input ranging from programming or piano playing to arranging, mixing, co-producing and co-writing various tracks. Max’s orchestrations have also graced ‘In The Møde’ by drum’n’bass pioneer Roni Size." [label info]
www.fat-cat.co.uk |
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Elle s'appelait Sarah - Bande Originale |
CD |
"This French drama directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner is a quality adaptation to the New York Times Best Seller, Sarah's Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay. Starring Kristien Scott Thomas, the film follows follows her journalist's present day investigation into the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, and a story of a young girl's experiences during the Nazi occupation of France.
Max Richter (Waltz With Bashir) has composed an emotional and beautiful score which plays a central role in the film. Viewers will notice it." [label info] |
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Disconnect (OST) |
CD |
"Jason Bateman and Alexander Skarsgard star is this drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today's wired world. Extremely well received on the festival circuit, LD Entertainment is releasing the picture in April. This album includes the entire score composed by Max Richter (Waltz With Bashir, Sarah's Key) for the film. It is an emotional and beautiful score which plays a central role in the film." [label info]
www.milanrecords.com
"One of the most beautiful and definitive tracks in Max Richter's ever-growing body of work is "On the Nature of Daylight" from The Blue Notebooks, the album that brought him to the attention of many critics and fans. Since that breakthrough, he's developed a niche as a composer ready and willing to revamp the classics, as he did with Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, as well as a sensitive and versatile composer of scores for films ranging from looks at the not-so-tame secret lives of domesticated animals (Die Fremde) to dystopian sci-fi (Perfect Sense). Richter's music for Disconnect is an intersection of those career paths: the score uses "Daylight" as its emotional and musical focus, surrounding it with pieces that echo and complement it. While Martin Scorsese's brain-twisting thriller Shutter Island also featured the piece prominently, here it's fundamental to the film and its exploration of how technology brings people together and (more often) pulls them apart. Cues like "The Swimmer" reprise "On the Nature of Daylight"'s beautifully somber violin melodies, while "Confrontation" pits them against pummeling electronic beats in a way that could be heavy-handed but maintains a dignified poignancy in Richter's hands. Elsewhere, the score borrows from other Blue Notebooks pieces like the lovely "Written on the Sky," or evokes them as on the mournful organ pieces "Hospital" and "The Gun." Given the film's tech fixation, most of the rest of Disconnect's music is more electronic and makes the most of Richter's minimalism, whether on brief, wash-like tracks such as "The Report" or more elaborate ones like "Zero Balance," which moves from delicate tones to more ominous ones as it progresses. Many of these tracks aren't as attention-getting as the ones that draw from Richter's classical roots, but his cues for Disconnect's action scenes are as tense as they are restrained; "Pursuit" and "Running" are just as taut, but far subtler, than a typical climactic score piece. Disconnect is of a piece with scores like Cliff Martinez's Traffic, where the music seems to just faintly tint the air with the proper mood. It may not be among Richter's richest works, but he provides what the film needs from its music with more depth and restraint than many other composers could have managed. ~ Heather Phares Audio Mixers: Michael Schubert; Max Richter." [Henry-Alex Rubin]
|
2013 |
€17.50 |
|
| RIECHMANN |
Wunderbar |
CD |
"Hypnotisch und sphärisch: das einzige Soloalbum des Düsseldorfer Elektronikers:
Die Musikerlaufbahn von Wolfgang Riechmann (1947-1978) begann in den 60er-Jahren. Unter anderem arbeitete der Sozialarbeiter schon 1967 mit Michael Rother (Neu!) und Wolfgang Flühr (Kraftwerk) in der Schülerband Spirits Of Sound und später in der Düsseldorfer Amateurband Phön-x. Mit der Gruppe Streetmark veröffentlichte er zwei Alben: "Nordland" (1976) und "Eileen" (1977). Im November 1977 begann er, sein erstes und leider auch einziges Soloalbum aufzunehmen. "Wunderbar" enthält Elemente der Berliner (Tangerine Dream) und der Düsseldorfer Schule (Kraftwerk, La Düsseldorf, Neu!), erinnert stellenweise (Titelstück) aber auch an Pink Floyd. Trotz der Einflüsse kreiert der Multiinstrumentalist seine eigenen hypnotischen und sphärischen Qualitäten. Wolfgang Riechmann starb im August 1978, drei Wochen vor Erscheinen des Albums, nachdem ihn ein Betrunkener in Düsseldorfs Altstadt grundlos erstach. "Riechmann hat erkannt, dass die elektronische Musik eine spezifische Ästhetik hat. Er nahm ihr die Kälte, indem er einfühlsame Melodiebögen schuf", schrieb die "Rheinische Post" 1979." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2009 |
€17.00 |
|
| RIEDL, JOSEF ANTON |
Klangregionen 1951-2007 |
do-CD |
"Wie kaum ein anderer hat J.A.Riedl sowohl mit seinen zahlreichen Werken als auch
mit seinen kulturpolitischen Aktivitäten das Musikleben der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
nachhaltig geprägt.
As almost no other, with his many works and his cultural activities, J.A.Riedl has left an
indelible mark on musical life in the Federal Republic of Germany.
ed. RZ 1020-21 2CD
Josef Anton Riedl: Klangregionen 1951 - 2007
Neuerscheinung: Siemens-Studio für elektronische Musik, Studio für konkrete Musik (J. A. Riedl)
Cover Design: Ott + Stein, Berlin; Scan: Christine Berkenhoff
CD 1
* Paper Music I 1961/70
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 59 I 1959
* Zeichnen - Klatschen/Zeichnen - Zeichnen 1979/81
* aus Landschaftsbeschreibung I 1973
* Mix Fontana Mix 1974/76/79
* aus Silphium Metallophonic 1969/70
* aus Lautgedichtfolge g) 1977/79/98
* Ausfluss, Niederschlag, Spur, Nachhall I 2000/02/07
* Douce-Amère 1972/74/81
* Komposition Nr. 2 1963/65
* Polygonum 1968/70
* aus Leonce und Lena 1963/64
* Vielleicht - Duo 1963/68/70
* Musique Concrète - Studie II 1951/59
* Musique Concrète - Studie I 1951/59
* Leonce und Lena b 1963 ·
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 62 I 1962
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 62 II 1962
CD 2
* Komposition Nr. 3 1965/67
* Ideir notna fesoj Radiophonisches Porträt von Helmut Rohm 1996
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 61 I 1961
* Klangsynchronie I Studie 59 1981
* Elektronische Musik - Studie II 1959
* Elektronische Musik - Studie I 1958
Gesamtspielzeit: CD 1 ca. 68:00 | CD 2 ca. 70:00 | insgesamt ca. 138:00"
"Edition RZ presents a 2CD collection of work from German electronic and multimedia composer Josef Anton Riedl. Spanning the diverse breadth of his musical output from 1951-2007, Riedl has left an indelible mark on music history in the Federal Republic of Germany with his many works and cultural activities. A pioneer in early concrète and electronics, Riedl joined Pierre Shaeffer's Groupe de Recherches Musicales from 1953-1955. He worked at various music studios including the NWDR (Northwest German Broadcasting) studio in Cologne, and was the artistic director of the Siemens Studio For Electronic Music from 1959-1966. During the same period he founded the Neue Musik München/Klang-Aktionen concert series, and established the Musik/Film/Dia/Licht-Galerie, which has presented multimedia compositions ("sound/light/scent-games"), audiovisual environments, events, exhibitions ("Paper Music I," "Optische," "Akustische Lautgedichte") and installations at important national and international festivals. This collection samples some of Riedl's most compelling work, including his "Paper Music" and musique concrète experiments." [label info / credits]
www.edition-rz.de
"Eine fulminante Werkschau in gewohnter EdRZ-Qualität, man muss es so sagen. Schickes Design und informatives Booklet; ein Release mit dem man wahrlich in eine andere Klangwelt eintauchen, eben in neue Klangregionen vordringen kann. Das Beste aber ist: Riedl funktioniert auch nackt! Seine verschwurbelten Wagnisse sind forschender Bruitismus, feinste Punzmunster auf unseren Trommelfellen. Montierte und studiobearbeitete Sprachklänge, sirrende Electroacoustics und erweiterte Kammermusikskizzen sind alle auf dieser Doppel-CD zu finden, die um einige Radioarbeiten und Versuche aus dem Siemens Studio München komplettiert wird." [Zipo, Auf Abwegen]
|
2009 |
€23.00 |
|
| RIEK, LASSE-MARC |
Schwarm |
MC |
"It is our pleasure to present the latest piece of work by Lasse-Marc Riek, a master of field recordings and one of the most distinguished sound artists of our times. We’re following his output for a good ten years now - both his own recordings of bats, birds, snow dogs, islands or harbours, and the countless releases he produced for his (and Roland Etzin’s) outstanding Gruenrekorder label which became probably the most important adres for the art of field recordings. The source of the „Schwarm“ („swarm“) pieces were recordings of a flight corridor Riek made last year in Hanau-Steinheim, near the Frankfurt Airport. He cut and wove them into two 30 minute tracks which are charaterized by a very specific, at the same time documentary and surrealistic, beautiful and uncanny quality. Mindblowing stuff. edition of 80 copies, with download code." [label info]
www.magdeleinebast.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| RILEY, TERRY |
In C |
LP |
"Recorded at 30th Street Studio in New York City, 1968. Credited to Terry Riley and members of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in the State University of New York at Buffalo. This is a reissue of the first recording of In C ever released. Instrumentation includes saxophone, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, clarinet, flute, viola, trombone, vibraphone, and marimbaphone. 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold sleeve." [label info]
www.columbiarecords.com
|
2012 |
€22.00 |
|
| RIPARBELLI, PIETRO / K11 |
Radiodrama (feat. BAD SECTOR) |
CD + CD-R |
Wer sich für die geheimnisvolle Welt der Äther- & und Radiowellen-sounds interessiert sollte hier hellhörig werden ! Diverses Basismaterial wird hier vom Klangkünstler PIETRO RIPARBELLI (aka K11) auf kunstvolle Weise bearbeitet, es entstehen schwindelig machende, fauchende, zischende, röhrende Geräuschtracks. Auf der Bonus CDR befinden sich die uneditierten Basistracks von z.B. BAD SECTOR, GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, A.M.K., PROJECT D.A.R.K., etc.
Alles handgemacht /verpackt in Pappbox mit Booklet und extra-Videotrack, 211 Stück gibts davon in dieser Edition.
"A SPECIAL CONCEPT ALBUM WITH INCREDIBLE AND ORIGINAL RADIO SIGNALS AS SOURCE MATERIALS, RECORDED IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD BY: BAD SECTOR, STRANGE ATTRACTOR, CLAUSTHOME, GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, SIMM-EL, GRUPPO PSICOFONICO DI GROSSETO; RECOMPOSED BY PITERO RIPARBELLI. A CONCEPT ALBUM CREATED FOCUSED ON THE ESOTERIC SIDE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ACTIVITIES (ITC, EVP, AND TRANS-DIMENSIONAL PHENOMENAS) ALL AROUND US... Listen this sounds in your hands...
3 DIFFERENT KIND OF CONCEPTUAL EDITIONS ARE REALIZED FOR THIS GREAT WORK OF RADIONOISE,
INCLUDING AN ENHANCED CD-R (AUDIO + VIDEO AND EXTRAS) + A XEROGRAPHIC BOOK EDITED IN A SPECIAL HANDMADE DIGIPACK, BASED ON THE AUDIO INSTALLATION "CAMERA SONORA", REALIZED BY PIETRO RIPARBELLI/K11 DURING PIOMBINO EXPERIMENTA 3 - INTERNATIONAL SOUND ART FESTIVAL, WITH UNEDIT PIECES REALIZED BY:
MASSIMO MAGRINI/BAD SECTOR, GIANLUCA BECUZZI, ALEKSANDER KOLKOWSKI, A.M.K., GLOBSTER, VITTORE BARONI/L.T. MURNAU, PROJECT D.A.R.K.
Full lenght audio: 45:00 min.
"RADIODRAMA - CAMERA SONOR"A
track list:
1 PIETRO RIPARBELLI/K11 - COLLAPSE#01
2 GIANLUCA BECUZZI - RADIO TANS_IT
3 BAD SECTOR - PROPAGAZIONE
4 RM-ED/L - LISTEN REVERSE: A CONCEPTUAL VINYL MANIPULATION - DOCU-DRAMA, WITH:
ALEKSANDER KOLKOWSKI
A.M.K.
GLOBSTER
VITTORE BARONI/L.T. MURNAU
PROJECT D.A.R.K.
Full lenght audio: 40:00 min.
INCLUDING A SMALL DOCUMENTAL VIDEO + INSERTS."
[label info]
www.radicalmatters.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| RISHAUG, ALEXANDER |
Shadow of Events |
LP |
"Rishaug's music is informed by classic minimal
composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley as well as 90's electronica acts such as the
Oval/Microstoria axis and like-minded but more
obscure artists associated with the Mille
Plateaux label (remember Neina?) but surely
wouldn't be out of place on a contemporary label like Kranky or Type.
Repetitive and seemingly simple melodic patterns are combined with (and sometimes obscured by) decaying monlithic drone layers creating a hazy melancholic landscape slowly unfolding its beauty. Granular shoegazy tones are building up in slow-motion recalling the patient yet precise and complex drone works of Stephan Mathieu, William Basinski and Machinefabriek's Dauw album." [label info]
www.dekorder.de
"A contender for album of the year status in my
opinion; truly engaging and explorative, this is a refined and immersive work." (Future Sequence)
"Shadow Of Events ist jetzt bereits das Ambient
Album des Jahres 2011!" (Auf Abwegen)
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| RITSCH, WINFRIED |
Woodscratcher |
pic-LP |
"This release turns out to be the best way to celebrate little GODrec anniversary: the tenth release of the label! Woodscratcher (Scratching Wood) is a composition and sound generating machine from Austrian composer, media-artist, sound-sculptor and performer, Winfried Ritsch. Already known as collaborator in different projects with Bernhard Lang (pieces from his series Differenz/Wiederholung, Trike), Peter Ablinger (Klavierautomat), Ritsch created 'my own dedication to noise pieces of experimental music from 70s onwards'. This machine cuts a 2-5cm thick disk of a wooden trunk in a circular line along the growth rings of the wood, which makes this nothing else then monumental turntable. At the same time, the wood is amplified with four pickups (sensors) and the signals picked from microphones are spatialized over four loudspeakers in the corners of the room which spans acoustically the slice of the wood. This scratching in the concert is done until the inner part of the disk falls to the ground and the piece ends. The movement of the cutting tool behaving like an over-sized record player needle, has the performing function and is an allusion of the production of records, as well as playing them. The woodscratcher pretends to extract and play the information which resides in the piece of wood cutting it in an excessive performance. The wood is heard as acoustic material with inhomogeneities annual rings by superimposing a loops of the cutting process. With the progression of the cutting process the sounds evolves of the pieces in more and more rubbing and squeezing sounds. The audio signal filter functions of the wood is heard like repeatedly changing formants, almost imaging voices in the noise. Composition : With this performances not only the machine as performer is broached as the issue, also the exploration of unknown material is an artistic statement as also defining the structured and timing of the piece. The aesthetics lies in the excessive performance beyond feasible by a human actor or musician and also, links the many possible associations and associative to the world of music performance. One of them is the sound based on the noise of the experimental music pieces since the 70s and another with ideas of Herbert Bruen's computer music project sawdust from that time, when the rejection of oscillators as a tone generator for free definition of single events down to the scale of samples as a liberation of note-oriented Music generation. The transition in algorithmic composition to the composition of processes as instrument like done in live composition is expanded to the construction of a mechanical machine which is the live composer. The main aspect of this is that the process does the composing and the machine is composed for executing the process of extracting the piece out of the disc of wood, destroying it and defining the audible result of the piece. So composer becomes a mechanical engineer and inventor of machines and the musician the operator as machinist. The picture vinyl release is vinyl simulation of woodscratcher: a vinyl record has a picture of a wood on itself and recorded sound of scratching the wood." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| RITUALISTIC SCHOOL OF ERRORS |
Sweat stained fancy Heaps for first rate Ladies |
CD-R |
"Witness avant-garde maestro Gregory Jacobsen’s fetid funland here rendered in sound. Prepared piano, cranberry sauce, strangled throat, flamenco guitar, operatic soprano and a quivery accordion succumb to a teetering pipe organ as it ushers in teutonic chorales. Music this cakey rich can only be the culmination of long, scarily obsessive years. The result, a vaudevillian feverish horror complete with narrative threads that tug at abject fear before unspooling in puerile fantasy. If you dare to know where music can go, this is one orgy best entered at home and alone. Contributors include members of Cheer Accident, Black Bear Combo, and Brilliant Pebbles. Six-panel digipak features Jacobsen's wretched paintings!" [label info]
www.resipiscent.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| RIVET, JEAN-MICHEL |
A fleur de quai |
CD |
"This record gathers a selection of recent compositions from this french electroacoustic composer. His work follows the path of french pioneers of 'musique concrète' with an emphasis on the intrinsic beauty of captured sounds and poetic compositions that let your imagination go - very far from standardazed today production from well-established studios in France or in Canada.
Each track focuses on one sound source from daily life (trains, a demonstration, a voice, ...) and tells a story that each one can built for himself - therefore, we can speak of a true cinema for the ear.
JM Rivet is a Bordeaux-based composer of electro-acoustic music who studied composition at GMEB in the late 70's and has completed a training course at Xenakis' Cenamu in 82. He works today as research professor in digital studio practice and sound recording. He has been composing music since 30 years, mainly for theatre but also for radio and exhibition." [label info]
www.sonoris.org
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| RIVULETS |
You are my Home |
CD |
"Long-delayed 3rd album by internationally acclaimed solo artist Rivulets. Featuring guests Jessica Bailiff (Kranky), Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come, the New Year), Christian Frederickson (Rachel's), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Boxhead Ensemble), & Bob Weston (Mission of Burma, Shellac).
The contributions of these remarkable musicians adds snowy layers of wintery texture to Nathan Amundson's beautiful recordings. Like Nick Drake smothered not with layers of orchestration, but subtle textures to truly compliment the mood of the album.
Rivulets is the project of minimalist singer-songwriter Nathan Amundson. Born in Colorado, Amundson grew up in Alaska before leaving home at age 16 and moving frequently throughout the United States. He started performing as Rivulets in 1999, and currently resides in Bloomington, IN.
Rivulets is a prolific songwriter, with releases out on several labels, including Acuarela, BlueSanct, Silber, and Chair Kickers'' Union. This is Rivulets'' 3rd full length album, and 1st for Important Records.
Rivulets'' first 2 full-length albums, r i v u l e t s (2002) and Debridement (2003), were both recorded by Alan Sparhawk of Low, and released on Low''s own label Chair Kickers'' Union. These albums feature guest appearances from the likes of Jessica Bailiff , LD Beghtol (Magnetic Fields), Jon DeRosa (Aarktica), Marc Gartman (No Wait Wait), Brian John Mitchell (Remora), Aaron Molina (if thousands), and Mimi Parker (Low).
Extensive touring overseas has garnered Rivulets intensely loyal fanbases across Europe. We''re hoping this, Rivulets 1st album on Important records, will help the US to take notice as well. A few of the artists Rivulets has shared bills with in the past include: Haley Bonar, Chris Brokaw, Cerberus Shoal, Cocorosie, Mark Eitzel, Daniel Johnston, Low, Mirah, My Morning Jacket, the New Year, Scout Niblett, Piano Magic, Radar Bros., Stars of the Lid, Songs: Ohia, Swearing at Motorists, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Shannon Wright, and Xiu Xiu. Rivulets'' discography also includes numerous compilation appearances and several EPs: the aforementioned Thank You Reykjavik EP on BlueSanct; The Alcohol EPs on Silber; the Rivulets / Marc Gartman split CD (featuring Jarboe of Swans) on Tract; and the You''ve Got Your Own EP on Acuarela (the bestselling EP Acuarela have released, out-selling EPs by the Album Leaf, the Clientele, and Tara Jane O''Neil!).
This is not a folk album. This is an album about hearts breaking, tearing it down, and moving on." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| RLW |
Views |
CD |
Dronig-verwirrende Soundscapes, konkrete Geräusch-improvisationen, feedbackende Kakophonien... Material von 2003, das RLW eher von der verspielt-improvisatorischen Seite zeigt..
"In the 25th year of Ralf Wehowsky's recording career, Anomalous Records presents his first truly solo release featuring four new compositions based on instrumental improvisations. Using simple devices (tone-generators, percussion toys, music boxes, an electric toothbrush and an electric guitar) played in unusual ways, he builds up layers of each sound to create a suite of textural pieces. Each of the four tracks takes on an identity unique from the others, as the first three each focus on one of the sound sources while the last combines elements from the previous three to make something else. The disc opens with a 20-minute piece of mysterious and drifting electronic tones. Other tracks highlight very tactile sounds and bring a much more 'live' element to his work, while retaining his skillful use of dynamics and placement of silence which have gained him so many fans. Previous releases by RLW have seen him collaborate with such diverse artists as Achim Wollscheid, Bernhard Günter, Andrew Chalk, David Grubbs, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, and Bruce Russell. He is the founder of the now defunct group P16.D4 and the label Selektion."
[label info]
www.pogus.com/anomalous
“There was a time when RLW, which stands for Ralf Wehowsky, was a buzz name. From his previous band P16.D4, he developes since the mid nineties a strong solo career aswell as many collaborations with people like Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Bernard Gunter,
Duimelinks/Meelkop. But in more recent years his release schedule was less hectic and now we have 'Views'. Everything on this CD is made by RLW with no input from anybody else. His source material includes tone-generators, music boxes, toys, electric guitar and toothbrush. Each of the four pieces here consist of RLW improvising three or four times his sounds on to the computer, and creating a mix afterwards. In the opening piece, '#1' he only uses tone generators, by which he creates quite densely layered patterns, that come in quite a chaotic way at one point - unlike much other RLW material. In '#2' he uses the Orff instrumentarium (percussive instruments for children), which he jams around and this is much more his territory: carefully hoovering on the edge of silence. Something similar goes in '#3', but here it deals with the hallucinating simplicity of music boxes. These two quieter pieces are the total contrast of '#4', which uses various feedback recordings of the two previous tracks and some added guitar sounds - a fiery noise piece, which is again an unlike RLW piece. Quite a strong CD, with some surprises for the RLW devotee. Moving inside aswell as outside of his usual music, this is quite a step forward. [FdW, Vital weekly]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
|
An Archivist's Nightmare |
CD |
Die Beta-Lactam "Black Series" prüft (überschreitet?) weiter die Grenzen des Alltäglichen, mit dieser CD von RLW (oder sollte man eher sagen: mit diesem im CD-Player installiertem Happening?). RLW liest (mit extra-starkem "german accent" wie es scheint) die Titel der letzten Tonträger die er bekam vor, (s)ein Kind versucht dies (manchmal) zu imitieren, das ganze lief 2003 als Radio-Feature für Radio Resonance London... 60 Minuten lang....ja, genau, das wars! Den Effekt des ganzen kann mich nicht beschreiben, den muss man erleben!! Nummer 2 in der neuen BLACK SERIES (schwarze edle Klappcover) von Beta-Lactam!
"Black Series 2 - Ed. of 300 numbered and signed copies by RLW (P16.D4). RLW moves in to the world of sound art with his piece "The Archivist's Nightmare". "RLW: An archivist´s nightmare The nightmare has been produced as a sound feature for radio resonance, London, in mid 2003 and was “aired” on internet October 3rd 2003. It is dedicated to Benjamin Green and would not have been possible without the help of Dorothea, Soeren, and Sonja. Index points are set for your pleasure. The feature itself embraces the whole CD. Total Time: 60:00 Some notes: "...i will read the titles of the last records i got (i guess about 1000 should fit into one hour). selected, insofar as i'll leave out those i found not worth listening to anyway. no criteria of order otherwise (therefore the title). ... imagine a future archivist interested in experimental/avantgarde/underground - however you will call it - sounds of the past 21st and 20th century, trying to find a path..." rlw, april 2003 “in an earlier mail i told you i would like to add some pieces of mine to the feature. Meanwhile i think this only would distract the listener´s attention from the reading. Instead i will additionally read parts of my letters to you and include these recordings in the feature. this additional level of self-reflection will also be of use as an structural element. “ rlw, may 2003 “sounds fucking great.. and i can sense an opening of possibilities… working with children is something I would be interested in doing, with some kind of structured improvisation/game pieces… strange… i keep getting a very high pitch sound in one ear when I type loudly, which reminds me of yr piece.” ben green, may 2003 “thanks for the radio feature. it´s really great. the funniest thing i´ve heard in a long while. it´ s a weird thing, initially i thought these were the records that would get played later, and then i started thinking like ´got that one, heard that name before, did the cover for that one, dunno this`.” jos moers, june 2003" [label website info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Contours Imaginaires |
10inch |
RLWs Beitrag für unsere Reihe über das 'Unsagbare' benutzt als Klangquelle nur ein kurzes Piano-Extrakt mit Stimme, aus welchem dann drei Stücke sozusagen re-fragmentiert werden, die intensive und hochspannende Trips in RLWs "Imaginäre Konturen" ermöglichen...
Titel & Klangmaterial stehen dabei in komplexen Inter-Relationen, sehr emotional & tief gehende Sounds und ein ausgefeiltes Konzept stehen hier wieder in einer perfekten Balance. Das ganze auf gelb-orangenem Vinyl mit ungewöhnlicher Textur, das Cover kommt vom Oldenburger Artworker OLIVER JAKOBI.
"After a break SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA is back with a terrific 3-track 10" by the prolific german composer RLW (who started his activities back in the early 80's and was the main member of the legendary german experimental outfit P16.D4). The full title is: CONTOURS IMAGINAIRES. The whole composition is based on only few seconds of piano-sounds and vocals (the rest is "imagination") and the track-titles & pieces offer strong inter-relations in a complex way.
The used sounds develop through imagination & decay ("denaturing transformations") and appear in the pieces with different emphases. The "classical" piano-sounds and its highly processed permutations are set in contrast with the highly emotional voice-material, like entering a convoluted labyrinth of voice-frazzles, drones & fragmented strange sounds......
Being on a microlevel ("phantasized cell"), judging the decay of shadows. Are these the memories of single cells? The shadow of abrasion-processes? The slow decay of imaginations? A fantastic work where conceptual thoughts and emotionally driven acoustics merge in a perfect way.
500 copies, colour-vinyl, full colour artwork by Oliver Jakobi" [label description]
"Drone Records, best known for a long line of drone 7"s, started already a while ago with a new series: Substantia Innominata, in which artists deal with the unknown, in whatever way they feel ('unnameable, unspeakable etc). For someone who likes his imagination go wild, Drone Records made a fine decision in choosing RLW to be part of the series. On the cover it says 'built from a few seconds of piano and vocals. Everything else: imagination'. Quite right. Good music is like a good movie: you create images that might not be what they seem to be. And musique concrete, since this is what is primarily the concern of RLW, is always a good way of imaging. You hear music, which could be voice, which could be piano, but then it could also be something else. Deceiving music. That is what RLW does best. In none of the three pieces it's easy to determine what the original sound is, or how it was treated. No doubt inside the bits and bytes these days (unlike the good old days of four track and reel to reel, where RLW learned the trick of the trade) things are transformed to such an extent that your imagination is free to run wild. It makes a movie in your head. For me an abstract movie, of squares and circles, using only a few colors and they spiral around, bounce off screen and back in. And no doubt it might be something entirely different for someone else. A great record. One that leaves more space to guess than some of the work RLW has recorded in the past, usually with others. His solo work goes out to no man's land more, which is great." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Die A-Seite dieser 10″ wird beherrscht von kontemplativen Stromwerken, besinnnlich hin- und herlappend, bis am Ende Wut auszubrechen scheint und seltsame semantiklose Verzerrungen dem Schrei irgendeine Weisheit versagen. ‘Ombre d’érosion’ heißt der Track passend. Die B-Seite beredet sich während ‘Cellule Imaginaire’ weitaus angestrengter, wenn auch unbehaglicher. Stetiges Zellteilung mag nicht immer erwünscht sein und kann offensichtlich höllisch wehtun. Das abschließende ‘Erosion d’imagnaire’ zerbröselt Vorstellungskraft in Hilfeseufzer, schwärmende Painosaiten, Radiofehler bei minimalen Rauschzuständen. Fantastisches Vinyl ! Übrigens: RLW ist Ralf Wehowsky aus Mainz, ohne Frage einer der wichtigsten zeitgenössischen Elektroniker." [Ed / De:Bug]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Fall Seliger Geister |
CD |
"We are proud to present the stunning new album by Ralf Wehowsky. He is currently one of the most respected electronic composers of our day. Ghostly creaking sounds mix with highly complex electro-acoustic and electronic sounds. This description may sound familiar, but no sound is what it seems and rlw always manages to stay far ahead of his contemporaries. His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation. In fact it could be all of these. A rewarding release that will still sound fresh and relevant in years to come.
Ralf Wehowsky was one of the founder members of the seminal German group P16.D4 and the label Selektion whose ground breaking releases influenced many working in today's experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernard Gunter, Jim O'Rourke, Achim Wollscheid and Lionel Marchetti.
Ltd to 500 copies, the CD comes packaged in a Japanese mini LP style sleeve with textured reverse board printing and black inner sleeve." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
"Oddly enough, the latest RLW CD is on Dirter but co-released by Black Rose Recordings, which happens to be the Contrastate label, but they aren't co-releasing their own release. For a moment I thought that things might have slowed down for RLW, but a quick look on discogs proved me wrong: Ralf Wehowsky is as active as always. Following that great P16.D4 set I hoped I could find time to play some of the RLW stuff again, which I collected, but sadly this has to wait. But of course then there is this new one. I am not sure if I would regard myself an expert on the work of RLW (or in fact of someone else for that matter), even when I heard a lot of his music. For starters, it's not easy to define his music. It's a lot of a lot of things. RLW gathers his sounds somewhere inside and outside the house, playing instruments like cello or trombone (at least that's what I think), children playing outside and taping sounds in the kitchen. All of that is brought into the computer and treated in
some way, and then it reaches it's final composed state. So RLW's music could be called electro-acoustic, musique concrete, improvised and/or field recordings, yet it's never exclusively one of these, but rather a curious mixture of all of these. The improvised element, in case you wonder, is made up using extensive blocks of sound from instrumental passages, like said celli, trombone or thumb piano. Here it seems as if RLW recorded a whole bunch of those and then in the process of mixing decided which parts he really needed. By adding all the other sounds and the close mixing of the total amount of music, he creates some excellent dense soundscapes. Dense and moody, in fact, as the overall tone seems a bit darker than before. Excellent release indeed. Damn, I wish I had more time to go back to his older work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Flurry of Delusion |
CD |
"Haptik und Automatik wirken quasi 'Hand in Hand' und erzeugen eine ins Anästhetische tendierende Schrumpfform von Melodie und Rhythmus. Oder einmal anders gesehen, sie schaffen eine Vor- und Urform dessen, das einmal Musik gewesen sein wird." [Bad Alchemy #92]
"The starting point for these new recordings was an improvised recording session with Giuseppe Ielasi, but as with all RLW works nothing is quite what it seems to be. Cutting out the moments of "glory" and recombining them Wehowsky reassembles them into new more detailed compositions. Further improvised sounds were treated and added to the mix. The result may seem like an authentic representation of a real time improvisation, but in reality the pieces are nothing like that...in fact nothing is quite what it seems to be.
His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation. In fact it could be all of these.
Ralf Wehowsky is one of the most respected electronic composers of our day and was also a founder member of the seminal German group P16.D4 and the label Selektion whose ground breaking releases influenced many working in today's experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernhard Guenter, Jim O'Rourke, Achim Wollscheid and Lionel Marchetti.
The CD is limited to 500 and is packaged in a beautiful full colour digipack on reverse board." [label info]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Agnostic Diaries |
CD |
"The common factor linking these recordings are projects that were never fully realized. The basic recordings started in 2005, however the period of reworking and transformation (2016 to 2017) is more important. All vocal parts and general revisions were done during this period. Agnosticism was the basic idea for the vocal/musical re-working of the pieces with the vocals implanted into the basic pieces, not just as simple overdubs, but inserted in a dialectical confrontation with the basic sounds and structures. "Le Ballet" relies on George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique; "For Gerald" on a co-operation with Anla Courtis using some sounds by Ovary Lodge planned for the Gerald Jupitter-Larssen series which stopped far too early. "Without M.B." includes RLW's parts for a collaboration with Marc Baron whilst "Monotype #6" includes vocals by Dylan Nyoukis, also used for a collaborative CD-r with him. Ralf Wehowsky is one of the most respected electronic composers of our day and was also a founder member of the seminal German group P16.D4 and label Selektion whose ground-breaking releases influenced many working in today's experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernhard Guenter, Jim O'Rourke, Achim Wollscheid, and Lionel Marchetti. His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation. In fact, it could be all of these." [label info]
"There was a time when Ralf Wehowsky was very active when it came to releases under the alias of RLW. In the last decade that seems to have slowed down. The last new one I heard was his LP with Paak (Vital Weekly 1047). Wehowsky was, in the 1980s, one of the main people behind P16.D4, a highly influential group coming from the world of 'industrial music' but crossing over to musique concrète. Since the early 90s, he works solo as RLW, using the computer to work and rework sounds and collaborating with many others, such as SRMeinxner (his label boss here), Paak, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe and others. The music on 'Agnostic Diaries' was recorded in 2016 and 2017 but started back in 2005; it is an album to complete things that were not yet completed. Among those who delivered sounds for this, we find Anla Courtis, Ovary Lodge, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Marc Baron and Dylan Nyoukis. Throughout these six pieces, voices seem to play one role or another. The music of RLW is best explained as organized sound. You load everything you have, basic material, processed versions (analogue, digital) thereof, onto the computer and through a lengthy process of editing and erasing, filtering and cutting, adding effects and so on, until there is a narrative, a composition. It is not easy to say why something works, and something else, perhaps, doesn't work. I guess that is part of being great at what you do and RLW is among the best in this field. With the excellent variation between pure electronic sounds, acoustic sounds and voices (which are, of course, also acoustic) a fine, delicate interplay emerges that makes up these six pieces. In the opening piece, 'Le Ballet' (which relies on George Antheil's 'Ballet Mecanique'), there are some very high and piercing tones, which made me reach for my remote control, but in his other pieces that don’t happen. The dynamics between 'loud' and 'quiet' is something that RLW plays with, along with hard cuts in the music. Yet, it seems as if all the sounds come naturally out of the previous, a logical extension if you will and that makes up for some great music. Upon repeated listening, there is every time something new to be found in this." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Tunnel |
CD |
RLW ( aka Ralf Wehowsky ) whose work deals in the transformation of prerecorded sound material, the permutation of the senses and the metamorphosis of the sensitive, has been a proponent of long distance collaborations for decades, long before lockdown made this manner of working popular. This goes way back to his beginnings with Permutative Distortion or P16.D4 and the Selektion label. He is a strict and disciplined composer, a formal organizer of discernible objects.
Tunnel presents five pieces built using fragments of Annette Krebs’s voice. Far from being anecdotal, the work reveals a true alchemy. Vocal prints are converted into roaring metallic textures lost in an endless sonic vortex, both sculptural and masterful.
|
2021 |
€10.50 |
|
| |
Satanic Inventions |
CD |
!!! Limited to 200 copies only !!! 51+ min. playtime
October 2022 PRESS RELEASE
Artist: rlw (Ralf Wehowsky)
Title: Satanic Inventions
Track Titles:
1. Early Symptoms
2. Normality, Lost # 1
3. Overworn With Watching # 1
4. Fever Glazed Thine Ears # 1
5. Fever Glazed Thine Ears # 2
6. Normality, Lost # 2
7. Fever Glazed Thine Ears # 3
8. Overworn With Watching # 2
9. Normality, Lost # 3
10. Overworn With Watching # 3
11. Overworn With Watching # 4
12. Normality, Lost # 4
13. Fever Glazed Thine Ears # 4
14. Overworn With Watching # 5
15. Out Of Joint
Format: CD
Cat no: BRCD 22-1021
Release Date: October 2022
Black Rose Recordings are proud to present the stunning new solo release by Ralf Wehowsky. He is currently one of the most respected electronic composers of our day. With this release his starting point is the comparison of the black plague and covid-19 as there are some astonishing similarities of how people dealt with the diseases. Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats, etc: Surely satanic inventions are the source of all calamities? Extracts from documentary recordings and a few fragments of ars nova/subtilior compositions have been transformed, extended, fragmented and re-contextualised, from which the 15 pieces of this release are built.
Ralf Wehowsky was one of the founder members of the seminal German group P16.D4 and the label Selektion whose ground-breaking releases influenced many working in today’s experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernhard Guenter, Jim O’Rourke, Achim Wollscheid and Lionel Marchetti. His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation.
“RLW's work moves on the edge of musique concrete, but never looses it's touch with industrial music on the one hand and with microsound on the other. But it defies these categories and can perhaps only be classified as RLWmusic. Great work!” – [Vital 584, The Netherlands]
“…truly outstanding” – [www.chaindlk.com]
"There have been many documentations on differences and similarities of the pandemics, which plagued mankind over the last centuries and millennia. Comparing the black plague and covid-19 there are - besides the obvious differences (more victims in absolute numbers
because of increasing overpopulation, decreasing number of victims in relative numbers because of the evolution of scientific knowledge) - astonishing similarities how people dealt with the diseases. Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats: Surely satanic inventions, spread by elites, papists, jews, communists, etc, are the source of all calamities? Human stupidity never should be underestimated. For tunately, history teaches that the misery ends
someday, even if the pandemic meets with war, famine etc. Amidst similarities new powers do grow. In the late 14th century ars subtilior must be pointed out. Liberation from religious themes, breaking open
rhythm, introducing bizarre chromatic passages, odd dissonances, etc.
Therefore, it seemed natural to combine documentations of actual madness with songs from that past. Some short extracts from documentary recordings and a few fragments of ars nova/subtilior compositions have been transfor med, extended, fragmented and recontextualised, from which the 15 pieces of this release are built.
Recorded from April 2021 to March 2022, Eggenstein, Germany" [liner notes]
"Seeing such a political statement on an RLW CD is something I don't recall seeing before. It is about the pandemic and the conspiracy theories that spawned, which I (too) believe is the true disease of our times. "I can read", usually means, "I like to cherry-pick popular notions", and "science is an opinion" is usually said by someone who has no clue as to what science is. Or, as I challenged someone: "How do you prove that all swans are white" to which I got the answer ", by killing all black ones", which seemed proof that not all swans are white. RLW says that all misery end one day, and something will grow. In the 14th century, Ars subtiloir (subtler art) became a musical style. It was rhythmic and notional, more complex. The end of the plague (well..) ended in something new. RLW uses music recordings from that time and short extracts from documentary recordings. Not that you easily recognize any of this in the fifteen pieces of music. Sure, some of this finds origins in voice material, and a word here or there is recognized, but who or what remains a mystery. The abstraction level is very high, as with much of RLW's music. He applies a collage-like approach to his music. A surprising element is the use of turntable/vinyl, which I haven't heard from him in some time. RLW's music is of a different complexity than the original Ars subtiloir, so I assume (not being an expert here), that he applies his musique concrète techniques to the music. Editing, stretching, granular synthesis and whatever else there is are as strong as any other RLW record. One thought I had with hearing these voices bending and twisting; maybe they sound like shapeshifting alien reptiles? Having read most of David Icke's books (to be found in a folder on my hard drive labelled 'humour'), there must be a place here for the sounds of reptiles. Throughout, there is some excellent, imaginative music here. I would say that even without the backstory, this is still a great release; it can be enjoyed equally."[FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| RLW & DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE |
Die Eisenbüglerin |
do-CD |
"The idea for this project was in the air since the late 1980´s. There was an intense, though short-lived, (snail) mail contact between DSM and P16.D4, RLW´s group in those days, which fell into sleep for reasons unknown today.
20 years later the contact lived up again. After getting themselves informed about the actual respective state of work, methods and techniques and sounds, the recordings for the project started.
RLW cd: The basic recordings were done by rlw from early to mid 2009, sound sources are instrumental (piano, trombone) and household objects. First detailed sketches of the compositions (autumn 2009) include heavily treated versions of these recordings, cross-modulations with sounds supplied by DSM and with DSM-variations of the RLW sounds sent to Caen. Fine-tuning of the compositions took until fall 2010.
DSM cd: With very few exceptions I used only the original sound recordings of RLW, discarding most of his own processing that he provided me with as I wished for treatments only what would be conceived to be already into the realm of the compositional strategies I fancied for these works. So up to which degree a processing of a sound turns it into an autonomous new one is a question without answer. In consequence resulted a collaboration starting with extremely few basic recordings. However as they had been particularly distinctive by their material character as well as the audible space of the recordings and the variation of their physical intensity as they all resulted from manual efforts they provided me with what was needed. Besides dynamical treatments and cleaning up, my sound processing is not only mostly analogue or equivalent too, but mostly even mechanic. Playing back recordings through 'no-fi equipment' and recording them again, while manipulating mechanically reproduction and recording devices is what I employ most." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
"Now here's two guys whose history goes back at least thirty years. Both from Germany and both from the world of cassettes and industrial music, but both having grown into something else, the world of academic music, musique concrete. Ralf Wehowsky was the main man behind P16.D4, but left that name behind to become RLW, while Guido Hubner always remained Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. Especially that is perhaps a bit odd. Hubner's work is more than Wehowsky's connected to the world of serious composing, yet he maintains his old 'band' name. Both of these men also know each other for a long period and there has always been talk of doing something together, so after much discussion, this double CD 'Die Eisenbuglerin' is the result of an extensive 'music by mail' collaboration. They both use conceptual angles to work from. 'Ah, DSM is always very fragmented, maybe I should work opposite', 'let's use mainly analogue, mechanical techniques to transform this material'. Also in the final execution the results are not widely apart, which is fine. It would be hard to say whose CD is who, if you didn't look at the label. Lots of microscopic detailed sounds - sometimes isolated, sometimes like mass - are the very foundation of this music. A fascinating ride, this is. Some close to fifty minutes by RLW and close to sixty by DSM. As said differences are in the details with this. Maybe DSM is at times a bit more fragmented and RLW a bit more 'full' at times. None of the sound sources mentioned on the cover (piano, trombone by RLW) can be easily traced, if at all, in these pieces. Excellent electro-acoustic music in the best tradition of both microsound and serious academia." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| RLW + SRMEIXNER |
Just like a Flower when Winter begins |
CD |
"Recorded by RLW (Ralf Wehowsky of P16.D4) and srmeixner (Stephen Meixner of Contrastate) between 2010 and 2013. The first emanation of the project came up with two versions of one mutual piece (Sunglasses by rlw, Wishing by srm). The core structural elements of the release can be seen in srm's meditation on sentiment (old hearts) and rlw's textased pieces (Prach-tjunge, Alle, Definition). More instrumentally based are Gummidorf (srm) and Spaßbremse rlw). Beyond this a signment both artists have touched all pieces in various ways, as indicated indirectly by the following pandects & interpolations: RLW (Dec 2010) 'Some weeks ago I did a horrible dj-set for a 75th birthday celebration, including Heino and other German schlager cruelties. it was so terrible ! maybe I'll go back to the pieces i used for this event some day. This stuff is awful enough to make another use of it. SRM (Jan 2011): I have been thinking about your description of German schlager cruelties and how horrible it was and awful enough to do something with. Maybe there is a possible project there?" [label info]
www.monotyperecords.com
" "Wie eine Blume am Winterbeginn / Und so wie ein Feuer im eisigen Wind / Wie eine Puppe, die keiner mehr mag /Fühl ich mich an manchem Tag" (meaning "Just like a flower when winter begins / And just like a fire in an icy wind / Just like a doll that nobody wants anymore / That's how I feel on some days"), said the first strophe of the song "Ein bisschen Frieden" ("A little bit of Peace") by which Nicole Seibert, better known as Nicole, won Eurovision Song Contest 1982, rised UK single chart up and became quite famous due to a number of translated versions. This buttery and somewhat controversial (just check lyrics) song became the emblem and the title of this lampoon of pop hit songs - mainly German schlager, but there are also quotes and samples from other traditions together with some German musical atrocities which could have been exported by immigrants, such as the sample of Italian song "Mamma" by Claudio Villa in the disturbingly funny "Old Hearts Rejuvenated" - by Ralf Wehowsky aka RLW, member of the forerunning collective P16.D4, and Stephen "srmeixner" Meixner of Contrastate. Their humorous collage which turned a set of samples from a number of gutted pop hits, plunderphonics, industrial-like sonorities, electroacoustics and vocals which sound like radiophonic captions into a sort of creepy show, whose core elements are srm's meditiation on sentiment ("Old Hearts Rejuvenated"), which are somehow closer to his "permutative distorsions", and rlw's textual pieces ("Definition (Konsumation)", the disquieting swarm of "Alle (Everyone)" - it's really funny the list of names of German pop stars, where the female speaker turns into a devilish one -, the initial "Blumen fur den Prachtjungen") as well as some instrumental forays ("Gummidorf", "Spassbremse") or post-industrial unnerving activated sludges ("Wishing To Be Entartained", "The Man with the Sunglasses"). I could imagine that what you're going to listen on "Just Like A Flower When Winter Begins" if you woefully end up in a German schlager with drunken cockscomb, nazi loggers, twinkly blond milks and a lot of cholesterol while you were searching for a loo in order to sober up after a pitiless barman put an acid pill into your glass of milk." [CHAIN D.L.K.)
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| RLW / PAAK |
Klingelbeutel |
LP |
"After RLW (Ralf Wehowsky) and PAAK (Peter Kastner) worked (together with Ine Ophof and Jan van Wissen) on the theme 'food' (see CD on Hinterzimmer Records) they both come now to the next basic theme, the religious mania. Basic material for the pieces 'pay the prayer' (RLW) and 'opium 1 - 4' (PAAK) were recordings of prayers and other christian propaganda from TV and records. The vinyl-record is limited to 154 pieces and comes with 3 inserts, one of them is a signed stamp print for enlightment and accompaning during listening to the record each is printed on one page of a catholic prayer - and songbook). There's no business like holy business. PLAY IT LOUD." [label info]
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Zur Arbeit I |
LP |
"Ralf Wehowsky and Peter Kastner, aka RLW and PAAK, present their third collaborative album in a series of concept albums dedicated to various subjects. This record, their first on attenuation circuit, is about work, and as on the previous records (about food and religion, respectively), the titles, liner notes, and the sound itself suggest a rather sarcastic take on work, or more precisely, the situation of working people today.
Ralf Wehowsky has been a fixture on the international experimental scene since his 1980s work with P16.D4 and related projects on the Selektion label. The fusion of electronic sounds and non-musical, musique concrète material is characteristic of much of his work. Peter Kastner, working both in improvised sound and visual arts, brings a low-fi approach to jerrybuilt sound objects to the collaboration. By contrasting everyday noise that might well have been recorded in a factory, or factory canteen, with startlingly artificial, almost deliberately cheesy harpsichord and mellotron sounds, they create a tension between a nostalgia for beauty and the barrenness of everyday life, in three pieces, or perhaps movements. The liner notes leave no doubt as to what the three movements stand for: The 19th century with its mass exploitation of industrial workers (courtesy of a quote by Karl Marx), the 20th century with its progress toward more social security for working people, and the 21st century, which sees an erosion of solidarity as neoliberal policies take away social benefits such as rent-controlled housing.
File under: electronica, musique concrète" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2016 |
€17.00 |
|
| RM74 |
Fireproof in 8 parts |
CD + CDR |
'Nothing is holy! With his fourth solo-release, Reto Mder aka RM74 takes us on a fevery missionary journey which is driven by an unholy quest for saturation and leads us into the dark places where tortured souls dwell. Unpredictably muckraking in the shoals of timeless abysses, RM74 seeks to kindle the supressed fires of passion. Nothing less!
To do justice to this mission, Mder interweaves acoustic instruments such as an organ, a piano, a bassguitar or a harp with analogue and digital treatments into 8 firey and frivolous revelations. The symbiotical relation on 'Fireproof in 8 Parts' is clearly in favour of the beatified instruments, which are re-discovered as liberating tools: 'The dusty organ winds itself ecstatically in purgatory. The rickety piano holds confused and atonal soliloquies. The detuned strings of the bassguitar gleefully dance to the song of wantonness, and the harp calls for the exorcism of charaded awe!' 'Fireproof in 8 Parts' also contains a bonus-CDr titled 'Part 9: LoFire'. This goodie offers additional insight into the works of RM74, concentrating on his LoFi-inspired Songwriter drafts.
Guestmusicians: Ralf Wehowsky (RLW), Dave Phillips, Roger Ziegler (Herpes Ö DeLuxe), Alexei Borisov and Reverend Lester Knox (archived by Tom Smith)." [label notes]
www.hinterzimmer-records.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| RMEDL / K11 |
Chthonian Music |
CD |
"Reissue of an extremely limited 2010 release (x50 private copies). This multi-dimensional collaborative opera (audio installation and concept album) is a bridge between the conception of sound within the contemporary art scene, post-industrial culture and the avantgarde black metal musical scene. It focuses on creating a dialogic development between radical forms of concrete music, unorthodox sounds, conceptual arts and experimental recording practices of acoustic phenomena. The following artists participated on the release:
Aderlating, Andrea Marutti, Burial Hex, Christina Kubisch, Deadwood, Francesco Brasini (Sevenguitars), Francisco Lopez, Gianluca Becuzzi, L’Acephale, Luciano Maggiore, Massimo Bartolini, Nordvargr, Philippe Petit, Seth Cluett, Utarm, Y.E.R.M.O.." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROBERT, JOCELYN |
Monsonics |
LP |
"Monsonics was done in two steps, both for the Citysonics Festival in Mons, Belgium, in June 2009. Two of the pieces - "L'air circulaire" and "L'abbatoir des Droits de l'Homme" - were first composed as soundwalks. I first went to Mons to choose interesting paths, then made the works to fit to them. For the festival, one could borrow maps and mp3 players from the organization, or one could download the soundtracks and a map from the website of the festival and live the experience on site. The pieces that appear on the LP are sligthly reworked versions. The two "La Chapelle des FUCAM" pieces are performance works made for the Festival. They are numbered 1 & 3: there were other versions, but these two seemed to fit better with the other pieces on the LP. There are no overdubs: they were made live using software developed at Avatar, Quebec city. The software can be downloaded for free at www.avatarquebec.org/ohm/index.php?page=logiciel&id=1 - Jocelyn Robert
Jocelyn Robert lives in Québec, Canada. He works in audio art, performance art, installation, video and writing. He did many performances, solo or with Diane Landry, Laetitia Sonami and Bruit TTV. He published about fifteen CDs, and participed in over twenty others. He was awarded First Prize, Image category, at the Berlin Transmediale in 2002, and the Prix du Rayonnement International from the Conseil de la Culture de Québec in 2006. He had numerous solo shows, and also teamed up with Emile Morin and Daniel Jolliffe for many installations. His work has been shown in Canada, United States, Mexico, Chile, Australia, and in Europe. His texts have been published by Le Quartanier (Montréal), Ohm Éditions (Québec), Errant Bodies Press (Los Angeles/Berlin), Semiotext(e) (New York), and in many catalogues, notably from Ars Electronica (Austria) and Sonambiante (Germany). In 1993, he founded the art centre Avatar, in Québec City. He currently teaches at l'École des arts visuels de l'Université Laval, Québec." [label info]
www.hronir.de
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
The Maze |
CD |
"The Maze is a map of different territories I covered in my recent travels. But the mapped territories are not contiguous: I am the tunnel that links these places and times, I am the border that keeps them together. Now, a geographer who makes a map doesn't make a survey: these are two different things. The survey - the gathering - comes first, but the mapping process includes several subsequent steps: scaling, removing, enhancing, and adding. Scale allows to grasp a large territory at a glance. The degree of scaling will make some aspects of the territory emerge and other disappear. The second step is the removal. A geographer who draws a map removes a lot of elements in order for others to appear. Then, some elements will be enhanced: on a tourist map, significant buildings will be bigger than scale and coloured, on a navigation map algae in waterways will be larger than life... Finally, things will be added: words, signs, numbers... Data from the surveys is never enough. Words and numbers are never seen in the fields, but they are on maps and play a very important role. They are ideas about the territories, references, links to culture. A map is a story, and the geographer is a storyteller. So I turned into a geographer and made The Maze as a mapping process. In The Maze there are lots of field recordings, many of which have seen their time scale change, some have had elements removed, other enhanced, and there are also musical elements added here and there, which tell more about the feelings of the places and travels. The Maze is both a journey and a story. (Jocelyn Robert, September 2015)" [label info]
www.fragmentfactory.com
"Canadian sound artist Jocelyn Robert has been at work since the mid-80s, recording initially for ReR. His new, limited edition CD is made up of material dating back over a decade and seeks to conjure up images of places he has visited by way of blending field recordings into lengthy musique concrète pieces.
Without prior knowledge of the artist’s intentions, the contents would (for most) surely be incomprehensible, with the exception of some short, tuneful colour inserts. While not entirely without humour, there is an academic austerity here which one can best penetrate by giving up to the concept and enjoying the sometimes unsettling, unpredictable narratives of Robert’s adventures as if they are one’s own late booking to a foreign city. Stride into frozen fog on early morning riversides, mopeds coming close to running you down and treasured videos of special moments being reduced to a glitchy mess by the time you get them home.
One group the disc brings to mind is Switzerland’s Schimpfluch, Robert being similarly cryptic and unafraid of both sudden silences and changes of pace. Not surprising then that the Swiss collective have also recorded several releases for this German label, which seems to be working outwards from basement noise into more self-consciously conceptual art." [Phil Smith / Record Collector mag]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROCCHETTI, CLAUDIO |
These are the days |
LP |
CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI (von 3/4HADBEENELIMINATED) benutzt auf dieser LP sein MC- & Vinyl-Archiv als eine Art Gedächtnisspeicher in Verbindung zur Welt; die hier gespeicherten Informationen sind auf vielfältige Weise verbunden mit den Vorbesitzern & ihrer Aura. Auf "These are the days" werden Teile davon collagenhaft neu zusammengesetzt und ganz neue Geschichten "erzählt", es wirkt wie kurze Schnappschüsse des Unterbewussten ins Verborgene der Alltagsgeräusche, kaum fassbar und doch nicht chaotisch, mit viel Raum für Pausen und Rauschen, Knirschen, Crackles... eine besondere Scheibe, die mit mehrmaligem Hören an Schönheit gewinnt!
"These are the days" is a collection of short pieces all around of memory concept... a sort of back-up of experiences on Claudio's preferred media (tapes and vinyls). Tapes and vinyls are here used in a double way: in their common way, the Universal recognized one. As sound reproducers, as technological element of our day-life with their own personal story linked to all the people who owned them... they are full of memory, they are part of our World. But if you change the rules and use the machines in an unusual way, the story change and also the result. Driving them over the limits we can discover unexpected borders... "...I'm attracted by places where the human presence is denied or cancelled, but where you can still hear their vibes. Abandoned flats, tube stations in disuse, spaces in which Nature grows between asfalt and cement, resuming what men has stolen..." CR. Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Another piece of teenage wildlife |
CD |
"Taking plaintive tones of drone music and early electronic and tape experiments, 3-4hadbeeneliminated former member Claudio Rocchetti has absolutely defined a sound, building a subtle, majestic landscape. Using a wide variety of instruments (synth, tone generators, organs, guitar, tape machines) he creates an absorbing sound that is mainly layers of loopsfading in and over each other, ethereal vocals, repetition, melody, noise. An emotional resonance with a tinge of melancholia that permeates every." [label info]
"... Rocchetti's solo music is less complex than the band, more intimate, more drone like but likewise beautiful. His guitar playing sounds like Ambarchi versus Ielasi, while his ominous drone music is more like Mirror or Monos. Nice intimate improvisation/drone music." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.die-schachtel.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Every Live is a Problem solving |
CD |
"A suggestive gallery of abstract images, confused fragments of life and real living experiences, sights of urban landscapes... Noisy and electronic interferences, mechanical machines movements, concrete noises, low frequences fluxes, hissing sounds, interferences, but also melodic acoustic guitar pieces, human voices and other field recordings... A brave, uncompromising and heterogeneous "decomposed" mosaic of avantgarde sound art beyond time, beyond any point of view and any geometric coordinates." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"The final new release on Silentes is by Claudio Rocchetti, whose name I spelled wrong before, but who is also a member of 3/4Hadbeeneliminated and as such someone I like. He had various solo releases (see Vital 474, 624 and 629), which hovered on all the edges of music: very quiet, very loud, using a variety of sound sources: cassettes, turntables, objects and sound effects. I am not sure why Rocchetti choose to release a live album, which is, effectively, one unreleased piece, and three that have been released before. So the unreleased one is from 2010, the others from 2006 (1) and 2008 (2). It shows, and that is great, the development of Rocchetti: the Brussels concert is quite a careful outing for electronics, low end sound, maybe even something that sounds like a guitar. Occasionally bursting out into a more noise oriented direction. An excellent piece. The 'Berlin 2006' is an early blast of noise, whereas the two 2008 pieces are more raw shaped drone excursions, which already hint to the 2010 style, but isn't quite there yet. These are however fine pieces too. I think they were released on cassette before, so its good to have these in CD quality. Delicate music needs a better medium!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROCKENSCHAUB, GERWALD |
Private Pleasures |
CD |
Sowas wie auf dieser CD kommt vielleicht heraus, wenn man den jungen Pop-TIETCHENS (Sky-Phase) zusammen mit einem angetrunkenen SIGTRYGGUR SIGMARSSON und FELIX KUBIN auf Designer-Drogen sowie INOX KAPELL (ohne Drogen, nur natur-stoned) in einen Raum sperrt und einfach machen lässt. Obskur-infantiles elektronisches Rumgefrickel und Gesampele z.T. mit cheapo-Beats versehen – kann man nicht wirklich ernst nehmen, aber genau darin liegt der Reiz !
"gerwald rockenschaub is one of the most wellknown visual artists, currently living in berlin. apart from making art he has been deeply involved with music from the start, playing in bands, dj-ing, organising parties in his former hometown vienna and occasionally composing music which got released mostly through his own definitely something label. "private pleasures" is his first album in more then 5 years, a perfect showcase of his weird and very personal hybrid of half-defunct techno rhythms and a great sensibility for electronic music. comes with beautiful artwork designed by the artist himself." [label info]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| RODEN, STEVE |
Ecstasy showered its Petals with the full Peal fo the Bells |
mCD |
"last summer, while in paris, i was given a beautiful small bell as a gift. it has been a constant sounding companion ever since. at times, during my travels, i would shake it to bring certain spirits forth, and at times it would ring on its own, living in constant motion in my pocket or my bag. as with
some of my earlier works with single sounds – the lamp, chair, splint series and the tea cups in winter couplet – i wanted to see what such a simple singular object could generate, as well as if some of the presence of the person who gave it to me could be conjured through its sounding. perhaps making music can be a kind of alchemy. of course, i not only shook the bell as intended, but recorded the rubbing of its surface, the tapping of it's stem, etc. as usual, some of these sounds are present as recorded, while others have been manipulated
through pitch, and/or time. the title is a fragment from georges rodenbach's bruges-la-morte, a book more filled with the sound of
bells than any other i have read (or heard!). [steve roden]" [label info]
www.myspace.com/fernsrecordings
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Flower & Water |
CD |
"Flower & Water began with an offer to work with the first Dragon’s Eye release – a flexi-disc with a recording of George Winston playing a blues piano composition called “Medley: Bread Baker’s Stomp” – as source material. Since I am not a true remixer, I decided to modify the track via physical manipulation. Most of the material began with cutting up some of the flexi’s and taping back together in ‘wrong’ ways. I then played (or tried to play) the broken records that had been taped back together, and also putting objects onto the surface of the record while being played with a cheap record player that had a small built-in speaker. In many ways I felt like I was building a series of temporary sculptures, as I wanted the experience to be physical – similar to the use of hands in making bread from scratch. Based on Paul Novak’s bread making book, I felt I should approach my engagement with the flexi’s should feel a bit like a ritual. I then took the stereo recordings of the objects, and put different moments into a sampler so that I could shift pitches and create loops. In many ways the experience of cutting the records into pieces, felt related to my own practice, in that my approach to these recordings were quite different than how i’ve worked before – particularly with the addition of such an arduous process of physical building, rather than building the recordings in my “studio”. What is beautiful is that the recordings (done with a small stereo field recorder), captured not only the sounds of the record player, the plastic cups, the stones, and other things I set on the turntable, those sounds were processed by the reverb and echo that naturally exists in the space. So, rather than working within a virtual environment, I tried to keep the experiences as analog activities – with dust and hands, with scissors and scotch tape, and with the ways that sound is activated via dropping, sliding, and of course, listening. My hope was that the messiness of my process might offer some sound pieces that might relate to how a kitchen might look when I might have finished baking bread… with hands covered in flour, with dough stuck to the counter, etc. in many ways the overall group of tracks is a kind of hybrid – with agitated acoustic actions and piano recordings that have become loose and repetitive. The titles were all taken from Paul Novak’s book – A Baker’s Dozen of Daily Breads and More, some were as found, while others a bit more playful – such as wing / ogre / stone which was made up of the letters of George Winton’s name. The cover image of a bunch of cut up records was used in the making of this recording – fortunatel, no record needles were harmed during the recording session." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| ROEDELIUS |
Jardin au fou |
CD |
"Anmutig, entrückt und friedlich: das 1979er-Album des Krautrock-Pioniers; plus Bonus.
Eines der bemerkenswertesten Alben aus dem sogenannten Krautrock-Umfeld ist das 1979 erschienene "Jardin au Fou" von Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia). Bemerkenswert, weil es rein gar nichts mit dem zu tun hat, was man sich damals unter Avantgarde-Elektronik oder gar Krautrock vorstellte. Roedelius setzt mit großem Vergnügen ein Karussell von Kirmesorgeln, knallenden Flaschenkorken, Walzern und süßen Melodien in Gang. Rhythmusmaschinen, Sequenzer und abstrakte Sounds fehlen fast völlig. So entstand eines der schönsten, anmutigsten, entrücktesten und friedlichsten Alben der deutschen Rockgeschichte. Produziert hat "Jardin au Fou" Peter Baumann, kurz nachdem dieser Tangerine Dream verlassen hatte. Das französische Plattenlabel EGG hatte ihn mit drei Produktionen aus der deutschen Avantgardeszene beauftragt: Alben von Konrad Schnitzler, Asmus Tietchens und eben "Jardin au Fou" von Roedelius. Asmus Tietchens schrieb auch die Linernotes dieser Reissue, die als CD sechs Bonustracks enthält: drei Remixe, drei neu eingespielte Titel." [label info]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Jardin au fou |
LP |
"Anmutig, entrückt und friedlich: das 1979er-Album des Krautrock-Pioniers; plus Bonus.
Eines der bemerkenswertesten Alben aus dem sogenannten Krautrock-Umfeld ist das 1979 erschienene "Jardin au Fou" von Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia). Bemerkenswert, weil es rein gar nichts mit dem zu tun hat, was man sich damals unter Avantgarde-Elektronik oder gar Krautrock vorstellte. Roedelius setzt mit großem Vergnügen ein Karussell von Kirmesorgeln, knallenden Flaschenkorken, Walzern und süßen Melodien in Gang. Rhythmusmaschinen, Sequenzer und abstrakte Sounds fehlen fast völlig. So entstand eines der schönsten, anmutigsten, entrücktesten und friedlichsten Alben der deutschen Rockgeschichte. Produziert hat "Jardin au Fou" Peter Baumann, kurz nachdem dieser Tangerine Dream verlassen hatte. Das französische Plattenlabel EGG hatte ihn mit drei Produktionen aus der deutschen Avantgardeszene beauftragt: Alben von Konrad Schnitzler, Asmus Tietchens und eben "Jardin au Fou" von Roedelius. Asmus Tietchens schrieb auch die Linernotes dieser Reissue, die als CD sechs Bonustracks enthält: drei Remixe, drei neu eingespielte Titel." [label info]
|
2009 |
€19.50 |
|
| ROGERSON, DIANA & ANDREW LILES |
No Birds do Sing |
CD |
"... vom neuen album behauptet ehemann Stapleton, es sei das beste, das je eingespielt wurde. an der seite seiner frau tritt Aandrew Liles ins rampenlicht. er zählt zu den experimentierfreudigsten der gegenwärtigen elektrobastler und klangkünstler. soundcollagen, drone music sind sein metier und er wird in eine reihe gestellt mit größen wie heemann, chalk, basinski. so bildet sich ein duo, das kaum interessanter sein könnte, dem man mutiges und zugleich bewegendes, weil bisher nicht dagewesenes zutraut... konzentrationsfordernd ist es, daneben gilt es körperliche berührtheit zu ertragen, dem ansinnen zur flucht zu trotzen, dann wieder müheloses hin-hören, also eine mehr als dynamische rezeption einfordernd. launige samples neben aggressiver stimmung, hier geht so einiges zusammen, was scheinbar nicht zusammen gehört." [Das Klienicum]
"Everyone’s belle de jour Diana Rogerson and Andrew Liles got together to create what we regard as one of the most considered and well conceived albums Liles has been part of. 'No Birds do Sing' can only be described as a hallucinogenic voyage of disconcerting mysticism and cosmic pandemonium and is a recording he's very proud of. This disc is a completely black and comes in a stunning super high gloss digipack with wonderful artwork by Babs Santini." [label info] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| ROIGK, STEFAN |
De-Composed |
BOOK + 2 x CD |
„de—COMPOSED“ — New artist's book by Berlin-based sound artist Stefan Roigk. The catalog documents acousmatic compositions, sound installations, musical graphics and text-sound compositions of the years 2005 to 2023 on 144 pages and 2 Audio-CDs.
A complex assemblage, composed of documentation photos, texts and drawings, becomes an interlocking whole in its dynamic flows and fields and animates the paper as a vibrantly structured visual composition. A piece of music for the eyes, in which the boundaries between documentation, draft and work become blurred in a surreal mesh of the concrete and fictional. Here, the reader generates their own individual temporal axis based on their speed of observation and focus on the optical elements, thus becoming a mixing board for a composition realized as a catalogue.
Three text pieces give a deeper insight into Roigk's understanding of sound as material and the translation of sound events into other media.
As an equivalent to the visual approach of the catalog and in order to adequately convey the sonic dimension of the artistic work, (sound) fragments of all the works covered in the catalog were transferred into a dynamic collage-like arrangement with Roigk's typical aesthetics and are included with the catalog as an independent listening experience in the form of two audio CDs.
„Stefan Roigk, de—COMPOSED (Audio Extracts)“ is published in conjunction with the catalogue "Stefan Roigk, de—COMPOSED" / published 2023 by Errant Bodies Press, Berlin / ISBN 978-3-9823166-8-0 / for further information please visit : www.stefan-roigk.com / www.errantbodies.org / © 2023 Stefan Roigk + Errant Bodies Press / This Publication was supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds
https://stefanroigk.bandcamp.com/album/de-composed-audio-extracts
"In a plastic bag, we find the following: a softcover book, 21x26 centimetre, 144 pages, 2 A5 postcards and a double CD. All of this is by Stefan Roigk, a Berlin-based composer born in 1974. I mention that year because, much to my pleasant surprise, the first time his name popped up in Vital Weekly was in issue 109, which must have been around 1997, which started, also very funny, with "Can you believe that in today's digitalized world there are still existing people who start a cassette-label?" Over the years, I reviewed his various releases, and his language, German, is essential to him. However, unlike some of his previous works, these two CDs aren't all spoken word, which is excellent. More to enjoy if the language is a barrier. What I didn't know, or perhaps I wasn't as aware, is that Roigk is also a visual artist and that many of his music pieces come with installations, or vice versa. The book is a catalogue of these installation pieces, the oldest from around 2007. Even when these pages are stills and not the real thing (or, in the case of a DVD, a registration of the real thing), it gives an excellent overview of his work. Like his music, many installation pieces are also collages of everyday objects in a new context. Some pieces on these CDs have been released before, so one could say this is a greatest-hits package. The downside is that the order on the CD is different than in the book, so one goes back and forth, learning about the material used in these pieces. Roigk uses musique concrète techniques of superimposing elements, intricate cuts, montage and altering his sounds. Of course, over two hours of music
is quite a stretch, but sitting back with the catalogue certainly works very well. I took away from it that Roigk creates a very coherent body of work in which music, visuals and text play a homogenous role." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€28.00 |
|
| ROMERO, DAMION |
Twins |
do-LP |
"For over a decade DAMION ROMERO has been crafting minimal sub frequencies to create some of the most interesting and unique experimental music. Twins is Damion's most impressive document to date; it contains four sides of intense and focused pure sound, recorded live with no overdubbing, effects, tapes, or feedback. Twins utilizes many varying textures and layers of sound offering many rewarding engaging listens. Edition of 500 copies in professionally printed INA/GRM "Serie Gramme" style gatefold sleeves. Co-released with P-Tapes." [label info]
www.tonefilth.org
|
2007 |
€20.00 |
|
| ROSE & SANDY |
Play Cat's Cradle |
CD |
"Behind this name which suggests two ladies working together we find two of Scottish finest musicians: Ruaridh Law (TVO/The Village Orchestra, Accrual and more) and Dave Donnelly (The Production Unit and more). While they both have their feet in beat driven music for their project Rose & Sandy they take a swing quite the opposite way. From improvised processing, like on their full-length debut they present here, to field-recordings and live video presentations.
Not only have they got a range of solo releases on labels such as Highpoint Lowlife and Stuffrecords, they also run the new upcoming Scottish label “Broken20” together with Dave Fyans (Erstlaub) and are involved with several concert and party events organized by Numbers (in Glasgow)." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
"Of course Rose & Sandy are not Rose & Sandy, but a duo of Ruaridh Law (TVO/The Village Orchestra, Marcia Blaine School for Girls) and Dave Donnelley (Production Unit, Marcia Blaine School for Girls) from Scotland, but then I don’t know who is Rose and who is Sandy. The label’s website lists a long story about a zither, or actually something like a zither, being given to ‘Sandy’ by his father. A funny story which describes how it looks and what it does. I suggest you read it yourself, saving me to repeat a long story. So Sandy played the instrument while Rose did all the processing, done into two different sessions, which were edited together into the piece ‘Cat’s Cradle’. Its not easy, when listening to this almost forty minute work, to say what the instrument does, doesn’t, where processing comes in and when it leaves. It seems to me that the beginning is where we hear the instrument in its most pure form, but after some six minutes into the piece, the processing drops along and even, say somewhere around twenty-six minutes, it seems to be taking over entirely for a few minutes. But it works well. There is a beautiful grainy and sustainy quality to the piece, which makes it partly a drone piece, but there is just a bit more to it than just that. An excellent musical trip of gliding scales, buzzing electronics, hissy tapestries and perhaps more such common places. A wintery feel hangs over this music and there sets the mood on the shortest day of the year. The music dies out like the fading day light. Sad and beautiful." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROSE, JON |
Rosin Box |
4 x CD-BOX & BOOK |
60th anniversary limited edition set
3 CDs, 1 data disc and a book
DVD style compact multi-case.
"Jon Rose is one of the most productive, original and focused people I know; he’s also an extraordinary musician and an inspired composer. To mark his 60th anniversary we are releasing this 3 CD box of previously unreleased works ranging from radio documentary and radio fiction to virtuoso performances - taken from all manner of contexts, using both the acoustic violin and the hyperstring interactive bow system. There’s a remarkable improvised violin concerto (the rest of the mini-orchestras’s parts are written out), as well as collaborations with Australian locals (multiple brassbands, musical whips, lounge pianists, aboriginal choirs, orchestrated corrugated iron, musical gum leaves, auctioneers, chainsaws, singing dingos, bowed saw orchestras, and so on). There’s a duo with George - an Albert’s Lyrebird, and concerts with contemporary ensembles and heavy earthmoving equipment. It comes accompanied by a great deal of extraordinary film - and some purely audio - material collected together on a supplementary data disc. Plus there’s a generous booklet of texts, documents and photographs and, of course, a souvenir sample of bow-hair." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2013 |
€30.00 |
|
| ROSE, NEIL |
Wilbur Whateley / Psychopomps |
LP |
"... Inspired by the writing of HP Lovecraft this concept album is going to have a beautifully crafted gatefold sleeve and 180 grams worth of black vinyl to enhance your audio pleasure and bring about the apocalypse! Neil Rose is a Plymouth based electroacoustic composer and his debut album fully deploys his considerable skill at interweaving concrete sound sources, the spoken word and awkward polyrhythmic beat material. It is dark and brooding, and at times yields results no recording should produce, and yet retains a danceable sensibility." [label info]
"Neil Rose, sonic artist and lecturer at Plymouth College of Art, has developed a double A side concept album – his first, and something of a departure for him – titled Wilbour Whatley / Psychompomps, inspired by the writings of HP Lovecraft. Lovecraft, whose writing is liberally descriptive of sound in conveying horror, isn’t interested in poetry. His writing is quick, crude, and hurried – rushing towards something so hideous yet so compelling it wipes out all mind, all sense. He is not escaping from this cosmic horror, he’s escaping to it. It’s a kind of inverse nirvana, and in the album, this expiry of sense, mind, reason – this point of encounter in the music – is devastating. The gathering energy of Yog Sothoth hit me hardest, and it was the oncoming need to dance that I found devastating – if Tolkien’s Belroc was a DJ, he’d play this... " [Arts & Culture]
www.onec.tv
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROSENQVIST, DAG & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT |
Vintermusik |
CD |
"One album, seven tracks, two people. Who are they? Dag Rosenqvist is a Swedish musician releasing solo music under his own name/previously Jasper TX moniker, and Rutger Zuydervelt is prolific Dutch sound artist familiar to most as Machinefabriek, already known to Zoharum followers via ”Dubbeltjes” compilation of his rarities. And what is ”Vintermusik”? Actually, it is another rarity being reissued.
The tracks from this album date back to 2006 and are one of the early tracks commited by both Dag & Rutger. They did not meet at the time of the recordings, they used the Internet to exchange files. And so 50 minutes of music was created. It is contemplative music full of shimmering guitar drones, delicate piano melodies and bits of field recordings. They sound cold, yet warm at the same time. So the time for releasing this music is just right – it is a little bit of winter music for the end of the summer.
The original version ”Vintermusik” came out on a CDR limited to just 200 copies. Due to a popular demand we decided to re-release it. It has not dated in the least bit, it is as fresh as on the day of its release. As a special bonus, another rare gem was added, that is ”Feberdröm” coming from a 3” CDR. It gives you the full picture of those early ventures into duo collaboration between Dag and Rutger.
”Vintermusik” is released in a 3-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"With some recognition (to avoid the word fame), Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as Machinefabriek, can always lean back and grab an oldie but goodie (and sold-out-ie) from the shelf and have it re-released. This is what happens here: The first six pieces were released in January 2007 on a CDR by the musicians themselves and probably didn't make it to these pages, and 'Feberdröm (Koortsdroom)' was released in December 2007 as a 3"CDR and reviewed in Vital Weekly 609. All of this now compiled on 'Vintermusik', a proper CD version of all the work by Dag Rosenqvist (sometimes also known as Jasper TX) and Rutger Zuydervelt. It's after all these years still not possible to tell who did what on these recordings, as for instruments and mixes that is. The original 3"CDR is placed at the end of this release back then I wrote: "... it's a great work. High static crackles, a mid-range bed of warm drones and a bass that rumbles somewhere below. Much along the recent works of Machinefabriek, and a sound that brought him his fame so far. Maybe there is a risk of repeating, but no doubt the fans will take that for granted. Nice one." The other five pieces follow a similar schematic, I think: lots of drone like sounds, generated by guitars and loop devices (and who knows what else from the electronics department) and all of this creating a solid hour of the finest dark ambient. Nothing new, but what did you expect from a re-issue? Fine quality, through out all of this." (FdW/Vital WEekly] |
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROSENQVIST, DAG & SIMON SCOTT |
Conformists |
LP |
"Conformists’ is a soundtrack album to the short film of the same name composed by Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX) and Simon Scott.
The origin of the album occurred when Dag was approached by filmmaker Juriaan Booij to provide music for a film he was planning to shoot. Before a single frame was committed to celluloid, the overview provided to Dag was to score a film about how group mentality rules us as humans.
Equipped with only this simple brief, access to a handful of storyboard images and stills from the film set, Dag decided to ask friend and colleague Simon to collaborate on the project. Through the long-distance exchange of files, ideas and half-finished tracks, ten pieces were completed for the film score.
The resulting soundtrack is music rich in subtlety and nuance. Matching the overarching themes of the film, an undercurrent of menace is present throughout, evoking the feeling of half-forgotten memories and imagery drained of its colour.
It should be noted that one of the strengths of ‘Conformists’ is that unlike many film scores, the album also works as an entity in its own right. It was uncertain for a time that the film was going to be completed. As a result of the artists’ creative juices flowing thick and fast, the album was completed as a collaboration based on a film they imagined would be made..." [label info]
www.low-point.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ROSS, LESLIE |
Drop By Drop, Suddenly |
do-CD |
"The first CD starts with the shortest seed pieces that play primarily with the timbral and microtonal differences highlighted between tone-holes, forming a layered, pseudo-multitrack effect while playing with only one fingering, single note or multiphonic. They range from the more strictly tonal or modal pitch-centered to the thicker atonal and dissonant collection of frequencies found in some multiphonics. Pieces progress to longer complex ones by the second CD, some of which have as minimal material as the shorter ones, but make more extensive use of live multitrack recordings and frequency filters to further bring out changes in frequencies or accentuate beatings inherent in specific multiphonics. The electronics used were created explicitly for each composition using the computer-based program MAX/MSP.
Save for the unconventional 15 microphones of the “prepared bassoon”, these recordings include pieces with no sound processing whatsoever, as well as pieces that do involve sound processing and multi-tracking. Importantly, however, any processing (timed entrances of microphones, overdubbing, looping, spectrum filtering, pitch shifting...) is made in real time, not post-recording. All recordings are single-take recordings where four speaker channels along with room microphones have been mixed down to stereo. Key clicks occasionally get picked up in a loop recording to return sometimes processed, sometimes not later; in circular breathing a multiphonic might drop out a moment before sounding again –what might sound like clicks or occasional drop outs on some of the recordings are not overlooked mastering faults but the result of this live processing and playing as would be experienced in performance.
With a formal background in classical music and early performance practice Leslie Ross took a plunge into the free improv scene of downtown NYC in the mid 80’s and has immersed herself in experimental music ever since. Her connected, parallel, work as baroque bassoon builder also opened up into explorations of invented instruments and sound installations at the same time. She has presented solo programs, both acoustic and electro-acoustic with laptops or electronics throughout Europe and the US over the past three decades. In the mid 2000’s she returned her music focus to a detailed exploration, analysis and understanding of bassoon multiphonics, the details of which she has made freely available on her website. It is through this exploration of multiphonics and the subtle changes made when playing with resonance keys that she was brought to the multiple-mic project of this CD." [label info]
https://xirecords.bandcamp.com/album/drop-by-drop-suddenly
"In my desperately insufficient erudition, the sum of “bassoon” and “woman” gave “Lindsay Cooper” as the most likely result until three days ago, when – while rummaging across the piles of promos received in 2018 – I retrieved this 2-CD set by Leslie Ross. Haven’t been listening to anything alternative since. More than the trademark biography-in-pills used by the official specialists to fill half of a writeup, let me urge you to check this article to understand the kind of creative individual we’re dealing with. An instrument builder, inventor and skilled player who lives surrounded by canaries and cats, and produces valhallas of tones, microtones and illusory tones from a single source. What’s not to like?
A resort for brains who don’t content themselves with shabby explanations, Drop By Drop, Suddenly comprises tracks of length varying from 5’13” to 27’37”. An attentive look at the program reveals that the pieces are ordered from shortest to longest, as if Ross wished to take the hand of the listeners to gradually immerse them into oceanic clusters to reach mental emptiness. We also noticed that the harshness deriving from certain pitch contiguities tends to decline (not always!) with the temporal extension. What Ross is telling us – perhaps without realizing – is that every apparent strain can be alleviated or, at the very least, considered under different perspectives with the acquisition of fundamental psychoacoustic data. Especially when lulled by such a concentration of upper partials, occasionally suggesting fragments of near-immobile melody (“Closed Circuit, A Pastoral”) or simply lifting us from the chair (“Water”).
Amazingly, everything heard occurs in real time. Even when veritable legions of bassoons (and relative key clicks, and whatever else one can hear, including the aforementioned birds) are perceived in the stereo field. It’s all born from an expert positioning of the microphones – Ross amplifies the unthinkable, besides the “normal” – and loops, natural or less: what do we know, poor guitarists deprived of the chance of circular breathing? The aim of the composer – subjecting the audience to a feeling close to the vibrational totality experienced by the performer – is achieved in full. Equally notable is the cross of inner stability and disregard of corporeal issues generated by the superimpositions; but we’re on Phill Niblock’s label, therefore we were expecting it, in a way.
And so, another case of droning wonderment. However – trust this madman – that’s just the beginning of an utterly enriching voyage. Sometimes being a canary implies receiving incredible rewards." [Touching Extremes]
|
2018 |
€17.50 |
|
| ROTHENBERG, DAVID |
Bug Music |
CD |
"There has been rhythm on this planet for millions of years longer than humans have opened their mouths to sing. Long before birds, long before whales, insects have been thrumming, scraping, and drumming complex beats out into the world. David Rothenberg decided to investigate the resounding beats of cicadas, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers and water bugs in his unusual third foray into music made with and out of the animal world. After working with birds and whales, he now tackles the minute complex tunes of the entomological universe, building songs live and in the studio with cicadas who emerge only once every seventeen years, treehoppers who tap complex vibrations onto plant stalks, and a tiny beetle who makes one of the animal world’s loudest sounds by vibrating its penis underwater.
He is joined by guitarist Jürjendal, who has studied with Robert Fripp and Eno, Timothy Hill of the Harmonic Choir, Umru Rothenberg on iPad, and millions of tapping, screeching, and howling bugs—Hear them before they hear you." [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROUX, SEBASTIEN |
Revers Ouest* |
CD |
"This is the story of a man marked by an image of his childhood… Or perhaps is it the story of this woman coming here to meet a beloved stranger, at the Grange-Auloup street ? or maybe their story ?" [Sébastien Roux]
"Revers Ouest* is a radiophonic work based on text fragments drawing a futuristic and mental description of the Nantes city. It’s an isolated utopist vision of architecture, buildings made like concrete waves. The texts are read by two actors, whose voices are used as a musical material and digitally processed, becoming a ghostly trail of the characters they represent. The piece, by mixing a fragmented story with heavily processed acoustic sources, aims to intricate radio art genres like documentary and hörspiel with more ‘musical’ forms such as electroacoustic and contemporary classical music. The first version of the piece was commissioned by Sonor festival and co-produced by La Muse en Circuit. It was premiered on the 31/03/2007 in Lieu Unique (Nantes).
Born in 1977, Sebastien Roux is sound artist living in Paris. Since 2003, he has recorded for the experimental electronic labels 12k, ROOM40 and Apestaartje. In 2005, he was awarded for his piece « un grand ensemble » at Muse en circuit 6th international competitions of Radio Piece. His main collaborative projects includes Heller (with Eddie Ladoire, published by French labels n-rec and optical sound), works with 12k artist Sogar, and with Greg Davis (the duo cd called “paquet surprise” was released on carpark in October 2005). He has released a series of sound installations called wallpaper music. This work has been shown in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg and Bristol. He also works at Ircam as a musical assistant. (mainly with composer Georges Aperghis)." [label info]
www.room40.org
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROWENTA, FRANK |
Weingüter |
CD |
"Frank’s newest output on DOM ELCHKLANG features music that he originally composed for an exposition of french architecture in Bordeaux, France. “Weingüter”, a quadrophonic piece in 4 parts (for 4 tube amplifiers) was actually never performed, as his concert at the exhibition had to be stopped when Frank began to throw grand crus at the audience. 10 years after this “event” the original composition is available to the recordbuyer for the first time (carefully mixed down to stereo by Achim P. Li Khan). Compared to its predecessor “Schuss in den Ofen”, “Weingüter” shows Frank in a more “power-electronics” mood, featuring some adventurous use of synthesized amplifier sounds." [label description]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROZMANN, AKOS |
Impulsioni |
CD |
"Neu auf dem Stockholmer Elektro-Akustik Label dieses Werk des Ungarn AKOS ROZMANN mit zwei Stücken: IMPULSIONI I-III (1973-1974) mit untergründigen, aber auch nach "vorne" preschenden Analog-Noises, und dem aus 9 Teilen bestehenden Werk DE TVA, MED TRE INSTRUMENT (1996-1997), welches einen ganz eigenständigen Weg aufzeigt, ... Sounds von drei Instrumenten (Orgel, Klavier, Zither) und ROZMANNs Voice werden zu sehr expressiven, kraftvollen und düster-atonalen Stücken verarbeitet." [Drone Rec. 2000]
“Ákos Rózmann was born in Budapest, in 1939, where he studied organ and composition at the Liszt Academy. From 1979 to 1974 he studied composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Since 1978 he has been organist at the catholic cathedral in Stockholm. Epithets which come to mind after listening to Rózmann´s music are "powerful", "raw", "monumental", "impassioned". He is a master of large forms.“ [label info]
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| RRILL BELL |
False Flag Rapture |
MC |
Following up on 2020's critically acclaimed "Ballad of the External Life" LP, Rrill Bell's latest outing on Elevator Bath is a complex amalgamation of acoustic source materials (metallophones, winds, strings, and brass), (cassette) tape treatments, and digital assemblages, which coalesced over a period of six years, starting from the artist's desire to build a highly personal album around a turn-of-the-century recording of his late grandmother singing an impromptu hymn in Slovak dialect at a family gathering, resurrected from memory after lying dormant for 50+ years. Working through a family legacy of religious hallucinations/visions, the album (in spite of its tongue-in-cheek title) unironically explores themes of potentially staged transcendence, ecstasy of suspicious origins, vulnerability, inspired/anxious states of mind, fractured identity, doubt, rupture, redemption by proxy, and the dilemma of being forced to adopt a perspective in a contingent universe.
The music on "False Flag Rapture" is restless yet focused, shifting, evolving – like "Ballad...", never staying in one place too long – and features a wide range of aural perspectives, as well as a strong sense at times of "listening with", rather than merely "listening to". Hyper-detailed, darkly tinged ecstatic/manic passages alternate with dreamlike chamber pieces and muted celestial drifts cloaked in an uneasy haze, with the occasional disarming reveal.
A labor of love begun in earnest in 2015 and completed in 2021, "False Flag Rapture" is a testament to abstract electro-acoustic music's oft under-appreciated potential to treat deeply personal themes while connecting alienated human beings.
Born and raised in the US-American Rust Belt, and a resident of Germany for over two decades, Rrill Bell draws on the formative inspirations of radical scratch culture, Cagean thought, harmolodics, musique concréte, and various other strains of experimental music practice. Originally rooted in the world of improvisational performance, over the past decade his work has expanded to include various hybrid approaches to location recording, augmented reality, composition, and audio narrative.
In addition to 2020's "Ballad of the External Life" LP on Elevator Bath, Rrill Bell's music has previously been released by the Klappkart, Gertrude Tapes, Weird Forest and Denovali labels, among others.
Rrill Bell: chimes, vibraphone, crotales, glockenspiel, drum machines, tapes, dictaphones, tape decks, and electronics
featuring contributions from
Felix Fritsche: clarinets/flutes
Koenraad Ecker: cello
Alex Morsey: contrabass/tuba
Mastered by James Plotkin
Artwork/collage by Rrill Bell
Photography by Katrin Koenning
Layout by Colin Andrew Sheffield
42-minute lime green cassette with full-color six-panel j-card in clear Norelco case, plus full-color outer o-card featuring collage art by Rrill Bell.
https://rrill-bell.bandcamp.com/album/false-flag-rapture
|
2021 |
€11.00 |
|
| RSN |
Indistinction 01 |
CD-R |
A new addition to the attenuation circuit roster, rsn is a sound-aesthetic project in the field of tension between drone and ambient, which explores surfaces and depths in space. The music resembles handmade sound sculptures that build, shift and dissolve in the moment. It is the solo project of Thomas Rosen, operator of the boutique tape label momentarily records. He has been performing live with his band [ B O L T ] since 2011.
The simultaneous release of two full-length albums marks the appearance of rsn on attenuation circuit. Obviously, long duration is of crucial importance for inducing the meditative states made possible by microtonal drones, so listening to both albums in a row – perhaps even listening to both simultaneously? – is absoutely justified. Like natural phenomena such as waves, waterfalls, and weather, this music goes on and on, always there but never quite the same, always in stasis yet constantly moving. With rsn, attenuation circuit introduces listeners to a composer of super-intense deep drone music which is bound to even satisfy fans of luminaries such as Phill Niblock and Eliane Radigue.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/indistinction-1
|
2024 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Indistinction 02 |
CD-R |
A new addition to the attenuation circuit roster, rsn is a sound-aesthetic project in the field of tension between drone and ambient, which explores surfaces and depths in space. The music resembles handmade sound sculptures that build, shift and dissolve in the moment. It is the solo project of Thomas Rosen, operator of the boutique tape label momentarily records. He has been performing live with his band [ B O L T ] since 2011.
The simultaneous release of two full-length albums marks the appearance of rsn on attenuation circuit. Obviously, long duration is of crucial importance for inducing the meditative states made possible by microtonal drones, so listening to both albums in a row – perhaps even listening to both simultaneously? – is absoutely justified. Like natural phenomena such as waves, waterfalls, and weather, this music goes on and on, always there but never quite the same, always in stasis yet constantly moving. With rsn, attenuation circuit introduces listeners to a composer of super-intense deep drone music which is bound to even satisfy fans of luminaries such as Phill Niblock and Eliane Radigue.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/indistinction-2
|
2024 |
€12.00 |
|
| RUHLMANN, MATHIEU |
This Star teaches Bending |
CD-R |
"In 2012, my mother at the age of 63 was diagnosed with a rare terminal lung disease. She was given a six-month life expectancy at this time. These recordings were created over the same period of time, comprised of amplifying the human body, various medical equipment and devices, as well as location recordings, that were involved, related to, or used during her treatment.
The title "This Star Teaches Bending" refers to a painting on paper by the artist Paul Klee that he completed in the year of his death. Klee lived the last few years of his life in Bern, plagued by scleroderma, a rare skin disease. Although he never recovered from this illness, he always maintained his love of life, facing his suffering with a trenchant ‘so what?’ But by 1940 he had to accept that there was no hope of a cure or any improvement in his health. The star had taught him to bend to the blows of fate.
The track titles refer to titles of paintings that Klee created in 1939-1940, the last year of his life. These recordings are dedicated to Valerie Joy." [Mathieu Ruhlmann]
www.3leaves-label.com
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| RUHR HUNTER |
Torn of This |
CD |
Ungewöhnliches neues Album von RUHR HUNTER aka Chet W. Scott, der auch das GLASS THROAT-Label betreibt. Viel weniger noisig als zuvor, bewegt sich „torn of this“ in eher meditativ-ambienten Sphären, mit so bemerkenswerter Instrumentierung wie „Antique Autoharp“, „War Drum“, „Energy Chimes“ und „Hammered Dulcimer“.
[Drone Rec. info 2002]
“Isolationist composer Chet W. Scott, has blossomed with his most passionate and personal collection of melancholia to date. "Torn of This" RUHR HUNTER'S sophomore solo release, brings a whole new set of dynamics to the soundscape table...Featuring nine beautifully flowing and timeless compositions, with a minimalist sound design, traditional folk elements and contemporary acoustical instrumentation. RUHR HUNTER'S "Torn of This" provides not only another audible journey for the listener to experience, but an absolute look into the composer's personal history, inspired through childhood emotions and experiences, geographical relations and the simple spirit of being. An evocative, sonic portrait of an essence, it's past and it's future...” [label press release]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| RUIZ, MIGUEL A. |
Grosor |
CD |
MIGUEL A. RUIZ gehörte zu den aktiven spanischen Experimental-Komponisten der 80er & 90er Jahre und betrieb das TORACIC-Tapelabel. GROSOR besteht aus 14 Stücken düsterer Sample-Elektronik, die eine postindustrielle, apokalyptische Atmosphäre heraufbeschwören. Erinnert durchaus an z.B. ASMUS TIETCHENS.
Ein Teil des Materials erschien 1991 auf der “Encuentros en la Tercera Edad” LP. MONOCHROME VISION ist ein russisches Label, das sich auf die Wiederzugänglichmachung vergessener Klassiker spezialisiert hat!
“This is the new, remastered version of classic material recorded back in 80s, next to postindustrial aesthetics priority in electronic music. Rigorous and austere, ascetic but dynamic, this music rearranges everyday being into mindchallenging imagination, reserving the leading parts for the habitual processes and domestic objects.
From the deep underground of Spanish industrial music, it comes to be rediscovered after 15 years. Release date is 10 December 2005. Limited edition of 500” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| RUIZ, MIGUEL A. - & BARDOSENETICCUBE |
Exclusion Zone |
CD |
"A collaboration work of Spanish musician Miguel A. Ruiz (Orpheon Gagarin, Efficient Refineries, etc.) and Russian project Bardoseneticcube. Dangerous zones of sonic landscapes painted with the help of analogue synths and sequences, all sorts of samples, vinyl records and even folk instruments (percussion, gusli, penny whistles and pipes). Schizophrenically twisted ambiental collage of the fragments of the modern soundsphere. Rhythmic excursions into contaminated areas. Industrial psychedelia." [label info]
"... On the same label, but a concert sadly missed is a release by the duo Bardoseneticcube, who have been active for many years, who do a collaboration with long serving Spanish hero Miguel A. Ruiz. The Russians supply 'basic sounds and samples' while Ruiz add 'sounds, track arrangements and mastering'. What can be noted here, in difference with the previous work of Bardoseneticcube is the presence of rhythm, lots of rhythm actually. They form the solid backbone of the music, which otherwise involves field recordings and electronics. The rhythm part is solid, minimal but truly techno inspired. It bangs and it bangs. It reminded me of of the CD 'Electroid' by Sympathy Nervous from 1994. It has that same solid attitude. The field recordings are also sampled while the electronics are used to play around with, to add that somewhat nice krautrock and psychedelic touch to the music. Despite its minimalism there are lots of minor changes going on, that add a really nice edge to the music. Quite powerful stuff going on here, and a solid, fine work." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK |
Morx und Kotschlag |
CD |
The legendary Swiss performance-group with an unbelievable sound-collage piece, consisting of short cracks & noise-particles, ugly screams, accordeon-glimpses, whatever...funny & fascinating at the same time.
„Morx & Kotschlag" is not only the title of the CD, but also of the unique 74 min track of the acoustical "Aktions-theater". The piece includes recordings of direct body actions and abstract sounds, the latter often deriving from the first by means of an elaborated short-cut technique.” [label info]
|
1994 |
€13.00 |
|
| RUTMAN, ROBERT |
1939 |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der vergriffenen Pogus-LP von 1989, sowie ein Bonus-Track "live in Berlin". Mit Tablas, "Buzz chimes", Rutmans "Single String Steel Cello", "Bow chime", Rutmans gurgelnder tiefer Mönchsstimme und einem tibetanischen Horn werden hier ethno-dronige & rhythmische Stücke improvisiert, die einen speziellen Zauber ausstrahlen!
“ This release reissues Robert Rutman's Pogus lp (P201-1) and includes an additional track. Rutman (b. 1930) has been building and performing on his homemade metallic instruments for many years. This recording features his buzz chime, steel cello, and bow chime, along with tabla, Tibetan horn, and Rutman's vocal chants. Rutman caresses the metal, drawing out eerie drones and overtones that buzz and trumpet. The music in turn can be as fragile as glass or reach the depths of resonance, as if one has just come upon singing whales at sea. Beautiful music and long overdue on cd.“ [label description]
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| RUTSUBO |
Zakuro |
CD |
"Zakuro is a document of a midsummer feast held by Rutsubo: four artists from four different countries, as strolled in the forest of Broceliande and meditated at Robert Tatin's labyrinth in France.
Jani Hirvonen (Finland) has released numerous titles since the early 2000's as Uton. His wild intuition, cultivated in the forests of Karelia, is directly connected to the pulsations from the depths of the earth and the vibrations of the nebulae. His recordings pour out through his limbs like the automatic writings of a channeler.
Valérie Magisson (France) releases recordings and video works as Sunhiilow. She consistently presents a detailed mythological world with delicately structured works that reflect her adoration of ancient civilizations. However her vocalization and percussions on track 5 and 6 of this album reveal her hidden shamanic side, as opposed to the anonymous aesthete as Sunhiilow.
Hitoshi Kojo (Japan) and Carole Kojo (Switzerland) began making music together in 2006 as Jüppala Kääpiö, and since 2010 have released their recordings primarily through their own omnimemento label. Their sensibility to the discovery of harmony among different elements is strongly displayed in this album, and it gives a wide-ranging but unified impression and structure to these spontaneous improvisations.
The CD is encased in handmade packaging that features Jani Hirvonen's line drawings and Carole Kojo's linocut designs. The first edition is 150 copies, in two color variations." [label info]
www.omnimemento.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| RV PAINTINGS |
Samoa Highway |
LP |
"RV Paintings were born in California. Humboldt County, to be exact. It is nearly impossible to imagine their origins being elsewhere since the brothers Brian and Jon Pyle, who currently pilot RV Paintings, constantly mine the metaphysical properties of their homeland through a heavy-lidded psychedelia. The redwood trees that majestically rise from the rugged terrain may have been one of the endemic objects that inspired RV Paintings to "jam nature;" but Humboldt County's other major cash crop -- marijuana -- cannot be far behind. As much as the Pyle brothers channel a psychotropic animism through sound, their diaphanous drones and foggy ambient tangles spring from a schematic intelligence that belies any method acting of getting stoned and jamming in a room.
Samoa Highway is the second full album for RV Paintings, following the nature jam transmissions of Trinity Rivers published by Root Strata in 2007 and a well-suited split LP with Taiga Remains from Blackest Rainbow. Just as the debut payed homage to the rugged river system that cuts through forests and mountains of the region, Samoa Highway refers to the lengthy bridge that runs between two coastal communities in Humboldt County, one of which houses a municipal airport. A swarm of drone guitars announces the opening of the record on "Millions," with a shoegaze wash collapsing into rarified tone purity and bulging through a metallic buzz. Field recordings of airplane take-off and firework explosions punctuate the undulating bleary smear of the Pyle brothers' guitars. The result is one of levitation, even as RV Paintings seem to be plugging their guitars and electronics directly into the moss, soil, and mycelia of the Humboldt forest. Echo-soaked flutes, maudlin strings, scabrous noises unearthed from the bottom of the Pacific, and a cinematic arcs of guitar shimmer complete the beautiful and haunted miasma of Samoa Highway that falls somewhere between Taj Mahal Travellers, Organum, and The Caretaker.
Brian Pyle may be best known as one of the founders of the Starving Weirdos and records his solo work as Ensemble Economique. Samoa Highway stands the first piece of vinyl published by Helen Scarsdale Agency and includes a code for a digital download. Pressed in an edition of 500 copies." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Two brothers, Brian and Jon Pyle are behind RV Paintings and hail from Hunbold County, California, home of redwood trees and marijuana. Bryan Pyle is also a member of Starving Weirdos and solo known as Ensemble Economique. The brothers jam about about to start with and then edit these out into fixed compositions. They use guitars and effects, I believe, and if I am to believe the press text, also flutes and strings. The recording quality doesn't seem to be something that they care about that much, or perhaps its just the pressing that is not that great? It moves into slight distortion which doesn't justify the music. Unlike many of the previous releases by The Helen Scarsdale Agency, this is drone music of a somewhat different branding. More improvised, more loosely played also, these drone based textures are a bit crude and bending the idea of static drone music, with its metallic scraping and reverb effects in the background. A bit like a toned down 'In Extremis' by Organum, with the addition of field recordings, buzzing effects and other obscured sonic debris. A bit more raw than is usual, and that surely marks a fine difference. Because its not top perfect, all the more nice." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Two brothers from Humboldt County are RV Paintings - one is Brian Pyle, whose name should probably strike a chord as one of the principals in Starving Weirdos and recently has been generating some impressive work under his solo Ensemble Economique moniker; the other is Jon Pyle, who occasionally makes a guest appearance in the Weirdos but also operates in Nudge with Honey Owens, Paul Dickow, and Brian Foote. For all of the method acting from the brothers Pyle in getting stoned and jamming, they have been remarkably consistent and consistently good in all of their ruminations, with RV Paintings probably the best that they've mustered. The RV Paintings debut on Root Strata is three years out but is still a timeless, gorgeous dronesmear of bowed metals and elongated guitar; this was followed by a well-suited split with Taiga Remains on Blackest Rainbow, and now, they've got this stunner on Helen Scarsdale.
RV Paintings speak about, to, and from their own immediate surroundings: the moss, mushrooms, and mycelium of the awe-inspiring redwood forests, the heavy fog that hangs at the coast and from their bongs, and the weightiness of the Pacific Ocean just off to the west. The title Samoa Highway gives the impression that the two brothers were on their own trip during a cold, wintery day, gazing off to the southwest and pondering the warmer climate of American Samoa. But no, the Samoa Highway is located in Humboldt County, connecting Eureka with the small community of Samoa on the other side of the bay which was thought to resemble that of Pago Pago in the mid-19th Century. It's also the bridge that would get you to the Arcata/Eureka Airport.
So, the album begins with field recordings of airplanes lifting off on the jawdropping track "Millions," as sitar-like harmonics and ghostly, levitating drones emanate from the distance. It's a perfectly narcotized smear of echo and drift, hanging in space as the remnants of a particularly lucid dream or the foggy headspace from an afternoon of smoking pot and staring at the sun. This is a track that could spiral onward forever. So nice! Samoa Highway continues with "Mirrors" driven by melancholy looped melody from a cello that dissolves into a flurry of shimmered guitar fuzz, whose shoegazed mantra has been submerged under centuries of felled trees and lichens. Cyclical patterns of samples from dark yet pastoral orchestral passages rounds out the album. If it weren't for the delicate freeform clamor of the drumkit, tracks such as this wouldn't be that far removed from the 'pop ambient' cuts by Gas. Citations of Taj Mahal Travellers, Organum, Grouper, Barn Owl, and The Caretaker certainly hit the mark. Music for airports? More like Music for California airports! Fuck yeah!
And a download coupon is tucked within the sleeve as well!" [Aquarius Records] |
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| RYBICKI, MAREK |
Opowiadania |
do-CDR |
Finally a new release on one of Polands best labels for new atmospheric music! MAREK RYBICKI (member of UCHO & ARCHE) creates electro-acoustic ambience with a suction-effect.... More silent / ambient parts in good balance with more energetic & demanding ones.....
“The first solo work of member Ucho & Arche . Environmentals, deep ambient, enigmatic electro-stories. The music is like symbiosis: a computer with a nature. Special A5 cover, 222 numbered copies, the first double album from Nefryt!!!” [label info]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| S.E.T.I. |
The Geometry of Night |
do-CD |
"First released in 1996, `The Geometry of Night´ is the second album of Andrew Lagowski´s deep space sound project which marked a reference point to his works under the name LAGOWSKI. A classic album with laid back percussion, finely-tuned electronics, dark atmospheric synth waves and soundscapes. All constructed around a central premise; ‘The Geometry of Night’ perfectly describes the themes of night sky surveys, surveillance operations and radio telescope disinformation with the advice to keep a wary eye on the dark side of human nature. This is a remedy for the lonely nights staring at your social interface, the melancholy for lost opportunities and a hope for what lies beyond the nearest nebula.
This newly re-mastered edition includes the sister album `Companion´ with more than 60 minutes of new material. The concept involves companions, bound together by molecular chains, enveloped in dark matter and history. Swirling endlessly within infinite illuminating spirals. Their BrEAUTalitY – answerable only to the laws of universal physics and spiritual cosmology. A stunning soundtrack of deep hypnotic drones, textured layers of noise and space transmissions. Moving extra terrestrial sound research to its deepest core!
This double CD set comes in a nice 6-panel digifile. Mastered at Secretlab." [label info]
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Final Trajectory |
CD |
"The new album of Andrew Lagowski’s S.E.T.I. begins as a colossal sound wall, like a massive electrical transformer, out of which analogue and digital synthesizer sounds and samples emerge, condense, and crossfade into a deep ambient symphony. The recordings and textures produced over 30 years from 1983-2013 converge in ‚Final Trajectory‘ to produce a collection of monolithic sounds. Invoking a sense of immensity with warm and dark atmospheric loops sounding distant and abandoned in a vast wilderness, battling against galactic winds. S.E.T.I. sets the listener down in this wilderness as an isolated observer; a witness to long intertwining drones, shattered dialogue and broken transmissions, with superior effects chains and a gentle rising dramaturgy forcing the complete album to an astonishing pure data vortex.
As the Voyager spacecraft reaches the outer edge of our Solar System it is a fitting time to imagine the exodus from Earth of the last human being on their final trajectory towards an unknown future. There has been little effort made to prepare psychologically for this one way trip and hallucinatory voices and sounds flit around the traveller, mingling with those of the craft’s entertainment, propulsion and life support systems. Life memories, encounters and events break through the cracks of rational thought like dream fragments, in bursts of barely unrecognisable data. As the craft passes through the mid point of our planetary system on its way out, the occupant thinks they hear a message being transmitted from Earth on the permanently scanning radio receiver.….
Will this be real in our lifetimes? Is the craft being built already in the knowledge that we have little time left on this planet?
If so, where to next?
Released in 6-panel digifile." [label info]
wp.loki-found.de |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Sphere of Density |
do-CD |
S.E.T.I. is one of the most important representatives of the dark ambient genre of recent years. Another incarnation of Andrew Lagowski and his most active project, with releases on labels such as Loki-Found (Power & Steel), Touch, Incoming!, VIVO, Ash International and Syntactic (Klanggalerie). 'The Sphere of Density' is his latest album, which consists of two CDs, of which the first contains completely new studio material, and the second is a record of an improvised concert that was very well received at the Wroclaw Industrial Festival.
Both CDs depict various styles of the S.E.T.I. project. Although they were created around the same period of time, they are completely different in terms of sound character or construction of the tracks.
The Sphere of Density is inspired by the vision of Alexander Petrovitch Kazantsev - a russian science fiction writer.
"A whole cosmic laboratory of precision instruments has passed near the Moon and communicated via radio a priceless information about the nature of interplanetary space. Received information expanded cosmic conception of men with daring brains, passionate hearts, trained muscles and sensitive nerves. These men will fly in one of the lunar ships in order to see from lunar observatory, without the barrier of atmosphere, constructions rised by the inhabitants of other planets, to discover other stars, to solve the secret of secrets – the cause of the emergence of stars, of transformation of energy into matter..."
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-sphere-of-density
|
2020 |
€17.00 |
|
| SAAADON |
мреть (наутро ночь) [Die (in the morning night)] |
CD |
In 2018, the longtime partnership between the St-Petersburg based duo Sádon (familiar to us from their collaboration with Treha Sektori) & France's Romain Barbot alias Saåad (who has curated & managed the BLWBCK label and released Sádon's early material) finally turned into a musical collaboration as Saáadon. Entitled мреть (наутро ночь) (which can be translated as « Die (in the morning night ») is centered around the melancholic and introspective poetry of Donat Mavleev, evoking a secular dream, the end of time, its horizon and beyond. The trio's music moves across drone & ambient soundscapes, giving birth to a disturbing strangeness with radiant hues, simultaneously intense and peaceful. A poignant emotional journey the likes only such a joining forces can conjure.
CD edition of 300 copies in 6 panels Digisleeve, Matt Lamination. 5 Tracks. Running Time 37:02
LP Edition of 200 copies on black vinyl with printed inner sleeve, Matt Lamination. 5 Tracks. Running Time 37:02
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/- |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| SAARIAHO, KAIJA |
New Gates |
CD |
Vier Stücke der finnischen Komponistin, uns bekannt von der fantastischen INA GRM–economique maxiCD „Six Japanese Gardens“ ! Spannungsgeladene, eindringliche, transzendierend-unheimliche Neue Musik-Kompositionen für Streicher, Gesang, Flöten, Harfe, mit ausführlichen Liner Notes auf Englisch, Deutsch und Französisch.
“Kaija Saariaho is the most successful of contemporary Finnish composers. She has won a number of international composition prizes, among them the Prix Italia in 1988. Her compositions have been recorded by, among others, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dawn Upshaw and the Kronos Quartet. She studied in Freiburg, and finally settled in Paris, at IRCAM, the centre for computer music. Saariaho continues to live in Paris.
"In Cendres, musical tension is created by sometimes bringing the instruments as close together as possible in all compositional aspects (such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, color), sometimes letting each of them express the music in their own most idiomatic way. In between these extremes one can find an unlimited number of possibilities to create more or less homogenic musical situations. The awareness of this variety was the rope on which I was balancing when working on the piece." (K.S.)
"Grammar of Dreams was born from my curiosity of the relation of human voice to instruments, a subject which I had put aside for many years. As the title of the piece proposes, another source of interest here was the structural life of dreams." The major part of the text is a collage from the texts of Paul Eluard.
"Solar was written for Champ d'Action. Solar is based on the idea of a permanent harmonic structure, which spreads its own image all around and continually brings the harmony back to its original form, as if obeying the laws of gravity. This idea gave the work its title."
New Gates is based on a ballet with no story line: the general theme is passing from one state to another, opening doors, gates, falling, crossing the water, etc.- themes often found in mythologies. As the title suggests, the music moves towards gates, opens them showing us new landscapes, and continues then again towards new gates.
The above quotes are taken from the liner notes, written by the composer.
The Belgian ensemble Champ d'Action takes its name from Umberto Eco's influential book Opera Aperta, which refers to new ways in which to understand the relationships between science and the arts. After more than a decade of intense activity, the ensemble still owes its relevance in the musical world to this meaningful term. Champ d'Action realizes high quality performances and recordings of such music by working directly with the composer. Conductors are carefully selected on the grounds of their working relationship with the composer. This is the first of a series of CDs for Mode, which will also include portrait-CDs of Luc Ferrari and Iannis Xenakis, among others.” [label info]
|
2001 |
€15.00 |
|
| SABLE MOUVANT |
Bridge that leads nowhere |
CD |
Mysterious sounds & atmospheres from this Lithuanian project, repetitive metallic overtune-structures, impressionistic oracle-sounds as coming from a different dimension...
"SABLE MOUVANT is a music project coming from Lithuanian artist GyS. The project may be classified as hypnotic drone ambient. The first album titled Bridge That Leads Nowhere perfectly conveys gloomy, melancholic world where the prevailing trends include reduction, extinction and impalpability. Compositions of Bridge That Leads Nowhere are very slow and solid, their monotonic vibes are the source of a weird hypnotic feeling. Here we have live and pulsatile drone ambient where the track names precisely represent their mood best described as solitude and isolation. SABLE MOUVANT music offers a full dose of Gnostic unknowability, cryptic atmosphere. It is best suited for listening in derelict wastelands, while meditating invisible, elemental and indeed pervading supernatural reality that uncompromisingly regulates the evolution of all worlds known and unknown. The album will please anyone who’s not indifferent to the music of Jarl, Moljebka Pvlse, NWW, Kammarheit." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| SACK & BLUMM |
Sylvester Orchester |
7 |
"After last year's highly acclaimed "Die fünfte Dengelophonie" 7" Sack and Blumm present their new single on Staubgold featuring two charming grooves for small instruments. Later this year the duo will release two cds on Cologne labels Gefriem (Don't Dolby, Jan Werner/F.X. Randomiz) and Tom (Visor, Novisad, Summer DSP). Harald "Sack" Ziegler can also be heard as guest musician on Mouse On Mars' new cd." [label info]
label: www.staubgold.com |
1999 |
€5.00 |
|
| SAD KARMA |
Solis |
maxi-CDR |
Ziemlich beeindruckende CDR auf ONYXIA von einem (neuen?) Projekt namens SAD KARMA, die vier sehr elegisch-dunkle Stücke komponiert haben, irgendwo zwischen reinen atmosphärischen Klängen und richtigen „Songs“.... etwas elegisch, weirde Gitarren & Analog-Synths, Pianoeinsatz...
“SadKarma is the phenomenon of the experience of pleasure, through the perception of balance and proportion of stimulus. It involves the cognition of a balanced form and structure that elicits attraction and appeal towards a person or an inanimate object. SadKarma is the bedlam of organic ambience with decoration & fluctuation in its purest form. The frames of the music bear fragments from certain eras of artists like Swans and Coil but the painting itself has drifting textures far more beautiful. Professionally executed CDR release with full colour sleeve & label. Warmly recommended! Ltd. 200 copies.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€7.50 |
|
| SADOGIPNOZ |
Meditation Programme |
CD-R |
Looped piano tunes endlessly repeated from this russian project, comes in handwritten / handmade green cardboard sleeves....unlimited edition.
“Random piano sample repeated 70 minutes, leads to changed mental condition.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| SAFFRON WOOD |
Platonica Filosofia della Temperanza |
CD |
Erste Solo-CD dieses Projekts, bisher bekannt von zwei Kollaborationen mit ALIO DIE. SAFFRON WOOD evoziert eine ethno-folkloristische Atmosphäre, viele Originalinstrumente wie Bambusflöte, tibetanisches Horn, ägyptisches Rabab, etc.. werden eingesetzt, dabei oft geloopt & und in repetitive delay-Kaskaden verwandelt... sehr konkret und doch zart, schwebend und melancholisch schön, kommen die Kompositionen fast ohne Reverb aus. Das Ganze hat was natural-magisches... ein Album das mit jedem Hören wächst..... TIP !
"First and new solo CD by Lorenzo Scopelliti, alias Saffron Wood. An important page full of unconscious characters and sonorous pigments bring in a evocative context where different acoustic instruments from the Mediterranean the Japanese, the Indian traditions, and not only.. are translate in the sound of the "Platonica Filosofia" creating a possible prophecy between soul, earth into a nocturnal and peaceful path." [label description]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| SAINT PETERS CROSS / KRABATH / JOAN MIRO |
The Wrath / Arum Rapasopis / Artist |
CD-R |
"6th release of Metarealist Records presents 3 projects from Ukraine. The split is opened by Saint Peters Cross - orthodox death-industrial / ambient project of label owner - K. Saint Peters Cross continues the path of Mental Destruction who started in early 90s, but makes it in his own way, only taking the overall ideological attack vector from the Swedes. Next comes Krabath - with renewed sound and ideas. Now the connection with the same-named Czech animation film is lost, and Krabath tries to develop the idea of descructive discrepancy between educational programmes of modern society and natural impulse of childhood. Musically all compositions are woven from the sounds of various toys and voices of children of various age. Fans of dark experimental ambient should definitely appreciate "Arum Rapasopis". And the closing act is Joan Miro - noisy power electronics, insane brainchild of Pt74 also standing behind Krabath. "Artist" has already been released as a split with Moscow based project Fungoreia. Blind fury, insane atrocity with industrial sounds of a broken meat grinder - all this will bring pleasure to the lovers of formalistic art." [label info] |
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| SAKELLARIOU, YIORGIS |
Klaipeda |
CD |
"Klaipėda is located in the west of Lithuania, right on the shores of the Baltic Sea. I lived there from September 2011 until July 2012 and during those months I was regularly recording in the city and the surrounding rural areas. I got very fond of these locations and all the sounds I recorded are very significant and dear in my memory. Throughout the changes of the seasons, varying between human-made and industrial to “natural” sounds caused by birds, water, wind or plants, the acoustic environment never ceased to inspire me.
Klaipėda offered an amazing diversity of sonic material, from echoing train whistles, factory machines’ drones and hammering sounds, to the far hiss sound of the sea, the thumps of thunders and the rustling of the leaves on the trees. The album, however, is not a documentation of Klaipėda’s soundscape nor does it intend to realistically reconstruct my acoustic experiences. As a two part composition, it aims to engage the listener with a profound sonic world in which each one can connect with its own memories and create new subconscious thoughts.
(Yiorgis Sakellariou, December 2013)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"More and more Yiorgis Sakellariou works under his own name and no longer as Mecha/orga: a development we see with more serious composers coming from the 'industrial' music end (a term to be regarded in the broadest sense possible). Sakellariou is from Greece, but lived in Klaipeda (Lithuania) for some time, a few years ago, and now is residing in London. Between September 2011 and July 2012 he recorded sounds in and around Klaipeda and these are used in the two pieces that are on this CD. I have not been to Klaipeda, but to Lithuania and some of that cold, rural, wood country is something that is easily seen in these pieces, along with the harbor/sea side of the city. Sakellariou taped some motorized events (ships no doubt, but maybe also chainsaws in the forest?) so that he can add a fine drone-like layer to the music, especially in the second piece/part. One of the fine powers of Sakellariou's music is that one never knows what he does, exactly, to his sound material. Is it just a collage of sound? Does he layer all his sounds in some way? Is there any sort of treatment that he applies to this? It's not for me to say what he does: I really don't know (never asked him, I guess). I do know it results in some excellent music that is entirely based on field recordings; imaginative music that opens up a fine sound world and shows us the somewhat desolate world of Lithuanian woods and seaside. Maybe a bit cold, but perhaps that's just an illusion." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Auka |
mCD-R |
“for music is certainly the ultimate mystery of faith, the mystique, the completely revealed religion” (ludwig tieck)
the title is inspired by the painting "auka" by m. k. Čiurlionis.
many thanks to gailė griciūtė, dominykas digimas, daniel crokaert and jean-marc boucher.
“auka” was composed in august 2019 during a residency at DAR (Druskininkai Artists‘ Residence), organized and supported by the lithuanian composers’ union.
environmental sounds recorded in vilnius, kaunas, elektrėnai and druskininkai, lithuania from november 2018 till august 2019.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/auka-alm-137
"While the label says they explore the various ways of ambient music they proof here with the release by Yiorgis Sakellariou they don't mind going an extra mile; or two. Sakellariou is a composer of music created with the use of field recordings. You might know this from my previous reviews of his work. On 'Auka' (inspired by a painting by m. k. Ciurlionis, and Auka meaning 'sacrifice') he uses field recordings from Vilnius, Kaunas, Elektrėnai and Druskininkai, all cities in Lithuania. Using field recordings, I would think, is nothing unusual in the world of Taalem, but Sakellariou uses his field recordings as they are, and does not apply any sort of manipulation to it (save, perhaps, for some equalization). He uses these sounds as they are and it is in the combination of these sounds to create the composition. A lot of the time one has no idea what these sounds are; crackling of leaves, branches, static electricity, metal staircases; that is the sort thing believe to hear. Another very un-Taalem thing is that Sakellariou uses a lot of dynamics in his music, and this piece is not different. There are two distinct loud passages in this piece but also some very quiet, near-silent passages. This is not your standard ambient music, but rather a musique concrète work and Sakellariou is a refined composer in that field. Perhaps, this work will be something of a shock for some people but I love it. It is a powerful work full of the near-by and far away sounds, unusual spaces to record them in and an intense listening experience." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€5.50 |
|
| |
Silentium |
CD |
Silentium is an electroacoustic piece based on sounds of bells and church organs that where recorded during a residency at gallery Školská 28 in Prague, in December 2015.
The title was inspired by the “Silentium” signs that were regularly displayed in the churches where these recordings were made. Entering the temple requires the visitor to be quiet, to keep the noise down. This thoughtful silence is an intense and active condition essential for profound listening. It creates a liminal state between the natural and the supernatural world.
In this work, the properties of the churches’ sonic atmospheres subtly emerge; echoes of quiet interiors created by the whispers reverberating, the crackling of wooden chairs, a door closing, the water dripping down the pipelines. It should be noted that the title is not a hint at the piece being quiet. Some passages are indeed really silent, reaching the realms of the barely audible; other parts are rather loud.
Yiorgis Sakellariou is a composer of experimental and electroacoustic music. Since 2003, he has been active internationally being responsible for solo and collaboration albums, having composed music for short films and theatrical performances, leading workshops and ceaselessly performing his music around the globe.
He is a member of the Athenian Contemporary Music Research Centre and the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association. Since 2004 he has curated the label Echomusic.
https://www.pogus.com/21088.html
This release packaging comes folded into quarters, ending up as a 5 ½” x 5 ½” brochure style booklet (liner notes inside), with the CD in a paper sleeve, all inserted into re-sealable plastic sleeves.
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| SAL SOLARIS |
Die Scherben 2004-2010 |
CD |
"kultFRONT and ZHELEZOBETON labels are glad to announce the new CD by one of the most outstanding Russian post-industrial projects - Sal Solaris. This release follows the logic of the "Der Ruf" compilation CD (2006, Der Angriff) and collects the tracks recorded at different times on various occasions. Among other tracks the disc contains compositions from the compilations "The Black Square" (2006, kultFRONT), "Iznutri" (2007, Ewers Tonkunst), "Rush for Black Celebration" (2008, kultFRONT), "Heliophagia III" (2009, Heliophagia), "Art of Caring the Dead" (2009, Dodozavr), "Heliolatria" (2010, Heliophagia), also tracks from the split 10" record with Stahlwerk 9 (2004, Der Angriff) and several previously unreleased compositions.
When describing the sound of Sal Solaris reviewers often mention the neologism "power ambient" and we can't but agree with this term. The music of this duet coming from Rostov-on-Don and Moscow combines the elements of dark, often space ambient, post-industrial and power electronics, a collage approach and a dense saturated atmosphere, not relaxing but rather stimulating the listener. A collection of works created during various years allows to trace the live dynamics of the project - from the austere ideological persistence of the "early National-Bolshevist period" to the more sculpturesque and psychedelic compositions, including some naive but remarkable exercises.
The works feature contributions from many band friends, including Russian cosmist writer Ivan Polikarov, lead artist of "Crazy Pierrot Cabaret" Sergey Vasilyev, piano player & composer Anna Antropova, decadent cynic and erudite DJ Deutschmark, master of noises Nikolay Lepesa, trombone player Seung-hui Cho and even Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskiy.
The artwork is done by the famous visual artist and media philosopher Oleg 'cmart' Paschenko (http://holesk.in | http://www.conclave.ru).
With this CD kultFRONT & Zhelezobeton labels open the series named "Die Zeichen" aiming to publish the archival works of Russian post-industrial projects." [label info]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| SALA |
En-trance |
CD |
Zweites Album dieses Projekts auf AUTARKEIA, dem litauischen Label. Wilder und perkussiver als „Shcut ente..“, werden hier schamanistische Tänze & Ekstasen aufgeführt, alles handgespielt und ungeordnet, Blasinstrumente, beschwörende Vocals & Geschrei.... im gleichen Geiste wie Z’EV, 23SKIDOO, alte PSYCHIC TV, aber auch VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA oder wilde MAEROR TRI oder rituelle HYBRYDS kommen einem in den Sinn... und wieder duftet die CD nach MANDELN.
“En-trance” was recorded, but still wasn’t released by the magic-practising artists almost a decade ago. This album compiles two lasting live-recorded tracks. Ritual pulsing, archaic sound of wind instruments, deep-dark “ambient” and surrealistic, unexpected music bends immersing the audience to the swirl of phantasmagoric moods. There are some movies classified as of the “noir” stylistics, the main feature of which is highly forcible and strong atmosphere. If the records also have the classification of the “noir”, “En-trance” could be considered one of the most emphatic works of this style. Emotions generated by the “En-trance” music could be compared with the psychedelic atmosphere of the first albums of NWW, Hybryds. Interesting record and mystic ritual having sustained the challenge of social disregard during the years.
Album's tracks listing:
1. neophile gets ex-sited
2. and now s-he starts laughing
Album lasts for 40 min. 36 sec. It’s packed in a nontypical black plastic DVD case. Limited edition 500 copies. CD is covered with special lackuer which smells like an almond.“ [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Shcut enteRing worts |
CD |
Wer auf beschwörenden Okkult-Ambient-Industrial steht, ist bei SALA genau richtig. Geisterhaft tönende Loops & verfremdete Stimmenfetzen, Glöckchen- oder Triangelsounds, alles in sehr hypnotischer Bewegung irgendwo im Hallraum tauchen seltsame Geräusche auf (Akustikgitarren).... gewidmet Jhonn Balance!
“Shcut enteRing worts” consists of two forceful tracks of “ritual ambient” style. They are not distinguished in the compact disk as the ritual couldn’t and shouldn’t be accelerated or perceived in separated pieces. Starting from hypnotic “mantra”, music gradually unravels to the strong and mystical “ambient”, the main feature of which being reiteration transmitted by the sound loops. These are organically supplemented by the tabors, bells, magic spells and mysterious sounds floating from the distance and generating only the strong mystic mood of the audience. Actually, concerning the impact, this music is in line with the works of world’s famous artists acting in this field – Coil, NWW, Omenya, Hybryds, Deutsch Nepal. The “Schut enteRing worts” album was recorded by the participants of SALA project when experimenting with Brion Gysin’s dream machine, which formerly inspired the well-known William S.Burroughs and had a strong psychedelic effect.
Album's tracks listing:
1. His: Entering The Dream
2. The Last Words Of Hassan Sabbah
Album lasts for 36 min. 26 sec. It’s packed in a nontypical black plastic DVD case. We recommend you to listen to “Schut enteRing worts” only on Hi-fi stereo. Limited edition 500 copies. CD is covered with special lackuer which smells like an almond.” [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| SALAKAPAKKA SOUND SYSTEM |
Barbed Wire Boogie |
MC |
New self-released tape "Barbed Wire Boogie" is out! 40 minute pro-duplicated (by BSM-studio) cassette of tracks made 2013-2015. This was originally intended to be released as a split cdr release with/by another artist but after about a year of waiting I grew tired of that laissez-faire attitude and decided to put it out myself with a few added tracks. Once again DIY proved to be THE most satisfying way, even though it means limited quantities (it's limited to only 50 copies) and much more limited exposure... you know, I'm not a 'networking' type of person.
Track list:
A1 Fetus
A2 Afraid of sunlight
A3 Man builds a house (pre-mix)
A4 Terror da mort
A5 In praise of Jean Tinguely
B1 Iceland
B2 If the world should end in fire and ice
B3 No input (radio friendly edit)
B4 Don't call me friend, we barely know each other
A1 is a disturbing song about a pregnancy gone wrong. A2 is something you could call apocalyptic ambient (bit like Homeinen kuu on "Accident Worhip" CDr and The end of the world on the following tape, where is also a cleaner final version of A3 here (hence the pre-mix on a title). A4 is based on a sample of the great Coffin Joe. A5 is inspired by the exhibition of Jean Tinguely's works which I found quite inspiring. Here I use mostly the sounds which I recorded at the exhibition. B1 is based on a sung poem which I found accidentally somewhere. I have no idea what does it tell about but I found it quite fascinating. Just one of the examples where vocals is just another instrument, words lose meaning when you understand absolutely nothing of the language. I appreciate if there's someone who understands Icelandic and could tell me something about the poem. B2 is a sort-of-remix of a certain popular song. B3 is only using a feedback as a sound source. Original track is much more longer but in hope for a decent amount of radio play I decided to include here an edited friendly version, heh. B4 is something I made while I was kind of frustrated and annoyed about people using the word 'friend' in a very loose fashion. You know, Facebook 'friends' etc. - "Hey boss, I am your friend. A special price only for you." Yeah... fuck off... 'friend'!" [label info]
ikuinen-kaamos.blogspot.com
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
|
Atonality Appreciation Society |
MC |
"... This time I bring you a self-released very limited edition (25 copies) pro-duplicated (by Fairview Duplication) C30 tape "Atonality Appreciation Society". I think of it as sister release of "Barbed Wire Boogie" filled with noise, harsh drone & dark-n-dirty ambient. I am really pleased with both tapes. They faithfully capture the sound and style where Salakapakka Sound System has been going in a last three years.
Track list:
A1 Mellow trash bazooka (tribute to Gerogerigegege)
A2 Hornan tuutti
A3 Sacred tooth
B1 Man builds a house
B2 The end of the world
A1 uses Gerogerigegege's "Yellow Trash Bazooka" as a source material. A2 was done in probably a one sit-through session. A3 uses the sounds I recorded in the temple of sacred tooth in Sri Lanka. B1 is a finalized mix of a track featured in "Barbed...". The version here is a bit more polished, if you can call it that way. B2 is the oldest track in this tape. Sound material on it is mostly processed field recordings and a reverberated blowing in a metal tube." [label info]
ikuinen-kaamos.blogspot.com
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Accident Worship |
CD-R |
"The usual elements are there: noisy soundscapes, gloomy ambient, field recordings from Thailand and UAE, samples (this time from some unknown tv shows, mysterious Arabian dance music tape, pounding drum loops from The Shrieks etc.), malformed human sounds...." [label info]
ikuinen-kaamos.blogspot.com
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| SALOMAN, GABRIEL |
Adhere |
LP |
"When legendary noise duo Yellow Swans dissolved just prior to releasing Going Places, it left in its wake two musicians with very distinct but very different voices. Pete Swanson's post-YS technoid experimentations have been well documented, but that still leaves Gabriel Saloman, who, after leaving the group, buried himself headfirst in sounds and images that were possibly even further away from his comfort zone. Adhere is Saloman's first "proper" solo album, and it finds him stripping away the blood, sweat and tears of his old band, revealing a rich seam of ominous restraint. Delicately-picked strings, piano and hocking woodblock percussion are drowned in reverb and drawn out in cold anguish giving a cracked, minimalist mirror to the work of fellow Miasmah alums Kreng or Elegi. A softly-spoken record, while Adhere pushes away Saloman's noise history, none of his well-documented intensity is discarded and lost. Instead, the blistering punk nihilism is allowed to simmer and boil over in different ways, and the occasional moments of post-Cocteau Twins shimmering bliss we could just about make out on Going Places are now given a chance to shine in all their glory. Adhere is a surprising, challenging and perfectly-paced album, and fits into its very own niche, ushering in a new generation of listeners to Saloman's distorted, hazy vision. Includes mp3 download." [label info]
www.miasmah.com
"After the breakup of the much-loved floor-core noise duo, Yellow Swans, Pete Swanson has carved quite a solo career for himself, but we haven't heard as much from fellow YS member Gabriel Saloman. As it turns out, Saloman has been rather busy himself over the past few years in Vancouver working on various solo projects of his own under the monikers of GMS and Sade Sade and with collaborative projects Diadem and Chambers. Most of his projects have taken on a conceptual form of social resistance like his Music for Prisons project, which employed field recordings of protests for imprisoned Tamil refugees with original music to be broadcast at extreme volume outside of prison walls as a form of political protest against authoritarian-imposed incarceration.
But Adhere, his vinyl debut for the Miasmah label, is the first time we're getting a full sense of the range of Saloman's sonic vision, and it is uniquely compelling and powerful. Composed in collaboration with a contemporary dance group, Adhere reads as a modern classical composition in seven parts with intense builds and pregnant silences, centered around reverberated piano, bowed strings, ambient guitar, percussive woodblocks and martial drumming into a captivating and beautiful soundscape. Sometimes the intensity is restrained by minimal piano stabs in a big empty room, in the third part, we hear some gorgeous Robin Guthrie-ish guitar washes, still later some dramatic yet solemn percussion. The entire composition toggling back and forth between quietly pensive dynamics and voluminous crescendos that give a sonic drama to an obviously visual accompaniment. Perfect for the Miasmah label which has always had a strong focus on marrying works of experimental classical forms with dark penetrating ambience." [Aquarius Records]
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Movement Building Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Over the past few years Gabriel Saloman has developed a reputation for releasing penetrating works of haunting beauty in his new role as a solo performer and composer. Known for his part in the seminal electronic-noise duo Yellow Swans (alongside Pete Swanson), Saloman has taken the sweeping drones and fried electricity of his former band and embedded them within an expanding pallette of bowed strings, martial percussion and resonant piano. The majority of his work to date has been developed as music for contemporary dance, exemplified by two recent solo albums with Miasmah, 2012's melancholic Adhere and last years celebrated ode to mud and decay Soldier's Requiem. As he continues to prolifically produce music for dance, Saloman has developed a new series with Shelter Press to make these works available: Movement Building.
The first of two volumes to be released individually on vinyl and together on CD, The Disciplined Body is a 34 minute work that moves through ghostly minimalist drones, poly-vocal drumming and culminates in an aching climb through sheets of shimmering guitar chords before erupting in a violent spurt of harsh noise. While at its climax it may be evocative of transcendental string manglers ranging from My Bloody Valentine to Godspeed You Black Emperor, in its more subtle moments it wades through the kind of blackened water that suggests the outer boundaries of ambient metal, or the ghostly remnants of a cassette dub of beatless electronics. Composed for Daisy Karen Thompson's 'Re-Marks on Source Material', the music shares that dance's Foucault influenced questioning of the limits imposed on our bodies by technology and labor, reaching for an ecstatic escape from discipline and control. Listeners may want to reach for the same - to do so we suggest they play this recording very very loud.
Mastered and cut by Elmut Herler at D+M (Berlin) and pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies worldwide." [label info]
www.shelter-press.com
|
2014 |
€17.00 |
|
| SALTLAND |
I thought it was us but it was all of us |
LP |
"Saltland is the new project led by Montreal-based cellist Rebecca Foon, best known as a founding member of contemporary chamber group Esmerine and a former member of Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire To Flames. Foon began composing solo work in 2010, featuring multi-layered cello and hushed vocals at the intersection of drone, no-wave, improv, dream-pop and minimalism. Joined by Jamie Thompson (Unicorns, Esmerine) on miniature percussion, programming and signal processing, Foon's live performances in Montreal and abroad over the past two years have seen her sound progress towards gently rhythmic and electronic territory as well. She has transfixed audiences with this new music while sharing the stage with Mary Margaret O'Hara, Julia Kent, Nat Baldwin and Sam Amidon, among others. As her largely home-recorded debut album began taking shape throughout 2011, with numerous guests contributing to various pieces, Foon adopted the Saltland moniker for this work.
I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us is a beautifully restrained debut album that telescopes the directness and economy of Foon's compositional and vocal styles into lush, twilight atmospheres aglow with luminescent tendrils and flickering particles. Foon sings of childhood innocence lost, of tender utopic reveries and downcast dystopic horizons, and the search for soft, stoic strength in a darkening, devolving world. Foon’s voice is discreet but defined, drifting on buoyant currents of sound sourced from her plucked and bowed cello lines, in most cases propelled by Thompson's bespoke percussion and understated programming/processing, with touches of guitar, bass, horns, woodwinds, strings and backing vocals added by a cast of supporting players. The record unfurls like a gauzy flag in a restless breeze at dusk: a delicate, resolute sentinel set against the fading light.
The album's ambience also owes much to the work of Mark Lawson, the award-winning engineer (Arcade Fire) who collaborated closely with Foon to record and mix these songs at Six Saint V, her apartment studio in Montreal. Lawson, along with friend and percussionist Thompson, helped to forge a balance between lo-fi intimacy and shimmering breadth with these recordings, remaining faithful to the all-anologue instrumentation of the source material while judiciously deploying signal processing strategies to subtly refract, saturate and expand the sonic landscape. With contributions from Laurel Sprengelmeyer and Jess Robertson (Little Scream), Mishka Stein (Patrick Watson), Colin Stetson (Bon Iver), Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) among others, Saltland offers up an unassumingly immersive debut album of searching songs that blend several core influences into a distinctively naturalistic sound. Saltland stakes out an unaffected, meditative, clear-eyed and earnest space where minimalism, dream-pop, drone, shoegaze, confessional folk, chamber music, and ambient/electronic coexist and coalesce.
Release date: 14 May 2013
Running time: 38:32
Packaging notes
CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on 100% recycled paperboard in 4-colour process. LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a heavyweight gatefold jacket printed in full-colour process." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| SAMARTZIS, PHILIP |
Mort aux vaches |
CD |
Highly abstract digital processing music with a wide range of moods, sounds & spheres, nearly undescribable. Concentrating listening necessary. Comes in luxury cardboard-paper-covers with embossing, lim. 1000.
“ Philip Samartzis is a Melbourne based composer with a long history in experimental sound production and performance. He formed Gum in 1986 with Andrew Curtis releasing several albums and singles independently and through Korm Plastics (NL) and RRR Records (USA). Since 1995 he has primarily worked solo, releasing Residue (1998) & Windmills Bordered By Nothingness (1999) through Dorobo (Aust), both of which highlight his explorations in recording and processing acoustic and spatial environments through digital technologies. More recently Samartzis has extended his studio based techniques to incorporate live performance working both solo and in collaboration. Over the last two years he has performed with Kozo Inada, Gunter Muller, KK Null, Sachiko M, Voice Crack & Seiichi Yamamoto. An upcoming release in the Mort Aux Vaches series released by Staalplaat (NL) contains elements of these collaborative and solo performances. Samartzis is also responsible for curating Variable Resistance: Ten hours of sound from Australia, a contemporary survey of Australian sound culture, presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2002, and the Transmediale Festival in Berlin in 2003. Philip Samartzis' 'Mort Aux Vaches release' is the 40th release in the series... “ [label info]
|
2002 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Soft and Loud |
LP |
SOFT AND LOUD ist eine Klangkunst-Installation für 8 Lautsprecher, die auf verschiedensten ‚environmental recordings’ aus Japan basiert. Aufnahmen von Tempelplätzen, Wäldern, Marktplätzen, U-Bahn, Vorstadt-Noise, wobei sich aber das „typische japanische“ als Klangfokus herauszentriert, betörend schöne fliessende Sounds wechseln mit lauteren Alltagsmomenten & -geräuschen ab. Das ganze klingt sehr konkret und komplex zusammengefügt in dynamischer Bewegung & Effektierung.
“Originally conceived for eight-channel surround sound playback, Soft and Loud is comprised of field recordings made in Japan between 1999 and 2001 that were later arranged and mixed in Melbourne over a three year period. The objective of the field recordings was to document a variety of common environments in order to investigate the behaviour of singular events and their relationships to other sounds occupying the Japanese soundscape. Of particular interest is the cohesion with which artificially generated sounds are incorporated within the generally subdued natural acoustic environment. However intriguing the artificial is, the strangely muted quality of Japan is also a source of fascination. A massive city like Tokyo can be thunderously noisy, however it has a calmness to it that can be quite unsettling. It is the intersections where the distinctions between the artificial and the natural, noise and silence are blurred that drew samartzis' interest when constructing this work.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| SAMARTZIS, PHILIP & LAWRENCE ENGLISH |
One plus One |
maxi-CD |
"The turntable has enjoyed a varied history in the realm of performance and experimental music. From the early phonographic works of John Cage to the spliced cut-ups of Christian Marclay in the 1980s, the device has proven to be a versatile tool for the creation and transformation of sound. Following a joint billing at Brisbane's Metro Arts Space in 2002, Melbourne based composer Philip samartzis and sound artist Lawrence English shared a 30-minute performance that was to become the beginning of their on-going turntable duo. Both samartzis (a member of the legendary Australian turntable group Gum) and English (a regular player with DJ Olive, Janek Schaefer and others) have long histories of live actions utilising turntables and together each of them brings a wealth of gestures and unique sonic qualities to the instrument. Recorded in early 2006, this edition captures the initial studio works from these two artists and seeks to reflect on the potential of the cyclical nature of vinyl and the surface noise that envelopes the very medium itself." [label info]
www.room40.org
|
2006 |
€7.50 |
|
| SAMWAYS, NIGEL |
Illumine |
mCD-R |
"english sound artist nigel samways is quite a newcomer in the ambient/experimental/field recordings/drone/whatever world with just a handful of digital releases (on camomille or experimedia) and cd-r discs (on his own ephere imprint, october man or hibernate). based upon treated field recordings and acoustic instruments, his short tracks are like snapshots with a strong cinematic feeling..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| SAND |
His first Steps |
LP |
"The present album is a forerunner of GOLEM, the legendary album from the cosmic and psychedelic genius that is Sand. After the split of POT the early SAND submerged as a threesome in the basement of Claudiusstrasse and built up an alchemical assembling shop, where they resurrected the archetypical GOLEM. SAND considered themselves as an exile community in a fascinating area - full of distinctly bizarre energy.
There is something magical and inexplicable in creation, and Sand manifest absolutely these mysterious phenomena. Story-tellers, musicians, shamans, geniuses, Sand were known, at the end of the 60s, as P.O.T. (Part of Time). The music they created at that time has remained unreleased until now.
Two different approaches are evident within this band. The first—which is shown in the compositions of the trio Ludwig Papenberg, his brother Ullrich Papenberg and Johannes Vester—is avant-gardist, experimental and proto-industrial. The second, when this same trio is augmented with a few extra members, reveals a more emphatically “rock” side, somewhat in the vein of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, perhaps making it somewhat less personal than the visionary and experimental positions characteristic of Sand, a truly unique entity in the history of music.
At that time Klaus Schulze was developing, with engineer Manfred Schunke, a specialised recording process called “Artificial Head Stereo Sound”, which, like “Surround Sound”, created the illusion of the music coming from 360º around the listener. Schulze chose Sand to record in his studio one of a series of records to demonstrate this new technique. Sand’s album Golem was recorded and released on the Delta-Acustic label in 1974.
Sand acknowledge that Manfred Schunke and Klaus Schulze were Sand’s most important mentors.
Although classed as “Krautrock”, Sand are not really in the Krautrock style, despite being part of this movement of German cosmic/psychedelic bands. Instead they take us on a cerebral/cosmic/strange/dark trip all of their own, with a highly original subtlety, elegance and strength. Trapped in the trip, swallowed up by the quicksands, seduced by the unique and innovative combination of acoustic guitars, synthesisers, sound generators, short-wave radios, factory noises, hammers from the shipyards, agricultural machines, whirls of sand and eerie atmospheres, the listener discovers and lives the story of Sand and his Golem.
Julian Cope wrote of Golem in his HeadHeritage’s website’s “Album of the Month” column, “Dig this fucking weird Saxony sound and fill your heart”.
Rotorelief releases, in 2010, a series of unreleased albums by Sand as well as a reissue of Sand’s only album, the obscure and rare Golem, first released by Delta Acustic in 1974, along with related releases by Nurse with Wound and Current 93.
This series of albums from Sand is called “INXOM”, the series title having one letter for each album, explained by Johannes Vester as follows:
“Incoming, Inspiration, (...) In X is OM (Odem) which could mean ‘There is Om/Odem/Atman in the Unknown (X)’ ; this also corresponds to "shem" which is in XOM,—the meaning in the Golem Myth. Last, but not least, for me it sounds like the electronic attitude in symbiosis with Sand's spirit....”
And also called '' INXODEM '' with 5x Sand album (INXOM) from 70's + 1 album of Nurse With Wound (2013) and 1 45RMP twelve inch of Current 93 (1992) :
"His First Steps" (I) / is a previous, unreleased and variety album (1972 & 1973) of "Golem"
"Golem" (N) / legendary album composed in 1972 and 1973 (released in 1974)
"Desert Navigation" (X) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1973, 1975 and one track from 1982
"Sylph Ballet" (O) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976
"North Atlantic Raven" (M) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1973, 1975 & 1976
(+ bonus 1982)
"Chromanatron" (E), by Nurse With Wound composed in 2013 with sounds and extracts from Sand
"When the May Rain Comes" (D), 2 varieties of the reprise title "May Rain" of Sand by Current 93 in 1992
Today, 40 years later, here the cool sound jugglers, founders and new members, go again (Ludwig and Ulrich Papenberg, Johannes Vester, Christian von der Schulenburg and Richard Pappik) then Sand is active in a creative frenzy timeless...
www.rotorelief.com
|
2016 |
€25.00 |
|
| SANKT OTTEN |
Morgen wieder lustig |
CD |
"Sankt Otten’s fourth album sees the duo’s sound evolving once again, while retaining the undeniable hallmarks of atmosphere, melodic dexterity and depth. Morgen Wieder Lustig employs stacks of luscious synthesizers, with knowing nods to fellow Germans Kraftwerk and Klaus Schulze, alongside Oliver Klemm’s hallmark soaring guitar drones and Stephan Otten’s unmistakable rhythms. The album presents a musical vision that is both epic and personal – a kind of internal cinema. Single ‘Lustig, lustig demain encore lustig’ is a prime example of Sankt Otten’s glorious new direction. The track acts like a magnet, irresistibly drawing the listener along with its hypnotic drums. Elsewhere the album is soaked in majestic refrains, demonstrating Sankt Otten’s control of rhythm and texture. While their early sonic experiments explored the brooding and frayed edges of ambient, post-rock and jazz, these new songs push this relationship to a new level. Morgen Wieder Lustig shifts from the head-rush ambience of ‘Das bezahlte Lob’ to the dark and twisted post-jazz of ‘Fromme Lügen’. Just when you think you have the album pegged, ‘X für U’ drags you on a melancholic, Klaus Schulze-inspired sc-fi odyssey." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| SANSON, GIL & BRUNO DUPLANT |
Blank |
CD |
"Dabbling in this and that, eager collaborator & french composer Bruno Duplant has gradually nurtured a sensitive style of his own on the border between multi-instrumentation, improvisation, and site-specific recordings…here he teams up with like-minded transgressor and Venezuelan artist Gil Sansón, who already appeared on labels such as Winds Measure Recordings & Con-V, and Lengua da Lava. Often working on the basis of self-imposed premises & convoluted concepts, Gil shapes patiently questioning intense sound forms…
“blank” opens with distant hum, a faraway pervasive sea,
an opaline world,
just a way of falling into line with each fluctuation,
the wobble of things…
marks…scattered objects…traces of passage…
all become the elements of a receptive score…
Urban moans, muffled motion…
a sea yet to surge,
a scraped slate,
refusing all appearances,
“blank” captures the diaphanous, the transient,
the diffuse or dazzling instant…
A script of perceptiveness…
It punctuates, cuts,
incisions drawing unseen reliefs…
“blank” infuses you in revelatory intervals…
::: TRACKS :::
1. foliage, brackets, skidmarks
2. blank
3. detachment
::: DURATION :::
66:20
::: FORMAT :::
CD ltd to 200 copies
all copies come with an additional art card on 300 gr satin paper." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
"In terms of expectance, this is certainly one of the stranger releases on Mystery Sea in some time. Many of the releases on this label have some connection with 'sea', 'water', 'rivers' and such like, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Although Bruno Duplant may use, perhaps, field recordings of the watery kind in this work, it all seems to be more the work of improvisation music on real instruments. Duplant plays horn, double bass and electronics and Gil Sanson (did I ever hear from him?) plays electric guitar and amplifier, broken mandolin, empty maraca and 'phonographies'. He also wrote the score for the first and the last piece, and Duplant for the one in the middle. So, instead of having improvised music, this is composed music, which just happen to sound like improvised music. Three pieces, as said, and they are all around twenty-two minutes, and they deal with a lot of quiet sounds. A plink here, a plonk there, all carefully played, quiet and spacious. There is a bit of bird sounds, large chunks of unidentified field recordings rumble play an important role. I think (!) I like it, but I am not too sure: I do know that it's all a bit long. I think I would have been equally satisfied with two of these pieces instead of three. Maybe I just lack the right amount of concentration today? Maybe I think it's a bit too much of the same thing? Mystery Sea makes a daring move, however, with this release, making it different from the ones we already know." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SANTAAGOSTINO |
Operazione Paura |
CD |
"SantAAgostino tell of the Noises from Beyond the Gate.
SantAAgostino play the Journey of No Return from the Death Phase. SantAAgostino sing the Dark Zone of those who met the pain-soaked Demiurge and came back to Earth without forgiveness for their sins. SantAAgostino write about the laments and the looks of those who saw beyond the coma and came back. SantAAgostino feel the return of those who died and are reborn more rotten and foul than before.
Operazione Paura is a tribute to music and cosmos energy: the same energy that santAAgostino trio was permeated with during the opus and the esecution of the pieces.
Operazione Paura is a total turning not just for the band but for dark, ambient music and noise, generally speaking. That’s because santAAgostino is like a meteor crashed onto the Earth disarranging all the balances, rhythmes and cycles. After the crash the planet seems to be perished but, in the inner part, the new fire of life is burning. A brand new energy developed in a new way of living, of thinking and being.
Operazione Paura speaks of the filmic and horrorific fear, mind trap “to kill” atavistic thoughts and all those mental factors that trapped the man into a selfmade cage in his own mind, through the mind itself. Operazione Paura is an awl that, slowly but inexorably, drives the listener to a dimension where there is no thought, no images, no more conceptualizing, nothing still exhists: there is just a huge solitary desert now, where sounds spontaneously flow creating new monster beyond space and time. It’s a place where new divine dynasties born, spreading their seed, in order to bear a brand new reign far from the borders that we can’t even imagine." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Mokaraba Constellation |
CD |
"Greytone is proud to present the second album from the enigmatic act santAAgostino. Definitively the best expression of their multifaceted way of visual-audio compositions. Seven tracks of pure melodic ambient noise will bring the listener into a cathartic mind introspection above the abyss.
Mokaraba Constellation is an album of songs and just because those songs have been slapped with layer upon layer of filthy concrete and lead doesn't mean they were never songs at all. Fantastic, crucial tunes yet again from the mind of the Italy's most hard working dark ambient / noise alchemists
Without a doubt this is one of the finest experimental records we’ve had cross our label in years, and one nobody in their right mind should pass up." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| SARNO, LOUIS |
Song from the Forest: The Soundtrack |
CD |
"This is the soundtrack album to the film “Song from the Forest”, which tells the story of Louis Sarno, an American who has lived for thirty years among the Bayaka pygmies in the Central African Republic. No outsider has had such access to this beautiful and musical culture, and this selection of the best of his recordings presents the sounds of this amazing people and their environment with a depth and richness never heard before.
SONG FROM THE FOREST: THE FILM /// Premieres in Germany: Showtimes
As a young man, the American Louis Sarno heard a song on the radio that gripped his imagination. He followed the mysterious sounds all the way to the Central African rainforest and found their source with the Bayaka Pygmies, a tribe of hunters and gatherers. He never left.
Today, twenty-five years later, Louis Sarno has recorded over 1,500 hours of unique Bayaka music. He is a fully accepted member of Bayaka society and has a son, Samedi. Once, when Samedi was a baby, he became seriously ill and Louis feared for his life. He held his son in his arms through a frightful night and made him a promise: “If you get through this, one day I’ll show you the world I come from.”
Now the time has come to fulfill his promise, and Louis travels with Samedi, age 13, from the African rainforest to another jungle, one of concrete, glass, and asphalt: New York City. Together they meet Louis’ family and old friends, including his closest friend from college, Jim Jarmusch.
Carried by the contrasts between rainforest and urban America, with a fascinating soundtrack and peaceful, loving imagery, their stories are interwoven to form a touching portrait of an extraordinary man and his son.
A modern epic set between rainforest and skyscrapers.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
In the fall of 2009, I was traveling in the Congo River Basin when by chance I heard tales of a white man who was said to have lived for decades in the rainforest with a tribe of huntergatherers called the Bayaka Pygmies, for decades. I went to look for him. A few days later, I was standing in a clearing when Bayaka came running at me from all directions, brandishing spears and screaming. Suddenly, the noise ceased, and a tall figure detached itself from the undergrowth: a white man, two heads taller than everybody else, a Bayaka baby in each of his arms. Before me stood a legend: a lost, forgotten man, reborn in the Central African jungle. A man who once ate tadpoles for a month, who married a Bayaka woman, who survived malaria, hepatitis, typhoid, leprosy, and has recorded more than 1500 hours of unique Bayaka music. Before me stood the musical Herodotus of the Central African forests, the white Bayaka—Louis Sarno.
When we shook hands in this clearing, I instantly felt that something really big had happened in my life. How could I know that this was the beginning of a journey which would turn me—a writer and journalist—into a film-maker and which would take me across the globe for years to come? To me—a person without a real home, driven from place to place, a passionate hunter-gatherer of stories who has spent the past twenty years traveling to the most remote corners of the Earth—Louis Sarno is the most fascinating person I have ever met. He took a radical leap, accomplishing what I often imagine myself doing when I am on the road: leaving it all behind, starting over, becoming someone else. More than everything else I am impressed by his life’s work: the fantastic recordings of Bayaka music that we are proud to present in this soundtrack from Song From the Forest. (Michael Obert)
FROM THE CURATOR
Beautifully mapping the entire range of music-making of a single community of hunter-gatherers across more than a generation, the Louis Sarno collection of Bayaka music and soundscapes is extraordinary, unprecedented, and unrepeatable. No field recordist has ever matched the depth and sensitivity of Sarno’s commitment to presenting a record of what it sounds like to live with an indigenous community. Sarno has developed a uniquely sensitive recording approach, refined through an acute listening that is only possible through permanent immersion in a culture.
Nearly all of the recordings on this soundtrack have been drawn from the Louis Sarno collection of Bayaka music at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. Louis continues to donate his exceptional recordings to the Museum with the long-term intention that they will benefit the community whose musical life they so beautifully present. (Noel Lobley, Ethnomusicologist, Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford University)
FROM THE MUSIC SUPERVISOR
Through Louis Sarno’s recordings, Bayaka music has become famous around the world. I first spoke to Louis about his endeavours in the mid-nineties when I was putting together “The Book of Music and Nature”, which included some of his work. When I heard he was still down there, twenty years later, and that a film wasnbeing made about his life, I knew I wanted to help.
Central to Bayaka music is a sonic integration with the rhythms and melodies of the forest itself. We have tried to include selections from the vast archive that highlight the ways the human sounds fit into the natural sounds, as an inspiration for how human life as a whole might better be part of our surrounding environment, our true home. (David Rothenberg)
TRACK NOTES BY LOUIS SARNO
1. Yeyi-greeting / 4:30
Yeyi just means ‘yodel,’ and this is one of my favorite forms of Bayaka music. They used to go on all night, slowly moving through the village, and at dawn they’d be going on one last time, throwing leaves on the roof of each house. The new generation doesn’t do it the way it used to be done. This is the most recognizable sound in Bayaka music, pure vocal music, very beautiful songs. When they sing you can hear the forest all around them.
2. Women Sing in the Forest / 4:55
This is recorded in a bimba forest, where there is not much undergrowth, so you hear the singing echoing as if you were inside a natural cathedral. The Bayaka have this way of wandering into the forest, taking music from different forms, and improvising together as they collect water or gather mushrooms. I love the sound of women’s voices in the distance in the forest. The forest without that sound is incomplete. These are the most lovely voices on Earth.
3. Tree Drumming / 3:08
There is a certain kind of tree, the gooma that has big buttress roots. You hit it and it really resonates. Whenever the Bayaka come across a tree like this on the trail they hit it and play a little music. It’s kind of irresistible. Then they move on.
4. Bobé Spirits Calling / 5:53
I remember that camp, it was a beautiful one. The first evening, as the sun was setting, I saw this fire in the distance between the bimba trees. But it turned out to be the sun, at ground level in the forest, and you could barely see it through the trees at the horizon. The Bobé were really wild, spinning around and dancing wildly. That was the time when they buried Samedi’s grandmother. I had just came back from America, and I walked fifty kilometers in one day, and I heard she had died. The next day I set up to find this camp. We didn’t know where to go exactly, and it took us three days to find it. I was so moved by the place. The ceremony went on for two or three nights. This is a typical esimé, when the women move on from the usual melodic singing into something polyrhythmic. The Bobé are not human, they are animal spirits, and they use sounds that are beyond language. The Boyobi ceremony is not just music, it’s theater, dance, and myth, all blended together. Sometimes the Bobé spirits are naked in the moonlight, smeared with bioluminescent fungus. No crew has yet been able to film this!
5. Bayaka Night Insects / 4:52
Insects, yes, but also a few birds. That’s a type of cuckoo. I call it the “ngon go go” bird. There are two cuckoos and the rest is insects, with maybe a few tree frogs. Sometimes you get these moments in the forest where everything seems to come together like that. That’s why I spent so much time in the forest, because most of the time nothing much seems to be happening. But once in a while you get these beautiful moments, which you can only get by spending a lot of time out there. Years.
6. Louis Sarno Speaks / 2:32
Ewunji was an incredible guy, Samedi’s great-grandfather. He was known to go very deep into the forest, way into what’s now the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in Congo, and we just wandered around with spears, no hunting nets. You couldn’t survive like that now. The small animals have been decimated by poachers. Taking care of this should be the responsibility of the World Wildlife Fund, but they prefer to concentrate on big charismatic animals like elephants and gorillas, instead of the animals that the Bayaka depend on, small forest antelopes and monkeys. The Bayaka are no longer allowed to go into the park, but the poachers still go in there with shotguns.
7. The Flutes We Hear No More / 5:12
That was the only time I ever heard two flute players playing at the same time. Momboli and Gongé playing mbyo duets on Dec. 22 nd 1992. You are supposed to hear this music in your dreams, that’s why they usually play it alone at night, so it can get into your dreams. They play more or less in unison even though the Bayaka love vocal polyphony. This is a music you no longer hear anymore, since the last flute player died a few years ago. He gave me his flute and I had it in my house and could get a bit of a sound out of it. But when the Séléka raided my house last year during the insurgency, they destroyed everything, and they smashed the flute. This is a sound we will never hear again.
8. Net Hunt / 3:00
Well, that’s not actually a net hunt. That’s actually gida-gida, it’s a gorilla hunting game, they imitate chimpanzee noises. That’s from 1987, the very first time I went out into the forest. Just the men and boys are singing here. They make these fake spears and pretend to kill.
9. Earth Bow / 2:09
To make an earth bow the Bayaka take a sapling and bend it over, then attach a piece of twine to one end of the sapling, tie the other end to a piece of bark and hold it over a hole that they dig in the ground. This was Boungingi, and those are the same guys who were playing the tree drum. Just takes them a minute or so to make this instrument. Usually one person plays it, but there is always some extra percussion in the background.
10. Geedal / 2:28
That’s Balonyona, one of the greatest masters of the bow harp, the geedal. I recorded many hours of his playing, he really was the best player of this instrument. In 1991 he even went to Paris to play. It has six strings, you find it all over Africa. But the Bayaka way of playing is a bit different. They use fewer notes, and more rhythms. They play along with the pulses of the forest. It fits right in.
11. Flute in Forest / 5:16
That is a beautiful melody, the flute sounds so beautiful in the forest in the distance. That sound brings back so many memories of so many good times. Momboli played that melody a lot, and I recorded it often in the distance. You hear the night ambience swelling with insects, frogs, cuckoos, and the distant flute. So many good times… This music is really part of the whole forest world.
12. Water Drumming / 2:55
When the women bathe, they are always playing water drum. And sometimes they get these percussive melodies, this is a music for girls, and they are much better at it than the boys. Women will do it, too, and sometimes I’ve been far away when you can only hear the deepest sounds, and I think it’s the drum, and when I get closer, I realize it is women playing in the water. It is one of the few instruments Bayaka women are allowed to play.
13. Lingboku Celebration / 5:36
Ah, the Lingboku – women’s music. That is the one spirit they still have. They claim all the others have been stolen from them by the men. A lot of the lyrics make fun of male sexuality, it’s really an expression of female power. The men don’t like women to do it. But they don’t stop them. The men are not supposed to be present when they sing it. “The penis has no endurance and dies right away, but the pussy is always ready to keep going.” You ought to mark this song “explicit” on the CD. The dancing is quite explicit, too, the women look like they’re humping each other and if they catch men looking at this they’ll chase them away.
14. Moukouté’s Lament / 1:52
Ah, that’s little Moukouté. He appears in the film. At the time you recorded him for the film, he really wasn’t all that good at the geedal. But since then, he’s gotten a lot better.
15. Yeyi-Farewell / 5:32
What can you say? It’s beautiful. Yeyi. It’s the most pure Bayaka music. I never get tired of hearing these songs. They bring back so much musical wealth of these people. I don’t make recordings anymore. In some ways it’s easier to make recordings with today’s new technology, but I don’t love it the way I love those old cassette recorders. How do you write numbers on those tiny SD cards! They’re always getting lost. Many of the people I used to record are no longer alive. The new generation is just not the same." [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
"One of the various releases this week that is supposed to be a soundtrack. Here no film either, but just the recordings made by Louis Sarno, made in Central Africa with Bayaka Pygmies, a tribe of hunters and collectors. Sarno is not a visitor, but he lives there as a member and married, has a son and recorded 1500 hours of music and sounds. That's what the documentary by Michael Obst is about, about this rather unique field recordist. Sarno, who guides us through music from Bayaka and the place they live in, documents each of the fifteen pieces here in word. Flutes, tree drumming, singing, games, celebrations and such like are what we hear on this disc. Sometimes recorded from a distance, with the rainforest adding a whole additional layer of sound, which works very well. The 'Tree Drumming' reminded me of earlier Etant Donnes. I very much enjoy a release like this. Not because I know a lot about the subject of tribes or Non-Western music, and I am the first to admit I can't say
anything worthwhile about this, other than: I think this is a fascinating trip. Maybe it's because I was on holiday just now, and perhaps I would like to evoke the memory of holiday a bit longer? (I doubt whether Central Africa will ever be a point of holiday for me however). Just for now I can really enjoy all of this a lot. Strangely fascinating music. A sound documentary as well as something that you can enjoy from a purely musical point of view. Very nice variation in the world of field recording." [FdW/Vital Weekly #946]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SASAJIMA, HIROKI |
Far East |
CD |
"Far east is composed by two different parts. First of all, it hear to a metal, plastic, and several kinds of artificial concrete sounds from an inorganic drone and the noise. Next, it is a soundscape with some organic unprocessed materials. Each different sound material is corresponding as a delicate and meditative tracks. "Far east" will unite the separated different sense at another angle." [label info]
www.semperflorens.net
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| SASAJIMA, HIROKI & TAKAHISA HIRAO |
Hidden Bird's Nest |
CD |
"With the aptly named "Hidden Bird's Nest" Hiroki Sasajima & Takahisa Hirao, all senses in alert, commit an uncommon dive into Nature's breathing Heart, the clamor of the world...
Purity is often usually a simple idealistic abstract notion - not here ; all sounds seem to have been captured in such a pristine way and in such full details that it seems to exceed the limitations of faithful reproduction...and one gets the feeling that suddenly the whole Cosmos is almost enclosed in a single resonance just in front of your ears...
Distance becomes abolished, and it's like if the listener is invited to become a vibrating & active part of the selected location...
Each sound has its own weight, color, placement and is the exact reflection of what it stands for...the restitution of an essence into all its components...
"Hidden Bird's Nest" should cross time easily, offering a veneer of permanence, while being an ultimate testimony of the magnificent Togakushi region..." [Daniel Crokaert]
www.3leaves-label.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| SASHASH ULZ |
Karelian Balsam |
MC |
"Karelian Balsam is a herbal liqueuer from the Baltic, which may or may not have been the inspiration for the music on this album. That the five tracks are titled “100 ml” to “500 ml” is saying something, but you can be sure to enjoy the music without the booze, too.
Sashash Ulz has released a number of very intense drone-ambient works on attenuation circuit, and this one is no exception. Yet it’s still different. This is not minimalist drone work, instead there are lots and lots of layered loops that create the overall dronescape. Embedded within the flow of the whole are many playful details, such as effects being used to create little giggles, bleeps and chirps not usually found in Ulz’s music. These sounds contribute a great deal to creating a certain light-headedness that might well be similar to that induced by Karelian Balsam.
File under: Drone, ambient, psychedelic" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Chtenie |
CD |
"Following two now impossible-to-get cassette album releases, Chtenie, meaning ‘reading’ in English, is set to be Russian artist Alexander Shevchenko’s debut on CD. Comprising improvised organ and guitar pieces with field recordings and a warm, natural and earthy feel that falls somewhere between a soundtrack to a lost ’60s mystery film and the notion of the lone busker playing mildly jaunty, yet generally disturbed, melodies to the mostly bemused townsfolk. Packaged in a fold-over card cover and limited to 300. Released in December 2013." [label info]
www.fourth-dimension.net
"And here we go... improvisations on organ, bass and guitar. Twelve pieces of fresh music with influences of blues, jazz, folk and minimal music. The sound of the organ will take you back to the sixties and seventies and the combination with field-recordings create a psychedelic atmosphere. Sashash Ulz lives and works in Karelia – Russia and invites the listener to his intimate music. He is an very active musician and last year he released 10 tapes and digital releases at several labels. This album is released by the Polish label Fourth Dimension Records, which releases music since 1983. The recordings are pure and as if you are in his own living-room. He uses not a lot of layers in his music, mostly only organ or guitar and sometimes other sounds are added. The album “Chtenie” consists tracks with titles as “Y”, “Y,” and “,,,” I really don’t know what this will mean, but the titles fit well to the music. The compositions are coming up and will pass away, they will catch you or suit well as a sweet background. The melodies are recognizable, but do not refer to a special song or composition. It is just music for a sunny day, sitting around and doing something or doing something casual. Great fun!" [JKH/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| SATORI |
Kanashibari |
CD |
"Das Cover dieses Satori-Albums ziert ein Gemälde von Henry Fuseli namens "Der Nachtmahr". Um einen Albtraum geht es auf "Kanashibari" auch, sogar um einen real existierenden. Das japanische Wort "Kanashibari" steht für den Begriff Schlafparalyse, den Zustand der Bewegungsunfähigkeit während der Traumphasen. Diese Unfähigkeit sich zu Bewegen ist ein unbewusster Zustand. Es gibt aber Menschen, die sich dieser Paralyse durchaus bewusst werden und das ist wahrhaft ein echter Albtraum.
Diesen haben Satori, man kann es nicht anders sagen, perfekt in ihrer Musik festgehalten. Düster und brodelnd gestaltet sich das Album, Drone Ambient mit tiefschwarzer Attitüde. Aber "Kanashibari" begnügt sich nicht mit bloßen, tiefen Tönen, nein, rituelle Trommeln beschreiben den dramatischen Kampf, sich bewegen zu wollen, es aber nicht zu können. Rauschen, Zischen und andere ähnliche Geräusche transferieren direkt einen beklemmenden Eindruck. Die nicht zu entziffernden, entstellten Stimmen könnten Traumfetzen sein. Aber zusammen mit den Geräuschen dürften sie eher für die halluzinogenen, auditiven Wahrnehmungen stehen, die mit der Schlafparalyse einhergehen können. Wie man es auch dreht und wendet, Neil Chaney (Pessary) und Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring Chef) haben ein herrlich düsteres Stück Musik geschaffen, das bei nächtlicher Rezeption wiederum zu Albträumen führen könnte.
Nach ihrer Japan-Tour im April 2007 mit Sutcliffe Jügend veröffentlichte das japanische Label Dogma Chase "Kanashibari" auf einer auf 300 Stück limitierten LP. Cold Spring zog dann Ende 2008 nach und veröffentlichte das Album auf CD und spendierte sogar noch einen Bonustrack, "Pavor Nocturnus"." [Veit, Medienkonverter]
"CD version of the 2007 album from UK dark ambient/Fortean electronics act Satori - Neil Chaney (Pessary) and Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring boss), originally issued on LP by Dogma Chase, Japan. "Kanashibari" is the Japanese term for sleep paralysis (literally "bound or fastened in metal"). The album explores this phenomena, manipulating Fortean sounds and deep dark ambience." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Contemptus Mundi |
CD |
"Neben der Wiederveröffentlichung der "Kanashibari"-LP auf CD, gibt es vom englischen Duo Satori auch noch etwas Neues zu hören. Es handelt sich zwar lediglich um einen Song namens "Contemptus Mundi", aber der bringt es zusammen mit einem Remix auf Albumlänge. Neil Chaney von Pessary und Cold Spring Label-Chef Justin Mitchell nehmen einen gesprochenen Auszug aus einem von Magus Peter H Gilmore, Hohepriester der Church of Satan, verfassten Essay und lassen um diesen von Peter H Gilmore selbst gesprochenen Text herum eine dunkle Schattenwelt entstehen. Gilmore richtet seine überbetonten Worte gegen den Kontrollwahn in der modernen Welt, gegen die Versuche, die Menschen vor allem Übel zu bewahren und sie damit einzusperren und ihrer eigenen Meinung zu berauben. Eine Sichtweise, deren darwinistische Ausrichtung in den heutigen Zeiten wieder Anhänger finden dürfte.
Satori lassen Posaunen erklingen, Chöre und Pauken. Tiefste Drones, immer wieder auftretende, kleine Unterbrechungen und metallische Geräusche geben dem Song etwas abgrundtief Schwarzes und Unheimliches, auch wenn bei über 20 Minuten Spielzeit etwas die Abwechslung fehlt. Die bringt dann der "Nameless Wrath Mix", der ohne Gilmores Pamphlet auskommen muss und etwas industrieller ausgerichtet ist. Die Posaunen sind durch Rauschen ersetzt worden, die Pauken durch dumpfe Schläge. Der Mix rumpelt mehr, wirkt bedrohlicher, erreicht aber nicht die atmosphärische Dichte des Originals. Schön düsterer Drone Ambient, der darauf hoffen lässt, dass Satori bald mehr veröffentlichen." [Medienkonverter]
"Brand new CD from UK dark ambient/Fortean electronics act Satori - Neil Chaney (Pessary) and Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring boss). This is a collaboration between Satori and Magus Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest of the Church Of Satan. Satori provide their trademark deep, underground, pounding electronics, here with a ritualistic dark soundtrack atmosphere, while Gilmore bestows a seething tirade against the weakness of the modern world! Two 20+ minute tracks, the 2nd being a deeper, instrumental mix of the title track." [label info]
"... "Contemptus mundi" is another very dark effort from the two british composers, this time in collaboration with the high priest of the church of Satan, Magus Peter H. Gilmore. While the joint venture behind Satori create dark ambient of low end rumbles added processed choir, bells and ochestral brass, Magus Peter H. Gilmore accompanies with spoken words focusing on the weakness of modern world. Underneath the multilayered dark ambient some slow and heavy rhythms creates a ritualistic atmosphere on the album. After the lengthy track "Contemptus mundi" running 26 minutes, comes a remix with an exclusive focus on the instrumental side and with more concentration on noisy elements. Where the opening track belongs to the dark ambient-style this so-called "Nameless wrath mix" is more towards the ambient-noise-style. Never the less two interesting ambient-based works from Satori that will appeal to listeners of projects such as Inade, Brighter Death Now and Lustmord." [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Live at the Cave |
CD |
"Live document from the long standing and highly appreciated English Dark Ambient / Industrial project Satori. This CD is a live document in highest sound-quality from their famous concert in Salzburg on 10.10.2008, which took place in a cave in central Salzburg. Fascinating dark rumbling Ambient and Industrial sounds we love and know so well from Satori's "Kanashibari" album. "A real masterpiece in the history of this outstanding band!" 46mins of music in a card sleeve." [label info]
www.steinklang.at
|
2010 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
The Hanging |
CD-BOX |
"A spore. Or a seed. Or maybe a drop of blood. There is always something left. Just when everyone thought the devil was done, the alien defeated, it comes back. More powerful, stronger and much much angrier. To lay waste the land, destroy the positive and breathe its fetid stench in the face of light. We should have known. Should have realised that in the vacuum left by its departure something would grow. Expanding and multiplying to fill the void. Recycling its hate, constricting hope and slowly, surely getting pissed at the world. Do we deserve its seething rage? Yes we probably do.
Dave Kirby formed Satori in the early 1980s with Rob Maycock, released music on the legendary Broken Flag label and then, just as quickly as they had arrived, stopped. Resurrected briefly to promote a retrospective CD "Infect" Dave and Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring Records) joined forces to blast a total wall of noise to unsuspecting gig-goers. Then Dave vanished. Justin along with new recruit Neil Chaney (Pessary) released the album "Kanashibari" in 2008. After touring the UK, Europe and Japan things went quiet again. Until now. Dave is back with ten new Satori tracks. Classic Power Electronics, Industrial and Dark Ambient soundscapes sculpted from a collection of alienating electronica, found sound and heavy drums. "The Hanging" marks both a new beginning and a continuation of a project now 30 years old but, most importantly, the chance to hear over an hour of brand new Satori.
Florian (the photographer)? I think his contribution has been invaluable. florian kriechbaum vienna " [label info] |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| SAUNDERS, BRYAN LEWIS |
Near Death Experience |
LP |
"Bryan Lewis Saunders is a performer and sound poet. He works here with different musicians. Extreme sound poetry ! With music from Joachim Montessuis, Marcelo Aguirre, Christopher Fleeger, M. Peck, John Duncan, Spastic Dementia, Kaontrol Kontraos, Murmurists. Produced, mixed, mastered and edited in 2010 by Joachim Montessuis. Artwork by Felix Rosier. LP gatefold limited to 500 copies. Comes with a link to download a digital version with bonus tracks and a pdf with all texts." [label info]
www.erratum.org
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Near Death Experience |
CD |
The bastard son of William S. Burroughs, Antonin Artaud and Crispin Glover. Hilarious, awful, heartbreaking and brutally honest, his Stand Up Tragedy is some of the best shit I’ve heard in a decade” - Lydia Lunch. Bryan Lewis Saunders is a multi-media artist, poet, videographer, and performance artist from Tennessee mostly known for his disturbing monologues and somniloquies, a master of an outlandish universe of his spoken word. In 2006 he started his own label, Stand-Up Tragedy Records, and since 2007 has been performing in Contemporary Art Museums, Media Arts Schools, and at music festivals mainly in Western Europe. “Near Death Experience” is a 2010 recording, originally produced by Erratum as an LP release, that takes his twisted world and jams it into a 74-minute mindfuck. He channels his disturbance into his creativity, using visual art and musical performance as alternative ways to deal with recurring demons and mental health issues, conveying a message about the power of addiction. “For hundreds of years, artists have been putting themselves into representations of the world around them. I am doing the exact opposite. I put the world around me into representations of myself as I find this more true…” - B.L. Saunders. “Near Death Experience” is an extreme sound poetry collaboration with music from Joachim Montessuis, Marcelo Aguirre, Christopher Fleeger, Michael Peck, John Duncan, Spastic Dementia, Kaontrol Kontraos, Murmurists, and Tracy Lee Summers, from harsh noise to heavy drone, an impressive and immersive piece of contemporary art. Limited edition of 300 copies printed in a lavish, full-color glossy 4-panel digipak with a 20-page booklet with all the lyrics. First 50 copies come with an exclusive A3 folded poster.
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| SAVAGE REPUBLIC |
Siam |
maxi-CD |
For the collectors: SIAM marked the comeback of SR, includes material not available anywhere else ! Numbered edition.
"The first studio release by Savage Republic since 1989. This is a limited edition EP produced for the 2007 "Siam" tour. Features hand-letterpressed covers by Bruce Licher at Independent Project Press. More information and samples available at the Savage Republic MySpace site." [label info]
www.mobilization.com
|
2007 |
€8.50 |
|
|
Customs |
CD |
"Recorded in Thessaloniki, Greece, Nov 1988
########
The fourth of four new reissues of the classic studio albums from seminal industrial-art-punk group SAVAGE REPUBLIC.
###########
"Customs" was the final studio album from Savage Republic, recorded under considerable duress in Greece during an ill-fated 1988 tour in which all of their gear was confiscated by Greek customs! Thus, "Customs" was recorded entirely on borrowed equipment. The resulting album is not dissimilar to the usual Savage Republic sound of expansive songs that build up through the increasingly aggressive riffs of "monotone" guitars, but has been augmented with a handful of traditional Greek instruments such as hand drums and bouzouki. And, as a potentially useful piece of trivia, you might want to know that this album features Savage Republic's "Birds of Pork," which for years has been the preamble played before each and every Neurosis live show!" [label info]
www.mobilization.com
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Sword Fighter / Taranto!!! (RED vinyl) |
7" |
Limited edition including an insert.
Very special package with die-cut cover with silk-screened printings designed by Andrea Scarfone (Skarfo/Julie's Haircut).
First 200 hand-numbered copies comes is solid RED vinyl.
Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves with their legendary performances. Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of Post-Punk and Industrial music. Their music incorporates minimalist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar.
Now A Silent Place is honoured to release a limited vinyl 7" single with two amazing exclusive tracks recorded expressly for this release after '1938' cd album release on Neurot Recordings!
Both tracks are with SR distinguishing elements: tribal drumming, hypnotic and raga-like guitar lines with pulsating bass, Post-Punk and Industrial music with a sort of exotic atmosphere." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
SR Biography:
Figures of considerable repute within the Los Angeles post-punk community of the 1980s, Savage Republic grafted tribal percussion, industrial drones, and raga-like guitar lines together to craft an idiosyncratically moody sound with flashes of both desolation and eloquent grandeur. Capable of both harsh dissonance and shimmering textures, the band's guiding force was guitarist Bruce Licher, a founder and constant presence in their shuffling lineups. Alternating between cyclic instrumentals and quasi-industrial assaults with gruff, chanted vocals, their records were unavoidably inconsistent, but most contain some enduring highlights.
Savage Republic was founded by former UCLA students Licher and drummer Mark Erskine in the early '80s. Adding new members, the group originally called themselves Africa Corps, changing the name to Savage Republic just before releasing their first record in 1982. Exotic percussion would always play a big role in Savage Republic -- even in the early days they were using oil cans, metal pipes, and 55-gallon drums. Their early singles, and their debut LP Tragic Figures (1982), show the group at their least accessible, though there are hints of the more mysterious and melodic elements to come.
After some personnel changes (some members went off to form 17 Pygmies), Savage Republic regrouped with new elements (Thom Fuhrmann and Ethan Port) and a more guitar-oriented sound. On Ceremonial (1985), the band shifted their focus to mostly instrumental material, usually piloted by oddly tuned guitars (the group sometimes used guitars with six identically tuned strings). They'd never wholly abandon those droning, angst-driven chants, though. Combined with the fact that their instrumental material wouldn't break much new ground over the course of the decade, that can make their studio albums uneven listening. In any case, the band was best experienced live, where they would burn trash cans of pampas leaves, play on Los Angeles' Skid Row, and use all sorts of unexpected objects for percussion in their quest to make each concert a unique event.
Savage Republic's albums, which were individually hand-letterpressed and numbered by Licher himself, received as much attention for their packaging as their music. Licher would perform the same services for other bands on his Independent Project label, even getting a Grammy nomination for his work on the first Camper Van Beethoven LP. Savage Republic was not destined to become nearly as big as Camper (not that this was ever their intent), and disbanded around 1990. A small reunion tour brought the band back in the fall of 2002, but the band only played a few random dates. After relocating to Arizona, Licher continues to run the Independent Project label, and design sleeves (his most famous work in that department has been for an R.E.M. Christmas fan club single). Musically, he resurfaced with the trio Scenic, which plays entirely instrumental material that blends the exotic flavor of Savage Republic with influences from Ennio Morricone and southwest border music. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Sword Fighter / Taranto!!! |
7inch |
"Limited edition including an insert.
Very special package with die-cut cover with silk-screened printings designed by Andrea Scarfone (Skarfo/Julie's Haircut).
Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves with their legendary performances. Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of Post-Punk and Industrial music. Their music incorporates minimalist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar.
Now A Silent Place is honoured to release a limited vinyl 7" single with two amazing exclusive tracks recorded expressly for this release after '1938' cd album release on Neurot Recordings!
Both tracks are with SR distinguishing elements: tribal drumming, hypnotic and raga-like guitar lines with pulsating bass, Post-Punk and Industrial music with a sort of exotic atmosphere." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
SR Biography:
Figures of considerable repute within the Los Angeles post-punk community of the 1980s, Savage Republic grafted tribal percussion, industrial drones, and raga-like guitar lines together to craft an idiosyncratically moody sound with flashes of both desolation and eloquent grandeur. Capable of both harsh dissonance and shimmering textures, the band's guiding force was guitarist Bruce Licher, a founder and constant presence in their shuffling lineups. Alternating between cyclic instrumentals and quasi-industrial assaults with gruff, chanted vocals, their records were unavoidably inconsistent, but most contain some enduring highlights.
Savage Republic was founded by former UCLA students Licher and drummer Mark Erskine in the early '80s. Adding new members, the group originally called themselves Africa Corps, changing the name to Savage Republic just before releasing their first record in 1982. Exotic percussion would always play a big role in Savage Republic -- even in the early days they were using oil cans, metal pipes, and 55-gallon drums. Their early singles, and their debut LP Tragic Figures (1982), show the group at their least accessible, though there are hints of the more mysterious and melodic elements to come.
After some personnel changes (some members went off to form 17 Pygmies), Savage Republic regrouped with new elements (Thom Fuhrmann and Ethan Port) and a more guitar-oriented sound. On Ceremonial (1985), the band shifted their focus to mostly instrumental material, usually piloted by oddly tuned guitars (the group sometimes used guitars with six identically tuned strings). They'd never wholly abandon those droning, angst-driven chants, though. Combined with the fact that their instrumental material wouldn't break much new ground over the course of the decade, that can make their studio albums uneven listening. In any case, the band was best experienced live, where they would burn trash cans of pampas leaves, play on Los Angeles' Skid Row, and use all sorts of unexpected objects for percussion in their quest to make each concert a unique event.
Savage Republic's albums, which were individually hand-letterpressed and numbered by Licher himself, received as much attention for their packaging as their music. Licher would perform the same services for other bands on his Independent Project label, even getting a Grammy nomination for his work on the first Camper Van Beethoven LP. Savage Republic was not destined to become nearly as big as Camper (not that this was ever their intent), and disbanded around 1990. A small reunion tour brought the band back in the fall of 2002, but the band only played a few random dates. After relocating to Arizona, Licher continues to run the Independent Project label, and design sleeves (his most famous work in that department has been for an R.E.M. Christmas fan club single). Musically, he resurfaced with the trio Scenic, which plays entirely instrumental material that blends the exotic flavor of Savage Republic with influences from Ennio Morricone and southwest border music. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
www.asilentplace.it
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Varvakios |
CD |
"Recorded in Greece in February 2012 over the course of three hectic days, Varvakios is a sequel of sorts to the 1989 album Customs, and draws on local sights, sounds and synergies. On several tracks the band are joined on violin by Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedomoon, himself a resident of downtown Athens.
Thom Fuhrmann: "To walk into such a volatile situation and create this music in such a short time was by far the most satisfying experience that I've ever had as an artist."
[label info]
|
2012 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Aegean |
do-LP |
" “Aegean”is the counterpart of the same-titled CD released in 2014 on Mobilization, the label of the band. Current line-up includes founders Ethan Port and Thom Fuhrmann plus longtime member Alan Waddington (drums) and newer one Kerry Dowling on guitars and bass, plus guests including Blaine Reiniger/Tuxedomoon on violin and other ones on oud, doumbeck; trumpet or trombone..."
www.nuitetbrouillard.com |
2015 |
€28.00 |
|
|
Meteora |
CD |
Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves as art-punk and industrial pioneers with their legendary performances. Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of Post-Punk and Industrial music.
Their music incorporates minimialist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, alternate tunings, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar.
Savage Republic released four full length albums in the 1980s, plus several live records and compilation tracks. 1989 everything went quiet as the republic scattered to pursue other interests and their labels and distributors folded. After reuniting in 2002 for a brief U.S. tour supporting the boxed-set reissue of their five studio albums by Mobilization Records, several of the members began sharing ideas for new songs, reviving the band officially in 2005.
In 2006/2007 Savage Republic added drum professor Alan Waddington (the Unforgiven) to the line-up and released "1938" on Neurot Recordings, the band's first studio recording in 18 years. The limited edition "Siam" EP was also released on Neurot Recordings featuring alternate mixes of some of the "1938" material.
With their first full-length album in seven years, Savage Republic return with some of their best work yet! Self-recorded in a secret cavernous location, their mix of tribal textures, political anthems and Morricone-esque surf instrumentals once again transport the listener to faraway lands at turns both sinister and beautiful. One of many highlights of "Meteora" is the pandemic inspired piece "Unprecedented"written by Wire's Graham Lewis that is sure to become a staple in their set list. This longest-lasting lineup of Thom Fuhrmann, Ethan Port, Alan Waddington and Kerry Dowling have infused all the power of their legendary live performances into a cinematic sonic dreamscape.
"Very few artists can stand as being actually unique. Artists who make sound that fills the holes in your soul that nothing else touch. Savage Republic is one these very few. As a founding member of Neurosis I can say that we are very aware and vigilant of all things that happen around us. There is no tolerance for disruption in our ritual. For the last 13 years we have played one band and one band only for our preshow music, Savage Republic is the soundtrack that sets the tone for whats to come and what existed before." - Scott Kelly / Neurosis
https://savagerepublic.bandcamp.com/album/meteora
|
2021 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Tragic Figures (40th Anniversary Edition) |
do-LP |
Savage Republic: Tragic Figures (Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition) (Red Vinyl Edition) 2LP-Set Regular Version
Welcome to the world’s first (and only) post-punk-industrial-trance-psychedelic-surf album! The fact that it took us so many adjectives to describe Tragic Figures lets you know just how unique of an album it is. Sure, there are echoes of other artists, like krautrock legends Can, post-punkers Public Image Limited (Savage Republic opened for PiL on their 1982 West Coast dates), avant-garde guitar players like Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, scrap metal industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten, and Bay Area sludgecore nihilists Flipper—but really, this unlikely product of (mostly) UCLA undergrads sounds like no other record before or since. And only adding to Tragic Figures’ mystique are its graphics, which displayed band co-founder Bruce Licher’s trademark letterpress printing and featured a UPI photo of rebels getting executed in Kurdistan, the ghostly images sharing space with a red lettering that gave the album’s title in script that roughly translated “tragic figures” into Arabic (which, in turn, had the unexpected effect of drawing more Iranian and Middle Eastern people to their shows)! Tragic Figures wasn’t just a bold musical statement; it was an objet d’art in its own right.
For its 40th anniversary edition, we at Real Gone Music worked with Bruce Licher to preserve and expand on the magical, talismanic quality of the initial release. The original album has been remastered from the original tapes by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision, while both the CD and LP editions both boast an extra disc of largely unreleased rehearsal recordings taped in the bowels of UCLA parking garages, where the band used to practice to take advantage of the extended reverb afforded by all the concrete surfaces (imagine being an unwitting undergrad happening upon this unearthly din coming out of nowhere)! Richie Unterberger’s liner notes feature interviews with band members Licher, Philip Drucker, and Jeff Long, and the LP comes with the original cover graphics expanded into a gatefold jacket pressed in heavyweight “chipboard” paper stock. Finally, the LP pressing is in red vinyl limited to 2000 copies. Clear your calendar and set aside a couple of hours to listen to Tragic Figures…you won’t end up where you started.
Disc One Side One
1. When All Else Fails…
2. Attempted Coup: Madagascar
3. The Ivory Coast
4. Next to Nothing
5. Exodus
Disc One Side Two
1. Machinery
2. Zulu Zulu
3. Real Men
4. Flesh That Walks
5. Kill the Fascists!
6. Procession
Disc Two Side One
1. Attempted Coup: Madagascar
2. When All Else Fails
3. Kill the Fascists!
4. Real Men
5. The Vampire Bites
6. Next to Nothing Weirdness
7. Thee Three Preserves
Disc Two Side Two
1. Sliding into Arabia
2. As It Was Written
3. Procession (Into the Light)
4. Exodus
https://realgonemusic.com/products/savage-republic-tragic-figures-expanded-2-lp
"Die erste legendäre LP von 1982 der damals als "Art-Punk" gehandelten kalifornischen Band, die auch politisch radikale Wege ging, ihren eigenen "Staat" gründete und mit eigenem Label & Druckerei versuchte so unabhängig wie möglich zu bleiben...
TRAGIC FIGURES vereint auf unnachahmliche Weise aggressiven Industrial-"Rock" und politische Agitation (so z.B. im Stück "Kill the Fascists"), sehr perkussiv & tribal und oft mit Metall- oder Schrottschlagzeug und gebrüllten Vocals, aber auch eine psychedelisch-trancig "ethnische" Note ist hier bereits vorzufinden... was sich später zu ihrem unnachahmlichen oriental angehauchten Wüsten-Rock entwickelte..." [Drone Rec. 2002]
|
2022 |
€55.50 |
|
| |
Live in Wroclaw January 7, 2023 |
do-LP + 8 |
"Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves as art-punk and industrial pioneers with their legendary performances. Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of Post-Punk and Industrial music. Their music incorporates minimialist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, alternate tunings, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar. Savage Republic released four full length albums in the 1980s, plus several live records and compilation tracks. 1989 everything went quiet as the republic scattered to pursue other interests and their labels and distributors folded. After reuniting in 2002 for a brief U.S. tour supporting the boxed-set reissue of their five studio albums by Mobilization Records, several of the members began sharing ideas for new songs, reviving the band officially in 2005. In 2006/2007 Savage Republic added drum professor Alan Waddington (the Unforgiven) to the line-up and released "1938" on Neurot Recordings, the band"s first studio recording in 18 years. The limited edition "Siam" EP was also released on Neurot Recordings featuring alternate mixes of some of the "1938" material. In 2021 Savage Republic released the album "Meteora" on Gusstaff Records and during the tour promoting this album in January 2023, the band also played a concert in Wroclaw, Poland. It became not only a document of this route, but also a kind of summary of their entire history. The album is released in CD format (the entire concert), as a black LP (over half of the concert) and as a limited red vinyl with an 8-inch vinyl record (lathe-cut) added with a few remaining songs from the concert. Both LP versions were pressed on thick 200g vinyl. Vinyl versions include download codes with the entire concert. |
2023 |
€33.50 |
|
| SAWAKO |
Bitter Sweet |
CD |
"Die Musik der Japanerin wurde in BA 49 als „Gänseblümchenikebana“ und in BA 56 als „sonntäglich versonnener Nachmittag eines kulleräugigen Manga-Mädchens, das mit dem Laptop wie mit Puppen spielt“ in die niedliche Ecke gestellt. Sie bleibt sich treu und würzt ihre dröhnminimalistischen Tagträumereien erneut mit Zimt und Zucker. Akustische Gitarren (von Radiosonde bzw. Ryan Francesconi, die bei ‚April - From Sea Shell‘ bzw. ‚Utouto‘ auch als Co-Autoren genannt werden) oder das Cello von Jacob Kirkegaard blinken und summen Licht- und Schattenspiele für Sawakos ‚Deep Under‘- und ‚Ex.o.tico‘-Dreamscapes. Katzen träumen von Vögeln, Mädchen von ‚Hugbugs‘, die sie kitzeln, Fische singen ihren Nachtgesang, Sawako haucht ‚A Last Next‘. Sagte ich ‚niedlich‘? Seit der Entdeckung des Kindchenschemas hat das Niedliche seinen Zauber verloren (Herodes)." [Bad Alchemy]
"New York/Tokyo-based Sawako is a musician, software designer, and multimedia artist whose multi-disciplinary works intermix and pollenate her music with inspiration ranging from nature, science, academia and poetic motion. Following releases on Anticipate and And/Oar, Bitter Sweet is Sawako's 2nd release on 12k after the critically-acclaimed Hum in 2005. Her music is fragile and intimate, delicate, ephemeral and resonant. Bitter Sweet is unmistakably Sawako but finds itself moving into much, much deeper territory than her previous works. Building on her past forays into experimental pop, she uses low and mid-frequency drones and soft, melodic highlights to shape beds of stripped-down, hypnotic and very linear tracks that fill the space in which they exist. Bitter Sweet is more drone and tonal-based than Sawako's previous works. However, these gentle movements are punctuated by field recordings and acoustic instrumentation with cello provided by Jacob Kirkegaard and guitar by Radiosonde and Ryan Francesconi who also co-write two of the pieces on the album. In what has become a bit of a signature, Sawako lends her own voice to the ending lullaby, 'A Last Next.' These combinations produce rich results. Bitter Sweet's diffuse and hazy soundscaping is Sawako's most mature work to date, relying less on her previous child-like melodies while remaining feminine and tender. She has come into her own after having established herself for a number of years as a New Yorker where she has tirelessly performed, studied and created as an important member of the city's electronic music community. Bitter Sweet is packaged in a 6-panel digipack with photography throughout by Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Maki Kaoru." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| SCATTERED ORDER |
Adjust the Terminology |
CD |
"Wir sind stolz, das brandneue Album der australischen Kultband SCATTERED ORDER ankündigen zu dürfen. Die Gründer des legendären M Squared Labels hatten großen Einfluss auf die heutige Postpunk-Szene. Ihre Debutlalbum "Prat Culture" ist ebenfalls erhältlich als Klanggalerie-CD (mit Bonus Tracks). Auf "Adjust the Terminology" ist die Band in Höchstform: ihr Sound ist ein Mix aus Industrial, Postpunk, EBM und sogar Rock. Harte Rhythmen treffen auf Vocal-Samples über sägenden Gitarren. Industrial Cut Ups verschmelzen zu soundtrackartigen Melodien. Ein Album, das sich nicht leicht in ein Genre pressen lässt. Eine phantastische Mischung und eine perfekte Erweiterung jeder Scattered Order-Sammlung." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| SCELSI, GIACINTO |
Pranam I (etc) |
CD |
Genius stuff here from SCELSI mainly made with strings & voice, powerful, suspenseful, spheric, not from this world ! With great / interesting liner notes about his philosophy seeing sound as a cosmic force, a material manifestation of energy.
« Giacinto Scelsi (1905 - 1988) Anagamin Celui qui choisit de revenir ou pas, Pranam I En souvenir de la perte tragique de Jani et Sia Christou, String Quartet Nr. 4, Quattro pezzi su una nota sola, Okanagon doit être considéré comme un rite et, si l'on veut, comme le battement de coeur de la Terre, String Quartet Nr. 2 Anagamin Celui qui choisit de revenir ou pas for 12 Strings (1965 (SFB 1990), Ensemble Oriol Berlin, Ltg. Sebastian Gottschick)
Pranam I En souvenir de la perte tragique de Jani et Sia Christou for voice, 12 instrumentalists and tape, 1972 Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, Rom 1972) Michiko Hirayama, Stimme, Ad Hoc Ensemble, Ltg. Vieri Tosatti
String Quartet Nr. 4 1964 (RB 1994) Pellegrini-Quartett:
Antonio Pellegrini, 1. Violine; Thomas Hofer, 2. Violine; Charlotte Geselbracht, Viola; Helmut Menzler, Violoncello
Quattro pezzi su una nota sola for chamber orchestra, 1959 (Les Disques Solstice 1982) Ensemble 2e2m, Ltg. Luca Pfaff
Okanagon doit être considéré comme un rite et, si l'on veut, comme le battement de coeur de la Terre for harp, Tam Tam and bass (1968 (Les Disques Solstice 1982) Ensemble 2e2m, Ltg. Luca Pfaff)
String Quartet Nr. 2 1961 (WDR 1979) Berner Streichquartett: Alexander van Wijnkoop, 1. Violine; Eva Zurbrügg, 2. Violine; Henrik Crafoord, Viola; Walter Grimmer, Violoncello“ [label info]
|
2002 |
€20.00 |
|
| SCHAEFER, JANEK |
Le petit theatre de Mercelis |
CD |
JANEK SCHAEFER CD which comes on a new sublabel from SUB ROSA and packed in large DVD-Box!
“ Manipulated field recordings are combined with live modified vinyl and found sound in a 'Concréte ruffian style' [The Wire 1998]. His most recent research has been examining the role of the record/vinyl as a compositional tool. And as in his recent " Pulled Under" he forms an enveloping and dense stream of macrosonic [close focus] soundscapes. Navigating fluidly through a series of absorbing and granular abstract environments. The raw material mostly combines modified travel recordings, live out-takes and custom made vinyl manipulations using the 'Twin' turntable. Not hearing here, his 'Tri-Phonic Turntable' was recently entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the worlds 'Most Versatile Record Player'! This important unpublished work comes from a recent sub rosa event (20-21 april 2002 in brussels). highly abstract with an obsessive slow changes including strange forms of scratchings.” [label press release]
|
2002 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Unfolding Luxury beyond the City of Dreams |
LP |
"Dekorder presents two new vinyl editions composed and designed by UK sound artist Janek Schaefer, who is known around the world for his wide variety of engaging and unpredictable works for installation, concert and composition. Following his highly acclaimed ‘Lay-by Lullaby’ album on 12k [which Pitchfork listed in the ‘Top 10 under-the-radar releases for 2014’], Janek has created and collated a collection of tracks that showcase both his more ambient works [077], and his highly charged sonorities [078]. A beautiful pair of LP’s that ideally should be experienced together for your home listening pleasure. The tracks were mastered by Stephan Mathieu and cut by Lupo at Calyx Mastering.
A1 White Lights of Divine Darkness
By chance I composed this for my brother-in-law the day he passed away. In recent years he had seen the white lights of heavens gate, but returned, and became fascinated by what he called God’s divine darkness in this lifetime.
A2 Unfolding Honey 6:06
A track from my exhibition soundtrack 'Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion' held at The Barbican Gallery, London. The exhibition featured some amazing folded garments by Issey Miyake, that inspired the unfurling fabric feeling of the composition.
A3 Luxury 3:00
An orchestral drone piece featuring an old French lady singing to her cats with an extra celestial chorus.
A4 Skyline Ascending 3:28
A Carpenters LP piano loop is layered again and again over a high sky recording, which was recorded using a helium balloon floating in the clouds over the city, with raindrops.
B1 Coda (for Sir John Dankworth) 5:00
In my early teens, I used to attend week long music camps, in tents, within the grounds of Sir John Dankworth's home with Cleo Laine. I used to know them, and composed this piece with one of their vinyl's on the day I heard he died. The installation premiered at the Sydney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury, broadcasting a 3 channel version to six 50's radios.
B2 The City of Dreams 8:28
Theme tune for the opening of “The Mill: City of Dreams” a site specific theatre production in a deserted mill in Bradford. Piano motif recorded live with my twin-arm turntable, additional overlays recorded with Mark Robinson on his old family piano.
B3 Beyond 6:30
The Carpenter’s return, sliding piano loops through recordings made in Grand Central Station at closing time when the vast hall was deserted, and the full majesty of the acoustic space could be appreciated. Stilettos pass by forming polyrhythm's, as the last train announces it’s departure...
credits
released 19 November 2014
Biography
Janek Schaefer has exhibited, lectured, and performed widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, Strasbourg Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art], USA/Canada, [Walker Art Center, Mutek, Princeton, XI], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House 2003]. His foundsound concerts and installations explore the spatial, social and celestial qualities that sound can communicate, through the twisting of old and new technology. The context of each idea is central to its development and resolution, often exploring themes of appropriation, accident, & alteration.
Janek studied Architecture at the Royal College of Art where he worked with Brian Eno, creating “Recorded Delivery” in 1995, and discovered how important sound is in perceiving space, and place. In 2008 he won the British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art, and a Paul Hamlyn Award. The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool exhibited a Retrospective of his career to date in 2009. He is represented by the Agency gallery, London, and is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes Sonic Art Research Unit. He lives and works in Walton-on-Thames." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
"The other LP has seven pieces, shorter pieces of course and it's a pity that there are no clarifications printed on the cover. They are in the press text, so we know why there were created, so we know, for instance that 'Luxury' is 'an orchestral drone piece featuring an old French lady singing to her cats with an extra celestial chorus', or that 'Skyline Ascending' is 'a Carpenters LP piano loop is layered again and again over a high sky recording, which was recorded using a helium balloon floating in the clouds over the city, with raindrops'. Shorter these pieces may seem, they essentially are not unlike his longer pieces: multi-layered sound events that create a beautiful dense, atmospheric field of sound. Careful crackles, computer processed sustaining loops (from instruments, vinyl, field recordings, nothing is sacred in the hands of Schaefer), and carefully placed field recordings in their raw state. There is obviously no reason to pick one over the other, but I think I prefer the second LP to the first, great as that one is. The second LP had more variation and the compositions were better worked out, unlike the more endless stream of sounds approach of the first. The differences are small I know, and it's probably best if you get both at the same time. This is Janek Schaefer at what he does, and what he does best. No surprises here, pleasant or otherwise." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Inner Space Memorial in Wonderland |
LP |
"Dekorder presents two new vinyl editions composed and designed by UK sound artist Janek Schaefer, who is known around the world for his wide variety of engaging and unpredictable works for installation, concert and composition. Following his highly acclaimed ‘Lay-by Lullaby’ album on 12k [which Pitchfork listed in the ‘Top 10 under-the-radar releases for 2014’], Janek has created and collated a collection of tracks that showcase both his more ambient works [077], and his highly charged sonorities [078]. A beautiful pair of LP’s that ideally should be experienced together for your home listening pleasure. The tracks were mastered by Stephan Mathieu and cut by Lupo at Calyx Mastering.
'Over the years, I have produced a number of works in praise of the ideas of J.G Ballard. He lived just over the river from my home. While reading his autobiography in 2009, I was wandering how to go and say hello, but found out I was too late. I produced a monument in honour of him called the ‘Inner Space Memorial’, part of my Retrospective at the Bluecoat in Liverpool. A pair of speaker cones were turned around to play back into the void of their cabinets. An epitaph for a great mind.'
'Wonderland is the finale of my exhibition soundtrack to "Asleep at the wheel...". A work that questions where our culture is heading further down the highway ahead. A single majestic daydream that drives you forwards as reality undertakes you. Location recordings were made in the middle of the night on a footbridge over the M3, at the end of Ballard's street. I was fascinated to work out that while he was writing Crash and Concrete Island, the six lane motorway was being built right past the front of his home. Ideal music for when you need to stay awake on the road!'
Biography: Janek Schaefer has exhibited, lectured, and performed widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, Strasbourg Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art], USA/Canada, [Walker Art Center, Mutek, Princeton, XI], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House 2003]. His foundsound concerts and installations explore the spatial, social and celestial qualities that sound can communicate, through the twisting of old and new technology. The context of each idea is central to its development and resolution, often exploring themes of appropriation, accident, & alteration.
Janek studied Architecture at the Royal College of Art where he worked with Brian Eno, creating “Recorded Delivery” in 1995, and discovered how important sound is in perceiving space, and place. In 2008 he won the British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art, and a Paul Hamlyn Award. The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool exhibited a Retrospective of his career to date in 2009. He is represented by the Agency gallery, London, and is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes Sonic Art Research Unit. He lives and works in Walton-on-Thames." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SCHEFFNER, PHILIP |
Fon |
maxi-CD |
Erste Veröffentlichung für das neue Berliner Label PONG. PHILIPP SCHEFFNER versucht hier, hörspielartig mit musikalischen Mitteln eine Story zu erzählen.. sehr interessant und außergewöhnlich.
First release for new Berlin based label PONG by P. SCHEFFNER who already created music for several film-productions. This work has Hoerspiel-like qualities, like the “cinema pour l’oreille”-series.
“For „fon" Scheffner developed for the first time a soundtrack without a film. Over and over modified soundscapes and acoustic „accidents", recorded and re-arranged in analog and digital technology, have been created as a subtle drama structure, which the six different tracks follow without narrating a clear story. Comfortably situated in the electronic home after a while a certain restlessness is noticed by the inhabitant. The attempt to contact the outside becomes a journey through ether waves and wires and gets stuck between beats and loops. A real outside world seems more and more unlikely to exist. The cinemascope-version of the story could be totallly different: A catastropy has happened in a small town, USA. A single survivor is sitting in his detached family house, seeking desperately for signs of life. In this version the hero would probably leave the city at last. Close Up. It is raining. Long fade out.” [press release]
|
2001 |
€11.00 |
|
| SCHEICH IN CHINA |
Scheich in China |
LP |
"Killer album of ferric, monotone, fizzing electronics, slowed down bunker Techno and heavily atmospheric field recordings unearthed and compiled by Golden Püdel's impeccable selector Nina (veteran of mixes for the likes of Blackest Ever Black's Krokodilo Tapes and Berceuse Heroique) and Tobias Duffner's VIS label. Highly Recommended if you're into Alessandro Cortini or fellow Pudel compatriot Helena Hauff.
Scheich in China make exactly the kind of stuff you’d hope to hear during one of Nina’s far-reaching but focussed DJ sets and comes from another one of the club's elusive and extended possee, someone who alongside their nocturnal activities apparently spends their time beekeeping.
Their self-titled LP bluntly stakes out malefic intent to hypnotise thru their unflinching style and greyscale, atonal palette that’s deeply entrenched in a bunker mindset.
On the A-side they lash us into a trio of ever-decreasing drone techno circles primed for the grungiest DJs and clubs that crave a bit of murk on the ‘floor, but the record’s biggest attraction in undoubtedly the B-side’s 18 minute tract of treated and re-wired field recordings, all processed with a cold, hollow, metallic finish that make us feel like some invisible entity haunting the Hamburg docks and Reeperbahn at 6am.
If you fell in love with Alessandro Cortini's impeccable run of releases over the last few years, this one's a must." [Boomkat]
https://v-i-s.bandcamp.com |
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| SCHERCHEN, HERMANN |
Orchesterproben. Ludwig van Beethoven, 6. Sinfonie, F-Dur. Op.68 |
LP |
Quite obscure, these recordings from 1965: HERMANN SCHERCHEN, one of the main conductors for New Music (his conducting-debut was for ARNOLD SCHÖNBERGS – Pierrot Lunaire, 1912) in action (he died one year later) ! „Rehearsal for Beethoven's 6th Symphony. Proben mit dem RTSI Orchester: 6.Symphonie von Ludwig van Beethoven (Historische Aufnahme aus dem Jahr 1965 in Lugano)“ [label info]
|
1990 |
€15.50 |
|
| SCHISTOSOMA |
Moment |
m-CDR |
Surprise ! SCHISTOSOMA (known from the NEFRYT CDR) are back with their very nice mix of ethno-oriental and ambient-elements. Dense percussive atmospheric pieces with tension, direction MUSLIMGAUZE, TUU, DESACCORD MAJEUR. Comes in special full-colour mCD-Cover (with jewel-case).
“ Here is a new release from Nefryt's sublabel - Malachit. New music with echoes of their old sounds. 7 electro tracks with acoustic accents. Excellent rhythms. Delicate smell of ethno includes little notes of Orient. Nice packing. Limited & numbered to 121 copies.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| SCHITTKO, CLEMENS / LOUIS JUCKER / THE SPYON / JEROEN DIEPENMAAT / KOMMISSAR HJULER & MAMA BÄR |
Home Made Universe |
LP |
Tracklist
A1 –Clemens Schittko Selbstkritik
A2 –Louis Jucker Fake Fake Folk
A3 –The Spyon Got Milk (#6)
A4 –Jeroen Diepenmaat Home Made Universe
A5 –Louis Jucker Vielle Laroque
B –Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär Copenhagen Magazines
LP is series FLUXUS +/-, limited to 100 copies, LP appears in black vinyl with black labels.
|
2018 |
€22.00 |
|
| SCHLOSS TEGAL |
The Myth of Meat |
CD |
Very uncompromising & sinister new release of the US Industrial-group about torture and tortured flesh & cannibalism. A mixture of field recordings, found sounds, electronics...eerie & organic sounding noises, “something” is living inside these sounds…
“limited to 330 copies edition, absolutely new material. great design, heavy paper case + booklet” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Oranur III. The Third and Final Report |
CD |
"Based on the work of Wilhelm Reich and his encounters with UFOs, this influential album has been remastered and reworked from the original recordings, with new bonus tracks and new remixed versions. Originally released in 1997 on CD by Tegal Records (Ltd x 1000) and LP by Artware Productions, Germany (Ltd x 1000), all of the original subject matter has been taken to a new level with this digital recording from the analogue sources. This is the third and final warning to the sleeping beings of the earth. This album influenced many other electronic artists and has been hailed as one of the first recordings to be labelled "dark ambient"." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
https://schlosstegal.bandcamp.com/album/oranur-iii-the-third-and-final-report
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| SCHMICKLER, MARCUS |
Param |
do-LP |
...ein “drone”-album par excellence auf Seite 1, 3 & 4 die himmlisch-höllischen, vielschichtigen dunklen und mitunter disharmonisch-noisigen Drones erinnern an ROLAND KAYN oder andere „classical“ composer und graben sich wie tiefe Furchen ins Gemüt... unheimlich und doch wunderschön ! Andere Stücke (v.a. Seite 2) sind eher klassisch abstrakt gehalten und brechen mitunter aus, aber der düstere Unterton ist stets vorhanden...sehr sehr intensiv !!
“The new release on Cologne based label A-Musik contains compositions by Marcus Schmickler that were performed and recorded over the last four years with many various musicians and ensembles. These recordings document Schmickler's interest in a confrontation with modern classical composers, they are a return of "the livingd dead." According to Schmickler innovations
are only possible by including the old.Schmickler has been known also for his different approaches with Pluramon, MIMEO, his collaborations with Thomas Brinkmann or the improviser Thomas Lehn. "Param" continues his series of releases on A-Musik although it presents itself less electronic and less bulky than "Wabi Sabi" or "Sator Rotas". The original recordings of the compositions are newly edited for this release..” [press-release]
|
2001 |
€17.00 |
|
| SCHNITZLER, CONRAD |
Activis |
CD |
Flip-Flap is pleased to announce that the series of works chosen by Conrad Schnitzler for publication with us is now continued with the help of the Dutch-based distributor Fonodroom. This selection of works was originally made by Conrad Schnitzler himself in 2008 for a 100 CD boxset edition planned to be released by the now defunct Waystyx label. As heirs to Waystyx, Flip-Flap offers Conrad's fans an opportunity to further immerse themselves in his universe of electronic music. Any universe is infinite and these 100 works are only guides to its central points, allowing you to simultaneously orient yourself and feel lost in its limitlessness. And it was Conrad himself who placed these points where refractions occur and where they have maximum glow. This selection of works creates a vast sound mass suspended in a timeless stasis.
Conrad’s music, being as close as possible to improvisation, often raises the question of what is more important here: regulation and control or random positioning of electroacoustic signals. These 100 hours of electronic symphonies, written between 1990 and 2009, represent a long journey through soundscapes where the listener meets something new while also reflecting on the past.
https://flip-flap.bandcamp.com/album/activis |
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Aufzug |
CD |
Flip-Flap is pleased to announce that the series of works chosen by Conrad Schnitzler for publication with us is now continued with the help of the Dutch-based distributor Fonodroom. This selection of works was originally made by Conrad Schnitzler himself in 2008 for a 100 CD boxset edition planned to be released by the now defunct Waystyx label. As heirs to Waystyx, Flip-Flap offers Conrad's fans an opportunity to further immerse themselves in his universe of electronic music. Any universe is infinite and these 100 works are only guides to its central points, allowing you to simultaneously orient yourself and feel lost in its limitlessness. And it was Conrad himself who placed these points where refractions occur and where they have maximum glow. This selection of works creates a vast sound mass suspended in a timeless stasis.
Conrad’s music, being as close as possible to improvisation, often raises the question of what is more important here: regulation and control or random positioning of electroacoustic signals. These 100 hours of electronic symphonies, written between 1990 and 2009, represent a long journey through soundscapes where the listener meets something new while also reflecting on the past.
https://flip-flap.bandcamp.com/album/aufzug
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| SCHNITZLER, CONRAD / PYROLATOR / WOLFGANG SEIDEL / KOMMISSAR HJULER / ETC. |
A Tribute to Anthony Braxton |
LP |
Tracklist
A1 –Conrad Schnitzler & Wolfgang Seidel kWh 01/03
A2 –Conrad Schnitzler & Pyrolator 287_4
A3 –Kommissar Hjuler Gerichtsverhandlung fuer Eimer und Giesskannen
B1 –Kommissar Hjuler Und Frau _____Br/I+ T° n_/
B2 –Albrecht/d. & Der Mußikant Duett
Notes
LP, limited 75 copies, numbered, black vinyl, white labels, part of series FLUXUS +/-.
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| SCHNÜFFLER |
Rauschbereich |
Resipiscent RSPT031 |
"Drawing current and breath through metal... it’s hard to picture just how either is possible, but Schnüffler plumbs the backwaters of both aural miracles in an engrossing, if pageless, storybook entitled "Rauschbereich."
The name of Gino Robair and Liz Allbee's hyper-attuned duo, Schnüffler, is a colloquialism meaning someone who huffs substances. "Huffing" is equal parts curiosity and consuming obsession, and as any huffer knows substance has a way of vanishing. So hork up yours before this handbuilt edition of just 56 copies, end-pages beautifully illustrated by Allbee herself, is gone for good." [label info]
www.resipiscent.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| SCHOU, JANNICK |
Eldey |
mCD-R |
"active for a few years, danish composer jannick schou's work deal with various forms of textual music. his past works were released on various international labels like experimedia, rural colours, under the spire of heat death records.
this 20 minute drone piece has a long progression and an almost analogic orchestra feel..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| SCHUMACHER, MICHAEL J. |
Five Sound Installations |
DVD |
"Five Sound Installations is a DVD-ROM (for MAC and PC) that contains 5 sound compositions generated in real time by a computer algorithm. The works are: 'Room Piece Twenty-Four'; 'Noema'; 'Steiner Suite'; 'Unintending'; 'Scene'. 'Sound Art, algorithmic composition, chance operations, multi-channel sound systems, immersive installations, computer music; these terms all intersect at a point defined by the new XI release 5SI by MJS. Shumacher is a composer, curator (he runs Diapason, NY's only 'sound art' gallery), and performer, and has been creating computer-generated installations for close to 20 years. His output includes 5 solo cds, but these were by necessity adaptations of works designed for more or less permanent listening situations, in which auditors could explore various modes of listening within sound environments. These works were composed with installation settings in mind, they had no 'beginning-middle-end' (even out of order) in the traditional sense. For the cd releases, the pieces needed to be manipulated in various ways to accommodate the medium. A better way needed to be found. Schumacher has always been interested in creating algorithmic works that extend the boundaries of the genre, investing them with 100s of constituent parts that form sonic mobiles in space and time. Now he presents the ambitious (and technically savvy) listener with a means to experience Schumacher's installations in the home, through up to 8 separate speaker channels and for as long as the computer keeps running. No question, this is not an iPod experience! For some, just understanding the reason for such a project will be difficult. But the composer and XI believe that the time is apt for challenging a complacent public and industry. This release, more than anything else, is a challenge to break boundaries in both content and distribution, a call for a new way of thinking about sound in the home, which is more than ever the predominant place for listening.' NOTE: These compositions must be installed on a computer to be heard. Instructions are enclosed." [label info]
"This is not a DVD with musical compositions in any sort of traditional manner. It doesn't 'play' in a conventional way. One has to copy all the information to the harddisc (watch your system requirements, and there is both Mac and Windows available) and then you will have five pieces of music that are made in real time. Every time you play one of the five it will sound different. It's the work of Micheal J. Schumacher who has explored before sound installations and his releases were often 'just' the musical component of it, not the spatial side. But now you can set it up, stereo or surround sound (unavailable in the HQ here). Still not quite interactive: one can't load sounds yourself to the pieces, an Schumacher has set the parameters of the pieces, but there is, obviously, more freedom than a regular. This is music that plays until you stop it or if your computer shuts down. Definitely the first release ever in Vital Weekly that you can't download on a blog! I played every installation for about fifteen minutes to get the drift of it. My favorite was 'Room Piece Twenty-four': it had continuos gliding sounds which filled my space with elegance - certainly work to have playing for some time. The other four pieces more cut and paste pieces that arrive a bit louder than the first one, thus making a bigger 'presence' in your space. They were fine too, but I choose to play them at a somewhat lower volume but there is certainly sense in having these pieces play for a long time and see what it creates for you (unfortunately time is not something the average reviewer has too much at hand). Next step would be something to incorporate ones own sounds I guess. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label website: www.xirecords.org
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Stories |
CD |
"The new album by composer, performer and installation artist Michael J. Schumacher from New York City after the critically acclaimed Room Pieces, on the XI label. Feat. guest musicians Tim Barnes, Charles Curtis, Donald Miller, Peter Zummo, George Bishop and many more.
Stories refers to the idea of layering, the process of building a structure by stacking things on top of each other. This procedure is particularly evident in Room Pieces New York, in which as many as 23 parts play simultaneously. In general, Schumacher's interest is to develop a contemporary form of counterpoint, where each voice maintains its integrity while contributing to a total sound. Listeners are invited to create their own melodies by letting their ears follow the sounds moment by moment, allowing spontaneous pathways linking the various voices to emerge effortlessly. Michael J. Schumacher works predominantly with electronic and digital media, specializing in computer generated sound environments which evolve continuously for long time periods. His sound installations have been heard at Apex Art, PS 1, the Queens Museum and The Kitchen in New York City, at the Technical University and Podewil in Berlin, at the Museum for Applied Arts in Frankfurt, at the Museum of Modern Art in Lyon and many others." [label notes] |
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| SCHUMACHER, MICHAEL J. / STEPHEN VITIELLO |
Untitled / Exchange |
CD-R |
Looking for strange stoff ? Here you are ! Incredible sounds derived from field recordings & objects, very concrete but it all has rather a "small sounds"- feel to it... some sounds also seem to be based on electronic devices, its hard to say, quite weird at times, but also lovely...
"It's unclear wether they did each a track, or that both tracks are the result of a collaborative work. Both Schumacher and Vitiello are known for the love of minimal music, that is music with not many changes, usually made with computers. As such this collaborative work is a bit different. Although they still play around with longer, repeating textures, almost in a drone like manner, there are also sounds that swirl in and out of the mix. Sometimes it seems to be a synthesizer, sometimes a guitar, sometimes perhaps the processed version of acoustic objects. Not always this comes across as super structured music, but more like a free flow. Nothing leaps out of the mix, and things move all the time on the same level. This gives the whole release a nice and relaxed ambient feel, even when as such the music has not much to do with ambient music. Not really a big surprise, but throughout very nice." [Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly]
label: www.void.gr/absurd
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| SCHÄFER, HELMUT |
Thought Provoking III |
CD |
"Thought Provoking III is the final document from the electro-acoustic composer Helmut Schäfer who died in 2007. The Austrian artist spoke of his work as "characterized by the use of very intense and direct musical language which powerfully describes his personal experience and reflections on society structures, the blindness of modern and informed masses and everyday functionalism in between civilization." That intensity of expression manifested itself through performances and collaborations that took Schäfer around the globe, including presentations at Documenta X and ARS Electronica both in 1997. For all of his tireless work, Schäfer's recording output is relatively small, focusing mostly on his collaborative work with noted musical extremist Zbigniew Karkowski.
Schäfer posited Thought Provoking as a radical shift from his brutalist electronic engineering to a spatialized, open-ended composition based on the muffled tones from an ad hoc instrument he built from salvaged church organ pipes and hair dryers. The first presentation of this work took place in his home town of Graz, Austria in 2003; the second was a collaboration with violinist Elisabeth Gmeiner in Vienna two years later; and the third & final performance occurred in 2006 with percussionist Will Guthrie and Gmiener at the St. Andre Church where he first presented it in Graz. After Schäfer's death, Guthrie reconstituted the rehearsal takes from that performance for this recording of Thought Provoking III, attempting to re-imagine the controlled energy of those sessions with Schäfer's aesthetic framework at the forefront. The bellowing hums from Schäfer's organ pipe and hair dryer contraction ebb and flow amidst intermittent percussive flourishes, subtle gong overtones, sustained violin trills, and fizzling electronic mark-making. On the second track of this disc, long-time friend Zbigniew Karkowski presents a smoldering electro-acoustic remix of Thought Provoking III as a fitting tribute to Schäfer." [label info]
www.23five.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| SCHÄFER, HELMUT & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI |
Eminent Risk Factor |
C |
Sound? Geräusch? Klang? Nein, Energie umgewandelt in Klang! Transformationsmusik, eigentlich Genre-frei. Ein einziges Wummern, Strahlen, Zerreiben von akustischen Informationen. Leider das letzte Projekt von HELMUT SCHÄFER, der im April 2007 verstarb.
"Internationally acclaimed sound artists Helmut Schäfer and Zbigniew Karkowski met for the first time in 1997. From then on, they maintained a close friendship and worked together on several collaborations, performances and music projects. Then years later, in April 2007, Helmut passed away. 'Eminent Risk Factor' gathers recordings from the last 2 concerts and studio session they ever made together. The master was finished on the last day they ever saw each other. In memory of Helmut Schäfer (1969 - 2007)." [label info]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| SCISS |
Crosshatch |
mCD-R |
Another new label rising from Berlin with its first output, a damn fine release by german project SCISS, combining digitally processed drones and found sounds.. kind of ambience with musique concrete influences... comes in special white printed cardboard box !
“ apostrov starts its release programme with «crosshatch» by the berlin based composer and musician sciss. the 18-minute mini-cd appears to be a crystallization of the artist's live performances. during the recent years through many concerts, sciss has created a kind of alter ego. it has an individual independence and freedom distinct from his studio works like «stamina» or «residual». it is the well-prepared but equally improvising live situation of asynchronous tape tracks being mixed, filtered, alienated and sampled, where the meditative and the spontaneous elements meet. «crosshatch» is a rearranged and intensified version of the dienstbar concert in october 2003 in the church of the holy cross – the concert as a space inside a space, earthly headquarter inside the celestial. no coincidences: alike the initial mover, the piece begins with a soft stroke which unfolds a unidirectional 'dynamic' energy throughout the first part. the dancing figure arises from a ducked position, heads straight forward but turns out to be a vulnerable object. maximally reduced but nevertheless exploring the properties of tortuousity, the listener is thrown into a panopticum comprised of shattered items. a visual presentation of synchronous, different viewpoints, phrases which revolve, counterparts that are not contradictory. a concealed pompe des nuages is operating and produces castings and spew outs as a new landscape. what is a poetic affection? distant sound traces cautiously underline the barren foreground like sheet lightning. and right in the middle of it a short melodic fragment, like an obelisk standing on a grey deserted square, its skin made of oil. a distressingly premature return of the oreille from its embryonic separation to the real, yet echoing world.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€7.00 |
|
| SCKE// |
Ornaments |
7inch |
"Self pressed electronica 7"
Side A is a rhythmical piece with plucked sounds and synth sounds.
Side B is a slightly more percussive rhythmical piece.
Vinyl comes in two clear plastic poly sleeves with Xerox black and white A4 folded inlay.
Originally pressed 2004.
Made available in 2012 by KIKS/Girlfriend label." [discogs]
https://kiksgfrlabel.bandcamp.com/album/scke-ornaments
"Originally pressed in 2004. 2 Sides of rough and ready cut up fragments over warm undulating textures and brittle loops. A sound somewhere between European electronic music and old school noise cut up. Produced using only a limited step sequencer and sampler, this is a no frills record that wears its production limitations on its sleeve. Very rough, very low key, very DIY." [label notes]
|
2004 |
€7.00 |
|
| SCORN / SEEFEEL / TIMOTHY LEARY / YANOMAMI |
Ancient Lights and the black Core |
LP |
"Third record of a thematic series of 9,
published from 1993 to 1998 called Utopian Diaries: Ancient Light and the Blackcore (1995).
Never released before as LP vinyl. Contains only unreleased and exclusive material.
It begins with Scorn at his best, Naked Sun with M.J. Harris (Lull, Painkiller) & N.J. Bullen.
Followed 3 new tracks by Seefeel (As if, As track & As well) recorded during the sessions of Seccour. Why are you there? the large track by Timothy Leary (voices) & DJ Cheb i Sabbah (production) is a fascinating hallucinatory
piece. At the end of the LP, extraordinary recordings of an intoxicated and painful ceremony of some Amazonian Shamans - recorded
by David Toop in the rainforest of Southern Venezuela (communauty of Yanomami) in november 1978.
Insert includes an important text written by David Toop: 'Subworld .' " [label info]
www.subrosa.net
www.subrosa.net
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| SCOTT, SIMON (SIMON SCOTT) |
Navigare |
LP |
"This is the debut full-length release by the UK's Simon Scott. Scott has had a notable musical past: in the early '90s he was the drummer for the renowned shoegaze band Slowdive. Upon leaving Slowdive, he formed the more electronic-based group Televise. He also set up his own label, Kesh Recordings, and has so far released titles by the likes of Hannu, Sebastian Roux, Aus and Mark Templeton. More recently, Scott has been involved in several diverse projects, including his work as a member of Seavault (with Antony Ryan from Isan), and collaborations with Machinefabriek, Jasper TX and Emmanuele Errante. With Navigare, there are shades of Scott's previous output and musical interests, but as a whole, the album marks a bold new direction. Navigare opens with "Introduction Of Cambridge," a shimmering wall of sound, its ethereal tones and slow-burning drones gradually drawing closer and closer, creating gorgeous uplifting melodies and textures. The processed guitar combined with gentle swathes of interference and underlying rhythms echoes the processes of Chain Reaction's productions as much as it does the screeching, arcing feedback lines of Kevin Shield's guitar work. Navigare shares an affinity with the melodic content of Fennesz's work, the dark beauty of Tim Hecker's sound, and houses elements of the restraint found in Andrew Chalk's drone compositions. What really devastates here is Scott's ability to merge ambient passages with such memorable melodic cycles, taking the simplest of ideas and building on them, generating murky hooks and submerged "riffs." Scott explores textures using a variety of instruments including sitar, violin, cello, and flute, merging them with excerpts from field recordings; it all sounds so effortless. The looping rhythms and slow guitars rise and grow, at times approaching something oppressive; select pieces such as "Flood Inn" house an underlying weight, comparable to Justin K. Broderick's Jesu and Final projects. Perhaps the hazy drums, bass and guitar drift of "The ACC" presents the most recognizable of stylistic qualities from Scott's back catalog; a groove that recalls the Souvlaki-era sound in all its glory, re-imagined in a new, darker and more expansive form. Additionally, a guest appearance from label mate Jasper TX, a vocal contribution from Moskitoo, and a track co-written with Rafael Anton Irisarri, adds even more depth to Scott's already ambitious vision." [label info]
www.myspace.com/o3o3o
"Ah, Miasmah! After the likes of Elegi, Jacazek, and Kreng, we're pretty much automatically interested in any new release on
Norway's Miasmah label. Like this one. Add in some bits of trivia, like that Scott was once the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, and that
this disc features a guest cameo from another Miasmah artist we love, Jasper TX, and we're already pretty intrigued. We also weren't at all surprised, but certainly pleased, by the gentle swells of ambient sonics that seep sleepily from the speakers when one hits play. The first two tracks, "Introduction Of Cambridge" and "Under Crumbling Skies", are blissfully replete with quiet hum and shimmering textures, forming into and out of drifting diaphanous melodies, blurry and
melancholic. Some sparse, slowed down drum skitter adds a touch of Bohren to the proceedings in the first track, while the second employs a glorious chorus of angelic drones, that graces one's ears again and
again throughout the disc.
Then, suddenly upping the volume, the third track "Flood Inn" seemingly enters into a subterranean realm full of soft fuzzy distortion. Quasi-industrially rhythmic, with a distant tolling bell heard amidst the crackle, this is ambience of the heavier (but not
harsh) variety, almost like something from a Nadja or Jesu album.
Having given warning of a more sinister side, the disc continues on, with seven tracks more, being a beautiful blend of dreaminess, drone and distortion. There are almost pop songs hidden here, with buried rhythms and barely-there vocals (in one instance
contributed by 12K's Sanae Yamasaki, aka Moskitoo), electronic treatments rendering the sound sources (guitar, sitar, violin, cello,
flute, field recordings, voice, ???) all one lush, hushed, beautifully bleary, gorgeous warm bath of song-like drone...
It's a moodier, shoegazier take on Pop Ambient perhaps, certainly something that fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Final, Jasper
TX, and of course those other Miasmah wonders should check out!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Bunny |
CD |
"This is UK multi-instrumentalist Simon Scott's second album for Miasmah. He might still be best known for his tenure as the backbone of influential shoegazers Slowdive, but after his debut solo effort Navigare in 2009, he showed that there was far more to his oeuvre. With an ease and fluidity that eschews the usual trappings of the genre, he injected Slowdive's freeflowing bliss into the kind of blackened soundscapes the Miasmah label has made its calling card and gave the sound a rich, multi-layered quality that was effortlessly enticing. Bunny sees him take on a plethora of themes and ideas, distilling them into a coherent, well-defined narrative. The overall premise of the record is apparent from the very beginning, and might surprise some with its inspired take on the blackened jazz and smokey Americana heard in Paris, Texas or Mulholland Dr.. It would do Scott a disservice to simply label the music as Lynchian however; his success is to treat the layers of instrumentation (drums, guitars, cello, synthesizers) with a masterful fluidity, allowing the influences to melt into a delicate and delectable whole. Occasionally Scott acknowledges his shoegazing past, nudging the sound towards the blurred haze of his former band, but even these moments are cavernous enough for us to imagine them oozing from a Midwestern jukebox in an abandoned suburban diner. Bunny is an ambitious and daring journey for an artist who refuses to stay still; and it might just be the best road trip you've never taken." [label info]
www.miasmah.com
"Simon Scott produced one of the best records of 2009 with Navigare, an album whose shoegaze dronemusic was dotted with radioluminescent dream-pop numbers. It was hardly a surprise to us when we learned that he was the drummer of Slowdive way back when. Since then, Scott has produced a single for Immune and a collaboration with Jasper TX, both equally fantastic. For his second proper record, Scott makes a slight detour; but one that is well suited to everything else that's been released by the hauntologically leaning Miasmah records. The album opens with a languid series of smoke and mirror abstractions flickering above a nocturnal jazz rhythm that gives way to a Caretaker-esque melody of disembodied historicism amidst subterranean clatter and eerie scrapings. A walking bassline follows this as the only constant to the next track "Betty" whose distant cacophonous guitars slide into audibility through a dense fog of reverb, with a trip along the drumkit taking one tempestuous fill before succumbing to Scott's omnivorous reverb, sounding not all that far from Supersilent at their grooviest and some of those bleached Crescent instrumentals, if anybody remembers that Bristol outfit. With the breathtaking "Radiances," Scott relives his shoegaze past with a song directly out of the Slowdive playbook: a halo of guitar ambience brightens a classic Brit-pop maudlin rhythm section, where the droning slipperiness of the guitar is perfectly countered by the easy pace of the bassline. It really does sound like "Albatross" off of the Blue Day album by Slowdive, and we mean that as quite a high complement. Scott reprises this dream-pop sensibility on the equally deft "Drilla," with electro-static crackling and plenty of ephemeral drone-guitar work to fill in the blanks." [Aquarius Records] |
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Insomni |
CD |
"Couldn't sleep arose to forage for sound. The hum of the fridge encouraged further investigation of hidden, domestic sounds; the fish tank, dvd player, a broken laptop
Dawn and morning light allowed more sound and the guitar, in its case, beckoned
From darkness to light
Guitars: Guild 12 string D-125 & Vintage Guild 6 string GF-25. Mics: Induction coil pick up & Hydrophones. Buddha Machine pre-recorded and mixed, then re-recorded at Holme Fen Posts using mobile speakers. Recording device: Edirol r-09. Radio: static between stations. Software: Max MSP (self-programmed), Supercollider & Logic Pro.
Simon Scott (b. 1971) is a British multi-instrumentalist who is currently based in Cambridge, UK. Insomni is his fourth album and his debut for Ash International and is published by Touch. His music is a fusion of digital signal manipulation combined with an aesthetic of compositional collaboration with environmental sounds and organic acoustic textures. He is inspired by his interests in sound ecology, music technology, the natural world, illustration, photography, composition and sonic art.
Below Sea Level, originally presented live in quadraphonic sound, was released on Touchline in March 2015, after 12k originally released the album in 2012 as an 80-page journal and seven track CD. It explores the aesthetics of active listening, sound ecology and the subjective distinction of compositional materials and sound timbres. Critically applauded for creating juxtapositions of analogue and digital timbres, the man-made and natural world sounds, captured in his local sunken landscape of The Fens in East Anglia, create a fusion of digital signal manipulation combined with organic acoustic textures.
Since the late 1990's Scott's solo work has been featured in a variety of international films, sonic art exhibitions, dance productions, television productions and digital multi-media projects.
He has toured worldwide since 1988 and he is the drummer for UK band Slowdive, who worked with Brian Eno on 1993 'Souvlaki' album. His track 'Für Betty' was included on the German label Kompakt's 'Pop Ambient' (2014) compilation series and his solo music has also been previously released on recording labels 12k, Morr Music, Miasmah, Sonic Pieces and Ghostly International.
Scott is also a freelance composer and sound recordist for film and television and recently appeared on the BBC program 'Springwatch Unsprung' recording aquatic wildlife and discussing his work with presenter Chris Packham. He has taught Music Technology and sound recording in Cambridgeshire and lectured at Cambridge University.
In 2008 he established the KESH recording label, releasing global artists audio and visual projects and he has also collaborated on various projects with Taylor Deupree, Nils Frahm, Machinefabriek, The Sight Below, Isan and James Blackshaw." [label info]
"There are people who know Simon Scott as member of the renown shoegazer band, Slowdive. I have, unfortunately, never got into their music during their reign (even now I can see Rafael Anton Irisarri glaring down at me for this comment). I have, however, come upon Simon Scott's music back in 2009, where, for the first time since his playing drums for Slowdive, he has ventured out to release a solo album. Since then, Scott's music appeared on many of my favorite labels, such as Miasmah, Low Point, Slaapwel, and even 12k. Scott also runs and releases on his very own imprint, Kesh Recordings. His latest full length, Insomni, lands courtesy of Ash International, a long running outlet for Mike Harding, who is already busy with curating releases for Touch.
Insomni opens up with a slowly rising guitar strum slash drone slash noise, perfect as a soundtrack for my early morning walk, as I step out towards a lethargic and barely visible sun. The volume ascents with the climbing star, and soon envelopes every cell of my body. Gentle ambient soundscapes are intermixed with growling distortion, and it is this cocktail of dynamically opposing sonic vibrations that awakens my neurons, and a smile creeps in. The thunder eventually dissolves into a field recording of chirping birds, and Scott's guitar chords tell their story. Those awakened in the midst of night will recognize this texture of insomnia, mixed with fleeting thoughts within an empty chalice of a mind, and distant sounds of the universe unfolding on its own... all on its own...
Couldn't sleep... arose to forage for sound. The hum of the fridge encouraged further investigation of hidden, domestic sounds; the fish tank, dvd player, a broken laptop... Dawn and morning light allowed more sound and the guitar, in its case, beckoned... From darkness to light… -Scott
Insomni pursues its tale through a set of repetitious passages, shimmering light and lo-fi fabric. These are accented with environmental sounds (including the pickup of a cellular electromagnetic interference), wrapping this reverse lullaby into an organic aural pillow of music to wake up to. My favorite moment on the album enters with Scott playing his acoustic guitar (the press release credits a Guild 12-string D-125 and Vintage Guild six-string GF-25) - this is where Scott's talent as a multi-instrumentalist truly shines - it feels like Simon Scott is all this music, all these sounds, all this one. This is a beautiful record to add to your collection, and if you buy directly from the label you will receive two bonus tracks not available anywhere else. Highly recommended for fans of Rafael Anton Irisarri, William Basinski, Lawrence English and Christian Fennesz."
[headphone commute] |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH, RUSS / SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON / ANDREW SHARPLEY |
Mask of Cheerful |
CD |
Ross Scott-Buccleuch: tapes, objects, found sounds.
Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson: sounds, percussion, voice
Andrew Sharpley: reaktor synths
Edited and Mixed by Andrew Sharpley, Dec 2020 - Jan 2021
Mastered by Richard Scott
Front cover collage by Ross Scott-Buccleuch
https://testrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mask-of-cheerful
"Here we have two collaborations with Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, with, in one case, his favourite collaborator, BJ Nilsen. Let's start with the other one, which sees him working with Ross Scott-Buccleuch (tapes, synths, field recordings) and Andrew Sharpley (sounds, edit, mix), while Sigmarsson is responsible for tapes, sounds and voice. The first we know from his work as Dirunal Burdens and his Steepgloss label, while Sharpley once was a member of Stock, Hausen & Walkman. The three of them already worked together, on the CDR 'Ghost Of Dada', released by Chocolate Monk last year (not reviewed here). As far as I know, it is quite common for Sigmarsson to do the final mix of the music, but in this case, it was Sharpley. From what I understand the process to be, is that everybody brought a lot of sound to the table and from the resulting ingredients Sharpley stewed this dish, perhaps adding a few rounds of processing to the mix, but most likely perhaps not. Just bring it all to whatever multi-track program/device of choice and shift the material around for a considerable amount of time and see what that brings, in terms of composition and, perhaps also, in the terms of variation. While to some this kind of music might be something like 'anything goes', I would think this is not the case. What Sharpely does here is creating a work of modern musique concrète qualities. Through endless cutting, editing and pasting of sounds, he created nine pieces of music collage and demontage. There is a great variety in the sound material here, spoken word, synthesizer sounds, the kitchen sink and some rather more obscure sounds, and the results are loud and harsh, soft and intimate and anything in between. Occasionally a loop goes on a bit too long or being just a bit too much of a plain loop, but I found this a great work altogether. Very classic, I thought, in a sort of late 80s cassette networking sort of way." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€14.00 |
|
| SEAMUS |
Forever |
CD |
New project of AMIR BAGHIRI and STEFANO GENTILE (of AMPLEXUS / SILENTES), trance-percussive electronics, more technoid and cosmic, with long ambient parts....
“On the wing of a new chapter in Amir Baghiri and Stefano Gentile's musical career the SEAMUS carries us to their latest sounds-statement to the mystical side of our industrial world. In the musical labyrinth of the SEAMUS project, the fractal grooves continually changing themselves from each sound colour into another one ...and all that with Amir`s excellent balance between the dynamic elements and morphing atmospheres, between emotional energies and spiritual experiences .
Refined and elegant electronic music, discreet rhythmical and pleasant movements, blended to cosmic-ambiental suspended sonic landascapes, bass lines, sequencers parts, voices, radio meddles, ambient distant noises, whispers, soft melodic elements... A moving and variegated sonic trip around a limitless electronic universe.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| SEARCH ENSEMBLES |
same |
CD |
"Search Ensembles is a new evocative project of and/OAR founder / operator Dale Lloyd presenting “sonic archeology”, unearthing forgotten and previously unreleased recordings from project participants’ archives, plus new recordings to create a conceptually cohesive album. The name “Search Ensembles” is a play on the term “search parties” which means: “groups of people conducting an organized search for someone or something lost or hidden.” This first offering comes across as a collection of inexplicable field recordings pointing toward a mysterious ancient past - of people around the world, some of which we still know next to nothing about; some of which were able to accomplish feats still not properly explained or replicated to this day. After this first release, the intention for Search Ensembles is to continue sonic explorations inspired by, and/or pertaining to various mysteries around the world (and perhaps beyond).
For this release, Search Ensembles was Alan Courtis: field recordings, Cédric Peyronnet: field recordings, voice, objects, Cyril Herry: objects, voices, Dale Lloyd: field recordings, objects, percussion, production, slide whistle, synthesizer, voice, David Tobin: percussion, slide whistle, violin, voice, Jani Hirvonen: electronics, Jon Tulchin: field recordings, Katerina Nejepsova: flute, Loren Chasse: field recording, flute, percussion, Michael Northam: field recordings, Petr ‘Pedro’ Tuzar: guitar, Phil Legard: banjo, drum, psaltry, Slavek Kwi: analog echo, banjo, monotar, percussion, tapes, Stuart Arentzen: electronics." [label info]
www.and-oar.org
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SEASONS (PRE-DIN) |
Your Eyes The Stars and Your Hands The Sea |
CD-R |
"UK sibylline sound artist Seasons (pre-din) is a self-effacing miracle... when I heard for the first time his debut ("Above the tides fold"), an indescribable thrill took hold of me... the elementality degree of his music, and the density of its distilled emotions seemed just unreal... a total experience, and a most precious encounter for sure...
Thoroughly passionate about his creations, terribly human, Seasons (pre-din) exists in the permanent instant of "giving"...
Most of his lovely & ultra ltd elaborate hand-made releases came out via his own imprint THY-REC ("Above the tides fold", "Har Habayit Be Yadeinu", "The Canopy Falls", "By the banks go through"...)...meticulously assembling the quintessence of crepuscular forest-tinted field recordings with dissolved instrumental passages (dulcimer, singing bowl...), he reaches for a mesmeric & unique potent brew, a constant flowing dronescape opening a multitude of new channels...
What started as a discreet audio-journey for initiates has slowly turned into a small hype, mainly due to high interest shown by the Boomkat mail-order, and the Type label, which both praised copiously Seasons (pre-din)'s galvanic works, and also via some stimulating performances... Recent developments saw his sound getting sparser and more vivid, as it is now centred on piano and guitar infused orchestral loops with environmental sounds still percolating, but more subsidiary...
a festival of sensitivity...
For MS, Seasons (pre-din) remained faithful to his first emotions, outlining a flow of profuse & petrifying droning ramifications...
Closed eyes
Pale glowing firmament
Your voice babbling through the stream
Scattered leaves, cold humus, receding stones
Your smile perched on the shadow of tangled trees
A wind of rupture...
Without a word, walking wild and astray
Looking into your astral veins,
a river within you...
"Your Eyes the Stars and Your Hands the Sea"
cries out an intimate loss, an aborted love
transformed into an harrowing moment of exhilaration...
an improbable symbolist landscape
oozing mysteries of unspeakable beauty
nestling in the ruts of silence,
the folds of a lucid dream..." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Your Eyes The Stars and Your Hands The Sea |
LP |
"You might not be familiar with the work of Seasons (pre-din), but the shadowy northerner has been honing his craft for some time now, covertly issuing a slew of stunning albums while the world ticked on. He cut his teeth performing and collaborating with Richard Skelton and Xela, but over the last couple of years has busied himself prepping a range of hand-made releases on his own label. Often gone in a matter of hours, these lovingly crafted curios caught the attention of astute listeners worldwide and it is now our pleasure to announce the first widely available album from Seasons (pre-din).
‘Your Eyes The Stars and Your Hands The Sea’ is a collection of tracks crafted from hours of field recordings and instrumental takes. Using a small hand held recorder and a collection of string instruments, Seasons set about using ‘spaces’ – recording sounds in different areas to create a certain sound or mood. These rooms, fields and abandoned buildings form the backbone of the sound and give a curious cinematic quality to the record. You can almost place yourself in each space, and while it isn’t always obvious beneath the chatter and manipulated radio static, there are always skeletons of real life just around the corner. It is eventually the artist’s humanity that sets these compositions apart from those of his peers; rather than simply dry recordings, they are merely starting points for layering and sculpting. The result is thick, detailed pieces which, while subtle, pack a clout more readily associated with the contemporary noise scene.
Restrained and totally enveloping, this is an album which resides somewhere in the undergrowth, emerging slowly before drifting gently out to sea. Turn down the lights, lower the needle and let it pull you away. You might not want to come back." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| SEAWORTHY + MATT RÖSNER |
Two Lakes |
CD |
"In April 2010, 12k recording artist Seaworthy (the recording project of Cameron Webb) and Matt Rösner traveled to the south coast of New South Wales to undertake a detailed field recording study of two coastal lake ecosystems at the Lakes Meroo and Termeil. The aim of the project was to explore the sounds of a fragile coastal Australian environment and to build from those sounds unique musical pieces that provide a place for listener contemplation and reflection. Field recordings were taken from the lakes and surrounding beaches, forests and streams at different times of the day. Various equipment including a hydrophone, a shotgun and stereo microphones were used to capture the natural sounds of each lake. During breaks in field recording, the artists set up recording equipment in a nearby lakeside cabin. Using acoustic and electric guitars, a ukulele, and electronics, a series of improvised performances were documented. On the last day of the trip, with the experience of the recording process still fresh in mind, rough arrangements were created from the field recordings and improvised sets. Matt Rösner then took these arrangements back to his studio in Myalup -- a small coastal town on the opposite side of the Australian continent -- to mix and finalize the production. Both Rösner and Webb have been active in the Australian experimental music scene for over ten years, with a plethora of releases on local and international labels sharing a similar vision of molding found sounds and field recordings with traditional instrumentation and electronics. Aside from shared musical interest, both artists grew up in close connection with the Australian coastline, albeit on opposite sides of the continent. This connection with their landscape as a remote and diverse place is evident in the pieces created by the artists during their collaboration on the South Coast. Two Lakes marks the third full-length appearance for Seaworthy on 12k following 2006's Map In Hand and 2009's 1897 and blends his signature guitar style with the beautifully arranged field recordings and electronics of Matt Rösner. Two Lakes is a strikingly stark and lonely album undeniably influenced by the remote recording cabin and delicate Australian ecosystem. The blend of instrumentation comes off more like a natural, live duet between artist and nature than a modern-day layered recording. Webb's finger-picked acoustic guitar and ukelele play off of the sounds of wind, reeds and insects in perfect harmony, supported by soft beds of eBowed drones and careful electronic tones. Despite their human presence, Rösner and Webb manage to create music that resonates on another level, as if composed by the lakes themselves." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE |
Inaudible |
CD-R |
"Auch "Inaudible" besticht wiederum durch die angenehm- zurückhaltende Art des Künstlers, musikalisch, wie auch im persönlichen Auftreten. "Inaudible" beginnt mit sanften Drones die irgendwo da zuhause sind, wo die Grenze zwischen Himmel und Ozean am Horizont verschwimmt. Grenzgang wie Naturerfahrung gleichermassen. Lange Akkorde tragen den Hörer durch weite, spärliche Klangfelder. Die wohl grösste Neuerung diesmal sind die minimalen, auf leichten Füssen daherkommenden Beats, sowie die Percussion Loops, die an minimalistische Elektronische Musik erinnern. Ich mag es, wenn sich Künstler, die sich einem bestimmten Genre zugehörig fühlen, trotzdem den Mut haben, neue Schritte zu gehen, andere Wege zu beschreiten. Wer würde bei Fear Falls Burning, Aidan Baker und Konsorten damit rechnen, dass eine Platte plötzlich Beats aufweist? Wohl eher niemand. Um so interessanter dies nun bei Seconds In Formaldehyde verfolgen zu können. Die Beats sind sehr dezent und gekonnt zurückhaltend gestreut, was den typischen ruhigen Drone-Klangforschungen keinerlei Abbruch tut. Dennoch, es ist hier Vorsicht geboten, denn die Beats haben leicht die Tendenz, zu artifiziell und generiert zu klingen. Etwas mehr erdig-lebendiges ist hier gefragt, um die eben oben genannten Naturerfahrungen im Geiste entstehen zu lassen und weniger das Gefühl von, auf die Schnelle, ganz pauschal: "Computermusik. "Inaudible" erscheint in einer Kleinstauflage von 60 handgemachten Digipacks auf dem Suggestion Underlabel Verato Project." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Inaudible" features 3 new tracks that will show a new side of SiF. Guitar drones mixed with some minimal beats and tribal percussion. Fans of Aidan Baker and Fear Falls Burning should like this tunes. First edition will be released in a handmade digipack artwork!" [label info]
www.verato-project.de
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| SEETYCA |
Bleakscapes |
CD |
"Everyone into dark ambient should be already familiar with Seetyca project from Germany. Bleakscapes full-length is an incredible dark journey, it consists in 77 minutes of drones, minimal dark ambient sound pleasures for the ear and mind.
bleakscapes was conceived and recorded in winter and spring 2010 @ mbira v.06. seetyca plays e-maschinen, samplers, bells, flutes. artin mucht plays synth. etheocles stevens provides voices & string samples, recorded with the oregon origo string quartet. mixed and mastered by seetyca & artin mucht. Additional artwork and final mastering by C." [label info & credits]
www.essentiamundi.com
"Back in Vital Weekly 549 we reviewed a triple CD set 'Nekton Falls', with twenty six pieces by as many people working, loosely, with field recordings. That project was organized by Seetyca, with whom I seem to have lost contact a bit over the years, but a recent e-mail exchange lead to him sending his latest work and probably my first proper introduction into his music. He has worked in ambient and experimental music since 1994 and besides his solo music he is also active with groups like vzusdw, Circle Of Pines, Postmoderne Phonombel, Origami Nalebariska and moedra and has been involved in some eighty releases, sometimes on his own Mbira label. On his own he plays 'e-maschinen, samplers, bells and flutes', while receiving help on synth, voices and string samples from others. Despite the title this is not as bleak as one would expect, deepscapes would have probably been a better title, as these seven, mostly, lengthy excursions are in the world of deep atmospheric ambient music. The final piece is the shortest and the most experimental, with a cluster of organ sounds but very much in the digital field - bleak perhaps indeed. In the six other pieces Seetyca keeps himself in control within the tight (?) rules of deep ambient music: long sustaining sounds, effectively more so by the use of reverb, to generate that necessary feel of atmosphere, dislocated bell and flute sounds. While the early autumn sun truly blazes outside, this is might not be the perfect soundtrack for such circumstances. I guess this nocturnal work is more suited for late night listening. Perhaps in its genre not the most original album, but then: what is these days? On the other hand, purely looking from the point of musical content, this is really a great album. Refined, contemplative and rich in sound." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Dühringa Aorta |
CD-R |
"dühringa aorta ist eyn sehr persönliches album. es zeichnet seetycas lebensraum akustisch nach und schildert die melancholischen lebenseindrücke des komponisten.
entstanden ist dühringa aorta im heissen sommer 2005 und in stillen sturm- und blitznächten. aufgenommen in mbira world v.04 und leicht nachgemischt von artin mucht." [label info]
www.seetyca.org
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Klangschafft I: Weite |
CD-R |
"die klancschafft weite wurde schon im herbst 2005 erarbeitet, musste aber mehrfach nachgemischet werden, was eyne verzögerung erbrachte. seetyca spielt hier nur e-maschinen in dem etwa 71 minuten daueren werck. ziemlich lanc. doch es muss so. weils nutzt." [label info]
www.seetyca.org
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Lieder zum Summen |
CD |
"Songs for Humming is a very intimate affair, an album in strong symbiosis with the elements. Here are sixteen short songs, somewhat melancholic and almost bordering on the naive. You can feel the chill of the autumn air, smell the humid earth in your hand, taste the decay of fallen leaves. We are used to s. delivering massive dronewalls and deep, hypnotic soundscapes. Here he shows up his contemplative side, with music turning your eyes to drift into the deep blue sky. The album comes in a jewel case with 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2014 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Nemeton |
CD |
" 'Nemeton' is the new studio album from seetyca on the Winter-Light label and we are very pleased to have this fine artist on our roster. In the ancient Celtic tradition, a Nemeton was a sacred space, primarily situated in natural areas, often sacred groves of trees.
The album 'Nemeton' will take you to your own sacred place, as it hints at what lies hidden, ever deeper in the thick forests and darkened woods of Germany. A lo-fi master piece in dark ambient, the six tracks on this CD invoke feelings of apprehension, wonder and longing for a place never visited in the flesh but often travelled to in the minds eye. A place that lies tantalising just out of reach in the distance but that at any moment can become all consuming and enveloping. Encompassing you in thick dark layers of ambience and transporting you to a space from which there is no return.
CD is strictly limited to 300 copies in a 6-panel digipack. 6 tracks, total running time 79:30.
1. katarakt - 2. nemeton - 3. die wogen der unbil - 4. wenn alles aus ist - 5. als loch geh ich vor dich hin - 6. die Feuer von samhain" [label info]
www.winter-light.nl
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Eis |
CD-R |
"eis ist eyne kollection von monochromen klanggebilden, die in der einsamkeyt des geistes, im gebirge des eigenen hirns - kurz - in kaltem wahn verorthet werden können.
ausgedacht, eingespielt und aufgenommen zwischen frühjahr und winter des jahres 2014. gemischet anfang 2015 von artin mucht. seetyca masterte selbst alles. die graphikkunst stammt von edward varelans III.
seetyca nutzt stimmen, e-maschinen, flöten, bass und sampler." [label info]
www.seetyca.org
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Zwischenwelten |
CD |
We are once again delighted to welcome seetyca to our label, for the release of his new CD album Zwischenwelten.
‘Zwischenwelten’ is an immensely deep journey, characteristic of seetyca’s music. The listener is pulled between worlds, shrouded in dense layers of fog or pinned to the edge of a scene, forced to watch as an observer, while the part plays out. Interspersed with environmental sounds, and both electronic and traditional instruments, ‘Zwischenwelten’ is a beautiful, hypnotic album switching between what is real and what is perceived to be real by the listener. The album is laced with lush melodies, light ambient touches and otherworldly samples which bring to this piece a welcome sense of detachment.
For this release, seetyca has been joined by a number of contributing artists including Thom Yeesland (ambiant guitar sounds), Julian Eckstein (trombone) and Kris Caelis (glockenspiel and environmental sounds). seetyca himself plays an array of instruments including e-maschinen, samplers, ocarina, recorder, zither and acoustic guitar to name but a few.
seetyca certainly likes to pack his albums to the hilt, and this release is no exception. The cover design and layout has been created by Midnight Sun Studio, based upon original artwork from Edward Valerans III.
CD comes in a 6-panel full colour digi pack. 9 tracks with a total running time of 79:35 mins.
1. magnitogorsk
2. the clouds form a smile
3. der schwimmer in dunckel
4. im schragen wahn lebt sichs am schonsten
5. wem trauen?
6. hide my phace, hide my heart
7. before it’s dark, before it rains
8. verstrahl.to
9. jennyssey
www.winter-light.nl
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Winterlicht |
CD |
'Winterlicht' is Seetyca's third full length album to be released on the Winter-Light label.
As the album title indicates the theme is that of the winter's light and comprises of 12 new tracks, combining deep drones and sparse musical pieces to create a vast wintry landscape. The opening track 'cold morning' invokes images of sunlight playing across fields steeped in deep white snow while your cold breath disappears in to the morning air. The title track 'winterlicht' is a slowly evolving darker, deeper 13 minute drone piece. Here the heavy mantle of winter steadily envelopes the listener, drawing the darkness of the nights ever nearer, as the cold winds howl and the ice begins to form, locking the landscape in to a frozen tundra.
The play between light and dark, the subtle use of environmental sounds and carefully chosen instruments, played by a stellar array of Seetyca's friends, is what makes this album truly engaging.
'Winterlicht' was conceived, played and recorded over three summers between 2014 - 2016.
credits
released October 13, 2017
Seetyca uses e-maschinen, samplers, glass harmonica, air voice and harmonica. Technical assistance by dr. dipl.-ing. johann e. mildenberg.
Some friends gave a hand....
artin mucht: additional synths.
umanosuke yumeji: electro harmonix.
thom yeesland: environmental sounds.
madeleine madeiras: ice piano on track I.
ralf behrendt: additional atmospherics on tracks VIII & XII.
string samples on track IX by the oregon origo chamber orchestra, conducted & recorded by etheocles stevens.
gowlan roberts: bass on track XI.
the newschubert: additional sequencing on track XII.
The album was mixed by Artin Mucht and mastered by Seetyca.
The cover design and layout has been created by Midnight Sun Studio.
winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/winterlicht
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Trances |
CD |
'Trances' is the new album from Germany's master of the drone Seetyca, which is a sequel to the album 'Zwischenwelten', previously released on our Winter-Light label in September, 2016.
On 'Zwischenwelten' the listener was pulled between worlds, switching from one to the other through dense ambient drone pieces. On 'Trances', one is drawn into different states of mind, slight shifts in sanity and mental disturbances.
This is not only evident in the music and some of the track titles but in the musical transitions also. There are subtle changes and shifts used in the cross overs between the tracks. What the artist refers to as experimenting with different "disturbed transitions'.
As the album title suggests, the music is very hypnotic and in keeping with Seetyca's signature drone style. But there are other elements at work here, layered between the drones, or inter-woven between each track which also makes 'Trances' a stand alone album in it's own right. Here, Seetyca gives the listener the space to maneuver between sounds, not filling the whole space up, to the point that you feel suffocated. Patient and careful attention to detail. Enjoy.
credits
released March 28, 2019
All music written and recorded by Seetyca.
Seetyca uses e-maschinen & samplers, flutes, duduk, rich. lipp & sohn piano, self-built percussion and voice.
Mixed by Artin Mucht.
Mastered by Seetyca.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/trances
Here’s one for those who dig long, continuous strings of soundscapes as expansive, inspired and deep drone worlds are on the menu on Seetyca’s “Trances”, a kind of follow-up of “Zwischenwelten”.
The 60-minute organic-spiced aural space is long and continuous flow of sound a blend of electronics, wind instruments and acoustic elements immersing into an alienating, profound mysterious and dark netherworld with an occasional abstract/experimental edge. Lovely echoes of Schulze’s “Mirage” surface beautifully but briefly on “Huge Globes of Glass passing by” while the sonic fingerprint of Robert Rich comes to mind as well as haunting/gothic-ish ambiences at other passages as it travels into the beyond. The two-part “Stratospheres” found at the end of the release is a special treat due to the very nicely rendered elevating impact.
Despite the sometimes obscure sound treatments, few strange aural corridors and twists, “Trances” is an appropriate companion to descend into a deeper, hypnotizing state- without things becoming gloomy or feeling lost.
Website: http://www.seetyca.bandcamp.com
[Sonic Immersion] |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| SEKTOR 304 |
Subliminal Actions |
CD |
"The follow-up to the highly acclaimed Soul Cleansing CD finds Portugal's Sektor 304 expanding on all aspects of their debut, once
again channeling the essence of the old school guardians (Test Dept, SPK, Crash Worship), while simultaneously exploring new, uncharted
territory. Comparatively speaking, Subliminal Actions is a more complete and focused album, with an even better flow than Soul Cleansing and more attention paid to detail, unleashing a cacophonic whirlwind of buzz saw grind, loops, power tools, and scraping, junk metal debris, clashing head on with exertive tribal percussion, clanging oil barrel rhythms,
and industrial clamor resonating over a sprawling, post apocalyptic wasteland. Some tracks, such as the opener, "A Carving on Metallic Flesh", heap on the scorching noise, while others, such as the resounding, rhythmic driven "By The Throat", "A Vessel of Guilt", or
"Vultures" are delivered with factory-line precision, laced with grimy layers of bass-heavy dirge, bleak, reverbed squall, and distortion filled, atmospheric drone. Among the many highlights, is the albums closer, "A Prismatic Sun", a 10 + minute epic excursion into a nightmarish world, populated by whispered vocals and uneasy drift that
slowly rises and grows in intensity, climaxing into a blissfully dark and sweaty orgy of low slung bass, ominous, ceremonial drumming, and
suffocating darkness. Subliminal Action not only compliments Soul Cleansing, but takes the
Sektor 304 sound to new heights, delivering yet striking record sure to solidify their standing as one of premier, truly industrial acts in
operation today. 10 tracks, 63 min., in 6 panel digipak, mastered by James Plotkin." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
http://soundcloud.com/malignantrecords/sets/subliminal-actions-by-sektor
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| SELAXON LUTBERG |
Cold House of Love |
CD |
Very emotional & melancholic dronescapes from this Italian project - slow & sad, many instruments are used, a bit mysterioius & strange... this is quite a revelation for us !! Definitely worth to discover!!
"Pages of a diary under the form of ten minimal soundscapes based upon emotional sounds made with guitars, piano and heavily processed field recordings. Hard to say if this is dark ambient or minimal post-rock… "Cold house of love" is all of this and a lot more. Subtly disquieting ambience music - a journey through the cold rooms of the house of love....." [label info]
"....Based primarily within the ambient genre Andrea mixes dynamic electronic soundscapes with the occasional use of samples and simple piano refrains. For the most part though the electronics dominate creating this phenomenal piece of work. You could rightly call this dark ambient music in many ways. There is a dense creepy edge to the sonics that would match that description. That though is open purely to the individuals interpretation. You hear dark. I hear glorious light. You say full of remorse. I say full of hope. You say barren. I say lush and full of life. What we hear and how we build associations with that information is what makes us each unique in our own little ways [...] A remarkable recording that dreamers the world over should get hold of immediately." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest]
www.eibonrecords.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Simboli Accidentali |
LP |
"SELAXON LUTBERG ist das Ambient Projekt des zurückgezogen lebenden italienischen Künstlers Andrea Penso. Nach zwei Alben, einem weiteren Album in Kollaboration mit Subinterior und verschiedenen EPs, erscheint mit SIMBOLI ACCIDENTALI (Zufallssymbole) sein drittes Album und die dritte Veröffentlichung bei Denovali Records. Wie viele seiner Arbeiten, steht auch das neue Album in enger Verbindung mit Andreas Biographie. 'Während ich das Album komponierte, habe ich versucht mich auf Zufallssymbole zu konzentrieren, die meiner Kindheit entstammen und näherte mich ihnen an - nicht um sie im Detail zu studieren, sondern damit ich ihre Essenz herausfiltere. Diese 'subjektiven Sounds' des Albums gehen aus eben jenen Gedanken und Erwägungen hervor." Um dieses Motiv zu unterstützen, beinhaltet auch das Artwork eine impressionistische Geschichte aus Andreas Kindheit. Simboli Accidentali besteht aus acht Tracks, die allesamt zwischen 2010 und 2012 bei Andrea zu Hause aufgenommen wurden. Die typisch warmen und umhüllenden Songs sind größten Teils auf bearbeiteten, kaum wiederzuerkennenden Gitarren, einer alten billigen Orgel sowie Loops aus zerstörten Tapes und Schallplatten entstanden. Der daraus resultierende Sound findet sich wieder in der weiten Landschaft aus Ambient/ Postrock, bekannt durch Musiker wie LABRADFORD und SLOWDIVEs Pygmalion Ära, den analogen und verfallenen Loops bei PHILIP JECK und WILLIAM BASINSKI oder auch dem cineastischen Gefühl von STARS OF THE LID oder DAVID LYNCHs Drones. Es ist an der Zeit in all dies einzutauchen." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| SELLEKAERS, JOHN |
Observer Effect |
CD |
A journey in the unknown is a deeply transforming experience. How are we affected by the world around us and how do we alter it just by being there, by existing in this particular place, at this very moment? By observing it? Frozen textures, faint melodies from the polar nights... The excitement, fascination and primal fear felt by the pioneers, explorers, men and women, travelling to extreme, uninhabited regions. Mysteries are uncovered, or left alone. A solitary voyage in seemingly endless territories. Observer Effect is an album fed by history, countless stories and books. And by the pleasure of building a sonic scenery, a suspended state, imagining icy landscapes in the lightest night...
John Sellekaers (b. 1973) is an electronic music composer and producer based in Brussels. He has written and recorded close to sixty records so far, under different aliases, such as Feral Cities, Night Sky Pulse, Meeple, Xingu Hill and Dead Hollywood Stars. His music has been released by labels in Europe and North America, including Ant-Zen, Hymen Records, Parenthèses Records, Falt, Oreille Gardée, Hushush and Nova Zembla. John has toured extensively since the nineties and has worked on collaborations, remixes and soundtracks. He is also a freelance audio engineer (mixing & mastering), photographer and graphic designer.
https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/observer-effect
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| SEMPERVIRENS |
Dirge of the dying Year |
CD-R |
"Few individuals have mastered the art of soundscaping to a similar degree to the Estonian ambient artist Margus Mets, aka Sempervirens. His, largely unreleased, output of 6 full length albums and numerous other uncompiled material has been an exemplary effort to create soundworlds where boundaries are only set by the imagination of the artist, and where field recordings, deep drones, distant transmissions of some classical music broadcast, or even acoustic guitar breakdowns are found under precise multi-layering , flowing seemlessly as if they were never separate in the first place. "Dirge Of The Dying Year" uncovers eight realms filled with unfettered beauty and pure thought, eight worlds stretching out as the eight fatal directions of the compass, all engulfed under an insatiable fog. Somewhere between Biosphere's "Substrata", Northaunt's "Barren Land" and the early recordings of Brian Eno, "Dirge..." is the last and most mature recording of the Sempervirens catalogue, and a promise to far greater things in the future." [label info]
www.newagedawn.co.uk
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| SEQUENCES |
Agua Viva |
CD |
"You don’t understand music: you hear it. So hear me with your whole body."
— Clarice Lispector, Água Viva
Sequences, the long-running project of Antwerp's Niels Geybels, has graced Elevator Bath with his most substantial release since his masterful 2020 LP, "Woven Empty" (and following his excellent "The Seismograph" disc from last year).
Borrowing the title and inspiration from the Brazilian writer, Clarice Lispector's experimental novel from 1973, Geybels' "Água Viva" is as idiosyncratic and poetic as its namesake. The album's eight chapters (each a highly evocative short story unto itself) were titled after text found in Lispector's book, and each exists as an impression of the ideas found within said text.
The basis for "Água Viva" was a 20-minute field recording captured by Geybels during his extensive travels. The album's first four pieces all feature this initial work in varying degrees of prominence. The second half of the album meanwhile deconstructs the atmospheres of the first half, using the essence of these pieces as the point of departure for four new studies in mysterious ambiance.
Grounded by the field recordings at the album's core, yet dreamlike and exploratory in nature, as evidenced by the other audio components (magnetophone, zither, modular synthesizer, and guitar), this is an album of interpretations and ruminations; a potent reminder of the power of living water.
Niels Geybels has released several albums under the Sequences name and several more as False Moniker. He runs the very fine Audio. Visuals. Atmosphere. label from his home in Belgium.
"An excellent record!"
— Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly
All music by Sequences. Recorded and mixed in 2021, 2022 and 2023 at Huize Ommeganck and De Steeg in Antwerpen, Belgium.
Field recording on Água Viva 1-4 recorded in one take on April 6th 2021 in Oostende, Belgium.
Performed using guitar, zither, magnetophone and Eurorack modular system.
All tracks recorded, composed & produced by Niels Geybels.
Distributed by Fantastique: fantastiquehq.com
Packaged inside a matte finish, full-color, six-panel digipak featuring spot gloss printing and beautiful images created by Sequences.
https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/a-gua-viva
|
2024 |
€13.00 |
|
| SERAPHIM |
Sacrificium Intellectus |
7 |
Sehr neoklassisch angehauchte Stücke von einem frischen Projekt (bisher nur eine CDR erschienen) auf dieser neuen 7“ des Berliner Labels, man denke an IN THE NURSERY oder bombastischere RAISON D’ETRE.
Neoclassical influenced pieces from this new project on the dark symphonic ambience label from Berlin, reminds on IN THE NURSERY or more bombastic RAISON D’ETRE.
Eternal Soul - website:
www.eternal-soul.de |
2003 |
€7.50 |
|
| SERENE FALL // CARSTEN VOLLMER / GEHIRN.IMPLOSION |
Stern |
7inch |
"Die Triple Single V.A. STERN ist der dritte Teil der Konzepttrilogie von Dirk Dietzel. Zu hören sind vier bewegende und ganz persönliche Geschichten der beteiligten Künstler und Bands. Das EA 80 Seitenprojekt SERENE FALL wartet auf der A-Seite mit 2 Songs auf. Diese beiden Nummern beweisen erneut, dass es keine andere Band derart versteht, Kraft, Melancholie und Verzweiflung, Wave und Punk so stimmig zu einem ganz eigenen düsteren Sound zu verschmelzen. die Vollblutelektronikfrickler CARSTEN VOLLMER und GEHIRN. IMPLOSION sind mit je einem Song auf der B-Seite vertreten. Mit dem gleichen Herzblut bearbeiten die beiden Künstler die Songs und Noisescapes. Dabei dekonstruieren sie Klanglandschaften und erschaffen sie neu." [label info]
www.majorlabel.de
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
| SERRIES, DIRK |
Microphonics XXI-XXV |
do-10inch & CD |
"with the conclusion of other remaining projects and collaborations, there’s no focus other than dirk serries’ ongoing exploration of minimalism. four years in the making and undoubtly fuelled by his 2009 debut and previous mainstays vidnaObmana and fear falls burning, this second microphonics studio album is a heartbreaking symphony of echoing themes, wailing overtones and beautiful desolation. microphonics xxi-xxv, subtitled ‘mounting among the waves, there’s a light in vein. the burden of hope across thousands of rivers’ does hint towards an emotional statement, one that boldly goes beyond what previously achieved.
microphonics xxi-xxv will be out on march 16, as a limited edition double 10inch in a numbered gatefold sleeve (150 copies on white vinyl, 300 copies on black vinyl), complete with a cd copy of the album, and a cd in a deluxe mini album gatefold sleeve." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
"At the end of 2008 microphonics I - V saw the daylight. Time has come for Dirk Serries to play music under his own name and say good-bye to his alter-egos vidnaObmana and Fear Falls Burning. The design of that album was minimalist in structure. Quiet guitar patterns built up and flowed away and a calm, meditative ambient atmosphere with adventurous harmony was created. Five live albums and a 10 " were released at Tonefloat. Meanwhile appeared the last album of Fear Falls Burning, what can be called a stunning album, which led to an acoustic aftershock of an era ended. For more than four years later arrived the second studio album by the musical project microphonics, microphonics XXI - XXV with the subtitles Mounting among the waves, There's a light in vein, The burden of hope and Across thousands of rivers, which are the titles of the four tracks on the album. Elements of Fear Falls Burning, vidnaObmana and of course microphonics can be found in the compositions. The sound of
the guitar is dirtier, unpolished, seeking feedback and underneath the many layers of repeating sounds in which Serries is a master. The discrepancy between the heavy bass lines, distorted guitars, layered chords and delicate strumming seek each other, collide and blend together. Cheerfulness is hard to find in this album. It is true quest in which somewhere hope flickers. In this way the album ends with open chords and a rolling drone. The album is a pleasant surprise twist in the microphonics project, in which the ambient atmosphere reigned supreme. The double 10?is coming out with a book of city photography of Martina Verhoeven, the partner Dirk Serries. She plays bass in 3 Seconds or Air (a side project of Dirk Serries) and is responsible for the cover photography of Serries. The photography of the book, I haven?t view it yet, but given the pictures I've seen her before, it will be aesthetically pleasing and appropriate to the album. Often there is a desolate atmosphere in carefully composed black and white photos. Tonefloat knows to release another wonderful compilation of image and sound, which is a delight for the eyes and ears."(JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€27.50 |
|
| SET FIRE TO FLAMES |
Telegraphs in Negative / Mouths trapped in Static |
do-CD |
Zweites Album der hochkarätig besetzten Montrealer Grupppe...geräuschhaft-konkretes Material und Improvisationen, field recordings, dann wieder hochmelancholische Streicher-Gitarren-Kompositionen, die jedes Herz erweichen...
"Following the critical success of set fire to flames' 2001 album, 'sings reign rebuilder', the 13-piece Montreal-based collective return with an eagerly anticipated follow-up. Forming a double album, 'telegraphs in negative / mouths trapped in static' is a haunted, intense and highly diverse collection of material. Continuously shifting off at tangents, its slow sprawl creeps from heartbreaking guitar melodies to sparse string compositions; concrete flickerings and modified machine-crunch to tranced-out kraut-ish rhythm-pieces; cyclical minimalism to awe-filled drone-spaces; free-flowing improvised skitter and spark to raw location / life recordings. Beautifully played and composed, and far more than merely a follow-up, 'telegraphs...' sees set fire to flames pushing beyond the gains made on that previous effort and forging an increasingly autonomous space for the group..." [from the label description]
|
2003 |
€16.00 |
|
| SEVEN THAT SPELLS |
The Men from Dystopia |
CD |
SEVEN THAT SPELLS beweisen, dass ost-europäischer "Drone / Folk / whatever-Psych" was ganz besonderes ist. Wild, ekstatisch, droney, nur was für hartgesottene Psychedelic-Freaks! Aus Kroatien.
"CD edition of 500 numbered copies in a full color book bound case. Simply amazing Croatian psych with special assistance from Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple, ...) If the metallic mettle of these men represents Dystopia, then forget Utopia, I wanna bang on Dystopia’s drum all day! The sweet ‘n’ sour smell of Kraut explodes in carefully paced salvos, and then goes completely off the rails. And then gets crazier. And crazier. And crazier. And crazier. Until it reaches an insane, almost unbearably heavy sonic crescendo, and then gets even crazier. And crazier. And crazier. A thick, unending firestorm of napalm psychedelia PUMMELS while its orbit decays into the swirling sounds of slowly going mad. An audio illustration of a mescaline trip that gets too close too enlightenment. Amon Duul II times ten to the fifth of Beethoven! A truly massive attack!" [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Black Om Rising |
CD + DVD |
"Wrapped intricately like a holiday present in book binding with a gatefold image of topless women and buddhas cavorting in the sky, Seven That Spells thankfully don’t say anything on the instrumental Black Om Rising. The band regularly puts out limited-run releases of abstract psychedelic narratives that fever out of control or space out into remote cosmic hinterlands. On the surface, they seem to be following the lead of Japanese noise-rock guru, Acid Mothers Temple founder, and occasional Seven That Spells collaborator Kawabata Makoto, a.k.a the most prolific recording artist in history. Yet, the Slavic foursome have likely been digging deep into the Western canon as well as the Nipponese one. On Black Om Rising, there’s traces of the propulsive intensity of motorik post-rockers like Trans Am and Turing Machine, the apocalyptic prog ferocity of Magma, and the virtuosity of The Mars Volta. There’s even traces of free jazz in Lovro Ziopaša’s sax-ranting, which uses dub echo to ominous insistence on “RA”. The centerpiece of Black Om Rising is the three act play “Lo”, which emerges from simple gothic Dick-Dale-tremolo and dilates outward into mini orchestral vignettes that are both sporadic and organically harvested. The CD’s side B, a DVD capture of a live performance, catches the band at even more frenetic and dissonant heights, proving them a most worthy import indeed." [PopMatters]
"Ed. of 500 copies in a book bound case and 8 page booklet. Audio CD plus region free DVD consisting of songs from “Black Om Rising” album performed live. Don't go round tonight, well it's bound to take your life; there's a black Om on the rise. And that black Om slugs all creation square in the gut. Seven That Spells spells, in this instance, EXPLOSION. Black Om Rising is a tightly-wound precision time piece ringing the hours with an effervescent brutality. The rhythm section growls with a low, mean thudding punch that could give the back end of The Birthday Party or Big Black the business in a street fight. Black Om Rising ascends; a beautifully bejeweled bloody stump of instrumental brilliance. Gilt post-punk edges halo the Kraut-suffused filigree of expert musicianship, that is not only capable of handling heavy progressive payloads, but also of circumventing the trigonometry of wank. Powerful, mellodious, charismatic, dynamic, weird and ballsy to the core. STS has compassed an album whose every drone, silence and screech is so slyly crafted that Mozart called from the 18th century demanding amps!" [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| SEVERED HEADS |
Clifford Darling please don't live in the Past |
do-LP |
"Severed Heads are one of the longest surviving bands to emerge from the Australian post-punk independent music scene. They began in Sydney in 1979, incorporating elements of ‘industrial’ noise-generation, tape cutting & looping and electronic sound synthesis. As the project developed song-structures and vocals were employed in a more-or-less recognizable mutant electro pop style. After many line-up changes featuring Garry Bradbury and psychedelic guitarist Simon Knuckey, Severed Heads was the vehicle for composer Tom Ellard.
In 1985 their record label asked them to release a retrospective, so they dragged out bits that we had lying around from 1979 up til 1983. The compilation was titled “Clifford Darling Please Don’t Live In The Past”, spread out into a montage over four sides of vinyl. Bradbury and Ellard would fuss each bit and sling it on their new digital recorder, and since they still have the digital recorder, this reissue is made directly from the bits assembled twenty years ago. This compilation includes live recordings, raw demos, unreleased studio recordings and solo pieces from each member of the band during from the first five years. Their early music was characterized by the use of tape loops, noisy arrangements of synthesizers and other dissonant sound sources in the general category of industrial music. After several releases in that vein, Severed Heads began incorporating various popular music tropes, such as a consistent 4/4 rhythm, strong melodic lines, resolving chord arrangements and the occasional vocal. This move was underscored by the incorporation of mimetic devices, such as drum machines and bass synthesizers. The result was a striking hybrid of the avant-garde industrial and pop.
All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in a jacket featuring brightly colored, distorted, VHS graphics output by Stephen Jones’ video synthesizer created by Tom Ellard video piece “Kato Gets The Girl” in 1985, designed by Eloise Leigh. Each copy includes a fold-out poster with a color video still photo on one side and liner notes and credits on the other. 30 years later Severed Heads’ perverse creativity is still paving the way for powerful imaginative challenging music far and wide." [label info]
www.darkentriesrecords.com
In 1985, Severed Heads were commissioned to collect a retrospective of their (then) six years in existence. Instead of the standard 'best of' anthology, Tom Ellard and Co. took the opportunity to create a sprawling collage of a whole slew of material never heard before, with cutting room edits, tape loop assemblages, live tracks, and numerous experiments that never found their way onto any of their albums. That approach is emblematic of the subversive manner in which Severed Heads produces and contextualizes their heavily mediated electronics, tracks that boisterously flaunt new wave pop structures butted against chunks of machined voltage-control noise and volatile industrial rhythm. On this release, more than pretty much anywhere else in Severed Heads catalog, do comparisons to Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle make the most sense.
(Aquarius Rec)
|
2015 |
€28.00 |
|
| SEVERIN BESTOMBES (VOM HORSE GORE CLUB) |
Auszug & Abgesang |
LP |
„Wenn man zu vorgerückter Stunde der verdächtigen Phantasterei anheim fällt, der heimische Plattenteller würde ungeklärterweise das Dunkel des Raumes wie von Geisterhand erleuchten, dann liegt das in erster Linie nicht an der falschen Sorte Pilze, die man unter Umständen mal wieder zu leichtfertig verzehrt hat, nein, es sollte sich lieber schnell besonnen werden, dass die lang erwartete dreizehnte Punch Productions Platte nun endlich von den Nadeln malträtiert werden darf, auf dass das fluoreszierende Plastik wahlweise in giftgrün oder türkisblau erstrahlt. Als wäre das nicht schon reizvoll genug, bietet uns die erste Manifestation des seltsam-mysteriösen HORSE GORE CLUBs zudem unerhört exquisite Tonkunst. SEVERIN BESTOMBES ist das dreihundertsiebenundfünfzigste Pseudonym eines gewissen Herrn Jürgen Weber, der, so erzählt die Legende, im vergangenen Jahrtausend in einer nicht unbekannten österreichischen Metropole, respektive dem slawischen Bezirk "Neue Welt", mehrere Hundert der denkbar wildesten musikalischen und antimusikalischen Orgien dem Tonband anvertraut haben soll und sich inzwischen, vielleicht zur Kontemplation, in ein katalanisches Dörfchen zurückgezogen hat, von wo aus er jedoch von Zeit zu Zeit, aber leider immer seltener, nicht minder wilde Geistesblitze in die gepeinigte Welt hinaussendet. "Auszug & Abgesang" ist ohne Zweifel einer dieser Geistesblitze, der darüber hinaus wohl oder übel dem angesprochenen Rückzug ins Kontemplative wie eine bittersüße Frucht entsprungen zu sein scheint.
Der erste Part dieser LP-langen Abrechnung mit dem Wiener Gesangsverein trägt den mit düsterer Symbolik überschütteten Titel "Lilien aus dem Garten des Gegenpapsts". Das akustische Gewächshaus dieser Spiegelbildikone fühlt sich jedoch an wie ein klaustrophobisches, von gespenstischen Erinnerungen heimgesuchtes Mythologieaquarium, dessen Innenwände zur Dämmerstunde zwischen Kuckucksruf und Spieldosengedudel von psychopathischen Rhythmen rituell verziert werden. In einer noch dunkleren Ecke liegt ein abgesoffenes Diktiergerät und gibt die befremdlich geflüsterten Chiffren eines kleinwüchsigen Wesens zum besten. Dann zieht ein sphärischer Wind in das Fast-Vakuum dieses Mikrokosmoses ein und alles wird erschreckend leise. Ist dies etwa die Ruhe vor dem persiflierten Militärparadenrummelplatzsturm? Haaaauuu Rrruckkk! Einmal kräftig dran gezogen und die schwerwiegend stachligen Lilien sind auch schon gepflückt. Zur Belohnung wird zwei-, dreimal auf die Klaviertasten gehauen und die Rillen flüchten sich hustend ins Platteninnere.
"Musik für Dolores" schwebt ebenso wie die A-Seite im Umkreis experimenteller, elektroakustischer Tonkunst des nahezu gesamten zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts und verarbeitet dabei womöglich sämtliche jemals aufgeschnappte Einflüsse. Zuerst werden NURSE WITH WOUND, Ghedalia Tazartzes, Edgar Varèse und wer weiß schon wer sonst noch alles durch den cut-up Fleischwolf gedreht und anschließend samt rudimentären Groovebruchstücken auf eine kaum noch wahrnehmbar leise Minimalambientfläche breitgeschmiert. Irgendwann brechen dann einige atonale Klavierklänge durch den fragilen Schleier, begleitet von dezenten Stimmexperimenten und schließlich einmündend in sehr sparsam platzierte Abstraktionen, die im Grunde völlig auf elektronische Klangforschung reduziert wurden. Das ganze wurde dazu mit einem heimlich munkelnden "live at Schlafzimmer" Charme aufgenommen und wirkt daher umso staubiger, direkter und echter.
"Auszug & Abgesang" bietet zwei hartnäckige Kompositionen zum Schlussstriche ziehen und neue Anfänge finden. Gerade letzteres will seitens der fragmentarisch aufgerissenen und minimalistisch verwesenden Klangstrukturen bewusst nicht leicht fallen. All die einzelnen Szenen dieser Collage sind wie Mittelteile ohne signifikanten Beginn und Ende, an ihren ungeraden Kanten aneinandergefügt, montieren sie eine diffuse, mit Schräglage in sich verschachtelte Sinfonie, die mit einem Bein auch im traditionsreichen Avantgardezimmer steht. Art bruit!“ [Roy Liebscher / Lichttaufe]
Collectors item from NOVY SVETS alter ego with surprisingly experimental soundscapes, wonderfully obscure collages !
“12" vinyl GLOW IN THE DARK !!!!!!!!!! - Silk-screened plastic sleeve
Severin Bestombes is said to be J. W. Eber who is said to be J. Weber, who the world claims to be NOVY SVET, singer and brain appendix of MUSHROOM'S PATIENCE and god knows what else. might be true....well, seems to be true. And what's truth on diplomacy's smooth grounds? Was this guy ever known for being outstanding diplomatic?
Definitely not...neither is this album. Bad memories melted into two long (each one LP-side long) tracks, that have their roots growing out of the sixties avantgarde's ass. In the end it is just fuckin' beau.
special cover - on special vinyl - for sure special musick too” [label info]
label: www.punchrecords.it
|
2006 |
€20.00 |
|
| SEWER GODDESS |
Disciples of Shit |
CD |
"Having sold out of last year’s With Dirt You Are One CD within a few months span, supreme, Boston based cultists Sewer Goddess return to Black Plagve with Disciples of Shit: Live Waste, a fetid and raw collection of live audio crimes committed over a two year period from 2009-2010. Anyone who has witnessed Sewer Goddess live will generally know what to expect here, which is a more structured take on the death industrial, squalor filled atmospheres they’re known for. A more traditional band format adds layers of distorted and skuzzy bass, crashing percussion, and discordant guitar and meets head on with terrifying, blood curdling screams and the requisite churning mass of post mortem, electronic dirge.
5 tracks, most previously unreleased, that represent Sewer Goddess in the most raw, unclean, and unpolished of states….as if you’d want them any other way! In 6 panel digipak, designed by Andre Coehlo (Sektor 304).
Track listing: Condemned Are the Unborn, We Ate Their Eyes, Mother Agony, Chained to the Edge of Existence/A Lifeless Dreaming, Slavepiece.." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| SHADOW MAGNET |
Source and Purity |
CD-R |
“the female side of COMBATIVE ALIGNMENT presents the first full-length recordings devoted to the two-sided face of mankind. martial structures and drums meet the meditative side of the brain and create a great spectre of martial meditation. very complex compositions of massive sounds and powerful drums in a great art niveau style and artwork lead you to the source and purity...” [label description]
New Avatar release, and as always guaranteed quality. Carefully constructed ritual/martial atmospherics. SM always remind me of Contrastate in some vague ways (though in this case, some Turbund Sturmwerk as well) ; dark, brooding, and compelling, with a subtle, refined power. Grows stronger as it progresses, becoming more majestic and archaic, ancient voices filtering in through a rippling fog of mesmerizing and at times poignantly nostalgic atmospheres.” [Malignant Records info]
|
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
| SHAKHNES, GRISHA |
Leave / Trace |
LP |
"Formerly operating under the name of Mites, Shakhnes has been recording and performing in Tel Avi, Israel since 2008. His work has been issued both privately in limited handmade CD-R editions, and internationally though Alamut Records (Jerusalem), Mystery Sea (Belgium), and Copy For Your Records (NYC). Consider 'leave/trace' a graduation ceremony, as Shakhnes steps away from pseudonymity and into the bright lights of his own exceptional music.'leave/trace' offers a compelling display of musical abstraction, blending field recordings from peculiar and mundane origins into sumptuously detailed and surreally original new forms. Shakhnes is deftly able to capture and juxtapose otherwise overlooked details of commonplace events, placing his work at the fulcrum of contemporary tape music. Never overly literal, 'leave/trace' instead allows the listener to find their own way through its compositions, granting rich reward for those willing to make the journey." [label info]
glisteningexamples.com
|
2013 |
€19.00 |
|
| SHALABI EFFECT |
Unfortunately |
CD |
"This fourth and latest offering was recorded over 3 evenings during the band's recent residency at the Montreal Interculture Institute. It truly represents the band's appetite for experimentation & their desire to keep things interesting for their fans. At times epic and challenging, perhaps like a secret collaboration between Fly Pan Am & Acid Mothers Temple." [label info]
www.alien8recordings.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHASTA CULTS |
Shasta Cults |
LP |
"Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates go-to repair person for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world, having worked with artists like Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Subotnick and institutions like NYU, The Library of Congress and Mills College in Oakland, Ca.
Recording demonstrations of the rare equipment that found its way on to his workbench is how Smith describes the origins of Shasta Cults. Although sounds have been trickling out for decades via Soundcloud and other outlets, it wasn’t until 2017 that Smith recorded his first album using one of these rare instruments – the Buchla 700. Configurations, released this past September by Important Records, features eight tracks of heavily-modulated, wave-shaped explorations drenched in effects, and was the catalyst for his latest releases.
Recorded over the span of 3 months in the fall of 2018, this album was programmed solely on the only fully-functional Buchla Touché. Developed in the early 1980s with hardware by Don Buchla and software programmed by musician David Rosenboom, the Touché features waveforms generated internally by twenty-four digital oscillators using frequency modulation and sophisticated digital and analog signal processing for timbre and output assignment, all of this controlled via a six-octave black and white keyboard, unusual for a Buchla instrument.
This LP is a continuation on themes first heard on Configurations, with more consideration given to the generation and capturing of the pieces. This album is less dark than previous releases, showcasing the incredible fidelity of the hardware used and Smiths evolution as an audio engineer. Put on some headphones, find a comfortable chair, and let this LP transport you to the mystifying southern cascades of Siskiyou County." [label info]
"To the uninitiated, the complexities of electronic synthesis can seem daunting and foreign. Even for those well versed, complete mastery over those systems seems like a lifelong task given the seemingly infinite nature of their design. Richard Smith, the synthesist behind Shasta Cults, has worked as an official technician for Buchla gear for nearly 20 years, and has an intimate mechanical knowledge of the company's many machines, which have achieved near-fetishistic status over the past decade. On Shasta Cults' self-titled album, Smith demonstrates a rare virtuosity of the Buchla Touché (of which there were only four made) that illustrates not only the power of the machine to sculpt uncanny textures but also Smith's singular compositional style.
Smith's work is compact and economical, a contrast to the protracted compositions that define the remaining core of Important Records' contemporary synth roster, including Eleh, Caterina Barbieri, Alessandro Cortini and Jessica Ekomane. Drones and arhythmic swells comprise the basis of most of the six pieces on Shasta Cults, but rather than letting them marinate he focuses on dynamic layering and timbral juxtapositions. Shasta Cults originated from Smith's desire to demonstrate the range and abilities of the various Buchla models he was repairing and restoring, and this approach seems directly derived from those roots. Within each track, he's able to cover a surprising amount of ground. If you didn't know the music was created all on one machine, you'd be forgiven for assuming these tracks were realized using a much more diverse arsenal.
The album begins peacefully, and with restraint. "Prologue" hovers with a sense of placid melancholy, bass tones cycling in and out of the mix. Its clean tones sound glass-like, smooth and nearly transparent as they fade in and out of the audible field. Other moments have more bite. "DA3" features coarse waves of sound that resemble aural quicksand, gulping the listener up in successive, oozing surges. This buzzing intensity is overlaid with dramatic, organ-like stabs that appear triumphant in the face of the pulsing chaos below. On the drone track "Incline," Terry Riley-esque tones swirl back and forth over an increasingly resonant bass hum. The closer, "Chinook," with its apprehensive melodic fragments that open up into a yawning, fuzzed-out climax, leaves the album feeling unresolved in a way that feels entirely purposeful.
Gear worship for its own sake can be tiring, but the music on Shasta Cults is too expressive to be pigeonholed simply as exercises in technological know-how. The recent Buchla boom has led to many different approaches over the past few years, but Smith's Shasta Cults project stands apart not just because he has access to the rarest models or has such an intimate knowledge of their notoriously unpredictable, generative circuitry. He uses this knowledge to create music that is richly textured without becoming dense, and like all masters of their instrument he knows how to dance elegantly between complexity and simplicity. It is that dance that makes Shasta Cults feel special." [Resident Advisor]
|
2019 |
€26.50 |
|
| SHE SPREAD SORROW |
Midori |
CD |
"Midori is the third album by Italian artist She Spread Sorrow (Alice Kudalini). Midori tells a story, the escape from a harsh reality that becomes an echo of nightmares and visions, a house that is the scene of fear and anguish, a soul that is lost in pain to an epilogue of death and purification. The gloomy, intense, dreamlike sound, sometimes distorted, sometimes angelic is the soundtrack of a dramatic story, but also of relief. Duplicity is the key to this work. Death industrial with female vocals and ambient moments, more dilated, with sounds that also refer to a ritualistic horizon. Presented in a 6-panel digipak." [label info]
coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/midori-csr251cd
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| SHEARER, RACHEL |
Fakerie |
DVD |
Die Neuseeländerin RACHEL SHEARER war vormals als LOVELY MIDGET aktiv, jetzt präsentiert sie auf FAKERIE einen höchst minimalen und meditativen Experimental-Film mit Synchron-Sound, in denen sieben fix positionierte siebenstrahlige "Sterne" Leucht- und Klangintensitäten in sich vereinen...
"Fakerie is a digital séance of aural and visual sculptures by the New Zealand artist Rachel Shearer, formerly known as Lovely Midget. Filmed in an environment to facilitate focused listening, Fakerie is as much for the ears as the eyes. Glowing white lights ebb and expand from darkness in shifting series -- like clustered stars -- as penetrating resonances of acoustic and electronic overtones decompose into the tiniest sand-like components. Traces of Mary Lucier's mid-1970s burn films and Francois Bayle's musical investigation into the physical and psychical world is present. The specially programmed Region 0 (free)/NTSC format DVD plays in constant loop. Its 22-minutes can be expanded into hours allowing the user to immerse themselves in the work. This DVD is Shearer's first long-form film release. In the past 20 years she has released records on Siltbreeze, Xpressway, Flying Nun, Corpus Hermeticum and Ecstatic Peace as Lovely Midget and with Queen Meanie Puss and Angelhead. Packaged in a mini-LP-styled gatefold book, this set also contains a 20-page booklet investigating the ghosts, distances and signals of Fakerie." [label info]
www.family-vineyard.com |
2008 |
€16.50 |
|
| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW |
Signatures |
CD |
Mit einer etwas andere Art von "Plunderphonics" sticht C.A. SHEFFIELD auf "Signatures" hervor; seine vier Stücke sind feinst gesponnene Drones, die aus Extrakten von alten Grammophon-Platten gewonnen wurden. Auf diesen befanden sich, dem Labelkonzept von INVISIBLE BIRDS gemäss, Vogelgesänge und weitere Natursounds (was man den stark transformierten Drones allenfalls noch als subtile organische Aura anmerkt). Sehr sanft und kontemplativ auf den Punkt gedroned, beim letzten Stück epische Ausmaße annehmend...
"these pieces were composed without the use of a computer, only a turntable, old sampler and a portable 64-track digital workstation.
each track is a distillation of commercially available recordings with the essential qualities remaining, only very brief sections are selected and the raw components then contracted into gradually shifting and unfolding atmospheres, offering subtle nuances
and quiet restraint. fragments from these tracks include sounds from birds or water, some being partially obscured while others are veiled references to those elements. in "broken light," the low rumbling that appears at the beginning and for the first few minutes is the sound of birds' wings flapping upon takeoff)." [label info]
"this is the second release by a new label called invisible birds. their first release was m. swizynski's 'films 2007' we reviewed in vital weekly 625, although it didn't mention this as a label. the label focuses itself on releasing 'limited edition cds and dvds evocative of birds and the landscapes they inhabit', which i think is a very nice selection method for incoming demo's. colin andrew sheffield might better known from the releases on his own label, elevator bath, for which he released cdrs and a cd. his 'signatures' cd has its official release december 10th 2008, the 100th birthday of olivier messiaen, another lover of birds and music (probably in that order). sheffield uses a turntable, old sampler and a 'portable 64-track digital workstation' and no computer on these recordings. on the turntable lies records of nature sounds, birds and water, of which sheffield carefully selects fragments to sample and layer on his ancient workstation. if you staple enough sounds on top of eachother, then have them slightly out of sync, one can create beautiful drone music, and that's exactly what sheffield does here. the first three tracks are nice, but it will turn out they are exercises for what is to come: 'breath of day', the fourth and final epic of this, with gramophone hiss and organ like sounds, being stretched out over the course of the twenty-seven minutes this lasts. a true beauty, in all its simplicity. sometimes the simplest things is enough to get things done. the previous tracks, which lay out what sheffield wants, eventually, are great too, but aren't of the same beauty as the last one. if it would have been just the first three i would have been equally enthusiastic about this, now i'm probably ecstatic. great cd." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.invisiblebirds.org
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW / JAMES ECK RIPPIE |
Essential Anomalies |
do-LP |
Colin Andrew Sheffield (sampler) and James Eck Rippie (turntables) began playing music together in Dallas, Texas in 2000 and released their debut LP, "Variations," a year later. They separated soon afterwards, relocating to cities 2,600 miles apart; and though they continued with solo work, they remained inactive as a duo until recently. During this hiatus, Sheffield stayed busy dealing antiquarian books and running his Elevator Bath label; Rippie became an accomplished sound mixer for major motion pictures and television shows. And yet the collaboration between these two friends of a quarter century has always held a special significance (as Francois Couture of AllMusic stated: "The level of understanding between [these two artists] ... commands respect"). So, in 2015, when the two found themselves both living in Austin, a reactivation of their improvising duo was a happy inevitability.
"Essential Anatomies" is the fruit of the pair's renewed efforts. Comprising four pieces originally issued on limited edition cassettes and now widely available for the first time, the double LP is an experiment in audio collage and instant narrative composition. The main tools are sounds from the past: commercially available recordings manipulated and sculpted into a medium with inherent potential. Unlike their plunderphonic ancestors and contemporaries, however, Sheffield and Rippie place a heavy emphasis on atmosphere and a kind of musicality. Their work is surprising and challenging, but it is infused with their keen sense of structure and listenability.
Elements of sound art, drone, glitch, and noise emerge from their altered samples. These sounds have been stripped of any extraneous cumbrances, leaving just the crucial components. The parts that remain, the essential anatomies, form the basis for an ongoing abstract dialogue between two artists with a remarkably developed affinity. The results capture dual streams of consciousness, coursing with a description of nonrepresentational beauty.
"[B]est described as abstract plunderphonics. Sheffield and Rippie use samplers and turntables to sculpt the past into new forms that defy instant categorization; suffice it to say that the old has never sounded so new."
- Richard Allen, A Closer Listen
"Essential Anatomies" has been released by Elevator Bath as a limited edition double LP, copies of which are also available here: www.elevatorbath.com
Mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin
Cover art by Eugenia Loli
credits
released July 7, 2017
Colin Andrew Sheffield (b. 1976, El Paso TX) is the founder of the Elevator Bath recording label. He has released a number of solo recordings on labels such as Invisible Birds, Mystery Sea, Quiet World, and 23five.
James Eck Rippie (b. 1977) is a visual/sound artist originally from outside Nashville TN. His recorded work has been as a turntablist, but he has also worked extensively with other instruments and mediums. He has released his work with the Crónica Electronica and Sirr labels, among others, and has collaborated with sound artists Simon Whetham, Paulo Raposo, and eRikm.
Sheffield and Rippie will tour the US this summer.
elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/essential-
anatomies-3
"Compiling recent small-run cassette works into a luxurious double record set, Essential Anatomies represents a reunion for the duo of Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck Rippie. Collaborators since 2000 and friends for even longer, the four lengthy recordings here capture their Texas reunion in 2015, and with its undeniable sense of complexity and cohesion, makes it clear that they have not missed a step from their time apart.
On paper, what Sheffield and Rippie do is well-trod ground: processing and recontexualization of samples and other forms of pre-recorded music. But rather than being another pair of John Oswald wannabes, they do so with distinct expertise and precision. To use a slightly abstract metaphor, they are much closer to Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad production, taking bits here and there and using them as elements in a much different whole, than they are Puff Daddy’s wholesale plagiarism and lack of innovation.
The first of the four lengthy pieces (each around 22 to 23 minutes long) is an instant launch into the gloom that is Essential Anatomies. Chilling, piano like scrapes cut through a blackened, churning abyss of sound. Some shrill, sharp bits pierce through the darkness here and there, but the piece largely stays pleasant, even though it is rather bleak and covered in a nicely noisy sheen of fuzz. Tortured, almost melodic tones occasionally shine through a wall of ghostly drifts and heavy rumbles, at times heading toward a bit of harsh crunch, but stays in check. The melodies appear here and there again, acting as a slightly less oppressive counterpoint to the sound of decay that surrounds it. Finally, the duo end the piece on a lighter note, like sun shining through menacing gray skies.
What is abundantly clear right from this start is that Sheffield and Rippie are not only extremely proficient at creating moods and space with their samplers and turntables (respectively), but also a creating dynamic compositions that are quite expansive and varied, changing often but returning to reoccurring motifs that results in a more composed, rather than improvised sound. The second piece allows a bit more of their source material to shine through, mostly in the form of piano notes and what sounds like frozen reverberations of chimes far in the distance. There is the same sense of space, but erratic loops and mangled notes result in a composition that builds in tension, eventually transitioning into haunting church organ like walls that dominate the latter half of the piece.
Comparably, the second record comes across a bit less melodic and a bit more textural in the composition and structure. Part three begins with an almost percussive, crunching machinery like opening that is eventually melded with a batch of wet, almost organic like noises and radio static. Bits of recognizable music still sneak through here and there, but it is less the focus. Instead, metallic sweeps and unnatural field recording like sounds fill out the mix, though it ends on a slightly more ambient note. The final composition first is free and spacious, with some crackling tactile like elements at first, but soon it takes on a decaying sound. More organ and mangled string fanfares give a more conventional signpost here and there, but by the end the duo has already transitioned the sound to one of tension and fright, slowly evolving into an uncomfortable silence to end the record.
While I do not believe I could ever manage to place the source of the sounds Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck Rippie utilized in making Essential Anatomies, never does it feel like the two overly processed or from their source. Meaning that, there is some of the original character left from the source material, however subtle it may be. Instead these audio building blocks are obscured but tastefully utilized to construct these atmosphere heavy works. Rippie’s day job is a sound mixer for films and television shows, which surely aided the two in creating the cinematic mood that these two records conjure up. It is that combination of sonic nuance and compositional strength and diversity that make Essential Anatomies so good." [Creaig Dunton/Brainwashed] |
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
| SHIFLET, MIKE & DANIEL MENCHE |
Stalemate |
CD |
"Mike Shiflet and Daniel Menche: Hammond organs and electronics. Recorded in 2007/2008.
Mastered in the analog domain at Stereophonic Masting in Portland, Oregon.
Mike Shiflet is one of the most interesting artists of the new US noise scene. He ran the Gameboy label with 100 releases in 10 years and, as musician, besides his solo recordings, he worked with C. Spencer Yeh/Burning Star Core, Brendan Murray, Francisco Meirino/Phroq & many others.
Daniel Menche is recognized since late eighties as a major figure of the experimental music world, exploring the fringe between noise and drone in a heavy and organic way. For 20 years Daniel Menche has harvested a vast discography of solo and collaborations.
Stalemate, the first collaborative work between these two prolific American artists, is based on Hammond organ sounds and electronics. The result is a heavy body of work - a powerful drone based music with densely textured sounds and some deep bass that'll make your walls shaking." [label info]
www.sonoris.org
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SHIFTS |
Branches |
mCD-R |
A quiet powerful one-tracker (almost 20 min.), pure mechanized overtones and shifting poly-waves. Great for microsound-listening.
"Since 1995 Shifts is one of the various projects of Frans de Waard, besides Freiband, and membership of Beequeen, Kapotte Muziek, Goem, Wander and his recent new project with Roel Meelkop, Zebra. All of the work is based on guitar sounds. In the first phase various guitars were played with objects and effects, then, the next phase were computer treatments of the previous phase (the 'Vertonen' series, 22 pieces in total). After that a return to simplicity again; 'Branches' is one of three pieces ('trees' and 'leaves' to be released on LP by entr'acte) based on four stringed, detuned acoustic guitar and motor objects. Loud and drone this could have been a next step, but might very well the final works on Shifts. Previously material has been released on Korm Plastics, Fourth Dimension, Kraak, Elsie & Jack, Meme and other labels." [label info]
"Derrida's idea that the "semantic horizon which habitually governs the notion of communication is exceeded or punctured by the intervention of writing." which "..does not give rise to a hermeneutic deciphering".. is key to understanding the difficulty of locating the 'drone' within the idea of music which is "western" - i.e. teleological, which is written contra the arguments given in S.E.C. And though we have passed through such a teleological epoch we are only now in the light of post modernism reconsidering the alternatives, i.e. 'turtles all the way down'.. the eternal return of the same. and alternative mythologies - Buddhist, Jain, Hindu .. even Wagnerian prior to Parsifal... And so this 'music' is open to the critique of those who wish to enforce a teleology upon us. (And the usual ploy of leveling ethnocentric critiques on musics which are not part of this great tradition of the west! - and its teleological meta-narrative - i.e. Christian / Jewish / Islamic / Marxist).
This piece avoids the latter critique, its very Conrad-esq beginning locates it within modern western culture despite its use of the de-tuned string instrument. Its development, and that's a very dangerous word to use here, is something subtle - it does not so much hide the development but points towards a cyclic anti hermeneutic work - and this is perhaps my only 'valid' point of criticism of this otherwise excellent work, and maybe not that valid - but given a piece of music (normally) has to be temporally located this provides an obvious challenge to the drone work - (unless repeat play is used) - maybe via an mp3 disk this temporality could be extended but never breached, but this is not a significant philosophical challenge to the drone work as its not surprising that our technology supports the western idea of a teleological universe even though there is a likely alternative - eight track tape as the anti-Christ!" (jliat)
www.taalem.com |
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| SHINE ON ME / KAZUYA ISHIGAMI |
It happened one Night |
CD |
"Shine on me
Infinite form Ambient / electronica unit of Shinomiya motoki living in born Osaka in 1991 Osaka.
The first live was performed in Shinsaibashi nu things JAJOUKA in February, 2011, and activity was completely started after it.
And Mr. Kazuya Ishigami's split album "It happened one night" was released from NEUS-318 this time." [label info]
www.neus318.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHINJUKU THIEF |
Sacred Fury |
CD |
"Leaving aside the sheer viciousness of “Black Ice”, the delicate abstraction of “Black Frost” and the calm asphyxiation of his “Matte Black” albums, Darrin Verhagen on his latest release re-embraces all the dramatic theatricality his Shinjuku Thief project is best known for. Hovering midway between gothic orchestral horror and contemporary cinematic narrative, “Sacred Fury” presents us with a score from the midst of judgment. Reflective cinematic odes are strafed by brutal sound design, whilst elsewhere, bombastic homages to In Slaughter Natives pound out a march to the apocalypse in 31 beats.
This is the quintessential soundtrack for when all your best military plans turn to shit in your hands, and each new oncoming palletload of reason, ideology and faith seems more combustible than the last." [label info]
www.findesieclemedia.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHOCK FRONTIER |
Mancuerda Confessions |
CD |
"Founded some time during 2010, Shock Frontier is the brainchild of Psychomanteum’s Robert Kozletski. Born from an increasing interest in harsher industrial sounds, and aided by long time friend Kyle Carney (Defiantly Fading), Mancuerda Confessions is an expertly composed and finely honed collection of shape shifting, nightmarish emissions and radioactive tonalities, drawing inspiration from some of the early death industrial pioneers, but adding an unique, densely layered and atmospheric style. This is a soundtrack to a world that ends not in a cataclysmic, fiery fashion, but one that slowly decays and rots into oblivion, where swathes of ghostly textures, samples, and disembodied noises morph into murky ambient realms, and caustic frequency reverberations pierce through a bleak, post-apocalyptic haze. After 19 years in existence, it’s arguable that a definitive Malignant sound exists, but if it does, Shock Frontier has managed to come awfully close to capturing it with Mancuerda Confessions. A must for fans of Megaptera, Steel Hook Prostheses, Soldnergeist, and the early CMI sound. In 6 panel eco-wallet, designed by Brian Vdp, and mastered by John Stillings/Steel Hook Audio.
Tracklisting: Paroxysm, Angels Upon Iron Horses, Blood Eagle Zealot, The Confessional, Controlled Atmosphere Killing (feat. Staalkracht ), Understanding the Extent Of Our Disintegration, Decrepitude Approaching, Mancuerda, This Is Paradise." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| SHOEMAKER, MATT |
Spots in the Sun |
CD |
"Dieser Autodidakt in Seattle hat mit seinen dröhnminimalistischen Soundscapes schon Anklang gefunden bei verwandten Seelen wie Francisco López und Bernhard Günter, der auf seinem Label Trente Oiseaux Shoemakers Groundless (2000) und Warung Elusion (2001) herausgebracht hat. Der neue Dröhnscape reizt Hörsinn und Phantasie mit vier Szenen, zu denen man, je nach Wildheit der Imagination, sich Sonnenflecken und Protuberanzen als fernen kosmischen Klangsturm, oder auch einfach ein Fleckchen in der Sonne am Badesee vorstellen mag. Jeweils taucht man ein in grummelnde Tableaus aus Rauschpixeln in vibrierenden Grautönen und schimmernden Monochromien, die in einem Zoomeffekt kulminieren. Als ob das Mikrophon vom Bild angesaugt und verschluckt würde und in den letzten Sekunden akustische Großaufnahmen des Schlunds liefern würde, in dem es verschwindet. Im vierten Teil meine ich bebende Cymbals, Dutzende von Cymbals, als Quelle ausmachen zu können, ein metallisch sirrendes Klangbeben, das im Raum zu schweben scheint, und über das sich dunkle Dröhnwellen hinweg wälzen. Als ob Shoemaker Makro- und Mikroebenen ineinander blenden würde, meint man im Bildgewebe auch die molekularen Reibungen und partikularen Kollisionen wahrnehmen zu können. Letztlich aber verschwinden Katz und Maus im grauen Rauschen. Kennt ihr den? Begegnen sich ein Ästhetizist und ein Anästhesist unter einer Autobahnbrücke..." [Bad Alchemy]
"Matt Shoemaker pulled his chin away from his hand after several ponderous moments, positing that the title to this electrically-charged opus of encrypted drone holds at least two entry points. The most obvious reference for Spots In The Sun would be the astrophysical study of sunspots with all of the allusions to earthly disturbances triggered by events millions of miles away. Yet, on the other hand, Shoemaker also proposed an earthbound reference to regions of the world that only exist -- perhaps literally, perhaps psycho-geographically -- under the intense glare of sunlight. He then shrugged his shoulders, hoping for an ideal situation in which his audience will confront his work as a vacuum and allow personal references to be drawn from within. In simplest terms, Spots In The Sun is a grotesque, sonic landscape with details exaggerated out of proportion and narratives folded upon themselves in a magnificent abstraction of electro-acoustics, rarefied field recordings, and particulate matter plucked from the ether. Shoemaker works in monochrome, shaping his gray tonalities into rhizomes of shadow which occasionally erupt in brilliance of hyper-realized clarity. While the familiar sounds of encircling birds, turbulent weather, and temple bells litter Shoemaker's recordings, the sonic topography describes a vulgar and hostile landscape where fits of delirium and circadian arrhythmia are common human responses. Shoemaker achieves these complex metaphors through labyrinthine drones spiraling through irradiated fog and glassine vibrations, punctured by the scars of a landscape in perpetual revolt. In many ways, Shoemaker's Spots In The Sun could be mistaken for Bernard Parmegiani at his most focused or even John Duncan at his most gracefully brutal." [press release]
"....Shoemaker's music is always present, and perhaps a little more raw than mentioned counterparts, but that's what I like this release. It moves more wildly through various textures from semi-soft to semi-loud in a more continuos manner and thus Shoemaker can be lumped in with some of the drone crowd than say with his microsound counterparts. In the field of drone music his collage techniques may seem odd, but it's surely an original voice. A high quality work, with minor and vital differences." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Have a glance back at our most verbose descriptions about anything from the avant-garde fringes of music making, and you'll most likely find a common metaphor of specific locations, or rather the memories that the author attributes to that space -- good, bad, holy, abject, transcendent, etc. Upon listening to Spots In The Sun, we find ourselves returning to the well-trod linguistic device of comparing sound to the detached memories of place; however, Shoemaker's exploration of psychogeographic sound never grounds itself upon a specific location -- like a crumbling hospital, reclaimed World War II bunkers, or even his own favored locations of the jungles of Indonesia. Rather, Shoemaker drops the listener into a sunbleached environment, where heat, humidity, jetlag, fatigue, and general environmental claustrophobia prevent any of the specifics to make themselves known. While Shoemaker's landscapes are openly hostile toward the listener, these swarming masses of sound are incredibly alluring, drawing us in even though we may know better than to enter these openly toxic spaces. Shoemaker is always teasing us with small hints as to where we might be, with screeching birds, temple bells, and the patter of rain; but before we can begin to triangulate a position, Shoemaker rips us from our locale with a ruptured crescendo and drops us somewhere else. It is through the drone that Shoemaker achieves all of this and more, his swarming monochrome morphs from complex vibrations into radioluminescent clouds. Spots In The Sun is an exquisite manifestation of abstracted field recordings pushed to the point of grotesque minimalism, and is indeed some of the finest that we've heard (comparable to the likes of BJ Nilsen, Machinefabriek, Loren Chasse, Philip Jeck's Surf, and mnortham)." [Aquarius Records] |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mutable Depths |
mCD |
Nach einem sehr ruhig-konkreten Beginn schwingt sich der 20 Minuten one-tracker allmählich zu einer Art mysteriöser organischer Ambience ein; softe Obertonwellen, schmatzendes Klackern, hyper-ätherisch und verwaschen, aber irgendwie beseelt..
"A powerful meditation on rupturing surface and expanding environmental space, Matt Shoemaker's 'Mutable Depths' vividly creates a resonating
world of natural phenomena evolving towards oblivion. The sound of ice melting with eerie clarity begins the metaphor, only to give way to a stark atmosphere of inversion and concretion - a window on a distorted reality, with only the most tenuous connection to the terrestrial. Twenty minutes of sonic abstraction created for admirers of hidden soundscapes, organic narratives, and uncanny visions." [label info]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Erosion of the Analogous Eye |
CD |
"As said in the review of the new CD by Jim Haynes there is a small school of drone musicians, mainly from the USA who deliver some of the more darker outing in the scene. There are of course minor differences to be spotted. According to the cover of Schoemaker's new CD 'environmental phenomena' where recorded in Indonesia, Cambodia and USA, but its hard to spot these on the actual music, as he feeds them through a whole bunch of analogue synthesizers, guitar stomp boxes, reverb and such like. Only in the last piece 'The Analogous Eye' bird calls and wind sounds rise out of the mass, but even here things seems electrified. This makes that Schoemaker's music is altogether more 'electronic' in nature than that of Haynes or Irr.App.(ext.) and also a bit more 'louder', industrial perhaps. In his music he depicts empty industrial sites of long sustaining, rusty sounds of rusty object on even more rusty surfaces. The two parts of 'Erosion' are highly minimalist affairs of long sustained sounds. Not to be confused with the current wave of 'cosmic' sound artists, this goes further and deeper. An excellent work, sadly perhaps limited to 300 copies only." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The studio of Matt Shoemaker is alive with electricity. Impossibly complex wirings channel signal in and out of analog synth modules, an array of curious aluminums boxes with unmarked knobs, slinkies strung from ceiling to floor creating a set of giant spring reverb units, accelerometers attached to consumer electronic errata, and even a few conventional tools like guitar stomp boxes and a bruised computer. For all of the convoluted engineering that goes into Shoemaker's equipment, the resulting mesmerism in sound appears effortless and strangely organic. Shoemaker has enjoyed a semi-obscure career through his polymath activities that bridge such electronic experiments with a choice library of globe-trotted field recordings and a broad knowledge of avant-garde cinema. For Erosion of the Analogous Eye, Shoemaker waves his hands about his laboratory to construct an ever-evolving album for mutant dronemuzik. His electrical seas of synthetic bristling undulate with placid regularity, only to find Shoemaker contorting these brain-melting psychedelics into cancerous, atonal bellows. Out of his allotropic shifts, one can find swells of irradiated static transform into the graceful chime of temple bells; and electrical phase patterns slip into deep forest murmurings dotted with narcoleptic birds calls. On one hand, this album is prescient of the revival for progressive electronics currently underway in the flood of US post-noise projects; it's easy to triangulate this between Emeralds and Heldon. But on the other hand, Erosion of the Analogous Eye is the continuation of where Shoemaker had begun with his early work on Trente Oiseaux with its grotesques exaggerations of field recording into this beguiling piece of art. The artwork on Erosion of the Analogous Eye features unique hand-dyed abstractions mounted onto letterpressed paper. This has warranted a very small pressing of 300 copies." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"A very prescient, and very good, record by the sound-artist / field recordist Matt Shoemaker, Erosion Of The Analogous Eye pushes his work of tonal exploration and exaggerated found sounds into the neighborhood of many of the post-noise cosmic explorers who have been blossoming in every corner of the US it seems. At the same time, this is very much a Matt Shoemaker record, following a trajectory set forth through his acclaimed work on the once-mighty Trente Oiseaux label.
An ur-drone of analog synthesis opens the album, obviously harkening to '70s kosmische activities certainly a muscular revisitation of Schulze or even an extraction from Richard Pinhas. Such a lazerbeam of a drone has a lysergic sunrise feel to it, with the light and shadow brought into sharp relief, the colors shifted and separating into spectral bursts of yellow, red, pink, and orange. Yet, slowly, Shoemaker introduces atonal drones which clash with that introductory suspension. At first, the metallic slashes have almost an Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough feel, but Shoemaker quickly dispels those notions with a layer of field recordings of insects ravenously scurrying about. That introductory tone, which still continues through this first track, bends like a divebombing plane with Doppler tones trailing behind, descending in a series of bell tones. All of this in a seamless 17 minutes. A steady rhythm of gamelan bell tones opens the second track with accumulated complimentary drones shimmering and vibrating while harmonic dissonance abounds, collapsing into a quiet stream of percolating textures. Spread across 24 minutes, this track seems ancient and sounds beguilingly beautiful. Bellowing rumbles amplify out of recordings of rain, mud, and water and steadily arching through a metallic rattling of various pipes and gongs for the final track, which eventually gives way to an uneasy set of recordings of birds in a rainforest whose calls echo through the trees.
As with all Helen Scarsdale releases the packaging is stellar. Letterpressed text with hand-dyed paper. Each are different, each are quite special. Oh yeah, limited to a mere 300 copies!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Isolated Agent Stranding Behaviour |
pic-LP |
"Elevator Bath's ongoing series of picture disc LPs (each record being adorned with full-color artwork by the recording artist) continues with Matt Shoemaker's debut appearance on vinyl: An enigmatic pairing of new recordings with appropriately cryptic artwork.
Much of Shoemaker's recorded output prominently features the use of field recordings (see his Tropical Amnesia One CD), but in this case he has eschewed such grounded measures and has instead sculpted a two-part puzzle which seemingly exists on some other plane(t). Layer upon evolving layer of sonic phenomena is still the methodological trademark, but the content is almost entirely electronic, lending a great deal of vivid color to a description of blackest space. The two works presented here are powerfully mysterious, unsettling examples of Matt Shoemaker's prowess as a composer of details, of moods and tenses.
The improbably relevant artwork for this picture disc consists of two collages utilizing Shoemaker's own hand-dyed paper. The images, as well as their meanings, are essentially abstract and yet remarkably familiar. On the A side, the Isolated Agent scuttles in a circular motion, forever locked in an endless search for the unknown element. The B side depicts the constant retreat, the Stranding Behavior inevitably resulting in/from confusion.
"You realize what you are implying? That we owe our human condition here to the intervention of insects."
Matt Shoemaker's music has been released by such labels as Trente Oiseaux, The Helen Scarsdale Agency, and Ferns Recordings. He resides in Seattle.
This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 233 copies.
Total running time: 30 minutes" [label info]
www.elevatorbath.com
"The other record is by Matt Shoemaker, who seems to be always present, with his regular releases on labels as Ferns and The Helen Scarsdale Agency. His work recently shifted a bit more towards that of working with field recordings, but on this LP it all seems to be electronic again. I have no idea wether these are the result computers working overtime or meters and meters of cable connecting one synthesizer to another, and once connected start playing themselves, almost, as it were. Shoemaker layers the results of whatever process he applies on a multitude of tracks and does some highly creative mixing with those sounds. Highy atmospheric (obviously! I'd say) of course, but Shoemaker's work is also a bit more experimental than the usual drone minds (UK, USA, otherwise). Shoemaker knows how to put in a strange angle in his work, that makes it just a bit different than the ordinary drone record. Partly based in the seventies cosmic tradition, partly drone and partly serious avant-garde, but with a long, stretched time signature. Great record." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Soundtrack for Dislocation |
CD |
"Matt Shoemaker's first full-length album for Elevator Bath is Soundtrack for Dislocation, an entirely self-contained account of a fantastically abstract and intensely personal vision.
As with much of Shoemaker's work, this is an album permeated with a very potent sense of unease. And despite the fact that the use of field recordings is very minimal here, there is a no less organically tangible quality which only contributes to the feeling of disquietude.
For those unfamiliar with Matt Shoemaker's work, Soundtrack for Dislocation is absolutely the ideal place to start as it is arguably the most fully-realized project in his catalog. All the necessary elements are present: The enigmatic cover and interior images, the cryptic track titles, and of course the recordings themselves - densely packed and elaborately evolved aberrancies. Shoemaker seems to have provided more than enough clues to the puzzles he offers in his works but, like the most effective tales, these subtle indications cannot quite account for all that happens. The rest is up to the astute listener who accepts this very inscrutability as the reward.
Matt Shoemaker's music has been released by such labels as Trente Oiseaux, The Helen Scarsdale Agency, Mystery Sea, and Ferns Recordings. He resides in the northwest of the United States.
Packaged inside an extra thick, full-color, matte finish, 6-panel digipak featuring Shoemaker's beautiful photography, this compact disc has been issued in an edition of 509 copies. Total running time: 57 minutes" [label info]
"No stranger to Vital Weekly with his various releases for labels such as Mystery Sea, Ferns and The Helen Scarsdale Agency. Maybe its just too easy to say, but Shoemaker is one of the drone boys. The press text says that the 'use of field recordings is very minimal here', so we have to guess what it is that Shoemaker does. His website reveals a bit: "Devices employed: microphones and assorted transducers, digital and analogue recorders, signal processors, computer, various electronic and acoustic instruments." That says some, but not all. Electronic instruments, acoustic instruments: that could be anything. Now I could do some guessing, and I'd say cello, guitar, sound effects, such as reverb and such alike, but maybe I am barking up the wrong tree. Three lengthy pieces are on this release which displays Shoemaker's skill quite well. No man for just some silent playing, or 'just' a bunch of drone loops circling about, as he keeps his music very lively. It bounces from these mellow looped drone sounds into a more harsher sound world, and these worlds grow easy together inside the length of a piece. Sometimes these build in a natural way and sometimes in a more gently disturbing manner. Three long pieces of an excellent beauty."
[Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHRINE |
Ordeal 26.04.86 |
CD |
"The new full length by Dark Ambient / Drone act Shrine is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on 26th April 1986. Composed during a post-operative convalescence period in 2015, Hristo Gospodinov says of the process: "To me the Chernobyl theme has always been very special not only because I witnessed the nuclear sunburn effects myself back in 1986 when I was a kid, but also because I find it to be the closest glimpse of a pending apocalypse we have seen so far. I find it terrifying not only because of the devastating effect of the ionizing radiation itself, but also because it was a man-made event. To me, the parallel with the biblical book of Revelation is inescapable." Laced with emotional distress and Shrine's superbly crafted soundscapes and notable sound design skills, "Ordeal 26.04.86" serves as a tribute to those that suffered, and still suffer from the irreparable. Events like this have happened again since - the most recent being in Japan's Fukushima - and there's definite signs that in the future we'll unfortunately witness more of these manmade catastrophes. "Ordeal" will serve as the perfect soundtrack. Ltd x 500 copies in a digipak." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"Das Dark Ambient-Projekt SHRINE haben wir auf NONPOP regelmäßig begleitet. Und dabei immer wieder festgestellt, dass gerade in einem so überlaufenen Genre die Qualität der Musik sehr hoch einzuschätzen ist. Die thematischen Arbeiten des Bulgaren HRISTO GOSPODINOV wirkten stets überzeugend und durchdacht, wie aus einem Guss. Mir war deshalb auch nicht bange, als ich vor einigen Monaten die Ankündigung zu einem neuen Album las, welches sich thematisch mit der Nuklearkatastrophe von Tschernobyl am 26. April 1986 beschäftigen sollte. Solche ganz großen Themen sind ja entweder schon häufig bearbeitet worden oder führen schnell zu enttäuschten Erwartungen. Aber, ganz im Gegenteil: Auch wenn HRISTO im Pressetext etwas dick aufträgt und biblische Endzeit-Prophezeiungen bemüht, liefert er hier musikalisch sein bislang vielfältigstes und stimmigstes Werk ab, so viel schon einmal vorweg.
"Atomgrad" (01) startet mit Vogelgezwitscher und einem bereits leicht bedrohlichen Drone, wie ein schwarzer Windhauch. Mehrere Drones verdichten sich schnell zu einem schillernden, strahlenden Geflecht mit mechanisch britzelnden Geräuschen sowie industriellen Schlägen dazwischen, das Unheil kündigt sich an. Insgesamt ist die Atmosphäre zwar (noch) nicht unwohl, aber es knirscht und knackt wie vor einer Explosion in einer bis dahin heilen, natürlichen Umwelt. "Radiant Skyline" (02) ist wahrlich beeindruckend mit seinen gleißenden, leuchtenden Sounds, die – unterlegt von einem stetigen Bratzeln – permanent mächtiger werdend und tatsächlich klingend wie radioaktive Wolken, sehr filmisch das Ganze. Die Dramatik der Synthielinien mit verwehten, choralen Elemente geht auch als Neoklassik durch, die acht Minuten durchlaufen eine ungeheure Steigerung zu einem mächtigen, flehenden, atomaren Schrei. "The Silent Apocalypse" (03) ändert die Szenerie, wechselt in höhliges, verregnetes Ambiente, durch das ein dunkles, fanfarenartiges Tröten nach unten absteigend, untermalt vom Ticken eines Geigerzählers. "The Night That Hell Broke Loose" (04) nimmt den Titel beim Wort: bedrohliches, maschinelles Hämmern, eher kreischende Töne und rezitierende Vocals im Hintergrund, was mich nicht zum ersten Mal an die etwas Dark Ambient-lastigere Variante von DER BLAUE REITER (siehe auch "Nuclear Sun" – Besprechung zum selben Thema) erinnert. Wehmütiger, schmerzlicher Regen mit klagenden Drones fällt in "Under The Graphite Clouds" (05). Und "The Burden Of Knowledge" (06) ist in Gänze eine radioaktive Soundlandschaft, bedrückend wie eine Beerdigung mit Sounds von Instrumenten und Messgeräten vor blasigen, nach oben steigenden Drones. Alles eindrucksvoll unterlegt von martialischem Dröhnen und russischem Flüstern.
Während dieser monumentalen 50 Minuten verliert HRISTO GOSPODINOV zu keiner Sekunde die Struktur, das Gleichgewicht der Elemente aus den Augen. Ein überwältigend dichtes Werk vor dem thematischen Hintergrund der atomaren Bedrohung, oft außerhalb der Genregrenzen von Dark Ambient. Wie gesagt, das beste SHRINE-Album bisher."
[Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHUKAR |
Bear Tamers Music |
CD |
"Shukar's sound is coming from the old times, when Tatars and Mongolians came to Dacia
(the old name of Romania). The members of Shukar (that's mean "fine" in rom language) play
very original sounds called ursari music (which descends from the brotherhood of the bear-tamers)" [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIDHARTA, OTTO |
Four Indonesian Electronic Pieces 1979-1984 |
LP |
Fascinating and unreleased before music by Otto Sidharta, pionneer of Indonesian electronic music. Electronic compositions that integrated natural sounds and urban sounds to this extent were extremely rare at the time, which gives them a unique form of intensity.
Released in our Early Electronic series.
Otto Sidharta is born in Bandung, Indonesia November 6, 1955. In 1978 he studied music composition in Jakarta Institute of Arts under guidance of Slamet Abdul Sjukur, in 1984 he continue his post graduate study for composition and electronic music with Prof. Ton de Leeuw in Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam.
In 2015 acomplished his doctoral study at Institute Seni Indonesia Surakarta and finished in 2016. Sidharta's interest using environmental sounds and synthetics sounds as well to express his musical ideas developed when he was a student at the Jakarta Institute of Arts. He performed his first electronic music piece, Kemelut, based on water sounds in the First Indonesian Young Composer Festival (Pekan Komponis Muda) in 1979. In 1979 he begin to collect some nature and animal sounds on Nias Island, Borneo (Kalimantan) jungle, Riau islands, and some other remote places. These sounds were used as material for some of his works such as Ngendau, Hutan Plastik and East wind. And some others. Otto Sidharta is still alive and performing around the world.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/indonesian-electronic-music-1979-92 |
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| SIGHTINGS |
Michigan Haters |
LP |
"When Sightings second album not only crushed everything that they had done prior, but revealed the band to be sonic explorers of Magellanic proportions. Sightings' overblown intensity was joined by abrasive twists and subtle unconventionality, a combination of sounds which one reviewer likened to 'a storm of knives.' Or something like listening to Terry Riley and Steve Reich through a Big Muff at 110 decibels. With Michigan Haters, Sightings started on what would become nearly a decade long reinvention of the rock & roll song. First through volume and now through invention, Sightings has given up a series of great albums: Absolutes, which clearly builds on what Michigan Haters created, Arrived in Gold, the coolly brilliant Through the Panama, and the fantastic City of Straw. Originally released on CD in 2002 by Psych-O-Path, didn't get a proper vinyl release. So after years of Sightings and SS talking about doing a single, I finally said 'Hey, Michigan Haters needs to be on vinyl. Let me do it!'" [label info]
www.s-srecords.com
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| SIGILLUM S |
23/20 |
do-LP |
Seit über 20 Jahren gibt es das italienische Industrial- & Elektronik-Trio SIGILLUM S, um die es in den letzten Jahren sehr ruhig wurde. Diese do-LP ist eine Kollektion mit vielen Remixen und Kollaborationen in fantastischer Aufmachung und deckt eine unglaubliche Bandbreite ab zwischen pumpenden "old school" rhythmic Industrial Sounds, dunklem death & ambient Industrial und abenteuerlichen eher am Song-format orientierten Stücken mit Vocals & Gitarreinsatz und gar dubbigen Einflüssen.... ein mächtiger Bastard, hervorragend produziert!
Das Vinyl hat z.T. andere Tracks als die CD-Version!
"More than ever, fringe culture methods and cutting edge acoustic science mate for the generations of endless layers and bursts of sonic pleasure - voices and drones clans across plans and peaks, fishing for universal tremors and sensorial catastrophes. iconic translations of lost symbols flow like pathogenic lava into temporal sequence and weather forecasts become performances for alien audiences.\ The 20th anniversary album from post-industrial noise alchemists SIGILLUM S, \ 23/20\ , features (together with the original line up of Eraldo Bernocchi, P.NG5361.Bandera and Luca Di Giorgio) sound contributions from long time collaborators and friends, such as Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo, Professor Shebab, SH Fernando / WordSound, Martino Nicoletti, Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, ZU, Xabier Iriondo, Ephel Duath, Karyn Crisis and various members of the same band , Mark Solotroff, Thomas Fehlmann, Gudrun Gut, Andrea
Marutti, Claudio Agostoni and many others.\
23/20\ is available as two radically different and complementary formats, a digipack CD and a limited edition gatefold double vinyl, with different track lists and sequences for each format - nine tracks are on both formats, while others (seven per format) can only be found either on CD or vinyl (sixteen tracks per format, twenty three in total)." [label press release]
www.sigillum-s.com
|
2007 |
€28.00 |
|
| |
Terror Auto-Obstetrics |
maxi-CD |
Re-Issue einer alten 7" von 1990 und zwei Compilation-Tracks anno 1991, re-mastered.
"Released to coincide with the very first USA Sigillum S show in the Italian post-industrial audio project's 20+ year history, this EP pulls together four songs originally released on AWB Recordings: "Terror Auto-Obstetrics" and "Transkathartick Endoscopy" (7-inch, 1990), "Suck Inside Thee Ov Bulb" (Effete compilation cassette, 1988), and "Purulence Peaks, Hairy Knobs, And Death Disturbances" (Private Thoughts compilation cassette, 1991). The tracks were re-mastered by band member Eraldo Bernocchi. Sigillum S's ongoing explorations of forbidden areas of the subconscious yields alien electronic mutations that merge concrete noise research with acoustic transmigration, while visuals and other media achieve maximum interaction intensity." [label info]
http://bloodlust.blogspot.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| SIGMARSSON, SIGTRYGGUR (BERG) |
A little lost |
CD |
Zarteste Massagen-Drones auf dieser dritten solo-Arbeit des Isländers..
“solo cd from this stilluppsteypa after successful albums on trente oiseaux, ers and fire inc. his new cd features 3 new tracks that show the diverse possibilities of his talent” [label info]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
For Einar Jonsson (1874-1954) |
BOOK & CD-R |
"Perhaps by now a somewhat forgotten fact, but Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson may be best known as a member of Stillupsteypa (and for their collaborations with BJ Nilsen), but he's also a visual artist and once the 'owner' of a record label, called Some. He tells me this package is a sort of revival of that label. The book at hand is a catalogue of artwork from the years 1997 to 2014. Lots of drawings, photos of performances, but also photos of objects, pictures of the artist as a child, letters, and some words, but no expert insight essay. Which I guess is a good thing. It leaves some of the mystery in tact and has a fine naive impact on the viewer, perhaps establishing him as an outsider. The book is published in an edition of 100 copies, half of which are sold and the other half comes with a fourteen-minute piece of music, called 'For Einar Jonsson (1874-1954)'. He was Iceland's first sculptor, who drew inspiration from the Icelandic folklore heritage, but also using mythological and religious motifs (I am quoting a website here). Later on he rejected all classical art tradition and enamoured theosophy. The fourteen-minute piece is a way too short for my taste - and for the book. I wanted to sit down, play the music and all along look at the images, but I had to put the piece on repeat. Sigmarsson uses what seems to me the sound of a church organ, and turns it into this heavily processed piece of drone music. A bit stretched out, many layers and all along the source material can be recognized, which gives the piece, perhaps, also a religious motif. It's the kind of drone music we know Sigmarsson do very well, and here he doesn't disappoint us either. Except of course that it could have been twice as along - at least. Putting it on repeat is not the same thing, but will do as well. Hopefully more to come!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Into the Second Half |
LP |
Icelandic artist and musician Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson is known not only for his work with Stilluppsteypa but also numerous solo albums and collaborations with Swedish composer BJ Nilsen as well as several other artists. On Into the Second Half, his new solo album, recorded in 2022, Sigmarsson takes the listener into a calming yet mysterious world of sound. Starting from almost silence he creates a different state of listening that we could only find elsewhere when concerned with works of Robert Ashley. Carefully composed textures as subtle as the changes of light in the forbidden zone in Andrei Tarkovsky"s Stalker weave in and out of each other to make for a hypnotic ride. The cover and label photos were taken by Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson. Mastered for vinyl by Jim O"Rourke |
2024 |
€29.50 |
|
| SIGUR ROS |
Ny Batteri |
mCD |
“Following the near unprecedented reception for their debut EP, ‘Svefn-G-Englar’, Iceland’s Sigur Rós deliver an equally extraordinary second record in the shape of ‘Ný Batterí’. As with its sold-out predecessor, ‘Ný Batterí’ comes as a four track EP with three otherwise unavailable new compositions. First track ‘Rafmagnið Búið’ (trans. ‘Electricity Over’) is a remix based around the brass section from ‘Ný Batterí’ (‘New Battery’), which follows (and is taken from the group’s forthcoming debut album, ‘Ágaetis Byrjun’. Third track ‘Bíum Bíum Bambaló’ is a breathtaking rendition of an old Icelandic lullaby, which research reveals has never been recorded before, being handed down instead by oral tradition. The last track is ‘Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir’, which translates as something like ‘Death Announcement and Funerals’. This is based on the Iceland radio service which each day announces to the nation who has died and what their funeral arrangements are. This is “theme” music, as interpreted by Sigur Rós.
The last two tracks have been chosen for the soundtrack of ‘Angels Of The Universe’, a forthcoming movie from Oscar-nominated Icelandic film director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, which is based on a book by winner of the Karen Blixen prize for literature, Einar Mar Gudmundsson. Following their inclusion on this limited edition EP, both ‘Bíum Bíum Bambaló’ and ‘Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir’ will be available only on the ‘Angels Of The Universe’ soundtrack.” [label info]
www.fat-cat.co.uk |
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Svefn-G-Englar |
mCD |
“Formed in January, 1994, Sigur Rós are an Icelandic four-piece band who, if the startled reactions to the pre-release CDs of this 12” are anything to go by, look set to be huge. Although until now Sigur Rós have remained unreleased outside of their native country, to date they have released 3 albums in Iceland (all on the Smekkleysa label) – ‘Von’, their debut in 1997; a remix of this, ‘Vonbrigð’, a year later; and a month ago, the awesome new ‘Agætis Byrjun’, which has been number 1 in Iceland since, garnering some amazing press reviews.
First spotted playing live at a Gus Gus party in Reykjavik, at which FatCat were Dj-ing, the band forge a stunning brand of beautifully-orchestrated, deeply atmospheric music. Layering a huge, rich and emotional space through a mixture of guitars, keyboard, flute, accordian, bass, drums and vocals, their tracks become extended soundscapes that shift and slide, flowering in massive crescendos, hooking the listener and dragging him /her with them.
If you’re looking for reference points, check God Speed You Black Emperor or Rachel’s (and yes, they are really that good). What marks out a major difference though, is singer Jonsi’s distinctive vocal style. Sung in a mixture of Icelandic and ‘Hopelandish’ (the band’s own made-up language – recalling Liz Fraser’s babytalk in The Cocteau Twins), his voice slips across the music, following its rises and falls.
Just as impressive are the band’s live performances. Two tracks on the CD single bear witness to their power as a live force: ‘Nýja Lagið’ and ‘Syndir Guðs’ (both exclusive to the CD). **PLEASE NOTE THAT CD IS A REPRESS VERSION AND NOT IN THE ORIGINAL SLEEVE” [label info]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Kveikur |
do-LP & 10inch |
"Sigur Rós's new studio album, Kveikur, will be released on XL Recordings worldwide on 17th / 18th June 2013. The record, which was self-produced by the three members of Sigur Rós: Jón Þór Birgisson, Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason, sees the band shifting towards a more direct, aggressive sound." [label info]
www.xlrecordings.com
|
2013 |
€26.00 |
|
| SIGURTA, LUCA |
Warm Glow |
CD |
Luca Sigurtà is an electronic composer since the early 2000s and his new album Warm Glow is out on the Polish label Monotype Records: a great stride in his compelling and very personal musical journey. In Warm Glow Luca’s emotional electronic noise has become part of a mix together with slow paced rhythms and analogue synth delicate flows: a sort of very original trip-noise-hop ambient; melodies with a remarkable melancholic feel and beautiful digital/analog sounds shows all the potential of his music.
Shared between the passion for silence and noise, Luca Sigurtà made several releases on labels like Fratto9, Creative Sources, Afe Records, Dokuro, Lisca, Tulip, Karl Schmidt Verlag. Apart from his solo project he’s part of Luminance Ratio and he played with Harshcore.
On stage he uses tapes, analogical sources and electronic stuff of any sort.
|
2015 |
€7.00 |
|
| SIJ |
The Earth Shrine |
CD-R |
"Second "shrine" from imaginative world of SiJ music expands the colorful landscapes of ancient myths and legends, merging tribal pulses with timeless ambient flows. Entraining mind with mysterious sounds, this album isn't just telling stories, but invites the listener to solve enigmas of hidden shrines and symbolic tales. From here and now - to infinite beyond.
All tracks written, mixed and mastered by Vladislav Sikach 2013-2014.
Field Recordings, Synthesizer/Keyboards, Bells, [Metal] Percussion, [Bamboo & Metal] Wind Chime, Toy Piano, Flute, Singing Bowl, Contact Microphones by Vladislav Sikach.
Percussion by Robert Rich, Bill Laswell, Robin Storey/Rapoon.
Field Recordings by jymdavis, AhmadSA, D W, everythingsounds, annhawks, Sclolex. Singing Bowl by Tim Six/Creation VI, eliasheuninck, the_very_Real_Horst, Coleco. Duduk by Ilya Fursov/Textere Oris.
Artwork & Cover Design by Tim Six.
Postcard photos by Madina Rzaeva.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Site: sijmusic.info
Bandcamp: sijmusic.bandcamp.com
Facebook: soundcloud.com/sijmusic
SoundCloud: www.facebook.com/sijmusic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Detailed info about used matherials:
Robert Rich
Dumbek, Bells (track 1)
Gong, Shunt, Waterphone (track 3)
robertrich.com
www.sonycreativesoftware.com/robertrich
Bill Laswell
Bells (track 1)
Tabla, Bata, Bells (track 2)
Khene, Djembe, Madal, Woodblock, Chatan, Tabla, Batá, Bells (track 3)
www.billlaswell.net
www.sonycreativesoftware.com/laswell1
Robin Storey (Rapoon)
Bells, Clay Drum (track 2)
www.the-edge.ca/pretentious/rapoon/home.html
www.sonycreativesoftware.com/rapoon2
Tim Six (Creation VI)
Singing Bowl (track 2)
creation6.bandcamp.com
vk.com/creation6
Ilya Fursov (Textere Oris)
Duduk (track 2)
soundcloud.com/textere-oris
vk.com/textere_oris
vk.com/fursovilya
eliasheuninck
Singing Bowl (track 1, 4)
www.freesound.org/people/eliasheuninck/
the_very_Real_Horst
Singing Bowl (track 2, 4)
www.freesound.org/people/the_very_Real_Horst/
Coleco
Singing Bowl (track 4)
www.freesound.org/people/Coleco/
jymdavis
Field Recordings (track 1)
www.freesound.org/people/jymdavis/
AhmadSA
Field Recordings (track 4)
www.freesound.org/people/AhmadSA/
D W
Field Recordings (track 4)
www.freesound.org/people/D%20W/
everythingsounds
Field Recordings (track 4)
www.freesound.org/people/everythingsounds/
Sclolex
Field Recordings (track 4)
www.freesound.org/people/Sclolex/
annhawks
Field Recordings (track 4)" [label info]
pantheophania.bandcamp.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Way to Dream |
CD |
Сardboard envelope with CD disc in blue hand stitched cloth bag.
"Last rays of setting sun reflected from the azure sea surface picked up the purest, deepest dreams and flew away like a rapid sailboat. The light fades over horizon, giving way to lullaby of twinkling stars...
This most personal album in SiJ discography is dedicated to his beloved, and its transparent sound awakens a romantic dreamer in every careful listener. Born somewhere between the sky and sea, in silent evening dialogue of elements, melodies of this album are lining up in compositions like a guiding stars, so everyone could find its own "Way to Dream."
credits
released August 22, 2015
ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records | ПAN037
▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼
Written, mixed and mastered by Vladislav Sikach in 2014.
Dedicated to Anna Sikach.
Synthesizer / keyboards, field recordings & contact microphones, noises, guitar, percussion, toy piano and voice by Vladislav Sikach. For other materials used in this release visit:
sijmusic.info/works/physical-release/way-to-dream/
Previously self-released by SiJ in edition of 12 CDR's.
Lighthouse painting and cloth bags by Aloe.
Painting on CD by Anna Sikach.
Envelope artwork by Tim Six." [label info]
pantheophania.bandcamp.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIJ & ITEM CALIGO |
Queer Reminiscence |
CD |
"Since 2015's album "The Lost World" Vladislav Sikach ambient project SiJ released "Reflections Under the Sky" in February 2016. This time together with Textere Oris and under the banner of the Cryo Chamber label.
With "Queer Reminiscence" SiJ returns to Reverse Alignment, teaming up with Item Caligo.
As you can expect, "Queer Reminiscence" deliver drifting ambient to get carried away with.
Limited edition of 200 copies in 6-panel digipack." [label info]
ralignment.tictail.com
"This new collaboration is an excellent example of dark ambient/neo-classical collaborations gone right. SiJ and Item Caligo are both known for their sounds that often float from ambient, to dark ambient, to neo-classical, and then back again. As is to be expected of these two artists, we have a nice combination of drone, piano, and various other lesser elements. SiJ and Item Caligo combine to craft a sound that is undeniably listenable. There is nothing harsh here, at many times its not even particularly dark.
Tracks like “It Was Good To Destroy Once Again” showcase a lot of the diversity presented. There are moments when the track is peaceful, with gently sweeping drone-work. Yet, as it progresses it moves into areas of looping and a faint but steady percussion. Reminding of something which generally falls into more experimental and ambient musical outings. It can be something almost akin to the sounds of some artists on the Ultimae or Glacial Movements labels, with their minimalistic yet structured usage of percussion and drones. The cold feeling Queer Reminiscence evokes is another reason to make this connection to Glacial Movements.
The pervading themes throughout Queer Reminiscence are melancholia and frigid temperatures. One can easily find themselves imagining a winter spent in some cold and isolated region, sitting beside the hearth in a tiny log cabin. This feeling of isolation will bring on a sense of longing for the past or some idealistic yet unwritten future. The sadness of Queer Reminiscence is woven into the music. There are no blatant cues to direct one’s emotions in any certain direction nor are their any noticeable field recordings.
This hypnotic suggestion stems from the pure minimalism on Queer Reminiscence. There certainly are some active elements here, as already mentioned about the percussive sections peppered through the album. Yet, this variety of styles and instrumentation still hold a stripped down and minimal feel because of the sparing use and perfect placement of the various sounds. Unlike so many collaborative albums in the ambient realm, Queer Reminiscence makes it extremely hard to label any specific sounds to the musician responsible for the sample. There is never the moment where one thinks, “oh, this is certainly done by SiJ and not Item Caligo“. This is a testament to their individual skills and their years of experience writing music. But it is, even more so, a sign of their natural connection. They don’t seem to be fighting one another for the lead. They manage to give listeners the sense that Queer Reminiscence was created by one mind channeling its concepts into reality.
Queer Reminiscence is an album that should be pleasing to many diverse musical appetites. There is something here for the ambient fans, something for the dark ambient fans, and something else that naturally makes it accessible beyond these boundaries. Having fully focused their attention on concept over stylistic execution, SiJ and Item Caligo bring forth something beautiful and serene. It should be able to evoke a sense of longing from each listener, in their own personal way. This all leads to my suggestion that Queer Reminiscence is one of the strongest releases on Reverse Alignment since its revival. An album which could be recommended to almost anyone."
[Michael Barnett/This is Darkness]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIJ & SERGEY GABBASOV |
Zhang Zhung |
CD |
"Spreading their influence across what is today known as the rooftop of the world, the ancient kingdoms of the Zhang Zhung reached into the distant valleys and plateaus of the Himalayas. A culture centered upon the holy Mount Kailash, this people followed the Bonpo tradition, living their lives in the shadows of the many fearful Bonpo deities, but also overwatched by the compassionate Lord of the Heavens. Journey together with Vladislav Sikach and Sergey Gabbasov as they restore to life the centuries old mysteries of the Zhang Zhung.
Tracklist:
1. Bön Sacred Rituals (36:06)
2. Tengri (43:40)
SiJ is an Ukrainian dark ambient/drone project created by Vladislav Sikach and aims to develop a unique sound combined with various industrial features mostly in sombre dark ambient way. Instrumentation includes various guitars, drums and synthesizers as well as handmade mechanical or electromechanical sound devices. Recently SiJ also started to use field recordings made in various places from urban streets to abandoned military and industrial facilities.
Sergey Gabbasov is an ethnomusicologist, specialized in the peoples of East Africa, and a student of “Dhow Countries Music Academy” (Zanzibar, Tanzania). He has made many ethnographical expeditions in different parts of Africa, Asia and Europe, produced several films about indigenous peoples and studied their native music." [label info]
gterma.blogspot.de
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Perseides |
CD |
Welcome along on another trip into the forgotten hinterlands of the Eurasian plateau. Sergey and Vladimir once again skillfully guide us through the dusty backwater trails of the Mongol steppe, along the winding mountain roads that slither through the steep valleys of the Central Asian mountain ranges past crumbling old villages where hardship and beauty go hand in hand. No manmade light disturbs the eternal slumber of the starry nightsky and every cave, every hill, seems under the influence of some forgotten deity or spirit being.
Sergey Gabbasov is a social anthropologist specialized in hunter-gathers of Central and East Africa. He has made many ethnographical expeditions in different parts of Africa, Asia and Europe, produced several films about indigenous peoples and studied their native music.
SiJ is an ambient music project founded on March 27th 2011 by self-taught artist Vladislav Sikach from Sevastopol. His sound incorporates a variety of themes expressed in the dark and light colors. SiJ uses great number of instruments such as various guitars, drums and synthetizers as well as handmade mechanical or electromachanical sound devices. Recently SiJ started to use field recordings made in various places from urban streets to abandoned military and industrial facilities.
credits
released July 22, 2016
Sergey Gabbasov – Hadza malimba, Maasai throat singing, Indian bansuri, Kyrgyz temir-khomus and sybyzgy, Armenian blul, Bashkir quray, Tuvan shoor and overtone singing “kargyraa”, Tatar kubyz, Arabic and Persian ethnic percussion, Moldavian kaval, Bulgarian duduk, sound engineering and processing, programming, recordings, synthesizers.
SiJ - synthesizer/keyboards, contact microphones, field recordings, acoustic guitar, percussion, bells, toy-piano, sound engineering & processing, programming, voice.
https://gterma.bandcamp.com/album/perseides
" “Perseides” is the second ethnographical aural journey by Vladislav Sikach (aka SiJ) and Sergey Gabbasov on the Swedish Gterma label. This time around, the continuous, almost 80-minute outcome is a blend 12 tracks, all travelling on the mystery road to places far away in the Mongol region.
The music of often led by ethnic percussion and flutes, to which a large array of acoustic sound sources, elevating electronic soundscapes, occasional throat singing and moody field recordings are added.
On several spots though, like on “Armenia, the use of flutes could have been less in favor of the spacious textural dwellings.
Overall, synths play a minor role on this tribal recording while the electronics add a gritty, crispy flavor (like on “Braj”) to the acoustic and flute-dominated ethno-scapes, which ends in a kind of groovy ethno-beat." [Sonic Immersion]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIL MUIR (ANDREA MARUTTI / ANDREA FERRARIS) |
same |
CD |
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce the release of a new CD...
Sil Muir - Sil Muir.
Italy's Sil Muir presents to us here their first full-length work. It is a beautiful, yet melancholy, hour-long recording carrying us along that sleepless journey from dusk 'til dawn. Powerful and gentle drones shudder and shimmer through these four dense and amazing tracks. Sil Muir is the collaboration between Andrea Marutti (Amon, Never Known, Afe Records) and Andrea "Ics" Ferraris (Ur, Airchamber3, Ulna). Their only previous appearances are a lengthy compilation track on Transf.Order and a collaboration with Horchata on taâlem.
Housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
"A mighty fine disc of dark drones, ambient and a totally isolated feel." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SILBERMAN, JARRETT |
Stenographer |
mCD-R |
Our first listening experience with this artist who presents here a one-tracker of about 19 minutes, 4 guitars without any effects, but it sounds not like guitars at all, more like "a deep throbbing rumble from below for 4 guitar players" [label info]. Very minimal, but tiny little details are revealed permanently. In nice black art-paper package with banderole. |
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| SILENCE & STRENGTH |
Das Haus zur letzten Latern. A Tribute to Gustav Meyrink |
CD |
"Das ganze Sein ist flammend Leid". Exzellenter esoterischer dark ambient mit gewissen folkigen Elementen aus Israel, mit einem Tribut an GUSTAV MEYRINK (Verfasser von DER GOLEM und DER ENGEL VOM WESTLICHEN FENSTER). Dreizehn Stücke mit hinunterziehender Sog-Wirkung, unheimlich & entrückt. Grundlage bilden Synth-Drones & flächige Gitarren, aber auch diverse Instrumente kommen gekonnt zum Einsatz. Vokales Material erscheint als rückwärtiges Geflüster & Gewisper, subtile Ethno-Perkussion taucht auf, und irritierende Geräuscheffekte verbreiten eine klaustrophobische Stimmung. Dazu kommen v.a. zum Ende hin einige Überraschungen,
z.B. ekstatische Klezmer Folk Stück mit Gesang... die gespenstische Atmosphäre der Bücher wurde hier hervorragend herausgearbeitet, das ganze sehr professionell produziert, kein Klang sitzt hier an der falschen Stelle.. für dark ambient & Soundtrack-Hörer ein echte Entdeckung !! Kommt wie immer bei HORUS aufwendig verpackt, im Kunstpapier-A5 Umschlag & mit 2 Booklets !
"Silence & Strength is a project created by a talented Israeli musician Stephan Friedman. Interfusing noise, drone, glitch and experimental dark ambient he creates soundscapes in a highly structured and ritualistic way. Secret musical spaces of Silence & Strength will enchant those who feel that there is too little sounds around them and who want to know them all.
Silence & Strength joined HORUS CyclicDaemon in 2004 on "100th Anniversary of Liber AL" compilation with the track "Secret Name". Since then Stephan has been working on a special album to be published at HORUS CyclicDaemon. The album will be a tribute to the works of an extraordinary writer Gustav Meyrink.
Gustav Meyrink has long attracted readers for his masterful stories, examining the supernatural, the macabre, the spiritual, and the occult. With complex and ambitious novels, such as "The Golem", "The Green Face", "The Angel of the West Window", and "The White Dominican" Meyrink intertwines past and present, dreams and visions, myth and reality in a world of the occult, culminating in the transmutation of physical reality into a higher spiritual existence." [label info]
"The sound is great and it is composed by hundreds of different layers
that keep the listener's attention always awake. With a crisp production this album is a great "movie for your ears"..." [Chain DLK]
www.horus.cz
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| SILENTWAVE |
Daiyuzan |
CD |
"The temple complex at Daiyuzan Saijoji is but one of many shrines in Japan hidden away among trees and hills. These places offer a welcome change of pace from the busy cities and a chance to experience a very special type of quiet and tranquility (unless you bump into a huge group of visitors that is...). On this album composer Noguchi Yoshinori paints a minimalistic path along the winding steps that lead through the Daiyuzan grounds. The result is an introspective walk along the remote path that leads to past, present and future." [label info]
gterma.blogspot.de
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| SILK SAW |
Imaginary Landscapes |
CD |
"After 9 years of silence, here’s the 11th album from the unclassifiable Brussels-based duo. With their usual tamping drums (just mention the two parts of “The Decision to Exist” or “Same Area”, led by a ferocious 808), a regular bass guitar hammering, some bare minimum poor voices, threatened violins, skinbound flute and oboe here and there, a distorted furious piano everywhere and finally some tiny cautious optimism (the extra-human guitar in “Enough Slaps”), the whole is carefully assembled in order to obtain an accurate picture of life on Earth. “Pain” and “Pleasure” are different aspects of the same mental construction." [label info]
www.kotaerecords.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Parallel Landscapes |
LP |
"Limited edition of 300 copies with unique artwork made by Russian street artist (Grisha), which were carefully adapted to sleeve design by Mikhail Myasoedov. The vinyl LP contains 4 selected tracks from the full 8-track album.
After 9 years of silence, here’s the 11th album from the unclassifiable Brussels-based duo. With their usual tamping drums (just mention the two parts of “The Decision to Exist” or “Same Area”, led by a ferocious 808), a regular bass guitar hammering, some bare minimum poor voices, threatened violins, skinbound flute and oboe here and there, a distorted furious piano everywhere and finally some tiny cautious optimism (the extra-human guitar in “Enough Slaps”), the whole is carefully assembled in order to obtain an accurate picture of life on Earth. “Pain” and “Pleasure” are different aspects of the same mental construction." [label info]
www.kotaerecords.com
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| SILVERMAN |
State of Union |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der CDR die 2001 auf dem LPD eigenen "Terminal Kaleidoscope"-Label erschien, jetzt mit 21minütigen Bonus-Track, in der schönen "Black Series" von Beta-Lactam.
"The Silverman is one of the two remaining founding fathers of The Legendary Pink Dots and this release serves partly as a sketch book of ideas and stuff he did on a solo tour with the addition of a new 20 minute bonus track. The music by The Silverman only has a far away resemblance of the Legendary Pink Dots, like just one layer is distilled and used as the backbone of an entire new world. It could be described by that dreaded term ambient, but it doesn't justify it. The sounds inside this release are at times far too alien to be filled under ambient. It moves along many different territories, ambient, cosmic, but it takes out the best elements and it is presented in a rather own way. Music that is like a disturbing dream, not a nightmare but a surrealistic dream." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Blank for your own Message |
CD |
"Available late Feb. 2008. First ed. of 500 copies in a full color book bound case. Silverman should be given a degree in bio-melodics. This most recent body of collaged constructions pulsates with aspects of a living system. Slurred drones rush sonic corpuscles through electronic capillaries, imparting breath to each track. An obscured, parenthetical heart beat occasionally comes through as an unexpectedly metallic panging in the background, mostly drowned out by the fluid dynamics of localized subsystems playing out their various vital functions. Perhaps each one of us DOES sound a little like a Javanese gamelan orchestra inside if you hit the right spot. Cutting to find out is not advocated. Silverman’s fantastic voyage sounds like a spiritual dissertation on degrees of scale. The musical camera obscura sometimes finds purchase on an atomic level, aurally zooming into the humming orbits of individual atoms and even creeping up on the sounds of the electrons, protons and neutrons themselves. With this beautifully ambient series of orchestral maneuvers in the dark, Silverman may have found a tonal replacement for Gray’s Anatomy." [label info]
"The Silverman aka Phil Knight is one of my favorite musicians in the experimental ambient/drone scene. Over the past decennium he has been responsible for some of the most beautiful ambient/meditative music I've ever heard. His previous LP/CD for BLRR Nature Of Illusion is one of the best albums in this genre I have heard in many-a-year. The Silverman's solo albums have always been slightly overshadowed by his work for the Legendary Pink Dots. This is a shame, as his solo work deserves a place of its own. Perhaps this new CD Blank For Your Own Message will do the trick. Starting off life as a "zen-opera" in seven parts, the music here is more varied than Nature Of Illusion. BLRR drops the term "bio-melodics". For once I have to agree. This actually fits the music and the world of The Silverman. Although the music has seven parts, the 43 minutes that make up this album are programmed into one track. It is hard to tell the origin of some of the sounds; there are traffic tapes and acoustic sounds (percussion, cow bells) of a more ethnical nature, all mixed up with synthetic sounds. These combined make up a very strong album. Packed in one of those typical BLRR deluxe hard-carton sleeves, this is a great addition to the already great discography of The Silverman." [FK / Vital Weekly]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Time on thin Ice |
CD |
"Packaged in a full color gatefold sleeve. Featuring guest performer Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots). The man of silver is a master of negative space. His silences say as much as his notes. Perhaps this is how he can compose a thing that sounds like glaciers conversing. Ringing ubertones breathe sighs of bas-relief at the borealis. The Silveman's sounds are quiet and delicious, like a Rainbow Generator sinking slowly into a rusted hull. These ambiences destroy fascists. Dark and twisting pulses hollowly respirate, imitating their dying. This is the good stuff. With Silverman, the only motoriked thing to fear is atmosphere itself.Thanks to Alena Boykova for melodica on 1, to Edward Ka-Spel for percussion and tapes on 1 and for voice and lyrics on 2 & 3. Thanks also to Raymond Steeg for cd mastering, to Astrid "Snoepsnail" for cover photography, and to Chris McBeth for cover layout." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
"...Sometimes I tend to think of Silverman releases as blue prints for future Pink Dots releases, but I guess that's not true, as they stand very much by their own. The four long pieces here show a side to The Silverman which we hardly see in the work he does with the Pink Dots. Spacey, atmospheric music, build from synthesizers. That made me think about something: when do we classify something as drone music and when is something cosmic music? With the current interest in the latter, I think The Silverman could the master of the scene. Should be. His love of analogue synthesizers, textured sounds and slow arpeggio's, along with sparse percussion make up some excellent cosmic trip, which also finds its roots in drone music (say Eliane Radigue) and modern electronics. Now why isn't this guy on a hip young label playing is electronic spacey music? If ever I would find out… Here The Silverman gets vocal contributions on two pieces, but the best is 'Ocean Calling', which is all by himself: a meditative piece of music, reflecting tidal waves, slowly moving back and forward. Four excellent pieces of the greatest mood music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| SINK |
Fog & Dominance |
12inch |
"Another strange and ambitious adventure into the heart of darkness.
Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos. This world is drowning in excess of everything imaginable. Everything ends up recycled and nothing sounds new. Nevertheless Sink has chosen to be obsessive about its uncompromised existence and fight against windmills with another spectacle in sound and imagination. This is a challenging and demanding masterpiece and certainly not for everyone’s pleasure." [label info]
www.svartrecords.com
|
2014 |
€16.50 |
|
| SINKE DUS |
Akrasia |
CD |
"Akrasia is an old question dealing with the weakness of the will. To behave "akratically" is when one acts against his better judgement, committing acts that are known to be wrong but yet still going through with the motion. Markus Lonebrink wanted to explore not so much the philosophical issues at hand, but rather the subjective experience of akrasia itself. To learn of the underlying motives of when one acts akratically. Certain events in the akratic process felt natural to him and it was those he tried to integrate into these soundscapes. There are no conclusions described in the music, but there might be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and perhaps the shadow of a hint of why we humans sometimes act as irrationally as we do. A shared quest to gain better knowledge of oneself through this self-revisionistic ambient journey filled with ethereally lush passages that give way to a truly visionary and immersive experience. The album also features a special collaboration with Par Bostrom of KAMMARHEIT. In fold out gatefold cardboard sleeve. 7 Tracks. Running Time: 45:50." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| SINN/RD |
One-legged tap Dancer |
12inch |
" 'One-legged tap dancer' by Sinn/rd is a four tracks ep available on vinyl and as a digital download. Release date : 20th April 2013. Track listing : 1. Scar 2. The Rhythmace 3. Pem-x 4. The Fuzzin'E. Total length : 25:31.With contributions from Stéphane Babey (Les Poissons Autistes) and Jon Attwood (Yellow6)." [label info]
www.deadvox.com
|
2013 |
€12.50 |
|
| SION ORGON |
Into the Dark |
7inch |
"Representing the second entry in the new Fourth Dimension Singles Club (see details below – only a few subscriptions still available!), this is the latest release from the Welsh weaver of molten electronic sounds, avant-garde sensibilities and, indeed, even versatile pop/rock where surprises are the order of the day. The two pieces here are the first from Thighpaulsandra/Coil affiliate, Orgon, for a few years. The flipside song, ‘Paper State’, features the late Sleazy, Thighpaulsandra himself and Seb Goldfinch. Strictly limited to 250. Released in November 2012." [label info]
www.fourth-dimension.net
"The second release in the 'Singles Club', following Richard Youngs/Luke Fowler (see Vital Weekly 837), is by one Sion Orgon, who is somehow connected to Thighpaulsandra, Coil and thus it's hardly a surprise we find Peter Christopherson present on both sides of this record, and Thighpaulsandra and Seb Goldfinch on one side. For me an introduction. A pleasant one, if not too brief, but that's life with 7"s I guess. Sion Orgon plays electronic music, atmospheric and moody. I think the etching on the record is not correct, as there are no labels. In the title piece we find a bunch of moody, airy electronics and a strong vocal delivery as starting points, taking it into more noise bits and drums, effectively creating this is into a nice Coil-like piece. 'Paper State' on the other side is also atmospheric, but more 'out there' indeed in which a melancholic piano plays a big role, drifting and flowing about, with eerie electronics backing the whole thing up. It's excellent modern pop classic - perhaps. Here time will tell." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| SIR ASHLEIGH GROVE |
The Nimply Power Sessions Parts I - VII Audio Memoirs Of A Gentleman Aesthete |
CD |
"Unearthed early 1980s recordings from John Mylotte (Metgumbnerbone). SAG's work has been compared to other Power Electronics artists of that era, in particular Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend and Ramleh. Although sonically such comparisons are quite accurate, Sir Ashleigh differed from other such artists in that he had little interest serial killers or the Marquis de Sade, much preferring the works of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." [label info] |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| SISTER IODINE |
Venom |
do-LP |
"Sister Iodine’s Venom is a pure and raw, energy-powered album performed like an audio exorcism. Each track contains its own intense physicality to radiate sound illuminations of light inside of darkness. Venom is a powerful album of potent spells that Sister Iodine have conjured and captured as sonic shamans.” Cameron Jamie. Paris, France. January 2018.#French noise scene spearheads, Sister Iodine, return with their sixth album; “Venom”. Active since the Nineties, Sister Iodine which involve Erik Minkkinen, Lionel Fernandez, and Nicolas Mazet, have not lost one milligram of their radical and uncompromised approach in sound exploration and limits stretching. Following two studio albums on Parisian Label, Premier Sang, released in 2009 and 2013 respectively, it took almost 5 years to shape up “Venom”. #It is with the advent of the 21st century – more than ever – that the decisive path of Sister Iodine has taken a fascinating route. From their debut album, ADN115, released in 1994 which was strongly influenced by the original New York No Wave scene (Mars, DNA, Red Transistor) to their more recent works which are augmented by “newer poisons” such as black metal, or the most abrasive end of industrial music and power electronics, as well as experimental electronics (Editions Mego has reissued an extended version of Premier Sang’s “Flame Desastre” on CD), the band has managed to survive through the years from the inhospitable French squats of the nineties to nowadays’ established venues and proper tours. Today, the band’s music has changed recipients and has attracted younger generations with their organized radioactive chaos, never conceding anything from their initial intensity. Over the years, Sister Iodine will have also created their own idiosyncratic language, for which sound exploration matters and pure beauty seem to count as much as pure explosive ferocity, while intense violence and energy gets deployed in live shows. #The last few years witnessed an increasing number of collaborations such as the recent sessions with Meyhna’ch (Mütiilation) or the ones with Masaya Nakahara (Violent Onsen Geisha / Hair Stylistics). “Venom” includes two tracks featuring the vocal contribution of Stephen Bessac, the deviant frontman of the cult French hardcore band Kickback. #Sister Iodine produces today a music that is actually unique and unheard anywhere else. One of eternal youth and audacity."
|
2018 |
€32.00 |
|
| SISTER LOOLOMIE |
Signals |
CD-R |
"Sister Loolomie is one of the offspring of [S]ergey (or just [S]), a musician from Moscow region, known for his projects Exit In Grey, Five Elements Music and some others, as well as for his labels Still*Sleep and Semperflorens. The musical style of [S] is notable for its delicate and gentle approach to sound, the keywords for its definition are: ambient / drone / experimental / electroacoustic. In Sister Loolomie [S] utilizes deliberate sonic "digitalizing" and at the same time manages to keep the warmth and cosiness of sound in his own way, resembling tape drone music.
[S]ergey uses guitar, electronics, radio and computer processing in creating his soundscapes, both abstract and sensuous at the same time. The compositions move calmly and slowly, sound loops draw in attention like spirals and dissolve it in their textures. Shivery signal waves and soft generated rasp form an aerial atmosphere, in which crackle the discharges of digital interference, and bright yet slightly melancholic melodies bring serenity and tender contemplative sadness." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| SITAAR-TAH! |
Semimimimimin |
CD |
Ungewöhnliche Ethno-Sounds auf ARCHIVE, dem Label aus New Jersey. SITAAR-TAH! ist ein asiatisches 22köpfiges "Orchester" welches mit Sitar-, Tabla- und rauhen Obertongesangklängen in den Hyper-Trance & Ekstasen-Raum vorstösst...
"Orchestra that provided the amazing musical backdrop for Keiji Haino on the double disc archive release Animamima. The 22 piece unit is back with this swarm of locus gem of a release. Graphic and design work on the release by Stephen O’Malley features an outer cover that is a four color silkscreen, beautifully executed by Alan Sherry of Siwa records. Inside is a gorgeous photographic collage. Pressing of 700 copies." [label info]
"...a single 43 minute ascension this time featuring featuring a khoomei/Tuvan throat singer, and hoo boy, it does not disappoint. The group's sound swells gently to locust-swarm proportions, all the while featuring pulsating percussion and recurring raga-esque motifs while holding down more of a modern groove. Despite the sheer magnitude of the group and its sound, the piece never really gets aggressive; rather, its insistence continually rises, ebbs, and spirals upward to a liftoff which begins about two-thirds into the piece, when the throat singing begins and slowly but surely pushes things both upward AND forward." [Downtownmusicgallery]
www.archivecd.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| SITER, NATHAN |
Exosphere |
CD |
Sehr schönes Debut-Album von diesem Ambient-Newcomer aus Finnland, der auch schon mehrfach auf dem "Avantgarde-Festival" in Schiphorst spielte. THOMAS KÖNER meets PAN SONIC ?
"Highly praised debut album, smartly packed in cardboard sleeve. 61 minutes of icy ambient, isolating scapes and pulsing rhythms. Thomas Köner meets Pan Sonic." [label info]
www.plaguerecordings.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| SIYANIE |
Shining of Unity |
CD |
"The first new release from Sergei Ilchuk after Vresnit & Vetvei closing. This album contains some new materials recorded from January to May 2012: 4 majestic tracks containing warm Drone Ambient. The space passages mixed with flutes, voices, samples and field recordings. Meditating holographic music similar to Klaus Wiese and Mathias Grassow.
Features Neznamo and Kshatriy. Mastered by Kshatriy. CD, 500 copies, 6-panel envelope." [label info]
www.moonsun.info
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Homo Multidimensional |
CD |
"New album recorded during second half of 2012, based on live and studio materials. "Homo Multidimensional" represents human transformation cycle and dedicated to multidimensional nature of human being and all the majestic mysteries of existence.
released 12 January 2013
Siyanie are: Sergey Ilchuk & Dmitry Shilov.
All track recorded during 07-12.2012.
Mastered by Sergey Uak-Kib (www.kshatriy.pro)
Design by Sergey Ilchuk, Siyanie Art." [label info]
www.moonsun.info
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIZZLE |
Muermotivo |
CD-R |
SIZZLE is a french electronic industrial / experimental project from France, one member is LE K who is also the man behind the label FACTHEDRAL’S HALL. This is rhythm-based & vital break-beat / breakcore / sometimes minimal influenced stuff, which has a dark & hypnotic atmosphere and often develops into more droney fields, sometimes it goes into quite bizarre areas..... suspensefully and straightly created, this is a versatile and interesting release. To discover.
« On se rappelle Sizzle, l'un des projets de M.Reina, alias Le K., manager du label Facthedral's Hall, comme un territoire bouillonnant, où les drones en mouvements n'en finissaient pas de régurgiter d'épais fantômes mélodiques, issues de gestes ambiants souvent éprouvés. Aujourd'hui, si la texture est toujours visitée, il s'agit d'une contrepartie rythmique, aussi sèche que les premiers CDR's étaient arrosés, mais également vivante. Au long des morceaux, plusieurs modèles rythmiques sont convoqués, depuis certaines conventions éléctro-industrielles élégantes, récemment héritées de musiciens comme Delta Files, ou Orphx, jusqu'à des éffondrements en écho, ou plus loin des claudications éclairées par des harmoniques ondulants. Grain, ponçage, caisse claire franche, crécelle saturées, beats vissés, autant de matières dures visitées par Sizzle, discrètement augmentées de sons périphériques malléables, festons discrets. » [Fear Drop]
|
2004 |
€5.00 |
|
| SKALPELL |
Nothing important to tell so far |
CD |
audiophob is proud to welcome a new project at the label. The name Skalpell might ring a bell to some of you, as the swiss duo has been active since 1995. During this time they have published excellent releases on labels like Deafborn and in the Dark Ambient Series of Art Konkret. \"Nothing Important To Tell So Far\" is the first album in five years and it\'s been worth the wait! Skalpell offer 76 minutes of ambient that is not shy to show influences from both noise and tribal-ritual.
Even though the opener \"Left Handed Sentinel\" seems somewhat restrained, \"An Inkling Of Things To Come\" shows finally what the album is all about. During the middle part, \"Ebola 3\" continues a series that started with the first two parts on the 1997 tape \"Surgical Compulsion\". This track is also one of the more noise influenced pieces of the album. The last track \"Rupture\" starts similarly noisy, but soon turns into hypnotic rhythms that end the journey through the world of Skalpell. (auphcd014)
https://audiophob.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-important-to-tell-so-far
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| SKARE |
Solstice City |
CD |
Fünfte Veröffentlichung auf dem Label welches sich den "eisigen Landschaften" verschrieben hat. SKARE ist ein schwedisches Trio mit MATHIAS JOSEFSON (besser bekannt als MOLJEBKA PVLSE), die ihre Dronescapes unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Kreislaufs der Aggregatzustände von Wasser (zu Gas & Eis & Schnee) erstellt haben. Dementsprechende field recordings werden verarbeitet, leichter Instrumenteneinsatz (Piano) sticht hervor, aber auch der Schnittpunkt von Natur & Stadtleben gerät in den Fokus... die narrative Komponente wirkt sich aber nie störend auf die "deep drones" aus, sondern wurde geschickt verwebt... für Fans von THOMAS KÖNER, TOY BIZARRE, MICHAEL NORTHAM, etc..
"Skare is the collaboration of Mathias Josefson (Moljebka Pvlse), Fredrik Olofsson and Per Åhlund. The members of Skare are all fascinated by the circulation of water, snow and ice. The metamorphosis from gas to floating liquid to snow to solid ice through freezing, the light reflecting from the snow and filtered through the ice as a prisma and - most of all - the sound of this ever ongoing circle.
Skare's first album, Solstice City, is an interpretation of a journey through a shifting landscape where the city meets nature. Departing from a distant and foreign shore, the traveller embarks a ship, uncertain of his destination. This prelude, introduced vividly in "To the other shore", releases this pilgrim to further explore yet unchartered territories. Leaving all man-made conventions, the second track "Through Wind and Broken Ice" takes us where the city imitates nature. Finally, a factory appears in the whiteout; a place where angels are manufactured as presented in the final track "The Snow Angel Factory"...The vehicles used by Skare on this journey are field recordings, found sounds and treated and manipulated instruments." [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Grader |
CD-R |
"Skare is the combined artistic forces of Mathias Josefson (Moljebka Pvlse) and Per Åhlund (Diskrepant). Both situated in the Stockholm area and known from their perfomances across Europe as well as abroad.
Grader contains two recordings from live appereances the years before their debut Solstice City was released on Glacial Movements Records (2009). A minimalistic and dreamy experience of both analog and digital elements, a drift into contemplation. As the name Skare tells, we find ourselves in a wintery landscape with only us and the beauty of the cold. This is creative experimentalism from Sweden's finest, an interlude before their second album arrives.
Professionally made CDr in a limited edition of 100 copies in 6 panel digipack." [label info]
www.reverse-alignment.se
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| SKELETON BIRDS AND THE NUMBER OF GOD |
These dark Roots of Heaven |
LP |
"Nick Mott with Ben Jones and Sarah Sullivan from Jazzfinger. An atmospheric recording captured in a cave in Cornwall with later manipulation and overdubs by Nick Mott. Also featuring weird demonic voices courtesy of 5 year old Gabriel Mott. Disintegrating tape loops, home made pipes, distorted violins and guitars, cheap keyboards, percussion, water and rocks. Influenced by Nick and Bens shared appreciation of Avant Garde Black Metal and Occult Noise this album is however loose, free and almost fragile in its incorporation of found and sampled sounds. Discordant and disjointed in places, yet occasionally an almosy tribal melody is allowed to evolve before being plunged into a brass sample or sonic blender..mysterious and intense. 180 gram vinyl. Limited to 250 copies." [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| SKELETON CREW |
Learn to Talk / The Country of Blinds |
do-CD |
"With 10 extra tracks. A reissue of two timeless classics. On the first CD it's just Fred Frith and Tom Cora, the legendary two man crew who somehow - in real time, not with endless overdubs - managed to play all their own instruments (cello, bass, electric guitar, violin) and sing - as well as, between them, constructing the drum parts - dislocated into elements, with each of them having bits of the kit. This made for some fantastic, and normally unplayable, parts - most drummers having only one brain. No one sounded like Skeleton Crew, ever. Devious, complicated, brutally simple, always unexpected, turning on a dime, this was not just a pop band then, but a tocsin, a call to arms - and a catalogue of invention that is remains breathtaking today. On the second album, the inspired addition of Zeena Parkins (keyboards, accordion, more drums, more vocals) led to some of the best music of the decade. The recording was rawer, more urgent, the songs stand out in sharp relief; every part essential. And yet it's a puzzle almost impossible to unravel: how on earth did they ever evolve those dislocated parts and still make them fit so brilliantly together? Did I mention the texts? So to the point, so good. So where are the Skeleton Crews today when we really need them? Both CDs are here, in full, re-mastered by Fred and with 10 extra tracks - each as good as anything on the official albums. Just give in to the urge: if you have any pennies left, spend them on this." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2005 |
€19.50 |
|
| SKIN AREA |
Rothko Field |
CD |
"3rd full length release from this acclaimed Martin Bladh (IRM) project(in conjunction with Magnus Lindh), following 2002's New Skin
CD and 2006's double CD Journal Noir/Lithium Path, both on Cold Meat Industry.
Like previous works, Rothko Field is a visceral auditory experience...mind bending and turbulent sonic explorations that are grainy, abstract, and tense, where uneasy frequencies intersect with caustic drones, insectile buzz, swelling drifts, and slow motion, percussion driven sludgery. Further comparison reveals Rothko Field to be less schizophrenic, less challenging, and more structured than in the past, coming off as both spacious and yet suffocatingly claustrophobic, suggestive of a spiral downwards into mental decay and
degradation, and further enhanced by Martin's uniquely distressed and provocative vocalizations. 9 tracks total, broken into two "mirrored parts", with track 5, "Void"acting as the actual mirror itself. In digipak, with full color 24page booklet." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| SKIN AREA / JARL |
La Petite Mort |
LP |
"Collaborative 12" LP from Martin Bladh and Magnus Lindh (Skin Area/IRM) and Erik Jarl (Jarl/IRM). Surreal, abstract atmospheres alternating between delicate and cerebral to more unsettling and wrought with tension. Symptomatic of instability, affliction, and slow decay, with the instantly recognizable vocals of Martin Bladh navigating through a strewn field of hallucinatory noises, resonant tones & textures, and probing drones. Lmtd 220 copies with 13 individual pages of full color prints designed and written by Martin Bladh." [label info]
"heavily engaging and strikingly animated due to its detailed attention and layering of the individual sonic textures...delivers experimental ambient drone works of the highest calibre, which whilst clearly born of the underground absolutely elevates itself into a non-derivative niche all its own" [Noise Receptor]
www.malignantrecords.com |
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| SKITLIV |
Amfetamin |
CD |
"...das norwegisch-schwedische Projekt Skitliv, hinter dem sich der ehemalige Mayhem-Frontmann Maniac sowie Schwedens Suizid-Export Nummer Eins, Kvarforth von Shining, verbergen. Mit Unterstützung diverser hilfreicher Kumpanen haben die beiden ihr Debut-Scheibchen "Amfetamin" realisiert und nehmen damit direkten Einfluss auf das zentrale Nervensystem eines jeden Konsumenten. Wahrhaft kranke Kost bekommt man nämlich geboten, was angesichts der beiden Bandleader nicht weiter verwundert. Black Noise, Doom oder etwas derartiges zelebrieren Maniac und Kvarforth mit Skitliv und können sich vieler Sympathien besonders aus dem Lager der Shining-Anhänger sicher sein. Zäh und klebrig zeigt sich das Songwriting, mal psychedelisch, mal geisteskrank und chaotisch. Samples und Synthesizer beherrschen die Szenerie, die nur ein Ziel verfolgen: Die Nerven der Hörerschaft zu zerfetzen und schaudernde Klangbilder von Schmerz, Verzweiflung und Tod auf deren Unterbewusstsein zu projezieren. Nach dem eigentlichen "Amfetamin"-Tonmaterial folgt noch die Aufnahme eines Londoner Live-Konzertes aus dem Jahre 2007, welche instrumental eine weniger gekünstelte und wesentlich authentischere Atmosphäre vermittelt und eine für Live-Aufnahmen erstaunlich hochwertige Tonqualität aufweist. Nur schwerlich ist die an den Tag gelegte Stilistik zu beschreiben - am besten wirft man Shining, Bethlehem und Sunn O))) in einen Topf, kocht das ganze gut auf und rührt kräftig um - fertig.
An Skitliv bedienen sollten sich demnach wirklich ausschliesslich Gemüter, die schwerstverdauliche Kost gewöhnt sind und strapazierbare Trommelfelle, Nervenstränge und Magenschleimhäute ihr Eigen nennen. Alle Anhänger satanischer Schrammelorgien und paganer Erhabenheit lassen besser die Finger von "Amfetamin" - das ist einfach die falsche Baustelle. An sich jedoch ein faszinierendes Werk, welches gewaltig zünden wird, sofern es denn auf die passenden Konsumenten stösst." [Schwermetall.ch]
"Exclusive release from the Doom / Noise project of Maniac (ex-MAYHEM), featuring Kvarforth (SHINING), and with special guest vocals by Attila (SUNN O))), MAYHEM). From Black Metal through Funeral Doom and Demonic Noise, Skitliv cover all the bases in modern extreme sonics. The CD version includes bonus tracks from Skitliv's live performance at the Camden Underworld, London, 13th December 2007, with a special intro from CURRENT 93 (David Tibet & Andrew Liles)." [label info]
"... Abusive storms of harsh noise add a quite interesting supplement to the spheres of metallic steel. A quite interesting album that shows that the mixture of metal and electronic expression can end up with a very interesting result. Thus recommended for listeners of both electronic and metal music." [NM/ Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Bloodletting |
pic-10inch |
"Limited edition 10" Picture disc from SKITLIV, the project of former MAYHEM front man MANIAC.
With a line up that includes SHINING’s NIKLAS KVARFORTH, SKITLIV is a disturbed, and disturbing, blackened doom journey through the mind of this legendary Black Metal vocalist who was one of the original exponents of the genre, and is one of its most recognisable figures.
This picture disc is made extra special not only by the inclusion of “Who Will Deliver Us From Gold and Planets” by CURRENT 93 - an introductory collage destruct that was created at the request of Maniac and is dedicated to him, but also because the artwork that is used for the side containing this track is part of one of Tibet’s own paintings.
Ltd x 777 copies. No repress.
Track Listing:
A1. Current 93 - 'Who Will Deliver us From Gold & Planets?'
A2. Slow Pain Coming (Cold Spring Mix)
B1. A Valley Below (Demo Version)" [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| SKORPIO, NIKO |
To give Light to that which is without |
CD-R |
NIKO SKORPIO (who also runs the SMALL PLACE ELSE-Label) with a very occult sounding release, repetitive voice-murmers, transcendental drones, all kinds of dark sounds.... excellent esoteric ambience
“Live, studio and location recordings from spring & summer 2005. Meditative dark ambient and electro-acoustic soundscapes. CDR comes in hand-printed carton sleeve, magickally charged with sacred/secret ingredients. Limited, numbered edition of 93 copies.“ [label description]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| SKOZEY FETISCH |
Spectral freight |
CD |
16 tracks mit weirdo Collagen-Experimenten wurden hier verewigt von einem schon seit grauen Vorzeiten aktivem Noise-Explorer, in wahrhaft abseitige Soundgebiete (meist auf Analog-Sounds basierend) wird man hier entführt, sehr bizarr und eigen und etwas verstörend und leider nicht hinreichend gut mit verbaler Sprache beschreibbar...another mind-trip for your space-mind.
„His first major release in over ten years, skozey fetisch's "spectral freight" utilizes a wide array of sound sources (analog synth, radio interference, feedback, deconstructed computer test tones, field recordings, even a reworked acapella performance) to create this recording. An interesting aspect of "spectral freight" is the diversity of sounds actually created from the same source--skozey (Mark C. Jackman) favors analog synth for more than half the tracks on the disc, with a handful actually being reworkings and processing of other tracks on the disc. Isolated, these tracks explore the vast possibilities of the instrument: intense yet subtle drones, sharp, brittle attacks of noise, whimsical snippets of electronic chaos, pulsating battles between frequencies. However, all tracks are equally at home on the disc; whether it's a field recording of a subway trip in Japan that blossoms into an electronic wash of sound before reaching its destination, or treated computer tones that make you feel like mechanical ferrets are playing tag in your inner ear, "spectral freight" is a cohesive and diverse display Jackman's talent, and a welcome release after a long silence.” [label description] |
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| SKULL DEFEKTS |
Storm Skull Dub |
7 |
Somehow "rough atmospherics" from this swedish group, analog humming waves, subtle feedbacks & air recordings, comes in clear sleeve with screenprinting, marbled vinyl, last copies.
label: www.meudiademorte.de
|
2007 |
€8.50 |
|
|
The Temple |
CD |
"Brand new full full length from renowned Swedish noise rock outfit the Skull Defekts. The Skull Defekts is a band from Sweden in the very north of Europe. Their intense, monotonous, rhythmic and sexual out-rock has, since their start in early 2005, been spreading energies of various kinds to welcoming audiences and listeners. The DFX is also exploring worlds of noise, the drone and psychedelic electronics on waves. The Temple is the follow up to last years Blood Spirits & Drums Are Singing but it's deeper, harder, more sex, more occult. With a background in hardcore, garage rock, post punk and experimental music -- The Skull Defekts wears echoes of their past alongside influences from tribal roots music, sufi rituals, drone, techno, no wave, '80s Factory Records stuff and its surroundings, industrial music, the occult, underground club culture and manipulations of the mind. Get DFXed. DFX is sex, rhythm and the power of sound." [label info]
www.importantrecords. com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
The Temple |
do-LP |
"Brand new full full length from renowned Swedish noise rock outfit the Skull Defekts. The Skull Defekts is a band from Sweden in the very north of Europe. Their intense, monotonous, rhythmic and sexual out-rock has, since their start in early 2005, been spreading energies of various kinds to welcoming audiences and listeners. The DFX is also exploring worlds of noise, the drone and psychedelic electronics on waves. The Temple is the follow up to last years Blood Spirits & Drums Are Singing but it's deeper, harder, more sex, more occult. With a background in hardcore, garage rock, post punk and experimental music -- The Skull Defekts wears echoes of their past alongside influences from tribal roots music, sufi rituals, drone, techno, no wave, '80s Factory Records stuff and its surroundings, industrial music, the occult, underground club culture and manipulations of the mind. Get DFXed. DFX is sex, rhythm and the power of sound." [label info]
www.importantrecords. com
|
2009 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Blood Spirits and Drums are singing |
CD |
"Blood Spirits & Drums Are Singing is The Skull Defekts first record recorded in a professional studio. It is also their first one for the avant rock sound, previous releases included heavy sound experimenting, doom variations and electronic noise stuff. It is all about the rhythm. The circle, repetition. The sound. The noise. Sweat. Funk. Sex. The Skull Defekts sound is a beast going for your brain, feet and the place in between. Beware. The Skull Defekts was formed by Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall in early 2005 when Nordwall's band Kid Commando decided to end their eight-year carreer as knights of the sweatiest avant rock existing. Rylander had been experimenting with feedback for a few years after the death of the infamous Swedish garage rock outfit Union Carbide Productions where he was the pulse, rhythm and founding member. Quickly they teamed up with legend Jean-Louis Huhta who's been a key character in the Swedish underground music scene since the mid 80's, and the quartet was complete when Daniel Fagerström joined after Eric Olofsson left the band after the recording of Blood Spirits & Drums Are Singing. Inspired by bands like Section 25, Lungfish, PiL, 23 Skiddoo, Arthur Russel, Cabaret Voltaire, A Certain Ratio, Brain Bombs, dub, noise, funk, and tribal ritual drumming ' The Skull Defekts are kings of their own sound. And my god. The sound." [label info]
www.conspiracyrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| SKULLFLOWER |
Fucked on a Pile of Corpses |
CD |
"The most remorseless, brutal Skullflower ever! Alternating between granular lo-fi primitive rock and granular lo-fi primitive Power Electronics, this taut disc is a chain mail glove of hate to any lazy minds who've tainted the air with describing Skullflower as 'psychedelic'. But that's not to say this is an all out total assault. There are also moments of tender acoustic balladry, its just that they don't exist. The remorseless brutal sound is primitive, but as detailed and rich as a blood soaked medieval canvas, somewhere betwixt The Rita and Clandestine Blaze, but more brutal! Long live the New Flesh! Kether is in Malkuth, Malkuth is in Kether, but in a different way..." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Considering the title of present album, no one should question the darkness hidden behind this latest album from the harsh and truly dedicated british noise specialist Skullflower. For the uninitiated, Skullflower is one of the better-known bands that originated in the early 1980s power-electronics / noise scene, and one of the few to achieve any real recognition outside their homeland. The expression of Skullflower shows similarities to compatriot fathers of power electronics in Whitehouse. There are hardly anytime to breathe in this exercise in extreme aggressions. However the compositional skills hidden underneath the noise inferno makes this album a work that seems strangely addictive, even though a title like "Tantrik ass rape" might scare a fair amount of potential listeners far away." [NM, Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Kino I: Birthdeath |
CD |
"Finally available, after almost two years of driving Dirter & Shock to the brink of insanity -- a massive 4CD retrospective of Skullflower's early works from 1986-1990, featuring all the material previously released on Broken Flag, Shock, Majora and Forced Exposure, plus around two hours of previously-unheard music -- 14 tracks spread across the series. And this is not "out-take" dross used to fill up CDs, this is essential early Skullflower providing further insight into their uniquely twisted musical world. All material has been digitally mastered by Richard Whittaker at FX, and each CD comes in a deluxe gatefold card cover and inner sleeve with newly-unearthed artwork by Matthew. Booklets feature extensive notes and previously-unseen flyers, posters and photos.
Comprises the remastered first 12" EP, available in its entirety for the first time since 1987, plus six previously-unreleased, unheard and undreamed-of tracks. This series of CDs are a co-production between the original Shock label and Dirter." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Kino II: Form Destroyer |
CD |
"The remastered first album by Skullflower, originally released on Broken Flag in 1989 -- the best it has ever sounded. Includes two "bonus" tracks from Shock's long out-of-print RUINS and two previously-unheard pieces. A truly monstrous disc of heavy, fucked up music.
Finally available, after almost two years of driving Dirter & Shock to the brink of insanity -- a massive 4CD retrospective of Skullflower's early works from 1986-1990, featuring all the material previously released on Broken Flag, Shock, Majora and Forced Exposure, plus around two hours of previously-unheard music -- 14 tracks spread across the series. And this is not "out-take" dross used to fill up CDs, this is essential early Skullflower providing further insight into their uniquely twisted musical world. All material has been digitally mastered by Richard Whittaker at FX, and each CD comes in a deluxe gatefold card cover and inner sleeve with newly-unearthed artwork by Matthew. Booklets feature extensive notes and previously-unseen flyers, posters and photos." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Kino IV: Black Sun Rising |
CD |
"Rounds up the first three 7" releases on Shock, Majora and Forced Exposure, the bonus track from The Portable Altamont (1991) compilation, plus six previously-unreleased tracks, including three from the Xaman sessions. A disc of total rock!
Finally available, after almost two years of driving Dirter & Shock to the brink of insanity -- a massive 4CD retrospective of Skullflower's early works from 1986-1990, featuring all the material previously released on Broken Flag, Shock, Majora and Forced Exposure, plus around two hours of previously-unheard music -- 14 tracks spread across the series. And this is not "out-take" dross used to fill up CDs, this is essential early Skullflower providing further insight into their uniquely twisted musical world. All material has been digitally mastered by Richard Whittaker at FX, and each CD comes in a deluxe gatefold card cover and inner sleeve with newly-unearthed artwork by Matthew. Booklets feature extensive notes and previously-unseen flyers, posters and photos." [label info]
www.dirter.co.uk
"This long in the works reissue campaign has had aQ staff and aQ customer Skullflower nerds freaking the fuck out. Four, count, em FOUR reissued rarities! On the last list, we reviewed reissues of both Skullflower's very first 12"ep Birthdeath, and their first proper full length Form Destroyer, both absolute psychedelic noise rock crushers. But that was only the beginning. Since most Skullflower fans were already super familiar with those records anyway, it was more a chance to revisit, as well as preach the gospel of early Skullflower to the uninitiated. But it's the other two reissues that might be the most thrilling. Elsewhere on this week's list, you'll find a review of Xaman, Skullflower's 1990 second album, one that due to a manufacturing defect found most copies eventually rendered unplayable, and thus essentially unheard for decades. And then there's this one, a singles comp, hopefully the first of many, gathering up three different singles, originally released on Majora, Forced Exposure and Shock, and the crazy thing is, even the Skullflower freeks here, had only ever actually heard ONE of em! So that alone made this totally essential. But in addition to those singles, there are also SIX previously unreleased tracks, as well as Skullflower's three contributions to The Portable Altamont compilation (which also featured such noisy luminaries as Coil, Current 93, Nurse With Wound, and Drunks With Guns), all of which add up to some of the filthiest, noisiest, most pummeling, tranced out, knuckle dragging, psychedelic krautrock-style dirgery you've every heard. Cuz really, for all the skree and crunch, all the noisy churn and caveman pummel, most early Skullflower jams are stretched out hypnorock sprawls, albeit constructed from crumbling superdistorted bass, wild tangles of angular melody and shards of noise guitar skree, and some surprisingly motorik drum bashing...
The only one of the three reissues that's sort of new, begins with the weird choice of starting not with any of the previously released 7" tracks, but instead, a double shot of unreleased rarities, the opener "Night Tripper" as good as anything SF was doing at the time, squalls of feedback, thick, blown out riffage, damaged drumming, yowled, buried in the mix vox, super murky and hypnotic, which leads right into "Kasso's Blues", which is loping and lumbering, a sort of detuned atonal main riff, and some garbled vox wrapped around tribal beats make it sound like some super obscure, super wasted Butthole Surfers jam. The aforementioned single, the only one we HAD heard, is the "Rift / Avalanche" single on Majora, and it's some of our favorite Skullflower, smoldering, brooding, dirgey, but sorta dreamy, a locked minimal rhythm, buried vocals, and then long arced tones, super mesmerizing and so epic, the 'flipside' though is a wild nois drenched heavy psych freakout that looks forward to groups like Rusted Shut. The Forced Exposure single delivers one part noisy Dead C style plod rock freakout, and one part billowing psychedelic space out, while the Shock single is super swaggery and dirgey, the recording muted and murky, total cave like rehearsal style sound, but it suits them, the second half getting downright rocking.
After that, there's the awesomely titled "Bo Diddley's Shitpump" , which might be the most bloozy of the bunch, as is hinted at by the title, but it's more like Pussy Galore style blues, tangled up with some Swans and some Hawkwind, and with a hint of mutated AmRep style bash and howl. "Against Everything (A Guide To Canine Foreskin Retraction)" sounds like a Crash Worship record on Shock, wild dense tribal drumming, wreathed in a cloud of flanged shimmer, wah wah splatter and spidery tendrils of tangled guitar melody, and girded by some strange industrial whirring buried in the mix. "March Of The Lemmings" is all garage blooz swagger, with echo drenched vocals and a thick chugging main riff, even some bleating horns, everything dubbed to high heaven, and then wrapped in a spider web of noise guitar skree, and finally closer "The Punk Rock Song" is about as punky OR poppy as SF get, but they manage to fuck it all up and douse it in just enough noise to keep it interesting...
Holy shit, so much amazing, twisted, noisy sonic genius. As far as we're concerned all four of these Skullflower reissues should have /could have been Records Of The Week, but forced to pick one, t had to be Black Sun Rising. But seriously, who are we fooling, you NEED all four!!!
Nice packaging too, mini gatefolds, printed inner sleeves, and a booklet with reproductions of the original 7" covers." [Aquarius Records] |
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| SKULLFLOWER / MASTERY |
split |
LP |
"SKULLFLOWER presents a trinity of sombre meditations evoking Europe after the rain, drowned ruins, sunken dreams: spiders run across harpsichords in deserted schlosses and chateaus, doors slam and phantom demon choirs are summoned at seances by Blatavskian crones, whose impenetrable china blue dolls eyes open onto Tibetan vistas, terrible, ancient and remote…
MASTERY is improvised one man cosm(ag)ick from Ephemeral Domignostika. Total berzerker black metal, rooted in the tradition of true grim blackness, but filtered through Mastery’s cracked perception, transforming this into something beyond true; a droned out and damaged, outsider blackness, that sounds pretty much unlike almost any other black metal.
Ltd x 500 copies.
Standard edition: 400 copies on purple vinyl.
Special edition: 100 hand-numbered copies on green vinyl through Cold Spring mailorder only!" [label info]
" 'We offer an invocation to, and an evocation of the hidden, averse, heathen power that seethe within our native soil. Come leave your timid gelded civilised masks, bow down and rise up, reborn, within our whirlwind', schreibt SKULLFLOWER-Mastermind MATTHEW BOWER unter der Überschrift „Skullflower: What we are ...“ in seinem Blog und vermittelt so eine Ahnung des – ich nenn' es mal – ganzheitlichen Aufforderungscharakters, den er mit der Musik seiner, 1987 gegründeten und 1988 mit der 12'' Skullflower-Birthdeath/release/142281">"Birthdeath" auf BROKEN FLAG debütierenden Band verbindet. Kurzum, der Mann hat Sendungsbewusstsein, und das nicht ohne Grund.
Bis zum, durch interne Streitigkeiten zwischen den Mitgliedern verursachten Bruch im Jahre 1996 handelte es sich bei SKULLFLOWER, ungeachtet ihrer Einbindung in die klassische englische Industrial-Szene der frühen 80er Jahre, um eine Band im engeren und bei ihrer Musik um Noise Rock, im – nun ja – sehr weiten Sinne. Dies änderte sich, als Gründungsmitglied MATTHEW BOWER SKULLFLOWER 2003 als Quasi-Soloprojekt ins Leben zurück rief. Zwar umfasst das derzeitige Line-Up immer noch die Mitstreiter SAMANTHA DAVIES und LEE STROKE, man tut den beiden aber sicherlich kein Unrecht, wenn man in ihnen eher Begleitmusiker für die Realisierung von Visionen sieht, die in allererster Linie BOWER'scher Provenienz sind. Der Sound verschob sich von Album zu Album nachdrücklicher in den Bereich des Noisig-Atonalen, bisweilen auch Dronigen – wobei man sich das, was hier behelfsmäßig als "Drone" bezeichnen wird, im Falle von SKULLFLOWER selbstverständlich dezidiert unbehaglich vorzustellen hat. Den bisherigen Gipfelpunkt dieser Entwicklung bezeichnet zweifellos das, 2011 bei COLD SPRING erschienene Album "Fucked On A Pile Of Corpses", mit dem BOWER ein infernalisches Noise-Monster abgeliefert hat, das sich in der Brutalität und Kompromisslosigkeit seiner musikalischen Umsetzung dem überaus charmanten Albumtitel als absolut ebenbürtig erweist.
Umso überraschter – und das durchaus positiv – ist man nun, auf der vorliegenden, ebenfalls auf COLD SPRING veröffentlichten Split-LP wieder eine Rückwendung in vergleichsweise strukturiertere musikalische Territorien zu verzeichnen. Der Begriff skullflowertruth.blogspot.de/2012/07/black-psychedelia-one-of-these-days-im.html">"black psychedelia", den BOWER in seinem Blog auf das Side-Project VOLTIGEURS anwendet, scheint mir für die Beiträge auf der vorliegenden Split-LP wahrlich nicht minder passend: Was für ein Getöse! Was für eine Wucht! Wer den jüngeren Output bis hin zum besagten, Nerven und Gehör gleichermaßen zerschreddernden Meisterwerk von 2011 ebenso zu schätzen weiß wie ältere, tendenziell „rockigere“ (Anführungszeichen sind hier durchaus angebracht) Veröffentlichungen wie Skullflower-Obsidian-Shaking-Codex/master/54292">"Obsidian Shaking Codex" von 1993, der wird von diesen drei Stücken begeistert sein. Zur Darbietung gelangt eine Melange aus den beiden zentralen stilistischen Betätigungsfeldern der umtriebigen Band aus London – das Beste aus beiden Welten sozusagen. Wie auf den meisten späteren SKULLFLOWER-Veröffentlichungen kommt man komplett ohne den Einsatz von Drums bzw. ganz generell ohne irgend einen Beat aus: Der Sound baut sich alleine aus schneidend-knirschenden, durch Verzerrer und Effektgeräte gemarterte, im aktuellen Fall – passend zum compagnon de guerre auf der B-Seite – ziemlich Black-Metal-lastig tönenden Gitarrenriffs auf, die in der Gesamtschau etwas generieren, das man wohl am treffendsten als apokalyptisches Noisedronehochamt umschreiben könnte. Letztlich mündet der Versuch einer konkreteren Charakterisierung der Musik von SKULLFLOWER fast zwangsläufig in ein Ringen um wohlfeile Worte, denn seit die Band nach ihrer Interimsauflösung im Jahre 1996 und der Wiederauferstehung im Jahre 2003 wieder auf Kurs ist, oszilliert der "typische" SKULLFLOWER-Sound irgendwo im Niemandsland zwischen Gitarrenwänden, Feedbackexperimenten und brutalem Noise – und ist überdies immer im Fluss, will heißen, der Schwerpunkt, um den herum sich die Musik jeweils kristallisiert, ändert sich von Veröffentlichung zu Veröffentlichung.
Die Atmosphäre der drei Stücke der Split-LP ist getragen, man könnte sie schon fast ein wenig pathetisch – nicht im abwertenden Sinne – nennen, doch mag das der Thematik geschuldet sein, die sie laut Promotext umkreisen, es handelt sich nämlich um "a trinity of sombre meditations evoking Europe after the rain, drowned ruins, sunken dreams". Im Übrigen darf es, wer für einen derartigen Alleszermalmer wie das mehrfach angesprochene Vorgängeralbum verantwortlich zeichnet, guten Gewissens mal ein wenig ruhiger und getragener angehen – gar kein Problem. Das sei MATTHEW BOWER und uns, dem enthusiasmierten Publikum, von ganzem Herzen gegönnt. Zumal "ruhig" in diesem Fall ohnehin nur sehr, sehr bedingt etwas mit dem landläufig üblichen Verständnis von ruhig zu tun hat. Langer Rede kurzer Sinn: Großartiger Beitrag – Musik, die im Raum steht wie ein schwarzer Monolith.
Und damit kommen wir zur B-Seite und ... äh ... MASTERY. – Vorweg sei das Eingeständnis ausgesprochen, dass ich mich in der schillernden Welt des Black Metal keiner allzu fundierten Sachkenntnis erfreue, obgleich ich dem Genre im Laufe der letzten Jahre zunehmend mehr Sympathie entgegenbringe. Der geneigte Leser möge meine folgenden Worte also als subjektive Meinung eines Interessierten und keinesfalls als kanonisches Urteil eines Eingeweihten – oder eines solchen, der sich dafür hält – interpretieren.
Denn in der Tat: So lange ich mich bei der A-Seite aufgehalten habe, so kurz kann ich mich bei der B-Seite fassen: Laut discogs handelt es sich bei MASTERY um ein, seit 2005 aktives Ein-Mann-Black-Metal-Projekt aus der Gegend um San Francisco; die Musik beschreibt der Promotext als "[t]otal berzerker black metal, rooted in the tradition of true grim blackness, but filtered through Mastery's cracked perception […]; a droned out and damaged, outsider blackness, that sounds pretty much unlike almost any other black metal." Nun ja. Meiner unmaßgeblichen Meinung nach wäre hier ein wenig mehr Bescheidenheit unbedingt am Platze gewesen: "Blood Electric" ist summa summarum eine ebenso brutale wie uninteressante Uptempoprügelnummer, dominiert von einer Stimme, die irgendwo zwischen genretypischem BM-Krächzgeschrei und Death-Metal-Gegrowle changiert. Und aufregend, geschweige denn "droned out and damaged outsider blackness", geht nun wirklich anders. Nicht nur, dass man dergleichen schon x-mal anderswo und obendrein besser gehört hat – wenn auch nicht unbedingt auf knapp 18 ununterbrochene und mit Fortschreiten der Laufzeit zunehmend nervigere Minuten ausgedehnt. Man fragt sich zudem, worin eigentlich das verbindende Glied zwischen SKULLFLOWERs grandiosem Opus auf der A-Seite und diesem mediokren Gekloppe bestehen soll – und zwar ebenso in qualitativer wie in stilistisch-formaler Hinsicht. Ich jedenfalls bin einigermaßen davon überzeugt, dass so ziemlich jeder, der – mit absoluter Berechtigung! – von der SKULLFLOWER-Seite begeistert ist, die MASTERY-Seite mit einem Gähnen quittieren wird – et vice versa.
Doch sei's drum: Allein für den beispiellosen musikalischen Furor, den SKULLFLOWER auf der A-Seite entfalten, lohnt sich die Anschaffung allemal." [Endsal für nonpop.de]
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| SKY BURIAL |
Of the First Light |
CD-R |
"Combining electronics, ethnographic instrumentation and field recordings, Of The First Light juxtaposes minimalist industrial dirge with cold, dark ambience and resonant drones. “Of the first light” is a reference to the Wampanoag tribe (meaning “people of the first light”), the original indigenous inhabitants of Sky Burial’s locale, Cape Cod, one of the first
places in the U.S. to experience sunrise each day. This release is limited to 200 copies with letterpress covers by Thumbprint Press." [label info]
www.collectivexxiii.com/sky
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Threnody for Collapsing Suns |
CD |
"Michael Page’s (Fire in the Head) Sky Burial project has been exploring the dark ambient side of industrial music since 2006, evolving into a unique and steadfast in the genre. Threnody for Collapsing Suns is a triptych clocking in at over 50 minutes - thoughtfully composed; incorporating deep drones, shimmering synth work, and lamenting melodic lines. The disparate layers come together to form a surpisingly organic, well-crafted narrative. Threnody continues Sky Burial’s journey into the nebulous dusk of “Kosmische Musik”, and forms part of a loose trilogy with the preceding Kiehtan and forthcoming Aegri Somnia." [label info]
www.small-doses.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| SKYSCAPER |
Atmospheric Stratification (Rescape) |
CD |
"Skyscaper is one of the many aliases belonging to none other than gterma's longtime mastering wizard Anders Peterson. Rescape is a reinterpretation of the original Atmospheric Stratification album (originally released on Anders' own Ghost Sounds label in 2012) with the help from several well known artists usually found in the dubtechno field. Imagine ascending into the heavens during a slowly building stormfront as immesurable walls of energy are about to be unleashed."
https://gterma.bandcamp.com/album/atmospheric-stratification-rescape
|
2020 |
€12.00 |
|
| SKÖLD, MATTIAS |
Taroom |
CD |
" 'My first complete electronica CD which contains electronic music I performed live over the last couple of years, edited to form a complete work that can be played from beginning to end. The title comes from John Lloyd's and Douglas Adams' dictionary The Deeper Meaning of Liff where it in brief means loud and informative (it is also an Australian town). The music is a combination of harmonic noise music and multi-layered rhythmical electronica'. Mattias was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1976. He studied classical composition with Sven-David Sandström and Per MŒrtensson at Gotland's School of Composition and with Pr Lindgren and Bill Brunson at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Beside working as a classical composer, Mattias is an avid performer of live electronic music. He is active as a board member of various societies for experimental music, such as the Ra ensemble which combines classical and jazz music, and the intermedia art society Fylkingen where he is the vice chairman. Mattias is a teacher of electroacoustic music, currently on the computer music course at Stockholm University, and he is one of the editors of Tritonus, a blog about contemporary music.
1. Entry 2:30
2. Tempt 8:13
3. Contempt 6:37
4. Console 2:34
5. Enroll 5:56
6. Loud 5:30
7. Riff 6:54
8. Cloud 7:56
9. Liff 5:52
Total time: 52:21" [label info / credits]
- FYCD 1031, 2008 |
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| SLAVES, THE |
Ocean on Ocean |
do-LP |
"The mystical drone-folklorist Jon Porras introduced us to the luminous sound of The Slaves, so we thought it fitting that he should expound upon their radiant shoegazing heaviness. Here speaks Mr. Porras:
"A shadow moves beneath the water. Ocean On Ocean: two abysmal surfaces echoing into one another. Mutually reflecting an endless geologic score to a post-apocalyptic litany. Planes of ambivalence obliterated by light, voices eclipsed by devotional low end, synthesized stereography spiraling from an eternal core. Hovering above the weighted disposition of Doom and below the consolation of Shoegaze, the duo transmit a burdened grace that unfolds like a radiant mammal writhing in black water. We discover an object heavy and obtuse until placed into the sea. Lines of light swell and dissipate behind hushed lyrics. Feedback and whitenoise ebb and flow, the mammal's breath hollowed, tumbling below the surface. The hum offset and displaced by water that surrounds. Holographic accord materialized by invalidated hopefulness. We are unsure and skeptical of what this optimism holds. What lies waiting at the depths carved between these two reflective surfaces? Ocean On Ocean implies a tangible province exists between these mirrored planes. A staircase built from reflective feedback, extending horizontally into bliss. A bliss that is fleeting and simultaneously petrified in the present. A paradox realized by the duo's distillations of urgent ambiance and luminescent melancholy. Conjuring environments that billow out from instrumental restraint, Ocean On Ocean is an exercise in disciplined abstraction.
Initially a cd-r, Ocean On Ocean reaches its supreme possibility today. An acoustic artifact cast into alchemical tangibility, these recordings are finally at peace on vinyl. Now the relics hidden between these Oceans can be crystallized."
The Slaves are Barbara Kinzle and Birch Cooper, who hail from Portland, Oregon and who have released other works on Digitalis and Paradigms to considerable acclaim, drawing favorable comparisons to the likes of Grouper, Slowdive, Earth, and Barn Owl. The 2LP of Ocean On Ocean is limited to 400 copies, and the recordings were mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Fuck, yeah! Here, we have the double lp reissue of the aQuarius favorite Ocean On Ocean by The Slaves, the Portland duo of Birch Cooper and Barbara Kinzle. We got the cd-r of this album back in early 2011, upon the enthusiastic request from the former aQ-staffer Jon Porras, known to some as one half of of drone-doom duo Barn Owl. The rough sound of the cd-r has been considerably improved via remastering by James Plotkin, with the vinyl cut at 45 rpm so that all the heavy / dreamy / shoegazy loveliness is even richer and more radiant. Still one of our favorite albums, made even better!
We love bands whose music-making formula appears, on the surface, simple and intuitive, yet the sounds they create are huge, engulfing and seemingly complex. Using two synthesizers and echoing vocals, The Slaves inhabit a sound that is as lush and dense as it is mysterious and minimal. Their debut album, Ocean on Ocean, is the perfect showcase of a group that can conjure up bountiful sounds within a restrained approach. Honestly, we can’t get enough of Ocean on Ocean, something about those enormous, dreamy, engulfing songscapes just leaves us wanting more. Their oozing brew of minimal pop melts and blurs with the melodic thickness of MBV's Loveless or early Slowdive, but surrenders to a contemplative mode that falls somewhere between Gregorian hymn and pagan ritual. The duo spin a radiant web of sustained vocals and heavy synth, each chord drawn out and smeared into a neon haze while indecipherable lyrics suggest longing, loss and submission to oblivion.
"Seventeen" unfolds with a slow arching chord progression that grows and dissipates like a coastal tide. Female vocals creep into the oceanic haze while fluttering noise and cosmic wash hover in obscurity. And though the rhythm-less wash may appear to be aimless improv, a close listen reveals a defined structure beneath the veil of long tones and heavy atmospherics. And yes, The Slaves are heavy. And it's not a "down-tuned guitars through a wall of amps" kind of heavy. It’s more evident in the slow movement of the songs, and the visceral effects felt by each musical gesture. The duo have perfectly crafted a searing offering of "soft doom", so gorgeous and mesmerizing we’ve had Ocean on Ocean on repeat for the past week. "Shadows" is another noteworthy track. We love the push and pull of heavy synth and whispery vocals, whirls of female voice echo into the night then dissipate into huge swells of HEAVY distorted synth. Crumbling low end amid ethereal dream chants, what else could we ask for?? One of our favorite records in recent memory and highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2012 |
€22.50 |
|
| SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY |
Nostromo |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des S.R.F. Debut-Albums, die später auch CDs auf MANIFOLD hatten...
Back in stock this nice album of soundscapish dark ambience..
“ SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY is a new deep ambient project from Scotland experimenting in the crossover between deep sonics and film sound design. The debut album `NOSTROMO` takes the listener into the first 8 minutes of Ridley Scotts 1979 sci-fi classic `ALIEN`, and though the album is divided into five tracks:
...it can be played as a single one hour long epic that takes you through > each of the decks, slowly, darker and deeper into the rumbling bowels of the ship NOSTROMO, as it makes it long-haul journey through the void. The album brings to life the massive intensity of the film, and underlying horror of what is about to occur.” [press-release]
"Ultra deep ambience, based on the first 8 minutes of the movie 'Alien' which depicts the deep space haulage vessel slowly moving through the void. The disc takes you through a slow trip into the ship via tracks DECK A - E, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the 'Nostromo'. Colossal dark ambience from the abyss, with beautiful artwork that evokes the sinister atmosphere of the ship. Reissue with bonus track 'Narcissus'." [label notes]
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/nostromo-csr34cd
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Stealth |
do-CD |
"Sublime new album from the drone / dark ambient legend. Evolving drones, resonant dark ambient, micro soundscapes, cryptic voices, and intelligent electronics, based on covert recordings of one of the most mysterious and concealed military aircrafts of the 20th century.
Comprising of five deeply-layered extended tracks, mixed and edited from re-sampled location recordings originally captured inside the hanger environs of a Northrop-Grumman B-2 Stealth Bomber, during a period of downtime maintenance at a U.S. Air Force base in Cambridgeshire, England. Original field recordings and texture preparations by FOURM/Si_Comm.
First edition pressing of 1000 copies includes bonus disc comprised of this *pre-mix* material in its original, un-edited form, as a representation of the source audio from which "Stealth" was reconstituted.
Deep listening inspired by one of the most mysterious aircraft of the twentieth-century." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| SLEEPING BABIES |
Arrow in the Earth |
CD-R |
Another real undergroundish act on the french label: SLEEPING BABIES create ecstatic low fi drone-noise/folk, as "primitive" as inspiring. Handmade cover with little coloured wood-pieces.
"Buried under the hills of Love, the Sleeping Babies' music is transpierced by an arrow of emotions. This patchwork of drones, carried by ethereal voices, dances among bells, flutes and percussions. It is a wonderful and shamanic trip to the holy Mantra. Featuring member of Quilts, Grateful Dregs, and head of American Grizzly. More Info : www.myspace.com/sleepingbabies." [label notes]
www.myspace.com/ruralfaunelovesyou
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| SLITHER |
Alien Column |
LP |
" 'Alien Column' is the first full length LP by the thick-smoke-filled-Michigan-basement duo of Chris Pottinger (Odd Clouds, Cotton Museum and the Tasty Soil label) and Heath Moerland (Sick Llama, Cygnus, Drug Abuse and the Fag Tapes label). Often described as a post-Wolf Eyes combo, slither offer a mutant take on free jazz through their multiple electronics manipulations and dual horn tandem (alto saxophone and clarinet). An additional proof to why Michigan is currently the best place to be on earth! Edition of 240 copies." [label info] |
2009 |
€17.00 |
|
| SLOAN, JASON |
Deluge |
CD |
If we have any StillStream fanatics here chances are you might remember this performance, which originally streamed live on the Sadayatana show back in 2011. Although then presented without title, Jason intended for this piece to capture the aftermath of our world after having suffered through a grand deluge. gterma are very happy to bring back to life again this emotional recording. Jason has also kindly composed for us a brand new epilogue which now closes the album. Comes in jewel case with 16-page booklet.
gterma021to040.blogspot.com/p/gterma039-jason-sloan-deluge.html
"Jason Sloan is a US-based new media & sound artist, electronic musician, composer whose sonic creations explores immateriality and its connection in memory, systems and the virtual world.
“Deluge” contains his performance, which was originally streamed live on Stillstream’s Sadayatana program August 2011, which intended to capture the aftermath of our world after having suffered through a grand deluge.
For the cd-release, the 60-minute dark-ambient recording though has been extended by a brand new epilogue which now closes the album.
The continuous live-set is an inner world ambient affair drifting into ethereal lands as it smoothly changes shape and reveals intrinsic motion along the way. Headphones are essential to discover the many fine details and hypnotic realm embedded in the carefully molded, overtly minimalist atmospherics, which all received the balanced, delicate and refined mastering touch of Anders Peterson.
The epilogue is a soft and warm soundscape wandering, opening up melancholic farscapes as it drifts and evolves onward.
All in all, “Deluge” makes an impressive and imaginary ambient listen. Recommended.
Website: www.jasonsloan.com" [Sonic Immersion]
"In the case of “Deluge” by Jason Sloan we’re dealing with a recording of a live performance on StillStream Radio on the 5th of August 2011. From what I read in the booklet, the broadcast was transmitted in a non-legal (let’s not beat about the bush, just pirate) way in Baltimore and the surrounding area. Guerilla ambient – I like it.
For many years, Jason Sloan has been bouncing on the edges of the ambient scene releasing several albums, most of them in his own label SloBor Media. Perhaps his contact with gterma will cause that he’ll reach this fifty or hundred people more – as for a minimalist ambient it’s quite much anyway, and the material contained on “Deluge” or rather “Live On Sadayatana – Deluge” indicates that the musician definitely deserves it.
“Blue Star” is a long, slowly developing set of drones, bathed in soft sound haze. Torn from the impression of space-time and drifting aimlessly in the night sky. Although I may be wrong with this “space” term as it has a specific American taste. In my mind’s eye I see strange lights flashing in the sky over the Arizona desert, and in the back of my head the name of Steve Roach begins to form. At the beginning and at the end (not only in this piece) there are some pieces of radio transmission somewhere in the background, which further enhances the sense of non-existence and emptiness, where past, present and future meet.
“ElevenEleven” continues this minimalist journey, where it ‘s difficult to talk about a destination. Although it seems like the music has taken a bit darker direction. As if somewhere in the distance a vortex of unknown provenance appears, absorbing everything it encounters on its way, no matter whether it is a material being or not. Oh, this music fits to my taste, oh it fits. Teetering on the verge of dark ambient but not throwing itself into the dark void, so that I should have advised Jason to send the music to Cyclic Law or Malignant.
Low drones can be found in “The Fifth World”, but at the same time there is more contrast between them and the fetching synth melodies, so I have the impression that this track has the richest sound in the whole CD. “Deluge” is somehow the closest to “The Fifth World”; it’s added to extend the album’s length, but it is not a bad track, on the contrary. It sounds a bit better than the other ones, but not different enough that the album can’t be treated as a homogeneous journey into the unknown.
As always in gterma releases, the booklet contains several atmospheric photographs, which in my opinion this time not entirely correspond to the images projected by my mind. But in fact this is a little thing that cannot affect my overall positive opinion. I would take such trips more often." [Santa Sangre]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SMALL CRUEL PARTY |
(before the dream...) (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
released February 1995
"This obscure project from Seattle may be known to some through several strangely and wonderfully packaged vinyl and tape releases (and one CD), as well as through installations and sound works presented in many galleries and other locations. On this nameless E.P. we find two tracks, 'Before the Dream' and 'Of the still Earth' in the typically unique SMALL CRUEL PARTY-style, here working with water-sounds as well as unidentifiable sources, thus creating a very particular language of noise, a special dimension that be must entered 'soul to soul', a very personal communication.
What is expressed by this kind of music you can find in your own treasury! SMALL CRUEL PARTY delivers the KEY (sic!) to open it!
The E.P. is accompanied by a full discography. SMALL CRUEL PARTY also played a rather short but fantastic gig at the first Drone-Extrakt Festival, at Tara (Emden), in October 1993. We'll never forget it.
'SMALL CRUEL PARTY teaches you to listen to a different language.' "[label info]
" SMALL CRUEL PARTY BANNTEN DEN SOUND DER KERAMIKWANNE. IN IHR SITZT MAN, INMITTEN VON WILD ÜBER DEN MENSCHEN NOCH UNBEKANNTEN DICHTERN DISKUTIERENDEN, KLEINEN SCHWARZ GEPANZERTEN TIEREN. SICH STETIG DEM HAHNE ENTREISSENDE WASSERTROPFEN MISCHEN SICH MIT IHREM KLANG UNTER DIE KNISTERNDEN STIMMEN. INMITTEN DIESER GROTTENGERÄUSCHE LIEGT DER HÖRER UND BEGINNT ZU BEGREIFEN, INDES DIE SCHEINBAR ENDLOSE OFFENBARUNG SCHLIESSLICH DURCH DIE BEGRENZTE AUFNAHMEKAPAZITÄT DER SINGLE AUSBLEIBT UND ERKENNTNIS IM BRODELNDEN SOG DES ABFLUSSES MIT HINABRAUSCHT."
(Peter Schlewinski, Vertigo)
" WICHTIG FÜR DAS VERSTÄNDNIS DER MUSIK VON SMALL CRUEL PARTY (ICH BIN MIR SICHER, ER WÜRDE ES NICHT MUSIK NENNEN) IST EINERSEITS DIE KONZEPTIONELLE ARBEIT MIT KLÄNGEN UND UMWELTGERÄUSCHEN, ANDERERSEITS DER SCHEINBAR MEDITATIVE CHARAKTER SEINER AUFNAHMEN. SCHEINBAR DESHALB, WEIL GERADE BEI SEINEN BESSEREN STÜCKEN MEDITATIV TATSÄCHLICH NUR EINE UMSCHREIBUNG IST: SIE REIZEN DIE SINNE ZU EINEM GENAUEN HINHÖREN, SIE SIND STIMULANZEN DER SINNE, DIE SICH VORNEHM ZU PHANTASTISCHEN KLANGLANDSCHAFTEN ENTWICKELN. DER HERRSCHENDE MINIMALISMUS DER MITTEL IN DEN ARBEITEN VON SMALL CRUEL PARTY ERLEICHTERT ES, DAS ANLIEGEN HINTER DER MUSIK ZU DEUTEN. "
(Thomas Beck, Odradek)
|
1995 |
€ |
|
| SMALL LIFE FORM |
One |
CD |
„drone – love – apathy – sound“ ist der Slogan von SILBER RECORDS, der uns durchaus sympathisch ist. SMALL LIFE FORM stehen für kraftvolle loops und statische, organische (handplayed) & effektierte Soundquader, erzeugt aus melodica, trumpet, trombone, voice, chinese cymbal, floor tom, vera pulsar & electric wind organ, die den akustischen Raum erfassen und bannen...
“ Small Life Form is about nothing if not sound. Sound as escape from life. Sound as a medium to penetrate and affect the human body. Sound as both creation & destruction. Sound as an entity meant to be concentrated on, not casually listened to. SLF's process, theory and sound draw from influences of the post-WWII avant-garde. In this way, SLF and Silber offer us another bridge between post-rock music & serious experimental composition, equal influences Gyorgy Ligeti & Cindytalk. It’s built from loops of horns & free from guitar terrorism to make a wall of organic & beautiful noise inspired by 1960’s classical music. File under Experimental, Aggressive Ambient, Post-Rock, Avante Garde” [label descr.]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| SMALL THINGS ON SUNDAYS |
Searching for |
LP |
"The Copenhagen based duo Small Things on Sundays are proud to present their first LP, "Searching For", the seventh album release by the duo - but the first that will be available on vinyl. Small Things on Sundays have focused on their musical vision to create an album of beauty and shade, which will take the listener on a sound journey exploring the filmic images the tracks presents. It can be investigated with further listenings revealing subtle details.
The title "Searching For" refers to the duo's own quest to create new moods and athmospheres, where time stretches out, as the listener, and the band themselves, submerges into harmonic ambient layers and more abstract unsettling textures that emerge from the improvisations. To be engulfed in these mesmerizing sounds, can serve as a way to step out of daily life for a moment, which seems needed now and again.
"Searching For" can also be seen as an imaginary interpretation of places on earth, like "Echo Lake at Night", or in space "Enceladus" (Earth-like moon orbiting Saturn). The basic sounds on the LP are derived from live improvisations, using turntables, detuned guitar, toy keyboard, viola and laptops. Some of the tracks are kept as the first live-takes, other tracks are the product of long hours of re-imagining and re-arranging tracks from the sound archive." [label info]
www.skratrecords.com
"Following a string of releases on CDR, cassette and download, some of which we reviewed in Vital Weekly (see for instance Vital Weekly 717, 732, 777 and 862), Danish duo Small Things On Sundays, now venture out to their first full length vinyl release. Henrik Bagner and Claus Poulsen use turntables, guitars, casio-keyboard, viola and laptops. They tell us that some of the pieces here were recorded in one take, and others took hours and hours to do on the computer. Cleverly they don't tell us which. It's not easy to say, and probably not very interesting to think about it. Easiest is to state that Small Things On Sundays play 'dark ambient' music. I was, recently, listening to some older Zoviet*France releases, even before I knew this LP was coming and it's nice to see the Zoviet*France template on an album like this. The careful use of real instruments, the abundance of sound effects, the creative use of tape-loops, the spacious nature of this music. As Small Things On Sundays note in the letter with this record, this is perhaps the lightest and most accessible of the trilogy '4AM' (717), 'More' (732) and now this one. I totally agree. The sharper edges of the music might be gone indeed, but I think that works well. The newly placed refined sounds make up for that rough edge but it also moves the work forward, onto the next level. The brightness of the music shines through here, like an early morning sun with a soft breeze on a nice spring day. The music is opening up and we see the potential of Small Things On Sundays much clearer now. This is a road they should explore more and more. Not trying to replicate the music, but to see what else lies in this brighter light. It's surely something they should do!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| SMALLEY, DENIS |
Neve |
maxi-CD |
"Musique concrete around a glacier in New Zealand. Smalley was born 1946 in Nelson, New Zealand. He learned piano and organ at a young age. In his home country, he premiered works for organ by Olivier Messiaen and György Ligeti in the late '60s. He taught music at Wellington College for three years before the French Government awarded him a grant in 1971. He studied in Messiaen's composition class for a year at the Conservatoire de Paris, but he also took the electro-acoustic music course dispensed at the time by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Musique concrète was a revelation to him and he quickly turned away from performance and classical composition to concentrate solely on tape music." [label info] |
1994 |
€10.00 |
|
| SMALLWOOD, SCOTT |
Desert Winds: Six windblown sound pieces and other works |
CD |
Wind-Stücke! Wie auch auf dem genialem HAZARDschen Wind-Album benutzt SCOTT SMALLWOOD größtenteils field-recordings von Winden – für (mich als) Wind-Sound-Fanatiker die reinste Wonne! SMALLWOOD hat sich dabei auf Wüsten-Winde spezialisiert (nicht unbedingt offensichtlich hörbar, aber gut vorstellbar), die sich mit Resonanzkörpern verbinden...
“ Desert Winds is a series of six compositions based on the field recordings made in the Wendover/Great Salt Lake Desert Region on the Utah/Nevada border. As a sound artist who utilizes field recordings, Smallwood initially was concerned about the high desert winds causing technical difficulties. However, he soon discovered that the desert wind was one of the most interesting assets in his quest for finding interesting objects/sites to record. The sounds recorded were all produced by the wind. Scott Smallwood is a sound artist, composer, and performer whose work spans a wide range of music interests. He currently teaches computer music on the faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he serves as the Technical Director of the iEAR Studios.” [label press release]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| SMARZOCH, RAPHAEL |
Spitrobot |
7inch |
"spitrobot" is the debut-release of the cologne-based guitar player and producer raphael smarzoch, which contains two intensive attacks of heavily treated guitar madness. side a contains an ecstatic, but almost minimal piece or pure feedback freakout, while on side b the six stings almost sound like a dark, surreal layers of organ sounds. it might be of no surprise that both the thick, subterranean metal of sunn o))) and the power electronics of the wolf eyes are the most important influences for smarzoch's noise pieces. "spitrobot" is the work of one of the most talented guitar players and an promising, impressive initial point in the discography of the 23-year old raphael smarzoch which you definitely shouldn't miss if you're into the solo-works of kevin drumm, agata or joseph suchy." [label info]
label: www.tonschacht.com
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| SMEGMA |
I am not Artist |
6 x LP-Box / DVD-BOX |
"This astonishing 6LP/DVD Box-Set compiles most of Smegma's long out or print and
impossible to find Vinyl-releases and contributions on labels such as their own legendary PIGFACE-Records, LAFMS, TRAP, DOM and SELEKTON. The box incl. their first three 7" inches "Disco Diarrhea", "Flashcards", "Pigface Chant", their Lp's like "Pigs for Leper" or "Glamour Girl 1941" as well as a 2Lp-sided extract of the Live 73-82 Double Tape „Spontaneaous Sound, all in one place. Smegma started collectively by Ju Suk Reet Meate, Cheese it Ritz, Chucko Fats, Dennis Duck, Amazon Bambi and Cheesebro and found many other Avantgarde/Freejazz/Improv-musicians to participate in the next 3 1/2 decades to come. This Box is taking you on a journey with the least likely Folk-Primitive-Avant-Gard band in Pasadena, California, through Portland Oregon's Punk Rock revitalization and first melt down, to become the serious force in weird music that continues today. Box is accompanied with a DVD-Version of the original Video "10 years wasted" released in 1983 which is a great document of Smegma's first 10 years of existence & work Box is accompanied with a DVD version of the original amazing Video "Smegma the first 10 years“ by Mike Lastra released in 1983 plus 2 Bonustracks of performances from 1978 & 80." [label info]
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2010 |
€95.00 |
|
| |
Mirage |
LP |
"With Mirage on Important Records, Smegma again does the impossible. 38 years after reinventing the musical wheel, they have recorded a stunning masterpiece. With four of the original members working together again for the first time in many years, together with many new collaborators, they have kept alive their unique brand of old school primitive, avant/garage music. Running the gamut from the 'music concrete' inspired subtlety, the bombastic mood of the title track, 'world of my own's' frenzied noise/funk jams, that morph past rock'n [Eno/Roxy Music era] garage band, before finally slipping into a primitive meditation involving silly voices, toys, record players and such. On the other hand 'F-85 Turbo Rocket' blasts strait to psycho rockabilly heaven and is over before it all sinks in. Also worth mentioning, with its timeless creepy beauty, the front cover drawing/collage sets the stage for this strange journey. Several of the tracks were recorded 'live' at a Smegma House Party in Portland September 2009. The CD includes a unique Smegma house party track and a bonus 1973 original Pasadena unreleased recording." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| SMELL & QUIM |
Cuntybubbles |
LP |
"Coming away from a Smell & Quim album singing Bobby Shafto wasn’t what I was expecting but when the needle left the groove there I was:
Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea
Silver buckles at his knee
He'll come back and marry me
Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe
Its the last thing you hear on side two, Simon Morris singing an English folk song before the solemn clang of a church bell and the return of the stylus. And sing it he does, in a resonant, trembling voice like he’s auditioning for Steeleye Span. The result being the raising of the hairs on the nape of the neck and the recurrent thought that he’s not around anymore. A year has passed since he was put to rest and there’s still a big gap where he should be but performances such as this, on a record such as this are reminders not just of himself but of just how good a voice he had. I’m told that these were the last recordings he ever made and it seems apt that they should appear on a Smell & Quim record, a band that he was a major part of for what must have been twenty five years.
Cuntybubbles arrives via the crazed locked down brain of Milovan Srdenovic who has been using his enforced time to create a Smell & Quim lockdown classic that will be seen as one their best. Surely a miracle of our times created out of the unlikely triumvirate of death, plague and pestilence. Let us all rejoice though for out of such darkness emanates a stone cold beauty. Then there’s the rebirth of Cheeses International, a label I’d long assumed defunct and with it the reappearance of the forgotten man of noise Steve Fricker. His website may be next to useless but there you go, thats yer man right there.
As ever Milovan has crafted his sound using a connoisseurs eye, venturing to places where other bands are either fearful or sane enough not to tread. Dark places, Bobby Shaftoe places. Thus we have Stewart Keith reciting the story of the Wicker Thing [a wicker cock that is Smell & Quim’s take on The Wicker Man] his words delivered as if by a pungent Gandalf with deranged bagpipes and buggery as accompaniment, there are porn film climaxes, flapping flywheel belts that make a syncopated rhythm, military drums, snatches of live action as laid down in Birmingham and Leeds, theres Milovan intoning the words ‘mouth, crop, gullet, bladder, bowel, vagina’ over and over again and that these are the only words to this song makes perfect sense. We have pissing in a bucket because we must have, looped samples of an indeterminate nature wail away until stripped back to reveal further layers that may just be the man himself shaking that noise shaker thing, an instrument that looks like a purloined buddhist prayer wheel riven with nails, bottle tops and ribbon. Opening track ‘Cleopatra Frankenstein’ has a loop of Stewart reciting a story which settles on the words ‘a very beautiful maiden must hold the bough while a man from behind has anal intercourse with her’, ‘Old Spunker’s lengthy rhythm stride derives from sexually congressed thigh slaps and moans before dissolving into a military snare drums rattle, ‘Jimmy Savile - Timelord’ is a short clatter of samples; Tarzan yodeling, Milovan and Morris giving us Savile’s catchphrase ‘as it ‘appens’ and the word ‘nonce’ repeated with growing gusto. ‘The Quim Reaper’ has Morris singing the words ‘and now we’re gonna die’. This being probably the most profound track Smell & Quim have ever given us.
Cuntybubbles is a built around the long track on side two, itself an amalgam of several shorter tracks; The Cuntybubble Variations contains ‘The Theme From Cuntybubbles’, ‘Pissy Tights’, ‘Cannibal Adderley Street’, the literal ‘Mouth, Crop, Gullet, Bladder, Bowel, Vagina’ and last but not least the pounding Wank Engine’ before Stewart Keith tells us all the story of the ‘The Wicker Thing’ and the beautiful town of Bell End and its deadly tradition." [Idwal Fisher] |
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| SMELL & QUIM + ONOMATOPEIA |
Fanny Batter |
CD |
Fanny Batter is a collaborative cd between two of britain’s great noise/experimental projects of late 80s/early 90s.
Smell & Quim, uses material sent by Onomatopoeia for their/his ‘Appeasing The Great Porn God’ 23min plus track and Onomatopoeia (Steve Fricker, the man behind Cheeses Int label and the famous mail-order from those days), material from S&Q for his ‘Symphony In Labia Minor I,II,III’ 3-piece track.
Vintage recordings from a great period of uk’s experimental scene. |
1994 |
€10.00 |
|
| SMITH, CHAS |
An Hour Out of Desert Center |
CD |
Auf dem aktuellen Werk klingt SMITH wesentlich leichter und soft-ambienter als zuvor, eine Nähe zu VIDNA OBMANA ist unverkennbar, aber mit stärker metallischem Einschlag. Sphärenklang, der IST.
"An Hour Out of Desert Center is scored for pedal steel guitars, composer-designed-and-built crotales and sound sculptures, zithers, and a 1948 Bigsby lap guitar (a one-of-a-kind instrument that was owned by famed steel player Joaquin Murphey, who played with Spade Cooley, Tex Williams, Sons of the Pioneer, and other classic country artists). Here, Smith’s musical texture, evolving slowly and continuously over the course of the piece, is without dramatic flourishes. Like the spare landscapes around Desert Center, California, it simply exists in its muted beauty. Absence of Redemption and Albuquerque 5402 are scored for the same instruments as the first work, but with the addition of Smith’s self-designed-and-built three-neck steel guitar, "guitarzilla," which he prepares (a la John Cage’s prepared piano) with metal rods and plays with hammered dulcimer hammers. Absence develops in the linear fashion of the first piece. Albuquerque 5402 is a large-scale, two-movement piece constructed from dense, shifting textures that slowly taper away in the first movement and interweave in the next. " [label description]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| SMITH, STEVEN R. |
Crown of Marches |
CD |
"The latest solo outing from STEVEN R. SMITH (THUJA, HALA STRANA, JEWELLED ANTLER COLLECTIVE), and his first for Catsup Plate. A single, epic forty-minute track of composed and improvised material that is ecstatic, beautiful and as compelling as they come. Low feedback rumble and speaker hum rises with eastern melodies, bright guitar lines, faint keyboards, bowed cymbals, and assorted textures, distortion, and tones." [label info]
www.catsupplate.com
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Owl |
CD |
"This is the first brand new solo album from Steven R. Smith since last year's epic "The Anchorite." Few artists can boast the impressive discography Smith does, full of far more hits than misses. And with "Owl," he shows that he's still got new tricks up his sleeve. On here, you'll find some of the things you expect with a new Steven R. Smith record: sprase, angular walls of his trademark guitar playing with embellishments from an array of acoustic instrumention. But there's a new twist here: vocals. Yep, vocals. Smith unleashes his voice on "Owl" and does so in such an impressive fashion that it leaves me asking what took so long?" [label info]
www.digitalisindustries.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Cities |
LP |
"American multi-instrumentalist Steven R. Smith has been releasing a steady stream of solo records for well over a decade as well as playing in various improvisational groups including Thuja, Hala Strana, and most recently Ulaan Khol. This music has ranged from sparse solo guitar improvisations to Hala Strana's reworkings of Eastern European traditional folk tunes to the dense, psychedelic fuzz guitar workouts of Ulaan Khol. On his latest full-length solo release, Cities, Smith combines the composed with the improvisational and the result is a beautiful and desolate collection of songs evoking a crumbling landscape reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road or the films of Hungarian director Béla Tarr. Cities was recorded in Smith's Worstward Studios on all analog equipment and features a wide variety of instrumentation including fretted spike fiddle, baritone psaltery, electric and nylon stringed guitars, cello, melodica, electric piano and organ. Musically, Smith's work over the years could be summed up as a struggle to contain a series of opposites: light and darkness, sorrow and joy, despair and hope. It is this balance, or at least the effort to create or maintain this balance, that informs Cities as well. Smith has recorded for numerous labels including Important Records, Catsup Plate, Soft Abuse, Emperor Jones, Last Visible Dog, Jewelled Antler, Digitalis and Darla. Cities is his first release for Immune Recordings." [label info]
www.immunerecordings.net
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Old Skete |
LP |
"Eleven stark performances on hand-made electric guitar by the man also known as ULAAN KHOL, HALA STRANA and ULAAN MARKHOR, and for work with THUJA, MIRZA and Amsterdam-based clarinetist GARETH DAVIS. Absence of overdubs, loops, samples and delay pedals leaves Old Skete open and unadorned, a spare work akin to Smith's 'Kohl' (Jewelled Antler 2002). Edition of 500." [label info]
www.worstward.com
"Multi-instrumentalist, musician, and printmaker Steven R. Smith's fifteenth solo album (from a staggeringly extensive discography of almost 40 releases) presents the artist at his most raw and vital: an album comprised entirely of solo guitar, with no edits, overdubs, loops, or studio trickery. The result is a haunting minimal record that retains the common thread of modal, droney, Eastern European folk-inspired chord progressions and movements that Smith is known for, while simultaneously giving his compositions appropriate room to breathe. Since the artist himself recorded the album live, there is an intrinsic candid and intimate nature to this release that is both intangible and captivating. Old Skete could very well be considered Smith's sketchbook; the intuitive nature of the pieces provide a glimpse into Smith's process. The works presented are not perfect in terms of performance or duration, but they are immediate, emotive, and vibrant. There are few times where more instrumentation is missed, but towards the end, when Smith starts banging out chords and allowing the pieces to crescendo (especially on the final track), you can't help but think how a killer rhythm section could close this record out perfectly." [James Woodard] |
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
| SMOOTH QUALITY EXCREMENT |
My name is William Wayne |
CD-R |
Eerie drones flavoured with odd humour, using speech excerpts. A quite undescribable trip by URE THRALL, THE FRUITLESS HAND AND and J.P.LOCASTA. Recorded live but it's not clear when & where... 7 tracks, 74+ minutes.
"What would the DUKE have done if he had been president? The Shitesters want YOU to know. The saga of a REAL man stranded in a petty pseudo culture put to a very difficult soundtrack by them sinister Shite-sters." [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Plastic Perpendicular Crevice |
CD-R |
12 tracks, almost 76 minutes. All live-material except one track. Very melancholic / isolationistic stuff, but also a cosmic-chaos otherworld appears, and great pure mysterious sound-scapes with hallucinative percussion, eerie dronescapes that suck you in - maybe forever... everything can happen after you entered this excremental world!
"The NEWEST material from Ure Thrall, The Fruitless Hand and even our old pal Paul Locasta. Features special personal outtakes and cut-ups!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| SNAKEFINGER |
Chewing hides the Sound |
do-CD |
https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/chewing-hides-the-sound-deluxe
Klanggalerie präsentiert: das remasterte Snakefinger-Solodebüt von 1979 (Ralph Records) plus drei Single-Bonustracks, sowie elf bisher unveröffentlichte Versionen der Albumsongs auf der zweiten CD! Der Londoner Musiker Philip Charles Lithman traf in den frühen Siebzigern in San Francisco auf die Residents, die ihm auch seinen Künstlernamen verpassten. Zunächst kehrte Lithman nach England zurück, um mit der Pubrock-Band Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers zwei Alben zu veröffentlichen. Daraufhin wieder in den USA, arbeitete er als Solomusiker und veröffentlichte 1979 „Chewing Hides The Sound“, nicht nur zusammen mit den Residents geschrieben, sondern auch auf deren Label Ralph veröffentlicht. Das Album enthält Klassiker wie „What Wilbur?“, „Picnic In The Jungle“ und natürlich das Kraftwerk-Cover „The Model“. Die oft surreale Stimmung und Lithmans Slideguitar-Stil prägen die Musik. Auf der ersten CD sind neben den zwölf Albumsongs drei exklusive, nur auf dazugehörigen Singles zu findende Bonussongs. Auf CD 2 sind elf bisher unveröffentlichte Versionen zusammengefasst, alternative Mixe bzw. Remixe, die erst kürzlich in den Residents-Archiven auftauchten und 1987 im Zuge der Veröffentlichung von „Snakey Wake“ im Gedenken an den zuvor verstobenen Lithman entstanden.
Snakefinger surely needs not much of an introduction. Born Philip Charles Lithman in London, he moved to San Francisco in 1971. His roots lie in the British blues scene, but he soon became friends with The Residents who also gave him the name Snakefinger based on a photograph of Lithman performing, in which his finger looks like a snake about to attack his violin. In 1972 Lithman returned to England and formed the pub rock band Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. After the lack of success of the second album, he returned to the states and work on his first solo album began. "Chewing Hides The Sound" came out in 1979 on Ralph Records. It includes classics such as his Kraftwerk cover "The Model", "What Wilbur?" and "Picnic In The Jungle". The songs on the album were co-written with The Residents. The music showcased Lithman's distinctive slide guitar playing and often surreal imagery. At the same time, a string of singles was released. All tracks that were exclusive to these releases are added as bonus tracks here. Very recently, a so far unknown remix of the whole album was discovered in the Residents' archive. It was made in 1987 in preparation for the Snakey Wake by The Residents and has never been published in any form. Klanggalerie are now proud to present you this lost gem for the first time ever on this double CD. Full Tracklist: Disc 1: 1. The Model 2. Kill The Great Raven 3. Jesus Was A Leprechaun 4. Here Comes The Bums 5. The Vivian Girls 6. Magic And Ecstasy 7. Who Is The Culprit And Who Is The Victim? 8. What Wilbur? 9. Picnic In The Jungle 10. Friendly Warning 11. I Love Mary 12. The Vultures Of Bombay 13. The Spot 14. Smelly Tongues 15. Talkin' In The Town Disc 2: 1. What Wilbur (Alternate Version) 2. The Vivian Girls (Alternate Version) 3. Kill The Great Raven (Alternate Version) 4. Interlude (Neon Lights) 5. Here Come The Bums (Alternate Version) 6. Magic And Ecstasy (Alternate Version) 7. Friendly Warning (Alternate Version) 8. Talkin' In The Town (Alternate Version) 9. Who Is The Culprit And Who Is The Victim (Alternate Version) 10. I Love Mary (Alternate Version) 11. The Vultures of Bombay (Alternate Version)
www.klanggalerie.com/gg220
|
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
| SOISONG |
xAj3z |
CD |
Erste "grössere" Veröffentlichung vom neuen Projekt von "Sleazy" und Ivan Pavlov aka COH, kommt als acht-eckige CD in spezieller sieben-eckiger "Origami"-Klappcover-Verpackung mit obksurem Farb-Inlay; limitiert... . 7 tracks, die keinem bekannten Genre zuzuordnen sind und viel verfremdetes vokales Material einsetzen.
"... xAj3z is freedom from the mundane. It is the hidden beauty that stares us right in the face and dares us to recognize it. There is nothing generic about its sound, each melody carries its own personality, its own indefinable emotion. To the surface dweller this can be a casual experience, but those who delve a bit deeper will uncover, piece by piece, the hidden revelations that SoiSong has packaged for us." [Sound & Symbol blog]
"The first full-length from SOISONG. xAj3z freely mixes music styles and combines various approaches to music-making: artificial vocalists are accompanied by real drums, jazz-noir arrangements meet the delicate melodics of the South Seas, computers are made to sound warm and organic. The album shows no apparent respect for genre-definition and aims at communicating with the listener at highest levels of emotional intensity, often lyrical, sometimes dark, on occasions amusing and even uplifting. The album is packaged according to the new PIANOSTEALTH ™ technology - this package is made to last." [label info]
'xAj3z' is Soisong’s debut album. Peter Christopherson (Coil, Throbbing Gristle) and Ivan Pavlov (COH) have joined forces as Soisong. "The two-man show will combine Ivan's uncompromisingly visceral computer based music with Sleazy's decadent, dark and whimsical approach to artificial vocals and 'South Seas' instrumentation..."
This is the first full length release by Soisong. It is packaged in an unusual, oddly-shaped origami-like sleeve. Please note the disc itself is octagonal in shape and will not play in slot loading CD/DVD players.
|
2009 |
€35.00 |
|
| SOL, EDWARD |
Wrong Action |
mCD-R |
EDWARD SOL ist der Betreiber des emsigen ukrainischen Labels QUASI POP aus Kiev. Seine "Wrong Action" mCDR ist eine ziemlich absurde & durchaus witzige Klangcollage über eine Pop-Diva in vier Teilen (z.B. "inside Kylie"), basierend auf Analog-Synths, Loops, Plunderphonics, Tapes, Objektklängen, Noise-Feedbacks, etc.. sehr schön verpackt in ein handgemachtes Digipack..
"Tape collages, audio-objects and wild psychonoise in surrealistic cinematic mood. This is the tragic (and funny at the same time) story of Pop Diva working and partying hard. Audio tabloid in some sort, inspired by the early works of Pierre Henry, but Inland Empire and The Hafler Trio as well." [label notes]
"Music by Edward Sol has been released by Quasipop before and reviewed here. Here he presents another four tracks on 3" format in a nice little package. Apparently the theme is about 'This is the tragic (and funny at the same time) story of Pop Diva working and partying hard', although it's not sure which diva is meant here. Maybe Kylie Minogue, as suggested by the track title 'Inside Kylie'? Unlike some of his previous stuff, Sol goes out to old fashioned tape collages, cutting, splicing and pasting of tapes to create his music. At times he wanders out in the rich field of noise, but stays in true spirit of the good ol' musique concrete. It's at times loud and vicious, but the collage element of the music prevails. Influenced by say Pierre Henry (voices are spliced together) and Merzbow, makes this his most refined statement so far. Not in every subtle, but created with great care." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label: www.quasipop.org
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| SOLA TRANSLATIO |
Enigma |
CD |
SOLA TRANSLATIO ist das Gemeinschaftsprojekt von ALIO DIE und OPIUM und dies ist das dritte Album. Das besondere an ENIGMA liegt in der Verwendung mysteriöser konkreter Field Recordings, die die instrumentell-fliessenden Sounds umgarnen und umranden... viele handgespielte Instrumente wurden aufgenommen, wie Zither & Flöten, Pianotunes…zusammen mit der Artwork hat das einen mystischen Touch und verbreitet eine besinnliche, sehr unaufdringliche Stimmung…is it the mind-space or the space-mind??
“The third awaited cd by Opium and Alio Die is finally out! rich of ambient textures that bring to lose themselves into different labyrinth's peregrinations, and to bathe the borders in flowing abyss.. eight imaginary landscapes wavering between the earth and the cosmos, sometimes returning on the dark atmosphere of the first album, but with a little acoustic element more clear..” [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Mother Sunrise |
CD |
Starke Zusammenarbeit zwischen ALIO DIE und OPIUM, spirituell-entrückte Elektronik & field recordings mit leicht orientalischem Flair..
“Combining an entrancing mix of natural recordings (water, wind, soil, forest) and electronic textures, Mother Sunrise conveys a descent into the natural world at its grittiest, most organic, and most truly "alive." Usually ambient & atmospheric music is primarily electronic, or perhaps utilizes guitars or other acoustic instruments, with electronic treatments. While this recording does integrate such conventional instrumentation in part, it derives its truly unique flavor through the liberal use of natural "location" atmospheres (recorded in the Far East as well as Italy), as well as organic percussive elements. Opium is a newcomer, mostly unknown in the ambient & atmospheric music scene, but Alio Die (especially through his excellent collaborations with ambient stars Robert Rich and Vidna Obmana, but also through his proprietorship of the Hic Sunt Leones label on which most of his solo material has been released) is one of the increasingly respected & beloved artists of our genre. Taking a truly unique and personal approach to this work, Alio Die arrives at a sound which is distinct -- truly rich, complex, and substantial enough to bear repeat listening." [label description]
www.hypnos.com
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| SOLAR OCEAN |
Enter Serenity |
CD |
"Adrift on an endless ocean, suspended into mellow water gently rocking you to sleep. Each wave carries you further from land and into a twilight existence, the sun warming your face and the water sending a million glittering reflections into your gaze. The result is a mini-album of serene ambient soundscapes with a harrowing undertone. Comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| SOLAR SKELETONS |
Frozen Jail of reversed Demons |
LP |
"The Skeletons are unleashed again, this time plunging into the dismal fogs of Dantesque blackened drone buzzadelics. Both haunting and transcending, harrowing and angelic, the "Frozen Jail Of Reversed Demons" is a monumental blend of post black metal fuzzscapes and eerie cello and synthesizer drones." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| SOLLMANN, PHILLIP / KONRAD SPRENGER |
Modular Organ System |
LP |
Begun in 2017 and developed and refined over the six years since, the Berlin based artists, Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger, deliver their first LP, via Choose Records, documenting their remarkable Modular Organ System.
Comprising a single, long form composition divided into two parts, “Modular Organ System” is a sublime and masterful work of drone, imbued with immediacy and emotion, that culminates as one of our favourite experimental organ records to appear in recent years.
Founded during the early 2000s by Jörg Hiller, the Berlin based imprint, Choose Records, has slowly released a near perfect catalog, ranging from Hiller’s efforts under Konrad Sprenger, to incredible albums by Robert Ashley & Walter Marchetti, Terry Fox, Arnold Dreyblatt, Robin Hayward, and a number of others. It’s been roughly a decade since we’ve heard from the label, but they’re back on roaring from with “Modular Organ System”, the first ever release of the long-standing mobile organ project of Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger. Comprising an absolutely stunning long-form work of shimmering minimalist drone, complete with fantastic, newly commissioned liner notes by Arnold Dreyblatt, it’s a true marvel and easily one of our favorite records for pipe organ to have appeared in recent years.
Both Berlin based, Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger, the alias of Berlin based musician Jörg Hiller, have been quietly developing singular solo practices that push the boundaries of electroacoustic sound for the last 20 years. Sollmann has followed a slightly less predictable path, with a significant amount of his output having been issued under the Efdemin moniker, a project focused on the production of Minimal, deep house and techno, and only coping up intermittently with a handful of minimalist marvels over that period, notably 2020’s “Monophonie”, and “Panama / Suez”, his 2018 collaboration with Oren Ambarchi and Konrad Sprenger, which bridged the distance between the two extremes of his output. Sprenger, on the other hand, first caught our eye back in 2004 with his brilliant duo LP “Ort”, made with Ellen Fullman. In the years since, he has slowly issued a series of beautiful solo efforts, as well as collaborations within the ensembles of Arnold Dreyblatt and others. His practice has displayed a remarkable versatility, shifting between conventional and custom instrumentation and electronics, endlessly pursuing experiments tracing into new territories, most strikingly in his last solo LP, “Stack Music”, issued by Pan back in 2017.
Despite its occasional use by composers like Charlemagne Palestine and Terry Riley during the second half of the 20th Century, by the new millennium the organ was an almost entirely neglected instrument within experimental music. It’s only been in the last ten or so year that has, somewhat inexplicably, become one of the context’s most celebrated areas of exploration, helped by the pursuits of artists like Kali Malone, Sarah Davachi, Raven Chacon, Kara-Lis Coverdale, and numerous others, who have utilized the instrument’s unique tuning versatility and specificity to construct remarkable compositions. Running parallel to this, a number of artists like Sholto Dobie, FUJI|||||||||||TA, and Maxime Denuc have begun to push and reinventing the organ’s physical make up and technological interfaces. Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger’s collaborations fall into the later of these.
Beginning in 2017, the duo began developing the Modular Organ System: the first monumental pipe organ that can be re-engineered according to the acoustics of any space. Constructed from pipes and parts taken from former church organs as well as newly fabricated pieces in a way that all of the instrument’s elements - pipes, console, action, and wind box - are visible, allowing visitors to witness the instrument’s physicality, and attempting to free the pipe organ from a singular, static installation, in the hope to place and recontextualize the instrument and its sound within startling new environments. As Arnold Dreyblatt’s excellent accompanying liner notes point out: “They have collaborated with musicians, visual artists, traditional organ builders, computer programmers and designers in re-thinking technological and historical boundaries of traditional organ systems: the computer control of parameters such as air flow and non-tempered fine-tuning; the role and visual impact of the pipes and bell- horn; the use of synthetic materials as well as relative size and movement within the space, the modular design for set-up, transport and re-combination of elements”. Sollmann and Sprenger pursued these ends continuously over the last six years within numerous festivals, venues, and institutions, but, until now, have yet to release any of the music they’ve composed. At long last, Choose Records’ release of “Modular Organ System” ends the wait.
Comprising a single, long form composition divided into two parts, “Modular Organ System” is a sublime and masterful work of drone. Moving at a glacial pace, shimmering harmonics weave and dance into a blanket of tonality at the lower end of the spectrum, creating immersive patterns and slowly evolving structures that manage to provide endless cycles of anticipation across the piece’s length. Perhaps most strikingly, within the album’s remarkable beauty, Sollmann and Sprenger manage to interlace a brilliant balance of grit and textural complexity, indicating that this isn’t an everyday pursuit of gratifying drone and minimalism. There’s undeniably something far brooding lingering within.
Truly stunning on every count and unquestionably one of our favorite organ records to appear in recent years, with “Modular Organ System” Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger push and prove that we have yet to hear the full scope of potential from the pipe organ.
SOUNDOHM
|
2023 |
€45.00 |
|
| SOLO ANDATA |
same |
CD |
"12k presents Australian duo Solo Andata along with their second album, self-titled. Translated literally from the Italian as 'one way,' Solo Andata portrays the theme of a one-way journey that moves from (and represents a thread between) water and land, fluid/stasis, cold/hot. Following Solo Andata's debut album Fyris Swan (Hefty, 2006) and their 12k inception on Live in Melbourne, Solo Andata presents us with an ambient affair, with dark drones coupled with ethereal sonic environments. It could be said that Solo Andata is carefully sequenced to a narrative structure: beginning on boat in the cold, arctic night of 'Ablation,' and then ending on foot in the hot wilderness of 'Woods, Flesh, Bone.' However, concepts and narratives that seem clear to the artists are often left oblique to the listeners. This is perhaps why Solo Andata represented this narrative in a strict sense by recording what the titles literally refer to. For example, 'Woods Flesh, Bone' presents us with sweltering woodlands, the sound of a fresh carcass being torn apart and the clattering of bones. The same can be said of 'Hydraulic Fluctuations,' 'Canal Rocks,' 'Ablation' and 'In the Light Storming.' These organic sources, then, help tie music and concept together. Solo Andata utilizes very little, if any, electronic instruments. Acoustic guitar, piano, cello and the natural resonances of organic materials (usually by way of a violin bow, pluck, or home-made contraption) become their main instruments, and as their live shows often attest to, Solo Andata can turn almost any object into an instrument capable of producing beautiful, other-worldly music." Includes a 12-page booklet with photographs by Taylor Deupree." [label info]
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Look for me here |
maxi-CD |
"Look For Me Here is Solo Andata’s accompanying single to their self-titled, full-length 12k album (12k1056) which, in addition to Solo Andata’s album mix, includes two exquisite remixes from Japanese legend Ryuichi Sakamoto and 12k visionary Giuseppe Ielasi.
With “Chorale”, Sakamoto progressively transforms Solo Andata’s rich and bittersweet work of electroacoustics into a vast and textured landscape of enchanting electronics which, at times, is beautifully bewitching. Giuseppe Ielasi, on the other hand, presents us with a luscious array of melodic skittering that altogether forms an elegant and harmonious whole.
Packaged in a clear, round CD case and printed on a half-clear Fan-CD, Look For Me Here is limited to only 500 copies for the world." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2009 |
€8.50 |
|
|
Ritual |
LP |
"After the highly praised “Fyris Swan” (Hefty) and “S/T” (12K), Solo Andata return with “Ritual”, a meticulously-crafted album emphasizing an engagement with the unknown.
‘Ritual’ is Solo Andata’s third full-length album and also the inaugural release for the Buffalo-based label, ‘Desire Path Recordings’. This limited edition 12”LP consists of four glorious sonic ‘topographies’ that are altogether spellbinding, eerie, visceral and energetic. ‘Ritual’, similar to Solo Andata’s self-titled album on 12k, is fundamentally made up of organic sounds, such as primitive gongs, bells and bowls, wildlife and environmental recordings, sacred chants, the vibration of human cancerous cells, cleavers, and prepared piano. These four pieces seem to work toward a repetition or ‘ritual‘ between disparate elements so as to transport us, via a magical spell, to dense otherworldly habitats. In fact, the title of the twenty-minute piece Incantare translates as ‘to chant’ (a magical spell upon), which derives from ‘in’, into, unto and ‘cantare’, to sing. For the eight-minute piece Carving, there exists a ‘ritualistic’ image similar to that of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony, where an intricate carving device inscribes the Condemned prisoner’s sentence onto his flesh. The whole affair of ‘Ritual’ is bound to leave listeners mesmerized by its vividness and bewitched by its intensity."
www.desirepathrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| |
In the Lens |
CD |
"In the Lens, Solo Andata’s fourth full-length album, was born from recordings found in the interstices of decades-old hard drives, lost email threads from disused accounts, and forgotten samples recorded on cassette dictaphones. These fragments were combined and re-worked with newer elements to create an album very much in the spirit of the band’s debut Fyris Swan(Hefty Records, 2006), an album touched by both folk and jazz and swathed in a dusty, narcotic haze.
Solo Andata’s Kane Ikin and Paul Fiocco have always pushed aside the digital studio in favor of a more haphazard and hands-on workshop vibe to their productions. They prefer near-broken acoustic instruments, cheap microphones and, as can be witnessed by their live performances, tend to turn anything they can get their hands on into a beautiful sound-making object.
While there is a raw and guileless nature to the duo’s sound it is precisely this that makes their music so powerful amidst the over-produced cliches of much modern music. The beauty of their work is how simple instruments and objects can be physically manipulated into creating such rich, layered sound. Dark, swaying, almost-looped melodies from piano, woodwinds and horns wrap themselves in smoky obscurity around remnants of percussion and warm beds of noise and the world around us.
In The Lens is very much a late-night record, reflected in the rain-soaked cover imagery, dripping with half-forgotten memories. Jittery yet calming, rhythmic, yet unhurried, it leads you down its dark corridors to a soft resting space. Ikin and Fiocco have created a new story around the chemistry of their creations that were taking place during the early days of their musical explorations." [label info]
www.12k.com |
2016 |
€15.50 |
|
| SOLUMENATA |
Aeriform Redux |
CD |
"WYRM (2000-2011). The project is now defunct and all activities have ceased. 11 years the archetype had been explored and exploited - new territories will be mapped out with Solumenata…" [label info]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
From Gehenna to Elysian Fields |
CD-R |
The WYRM (2000-2011) project is now defunct and all activities have ceased. 11 years the archetype had been explored and exploited - new territories will be mapped out with Solumenata…
Solumenata, WYRM co-founders Liz Lang (aka Auracene) and Allan Zane with the addition of PBK, have embarked on a new musical journey taking them out of the "darkness" and into an almost bone-bleaching "light". Six months even before the release of the farewell WYRM CD, Solumenata debuted with their first LP 'Aeriform' on the Russian SEALT label in the Summer of 2011. In less than three months, the LP sold out.
1 track - total running time 1 hour
inkjet printed CDr w/ insert in a case
1st 33 copies of 100 include additional disc of live performance in Columbus, OH 2/30/12
www.roilnoise.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| SONATA REC |
... und wir waren nicht die ersten Utopisten |
mCD-R |
"Heidrun Schramm aka. Sonata Rec continues her selfcontained path on her second 3” release on AIC, with associative and ambiguous sampling collages, sparse yet of high intenseness. this music is rare in its density (comprised of few elements), in its broken narrative aspects
and in its pure sound sensitivity. and, even more special, it offers some unintrusive, sarcastic hints on prevalent ideologies of our society.
The work “...und wir waren nicht die ersten Utopisten” (...and we hadn’t been the first of all utopians) has been presented in different versions in 2007, within various concert and exhibition projects – for instance at
Ballhaus Naunyn (Berlin), and at Kulturfestival Preetz." [label info]
www.0000-anti.info
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| SONDERBERG, ADAM / PAUL BRADLEY |
Anoxia |
CD |
Basis-Material des LONGBOX-Betreibers ADAM SONDERBERG wurde hier von PAUL BRADLEY bearbeitet. Klasse, wie sich aus leisen konkreten Geräuschen allmählich ein breit fliessender Drone-Sog ausbreitet, in dem Glocken- und Gongartige Sounds platziert werden. 37 min. one-tracker, DVD-Box.
“The universe of Paul Bradley is quickly expanding. Besides his solo releases (mainly on his own Twenty Hertz label), he is also an avid collaborator, with the likes of Colin Potter (a recent live CDR was released through ICR) and Darren Tate (their recent CD 'Sometime Today' was released on Plinkity Plonk). Here he works together with Adam Sonderberg of the Dropp Ensemble and Civil War (aswell as from the co-releasing Longbox Recordings label). Here he provides Bradley with the rough sound material, for Bradley to freely use and abuse (much alike the collaboration Bradley did with Darren Tate). Field recordings form again a steady ingredient, and are set against a large wall of droning sounds, which sound like a bunch of processed long strings. In thirty seven minutes the listener is taken on spacious journey through weightless space, with the field recordings buzzing like outer-space meteoritic sand against the space craft. Slowly the sand become small rocks towards the end of the journey and sky falls down. Quite a trip, but a pleasant one as such.” [Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| SONIC YOUTH |
Slaapkamers met Slagroom |
LP |
"Auf 3 langen Stücken zeigen S.Y. ihre free-floating, “improvised”, aber kraftvolle, experimentelle Seite… kommt auf grünem Vinyl, die zweite VÖ auf SONIC YOUTH’s eigenem Label.. " [old Drone Rec. info] |
1997 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Eternal |
CD |
"Sonic Youth’s 16th album, ‘The Eternal’, will be released on double vinyl, compact disc, and digital album by Matador Records on June 9. Produced by John Agnello and the band, ‘The Eternal’ not only marks Sonic Youth’s return to the independent label sphere (titles on their own SYR label excepted) after a long association with Geffen, but more importantly, ranks as one of their more inspired efforts in a 28 year career.
Recorded through November and December of last year at the band’s Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, NJ, ‘The Eternal’ features many firsts for a Sonic Youth album, including a number of shared vocals between Kim, Thurston, and Lee, and the studio debut of former Pavement/Dustdevils bassist Mark Ibold, a member of Sonic Youth’s touring band for the past few years.
The band’s current extracurricular activities are as always, quite varied. The Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf, Germany is now hosting the touring museum exhibition SONIC YOUTH ETC.: SENSATIONAL FIX, which focuses on the band’s multidisciplinary work since the band’s formation in 1981, including their collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians. Kim Gordon launches a clothing line, Mirror/Dash, at Urban Outfitters on February 16, and is showing at The Armory Show in NYC March 5-8. Lee Ranaldo, with co-conspirator Leah Singer, just opened installations at the Konsthall in Stockholm and the CNEAI in Paris, and he has a piece in the travelling exhibition “Bad Moon Rising 3″, currently at Boots Contemporary Art Space in St. Louis. A Beck/Sonic Youth split 7″ is being released by Matador on April 18 for Record Store Day. And the band recently collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (along with former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi) on a work celebrating, and being performed for, Cunningham’s 90th birthday on April 16 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Upcoming SY shows include April gigs in Austria and Germany (including the closing of SENSATIONAL FIX in Dusseldorf) and May 16 at the No Fun Festival in Brooklyn. They will be touring throughout the summer in support of ‘The Eternal’.
Of ‘The Eternal’, Matador’s Gerard Cosloy says, “We’ve not had a record in our recent history that’s been the subject of nearly as much speculation and anticipation. Suffice to say we’re pretty amazed at the way the band delivered something this neoteric while still sounding like, well, themselves. Less of a reinvention and perhaps more to do with a particularly awesome dozen songs.”
Matador will shortly announce a Buy Early Get Now scheme for the album with some very interesting bonus material.
Sonic Youth are:
Steve Shelley
Lee Ranaldo
Kim Gordon
Thurston Moore
Mark Ibold
Track listing:
1. Sacred Trickster
2. Anti-Orgasm
3. Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)
4. Antenna
5. What We Know
6. Calming The Snake
7. Poison Arrow
8. Malibu Gas Station
9. Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn
10. No Way
11. Walkin Blue
12. Massage The History
[label / website notes]
www.matadorrecords.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Simon Werner a Disparu |
LP |
"In Spring 2010, Sonic Youth gathered at their Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, New Jersey, to watch the rushes of a new film, Simon Werner a Disparu, by French director Fabrice Gobert. They spent the following few weeks recording music which was then shaped as needed to fit the various scenes. For this release, rather than present the small clips of music as used in the film, the band went back in the autumn to the original tapes and re-organized the various pieces for this original soundtrack release, sometimes montaging multiple tracks together, other times extending cues into new sonic realms. The film premiered at Cannes in May 2010 and opened nationwide in France. //
Es war im Frühjahr 2010, als SONIC YOUTH in ihrem Echo Canyon West Studio in Hoboken, New Jersey, zusammen kamen, um die Videoclips zu ,Simon Werner a disparu", dem neuen Film des französischen Regisseurs Fabrice Gobert anzuschauen. Sie verbrachten die nächsten Wochen damit, Musik aufzunehmen, die dann modifiziert wurde, um zu den jeweiligen Szenen zu passen. Die Band entschied sich dafür - statt die kleinen Häppchen Musik zu präsentieren, wie sie im Film auftauchen - sich noch einmal an die ursprünglichen Aufnahmen zu machen und die einzelnen Teile zu diesem Soundtrack zu sammenzustellen. Manchmal werden mehrere Tracks zu einem Stück und manchmal inspirierten Audioschnipsel eine ganz neue Soundlandschaft. Der Film feierte seine Premiere im Mai 2010 in Cannes und ging direkt im Anschluss in die französischen Kinos. www.myspace.com/sonicyouth" [label info / Cargo]
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| SONIC YOUTH / JIM O'ROURKE |
Invito al Cielo |
LP |
"Third installment in the limited edition, home-recorded, self-released series. CD packaged in a mini-gatefold cardboard sleeve; vinyl pressed on the clearest of wax, all text in Esperanto. Three wild, spontaneous pulsations that celebrate contemporary musical abstraction at its most uninhibited." [label info] |
1998 |
€15.00 |
|
| SONS OF GOD |
The Sons of God perform a Miracle |
DVD |
" 'For each and every person, we now want to reestablish the direct link with the devine within ourselves... the driving force behind everything... which, through its limitless openness, allows our dreams and fantasies to be realized in that part of life which is shared with others.' So lautet die simple Botschaft von Gods Söner, THE SONS OF GOD, auf The Power Is Yours. Diese, wie alles bei Leif Elggren & Kent Tankred, hintersinnige Frohe Botschaft ist Teil der DVD The Sons of God (FYDVD1001), die einem die Augen aufgehen lässt über die Magie der beiden schwedischen Prätendenten auf den Himmelsthron auf Erden. Ihr zentraler Zauber ist ein ritueller Tanz, den sie bei Dance aufführen in einem achteckigen panoptischen alten Anatomiesaal, mit spastischen, zeitlupigen Verrenkung, bis zur Erschöpfung, bis das Telefon klingelt. Dieser seltsame Totentanz zweier älterer Männer im Sonntagsanzug kehrt wieder in Before the Miracle, einfach in einem leeren Raum, und in Transients, in einer Rohbauruine. Seine quasi Beckett‘sche Endform findet dieser Tanz in The ons of God Perform a Miracle, der in einer Duo- und einer Quartettversion zu sehen ist. Sieche Grauhemden, Kandidaten für ein Lourdes-Wunder, winden sich in extremer Zeitlupe aus ihren Stühlen und sinken wieder zusammen. Dazu gibt es Tänze mit eisernen Besen (New Way), besonders sakral und erhaben als Version im Grand Theater in Bourges und, genial simpel, The Sons of God Drive Chairs. Besonders mysteriös jedoch ist The Arm, ein, anders als die von Noise gepeitschten Tänze, lautlos ausgeführter Schnitt an Tankreds Oberarm, im Chiaroscuro alter Meister visualisiert. Unerklärliches, Traumhaftes, wird körperlich, Absurdes wird spielerisch, Spielerisches zum heiligen Ernst, zu Lebens-Werk." [Bad Alchemy]
"The Sons of God work in the borderland between performance, installation and music; everything contributes to the whole and provides the basic structure for that inquisitive and expansive spirit which is apparent in The Sons of God´s working method. Sound objects, pre-recorded compositions, physically demanding movements, the voice, the staged meetings and conditions, the objects: all of this constitutes the foundation for an attempt to achieve those obscure moments where daily life unites itself with the heroic nature of our inner lives."
This DVD includes a selection of works by the group The Sons of God (Leif Elggren and Kent Tankred) from the years 1988-2007 - video documentations of performances as well as films and slideshows, in all over two hours of material. The DVD also includes a full colour 24 page booklet with texts by Daniel Rozenhall.
[label info]
www.fylkingen.se
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Refurnish |
CD |
"Guds söner möblerar om/The Sons of God refurnish. First performance 16.11.95 at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden. Performance for two actors (Leif Elggren and Kent Tankard), furniture and electrotechnics. In a prosaic household environment the Sons occupy themselves with their fixtures and personal property. The performance oscillates between placid quotidian pottering and more dramatic rearrangements in the outer room. This can be viewed as an attempt to acheive one of those elusive moments where everyday life enters into a union with the heroic nature of the inner life." [label info]
www.fireworkedition.com
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Object |
CD |
"The Sons of God, who serve the aims of civil defence and whose motto is to instil strength and courage and who have previously conducted investigations into materials and media, within the realm of the psyche as well as the social, have now taken it upon themselves to investigate "the object" using the means at their disposal. With the aid of a diaphragm in the shape of a 130-by-200-millimetre piece of sheet iron and microphones taken from the mouthpieces of Swedish Army telephones dating from the period in question, we will search the boat and, applying the methods of analogue telephony with regard to electromagnetism and its effects on matter, attempt to extract "locked", "frozen" or "dormant" information from the complex interior of "the object". A condensed version of the results of our investigation is presented on this CD release. Anyone who listens to and partakes of it will be placed in the same position as we were in our work on "the object", perhaps only with a change of perspective. We are therefore pleased to pass on the material, in the hope that new layers will be discovered and other information extracted." [label info]
www.fireworkedition.com
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| SONS OF GOD & MATS GUSTAFSSON |
Reception |
CD |
"The Sons of God: 32 amplified iron plates. Mats Gustafsson: live electronics. Recorded by Olof Madsen on the 5th of March 2006 at Frgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden. Reception was a sound installation at Frgfabriken (February 18 - March 5, 2006). by the Sons of God and Emanuel Swedenborg and a part of the festival Place and Space, Stockholm New Music. The festival was curated by Magnus Haglund and Magnus Andersson. During the installation period, the following guest-artists were invited for performances and concerts : Mats Gustafsson, Per Jonsson, Anna Koch, Nora Kvassman, Lotta Melin, Lise-Lotte Norelius, Daniel Rozenhall, Amit Sen, Wenche Sundsrud and Pr Thörn." [label info]
www.fireworkedition.com
"Work by The Sons Of God is somewhere in between composition, performance and installation. Lots of their released output relates to performances and installations and 'Reception' is no different. This particular work involves no less than thirty-two amplified iron plates set up at Fargfabriken, Stockholm in 2006 and on the night of March 5th 2006 a concert was held with Mats Gustafsson providing live electronics. An almost fifty-four minute work of loud noise. One vague rumble of… what exactly? Thirty-two iron plates you might say, which sound like crashing, cascading storm and on top we have Gustafsson's electronics wailing more about. Think Merzbow, but then without any development or change, save for a slow building up, to an orgasmic height and then quickly taking matters to a logical conclusion. Almost like a very noisy storm, almost like ambient music taken to a very (il)logical conclusion. To confuse matters even more there is a whole text about a 18th century writer Emanuel Swedenborg about heaven and hell, and how that influenced the work of The Sons Of God. You can read that and contemplate about it when listening to the music, although I am sure it will not shed a brighter light on one or the other. I thought of the whole package as quite fascinating, but then I always admire such consistent conceptual ideas." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| SONTARAN EXPERIMENT |
same |
CD |
"Eine aurale Verwüstung: Debütalbum der britischen Experimental-Metaller: Die Noise-, Grind- und Experimentalband um Paul Catten (Lazarus Blackstar, Murder One, This Is Menace, Medulla Nocte) stellt mit "The Sontaran Experiment" ihr Debütalbum vor. Die Gruppe aus dem südenglischen Ross-on-Wye betreibt damit eine aurale Verwüstung: drei Songs in 58 Minuten, die einen dazu zwingen, alles zu überdenken, was man über experimentelle Musik gelernt hat. Dazu kombinieren sie Doom mit Geräuschkollagen, unheimliche Stimmen mit von der Klassik inspirierten Sätzen, experimentelles weißes Rauschen mit Noise-Schnipsel, Psychedelia mit der Wildheit des Metal. "The Sontaran Experiment" schickt den Hörer auf eine Reise durch Myriaden musikalischer Erfahrungen und herausragender Kreativität. In Großbritannien tourte das Quartett bereits mit Gallhammer (Peaceville) und erhielt hervorragende Kritiken. Für Fans von: Fantomas, Melvins, Sunn 0))), Mike Patton, ASVA, Guapo oder Burning Witch." [label info / Indigo]
www.undergroove.co.uk
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| SORIAH |
Chao Organica in A Minor |
CD |
Kontemplation pur von diesem obskuren Künstler! Orgel-Oberton-Drones und gutturale Gesänge, esoterisch & spirituell, aufgenommen in einer Kirche in Portland.
“Like a bolt from the blue, the saccharine rich organ drone sets the supper for this winding piece of esoterica. Take equal parts Messiaen organ atones and the beguiling, echoed baritone moans of a disembodied spirit (with just a dash of pungent myrrh pouring over a cup of the very thickest Turkish coffee) and the environs of Soriah are partially breached. This magnificent choral suite for antique church organ is paired with a second vocal suite for Tuvan throat singing. The bone trembling multi-timbres of Soriah's commanding throat singing crack open and become a cathedral as the rumbling is pulled through a wash of electronic effects. Of chaos is a new religion erected. Soriah's crushing passion play becomes a bombastic bodhisattva that leaves all average messiahs staying indoors for the second coming. Also sprach Soriah! For fans of drone, Mirror, Coleclough, Af Ursin and avant-garde that stands the test of time.
From out of the fir-lined mists of the Pacific Northwest's primordial musical soup is spawned the singular performance and sound sculptor Soriah. Spilling initially from a rock and roll womb, but building on years of intensive studies in Tuvan throat singing and classical Indian raga chanting, Soriah both subverts and elevates tradition by weaving the avant-garde into the ancient. Whether backed by hand percussion, or accompanying himself on organ, or with electronics, or wailing a cappella, a thick, echoing, thaumaturgic atmosphere is carved out of the thin, vibrating air that rushes between vocal chords. Performance is an integral part of Soriah's Choa-sphere. Concerts played in haunted tunnels, from trees, in the desert, in churches and other far-flung venues are more the rule than the exception. Elaborate costumes, often incorporating authentic head-dresses and other tribal garments and totems, are another hallmark. The costumes are worn partly in beatific reverence and partly for the sake of how they move. Soriah's grounding in the study of butoh, yoga and other physically based rituals completes the circle of the experimental shaman; a circle which will continue to propagate as the only constant with Soriah is change. After numerous home and hand made releases Soriah is finally poised to light out into the world at large through his first recording on Beta-lactam Ring Records.” [label press release]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| SORRY FOR LAUGHING (GORDON H. WHITLOW - MARTYN BATES - EDWARD KA-SPEL) |
See It Alone |
CD |
"Sorry For Laughing is a project by Gordon H. Whitlow who is also a member of legendary US avantgarde collective Biota, formerly Mnemonists or Mnemonist Orchestra. Their music is a mixture of modern classical, experimental sounds, noise, industrial, avant-garde, songwriting and free jazz. Their releases were published by their own self-produced label Dys between 1981 and 1986. By 1985 the group had split off into separate groups for visual and audio work. From that time, Mnemonists operated only as a visual arts collective while the musical activity was taken over by a new group called Biota that featured a few of the musicians involved with Mnemonists as well as many new members. In 1986, Gordon H. Whitlow released a cassette under the name Sorry For Laughing: 'The compositions stem from my beginning days with the avant-garde recording ensemble Biota, shortly after completion of the Bellowing Room LP.' The album was re-issued on CD by Klanggalerie in 2018 and is still available. Now, Gordon reactivated the project and changed it from a solo effort into a new supergroup: he is joined on See It Alone by Edward Ka-Spel of Legendary Pink Dots fame, and Martyn Bates of Eyeless In Gaza. Also contributing is Denver guitarist Janet Feder and Patrick Q. Wright, Kiyoharu Kuwayama and Nigel Whitlow. Together, these musicians created an exceptional album of tender music where stunningly beautiful vocals float around ambient soundscapes and minimal classical music."
"This is Gordon H. Whitlow’s project, who has a long discography in his more than 30 years of musical career, he is also a member of the legendary American avant-garde collective Biota.
For “See It Alone”, two renowned artists such as Edward Ka-Spel from Legendary Pink Dots and Martyn Bates from Eyeless In Gaza join forces, two fundamental groups of psychedelic, post-punk and avant-garde music.
In this intimate album with bucolic passages that flirts with folk, along with violin, organ and field recordings arrangements. The interpretation of the songs is in a melancholic and sober tone. When Bates sings like a crooner I can't help but remember the beautiful songs from Eyeless In Gaza that alternate with Ka-Spel's velvety voice.
This album is a gift that moves for its simplicity and intimacy that are found in gems such as “Obsolesce”, “Seven Stormy Oceans”, “Anti-Hymn” and “Fate Stars”.
[Guillermo Escudero / LOOP]
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
|
same |
CD |
The Sorry For Laughing album was released in 1986 on cassette only. It is a project by Gordon H. Whitlow who is also a member of legendary US avantgarde collective Biota, formerly Mnemonists or Mnemonist Orchestra. Whitlow composed and recorded the album all by himself.The accompanying artwork for the original cassette release was made by several members of Mnemonists, the visual department of Biota. Sorry For Laughing has a different sound though. It is more varied, there are elements of post punk as well as elements of contemporary classical music. Somehow though you can hear Biota in there as well. Les Disques du Crepuscule is in the air. After all, the idea was to make a Christmas album. Whitlow says that when he lived in Colorado and worked in a bakery a homeless drifter used to come to the shop and buy the same stuff every day. With Christmas approaching, he interviewed the guy and got his Biota mates involved. Piano parts were recorded at a wealthy house-sit in Denver, others at Mulberry Street Studio, home of Biota's Bill Sharp who also co-produced the album. A most interesting album that's been lost for a long time. We are glad to bring it back into the world, remastered by Martin Bowes of Attrition. Gordon Whitlow says about it: "This is a solo musical project recorded in the winter of 1985-86 and self-released on cassette in a very small edition in 1986; this was followed by a modest limited edition cassette release on the ADN label in Italy in 1989. It has never been released to the public on any medium other than cassette. The compositions stem from my beginning days with the avant-garde recording ensemble Biota, shortly after completion of the Bellowing Room LP. The recordings feature a handful of Biota players contributing to compositions that fall outside the group’s activities. Vienna-based label KlangGalerie has expressed interest in reissuing the project as a CD. As you will hear from the initial spoken word (interview) passages, the project has a quasi-Christmas theme, but it is not overt in that sense. Rather, it is a collection of instrumentals whose moods and atmosphere are founded on largely repetitive melodic passages accompanied by “found” atonal elements. It is intended to be minimalistic with sparse arrangement (and on one track, some distant vocalization), aiming for a sense of nostalgia, isolation/loneliness, and childlike muse
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg289
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Sun comes |
CD |
Sorry For Laughing is a project by Gordon H. Whitlow who is also a member of legendary US avantgarde collective Biota, formerly Mnemonists or Mnemonist Orchestra. Their music is a mixture of modern classical, experimental sounds, noise, industrial, avangarde, songwriting and free jazz. In 1986 Gordon H. Whitlow released a cassette under the name Sorry For Laughing: "The compositions stem from my beginning days with the avant-garde recording ensemble Biota, shortly after completion of the Bellowing Room LP." The album was re-issued on CD by Klanggalerie in 2018 and is still available. Recently, Gordon reactivated the project and changed it from a solo effort into a new supergroup: it now consist of himself, Edward Ka-Spel of Legendary Pink Dots fame, and Martyn Bates of Eyeless In Gaza.Also contributing is Denver guitarist Janet Feder and the Dots' Patrick Q.Wright. For its fourth release on Klanggalerie – Sun Comes – Sorry For Laughing delves ever deeper into a journey through time, space, and the unexpected with a set that may best be heard as a metaphor for “a life in a day”. Following a three decades’ layoff, SFL reinvented itself as a diverse cross-section of like-minded cohorts working as a group in their own geographically displaced corners of the world, coming together with a resplendent sonic chemistry that coalesces the best of each member’s considerable musical oeuvre while moving towards a new chamber music for the current age, often paying homage to tales of old (and new). This marvelous group consists of producer Gordon H. Whitlow (Biota), Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, Kodax Strophes), Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots), Patrick Q Wright (Legendary Pink Dots, Officer!), and Janet Feder, with mastering by Randy Miotke (Biota) and other notable guests.
https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/sun-comes-2
"Brandneues Sorry For Laughing-Album, neben Gordon H. Whitlow mit Edward Ka-Spel und Martyn Bates besetzt, als CD im Digipack auf Klanggalerie.
Mit Mnemonist Orchestra bzw. später Biota wurde Gordon H. Whitlow im Spannungsfeld von klassischen, experimentellen Klängen, Noise, Industrial, Avantgarde, Songwriting und Free Jazz bekannt. Zwischen 1981 und 1986 veröffentlichte die Gruppe auf ihrem eigenen Label DYS, ab 1985 teilte sie
sich, von dieser Zeit an fungierte Mnemonists nur noch als visuelles Kunstkollektiv, während die musikalische Aktivität von einer neuen Gruppe
namens Biota übernommen wurden. Unter dem Namen Sorry For Laughing veröffentlichte Gordon H. Whitlow erstmalig 1986 eine Kassette, die bereits als CD bei Klanggalerie wiederveröffentlicht wurde. Jetzt hat Gordon das Projekt reaktiviert und verwandelte es von einer Solo-Aktivität in eine neue Supergroup: Edward Ka-Spel von den Legendary Pink Dots und Martyn
Bates von Eyeless In Gaza sind als musikalische Partner auf "Remember, You Are An Actor" wie schon beim Vorgänger "See It Alone" (2021) dabei.
Weitere Gäste sind Gitarristin Janet Feder, Patrick Q. Wright (Legendary Pink Dots) und Tom Katsimpalis (Biota). Zusammen haben diese Musiker ein außergewöhnliches Album mit zarter Musik geschaffen, auf dem atemberaubend schöne Vocals in Umgebungsgeräuschen und minimaler, klassischer Musik schweben."
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| SOUND_00 + LEFTERNA |
Elementals: Collabs 2 |
CD |
After a series of collaborative publications on multiple experimental labels, the duo of Toni Dimitrov (Sound_00) & Boban Ristevski (Lefterna) finds its 'Elementals: Collabs 2' conceptual release on Winter-Light. 'Elementals: Collabs 2' is an ambient/experimental release of deep drone contemplations and ambient exploration, good for deep meditative and learning sessions.
'Elementals' gathers together selected collaborative works from the artists Sound_00 + Lefterna. All tracks have previously been released separately on compilations from the labels Fall Into Void, Post Global Recordings, HNM Recordings, AOsmosis and Crna Zemlja. For this release on our Winter-Light label, the tracks have been completely remastered by Cruel Sound Works, adding a richer, more distinctive warm feel to each piece.
Glass mastered CD comes in a 4-panel full colour digi pack. 7 tracks with a total running time of 77:23 mins.
winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/elementals-
collabs-2
"Quite some years ago, Sound_00, the musical project of Toni Dimitrov was an active force in the world of net labels and CDRs (this was before cassettes became hip again), but he disappeared for a while, for reasons I don’t know but I see his name popping up again and here he has seven pieces recorded in collaboration with Boban Ristevski, also known as Lefterna, and who, also many moons ago, wrote
reviews for this rag. Apparently they have been working together for some time now, and released
their work on compilations on such imprints as all Into Void, Post Global Recordings, HNM Recordings, AOsmosis and Crna Zemlja. Not that I heard any of these. This collection sees these pieces re-mastered by Cruel Sound Works, “adding a richer, more distinctive warm feel to each piece”. These are quite lengthy pieces of music, somewhere between seven and fifteen minutes, dealing with field recordings, processed and otherwise, and to which a bunch of electronics are added. There is a strong love for field
recordings that contain a lot of water, rain, running taps or river streams; that sort of thing. By way of processing and adding effects and electronics it comes out as a deep wash of atmospheric drone music.
I can’t say if these are now warmer than before, but they sound pretty much all right to these ears.
There is the dash of reverb, set to a cavernous setting to suggest that spooky touch, which is something that you can find on all these releases, by this label, and in general with this kind of music. This is music that one should undergo and feel, rather than rationalize about. Like many of the other isolationist
musicians it seems less about composing and more about letting sounds wander freely inside a bunch of sound effects but it becomes a very nice work indeed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| SPARHAWK, ALAN |
Solo Guitar |
CD |
Solo-Album des LOW-Frontmanns! Und er hat definitiv den "Drone-Blues", einiges erinnert an RAFAEL TORAL, es gibt reine schillernde drone-fields, die aber immer wieder unterbrochen werden von einsam-bluesigen Notes oder Solos, aber auch von heftigeren Ausbrüchen.....
"Alan Sparhawk is best known for his work in his minimalist-pop band Low & his angst-ridden-blues band The Black-Eyed Snakes. His solo guitar-work follows sounds hinted at on songs like "Do You Know How To Waltz" or the Songs for a Dead Pilot version of "Will the Night". Reverb driven ambient guitar experiments like other Silber artists Remora, Aarktica, & Mike VanPortfleet." [label info]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| SPECIAL INTERESTS (MAG) |
No. 10 |
mag |
Massive 84 pages B5 size issue finally out in February 2018! Long awaited issue covers:
01 Cover artwork by: Paul Kerin
02 Editorial by Mikko A
04 Wince by: Mikko A
12 Le Syndicat Faction Vivante by: Cyril Adam
16 S.T.A.B. Electronics by: Mikko A
22 Robert Turman by: Stephen Petrus
26 Torba by: Manuel Pereira
30 Mutant Videos by: Frank Cordry
32 T.O.M.B. by: Arvo Zylo
40 Grim by: Takahiko Yokoyama
42 MAAAA by: Mikko A
46 New Forces label by: J. Peterson
52 Storm Bugs by: Cooper Bowman
58 Dead Tech by: Cooper Bowman
60 The Essentials: Hal Hutchinson
64 The Essentials: Human Larvae
66 The Essentials: Richard Stevenson
70 The Essentials: Kristian Olsson
78 Scum Core by: Frank Cordry
80 Artwork by: Paul Kerin
|
2018 |
€10.00 |
|
| SPECIMENS |
Sculptures |
LP |
"UK electronic & ambient experimentalist Specimens presents his debut album ‘Sculptures’. Featuring artwork by the award winning Australian artist Kieran Ingram and mastered by Room 40 label boss and cornerstone of the Drone/Ambient music world Lawrence English. ‘Sculptures’ is a delicately and painstaking put together debut album, it follows up from releases on A Giant Fern, Amsterdam based Shimmering Moods Records & the collaborative Specimens x Daniel Wiesmayr release ‘Water & Concrete’ on London’s Tenderly Surrender, the title track of which soundtracked a short from film maker & director Sophie Littman & went on to get over 20,000 views in it’s Nowness premiere.
Wearing his influences on his sleeve & with a nod to past and present noise pioneers such as Throbbing Gristle, Leyland Kirby, K.Leimer and Ben Frost, the record pans between a dream-like fog on the tracks "Cerulean Forest” & “French Morning” and cold industrial chops on “A Marble Hallway”.
Specimens said of this release “I didn’t want to make a record intentionally difficult to listen to, but I wanted uncomfortable moments, It was important for me to try and make the record sound as human as possible and in some places distinclty live"
The lighter more gentle moments hold together the records more jagged edges, occasionally leaning towards a more classical feel, in a way the likes of William Basinski & Sean McCann display with regular expertise, this is best illustrated in the tracks “Piano Loops” & “VI.VI.MMXV”. Samples of Sudanese wrestling & Tuvan Throat Singing give the record the “human” feel Specimens describes and adds a charm which prevents the record from ever feeling too slick.
Over the past 18 months Specimens has been collaborating and releasing singles and EPs at a pace that hints at an artist never fully satisfied with sitting on a project, in this process he has undeniably broadened his creative sphere whilst also honing in on a sound unmistakably his own, the a result is a record distinctly individual and unapologetically enjoyable to engage with." [label info]
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| SPHERULEUS |
Voyage |
CD |
"Voyage' is the latest album from Lincolnshire based sound designer Harry Towell. Released under his Spheruleus guise, this album utimately provides a soundtrack to a doomed sea-voyage. Through eight different movements, 'Voyage' chronicles everything from the immense pride felt as the ship sets sail to depicting the horror and heartache of its sinking. The album then closes with detailed passages that portray the decomposition of the ship as it begins to rot deep under sea.
This album is well researched with Harry having explored his chosen subject thoroughly. For the two years in which the album has been in the making, the young sound designer studied the history of great sea disasters and also took inspiration from soundtracks such as Gavin Bryars’ ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’ and Gareth Hardwick's 'Of The Sea And Shore'. Although the Titantic's infamous fate was naturally a strong influence on the project, 'Voyage', does not refer to any particular sinking ship. Instead, its purpose is to sonically depict the various emotional aspects that lie within a failed sea voyage, as felt by all those who are affected by it.
Once the concept for 'Voyage' had been born, Harry revisited one of his old demos from early 2010 and decided to make this the spine of the album. He then used his instrument collection including; guitar, violin, trumpet, bugle, zither and keyboard to add several layers to the demo. In doing so Harry has been able to develop his chosen theme and create the character required to turn this forgotten treasure into the album it is today. As a poignant exaggeration of the events that unfold through the track 'She Sinks', there is a contribution from Russian pianist Alex Tiuniaev that opens and closes this dramatic track. He also performs on the track 'Clouds Swarm', as it heads into a crescendo.
Aside from his solo production work, Harry also records with brother Stuart under the name Paper Relics and runs the Audio Gourmet netlabel, which specialises in 15 minute EPs designed for shorter 'tea-break' listening. His work as Spheruleus has seen him release through netlabels such as Test Tube, Resting Bell, Earth Mantra, Audio Gourmet and in March 2010, his first physical album 'Frozen Quarters' was released on CD format by the Under The Spire imprint." [label info]
www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The late Surge of Gold |
CD-R |
"The Late Surge of Gold is the work of British sound designer Harry Towell, under his Spheruleus moniker. Previous releases have graced labels such as Hibernate, Home Normal and Time Released Sound and collaborations that
have seen him work with the likes of Pleq and Ekca Liena. Harry also runs the Audio Gourmet netlabel and its new sister label Tessellate Recordings, which specialises in limited edition CDr releases. The Late Surge of Gold
was composed specifically for Analogpath, recorded during last year’s Indian Summer in the UK, a phenomenon in which the sun shines deep into autumn. This is an album which documents warm and hazy summer, the bright
sunshine that extends through autumn before eventually descending into the cold of winter. The sounds are a typical example of Spheruleus’ work, pooling together fragile acoustic recordings from the artist’s instrument
collection. They are joined by field recordings, static and subtle drones which amount to a lo-fi pastoral tale, unfolding the full spectrum of seasonal colours from the warmth of yellow and orange, fading slowly to
grey and darkness. Artwork by Johan Söderberg, except from the image which features a building. This was taken by Harry Towell on holiday in the Peak District at the height of the Indian Summer." [label info]
http://analogpath.com/main/ |
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| SPIEGEL, LAURIE |
Expanding Universe |
do-CD |
"The Expanding Universe is the classic 1980 debut album by composer and computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel. The album is reissued here for the first time in a massively expanded two-CD set, containing all four original album tracks plus an additional 15 tracks from the same period, nearly all previously unreleased. Some of the already well-know works included in this set are Patchwork, the complete Appalachian Grove series, and Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds, which was included on the golden record launched on board the Voyager spacecraft. The pieces comprising The Expanding Universe combine slowly evolving textures with the emotional richness of intricate counterpoint, harmony, and complex rhythms (John Fahey and J. S. Bach are both cited as major influences in the original cover's notes), all built of electronic sounds. These works, often grouped with those of Terry Riley, Phil Glass, Steve Reich, differ in their much shorter, clear forms. Composed and realized between 1974 and 1977 on the GROOVE system developed by Max Mathews and F.R. Moore at Bell Laboratories, the pieces on this album were far ahead of their time both in musical content and in how they were made. Each of the included works broke new ground, pioneering completely new methods of live interaction with computer-based logic - ways of creating music that are now reaching the heights of their popularity with Ableton Live, Max
MSP and other interactive music software entering mainstream music production. The package also includes an extensive 24-page booklet with notes by Laurie Spiegel and period photos." [label info]
www.unseenworlds.net
"And yet again does Unseen Worlds provide us with something Unheard, at least over here. From the world of minimal and electronic music they find those interesting gems that are from really rare releases - of the kind you don't even see on the most outsider/underground blogs. I never heard of Laurie Spiegel or her album from 1980 on Philo Records. We are dealing here with some highly computerized music from a time when computer where not things for your desk or your lap, but apparatus that filled rooms. Its all told in the booklet, albeit with a lot of technical speak that perhaps sometimes may elude the uninitiated. But the whole text breathes 'another time, another world', even if you don't understand what it is all about. It is about limitation with those early big computers to create music, and perhaps that's the real surprise if you hear it. Take for instance a piece like 'Drums', which sounds like Pan Sonic or Goem, with a bouncing back and forth rhythm. The booklet tells us, about these pieces, that Spiegel has a folk influence, but that's hard to hear (well, that, or more inside knowledge is required). In other pieces there is perhaps something that we would call these days 'cosmic music'. Spiegel's music is not of a plink-plink nature that one perhaps would associate early computers with. Instead she plays long form, sustaining pieces, which slowly develop. Now, here she is clearly been influenced by the world of minimal music. Various of her pieces start out with with a bouncing single note which slowly expand - 'get longer' - and then starts to build slowly. The length of a piece is usually five to ten minutes with some being well over that, such as the title piece which is close to thirty minutes (which was also pressed in this length onto vinyl, so a CD version is more than welcome, I should think). No doubt with some of this music one could easily think its too simple and with my laptop running live you could easily do the same results in a few minutes, but I prefer to take the historical position: wow, with such limitations, these results! Spiegel's discography is rather small, and this double CD contains the entire debut LP, various pieces from later works (such as 'Drums' and 'Appalachian Grove I-III'), but also many pieces that are here for the first time. I can imagine that close to three hours of this music is perhaps all bit much to take in, but this is yet another remarkable re-issue on Unseen Worlds. Boy, what a great label so far, what surprises they have next for us?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Unseen Worlds |
do-LP |
Laurie Spiegel's second full-length album, Unseen Worlds, arrived just over ten years after her debut album. Having realized the pieces found on The Expanding Universe (1980) on an instrument no longer available to her, the GROOVE System at Bell Laboratories, Spiegel moved on to composing and developing for the Alles Machine, alphaSyntauri, McLeyvier and various other instruments before creating an instrument entirely her own. Spiegel created Music Mouse - An Intelligent Instrument on a Macintosh 512k so that she could have an instrument that was not general purpose but a small, specialized, and well defined musical instrument for and by her that she did not have to compromise on or risk losing access to it. While it was a very personal instrument for Spiegel, demand among friends and colleagues nevertheless grew until Music Mouse - An Intelligent Instrument became a commercial product for the Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari personal computers with a devoted popular following that continues to this day, despite the obsoletion of those platforms. At the time of her Unseen Worlds album's original release in 1991, the issuing record label turned out to be going out of business, dissolved and disappeared, sending the album immediately into obscurity. Outside of a private CD edition issued by Spiegel on her own Aesthetic Engineering label in 1994, this new edition represents the first proper commercial release of Unseen Worlds. "Unseen Worlds is not so much based on melody and rhythm as it is on textures, pulses, and sonic environments. Sometimes dark, sometimes light, its drama pulls in the adventurous listener who wants to take a musical journey. Using computer software she wrote in order to implement a unique musical vision, Unseen Worlds blends the artistic and the technical, the cerebral and the sensual, and revives the virtually abandoned tradition of electronic music. Unseen Worlds is the work of a sonic explorer whose music can both challenge and caress. Those looking for other worlds of sound can put on headphones and find them here" - Craig Anderton
|
2019 |
€33.00 |
|
| SPIGEL, MALKA |
Every Day is like the first Day |
CD |
"Im Amsterdam der 80er gründete MALKA SPIGEL MINIMAL COMPACT.
1986 heiratete sie Colin Newman von WIRE und gründete mit ihm als kreativen Partner in den frühen 90ern das Swim Label.
Es folgte ihr Solodebüt "Rosh Ballata", das Minialbum "Hide", das zweite Soloalbum "My Pet Fish" und Projekte als ORACLE und IMMERSION.
2004 gründete sich mit Newman und Robin Rimbaud GITHEAD. "Every Day Is Like The First Day" mag so ihr drittes Soloalbum sein, verfügt aber über die Frische und die Verheißung eines aufregenden Debüts.
Die Aufnahmen fingen an, als Newman und SPIGEL ohne jegliche Vorbereitung im Studio von Andy Ramsay von STEREOLAB zusammenkamen und mit sämtlichem musikalischen Spielzeug experimentierten.
Mit dem so entstandenen Soundfundament wurde die zweite Phase eingeläutet: Kollaborationen und Gastmusiker nahmen jegliche Vertrautheit aus dem Material.
Mit dabei: Alexander Balanescu, Andy Ramsay, Johnny Marr (THE SMITHS, MODEST MOUSE), Julie Campbell (LONELADY PSYCHIC LIFE), Matthew Simms (IT HUGS BACK, WIRE), Nik Colk Void (FACTORY FLOOR, KAITO, CARTER TUTTI VOID), Ronald Lippok (TO ROCOCO ROT, TARWATER) und der allseits verehrte Soundtrack Komponist Teho Teardo.
Aus der Arbeit von 13 Musikern, vier Ländern und acht Studios wird die Essenz eines jeden Songs destilliert - das, was SPIGEL "the first song" nennt: eine eigene Entität mit einer einzigartigen emotionalen Atmosphäre." [label info]
www.swimhq.com
|
2012 |
€13.50 |
|
| SPIRACLE |
Lumen |
mCD-R |
Ein grossartiger one-tracker mit ultra-sonorem Drone von HITOSHI KOJOs Projekt, dieser Breitwand-KlangStrom schillert in tausend akustischen Farben!
"defined by the artist as "around 19 minutes of harmonic drone piece, like warm mercurial metallic texture slowly flow through capillary vessels". we couldn't say better! full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by hitoshi kojo." [label info]
"Spiracle is the big unknown here, being the project of Japanese Hitoshi Kojo, who now lives in Switzerland, were he has worked with Micheal Northam (as Kodama), Jgrzinich, Maurizio Bianchi, Yannick Dauby and Jonathan Coleclough, but he puts on his Spiracle hat when doing something solo. I am not sure what kind of sound sources he uses for his 'Lumen' piece, but I'm sure it's something created out of metal. Spiracle brings back the old Organum sound of 'In Extremis', which is a landmark in this field, in a chilling drone piece. Quite a nice work, this one." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label: www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Ananta |
do-CD |
"Hitoshi Kojo (aks Spiracle) professes to have some difficulties in falling asleep. When sleep comes to him, it can often arrive at dawn, when the colors of the sun begin to break through the darkness of night and when some are just rising after their own good night's sleep. Ananta is a twin set of compositions that urge the listener toward a dreamless sleep-state, while reflecting the glowing warmth of a blossoming sunrise. In constructing the two variations of Ananta, Kojo began with finely tuned drones extracted from a Dilruba and a Sarangi, and applied a process of merging sympathetic field recordings and other tonal interferences alongside those instrumental sounds. The resulting pieces are elliptically static drone compositions that brightly shimmer with hues of gold, crimson, and aquamarine.
One of the two variations of Ananta was published back in 2006 as a micro-edition CDR through Mystery Sea. In composing the Mystery Sea version, Kojo purposefully eschewed the representational sounds of the "Night Ocean Drones" espoused by the label, opting for these aforementioned concepts. On this piece of tiny churning textures streaming along a linear path, Kojo's piece nearly achieves infinity, which happens to be the translation from Sanskrit of "ananta." While other works from Kojo enjoy the darkly elegant arches found in select recordings from Organum and Lawrence English, the Mystery Sea Version of Ananta fits more of the tradition of the Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada, and Charlemagne Palestine in constructing pieces which require endurance, lest you succumb to Kojo's audio hypnosis. The Strato Version of Ananta is a previously unreleased composition, that bends and undulates around a fundamental drone, all the while still maintaining the sun-flecked glints magnified in the Mystery Sea version. Limited to 300 copies."[label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"We missed out completely on the Ananta cd-r that Spiracle first released through the Mystery Sea label a few years back. It was limited to 100 copies and quickly disappeared, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, Helen Scarsdale in her sage wisdom has just reissued that static drone opus with a second disc that reworks the original material while keeping the same intent.
Hitoshi Kojo is man behind Spiracle, having wandered from his native Japan to Central Europe where he's been collaborating with the likes of Michael Northam, Maurizio Bianchi, John Grzinich, and Murmer. Much of his work deals with acoustic drone construction, with some of his records taking up the mantle of beautiful tactile noises like those generated by Organum, Jonathan Coleclough, and Andrew Chalk. Ananta, now presented as a double disc, is an album with a purpose; or at least it has a purpose for Kojo as he's one who has trouble falling asleep. So he composed this album as a narcotizing agent to lull him into a deep sleep. But this is also a man who is a night owl, so the time when he's usually falling asleep is when the sun is just beginning to rise. So for this composition, Kojo tuned his drones to match the ruby reds and golden yellows of daybreak. The Mystery Sea Version of Ananta is a linear construct of softened static with wisps of sustained tones spiralling in and out of the mix. The composition shimmers along this focused path with few variations, reflecting a rigor of process much like the champions of minimalism (e.g. Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada) but with a delicate approach found in the likes of Stars Of The Lid. The Strato Version found on the other disc smoothes out the static into a rich undulating surface of warm golden tones, that could easily be an ambient lullaby to accompany a daydream whilst napping at the beach. So, so beautiful!
The Helen Scarsdale reissue does increase the distribution of this disc, although not by much... there's only 300 of these beauties kicking around!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Evestrum |
7inch |
"SPIRACLE is the original project of Japanese artist HITOSHI KOJO (currently residing in Switzerland), known to some for his label OCTPIA & some solo-releases (recently also part of JÜPPALA KÄÄPIÖ).
On this, the first SPIRACLE vinyl release, two pieces of sublime Drone-Muzak are placed, mesmerizing and mind-expanding sonic clouds. The two tracks EVESTRUM and EXUSIAI are "focused on the physicality and the osmosis of the sound" as HITOSHI describes it. The acoustic basis-material comes from a glass harp, resonated trumpets, metal sheets & electronics. A kind of sonographical report of a process that a "subtle spiritual existence merges into a physical body and becomes tangible through the senses." The unbelievable cover-artwork as an object is paradoxically representing an invisible world.
Filed under: ASTRAL BODY DRONES
TRANSPARENT VINYL, SILVER LABELS. EXTREME HANDMADE (& COMPLETELY WHITE) COVER USING COTTON WOOL, GAUZE BANDAGE, THREAD & SPECIAL PAPER. SILVER PRINTED INLAY.
THE FINAL STATEMENT OF DRONE RECORDS AND THE LAST RELEASE OF SPIRACLE!" [label info]
"The final one is by Hitoshi Kojo, also known as Spiracle. He's from Japan, but currently lives in Switzerland and who has had various releases before. For this 7" (his first vinyl actually) he uses a variety of acoustic objects, such as a glass harp, resonating trumpets and metal sheets, as well as electronics. The sound here reminded me of the very first Organum record, 'In Extremis'. Slowed down metal scraping, which occasionally folds into electronic overtones and makes a very beautiful vibrating and resonating sound. Like the Wyrm 7", this is not exactly the type of drone music that lulls the listener into a deep sleep, but has a great unsettling character. An excellent work, topped with a great handmade, cloth cover. And apparently this is also the final record by Spiracle. That's two very sad occasions, I should think." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| SPK (S.P.K.) |
Despair (digitally extracted) |
DVD |
"After being hidden in time for more than 20 years this industrial milestone of the infamous 1st generation got renovated extended and digitally overworked. A true statement and monument for the outstanding band S.P.K. who gathered together under so many names like: SoliPsiK, Selektiv Pornography Kontrol, Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv, System Planning Korporation just to name a few.
Twin Vision, Cat TV and Tesco Germany proudly bring you a band about nothing could be said, the only group in industrial musics history that stands on the same level as Throbbing Gristle, for some even above. Influence to so many followers. The project ideal is to express the content of various psycho - pathalogical conditions, especially schizophrenia, manic - depressive psychosis, mental retardation and paranoia. Information Overload supersedes normal, rational thought structures, forcing deviation into less restrictive mental procedures of so-called 'mental illness'. SPK is trying to be a voice for those individuals condemned to the slow decay of mental hospitals and chemical / electro / surgical therapy, without fetishising them into blatant entertainment product. 'SONIC FOR MANICS' aims to be a vehicle for sharing mental experiences through sound.
This DVD compiles material that marked the genesis of the group . The members at that time were known as Operator, Ne(H)il and Tone Generator. Like rare live moments of the bands, energetic performances covering music from “Leichenschrei” to “Information Overload”, Live rehearsal footage from “ Auto Dafe”, slide shows, documentary and a filmed interview with Tone Generator aka Domink Guerin founding member and man behind Twin Vision." [label info]
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Live at the Crypt / London - April 25 1981 |
CD |
S.P.K. Live at the Crypt / London in 1981!
For the first time on CD, This is an authorised re-edition of the very first album by the band which was released as a tape on STERILE Records (the label run by Nigel Ayers / Nocturnal Emissions) in 1981.
Sounds on this CD was re-mastered by Nigel Ayers from the original tapes.
SPK was one of the very first "Industrial" projects, formed in 1978 by Greame Revell in Sydney - Australia.
SPK together with THROBBING GRISTLE, CABARET VOLTAIRE and few others gave birth to what is today known as Industrial music and this live album is to be considered an early industrial era document of primary value.
cutting (open), gashing, slashing, tearing, ripping, mangling, mutilation, maiming, mauling, scratching, scraping, grazing, incision, splitting, cleaving, hacking, stabbing, tearing apart, butchery, savaging, wounding, injury, damaging, slit, puncture, score, lesion, trauma…
One of SPK’s dominant themes in 1981 was EVISCERATION - removal of organs / disembowelment. The live performances and dokuments at the time were some of the first anywhere to include medical visuals of this type, collected by myself and Dominik Guerin. Credit must go to Foetus Productions for advice on some sources and to the Viennese body artists for inspiration. But while admitting that the discovery of these images and the actual medical specimens provoked fascination (as it did for audiences) the metaphorical connection with first Artaud and later Deleuze’s work was of utmost importance.
I spoke at the time of an apparent fascination with dissection and display - how these specimens were more strange works of art: hyper-sexual Ballardian exercises in cutting, scoring and shaping (sculpture) than creating any seriously useful educational tool. Heads floating and staring unseeing into time’s abyss, forever tattooed with the signature of their creator. But the greatest influence was Deleuze and Guattari's thought, the term ‘body without organs’ describing an undifferentiated, un-hierarchical realm that lies deeper than the world of appearances. Every actual body has a limited set of traits, habits, movements, affects. But it also has a virtual dimension: a vast reservoir of potential traits, connections, affects, movements, etc. The full body without organs is "schizophrenia as a clinical entity" (Anti-Oedipus). To create a body without organs is to actively experiment with oneself, through body alteration, art, or even madness, to draw out and activate these virtual potentials.
From the very beginning the SPK project had been about LACERATING all the accepted norms of artistic production. Laceration is a wound that is produced by the tearing of soft body tissue. It is a lesion, frequently irregular and jagged, that is often contaminated with bacteria and debris from whatever weapon caused the cut. The idea was to disembowel the organs from the body of production (music as it had previously existed) and enable the fluid transmissions manifesting as ‘noise’ to flow unhindered. The body without organs was also described as "howling", speaking a "language without articulation" that had more to do with the primal act of making sound than it did with communicating specific words. By the excision of language and the overloading of information beyond the ability to draw predictable reactions - a certain lobotomisation of habit occurred that we allowed to be contaminated. Information as Viral introgression - again: splicing, incision and mutation.
The body without organs is ‘permeated by unformed, unstable matters, by flows in all directions, by free intensities or nomadic singularities, by mad or transitory particles’ (A Thousand Plateaus). That is, we usually think of the world as composed of relatively stable entities ("bodies," beings). But these bodies are really composed of sets of flows moving at various speeds (even the land as very slow-moving flows; living things as flows of biological material through developmental systems; language as flows of information). This fluid substratum contains the revolutionary impulse to undercut; to tear apart in order to disseminate rhizomatically, subterraneally and then to heal or reconstruct in a different and perhaps better way.
It was a strategy undertaken with the full knowledge that power, both from without and within, inscribed deeply into the social brain, will inevitably be brought to bear…
‘When you will have made him a body without organs,
then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions
and restored him to his true freedom.’
Antonin Artaud: To Have Done with the Judgment of God (1947)
§ GREAME REVELL (May 2019)
Show Line-up:
- Greame Revell
- Dominic Guerin
- Mike Wilkins
Tracklist:
01. Berufsverbot
02. Emanation machine R.Gie 1916
03. Stammheim Torturkammer
Ground Zero: Infinity Dose
Serenace
"John"
04. Victim
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| SPOONBENDER 1.1.1. |
Stereo Telepathy Academy |
CD |
Die Zahl 3, Synchronizität, Telepathie, David Cronenberg, „Third Mind“-Technik: San Francisco’s SPOONBENDER 1.1.1 ist eher ein Projekt zur Erforschung parapsychischer Phänomene als eine reine Musikgruppe.
Hier enthalten ein 40 minütiger one-tracker mit elektronischen Sounds & Film-Text-Schnipseln, der ein Experiment dokumentiert, das auf Burroughs / Gysins – Third Mind-Technik basiert, wo zwei Filmquellen miteinander verbunden werden, die eigentlich nichts miteinander zu tun haben, um synchronizitäre Verbindungen herzustellen. Nummerierte Auflage von 333 Stück, und bereits weg beim Label !
“Spoonbender 1.1.1’s Stereo Telepathy Academy is fucking mental. And essential. Truly alien, Truly progressive, and likely to be misunderstood by all but the committed. A true classic on par with COILANS and NWW’s Soliloquy For Lilith. I’ve listened to it obsessively for weeks, and i’m afraid to go near this whilst on drugs! DEEP AND ESSENTIAL!..” [UKDave, KFJC Reviews]
“In 1913, Marcel Duchamp dropped three pieces of string, each a meter long, from a height equal to their length. He then cut shapes into pieces of wood in order to document the rumpled line of his three fallen strings. In essence, Duchamp conceived his 3 Standard Stoppages as a preservation of chance, which he viewed as a means to combat logical reality. In addition to Duchamp's self-proclaimed antipathy to the rational world, he was quite particular in how he contextualized and executed his ideas through readymade objects, chance operations, and his notorious psycho-sexually charged dioramas. It is this dualism between the chance operation and an absolute intellectual/technical control which brings us to the present age, and to Spoonbender 1.1.1 in particular, where the acceptance and integration of opposites results in the 3rd option: everything.
The San Francisco-based Spoonbender 1.1.1 outlines itself as the 'tele-ambient dream self' of the critically-acclaimed, 'populist avant-tronics and media group' I Am Spoonbender. It is important to note that Spoonbender 1.1.1 declares itself not a side project of I Am Spoonbender, but a psychologically immersive extension of the central IAS concept. Both projects uncover the hidden connections that lie beneath the surface of reality by delving into the arenas of paranormal research - the exploration of the occult significance surrounding the number 3 and its strange laws, for example - but the intended outcomes for these concepts are decidedly different. For Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 exercises psychic community through the architecture of the soundtrack.
At the beginning of the first transmission of Stereo Telepathy Academy on November 3rd, 2004 - a performance where the group supported Genesis P-Orridge's PTV3 - 1.1.1's Dustin Donaldson announced that "tonight's Spoonbender 1.1.1 show is governed by chance operations and the 'third mind' technique. Spoken text was taken from one film, overlayed onto images from another film, and the score was composed while viewing a third (and secret) film source. The synchronistic results appear to be intentional." Such was the strategy of Duchamp's aforementioned piece nearly a century ago; but Spoonbender 1.1.1's collision of artforms also employs the technique found in the William S.
Burroughs / Brion Gyson classic The Third Mind. As the images of David Cronenberg's rarely seen film Crimes Of The Future flickered, Spoonbender 1.1.1 radiated an inverted telekinetic minimalism of undulating tones supporting the third piece of the puzzle: spoken text from Cronenberg's Stereo, a faux-documentary detailing a surgical procedure for the advancement of telepathic communication. The result is a sort of Wizard Of Oz / Dark Side Of The Moon for the mimetic engineering mindset.
The same principles and elements apply for Stereo Telepathy Academy, the group's long-awaited debut studio recording (1.1.1 has existed solely as a live group for years). This marks the second of three editions to be released. The first was an edition of 111, documenting the aforementioned live performance; the second is this edition of 333, sporting handsomely letterpressed artwork; the third and final edition will be a unique art piece in an edition of a mere 3 copies.” [label notes]
"Edition 2 (studio version) of the Spoonbender 1.1.1 Stereo Telepathy Academy trilogy...
Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you aQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of 'third mind' techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The material for Stereo Telepathy Academy was debuted during a live performance in which Spoonbender 1.1.1 performed with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV; however, for the second edition of Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 recomposed all of the material in the studio -- expanding and elaborating on their live performance, and making for a distinctly new and different listening experience that stand on its own with or without the visual accompaniment. That said, as in the first edition, Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional" for a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics.
The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. In their score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well.
PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging. The first version arrived as a cd-r edition of 111 copies sporting a white glove as an allusion to 'Crimes Of The Future' (now out of print). This is the second edition, a proper disc that comes with letterpressed artwork in an edition of 333. The final edition will be in an edition of only 3 copies!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| SRMEIXNER / BAND OF PAIN |
Texture. Montage. Sequence / Tripping in Q |
7inch |
Filigrane Split-Single des CONTRASTATE Mitglieds (der summende Drones & subliminale Harmonien mit einer Reihe von feinen Natur field recordings verbindet), und BAND OF PAIN (ruhige Synths werden behutsam bearbeitet) auf weissem Vinyl.
"A split single release on white vinyl, limited to 250, with black and white artwork printed on 120 gram tracing paper from these two well known and respected projects. This is a cinematic and inspiring musical journey which combines beautiful ambience interspersed with haunting atmospheres with each artist creating a distinctive, yet complimentary, electro-acoustic soundscape." [label info]
"This little beast I played at least ten times before even starting to think about the review. Was it that great? Well, no, not because of that, but rather the format of a 7" with 'difficult' music is hard to capture. Both SRMeixner and Band Of Pain are known for a long time inside the world of experimental music. On side A we fin Meixner, former member of Contrastate, with a piece that involves sea washes and processed bird/insect/frog sounds, along with sparse music (piano? guitar?), heavily layered. Quite an intimate piece of music.
Steve Pittis, also known as Band Of Pain, on the other side, has a likewise intimate piece of music. Sparse, drone like sounds and tape/vinyl-manipulation interjecting the music. Quite a musique concrete like piece, one that we haven't seen him doing before. More peaceful than before. For both of these pieces goes, that they are too short to give a solid opinion about, and both cry for more. Great, but way too short." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS |
Colloidal Urban Semantika |
CD-R |
"...The aggravating and ferocious noise elements are still on here but they take more of a back seat instead of being the driving force behind the steering wheel. He has pummelled all the samples he could find and turned them into a voyage of discovery. Voices are turned into black holes that appear almost at random. A drum rolls rambles on as static hisses vibrantly. Tunes are speeded up then slowed down. It’s totally crazy freaky stuff. And it takes some getting used to. Go with it though. Give it the time to sink in. You’ll need to play it a few times to see where it’s going. Suddenly it all makes a kind of quirky sense…although you’ll, like myself, probably be mystified as to why it does in the end..." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest]
"after a long time SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS is back on OLD EUROPA CAFE. For this release SRS deploys a deranged catalogue of samples from forgotten spectres and once wild avenues, looking for the hidden codes of unborn languages across the debris of polluted sideways… layers after layers of frequency manipulations coexist with millions of tiny acoustic bubbles, drilling even further into the subtle essence of unseen city souls.
This turns into a new phase of SRS cultural extremism, where past assaults are refined across the scenery of selected views from alien observation platforms…. “ …once more, this is a concept for research and management of urban wildlife, based on acoustic reference to the analysis of colloidal phases in the marginal segments of social environments…” Profesionally printed CDR numbered on CD label and limited to 160 copies." [label info]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| ST. PIERRE, MELISSA |
Specimens |
CD |
Sehr ungewöhnlicher Release aus dem COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES-Umfeld mit mechanisch-rhythmischen Aufnahmen eines "präparierten Klaviers" wie es durch JOHN CAGE berühmt wurde, sehr wuchtig und seltsam, als spiele man "Rock" auf Gamelan-Instrumenten...
"MELISSA ST. PIERRE tosses classicism and post-classicism overboard, utilizing the prepared piano -- John Cage's notorious instrument of choice -- and electronic enhancement to sail resolutely in the direction of rock & roll. Peppering the strings, hammers, and dampers with a variety of objects, she transforms the piano's typical timbre: sparkling gamelans chatter; harrowing voodoo drums call out in the night. "Specimens", St Pierre's debut, features production and performances by COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES; together they rival famed electric harpist ZEENA PARKINS as conservatory arsonists with a decidedly Hendrixian flair." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€11.00 |
|
| STABAT MORS / RICHARD RAMIREZ |
Hideous Bliss |
LP |
"Christian Koehler was the motivating mind behind the project, Stabat Mors. Fusing thematic concepts and philosophical ideas based on Althusser, Mishima, Derrida, Artaud, and Cioran, the accompanying noise is a confrontation with distorted accordian,
metal, piano, and microphone to tube; a farewell release that is a sharp feedback orgy and celebration of despair.
"Hegels Tod" is the first track: a solo recording from 2006. Very isolated, sad, and extreme, the mix is an infusion of trying to bind the theme of death into sound. It was the last track recorded before he died the same year.
The second piece is a documentation of Stabat Mors' first live show at the Neues Museum Bremen in 2004, featured here as a trio. Etuede 2 & 3 of "Bild & Tod nach Derrida" is a mixture of lecture and noise-cacophonia.
Richard Ramirez appears on the other side of the LP with long track recorded in 2006.
"Error Strike" is a barrage of dynamic, crushing noise; an enduring wall that spans twenty minutes!
This lp is pro-pressed in a full-colored record jacket with paintings by Christian Koehler. Additionally, the album comes with a huge insert featuring the text, to "Bild & Tod nach Derrida"." [label info]
www.scrotum-records.de
The lp is the memorial to Christian. It is sad that he will never see the final result.
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| STACHE, ERWIN |
Harmonie der nicht ganz reellen Töne |
CD / object |
RUND UM DEN WATZMANN hat wieder zugeschlagen und sich was ganz besonderes ausgedacht: Wenn das Klappcover dieser CD öffnet, knarrt sie wie eine alte Schatzkiste in verschiedenen Tonlagen!
("the packaging is a mysterious musical instrument you have to discover").
ERWIN STACHE ist ein hochkreativer Leipziger Komponist und Musiker, der seit Jahren obskurste Instrumente baut und damit phänomenale & witzige Konzerte gibt. Dies ist seine erste full-length CD und stellt ein Sammelsurium von Geräuschen seiner Sound-Objekte dar...
label: www.watzmann.nl
|
1998 |
€20.00 |
|
| STAHLWERK 9 |
RetroMekanik |
CD+CDR |
"this album is a masterpiece of oldschool Industrial / Power-Electronics - probably the most powerful album Stahlwerk 9 ever did! the album consists of unreleased songs, recorded between 1999 and 2007 for various compilations never released, as well as some other unreleased songs from the band's early years and 2 perfectly recorded and exclusive live-songs. 11 tracks / 67 min.
Here the limited edition includes a CDR with all compilation-tracks up to 2006 and other rare songs." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
|
The Grey Ghost |
CD |
"CD in 4-side-digipack, limited to 350 copies. A masterpiece of black industrial and dark ambient mixed with hard and pulsating rhythms. The Grey Ghost is a psychotic soundtrack for your worst nightmares, directly crawling into your subconscious. Stahlwerk 9's first new album since 5 years!" [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2012 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Sebastian im Traum |
7inch |
"Stahlwerk 9 schaffen hier eine äußerst bedrückende Atmosphäre mit tiefen Stimmen und düsteren Worten zur Endzeit. der Soundtrack für einsame, dunkle Nächte... dies ist der letzte Teil von unserer limitierten 7"-Reihe - Abonnenten des Zyklus 2 Boxsets, bitte meldet Euch." [label info] |
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
| STAHLWERK 9 / SAL SOLARIS |
split |
10" |
Die ANGRIFF 10” Industrial – Reihe geht munter weiter, diesmal nicht rein russisch besetzt, sondern mit dem deutschen Projekt STAHLWERK9 auf einer Seite und den guten dark ambientern SAL SOLARIS auf der Flipside.. thematisch geht es hier um das russische Raumfahrtprogramm und entsprechend fallen die Beiträge aus: exzellenter Elektronik-Ambient von STAHLWERK9; dunkel-harmonische, sehr filmische Spaceflächen und mächtigere Drone-Monolithen von SAL SOLARIS, inkl. Teile von russischer Propagandamusik (ausser „GAGARIN“ können wir leider nichts verstehen). Atmosphärisch stimmig und etwas obskur. Kommt im Postercover.
“This split release is dedicated to soviet
space program. Most delicate, subtle and wonderful tracks both bands ever did. Haunting mysterious atmosphere of the unknown fills the heart of the listener with a sense of a strange sadness and slight anxiety. Dark ambient with melodic background and some noise elements. Not to be missed! Sal Solaris is known for their Hau Ruck! CD, Der Angriff 10" in Prometheus series and Heilige Feuer I compilation appearance, Stahlwerk 9 have released now sold-out CD on Achtung Baby! as well as numerous vinyl releases, on Eternal Soul, Steinklang and Neuropa to name a few. A2-sized poster cover printed on stylish beige paper, limited edition of 370 copies. 4 tracks, total time - 28 min.” [label press release]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| STANISLAVSKY, K. |
End of all Things |
CD |
Zoharum opens new serie IYHHH-CDs in limited edition 444 pieces. The main idea of this serie is to show interesting, remarkable music projects, which usually have their debut by this release.But we also wish to remind You about rare, unavailable materials of these projects, which have been existed on the music scene from longer time and their side-projects etc. We can say that the main purpose is to protect this wonderful, original music from the oblivion, but also to recall and refresh it to new audience and collectors.. Albums signed as IYHHH are released on CDs, packed in unconventional ecopack in format similar to occasional card with added post card. Each part of the serie will be the same design but different cover and catalogue number.
"Debut material of polish composer Krzysztof Stanislawski- the artist who says that he’s inspired by movie music. There’s no doubt that in his works we can hear the echo of: Clouser, Zimmer or Goldenthal. All orchestral sounds are mixed with industrial bits and grates which gives new quality.
„End of All Things” could be it the same line with soundtracks of „Pi”, „Saw” or „Even Horizon” and there’s no exaggeration in it.
Imagination of this musician and his own insight in illustrative music leads listener to new, different dimension of thriller. In his works you will find no exaggerated pathos and boredom. This album is full of emotions, passion, action, tempo changes, surprising atmosphere changes.
We recommend this material to those who like classical soundtracks but also to everyone who like industrial music." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| STANISLAWSKI, KRZYSZTOF |
End of all Things |
CD |
"Debut material of polish composer Krzysztof Stanislawski- the artist who says that he’s inspired by movie music. There’s no doubt that in his works we can hear the echo of: Clouser, Zimmer or Goldenthal. All orchestral sounds are mixed with industrial bits and grates which gives new quality.
„End of All Things” could be it the same line with soundtracks of „Pi”, „Saw” or „Even Horizon” and there’s no exaggeration in it.
Imagination of this musician and his own insight in illustrative music leads listener to new, different dimension of thriller. In his works you will find no exaggerated pathos and boredom. This album is full of emotions, passion, action, tempo changes, surprising atmosphere changes.
We recommend this material to those who like classical soundtracks but also to everyone who like industrial music.
Out on 31th March 2010
Zoharum opens new serie IYHHH-CDs in limited edition 444 pieces. The main idea of this serie is to show interesting, remarkable music projects, which usually have their debiut by this release.But we also wish to remind You about rare, unavailable materials of these projects, which have been existed on the music scene from longer time and their side-projects etc. We can say that the main purpose is to protect this wonderful, original music from the oblivion, but also to recall and refresh it to new audience and collectors.. Albums signed as IYHHH are released on CDs, packed in uncoventional ecopack in format simlar to occasional card with added post card. Each part of the serie will be the same design but different cover and catalogue number." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| STANISZEWSKI, JACEK |
Zawstydzajacy Dar |
CD |
"Jacek Staniszewski came across to my attention long time ago with Polycephal label releases as Facial Index and a bit earlier as a member of Neurobot collective.
His deconstructive, cut-ups and micro-landscapes of glitchy tissues were refreshing back then in the noughties and still somehow evoke this down-to-earth attitude of a interdisciplinary erudite with dry sense of humour.
He released this cd 3 years ago with Lumberton Trading Company.
With a cover of getting more and more critically acclaimed Aleksandra Waliszewska whose horror like scenes from the symbolism infused life of daily monstrosity are interesting introduction to the complexed perplexity of Jacek's musical collages.
The minimalistic sobbering electronics that is as much individualistic as it can be where you feel a tunnel of post-techno sensitivity as well as musique concrete puts you straight into position of attention.
There are razor sharp arguments to feel this way - it's a non verbal statement of an elusive power where a hidden echo of animalistic transgression from understanding humanism towards something more sophisticated and even cynical of sorts fist punch of sense to the face of shallow postmodern conceptualism. It has the energy of punk but not in terms of dynamics or agression. It brings you back to the basics of the sound, the crude matter that can be edited, reduced all over again and can put you in shame how far it can go." [Felt Hat Reviews] |
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| STAPLERFAHRER & SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSON |
Two Lost Souls |
CD |
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the twenty-sixth release in the Brombron series (missing numbers will follow later this year). Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Here we have Sigmarson, who is since long part of Icelandic Stillupsteypa and a regular collaborator with BJ Nilsen on some of the more dark ambient records of a refined nature. Less known perhaps is that he is also working as a composer in his own right and a reknowned visual artist. He teams up with Steffan de Turck, better known as Staplerfahrer. He was a member of 4DaLadiez and has been creating weird and wonderful lo-fi electronic music on his nearly broken equipment since fifteen years. The two took advantage of the material in the studio - synths, organ, effects - to create music that is dark, mysterious, ambient, drone based, scary and even a bit rhythmic from time to time. Hardly lost at all, we'd think.
Design by astrid Florentinus." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| STARGAZER'S ASSISTANT |
Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids |
CD |
"Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous yet always exuding a warmth and depth of emotion, The Stargazer’s Assistant produces pure cinema of sound. For this record David J. Smith (Guapo) is joined by Circle vocalist Mika Rättö’, who sings on the heartbreaking “Coral Butterfly”. David also had the honour of playing the late Finnish jazz drummer Edward Vesala’s Sound & Fury collection of unique metal percussion. Ancient forests, vast plains, billowing clouds, rusted metal hulks, wet rock walls, light flickering in dark: these are the subtle visions of The Stargazer’s Assistant.
Originally released on Utech Records in 2013 as a double 10” vinyl this recording is now available for the first time on CD.
David J. Smith, perhaps best known as the band leader & drummer of avant garde rock group Guapo, formed The Stargazer’s Assistant in 2007. Originally a solo recording project set up to provide soundtracks for his work as a visual artist, it has since grown to encompass live concerts and collaborations with film makers and performance artists. The group is at present a trio comprising: David J. Knight (Danielle Dax, Lydia Lunch) with whom Smith also performs in the group UnicaZürn (together with Stephen Thrower - Coil, Cyclobe) and Michael J. York (Coil, Cyclobe, Teleplasmiste). Smith & York have collaborated since working together from 2012 in the live incarnation of Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown’s group Cyclobe. 2018 saw the latest release Resurgam I, Resurgam II on House Of Mythology (the follow up to their 2016 debut for the label - the double LP Remoteness Of Light). Smith is currently working on a film for the Resurgam pieces with artist Maurice Burns.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/mirrors-tides-shivers-voids |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| START! |
The KREV National Anthem # 6 |
7" |
"Three-track 7" of The National Anthem of Elgaland-Vargaland #6.
This 7” is the fourth in a series of vinyl acoustic versions of the National Anthems of Elgaland-Vargaland. See also the Mariachi version [Ash 7.2], the Klezmer and Afrobeat versions [Ash 7.4], and the Norwegian School Marching Band and Underwater versions [Ash 7.6] issued between 2007 – 2008 by Ash International.
These recordings were regally made during the unofficial inauguration of the KREV Ministry of Bankrupt Shopping Malls in Porto, Portugal, on October 10, 2008, in the presence of the KREV Ambassadors Mike Harding and Heitor Alvelos.
Genuflections to the Future Places digital media festival, University of Porto Masters in Image Design and the University of Texas in Austin, and Transmedia Brussels.
Mixed by: Anselmo Canha, Heitor Alvelos, Mike Harding and Philip Marshall. Cut by Jason at Transition. Sleeve photography: Heitor Alvelos and Anselmo Canha." [label info]
www.ashinternational.com
|
2009 |
€7.50 |
|
| STEINBRÜCHEL |
Mit Ohne |
maxi-CD |
"Eighteen-minute CD-EP, with EP pricing. Mit Ohne is a sound documentation of an audio/visual installation by Yves Netzhammer and Steinbrüchel. The installation entitled 'The Feeling Of Precise Instability When Holding Things' was part of the group exhibition 'Wohnträume/Wohnräume,' exhibited from 26.07. to 28.09.2003 at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, Switzerland. The audio sections by Steinbrüchel were composed in sync with the visuals by Yves Netzhammer and succeed in translating and supporting the poetic vibrancy and slow morphing movements of the 3D rendered animation. For the exhibition, an atmospheric, fragile and detailed work was created involving a three-part projection and multichannel sound which conveys an abstract audio and visual approach to the environment surrounding us and the concept of a room itself. Each audio track takes the listener into a new form of 'room' and simple patterns of single tones are layered into dense movements surrounding the listeners space. The crystalline polished sounds form a highly precise environment which interacts with particles of melodies searching for space to breathe. Between the tracks there are no pauses, which gives the dedicated listener the feeling of being moved suddenly from one room to the other. Space and silence are sensitively woven into each other while forming an atmospheric and organic surrounding. Through the sound the feeling in every room changes from dark to bright, from large to small, from lonely to crowded, from silent to loud." [label info]
lim. 500 copies
www.12k.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| STEINBRÜCHEL / BRUSA |
00:dedaih |
mCD-R (video) |
We think the Swiss artist STEINBRÜCHEL is one of the best working in pure digital realms.. here we find nice droning material from him and CHARTIER, MATHIEU, BRETSCHNEIDER, and a video-installation-programme, that creates visual-sound-combinations in random-mode, very nice !! (in collaboration with programmer BRUSA).
“-00:dedaih is a random generated audio/visual installation by steinbrüchel (audio) and brusa (visuals) and was first presented in march 2000 at the exhibition «submeet» at the migros museum for contemporary art in zurich.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| STELZER, HOWARD |
How To |
CD |
New material from the master cassette manipulator Howard Stelzer. "How To" is 46 minutes of collage ranging from drones to harsh noise. Not to be missed for any fan of Stelzers work.
Mastered by James Plotkin and art by Lasse Marhaug.
If your not familiar with Mr. Stelzer here is what TinyMixTapes.com has to say about him.
"Don’t let the disappearance of his label Intransitive Recordings fool you; Howard Stelzer has kept himself as busy as ever. The New York-born tape manipulator may no longer have an outlet of his own, but even before closing Intransitive Recordings down back in 2012, he had been releasing albums pretty much everywhere. He has recently announced a new album on Phage Tapes, How To, which follows the still-fresh Narrow Escape and At Ease, a collaboration with Joe Bastardo.
Active since the mid-90s, Stelzer has made cassette tapes his trademark platform to craft complex collages of noise, found sounds, and synthetic textures. Yet he is best known as an all-around devotee of tape as a medium, collecting hundreds of cassettes, writing about sound art and tape culture, and curating an amazingly ambitious catalog of experimental music for Intransitive Recordings. Based in Boston and active for over a decade, the label released music by Jason Lescalleet, Nerve Net Noise, Jason Talbot, C. Spencer Yeh, and Brume, among many others. Nevertheless, it would be unforgivable to overlook 1998’s Bond Inlets, Stelzer’s crowning achievement; an album where he was able to pick the inherent limitations of consumer-grade tapes apart, laying out a foreboding work of rare emotional power."
https://phagetapes.miiduu.com/howard-stelzer-quothow-toquot-cd
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| STELZER, HOWARD & FRANS DE WAARD |
Gravity@ half speed / A sunburned Grotto |
7inch |
"A split single in a butterfly cover limited to 200 copies. Frans de Waard is using source material from Howard Stelzer on analogue 4 tracks. Howard Stelzer is using elements from all previous torn tongue iterations and Frans' side of this record as source material." [label info]
"Packed in a beautiful cover in the shape of a butterfly a new collaboration between Howard Stelzer from the USA and Frans de Waard from The Netherlands. Frans de Waard composed the composition "Gravity@Half Speed" with source material from Howard Stelzer, primarily on analogue four track between 2008 and 2010 at De Geluidwerkplaats of Extrapool, a centre for experimental arts in Nijmegen. The composition sounds noisy and clear. It is not a wall of sound, because there are moments of open space. Howard Stelzer composed the other side of the 7" with elements from Frans' "Gravity@Half Speed" and elements from all "torn tongue" iterations he did with Frans. His re-work is much more noisier and back to more grindy noise than the Frans' track before. Torn Tongue is the title of a series of collaborative compostions that Frans and Howard have been working since about 1997. It started with a tape of woman who was speaking. Frans treated this material etcetera etcetera. The material was released at Absurd, Sound Probe, Audiobot and MOLL. This 7" is the latest iteration, but more the duo intended to continue recycling and re-working the source material, and the release is a nice step in the long collaboration between these two ongoing musicians. Some older releases are not available anymore and that is a pity. It would be interesting to release a complete summary of this ongoing project." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
www.noise-below.org
|
2010 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Pink Pearl |
CD |
"Composed in Lowell MA (USA) and Nijmegen (NL) by HS and FdW, 2011-2012. All sounds were extracted from live, studio and mail collaborations 2002-2011. Cover photography by Ashley Stelzer. Cover design by Mirt. Mastering by SEC_. Frans de Waard (1965) has been producing music since 1984. First as Kapotte Muziek, but throughout the years, he also worked as Beequeen (with Freek Kinkelaar), Goem (with Roel Meelkop & Peter Duimelinks, both of whom are also a member of Kapotte Muziek these days), Zebra (with Roel Meelkop) and such solo projects as Freiband, Shifts as well as his own name. He played various solo concerts as Goem-FDW in Japan, as part of a package tour with Pan Sonic. Frans de Waard also likes to play sets of improvised music with whoever is available, just as he did with people like Guiseppe Ielasi, Jaap Blonk, Howard Stelzer, Roel Meelkop, Andrew Liles, Radboud Mens and the mayor of his home city Nijmegen. In 2008 film maker Harrie Timmermans made a small documentary about his work with Kapotte Muziek under the title 'What You See Is What You Hear'. He has given workshops and lectures at various places, such as Extrapool, the art academy of Maastricht en 's-Hertogenbosch, the Glinka Conservatorium in Moscow and Lithuania. With Scott Foust he formed the duo The Tobacconists in 2009 and with Wouter Jaspers the duo Ezdanitoff in 2010. Howard Stelzer has been active as a composer and performer of electronic music since 1992. His music exploits the unique sonic and physical qualities of cassette tapes and tape players: gritty hiss, the squeal and hum of cheap motors taxed until (and sometimes well beyond) their breaking point, amplified plastic clatter, and play speed altered by pressure from fingers applied to the tapes' reels. Early work was stubbornly low fidelity, with awkward pauses and jarring a-musical transitions assembled roughly into rather linear collages. Stelzer's music has evolved over the years, and now seems to sit still for longer durations. Tapes and cassette artifacts are densely layered, treated, layered some more, thrown into a bin and shaken up, then smoothed back out into pleasantly boring stasis with lots of sharp tacks buried within. Stelzer ran the Intransitive Recordings label from 1997 until 2012." [label info]
www.bocianrecords.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| STELZER, HOWARD & JASON TALBOT |
Songs |
CD |
„Intransitive Recordings is proud to present the long-awaited debut CD by Howard Stelzer and Jason Talbot. "Songs" contains eight concise pieces of electro-acoustic music created from cassette tapes and a single turntable. Since the duo's inception on 1999, they have worked toward developing a unified, improvisatory sonic language by approaching their machines in a decidedly instrumental manner. For their first album, Stelzer & Talbot take inspiration from artists such as Schimpfluch-Gruppe, P16.D4, SBOTHI, as well as musique concrete and contemporary free improvisation, arriving at a voice entirely their own. The duo's music demonstrates a raw passion and energy, anchored by tense silences.
Stelzer and Talbot have toured extensively, collaborating with artists as diverse as Kevin Drumm, Martin Tetreault, Haco, Gert-Jan Prins, Keith Fullerton Whitman/Hrvatski, Roel Meelkop, Le Quan Ninh, nmperign, Christian Renou/Brume, Brendan Murray, Brent Gutzeit, Jack Wright, Ron Lessard, and Jason Lescalleet. In addition, Stelzer has performed with Axel Doerner, Jos Smolders, Jerome Noetinger, Lionel Marchetti, James Coleman, and Andrea Neumann, and is a member of Bhob Rainey's large ensemble the BSC, whose first CD is forthcoming on Grob this summer. Stelzer runs the Intransitive Recordings label, and Talbot the Kissy Records label. They live in Boston, Massachusetts.” [press-release]
|
2003 |
€7.50 |
|
| STELZER, HOWARD / JASON TALBOT |
Four Sides |
do-7 |
Verrückte, fordernde, konkrete Noise-Collaborations auf dieser schön gestalteten Doppel-Single, von dem Bostoner Duo HOWARD STELZER und JASON TALBOT. Kommt im Klappcover, auf dem Chicagoer Label C.I.P. !
“The Boston-based duo of Howard Stelzer (tapes) and Jason Talbot (turntable) has been performing together since 1999. With a honed proficiency on their designated instruments, Stelzer and Talbot create an audio dialogue that relies more on playing the equipment as opposed to using either as traditional playback devices. A rich array of whirs, chirps, sputters, skitters, squeals, scrapes, and other bursts of sonic activity you wouldn't think a turntable or cassette machine capable of (or, at times, even surviving) are the foundation of Stelzer and Talbot's sound palette as they build and shift their compositions. A vortex of crunching and feedback from a needle grinding into the turntable body while three cassette players sputter rapid-fire through elaborate pausing and fast forwarding rituals can collapse into a squirming sine-wave like whine from a single paused cassette motor a moment later. And although it's hard for me to listen to this and not envision the physicality of their live performances, these recordings definitely capture the equally dynamic results. Edition of 400.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| STERN, JOEL & MICHAEL NORTHAM |
Wormwood |
CD |
Collaboration of our beloved “concrete etheral ambience” performer MICHAEL NORTHAM with the (for us)unknown JOEL STERN. They mix: “found objects, prepared instruments, electronics, feedback systems, environmental recordings” on five pieces for a stunning result ! Open your ears and listen to magical natural sounds objects.....
"The five wormwood pieces are taken from a single recording session which happened late at night, in a loungeroom borrowed from friends, at petticoat lane, East London, on dec 29th 2002. Michael had only just arrived fresh / weary from his explorations in Malta, Joel was preparing to leave London after 3 years and return home to Australia. The music, in all its abstraction, reflects this transitory moment of shared sensibility and open exchange between two people heading in opposite directions. + found objects, prepared instruments, electronics, feedback systems, environmental recordings." [label info]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| STETSON, COLIN |
New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges |
LP & CD |
"Colin Stetson is a horn player of uncommon strength, skill and genre-defying creativity. He composes and performs otherworldly songs that combine a mastery of circular breathing technique with percussive valve-work and reed vocalisations, making a polyphonic solo music that combines influences as diverse as Bach, early metal, American pre-war Gospel, and the explorations of Jimi Hendrix, Peter Brotzman and Albert Ayler. Colin has been making his mark as a staggering solo performer for several years now, in front of audiences small and large, from intimate jazz and experimental music venues to big stages, whether opening for Arcade Fire or The National, or playing at jazz and new music festivals like Moers and London Jazz. His talents have been widely recognised and employed by artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, TV On The Radio and Bon Iver; he also plays in Bell Orchestre and Sway Machinery.
Stetson's live solo performances are absolutely stunning and uncategorisable and he conveys a commensurate intensity and iconoclasm on this new studio album of original material. New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is Stetson's second solo record and his first for Constellation.
Stetson is able to weave an uninterrupted flow of arpeggiated swirls and chordal progressions while simultaneously singing yearning melodic lines through the reed of his horn – a technically powerful combination, exponentially intensified by Colin's innate sense of pace, phrasing and trajectory. Stetson approaches his solo work with one foot firmly rooted in a pop sensibility, harmonically and in terms of overall song structure – a sensibility on fine display in longer pieces like "Judges", "The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)" , "Clothed In The Skin Of The Dead" and "Fear Of The Unknown And The Blazing Sun". He can paint short, ecstatic spirals of rapid-fire ostinati that move through the entire range of the instrument, full of subtle rhythmic shifts and filigree, as with "The Righteous Wrath Of An Honourable Man", "From No Part Of Me Could I Summon A Voice" and "A Dream Of Water", all of which clock in at the 2-3 minute range (and the last of which features a spoken word vocal by Laurie Anderson). Colin can also shred, especially when rallying the full force of the bass saxophone, whether in the foghorn blasts that open the album or the gasping syncopated pulse of "Red Horse (Judges II)". The seamless, steamy, multi-timbral drone that underpins Shara Worden's guest vocal on "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes" demonstrates another side of Colin's mastery and sensibility.
The music on New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges was captured entirely live in single takes at Montréal's Hotel2Tango studio, with no overdubs or looping, using over 20 mics positioned close and far throughout the live room. Guest vocals by Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) are the only exceptions to this rule, along with one brief french horn that was multi-tracked.
The Judges sessions were co-produced by Stetson and Shahzad Ismaily and engineered by Efrim Menuck at the Hotel2Tango, then taken to Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik and mixed by Ben Frost, the critically acclaimed experimental electronic/ambient composer and producer whose shared influences of minimalism, noise and black metal made him the perfect choice for a bold and unconventional approach to the raw material. Frost pushes and pans different mic signals to the fore from song to song (and within songs), eliciting a cornucopia of details and extremes in Colin's playing and highlighting the complexity of sounds generated by a single horn in Stetson's hands. Rhythms are formed by clicking keys, minute textures are brought forward by running ambient mics extremely hot, and low end is at times pushed fully into the red to devastating effect. Mastering by Mell Dettmer provides the final touch.
The result is a highly original, experimental, euphoric record that fires on all levels: a document of an astoundingly strong and gifted player; a compositional tour-de-force; and a studio production bursting with intensity and inventiveness." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
https://colinstetson.bandcamp.com/album/new-history-warfare-vol-2-judges-3
|
2011 |
€24.00 |
|
|
New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges |
CD |
"Colin Stetson is a horn player of uncommon strength, skill and genre-defying creativity. He composes and performs otherworldly songs that combine a mastery of circular breathing technique with percussive valve-work and reed vocalisations, making a polyphonic solo music that combines influences as diverse as Bach, early metal, American pre-war Gospel, and the explorations of Jimi Hendrix, Peter Brotzman and Albert Ayler. Colin has been making his mark as a staggering solo performer for several years now, in front of audiences small and large, from intimate jazz and experimental music venues to big stages, whether opening for Arcade Fire or The National, or playing at jazz and new music festivals like Moers and London Jazz. His talents have been widely recognised and employed by artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, TV On The Radio and Bon Iver; he also plays in Bell Orchestre and Sway Machinery.
Stetson's live solo performances are absolutely stunning and uncategorisable and he conveys a commensurate intensity and iconoclasm on this new studio album of original material. New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is Stetson's second solo record and his first for Constellation.
Stetson is able to weave an uninterrupted flow of arpeggiated swirls and chordal progressions while simultaneously singing yearning melodic lines through the reed of his horn – a technically powerful combination, exponentially intensified by Colin's innate sense of pace, phrasing and trajectory. Stetson approaches his solo work with one foot firmly rooted in a pop sensibility, harmonically and in terms of overall song structure – a sensibility on fine display in longer pieces like "Judges", "The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)" , "Clothed In The Skin Of The Dead" and "Fear Of The Unknown And The Blazing Sun". He can paint short, ecstatic spirals of rapid-fire ostinati that move through the entire range of the instrument, full of subtle rhythmic shifts and filigree, as with "The Righteous Wrath Of An Honourable Man", "From No Part Of Me Could I Summon A Voice" and "A Dream Of Water", all of which clock in at the 2-3 minute range (and the last of which features a spoken word vocal by Laurie Anderson). Colin can also shred, especially when rallying the full force of the bass saxophone, whether in the foghorn blasts that open the album or the gasping syncopated pulse of "Red Horse (Judges II)". The seamless, steamy, multi-timbral drone that underpins Shara Worden's guest vocal on "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes" demonstrates another side of Colin's mastery and sensibility.
The music on New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges was captured entirely live in single takes at Montréal's Hotel2Tango studio, with no overdubs or looping, using over 20 mics positioned close and far throughout the live room. Guest vocals by Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) are the only exceptions to this rule, along with one brief french horn that was multi-tracked.
The Judges sessions were co-produced by Stetson and Shahzad Ismaily and engineered by Efrim Menuck at the Hotel2Tango, then taken to Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik and mixed by Ben Frost, the critically acclaimed experimental electronic/ambient composer and producer whose shared influences of minimalism, noise and black metal made him the perfect choice for a bold and unconventional approach to the raw material. Frost pushes and pans different mic signals to the fore from song to song (and within songs), eliciting a cornucopia of details and extremes in Colin's playing and highlighting the complexity of sounds generated by a single horn in Stetson's hands. Rhythms are formed by clicking keys, minute textures are brought forward by running ambient mics extremely hot, and low end is at times pushed fully into the red to devastating effect. Mastering by Mell Dettmer provides the final touch.
The result is a highly original, experimental, euphoric record that fires on all levels: a document of an astoundingly strong and gifted player; a compositional tour-de-force; and a studio production bursting with intensity and inventiveness." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Those who didn't Run |
10inch |
"To say Colin Stetson has come into his own in 2011 would be an understatement. February 2011 saw the release of Colin's universally acclaimed New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges, his second official solo record and an album broadly received as a sonic, conceptual, compositional and technical tour de force. The two pieces on this EP both clock in at around 10 minutes and are documented in direct, unadorned fashion, using a handful of mic positions and, as usual, no looping or overdubbing of any sort. These are brilliant single-take performances, one each for alto and bass saxophone, that mark their own sense of time in palpably physical and transporting fashion, showcasing Stetson's love for minimalism as well as his mesmerisingly mantric technical ability." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| STILLUPPSTEYPA |
Beach Jolanda |
LP |
“It’s taken 14 years for these extravagant Icelandic artist troubadours to follow up their last (untitled) album. (At least they managed to give this one a name ; imagine what else they’d be capable of if we’d waited another five years.) Beach Jolanda transposes their classic calipso – beach – bar – laptop – organ gibberish to the unmanned terrain of public lavatories in the dead of night. But it wouldn’t be a party without guests: BJ Nilsen, Oren Ambarchi, Porsteinn Eyfjörd, Gerard Herman and Kristin Anna all turn up here, wielding bottles and other unlikely instruments. Limited edition of 400 copies, full-colour sleeve and insert." [label info]
"Despite the years on on-going collaborations between Stilluppsteypa and BJ Nilsen it has been
some fourteen years since we last heard something by Stilluppsteypa as a duo. That last release might have been their eponymous CD for Atak, reviewed in Vital Weekly 452. In the decade before that, the trio (up to 2002, then a duo) released a whole bunch of records, starting as a punk band and then all electronic, moving from Iceland to The Netherlands, playing many concerts, armed with the then popular laptop under their arms. Their music being abstract, electronic, glitch, dwelling on quite a bit of sampling and plundering; in a short a wild bunch of interests. As BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa they were mostly involved in producing drone-based records, so it's interesting to see where they are now. There are some guest musicians involved (BJNilsen, Oren Ambarchi, Þorsteinn Eyfjörð, Gerard Herman and Kristín Anna). Somehow, so it seems to me, Stilluppsteypa moves back to an earlier version of them and expand on themes they work with back then. That is the music that deals with organ sounds, rhythm machines, exotic lounge music but then totally torn apart. Still working with a lot of laptop technology has moved that sound forward and made it even wackier than before. On the B-side the guitar of Oren Ambarchi sustains in a fine prog-rock fashion along with some fake pompous organ chords (think Keith Emerson either drunk or deaf). This is some lovely stuff. It's all recorded quite loud, which is a pity as it
takes away a bit of the detail, I think, but it's two sides of lovely, funny stuff, with some great titles ('Dusty Hofmann LSD', 'Boney Nilson' or 'San Dali'). There is a lot to smile about with this record. If this is going to be a comeback album I would certainly a lot more of these will follow. The world
can do with a smile! (FdW/Vital Weekly)
https://ultraeczema.bandcamp.com/ |
2018 |
€20.50 |
|
| STIMBOX |
Between Eugene and Victoria |
CD |
"new album of these american cult noise artist from San Francisco / 13 merciless harsh electronic noise tracks with a touch of true crime electronics / listen what sounds noise created" [label info]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
|
| STIMULUS |
Programme Music |
10 |
Mit ihrem Debut-Vinyl begeistern STIMULUS aus England mit einer sehr ansprechenden Mixtur aus atmosphärischen Effekten und eher strukturierten & harmonischen Electronics, eingängig und trotzdem anspruchsvoll, sehr schön gemacht.. Nr. 3 in der LACTAMASE-Serie.
Part three in the lactamase series is by STIMULUS, an experimental trio from England, creating a very appealing hybrid of effectful sounds and more structured & harmonic electronics. Recommended!
“Futuristic electronica? Repetitious tonalities (croaking textures, tempered guitars, sparse, resonant bass), into a sand blasted piano denouement, introducing one to the taut, kinesthetic dynamics utilized by Stimulus. Each track is constructed around repetitious cadences upon which disparate textures twitch and spasm. The muffled, steel wool scrubbed, looped rhythmic impetus of the hypnotic "transference" is shattered as agitated streaks of fluorescent light hover and screech like flaming electronic pterodactyls. Though they utilize a love of "Nurse With Wound, '70's Italian Prog, Iron Maiden & field recordings" as inspiration, Stimulus move well beyond, exploring sonic territories uniquely their own.” [taken from label press-release]
www.blrrecords.com |
2001 |
€12.50 |
|
| STOA |
Silmand |
CD |
Seelenmonat. Viertes Album der Neo-Klassik / Sakral-Ambient / Mittelalter-Folk Pop-Band und Mitbegründer des "Heavenly Voices"-Genres, hier mit Verstärkung von Mitgliedern von LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH und CLAN OF XYMOX. 13 Stücke voller dunkel-romantischer Momente, musikalisch hochwertig arrangiert & von erhabener & fragiler Schönheit, zudem scheinen die meisten Instrumente original eingespielt zu werden. Melancholische Streicher sind omnipräsent, emotionaler geht es kaum !
"The first new sign from STOA in 7 years! Fans will be happy that the STOA mastermind stays true to himself with his fourth album. Besides the usual melancholy, unusual pop rhythms found their way on the various albums, but the typical STOA sound is still distinct. The vocal lines harbour some surprises as well. For once theres the angelic voice of singer Mandy Bernhardts, known from the live performances of the band; on the other hand, the voices of three guest singers sound on Silmand. The first voice belongs to the Australian multi-instrumentalist Louisa John Krol. The Dutchman Peter Nooten (Ex-Clan of Xymox) could be engaged for Silmand as well as the Leipzig-based Ralf Jehnert (Love is Colder than Death)." [label info]
"For lovers of melancholic music, it probably doesn't get much better than Silmand." [Heathen Harvest]
www.darkdimensions.de
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ |
Mantra |
CD |
"With its exotic, gamelan like timbres (the result of electronic processing) and its deft balance of meditative stasis and kinetic repetition, Mantra is one 60's piece that has survived its era." [The New York Times]
"From its headwaters in the small, southern German town of Donaueschingen, the river Donau runs through Bavaria, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania, into the Black Sea. There is one thing that probably no one who was present at the world premiere of "Mantra" in Donaueschingen on Sunday evening, October 18, 1970, was aware of: "Mantra" is a key work in the development of Karlheinz Stockhausen's music.
More than twenty years after its premiere, "Mantra" occurs as Stockhausen's first "Formelkomposition," and therefore as a keywork to almost all of his following pieces, such as "Inori," "Tierkreis," and "Sirius," as well as his music-theater cyle, "Licht." The basis of the piece is twelve-tone motive, where every note has a specific duration, rhythmic value and intensity. In connection with this, Stockhausen mentions that he has quite free images or sounds, just as in "Aus den Sieben Tagen," a meditation piece based on verbal notation which was created in California in 1968, and also in the piece "Fur kommende Zeiten" that was written at the same time as "Mantra." Although in interviews Stockhausen talks about how he uses rigid and free forms in mixed ways, all the works following "Mantra" are nevertheless "Formula" compositions, or even -- as in "Licht" -- "Superformula" compositions." [label notes]
www.newalbion.com
|
1990 |
€15.00 |
|
| STOLLERY, PETE |
Un son peut en cacher un autre |
DVD-A |
"Onset-Offset (1996). Peel (1997). Shioum (1994). Altered Images (1995). Shortstuff (1993). ABZ-A (1998). Vox Magna (2003).
When I first became involved in electroacoustic music, I was fascinated with the way that technology could allow the composer to work directly with sound, in a similar way to how a sculptor or potter works with his-her materials. The ability to manipulate material at this basic level is a central aspect of my music and this can be seen most obviously from pieces which are concerned with the interplay between the meanings associated with sounds and these sounds as pure sonic material, divorced from any mimetic connotation. There is little in my music which can be likened to broad brush-work - attention to detail and the exact positioning of sound objects within composed space is of the utmost importance to me. This allows the listener to become aware of the intrinsic qualities of the sounds themselves, and how they behave. There are many uses of, and references to, real-world sounds in the pieces on this disc; the key in the lock opening the door at the beginning of Onset-Offset is, on one level, metaphorical, but at the same time, provides an opportunity for the listener to enjoy the spectro-morphological behaviour of this gesture. Playing with the potential ambiguities of listening is central to all these pieces; a door slides open to reveal a new sound space, but at the same time, the listener dwells on the texture and shape of that slide; a street scene is recognised initially, but with the subtle inclusion of other sounds, and gradually mutates into the unrecognisable - the boundaries between what is known and what is unknown become blurred. A roulette wheel is stretched and the outer surface peeled back to reveal new sounds beyond.'
Pete Stollery studied composition with Jonty Harrison at the University of Birmingham, where he was one of the first members of BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) in the early '80s. He now composes almost exclusively in the electroacoustic medium, particularly acousmatic music. He has collaborated with practitioners from other artistic disciplines, particularly dance and sculpture and has produced music and sound design for a number of UK visitor attractions including Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, Magna in Rotherham and St Patrick's World in Downpatrick (Northern Ireland). He is Reader in Composition and Electroacoustic Music and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), delivering courses on the creative applications of technology in music and music education to students, schoolchildren and the general public. He is a board member of Sonic Arts Network (SAN), the national organisation promoting electroacoustic music in the UK, which he chaired in 1996-99 and again in 2002-03. In 1996, along with Alistair MacDonald, Robert Dow and Simon Atkinson, he established the group invisiblEARts whose aim is to perform acousmatic music throughout Scotland and to promote Scottish acousmatic music to a wider audience, both within Scotland and abroad." [label info / credits]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| STONEHOUSE, JEFF |
Ghosts |
mCDR |
"releasing for many years under the listening mirror alias (first as a duo then solo), jeff stonehouse now uses his own name to deliver his delicate, subtle and melancholic soundscapes.
for this 3-track release, jeff has used field recordings he did in new zealand. "ghosts" is an homage to the beauty of this land." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2015 |
€5.00 |
|
| STOREY, ROBIN & DEAD VOICES ON AIR |
With an Ear and a Why |
7inch |
"03. is a collaboration with fellow Reformed Faction member Robin Storey under the name, “With a Why and an Ear.” Robin and Mark first played together in the late eighties in Zoviet-France. Later Robin formed Rapoon and has released many albums. He continues to collaborate extensively. With Spybey he has released four Reformed Faction albums, with others in the pipeline. Robin is a gifted visual artist and his works appear in numerous collections worldwide." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| STOREY, ROBIN (RAPOON) |
On the Borderline / A Dark Telling |
BOOK + CD |
https://rapoon.bandcamp.com/merch/on-the-borderline
"On the Borderline is two books in one: It's an autobiography by Robin Storey, the musician best known as Rapoon. And it's a comprehensive survey of his parallel career as a visual artist. Rounding out the package is compact disc containing all-new recordings, attached inside the front cover. Robin Storey's autobiography starts with a unvarnished review of his early years growing up in a hardscrabble village near the Scottish border, in the far north of England. He was often cold and hungry, dressed in second-hand clothes, foraging for wild mushrooms, or turnips and carrots pilfered from fields near his home, where he shared meals with his parents and four siblings. His introduction to art preceded his experiments in music, both of which are examined in detail. He covers his days playing football, attending art school, meeting girls, dabbling in improvisational music, working as a graphic artist, living in a variety of precarious situations, and eventually finding himself making music as a co-founder of Zoviet France. Gigs around England and Europe followed, along with marriage, fatherhood, and a more settled existence. The majority of the book is given over to a comprehensive review of Robin Storey's output as a visual artist. His paintings regularly appear on the jackets of his albums, but only a fraction of his work has been widely published, and the second portion of On the Borderline is filled with page after page of rarely seen paintings and charcoal drawings. The images are grouped chronologically, allowing readers to appreciate the progress and evolution of his artistic style. There are more than 100 pages of color and black-and-white images, starting in the 1970s and carrying forward into 2020s. It's an enchanting collection of sensuously drawn charcoal nudes, abstract or impressionist patterns evoking primordial landscapes, alien voyagers, and vibrating hallucinations usually visible only to ancient shamans. On the Borderline is a hardcover book with 176 pages, most printed in color. Limited edition of 400 copies. A new compact disc recording A Dark Telling is mounted inside the cover."
https://www.soleilmoon.com/shop/robin-storey-on-the-borderline/
BOOK EXCERPT
I was born on the edge of nowhere in the far north of England, close to the Scottish border, in January 1955. This was the exact middle of the decade and only ten years after the end of the Second World War.
Reminders of the conflict were everywhere. Almost every
village had an airfield nearby and almost every farm had a chicken coop made from the nose cone of a C-47 Dakota
aircraft. Either the military sold off a lot of spare parts after the war or the farmers helped themselves to whatever was left lying around.
In Newton Arlosh, the village where I grew up, there were about a dozen surnames. Fairishs, Grahams, Bells, Armstrongs, Stampers and Wilsons, all these names belonged to the clans of the old Border reivers. These outlaws stole and plundered across the border throughout the late 13th century and during the next 400 years. Brothers, cousins, uncles, they all owned the farms around the village, and for many, the old rivalries and feuds lingered.
Douglas nose cones were not the only item that people in our area appropriated. Folks purloined anything that might be useful and put those items to work in other ways. Some gateposts may once have been part of a stone circle, many of the goodly shaped stones in their houses came from the goodly shaped stones of the Roman Wall, and so on. History was coerced into useful objects, so although it sometimes seemed like it, history didn’t actually stand still in this place.
We were the only Storeys in the village. We were part of a clan in those old days, but most of our kin now lived far to the east at the other end of the wall. I live in the east now too, in Newcastle, by the North Sea coast.
The sea on the west coast is not like the one on the east coast. The sea on the east coast flows down from the Arctic and is generally freezing cold, whilst the sea on the west flows
upward from the Gulf of Mexico and is much warmer. The western sea where I grew up was absent for most of the time and then twice a day, the tide would flow in across the vast marshlands and mudflats of the Solway Firth, and what had been earth would be covered by seawater with treacherous
undercurrents and sinking sands. Many people drowned here, caught by the swiftness of the rising water.
"Asmus Tietchens once told me we must write our own histories, as nobody would do it. That might not be entirely true, but some do so; every man is a volume. The interesting question is how to approach your story. What do we think makes a great story, and what do we leave out? I’ve said it before, and here again, I love reading. Biographies and autobiographies are top of the list of my interests, and I am not ashamed to say that I read all books from all members of Kiss and The Police, and Phil Collins seemed more likeable after reading his memoir. I also read the one from Bruce Dickinson, the Iron Maiden man and here’s what I mean by ‘what’s interesting and what’s not’. Dickinson is also a commercial airline pilot, which could have been more interesting, especially when it was hush-hush espionage.
Closer to home is ‘On The Borderline’ by Robin Storey, also known as Rapoon. Before that, he was a member of Zoviet France, a band dear to my heart. It is a book I was looking forward to reading a lot. Partly because of knowing more about the earliest days of Zoviet France, which, in the 1980s, was a mystical band, not unlike The Residents, why he left and to know more about Rapoon, next to whatever else he does daily, assuming he’s not full time occupied with his music. And last but not least, something about the business.
The book is in two parts. The first half is his story, early years, Zoviet France time, going solo, memories about touring (good and bad), and so on. The second half is Storey’s paintings, five sections, one per decade. Some of this is what we know from the artwork of his records, the sort of tribalist, mythical caveman painting, but also, surprisingly, some non-abstract sketches and paintings, portraits and such like. I do not know the quality; I have no expertise in that area. I enjoy what I see but I always liked his cover artwork, which is highly personal.
In the autobiographical part, Storey delivers partially delivers the goods. There is an extensive first section, say the first 20 pages of densely printed A4 pages, which is all about his youth, growing up in a small village in the North of England, getting to know strange music, getting into drugs, doing music, painting, girls and just when I thought this was all good and well, but now tell me about Zoviet France, because that’s what I like to know. When that started, I was delighted, and while not (luckily perhaps) the kind of story in which every record is talked about, it was an exciting read. Also, Storey created some material that was deemed to be rhythmic but attracted the attention of Death Ov Vinyl Entertainment, which became his first solo release as Rapoon. The explanation of where the name comes from is later, in a lengthy chapter consisting of shorter bits of life at home. As for playing music, Rapoon never brings in the amount of money to support a wife and two kids. There is also a day job, and he talks about his career within an AV company and with children later on, which also brought him some trouble, all explained in the section about daily life. The tour stories are of more interest (depending, of course, on what you want to know) as they cover things that more people experienced – my thinking here is a few musicians are reading Vital Weekly; comparing notes is always funny. Storey only tells us a little about dealing with labels, rip-offs (maybe there were none) or such things. On several occasions, he says, “I don’t know”, or “I am not sure”, which is a pity: we like to know!
Throughout a fine book; some of it I didn’t need to know, some was very interesting. Storey’s style is not always to the point, but he doesn’t meander too much, which is good, obviously, along with the hardcover book (as said, A4 or so sized, thick paper; imagine a Vinyl On Demand book, which looks great, but isn’t easy to read) comes a Rapoon CD, and knowing more about technology (and here too, he is relatively concise; no endless lists of software, hardware, or all too technical), this is something to hear with different ears. I know Storey took offence in the past when I wrote his work sounded the same (and he quite rightly takes offence when people ask him if he recorded another ten CDs before lunch; I know I would), but there is certainly a signature sound that undoubtedly makes Rapoon instant recognisable. The shorter loop approach, using various delays, creates this tangled web of voices, sounds, and patterns with that overtly minimalist percussive feel, adding that tribal flavour and connecting with the cover artwork. I haven’t heard all his work, so it’s not for me to say where this fits the overall Rapoon history. That’s not what this book is about; there is no descriptive list of his output. In terms of having a bit of ‘our’ history, this is a great book." [FdW/ Vital Weekly] |
2024 |
€95.00 |
|
| STORMHAT |
Addicted to Disaster |
CD |
Erste "echte" CD für dieses dänische Projekt. Schwer zu sagen was hier genau passiert, zu komplex und überlagernd sind die vielfältigen (Arbeits?)-geräusche die hier in den Raum dringen, eine chaotisch-hallend-konkrete vielflächige Geräuschsymphonie, es rumpelt und zischt und klingt an jeder Ecke. Zum Teil werden die Ursprungsaufnahmen leicht effektiert, oft werden Sounds von Glocken, Klangschalen und/oder Metallteilen verwendet. Sehr sehr spannend und ungewöhnlich.
"The work of Denmark's Stormhat melds a variety of elements of experimental music, from ambient/drone to field recordings and feedback. With his first pressed CD, Peter Bach Nicolaisen gives us a wonderful hour-long journey though field recordings, reverberating & scraped percussion, and drones. An excellent recording, sure to appeal to fans of all related genres, "Addicted to Diaster" provides a wonderful and engaging listen. Stormhat's work has previously been released on Cohort and A Beard Of Snails. Housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
"....Stormhat is the Danish word for one of the European continent's most poisonous plants; a few grams consumption of the Stormhat-plant marks the end of a human life. Its also the name chosen by Peter Bach Nicolaisen to work around with sound and music that entirely is based on processed field recordings. That may sound like old news to anyone, but I must say that if you expect some microsound, ambient glitch than 'Addicted To Disaster' will be a small disappointment, and that's exactly what I like it. No disappointment here for me. This is a pretty strong disc of multiple layered field recordings that never slip under the threshold of hearing, but owe much more to world of 'noise' and 'industrial', even when it has as such nothing to do with that world. This music is there, it's present and a truly great pleasure to hear. Its hard to say what these field recordings originally were, except for the occasional thunder storm passing and some crackle of leaves, but otherwise things are too abstract to be recognized. This breaks away from the traditional field recordings cum microsound ground and moves into something different. That's a great thing and Stormhat delivered a fine CD." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://discs.diophantine.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| STRAFE F.R. (STRAFE FÜR REBELLION) |
Soundless Sphere |
CD |
New album Soundless Sphere by avantgarde veterans Strafe F.R.
Soundless Sphere is the all new album by Duesseldorf duo Strafe F.R. It contains eight pieces combining treated vocals, multidimensional rhythmic structures and heavy electronics forming a bright and lively sonic landscape. The album also emanates a sense of urgency fitting for our times. Soundless Sphere was mastered by Kai Blankenberg.
A sister release with different and yet amazing unheard sounds, entiteled Octagon Sphere, will be released later this year by aufabwegen as a vinyl LP.
STRAFE FÜR REBELLION (or STRAFE F.R.)
STRAFE FÜR REBELLION was founded in 1979 in Düsseldorf by the two artists Siegfried Michael Syniuga and Bernd Kastner. Conceived as an experimental project rather than a band, the duo is active since the early 1980s, they continue to work together to this day.
They demonstrated their subtle abilities in numerous performances and concerts. The members of STRAFE FÜR REBELLION see themselves as researchers on different visual and acoustic levels; they always make use of their idiosyncratic and unusual humor. The duo emphasize that they not only explore the world of music, but also incorporate elements of knowledge, and thus all usable influences, into their experiments. Working plans, storyboards, and compositional schemas usually serve as the basis for new musical projects.
Their texts reflect their interest in science, history, philosophy, as well as everyday phenomena, mass media, and popular culture: in their experimental sound experiences, performances, and installations STRAFE FÜR REBELLION are absolutely avant-garde, working at the forefront of research-performatively, acoustically, visually, and in a variety of media. Their motto always remains aesthetically uncompromising with serious pleasure.
Gregor Jansen
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/soundless-sphere
"Es gibt Namen, die man gefühlt seit Ewigkeiten kennt. Das aus Bernd Kastner und Siegfried Michail Syniuga bestehende Düsseldorfer Duo begann 1979 unter dem damals noch längeren Namen Strafe Für Rebellion und brachte bis Mitte der 90er eine Reihe von Arbeiten heraus, bevor es still wurde. Seit 2014 sind einige Alben erschienen und nach dem jüngst veröffentlichten “Soundless Sphere” soll im Laufe des Jahres ein so-betiteltes “sister release” namens “Octagon Sphere” erscheinen.
Oftmals ist davon die Rede, Strafe F.R. seien schwer kategorisierbar, ließen sich keinen Genre zuordnen, was sicher meistens als Lob zu verstehen ist. Und tatsächlich: “Soundless Sphere”, von Touch-Designer Jon Wozencroft gestaltet, ist ein im besten Wortsinne eigenwilliges Album: Der Opener„Cannot“ mit seltsmen perkussiven Loops und Samples von Frauengesang (dem auf dem gesamten Album eine zentrale Rolle zukommt) erinnert entfernt an Coil in ihrer mittleren Schaffensphase. „Silver Attack“ knüpft etwas daran an. “Black Camel” ist ein hektisches technoides Stück mit bizarren Stimmsamples (“A gorilla is an animal. Gorillas are black. Have you ever seen an elephant?”). “Twenty Two Steps” wird durchzogen von (retro-)futuristischen fiependen Sounds, während “Nox Piano” anfangs eher ambienten Charakter hat. Was bei allen acht Stücken auffällt, ist ein Moment des Skurrilen, des leichten Augenzwinkerns und zudem eine Fülle, ein Füllhorn an Brüchen und ganz eigenen Sounds.
Wenn es wenn es von Labelseite heißt, die Band forme „a bright and lively sonic landscape”, dann möchte man uneingeschränkt zustimmen, denn im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen aus dem (weiten Feld des) Postindustrial stammenden Künstlern wohnt der Musik von Strafe F.R. tatsächlich etwas Leichte(re)s inne." [MG / African Paper]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| STRATVM TERROR |
This is my own Hell |
CD |
"The return in late 2008 of Peter Andersson (Raison D'etre, Necrophorus etc) and Tobias Larsson (Ocean chief) after a long silence.
"This is my Own Hell" is over an hour of darkest, bleakest industrial. Spanning minimalist dark ambience to doomed industrial passages. Stratvm Terror portrays an absolutely hopeless atmosphere of pure desolation.
credits
released December 17, 2008
All torments by Peter Andersson & Tobias Larsson.
Paintings by Mia Mäkilä.
Released as a collaboration with Existence Establishment (existest.org)." [label info]
reversealignment.bandcamp.com
Some seriously bleak death industrial from Peter Andersson (of Raison D’etre) along with his partner in sonic crime Tobias Larsson. Long tracks that rumble and hum, grind and throb. The slow build of opener “Now Ever Sleep...” sets the stage with a terrifying suffocating creepy-crawl that manages to build in intensity without building in volume, it’s like a black hole getting blacker, with greyed swaths of hiss and swirls of crumbling shimmer, underpinned by distant death drums, stunning and harrowing.
The rest of the album manages to up the intensity even more, splintering at times into bursts of caustic, near metallic brutality, with sheets of grinding noise, heaving machinelike swells, super processed vokills, a swirling morass of sonic miserablism. But those moments are balanced by hushed passages of tranquil ambience, and long stretches of what sounds like air conditioners and heating units and the mundane sound of city life, blurred and smeared into blackened streaks and muted rhythmic pulsations.(Aquarius Rec) |
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS |
same |
LP |
"A collaboration between ANGEL (Ilpo Väisäinen (Pan Sonic), Dirk Dresselhaus (SchneiderTM), Hildur Dudnadottir (Mum/Stilluppsteypa etc.) and STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Philippe Petit (BiP_HOp etc.), Mark Beazly (Rothko), Raphaelle Rinaudo ( Pierre Yves Mace Ensemble), Nicholas Dick (Kill The Thrill)). The whole sound project redesigns with fluidity a certain form of contemporary noise. It is quite both warm and delicate, away from the traditional noisy tempest attached to this musical genre. However, you have to embark on a musical voyage to allow this noisy delicacy slowly make its way into your body instead of violently exploding onto your face. The more attention you'll bestow on that record, the more unsuspected new paths you'll be invited to wander about. An intricacte and imaginative soundtrack with several layers of sound, gathering both organic and sonic elements to assemble a post-industrial sound structure. The latter will give life to a noisy magma where unexpected clicks stumble over interferences, where digital accidents happen and where drones, acoustic resonance fill the space in time. A multitude of digital notes will slowly stretch to reach a dark-grey chaos, a pure and clean big bang echoing and calling lost sound memories." [label info]
"... On both pieces, the rough coating on the sound forms is very reminiscent of Pan Sonic’s own experimentations, but the context is somewhat different here, and the resulting work draws upon very different resources. With this album, SoC and Angel have created an incredibly dense and vibrant soundtrack, which is ultimately much bigger than the sum of its parts." [The Milk Factory]
www.conspiracyrecords.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| STROM NOIR |
Famadihana |
mCDR |
"STROM NOIR is the project of emil mat'ko who lives in bratislavia, slovakia. since 2007 he has released several records on various labels like hibernate, rural colours, u-cover or resting bell.
the tracks for "famadihana" were recorded after finishing the "dni stratili svoju farbu" cd (hibernate, march 2011) with aim to create quite minimal guitar drones.
"famadihana" refers to a funeray tradition of the malagasy people in madagascar known as "the turning of the bones", people bring forth the bodies of their ancestors from the family crypts and rewrap them in fresh cloth, then dance with the corpses around the tomb to live music." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Analog Venus |
MC |
"Goddess alight to spiritual garden from shining from the paradise in the sky. you'll found the sparkly triangle on dreamy new age synth world! Strom noir is the solo project of Emil Maťko, who lives in Bratislava, Slovakia. Limited 100 copies." [label info]
http://ginjoha.blogspot.de
|
2012 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Mountains become Machines |
CD |
"Having previously featured on our recent DCD compilation "...that first season", Strom Noir returns to our label with his first full length album release on Winter-Light - 'Mountains Become Machines'.
Emil Maťko, the man behind Strom Noir, hails from Bratislava, Slovakia. Since 2008, Emil has released around 15 albums to date on a variety of different formats, as well as a number of singles and also contributed to several compilation albums. His music can possibly be best described as guitar and loop based ambient, with a melancholic feel to it. Strom Noir builds up intricate layers of sound using mostly only electric and acoustic guitars, effected through pedals.
The artist himself describes the thoughts and processes behind the recording of ‘Mountains Become Machines‘.....
‘The beginning of the recording process is dated back to the second half of 2013, that time with the intention to come up with the full-length release consisting of more “stand-alone” tracks built significantly on acoustic guitar, in most cases, heavily transmuted. As I used to set the recorder always in a way that it recorded associated sounds from the recording room as well, recordings are more complex and have some accidental/random aspects; on the other hand, the overall feeling is a little bit lo-fi. That’s the process how the tracks, I would label as the core of the album, were basically recorded – the beginning of spring, mountains become machines, sám na vrchole hory (alone on the mountain top), where late the birds sang and čistota (purity).
Back then, I was thinking to interconnect these tracks with short guitar drones, some kinds of interludes, however, as you can hear, they (all corals are yours, hollow and black water rising) became regular tracks over time.
So as the result, mountains become machines has a little bit of everything. The more stand-alone tracks are backed by the abstract ones, pictures full of sunshine are followed by dark images and calm parts are accompanied with distorted pieces.’ "
www.winter-light.nl
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| STROM.EC |
Divine Legions Beyond Psyche |
CD |
"With their fifth full length CD, Finlands Strom.ec continue to further explore the far regions of power electronics, challenging the
confines and stretching the boundary of the genre, sculpting new and innovative creations that are uniquely their own. Having been
under construction for over seven years, Divine Legions shows Strom.ec with a majestic control of their craft, offering 8 tracks (including one 21 minute epic to close the CD out!) of powerful and explosive industrial music, full of volatile frequencies, brain bending, enigmatic atmospheres, hallucinatory noise, and the trademark vocal assault that few acts can rival. Presented in a luxurious 8-panel DVDigipak, designed by Jerome Nougaillon, Divine Legions Beyond Psyche represents Strom.ec at their finest, most creative form, having reached a pinnacle in an already illustrious." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| STUZHA |
Butugichag / Бутугычаг |
CD |
Siberian cold-ambient project "Stuzha" ("severe cold" in Russian) returns with the second full length release, "Butugichag". As on the previous album, the sound is filled with field recordings of Siberia. "Butugichag" tells a story of one day of the most deadly Soviet labour camps of Kolyma. A must for fans of Northaunt music or Glacial Movements releases. Ltd x 333 copies in a 6-panel digipak. [label info]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Siberian Sketches |
CD |
"Dark Ambient. Ksenza records present a remastered version of Stuzha's first album - Siberian Sketches. Some of the tracks have been modified, bass guitar has been added and some general sound remastering. Three new tracks are now also added to the album. According to the composer, the reissued album feels more complete and with significantly improved sound quality. This album is inspired by Autumn and includes genuine nocturnal and daytime field recordings. The excellent artwork completes the musical autumnal impression." [label info] |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Siberian Sketches II |
CD |
Stuzha returns with the third full-length ‘Siberian Sketches Pt. II’ album. This is a logical continuation of the first part and the Winter theme dominates throughout the album. Field recordings, as usual with all Stuzha albums, are abundant and bring to a listener sounds of Siberian nature. The journey goes to cold winter forests, rural villages and even the Transsiberian railway. It is a return to original acoustic atmosphere, however the sound is even richer with layers of acoustic, electric and bass guitars. The album is released at Ksenza Records as a 4-panel CD Digipak .
Algol: acoustic, bass, electric guitars, vocals, lyrics, sampling and mastering
label: Ksenza records
design: mayhemdesign
https://algolstuzha.bandcamp.com/album/siberian-sketches-ii
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUBINTERIOR / SELAXON LUTBERG |
The Meeting |
do-LP |
"Stunning 4-part collaborative series between these 2 Italian ambient artists, released together in one glorious 2xLP set! Originally released on Selaxon Lutberg's own label, Cold Current Productions, each part is dedicated to a season and was released separately on 3"" CD-R in an edition of only 50 copies. We (denovali + murkhouse) just thought this was too good to be heard by so few people and limited to the CD-R format, though. Beginning with Winter Meeting and going through the seasons in order to end with Fall Meeting, each part will be given one side of 12"" vinyl. The mood on each part is slightly different, reflective of the mood or feel of its respective season, ranging from cold, icy textures to warm, soothing ambience. comes with an amazing artwork on thick printed innersleeves, thick gatefold cover and 180g vinyl. Limited to 500 pieces in total and no repress!" [label info]
www.denovali.com
www.myspace.com/selaxonlutberg |
2010 |
€22.50 |
|
| SUBOTNICK , MORTON |
Silver Apples of the Moon |
LP |
"Re-issued on vinyl for the first time since its original 1967 release! Morton Subotnick's truly visionary electronic master piece 'Silver Apples Of The Moon' on an audiophile 180gr LP, especially mastered for vinyl. As composer, musician and initiator of the San Francisco Tape Music Center which he co-founded with Pauline Oliveros and Ramon Sender in 1961, Morton Subotnick (born 1933) has propelled the progress of electronic music in several significant ways. From 1963 on he worked with Don Buchla on the development of the early synthesizer 'Buchla Series 100' before moving to New York where the artist-in-residence at the newly established Tisch School Of The Arts of the New York University was enabled to set up his own studio. That's where Subotnick's most popular work 'Silver Apples Of The Moon' was commissioned by Nonesuch as the first electronic composition ever that was especially conceived for a vinyl release (in opposition to the common practice of performing live). Till the current day this seminal album has not lost his visionary power, has since long been considered one of the essential milestones in electronic music with great effect on later generations of artists - starting from the cult formation Silver Apples to Laika who titled their debut 'Silver Apples Of The Moon' too. Now for the first time since its original 1967 release, Subotnick's masterpiece (which was selected for the Library Of Congress in 2009) has finally been made available on vinyl at last: a new audiophile 180gm LP that was cautiosly remastered for vinyl. Limited to 500 items worldwide!" [label info]
www.karlrecords.net
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| SUDA, NOBUTO |
Twilight Garden |
mCDR |
"we first discovered this japanese musician thanks to his (i think) very first -and very nice- release (under the NADA alias) on the H.L.M high linear music netlabel run by alexis béchu (lexothimie). a few days later, NOBUTO got in touch with us to propose his music. talk about a coincidence! we immediately fell in love with his simple yet highly emotional tracks. think about the most melodic AIDAN BAKER songs or early ULTRA MILKMAIDS. SUDA has since built a rather impressive discography thanks to rural colours or somehow recordings, and co-founded tobira records with HAKOBUNE." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| SUDARIA |
The Syncretic Labyrinth |
MC |
"Sudaria opens up the gates of (un)reality to unveil the true shapes behind the mirror of the illusory self; 9 mantras to break the illusion, 9 keys to open the holographic seals of Maya.
«Following in somnambulism the invertebrate steps of a primary Art. Drowned into the ascetic syncretism of silence and noise. The pulse of necro-mechanical cannibalism. Rising beyond Catharsis in ransfiguration; devouring the corpse of the illusory self. 9 Keys to the Gate; 9 mantras to break the holographic seals of Maya. Dressed with the shrouds of Malediction. The Immortal Binary Clock.»
Samples on «Ghastly Eaves» from Arvo Pärt’s Missa Syllabica
—All Musick and artwork by Miguel Souto, MMXVI.
miguelsouto.bandcamp.com
sudaria.bandcamp.com"
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"In a binary existence, the idea of quantum suicide can be engaged in order to convince us of our own immortality – we exist only in a world in which we haven’t died. All other universes, however, contain a rotting corpse that looks uncannily similar to ourselves. Unfortunately, not all life and death scenarios are quite so black and white and it is this nagging knowledge that could have led Miguel Souto to protect himself with these nine sonic mantras.
The Syncretic Labyrinth is a dark, contemplative and often hellish joint release from the German Attenuation Circuit and Spanish Sphingidae labels. Ghostly winds and strained, shrieking guitars set the tone on opening track Veils of the Syncretic Maya before a low drone edges in, paving the way for a frightening chugging as if feral pistons were rampaging through rain-drizzled streets. Kapala then pours its gloopy way into the skull of its audience. A thick, blackened bass rumble squeezes into your cranial space as unrelenting, reverb-chained, metallic thuds pound out in the approaching distance. Voices gasp in reverse like a solemn message escaping from the Black Lodge before being replaced by a pained guitar painting the aural landscape. This shifts from solitary notes to driving chords, whipping up a growing sense of tireless toiling – the slog of existence peppered with a glimmering light through wretched gloom.
The labyrinthine cacophony (of which Borges would be proud) that Sudaria has formed sidles easily from tormented industrial clangs, through leaden techno for sleepwalkers, and into a stained dark ambience via the tectonic-plate-bothering plod of some inconceivable colossus. A gentle sea of consciousness is sporadically cleft apart by softly comforting snippets of travelling trams, trains, and trucks, grounding this in the gritty present. A bluster slips by. Lofty ideas can be born in these waters but heads must stay out of clouds. A melancholy piano desperately collapses and Arvo Pärt’s choral chants lie under a canopy of drones. These paranoid yet hypnotic soundscapes give the final moments of this record an ethereal and phantasmagorical quality."
mithratemplezine.com/sudaria-the-syncretic-labyrinth-album-2017/
|
2017 |
€8.00 |
|
| SUDDEN INFANT |
Earwash |
CD |
Crazy Swiss noise consisting of all kinds of garbage-sounds, screams, feedbacks, belches, Schwyzerdütsch-talking and shouting people, alp-horn-sounds, bass & trombone and all kinds of concrete-noises and effects, with titles like “ZOMBIE LULLABY” and a cover-version of JACQUES BRELs “Ne me quitte pas” this shows JOKE LANZ at its best!
“feat: Joke Lanz - turntables, noise toys & voice, Franz Lieberherr - trombone & yodeling,
Christian Weber - bass & substructural noises.
ultra sonic,Scatter it,Scatter it.! really noisy!! Noisy cut-up avantgarde. wonderful composition and a humor sense.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Invocation of the aural slave gods |
CD |
SUDDEN INFANT aka JOKE LANZ hier mal wieder ganz anders, mit ANNIE STUBS an den Vocals, einem rauhen Industrial-Touch und heftigen Cover-Versionen, dazu die üblichen Bodynoise & Geräusch-Collagen...mächtige Gong-Loops, Kreissägennoise, alles sehr „old styled“, kraftvoll, dreckig, ungewöhnlich und emotional......
11 Stücke mit abwechslungsreicher Klang- bzw Noise-Kunst !
“Exciting new studio album featuring Annie Stubbs on vocals + percussion and Joke Lanz on noise toys + vocals. With coverversions of Cabaret Voltaire's Nag Nag Nag and Roxy Music's In Every Dream Home A Heartache. Housed in a beautiful Digipack with a limited edition Sudden Infant sticker.” [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Psychotic Einzelkind |
CD |
"Founder Joke Lanz has paired up with Bill Kouligas & Christian Weber to create the most musical & realized Sudden Infant studio recording to date. Psychotic Einzelkind clocks just over 71 minutes & features three remixes by Z'EV, Lasse Marhaug, & Thurston Moore." [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
"Eine CD mit einem solchen Titel, am vorderen und hinteren CD-Cover sind Flecken abgebildet, die als Rorschach-Test durchgehen könnten. Und dann: diese Musik. Joke Lanz, Bill Kouligas und Christian Weber aka Sudden Infant rauschen und dröhnen sich durch elf Nummern, zu denen sich drei Remixe von so illustren Gästen wie Z'EV und Lasse Marhaug dazugesellen, Thurston Moore drangsaliert die Gitarre, als ob er Bandmitglied bei Ramleh wäre. »Psychotic Einzelkind« versammelt Tracks, die zwischen Noise, einer Art von Industrial Metal und recht konventionellen Schlagzeug-Rhythmen angesiedelt sind. In unerwarteten Momenten brechen sich diese Texturen wieder selbst, abstruse Sounds und Geräusche drängen sich in den Vordergrund. So gesehen also eine typische Sudden-Infant-VÖ, man merkt wieder mal, dass diese Entwürfe weit mehr seltsamer Soundart (NWW, HNAS, …) geschuldet sind als dem hermetischen System des Noise. Rudimentärer Lärm mit Unterhaltungswert und Persiflage." [Skug]
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
My Life's a Gunshot |
4 x LP |
"Top shelf all the way - we're all amateurs when he hits the stage!" - Ron Lessard / RRRecords
" Limited edition of 500
Paintings by Joke Lanz
Essay by G.X. Jupitter-Larsen
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Design by Bill Kouligas
Compiled & selected by Joke Lanz & Ed Benndorf
These two double LP's combine 49 rare and unreleased tracks as well as some of Sudden Infant's most essential and radical work from the last twenty years. Beautifully housed in two fold-out double LP's with original cover paintings by Joke Lanz and an exclusive 4-page essay by GX Jupitter-Larsen. No CD or download releases planned.
"Born in Switzerland, now based in Berlin, Joke Lanz (aka Sudden Infant) is one of the most prolific and profound artists working in the border zones where performance and body art meet improvisation and Noise. In his Sudden Infant guise, Lanz creates a unique blend of physical sound poetry and epileptic noise bursts, using contact microphones, loops, tapes, etc. The result is an extreme form of musique concrète that juxtaposes spasmodic gibbering with a battery of disorienting electronics." - The Wire
Recent selected activities:
Artist residencies in Berlin (1999) and London (2004)
Composition assignment by Pro Helvetia - Arts Council of Switzerland (2006)
Lectures and workshops at:
Musicacademy Lucerne Switzerland 2003/05
University of Stellenbosch South Africa 2008
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Austria 2009
Noise for kids workshops and presentation at:
Avanto Festival Helsinki Finland 2005
Henie Onstad Art Center Oslo Norway 2009
Several compositions for Contemporary Dance, Films, Radioplays and Soundinstallations
Innumerable releases on international labels e.g. Schimpfluch, Entr'acte, RRR, Tochnit Aleph, Blossoming Noise, SSSM, Artware, Klanggalerie, MSBR, Some Bizarre, iDeal."
[full label info]
"Joke Lanz Is Back! - Mit einem großen Knall,
viel Krawall und Krach stürzt diese 8-seitige
und Vinyl-Only-Mammut-Werkschau von SUDDEN
INFANT auf einen ein. Er schlägt mehr als einmal einen unvorhersehbaren Haken und läßt den Hörer eigentlich immer erwartungsvoll zurück auf das was denn da als nächstes kommen wird. Natürlich könnte man sich die Titelliste zur Hand nehmen, aber das bedeutet man verdirbt sich seinen eigenen Spaß. Es tun sich tausend von Eindrücken auf. Man wird förmlich von der Schwere des Vinyls und der Intensität der Darbietung in diese, seine Welt hinabgezogen. Verschiedenste Spielarten der freien Muzak werden in unterschiedlichster Charakteristik und Aufnahmemedien zum Verzerr angeboten. Manches wird den einen oder anderen stören, was wiederum andere in Entzückung versetzt. Vom Erzeuger selber wurde an dieser Zusammenstellung bis zum Ende gefeilt, gearbeite und gestaltet. Diese Liebe zum Detail ist umwerfend, gnadenlos und vollgestopft mit naiver Spielfreude und entwaffnender Offenheit. Ein Essay zu SUDDEN INFANT vom G.X. Jupitter-Larsen höchstpersönlich rundet diese außergewöhnliche und beispielhafte
Veröffentlichung ab. Essentiell für alle, die
das Wort "Industrial" auch weiterhin gedenken im richtigen Kontext in den Mund zu nehmen! Zubeißen! (10)" [Carsten Vollmer, ELEKTRISCHE ZONE]
|
2010 |
€49.00 |
|
| SUDDEN INFANT / CARLOS GIFFONI |
Oslo Oscillation Orgy |
LP |
"This collaborative release has its origins in a joint performance which took place in ‘a shady pub in London’, according to Carlos. Recordings have since been exchanged and reworked, and finalised when the two played together again in Oslo last year. Based in Berlin and London, Joke Lanz toils ceaselessly to create new sounds. He crafts an abrupt musique concrète, a bewildering edifice of no-fi electronics, turntables, and unexpected and disorientating sound sources. Since 1986 he has appeared under a variety of guises, including Schimpfluch-Gruppe, Schnäbi Gaggi Pissi Gaggi, WAL, Catholic Boys in Heavy Leather, Opposite Opponents, and the ubiquitous Sudden Infant.
Carlos Giffoni is a Venezuelan artist based in New York. His compositions utilise analogue and digital synthesis, modular
manipulation, feedback systems, and rewired electronic instruments.
He is a prolific performer, appearing with Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke, Kid 606, Merzbow and Smegma, amongst many others. Carlos is the curator of the annual experimental music No Fun Fest in Brooklyn, and also a member of no wave/noise/rock trio Monotract.
First edition of 200 copies" [label info]
"Two masters of noise team up. The old master from Switzerland is Joke Lanz, also known as Sudden Infant since about twenty years and Carlos Giffoni from Venezuala but since some time in New York. They met four or five years ago and have played together a number of times. The record now released by Entr'acte was recorded in last two years in London and New York. For some reason I expected the full forty minute noise blast, but not so. Of course this record is not the softest discussed this week, but it turned out to be one interesting slab of sound collating through skipping vinyl, looping of sounds (which could be from reel to reel recorders) and manipulations through computers. Occasionally these things explode into noise, but throughout everything sounded more through out than I anticipated. After the recent release by Sudden Infant on Absurd which I didn't enjoy very well, this is a real blow in the face. Intelligent noise, well crafted." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.entracte.co.uk
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| SULIDAE, PHILIP |
History of Violence |
CD |
"Sounds were recorded in the Belanglo State forest, 150 kilometres to the south of Sydney, Australia. Its quiet solitude and isolation contrasts dramatically with its turbulent and macabre history – the scene for a series of horrific murders in the early 90’s at the hands of one of Australia’s most notorious serial killers.
I choose Belanglo as a location due to my own somewhat morbid fascination with its history, but also due to its virtually indistinct organic character. It is essentially a forest like any other area of bush along the eastern seaboard of Australia; however its latent and almost dormant sensation is unlike any other.
I find this contrast very interesting, as it plays deeply into people’s subjective understanding – this understanding of Belanglo is, I believe, largely shaped and divided by our external perceptions of its history, and the innate, immediate impact of its environment.
During recording, the sounds, timbres and sonic characteristics were very comparable – similar areas, environments, topography. This allowed me some latitude and gestural flexibility in composing, as I could play with the ideas and observations that lay behind the forest and its history. In effect I could try and create a sonic environment that would replicate the contrasting and distinct perceptions of Belanglo.
Our ideas of place and the constructs behind them generate a fertile ground for creativity and composition.
(philip sulidae, February 2014)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"It's been a while since I last heard music by Philip Sulidae, but some of his newer releases are downloads only, so perhaps that explains, and there also seems to be some time gap between this and the previous. I quite enjoyed his work so far, which sometimes seemed quite raw and at other times very microsounding. This new work surely fits the latter body of works. All of the sound sources were recorded at the Belanglo State Forest in Australia, which is some 150 kilometres to the south of Sydney and apparently a very quiet area, even when it was the "scene for a series of horrific murders in the early 90’s at the hands of one of Australia’s most notorious serial killers". No doubt that's one of the reasons to do field recordings over there, and Sulidae is not the first to go to 'guilty territories'. It's not something you are aware of when hearing this release, based upon just hearing it. These six pieces are very quiet, high pitched for whatever reason, and it's unclear to me
whether this has any electronic processing, or whether this area is high pitched, insects maybe? I think a certain level of sound processing took place and it’s quite a frightening release, in a curious way. The sheer level of compression, to get all of these sounds together, make a very oppressive release, despite all the quietness that is going on here. But perhaps I am hearing too much in this release, maybe things that are not in there per se. I played this a couple of times, and the more I hear it, the more I like it. It all seems relatively easy made but it unfolds a lot of beauty actually. A great yet very much unsettling release." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SUMMONS OF SHINING RUINS |
Masami Ssi, Dangsin Ui Him E Su Eobs-eoseo Mian Haeyo. Naneun Dangsin Eul Ij-ji Anhseubnida. Gamsahabnida. |
mCDR |
"summons of shining ruins is one of the aliases of japanese composer shinobu nemotu. past works were issued by various labels like install (milieu/brian grainger's own imprint), resting bell, analog path or his own moufu rokuon. bearing the longest title ever on taâlem, "masami ssi..." was created by using electric guitar and tape recorder to make a beautiful, eerie and nostalgic soundscape." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"And we end this trip with the music of of Shinobu Nemofu, who works as Summons Of Shining Ruins, among various other names. He has had releases on Install, Resting Bell, Analog Path and his own Moufu Rokuon label and here has a crazy long title to offer here and I have no idea what it means - Google translate offers no help. The music is created with an electric guitar and a tape recorder and is a beautifully low humming affair. One of slow, minimal development; it's there for sure, but Summons Of Shining Ruin works on a slow curve to unfold his story. Or, perhaps, unfold is not the right term; only towards the end things get louder, but that's in the twenty-third minute only, and we seem to be left with the residual sounds of the guitar and the tape-recorder on repeat with itself. I was reminded of Chihei Hatakeyama's music in this area, and maybe also of Machinefabriek, but perhaps Summons Of Shining Ruin was a bit darker than usual. Not really a big surprise, but surely a great piece." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| SUN OF THE SEVENTH SISTER |
Farben Raum |
CD |
Das totale Freak-Orchester aus Australien, bis zu 25 Mitspieler! Diese Aufnahme stammt vom Februar 2007, ein vielschichtiges Impro-Chaos, welches aber recht gemächlich und "slow" bis düster daher kommt (und teils mit deutschen (!) Sprechgesang in FAUSTischer Manier. Für Freunde von NIHILIST SPASM BAND, BORBETOMAGUS, AMM,...
auf dem RATS WITH WINGS-Label!
"Following on from their 2007 New Zealand tour triple lathe cut LP, and 6 cassette boxset on Breakdance The Dawn, comes Farben Raum, the debut CD by Sun of the Seventh Sister. This floating line-up, mushroom fuelled free-psych woolly mammoth often consists of a phalanx of between 10 and 25 players: multiple drummers, multiple electrified chordophones, horns, vocals, oscillators etc. Imagine half a dozen freak-folk ensembles congealing into a psychedelic din of Borbetomag-ian proportions. On this occasion SSS comprised members of xNoBBQx, UnAustralians, Arse Lunch, Cock Up Shitting Whore, Rats With Wings, Stasis Duo and others. The CD consists of 3 immense tracks, taken from a 3 hour straight session, lovingly recorded by the Pulled Out mobile unit, with mastering analysis for Heard Worse Records by DJ Beefcurtains." [label notes]
"Sun of the seventh sister is a collective of artists-musicians from Australia and New Zealand ranging in number from 10-25 players. Their rack of instruments is pretty immense including multiple drummers, electrified chordophones, horns, vocals, oscillators, electric guitars and pretty much everything they can put their hands on. This hord of nomad musicians reminds me of the nomadic artists of the middle-ages with everything that this brings to mind, the madness, the immersion into music, the ecstatic ceremonies. This is not just a free-jam as you might imagine or a free-folk cult (chic). This is a gigantic psychedelic beast that roars and screams and calms and bursts and back to the start featuring members of xNoBBQx, UnAustralians, Arse Lunch, Cock Up Shitting Whore, Rats With Wings, Stasis Duo (featured in our own deconstructive music triple cd compilation) and others.
This cd on heard worse records includes 3 long length nameless of course tracks and a total run time of almost 80 minutes of bodily absorbed orchestrated pray and prophecy or what you might imagine that it should sound like. Ranging from free form improvisation to ecstatic jazz and ecstatic folk this is not a record but an experience I wish I could have lived live. It worth every single second, especially the third track that is unbelievably intense!" [Random E-Zine]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUN RA |
Disco 3000 |
do-CD |
"first release of the full concert recording.
This is a reissue of one of the great Sun Ra albums - documenting a rare outing for a small ensemble comprising John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and Luqman Ali (drums). June Tyson is also credited on the sleeve.. Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards - including the mysterious Crumar Mainman (undocumented by the company itself), which Ra describes as 'like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments' in one, and which offers, in addition, pre-programmed bass-lines and electronic percussion - used to great effect in this small grouping, and seldom, if ever, used by Ra elsewhere. This fact alone makes these this release especially interesting. The LP version was an ear-opener when it came out, and amongst the LPs we most frequently had pressed for us at the time by Ra - alongside Media Dream, Black Horizon and The Sound Mirror). Most of the material is outside the familiar repertoire - another feature that singles this session out. The newly mastered double CD contains the entire concert from which Disco 3000 was taken, adding more than an hour of previously unheard material, setting the LP selections in their original context. There are also excellent new sleevenotes by trumpeter Michael Ray who describes Ra's work method and reminisces about the tour and the recording session. Nicely packaged." [label notes]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Media Dreams |
do-CD |
"This is the companion to Disco 3000, made on the same classic Italian quartet tour with John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and the minimal but perfect Luqman Ali (drums). Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards, including the mysterious Crumar Mainman, which Ra describes as ‘like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments’ and which also, importantly, has a facility for pre-programmed bass-lines and electronic percussion, which Ra uses constantly and to great effect in this small ensemble setting and seldom, if ever, elsewhere. The best of this collection (most of CD1) is luminous: very electronic, often rhythmical and melodic, always economical and making every sound count. These tracks are like no other jazz ensemble and, although recognisable as Ra – who else could think of, and then get away with, this – unlike any other Ra ensemble either. Ra makes the machines do amazing, visionary things while the band exercises restraint, remaining always in focus. In between, there are piano, saxophone, trumpet and drum vignettes, fresh and perfectly judged; this real was a fine band. This places the original vinyl release (and related releases, Sound Mirror and Disco 300) back into the context of the concerts, from which they were drawn. An important addition to the Sun Ra canon, since it is a rare document of an unusual Ra project that produced three classic late ‘70s LPs. Beautifully packaged and well annotated." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
| SUN RA & HIS MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA |
The Antique Blacks |
CD |
"Another much sought after and long unavailable title recorded in 1974 with a smallish ensemble consisting (probably) of stalwarts Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Danny David, James Jacson, Akh Tal Ebah, Clifford Jarvis, Artakatune, and new electric guitarist, Sly, that was released on Saturn in the same year. This sounds like a studio recording, carefully thought out - most of the compositions appear only on this record (apart from versions of Nature's God and Space is the Place), and include a chain of very interesting accompanied /interpolated) spoken texts: There is a Change in the Air, The Antique Blacks, The ridiculous "I" and the Cosmos "Me" - as well as a very long and scary coda to Space is the Place. Ra plays Rocksichord and Moog throughout (solo on track 7 and at the end of track 8). Theatrical and political; this is a fascinating release." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| SUN RA (AND HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA) |
Sleeping Beauty |
CD |
"Originally released by Saturn in 1979, this is a studio recording by a large ensemble (including, unusually, electric guitar and bass). These are the first recordings of the titles included (though they were played live a few months earlier on German radio). Springtime Again is a floating, sonically open composition, with a distant sung ostinato, interestingly mixed. The door of the Cosmos, which features June Tyson, is a relaxed groove-driven piece in which electric piano, guitar and bass function as ground, over which events drift in and out, while Sleeping Beauty is a chaotic, swirly masterpiece with lots of effects added to the instruments, interestingly mixed. As an ex-LP, it's LP length." [label info] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| SUN RA (AND HIS SOLAR ARKESTRA) |
On Jupiter |
CD |
"A big band studio recording made a month before Sleeping Beauty and released by Saturn in 1979 consisting of three quite different pieces: On Jupiter, which is a vocalised, relaxed, swing trance piece, UFO - Sun Ra's unashamed approach to disco, layering big band events over a funky beat and chunky chants -, and Seductive Fantasy, which lurches along in classic Ra fashion, very easygoing and with a good high-definition recording quality. It's nice to hear the oboe and bassoon, often lost in live recordings, so prominent, Again, the mixing is unusually sophisticated. As an ex-LP, it's LP length." [label info]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| SUNCHARIOT |
Fictio |
CD-R |
Another new project from Russia, creepy drones and slow-motion pulses, mechanic & cold sounds, little harmonies appear in the acoustic dust... intense dark & visionary stuff, on Moscow's ABGURD-Label.
"A project of a sculptor and an ethnographer Denis Shapovalov from the city of Rostov-on-Don, who is also the one and the only member of ADRIVA, ENMERKAR and MATTER. "Fictio" calls to self-dependent comprehension of forms by sublimation of clods of clay and granite monoliths with alchemy of archaic Drone Ambient, giving birth to resonances and fluctuations of Time. As deep stone strata that move by one millimetre in a thousand years, humming and drifting drones spread over the body, moving away all the vanity and fuss.
The release consists of two 35+ minutes parts, one of which was released as the same-named CDr on Observatory records in an edition of 40 copies." [label info]
label website: www.abgurd.com
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| SUNDIN, RONNIE |
Hägring |
CD |
TraumLogik-Musik, geboren aus der Faszinationen heraus für Wachträume, aurale Halluzinationen & und dem „Gedächtnis“ von Klang. Sehr ruhig und schwelend, aber nicht einlullend, entfalten sich hier „unfassbare“ Soundfetzen aus verschiedenstens Quellen, extreme Frequenzen und concrete-sounds brechen herein, verschwinden wieder, erzeugen einen nur verschwommenen Eindruck...
Erstes Album des Schweden für das griechisch-spanische Label !
“Hägring is the third and final part in the Hypnagogic trilogy that started with Sleepwalk and Morphei which is based upon a fascination for wake dreaming, auditory hallucinations and the memory of sound. Composed using delicate field recordings, computer processed sounds, vibrating piano and guitar strings to create a sensitive dreamlike state. Or was it just a mirage? all mirages emergedduring 03-04 in Malmö, sweden. special thanks to Dimitris. Drawings by Ronnie. Cover by Lasse” [liner notes]
“The press notes of this CD talk about "mirages" and I truly believe this is a more than adequate description of Ronnie Sundin's music. Although the impalpable, mesmerizing phantom reverberations present over the whole course of the record are sometimes broken by sudden crunches and sick discharges, the Malmö-based composer follows paths of forgotten memories and unquiet sleeps, letting us have just a small fraction of a glimpse of "what could be following" after discarding pulse and "regular" structures in favour of thick strata of metallic nothingness and concrete ruins in an abandoned factory. This sort of aural trip is also finely composed: the sonic events suceed in perfect correlation, there is no room for anything to shine while murmuring frequency rumbles expand the altered state of our perceptivity during immobile reminiscences worthy of Mirror or Brent Gutzeit. All in all, "Hägring" is punctuated with mastery touches of decaying sounds; without being modernist at all costs, Ronnie Sundin has given us the gift of ethereal detachment from false beauty. Let these manifestations take their place around you, see what strange light they're emitting, listen to what those mirages have to teach.” [Touching Extremes]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| SUNEATERS |
Cosmic Insight, Baby (Part 1) |
10inch |
"The electronics of the legendary 70s "Berliner Schule" are coming back to life again! Tobias Fischer (Feu Follet/Naarmann und Neiteler) and Mirko Uhlig (solo/Aalfang mit Pferdekopf) are openly displaying their love for floating pads, pulsating sequencers, dynamic melodies and freely breathing soundscapes. The duo combines the warmth and deepness of analogue "cosmic music" with emotional drones and contemporary electronics. References are plentiful, ranging from the great pioneers Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze as well as Kluster and Eno to the magical musical territories of Coil, Robert Fripp and Mirror. Featuring the guest appearance of renowned ambient and classical composer Steve Jolliffe (founding member of Supertramp and Tangerine Dream) on flute." [label info]
http://eys.online.fr/tutrur
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| SUNKEN |
Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve |
CD |
"eep in the swirling depths of the ocean a terrible yet wondrous beast stirs slow but sure amidst great forests of sea algae. Taking on the form of a pair of conjoined drown-ed sailors it sets forth upon the currents determined to loose its apocalyptic vision upon the earth via droning sea shanty and great humming hymn. Sunken is the duo of sunken sailors Stefan Neville (Pumice) and Antony Milton (Nether Dawn/A.M etc). Using a range of organs, sonar gear, live tapeloops, vocals and an unhealthy amount of submarine reverb they create a glorious droning pop noise. 'Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve' follows on from their acclaimed self titled debut (also on PseudoArcana) and various compilation appearances. You can read reviews and hear a sample from the album." [label / website info]
www.pseudoarcana.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUNN O))) |
Black One |
CD |
Das BLACK ONE – Album bedeutet für SUNN O))) nicht nur den Einzug in die Feuilletons der grossen Tageszeitungen (New York Times: „art metal“, Die Zeit: „Laute Mönche“), es ist auch das bisher experimentellste und ausgefeilteste Dokument ihres Schaffens, reine Geräuschmusik-Stücke wechseln mit den typischen sub-bass-metal-drones, gequälter Zombie-Gesang taucht auf, aber auch ganz ruhige Zen-Klänge von OREN AMBARCHI, der bei vielen Stücken mitgewirkt hat.... Definitiv das beste SUNN O)))—Album bisher, mit dem sie in neue Bereiche vordringen anstatt den etablierten Stil endlos zu wiederholen.
„...Im Idealzustand (live!) erreicht dieses Schichten von Sounds und Feedbacks eine Intensität, die mit dem Phänomen der Singularität aus der Astrophysik vergleichbar ist. Masse nimmt exponentiell zu, bis ihre Dichte nicht mehr messbar ist. Ihr Zusammenbruch ist Ende und zugleich Neubeginn. Der Punkt, an dem bei Sunno))) die Gesetze der Physik und Empirie versagen, neue Kategorien entwickelt werden müssen, ist der Moment, in dem der Zeuge dieses subsonischen Spektakels ins schwarze Nichts hinaustritt und von dort seinen leeren Körper betrachtet. Sunno))) machen ultimative Höhlenmusik. Grottenrock. Und wäre diese Welt eine bessere, Steve O'Malley und Greg Anderson wären die neuen Sly & Robbie: eine runtergebrochene Rhythmussektion, geeicht auf den metronomischen Pendelschlag des Weltalls....“ [Andreas Busche / Spex]
“The anticipated new album from sonic-doom powerhouse SUNN O))), and the band's darkest, most obliterating album to date. Seven bleak and crushing tracks of aural asphyxiation, delivered with tonal magma explosions, subsonic ferocity, and the blackest atmospheres known to man (or beast). Includes guest contributions from OREN AMBARCHI, WREST (LEVIATHAN, LURKER OF CHALICE, TWILIGHT), JOHN WIESE (BASTARD NOISE), and MALEFIC (XASTHUR, TWILIGHT), who armed with a microphone and severe claustrophobia, recorded vocals from inside a casket, loaded in the back of a Cadillac hearse.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
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Kannon |
CD |
"Kannon is an album which was composed in the aftershadow of SUNN O)))’s most recent successes in immersive collaboration (the group worked with Scott Walker on Soused, Ulver on Terrestrials in 2013 and 2014) and also from the broad and influential wake of their epitimous Monolith’s & Dimensions . Kannon emerged both independently as a conceptual entity and with roots in the legacies of those projects, yet was fully realised years later, in 2015. The album is 36 minutes in length and consists of three pieces of a triadic whole : Kannon 1, 2 and 3.
The album celebrates many SUNN O))) traditions ; Kannon was recorded and mixed with SUNN O)))’s close colleague and coproducer Randall Dunn in Seattle, in Studio Litho, Aleph and Avast!; and the LP includes performances by long term allies and collaborators Attila Csihar, Oren Ambarchi, Rex Ritter, Steve Moore and others. And at the core the composition centers around the dynamic and intense guitar and bass interplay of SUNN O)))’s founders : Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson.
It’s possibly the most figurative album SUNN O))) has created, which is unusual as they usually dwell in layers of abstraction and subjectivity. On the other hand the album is the most outright “metal” in years, drawing personal associations and memories of cherished albums like Panzerfaust and Twilight of the Gods again to the forefront of consciousness. At the third time it is very close to the cyclical character of mantra which the band has evolved into as a living creature, the enormity of intense sensate detail and manifestation of the live in concert face of SUNN O))), the organism that has flourished, metamorphosed and transcended tremendously over the past ten years.
The literal representation of Kannon is as an aspect of Buddha: specifically “goddess of mercy” or “Perceiving the Sounds (or Cries) of the World”. She is also sometimes commonly known as the Guanyin Bodhisattva (Chinese: 觀音菩薩) amongst a plurality of other forms. There is a rich lineage behind this idea tracing back through many asian belief systems, with as many names and cultural personifications of the idea.
SUNN O))) commissioned critical theorist Aliza Shvartz to write a text / liner notes around these ideas and topics. She also explores the relations and perceptions to their approach to these ideas via the metonym of music and SUNN O)))’s place/approach within the framework of music and metal overall.
SUNN O))) also commissioned Swiss designer/artist Angela LaFont Bollinger to create the cover artwork, an abstracted sculpture of vision of Kannon, and the French photographer Estelle Hanania to capture portraits of the core trio (Csihar, Anderson, O’Malley) in the impressive and obscurant Emanuel Vingeland mausoleum in Oslo.
The LP is packaged in immaculate tip on gatefold sleeve by our long time comrades Stoughton Printing, and pressed at Cascade in Portland, Oregon. CD, download and coloured vinyl versions are also available.
– Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson / SUNN O))), 11 September 2015" [label info]
credits:
Released December 4th 2015
Attila Csihar - Vocals
Stephen O’Malley - Guitar
Greg Anderson - Guitar, Bass Guitar
Oren Ambarchi - Guitar, Oscillator (K1,K2)
Randall Dunn - Korg MS 20 (K1, K2)
Rex Ritter - Moog (K2)
Brad Mowen - Concert Bass Drum (K2)
Steve Moore - Juno 106 (K2)
Conch trio : Dempster, Priester, Moore
Recorded at studio Litho, Avast! and Aleph, Seattle by Randall Dunn
Mixed at Avast! by Randall Dunn
Assistant recording engineer (Litho) : Mell Dettmer
Mastered by Jason Ward at CMS
Kannon 1, 2, 3 written & arranged by SUNN O)))
Lyrics by Attila Csihar
Produced by SUNN O))) with Randall Dunn
SUNN O))) art direction : Stephen O’Malley
Cover and typographic design by Allison Lafont Bollinger
Text by Aliza Shvarts
Band portraits by Estelle Hanania / Detail from mural Vita at the Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum, Oslo
© Emanuel Vigeland Museum / ARS 2015
www.southernlord.com
"Those grimrobed ambient metal overlords O'Malley & Anderson (here with guests including Oren Ambarchi and vokillist Attila Csihar) add a new opus to their extensive discography of doom/drone masterwerks! The three part Kannon, which may have germinated from the track "Cannon" found on their live Domkirke double lp from 2008, is art to play loud. All deep drones, deep voices, doubtless deep thoughts (check out the liner notes by critical theorist Aliza Shvartz). And here are OUR notes: Abyssic atmospheres of vast grinding drones. Layered, liturgic cavernous ritual. Gorgeously sculpted feedback flowmotion. Along with moments that remind us of the wide open Western spaces twang of more recent Earth (or Barn Owl) as well." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
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ØØ VOID |
CD |
"OO Void was originally released in 2000 by Hydra Head in the USA and Rise Above in the UK and Europe. They have been out of print for approximately 8 years now. *In 2008, OO Void was reissued in Japan only through Daymare Recordings. That release featured a second disc of remixes from the experimental/industrial group Nurse with Wound. *The record has now come back home to its proper resting place via Southern Lord. Beautiful artwork from Stephen Kasner and package execution via Stephen O'Malley. -Petra Haden (Queens of the Stoneage, Foo Fighters, The Decemberists) contributed Violin and vocals to the album -Pete Stahl (Scream, Wool, Goatsnake, The Earthings?, QOTSA) contributed vocals to the album -Rabid, fiendish following. This will be hunted down and devoured. *OO Void (also known as Double-O Void) was the second album recorded by sunn O))) circa 2000. At that time the guitarist & core members: Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson were joined by guest bassist collaborator Stuart Dahlquist (Burning Witch, Goatsnake). OO Void also features some incredible contributions from both Petra Haden (Violinist/Vocalist) and Pete Stahl (vocals). Their melodic evocations are seamlessly woven within this thick sonic tapestry. The group approached the compositions of this album in a different way than their previous recordings. Each member focused intently on one composition/song and brought it into the recording session. Then each of those songs that were brought in were translated to the other members and nuances were worked out on the spot in the studio. Greg Anderson aka The Duke brought in: NN0))), Stephen O'Malley aka Mk Ultra Blizzard brought in: RA at Dusk, Stuart Dahlquist aka G.Subharmonia brought in: Richard *The exception to all this was the inclusion of a rendition of a obscure Melvins song called: "Rabbits' Revenge". This song was actually never recorded in the studio by the Melvins and the riffs were salvaged from a live tape that Anderson had of the band playing in Seattle from March of 1985! *This album was recorded to 24 track 2" tape at Grandmaster studios in Hollywood, California. A large step forward in production values from the band's debut recording The Grimmrobe Demos. Fellow sub-sonic entusiast Scott Reeder (the Obsessed, Kyuss, Goatsnake) captured that particular incantation of sunn 0))) on huge reels of tape." [label info]
www.southernlord.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
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| SUNN O))) & ULVER |
Terrestrials |
CD |
"Oslo, Norway, August 10th, 2008. Following their 200th gig, playing before 2000 people at the Oya festival, SUNN O))) teamed up with Norwegian legends ULVER at their Oslo studio, Crystal Canyon. They recorded three "live in improvisation" pieces, starting that evening and ending at dawn, as Northern sunlight seeped in through the windows. 'We were sitting in the console room, early in the morning, listening to the takes. Someone said, ah, sunrise over Crystal Canyon,' as if the night had been a dark one. We all laughed and Greg proposed it as a title. In that setting it sounded perfect. The boys had mentioned wanting the music to orient towards the light, like some lost pilgrim stretching before the sun. We kept that mental picture for the processing.' - Kristoffer Rygg That take became the album's opening piece, "Let there be light," which builds up from silence and darkness and proceeds - ceremoniously, coruscating - O'Malley and O'Sullivan creating the backdrop for Rygg's Basso Profondo chants. The music unfolds over eight minutes before reaching a crescendo of bass and brass, introducing both Anderson and ULVER as we know them. The Sunn has risen. "Western horn" accelerates on a single and austere note of sustained bass and low end, evolving gradually into a haunted soundscape. Crying violins, clusters of Fender Rhodes, guitar pickups, and metal plate drones are gradually layered beneath Anderson's augmented bass feedback. "Eternal return" introduces Rygg singing a lyric evoking ancient Greece, Egypt and the Biblical lands. The song is palindromic, echoing the lyric, beginning and ending with the same bass line and musical pattern, though the guitars are ultimately reversed as the song implodes upon itself. "Terrestrials" is three movements which are fluid like the flow of magma beneath the Earth's crust, sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful." [label info]
www.southernlord.com
"Naheliegendes wird vermieden, statt dessen eine zähfließende Düsternis mit fast fragiler Aura: das Sunn o))) & Ulver Kollaborationsalbum “Terrestrials” schickt die Hörer (nicht nur) mit dem Opener “Let There Be Light” und seinen verlangsamten Mariachi-Trompeten fast ein bisschen in die Irre, lässt dieselben zumindest lange im Unklaren, welche Richtung das Stück wirklich einschlagen will… Als “ewiges” Intro hinter verwaschenen Staubwolken der Wüste? Ein Akustik-Drone?
Erst das letzte Viertel, wenn “Let There Be Light” schon fast zu ersterben scheint, bringt die Auflösung: wenn sich typisch Sunn o))) artige Harmoniebögen zu manifestieren beginnen und die weiterhin präsenten Bläser mit einem deutlichen Maß an Schwerkraft versehen. Das dann folgende, düstere (und düsterere) “Western Horn”, im Kern eine windende Schichtung von sich reibenden, spröden Gitarren, dabei nach außen so etwas wie die musikalische Umsetzung eines langsam aufkommenden (oder abflauenden) Sandsturms, versenkt die Hörer nach “Let There Be Light” wie unvermittelt in eine ebenso unwirkliche wie unwirtliche, auch ohne ebensolche Soundästhetik zerrende, schwarze Welt. Die, ganz nebenbei, ein weiteres Mal beweist, dass “Heavy” eben auch ganz anders gehen kann.Und dann die größte Überraschung: “Eternal Return”, in den allerersten Tönen noch wie eine direkte Fortsetzung von “Western Horn” klingend, durch die hier stärkere Präsenz eines E-Pianos und ganz besonders die Art der Harmonien aber letztlich in eine ganz andere Richtung weisend: wie eine Art geisterhafter Widerhall, eine eigene Interpretation der Stimmung von oder eben gleich eine Kollaboration mit Bohren & Der Club Of Gore… zumindest rund 6 Minuten lang, bevor das Stück einen völligen Twist macht, Gesang über tragenden Synthstreichern, als Break. Und zurück fällt in die Düsternis des Beginns.
In der musikalischen Schattierung so vielfältig wie “Monoliths And Dimensions”, möglicherweise. Und eine Elegie in schwarzer Akustik, sicherlich. Insgesamt betrachtet." [N, Blackmag]
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2014 |
€13.00 |
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| SUNROOF! |
Panzer Division Lou Reed |
CD |
SUNROOF ist das Solo-Projekt von MATTHEW BOWER (aka SKULLFLOWER), der sich gerne von diversen Gastmusikern aushelfen lässt..
"Beneath the usual lovely psychedelic artwork on the cover of Panzer Division Lou Reed lurks Sunroofis most explosive and assaultive record ever. The key track here in the Sunroof! evolution is the opener iSlew Plateaus #1,i with Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra) on guitar and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man) on drums. This live shot of electricity gradually ramps up from Flower and Matt Boweris dueling guitars to the point where Moloneyis drums come crashing in after about six minutes, leading to a furious crescendo that lasts for the remainder of the 19-minute track. iSlew Plateaus #2i is a lengthy collaboration with underground gadabout Mattin, whose previous collabs with Tony Conrad, Bruce Russell, Eddie Prevost, et al. hopefully prepared him for the Bower wrecking ball delivered here. The other two cuts are absolutely blistering demolition work, which, in spite of their visceral impact, reach a state of zen-like stasis after a couple of minutes, * la the best of Boweris work with Hototogisu."[label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
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| SUPERSILENT |
7 |
DVD |
„Um direkt allen Mißverständnissen vorzubeugen: Auf „7" der neuen DVD von SUPERSILENT gibt es keine Extras oder irreführende graphische Menüs. Keine staatlichen Warnungen, keine Einführungen mit Ufos. Kein Schnickschnack. Denn Label, Künstler und Regisseur hatten den Anspruch, das „7" wie eine Audio CD laufen sollte, nur mit Bild. Einlegen und ein komplettes SUPERSILENT Konzert genießen, genau so lange (109 Min.) und in der gleichen Reihenfolge wie dargeboten. Man kann sogar zwischen den Tracks hin und her skippen. Keine Overdubs (auch wenn sich irgendwie einige psychedelische Momente auf die DVD geschlichen haben:-)), statt dessen hat DEATHPROD einen hervorragenden Stereo Mix abgeliefert, bei dem man sogar zwischen Dolby Digital und dem leicht besseren DTS wählen kann. Und dank DVD-9 ist die Bildqualität sowieso überlegen.“
"The Norwegian death-jazz improvising unit return for the seventh of their Supersilent series, this time in the form of a DVD release of a highly-anticipated live performance in Oslo on August 16, 2004. Members Arve Henriksen (trumpet, electronics), Helge Sten (audio virus), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and Jarle Vespestad (drums) form a band that refuse categorization, with experiments in such disparate elements as ambient, jazz, electronica, rock, techno, noise and musique concréte. Critics have compared them to the Miles Davis band of the early '70s, and groups like Stockhausen, Einstürzende Neubauten and Can. Supersilent hadn't played the capital for quite some time and the line went around the block. With the uncertain knowledge that all Supersilent concerts are totally improvised, it didn't take long to hear that they were in excellent form and interplay, all captured by three cameras to black and white 16 mm film and recorded by Kai Andersen from Athletic Sound. Filmed by Norwegian multimedia artist Kim Hiorthøy, the black and white footage lends a filmic quality very rarely seen in concert DVDs. Constructed like an audio CD with visuals, there are no extras, no menus, no FBI warnings or meaningless graphics -- what you get is a pure, complete Supersilent concert from start to finish, 109 minutes. What you see and hear is how it was, no overdubs have been applied to the recording, but a couple of psychedelic hiccups have found their way to the film. The 6 "tracks" are divided so you can skip back and forth as on a CD. By using the audio button on the player's remote control you can chose between Dolby Digital and the slightly superior DTS sound alternatives, if your DVD player is ready for DTS. The sound is mixed by Deathprod in good old stereo. Please also note that this is a DVD-9 production, giving superior picture quality due to the disc having dual layers and more available space. What you hear and see is a multifarious, totally improvised, completely unique live performance from a group who define the best in bombastic Nordic sound. Running time: 109 minutes." [label info]
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2005 |
€16.00 |
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6 |
CD |
"Supersilent have been a solid cornerstone in Rune Grammofon since the very beginning and are seen by many as representing the very essence of the label. From the monumental hardcore blizzard storms of 1-3 to the elegant electrojazz of 4 and the almost quiet soundscapes of 5, this new album is where the sum of all things Supersilent comes together in a shape of almost epic proportions. Like 1-3 and Scorch Trio, it was recorded at Athletic Sound in Halden, Norway. More than ever it appears clear that their music lives in a no man's land between the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern composition. As with all their recordings and live performances, everything here is improvised. That most of the music on 6 appears to be written or at least arranged is testament to the high, almost telepathic level they work at . Needless to say, there are no overdubs. Often being labelled jazz because of the improvising aspect of the music and the fact that three of the members come from a jazz background, with 6 they are just as likely to attract followers of bands such as Goodspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós, King Crimson, (late) Talk Talk or Popol Vuh." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2003 |
€15.50 |
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11 |
CD |
"This is the eleventh release in the Supersilent series. These recordings are taken from the very fruitful sessions that resulted in Supersilent 8 (RCD 2067CD), but are no mere leftovers. Indeed, Supersilent 8 was originally scheduled as a triple release, but producer Deathprod (Helge Sten) finally decided to split it. This is also the first vinyl-only release from the band. Supersilent 8 was recorded during a 5-day studio session at Athletic Sound in Halden, Norway, the all-analog facility where other Rune Grammofon albums like Supersilent 1-3 (RCD 2001CD), Scorch Trio (RCD 2025CD), Luggumt (RCD2040CD/RLP 3040LP) and Raus Aus Stavanger (RCD 2049CD) were recorded. From the monumental hardcore blizzard storm of 1-3 to the elegant electro-jazz of 4 and from the quiet soundscapes of 5 to the epic 6, Supersilent yet again re-invented themselves with 8, an album that to a certain degree explored more abstract and mysterious pathways beyond categories and comparisons. In fact, these sessions turned out to be so fruitful, that producer Deathprod finished 5 hours of music and at one point considered making it another triple CD. In the end, 68 minutes ended up on Supersilent 8, but it was always understood that more of the excellent music that didn't make it to the final cut would appear in one way or another at a later time, and indeed, here it is as a vinyl-only release. This was also Jarle Vespestad's final studio session. This 180 gram audiophile vinyl edition was carefully mastered by Bob Katz and cut by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering. Members include: Helge Sten (audio virus, electric guitar), Ståle Storløkken (synthesizers, keyboards), Arve Henriksen (trumpet, voice, electronics), and Jarle Vespestad (drums)." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2014 |
€15.50 |
|
| SURVIVAL UNIT |
Murder for the Mission |
CD |
"Although the cult album Fentanyl Martyrs embodied the death of Survival Unit project, the latter is toxic even while buried. The zombies are coming back. The new album Murder For The Mission is Volume 1 of old and very rare, almost unobtainable retrospective records of the Swedish cult project or the collection of cultural terrorism. The album Murder For The Mission includes both released and yet unreleased tracks from a few sessions. These are Vemod label's tape Murder For The Mission, a concert in Paris and the CDR Utan Fana released as very limited edition. So the audio terror goes on and those who believe that it has ended after the Fentanyl Martyrs act, now will pay the double price. The extremely aggressive psycho-powerelectronics shock full of hatred and insane samples will get them." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
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| SUZUKI, AKIO |
A I Sha / あいしゃ |
LP |
"Needless to say, Akio Suzuki is one of the representative sound artists in Japan. Many of his previous releases are sometimes interpreted as the work of a hermit or wizard creating beautiful sounds with his self-made musical instrument called 'Analapos,' glass harmonica (De Koolmees), and stone flute, but the title of Suzuki's first sound piece, aidan ni Mono wo Nageru (Throwing Things at the Stairs) at Nagoya Station in 1963, reflects his perspective on the noises in his work. This LP consists of two 2009 performances created with the use of radio. 'Howling Objects,' with reverberation of a large museum space, and 'a i sha,' in which the radio moves throughout the museum, can be noise itself, but they exist in accordance with the method of 'Oto-date' and 'Tadori' for which Suzuki has been continuously searching. Here, an approach to Suzuki's hardcore sound in his nature is surely concentrated. 'It was at a solo exhibition in the Minamigaro gallery in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 1976 when I held the premiere showing of 'Howling Objects'. When I inserted the microphone into the cylinder of the stand type Analapos, and played echo sound, I was surprised to cause a howling. From that incident, I arranged iron 'wappa' boxes (cylindrical containers formed by bending a thin plate), inserted two wireless microphones with echoes in the boxes and moved the position of the boxes to search for a sound. ... In the performance I did at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, I used roll papers, microphones and radios to revisit 'Howling Objects'. These radios and microphones used from the 1970s have been increasingly degraded in recent years, so this performance has become the last one. 'a i sha' is a performance in which the two radios used in 'Howling Objects' are loaded onto a small dolly and moved around the museum. After setting the radios to AM, selecting the noise wavelengths and tuning the two radios to be able to hear an interesting rhythm, I adjust the volume to an appropriate level and start. As the sound landscape changes by the directionality of radio by moving over to a corridor, wide space and a window, I share the sound field with the people who happen to be there by chance and the people chasing the dolly'. Akio Suzuki Full-color cover photo on sleeve. New liner notes in Japanese and English by Suzuki. Limited edition of 250." [label info]
omega-point.shop-pro.jp |
2015 |
€32.00 |
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| SUZUKI, AKIO & LAWRENCE ENGLISH |
Boombana Echoes |
maxi-CD / art-print |
"I had the pleasure to meet and record with Akio Suzuki late in 2005. Having discovered his work a good few years before that, I had always been impressed with his clear passion for the expressive nature of sound - not merely as a vibrational art form, but also for its mystic, perhaps even spiritual qualities. His many experiments with sound, space and environment were a great inspiration for me and still to this day fill me with a great sense of wonder (no doubt a result of Suzuki's magician like quality, after all he is a shaman). These recordings are edits from a series of both site specific and situation specific encounters we developed together during a short performance based residency in Brisbane. The first recordings we made together were site specific, and the title of this edition reflects the location in which we began working on the project together. Boombana is an area of forest that shifts from open eucalypt woodland to sub-tropic rainforest within a matter of 500 metres. It's located on route to Mt Nebo and not far from there, the view stretches all the way to Moreton Bay. I recorded Suzuki-san during high summer, the forest sizzling with an eerie electronic fizz of cicadas and leaf hoppers, occasionally interrupted by screeching Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. It was these recordings that form the inspiration for the duet published here. Returning to Brisbane, Suzuki and I recorded a series of pieces late one evening. Suzuki played his remarkable Analapos and I used a some hand percussion and a range of small electronic devices that in many ways reflected on the initial sessions we recorded in Boombana - the cicadas replaced by tone generators and filters. The titles of each work also directly link back to Boombana, its distinctive flora and fauna. Coming back to these recordings more than half a decade after they were created, I'm still captivated by Suzuki's remarkable use of his unique instrument the Analapos and I'm inspired to this day by his mastery of sound as an art form. I dearly hope you enjoy these pieces.' Lawrence English. 2 color letterpress die cut sleeve. 3 letterpress printed inserts of drawings by akio suzuki. designed and printed by ben owen. akio suzuki - analapos. lawrence english - field recordings, drum, electronics. recorded live at 121, December 2005." [label info]
www.windsmeasurerecordings.net
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| SUZUKI, DAISUKE |
D.D.D. |
CD |
'DDD' is a field recording album recorded by Daisuke Suzuki and was originally Released by Texas based IDEA in 2001 in an edition of 300 copies on LP.
Sometimes field recordings can be appreciated in relation to the conceptual art form, or as an on-site sound study and documentation of a very specific phenomena. Daisuke had no concept of the idea of building sonic panoramas and was specifically only Concerned with gathering lots of intriguing sound matter for his personal listening. 'DDD' was mastered by Gary Todd, who was the founder of the Cortical Foundation. Gary and Daisuke became good friends when Gary visited Japan as Red Crayola live sound engineer in the late 1990s and they developed a mutual trust with each other after that. Sadly in September 2001, Gary fell from his apartment balcony, which left him On June 25, 2022 Gary passed away at the age of 59. Daisuke said, “Gary was always generous and had a kind heart. friendship and warmth. I've decided to re-issue 'DDD' to keep him in memory and heart.” The CD includes an expanded version of 'Cricket Voice' which did not appear on the original IDEA LP release.
Tracklist:
A1. Part 1
A2. Part 2
B.Cricket Voice
"Siren Records is a small Japanese label run by Daisuke Suzuki and active since the late 1990s, with a limited roster of musicians: The New Blockaders, Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough, Robert Haigh and David Jackman. In 25 years, some 35 releases, with catalogue number 33, were allotted to the new David Jackman CD, 'Sekihi Oidori', of which we didn't receive a promo. I am not as obsessed as I once was with catalogue numbers, but Daisuke Suzuki's 'D.D.D.' is Siren 13, yet a release from this year. Maybe because it's a re-issue from an LP released by IDEA in 2001? The record was mastered by Gary Todd, the erstwhile mastering engineer who ran the Cortical Foundation (instrumental in some excellent Tery Riley re-issues), who fell from his balcony in 2001 and was hospitalised until his death last year. This re-issue is dedicated to his memory. The triple D stands for 'Duck! Duck! Duck!', of which there are two parts on this CD, plus 'Cricket Voice'. All three pieces use extensive field recordings. Or, maybe, even solely. I am unsure about that. It seems he didn't do much else to these recordings, no processing or anything, but perhaps some of this stuff is looped. You can never be too sure about the nature of things, as there is a lot of repetition going on on a superficial level. Editing, however, seems very likely. The titles are giveaways for the sound sources, ducks and crickets, with the latter being exceptionally high frequencies. With almost forty minutes, this is twice as long as the original and something that I like to play at a somewhat low volume. The whole disc works best at a slightly diminished volume, keeping it ambient within the ambience of one's home environment. It's all very basic but charming music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
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| SUZUKI, KAORI |
Music for Modified Melodica |
CD |
"Music for Modified Melodica was born out of two explorations: one of tuning (and subsequently degrading) the small reeds of a melodica, and the other to modify it playable with foot pumps, allowing for the sustained excitation of the reeds.
Playing with the highly resistive foot bellows introduced massive ‘volumes’ of air to the reeds, overblowing them to vibrate loudly. This aspect led me to work with the sound potentials of combination tones which appear at high acoustical volumes- an area which has been elemental, especially to my durational sound works, over recent years.
The pumped breaths of the melodica are amplified and brought through time delays, with electronically manipulated high frequencies and oscillators to further activate the mix. The resulting experience, as a performer, lends affinity to what a participant to the music previously called it—one which “rewards endurance with transcendence”.
MMM was performed and recorded live. Similar iterations have been performed in New York, Osaka, and Tokyo in various settings, and at least once in an abandoned naval magazine.
Intended for hi-volume listening!
bio:
Kaori Suzuki is a Tokyo-born and California-based artist, performer, and composer.
Her spiraling sound visions are geared for heightened states of listening-and-being, often working with loud, high-droning electric and acoustic instruments, synthesis, tape, oscillators, and other elements necessary to spin her auditory transmissions. Suzuki’s long time interests in “inner-ear tone” psychedelia and psychoacoustic phenomena inform her live performances, recordings, and installation works.
Suzuki’s recordings of solo and collaborative configurations are published on independent labels in Europe and the U.S., including Beacon Sound (US) and Second Editions (DE). When she's not working on her solo music, her other projects include drumming in the Oakland based minimalist psych-punk group, Night Collectors; her ongoing, collaborative light & sound happenings with partner, John Krausbauer; and playing amplified cello and guitar in the ever-intense amplified string ensemble, Ecstatic Music Band.
Suzuki sustains a diverse background in electronic music and instrument making, including her production of electronic instruments for her (now defunct) project/company, Magic Echo Music from 2008-2013. Her autodidactic creations evolved into custom and small run instruments, which have been utilized by various musicians around the globe and most venerably by Hiroshi Hasegawa (C.C.C.C., Astro). She continues instrument making for her own work, and currently teaches on the subject of electronic music at the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College and as a visiting lecturer at Santa Clara University.
As a performer, Suzuki has presented her sound works at numerous venues across North America, Japan, and Europe, including the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (US), Berkeley Art Museum (US), OTOOTO (JP), Worm (NL), CCRMA (US), Quiet City Series (CN), Debacle Festival (US), The Lab (US), Gallery Nomart (JP), Gallery 316 (MX), Vox Populi (US), Zorba (FR), Elastic Arts (US), FUSE Arts (UK), Human Resources (US), Time Based Art Festival (US), Rhizome (US), Ochiai Soup (JP), Coaxial (US), Arkaoda (DE), Holy Underground (US), and many others.
kaorisuzuki.net
Recorded live at the littlefield concert hall (Mills College) in Oakland, California, July 2019.
Mastered by Jos Smolders at EARLabs
Covert Painting by Pete Greening"
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-modified-melodica
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| SVAIXT |
Virsme Versme |
CD |
Promising mystic ambience from Lithuania, working with slow-motion singing-bowl, chime- or bell-sounds that are endlessly repeated and used in different tonal layers, very low & deep in the second half. Resonant woods are added at times, and some strange sound-effects..
Very meditative, analogue, pure.. Four tracks, 63+ minutes.
"Words swaixtix, svastika, svaiksti have a common root that in Sanskrit or Indo-European mother-tongue means to shine, to glow, light. Svaixt, coming from Laurynas Jukonis, the master of the Lithuanian post-industrial, is one more project revealing his sincere interest in the roots of the civilisation, the beginning of the archaic, multi-meaningful, solid and conflictless reality. Demo version of Svaixt album Virsme versme was released in 50 copies by the very author in CDR format and sold in a blink. The album for the second edition was complemented by new material placing new stress in its concept. Svaixt music consists of deep, pulsating and very transparent ambient building up mystic, arcane atmosphere. The value of the album lies in the absence of digital sound generating means in the recording. Virsme versme was recorded by playing the single brass percussion inducing meditation and providing the sound with a strong oriental zest. The cover of Svaixt Virsme versme contains the photo of the legendary marsh opening Ulos Akis located in the Lithuanian region Dzukija, whereas the CD is packed in the elegant digipack." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2007 |
€12.50 |
|
| SVARTE GREINER |
Kappe |
CD |
"Wer dachte, dass das Debüt von Erik K. Skodvin alias Svarte Greiner schon eine ziemlich düstere Angelegenheit war, sollte Kappe besser nicht im Dunklen hören. Denn die vier Tracks gehören zum verstörtesten und düstersten Dark-Ambient, das ich seit langem gehört habe. Vier Kompositionen in unterschiedlicher Länge, von denen der fast schon ironisch betitelte Opener Tunnel of Love noch das kürzeste Stück darstellt, auch wenn es den anderen in Sachen Intensivität in Nichts nachsteht: angetrieben von einem permanenten, metallenem Geräusch von rasselnden Ketten, braut sich im Hintergrund langsam ein kolossaler Sturm zusammen, ehe man in tiefe Drones und undurchdringendes Rauschen abdriftet. Dagegen wirkt der Anfang von Where Am I geradezu friedlich, doch auch hier setzt bald klaustrophobische Enge ein, weicht auch der letzte Kerzenschimmer totaler Dunkelheit. Immer wieder brechen Fragmente durch, die entfernt Stimmen und Schreie sein könnten, dekonstruierte Instrumente, Gitarrenfetzen und vermummte Saxophonklänge quellen aus der hallenden Weite hervor und verlieren sich wieder. Der fast schon sakrale Unterton wirkt zunehmend wie der Soundtrack des letzten Gerichts. Und doch ist Kappe keine willkürliche Ansammlung verstörender Sounds, sondern erstaunlich gut durchkonzipiert. Trotz der scheinbaren Monotonie, die die 16 Minuten von Candle Light Dinner Actress durchzieht, schafft es Skodvin, trotzdem die Aufmerksamkeit hoch zu halten, auch oder gerade wenn sich einem zuweilen die Nackenhaare aufstellen. Kappe ist ein 45-minütiger Horrortrip, und damit auch ein Album, das an den Nerven und der Ausdauer der Hörer zehrt. Ein Album, das aus den tiefsten Wäldern Norwegens zu kommen scheint, und genau dorthin auch wieder verschwindet, ohne dass man genau weiß, was einen getroffen hat. Eine Unheimliche und vor allem unheimlich dichte Angelegenheit. Wahnsinnig, im doppelten Sinne." [Eikman, The Last Beat]
"This is Erik Skodvin's (one-half of Deaf Center) second full-length release for the Type label as Svarte Greiner. His debut Knive was a milestone in doom music. Taking a surprisingly acoustic route, he kick-started a sub-genre as he used cello, violin and rattling miscellanies to conjure up blood-curdling soundscapes. Kappe continues Skodvin's blackened underworld cruise, furthering his mysterious, cinematic sound. Through incessant touring, Skodvin has built up a distinctive live technique since the release of Knive and it is this which works as a spirit guide on Kappe. Travelling the dark corners of the world, Skodvin has explored every shadowed alleyway in his grasp, built up a collection of broken glove-puppets and potion-filled medicine bottles and trapped many a stifled scream in the process. Some of these disparate adventures were captured to cassette tape (Penpals Forever, Digitalis Limited) and wax disc (Til Seters, A Room Forever), but the most evil moments were set aside for this full-length record; four fated psalms in honor of the dark Northern lords. The album's opener "Tunnel Of Love" may be the noisiest piece Skodvin has produced to date with a death-rattle of chains accompanying his patented maritime bass drone. It sounds something like Death's gondola gliding through purgatory, gradually building into a dense, chattering cloud of torment before dropping into bleak stillness. Skodvin is joined by Ultralyd saxophonist Kjetil Møster who adds a disarmingly terrifying squeal to the horrifying detuned strings on "Candle Light Dinner Actress." The most startling change here is his incorporation of the electric guitar -- "Mystery Man" sees Skodvin harness the feedback into loops of distressing, pained melancholy, bringing to mind Skullflower or a slow-motion Sonic Youth at times. Kappe, however, is very much its own beast, and followers will already know that nothing sounds quite like Svarte Greiner. You won't find a more unsettling record this winter." [label info]
"... another mysterious missive, broadcast as always from some dark sonic underworld, courtesy of the man known as Svarte Greiner (Erik Skodvin to his mother), following the equally haunting and mysterious Man Beard Dress lp from the end of last year. As we've mentioned before, this is doom. But not doom as you know it. Not heavy and crushing and downtuned and distorted, instead, spectral and ghostlike, abstract and ambient, doom in vibe, intention, spirit, as much as in sound. It's not about riffs or beats, it's about mood and space and soul, and taking a cold hard look through the cracks into the crumbling wasteland that lies inside all of us... " [Aquarius Rec]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Penpals forever (and ever) |
CD |
"The first side (first two tracks) were originally issued on the Penpals Forever cassette on Digitalis in 2008, limited to 180 copies. Both tracks have been completely remastered. The remaining pieces are all new and exclusive to this release. Svarte Greiner is the nom de plume of Deaf Center's Erik K. Skodvin. Hailing from Norway, his solo efforts are always stripped bare, white-knuckle sojourns through dark, haunted ambient sonic corridors. Penpals Forever (And Ever) is the imaginary tale of a long dead Baroque painter and his telekinetic correspondence with a flightless bird. It feels archaic; experimental death marches circa 1622. Like Guercino's Et in Arcadia ego, once the end is realized, there's nowhere left to go. It's beyond our experience and sometimes you never recover from the shock. Despite its rather cheery title, Penpals Forever (And Ever) is another step toward the abyss. Musically sparse, Svarte Greiner finds new channels connecting desolate landscapes through ethereal nightmares. It is music best served cold. Chattering, looping guitar lines that feel like muscle being separated from bone slowly build into aching piles of aural dissonance. It's painful to a point. Recorded voices speak a language you can't understand underneath ominous, echoing single notes. Distant metal fragments scrape the dirt from detuned strings while a nefarious feathered minstrel bows dying instruments in the background. No hope left, death is just around the corner. As it ever was, Svarte Greiner is again weaving something deliciously sinister. This is music that is uncomfortably bare. Within its blood-stained confines, there is nowhere to hide. Skodvin's tangled, gnarled tale goes back and forth into infinity until it becomes clear that the flightless bird in question lives inside your skull. Drowning slowly into one's own twisted mind, Penpals is the soundtrack of loss; the procession of fears gradually becoming so overbearing that you can't escape your own demons." [label info]
www.digitalisindustries.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| SVARTSINN |
Of Darkness and Re-Creation |
CD |
"First in a series of collaborations between Ewers Tonkunst and Cyclic Law, this is a re-issue of long sold out second Svartsinn album from the year 2003. “Of Darkness And Re-Creation” is a “collection of stories based on heavy mind struggles, emotional complicity or elegies which either leads to emptiness or dark places for a re-creation of the self image. Darkness is all around us or inside each and every one of us, let¹s not fear it.. Prosper in darkness...” (from the original edition release notes). Maybe most hopeless and desperate music ever done by Svartsinn’s mastermind’s Jan Roger Pettersen, it is definitely one of the classical works from this “new” generation of dark ambient artists that were gathered around Cyclic Law in the first decade of 2000’s. This edition has completely new artwork and new mastering, it is limited to 500 copies and comes in a stylish monochrome mini LP-like cover with inner sleeve, both with some silkscreened elements." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/of-darkness-and-re-creation
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| SVASTI-AYANAM |
Sanklesa |
CD |
Wer sich schon immer eine Melange aus tibetischer Ritual-Musik und perkussiver ambient Industrial-Trance und dunklen Maschinen-Drones gewünscht hat, liegt bei SVASTI-AYANAM genau richtig ! Dies ist die Wiederveröffentlichung eines lange vergriffenen Albums von 1998 vom RAISON D'ETRE-Seitenprojekt, enthält 2 Bonus-Tracks!
"Svasti-ayanam is Peter Andersson's foray into dark, Tibetan-Nepalese ambience. Andersson is well known for his work as Raison D'etre, Atomine Elektrine etc. In this incarnation, his signature Raison D'etre sound has been modified in an incredibly pronounced, and effective way. Sanklesa is marked by strong tribal rhythms that draw the listener into distant, foreign, ritual soundscapes. Andersson has released a prolific catalogue of music, that includes many CD's, limited vinyl and countless compilation appearances. Album incl. 2 exlusive bonus-tracks." [label info]
www.eternalpride.ru
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| SVENSSON, PER |
Energy Loop / Element |
CD |
Zusammenstellung (21 tracks!) von diversen akustischen Experimenten, Kunstaktionen- & Klanginstallationen, und dröhnigen akustischen SoundExplorationen des schwedischen Künstlers PER SVENSSON, von 1987-1998. Exzellentes Material, als Soundquellen dienten unter anderem "electric grinder, theremin, sitar, electric welder, electric drill, steel tubes, bronze bells, hammer on anvil, etc etc". auf dem LEIF ELGGREN – Label.
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| SWANS |
The Seer |
do-CD |
"MICHAEL GIRA, Bandleader der SWANS, merkt zum neuen Album an: "THE SEER nahm 30 Jahre in Anspruch. Hierin gipfelt nicht nur jedes bisherige SWANS Album, sondern auch jegliche Musik, die ich jemals gemacht habe, an der ich beteiligt war und die ich mir jemals vorstellen konnte.
Und dennoch ist es unvollendet, wie die Songs selbst. Es ist ein einziger, lose schwankender, Rahmen, welcher verschwimmt, sich vermischt und letztendlich verschwindet.
Am Anfang der Lieder war nur eine Akkustikgitarre, dann kam die (unschätzbare) Hilfe meiner Freunde hinzu.
Anschließend wurden die Songs weiter gequält, während der Proben, der Live - Konzerte und im Studio verführt und nun erwarten die Lieder ein weiterer zwangsernährender Kannibalismus, weil wir uns darauf vorbereiten, einige davon live zu spielen.
An diesem Punkt werden sie entweder weiter mutieren oder für eine Weile zur Seite gelegt.
Egal, was ihr vielleicht gehört habt oder mutmaßen mögt, mein Anliegen ist, Licht und Freude in dieser Welt zu verbreiten.
Meine Bandkumpanen sind alle ausgezeichnete Menschen. Ohne sie bin ich bloß ein kleines Kätzchen.
Unser Ziel ist und bleibt das gleiche: Ekstase!" +++ Das Zustandekommen der Songs beschreibt GIRA wie folgt: "Auf THE SEER, AVE.
B BLUES, AVATAR und APOSTATE hört man den Songs an, dass wir uns während der Proben und den Tourneen ganz natürlich zu einer Gruppe entwickelt haben.
Die Songs haben während der letzten SWANS - Touren konstant entwickelt, was wiederum während der Studioaufnahmen eingefangen und abgöttisch liebevoll umgesetzt.
Die für das Album übriggebliebenen Songs wurden von Grund auf im Studio entwickelt. Unter Teilnahme und Einsatz aller beteiligten Musiker wurde alles von einer unsichtbaren Hand geführt. //
The Seer took 30 years to make. It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in, or imagined. But it’s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It’s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade.
The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live, and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.
Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I’m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy! —Michael Gira " [label info]
www.younggodrecords.com |
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
|
To be kind |
do-CD & DVD |
Freunde der musikalischen Trostlosigkeit dürfen sich auf Neues von den legendären Swans freuen. Mitte Mai erscheint ihr neues zweistündiges Doppelalbum "To Be Kind" via Mute. Mute hatte bereits in den Achtziger Jahren mit den Swans zusammengearbeitet und das klassische Werk "Children Of God" über das Sublabel Product Inc. veröffentlicht. Mit von der Partie sind diesmal mit St. Vincent, Cold Specks und Little Annie gleich drei illustre Gastsängerinnen.
Swans sign to Mute and release a new album 'To Be Kind'. 'To Be Kind' contains 10 new Swans songs that - like their Homeric last album, 2012's 'The Seer' - will punish and reward listeners for more than two hours. Some songs are quite melodic and the emotions are not so severe. The shortest song lasts eight minutes, the longest, whilst 'Bring the Sun,' is a full 35 minutes. Special Guests for this record include (among many others): Little Annie (Annie sang a duet with Gira on the song 'Some Things We Do', the strings for which were ecstatically arranged and played by Julia Kent); St. Vincent (Annie Clark sang numerous, multi-tracked vocals throughout the record); Cold Specks (Al contributed numerous multi-tracked vocals to the song 'Bring the Sun'); Bill Rieflin (honorary Swan Bill played too many instruments to list here, ranging from additional drums, to synthesizers, to piano, to electric guitar and so on. He has been a frequent contributor to Swans and Angels of Light and is currently playing with King Crimson).
Double CD - 10 Tracks.
CD / DVD - 10 Track Double CD plus a DVD of Swans live 2013 Primavera.
Triple Vinyl - 10 Tracks plus Download.
|
2014 |
€22.50 |
|
|
White Light from the Mouth of Infinity / Love of Life |
3 x CD |
"Swans continue their remastered reissues series on Mute / Young God Records with the release of White Light from the Mouth of Infinity and Love of Life on 4 December 2015.
The two albums will be initially released as a limited vinyl box set and presented in the original restored artwork, which includes paintings by Deryk Thomas. The 2500 micron black lined box - with original logo in silver foil block in black paper - will also include 2 rare posters, a CD of outtakes, rarities, contemporaneous live recordings and a download code for both albums.
The vinyl issue will include the track »Blind«, not included in the original release. Love of Life, the band's eighth studio album, followed soon after in 1992. According to Allmusic's Ned Ragget, »Love of Life continues the astounding creative roll Swans found themselves on … yet another Swans masterpiece.« The vinyl version of this album has also been unavailable since its original release.
Michael Gira recently announced that Swans are currently working on their last album in this »current incarnation«. The basic tracks and vocals were completed last month at Sonic Ranch studio in Texas with John Congleton as engineer, with Michael Gira producing. Further work will continue in Seattle and Berlin and the new album is expected to be released on Mute / Young God Records in late spring 2016." [label info]
|
2015 |
€22.50 |
|
| |
Leaving Meaning |
do-CD |
SWANS Leaving Meaning is the band’s fifteenth studio album, the follow up to 2016’s The Glowing Man and due for release by Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 25 October 2019. Leaving Meaning will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve, double CD in a brown chipboard digipack and digitally.
Listen to the first track from the album, ‘It’s Coming It’s Real’:
https://youtu.be/3ZVZo30M8Lc
Written and produced by Michael Gira, the album features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light as well as Guest Artists Anna and Maria von Hausswolff, Ben Frost, The Necks, Baby Dee, and a Hawk and a Hacksaw – full personnel list below.
Michael Gira explains, “Leaving Meaning is the first Swans album to be released since I dissolved the lineup of musicians that constituted Swans from 2010 – 2017. Swans is now comprised of a revolving cast of musicians, selected for both their musical and personal character, chosen according to what I intuit best suits the atmosphere in which I’d like to see the songs I’ve written presented. In collaboration with me, the musicians, through their personality, skill and taste, contribute greatly to the arrangement of the material. They’re all people whose work I admire and whose company I personally enjoy.”
“Here below are the primary contributors to Leaving Meaning:
Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic/electric guitar, production. I started Swans in NYC in 1982 and have been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. In the early years I played bass, but later switched to guitar. During the years of Swans hiatus (1999 – 2010), I released several albums by and toured with a group called Angels of Light.
Kristof Hahn – Lap steel, various guitars throughout, backing vocals, generous and insightful advice on mixes and arrangements. Kristof first became involved with Swans in 1989, was a principal contributor to Angels of Light, and a core Swans member 2010 – 2017. Kristof’s other musical ventures have included the Rock ‘n’ Roll Noir band Les Hommes Sauvages and Kool Kings (with Alex Chilton). He’s currently working on an instrumental record for Lawrence English’s label, Room 40. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science, and when Swans doesn’t pay the bills, he translates books for a living. Kristof’s presence, on and off tape, is pivotal to this record. Kristof lives in Berlin, Germany.
Larry Mullins – Drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals. Larry (AKA Toby Dammit) is a trained symphonic percussionist and all-around consummate musician. He played through the 90s with Iggy Pop and later with The Stooges. He played with Swans in the late 90s and was a main contributor to Angels of Light. He is rumored to have been involved with The Residents. His varied and numerous credits also include a stint with Silver Apples as well as recently, Shakespears Sister. His current main job is playing keyboards with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I decided immediately to ask Larry to contribute to Leaving Meaning after watching the German TV series Babylon Berlin, and suddenly, unbeknownst to me, there was Larry as the main focus of various cabaret scenes, drumming behind a huge kick drum in his inimitable style. After laughing in shock for perhaps half an hour, I decided to contact him. We hadn’t been in close touch for a long time and I’m elated I reached out. Larry lives in Berlin, Germany.
Yoyo Röhm – Electric bass, double bass, various keyboards, piano, backing vocals. Yoyo came to my attention through his work with Kristof and Larry in Berlin. In addition to his excellent bass playing, Yoyo’s ears were invaluable in helping to sort out many of the arrangements. Yoyo plays with numerous left field musicians around Berlin and also works with Mick Harvey on his Serge Gainsbourg recordings and tours. Yoyo, Larry, Kristof and I rehearsed in Berlin for 3 weeks prior to recording. Yoyo is a true Berliner – gruff and determined on the outside, a marshmallow inside. He was a great musical resource for this record.
The Necks – (Chris Abrahams – piano, organ; Tony Buck – drums, percussion; Lloyd Swanton – double bass). I have been an avid Necks fan since I first saw them perform at a Big Ears Festival in 2010. They subsequently played with Swans at a few shows in Australia. Their live performances and recordings are just about any superlative you can think of – mesmerizing, transcendent, sublime. Their music is entirely improvisational – it’s my understanding that they have no idea what they’re going to play before they start. And yet, mostly using rudimentary jazz trio instrumentation, they manage to fashion burgeoning and ever-evolving, immersive clouds of sound that utterly envelop the listener as the music unfolds. I’m beyond honored and humbled that they agreed to perform the basic tracks for 2 of my songs (The Nub and Leaving Meaning). Their performances were then delicately, and (I hope!) tastefully further orchestrated upon in Berlin. Tony lives in Berlin, and also played drums on the song Some New Things.
Anna and Maria von Hausswolff – Choral backing vocals. Anna is blessed with a soaring voice, lyrical acuity and increasing facility with the church organ. I was impressed recently to learn that she often travels around Europe and visits churches unannounced, where she talks her way into being allowed to use the resident organ – some of them rather massive, I imagine – and plays and explores for hours. Her searing records and live shows reflect the courage of her imagination and have garnered her increasing, much deserved recognition. Maria is an accomplished Swedish cinematographer and director of photography. In 2017 I heard Anna and Maria singing together at a sound check for a special song they were doing in Anna’s set, was instantly enthralled, and resolved at that moment to ask them to participate together on a Swans recording. I’m delighted they agreed to come to Berlin and record for me. They were a joy to work with! They live in Scandinavia.
Ben Frost – Guitar, synthesizers, sound manipulations. Ben’s adventurous sound-craftings, sometimes harrowing and sometimes delicate and quite musical, and his powerful live shows, have afforded him much recognition of late. I’ve also been highly impressed with his soundtrack work for the HBO series, Dark. He’s an extremely talented arranger and composer. His mission for this record was intentionally ill defined. I basically wanted his ears and sensibility, with no particular part or instrument in mind. I arrived at his studio in Reykjavik, Iceland, put up the songs, and he played what he thought a song needed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover his unique approach to the electric guitar as well as his synth work. Ben also was quite helpful with arrangement and mixing ideas. Ben lives in Iceland.
Baby Dee – Lead vocal on The Nub, supported by her friends Fay Christen and Ida Albertje Michels, and Jennifer Gira. Dee has released numerous records (one produced by Bonnie Prince Billie, I think), and if you don’t know them, you should! The first time I saw her she was riding a unicycle in circles outside the now-defunct Avant club, Tonic, in NYC, playing a ukulele (or accordion?) and singing with great mirth. I saw her set that night and was won over. She’s since toured with Swans several times. Her music could loosely be called neo cabaret, but more accurately she’s totally unique and a great performer and songwriter, graced with a powerful voice and high-end ability on the piano, accordion and more. I wrote The Nub specifically for her to sing. I was stymied for words to the main guitar figure to the song, and suddenly she popped into my mind, floating through the universe in diapers, sucking milk from the stars. The song wrote itself. Dee lives in The Netherlands.
Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost – Jeremy: Santur, hi-hat, fiddlesticks, accordion, engineering; Heather: Stroh violin, violin, viola, fiddlesticks, engineering. Together, Jeremy and Heather comprise the band A Hawk and a Hacksaw. (Jeremy played at one time with the bands Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut). Again, if you don’t know their music, you should! They’ve released several records. It’s Balkan/Gypsy influenced, somewhat psychedelicized, with great singing, playing and melodies. They’re each multi-instrumentalists and they intrepidly travel the world, both touring and simply exploring the Balkans, in search of adventure and master musicians of the region, some of whom they simply befriend, others whom they record. They toured with Swans a while ago, and I’ve had it in the back of my mind to ask them to record on a record since. I travelled to their home studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented the songs, and did the same thing I did with Ben – I said, “Now what?” You can hear them on several songs on the record, sometimes subtly, at other times more pronounced. In any event, it’s great to have such a pair of wonderful humans on the record.
ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS:
Dana Schechter – Dana played bass on the song ‘Some New Things’. Dana was a core member of Angels of Light. Her current band is Insect Ark. It’s rather heavy and great. Will be working with Dana more soon in the future and very pleased we reconnected recently.
Jennifer Gira – Backing vocals throughout and cameo vocal on Sunfucker. Jennifer has sung backing vocals on the past few Swans albums as well as lead vocal on the song When Will I Return? on the last Swans album, The Glowing Man. She’s also of invaluable help on mixing and arrangement decisions.
Cassis Staudt – Accordion and harmonium. Cassis was a core member of Angels of Light. She moved to Berlin some time ago and we lost touch. Cassis is a composer of music for films in Berlin. I’m very happy to be working with her again.
Norman Westberg – Electric guitar. Norman played on a few key moments on this record. Norman has been in and out of Swans since the beginning (mostly in) and was a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. We’ll continue to work together into the future, absolutely. Norman releases solo instrumental records through Lawrence English’s Room 40 label. We’re touring (each solo) together in Eastern Europe soon.
Christopher Pravdica – Bass guitar, sounds. Chris played at pivotal moments on this record. He was a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. We’ll continue to work together in the future, absolutely. Chris has recently been enlisted by Jamie Stewart for his band Xiu Xiu.
Phil Puleo – Phil played hammer dulcimer on the song Amnesia. This might be considered a severe underutilization of his considerable talents as a drummer, but there’s more to come quite soon. Phil was a core member in Swans 2010 – 2017 and played as a member of Swans in the late 90s and contributed to Angels of Light.
Thor Harris – percussion, trumpet, clarinet, sounds, bells, gizmos, additional vibes. Thor drove up from Austin to record for me at Heather and Jeremy’s place in Albuquerque. Always a highpoint to be in the presence of this committed musician and friend. Thor was a core member of Swans in 2010 – 2016 as well as Angels of Light. Certainly, more to come! Thor has his own happening combo, Thor and friends, and they make seductive and beautiful records and tour often. He also has recently been recruited by Jamie for Xiu Xiu.
Paul Wallfisch – Paul played piano to great effect here and there on the record. Paul was a touring member of Swans in 2017. He works with the glorious human chanteuse Little Annie. He’s also a musical director for theater productions in Germany, and recently landed a very fancy-pants job as musical director/composer for a theater production at a historical theater in Vienna.
Thanks to All!!!!
MG”
|
2019 |
€18.50 |
|
| SYBARITE |
Dolourous Echo |
7inch |
Dass BRAINWASHED auch immer ein Faible für gut gemachte Popmusik hatten, beweist diese Single von SYBARITE mit zwei warmen, weich melancholischen, harmonisch-fliessenden aber interessant gestalteten Elektro-Pop / IDM - Stücken....
“Two instrumental songs from Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Xian Hawkins. As Sybarite, he's released full-length albums on labels like Temporary Residence and 4AD and has had a number of singles and compilation tracks from labels all over the world. He is currently working on his second full-length album for 4AD. It's upbeat, amazingly well crafted and never wears out its welcome. www.brainwashed.com/sybarite blue vinyl !” [press release]
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| SYLVESTER ANFANG |
II |
CD |
"Verdammte Hippies! "Sylvester Anfang II" ist der authentischste, von Drogen zerfressendste, prallste, von gotteslästerlichem Hedonismus durchzogene Ausflug in die Zeit von Analogus Rex, den ich jemals gehört habe. Die Flamen spielen einen verqualmten Hippie-Jam, der sich gewaschen hat, oder eben nicht. Voller okkulter Mystik, ohne Plan, ohne Ziel. Krautrockjamsessions auf Acid während einem satanischen Ritus im Haus von Charles Manson. Gitarrengewaber, hypnotische Percussion, wummernder Bass, orientalische Harmonien, obskure Teufelsgesänge, altmodische Synthesizer, ein heißes Covergirl. Und der verrückte, dreckige Gesang von Clay Ruby alias BURIAL HEX im Hintergrund ist beim Zweiteiler "The Devil Always Shits in the Same Graves" sogar richtig furchteinflößend.
Irgendwie sind SYLVESTER ANFANG geil, irgendwie nicht nachvollziehbar. Ich glaube, im LSD-Rausch ist dies die ultimative Musik, herrlich unterproduziert, ohne Songs im eigentlichen Sinne, von ein paar Wahnsinnigen, die trashige Horrorfilme ein wenig zu ernst nehmen. Diese Verbindung von POPOL VUH und AMON DUUL ist allerdings ziemlich mutig, das Ganze auf eine Länge von fast siebzig Minuten auszudehnen, geradezu wahnwitzig. Vor allem laut aufgedreht und bei vollem Bewusstsein entfaltet "Sylvester Anfang II" ungeahnte Faszination, hauptsächlich bei Althippies und Typen, die letztes Wochenende auf einer harten Pilzmischung hängen geblieben sind." [Vampster]
"All things must evolve, and given time even the unicellular organisms dwelling in ocean's deepest fathoms may shift form and take to the skies. In celebration of the mysteries of evolution, Aurora Borealis proudly presents SYLVESTER ANFANG II. In the time since the release of Kosmies Slachtafval, Silvester Anfang have grown into SYLVESTER ANFANG II, a more psychedelic beast, a more tangible creature in some ways, but one that defies and confounds standard classification. Taking their cue from Krautrock communes of yore, the Flemish troubadours have expanded both ranks and minds and now present this giant new opus for general consumption. With cultish numbers swollen with new blood in the guise of Stef Anus (Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat), Father Sloow (Sloow Tapes pontiff), Bram (Ignatz) and Clay Ruby (Davenport, Burial Hex ), the sound is much fuller and more reminiscent of Krautish dope jams then ever before. Ruby's vocal additions create a whole new universe for the band, rather like if Dr. John had been born in a plague pit in Flanders, and the resulting tracks "The Devil Always Shits in the Same Graves" parts 1 & 2 are masterful examples of Flemish voodoo boogie. The new material is more hypnotic than before, and the band are sure to add new members to their fan cult as they slink across Europe like a fog in the coming months. Sure to upset parents and upstanding citizens with their occult themes and liberal Europeanstyle artwork, SYLVESTER ANFANG II reach new levels of consciousness with their mantras of goat worship and the orthodoxy of denial that states "Only analogue is real". Dust off your robes, sharpen the sacrificial blade, order in some Trappist beers... Tune in, turn on, evolve." [label info]
www.aurora-b.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SYLVIAN, DAVID |
The good Son vs. the only Daughter (The Blemish Remixes) |
CD |
"David Sylvian vergab die Remixaufträge des Materials seines von der Kritik bejubeltem Album
"Blemish" aus dem Jahr 2003 selbst. Dieses Album mit dem Titel "The Good Son vs. The Only
Daughter" enthält innovative Beiträge von Burnt Friedman, Yoshihiro Hanno, Ryoji Ideka, Akira
Rabelais, Readymade FC und einigen mehr." [label info / Galileo]
www.samadhisound.com
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| SYNAPSCAPE |
Again |
CD |
"the dynamic duo from bielefeld is back - one and a half years after 'now', tim kniep and philipp münch present another full dose of massive electronics for the mind and body.
tracks like 'who painted my cat black' and 'stuck' keep up synapscape's aural trademark: heavyweight interlaced polyrhythms, distorted textures and tim's non-reversible voice - an ecstatic mixture evolved to make you move! on 'countercroque' or 'requirement', crystal clear technoid detroit synth lines meet strictly accentuated beats, disturbing samples and captivating melodies. the more you listen to this album, the more details that will be visible. proper heavy engine!
the fascinating aspect of this project's work (since the beginning) is their ability to innovate in a genre in which many participants seem to restrict themselves - despite the countless amount of technical options. once 'again' synapscape assert their position as one of the most innovative artists of industrial music today. ahuenna!" [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| SYNAPSIS |
Materia |
CD |
Zoharum opens new serie IYHHH-CDs in limited edition 444 pieces. The main idea of this serie is to show interesting, remarkable music projects, which usually have their debut by this release.But we also wish to remind You about rare, unavailable materials of these projects, which have been existed on the music scene from longer time and their side-projects etc. We can say that the main purpose is to protect this wonderful, original music from the oblivion, but also to recall and refresh it to new audience and collectors.. Albums signed as IYHHH are released on CDs, packed in uncoventional ecopack in format similar to occasional card with added post card. Each part of the serie will be the same design but different cover and catalogue number.
"Second part of serie IYHHH.
Zoharum presents new project of Dawid Chrapla (Nojens / Antibiotix) and Andrzej Turziak (:Wulgata: , Multipoint Injector). The album shows compilation of various styles: industrial, dark ambient and noise Limited edition to 444 pcs" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| SYNDROME |
Now and Forever |
LP |
"Mathieu Vandekerckhove, mostly known for his work with Amenra. For years the self-taught musician learned and studied his craft of songwriting and sound scaping, mainly as a means to self exploration, meditation and attempts at channelling negative into positive energy, this while staying below the surface at all times.
Now 2012 marks a turning point for Mathieu Vandekerckhove and Syndrome as he steps forward, with the epic 28 minute long “Now And Forever”. Dedicated to his son Wolf, this track offers words of guidance and will grant you a look into the heart and soul of the artist. Close your eyes and hear the beating heart of pure artistic freedom.
First 75 orders will get an extra booklet with photography by Mathieu Vandekerkhove."
hypertensionrecords.com
"Gent in Ostflandern, Heimat AMENRAs und somit auch die von Mathieu Vandekerckhove. Der AMENRA-Gitarrist ist ebenso wie seine Kollegen ein Vielbeschäftigter. Die belgische Ausnahmekapelle und ihr ganzheitlicher Ansatz wussten im letzten Jahr gemeinsam mit NEUROSIS live dergestalt zu überzeugen, dass der amerikanische “Headliner“ an jedem Abend Vollgas geben musste, wollte die Band nicht von Vandekerckhove und den Seinen in den Schatten gestellt werden. Wer NEUROSIS kennt, weiß, dass sie diese Form der Herausforderung suchen und lieben.
Dass Eindruck zum Ausdruck wird, ist ein Wesenszug kreativen Wirkens. Die Belgier indes verzahnen künstlerischen Ausdruck und das eigene Leben eng. Nicht umsonst wird bei keiner Veröffentlichung auch nur ein Aspekt dem Zufall überlassen. Gleiches gilt für alle Projekte der in Gent Beheimateten – gleiches gilt somit auch für SYNDROME. Es geht die Geschichte, dass Vandekerckhoves Projekt einem Zuhause Experimentieren entsprungen sei, vor ca. sieben Jahren. Mit “Now And Forever“ liegt die mittlerweile dritte Veröffentlichung vor, ein Track mit einer Spielzeit von 28 Minuten. Das Stück bildet den Wandel ab, der sich in SYNDROME eingeschrieben hat und setzt sich aus Ambient, Drone, Doom und ja – Folkelementen zusammen. Unterstützung erfährt der Belgier von Bandkollegen Colin H. van Eeckhout und Josh Graham. Letzterer sollte als NEUROSIS-Mitglied und A STORM OF LIGHT-Kopf keiner weiteren Vorstellung bedürfen.
“Now And Forever“ startet mit einer eindringlichen Akkordfolge, die sanft von einem Drum durchklopft wird. Der vormals erwähnte Wandel drückt sich immer wieder in einer hohen Verdichtung der einzelnen Sounds aus, schnappt Versätze beinahe beiläufig und schichtet diese sorgsam auf, bereitet so auf das Hervorbrechende und Anstürmende vor, besänftigt diese und überführt sie kurz darauf wieder in mindestens zweimalige, versetzte Wiederholungen desselben Motivs. Die Intervalle des Motivs ändern sich stetig und befördern so den rauschhaften Charakter. Ab Minute neun gesellen sich Vandekerckhoves Brummvocal hinzu, um schließlich durch Colins helle Gesangsparts abgelöst zu werden. Immer bleibt die Gitarre leitend und gleicht dabei aber auch einem Katalysator. Sie senkt nicht nur die Aktivierungsenergie, sie überführt auch Dunkles in Klingendes, Tönendes. Reaktant dabei ist das Niederringende des Alltags, dass in das Ergebnis namens “Now And Forever“ expediert wird. Im Vergleich zu AMENRAs Wirkweise des “Hervorbrechens“ steht bei SYNDROME eher das Aufbrechen im Vordergrund. Wo dort die Ausdehnung, das Treiben und das Herauskommen definiert werden, geht es hier eher um ein Öffnen, ein Aufschließen und Durchstoßen. Das Ein- und Aufweichen von Strukturen geschieht entlang des beschriebenen Wandels.
Dabei findet der Hörer AMENRAs die anderen Projekte der Mitglieder in die Wertvorstellungen der Hauptband gut verfugt. Nicht umsonst haben die Belgier mit der CHURCH OF RA eine Form der Herangehensweise gewählt, die in Glaubenssystemen wurzelt. Ernsthaftigkeit ist dabei das Credo, fernab von Dogmen und Hierarchien der Entstehungsgrundlage, sondern vielmehr Basis für eine bedingungslose Hingabe, die Ergebnisse erschließt wie das vorliegende. Dort, wo eine Deckungsgleichheit von Handlungen erzeugt wird, entsteht eine Überzeugungsgemeinschaft, eine, die gemeinsam einen Pfad beschreitet, der an den wenig begangenen Weg Robert Frosts erinnert. Das, was dabei betreten wird, ist gesäumt von einem Streben nach Ganzheitlichkeit in Bild und Ton. Das dort im Verborgenen Schlummernde wird Stück um Stück freigelegt, hoch ist der Aufwand für dieses Abringen, jetzt und für immer." [S.L./Black Magazine]
"Nearly a decade ago, Syndrome came into the world through the Belgian mind of one Mathieu Vandekerckhove due to his need for a meditative vehicle through which he could release the negative energy in his life and transform it into something more constructive. This vehicle obviously existed in obscurity, laying dormant in silence for many years before taking on the attributes of droning post-rock and finding a home in 2011 with Belgian label ConSouling Sounds where Vandekerckhove has spent his entire career under this moniker to this point. Life was officially given to Syndrome when “Floating Veins” was released last June, finding availability in both a 12″ and a CD limited to 500 copies, of which the first 100 came with a bonus DVD-R of material. Other than that and “Now and Forever” here, the only other existing official Syndrome release is a three-way split with Monotonos and Sequences entitled “Fall of Man”. Outside of Syndrome, Vandekerckhove is otherwise known for his work as guitarist for sludge doom bands Kingdom and, more importantly, Amenra whom found a decisive home in Neurot Recordings a year ago. Unfortunately it seems that, despite a promised release of the new studio album “Mass V” a few months after signing, nothing has yet been unleashed.
This slow pace on Neurot may be what has freed Vandekerckhove to pursue his solo project in such depth, and that depth has found him constructing a one-track, 28 minute opus in dedication to his son, Wolf, for this release. What few words are present here exist as a guiding light for his son towards finding himself, finding strength, helping others, and knowing no matter how distant the expanse, be it physical or ethereal, his father is there in spirit. It’s an intimate portrait of the proverbial handing of the torch in blood, primal if not tribal in spirit. A tribal nature is in fact how this album opens, with a subtle light percussive notion — the only place on the entire album where you’ll find any hint of bombast behind the epic, weaving feedback drones that shimmer harmoniously before washing away in tides of a deeper, less tenuous drone that is textured lightly by gentle noise and guitar tones. These moments will eventually give way to the heart of the track that contains the lyrical content and the most desolate production within the release to give space for the vocals to express their stern, yet inert fragility. The deep performance here, both literally and emotionally, immediately reminds of efforts from several artists including Steve von Till and later Ulver, and whose building ethereal guitar nature is uncannily reminiscent of the gut-wrenching dreamy style that Love Spirals Downwards once achieved.
Other than the obvious emotions associated with succeeding at bringing a child into this world, there has to be something incredibly special on an entirely different, subconscious level about implementing those emotions into a dedication through music. It was a decade ago, this year, that Green Carnation released their acclaimed “Light of Day, Day of Darkness” album which was inspired by, at least in part, by the birth of Tchort’s son and the death of his daughter. Obviously there is a greater sense of melancholy in that record, but there is a very distinct yet undefinable emotion that accompanied that album — an emotion that is also present in full force here. It certainly isn’t melancholy, but it is reserved all the same — focused and incontrovertibly sincere. That said, it’s difficult to place the particular portion of the painting by Matthieu Ronsse, “Bateau”, that as used as the album cover, in regards to it’s significance to the subject matter at hand. It certainly fits in with the ethereal music of “Now and Forever”, and there are certainly ties in sound to the sea, but it is certainly cryptic at best in relation. The figure pictured has a ship’s flags linked to the inside corners of the eyes, almost representing tears, while the sail itself covers the mouth. The ship itself is on fire. There are many obvious lines of thought, but they seem to contradict one another once their paths cross.
Perhaps this is an explanation best saved for another article at another time. Regardless of the cryptic artwork though, it’s hard to imagine an album of this style achieving a level of perfection that rises above this. There’s simply such an incredible amount of intensity, love, and musical prowess at work in “Now and Forever” to find any kind of negative attributes within." [Sage/Heathen Harvest]
|
2013 |
€20.50 |
|
| SYRINX |
Outside the Life that's haunting me |
do-CDR |
"Second release for Dark Meadow Recordings... First run of 35 has no cat number on them as they have been printed before Dark Meadow Recordings was properly realised.
Syrinx - Outside the Life that's Haunting Me, Featuring Jon (Ghoul Detail), Dave (Glowingpixie), Ed, and Al (Calactus) on Distant.
Case hand made, numbered and with insert.
4 Track 2 x CDR, Artwork by Glowingpixie.
1st (54mins) "Distant" - lo-fi ambient drone track featuring Calactus on vocals.
2nd (7 mins) "Syrinx Love Song" - harsh ambient noise track.
3rd (36 mins) "Give Up!" - drone / harsh ambient track.
4th (30 mins) "There You Are" - electroacoustic drone track." [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Hunted: Without Tears in their Eyes |
CD-R |
"2 Track 70min, Harsh Ambient / Drone CDr... Syrinx is Glowingpixie, Ghoul Detail and Pink Venom, the 4th album Hunted: has dark drones, tons of texture and ambience. Artwork by Glowingpixie." [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| SYRINX / PLAYING WITH NUNS |
split |
maxi-CDR |
"2 Track 30 min... Harsh Ambient / Drone / Noise CDr... Reissue from Cubiculo Noise Recording label from Argentina, Featuring Playing with Nuns who organised the split and did the artwork. Slightly remastered from the original recordings... Syrinx - Dave on Bass / Trumpet / Electronics, Ed on Guitar, Keyboards, Jon on Guitar. Limited to 80 copies." [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| SYSSELMANN |
Ritual of the Aurora Noir |
CD |
Winter-Light warmly welcomes Norwegian artist 'Sysselmann' to our label, with the release of his latest venture into darker realms, 'Ritual Of The Aurora Noir' E.P. This is Sysselmann's third release to date, having previously brought out 'The Northern Chronicles' and 'Live at Mir' on the Norwegian label, Tipi Token Records.
The Sysselmann project was born on a tiny island, in the north of Norway, after experiencing 7 severe winter storms, in as many days. He describes his debut album 'The Northern Chronicles', as being '...a tribute to the collective consciousness of the northern parts of Norway..... A celebration of the magical coastal landscape and those who came before us."
A celebration of those who came before us..... Music with it's roots so deeply embedded in the history of his own land, that it gives rise once again to the myths and legends of the ancients. A modern ode to the might and power of the land of the Norse men and women.
On 'Ritual Of The Aurora Noir' we are treated to the full arsenal of Sysselmann's audio armoury. From the first mountain-shaking horn blast to the heavy rhythmic thunder of crashing drums. Through throat singing, the serpent-like coiling of warm drones and the heart felt synth stabs that conjure up and offer a glimpse in to the past. A window into another time and age, long since past but never to be forgotten.
Sysselmann has always been true to the meditative sound, using his field recordings as a major tool in his work. Nowadays, he employs more organic field recordings and uses these in combination with acoustic instruments. Sysselmann's magical live performances are accompanied by an array of hand made pipes and horns, which he also uses to effect in the studio.
4 track E.P. with a running time of 32:02 mins.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/ritual-of-the-aurora-noir
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS |
The Chiasmus |
CD |
"Nicholas' debut CD is much more than an impeccably constructed piece of abstract drone music: The Chiasmus undulates between waves of quiet melancholy and overwhelming beauty, with small slices of pointillistic noise. an album where the emotional response is always the central focus rather then pure aesthetic concerns, the nuances of The Chiasmus are only revealed upon multiple listens; by then, the listener is completely tuned into the world it presents. packaged in a jewel with a 16 pages booklet of art by Avery McArthy." [label info]
"... We mostly know him as the owner of Sentient Recognition Archive label, who produce some professionally packed CDRs of the moody, textured drone music around. I think this is the first time I hear his music. Its hardly a surprise that he creates such music himself. Drone music with a big D. Szczepanik seems to be drawing inspiration from all over the place. Through calm and atmospheres, he isn't too shy about breaking away from that and offer a louder end of his excursions. Things buzz and drone and sometimes bite your ear. Think a louder Organum meeting the softest Machinefabriek. The softer moments are the best, I think, but the louder bits (a minority here) provide a great counter point. Maybe a bit long, but very nice." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"A split release between bad ass French microlabel Basses Frequencies, and Szczepanik's own Sentient Recognition Archive label, The Chiasmus is Szczepanik's latest collection of dronology, and the first proper cd we've had (quite possible his first proper cd release
entirely). We've long been fans, being the dronelords and ladies we are around these parts, and past Szczepanik joints have demonstrated a mastery of the drone, creating surprisingly lush and lustrous expanses of low end minimalism. On The Chiasmus, Szczepanik continues to move ever deeper, ever darker, five long tracks, each a different variation of drone, drifting from minimal black shift, to near Pop Ambient bliss.
Record opener is cavernous, epic, Teutonic and slow shifting, peppered at the beginning with bits of glitch and hiss, the song soon settles into an uneasy sprawl, ominous and dangerously grim, but still somehow warm and expansive and enveloping. The second track shifts gears completely, unfurling a gauzy bit of chordal shimmer, all warm and sun dappled and delicate and gauzy, gentle tranquil melodies played out over minutes instead of seconds, a little Eno for sure, as the song drifts and flutters and hovers dreamily in midair. The final three tracks hover somewhere in between, deep moaning post industrial whirs laid over dense metallic buzz, the two layers slowly seeping into one another like some blackened sonic spill, deep bell like tones ring out, their tones frozen in time and stretched out into softly undulating sheets of sound, slightly reflective and iridescent and
kaleidoscopic, glimmering and glistening underneath some alien black sun, and finally, a loooooooong stretch of grinding muted buzz,
spreading out in slow motion, it's black shimmer infused with streaks of melody, as if some strange black seas was slowly growing warmer and coming to life before our ears.
Fantastic, gorgeous stuff. Essential listening for the drone obsessed..." [Aquarius Records review]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS & JUAN JOSE CALARCO |
Lack Affix |
CD |
"Lack affix isn’t so much about one particular location as it is an homage to the memories of the places we can’t vividly remember. This is about the imagery conjured when certain senses are triggered. It’s about our mind’s recreations of memories past; at once familiar, but also different in some inexplicable way. (Nicholas Szczepanik) Washington DC
-
Since a couple of years I’ve been living in different areas very far from the centre of the city and for Lack Affix I tried to capture this particular feeling I used to get during the nights by the time I lived at the most overcrowded districts; those extremely distant-blurred sounds of night activities as trucks delivering boxes, police helicopters, construction sites working on full hours, gas stations filled with taxis coming and going but mostly that undefinable, abyssal texture of a huge city at very late hours.
As Nicholas was sending me his re-works on my raw stuff and his own recordings for me to work on, we went more into this direction. So, I focused even more on recordings from the same streets and specially from terraces and inside subway entrances to reconstruct the sounds as I used to hear them those times ago; hopefully, even to recover some peaceful sensation I’ve never felt again so far, no idea if related with the dulling sound of those crowded districts or not. (Juan José Calarco)
Buenos Aires, Argentina"
[label / website info]
www.unfathomless.net
"The third release in the Unfathomless series is a duo release of two artists bringing sounds to the table from their own places. Nicolas Szczepanik from Washington and one Juan Jose Calarco from Buenos Aires. They traded these sounds and then started to work on processing these. This resulted in the three pieces on this CD. Its hard to recognize the busy urban life in these pieces. Just as much as you would guess, this could also be the sounds from a small village. Unless of course they stuck out their microphones in the middle of the night, picking up the remains of the day and the birds of the night. Occasionally they work towards a crescendo, but even then its not easy to spot the city. Not that I care about this, I must say. They come up with music that has a lot to imagine about. Great field recordings, and great processing of the sounds. They do an excellent job, mixing all of this together, with great clarity and lots of detail. The sound bounces all over the dynamic spectrum.
If you like say Francisco Lopez, then you're bound to like this too. Highly refined soundscapes." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| SZKIEVE |
Ekranoplanes |
mCD |
Fast schon “elektro-akustisch” nennen kann man diese komplexen synth / elektronischen / konkreten sieben Miniaturen des HUSHUSH-Labelbetreibers aus Kanada.... zum genauen Zuhören, für das aurale Kino im Kopf bestens geeignet!
“szkieve is dimitri della faille who founded the project in 1998. besides several szkieve releases, dimitri has also collaborated with martiens go home and vromb, and made a split-vinyl with ammo. szkieve's music is made of intense and complex compositions that assemble rich textures and expansive sounds. this is then combined with chords, string melodies and high-pitched synthetic tones. szkieve's sound explorations could be described as 'scientific', comparable to the works of modern electronic composers. but instead of 'dry, academic experiments', szkieve transforms moods into music and the result is quite unusual for this genre. 'ékranoplanes' is a concept work: because they require huge amount of resources and money, science and technologies have always been at the mercy of politics. this mini cd is a study of a lost technology of the former soviet union. that is, the futuristic vision of one man confronted by the needs of a country engaged in a battle for the world. ékranoplanes are the platypus of transportation, they are both planes and boats or something entirely else. these incredible monsters of steel and oil broke the waves of the caspian sea while intelligence around the world were still trying to figure out what they were. made of tons of rivets, motors and grey matter - those having the chance to spot such a special animal never forgot the sound of its metal bouncing on water or its wings cutting the air. with this release, szkieve renders the grandeur of this forgotten technology and pays a tribute to the developments of modern science.” [press release]
|
2005 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
Chants et Danses Folkloriques des Hauts Plateaux |
CD-R |
Nach der "Ekranoplanes" mCD auf Ant-Zen was neues vom Belgo-Kanadier SZKIEVE, er verwendet auf den neun Stücken analog-synth sounds, schillernde organ drones & haufenweise field recordings, die mit bestimmten Plätzen & Geschichten Ekuadors verbunden sind.
Abwechslungsreiche Soundgemälde...
"Experimental sound composer from Belgium, actually he is living in Canada. Dimitri Della Faille the man behind Szkieve started with his project at 1998 also, he founded on this year Hushush label. Szkieve has performed some concerts in Europe, America, Japan & China, previous records were released at Hushush label, Ant-Zen, Ad Noiseman and others. This new record enclose an amazing mixture of deep sounds with some short ambient parts on 9 tracks. Each track title has a reference about old Ecuadorian stories of different places. Limited edition of 300 copies, full color art works & packaged in PVC sleeve." [label info]
www.rapeartprods.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| SZMT |
Parvenu |
CD |
Parvenu is a work about authoritarian structures and developments.
The narrative is abstract, all sounds are concrete. Every single sound on this recording is based on recordings from three bee hives.
Track List:
Sometimes She Had Melancholic Memories of Her Larval Stage – 11:48
His Primary Role Was to Mate with the Fertile Queen – 9:04
The General Skepticism of the Constitutional Monarchy Was Justified as New Forms of Authority Surfaced – 15:11
The Surviving Virgin Queen Hid in the Shadows of Her Former Kingdom – 11:37
www.gruenrekorder.de
"Behind szmt (no capitals needed) is Tobias Schmitt, better know, I think, as Suspicion Breeds Confidence, but also an improviser and organiser of concerts. As szmt he “contextualizes seemingly contradictory material and techniques. All input is equal and will be formed into a coherent but nevertheless open to misinterpretation result by means of improvisation and composition” and for
‘Parvenu’ we read that it is a “work about authoritarian structures and developments. The narrative is abstract, all sounds are concrete. Every single sound on this recording is based on recordings from three bee hives”, in which context I guess the whole authoritarian structures becomes funny. When I played this yesterday for the first time I didn’t look any of this up, nor could I really decipher the font
on the cover and decided to give it another try, another day, which turned out to be today. Now that I know I am hearing the processed sound of bees, it sounds like something very obvious, but I guess that’s always the case. I assume that Schmitt is armed with a laptop and sound processing tools that lie within those machines to compose the four pieces on this CD. It is shimmering, quiet, sometimes loud, sometimes very processed, beyond recognition and then sometimes it seems to be fairly close to
what is really a recording of a bee. Most of the times it sounds like the work of microsound, that active music force from a decade ago, but in the case of szmt that is perhaps 2/3 of the story. In “The General Skepticism of the Constitutional Monarchy Was Justified as New Forms of Authority Surfaced” (all four
titles are that weird, indeed), Schmitt let’s his bees do a dance, and while not really techno music, or perhaps something we could or should dance too, there is surely some kind of groove to be detected.
Schmitt’s work reminded me of Roel Meelkop, Marc Behrens and that posse, but he added his own
twist by allowing a more loop based structure, working his processing around those, calling for
minimalist developments within each piece. It’s these perhaps not so big differences that actually made it stand out from the microsound as it was before and made it into something he can call his." [FDW/Vital Weekly]
"Gruenrekorder recordings are often filled with surprises, and szmt’s Parvenu is no exception: the brainchild of Tobias Schmitt, the forty-eight-minute release was created entirely using sounds derived from three bee hives. Given the szmt description provided, Schmitt, who also issues material under the Suspicion Breeds Confidence alias (e.g., The Fauna and Flora of the Vatican City) and has contributed to a number of releases on the label over the years, would appear to be somewhat of a provocateur. szmt, we’re told, “contextualizes seemingly contradictory material and techniques” such that all input is “formed into a coherent but nevertheless open-to-misinterpretation result by means of improvisation and composition.”
In the case of Parvenu, four long-form explorations are presented, each carrying with it a wordy title, the lengthiest “The General Skepticism of the Constitutional Monarchy Was Justified as New Forms of Authority Surfaced.” The material’s predictably abstract and amenable to interpretation, the listener free to conjure any number of possible interpretations in response. Occasional moments of insect swarm and buzzing do surface, but for the most part Schmitt’s treated the original recordings like so much raw material ready to be liberally shaped and transformed.
As the recording plays, it’s impossible to predict what direction it’ll take; at one juncture, a writhing, industrial-inflected rhythm pattern begins to assert itself before a swathe of smears abruptly takes its place. Elsewhere, amplified chirping, grinding, and warbling noises suggest a microphone moving in closely on the hive and its inhabitants, with rutting sounds of indeterminate origin implying activity of some (re)productive kind occurring within. Tinged with sci-fi bleeps, a few ambient-like episodes arise that one would perhaps misidentify as synth-generated were one unaware of the production methodology involved, and strange though it might sound, that aforementioned track, especially when it features clattering beat elements, threads sequences into its fifteen-minute frame that aren’t unlike what one might encounter in an early Autechre experiment.
A number of possible descriptions come to mind, but experimental soundsculpting might be the best and simplest fit for what’s going on here. Such experimentation is business as usual at Gruenrekorder central, of course, as long-time followers of the label already know. As strange to outsiders as Parvenu will be, to Gruenrekorder fans such weirdness is nothing more than standard operating procedure." [Texture] |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| SZYMCZUK, MACIEK |
Clouds |
CD |
"The next Maciek Szymczuk album Clouds sees the light of the day on 28th February and it is a logical and perfect continuation of contemplative motives from its predecessor called Ways. Although the cover shows only Maciek's name, the album is filled with guest appearances which add energy and ideas to the 14 compositions gathered here.
The music on Clouds is changeable, just like the nature of this weather phenomenon. At one point it is delicate and ethereal, when at the other it is stormy and dark (as signified on the cover.) With all its diversity, all the tracks form one coherent whole which helps to relax and meditate a bit. With more focus on atmosphere than bouncy rhythms, Clouds is more of a soothing experience.
The release date is not insignificant - it is the birthday of Maciek. But it is the listeners we are having presents for. The first 100 copies of Clouds will include a special bonus CDR called Rare Species Vol. 1 which will contain renditions of Clouds tracks (prepared by Andrew Lagowski, Blare For A, Dead Factory, Michael Hoffmann and Xenoton), remixes by Maciek Szymczuk (done for kIRk and Echoes of Yul among the others) and, apart from those, compilation and unreleased tracks.
All together gathered on one disc, so it is quite a treat." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| SÖTEMANN, CHRISTIAN H. |
Golden Ether |
CD-R |
Nice new work by C. SÖTEMANN, known for his minimal spheric guitar works, (i.e. EE Tapes)..
“a repetitive, hypnotic ambient solo guitar track with lots of delay clouds, recorded track in 2001, presented in a forwards and backwards version: differing from another, but still forming an organic whole. well suited for meditation, but not exclusively.” [label info]
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| TAGG, DAVID |
Pentecost |
CD |
"When the hard work of the day is done, and you go home and begin your nightly routine of winding down, there are only so many things that reciprocate that relaxed stillness. Here at Install, we're happy to say that we have the exact soundtrack for many of your sleepy evenings to come: David Tagg's newest album PENTECOST. Following in the wake of his Cold Spring Harbor EP, and utilizing a process that included using his grandfather's reel-to-reel tapes of organ playing for source sound, David has created what could be described as an "ambient novel". A superbly vivid work of musical nonfiction that tells the stories of 1000 photographs, long since forgotten memories and a crackling, eroded legacy, now exhumed from the dusty wine cellars of Tagg's sentimental estate. What all this wholly amounts to is a landmark recording, full of cool, subdued tones and soft shadowy movements. PENTECOST could be David's strongest ambient moment, if not only for consistency, but also for potency." [label website info]
www.installsound.net
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS |
Live |
LP |
"1972 was a busy year for Japan’s favourite experimental rock band. After several months
spent touring Europe, group leader Takehisa Kosugi (currently music director for the Merce Cunningham dance company in the USA) decided to make good on the band’s name and embark on a monumental voyage across Europe and Asia, driving a VW bus from Rotterdam all the way to the Taj Mahal in India! Amazingly, the band got as far as Pakistan before having to fly the rest of the way to the Taj Mahal due to border restrictions. By July of 1972 the band was back home in Japan, and still playing non stop! The three tracks on side A were recorded live during this historic tour, while side B was recorded a year later at the famous Oz Club in Tokyo, during a five day music festival celebrating the venue’s final days.
Track list - Side A: 1. Live in Aarhus, Denmark, 12 March 1972 2. Live in France, 10 April 1972 3. Live at Cape
Manazuru, Japan 20 July 1972
Side B: 1. Live at the Oz Club, Tokyo, Japan, 30 August 1973" [label info]
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI |
Action Direct |
CD |
„Takayanagi, ebenso wie Frith oder Rowe ein „Alter“ an der Gitarre zwischen Improvisation und Komposition, entwickelte sein hier vorgestelltes Tischgitarrenkonzept in den frühen 80er Jahren. Diese Wiederveröffentlichung einer längst vergriffenen Live LP von 1985 zeugt von einem wiederum ganz eigenen Stil in dieser Spielart. Zwei Walkmen, Mixer, Effektgeräte und zwei Gitarren, eine mit Kontaktmikrophonen bestückt und eine auf dem Tische liegend, Buttermesser, Säge, Streicherbogen etc. zur Bearbeitung, Zuspielbänder mit Stimmen von Mishima Yukio, Hitler und anderen Märschen, Eimert, Wagner sowie Industriesounds dienen Takayanagi zur Herstellung seiner Collagen/ Montagen. Trotz der Fülle an Mitteln, ist sein Stil druckvoll und wohl überlegt. Man hat die Gitarre stets vor Augen und „sieht“ beim Hören doch mehr und weiter. Jeder seiner Eingriffe, jede neue Geräuschlage wirkt hochkonzentriert und bar jeder Hektik. Gitarrenimprovisationen jenseits von Jazz und/oder Neuer Musik. Schönes Foldout-Cover und ein Minibooklet mit Linernotes von Alan Licht und Johan Wellers./
Like Frith or Rowe, Takayanagi is an „oldtimer“ on guitar playing between improvisation and composition. He developed his concept of table guitar in the early 80ties. This rerelease of a long time sold out live LP from 1985 shows his very own style in this genre. 'The instrumentation (...) consisted out of two walkmans, a mixer, various effect pedals and two guitars, of which one was wired up with contact microphones, while the other was stretched out across the table, manipulating its sound with effects while using a bowstring and other utensils like butterknifes and chains (...) modulated tapes of music by Wagner, Eimert and Eissler, snippets and fragments of of speeches by Mishima Yukio, Hitler and accompanying Nazi marches, pieces of a Richard Wagner opera, Sergei Prokofiev’s second symphony and sound bits of industrial machinery and other heavy industries were put to use'(from the linernotes) to create the sonic collages/ montages. In spite of the abundance of sound sources his music is powerful and well-considered. Always the guitar in your eye while listening you „see“ more and further. Every step, every noise layer seems high concentrated and cool. These are guitar improvisations beyond Jazz and/ or New Musik. Nice foldout jacket included a small booklet with linernotes from Alan Licht and Johan Wellers.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
"The CD version is carefully crafted and housed in a deluxe fold out sturdy carton mini-LP styled record sleeve (hand numbered) complete with fully detailed and extensive liner notes by Alan Licht and Johan Wellens." [label info]
|
2005 |
€20.00 |
|
| TALVIHORROS |
Descent into Delta |
CD |
"A year passes by and finally Talvihorros is back with his latest album Descent Into Delta to be released on both vinyl and CD. The man behind this one man guitar driven excursion is London based Ben Chatwin who in addition to hibernate has had material released through Benbecula, My Dance The Skull and our sister label Rural Colours. Despite only recently forming the Talvihorros project in 2008, Chatwin has been experimenting with sound ever since he first picked up a guitar as a teenager. His live performances have seen him share a stage with the likes of Tim Hecker, Stephan Mathieu and Ian Hawgood to name just a few. Chatwin has to this point juggled live performances and studio work as two separate entities with studio material being culled from sounds derived from as many different instruments as possible and live performances being restricted to just guitar and pedals.
Descent Into Delta marks the blurring of the lines which separate these two disciplines. It was live performance that ignited the production of this record, which began life as a series of live improvisations, these were then selected and edited over a long period of time. During the mixing process the concept to Descent Into Delta was born and it slowly developed through many hours of editing and arrangement. Chatwin became interested in different states of mind, realising it actually produces frequencies or waves - much like sound, itself. When the mind is alert, awake or anxious, these waves are Gamma, at the other extreme, during deep sleep, Delta waves are produced. It was in turn Chatwin's intention that the sounds of Descent Into Delta would loosely depict a journey from Gamma through to Delta, as a kind of experiment to see whether the listener could be subconsciously encouraged to trace this path through sound.
Towards the last few moments of the album on the last track 'Delta', Chatwin was joined by viola player Anais Lalange who added a subtle but effective impact to the closing stages of this record. The addition of this instrument brings a whole new dimension and texture to the guitar explorations of Talvihorros." [label info]
www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
"Back in Vital Weekly 731 I reviewed the first CD by Talvihorros, also known as Ben Chatwin, a man with a guitar and effect pedals. He has had a couple of other releases, which I didn't hear. Up until this album there was a separation between live concerts and studio work. In his studio he would be using whatever sounds he could produce from whatever instrument, but live he was restricted to guitar plus effects. For this new studio album he took many hours of live playing into the studio and then started to edit and arrange this. Of his previous release on Hibernate I thought it was all quite ambient, but on this new one, things are less strictly defined. The guitar is overall a dominant factor for this, and its played at times in a more improvised way, feeding through bundles of sound effects. That results at times in menacing walls of sound such as in 'Beta', in which it reaches for the ambient doom of Nadja. Darkness is anyway something that lingers in all five pieces here, even in its more introspective and quiet moments, such as the very beautiful 'Delta', which has a nice viola to it. One could say that with this album Talvihorros found more a voice of his own than on the previous. Blending ambient with the improvised textures of ambient doom/metal into five fine tapestries of sound is very nice, though not unheard before, but a fine move indeed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Music in four Movements |
LP |
"Talvihorros is Ben Chatwin, an experimental composer from London exploring the possibilities of the guitar.
Music in Four Movements is his second full-length album. Here's what Ben had to say about the record: With 'Music in Four Movements' I set out to compose four long pieces of music that would act as suites rather than shorter melodic songs as I had done on my previous record 'Some Ambulance'.
Using longer time frames afforded the sounds time and space with which to evolve and move.
This has led to what could be labelled as my most ambient work i have released but I think also the most intense.
Throughout the recording process I became interested in the fundamental ideas of life and death and why people would choose to take their own lives, (reading 'The Road' on a day long train back to London from Scotland, hungover after New Year certainly contributed to this).
Slowly a narrative presented itself and the 4 tracks started to represent a journey of the final days of someone who has chosen to end everything.
I became particularly interested in reading stories about people who drowned themselves in rivers or the sea - a bleak yet strangely beautiful image of someone walking their final walk into the sea became a strong visual influence for the record.
VINYL: thick gatefold covers, 180g vinyl, free mp3 download code." [label info]
www.denovali.com
"...Ambient music with a big A and a big D of drone. Four long pieces of highly melancholiac guitar playing, feeding through loop devices and dark thoughts. The album is inspired by people drowning in water, which is perhaps not the most joyful thing to start a new day with. But Chatwin's music is quite nice. Think a very mellow Fear Falls Burning, but then with lots of dark colors, predominantly grey and black. Its not the biggest surprise in the world of this kind of music, but Chatwin does his version with great consideration. Quite nice indeed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
|
And it was so |
LP |
"Talvihorros is London based composer Ben Chatwin's study of guitar and electronics. Numerous techniques are used to coax a myriad of sounds from both acoustic and electric guitars. Home-made and vintage electronic equipment are used to loop, process and manipulate improvised material into dense and dark sound collages. What started out as a personal challenge to make an album in 7 days grew into something else entirely. Over a year in the making, and expanding his trademark guitar sound with drums, strings, bells, organs and synthesisers, 'And It Was So' features contributions from fellow label mates Field Rotation (violin) and Petrels (cello) along with tour partner Jordan Chatwin (drums/percussion) and long time collaborator Anais Lalange (viola). If last years album 'Descent Into Delta' was reminiscent of plunging into the murky depths, his latest offering 'And It Was So' evokes the expansiveness, dynamicism and density of the cosmos. Attempting to find order in chaos is something Talvihorros has been striving to achieve over the past three albums and he has never balanced these elements so beautifully. Merging the textural noise of Tim Hecker with psychedelic, guitar sound-sculpters such as Barn Owl and Sun Araw.
Vinyl: thick sleeves + thick printed inner sleeves; 180g vinyl; free download code." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
And it was so |
CD |
"Talvihorros is London based composer Ben Chatwin's study of guitar and electronics. Numerous techniques are used to coax a myriad of sounds from both acoustic and electric guitars. Home-made and vintage electronic equipment are used to loop, process and manipulate improvised material into dense and dark sound collages. What started out as a personal challenge to make an album in 7 days grew into something else entirely. Over a year in the making, and expanding his trademark guitar sound with drums, strings, bells, organs and synthesisers, 'And It Was So' features contributions from fellow label mates Field Rotation (violin) and Petrels (cello) along with tour partner Jordan Chatwin (drums/percussion) and long time collaborator Anais Lalange (viola). If last years album 'Descent Into Delta' was reminiscent of plunging into the murky depths, his latest offering 'And It Was So' evokes the expansiveness, dynamicism and density of the cosmos. Attempting to find order in chaos is something Talvihorros has been striving to achieve over the past three albums and he has never balanced these elements so beautifully. Merging the textural noise of Tim Hecker with psychedelic, guitar sound-sculpters such as Barn Owl and Sun Araw. Cd: nice digipak packaging." [label info]
www.denovali.com |
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| TAM QUAM TABULA RASA |
Fabula Rasa |
CD |
"Und dann ist es doch noch passiert! Über 15 Jahre nach den ersten Cassetten erscheint endlich die erste full-length CD der italienischen (for me at least) KULT-Gruppe! Auf 6 Stücken breitet sich hier ihr typischer, auf endlos-loops basierender hypnotischer Sound aus.. weniger noisig als auf älteren Cassetten, ist dies eine würdiges erstes Album!" [Drone Rec. info 2001]
„First widely distributed CD from this well travelled Italian group. Obscure ritual sounds utilizing loops, restrained feedback, natural sounds, bells, various percussive elements and droning tones. At times hypnotic and flowing, other times more creepy, abrasive and cold. Sexually graphic artwork.” [label info]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Cotidie Morimur (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
released March 1995
lim./numbered first edition of 250 copies. Individually symboled P.E. sleeves & printed covers; dark blue vinyl
“WHILE STILL RELATIVELY UNKNOWN, THIS ITALIAN GROUP HAS BEEN ACTIVE SINCE 1988 AND MANAGED TO RELEASE SOME OUTSTANDING UNIQUE SOUNDING TAPES IN THE INTERNATIONAL/ EXPERIMENTAL TAPE-SCENE. DRONE RECORDS IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE VERY FIRST VINYL RELEASE OF T.Q.T.R., A 7" EP FEATURING THE TRACKS 'DYSKRASIA' AND 'ATAXIA'.
THEIR MYSTERIOUS AND MONOTONIC MUSIC CAN IN OUR OPINION BE TRULY CLASSIFIED AS REAL ARCHAIC MUSIC, EVOKING EMOTIONS OF AN ANCIENT AND FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTER. FOCUSING DEEP INTO THE GROUND OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, THEIR MUSIC IS A KIND OF ARCHETYPICAL EXPRESSION THAT IS TIMELESS AND AESTHETIC. PERHAPS TO UNDERSCORE THE QUALITY OF THEIR MUSIC AS ITS OWN SECRET LANGUAGE, THE BAND INSISTS ON USING LATINS FOR THEIR TITLES. THIS EP SHOWS THE GROUP WORKING ON A MORE RHYTHMIC MODE, WITH URGENT DRONES AND STRANGE HARMONIES CREATING AND ATMOSPHERE OF NATURAL MYSTICISM – MIRRORING THE NEVER UNDERSTOOD FORCES WITHIN ONESELF. Cotidie morimur. Cotidie demitur aliqua pars vitae.”
[label info]
|
1995 |
€6.00 |
|
| TAMING POWER |
Twelve Pieces |
10" |
Der wohl auflagenstärkste Release bisher von dem norwegischen Geheimtip TAMING POWER - und wieder eine 10" ! Der Nachfolger von THREE PIECES und SIX PIECES beginnt mit kleinen Minimalismen jeweils für eine Solostimme, in Form von Gitarre, Casio-Synth & Zither... Auf Seite B aber finden sich weitaus komplexere & dronigere Stücke, wo Instrumentalflächen-Sounds übereinander geschichtet werden - das erinnert dann mehr an die schönen "three pieces" und "six pieces"- 10"es...
Die Coverartwork (handgeschriebene Labels & Credits, etc.), die Musik - all das strahlt einen sehr persönlichen DO IT YOURSELF - Geist aus, abseits von jeglichen Trends kreiert hier jemand sein eigenen kleinen Kosmos.
"Until now releases by Taming Power, and there has been quite a few, were highly limited editions of around 150 copies, but this new one is released in an edition of 525 copies: the pressing plant don't do any less anymore. A pity since Taming Power has to 'sell out' before making anything new, so this might be one of the last before some time. Taming Power, the musical project of Askild Haugland from Oslo, Norway, is a man who loves drones, but as you can tell by the title these don't have to be long. Twelve pieces on a 10". The seven pieces on side one are short, sketch like pieces, played on the guitar, zither and keyboards. Haugland feeds the sound through a little bit of reverb, fortunate not enough to drown the sound, but to make the whole thing a bit 'rounder'. The pieces are simple melodies, effective and work best when played on the guitar. The keyboard pieces are bit less in quality I thought. The five pieces here are more complex, layered sounds, more sound effects, and effectively more drone related in the way people associate this with drones. Layered sounds, with the usual analogue means of Taming Power (who works with tape recorders rather than computers), these pieces are more along the lines of his recent works. Complex, drone based, this is some damn fine music going on. It would be a pity not see any new thing from him in a while, but maybe he should consider doing CDs? So I recommend any serious lover of drone music to get a copy (or two) and keep Early Morning Records alive." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| TAMING THE OUTBACK |
1986-1989 |
CD |
"TAMING THE OUTBACK...
OK ... you probably haven’t heard of this 1980’s UK band before – but they really are worth it ...
Taming The Outback were a three-piece from Southend-on-Sea (Essex, UK) who were active from 1986 to 1989 (hence the title of this retrospective compilation). While they spent most of their time playing outside of the town itself and bemoaning the R&B traditions of the area, they were very much a Southend band. The three members of the original line-up formed after crisscrossing each other’s musical paths in South East Essex in the early 1980s. Melbourne-born drummer Daryl Amos and bass player Jason Sherwin first played together in local band A Wreath For Brezhnev, later meeting-up with guitarist/singer Tony Sampson (who played with Playground) to form Taming The Outback – band characterized by an aggressive, driven rhythm section, strong self-penned songs with a rich, echo-saturated guitar.
Playing live became a primary focus for the band but the endless gigging, drinking and the failure to release the aforementioned second single and the LP (already recorded) probably marked the beginning of the end of the band. Taming The Outback itself played their last gigs in 1989 with the aggression being turned inwards between personnel and instruments.
This limited edition retrospective CD collects the unreleased LP, their 7” single and the cassette EP, along with demos and some rare live recordings – all carefully and professionally remastered by Sting Davies at Big Noise, one of the UK’s top audio restoration engineers. Their music has never sounded better. The deluxe packaging pays homage to those lovely old vinyl gatefold sleeves and has an information-packed 24-page full colour booklet and inner sleeve (initial copies also come with a 2-sided mini-poster with more press cuttings and a sticker). Check out our web page for videos, more images and (aging and fading) press cuttings." [label info]
www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
"Every now and again I find a band or artist that I just am absolutely in love with, only to find upon further research, that they have fallen to obscurity and little to no more material exists to be had. That is very much the case with Taming the Outback. Being a big fan of the post-punk movement as a whole, I was certainly excited to give this disc a spin, but I had no idea what was in store. A 'definitive' collection, culled from the entirety of their 3 year lifespan, '1986-1989' may just be one of the most quintessential post-punk records I've experienced. From the opening notes of 'Fire & Smoke' to the moving, dramatic leads of 'Mistrust' to the final notes of 'American Dream' this cd is a near flawless listen. So many classic influences are channeled throughout this disc, while not a single one of them can quite be used for comparison. The Outback were able to draw from these influences and really put their own stamp on it all. From bass sounds very reminiscent of the Cure's 'Disintegration' album, coupled with certain melodies containing the ghosts of Joy Division's early work to the angst of Killing Joke and hint of the western vibe of Fields of the Nephilim (with whom The Outback shared the stage for a tour) to the tension building vocals of Echo and the Bunnymen and Mission UK'¦ The list just goes on and on, yet I can't stress enough, that at no point does it sound like any of these bands have been recycled in any way. Taming the Outback had something so magical that this world just couldn't accept it, and after just three short years, tensions grew to a head, and the magic was no more. Lucky for us the trio, after 2 decades, decided to release this retrospective of singles originally slated for an abandoned LP, demos, and live tracks. While the quality of some of the live tracks isn't 100% pristine, some of the almost inaudible tape noise, really at its worst just adds a warm, nostalgic feel the latter half of the album. Even the packaging is impressive. A thick, heavy, double gatefold style cardboard sleeve is adorned with the band's infamous crucifixion publicity shot, and comes with a poster, and full 24 page booklet containing lyrics, interviews and reprints of more than a few press clippings about the band; and a second edition limited to just 75 copies (which at last inspection were still available) comes with the same, as well as 4 badges, a mini reprint of 'Alive and Kicking' fanzine from 1987 featuring the band, and an original copy of their only 7' in a picture sleeve. Once again, just a phenomenal record in every way; go out of your way if you must, just make sure you get this one under your belt before you die." [Barton Graham / Chain DLK] |
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TANAKH |
Dieu Deuil |
CD |
"Tanakh's newest record, Dieu Deuil, commands a nautical embrace of wet boots and November days filled with rain. It sings stories of loss, hope, and transcendence amidst the swirling cyclone of mundaneness. Dieu Deuil, which takes it name from the architecture of Daniel Libeskind, successfully integrates improvisation and song writing, and communicates an interior intimacy, which previously was only hinted at in the drifting exterior world of 'Villa Claustrophobia'. Dieu Deuil is a small warm café in the cavernous arcades of 'Villa Claustrophobia,' where the air is moist with smoky teas and steam hoarfrosts the windows. 'Dieu Deuil' maintains the outer-national feel of 'Villa Claustrophobia' but focuses less on a pneumatic exotica and more on a rich interior journey that communicates the warmth of human touch and the frigid burn that such contact can leave when it is taken away. Dieu Deuil captures a particular gentleness of the 70s-era folk psychedelia inspired by the likes of John Martyn, Tim Buckley, Fairport Convention and Pentangle, both in it's inventive orchestration and in it's vocally charged delivery." [label info]
www.alien8recordings.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| TANKRED, KENT |
Ordinary Things |
CD |
A droning and rumbling bizarre sound-world of its own, on this first (?) full solo-release of this amazing swedish composer known from SONS OF GOD..
“The dismantling of a square piano brings it back to its origin, a percussion instrument. Pets and other animals, household machinery and other sounding objects on a farm are essential tools in the composition process; all realised at Studio Nybygget.” [label description]
www.fylkingen.se
|
1995 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAPE |
Milieu plus |
CD |
"Nach OPERA (Häpna 9) das zweite Album für das schwedische Trio um ANDREAS BERTHLING. Zeitlose schöne, handgespielte Instrumental-Musik, entspannend & introvertiert & positive Vibrationen erzeugend.... gezupte Gitarren, Melodica, Akkordeon, Orgal, Harmonium, Vibraphone, mit einzelnen zarten geräuschhaften Zwischenparts....wie ein Nachmittagsspaziergang in lauer Herbst-Sonne..." [Drone Rec. info 2003]
"Tape is a trio from Stockholm, Sweden, building their music from a whole array of acoustic instruments, computer and field recordings. Their first CD "Opera" got excellent reviews in international press and was compared to artists such as Talk Talk, Gastr del Sol, Fennesz, John Fahey and Faust. Their new CD "Milieu" shares the same basic premises as "Opera". All kinds of sound sources are used and organically integrated in the songs, which move freely somewhere between the composed and the improvised. Even if "Milieu" makes use of experimental methods, the album are argumentably more songbased than "Opera" and therefore maybe more accessible." [original label description]
www.hapna.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| TAPHEPHOBIA |
Escape from the mundane Self |
CD |
"Sixth release (and the first for Cyclic Law) of the Norwegian drone ambient project Taphephobia created by Ketil S (also of Mulm and ex-Northaunt.) As emphasized by its title, this record is intented to take one away from the mundane everyday world, it is not a concept album, rather an album where both the music and the titles are open for interpretation. The soudscapes lead to an inner experience where you can discover your own hidden voices and your own secret world of colours. An inner journey which stretches the imagination from terrifying seastorms to idyllic moments of wintery landscapes. Artwork by Dehn Sora.
Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel Digi sleeve. 11 Tracks. Running Time 53:00." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Taphephobia |
CD |
"Second album for norwegian maestro Ketilon greytone label. Bleak and secluded sound world, featuring six looming movements of darkly, post-industrial, isolationist ambience in the pure nordic shining coldness.
The music Taphephobia makes is mostly based on manipulated guitars (except house of memories that is mostly based on sounds). Taphephobia try to get out the feelings he has at the moment when Ketil compose the music. The idea is to create a atmosphere that is sometimes scary, and sometimes beautiful, like for example a good thriller drama movie. Taphephobia is very skilled to create a cinematic atmosphere combined with personal feelings like fear, hope, hate, regrets etc… The main goal is to make the listener able to dream away with the music." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
House of Memories |
do-CD |
As Reverse Alignment was established in 2007 we also made our first contact with Ketil Søraker. His guitarbased drone project Taphephobia had just a moment ago released it's first opus "House of Memories" through the belgium label Nothingness Records. From there on we've been in touch more or less, (in a more constant period) when putting out "Anomie" and "Black City Skyline", (and more or less) over the years when new production's emerged.
Since Taphephobia's first release in 2007, Ketil's project is now a permanent act under the banner of Cyclic Law and has since it's start released six albums, and a load of collaborative albums and compilation tracks.
Now, 10 years after it's publication, Reverse Alignment release House of Memories again, with new artwork and design from Haerleif Langås and mastered by Frédéric Arbour. As a special treat follows eleven selected compilation tracks put together for this release. All a good way to summarize ten years of Taphephobia, from how the project sounded in the early days to today.
reversealignment.bandcamp.com/album/house-of-memories
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Blue Hour |
CD |
New album by Norway’s Cinematic Drone project Taphephobia. On is now 8th full length, we’re offered a dreamlike experience based upon personal emotional states and reflections of both the immediate environment and far reaching “outer” world. Not a concept album but rather a collection of feelings and visual impressions that revealed themselves in the compositional process. “Blue Hour” is dedicated to the unique atmosphere of the northern landscape. Artwork by Nihil.
Edition of 300 copies in 4 panel Digipack. 8 Tracks. Running Time 46:31
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/blue-hour
"This new album guarantees static musical excursions and textured oceanic experiences of crystal purity and chilling beauty.
With his project Taphephobia the sound artist Ketil Søraker is rigorously following the path of deep ambient music with clear reverence to most representative classicists of the genre.
After a slow debut in this musical sphere, Taphephobia finally made a name and a growing reputation thanks to a contract with the indie dark ambient / post-industrial music label Cyclic Law. Solid albums as Ghostwood were released in relative discretion but elaborated with passion and obvious compositional skills. This project is inclined to smoothly layered sequences, timbral explorations with a fancy for cinematic qualities that invite the listener to enter mythical worlds where the ordinary sense of temporality is vanished.
Humming drones meet shimmering atmospheric soundscapes, the whole thing luring the listener in one extra-sensory slow motion immersion. This new album guarantees static musical excursions and textured oceanic experiences of crystal purity and chilling beauty. As for Ghostwood we can appreciate the occasional presence of transfigured and deeply sorrowing guitar lines in a dream-pop/ shoegazing style, floating between glimmering drones and a deep vastness. All in all Blue Hour is a quiet, charming, soothing and spacious ambient release with moments of forlorn stillness."[Philippe Blache, IGLOO mag] |
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| TARAB |
Take all the Ships from the Harbour, and sail them straight to Hell |
CD |
In der mächtig wachsenden Field Recording-Szene hat sich der Australier TARAB durch seinen besonderen Stil inzwischen einen Namen gemacht... Seine Aufnahmen schwanken zwischen den Polen des "ganz nahen" und Detaillierten und dem "entfernten, verhallten, undeutlichen, verrauschten", wobei er v.a. rauhe, knirschend-knarzige, metallisch-quietschende "Granular-Sounds" bevorzugt. Gewohnte musikalische Parameter spielen hier keine Rolle mehr, die editierten Soundschnipsel ergeben "nicht-harmonische" aber doch Emotionen und Intellekt herausfordernde dynamische Strukturen... das ist atmosphärische, experimentelle Musique Concrete mit Drone-Elementen. TIP !!
"The title to this album from Tarab (nee Eamon Sprod) is striking enough in its allusions of damnation, with a watery grave a potential outcome from human activity impacting the earth. So, it may be stating the obvious that the corroded locations where mankind has scarred the surface of the earth feature prominently in the work of this Melbourne based sound artist. The residual elements of these sites become the agents for metaphor and allegory in Tarab's work, documented through field recording and sympathetic actions with found objects from those sites. One such location that features prominently in Take All of the Ships... is Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. Once the home of an immigration station at the turn of the 20th Century and later a Nike Missile site for the US military, Angel Island now rests in the hands of the US National Park Service, which has left some of the buildings to succumb to the forces of decay. From the sounds culled from this site and others closer to his antepodean home, Tarab diligently overlays and stiches together a highly tactile composition with very little digital treatments to speak of.Take All of the Ships... opens with an ominous rumble whose frequencies appear to emerge from the center of the Earth and liquefying the surface upon impact. As these tones ebb and flow, Tarab unveils as revolving series of exaggerated details from a hyperbolic gash of two heavy pieces of metal grinding against themselves to a toxic chorale of nighttime insects to sand, wind, and surf detourned into sedimentary white noise. Tarab's compositional sensibility shifts throughout the album, at first sparsely situating these sounds into shadowy vignettes. Gradually, Tarab coalesces this sublime opus into an arcing crescendo which exhibits sustained harmonics rarely heard in the best of the contemporary dronemusik technicians much less from the realm of sound ecology." [label description]
"Like much work in the hybrid, Take all the ships..., a 55 minute suite of environmental sound, is drawn from a few specific places (in this case, Angel Island, a deserted military base turned national park), but is not really meant to be about that place. Instead, it is a layered series of sonic events that act as metaphors. The dominant mood here is bleak and overcast, and certain motifs recur: wind howling and whistling through pipes, ice cracking and tinkling, shortwave radio transmissions, the complaint of metal being scrapped and twisted, booming reverb that seemingly has no source. The sounds become signifiers of desolation, solitude, a creeping sense of life that has no human presence.
This metaphorical approach moves the result into fictive, often surreal territory, but, like G*Park, Sprod’s recording method is austere but meticulous. This means that his sounds retain plenty of natural reverb and keep their stochastic character. They hold the interest even when the inevitable lulls in activity set in, those moments when the piece feels more episodic than fully developed. But in their precision and ability to evoke tactile images, Sprod’s sounds are powerful ones, reminiscent of what Tod Dockstader has said about the sounds he preferred: "“I like to have edges. Sound to me is always very physical. I can feel, not just hear it. It has personality. It has weight, proportion. It’s like I can pick it up and hold it." The sounds are masked, but not abstracted. They are the kind of lies you want to believe." [Matthew Wuethrich, Dusted Mag]
www.23five.org
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
I'm Lost |
CD |
"A schizoid-concrete opus of environmental sounds heightened, stimulated, decontextualized, and teased into a psychic puzzle of industrialized and post-industrialized detritus, I'm Lost marks another milestone in the ever impressive catalogue from Australian sound-artist Eamon Sprod, who adopts the moniker Tarab for his endeavors. The title is one that explodes with a multitude of meaning. There's the geographical frustration in losing one's way as the surrounding landmarks fail to match with whatever technology may be in use (e.g. a sextant, a compass, an iPhone, a torn map, one's poor memory of a childhood neighborhood, etc.). There's the psychological implications of being lost from the existential narratives that we have scripted for ourselves due to broken relationships, failed jobs, dead relatives, natural disasters, the hand of God, etc. In addition to these possibilities, Sprod proposes that the notion of "lost" could also be an inversion of the idea of the "found object" or the "found sound," instead becoming the "lost object" or the "lost sound." Sprod's semantic wordplay is hardly a conceptual gimmick, as he fully immerses himself in the confusional framework while maintaining a consummate technical prowess over his field recordings. The compositional approach is rhizomatic, with dead-ends, wrong turns, and reprisals of these same dead-ends and wrong turns, offering a blackhumor sneer at the stubbornness of humanity's inability to learn from our mistakes (e.g. pollution, blight, poverty, disease, etc). Within the album's harsh edits and disjointed collages, Sprod renders sound with dysphoric associations through his vacant drift, crumbled gravel, scalding plasma-tube frequencies, and putrid factory noise. I'm Lost achieves the same psychological gravity as heard in the works of Sudden Infant, P16.D4, and John Duncan with an even greater sense of dislocation from those pioneers of radical tape splicing." [label info]
www.23five.org
" "Careful arrangements of sonic rubbish." That's one hell of a great artist's statement, courtesy of Eamon Sprod (aka Tarab). Over the past decade or so, this Australian sound-artist has quietly produced some of the finer examples of composition through field recording. His work is hardly the stuff of pleasantries from a soft ambient whoosh set as the backdrop to various birdsongs plopped willy-nilly for the intrepid listener to identify. Nope, there's always the threat of psychological, psychic, and existential violence lurking throughout Sprod's work. When the insect chorales push through to the foreground, it's symbolic of pestilence, disease, blight, and the simple fact that much in the outback can fucking kill you. It's easy to tap into the ultra-violent, post-apocalyptic, doomsayer, and/or isolationist scenarios mapped out elsewhere through the Australian psyche (e.g. Mad Max, Chopper, On The Beach, Bad Boy Bubby, etc.); and Sprod carves out his own niche in digging through the hinterlands of urban neglect, locating meaning of psychogeographical import (or the lack there of) within a recontextualized sound object. Since his debut Surfacedrift back in 2004, Sprod's work has steadily exhibited a maturation in conceptualization and aesthetic complexity, culminating in the schizophonic collage-tactics of I'm Lost.
The opening salvo of leaden thud, turbine roar, and pressurized blasts of air slithering through release valves is a torrent of concrete-actions, jump-cuts, and dead-ends, as if Sprod has decided to dematerialize the listener and purposefully mistranslate the coordinates between alternate realities of equally miserable / fascinating locations of industrialized bleakness. When he settles upon a singular space-time continuum, it's a vat of uranium churning at the bottom of an oil drum, while the container itself quickens its half-life through atomic fission. Another turn and Sprod channels an ethereally unholy skree of a thousand particle accelerators amassing their beams on a single contact microphone, ending up with something akin to a far more uncomfortable Phill Niblock or Rhys Chatham, manifested through what could be fluorescent bulbs. The quiet passages of textural rummaging that Sprod intersperses throughout I'm Lost have the queasy feel of somebody pulling off scabs from old wounds. Equal parts Cronenberg and Schimpfluch (Lanz, Phillips, Eb.Er., Zeier, etc.) - so of course, it's fucking awesome." [Aquarius Records]
"When reviewing 'Strata', the previous release by Tarab in Vital Weekly 911, I already noted that he's not the world's busiest bee when it comes to releases, but with steady intervals there's always something new. The title could refer to being lost in a geographical sense of the word, or being lost from 'existential narratives that we have scripted for ourselves' (broken relationships, failed jobs), but Eamon Sprod uses it for 'lost object' and 'lost sound', opposed to 'found object' and 'found sound'. He still uses field recordings on these five pieces here, but also to a wider extent than before the collage/cut-up aspect in all of this. 'Strata' seemed rather un-manipulated, but 'I'm Lost' is surely the product of lots of manipulation. Firstly through the layering of sounds and secondly through cutting these up and re-assembling these sounds. It makes that this music is a bit more noise like than before, jumping around in all these weird and unexpected cuts. It's not easy to say
where Tarab gets his field recordings; if they are tied in to specific location(s), or thematically linked or from whatever source he seems fit. Maybe they all stem from pollution sites, I thought, as to a certain extent it seems to me this album is also a bit darker than his previous work, or perhaps many other works by those who work inside field recordings. It may share the negative worldview of say Joe Colley or the near-broken equipment of Francisco Meirino and with both of them it's a similar collage like styled, dynamic work of collage and cut-up. And, if you have been paying attention in the past few years, it's this dynamic form of noise - loud, quiet, high, low - which, combined with a refined sense of composition, is something that I enjoy very much. Therefore I can easily say that this is Tarab's best work to date. Strictly personal opinion, obviously." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
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| |
Material Studies |
mCD-R |
"tarab is the alias of eamon sprod, an australian sound artist whose motto is "careful arrangements of sonic rubbish". that says it all!
his past works were released on various international labels such as 23five, crónica, unfathomless or kaon.
"material studies #2 is the continuation of a small series of explorations of working with simple materials, started with 2019’s ms#1 released on hemisphäreの空虚. this work pares back and further refines this process, with the use of minimal discarded everyday materials introduced to the artificial movement of air, via an air-conditioning unit. this work is not intended as a document of this interaction, but is the result of working with this situation and the resulting recordings as material, to see and hear what might emerge from that process." (tarab)
recorded 2019. arranged 2020-21
this work is the result of working with simple materials and process
master: yvan etienne
merci beaucoup: jean-marc and yvan
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/material-studies-2-alm-140
"Tarab was already present with a new release last week, and now Eamon Sprod returns with another work, part of his "small series of explorations of working with simple materials, started with 2019’s ms#1 released on hemisphäreの空虚" (see Vital Weekly 1222). He also writes that "this work pares back and further refines this process, using minimal discarded everyday materials introduced to the artificial movement of air, via an air-conditioning unit. This work is not intended as a document of this interaction. Still, it is the result of working with this situation and the resulting recordings as material, to see and hear what might emerge from that process". This release is another proof of how far and wide Taalem's interpretation was of the word ambient music. No fat drones, no carefully constructed collage of field recordings, or lush computer-processed sounds, but rubbing of objects near the microphone. You don't recognize any of these materials, and if you didn't know better, one could think someone is rummaging through his tool shed. Upon closer listening, one hears the minor differences in the work, at one point in the middle, almost disappearing again. Towards the end, there is a dramatic build-up until it cuts out at the end. Again, this is not a work that uses a lot of computer processing or electronics, but there has been a fair amount of editing to make it a composition, rather than going through the toolbox with a handheld microphone." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| TARAB + ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE |
Obex |
MC |
"To start AMT and Tarab exchanged materials and objects. AMT exchanged a single sound sculpture for Tarab’s collection of small objects. This material exchange led to activity. AMT manually manipulated, Tarab also, but more often than not he placed the sculpture in situations and let them work on it. Once again exchanges took place, this time of audio material. Elements where then selected and arranged and further rearranged; some left untouched and some where transformed.
Tarab explores re-contextualised collected sounds and tactile gestures formed into dynamic, psycho-geographical compositions inspired by discarded things, found things, crawling around in the dirt, junk, the ground, rocks, dust, wind, walking aimlessly, scratchy things, decay and most if not all the things he hears and sees. More than simply documenting a given site, Tarab is interested in a direct engagement with our surrounds, teasing out half narratives, visceral sensation, false leads and heightened awareness.
Artificial Memory Trace is a project by Slavek Kwi, a sound-artist, composer and researcher interested in the phenomena of perception as the fundamental determinant of relations with reality. He has a longstanding fascination with sound-environments, developing what he terms “electroacoustic sound-paintings”, that oscillate between sound-only works and interdisciplinary works exploring social, spatial and temporal processes." [label info]
"The other new Cronica Electronica release is a collaboration between Tarab from Australia and
Artificial Memory Trace from Ireland. From both of them we reviewed quite some work, even when
Tarab is not as active as Artificial Memory Trace. Both of them use a lot of field recordings. The latter reworks these extensively on his computer, while retaining some of the original and Tarab “explores re-contextualised collected sounds and tactile gestures formed into dynamic, psycho-geographical compositions inspired by discarded things, found things, crawling around in the dirt, junk, the ground,
rocks, dust, wind, walking aimlessly, scratchy things, decay and most if not all the things he hears and sees” (I couldn’t have said it better). Together they exchanged “materials and objects’, rather than a bunch of sounds. Artificial Memory Trace sends a sound sculpture down while Tarab send up a collection of small objects. Things were manually manipulated, recorded and transformed, all noted on the cover, but maybe also adding to the mystery of it. And mysterious it surely is. I quickly lost my way here, already on the first side of this cassette. I had no clue which piece I was hearing, or who did what. The Bandcamp version only shows a limited amount of pieces, so hardly any help. There is lots of obscure rumble of objects, and equally a lot of processing without any telling what these objects are.
It could as easily be one piece per side anyway and for some obscure fun it is listed as a bunch of pieces. It is a fascinating listening experience, and unlike Delplanque’s work, it is clearer defined as a composition. I would think there are strings attached to these objects, that they are used in a percussive way and sometimes it sounds like they are destroyed. It is very acoustic yet also electrical. Sometimes
small drone sounds are formed and then sometimes it builds, but as easily seems to be falling apart making this quite odd but thoroughly captivating stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2018 |
€10.50 |
|
| TARENTEL |
The order of things |
CD |
Wundervolle introvertierte und gefühlvolle Scheibe basierend auf sphärischen und sehr klaren Gitarren, field recordings, Piano & Streicher-Arrangements, sowie der Stimme von Windy Allen.
Beautiful introspective and emotional album based on spheric and very clear sounding guitars, field recordings, piano and string-arrangements, as well as the voice from Windy Allen.
“ Tarentel occupy a space that investigates both a rock and classical aesthetic. Simultaneously creating with the human voice and the instrumental framework, "The Order Of Things" reverberates with a familiar cinematic sound, yet offers a new interpretation of space and landscape.” [label info]
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| TARKATAK |
Eschgl Hel |
mCD-R |
Nr. 27 in the great Taalem-series of new experimental drone-music brings us a fine piece of north-german TARKATAK, this sounds more strange, soft hummings with mysterious voices and sounds in the background, and melodic somehow instrumental tones. A truly mesmerizing and surrealistic journey !!
“tarkatak has been active in the dark-ambient/droney genre for more than 10 years now and had releases on various labels in the past (drone records, blade, prion...). this 22min track could easily be compared to some zoviet france or andrew chalk works. full-couloured printed 3"cd-r in a slim crystal box.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Mormor |
CD |
"Tarkataks MORMOR schafft es mit einer bezaubernden Leichtigkeit, unser Hören in Bewegung zu versetzen. Wir finden uns am Ende der Nacht auf einem Floß, in einem Gewässer aus Klang, soweit das Hören reicht. Akustische Räume öffnen sich, und bieten behutsam bearbeiteten Klängen zuvorkommend ihren Platz an. Melodien singen von ihrem eigenen Entstehen und Vergehen. Statischer Dunst verhüllt die nahe Dämmerung, bis in der Ferne mechanische Oszillationen von einem Ufer und frühen Vögeln künden. Klippen unter der Oberfläche erzeugen schimmernde Interferenzen. Der Ort ist erfüllt von einem fernen Echo letzter Hausmusik, und verstörte Endlosschleifen erzählen in fremden Sprachen von einer unmöglichen Insel, auf der Menschen und Maschinen einen gemeinsamen Rhythmus finden. Versöhnt besteigen wir wieder unser Floß - und lassen uns von MORMOR auf erhabenen Wellen zum fliehenden Horizont tragen." [label info]
"...Tarkatak's music is still highly atmospheric, but much more sparse these days. Each of the four long pieces is built around just a few loops, which Tarkatak plays around with, changing the color of them, getting them out of sync and back in sync again, and such like, and creates a wonderful textured sound. There are times when 'Mormor' reminded me of Taylor Deupree, but then a bit more dark, but it has the same relaxed feeling to it. But there is also the featuring of rhythm, which is also an entirely aspect, certainly when it comes down to stripped down techno rhythms. Quite a break with the past, I think and quite a step forward. Including is a film for one of the tracks, which depicts the sea and the sand, along with a lonely man - the sort of film you'd expect with this lonesome music. Great CD, and hopefully bringing him some more recognition" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
I II III IIII |
CD |
Die 4 Titel auf / // /// //// sind in ihrem Ursprung auf Reisen entstanden, an unterschiedlichen Orten oder auf dem Weg. Dann weitergeführt in unterschiedlichen Situationen an diesem festen Ort hier bis sie eine endgültige Form angenommen haben, die sich aber erst nach vielen Stimmungsschwankungen gefunden hat. Ein manchmal langer Weg dessen Resultat nur aus der Stimmung entscheidet, die die Musik in diesem Moment entgegenbringt.
Tarkatak
Ende 1981 war der Anfang: Punk und die Kassettenszene machten alles möglich. Unter dem Namen „Der Pilz“ erschienen die Geräusch-Collagen aus selbst geschnittenen Tonband-Loops und Kassetten-Overdubs. Das Harsche blieb bei „Der Pilz“, das Ruhige wurde zu „Tarkatak“, mit der ersten Kassette „slow“ (1999). Die Quellen und Wege blieben gleich (hören, sammeln, schneiden, unkenntlich machen), das Medium wurde Digital, obwohl es oft noch immer nach Kassette rauscht. Und immer wieder geht es tief in das dunkle, zähe Unbekannte – um sich dann vom Klang irgendwo erfüllt und umschlossen zu verlieren.
Neben zwei Kassetten, einer LP, div. 7“s bei Drone Rec. (z.T.Features mit Klangwart und Deep), CD/Rs (u. a. zusammen mit Anemone Tube und Florian Filsinger) und ein bisschen Digitales, gab es Konzerte oder Live-Kollaborationen mit Troum, A Thousand Vows, Melt Banana, Christina Kubisch, Kapotte Muziek, EA 80 etc."
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/i-ii-iii-iiii
"You could think that is a label that hands me two new CDs, and one of these is new work by Asmus Tietchens, that would be the one first to hear. But a new CD by Tarkatak! Hold on. I can't remember I last heard or reviewed his music. I have known the musical project from Lutz Pruditsch since he started it in 1992. Before that, he had a cruder, industrial act, Der Pilz. As Tarkatak, he plunges into the world of ambient and industrial. 'I II III IIII" is his first release since the 2007 release 'Mormor' (not reviewed). There are four long pieces on this CD: ' I', 'II', etc. The pieces are from 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017/2021. I have no idea what kind of instruments Tarkatak uses; only the piano is recognizable in 'IIII'. Otherwise, I think he uses electronics, effects, guitars, synthesizers and such. There is a robust drone approach in these pieces, of slowed-down tapes and rusty sounds, slowly evolving. With pieces between thirteen and twenty minutes, there is enough time to let them grow and develop naturally. This works best in the longest of the four pieces, 'II'. Tones arrive from nowhere, make a few slow and majestic moves and then disappear, replaced by new ones. The resulting music is dark, atmospheric and ambient. It ticks all the right boxes for me; I have been a fan since the early days, even when I am ashamed to say I haven't played many in recent years. Oddly enough, the one that didn't work well for me was 'IIII', with the piano sounds. Whereas the other was akin to amorphous clouds, the musical element of the piano, slightly unorganized, banging out slow
tones against a drone background, became after a while a bit boring. But a good hour of great music has passed by then, so nothing to complain about. Let's hope we don't wait another fifteen years for the next album." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
" „I II III IIII“ ist das erste neue Album von Tarkatak seit dem 2007 erschienen Album „Mormor“ auf Genesungswerk. Ende 2021 erschien ein starker Track auf einer Compilation. Die hier enthaltenen Aufnahmen entstanden zwischen den Jahren 2011 und 2021, geremixed wurden sie im Frühjahr 2021. Lutz Pruditsch, dessen Werk in den 80ern/90ern als Der Pilz stark von der Industrial Culture beeinflusst war und der das kleine Label Trümmer Kassetten betrieb, macht als Tarkatak eine ziemlich variantenreiche Musik, die sich im Drone verorten lässt.
Konzipiert während des Reisens und Unterwegsseins, bekommt man vier lange Tracks, die sich fortwährend entwickeln: So kommen auf “I” im Laufe der 16 Minuten zu dem in der Ferne anschwellenden Drone immer weitere Elemente hinzu, die sich nach und nach verdichten. Das ist eine sich langsam entwickelnde, aus zahlreichen Schichten bestehende Musik: Zwischendurch wird man an eine Sirene erinnert, Dissonanzen tauchen auf, es pulsiert, brummt und irritiert (und das ist durchaus positiv zu verstehen). “II” wirkt anfangs von der Stimmung wesentlich positiver, weniger dunkel. Man kann sich diesen weitgehend sehr melodischen Track zur Untermalung eines Sonnenaufgangs vorstellen. In der Ferne erklingen Pianotöne, die verhallen, im Rauschen gerade noch erahnbar sind. Dann glaubt man, Wellen schlügen gegen das Ufer, dann setzen dunkle, unheilschwangere Drones ein, um dann am Ende doch hoffnungsvoll zu enden. “III” ist wesentlich reduzierter, beginnt fast unhörbar, dann kommen seltsam-melodische Passagen dazu. Dem Track haftet ein Moment des Mysteriösen an, bevor der Rest Schweigen ist. Der das Album abschließende Track “IIII” beginnt dunkel, tastend, dann kommen Klavierpassagen dazu, die wesentlich dominanter als zuvor sind.
Diese vier langen, organisch wirkenden Tracks loten aus, was der Drone alles kann. Sehr schöne, auf 200 Exemplare limitierte Veröffentlichung mit einem zum Poster ausfaltbaren Siebdruckcover." [MG / African Paper]
"An edition of 200 copies only in silk-screened hand numbered poster-cover sounds nice and lovely but is in fact a bit unhandy, the poster folds out to more of the organic structure in bronze / brown / black. Thankfully a regular booklet is included here so at least some basic infos can be gained from the artwork.
Tarkatak is actually no new name to me, it's a project by Lutz Prueditsch (who was active as Der Pilz, run his experimental tape label Trümmer Cassetten and later Dachstuhl a.o. activities) I've listened to in awe years ago already when his album 'Mormor' appeared on the much missed Genesungswerk label, in a cardboard box with a CD on felt. Ambient drones for the thinking man or something like that I wrote back then. At least back then he gave the tracks some titles but for this collection, recorded between 2011 and 2021 and finally mastered in 2021 even those have left and the tracks are titled as the release, just four numbered sections. Well, freedom of speech, association or of thought or both this is.
The most recognizable instrument used here in small doses is a piano, spreading a few melodic highlights throughout these organic drones, built from field recordings and found but altered sounds and voices. Reworked over and over again the continuos movement and the flow hardly ever stops until everything is dissolving.
The mood is shifting from brooding to wallowing in various stages of post-romantisicm not completely unlike contemporaries Troum (f.e. with 'Mare Morphosis'). Maybe also reflection of a period of travels and changes in the artists life. A pleasure to listen to. Dreamy Movements in a deep wakefulness sleep." [CHAIN D.L.K.]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| TARKATAK VS. C. REIDER |
The druiser pricid |
CD-R |
Beautiful US/German-drone collaboration, very submarine sounding stuff, guitar- & mysterious backwards sounds, but also disturbing moments.. a droney trip through various moods & emotions
with many details. comes in a handmade papercover.
„ Lange hat es gedauert, bis das Resultat veröffentlicht wurde. 2000 haben sich Tarkatak und C. Reider gegenseitig einen Tonträger voller Geräusche, Loops und Samples geschickt um daraus einige Stücke zu basteln. Es gab keine bestimmten Abmachungen, alles war offen. So wurde nicht nur mit den einzelnen Sounds des Jeweiligen gearbeitet, sondern auch Neues/Eigenes hinzugefügt.
Entstanden ist ein sehr stimmiges Wechselspiel die in 2 Hälften aufgeteilt wurden. C. Reider aus den USA, betreiber des Lables VUZH, hat bisher div. Tapes und CDrs veröffentlicht. Siehe: http://www.livejournal.com/users/vuzh.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| TASADAY |
Implosione tra le pieghe dell'anima |
CD |
"A sensational CD release of an awesome tape (originally published by MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION) that includes live tracks recorded between 1983/1984 and comes in a completely remastered edition. Tasaday are a "cult" band active since the early Eighties. Born from the merging of Die Form and Nulla Iperreale, they are probably the most eclectic and groundbreaking representative of an Italian experimental scene that used to blend elements of rock, noise, experimental and industrial music with great courage and originality. An audio document of exceptional value, this longly waited reprint of live material is also the most direct and remarkable evidence of the work of this unforgettable - and still alive and kicking- band." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| TATE, DARREN |
The elves are coming |
CD-R |
Wie klingt es wohl, wenn Elfen erscheinen? In den Soundrahmen aus japanischen field recordings von DAISUKE SUZUKI (Grillenzirpen, etc.) fallen wellende Instrumentalklänge und einzelne Klangobjekte von DARREN TATE, die seltsam effektiert (deharmonisiert) scheinen, die Atmosphäre die so mit einfachen Mittel erzeugt wird lässt sich schwer beschreiben.... irgendwann kommen noch leise, schleppende Rhythmusmaschinensounds dazu, das alles höchst minimal und höchst seltsam .... 41 minutes, 2 pieces...
„Along with one of his best titles this features some excellent artwork from Darren and comes in the ‘usual’ Twenty Hertz style in a jewelcase with printed inserts. What we hear however is a little harder to explain. Guitar and Organ improvisations mix with everyday environmental sounds and field recordings that were captured in Japan and contributed by Daisuke Suzuki. These two worlds collide to create a very intimate affair. Ominous paranoid undertones rattle the tranquillity of late night insects, the insanity of the day impeding on the faded light“ [label info]
“... 'The Elves Are Coming' consists of him playing guitar and keyboard whilst in the background there is a field recording by Daisuke Suzuki. It was mixed in two days in early january of this year and, although it is never stated, it's probably recorded then also, as the whole thing has a very direct, almost 'live' feel to it. The guitar sometimes just 'hums' and seems not to be doing much, while we hear sounds of someone shuffling about in what seems to me a wooden cabin of some sort. It's the sort of ambient drone music that is not necessarily demanding much, more like a sort of coincidental colliding of sound particles. That may sound perhaps a bit too easy, but it's this apparent randomness that is quite nice.” [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| TATE, DARREN & PAUL BRADLEY |
Sometime today |
CD |
Zusammenarbeit dieser britischen Droner aus dem ICR/COLIN POTTER-Umfeld.... ein one-tracker von 39 Minuten Länge, der den Hörer in etwas verwunschene, aber gleichwohl betörende akustische Fliessmuster wirft...
“Sometime today’ is a collaboration between Darren Tate and Paul Bradley. In his own unique and intimate way, Darren recorded the basic tracks at his home in York. Including guitar, keyboard and various other techniques, these recordings were passed onto Paul who took them with him, along with a laptop, on a recent visit to Turkey. These original tracks were supplemented with various field recordings taken around the town of Fethiye and the piece assembled during this three-week visit. Voyeuristic, evocative, abstract and delicate, you are invited to spend some time in their sonic world.
Darren Tate made his name in the group Ora, a floating collective that included Colin Potter, Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough. More recently he is heard as one half of Monos with Colin Potter and on a growing collection of limited solo release CDRs on his own Fungal Records. Paul Bradley started out with his first commercial release on ICR and this friendship and partnership has continued over two collaborative CDs with Colin Potter. He has released several solo discs on his own Twenty Hertz label and recently appeared on the Monos release "Landscapes", which then led to the "Sometime Today" collaboration.” [press release]
“'Sometime today' can be filed under: late-summer-afternoon-walk-in-the-park drone. It's reminding of a hot weather summer afternoon walk with loved ones in an almost empty park, yellow leaves have falled from the trees, a pond... Inspiring atmosphere and music.... Nice, peaceful, relaxing piece, patiently changing in few phases by adding layers of sound. Ok for both close listening or as a background while reading something casually, poetry recommended.” [BR/Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| TATTERED KAYLOR |
Selected Realities |
CD & DVD |
" ʻSelected Realitiesʼ is a collection of captured, spatialised and composed sounds as discovered within unique sonic environments by australian sound artist Tessa Elieff AKA Tattered Kaylor. Each composition presents the observer with the audible identities of a time/place/space – as interpreted by Kaylor through immersive sound composition. The works provide a passage by which listeners experience an alternative to our everyday realities, causing us to question our observations we regard as being absolute.
Spaces portrayed include underground drainways, Inner city multi-level stairwells and hidden basements – housing the mechanical organs as used to transform theatre configurations. Each space was chosen not only for the unique sounds as to be found within their boundaries, but also for their provocation of sound – the ways in which their architecture manipulates and interacts with the physicality of the sound wave. Sonic phenomena such as standing wave forms, resonances, beating and flutter are all objects of desire within the recordings and sounds have been captured and spatialised so as to portray these unique artefacts. Characteristics of environments are presented using blunt gestures. The visceral qualities of sounds are neither exaggerated nor swept aside but rather - brought to light - their brutal exposure proving to support the sonic reveal.
Recording methods utilised in the capture of the sounds include Mono, Stereo, MS and self developed surround-recording techniques. Assorted microphones are placed in nonconventional configurations and calibrated individually so as to each present their own recorded sounds as equal to the others – in volume and in sensitivity. Where most audio purists insist on uniformity in microphone (brand and model), Kaylor indulges and exploits the attributes each microphone possess, working by the same ethos as is abided by throughout the selection of each unique space.
The official european release presentation of MOOZAK #005 will be held at the second edition of MOOZAK FESTIVAL on September 21st/22nd, 2012. Tessa Elieff aka Tatterred Kaylor will present a special 5.1 surround sound concert which will definetly sharpen all listeners perception. MOOZAK #005 will be available at the festival's merchandise table in a special package (festivalpass + release)." [label info]
www.moozak.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAUMEL |
In Pieces - Volume One |
10inch |
"in pieces - volume one" - taumel trifft das ensemble adapter
- - -
im winter 2016 haben sich 'taumel' und das 'ensemble adapter' zu mehreren improvisativen sessions getroffen um einen musikabend zu entwickeln, bei dem die gegensätze und grenzen zwischen komposition und improvisation, freiheit und festlegung, chaos und struktur verschwimmen oder kollidieren. im mittelpunkt der sessions stand die entwicklung einer spezifischen, klang-gestischen musiksprache. jeder musker hat gewissermaßen auf seinem instrument einen charakter und seine jeweils eigene spezifische klang-gestik entwickelt. diese sessions haben wir mitgeschnitten und für "in pieces" als grundlage genommen. "in pieces" besteht aus den remixes dieser sessions, sowie zusätzlich von taumel produziertem studiomaterial.
"in pieces" kann als sureales klanggedicht verstanden werden, als eine abstrakte klang-geschichte, die durch die verschiedensten zustände wandert - von größtem glück bis hin zu raserei und wahnsinn. in den 2 mutierenden klangfeldern kreist die assoziative geschichte um das thema der sprachlichen unveräußerbarkeit und damit auch um das thema 'chaos und ordnung'. diese doppelbödigkeit, der versuch zur schönheit und dessen umkippen in zerstörung und versagen. schreibversuche, sprechversuche, gestammel, gestotter, geschrei, einengung, wegdriften, gesumme... in der mutation der zustände treffen heterogene klangereignisse aufeinander oder werden vermengt zu einer neuartigen masse zwischen lied, sprechen, melodie, harmonie, geräusch, beats, riffs, wort, elektronik und verfremdung. die aktion des instrumentalisten (das instrumentenspiel) steht auf der gleichen ebene wie jede andere klangerzeugende handlung oder stimmliche veräußerung sowie jede elektronische klangerzeugung und ist immer gestisch gedacht, performativ, als handlung, als akustischer tanz.
"volume one" ist der erste teil eines als zweiteiler geplanten musikalischen zusammenhangs ("in pieces - volume two). in zwei klangteilen (seite a, seite b) ist "in pieces - volume one" kein liederzyklus wie unsere anderen serien, z.B. TRAUM, sondern eher ein musikalischer 2-akter, später insgesamt 4-akter. hier teilt sich die gesamtform der musik-serie nicht auf in alben und songs, sondern in alben und deren a+b seiten, wie akt 1, 2, 3 und 4. vielleicht kann man daher "in pieces" auch als akustisches theater hören, oder als hörspiel ohne worte, oder als soundtrack ohne film, oder als film ohne bild, oder eben einfach als eine ordnung sich verändernder klangereignisse.
"off the record"
in "off the record" trifft taumel auf andere musiker und entwickelt alben in kolaboration. hier können verschiedenste formen der musikalischen interaktion ausprobiert werden. in diesem fall von "in pieces" bestand die zusammenarbeit mit dem "ensemble adapter" in den besagten sessions, die das grundgerüst und skelet für das gesamte album bilden.
- - -
INFORMATION:
"in pieces - volume one"
by taumel and ensemble adapter
label: dronerecords
https://www.dronerecords.de
taumel: jakob diehl / sven pollkötter
https://www.taumel.net
publisher: https://www.la-chunga.com/en/
ensemble adapter: Kristjana Helgadóttir / Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson / Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir / Matthias Engler
http://ensemble-adapter.de
instruments: voice, drums, percussions, guitars, tipewriter, flutes, harp, clarinets, prepared piano, keyboards, synthesizer, loops and samplings, electronics, fxs on instruments.
- - -
- - -
"in pieces - volume one" - taumel meets ensemble adapter
in winter 2016, 'taumel' and the 'ensemble adapter' met for several improvisational sessions to develop an evening of music in which the contrasts and boundaries between composition and improvisation, freedom and determination, chaos and structure were to blur or collide. the sessions focused on the development of a specific, sound-gestural musical language. in a way, each musician developed kind of a character on his instrument and its own specific sound-gesture. we recorded these sessions and used them as a basis for "in pieces. "in pieces" consists of the remixes of these sessions, as well as additional studio material produced by taumel.
"in pieces" can be understood as a sureal sound poem, an abstract sound story that wanders through the most different states - from greatest happiness to frenzy and madness. in the 2 mutating sound fields, the associative story revolves around the theme of linguistic inalienability and thus also around the theme of 'chaos and order'. this ambiguity, the attempt at beauty and its overturning into destruction and failure. attempts at writing, attempts at speaking, stammering, stuttering, screaming, constriction, drifting away, humming... in the mutation of states, heterogeneous sound events meet or are mixed to a new kind of soundmash between song, voices, melody, harmony, instruments, noise, beats, riffs, words, electronics and alienation. the action of the instrumentalists (the instrument playing) is on the same level as any other sound producing action or vocal expression as well as any electronic sound production and is always meant gesturally, performatively, as action, as acoustic dance.
"volume one" is the first part of a musical context planned as a two-part work ("in pieces - volume two). in two sound parts (side a, side b) "in pieces - volume one" is not a song cycle like our other series, e.g. TRAUM, but rather a musical 2-act, later altogether 4-act. here the overall form of the musical series is not divided into albums and songs, but into albums and their a+b sides, like act 1, 2, 3 and 4. perhaps, therefore, "in pieces" can also be heard as an acoustic theater, or as a radio play without words, or as a soundtrack without a film, or as a film without a picture, or simply as an order of changing sound events.
"off the record"
in "off the record" taumel meets other musicians and develops albums in collaboration. here different forms of musical interaction can be tried out. in this case of "in pieces" the collaboration with the "ensemble adapter" consisted in these sessions, which form the basic framework and skeleton for the whole album.
https://soundcloud.com/drone-records/taumel-in-pieces-vol-one
"For various reasons, this is an oddball release for the Drone Records' subdivision of Substantia Innominata. Firstly, because one of the musicians is a relatively well-known actor, who played a role in the excellent German TV series 'Dark', a must-see if you like that sort of thing with time travel. He's also a composer for various films. With Sven Pollkötter, he is the duo of Taumel. I am sure Diehl's participation will raise a few unusual eyebrows in the direction of this record. More importantly, the music is not what we know from this series, a subdivision of Drone Records, which, by and large, deal with the more droney end of the musical spectrum, music for the subconsciousness. Taumel teams up with Ensemble Adapter, a four-piece group of percussion, clarinets, flute and harp, along with a ton of effects, tapes, and voices. The six of them recorded a couple of improvisations, which served as the basis of further mixing, remixing and processing by Taumel (who play keyboards, voices, guitars, typewriter, tapes, percussion, sampler, and such like). On this record, there are eight pieces, which in itself is also a thing you don't see a lot with releases on this imprint. The result is still much rooted in improvised music than you would think or even jazz, but with that streak of darkness, that is more common here. A most remarkable record, I'd say, and one that took some time here before it sank in. The resulting pieces of music are just that, pieces of music, rather than soundscaping or long-form pieces. There is excellent clarity here regarding the instruments, which are all pretty well defined within the result. However, the four pieces per side can be seen as one long story, moving from place to place, albeit a more abstract one, of course, but maybe I am distracted by the fact that there is an actor at work here. Also, it has an excellent film character. I can easily imagine visuals to go along with this, and it comes close to the world of soundtracks. Perfect record, but not one that quickly reveals its secrets." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| TAYLOR, DUB |
Lumiere (for synthesized & concrete sound) |
LP |
"This real masterpiece of Concrète and Synthesized music was no more available since its original manufacture in 1973.
Dub Taylor is an US composer, producer, engineer and designer born June 22, 1948 in Burbank, California.
He has many creative facets: recording and mastering engineer, record producer as well as composer, graphic designer and visual artist. He has studied with pianist Richard Bunger and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Not long after the release of Lumière, Taylor established Vargod Studios for electronic music and recorded sound, where in 1974 he created his second work, Variations on the 'Dudley Do-Right' Theme for sampled and processed sound (never released before, this exclusive track is included on the CD version). Taylor has bounced between the music world and the visual arts for most of his life and continues to pursue diverse creative projects.
'Lumière evolved over a period of three years from 1969 to 1972.I started by recording random sounds: Jets taking off at LAX, my girlfriend laughing and screaming, my cat Bartok biting a microphone, conversations, etc. I also sampled music, film soundtracks and TV and radio broadcasts. During this period I acquired the first self-contained portable synthesizer, the newly-designed ARP 2600. I began to envision an electronic and Musique Concrete piece combining various natural and processed sound recordings with synthesized sound into a suite of noise. In June of 1972 I did a preliminary version of elements of the piece. By October I was ready to put it all together. I set up all these reel to reel machines with tapes I had pre-recorded and plugged them into a mixing board, feeding stereo to a two-track master 15 IPS Revox A77 tape deck. My idea was to create a sound collage with form but without losing spontaneity and an element randomness. So I rehearsed my fade-ins and fade-outs and the starting and stopping of the various playback decks and when I was ready I went for it, 'playing' all these machines like a musical instrument in this mad moment of creation. In effect, Lumière was a 'live' performance. The only later additions were the silence gaps inserted near the end of the piece using pieces of blank leader tape.' (Dub Taylor) "
[label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| TAYLOR, SCOTT / SR MEIXNER |
Please Keep Clear at all Times |
CD |
Sehr spannendes elektro-akustisches Werk von (ex-CONTRASTATE) STEPHEN MEIXNER und SCOTT TAYLOR, insgesamt sehr dunkel & einnehmend, aber mit vielen Mikrodetails und Spannungsbögen. Tip!
”A collaborative album between Scott Taylor, whose previous releases can be found on the Sijis, Touch, and Con-V labels, and srmeixner, once a member of the influential UK group Contrastate. 'Please keep clear at all times' consists of three tracks, combining Musique Concrète, field recordings, and other source material (the piano of Kenneth Kirschner and recordings by M.A. Tolosa on Kirschner Wind, and vocals by Jonathan Grieve on The Sound of X) into dramatic soundscapes. The latter track, composed by an additive process of file exchange, is a radical re-working of a live srmeixner concert recording made by Scott Taylor.” [label info]
„If I understood things well, Scott Taylor and Srmeixner didn't actually work together, even when both are based in London (I think), but exchanged sound files. Scott Taylor has had some great releases on Sijis and con-V, dealing with many subtle layered field recordings and Srmeixner was once a member of Contrastate, but started a new life behind the computer. On the first piece, 'Kirschner Wind' they also used the always decaying piano sounds by Kenneth Kirschner and rain recordings by M.A. Tolosa. An empty piece of music, but with a strong, haunting character. 'Nothing Falls Into Place' is a pure field recordings piece, more Taylor than Srmeixner, me thinks, of layered sounds that form a deep drone, with some looser textured sounds on top. 'The Sound Of X' is a rework by Taylor of Srmeixner concert that involves also Jonathan Grieve on vocals (he was the other member of Contrastate), but it's reworked to such an extent that the vocals can no longer be recognized. It's a digital drone rework of mid-frequency sounds that sound like sea waves. All three tracks are great pieces of haunting, cinematographic field recordings and careful electronic treatments. Great stuff.“ [Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAZARTES, GHEDALIA |
La Bar Mitzvah du Chien |
LP |
"Another shamanic journey in Tazartès's universe. He sings and plays all the instruments and samples, recorded in the very same room as all his other solo records since 1974. Performed, produced, and recorded by Ghédalia Tazartès for Bisou in 2012. Tazartès's son, Lalo, can be heard on "Don't Cry for Me, Mamma." The front cover is a picture of Quentin Rollet, shot by Yannick Ressigeac. The back features a drawing by Lalo Tazartès. Mastered by F/Lor." [label info]
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
5 Rimbaud 1 Verlaine |
10inch |
"Vinyl reissue of this great tribute to the poetry of Rimbaud and Verlaine made by our favorite French sorcerer, who exceptionally abandones his typical imaginary language to reinterpret six small poems in his own way, jumping from one musical genre to the other and happily letting them crunch together in a childish, enthusiastic play. Recorded in Paris in his flatelier around the same time he recorded the wonderful Hystérie Off Music and previously available in an almost unnoticed mini CD edition published by the French label Jardin au Fou, it's now available in a remastered vinyl version - with an excellent 45 rpm cut made by SST in Frankfurt.
Pressing info: 350 copies on black."
|
2016 |
€16.50 |
|
| TBC |
Eileithyia |
CD-R |
“ACT UP AGAINST YOUR NATURE, BE AN ARTISTIC BODY. PUT THE CONTRARIES OUT OF JOINT”. EILEITHYAIA is a crypt on the Kreta-isle, which served as place for a fertility cult. Inspired by this, TBC questions the gender-construction, and reflects on what “noise” means or could mean. Nicely illustrated and conceptualized new work, this is a pure drone-hiss / white noise / water / field recording – composition, carefully executed. As everything on ANTIINFORMATION so far, highly recommended !
“Thomas Beck is the man behind TBC and he has a long standing reputation for producing music aswell as releases on his own Wachsender Prozess label. If I understand correctly his piece 'Eileithyia' was recorded at a performance on Trojan boat - safely
assuming a replica here - and at home he worked some more on the recordings. In two more or less thirty minutes TBC offers the processed sound of water - at least that's what I think. In long washes of minimalist changes, TBC slowly transforms the water sounds into vastly droning sound clouds, especially in the second piece, which I found the best one. It's a tad bit more varied with various sounds swirling in and out.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address:
|
2004 |
€9.50 |
|
|
No animal conviction |
CD-R |
New work by the ambitious noise-composer from Hamburg! Quite scary soundscapes combining field recordings of animals, distorted & effected with sampler & record-player....
“New Cdr from tbc about animal abuse. A lot of treated field recording of animals, their territority, and nature sound in a rich, discontinued, broken up compositionwise. Are you a vegan/vegetarien? You will like it, if not you will hate it. No other possibility.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Rotorfraktal |
MC |
A new cassette-only release by Drone Records-artist TBC on his own imprint, almost 90 minutes of droning & windy white-noise-hisses, slowly shifting to distored siren-like waves, and gradually other strange effects appear in the mix... really great fully contemplative drone-storms and -rays...
"TBC is starting his guitarwork edition of the explorations of tableguitar. It's a composition of long underlaying droning emotional ambientnoise track in several parts" [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Spectral Anarchy |
CD-R |
"Minimalistic work about the abscence, the imposibillty, the rejected. It´s electro-akustic deep bass ambient spectrum with irrespnsible object sound in personal view." [label info]
|
2007 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
Antisystem |
CD-R |
"Performance soundtrack of personal view in the meaning of not a system for everyone. Deep, static minimalistic bass exploration of various states of progression and sound. Isolated studies." [label info]
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| TBC & GUY SALDANHA / BALINESE BEAST |
Thunderbird Hotel |
7inch |
"Released on July 2013. 7"vinyl, self-released, two tracks. Balinese Beast play: volcanic cut-ups, overdriven sax, 2" samples, pop 'n roll chews & chops following a cicada sine heatwave. TBC & Guy Saldanha play: textured and skillful noise wall, distorted guitars, feedbacks & analogue in/outs. 4 color offset labels & cover.
Edition of 200.
Balinese Beast is a duo project from Greece with Giorgos Axiotis and Ilan Manouach, working with electronics, home hacked-fi systems, samples, drum machines and the whole saxophone family. They have performed extensively in Greece and also in Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, France and Austria." [website info]
balinesebeast.bandcamp.com
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| TBC / REZNICEK |
6 Hydrografien / Naßklickersprudel |
CD-R |
CDR-version of the deleted LP, working extensively with water-sounds. "Two works done with watersounds in a different way: Rezniceks work is microtonal and like a microscope, while TBC macrostructured and mostly did noise pieces." [label info] |
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| TBC_CZEPOKS |
same |
CD |
"New electro-acustic improvisation release of two hamburg groups, which collaborated for this cd – one is tbc, known for the electro-acustic noises, the other one is czepocks with the
psychedelic sound of hamburg. They use a lot of diffrent instruments in the mix: from melancholic e-bass and e-gutar, two heavy processed keyboards, recordplayer loop action, contact-micro noises and fieldrecordings, they deliver a mix which can satisfy fans of p16.d4, early nurse with wound and faust. It appears in a dvd-box." [label info] |
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| TEAR GARDEN, THE |
Have a nice Trip |
do-LP |
"Metropolis is proud to reissue the stunning "Have A Nice Trip" from the psycedelic-industrio-experimental act Tear Garden. the long running project is the meeting of the minds of Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key and Edward Ka-Spel from The Legendary Pink Dots. Abstract musicianship meets esoteric poetry in the best ways imaginable, taking the intrepid listener on a mesmerizing voyage of the mind."
"A new album of material made over the past year at Subconscious and Edward Ka-spel's home studio. It features mixes by many collaborators including Collide, Humble Brothers, Frankie Pett, Raymond Steeg, and more. Produced by Edward Ka-Spel and cEvin Key." [original label info]
|
2017 |
€36.00 |
|
| TECUMSEH |
Return to Everything |
CD |
"First ed. Of 500 copies in a deluxe custom made book bound gatefold sleeve. The first 50 include a bonus insert by the band. To come see Tecumseh return to everything is to walk on thunder with the comforting knowledge of certain annihilation. The group treads dexterously between ultra-low-end doom and old school industrial drone. Pregnant, yawning thrums prime the pump for the annealing to come. The quiet blizzard of growling steel that appears is ferocious enough to draft hairline fracture maps upon the nearest bones. The variety of shuddering attacks makes the heavy atmosphere breathable. Dig the new breed of metallic gods." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TEFITON (VAN BEBBER, CLAUS / ERHART HIRT) |
Tefiton |
LP |
"tefiton features over 40 minutes of thickly layered and at places elegantly slick noise textures generated from electronics, feedback and turntable. tefiton features ulrich krieger (zeitkratzer, sonic youth collaborator) on saxophone on one track. the overall sound shifts between almost classical improv and abrasive moments more known from the field of noise music. claus van bebber (turntables) has been a founding member of the artist collective heinrich mucken (1982-1990) and as a sound artists has collaborated with erhard hirt, paul hubweber, philip jeck, helmut lemke, michael vorfeld and more. erhard hirt (guitar + live electronics) works since the 1970ies as a musician and promoter/curator in the field of improvised and experimental music and collaborated with derek bailey, stephan wittwer, davey williams, eugene chadbourne, hans reichel and many more." [label descriptions]
label: www.aufabwegen.de
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| TELEPHERIQUE |
Hörspiele |
CD-R |
Sehr geräuschhafte und loopige neue Veröffentlichung, wo viele field recordings benutzt werden und repetitive Mustern entstehen..
“After the beautiful collaboration with Ultra Milkmaids issued in last June now we have the greatest pleasure to present the new Telepherique album. As you main know the project is active since 1989 and has produced an incredible amount of music released worldwide on labels like Ant-Zen, Noise Museum, SSSM, Old Europa Cafe, etc. Main people involved in Telepherique are Klaus and Danijela Jochim, but this line-up is often enlarged and opened to collaborations of all sorts. "Hörspiele" is essentially a mixture of Ambient and Concrete music, a remarkable work whose main inpiration comes from the sensibility of Hearing, the chance of dreaming, meditating and travelling by the means of well known noises that people hardly listen because they are always present in the so-called "everyday life". For once the background turns into foreground and gets all the attention it always deserved.” [press release]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| TELEPHERIQUE VS. S-CORE |
Result of a mail-art 1992 |
CD-R |
"Reissue of an old cassette, this collaboration is a perfect example of
the strange & captivating atmospheres s•core could create, reworked &
transformed by the many different sounds of telepherique. full color
pro-printed A5-sized carboard cover in a plastic sleeve & full printed
cd-r with artwork by cyril herry." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Past-Art |
mCD-R |
Neben der Wiederveröffentlichung der alten mail-art collab MC (Kokeshidisk) gibt es auf Taalem auch zwei neue Remixe von TELEPHERIQUE mit rauhen, unwirklichen, grottigen Granular-Dronescapes... dunkel, verstörend, aufregend arrangiert...
"telepherique remixed/reworked a s•core 7" released in 1995 for a unique result, perfect mix of weird sounds & atmospheres. full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by delphine ancelle-b." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| TELETOPA |
Tokyo 1972 |
3 x LP |
"Geoffroy Collins, flute, percussion, electronics. Peter Evans, percussion and electronics. David Ahern, violin, percussion and electronics. Roger Frampton, percussion, electronics and saxophone. Splitrec is honoured to release a legendary recording from 1972. In 1968 the young Sydney composer David Ahern studied in Germany with Stockhausen where he met Cornelius Cardew. The next year he travelled onto London attending Cardew's classes in Experimental Music' at Morley College and - in a mammoth seven-hour concert at the Roundhouse on 4 May - participated (with Cardew) in performances of La Monte Young's String Trio and also took part in the realisation of Paragraph 2 of Cardew's The Great Learning which proved to be the catalyst for the formation of the Scratch Orchestra. These were revolutionary and defining moments in C20th music. Returning to Sydney in 1970, one of his aims was to set up an electro-acoustic improvisation group - Teletopa was founded in Sydney in late 1970 by Ahern, Peter Evans and Roger Frampton. Tokyo 1972 - 3LP or 2CD release - features two 50min improvisations from a radio session at NHK studios Tokyo. The group was Ahern, Frampton, Evans and Geoffrey Collins and they were completing a 1972 world tour. The group broke up on their return to Sydney. Only a small example of their work has ever been released before. The Liner notes will be a manifesto by David Ahern from a 1971 pamphlet, and there is an insert, a newly penned Potted History of Teletopa by Geoffrey Barnard, who had been a member of the group from September 1971 until July 1972. The tapes have sat in boxes for 42 years. With this release we can hear that Sydney in the early 1970's had a group at the forefront of musical experimentation with a unique take on free improvisation. This document is not just important for Australian music - it should establish them posthumously as one of the most interesting developments in experimental music anywhere in the world at this time." [label info]
www.splitrec.com
"There is, I'm sure, tons of stuff buried in archives, garages, attics waiting to be heard when someone at least finds it. Stuff from people I never heard of, like Teletopa. David Ahern, Peter Evans and Roger Frampton in Sydney founded this group in late 1970. By 1972 Geoffrey Collins was also a member. Ahern studied in Germany in 1968 with Stockhausen, and he met Cornelius Cardew, with whom he performed in London later on, such as in 'The Great Learning'. We can see Teletopa along the lines of such legendary improvisation bands AMM (especially them) and MEV, but less electronic than they were. Here we have improvisation and no rules, even when the band also performed pieces by Cardew, Stockhausen and themselves, following visual scores. The instruments are flute, percussion, electronics (Collins), percussion and electronics (Evans), violin, percussion and electronics (Ahern) and percussion, electronics and saxophone (Frampton), but they also incorporated non-musical instruments. As Teletopa they never released much work, but in 1972 in Tokyo they recorded two fifty-minute pieces of improvised music. Tapes of these recordings have been unearthed recently and now released on this double CD with some excellent liner notes about this group. The music is very strong. It's not very silent, but very loud and perhaps also not very musical, in the traditional sense of the word. Sometimes all of this seems closely to feedback, with lots of scrapings on the violin and the saxophone sounding like a balloon being rubbed on end. The second disc is perhaps a bit more introspective than the first disc, at least for the first thirty or so minutes, allowing space between the notes, before the overall sound gets a bit more thicker and richer. Here Teletopa seems to be in almost Zen like mode. This is some strong 100 minutes of improvised music. Music that comes like an endless stream sound, subconsciously improvised on a wide variety of instruments and objects. If AMM and MEV were already on your list, then this double CD by Teletopa should not be missed. An essential historical release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€38.50 |
|
| TELL |
Tonal-Nagual |
CD |
"Joke Lanz - turntables, electronics
Christian Wolfarth - percussion
Recorded 20/21 June 2008 in Berlin - Kreuzberg"
[label info]
www.rossbin.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| TEMPLE MUSIC |
Volume II |
CD |
"Temple Music return to the themes first set out in Volume One – that the Olympian Gods of ancient Greece can still walk amongst us - in their superb new album, Volume Two. In the years intervening, Temple Music have evolved - via some stunning live shows and the Songs Of Absolution album, as well as the explorations of sonic possibilities in the ongoing Green Man series - into a unique acoustic/electronic/experimental/mythic band, and each of the six tracks on this new collection displays a different facet of their sound. Key personnel continue to be Stephen Robinson and Alan Trench, joined here by Julie Brackenbury and Tracy Jeffery. Using old analogue synths, delicately plucked and blown acoustic instruments and an acute musical sensibility that melds together seemingly disparate elements into a visionary whole, Temple Music create mesmeric and awe-inspiring soundscapes; for invocation and contemplation; for navigation through the dreaming backwaters of the aeons; and for the starlit times that shiver in the spaces between - intense and atmospheric, shifting and hypnotic . As you would expect from Temple Music and Shining Day, this new collection comes in a wonderfully evocative package; a foldout full colour wallet from original artwork by Alan Trench printed on heavyweight textured stock and cased in a protective wallet. Edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.shiningday.pl
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Incompleteness |
CD |
"INCOMPLETENESS" is the all new album from the visionary duo of TEMPLE MUSIC, beautifully presented in typical Faria fashion with 4 full colour inserts in an immaculate art housing...
In 1931, the Czech-born mathematician Kurt Gödel demonstrated that within any given branch of mathematics, there would always be some propositions that couldn't be proven either true or false using the rules and axioms of that mathematical branch itself... the implication is that all logical system of any complexity are, by definition, incomplete; each of them contains, at any given time, more true statements than it can possibly prove according to its own defining set of rules. This implies that you'll never entirely understand yourself, since your mind, like any other closed system, can only be sure of what it knows about itself by relying on what it knows about itself.
TEMPLE MUSIC'S Alan Trench and Stephen Robinson have used both the implications of Gödel's theorem and the doctrine of anamorphosis to compose and fashion an album of 4 interconnected and complementary tracks that somehow look both forward and back; that juxtapose the old and the new into an organic whole of both sacred and temporal instruments - Indian harmonium and shruti box, plucked and hammered dulcimers, bodhrans, mosenos, various flageolets, synthesisers and keyboards, guitars, bass, Tibetan bells and singing bowls - 4 drifting shards of ethereal and sometimes frightening beauty, rose petals on the snow that are finally revealed to be tiny, perfect drops of crystalline blood...
Tracy Jeffery of Orchis, Cunnan and SQE contributes to 2 tracks: vocals to Elemental and harp to Anamorphosis
Track listing:
"The Transmission of Enochian Via The Seer Edward Kelley" (11.44)
"Anamorphosis" (19.47)
"In Completeness" (11.30)
"Elemental" (9.08)
TEMPLE MUSIC believes that each piece of music should reflect the place, time and circumstance of its creation; that each composition should, in effect, be a Genius Loci of a moment; of a thought: a manifestation of the True Will. To this end, we employ a number of techniques, some more abstruse than others; alchymical as well as musical. The project took it's first steps back in 1995 as an offshoot of the English dark folk band ORCHIS and their interest in ancient Greek modal music, drone, magical trance states and krautrock. Orchis made several recordings for a planned ritual music side project, only one of which ever saw the light of day; 'Anadiomene' on 'Mandragora' (1999). There was then silence until 2004, when the first Temple Music recordings began to be released via the Polish experimental label Shining Day. Initially it was essentially a solo project by Alan Trench (ex World Serpent), but before long Trench joined forces with Stephen Robinson (ex The Beloved), initially for further recording but eventually to undertake live semi-improvised performances. The live Temple Music experience proved to be a phenomenon, veering between shifting walls of noise and moments of arctic intensity, sometimes unsettling but always demanding attention, rhythm and chaos combined.... Temple Music employ both acoustic and electronic instrumentation, from vintage synths and samplers to a vast array of plucked, bowed, blown , hammered and invented sound makers in order to accomplish their dense, introspective and numinous music."
[full label info] www.shiningday.pl
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Alpha - Barton upon Humber - St Peter |
CD-R |
"The Green Man Project is presented as a private limited edition CDR (50x each volume), housed in individual, hand printed ‘art’ wraparound sleeves with information about each location. Each piece is different, as is each location; each is dense, shifting, unexpected, rhythmic, arrhythmic, modal, tonal, abrasive, ethereal... each is as different and yet the same as the Green Man himself. Take yourself on a journey of a different sort with Temple Music…
The Green Man is a symbol familiar to many; it cuts across a vast swathe of interests - folklore, pagan, esoteric, architectural - and is found in a number of different contexts. Place names (farmsteads, woods), inn and pub signs, company logos and, overwhelmingly, churches, all contain references to, and images of, the Green Man, Primary and seconday schools alike set it as an art project. So ubiquitous is it, in fact, that most people will not have to have it explained to them - you can simply refer to the Green Man and they will know what you are talking about. Or, at any rate, they will know the symbol... So what exactly is the Green Man a symbol for? In broad terms, there is an agreement that he is part of our pagan past, a symbol of death, rebirth and renewal, the spirit of the Woods - Jack O? The Green, Robin Hood (Wood), the Lord of Misrule, the Corn King. A British, Celtic or Norse god brought into the churches (where he is often found in conjunction with Sheela-na-Gig) to properly sanctify them by our superstitious forebears. So broad are the terms of reference, so much does the Green Man seem to represent and signify, it seems that he is what you make of him and what you want him to be...
All the World is drown’d
Roots of Trees are drown’d
Ocean breathes and sleeps
Leaf and Branch are drown’d
Here I breathe and sleep
Tracy Jeffery - Harp, Vox
Stephen Robinson - Bass, 3 Drone Harmonium, Lapp Frame Drum
Alan Trench - Lyre, Dulcimer, Guitar, VSS30, Birds, Rainstick
www.myspace.com/templemusick" [label info]
www.shiningday.pl
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Gamma - Cadney - All Saints |
CD-R |
"The third in the seven album GREEN MAN series from TEMPLE MUSIC (ALAN TRENCH (ORCHIS, CUNNAN, S.Q.E., TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS) & STEPHEN ROBINSON (THE BELOVED)) opens with sinister bursts of (dis)harmony from the vintage String Machine underpinned by brooding bass and highlighted by tense yet liquid guitar... as the piece build, the mood lifts and becomes more rhythmic until a veil lifts on a crystalline vision of chiming bells and harmonised lyre; distant flutes play far away... again, this new vision builds, ebbs, flows... making way for a beautiful circular guitar and organ duet... this resolves into a song of yearning and loss with vocals by TRACY JEFFERY (ORCHIS, SQE) that seems to encapsulate all that has gone before; the final playout is both sad and elegiacal...
Once again TEMPLE MUSIC continue on their seven step journey; this third on the path shows an evolving series of spectacular depth ...
Once again, this comes as an extremely limited Art Edition; a beautiful handmade package, with individually painted and hand-blocked outer sleeve and complementary inner sleeve – and, once again, PLEASE NOTE that this is a NEW and RE-MASTERED EDITION that has a depth and tonality missing from the now totally unavailable Woven Wheat download version– and is exclusive to this SHINING DAY release.
This is what TEMPLE MUSIC have written about the album:
This recording is the third part of a continuing series of seven long pieces inspired and informed by different Green Man locations in the county of Lincolnshire, England. This volume is based upon a lonely and tree encircled location, the air tumbling with the black tatters of rooks - the once important All Saints church of Cadney Cadney sits in the wide clay valley of the river Ancholme a couple of miles south of Brigg (named after the bridge across the river). The suffix ‘ey’ gives the clue to its history, meaning ‘isle’ and before drainage schemes and the channelling of the Ancholme this was indeed an island in the midst of fresh and saltwater marshes and was ceded (under the name ‘Ruckholme’) to St Gilbert, founder of the Gilbertine Order, some time in the 12th century. Here he built Newstede priory where he lived until his death in 1189.
Based closely on the Cistercian order, the Gilbertine rule was austere, based on manual labour – farming. The son of a Norman baron and an English woman, Gilbert was ideally placed to bridge the cultural gap, and here, on the island in the darkness of the marshes between Lincoln Edge and the Wolds, in the Norman church of All Saints he could hardly have failed to notice the pagan survival that watched over the congregation; the Green Man. Modern Cadney is peaceful (if not entirely somnolent); the priory now a farm, the Ancholme now slow flowing and calmly channelled under the vastness of the arching sky. Here the past seems distant, unfocussed; the present hardly here at all, the landscape dreaming under the cloth of fields and woods. Although the work of Gilbert - and almost the memory of him - are nearly erased by time, the Green Man lives on.
SR & AT, 11.11.08 ev, Lincolnshire
On this piece, Temple Music were:
Tracy Jeffery – Voice : Stephen Robinson – Bass, String Machine, Synths, Lapp Frame Drum, Cithara
Alan Trench – Guitars, Tibetan Bells, Sequencer, Synths, Lyre, Whistles, Mongolian One String Fiddle Treatment
www.myspace.com/templemusick" [full label info]
www.shiningday.pl
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Songs of Absolution |
CD-R |
"Ltd edition of 200 copies beautifully housed in a gatefold digiwallet, each one of which is an original artwork in acrylics from the Apocalypse Sunset series by Stephen Robinson and Alan Trench.
Art print insert and outer protective sleeve.
The second album by Temple Music is a pause for breath between the Volume One and Volume Two workings and the first recorded output of the project after expansion to a duo with Alan Trench (Orchis, 12000 Days, World Serpent etc) now joined by Stephen Robinson (Bug, The Beloved, Mutoid Waste).
Opening with the lyric beauty of Myrrh and Belladona (featuring Tibetan singing bowls and Pixiphone) the mood deepens with the elegiac drift of Eisendrang where, to a stately undertow of subterranean gongs, the loss of the past is mourned with a distant wail of feedback as a floating, spacious fx guitar duels with whistles and a bass Moseno flute.The mood changes again with Harmony Rosy Cross, a paean to a dead friend which features oddly out of kilter acoustic and electric guitars circling and spiralling, changing and unchanging ceaselessly and hypnotically, never quite resolving.Satyrion was written specifically as part of the soundtrack to HAXAN (Witchcraft Through The Ages)(1922) and first performed at a screening of the film on 01 07 05 ev.The atmospheric version here magisterially conjures the nightmare claustrophobia of Benjamin Christensons surreal and hallucinogenic masterpiece.The album continues claustrophobically to close with Thunder: Father of Bulls, a section of a much longer piece (an invocation to Poseidon) which showcases the band in a live setting with analogue synth, fx guitar and a bass delay system.
Despite - or because of - having so many disparate elements, the album is a cohesive whole and a joy to listen to (preferably around 3 o'clock in the morning). The dreamer will awake." [label info]
www.shiningday.pl
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Soon you will die and your lives will have been as nothing |
CD |
"Soon you will die and your lives will have been as nothing is the new album by the UK-based psychedelic/drone/ambient project Temple Music.
Stephen Robinson and Alan Trench (known from the dark folk project Orchis) skilfully combine a wide range of acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings and drones with spoken word, rhythm and chaos, resulting into one long avant-garde soundscape. The vocals are both comforting and unsettling and contribute to an overall magical atmosphere.
Introspective and spiritual as well as powerful and energetic, Soon you will die and your lives will have been as nothing will entice the ears and the soul.
www.myspace.com/templemusick" [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| TENHORNEDBEAST |
The Sacred Truth |
CD |
"From the ashes of Dark Ambient legends Endvra the TenHornedBeast is rising. Cryptic, menacing atmospheres erupt from droning chasms of feedback. On an altar of horn and fire "The Sacred Truth" is revealed. An ultra doom / drone epic! Presented in a matt-laminate, spot-varnished digipak. TenHornedBeast is Christopher Walton." [label info]
"With a past in the British dark ambient-project Endura in joint venture with Stephen Pennick, Christopher Walton knows exactly how to create atmospheres of the disturbingly black kind. His solo-project "Tenhornedbeast" is like a trip back to the early days of death industrial. The expression on the five intersections of the album is repetitive and slowly moving, though the approach to dark minimalism varies on the overall album. With drones based on orchestration of the dark kind the associations from beginning of the album stylishly turns towards the Cold Meat Industry-scene, more precisely towards the lesser harsh moments of Brighter Death Now around the "Necrose Evangelicum"-period. From fourth intersection titled "In the teeth of the wolf", the drones becomes more guitar-based in the gloomy drone-rock style characterizing the expression of Sunn O))), with a dark ambient-based touch reminding of Lustmord and early british industrial/metal-ambient-project Saw Throat (aka SoreThoat ). The true power of this album is Christopher Walton ability to create cinematic atmospheres of trance-like hypnotism with this great mixture of acoustic and synthetic. Impressive album." [NM / Vital Weekly]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| TENHORNEDBEAST / MARZURAAN |
split |
CD |
Zwei lange Stücke auf dieser Split der Bands aus UK. Unfassbar weiten & mächtigen, fast halbstündigen DOOM-DRONE produzieren TENHORNEDBEAST, die früher als ENDVRA aktiv waren. MARZURAAN ist die zweite Inkarnation von RYN, und sie rocken hier weniger metallisch-krachig, sondern in wunderbarer ultra-minimaler JESU-Manier... Spezielles ausgestanztes Cover.
"Aurora Borealis is proud to present this split CD by two of the lesser known greats from the Northeast of England. TENHORNEDBEAST is the dark vision of Christopher Walton, part of the much feted ENDVRA, masters of 90s dark and occult ambient. 'Law of the needle', clocking in at over 28 minutes, is an oppressive opus of doomed drone, both monolithic and multifaceted. Pure power. "elongated, sinister drone, ...distant, echoing string resonance from bowed guitars and cold, steely walls of distortion" think the good folks at Boomkat, as well they may. MARZURAAN contribute 'Into countless battles', 13 minutes of narcotic guitar haze. I think this is my favourite of anything they have done to date. So good, you never want it to end. The gruff metal grunts of the 'Solid Wood' LP have been replaced by a subdued, almost crushed vocal, totally stands out. "acres of textured guitar, low end pressure and brooding drums" say Boomnkat. Can't wait to hear more from MARZURAAN - this is epic, like a bassier, looser, Mogadon dosed JESU with a man past caring roped in to give his thoughts on where its all gone wrong. Pete from MARZURAAN did the artwork and layout. Printed on heavy textured card and with 2 diecut runes. Comes in a pvc bag." [label info]
" Every once in a while, someone will release a record, and we can't help but feel like it was made specifically for us. And for you. Some records just perfectly speak to the aQ aesthetic, as undefinable as that seems to be. This is another one of those cases. Someone thought it would be a perfect combination to match up UK one man ambient drone outfit Tenhornedbeast, with UK slow motion doomlords Marzuraan. And it is perfect. And a fantastic idea, but just because something is a great idea, doesn't always mean someone thinks of it. And we're not saying we had been thinking someone should get these two bands together specifically, we're just glad they did, and we sort of wish we HAD thought of it. But that's neither here nor there. The important thing is that it happened, and now we can all luxuriate in the deep dark heaviness both of these bands explore. And while the bands are indeed different, their aesthetics are not all that far removed. The both exist in some blackened nether region, haunting sonic realms, where heaviness can be expressed in both utter darkness and extreme force, sometimes
both, and once in awhile neither.
Tenhornedbeast offer up a nearly 30 minute long sonic ritual, beginning as a bit of swirling black minimalism, but slowly building to a truly intense wall of doomdrone, the sound thick and textured, a churning cauldron of low end buzz and downtuned disembodied riffs, all brought to a boil and poured out in a viscous black torrent, left to flow like some subterranean river. But these deep drones are laced with melodies, and keening high end shards, allowed to shine forth occasionally, but often swallowed up before they can fill those caves with their unnatural light. The track continually changes shape, sound and timbre, various shades of grey and black, lightening and darkening as the landscape changes, a haunting journey through some lost world, where sound replaces sight, allowing us to navigate ever deeper.
Marzuraan counter with what must be one of their prettiest tracks ever. It's still sludgey and doomy, but the notes ring out, the melodies almost soar, the sound fuzzy and glimmering, almost like these guys have caught the shoegaze bug as well. Washed out and blissy, super melodic and melancholy, but the coolest part is that the track seems to warble and waver, almost like someone is manually adjusting the tape speed, so the notes sound drunken and drugged, the track lurches and weaves drunkenly, only adding to the haunting and off kilter beauty. Part way through, the riffs get a little more riffy, and then the vocals come in, a moaning distant croon, and we're most definitely in serious Jesu territory, but that weird speed shifting hitch, keeps it from sounding too pretty, or two blissy. But if these guys keep heading in this direction, they could definitely give Jesu, and Nadja and other metallic shoegazers a run for their money.
The packaging is super swank, a three panel gatefold, each of the front panels diecut with each band's symbol, printed inside and out, housed in a thick plastic sleeve with a sticker affixed to the front." [Aquarius Records review]
www.aurora-b.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TERRA SANCTA |
Sunken / Buried / Forgotten |
maxi-CD |
"A brand new CDEP from Terra Sancta, originally planned as part of the next full length release, but the tracks here are significantly
different from the newer material being recorded as to warrant a separate release. Sunken|Buried|Forgotten should be seen as a sort of bridge between Terra Sancta's past and future recordings, the three tracks here (total time roughly 23 minutes) representing the heavy
droning sound found on particular parts of Disintegration; swaths of roughly textured, post-industrial drift, propelled forth with a
massive back weight into a crescendo of epic turbulence, leaving a wake of swirling cosmic debris in its path. Once again, Terra Sancta
shows an innate ability to push the limits of what is traditionally considered dark ambient. 4 panel digipak, lmtd 500." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| TERVAHÄÄT |
Taival |
CD |
"Taival continues on the paths and narrow roads through Finnish forests to further explore the rustic and mystical sounds and visions of Tervahäät. Seven tracks of ritualistic folk & neofolk are inspired by rural surroundings, spiritual unity, and a sincere interest in the native land and its entities — trees, animals, and the spirit of the ancestors. The fourth album of Tervahäät brings also some surprisingly warm winds from the icy north-west, but the warmth also carries a slight smell of decaying bones and suspicioulsy friendly whispers from old ghosts." [label info]
www.animaarctica.fi
"I have spoken to many people about their taste in music. Several of them can pinpoint a defining moment that triggered their now eclectic taste, which has led them along the path of musical freedom. I, personally, keep very limited and musically specific company, but for me it’s a very simple and nostalgic memory.
Have you ever had one of those evenings where you find yourself looking at film after film on YouTube? You go from band-to-band and genre-to-genre, and you stumble across some amazing, bizarre, and down-right amateur videos. That particular nostalgic night, I stumbled across a man playing a Finnish instrument called the ‘kantele’. I was amazed at how simple the instrument looked and yet how sweet the tone is. The first one I heard was a five-string, and the YouTube trail quickly brought me to a ten-string. Before I knew it, I had placed an order for a five-string kantele to be made in the United States. This epiphany of sorts found me entrenched in the culture of Finland, whilst playing its national instrument.
This immersion in Finnish culture—now six years on—has not deteriorated; if anything, it has intensified. From the stories of the Kalevala, Vainamoinen, and the mythical Kantele he constructed from a pike’s jaw-bone, to the vast landscapes full of lakes, forests, and elks, and the pre-Lutheran religious customs and practices that were once the Pagan folklore of the land… It’s quite possibly the polar-opposite, natural elements of my homeland that fuels my fascination.
Tervahäät
When my editor told me to ‘light a fire’ underneath the Tervahäät review, I detected a Finnish scent on the name. Further examination of the cover and notes brought about the jubilation and motivation required to get that ‘fire’ going.
Many no doubt know that Finland is renowned for great music. Being a folk metal junkie, there isn’t much that comes out of Finland that I don’t like or haven’t seen live, even here in Australia. Having predominantly covered folk and neofolk to date with the Heathen Harvest Periodical, it was a much-anticipated listen.
The polar opposite landscapes of which I previously spoke are significant. We have huge deserts, dried-up lakes, and a bevy of poisonous reptiles to keep your trekking interesting. I played Taival in my car on a four-hour drive across the plains of South Australia. My research on the band’s name, Tervahäät, loosely translates to ‘Tar Wedding’. Quite auspicious given that my initial listen is being done on the open road! The album’s name, Taival, loosely translates to ‘Journey on foot’. As we say in Australia, ‘bugger that’—there are too many snakes out at this time of year.
The opening song, ‘Kärrinpyörä’, begins with guitar strumming reminiscent to the intro of a Western film scene. The harsh and drawn-out vocals accompany a simple melody being looped in the background. Harsh vocals are usually associated with heavier music but there is elocution with these, which really hold your interest. The surroundings in the early stage of my journey are arid and harsh. Dry farms and wrecked cars are a common sight. The previous suggestion of Western theme has much more credence (to my present situation). The chorus keeps returning and after a while I find myself singing and humming it in a familiar way.
‘Kevätkirot’ begins with a more melodic approach that fins the vocals taking a 180-degree turn wherein Riimu showcases his vocal ability. His voice wouldn’t sound out-of-place belting out Russia’s national anthem or one of Ivan Rebroff’s classics. These haunting tones are hypnotizing. They captivate me to the extent that I needed to know more about the lyrics. Not verbatim, but in Riimu’s words, the song reflects a particular mood: A time in early depression, or that bleakest time in spring and utter loneliness. The outro of the track has a dreamy presence and plays a haunting sound whose origins would point to a wind instrument.
The album isn’t short of effects, and as ‘Tuomiolaulu’ begins, the presence of reverb gives the song an enchanting sound. Again the song is driven by powerful vocals; the music passages are superfluous to them but accompany the style.
Have I mentioned that the album has an occasional Western theme? The use of Banjo on ‘Koulutie’ reaffirms this theory. The previous description of Finland’s landscape casts a rural description which gives credence to my suggested theme. It then dawns on me that this album draws inspiration from the transition of seasons—the personal reflections and mood changes that occur within all beings and in the case of this album, the artists.
The song ‘Taival’—also the album’s namesake—ends the seven-track recording. A synthesizer and eclectic but simple percussive beat accompanies the consistently haunting vocals. I listened to this one a few times over. With each listen I hear a new overtone in the background. Like the recording was being infiltrated by ghosts or spirits from the ancient land or another world. One in particular sounds like a Tuvan throat singer. It adds a mystique that’s hard to quantify in words. It still sends a quiver of eeriness over my body with each listen.
Musically simple, vocally diverse, and lyrically reflective are appropriate word associations for Taival. It’s been a while since I have heard anything like this, and I want to explore this style a lot more. I have myself in recent times been meditating to this record; the music works with me like a spiritual guide to the Suomi landscape that I’m yet to visit. Its place as driving music wasn’t limited to that one encounter. The CD hasn’t left my stacker. The artists are clearly emotionally entrenched in their music. It comes across as from the heart; it comes across with honesty, and it works." [Malachy O'Brien / Heathen Harvest]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| TESENDALO |
Entwurf (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
released in July 1994 in an edition of 200 copies on white vinyl. Nice and always different patterns of colours on each Coverside.
Press-Information: "The open ambient project TESENDALO of Peter Schuster, founder of the long-existing tape-label PRION TAPES, charms you with magical ambience you will possibly drown into and forget your selves in. The two tracks "Entwurf I + II" work with similar elements (drones, guitars, effects + nature-recordings) to create slightly different dreamy soundscapes that will dip you and your environment into emotional atmos-spheres. This is in our opinion a perfect example what ambience is able to express... We'd also like to recommend the wonderful debut-LP of TESENDALO which cam out on Marginal Talent (a sub-label of Empty Records) recently."
|
1994 |
€ |
|
| TEST DEPARTMENT / TEST DEPT. |
Disturbance |
LP |
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.
“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.
The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
music merch
Disturbance
by Test Dept
Wishlist
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dauvit thumbnail
dauvit Test Dept. have always sounded like Test Dept. and nobody else sounds like Test Dept.
Another fantastic release.
jvvoda thumbnail
jvvoda Not a case of sentimental cash-out reunion call, quite the opposite. This record will keep you pushed to the edge of your comfort zone, and true to the title, it will leave you disturbed - in the best possible way - as a wake up call from your apathy and ignorance back to action.
mipsen thumbnail
mipsen What a great interpretation of my favorite track of the "Unacceptable Face of Freedom"! The whole album is extremely recommended! Favorite track: Gatekeeper.
R5N thumbnail
R5N Just a fucking brilliant album. 🤘Glad to see such a great return.
Bryon Wilson thumbnail
Bryon Wilson Love the album! I honestly can’t say what my favorite track is. I keep listening to the entire thing straight through. Great work.
Synthonic thumbnail
Synthonic You don`t listen to Test Dept, you feel them. If you have a heart, that is.
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more...
Landlord 00:00 / 04:41
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
£5.99 GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
package image package image
Single black vinyl in gatefold sleeve with artwork designed by David Altweger
Includes unlimited streaming of Disturbance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
£17.99 GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
package image
CD in 6 panel digipack with artwork designed by David Altweger
Includes unlimited streaming of Disturbance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
£8.99 GBP or more
1.
Speak Truth To Power 06:21
2.
Landlord 04:41
3.
Debris 04:33
4.
Full Spectrum Dominance 07:27
5.
Information Scare 04:50
6.
Gatekeeper 05:32
7.
GBH84 04:21
8.
Two Flames Burn 07:53
about
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.
“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.
The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
credits
released March 1, 2019
Graham Cunnington - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Paul Jamrozy - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Zel Kaute - Drums
Lottie Lou - Electronics, Live Sound
David Altweger - Visual Director
Rob Lewis - Additional Drums
Ashley Davies - Bass / Percussion
Laura Thompson - Additional Vocals on 'Gatekeeper'
Roz Corrigan - Piano on 'Debris'
Michelle Outram - Cello on 'Truth'
Jordi Blanchar & Ilenia Bombardi - Additional Vocals
Recorded:
Flesh & Bone Studios, Hackney
The Shed, Nunhead
Mixed & Produced: The Shed
Engineered: Lottie Lou
Mastered: Giovanni Versari at La Maestra Mastering, Tredozio (FC)
GBH84 Is dedicated to The Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign
Artwork by David Altweger
Photos by Michael Kötter |
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Disturbance |
CD |
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.
“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.
The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
released March 1, 2019
Graham Cunnington - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Paul Jamrozy - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Zel Kaute - Drums
Lottie Lou - Electronics, Live Sound
David Altweger - Visual Director
Rob Lewis - Additional Drums
Ashley Davies - Bass / Percussion
Laura Thompson - Additional Vocals on 'Gatekeeper'
Roz Corrigan - Piano on 'Debris'
Michelle Outram - Cello on 'Truth'
Jordi Blanchar & Ilenia Bombardi - Additional Vocals
Recorded:
Flesh & Bone Studios, Hackney
The Shed, Nunhead
Mixed & Produced: The Shed
Engineered: Lottie Lou
Mastered: Giovanni Versari at La Maestra Mastering, Tredozio (FC)
GBH84 Is dedicated to The Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign
Artwork by David Altweger
Photos by Michael Kötter
https://testdept.bandcamp.com/album/disturbance
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TEXT OF LIGHT |
Text of Light |
3 x CD-Box |
“An incredible three-CD set from TEXT OF LIGHT. This is the side project of SONIC YOUTH’s LEE RANALDO with ALAN LICHT, WILLIAM HOOKER, CHRISTIAN MARCLY, TIM BARNES, ULRICH KREIGER, and DJ OLIVE. They perform live to a backdrop of STAN BRAKHAGE films, and no two sets are ever alike. The first 1000 copies of this lavish set will be issued in a special metal box with the ToL logo imbossed on the lid as a tribute to the legendary Public Image Ltd.” [label info] |
2006 |
€34.00 |
|
| |
Un Pranzo favoloso |
CD |
" “Un Pranzo Favoloso" has been recorded live on 26th May 2005 at Auditorium Concordia in Pordenone (Italy) during the "Schermo Sonoro - Cinemazero" festival. In this incredible concert Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, Tim Barnes and Ulrich Krieger played on Stan Brakhage experimental movies; the band explores the concept of soundtrack and creates something new out of it, a "sonic continuum" between music and the movies, in which Stan Brackage's images become sounds. The result is amazing.
"Synchronicity, not synchronization / Motion, not film / Sound, not soundtrack / Action, not concert"
Alan Licht: guitar | Lee Ranaldo: guitar, electronics | Ulrich Krieger: sax, sax-tronics | Tim Barnes: drums, percussions, electronics." [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| TEXT OF LIGHT / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN |
Cosmic Debris Vol. 1 |
CD |
"CD re-issue of the first instalment in the new 'Cosmic Debris' split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka MY CAT IS AN ALIEN. This Volume I sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and his all-star ensemble TEXT OF LIGHT (here featuring Alan Licht, Dj Olive, Ulrich Krieger and Tim Barnes). Their track "033103 Paris" has been recorded live at Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003 and mixed in dual mono by Ranaldo & Licht at NYC Echo Canyon studio. MCIAA's piece entitled "Everything falls like cosmic debris" is a conceptual ouverture to the whole series, performed in April 2006 at their secret recording space called Alien Zone, located up the Italian Western Alps." [label info] |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| THAI ELEPHANT ORCHESTRA (TEO) |
Water Music |
CD |
"Water Music is the third and last recording of the grand Thai Elephant Orchestra, and features fourteen elephants improvising on giant instruments in the Thai jungle. This is the "purist" CD, with no human participation (except for a traditional Buddhist prayer for the elephant spirit by a monk on one track), editing or overdubs. Experimental composer Dave Soldier and elephant conservationist Richard Lair built giant instruments for the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. The elephants improvise long pieces with them with the only human instructions being to start and stop. Their music have been widely televised and filmed, including several of the pieces on this CD, for a new documentary." [label info]
www.mulatta.org
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE 120 DAYS |
Beauty & beast |
mCD-R |
"20 minutes of nihilist Power Electronics inspired by the lovely touch of contempt and hopelessness that our ordinary lifes bring. "This world is no Nirvana where peace forever flows, it is a gruesome butchershop, where dead lambs hang in rows" (Ragnar Redbeard) [label info]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| THE ALPS |
Jewelt Galaxies / Spirit Shambles |
CD |
"JEWELT GALAXIES/SPIRIT SHAMBLES is their 1st full album collecting the first two CDR releases from The ALPS.
Following a specially tuned internal compass that leads them from open meadowsand rushing rivers to urban chaos and decay, The Alps use a variety of soundsources (Wooden Flute, Tabla, Orchestra Bells, Electric Guitar, Omnichord,Microphone, Clarinet, Violin Bow, Acoustic Guitar, Organ, Shakers, Mixer, Voice,Cassette Tape, Sleigh Bells), This was recorded with one microphone in Scott Hewickers's living room mostly in one session on November 14 2005 and a bit in August earlier in the year." [label info]
|
2007 |
€15.50 |
|
| THE BRAIN |
All Human is Error |
LP |
Created in early 2020 by American graphic artist Scott Summers and German-born guitarist/electronics engineer Karl Gottlaus, Workshop of Filthy Creation is a small privately funded record label that serves as the "official" production and distribution node for The Brain. Workshop of Filthy Creation also exists as a platform for the release of projects by other artists whose music exists somewhere in that vast gray area where experimental music and improvisational electronic music intersect. Workshop of Filthy Creation also intends to re-release works by various artists from the 1970s and 1980s whose music was either neglected or underappreciated during their time.
All Human Is Error is the second full-length album by German expatriate (now living in Portland, Oregon) The Brain (aka Karl Gottlaus), and continues his exploration of harsh electronics and violent guitar, this time accompanied by Japanese drummer/percussionist Body Hammer. Utilizing neither sequencers nor digital samplers, neither MIDI technology nor computer-based recording/production techniques, All Human Is Error returns the listener to the mindfields of Germany's post-1960s man-machine blitzkrieg and France's "after the barricades" cold wave vanguard. Featuring a battery of analog synthesizers, audio generators, and tape machines, as well as slashing, angular guitar and thunderous drums, All Human Is Error takes the molten past of 70s-era "kosmische musik" as an aural starting point before erupting into a volcanic hailstorm seething with calculated menace and mayhem. As a whole, All Human Is Error heralds an uncertain future where the ever present threat of war, environmental collapse, viral apocalypse, and global genocide becomes more probable each day.
Available in LP/DD formats. For more information and orders, contact Scott Summers or Karl Gottlaus.
Artist: The Brain
Title: All Human Is Error
Catalog #: WLP04
Release Date: March 2022
https://thebrainshop.bandcamp.com/album/all-human-is-error
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Experiments for Guitar + Machines |
LP |
About Workshop of Filthy Creation
Created in early 2020 by American graphic artist Scott Summers and German-born guitarist/electronics engineer Karl Gottlaus, Workshop of Filthy Creation is a small privately funded record label that serves as the "official" production and distribution node for The Brain. Workshop of Filthy Creation also exists as a platform for the release of projects by other artists whose music exists somewhere in that vast gray area where experimental music and improvisational electronic music intersect. Workshop of Filthy Creation also intends to re-release works by various artists from the 1970s and 1980s whose music was either neglected or underappreciated during their time.
The Brain's debut release Experiments for Guitar + Machines is also the debut release on Workshop of Filthy Creation, a label devoted to the exploration of noise, sound and music in an uncertain world. The Brain's initial album, available on vinyl and as a digital download, is a collection of experimental guitar/electronic soundscapes that recall the early work of Heldon, Cyborg-era Klaus Schulze, and the surreal kling-klang blitzkrieg of Conrad Schnitzler. Mesmerizing analog synthesizer drones collide with abrasive guitar textures to create dense sound collages that blur the distinction between industrial mayhem and ambient calm. If the true essence of music lies in its inherent unpredictability, then The Brain's initial release fully captures this anarchistic spirit. It is an approach to music that has been nearly abandoned in this new sterile age of MIDI and the endless programming of beats, where music has become merely a commodity for mindless consumption and perfunctory excretion.
Available in LP/DD formats from Bandcamp at www.thebrainshop.bandcamp.com and directly from Workshop of Filthy Creation. For more information and orders, contact Scott Summers or Karl Gottlaus.
Artist: The Brain
Title: Experiments for Guitar + Machines
Catalog #: WLP02
Release Date: August 2020
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| THE FLOATING WORLD |
The Wood beyond the World |
CD |
"The Japanese term ‘ukiyo,’ translated as ‘the floating world,’ was used to describe the pleasure seeking urban culture of Edo Japan. When alternately rendered as ‘sorrowful world’ the term took on Buddhist connotations, indicating the transitory nature of human experience, the ephemerality of existence. These two seemingly opposed yet sympathetic concepts have always heavily informed the music of The Floating World and each album has been created with these as central themes. Named for a novel by William Morris, The Wood Beyond the World is The Floating World’s latest album and an attempt to capture the journey from the mundane to the illusory made by the novel’s protagonist – a journey that reflects the hunt for the temporal and intangible the band’s name intimates. With the addition of Neddal Ayad (guitar; Desolation Singers/Great Attractor) and Grey Malkin (drones, bells, piano; The Hare and the Moon), as full members who have brought additional nuance to the music, this ambition is more fully realized. Amanda’s delicate, melancholy flute parts now weave in and out of Neddal’s hazy guitar and Grey’s eerie and dissonant accompaniments – the whole underpinned by various rough field recordings used to compliment and counterpoint the music. Roy Felps (Korperschwache) also guests on the album, adding drifting acoustic guitar to a song. Amanda has also collaborated with Lacus Somniorum, New Risen Throne, Far Black Furlong, Dodson and Fog, The Joy of Nature and The Hare and the Moon. She and Neddal have another band together, Secrets to the Sea, as well. Released as part of our Eclipse Series.
Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel digi sleeve. 8 Tracks. Running Time 54:00" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"The Floating World‘s The Wood Beyond the World is the brightest of Cyclic Law’s three October releases, apparent from the very first seconds. The chimes of Vortex and the waves of Taphephobia are joined by the flute of Amanda Votta. This convergence of sounds is not the only factor that ties these releases together. As with all of Votta’s work, The Wood Beyond the World is steeped in Buddhist concepts. The band’s name was inspired by the Japanese ukiyo, which can refer to either a pleasure-seeking culture or the ephemeral nature of existence. Votta’s project exists in tension, as do the preceding projects; and while all may possess different timbres, all approach the same subject: the overload of the modern era. The press release even echoes that of Tapephobia: “a journey from the mundane”. Yet Votta and her new bandmates exude no animosity, only holy contemplation. If nothing is permanent, should one turn a blind eye to suffering? Or might one seek the lessons of a higher plane? The protagonist of William Morris’ 1894 adventure novel of the same name leaves home to avoid trouble, only to find it elsewhere. We carry our potentials within us – good and evil, dead and alive – as if each of us were Schrödinger’s cat. The album sounds like the choice before it is made, the promise before it is spoken, the mandala before it is disturbed. The fuller cast of guitar, piano and field recordings enriches the wood like children among the trees." [A Closer Listen]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE FORCE DIMENSION |
Early Recordings 1985-89 |
4 x LP BOX |
4 Lp Box w. Shirt & Booklet. Black vinyl ltd. 400. The Force Dimension was formed in the mid 80's by René Van Dijck and Tycho de Groot. After some demos and appearances on compilations, the band signed a contract with the Belgian label KK Records. Their self-titled debut was released in 1989 curiously on two different versions, one produced by Luc Van Acker (Revolting Cocks) and the other co-produced by Dirk Ivens (Klinik, Dive). The duo continued developing a very unique sound mixing EBM, industrial and different electronic influences.
4 Lp Box w. Shirt & Booklet
The FORCE DIMENSION. Early Recordings 1985-1989
LP0.5 (=1) Lp2 (all Tracks recorded 1985/1986)
A1. Radial 4:01
A2. Asylum Iso-sweet 3:20 (solar)
A3. Enter My Playroom 4:07
A4. Square Feeling 2:26
A5. Babybubblebathroom 9:21
A6. Weeping Robot 4:38
B1. Arctic Aparatus (correct version). 4:59
B2. Dadahaha 6:16
B3. Walking Against The Wall 4:56
B4. Cathedrals of SM 2:34
B5. Suffocating Syndrome (grey version) 2:07
B6. Karton Im Regal 3:44
LP1 (=2) (all Tracks recorded 1985/1986)
A1 Iceplanet Asterioid 5:20 (1985/86)
A2 Destruction 4:59 (1985/86)
A3 Burning Sticks down at the Castle 4:22 (1985/86)
A4 Enterprice Mister Spock Disco 5:36 (1985/86)
A5 Pi 3 5:10 (1985/86)
A6 Pi 3 outro 0:19 (1985/86)
A7 Toys of Witchcraft 4:00 (1985/86)
B1 Dogmah Nepal 3:14 (1985/86)
B2 Mental Psi 5:03 (1985/86)
B3 Suffocating Syndrome 3:35 (1985/86)
B4 SDI 5:08 (1985/86)
B5 Rayons im Lokal 2:55 (1985/86)
B6 Tarot 8:05 (1985/86)
LP2 (=3) Lp2 (all Tracks recorded 1985/1986)
A1 Excitement 4.27
A2 Excitement Outro0.15
A3 Blow Out 4.26
A4 Spelonkologgio 3:15
A5 Attenzione prego 6:12
A6 offerz to buddha 2:13
A7 Calls from the Islands in Between 5:56
A8 Calls from the Islands in Between outro 0:16
B1 two times dead 5:59
B2 fire 3:44
B3 War of Ghosts 7:09
B4 Inside myself 4:23
B5 Cold Cave of Death Part 1 0:49
B6 Cold Cave of Death Part 2 & 3 2:55
Lp4 (=3) (all Tracks recorded 1986-1989)
A1 Dust (Remix). 5:34 (1989)
A2 Carcinome (Fabforce 7inch Version) 3:28 (1988)
A3 Excitement 3:01 (1987)
A4 Attentione Prego! 3:37 (1987)
A5 Green Hall 4:51 (1986)
A6 Sequence your Body 2:28 (1988)
A7 So-Dom (Fabforce 7inch Version) 4:35 (1988)
B1 Julius Caesar 6:33 (1987)
B2 Superballen 3:01 (1986)
B3 Arctic Apparatus 2:08 (1986)
B4 Giant „Ghost“ Steps 4:41 (1986)
B5 Cradle Song 2:34 (1988)
B6 Hangar V1 2:36 (1987)
B7 Gabrielle 4:10 (1987)
B8 Fiebertanz 4:07 (1987)
|
2023 |
€95.00 |
|
| THE GHOST ORCHID |
An Introduction to EVP |
CD |
Hochinteressante CD zum Thema "Electronic Voice Phenomenon" (EVP), das sind auf magnetischen Tonträgern aufngenommene "Geisterstimmen" für die es keine gesicherte Erklärung gibt. Auf der CD werden eine Fülle von EVPs vorgestellt und erklärt (moderiert von LEIF ELGGREN und die Arbeit des EVP-Erforschers RAYMOND CASS wird vorgestellt. Die Aufnahmen sind z.T. bis zu 35 Jahre alt. Handelt es sich um Stimmen von Verstorbenen? Oder Botschaften von Aliens? Oder um ganz normale Radiostimmen, die über noch unbekannte Mechanismen übertragen werden? Im Booklet werden dazu die verschiedensten Theorien diskutiert und weitere erstaunliche Details erläutert. Für jeden an übersinnlichen / paranormalen Phänomenen Interessierten eine faszinierende Anschaffung!
"This is the third edition of this much sought-after CD... and has been unavailable since 2002... [originally issued in 1999]. The ParaPsychic Acoustic Research Cooperative [PARC], in association with Ash International, is proud to present the first ever fully comprehensive investigation into the paranormal phenomenon of EVP, otherwise known as Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Without doubt EVP falls into the catagory of the paranormal alongside other unexplained mysteries such as ufology, life after death & poltergeist activity. The listener is guided through a collection of strange and mysterious voices that have appeared without explanation onto the tapes of EVP researchers. Included with the CD is a 24 page booklet containing commissioned articles which cover the conflicting views surrounding the EVP. Actual voice samples are reproduced here for the first time on compact disc: Polyglot Voices, Public Service Broadcasting, Interruptions across the airwaves, Singing Voices, Instant Response Voices, and the extraordinary Alien Voices. The CD also includes a commentary by the artist Leif Elggren (in English), and recordings of the work of Raymond Cass, England's leading EVP researcher, and original member of the Fortean Group, and the Latvian EVP researcher, Dr. Konstantin Raudive. This CD release seeks to present the evidence; are the voices extraterrestrial, paranormal evidence of our telepathic powers or an elaborate hoax perpetrated by sinister and powerful groups to mislead us from their true aims...?" [label info]
www.ashinternational.com
|
1999 |
€15.00 |
|
| THE HUMAN VOICE |
Exit Lines |
CD |
"Harleif Langas better known as the mastermind behind Northaunt has found a new way to exorcize his ambient creativity. The Human Voice brings a rather different style from what we've been used to hearing from this man. It's definitely more into pure soundtrack music or soundscape experiments. There are records from which there's less to say, but only experience it yourself. 'Exit Lines' will bring the listener into a mysterious sonic voyage with fewer sounds mainly composed by guitar treatments. It increases some of the imaginary visions this kind of music can occur, but it's not necessary fascinating during the entire ride. I for sure like the wayguitar sounds can be used and transposed to create such an ambient trip. Exit Lines is the kind of album that needs a visual part this way creating a 'total concept'. Definitely for lovers of minimal experiences!" [Side-Line]
"NORTHAUNT mastermind Harleif Langas gives voice to a less dark and oppressive journey with "Exit lines", and explores the thin boundary between ambient (not necessarily dark....) music and spacious post-rock. Deep drones and sparse melodic guitar lines, "skeletal" structures and subtle noises. Appealing to both the Constellation-freaks and the courageous (and open minded) dark ambient travellers. Digisleeve." [label info] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE IMAGINARY SOUNDSCAPES |
Field Factory |
mCDR |
"the imaginary soundscapes is the electronic meeting of stéphane rives who uses re-worked samples from hiw own discography mixed with recordings from his daily life and sound environment, a process that builds on "islet of memories", a project he began in 2010, and frédéric nogray (his solo disc "wuritagu" is still available from us) who returns to his early research on feedback, here caused and moderated in real time with three effects pedals, oscillating between minimalism and psychedelia.
"field factory" is a wonderful ever evolving post-industrial drone that will keep you awake during its 20 minutes..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"In the ever-expanding universe of Taalem, now over 100 releases, three new additions, reviewed in order of appearance in the Taalem catalogue. The first one is by French duo Stephane Rives and Frederic Nogray. They already had a release on Ruptured (see Vital Weekly 802). Rives normally plays saxophone but on this release he is responsible for 'mixing and editing of recordings from his daily life and sound environment, sometimes using samples of his own discography' while Nogray creates 'feedbacks caused and moderated by three effects pedals, general mixing and editing in real time', recorded in Beirut, where Rives lives. Now this is something different than the usual release on Taalem. It's dark, it's drone like - that is not strange - but The Imaginary Soundscapes add an element of noise to it, although perhaps noise is not the right word. It's perhaps more abstract than much of the ambient releases on Taalem. The processed feedback makes up a fine, sustaining field of sound and the field recordings in here do not come in some long form but rather in a more collage like form." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| THE NORTH SEA |
Bloodlines |
LP |
"Brad Rose is an artist who is notoriously hard to pigeonhole. He might spend his days running the esteemed Digitalis imprint (sidelining the wonderful Foxy Digitalis webzine) but his nights are wiled away chiselling at the petrified corpse of experimental music. Donating sounds to Ajilvsga, Altar Eagle, Sea Zombies and Ossining (among many, many others) he has somehow found time to fashion a new solo work for Type and it could hardly be further removed from his last outing.
‘Bloodlines’ is an album rooted in synthesis – the kind of busted power electronics that emerged in the early 80s with Ramleh, Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse. This is not however simply a noise album – Brad has anchored his sound in this explorative mode, but uses his expertise to take it far beyond murk, grit and fractured teeth. With the help of Zelienople drummer Mike Weis (who accompanies the entire record on percussion) the record is a gloriously spacious excursion, with the fizzing Radiophonic blips, drones and tones set against gongs, scrapes and clanks. The sounds are dark and often punishing – torturous and occasionally frightening, but Brad somehow manages to offset it with an occasional flourish of beauty or calm.
The record is cut into two distinct acts (split lovingly for vinyl listening) and each ‘song’ blends into the next giving a true album experience. ‘Bloodlines’ is not a simple collection of pieces but a distinct narrative from beginning to end. As it tumbles from 50s sci fi synth tones into haunting off-world terror there is a sense of purpose and most of all, place. Brad has created a record that might not be an easy listening experience, but is one which grows on every successive play. It is truly deep and intensely troubling music." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Bloodlines |
CD |
"Brad Rose is an artist who is notoriously hard to pigeonhole. He might spend his days running the esteemed Digitalis imprint (sidelining the wonderful Foxy Digitalis webzine) but his nights are wiled away chiselling at the petrified corpse of experimental music. Donating sounds to Ajilvsga, Altar Eagle, Sea Zombies and Ossining (among many, many others) he has somehow found time to fashion a new solo work for Type and it could hardly be further removed from his last outing.
‘Bloodlines’ is an album rooted in synthesis – the kind of busted power electronics that emerged in the early 80s with Ramleh, Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse. This is not however simply a noise album – Brad has anchored his sound in this explorative mode, but uses his expertise to take it far beyond murk, grit and fractured teeth. With the help of Zelienople drummer Mike Weis (who accompanies the entire record on percussion) the record is a gloriously spacious excursion, with the fizzing Radiophonic blips, drones and tones set against gongs, scrapes and clanks. The sounds are dark and often punishing – torturous and occasionally frightening, but Brad somehow manages to offset it with an occasional flourish of beauty or calm.
The record is cut into two distinct acts (split lovingly for vinyl listening) and each ‘song’ blends into the next giving a true album experience. ‘Bloodlines’ is not a simple collection of pieces but a distinct narrative from beginning to end. As it tumbles from 50s sci fi synth tones into haunting off-world terror there is a sense of purpose and most of all, place. Brad has created a record that might not be an easy listening experience, but is one which grows on every successive play. It is truly deep and intensely troubling music." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| THE ONE ENSEMBLE OF DANIEL PADDEN |
Wayward the Fourth |
LP |
"Now also available on vinyl –very limited edition of 300 copies!-, thanks to Clear Spot's very own Daffodelic label! The One Ensemble from Scotland (led by highly regarded musician Daniel Padden) blend European folk, narrative, popular and chamber forms to create modern compositions that provide attention-grabbing hooks and thought-provoking challenges. At times formal and at others improvisational, it is difficult to pin down the One Ensemble's sound. Influences range from the classic pop-psychedelia of Robert Wyatt to the deep experimental drone of Third Ear Band. Blissful free jazz, delicate acoustic out-folk, tape collages, Eastern raga and mystical modern minimalism all peacefully coexist in the One Ensemble's unique and beautiful universe. (The CD version of this unbelievable album was released earlier this year by Secret Eye Records.)" [label info]
"... As with the recent Live at VPRO CD-R (Brainwashed), Wayward the Fourth is the work of a genuine ensemble, quartet to be exact, captured in a studio. The songs are gorgeous, twisted amalgams of European and American ethnic musics, free jazz, chamber music, minimalism and experimental plateaus rarely glimpsed in the western world, dispersed with just the right emotional — ranging from giddy to somber — intensity. There’s vocals on a few tracks, a few bizarre deconstructions on some others, but what strikes me most about this is the sheer musicality, the deliberate attention to space, detail and compositional structure. One Ensemble albums have always sounded like this, but just as with Volcano the Bear’s brilliant Classic Erasmus Fusion (Beta-Lactam Ring), the ensemble approach has reached new depths of cinematic, multi-hued brilliance. Easily one of the best ‘07 has coughed up so far.” [Womblife]
www.clearspot.nl
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| THE PICKLE FACTORY |
Our Anthems |
LP |
"the pickle factory is karla borecky and scott foust from the idea fire company plus long-time collab-orator mike popovich. they were actice in the mid- to late-1990s and released the album »our pledge« on swill radio at the time. »our anthems« was recorded in 1996 but remained unreleased until now. the sound is somewhat similar to ifco, although within at least some sort of a song structure. the 12 pieces on the lp present themes and sketches of atmospheric musical beauty created by synths, haunting voices and guitars with percussive elements, minimal rhythms and, of course some radio static!" [label info]
"Now this was reviewed not so long ago, even when the music is much older. In Vital Weekly 699 we discussed a CDR version of this released by Scott Foust's Lessons About History. The Pickle Factory no longer exist! I wrote in Vital back then: "There have been an album and a CD, and 'Our Anthem', recorded in 1996 was supposed to be the second LP. The Pickle Factory we find Karla Borecky (keyboard, voice, tapes, synth), Scott Foust (guitar, synth, tapes, voice, radio, bass) and Mike Popvich (bass, voice, drums, percussion, radio, guitar, keyboard). Idea Fire Company plus a guest? Hardly. In all the various bands Foust is (or was) involved in, there is always a distinct sound of its own. The Pickle Factory might be called 'popmusic': rhythm machines, a nice bass line and additional sounds to go along in order to form a short song, rounded off like a song, as opposed to a 'piece'. True, also The Pickle Factory can play a bit of droney mood music, but not with the long curves as is usually
with Idea Fire Company. A damn fine varied record of experimental music. Which brings up the question: why wasn't this excellent record never properly released on a LP?" That answer can not be given, as there is so much great music out there which is never properly released in any format, but the good news is that 'Our Anthems' is now released by Germany's Twisted Knister (best known from their business card CDR releases in cigarette boxes) and quite rightly so. Even after fifteen years this remains great music. It sounds as fresh as it was back then, and so we can still wonder: why wasn't this properly released on a LP before, say in 1997? Thank god for fine small labels like Twisted Knister and their persistence to release such fine music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| THE RITA |
Queen Sheets |
do-LP |
"Some time ago a colleague emailed me and informed me that an artist made a short video of herself knitting to THE RITA’s ‘Thousands of Dead Gods.’ I watched the short video and thought it was interesting, but then also noticed that the woman had a link included on her ‘Instagram’ account for her sculptural works. I had a look at her work and was instantly taken by the sheer immensity and power of her structures, all exemplary of long hours of labour and provocative patterns behind the materials. The most notable structure for me was the piece ‘Untitled Form (Barrier)’ which was made up of timber, bricks, mortar and a semi-dynamic use of the material chiffon to hold bricks in a hanging fashion. The semi-opaque, stretching quality behind the white chiffon with height of almost 8 feet instantly brought to mind the focus of my past recordings that delved into the world of nylon and stocking fetishism, eventually contemplating the semi-opaque salmon pink qualities behind the tights used by classical ballerinas and the expanded practice and tradition therein. Looking at an imposing 8’4 x 8′ structure like Megan Miller’s ‘Untitled Form (Barrier)’ and it’s materials made me think that any sound made by the structure’s movement of bricks against each other piled in a virtual sling of moving chiffon would be perfect for textural, abrasive sound source. After some discussion with Megan, it was decided that a new structure would be built for a collaboration with THE RITA that embraced not themes of fetishism, but expanded utilitarian themes around the use of nylon; the stockings, tights and nylon that women wore to work, what our mother’s wore for warmth, comfort, and most importantly the virtual make-up of the fabric, the inherent qualities it featured. Her eventual new outdoor sculpture was entitled ‘Queen Sheets’ and also made use of brick and mortar, expanding over a flat area with semi-opaque chiffon stretching over the whole of the area, covering it. ‘Untitled Form (Barrier)’ was also erected again in the same outdoor area, and this time the labor intensive building process of both sculptures was recorded for eventual processing by THE RITA. Sam McKinlay
‘’An exquisite and entirely feminine material, much can be said of nylon. It moves like us and with us, stretches like us and with us, and, although extremely delicate and easily torn, the fiber is strong enough to make me wonder if it could support bricks. Pantyhose become our second skin, our birth-skin held in its softness. The sound of its softness is remarkable – the sound of second skin of birth – skin and the light sweet between.’’ – In a letter to Sam from Megan on March 31th , 2014 – (in response to the Rita’s ‘’Ballet Feet Positions’’)
Both records are impressive, inspired and near perfect examples of Mr. McKinlay brutal sonic talents. This is easily one of the highlights of this year noise releases and a high point in the Rita discography. A must have item for HNW/Noise fans; but also a great entry point into the genre to see how one of the masters of the form performs.
Double Lp has been pressed on 140 gr black vinyl with black label and black inner sleeve and comes in a deluxe silver silkscreen on black cardboard sleeve, limited to 199 copies w/insert in luxury 160 gr ivory paper, plus four color photographs. All package in a clear plastic sleeve to protect double Lp, cover and inserts from dirt, shelf wear and damage." [label info]
|
2021 |
€26.00 |
|
| THE SAND RAYS |
Remembered Vol. 1 (EPs gathered together) |
CD |
After the dissolution of The Infant Cycle, Jim DeJong went on a hiatus from production, and disappeared into seclusion. However, after a few months, an offer to score a feature film appeared, which spurred him back into production. A lot of flexible basic tracks were produced during this time, that could be fitted together for different scenes. Unfortunately, the film production ground to a halt, but being active again caused DeJong to begin his new project, The Sand Rays, and adapt some of the film score ideas into something that could be released and heard. A number of EPs were released on DeJong's label The Ceiling in tiny editions, under a number of similar names (The Sand Rays, Ray Sands, Sandra Y.), which are hard to find. The sounds emanate from an assortment of instruments and sound makers including carved runout grooves, bass guitar, bird cages, shortwave radio, and more, cooked into a choppy stew of drones and mood.
The cover photo reflects its contents. Up close, a pretty photo of sumac, but pulls back to reveal a more troubled location. This location was outside DeJong's old studio, a brownsfield too toxic for people, but a safe place for the vegetation to flourish.
The material could be considered an extension of the final inclinations of The Infant Cycle, such as the "Drop-out Center" album (2012, Zhelezobeton): zhelezobeton.bandcamp.com/album/drop-out-center A new chapter in the same book? Now we bring together the rare first four EPs in an easier to find and digest package, with full colour sleeve artwork. Eight interlocking tracks. Play it straight through, or random, or repeat.
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/zhb-lxx.html
zhelezobeton.bandcamp.com/album/remembered-vol-1-eps-gathered-together
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| THE THRESHOLD HOUSEBOYS CHOIR |
Form Grows Rampant |
2 x 12inch |
The Threshold HouseBoys Choir was a project by Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. Operating out of Bangkok, Thailand, the Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV founding member started this audio and visual endeavour following Coil’s end.
Despite the name, it was a solo project which relied heavily on computer generated vocals. The name was derived from a play on words, combining the terms houseboy, house of boys, boys' choir, and Threshold House, which was Coil’s own label. "Form Grows Rampant" is the soundtrack of a film shot by Christopherson (a video capture at the GinJae Vegetarian Festival in the south of Thailand) and his first major musical project since the tragic death of John Balance and the subsequent demise of Coil.
The music is a suite of lenghty dense atmospherics that combine shuddering electronics with sampled vocals, eerie digitalia, buried melodies and sinister undercurrents hinting at a gleaming heart of darkness, with a joyful melodic progression that sounds positively triumphant towards the end of the disc. It's both Coil-esque and quite different, and undoubtedly is the worthy successor of the legendary group that Christopherson created with his partner John Balance.
First released in small quantities in 2007 as a CD/DVD set, this is the first time it is released on vinyl, CD and digital.
This reissue has been mastered from original files by Sidney Claire Meyer at former Deutsche Grammophon studios Emil Berliner in Berlin, using the half speed mastering process, and pressed on heavy vinyl.
File under COIL Forever, Religious IDM, Ecstatic Classical, Post Ethnic Industrial Exotica, Erotic Trance and best album ever heard.
https://shop.mentalgroove.ch/album/form-grows-rampant
|
2022 |
€30.00 |
|
| THE TRIPLE TREE |
Ghosts |
CD |
"Tony Wakeford kann's nicht lassen! Als ob der umtriebige Mr. "Sol Invictus" nicht schon mit zahlreichen Nebenprojekten (u.a. Grey Force Wakeford, Trio Noir, L'Orchestre Noir, Hawthorn) ausgelastet wäre, hebt er nun gemeinsam mit Andrew King sowie ausgewählten "Familienmitgliedern", u.a. Renee Rosen, Guy Harries, John Murphy (u.a. Knifeladder, SPK, Death in June, Shining Vril) oder Kris Force (Amber Asylum), ein weiteres namens The Triple Tree aus der Taufe, dessen Debut "Ghosts" niemand geringerem als dem britischen Ghoststory-Autor M.R. James (1862-1936) gewidmet ist.
Bereits das James-Zitat "Depend upon it! Some of these things are so, but we do not know the rules!" auf der Rückseite des Booklets deutet die Marschrichtung an: Festgelegte Regeln kennt man hier nicht, und schon gar nicht die des Neofolk. Folglich sollte man sich der Scheibe exakt unter diesem Gesichtspunkt nähern, denn "Ghosts" ist abgedreht, "Ghosts" ist schaurig und "Ghosts" verlangt dem Rezipienten zeitweise einiges an Toleranz ab. Sägende Geigenläufe, diffuse Feldaufnahmen, schräge Flöten-/Pfeiftöne, dumpfe Percussions sowie viele weitere Soundelemente, oft subtil disharmonisch zusammengefügt, erzeugen eine Atmosphäre, welche den Hörer direkt in James' gespenstische Szenarien zu führen vermag, in staubige Bibliotheken, schmutzige Hinterhöfe oder düstere Gemäuer des viktorianischen England. Die Stimmen von "Dr. Wakeford" und "The Rev. King" tun dazu ihr übriges. Während "The Mezzotint" oder "Lost Hearts" in schlichtem Erzählstil dargeboten werden, kommt "The Stalls" als altertümlicher Kanon daher und "Black Crusade" scheint von beiden direkt in einer Kaschemme der Londoner Docks eingesungen worden zu sein.
Doch "Ghosts" ist auch berückend schön. Neben dem durch gezupfte Gitarre und markante Männerstimmen fast erhaben wirkenden "Three Crowns" sind es hauptsächlich jene Titel, in denen die beteiligten Damen Autumn Grieve, Kris Force oder Mercy Liao gesanglich zum Zuge kommen. Dabei kristallisiert sich vor allem das perlende Duett "The Malice of Inanimate Objects" als Höhepunkt heraus. Aber selbst dieses ist von einer unheilsschwangeren Aura umgeben, da die Lieder ständig durch schrille Versatzstücke gebrochen werden, die sich entweder als Intros/Outros oder komplette Tracks einschleichen. Genau das richtige, um die Gruselstimmung immer wieder zu entfachen.
Trotz alledem kommt jedoch eine typische Eigenschaft der Inselbewohner nicht zu kurz, der Humor. Im Booklet präsentieren sich die beiden Protagonisten nämlich launig, wie direkt aus einem der schauerlichen Romane entsprungen. Schrullige Fotos für ein ebenso schrulliges und gerade deshalb fesselndes Album. M.R. James wäre sicher stolz gewesen!" [Medienkonverter]
"The Triple Tree consists of Tony Wakeford (Sol Invictus) and Andrew King aided and abetted by M, Autumn Grieve, Kris Force (Amber Asylum), Guy Harries, Renee Rosen and John Murphy (Death In June, SPK, KnifeLadder), and is an extended homage to the supernatural fiction of M. R. James (with a certain nod to his notable studies in the New Testament Apocrypha) the greatest ghost story writer in the English language, and the finest medievalist of his generation. Join Dr Wakeford and the Rev. King as they search for the Three Crowns, attempt to Cast the Runes, purchase The Mezzotint, follow Mr Abney’s "remarkable enlightenment" in Lost Hearts, and join Count Magnus on the "Black Crusade"! Winter evenings will never be the same again... Digipak with booklet." [label info]
".. Anthony Wakeford and Andrew King is best known as part of the project Sol Invictus, that for more than two decades has combined neo-folk and neoclassical influences with electronic experimentation. The comprehensive experiences in that particular field beautifully flourish on this tribute to haunted tales of medieval times under the project flag "Triple Tree". The atmosphere is perfectly accomplished with some beautiful male and female vocal integrated in medieval folk-expressions that stylishly turns associations towards Dead Can Dance. As a contrast to the organic sounds, the electronic part of the album first of all operates in ambient-oriented soundscapes to create haunting atmospheres of ghouls. "Ghosts" is a strong sonic depiction of early ghost stories from M.R. James, inspiring the listener to dive into the dark forces of the medieval author!" [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE & CINEMA PERDU |
Invocation |
CD |
"in our lives we meet various people and we get to spend some quality time with a couple of them. depending on who we spend our time with and in what state of mind the time together is spent, we talk about friendship. and the more honest and unconditional this friendship is, the more it adds to the quality of our respective lives. it's a rare thing when you meet someone and right from the first moment you know you add to each others lives. it only happens a few times - and maybe not even that often - but we have all been there and we all recognize those moments; as well as the people it concerns. and yes, those times bring back a warm and fuzzy feeling. but then there are the many ways a friendship can end: a wrongfully interpreted word, a misunderstood thought, incompatible visions or simply because it started to cost more energy then it gave back. as incomprehensible a friendship can begin, it can also end. sadly there are also true and deep friendships that have never ended, even when said friend has left this dimension. the feeling that we're left with is just about the worst feeling ever ... with 'invocation' the [law-rah] collective and cinema perdu present a split album with personal views and interpretations of the emptiness that remains. finding closure in a process of grief. not the most happy of feelings, but it's a feeling we all recognize, an emotion we can all relate to and maybe the one thing we all have problems with giving it a place in our lives. the process of composing, writing, producing and finishing 'invocation' has helped us seeing things in perspective again after loosing loved ones. 'invocation' - simply to have that final conversation, to share that final drink, or just to say you care ..." [label info]
"So today we will be looking at (and listening to, of course) some darkly pulsing ambient and asking, “just what is it about this music that makes it so great for processing inarticulate emotions?” Well before I answer that, and while I try not to ‘zone out’ entirely, let me just articulate my feelings right now by saying: This... Is... Great. And, furthermore, it pulses darkly and in all the right places. Ahhh…
It’s a collaborative effort, this, between The [Law-Rah] Collective (Bauke van der Wal) and Cinema Perdu (Martijn Pieck) -- each performing and contributing two individual tracks and a fifth track wherein they combine their compositional efforts. Opening track, ‘1’, by [Law-Rah], pleasantly and gently throbs like the aural equivalent of a deep red Rothko painting. For musical touchstones, think Nurse With Wound and Locust. His second individual track, ‘5’, drones slightly more ominously and is accompanied by a glitchy ‘popping’ sound which is not unlike that made earlier when we were preparing the post here at Norman and a trolley rolled over a long sheet of bubble wrap. These sounds phase in and out and pan woozily to leave the listener a little disorientated.
Cinema Perdu similarly explores the empty psychological spaces which remain once you are all cried out. Really, this is perfect for the final part of the day when this reviewer has precious little more strength to muster. The two tracks Martijn Pieck brings to this disc are as sublime as the previous two by Bauke, in that the music is the contemplative, irresistible, seemingly boundless evocation of space, of internal conflicts easing and resolving themselves outside of time. Plus, his second track features metallic chiming under mallets. I’m a sucker for resonating metal and mallets.
Martijn and Bauke’s collaborative track, ‘4’, is possibly the most affecting of all. What sounds like a sample from a long lost choral masterpiece is used as a bed for found sounds and plucked electroacoustic instruments, with an industrial throb underpinning it all… there’s an organ playing. For a minute there, I thought it was coming from the cathedral in my mind. Then silence. The CD whirrs its death throes and I feel a little more alive." [Norman Rec.]
"THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE ist ein mehr oder weniger loser Zusammenschluss von Künstlern rings um den niederländischen Musiker BAUKE VAN DER WAL, der das Projekt mit dem enigmatischen Namen um das Jahr 2000 herum gründete. Bevorzugt tummelt man sich im Experimental-, Drone- und Dark Ambient-Sektor, zeigt aber auch keine Berührungsängste mit harscheren, ja dezidiert noisigen Spielarten, was exemplarischen Ausdruck in Kollaborationen mit NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES (Box Edition von "The Gospels Of The Gash" und "Your Suffering Will Be Legendary") findet. Überhaupt ist man, was die stilistischen Details betrifft, um relativen Abwechslungsreichtum bemüht, und so reicht das bei discogs aufgespannte Genre-Spektrum von "Elektronik, Pop" über "Experimental, Abstract" bis hin zu "Dark Ambient, Drone". Seiner Grundrichtung bleibt das Kollektiv nichtsdestoweniger treu; nicht umsonst hat man schließlich – nomen est omen – der eigenen Homepage die Adresse "darkambient.net" verpasst. Entsprechend gerne arbeitet man freilich mit stilistisch benachbarten Künstlern wie CISFINITUM oder eben CINEMA PERDU zusammen. Der Mann dahinter, MARTIJN PIECK, ist langjähriger Freund VAN DER WALs, seit 2008 Vollmitglied von THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE und seit 2011 unter dem nom de guerre CINEMA PERDU aktiv, unter dem er bislang mehrere Alben im File- und Tape-Format veröffentlicht hat.
Die vorliegende CD "Invocation" ist nach dem gemeinsamen Split mit WOODBNDR, "Blue Ruins Under Yellow Skies" von 2014, die zweite dezidierte Zusammenarbeit mit CINEMA PERDU und folgt stringent jener kontemplativen Drone-Programmatik, die im Großen und Ganzen das Leitmotiv für die Arbeit VAN DER WALs mit dem [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE abgibt, hier allerdings in ganz besonders vielschichtiger, facettenreicher Form zelebriert wird. Das Thema der CD fordert eine gewisse Besinnlichkeit freilich nachgerade heraus, beschäftigt sich die inhaltliche Ebene von "Invocation" doch mit dem Zerbrechen, Erlöschen, in jedem Fall aber mit dem Ende intensiver Freundschaften und enger Beziehungen, sowie insbesondere mit jener gähnenden Leere, die eine solche, mehr oder weniger gewaltsame Trennung einer tiefen emotionalen Verbindung nach sich zieht – egal, ob sie "nur" einem menschlichen Zerwürfnis, einer individuellen, existenziellen Krise oder gar dem physischen Ableben eines der Beteiligten geschuldet ist: "Invocation" versteht sich, so führt der Promotext aus, als "split album with personal views and interpretations of the emptiness that remains. Finding closure in a process of grief." Vor diesem Hintergrund erschließt sich denn auch ganz zwanglos der Hintersinn jener Sentenz, die sich auf der Innenseite des CD-Kartonschubers findet: "Some things were never meant to change but here we are" ...
Das beim Berliner RAUBBAU-Label erschienene Album enthält sechs unbetitelte, lediglich durchnummerierte Tracks zwischen knapp acht und knapp zwölf Minuten Länge – etwas Zeit, Muße und Geduld sollte der interessierte Hörer also schon mitbringen, möchte er sich mit dieser, ohne Worte auskommenden, "conversation about what really matters" auseinandersetzen. Wer nun allerdings vom leidlich bekannten, sich über die komplette Laufzeit spannenden, mediokren Einheitsgebrumme ausgeht, das so betrüblich oft unter der Bezeichnung "Dark Ambient" firmiert, wird erfreulicherweise eines besseren belehrt: Lediglich das erste und das letzte Stück, beide von THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE eingespielt, präsentieren sich als ausgesprochen dronige, tiefenentspannte, einzig durch allerlei Rascheln, Knistern und anderweitige Störfrequenzen in minimale Regung versetzte, dabei jedoch niemals langweilige Soundmeditationen, während die von CINEMA PERDU beigesteuerten Beiträge 2 und 3 deutlich experimenteller und collagenhafter daherkommen – streckenweise fühlte sich der Rezensent durchaus ein wenig an NURSE WITH WOUND erinnert. Die eigentliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen den beiden Outfits, Track Numero 4, gibt denn auch das interessanteste Stück des Albums ab und entwickelt sich, ausgehend von einem sakralen, durch rotorartiges Flattern fragmentierten Choraleinstieg, hin zu einem, schon fast treibend-rhythmischen Mittelteil, um schließlich in einem amorphen, alle Strukturen wieder einschmelzenden Klangbad zu verhallen. Nicht alles auf "Invocation" ist also gar so meditativ, wie es auf den ersten Eindruck und nach Lektüre des zitierten Begleittextes scheinen mag – nach einigen Hördurchgängen entpuppt sich das versammelte Material in der Gesamtschau vielmehr als erfreulich abwechslungsreich und immer wieder für das eine oder andere überraschte "Oho!" gut.
Fazit: THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE & CINEMA PERDU legen mit "Invocation" ein rundum gelungenes Werk vor, das routiniert mit den Genregrenzen spielt, sie ausweitet und bisweilen beinahe transzendiert, ohne dabei jemals bemüht zu klingen, sich in Beliebigkeiten zu verheddern oder in akademischen Frickeleien zu verlieren. Beide Projekte interagieren perfekt miteinander und realisieren so ein bemerkenswertes, ebenso meditativ-hypnotisches wie dramatisch dichtes Album, das durch seine implizite Programmatik und die unprätentiöse Art & Weise, in der diese präsentiert wird, noch zusätzlich punktet: "the process of composing, writing, producing and finishing 'invocation' has helped us seeing things in perspective again after loosing loved ones. we hope it can do the same to you." – Irgendwie ist die ganze Veröffentlichung ... einfach ... sympathisch. Und wer kann schon etwas gegen sympathische Musik haben? Der Autor dieser Zeilen jedenfalls nicht." [Endsal/NON-POP]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| THEE SILVER MOUNTAIN REVERIES (SILVER MOUNT ZION) |
play |
CD-EP |
Neue mLP der Gruppe deren Name sich mit jedem Release stets leicht ändert – poetischer PostRock der besonderen Sorte, diese mLP trieft nur so vor einnehmender Melancholie... immer wieder herzzereissende Streicher & hypnotische Instrumental- und Gesangsstrukturen.... Anklänge an GODSPEED, RACHEL’s, SET FIRE TO FLAMES....
“The "Pretty Little Lightning Paw" E.P., originally available (on CD only) at shows during The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band European tour in Winter 2004, will be released to shops on both formats in May 2004. The E.P. contains all new songs, with a total running time of just over 30 minutes.
"More Action! Less Tears!" opens the record - a noisy clarion call of chiming instrumental rock driven by a long wraparound riff & recorded live off the floor during the This is Our Punk-Rock... (cst027) sessions. This cut finds various Mt. Zion players trading/switching instruments for the rockout, with cascading tape treatments added by Efrim in the mixdown. Three more songs follow which Efrim began recording in sporadic late-night sessions at the hotel2tango in Montreal over Summer and Fall of 2003. All three were built up from Efrim's initial vocals and guitar, with co-founding Mt. Zion member Thierry collaborating closely on instrumental & backing vocal arrangements and Jessica working up violin and vocal parts as well. A four-voice choir (including two members of Frankie Sparo) lends additional vocal support.
What began as studio sketches, evolved, through a few intensive drunken nights, into a beautiful, unfettered, unbelaboured trio of songs that confirms Mt. Zion's ongoing re-invention as a vocal-driven outfit and reveals Efrim's growing strength as a lyricist. The results are deeply moving and utterly original in both poetics and sonics - songs that explicitly invoke a tender and hopeful collective consciousness wrought from mythic/mystic themes, motivated by the tiny graces and tragic failures of our contemporary communities and cultures.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€13.50 |
|
| THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA |
Kollaps Tradixionales |
do-10" & CD |
"THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA (SMZ) returns with its sixth full-length recording and first since the band's line-up change of summer 2008. Having shed three members and recruited one (drummer DAVID PAYANT) the group officially dropped the "Tra-La-La Band' from its name, played a debut performance as a newly minted quintet at All Tomorrow's Parties in upstate NY, and embarked on an extensive European tour through the fall of 2008. As Kollaps Tradixionales ably demonstrates, the band has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms. Anchored by the fried electric guitar and plangent voice of band leader EFRIM MENUCK (who previously co-founded GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR) SMZ continues to slide comfortably and unforcedly towards an expansive, loose and blues-inflected balladry—not so much the inexorably riffing blues shuffle of the title track from its previous effort, 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, but a more languid waltz-time marking an almost smoldering dynamic arc, as heard on the new album's opening track "There Is A Light" and gorgeous closer "'Piphany Rambler." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2010 |
€25.50 |
|
|
Kollaps Tradixionales (special edition) |
CD & book |
Deluxe CD with a special 16-page, 7”x9” perfect bound art book with found image collages by EFRIM MENUCK and filmmaker/photographer JEM COHEN with a foil-embossed cover.
THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA (SMZ) returns with its sixth full-length recording and first since the band's line-up change of summer 2008. Having shed three members and recruited one (drummer DAVID PAYANT) the group officially dropped the "Tra-La-La Band' from its name, played a debut performance as a newly minted quintet at All Tomorrow's Parties in upstate NY, and embarked on an extensive European tour through the fall of 2008. As Kollaps Tradixionales ably demonstrates, the band has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms. Anchored by the fried electric guitar and plangent voice of band leader EFRIM MENUCK (who previously co-founded GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR) SMZ continues to slide comfortably and unforcedly towards an expansive, loose and blues-inflected balladry—not so much the inexorably riffing blues shuffle of the title track from its previous effort, 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, but a more languid waltz-time marking an almost smoldering dynamic arc, as heard on the new album's opening track "There Is A Light" and gorgeous closer "'Piphany Rambler." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Fuck off get free we pour Light on everything |
LP |
"THEE SILVER MT. ZION haben über sieben Alben seit 1999 hinweg einen stacheldrahtbewehrten Bogen der Protest Music gespannt. Erst kürzlich haben sich THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA auf nur fünf Musiker zurückgestutzt. Menucks massive E-Gitarre fungiert hier als Rückgrat, um das zwei Geigen, ein Bass (dieser Tage öfter elektrisch als akustisch) und das Schlagzeug rotieren. "Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything" ist das erste definitive Dokument des neuen Sounds und Stils der Band als Quintett. Das Kernstück des Album, ,Austerity Blues" mit seiner Abschlusszeile "Lord let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down" gesungen in verschiedenen Spielarten über die zweite Hälfte des 14-minütigen Epos, personifiziert den unerschrockenen Blick Menucks auf eine Welt voller Erbärmlichkeit, Gier und Ungerechtigkeit, betrachtet durch die Linse von Elternschaft, Sterblichkeit, Durchhaltevermögen und Trotz. Dies ist keine fröhliche Musik, aber sie kann auch nicht einfach so als apokalyptisch und weltmüde abgestempelt werden. ,Fuck Off Get Free" wütet voller Zorn und Hoffnung und ist zugleich absolut leidenschaftlich und bewusst unromantisch. THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA zeigen einmal mehr, das es so viel gibt, gegen das sich kämpfen lässt. Im Unterschied zu anderen Bands haben THEE SILVER MT. ZION die passenden Kampfsongs im Gepäck. //
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (SMZ) has traced a barbed-wire arc of genre-defying protest music since its inception in 1999. Formed by Efrim Menuck, with Thierry Amar and Sophie Trudeau, the initial iteration of the band was a predominantly instrumental trio that forged a more intimate and ragged chamber-punk than Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the other group in which all three founding SMZ members also played (and continue to play). Through seven albums from 2000-2010, SMZ expanded its line-up and shifted towards an increasing use of lead and group vocals, with Menuck penning politically-charged lyrics to anchor long-form multi-movement compositions that juxtaposed electrified guitars against a 4-piece string section of violins, cello and contrabass.
Most recently, SMZ has pared back to five players, with Menuck's massive spectrum-spanning electric guitar sound emerging as the spine around which two violins, bass (now more often electric than acoustic) and drums are deployed. SMZ have managed a handful of short tours in the past couple of years (in the gaps between GYBE commitments) and as anyone who has seen the band in its recent incarnation can attest, their current sound is more honed, laser-guided and bone-rattling than ever, melding hardcore, blues, garage and dark metal influences that have nothing to do with anything so quaint as “post-rock” (a tag the group has always and rightly rejected).
Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything is the first definitive document of the band's newfound sound and style as a quintet. It’s also their first single LP-length work since the band’s debut record as a trio almost 15 years ago, and features road-tested pummeling rock-outs “Fuck Off Get Free (For The Island Of Montréal)”, “Take Away These Early Grave Blues” and “What We Loved Was Not Enough” alongside the previously unheard lullabyes/minuets “Little Ones Run” and “Rains Thru The Roof At Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez)” and the album centerpiece “Austerity Blues” with its closing lyric “Lord let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down” sung in varying incarnations throughout the second half of this 14-minute epic.
This lyric in many ways encapsulates Menuck's unflinching take on a world replete with shabbiness, greed and injustice, seen through the lens of parenthood, mortality, endurance and defiance. There are few other musicians who deliver social critique with the courage and honesty of lines like “All our cities gonna burn / All our bridges gonna snap / All our pennies gonna rot / Lightning roll across our tracks / All our children gonna die”. Feel-good music this is not; but neither can it reductively be tagged apocalyptic or world-weary. Fuck Off Get Free rages with scorn and with hope, utterly passionate but pointedly unromantic. Thee Silver Mt. Zion once again demonstrates, like few other bands working today, that there is much to fight for and against, and plenty more fight songs to sing." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2014 |
€21.00 |
|
| |
Fuck off get free we pour Light on everything |
CD |
"THEE SILVER MT. ZION haben über sieben Alben seit 1999 hinweg einen stacheldrahtbewehrten Bogen der Protest Music gespannt. Erst kürzlich haben sich THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA auf nur fünf Musiker zurückgestutzt. Menucks massive E-Gitarre fungiert hier als Rückgrat, um das zwei Geigen, ein Bass (dieser Tage öfter elektrisch als akustisch) und das Schlagzeug rotieren. "Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything" ist das erste definitive Dokument des neuen Sounds und Stils der Band als Quintett. Das Kernstück des Album, ,Austerity Blues" mit seiner Abschlusszeile "Lord let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down" gesungen in verschiedenen Spielarten über die zweite Hälfte des 14-minütigen Epos, personifiziert den unerschrockenen Blick Menucks auf eine Welt voller Erbärmlichkeit, Gier und Ungerechtigkeit, betrachtet durch die Linse von Elternschaft, Sterblichkeit, Durchhaltevermögen und Trotz. Dies ist keine fröhliche Musik, aber sie kann auch nicht einfach so als apokalyptisch und weltmüde abgestempelt werden. ,Fuck Off Get Free" wütet voller Zorn und Hoffnung und ist zugleich absolut leidenschaftlich und bewusst unromantisch. THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA zeigen einmal mehr, das es so viel gibt, gegen das sich kämpfen lässt. Im Unterschied zu anderen Bands haben THEE SILVER MT. ZION die passenden Kampfsongs im Gepäck.//
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (SMZ) has traced a barbed-wire arc of genre-defying protest music since its inception in 1999. Formed by Efrim Menuck, with Thierry Amar and Sophie Trudeau, the initial iteration of the band was a predominantly instrumental trio that forged a more intimate and ragged chamber-punk than Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the other group in which all three founding SMZ members also played (and continue to play). Through seven albums from 2000-2010, SMZ expanded its line-up and shifted towards an increasing use of lead and group vocals, with Menuck penning politically-charged lyrics to anchor long-form multi-movement compositions that juxtaposed electrified guitars against a 4-piece string section of violins, cello and contrabass.
Most recently, SMZ has pared back to five players, with Menuck's massive spectrum-spanning electric guitar sound emerging as the spine around which two violins, bass (now more often electric than acoustic) and drums are deployed. SMZ have managed a handful of short tours in the past couple of years (in the gaps between GYBE commitments) and as anyone who has seen the band in its recent incarnation can attest, their current sound is more honed, laser-guided and bone-rattling than ever, melding hardcore, blues, garage and dark metal influences that have nothing to do with anything so quaint as “post-rock” (a tag the group has always and rightly rejected).
Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything is the first definitive document of the band's newfound sound and style as a quintet. It’s also their first single LP-length work since the band’s debut record as a trio almost 15 years ago, and features road-tested pummeling rock-outs “Fuck Off Get Free (For The Island Of Montréal)”, “Take Away These Early Grave Blues” and “What We Loved Was Not Enough” alongside the previously unheard lullabyes/minuets “Little Ones Run” and “Rains Thru The Roof At Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez)” and the album centerpiece “Austerity Blues” with its closing lyric “Lord let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down” sung in varying incarnations throughout the second half of this 14-minute epic.
This lyric in many ways encapsulates Menuck's unflinching take on a world replete with shabbiness, greed and injustice, seen through the lens of parenthood, mortality, endurance and defiance. There are few other musicians who deliver social critique with the courage and honesty of lines like “All our cities gonna burn / All our bridges gonna snap / All our pennies gonna rot / Lightning roll across our tracks / All our children gonna die”. Feel-good music this is not; but neither can it reductively be tagged apocalyptic or world-weary. Fuck Off Get Free rages with scorn and with hope, utterly passionate but pointedly unromantic. Thee Silver Mt. Zion once again demonstrates, like few other bands working today, that there is much to fight for and against, and plenty more fight songs to sing." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com |
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| THEME |
Our Angels dislocated |
CD |
RICHO JOHNSON (HUSK, SPLINTERED) is back! Das Trio THEME besteht aus mindestens zwei Leuten der ursprünglichen SPLINTERED-Besetzung, tönt aber weit experimenteller & ambienter als man es von den eher rockigen SPLINTERED gewohnt war..... hier werden lichte Loop-Drones, Sitarklänge & indisch anmutende Meditations-Gesänge zu pulsierend-trancigen, organischen Soundscapes vermengt.. ihre zweite CD.
”The second album from this UK/Poland-based trio, following several years since their warmly received 'On Parallel Shores Removed' CD (Fourth Dimension/Tremor Recordings), offering a rich, organic and atmospheric tapestry of ideas that serves as a revitalised statement of intent. Combining sitars, violin drones, guitar strums, mutterings from an otherwise deserted midnight subway, electronic swirl, piano and all manner of otherworldly textures, 'Our Angels Dislocated' remains both focused and complex enough to cast new shadows with every listen. Complete with exclusive artwork by British sculptor, Mo Jupp, it fits perfectly into Lumberton Trading Company's erratic and often changeable grand design. NB: If you have already purchased the original version of this album, with the manufacturing fault (a 'jump' between tracks 2 and 3), please do not hesitate to return it to wherever you purchased it from in order to arrange our replacing it with the repressed version.” [label description]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Valentine (Lost) Forever |
CD |
"The third album from Theme, a band comprised of Stuart Carter, Jeanne Boyer and Richard Johnson (from'90s influential industrial-experimental band Splintered and head of the Lumberton Trading Company label), is a hallucinogenic intersection, where the exploration of twilight spaces, dreams, bitter reflections and hopes collide with a sense of escape (to better places?) or an abandoned 'self', either lost or searching for much needed identity.
More 'song'-based than their previous album, on Valentine (Lost) Forever Theme often witnesses barbed yet oblique words cut-up and formed into mantras over a mesh of cascading drones, textures, blissed-out guitar strums, submerged tamboura, metallic sheets of electronic frah, occasional drum pounds and chilling swells 'n' flecks of musique concrete. Overall, it catches the group exploring their environment, in more senses than one, with renewed vigour and nothing but questions left either open-ended or vying for interpretation. It's a world of rubble, dust and sprawling collapse, psychological or otherwise, screaming for meaning and purpose in a world gone mad where inner conflicts, vulnerability and regret are drowned in vast existential pools...
With an additional remix by ex-Siouxsie & the Banshees bass player Steven Severin, this genuine album offers an apocalyptic sound mirage that recalls the experimental and post industrial works of :Zoviet*France, Throbbing Gristle and Coil, as well as the occult-like numbness of Current 93, the bleak avant-electronica of Andrew Liles and the psychedelic drones furrowed by the group's own previous work in both Splintered and Theme. In that sense, Valentine (Lost) Forever is a definite masterpiece in the ever-evolving legacy of the U.K. industrial scene, and if this is the end, then it's time to burn the truth." [label info]
www.HCBrecords.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| THEME & JEAN-HERVE PERON & ZSOLT SORES |
Poison is (not) the Word |
mLP |
"In early September 2011, Theme, the Poland/UK-based group centred around Lumberton Trading Company’s very own Richard Johnson (ex-Splintered, Husk, etc.) and Stuart Carter (ex-Splintered, The Fields Of Hay, ex-Heroin, etc.), went into a Budapest studio with their good friends Zsolt Sörés and Jean-herve Peron (a.ka. Art-Errorist of influential German group, Faust) for two days. Although some basic ideas had been worked on and discussed prior to this meeting, the main objective was to record a side-long piece of music that used one of these ideas as a starting point to what would otherwise essentially amount to a collaborative improvisation with Zsolt, plus further collaborative pieces for the other side of the record both involving also Jean-herve Peron and being completely of the moment.
The main piece, entitled ‘Poison Is (Not) The Word’, pays witness to Theme branching into territory probably closer to their work as Splintered (i.e., their Moraine LP from 1996, which featured Jim O’Rourke source material on one side). Stretching over 24 minutes in length, it remains anchored to Theme’s tendency for psychedelic drones and textures whilst Zsolt applies improvised electronics and viola to them and words are either chanted or spat out. A saxophone, added by Zsolt Varga, then completes the sprawling ‘brink-of-chaos’ feel perfectly.
On the other side are two pieces also spanning over 20 minutes between them. The first, ‘Baszd meg az apád!’ (which translates as ‘Fuck Your Father’ from Hungarian), begins misleadingly as a mass of atmospheric swirls, cavaquinho plucking, textures, psalterion, and sax until Jean-herve cuts in with some shouted vocals as effective as they are brief. The second, ‘Puszta Psycho’, is built around a tempered refrain of cavaquinho string picking led by Jean-herve then welded to subtle touches of hissing electronics, psalterion, space clatter, sax blasts (courtesy of Varga), subtle textural plumes, indiscernible knocking and scrunching sounds, Jean-herve’s vocals and buried chanting by Richard Johnson.
This MLP represents the first of two vinyl releases that document the time these artists all recorded and played live together over a period of 10 days. The second release will be a limited edition 7” on LTCo sister label, Fourth Dimension.
It is hoped another tour by Theme, Jhp-Art Errorist and Zsolt will take place in October or November 2012." [label info]
www.lumberton-trading.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| THEOLOGIAN |
A Means by which to break the Surface of the Real |
LP |
"We at Redscroll Records are very excited for our first release under the Nothing Under The Sun imprint. It is very fitting that it is with THEOLOGIAN, a long-time compatriot and embodiment of the direction we intend to take with Nothing Under The Sun, distorting the known into the unfamiliar. A Means By Which To Break The Surface Of The Real features DAVID CASTILLO of PRIMITIVE WEAPONS / WHITE WIDOWS PACT, DANIEL SUFFERING of WHORID, as well as contributions from MATT SLAGLE and engineer KEVIN D. REILLY JR., who has periodically worked with Lee M. Bartow since the earliest incarnations of Navicon Torture Technologies (back in the mid-late ‘90s). Tortured screams reach out over the tumbling industrial workings below. Low register whispered meanderings slowly rise to meet those screams. Machines’ rhythmic drones fold in on the voices. Sirens invite and warn. Sink into the synthetic abyss." [label info]
redscrollrecords.com
"Another nod to Hellraiser is found in the title to this vinyl only release from the larger than life project Theologian. Lee M. Bartow, the author and creator of Theologian's death-synth epics, has stated that Clive Barker's horror stories are fundamental to his work, even referencing the Hellraiser books as his bible in various interviews. In this quote, we are introduced to the puzzle box that when solved opens a portal into another plane of existence, with any number of demonic characters to be found on the other side, Pinhead included. The roar of big machines endlessly churning, boiling, and grinding with an infernal purpose is heard throughout this album, with the side long B-side "Truthseeker's Pick" emerging as some sort of hellish field recording of sulfuric vents, locomotive clatter, and metal-on-metal clank with nothing but misery and pain to be experienced in such a realm. The album's introductory track "God Comes As A Wall" finds Theologian screaming into the void of a collapsed black hole, crushing rock, building, planets into a singular thrum of cataclysmic white noise. "The Sun Failed To Rise Today" is a continuation of the plodding industrial dirges that Theologian crafted on the mighty Some Things Have To Be Endured, spiralling with spectral noise, megalithic rhythms, and soaring mechanized screams. The shortest number makes for one of the more intriguing pieces in "Surface Of The Real" with its subaquatic techno pulsations bracing the clarion melodies for guitar and / or voice. Limited to 500 copies." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
| THEPERSONWHODIDTHIS |
Aquarium |
CD-R |
"This is the second release of Oko Records (OK 02), brother label of eclipsis.gr
Behind the nickname "thepersonwhodidthis" we find the Greek electronic / experimental music artist Sotiris Bakagiannis who back in 2009 was invited to create atmospheres to celebrate little Orion's 3nd birthday party which took place in an old house in the village of Iasmos, near Xanthi, North Greece.
For this ocassion he used his software performed either by himself or by the little children who were invited to the party and used 7 pc mouses provided to "draw" freely music colours on the pc screen (each mouse corresponding to certain colour and a musical note).
Here's nothing but the manipulated recording of this enchanting night."
www.eclipsis.gr/maino.htm
|
2019 |
€8.00 |
|
| THIGHPAULSANDRA |
The Lepore Extrusion |
CD |
Nice one-tracker with mysterious drone-tunnels, pure electronic high-pitched humming, trembling & strange ramifications all over the place.
"THIGHPAULSANDRA’s newest release is the score to an interactive video installation by New York-based visual artist DANIEL McKERNAN titled Is “Evolution Evil?,” which featured the world’s # 1 transsexual AMANDA LEPORE. The music is three movements mixed by Thighpaulsandra into one long piece which is just as eerie and precocious a superstar as Lepore is. Enhanced CD features a video of the exhibition with narrative by McKernan. Packaged in letterpressed sleeves in an edition of 500." [label info] |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| THIS HEAT |
Out of Cold Storage |
6 x CD-Box |
Monumentale Box mit ALLEN offiziellen Releases & dickem Booklet sowie einer CD mit bisher unveröffentlichten Aufnahmen von der legendären britischen Band um CHARLES HAYWARD, die aus verschiedensten Einflüssen von Industrial bis Jazz in genialer Weise einen ganz neuen, eigenen Stil kreierten, der bis heute absolut einmalig geblieben ist!
“Where do you start with something like this? With a history lesson and a 9.0 review up at Pitchfork this week I suppose... Born out of the UK crucible that existed in the period immediately post punk (before it earned capitals and morphed into genre all of its own...), This Heat formed through the restless response of three twenty-somethings who felt impelled to document their corner of 1970's London. Already faces at the more severe end of the prog-rock scene, Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward were joined by non-musician Gareth Williams - a catalyst that would see them recording vast quantities of work then editing the results down into consumable chunks of aural fortitude. Spread over a massive six discs and further bolstered by a pretty darn exhaustive book that interviews the surviving members (Williams passed away in 2001), 'Out Of Cold Storage' is testament to the unbridled virility of This Heat - with all the music very much rooted in its era, yet also utterly timeless. Comprised of their five studio albums ('This Heat', 'Deceit', 'Health and Efficiency', 'Made Available' and 'Repeat') plus an incendiary set of live action culled from their 1980/81 heyday, 'Out Of Cold Storage' allows everyone to get hold of these classic recordings in pristine form - a real treat given the eroded bootlegs and mp3s that have been doing the rounds for years. Ranging in style from the avant-rock of their eponymous debut, through to the political polemic of 'Deceit', This Heat are spiky without the need to resort to high-kicking comparisons with the likes of Orange Juice et al., with their output always a couple of steps removed from their retrospective peers. Unafraid to disrupt their reputation through creative right-angles, the likes of 'Repeat' and it's central 20 minutes of looped drones and rhythms (think Can in a chiller cabinet) are seemingly at odds with 'Health And Efficiencies' melody etched high - yet rather than cause tension, these juxtapositions merely heighten the band's appeal and allow you a glimpse into moments of creative perfection. Vast, comprehensive and thoroughly indispensable, 'Out Of Cold Storage' is the kind of collection that reasserts your faith in the music and proves that the endless vault combing perpetrated by labels can sometimes come good. Six shades of fantastic....“ [Boomkat]
|
2006 |
€75.00 |
|
|
same |
CD |
Endlich wieder erhältlich, die erste LP (1979) der wegweisenden britischen Avantgarde-Band. Bis heute lässt sich ihr Stil nicht wirklich schubladisierend fassen, es ist halt THIS HEAT und nix anderes ! Auch in der gerade erschienenen „Out of Cold Storage“-Box enthalten! Eine bekannte Mainzer Buchreihe hat sich übrigens nach dem Intro dieser LP - TESTCARD - benannt.
„Was diese so Band so ausnehmend macht und selbst unter heutigen Maßstäben so ungemindert bestechend, ist in meinen Ohren der Thrill zwischen schwebenden Momenten, in denen die Musik die Luft anzuhalten oder garottiert zu werden scheint und sich enorme Energie aufstaut, und den unglaublich intensiven Eruptionen in Gestalt des ostinaten Drummings und sich ins Gehirn fressender Loops. Dazu kommt dann noch an besonders sublimen Momenten HAYWARDs Gesang mit einem Timbre, das einem die Kehle zuschnürt durch den wehen Ton und mit heißkalter Dringlichkeit die Schädeldecke aufstemmt....“ [Bad Alchemy #51]
“A landmark recording by one of most important British bands, full stop. this, their first release, tore up the book and laid new rules for band composition and performance. First, the music: without precedent, then, the musicians: all extraordinary, all uncompromisingly radical, then the way it was all put together: endlessly surprising, hammeringly intense, and the sound: hard, radical, crafted, rich, with complete control of the frequency range. Beautifully recorded, radically mixed, this was breathtakingly present. Stripped back to the bone but never simplified. And it hasn't aged. this is deep, complex work that creates its own world, anticipating much that was to follow in the next 15 years. A luminous release out of print (for almost a decade?). Re-mastered by the group for this re release.“ [label info]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
same |
LP |
"Second pressing of vinyl re-issue. First official vinyl re-issue in collaboration with original band members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward. 24 bit/96 kHz re-master from original analog tapes. Includes booklet with track notes and archival photos. Isn't it so often the case that the most innovative works of art -- the ones that break the ground where others follow -- are the ones that seem to reach only the ears of those who take those ideas and run with them? So it is with This Heat and their eponymous debut album frequently referred to as 'blue and yellow' for its ultra-minimal jacket. Within its 48 minute run time, the seeds of post-punk, avant rock, noise rock and post-rock can be found. Formed in Brixton, a multicultural, and -- at the time -- down-at-heel part of south London, This Heat were born into a music scene in rapid flux, first thanks to the punk explosion and then via new wave and its myriad offshoots into pop, rock and art-rock. But while many sought to apply punk attitude to chart-friendly sounds, This Heat were concocting some of the most experimental ideas ever committed to tape, taking influence from musique concrète, krautrock, the burgeoning industrial scene and even the dub reggae blasting out in their home borough. Their debut album had -- for the time and for the DIY scene -- an unusually long gestation, recorded in sessions between February 1976 and September 1978 in a variety of studios including their own Cold Storage, a converted cold storage room in the Acme Studios complex. Innovating throughout, they combined loops and tape manipulation with live performance and haunting vocals to a complex, dissonant whole. The band recorded everything they ever did -- including gigs -- and tracks such as 'Water' were entirely improvised in the studio. Given the difficult, abrasive, and involved nature of their sound, This Heat never found anything approaching mainstream success, but patronage by the influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel meant they reached a national audience -- whether that audience was ready for them or not. Celebrating This Heat's 40th anniversary in 2016, Modern Classics Recordings will re-issue the band's catalog -- 1979's This Heat, 1980's Health and Efficiency, and 1981's Deceit -- with full co-operation of surviving members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward. Four decades on, the tireless efforts of This Heat's process can once again be a revelation for new audiences." [label info]
www.lightintheattic.net
„Was diese so Band so ausnehmend macht und selbst unter heutigen Maßstäben so ungemindert bestechend, ist in meinen Ohren der Thrill zwischen schwebenden Momenten, in denen die Musik die Luft anzuhalten oder garottiert zu werden scheint und sich enorme Energie aufstaut, und den unglaublich intensiven Eruptionen in Gestalt des ostinaten Drummings und sich ins Gehirn fressender Loops. Dazu kommt dann noch an besonders sublimen Momenten HAYWARDs Gesang mit einem Timbre, das einem die Kehle zuschnürt durch den wehen Ton und mit heißkalter Dringlichkeit die Schädeldecke aufstemmt....“ [Bad Alchemy #51]
“A landmark recording by one of most important British bands, full stop. this, their first release, tore up the book and laid new rules for band composition and performance. First, the music: without precedent, then, the musicians: all extraordinary, all uncompromisingly radical, then the way it was all put together: endlessly surprising, hammeringly intense, and the sound: hard, radical, crafted, rich, with complete control of the frequency range. Beautifully recorded, radically mixed, this was breathtakingly present. Stripped back to the bone but never simplified. And it hasn't aged. this is deep, complex work that creates its own world, anticipating much that was to follow in the next 15 years. A luminous release out of print (for almost a decade?). Re-mastered by the group for this re release.“ [label info]
"Earlier this year, a few months back, we made the 40th anniversary This Heat vinyl reissues our Records Of The Week. More like Records Of All Time, really. The two full-lengths (This Heat and Deceit) quickly sold out, and have been sadly absent from our racks for the past little while - but now they both have been repressed, and are available again at a slightly lower price than before (thanks to no longer being in gatefold jackets). If somehow you missed out before, we urge you to get 'em now! Our review of this one...
Oooh, at last nicely reissued on vinyl, automatic Records Of The Week!!! What more is there to say that we haven't already said (at length, below, you'll see) about these This Heat records?
Trying to explain why this record is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen, and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenstress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post rock, math rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bolocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender - none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. This is their self titled debut, originally released in 1979, which manages over the course of about 50 minutes to redefine almost all music that has come before.
The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background. This record is such a totally immersive and strangely lovely musical environment. From the machinelike Krautrock of "Horizontal Hold" to the dreamy contemplative "Twilight Furniture" with its simple chiming guitars, muted tribal percussion and keening vocals, to the bizarre affected drum workout of "24 Track Loop", it's like wandering through some alien musical world. As sky full of greys and blues, smeary drones floating gently by, haunting quavering vocals drifting below, like tendrils of smoke, the barren landscape littered with all manner of rhythmic outcroppings, harsh jagged crashes and booms, as well as low rolling thumps and stutters, off in the distance simple spare melodies float and hover, each note a glowing spot on the horizon. Absolutely and utterly overwhelmingly brilliant.
There are plenty of places on the web and in magazines to read more about the history of the band, the band members, the various releases and reissues (see elsewhere on the AQ website for reviews of past editions of various TH recordings) but none of that ultimately matters as much as the sound. And oh the glorious sound. Just take a listen to the sound samples and no words will be necessary." [Aquarius Records]
|
2016 |
€26.50 |
|
| THIS IMMORTAL COIL |
The dark Age of Love |
CD |
Noch ein COIL-Tribut Album mit Neu-Interpretationen von Klassikern der Band - aber diesmal wirklich "ganz anders": Inspiriert von seligen THIS MORTAL COIL Zeiten auf 4AD sind hier von einer illustren Scharn an "Singern & Songwritern" kammermusikalisch & folkig-instrumental geprägte Versionen entstanden, eine schöner & melancholischer als die andere...
"Members of This Immortal Coil are Yaël Naim, Bonnie Prince Billy, Yann Tiersen, Matt Elliott, DAAU, Chapelier Fou, Sylvain Chauveau, Christine Ott, Oktopus, Nightwood, David Donatien & Nicolas Jorio.
"On November the thirteenth 2004, Jhonn Balance passed away, He was, along with Peter Christopherson, the founding member of the band Coil. His brutal death marked the end of over twenty years of activism and musical genius. I have then decided to work on a project that would pay tribute to them.
I didn't want another compilation that would pile up pieces, without any link. My wish was to transpose this unique musical mood to another one, more classical and more accessible to everyone. The whole idea was to pay tribute to the music for what was beyond it, just the way Coil underlined it: "Coil is more than music".
I got my inspiration from the project This Mortal Coil, started in the eighties by the English label 4AD. Its label manager had then grouped some of its own artists together in order to play some standards of rock and pop music.
Most of those who participated in this work hardly knew Coil. My purpose wasn't to go towards those artists who had a conscious connection with the music of the group, let alone musicians who claimed to be the heirs to this seminal work. My aim was to play with the discovery and take Coil's pieces towards new interpretations, rid of all influences.
The respect and the admiration that I have for Coil's work led me to surround myself with talented artists also admired for their brilliant writing. I needed strong personalities who would show a maybe unconscious will to put all their soul, with great humility and maturity, in their participation. The interpretation of Bonnie Prince Billy being certainly the most poignant testimony.
Each artist that was hired for this project was utterly fascinated by the depth of the repertory. They have all been motivated and glad to bring their know how and share it with the others.
Members of DAAU from Anvers, the virtuoso Christine Ott, Yann Tiersen and Matt Elliott have lived productive, strong and passionate meetings, which made Yann Tiersen offer Matt Elliott to participate to his new album Dust Lane. To finish and in order to strenghten this team spirit, the whole album was mixed by Oktopus (Dälek) who knew better than anyone how to put each member of the project's contribution forward.
Peter Christopherson, who since has gone back to working on his first two groups Throbbing Gristle and P.TV, has written about the titles of This Immortal Coil: "I LOVE THEM. It is the first time somebody with musical sensibility and talent has put so much time and effort into covering Coil songs. It totally passes my "hairs on the back of your neck standing up" test for the whole running time of the album. I was awe-struck."
After four years spent managing this project, I could not ask for more."
[full label/website info]
www.icidailleurs.com
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
|
The World ended a long Time ago |
do-LP |
In 2009, following the death of Jhonn Balance four years earlier, This Immortal Coil's "The Dark Age Of Love" appeared as a tribute to the superb work of the British band Coil over two decades.Formed by musicians from all walks of life, the album was praised by critics but also, and most importantly, by Peter Christopherson himself!
13 years have passed and this passion for the band has never wavered. Following the death of Peter Christopherson in 2010 on the one hand, and meetings with musicians such as Massimo Pupillo (Zü), Aho Ssan and Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) who in turn wanted to pay tribute to this gigantic band, on the other hand, Stéphane Grégoire's (founder of the label Ici d'ailleurs) desire to make a new opus took shape in 2017 with a first recording of the title "Where Are You". Just like the first one, more than 5 years will be necessary to realize this new album so that it is at the height of Coil's genius.
The Ici d'Ailleurs team is very proud to unveil This Immortal Coil's second album 'The World Ended A Long Time Ago'.That will be available on December 09, 2022 in several formats (DL / CD / 2[LP] / BOX- 3[CD] / BOX - 5[LP]) that will be revealed very soon. The artists this time are Coil lovers but without the album being a "lovers" cover, that would be the opposite of Coil's image.
Many, many thanks to Shannon Wright, David Chalmin, Matt Elliott, Christine Ott, Aho Ssan, Gaspar Claus, Aidan Baker, Ulver (Kristoffer Rygg, Ole Alexander Halstensgard, Stian Westerhus), Massimo Pupillo, Mattia Cipolli, Elisa Bognetti, Stefano Michelotti, Francesco Bolognini, Marton Csokas, Ivan Chiossone and Eric Aldéa who make this project a reality
This Immortal Coil "The World Ended A Long Time Ago » is : Shannon Wright - David Chalmin - Matt Elliott - Christine Ott - Aho Ssan - Gaspar Claus - Aidan Baker - Franck Laurino - Kristoffer Rygg - Ole Alexander Halstensgård - Stian Westerhus - Massimo Pupillo - Mattia Cipolli - Elisa Bognetti - Stefano Michelotti - Francesco Bolognini - Márton Csókás - Ivan Chiossone - Eric Aldéa
https://thisimmortalcoil.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-ended-a-long-time-ago
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
The World ended a long Time ago (special ed.) |
3 x CD BOX |
In 2009, following the death of Jhonn Balance four years earlier, This Immortal Coil's "The Dark Age Of Love" appeared as a tribute to the superb work of the British band Coil over two decades.Formed by musicians from all walks of life, the album was praised by critics but also, and most importantly, by Peter Christopherson himself!
13 years have passed and this passion for the band has never wavered. Following the death of Peter Christopherson in 2010 on the one hand, and meetings with musicians such as Massimo Pupillo (Zü), Aho Ssan and Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) who in turn wanted to pay tribute to this gigantic band, on the other hand, Stéphane Grégoire's (founder of the label Ici d'ailleurs) desire to make a new opus took shape in 2017 with a first recording of the title "Where Are You". Just like the first one, more than 5 years will be necessary to realize this new album so that it is at the height of Coil's genius.
The Ici d'Ailleurs team is very proud to unveil This Immortal Coil's second album 'The World Ended A Long Time Ago'.That will be available on December 09, 2022 in several formats (DL / CD / 2[LP] / BOX- 3[CD] / BOX - 5[LP]) that will be revealed very soon. The artists this time are Coil lovers but without the album being a "lovers" cover, that would be the opposite of Coil's image.
Many, many thanks to Shannon Wright, David Chalmin, Matt Elliott, Christine Ott, Aho Ssan, Gaspar Claus, Aidan Baker, Ulver (Kristoffer Rygg, Ole Alexander Halstensgard, Stian Westerhus), Massimo Pupillo, Mattia Cipolli, Elisa Bognetti, Stefano Michelotti, Francesco Bolognini, Marton Csokas, Ivan Chiossone and Eric Aldéa who make this project a reality
This Immortal Coil "The World Ended A Long Time Ago » is : Shannon Wright - David Chalmin - Matt Elliott - Christine Ott - Aho Ssan - Gaspar Claus - Aidan Baker - Franck Laurino - Kristoffer Rygg - Ole Alexander Halstensgård - Stian Westerhus - Massimo Pupillo - Mattia Cipolli - Elisa Bognetti - Stefano Michelotti - Francesco Bolognini - Márton Csókás - Ivan Chiossone - Eric Aldéa
https://thisimmortalcoil.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-ended-a-long-time-ago
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| THIS MORTAL COIL |
Blood |
CD |
Third and last album from the 4AD-supergroup.
"This group was essentially the creation of Ivo Watts-Russell, the co-owner of 4AD Records, a highly successful Wandsworth, London-based independent label. This Mortal Coil was actually a collaboration of musicians recording in various permutations, overseen and directed by Watts-Russell. The first single, an epic cover version of Tim Buckley 's 'Song To The Siren', was originally intended as a b-side. However, bolstered by the considerable talents of Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), it saw its own release and became a near-permanent fixture in the independent charts as a result. The album that followed set the pattern for the occasional outings to come.(...)
Featuring a selection of artists from the 4AD roster plus various outsiders, the albums included several cover versions of works by Watts-Russell's favourite songwriters (Buckley, Alex Chilton, Roy Harper, Gene Clark and Syd Barrett )." [unknown source]
|
1991 |
€15.50 |
|
| THISQUIETARMY |
Vessels |
LP |
"Montreal's THISQUIETARMY create sublime yet massive walls of beautiful shimmering drone, at times with a near pop sensibility, at others near Industrial in its percussive bombast. "Vessels" explores themes of the sea and man's struggle with this relentless and all pervasive force, the music a perfect means of expressing both the flat calm and the force 9 storm. Eric Quach, the man behind thisquietarmy, is a prolific artist, and "Vessels" is perhaps his most impactive work to date. "The Pacific Theater" grips the listener in warm drone before slamming them into the rocks with epic percussion. Album closer "A Spanish Galleon" takes a more gentle approach with clean guitar and washes of orchestral strings. Quach's live performances are presented as a real-time multimedia installation, based on an impromptu score to a prepared film, which he creates himself. The visual themes revolve around dark ethereal ambiences and ghostly abstract. The live material can be as structured as it can be improvised on the spot, depending on the moment's vibe, and drowns the audience in a hypnotic dream-like state of introspection. For Fans Of: NADJA, JESU, AUN, AIDAN BAKER." [label info]
www.aurora-b.com
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| THISQUIETARMY + YELLOW6 |
Death |
LP |
" “DEATH” presents a lonely journey of great intensity across the desert, facing inner and external elements, fatally leading to an escape for salvation. The journey is split into three tracks: “Sand” discovers the tough, arid and suffocating desert, as attractive as it is frightening, it surrounds you completely without compromise and there is no turning back. “Furnace” describes the beginning of the blistering heat and the dusty pilgrimage; the rocky landscape is mirrored by a great loneliness in which is revealed our inner demons, ready to engage a battle without mercy against your own soul. “Salt” depicts the comatose state of being at the tail end of the journey, disoriented and dehydrated, lost within psychedelic hallucinations, physically fighting death with little of what is left of your mind. Mastered by Fear Falls Burning.
180g vinyl with free download coupon (no CD, unfortunately) 80 black / 320 gold." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| THISQUIETARMY X N |
Zerfall / Zerfallen |
LP + CD |
Thisquietarmy and N met during live shows and festivals on and off for years. As both are always interested in doing collaborations it was just a matter of time, when both would team up for a guitar drone convention.
All started with an improvisational live set in Cologne, followed by a studio session in Duisburg, back in 2019.
“Zerfall | Zerfallen” features all the tracks of those two sessions, except one track, that is featured on “Zerstoeren”, the sister release (MD 098).
“Zerfall” (LP) features two epic tracks and it is obvious after the first seconds, that the studio session was a loud unfaltering monster. We can say that for sure, because this is one of the rare occasions, we had the chance to join the recording session. Imagine an old industrial building with a big studio room on the upper floor, where two guitarists are sitting in front of an amp wall, playing so loud that no earplug can save you.
The first track “Zerfall Alpha” flows with loud noise soundwalls by N and the looming sounds of thisquietarmy, evolving into soundscapes that feel like both guitars are melting into one unbending soundwall, going loud and sometimes quiet even to get subsequently louder. “Zerfall Beta” is the evil twin of the A side track and unfolds a massive drone doom wave.
“Zerfallen” (CD) features the other three tracks of the session, in the same mood like “Zerfall” but with an individual sonic evolving. All rounded up by the live session from Cologne “Zerstaeuber“, which is also featured on “Zerfallen”. Here you can discover, how the musicians approached very tentative, how their sounds work together for the very first time.
All in all, you get 2 hours of massive drone doom ambient noise guitar fulmination. Listen loud for maximum aftermath.
“Zerfall | Zerfallen” comes in an edition of 222 copies on LP+CD. Black vinyl with printed labels, housed in reverse board printed sleeve on 300g cardboard. The CD is housed in a reverse board printed cardboard wallet.
If you want to read more about the recording session, here is an intrview Eric and Hellmut did for Fifteen Questions: 15questions.net/interview/thisquietarmy-and-n-share-their-creative-process/page-1/
Zerfall (LP)
A Zerfall Alpha 22:27
B Zerfall Beta 23:20
Zerfallen (CD)
01 Zerfallen Eins 11:21
02 Zerfallen Zwei 12:52
03 Zerfallen Drei 31:27
04 Zerstaeuber 17:24
Technical:
LP + CD / Limited to 222 copies
LP comes on black vinyl / printed labels / reverseboard printed sleeve
CD comes in reverseboard printed sleeve
thisquietarmy (amps+guitars)
N (amps+guitars)
recorded by Tobias Stieler, June 2019
mixed+mastered by Eric Quach, March 2021
photography by Roxane De Koninck
www.midirarecords.com/release/md-097-thisquietarmy-x-n-zerfall-zerfallen |
2022 |
€27.50 |
|
| THO-SO-AA |
Identify |
CD |
"We are proud to announce the long awaited ambient-masterpiece identify by Tho-So-Aa. After 7 years of development Tho-So-aa was finally ready to present this release. This is the german outfit most complex and dense album. Some of the tracks may show you with threatening collages and experimental loops, how close the difference between freedom and prison is. Other tracks are surrounded by melancholic soundscapes and dark bass-drones inspired by desperation and totally sadness. In the past years Lutz Rach spent working with sounds to create this thick layers and drones that have never surfaced in his music before. This is no longer pure dark ambient music, it is enriched by industrial sounds experimental use of classical instruments voice samples and an overall laying cry against isolation. The dark soundscapes expose a very cynical point of view on our sick society, it decribes the unknown pressure to identify with yourself! The wait was worth it, with this THO-SO-AA delivers his to date masterpiece. After 49 minutes, Identify lets you alone in your silly live, with the cognition: You are 75% dead. IDENTIFY NOW!" [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
LPZG/BLGM Live |
LP |
"L.ed. 300. LPZG/BLGM is the first Live-Document of Tho-so-AA and also the first full length release on Vinyl. Side 1 was recorded in 2008 in Leipzig at Sonic Lodge Festival and contains special versions of well known, rare and unreleased tracks from the Identify-Era. This was the only recorded Gig with the flutes played by EvaNaRa. Side 2 was recorded in 2004 in Belgium and contains special versions of tracks from Minus and the ultra rare Spoiler EP." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| THOROFON |
New Heroes Essential |
CD |
" "New Heroes" war das dritte und letzte Album von Thorofons erster Inkarnation. Veröffentlicht wurde es 2005 auf United Manipulation Broadcasting und war der dritte Teil der Circle of Power Trologie. Nach der Veröffentlichung lösten Thorofon sich auf. (Später kamen Thorofon mit dem "Exkarnation" 2011 zurück). Ein bisschen weniger rau als seine Vorgänger, inkludierten Thorofon zum ersten Mal tanzbare Rhythmen in die Musik. Ein gewisses Popflair ist auch vertreten. Ebenso Vocals von Genevieve Pasquier. Auf "New Heroes" finden sich Klassiker wie "Spermicide" oder "Gigamesh". Für das Reissue hat die Band die besten Songs aus sem Album ausgewählt, weil man das Gefühl hatte, dass die originale LP ein wenig zu lang war. Wie bei den anderen Re-Issues gibt es auch hier rare Bonustracks. Ein Muss für jeden Fan von klassischem Industrial." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| THORSTEN SOLTAU & COMRADES |
Roman Feast & a Grape from Thor Heyerdahl's Table |
do-MC BOX |
"Roman Feast & A Grape From Thor Heyerdahl's Table features a wide collection of Thorsten Soltau's layered concrete sounds and the sources that created them.
On this double-cassette album he and his "Comrades" have created a beautiful, and sometimes haunting journey through ambient drones, concrete music and cut-up sound collages.
An arrangement varying from whipping noise layers and piercing feedback drones combined with amplified objects, to field recordings, repeating piano rhythms and hidden voice fragments to spoken word storytelling!
An adventure in experimental music!
Feat. Max Kuiper, The Dead Mauriacs, Marina Stewart, Mihkel Kleis, Rainier Lericolais, Gildas Brugaro, Fluorescent Grey and Susan Matthews
Two high-bias chrome cassettes in special vinyl packaging. Comes with one hand-numbered and signed art print out of the four motifes: The Center, Poor Man’s Deathbed, Bring Me A Head Full Of Thoughts or the Red Killer." [label info]
"For whatever odd reason I was thinking that Thorsten Soltau was one of the guys from the old cassette network, but in fact he started to play music in 2009 and on discogs it says about his work that he works "exclusively with concrete material, plundered data carriers and vinyl sources and leaves his first proper use of digital manipulation behind. Influenced by first electronic music and the avant-garde cut-up of musical and non-musical sources Thorsten Soltau decided to teach himself a form and musical language of strange, two-dimensional musique concrete and jarring rhythms." He works with other people a lot, I think, as this excellently designed double tape proofs. The comrades are people like Max Kuiper, Marina Stewart, Mihkel Kleis, The Dead Mauriacs, Roman Feast (all on the first tape, sometimes with more comrades per track), while Kuiper and Kleis return on the other tape along with Gildas Brugaro, Susan Matthews and Fluorescent Grey and Rainier Lericolais provide a remix. A vivid little scene, as The Dead Mauriacs also release on this label. In the first four piece, all on cassette one, I must admit I heard some great music but hardly something that translated to concrete material, plundered data carriers and vinyl sources, but rather something that sounded like ambient inspired synthesizer work, despite whoever was collaborating. These pieces were all quite dark, quite heavily layered with synthesizer like sounds and didn't sound surprisingly new, but they did sound surprisingly good. Music that fits the dreary grey day, ending with a boom and a clap in the Lericolais remix. On the other tape we find more what discogs (at least) promises: plundered sound sources, vinyl work and such like. First through a live recording (Soltau/Kuiper/Brugaro/Matthews) which opens with the crackling of vinyl and ends with noise and we move in between through these ends.
Thereafter is a piece by the first three but with the addition of Kleis and it's quite a lovely piano sample being repeated over and over, but shifting back and forth, going the all out of phase way from Steve Reich and slowly morphing into a marimba or glockenspiel. He would be proud of the simple yet highly effective piece of music. The Fluorescent Grey remix doesn't much add to this beauty, it just makes it a bit noisier. 'Plagot 2' is a nice faint technoid like piece, but also seems a bit superflouos. Otherwise: excellent release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| THROBBING GRISTLE |
Heathen Earth |
CD |
…. can the world be as sad as it seems?
Einer der ewigen Klassiker des Industrial und unser Lieblings-Studiowerk von TG überhaupt! Recorded „live in the studio“ am 16. Februar 1980. Erschein zuerst auf Industrial Records in einer Auflage von 785 Stück. Also Bonus sind auf der CD zwei rare 7“-tracks enthalten.
1990's reissue of this 1980 album, recorded live in front of an invited audience at the Industrial Records studio. Bonus 7" studio tracks ("Adrenalin" & "Subhuman") added. "Live in the studio, this combines the best of both harrowing worlds." [label info]
www.mute.com
|
1991 |
€15.00 |
|
|
20 Jazz Funk Greats |
do-CD |
"Originally released in 1979, 20 Jazz Funk Greats is Throbbing Gristle's pop-influenced masterwork. It's hard to believe the beautiful, conventionally-attractive Cosey Fanni Tutti on this album's front cover previously gave herself milk and blood enemas in front of a live audience. Additionally, the song "Hot On The Heels Of Love" is far removed from the dissonant nihilism of the previous TG albums. It's a sleek, minimal synth-pop song that foreshadows Tutti's later work as Chris & Cosey. Still, 20 Jazz Funk Greats is underpinned by a profound distance from accessibility. The breezy luminosity of "Persuasion" and "Six Six Sixties" is still marked with casual bits of distortion and absurdism. Preceding dark synth-pop (and everything else), TG's third album is far ahead of its time and still sounds as relevant as ever. The CD version includes a bonus CD of live recordings, including two versions of the manic classic, "Discipline." The 8-page full-color book includes visual ephemera and previously-unpublished photographs. Cover artwork has been painstakingly restored from the original source material." [label info]
www.industrial-records.com
|
2011 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Mutant T.G. |
CD |
https://throbbinggristle.bandcamp.com/album/mutant-tg
"Mutant TG, Throbbing Gristle’s first ever collection of remixes available again on CD via NovaMute/Mute.
In many respects Throbbing Gristle as artists, self-promoters, marketeers, label owners and music makers broke the mould on every level and decentralised the whole music making process into their own hands. It therefore came as no surprise when some of the most notable figures in electronic dance music jumped at the chance to re-work some classic TG catalogue. The record was originally released on Mute’s sub-label NovaMute in 2004, and saw reworks from DJ and producer Carl Craig, electronic duo Two Lone Swordsmen (Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood), Basement Jaxx’s Simon Ratcliffe, electronic post-industrial duo Motor (Mr Nô and Bryan Black), as well as TG’s very own Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti.
Formed in 1975 from the ashes of performance art troupe/media guerrilla cell Coum Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle consisted of Genesis P-Orridge (1950 – 2020), Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and Peter Christopherson (1955 – 2010). During their most active period of 1975 – 1981, TG fully delivered on punk’s failed promise to explore extreme culture as a way of sabotaging systems of control, releasing seminal records such as The Second Annual Report Of Throbbing Gristle (1977), D.O.A The Third And Final Report Of Throbbing Gristle (1978), 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) and more. After years of pursuing different projects, the band reformed in 2004, performing several concerts and releasing projects such as TG Now (2004), Mutant TG and Part Two: The Endless Not (2007) before disbanding for good in 2010."
################
"The legendary 2004 set of TG remixes by Carl Craig, Carter Tutti, Motor, Basement Jaxx’s Smon Ratcliffe, and Two Lone Swordsmen receives its 20th anniversary flowers.
‘Mutant’ first emerged during a dry period for the long-defunct industrial musick pioneers to provide contemporary context for their late ’70s/early ‘80s prototypes of textured, rhythm-driven electronics. Issued in tandem with the ‘TG Now’ 12” - their first release of original material ft. the original line-up, since 1982 - the ‘Mutant’ session would skool those who came thru with the early ‘00s whole “electroclash” wave to that sound’s origins, whilst also reframing their work for modern ‘floors for those old enough to join the dots.
Fair to say that Carl Craig’s re-version of ‘Hot on the Heels of Love’ is now a stone cold classic, trimming the original to a sleek Detroit aerodynamism but still sizzling with the grit of Chris Carter’s custom-built kit in the mix, and of course Cosey’s slinky whispers and its chiming hooks, while his take on ’Still Walking’ is resplendent in its cold metallic churn. Decades later, Carter Tutti’s own mix of the creepy as fuck ‘Hamburger Lady’ is marginally less mucky, more oiled up for the darkroom, and still makes us need a wash after rinsing, next to the fetish club canter of their spliced remix for ‘HotHeelsUnited’
Perhaps one of the set’s biggest surprises was the inclusion of Simo nRatcliffe, at a late peak of his Basement Jaxx prowess, dialling up the sexiness of ‘Hot on the Heels of Love’ with hot flushes of MDMA-trigger string pads, whereas french EBM type Motor signalled the sound’s relevance to early-mid ‘00s electro in his spark-spitting remix of ‘Persuasion’, and Andy Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood’s TLS remix of ‘United’ gives it some Rotters Golf Club warpage." [Boomkat]
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| THU20 |
Live in Groningen |
CD |
Mitschnitt eines fantastischen Konzerts (August 2000) der fast schon legendären THU20 - ein Projekt von JOS SMOLDERS, PETER DUIMELINKS, ROEL MEELKOP. Sehr subtile Geräuschmusik, zwischen sehr direkter & konkreter Collage & eher sanften Drone- & Microsounds, immer spannend und in höchster Konzentration vollendet. Letzte Kopien dieses Releases zum Sonderpreis !
"Dutch electro-acoustic ensemble THU20 is the co-operation between Roel Meelkop, Peter Duimelinks, Sjac van Bussel and Ios Smolders. The strength varies, their releases are limited and live shows rare. Not a steady thing this THU to say the least.. Despite all of this, all four have firm ideas about music and performances. THU has a unique sound, established through numerous experiments in recording and several collaborations (they've worked on hearplays, spoken word projects, highly conceptual music-making and so on), but still is not a defined thing.. and that's good. The THU20 philosophy is one which fits perfectly with our own and obviously Mixer is very proud to release this cd. "Live in Groningen" is an edited version of a performance they did during the CASA ELECTRONICA festival high up north in the Netherlands. The hearplay-like character of their set/ music is very much imaginative and holds a lot of anekdotal, but still fairly abstract elements. The sound of THU20 is a multi-layered object, compiled of numerous sonic happenings, going through the complete range of audible sound and certainly not in a lineair way. From highly digital to dusty acoustics, from pleasantly calm to disturbingly hectic. It is exactly this tension and variation which keeps you tuned and fascinated. The way basic elements like repetition, tonal differences and time-elapse are used is truly original and surprising. Things move around completely free, accessible for one's own thoughts and interpetation, adding to the constantly changing texture. THU20 dashes around sound, though all is embedded in a very gentle stream of subtle tones and little sound-events, which makes this work perfectly suitable for extended and intense listening... THU20 has released previously on Staalplaat, Flenix and Midas Music." [label info]
|
2000 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Tilburg |
LP |
"... Die Hörer werden ins Zentrum der ‚Noise Culture‘ gestellt und die heiß-kalte Dusche aufgedreht. Ich halte ‚Noise Culture‘ immer noch für eine gute Zustandsbeschreibung, gerade weil die Desensibilisierung und das Cocooning zu immer mehr Gewöhnung und Abstumpfung führen. THU20 kratzt, lässt rauschend und brodelnd, lässt rumpelnd, knurrend und prasselnd den Alltagsnoise über die Haut und die Trommelfelle spürbar werden. Und macht damit den Kippeffekt klar, dass (nur) aktives Krachmachen und bewusstes Hören mit lustvollem Nervenkitzel und neuem Schönheitssinn einher gehen können. Der zweite Set in Tilburg taucht nach einem französisch gestotterten Sprachsample in ein relativ leises Wellental, in dem es knistert und metallisch klingklangt, um dann motorisch brummend und mit aufsteigenden Glissandos die anschließende Steigung zu erklimmen. Auf dem Plateau, trotz Regengeplätscher, eine andere Perspektive. Und die Andeutung, dass all der Lärm, alle Müh und Plag, zur Ruhe kommen könnten." [Bad Alchemy]
"A live recording made in Paradox in Tilburg in October 2007. Over the past twenty years one of the bigger enigma's of 'industrial' music or 'modern musique concrete' has been THU20. They seldom record or play live, yet when they do, a lot of attention is placed on the detail. In the studio this leads to perfectly shaped sonic constructions, and in a live concert a detailled balance between the various interests of the five players involved. The computer work of Jos Smolders and Roel Meelkop, the acoustic sound objects of Peter Duimelinks and Frans de Waard and the analogue electronics of Jacques van Bussel. A small selection of live recordings by THU20 has been made avialable before, such as a split LP with Merzbow, and live recordings from Nancy. 'Tilburg' fits that particular line of THU20 work. Various recordings were made, from the P.A. aswell as by the individual players, which were slightly edited by THU20. Cover by Meeuw." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Vroeg Werk |
do-CD |
"First anthology of legendary dutch electroacoustic group of musicians whose names can be definitely placed in range of true underground stars and passionary pushers of contemporary experimental music scene. First CD in this double album is compiled from studio works, unreleased or taken from rare compilations, second CD gathers the best concert recordings. Release date is 29th December 2012. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Sometime in the early '80s, a bunch of young Dutchmen formed a couple of post-punk bands that nobody remembers anymore; but on one Thursday that happened to be the 20th of some month, one of those bands abandoned their rhythms entirely and splattered out a drone-tape and synth-noise set that had the audience freaking out. The punk structures were scrapped entirely and THU20 was stuck onto this project as the new name. Get it? The Dutchmen of THU20 included Jac Van Bussel, Peter Duimelinks, Roel Meelkop, Jos Smolders, and Guido Doesborg (later replaced by the ubiquitous Frans De Waard). The mid to late '80s proved to be a highly prolific time for THU20, although the project continues on to this day at a much more restrained pace. The ideas that went into THU20 transitioned from Joy Division into Cabaret Voltaire & Throbbing Gristle quickly arriving at a DIY punk form of musique concrete and electro-acoustic experimentation. Such was a similar trajectory for the German ensemble P16.D4, albeit towards even more unconventional goals. In the studio, THU20's work could be austere and brutalist in the obfuscated collages and disjointed slabs of noise; but the live version of THU20 proved to be far more shambolic, dynamically expressive, and rewardingly chaotic. Vroeg Werk is a diverse collection that spans both of these modes of operation, with the second of these two discs being entirely live recordings and the first culling from the dustbin of the cassette culture. The studio material found on disc one has some semblances of the more abstracted tape work found on Einsturzende Neubauten's Drawings Of O.T sans Blixa, with the opening track "5720" being particularly choice. But, the live material is really where THU20 shine, grafting gritty electro-acoustic noise sourced from voice, tape, synth, feedback, pedals, shortwave, power tools, scrap metal, and who knows what else onto thin rhythmic spines of morse code blips, overblown tape loops, and primitive drum machinations. Effectively, THU20 would land somewhere between the panzer bleakness of MB and the viral shredding of Nocturnal Emissions. Not a bad place to be..." [Aquarius Rec.]
"And then there is 'Vroeg Werk' by THU20. Now I am the last person to review that, you may claim, right so, but I really don't have that much to do with it. By accident I was present at two concerts, and added vocals (?) to one and a synth to the other, which makes a total of five out of thirty-one pieces. This double CD reflects the early works of THU20, an original five piece with Jos Smolders, Peter Duimelinks, Jac van Bussel, Roel Meelkop and, in these early years, Guido Doesborg. Started out by Doesburg and Van Bussel as a sideline project to Club Rialto, they experimented in their early years with feedback, sample delay pedal boxes, a synth, a rhythm machine and then slowly something such as 'composition' came in, along with the other three members. THU20 were part of the big cassette scene (see also the P16.D4 of two weeks ago), sending out their pieces to compilations. The first discs collects these in chronological order (which is commendable, but it means it's doesn't start out with the best tracks), ending with their twenty minute concert in Bordeaux from 1989 (originally released as a split LP with Merzbow). The whole of the second CD has concert recordings of the years before that, 1986-1989, plus one from 1992. Here we find THU20 improvising freely with electronics, turntables, tapes, synthesizer and sometimes, but not always, guided by a backing tape and a loose notion of a graphic score. Many of these pieces are well-known to me, following the band from their very early days, but boy, they sound great here. The muffled sound of the cassettes is complete washed away and all of these piece shine like diamonds. You could argue if 150 minutes is a bit much, wether the chronological order is a great idea, but this is some truly exciting music. It combines the industrial music of say 1986 (feedback, noise) with the more rough edged notion of musique concrete, electro-acoustic, and it follows this band to find their own way in this. Many of their previous releases are hard to find these days ('Eerste Schijf', 'Tweede Schijf', 'Derde Schijf' or 'Elfde Uni'), and surely here's a band who deserved their own big box set. That is not likely to happen, but this 'small' (what is small?) box set is worth every penny. And still kicking around, THU20 works on a very irregular basis in 2013, in a slightly different line up. Who would have guessed?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€16.50 |
|
| THUJA |
Pine Cone Temples |
do-CD |
Episches neues Werk dieses 4-köpfigen kreativen Geräusch-Improvisations-Kollektivs, deren Klangquellen keine Begrenzungen zu kennen scheinen. Neben gewöhnlichen Instrumenten werden field recordings aber auch konkretes Material eingesetzt. Die Improvisationen klingen so sensibel & fein verwoben als seien sie „gewollt“ komponiert. Jedes neue Stück offenbart überraschende Sounds, und doch wirkt das Werk wie aus einem Guss. Entspannter „Abstrakt-Geräuschambient“, der niemals langweilig wird. Bei THUJA wirkt LOREN CHASSE von ID BATTERY mit, die auch eine Single auf Drone hatten – nicht nur deswegen sei dieses Werk hiermit in höchstem Maße empfohlen !
“By incorporating real-time recordings of natural sounds from their particular surroundings, the four members of Thuja play off each other and the space they inhabit with impeccable instinct, succeeding in creating eerie yet strikingly melodic compositions. The end result is a total immersion of the senses, for both the player and the listener. Across the grand expanse of Pine Cone Temple's two discs, implements such as piano, guitars, percussion, and well-placed contact mics are blended like pigments to conjure the subtlest of sonics, pulling every lost drop of their immediate universe into floating and buzzing cinematics. Minimalist hues are brush-stroked into being and slowly unfurl into the atmosphere. Improvised clouds of sound softly erupt to form compositions of such immense and precise detail, it would seem the music was written out rather than spontaneously developed. Such is the magic of Thuja and their uncanny ability to sculpt microscopic psychedelia from their immediate environment and collective consciousness.” [label info]
“....and all of them loosely based in one way or another on nature, or natural sounds, or the way music and found sounds interact with the spaces they are performed in. There are instruments like guitars, drums, bass, but more often than not, you'll find sticks and stones, found objects, junk, all sorts of industrial and natural detritus, recorded, re-broadcast, and recorded again. Utilizing natural reverb, the sounds of certain spaces, ambient sounds as well as making the act of making music, music in itself. Wow. So what does Pine Cone Temples sound like? It's wide open and expansive. Ambient perhaps, but there's too much going on for it to be strictly ambient. It's more a sort of abstract soundscape, the sort of soundscape the requires close listening, active listening, in order to understand, and feel the sounds, not just hear them. The rustle of leaves, crickets maybe, running water, or are those sounds manufactured by the band in an attempt to pay homage to the music of nature? Does it matter. Maybe its both, the sound of running water accompanied by Thuja emulating the sound of running water. Clicks and creaks, and little bits of clatter, a simple melody played on a recorder, warm organ warble, whipsering wind, toy xylophone notes released and left to drift in the slowly shifting breeze, distant bird calls, reverbed piano, dark cavernous rumbles, shimmering single notes stretched perilously across a sound field dotted with the echo of dripping water and the buzz of vibrating guitar strings. This isn't so much music as it is simply sound, sound that has been lovingly shaped and guided, observed and interacted with, recorded in its element. As if Thuja were just recordists, who use their own sounds to lure the sounds of nature to come just a little closer, in order to capture them raw and natural, and incorporate them into the sun dappled cloak of their jewelled nature-folk. The sounds of music can be smooth and soothing, or raw and primitive, as can the music of sound, and thus Thuja, whose music of sound is pure, and organic, lush and lustrous, and breathtakingly beautiful.” [Aquarius Records]
www.strange-attractors.com |
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
same |
LP |
"A brand new vinyl only full length from aQ beloved ambient improvised free rock explorers Thuja. The core group is all present, Loren Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, Steven R. Smith and Rob Reger, joined for these sessions by Thuja satellite members: Greg Bianchini, Keith Evans, Bryan DeRoo and former aQ mailorder mistress Christine Boepple. Collected from various live performances, these tracks find Thuja setting up in various venues around the Bay Area, and
transforming each location, at least briefly, into a forest glade, or a darkened wood, or a fog shrouded seashore, using traditional
instruments as well as sticks and stones and other found objects to conjure up ghostlike soundscapes , each track, every performance, a
slow burning sprawl of humid and humming minimalism.
Almost the entirety of the A side is taken up by an epic stretch of alchemical minimalism, a muted series of washed out melodies, of gentle scrapes and distant shimmers, various notes and chords expressed in long streaks, the guitar lines unfurling lazily, the band eventually coalesce into a glistening high end crescendo, suddenly reminding us of Sunroof! with their upper register ur-drone skree, but here that skree is more muted and muddied, a mournful keening, before the band elves back into a more minimal moonlit crawl. Disembodied slowed down riffs are draped over whispered whirs, while the band lurk in the shadows, letting tiny bits of light spill out, creating barely there sonic patterns, and dusty dreamlike song skeletons.
The B side is even more understated, each track a brief soundscape, exploring dark dusty corners, shuffling through a blanket of dead leaves, the band barely there at all. Almost like they set up their instruments and just stood there, letting the wind and the wildlife create the sounds. When the music does materialize, and take more solid form, the guitars weave themselves into delicate little
tangles, drifting over deep resonant swells, all around sounds betray the environment, but become inexorable parts of the organic sound being created, snippets of conversation, voices, footsteps, alongside subtle bits of percussive thump, warbly distant melodies, a deep dark
ambience, a gorgeously subtle sound that manages to be quietly propulsive even as it seems to hover motionless.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!" [Aquarius Records review]
label-website: www.importantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
| TIBETAN AND BHUTANESE INSTRUMENTAL AND FOLK MUSIC |
Volume 2 |
CD |
“Recorded by John Levy in 1971 and released by Lyrichord in the mid-'70s, this comprises the second part of Levy's whole enterprise: to capture not only the sacred music of the Tibetan ritual in Bhutan, but all aspects of the native folk music as well. John Levy was a London ethnomusicologist who took refuge in Tibetan Buddhism, and recorded -- with his nagra-stéreo -- both sacred and secular music. This completely remastered folk and instrumental release follows the Tibetan Buddhist Rites from the Monasteries of Bhutan album of ritual and chanting, and features performances on both Tibetan and Bhutanese lutes and fiddles, beautiful folk songs, and a part of a drama of Tibetan origin performed by a troupe of yak and cow herdsmen of eastern Bhutan. The latter is particularly compelling, the standout performer being Go-Te Do-Pe, who sings and accompanies himself on the dramnyen, a Bhutanese lute. His two songs bear an eerie resemblance to the blues of Junior Kimbrough and other Mississippi hill country musicians. This is real blues from the top of the world.” [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| TIBETAN RED / THE OVAL LANGUAGE / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE |
The Breath of the Hydra |
CD |
A three way collaboration between the Germany based THE OVAL LANGUAGE, the Catalan TIBETAN RED and DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE living in Rennes, France. In an on and off exchange since end of 2016, a continuous exchange of audio material, ideas and suggestions. Salvador Francesch and Guido Hübner meet again after long years at the occasion of a concert of the latter one at the LEM festival in Barcelona. Since then working together became evident as was the choice of including Klaus-Peter John with whom several collaborations had already seen the light of day through the years, most notably the homage to the late Carlfriedrich Claus ‘sprechzimmern’ with RLW as well as a 2x CD collection of collaborations on the notorious Monochrome Vison label in Moscow.
The association of their different sound worlds and even more specifically their extremely particular fashions of creating them was meant to merge and melt in a whole able to blur clear distinctions with only an occasional sneaking out of a head and a hissing tongue amongst many that takes the scent and direction respectively in the brooding heat that forges shape and carves direction.
TIBETAN RED Salvador Francesch is a catalan-canadian painter, sculptor and sound explorer who lives in La Garrotxa, Girona. He has released 5 CDs in his Tibetan Red project. His work pursues experimentation with sounds that seek to convey some aspects of his interest in Eastern rituals and ceremonial art.
THE OVAL LANGUAGE Klaus-Peter John is from Leipzig, the project started as a trio in the early 80’s working to turn into his solo project with sound, noise works in open spaces, photography, installations and land-art informed projects in which mainly the voice is put center stage.
DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE started in the early 80’s in Berlin with cassette production and performative concerts, exhibitions and installations to which a D.I.Y. approach of a lot of customized equipment became inherent accompanying an interest in several areas of science and technology. Moved to Barcelona then France, producing many recordings and performance works.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/the-breath-of-the-hydra
"The Breath of the Hydra (ACU 1029), da weißt man ja, es sind drei Köpfe. So auch hier: TIBETAN RED + THE OVAL LANGUAGE + DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE. Ersterer, Salvador Francesch in La Garrotxa in den katalonischen Pyrenäen, hat dem mit Todo entretenimiento es una anticipación del infierno auch das Motto vorangestellt. Der Dichter José Bergamin soll das gesagt haben, als Vorstand der Alianza de Intelectuales Antifascistas der kulturelle Kopf der Spanischen Republik, der Picasso den Auftrag zu "Guernica" gegeben hat. Francesch teilt mit Bergamins Rechtfertigung des 'Roten Terrors' allemal die Vorliebe für Rot und offenbar auch die Vorfreude auf die Hölle. Blödsinn, natürlich die Abneigung gegen Amusement. Er ist mit seinem Debut 1985 auf Freedom in a Vacuum nicht ganz so lange dabei wie Guido Hübner, der ab 1981 sich der Cassette- & Soundculture einschrieb. Bei "Sprechzimmern" (2015), einer Hommage an den konkreten Lautpoeten Carlfriedrich Claus, und zehn Jahre zuvor bei 'Papillon Schizophone' war er dabei auch schon mit Peter John zusammengekommen. Der Leipziger, der in den 80ern als Sänger bei Neu Rot (!) anfing, hat sich nach "Hibernation" & "Waldkonzerte" auf Edition Telemark zuletzt mit "Hexen Hexer" gegen Denunziation und Hexenjagden positioniert, auch wenn heute dabei, anders als im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg und beim Hydraschlachten, seltener Blut fließt. Ich kann mir eine 'Melancholie des Widerstands', wie sie Hübner von László Krasznahorkai aufgegriffen hat, als das Verbindende zwischen den dreien vorstellen bei ihrem alchemistischen Procedere mit brodeligem Köcheln und Sieden, das einher geht mit kratzigen und schleifenden Impulsen und hohleren, quasi perkussiven Anmutungen, die das überwölben. Dazu vexieren zirpige, halbwegs natürliche Klänge mit einem leisen, hauchzarten 'Schreiben' mit metallischem Griffel, über das motorische, zischende, sirrend oszillierende Attacken hinweggehen und einen industrialen Dominator installieren, der impulsiv oder gedämpft rumort und infernalische Stimmen nur ahnen lässt. Der Griffel schreibt weiter in einer opaken Nichtstille und hat dabei etwas von einem Keuchen oder Röcheln an sich. Martialische Wellen mischen das auf, und zischende Ventile machen das zu einem Tauchgang in die Schinderwerkstätten der Schlotbarone. Trappeliges Toben, abgerissene Kürzel und tatsächlich der Kehle entrissene Laute verunklaren dabei die Differenz von Mensch-Maschine, Organisch-Anorganisch, Außen-Innen, Hart-Weich, Makro-Mikro. Immer wieder leise als bruitistische Audiographie aus winzigen, halb wie gehauchten Krakeln vor einer nun dröhnend bebenden Klangwand. Wenn nur das Schreien nicht wäre, das infernalische, kaum zu hören, aber doch nicht zu leugnen. Ganz in der Nähe - Folterkeller, Höllen. Die satanischen Mühlen mahlen als zerrende Tonbandspuren, weiß der Teufel, was sich hinter verschlossenen Türen alles abspielt. Scharrt da wer an Metall? Was sind das für unheimliche Heimlichkeiten?" [Bad Alchemy]
"German Attenuation Circuit label run by Sascha aka EMERGE, has released a new album in which three sound artists of electronic experimental music collaborate: German artist The Oval Language, Catalan Tibetan Red and Das Synthetische Mischgewebe who lives in Rennes, France.
"The Breath of the Hydra" is the result of exchanging audio files since the end of 2016.
Salvador Francesch is a Catalan-Canadian painter, sculptor and sound explorer who lives in La Garrotxa, Girona. He has published five CD's with his Tibetan Red project.
Klaus-Peter John aka The Oval Language is from Leipzig and works in noise, open space, photography, installations and informed land-art projects where the voice takes center stage. Guido Hübner aka Das Synthetische Mischgewebe started in the early 80's in Berlin with the production of cassettes and performance concerts, exhibitions and installations.
This album consists of a single track of almost 52 minutes long which unfurls two faces. One, the sound is almost imperceptible and silence plays a relevant role. In the other, drones and noises are the background of a proposal with a strong organic character and consequently, gasping and buried voices are barely heard and spit out an indecipherable language. The clicks near the middle of the track look like whips that are followed by screams which are in the distance. All this takes place in a dark ambience that well represents the history of the Hydra." [Guillermo Escudero/LOOP]
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/the-breath-of-the-hydra, http://www.attenuationcircuit.de/
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| TICKMAYER, STEVAN KOVACS |
Cold Peace Counterpoints |
CD |
"A suite of fiendishly complex compositions for mixed real and virtual resources. Bob Drake, Djorge Delibasic, Pegja Milosavljevic and Chris Cutler make appearances - playing electric guitar, bass, drums and virtuoso violin between them, but mainly it is Stevan who plays all kinds of keyboards, strings, double bass, zither, samples and software. Three thoroughly through-composed and finely articulated pieces make up this very concentrated suite: Concerto Grosso (for keyboards, string instruments and CPU), The Cold Peace Counterpoints and Five Bagatelles for a Polyhsitor. Those familiar with Tickmayer's earlier recordings, or the Science Group, will have some idea of what to expect - a rare commingling of high European art music (Tickmayer studied with both Gyšrgy Kurtˆg and Louis Andriessen), various East European folk musics, experimental rock, post rock and computer assisted electronic composition. These are intense, emotionally and philosophically driven pieces that demand attention, and reward it when given." [label notes] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| TIDAL |
Golem and Man |
CD-R |
Exzellenter dark ambient von TIDAL auf dem CDR-Sublabel von MANIFOLD, in spezieller Tonsiegel-Stoffverpackung.
“Opaque, drifting ambient treatise on the legend of the Golem. Monstrously dark, complex and driving. In special cloth and clay package.”[label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Silent knife speaks |
m-CDR |
Das kleine französische Label TAALEM (hervorgegangen aus NOUVELLES HARMONIES) ist von den Veröffentlichungen ungefähr zu vergleichen mit dem belgischen Label MYSTERY SEA: Beide setzen auf ambient-industrielle, dronig-atmosphärische Soundscapes, und bei beiden sind inzwischen sehr schöne Serien entstanden von bereits etwas bekannten, aber auch völligen neuen Vertretern dieses Genres. TIDAL ist ein US-Ambient-Projekt, das mit sehr subtil-zartgliedrigen Mitternachtssoundscapes zu verzaubern sucht..
“ tidal is david brownstead, previously known for his harsh noise project 666 volt battery noise. not only the name has changed : the music too. now david is focused on minimal ambient music. tidal past works were released on a pyrric victory/manifold, alluvial and more recently a very nice three-way collaboration with chaos as shelter (see alm 9) and igor krutogolov on ground fault recordings.
"silent knife speaks" is his first 3"cd and is a perfect example of his
luminous ambient music, full of delicate sounds and subtle details...” [press release]
http://taalem.free.fr/
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| TIDAL / CHAOS AS SHELTER / IGOR KRUTOGOLOV |
Ingathering of exiles |
CD |
Sehr fruchtbare Zusammenarbeit des US-Minimal-Drone-Projekts TIDAL mit den apokalyptisch-sakralen CHAOS AS SHELTER und dem ebenfalls aus Israel stammenden Experimentalmusiker IGOR KRUTOGOLOW, die hier eine unheilvolle und schwermütige Atmosphäre heraufbeschwören: bedrohlich–symphonische Drones, pathetische Klagegesänge, tief-eruptive Soundschwälle, schwelende feedbacks, elektronische Sounds und akustische Instrumente oder Soundquellen... ein bedrückend intensiverTrip ins sakrale Herz der Dunkelheit, der sich hier symbolisch auf das biblisch-messianische Heilsversprechen bezieht..
„Tidal is David Brownstead, previously known for his harsh noise project 666 Volt Battery Noise. Now focusing on minimal ambient music, David has released CDs under the name Tidal on Alluvial Recordings and just recently on Manifold Records. "The Four Rivers" on Alluvial, is the first installment in what is to be a trilogy dedicated to and inspired by Mishima. "Golem And Man" on A Pyrrhic Victory/Manifold is his latest release which was released in October 2002. The second installment of the Mishima trilogy is in the works as well as other releases and collaborations.
Conceived in 1999, Vadim Gusis (Chaos as Shelter) is Israel's premier solo composer of Soundscape, Neo-Folk, Ambient Drone music...He currently has three CDr releases, one 3" CDr, 2 CDs, a double CD and a 7" record in his discography. He works out of New Jerusalem Studio.
Igor Krutogolov is an experimental multi-instrumentalist (including cello, piano and throat singing) based in Jaffa, Israel. He is a frequent contributor to Chaos As Shelter as well as various other projects in genres ranging from ambient to improvisation to harsh noise. His solo work has appeared on various compilations and he is currently working on upcoming solo and collaborative releases. Historically "The Ingathering of Exiles" is when, in the Messianic age, all Jewish people, including the Ten Lost Tribes, would gather from their exile around the world to Israel. The Ground Fault Recordings CD, "Ingathering of Exiles" is an idea that explores the shared
heritage of the three collaborators.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€7.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS |
Biotop |
CD |
Zweiter re-release in der Serie von Wiederveröffentlichungen des TIETCHENschen Oeuvres – BIOTOP erschien 1981 und ist pure analoge Elektro-Pop-Musik mit nicht zu vernachlässigem Obskur-Faktor, klingt nach 80ern wie irgendwas !
„Second in the rerelease series presenting the first of four albums that were issued by Sky Music in the early 80's. Incl. 2 unreleased bonus tracks. 1000 copies with poster booklet in jewel case. Playing time: 51:34 min.” [press release]
“ With the release of this album, a 3 year interlude began which was dominated by the use of Roland 'CompuRhythm' drum-machine. In addition, I discovered new sounds and playing possibilities on the Moog which considerably expanded my creative armoury. I also added a conceptual self-limitation: no track should be more than four minutes long. In the end, the majority of the pieces on the first two Sky albums actually clocked in at under three minutes each. In the opinion of my musical mentor Okko Bekker, their sparseness and short lenght evoked the impression of radio time-signals (Radio-Zeitzeichen), a form of acoustic station identification which was
already obsolete by then. This reference provided me with the name for my accompanying orchestra, which consisted solely of musicians from the experimental music scene in Hamburg. Because of the total absence of bass lines the commercial potential of the pieces was virtually non-existant. The album was recorded on an 8-track Otari tape-machine. The Eventide digital harmonizer and the Ursa Major 'Space Station' reverb-machine also played a part. All of the pieces were recorded in 1980. They were not commissioned by any label, the contact with Sky Records only happening in 1981. The two bonus tracks from 1979 mark a decisive break with previous work ('Nachtstücke'). 'Futurum Drei' was recorded between 6th and 9th of July 1979. 'Fast Food' came three weeks later. While the first of the pair does not totally make the break with the old way of working, the second points clearly into a new direction.
I would particularly like to thank Günter Körber (Sky Records) for his kind permission to re-release 'Biotop' and the three other Sky albums, and for allowing me to use the orignal labels in facsimile.” [from the liner notes - Asmus Tietchens]
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2003 |
€15.00 |
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Eine ganze Menge |
mCD |
„wir freuen uns drei teilmengen von asmus tietchens präsentieren zu können. 20 minuten in 3 teilmengen mit unveröffentlichten material aus der bekannten reihe. sinustöne und weißes rauschen modifiziert zu riesigen fast-nichts-räumen, abstrakter menschenleere, in schnüffelndes und knabberndes. we are proud to present three "teilmengen" by asmus tietchens. 20 minutes with 3 unreleased tracks from the well known series. sinuswaves and whitenoises are modified into enormous almost empty rooms, into snapping and nibbling abstrakt places - deserted by humans.” [label info]
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2004 |
€8.00 |
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Geboren um zu dienen |
CD |
“8th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980—1991. Described by Tietchens himself as his «Industrial» album, «Geboren, um zu Dienen» was originally released on the spanish ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO label in 1986. The CD version incl. three unreleased bonus tracks from the same period and comes with a full colour fold-out booklet incl. liner notes by Tietchens himself.” [label info]
„If I'd ever recorded an «Industrial» solo album, it must be «GEBOREN, UM ZU DIENEN». Although I obviously wasn't one of the inventors of «Industrial Music», I clearly felt an affinity to it. So I tried to learn my lessons well adding my own musical aspects to the general apocalyptic noises of this genre. My main concern was to dive deep into the canonical topics of fear, hysteria, claustrophobia, machine and threat. The end was imminent as hundreds of Pershings and SS20 all pointed in the direction of the march up area called West Germany, the seals of the read buttons were already broken. Even the conventional alternative — a tank war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact — sounded like utter apocalypse. Would we really have welcomed our brothers from the east with open arms? This particular background has to be seen as the main influence on GEBOREN, UM ZU DIENEN. I believe that many of my colleagues also recording «Industrial» albums felt the same at that time. IF there would have been a «Bang» it — without doubt — would have been global.
Fear, emptiness and the futility of the aesthetical, were not alien to me, but until then I moved inside a carefully tested zone which was defined by a spectrum of experimental forms. GEBOREN, UM ZU DIENEN was an experiment in itself which first fruits I set free immediately. As if I'd to work under a deadline I recorded the tracks hastily, not wasting much thoughts about dynamics, duration, precision and construction. In the same way I resolutely did rough mixes of the seperate tracks of the pieces: what sounded dirty stayed dirty. Essentially the raw and the unsculptured were a part of the dogma of «Industrial». The original nine tracks plus five more (three which appear as Bonustracks on this CD) all developed in a very short period of time. The album was released on the spanish «Esplendor Geometrico» label, run by Andres Noarbe, in the same year. Originally a tape only label EG released a series of radical albums during the mid 80's, also albums by the «Industrial» group of the same name, many which are much sought after items today. Of course only 500 copies of the album were pressed, which still meant a considerable financial risk given the small circle of potentionally interested listeners. But the enthusiasm and dedication of everyone involved lead to a self-evident «Nevertheless».
Looking back at these years it has to be noted that I established a daring attitude then, which luckily developed positively and stayed with me until today. The fact that a german attorneys general confiscated a small number of the LP in 1990 deeming the cover as being immoral («A Call for abortion»), was registered with satisfaction. A case like this corresponds with the mark of quality granted by the «Stiftung Warentest». Go on Germany! “ [Asmus Tietchens, 2006]
Editorial notes: The original masters of all the pieces incl. the bonus tracks are in perfect condition and were used 1:1 for the transfer onto CD. Only the fade-out at the end of «Mein erstes Erlebnis» was slightly corrected.
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2006 |
€15.00 |
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In die Nacht |
CD |
Fourth part in the rerelease-series of all early vinyl albums by Asmus Tietchens on CD. This is the third of the SKY albums from 1982 incl. three bonus tracks of unreleased material not included on the original LP. Comes with a poster booklet feat. the original cover artwork. Edition of 1000 copies.
“Asmus Tietchens 'In die Nacht' (Sky Records 077) 1982 To my surprise, SKY ordered a third album from me. For distribution reasons the album had to be finished rather quickly. This presented me with an immediate problem, as usually it would have taken about three months to complete an album with twenty tracks similar in style to those on 'Biotop' or 'Spät-Europa'. There was not much time to decide whether to say no to the SKY offer, or deviate from my usual doctrine of Short Tracks. I decided for the latter and, eyes wide open, stepped into an aesthetic trap. I found myself trying to square the circle, wanting to have the rich detail of my short works at the same time as creating longer pieces. This experiment, an equivalent to doing the splits, was only partly succesful. It is not really possible to create pieces of six minutes or more from ideas which are only
adequate for tracks of three minutes, unless one is willing to risk musical redundancy or, worse, long-windedness. In retrospect, the four central tracks of 'In die Nacht' are too long for the material from which the are built. Back in 1982 though, my opinion was different. Nonetheless, I did gain my first insight into the rules of time and proportion, even though I was not able to handle them perfectly. I managed to complete the album in three weeks, helped by the fact that I was able to include some tracks left over from the 'Spät-Europa' sessions. So the tapes were delivered on time, even though I was not 100% happy with the collection. SKY, however, was very
enthusiastic about the album and released it immediately, at the same time offering me the option of a fourth LP. By then I had decided that I was no longer willing to work to a deadline, nor did I want to be compromised by a label's distribution policy. There would have to be some mutual agreement well in advance. Either that, or nothing would come of it. I would like to thank Günter Körber of Sky Records for his kind permission to re-release 'In die Nacht' and the three other SKY albums, and for allowing me to use the original lables in facsimile. [Asmus Tietchens, 2004]
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2004 |
€15.00 |
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Zwingburgen des Hedonismus / Mysterien des Hafens |
CD |
"Part 9 of the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums from 1980 - 1991 on CD. This combines two seperate releases from 1987 ('Zwingburgen des Hedonismus') and 1988 ('Mysterien des Hafens' on FACE TO FACE, VOL. 1'). 'Zwingburgen des Hedonismus' was originally released as a one-sided LP on swedish label Multimood and features a singles 21 min. long track composed on a Fairlight CMI. 'Mysterien des Hafens' was part of a split LP (the other side feat. DIE FORM) originally released on french label Odd Size and feat. recordings made by Tietchens using under-water microphones. The Bonus track 'Faircomp 1K' on this CD is a different version
of the first track and previously unreleased. First edition of 600 copies in jewel case with full cover artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original album covers. Total playing time: 56:41 min." [label info]
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2006 |
€15.00 |
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Fast ohne Titel, Korrosion |
CD |
"Black Rose Recordings are proud to present the exceptional new album by Asmus Tietchens. Corrosion is a degradation mechanism. It is an insidious process often difficult to recognise until deterioration is well advanced. Are these new pieces a comment on the current state of noise music, serious music or both?
As a pioneer of electronic composition his work spans over three decades and doesn’t fit easily into any one category. Early recordings ranged from experiments with tape machines and electronic sound through to experimental pop. Later works were a more sculptural blend of abstract microelectronics, industrial sounds and musique concrete.
Never straightforward or obvious, always unpredictable and innovative his ground breaking music influences many working in today’s experimental music scene. He has worked almost exclusively as a solo artist but recent releases have seen him collaborate with well known and diverse artists such as Dieter Moebius (Cluster & Harmonia), Thomas Koener and Richard Chartier." [label info]
www.tietchens.de
"In my spare time I listen to pop music, usually, but then, in 2013, I asked myself: why do I still have so many CDs? Isn't it about time to listen to those again, and see what you have, which are keepers and which are goers. In a random fashion I pick a bunch of CDs of the shelf and play them until the end, because, when not played to the end, what's the reason for keeping them? From some artists I stayed away for a while. I can safely say I have almost all of the works by Asmus Tietchens, but I was afraid of going there. I feared I would not find enough concentration to examine each and everyone properly and make the wrong decision and see them go. But once I started to play them I was totally immersed. I am nearly done with all of them, and then much to my surprise, here's a new work by Tietchens. The titles poke fun with the notion of 'ernste musik', the German term to create a distinction between serious music and entertainment music. Maybe its a comment, Black Rose asks, on 'the
current state of noise music, serious music or both'? An interesting question, perhaps, but much to my surprise I notice something else. In the past ten years Tietchens explored the quiet areas of electronic music, with some highly refined music, not unlike the work of say Richard Chartier. Here he seems to return to some of his earlier electronic music, from the late 80s, early 90s, but perhaps generated with the means he uses these days. This results in a piece like 'Kaum Noch Ernste Musik', with a pulsating click beat (think Pan Sonic or Goem), and the well-know Tietchens tricks on oscillators. It's something entirely different than what you would expect. Maybe it's a bit long this piece which clocks in at over ten minutes. Throughout the pieces on this album, eight in total, do not have strong rhythm sounds, but they surely sound louder than we are used from him in recent times. It takes the 'serious' electronic music from the sixties, with it's sustaining sounds fading in loud
and about. It's heavy music, but it's great music. Only in a few pieces, aptly called for instance 'Sehr Ernste Musik', Tietchens shows some of his more quiet side, but in the other pieces he sounds like his tape manipulation work 'Daseinsverfehlung', bursting about, such as in 'Eingeschränkt Ernste Musik'. And then there is also the humorous Tietchens with a vinyl loop in 'Keine Ernste Musik' or 'Im Ernst? (Für H.K.)', which sees him playing something that sounds like Trautonium. This, ladies and gentleman, is an excellent CD. If you are keen to hear new musical movements by this man, but not every move, then this is one of those releases you should surely hear." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
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2013 |
€13.00 |
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Notturno |
CD |
Schon die 10te CD in der DIE STADT-Reihe mit Wieder-veröffentlichungen früher TIETCHENS-Werke. NOTTURNO erschien im Original 1987 und schaffte eine ganze eigene, verstörende "Alien"-Atmosphäre, recht schroff & konkret mit viel verfremdeten Klaviermaterial und wieder bemerkenswerten Titeln wie "Halbe Tanzmusik" - wie auch "Formen letzter Hausmusik" eines der frühen Meisterwerke auf denen sich der hier schon unverkennbare TIETCHENS-Stil deutlich niederschlug.
"Tenth part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991. Notturno was originally released by Spanish label Discos Esplendor Geometrico in 1987 and also by Barooni on CD in 1992. Remastered version in a first edition of 600 copies in jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also featuring the original front and back cover. By the time Studie für Klavier (Formen Letzter Hausmusik, DS84) was released, it actually wasn't my first attempt to use the piano as a sound source. Various pre-studies came before this, but all which either were not characterized as such in their title or simply didn't make it onto record. I was intrigued by the great range of sounds it offers in general, but also by the multiple possibilities to produce sounds inside of the piano. Of course I was fully aware that these techniques had already been used by other composers like Henry Cowell and John Cage in the past. Not only could I make use of a grand piano in 1986, I also had the technical equipment at hand which didn't leave nothing to be desired. I wasn't quite precise calling these pieces Studien für Klavier (Piano) by the way, as I was actually using a flügel (grand piano). I began preparing the strings in an almost old fashioned way, also producing sounds with unusual aids (electric gastr beater, wire brush, coins and others). Then in another step, with the help of the studio, I carefully started working on the recorded sounds. While doing this, I wasn't even afraid of using some good old avant-garde tricks, by the way. But I won't tell. The fact that Notturno was released by an industrial label, shows how much the interest in unusual electro-acoustic music had grown at the time. In fact, Notturno is nothing less than an industrial album. To my own delight and to the delight of the listeners as well, I used techniques which were introduced in the field of new music since several years already. As a result, Notturno can be seen as a cross between musical styles. On one hand it sounds academic, but in fact it isn't. But the question whether this was U (popular) or E (serious) was obsolete anyway, as electro-acoustic experiments didn't exclusively belong to the circle of serious composers anymore. Of course I wasn't the first or only non-academic composer who produced music, which couldn't be categorized easily then, and maybe even still not until today. As a result, the exchange of these new aesthetic strategies with other musicians and listeners in the mid-'80s, further encouraged the musicians to produce such music, and as a result, labels such as Discos Esplendor Geometrico could be sure to sell a small edition of 500 copies in a fairly short time. The ears had opened up for this genre-crossing music and the heads were ready to accept. We had succeeded breaking new ground." [label info / liner notes]
"....Following 'Formen Letzter Hausmusik' and 'Hydrophonie', 'Notturno' was the third 'serious' attempt in composing more serious electro-acoustic music, and Tietchens limits himself to using the (grand) piano. In a good tradition, say starting with Cage's prepared piano, Tietchens treats the inside and outside of the piano with objects, like an electric gastr beater, wire brush, coins and others, but unlike Cage it's for Tietchens only a starting point. The recordings are processed in the studio, in no doubt true Tietchens style. Looping the sounds around, filtering through sound effects and synthesizers, after which they finally find their form in neatly constructed pieces of music. To use loops as to the extent that Tietchens does is something that sets him aside from the regular musique concrete composers. At the time for many, yours truly included, this was the first introduction to the more academic music, while now, we hear a record that is certainly a great one but perhaps not so academic as we thought back then. 'Notturno' is one the best Tietchens works that one can encounter and the mastering is much improved over the first edition on CD. While many seem to think that Tietchens music is quite distant and cold, 'Notturno' combines playful melodies and sturdy processing of the material. Certainly one to get if you are only remotely interested in his work." [Vital Weekly]
www.diestadtmusik.de
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2007 |
€15.00 |
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Aus Freude am Elend |
CD |
Wohl eine der ungewöhnlichsten & schönsten Tietchens-Alben, die augenzwinkernde Verwendung von vokalem Material war hier der Fokus, found sounds & field-recordings werden eigentümlichst verfremdelt, aus Schlager- oder Volksliedern die abartigsten Töne rausgekitzelt, absolut unkategorisierbare Klänge entstehen... ein wunderbares-wundersames Re-Kontextualisierungs-Projekt! JA WIR LIEBEN ES! 2 Bonus Tracks!
"11th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND is based on the human voice as a primary sound source and was originally released in edition of 500 copies on Dom America in 1988. The CD includes two previously unreleased tracks and comes in a jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition of 600 copies.
Asmus Tietchens AUS FREUDE AM ELEND (Dom America Dom US LP 02) 1988 "Following my research of piano and water sounds (DS102, DS88) it didn't come as a surprise that my next project was about the human voice as a sound source. The great masters of Plunderphonics already showed the way in the early 80's, when they plundered the gigantic junk-shops packed full of already recorded material, which was stolen by them to use it for their own aesthetic targets. This album only consists of such stolen goods. Each track (with the exception of 'In memoriam P.F.') was based on voices of people who I naturally didn't ask their permission to use these recordings in the first place. So you can hear the voices of ecstatic religious people as well as other people making love. You'll also hear someone singing to Annette and Peggy out of the trash bin of a publishing company. Even the screams of furious teachers came in handy while I made loops from them. Especially loops: Rarely before this album and only once after it (on Stupor Mundi) did I made use of the structural means of loops to such an extent. I was fascinated by the rhythmical and harmonic permanence, in the same way as many of my musical colleagues at the time. The aspect of the 'Ritual' was a self-evident common formulation in difficult music during the 80s, so loops and tape voices, monotonous rhythms and LoFi became obvious means to shape the music. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND too was strongly spiced with these ingredients and therefore can be seen as a prototype album of this specific view of music during the time. This tendency was supported - even partly inspired - by a new generation of sound machines, which also made it possible for new aesthetic goals to appear at the horizon. The 90s were near at hand and sound art music would develop drastically in many ways in the years to follow. Samplers, digital editing, hard-disc recording and the first PC's opened new doorways. Half of the material on AUS FREUDE AM ELEND was already created with these digital tools. I never quite understood how the labels Dom America (run by Jon Carlson) and Dom here in Germany were connected. Did Carlson used to be a fan of Dom which was founded by Christoph Heemann and Achim Flaam. Did he simply liked the release politics of this label. And what became of Dom America ? Actually I don't know. I guess it was one of the small enthusiastic independent labels which released a handful of titles and which disappeared after being active for a couple of years during the 80s. However AUS FREUDE AM ELEND had vanished shortly after its release. I only used 'stolen' voices twice again ('Stupor Mundi', 1990 and 'Das Fest ist zu Ende. Aus', 1993) after this album by the way." [label info / credits]
"... Much like some his previous records, most notably 'Formen Letzer Hausmusik' and 'Seuchengebiete', its foremost a work of electro acoustic or musique concrete. There is an element of repetition that one wouldn't easily spot with the original 'masters' of the genre, but Tietchens uses them in his own, highly personal, way, adding his own fine blend of electronics and in order to make a creepy sound, a sinister play of vocals. The people whose voices are used sound like they are singing in a far away cage, in isolation, a cry to get out. After all these years this record hasn't aged at all, and is a highlight in Tietchens career." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
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Das Vieh und sein Vater |
CD |
Irgendwie sind uns nochmal einige Kopien dieser "rare tracks"-Zusammenstellung von 1996 in die Hände gefallen, erschienen auf einem Label das schon längst nicht mehr existiert. 18 Stücke sind hier enthalten, die von 1981 bis 1995 (bis auf 3 Stücken aber alles aus den 80ern) auf MC und LP-Compilations erschienen, das meiste davon ist rar & jetzt nirgendwo anders erhältlich. Einige Beispiele: "TINA, ICH LIEBE SIE!" von "Sex & Bestiality" 4 x MC (Bain Total, 1984, das DIE FORM-Label); "TRIUMPH DES WILDEN" von "Alternative Funk 1" MC (Audiologie 2, 1995), "KRYPTO-PHONOPHONIE" von "Captured Music" (Selektion 1987), etc. etc.
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1996 |
€13.00 |
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Adventures in Sound / Nachtstücke |
do-CD |
Das Bremer Label DIE STADT startet eine Wiederveröffentlichungs-Serie von nicht mehr erhältlichen TIETCHENS-Scheiben – hier der Anfang mit der allerersten LP ‚Nachtstücke’ von 1980, die noch Früh-Achtziger Charme aufweist, dazu schier unglaubliches Material aus den Sechzigern auf der zweiten CD !!
“First in a series of 18 CD's aiming to make available all early vinyl albums by ASMUS TIETCHENS between 1980 - 1991 on CD. Each release feat. the original tracks (sometimes extended / original versions) + unreleased bonus tracks from the same recording period, original artwork + accompanying texts by TIETCHENS. This - the only 2CD in the series - feat. his very first album 'Nachtstücke' from 1980 (incl. 4 bonus tracks) + a 2nd CD with archive material recorded with his long time friend Okko Bekker between 1965-1969.
These are the first works in TIETCHENS long career as a sound artist and were never released before. Edition of 1000 copies in jewelcase with full color poster booklet.
About the artist: ASMUS TIETCHENS started recording music as early as 1965 (documented here on 'Adventures In Sound') though his first release only appeared 15 years later ('Nachtstücke'). Ever since then he stayed very productive and had numerous cassette, vinyl and CD releases on numerous labels (Sky, United Dairies, Dom, Staalplaat, Ritornell and Die Stadt to name just a few). He has collaborated with various other like minded artists such as Okko Bekker, Cluster, Conny Plank, Terry Burrows, Liquidski, David Lee Myers (Arcane Device) and most recently with Thomas Köner who is one half of their ongoing collaborational project KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE (who so far released 3 CD's DS34/DS39/DS48 on Die Stadt).” [press release]
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2003 |
€18.00 |
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Abfleischung |
CD |
Auch "Abfleischung" gehört zu den "irgendwie legendären" TIETCHENS-Alben (1989). Das tolle Cover, die Titel, das unglaubliche CIORAN-Zitat, das alles ist "klassisch Tietchens" und noch immer gibt es wenig Musik die sich daran messen kann, noch immer klingen diese 20 Skizzen (zum ersten Mal recyclete TIETCHENS altes Material seiner selbst) so rätselhaft nicht-menschlich wie von einer gänzlich fremden Welt stammend. Collagige Cut-ups, teils flächig unterwandert, elektronisch verfremdet bis ins Deformierendste hinein und doch mit Blick für jedes kleinste Detail des Klangs, dabei sind die Tracks so kurz dass die Aufmerksamkeit nie versiegt, der Geist hat keine Chance zur Routine, nur zur Fokussierung....
"12th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991. ABFLEISCHUNG is based on material recorded by Tietchens as early as 1967-1970. These recyclings made in 1989 became the 20 short tracks on this album which was originally released in edition of 500 copies on Hamster Records in 1989. The CD includes two previously unreleased tracks and comes in a jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition of 600 copies. Total playing time: 49:18 min." [label info]
"....It was released in 1989 on Hamster Records as part of a four record series: 'Watching The Burning Bride', by Asmus Tietchens and Terry Burrows (owner of Hamster), then 'Abfleischung' by Asmus solo, then 'Whispering Scale' by Terry solo and the fourth one 'Burning The Watching Bride' (by the two of them again) was released in 1998, on Disaster Area. On 'Abfleischung' Tietchens goes back to his old reel to reel tapes from the period 1967 to 1970. Not a remix where one particular sound is remixed but the track in its entirety is reworked. Asmus calls this 'recycling', a much more appropriate word for what he does. He uses the techniques of 1989 to recycle the sounds of twenty years before. No less then twenty pieces are presented on this album (plus two bonus pieces) which last from forty-eight seconds to almost five minutes, but mostly between one and two minutes. Short pieces which were change for Tietchens too. Different methods of treating of the basic material, lead to a variety of similarly titled pieces, such as Mineral 1 to 4 and Modal 1 to 5. This album shows Tietchens at his peak of musique concrete, working with a limited set of sound in a limited frame of time. A fascinating journey of sound with the crackling of tooth combs, metallic rusty sounds and many more highly obscured sound sources. The only thing that makes this a bit dated is the sometimes excessive use of reverb, which perhaps in those days made a lot of sense, but not these days - at least not with me. But throughout a very well needed re-issue on CD." [FdW, Vital Weekly] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
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Eine Menge Papier |
mCD |
"Asmus Pre-Mengenserien und somit alles vor der sonischen Auseinandersetzung mit Sinus und Rauschen birgt noch wesentlich feinere Schätze als man denken mag- beachtet man Tietchens Output an Material in den letzten zwanzig Jahren und lässt man sich davon nicht abschrecken, entgehen einem Dinge wie »Papier ist geduldig« oder »6.9.98 7 Uhr/8 Uhr« nicht. Ersterem gewährt aufabwegen in sehr hochwertiger und edler Manier einen Publikumsneuzugang (der angesichts der damals sehr niedrig gehaltenen Limitierung auch geraten erscheint) und erweitert das recht kurzweilige Material der original Syntactic 7“ um eine weitere, nie veröffentlichte Single sowie Material aus den Sitzungen, die es nicht auf das Vinylformat geschafft hatten. Der Klang ist erstaunlich für die 1996 umgesetzte 7“, hier zieht vor allem Tietchens’ großartiger Umgang mit dem Quellmaterial sämtliche Register avantgardistischen Könnens. Wie unschwer zu erkennen bzw. auch zu hören, beruht das Material dabei auf Papiergeräuschen, eine Serie die Asmus aufgrund des limitierten Frequenzganges des Materials und seiner beschränkten Weiterverarbeitung jedoch frühzeitig wieder beendete. Teilweise sehr krachig mit deutlichen Anleihen an Asmus Tietchens Achtziger-Konkretindustrial: »P.I.G. 5« mit seinen betont sinusoiden Einzelklängen gerät zur fast schon skizzenhaften Abstraktion von Papierklang, hingegen betont »P.I.G 4« auf recht kurze Weise die Schönheit von Tietchens Bearbeitungsmanie, kennzeichnet sich das Stück doch durch recht scharfgeschnittene und –gefilterte Einzelereignisse ehemaliger Schriftstückverformungen.
Letztes Stück bietet dem Hörer eine wunderbar noisige Vertonung all dessem, was Tietchens an Papier in seinem Studio wahrscheinlich aufbieten und –gespannt lauschend und schelmisch lächelnd- auch zerknüllen konnte. " [Thorsten Soltau, AEMAG]
“Eine Menge Papier” assembles 20 minutes of sounds derived from using paper as the sound souce. Two tracks originally came out as a limited 7” record on the austrian Syntactic label in the 1990ies and appear here for the first time on CD. The other two tracks were planned for a follow up 7” on the same
label that never materialized. The fifth track is a study of sonic material in the same series. There are two further tracks from the P.I.G. series that are considered by the artists as failed attemps. These remain in the closet. The five sonic movements on “Eine Menge Papier” go back to the Tietchens sound right before he started the Mengen series, using primarily sine waves and white noise. “Eine Menge Papier” is an interesting documentation of the transition in Tietchens’ sound from the concretish, post-industrial rumblings and textures to the more refined, abstract and cold atmospheres. Asmus Tietchens has been producing electronic music since the 1960ies and is
one of the most renowned sound artists today in Germany. In the last five years he was awarded twice the SWR state radio prize “Karl Sczuka Preis” for radio art. He has released more than 80 records and CDs on labels all around the world."
[label notes]
www.aufabwegen.com
www.tietchens.de
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2009 |
€9.50 |
|
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Soiree |
CD |
"LINE is proud to present a new full length solo recording by German electronic music pioneer Asmus Tietchens.
Soirée is the result of extended recycling. Beginning from the investigation of: what will happen if I recycle (not remix) some of my older compositions and then recycle the recyclings and then recycle the recycled recyclings… ad infinitum? Quite quickly the initial pieces vanished totally. New structures and sounds emerged depending on the methods and tools I used.
Each of the pieces on Soirée is based on a distinct composition of my musical past. In each case the listener is presented with the 10th “generation” of this recycling process.
Confronted with the variety of the results I ask myself: Is it really necessary to create further new electronic music if only one piece as a nucleus is sufficient to derive hundreds and hundreds of different distinct individual variants?" [label info]
www.lineimprint.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Stupor Mundi |
CD |
"Part 14th in the ongoing re-release series of all early Asmus Tietchens Vinyl albums between 1980-1991. 'Stupor Mundi' (Discos Esplendor Geometrico EGD 018) was originally released in 1990. This re-release comes with another poster booklet and feat. 4 Bonus tracks of unreleased material from the same period. Joint release with AUF ABWEGEN. 600 copies.
1. Pflegekammer extern 1'00"
2. Stimmen der Vernunft 3'08"
3. Konvoy 3'01"
4. Tollerort 2'53"
5. Fron 5'10"
6. Pflegekammer intern 1'00"
7. Schacht Hera 2'53"
8. Pflegekammer Mitte 1'00"
9. Aufs Maul 2'44"
10. Aufstand der Massen 3'31"
11. Xenophobie 2'48"
12. Mammi Money 3'38"
13. Pflegekammer West 1'00"
14. Heimholung 4'12"
Bonus
15. Pleuel 3'29"
16. Krill-Schatten 1'12"
17. Heimstatt des Betons 3'20"
18. An alle 2'54"
Asmus Tietchens about the album:
The opener of the album cites: 'Gitarren spielen kann ich leider noch nicht...' ('Unfortunately I can't play any guitars yet...'). Today, 23 years later, I could reveal the name of the person confessing this, but nothing would be more unfair, even two and a half decades later.
Only this: It's not the voice of a Punk (a Punk would have omitted the 'yet'), and it's also not my own voice, even though I can't play guitar either. Maybe it was this flaw though that was responsible for the general
construction of all the tracks here, which consist of short looped samples and further adaptions of the same.
In the end 'Stupor Mundi' was my last LP on the label Esplendor Geometrico and also my last solo LP until 1995. The very next release of mine was already a CD. At lot changed at the time. Esplendor Geometrico wasn't doing
well financially, a fate, many more small enthusiastic Labels shared with them, as the real Independents were always in danger of facing financial ruin. As a result EG was looking for someone to co finance 'Stupor Mundi'. The person who helped out is a colleague of mine with a well known name
today, but only just started his first musical attempts back then at the end of the 80's. He asked not be mentioned in the credits of the album cover, but requested to have the schematic diagram of an insect placed in the lower right hand corner of the cover.
There's yet another, third name, I won't reveal. The final words on the LP are: 'My friends'. For piety reasons I won't explain the original context of the voice, nor reveal the identity of the woman, who speaks these words.
Besides, it's a damn long time ago anyway, and mystifications were no longer a part of my repertoire after 'Stupor Mundi'. [Asmus Tietchens 2012] " [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de
Editorial notes:
Contrary to the original LP, where there were no breaks, the CD feat. a 7
seconds pause inbetween each track. The original tape with the intro (
Gitarren spielen kann ich leider noch nicht...') could not be located, so a
mint LP copy was used for the transfer. The order of the 4 'Pflegekammer'
tracks was changed for this CD.
Although the release date of the album was stated as 1989, and also listed
the same in my discography, the actual release date was May 1990. This was
due to numerous faulty test pressings which caused a delay of 6 months.
Hence the labels were not changed accordingly because they had already been
printed.
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Biotop |
LP |
"Scheppernd, künstlich und plärrend bunt: Reissue des 81er-Albums des Hamburger Elektronikers.
Asmus Tietchens ist einer der bekanntesten deutschen Künstler im Bereich der abstrakten Musik. Fünf seiner Frühwerke, die grob im Bereich Avantgarde-Synthiepop zu verorten sind, werden nun beim Label Bureau B wieder veröffentlicht. "Biotop" war 1981 Tietchens’ erste LP bei Sky Records (u. a. Cluster, Rother, Roedelius, Moebius, Plank, Riechmann). Es mag rückblickend wie eine bewusste Irreführung erscheinen, dass die ersten musikalischen Hervorbringungen von Asmus Tietchens als schräg tönender Pseudopop daherkommen. Vier Alben aus den Jahren 1981-83 sowie diverse Einzelstücke bilden die "Zeitzeichen"-Phase, die sich mit den Worten ihres Urhebers durch den Einsatz von "rhythmisch-harmonischen Versatzstücken und quietschbunten Schallplattenhüllen" auszeichnet. Die Stücke auf "Biotop" sind mit ihren insektoiden Fiepstönen, der bollerigen Perkussion und der verschleppten Kinderliedhaftigkeit so scheppernd, künstlich und plärrend bunt, wie es den Vorstellungen eines Künstlers entsprach, der reguläre Unterhaltungsmusik weder herstellen konnte noch wollte. //
Asmus Tietchens is one of the best known German artists in the field of abstract music. His early works though are finest avant-garde synthesizer pop. "Biotop" was Tietchens' first release on the German label Sky Records (Cluster, Michael Rother etc.). It is inhabited by insectoid squeaks, banging percussion and echoes of displaced nursery rhymes. These blaring, crashing tracks glare with artifice, mirroring the ideas of an artist lacking the inclination and capacity to compose straightforward easy listening music.
"Spät-Europa" also conveys a banefully distorted pseudo pop soundscape of disjointed rhythms and oblique melodies, defined by nervous pulses, cool alacrity and croaking toots; tongue in cheek it most certainly is, but the musical arrangement again affirms its own identity. Here, shadowy, rumbling industrial elements cut into the neon coloured pieces indicative of the artist's parallel lines of development. Both reissues are available on CD (Digipak), vinyl (180g) and for download." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Spät-Europa |
LP |
"Wieder veröffentlichtes Album aus der Frühphase des Avantgardemusikers.
Asmus Tietchens ist wohl einer der bekanntesten Künstler im Bereich abstrakter Musik. Fünf seiner Frühwerke, die grob unter Avantgarde-Synthiepop zu verorten sind, werden jetzt vom Label Bureau B wieder veröffentlicht. Während Tietchens mit "Biotop" (1981) plante, "in die Zukunft" aufzubrechen, zeigt er sich auf "Spät-Europa" in dieser angekommen. Als zweites Album der "Zeitzeichen"-Phase im Jahr 1982 auf Sky Records veröffentlicht, führt es den Stil des Vorgängers nicht nur weiter, sondern bringt ihn um eine Nuance treffender auf den Punkt. Auch "Spät-Europa" transportiert jene gallig übersteuerte Pseudo-Pop-Klangwelt voller verstolperter Rhythmen und schräger Melodien. Dabei ragen mitunter düster grollende Industrial-Elemente in die neonbunten Stücke hinein, wohingegen die Form der Stücke knapp und pointiert gehalten wird: Wie schon auf "Biotop" strebte Tietchens auch auf "Spät-Europa" 20 Zwei-Minuten-Miniaturen an. Und auch hier bildet mit "Epitaph" ein betont sperriges Stück den Abschluss.
Asmus Tietchens is one of the best known German artists in the field of abstract music. His early works though are finest avant-garde synthesizer pop. "Biotop" was Tietchens' first release on the German label Sky Records (Cluster, Michael Rother etc.). It is inhabited by insectoid squeaks, banging percussion and echoes of displaced nursery rhymes. These blaring, crashing tracks glare with artifice, mirroring the ideas of an artist lacking the inclination and capacity to compose straightforward easy listening music.
"Spät-Europa" also conveys a banefully distorted pseudo pop soundscape of disjointed rhythms and oblique melodies, defined by nervous pulses, cool alacrity and croaking toots; tongue in cheek it most certainly is, but the musical arrangement again affirms its own identity. Here, shadowy, rumbling industrial elements cut into the neon coloured pieces indicative of the artist's parallel lines of development. Both reissues are available on CD (Digipak), vinyl (180g) and for download." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Nachtstücke |
LP |
"Nachtstücke owed its publication to former Tangerine-Dream member Peter Baumann,who was asked by the French label Barclay/EGG to produce three albums focussing specifically on
German electronic music. He was working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius at the time, who had been given a few Tietchens tracks on cassette. When Baumann heard Roedelius play them in the studio during a break in proceedings, they sparked his interest and he met up with Tietchens some time later; they agreed that he would go over the material again and edit or abridge it in places. A release date was pencilled in for the latter part of 1978. The commissioning label, however, doubting the commercial potential of the project (Tietchens: “How right they would turn out to be”), postponed the release and had to be reminded of contractual commitments on more than one occasions. When the Nachtstücke LP finally
appeared, almost two years later, it bore the unauthorized subheading Expressions et Perspectives Sonores Intemporelles and
featured a completely different cover. Originally, the album was to depict a leathery embryo with a laser beam shooting through its eye (Tietchens: “I liked the idea of sta
rting with something so gruesome”), but now three blurred figures danced on the sleeve: “I was pretty disgusted when I opened the package containing my copies”, Tietchens reports, taking the rerelease as his cue to create
completely new artwork.
Nachtstücke has surprisingly little in common with the pseudo-pop of the ensuing Sky Phase, but shines a light further ahead to the
gloomy, spectral aspects of Tietchens’ later works. Created between 1975 and 1978, the
Nachtstücke pieces reveal a deliberate
approach, avoiding dissonance and discord wherever possible. Still, the release saw the album “fall right out of time” as Tietchens frankly admits: “Gentle rhythm and harmonic beatitude did not suit the concert of advanced pop music as it was then being played.”
Nevertheless, the Nachtstücke tracks remain important to the artist, as they document his early encounters with the Moog Sonic Six and
Minimoog. With this in mind, the material is presented here in its original, unadulterated form." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2014 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Der fünfte Himmel |
LP |
"Between 1981 and 1983 Asmus Tietchens released four albums on the Sky Records label, fusing rhythmic set pieces and off-kilter sounds into gaudy escapades of saccharine artificiality. The “pseudo-pop” epithet reflected their frequently ironic air. All four records have been reissued by Bureau B in their original form. What remained may be found on this collection. Der fünfte Himmel (“The Fifth Sky”) retrieves those pieces which were denied a place on the original LPs, although clearly cut from the same contextual cloth. Quality control was not behind their relegation to the archive, but rather their eccentric and, at times, outlandish character.
Futurum drei is patently a bridge to Tietchens debut album Nachtstücke, recorded back in 1978, whilst Soirée and Zum Tee bei Frau Hilde were riginally—in a completely different guise- designed to form the basis of the experimentelle Geselligkeit album, ultimately shelved. The titles themselves are interesting: Aus dem Tag was initially earmarked to open up In die Nacht but was deemed too extravagant. Würgstoffe (“Wirkstoffe”) and Niedermacher (“Liedermacher”) are further evidence of Tietchens’ penchant for wordplay, even though the composer today admits that these rather corny jokes no longer seem quite so witty. In addition to this promenade through the outskirts of the “Zeitzeichen phase” (or “Sky phase“), Der fünfte Himmel includes tracks which could have constituted a further album on Sky Records. Tietchens was working ahead of himself as his contract covered just four albums and sales were in sharp decline. Zudem hatte sich die musikalische Ausrichtung verändert. Moreover, his musical direction had shifted to accommodate a far less rugged sound and a broader range of musical tools. If these pieces share a link in to the strategies of previous works, it is a tenuous one. This would probably have been enough in itself to preclude a continuation of the series, as the material veered so far away from the Sky label line." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2014 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Humoresken und Vektoren |
CD |
"CD in full colour digipak with photos by Okko Bekker and Asmus Tietchens. Production: Okko Bekker. Recorded at Audiplex Studios Hamburg in 2012. 16 tracks of new material. 500 copies.
On „Humoresken und Vektoren“
„Humoresken und Vekotren“ takes up a work that was started upon the invitation of Francisco Lopez for the spanish Störung label. The task was to deliver thirteen 2-minute original compositions for a compilation release. “Humoresken und Vektoren” recycles these miniatures from 2010 and unfolds it into eight new works having no resemblance with the original sourcings whatsoever. These eight tracks are bound together by eight short pieces entitled “Tristia” that function as bridges between the longer pieces. “Humoresken und Vektoren” is a combination of very dynamic and detailed sounds and a range of delicate layers and abstract textures. The CD features very surprising artwork unlike most recent Tietchens releases.
Asmus Tietchens writes:
Vier Humoresken, vier Vektoren und alle Stücke getrennt durch jeweils eine kleine Traurigkeit: Tristia, Die allerdings in gleich acht Varianten. Im 19. Jahrhundert wurden ohne Ende Humoresken komponiert.
Ich habe nie begriffen, was an diesen Stücken lustig sein sollte. Im 20. Jahrhundert gab es eh nichts mehr zu lachen, also wurden auch keine Humoresken mehr komponiert. Das 21. Jahrhundert scheint zum Schreien komisch zu werden, also habe ich vier Humoresken komponiert.
Wahrscheinlich wird kaum jemand heraushören, was an ihnen lustig ist.
Vier Vektoren geben zwar definierte Richtungen an, aber solange die Koordinaten nicht bekannt sind, zielen sie ins Nichts. Solche Vektoren zu betrachten, ist ebenso ergiebig, wie den Bereich zwischen Null und Eins zu untersuchen. Und vielleicht sind die acht kurzen Tristia- Stücke ja die eigentlichen Humoresken? Und die Vektoren ein wenig traurig? Und die Humoresken führen nirgendwohin?" [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Soiree Fantastique |
mCD |
5” CD in full colour digipak carton sleeve and printed inner sleeve. CD is off-set printed in half-metallized format, all designed by Asmus Tietchens. Production: Okko Bekker. 500 copies.
On „Soirée fantastique“:
"Two pieces – unfocussed in every aspect – featuring blurring contours, spooled out harmonies and barely recognizable melodies frame an extreme minimal, almost static piece in the centre. A piece of harsh, sharp-edges transparency. If this were not the music of a phantastic nightlyx gathering, a soirée fantastique, one could liken these sounds to be signifiers of the setting we name the soft core inside a hard shell – only in reverse. To know that this saying is as paradox as there cannot be a soft core might proof to be life-safing."
[Asmus Tietchens]
"Just like the 10" the miniCD is a format of doom. Not a lot of music to be a full length, too much to be a single. But at least this miniCD looks like a full length CD, with the outer ring being all-transparent, and only the twenty-two minutes of music with a silver layer; it's been a while since I last saw one of these. They were more popular a decade ago, but somehow I doubt whether Asmus Tietchens (or his label) cares much about popularity, and what to do or don't in that respect. He does what he does, and it's a matter of take it or leave it. Over the years we have seen a seemingly endless reduction in much of Tietchens music (although not exclusively), creating a very rich sound with the most minimal sounds. Even when I know the music of Tietchens very well, and on a few occasions engaged in a conversation with him, I have very little knowledge of how he works. I believe to some extent he uses computer technology, and somehow I have this fantasy in which Asmus creates a fully formed piece on his computer and then has some plug ins that effectively take out certain frequency ranges and then takes what's left and feeds that into an entirely different plug ins, reducing some more, or perhaps emphasizing a few other frequencies and he repeats that a few times. Then he takes all the processed pieces, overlays them on each other, super-imposing them, and then creates a gentle mix out of these residue sounds. It's a technique that works really well, and can, in principle applied to all sorts of sounds, but also entire finished pieces, even by others. Yet, I am not sure if this is what Tietchens does; somehow he seems not to be the
plunderphonics kind-a guy. The three pieces on this new release are all along these lines, and they all sound wonderful; wonderful again, I should add. But then I am a big fan of the man's music and there is very little that he does that I don't like. I could say he's perhaps exhausted the 'reduction' by now, but secretly I hoped this would have contained two or three more pieces like this. To have some change is fine but not always necessary; this is a fan boy speaking, so I am sure not everyone agrees with me there." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2017 |
€9.50 |
|
|
Dämmerattacke |
CD |
Asmus Tietchens is a sound artist and composer from Hamburg, Germany. He got interested in Musique Concrete by listening to a German radio programme when he was 10 years old. In 1965, at the age of 18, Asmus started experimenting with tape loops and turned them into musical collages. Soon, the use of synthesizers was added. In 1980 his debut album Nachtstücke was released, produced by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream. This was soon followed by a series of albums of electronic pop music for the Sky label, home of many Krautrock bands. Tietchens often uses special source materials for his compositions such as water (Seuchengebiete), human voices (Von Mund zu Mund), paper (Papier ist geduldig). He is associated with the Industrial music scene through his collaborations and releases on labels such as United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico or Dom Records. Tietchens never studied composition, he has no academic background, everything he does is self taught or learnign by doing. Nevertheless, he was professor for sound design in Hamburg in recent years. The album Dämmerattacke was originally released on Dutch Korm Plastics label in 1997 as a limited edition vinyl LP only. It was later reissued as a double CD with Eisgang. For this latest edition, we have added another bonus track making the CD 20 minutes longer than the LP. Full track list: 1. Zweite Dämmerattacke 2. Erster Nachtschatten 3. Zweiter Nachtschatten 4. Dritter Nachtschatten 5, Schlagschatten 6. Franz-Joseph-Land.
www.klanggalerie.com/gg251
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Linea + |
CD |
"Asmus Tietchens is a sound artist and composer from Hamburg, Germany. He got interested in Musique Concrete by listening to a German radio programme when he was 10 years old. In 1965, at the age of 18, Asmus started experimenting with tape loops and turned them into musical collages. Soon, the use of synthesizers was added. In 1980 his debut album Nachtstücke was released, produced by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream. This was soon followed by a series of albums of electronic pop music for the Sky label, home of many Krautrock bands. Tietchens often uses special source materials for his compositions such as water (Seuchengebiete), human voices (Von Mund zu Mund), paper (Papier ist geduldig). He is associated with the Industrial music scene through his collaborations and releases on labels such as United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico or Dom Records. Tietchens never studied composition, he has no academic background, everything he does is self taught or learnign by doing. Nevertheless, he was professor for sound design in Hamburg in recent years. Linea was originally released on cassette on Dutch Korm Plastics label, later re-issued as a CDR in 1999. It is one of Tietchens's most minimal compositions, and has a special place in our music hearts here at Klanggalerie. For our new edition, Asmus Tietchens has dug deep into his archive and unearthed two further Linea pieces that have so far never seen the light of day. Full running time now 75 minutes. Remastered and repackaged. Full tracklist: 1 Linea 1 2. Linea 3 3. Linea 12 4. Linea 13." [label info]
"Linea+ represents some of the composers most minimal works. The opener, Linea 1, offers a taut repetitive beat/rhythm that slightly blurs and bounces over time. It is a circular, hypnotic rhythm that is drawn into a bit of an oblong shape as it crosses from the left to the right channel ever so slightly. Musique Concrete at its finest, Tietchens takes sweet time to add minor electronic effects which throw the steady beat off some, making the listener pay closer attention to the conversation between the up and down layers. (...) The original release was a diamond in the rough, and this reissue has expanded its karat size two-fold and given this excavated classic the full restoration it deserves. Now Linea+ can be re-presented to new audiences looking for a futuristic sound that was way before its time, here reserving its timeless place." (Toneshift, September 2018)
"This is not a review at all; this is a personal observation. About thirty years ago I started to
meet Dolf Mulder, who was slightly older than me and about every once in 2 weeks we would meet up and he would play me weird records. Or I'd play some weird cassettes, as this I was I already much into. These days Dolf still writes for Vital Weekly about weird music, just as I do. I'm sure at one of those occasions he played me a record by Asmus Tietchens, I'd like to think one of the Sky Records or 'Formen Letzter Hausmusik' and Dolf told me he was in contact with Tietchens and that there was unpublished work, refused by Ladd-Frith on the basis it was too monotonous. For the small cassette label I had this seemed to me like sure-fire hit, selling more than the usual thirty copies. I wrote to Tietchens, got the master tape, liked it, and had a very professional cover printed, unlike all the Xerox business so far. A decade later, when CDRs became household, I re-issued all of the cassettes I did on Korm Plastics on that format and gave 'Linea' a second life. Not bad for a boring piece of music, indeed. Now it gets a third life, including two lengthy bonus pieces, both from the same series, but with 'Linea 12' and 'Linea 13' a bit further down the line. If Tietchens doesn't release a particular composition it is probably not good enough. On the original we have 'Linea 1' and 'Linea 3'. The fist is a very straightforward rhythm machine and sequence along with a repeating loop. It is very much at the tail end of Tietchens' Sky Records phase; very electronic,
nothing concrete and yet also very minimal indeed. 'Linea 3' is also minimal yet with a stranger attack on the keyboard and rhythm machine pushed a little to the background. In both pieces there is very little development but it slowly shifts around. 'Im Atelier Zu Hören' is the tip Tietchens gives us, 'listen in your workspace' and that's where this works well indeed. In the two bonus pieces, Tietchens gives something away from the working methods behind 'Linea', which I didn't hear to the same extent as before. In these pieces the rhythm machine has disappeared and it's only arpeggio synthesizers, playing repeating lines and feeding through various delay lines, so
sometimes we only hear the residue of the delay of the original line, chasing each other on end.
Again this is all very minimal and again it works very well. 'Linea 12' has a darker touch and 'Linea 13' is the lighter side of things. Excellent re-issue." (FdW/Vital Weekly) |
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Der fünfte Himmel |
CD |
Asmus Tietchens ist einer der bekanntesten deutschen Künstler im Bereich der abstrakten Musik. Anfang der 1980er-Jahre nahm er eine Handvoll Avantgarde-Synthiepop-Alben auf, auf denen er einen unnachahmlichen Mix aus stolpernden Beats und schrägen Harmonien zum Besten gab, was der Musik die Gattungsbezeichnung Pseudo-Pop einbrachte. "Der fünfte Himmel" versammelt Liegengebliebenes, Verworfenes, Unpassendes und Unerwünschtes aus jener Frühphase des Künstlers. Zu hören sind Arbeiten, die auf den originalen LPs der Jahre 1980 bis 1983 nicht erschienen, aber in den unmittelbaren Werkkontext gehören. Dabei blieben die Stücke nicht aus qualitativen Erwägungen, sondern aufgrund ihres teils exzentrischen, teils schlicht entlegenen Charakters im Archiv. Ferner enthält "Der fünfte Himmel" jene Stücke, die für ein weiteres Album für das Label Sky infrage gekommen wären.
https://asmustietchens.bandcamp.com/album/der-f-nfte-himmel
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Seuchengebiete 4 |
CD |
"Seuchengebiete 4, the continuation of Asmus Tietchens' almost legendary series of treated water sounds, consists of six Hydrophonies. The sonic palette ranges from deep gurgling bass pulses to fragile movements of showering bright particles. The overall mood is ernest, contemplative and dark. Seuchengebiete 4 is perhaps the ultimate soundtrack for our crises-ridden times." [press release]
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/seuchengebiete-4
"Der Hamburger Asmus Tietchens schätzt Serien, man denke etwa an die auf inzwischen sieben Teile angewachsene Mengenreihe. Auf den Alben der “Seuchengebiete”-Serie finden sich sogenannte Hydrophonien, Stücke, deren Basis das Geräusch von tropfendem Wasser ist. Der erste Teil erschien 1985, sechs Jahre später folgte Nummer zwei, 1997 auf Donna Klemms Label Artware Nummer drei. Schon in einem Interview im Jahre 2007 sprach Tietchens davon, an neuen Hydrophonien für einen vierten Teil zu arbeiten, jetzt erscheinen sechs neue Aufnahmen auf Auf Abwegen.
Auf„Hydrophonie 21“ scheint Wasser in einer Höhle zu tropfen und zu (ver)hallen, im Vordergrund blubbert es, während im Hintergrund seltsam-melodische Flächen zu hören sind. Dann scheint Wasser ausgeschüttet zu werden und zu fließen. Dem Track wohnt eine leichte Unruhe inne. Die nicht nur numerisch, sondern auch auf dem Album darauf folgende Hydrophonie nimmt diese Bewegung zurück, ist tastender, reduzierter, minimalistischer. Zum Teil klingt das Fallen der Tropfen so, als zupfe jemand einen akustischen Bass. “Hydrophonie 24″ hat einen leicht metallischen Klang, ist vielleicht- etwas verkürzt gesagt- mit durchaus dissonanten Momenten das industriellste Stück auf diesem Album. Dagegen scheint “Hydrophonie 26″ zurückhaltender und weniger unruhig zu sein. “Hydrophonie” 32 hat einen leicht ambient-sakralen Charakter und ist der vielleicht atmosphärischste Track auf diesem Album. “Hydrophonie 27″ beginnt fast kaum wahrnehmbar, dann hört man entfernte, kristalline Momente, als würden Vögel zwitschern.Was klar gewoden sein sollte, ist, wie unterschiedlich trotz gleichen Ausgangsmaterials die einzelnen Stücke sind.
Über die Jahre ist Tietchens immer sehr konsistent darin gewesen, wenn er über die (nicht vorhandene) “Botschaft” seiner Musik gesprochen hat. Schon 1991 meinte er: „I don’t try to create moods with my music, and I don’t try to tell stories, and my music doesn’t carry any message except an aesthetic one (now and then). Mostly my pieces are formalistic exercises, or better, the results of formalistic exercises. Music shall be no more than itself. Absolute Music.“ In einem jüngst erschienen Interview wird diese Haltung noch einmal klar artikuliert: “’Absolute Music’ is not connected with any political, spiritual, ideological or educational intention. The listener is totally free for his own impressions, feelings, possible pictures and thoughts when listening to ‘Absolute Music’. To me that is total freedom of perception. I am no teacher, no philosopher, no scientist – why should I intrude my thoughts on any other human being? I always try to let the music speak for itself. That should be enough.“ Dennoch darf auch auf diesem Album das obligatorische Cioran-Zitat natürlich nicht fehlen: “Der zügellose Optimismus hält der geringsten und bedeutungslosesten Offenbarung der menschlichen Natur nicht stand.” [MG / African Paper]
"In the 80s, there was a small list of very hard to obtain records, records of the kind that everybody wanted. Among them was Seuchengebiete' by Asmus Tietchens, released by A-Mission Records. That label vanished quickly, and the records too. I am sure I traded some obscure Gerogerigegege LP for it, but it was worth the trade. I may have told this story when I reviewed the CD re-issue back in Vital Weekly 504. On 'Seuchengebiete', Tietchens explores the sound of water dripping in his studio sink. It was the first record on which Tietchens explored the quieter side of music. Later on, there were more volumes of this approach (although never called 'volume 2' etc.). The second volume was in 1991 (reviewed in Vital 23, when it was a paper fanzine; see advertisement elsewhere), and '3' was in Vital Weekly 121. I mentioned for the latter that I didn't get the design of the release, which is, maybe oddly, also the case here. As this CD arrived on Saturday, I took a whole Sunday off to play all four 'Seuchengebiete' instalments. Over the years, some things have changed in the music of Tietchens. It was the first 'Seuchengebiete', one of his first quiet works; these days, his music is soft. Many of his musical compositions contain sounds beyond recognition, but in this case, it is pretty clear what the source material is. The dripping of water can be recognized, but it is transformed in various ways, from delightful high-end splashes to low-end bass sounds; some of this sounds like it is changed with granular synthesis, but no doubt there is also another technology at work here. There is something profound about the music, slow, contemplative; maybe the music is a sign of the sorry state of our times. Perhaps it is the association I have with the water sounds here; that of leaky pipes in an abandoned industrial landscape. The soundtrack for a worse tomorrow? I am sure that is not what Tietchens put into his music, as I would think there is very little meaning put in by him, but it is all about the listener's associations. This time, Tietchens applies his current composing techniques to an older idea, working wonderfully well." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Abraum Zwo |
CD |
“In English, Abraum Zwo means Rubble Two. Twelve years ago I made field recordings in the Hamburg harbour. The most exciting recording was actually sensational: rubble being transported from a distant building site in a very long steel pipe (diameter approximately 80 cm.) flushed with water. I’ve never heard such sounds before. I derived four pieces (Abraum 1–4) from that material which were released in 2010. The new series (Abraum 6-10) is composed from the same basic field recordings but with a totally different approach. Due to the fact that the area where I’d recorded the original sounds has changed radically in the last twelve years, I tried to recall this bygone locale, hence the pieces’ highly atmospheric sound, as opposed to the first four which were pure musique concrète“. [Asmus Tietchens, Hamburg, April 2021]
"On the day this new Asmus Tietchens CD arrived, I went to see the new James Bond movie, 'No Time To Die' (not bad, a bit long), so seeing the label being Universal Exports made me smile. Let's hope the good relatives of Chubby Broccoli didn't trademark the name. The front cover here doesn't depict where a Bond baddie hides, but the harbour of Hamburg. This is the location where Tietchens goes for the field recordings on 'Abraum Zwo'; that stands for 'Rubble Two'. You can find the first instalment of this series in Vital Weekly 775. Tietchens didn't return to the harbour to record new field recordings. That could have been an idea, as he says that the area changed quite a bit over the past twelve years, so that would have been interesting. He returned to the original field recordings of 'Abraum' and used (his words) "a totally different approach". This time around, it is all about the atmosphere of the place. Or perhaps one could say the residue left of the area. The music as the fading memory of location now re-shaped. Some of this sounds very mysterious and vague, but I mean this is in the most positive sense of the word. The first 'Abraum' was full of sound (relatively, of course; this is post-2000 Tietchens), created with the most refined and most delicate musique concrète techniques. On this new release, everything that reverts to musique concrète is removed, and shimmering sounds is what remains. At times quite droney, but in the world of Asmus Tietchens, nothing is static. Much like the water in the harbour, everything is fluid. Tietchens traces the contour of sound without touching too much upon the sound itself. I am biased when it comes to the work of Tietchens. I know you know. I think 'Abraum Zwo' is outstandingly good work. That may not come as a surprise. In the last few days, this has been the album that was on rotation a lot. Maybe that says it all?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
https://universal-exports.bandcamp.com
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ptomaine 1 |
CD |
\"Asmus Tietchens is a sound artist and composer from Hamburg, Germany. He got interested in Musique Concrete by listening to a German radio programme when he was 10 years old. In 1965, at the age of 18, Asmus started experimenting with tape loops and turned them into musical collages. Soon, the use of synthesizers was added. In 1980 his debut album Nachtstücke was released, produced by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream. This was soon followed by a series of albums of electronic pop music for the Sky label, home of many Krautrock bands. Tietchens often uses special source materials for his compositions such as water (Seuchengebiete), human voices (Von Mund zu Mund), paper (Papier ist geduldig). He is associated with the Industrial music scene through his collaborations and releases on labels such as United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico or Dom Records. Tietchens never studied composition, he has no academic background, everything he does is self taught or learnign by doing. Nevertheless, he was professor for sound design in Hamburg in recent years. Ptomaine was originally released on RRRecords in 1996 as a 3 LP set. This is the first volume of the first ever CD re-issue\"
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg388
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Ptomaine 2 |
CD |
\\\"Asmus Tietchens is a sound artist and composer from Hamburg, Germany. He got interested in Musique Concrete by listening to a German radio program when he was ten years old. In 1965, at the age of 18, Asmus started experimenting with tape loops and turned them into musical collages. Soon, the use of synthesizers was added. In 1980 his debut album Nachtstücke was released, produced by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream. This was soon followed by a series of albums of electronic pop music for the Sky label, home of many Krautrock bands. Tietchens often uses special source materials for his compositions such as water (\\\'Seuchengebiete\\\'), human voices (\\\'Von Mund zu Mund\\\'), paper (\\\'Papier ist geduldig\\\'). He is associated with the industrial music scene through his collaborations and releases on labels such as United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico or Dom Records. Tietchens never studied composition, he has no academic background, everything he does is self-taught or learning by doing. Nevertheless, he was professor for sound design in Hamburg in recent years. Ptomaine was originally released on RRRecords in 1996 as a 3 LP set. This is the second volume of the first ever CD re-issue.\\\"
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg415
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS & DAVID LEE MYERS |
Flussdichte |
CD |
DAVID LEE MYERS ist auch als ARCANE DEVICE bekannt und hat v.a. Anfang der 90er unter diesem Namen hochinteressante Feedback-Musik veröffentlicht. Diese dritte Zusammenarbeit mit A.TIETCHENS nach „Speiseleitung“ (auf Raum 312) dringt in einem Mikrokosmos aus geheimnisvollen elektronischen Sounds ein, die sich schnell verändern und stets Spannung aufrechterhalten... erschienen auf einem neuen Hamburger Label.
“ The artist's work consists of creating original circuitry that forces electronic effects devices to generate their own tones and patterns, often in unpredictable ways that are hard to tame. Myers fed his music to electro-acoustic artist Asmus Tietchens (aka Hematic Sunsets) who shaped it into strange soundscapes that could belong as much to Luc Ferrari and Pierre Henry as to modern sound artists like Koji Asano or Rafael Toral. Their soundscapes often hold a dark, almost Gothic atmosphere -- the resonances of electronic cathedrals. Although process-generated (at least in its initial stage), the music never sounds like a calculated exercise. Each piece has been carefully shaped, composed. The sound palette is varied, but always remains close to vintage musique concrète. If track titles like "T29:M5/3" or "T31:M5/10" are not very talkative, the album title already states the best description possible: a dense, rich electrical flux, sculpted with art. Recommended. [Francois Couture | ALL-MUSIC GUIDE]
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS & JON MUELLER |
8 Stücke |
CD |
"Second collaborative effort between german sound manipulation pioneer Asmus Tietchens and american improv-drummer Jon Mueller. The CD features 8 tracks that run up to 53 minutes. Jon Mueller on the second collaboration: “The previous collaboration between Asmus and I involved me using only sounds derived from drum heads. For Acht Stuecke, I've used only Chinese gongs and cymbals, so a completely different range of sound occurs. The performance of the percussion material was from various non-mechanical techniques (striking, swinging gongs, extended techniques, etc.) to create a palette of mostly textural sound with a large frequency range that Asmus could work with.” And indeed, work he did! The completeness that is Acht Stuecke is of breathtaking beauty and simplicity and complexity at the same time. The album is definately more homogenous and ‘together’ than the first meeting of the two musicians. It emanates a warm and deep sound evolving ou t of total soundless blankness as it seems.
Jon Mueller has been active for several years in the us improv scene playing in various ensembles and doing solo work. he runs the excellent web mag/label/mailorder croutonmusic.com. Asmus Tietchens has been producing electronic music since the 1960ies and is one of the most renowned sound artists today in Germany. In the last five
years he was awarded twice the SWR state radio prize “Karl Sczuka Preis” for radio art. He has released more than 80 records and CDs on labels all around the world." [label info]
"...There are occasions in which one doesn’t need to speak too much to establish a truth, and the truth here lies inside the repeated bends and turns of a gorgeous album, among the best of both artists’ career. The original materials furnished by the Milwaukee percussionist - sounds of Chinese gongs and cymbals - were studio-treated by the German manipulator through his usual masterful methods, this time maintaining the qualities of the harmonic resonance of the metal rather evident amidst the choked gulps, the modified waves and the fractured hiccups that we’re used to receive from the Hamburg-based sonic transformer. There’s this splendid three-way cross between the real essence of Mueller’s stricken parts and swinging gongs, the instant mutated jargon developed by Tietchens over that, the final elemental amalgam bringing the whole to sound like a hidden microcosm where a hypnotically undulating presence is blemished by sparse singular voices of unknown entities. It’s really difficult to describe the overall feel in sheer words, but those who are gifted with the ability of picking disguised frequencies from the core of the more superficial ones are in for several special moments, aware of phenomena that not everybody can actually penetrate." [Massimo Ricci / Touching Extremes]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
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| TIETCHENS, ASMUS & RICHARD CHARTIER |
Fabrication |
do-CD |
Very minimal, silent & mysterious drone- & microsounds, a re-work from TIETCHENS of CHARTIER-material. On the bonus-CD (first 500 copies only) we find additional material which is a little more demanding & concrete...
"The first collaboration by these two renowned sound artists. FABRICATION saw its beginning during the production of RE-POST-REFABRICATED, a project in which artists were selected by Richard Chartier to rework/create new works from his 1998 CD POSTFABRICATED for its reissue in 2003. As it was intended as an open project, Asmus Tietchens continued to explore the source materials and suggested further formal collaboration. This evolved into the collaborative work FABRICTAION. The CD comes in a full colour 4-panel digisleeve with artwork and designed by Chartier. The first 500 copies incl. a bonus CD feat. the complete material created by Tietchens from POSTFABRICATED entitled »POST-FABRICATION" [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de |
2007 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Fabrication 2 |
do-CD |
"500 copies. Designed by Richard Chartier. 'Fabrication 2 ist the sequel to 'Fabrication', the first collaboration between Richard Chartier and Asmus Tietchens released in 2007. Whereas for the first collab the idea developed from the project around reinterpretations of Chartier's 'Postfabricated' this time the efforts where directly focussed on the reinterpretation of specific basic sound material. This basic sound material can be found on the first disc in the set prefabrication 2' which was constructed by Richard Chartier alone in Montreal and Washington, DC. 'Fabrication 2' is the reworking of this sonic basis by Asmus Tietchens. Whereas the first CD has traces of subtle dematerialized rhythmic structures the second disc is a study in minimalism and concentrated sound manipulation. Richard Chartier (b.1971), sound and installation artist, is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist electronic sound art which has been termed both microsound and Neo-Modernist. Chartier's minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself. Chartier's critically acclaimed sound works have been published over the past 12 years as 38 compact discs on labels such as 12k/LINE (US), Raster-Noton (Germany), Spekk (Japan), Non Visual Objects (Austria), Room40 (Australia), Die Stadt (Germany), DSP (Italy), ERS (Netherlands), and Trente Oiseaux (Germany). He has collaborated with noted sound artists Taylor Deupree, William Basinski, CoH, and German pioneer Asmus Tietchens, as well as installation artists Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand, and visual artist Linn Meyers. Asmus Tietchens has been producing electronic music since the 1960ies and is one of the most renowned sound artists today in Germany. In the last five years he was awarded twice the SWR state radio prize 'Karl Sczuka Preis' " [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
"The first collaborative result between Richard Chartier and Asmus Tietchens was called 'Fabrication' and released together with the rough sound material on a bonus CD. Apparently that was a way of working which both artists like, so its now continued on 'Fabrication 2'. The first 'Fabrication' was an exchange, back and forth, of sound material between the two, on this new one things are a bit different. One disc is the rough sound material composed by Chartier and on the second we find the reworks as carried out by Tietchens based on the Chartier piece. That piece, lasting thirty-nine minutes, is an odd one by Chartier. It is called 'an unusual improvisation' by him, and perhaps its so indeed. It has that, perhaps by now, 'classic' Chartier approach in sound: low, minimalist, drone like, with a minimum of clicks but its all indeed a bit more roughly put together, like more by accident than design. That adds a rather nice perspective to the piece and with those odd changes also
perhaps the right source material for Tietchens. He knows his ways with material like this, and created eight different treatments of the material in a classic Tietchens manner. Classic by now, as it continues the sort of interest Tietchens developed in the 21st century, his 'Menge' series. Very sparse electronics, with an emphasis on drone like sounds and treatments in some click like sound. Simply great music, but perhaps I'm not the most objective person about Asmus Tietchens. I don't think I ever heard a bad thing from him. 'Fabrication 2' is a damn fine work among other damn fine works, and nothing that leaps out of that catalogue, but ranks with the best." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS & ROLF ZANDER |
Tarpenbek |
CD & 12inch BOX |
"CD in LP Box. The box includes: 12 high quality prints reproducing etchings by visual artist Rolf Zander – each image corresponds with a track on the CD. The box further holds three prints with sketches and texts by Rolf
Zander about his style of etching and the composition of the visual works. Finally there is a text print giving track info for the CD and an essay on the project by Kai U. Jürgens.
Handnumbered 300 copies. There is also a special ART EDITION of 30 copies available. This edition includes one of 30 original etchings by Rolf Zander, signed and numbered.
The collaboration between Rolf Zander and Asmus Tietchens is very special indeed. Zander was Tietchens’ music teacher at school. He can be heard on some of the tracks on the Adventures In Sound CD of early experiments that came with the reissue of Nachtstücke on Die Stadt.
Tarpenbek is now the realization of a project that has been long in the making and planning. It all started with a series of etchings by Rolf Zander that he made in the 1970ies. These etchings deal with the structures and
topographical features of the small north german river “Tarpenbek”. The series of images is very reduced minimal and interwoven with textures on the original material.
Tietchens took each of these etchings as a starting point for a musical composition, taking ideas about structure and layers from the images. Ony in one instance field recordings from the riverbanks of the Tarpenbek were incorporated. At most instances the music is as minimal as the visual works. Full of details and small surprising turns.
aufabwegen is really proud to present these works together – high quality prints of the etchings by Rolf Zander and a CD with 47 minutes of new music from Asmus Tietchens." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
"...This CD comes in a LP sized box with twelve prints by Rolf Zander - ok, which I didn't see then, but I looked at his website and have an idea what he does. And I think it fits the minimal music of Tietchens very well. What seems the case with the work of Zander is that there is an certain level of erasing in his treated zinc plates and of course know Tietchens for having a similar interest in erasing sound and use the bare minimum of what remains. If I am to believe what the liner notes tell me these printings were used by Tietchens to define his music, but maybe that's just an interpretation of the writer. Set up an equalizer, some oscillator or whatever kind of filter and then feed whatever sound through these applications - I am never sure if herr Tietchens still only uses analogue equipment or also digital ones these days. Whatever it is, the results are without doubt Trademark Tietchens. At least of course the Tietchens that has been exploring this route for the last ten or more years, perhaps since he started to release music on Mille Plateaux and later 12K. Carefully placed clicks and cuts, sustaining sine wave like sounds, all heavily reduced, the bare necessities of a simple sound. This is the electro-acoustic music that I love, that doesn't dwell on glissandi to evoke a sense of drama as I hear so often, but a simple, drama-free sound, highly abstract in nature (and henceforth probably not the most popular in its kind, sad to say), but oh so beautiful. Its not that Tietchens adds anything to what we know about his work, but it's just another confirmation of what a great composer he is. This is an excellent release!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€45.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS + ALICE FRESHMOUTH |
Lumieres |
CD |
listen: https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/lumi-res
Kooperationsalbum der beiden lange befreundeten Hamburger Klangkünstler und Avantgardisten als CD im Digipack auf Klanggalerie. Asmus Tietchens ist Klangkünstler und Komponist aus Hamburg. Sein Interesse für Musique Concrete entdeckte er bereits im Alter von 10 Jahren als er eine deutsche Radiosendung hörte. Ab 1965 begann Tietchens mit Tapeloops zu experimentieren und daraus musikalische Collagen zu erstellen. Bald kam der Einsatz von Synthesizern hinzu. 1980 erschien sein Debütalbum “Nachtstücke”, produziert von Peter Baumann (Tangerine Dream). Es folgte eine Reihe von Alben mit elektronischer Popmusik für das Label Sky, Heimat vieler berühmter Krautrock-Bands. Tietchens verwendet für seine Kompositionen oft Klangquellen wie Wasser, menschliche Stimmen oder Papier. Auf Labels wie United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico oder Dom Records vertreten, ist er mit der Industrial-Musikszene verbunden. Tietchens hat keinerlei akademischen Hintergrund, alles was er tut, ist autodidaktisch erlernt. Trotzdem war er viele Jahre Professor für Sounddesign in Hamburg (FH für Gestaltung). Tom Fleischauer aka. Alice Freshmouth ist als Musiker, Komponist, Engineer und Produzent seit Jahrzehnten im Hamburger Underground und darüber hinaus bekannt. Seit 40 Jahren miteinander befreundet, haben beide Musiker hier erstmals zusammengearbeitet, die elf Tracks bilden eine ideale Schnittmenge ihrer unterschiedlichen musikalischen Universen.
Asmus Tietchens is a sound artist and composer from Hamburg, Germany. He got interested in Musique Concrete by listening to a German radio programme when he was 10 years old. In 1965, at the age of 18, Asmus started experimenting with tape loops and turned them into musical collages. Soon, the use of synthesizers was added. In 1980 his debut album Nachtstücke was released, produced by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream. This was soon followed by a series of albums of electronic pop music for the Sky label, home of many Krautrock bands. Tietchens often uses special source materials for his compositions such as water (Seuchengebiete), human voices (Von Mund zu Mund), paper (Papier ist geduldig). He is associated with the Industrial music scene through his collaborations and releases on labels such as United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico or Dom Records. Tietchens never studied composition, he has no academic background, everything he does is self taught or learnign by doing. Nevertheless, he was professor for sound design in Hamburg in recent years. Alice Freshmouth is an anagram project by Tom Fleischhauer. Tom plays guitar and bass and has worked as producer, live sound engineer, booker, promoter and composer. Him and Asmus have been friends for over 40 years, they regularly meet in Hamburg, either as musicians or attending concerts. When Tom played Asmus his most recent musical compositions, the two decided that their work was not completely compatible, but shows enough similar approach to start a spontaneous collaboration. Soon afterwards first ideas were exchanged and half a year later an album was born. Both musicians think that there is equal measure of each of them to be heard on this CD. Full tracklist: 1. Courbé 2. Drone Léger 3. La Lueur 4. Bruit De Nuages 5. Sombre 6. Long Souffle 7. Sous La Lumière 8. À Partir De 9. Lune Souriante 10. Blanche 11. Claire.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg482
"Let’s assume Asmus Tietchens needs no introduction; in about 1000 podcasts (yes, a small celebration coming up in Vital Weekly 1470), he appears 48 times. It’s also no secret I love his work very much. In recent years, Tietchens has worked with many people, mainly by exchanging sound files through the Internet. I am unsure if that’s also the case of Alice Freshmouth, which is an anagram of Tom Fleischhauer. I had not heard of him, but he’s a guitar and bass player and has worked as a producer, live sound engineer, booker, promoter, and composer. More importantly, he’s been friends with Asmus for 40 years, and they meet regularly at concerts. They believe their current work could have been more compatible, but a similar approach led to a spontaneous collaboration. Ideas were exchanged, and only a little later, there was an album. It could be like Tietchens’ approach to the studio-as-instrument that he could work with anybody. Yet, this album’s music also sounds a bit different from other recent Tietchens collaborations. The typical Tietchens sound he gets with the sort of processing he does is part of this, but unlike many other times, it’s embedded in whatever Fleischhauer brings. It is hard to say what that is, but the music sounds more musical or less abstract than what we usually hear from Tietchens (with or without guests). It is sometimes industrial or ambient, but always with that vague notion of a melody, or at least a trace. Also, there seems to be a greater diversity of sounds in the music here, with more field recordings, straightforward drone sounds, and vaguely industrial soundscapes. It is a vastly varied release, so it’s somewhat surprising. Indeed, this is the most different of his recent collaborations. Suppose what I suspect is accurate, and they recorded this together in the studio or sat together while working on the final mix. In that case, this might mean Tietchens should, perhaps, let more people in the studio and change his modus operandi, as these results are excellent.
Following a string of re-issues, this is an all-new work for Tietchens on the Klang Galerie label." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS + CV LIQUIDSKY |
Monoposto |
CD |
17th and final part in the re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991
Originally released on Dragnet, Dom Elchklang in 1991. This new version incl. 3 Bonus tracks and is another joint release by German labels Die Stadt and aufabwegen. Jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition of 600 copies.
Track listing:
1. 'Junge Hoden' 3'01
2. 'Drangsal am Hauptbahnhof' 3'09
3. 'Der Appelbeker Kreis' 3'14
4. 'Schlotzen' 2'47
5. 'Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermumien' 10'07
6. 'DDR' 4'01
7. 'Frauenhygiene' 3'12
8. 'Vergessene Jungens' 3'40
9. 'Einfach Helden' 3'09
10.'Aus heiterem Himmel'2'07
Bonus tracks:
11. 'Prinzip Hoffmann' 2'49 12. 'Schwachholz vorsetzen' 2'06 13. 'Liquidsky spricht' 0'22
Asmus Tietchens + CV Liquidsky 'MONOPOSTO' (Dragnet & Dom Elchklang, Dradomel 03) 1991
It was just before the end of the so called heroic times when CV Liquidsky and I decided to record a studio album together. Almost a bit late considering that Liquidsky had already lived and worked in Hamburg since 1979. Our ways had crossed many times and a mutual friendship developed. Actually we discussed a possible collaboration several times. Liquidsky was a graphic designer, journalist, musician and someone who really moved things in all these areas. I got to know Liquidsky's musical side as him being one half of the industrial music duo 'Cinema Verite', and at the same time through his journalistic skill's, writing excellent reports about the Hamburg and International music and cultural scenes. As a trained artist he also did record covers and posters, illustrated Fanzines and created some disturbing free works. It was no secret that his chosen artist name derived from both ,Cabaret Voltaire'(CV) and 'Liquid Sky'(Liquidsky). His real name was Andreas Hoffmann. The recordings for 'Monoposto' were made between 1988-1990. The mention of the years 1981-1990 on the cover was deliberately misleading. Our work scheme was to try and record one track per nightly session, and when ever we met in the studio we clung to this strict working method. It was our intention to avoid making a perfect studio album. Improvisation, chance, errors and spontaneous decisions were the game plan. After a track was recorded it was mixed the same night or even early the next morning, so it was finished. No softening out and no corrections were made, no matter if the raw diamonds we created started to shine or not. It was Liquidsky (the "mover") who persuaded me to accept this almost Dadaistic concept, as I'm basically someone who takes longer to create a track. He concentrated on his guitar and myself on the electrical treatments. Later a good friend of ours described the music as a mixture of apathy and ecstasy, beauty and ugliness. In fact I never worked on an album with such a melancholic note before or ever after. The cover was created by Liquidsky within a couple of hours. The word 'Monoposto' has actually no meaning. It's a Blindtest to show the actual look of a certain typography common in the analog world back then. Liquidsky was fast and he always stood on the right side. Andrea Hoffmann died on 6th of September 1998.
Editorial notes:
All recordings were transferred from the original tapes, but in a different order than on the LP. The title 'Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermimen' on the original album is actually written incorrectly. The corrected title is 'Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermumien'. The track 'Liquidsky spricht' was taken from the compilation 'Das digitale Vetrauen' (Soleilmoon, SOL 54)." [label info]
diestadtmusik.de/DS120.html
"Die große, 2003 begonnene 18-teilige Wiederveröffentlichungsreihe von Asmus Tietchens’ früheren Arbeiten kommt mit Nummer 17 langsam an ihr Ende; in einer erneuten Zusammenarbeit veröffentlichen Die Stadt und Auf Abwegen das mit CV Liquidsky zwischen 1988 und 1990 entstandene und ursprünglich 1991 erschienene Album „Monoposto“.
In den Linernotes schreibt Tietchens, dass er Andreas Hoffmann, so der bürgerliche Name des 1998 verstorbenen Musikers, Journalisten und Graphikers, schon lange kannte, bevor sie sich endlich dazu entschlossen, ein gemeinsames Album aufzunehmen. Es sei nicht darum gegangen, ein „perfektes Studioalbum“ aufzunehmen, sondern „Improvisation, Zufälle[...], Fehler[...] und spontane[...] Entscheidungen“ hätten eine wichtige Rolle gespielt. Das führte dazu, dass die einzelnen Stücke recht schnell entstanden und noch in der gleichen Nacht gemischt wurden. Nichts weiter wurde mit den Aufnahmen gemacht.
Das Zusammenspiel von Liquidskys Gitarre und der elektronischen Bearbeitung von Asmus Tietchens führt “ zu ganz unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen. Insgesamt ist „Monoposto“ allerdings ein stark von Wiederholung geprägtes Album, wie gerade der fast schon rhythmische Opener „Junge Hoden“ mit seinen immer nur leicht variierten Loops zeigt. Ähnlich konzipiert scheint „Drangsal am Hauptbahnhof“, das mit seltsamen kreischenden Passagen im Hintergrund etwas düsterer und variabler ist. „Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermumien“, vielleicht der Titel eines verlorengegangen Drehbuchs von Don Swan, ist eine anfangs verrauschte, fast schon nach Ambient klingende Nummer mit dunklem Dröhnen und leichtem Pochen. Auf dem verglichen damit profan betitelten Track „DDR“ hört man Loops, Heulen und Dröhnen, seltsame Stimmen und im Hintergrund eine Hymne. “Fraueninnenhygiene” hat eine merkwürdige Westernatmosphäre, „ Auf „Einfach Helden“ glaubt man ein dissonantes Klavier zu hören und das Stück „Aus heiterem Himmel“ ist ein Cover von Neil Youngs „My my, hey hey (Out of the blue)“, das im Original die legendäre Zeile „It’s better to burn out/Than to fade away “ enthält. In Tietchens’ und Liquidskys Interpretation lässt sich das Original durchaus noch erahnen, von der Herangehensweise passt es aber gut zum Rest des Albums.
Stampfende, primitive Rhythmik hört man auf den Bonustracks „Prinzip Hoffmann“ und „Schwachholz vorsetzen“ und gerade diese Tracks situieren dieses in Passagen monotone und ruppige Album durchaus an den Rändern des Industrials. (MG)
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS + FRANS DE WAARD |
Oordeel |
CD |
On „Oordeel“
This collaboration was bound to happen someday! Out of mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work Asmus Tietchens and Frans de Waard decided to work on some music together. The result is “Oordeel" (dutch for "judgement") – eleven tracks of diverse character and subtle beauty. From distorted groans and gritty pulses to delicate and abstract sound layers Tietchens and de Waard have created a fascinating sound world of bizarre beauty.
Frans de Waard
Frans de Waard (1965) has been producing music since 1984 (Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Goem, Zebra, Freiband, Shifts, Modelbau, etc.). In 1984 he started his own record label Korm Plastics, releasing music from Arcane Device, Asmus Tietchens, Jim O'Rourke among others. He has worked for the pioneering Dutch tape label Staalplaat (1992-2003) and since 1986 as a reviewer for his own publication Vital (now Vital Weekly), a magazine which has been an online source for underground music since 1995, and which celebrated its 1000th issue in 2015. In 2016 Timeless published in France his first book, an autobiography of life in Staalplaat titled This Is Supposed To Be A Record Label. His interests in music creation ranges from ambient to noise to what he describes as 'silly disco
music'. He has played concerts in Europe, USA, Canada, Russia and Japan, and collaborated with Steven Wilson, Jaap Blonk, Andrew Liles, Radboud Mens, Keiji Haino, Pan Sonic and others.
Asmus Tietchens
Tietchens was born in Hamburg in 1947. Since 1975 he has been working as an independent musician; in 1980 he released his first solo record Nachtstücke. After producing a series of rhythmic and harmonic albums for the Sky label in the early 1980s he released his first industrial record Formen letzter Hausmusik in 1984 on United Dairies. Here Tietchens articulated his musical interests clearly: everyday noises were treated and at times deformed beyond recognition and placed into new contexts. Until now Asmus Tietchens has released more than 80 albums on international labels where he continues to explore the posibilities presented to him by specific sound sources (ranging from water sounds to pure sine wave tones). He has a more rhythm-oriented fake band project called Hematic Sunsets. Tietchens’ work is rooted in a deeply sceptic gesture, marked by frequent quotes from the works of philosopher E.M. Cioran on his album covers. Asmus Tietchens has been awarded with the prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) twice: in 2003 for his work Heidelberger Studien 1-6 and in 2006 for Trois Dryades. He lives and works in Hamburg.
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/oordeel
"As everyone knows by now, I am the world’s foremost authority on Frans de Waard Record
Reviews. Do you think you’ve written more Frans de Waard record reviews than I have? You are
incorrect. Go ahead, count all the Frans de Waard record reviews that you’ve ever written and tell me how many there are. Oh, is that all? I’ve written more. You cannot win. Looking at my recent contributions to the subgenre of music journalism of which I am the indisputable champion, I notice that my critical expertise is most frequently turned towards de Waard’s solo albums as Modelbau and Quest/QST. However, as the Reigning King of Frans de Waard Reviews that we all agree I am, I happen to know that the (unofficial) Mayor of Nijmegen thrives on collaborations. This latest pair of albums show off his versatility with two very different, yet equally excellent, pieces of electronic music made with the cooperation of two very different composers.
It’s amazing to think that “Oordeel” is the first album-length album that de Waard and veteran German composer Asmus Tietchens have done as a duo. Both are prolific and enthusiastic collaborators, so it seems natural that they’d come together at some point. Both gents share a disinclination to explain themselves, preferring to follow their musical instincts wherever they lead and to let an image or a title stand as the only signpost to guide listeners. The way that the title “Oordeel” is pronounced in English, the word describes something difficult to endure; a protracted
unpleasant or traumatic experience. The Dutch word, however, means “judgement”. I suspect that
neither interpretation is intended to frame this music literally, and that the title was more likely selected for it’s aesthetic appeal. I could be wrong, but then again I’m the greatest reviewer of Frans de Waard records on the planet, so… let’s just assume I’m right, okay? Indeed, this music is not in any way an ordeal to sit through, nor does it seem to be judging anything. The album’s sequence of short, discrete pieces offers no clues as to a concept or even compositional strategy, and yet it sounds very specific. Every piece seems to be created from similar materials united by a
background ambience of incorporeal breath, which makes it hang together as a single idea.
There’s a cool hermetic quality to all eleven vignettes, each one offering sharp clicks and carefully sculpted hums that skip lightly over a surface haze. I’m reminded of smooth 1970s plastic, mercilessly austere and yet vaguely sinister in its indifference. Only one piece breaks up the set: “VII” temporarily shatters the reverie with a buzzing whine of dial-up modems and hostile radio static. Once “Oordeel” gets that out of its system, though, it returns to the holodeck and stares out at the cosmos for awhile." [HS/Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS / PEINEMANN |
Harvesterhude |
do-CD |
"2 CDs in printed paper sleeves housed in carton slip case. Designed by Asmus Tietchens.
500 copies. Dedicated to C.V. Liquidsky.
On „Harvestehude“
After more than 10 years of enthusiastic experiences and encounters with so-called „Difficult Music“ throughout the 1980ies Martin Peinemann and Asmus Tietchens deemed their somewhat differing approaches to making music compatible and agreed upon a loose collaboration in the year 1992. For various reasons (organizational and others) the work was not to take place at Audiplex studios but at Peinemann’s home studio. This modest lab featured all the necessary technical equipment needed to realize noise music meeting the standards of the day. This included an analogue 4-track-tape deck (9,5 cm/sec, Dolby noise reduction, integrated 6-channel mixer), soon after a digital 8 channel multitrack, a powerful periphery and sound producing devices of all kinds. For „Hochallee“, their first collaboration, Peinemann and Tietchens set themselves no definite deadline. The working sessions took place in an atmosphere of relaxation, usually on Saturday afternoons. By 1996 Peinemann and Tietchens finally had amassed a series of pieces they considered to be complete. At this time Peinemann began working on computer generated solo works and Tietchens moved on towards a more reductionist sound work.
„Klosterallee“, their second collaboration, was realized under completely different circumstances. In the years gone by since their last work Peinemann had deeply immersed himself into the field of extreme digital sound manipulation that he often discussed with Tietchens. From this collection of sound structures Peinemann offered some to Tietchens as sourcings for further treatments. The following expanding of these structures was not done in the form of sessions but executed by Tietchens alone over a period of three months. Peinemann then authorised the final results.
Unlike Asmus Tietchens Peinemann never released any music until now. He always valued the working process higher than the working result. The reason for this collaboration to finally come out as a double CD follows a noble motif that can be roughly translated as such: „A warning to the Old, an instruction to the Young.“ (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, „Pädagogische Ergetzungen“, 1802).
www.aufabwegen.com
"Quite a treat: last week we reviewed a brand new release by Asmus Tietchens, and this week there is even a double CD of collaborative works. Asmus worked with lots of people in the past, from Merzbow to Vidna Obmana, from Achim Wollscheid to Arcane Device. Most of his collaborators are quite well known, save perhaps for C.V. Liquidsky (and we are still waiting for that particular album to be released
on CD as part of Die Stadt/Auf Abwegen's re-issue program), but he's the man to whom Tietchens and Martin Peinemann dedicate their collaboration. Right, Peinemann, you may ask: now who's that? I also have no idea, really, as up until now he never released anything. The two discs here were recorded in two different periods. The first disc, called 'Hochallee' (the name of the street where Peinemann lived then) has recordings the two musicians made together in the period 1992 to 1996. For
Tietchens this was an entirely different environment than the usual surroundings
of the Audiplex studios where he always seems to record (well, save for a few exceptions). With rather 'low' standards, such as a four-track recorder, six-track mixer and all sorts of apparatus, they recorded thirteen pieces, and at the end they deemed this fit enough for a release (which then took another twenty years).
The other disc is called 'Klosterallee' and it's here that in springtime 2005
Peinemann recorded basic sound material for Tietchens to re-use, and this he did
at the beloved Audiplex studios. By then Peinemann had moved his work into 'extreme
digital manipulations' (the word of the label). One is right when one says this is an interesting find, displaying us mid 90s Tietchens and mid 00s Tietchens, working
in for him slightly different surroundings (at least on one disc) and with someone with whom we have absolutely no history. I was corrected following last week's review and told that Tietchens does work with computers since about fifteen years, using GRM tools, but of course on the first disc that is not the case. These
thirteen pieces are rudimentary pieces of electronic music, sometimes blissful feedback, sometimes a dub inspired synth song ('Hochallee 12'), pieces with looped, rhythmic sounds, and in general it seems that the classic Tietchens treatment is never far away in these pieces. Several of these pieces could have been on, say,
'Aus Freude Am Elend', the various albums with Terry Burrows or some others from the early to mid 90s. That slightly mechanic play with sounds, the entrapment in sound effects (reverb plays some role indeed), but also a rolling rhythm (reminiscing krautrock, one could muse?) in 'Hochallee 6', which makes this first
disc quite an odd bunch of different approaches, but it's a variety that works
very well.
The second disc is the Tietchens we know from recent years, and indeed he doesn't
refer to himself as a reductionist, because his music doesn't resemble that of Ikeda
or Noto; also knowledge picked up last week. His current music is all about quietness,
not for any esoteric reasons, but simply because he wants us to listen more closely,
and perhaps concentration is by now a lost art form in this hectic life everyone is supposed to have these days. Here none of the source material is easily recognized, in fact not at all, but it feeds through analogue and, as we have learned since last week, digital means and reduced to a few sounds here and there sometimes held together with a simple, sustaining drone like sound, a residue of what once perhaps a much bigger sound element. It's interesting to play both of the discs back to
back and hear the progress of Tietchens and the way he treats his sounds. On the second disc perhaps less 'new', because there have been more works alike this and some of the early/mid 90s stuff has moved the background of our memory. I am not sure if that's really the case. However both CD's in this package are, no matter how different they turn out to be, quite beautiful. This is a must for every
Tietchens fan." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| TIUNIAEV, ALEX |
I knew her |
CD |
"Aus ganz wenigen Mitteln großartige Werke voller Tiefe und Melancholie zu erschafffen - das können nur die Russen und ALEX TUNIAEV ist einer davon. "I Knew Her" besteht aus einem 40 Minuten langen Stück, welches nur auf Streichern, einem Chorsample und Flächensounds basiert, die langsam und leise beginnen und mit zunehmender Spielzeit lauter und intensiver werden. Eine hypnotisch wie einlullende Sinfonie voller Schönheit und Wärme, die völlig ohne Pathos und donnerndem Finale auskommt. Trotz des simplen Aufbaus erreicht das Werk eine maximal einlullende und emotional berührende Wirkung, an der die typisch russische Seele sicher nicht ganz unschuldig ist." [M.F., BLACK Magazin]
"Alex Tiuniaev is an electronic musician and producer from Moscow, Russia. 'I Knew Her' is a 40-minute long journey of heart-melting, melancholic and neo-symphonic splendour - full of choirs, strings and neoclassical orchestration. This solitary track builds to a haunting and breathtaking crescendo... then brings the listener gently back down to the warm earth. A monumental release, with influences ranging from Sigur Ros to Philip Glass and Stars Of The Lid." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TO / THOMAS TILLY |
Script Geometry |
do-LP & CD |
\"Approaching the forest as if were a city, a construct, an ensemble of strata and vertical heights where signals answer, contrast and ignore each other. Variations occur, fullness and emptiness are created according to the weather and the peak and off-preak hours. This density that language can\'t define presents a challenge for the ear, and from this density surfaces, frm time to time, certain analogies to a modern sound environment. Cultural leads fraw our experience of these natural acoustic phenomenin towards the domain of technology : \'it sounds like... it\'s like\'. The timbres ? The sound structures ? There exists something in a tropical forest that sounds like and plays within the realms of electronics, music and electronics noise ; something characteristic of an era long before the birth of biotopes that form this forest and create this sound. Script geometry comes from this idea and the desire to work with density, in an attempt to extract forms that characterize these analogies. Taking these sounds out of their context and rearranging them as we would patch cables on a synthesizer ; weaving these strata and vertica heights into a different pattern by using the signals from the forest as if they were synthetic sounds : dissecting this spectrum and looking for something that can only be revealed through listening, this is the essence of the project\'. Thomas Tilly - Winter 2012\'In March 2013, I traveled to the Nourages scientific research station in French Guiana. Situated in the heart of a tropical rainforest, this station welcomes international scientific research progams dealing with tropical forests and their biodiversity. For the 30 days and nights of my stay, i listened to and captured the sound environment with an emphasis on animal communications : those wich are perceptible to the huan ear, but also the inaudible spectrum. The result is a collection of compositions and phonography characteristic of the zone. No electronic treatement has been added to these recordings other than a low cut filter and a light EQ mix. Script Geometry was conducted as an artist-in-residency programme at the Confort Moderne, Jazz à Potiers, the Lieu Multiple and the Nouragues Station in French Guiana between February and June 2013. A series of concerts, conférences, broadcasts and a creative workshop took place in accompaniment to the project\'. Double LP mastered by James Plotkin. CD mastered by Thomas Tilly. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.\" [label info]
www.aposiopese.com
\"A double LP and a CDR of the source material. For this work he went to the Nourages scientific research station in French Guiana, in the middle of the rain forest. For thirty days he recorded sounds with an emphasis on animal communications, some of these using ultra sonic translators. \'No electronic treatment has been added to these recordings other than a low cut filter and a light EQ mix\' it says on the cover and we have to believe that, sometimes hard as it is. However some of the recordings are overlaying each other so a more dense pattern arises, and the chirping of insects that is already a bit electronically sounding are emphasized, such as in the opening piece, \'At Night, Mass\'. The pieces on
this record shift back and forth between untreated - as \'no mixing, no editing\' - and \'composition, classic and ultrasonic recordings. Mixing and editing\', and especially those pieces, say \'Crossroad, nodes\' have a highly electronic feel to them. A very minimal piece of electronic music, almost like a modular synthesizer piece, but maybe a bit less organised, following the more chaotic patterns of the nature sounds. I thought this was a great record. Very much originating in the world of field recordings, but then, the result, from an entirely different kind of planet. \'Unidentified Insects Colony\' is almost like The Haters ripping paper and doesn\'t sound like an unidentifiedd insects colony at all. A truly fascinating work of which the hour long CDR is a nice bonus. Maybe something for the die-hards I guess, but it makes the package all the more complete.\" [FdW/Vital Weekly 05.2014]
|
2014 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Le Cebron / Statics and Sowers |
LP |
"French sound artist Thomas Tilly uses unique field recordings as material for compositions. This LP presents two pieces: Le Cébron is based on recordings done on a frozen lake. Statics and sowers uses recordings from beehives as well as feedback from a mixing board.
Edition limited to 300 copies on transparent 180g Vinyl. Drawings by Jean-Luc Guionnet. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut by Flo Kaufmann." [label info]
www.aussenraumrecords.com |
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Codex Amphibia (Phonotaxis) |
CD+booklet |
THOMAS TILLY
CODEX AMPHIBIA (PHONOTAXIS)
Cd Digipack | APO 15
Booklet 24 pages + Leporello 5 pages.
Digital version | FLAC | MP3 :
thomastilly.bandcamp.com/album/codex-amphibia-phonotaxis
Codex amphibia (Phonotaxis) has been recorded, composed and mixed between 2016 and 2020 in French Guiana and France by Thomas Tilly.
credits
released June 29, 2021
Teaser : www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1FH_8YPknk
-
Video teaser of the sound art and herpetology project realized by Thomas Tilly (composer) and Antoine Fouquet (Research associate at The French National Center for Scientific Research) during the frogs explosive breeding phenomenon, french Guiana 2016-2018. Pictures by Antoine Fouquet, Thomas Tilly and Audric Broux.
This Pieces are part of a both scientific and artistic collaborative project conducted with Herpetologist Antoine Fouquet, research associate at French National Center for Scienctific Research Cnrs. These compositions follow Codex amphibia (an interpretation of the explosive breeding), released in 2018 on Glistening Examples.
This work has benefited from an "Investissement d'Avenir" grant managed by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (CEBA, ref. ANR-10-LABX-25-01), and has been supported by Le Lieur Multiple, Jazz à Poitiers, Césaré, Studio d'en Haut, and has benefited of the grand "Brouillon d'un rêve, Pierre Schaeffer", by SCAM.
https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/codex-amphibia-phonotaxis |
2021 |
€16.50 |
|
| TOBACCONISTS! |
Prometheus / The darker Secrets of Doctor Perati |
7 |
After the mCDR on MOLL this is the first 7" by this duo composed of SCOTT FOUST (IDEA FIRE COMPANY) & FRANS DE WAARD (BEEQUEEN, KAPOTTE MUZIEK, etc.). A fine blend of analog electronics and object-noises, especially the title piece is a lovey abstract GERÄUSCHMUSIK thing with great sounds inside...
Only were 200 pressed, get your smoke today !
"The first Swill Radio 7" in 26 years dating back to The Story Of Failure's "Negative Fulfillment On The '83 Spitting Circuit" EP. The Tobacconists are Frans de Waard and me and we are both heavy smokers. The Tobacconists did a few shows across Europe in the Spring of 2009 and recorded studio versions of our live material which should be released as an LP by Tourettes Records at some point. We did other recordings as well and from them Frans put together this excellent single. Prometheus is a fire stealing liver eater with a truly astounding sonic palette. Dr. Perati's Laboratory has some dark secrets indeed and they are revealed here for the very first time. The infernal mechanism! Great cover by Jos Meeuw and a real 7" sleeve! Fantastic!!" [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2009 |
€7.50 |
|
| TOEPLITZ, KASPER T. |
Capture |
CD |
Epischer one-tracker (76 min) für Tanztheater, sehr hochfrequent rauschig-mikrotonal, erinnert z.B. an KARKOWSKI und LOPEZ, nach einiger Zeit wird man völlig absorbiert von diesem sirenenhaften weissen Rauschen,..... so minimal wie nur vorstellbar und doch so kraftvoll und hypnotisierend, erzeugt das Gehirn von ganz alleine Veränderungen im KlangMaelstrom... am Ende so metallisch durchdringend dass es kaum noch hörbar ist...
“A very micro-tonal score, played by 3 dancers/musicians whose infinitesimally slow movements are "captured" by web-cams and "mapped" to all the parameters of a real-time digital synthesis engine - frequency, amplitude, ambitus…. No samples, no pre-recorded sounds, the sole sound source is a white noise generator, sculpted by filters, producing a polyphony of drones, oscillations, movements of electricity - a long electronic ascension”. [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
|
| TOMKINS, KEVIN |
Music for an unprepared Autoharp |
CD |
Kevin Tomkins is best known for his work in Whitehouse and his own group Sutcliffe Jugend, now called Sutcliffe No More. He also worked with Bodychoke, Inertia and Patient K. Most of his music has its background in the power electronics scene that evolved in Great Britain around the label Come Organisation and the group Whitehouse. Power electronics is a style of noise music that typically consists of static, screeching waves of feedback, analogue synthesizers making sub-bass pulses or high frequency squealing sounds; with screamed and distorted vocals. The genre is noted for its influence from industrial. It is generally atonal, like most noise music and also features a lack of conventional melodies or rhythms. To match its sonic excess, power electronics relies heavily upon extreme thematic and visual content: whether in lyrics, album art, or live performance actions. For his solo work, Kevin sometimes uses a very different style to his group work. An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. This album's music was all generated on such an instrument and is totally different to Sutcliffe No More. Its roots lie in avantgarde music rather than noise, with rhythms and melodies generated on the instrument. It was edited from over 20 different recordings to present an album of stunning variety and beauty
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg440
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| TOMUTONTTU |
same |
LP |
Äusserst absonderliche und kaum zu klassifizierende Solo-Platte eines KEMIALLISET-Mitglieds zwischen Dadaismus in Reinform (allerlei Casiosamples, Bilig-Synths, low-fi Instrumente und Gemurmel, Gesinge, Getrommel, Tierstimmen, etc. ) und einer Art liebenswert verwunschem Märchen-Folk-Drone.... irre Musik!
"Ed. of 400 copies on 220 gram vinyl. Kemialliset Ystävät member Tomutonttu (Jan Anderzén) plays a bit like Dome to KY's Wire. The Ystävät-ness is there, but stripped down to the frame with a minimal synth breeze blowing through it. Beautifully lyrical in its layered abstractions, there is a sort of finely hewn composite of experimental dada electronics (ala early, early, early Die Todliche Doris or early, early, early P16.D4) and composerly elements (ala Rimarimba, Andrew Poppy or Meredith Monk). A few little Kraut-isms top off the tonic at no extra charge. Oh, and there's a bit that gets all spacey and chirpy like when the Virgin Prunes go completely bonkers (that's sure a helpful reference point... well, we like it). Basically, this is the music that the mothership had in the tape deck just before dropping KY off in the 12th century." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€18.50 |
|
| TONE COLOUR |
Today will die Tomorrow |
mCD-R |
"tone color is based in manchester, uk using guitar, synths and field recordings processed through max/msp and had releases on audio gourmet, assembly field and futuresequence. carefully mastered by julien cornu-kuoch, "today will die tomorrow" is a collection of six sweet ambient tracks and we are very proud to offer you his very first physical release." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| TONGDISKLAKTIKA |
Transmigrations |
CD-R |
"Mixing the dark monumental atmospheres of b°tong, the Diskrepant soundscape collage and the most various forms of sound content delivered by Origami Galaktika finds us facing an abstract and pulsating entity.
Being at close encounters touring, Chris Sigdell, Per Åhlund and Benny Braaten released Tongdisklaktika, a cooperative project that manifests itself beyond the ordinary and superlative. The pulsating art of Transmigrations binds you and still cross boundaries. If you dare.
Go. Explore." [label info]
reversealignment.bandcamp.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO |
Ura itam taala' momojmuj löwajamuj cooconaja |
mCD |
Faszinierende Veröffentlichung von Klang-Morphologiker GIANCARLO TONIUTTI, der auf dem Gipfel eines Berges in Italien (Monte le Zuffine) ein drei Meter hohes Kreuz fand (mit einer kleinen Glocke) - Klänge dieser Objekte und die psychogeographische atmosphärische "Aura" des Ortes dienten als Grundlage für diesen wunderbar mysteriös wummernden one-tracker, der zischelnde & leiernde Blasen wirft....
this is really CRYPTIC Ambience...
"This work could be seen as a process of sonic magnification. A couple of years ago I made a field-recording on a mountain top. It was meant to go on a project I had in mind. I needed a pure field-recording, almost silent. On this mountain I also found a small bell and decided to vaguely use it to generate a faint tonal presence. But in the end the recording was spoiled by the recorded presence of many tiny natural noises.
The project as process: Recently I took this recording back to life, and decided to mainly work with the sounds coming from the short bell performances, trying to generate the whole sound morphology from a mesostructural derived process, through analogic treatments of these acoustic fragments.
The epiphenomenal world: Somehow intended as a magnifying process of the internal structural features of the sounds from a bell and its mechanics, the work took advantage also of the fact that all these sounds were strongly embodied in the acoustic micro-activity of the natural environment. The selected sources were basically dirty, from interferences of insects and other small sounds. While magnifying and isolating the bell sounds, it was impossible (and not meant in the end) to remove these accidental environmental noises surrounding each sound particle. Thus, as they became part of the timbral quality of each single sound, they also shaped the evolutionary process of the work.
This work could be seen as a process of inflow moistening (title in Hopi language) " [label info / credits]
"No one will ever accuse Giancarlo Toniutti of releasing too much music into the world. It has literally been ten years since Toniutti has released any recordings outside of a very rare
compilation track here or there. That said, Toniutti is an undeniably intriguing sound artist, who has deeply immersed himself into obscure forms of ethnomusicology and linguistic study, all the while keeping a finely tuned ear to the habits of vangarde composition. His
earliest recordings emerged out of the Italian power electronics community of the early '80s whose most well known practitioner was
Maurizio Bianchi. Like Bianchi, Toniutti put out a handful of recordings on the seminal British noise label Broken Flag. While
bracing, complex, and adventurous in its crunched tape manipulations and sinister synthesis, Toniutti's work stood apart from the signature Broken Flag arc of transgressive noise, due to Toniutti's intellectual rigor. It was this rigor that brought Toniutti to pursue
his collaborations with Andrew Chalk and Conrad Schnitzler, and it was probably this rigor that caused the prolonged length between
recordings over the past decade.
So, the 20 minute composition that Toniutti produced for Ferns impressive series of 3" discs has been granted a Hopi Indian title based on an ancient song dealing with cunnilingus and bedbugs. I'm sure that Giancarlo has a very particular reason for placing such a text alongside this warbling set of mutated field recordings; but as of yet, it remains something of a mystery. This composition does enjoy a hermetic quality, in spite of Toniutti's explanation that he derived all of the sounds from a field recording he made in Italy involving a mountain, a 10ft tall cross, a metal pylon, and a temple bell. Out of that environment and those objects, Toniutti arrives at a record that might appear somewhat meditative at first, with its constant wash of low frequencies; but upon deeper investigations into the piece, he reveals queasy, off-kilter tonalities which gently vibrate against each other, bristling with quiet textures. His is a pretty unique sound, somewhat like the early electronic work of Xenakis with the diminutive sensibilities of early Bernhard Gunter. Highly recommended!" [Aquarius]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO & TIZIANO DOMINIGHINI |
Counterchronology |
CD |
"Unreleased very first recordings from 1979 by Giancarlo Toniutti together with Tiziano Dominighini. His very first approach on electric and acoustic instruments and noises. Recovered and mixed by Giancarlo Toniutti 2014. Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
"The only straightforward statement found on Counterchronology's densely worded liner notes is downright blunt: "Tiziano is dead." Aside from that one somber fact, the archeological ruminations of this recording are laboriously complex; but here's what we can gather. In September of 1993, the Italian vanguardist Giancarlo Toniutti came across two cassettes that contained material dating as far back as 1979, marking some of his earliest recording then in concert with a character named Tiziano Dominighini. He shelved them once again for another decade when he rediscovered the material to hold a number of open-ended / freeform recordings of Giancarlo and Tiziano clamoring about the glassworks shop run by Dominghini's father along with various environmental recordings, sparse yet maltreated guitar splutter, automatic writings, art brut actions, and long-form chord organ drones. In repurposing the musical interludes and provisional collages from those tapes, Toniutti sought to aggregate the sounds in such a manner as to maintain the something of an integrity from the originals while configuring the more naive gestures with the hand of a mature electroacoustic composer. On the near 34-minute first track, Toniutti weaves haptic events in varying degrees of density upon a bed of those long-form organ chords, with unhinged filter sweeps diving deep into cascading deep low-end rumblings. There's an extemporaneous psychedelic quality to much of the percussive burblings that hold aesthetic similarities to Angus MacLise, AMM, Z'ev, certain facets to the early Nurse With Wound continuum, and the most shambolic / abstract participants of the global freakfolk explosion from a couple years back. The shorter 10-minute second piece slowly blossoms from a deep bellowing thrum with desolated sibilance into a frenzied clamor on junked metal accompanied by distant flutes and strange utterances, both detouring from and complementing the first piece quite nicely. As rewarding as he is challenging, Giancarlo Toniutti continues to impress." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, MASSIMO |
Variation Séculaire Géomagnétique |
CD |
Massimo Toniutti is an Italian sound designer and experimental musician. He is the brother of Giancarlo Toniutti who is best known for his electroacoustic masterpiece La Mutazione which was originally released on the Broken Flag label in the UK and later re-issued by Klanggalerie. Massimo started working with sound when he was a teenager, collecting and playing recordings of all kinds. In the 1980s he released four cassettes on his own label, all heavily influenced by the experimental music scene of that time. He soon developed a strong relation to electroacoustic structures, space/environment and silence. In the 1990s, he began investigating radio, creating his own sound archive and producing unusual broadcasts. He released an album entitled Il Museo Selvatico, which was re-issued in Australia in 2018 on Oren Ambarchi's label Black Truffle. A documentation of his radio work can be heard on the CD Le Gabbiette Di Faraday, collecting radio pieces from 1996 to 1998. After a twenty year break, the cassette Antidocument/Groundwork was released in 2016 in a tiny edition of only 100 copies. Klanggalerie asked Massimo Toniutti to re-issue this composition on CD to which he agreed. When work was started, Massimo decided to extend it to a much longer piece which became Variation Séculaire Géomagnétique. if you are into Musique Concrete, Dark Ambient or simply beautifully crafted atmospheric music, then this release is for you.
www.klanggalerie.com/gg298
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| TONTON MACOUTE |
Mureedil |
LP |
“Tonton Macoute is a French band formed in 2006. With a stock of cheap instruments, the trio wanted to find a dense, subtle and massive sound, in order to create motorik soundscapes, psychedelic drones, electric hypnosis and timeless storms. Rehearsals and recordings took place in a basement. Using the studio as an instrument, all the tapes were re-worked to produce this LP record titled “Mureedil”. Early listeners mentioned experimental rock and compared the music of Tonton Macoute to F/i, This Heat, Harmonia or Sonic Arts Union. Etienne Coussirat : guitar, keyboards, drums, percussions, etc. Emmanuel Holterbach : guitar, tapes, analog synth, etc. Jacques Masson : guitar, bass, organ, etc. Recorded from February to June 2006. Edited, mixed and mastered at Studio Fluorescent, Lyon, France from August to November 2007.
Etienne Coussirat (born in 1980) is a musician who builds impossible musical instruments and practices electro-acoustic improvisation. His work focuses on auditory perception and on the exploration of acoustic phenomena. Emmanuel Holterbach (born in 1971) plays enharmonic glasses with Orbes, offers acousmagic experiences with eHœCo, rocks with Tonton Macoute and presents his kaleidoscopic sound environments in Europe, Canada and China since 1992. He’s also in charge of Eliane Radigue’s archives.
Jacques Masson (born in 1974) is a music fan and a music journalist. He writes poems, draws and composes electronic miniatures.
Their first LP titled “Mureedil” is also the first record released by Les Productions Fluorescentes, available now in an edition limited to 300 copies.” [label info]
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| TOOP, DAVID |
Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul (Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual, 1978) |
LP |
"Recordings from 1978 by David Toop of Yanomami ritual songs, shamanistic ceremonies and rainforest sounds. The voices of spirits and animal familiars, ventriloquial illusions of sound in dark spaces, secret spirit languages, the clap of thunder that links shamanic trance with the sleep language of Finnegans Wake...Out of these passages of the everyday, intensity flares like flames caught by a gust of wind. Skin burns or oozes blood, the wind blows up havoc as the spirits move about.
Inclusive 40 PAGE BOOKLET TEXT & PICTURES: the full story of David Toop's fascinating journey in 1978 through the Amazon jungle to meet and record the last Yanomami shamen.
LP version mixed by Lawrence English." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
"If you’ve ever taken an anthropology course in college, you should be familiar with the indigenous Yamomami people of the Amazon. A primitive stone-age tribe dwelling deep in the rainforest that has persisted into the modern day. They’re fascinating to academic researchers and curious lay people alike, the subject of various books and documentaries, noted for such traits as their supposed propensity for violence, their communal living arrangements, consumption of the ashes of the bones of their dead, and hallucinogenic drug abetted shamanism.
Back in 1978, British musician/writer/theorist/recordist David Toop (you’ve likely read his pieces in The Wire or listened to one of his many carefully curated compilations) had the opportunity to travel to Venezuela to visit the Yanomami, which resulted in a privately-pressed lp of some of the ethnographic sound recordings he made on the expedition, released in a small edition in 1980 and never repressed. This double cd release expands upon that original lp, presenting a fuller selection, two discs' worth, of Toop’s Yamomami recordings, wherein mostly unaccompanied human voices (that can sound far from human) chant and sing, imitating animals and speaking with spirits, alongside the jungle sounds of insects, birds, and moths. These healing rituals are certainly interesting from an anthropological point of view... but that’s not really why we’re listing this. The real reason we recommend it is just ‘cause, anthropology aside, the tracks on here are some of the CRAZIEST SOUNDING SHIT we’ve ever heard. Utter insane gobbledy gook, to put it in perhaps less-than-PC terms. Seriously, just listen to the sound samples below, have you ever been that messed up? Grunts, growls, weird warble, bizarre babble, sudden screaming outbursts, mysterious mutter, squeals and whoops. So if you like fucked up sounds, you need some Yamomamis in your collection. Eye from the Boredoms has NOTHING on these guys. Played loud, these tracks would be perfect for anyone who wants to drive their unsuspecting spouse or housemates mad. And boy would they make good outgoing answering machine fodder. Ok, we know people don’t have answering machines anymore, but this might be a good reason to sign up for a landline and go find one!!
Reason enough to buy this. That said, there’s also much more to it than that, and of course you could get in deep, listening to this, reading along in the thick booklet of liner notes that Toop provides, putting you in the moment, there in the jungle, via his 1978 expedition diary, also referencing various surrealists, philosophers, Butoh dancers and avant-garde composers as he shares his thoughts and observations, pondering the meaning and wonder of it all... OR, like we said, just be astounded and amused and amazed by the freaky sounds of these shamans!!!" [Aquarius Rec] |
2015 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul (Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual, 1978) |
do-CD |
"Recordings from 1978 by David Toop of Yanomami ritual songs, shamanistic ceremonies and rainforest sounds. The voices of spirits and animal familiars, ventriloquial illusions of sound in dark spaces, secret spirit languages, the clap of thunder that links shamanic trance with the sleep language of Finnegans Wake...
Out of these passages of the everyday, intensity flares like flames caught by a gust of wind. Skin burns or oozes blood, the wind blows up havoc as the spirits move about.
+ 40 PAGE BOOKLET TEXT & PICTURES: the full story of David Toop's fascinating journey in 1978 through the Amazon jungle to meet and record the last Yanomami shamen." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Entities Inertias Faint Beings |
LP |
From David Toop:
The music existed already, spores maybe or dormant clusters of digital files. Out of three periods of solitude the germination began. The first was in Queensland, on Tamborine Mountain (an aboriginal name), so silent at night that I listened to recorded music – Japanese gagaku, Buddhist ritual from Bhutan, Korean Confucian music – as if drifting into cavernous black space. Stepping into sleep I saw a hypnagogic image - a transparent swimming pool suspended over the mouth of a volcano. I read Stephen Mansfield’s book on Japanese stone gardens – “Successful stone arrangements seem almost alive, the elements conversing among themselves with an occult vitality, the call and response that has been noted between well-placed rocks resembling the chanting of Buddhist sutras” ; Daylight listening in chill air, hearing whip birds, butcher birds, noisy mynahs, kookaburra chatter, rainbow lorikeets; catapult elastic, I wrote, radio waves in a kettle, electric buzzers. On Queensland’s Gold Coast I gazed at a distant humpback whale breaching out to sea, watched Yasujiro Ozu’s 1934 silent version of A Story of Floating Weeds, listened to cicadas burst into life as a helicopter flew overhead.
Back into society and driving with Lawrence English I asked him, why would anybody release music in the 21st century? He laid out his philosophy; I was convinced. Then in St Ives, Cornwall, solitary again, drawing, reading Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects and Clarice Lispector’s Agua Viva (her beautiful sentence: “dry keys echo in the dark and humid early hours”), gazing at ocean flux, music trembling into life from secreted audio files, music becoming living entities. Phantoms rose up out of sea mist, images of black light and blistered skin from photographers (Takuma Nakahira and Tomatsu Shomei), the fermenting of sounds. From a distance I heard voices – the extraordinary painter Mariko Sugano reciting ancient Japanese garden texts on the taboos associated with stone setting; Emi Watanabe’s flute as if a ghost from the Noh; the sounds of underwater creatures in my pond; Sylvia Hallett’s sarangi crying (in cavernous black space); the fervent drumming of Rie Nakajima’s small mechanical beings (like cooking with paper, wire and batteries); John Butcher’s reeds, music as a scientific exploration of the body, the instrument. Rie talked about the properties of objects, soft or hard. In the Noh play Aoi no Ue, the spirit is compelled with drum and plucked string (the catalpa bow).
In solitude I contemplated death, decay, the gush of life. Back in the car, Lawrence told me, when you die you’ll leave many projects unfinished. I laughed. Unspeakable truths, notes for a language to come, maybe not this world.
room40.bandcamp.com/album/entities-inertias-faint-beings
"Composer/performer/improviser David Toop’s latest release traces the seam between sound and music, paying attention to the hidden sounds that surround us and turning silence inside out.
In a lot of ways I’ve come to dislike music,” David Toop told The Wire in 2003. “I love sound, I love silence, but music as a whole I don’t like anymore.” You might assume that would have troubled him, given that Toop, then 54, had been deeply involved with music for most of his life, in virtually every role imaginable: performer, improviser, composer, critic, theorist, archivist, curator, and label owner. But if it represented any sort of crisis for him—six years before, burnout and “indifference to contemporary music” had led Toop to hang up his hat as a music journalist—it didn’t hold back his output. Since making the statement, Toop has continued to perform and lecture, released a half-dozen albums, and written two books, including the recently published Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation, and the Dream of Freedom.
But Toop’s turn away from music, that complicated category of organized sound, has been crucial in one very important aspect: It has allowed him to ask probing questions about the nature of listening. Those questions come to a head on Entities Inertias Faint Beings, his first studio album since 2007’s Sound Body. Offering a vibrant array of rustle and hum, the new album traces the seam between sound and music, between the intentional and the incidental, between expression and mute abstraction. A partial index of its sounds would include the whine of rubbed wineglass rims; shortwave radios on the fritz; the electric buzz of the forest canopy at night; the languid click of fingernails across guitar strings; the whirr and flap of a 16mm film projector’s take-up reel. It is an album about paying attention to the hidden sounds that surround us, about turning silence inside out. And it is an album about using sound to find one's own bearings.
Entities Inertias Faint Beings got its start as an autobiography—or, more precisely, it is the result of what turned out to be an abortive case of writer’s block. Its genesis lies in three periods of solitude: first a stay on Tamborine Mountain in subtropical Queensland, Australia (“so silent at night that I listened to recorded music—Japanese gagaku, Buddhist ritual from Bhutan, Korean Confucian music—as if drifting into cavernous black space,” Toop writes in his introduction to the album), and then on Queensland’s Gold Coast, where cicadas harmonized with helicopters. Back in Cornwall, trying and failing to write his life’s story, he began sifting through several years' worth of personal recordings he had stored on his computer: small, percussive thunks; filament-like drones; the crinkling of paper. Shuffling, layering, and arranging—not so much composing as feeling his way through the material, as if improvising—he added new sounds to the mix, like a quiet passage of acoustic guitar from one of his daily practice sessions, and a hydrophone recording from his garden pond. And in London, he fleshed out the pieces with the help of musician friends. The improvising saxophonist John Butcher lends trilling, bird-like sounds to two tracks; Rie Nakajima's battery-powered motorized objects rattle and whirr, suggesting insect colonies in upheaval.
The overall result—thematically, anyway—is something like one of W.G. Sebald’s literary peregrinations: a palimpsest of place, memory, and accident, although its precise route is unknown to all but its creator. There is little to tell us what any of these clicks and pings might actually be. Several of the album’s track titles suggest cryptic headings scrawled on notecards in dusty filing cabinets: “dry keys echo in the dark and humid early hours”; “pieces of wood and iron, phials of odours”; “sea slug.” They function as indices of possible experiences, and if they explain little—do the bassy gurgles of “sea slug” really come from a gastropod mollusk?—they offer unusual and inviting travelogues consisting of little more than white noise and feral throb.
But Toop can’t quite resist sneaking music—that most elegantly ordered aspect of organized noise—back into the equation. Again and again, understated wisps of melody, harmony, and rhythm surface briefly and disappear just as quickly, sending out ripples that supercharge every corner of this lovely, engrossing album. In the album’s centerpiece, “ancestral beings, sightless by their own dust,” Sylvia Hallett’s sarangi, a bowed string instrument from Hindustani classical music, weaves an eerie, mournful air over slow, methodical pulses. Then, at the track’s end, a jungle’s worth of growling, chirping, buzzing sounds swells and is swallowed in turn by the steady gush of a tropical rainstorm. Toop has compared his compositional processes to traditional Japanese stone gardens—one track, “setting stones,” quotes a thousand-year-old passage on the subject—and at its most engrossing, Entities captures the uncanny qualities of inanimate objects in conversation with one another. It is a way of suggesting that the music exists independently even of its creator; it is a product of the act of listening itself. By the act of focusing our ears, we bring it to life—and vice versa." [Pitchfork]
|
2016 |
€23.50 |
|
| TOPOGRAFIA |
Genius Loci |
CD |
"Genius Loci uses deep drones, acoustic instruments’ sounds and field recordings registered near the author’s place of living (Jaworzno). The project was inspired by the author’s personal fascination with the diversity of nature and the philosophy of Schopenhauer, who considered nature to be one of the most primaeval manifestations of a blind and aimless will, a will which we too are a part of." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| TORAL, RAFAEL |
Electric Babyland / Lullabies |
CD |
"electric babyland" is what has been coming out of the initial idea to extend the original lullabies (of the meeuw muzak 7") into a more complete work. first versions of these pieces have been performed during the electric babyland european tour in 2002, revealing a lot of potential from just the live versions. and now, after a lot of studio work the final release of these pieces eventually sees the daylight. rafael toral is using music box and analog modular system here. but the result is maybe his most beautiful and accessible record since "sound mind sound body". [label info] |
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Engine 03_04_02 |
CD |
37 Minuten live-Material in der limitierte live-Serie von Touch, aus einem Zwischenreich der Akustik, kreiert mit 2 Gitarren, einem Bass, Feedback-Zirkel & “motorisierten Saiten”.. obwohl als CD-R touch-katalogisiert, handelt es sich um eine fabrikgepresste CD !
Very nice live-material, analogue & guitarish blurbs & ambience..
“Fourth release in this limited series on Touch (as with the previous Fennesz CD, this is not actually a CDR, but a regular pressed CD). Recorded live at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. "'Engine' is a piece for two guitars, one bass, twin modulated feedback circuits, motorised strings, analogue modular system, routing audio mixer and several other devices. It's performed simultaneiously on two channels." [label info]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Space |
do-LP |
"Vinyl version of Toral's latest creation. After 15+ years of accomplished work on guitar & electronics, the Portuguese musician, producer & sound engineer found his way into a complete renovation of his music. Leaving the guitar behind, Toral has equipped himself with instruments such as a theremin-controlled noise generator, amplified coil spring percussion, & a random pulse width modulation oscillator. With these he has launched a jazz-fueled craft through Earth's atmosphere, into outer space. The resulting voyage is one where the sounds created recall the blasts of a ray gun, the gurgle of a velociraptor, the rush of a primordial geyser, all seasoned with vintage analog appeal & interspersed with meditative moments of silence. Includes unreleased 17-minute vinyl-only bonus track." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2008 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Space Solo 1 |
LP |
"2nd release in Toral's ongoing Space Program now on vinyl! Equipped with handmade instruments, this project is a performance-based discipline, which he calls "post-free jazz electronic music." A raw exploration of unaccompanied instruments traveling through unfamiliar territories where sounds exist in their singularity. 44 minutes of otherworldly splashing, ripping, beeping, & hissing. An indefinite number of sounds carefully coaxed from unique instruments, drawing a blury line between ancestral & futuristic. Pressed on 200g transparent red virgin vinyl & limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Space Elements Vol. 1 |
CD |
"Bis Ende der 90er hatte sich der portugiesische Musiker mit Gitarren-Drones auseinandergesetzt. Mittlerweile hat Toral um den für ihn paradigmatischen Begriff »Space« ein ganzes post-Free-Jazz-in-Elektronik-Universum kreiert und dies auf zahlreichen VÖs dokumentiert. Als einer der wesentlichen Gitarristen der 90er angesehen, arbeitete er u.a. mit J. Zorn, J. O'Rouke, Sonic Youth, MIMEO oder Alvin Lucier. Auf dieser CD entschlackt Toral Musik soweit, bis nur noch arrangierte Sounds übrig bleiben. Sein Vorteil ist es, dass dabei keine eklektische Futzelelectronica herauskommt, sondern ein durchaus abgefeimtes Setting, in dem Reste von Jazz und - mit etwas gutem Willen - auch Swing auszumachen sind. Klarerweise auf heutige Verhältnisse gemünzt. Mit dabei: Rute Praça (Cello), Margarida Garcia (b.), César Burago (dr.) und Torals Langzeitkumpel, der Taschentrompeter Sei Miguel. »Ernste« Musik mit hohem Spaßfaktor." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG]
"The Space Program is Rafael Toral's long-term research launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with "phrasing and swing", shaping strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral "Space" (Staubgold 2006) and the following "Space Solo 1" (Quecksilber 2007), this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instruments, on small settings and including collaborations. "Space Elements Vol. I" features Rute Praca (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel's amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel (pocket trumpet) himself." [label info]
www.staubgold.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Space Elements Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Bis Ende der 90er hatte sich der portugiesische Musiker mit Gitarren-Drones auseinandergesetzt. Mittlerweile hat Toral um den für ihn paradigmatischen Begriff »Space« ein ganzes post-Free-Jazz-in-Elektronik-Universum kreiert und dies auf zahlreichen VÖs dokumentiert. Als einer der wesentlichen Gitarristen der 90er angesehen, arbeitete er u.a. mit J. Zorn, J. O'Rouke, Sonic Youth, MIMEO oder Alvin Lucier. Auf dieser CD entschlackt Toral Musik soweit, bis nur noch arrangierte Sounds übrig bleiben. Sein Vorteil ist es, dass dabei keine eklektische Futzelelectronica herauskommt, sondern ein durchaus abgefeimtes Setting, in dem Reste von Jazz und - mit etwas gutem Willen - auch Swing auszumachen sind. Klarerweise auf heutige Verhältnisse gemünzt. Mit dabei: Rute Praça (Cello), Margarida Garcia (b.), César Burago (dr.) und Torals Langzeitkumpel, der Taschentrompeter Sei Miguel. »Ernste« Musik mit hohem Spaßfaktor." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG]
"The Space Program is Rafael Toral’s long-term research project launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with “phrasing and swing” and performing strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is something you’re unlikely to have heard before, a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral Space and the following Space Solo 1, this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instrument, on small settings and including collaborations. Space Elements Vol. I features Rute Praça (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel’s amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel himself. From Toral’s liner notes: “Having found that jazz is the field of musical knowledge where disciplined decision-making is most developed, this music is more informed by jazz than by any other. The Space Program emphasizes articulating silence and sound, by structuring musical discourse on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. To my surprise I found no historical precedents to this practice, being that it draws practically no information from electronic music history (which is grounded on different thinking patterns), and it draws very little from jazz history as well, since the instruments I use are inadequate to play any music based on the Western system. I regard this approach to jazz (meaning a system of individual decision-making from the standpoint of free-spectrum live electronics) as a new and exciting field of creative possibilities. I called it “post-free jazz electronic music.”
Space Elements Vol. I was mastered direct to metal and pressed on clear 200gram virgin-vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies. The jacket was designed by Helder Luis at NOTYPE and features a collage by contemporary artist Joao Paulo Feliciano. CD Version available on Staubgold." [label notes]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Cyclorama Lift 3 |
maxi-CD |
"Cyclorama Lift is a piece about the idea that electronic resonance is everywhere in our electronically mediated perception of sounds. Like a ghost-in-the-machine. It's performed with an empty circuit, basically a feedback loop using as main instruments two 8-second delays and a 4-band parametric equalizer. There's no input, the loop is constantly nourishing and digesting itself. The circulating sound is electronic resonance. Rafael Toral is a musician, producer and sound engineer. Born in Lisbon in 1967, he has been performing live since 1984. Considered by the Chicago Reader to be 'one of the most gifted and innovative guitarists of the decade', his work focuses mainly on the possibilities of ambient music (variable attention listening process), the electric guitar as a sound generator and improvisation with higher levels of risk (using instruments or systems that behave in unpredictable ways) in real time sonic exploration. 20'50"." [label info] |
2000 |
€8.50 |
|
| TORBA |
Musique Inconcrete |
LP |
After the quickly sold out »Ggràn« cassette, released on Fragment Factory in 2016, we are very happy to welcome back the Italian sound artist Mauro Diciocia aka Torba for his 2nd contribution to the FF label catalogue. »Musique Inconcrète« is the follow-up to »Musica Conventionale«, released earlier this year on his own Edizioni Aaltra imprint, and marks the second installment in a trilogy of related recordings, informally named »Le Musiche«. While being active in the field of contemporary sound art and noise music for more than a decade, Diciocia has produced a whole lot of mostly small run cassette releases. This LP is Torba's first and long overdue full-length album for the vinyl format.
While Diciocia's latest work is far from being composed in classical terms, the concept behind the album revolves around the idea of sketch or annotation. Or better still: The inconcrète. A semi-false (or semi-correct) french word, used to undermine the consistency of the french Musique Concrète tradition in a rather light-hearted manner. During the conception of this album, MD was strongly influenced by the work »Incompiuto - The Birth of a Style« by the Italian contemporary art collective Alterazioni Video. They loudly claim that Incompiuto – the unfinished – is the only Italian art style of some significance in the past 50 years: "The term ‘incompiuto’ refers to the architectural and infrastructural works whose construction has been halted, and which can be witnessed throughout the entire Italian peninsula. They are all publicly funded, and for a variety of reasons (design errors, political decisions, inaccurate cost estimates, contractors' bankruptcies, evident disregard of building regulations, the disappearance of funds, etc.) their construction has been interrupted, leaving behind a series of ruins in reverse.” (Alterazioni Video)
Far from any reference to post-architecture or mafia-political controversy, the final output of »Musique Inconcrète« is a macro cut-up of sound-screens reorganized as quasi-organic narration: Fragments of unfinished compositions, roughly assembled according to a mere aesthetic criteria. Beyond the sporadic use of oscillators and a few inserts of other people's music manipulated on ¼-inch tape, the whole LP is made out of field recordings collected in the region of Salento in southern Italy, where Diciocia is currently living. All environmental sounds were captured with common consumer electronics (walkman and mobile phones) in order to give back the domestic feeling of an abandoned opera. Speaking of geography, the first track Lapjèdr Fòr is the only exception. Intended as an introduction to the whole narration, it testifies MD's emotional and non-linear journey back from Germany, where he spent about eight years, to Southern Italy: It contains a clashing mix of recordings made in Berlin and around the seaside of Torre Lapillo.
The pictures for the artwork of the album were taken by the photographer Gabriele Albergo, whose perpetual-in-progress project »Salento Death Valley - A Black Diary of the Most Beloved Italian Peninsula« aims to deconstruct the touristically idealized image of the region through the serial production of what he calls anti-postcards.
Edition of 300 copies on black vinyl.
https://fragmentfactory.bandcamp.com/album/musique-inconcr-te
"Many of the sounds on Musique Inconcrète are thin, threadlike, fibrous, like amplified insect legs or the metallic rustle of uncut guitar strings. Usually such a description would apply to an album with much more sound processing and alteration involved in its construction, not a work that relies as heavily on mostly unmanipulated field recordings as this does, but the singular vision that audio collage maestro Mauro Diciocia (a.k.a. Torba) has adopted for Musique Inconcrète is unconcerned with “usually.” The six tracks on the LP are true sonic sketches, a structure he borrows from the Alterazioni Video collective’s tradition of Incompiuto—the incomplete. Diciocia warmly embraces a state of unfinishedness, fully content to explore acoustic settings and movements with qualities that might often be cited as weaknesses: insubstantiality, choppiness, frailty. He uses the aforementioned field recordings—most of which were captured in southern Italy—as fragile canvases for his sketches, their beautifully mundane soundscapes both contributing their own unique textures to the music as well as serving as a base for quiet interjections of buzzing static; occasional and very choice musical samples; and other oddities. The recordings themselves are often shaky and unstable, an effect that’s achieved via either subtle processing or the recording medium itself; Diciocia chose to use basic electronics like small tape recorders and mobile phones to evoke “the domestic feeling of an abandoned opera.” Such careful efforts to fully adopt an intentional lack of polish or seamlessness make Musique Inconcrète not only a fascinating and thought-provoking release but also more lush and well-realized than one could ever think possible." [Noisenotmusic]
"Wenn das neue Torba-Album ein Pendant in der Welt der haptisch erfahrbaren Artefakte hat, dann ist es die Ruine – ein Phänomen, welches das Künstlerkollektiv Alterazione Video jüngst am Beispiel unvollendeter Architektur und Infrastruktur untersuchte, an verschiedenen Konstruktionen, die aus Geldmangel, wegen technischer Probleme, politischer Planänderungen und ähnlicher Gründe Fragment bleiben mussten. In der dazu entstandenen Studie wurden sie als die bedeutendsten Kunstwerke des heutigen Italiens bezeichnet.
“Musique Inconcrète”, erneut eine Reihe an feinsinnigen Cut-Up-Kollagen, wurde stark von diesen Überlegungen getriggert und setzt sich aus eher spontan zusammengesetzten Komponenten zusammen, denen man ihre Fragmentiertheit anmerkt. Benannt hat Torba das Resultat allerdings nicht nach dem Unvollendeten, sondern nach dem “Inkonkreten”, was eine ganze Reihe weiterer Bedeutungsnuancen eröffnet.
Im Vergleich zur One Track-CD “Musica Convenzionale”, dem ersten Teil der losen Reihe “Le Musiche”, erst recht aber zu früheren Veröffentlichungen, sind die sieben Tracks des neuen Longplayers noch ein ganzes Stück dezenter, andeutungshafter und ungreifbarer: Mikrosequenzen, deren Soundmaterial diffus an Zikaden, Straßenlärm, Sinustöne, Wind und Wasser und zwitschernde Vögel, aber auch an jazziges Basspiel erinnert, eine Viel-, wenn nicht Unzahl an per Telefon aufgezeichnetem Material, dazu Songzitate und immer wieder dezente Manipulation – all das liegt übereinander, greift ineinander und verschmilzt doch nur soweit miteinander, dass das Konstrukt einer Einheit verwehrt bleibt. Alles verbindet sich gerade so stark, dass die Konturen einzelner Klänge undeutlich und eben unkonkret werden.
Man kann darin freilich eine Kritik an den Ideen der Musique Concrète, oder zumindest das Aufzeigen einer Kehrseite und eines blinden Flecks sehen, betonten die Pioniere dieser Musik doch besonders das Material in seiner wie selbstverständlich angenommenen Abgegrenztheit. Die einzig deutliche Grenze, die Torba hier zieht, ist die des immer wieder überraschenden Schlusspunktes einer Sequenz oder einer Tonspur, womit er an einige seine früheren Tape-Veröffentlichungen anknüpft. Torba ist nach wie vor ein Gelände mit vielen abrupt endenden Sackgassen. Mehr noch als in den opulenteren Stücken wird dies in den zwei minimalistischen “Intermezzi” deutlich, in denen der (teils verfremdete und im Tempo hochgeschraubte) Auftakt einer berühmten Klaviersonate durch ein Szenario verhuschter Sounds getrieben wird. Daran, dass das Motiv immer wieder nach drei Tönen de nova da capo geht, mag man sich gar nicht gewöhnen, und soll es vielleicht auch nicht.
In dieser Spannung, in der die einzige klare Kontur die Evidenz des Unfertigen ist, liegt die Signifikanz und natürlich die größte Herausforderung von “Musique Inconcrète”. Hat man sich daran gewöhnt, erkennt man viel Schönheit in dem Gebräu aus Verkehrslärm, Stimmengewirr und verschwommener Jahrmarktsmusik." (U.S./African Paper) |
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| TORTURING NURSE |
Il Comunismo doveva morire |
CD |
"il comunismo doveva morire is Torturing Nurse's first Mind Flare Media release. Absolutely devastating, this album is one single track running almost an hour and fourteen minutes long. The band suddenly breaks in from nowhere and immediately begins an assault on your ears, suddenly switching and transitioning to a variety of different power electronics landscapes. The artwork sums it up well, a symbolic representation of a dead politicial system. The back features similar art taken from famous propaganda and manipulated, ending with more political imagery inside and a CD that rests upon a pile of skulls. Without a doubt the harshest thing these guys have ever done. This stuff is powerful and not for the faint of hearing." [label info]
www.mindflaremedia.com
"Why noise from Japan was spectacularly good was that noise as miss-appropriation of western music in post war Japan was where miss-appropriation of the west was paramount, removal of tradition in favor of day glo Elvis's Whiskey made from genuine Scottish grapes and school girls in tartan mini skirts." . discuss.. Or why miss-appropriation has now firmly shifted to China might be the explanation of the ability of Torturing Nurse to take over the incoherence of noise from the great masters of Japan, and that in there inconsequential screaming, noise and feedback is what they do so well, whether from design, pastiche or naivety, it doesn't matter, all is symptoms without any traces, illness without disease, psychoanalysis of sanity, this is a culture which was never part of the monotheistic religions. Judaistic calling which engendered the enlightenment and guilt, Freudian Oedipus or Marxist theory ,T.N. is a superficial image, a simulacra of the west without foundation or introversion, it has nothing to attack or demolish, so is pointless, nothing to solve or cure, the name itself silly lacking any psychosis of western introversion, those bare chested lot who miss mommy, no this is noise as noise for noise from noise and nothing else besides, and 74 minutes which is never enough. All those blokes in Texas half drunk on Budweiser with their effects pedals, guitars and toys should take a listen and weep, no not weep, too much weeping already, maybe then get washed have a shave and get a job at HMV in the local mall, or else take up the dizi, sheng, paigu, paixiao, guan, erhu, zhonghu, dahu, banhu, jinghu, gaohu, gehu, yehu, cizhonghu, diyingehu, leiqin, guqin, sanxian, yangqin, guzheng, ruan, konghou, liuqin, pipa, zhu?????" [jliat/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| TOTSTELLEN |
Mein Licht beleuchtet nur Abgruende |
CD-R |
"processed fieldrecordings of a journey through the baltic states, finland + lapland. reflections on constructed nature + disruption as utopia.
01 - anorexie im bauch eines wals (12:42)
02 - faules blut in molochs adern (19:38)
03 - keinen traum mehr zu haben (01:24)
04 - fuer die noch lenenden toten (17:32)
05 - vermehrt zu gast im laeukemiecluster (23:38)" [label info]
http://telenautik.de/grimm/totstellen
"Der Alptraum kommt in lautleisegefälligen Schritten, die baltischen Länder bieten neben der touristisch entlegenen Industrieromantik auch etwas wie ein dreckig-verschlafenes Lokalkolorit, welchem mit Mikrophon und Sampler zu Leibe gegangen werden kann. Wann beginnt der Alptraum wirklich? Dann wenn man aufwacht und feststellt, dass die Realität sich bei aller Authentizität doch beliebig verformen lässt. Totstellen hat in 5 Kompositionen seine einjährige Reise durch die baltischen Länder festgehalten, streng feldrekorderistisch, wie ein audiophiles Tagebuch welches die jeweiligen Reisemomente auf ehrlichste und naheliegendste Art zu skizzieren vermag. Mal rauschen die Bäche, dann wiederum dräunt und hallt der industrielle Alltag der Straßen und öffentlichen Plätze durch die Aufnahmen, werden Funkstimmen und Wassertropfen zu grotesken Klangmonstern, die ihre Formwandlung auf unerklärlich hässlich-faszinierende Weise exhibitionistisch zur Schau stellen. Wenngleich Totstellen’s Abgründe sich ihrer Funktion wohl nur im Gedächtnis seiner eigenen Reiseerinnerungen öffnen, atmet »Mein Licht Beleuchtet Nur Abgründe« eine ganz eigene Sprache, das verworren-gutturale Geflecht aus Erinnerung und Lücke. Die archaische Umverpackung, handgenäht und mit Siebdruck versehen, macht aus diesem Release eine besonders intime Angelegenheit. Chapeau." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
"...Totstellen uses both field recordings, but plays music, sound material creates what he encounters, like the rustle of plastic and metal buckets on ticking. In one way or another, the atmosphere is nostalgic and melancholic compositions and are true sound paintings. These beautiful CDR's packaged in a self-sewn cover with a picture book where the emptiness of the city and nature plays a central role. Highly recommended!" [JKH/Vital
Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| TOTSTELLEN / GRIMM |
Schwindel |
VIDEO |
TOTSTELLEN aka GERDA GRIMM from Hamburg belongs to the “society-critics” ambitious experimental projects, this is a VHS-Video clip on the great ANTIINFORMATION label! Only 30 copies made, and you won’t watch this on MTV definitely !
„vhs video 10min / 1st ed/30 / the first aic release of an audiovisual medium, following the idea of the contemporary tape label. a vhs tape.
[swindle / giddiness] a constant movement, and yet somehow still stagnant. there are no forwards. in the end, all of the linear tangents create an area painted black in every sense. even if there are no obstacles / walls / borders on the first / superficial view, it doesn.t mean that there is freedom of movement...my movement in the surrounding structure is similar to the intoxicated rodent, which is not put into a physical maze, but is instead limited by the substances it is given....” [label description]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| TOTSTELLEN / LOW.FILE |
Boys like girls |
MC (C-30) |
Neuer Post-Industrial aus Hamburg & Berlin! TOTSTELLEN: schwelende Drones, metallisches Summen, kurz auftauchende verzerrte rhythms, verfremdete Stimmen und found sounds. Sehr dichte und intensive, taumelnde Atmosphäre...
LOW.FILE: rauschige Drones, Pianofetzen, harsche glitch-noise-DATA-Attacken und lange spannende Unheimlichkeitswolken..
Ein Exzellentes Tape !
“Exceptional noise/ambient music dealing with gender questions. programmatically low fi, but nevertheless sharp and precise. TOTSTELLEN from hamburg, known to some for ‘neo-industrial’ noise and creepy dark things, introducing an introverted notion here, quite similar to minimalist low.file from berlin, whose main topic in audio and visual art is image – identity construction and marketing. these pieces consist of elements like broken rhythm signals, text and image data tranformed into audio data, field recordings, hijacked adn reorganized cage piano and a sample of a young girl’s voice, wondering why girls in boy’s clothes are said to be cute while boys in girl’s clothes are considered embarassing.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€4.50 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE |
kdi dctb 039 |
mCD |
"Der Code kdi dctb ist bei Cédric Peyronnets Fieldrecordings so obligatorisch wie in gewissen Parallelwelten das BWV oder dergl. ‚kdi dctb 039‘ speziell ist der Mittelteil einer Trilogie, die mit ’kdi dctb 151’ auf dem Split mit Dale Lloyd auf Bremsstrahlung in San Diego begann. Dass Peyronnet auf puren Naturklang (keine Synthesizer, Sampler etc.) pocht, wurde schon als bewusste Abkehr aufgefasst von der erzfranzösischen Pariser Musique- Concrète-Schule. Aber die Lauschangriffe auf die akustische Umwelt, hier nur deklariert mit ‚made in various places from 1994 to 2007‘, sind nicht weniger ‚typisch
französisch‘. Oben propellert ein Flieger, unten knistern Laub und Ästchen, dazwischen ein Hüsteln, Klackern und Knurschen, ein Zwitschern, Bitzeln und Zirpen, wie ein Glas prall gefüllt mit ‚Wald & Wiese‘. Duchamp hat 1919 in einer Apothekenambulle ‚Pariser Luft‘ als Readymade-Gastgeschenk mit in die USA genommen. Peyronnet könnte entsprechend 20 Minuten ‚Heimatklang‘ verschenken, so komprimiert, dass er explosiv verpufft, dass es wie ein Percussionorchester aufrauscht und dann minutenlang nachbebt, als synästhetisches Konzentrat von ‚Natur‘, über die hinweg erneut
Flugzeuge ihre Bahn ziehen" [Bad Alchemy]
"kdi dctb 039 is a part of a trilogy made up of 'kdi dctb 151' (See bremsstrahlung recordings), 'kdi dctb 039' & 'kdi dctb 180' (TBR).
Another piece about childhood memories composed only with field recordings made in various places visited from 1994 to 2007 : acoustic spaces, sound objects, sound auscultations, bits of soundscapes... Microphone and recorder as the primary tools. It's sometimes good to make a pause, seat and take a look at the
past - then, some sound fragments may appear... our sound memory. toy.bizarre (Cédric Peyronnet / ingeos) - sometimes qualified as "rural headphone electro(acoustro)nic music" - works on field recordings, phonography, soundscapes, sound art, since 1985. He has released more than 40 works on CDs, tapes, videos, compilations...Contact : http://www.ingeos.org" [label info]
"Throughout the '90s, Cedric Peyronnet would boldy announce that none of his Toy Bizarre recordings were made with synthesizers
or samplers, instead with field recordings and collage techniques as his twin media. It has been speculated that this notion comes from a
punk attitude against France's institutional avant-garde which evolved out of the work of Pierre Schaefer and Pierre Henri; but at the same time, Peyronnet's recordings focus on the specificity of sound locations, and the technology of samplers and synthesizers didn't have the ability to reflect the unpredictability that Peyronnet witnessed in environmental sound. While Peyronnet doesn't
mentioned his aversion to technology on this 3" from Ferns, he's retained the same adventurous sensibility for dynamic edits coupled with nocturnal, slippery ambience. From the jump-start opening of crackling twigs and grasses with an airplane's Doppler-effected
engine roaring in the distance, Peyronnet's 20 minute composition dissolves into elegantly fluid timbres weaving out of tactile sounds
from sand, grit, gravel, and other bits of detritus. Once all of the sounds have all settled into a drift of stasis, a quick jump to another set of textures and abrasions begins with a corresponding set of sympathetic drones. Fans of Loren Chasse's field recording work,
Tarab, and Steve Roden should all take note of this exceptional release." [Aquarius Records]
|
2007 |
€6.50 |
|
|
KDI DCTB 49 / 23 (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"TOY BIZARRE from Limoges, France, are one of the leading outfits for new "natural" or "environmental" music, which uses places as instruments. The compositions strongly relate to geography and cartography. These two pieces are made of sources coming from a railway station & a little summit named "Cote 358": the train, wind, electrical flux, grasshoppers, fences, barbed wires, storm & rain... All these sounds were organized raw & uneffected in a very suspenseful & unique way.
Listen to a totally alienated world around us!
grey vinyl, creased thick wrapping-paper covers." [label info]
|
1998 |
€ |
|
|
kdi dctb 071 (TB plays DSM) |
CD-EP |
"Brand new work by toy.bizarre focusing on some Das Synthetische Mischgewebe 'lost' sounds. Reshaped, sharpen, composed during a long period of time. Original DSM (Das Synthetische Mischgewebe) recordings given by Guido Hübner 1997 or (1998?). CD-EP - digifile - 100 copies only!" [label info]
www.kaon.org
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
kdi dctb 278 |
CD |
" “kdi dctb 278” is what I call a sound film. Its shape entirely and solely based on the sound recording of places – as in all of my pieces – fits my refusal to make a choice of abstraction or narration and willingness to stay in an in-between, to maintain a dialogue between abstraction / narrative, which would be close to the daydream.
“kdi dctb 278” was recorded 1994~2013 @ various locations; sequences built for various projects.
Some parts appeared first in the kdi dct 216 “garden / square meter” series (Melbourne), thanks to Jude Anderson, Jacques Soddell.
Tested live (parts) @ Instants Chavirés, L’Audible Festival, Paris, 2012/09, thanks to Jérôme Noetinger.
Tested live (fully) @ Sonikas, Madrid, 2013/12 – thanks to Juan Carlos Blancas, Alfonso Pomeda & the man-who-saw-codex-but-lost-the-way.
This version, mixed 2015/06 @ TBS
Release date: 09.2015
Label : Semperflorens
Time: 41:43 mins
Format: CD in DVDBOX
Limited to 500 copies" [toy bizarre info]
www.ingeos.org/en/kdi-dctb-278/
"After all these years, we are still not all that clear what the acronym that Cedric Peyronnet (aka Toy Bizarre) has used for the bulk of his album titles. It's definitely some sort of cataloging system as his titles are in sequential fashion, now reaching 278, though there are some sizable jumps between the various numbers. Peyronnet may have explained what this may mean somewhere and at sometime, but enlightenment eludes us. So, we'll collectively shrug and move onto this vivid collection of manipulated field recordings and phonographic compositions that are found on this impressive album. Since the late '80s or thereabouts, Peyronnet has used natural sounds as his primary source material, working in parallel to Eric La Casa, Small Cruel Party, Tarab, and some of the more obtuse practitioners of contemporary musique concrete. Peyronnet's uneasy dislocations never settle on the notions of purely objective / narrative descriptions of sound, nor could they be defined as abstraction. So one can hear jolting splashes of water and mud along with Luc Ferrari like snippets of human voice well-removed from context alongside filter-heavy drones of liquid miasma and mercurial drones dappled with found object texture and splattered detritus. Peyronnet has quite a knack for rendering all of the components of his compositions with an incredible sharpness of detail - the purity of his dilated frequencies and an exactness to environmental elements work into his slippery compositions punctured with bursts of energy that Peyronnet allows to wane into solemn pools of contemplation." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE & PIERRE REDON |
Saisons |
CD |
Die field recording drones von TOY BIZARRE im Zusammenspiel mit PIERRE REDONs feiner Gitarrenarbeit! Auf vier Stücken (zweimal beide zusammen, je eines beide solo) vermischen sich kunstvoll schwelend flächigen Klänge, immer wieder durchbrochen von elektro-akustischen Momenten, fein & subtil verwoben.
"This collaborative effort brings us some of the most beautiful and atmospheric instances of composition with nature. the four tracks, some
solitary works, some creatied by using field sourcings of the opponent, feature subtle wildlife field recordings, detailed electro-acoustic passages, swelling metallic drones and amplified silences." [label info]
"...Toy Bizarre is perhaps one of the last 'old' guys to use his band name rather than his own name, Cedric Peyronnet, which is good. Pierre Redon is a much younger guy and never used a band name, which is also good. They have been playing music together since 2002. Peyronnet is in fine electro-acoustic mood and Redon's main instrument is the guitar and electronics. They both play two pieces, Redon springtime and autumn (first and last piece), Toy Bizarre summer and winter (the two pieces in the middle). Listened closely to the music, one can spot the differences, even when Redon uses field recordings and Toy Bizarre makes his field recordings sound like drones. The result should appeal to all lovers of drone related music with a good, sturdy look at the world of field recordings. Subtle music goes loud, noise music goes subtle. Mind you, this is not a work of microsound. There is much more happening than just a few static crackles built from a ten second rain sample. This is quite vivid, imaginative electro-acoustic music. Great stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE / EMERGE |
untitled |
LP |
Since the 1990s, French sound artist Cédric Peyronnet has established himself as one of the most prolific and original composers working with field recordings. After numerous CD releases under his own name and as ingeos and toy.bizarre, this is his first ever vinyl. It was made commissioned by composer and label head EMERGE. A long-standing fan of Peyronnet, he contributes a piece to the split release that is based on Peyronnet’s recordings.
The theme running through the whole split album is the acoustics of mines. All material is based on field recordings made by Peyronnet in (partially disused) French mines in the mid-1990s. Scratching, gravelly, cavernous sounds dominate the soundscape, evoking a world of subterranean gloom that seems familiar to listeners of EMERGE’s bass-heavy drone compositions. In Peyronnet’s piece, the field recordings are simply arranged in a collage-like manner, but the atmosphere created by this editing is strikingly similar to the one dominating the album side processed by EMERGE. This turns the album into a subtle play with the expectations of the audience. What just a second ago seemed to be mere random ambient sound suddenly turns into a musical structure through rhythmic repetition, and an apparently documentary audio snapshot might actually be digitally treated. Through this intriguing interplay, the two artists make us reflect on the role of the recording medium which, through the very fact that it is a medium, turns every ‘natural’ sound into a ‘cultural’ artefact.
toy.bizarre - kdi dctb 018
Original recordings were made in Puy-Les-Vignes disused mine, April and May 1995.
Some parts were used on the M.SL tape published by kaon.
Composed / Mixed @ TBS, Tlse, 2014. SACEM 2014.
www.ingeos.org
EMERGE - msl
all sounds recorded by Cédric Peyronnet with analog device (tape) around 1995 in the MSL mine, reworked on site & replayed with speakers inside the place then re-recorded by Cédric Peyronnet treatment and composition by EMERGE in 2014 photography by Cyril Herry design by EMERGE
label info
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| TRAMA AFONA |
Trama afonA |
CD |
"Trama afonA is the sound/visual project by Lorenzo Scacchia (Roma, 1977), a vain attempt to tramaphonise (convey) what he sees in the dark and hears into silence…
Apart from a few self-productions, this album constitutes the first official release, gathering tracks composed between 2005 and 2008 (presented in reverse chronological order). Tracks 1, 3 were inspired by a wonderful creature. Tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 were composed as soundtrack for various solo photo/graphic exhibitions by Trama afonA. Track 4 drew inspiration from a story by H. P. Lovecraft. Track 11 was composed for an Italian compilation. Tracks 13, 14 were the soundtrack for the former Trama afonA’s website.
Trama afonA is gathering suggestions from the contemporary quotidian theatre and at the same time from the past, namely the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Paying particular attention to the individual and specific human stories, rather than to History… Focusing on what happens behind the scenes, aside, beneath. Subjects and dynamics less showy, blurred, but not consequently less interesting or worth caring. Opening doors and drawers using the sole curiosity as tool, walking backwards the traces of memory, wandering amid shades and details given by mystery, decadence, abandon, romanticism… Carefully delving into psychological dynamics. Openly denouncing the social plagues, but often humbly providing just visual and sound suggestions.
A brief semantic note about Trama afonA: the Italian noun trama has 3 significations, corresponding to the English plot (as a story line as well as a conspiracy) and weft (of a woven material); the adjective afona means aphonic." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| TRANSITIONAL |
Nothing Real Nothing Absent |
CD |
Erinnert sich noch jemand an die begnadeten HEAD OF DAVID? Das lief damals unter "britischem Noise-Rock", war aber weitaus abgründiger und experimenteller als viele andere Bands mit derselben Stilrichtung aus dieser Zeit, von der Innovationskraft & rabenschwarzen Radikalität ehesten vielleicht noch mit der New Yorker Band LIVE SKULL vergleichbar. DAVE COCHRANE gehörte zur Urbesetzung von HEAD OF DAVID, war später bei GOD, SWEET TOOTH und JESU, und brilliert nun in diesem neuen Duo TRANSITIONAL, das irgendwo zwischen JESU-Rock und elektronischen Power-Trance & Drone angesiedelt ist, mitreissend wie hier rohe Kraft in betörende Bahnen gelenkt wird....trancige Beats, Weite, rauhe Sounds wie Wellen & Wind...
"Transitional is the new project of musician producer Kevin Laska (Novatron) and long time Justin K Broadrick and Kevin Martin collaborator Dave Cochrane (Jesu, Grey Machine,). The debut 'Nothing real Nothing Absent' offers a rich variety in their approach to sound combining crushing atmospheres through a mixture of electronic ambience, mangling bass lines and distorted epic layers of textured guitar. Injected with driving rhythms and effected vocal phrasing Laska and Cochrane build discordant worlds on an immense scale which pull you down to another level of fear and ethereal bliss before kicking off with some more soul dismantling sonic dysfunction.
This is a band which can deliver both sonic tranquility and extremely heavy slabs of dense music and just about everything in between; Heavy electronic machinery, juggernaut bass lines and hypnotic guitars go from passive relaxation to an unstoppable machine within a single surge. Kevin Laska's woven creations of bleak electronic/organic mesmerizing mayhem and bliss has found a new level. Now joined by legendary bassist Dave Cochrane who played with the likes of Kevin Martin in God, Ice and The Bug and Justin Broadrick in Jesu and Head of David. Born September 2006 Laska's found himself in another quality up with Cochrane, following his last collaboration with a.o. Russel Smith and Anthony Difranco (Ramleh, ex Skullflower) as Novatron. Transitional; a solid, textured and dynamic sonic journey through a world that is both self deprecating and enlightening, but either way leaves you wanting more." [label info]
www.conspiracyrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| TREES |
Sickness In |
CD |
"Sickness In is the third album from Portland's most wretched, Trees. Following their similarly abject slabs of feedback-doused horror and quasi-formless dirge Lights Bane and Freed Of This Flesh on Crucial Blast, the band again presents a two-song assault, each one roughly fifteen minutes in length, each a slowly rotting heap of droning slow-motion deathdoom riffs decomposing into clouds of black amplifier hum, high shrieking voices and tortured screams drifting against the glacial roar of smoking amp stacks and short-circuiting hardware. Where the previous album had Trees employing some interesting rhythmic chaos and longer stretches of ambient filth, this time around the band drops some of their most leaden, majestic riffs yet into their slow-mo filthstorm, massive saurian doom riffs slipping WAY out of the confines of 'groove' and deep into rumbling fields of charred ritualistic chanting and almost Abruptum-like states of psychotic noise..." [label info]
www.Crucialblast.net
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| TREHA SEKTORI |
Sorieh |
CD |
"3 panel digisleeve
Claustrophobic Ritual Ambient
[8 songs for 44 mn]
Soundtrack of mind's fluctuations, Treha Sektori exposes a psychic course with ethereal and nightmarish appearances. The role alloted to the voices gives actually, a theatrical and horrific inflection with unit but fixed in the abstract. Only tangible line : a work of layers carrying a true mystery, a cinematic oppression. Beginning at the end of the test, "Sorieh" gives the impression of living then a fall, slow, course of limbs, rustles and fogs which more make us fear that, with the end, one will discover, rather than the shock with some object floating not identified, mineral or organic. No the shock not. A bottleneck of throllings. (D-SIDE Magazine – Fr)" [label / website info]
www.kaosthetik.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| TREMBLAY, PIERRE-ALEXANDRE |
Alter ego |
DVD-A |
Autoportrait (2001). au Croisé, le silence, seul, tient lieu de parole (2000). Binary (Virtual Rapper Remix) (1998). fugue; qui sent le temps? (1997). la cloche fêlée (2004)
"The other self - Finding in music an accomplice, the other, without whom nothing is possible, without whom one cannot grow. Better: through his contact, one really exists, since one plainly sees oneself. A mirror. the other me - My music as an intimate insight, naked, subject to the world's judgement: an act of humility. Through it I present a hidden side of my torment, in my name, alone to take on the poetry of its imperfection. Of my imperfection. the other you - Proposing dreams fragments, paths for wandering, where others can hopefully loose themselves and self-identify to the extent of purging their humanity. Or just to enjoy the road. the other thing - work, not as a superficial exercise of aesthetic seduction, but as an attempt to transcend differences toward the Übermensch. Strong arguments, amoral, music as a vehicle of reflections, Expressionist and Romantic, inducing an effervescence, an urgency to live. Perhaps simply beautiful? other." Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay.
First initiated to the world of classical guitar at an early age, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay subsequently dedicated body and soul to composition and bass guitar during his adolescent years. With the support and guidance of Jean-Guy Larin, Michel Tétreault, Michel Donato and Marcelle Deschênes, the young composer forged his unique language in Montréal's teeming cultural life of the '90s and, in 1998, completed his bachelor's degree in composition at the Université de Montréal. Pierre Alexandre Tremblay continued to explore further musical endeavours in the creative atmosphere of England at the beginning of the millennium. He was awarded his PhD in Electroacoustic Composition from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2005, under the supervision of Jonty Harrison. Since then, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay teaches composition at the University of Huddersfield (UK). In parallel with his academic path, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay formed, in 1996, the contemporary jazz ensemble [iks], which he still leads and with which he continues to tour Europe, America, and Africa. With this ensemble, that has released six albums to date, he practices improvisation on his instrument and, more recently, on realtime processing devices. He is also frequently in the studio for popular music artists, both as producer and session bassist. Well versed in these aesthetic approaches that he considers complementary, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay now seeks to unite them into a single coherent poetic language. He spends his spare time, pursuing his interests in reading and photography, and with his family. In addition, as founding member of the no-tv collective, he does not own a working television set.
[label info / credits]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| TREPANERINGSRITUALEN |
Perfection & Permanence |
LP |
"Trepaneringsritualen explores themes of religion, magick and the hidden realms of consciousness, taking its musical cues from the old school of ritual ambient & death industrial. Rhythmic and seething at times, and oozing forward with a creeping sense of desolation at others, Trepaneringsritualen conjures forth bleak but mesmerizing visions of the end-times.
“Perfection & Permanence”: a hymn to Isis; a further exploration of the duality of the holy harlot, the black skinned Magdalen, mother and concert of the Christ; Yeshua Ben Yosef, son of MAN; the shameful dead, those who sold their brothers, condemned to forever roam the earth; to transgress the abyss, to mortify flesh, towards cosmic renovation. It is lonely, it is awful; on the verge of physical death, but still unable to understand; absolute perfection may be attained through WILL. A conversation with angels, in archaic tongues; Eiríkr inn Sigrsæli sold his blood and kin to desert rats for corporeal power. Eirikr, we spit on you.; from across the abyss, it rises. Ceaseless, blood-churning, terrible; an incoherent accusation by the mirror image, he who’s blood was shed to atone another man’s sins. Without bloodshed there can be no salvation." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Next in line is Trepaneringsritualen - a project also driven by Swedish forces. Behind the project you find Thomas Ekelund who like his aforementioned compatriot artist swirls in spheres of extreme aggression. That Thomas Ekelund a.k.a. Trepaneringsritualen often do concerts with black metal bands in Sweden isn't surprising as you listen to the brutal and violent expressions of his latest album titled "Perfection and permanence". Raw vocals move alongside the hyperbrutal soundscapes of crushing drones. Stylishly Trepaneringsritualen drifts in the borderline between power electronics and death industrial so be prepared!" [NM/Vital Weekly] |
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Veil the World |
CD |
"All seals have been broken« proclaims a demonic voice on the titular track of Veil The World, and that is something terrifyingly evident in the music contained therein. On Veil The World, Trepaneringsritualen veers from crepuscular ritual moods to rabid death chants reveling, even celebrating the imminent end of flesh. Veil the World – originally released in a very limited and ultra-lavish box by Kości Tapes in 2011 – marks the half-way point between the earlier, more atmospheric works of T × R × P, and the more visceral aggression of the later material.
Trepaneringsritualen explores themes of religion, magick and the hidden realms of consciousness, taking its musical cues from the old school of ritual ambient & death industrial. Rhythmic and seething at times, and oozing forward with a creeping sense of desolation at others, Trepaneringsritualen conjures forth bleak but mesmerizing visions of the end-times.
Originally released in an edition of just 40 tapes in 2011, we’re very proud to announce the CD reissue of “Veil The World”. Remastered and presented in a 6 panel digipak, T x R x P once again assert themselves as the true masters of Swedish Ritual Industrial. Ltd x 1000 copies only. Anyone who saw the show at SE:UK Industrial Alliance knows this is *essential*!" [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave |
CD |
Trepaneringsritualen return to Cold Spring with an album-long ritual working entitled ᛉᛦ — Algir; eller Algir i Merkstave. On this record — constructed from a series of rituals designated to guide the last ceasing of ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ — T × R × P is manifest in its most obscure form. Sonically minimal yet devastating in emotional impact, this working lets the listener grasp the last vestiges of Nifl and Múspell, and with them as weapon and beacon traverse the Night. ᛉᛦ reveals a barren landscape where crooked paths lead onward, through soot black veils to a point of radiant light where all that is is Union & Dissolution.
Dedicated to our sister, ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ.
T × R × P channelled through the forms of ᚦᛟᚦ ᚷᛁᚷ, ᚾᛟᚺ ⩝⚭⩝, and ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ at the 63rd Link, 4 & Rising, and Zone Rouge December 2017 e.v. — July 2018 e.v. Mastered by Martin Bowes. Artwork by Nullvoid.
___
I tordön rister marken och i ett enda andetag rämnar alla världar. Den arma kropp som en gång med knapphet höll samman faller nu itu, och itu, och itu. Tills varje beståndsdel blir till Ingenting. Likt en vålnad utan hud och blod och anda — utan köttets förtvivlan — kastar jag mig — handlöst och av vanvett vredgad — i ditt vidunderliga gap.
Här, i gudars sotsvarta skymning, där natt och dag förgås, hörs alla ord och stäv för första gången tydligt. Här tar alla vaga förnimmelser sin sanna form och stiger ur ett disigt skimmer.
Här, i alla solars gyllne gryning, strålar tusen — åter tusen, pilar av det mest förblindande ljus, mot en enda punkt. Skapandet, och varandet, och blivandet löses upp där prisman splittrar ljuset. Framför mig syns vägen klar och uppenbar.
Vi Vandrar Vidare
V ∴ V ∴ V
CD in 6-panel digipak
LP - Limited first edition of 500 copies on 180g black vinyl. Printed inner sleeve with reverse board outer sleeve.
Official teaser: youtu.be/8bTlXaUPpzI
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/algir-eller-algir-i-merkstave-csr275cd-lp
"After a run of strong albums framed around vocal driven, rhythmic death industrial compositions, Trepaneringsritualen (TxRxP) has chosen to take an abrupt left-hand turn (onto the left hand path?) to deliver an extremely minimalist ritual dark ambient album, thus harks back to an earlier phase of the project. In fact this new instrumental album is so minimal and ritualized in style, it would not at all be out of place on the Aural Hypnox label.
Compositionally this album consists of two lengthy nineteen-minute tracks, each titled with the algiz rune, but noting for the second track the algiz rune has been inverted. To glean meaning from this, in its upturned position, the algiz rune can be interpreted as a human with upraised arms to received the protection, guidance and wisdom from the Universe. But in its inverted position can be interpreted as meaning hidden dangers for the self and the need to reflect and look within as part of the process of gaining strength and connecting with higher self. Yet even with the cover image of the algiz rune formed by tree branches, based on the spartan artwork and text in Swedish, how the algiz runes should be interpreted in context of this album remains unclear.
Sonically speaking the atmosphere is one of bass driven tonal depth and catacombic echo, where blackened washes of archaic drones blend with reverb drenched ritual percussive sounds, including: deep catatonic drum hits; sparse gongs; wailing horns; ritual chimes; singing bowls, low atonal piano notes etc. Yet for all of its apparent minimalism, this album is one that immediately draws you into its sinister clutches and does not loosen its grip for the entire album duration, particularly given the ample tensile sonic elements which keep interest and engagement throughout. Although cut into two separate tracks, the sound effectively plays out at an album length track as the sound between the two pieces bridges the same pace and articulates visions in the mind’s eye of a ritual ceremony being conducted in the falling twilight on the damp forest floor, while tree limbs creak and sway in response to the winds gusting through treetops far above. Also of note is the deep shuddering thud featuring at the start and end of the album album, as if sonically representing the opening and subsequent closing of a ritual cycle.
Prior to the release of this album, perhaps I had assumed that TxRxP would continue to forge ahead with a song-based approach. That impression has been proven to be completed incorrect, but at the same time, ᛉᛦ – Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave is an exceptional example of minimalist and strongly meditative ritual dark ambient music, and completely takes me back to the earliest days of when I started listening to this type of music. Recommended." [Noise Receptor]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TRIANGULAR ASCENSION |
Leviathan Device |
CD |
"Triangular Ascension is the debut album by Venezuela's Federico Agreda and a much welcomed addition to the Cyclic Law Roster. Taking inspiration from Thomas Hobbes book "Leviathan", the album aims to depict the inner nightmare of the reality of mankind, ever dwelling in fear and self-destruction. Upon activation of the "Device", the water once used by the Elohim to create life, rages over the lands cleansing the planet from every living creature that crawls the soil, concluding in a post-apocalyptic requiem sung by the leviathans themselves. The music translates into a carefully crafted work full of cinematic drones of ruthless atmospheric power, destined to make Triangular Ascension a name to be reckoned with.
Edition of 1000 copies in 4 panel Digipack.
9 Tracks. Running Time 59:40" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
www.cycliclaw.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TRIBES OF NEUROT |
Silver Blood Transmission |
CD |
"Spearheaded by the group Neurosis, Tribes of Neurot were formed with the intent of exploring the concept of Neurosis more in-depth and on a much more intuitive level. Tribes of Neurot allow for a much broader range of expression and experimentation in all media. Tribes of Neurot are dedicated to the rebirth and survival of native tribal cultures and spiritual practices, as this is a key to understanding the Neurosis concept, not to mention the past and future of humanity. Encompassing a myriad of textures of ambiance from minimal walls of soothing sound waves to disturbing schizophrenic shapes of cranial bombast, Silver Blood Transmission takes these incredibly eclectic musicians to territories previously uncharted. Tribes of Neurot are committed to spiritual explorations in sound and other pathways to inspired consciousness."
[label info]
www.relapse.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| TRIBES OF NEUROT & WALKING TIME BOMBS |
Static Migration |
CD |
"Neurosis side-project collaboration with Pain Teens guitarist Scott Ayers. Features eight tracks of exceptional experimental music." [label info]
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| TROUM |
Ryna |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des Debut-Albums von 1998, mit neuer Artwork von TILMANN BENNINGHAUS (Berlin). Re-release of Troum's long sold out first album from 1998 with new artwork by Tilmann Benninghaus. Digipack.
"...Die acht Stuecke greifen sehr gekonnt ineinander, steigern sich von Minute zu Minute. Praesentieren sich die ersten Tracks sehr einheitlich, ambient, setzen dann leichte Rhythmusstrukturen ein, um im Finale Riurja" ihren Hoehepunkt zu finden. Alle, die sich mit auditiven Aphrodisiaka berauschen, sollten diesen Edelstein besitzen: Ein begeisterndes Noise-Ambient-Werk!" [Der Schrei]
"Vielmehr versetzen sie Gitarrensaiten in harmonische Schwingungen, um damit sinnlich erfahrbar zu machen, dass Begriffe und Ideen Herrn & Damen ohne Unterleib bleiben müssen, wenn sie sich nicht entpuppen zu Flügelwesen, Tänzern und Sängern. TROUMS Dröhnwellen singen von der Einheit von Pneuma, Psyche & Soma. Eine Einheit, die ständiger Modulation ausgesetzt ist. Beispielhaft für einen Modulator steht bei TROUM der ‚Thalamus‘, der wörtlich ‚Schlafzimmer‘ genannte Teil des Zwischenhirns, der die ein- und ausgehenden informativen Erregungen des Großhirns moduliert. Muss man das wissen? Es kann zumindest nicht schaden, sich dessen bewusst zu sein, dass TROUM im Klang & Fleisch gewordenen Wort ‚Traum‘ die psycho-physischen und environmentalen Fundamente vibrieren lässt." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
"...The general feel of the sounds here is reminiscent of the earth moving, tectonic plates in constant shuffle, the tracks building and then either shifting or worn away via attrition. Its as if Maeror Tri learned to fly through ingenuity, smoke and mirrors, while Troum has taken the ingenuity, smoke and mirrors and, somehow, grown wings. Amazing stuff!" [JC Smith]
"I believe it was 1997 when a small posting came my way stating that Maeror Tri had dissolved. At the time, this German trio had
become one of my (Jim's) favorite ensembles alongside the likes of Organum, Skullflower, and :zoviet*france:. Maeror Tri's dedication to grimly focused atmospheric music harbored all of the things that succeeded in the campaigns of industrial and ambient music; and the
Maeror Tri anonymity (or at least a mysteriousness about the group that lead to such a reading of their collective persona) certainly enhanced their charm. Albums such as Emotional Engramm and Multiple Personality Disorder had achieved heavy rotation status on my stereo (and still get pulled from the shelves quite often in this day and age); so the news that Maeror Tri was no more was met with sadness. Fortunately, two thirds of the Maeror Tri ensemble had decided to continue on but under the moniker Troum. While the name of this duo was an archaic German word for dream, Troum's pursuit of unconscious symbolism through their heavily processed guitar drones still maintained the ashen darkness that Maeror Tri perpetuated, as was evident on their first CD release Ryna, which originally came out in
1998 on the Belgian label Myotis. It should be noted that Ryna is not the first Troum recording; that honor is held by a cassette called Dreaming Muzak that came housed in a tiny pillow. Ryna quickly went out of print, along with much of the Maeror Tri back catalogue; but thankfully, Troum have repressed this early gem through their own Transgredient imprint. An album of constantly billowing black clouds, Ryna achieves the same dark ambient / dronescape signature that had marked so many great Maeror Tri / Troum releases. On occasion, cracked / decayed loops of rhythmic surging emerged from beyond the horizon of Troum's guitar suites, alluding to a Norse mythological bellow of impending doom and apocalyptic battle. While I've not done the side-by-side taste test of the two albums, the 2007 redux of Ryna appears to much louder and cleaner. Regardless, it's a pleasure to hear this record once again!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
AIWS |
CD |
"AIWS is the first full-length cd release from Troum since 2003. It covers studio-recordings composed from 2002-2005. These musicians have compiled some of their most favorable pieces through the years to be placed on this release. Presenting nine analogue (4&8 track) recorded compositions that lead the listener through vast feelings of beautifully deep melancholic and hypnotic states of mind. Composed with guitar-drones and harmonic phrases that are processed in various ways creating an atmosphere of the sublime and emotional meditative states that transcend listener to immerse within themselves.
Ingredients: Sufi-songs, old vinyl-crackles, acoustic & e-guitars, e-bow, e-bass, voice & whisperings, accordion & flute. Stunning photography & design work by Alan McClelland(Eye.lyft). One of the most emotional and profound Troum releases to date now available on Transgredient Records. Dedicated to Eternity.
TRACK LISTING of AIWS [* and meaning of titles & phrases]
1. AHMATEINS
2. AGGILUS
3. SPIRARE
4. PER SONUM
5. PANTAH
6. [GA] PLAIAN
7. PENTHOS
8. NEHEH
9. PELETÄ
total length: 49:30 min
[* AIWS=Eternity (gothic language), also shortcut for "Alice-In-Wonderland-Syndrome". 1. "Inspiration" (gothic) 2. "Angel - Carrier" (gothic) 3. "breathing - aspirating - sighing - smelling " (latin) 4. "through sound" (latin) 5. "way - path - line" (old indian) 6. "supplication" (persian) 7. "the sorrow of mourning - lament" (greek - also a greek god), 8. "Eternity" (egypt) 9. "escape - flight, also: rescue - salvation" (hebrew) " [label info]
"... nach einigen 12“s und Kollaborationen die 7. CD des TROUM-Duos. GLIT[S]CH & BARAKA[H]
sind dafür bekannt, dass sie sich zu Nietzsches „Die Welt ist tief, viel tiefer als der Tag gedacht“ tief in die Augen blicken und dann ihren Fliegenden Teppich starten. ‚Ahmateins‘ ist, bewusst analog und lo-fi, gewebt aus engen Gitarrenwellen und sämigen Drones von E-Bow und E-Bass. Flug und Flucht, Atmen und Seufzen sind dabei eins. Sound ist der Weg und das Ziel. AIWS ist nicht nur das gotische Wort für Ewigkeit, es steht auch für das Alice in Wonderland Syndrom. Prosaisch ist das eine mit Kopfschmerzen verbundene Sehstörung, metaphorisch aber heißt das doch: Die Welt mit Alicens Augen als Wunderland sehen können.
Troums Zauberteppich schwebt auf harmonischen Strömen durch Rauch und Licht dahin, auf einem spiraligen Kurs ins Sublime. ‚Pantah‘ lässt den Saitenklang deutlicher erkennen, in [Ga]plaian‘ ist Sufigesang verdichtet, in ‚Penthos‘ scheint ein Akkordeon zu pumpen, in ‚Neheh‘ Licht nicht bloß zu schimmern, sondern zu singen. Tiefenmusic Reaching Our Unconscious Minds."
[Bad Alchemy]
"....The pieces on this new CD were recorded from 2002-2005 on Troum's own analogue equipment, all live to four-eight track recorders, without the involvement of computers. Troum, a duo (be it hard to believe), is best a live band, even when working in the studio. Their instruments are guitars, e-bow, bass, voices, accordion & flute, old vinyl. And oh, sound effects. Lots of those are involved in the music of Troum, but they never stand in the way of the end result. Spacious head music. Loud at times, quiet when necessary, but there is a certain roughness about the band, which is an element I really like. Even when things are quiet, they never really are quiet. 'Neheh' is just an example of some sparse organ like loops, feeding through some delay and bouncing gentle forward, but with a certain grittiness. Highly atmospheric even when experienced without the help of any chemicals or other illegal substances and the best but perhaps more frightful experience when played in the dark and with the headphones tied to your head. You are bound to play it again, if not only because it might be too scary to leave the room... Of all things experimental, ambient and industrial (Menche, Zoviet*France, Lustmord), Troum can easily stand the test and be the best of the lot." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Symballein |
CD |
Sechs Stücke aus der Frühphase von TROUM, erschienen auf obskuren & raren Compilations im Zeitraum 1997 - 1999; dunkel, dronig-morastig, tieffrequent, von massiver Konsistenz, post-industriell, jenseitig ...am ehesten zu vergleichen mit der ebenfalls damals erschienenen Debut-CD RYNA.
"...alle sechs sind gute beispiele für die "kl_F/B-S/comp-Theorie", bilden trotzdem ein fast perfektes gesamtwerk und zeigen troum durchweg von ihrer düsteren seite; kavernenartig, rhythmen durch meterdicke wände gefiltert, stimmen aus der zwischenwelt. ein stärkerer kontrast zur aktuellen, dagegen fast leichten A.I.W.S. erscheint kaum möglich......
ps: die "kl_F/B-S/comp-Theorie", deren erste erwähnung hier nicht mehr eruiert werden kann, stellt die (unbewiesene) vermutung in den raum, dass bands kleinere Formate/B-Seiten/compilation-Beiträge gerne dafür nutzen, ein wenig abseitigere tracks zu platzieren. neben dem wunsch, auch mal über die eigenen stränge schlagen zu können, der experimentierlust zu frönen, wird vermutet, dass zum teil auch stücke dergestalt eine heimat finden, die aufgrund von laufzeitbeschränkungen der veröffentlichungsmedien in vorhergehenden releases gekippt werden mussten.
psps: und des wird zeit, endlich einmal small voices aus italien zu loben; allgemein + besonders und jetzt besonders wegen der coverartworks: hier strukturpappe-aufklapper mit schlitz zur cd-aufnahme: eine weitere perfekte annäherung an das lp-cover als die sowieso perfekte verpackung." [n, Unruhr.de]
"Symballein" is the second TROUM releases on SmallVoices label after the well ... "Autopoiesis" LP picture disc (SVV001) actually SOLD OUT. This album is a collection of very rare material, from the very beginning of Troum (period: 1997 - 1999). As Troum meaning the music is dreamy... The concept of the ‘Dream’ is the common thread running through Troum; the name, the music and the philosophy. For not only is TROUM the old German word for "DREAM" but, according to their website, ‘the dream, seen as a central manifestation of the unconscious, symbolizes the aim of TROUM to lead the listener into a hypnotizing dream-state of mind, a pre-verbal and primal consciousness sphere. TROUM uses music as the direct path to the Unconscious, pointing to the archaic "essence" of the human’s inner psyche. TROUM tries to create music that works like a direct transformation of unconscious matter’.
In Symballein dreams are obscure and indecipherable..., in one word nightmares; the music is archaic and droney, with multi-layered guitar drones..., oneiric ambient industrial nearly to Maeror Tri best releases. The disc in packaged in a elegant and luxurious embossed cardboard digi-sleeve. Symballein: "perceivable & non-perceivable things fall into one" [label press release]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
SIGQAN |
CD |
"...„Sigqan" von 2003, remastered und in neuem cover auf neuem label, diesmal dem eigenen. und gerade bei so verbesserungen ist das ergebnis ja oft zwiespältig; das re-master hier dagegen subtil lebendiger, körper- und räumlicher, die (für troum verhältnisse) fast minimalistische, auf gebündelte sounds setzende klangästhetik unterstützend bzw. eben einfach besser ans ohr bringend: dunkel, fast glazial, gegeneinander verschiebende ebenen rund um den hauptstrom der einzelnen teile der sigqan-trilogie, im „part 3" mit ergänzender, eher subtiler rhythmustextur; bis zum ende nur noch ein feedback zwischen cello- und trompetenästetik den beginn widerspiegelt. unter den troum alben vielleicht eines der focussiertesten, vielleicht immer ein wenig versteckt zwischen der grossen tjukurrpa-trilogie; in jedem fall: schwer empfohlen. das neue cover, wieder ein digipack, diesmal in farbe, textur und besonders typografie irgendwie nicht einem bestimmten grafischen (zeit)geschmack verpflichtet wie damals die erste auflage." [N, Unruhr.de]
"Deep beneath the ocean is a world of mystery, wonder, darkness, and danger. Even if it weren't for the cover art of this German duo's brilliant new album, there is unmistakably no other place in the universe that has influenced the sounds and movement of what is represented within. These drones are not passive in the least. The depth and volume are all encompassing, and moving slowly but steadily like an ancient and lonely large whale through the graveyards of shipwrecks, at the very beginning of the food chain in which all living creatures depend. Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, the first two parts are based on live performances the band was touring around with in 2001, the first being a dark blue rumble, heavy on the low end and marked by patient melodic movement, the second with swirling guitar strums and leads like the sun coming through in bended bands of beams: flickering, reflected, and refracted. The intangible overwhelming feeling of weight and pressure is unavoidable and inescapable, like being frozen in a dream, unable to move, but calm and comforting all the same. Around the half-way mark, it dips back into the darker regions as pitch and pace slow down deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper yet into the cold, black unknown. The third part was recorded as an afterthought, and is described as a new ending. Its brightness and chugging backwards-sounding guitars brilliantly accent the feel that it is a journey which is reaching its end. At this point, it feels that the central figure in the journey seems to be a vessyl of some sort, and the 16-minute Part 3 is thematic of a glorious resurfacing, reintroduction to the bright light of day, and returning to solid ground. But, as the brightness comes, so does an ominous sense that all might not be right. The world looks different than before, the places are familiar but everything's seemed to have changed. The credits may roll but this is certainly not the end." [Jon Whitney / Brainwashed]
“Finally, the first Troum record to be widely available in the United States, released through Relapse subsidiary Desolation House, and we're pleased to say it's maybe their best yet. Troum are the ambient-drone ensemble that emerged from the dissolution of proto-industrial dronesters Maeror Tri. Unlike the primarily guitar based whir and rumble of Maeror Tri, Troum obfuscate their sound sources, laptops, found sounds, accordians, guitars too maybe, and the results are timeless, mysterious, haunting, ethereal and utterly breathtaking dronescapes. Sigqan is a lengthy three part epic, beginning with rich sonorous foghorn like swells, that ebb and flow, separated by near silence, and slowly building in intensity from warm crescendos to huge doomy pulses. Eventually, these roaring rumbles joined by complementary shimmers of high end, that sound out, and then dissipate like sonic ripples, fading into blackness. The swells slowly grow closer and closer until the edges begin to blur and a subtly more continuous melodic framework begins to emerge and so begins the second movement, a creepy and slightly ominous, slowly fluctuating slow-motion-melody, whose lazily shifting notes keep the sonic landscape dense and rich, and keeps the sounds from flatlining into monochromatic drones. As the piece winds down, the dynamics and melody start to smear together into a warm, diffused fuzzy hum, with the subtle traces of melody sinking deeper and deeper into the dark warmth. The third and final movement was a sonic afterthought, added/recorded later than the first two, but is a pleasantly dreamy coda, with a slightly sunnier tone, a keening upper register melody, stretched out into subtly slithering iridescence with a shuffling, staticky rhythm just below the surface. So nice.“ [Aquarius Records, 2003]
"Beauty and profundity are the evident merits of the album - like the unity of oceanic and atmospheric elements, and namely the ocean is most frequently mentioned association used by critics and musicians. When you are at a depth of thousands metres, even the storm on the surface is impossible to hear." [Dmitry Vasilyev, IEM]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ljubimaya / Daur |
CD |
CD-Wiederveröffentlichung zweier bisher nur als 10" Vinyl erschienenen Mini-Alben; DAUR ( 3 tracks) erschien 1998 auf dem KIRCHENKAMPF-Label COHORT und enthält allerfrühestes TROUM-Material bzw. Aufnahmen aus der Zeit entstanden "zwischen" MAEROR TRI und TROUM als der weitere Status des Projekts noch unklar war.
Von DAUR gab es 300 Kopien auf blauen Vinyl in einem merkwürdigen Kork- & Alu-Cover, ein kleiner Teil der Auflage (24 Stück) kam in einem Aluminium-Gitter Cover. LJUBIMAYA war eine frühe WAYSTYX-Veröffentlichung (2003( mit ebenfalls drei Stücken... für das re-issue gibt es eine neue Coverartwork von HUM, Auflage 500 Stück.
"Reissue of two 10" from the years 1998 and 2003. Daur is the very first release of TROUM and it resents very post-rock sounding material wth a lot of decipherable guitar parts and good drive. Ljubimaya was released by the Russian label Waystyx and carries you towards lyrical and touchy eternity of everbeginning melodies without an end, into emptiness of existence with all the uterine roar provided by YEN POX project in one of the tracks. The covers uses psychodelic image manipulations by Dmitri "HUM" Chistov" [press-release]
"Troum means dream, and dream is a symbol for unconscious. Just like a daydream, this music can drive us to very deep, out of mind control domains from emotional side. Floating, blurred soundscapes takes you to the limits of everyday life. The enigmatic non-being, unreacheable ultimate harmony is far from mind capabilities and refuses to be rationally analyzed. This minialbum is the first vinyl release of Moscow based label Waystyx, and it remember us about russian tour of the legendary duo, which took place about a year ago. Dense and spheric, their sound progressed to the more subtle, fine aesthetics, carrying slightly minor intonations through all three pieces of this album, creating the wonderful shapes out of massive noise foundament. Especially speaking of “Meerestraum” (“The Sea Dream”), which is majestically eminent, enchanting your perception, drilling the dusky space of unconscious chaos, it fulfill your soul with confusion and yearning for mysteries and unknown places....." [Dmitry Vasilyev, IEM Magazine]
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2009 |
€12.50 |
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Autopoiesis / Nahtscato |
CD |
"Two elder vinyls first time on CD. These vinyls materials aren't available + bonus tracks.
Packaged in exclusive 3-panel digipack.
'Autopoiesis' was originally released as picture LP on Small Voices in October 2004 in limited edition of 567 copies 'Nahtscato' was originally released as a 12"EP on Paranoise Records in July 2005 in an edition of 300 copies. The bonus tracks were recorded in 2003." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
TROUM – Autopoiesis pic-LP : Small Voices :
In 2003, the German post-industrial duo Troum completed their celebrated Tjukurrpa-trilogy. Each of the three records concentrated on the aesthetic fundamentals of their work: harmonies, drones, and rhythms. At the same time, the trilogy was inscribed with the metaphorical themes relating to Aboriginal dreamtime. If this mighty body of work had one flaw, it was the way the formalist agenda of this series trumped Troum’s ongoing investigations into hypnogogic states and the psychological impact of sound. Troum have been at their best when the sonic elements of their work play off each other and run in parallel with their conceptual ideas. The vinyl-only picture disc Autopoiesis finds Troum at the top of their game, as their guitars and bass, heavily fortified with effects, drift through miasmic washes. When suspending their drones as lugubrious slabs of sound, Troum emerge as a brooding doppleganger of the shoegazer ethos. And throughout Autopoiesis, they vulcanise their drone into chugging riff and darkly majestic melodies. [Jim Haynes, THE WIRE]
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2010 |
€12.00 |
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Seeing-Ear Gods |
CD |
" ‘Seeing-Ear Gods' is the second collaboration between Troum and Zoharum. The album in question is the re-release of the obscure CDR which saw the light of the day 5 years ago on Discorporeality Recordings label. Here it is repackaged (3-panel digipak) and gloriously remastered by Anders Peterson (from Ghost Sounds mastering studio) responsible for dusting off other Troum / Maeror Tri releases.
'Seeing-Ear Gods' is quite different a release from 'Autopoiesis / Nahtscato' released on Zoharum last year. It's not as multilayered or varied, but at the same time is much more minimalist and hence very hypnotic. It works more on the subconscious level. It demonstrates how to create a mindblowing atmosphere with very little sounds involved.
Just one track, divided into 6 separate parts, but be assured that you will press the 'repeat' button a lot of times." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
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2011 |
€12.00 |
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Mare morphosis |
CD |
"'Mare morphosis' forms the third & final part of TROUMs so called 'Power Romantic' trilogy that started with 'Mare Idiophonika' in 2010. The basic materials & arrangements for this one long epic piece were created from 2009-2013 (partly based on the recordings for the 'Bach Eingeschaltet, Dritter Band' 7" dealing with experimental reworkings of J.S.BACH pieces) & to some extent used live in different live-programmes: A piece like an 'Ocean of Transformations', morphing through various stages of intensity. 'Mare morphosis' stands out in the history of TROUM studio-albums as their most symphonic, refined and orchestral effort so far. Cover photography by Paul Takahashi, graphic design by Tilmann Benninghaus (8 panel fold out digipack). First edition: 1000 copies.
'Mare morphosis definitely gives Troum’s music a new dimension, reflecting ancient waves, amplifying the power of Sehnsucht, drumming the drowning heart." [Denis Boyer / Fear Drop]
"Mare morphosis" ist eines der stimmungsvollsten und abwechslungsreichsten Werke von TROUM, die ich kenne. Die einzelnen Abschnitte wirken tatsächlich wie Sätze einer Sinfonie, ohne dass die Gesamtanmutung vernachlässigt wird: Es geht hörbar um die mächtigste aller Naturgewalten, das Wasser, in seinen unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen. Von ästhetisch über melancholisch bis düster und bedrohlich; vermutlich sind die 'Veränderungen' im Titel so zu deuten. Wunderschön und mit vielen Details zum Mehrfach-Hören gespickt.' [Michael We / nonpop.de]" [label info]
"What comes with the Power Romantic trilogy (which pt. 1 and 2 are: Mare Idiophonika, Grote Mandrenke) is brooding from the core of Troum’s universe. Relating Troum with strong Romantic tropisms is like sewing an endless canvas. In every musical piece they work, the two musicians BarakaH and Glit[s]ch navigate a vast sea of sound, recalling the Romantic feeling in front of deep landscapes that reflect the very soul, threatening in a voluptuous appeal the observer to dissolve in the totality. Troum’s attraction to the notion of Dissolution is felt every time that the sound waves inflate to shape a luminous drone, every time that the pulsation melts into a magmatic rumbling. And what about the beauty of sadness, celebrated since the days of Maeror Tri…
That sea of sound, of profound melancholic drones and waves gets its monument with the Power Romantic trilogy in which Troum show their skill in harmony, but not only. Drones and harmony still reign but a clear way is designed for melody and rhythms (as it already was in Tjukurrpa pt. 3). The oceanic feeling is fueled by new movements, like a storm upon and under the fluid. Mare morphosis, pt. 3 of the Power Romantic trilogy, opens as the very building of a Sunken Cathedral, with heavy rhythms like stone columns gently embraced by subtle sharpened melodic phrases. The whole soundscape navigates then by the tide and lets the strong motion of sound rumbling and driving to surface the heavy layers of undercurrents, bringing up to light their deep melancholic germ of melody. Mare morphosis definitely gives Troum’s music a new dimension, reflecting ancient waves, amplifying the power of Sehnsucht, drumming the drowning heart." [Denis Boyer / Fear Drop]
listen: http://troum.bandcamp.com/album/mare-morphosis-cd-2013
www.troum.com
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2013 |
€12.00 |
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Syzygie |
CD |
"Formed by Glit[S]ch and Baraka[H] in 1997, Troum rose from the ashes of Maeror Tri. The duo create unbearably beautiful drones, multi-layered transcendental noise, and highly atmospheric dream-muzak.
Syzygie: Zusammenkunft und Gegenschein zweier Planeten, or: an antithetic relationship between (personified) beings of the spiritual world and their shadows.
A collection of rare / deleted tracks from compilations Vol. II (1999-2002). Everything recorded by TROUM between November 1999 and May 2002 on analogue 8-track. 9 meticulously crafted tracks, carefully compiled by Troum and delicately remastered by Martin Bowes (Attrition).
Cold Spring will release the brand new studio album from Troum in 2014.
Track listing:
1. Ater
2. Makaria
3. Ganymed
4. Fantauma
5. Uegh[Cunabula]
6. S’engourdir
7. Khan-Arachnid
8. Wit Wists Fra-Qistjan
9. Thrausmata Enos Oneirou" [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Troum is a joint venture between two members of the well-acclaimed project Maeror Tri. In 1997 the two members Glit[S]ch and Baraka[H] introduced the Troum project. Troum takes its starting point in atmospheric drones and multi-layered noise woven into an alluring sound texture. Present album titled "Szygie" is a collection of rare / deleted tracks recorded by Troum in the period November 1999 to May 2002. That "Szygie" is a compilation of tracks taken from different periods of the lifetime of Troum becomes clear as you listen to the varied expressions throughout the runtime. The expressions spans from industrial-based ambient across orchestral ambient and deep ambient to more threatening sound art. The album opens in orchestral based dark ambient. Grandiose soundscapes of melancholy drifts upon the listener from beginning. As the album continues the expression turns into beautiful moments of deep ambient resulting in hypnotic and well accomplished tripping ambient. Moments after the album takes a new step into territories of concrete noise and voices whispering in the background to add a great feeling of dream or nightmare depending on the nature of the listener. Despite the great variation in the ambient expression throughout "Szygie", the album works really well as an entire work. Everyone interested in ambient music or dying for a trip into dark hypnosis should definitely check this out." [NM, Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
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Dreaming Muzak |
CD |
" 'Dreaming Muzak' is the first full-length material of TROUM duo originally released on tape in 1998 and later re-released on a limited CDR (100 copies only) in 2005. This edition is the first one on a regular CD. The material was thoroughly remastered by Łukasz Miernik (who is also responsible for the sound of the previous MAEROR TRI reissues on Zoharum.)
"Dreaming Muzak" is composed of 2 drone ambient compositions so characteristic for the TROUM style. They were created as a muzak tuning our brainwaves into the proper dreaming stadium. The following prerequisites have been accompanying the duo for many years, hence they have become their credo executed on many excellent records and gigs. It is "Dreaming Muzak" that constitutes an excellent introduction to the adventures with TROUM and their music.
The cover design is based on the artwork of Wiktor Jackowski.
This edition is released in a 3-panel digipak strictly limited to 350." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Dreaming Muzak was the very first release from Troum, not long after the two members of Troum had disbanded their previous project Maeror Tri in 1998. Originally released as a cassette housed in a tiny pillow in an edition numbering a scant 100 copies, then as an equally small pressing on cd-r a few years later. That said, Dreaming Muzak does what Troum and Maeror Tri have always done so very well: drone-on with gritty, psychological undercurrents. If the intent of Troum was to put the listener to sleep, the lulling vibrating patterns certainly have the capacity; but the overall darkness of these sounds will never inspire the most pleasant of dreams. These are shadowy, bleak, and cold sounds which permeate the album, and lend themselves to images of desolate factories spewing a constant stream of black soot in some wintery post-Soviet country. A very nice document from one of our favorite drone acts." [Aquarius Records]
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2014 |
€13.00 |
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ACOUASME |
CD |
digital bandcamp version available, too !
troum.bandcamp.com/album/acouasme-2015-2
"After the much praised collaboration with RAISON D’ETRE released summer 2015 (“De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu”) and the final volume of the ‘Power Romantic’ trilogy with “Mare Morphosis” in late 2013, “Acouasme” is the first full length album from TROUM in over 2 years. With this album, TROUM wanted to go in a completely different direction, creating a ‘harsher’ and more ‘Industrial’ sounding album as a contrast to previous releases. But through the trademark troumatic machining, the final result doesn’t sound at all like standard harsh noise – it’s rather industrial noise as if filtered through a feverish dream, through a deranged perception. The six long tracks of pestering transrational drones on “Acouasme” sound like an aural psychiatric symptom, a humming hallucination leaving the stable reality." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk |
2015 |
€13.00 |
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Synistanai |
CD |
Troum
"Synistа́nai"
aquarel 53-20
2020
SYNISTÁNAI: zusammenstellen, - fügen, - vereinigen, - verknüpfen
( to collocate, to assemble, to unite, to merge, to interloop.. )
A collection of rare & deleted tracks from compilations Vol. III (2003-2007)
Everything recorded between 01/2003 and 02/2007.
( Part I: Symballein : 1997-1999; Part II: Syzygie : 1999-2002)
CD, limited edition of 300 copies in 4-panel digisleeve
1. USWENA
2. ANANKE
3. PINA
4. SENGUH
5. IRCHENNAN
6. DRŪSIAN
7. DONISIS
8. GIASCEI
9. (...) ULTRACHRONOS (...)
Track 1 finished 01/2003, originally released on "Record of Shadows Infinite" CD
Crucialblast, 2003)
Track 2 finished 03/2003, originally released on "Evolved as One" CD (Evolved as One, 2003) Track 3 finished 05/2003, originally released on "Dark Ambient Radio 2" CD
(Dark Ambient Radio, 2009)
Track 4 finished 03/2004, originally released on "Subterranean Ways of Thinking" LP
(Avatar Rec., 2004)
Track 5 finished 09/2005, originally released on "Listen to Something Different" CD
(Ars Macabre, 2007)
Track 6 finished 10/2006, originally released on "Brainwaves" 3xCD
(Brainwashed Rec., 2006)
Track 7 finished 01/2006, originally released on "Walking in the Rain on the Ostrow Tumski" CD
(Ars Benevola Mater, 2006)
Track 8 finished 05/2006, originally released on "Cryosphere" CDr
(Glacial Movements Records, 2006)
Track 9 finished 02/2007, originally released on "The Threshold of Silence" CDr
(Umbra, 2007)
Notes to track 9 : The full title was : "(magic cymbals and the mother of) ULTRACHRONOS" - and there were, as usual, NO keyboards used! (wrong info by label and now on discogs)
Collected autumn 2019 by Baraka[H]
Mastered by Igor Potsukaylo
Artwork based on a painting by Stefan Knappe
Sleeve by Oleg Galay
aquarellist.ru/catalog/73/
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2020 |
€15.00 |
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DA-PU-RI-TO-JO (The Singles 2004-2016) |
CD |
Troum returns to Zoharum with DA-PU-RI-TO-JO a collection of tracks taken from 7” singles (and one digital EP) that were released through the years 2004-2016.
Drone masters offer 12 dreamscapes that range from soothing, etheral and meditative through emotional and mysterious to dark, industrialesque and nightmarish.
Listening to the album in one go Troum takes us on a journey to the farthest corners of human psyche. From heaven to hell and back. It’s all here.
If you’re Troum’s fan it’s a great opportunity to have these lesser known tracks in one place. If you’re about to become one it’s a great way to start here your journey into the depths of subconscious.
CD edition of 500 copies comes in 6-panel digipack.
This is a collection of TROUMs 7" vinyl releases (+one digital EP- unreleased on any physical format so far) through the years 2004 - 2016.
The tracks are not chronologically sorted to get a new perspective inside this "labyrinth of music".
Cover artwork by Radosław Kamiński (Ab Intra)
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/da-pu-ri-to-jo-the-singles-2004-2016
"Troum has been always some sort of legend in terms of its own publishing and concert activity. Associated with Drone records, a small label famous for its singles series, it made a brand of its own with evocative, dark ambient.
Zoharum releases a compilation of their singles from over the course of 12 years - between 2004 and 2016.
It definitely shows the slow metamorphosis and evolution of their craft. Coming from the influences of psychodelia and prepared electroacoustic music rather than synth based ( as they mentioned many times - they don't use synths, samplers and sequencers) they elaborate on quite a romantic way of expression - a somewhat natural in this field but also not being pushed too hard and very honest way of their artistic expression.
Their own version of atmospheric ambient operates on low frequencies and glitched and delayed for of hymn like tracks but never ceases to amaze how much you can achieve through using very simple techniques within the washed out clichees of the genre that rarely helps to understand why there is no progression.
But Troum in many ways is master of its own terms and can be refreshed by the fact that it has its own working ethos." [Felt Hat Reviews] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
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Symbiosis |
LP |
Listen:
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/symbiosis
First ever vinyl reissue of TROUM's Symbiosis EP, with unreleased extra track
The original Symbiosis CD EP was released in January 2003 as a limited edition in a handmade 3D pyramid-box (200 copies) as Transgredient TR-02. An additional standard edition came in a stickered & handcoloured cardboard cover with obi (more copies). The 5 tracks were recorded from May 2000 – August 2002 and consisted of guitar-only solo pieces by both members. Forming a unity out of singularities, merging the contradictions, this first re-issue has an additional unreleased bonus track, a reworking of older material recorded with the same approach. Finalized in march 2023.
Troum
Troum is a duo located in Bremene, Germany, established in early 1997. The two members Gli[S]ch and Baraka[H] were active before in the influential ambient industrial group Maeror Tri which existed from 1988 to 1996. "Troum" is the old German word for “dream". The dream seen as a central manifestation of the unconscious symbolizes the aim of Troum to lead the listener into a hypnotizing dream-state of mind, a pre-verbal and primal consciousness sphere.
Troum have played live extensively and collaborated internationally with numerous releases on different labels around the globe.
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2024 |
€22.00 |
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| TROUM & MARTYN BATES |
To a Child, Dancing in the Wind |
CD |
Nach über 2 Jahren konnte die lange geplante Zusammenarbeit von TROUM mit MARTYN BATES endlich fertiggestellt werden. Gedichte des irischen Dichters W.B.YEATS dienten als textliche Grundlage für sechs Stücke voller Sehnsucht & Emotion, Drone-Harmonics treffen auf expressiv gesungene Poesie....
“ - Profound songs inspired by YEATS-poems: The acoustic transformation of the deepest yearning - For this release, the german ‘transcendental-drone’-duo TROUM teams up with the legendary british singer / songwriter and EYELESS IN GAZA-member MARTYN BATES.
More than 2 years in the making, MARTYN BATES has sung & played (mouth organ & melodica) over basic material TROUM provided – consisting of harmonic minimal loops & basic song structures derived from accordeon, e-bass & guitar, percussion), who were then also responsible for the final subsequent additions mastering (adding more guitar-work, voices & balalaika).
MARTYN BATES has chosen to sing four poems of the famous Irish poet W.B.YEATS, and he did this with a most impressive sensitivity for TROUMS very sublime & rather hidden harmonic structures. There are also two instrumentals in a more experimental style on this disc, one being a dark drone reprise of the main piece “MAD AS THE MIST AND SNOW #2”. MARTYN’s voice is surely not something for everyone – it’s of an extreme emotional & yearnful quality that might be not easy to stand – a yearning which is like a deep “cry out to the horizon”, to something that is unreachable per se, feeling a passion that tears you apart inside. This is pure emotional poetry transformed into yearnful audible spherics!
Artwork: Daniel Crokaert, founder of the dream-ambience CDR-label MYSTERY SEAS in Brussels and a long-time fan of both MARTYN BATES & TROUM, has created a stunning 6-panel digipack using pictures provided by Martyn.
The Artists: MARTYN BATES is the legendary british songwriter, being active since the early 80’s, one half of EYELESS IN GAZA & also working solo with other musicians and with Alan Trench as 12.000 DAYS. He has established a unique own style combining elements of folk & various other influences with this remarkable singing, being expressively poetic & highly emotional at any time.
TROUM is a german duo consisting of 2/3 of the remains of the ambient-industrialists MAEROR TRI (last year saw a rennaisance of M.T. with many re-releases of their works). TROUM describe their music themselves as “transcendental drone-muzak”, a very atmospheric & emotional but often also monumental and noisy, hypnotically & at times trance-inducing rhythmic melange.
General Disc-Info: 6-panel 4-colour digipack, 6 tracks, 38:30 playtime” [press release]
”....Now its so much more than 'just' a drone record: the voice forms a counterpart of the music, perhaps because it fits so well. This is certainly on of the best drone records I heard this year, because it's so familiar as well as such a surprise.” [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2006 |
€12.00 |
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| TROUM & REUTOFF |
Kreuzung Zwei: Creatura Per Creaturam Continetur |
CD |
"Jedes Wesen ist mit jedem anderen verbunden."
Nach ANTLERS MULM der zweite Teil der REUTOFF Collaboration-Serie: TROUM bearbeiteten hierfür Basismaterial der Moskauer und gossen das ganze, inspiriert von der Kosmologie HILDEGARD VON BINGENs, in sechs dronig-sphärische Stücke.
"The second in Kreuzung collaborations series. The basic sound sources and samples made by Reutoff especially for this release have been treated, arranged and mixed with an addition of their own instrumental parts by Troum. Dark profound harsh ambient with some occasional rhythmic patterns intertwined with transcendental prepared guitar loops and perfect drone noises - a perfect blend between two project distinctive features and creative manners. The concept of this work is based on cosmology of Hildegard von Bingen. The release comes in a special “Kreuzung” series package made of brown kraft carton with a full colour stickered artwork/info cover and Reutoff logo embossed on the back, the CD is housed in the same carton die-cut inner envelope." [label info]
"The forty-five minutes are divided into six tracks, slowly building towards an intense mixture of miniature noisescapes, neoclassical tapestries, ethnic rhythmic structures and eerie vocal samples. All titles are in Latin, and since that isn't my strong point, I'll leave translations to the readers' enquiring minds. The first track, "Aether Purus", is typical for Troum, although the familiar bassy layering of Troum seems to have gone up in frequency; it's all a bit higher. "Terrenus" has some partial neoclassical-like sounds, but it is set in a 1970s surrounding, "A Space Odyssey"-like environment. There are moments there that appear like insects stuck in your aural canal. Or is it really little aliens?
This setting is forcefully continued in the third (title) track where the Troum sounds find their way back into the composition. Later in the track rhythms are added to the composition. It is by far the longest track on the album. "Ignis Niger" is the fourth track and its creepy, erratic voices and samples really get you into a mood fit for watching a horror movie. Yes, two film references are my way of saying this whole release is very filmic. "Ignis Lucidus" has rhythms again, in combination with deep droning layers. It's a bit close to atmospheres like O Yuki Conjugate. The disc closes with "Aer Aquosus (Reprise)" which is a short but powerful track in an adapted Troum style.
My knowledge of Reutoff is minimal, so maybe there are a few too many references towards Troum here, but on the other hand I love Troum, and this album is, despite the references, so different from their other work that I think I'm secretly going to like Reutoff a lot also." [Bauke van der Wal / Connexion Bizarre]
"The Germanic and dark drone outfit Troum embark on a collaboration with the equally dark, Russian ensemble Reutoff, although the conceptual framework of their album isn't one wholly wrapped in mystery, occlusion, and shadow. Creatura Per Creaturam Continetur is based upon the cosmology of Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th century German abbess, whose richly detailed visions through her unshakeable Christian faith offered feminine descriptions of the cosmic order sprinkled with sexually charged metaphor. In addition to her writings, Hildegard had developed an impressive musical canon of monophonic chorales and plainsong melodies, whose recursive elements certainly look forward to all sorts of drone-based musics of the 20th and 21st centuries.
While the drone connection is easy to make, how Troum and Reutoff view Hildegard von Bingen's faith and art is unclear.
Regardless, the majestic swells that immediately surge at the introduction of this album are some of the most beatific and
heavensent that either project has produced to date. Troum have always been known for their glacial pacing of drone crescendos for spiralling guitars heavily processed in effects; and on this album, they leave no doubt that they excel at their craft. For those seeking the dark, almost blackened ambience that both Troum and Reutoff have mustered in the past, there's plenty of industrial bellows, clanking rhythms, creepily whispered vocals, and subaquatic reverberations to cast a somber pall across these recordings..." [Aquarius Records]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
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| TSUKIMONO |
Sketches 6-27 |
CD-R |
Eine weitere Labelgründung gibt es aus UTRECHT zu vermelden! MECHANIZED MIND will sich dem Bereich zwischen experimental Ambient/Drone und Songwriting widmen.
Aus Schweden kommt TSUKIMONO: minimal-loopige Piano-Stücke, die digital verfremdet werden aber von wohlklingender und fliessender Harmonik & Melancholie durchdrungen sind
...“The first release of MechanizedMind is this cd by tsukimono. Continuing his efforts on Garmonbozia and Fukkgod, Tsukimono again cuts and slices guitar and piano, and re aranges to form something completly new, without ever loosing the feeling of the original recordings. His music is a perfect balance between acoustic music and experimental electronics.
Tsukimono is often compared to Fennesz and the likes, a great honour ofcourse, but it´s too easy. They might share the cutting and slicing, but what is done with it afterwards is different. Sketches 6-27 might sound hectic at times, or noisy, but sit back, let the music take you on a ride, and you'll see it's really just dreamy music, made to enjoy with closed curtains, late at night and as little light as possible. Starting out with a stunning piano piece, the cd slowly builds up to the end, introducing guitar and many more (treated) sounds.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| TUNDRA |
Tajnie i Glebie |
CD |
"Tundra - an electroacoustic project of Dawid Adrjanczyk and Krzysiek Joczyn - is a duo, whose inspiration is, first and foremost, space, both in its physical manifestation and the spiritual meaning. Beside samples, field recordings and sound manipulation, they use acoustic instruments. After 2 self-released EPs and 2 collaborative albums with Karpaty Magiczne (The Magic Carpathians), they recorded a full-length album, which is a manifestation of their journeys into places where peace and chill reign simultaneously. These are akin to more ethereal songs from the World Serpent realm, but also academic compositions or free improv. The sounds on "Tajnie i G³êbie" lose tracks and inspirations luring the listeners with an ambiguous atmosphere at the same time.
This 3-panel ecopak release is strictly limited to 350 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| TUNNELS OF ĀH (TUNNELS OF AH) |
Lost Corridors |
CD |
"Tunnels Of Ah is the new project of former HEAD OF DAVID vocalist Stephen Ah Burroughs. “Lost Corridors” is the first Tunnels Of Ah release and features Burroughs’ “industrial esoterica”, evoking the spirit of the pioneering underground experimental scene in the new dark age. This is psychick war.
A mandatory release for those who worship at the altars of Coil, Psychic TV, Arktau Eos, Z’EV…" [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Next album comes from British sound artist Stephen-Ah-Borroughs performing under the alias Tunnels Of Ah - a name that hits the bull's eye considering the sonic expression of the present album. Stephen Ah Burroughs is the brain behind legendary project Head Of David. Present album titled "Lost corridors" is the debut album from Tunnels Of Ah. Musically what we are dealing with here are long repetitive drones swirling inside tunnels of dark sinister ambient. Divided into seven intersections the composer uses processed sounds of acoustic instruments such as whining guitars to create the hypnotic textures that change between drifting tranquillity and rumbling noises resulting in an excellent kind of drowsiness. Ghostly voices occur to strengthen the feeling occultism. Turn the lights off look and let the dark, threatening yet beautiful buzzing drones clear your brain. The perfect soundtrack for drifting into sub consciousness." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Thus Avici |
CD |
" 'Firstly, the punishment is meted out day and night, kalpa after kalpa, without a moment’s interruption or relief. Thus Avici'. ‘Thus Avici’ is the second album from Tunnels Of Ah (Stephen Ah Burroughs / Head Of David). The title references ‘the sutra of bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s fundamental vows’, a section of which Burroughs reads daily in homage to Ksitigarbha whom Burroughs pledged ‘entreaty and supplication’ under solemn tantric oath 20 years ago. Tantric buddhism, christian mysticism and personal magick make up the subject matter for ‘Thus Avici’. Where traces of 2013′s ‘Lost Corridors’ album can be heard, ‘Thus Avici’ is a harder, more focused offering. Shards of distorted noise, ritual drums, caustic drones and haunted vocals make ‘Thus Avici’ a dark hallucinatory swoon into the hinterland of the Tunnels Of Ah. The dull blue light of brute-world calls." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
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| |
The Smeared Cloth |
do-CD |
"The Smeared Cloth" is a double CD compilation containing the TUNNELS OF ĀH recordings from 2012-2018, which have not yet been published on any medium. The first disc is filled with compositions from the period before the debut in Cold Spring and outtakes from the sessions for "Thus Avici", the next album for the British label.
The second disc contains tracks recorded during and between the sessions for "Surgical Fires" and "Charnel Transmissions". Although they were created as loose compositions, out of the concepts clearly outlined on each of the mentioned albums, they sound incredibly coherent, giving impression of being part of a concept release, this makes them a pleasure to listen to; especially when we get carried away in the world created by Stephen Ah Burroughs with the sounds characteristic of his work. Sometimes they evoke associations with ancient rituals, intensifying the impression of Egyptian darkness, the feeling of coldness and emptiness coming as if from a deep dungeon, and with them an echo. All this is a superstructure for the 21 tracks filling both discs, outlined and maintained, in a convention that allows them to be stylistically located somewhere between isolating dark ambient and death industrial, where the gloom aura and dense, mechanical structures coexist as if in symbiosis, thanks to which the balance between building the atmosphere and reflecting the true nature of the industrial collision. This release is undoubtedly a must-have for TOĀH fans, but it can also delight those who appreciate death industrial at a high level. The album's released on two CDs folded in a six-panel ecopack.
Tracks 1-11 taken from "The Smeared Cloth" CD1
Tracks 12-21 taken from "The Smeared Cloth" CD2
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-smeared-cloth-2012-2018-unearthed
"In den frühen 80ern gründete Stephen R. Borroughs zusammen mit Justin Broadrick und Dave Cochrane das Trio HEAD of David, das einen der noisigsten Grundsteine dessen legte, das später Industrial Metal genannt werden sollte. Im Lauf der Jahre konzentrierte er sich mehr und mehr auf Soloprojekte, und neben Frag war dies seit etwas über zehn Jahren Tunnels of Āh, mit dem er einen Ritualkosmos von fast räudiger Abgründigkeit entstehen ließ.
Dass Tunnels of Ah trotz der starken Abstraktion seiner ästhetischen Konzepte ein konsequent verfolgtes atmosphärisches Thema hat, wird bereits deutlich, wenn man die mittlerweile sechs Alben, die seit 2013 auf Cold Spring und zuletzt Hypershape erschienen sind, im Vergleich hört, denn da fallen die verbindenden Elemente sehr deutlich ins Auge. Mehr noch beeindruckt einen die musikalisches Stringenz angesichts der jüngst auf Tape und Doppel-CD erschienenen Compilation “The Smeared Cloth 2012 – 2018 Unearthed”, denn hier lassen frühe Stücke und Outtakes aus verschiedenen Albumsessions ein überraschend zusammenhängendes Bild entstehen.
“The Smeared Cloth” ist nichts für Hörer, die Probleme mit Beklemmung, Dunkelheit und niederdrückender Schwere haben. Eine finstere, bedrohliche Stimmung zieht sich durch die oft kreisenden Soundgebilde, lassen durch ambiente Dröhnung, Saitenrasseln oder sirrende Streichersounds filmreife Phasen der Spannung und durch paukende und prasselnde Takte und plötzliche Schuttlawinen aufwühlende Momente entstehen, steigern sich vom subtilen Hauch eines – nur oberflächlich sanft wirkenden, in Wirklichkeit höllischen – Windes zu infernalischen Szenen von hochtönendem, schleifenden Lärm. Klangfarben von Stein und noch stärker Metall prägt das Gesamtbild, doch ist in gewissen Abständen auch immer die Illusion des Organischen spürbar, als würde das harte und kalte Material mit dürren Reiserbesen und ähnlichem traktiert. Auch die entmenschlichte menschliche Stimme ist gelegentlich zu hören, mal in Rezitation, mal als finsteres Growlen und Keifen, mal in Form eines sakralen Gesangs.
Wenn man in den 20 Stücken die Kohärenz betont, sollte man hinzufügen, dass in ihnen natürlich auch Raum für Variation ist. Sollte ich einige herausragende Stücke betonen, dann wären es wahrscheinlich “Keys King At Womb Door Again”, in welchem sich ein anfangs kaum spürbares lykanthropisches Hecheln langsam zu etwas (noch) Monströse(re)m steigert – eine Entwicklung, die vielleicht etwas vorhersehbar ist, doch die urige Soundgestaltung, die durchweg an etwas Altes, seit Urzeiten Verschüttetes denken lässt, fällt weitaus stärker ins Gewicht. Ferner “Fountain of Life”, das nach gängigem Verständnis wohl eher wie das Gegenteil seines Titels klingt und an einen zerbrochenen Brunnen erinnert, dessen Wasser ein paar Erdklumpen mit sich reißt und am Ende im Schlamm versiegt. Nicht zuletzt auch der Titeltrack, dessen Spoken Word-Passage wie das Monument eines sinnlosen Aufwands vor infernalischer Kulisse am Ende von einer Schuttlawine geschluckt wird.
Nach den über zwei dystopischen Stunden scheiden sich wahrscheinlich die Geister: Während die einen fürs erste genug gelitten haben, sind die anderen nun gewappnet für die regulären Alben des Projektes, und “The Smeared Cloth” gibt da tatsächlich einen großartigen Einblick in einen Kosmos, den ich allen empfehlen kann, die frühe Coil, alte Broken Flag-Releases und ausgewählte Death Industrial-Platten nebeneinander im Regal stehen haben."
[African Paper]
"Eager to get back into the Tunnels. Not long ago, I gave 'Deathless Mind' another spin, and I had been looking forward to some new material from Burroughs. Still.. two whole CDs, dearie me. I'm curious if I can make it through in one go. Also, it is not exactly 'new' material, but rather excerpts and unused tracks from two distinct periods: the first CD collects all discards from the Lost Corridors and Thus Avici era; the second contains material from the period between Surgical
Fires and Charnel Transmissions - compiled into this 2,5-hour lasting tour de force. Me, oh my.
Though branded as 'dark ambient' on Discogs, we've come to know Tunnels of Āh for industrial ambient landscapes and complex saturated loops and textures that range timbrally from (seemingly) acoustic in origin to overtly synthetic. Also, the 'loops' here should mostly be taken less literally; there are elements that seem to repeat, but for the most part, the chopped-up complexity of the textures ensures we won't have the typical 'looper' kind of experience in which repetition is often an easy way of tricking our brain into believing it is listening to something musical.
On CD 1, many sounds seem to have acoustic sources, which is much more noticeable than on the more recent albums. We also seem to get a lot more vocal delivery than usual, making tracks like 'Brute World' and 'To the Pschal Victim' almost have an early Current 93 or 'ambient Test Dept kind' of ring to them.
It is also completely dissimilar in many ways, e.g., production-wise, but for fans of those bands, these tracks may be the right point of entry into the Tunnels. The vocals are often mixed in quite deeply, so you won't be listening to poetry with a noisy background.
With the choppy granulated ambient of 'Lost Corridors', a track that did not feature on the eponymous 2013 album, there seems to be somewhat of a 'natural' ending to the first part of the first CD. The subsequent ambient track 'Fountain Of Life' ramps the intensity again with its swirling vortex of delayed grit. Both 'Great Darkness' and 'The Cloth is Smeared' really stand out as two of the more memorable pieces.
Disc 2 starts with the interesting combination of 'To the Paschal Victim' and 'Circumcision', which seem to be variations on the same bass riff/loop - though the latter track slides off into a murky bass swamp about halfway through. 'Red Distribution' and 'White Distribution' wrap this disc up in a
manner that reminded me of Charnel Transmissions. There is a certain kind of dense lo-fi elegance to them, which also made me fall for that album when it first came out.
I've said this before, and I'll repeat it: What I love about Tunnels Of Āh is that though it is clearly tarnished with the brush of industrial and perhaps even reminiscent of some noise - due to its complex textures, it never becomes too harsh or punishing, which given the length of most tracks may be a very deliberate choice either during mastering or in the composition process. Moreover, a wise one, since especially with a leviathan of this length, balance is a thing to aim for.
Does it work as an album, though, or is this merely a release for us to be complete? Tough question. The first CD is consistent, albeit on the long side. With 77 minutes, it is about half an hour longer than any Tunnels release on average, and I definitely had to listen to the whole release in phases. That said, when it
comes to textures and intensity, there seems to have been some thought put into the dynamic distribution of the tracks and though longer than usual, I would say both these discs work as stand-alone albums. Another keeper in a long line of excellent works from the Tunnels." [LdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€17.00 |
|
| TURMAN, ROBERT |
Way Down |
CD |
"Originally released as a small cassette run in 1987, only to fall into tape label obscurity, ROBERT TURMAN's industrial genre-bending masterpiece 'Way Down' finally sees a proper vinyl reissue after 23 years in the shadows. This album solidifies Turman as a cut above the rest with respect to his talent and his natural ear for experimental composition. Turman first came onto the industrial scene in the late '70s as the ominous "other half" of legendary noise outfit NON, alongside BOYD RICE, together releasing the now classic first NON single, 'Mode of Infection' b/w 'Knife Ladder' in 1977. After parting ways, Turman went on an excursion of self-released cassettes to which he fused every possible influence at his disposal, culling together past habits of experimental know-how and going forward into uncharted terrain. This vinyl reissue of 'Way Down' serves as the blueprint of what Turman sought to render as a very accessible minimal synth/industrial album, yet keeping it just obtuse enough to make it one of the most brilliant and engaging albums to be ushered into the canon of '80s experimental culture." [label info]
www.infinitefog.ru |
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| TURRA, LUIGI & CHRISTOPHER MCFALL |
tactile.surface |
CD |
" “tactile.surface” is the sound presentation of a virtual place, an imaginary environment born from the alchemy of recordings between two different but real places, far apart geographically, yet close in time and spirit.
On one side, are the sounds captured in the intimacy of my living room in the small city of Schio (North of Italy), mainly those reflecting its silence, and also some caught from the windows in the early hours of morning, enhanced with some discreet short recordings of shakuhachi flutes ; On the other side, lies the open space of Kansas City urban context, and the sound/views absorbed during a long travel to Colorado by Christopher McFall.
The two different sound places have been blended into a new one, rich of memory and keeping intact the physical perception of the surfaces, and their tactile, material aspects. (Luigi Turra)
Almost 2 years ago, I travelled home to see my mother in Colorado. This was no simple journey as I had to drive for 12 hours from Kansas City into the western lands of Kansas & Colorado. Tactile.surface really takes me back to that particular journey, because I was listening to the tracks we were compiling for it as I drove the length of the journey.
Desolate : is the only word I can think of describing Western Kansas and its snow covered expanses. there is to be found there the most abrasive wind patterns, a generalized sense of absence, and an undeniable confrontation with absolute sky (there’s only one topography here, and it’s completely flattened as the sky becomes your envelope).
battered snowlines will outfit our drudgery
we sweetened the deal to touch in cold January
where roads give way the elemental trajectory
sunlit eyes were seeding the alchemy.
This work traverses many surfaces and covers so much terrain. Many of the parts were extracted from manipulated recordings that originated from treated audio tape. Many of the “broken” low-ended sounds that served as base primer for the piece came from that side of things. The more “crisp” overlay sounds are derived from Luigi’s workings. The experience of it all was much the equivalent of weaving a tapestry of surfaces which resulted in a composite abstract topography (Christopher McFall)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| TUTSCHKU, HANS |
Moment |
CD |
"Hans Tutschku (Weimar, Germany, 1966), composer living in USA, member of Ensemble für Intuitive Musik Weimar. “Extrémités lointaines” (1998), “… Erinnerung…” (1996), “Les invisibles” (1996), “Sieben Stufen” (1995), “Die zerschlagene Stimme” (1991)." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
| TUXEDOMOON |
Scream with a View |
mini-LP |
"Founded by Steven Brown and Blaine Reininger in San Francisco, TUXEDOMOON are a futuristic alternate reality of delirium and existential dread. Aligned with fellow Bay Area experimentalists THE RESIDENTS (to whose Ralph Records the group eventually signed) and Robin Crutchfield's post-DNA project DARK DAY, TUXEDOMOON developed a unique combination of synthesizer and guitar that placed them at the forefront of the US post-punk movement in the late '70s and early '80s.
Scream With A View, recorded surreptitiously in THE RESIDENTS' private studio in 1979, advances brilliant melodic concepts through analog technology for a sound barely comprehensible today. On "Where Interests Lie," punchy drum machine underlies barbed and eerie leads from guitarist Michael Belfer (THE SLEEPERS). "(Special Treatment for the) Family Man" – a reference to Dan White's trial for the assassination of San Francisco's mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978 – is an indignant vigil cut with a rare brand of macabre humor. Saxophone, Polymoog, violin, e-bowed guitar, and CB radio interference make Scream With A View the insidious foil to the urgent No Tears EP." [label info]
www.superiorviaduct.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
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| TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS |
At the Landgate |
maxi-CDR |
Drei neue Studio-Stücke des kreativen “weird folk”-Projekts von MARTYN BATES und ALAN TRENCH...romantisch, poetisch, düster, folkig... auf einem neuen polnischen Label.
“This is the latest missive from the otherworldly realm inhabited by Martyn Bates (Eyeless In Gaza) and Alan Trench (Orchis, Temple Music), the first since the splendid Devil In The Grain album and a taster for the forthcoming From the Walled Garden. Twelve Thousand Days have been playing live, and it shows; although this is a studio recording the sound is both immediate and delicate, with Bates’ sublime vocals shimmering over a cornucopia of plucked and blown instruments and ethereal guitars. Clocking in at vv minutes, this is more a mini album than an ep; the first track, Christmas and May is something of an epic, moving through several distinct parts while hallucinatory spoken word parts phase in and out, while the gorgeous title track soughs and sighs with the immensity of loss. The closer is the duos take on the trad I Once Loved A Lass, though with a dark and foreboding air of menace.
The album is housed in a beautifully presented textured booklet with a front cover by Charles Altamont Doyle whilst the back is a detail from the frescoes depicting the descent of sinners into hell from the Rila monastery in Bulgaria, while pictures of Trench and Bates are on the inside pages. The numbered insert (also on textured stock) completes a package which beautifully complements the music., with the whole housed in a plastic wallet. Print throughout is full colour. The attention to detail on ths release is destined to make it an extremely desirable collectable.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
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Insect Silence |
CD |
"MARTYN BATES (Eyeless In Gaza) & ALAN TRENCH (Orchis, Howling Larsons) return after a long hiatus with the fourth TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS album. From the opening “Death Went Fishing” (a free translation of “vgíke o cháros na psarépsei”, the classic rebetiko by Giannis Papaioannou) to the closing, haunting notes of “Red And Golden Fire”, the listener is taken on a journey made up of a thousand journeys, a thousand side trips, a thousand destinations, hinging around the sprawling central trip of “Pathless”, in which the ramifications of choices made swim into hazy view. The 13 tracks that make up “Insect Silence” are a concatenation of dulcimers, whistles, guitars, synths, disturbing digital background noise (“Night Harmonium”) and other instrumentation with slices of pure, aching melody echoing through strange darkened corners, all enlivened and enlit by the wondrous tones of Martyn Bates.
MARTYN BATES is well-known for his brilliant long-time work with EYELESS IN GAZA, for his solo albums and for collaborations with MICK HARRIS and ANNE CLARK.
ALAN TRENCH: co-founder of World Serpent Distribution and musician with brilliant projects/groups ORCHIS, HOWLING LARSONS, TEMPLE MUSIC." [label info]
https://finalmuzik.bandcamp.com/album/twelve-thousand-days-insect-silence
"It's been quite some time since Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) and Alan Trench (Temple Music, Orchis) have come together as Twelve Thousand Days. It's fair to say much water has passed under the bridge since their last album From The Walled Garden in 2006. Insect Silence follows a ditched compilation release with the same title scheduled for release a number of years back. Insect Silence continues with the folk based music provided by Alan Trench and fronted by the distinctive voice of Martyn Bates but Insect Silence more so than their previous albums doesn't dwell solely in folk music. It may be its starting point but Insect Silence differs with passages of psych guitar and its layering of synths and electronics, as well as in the ambient interludes which feature throughout and often open up the tracks way beyond its grounding in folk music. Lyrically Insect Silence is couched in an English familiarity and in the eternal themes of life, love and death. Just shy of 70 minutes it's a long winding path of 13 tracks involving a large assortment of instrumentation which are woven into a complex and intricate tapestry of sound. You will be surprised by the pathways Twelve Thousand Days roam on .
Insect Silence opens to the spirited acoustic folk and percussive tambourine bashing of 'Death Went Fishing', outwitting death as it rushes onwards, weaving soaring psych guitars, which return throughout Insect Silence, as Bates implores that "he will return again". Its sets the scene for Insect Silence an album loosely based around folk music employing a rich multitude of instrumentation including guitars, dulcimers, harmonium, whistles as well as electronics. Twelve Thousand Days stretch the parameters of folk music with psych-guitar and ambient and instrumental interludes sprinkled throughout the 13 tracks. At times it likes listening to a Krautrock inspired psych-folk album with space rock leanings. In a good way, of course.
Opening to an ambient interlude 'Mad As The Mist' is the first of three musical settings of the words of Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Dreamy folk guitars entwine twang and strum, as Bates in his pure folk tones recalls philosophers such as Plato, Homer, Tully and Cicero, swelling into another passage of soaring solo of psych guitar and back again to dreamy folk song. More restless psych-guitar features on 'A Coat'. There's more of an experimental edge to the Yeats setting here pitching Bates' strained (and occasionally treated) voice to the fore, embellished by the pluck of guitar notes augmented by glinting electronics, bass throb and a needling guitar casting vibrations of psychedelic proportions. 'Arrow', the final piece in the Yeats trilogy is starker and played more straightforward with the beautiful folk voice over ringing acoustic guitar and warm synth backing.
Away from the Yeats tracks, a number of which Bates recorded with Troum in different musical forms, 'Errant Desires' moves to graceful ambience with flourishes of guitar notes. Bates' pure mournful tones add a sleepy lamentful melody, as faint electronics flicker behind the gentle flurry of guitar notes and assorted instrumentation. Beautifully atmospheric, it's one of my favourites on Insect Silence. Bates' voice is measured and melodic illuminating the sense of life passing in the evocative lyrics of rain falling, captured in our hands and gladly falling to the earth. More timeless folk arrives in the form of 'She Raises Her Eyes' where in captivating melodic tones Bates sings of a longing recalling long cold December months over duelling dulcimer chime.
One of the more surprising tracks appearing in the first half of the album is 'Invoke Hecate' where over passages of whistle and rousing, beating strum, Twelve Thousand Days sounding not unlike Ostara invoke the Goddess of Witchcraft, through an assortment of occult techniques. Alan Trench in past endeavours has facilitated many musicians in the apocalyptic folk genre but this rare sojourn, even with it blistering psych solo, can still raise an eyebrow and something of a smirk.
As mentioned earlier, Insect Silence is interspersed with instrumentals taking the music down alternate pathways, straying far off the beaten track. The first of these 'Night Harmonium' carries an air of arcane English mysticism with its loose folk stylings where strings chime and whistle billows merge over background synths and static clicks. The instrumental 'Old Ladies As Birds' is another brooding mystical moment where layers of whistles and flutes cast an age old melody over wheezing harmonium while loose guitar notes chime and ring out as distant electronics shudder underneath. While 'Old Ladies As Birds' is evocative of transforming souls and spirits, the jaunty folk offering of 'Fieldwork' is celebratory. Based on whistles and acoustic strum it comes across like a folk dance or Pagan procession. If 'Fieldwork' revels in a lost Englishness 'Descent' is dealing with nostalgia. A vintage crackling recording of 'See, The Conqu'ring Hero Comes' shrouds the descending organ scales of 'Descent'. Bates' voice is quiet, distant and softly murmured amidst the eerie disembodied voices of the choir as percussion rattles. You can almost picture the landscape on the pastoral 'Red and Golden Fire' another experimental offering mixing lulling electronics with whistles and flutes which closes the album.
Insect Silence hinges around 'Pathless' an epic experimental 16-minute musical and lyrical journey which we all make on our travels through life. Set in the middle of the album it continues the theme first introduced on the opener 'Death Went Fishing'. With the huntsman at our heels, we try to outwit death to no avail. Travelling from ringing guitar with Bates' voice, wrapped in layered accompaniment, veering between passages of Krautrock electronics and wavering synths to psaltery, whistles and location recordings. All the elements of Insect Silence emanate from and come together on this track to great effect. As it flows together seamlessly it's difficult to pinpoint where 'Pathless Part I' ends and 'Pathless Part II' begins but it may be when a heartbeat bass pulses and acoustic guitars ring out and the spoken word of Lisa (I think this is Elizabeth S who features on releases from Eyeless In Gaza) surfaces amidst guitars and layers of spacey synths which lull, crash and wail, before Bates returns, to close this epic track in high registered tones.
Insect Silence bustles with an immediacy, there's a sense of freshness of getting it all down on tape before the additional sound layers of instrumentation are added. Ambient, electronics, psych guitar, whistles, location recordings are all here embellishing the tracks making it intricate and complex. At the heart of it is an open-ended folk sound reflected in Bates' beautiful, distinctive voice which illuminate the timeless themes. Insect Silence is by far the best I've heard from Twelve Thousand Days and though the tracks are disparate there's an arching basis in folk music which traverses into other areas which holds it all together. As we said, Insect Silence is a journey, a pathway laid down just waiting for us to follow. Insect Silence is released digitally and on CD by Final Muzik in an edition of 500 copies. For more information go to Final Muzik and to download go to Final Muzik Bandcamp." [Compulsion Online]
"Man neigt gerne dazu, Bands, die sich nur alle Schaltjahre oder seltener zu neuen Aktivitäten zusammentun, als klammheimlich aufgelöst zu betrachten, erst recht dann, wenn es sich dabei um noch anderweitig aktive Musiker handelt – so wie Sänger Martyn Bates mit Eyeless in Gaza und seinem Soloprojekt und Instrumentalist Alan Trench mit seinen Folk- und Psychedelic-Gruppen Temple Music, Orchis und Black Lesbian Fishermen. Nachdem mit ihrem Duo Twelve Thousand Days wahrscheinlich nur noch wenige gerechnet hätten, steht mit „Insect Silence“ nun ganz überraschend ein neues Album in den Regalen, das fast da anknüpft, wo die beiden vor gut zwölf Jahren mit „From the Walled Garden“ aufhörten. Fast, denn gerade bei Alan sind doch ein paar Spuren seiner neuen Arbeiten herauszuhören.
Wie man es von früheren Aufnahmen her kennt, wechseln sich schmissige, fast frohsinnige Folksongs ab mit verträumt melancholischen Klageliedern und geheimnisvollen ambienten Soundscapes, und zusammen mit Bates’ unverkennbarer Stimme, die so klar und jugendlich wie eh und je klingt, kreiert die Musik ein verzaubertes Setting, das an ein langsam vor dem Auge verschwimmendes Jugenstilgemälde erinnert.
„Death Went Fishing“ und „Invoce Hecate“ zählen zu den eingängigen Folkstücken, die mit feurigem Geschrammel und ekstatischen Rasseln nach vorn galoppieren – mystische oder makabre Töne schleichen sich über sanft gesungene Textzeilen in die Szenerie und bilden mit der harmonischen Musik eine heikle Mischung, und schon mit den allerorts spürbaren heidnischen Untertönen sind die Stücke vor jedem Indie- und Pop-Appeal gefeit. Impressionistische Tableaus wie „Mad as the Mist“, dessen anfangs noch ziellos umhertastendes Gitarrenspiel sich erst nach und nach zu einem anmutigen Stimmungsbild zusammensetzt, bilden einen Gegenpol dazu, ebenfalls das aus einer balladesken Märchenwelt herübergewehte „Old Ladies as Birds“ und das mit Knacken und Knistern leicht verfremdete Zwischenspiel „Night Harmonium“ – beide Stücke gewinnen noch an Charisma durch Alans berührendes Flötenspiel.
In einigen dieser Tracks sind aber auch räudige Psych Rock-Elemente zuhören, die der Musik eine Kantigkeit verleihen, die in den klassischen Zeiten des englischen Folk nichts ungewöhnliches gewesen wären – zünftige E-Gitarrensoli und dröhnende Riffs, die die Folkmelodien, die sie spielen, gleichsam zerschreddern, als wären sie eine nationalhymne in Woodstock. Weder Eyeless in Gaza noch Orchis waren frei von solch rauen Beigaben, doch hier hat sich v.a. die Sprache jüngerer Temple Music in die Stilpalette geschlichen und gibt dem naturverbundenen Sound eine deutliche Prise Realismus.
Es gäbe einiges, das sich in den einzelnen Songs hervorheben ließ, die anrührende Melodie in „Errant Desires“, die cinematischen Verfremdungseffekte in „Red and Golden Fire“ und der melierte Orgelsound in „Descent“, der in ein verwehtes Sample des Liedes „Hail the Conquering Hero!“ (im Deutschen die Melodie von „Tochter Zion, freue dich“) übergeht, sind nur einige davon, doch alles in allem funktioniert „Insect Silence“ am besten als zusammenhängendes Werk, das mit mehrmaligem Hören immer mehr zu verzaubern weiß." [U.S., African Paper]
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Boatman on the Downs |
CD |
Martyn Bates & Alan Trench return to the ghost-haunted Downs of Southern England for their new album, their fourth in five years to be released by Italy’s Final Muzik label.
Twelve Thousand Days are without a doubt producing some of the finest music in their twenty-five years of existence, abstract and evocative songs that seem to be from the folk canon, so rooted in tradition are they – and the band always give more than a nod to past glories with arrangements of “Arthur McBride” and a song which all children in England once learnt in primary school, “Early One Morning”, which is found here dis-assembled and fed through the haze of more than half a century of lives lived.
The two traditional songs sit comfortably alongside eight new compositions; “Comely” sets the tone, full of yearning and loss, and yet basking in hope, full of haunted voices and distant bells; the journey continues through tales of Wayland the Smith and the Silver City inspired by the verse of John Masefield, magickal tales of djinns and other spirits, an elegy to a departed friend, and more.
The soaring voice of Martyn Bates is underpinned by exquisite instrumentation – acoustic guitars, flute organs, bodhrans and bells, mellotrons and analogue synthesisers, taking the listener on a trip through the forgotten highways and byways of a drowned land.
Available as a limited edition CD Digipak, 500 copies.
https://finalmuzik.bandcamp.com/album/the-boatman-on-the-downs
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| TZESNE |
crossing TierraHueca |
mCD-R |
"tzesne is a basque sound artist who perfectly combines field recorings and eletronic processings. his previous works were released by drone records, mystery sea or his own imprint series negras. "crossing TierreHueca" is a collection of four quite short tracks, maybe more on an ambient side than some of his other works..." [label info]
"Four shorter pieces at work here, in which he blends together field recordings and electronics. In some of his previous works this has resulted in some more noise based ambience, but these four new pieces are all quite quiet on the ambient side, with only ‘Swarm’ being a bit louder. Quite nice this new material. " [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| TZESNE & CARLOS VILLENA |
A Coded Message |
CD-R |
"1. the decoder
2. it started! (distant and strange, like a nonsense dream)
3. feedbacker (ceased to be a test!)
Performer [Objects], Tape [Fieldrecordings], Electronics - Tzesne & Carlos Villena
Recorded, edited and processed:
Track 1 Tzesne (mixed and mastered by Tzesne)
Track 2 Tzesne & Carlos Villena (mixed and mastered by Carlos Villena)
Track 3 Carlos Villena (mixed and mastered by Carlos Villena)
Tzesne - seriesnegras.org
Carlos Villena - mantricum.com" [label info / credits]
www.ss.semperflorens.net
|
2013 |
€9.00 |
|
| TZII |
SAnd HAert RAge |
12inch |
"Hyperactive musician and filmmaker TZII is no newcomer to the TuT/RuR roaster, since we already had the pleasure to release his much acclaimed BLACK MONOLITH SPACE QUEST soundtrack on Rectangle Astral, and to welcome him on JAW with his project SOLAR SKELETONS. TZII has been making music for almost two decades, and yet SAnd HAert RAge is a first in the artist’s career in several ways: amidst a long discography of CDs and tapes, it is his first solo appearance on vinyl; and more importantly perhaps, it is the first time that he chooses to tackle one of the most fundamental experiences of his life, his Saharian childhood. TZII spent his early years, until adolescence in fact, in Africa, confronted to a multitude of intense, deeply life-altering experiences, from Beninese Voodoo rituals to the endless landscapes of the Sahara desert. An extreme environment, provoking extreme and very divergent emotions, which find their musical expressions in the changing ambiances of the record’s four tracks. From mystery to simple beauty, from melancholy to pure joy, this is an intimate but exalting record, where meditative and festive moods rub shoulders in the most natural way. Best Oriental Chill-Wave for both the dance-floor and your inner eye." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| UEDINENIYA |
Red Meridian |
CD + SVCD |
"Uedineniya is a one-man project by Alexander Elin (the doctor by a trade) from forests of Tambov, Russia. Uedineniya is not the first project by the author but it’s the first project which has level with the physical carrier. The genre can be characterized as dark / drone ambient with big experimental and isolating elements.
The author speaks the album is a musical support for the 8mm-record with videomaterials of travels on the first Arktika’s series icebreakers were born at the middle of the twentieth century. This record has been found in the garage of the Alexandr’s relative (the former seaman and polar explorer) Sergey Borisov.
The main idea of this album is making the atmosphere of infinite cold and very long days during travels in ices, to remind listeners about places where life and short stay are very dangerous for people. For this reason the album has been named Красный Меридиан (eng. – “red meridian”) – dangerous line, the place for strong spirit people capable on heroically acts.
Uedineniya Island located in the central part of Kara Sea, the project has been named by it. The island has been discovered by the Norwegian explorer captain Edvard Johannesen during travel by schooner Nordland at the 26th of August 1878. The captain gave the name Ensomheden for this island. Russian flag has been lifted above island in 1915 by Otto Sverdrup during expedition on the Eclipse bark. Later, on September 7 1934, polar station on island have been based by expedition on Sadko (captain: A.K.Burke) and Yermak icebreakers. This station worked till 1996." [label info]
www.7Hz.ru
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| UGGERI, MATTEO |
The Next Wait |
CD + CDR |
In 2013 my wife Gaia was pregnant. We were then waiting for our first born to come, expected for November of that year. A few little obstacles and troubles occurred during the nine months, so my anxious nature at the time generated in me the need to somehow express the feelings in a record, where I conveyed the worries that a father, especially a musician that needs his own moments for playing, may have in terms of an expected potential future lack of time and energies.
I also decided to involve fellow musicians I got to know at the time, like Maurizio Abate (guitar), Enrico Coniglio (guitar and organ), with whom afterwards I would have made full albums - but you can find here the first traces of our collaboration. There were Andrea Serrapiglio (cello) and Cristiano Lupo (bass), that I knew for quite some time, and featuring female voices. I asked Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (that I discovered through her marvellous presence on a Doug Sharin solo album) if she wanted to sing on a track, and she did, providing her own lyrics. The American singer Jenny Oakley, aka Empty Vessel Music, did the same on track one, as well as a glitching sample from Nicola Ratti is also featured.
The central piece of the whole album can be considered “Family Man”, a sort of cover from a song by Black Flag, totally reversed by my wife Gaia Margutti. She re-interpreted the lyrics her own way, and she performed it in an unforgettable session of home recordings, with my daughter Olivia, now finally born, hanging from her neck.
Indeed, the album took quite a long time to be made, and then the ‘wait’ was over, transformed in the new life we were all three now living together.
The second half pieces, actually a long track sliced in three parts, are dedicated to this transition period, where also tensions in the family are occuring. The tracks are built on a piano melody provided by the Japanese artist, Mujika Eisel, that collaborated with me on a previous album.
Now it is 2019, and not only is Olivia 5 years old, but also Nora was born, in March 2017. This album, is now dedicated to both of them, and can in a away, be perhaps considered a bit too ‘direct’, (as a Henry Rollins song!) but it’s for me a sincere expression of feelings and sensations. The concept of waiting can be interpreted in different ways, and anyone can ask himself what the two dogs in the front cover (kindly provided by the Italian photographer Adriano Zanni) are expecting to come.
Anyway, the album is finally released, thanks to the generous and neverlasting effort of US label Infraction, available in the three formats of LP/CD/DL, with an additional 7” containing two outtakes entitled “After the Wait” (exclusive to physical formats only), when the new life was becoming a new set of routines.
I even made a video in 2018, featuring - guess who? - my family. It can be seen on Infraction Bandcamp and on my website as well.
I hope that this long pathway of experiences, feelings, music and visual art will be shared with careful listeners all over the world. - Matteo Uggeri
Album editions :
100 copies of clear blue water LP + 7 inch (after the wait)
150 copies of black vinyl 180 gram edition
Each LP is housed in a Stoughton tip-on style heavy sleeve. The 7" is a clear vinyl.
250 copies of full-length CD. The first 100 copies will contain a bonus CDR with 2 exclusive tracks (entitled 'After the Wait'). The CD will be housed in a Stoughton style mini-lp gatefold sleeve.
Maurizio Abate (guitar)
Enrico Coniglio (guitar, organ)
Andrea Serrapiglio (cello)
Cristiano Lupo (bass)
Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (vocals)
Jenny Oakley (vocals)
Nicola Ratti (electronics sample)
Gaia Margutti (vocals)
Mujika Eisel (piano)
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/the-next-wait
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
The Next Wait |
LP + 7inch |
In 2013 my wife Gaia was pregnant. We were then waiting for our first born to come, expected for November of that year. A few little obstacles and troubles occurred during the nine months, so my anxious nature at the time generated in me the need to somehow express the feelings in a record, where I conveyed the worries that a father, especially a musician that needs his own moments for playing, may have in terms of an expected potential future lack of time and energies.
I also decided to involve fellow musicians I got to know at the time, like Maurizio Abate (guitar), Enrico Coniglio (guitar and organ), with whom afterwards I would have made full albums - but you can find here the first traces of our collaboration. There were Andrea Serrapiglio (cello) and Cristiano Lupo (bass), that I knew for quite some time, and featuring female voices. I asked Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (that I discovered through her marvellous presence on a Doug Sharin solo album) if she wanted to sing on a track, and she did, providing her own lyrics. The American singer Jenny Oakley, aka Empty Vessel Music, did the same on track one, as well as a glitching sample from Nicola Ratti is also featured.
The central piece of the whole album can be considered “Family Man”, a sort of cover from a song by Black Flag, totally reversed by my wife Gaia Margutti. She re-interpreted the lyrics her own way, and she performed it in an unforgettable session of home recordings, with my daughter Olivia, now finally born, hanging from her neck.
Indeed, the album took quite a long time to be made, and then the ‘wait’ was over, transformed in the new life we were all three now living together.
The second half pieces, actually a long track sliced in three parts, are dedicated to this transition period, where also tensions in the family are occuring. The tracks are built on a piano melody provided by the Japanese artist, Mujika Eisel, that collaborated with me on a previous album.
Now it is 2019, and not only is Olivia 5 years old, but also Nora was born, in March 2017. This album, is now dedicated to both of them, and can in a away, be perhaps considered a bit too ‘direct’, (as a Henry Rollins song!) but it’s for me a sincere expression of feelings and sensations. The concept of waiting can be interpreted in different ways, and anyone can ask himself what the two dogs in the front cover (kindly provided by the Italian photographer Adriano Zanni) are expecting to come.
Anyway, the album is finally released, thanks to the generous and neverlasting effort of US label Infraction, available in the three formats of LP/CD/DL, with an additional 7” containing two outtakes entitled “After the Wait” (exclusive to physical formats only), when the new life was becoming a new set of routines.
I even made a video in 2018, featuring - guess who? - my family. It can be seen on Infraction Bandcamp and on my website as well.
I hope that this long pathway of experiences, feelings, music and visual art will be shared with careful listeners all over the world. - Matteo Uggeri
Album editions :
100 copies of clear blue water LP + 7 inch (after the wait)
150 copies of black vinyl 180 gram edition
Each LP is housed in a Stoughton tip-on style heavy sleeve. The 7" is a clear vinyl.
250 copies of full-length CD. The first 100 copies will contain a bonus CDR with 2 exclusive tracks (entitled 'After the Wait'). The CD will be housed in a Stoughton style mini-lp gatefold sleeve.
credits
released September 10, 2019
Maurizio Abate (guitar)
Enrico Coniglio (guitar, organ)
Andrea Serrapiglio (cello)
Cristiano Lupo (bass)
Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (vocals)
Jenny Oakley (vocals)
Nicola Ratti (electronics sample)
Gaia Margutti (vocals)
Mujika Eisel (piano)
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/the-next-wait |
2019 |
€28.00 |
|
| UHLIG, MIRKO |
VIVMMI |
LP |
"As mummy thought us: you have to put your money where your mouth is. So when we claimed praise for a small CDR release by a relatively new German composer Mirko Uhlig we dabbled with the idea of releasing it on LP. Now we did. We doubled the edition of 65 to 130 and it has great carton sleeve (like last year's Pick-up LP).
Since 2006 he has retreated to his nom de passport (formerly known as Aalfang mit Pferdekopf), Uhlig has exchanged the naive bewilderment of experimental bricolage with the pursuit of pure beauty and there is suddenly confusion as to his motives: Are these silent outbursts of refined romanticism intended as some sort of clever commentary on the Drone genre, as a neo-conservative return to proven values or part of something different altogether? 'VIVMMI' has been remastered for vinyl." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
The Strings that heal the Orchestra |
mCD-R |
"after a collaborative release with emerge a few years ago under the aalfang mit pferdekopf alias, mirko uhlig is back on taâlem after some other releases on mystery sea, AFE or gears of sand. here, mirko shows a new direction in his musical creations. maybe less experimental than before, more direct, emotional and full of melancholy..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"...In his recent work Uhlig seems to be interested in finding a musical component again. Some sort of strings are at the core of this piece, which are stretched out to some extent, layered and form a strange piece of music. Indeed a bit orchestral, as indicated in the title. Its cut into three parts (though remaining piece on the release), which comes and goes like a tidal wave. It has a great quiet texture to it, almost solemnly moving about. Away from the deeply dark drone world, and into a more ambient field. Excellent stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| UHUSHUHU (Ухушуху) |
Long Songs pleasant for Hearing |
MC |
" "U'hu! Shu'hu!" - hoot owls in a forest, as told by Daniil Kharms, and in the sky, above a rainbow, long songs pleasant for hearing are sung to a cherubim. Uhushuhu is a name of a project run by members of the creative group "Utrovortu" and their "Long Songs…" is the first studio record made after a few interesting performances at small underground city clubs and forest open-air festivals in the Leningrad region.
Following these songs we set off on a journey through structures and surfaces in a shell of experimental drone ambient. We will face sonic anomalies, random wanderings in unstable and unpredictable spheres, vague rustles and semblant echoes, spaces of various densities, mood and nature, hidden dead-ends, spontaneous phonations and labyrinths enclosed in themselves.
Second edition - 55 copies on white cassettes with stickers, two-sided full-colour cover." [label info]
"Reissued on cassette, but not for long! The Uhushuhu collective have been known to perform and produce their work under the canopy of the Russian forests outside of St. Petersburg, making them something of a Russian reincarnation of Jewelled Antler. There's much more of an electronic underbelly to Uhushuhu than Jewelled Antler, while retaining the pine-cone drone ethos of luminously radiant psychedelic dronescaping. The first track actually holds a number of aesthetic similarities to the long form works of Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - sinewy, seductive, and slippery passages of intertwining synth melodies softened through reverb and spaciousness, furthered along by watery field recordings and damp ruminations on subterranean lairs, wormholes, and caves. Each of the album's three tracks clock well past the 15 minute mark, leading towards deeper, more shambolic explorations of sublime atmosphere. Quite a lovely piece of work, with the cassette limited to 55 copies." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
Onega |
MC |
"Together with the ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ label we are happy to present the cassette reissue of the second album by Uhushuhu - "Onega". The first release was made by ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ in January 2015 on CD-R, a small edition of 33 copies in beautiful handmade packaging. It was sold out very quickly and now we've decided to re-release this recording on cassette along with two other albums ("Long Songs Pleasant for Hearing" and "Geoscience").
The sound of "Onega" was described by ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ as "archaic earth hum; water ripple near dusk; stones dancing in the dark; tales about moss and its inhabitants. Ease of predawn dew, heady spirality of snails." We can only agree with these laconic and concise characteristics.
Besides the album itself the original disk contained a bonus track - a remix by Creation VI who stand behind the ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ label. It is also included on the B-side of this cassette and even more - there is an exclusive 27-minute reshape version from Uhushuhu themselves mixed in a different tonality.
Artwork - clear cassettes with stickers, two-sided full-colour cover, outer cardboard slipcase." [label info]
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/releases.html#zhb
"Along with two reissues on cassette of quickly sold-out cdrs over the past few years, we have a new album from the enigmatic Russian collective Uhushuhu. These are drones to sink into - deep, thrumming tones, nocturnal field recordings, accreted electronic vibration, and wind-swept aeration that appear to emit from the depth of the Russian forest, all embued with a transcendent, mystically dark quality that immediately makes us think back to those early Andrew Chalk albums, especially his beloved Sumac disc with Jonathan Coleclough. As with the other cassettes, this too is limited to 55 copies; but unlike the others, the plastic casing is swaddled in an O-card." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| ULHER, BIRGIT / BÜTTNER, GREGORY |
Tehricks |
mCD-R |
"Gregory Büttner plays sounds from a computer through various small speakers, which Birgit Ulher uses as mutes for her trumpet. This way the trumpet sounds and the electroacoustic sounds are modulated by the acoustic resonance chamber of the trumpet. The trumpet is simultaneously a transmitter and a receiver.
Recorded January 2009 by Büttner/Ulher at Birgit‘s flat. Mastered by Guy Saldanha.
Tehr: 7‘33
Eri: 5‘36
Rix: 6‘01
About the Artist:
Birgit Ulher studied the visual arts, which still has an important influence on her music. Since the early eighties she has been involved in free improvisation and experimental music.Since then she has ‚established a distinguished grammar of sounds beyond the open trumpet sound‘ (jazzdimensions.de). Her work includes solo-performances, as well as dance-projects, beside her working-groups she plays often in occasional / once only groupings and collaborates with improvisers all over Europe and USA.
Current projects include the solo project ‚Radio Silence No More‘, duos with Ute Wassermann, Gino Robair, Damon Smith, Heiner Metzger, Gregory Büttner, Nordzucker (with Lars Scherzberg and Michael Maierhof) and the trio with Lou Mallozzi and Michael Zerang.
www.birgit-ulher.de
www.myspace.com/birgitulher
Gregory Büttner studied communication design in Hamburg, with a specialization in audiovisual work. Since 2000 he got his focus on soundart and electroacoustic compositions. In 2004 he launched his label 1000fussler which releases experimental music in small editions. In 2001 he founded his duo für diesen abend together with Stefan Funck and often accompanied by visuals from Katrin Bethge (overhead-projections). He works together with artists like Rhodri Davies, Birgit Ulher, Chris Heenan, et al.. His music released by labels like 1000füssler, Firework Edition, Anthropometrics/Aufabwegen, Grünrekorder, Compost and Height.
www.gregorybuettner.de
www.myspace.com/gregorybuettner" [label info]
www.1000füssler.com
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| ULLMANN, JAKOB |
A Catalogue of Sounds |
CD |
„Konzertmitschnitt vom 3.Oktober 1997 im Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks. "Ulmann's Musik realisiert mit grosser Bestimmtheit ein unendliches Spektrum von Abstufungen in allen Bereichen musikalischer Gestaltung. Dass die Musik des "catalogue" fast durchgehend zuerst leise erklingt, führt eher die Wahrnehmung kleinster Differenzierungen; es versetzt das Ohr in einen Zustand nie nachlassender, höchster Aufmerksamkeit." [label info]
„Eine Komposition für Violine, Viola, Violoncello und Ensemble (1995 ¬ 97). Fast durchgehend erklingen 73.16 Minuten verhaltener Epik. „Der musikalische Strom erleidet fast ständig kleine Irritationen, bildet Schwellen oder spritzt (...) kurz auf wie durch hineingeworfene Kiesel.“ (Linernotes) Im leisen Spiel haben die Variationen eine ungemeine Wirkung. Sie tröpfeln einem förmlich ins Ohr. Fremde Stimmen beginnen bald zu raunen, zu tuscheln und zu stöhnen. Diese Musik ist weder meditativ noch ist sie der minimal music zuzuordnen. Hörerin und Hörer lauschen einer epischen Tondichtung, die in stringenter Weise jede Überfülle vermeidet.
A composition for violin, viola, violoncello and ensemble (1995 ¬ 97). These 73.16 epic minutes are played nearly alway in a reserved manner. „The musical stream is constantly subjected to small irritations, sometimes ist flow quickens, sometimes there are brief splasheslike those caused by pebbels thrown into water.“ (linernotes) In this softly playing the variations are exceptionally effective. They are dripping in the listeners ear positively. Soon strange voices beginn to murmur, to whisper and to moan. Neither this music is meditative nor its in the style of minimal music. Its an epic sound poem of conciseness avoiding every overflow of expressivity.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| ULTRA MILKMAIDS |
Jain Umpoulet (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"The Masters of glowing ambient soundsculptures from Dijon, France, present their second 7" (after "Lou" on their own label U MOHOL) on Drone. Two pieces of harmonic melancholic beauty, with lots of droning guitar-work and shimmering effects. We love these emotional jewels! Their debut-CD came out last year on NOISE MUSEUM. White vinyl, silk screened covers."
[Drone Records info May 1998]
|
1998 |
€ |
|
| |
AMR |
lathe-cut LP |
"the milkies are back on ant-zen, ready to do good and to excite both old and new fans alike with 'amr', where they present two continuous works of unmistakable quality. during the nearly sixteen minutes of the title track you will be carried onto a strange but not unsettling place by electronic tone floats with underlying twelve string drones. the second track 'lira & morphine' is a well-balanced post-psychedelic blend of distant cymbals, swirling synths and oscillating soundscapes interspersed with a subtle rhythmic interlude - contemporary electric music for mind and body. those who wish to get 'amr' on vinyl are heartily recommended to hurry up, due to the strict limitation of 92 copies. however of course an unlimited number of listeners will have the opportunity to acquire this album in digital format. the saga of the legendary ultra milkmaids continues...
available: 14february2k13 " [label info]
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| UMPIO |
Opium Electronics Vol. IV |
CD-R |
"Umpio means "vacuum" in Finnish. This is a project founded by Pentti Dassum in 2006. Pentti has been playing guitar and bass in a variety of punk, death-metal, rock, jazz and experimental bands since the early 90-ies, and also has a huge sound engineering experience obtained from working within the Finnish musical underground. However in his own project Umpio he devotes attention to making sounds from metal junk, contact mics, circuit bending, various analogue and digital electronics and whatever comes in his hands, recording extraordinary material from harsh noise to hypnotic ambient.
The "Opium Electronics" falls right into the latter category. The first cassette "Opium Electronics Vol. I" was released by the Russian label Rokot in 2012, then two CD-Rs followed on Pentti's own imprint Nekorecords and now the fourth installment comes out on our label. Four tracks mold in a single sonic flow. Soft enveloping electronics that sounds like a plush cocoon wrapped around one's head. Background textures humming gently, waves of mild noises rolling softly, forefront sounds slightly scratching the ears... detachment and abstraction not providing any determined images but giving free scope to the listener's imagination." [label info]
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/releases.html
|
2014 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
Acquired Tastes / Lost Tapes 2008-2011 |
do-CD |
UMPIO 2xCD collects "lost tapes". Couple tracks from rare and nearly impossible to get tapes, several tracks remained unreleased. Quite typical situation that after Freak Animal published Umpio "Muelas" CD, several flakey labels offered him deals for tape releases... that never came out. As enthusiastic noise maker, Umpio took the offers. Now, decade later Freak Animal fills the gaps with the missing parts in lineage of Umpio discography. Since then Umpio moved on to new ways of noise making, yet this "Acquired tastes" will be testament of junk noise era he is most known for.
https://www.nhfastore.net/umpio-acquired-tastes?search=umpio
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| UMPIO & IRR.APP.(EXT.) |
Observation affects the Outcome |
CD |
"First ever collaboration between these finnish and american soundartists, collaborating by mail, incorporates both of their styles, interwined with some kind of disorienting and intricated attitude. Electroacoustic treatments applied to harsh noise and atonal ambient parts, producing a tapestry of disturbing and psychedelic soundscapes.
Release date is 28th January 2013. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| UN CADDIE RENVERSE DANS L'HERBE |
Like a packed cupboard but quite... |
CD |
New album by Dídac P. Lagarriga from Brazil / Spain (also active with his label OOZE.BAP) with his intimate minimal ethnic interplay-music.
"not unlike his previous works which have been compared to the likes of pascal comelade, asa chang & junray, penguin café orchestra and steve beresford, the album's using repetition and simplicity, melody and warmth, charm and a positive naivity to create an addictive, often hypnotic muzak; never overloaded, full of space for tiny surprising ideas/sounds and little elements and influences to unfold their inner beauty. this is contemporary and timeless music without the urge to be (post-) modern just for the sake of being so." [press release] |
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The reversed supermarket trolley files towards the rainbow |
CD |
Neues Werk des Electronica-Projektes in unglaublicher Aufmachung (wie ein 3D-Kinderbuch mit Elementen zum Hochklappen) !
"This is a unique rare live recording of "Un Caddie Renversé dans l' Herbe" which took place at Iasmos, on Saturday, November 12th 2005
during the birthday party of Amaryllis.
Enjoy the dreamy, surreal, avantgarde, ethnic sounds of Un Caddie mixed with sounds, toy instruments and songs the children perform.
An unsusual & fascinating combination of laptop & traditional instruments as Balaphon, Mbira, Kalimba, Berimbau plus Piano, Cello, Guitar, Bass, Melodica, Chimes and more!
The CD comes in an extremely special design and package which is folded like a cartoon picture toy-book and is limited to 388 hand-numbered copies..." [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| UN DRAME MUSICALE INSTANTANE |
Rideau! |
CD |
"Rideau! was Un Drame Musical Instantané's second album, originally released in 1980 on the group's own GRRR label. Since its creation in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, the group has decided to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they try to renew every time they play. Un Drame borrowed their sources from rock (synthetizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vitet who founded the first free jazz band in France, together with François Tusques, as well as Michel Portal who played with many American and European jazzmen); classical modern music; as well as movies or world news; they were the first in France to give a new impetus to live music on silent films. Birgé and Gorgé also recorded a duo album that was mentioned on the infamous Nurse With Wound list, Défense De. On Rideau, you will hear their wild mix of styles, a very original, unclassifiable, inventive music, which drifts from jazz to electronic music and contemporary music. Remastered in 2016 and with a lot of bonus tracks, amongst them the track that appeared on United Dairies' compilation album "In Fractured Silence" for the first time in its full length!"
[label info]
"We are talking here of the trio of Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, indeed a very unique trio. From the beginning they blended jazz, rock, electronics, new music, improvisation, sound, audio-visual into fascinating Gesamtkunstwerk. In a way that has some resemblance with the work of Alfed Harth and Heiner Goebbels, who were operating at the same time. (...) All three members already had their history in the jazz scene of France, especially Bernard Vitet who died in 2013. As a trio they would become a stabile force for many years. ‘Rideau’ is a perfect start for getting introduced to their idiosyncratic way of assembling influences. They developed their very own world, their own language. Listening after a long time once again to Rideau, the music still talks and sounds far from out-dated. The musicians play a wide variety of instruments. (...) Back then their music sounded very experimental and wild to my ears, now it strikes me this is really full-grown, open and well- balanced music by inventive musicians who had a strong musical intuition and vision."
(Vital Weekly, May 2017)
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2017 |
€14.50 |
|
|
A Travail Egal Salaire Egal |
CD |
" À Travail Égal Salaire Égal was Un Drame Musical Instantané's third album, originally released in 1982 on the group's own GRRR label. Since its creation in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, the group has decided to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they try to renew every time they play. Un Drame borrowed their sources from rock (synthetizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vitet who founded the first free jazz band in France, together with François Tusques, as well as Michel Portal who played with many American and European jazzmen); classical modern music; as well as movies or world news; they were the first in France to give a new impetus to live music on silent films. Birgé and Gorgé also recorded a duo album that was mentioned on the infamous Nurse With Wound list, Défense De. On À Travail Égal Salaire Égal, you will hear their wild mix of styles, a very original, unclassifiable, inventive music, which drifts from jazz to electronic music and contemporary music. Remastered in 2016 and with a lot of bonus material. Track list: 1. On Tourne 2. Crimes Parfaits 3. Pourquoi La Nuit? 4. La Preuve Par Le Grand Huit 5. La Preuve Par le Grand Huit, One Year Later." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com/gg244
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
L'homme a la Camera / La Glace a trois Faces |
CD |
Un Drame Musical Instantané were founded in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé. Their aim was to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they tried to renew every time they played. Their sound was created with many influences: They borrowed their sources from rock (synthesizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vitet who founded the first free jazz band in France, together with François Tusques, as well as Michel Portal who played with many American and European jazzmen); classical modern music; as well as movies or world news; they were the first in France to give a new impetus to live music on silent movies. After having improvised freely for many years, they led a fifteen piece orchestra from 1981 to 1986, and from 1989 onwards they produced multimedia shows (live video remix on a giant screen, fireworks, choreographies). Still their music was the most important technique, they called their recordings "blind cinema". The Drame used to mix acoustic and electronic instruments in real time as well as original instruments built by Vitet (a reed trumpet, a multiphonic French horn, a variable tension double-bass, a giant balafon with frying pans and flower pots keyboard, a fire organ, plexiglas flutes, etc.). After Francis Gorgé left the band in 1992, Birgé and Vitet went on recording and producing with other musicians close to the "family" such as percussionist, Gérard Siracusa, or multi-instrumentalist, Hélène Sage. Un Drame Musical Instantané always remained independent (they always owned their own recording studio and record label GRRR) and stopped its activities in 2008, with Birgé being the only one active until this day. L'Homme À La Caméra was originally released on GRRR in 1984 and features 15 musicians. In addition to the original album, we offer you a whole new section of previously unreleased music from the time entitled La Glace A Trois Faces which is another soundtrack to a silent movie from 1927 |
2020 |
€14.00 |
|
| UNDARA |
Traveller |
CD |
"The Undara project is a loose constellation of musicians and artists hailing from Portugal. Setting an interdisciplinary path through musical arcanum and artistic obscurity their journey of discovery leads into a dark and unknown wilderness, tripping over smoldering rocks and stumbling over the very roots of mankind's origin. Hear the distant call of the untamed lands to which mankind rarely chooses to venture. Comes in a jewelcase with a 8-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| UNDECISIVE GOD |
Offering |
CD-R |
Noch eine gute CDR auf dem kleinen australischen Label SHAME FILE. UNDECISIVE GOD produzieren hier sphärische Gitarren-Drones, nicht unähnlich z.B. STARS OF THE LID oder ULTRASOUND, sehr fein und fragil....
“The concept behind most of the recordings on this full-length CD is the combination of guitar drones of varying tones and textures into a series of canon-based arrangements, exploring the dynamics resulting from the interplay of multiple layers of sound, both through composition and pure chance. This is also the first major Undecisive God release using mostly digital recording methods.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| UNDER THE SNOW |
Delta |
CD |
"Extended sonic fluxes of synthetic nature mixed with delicate acoustic and electric guitars chords and riffs, crowd noises, indefinite and fading melodic "spots" of unknown origin, feedbacks, echoes, pulsations, vibrations, cracklings, rustling waves in continuous movement... But also sudden pauses, unpredictable and improbable inserts of folk blues radio transmissions, crystal clear water sounds, static, wrapping and dramatic electronic weaves, metallic tickings... An extraordinary range of sounds and atmospheres for this new, challenging and really particular experimental-explorative project by Stefano Gentile and Gianluca Favaron." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
The Other Room |
CD |
"Seven “rooms” described through the visual essentiality of sober and linear photographic images in black and white, and through sonorities just as essential based on whispered and discrete synthesis, often bordering on silence, violated by occasional harshness, chimes of plucked strings, hissings, cracklings, electrical tensions, gurgles and digital creaks...
An intimate and introspective path, through long and deserted corridors, entering spacious and bright rooms surrounded by white large walls, walking on reflective polished floors, cold and aseptic just like the sounds that Gianluca Favaron and Stefano Gentile chose to ideally fill with vibrations their spaces and architectural forms ...
A limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies in cartonsleeve. Each copy contains a different slide." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Background Noise |
LP |
"Under The Snow is a project by Stefano Gentile (guitar, objects, field-recordings) and Gianluca Favaron (microphones, field-recordings, processing). Stefano Gentile is well known for his work as owner of the Silentes and Amplexus labels; he is part of Maribor (along with Maurizio Bianchi, Nimh, Andrea Marutti and Gianluca Favaron) and in the past he has collaborated with Aube and Amir Baghiri. Beyond releasing under his own name, Gianluca Favaron collaborates with Ennio Mazzon on the Zbeen project; in the past he has released music as Ab'she and was part of Lasik Surgery along with Pierpaolo Zoppo. Released after a series of works for Silentes and U-Cover, "The Background Noise" is a single-sided 12" record, built starting from acoustic guitar sounds that develop on a background of statics and digital scoriae, where the cold and aseptic electronic frequencies melt with the plucked strings, resonating in a dramatic request for help or, maybe, in the warning of an imminent danger. A welcome release in the fast-growing discography of Under The Snow, that will appeal to fans of other Italian musicians like, among the others, Gianluca Becuzzi, Fabio Orsi, Enrico Coniglio, Stefano Pilia and Giuseppe Ielasi (who took care of the mastering).
"The Background Noise" is released in a limited edition of 86 copies; an additional edition of 13 copies is also available, it includes a 30x30cm reproduction of the cover picture printed on high quality professional photo-paper. Due to the restricted amount of available copies you'd better not think twice about it!" [label info]
http://13.silentes.it
"As Under The Snow Favaron works with Stefano Gentile, who plays acoustic guitar and treated guitar picks, and Favaron is responsible for 'programming, electronics and signal processing'. They have released a bunch of CDs (see Vital Weekly 771, 786 and 826) of their improvised playing, in which the laptop picks up the guitar sound and treats that on the spot. Following a start in which the laptop seemed to prevail, the later releases had a more fine tuned balance of straight guitar sounds and laptop processing. This one sided LP has a twenty minute piece which continues the chosen road of the previous releases and shows us more crackles, static hiss and bangs on the guitar. Maybe a bit more chaotic than before, I thought, bringing out the element of improvisation more than on the previous releases. At the same time there is also a bit more drone like sounds, closing off the LP, and taking away some of the emptiness previously found in their music. I think it's great to see them slowly develop and become more and more like an improvised working unit. The combination of live laptop processing a live guitar is perhaps not something that hasn't been done before, as noted before, but again here, this seems to work rather well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| UNIVERS ZERO |
Ceux du Dehors |
LP |
"Third album (1981) by the Belgian band Univers Zero. The title alludes to the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release for the band. Ceux du Dehors sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
This album finds the group continuing to evolve and return to the more general and varied chamber music sound of their first release, except with more precision and skill. The tricky charts of percussionist Daniel Denis and new keyboardist Andy Kirk are executed with great panache. The labyrinth-like compositions are typically filled with unexpected twists and turns, and angular repetitions of jagged riffs that accelerate, decelerate and mutate in passages of acute tension or quiet but ominous dread." [label info]
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
LUEUR |
LP |
Univers Zero's new album (since 10 years) follows the lineage of 'Phosphorescent Dreams', originally released only on CD in Japan in 2014, and reissued as an LP on the Sub Rosa label in 2019. Lueur is the fruit of two years' work and reflection, the foundations of which were laid by Daniel Denis (keyboards, drums, percussion...), then enriched by the contributions of Nicolas Dechêne (guitars), Kurt Budé (clarinet / bass clarinet) and Nicolas Denis (bass, percussion, vocals), all three present on Phosphorescent Dreams.
With this reduced line-up, Lueur offers a dense journey, rooted in the balance between power and calm, raging and serene sound. A balance, too, between complex arrangements and more contemplative moments. While this album continues the avant-rock tradition of Univers Zero, it also features some very short pieces, more electronic, tribal and haunting sounds, and voice work that is new to the U.Z. universe. Between tradition and subtle evolution, Lueur is a major new contribution to the discography of this band, which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2024.
Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style.
Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music - most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/lueur
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| UNKNOWN ARTIST |
Anastenaria |
do-LP |
"Excavated from the bottomless vaults of the Greek musical heritage, the new KEMA/\ label reissues a timeless piece of Hellenic ritualism: the folk dance of ANASTENARIA. Closely affiliated to the Berceuse Heroique imprint, KEMA/\ will focus its attention to the unearthing of ageless recordings, from pagan, cult-like hymns to forgotten electronic deviations...brutally backed with a fitting series of contemporary remixes. The sounds of ANASTENARIA are hypnotic and terrifying at their most docile moments, spinning you through ten segments of circular improvisation while transporting you to those sun-beaten hills and back again - the voices of the musicians and participators themselves creating enough energy to form a captivating pull towards this compelling segment of music. On the second slab of vinyl, Hospital Recordings boss, Vatican Shadow takes the essence of the entire cut and morphs it into a ten-minute cyclone of granular drones and thorny percussion, leaving the original's prophetic instruments to wail wildly beneath the mounds of hardware mutation - a strikingly apt fit to a recording made decades before... Over on the flip, it's up to Pete Swanson to definitively derange ANASTENARIA to its fullest, leaving behind a faint glow of the original's powerful air of mysticism. Fuzzy kick drums, grainy hi-hats and an ocean of organised noise culminate into total sonic destruction, spewing out the exhausted remnants of the dance to the Gods. Beautifully packaged by Will Bankhead, this first KEMA/\ is full of rebooted sounds that will appeal to the more daring spinners out there." [label info]
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| UNSONG |
The frailty of angels, the treason of people |
CD |
Excellent debut release from this British project, silent but dense & eerie ambience with tension, a very own style...
“Unsong (Mason Ball) is a project interested in producing stark, atypical and emotive audio regardless of logical progression, musicality or continuity. Unsong create rich, layered, instinctive sound works from the minimal to the extravagant, utilising a miscellaneous array of sources: electronically generated tones, processed field recordings, disassembled voices, domestic appliances, stolen sounds, chance; the list stretches on exponentially.The methodology employed by unsong is a simple one: proceed with what sounds right, abandon what doesn't, often producing broken and unintelligible sounds to engage, soothe, surprise and disorientate the listener. Unsong endeavours to fashion disordered audio for gleefully unsound minds. [label info]
“ Dark, atmospheric music, that however doesn't tend towards something like dark ambient (with tons of digital synths), but more into the sound research areas of The Hafler Trio (circa How To Reform Mankind), Coil or Andrew Liles. One of the better pieces on this is the lenghty title piece, which is a slow beast moving onwards until a loop drops in and changes the slightly the atmosphere of the music. Sometimes the music falls below the point of hearing, but it always creeps back from under the carpet, right into your face. Scary music, this is. Music that could be easily used for some thriller film production. Very spooky but very well made. I am told that through the website of Unsong it is possible to order from each song a lenghty remix (one track per CDR), in case this wasn't enough... [FdW, Vital Weekly] Address: http://www.macrophonies.co.uk
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| UR |
Triadic Memories |
CD-R |
"Ur were born in early 2005 as a collaboration between Federico Esposito and Mauro Sciaccaluga, both active in the italian hardcore circuit. They were later joined by Andrea Ferraris, past and present member of Burning Defeat, Permanent Scar, Onefineday, Deep End and One By One.
Ur made their live debut at the Afe-Party in November 2005, and since then their live-sets have become more and more frequent. Recently they also opened for Eugene Chadbourne and Wolf Eyes during their italian tours.
Their music is mostly based on free improvisation and its sonorities can't easily be described without referring to the seminal work of the well-known and wildest Industrialists of the late '70s / early '80s.
"Triadic Memories" is their first "official" disc and comes after the self-released "Baptism & Birthday". There is a strong dramatic feeling in their powerful sound, where everything seems to reproduce a sort of wedding between the modernity of the media and the primordial instincts of the performers.
"Movement #1" is taken straight from "Baptism & Birthday", and is usually played as the opening number of their live-sets. The track begins with an high-pitched theremin sound laid on a bed of reverbered and tortured bass guitar. More percussions and distortions appear along with a looping voice as the music turns into industrial madness.
"Movement #2" is a more laid down piece of music built on a continuous drone enriched with scraped metals / objects and a female voice building tension over tension. Surprisingly enough, an accordion enters the mix accompanied by more looped voices and fades out as the track ends with cymbals hits.
An early version of "Movement #3" already appeared as an untitled contribution to "Breaking Down the Barriers 1995-2005, Ten Years of Afe", an on-line compilation issued by Afe in late 2005 to celebrate its tenth birthday.
With this final track we return to the industrial atmospheres of "Movement #1": feedback and bass distortions overwhelm a glockenspiel as an hooter alarm becomes more disquieting loop after loop. All sort of uncomfortable noises are used, and "Movement #3" ends with the lonely sound of a breathing voice.
Far away from Power Electronics and Harsh Noise, "Triadic Memories" is more a sort of psychedelic and liberatory journey reminding the best old-school Industrial music experiments." [label info] |
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Trieb |
CD |
Die italienische Drone/Noise-Band mit der ersten "fabriggepressten" CD... ihr bassiger Impro-Drone Sound erinnert an SILVESTER ANFANG oder alte MAEROR TRI, mit vielen recht weirden sounds im sumpfigen Drone-Morast.. gefällt uns super!! Teils ausuferend-ekstatisch aber auch mit ruhigen, schwelenden parts... rauhe aber nicht unsensible dunkle Dronescapes...
"Ur was born from the collaboration between Federico Esposito and Mauro Sciaccaluga, both hailing from the hardcore-punk scene and from bands like Heartside (F.E.), Never Was, Downright, Kafka, Stalker (M.S.). The two joined in 2003 to work on F.E.’s industrial solo-project (a.k.a. Den LXV) live set, later they decided to collaborate and improvise together to create a new entity. Andrea Ferraris joined the band in the early days of 2005, contributing to define further on the sonic identity of the combo. A.F. is well known for having played and recorded with different bands ranging from hardcore to indie-post rock to experimental music (Airchamber3, Deep End, Burning Defeat, Permanent Scar, Onefineday, Ultraviolet Make Me Sick, Permanent Scar, etc…). Ur music is mostly based on improvisation that usually starts with drones or samples (with no pre-definite structure), to which they superimpose layers of electro-acoustic noisescapes coming from objects, field recordings, analog and traditional instruments processed using a load of pedals and effects. The sound ends painting a solid, harsh and dramatic industrial lounge where archaic instincts and modern obsessions meet. To use the words of a sound engineer after one of their live sets: “…it all sounds like early Pink Floyd on acid...on muriatic acid”. [label info]
"....Their music is mostly based on free improvisation and its sonorities can't easily be described without referring to the well-known and wildest experiments of Industrial music of the late '70s / early '80s. There is a strong dramatic feeling in their powerful sound, where everything seems to reproduce a sort of wedding between the modernity of the media and the primordial instincts of the performers..." [Gothtronic.com]
www.topheth.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Day of the Lord |
CD-R |
"Italian project started in 2005. UR has released a number of albums through Topheth Prophet, Afe Records, Mask Of The Slave. Music is mostly free-improvised in the style of Industrial of 1970’s. Four long pieces recorded in 2006 create a hellish maelstrom of black shadows, heartrending groans, bloodletting rave in a throng of ashletting horny and caudate entitites. Sometimes more scary than TG, early CURRENT 93 and STALLAGH." [label info]
www.abgurd.com |
2010 |
€8.50 |
|
| URBAN SAX |
Urban Sax 1 |
LP + DVD |
"Urban Sax was founded in 1973 by French experimental musician Gilbert Artman, a.o. the mastermind behind Lard Free. Driven by his interest in the relation between space and sound, he experimented with large groups of saxofonists, varying from 16 to 34 players, at times also including bass players, percussionists, vocalists and even dancers. An early experiment took place in the French village of Menton, where Artman placed the musicians on rooftops, in various streets, on squares, and in gardens. Though the total experiences of these experiments/events can't be captured on whatever sound carrier, several recordings were made through the years. The debut-LP 'Urban Sax 1' was originally released in 1977 on Cézanne/Cobra and features recordings made by 16 sax players. Fans of adventurous musicians s.a. La Monte Young, Phil Niblock, Glenn Branca, Steve Reich or Terry Riley should really check this out! This reissue comes with remastered sound and a booklet offering rare pix and liner notes by Artman himself." [label info]
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2016 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Fraction sur le Temps |
LP + DVD |
Urban Sax was founded in 1973 by French experimental musician Gilbert Artman, a.o. the mastermind behind Lard Free. Driven by his interest in the relation between space and sound, he experimented with large groups of saxofonists, varying from 16 to 34 players, at times also including bass players, percussionists, vocalists and even dancers. An early experiment took place in the French village of Menton, where Artman placed the musicians on rooftops, in various streets, on squares, and in gardens. Though the total experiences of these experiments/events can't be captured on whatever sound carrier, several recordings were made through the years. Originally released by the Celluloid label in 1986, and also including some electric guitar and electronic elements, 'Fraction Sur Le Temps' may very well be the trippiest of Urban Sax' releases. This reissue comes with remastered sound and a booklet offering rare pix and liner notes by Artman himself.
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2016 |
€25.50 |
|
| UTON |
The Source has its rare Beauty |
MC |
UTON is the experimental project of Jani Hirvonen, a key contributor to the thriving underground music scene in Finland. Over 20 prolific years, Hirvonen has formed a distinct sound world with UTON that is often distinguished by a beautifully maximal approach to instrumental psychedelia; playful compositions involving seemingly endless layers of colourful ambience, woven like a tapestry.
Part of what makes UTON's staggering discography so wonderful is a willingness to veer away from any predictable trajectory, and continue to surprise listeners. With The Source has its Raw Beauty, UTON has taken a full departure and bravely struck an immersive mainline into heavy minimal drone. As Hirvonen explains, “UTON has always been an experimental project, and it expands to experiment with whatever just comes into the flow – but, of course, there needs to be that Source which makes it feel inspiring and exciting.”
Outlier Communications is thrilled to present this unique work from a vibrant musical visionary. During its creation, Hirvonen's visual artwork for the cassette morphed into an homage of sorts to the distinct CD packaging popularized by Corpus Hermeticum, the legendary label curated by Bruce Russell of The Dead C from about 1993 - 2004. We tried our best to honour that vision, and believe these sessions – which resulted from an acoustic guitar being mounted with an electric massager – would have fit nicely in that esteemed catalogue.
“The sound and idea is very simple, and the result raw and noisy,” admits Jani. “That noise penetrates from and into the depths; from and into The Source – to our life and form – and continues this loop eternally. It's an esoteric energy bank, a power charger for the inner batteries.” Hirvonen recalls from the sessions, “The whole guitar was trembling, not just the strings. Playing and improvising with very minimal movement was relaxing and meditative, I could just melt deeper into this raw beauty.”
https://outliercommunications.bandcamp.com/album/the-source-has-its-raw-beauty
|
2022 |
€9.00 |
|
| UW HYPOTHEEKADVIES |
Nature of Nurture |
CD |
"Ed. Of 400 numbered copies with full color insert each with an original hand drawing. Features members from former BlRR band Girlfriends and mastered by Erik Drost and Raymond Steeg (Legendary Pink Dots). According to the Explosive Ordinance Field Guide: “Uw Hypotheekadvies should be handled with great care as it is one of the most powerful EO’s, especially if detonated through speakers in the comfort of one’s own home.” As trios go, UH sound more like a thousand-tet. Imagine a heavily armoured Glenn Branca guitar army falling DOWN an UP escalator in such a way that they never reach the bottom and are forever tumbling and crashing. Now throw DNA down the same escalator and pour acid on that. UH don’t just rock; they ROCK. Like agates gone wild, their abstract explorations come delivered via sledgehammer and arrive on the plate as oddly conceived gemstones with insects trapped inside. It smells like the teen spirits of Naked City and Laddio Bolocko lurk underneath UH’s woodpile, but despite the improv flavour of UH’s pummeling, they skew away from jazz and lean in more towards prog than Zorn and Co. UH’s chaos fleshes form and even descends into subtle soundscapes in between the rat-a-tat blastpatter. A beautiful monstrosity of Nature and Nurture." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) |
33 rpm : Ten Hours of Sound from France |
CD |
23FIVE INCORPORATED ist nicht nur seit Jahren der wichtigste Konzertveranstalter für experimentelle Musik in San Francisco, sondern inzwischen auch als Label tätig. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ist eine Compilation-Reihe entstanden, die pro Ausgabe Projekte eines einzigen Landes vorstellt. Hier also Frankreich, das vom 6.-14.09.2003 im San Francisco Museum of Modern Art vorgestellt wurde. Zu hören gibt es hier eine Auswahl mit 12, sehr elektro-akustisch & musique-concrete - ausgerichteten tracks von KASPER T. TOEPLITZ, KRISTOF K.ROLL, JEAN-CLAUDE RISSET, LIONEL MARCHETTI, CHRISTOPHE HAVEL, LAURENT DAILLEAU, MATHIEU CHAMAGE, pizMO, JEAN-PHILIPPE GROSS, und MIMETIC. Mit ausführlichem Beiheft (24 Seiten) zum Konzept der Ausstellung und zur französischen Tradition der Musique Concrete.
“ 24 Page Book + CD curated by Laurent Dailleau. The CD compendium of 33 RPM-a co-presentation between 23five Incorporated and SFMOMA-celebrates the contemporary models that French composers have built in response to the historical influences of musique concrete and computer music. Featuring compositions from Kasper T.Toeplitz, Kristoff K. Roll, Jean-Claude Risset, Lionel Marchetti, Christophe Havel, Laurent Dailleau, Mathieu Chamagne, pizMO, Jean-Philippe Gross, and Mimetic. In contrast to the encyclopaedic catalogue to the 10 hour program, the
selection within the 33 RPM CD emphasizes an acousmatic approach towards electro-acoustic construction. Kasper T. Toeplitz offers a tumultous wash from churing electric generators, while Lionel Marchetti presents a queasy demonstration for sinusodial currents matched against a lonesome accordion and Jean-Claude Risset investigates the microtonal resonances from a handful of found instruments.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Antologia de Musica Electronica Portugesa |
CD |
Feine Erkundungen in die elektro-akustische und experimental-elektronische Szene Portugals, vieles unbekanntes, produziert von RAFAEL TORAL.
“Compiled by Rafael Toral and Plancton Music this anthology waeves a historic thread that freely crosses boundaries between the authors' cultural territories and also documents as many approaches to electronic music as possible, both on material and conceptual levels. tracklisting : 1. Nuno Canavarro - Alsee (1987) 0' 52" 2. Cândido Lima - Oceanos - (1978) 5' 53"
3. Nuno Rebelo - New Amp - (1984) 3' 42" 4. Isabel Soveral - Anamorphoses I (1994) 5' 19" 5. Filipe Pires - Homo Sapiens (1972) 4' 38" 6. Telectu - Performance # (1984) 4' 47"
7. Jorge Peixinho - Elegia a Amílcar Cabral (1973) 5' 13"
8. Rafael Toral - Mills Session (introdução) (1997) 2' 22"
9. João Pedro Oliveira - Silence to Light (1992) 3' 34"
10. Anar Band - Plasticman (1977) 4' 42" 11. René Bertholo - África Aqui (1996) 1' 46" 12. Carlos Zíngaro - #444-07 (1981) 3' 24"
13. Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta - Lisbon Revisited (1986) 3' 06" 14. No Noise Reduction - RLO II (1995) 3' 32"
15. António Ferreira - O Verão Nasceu da Paixão de 1921 (1988) 8' 52" [label info]
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
|
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE presents: Interpretations |
CD-R |
Interpretations of graphical works from AMT by: MAISON_MEDICALE, DALE LLOYD, KARKOWSKI, SECRET SOCIETY MUSIC, DAVID MC CARTHY, JEAN LUC GUIONNET, AIOFE MC GOVERN, NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES, and additional tracks by AMT, TBC, SKWI + Y.BUCHHEIM. Quite radical in approach & sounding, between extreme concrete microcospic field / soundobject recordings & instrumental use, electronic noises & drones, everything is possible...
On Hamburgs "Wachsender Prozess"-Label !
|
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
|
Construction Sonor |
do-CD |
Swiss artist BERND SCHURER (known for the DAS ERDWERK 7” on Drone, and now active with his label DOMIZIL and solo-works) created a great field recording journey (94 short spots) made in the tunnels, tubes, shafts and railways below the alps. On the second CD we find 13 remixes of the basic material, by artists that live along the featured recording places!
SEELENLUFT, BALDUIN, TABLE, DOLMEN, DRUMPET, BLANK, MÜLLER/KORBER, INTRICATE, MONOLAKE, ARCHETTI, and also ERIK M, FENNESZ, REFAT.
Comes with big poster-inlay and booklet, a real stunning release for sound-researchers ! BACK IN STOCK ! STILL TO DISCOVER!
|
2003 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Dissolution Tapes: The Musique Concrete Ensemble remixed |
CD |
Eine Compilation auf dem US-Label ZEROMOON, die das ganze mögliche Spektrum experimentellen Soundrecyclings aufzeigt ! Remixed wird nämlich das (sehr ruhige & schöne) Album “Disonancias..” von MUSIQUE CONCRETE ENSEMBLE in einem extrem weiten Spektrum, von atmosphärisch-organischen Dronescapes bis hin zu digital-concrete noise... wirklich hervorragendes Material, definitiv zu empfehlen !
“ Lets face it, most compilations suck, are filled with half-assed throw away tracks by name artists and filler by unknowns reinventing the wheel for the umpteenth time. This is were Dissolution Tapes differs. In order to maintain a stylistic consistency of music and challenge the contributors, musical themes recorded by Normal Music's secret alter ego, The MCE, were given to every participant. Its sort of a remix CD but beyond that in how attention was paid to the overall disk in terms of flow and composition creating a unified release of new and challenging music. Artists include: Cornucopia, Alexei Borisov, Anton Nikkila, Freiband, Ultra Milkmaids, Violet, Jacob Kirkegaard, Maja Ratkje, Kotra, Dead Letters, Andrey Kiritchenko, Das Torpedoes, Michael Gendreau, R.R. Habarc, Francisco Lopez, Rechord, Fe-Mail.” [label info] "Dissolution Tapes requires effort but rewards accordingly. Still, it should not be approached as the companion disc to Disonancias y Repeticiones Ambiguas, unless you plan on seriously expanding your horizons." - François Couture, All-Music Guide "listen to this compilation whole in one breath, it's worth it." - Vital Weekly
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Epitaph for John |
CD |
Über 3 Jahre nach seinem Tod erscheint diese Memorial-Compilation für den ursprünglich aus Berlin stammenden Komponisten JOHN WATERMANN, der nur 48 Jahre alt wurde. Neben dem über 13 minütigen Originalmaterial von WATERMANNs „Toowong Cemetary“ , welches zu seinen letzten Aufnahmen zählen dürfte, gibt es hier Bearbeitungen desselben Materials zu hören von FRANS DE WAARD aka FREIBAND und anderen, die engen Kontakt mit WATERMANN hatten: ASMUS TIETCHENS, RLW, und MERZBOW.
Dies ist eine würdige Gedenk-Compilation mit grossartigem Material, hier zeigen diese Koryphäen der unabhängigen Geräuschmusik-Szene ihre ganze Klasse! Kommt mit kompletter Discographie und vielen weiteren Infos!!
“CD only (compilation with Asmus Tietchens, RLW, Merzbow, Freiband and John Watermann). In late 2000, I received an e-mail from John Watermann. It was rather out of the blue, since we hadn't been in contact for maybe ten years. I don't have that e-mail anymore, but I remember that it started like this: "I hope you remember me? I have been diagnozed with cancer which is incurable", and then he went on to propose that I buy the remainder of his self-released CD-Rom, "A Rose Is A Rose". John also proposed that we do a musical collaboration together. I mailed him a CDR of field recordings that I had made in the summer of 2000 in Sweden, and he mailed me a CDR called 'Toowong Cemetary'. During the next year and in early 2002, John and I e-mailed about how we should approach this collaborative work. I did a fair share of processing on his sound material, but it seemed hard for me to finish. In my various e-mail communications with John, I didn't dare ask what would happen if he would die and the work was not completed.
In the afternoon of April 3th 2002, I got an e-mail from Shannon O'Neill, telling me that John had passed away. Afterwards, I got in contact with Barbara Heath and Malcolm Cones, who were both dealing with John's estate. They send me a couple of CDRs containing all the recent soundwork John had been working on, but they contained nothing of our collaboration. I left my music unfinished, until mid-2003 when I thought of inviting Asmus Tietchens to do some work on John's original sounds. I knew that they were in close contact. After Asmus had finished, and I still wasn't ready with my piece, so I invited two more people, Ralf Wehowsky and Masami Akita. In the previous years Masami worked on an extensive collaboration with John and Ralf Wehowsky mentions Watermann as one of the few artists he was keen follower of. Once I had their contributions, I decided to start from scratch and take their finished works as new raw sound material, which is why my piece is now at the end of the CD.” [Frans de Waard – liner notes]
“Over the course of his life John Watermann worked with almost every conceivable artistic medium. In many ways, he was the epitome of the "total artist"; almost every element of his life being in some way his own artistic project. As a young man in his native Germany he worked as a photographer and documentary filmmaker, also etching, painting and writing. His experience as a youth in Germany in the Second World War influencing his work from then right through until his death.
Following his move to Australia Watermann worked as jeweller, opening a number of shops in Sydney with his longtime Australian partner Barbara Heath (an accomplished jeweller in her own right) and meanwhile continued to write, paint and even sculpt. Eventually, after traveling the east coast of Australia in a self-built sailing boat, Watermann settled in Brisbane and began to produce his music.
He first released his music in 1989 in the form of the album "Warmth is the Fifth Room". Like most of his releases, the cassette appeared in a run of very few copies on his own label "Nightshift", and was consequently almost impossible to find.
Over the next 10 years he released numerous albums and contributed to a number of compilations, both under his own name as a solo artist, in collaboration with others (such as Merzbow) and under a number of pseudonyms (including Radio Mull, Spinal Machine and Total Disease). Also, apart from his music, in the 1990s he created an interactive cd-rom work "Rose is a Rose" and published the webzine "Lean Yellow Supporting".
Sadly, on April 2nd 2002 John Watermann died suddenly of an infection resulting from his ongoing treatment for cancer. Having in the final year of his life returned to painting and writing (alongside a burgeoning interest in cooking), he still had vast plans for future projects.
Among these unfulfilled projects were plans to collaborate with Frans de Waard on a new release. Although only preliminary discussions on the collaboration took place and Watermann never completed any work towards the project, Watermann's source material that was to be the basis of the work now serves as a basis for this tribute release.
Despite his vast artistic output, Watermann has been known almost exclusively for his music and even then his work remains largely undiscovered, perhaps for no other reason than its sheer unavailability. In many ways Watermann could be considered a classic example of the artists' artist, his work influencing many far more prominent sonic alchemists. And perhaps then this release serves as a record of Watermann and his influence, documenting the respect he reserved from his peers and, hopefully, introducing his work to a new audience.” [Ben Byrne] . tracklisting:
1. Asmus Tietchens - JWAT 1 (03:05)
2. Asmus Tietchens - JWAT 2 (02:37)
3. Asmus Tietchens - JWAT 3 (05:39)
4. Asmus Tietchens - JWAT 4 (03:55)
5. RLW: Seeking Perfection - Somewhere Else (12:52)
6. Merzbow - Untitled For John (05:28)
7. Freiband - Threnody (10:26)
8. John Watermann - Toowong Cemetary (13:32)
[press-release]
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2005 |
€13.00 |
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Evolved As One - a Collection of emotional Ambient Drones |
CD |
Ein neues Label aus Utrecht, NL, wartet gleich mit einer hochkarätigen ambient-drone Compilation auf. Sehnsuchtsvollste Sphären wieder von URE THRALL, transzendentale DeepDrone-Kaskaden von MOLJEBKA PVLSE, DUAL taucht in micro-detail-Flächen ein, ULTRASOUND umschwirren zart die Sinne, STEPHEN MEIXNER (ex CONTRASTATE) fängt den Hörer in eine traumhaft-weiche Atmosphäre ein, CATS OF TEL AVIV (Solo-Projekt von Rober Ovetz/ ULTRASOUND) betört mit ganz minimalen Hauch-Vibrationen, und TROUM betrauern das nicht zu ändernde Schicksal.
Wir meinen: Eine Top-Compilation wie aus einem Guss ohne Schwachpunkte, Pflicht für Freunde dronig-erhabener Klänge !
Pure yearning of the spheres ! This one’s made to break your heart! A new Label from Utrecht, NL, with their first release – a highly recommended ambient-drone compilation, we think one of the best that has ever been done in this genre !!
“A new label from The Netherlands: hurray! Evolved from a series of concerts held in Utrecht, their main man nows has his own label and as a start he released a CD with nine tracks by his favourite seven artists. Like with the evenings, Evolved As One focusses on ambient and drone related music. They seek drone music in various directions: sad, introvert or melancholic. On this CD we find some very deep drony music by some of the more well-known players in the field. Dual, Ultrasound and Troum all have releases out that gained quite some recognition. Runner up are SRMeixner (the solo project of Stephen Meixner, formerly of Contrastate), Ure Thrall (whose 'Breathing' here is on the edge of kitsch, I must admit), Cats Of Tel Aviv (solo project of Rob Ovetz of Ultrasound) and Moljebka Pvlse. These seven groups play their usual standard - high standard, I must say - of organic, densely layered music, but the standout is Troum's 'Ananke', with accordion playing and a highly reverbed and slowed down sea man choir. A true melancholic song - a song that it is, rather then a landscape. It's the shortest song, but quite a surprise. The converted to the genre will surely like this, as much as I do (because I am already converted) and the uniniated will have a splendid introduction to the genre.” [FdW, Vital Weekly]
www.evolvedasone.com
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2003 |
€13.00 |
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Floating Foundation Vol. 1 |
CD |
"HISTORICAL EXPLANATION : bases and developments
Leaving aside controversy and scandal, Frank Lloyd Wright built a huge hotel in Japan between 1916 and 1922; a few months later, Tokyo was devastated by an earthquake. Only a few buildings stayed up - amongst which the Imperial Hotel. When asked how his construction had remained intact, he replied: Floating Foundation. In this case as in others, he had thought and assimilated the nature of nature. What must be done now is to apply this principle to other areas of creation.
A thousand facts and actions could support the theory that we are moving towards a new decompartmentalization of genre, towards a unified field, as Christophe Charles - and Markus Popp - would state.(we could also treat archeologically the compartmentalization of the arts and its decompartmentalization throughout history, to reach the conclusion that nothing is ever permanently set).we are merely linking together a few elements that go in the same direction.
Likewise, the idea which preoccupies us in this series, is to create sound objects, abstract in their appearance, with musicians who are, in most cases, plastic artists too - the border between music and plastic arts is thinner than ever before. This is what we will try to explore for the time being.
Janek Schaefer
Based in london as architecte and musician. After his 'Above Buildings' , he worked with Robert Hampson on a project called Comae', also he invented the Tri-Phonic Turntable.
Robert Hampson
Founder of Loop and Main - a seminal musician from south london. he produced about 12 records from early 90 and participated to the 'Gilles Deleuze unit' with Scanner mid-90.
Christophe Charles
French sound plastician living in Tokyo, close in mind to Markus Popp / Oval - he released "undirected 1986-1996 " on Mille plateaux and "dok " - a soundfile exchange between Oval and him.
Stephen Vitiello
Born in New York City in 1964,. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Whitney Museum and Postmasters Gallery, in New York. A musician and media-artist, he is involved in the New York avant garde,. He was also a close collaborator of Nam June Paik.
Kurt Ralske
Kurt Ralske is a Manhattan-based composer, electronic musician, and computer audio-video artist. Described by Alternative Press as 'proving that machines do indeed have souls' - founder long time ago of the mythic Ultra Vivid Scene (on 4AD)" [label info]
"The aim of the Floating Foundation series is to "create sound objects" with musicians "who are, in most cases, plastic artists too" (from Sub Rosa director Guy Marc Hinant's presentation) -- in other words, to walk the thinning line between music and plastic arts. The sound sculptors contributing to this first installment all decided to take its title (inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's sense of architecture) literally. Each piece is a journey through either air or water -- not that the artists declare to specifically use sounds derived from these sources, but their music feels airborne, free-floating, gentle, and following its own, sometimes capricious path. Janek Schaefer's "Lithospheric Shifts" opens the CD, but it represents its weaker point. It doesn't take off, offering a limited and uninvolved scope of sounds. Robert Hampson's (aka Main) "Hysteresis" is already more interesting and takes the shape of a British-school electro-acoustic work. Christophe Charles and Stephen Vitiello's contributions make for the best moments, the former vaguely ambient, the latter presenting the most minimalist but sharply focused work, derived in part from his recordings of the World Trade Center (something that cannot help but take an unplanned extra dimension after the events of September 11, 2001). This is where the sense of plasticity, of "sound sculpting," can be felt the strongest. Kurt Ralske's "Au.Taste" provides a suitably calm ending."
[François Couture, All Music Guide]
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2002 |
€13.00 |
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Go-To-Cat-Man-Do |
CD |
Ein neues polnisches Experimental-Label mit erster Veröffentlichung – gleich eine gue Compilation mit grösstenteils polnischen Acts, meist akustisch-handgespieltes Material mit viel Atmosphäre.... Sehr schöne Stücke von ZA SIODMA GORA, ONE INCH OF SHADOW, VION & MEM (ex EA!, überraschend konkret & noisy) , WOLFRAM, und wieder viele neue Namen aus der schier unerschöpflichen polnischen Experimental-Szene... wie PATRYK ZAKROCKI, JOHANNES BERGMARK, superseltsame Sounds von ALEXEI BORISOW, etc...
A new polish experimental label from Warszawa with first release – a compilation presenting mainly the polish scene, lost of handplayed-acoustic material with much atmosphere, some new names to discover, you find MP3s on www.monotyperecords.com.
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2005 |
€13.00 |
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Guitars undressed |
CD |
Nackte Kühe auf’m Cover und Gitarren werden hier auch entkleidet... eine schöne Minimal / Microsound – Compilation mit Stücken von meist bekannteren Grössen, die wissen wie man Gitarren allerentrückteste Sounds entlockt: NAOAKI MIYAMOTO, OREN AMBARCHI, SHIFTS, DAVID GRUBBS, RICHARD YOUNGS, LEE RANALDO, RAFAEL TORAL....
“in my quest to bring you, the customer, the most osbscure items in a narrow range of out-sound tactics (amongs the greater scale: conceptual guitar-sound etudes) i came across this disc (well.. i bought a copy of this from rafael when he blew through town a few weeks back). lineup is something to die for in regards to contemporary out-guitar (sem)antics. most (bordering on all) pieces are extended, unreleased forays into the unknown far-reaches of space.
especially nice outings from mr. ambarchi (possibly the last of the stacte variations, and one of the most engaging pieces in his entire gimundo oeuvre) and mr. toral (a 20+ minute bleep-epic verging on near-quietude). controlled coelacanth-removal radiation from mr. ranaldo (hazy scrunge-fest with much echoplexation). plus songs from mr. youngs (bright, acoustic folk-sounding ditty, mildly off-place here) and grubbs (well, more of a kind of restrained volume-pedal improv than a proper “song” per sé). and an ebow bit from franz de waard.
first release on a fresh, young japanese label. all-star lineup. green grass and cows on the cover...” [Mimaroglu]
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2003 |
€12.00 |
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INFERNAL PROTEUS |
BOOK / 4 x CD |
Auf dieser PFLANZEN-Compilation werden 40 verschiedene Pflanzen (davon 1 fiktionale) musikalisch charakterisiert, wobei das Spektrum sehr weitreichend, aber größtenteils im dark ambient / post-industrial und apocalyptic folk – Bereich anzusiedeln ist. Die Aufmachung ist äußerst edel, ein 96seitiges Hardcover-Buch mit Abbildungen / Artwork zu jeder Pflanze.
Die Auswahl der Pflanzen erfolgte durch die beteiligten Projekte und zeigt auch schon, wo ein Hauptinteresse lag: bei den bewussteinsverändernden Pflanzen...;
ein wahrhaft monumentaler Trip in die Pflanzenwelt, eine Compilation die eigentlich Unverbindliches zu verbinden sucht. Einmalig in der Konzeption und Gestaltung, a definite MUST have!
“A professionally and luxury manufactured 96-page hardback book with full colorartwork, containing 4 Compact Discs with 40 first-class artists and a playtime averaging 67 minutes per disc ¬ from Folk to Rhythmic, Pop to Ambient and Electronic to beyond... Every contributing artist was given the freedom to chose one plant or herb of his delight to present within “Infernal Proteus” under the aspect of music and visual art. The result is a new form of book, ground breaking in its expression ¬ a manifestation of true artistic virtue!” [press release] Featured are a.o.:
AH CAMA-SOTZ (Belgium): Morning Glory, ALIO DIE (Italy): Borage, AMBER ASYLUM (USA): Kelp, APOPTOSE (Germany): Oak, AUBE (Japan): Chrysanthemum, BARADELAN (Germany): Bonsai, CHAOS AS SHELTER (Israel): Bellflower, COLECLOUGH & HILL (UK): Beech, YANNICK DAUBY (France): Sundew, ENDVRA (UK): Hops, HEKATE (Germany): Cornflower IGOR18 (Israel): Venus Flytrap, INADE (Germany): Ginkgo DAVE KNOTT (USA): Redwood, LOTUS EATERS (USA): Marijuana, MNORTHAM (USA): Salvia Divinorum, SETH NEHIL (USA): Birch, STEVE RODEN (USA): Pine
TROUM (Germany): Khan Arachnid, ULTRA (USA): Yohimbe WOLFSKIN (Portugal): Thornapple........and many others !
label-website: www.theajnaoffensive.com |
2002 |
€45.00 |
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Instruments |
CD |
MICROMUSIC! Atmospheric digital music at its best, between ambient-drones and more poppy sounds... on this compilation of a new french label ! JANEK SCHAEFER, STEINBRUCHEL, MOU, LIPS!, HERVE BOGHOSSIAN, and many more.. Second compilation for this fine french label..
: : _t r a c k l i s t
. .1. werner dafeldecker & martin siewert -stendec-
. .2. janek schaefer -sans la vue-
. .3. steinbrüchel -tint/e-
. .4. mou, lips! -che ti amerà per sempre-
. .5. sébastien roux -farnsworth house-
. .6. matthieu saladin & ivan solano -syn-
. .7. hervé boghossian -points d'orgue-
. .8. günter müller -momentary cymbalized-
. .9. mitchell akiyama -capsized sigh and a highjacked smile-
. .10.julien tardieu & cylens -retilh-
. .11.colleen -slow flower-
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2004 |
€10.00 |
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Inventionen 2000 |
do-CD/book |
“Ringbuchkatalog mit 2 CDs. Kompositionen von Francois Donato, Tom Johnson, Christina Kubisch, Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, Wolfgang Mitterer, Adrian Moore, Jose Antonio Orts, Ed Osborn, David Prior, Martin Riches, Mario Verandi
CD 1
Francois Donato: Corps de Compassion (15'42'')
Adrian Moore: Ethereality (14'55'')
David Prior: Love & Death (13'14'')
Mario Verandi: Evil Fruit (10'25'')
Alvin Lucier: On the Carpet of Leaves illuminated by the Moon (12'14'')
Ron Kuivila: Impulsive Arcs (6'54'')
CD 2
Tom Johnson, Martin Riches: Percussion (3'18'')
Jose Antonio Orts: Composicion infinita (5'44'')
Ed Osborn: Recoil (4'23'')
Ron Kuivila: Engel in Erdton (6'44'')
Christina Kubisch: Tafelmusik 2000 (7'20'')
Wolfgang Mitterer: Zeit vergeht (29'11'')” [label info]
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2001 |
€29.00 |
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Ju-Jikan |
do-CD |
23FIVE INCORPORATED ist nicht nur seit Jahren der wichtigste Konzertveranstalter für experimentelle Musik in San Francisco, sondern inzwischen auch als Label tätig. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ist eine Compilation-Reihe entstanden, die pro Ausgabe Projekte eines einzigen Landes vorstellt. Hier JAPAN. Eine sehr variantenreiche Reise ins musikalisch-experimentelle Herz des Landes.
“Last year, local educational sound-arts organization 23five and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art co-presented a ten hour listening event/installation documenting the past 50 years of Japanese experimental music entitled "Ju-Jikan" (which translates as '10 hours' in Japanese). Curators Atau Tanaka, Ryoji Ikeda, and Shunichiro Okada described it not as a comprehensive taxonomy of Japanese experimentation, but simply sought "to trace the complex web of sonic style that constitutes the current Japenese musical landscape." Tanaka, who wrote the liner notes for the program, further explained that the curatorial choices were also guided by how the West perceives Japan and how Japan considers its own representation towards the West.
This double cd compiles elements selected from that ten hour listening event at SFMOMA (the full ten hours would have required mp3 encoding and much in the way of complicated licensing arrangements!), focusing upon the more contemporary elements of experimental Japanese music. These sounds draw their connections through the recombinant power of electronic synthesis and the juxtaposition of disparate styles; which together have become a standard if elusively-defined musical vocabulary for Japanese music. "Ju-Jikan" features physically challenging noise from Merzbow, Masonna, Hanatarash (Eye from the Boredoms), Pain Jerk, and Tetsuo Furudate; 'anti-academic' reactionary modes of Yasunao Tone and Yuji Takahashi; purist minimalism of tonal austerity from Ryoji Ikeda, Otomo Yoshihide, and Nerve Net Noise; and delicate electrodrone work from Kazuo Uehara, Tamami Tono, and Kozo Inada. A really important collection indeed. We're told some tracks are previously released, some not, but it's hard to tell which -- chances are you'd have to be a really geeked-out collector to have many of these already, and even in that case you'd still want this for the rest. The cd booklet gives Tanaka's detailed notes on all styles covered, a graphic timeline of Japanese experimental sound genres, and a program for the full ten-hour event so you can see what you missed.” [Aquarius Records]
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2002 |
€15.00 |
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Lust from the Underworld |
do-CD |
Luxuriöser Vollfarb-Katalog mit kunstvollen Fotos von verschiedenen Fotografen zum Thema “Liebe und Eros in Mythologie, Symbolismus & dekadenter Kunst”, dazu 2 CDs mit Musik von diversen Projekten und Musikern aus dem elektronisch-düsteren Bereich: Romantic Electro-Dark Wave, Mittelalter-Folk, Dark Ambient, Gothic Poetry, insgesamt eher song- & vokalorientiert...
“Wow, this is an impressive looking release. The Czech label Horus CyclicDaemon released an enjoyable compilation before (Chaos), but this time they have taken their ambitions a step further. A luxurious A5 book full of erotic photos contains two cd's filled with exclusive material of interesting artists. The project is dedicated to Love & Eros in mythology, symbolist & decadent art and focuses especially on the story of Hades & Persephone & Koré & Demeter. This theme is worked out in the booklet, which contains about 30 `bizarre pictures` from 9 recent & modern photographers as well as some texts and poems. The photos have very different styles, some are subtle and romantic, others are rawer and fetish-like. Apart from the erotic photos, there is also a page for each artist involved, with credits and lyrics. Everything is printed on top quality paper to enhance the visual stimulation. Furthermore the booklet is packaged in a very nice envelope.
The theme becomes not only clear from the visual contributions of the photographer, but the musical artists also deal with themes of lust, sex and fetish. And they are certainly not the least artists, though there are also some unknown (but promising) artists present. Don't expect fetish EBM/techno like Die Form though, in general the musical idiom is romantic or mysterious. The music on Lust from the Underworld ranges from dark folk to neo-classical, from heavenly voices and medieval to ritual, from dark ambient to experimental industrial.
Disc one starts sensual, with atmospheric sounds and the typical voice of Chako (related to Jack or Jive from Japan). Unto Ashes treats us to ritual and medieval sounds, with nice hurdygurdy and percussion sounds. Then comes a bombastic filmic soundscape by Abnocto, a project of Simon Kölle and Simon Heath, also known for Za Frûmi. These gothic fantasy sounds bring images of monks sneaking through dark corridors. The contribution by 4th Sign of the Apocalypse from the USA has a ritual, monotonous sound and an experimental structure. Then comes a rather mysterious piece with whispered/spoken vocals by a Mexican act called Detritus, which I think is another Detritus than the one who releases on Immanence and Ad Noiseam.
Romowe Rikoito is a lovely folky band from Russia, which enchants me with their melancholic string sound. Maor Appelbaum is a new name for me, but sounds interesting with a mixture of electronic and classical sounds, it reminds me of the more experimental Matt Howden works. The Mystery School adds a slow piano-based romantic hymn, while Chaos as Shelter is responsible for some rather dark ritual ambient sounds in combination with a traditional Persian song, reminding me of Agnivolok. One Inch of Shadow from Poland has a shimmering, experimental soundscape with some dramatic vocals on top of that. It is followed by Hexentanz, a project related to Soil Bleeds Black, but darker and more ritual, quite nice. Disc one is finished by a great atmospheric ambient piece with classical elements and interesting spoken text by Musterion, another project of Simon Kölle.
Disc 2 has a great start: Sieben with one of their most rhythmic pieces 'Forget me not', which I clearly remember from Matt Howden concerts and which is very different from the track with that name on the Sex and Wildflowers album. Mondblut are always masters at creating mysterious, sensual moods, and they do not disappoint. Empusae slowly builds up his track, which evolves into a complicated rhythmic piece, the harshest track so far. Delusional Day is much softer, with lovely, expressive female voices, somewhat jazzy. The Crown of the Scars is somewhat weird, with strange lyrics, making me think of David E. Williams. Cotton Ferox from Sweden had made a great album, and again they have contributed an original sounding piece, sort of experimental ambient dub with penetrating spoken word. While Angels Watch has a usual a more traditional dark folk sound, with romantic lyrics about angels and nice contributions by Matt and Jane Howden. Then follows an improvised, somewhat oriental piece by The Legendary Pink Dots, interesting as always. The Belgian Hybryds are specialized in dark ritual sounds, and with the help of the sensual voice of Ms. Poly Esther the lustful character of their song is further enhanced. Last but one is a bombastic medieval soundtrack piece by Za Frûmi, perhaps the best track I know from them. A slow classical piece with a religious feel by Ossaserpia finished the second cd.
Only 500 handnumbered copies have been made of LUST FROM THE UNDERWORLD.” [Hans D. / FUNPROX]
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2004 |
€22.00 |
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Minima |
CD |
Sehr kohärente Compilation mit hauptsächlich digital arbeitenden Musikern, auf dem neuen Pariser Label von HERVE BOGHOSSIAN. Angesiedelt zwischen sehr ruhig-harmonischen Material und solchem im Niemandsland zwischen ambience & noise.
„Ein neues französisches Label für clickende wundervolle Musik, das sich erst mal auf einer Compilation vorstellt, die vermutlich in den Clickcharts dieses Jahr ganz oben stehen muss, denn sie weitet den Begriff mit Leuten wie Sogar, Charles Curtis, Komet, Otomo Yoshihide, Taylor Deupree, Sol, Speakerine, Alan Licht und vielen anderen soweit aus, dass am Ende nur noch die Faszination für diese fast unscheinbaren Sounds an den Grenzen des Hörbaren übrig bleibt. Schon der erste Track von Sogar (aka Jürgen Heckel) lässt einen von einer Welt träumen in der das Popmusik ist, einfach weil Popmusik ja auch mal Schönheit, Reinheit, Unglaubliches heissen könnte, weil es aufregend sein könnte Popmusik zu sein,
unwahrscheinlich und unhinterfragbar brilliant. Und glaubt nicht einer der Acts würde einen hier enttäuschen.Ein Label das man auf jeden Fall im Auge behalten sollte“ [debug]
“Minima~List ( list L1 CD ), from a new French label dedicated to all things minimal. There's plenty of microsound courtesy of Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier and Komet, virtual nothingness from Nosei Sakata, Alan Licht's guitar shimmersand "sustained friction
sonorities" from Charles Curtis. It's not all tiptoeing around the soundfield, though. Where too many of today's minimalists use the term to camouflage a paucity of ideas or their true chillout sentiments, Minima~List is anafraid of the movement's louder
manifestations, be they piercing tones from Otomo Yoshihide, the sound of Miles Davis blowing a bagpipe in an ice storm from Matthieu Saladin, or the Branca-ish guitar squalls of Fabriquedecouleurs.” [THE WIRE]
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2002 |
€10.00 |
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Paranoise One |
CD |
Das kleine Kölner Experimental-, Elektronik- & Industrial-Label hat eine schöne Compilation mit vielen neuen Namen zusammengestellt, das meiste davon wohl aus deutschen Landen, in der lim. Version mit „branding“-Holzbox! Um nur einige der Beteiligten zu nennen: FATAGAGA bestechen mit wuchtigem Katakomben-ambient-Industrial, AXIOMATIC INTEGRATION aus Hamburg knirschen sich mit microsound-IDM nach vorne, RYFYLKE bieten spannenden ambient-noise, die MELANCHOHOLICS düsteren Guitar-ambient-post-post-rock, COURTIS (ex REYNOLS) allerfeinsten dark-ambient-Rauschdrone der endlos weitergehen dürfte, LOSTHEIM verlieren sich in objektlosen Drone-Sphären, und überraschenderweise ist auch ein Stück von GERECHTIGKEITSLIGA enthalten, welches recht frisch klingt, also evtl. neues Material?
“this cd compilation contains a various mixture of ambient, experimental and industrial styles by the following artists :
gerechtigkeitsliga / co.caspar / courtis / incite / axiomatic integration / hidden technology / melanchoholics / ryfylke / fatagaga / elfish echo / les rejetons de dd5 & dd6 / lostheim / interferenz / luminous / roland / gumminonnen / milan sandbleistift
the fullcolor 20page booklet contains individual artworks by each artist.
two editions are available :
- a normal edition limited 280
- a special edition wooden box with branding limited 220” [label info]
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2005 |
€10.00 |
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RECORDS ARE NOT FOR BAKING [RANFB] (Full Subscription) |
12 x 12inch |
Die “Records are not for baking”-Serie gibt es in der Abo-Version mit 6 bonus picture LPs !!! Dazu soll es später noch ein Poster und Original-Artwork für jeden Subscriber geben. Eine wenige Subskriptionen sind auch über uns erhältlich. DIE PICTURE LPs GIBT ES NICHT EINZELN, NUR ALS KOMPLETTE SUBSKRIPTION !!!! IN EUROPE AVAILABLE ONLY VIA DRONE RECORDS !!!!
"Records Are Not For Baking' series with: Friday Group, La STPO, irr.app.(ext.), Christus & The Cosmonaughts, Brunnen, Nurse With Wound/Aranos. The subscriber editions will be limited to 200 copies. Each LP release will include a bonus picture disk 12" that will be exclusive to the release. A total of 6 Lp's plus 6 bonus picture disks, poster & some having original artwork plus a few bonus surprises along the way!. Each subscriber will receive the same number for each release. The regular editions of each LP will be limited to 800 copies but will not contain any bonus 12" picture disk." [label info]
Beta-Lactam Ring Records www.blrrecords.com
|
2005 |
€300.00 |
|
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Serene Moments (NACHT / NORTHAUNT / SHINJUKU THIEF / UMBRA) |
do-7 |
Nächtlicher gothic-ambient & neo-klassik-Industrial von vier Projekten, im Klappcover, auf dem polnischen FLUTTERING DRAGON – Label !
“Concept double 7" vinyl presenting mysterious sounds, chants, whispers and yells created by Nacht, Shinjuku Thief, Umbra and Northaunt. Four magic projects on four sides vinyl disc. Six incredibly mesmerizing tracks which will make the last sunbeams die...Edition limited and numbered to 505 copies.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
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Si'ka-del-ik |
CD |
Bewusstseinserweiternder Noise? Auf dieser PSYCHFORM-Compilation versammeln sich die Collagen / Cut-Up / Bizarr-Noiser, um eine grosse gemeinsame AKUSTISCHE HALLUZINATION zu erschaffen, die vom Abseitigen berichtet. Special priced !
“PsychForm Records are very happy to announce their first release...an international compilation appropriately named (si-ke-del-ik) volume one. The sounds within are characterized by hallucinations, distortions of perception, altered states of awareness, and occasionally, behavior resembling psychosis. The artists featured on this installment are: Christian Renou , Grillhaus, Contagious Orgasm, Rowenta / Khan, John Wiese, Noggin, The Haters, Mixed Band Philanthropist / Broken Penis Orchestra. MP3 sample is by Contagious Orgasm.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
|
The Golden Road |
7 |
Feine neuseeländisch–norwegisch–britische Compilation EP, in 4 verschiedenen Artwork-Ausführungen. BRUCE RUSSEL (CORPUS HERMETICUM!), ANTONYM, TAMING POWER (EARLY MORNING RECORDS), SINDRE BJERGA / ANDERS GJERDE (GOLD SOUNDZ / HUMBUG).
“This is the second record in the EP compilation series, which started in 2001. The records are released according to this concept: 4 artists are given approx. 4 minutes each, and can use these minutes for whatever purpose they want as long as the result has something to do with experimental music. Each artist is given 1/4 of the pressing to create covers for and to make a personal edition - which means that all releases in this series exist in 4 different editions which are distributed by the individual artists.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
|
The walls are whispering... |
CD |
Dark experimental compilation on belgiums finest cassette & CDR label. Exclusive material from : Toy Bizarre (FR) Kallabris (DE)
sveen (BE) Christian Renou (FR) PBK (US) vidnaObmana (BE) Troum (DE) Steve Roden (US) Inade (DE) Dieter Müh (GB). The CD comes in a deluxe offset-printed 7" cover (gold and black print on bordeaux cardboard).
“ With PBK, Toy Bizarre, Troum, Christian Renou, Steve Roden, vidnaObmana and a host of newcomers all on one beautifully handcrafted disc, this becomes a tense and absorbing sit-down event. Toy Bizarre's opener "(Lost in Gent)" is sparsely ambient and full of enigmatic refinements followed closely by the equally spooky "Stella Polaris" by UK's Dieter Müh (Dave Uden Steve Cammack). Christian Renou consigns his nearly nine-minute opus "Apres, Bientot et Encore" like a message from an ether encircled globe. As he plays with metallics, the drone builds with laser-like thrashes and buzzing alarm calls. Intermedia artist Steve Roden's "The Presence of Copper" is this Californian's quiet investigation of truth in essential metals. Roden uses what could be a toy harp and rebellious electronics. Kallabris (J.T. 124), who offers two tracks to this collection, stirs up the "Nord" on this gothic apparition. The heavy bass drone and looming wind takes a vacant vessel into its sordid grasp and shivers its timbre. Troum completes this narrative with their uncommonly propitious and hazy rendering of "Makaria." In eight minutes, Troum envelops us a single orchestral passage. The listener is blinded in a cascade of filtered guitar phrasings creating their signature drone, though in higher tonal values. Also included here are works by Sveen, PBK and Inade. This forbidden elegy needed to be told by multidimensional sound historians, the keepers of these well-guarded secrets.” [TJNORRIS]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Variable Resistance |
CD |
23FIVE INCORPORATED ist nicht nur seit Jahren der wichtigste Konzertveranstalter für experimentelle Musik in San Francisco, sondern inzwischen auch als Label tätig. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ist eine Compilation-Reihe entstanden, die pro Ausgabe Projekte eines einzigen Landes vorstellt. Diese CD ist AUSTRALIEN gewidmet und beinhaltet Stücke von AMBARCHI, PIMMON, DARRIN VERHAGEN, PHILIP SAMARTZIS und einigen anderen...sehr schöne Zusammenstellung!
“Variable Resistance" was the second 'listening room' event co-sponsored by SF sound art organization 23five, Incorporated and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Where the first collaboration between 23five and the Museum centered on Japanese experimental music, this one takes a southern route to Australia, which has enjoyed a healthy explosion of adventurous musicians exporting their wares across the globe. Assembled by noted sound artist Philip Samartzis, "Variable Resistance" is a title that encapsulates the tone and extent of the work on hand, referencing not only the electronic gizmo (the variable resistor) as key to many of the featured homespun constructions, but also as an applicable non-definition of those artists who "offer variable resistance in how they are defined and the positions they occupy in a broader cultural context, fragmented, and dispersed among remote cities and divided by enormous physical and psychological space." That said, Samartzis attempts to breakdown the Australian aesthetic into a number of sub-genres: Microphonics, Metallic Plates & Resonating Strings, Residue, Flutter & Flux, Malfunction & Resistance, Improvised Composition, Suspended Time & Expanding Space, Electrical Impulses & Variable Flow, Soundhackers, and Microwaves, Collisions, & Noise. While each of these subgenres do offer some help in interpreting the work of these artists, those featuring on this cd (a condensed version of the SFMOMA event) are pretty good at resisting any imposed characterization. Much of the work on "Variable Resistance" is based upon live improvisation filtered through a number of DSP techniques (with obvious exceptions and detours) with tracks from Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim, Philip Samartzis, David Brown, Xonk, Thembi Soddell, Darrin Verhagen, Pimmon, and Delire.” [Aquarius Records]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Variations |
CD |
Exzellente erste Veröffentlichung des PARADIGM-Labels, mit ausschließlich Londoner Experimental / Musique Concrete / Elektro-Akustik / Geräuschmusik-Künstlern. JOHN WALL, ANDREW JACQUES, CROW, ALQUIMIA, JOHN GRIEVE, KYMATIK, ADAM BOHMANN (Morphogenesis). Viel Unbekanntes, viel zu entdecken.. |
1995 |
€13.50 |
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|
Verfassung |
LP |
Erste „offizielle“ Compilation des HÖRBAR e.V. aus Hamburg! Enthält 14 Stücke der Mitglieder, die das grosse Spektrum der derzeitigen experimentellen Musik fast abdecken, von dröhn-minimalistischen Sphären über cut-up & Collagen, musique concrete und Impro bis zu post-industriellem Noise, mit Y-TON-G (ex PARA NOISE TERMINAL) und TBC sind auch zwei Drone Records-Vertreter dabei, aber auch sonst durchweg hochklassiges Material von u.a. EVAPORI, [HYPH]; AUDIBLE PAIN, INCITE, GREGORY BÜTTNER, SONATA REC und natürlich darf ASMUS TIETCHENS nicht fehlen.
“On the newly released vinyl LP "Verfassung" (German for "state" or "constitution") 14 electronic tracks by 14 musicians and projects can be heard. The music includes all styles of experimental electronic music: minimal to noise, musique concrète, improv, cut-ups and collages. The record not only shows the current state of the experimental music scene in Hamburg, despite the different individual approaches and styles it creates a musical flow, offering a diverse and exciting listening experience. All musicians on the record are members of the "Hoerbar" (German for "audible" and "listening bar"). For over 10 years it has been an important meeting point for producers and consumers of experimental music in Hamburg, Germany. Once a week a lively exchange between composers, musicians, labels and collectors takes place. Once a month local and international musicians are invited to the "Unüberhörbar" concert (German for "unignorable"), among the guests have been Jim O’Rourke, Hafler Trio, Keith Rowe, People Like Us and many others.” [label info]
"the audible VERFASSUNG of our loosely organized group of producers [called HOERBAR] is being reflected by this audio document, which is representative but cannot be complete.some children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those courageous explorers of electroacoustic music continued walking on analogue and digital paths, avoiding the academic castles of compulsion and the sweat-moistened dancepalaces, being driven by furious excitement to add something personal to the pool of established aesthetic strategies. knowing that the wheel cannot be reinvented is not a cause for resignation or for becoming Epigones, but made us develope our ambitions to learn from historic achievements so that we can walk upon new roads and even stray with our heads up. so, the electroacoustic VERFASSUNG [constitution / condition / circumstance / state of mind] compiled by hoerbar hamburg manifests the whole spectrum between the righteous ponderer‘s efforts and the unconcerned homo ludens‘ arabesques. we will go on." [Asmus Tietchens]
“Ah the classic format of compilation LP, with booklet. It looks retro, very 80s like, but it's 2006. The Hörbar in Hamburg is an organisation that puts on concerts, mainly in the B-Movie cinema. Hörbar is mainly run by musicians, who work as volunteers, doing the sound, the bar and the door. Every week they meet up and do something. Now Hörbar also acts as a label, and this compilation is the first release. Of course it features music from the people that make up the Hörbar organization. The good thing is that it holds many musicians I never heard of, such as Pizza Ni Ni, Renoise, Margitt Holzt, Guy Saldanha and Ebinger, sitting next to somewhat more known locals such as Evapori, Gregory Buettner, Sonata Rec, [Hyph-], TBC, Incite and Y-Ton-G. Of course the biggest star from Hamburg, Asmus Tietchens, is also present, with the most silent and reduced piece of the lot. What can be noticed that there is a fair amount of noise material on this record, such as TBC, Guy Saldanha and Audible Pain. Margitt Holzt and Incite represent the rhythm side of this bunch, whereas Tietchens has his own followers such as Gregory Buettner and some seem to follow their own track, such as the curious piece by Ebinger (who he?). Evapori and Sonata Rec play pieces that are a cross over between the world of Tietchens and the underworld of noise. The most curious piece is by Pizza Ni Ni, entitled 'E', it seems just the one time strumming of an E chord on the guitar. A booklet describes the pieces and has a bunch of nice quotes. Limited to 300 copies - that is the final trick from the 80s, make a few and create a rarity!” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.hoerbar-ev.de
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Water & Architecture |
CD |
Nachpressung dieser schönen Compilation zwischen Post-Rock und Avantgarde / Ambient-Electronica auf Sub Rosa, zum Thema Wasser & Architektur....
“Nature, cities, water, concrete... Water eating rocks, shores. Cities eating landscapes, life. Those two elements are interconnected, though fighting. In between there are humans, needing both elements to survive. A shelter to protect the close to 70% of water a body is made of. What is the connection, the dialogue, the potential of construction/destruction? What is the impact of architecture on water, what is its influence on modern cities? Featuring unreleased material from: Directions: Post-rock with electronica flavours,featuring Bundy K. Brown (Tortoise,Bastro,Gastr del Sol...) and Doug Sharin (June of 44, Him, Rex...) Recorded in Tortoise Studio, Chicago. Seefeel :Too Pure, Warp... Seefeel was some unique act in the pop-electronica scene. Somewhere in between folk-dub-intelligent electro. These two tracks are mixing natural rhythms, minimal electronica... Atom Heart: It was the first track released by Atom TM in his new studio located in Santiago. It starts as some German techno groove to end into some electro-'limbo'. Amazing.
Bisk: The Osaka post Drum'n' Bass wizard "desturcturer", Naohiro Fujikawa, in a three piece suite of sounds, strange, odd, Bisk...
AER (ALPHA ECHO ROMEO): aka Jon Wozencroft, british designer, co-founder of the Touch label composer these tracks with sounds collected worldwide. Architectural experimentation.” [press release]
www.subrosa.net
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Widerstand (PROPERGOL, ORPHX, GENITOR LVMINIS, PREDOMINANCE, DREAM INTO DUST, SURVIVAL UNIT, CON-DOM, etc ) |
do-CD |
Industrial-Compilation focused on the theme “resistance”, from very harsh attacks with vocals over orchestral ambience to dark droning pure sound-stuff, this is very varied collection, reflecting the theme from different sides.
“ The final chapter in Stateart's early series of releases! This Double CD comes in a compact DVD size box with full colour inlay and 20-page booklet, containing artworks provided by all participating artists. Limited edition of 1.000 copies without re-issue!
Tracklist: Disc 01: PROPERGOL "Alpha 60" // PROPERGOL "Fahrenheit" // 4TH SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE "Black Sheep" // ORPHX "Black Flag" // ALLGRENA "Protest" // CONTROL RESISTANCE "Blood In Your Face" // GENITOR LVMINIS "Resistance" Disc 02: BLOOD CONSPIRACY "The Wire" //
PREDOMINANCE "To Tame A Land" // DREAM INTO DUST "At The Heart Of The White Rose" // CITADEL "Radix" // SURVIVAL UNIT "Resistance Redefined" // CON-DOM "I'm Human" //
MAISON CLOSE "Escape From Freedom" // WUTANES HEER "Resistance" [label info]
|
2003 |
€18.00 |
|
|
IZNUTRI |
CD |
Russian compilation compiled by (and for) IVAN "ASTERIUS" NAPREENKO, "dedicated to the Happy End of Times", with exclusive material from HUM, CISFINITUM, REUTOFF, KRYTPOGEN RUNDFUNK, SAL SOLARIS, HYPNOZ, NEUTRAL, SEDATIVE, CYCLOTIMIA, MAJDANEK WALTZ, O PARADIS, OTZEPENEVSHIYE, QUATTRO BRAVO EBALLIEROS, ALLERSEELEN, RAPOON, and TROUM.
“Iznutri” (‘From The Inside’ in russian) is an international compilation of the eschatological music with a motto “Dedicated to the Happy End of Times”. The story of mankind knows many examples of obsessions by eschatology, but they were never as common and overwhelmed as nowadays. In waiting for the end of Times we tried to listen that very special sound of solemn and enchanted yearning for deliverance. “Iznutri” is a foreboding : the suffocating desert of the modern linear time will explode like a moldering mushroom one day, revealing the contours of eternal existence. But, only special Eye-Witness could survive this threatening transformation, and any of us must expect his appearance only from the inside. The following artists has granted us with their exclusive unreleased tracks: Cisfinitum, Allerseelen, Reutoff, Sedative, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Majdanek Waltz, Sal Solaris, Hypnoz, Troum, Cyclotimia, Otzepenevshiye, O Paradis, Rapoon, Neutral, Hum, Quattro Bravo Eballieros. The CD comes in a black and white fold-out digisleeve...." [label info]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
IDIOSCAPES |
CD |
Nice compilation on new belgique label, special priced !
"the idea was to ask some of our favourite sound artists to take part in a compilation . . . and, to our surprise, they accepted. The only concept was that they had to provide a specific / particular / idiosyncratic piece. qualified as a “drone paradise” by lasse marhaug (of jazkamer), the result is a fine and coherent whole, full of extended textures, contrasted acoustic surfaces, subtle and strong. Idioscapes contains 70 minutes of authentic acoustic researches, with glitches, loops, noises, deep and glittering textures, subliminal frequences and narrative inserts, punctured with sensible musical moments.
idioscapes is a very nice object with a beautiful digipacked artwork.
01 janek schaefer : scarlett arrives - for scarlett schaefer
02 keith fullerton whitman : quest appartments, Newcastle NSW
03 critikal : critically fluffy
04 rapoon : the moment screams
05 kk null : idioscape / decomposition
06 charlemagne palestine : la beauté et la bête
07 steffen bashô-junghans : the blue hour
08 sébastien roux : D 821
09 troum : fantauma
10 eve and the sickness : infected nature
11 jazkamer (lasse marhaug) : ruido rosa 5 minutos
12 daniel menche : cadence
13 idiosyncrasia : filt_h " [label info]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Polyhedric Tetrapak |
CD |
Filed under :“Impressionistyle music”. Very interesting experimental remix-project on a new label from Barcelona, Spain, with remixes by ALEJANDRA & UNDERWOOD, ERIK M., STEPHEN VITIELLO, OnCe11, DJ OLIVE. UN CADDIE RENVERSÉ DANS L’HERBE. nice price !
“..a sci-lo-fi retrodocument taking out of context the 50's and its multiplicity of approaches into sound and popular music. completes this work filters of totlop pak with an uncomercial view of sometimes a remix album. we asked to these artists because we love their work and we can identify some aspects of un caddie's sounds to this way////” [from the press release]
|
2001 |
€8.00 |
|
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Abschied aus Berne |
MC |
Cassette-version of this long deleted LP (and first release on TBCs own label) from 1995. Exclusive material from the experimental Hamburg-scene: ASMUS TIETCHENS, TBC, KLANGKRIEG, Y-TON-G, G. REZNICEK, and others..
|
1995 |
€6.50 |
|
|
... It Just Is . In Memoriam: Jhonn Balance |
do-CD |
Russisch-Ukrainische Tribute-Comp. für JHONN BALANCE, mit entsprechend vielen ost-europäischen Beiträgen, aber auch einem neuen Stück von PETER CHRISTOPHERSON mit thailändischem Chor!
“Fulldozer Records presents: the international compilation dedicated to memory of Jhonn Balance (tribute to COIL). After the tragic death of Jhonn Balance - COIL had abolished. In one moment a musical epoch was gone. But the memory is alive. The idea of a compilation in memory of Jhonn Balance had been wandering the minds through the whole year after this tragic event and was realized by a virtue of two labels - Fulldozer (Russia) and Nocharizma (Ukraine). Peter Christopherson had personally approved this idea. Lots of eminent and cult musicians responded to the offer to participate in tribute:
1.. The Threshold Houseboy's Choir (dir: P Christopherson) - Mahil Athal Nadrach
2.. Thighpaulsandra feat. Jhonn Balance - Christ's Teeth
3.. Theodor Bastard - Love's Secret Domain
4.. Kotra - Volt Of A Worm
5.. Spies Boys - Nasa-Arab
6.. Alec Empire - Tribute To Coil (Short Version)
7.. 2, 5 BZ - I Am A Green Child
8.. Chris Connelly - Connelly Whats Lest But Solid Gold
9.. Biblioteka Prospero - Heartworms
10.. Phillip Klinger aka PBK - It Just Is
11.. KK.Null - Scatovator
12.. EU - Absolute Elsewhere
13.. Darling Kandie - Paingame
14.. Pomassl - Oil Philmm
15.. Alexei Borisov feat. Ivan Sokolovsky & Dmitri Kutergin - Truth
CD 2
1.. CoH - No Balance
2.. Alva Noto - Odradek (Music To Play In The Dark)
3.. Schlammpeitziger - Konflikckfahig (live)
4.. Goodiny & PCP - Black Sunraiz
5.. Scanner - To Meet The Moon
6.. Brompton's Cocktail - Soma Gestalt
7.. Mystified - Scratches & Dust (Night Echo Version)
8.. H.H.T.P. - Eclipse
9.. Noises Of Russia feat. Olga Nomok & Nikolay Rubanov - Remote Viewer
10.. Kryptogen Rundfunk - Throughout Time
11.. A.Vorodeyev - Slur (Acoustic Plumbum V.)
12.. Serge Tereshkine - Teenage Lighting
13.. Volga - Anal Staircase
14.. ILI - Green Water
15.. M.R.F / Elena Voynarovskaya - Immortality (live)
16.. Theodor Bastard - Love's Secret Domain (Instrumental)” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Thalamus II |
CD |
Pflicht für jeden Fan der russischen Szene ! Compilation zum zweiten Thalamus-Festival, welches im Mai 2005 in St. Petersburg stattfand.
Je 2 Studio-Stücke mit erstklassigen Material der dort auftretenden Bands SHUMY ROSSII (dark ambient), EKRAN (electronic Industrial), MAJDANEK WALTZ (neo-folk), und die Drone Rec.-Favoriten CISFINITUM und LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET (bzw "DEUS ORGANUM").. Spezielles, zugebundenes Klapp-Cover, nummerierte Auflage von 500 Stück.
"The compilation dedicated to the 2nd "Thalamus" festival passed in May 2005. Contains 2 tracks by each project performed there: Shumy Rossii (Noises of Russia), EKRAN, Majdanek Waltz, Cisfinitum, Lunar Abyss Deus Organum." [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Table For Six: All Quiet? |
CD |
Hochkarätige "Experimental Drone"-Compilation mit schönen langen Tracks, alle mindestens 10 Minuten. Kommt im silberfarben bedruckten 7"-Cover, auf Belgiens wohl am längsten bestehenden Experimental-Label EE Tapes, sowieso ein Spezialist für Compilations.
"6 artists from 6 different countries gather around the table and showcase their individual audio art, each one with an exclusive long track of progressive ambience. Program: Tarkatak (Germany), Cisfinitum (Russia), Civyiu KKliu (United States), Kendo Nagasaki (United Kingdom), The [Law-Rah] Collective (The Netherlands) & 33 MHZ (Belgium). Full metallised CD with cardboard cover in plastic 7" sleeve. Only 200 copies available directly from our office."[label info]
"....Very nice compilation, which should appeal to all who love a non-quiet microsound." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.eetapes.be/
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
How to stay young & healthy in a modern world |
do-CDR |
Rauhe Zusammenstellung von Vertretern der russischen und skandinavischen Experimentalszene, verschiedenste Stilrichtungen des Undergrounds (von ruhigstem ambient - z.B. EXIT IN GREY, bis hin zu power-noise, z.B. GELSOMINA, ist fast alles dabei) vereint auf zwei CDRs... kommt mit russischem (?) Präserativ (na ob der hält?) in DVD-Box. Hier gibt es neben einigen bekannteren Vertretern diverse Newcomer zu entdecken, v.a. die zweite CDR enthält sehr gute tracks!
"Compilation with contributions from: KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK, FUNKSTILLESENDER, INSTANT MOVIE COMBINATIONS, N-616, VELEHENTOR, KROMESHNA, EXIT IN GREY, BARDOSENETICCUBE, HALO MANASH, AEOGA, LOWLIFE, SUDANSTRAIN, DN23rd, REDHOUSE, BIOMASS, MONTAGE, INDRA, EKRAN, CONTROL, WORLD DOWNFALL, CISFINITUM, GELSOMINA. Drone Ambient, Ritual, Power Electronics, Harsh Noise - high-end!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Listen to something different |
CD |
ARS MACABRE is a record-shop and mail-order in ROSTOCK (the very north-east of Germany) existing since 1995, who also co-organized many experimental concerts on the ship MS STUBNITZ in the harbour of Rostock. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this shop (who works under quite difficult conditions) a compilation-project was started, which could finally be released now in May 2007. Some of label-owners Frank Krögers all-time faves were put together on this high-quality collection of experimental & electronic music: Old heroes that already ceased to exist or were silent for a long time (MUSLIMGAUZE, CONTROLLED BLEEDING, ETANT DONNES), famous long-existing projects (ASMUS TIETCHENS, HAFLER TRIO, AUBE), ambient & dark drone-stuff (BEEQUEEN, TROUM, INADE, WINDFAHNENAMT), plus the anti-genre acts COLUMN ONE and DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG.
"With all exclusive and previously unreleased songs, except Étant Donnés (appears on “La Vie Nouvelle” 2003) and Windfahnenamt (appears on “Windfahnenamt” 2001), LISTEN TO SOMETHING DIFFERENT offers not only a starting point for new listeners and musical explorers, but also a substantial addition to any experimental music lover’s collection. One carefully assembled compilation that ambitiously unites 13 internationally acclaimed experimental artists and is released as a fine 6-panel digipak CD. Ars Macabre is a record store and mail order service operating in Rostock, Germany and is specializing in the distribution of experimental music since 1995." [label info]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
4 sides a circle |
4 x mCDR |
Das Label aus L.A. liebt obskurste Compilations, bei dieser ist ein echter Kompass dabei ! Vier mini-CD-cases wurden übereinander verklebt, ein ganzer Block wie ein akustisches Buch, um neue Klänge zu entdecken....
"16 tracks by 17 acts tom grimley, al margolis, the cherry point, mike shiflet, pcrv, rhy yau, sixes & yellow swans. mitchell brown, vertonen, brutum fulmen, howard stelzer, hive mind, jason talbot, brent gutzeit, oscillating innards, fin. none of whom have ever appeared on a bp release, compass included to point a way" [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
20 Jahre Inventionen VI |
CD |
"Elektroakustische Kompositionen von Edgar Barroso, Mario Verandi, Paul Wilson, Ricardo Climent, Vladimir Djambazov und Ludger Brümmer. Aufgenommen bei den Inventionen Festivals 2005 und 2006" [label info]
"Diverse newcomers from the "academic" New Music-area are to find on this great new compilation from Edition RZ, presenting the participants from the INVENTIONEN-Festivals in Berlin 2005 & 2006. Most composers work with field recordings or acoustc object phenomena and process these sounds with digital software means. The brilliant piece from EDGAR BARROSO i.e. uses only the "noise"-components of instrumental sounds (called "residuals") and creates with help of the new software (SMS-Spectral Modeling Synthesis) amazingly complex layerings of the "secondary" noises." [Drone Rec. info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Roulette Russe pour un peu de Caviar |
CD |
DMITRY VASILYEV ist seit Jahren mit seinem I.E.M.-Magazin einer der Hauptakteure und Unterstützer der russischen Experimental-Elektronik-Drone Szene; seit einiger Zeit nun betreibt er darüberhinaus das MONOCHROME VISION-Label, welches neben Wiederveröffentlichungen längst vergessener Perlen des globalen Experimental-Undergrounds auch aktuellen Musiken verlegt. Der Franzose PHILIPPE BLANCHARD hat nun, als Kenner der russischen Szene, für Monchrome Vision eine Compilation mit einem Querschnitt zusammengestellt, die wieder beeindruckend zeigt, welch besondere Qualität viele russische Experimental-Projekte aufweisen. Neben bekannteren Drone Records-Favoriten wie CISFINITUM, HUM und BARDOSENETICCUBE finden sich hier auch für uns neue Namen wie KOLPAKOPF, INSTANT MOVIE COMBINATIONS oder INTERIOR DISPOSITION.... hervorragende Tracks, meist im "transcendental / experimental Drone"-Bereich. Einen wirklichen Ausfall gibt es hier nicht zu vermelden, und so möchten wir diese Comp. fast uneingeschränkt empfehlen, man kann sie "in einem Rutsch" durchhören!
"The compilation of exclusive tracks by russian artists, intended for the presentation on "Bruit de la neige" 2007 festival by Studio Forum (Annecy, France). Some of them are good known in Russia and worldwide, some are just the newcomers, but all are showing the great potential of russian experimental music scene in the fields of electroacoustic, abstract electronic music, drone ambient and noise collages. Release date is 30th March 2007. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
label: www.monochromevision.ru
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2007 |
€13.00 |
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Beyond ignorance and borders. An African, Middle-Eastern, Asian noise and electronic compilation |
CD |
Äusserst bemerkenswerte Veröffentlichung des belgischen Kosmopoliten C-DRIK (Ambre, Ammo, etc.), eine Experimental-Compilation mit Acts aus Ländern mit denen man wirklich nicht rechnet! Breites Spektrum von Ambient bis Noise, Analog bis Digital, alles frisch & unverbraucht & meist mit grosser Energie versehen, die vielen Namen sind nahezu alle unbekannt, es gibt hier (aus der SOUND Perspektive) viele neue Welten & Musiken zu entdecken!!
"Throughout the last twenty years or so various noise compilations with focus on the different cultures around the Globe have been released; from the "Japanese/American Noise Treaty" (Relapse/Release) across "Sound Of Sadism : An International Power Electronics Compilation" (Crowd Control Activities) to the "Extreme Music From…."-series with editions focusing on Africa, Russia, Japan and Women (Susan Lawly Label). Now Belgium label Syrphe Records has brought us a new compilation of noise music. Titled "Beyond ignorance and borders" the compilation presents us for artists of nationalities from the Eastern world. The contributions do not come from Japan, the kingdom of Noise, but from other countries that are relatively unknown regarding noise music. And this is what makes this compilation very interesting. Twenty tracks from countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Lebanon, South Korea (just to name a few), the styles ranges from extreme noise to breakcore and field recording. What makes this album interesting is that the origin of many of the artists represented on the compilation seems to saturate the expressional style on the contributions. Highlights on the compilation is the weird technoid track "629" by Skorfuse (Philippines), harsh noise tracks such as "Useless summer" by Yan Jun (China) and the ultra-aggressive "Ithrane n ithige" from Algerian artist Nepa Ios. Also the ear-shattering closer "The night as it was raining (aka 26 aunigrai)" from Goh Lee Kwang (Malaysia) is remarkable. This is certainly a great compilation, worth investing whether you are noise-head or simply an adventurous listener of the more extreme kind. Highly recommended!" [NM / Vital Weekly]
label: www.syrphe.com
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2007 |
€12.00 |
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Wild Tigers I have known |
CD |
"Durtro/Jnana is honored and excited to announce the release of the soundtrack Songs From Cam Archer's film Wild Tigers I Have Known. Andria Degens and Cam Archer have produced the album. The CD features songs and music selected by Archer, along with original sketches and photo stills from the film. The 13-track collection features unreleased songs from Djuna Bel, Pantaleimon, Anders & Woods, and Emily Jane White, along with previously released material by Six Organs of Admittance and Current 93, and songs specifically composed for the film by the filmmaker's brother Nate Archer." [label info]
www.durtro.com
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2007 |
€14.50 |
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MUZYKA VOLN |
CD |
Hochklassige Bestandsaufnahme der sehr aktiven russischen Experimental Drone-Szene, alle Aufnahmen stammen von 2005-2007. 12 Projekte stellen sich hier vor, wobei einige dem geneigten Drone Rec.-Hörer bereits bekannt sein dürften. Ein paar Eindrücke:
KSHATRIY: das Eröffnungsstück, kaum zu durchschauender "mysterious drone", neuer Name für uns, Entdeckung!
CLOSING THE ETERNITY: Bemerkenswert der Einsatz von Instrumenten & field recordings. Ein Hyper-Resonanzraum öffnet sich..
HUM: schöner Titel "Halo Magnetica"; metallisch - magnetisch - sirrend - minimal, ein einziges auf- und abschwellen von extremst amorphen Klangwolken, die doch voller Details sind.
NECROPOLIS: superdunkel & tief dröhnend, irgendwo sind Harmonien, sehr surreal, ausserweltlich, sehr schön. Wer sich dem rauschig-tieffrequenten Sphären-Drone annähern will, findet mit MUZYKA VOLN einen idealen Einstiegspunkt. Für Fans der russischen Szene sollte sie eh obligatorisch sein, wurden doch alle Stücke exklusiv aufgenommen.
Allen hier Beteiligten scheint gemeinsam zu sein, dass die Welt wie wir sie kennen als viel zu eng empfunden wird. Das "Ausserweltliche" repräsentiert hier möglicherweise einen 'innerweltlichen', psychischen Innenraum, der nach Auflösung der Begrenzungen des Ichs zu streben scheint, eine Überwindung des Selbst im Zuge der Verschmelzung mit Raum & Zeit, wie in fötaler Seinsweise... Der "Drone" ist wie ein Sog des Unbewussten in Richtung Präsymbolik & dem Reich des Vorsprachlichen.
"The first release of a new sublabel of ZHELEZOBETON - Muzyka Voln - is a compilation of the same name, containing compositions from twelve Russian projects playing ambient / drone music. A selection of audio-tales in which each project introduces the listener to its own sound world he's living in: mystical stories, isolationism, altered states of consciousness, space landscapes, monotonous technogenic rumble, guitar passages and much more... Specially for this compilation exclusive tracks were provided by: Anthesteria feat. Kaj?, Bardoseneticcube, Cisfinitum, Closing The Eternity, Exit In Grey, Hum, Instant Movie Combinations, Kshatriy, Lunar^Abyss^Deus^Organum, Necropolis, Polaris and RemoteBand. This compilation may be useful for those interested in the Russian experimental scene and just for lovers of beautiful contemplative music. The CD is housed in a six-panel digipak decorated with photos of Baltic Sea made by Pavel "fljõt" Pevnitsky." [label info]
label: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
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2008 |
€13.00 |
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Table For Six: All Quiet? # 2 |
CD |
"About a year ago we reviewed 'Table For Six: All Quiet?' (see Vital Weekly 554), a neatly put together compilation by Belgium's EE Tapes, who already produced some great compilations called 'The Walls Are Whispering'. Now there is a volume two of 'Table For Six' and we come across some old, known names (at least to us), and some new ones. Objekt 4, Andrea Marutti, Laurent Perrier and Brian Lavelle are perhaps not household names, but they all have in one way or the other interesting releases to their name. Lutnahimat had one release on Entr'acte and June11 seems to be a new name. Each of the six artists get fifteen minutes to showcase their talent, and they all hoover about to some extent in some 'quiet' music. However don't confuse this with music below the threshold of hearing or some such. It's more about dark ambient than microsound if you get my drift. The CD opens with Objekt4 who plays a nice piece of sampled percussive sounds and some collated sounds. The dark synth by Marutti is perhaps the bleakest example of 'm all, but it's fine one. Laurent Perrier doesn't forget his other work in the world of techno music, but incorporating rhythmic clicks in his piece, that however doesn't convince throughout. Lutnahimat has two pieces and seem to continue his interest in ambient glitch, but especially the short 'Disagreeable Ingress' is quite nice at that. Also June11 has two tracks, which seem to be more from the post rock background (I might be as easily mistaken here), with a sort of organ and guitar in a fuzzy bath. Lavelle closes the proceedings. It's been a while since I last heard his music, but 'Crucible Of Sky' is actually a nice piece of slowly evolving field recordings and piano sounds: melancholic autumn music which works quite nice indeed." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.eetapes.be
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2007 |
€13.00 |
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Musics in the Margin Vol.1 |
CD |
"Never released before: an anthology that links Daniel Johnston and the great Wesley Willis with a dozen outsider artists from around the world - digipack + booklet including short bios and drawings, and unreleased and rare tracks - 6 pages digipack + 12 pages booklet
A project made in co-production with Art en Marge.
Outsider Art Music has unfortunately not had a Harry Smith or an Alan Lomax to discover unpretentious talent, those two 'folksong hunters' who had realized the importance of making recordings to serve collective memory. One of them gave us the essential Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), an absolute reference for the folk movement, while the other made recordings all over the world and became an absolute reference for world music. And that is why the sound of Adolf Wölfi blowing into a cardboard tube to play his enigmatic scores, or the threnodies of Arthur K. Ferris played on his giant violins with their insides covered with writings and holy texts, will never be heard again. However, thanks to recent developments in technology and a growing interest in outsider music, a few of these unusual performers are beginning to be recorded. We have taken this opportunity to include several such sound pieces in our compilation. The composers live in highly individualistic worlds. Faithful to our precepts, we search out self-taught musicians. That means people who make contemporary music outside the customary production and distribution channels and with the determination and creative gifts that stem from unmistakable artistic talent. Some of these musicians operate in mental or social isolation and make their music in special workshops while others can be classified with the spiritualist or visionary artists. Others again, like Daniel Johnston and Wesley Willis, have become cult figures, a reference for underground and alternative musicians. Like the surrealist and expressionist artists, who were amazed by the strangeness and authenticity of work made in asylums, many members of today's music scene get inspiration from such 'outsider' music and feel it comes from another world. The recordings are of several kinds. In some cases less than 100 copies were pressed, or even just one copy, and they have never been distributed outside the circle of family and friends. In any case they were never intended to be listened to by a wider, impersonal audience. The process is more important than the result. In fact some authors, like Konstantin Raudive, have never claimed that their experimental sound pieces are to be regarded as music. This particular relationship with the creative process is a fundamental characteristic of outsider art.
Sound is an energy, a power. The ability to handle that power is perhaps what so many musicians, artists and writers lack - they are too referential, have no universe of their own, are pushing to get their particular insights recognized (through art-historical criteria). Whereas here, everything is marked by the spirit of a chaotic intelligence. Artists spurning all method, going too far, being excessive: isn't that just what we are looking for?" [label info]
www.subrosa.net
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2007 |
€13.00 |
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An Uncommon Nature |
LP |
"Edle neue Compilation auf dem Seattler Label Anomalous Records- vereint einige interessante Acts aus dem konkreten wie sphärischen Minimalismus-Bereich, die auf Anomalous aktiv sind... (s.u.). Kommt mit 4 ästhetischen Fotopostkarten zum Thema...
Great compilation presenting nearly all acts from the Seattle-based label. From concrete to spheric minimalism. Exclusive tracks by JEPH JERMAN, MIRROR, AGOG, CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS, JONATHAN COLECLOUGH, MIKE SHANNON, MONOS, RICHARD LERMAN, DAVE KNOTT. Comes with 4 postcards with b/w prints of photographs by Rachael Jackson." [Drone Rec. info 2001]
“ While unified by a common theme, the tracks are quite varied including desert contact mic recordings of rain and wind on a tree [Jeph Jerman], processed sounds of a gate [Jonathan Coleclough], erhu played on a beach [Mike Shannon], mysterious singing 'water babies' [Agog], a mixture of wild celery stalks, tundra grass, a cord made from sinew, a whalebone roof support and the seals [Richard Lerman], and the straight recording of an approaching thunderstorm [Dave Knott]. This attention to detail in audio is matched by the close up photographs of fungi, dripping sap, and trees which surrounds it.” [from the press-release]
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2001 |
€16.00 |
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Destroying the Night Sky (CADAVEROUS CONDITION-remixes) |
CD |
Sicher einer der ausuferndsten & interessantesten Experimental-Compilations des Jahres 2008, mit Fokus auf britische Acts aus dem NWW / ICR-Umfeld! Material der Death Metal-Combo CADAVEROUS CONDITION (die es schaffen, übelsten Kitsch mit Grindcore-Gegrunze zu verbinden) wird hier z.T. auf irrwitzigste Weise dekonstruiert, manchmal haarscharf am Wahnsinn vorbei, manchmal entstehen aber auch unerwartet schöne Arrangements, das Spektrum ist trotz des "rockigen" Basismaterials sehr gross.... man sollte allerdings Grunz- & Gröhl-immun sein, sonst hält man es kaum aus, am witzigsten & noisigsten wohl CONTROLLED BLEEDING, die Originalversatzstücke mit Harsh Noise und bizarren anderen found sounds mischen.
"NURSE WITH WOUND, THIGHPAULSANDRA, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, ANDREW LILES, CONTROLLED BLEEDING, COLIN POTTER, PRODUCT 8, ASMUS TIETCHENS, GJÖLL, HOLY McGRAIL, ALI HELNWEIN versus CADAVEROUS CONDITION. Destroying The Night Sky CD in a limited edition of 700 copies. A very special release with an unusual mix of sound: Using Cadaverous Condition's "To The Night Sky" album as source material for their tracks, all the aforementioned bands have created a unique new style of music. Call it metal ambient, drone metal or electronics metal, the result is something previously unknown and exciting. Hear Nurse With Wound doing one of their darkest tracks ever - listen to Controlled Bleeding's totally insane restructuring of a rock track, or be surprised by Nocturnal Emissions's return to noise - this album is unlike everything else you have heard in recent years. All cover
artwork by Cyril Helnwein, son of Gottfried Helnwein." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
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2008 |
€12.00 |
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SPIRE LIVE FUNDAMENTALIS |
do-LP |
Der dritte Teil in der SPIRE LIVE-Serie, lange Stücke mit "modernem" Orgelbezug & -einsatz von PHILIP JECK, CHARLES MATTHEWS, MARCUS DAVIDSON, BJ NILSEN und FENNESZ, - Aufnahmen von den zwei SPIRE - Konzerten auas Göteborg und Brüssel. Ganz wunderbar tönen wieder BJ NILSEN und FENNESZ, der eine löst die Orgel-Töne in rostig-rauhen Resonanzen auf, der andere klingt ("rein ORGANisch") höchst melancholisch und polyphon... aber auch die anderen Stücke (u.a. eine Version eines SCELSI-Stückes) sind die Anschaffung wert.
"Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a double LP-only collection of exclusive live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and 2006. Released in association with U.S. label, Autofact, Touch presents a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire: Fennesz, Philip Jeck, BJNilsen, Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, "In Nomine Lucis," and Marcus Davidson's self-penned "Standing Wave," which ends side two with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension between and within the individual pieces is palpable. As the Touch label places it, Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energized, but never oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not only into the organ, but also into the setting. But a new technological successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition that one remembers above all else. Spire is one of the most innovative projects around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th century, to Max MSP patches and software sampling. With two CD releases and nine performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages. Art direction and design by Jon Wozencroft." [label info]
".... Jeck's side is everything we could hope for, long lazy loops, slathered in record static, hiss, crack and pop, dreamy melodies skipped into haunting rhythms, everything washed out and blurred, a worn weary sonic drift, organs and voices, soaring and whirring, very mechanical and machinelike, but simultaneously, warm and emotional.
Serene, hypnotic, mesmerizing, what else can we say about the magic of Jeck's music that we haven't said before??
Matthews' half of side two is super minimal and hushed, mostly organs, allowed to wheeze and whir, slightly dissonant, but dense and layered, the tones hovering in a suspension of rumbles and shimmers, very dramatic and cinematic, understated and reverent, almost like some strange religious musical ritual. The second half, ostensibly Davidson's, although he is credited with a locked groove, is a dark
drone-y flow, keyboards blurred into warm streaks, also slightly atonal, ominous, intense, the muted rumble builds to an almost cacophonous organ-ic frenzy, that heard at full volume must have stirred the soul for sure.
The second disc is split evenly between Nilsen and Fennesz. Nilsen's side, recorded in a church in Sweden, is a dark, harrowing,
rumbling, post industrial dronescape, the tones rough around the edges, the melodies lugubrious and caustic, building up into a serious din, metallic washes of sound, thick shards of pulsing buzz, very brittle and sharp, before slipping into something a little more serene, but no less intense, more muted metallic tones, drifting in a churning sea of hissing static and electronic grit, a barely noticeable rhythm, more of a pulse or swell, finishing off in a deep grinding low end blur, like a much more minimal 20th century SUNNO))).
The Fennesz track is all organ, the root of all of these pieces, but here, the organ is unaltered, barely unadulterated, allowed to warmly wheeze, strange tangled melodies, glistening and glimmering, the tones beginning to change shape, the melodies allowed to elongate and blur slightly until they're swallowed up by a warm cloud of static and hiss before fading out completely. The second half of Fennesz' side is a more murky underwater reading of the first half, not as much grit and gristle as we usually expect, instead, the sound is whirling and muted, reminding us of Oval, but with the glitching skips smoother out, leaving just warm shimmering sonic swells, sun dappled melodies, and rich layered high end drones, drifting serenely, pastorally.
Gorgeously packaged, super thick full color gatefold sleeve, super striking Wozencroft photos, pressed on thick vinyl. And as if you even need to be told, quite limited indeed." [Aquarius Records review]
www.a-fact.com
|
2008 |
€18.50 |
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ESCAPING FROM COLOR: RAPOON RECOMPOSED & REMIXED |
CD |
Eine der schönsten Compilations des abgelaufenen Jahres kommt vom ukrainischen QUASI POP-Label: eine Remix-Zusammenstellung von RAPOONschen Basis-Sounds. Das "Source"-Material von RAPOON war so variabel und vielseitig dass es zu einer grossen Bandbreite gekommen ist, es fängt mit einem atemberaubend guten Stück von FRANCISCO LOPEZ an und wird zum Ende hin immer experimenteller und noisiger; weitere Highlights sind die Stücke von JORGE CASTRO und TV POW, aber es gibt eine Menge guter bis sehr guter Tracks hier!
"The conception, the idea, realisation and sound sources of this CD are all based on original sound material (loops and sounds) from Rapoon's “Tribal Sci Fi” CD-ROM (courtesy of Sony/Sonic Foundry). Not the entire original Rapoon's tracks have been re-mixed or re-composed, but the general “sound” (or the sound aesthetic of Rapoon's music) instead. All the artists have provided their own original compositions, that less or more based on the audio-sources from Rapoon. Thank you very much for all contributors!
File under: drone/dark ambient/electroacoustic/industrial/noise."
1. Francisco Lopez “Untitled #193”
2. TV Pow “Ladder Friends Remix”
3. Machinefabriek “Drijfzand”
4. Troum “Farawer”
5. Steve Roden “Colorscape Forming”
6. Jorge Castro “Depths”
7. Paulo Raposo “Tidal Winds”
8. Aidan Baker “Percussive Drone”
9. Anla Courtis “Rapooned Rapunga”
10. Gert-Jan Prins “Raponsje”
11. Heimir Bjorgulfsson “Obmam Ognom”
12. Mike Shiflet “Version Belize”
13. Family Underground “Tube”
14. Ronnie Sundin “Distant Demons”
15. Cisfinitum & Rapoon “Live in Ikra, Moscow 2006”
[label notes]
"Again Quasi Pop Label hits the target, with one of the most interesting compilation Cds coming lately to my hands. so, this is at my eyes a kind of tribute to British ethnic ambient industrial solo project known as RAPOON, which has been developing all its talent through the years. Through “escaping from color: Rapoon recomposed & remixed” album. We swim in an experimental sea of creativity, originality and dynamism. This time Quasi Pop Label in the shape of Edward.S has gathered a selection of one of the most representative projects inside experimental/ambient scene to escape from reality and to enter in a no colors world, when Rapoon is the only tangible reality. A reality based in 15 compositions, all of them bringing the necessary essence to represent in a concrete way the nature of an act such as Rapoon.
FRANCISCO LOPEZ, with more a high quantity of releases, and having traveled the world developing electro acoustic performances, is opening this album with a minimalistic ambient composition, floating slowly from start to finish. TV POW, surprises this time with an excellent track, full of dense percussive sounds and effects surrounding the whole track. Really one of the best tracks here. The german duo of Baraka (H) and Glit(S)ch known as TROUM,one of the most representative acts nowadays comes with a tribal ethnic composition with impressive percussive elements which moulds perfectly with the structure of the track in general.
The sound & Media explorer from Portugal, PABLO RAPOSO, makes its presence in this album with an interesting track, in the hands of drone sounds mutating into dense ambient atmospheres, creating architectural spaces through such musical vortex, as only Mr. Raposo could create. AIDAN BAKER, devour us with a magnificent convergence of drone elements, mixed with dense eerie percussive sounds floating between each atmosphere, to create an hypnotic voyage to the most hidden realms of Rapoon. FAMILY UNDERGROUND is a Danish trio, adapting its track into psychedelic drone/noise invasion full of madness. Another artist to mention is Swedish RONNIE SUDIN, creating hypnologic states, covering a wide range of styles as experimental and electronics. This time he develops a provocative ambient piece with vibrating elements, abrasive atmospheres and subliminal vociferations at the core of this track.
CISFINITUM, the Russian ambient act, develops a perfect emotive live track which was recorded 29.10.2006 at “Lkra” Club in Moscow, together with RAPOON, in which the percussive elements and atmospheres are the predominant patterns marked here. Limited to 500 copies, and coming in a kind of digipack with abstract drawings and general art, which reflects in part the material included on this excellent release." [Edgar Kerval / HEATHEN HARVEST]
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2008 |
€13.00 |
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Zelphabet Vol. A |
CD |
Wahnwitziges Noise-Culture Compilation-Projekt von G.X.-JUPITTER-LARSEN, welches 26teilig das ganze Alphabet umfassen soll, wobei allerdings die Vornamen der beteiligten Musiker zählen - auf dem ersten Teil versammeln sich ACHIM WOLLSCHEID, AMK, ARCANE DEVICE und ASMUS TIETCHENS - also alles schon sehr lange aktive Urgesteine der Szene: Irre Xylophon-Arrangements von ACHIM. Loop & Turntable-Madness von AMK. Spannende Klangcollagen mit alten Analog-sounds von ARCANE DEVICE. Und uns ASMUS: hintergründige Sphären & Drones und anorganisch-konkretes Geschacher im Vordergrund. AA, ein sehr guter ANFANG.
"Almost close to thirty years now span the career of G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, better known as The Haters, and throughout these many years he has met many other musicians, labels and such like. His telephone book is well stocked with names so it seemed him a good thing to make the musical variation of his phonebook, an ambitious twenty-six (well, actually one more) series of compact discs with each three or four musicians with the same letter at the start of their name. So that accounts for the presence of Achim Wollscheid and Asmus Tietchens with the letter 'A'. With names like AMK and Arcane Device further on 'A', one could all too easily think that G.X. knows only old folks, but on 'B' we find the young ones The Beast People, 16 Bitch Pile-Up and Bob Bellerue with just one older person, blackhumour. 'B' is unmistakably the noise variation, with loud distorted pieces by the three new (relatively speaking of course) acts. Blackhumour, where has he been I was thinking, hands in one of his trademark pieces of unprocessed voices. Looped around, cutting them shorter as the piece progresses, this is both a stand still but since I gather not many people know him, it's good to get reacquainted. Bob Bellerue's piece of subdued noise is the best of the rest. AMK on 'A' also does what he seemingly always does, playing with damaged records. It's the least interesting piece on that one. Achim Wollscheid has a great computer controlled piece of playing Xylophone. Arcane Device created a recent mix of old feedback pieces and Asmus is in his recent mood of shimmering microtonal bits and pieces, fed through ring modulation. Great promising start, can't hardly wait. But it looks like a definite compendium of thirty years of difficult music. Subscribe now to this wiki of noise and know all there is to know." [FdW / Vital Weekly, reviewing part A & B]
www.zelphabet.com
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2008 |
€6.00 |
|
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Landscape I / The Forest |
CD-R |
CENTRE OF WOOD ist das neue Label von COLD CURRENT PRODUCTION mit dem Fokus auf "Folk" in verschiedensten Varianten, diese Compilation gibt einen Label-Überblick mit 15 Stücken von Geräuschmusik & Akustik-Drone bis free form / Impro & Neo Folk, mit schönen Stücken von TIM COSTER, NEBELUNG, THROUROOF, PRAGUE, ES, WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW, und vielen uns unbekannten Acts.. Nummerierte Auflage & handgemachtes Cover, kunstvoll verschlossen mit einem Stück Ast!
"[Forestes, the most important influence for "Centre of Wood" label, of every kind and in every part of the world, are a magic place where to get lost and then find our deep relation with the nature. 14 bands from the acoustic, drone, lo-fi and free folk underground called to rappresent through music their relation with these places. The Result is this CD-R that contains more than 60 minutes of weird music. The projects and the bands involved are : Tim Coster; Donato Epiro; Nebelung; Vapaa; Chora; Aalto; throuRoof; Eyes like Saucers; The Katie Winter; Belly Boat; Prague; Es; Las Vegas Club; We Wait for the Snow. Listening to this compilation is like getting lost in a immense green forest, walking through its trees, meet the eyes of its creatures...]
PACKAGING : The packaging is composed of a brown and green heavy cardboard, closed with a small branch and a brown cotton thread, with an insert in perfect d.i.y. old style. limited to 120 numbered copies." [label info]
www.coldcurrentprod.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
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>Manifesto Rumorarmonico Post Futurista. Tributo a LUIGI RUSSOLO |
do-LP |
Vier altgediente Noise-Heroen treffen sich auf dieser Compilation zu Ehren des italienischen Futuristen LUIGI RUSSOLO, dessen legendäres Manifest "Die Kunst der Geräusche" (1913) den Startschuss für den Einsatz von Maschinenlärm in moderner Komposition darstellte.
Die Compilation zeigt gut, auf welche unterschiedliche Art und Weise "Geräusch" eingesetzt werden kann, von agitierendem Power-Effekt-Lärm (MERZBOW), mechanisch-maschinellem Rausch-Noise (GX JUPITTER-LARSEN) über seelenlos-statisches Elektro-Geknirsche & Gekrache (SACHER PELZ) bis hin zu mysteriösem Dröhnklang (RAPOON)..
"Vinyl compilation devoted to “Luigi Russolo” the father of Futurist music and the first man theorizing that music has to be composed mainly by rumors And not by harmonic sounds ! His music was played with an instrument “l’Intonarumori” or “Rumorarmonio” which was invented by himself ! Russolo is the forefather and theorizer of the “Electronic music” concept and for sure we can say today that he was the first man playing “Industrial” muzak ! For this project we found four artists which are known for being since their first approaches to music as “Neo-Futurists” and uncompromising “Industrial”. Involved artists :
- GX Jupitter-Larsen from USA, also known for being the mind behind The Haters and for all his very “Futurist” performances where a click becomes the main sound !
- Merzbow from Japan, the father of Japanese noise ! this is the sound Russolo was playing if alive today
- Rapoon from UK, with his first project “Zoviet France” Robin Storey was one of the very first artists using toy instruments !
- Sacher Pelz from Italy, Sacher Pelz was the very first project by Maurizio Bianchi also known as MB, he was one of the very first artist theorising electronic noise !
Each artists gives his contribution to this tribute playing long tracks on a full LP side ! White Vinyl. Discs are packed in hand-numbered folding cover showing Luigi Russolo and his Rumorarmonio." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2008 |
€22.00 |
|
|
ELECTRIC LIGHT (COLUMN ONE REMIXES) |
CD |
"Schon die zweite Compilation auf dem neuen COLUMN ONE – Label “90% Wasser”, “Electric Light” beinhaltet Remixe von Material ihrer CD/picLP “Electric Pleasure”, von ihnen selbst sind alleine 5 Stücke dabei! Herausgekommen sind dabei v.a. Minimal-elektronisches, -technoides und –obskur-surreales, dekonstruktierte SoundWelten.." [Drone Records notes 2002]
”Here comes the long-awaited remix album following Column One's critically acclaimed electro milestone "Electric Pleasure" about which The Wire wrote it was "breathtaking in its thoroughness". Electric Light features remixes by: Column One | Silk Saw | Frieder Butzmann | Marc Wannabe | Mimetic Fake | Rechenzentrum | Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg | CoeUR y NaGL | Afanassi Viebeg | M.O.W.E.”. [press-release]
|
2001 |
€13.50 |
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|
DIY CANONS |
do-CD |
Compilation mit Stücken die sich alle auf die Kompositionsideen von LARRY POLANSKY beziehen, kuratiert von SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH. Einiges witziges und verstörendes (z.B. das Schrei-Stück von RUVIARO), einiges belangloses (MIKE SWNICHLSKI), einiges erstklassig (MIKE WINTER), einiges eher nervtötend (WICKHAM-SMITH), schöne sirr-drones (STEVEN M MILLER), handgespielt schönes (GEORGE ZELENZ), etc. etc., ein Riesenspektrum von Interpretationen von meist unbekannteren US-Komponisten gibt es hier zu entdecken....
"Okay. Really cool, kind of fun, double cd compilation based on a work of Larry Polansky's. Pieces are constructed from the sounds of cats, screams, MIDI instruments, computer, Barbie Phone, samples, wooden flutes, piano, bass clarinet, Ringtones, Metro Cards, contrabass, and more. I have some of my favorites - which keep changing each time I listen to the discs. Perhaps you will too. Read on too get a "real" description from the curator of this project. [label info]
"The pieces on this CD are all based on the ideas in Larry Polansky's four voice canons, a series of pieces he began in 1975. These canons are usually "mensuration canons," which means that the tempi of successive voices is proportional to their start times, so that the voices end together. They also use simple ideas of moving through a list of permutations, and applying the elements of those permutations to various musical parameters. A set of Polansky's canons was produced on Cold Blue Records as four voice canons (CB0011).
Polansky described these ideas in Four Voice Canon #13 ("DIY Canon"), a kind of open-source meta-canon score. He distributed this at talks and on the web as an open invitation to others who wanted to make four voice canons of their own. Composers responded with a wide variety of variations on the basic idea; a selection of these works is presented here." [Simon Wickham-Smith, curator]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
|
The Black Square |
CD |
Russians only! Gute Übersicht über die russische Experimental & Industrial Szene anno 2005 / 2006 von diesem St. Petersburger Label! Alles exklusive Tracks, sehr schönes Design!
"Fresh survey of Russian post-industrial scene performed by KultFront activists. The continuation of line started with "Red Square" compilation.
15 exclusive tracks by :
BRZB (collaboration between Dmitry Zuboff from Hypnoz and Alexei Borisov), Bardoseneticcube
Ganzer feat. Lenochka
Ritualnaya Bioingeneria
Cyclotimia
SS-18 (side-project of DMT)
Evilution
EKRAN (collaboration between Kryptogen Rundfunk and Anthesteria)
Bunker (side-project of Ryr)
Reutoff
Misery
Anthesteria
Tsaraas (side-project of Majdanek Waltz)
Sal Solaris
Necropoli
Black on Black printed cardboard carton sleeve with additional inner cardbard CD sleeve and cardboard insert." [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
This Infernal Love of Life |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung einer schwedischen Compilation-LP von 1989 mit ELD-OMALA (symphonisch-apokalyptische Sounds), WHITE STAINS (experimenteller Ritual-Folk, waren eng mit PSYCHIC TV & TOPY verbandelt), PHAUSS (lebendiger Infinity-Drone / Noise), Z. KARKOWSKI (schon damals kaum zu beschreibender undurchdringlicher Komplex- & Amorph Noise voller innerer Bewegung)
Thema der Compilation war der "Wille zum Leben", das Feiern der Lebenskräfte, eine entsprechend rituelle & kraftvolle Zusammenstellung ist es geworden... ein sehr lohnenswerter Re-Release, neues Cover, Auflage 500 Stück.
"A visionary showcase of Sweden's finest artists, paying tribute to the mighty currents of LIFE within us all. This album was originally released as an LP by TOPYSCAN in Stockholm in 1989, in a limited, hand-numbered edition. Included was a booklet with texts, artwork and photographs by the artists.
The idea, if any, was to invite artists working with sound and experimental music to illustrate the philosophical, emotional concept of the "will to live". Eld-Omala and White Stains were based in Stockholm, Phauss and Karkowski in Gothenburg. One could say that this album presents a pretty correct picture of what was going on musically in Sweden at the time. Digitally remastered by Thomas Tibert in 2006,
the album comes with new cover,first time in digital format." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
v-p v-f is v-n |
7 |
Höchst obskure 7"-Compilation mit 20 (!) Stücken, wobei 5 Endlosrillen eingearbeitet wurden, überwiegend sind Projekte aus der "Microsound-Drone-Ambience" Szene vertreten, z.B. LAWRENCE ENGLISH, CIVYUI KKLIU, ILYA MONOSOV, ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO.. die Bandbreite ist aber sehr gross und machen dies zu einer spannenden Hörerfahrung. Kommt im sehr schönen "letter-press" Cover, wie alles auf WINDS MEASURE RECORDINGS... (Label aus New York City).
"v-p v-f is v-n 7" compilation series, 7001
jeph jerman + albert casais, ting ting jahe, richard garet, alfredo costa monteiro, ben owen, lawrence english, jeph jerman, civyiu kkliu, tommy birchett, ilya monosov, mpld, andy graydon, and ben scott. edition: 350 7" black vinyl record letterpress sleeve and insert." [label info]
" "v-p v-f is v-n is a 7” black vinyl compilation consisting of twenty terse pieces (with five being lock grooves) - nine on side I rotating at 33RPM and eleven on the side II spinning at 45RPM - and serves as aural digest of the was, is, and will be of Winds Measure Recordings collaborators.
This wonderful 7”-teaser is a little sonic who’s-who (and who will be) of Winds Measure Recordings collaborators. There are a lot names (most familiar to me, a few not) present on this compilation - label owner Ben Owen, Jeph Jerman, Albert Casais (Omnid), Ting Ting Jahe (collective), Richard Garet, Lawrence English, Civyiu Kkliu, Tommy Birchett, Ilya Monosov, Andy Graydon, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, mpld (project of Gill Arno), Ben Scott (participant in Ting Ting Jahe),Tommy Birchett (also participant in Ting Ting Jahe), and Rudolf Unger.
As I was listening to v-p v-f is v-n for the second time, I had the volume turned up fairly high having discovered that several of the tracks especially on the 33RPM side are moderately subtle and/or sprarse explorations of sound (although dotted with a few startling moments). The other members of my family, not really appreciating my peculiar musical interests in general, kept asking (actually yelling) “What’s that noise?”. Well there is a lot of noise on this album, but to my ears, the noises that these artists make is music.
There are some considerably abstract, challenging sounds here in the sense of being quiet, fragmented, and rough. Listening to the first three pieces on side I - Jeph Jerman & Albert Casais, Ting Ting Jahe, & Richard Garet - will confirm this observation. Be forewarned to drop the volume before the piercing frequencies of Alfredo Costa Monterio’s Élytre [track 4] kicks in and quickly disrupts the quiet atmosphere established by its predecessors. In sharp contrast, Ben Owen brings back a sense of calm down with Typhoon, kii-tanabe consisting of what appears to be a minimally processed field recording containing some vocals and natural background ambiance, and then Lawrence English complements this with a droning piece of naturalness titled Water Run Sand. mpld follows this up with another drone segment titled Red Tape but this time sounding coarser and very machine-like. Side I concludes with two lock grooves (Jeph Jerman, Ben Owen).
Side II begins with Civyiu Kkliu and Rudolf Unger joining forces to produce a minute’s worth of vibrating, rumbling noise that becomes a little broken towards the end. Jeph Jerman then delivers a beautiful 50-second piece of macrobiotic resonations that goes hand-in-hand with Ben Owens’ sparse and reverberating 16-second miniature s-s-e, sm ca. Listen carefully or Tommy Birchett’s barely audible 11-second interlude will be absorbed by Ben Owens’ piece or made imperceptible by Andy Graydon’s gorgeous Two Fold Note - a dark and harmonious tonal drone. Ben Scott’s ccc is an interesting 25-second experiment in percussive clatter that is followed directly by Ilya Monosov’s For Well Treated Trumpet. Short Version - a rather warped and amusing piece of discordant abstractness. Side II concludes with three lock grooves (Civyiu Kkliu, mpld x 2) and short-lived 7-second reprise by Tommy Birchett.
v-p v-f is v-n gives a candid retrospective of what Winds Measure Recording has offered and also provides a peek at what the near future might hold. Nice to see it released on vinyl as this medium serves the label’s sonic aesthetic well." [Larry Johnson, EARLabs]
www.windsmeasurerecordings.net
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
|
SACRAL SYMPHONY |
CD |
"Steht der Name EVGENY VORONOVSKI auf einem Produkt, kann sich dahinter eigentlich nur Qualität verbergen; das hat der Russe in den vergangenen Jahren oft genug bewiesen. Zum einen ist er Bestandteil von NEUTRAL, der momentan zum Duo geschrumpften, akustischen Neofolk-Vorzeigeband aus Russland. Dort geht er seinem gelernten Handwerk nach und spielt – als studierter Geiger – die Violine. Zum anderen ist er der Kopf hinter CISFINITUM, einem Projekt, das außerordentlich atmosphärischen Dark Ambient produziert. Gerade mit der elektronischen Musik war VORONOVSKI auf zahllosen Samplern vertreten: "Iznutri" (Besprechung), "Energia" (Besprechung) oder der "Heilige Feuer"-Serie. Nun hat er den Spieß umgedreht und Material von anderen Bands eingesammelt, ist mit CISFINITUM allerdings auch selbst vertreten. Die insgesamt fünf Projekte aus Russland, Deutschland, Großbritannien und der Ukraine steuern jeweils rund 15 Minuten lange, exklusive Stücke bei, die auf meditativen Drones basieren. Zusammen gehalten werden sie von der losen, titelgebenden Vorgabe 'sakral'. Ein Versuch also, etwas Heiliges, Religiöses einzufangen, eine 'höhere Sphäre', was allen Beteiligten auf ihre Art und Weise gelingt.
Die Herangehensweise von 1000SCHOEN, einem Ein-Mann-Ambientprojekt aus Bremen, ist die – und das ist nicht negativ gemeint – naivste von allen. Nichts klingt 'dark', die puren Ambientflächen warten mit Windspiel und Sitar auf. Wuchtige Geigendrones im Mittelteil und später auch eine E-Gitarre verleihen die nötige Intensität. "Dageraad" ist warme, freundliche Entspannungsmusik, deren urige, natürliche Stimmung manchmal an den Balkanfolk von SVARROGH erinnert, an einen Guru auf dem Hügel, der einsam sein Instrument bearbeitet.
TROUM, ebenfalls aus Bremen, sind sehr viel düsterer. Das Projekt um STEFAN KNAPPE von DRONE RECORDS arbeitet mit dicht aneinander gedrängten Drones, die klingen, als ob Wind durch unterschiedliche Metallröhren weht. Wie durch eine Nebelwand tauchen dazu an- und abschwellende, geloopte Chor-Versatzstücke auf. Ab der Mitte des Songs erwecken die verfremdeten Vocals den Anschein einer rituellen Beschwörung. Die Synthesizerflächen von TROUM decken die ganze Bandbreite nach der Einnahme von halluzinogenen Drogen ab: Mal ist es ein Gleiten durch Licht, mal stiert ein Alp durch dunkle Wolken. Streckenweise klingt "Palas Tyn" wie ein frühes, sehr abgedrehtes Instrumental von PINK FLOYD.
EVGENY VORONOVSKI beweist vor allem dadurch Klasse, dass er mit CISFINITUM nur wenig Material braucht, um große Welten zu erschaffen. In "Autumn Ritual" mäandern ausladende, träge und warme Synthesizer-Drones durch das All, eine – wie es so schön heißt – 'Reise durch Raum und Zeit'. Sollte die Menschheit einmal schockgefrostet werden müssen, um im Tiefschlaf auf einen anderen Planeten zu fliegen, ist diese elektronische Kammermusik in Superzeitlupe perfekt für den Kopfhörer im Kryogentank.
ROBIN STOREY alias RAPOON steuert mit "One Last Breath" den experimentellsten Track der Zusammenstellung bei. Der Mitbegründer von ZOVIET FRANCE arbeitet hauptsächlich mit Stimmeffekten. Dazu hat er sich sowohl beim KIEV CHAMBER CHOIR bedient und dessen Gesänge bearbeitet als auch die eigene Stimme aufgenommen und verfremdet. Alles zusammen ergibt Himmelschor-Drones, die allerdings verzischt und verzerrt sind. Die Tür in eine andere Welt steht zwar offen, ist aber unerreichbar. Im letzten Drittel des längsten Songs dieses Samplers (19:43) gehen die Gesangsloops in ebenfalls scheppernde Posaunenklänge über, die nach und nach immer klarer werden, so dass ganz zum Schluss ein winziges Stückchen Engel erhascht werden kann.
Den Schlusspunkt setzt der Ukrainer OLEGH KOLYADA, der unter vielen Namen aktiv ist. (Ein NONPOP-Interview mit ihm gibt es hier.) Als FIRST HUMAN FERRO zeigt er in der Regel ein etwas härteres, post-industrielles Gesicht, das sich nun aber der sakralen Gesamtstimmung anpasst: Wir dürfen bei der Entstehung eines Universums zuhören. Leuchtende, helle Wolken aus Synthie-Tönen ploppen wie zukünftige Planeten in eine noch nicht vorhandene Atmosphäre. Später untermalt ein Sample mit wunderbarer, irdischer Klaviermusik das Szenario. Dieses Vermischen zweier unterschiedlicher (Atmo)Sphären hat viel vom 'geistigen' Sound des Zwillingsprojekts ODA RELICTA.
Es gilt, was schon eingangs erwähnt wurde: Der Macher bürgt für Qualität. Das ist in diesem Fall nicht anders und umfasst selbstverständlich alle beteiligten Projekte, nicht nur CISFINITUM. Allerdings muss sich der Hörer über die meditative Anlage des Samplers im Klaren sein, damit es keine Überraschungen gibt. Bis auf einige TROUM-Passagen ist die Musik wesentlich mehr Ambient als 'Dark', die Drones sind beruhigend und viele von ihnen nicht von dieser Welt, das heißt typisch 'spacig'. Spaß macht ganz nebenbei auch die Interpretationsfreiheit, die "Sacral Symphony" bietet. Hinter den sphärischen Tracks können sich Weltraumabenteuer, religiöse Erfahrungen oder einfach – wie EVGENY VORONOVSKI das vorschlägt – 'russischer Spirit' verbergen. Guter Sound für die restfeierliche Stimmung der Nach-Weihnachtszeit." [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
"You don't have to be a religious fanatic to hear the quality in this latest effort from Belgium label EE Tapes. The album titled "Sacral symphony" presents five grandiose pieces of drone-based electronics from five well-known and acclaimed composers of drifting ambience. The compilation is compiled by Russian composer Eugeny Voronovski who also contributes under his artist alias Cisfinitum. German composer 1000Schøen opens the symphonic extravaganza with a hypnotic piece titled "Dageraad" that includes acoustic sounds of guitars and flutes to create lush piece of ambience. Next artist is also German. Troum
contributes with the piece titled "Palas tyn" consisting of church bell-sounding drone accompanied by warm drones moving in deeper sound levels. Eugeny Voronovski alias Cisfinitum contributes with the beautiful piece "Autumn ritual" based on ochestral ambience reminding me of works from Angelo Badalamenti. Things get even more grandiose with the otherworldly piece from Rapoon, "One last breath", a dark and beautiful piece of processed choir samples. Final piece comes from the artist titled First Human Ferro, a remarkable piece of spacey ambient based on church organ samples with echoed acoustic sound like in a church. An excellent piece to end this otherworldy ambient compilation from EE Tapes." [NM / Vital Weekly]
label website: www.eetapes.be
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Recommended Records Sampler 1982 - 25th Anniversary Edition |
do-CD |
".. Chris Cutler hat es sich wenige Jahre zuvor mit Gleichgesinnten zur Aufgabe gemacht ein Label zu eröffnen für musikalische Weitsicht. Inhalt, Rock, wohl nicht wirklich, für New Wave war alles viel zu wenig stylisch. Musikalisch hatte der Zuhörer eher den Eindruck, eine Symbiose aus Genanntem mit improvisierten Soft Machine zu hören. Das Label hatte es in den zurückliegenden Tagen wirklich geschafft, einen eigenen erkennbaren Sound mit dem dementsprechenden Coverartwork zu kreieren. Die Veröffentlichung dieses Samplers hatte damals natürlich die Aufgabe der klassischen Labelschau, heute wirkt es wie ein wunderbares musikalisches Fotoalbum. Man trifft auf alte Bekannte wie Henry Cow, Robert Wyatt und den Homosexuals oder gar Conventum. Schön ist es, aus dem Booklet zu erfahren, dass Joseph Racaille immer noch musikalisch umtriebig ist. Natürlich mit dabei die martialische Kunst von Faust. Wer das gemeinsame Tassengeschepper aus einem damaligen Cafe mit dem dazugehörigen Soundtrack kennt, gegenüber dem hektischen Wegwerfen eines Coffee-To-Go Bechers, der sollte hier dem Kauf zum Wiederentdecken auf jeden Fall nachkommen. Neue Hörer und Interessierte sowieso." [Morton, Unruhr.de]
"A keystone reissue of an historic collection featuring: Faust (D), Art Bears (UK), ZNR (F), Robert Wyatt (UK), The Residents (USA), Henry Cow (UK), This Heat (UK), Art Zoyd (F), Univers Zero (B), Stormy Six (I), Aqsak Maboul (B), Picchio Dal Pozzo (I), Decibel (MX), Goebbels and Harth (D), The Homosexuals (UK), The Work (UK), Amos and Sarah (UK), Ron Pate/Raudelunas (USA), Conventum (CAN), Hector Zazou, Joseph Racaille and Patrick Portella (F). Total Time: 2 hours. Recommended Records was set up in the late 1970s by Chris Cutler and Nick Hobbs - both then busy with Henry Cow - on the back of the worst possible business model imaginable: to collect and distribute music which, in Cutler’s judgement, was original, important or excellent - and otherwise generally unknown. No major labels, just releases by independents or artists themselves, with particular emphasis on ignored European releases. It was an interesting moment: punk and the new wave had unsettled the old certainties, major labels were floundering and a new generation was setting up its own channels of information and distribution. Out of this stimulating chaos, all sorts of innovations and alternative propositions emerged, especially outside the UK/US axis, which by then had become complacent and arrogant - because they had ‘invented’ rock and what else was there to know? Thus Recommended quickly became the principle source of information about a diverse new underground of innovative music that wasn’t jazz, rock, new wave, or anything quite. By 1982, Recommended was in its fourth year. The catalogue had expanded and the label was firmly established. A sampler seemed an obvious and necessary next step. Compiling extracts from existing releases would have been boring, so we asked the most interesting groups in our catalogue to record something new. The result was two hours of music released as a double LP in a hand silk-screened sleeve that was, as it turned out, a time capsule - a tidy slice taken across a fascinating forking of musical paths that captured a moment of growth that foresaw a variety of possible futures. 26 years on it has become a highly prized collectors item, not only because of the breadth and quality of the music it contains, but also because of its early geographical reach. A lot has changed in little more than a generation." [label info]
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Table for Six: All Quiet? # 3 |
CD |
Das wohl am längsten bestehende belgische Label für elektronisch-experimentelle, post-industrielle und dronig-ambiente Klänge geht mit seiner TABLE FOR SIX-Reihe in die dritte Runde (sechs lange Beiträge)! Wieder präsentiert sich eine gelungene Mischung aus Altbekannten oder älteren Acts (FRANS DE WAARD, ANEMONE TUBE (nach langer Pause wieder aktiv wie's scheint) und (AD)VANCE(D) (ex VANCE ORCHESTRA), und den Newcomern NEUESTRASSE (mächtig atmosphärische dark ambient Drone aus Italien), STORMHAT (post-industrieller drone-industrial mit ungewöhnlicher Komplexität im Microsound-Bereich, sehr genial! Dänemark), und BRUNE DE ANGELIS (elektro-akustisch beeinflusste dunkel-symphonische Musik, nicht so weit entfernt von alten TIETCHENS-Sachen). Insgesamt sehr dunkel-atmosphärisch geprägt, Spezial 7"-Siebdruck-Cover, keine Ausfälle, was will man mehr !
"EE Tapes was originally a tape-exclusive label established in Belgium back 1987, but during the years the media forms released from the label has changed, to the present state of being a CD-only label. Present release is another shot from the "Table For Six"-series, that celebrates different forms of ambient with contributions from interesting composers of the scene. On this third chapter contributions comes from newcomers as well as from more established artists. Despite the focus on ambient the approaches to the style is quite different with everything from concrete sounds to abstracts noise. Opening piece titled "Bulo omega" is twelve minute work of buzzing drones from Italian artist Neuestrasse. Washes of noise waves creates a quite organic edge to the expressions of noise. Organic is also the word to describe the following contribution from Danish artists Stormhat that specializes in ambient-scapes exclusively based on field recordings. His piece "Substanser" nicely mixes abstract concrete sounds with recognizable found sounds. German project Anemone Tube continues with a minimalist piece of beautiful ambient based on processed choir-samples and grandiose soundscapes. With its warm atmosphere, the work titled "Projected cataclysm" from Anemone Tube stand in extreme contrast to the following icy drone work from Dutch sound artist Frans De Waard. His piece titled "Wortel (root)" is another minimalist work based on buzzing drones operating in subconscious levels with a very interesting result. Once in a while the drones fades away giving space for swarms of high frequency noises and crackling electronics wiping out any sign of buzzing tranquility. Dutch artist (Ad)vance(d) closes the compilation with another great piece of ambience based on field recordings with subtle melodies moving in deeper layers. Excellent compilation that also presents some quite bizarre and beautiful jazz-like ambient-noise-spheres based on acoustic instruments such as horns and string instruments from Italian artist Bruno De Angelis. Thus a great span in the contributing expressions. Good work." [NM, Vital Weekly]
" 1 | Neuestrasse (Italy): atmospheric ambient noise aka Matteo Roncari | newcomer in the dark ambient scene, although he had a first CD out already on polish War Office Propaganda label in 2006 neuestrasse@tiscali.it
2 | Stormhat (Denmark): obsessive experimental sonics aka Peter Bach Nicholaisen | climbing up fast on today's ladder of field recording-fame with CDreleases out on US-labels Cohort Records & Diophantine Discs www.stormhat.dk
3 | Anemone Tube (Germany/Netherlands): contemplative digital synths - aka Stefan Hanser, (harsh) noise artist returning after a long silence & now residing in the Netherlands, showcasing a very unusual piece for his doing in the best 80s prog synth tradition, but
with modern tools www.myspace.com/anemonetube
4 | Bruno De Angelis (Italy/UK): modern classical improvisation - former member of Influenza Prods (80s) and still active with Mana Erg (90s - now), always doing a kind of cinematographic stuff so far, here presenting a most special solo outing bruno.deangelis@yahoo.co. uk
5 | Frans de Waard (Netherlands): noise collage of tape-hiss only, back to the root(s) -
it all started with the cassette....
pioneer with Korm Plastics, (ex-)Staalplaat, Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Freiband, Shifts, etc etc.... www.fransdewaard.blogspot.com
6 | (ad)vance(d) (Netherlands) : floating space sounds built up with field recordings & a lot of
imagination - aka Mars F. Wellink (ex-Vance Orchestra) who teams up with Jan Dekker for this exclusive contribution: a well-balanced composition between dream, sleep & reality maybe..... mars.f.wellink@xmsnet.nl"
[label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
SOURCE RECORDS 1-6. Music of the Avant Garde, 1968-1971 |
3 x CD |
Absolut lohnenswerte Wiederveröffentlichung von sechs 10" Vinylen die vor gefühlten Ewigkeiten (1968-1971) im Rahmen des "Music of the Avant Garde" Journals herauskamen. Enthält z.T. echt wahnwitzige Stücke aus der "klassischen" nordamerikanischen Elektronik- Avantgarde, z.B. geht ROBERT ASHLEYs "The Wolfman" (1964) locker als ausschweifende Feedback-Elektro-Noise-Orgie als auch als etwas angegrauter "Industrial" durch, oder DAVID BEHRMANs "Wave Train" (1966) als röhrend-droniger Dark Ambient...
Man steht / sitzt / oder liegt mit offenen Mund vor diesen Pioniertaten der Geräuschmusik, das alles wirkt so gar nicht angestrengt kopflastig oder intellektuell, sonder eher "direct into the face (ears)". Super!!
"..."Source: Music Of The Avant-Garde" was a magazine which included scores, articles, interviews, essays and music, placed on a 10" record. First released in 1967 and then semiannually until 1973, although the records were released until 1971. Some of these pieces on these records have turned to be true classics of our time. Here we have the first version of 'I Am Sitting In A Room' by Alvin Lucier, 'The Wolfman' by Robert Ashley and 'Wave Train' by David Behrman. Some other composers here are still the big shots of today, like Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran and Annea Lockwood, and some I must, perhaps shamefully, admit I never heard of, like Larry Austin (the founder of the magazine), Arthur Woodbary, Mark Riener, Lowell Cross (who has a great drone like piece), Stanley Lunetta (with a great noise based of electronics) and Arrigo Lora-Totino, who has a piece that uses just voices. Most pieces clock in at fifteen minutes, the length of a 10" side. All of the pieces deal with electronics in some way, along with real instruments. One could say that its a pity that the magazine, the printed words, aren't available, say as PDF's on the disc (or a website), but this is a lovely three CD set of some great music. Always nice to hear Lucier's piece again, even in this shorter version than on the CD by Lovely music, some interesting discoveries such as Larry Austin himself, Lunetta and Cross. A most needed re-issue." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Source Records 1-6. Music of the Avant Garde, 1968-1971. The digital reissue of the Source LP's on 3 CDs :
CD One - Source Records 1 and 2
Robert Ashley, The Wolfman;
David Behrman, Wave Train;
Larry Austin, Accidents;
Allan Bryant, Pitch Out
CD Two - Source Records 3 and 4
Alvin Lucier, I am sitting in a room;
Arthur Woodbury, Velox;
Mark Riener, Phlegethon;
Larry Austin, Caritas;
Stanley Lunetta, moosack machine
CD Three - Source Records 5 and 6
Lowell Cross, Video II (B)/(C)/(L);
Arrigo Lora-Totino, english phonemes;
Alvin Curran, Magic Carpet;
Annea Lockwood, Tiger Balm
Pogus is extremely proud to reissue the recordings included in the seminal new music journal, Source: Music of the Avant Garde, Vols. 1-6, Issues 1-11, Source Records 1-6, 1967-1973. The original six ten-inch LP Source Records contained some of the most important experimental music of the nineteen-sixties to mid nineteen-seventies and they have now been reissued as a 3 CD set. Source ended publication in 1973, having published, since 1967, contemporary musical materials, scores, articles, interviews, photo essays and recordings over seven years, with up to 2000 subscribers to the semiannual journal: the subscribers avidly anticipated receiving two new and critically acclaimed issues each year during that period.
Most of the original tape masters for the records, after over forty years, have vanished or have seriously deteriorated; hence, we have carefully transferred, noise-reduced, and crackle-removed all the actual LP record tracks to the digital medium, then mastered to the compact disc format for this reissue: the result is an authentic recreation of the original LP, characteristic sound." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2009 |
€33.00 |
|
|
John Barleycorn Reborn : Dark Britannica |
do-CD |
"A discovery of folk music from dark Britannica. 'John Barleycorn Reborn' explores seasonal birth, death and rebirth on this double CD. Our cycle begins at Lammas 2007 (1st August), a day traditionally known for 'the first fruits of the harvest'. Pre-orders begin on this day. All orders also receive a free complementary thirty-three track download only set of further music. This compilation explores the darker side of British folk music, evoking the mystery of our ancient past and peoples, the strangeness of their beliefs, arcane traditions and the remnants of this carried down the centuries as folklore. The set has an extended booklet with articles, essays and explorations of the album's concept. The album is a collaboration between Cold Spring and Woven Wheat Whispers, a folk music artist community and legal download service (where the third part complementary part will be available). Curated by Mark Coyle. Track Listing: Disc 1 1. The Horses Of The Gods - 'John Barleycorn' | 2. The Owl Service - 'North Country Maid' | 3. The Story - 'The Wicker Man' | 4. Damh The Bard - 'Spirit Of Albion' | 5. Mary Jane - 'Twa Corbies' | 6. Andrew King - 'Dives And Lazarus' | 7. The Triple Tree - 'Three Crowns' | 8. Sol Invictus - 'To Kill All Kings' | 9. Sieben - 'Ogham On The Hill (Remix)' | 10. Sharron Kraus - 'Horn Dance' | 11. Charlotte Greig And Johan Asherton - 'Lay The Bent To The Bonny Broom' | 12. Pumajaw - 'The Burning Of Auchindoun' | 13. Peter Ulrich - 'The Scryer & The Shewstone | 14. Alphane Moon - 'Where The Hazel Grows' | 15. English Heretic - 'Hippomania' | 16. Far Black Furlong - 'Icy Solstice Eye'. Disc 2 1. The Anvil - 'John Barleycorn Must Die' | 2. Tinkerscuss - 'To Make You Stay' | 3. The Straw Bear Band - 'Trial By Bread & Butter' | 4. Electronic Voice Phenomena - 'The Sorrow Of Rimmon' | 5. The Purple Maids Of Lazeron - 'Dragonfly' | 6. Sand Snowman - 'Stained Glass Morning' | 7. The A Lords - 'Summerhouse' | 8. The Kitchen Cynics - 'The Guidman's Ground' | 9. Quickthorn - 'PewPew' | 10. Clive Powell - 'Reed Sodger' | 11. Venereum Arvum - 'Child 102 Willie And Earl Richard's Daughter' | 12. Drohne - 'Nottamun Town' | 13. Stormcrow - 'Gargoyle' | 14. Doug Peters - 'Pact' | 15. While Angels Watch - 'Obsidian Blade' | 16. Xenis Emputae Travelling Band - 'John Barleycorn: His Life, Death And Resurrection' | 17. Martyn Bates - 'The Resurrection Apprentice'." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Pangaea Noise |
CD |
Nachfolger der erfolgreichen "Beyond Ignorance and Borders" Compilation. Wieder gibt es weitgehend völlig unbekannte experimentelle Elektronik & Noise aus den entlegendsten Ecken unseres Planeten (jedenfalls wenn man von der "westlichen" Perspektive ausgeht.. wie auch die CHINESE-Anthology auf SUB ROSA zeigt PANGAEA NOISE, dass sich nicht-akademische "Underground-Tonkunst" immer weiter ausbreitet !!
"A follow-up to Beyond ignorance and borders including noise artists from Puerto Rico (Cornucopia), Indonesia (Aneka Digital Safari), Singapore (Mindfuckingboy), China (Osci-Vibra-Tor, Li Jianhong), Algeria (Nihil Humanum), Slovenia (Aluviana), Iran (Nyctalllz), Luxembourg (Switchonoff), Tunisia (Heart Burnt To Ashes), Switzerland (Dave Phillips), South Korea/Japan (10), Equador (Industria Masoquista), Canada (Szkieve), France/Belgium (Planet Aldol & C-drík), Belgium (Črno klank), Malta (Grosz Ear), Latvia (Error), Everywhere/Nowhere (Zbigniew Karkowski), Bulgaria (Gokkun). Limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.syrphe.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
HÖGA NORD |
LP |
Compilation-LP mit vier Projekten aus der derzeitigen schwedischen Post-Industrial und Experimental-Szene auf dieser LP !
"Four lenghty tracks from four Swedish experimental groups in tribute to the god-forsaken land we call Sweden - or, Höga Nord if you wish. From BOCKSHOLM's structured and up-building jackhammer mechanics, onward with DUSA's moody downer-beats from the outskirts of hell - further down the road NIELLERADE FALLIBILISTHORSTAR's abstract and
ghostly metal junk/cymbal ambient to VARTGARD's heavy and painful death industrial - this is a record that follows an unknown path, where grey and depressive specimen without contrasts makes a subliminal whole. For sure not the full-on noise Segerhuva perhaps is known to release but a beautiful and deranged journey through our
native mushroom woods and what one can find if taking a leak on a small highway side-track somewhere outside of Skara. Edition of 300
copies in printed black and white matte sleeves with insert." [label info]
www.segerhuva.se
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
|
MICHIGAN |
6 x LP-Box |
In der üblichen brachialen aber handgemachten RRR-Aufmachung kommt nach der CALIFORNIA-Box eine weitere Region der USA unter die Noise Culture-Lupe: MICHIGAN, Heimat von z.B. WOLF EYES, PRINCESS DRAGONMOM und HIVE MIND. Diese 6 LP-Box mit 12 Projekten (jedes erhält eine volle Seite Spielzeit) gibt den umfassenden Überblick über die Noise-Szene des "Staates der Großen Seen"!
"Hanson & RRRecords present: Michigan, a 6-LP boxset featuring a full side each from twelve Michigan noise projects. Full LP sides from: Princess Dragonmom, Raven Strain, Redrot, Aaron Dilloway, Tovah D-Day, Charlie Draheim, Hive Mind, Mammal, Evenings, Cotton Museum, Sick Llama and Wolf Eyes. Compiled by Greh Holger and Aaron Dilloway. Limited to 600 copies. Packaged in fully silkscreened record mailers." [label info]
www.rrrecords.com |
2009 |
€55.00 |
|
|
An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music (1992-2008) |
4 x CD |
Diese Compilation hat definitiv hat das Zeug zum Klassiker, handelt es sich doch um den allerersten umfassenden Überblick über die wachsende chinesische & asiatische Experimental & Elektronik & Noise-Szene, die hier in ihrer ganzen Vielfalt präsentiert wird. Ein guter Teil dieses Mammutswerks (48 Stücke!) bewegt sich im experimentellen Drone & Ambient-Bereich, aber es gibt auch einige Extrem-Noise Beiträge, Rhythmisches, hyper-abstraktes, Musique Concrete, Microsound. vier CDs mit für uns fast nur unbekannten Acts, eine wahre akustische Entdeckungsfahrt!! Anspieltips: DAJUIN YAO, STRINGRAYS, WANG FAN, LOGA, von denen mal hoffentlich wieder hören wird ! Mega-Digipack mit 2 Booklets, inklusive Text von Z. KARKOWSKI & YAN JUN "An Overview of Experimental and Non-Academic Music in China". SONDERPREIS!!
"Bis zur letzten Minute interessant bleibt dieser viereinhalb-Stunden-Rundumschlag durch experimentelle Musik aus China, zusammengestellt vom Aktivisten Dickson Dee, der dieses Feld seit zwanzig Jahren von Hongkong aus bestellt. Anders als der Titel suggerieren mag, konzentrieren sich die vier CDs dieser Box auf eine ganz junge Szene, die experimentellen Rock der 90er hinter sich gelassen hat und stattdessen (meist elektronisch) auf abstrakterer Stufe mit Klang experimentiert, für uns grob umrissen durch Noise, Ambient, Soundscape, in China selbst unter Sound Art zusammengefasst. Knapp die Hälfte der Stücke sind von 2007, ein weiteres Viertel von 2006; der Rest bleibt für eher punktuell scheinende Pionierarbeiten. Neben einem Booklet mit kurzen Texten zur Selbstvorstellung fast aller Künstler gibt es ein weiteres mit einem sehr erhellenden Text vor allem zur Genese experimenteller Musik in der VR China von Zbigniew Karkowski und Yan Jun, die drei Fünftel der Beiträge ausmachen (dazu kommen je ein Fünftel aus Hongkong und Taipei, plus ein Beitrag je aus Singapur und Malaysia). Dieser Text zeichnet die Linie nach von Kulturrevolution über Recycling und Piraterie westlicher Medien und klärt etwa über die besondere Ausgangslage der traditionslosen, wertungsfrei offenen Rezeptionssituation auf. Wie gesagt, das ist spannend, dennoch bemerkt man beim Durchhören eine gewisse Schieflage der Bandbreite, von der nicht klar wird, wie subjektiv sie geprägt ist. So einige Arbeiten konzentrieren sich auf Feedback und Distortion, von hier und heute aus besehen die schwächsten Glieder (Torturing Nurse verschwenden leider ihre Viertelstunde); besser gefallen mir die Sound- und Dronescapes, die oft Fieldrecordings verwenden und nicht unbedingt bahnbrechender, aber konzentrierter und eindrücklicher sind, und grade auch (aber nicht nur) von den Pionieren kommen: Dickson Dee selbst, Wang Fan, Dajuin Yao. Bemerkenswert aber auch Hong Qiles krasser, modemartiger Schreddernoise aus Fuzhou wie auch mein Favorit Loga, einer der ganz wenigen, die mit Rhythmus arbeiten, der sich bei ihm ganz unmerklich aus einer Klanglangschaft entwickelt. Dazwischen verstecken sich immer wieder isolierte Preziosen – Stimmauslotungen (Alice Hui-Sheng Chang), verträumte Popelektronika, die auch auf Noble stattfinden könnte (Nara), ein Beatstück mit Matmos-Funk (Sun Dawei), 50er-Jahre-WDR-Elektronik (Circadian), manch uneinsortierbares und offenbar folgenlos gebliebenes aus den 90ern, und man fragt sich ein wenig: gibt es da so wenig dazwischen? Beatexperimente? Oder Plunderphonics, im weitesten Sinne, wenn doch die Kultur auf Trash und Piraterie gewachsen ist? Aber das ist einfach Potential für die nächsten vier CDs, die genauso willkommen wären, wie diese hier, die natürlich ein Standardwerk ist." [multipara / de:bug]
"FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, AN EXCEPTIONAL AND
VERY COMPLETE PANORAMA (MORE THAN 5 HOURS / 4 CDs)
SINCE ORIGINS (1992) OF ALL EXPERIMENTAL AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN CHINA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN, SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA.
4 CD SET DIGIPACK
+ 2 x 16 PAGE BOOKLETS
AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHINESE ELECTRONIC MUSIC (1992-2008) from Mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guilin, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanxi, Harbin) Hong Kong - Taiwan - Singapore - Malaysia.
This anthology features 48 artists from within the Chinese area of influence. It is designed
as a journey through what is currently happening underground, under extremely diverse forms.
It also looks at the recent past and the key role of pioneers like Wang Fan, Dajuin Yao,
and also Hong Kong-based Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee who, for almost two decades, has been spreading the word about Experimental music in Mainland China. This album was curated by Dickson Dee on Guy Marc Hinant's invitation. It includes an enlightening presentation on the
short yet intense advent and history of the Chinese noise explosion,co-written by Zbigniew
Karkowski and Yan Jun.
________________________________________
The Sound of the Underground: An Overview of Experimental and Non-Academic Music in China
The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76) in one way or another eradicated most of the
existing culture in China. At the same time as intellectuals were sent to rural labor camps,
countless ancient buildings, antiques, books, paintings and various artifacts were just
destroyed. This period created an enormous intellectual, cultural and artistic vacuum in
China - destruction that in a sense, time is still healing.
So tradition of music culture and especially non-academic, purely experimental music,
started from 'point blank' scratch sometime in the 80ies. With the market economy introduced in that decade and further media developments in the 90ies, there was a kind of an explosion in youth culture that had been held back for decades. Movements and music scenes that previously never reached China - like for instance psychedelic music, punk or neo-dada started to appear and expanded at astonishing pace.
The birth of these alternative rock and punk music scenes that later developed into even
more experimental trends is a direct result of global capitalism and profound change in China's position within the World Order. It however did not develop the same way as it
usually does in the West - with one eye looking forward and the other one always glancing
at history. It started with 'dakou' and with piracy.
tracklisting
4 x CD
CD1
01. Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee (Hong Kong) / Somewhere (1994) / 10'33
02. Zenlu (Shenzhen) / Zen (2007) / 9'19
03. Bai Tian (Chengdu) / Wet (2007) / 4'05
04. Cheewei (Singapore) / Evening has arrived (2006) / 8'02
05. Lim Giang (Taipei) / "???" (2006) / 8'41
06. Ang Song Ming aka Circadian (Singapore) / Book radio mixer (2007) / 3'02
07. Chung-Han Yao (Taipei) / Untitled (2005) / 5'02
08. Goh Lee Kwang (Malaysia) / Frong spraying (2007) / 3'42
09. Wu Quan (Beijing) / Weather forest (2006) / 5'04
10. Me:Mo (Beijing) / pro.a (2007) / 4'30
11. Wang Jong-Kuen (Taipei) / Leaving (2006) / 5'40
12. Dajuin Yao (Zuoying) / Psycho Realm (2006) / 5'29
CD2
01. Sun Dawei (Beijing) / Crawing state (2007) / 4'14
02. Nara (Beijing) / Dream a little dream (2007) / 6'54
03. WFDD / Wang Fan + Dickson Dee (Beijing/Hong Kong) / Sin (2007) / 8'36
04. Stingrays (Singapore) / 061020 (2006) / 5'18
05. Dennis Wong aka Wong Chung-Fai (Hong Kong) / para_dot (2006) / 5'12
06. Fathmount aka Wilson Lee (Hong Kong) / A yoke of oxen (2007) / 4'56
07. PNF (Hong Kong) / Chi (1994) / 3'11
08. Li Wen Tai aka Vince Li (Hong Kong) / Eat (2007) / 4'57
09. Shenggy (Beijing) / Junggy 's decay (2007) / 3'05
10. Ronez aka Zhou Pei (Guilin) / Kikusui Back (2006) / 4'57
11. Zhou Ri Sheng (Shanxi) / Noise God (2006) / 7'22
12. Fish (Taipei) / Rusty Crane Keelong (2007) / 4'46
CD3
01.Torturing Nurse (Shanghai) / Fugitive (2006) / 14'46
02. Wang Fan (Beijing) / Zero (2006) / 6'28
03. Wuwei + Ulrich Morits (Shanghai/Berlin) / Toy Ships (2003) / 2'48
04. Xper. Xr. & The Orphic Orchestra (Hong Kong) Hickory Dickory Dock (1992) / 1'01
05. Hong Qile (Fuzhou) / j gmc (2007) / 8'00
06. Ying Fan (Taipei) / L2255 mix (2007) / 3'58
07. Dead J aka Shao Yanpeng (Beijing) / untitled (2007) / 3'49
08. Z.S.L.O (Taipei) / 422189 (1997) / 3'09
09. Jedung Kying / Edging + Junky (Guangzhou/Shanghai) Dabao (2007) / 3'01
10. Tats Lau (Hong Kong) / Face The Antagonish (1992) / 2'53
11. Li Jianhong (Hangzhou) / Sod (2007) / 5'32
12. Dino (Taipei) / untitled (2005) / 6'45
CD4
01. Wang Changcun (Harbin) Through the tide of faces (2007) / 4'59
02. D!O!D!O!D! / Li Jianhong + Huangjin (Hangzhou) A dark knife (2006) / 5'36
03. Yan Jun (Beijing) / Its more than enough (2006) / 5'35
04. Loga (Fuzhou) / 620 (2007) / 9'22
05. Pei aka Liu Pei-Wen (Taipei) / Bird lady (2007) / 7'43
06. Eric Lin aka Lin Chi-Wei (Taipei) / untitled (2007) / 3'10
07. Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (Taiwan) There she is, standing and walking on her own (2007) / 3'59
08. Ching Shen Ching (Taiwan) / V-zone (1997) / Fuji Wang + Anes: electronics / 7'25
09. Dancing Stone (Hong Kong) / Two (1995) / Nelson Hui: flute + Ling Lee: voice / 2'13
10. Illuminated 6.6.6. (Hong Kong) / Enjoy the silence (1992) / 6'06
11. Juno aka Timmy Lok (Hong Kong) / Possiblilities (1995) / 3'18
12. Simon Ho (Hong Kong) / 5 (2005) / 6'53 "
[full label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
|
TESTAMENT |
CD |
"for his third compilation titled "Testament" (the first two were an LP and a five 7" box set), RRRon has collected modern day exponents of musique concrète techniques who bend and pervert a wide range of sounds. included are Artificial Memory Trace, John Wiggins, Eric Chasalow, Jerome Noetinger, RLW, Thomas Dimuzio, Tim Walters, Nick Peck, Michael Prime, and Koji Marutani. released in 1993, this collection presents a number of overlooked names along with several that have since become better known." [label info]
www.rrrecords.com
|
1993 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Abnormal Beauty |
CD |
Dark Ambient und Neo-Klassik Post Industrial Compilation von diesem aufstrebenen polnischen Label, einige sehr bekannte Acts, eine völlig unbekannte, sehr gute Mischung !!
"Dark and beautiful compilation of first league music projects. Without any further delays, ladies and gentleman we present to you: PARANOIA INDUCTA, DESIDERII MARGINIS, [haven], KRĘPULEC, NEKYIA, BOCKSHOLM (Peter Andersson / Raison d'etre), KARJALAN SISSIT, HOROLOGIUM, DEAD MAN'S HILL, STAHLWERK 9, CONTEMPLATRON, MROK. The CD is released in nicely designed digipack, made carefully for release, remastered and professionally produced." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Risveglio Di Una Citta (In Memory of Luigi Russolo) |
6 x CD-R / book |
Ein weitere "LUIGI RUSSOLO-Memorial" Veröffentlichung, dem Erfinder der "sechs Geräuschfamilien des futuristischen Orchesters" wird hier vom polnischen Liebhaber-Label IMPULSY STETOSKOPU (stets handgearbeitete Cover) ein Tribut gezollt. Sechs Geräuschmusik-Projekte verteilen sich auf 6 CDrs (CRIA CUERVOS, LIEUTENANT CARAMEL, BIG CITY ORCHESTRA, HEAD58m, GOVERMENT ALPHA, HYWARE), das ganze ist als Vollfarb-laminierte A4-Mappe gestaltet mit vielen Fotos, Malereien, und 2 Texten zum Thema RUSSOLO versehen. Wow ! Limitiert auf nur 160 Exemplare !
www.myspace.com/impulsystetoskopu
|
2008 |
€33.00 |
|
|
23 Drifts to Guestling |
CD |
"Originally released in 1983, this stands as the missing piece of the jigsaw between Coum Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. Scrapbook rehearsals, formative ideas, radio snippets, interviews and general nonsense. CD version original cassette release of the contributions of the many people that made up Throbbing Gristle, Coum Transmissions, Coil and Psychic TV, brought to you by FOPI. Features: Throbbing Gristle, Genesis P-Orridge, Psychic TV, Monte Cazazza, Peter Christopherson, Martin Denny, Joan Armstrong, Gary Gilmore, Adi Newton, Frank Zappa, Charles Manson, Alex Fergusson & Lynette Fromme (Manson Family)." [label info]
"This is a CD re-release of an album which originally appeared on cassette in 1983. 23 Drifts To Guestling was compiled by David Tibet of Current 93 fame and released by Nanavesh, an appreciation society for the pioneering industrial group Throbbing Gristle. Nanavesh produced three magazines, and the 23 Drifts To Guestling tape was their fourth and final publication.
Containing 51 tracks which add up to 64 minutes, 23 Drifts… isn’t a music album as such, although there are bits of music on it. Instead, it is a kind of audio scrapbook of the ideas, influences and people who contributed to the formation of Throbbing Gristle, COUM Transmissions, Coil and Psychic TV, containing excerpts from radio interviews, phone calls, conversations and TG rehearsals, as well as quotations from people who influenced TG in one way or another, such as exotic music maestro Martin Denny, whose track ‘Mumba’ is introduced by Genesis P-Orridge, Charles Manson and Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme of the Manson Family, and art-world provocateur and prankster Monte Cazazza, who’s credited with the invention of the term ‘industrial music’. One of the funniest things on 23 Drifts… is the sixth track, in which Monte Cazazza robotically intones: "I am the slave of Genesis P-Orridge. There is no mind but the mind of Genesis P-Orridge. There is no truth but the truth that comes from Genesis P-Orridge. There are no lies but the lies that come from Genesis P-Orridge…”
Given Genesis P-Orridge’s later demonisation at the hands of the tabloid press, this is richly ironic.
Elsewhere on the album, you can hear such diverting curiosities as the phone call which set up the infamous TG performance at Oundle public school, John Peel introducing the TG single ‘United’ on his radio show, the Nazi anthem ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’ from the musical Cabaret rendered as a Cockney football chant, Charles Manson reminiscing about his dear old mum, death-row prisoner Gary Gilmore quoting Shakespeare, Genesis P-Orridge in conversation with Frank Zappa, and every now and then, odd bursts of the music of TG just to remind you of why all this stuff is so vitally interesting. The best music tracks are track 5, ‘Want You To Kil: TG In The Death Factory’, track 33, ‘Process: TG In The Death Factory’, and track 50, ‘Atom Bomb Whorle Ov Sound’, but 23 Drifts… is much more of a documentary audio archive than a music album. Track 24 is an excerpt from The Early Worm, Genesis P-Orridge’s first ever recording, made way back in 1967.
One of the central preoccupations of Throbbing Gristle throughout their recording career was the collection and dissemination of information, with the group offering a radical critique of the methods employed by powerful institutions within mainstream society to maintain a monopoly on information control, very much in line with Michel Foucault’s dictum that ‘knowledge is power’. When TG disbanded in 1981, they announced this with a postcard press release stating: “Throbbing Gristle: The Mission is Terminated… The archetype has been investigated, the information is stored."
The renewed availability of the material contained on 23 Drifts… is a useful and welcome addition to the documentation of Throbbing Gristle, offering valuable insights into this most important first-generation industrial band, and dedicated TG fans will find this a rewarding and entertaining listen. However, it’s unlikely to make very much sense to anyone who doesn’t already possess a fairly detailed knowledge of the history of TG. For those people, the best available account of TG and COUM Transmissions, the performance art group which preceded TG, is Simon Ford’s definitive biography Wreckers of Civilization (Black Dog, 2001), and 23 Drifts… could be considered a kind of accompanying soundtrack to this book." [JudasKiss]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Zelphabet Vol. H |
CD |
"The eighth in Zelphabet’s new series of 26 alphabetically oriented compilations of noise. Volume H makes its mark with cuts from heavyweights HANATARASH, HATERS, HALALCHEMISTS, and HOWARD STELZER." [label info]
" 'H' opens with Halalachemists, of whom I never heard (this series also knows where to find interesting new names), who play a 'live TNB tribute' in Newcastle, recorded in 2006. Or perhaps its the New Blockaders in disguise? The piece is quite noise based, from a more low end perspective, with sounds banging around, and distortion pedals pushed through the stage. Hanatarash offer a very interesting piece of noise music, high end white static, being processed a bit, but quite minimal still. Its quite reduced, so not viciously loud, but nevertheless a great noise piece. The Haters are also present here with 'Explosion 2009' and its along the same line as 'Explosion 2008' - a conceptual joke. Howard Stelzer closes 'H', with what seems to be his current tools of trade: the densely layered manipulations of analogue cassette sounds. Field recordings are stapled onto eachother, and form a dense pattern. Half way through it seems to collapse a bit, but Stelzer gets his act back and makes a
great finale. Intelligent noise all around." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.zelphabet.com
|
2009 |
€11.00 |
|
|
Dark Ambient Radio Volume 2 |
CD |
"This compilation is the result of almost one year of careful design and polishing of cutting-edge dark ambient songs, good cooperation, and intense competition. After already releasing a very good compilation with Vol.1, Dark Ambient Radio managed to raise the level with this superb collection of dark ambient music. This is not a big surprise since the 11 songs on the CD were selected out of 26 quality tracks that have been submitted during 2008 and would have been sufficient to release a good 2CD compilation. The selection of the tracks was a painful but fair process as the participating artists voted for the tracks individually and the agglomerated rating decided which tracks ended up on the compilation. So you can be sure that there is no weak track on the CD. All tracks have been done exclusively for this compilation.
Das Genre 'Dark Ambient' ist eine Randerscheinung einer Randerscheinung. Das liegt zum einen daran, dass im Gegensatz zur populären Ambient-Musik nicht auf Easy-Listening-Qualitäten gesetzt wird, sondern im Gegenteil das psychoaktive Potential der Vorarbeiten von innovativen Ambient-Künstlern wie z.B. Brian Eno bis in den letzten dunklen Winkel ausgelotet wird (ohne aber zu sehr in Noise- oder Industrial-Gefilde zu geraten bzw. sich in abstrakten Genüssen wie Minimalismus oder der meisten Elektroakustik zu ergehen). Zum Anderen fehlt dieser Art von experimenteller Musik eine angemessene Öffentlichkeit, etwa eine Club-Szene. Letzterer Mangel wurde allerdings mit der Gründung des Dark Ambient Radio ein wenig gelindert.
Die 2. Compilation, die aus dem Umfeld dieses Web-Radio Projekts hervorging, ist Resultat eines rigiden Auswahlprozesses: Nicht weniger als 33 Acts aus dem Bereich Drone, Ritual, Black & Dark Ambient wollten wissen, wer der Beste ist und haben sich fast ein ganzes Jahr Zeit genommen, um an ihren Tracks zu feilen. Die elf besten Stücke wurden mit Hilfe eines Ratings der Künstler untereinander bestimmt. Schwache Tracks sucht man deshalb auf dieser Zusammenstellung vergeblich. Vertreten sind Künstler aus Argentinien, Bulgarien, Deutschland, Kroatien, Norwegen und Polen. 74 Minuten internationaler Underground-Ambient at its best! Wer jetzt noch nicht den Mut geschöpft hat, sich eine einmalige Sammlung zu zu legen, kann vielleicht erst einmal über das Internet auf Dark Ambient Radio hineinschnuppern. Aber vielleicht es doch der beste Weg, sich anhand einer repräsentativen Genre-Compilation einen Musikstil an zu eigenen... Manchmal ist es eben wie beim Kaffeetrinken: Zuerst das Sahnehäubchen -- das schmeckt am Besten!
Künstler-Info:
Tholen ist das Dark Ambient Projekt des leipziger Multi-Genre-Künstlers Eisen. Mit Sternklang hat er mit Sicherheit eines der besten Dark Ambient Alben des Jahres 2007 veröffentlicht. Mit dem grandiosen Auftakt-Stück auf Vol.2 lässt er erahnen, auf was wir uns beim 2. Tholen-Album, das demnächst bei Cyclic Law erschein, freuen dürfen.
Inner Vision Laboratory ist das ambitionierte Dark Ambient Projekt des polnischen Musikers Karol Skrzypiec.
Mit Arkhitektur Noir führt George Georgiev die Tradition der Beteiligung bulgarischer Künstler an DAR Compilations fort.
THERRADAEMON ist das neueste Projekt des norwegischen Ambient-Künstlers Hærleif Langås, besser bekannt durch sein Vorgängerprojekt Northaunt.
Aspectee ist das Solo-Projekt des kieler Musikers Michael Frenkel. Das Aspectee Debut-Album ist November ’09 bei First Fallen Star erschienen. Es ist das Nachfolge-Projekt von Evoke Scurvee, eines inzwischen (zu unrecht) in der Versenkung verschwundenen Elektronik-Projekts, das Ende der 90er aktiv war.
Phelios scheint im Moment eines der rührigsten Dark Ambient Acts zu sein. Der wuppertaler Musiker hat in den letzten Jahren neben drei Alben und zahlreichen Compilation-Beiträgen vor allem live eine außerordentliche Präsenz gezeigt, u.a. auf dem WGT, in der Wuppertaler Schwebebahn oder als Initiator des Phobos-Festivals. Aktuell erscheint ein Vinyl-Split zusammen mit Kammarheit bei Loki Foundation. Ein weiteres Album wird demnächst bei Malignant Records (USA) erscheinen.
CrepusculaR ist ein das Projekt des argentinischen Musikers Angel Jose Lozano. Dies ist seine erste Veröffentlichung auf Polycarbonat.
Nagual Art ist das Dark Ambient Projekt des Freiberger Musikers Andreas Kantner, der mit diesem Projekt bereits mehrere Alben erschuf, die allesamt als freie MP3-Downloads verfügbar sind und von der Qualität her allemal eine CD-Veröffentlichung wert wären. Die Beschränkung auf Internet-Downloads hängt vielleicht mit seiner Funktion als Chef seines Netlabels Paralucid zusammen.
Das bremer Duo Troum bedarf als Drone Ambient Urgestein sicher keiner weiteren Beschreibung.
Phobos ist das elektronische Sammel-Projekt des kroatischen Musikers Petar Sakic, dessen Tracks sich auf zahlreichen Compilations tummeln, u.a. auch auf den zwei existierende DAR Volumes.
False Mirror ist wiederum ein reines Dark Ambient Projekt. Der Ulmer Musiker Tobias Hornberger war - wie bei Vol.1 so auch bei Vol.2 - prädestiniert für den Schluss-Track mit seinen filigranen und extrem trance-induzierenden Kompositionen. Die ausgefeilte Technik und originelle Sound-Designs sind wohl seiner Experimentierfreudigkeit bei der Klangerzeugung, u.a. selbstgeschriebenen Soft-Synthies und deren Kopplung an optische Sensoren, zu verdanken. Auf Vol.2 kommt aber auch akustisches Instrumentarium zum Zug. Der vorliegende Compilation-Beitrag ist eine gute Einstimmung auf das demnächst auf Malignant Records erscheinende neue Album Derelict World."
[full release info]
www.darkambientradio.de
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
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Le Mystere des Templiers |
CD |
"Musik aus der Zeit der Ritter Christi.
Diese abwechslungsreiche Zusammenstellung von Stücken aus dem 11.-13. Jahrhundert wird interpretiert von den Ensembles Organum (mit Marcel Pérès), Discantus (m. Brigitte Lesne), Gilles Binchois (Dominique Vellard) sowie Alla Francesca. Zum Teil können die Werke einzelnen Komponisten wie Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Gauthier de Coincy (1177-1236), Leonin (1150-1210) und Alfonso el Sabio (1221-1284) zugeordnet werden, zum Teil stammen sie aus Sammlungen (Codex Las Huelgas, Ecole de Notre Dame, Hymnaire de Pairis). Von Gregorianik über ausgefeilte Polyphonie, wie sie in der Kathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris florierte, bis hin zu Hildegard-Mystik und Instrumentalstücken werden sehr unterschiedliche
Stilrichtungen mittelalterlicher Musik abgedeckt - ein umfassender Einstieg in eine lang zurückliegende Epoche, aus der uns vor allem Vokalkompositionen überliefert sind." [label info]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Twisted Cabaret Vol. 1 |
CD |
"Ein internationaler, avantgardistischer Haufen tanzt mit einer gesunden Portion kabarettistischer Lebensmüdigkeit im Dreivierteltakt in den Tod. Oder zumindest in den Vollsuff. Bei 18 Songs kein einziger Totalausfall, dazu sind viele Stücke selten oder sogar exklusiv. Kaufen! www.youtube.com/useser/volvoxmusic
TRACKLISTING: 01. THE TIGER LILLIES - START A FIRE 02. BABY DEE - THE EARLIE KING 03. EVELYN EVELYN - HAVE YOU SEEN MY SISTER EVELYN 04. THE REAL TUESDAY WELD - THE SWEETEST SONGS 05. THE DRESDEN DOLLS - BANK OF BOSTON BEAUTY QUEEN 06. BUDAM - DA DA DA DIE 07. LE MAXI MONSTER MUSIC SHOW - J'AURAIS AIM 08. THE RESIDENTS - THE DYING OILMAN 09. KOKUSYOKU SUMIRE - GEKKO RENKA 10. KATZENJAMMER KABARETT - SAYLOR SANDHAM'S SISTER 11. VERMILLION LIES - BONNIE & CLYDE 12. LITTLE ANNIE - SIT ON DOWN 13. DE KIFT - KNOECK 14. THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - MAN OR MOUSE 15. ARANOS - NEW GUITAR 16. MARCELLA PUPPINI AND THE FORGET ME NOTS - WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR FACE? 17. EL TIGER COMICS GROUP & JOEL HUBAUT - VAPAMOU RIRE 18. LITTLE WHITE RABBITS STILL BLEED - BALLOON ANIMAL SUICIDE (BIG BLUE RIBBONS)" [label info / Cargo ]
"Seit Charlotte Rampling in Cavanis Sadiconazista-Film Der Nachtportier diesen Song von Friedrich Hollaender im KZ um ihr Leben sang, klingt bei mir Cabaret beklemmend pervers wie Macabaret. Darüber schiebt sich das Großstadt-Triptychon von Dix und der Conferencier im Kit Kat Club plärrt grinsend seine Zoten. Hinter dem Rücken deutscher Abgrundsvergessenheit hat sich aber anderswo etwas entwickelt, Dark Cabaret getauft oder "Brechtian punk cabaret", das den Spirit von vor 1933 mit anderen Mitteln, mit Postpunk-, Gothik- oder bloßer Nostalgie-Attitüde wieder aufgreift. Versammelt auf Twisted Cabaret Vol. 1 (Volvox Music, VOL0902/0903, CD + DVD) sind die stilprägenden The Tiger Lillies aus London als Brandstifter mit groteskem Zündstoff, The Dresden Dolls aus Boston und das französische Katzenjammer Kabarett mit den ‚erwachsenen‘ Altstimmen von Amanda Palmer bzw. Mary Komplikated. Little Annie bietet einen ihrer Songs from the Coal Mine Canary und eine verboten glaubwürdige Version von Aznavours ‚Yesterday When I Was Young‘. Irritationsveteranen wie The Residents und unverwüstlichen Tänzern über Abgründen wie The Legendary Pink Dots mit dem herzensbrecherischen Edward Ka-Spel als ‚Man or Mouse‘ (unter lauter Schafen) stehen Baby Dee zur Seite, hinter deren rauer Schale eine Seele steckt, die in Kilogramm gewogen werden kann, und Aranos als Stehgeiger mit einer heißen Kartoffel im Mund. The Real Tuesday Weld steuern im 3/4-Takt fingerdick Patina bei, die großartigen Marcella Puppini and The Forget Me Nots lassen Männer Männchen machen. Dazu krähen die kessen Mädels von Kokusyoku Sumire Tango Balkanese oder, halb Geisha, halb Rokoko, Enkaschlager, dass die Perücke stäubt. Vermillion Lies spielen kriminellen Rock‘n‘Roll aus Oakland, als männliches Gegenstück kurbeln die Muncie Bros. aus Indianapolis aka Little White Rabbit Still Bleed Red ihre Klappsmühle, während Evelyn Evelyn sich schwuder & bresterlich eine Gitarre teilen. Mit The Maxi Monster Music und dem Schellackgesang ihrer üppigen Bearded Lady zu Singender Säge und Zweifingerklavier und der theatralischen eL TiGeR CoMiCs GRouP mit ihrem heiseren Chansonier Joel Hubaut treten weitere Franzosen auf, De Kift verblüffen mit holländischem Rap zu Blasmusik und Slide Guitar, der toteslüsterne Budam von den Färöer Inseln stimmt einen morbiden Humptatawalzer an. Fehlen bloß die World/Inferno Friendship Society und Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird. Einige der Lieder sind exklusiv, einige rar, nicht wenige glamourös oder fatal, aber alle stellen sie seltsame Sachen mit Herz oder Hirn (soweit vorhanden) an. Von den Blauen Engeln und Seeräuber Jennies ganz zu schweigen. Die besten unter diesen Galgenliedersängern und Pfeffermühlenfatalisten können jederzeit die bad alchemystischsten Zeilen, die ich kenne, unterschreiben: Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte, möcht ich etwas glücklich sein, denn wenn ich gar zu glücklich wäre, hätte ich Heimweh nach dem Traurigsein. Was singt Amanda Palmer da auf der DVD? I want all the details of the pain and misery, und Ka-Spel, für den sie sich ans Klavier setzt, würzt nach mit Asche und 15 toten Fliegen. Aber die DVD ist eh schon wegen The Tiger Lillies Freakshow unbezahlbar." [Rigo Dittmann / Bad Alchemy]
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
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|
SURFACE TENSION |
BOOK & CD |
300 Seiten starkes, sehr schön aufgemachtes Kunstbuch (herausgegeben von BRANDON LABELLE und KEN EHRLICH) mit CD zum Thema „Kunst im öffentlichen Raum“ bzw. zur Frage des Ortes der Kunst, der Dialektik von Innen und Aussen, der Beziehung von innerem Wunsch und äusserem Raum... mit vielen Projektbeschreibungen & Essays, Fotos, und CD mit Klang- und Installationskünstlern: Bruce Nauman, Paul Panhuysen, Anthony Moore, Erik Nauman, Stuart Dempster, Frances-Marie Uitti, Undo, Yoko Ono, Terry Fox, Alison Knowles, Atau Tanaka.
Super-Aufmachung & hochinteressante Musik & Projekte, mit diesem Buch kann man Stunden verbringen !!
"Edited by Brandon LaBelle and Ken Ehrlich. CD compiled by Stephen Vitiello. CD mastered and manufactured by Ground Fault Recordings. Published by Errant Bodies Press (300 page, 8.5"x11", book with compact disc)"
"Surface Tension aims to broadly explore the notion of Site by addressing questions of public space and the frictions and conversations that occur as intersections of the imagined and the real. Through investigating these interactions, Surface Tension will seek to make apparent connections between cultural production and the very spaces in which such work functions. As much as the rhetoric of globalization, virtuality, and digital networking dominates contemporary discourses of place and space, Surface Tension looks towards proximate space and experiences of locality to tease out the tensions between contemporary global communications and the site-specifics of everyday life. Rather than reinforce existing notions of an authentic alternative vs. a 'wired' culture, we hope to explore the cultural and personal investments made in technology in order to examine how social andpolitical space is inhabited and made manifest. This entails a consideration of the desires, impulses, and longings which occur within and against the contexts of social spaces and cultural arenas, and how this very interaction performs within the dynamics of spatial organization. Out of these relations comes the radically diverse ways space can be negotiated, manipulated, and traversed."
"From Gordon Matta-Clark to Lawrence Weiner, Bruce Nauman to Alison Knowles, the question of site locates itself in issues of public space, at the intersection of the imagined and the real, at the juncture of performance and architectural production. By anthologizing essays, documents, and interviews by leading critics, historians, and artists on issues of site-specificity, conceptualism, feminism, and architecture practice, Surface Tension reveals the connections between cultural production and the very spaces in which such work functions. These textual explorations are complemented by extensive documentation of related projects, both historical and contemporary, by artists, architects, and performance artists, including Coughing Piece, a never-before released 1961 audio work by Yoko Ono; an obscure audio work by Nauman from 1969; projects by Suzanne Lacy, a leading figure in the development of conceptual practice and public art; and an experimental text by Jane Rendell on psychic architectures. Conversations occur between the pages of Surface Tension, between theoretical analysis and modes of practice, that activate the publication as a site itself, one participating in a broad field of knowledge. Includes an audio CD of the sound art pieces."
Essays/Writings: Kathy Battista, Jennifer Gabrys, Gordon Matta-Clark, Margaret Morgan, Paul Panhuysen, Lucy Lippard, Laurie Palmer, Brandon LaBelle, Ken Ehrlich, Jane Rendell, Juli Carson, Atau Tanaka, Michael Asher, Simon Leung Documentation of Projects: Concrete Steps, Jen Hofer/Melissa Dyne, Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, Wochenklausur, Christof Migone/Alex St-onge, Michael Rakowitz, Eyal Weizman, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Tanja Jordan, Lizzie Scott, Lize Mogel, Terry Fox, Lynn Kirby, Octavio Camargo, Colette Meacher, Valerie Trever CD: Bruce Nauman, Paul Panhuysen, Anthony Moore, Erik Nauman, Stuart Dempster, Frances-Marie Uitti, Undo, Yoko Ono, Terry Fox, Alison Knowles, Atau Tanaka."
[label info]
|
2003 |
€25.00 |
|
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Pop Ambient 2009 |
LP + CD |
"LP version. Includes free CD of the entire album, featuring the CD-only track by Klimek And Husak. The bliss is finally back -- presenting the 2009 edition of Kompakt's highly-anticipated fan-favorite series, Pop Ambient. To the uninitiated, Pop Ambient serves as a very essential arm of the Kompakt family -- always curated by Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt (aka Gas, Burger/Ink, etc.), always offering a provocative collection of listening music that is guaranteed to give you warmth throughout those cold winter months. One of the most striking things many will find on this year's edition are the many new faces, compared to the historically familiar roster that has graced previous editions. Leading noise/experimental producer Tim Hecker of Alien8 and Kranky fame joins in with a tremendous contribution that builds wave after wave of textured noise and melody. Boomkat's winners of best album of 2008, The Fun Years take loop melody and turn it inside-out with an astounding, exclusive, guitar-based tune. Pop Ambient 2009 turns to the mighty imprint Type and the esteemed producer Sylvain Chauveau with two contributions of untreated works from the lovely Nuage full-length that straddles his work with a small ensemble and his own piano and guitar performances. Considering the overwhelming response to Wolfgang Voigt's Gas collection reissue Nah Und Fern and the Raster-Noton book/CD of 2008, it's fair game he dominates this compilation under the guise of Mint, with this deep and somberly moving piece, as well as together with longtime production partner Jörg Burger as Burger/Voigt with a Gas-eous remix of Jürgen Paape's "Ausking" and a highly-emotive original. Popnoname shows off his diverse talent with a Kraut-y sunscape of majestic measure. Finally, Pop Ambient favorite Klimek appears in stunning splendor... the horns of heaven ring loud to open the compilation, and together with Husak, he brings Pop Ambient 2009 to an end with a majestic roar. Considering that 2008 was such an amazing year for left-field electronic music, Kompakt anticipates this year's change of pace will be welcomed by their loyal fans and maybe make some new friends with a new sound. Other artists include: Marsen Jules and Andrew Thomas." [label info]
www.kompakt.fm
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
|
String of Artifacts |
do-CD |
"Yep, this is the compilation you heard about. Solve the enclosed crossword with your ears or find the cheat sheet hidden inside; your clues include: Sun City Girls, Caroliner, Nautical Almanac, Metalux, Wolf Eyes, Mono Pause, Hans Grüsel's Krankenkabinet, Tarantism, Tom Recchion, Fat Worm of Error, Sixes, Bran(...)Pos, Masonic Youth, Pod Blotz, Smegma, Panicsville, too many more." [label info]
https://www.resipiscent.com/artist/view/21
|
2005 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Lenghedivacje |
do-CDR |
"...RENATO RINALDI and Hybrida put together an interesting project: stories and interviews in CD1 become sound source for experimental music of CD2, with outstanding contributions from SLAWEK KWI, ERIC LA CASA, ANTJE VOWINCKEL, WEIS WARD, GIUSEPPE IELASI." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
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SECRET ASSEMBLY (live CANYON Club 16. May 2009) |
DVD |
"A live document of a gathering of fine post industrial projects met in Ukrainian city Zhytomyr in May 2009. Camaraderie of Swedish Deutsch Nepal, Russian Noises of Russia, and Ukrainian First Human Ferro and Filivs Macrocosmi assembled for an old school dark ambient/death industrial/experimental déjà vu. Deep isolationism, misanthropist & sociopath dark industrial, religious noise mantra, and erotic mechanica crisscrossed to form an unforgettable pattern of the night to remember." [label info]
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Things that happened |
do-CDR |
"5 complete recordings from concerts at different Gagarin Festivals at Rote Flora and 1 from a Unüberhörbar festival at Hörbar. Both are clubs in Hamburg.
Comes in silk printed LP cover with 2 CDrs on a cardboard and a 4 page A4 insert.
First edition of 100 handnumbered copies.
Comes also as strictly limited edition of 30 copies with anti LP by Paulina Dieb for the artists and some helpers: please have a look for cat-nr rmsc 002 (single copy series).
Tracklist:
A1. Audible Pain - Dermatologische Verwerfung (2:54)
A2. Audible Pain - Freudsche Fehlleistung (2:35)
A3. Audible Pain - Otitis media acuta (3:50)
A4. Audible Pain - Synaptische Plastizität (2:32)
A5. Audible Pain - Zeitverlust (2:46)
A6. Audible Pain - Hetzen & Rennen (3:40)
A7. Audible Pain - Alb (3:37)
A8. Audible Pain - In der Rolle des Nazivaters (5:11)
A9. Notstandskomitee vs TBC - Live 18. May 2006 at Rote Flora (22:17)
B1. Wäldchengarten - Live 27. May 2005 at Hörbar (35:14)
B2. Government Alpha - Whole Rote Flora Love (10:10)
B3. Praying For Oblivion - Live 18. May 2006 at Rote Flora (7:12) " [label info]
www.reduktivemusiken.de
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
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Clicks & Cuts 5.1 - Paradigm Shift (The Bonus Package) |
CD |
"This Package includes:
- the 2 'Evac' tracks from the CD
- 2 additional tracks (12 + 16) that didnt fit on the CD
- 7 full length versions available only as shorter versions on the original" [label info]
www.mille-plateaux.com
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
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Musics in the Margin Vol. 2: Musik Oblik |
CD |
"Decompartmentalization:
Like the 'Musics in the margin volume 1' CD co-produced by Art en Marge and Sub Rosa in 2006, this new production comes from a project mixing visual arts with music. Since the first CD, 'Art en Marge' has obtained its museum status and changed its name. These changes point out the fact the new 'art & marges museum' focuses on the affinities existing between three visual art fields considered on equal terms: modern art, contemporary art, and outsider art. Proceeding from how obviously compartmentalization is not only arbitrary but simplistic, this new production entitled "Musik Oblik" explores the world of sounds and silence through the multidisciplinary works of artists unfolding stunning soundworlds and visual universes. Decompartmentalization is the key word, and this record offers unique approaches transcending the simple question of the insider/outsider classification. The purpose of this project is to outgrow the social-cultural dimension of the works while respecting their creators' integrity, whoever they might be.
Carine Fol (art & marges museum)
Featuring:
Based in Berlin, Klaus Beyer is mostly known for his unusual performances of Beatles songs, but this musician's talent is larger than that, as he also writes his own songs, makes short films and animated films, and works as an actor.
Normand Cournoyer launched his music career around the age of 70. He says he was inspired by the Lord, and therefore adopted the slightly religious alias Normand L'Amour. Self-taught, he has since written an incredible number of songs (more than 1,500, in over 75 languages) using a piece of random composition software.
Installation artist, performer, illustrator, sculptor, sound collector, and globe-trotter Baudouin Oosterlynck is thriving to expand our listening capabilities by creating prostheses and musical objects to multiply and increase our ears. Silence also plays a key part in his work, and he has traveled a lot to pinpoint geographical locations where one can enjoy complete silence.
The Wild Classical Music Ensemble, a music project started in 2007, on the day musician/audio artist/experimentalist Damien Magnette met Lynh, Johan, Rudy, and Kim, four artists with learning disabilities. From then on, their musical research has been based on free improvisation and experimentation. Lately, The Wild Classical Music Ensemble has been integrating punk/rock riffs composed by the group's guitarist Kim Verbeke.
In March 2005, drummer Teun Verbruggen (Jef Neve Trio, Flat Earth Society, ...) invited maverick guitarist Mauro Pawlowski (dEUS, Club Moral, Somnambula) and Rhodes piano magician Jozef Dumoulin (Mäâk Spirit, Magic Malik, Octurn...) to a one-shot improvisation gig. The meeting intitled Othin Spake was so conclusive that they are still playing together five years later.
A major representative of the Italian madrigal style of the Renaissance, alongside Luca Marenzio and Monteverdi. Gesualdo's position in music history has been largely reassessed in the 20th Century. Once seen as a marginal, unbalanced composer whose music was gradually falling into oblivion, Gesualdo is hailed by some as a visionary, the first composer, 300 years before Wagner and the Post-Romantics, to make significant use of chromatism and dissonance, and a precursor of the Moderns in his use of extreme contrasts and unusual rhythmical breaks.
A composer, violinist, and teacher, Baudouin de Jaer trained in Belgium and Canada with Henri Pousseur, Frederic Rzewski, and Philip Boesmans, among others. His concerts and compositions took him to Mexico, Peru, Korea, Palestine, and Morocco. Many of his works are multidisciplinary or adapted to a complete space.
A major artist of the 20th century, Adolf Wölfli was commited to the Waldau Mental Asylum, near Bern, in 1899. He remained there until he died. Wölfli started drawing, writing, and composing music at the age of 35, working all day long on what amounts to a colossal body of work. It comprises 25,000 pages of graphic compositions, collages, literary works, and music scores.
Jacques Brodier, artist and researcher, is the inventor of the Filtre de Réalité (Reality Filter), whose antennae, using the ionosphere's reflection, receive the electromagnetic noise broadcasted by Earth civilization and deep space. This airwave noise consists of radio signals from everywhere, music and voices in multiple languages drifting away, lost in a sea of cosmic noise, occasionally mistreated, butchered, distorted by untraceable causes or the mishaps of dissemination." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ekhnaton |
CD |
"This compilation, originally released in 1984 as a vinyl LP by MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION in collaboration with the legendary ADN label, is finally available again in a completely remastered CD version. "Ekhnaton" collects tracks recorded by the most daring and remarkable bands that were active in the experimental Italian scene during those years. "Simple Italian Research Vol. 1" was (and still is) the subtitle of an album that includes two tracks from each of the following bands: Maze 1066, Tasaday (whose "Implosione tra le pieghe dell'anima" has recently been reissued by Silentes), Evitaxal - an alias for Roberto Marinelli, also active as Laxative Souls - and the more well-known and active TAC (TOMOGRAFIA ASSIALE COMPUTERIZZATA). Through a valuable and accurate restoration, we're glad to make available again an unmissable view on the first intuitions and the experimental methodologies that shaped their times, leaving a permanent mark - in Italy and abroad - on the following generations." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
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25 Years of Kapotte Muziek |
CD |
"2009-2010 sees the celebration of twentyfive years of Kapotte Muziek, the first musical project of Frans de Waard. Expanded in 1993 with members Peter Duimelinks and in 1995 Roel Meelkop, this trio explores the world of micro electro-acoustic music, playing on waste found on the streets and with a fine addition of field recordings. Before 1993 Kapotte Muziek was largely known as a player in the field of industrial music and musique concrete. To celebrate their 25th anniversary they staged two nights, one at Extrapool in Nijmegen and one at Occi in Amsterdam and asked long term friends to pay hommage. This CD is a compilation of 'edited highlights' from both nights, displaying a variety of interests, old and new:
Radboud Mens offers a piece of drone music using 'three sinewave guitars', DMDN, as guest DJ present, played old and new tapes and vinyl from the past twenty five years of Kapotte Muziek in a striking collage of industrial sounds. Howard Stelzer, known for his extensive use of cassettes, restricted solely to cassettes from the past, while Jos Smolders showed up with his laptop and reel-to-reel machine to incorporate even dance music like moves. Asra and Asmus Tietchens, as well as Kapotte Muziek, use detailled improvisation on a variety of junkyard instrumentation and real instruments. An excellent compilation showing a true love of sound exploration by all involved." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
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XXXII° Concorso Internazionale die Musica Elettroacustica e Rumore |
do-CD |
"In March 2010, Le Bruit De La Neige Festival have organized the annual Luigi Russolo - Rossana Maggia Competition at the Faverges Soierie. The aim was to promote the electroacoustic music of young composers (under 35 years old). The Bruitism is a movement of sound art appeared 9th of March 1913 when the painter and composer Luigi Russolo published the manifesto 'L'Arte dei Rumori' (The Art of Noises), inviting the people to appreciate the complex sounds from the nature and industrial environment. This was an important paradigm shift in contemporary music as later with the musique concrete of Pierre Schaeffer or 4'33' silent work by John Cage. 60 composers from 28 countries have participated in this contest. Members of the jury 2010: Jean Louis Belmonte, Philippe Blanchard, Guillaume Caillot, Paul Clouvel, Pierre Coppier, Bernard Donzel-Gargand, Juraj Duris, Pierre Jolivet, Pierre Launay, Victor Nubla, Dmitry Vasilyev. The jury awarded: First Prize Luigi Russolo: Yota Kobayashi (Japan). Second Prize : Elia Marios Joannou (Cyprus). Third Prize : Valérie Delaney (Canada). Mention Rossana Maggia: Sergy Khismatov (Russia). Mention Franco G. Maffina: Sebastian Peter (Germany). Special Mention of the jury: Joan Bages Rubi (Spain). Other works having maximum votes by Erdem Helvacioglu (Turkey), Ka-Ho Cheung (Hong Kong), Andrea Santini (Italy), Jean-François Primeau (Canada), Damien Depannemaeck (France), Dohi Moon (South Korea) and Stefan Fraunberger (Austria)." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2010 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Trans_Canada. ZKM Karlsruhe |
DVD-Audio |
"DVD-Audio, Advanced Resolution: Surround 5.1 (MLP 4824) + Stéréo (4824). Nicolas Bernier Writing Machine (2005), Darren Copeland Let Me Out (2006), Francis Dhomont Brief an den Vater (2005-06), Louis Dufort Hi_Res (2005), Gilles Gobeil Ombres, espaces, silences (2005), Robert Normandeau Palimpseste (2005, 06, 09), Barry Truax The Shaman Ascending (2004-05), Hildegard, Für Dich - For You (2005). 'It all started with a desire to feature the outstanding creativity of Canadian electroacoustic music and and to investigate the trends of its acousmatics and soundscape composition. Eight of the most important or promising composers were selected by co-curators Ludger Brümmer and Sabine Breitsameter and commissioned by the Institut für Musik und Akustik (Institute for Music and Acoustics) of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, ZKM) to create new works in its studios in Karlsruhe (Germany). These new works were all premiered during the trans_canada festival at the ZKM in February 2005." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Zelphabet Vol. K |
CD |
"The eleventh installment in Zelphabet’s new series of 26 alphabetically oriented compilations of noise. Zelphabet K rides into the new year with tracks from K2, KEY RANSONE, KK NULL and KLUSTER 07 (CONRAD SCHNITZLER)." [label info]
www.zelphabet.com
"And then there is of course Zelphabet, curated by G.X. Jupitter-Larsen of The Haters fame. Now up to the letter K. Intervals are getting longer, unfortunately, as this is such a fine series that I would love to see complete one day. Two noise ends and two surprises here. The noise side is represented by two Japanese artists. K2 goes out furthest into noise land with a twenty minute onslaught of cut up distortion. It could very well be that K2 takes a bunch of his own tapes, a pair of scissors and then just crudely assembles bits of tapes into a new piece. KK Null is here also a bit louder than we are used of him in recent years, but adds a rhythm or two to his noise tapestry. More digital in approach, with the rhythm being made by skipping loops of CD players, feeding off to a line of sound effects. Both of these pieces are almost twenty minutes and perhaps at such a bit long. The two surprises is first a 1998 recording by Key Ransone. Once better known as Small Cruel Party, but since 2000 more or less gone from the scene, in order to be a chef in France. But not entirely disappeared. His 'A Tangible Bridge' is performed by the Seattle Creative Orchestra - Ransone always had something with bridging electronic music with modern classical music. This piece is entirely modern classical, with slow violin build up and after a crescendo, silence, followed by singing and strange gestures. Maybe a bit like older Arvo Part? I must admit I am not that much of a connoisseur of the genre, but this piece is actually very good. The other surprise is Kluster 07, consisting of Conrad Schnitzler, Michael Thomas Roe and Masato Ooyama, who recorded this piece in September 2007. Bouncing, psychedelic electronics with a set of more or less improvised percussion on top and more improvised bits on some synthesizers. Quite a mellow piece, but perhaps also a nice update to the earliest incarnation of K/Cluster - still a steady favorite after almost forty years." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
|
I.D. Art # 2 |
CD |
"When the Los Angeles Free Music Society 10 CD set came out I eagerly flipped through the contents to see what treasures had finally been made available again. Much to my surprise the early compilation I.D. Art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the LAFMS. I.D. Art #2 was the second LP release on their label, coming after Le Forte Four’s ‘Bikini tennis shoes’ LP, and before the 2LP ‘Live at the Brand’, a split album between Le 44 and The Doo-Dooettes. It dates from 1976. It is also probably the most difficult LP on their catalogue to find. Originally released in an edition of just 200 copies, most of which were given out to the 44 artists and groups who appeared on this extraordinary LP. The deal was that each track was paid for by the contributor at a rate of $8 per minute in exchange for 4 copies of the disc. Consequently very few copies were ever made available via the LAFMS mail order service.
With a running time of 66 minutes and the sheer variety of contributions, I.D. Art #2 remained for most people a mysterious and tantalising item.
Most of the contributors came from the students at Otis Art Institute in LA, and many make their only ever recordings for this disc. Among the known names from the LAFMS scene are: Le Forte Four, Joe Potts, Fredrick Nilsen, Mr Foon, Ace & Duce, Dennis Mehaffey as well as 6 tracks by Smegma. Other artists include the painter Miles Forst, violinist Josie Roth, film makers Doug Henry and Gary Beydler, mail artist and dog portrait painter Irene Dogmatic, Otis librarian Joan Hugo, graphic designer Kathe Schreyer and many other creative artists and designers at the start of their careers who submitted their audio idea, be it via telephone, in subways, recontextualising old vinyl, philosophising, story telling, being abstract, joking, rehearsing and lo even playing instruments. This exhilerating journey, bursting with ideas was compiled by Joe Potts and Waynna Kato." [label info]
tracklist:
• 1a. Mac McCloud; b. Mac McCloud (2:19)
• 2. Harold Schroeder “Silent rituals” (3:32)
• 3. Greg Neutra/J.D. Elliot “Grieg fatigue” (2:01)
• 4. Smegma a. “Rrose Selavy will wait for my washing machine, even” b. “The Andalusian dog often digs into the furniture with onyx fingers.” (2:02)
• 5. Smegma “Potatoe war” (0:59) mp3
• 6. Fredrik Nilsen “You can’t hide from aldehyde” (1:40)
• 7. Miles Forst “Art, art, art” (0:41)
• 8. Smegma “One moment” (1:30)
• 9. Smegma “Pig face blues” (0:24)
• 10. Doug Henry “View this command as a verbal enactment of a command” (0:15)
• 11. Josie Roth “Heal, and another little time” (1:01)
• 12. Joe Potts “I don’t want to go to the farm” (0:21)
• 13. Otto Fick (0:48)
• 14. Smegma “Excerpt from: I’ll have Julie Nixon-Eisenhower for my appetizer (sour lungs to my surprise)” (3:01)
• 15. Karen Kato “Xmas 1952” (0:35)
• 16. J.J. Allen Vargas “Victim of racism” (1:25)
• 17. Dennis Guy Mehaffey “Busta Nosa” (1:47)
• 18. M/R/Zuniga “Vulnerability: rape, male vs. female” (1:31)
• 19. Mike Green “Martin Heiddeger revisited” (dedicated to Molly) (0:15).
• 20. Mehaffey a. Introdution by Buckminster Fuller. b. “I stumble/You laugh” (4:01)
• 21. Jules Lemelle (1:03).
• 22. Maureen Abbott (0:14).
• 23. Smegma “Take one” (3:29).
• 24. Dan Weiss/P. Hamilton Ross “A bicentennial tribute to America’s freight trains” (0:56).
• 25. Mr. Foon “Timeless #1” (5:50)
• 26. Bertil Petersson “Monologue to Henry VIII” (2:05)
• 27. Amrein & Stoll (1:04)
• 28. Ace & Duce “Dogs are barking" (0:37)
• 29. Irene Dogmatic/Rose Tatoo (0:36)
• 30. Gordon Shields “Cotton duck, up and back” (0:59)
• 31. Gary Beydler “Record stick” (0:16).
• 32. Tom Kemp “Pasadena subway station poetry stills” (3:39)
• 33. Donald Spaulding “I don’t want this to happen” (0:32)
• 34. Janice Felger/Joan Hugo “One minute of art news update in 30 seconds (1:04)
• 35. Sue Farthing (0:22)
• 36. Waynna Kato “White/Noise” (0:29)
• 37. Jim Abuan/Peter Muzzey “Why does love have to be so sad?” (0:20)
• 38. Juan Gomez “This is my country” (2:47)
• 39. P.J. Campbell (1:01).
• 40. Kathe Schreyer “Don’t make me laugh” (0:15)
• 41. Mary Dana Chodzko “Patty Smith by Mary Dana Chodzko” (1:42).
• 42. Gary Laskin “Have sex with Rex” (1:25)
• 43. Jean Koller “Dream” (3:20).
• 44. Le Forte Four a. Discarded portion of the soundtrack for Rick’s film “Burger madness” b. From “The origin of Largie Schrapnel” c. “I haven’t heard you for a long time...” d. “Fat ape” (1:17)
www.stalk.net/paradigm
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Vox:one |
CD |
"An international compilation digipack-CD featuring KK NULL, Wilt, John Wiese, Band Of Pain and many more.
All tracks made from the same sound material
- the voice of Ellen Aagaard
Cover by Lasse Marhaug
In 2001 we sent out the following invitation:
OHM Records invite all sound-manipulators to contribute to an upcoming compilation CD. This CD will feature tracks all based on the same source sounds (a female vocalist).
Rules:
* Only use the source sounds
* Sound-manipulations of any kind is allowed
* Only the material that we find to be interesting/enjoyable will be released.
* The end result should be somewhere in the broad category of "experimental music" (Electro acoustic, Musique Concrete, Soundscapes, Cut-Ups, Noise, Power Electronics, or something else..).
After 9 years, the end result is finally released.... " [label info]
www.ohmrecords.no
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
|
IMPREC300 |
LP |
"After ten years Important Records is extremely proud to present IMPREC300, a vinyl only collection of exclusive live tracks from a handful of Important bands including Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Grails, Mugstar, Cave, NHK yx, Bardo Pond, Grails, Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Chord & Bass Communion." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
The Sound Ecology: Range |
CD |
"First in the ongoing series. Exclusive tracks by Mathieu Ruhlmann, Yannick Dauby, Michael Northam, John Grzinich, Francisco Lopez, Jeph Jerman, Ralf Wehowsky, Murmer, Christopher McFall, Eric La Casa and Cedric Peyronnet. Digifile with 24-page color booklet." [label info]
www.nitkie.ru
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Message from a Subatomic World |
CD |
"2008. Having not released any various-artists compilations in the past decade, Hypnos released in 2007 a new compilation Sounds of a Universe Overheard featuring a diverse array of ambient soundscape artists from around the world. We are proud to follow last year's release with its "mirror image" compilation, which we believe meets or exceeds that high standard.
Here are another 10 exclusive tracks by 10 artists who have not appeared on Hypnos compilations before, though some of these artists will certainly be familiar to followers of our label. Message From a Subatomic World in comparison to its predecessor is perhaps a bit more abstract and deep-space, more mysterious and strange, whereas Sounds of a Universe Overheard is a bit more musical and structured overall.
THE ARTISTS
Austere - This elusive duo has released two albums with Hypnos in the past year, Solyaris on Hypnos and Pulse on Hypnos Secret Sounds. They've also ranged over a wide sonic territory with previous self-released projects during the past decade.
Evan Bartholomew - Perhaps best known for the rhythmic electronica he records as Bluetech, Evan has just recently started releasing ambient work under his own name, and recently launched his own Somnia label.
Relapxych.0 - is Anders Peterson from Sweden, experimenting with combining field recordings with musical instruments and approaches, creating musical ambience rather than ambient music. Visit www.ghostsounds.net
Numina - Certainly familiar to Hypnos listeners, Numina has released 3 great CDs on our label, and he has been one of the great new names in the ambient music world this past 5 years.
Jason Sloan - A partner in the Slo.Bor label with Matt Borghi, Jason creates uncompromising sound art using tools as diverse as electric guitars, synthesizers, and self-designed software algorithms.
Phaenon - Real name Szymon Tankiewicz, his debut album was released on the Malignant label, and he has relocated from his native Poland to Maryland, USA.
Stephen Philips - Also familiar to Hypnos listeners, Stephen runs the Dark Duck Records label on which he has many releases under several identities, in addition to his two releases on our label.
True Color of Blood - Alter ego of Eric Kesner, who uses treated and layered electric guitars to craft unique and challenging ambient drone works, which he has released on labels like Gears of Sand, Eibon and Afe.
Svartsinn - This Norwegian dark ambient artist has several prior releases, mostly on the Cyclic Law label, and is a frequent live performer around the world.
Oophoi - No other name has gone from obscurity to such high regard among ambient listeners in such a short time, and this Italian master of the atmospheric drone has been greatly prolific, counting among his releases two projects on Hypnos, Athlit as a solo artist, and Distance to Zero with Paul Vnuk Jr. of Ma Ja Le." [label info]
www.hypnos.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 1 : HALO MANASH, UBEBOET, JARL, B*TONG (SOLD OUT) |
LP |
The NEW LP-series from Drone Records, dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies, pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Volume 1: UBEBOET (Spain), HALO MANASH (Finland), B°TONG (Suisse), JARL (Sweden). Stunning artwork paintings by British artist PETE GREENING, design by NINA KERNICKE (ALL SIDES).
Vinyl-colours each 125x : SOLID WHITE // GREEN // GOLD // SOLID ORANGE MIXED WITH BLACK.
Having celebrated the vinyl back in 1993 when the 7" series started, we still think its the best & most beautiful format to present music!
Don't miss the beginning of the second wave of DRONES on our label !!
FULL INFO:
The NEW LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series but on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies and pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Each LP artwork will feature paintings by British painter PETE GREENING. This series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music. The title symbolizes the interaction between sound of the Eternal and our psyche and raises questions: Can Drones (or sound per se) be regarded as "intelligent"? Does every mind produce a Drone? Isn't it possible that any organic or non-organic entity produces a Drone? Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive & understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe.
The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
Four "Drones" on one record! The first Volume (MIND-01) ist OUT NOW ! (December 2011) and features:
VOLUME 1: UBEBOET / HALO MANASH JARL / B°TONG
UBEBOET from Spain starts off the new series with two fantastic "transcension drone" pieces derived from choral / voice-material - highly emotional, contemplative and sublime.
HALO MANASH is the main project from the AURAL HYPNOX-family based in Oulu, northern Finland, known for powerful shamanistic / ethnic otherworldly drones. "Walkeus" comprises two pieces of dense ritualistic sounds based purely on ethnic instruments and voices without using any electronics, recorded on analogue reel-to-reel tape.
JARL (the drone side / solo-project of the Swedish Industrial duo IRM) is known for "pure sounding" overwhelming, at times noisy hypno-drones. The long track "Zero in Scream" uses zither-sounds in an innovative way.
B*TONG from Switzerland creates highly experimental pieces that seem to use all kinds of concrete sound-sources, leading into surrealistic drone-based journeys, always challenging and forming a very own musical dimension
= four projects that differ considerably from each other, but united through the idea of the power of the Drone.
~ ~ The drones of their minds "materialized" ~ ~ The "intelligence" of drones materialized ~ ~
"Compiled by the tireless sound archeologist (and Drone Records founder) Stefan Knappe, “Drone-Mind/Mind-Drone Vol.1” can be seen as a well-deserved masterpiece in a career that may open a new chapter in the history and archiving of the drone. This ancient foundation of music, myth, and rituals both sacred and profane is alive and well in a new generation of artists. Those chosen for this first volume have contributed mesmerizing and deeply memorable drones that ought to make this an instant classic of its kind." [Mike Wood/Foxy Digitalis]
“El Rey ha muerto. ¡Larga vida al Rey!”
It took Stefan Knappe 18 years to fill the roster of one hundred 7″ releases on Drone Records. Since the first 7″ by his own Maeror Tri (which was actually predated by a cassette release in 1991, also by Maeror Tri), Drone Records has been a home for artists to release their sounds on the sacred vinyl as well as get a chance to deliver their own artwork.
To reminisce: the simple artwork yet immensly thick drones by Yen Pox (DR-15), the “Fuck, how am I gonna send out 250 metal plates”-release by [multer] (DR-51), and the fragile boxed edition by Xabec (DR-92). Very well known as well as completely unknown artists, who either made it or didn’t; they are a part of Drone’s 18-year history of vinyl releases.
But times, they are a-changing. It is time for something new, and the chosen format is vinyl, LP, and four artists per release to promote their sounds and become part of the family. On this first release in the new series, pressed in solid white, green, gold and black / orange mixed vinyl, we get acquainted with new works by four artists from different scenes: Ubeboet, Halo Manash, Jarl and B°Tong.
And no, for a change, your humble reviewer will not go in depth into all the tracks and describe them for you. Because if you made it this far already, you know you want this album, and you are going to buy it. What makes this release a definite must-have is the same reason why you visit festivals with sounds, music and sound art. Even if you don’t know all this artists or there is a track you maybe don’t like at the beginning, it fits the release as a whole. Exploration of artistic depths and differences, very well combined by ‘His Masters Drone’, Stefan Knappe.
Four days before the year 2011 is over, this release solidly puts itself in the annual Top Three. Without any doubt!" [Bauke van der Wal / Connexion Bizarre]
"The LP is a fascinating showcase for four different drone and ambient artists, and that is perhaps the essence of everything ever done by Drone Records. Although I have a personal preference for the A-side here, there is much to love, and subtle variation in the presentation of these four artists. A glorious debut on coloured vinyl for this new series, and a highly recommended release for all droners out there. Here’s to the future!" [Oscar Strik, Evening of Light]
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
From Earth to Sirius |
do-CD |
"With Ah Cama-Sotz, Apocalyptic Visions, Atomine Elektrine, Christblood, Different State, Electric Uranus, Emme Ya, Expo '70,Hybryds, Kallee, Kia Karma, Nordvargr, Ouroboros, Phelios, Rapoon, S.E.T.I, Therion Trismegistos, Unknown Caller, X-naVI:et, Zenial (space ambient mantras).
A compilation dedicated to the canine star. 20 artists, 130 minutes-well-known masters of the post-industrial music and also a few newcomers. Highly recommended!!!" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Ambient of TIME |
CD |
"Material or formless? Concepts or changes?
The concept of time and how we grasp what "time" means varies by person while it controls our behaviors. The favorite time, the relaxed time, the anxious time, the change by time, and the memories and the forgetfulness.
what if it's put in sounds?
All 10 tunes written by 10 musicians, who had kept thinking over the “time”, create a current of lenient time, piling up afterimages.
Album Concept: We are living under the concept of time. Time - It seems that all the creatures and even the universe have been controlled by time. However, that is not really "time." It is, in fact, the “change.” The existence of time is an absolute axis of our activities. On the other hand, these moments give different meaning for each person and exist. The ambient of time. How do we grasp what it is? And what would it become if it's expressed in sounds..
【track list】
01. el fog / Time, Memory
02. Psychedeism / dawn chorus
03. Tatsuhiko Asano / Quartz
04. radi strand / absence of time
05. atrem / under cover of winter's night
06. Yu Kadowaki / Tokinokane
07. Mujika Easel / Le rêve de l'après-midi
08. naph / music for etv
09. Tadahiko Yokogawa / Au long de la riviere nocturne
10. Doi Itsuqi / Hakalame" [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
|
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (OST) |
CD |
"Der Soundtrack zum intimen, rührenden Porträt über Leben und Kunst des bahnbrechenden Performance Künstlers und Musikpionieres Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (THROBBING GRISTLE, PSYCHIC TV) und seiner besseren Hälfte und Kollaborateurin Lady Jaye, das sich um die gewagten sexuellen Transformationen, denen sich das Paar im Rahmen ihres "Pandrogyne"-Projektes unterwarf, dreht. Mit dabei ist natürlich Musik von PSYCHIC TV, THEE MAJESTY und anderen Kollaborationen von P-Orridge. Im Jahr 2000 begann Genesis eine Reihe von Operationen mit dem Ziel, seiner Liebe Lady Jaye (alias Jacqueline Breyer) ähnlicher zu werden, die seit fast 15 Jahren bessere Hälfte und künstlerische Partnerin ist. Es war der ultimative Akt der Hingabe und die subversivste Performance, die Genesis jemals zeigte: er wurde in einem triumphalen Akt der künstlerischen Selbstverwirklichung zu einer Sie. Genesis nannte das Projekt "Creating The Pandrogyne". www.balladofgenesisandladyjaye.com
TRACKLISTING: 01. COUCOU 02. I LOVE YOU, I KNOW - GENESIS P-ORRIDGE, LADY J, BRYIN DALL & ALICE GENESE 03. PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 - BB 04. I AM MAKING A MIRROR - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 05. MILK BABA (EDIT) - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 06. MAYBE IT SMELLS GOOD . . . OR BAD - GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE & BRYIN DALL BOYS 07. ARE GIRLS AND GIRLS ARE BOYS - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 08. THE TRUTH - THEE MAJESTY 09. WISDOM - THEE MAJESTY 10. THE FINAL WAR (BLEAK BOX MIX) - LADY JAYE & GENESIS P., B. DALL & D. RUSH 11. SOUL SEARCHING - GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE & DEREK RUSH 12. WHITE NIGHTS - PSYCHIC TV 13. MOTHER JACK (A CHILDREN'S STORY) - PSYCHIC TV 14. NEW YORK STORY - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 15. ALIEN BRAIN (EDIT) - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 16. KISS ME (MAGGOT BRAIN) (EDIT) - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 17. THE THIN GARDEN - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 18. DEMILITARIZED OZONE (EDIT) - TONY CONRAD, GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & EDLEY ODOWD 19. THE ORCHIDS - PSYCHIC TV" [label info]
"The soundtrack to the intimate, affecting portrait of the life and work of ground-breaking performance artist and music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and his other half and collaborator, Lady Jaye, centered around the daring sexual transformations the pair underwent for their “Pandrogyne” project. Featuring music by Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and various collaborators (Bryin Dall, Derek Rush, Tony Conrad). This is a love story, and a portrait of two lives that illustrate the transformative powers of both love and art. In warm and intimate images captured handheld, Marie Losier crafts a labyrinthine mise-en-scene of interviews, home movies, and performance footage. The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye documents a truly new brand of Romantic consciousness, one in defiance of the daily dehumanization of the body by the pervasive presence of advertising and pornography, conveying beauty, dignity and devotion from a perspective never before seen on film."
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Departure of Melancholy |
CD |
"Sound poetry with CM Lundberg, Marja-leena Sillanp, Peter Cederblom, Helena Boberg, Pr Thörn, Eva Kristina Olsson, Petra Axelsson, Nanok, Arijana Kajfes, Giuliano Killgren Medici, Tectonic Ox, Jakob Anckarsvrd, Johan Andrén, Ulrika Gomm, Iris Smeds, Johannes Flink. Recommended." [label info]
www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
FUCK YOU. Fucking Noise in China now |
DVD |
"100 minutes of electronic noise music and harsh speeches: a road movie between Beijing and Shanghai featuring Torturing Nurse, Wang Changcun, Wang Fan, Li Jian Hung / Dickson Dee, the poet Sun Meng Jin and Zbigniew Karkowski as radical red line.
DVD NTSC-PAL 100'
English + French subtitles
released by SUB ROSA / OME
'We went on a trip, with a vision that may have confused feelings of revolt with revolt itself, expecting to shoot a monument to the glory of Noise "as a subversive action" in the People's Republic of China. After spending a few hours on site, we had to admit that nothing political was being expressed in this place and at this time. In two weeks, we still shot about a hundred hours of rushes, in a totally chaotic fashion, as if in the throes of panic.' OME team" [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Gravity's Drop Out. Tracks for non-existing Movies |
CD |
" Artist / track
1. PAS / To Understand Colors
2. Margitt Holzt / Bears Head
3. Herr Penschuck / The Drig Bift Transition
4. Ebinger / Gramo Memo
5. Nika Son / Jöusan
6. Thorsten Soltau & Herr Penschuck / Screening: Delfter Blau
simultan & Urmutter: Hohlspiegelgondolier
Gravity's Drop Out (Tracks For Non-Existent Movies)' (ALRN037) is the second installment
of the PAS Curated Series. PAS is proud to announce a PAS curated music series of releases
on the Alrealon Musique label. Initial artists will include Blue Sausage Infant from
Washington D. C., USA and Thorsten Soltau from Germany. PAS has given the opportunity to
represent a limited number of artists they have either worked with or collaborated with in
the past. Each release will be pressed in a limited edition in cd format and available
through Alrealon Musique and various distributors.
'Gravity's Drop Out (Tracks For Non-Existent Movies)' (ALRN037) is a compilation presented
by Thorsten Soltau of the German Label M.M." [label info]
www.alrealonmusique.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Compilation Festival Electronica en Abril * 2003-2012 |
do-LP BOX |
"To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Festival Electronica en Abril, born in 2003 at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, La Casa Encendida has invited some of the artists that have left their personal mark on the event, right now the oldest music festival in Madrid. All of them have contributed exclusive tracks to this 2LP that provide an insight into the quality and diversity of the festival. These are ten exclusive tracks that research a very specific sound quality (Eleh, Radian, nsi.), take introspective journeys (Thomas Körner, Maja Ratkje) and summon deep rhythmic collisions (Farben aka Jan Jelinek, Dopplereffekt, Elektro Guzzi, Matmos, SND). All of them seem to share a desire for experimentation that encompasses the emotional as a response to a general state of things that hits us with an overdose of data and experimentation. Matmos' track was composed playing around with a friend's new synthesizer. Eleh added field recordings to his usual microscopic sound aesthetic for the first time. Thomas Körner composed this intimate and melancholic piece for his grandmother, and Maja Ratkje goes deep into an alien ambient lullaby of ravishing simplicity and beauty. Farben deconstructs rhythm to build it up again as a pure ecstatic house beat. Nsi., the project of Tobias Freund and Max Loderbauer embark on an abyssal expedition to the far reaches of sound. Dopplereffekt melt their retro-futurist electro into crystalline emotions. Elektro Guzzi, always recording live, without overdubs, was helped in the studio by Patrick Pulsinger, taking the bullet train directly to the heart of their amazing analog techno, where guitar, bass and drums truly count. And SND (Mark Fell and Matt Steel) ride on an oblique and funked-up carousel of their own making, where rhythm and math surf together. And finally, Farben goes deep into glorious house-not-house." [label info]
|
2012 |
€29.50 |
|
|
Strade Trasparenti |
CD |
"Strade Trasparenti" features the original exclusive music by The Necks, David Grubbs, Mira Calix, Mute Socialite and O-Type made for the soundtrack of the film by Augusto Contento. The download version features 5 exclusive bonus tracks (see track listing).
The film "Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads)" delivers the physical sensations of a bus trip - it's so realistic it becomes oniric at times - and portrays Brazil's human variety in a series of encounters. The landscapes seen through the windows, the restaurants on the road, the testimonies of common and awfully endearing people are so touching, because they don't correspond to the stereotypes we have about this country. The soundtrack was composed by prestigious musicians from different countries especially for the film.
"Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads) is part of a tetralogy of films that are set in Brazil and share the same ethic and aesthetic principles. This film is not a trip in Brazil. It's rather a trip into the depths of Brazilian land and people. It is about Brazil, but not only. Brazil is a mirror used to reflect visions and arguments that could be universally valid.
Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads) is a cinevoyage, a ritual of initiation to the journey, to the discovery of the unknown, the indecipherable and the irreducible. It's to go beyond the logic of one's own national, cultural, perceptive borders."
(Augusto Contento, Director)
[label info]
www.staubgold.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Revenge? Yes! NORDIC AUDIO MODERN 2012 |
CD |
"There is nothing much to say about this record. Only that it was created by dedicating new and previously unreleased tracks by the legendary world famous ambient/industrial bands to the cult festival NORDIC AUDIO MODERN. To this record at least three new tracks were loaded by a legendary Der General, also known as Deutsch Nepal. It is simply the best compilation of 2012. I bet on that for “a tank of methanol”!" [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Benefiets for Japan |
do-CD |
"Wir haben beschlossen, eine Benefiets CD fuer Japan herauszugeben, und dazu viele Freunde und Kuenstler eingeladen.
Von jeder CD gehen fuenf Euro an das Rote Kreuz und sowie an "heart on coin - kizuna" - ein Projekt fuer Grundschulen in der vom Tsunami besonders betroffenen Praefektur Miyagi. Ueber deren Hoehe werden wir hier informieren. Wir suchen noch Distribuierungsmoeglichkeiten und freuen uns ueber fleissige Werber.
Vielen Dank.
http://www.aicat.org/heartoncoin/
.
Beitraege von:
(((10)))/japan/south korea
action beat/UK
alice hui-sheng chang/taiwan/australia
and so i watch you from afar/ireland
anla courtis/argentina
astronoise/south korea
christian dergarabedian/argentina/spain
dave phillips/switzerland
emil beaulieau/US
eyes like mirrors/south africa
frans de waard + freiband/netherlands
guts pie earshot/germany
her name is calla/UK
ishida naoki/japan
killer/germany
kim ki o/turkey
limited express/japan
luzparÃs/argentina
manku kapak/germany
michael barthel/germany
noia/peru
prurient/US
rudolf eb.er/switzerland/japan
sudden infant/switzerland/germany
takuji naka/japan
the haters/US
tomokawa kazuki/japan
upcdownc/UK
up-tight/japan
us kids know/south africa
victor gama/angola/portugal
we set sail/south africa (auf der CD falsch verzeichnet!)
yan jun/china
yui ondera/japan
zoul/germany" [label info]
www.licht-ung.de
"Apart from what seems to be a typo on the cover, I have nothing to complain about this double CD compilation. Its over two and half hours of music of an alternative kind. Alternative rock, noise, laptop's, punk, improvised music all cut with a great variety together that makes you like listen to a fine alternative radio station. And the best thing is that five euro goes to the Red Cross, for their work at Fukushima nuclear power plant, as recommended by Japanese friends of the label. Nuf said. Get this and hear music by (((10))), action beat, alice hui-sheng chang, and so i watch you from afar, anla courtis, astronoise, christian dergarabedian, dave phillips, emil beaulieau, eyes like mirrors, frans de waard, freiband, guts pie earshot, her name is calla, ishida naoki, killer, kim ki o, limited express, luzparas, manku kapak, michael barthel, noia, prurient, rudolf eb.er, sudden infant, takuji naka, the haters, tomokawa kazuki, upcdownc, up-tight, us kids know, victor gama, we set sail, yan jun, yui ondera and zoul. Yes, I copied that from the website, while listening to this compilation. Lots of bands you should know, lots of news names, from such unlikely (well) corners as Peru, Angola, South Africa, China and Ireland. So, if you are 'fan' enough to collect all compilations with say The Haters, or, if you a curious to hear a bunch of strange musics, or if you want to support a good cause in return for a small gift, then don't look further and spend your money here." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 2 (SOLD OUT) |
LP |
DRONE-MIND // MIND DRONE - Volume 2 -
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series but on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies and pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Each LP artwork will feature paintings by British painter PETE GREENING. This series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music. The title symbolizes the interaction between sound of the Eternal and our psyche and raises questions: Can Drones (or sound per se) be regarded as "intelligent"? Does every mind produce a Drone? Isn't it possible that any organic or non-organic entity produces a Drone? Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive & understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self. Four "Drones" on one record! The second Volume (MIND-02) ist OUT NOW ! (December 2012) and features:
YANN NOVAK / STROM NOIR / EMMA YA / KARL BÖSMANN
YANN NOVAK (U.S.A.): minimal transcension drones
The records starts with a fabulous - silent but dense - drone piece by Californian sound & installation artist YANN NOVAK (coming from L.A.), the first in a series of compositions using the 'silence" of vinyl endgrooves, indeed a perfectly sublime start for a a vinyl release dedicated to drones.
STROM NOIR (SLOVAKIA): shimmering elation drones
STROM NOIR encharms with two stunning 'elation" drones based on guitar harmonics, beautifully shimmering like light radiances - this Slovakian artist is also active with his true DIY-label Black Orchid Productions.
EMME YA (COLOMBIA): sigil dissolution drones
EMME YA is, after the EPs by REYNOLS (DR-42) and C.D. (DR-63) the third ever artist from South America on Drone Records. These 'esoteric' suction sounds are created as 'sigil dissolutions', meaning the unification of sonic sigils with our deeper minds. Mysterious, intense, haunting...
KARL BÖSMANN (GERMANY): post industrial / electronic drones
Behind this project with the odd name we find a german sculptor who attracted lots of attention with some remarkable releases of very unusual & daring drone-based collages - his track for MIND-02 named 'Die Verwandlung' is inspired by Kafkas short story of the same name and stands out as a powerful & threatening & even rhythmic tour de force undergoing dramatic changes from the beginning to the end.
= four projects that differ considerably from each other, but united through the idea of the power of the Drone.
~ ~ The drones of their minds "materialized" ~ ~ The "intelligence" of drones materialized ~ ~
4 Vinyl-colours: RED & BLACK MIXED // SOLID SILVER MIXED WITH BLACK // WHITE, SOLID BLUE & TRANSPARENT GREEN MIXED // CHRYSTAL CLEAR WITH BLUE AND BLACK
Mastered by Sergey Uak-Kib http://kshatriy.pro/
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Complete 10inch-series from Cold Blue |
3 x CD |
"Back by popular demand (and available for the first time on CD), this boxed set of three CDs collects all the music released on a popular series of 10-inch vinyl records that were put out by Cold Blue in the early 1980s. During the Cold Blue label's first incarnation, this music by seven West Coast composers created much of the company's reputation as a challenging and always interesting source of new music. Although bound together by a common concern with music's basic sensuality, the pieces collected here are wide-ranging in Style -- process-driven works, carefully through-composed pieces, ambient soundscapes, and music that draws on influences from around the world. In instrumentation, this music is also wide-ranging -- from violins accompanied by gourd rattles to an ensemble of clay ocarinas and whistles and flutes to works for piano (solo and duo), synthesizers, singers, speaking voices, cello and piano, electric guitar and clarinet, and perhaps the only known piece of new music for pedal steel guitar accompanied by multiple dobros. The diverse, free-spirited, genre-bending music in this set was characteristic of certain trends in West Coast music of the 80s. And, to some degree, most of this music tangentially addressed the lingua franca of 70s minimalism -- embracing certain aspects, fleeing others." Composers: Peter Garland, Michael Jon Fink, Barney Childs, Read Miller, Chas Smith, Rick Cox, Daniel Lentz." [label info]
|
2003 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Japanoise of Death I+II |
do-CD / metal box |
"This limited collectors-edition comes in a laser-burnt metal box and it contains part 1 and 2 of the Steinklang cult-compilations. part 1 was compiled by Koji Tano (MSBR - r.i.p.) and Shinichi Shikada (Noiseuse) and it was originally released in 2003 on vinyl lim.500 and on CDR lim.100. part 1 was rereleased now exclusively for this collectors-box as a real factory-made CD in jewelcase and it is not available separately!
part 1 -> 45 min. / 10 tracks
MSBR / NOISEUSE / GUILTY CONNECTOR / KK.NULL / GOVERNMENT ALPHA / INCAPACITANTS / K2 / DEFECTRO / WAGE-SLAVE EXCHANGE / MASONNA
part 2 -> 78 min. / 16 tracks
NORD / HIJOKAIDAN / SOLMANIA / AUBE / DISSECTING TABLE / INCAPACITANTS / ASTRO / KK.NULL / GOVERNMENT ALPHA / THE GUILTY CONNECTOR / KAZUMOTO ENDO / MOTHRA / SCRELOMA / MONTAGE / CROSSBRED / TIMISOARA " [label info] |
2008 |
€29.00 |
|
|
Tensions at the Vanguard: New Music from Peru (1948-1979) |
do-CD |
"This new Pogus 2 CD compilation, Tensions At The Vanguard, curated by Luis Alvarado (writer, journalist, sound poet), presents some of the most important pieces of the Peruvian musical vanguard of the 1960's and 70's, offering a representative sample of works and composers from this important period in Peruvian music. This release also includes a 24-page booklet - in both Spanish and English - with an essay giving an overview of the works, the composers, and a brief musical and social history of Peru during this time.
CD 1: Edgar Valcárcel: 'Invencion' for magnetic tape (1967), Leopoldo La Rosa: 'Andes N¼1 1969' for orchestra (1969) (Fragment), César Bolaños: 'Intensidad Y Altura' for magnetic tape (1964), Walter Casas: 'La creacion' for piano (1971), Luis David Aguilar: 'Mayhuay' for string quartet (1971), Francisco Pulgar Vidal: 'Detenimientos' for violin and piano (1967), José Malsio: 'Danza' for orchestra (1948-1950). CD 2: Enrique Pinilla: 'Prisma' for magnetic tape (1967), Alejandro Nuñez Allauca 'Gravitacion Humana' for magnetic tape (1971), Celso Garrido Lecca: 'Intihuatana' for string quartet (1967), Pedro Seiji Asato: 'Quasar IV' for two pianos & contrabass (1973), Enrique Iturriaga: 'Cuatro Expresiones for violin' (1967), Arturo Ruiz del Pozo: 'Lago de Totoras' for magnetic tape (1978).
A note: A number of the tracks here are taken
from live recordings that were not necessarily intended for release. While our best efforts have been made to reduce the original broadband noise, we found it necessary to allow some to remain in order to preserve clarity. This new Pogus 2 CD compilation, curated by Luis Alvarado (writer, journalist, sound poet), presents some of the most important pieces of the Peruvian musical vanguard of the 1960's and 70's, offering a representative sample of works and composers from this important period in Peruvian music. This release also includes a 24-page booklet - in both Spanish and English - with an essay giving an overview of the works, the composers, and a brief musical and social history of Peru during this time. Thirteen works by thirteen different composers - 5 tape pieces and 8 instrumental works - give an excellent introduction to some fascinating composers who are known outside of Peru in varying degrees, if at all. These composers explored serial, electronic, electroacoustic, and aleatoric music during a time of tension between politics and the avant-garde in academic music in Latin America. The 1960s and 1970s were particularly difficult years for Latin American social movements, and a time when the concepts of vanguard, revolution and universalism enter into complex interactions. These works and their composers ask not how much experimentation occurred, but what the use of these techniques represent and to what extent did these musicians and their music engage critically with modernity ? Our hope is that the listener will find some or all of these composers and their works of interest, and will further explore the music made by these fine composers as it hopefully becomes more available over time." [label info]
www.pogus.com |
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
|
In Progress II |
CD |
"Laznia CCA and In Progress present the second In Progress album. CD includes recordings of artists that performed in Laznia CCA within In Progress project.
Most of the recordings were registered in Laznia CCA during live shows.
Kompilacja V/A - IN PROGRESS 2
1.Robert Lippok "Avarietyofcolour"
2.Rapoon "White Disc Moon "
3.C.3.3. "Acousticon II"
4.Troum "Apeiron "
5.Jacaszek "White wind dance "
6.Andrew Lagowski "Morpheus in the Snow" / live in Laznia CCA 19.02.2011
7.Michel Banabila "Eclipse"
8.Z'ev & Hati / live Laznia CCA 7.05.2011
9.Mats Lindström "Palats" / live in Laznia CCA 17.11.2012
10.Adam Donovan "Cycling robot" / live in Laznia CCA 1.12.2012
11.Robert Piotrowicz "Helsinki Live "
12.Feine Trinkers bei Pinkels Daheim / live in Laznia CCA 14.07.2012
13.Aki Onda "India Song, Paris, June 26, 2008" / 2012 " [label info]
Click the link below to listen to V/A In Progress 1:
http://palsecam.bandcamp.com/album/various-artists-in-progress-csw-a-nia
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
|
EXTRACT. Portraits of Soundartists |
BOOK // 2 x CD |
"Since we started the label Nonvisualobjects two years ago, many collaborations with artists worldwide have arisen, a large, growing network has evolved and an extensive body of work has been formed that we would like to explore and try to sum up. The book developed from the idea of presenting an extract of artists involved in the current experimental electro-acoustic music scene, often following a rather reduced approach in their work. We would like to present artists that work in different areas in this field of electroacoustic music, to cover a large spectrum even in this quite specific area.
With essays, interviews, photos, drawings and other materials presented in this book, we try to look at the motivation and intention behind the sound production from different perspectives, to possibly allow for a new/extended approach to this form of music.
Many of the artists involved in this project do not exclusively work with sound, but also in other artistic disciplines. In this book we would like to present these other sides of their work to allow crossreferences/crosslinks to open up new aspects of the music.
EXTRACT contains interviews, essays, photos, drawings and 22 tracks by: Keith Berry, Richard Chartier, Taylor Deupree, Heribert Friedl, Richard Garet, Andy Graydon, Bernhard Günter, John Hudak, I8U, Dean King, Dale Lloyd, Roel Meelkop, Will Montgomery, Tomas Philips, Steve Roden, Jos Smolders, Steinbrüchel, Nao Sugimoto (aka mondii), Asmus Tietchens, Toshiya Tsunoda, Ubeboet and Michael Vorfeld." [label info]
www.nonvisualobjects.com
|
2007 |
€36.00 |
|
|
70 Years of Sunshine |
do-CD |
"In 1943 a Swiss chemist accidentally absorbed through his finger-tips a tiny amount of a compound he was researching. Later, he recorded the effects in a journal - a document of the world's very first LSD trip: 'Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.' - Dr. Albert Hofmann - Sandoz Lab Report. 50 years later, in 1993 (the height of the Rave scene in San Francisco) Silent Records released a very special double CD set, curated and produced by Kim Cascone. This was no ordinary release - it was a stellar collection of music from artists paying homage to Albert Hofmann's very first LSD trip. '50 Years of Sunshine received many positive reviews and was praised for being a welcome tribute to the man who changed 20th century human consciousness with a single molecule. The musical homage to Hofmann struck a chord with the public, serving as a reminder to keep the doors of perception open and the creative imagination nourished. Given the bleak times we find ourselves in today, Cascone felt that another tribute to Herr Hofmann was in order. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first LSD trip, a batch of etheric lysergic soundscapes were contributed to this project by Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mother's Temple, Robert Wheeler of Pere Ubu, Legendary Pink Dots, Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound), Andy Rantzen (Pelican Daughter's), various artists from the Silent label and some newer sound artists as well. Consider '70 Years of Sunshine' to be a muchanticipated software update. One that will hopefully make your auditory operating system run smoother and more colorfully. With Kawabata Makoto, Lord Tang, Chihei Hatakeyama, Makyo, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Legendary Pink Dots, Ethernet, Invisible Path, Phil Legard, Andrew Liles, Rapoon, Komora A, (Darius Ciuta), Mike Rooke, Lonely Crowd, Mystical Sun, Mirt, Ceremonial Dagger, Cotton Ferox, Andy Rantzen." [label info]
www.monotyperecords.com
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
|
The Post Romantic Empire Album |
do-LP & 7inch |
"Doppel-LP auf schwarzem Vinyl mit Prägecover, bedruckten Innenhüllen und zwei Einlegern. Stell' dir vor, du könntest deine Liebllingsmusiker zusammentrommeln, um mit ihnen deine liebsten Songs (neu) aufzunehmen.
So kommen PETER HOOK, DAVID TIBET, ANNABELLA LWIN und DAVE BARBAROSSA, ANDREW LILES, MASSIMO PUPILLO mit vielen anderen zusammen, um die neue, psychedelische und ultimative Version von "Love Will Tear Us Apart" aufzunehmen.
Roger O'Donnel von THE CURE und JULIA KENT steuern ihre persönliche Interpretation von Tausendundeine Nacht bei.
Dies ist das ,Post Romantic Empire Album": ein Traum (der weitere Träume beinhaltet), gepresst auf Vinyl.
Das Album ist die Geschichte einer Idee, die von Stimmen erzählt wird, die weit auseinander liegen: vier Komponisten (Roger O'Donnell, Baby Dee, Matt Howden und Maja Elliott) wurden eingeladen, um Songs (neu) zu schreiben, die als potentielle Archetypen zeitgenössischer Musik ausgewählt wurden.
Jeder von ihnen lud weitere Musiker ein und sämtliches Material wurde von jeweils einem Produzenten (Roger O'Donnell, ANDREW W.K., Andrew Liles und Matte Spinazze) glattgeschliffen.
Mit dabei: Roger O'Donnell (THE CURE), Julia Kent (ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS), Maja Elliot (ex CURRENT 93), Gitane Demone (ex CHRISTIAN DEATH), John Contreras (ex CURRENT 93), Pueri Cantores Regina Nivis Chor, Matt Howden (SIEBEN), Peter Hook (JOY DIVISION und NEW ORDER), Nat Wason (NEW ORDER, THE LIGHT), David Tibet (CURRENT 93), Annabella Lwin (BOW WOW WOW), Dave Barbarossa (ex BOW WOW WOW), Vin Cassidy und Larry Cassidy (SECTION 25), Massimo Pupillo (ZU), Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND), Baby Dee (CURRENT 93), Little Annie Bandez (ex CRASS), Matt Sweeney, Matthew Robinson, Skip Shirley, Sarah Alden, Robbie Lee, Sarah Nowicki, Andrew W.K." [label info]
|
2013 |
€39.00 |
|
|
Art of the Muses |
CD |
"An experimental music compilation featuring ten female composers from Far East Asia (Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia). Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Aki Ito, Itta, Tomoko Sauvage, Kismett, Vavabond, Pei, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Tomoko Sauvage, Aki Ito, Verita Shalavita Koapaha, Luong Huê Trinh, Lau Mun Leng." [label info]
www.syrphe.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
30.2 - Electronica, Experimental and Noise from Africa |
CD |
"30.2 is an introduction to the contemporary African music scene : electronica, noise, experimental music, ambient... No cheezy world music or maintream pop here !
Omar Raafat (Egypt), Ynfl-X (Tunisia), Kwerk (Mauritius), Mehdi Halib (Morocco), Ujjaya (Madagascar/France), Victor Gama (Angola/Portugal), Patrick Lombe (Réunion), As Is (South Africa), Hohner Comet (Algeria)." [label info]
www.syrphe.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 3 (SOLD OUT) |
LP |
the NEW LP-series from Drone Records, dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies, pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Vol. 3: JIM HAYNES (USA), MANINKARI (France), KSHATRIY (Russia), EXIT IN GREY (Russia). stunning artwork paintings by British artist PETE GREENING, design by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS.
JIM HAYNES: psychogeographical drones of rust and decay.
This highly interesting sound-artist from San Francisco (also active as painter, label-manager, & writer) is focused on the unpredictable processes of rust & decay in connection with the perception of time. For his contribution "He stopped at a picture..." to the re-newed Drone Rec-series he is using field recordings from a world war 2 era radar outpost (located near the Golden Gate Bridge), combined with shortwave, motors, wire-tapping microphones, analogue electric sounds.. => a breathtaking experimental & raw drone-collage, full of tension & almost dramatic suction, sound of " psychic loss & american paranoia" (JIM HAYNES).
EXIT IN GREY: timeless natural drones.
The main project of Russian Sergey [S] from the Moscow-area (who is also active as FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC & SISTER LOOLOMIE) is mesmerizing the listeners since years with small & handmade editions of emotional daydream-drones, intuitively woven together with guitar, field recordings & analog synths. The long piece "Drawn by Memory/The Wind 2012" is a perfect example of his skills and creates with minimal instrumental & natural sound-sources an atmosphere of timelessness and nostalgia..
KSHATRIY : dark psychedelic (higher?) consciousness drones
KSHATRIY means 'warrior' in Sanskrit and expresses the artists believe in the universal power of sound. Hailing from the fascinating St. Petersburg scene in Russia comes this "fractal dark drone ambient' project, especially focused on cosmic/transpersonal consciousness themes - these "Shifting Waves" sound secretful & mysterious with a phantastic spatial sound-quality (open to both digital & analogue sound sources) for the perfect cosmic mind-movie.
MANINKARI : handplayed / instrumental trance drones.
This French duo (consisting of two twin-brothers from Paris) has blown us away with their captivating "handplayed" instrumental drone music, with influences from various styles like Jazz, Art Rock and Classical Music, combining improvisation and composition. Often based on percussion & strings, they look at their sound as a spiritual tool causing a disorder of the mind, a 'visible' transformation of the uncontrollable dreams & their own subsconscious. The two pieces "Enstase 1 & 2" sound at the same time subtle, airy and dense using a suprising instrumentation, and show impressively one of the possible new directions of drone music.
= four projects that differ considerably from each other, but united through the idea of the power of the Drone.
~ ~ The drones of their minds "materialized" ~ ~ The "intelligence" of drones materialized ~ ~
four vinyl-colours, each 125 x: WHITE & GREEN MIXED // BLACK // MIXED YELLOW RED // CHRYSTAL CLEAR & WHITE MIXED. design by Tilmann Benninghaus (Berlin) using bronce-colour & UV gloss
Mastered by Sergey Uak-Kib http://kshatriy.pro/
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Hassaniya Music |
LP |
"In 2006, Hisham Mayet returned to West Africa to continue his search for an unknown musician he had heard six months earlier on the radio in a Morocco hotel room. Knowing only that it was Sahrawi music — music of the south — he headed down through the vast and remote desert landscape of the Western Sahara and Mauritania in hopes of finding someone who could identify these revelatory recordings.
That artist was Group Doueh. But he also found much, much more as he wandered from Laâyoune, Western Sahara, to Mauritania’s capital city of Nouakchott: From intimate, sinuous home recordings by Group Marwani, to a sublimely devastating track by the enigmatic Abdul Rahman Al-Gheid, to the inimitable tidinit artistry of Sadoum Ouled Aida, the performers on this album exemplify the haunting and intoxicating qualities of Sahrawi music.
Featuring Mayet’s first recordings of the electrifying Group Doueh, as well as dizzying field recordings from Nouakchott’s Marché Capitale — where relentless traffic noise swirls together with fragments of melody from countless cassette vendors’ PA speakers— Hassānīya Music from the Western Sahara and Mauritania is the evocative soundtrack to a chimerical journey that is also documented visually in Sublime Frequencies’ breathtaking film Palace of the Winds. It not only traces Mayet’s own passage through these barren and beautiful lands, but also charts the evolution of Sahrawi music from sung poetry accompanied by traditional acoustic instruments to electrifying modern grooves drenched in reverb and phase effects. Limited edition pressing with Stoughton tip-on full color gatefold jacket." [label info]
www.sublimefrequencies.com
|
2013 |
€27.50 |
|
|
Epicurean Escapism II |
CD & DVD + book |
"On the occasion of the second Epicurean Escapism Festival 15th of June 2013 in Berlin a CD/DVD compilation was released, including a CD with exclusive tracks by the performing artists KE/HIL, POST SCRIPTVM, ANEMONE TUBE, DIETER MÜH and TREPANERINGSRITUALEN, a DVD by CON-DOM with super 8 short films and experimental movies created by Mike Dando in the 1980s to early 1990s and finally digitally restored in 2013 and a 20-page catalogue with essay and artworks by ALEX TENNIGKEIT, ANDREW LILES, CARMEN BURGUESS, DENNIS RUDOLPH, PHILIP BEST & RUDOLF EB.ER.
'Epicurean Escapism II' CD, playtime: 53 minutes:
1 Ke/Hil - Dark Germany 3:55
2 Anemone Tube - Apocalyptic Fantasy 3:20
3 Anemone Tube - Accumulations 8:44
4 Post Scriptvm - Leprous Driver 7:42
5 Trepaneringsritualen - Vanärat Är Ditt Namn 3:29
6 Trepaneringsritualen - End Of Flesh 5:10
7 Dieter Müh - Bethlehem 20:34.
Con-Dom - 'We Who Were Living Are Now Dying' DVD, playtime: 55 minutes:
1 Impressions of a System 6:12
2 The Coming of Christ 13:35
3 Our Pleasure In The Pain/Vilification 8:42
4 All In Good Faith 1 14:18
5 All In Good Faith 2 (Get Right With God) 6:52
6 Hunger For Death 5:57." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
|
INVENTIONEN VII : 30 Jahre Inventionen 1982-2012 |
do-CD & DVD-BOX |
"Ed. RZ 3006-8 2CD + DVD
INVENTIONEN VII: 30 jahre inventionen 1982 - 2012
Fünf Stunden elektroakustisches Material aus 30 Jahren Inventionen in einer Box aus zwei Audio-CDs und einer DVD.
ed. RZ 3006 DVD: MUSIK FÜR MEHR ALS EINEN LAUTSPRECHER
1 Jonty Harrison BEASTory 2010 · 8:09
2 Daniel Teruggi Sounding Landscapes 2007 · 18:06
3 Hans Tutschku Firmament - schlaflos 2010 · 20:23
4 Hans Tutschku Zwei Räume 2008 · 21:04
5 Francis Dhomont Le travail du rêve 2008/09, 2010, 2011 · 17:12
6 Gilles Gobeil Castalie 2008 · 10:41
7 Gilles Gobeil Les lointains noirs et rouges 2009 · 10:46
8 Scott Wilson Böse 2010 · 9:06
9 Kotoka Suzuki Automata - Mechanical Garden 2010 · 8:34
10 Hanna Hartman Measures of Control 2008 · 8:01
11 Richard Barrett Simorgh 2010 · 11:05
12 Pei-Yu Shi Movements 2010 · 3:55
13 Kees Tazelaar Zeitraum-Ort-Zeichen-Sterne 2007 · 19:41
14-17 Trevor Wishart Encounters in the Republic of Heaven, Akt 1-4
2010/2011 · 75:00
18 Iannis Xenakis Bohor 1962 · 21:31
19 Sukhi Kang Inventio - Musicae clavichordii et sonorum artificiosorum 1984 · 23:34
20 Rolf Enström Fractal (Videofassung) 1984 · 24:02
ed. RZ 3007 CD 1 (ed RZ 3002/3 LPs- ) INVENTIONEN
1 Bogusław Schaeffer Berlin 80 II (Tonbandfassung) 1980 · 13:18
2 Ricardo Mandolini Fabulas II 1980 · 10:25
3 Takehito Shimazu Zytoplasma 1980 · 10:46
4 Bogusław Schaeffer Maa'ts 1981 · 9:49
5 Rolf Enström Fractal (Tonbandfassung) 1984 · 22:54
ed. RZ 3008 CD 2 (ed RZ 3001 LP+) RICARDO MANDOLINI: Elektroakustische Musik
1 Estallido breve (Tonbandfassung) 1980 · 8:37
2 Juego de marionetas 1979/1980 · 9:43
3 El cuaderno del alquimista 1979 · 9:27
4 Canción de madera y agua 1981 · 8:27
5 Poema reiterado 1983 · 10:51
6 Elogio de lo efímero 2004 · 12:06
7 El silencio de un trueno (Ausschnitt) 2010 · 11:49
Gesamtspielzeit ca. 310 Minuten" [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2012 |
€29.00 |
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Gyalpo |
CD |
"Dedicated to the great protectors of our realm comes this tributary to the Four Heavenly Kings of Caturmaharajika. Four artists each provide an interpretation of one of the four guardian kings and their continuous efforts to ward off all evil that threatens our world. Expect longform ambient with a mysterious twist. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 16 page booklet.
All hail the purity and splendor of the four mighty protectors of our world. Tirelessly their eyes and ears guard the dominion of man and stave off evil intruders, demons and the grasping hand of death. Holding court on the lower slopes of Mount Sumeru, in Caturmaharajika, the mighty four each govern one of the cardinal directions, protecting the dharma and the virtuous.
Tracklist
1. His Highness Most Precious Lord Namthöse (15:06)
musical interpretation by A.P
2. His Highness Most Honourable Lord Chenmizang (13:39)
musical interpretation by Earth Vibration
3. His Highness Most Exquisite Lord Yülkhorsung (14:08)
musical interpretation by Mathias Grassow
4. His Highness Most Noble Lord Phakyepo (34:17)
musical interpretation by Indo " [label info / credits]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Smm: OPIATE |
LP |
"Vinyl limitiert auf 800 Stück im dicken Sleeve mit bedruckter Innenhülle. 'SMM: Opiate' ist der zweite Teil in der SMM Serie von Ghostly International, die eine Erforschung der weitreichenden Möglichkeiten des Sounds zwischen klassischem Minimalismus, Electronica und Drone, Soundtracks und zerbrechlichen Vorstellungswelten zum Ziel haben.
'SMM:Opiate' ist der Nachfolger zu 'SMM: Context' von 2011 und genau wie damals gesellt sich auch hier eine sorgfältig ausgewählte Selektion von Musik, die über zwei Jahre und die ganze Welt hinweg zusammengestellt wurde.
Als Ganzes ist die Erfahrung sicherlich ähnlich derer des Opiats aus dem Titel, doch tatsächlich ist dies eine Zusammenstellung, die den Hörer dazu einlädt, seinen eigenen Sinn zu finden oder einfach nur der Schönheit der Musik zu huldigen und der Welt für eine Weile zu entkommen.
'SMM: Opiate' versammelt Originaltracks von SIMON SCOTT, A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN, CELER, BLACK SWAN, JIM HAYNES, EN, PJUSK, FIELDHEAD und NOVELLER. //
SMM: Opiate is the second release in Ghostly's SMM series, which is an ongoing exploration of the evocative possibilities of sound, with a focus on classical minimalism, electronic and drone composition, film soundtracks, and fragile imaginary landscapes. Opiate is the follow-up to 2011's SMM: Context, and as with that record, it's a carefully chosen selection of music, compiled over some two years from around the world.
The record opens with Simon Scott's "Water Shadow," a luxuriant piece of beatless ambience that's like a wash of warm water or the first touch of the summer sun on your face after a long, cold winter. It's a warmth that doesn't last, though — "Ti Prego Memory Man," by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, is no less beautiful. It's a stately, alpine beauty, its chilly sounds a harbinger of things to come. Celer's "Nothing So Mystical" is more minimal still, while Black Swan's "Passing Heartbreak" brings whispers of humanity, its sound coalescing out of an atmospheric whirl of vocal textures.
The wryly titled "This Is Radio Sweden," by Jim Haynes, is all brooding background noise that's shot through with what sounds like an old-fashioned telephone engaged tone, a track that seems shot through with connotations of absence and loss. EN's "White" is both somber and somehow transportive, setting plucked chords from what sounds like a banjo over a glistening synth figure, while Pjusk's "Dorsk" slows to a sort of stasis, with only the faintest of basslines to indicate any sign of life. Fieldhead's "37th" is like a slow, mindful from such a reverie, and Noveller's "Bright Cloud Blooms" brings the cycle to a close with another brief flush of precious warmth.
As a whole, the compilation seems to follow a narrative arc, descending through a series of stages into near-complete stillness, and then slowly ascending back to where it began. As a whole, the experience is certainly evocative of the opiated sensation evoked by the record's title — but really, it's a compilation that invites you to find your own meaning in it, or simply to appreciate the beauty of its music and escape the world for a while." [label info]
www.ghostly.com
|
2013 |
€17.00 |
|
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United States Bestial Forces |
3 x CD |
"Do you know 50 power electronic bands? –So it looks as you are really familiar with the PE scene!
But do you know 50 US American power electronic bands?
If not LW064 Various Artists US. BESTIAL FORCES! unites really 50 pearls of US American power electronic bands:
F/I/T/H, Richard Ramirez, Genocide Lolita, Violent Pink, Deeper Wells, Frailty of Angels, Gnawed, Magia Nuda, James Balster, Deterge, Blood Rhythms, NYARLATHOTEP, R.S.P., Churner, RU-486 feat. Bereft, Koufar, His Throne, The Vomit Arsonist, Constrictions, Miscreant, Murderous Vision, Nyodene D., Cunting Daughters, Josh Hydeman, Goatlab, The Thin White Puke, Bitchneck, Corpuscle, Bereft, Klit, Hierchiss, Sharpwaist, False Flag, Xiphoid Dementia, Streetmeat, Corephallism, Pharmakon, Slogun, Rape-X features Missy Moist, Zulanwar, Custodian, Grammal Seizure, Striations, Steel Hook Prostheses, Mania, Blessed Sacrifist, Wolverine Carcass, Heavy Breathing, Secret Guilt, Machismo
A very nice mixture from older and younger American PE bands! So don’t miss it!" [label info]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
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Presque Rien |
CD-R |
"A score from Bruno Duplant : 'The water (what it contains) does almost nothing to the glass, and the glass (where it is) does not alter the water.' Francis Ponge, Le verre d'eau, 1948. With tracks from Ana Foutel, Barry Chabala, Brian Labycz, Bruno Duplant, Bryan Eubanks, D'Incise, Dafne Vicente Sandoval, Daniel Jones, Darius Ciuta, Delphine Dora, Dimitra Lazaridou Chatzigoga, Dominic Lash, Ernesto Rodrigues, Eva-Maria Houben, Fergus Kelly, Ferran Fages, Gil Sansón, Grisha Shakhnes, Iliya Belorukov, Jamie Drouin, Jez Riley French, Johnny Chang, Jonas Kocher (with Dafne Stefanou), Joseph Clayton Mills, Julien Héraud, Jürg Frey, Keith Rowe, Lance Austin Olsen, Lee Noyes, Lucio Capece, Massimo Magee, Michael Pisaro, Paco Rossique, Paulo Chagas, Pedro Chambel, Philippe Lenglet, Rachael Wadham, Ryoko Akama (with John Bryan), Simon Reynall, Stefan Thut, Travis Johnson and Vanessa Rossetto." [label info]
rhizome-s.blogspot.pt |
2013 |
€11.00 |
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Wandlungen Unplump |
CD |
"Die elfte DEGEM-CD erscheint in einer Zeit der Umbrüche und Verunsicherungen. Nachdem nach wie vor keine Klarheit herrscht, was elektronische, was elektroakustische Musik ist, nicht einmal, wie man sie buchstabiert, kommt nun weiterer Klärungsbedarf dazu. Das geistige Eigentum wird in seiner Existenz angezweifelt, nicht einmal der Begriff "Musik" ist noch klar. Der Hang zum Konzeptualismus bedingt, dass alleinstehende Tonkunst als "autonome Musik" bezeichnet wird.
Eine Audio-CD zu veröffentlichen, erscheint in einer solchen Zeit als Anachronismus; doch dieser Eindruck trügt. Die DEGEM erfährt zur Zeit eine Art Verjüngungskur.
Auch diesmal gibt es Erläuterndes zum Titel der Produktion "wandlungen unplump". Diesmal allerdings in Form eines Hörstücks, das am Anfang der Trackliste steht.
Gesamtspielzeit 55:35 min.
[01] Michael Hoeldke:
wandlungen unplump Intro
[02:12]
[02] Stefan Schulzki:
Everything (LiedII)
[08:30]
[03] Denise Ritter:
Outer Shell
[09:06]
[04] Robert Henke:
Nebenläufiger Prozess
[07:14]
[05] Ralf Hoyer:
Residual Risk
[15:15]
[06] Brian Smith:
Nine, Eleven, Twenty-two
[06:30]
[07] Julia Mihály:
Scape_1
[06:48] " [label info]
www.editiondegem.de
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
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Tincture of Japanoise |
CD |
"While Merzbow plays museums and ‘noise’ becomes increasingly canonised in ‘high culture,’ this compilation proves that the underground, countercultural Japanese noise scene is still very much alive and kicking. Noisician ORiFiCE, who also curates the noise-oriented Rollator Series on the attenuation circuit label, has been a keen follower of Japanoise for many years. For this album, he has assembled a range of younger artists from Japan whose pieces display an exhilarating freshness and showcase the great variety of approaches that is covered by the umbrella term ‘noise.’ The great surrealist/punk collage cover was created by established noisician Government Alpha.
“Frustrante oso polar!”, the opening track by Abisyeikah, clearly establishes noise as anti-music: samples of marching bands and other similarly traditional music are sonically destroyed with distorted guitars and computer-game beeps. Sounds like machinegunning reactionary composers at a game arcade, which is to say: a lot of fun! Zr3a also opens his track “Dr. Strangenoise” with a very famous sample … and goes on to desecrate it thoroughly. A great track with a great deal of humour, just as, thankfully, most of the tracks here are self-consciously playful and indulging the bliss of noise instead of rehashing the by now overly familiar poses of cultural pessimism. “Bean” by Naoki Nomoto has a more abstract take on noise. Its feedback and glitch-type sounds created with an analog synthesizer are faintly reminiscent of more academic electronic music. “LxDxP (Love Dream Peace)” by Ememe goes in another direction with its rhythmic quasi-techno noise, a real headbanger. Elma pays tribute to the classic Japanoise sound as defined by Merzbow with the hissing, harsh “(In)Tolerance?” The next piece makes for one of several interesting contrasts that the album offers thanks to ORiFiCE’s clever sequencing of the tracks: “Grandblue” by Hedoromeruhen gives evidence to the territory shared by noise and (free) jazz while taking the piss out of some softer sides of music along the way. With “Gainful Heart Amen Noiser” by Zpore Zpawn, we launch into the finish of the album, in which samples of classical music collide head on with hectic, energetic harsh noise in overdrive. The final track by Jah Excretion is titled “Sleep Garden” – a programmatic title in so far as this piece gives evidence to the (apparent) paradox that the noisiest music can sometimes be the most meditative and soothing." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
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2014 |
€8.00 |
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15 Poems by Franz Kafka |
BOOK & do-CD |
"We are pleased to present this unique double release produced by our label along with the "Own Editions" publishing house, the translator Olga Roschina, the illustrator Daniil Grazhdankin and a number of musicians from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Odessa. The first part - the "15 Poems by Franz Kafka" book - is the first ever bilingual illustrated edition of all known Kafka lyrics (in German and Russian). The second part is the musical compilation based on the material of this book.
As it turned out Kafka's works and their atmosphere are close to musicians from very different cultural layers. It's the point where many musical styles interwine: radical chanson and neofolk, female choir and collage electronics, post-industrial and dark ambient, rampant neoclassic, minimalistic improvisation and post-rock. The compilation features I. Belorukov, A. Popovskiy + D. Sorokin + B. Shershenkov, Pustotsvet, N. Sudnick, UtrovortU, Uhushuhu, Chumaho DRU, Bardoseneticcube & Chivadeshe, Eject, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Majdanek Waltz, Monocube, Sal Solaris, Sequoian Aequison, The Tune 3.0." [label info]
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/releases.html
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
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BALI 1928, Vol. II : Tembanf Kuna - Songs From An Earlier Time |
CD |
"Vol. II in a five-disc series of 1928 Balinese recordings features Balinese vocal music, the first release of these recordings since they were first pressed to 78 rpm discs in 1929, the only commercially released recordings of music made in Bali before World War II. Originally recorded by a team from the German labels Odeon and Beka on a 1928-29 expedition to Bali and intended for a Balinese public that lacked any discs of its own music, many of these records have been reduced to single remaining copies by the ravages of time -- when the labels' (European) merchant in Bali destroyed the original discs in a fit of rage due to a complete lack of sales. Now, after a decade of global sleuthing, World Arbiter has located a surviving copy of every known vocal disc that escaped destruction, even one slumbering under a pile at an east Balinese raja's palace. The unaccompanied singing has been restored to the point that the listener is practically sitting inside the masters' throats to experience their microtonal miracles. The lyrics, fully translated, some from the archaic Old Javanese language and included in the liner notes, reveal intensely urgent erotic, mystical and romantic meanings. These extensive notes are supplemented with a 110-page PDF including an in-depth essay by Edward Herbst, contained on the disc and available online. Arbiter will continue to release its complete recovery of 111 three-minute sides, with five discs planned for the series, and a complete anthology to follow. Fully funded by a grant from The Andrew Mellon Foundation. Includes performances by Ida Bagus Oka Kerebuak, Ida Boda, Ni Dayu Madé Rai, Ida Bagus Ngurah, Ni Lemon, and the duo of Idu Bagus Wayan Buruan & Ida Madé Tianyar." [label info]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
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Epicurean Escapism I |
CD & DVD |
"Right on time for the third Epicurean Escapism Festival in Berlin, The Epicurean & Silken Tofu release another compilation, which is not a mere reissue of the previous Epicurean Escapism I tape/DVDr set released in 2012, but comes with new & exclusive tracks by IRM, KRANK, JARL as well as a collaboration track by HUMAN LARVAE & ANEMONE TUBE. Apart from this, the set includes a DVD with collected video works by IRM mastermind MARTIN BLADH and a 24-page catalogue with essays and artwork by the same artist. Luxurious 6 panel 21 x 15 cm folder, 24-page catalogue, printed on matt image paper with dispersion varnish and packaged in a transparent, sealable bag. 350 copies." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
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Insane 80's [EV01>EV10] |
CD |
"An outcome of 10 limited 7inch EPs inspired by the 1980s and with a strong focus on rare belgian forgotten gold, we can hardly believe it ourselves....
....Vinyl hunting, running our own label, DIY-fanzines, organising live gigs, home-taping, mail-art, and loads of strange physical mail, it was all part of our 1980s music history, all for the sake of our individual creativity, not to mention our addiction to underground music in the first place! We can even still recall the smell of those lovely indie vinyl stores!
Unfortunately not every artist made it onto a vinyl record, apart from the lucky few.
So the cassette popped up as a convenient release format, be it in a much more obscure environment....
Now here it is, a tribute CD to our (mostly OOP) 7inch series, far from complete but compiled with love and respect! All of the artists presented here deserve to be heard by a bigger audience. Special thanks to all of you who took part!
Including the full version of "80s Compilation EP" (EV07) and 5 bonuses previously released on tape only!
Liner notes by Peter Vercauteren | Gonzo (circus).
File under: minimal wave, minimal synth, synth-pop, 80s." [label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
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Nostra Signora delle Tenebre |
do-LP |
"There was a time in Italy when movies did not suck. Or at least, when they sucked, they did it in a graciously peculiar way.
Alongside the world-famous auteurs (the Fellinis, the Viscontis, the Bertoluccis), there was a plethora of lesser known, critically unappreciated directors, often mockingly called cinematografari, frantically tackling (and twisting) every kind of movie genre: western, comedy, thriller. For some reason, they excelled especially in their wild, sick take on horror and crime dramas – and music played a big role in these successes.
Classically trained composers like Ennio Morricone and Stelvio Cipriani rubbed shoulders with former pop stars-turned-soundtrackers like Nico Fidenco and Pino Donaggio and together happily immersed themselves in the muddy waters of this cinematic swamp, creating their own distorted versions of the funk, psychedelia and beat rock canons. The aberrant results were then applied like thick make-up to equally mind-boggling, malevolent, highly stylized movies from directors like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or schlock uebermeister Joe D’Amato.
For a brief period it worked at the box office too.
“Nostra Signora delle Tenebre” is a tribute to that extraordinary, by-gone era now apparently forgotten in Italy too. It is a tribute to the gloriously adventurous soundtracks of maybe somehow less glorious horror and giallo flicks – movies that anyway retained a decidedly Italian flavour, a bizarre mix of nasty violence, lurid sexuality and feverish Catholic mysticism, all filtered through a manic obsession with death, blood and the sins of the flesh.
At the same time, this album is a way to celebrate a small but thriving national scene, generally labeled under the admittedly lazy banner of “Italian occult psychedelia” and championed by the likes of Simon Reynolds and Julian Cope while at the same time getting growing interest from music magazines, with several features on The Wire, Vice, Fact Magazine, Tiny Mixtapes, Foxy Digitalis etc.
“Nostra Signora delle Tenebre” gathers together almost all the best bands in the scene: groups like Michael Gira’s favourites Father Murphy, Lay Llamas and Mamuthones (now both on Rocket Recordings), Heroin In Tahiti, Cannibal Movie and Jennifer Gentle, probably the best known Italian indie band abroad and whose “A New Astronomy” album is considered a forefather of the genre.
We asked these bands to revive some of our favourite horror and giallo soundtracks from the 60’s and the 70’s. They did it in their own way, and it sounds good.
Limited (FIRST) edition of 500 copies of which 100 copies as special edition available through Backwards only, and 400 on black vinyl (as standard edition).
Second pressing of 500 copies on violet vinyl.
Tracklist:
Heroin In Tahiti “Nuda per Satana” (A. Baldan Bembo)
Lay Llamas “Palude” (L. Michelini)
Second H. Sam “Gli ultimi cannibali” (N. Fidenco)
Lamusa “Tourist trap” (P. Donaggio)
Edible Woman “Magic & Ecstasy” (E. Morricone)
Mai Mai Mai “Sette note in nero” (Bixio – Frizzi – Tempera)
Jennifer Gentle “Chanson de la Nuit” (E. Macchi)
Slumberwood “Toby Dammit” (N. Rota)
Mamuthones “The Thing” (E. Morricone)
Gianni Giublena Rosacroce “Incubo sulla città contaminata” (S. Cipriani)
Beautiful Bunker “L’aldilà” (F. Frizzi)
Cannibal Movie “Sans espoir” (B. Nicolai)
Father Murphy “L’alba dei morti viventi” (Goblin)
OVO “Nuda per Satana” (A. Baldan Bembo)
Maria Celeste “Cento campane” (Fiorentini – Grano)" [label info]
www.backwards.it |
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Phra Rahu |
do-CD |
"A long time coming, we have worked zealously to present this offering to the dark entity known as Rahu. A vast demigod with a strong worldly influence, Rahu's might is perhaps best illustrated in his devouring of the sun, causing the Earth to sit in his dark shadow. We have assembled this dark mantra from material both new and old, creating a deep tribute featuring several of the profile artists of gterma. Massive double album in a jewel case with 16-page booklet." [label info]
gterma.blogspot.de
"Body in Sweden and soul soaring over the Himalayas, the gterma label is a lotus of ambient electronica, blossoming regularly ever since 2011, each album released in a format that does the otherwise tired old jewel case format proud – there´s always a booklet swollen with the breathtaking (mostly landscape) photography of its “tertön“, mr_rehn. As individual as the particular peaky-ness of every mountain peak, each is its own gateway into the mandala of a personal but shareable universe.
Phra Rahu is a sprawling, double disc overview of the label´s feel. There are some stunning exceptions to the usual expectations, perhaps in light (or rather, “in shadow”?) of its dedication to a dark deity and the legendary tale woven about its most devious act. The twelve pieces are almost all previously unreleased, except a trio from other labels; another three were specially created for this anthology.
Rahu is a demigod from Hindu mythology, whose might is such that he once devoured the sun. Each disc is a chapter dedicated to his story, the first entitled “Eclipse Event,” opening the volume with the suitably mood-setting gothic sweep and distant banshee howls of “Premonitions”, the first of two contributions by Last Industrial Estate bookending “The Black Hand Reaches Out” by Parikrama & The Newschubert, in which light bristles and flares against the darkness. That “hand” is otherwise the only human touch to this opus; Phra Rahu is a cosmic event, witnessed only by the windowless monads drifting in space. Space is said to abhor a vacuum, yet especially as we drift toward the close of the first chapter, this music creates an absolutely luscious one.
Due to the monolithic time signature (a full eighty minutes per disc) it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish where one artist leaves off and the next is ushered in, so one can only take an educated guess when “The Devouring of the Sun” by LiST has drawn to a close and “Tormented Lands” by Seetyca & Etheocles Stevens commences. The rise of a dharma trumpet would seem to signal the beginning of “The Intervention of Lord Vishnu Part I & II” and ceremonial drumming seems to be telegraphing its approaching end, before the breathy, twinkling ambience of Mathias Grassow, credited with the last section, “Mohini the Enchantress”, becomes distinguishable against blackened heavens. Ultimately, attribution is irrelevant and what´s more, a credit to the seamless arrangement of the compiler.
The second chapter, “Rahu Mantras” rolls out like one long, numinous but multivalent drone joining five pieces contributed in turn by A.P. (Anders Peterson, who also masters most gterma productions and appears earlier in the guise of Last Industrial Estate), eco-ambient veteran Mathias Grassow and Jiří Mazánek, Grassow solo, Earth Vibration and New Zealand´s David Parsons. Long airy and beatless, it shimmers like a mirage and pit-a-pats on tiptoe in the middle, after which it opens slowly and magnificently, like the maw of Rahu gaping, sun reemerging, pushed by tablas and solar winds.
Phra Rahu is an awesome, perfectly paced astral journey, anything but meditation music, an instar struggling toward surface and light.
gterma´s discography is an utter pantheon of thoughtfully executed, Subcontinental-inflected ambient, divulged lucidly in word and sound here. A personal favourite is the superior and mystic dub ambient of Urenga (Andras Kiss, who contributes to Phra Rahu as Indo), whose only physical releases among a shoal of digital albums have appeared with the gterma imprint. Mu (The Lost Continent) is pure Shangri-La, while After Rain is humid and kir-coloured." [Cyclic Defrost]
|
2014 |
€19.50 |
|
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DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 5 |
LP |
DRONE-MIND // MIND DRONE - Volume 5
The series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music.
"In an era when so much content is driven by personality, we offer instead the challenge, or the respite, of interacting with sound on its own terms." [CLADE,]
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series, with artwork based on huge paintings by British artist PETE GREENING. Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive and understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume FIVE (MIND-05) is OUT NOW (Oct. 2016) and features:
GYDJA ҉ CLADE,
MONOCUBE ҉ YRSEL
GYDJA: (New Zealand) Enchanting female drone esoterica by an artist who is also known through her stunning artworks for COLD SPRING and other labels. Through magnetic winds and metallic clouds the long track "Gjallarbru" creates a wonderful secretful and sensitive atmosphere; very lonely and frosty, like a cold and clear consciousness released on a high mountain, on top of the world...
CLADE, (Scotland / USA) Named after a notion taken from biology science (=Monophylum), this duo is based in Scotland and USA, alluring with very focused minimal drones on so far four releases. The two tracks presented here stand out with their use of somehow refractional, fibrous sounds, placed on monotonus drones with a very sedative and insistent effect...
MONOCUBE: (Ukraine) This "ethereal drone" discovery from Ukraine moves musically through endless spaces, creating choral-like aural clouds and strange melodies => self-supporting drones with an incredible width, when even the smallest particles of concrete microsound encountering are exciting, entering into a heavenly "song of the sirens" choir..
YRSEL : (France) Another bi-national project is this French-Swedish collaboration of JULIEN LOUVET (2:13 PM, etc.) and C-J LARSGÅRDEN (ONDO),who released three albums so far. Their track "Krstnhmnbrtncrt" consists of very heavy, swallowing drones with atonal elements coming to the surface, diffus and poisonous but also lulling you into a deep (dead) sleep., slowly drowning in dense humming waves of cryptic drones...
SOLID SILVER COLOURED VINYL, graphic design by ABBY HELASDOTTIR, using two paintings by British painter PETE GREENING (www.redbubble.com/people/petegreening); limited ed. of 400 copies
listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records order: www.dronerecords.de
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Now it's dark: DAVID LYNCH tribute |
CD |
"Now It's Dark: David Lynch Tribute" is an album made by Russian experimental sound artists dedicated to the famous film director and musician David Lynch, and produced by the kultFRONT label with the support of Zhelezobeton Distribution Division... The idea of a tribute to Lynch first appeared when Sal Solaris recorded the track "With Me" for "The Black Square" compilation (KF-VI, 2006), using samples from the movie "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". The digital EP "Lynch" featuring compositions by Tsaraas, DMT and Bardoseneticcube (KF-XVII, 2012) followed several years later but only now the time has come for a full-length album... Eleven projects from the Russian dark underground scene have presented their own visions of the mysterious and meditative atmospheres pervading the works of the American tenebrous genius: Reutoff, Light Collapse, Dvory, Skripp, Wunderblock, Relic Radiation, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Sal Solaris, Arcuation, Povarovo and DMT... Overall sound mastering was done by Arnold_pR (Reutoff). Artwork of the 6-panel digipak features a fragment of the painting "Special Agent Gorgon Cole" by Chris Mars. The edition is limited to two hundred copies.
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
PYRE |
CD |
A Cold Spring label sampler, presenting 15 tracks of industrial, esoteric, dark ambient, ritual, Japanese noise, drone, power electronics, doom, death industrial and experimental sounds. Unearth the world of Cold Spring! Sealed card slip. TRACKS: 01. Troum - Outer Brain Outsourcing (Excerpt) 02. Khost [Deconstructed And Reconstructed By] Godflesh - Inversion 03. La Breiche - Le Mal Des Ardents 04. Skullflower - Furfur 05. Penny Rimbaud's L'Académie Des Vanités - What Did You Know, What Did You Care? 06. Tunnels Of Ah - Purging Process 07. Sutcliffe Jugend - Howl (Edit) 08. TenHornedBeast - All Fled (Excerpt) 09. Sun Ra | Merzbow - Granular Jazz Part 4 10. She Spread Sorrow - Crushed On The Pillow (Excerpt) 11. Coil - Fire Of The Mind 12. Common Eider, King Eider - A Wisp Of Smoke, And Salem Burns (Excerpt) 13. Trepaneringsritualen - All Hail The Black Flame 14. Henrik Nordvargr Björkk / Margaux Renaudin - Sunyata 15. Dave Ball · John Savage - Dead Neon |
2016 |
€4.00 |
|
|
National Crime History |
2 x MC |
“Belgium is a swamp, a boggy yet fertile ground in which new emergences are never clearly shaped but subtle, drifting just below the land’s muddy surface. They often remain hidden in the midst of a complex ensemble that is often made of chaos and opposition rather than order and harmony.” (Yannick Franck)
From the North to the South of Belgium, a new generation of artists are connecting the dots between classic Belgian Industrial/EBM and the contemporary electronic scenes that have emerged worldwide these last years. A ‘New Belgian Industrialist Movement’ that freely combines elements such as distorted atmospheres, analog pulsations or mantric rhythms, lingering in the grey area between experimental techno and post-industrial music.
National Crime History is a compilation curated by Belgian labels Silken Tofu and Idiosyncratics, both known for crossing borders and disregarding genre limitationsIt features Icon Template, Ripit, Onrust and Orphan Swords. The fact that these entities are now joining forces should come as no surprise. They have a long history together on many levels and now emerge as a collective that has been taking shape over the years.
Double tape edition of 150 copies (incl download).
Digital release available via https://silkentofu.bandcamp.com/album/national-crime-history" target
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ONRUST's electronic mindfuck is influenced by 80's rhythmic industrial, 90's underground techno and 00's psyched out drones & mantras. Active for now two years she has quicky become one of the most remarkable acts in the new Belgian industrial techno scene. After several releases on some notable Belgian labels, her first 12” vinyl ‘Luthuli/Tagore‘ was released in 2015 on Silken Tofu.
ORPHAN SWORDS focus on massive beatmaking, throbbing industrial soundscapes and wild live action. Their music has been released on Instruments Of Discipline, Desire Records, Clan Destine, Idiosyncratics and +Nurse+.
ICON TEMPLATE provides raw industrial hypnotism and mindblowing techno rhythms. It expresses a rebellion against the established order by instilling chaos and feed the conscious perceptions of its dark sides. After its first release on An Der Grenze in 2015, Icon template has performed in venues and festivals such as Bozar Electronic Art Festival (BEAF) or FUSE.
RIPIT began his music career as a black metal guitar player. Yet he has quickly developed into a radical electronics act, unveiling noisy and psychedelic rhhythms based on primitive synthesizer use. Nowadays his music has complexified, tending to beat micro-surgery and orchestral bombast. He extensively uses modular synths, ol’time drum machines and no-input mixers to create dancy acid music, plunging the crowd into a magma of electric textures.
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Mastering by Nicolas Esterle at Ångström Mastering, Brussels
Photography by Yannick Franck
Design by Silken Tofu
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2017 |
€13.00 |
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DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 7: OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA, MYTRIP, SKELDOS, SPECIMENS |
LP & CD |
...finally a new issue in our "drone-explorers" LP-series, for the first time with full bonus CD!
Featuring: SKELDOS (the new drone-melancholia phenomenon from Lithuania), OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA (Prague - incredible dense and tight drone waves with scientific approach - full length/different version of their piece on the bonus CD), enchanting guitar/field recording drones from London based SPECIMENS, and MYTRIP from Bulgaria continues his mission to create timeless expanses of pulsing, spectral synth drones..
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE - Volume 7 LP + CD
The series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music.
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds.
A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series, with artwork based on paintings by British artist PETE GREENING.
Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive and understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume SEVEN (MIND-07), for the first time with full bonus CD, is OUT NOW (05/2019) feat.:
SPECIMENS ҉ SKELDOS ҉ MYTRIP
OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA
Behind SPECIMENS we find the London based ambient/drone artist Alex Ives. His productions pull together delicately arranged but often highly driven cassette loops, synth layers and field recordings as well as often employing wider instrumentation such as organ drones, guitar swells & saxophone hidden beneath the noise. Two excellent LPs have been released so far on his own label First Terrace Records and SVS Records.
Alex Ives also co-hosts a monthly experimental radio show on Resonance Extra.
For MIND-07 we present three shorter SPECIMENS pieces: these raw, somehow perforated drones with lots of atmospheric noise remind on PETER WRIGHT or early TIM HECKER, creating a truly absorbing mood.
SKELDOS: This "drone-melancholia" phenomenon (active since 2011) doing "abstract, longing, flowing soundscapes with tender touch of a distant melody" from Lithuania breathed out one long track that befogs everything in sadnesss and emotion, built on waving sounds from accordeon, voice and other instrumental sources, slowly unfolding into multiple layers. The title of the track "Byra" means 'falling' or 'crumbling' and is encrypted through this fragmented sentence: "...or listening to the things you have barely touched falling... (sls.III)", coming from a never-ending sentence which was started with the first SKELDOS album.
MYTRIP from Bulgaria has been characterized by Tiny Mix Tapes with the phrase "ambient music as a weapon" and is surely standing at the forefront of the vivid electronic/ambient/drone scene there, active since about 10 years with the AMEK label. Two tracks of swirling and pulsing spectral synth drones show the newest development of the project, founded on "more melody-driven and textural soundscapes, where blurry rhythmic patterns meet with organic field recordings, found sounds and deconstructed instrumentation."
OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA: Something very special is also the last act on MIND-07, O.P.O. from Prague, with a 12min. 'especially mastered for vinyl'-version of 'Creeping Waves', the FULL version (70 min.) of this piece is placed on the bonus CD. An incredible dense and steadily fluctuating drone expansion, based on the Creeping Wave theory, applied to acoustic phenomena: "According to the principle of diffraction, when a wave front passes an obstruction, it spreads out into the shadowed space. A creeping wave in electromagnetism or acoustics is the wave that is diffracted around the shadowed surface of a smooth body such as a sphere. Creeping waves greatly extend the ground wave propagation of long wavelength (low frequency) radio. They also cause both of a person's ears to hear a sound, rather than only the ear on the side of the head facing the origin of the sound. In radar ranging, the creeping wave return appears to come from behind the target."
cover-art by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS using two paintings by British artist PETE GREENING
Edition of 400 copies on TURQUOISE coloured VINYL. Mastering by PETER ANDERSSON
listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records order: www.dronerecords.de
Title: DRONE-MIND//MIND-DRONE Vol. 7
Track title Track time
Track 1 SPECIMENS - Broken Beams 5:16
Track 2 SPECIMENS - First Flight 3:58
Track 3 SPECIMENS - Over the Great Island 3:35
Track 4 SKELDOS - Byra 10:42
______________________________________________________________
Side B
Track title Track time
Track 1 MYTRIP - Death is my Heaven 4:24
Track 2 MYTRIP - I stood still 6:59
Track 3 OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCH. - Creeping Waves III 12:00
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2019 |
€18.00 |
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Turritopsis Nutricula |
LP |
Tracklist
A1 –Laurent Fairon Marée Nocturne
A2 –Cody Brant & Kommissar Hjuler Und Frau FOKUOUKO 9000
A3 –Magnús Pálsson Forn
A4 –Louis Jucker Cello St Medoc
A5 –Paul Fuchs & Zoro Babel Artoxin
B –Mama Bär 23XX / 23Xy
LP in series Fluxus +/-, limited to 65 copies. LPs in black vinyl with black labels.
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2018 |
€22.00 |
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Die Rückkehr in Parallel-Meeseversum (2. Kepler-452b Pre-Sequel) |
LP |
Tracklist
A1 –Frank Drake (2) Interstellar Radio Message Sent To Globular Star Cluster M13 From November 16th, 1974
A2 –Jürgen Schneider (5) & Softday RMXfallout
A3 –Vrillon / Ashtar Galactic Command Message To Mankind From November 26th, 1977
A4 –Jonathan Meese DR. NOANGSTEA'S DORIAN Scarlettierbaby's Revolutions Parfum: DICTATORSHIP OF ART (Suessesuessesuesse, You (Mr. Majestickx On The Run Loganfox))
B1 –Kommissar Teotihuacán Und Die Gefiederte Schlangenfrau* fRagenta K'inich Janaahb' Pakal
LP in the series FLUXUS +/-, limited to 74 copies, numbered. LP appears in black vinyl with black labels. Pair and impair copies appear with different backsides. Co-release with Edition Kepler-452b.
Some copies appear with handmade changes for backside and/or frontside by Kommissar Hjuler, some copies are signed.
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2018 |
€23.00 |
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Shared Meanings |
12inch |
In celebration of Mumdance’s massive ‘Shared Meanings’ mix, this sampler 12” revolves exclusive highlights including Mumdance & Logos’ seminal ‘Teachers’ alongside zingers from Nkisi, Peder Mannerfelt, Caterina Barbieri and Space Afrika
On a dance tip, Mumdance & Logos pay tribute to a Chicago convention on ‘Teachers’, listing a roll- call of influential UK artists, DJs, labels and clubs in a style most famously deployed by Daft Punk, while Nkisi comes fiercely correct with the swingeing Congolese techno rolige of ‘Kinega’, and Peder Mannerfelt does his inimitable, mutant rave thing on ‘Over My Face’.
But they’re only one aspect of the 12”, leaving the plonging modular navigation of ‘Molecular Illusion’ by Caterina Barbieri, and the golden ambient deliquescence of Space Afrika’s piece to speak to the contrasts and breath of Mumdance’s mix and his lushly dark vision of modern dance music.
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2018 |
€15.00 |
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Terässinfonia Vol. 1 |
CD |
"Terässinfonia - Steel Symphony: Sound of Finnish experimental noise.
For 25 years Freak Animal Records has published countless releases by Finnish artists. Activities of label has played part in shaping perception how many people see the Finnish noise and experimental underground. Despite vast amount of releases, label has never given full view that would reveal diversity of expression found among Finnish scene.
After quarter of century of work, Freak Animal aimed to take a task of compilation series under title Terässinfonia. To present Finnish noisy and abstract experimental sound in wider scale. Assumption is, that there would be at least three volumes, if not more. All volumes include many projects unknown for vast majority of people. Series will illuminate that Finland is at this moment experiencing surge of creativity on this field, even if it may happen widely unnoticed.
VOL1:
Umpio ”junkdive”
Kitu ”Edeema”
Tyhjä Pää ”Acetone”
Hazarda Bruo Sonsistemo ”loishäätö”
Atrophist ”Mutation Cycles”
Unclean ”Mental Deprivation”
Edge of Decay ”Anomalia”
H.Ö.H. ”Mittausteknologian kehittyessä”
Jazzhand ”Gavia Arctica”
Rotat ”Guts”
Junkyard Shaman ”Harha”
Contortus ”Pristine”
Metsäkirkko ”ihmisen jälkeen”
https://www.nhfastore.net/terassinfonia-1
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2020 |
€8.00 |
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Terässinfonia Vol. 2 |
CD |
Terässinfonia – Steel Symphony: Sound of Finnish experimental noise.
For 25 years Freak Animal Records has published countless releases by Finnish artists. Activities of label has played part in shaping perception how many people see the Finnish noise and experimental underground. Despite vast amount of releases, label has never given full view that would reveal diversity of expression found among Finnish scene.
After quarter of century of work, Freak Animal aimed to take a task of compilation series under title Terässinfonia. To present Finnish noisy and abstract experimental sound in wider scale. Assumption is, that there would be at least three volumes, if not more. All volumes include many projects unknown for vast majority of people. Series will illuminate that Finland is at this moment experiencing surge of creativity on this field, even if it may happen widely unnoticed.
VOL2:
Nuori Veri ”Jatkumon Ahjo”
Parempi Ratkaisu ”Ali-ihmisten kärsimys”
AMEK MAJ ”Miksei”
Toteslaut ”strike the master sword”
Maskhead ”Tormented Pleasures”
Vitun Siat ”ole eläin”
YANA ”Tuntematon”
Circle Of Shit ”fake decoupe orgasm”
Ahola & Silander ”Koitos”
Electric Hobo ”Pripyat”
tyhjiø ”aurinko”
found from : |
2020 |
€8.00 |
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F/EAR THIS! |
BOOK + 2 x CD |
"F/Ear This!" was originally a double album compiled at the end of 1986 and released in 1987 by PEACE, a completely informal gathering of ziners, activists, musical groups and small Italian record labels which included Blu Bus (Franti, etc.), Particolare Music (Plasticost), Rockgarage, Trax (Vittore Baroni, Piermario Ciani, etc.), UT / Communications (Giacomo Spazio), Catfood Press (Marco Pandin) and Tunnel Records (Detonazione).
Marco Pandin was responsible for collecting the material. The idea for the title was born from Vittore Baroni, who also assembled a 28-page A4 booklet using some of the graphic art sent to him by some of the various musicians participating to the compilation, and adding images taken from the Trax archives. "F/Ear This!" was released on vinyl and on cassette. All the proceeds were destined to support "A/Rivista Anarchica" anarchist magazine.
"It was decided to not reveal the list of participants on the cover: this was not going to be a 'regular' compilation. The idea behind "F/Ear This!" was to put together - asking for help from friends musicians, graphic artists and poets scattered all around the planet - contributions connected, or somehow linkable, to a common theme: "fear". Fear was something we all lived and shared, like being poisoned and feeden black bread on a daily basis: let's do something then, let's protest, let's turn the volume up. We tried to spread the news and rally, to pass the word and share the sense of alarm.
The work done then was digitally reproduced, respecting its integrity as much as possible. The audio was restored from the original reels and cassettes, and some tracks which were originally left out were added. The new layout includes a 48-page 8" booklet with original artworks and also some new works done for this edition.
store.silentes.it/catalogue/sn202001.html
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2020 |
€20.00 |
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Institute of Sonology 1959-1969 |
do-LP |
Early electronic music from 1959 to 1969 produced by the Institute of Sonology / Instituut voor sonologie, in Utrecht, Holland. Imagined with the great help of Konrad Boehmer.
BRAND NEW FORMS
These electronic works, composed between 1959 and 1969 at the Institute of Sonology by Dick Raaymakers, Frits Weiland, Ton Bruynel, Konrad Boehmer, Gottfried Michael Koenig and Rainer Riehn, are raw material similar to what Mego could release today. We need to reflect on this period - the revolution of the fifties and sixties - and understand that what was done then was elaborated without a base - ex nihilo - a music produced by machines designed to construct the new.
FROM THE PHILIPS PAVILLION TO THE INSTITUUT VOOR SONOLOGIE
Officially founded on September 1, 1960, at the instigation of several people representing cultural institutions, the institute of sonology, had already taken initiatives in the field of electroacoustic music since 1954. A large complex of studios (initially under the name STEM = STudio voor Electronische Muziek) was set up under the patronage of Utrecht university in an old house on Plompetorengracht in Utrecht University; and the instruments and tapes (among them, that of Varèse's "Electronic Poem") of Philips laboratories' (important to remember the mythic Philips Pavillion in the Brussels's fair in 1958).
NOTES ON 5 RADICAL COMPOSERS
DICK RAAIJMAKERS was born the 1th of september 1930 in Maastricht. He studied piano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. >From 1957 to 1960 he joined the Studio for Electronic music at Philips in Eindhoven.
FRITS WEILAND was born in 1933, enjoyed a technical as well as a musical education. After working for the Dutch radio and television broadcasting system, he worked from 1961 to 1990 for the Institute for Sonology.
TON BRUYNEL (1934-1999) The realisation of 'Reflexen' took place at the Institute of Sonology and in the composer's private studio. Bruynèl has written numerous works for tape and for tape and live instrumentalist.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/institute-of-sonology-early-electronic-music-1959-69
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2019 |
€19.50 |
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BRÜSK II - A Compilation of Harsh Noises |
MC |
"BRÜSK" is an equivalent to the german word "harsch" which means something like "scurrilous or filthy. between the tracks you can find voice samples with verbal insults chosen by "Grubenwehr Freiburg"
German Review by "African Paper":
Die Grubenwehr Freiburg, Qualitätsgaranten origineller Geräuschmusik, bringen ein neues sechzigminütiges Tape mit sehr unterschiedlichen Beiträgen aus der Welt des Harsh Noise heraus, bekannte Acts wie The Haters, Carsten Vollmer, Torturing Noise und Bruital Orgasme stehen neben (uns) unbekannteren wie XSchlund, Mai12, SupError, Suport Unit, Dosis Letalis, K.M.A. vs. C.O.C. oder Der verlorene Faden. Unsere Anspieltipps: Outros Outro “Abgestellt”, Flutwacht mit “Grobschloßer” und Der Smogwürger mit seinem Lush Noise-Track “Barfuß durch Hiroshima”. Damit wären alle genannt. Das Artwork stammt von dem Künstler und Illustrator Matthias Kauz, das Layout übrnahm Labelbetreiber David "Grodock", Fotos von Cut-up-Arbeiten Vollmers liegen den Kassetten bei. Vom Label heißt es: “BRÜSK” is an equivalent to the german word “harsch” which means something like “scurrilous or filthy. between the tracks you can find voice samples with verbal insults chosen by “Grubenwehr Freiburg”. Das Tape erscheint in einer Auflage von 50 Exemplaren.
C60 Tape by Grubenwehr Freiburg. Comes with three cards with Fotos of Cut up works by Carsten Vollmer. Cover Art by Matthias Kautz. Layout by Grodock
https://grubenwehrfreiburg.bandcamp.com/album/br-sk-ii-a-compilation-of-harsh-noises |
2020 |
€8.00 |
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PRSNT (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin, Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian, Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah) |
LP + BOOK |
‘PRSNT’ is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21 st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed untitled tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.
The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information
online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.
Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno’s famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.
‘PRSNT’ acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution or “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of
digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners’ busy lives, which are often spent tackling
ever-increasing workloads.
The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, and Lafawndah.
incl. writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Bazar and François J. Bonnet, and images from Wolfgang Tillmans, Joel Meyerowitz, Juergen Teller, Araki, Jack Davison, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Dani Pujalte, Elizaveta Porodina, Adrià Cañameras, Larissa Zaidan, Zhong Lin and Javier Tles among others
Design by Marc Monguilod
Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker
https://modernobscuremusic.bandcamp.com/album/prsnt
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2021 |
€55.00 |
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DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 8: AUME, K. ISHIGAMI, HIROSHIMABEND, BALDRUIN |
LP |
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume EIGHT (MIND-08) is OUT NOW (11/2021) feat.:
KAZUYA ISHIGAMI ҉ AUME ҉
HIROSHIMABEND ҉ BALDRUIN
Drone on! We're finally back with a more 'pulsative' and post industrial-influenced issue, presenting the following artists: KAZUYA ISHIGAMI (*1972 / Osaka / Japan) is a prolific composer, engineer, sound designer and performer active for many years (also under the name DARUIN), with broadcasts of his works around the globe. His track 'Clean2020' works on the theme of 'memories" and is based on the idea to accept and acknowledge even the painful memories to reach a state of ease and to transform the subjective past...
AUME is the duo of SCOT JENERIK (23five Inc. / Mobilization Records) and ALEPH OMEGA (ex CHROME), from the US west coast, both also active in F-SPACE before, creating stunning audio-visual 'immersion dark ambience" with true archaic energy..
HIROSHIMABEND (aka 'puppy38') hails from Austin, Texas but has been based in Vienna for many years now, and has impressed with many long-form works in the field of electronic / esoteric emanations, mostly self-released via Opiumdenpluto. He is also active as a visual and mastering artist...- "Listening to the music of hiroshimabend has been likened to swimming in a milky lake of black ink."
BALDRUIN is a German project with a very electronic and musical edge. His pieces appear to be like excursions into a (bad) fairy-tale world.. - "well constructed cosmic ambient-scapes with a dark psychedelic / cinematic / surrealistic touch; when strange voices, subtle percussion and whistling noises enter the scenery.."
Let your MIND be surrounded by adventurous sonic landscapes - organic repetitions as coming from a ghostly otherworld, oriental field recordings, layers of pipe organ-like drones, mysterious electric ether-potentials etc..- "Vier feine Synapsenputzer machen einem mal wieder so manches klar.." [Bad Alchemy}
cover-art & mastering by puppy38 using two paintings by British artist PETE GREENING
https://www.saatchiart.com/Pete_G
Edition of 400 copies on VELVET PURPLE (solid purple and solid red mixed) coloured VINYL.
listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records order: www.dronerecords.de
basic concept:
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE - Volume 8 LP
The series shows the various sides of today's experimental drone-music
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series, with artwork based on paintings by British artist PETE GREENING.
Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive and understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
#########################################
"Würden Drone Records den Begriff, der von Beginn an so etwas wie ihr Motto werden sollte, enger fassen, dann wäre ihre Reihe “Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone” wahrscheinlich auf viel weniger Interesse gestoßen und vielleicht sogar eine kurzweilige Angelegenheit geblieben. Stattdessen setzte das Bremer Label von Beginn an auf eine Idee des Drone, die, wie es in einer früheren Besprechung bereits zitiert wurde, pars-pro-toto für verschiedene Arten der Vibration und der Freisetzung von Energie im buchstäblichen wie im übertragenen Sinne stand. Und so sind auch auf dem gerade erschienenen achten Teil der Reihe wieder vier Geheimtipps aus drei Kontinenten vertreten, die die Dröhnung als eine Art verbindendes Element gemeinsam haben, diese jedoch in ganz unterschiedlichem Maß und auf unterschiedliche Art mit anderen Aspekten verknüpfen.
Bereits in der Ankündigung hieß es, dass die neue LP pulsierender ausfallen und Einflüsse des Post-Industrial aufweisen sollte, und den Opener “Clean2020″ des aus Osaka stammenden Sound Designers Kazuya Ishigami kann man da bereits exemplarisch anführen. Der Track, der sich mit dem Thema (auch schmerzhafter) Erinnerugen und ihrer Akzeptanz befasst, entwift ein über zwölf Minuten langes, ansatzweise episodisches Narrativ, das mit Samples und zahlreichen Effekten ein veränderliches Stimmungsbild entwirft. Das an Zikaden (vielleicht nicht nur) erinnernde Zirpen zu Beginn zieht sich durch weite Teile des Stücks, lässt ein durchaus angenehmes Alltagskolorit entstehen, doch ein zwiespältiges Gemisch anderer Sounds – mechanisch anmutendes Klappern, beklemmende Hochtöner, Vögel, das Dudeln einer versteckten Melodie – kommt hinzu, und da die eizelnen Sequenzen in ihrer Dauer und Veränderlichkeit kaum vorhersehbar wirken, ist eine der zentralen Stimmungskomponenten Spannung.
Ein ähnlich veränderliches Soundpanorama entwirft das amerikanische Duo Aume – namentlich Scot Jenerik und Aleph Omega aus dem F-Space-Umfeld. Ihr Beitrag wirft die auditiven Antennen mit rauem Knarren in die Mitte eines Geschehens, dessen Richtung man in den Sprachsamples und dem industriellen Hantieren zunächst noch nicht ausmachen kann. Während es unablässig reibt und schabt und knackt und ein unterschwelliges Dröhnen immer mehr anschwillt und irgendwann den ganzen Raum ausfüllt, treiben die Stimmen einen merkwürdigen Schabernack, scheinen wie Schafe zu blöken, bis alles in Kriegsgeschrei mündet. Doch in der zweiten Hälfte bekommt der Track noch einmal eine überraschende Wendung und prescht mit monoton-rhythmischer Perkussion dem Horizont entgegen.
Insgesamt ist die zweite Seite um einiges “schöngeistiger”. “Puppy38″ des in Wien lebenden Amerikaners Hiroshimabend beginnt mit entrückten Orgelsounds, in die sich ein undefinierbares Summen mischt. Just wenn sich eine hypnotische Wirkung einstellt, setzt eine eindringliche Melodie ein und entführt den entsprechend angefixten auf einen Trip durch einen imaginären Raum voll mit plastischen, knisternden, vibrierenden Sounds und etwas, das wie menschlicher Atem klingt. Hier scheint jede Raumwahrnehmung (bzw. Projektion) so unsicher, das sich kaum sagen lässt, ob die so entrückt anmutenden Sounds nicht doch der Sog eines abgründigen Höllenschlundes sein könnte. Rituelles Pochen holt den Hörer zurück auf vertrauten Boden, wo ein beruhigender Abspann erfolgt.
Baldruin ist das Projekt des deutschen Künstlers Johannes Schebler, der auch musikalisch – sowohl solo als auch mit seiner Band Diamantener Oberhof – sehr umtriebig ist. Seine drei etwas kürzeren Track offenbaren eine Schlagseite in Richtung Psychedelic und World Music eine weitere Facette offenbaren. Fast wie eine perfekte Miniatur führt das mit mollastigen Bläsersounds (einer Duduk?) beginnende “Die Katakomben von Tesco Libra” mit entspannten Handdrums zu einem kleinen Höhepunkt hin, kein Ton ist hier zu viel. Elektronischer und von einer gefahrvollen Spannung durchzogen mutet “Verstecken” an. Die schöne Loungemelodie, die einen mit Lärm, basslastigem Knarren, fiesen Hochtönern und Stimmen gefüllten Raum in einen Traum aus Plastik verwandelt, reizt fast zu einem NWW-Vergleich. Das abschließende “Klima und Psyche” dagegen zeigt Baldruin hier von seiner folkigsten Seite und lässt die Sammlung mit tremolierenden Bläsern, Saitenpicking und klapperden Handdrums in wehmütiger Heiterkeit – falls es so etwas gibt – ausklingen.
Es scheint, als würde dem Phänomen Drone vielerorts eine große Ausschließlichkeit angedichtet: Musik ist entweder Drone oder nicht, und wenn, dann ist sie nur dies. Tatsächlich aber kann Drone sehr unterschiedliches bedeuten und in sehr unterschiedlicher Musik eine Rolle spielen – eine Rolle, die keineswegs an Bedeutung einbüßt, wenn sie ein Aspekt unter mehreren ist. Drone kann den Aufbau einer Musik gestalten, ihre Materialität prägen, eine Musik hypnotischer machen und ihr Rückgrad verleihen, und immer besteht eine starke Wechselbeziehung zwischen dem Dröhnen und dem suchenden, repziperenden und interpretierenden Geist. Dies unter der Formel “Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone” zu vereinen, ist auch beim achten Teil ein starkes Argument gegen alle, die behaupten, Drone hätte sich über die Jahre totgedröhnt." [U.S. / African Paper]
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2021 |
€16.00 |
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The Harmonic Series Volume 2 |
3 x LP |
"A collection of long-form works in just intonation by Kali Malone, Duane Pitre, Catherine Lamb, Tashi Wada, Byron Westbrook, and Caterina Barbieri. Each artist occupies an entire side of the collection's three LPs. Curated by Duane Pitre, Important Records returns with its second volume of compiled works in just intonation. The Harmonic Series Volume 2, issued as a triple-LP collection, features a series of long-form compositions by six of the most important emerging voices of contemporary experimental music. Unlike equal temperament, which equally divides an octave into 12 fixed notes, just intonation utilizes intervals of whole number ratios to determine tonal positions. It results in a highly individualized tonal language and holds the potential for more nuanced relationships and striking, sympathetic resonances. Rooted in ideas that trace their way across the last 2500 years, just intonation lays at the foundation for numerous Indian, Persian, and East Asian musical traditions. It was reintroduced into western music during the 20th century by composers like Harry Partch, Ben Johnston, Lou Harrison, James Tenney, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young. An interest in just intonation has continued to swell following the appearance of The Harmonic Series in 2009 inspiring Pitre to curate a second compilation. Kali Malone's "Pipe Inversions" -- played by Malone on a small pipe organ, joined by Isak Hedtjärn on bass clarinet -- belongs to a larger body of microtonal organ works that have increasingly placed the composer at the forefront of contemporary minimalism and drone music. Across the length of Duane Pitre's "Three for Rhodes" -- a chamber piece for "unknown instrumentation" - deconstructed rhythms and melodic fragments swell in a dance of harmonic interplay, rising and falling within the work's engrossing architectural complexity. Catherine Lamb's "inter sum" -- one of a tiny number of available works to encounter the composer and renowned violist working on synthesizer -- endeavors to break the visualization of harmony as a vertical reality, rendering it multidimensionally in space. A canon for eight-violins played by Marc Sabat, Tashi Wada's "Midheaven (Alignment Mix)" -- guided by the internal logic of its tuning system -- shape-shifts into an elegantly poetic form of musical conceptualism. Byron Westbrook's "Memory Phasings" -- composed and recorded on a combination of computer controlled modular synthesizers and a Yamaha TX802 -- employs the ratios of just intonation as harmonic building blocks for texture. Deploying just intonation as a means for psycho-physiological exploration, Caterina Barbieri's "Firmamento" -- composed for synthesizer -- deftly intervenes with the expectations of minimalism, durational music, and drone. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity." [press release]
"Emerging during the early years of the new millennium, over the last two decades Important Records has slowly grown into one of the most important imprints in the landscape of experimental sound; a vehicle for historically important works by artists like Arnold Dreyblatt, Christina Kubisch, Ellen Fullman, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Catherine Christer Hennix, Phill Niblock, and numerous others, as much as a platform for a constantly evolving cast of emerging artists at the forefront of the contemporary scene.
Their latest, The Harmonic Series Volume 2, is a crystalline vision of the monumental ambition and artistry that lays at the label’s heart. Curated by Duane Pitre and stretching across an astounding 3 LPs, it looks toward the future of just intonation - the ancient tuning system that lays at the foundation for numerous Indian, Persian, and East Asian traditions - collecting long-form compositions by six of the most important voices in contemporary experimental music: Kali Malone, Catherine Lamb, Tashi Wada, Byron Westbrook, Caterina Barbieri, and Pitre. Vast in scope, immersive, and overwhelmingly beautiful from start to finish, if there’s a compilation to grab this year, this is the one. Words fail to describe how good it is.
Dating back millennia, since its reintroduction into Western music by composers like Harry Partch, Ben Johnston, Lou Harrison, James Tenney, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young, just intonation has maintained a devoted following within the context of experimental music. Utilizing intervals of whole number ratios to determine tonal positions, chosen by a composer, its origins rest in an attempt to mirror the natural behavior of sound within music.
Often resulting in highly individualized modal scales with nuanced relationships and striking, sympathetic resonances, just intonation offers the potential for a radically expanded range of creative possibilities that are largely unavailable within equal temperament, the tuning system most commonly encountered within music today.
Back in 2009, this led the composer, Duane Pitre, to curate the first Harmonic Series compilation, presenting a multi-generational suite of works by Ellen Fullman & Theresa Wong, Michael Harrison, Pauline Oliveros, Charles Curtis, and numerous others.
Over the years since, interest in the system has continued to swell, witnessing numerous younger artists deploying it in diverse ways, offering Pitre a new chance to explore the subject on even more ambitious terms.
The Harmonic Series Volume 2 comprises brand new works by six of the most important emerging voices of contemporary experimental music - Kali Malone, Catherine Lamb, Tashi Wada, Byron Westbrook, Caterina Barbieri, and Pitre - offering each artist a full side of the collection’s 3 LPs, carefully curated to activate intertwining sequences and relationships between the works.
Beginning with Kali Malone’s Pipe Inversions - played by the author on a small pipe organ, joined by Isak Hedtjärn on bass clarinet - blankets of long tones unfold within shimmering harmonics and rich rhythmic and melodic sequence, before settling into Duane Pitre’s sublime Three Simples for Rhodes - a chamber piece for ”unknown instrumentation” - built from deconstructed rhythms and melodic fragments that swell in a dance of harmonic interplay within the work’s engrossing architectural complexity.
From here we depart into the singular world of Catherine Lamb’s Inter Sum, a rare instance of the renowned violist working on synthesizer, that channels its materiality from her own environmental field, filtered by the synth, to highlight the subtle tonalities and harmonics that often lay unnoticed in the natural world, setting the stage for the deep, enveloping tension that unfurls across the length of Tashi Wada’s Midheaven (Alignment Mix), a canon for eight-violins played by Marc Sabat, where two mirroring, overlain realizations of the composition - one moving forward as the other simultaneously moves backward - slowly converge toward a crescendo of dissonance, with striking harmonic interplay and delicate overtones guiding the way.
The final LP in the collection is graced by a work Byron Westbrook, before concluding with a psycho-physiological exploration by Caterina Barbieri. Westbrook’s Memory Phasings, composed and recorded on a combination of computer controlled modular synthesizers and a Yamaha TX802, stunningly deploys harmonic blocks of texture and long-tones within structures of rapid appreciations and carefully balanced punctuations, that culminates as a shimmer vision of abstraction in sound.
Barbieri’s Firmamento then brings us full circle, concluding the second instalment of the Harmonic series with graceful subtlety introduced by Kali Malone, with a striking effort of durational drone composed for synth.
Resting on the shoulders of an ancient tradition, Important’s The Harmonic Series Volume 2 - through truly visionary works by Malone, Lamb, Wada, Westbrook, Barbieri, and Pitre - paints a wondrously optimistic image of the future of the approach, not to mention experimental music at large.
Issued as a triple LP, cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity, housed in a heavy duty, single pocket sleeve with printed inner sleeves, it’s impossible to recommend enough. Easily one of the most exciting releases of the year and not to be missed." [Soundohm]
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2021 |
€45.00 |
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Strain, Crack & Break Vol. 2 : Germany |
do-LP |
With his ongoing commitment to like-minded archivist label Finders Keepers Records, industrial music pioneer Steven Stapleton further entrusts us to lift the veil and expose “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary and oft misinterpreted psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List. Following the critically lauded first instalment and it’s exclusively French tracklisting both parties now combine their vinyl-vulturous penchants to bring you the next Strain Crack & Break edition which consists of twelve lesser-known German records that played a hugely important part in the initial foundations of the list which began to unfold when Stapleton was just thirteen-years-old. From the perspective of a schoolboy Amon Düül (ONE) victim, at the start of a journey that commenced before phrases like kosmische and the xeno-ignant Krautrock tag had become mag hack currency, this compendium is devoid of the tropes that united what many would accurately argue to be the greatest progressive pop bands in Europe (namely CAN, Neu! and Kraftwerk) and rather shatters the ingredients across a ground zero landscape for both inquisitive fans and socially rehabbing musos to begin to assemble a unique self-styled identity. If Krautrock was the music that journalist told us lurked behind schlager (German pop) in the 1970s, then this record includes the music that skulked behind Krautrock and perhaps refused to polish its backhanded name belt. Including lesser-known artists like the late Wolfgang Dauner whose career proceeded and outlived the kosmische movement while consistently informing and outsmarting ‘em whenever they got stuck in their metronomic ruts, or how about Fritz Müller, the man who was to Kraftwerk what Stuart Sutcliffe was to The Beatles but had more in common with Yoko and quite rightly couldn’t give a shit about the Fab Four’s Hamburg roots. Elsewhere we have a plethora of German bands made for German audiences as they try and shed second hand flower power Americanisms and feel the benefits of much harder drugs and the realisations of difficult second album budgets while Kommune 1 newsflashes wipe smiles from everybody’s faces and replace them with opioid chic or acid-sarcastic grins. Bonzo Cockettes show us their Big Muffs and drummers ask for extra mics while Conny Plank goes for parliamentary office and gives babies good firm hand shakes for the camera. Strain Crack & Break Volume Two is the sound of Steve Stapleton’s sponge-like mind and the dividends of anyone who was brave enough to even peek inside those brick-thick gatefold covers never mind drop the needle, with tracks by Mr. and Mrs. Fuchs (aka Anima-Sound) who played their instruments completely naked throughout their anti-career alongside previously unpressed tracks by the scene’s leading Detroit-born African American drummer Fred Braceful who’s band Exmagma officially had the coolest record sleeves and track titles of ALL TIME (Torpedo Tits? Yes Please!). From an era where it was embarrassing to go into your local record shop and hum the tune over the counter, well that young lad Steve Stapleton was braver than that, and besides, these tracks are unhummable and at times unutterable. Did somebody in the crowd shout out for Joel Vandroogenbroeck! Good luck with that one. Stapleton is sharing. Even Stevens.
Over forty years since Nurse With Wound’s first album was released, Finders Keepers Records and Steve Stapleton take connoisseurs of OUR kind of music, back to the disused elevator shaft towards ground zero. Arrriving at the same checkout from different departments, Finders Keepers and Nurse With Wound continue to sing from the same hymnal with this ongoing collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from Steve’s list, where many overzealous nerds have faltered (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick). After Strain Crack & Break Volume One merely scratched the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities, our second lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium drives a much deeper groove, which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of German origin - the country whose music forged the prototype of the NWW inventory in the form of his secondary school vinyl want-list in the early 1970s. Comprising of disassembled free jazz, unshowered stoner psych, hypnotic prog, deranged monk funk and fuzzed out Deutschmark bin bonzo beats this second volume of the series throws us straight back in the deep end, putting the Bad in Baden and the odour in The Oder with little need for cheap Cologne.
Willkommen to another forgotten plateau found beneath the psychedelic underground, as Steve Stapleton and Finders Keepers dig new tunnels through the fabric of your vinyl wish-list, these German records are heavy, so find Solid Ground or watch you floorboards Strain Crack & Break before your bloody ears.
https://finderskeepersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/strain-crack-break-music-from-the-nurse-with-wound-list-volume-two-germany
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2021 |
€27.50 |
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FLUXUS & NEOFLUXUS: STOLEN SYMPHONY |
do-CD |
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/fluxus-neofluxus-stolen-symphony-vol-1
This album features pieces by (in alphabetical order): Eric Andersen, John Cage, Henning Christiansen, Bengt af Klintberg, Milan Knízák, Opening Performance Orchestra, Terry Riley, Mieko Shiomi, Yoshi Wada and La Monte Young. The musicians and performers Anna Clementi, Agnese Toniutti, Deborah Walker, Werner Durand, Luciano Chessa, Miroslav Beinhauer, Petr Bakla, Nicolas Horvath, Petr Ferenc and Premysl Ondra have played, performed and declaimed the Fluxus pieces, Arditti Quartet and S.E.M. Ensemble provided one piece from their archives. Milan Knízák, Petr Rezek, Petr Kotík, Olaf Hanel, Eric Andersen, Per Brunskog, Peter van der Meijden, Pavlína Morganová, Natasha Lushetich, Joseph Nechvatal, Natilee Harren, Martin Patrick, Diedrich Diederichsen, Christopher M. Reeves and Hubertus von Amelunxen have written Fluxus-themed texts. Archivio Conz in Berlin provided access to their extensive Fluxus archives and Edizioni Conz provided co-production. Ursula and René Block made possible the realisation of John Cage's historical composition 'Rozart Mix' from the Edition Block archive. The photographic material comes from Marie Knízáková and Milan Knízák's private archive, the German photographer Wolfgang Träger, Archivio Conz's Fluxus archive and Opening Performance Orchestra's digital archive. The cover themes are paintings by Milan Knízák, while the graphic design is the work of Jaroslav Buzek. The whole release is produced by re-set production. The LP edition contains 18 pieces, new and old, live and studio, finished pieces and scores to be performed, acoustic and classical, solos and pieces for ensemble, using classical and special instruments. SIDE 1: 0. John Cage - 0'00'' (1962) (solo to be performed in any way by anyone) 0:00 1. La Monte Young - Compositions 1960 #15 to Richard Huelsenbeck (1960) 4:39 (Agnese Toniutti, piano) 2. Milan Knízák - DKH Quartet (edit) (1973) 4:40 (Arditti Quartet) 3. Henning Christiansen - Wolfsflöte (1986) 4:00 (Werner Durand, wind) 4. Giuseppe Chiari - Metodo Teorico E Pratico Per Suonare Il Violoncello (1962) 7:43 (Deborah Walker, cello) 5. Milan Knízák - White Process (from the cycle 'Processes Mainly For The Space Of Mind) (1978) 0:46 (Petr Ferenc, voice) SIDE 2: 1. Dick Higgins - Emmett William's Ear (1977) 9:40 (Agnese Toniutti, piano) 2. Henning Christiansen - Sturmsax (1986) 3:34 (Werner Durand, wind) 3. Milan Knízák - A Chromatic Scale In Countermovement (1971) 2:04 (Miroslav Beinhauer, broken piano) 4. Giuseppe Chiari - Gesti Sul Piano (1962) 4:40 (Luciano Chessa, piano) 5. Yoshi Wada - Lip Vibrator (1973) 2:24 (Ostravská Banda & Audience) 6. La Monte Young - Composition 1960 #7 (1960) 1:19 (Nicolas Horvath, piano) SIDE 3: 1. Eric Andersen - It Isn't Bad (2021) 1:05 (Eric Andersen) 2. Eric Andersen - Opus 1961 (1961) 5:29 (Miroslav Beinhauer & Petr Bakla, piano) 3. Bengt af Klintberg - Triad No.1 (2021) 5:10 (Werner Durand, bottles) 4. Mieko Shiomi - Imaginary Garden No.3 (2009) 7:38 (Miroslav Beinhauer, piano) 5. Terry Riley - Shoganigidi #1 (2021) 3:18 (Miroslav Beinhauer, broken piano) 6. Milan Knízák - Material Events (from the cycle 'Processes Mainly For The Space Of Mind') (1978) 1:28 (Premek Ondra, voice) SIDE 4: 1. Opening Performance Orchestra - Stolen Symphony (2021) 21:25 (Opening Performance Orchestra, electronics)
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2023 |
€20.00 |
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Музыкальное Приношение (Musical Offering) |
CD |
listen:
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/musical-offering-csr326cd
Available on CD (or any other format) for the first time outside USSR, five Soviet composers perform their works on the legendary ANS synthesizer.
Recorded in 1971, "MUSICAL OFFERING" is 6 tracks (42 mins) of experiments on the unique machine by: Eduard Artemiev (2 tracks), Oleg Buloshkin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, and Alfred Schnittke.
"MUSICAL OFFERING" demonstrates a 'musical' machine unlike any other and has long fascinated cutting edge, modern electronic composers, notably COIL and THE ANTI GROUP COMMUNICATIONS (TAGC) / CLOCK DVA, that have both released recordings utilising the ANS.
Try to imagine a score sounding by itself without a conductor; an orchestra without musical instruments. This magic is possible by using the musical ANS synthesizer. Created by Soviet scientist Evgeny Murzin over the course of 20 years, ANS is an instrument with which a composer can not only create but also draw their music without notes. You can see the twinkling of different lamps, the rotation of grooved glass discs... The drawings on the glass are 'sounding notes'. To listen to the drawn picture, press the button and a wonderful transformation will begin.
Inside the ANS are five rotating glass discs with 144 tones printed (by hand) on each one. Light is projected through the discs and onto photovoltaic cellbank which converts the light into electricity and sends signals to the ANS's amplifiers and bandpass filters. The ANS can generate 720 tones this way and, unlike a human musician, play them all at the same time.
Murzin dedicated his photoelectronic apparatus to Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, hence the name ANS. Scriabin, the creator of the 'Poem of Ecstasy', and a famous explorer of synesthesia, used in his works a highly chromatic, new type of harmonic style designed to express his beliefs, views and wishes. Soviet music lovers will already know recordings made on ANS from Tarkovsky's films Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker, Konchalovsky's film Siberiade, and others.
Presented in a digipak with the new artwork by Abby Helasdottir (who also created the compelling promo video), complimenting the ANS process perfectly.
Officially licensed from Russian state label Melodiya.
Watch promo video (YouTube): bit.ly/Musical-Offering
Copyright © – ВТПО "Фирма Мелодия" (Melodiya)
All-Union Recording Studio. Recorded in 1971.
Recording supervised by Юрий Богданов
Mastered by Martin Bowes at The Cage
Track listing:
1. OLEG BULOSHKIN - \'Sacrament\' (3:32)
2. SOFIA GUBAIDULINA - \'Vivente-Non Vivente (Alive And Dead)\' (10:44)
3. EDUARD ARTEMIEV - \'Mosaic\' (4:05)
4. EDUARD ARTEMIEV - \'Twelve Looks At The World Of Sound\' (12:53)
5. EDISON DENISOV - \'Birds\' Singing\' (5:04)
6. ALFRED SCHNITTKE - \'Stream\' (5:57)
######################
"A new batch of Cold Spring CDs, and I must say... At least with one of them, they stole my mathematic sound nerdish heart. "Musical Offering" is a sampler with Russian composers using the ANS, probably entirely up to its limits. Two tracks by Eduard Artemiev and one track each by Oleg Buloshkin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke. I only knew about Artemiev on this list because of his movie soundtracks. So to hear his work without a movie and, of course, images of empty landscapes, a brutalist-themed forgotten society and demise and a void enter my head, but fair is fair: all images were in colour. Nothing bleak or grey but the richness of the ANS is all over the place.
So for those who don't know what an ANS is all about, it's a Russian synthesizer designed over 20 years by Evgeny Murzin, and there is only one. It works with drawings on glass plates and devices that transform light into voltages, and those voltages create sounds. The glass discs spin, and well ... Wiki / YouTube is your friend here. Many artists have worked with the ANS, including Coil, The Anti Group Communications. Yes, [law-rah] also used original sounds from the ANS on their split with Cisfinitum (released on Fario). Maybe working on that release is the reason why I have a personal
weakness for this machine. I just couldn't get over how rich the sounds were that we got to use. Sure: A completely different thing than Coil being in the museum and drawing on the discs and us 'just' working with some recordings one of the museum guys did for us. Yet still ... I was impressed then, and I'm still impressed now.
For this disc, I am keeping the review smallish. Why? Because you already know if you are a) interested in neo-classical compositions by Russian composers. If you are, you will get this release and not be disappointed. It's as simple as that. If you are b) a nerd who loves different forms of synthesis like me, this album is one to consider. Because it's very varied and shows a lot of the ANS in 'its original environment': Russian composers on a Russian synth, and if you are c) curious about composition techniques, this will break your mind. Because from the ritualistic rhythmic parts in "Sacrament" (by Buloshkin), the 'voices' in "Vivente-Non Vivente" (by Artemiev) and the birds and frogs in "Birds Singing" (by Denisov), can you tell what is the origin of the sound? Is it a bird? Is it a recording? Or is it super ANS?
For me, it's not one of those reasons to love this album, and it's d) all of the above." [BW / Vital Weekly]
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2023 |
€15.00 |
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Terässinfonia Vol. 6 |
CD |
Terässinfonia - Steel Symphony: Sound of Finnish experimental noise.
For 25 years Freak Animal Records has published countless releases by Finnish artists. Activities of label has played part in shaping perception how many people see the Finnish noise and experimental underground. Despite vast amount of releases, label has never given full view that would reveal diversity of expression found among Finnish scene.
After quarter of century of work, Freak Animal aimed to take a task of compilation series under title Terässinfonia. To present Finnish noisy and abstract experimental sound in wider scale. Assumption is, that there would be at least three volumes, if not more. All volumes include many projects unknown for vast majority of people. Series will illuminate that Finland is at this moment experiencing surge of creativity on this field, even if it may happen widely unnoticed.
VOL6:
Commando 15, Axyrxiom, Old Intestines, Isä Kosminen, Kaarna, Grunt, Näsiä, Yksi.
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2023 |
€12.00 |
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The Last Dossier |
CD |
"There are many labels out there that deal with the past. Often one specific part of the past. Polish label Impulsy Stetoskopu deals with the obscure part of the noise end of the cassette world. The first disc here is a compilation of Polish underground music from the very early 80s. Obviously, I like to be able to say, 'good that we hear about this stuff, as I know it's great stuff, being old and such', but that is not the case. On the top of my head, I can't think of no Polish industrial act or label from the 80s, which is hardly a surprise with the iron curtain firmly shut. On 'The Last Dossier' we find Artur R. Sztukalski, Krzysztof Kudla (of whom I learned now I had heard music on a few compilations, two of which are from the Netherlands; I don't think I made the connection to Poland), The RED SHOES, Rana and Ars Sonitus. I have no evidence to support my theory, but outside the official academic studios, it must not have been easy to get great equipment to make some home-brew noise music. The music here supports that notion. Especially the Kudla pieces are prime examples of some very low-resolution cassette loops, and also the radio sounds collage by Sztukalski is something in that vein. Some delay, cutting up radio sounds, like so much was conducted in the first half of the 80s. Rana's live piece is more akin to power electronics and is where this compilation is at its noisiest, along with Ars Sonitus. The two pieces by The Red Shoes, from 1989, are a remarkable step up in the world of technology and are sadly a bit too short. Ars Sonitus has the most recent track, from 1991-1992, so this compilation follows in chronological order development in the Polish underground. Not every track is a winner, but overall an interesting historical document." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_61sEyLSaS0
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2022 |
€13.00 |
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In Fractured Silence |
CD |
Compilation curated by Steven Stapleton (of Nurse with Wound) of creative-experimental-unlikely music, originally released in 1984. Released on his United Dairies label that he had created with John Fothergill, he naturally called on Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé, who were then playing with Bernard Vitet in Un drame musical instantané. The compilation would be named In Fractured Silence. Alongside Nurse With Wound and Un drame musical instantané, could be heard Hélène Sage (whom Birgé introduced to Stapleton) and Sema, a project from the experimental British musician Robert Haigh who had participated in key records in the Nurse With Wound discography, such as Homotopy to Marie and Spiral Insana.
Carefully restored and remastered from by Gilles Laujol
Graphic design by Stefan Thanneur
Digipack CD
Licensed from United Dairies
Have you heard of the Nurse With Wound List? If you are a fan of creative-experimental-unlikely music, certainly. You would therefore be aware that amongst the recommendations that Steven Stapleton slipped into the first album of his group Nurse With Wound, were to be found a few restless frogs: Jef Gilson, Luc Ferrari, Jacques Thollot, Urban Sax, Horde Catalytique and last…
… but not least Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé. Stapleton admired their album Défense de. The two Frenchmen just had to conceive of a fabulous precursor to the channel tunnel (check out the inside of the record, you’ll see) to enable Stapleton to come to France in 1980. The Englishman was looking for contributions to a compilation to be released on his United Dairies label that he had created with John Fothergill, and he naturally called on Birgé and Gorgé, who were then playing with Bernard Vitet in ‘Un drame musical instantané’.
It was a done deal and the compilation would be named In Fractured Silence. Alongside Nurse With Wound and Un drame musical instantané, could be heard Hélène Sage (whom Birgé introduced to Stapleton) and Sema, a project from the experimental British musician Robert Haigh who had participated in key records in the Nurse With Wound discography, such as Homotopy to Marie and Spiral Insana.
The curtain is raised and it is Un drame musical instantané who start the ball rolling. Mystery abounds; synthesisers lurk, percussion clatters and the sounds (creaks, whistles, vocal insertions…) fire in all directions. For the piano, it’s a debacle, the Drame won, Hélène Sage can take over. Heading up a quintette including Gorgé and Vitet, she creates a cushioned chamber music with strings and many silences.
On the B side, it’s the other side of the channel. Sema’s piano first off, which dares everything, even melody, before spilling out its darkest ideas in a raucous requiem. Finally, Stapleton appears, delving into his collection of female voices to devote himself to an iconoclastic transformation and concoct a song which collapses under the assault like Marianne at Agincourt. After having listened to In Fractured Silence, you will simply have to choose sides.
*
Avez-vous déjà entendu parler de la Nurse With Wound List ? Si vous êtes amateur de musique créativo-expérimentalo-improbable, sûrement. Vous n’êtes donc pas sans ignorer que parmi les conseils d’écoute que Steven Stapleton a glissé dans le premier album de son Nurse With Wound, on trouve quelques froggies agités du bocal : Jef Gilson, Luc Ferrari, Jacques Thollot, Urban Sax, Horde Catalytique pour la fin…
… Et aussi Jean-Jacques Birgé et Francis Gorgé, dont Stapleton a apprécié l’album Défense de. Il suffira aux deux Français d’imaginer avant l’heure un fabuleux tunnel sous la Manche (regardez à l’intérieur du disque, vous comprendrez) pour qu’au milieu des années 1980 Stapleton gagne la France. Prospectant pour une compilation à paraître sur United Dairies, le label qu’il a créé avec John Fothergill, l’Anglais rencontre naturellement Birgé et Gorgé, qui jouent désormais avec Bernard Vitet dans Un drame musical instantané.
L’affaire est entendue et la compilation aura pour nom In Fractured Silence. Aux côtés de Nurse With Wound et d’Un drame musical instantané, on y entendra Hélène Sage (que Birgé a présenté à Stapleton) et Sema, projet de l’expérimentateur briton Robert Haigh qui aura participé aux incontournables de la discographie nursewithdienne que sont Homotopy to Marie et Spiral Insana.
Le rideau se lève : c’est Un drame musical instantané qui ouvre le bal. Le mystère est partout : les synthétiseurs rôdent, les percussions claquent et les sons (grincements, sifflements, inserts vocaux…) fusent. Pour le piano, c’est la débandade, le drame a gagné, Hélène Sage peut prendre le relais. A la tête d’un quintet dont font partie Gorgé et Vitet, elle aménage une musique de chambre capitonnée avec des cordes et beaucoup de silences.
Sur la face B, c’est l’autre côté de la Manche. Le piano de Sema, d’abord, qui ose tout, même la mélodie, avant de cracher ses idées noires sur un requiem de bastringue. Enfin, c’est l’apparition de Stapleton qui pioche dans sa collection de voix féminines pour s’adonner à une transformation iconoclaste et concocter une chanson qui croule sous les assauts comme Marianne à Azincourt. Après avoir écouté In Fractured Silence, il ne vous restera plus qu’à choisir votre camp.
|
2023 |
€14.00 |
|
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Fluxus & NeoFluxus: Stolen Symphony (Part I) |
do-LP |
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/fluxus-neofluxus-stolen-symphony-vol-1
Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve; includes 24-page large booklet.
All in all, there are more than 50 pieces, new and old, live and studio, finished pieces and scores to be performed, acoustic and classical, solos and pieces for ensemble, using classical and special instruments. This Fluxus edition features (in alphabetical order): Eric Andersen, Ay-O, George Brecht, John Cage, Giancarlo Cardini, Giuseppe Chiari, Henning Christiansen, Philip Corner, Öyvind Fahlström, Ken Friedman, Sten Hanson, Geoffrey Hendricks, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Joe Jones, Bengt af Klintberg, Milan Knízák, Alison Knowles, Larry Miller, George Maciunas, Sara Miyamoto, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Opening Performance Orchestra, Benjamin Patterson, Josef Anton Riedl, Terry Riley, Takako Saito, Tomas Schmit, Dieter Schnebel, Mieko Shiomi, Yasunao Tone, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, and La Monte Young. The musicians and performers Anna Clementi, Agnese Toniutti, Deborah Walker, Werner Durand, Luciano Chessa, Miroslav Beinhauer, Petr Bakla, Nicolas Horvath, Petr Ferenc, and Premysl Ondra have played, performed and declaimed the Fluxus pieces, Arditti Quartet and S.E.M. Ensemble provided one piece from their archives. Milan Knízák, Petr Rezek, Petr Kotík, Olaf Hanel, Eric Andersen, Per Brunskog, Peter van der Meijden, Pavlína Morganová, Natasha Lushetich, Joseph Nechvatal, Natilee Harren, Martin Patrick, Diedrich Diederichsen, Christopher M. Reeves, and Hubertus von Amelunxen have written Fluxus-themed texts. Archivio Conz in Berlin provided access to their extensive Fluxus archives and Edizioni Conz provided coproduction. Ursula and René Block made possible the realization of John Cage's historical composition "Rozart Mix" from the Edition Block archive. The photographic material comes from Marie Knízáková and Milan Knízák's private archive, the German photographer Wolfgang Träger, Archivio Conz's Fluxus archive and Opening Performance Orchestra's digital archive. The cover themes are paintings by Milan Knízák, while the graphic design is the work of Jaroslav Buzek.
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
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|
Struppig Schweben (LES MARQUISES / TROUM / KILLER+LICHT-UNG / ANDREW LILES) |
CD |
https://licht-ung.bandcamp.com/album/struppig-schweben
"About once or twice a year you can head out to Leverkusen in Germany, where the Licht-ung labels puts on a small festival, which always results into a CD release. Each festival has the word ‘struppig’, meaning ‘shaggy’, followed by another word, such as ‘Mahlen’ (painting, Vital Weekly 1405) and ‘Droehnen’ (droning, Vital Weekly 1323). November 26, 2022 it was time for ‘schweben’, floating. It’s unclear to what extent the musicians keep the title in mind. Every night has four or five artists/groups, meaning they have quite some space to fill on the CD. Only in the vase of Killer + Licht-ung (also a musical concern, next to the label), we deal with a live recording; or, perhaps, we don’t hear it with the other pieces. The CD starts with the for me unknown quantatity of Les Marquises, of which Discogs says “Les Marquises is a French experimental pop band founded by Jean-Sébastien Nouveau in 2010”, yet Nouveau is the only member. He has a lovely piece of slow drones, presumably recorded with guitars, loopers and effects and the whole thing is a beautiful gorgoeus, slow-evolving piece of drone music, with, surprisingly, also percussion. Very atmospheric, and also very musical, a great piece and certainly a band to hear more work from. Troum is next up and one could say the big stars of the evening, along with Andrew Liles. Their piece might also be more of a microphone recording, judging by the quality, and shows them doing what they do best, playing moody and spacious music, which could maybe use a bit more definition, but is a damn fine piece. Killer + Licht-ung’s piece is called ‘Jeans Beast (irgendwo & unvermittelt), which may have something to do with the musician Jeans Beast, also known as Julian Flemming, but I have no idea what. Their piece is also based around drones, but contains a most curious form of percussion, sounding like moving around objects (chairs?) in the performance space. The drones are generated by guitars and feedback and grow in intensity. Andrew Liles is the only that doesn’t play the pure drone card but has four quite different sections. Opening with piano music, hard strums rather than gently playing, and some obscured samples, slowly morphing into a drone/organ piece with more schwung. More synthesisers in the third part, ending with a pulse beat and voice from TV/film. It’s the sort of thing we’d expect from Liles; soundtrack-like, collage, a bit of a cut-up and an altogether different kind of atmospheres, delivering the goods as expected." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Spectra Ex Machina - A Sound Anthology of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol.2 |
LP |
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/spectra-ex-machina-a-sound-anthology-of-occult-phenomena-1920-2017-vol-2
The Anthology Spectra Ex Machina brings together rare documents pertaining to so-called occult phenomena, most of them taken from little-known archives. In the course of three volumes, this series traces an audio history of parapsychology through the exploration of spiritualism and haunted houses (vol. 1); musician mediums (vol. 2); experiences of extrasensory perceptions (clairvoyance, psychokinesis, etc.) and electronic voice phenomena (vol. 3).
The link between music, sound and the paranormal is manifested in many different ways. Gerard van der Leeuw, the Dutch historian and philosopher, wrote "Music represents the great struggle of reaching the wholly other, which it can never express". Furthermore, "The effect of music on the emotions is so mysterious as to seem magical. There is no logical explanation why a particular combination of musical notes, whether in the form of a tune or of a simple chord, can affect the heart. Nothing in nature has perhaps so persistently resisted explanation",
as said Derek Parker, the British journalist. Since music is arguably the most intangible of the arts and since the paranormal, in all its manifestations, continues to intrigue people, the placing of these two
subjects together seems obvious. This second volume of musical and audio anomalies continues and expands upon the works initially reproduced in the latter. Rosemary Brown makes a welcome re-appearance, especially with a performance of Grübelei via Liszt, as well as the Caruso-inspired tenor Leo May making a repeat performance. Few people realize that both Anton LaVey and Aleister Crowley were quite fine musicians and Alex Sanders was also interested in music. The background music of Wagner's Tannhäuser used by the latter combines both pagan and Christian elements. So close your eyes and let the magic of sound take over!
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2023 |
€19.50 |
|
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Nyarlathotep - A Tribute To Howard Phillips Lovecraft |
MC |
https://eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/nyarlathotep-a-tribute-to-howard-phillips-lovecraft
Eighth Tower is proud to reprint the rare and long time out of stock compilation “Nyarlathotep - A Tribute To Howard Phillips Lovecraft”, originally released in 1997 by the label KADATH. With this remastered release Eighth Tower brings to light a jewel of the Portuguese post-industrial tape culture, featuring some of the most interesting projects from the late 90’s Portuguese, Italian and French underground.
Special thanks to Nuno Loureiro (KADATH label mastermind) and all the artists who provided the original master tracks for the reprint project.
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2022 |
€10.00 |
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| |
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 9 |
LP |
listen to extracts:
https://soundcloud.com/drone-records
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 9 LP - new entries into the worlds of drones, and into the droning of your minds:: feat:
DAINA DIEVA (deep emotional drone-poesis from Lithuania) - LIVING TEMPLES (shamanic tunes made in connection wtih the Curonia landscape) - ADRIANO ZANNI (spatial electroacoustic drones derived from field recordings + electronics. Italy) -
ARE MUNDAL (surrealistic, phantasmagoric drones from Norway). Mastering: PETER ANDERSSON, Artwork by CHRISTIANO DEISON based on two paintings from PETE GREENING. comes on three colour vinyl "GREEN LEAVES"
"Den achten Teil der seit 2011 bestehenden „Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone“-Reihe von Drone Records, die unter dem Motto „This series is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Mind“ steht, hatten wir hier Ende 2021 besprochen, gerade ist der neunte Teil erschienen, auf dem erneut vier verschiedene Künstler ihre Version des, ihre Herangehensweise an den Drone zeigen. Bezüglich des achten Teils hieß es hier: „Drone kann den Aufbau einer Musik gestalten, ihre Materialität prägen, eine Musik hypnotischer machen und ihr Rückgrad verleihen, und immer besteht eine starke Wechselbeziehung zwischen dem Dröhnen und dem suchenden, repziperenden und interpretierenden Geist. Dies unter der Formel ‘Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone’ zu vereinen, ist auch beim achten Teil ein starkes Argument gegen alle, die behaupten, Drone hätte sich über die Jahre totgedröhnt.“ Gleiches lässt sich nun über Teil 9 sagen.
Daina Dieva stammt aus Litauen und wurde auf diesen Seiten u.a. als Gastsängerin von Ô Paradis und als Mitglied des Projekts Calitys, das letztes Jahr auf Cyclic Law debüttierte, wahrgenommen. Dieva ist mit zwei eigentlich recht unterschiedlichen Stücken vertreten: „My Eyes Become Night“ besteht aus rauschigen, ziemlich dunklen Drones. „Budesiu“ scheint anfangs daran anzuknüpfen, entwickelt sich aber schnell zu einem deutlich melodischeren Stück, auf dem Dievas Gesang eine zentrale Rolle zukommt, der von so etwas wie Harmoniumdrones untermalt wird. Von der erzeugten Atmosphäre erinnert das Stück entfernt an getragenere Stücke von Dead Can Dance. Living Temples sind mit einem anlässlich der Frühlingstagundnachtgleiche live im Studio aufgenommenen Stück vertreten: „The Slaying Of The Serpent“ ist ein langer, sich langsam entwickelnder Track aus melodischen Flächen und in der Ferne rumpelnden und schabenden Sounds, die sich immer stärker perkussiv verdichten (passenderweise heißt es in den Credits „archaic shamanic instruments“ seien zum Einsatz gekommen). Adriano Zanni aus Italien arbeitet u.a. mit Feldaufnahmen, was besonders beim ersten Stück deutlich wird: „Melissophobia Hypnotherapy“ beginnt mit dem zunehmenden Summen von Insekten und dunkel hallenden Drones. „Exercise In Listening“ hat Passagen, auf denen man meint, eine E-Gitarre komme zum Einsatz, es gibt melodische flächige Sounds, die im Rahmen dieser Veröffentlichung fast schon bombastisch klingen. Das norwegische Projekt Are Mundal wird von Labelseite mit „surrealistic, phantasmagoric drones“ beschrieben, was sicher nicht falsch ist, beginnt das lange „Rustic Movement For An Accordeon“ mysteriös, dunkel-dröhnend, man hört einen Loop eines seltsamen Geräuschs, das eine Stimme sein könnte. In den Credits gibt es noch den Hinweis neben elektrischer Violine, bearbeitetem Klavier und einigem mehr seien „other curiosities“ zum Einsatz gekommen. Mit all diesen Kuriositäten erzeugt Mundal eine im doppelten Wortsinne unheimlich atmosphärische Musik, auf der im letzten Teil auch mal plötzlich seltsame, kaum zu lokalisierende Stimmen auftauchen können. Das ist vielleicht mein Favorit auf dieser an starken Tracks nicht armen Veröffentlichung." [MG / African Paper]
|
2024 |
€18.00 |
|
| VAGINA DENTATA ORGAN |
Live in Berlin |
pic-LP |
"Vagina Dentata Organ performance recorded live at NK, Berlin, March 31st 2012. Previously released as Allegory Of Cosmic Violence on Tochnit Aleph in a 21 copies CDr edition. Limited edition of 100 copies available at the 'Extreme Rituals' Schimpfluch Gruppe festival at the Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, on the night VDO performed as part of the 3 day event (Nov.30th - Dec.2nd 2012)." [label info]
"Recorded live at NK in Berlin on March 31, 2012, previously released as a limited edition CDR by Tochnit Aleph, the performance begins with a solo violin piece. Mayhem follows when Calanda drummers enter the gallery and JORDI VALLS emerges breaking mirrors. From the speakers comes the sound of earlier VDO records and looped applause. The performance is cynical and nihilistic, yet also instantly mythical. The full performance, all twelve minutes of it, on one side, backed with a test tone on the flip, for those who accept the surreal concept and appreciate the razor blade sense of realism. Edition of 100." [FK/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€23.23 |
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| VAINIO & VIGROUX |
Peau Froide, Leger Soleil |
CD |
Peau froide, lèger soleil”, is the result of a threeyear recording process, initiated by Mika Vainio and Frank Vigroux after a series of shared live experiences.
Sprawling after a show in Paris in 2012, their collaboration is an exercise in sensitive intensity, drifting the whole space between minimalist meditations and maximalist kinetics. Vainio’s signature brutalist electro grooves resonate all throughout the record, constructing a psychic scenario for Vigroux’s researches in spatial abstraction and tonal radicalism.
Densely built though free from structural limitation, this album is an intense 9track motion, serving as the third installment in Cosmo Rhythmatic’s catalog and acting as new chapter in the label’s construction an uncompromising sonic identity.
All tracks written, produced and mixed by Mika Vainio and Franck Vigroux.
Mastered by Dennis Blackham @ SKY Mastering.
Laquer cut @ D&M BERLIN.
Photography BY Umut Ungan (FRONT COVER), Diego JR. (BACK COVER)
https://cosmorhythmatic.bandcamp.com/album/peau-froide-le-ger-soleil |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| VAINIO, MIKA & KOUHEI MATSUNAGA |
split |
LP |
"This is Important's first release in a four-record feature on the work of the enigmatic Japanese artist KOUHEI MATSUNAGA. MIKA VAINIO (PAN SONIC) has contributed a side of lengthy work for harsh electronic drones while Kouhei's side consists of experimental breakbeats and modern electronica. Mika Vainio is acclaimed as half of Pan Sonic and for his solo work as well. Kouhei Matsunaga's first record was released on the Mille Plateaux label in 1998. Since then he has kept busy with numerous collaborations as well as his work with NHK (Raster Noton)." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| VALEN, FARTEIN |
The Eternal |
CD |
FARTEIN VALEN (1887-1952) ist ein legendärer norwegischer Atonal-Composer, der symphonisch-dramatische, düster-unheilvolle Neue Musik komponierte – diese CD gibt einen beeindruckenden Überblick über sein Schaffen..kommt in einem wunderschönen Klappcover mit ausführlichem Booklet!
"A highly personal selection of works by one of Norways greatest composers, by many, ourselves included, considered a genius. Symphonic poems like 'Pastorale' and 'The Churchyard By The Sea' are among the most potent, strangely beautiful and extraordinary pieces of music to come from any composer of the 20th century. Included here are also 'Ode To Solitude', the violin concerto, the first symphony and two piano pieces. 'A major figure in 20th century music' Glenn Gould." [label notes]
|
1999 |
€15.00 |
|
| VAN DER VLEUTEN, MAARTEN |
High Intolerance toward low Energies |
LP |
"Van Der Vleuten, 1967 geboren, veröffentlicht mit der "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" LP sein erstes Album unter seinem Geburtsnamen, den er fortan für seinen musikalischen Output verwenden will. "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" ist eine von Tonefloat sehr ansprechend gestaltete LP, limitiert auf 500 Exemplare, und auf 180g Vinyl gepresst. Das luxuriöse Gatefold Cover mit einem eher rostig anmutenden Artwork trifft gut den submarinen Charakter des Albums: Man meint von der Wasseroberfläche des Meeres langsam abzutauchen, Druck baut sich auf, je tiefer man sinkt. Dröhnen in den Ohren und plötzlich sieht man in der Tiefe ein altes, mächtiges Schiffswrack auf dem Grund liegen. Der Rost zeigt, dass es da schon gar Jahrhunderte liegt. Neugierig und interessiert umkreist man es, aber irgendetwas scheint nicht zu stimmen. Flüstern und Murmeln, wabernde Stimmen und rhythmisches, maschinelles Stampfen. Nervöse, pulsierende Bass- Frequenzen und seltsame, gebrochene Melodiefetzen. Halluzinationen? Tiefenrausch? Man weiß es nicht. Maarten Van Der Vleuten gelingt es auf "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" ein eigentümlich dichtes Gewirr aus Drohnen und Ambiancen zu schaffen, das in seiner Gesamtheit zu überzeugen weiß. Dass Van Der Vleuten mit dieser LP ein anderes Bild im Kopf hatte als mein submariner Eindruck, ist nicht weiter schlimm. Er legt den Fokus der Interpretation eher auf eine radikale Darstellung unserer sich immer schneller beschleunigenden Umwelt und will diesen Eindruck mit "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" eingefangen haben. Diese Intention passt auch wunderbar zu dem unruhigen, fast bedrohlich wirkenden Charakter des Albums. Die enthaltenen 4 Stücke offenbaren eine nervöse Welt in der man entweder immer wieder ob der Bildhaftigkeit paralysiert und staunend stehen bleibt oder eben wie im Fieberwahn durch einen Irrgarten voller unruhiger, fremder Stimmen stolpert." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Amidst an infinite ocean of information, finding yourself is turning into a complex mission nowadays. On his latest full-length, ambient house pioneer Maarten van der Vleuten is returning to the memories of demolished Dutch monastery Regina Coeli, his head still spinning from the confounding excess of images and impressions. on his long and winding journey, he has come a long way from his early dance singles to being recognised as a widely respected, colourfully uncompromising personality. High intolerance towards low energies, pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies in a luxurious gatefold sleeve, has consciously been conceived as a radical representation of our rapidly accellerating environment: nervously pulsating bass frequencies and frenzied percussion are underpinning shattered sonic figments like the ground drone of a surreal urban raga, with shardes of song and prayer forming broken melodies. Finding his way through this menacing maze has certainly paid off for van der Vleuten: after releasing under 26 different pseudonyms over the last two decades, he has found his definitive musical identity on this haunting soundscape, with future works to be published exclusively under his common name. The album is pressed as a 180 grams black vinyl lp in heavy gatefold picture sleeve." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2008 |
€16.50 |
|
| VAN HASSELT, JAN |
Skills.Faces |
DVD |
"SKILLS is a documentary featuring Lucas Abela, Rudolf Eb.er, & Zbigniew Karkowski. Faces is a live document with footage from Peter Flemmig, Dave Phillips, MSBR, Tim Hecker, & Kouhei Matsunaga. Edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| VAN HOEN, MARK |
Where is the Truth |
CD |
"Mark Van Hoen macht bereits seit 1981 Musik. Damals kaufte sich der Engländer seinen ersten Synthesizer und Kassettenrecorder und begann unter dem Einfluss von Brian Eno und Cabaret Voltaire elektronische Musik zu machen. 1992 gründete er die Band Seefeel, 1993 unterschrieb er unter dem Projektnamen Locust bei R&S Records, Labels wie Touch, 4AD und nun City Centre Offices folgten. Seit langem zählt Hoen zu den einflussreichen elektronischen Musikern der Insel. Das Album "Where Is The Truth?" ist mehr als eine Sammlung von Tracks. Es spiegelt Hoens Umzug von England in die USA, seine Reflektionen über seine Kindheit mit der Entdeckung, dass er selbst adoptiert wurde. Sein lang gehegtes Gefühl, am falschen Ort zu sein, ergab plötzlich Sinn, die sich anschließende kathartische Reise wird auf diesem Album reflektiert. Als Reisebegleiter mit dabei: Neil Halstead (Slowdive, Mojave 3), Julia Frodahl, Edison Woods. Wenn Gandhi das Leben als eine lange, anstrengende Suche nach der Wahrheit sah, dann ist "Where Is The Truth" der perfekte Soundtrack." [label info / Indigo]
www.city-centre-offices.de |
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
The Revenant Diary |
CD |
" "Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret and nostalgia. The album's foundation was shaped by a memory and a chance encounter. While remastering some of his early '90s releases and Peel Session tracks, Van Hoen -- a founding member of Seefeel, who also worked as Locust and in Seefeel offshoot Scala and has collaborated with Slowdive, Robert Fripp, Edison Woods and Esben And The Witch, amongst others -- happened upon a track he had recorded in 1982. Attracted by its simplicity, he was inspired to record the basis of The Revenant Diary on 4-track tape, using a minimal set-up, reminiscent of his first early '80s musical adventures as a young teenager. The recollection of one of these -- a 13 year-old Van Hoen's experiment in reel-to-reel tape recording of an ineffectual pop song playing on the radio, which spuriously transformed it into a spooky amalgam of backwards church organ and unintelligible voices -- provided an evocative inspiration. The Revenant Diary pivots on this combination of complex reflection and simplified technology. A determinedly analog affair, it brims over with Van Hoen's signature sounds: immersively-decayed drones, almost broken ambient surfaces and lulling rhythms, with granular crackle providing spectral grit. Fragments of female vocals pepper the album, and notably dominate the 10-minute epic "Holy Me," one of Van Hoen's most complex compositions, in which non-verbal sounds rub delicately against each other in an otherworldly choral composition. Less song-based than his last solo work, the well-received Where Is The Truth (CCO 046CD/LP), its palette and structure are more descendants of the 1995 album Truth Is Born Of Arguments, which utilized a similar combination of decayed atmosphere against a granular/glitch rhythmic structure. Tracks like "Laughing Stars At Night" and "Unknown Host" exude a powerful emotional undertow, as alluringly woozy as they are intensely contemplative. But this is no exercise in Instagram-style disposable nostalgia. Van Hoen's adroit juxtapositions of gauzy textures evoke the blurred luminescence of 16mm film and the rich, color-saturated hues of rediscovered Polaroid photos, as the cover artwork, designed by Stephen O'Malley, acknowledges. The Revenant Diary expertly renders displaced memory daze in lushly melodic, gently delirious electronic sound. All titles composed by Mark Van Hoen. Recorded in Brooklyn & Woodstock, NY, 2011. All instruments & processing by Mark Van Hoen with additional vocals by Georgia Belmont." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Over the years I didn't keep up with Mark van Hoen's solo work. I remember Aurobindo to be a nice work but haven't heard that in a long time, and also 'The Last Flowers From The Darkness' has faded from my memory, but then no less than fifteen years have passed. Van Hoen, once a member of of Seefeel, Scala and collaborator with Slowdive, discovered some old tracks which brought him in the a teenage mood again: why not use that old four track tape machine again with a minimal set up? When hearing this, I reminded of his older works again. Van Hoen plays, at least for me, pop like music, with rhythm, broken down guitar sounds, samples and occasionally a female voice dropping into the music. Grainy, down-sampled voices going back to the 2-bit sampling mood add a certain raw texture to the album. Hazy stuff, a bit blurry. Its a clash of the modern versus the old, new and ancient technology meet up in a very nice way. A well entertaining record, filled with melancholy, ambience, choir
like sounds and glitched up rhythms. I am told this is all a bit more abstract than his previous work, but I think this is some very nice alternative popmusic. Certainly the kind of popmusic I like." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"The Revenant Diary (eMEGO 136) bringt ein Wiederhören mit MARK VAN HOEN, den ich seit den Tagen mit Seefeel und Scala oder als Locust lange nicht mehr auf dem Radar hatte. Maßgebend für die 11 neuen Tracks war, so heißt es hier,
die Erinnerung an sein jüngeres Selbst als tonbandelnder Teenager Anfang der 80er. 'Don't Look Back' und 'I Remember' halten das Motiv der Rückkehr fest, das ihn dazu bewegte, sich diesmal doch wieder althergebrachter technischer
Mittel zu bedienen. Entscheidender ist jedoch das emotionale Moment, ein Schwanken zwischen Nostalgie und Trauer. Da herrschen anziehende und abstoßende Kräfte, die auch in 'Why Hide From Me' und 'No Distance (Except the
one between you and me)' reflektiert werden. Downtempo-Triphopbeats transportieren orchestrale Samples und eine verwehte Frauenstimme (die vokalisierende Georgia Belmont). Orchestral? Vielleicht sind es schimmernde Gitarren, Klanggewölk aus Streichern? Van Hoen inszeniert da eine mehrspurige Unschärfe aus flackernden, kaskadierenden Klangfetzen. Auch Belmonts Gesang
wird dabei zu einem phantastischen Folklorechor. 'Ambient' ist wohl auch ein irreführendes Wort, Van Hoen macht phantastische Musik, durchsetzt mit tierischen Lauten ('Garabndl x'). Das poppige 'Don't Look Back' ist insofern eine schwache Nummer. 'I Remember' hat danach mit seinem verschleppten Beat einen Steampunk-Touch, der Gesang ist nur ein Schatten seiner selbst. 'No Distance' tickert wie ein elektronisches Spinett, über Synthienebelstreifen schimmert ein Knabensopran auf ü. Wieder mädchenhaft, schliert die zerhackte Stimme über das motorische Tuckern und Synthiegeflöte von '37/3d'. Die 80er und 90er im Reißwolf der Erinnerung? "Wo warst Du?" lautet die wehmütige Frage, die Van Hoen aber über krumme Beats stolpern lässt. 'Unknown Host' überbrückt als halbe Samba die Zeit bis zu 'Laughing Stars At Night' mit seinem Baritongitarrenloop über Breakbeats und Lyrics, die hier mehr sind als nur eine Catchphrase. 'Holy Me' multipliziert Belmont für ein verzerrtes Replikantenmadrigal a capella in der Kirche der verlorenen Zeit. Da darf man dann schon mal Einkehr halten." [Bad Alchemy]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| VAN VELDHOVEN, WOUTER |
Four simple Songs for five dead Bumblebees |
CD |
Debut-Album für den Niederländer WOUTER VAN VELDHOVEN, der elektronisch verfremdete Drones und "kleine" Instrumenten-Klänge sowie Holzknirschen & weitere leise Objektsounds zu sehr intimen, warmen, minimalen Tracks verwebt.. kommt im handgemachten Stoffcover, auf neuem Label aus Utrecht !
"The debut full length of dutch sound artist Wouter van Veldhoven is also the first release on the eat this media label.
Wouter is becomming a well known name in the dutch experimental music scene with his reel to reel tape recorders. Seeing his live perfomance is believing; handcrafted analogue ambient. With this record he convinces the homelistener of his qualities too.
The first track opens with sounds of a wooden floor. Sounds are added, melodies float by, get recorded and degenerate. And then you wake up, realising the music has stopped and you're listening to silence, the silence of your room."
[label info]
"After appearing alongside Machinefabriek and Soccer Committee on previous releases, Wouter Van Veldhoven has at last put together an official (i.e. non-CD-r) debut solo album. Don't be misled by its excessively humble title: this album is anything but simple. While the melodic content and the range of sounds Van Veldhoven draws upon are highly accessible, production wise there's an awful lot going on here. Although the artist's combination of drone tones, static signals, field recordings and ramshackle instrumentation is certainly nothing new to the world of ambient electronics, Wouter still manages to make something fresh, and moreover, emotionally resonant. Everything is balanced, EQed and filtered to perfection, meaning these forty minutes are deeply absorbing, but beyond that there's a plainly evident musicality to all this that tends to be absent from a lot of the more academically-geared music in the genre. A real joy to listen to, and decked out in landed gentry-style tweed packaging, Four Simple Songs For Five Dead Bumblebees must be this week's best dressed, and most quietly beautiful release. Highly recommended." [Boomkat]
www.eatthismedia.org
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| VAN WISSEM, JOZEF |
The Joy that never ends |
LP |
"Brand new full length CD/LP from acclaimed contemporary compser & Lutenis Jozef Van Wissem. Incuded among these palindromic trance pieces are new compositions are contributions from film maker Jim Jarmusch and vocalis Jeanne Madic. CD version includes a bonus track. Between the CD & LP are split a pare of pieces working in the theme of maternity/paternity. LP pressed in an edition of 500.
The Joy that Never Ends offers endless cinematic repetition of tortuously minimal beauty in five layered mirror image compositions from the "sublime
master of the lute," Jozef Van Wissem. Unlike his last album, Ex Patris (IMPREC267), Wissem is not alone. Featured here are waves of subtle guitar feedback meandering from the amplifier of filmaker Jim Jarmusch & vocals from Jeanne Madic." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| VANCE ORCHESTRA |
Monstrance |
7inch |
"Das Arnheimer Duo mit einer neuen 7”, auf dem neuen Label von TARKATAK Lutz Pruditsch! Wunderbar obskur-anregende ambient-electronics: loops, analoge sounds, etwas was nach Theremin klingt und viel Atmosphäre..
The duo from Arnhem, Netherlands, with a new 7“ on the new label of TARKATAK Lutz Pruditsch – wonderful obscure ambient-electronics made out of loops and analogue sounds and probably Theremin & lots of atmosphere... lim. & numbered ed. of 300 copies, silk-screened covers, each one is different!" [Drone Rec. info 2001]
www.tarkatak.de
|
2001 |
€6.00 |
|
| VASILISK |
Whirling Dervishes |
CD |
"Reissue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1987 on Eskimo Records. Originally recorded and mixed in Tokyo from December '86 to March '87 now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes as 6-side digipack, limited to 350 copies." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Mkwaju |
CD |
"Reissue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1988 on Eskimo Records. Originally recorded and mixed in Tokyo from December '87 to May '88, now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes as 6-side digipack, limited to 350 copies." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Acqua |
CD |
"Reissue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1989 on Musica Maxima Magnetica. Originally recorded and mixed in London, Napoli and Tokyo 1988, now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes as 6-side digipack, limited to 350 copies." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| VEAR, CRAIG |
Summerhouses |
CD |
"SUMMERHOUSES takes us on an acoustic trip through arctic landscapes. The atmospheric pieces are entirely based on field recordings made by Craig Vear himself. By just modulating these few but rich samples, he created 6 ambient tracks, that could hardly be more minimalistic - and could hardly be called music. Only the warm and gentle last track AFTER THE SINKING (check the video!) is based on one (and one only) musical chord, which seems like the lucky escape from the endless, cold, and dark widths of the first five tracks. Play on headphones during your next trans-arctic flight.
SUMMERHOUSES ist eine Klangreise durch arktische Weiten. Die atmosphärischen Stücke basieren ausschließlich auf Geräuschen die der Akrtiserfahrene Craig Vear VOR ORT aufgenommen hat. Allein durch Modulation dieser wenigen (aber gehaltvollen) Samples entstanden 6 Ambient Stücke, die minimalistischer kaum sein könnten - und auch kaum als "Musik" bezeichnet werden können. Lediglich das ruhige und warme letzte Stück AFTER THE SINKING (Video ansehen!) besteht aus nicht mehr und nicht weniger als einem (1) Akkord und wirkt wie die Rettung aus den unendlichen, kalten und düsteren Weiten der anderen 5 Tracks. Der Soundtrack für Ihren nächsten trans-arktischen Flug." [label info]
www.mille-plateaux.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| VEHIKEL & GEFÄSS |
Hirrnkopter Hellikranck |
LP |
"Its a reissue of the 1989 Schimpfluch cassette that features early destructive outbursts - both in the radio station and out on the street - by Joke Lanz (Sudden Infant) and Rudolf Eb.er (Runzelstirn Und Gurglestock)." [label info]
www.harbingersound.com |
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
| VELDMAN, HESSEL |
Ymuiden |
CD |
Winter-Light welcomes Hessel Veldman: musician, composer and producer to our label with his new album 'Ymuiden'. The album comprises of seven experimental electronic soundscapes, laced with industrial elements, creating a hypnotic, dark undercurrent of sound.
'Ymuiden' is an experimental audio sound map of Ijmuiden, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands. A city where Hessel grew-up and still lives today. A place that has seen much happen, many changes and innovation in its short history, as Hessel outlines below .....
Ymuiden - Hessel Veldman:(Shadows of IJmuiden’s Roughness)
Ymuiden…
IJmuiden…
my place of birth…
the place where I spent my youth…
the place where I still live…
IJmuiden…
the place that was born in 1876…
where they dug and conquered the dunes…
where they gave birth to the mouth (muiden) of the harbour (Piervrees) of Amsterdam (IJ)…the place of raw (Rauw) labour…
the off-shore industry (Stuurlast)…
the steel factory (Ademslak)…
the gateway (docks; Sluisgelag) to Amsterdam…
the exit to the world (Scheepskoorts)…
the international fishing harbour (Tongrot)…
the fortified WWII (1943-1945) city (Duinbeton)…
January 26th 2022 will see the opening of the world's greatest lock (Zeesluis IJmuiden) and the release of 'Ymuiden' by Hessel Veldman.
Recorded in IJmuiden, The Netherlands @ De Goede Herder Kerk studio; winter 2019/2020.
All tracks recorded, composed and produced by Hessel Veldman.
Sound sources: KORG MS20 + archived field recordings.
Mastered by Martijn Comes at the Immovable Substance studio.
Cover sleeve photo’s made by Murray Maffra, at different locations in IJmuiden.
Cover design Midnight Sun Studio.
Special thanks to Mark O'Shea, Nicole, Martijn Comes, Visserhallen, John Williams and inspirer Willem de Ridder.
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| VELEHENTOR |
Zona Otchuzhdeniya (Zone of Alienation) |
CD-R |
"The album is tributed to the Russian «ghost-towns» Kadykchan, Kursha-2 and Halmer-U. Kadykchan («Death Valley» in Evenk) is a miners urban village in Susuman district of Magadan region, which was left by the inhabitants after the mine detonation in 1996. Nowadays only a few native people live in this dead town without central heating and water and power supply in half-destroyed apartments.
Kursha-2 was build shortly after the Russian Revolution as a workers village for mastering vast forests of the Central Meshera. In the year 1936, during hot and windy summer, 1200 humans were burnt out alive because of the forest fire that surrounded Kursha and outskirts.
Halmer-U («Death Valley» in Nenets) is situated in the area that was used by natives as a burial place for centuries. In the end of 20th century it became another «not wanted» miners town. People were evicted to Vorkuta city by riot squads.
Three tracks of disturbing static oppression. All-dead Drone Ambient and sizzling Drone Noise dressing you alive. VELEHENTOR is well-known for its skill in creating the proper atmosphere using only facts, and here it is reproducted as by a direct witness." [label description]
www.abgurd.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
From the Gloom of Graves |
CD |
Very gloomy dark ambience, sad & melancholic tunes in the way of RAISON D'ETRE, SVARTSINN or other acts appearing on CYCLIC LAW, EIBON Records or COLD MEAT INDUSTRY....
VELEHENTOR also uses spoken words, slow percussive elements and guitar, and thus creates his very own vision & style..
VELEHENTOR is the 2nd project of Drone Records-artist CLOSING THE ETERNITY, from Ekaterinburg / Russia !
"Classic Dark Ambient: cold echo of unknown rituals straying in the pitch darkness of resonant stone labyrinths. Paranoiac trance
induced by the feeling of lifeless presence in the crypts that breathe with dead moisture. Glacial serenity of indifferent doom.
The album was recorded during the winter of 1999-2000.
Pitch black digipack with varnished pictures and info. Limited to 460 copies." [label info]
www.abgurd.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| VELEZ, DAVID |
Alku |
mCDR |
"DAVID VELEZ is a colombian sound artist who creates soundscapes mainly based on field recordings. this piece was composed as a soundtrack for a painting exhibition named "homenaje al planeta" ("tribute to the planet") by liliana duran. here, DAVID tried to combine field recordings with more musical elements such as deep drones and more piercing sines.
co-curator of the excellent IMPULSIVE HABITAT netlabel devoted to field recordings, DAVID VELEZ past works were published on many international labels like test tube, ripples recordings (a collaboration with james mcdougall), semperflorens (with juan josé calarco), mystery sea, siridisc, conv or audio gourmet." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
El Pajaro que Escucha |
CD-R |
" "El Pájaro que Escucha is a beautifully crafted publication that brings together field recordings made in the Palomino region of Columbia in January 2012. The piece is alive with the sounds of wildlife, completely immersing the listener in a sonic landscape that has depth, variation and a subtle radiance that is a joy to experience.
At times we are also reminded of the invasive presence of human beings, with the drone of a light aircraft pervading the natural atmosphere. Velez demonstrates an acute awareness of the beauty found in the natural world, focusing primarily on the sounds of animals that call the rainforest home. El Pájaro que Escucha does not rush the listener, but rather encourages patience and an appreciation for the natural sounds of our planet. This is a stunning release of the highest calibre and comes highly recommended."
— Cheryl Tipp
"This work that David Vélez presents us …is a sense that David Vélez finds as exteriority, in the jungle of Palomino…what we listen are not birds singing, or the crickets squealing, or the leaves moving; it’s David who plays his tune through the birds and the crickets from the Palomino territory; he manages for the referred songbird to become an act of listen…
… David shares with us is a sensible experience, which consists in transform sound making into sound listening; and it is through the possibility of the recording that this experience is modulated to be accessible for us. Is through this mediation that the author makes audible something in the exterior, approaching the natural element to what is being heard by the human.
The act of listening is therefore, a transference of sense through the sonority of the environment, and in this case also a way to experience an environment by recording, ordering, modulating and presenting it in this way that David Vélez considered as the most appropriated.
“El pájaro que escucha” is a cultural approximation to the natural. There is no birdsongs without hearing and no acoustic experience without sensible language."
— Trixi Alina " [label info]
www.3leaves-label.com
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| VELGENATURLIG |
Humus |
CD |
"Portuguese soundscaper VelgeNaturlig has a penchant for creating dramatic soundworlds where the elements interact freely with more complex constructs. His magical album Húmus, originally self-released some nine years ago, is a true gterma favourite and we are delighted to bring it once more into the spotlight where its regal stature can inspire a new generation of listeners. Album comes in jewelcase with 16-page booklet." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Opalescent Pust |
CD |
"Our next release on the Winter-Light label is by the Portuguese sound sculpture VelgeNaturlig and is entitled 'Opalescent Pust'.
VelgeNaturlig is no stranger to Winter-Light, having appeared on our recent DCD compilation "...that first season", with his beautiful track 'Golden'. 'Opalescent Pust' has an entirely different feeling altogether, one of constant motion, one of change. 'Opalescent Pust'; the breath opal, the colour of pearl, the purest form of breath. A cleansing process, that of a purifying experience. Purity.
From the opening moments of the first track 'Onset', you know you are entering a world that is both familiar to you, but also somewhat alien at the same time. It's an inward journey that you have begun; a travel within yourself that you should feel comfortable with as it's you. But the dark tones and underlying menace of the music let you know that, in no uncertain terms, before you can reach that light, that purity, you must first traverse the dark paths of your own mind and wrestle with whatever it is you find lurking there. And so the tone is set.
Tracks such as 'Opal' push you further into the blackness where, lying there in state, you can hear the electrical impulses of your own thoughts, embellished through 'Amorphous Silence'. 'Diffraction','Gold Opacity' and 'Pust' will leave you floating and submerged in your own flotation tank. Drifting into nothingness, a time to shed and let go. 'Obsidiana', 'The Hum' and 'Plateau' push you upwards and on towards a ceiling of light, crashing first through barriers of your own constricting thoughts and feelings where finally...with 'Exhale', you can at last breath; the purest breath.
The album began life as a one take improvisational piece, which was then fine tuned in the studio by Ivo Santos (aka VelgeNaturlig), resulting in the fluid, organic wave of sound that you now hear. This full CD of new and original music comprises of 10 tracks of experimental drone and ambient soundscapes.
All music has been recorded by VelgeNaturlig, the end of 2016. Fine tuned by Ivo Santos, Home Studio in 2017. All tracks have been mastered by Cruel Sound Works. The cover concept and design is by Midnight Sun Studio © 2017.
The edition is presented in a 6-page full colour digi-pack. Running time 69:48."
www.winter-light.nl
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/opalescent-pust
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| VELIOTIS, NIKOS & XAVIER CHARLES |
Kaspian Black |
LP |
"Kaspian Black create sonic landscapes that balance between extremes of uninhibited 'cacophony' and painstakingly detailed exploration of static floating sounds, powerful attacks and serene atmospheres. Kaspian Black is Xavier Charles [clarinet] & Nikos Veliotis [cello]
Nikos Veliotis - After an initial involvement in the Athens pop/electronic scene during the late 80s as a founding member of In Trance 95, Veliotis later turned to the experimental field (working primarily with cello & video). Since the late 90s he has pushed the boundaries of sound and image using unorthodox cello techniques,silence and multilateral abstract visuals. Collaborations include Cranc (with Rhodri & Angharad Davies), Looper (with Martin Kuchen & Ingar Zach) and Mohammad (with ILIOS & Coti K., and released on PAN records).
Xavier Charles is an active clarinetist in the world of improvised music, known from a variety of constellations and ensembles like ‘Dans les arbres’ and ‘Contest of Pleasures’. Currently his musical research ranges from performance on the clarinet and bass to the installation of vibrating speakers, at the edge of improvised music, noise and electro-acoustic sound. He is further involved in the music world as an organizer of the fesival Densités (FR).
in heavy silk screened sleeve. ltd to 250 copies" [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
|
2015 |
€19.50 |
|
| VENROOY, ESTHER |
Shift Coordinate Points |
LP |
Schon mit “To shape volumes, repeat“ (CD, Robo Records] war diese belgische Komponistin aufgefallen, jetzt erscheint diese sehr konzeptuelle Soundart-Platte als erste LP-Veröffentlichung auf dem britischen ENTR’ACTE, die ominöse Spionage-Radiodurchsagen als Soundquellen benutzt.
“Composed and produced by Esther Venrooy in 2005. Commissioned by Happy New Ears with the kind support of the Flemish community. In 1997, British maverick label Irdial-Discs collected a selection of so-called ‘numbers stations’ or ‘spy stations’ recordings under the title The Conet Project. This plays like a ‘best of’ of more than 30 years’ worth of secret radio and contains fragments of American, German, Swedish and Russian transmissions. Belgian composer Esther Venrooy was given permission to work with the material and for the occasion of the celebration of 75 years of Belgian radio created a highly personal interpretation of the medium’s secret history. Using manipulated sound and collage techniques she manages to distill an abstract poetry of sounds and thereby succeeds in extracting some meaning out of these hermetic transmissions.K9 moved back into the combat area ‹ Standing now in the Chineseyouth sent the resistance message jolting clicking tilting through the pinball machine ‹ Enemy plans exploded in a burst of rapidcalculations ‹ Clicking in punch cards of redirected orders ‹
Crackling shortwave static ‹ Word falling ‹ Photo falling ‹ Break through in Grey Room ¬ Pinball led streets ¬ Free doorways ¬“ [label description]
“About nine years ago, Irdial Records released a four CD 'The Conet Project', collecting sounds from number stations, or spy stations: transmissions found on radio waves of various secret services. A great and no doubt worrying work, if you understand the consequences of it, but also a wealth of great sound. I believe it is not allowed to use these sounds at will (I forget what the fuzz was all about, but somebody got sued for sampling some of it), but Esther Venrooy asked and got permission to use the material to create a sound piece for Belgium radio, which existed seventy-five years. If one is familiar with the original 'Conet Project' recordings, then it's easy to spot all the original voices ('five - three - two - zero - five'), but Venrooy knows her classics in music, especially that of musique concrete: the sudden shifts in sounds, the gentle gliding electronic tones, but also incorporating a little melody at the beginning of the second side. There is nothing really frightening about these voices anymore, they are isolated from the original context, and placed in this new, abstract picture, where they become voices of the unknown. They no longer have their original meaning, but rather a new one. This is a more than excellent record, and by far the best work by Venrooy to date.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€15.50 |
|
| VERNON, MARK |
Sheet Erosion |
CD |
Audio Archaeology Series Volume 3: Brest. Sheet Erosion is the third episode in a series of works based around ideas of audio archaeology and found sounds. The setting this time is the city of Brest in France. It is composed of field recordings made in early 2020 during the storms Ciara and Desmond plus a batch of found open-reel tape recordings dating from the '70s and '80s. The tapes include domestic home recordings but mostly document recordist Michel's tastes in music and radio programs of the time. Daily life bleeds into these lo-fi recordings of radio and TV shows. Captured with a mic in front of a speaker rather than directly cabled, ambiguous activities can be heard in the background; babies crying, feedback, chairs scraping and muffled conversations. In the composition, family histories and musical tastes are transposed over a more contemporary soundscape of Brest. Over-saturated tape distorts time as well as sounds. Speeds change. Chronologies become confused. Different instances in time are blended and fused. What seeps through these chronological crevices are events and incidents unmoored from linear time taking place in a chimerical non-space.
https://www.sonoris.org/product/mark-vernon-sheet-erosion/
Mark Vernon is a Glasgow based artist who explores concepts of audio archaeology, magnetic memory and nostalgia through his sound works. At the core of his practice lies a fascination with the intimacy of the radio voice, environmental sound, obsolete media and the reappropriation of found recordings. A rich collection of domestic tape recordings; audio letters, dictated notes, answer-phone messages and other lost voices often find their way into his unorthodox soundworlds. These diverse elements are distilled into radiophonic compositions for broadcast, multi-channel diffusion, fixed media and live performances.
His solo music projects have been published through labels including Kye, Glistening Examples, Flaming Pines, Discrepant, Entr’acte, 3Leaves, Misanthropic Agenda, Canti Magnetici, Granny, Calling Cards Publishing, Psyché Tropes, Persistence of Sound and Gagarin Records, as well as a series of small CDR and LP editions on his own Meagre Resource imprint.
https://markvernon.bandcamp.com/album/sheet-erosion
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| VERTICCHIO, GIUSEPPE |
Tjukurpa |
CD-R |
GUISEPPE VERTICCHIO is the man behind NIMH, who also pubished deep ambient works under his real name.
This private release from 1999 explores the beauty of Didgeridoo-sounds, six very nice pieces of ehnic ambience...
reminds on some works of AMIR BAGHIRI, GRASSOW, the AMPLEXUS-Label.
“Get in if you are into didjeridoo: Giuseppe's a skilled pratictioner, and though i'd have appreciated more a bunch of crude, unmediated recordings of the instrument's playing, this disc goes by way fascinating, enriched by tribal chants, processed crickets, synthesizer textures and a bunch of fx's that helps making the whole smoother. If the name of Steve Roach comes to your mind reading these words, be warned: this is less produced, less big studio imprinted than the before mentioned, therefore, at least to my ears, sounds more genuine, authentic, sincere. No loops, no tricks, just somebody blowing into a big hollow trunk and an old computer tricking backgrounds into existence while it happens. The jewel case presents a colour print of a cave painting, perfectly in argument."
[P.Ippoliti]
|
1999 |
€8.00 |
|
| VETROPHONIA |
Formula of War |
CD |
"The new album from the project of Alexander Lebedev-Frontov (Linija Mass, Stalnoy Pakt) and Nick Sudnick (Zga). Old-school analogue industrial with a big influences from early XXth century’s Futuristic era, “Formula Of War” is a part of Alexander’s series named after Marinetti’s volume of poems “Guerra sola igiene del monde” (War the Only Hygiene of the World), published in the year 1915 in the outbreak of World War I. Following the previous parts of the series made by Stalnoy Pakt (a 10” and a split CD with Anthesteria) this release is also dedicated to WWI, expressing the aura of this time by means of sound and artwork. Original compositions written and performed by Futurism leaders Francesco Balilla Pratella and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti are incorporated in the album adding the spirit of time to the whole work. The release is limited to 300 copies and comes in a stylish black&brown A5 folder with 5 postcards." [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA |
Wisdom Thunderbolt |
CD |
"Wisdom Thunderbolt marks the triumphant return of Vibracathedral Orchestra after more than three years in the wilderness of intermittent performance, tangential projects, and unfindable limited editions.
The seven tracks on Wisdom are thee VCO's most rocking dispatch ever, neatly combining the Ra-like collage of tracks like "Wisdom Thunderbolt" with the insistent pulsing jams of "A Natural Fact" and "Order of the Broad Eraser." "Ochre Dust" and "Rainbow Whirlwind" are more in the old-school VCO thick-blanket of sound, with tuned-percussion melody peeking out from the fog. After a surprise opening, "Sway-Sage" heaves with raucous drumming (courtesy of Magik Marker Pete Nolan) under the swells of sound. Hard to imagine, but this is the first widely available music (except for the Tuning to the Rooster comp) from the VCO since 2003's acclaimed The Queen of Guess." [label info]
"First proper full length in a while from these ur-drone space
explorers, which is long overdue, considering the protracted near
silence of VCO, and Matthew Bower all but abandoning his Sunroof! in
favor of the noisier Hototogisu. Whatever you call that sort of music
that Sunroof!/VCO traffic in, very few other outfits have managed to
channel the same sort of ferocious guitar freakout and blissy ambient
swirl into the magical metallic drift that those two groups did.
So here we have Wisdom Thunderbolt, featuring the VCO usual
suspects (Neil Campbell, Mick Flower, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport) with a whole mess of special guests, underground drumlord Chris Corsano, the aforementioned Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, etc.), Pete Nolan of the Magik Markers and John Godbert (Skullflower, Total) and the sound is exactly as we remember it. Thick and dense, swirling and blissed out, druggy and blurry,
smeared and shimmering. There is percussion, it mostly tinkles and
skitters, but occasionally pounds and swings, organs and synths are
woven into weird little buzzing soundscapes, horns wail and skronk,
guitars growl and jangle...
While the opening track is a ramshackle stumble, all over the
place, but in a very good way, the second track is where the band
locks into that perfect groove they've always been capable of. A
blown out stretch of raga like buzz, tribal drums underpinning a
simple riff, a spacey sea sick shimmer, all wrapped up in layers of
guitar buzz and hissy synth, rich and thick and totally mesmerizing.
The rest of the record is more of the same, longform buzz
drenched krautrocky drone jams, with some notable exceptions. The 12+ minute "Rainbow Whirlwind, which sounds like some lost Spacemen 3 jam, the guitars pulsing and throbbing, tones beating against other tones, the synths and guitars creating constantly shifting rhythms, interrupted in the middle by a blown out free noise fest, before
slipping back into spaced out pulse and dreamy drift.
And, the uncharacteristically 'rock'-y intro to "Sway-Sage"
that sounds like the Guess Who's "American Woman", before quickly
slipping back into some super distorted space jam, with a glitchy
buzz laid over a relentless rhythm, and with thick ropy swirls of
guitar and synth buzz burying everything in that distinctly VCO warm
washed out sonic blur." [Aquarius Records]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Dabbling with gravity and who you are |
CD |
Aufnahmen von 2000, endlose v.a. sehr perkussive Sessions, ein kreatürliches akustisches Durcheinander mit vielen Blasinstrumenten, toll wie alles plötzlich einen folkig-orientalischen Anstrich bekommt, 11 Stücke oder Indexe, fast 61 Minuten, das ganze hat Proberaum-Charme, wurde ja auch in der KÜCHE von MICHAEL FLOWER aufgenommen..
"New pressing of long out of print title by the classic quintet of Neil Campbell, Bridgit Hayden, Julian Bradley, Michael Flower, and Adam Davenport. Assembled from recordings of their weekly sessions in Michael's kitchen, the tracks here represent the joyous, celebratory side of the VCO - all forward motion, massed strings, percussion, horns, and little instruments rocketing forward in a swirl of sound. Compared to the more austere sounds of recent CD's like "Lino Hi" and "Versatile Arab Chord Chart," the tracks here take off from where the loose hippy chant and drum action of collectives like Amon Duul intersects with the ploygot instrumental approach of mid-60's Sun Ra (ref "Exotic Forest," "Shadow World," etc). "There is no chord formation that can be planned which creates elation or sadness, or any art which is profound enough to change anything fundamental about a person. There is just a resonance around us which musicians/artists are using or not using" - Bridgit Hayden on the VCO" [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Versatile Arab Chord Chart |
CD |
Zweite CD der drownig-dronigen Impro-Combo aus UK...
"Versatile Arab Chord Chart is the second full-length outing by the quintet of Neil Campbell, Michael Flower, Julian Bradley, Bridget Hayden, and Adam Davenport. Like their UK cousins and fellow VHF recording artists Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra usually works from a base of modal improvisation. Led by Campbell's sawing violin, tracks like 'Wearing Quid Frock' and the epic 'Japan Banjo' build up arcs of lingering overtones beneath an undercurrent of melody. They cut the drones in their life with extremely effective bursts of near rock, in a style reminiscient of the pre-Nico Velvet Underground (circa 1966 or so). The band's combination of clattering percussion, droning strings, and considerable sense of where to put the 'groove' on tracks like 'Catching Loners With Blank Arms' makes them unique among their peers. Versatile Arab Chord Chart follows the band's previous Lino Hi outing on Giardia and a series of intriguing and extremely limited self-released titles, including the currently available Filling Sacks With Leaves 10-inch. New work for VHF and live work around the UK are planned for the near future, if there is one." - label press release.
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2000 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Joka Baya |
LP |
"The ever-mysterious Vibracathedral Orchestra returns from another relatively quiet period with an uncompromising set of outre jams on a trio of limited-edition LPs. Slightly reorganized around a line-up of stalwarts Mick Flower and Adam Davenport with frequent collaborators John Godbert (Total) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man), the band here stretches way, way out over these six sides. Joka Baya offers up a set of shorter pieces on the A-side in a high-fidelity style that contrasts the dark, smoky sound of the rest of the tracks. The percussive grooves are overlaid with Sunroof!-like shimmer, stabbing electric leads, gentle acoustic rain, and droning organ peeking through at opportune moments. The roaring side-long epic on the flip is a droning, phasing slice of psychedelia with Moloney's drums battering the tape in between long stretches of humming stasis." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
" It's been a while since we've heard from UK ur-drone spacelords
Vibracathedral Orchestra, founder Neil Campbell took off on his own a
while back, and now kicks up a ruckus as Astral Social Club, but the
Orchestra is still going strong, fronted by long time members Mick
Flower and Adam Davenport, who for this new set of THREE (!!) full
length releases, is joined by John Moloney of Sunburned Hand Of The
Man and the mighty John Godbert of the legendary Total.
Each of the three, Joka Baya, The Secret Base and Smoke Song,
function on their own as fully formed proper albums, but the three
also seem to fit together into one expansive whole, a sweeping
sprawling songsuite, that seems to drift from one lp to the next, and
in fact, although we didn't try it, we imagine you could probably play
these records simultaneously in various combinations and the results
would be even trippier.
Needless to say, most folks will most likely want all three,
but no harm done in starting with one, and then grabbing the others
later, unless they sell out that is, which seems very likely
considering that these are quite limited.
Up first is Joka Baya (in the black cover) beginning with a bit
of African drumming, which gives way to some gorgeously glimmering and
glistening prismatic dronemusic, swirling effects, all dreamlike and
bleary eyed, with what sounds like birdsong mixed into the chiming
notes and extended tones. The record shifts gears after that into
something much heavier and more blown out, a full on psychedelic post
Hawkwind spacejam, a heavy krautrock rhythm beneath a flurry of
tangled psych guitars. The African drums return briefly before the
band lock into a throbbing processed minimal looped dronescape, murky
and washed out, dark and hypnotic.
The flipside is a single side long epic, a slow burning cloud
of processed guitars, cymbal shimmer, glitched out FX, building to a
pounding psychedelic crescendo before slipping into a propulsive muted
buzzdrone raga outro.
The second lp is called The Secret Base (in the white and red
cover) and begins immediately with a total Spacemen 3 / Loop styled
drug rock jam, repetitive, mesmerizing, super hypnotic, the guitars
smoldering and incendiary. The next track is an Eastern tinged
spacekraut groove, strangely Southern sounding as well, a bit twang
flecked, a little dubby even, melodic, and major key and surprisingly
playful. Like the first record, The Secret Base also fills its second
side with a single extended track, this time, it's all clattery and
ritualistic and tribal, shakers, bells, hand drums, moaned and chanted
vocals, very reminiscent of Avarus, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, eventually
the sound locks into a skeletal groove, hypnotic and propulsive, but
still abstract and way loose.
Finally, the third art in the trilogy, Smoke Song (in the
Orange cover), which begins with a sprawling bit of Clattery, twangy
tribal free drift, fluttery flutes, lots of percussion, a sort of wild
and wooly drum circle, laced with woodwinds and swirling effects,
before slipping into a muted spacey jam, all subtle drumming, wheezing
chords, little bits of guitar jangle, warm whirring keyboards, druggy,
psychedelic, and just a bit Doors-y (or Wooden Shjips-y, for a more
contemporary reference).
Smoke Song too offers up a side long closer, this one ending
the whole trilogy, and it's a doozy, full on droned out drug rock,
cyclical, mesmerizing, sitar-like buzz wrapped around a simple, but
pounding motorik beat, while all around it a swirling cloud of hiss
and buzz and shimmer.
Needless to say, all three are recommended, and again, not sure
how limited these are, or how long they'll be around..." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
same |
do-LP & DVD |
"Public service reissue of this impossibly rare and choice title in the Vibra oeuvre, originally issued by the band in 2004 as an edition of 250. Featuring the “classic” lineup (Mick Flower, Neil Campbell, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport, Julian Bradley) that made “Queen of Guess” (vhf#77) and “Dabbling With Gravity and Who You Are” (vhf#66), this self-titled double takes a wild ride through the inner-workings of VCO’s stream of consciousness.
Many of the tracks (selected from research & development jams) here cut in abruptly, continuing the informal, expansive vibe of the band’s other self-released items. The thick blanket of signature drone-fog is never far away, anchoring the tunes which veer from early Velvets-style rock jammers (“Thrift”) to swirling electronic mystery (“Clear”). On side 3, “Gist” builds up a looping, guitar-led rhythm like a lost A.R. & Machines track, sharing the same side with the pulsing “Flötz,” which rides a taut electro-pulse bolstered by group small percussion. This lengthy double concludes with the almost side-long “Minkey,” featuring the full complement of VCO sound signatures in one big hallucinatory swirl.
Exclusive to this release is a 35 minute DVD of three live performances put together by Mick Flower. A rare chance to see some cinema verité of the group in action, the performances here (shot in the UK in 2005 and 2007) are all on the rocking side, with furious drumming and guitar strangling. Perhaps best of all is Mick Flower and Neil Campbell’s optional audio commentary track (!) on “Wisdom T,” providing some insight on the how’s and why (and some witticisms, too). Covers hand printed by SIWA, each one a little different. Cut by John Golden, audiophile pressed at RTI (a huge improvement over the original issue). Limited pressing." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2012 |
€23.50 |
|
| |
Rec Blast Motorbike |
LP |
"Return of the mighty “classic” lineup of the VCO with their first new music in many years. Here the quintet of Michael Flower, Neil Campbell, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport, and Julian Bradley (joined by raconteur John Godbert) feature in a set of upbeat tracks that put the group's radical instrumental strategies into a package of full on rock action. Recorded live using a binaural head system, the sound is nicely ragged in a you-are-there way, with scouring guitars and bleeping electronics riding atop the band’s signature grooves. As with some of the band’s other records, there’s more than a hint of the early Velvet Underground spirit here – if you wish that Cale and Reed would have been more into being an instrumental band, here it is. Includes download code." [label info]
"We’ve long worshipped at the altar of these psychedelic shamans, dutifully prostrating ourselves before them, and bathing in the luxurious glow of their din, a din that has constantly evolved over the years, sometimes pure, cosmic ur-drone, other times, free-from, avant rock space-psych, and at others, a sort of mutant electronica. But in each incarnation, the group never failed to conjure up a sort of transcendental soundstate, the music, whether caustic and chaotic, or moody and minimal, always evoking a tranced out sense of mesmer, a true psychedelia that is rare, even amongst proper ‘psych’ bands.
Rec Blast Motorbike, finds the group’s original line-up together again (Michael Flower, Bridget Hayden, Neil Campbell, Adam Davenport, Julian Bradley and John Godbert) and it sounds like it. If we didn’t know better, this could easily have been some old self released cd-r, which is fine with us, the sound raw, and free, lo-fi, yet somehow lush and epic, beautiful blustery blowouts set alongside fractured folkiness, essentially rhythmless, but the rhythms that are present are more spluttery and loose, sounding like an errant snare rolling down an immense flight of stairs one minute, a field recording of someone bored restlessly tapping a tabletop at others, some tracks are driven by what could be a junkyard wind chime, and others, by a veritable hippie percussion ensemble. All the while, the rest of the crew are unfurling streaking arcs of distorted guitar buzz, rippling sheets of feedback and grinding FX doused riffage.
It’s hard to define exactly what would qualify as ‘classic’ Vibracathedral’, but to our ears, this is pretty much it. The old gang together again, making a glorious noise, like they never stopped in the first place." [Aquarius Rec] |
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| VIDEO-AVENTURES |
Musiques pour Garcons et Filles |
LP + 12inch |
After the experience of Camizole, Dominique Grimaud began a new (and different) adventure in 1979 with Monique Alba.
Alongside Gilbert Artman (Urban Sax), Guigou Chenevier (Etron Fou Leloublan), Jean-Pierre Grasset (Verto) and Cyril Lefebvre (Maajun), Vidéo-Aventures is composed of instrumentals capable of reconciliating Captain Beefheart, Henry Cow, Suicide and… John Barry.
All with the backing of Rock In Opposition, which enabled this Musiques pour Garçons et Filles to become known worldwide.
“Let us enter your hearts”: is the request made by Vidéo-Aventures, and how can we refuse?
Especially as Musiques pour garçons et filles, recorded by Dominique Grimaud and Monique Alba fifty years ago along with handpicked colleagues, is as fresh as ever.
1979: having improvised a huge amount (and how!) with Camizole, Grimaud tried his hand at composition and studio recording with Alba. Their first instrument was the AKS synthetiser, with which the duo recorded the instrumental tracks that were then offered to their comrades Guigou Chenevier (Etron Fou Leloublan), Gilbert Artman (Lard Free, Urban Sax), Jean-Pierre Grasset (Verto) and Cyril Lefebvre (Maajun).
At the end of the year, they all came into the studio for a week to record the eight tracks of this mini album that Chris Cutler would issue a few months later on his label, Recommended. In France it was the beginning of the agitation around Rock In Opposition, to such a point that Musiques pour Garçons et Filles would rise to second place in the NME independent Charts. And this is hardly surprising…
For these instrumental miniatures (here with the bonus of rare archives, some of which are previously unpublished) are uncontrollable: electronics augmented by lap-steel guitar (“Tina”),
cunning pop (“Zazou sur la piste”), mechanic sound (“Une vie moderne”), street piano (« French Kiss »), disturbing atmospheres (“La ballade des cardiaques”) or something like a TV theme tune capable of adjusting all the colours (“Telstar”)… With such promising ingredients, why stop Vidéo-Aventures
from entering?
Carefully remastered from the master tapes by Gilles Laujol
Graphic design by Stefan Thanneur
8 page booklet - Heavyweight 180 gr. LP
425 gsm brownboard outer sleeve
Licensed from Dominique Grimaud
https://soufflecontinurecords.bandcamp.com/album/musiques-pour-gar-ons-et-filles-in-dits
|
2023 |
€34.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA |
Spore |
CD |
Die DANTE'S INFERNO Trilogie markiert einen starken Bruch mit den Jahren des "Transzendental-Ambients" und ist einer der letzten Arbeiten von DIRK SERRIES unter dem Namen VIDNA OBMANA. Basierend auf der dunklen Poetik der Dante'schen Verse setzt er hier schon Gitarren, metallische Obertoneffekte, elektronische Rhythmen & diverse handgespielte Perkussion ein, aber auch Ethno-artige Flötensounds und die typischen ultra-sphärischen OBMANA-Drones... auf LEGACY gibt es Gastauftritte von STEVE VON TILL (NEUROSIS), STEVEN WILSON (BASS COMMUNION) und anderen.. - das ist weit mehr als der vorher so perfekt ausgeprägte aber vorhersehbare Ambient-Stil, das ist post-industrieller, abgründiger dark ambient mit überraschenden Stilmerkmalen..
Sonderpreis: die ganze Trilogie (3 CDs) zusammen für Euro 33.00!
"Atmospheric music that induces trance states in listeners who understand the language of sound. The first Vidna Obmana recording in what will be a trilogy of albums drawing inspiration from the classic Dante poem // The second chapter in renowned ethno-ambient/electronic artist vidnaObmana's Dante trilogy, and follow-up to his critically acclaimed Tremor release, Spore is the apotheosis of vidna's fascination for Dante's Inferno poem. References to vidna's industrial past of the early 80's remain strongly present, while the fusion of his ambient soundscapes with bolder and less spatial combinations of harmonics, dynamics and experimentation is even more accentuated. // Legendary dark ambient sound sculptor vidnaObmana unveils Legacy, the haunting third chapter in the artist's Dante trilogy. The much anticipated Legacy supersedes vidna's critically acclaimed Tremor and Spore albums, interlocking with the two, while delivering a resounding communique all its own. Legacy bleeds other-worldly atmospherics, ghostlike industrial ambience and spiraling electrical waves, ushering the listener forever downward." [label info for the three chapters]
www.releaseentertainment.com
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
1984-1986 [Testament of Tape] |
3 x LP-Box |
"1984-1986 Testament Of Tape captures vidnaObmana in its most experimental phase during the obscure tape period, searching for its own musical voice, Dirk Serries (well-known sound-artist, especially known for his Fear Falls Burning-Releases) is moving on this Box-Set through various styles. From utterly relentless noise music to rhythmical industrial outbursts. This 3LP set features unreleased and extremely rare tracks from a personal friend's private collection (music that was recorded exclusively for him) to songs from early cassettes releases.
While Lp Number 1 combines very beat-orientated-material in best manner of early Blackhouse or even Esplendor Geometrico. Lp2 and 3 presents the fundament and roots for his later works (Lp1 lmtd.123 copies, 3LP-Box lmtd. to 477 (300 members, 177 for wholesale/distribution)" [label info]
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2009 |
€46.50 |
|
|
River of Appearance |
CD |
Looking through our publishing calendar recently, it is easy to notice that the Belgian artist's releases appear in it regularly. The 6 titles published so far are part of an informal publishing series, consistent by the layout, based on black and white photographs of flowers by Martina Verhoeven, Dirk Serries's wife. Today, "The River of Appearance" joins this series - a special album in the rich discography of VIDNA OBMANA, refined in every detail, both in terms of sound, composition and creating a favorable aura while listening to it. With every minute, the music seeps lazily, filling the entire environment with a rich palette of sounds from flutes, ocarina, harmonica and percussion, perfectly harmonizing with loops and electronic structures; pulsating delicately and setting the rhythm of our breathing while relaxing. In this way, feedback occurs - music is perceived in a favorable atmosphere. On "River ..." we touch the delicate, sublime musical matter, woven from eight miniatures, making up an exceptionally coherent concept. This album has all the elements that define ambient as a music genre. It is considered to be one of the most important albums in its category, along with the most recognized works for ambient music.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of his first release by the Projekt label. On this occasion, we have prepared a special jubilee edition, which in addition to the basic version of the album includes additions, incl. a cassette with demo versions of the session "The River of Appearance: Outtakes", a few photo prints by Martina Verhoeven, a back bag / sack with a graphic referring to the release and a few other extras. All elements are folded in a hand-made and numbered wooden flower box, specially prepared according to the musician's suggestions.
Limited edition in a wooden box to 50 hand-numbered copies.
Standard edition in digipack limited to 450 copies.
REVEALED BY COMPOSED NATURE was recorded and
mixed between March 1995 and January 1996 at the
Serenity Studio, Belgium.
All tracks composed, arranged & played by Vidna Obmana.
Vidna Obmana : electronics, loops, five rainsticks in
different tunings, shells, claypot, click sticks, maracas,
water bottles, Bolivian & bamboo flutes, ocarina and
harmonica.
Remastered for this edition by Dirk Serries, February
2021.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-river-of-appearance-25th-anniversary-edit
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Dante Trilogy |
3 x CD |
An almost his 25 year existency as VIDNA OBMANA Dirk Serries never shied away from challenges, sometimes to the regret of many of his fans, but it’s when he was offered a record deal with the renowned metal label RELAPSE RECORDS/RELEASE ENTERTAINMENT Vidna Obmana took his boldest step ever. With his DANTE TRILOGY he created his most ambitious, daring and unique set of albums which, for good, made him to be one of the most unique voices in the ambient and experimental scene.
Not only brought he VIDNA OBMANA to a definite conclusion but executed for him that perfect fusion of everything his project stood for since the first release in 1984.
His industrialism, the minimal ambience, the fourth world explorations and his electronic processing experiments went into blender. Utterly surreal, intense and expansive, the 3 albums TREMOR, SPORE and LEGACY showcase VIDNA OBMANA at his creative peak while conceptually the trilogy expresses Dirk Serries’ frustration, disappointment and creative turmoil as his role as VIDNA OBMANA in the ambient scene. This trilogy became that end of the road for probably his most critically-acclaimed and world-wide appreciated project but a change was necessary.
Having these 3 albums out on RELAPSE RECORDS/RELEASE ENTERTAINMENT solidified his connection to the metal and heavier guitar scene and the next chapter in DIRK SERRIES’ obsessive quest for that sublime in sound and mood was born: FEAR FALLS BURNING.
Now fully remastered, making every complex detail stand out even more, ZOHARUM is releasing the trilogy as a 3CD set with the related breathtaking photography by MARTINA VERHOEVEN. Music that according to VIDNA OBMANA was especially recorded to experience on a qualitive set of headphones.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/dante-trilogy-tremor-spore-legacy
"Die DANTE'S INFERNO Trilogie markiert einen starken Bruch mit den Jahren des "Transzendental-Ambients" und ist einer der letzten Arbeiten von DIRK SERRIES unter dem Namen VIDNA OBMANA. Basierend auf der dunklen Poetik der Dante'schen Verse setzt er hier schon Gitarren, metallische Obertoneffekte, elektronische Rhythmen & diverse handgespielte Perkussion ein, aber auch Ethno-artige Flötensounds und die typischen ultra-sphärischen OBMANA-Drones... auf LEGACY gibt es Gastauftritte von STEVE VON TILL (NEUROSIS), STEVEN WILSON (BASS COMMUNION) und anderen.. - das ist weit mehr als der vorher so perfekt ausgeprägte aber vorhersehbare Ambient-Stil, das ist post-industrieller, abgründiger dark ambient mit überraschenden Stilmerkmalen.." [Drone Rec. info]
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Crossing the Trail |
CD |
This edition of "Crossing The Trail" is next installment of the informal series contains VIDNA OBMANA reissues. This time it is material that was originally published in 1998 by the American label Projekt. The album was recorded between 1996 and 1997, with guest appearances inc. Steve Roach, Jeff Pearce and Martina Verhoeven. The album contains seven compositions, characteristic of VIDNA OBMANA work from this period, also being a perfect link between "The River Of Appearance" and "The Surreal Sanctuary", which we also reissued as part of this series.
Especially for this release, the material was remastered by Dirk Serries in 2023. Edition was enriched with slightly refreshed graphics, traditionally based on Martina Verhoeven's photographs from the same period as the publication from Projekt.
CD folded in a 6-panel digipack.
CROSSING THE TRAIL was recorded and mixed between June 1996 and October 1997.
All tracks composed, arranged & played by Vidna Obmana, except ‘Trail Dwelling’ by Vidna Obmana & Steve Roach and ‘This Splendid Place’ by Vidna Obmana & Jeff Pearce.
Vidna Obmana : electronics, loops, rhythm programming and processing, various percussion, bamboo and wooden flutes, ocarinas, fujaras, recycling and acoustic mutations.
Steve Roach : electron groove creation and harmonic wave on ‘Trial Dwelling’. Source recorded at the Timeroom, Tucson, AZ, June 1997.
Jeff Pearce : guitar and electronic loops on ‘This Splendid Place’. Source recorded at Outer Circle Studio, Linden, IN, March 1996.
Martina Verhoeven : chant on ‘The Esoteric Source’.
Remastered for this edition by Dirk Serries, August 2023.
Originally released on cd in 1998 (Projekt Records, USA).
Photography by Martina Verhoeven / www.martinaverhoeven.com
Design by Maciej Mehring
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/crossing-the-trail
"Fellow countryman Dirk Serries has been on my radar for some time now, though mostly with his 'Fear Falls Burning' project. I guess I was somehow late in discovering Vidna Obmana, even though I was there to experience the tail end of the project. While I can honestly say I find his improvised music a bold move, it never managed to grab me properly. I liked his guitar ambient slinging a lot, and from that point, I started to work backwards through his discography. Whenever I heard something new from Fear Falls Burning, I also wanted to hear an older Vidna Obmana - also just because one can. I don't think I've come across 'Crossing The Trail' on that particular journey, but I don't keep lists since I am not an organised man. This CD was originally released in 1998 by Projekt, the label from the man behind Black Tape For A Blue Girl. Vidna Obmana is assisted by ambient masters Jeff Pearce and Steve Roach, and then Martine Verhoeven contributes vocals. Each of the seven pieces takes considerable time to develop - close to eight is the shortest and over fourteen minutes the longest. Glancing back at other Vidna Obmana works from this period, I can say the musical style is instantly recognisable. Somewhere along the way, Vidna Obmana picked up using rhythms, and he uses them to great effect: slow, majestic, and a bit exotic. There are rainmakers and shakers, a Djembe (at least that's what it sounds like to me), and all along, there are these big washes of spacious synthesiser sounds. By sequencing these, the music gets a slightly more 'mechanical' feeling, in which everything feels quite streamlined. At the same time, the whole thing comes across as very organic, and it's easily a space to get lost in (which I would think is Vidna Obmana's goal exactly). With the enormous output of such a project, it is never easy to say if one specific work is the ultimate masterpiece between lesser ones. Moreover, that would very much be a personal thing. In the end, I think I heard only a tiny portion of the work, but can I sincerely say 'Crossing The Trail' is one I enjoyed? But then again, I did so with many of the other albums." [LW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA & PBK |
Monument of Empty Colours + Depression and Ideal |
do-CD |
Dirk Serries is an extremely prolific and creative artist who has a huge amount of music composed solo, under his own name or under the name VIDNA OBMANA. In addition to solo recordings, Dirk often collaborated with other artists, thus introducing a new quality to his own music. While implementing the next installments of our informal series, we also published a few of them; for example "Traces" in collaboration with David Lee Myers, or "The Shape of Solitude" with Serge Devadder. This time we present the effect of the Belgian artist's musical collaboration with Phillip B. Klinger, better known as PBK. Gentlemen, in the past, they undertook joint initiatives several times. After all, they have a lot of material in common. We chose the two most expressive of them: "Monument of Empty Colours" and "Depression and Ideal". In both of these materials, many similarities can be found, both in terms of composition and sound. Thanks to this, they give the impression of a coherent, even monolithic whole, built of smaller, expressive parts. That is why they were published on two separate CDs, but enclosed in one digipack, with one graphic design connecting two parts of a larger whole, presenting music created in a specific period of time. Therefore, both discs are filled with tracks characterized by a raw and dark sound, close to the achievements of Cold Meat Industry artists, fitting into the convention of post-industrial dark ambient, which we associate with publications from the Scandinavian label.
In addition, it is worth noting that, especially for the needs of this release, the materials from both sessions have been re-mastered and provided with a completely new graphic design. Edition on two CDs published in a limited edition of 400 copies.
Vidna Obmana: electronics, loops and tapes.
PBK: electronics, tape
MONUMENT OF EMPTY COLOURS was recorded and mixed between November 1988 and March 1989.
Originally released on The Decade Collection, 1989.
DEPRESSION AND IDEAL was recorded and mixed in 1989.
Originally released on PBK Recordings & Freedom In A Vaccum, 1989.
|
2022 |
€16.50 |
|
| VIKTOR, KNUD |
Ambiances / Images |
do-LP |
Re-issue of rare releases by Danish sound artist Knud Viktor. The Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology is re-issuing the Danish sound artist Knud Viktor’s only two releases. Ambiances and Images – both released in 1972 – are longtime sought-after rare collector’s items.
These are now re-issued as a double LP from the original master tapes with liner notes by poet and sound artist Morten Søndergaard.
Overlooked and unheard Danish sound art Knud Viktor (1924-2013) graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen as a painter. In the 1960’s he moved to the Luberon valley in southern France to paint the Provençal light and nature. However, Viktor left the painting and gradually moved towards filming and recording the sounds of nature. He used the field recordings as raw material for a series of abstract electronic compositions, which also served as soundtracks for his filmworks. A selection of these compositions were released in 1972 on the two records Images and Ambiances on the French label L’Oiseau Musicien. The records came in very limited editions, and therefore Knud Viktor’s works have remained largely unknown. With the re-issue of these records The Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology wishes to revitalize Knud Viktor and his contribution to the history of sound art.
The small sounds of nature Knud Viktor is recognized as an important figure in the field of sound art in France and he is regarded as a pioneer within field recording and acoustic ecology. During the 1970’s he turned his house in Provence into one large mixing desk with a myriad of homebuilt microphones and cables spiralling into the surrounding landscape. From here he would carefully record the sounds of snoring rabbits in their holes, the rhythmic songs of cicadas in the night – even termites gnawing through an old cupboard in the bedroom As the Danish poet Morten Søndergaard writes in the essay A Sonic Seismograph, which accompanies the release: “Light became sound. The most fascinating aspect of Knud Viktor’s world is perhaps that there is a universal coalescence of all things: of artistic expressions and natural science, of painting, sculpture and installation. A paintbrush becomes a microphone. Music becomes sound.”
By re-issuing Ambiances and Images, The Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology hopes to contribute to a revitalization of Knud Viktor’s important work, and that more listeners will engage and lend the deserved attention to these works.
The Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology is an independent association with the overall purpose of uncovering and releasing historical Danish electronic music and sound art.
www.lydarkaeologi.dk
|
2017 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
Les Ephemeres |
do-LP |
The lost masterpiece Les Éphémères by the self labeled ‘sound painter’ Knud Viktor (1924-2013) now sees its first ever release by Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology – 40 years after it was conceived. Viktor’s pioneering work – his Images Sonores – are composed of field recordings of insects, animals and the his surroundings.
A finished master tape and even a complete cover layout for Les Éphémères was found in Viktor’s archives after he passed away in 2013. The phenomenal piece was originally commissioned by the French radio station France Musique in 1977. The twenty short ‘sound images’ of Les Éphémères were originally broadcast as vignettes in-between other radio programs.
From the middle of the 1970’s Viktor began composing almost exclusively for four channels. He invented his own intuitive quadraphonic mixer – the Tetramix – to realise his spatial visions for his Image VI – The Lubéron Symphony, and from then on worked with quadraphonic sound, thus making the release of his works difficult. Les Éphémères is close in time and also holds close ties to The Lubéron Symphony, which Viktor considered his magnum opus. Perhaps most strikingly is the shift in the way he uses the recordings of insects, birds and animals in both The Lubéron Symphony and Les Éphémères: Often untreated and clearly recognizable, the field recordings leave the inherent melody and rhythm of the animal sounds to sing for themselves, layering recordings to create simple and elegant sound images. In two of the twenty pieces Viktor’s own voice blends with the animals, as he recites two poems. One about the singing vineyard populated by musical crickets, the other painting an autumn picture with wine bubbling in the barrels as we hear the wine flies humming.
Viktor’s work emanates with a tremendous love and fascination with his companion species and the landscape and geology that surrounded him. His works are devoted to depicting the life on the mountain where he lived for fifty years. Hearing how the ecology of the landscape changed as commercial farming and pesticides took effect, a larger perspective in his work became clear to him:
"As it turns out, my work has actually set many things in motion; it touches upon something universal that I feel I have a duty to convey to others. A duty that I feel as a citizen of the earth. Not as a human citizen, but as a citizen of the earth. It may sound pretentious, but this is a question of generations to come." – Knud Viktor
The world has seen dramatic ecological change since Viktor recorded his sounds. Not only have the individual insects and animals that he recorded vanished from Lubéron, so too have entire species. Like fossils, their imprints now exist only in his works, in the recordings stored on tape. In the midst of our planet’s sixth mass-extinction event, the growing silence that Viktor heard in his immediate surrounding is now global: scientists estimate that half of the planet’s animal life has already disappeared. Viktor’s sound works allow us to borrow his ears. They convey his love for the animal worlds that surrounded him and perhaps we too can see our companion species differently through his works.
|
2018 |
€24.00 |
|
| VILLENA, CARLOS |
Els Humans Tambe Som Carn |
CD-R |
"Carlos Villena in Spain for years makes noise and dark-ambient music, released on his own label Mantricum and on other labels as well. Often he seeks cooperation with other musicians and proposes a split release together and connect with his music of the other musician. His latest solo-release "Els humans també som carn" on Mantricum and is dedicated to animals. The music is very dark and threatening to call with continuous dark layers and slow changes in tone. The first track has some clear tones of processed sounds of crickets. The second track with a length of around twenty minutes is minimal and is slowly broken by carved long scream of a man. It has the feel of an abandoned slaughterhouse where the spirits of killed animals still roam. The last song begins with a more open in terms of tones, but also goes quickly through the dark under layers in the music. "Els humans també som carn" is
not a optimistic record at all. A part of animal rights activists mean that humans
are equivalent to animals and in that sense are humans mea as well. In this case I can
imagine, that record is dark I you know what is happening to animals and humans who live and die in captivity." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
www.mantricum.com
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| VIOLET |
Let the Sunshine in |
m-CDR |
Hinter VIOLET verbirgt sich Jeff Surak mit seinem kleinen Zeromoon-Label. Zu hören gibt es auf dieser mini CDR loopig-konkretes Material, welches untergründig in starker Bewegung erscheint.. Tip !
VIOLET is Jeff Surak who also does the Zeromoon-Label. On this small release we listen to loopy-concrete material, which seems to be in constant movement underneath.. to discover !
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Violet Ray Gas & The Playback Singers |
CD |
VIOLET gibt es schon seit geraumer Zeit (in der Cassetten-Szene bereits als "1348" und NEW CARROLLTON aktiv!), ist aber leider bislang im Drone-Katalog kaum in Erscheinung getreten... Dieses Album auf dem eigenen ZEROMOON-Label präsentiert rauhe, grobkörnige, experimentelle low-fi drones inkl. Einsatz von Schallplatten-Loops, Stimmzitaten & Feedbacks, zum Ende hin aber weniger noisige polyphone Sphären-Schichten, die schon fast an PHILL NIBLOCK gemahnen... ein weites Spektrum öffnet sich hier mit eigener Handschrift...
"Quite an intriguing burst of dark electronic and sample noise from Violet, whose Violet Ray Gas and The Playback Singers (ZEROMOON zero008 / SENTIENT RECOGNITION ARCHIVE SRA 10) is released in a digipack covered with Futurist-inspired monochrome images full of harsh diagonals and fuzzy dreams of the machine age. Jeff Surak arrives here from Washington DC, a hero of the 1980s cassette tape scene when he used to release music under his 1348 alias and ran his Watergate Tapes label. Consequently we can hear much stern authority and grainy power in these grim process-works. My fave so far is the opener ‘All Records Collapse’, with its implacable radio voice plucked from an indeterminate Eastern European zone, but ‘Snakehead Lapping’, ‘Plague Numbers’ and ‘Marionetki’ all communicate the requisite doses of futility. Two long tracks at the end, ‘Violet Ray Gas’ and ‘Interior Ghosts’, are somewhat more musical than atmospheric, shaped from queasy long-form drones tempered with alien sounds. Surak strives to offer ‘near-silence’ and ‘full-on tonal Brutalism’, with all shades in between." [The Sound Projector]
"... Dark and mysterious, mixing in bits of Jeck and Tim Hecker, Wolf Eyes, blending them into Violet's ominous world of sound. There's feedback all over the place, but it's far from harsh or jagged, instead it's used like color, to paint greyed out landscapes burnished reds, and melted oranges, thick tones, reverberating chimes, bits of buzz and crunch, disembodied voices, intercepted broadcasts, clouds of hiss, chugging machinery, industrial sonic detritus, warped strings, woozy synths, all wound up into dense walls of sound one second, blurred into delicate crystalline lattices the next. "Plague Numbers" is total Jeck, a skipping scratched record smeared into a gauzy washed out living portrait of sound, indistinct figures, flitting shadows, mysterious shapes, all moving as if through a thick field of static, not even four minutes, but we found ourselves wishing it would never end. Elsewhere the sound of lapping water is swallowed up by a crackling crumbling fog of burnt melodies, and slowed down riffs, a sort of sun dappled lysergic sonic swirl. The title track is a tuning up orchestra stretched out into a softly chaotic symphony of angular tones and fractured melodies, of sine waves and groaning creaking low end rumbles, augmented by curious crackles and strands of distortion arranged in patterns resembling speech, but rendered in impressionistic shards, finishing off with a gorgeous high end ur- drone, a softer Sunroof!, a field of static bagpipes, their overtones creating otherworldly patterns in the ether. Gorgeous." [Aquarius Records review]
www.zeromoon.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| VIOLET & FREIBAND |
Fender Bender |
mCD-R |
"When I was in Washington I stayed with Jeff Surak of Zeromoon, Sonic Circuits and Violet fame. And someone whom I know for over twenty years now. Previous arrangements never worked out to record, but on September 11th we sat down and record some music, which in edited form is now released here. Zeromoon will release an alternative mix/version/treatment of the material." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html
|
2008 |
€5.50 |
|
| VIOSAC (VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED) |
Dawning Luminosity |
CD |
"53 minutes of peaceful, channeled, ambient drone. Layers of analogue processing culminating in Frippertronics.." [label info]
www.viosac.net
"Back in Vital Weekly 656 we were re-introduced to Violence And The Sacred performing as Viosac, the new name of what was once known as just Violence And The Sacred. Still I have no idea why they hold on to the addition 'Performing As Viosac', and not just simply return to the old name. 'Rusty Pile' wasn't a convincing come-back album I thought. Perhaps a bit too much of an unedited jam-session. The CD after that 'You Are PLanning To Enjoy The Apocalypse' wasn't received here. The new work 'Dawing Luminosity' is however a great work. Viosac move into a more ambient territory here, which not necessarily adds much to the world of ambient and drones, but the quality is great. Its one piece in three parts and I'm told its all analogue synthesizers and analogue processing. Very slow moves around here, this an almost perfect piece of surround sound, ambient in the very most true sense of the word. An excellent disc of some heavenly music. As said, it doesn't add much, if anything at all, to what we already know about this kind of music, but its very rare that it unfolds into such a beauty." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIPCANCRO |
Xax |
LP |
Bass / Percussion / Tapes / Electronics / Voice / Metal. You can feel that this Italian quartet tries to sound like no one else, these are raw and suspenseful dronescapes with occasional outbursts, full of overtunes & small feedbacks, evoking quite a mysterious atmosphere...
"Lisca Records is a no form music label dedicated to sounds generated by environmental saturation and reflection. This is the debut LP from the Tuscan drone / post-industrial / experimental quartet of Andrea Borghi, Filippo Ciavoli Cortelli, Alberto Picchi and Nichola Quiriconi. Limited to just 150 copies in special handmade packaging - ACT FAST!" [label info]
www.myspace.com/liscarecords
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| VISHUDHA KALI |
Prem Genocide |
CD |
Erste „Fabrik – CD“ dieses Projekts aus St. Petersburg, das ausschließlich Stimme(n) als Soundquelle einsetzt und damit rauhe, effektierte, destruktiv-emotionale Stücke aus Klang & Geschrei & found sounds (Chöre, Gesänge) schafft... damit verbunden ist eine Radikalkritik an der zerstörerischen Spezies Mensch. Spezielles Cover mit Banderole und Siegel.
First CD by this project from St. Petersburg, Russia. Raw processed voice-only tracks, destructive & emotional pieces made out of screams and feedbacks and found choirs, etc. , dedicated to the “parasite man”. Harsh and depressive at the same time.
“Prem Genocide is the first album of the one-man project from St. Petersburg. Vishuddha Kali is the art of destruction, musical project, consisting of sounds produced by man's mouth only. All the sounds on the given album are only vocal sounds of different trends of breath & speeches, forwarded through a lot of processing & distorters, but still they are the sounds of the voice only. Creative work of Vishuddha Kali is devoted to total genocide that takes place in human society. It dedicated to humanity's striving for self- liquidation & destruction. Every track is devoted to one of the stages of this destruction. All the texts being gathered together are a small letter addressed to the man, who realizes its place in the nature, who realizes himself as a small not-separated particle of the surprising manifestation of this life. CD comes in oversized foldout cover sealed with a black wax & includes 2 postcards Ltd. to 300 copies ..... Absolute masterpiece!!!” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Unfinished Devastation Narrative |
CD |
lim./numb. 689 copies with many full colour postcards SPECIAL OFFER
Sehr ruhiges, spirituell-meditatives Album des St. Petersburger Projekts mit vielen Harmonika-artigen Sounds, gewidmet der Heimatstadt. Beeindruckende Aufmachung mit vielen Vollfarb-Postkarten....
"Unfinished Devastation Narrative\" is probably the most notable album in VK's discography, of course if there are any unnotable. It is a very personal work and it's the best recommendation for fans of the author. This album is not similar to his previous releases neither in style or sound. Listeners will find here a sort of cosmic-music, played on a physharmonica (portative organ), singing bowls, accordion, various handmade and analogue instruments, Sounds of nature, recorded in sacred places on uninhabited islands of Ladoga lake, where author has been meditating for a long time, have also been used in the album.
The album includes:
- 5 11-minute tracks of assembled acoustic ambient
- new ways of playing various handmade instruments & natural sound sources
- conceptually re-worked melodies, structures & streams, creating
endless mystique moods & dreams.
- quality sound and professional mastering
- a luxurious conceptual package art
The pictures must be noticed individually. All of them are reprints of the author's drawings, reflecting his esoteric experiences. Each picture adds new sense and depth to the corresponding track. In this sense there are no analogues to this release. The album is very deep and extremely conceptual in every point, there is not a single accidental sound or design element. Every listener will enjoy the album, everybody will find something interesting in this release. Limited edition of 689 copies, and this number also represents a deep conceptual idea. Number 6 symbolizes the beginning, 8 - the infinity and 9 - the ending.“ [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| VITRIOL |
I-VII |
CD |
Wow! Leider erst spät entdeckt, dieses alchemistische Gebräu von ex-GODFLESH BC GREEN. Rückwärtige Gitarrensounds & drones, eine dumpf-beschwörende Stimme aus dem Untergrund, sich wellenartige ergiessende Chords....
“Ben Green (Godflesh) takes us on a haunting and elemental journey of the soul. Recorded in the mountains of Wales in order to document alchemical pursuits....’ In 1995 I moved to a remote cottage in the Ystwyth valley, to escape the noise of the city in order to listen, without distraction to the sounds within, sounds that I had been feeling for a long time. I spent 12 months here in virtual total isolation, focusing not only inwards, but also allowing myself to be an elemental "sponge", initially at nature’s mercy, but eventually learning to coexist with all natural elements, becoming completely aware of the natural order and flow of things. One of the ways in which I explored this was using sound, for as a musician I was very aware of the strength of sounds, particularly in a pure state, and the effect they have on our psyche, and therefore our fundamental state of being.’ [Ben Green 2001] “ [label info]
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| VIVENZA |
Realite de l'automation directe |
LP |
"Réalité de l'automation directe:
Bruitism is the representation of a living, biological body, not unrelated but on the contrary intimate to the substance. The nature/technique gap is totally, in The Art of Noises, the most accomplished form of a reconciliation with industrial mechanization.
By highlighting the autonomy of the dialectical movement in its inaugural tension, bruitism reestablishes this relationship with the pure objectivity of the substance, which is the cornerstone of the program of futurism and remains more than ever valid for the future of all futures. The sonorous world, the noises of life, are not just a simple residual environment but the material of a new art, The Art of Noises !
Luigi Russolo declares : « In a few years the engines of our industrial cities can all be skilfully sounded so as to make from each factory an exhilarating orchestra of noises ». The futurist objective is « a will for a back to original forces »[3], it finds in bruitism the most intense form of a participation to the universal energy of the being of the world.
Extract from L'art des bruits futuristes (The Art of Futurist Noises), Vivenza, 1982
1. L. RUSSOLO, The Art of Noises, Milan, 1913.
2. L. RUSSOLO, The Noises of Nature and Life, Milan. 1913.
3. L. RUSSOLO, The Art of Noises, Milan, 1913." [credits]
"From his first works in the middle of the 70s, Jean-Marc Vivenza places himself in the field of the theorico-political link attached to the Italian Futurists and Russian Constructivists trends whose bruitist-plastic propositions are the only theorical sources having ever been developped with consistency, and qualifies his music as « bruitist futurist » rather than industrial.
It is the re-appropriation of noise as a formal plastic aid. He explores the field of perspectives that the acoustico-plastic material offers and works on a concept that he calls « the objective materiality of noise », basing himself on the futuristic thesis of Luigi Russolo, exposed in « The Art of Noises » edited in 1913, constituting the working guide for Vivenza and remaining the base of any authentic bruitism. He is then the first, between 1976 (with the band Glace) and 1979, to build a bridge between the thesis of Luigi Russolo and our time.
The originality of Vivenza is to use industrial sonorous material in the literal sense of the word (machines, workers in action, factories) and records real industrial sonorities in factories : reality is the subject of futurist research." [biography info from the label)
http://rotorelief.com
|
2011 |
€23.00 |
|
|
Veriti Plastici |
CD |
"Veriti Plastici, the third part of the first works of Vivenza, recorded and completed in 1983, represents a fundamental step in the definitive formalisation of the bruitist sonorous views. Made of very objective industrial atmospheres, this recording will be the bridge between the pure experimental approach, and the rigorous structuring of the works that will be produced later (Fondements Bruitistes - 1984, Réalités Servomécaniques - 1985, Machines - 1985, etc.). The release of Veriti Plastici was accompanied by a text : LE PROGRAMME FUTURISTE DE RETOUR A LA REALITE MATERIELLE, clearly describing the principles defining the theory of bruitism. It was declared : 'Luigi Russolo will advocate the use of real noises to take us in the organic participation of existential dynamism, and to do so had to be developped : 'the understanding, the taste and the passion for noises' ; and moving from the eye which presided at the expression of the futurist idea through painting that riveted the mind on a reductive image on a space point of view, to the ear offering a scope of sonorous expansion open on the infinite : 'our multiplied sensibility, after using futurist eyes, will have futurist ears'. (L. Russolo, l'Art des bruits, Milan, 1913)." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com |
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Fondements bruitistes 2 |
LP |
"For the first time ever the entire Fondements Bruitistes session from 1984 with unreleased tracks. Here this double album is separated in two individual records to be part of the repetitive collection of Industrial Music Archives From France." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Fondements bruitistes 1 |
LP |
"For the first time ever the entire Fondements Bruitistes session from 1984 with unreleased tracks. Here this double album is separated in two individual records to be part of the repetitive collection of Industrial Music Archives From France." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Realites Servomecaniques |
BOOK / CD |
"Deluxe CD book, 32 pages, pictures & texts in three languages: French, English, Japanese. 'Réalités servomécaniques' is an improved version faithful to the original recordings with visuals specially reworked, answering to a categorical assertion, theoricaly and practicaly on Vivenza's bruitist point of view, who presents sounds, 'noises', under their rawest and genuine aspect: sounds are machines / machines are sounds. Thus Vivenza captured the essence of factories with a strong sense of austerity, radicality, verticality, including thick smokes and intense darkness of industrial landscapes, as Réalités servomécaniques directly refers to the triumph but also decline of heavy industries in the 80s. The mechanics, cogwheels, forges and machines smash us in the face in a radically powerful way, being at the same time under our eyes and inside us, at the heart of our selves, in an ultra realistic way while listening. We are then, with Réalités servomécaniques, plunged in the midst the machines, and in the machines, with a surprising and striking strength. 'Machines are sounds / sounds are machines!' " [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Fondements bruitistes |
BOOK / do-CD |
"Deluxe double-CD book, 108 pages in three languages: French, English, Japanese. Included The Art Of Noises - Futurist Manifesto - by Luigi Russolo (1913). 'The Bruitist Foundations of Action' (French title 'Fondements Bruitistes d'Action'), which came out in october 1984, opens the period in Vivenza's work on Bruitist sound when he started to incorporate the question of the relationship that holds between the technological and mechanical industrial fabric Ð which makes up the reality of the modern world Ð and the human and social environment. It is released in double albums as two separate vinyl LPs in the context of the Archives of Industrial Music from France." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2015 |
€26.00 |
|
| VLOR |
A fire is meant for burning |
CD |
Ähnlich wie THIS MORTAL COIL eine Art 4AD-Supergroup waren, bestehen VLOR aus Musikern des Labels SILBER aus North Carolina.
Die Musik: Minimale Gitarrenpickings & -riffs vermählen sich mit Electronics und anderen Instrumenten, einsame driftende & melancholisch schöne Instrumentals mit Drone-Folk- & Wave-Nähe sind dabei entstanden.... einmal singt auch JESSICA BAILIFF...
"Vlor is Silber's This Mortal Coil-like supergroup, featuring members of the roster in collaboration with label head Brian John Mitchell. Joining him in the jam-sessions are Rivulets' Nathan Amundson, Jessica Bailiff, Aaartika's Jon DeRosa, Remora's Jesse Edwards, and Lycia's Mike VanPortfleet. The music found on a fire is meant to burn is mostly instrumental, all guitars, and fits nicely between the folk/rock/drone stylings of the collaborators. At times the music is rough, such as on "Houses Not Homes" and "New Machine," other times, it's extremely hypnotic, such as on "Wires" and the rare vocals of Bailiff on "Suncatcher" makes for a nice treat amongst the focus on instrumental acumen. This is mood music for the thinking man; it's never too dull, never too flat, even though it is mainly an instrumental collection. Best moment: the gorgeous ambience of "Days Like Smoke," where Mitchell and Mike VanPortfleet turn in a Lycia-like soundscape that's extremely lush and utterly beautiful." [Joseph Kyle, Mundane Sounds]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| VOGEL, MICHEL |
Une petite musique de Nuit |
LP |
"PLANAM proudly presents the first LP by the artist and sound sculptor Michel Vogel. Born in 1941 in Strasbourg, France, Michel Vogel artistic activities start in 1960 when, as a painter under the materic influences of Antoni Tapies and Jean Dubuffet, his mineral and sound experimentations built a universe influenced by free jazz, extra-European music and Olivier Messiaen. His researches develop with new sculptures and the creation of his own resonating metal instruments. His friends of the minimalist group, and specially the Fluxus artists, support and push him to carry on his acoustics explorations while his sonic creations get closer to the music of John Cage, Philip Corner, Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi. For this first project PLANAM selected, in direct collaboration with the artist, an improvisation for large size gongs prepared with metal rods, little gong, Chinese cymbal, caoutchouc ball, titled Une petite musique de nuit. Recorded live with no over-dubbing the night of January 18th, 2002. A very deep and alfa-wave oriented listening that will make you discover very intimate as well as stellar new sonic dimentions. Edition limited to 300 copies." [label info] |
2009 |
€19.50 |
|
| |
Ronde Matutinale a Amilis / Berenice |
LP |
"PLANAM proudly presents the second LP by the artist and sound sculptor Michel Vogel. Born in 1941 in Strasbourg, France, Michel Vogel artistic activities start in 1960 when, as a painter under the materic influences of Antoni Tapies and Jean Dubuffet, his mineral and sound experimentations built a universe influenced by free jazz, extra-European music and Olivier Messiaen. His researches develop with new sculptures and the creation of his own resonating metal instruments. His friends of the minimalist group, and specially the Fluxus artists, supported and pushed him to carry on his acoustics explorations while his sonic creations get closer to the music of John Cage, Philip Corner, Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi. After the deep cosmo night music of 'Une petite music de nuit' (Vogel first LP) PLANAM decided to issue two more early-morning oriented realizations, or 'Ronde mattinale à Amillis' and 'Berenice'. These alfa-wave improvisations for 'prepared' gongs and self-built metal instruments, selected in direct collaboration with the artist, will make you enter into luminous sonic dimensions. Edition limited to 270 copies with full colour space cover and inner sleeve." [label info]
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| VOGEL, MICHEL / PHILIP CORNER / PHOEBE NEVILLE |
Musiques des Ailes / Winged Music |
LP |
"RICERCA SONORA proudly presents, as its second release (RS2), a fantastic collaboration / improvisation between PHILIP CORNER, MICHEL VOGEL and PHOEBE NEVILLE. Phoebe Neville is musician, singer, and dancer. Philip Corner composer, musician, and former professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Michel Vogel, a musician and maker of instruments, principally percussion (gongs and bells). He has for this occasion installed a double frame for eight steel bells inspired by a Burmese model. In the context of "Archipel" the three present a performance in four parts. This limited release is titled "Musiques des Ailes / Wingèd Music", and was recorded in Paris, in June 1999 at the "Archipel" (the atelier of French artist Polska). Philip Corner and Michel Vogel plays, while Phoebe Neville dances and plays, the sound sculptures (bells & gongs) made by Michel Vogel. The original model for these bells is a flat piece of bronze or copper placed in the doorway of the Kachins or Mungs of Burma, now realized with today's metals by Michel Vogel. These recordings documents their experimentation with the resonant properties of metals. "Musiques des Ailes" is a beautiful album of improvisations: drones, silences and minimal vibrating music that going into an unheard territory.
Metallic resonances, obscure low frequencies, pure vibrating sonorities: "Wingèd Music"! Limited to 350 copies." [label info]
www.ricerasonora.com
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
| VOICE OF EYE |
Substantia Innominata |
10inch |
"geistermusik aus der wüste... oder der wind in den felsen... voice of eye's beitrag zur substantia innominata serie auf drone.
voice of eye haben schon ganz am anfang dieser anderen serie auf drone-records, der 7” reihe (genauer: im november 1994; dr-09), einen beitrag bringen können, der das ganz eigene drone-verständnis von diesem us-duo noch immer perfekt mitteilen kann. einer der gründe dafür mag sein, dass voice of eye (immer noch) zum teil selbstgebaute geräte nutzen, oft in form von streichinstrumenten, deren klang, zusammen mit flöten, stimmen und fieldrecordings quasi aus dem stand eine eigenartige stimmung evozieren kann. vor allem aber vermeiden sie dabei jede art von bombast oder auch nur das endlose übereinanderschichten von einzelnen spuren. die beiden haben, mit anderen worten, einfach ein sehr gutes gespühr für aufbau und spannung und eine sehr eigene vorstellung von klangästethik: einzelne töne sind in ihrem sound in einer form texturiert, die unmittelbar anspricht und voice of eye erreichen das, meiner meinung nach, neben der nutzung dieser wirklich ausgefallenen, exotischen instrumente, gerade nicht durch geheime effektgeräte, sondern vielmehr durch eine eher fast karge bearbeitung, durch ein rohlassen des klangs. daran hat sich seitdem (zum glück) nichts geändert, die “substantia innominata” 10” baut in allen drei stücken (“vira”, “dhyana”, “purusa”) auf dieses klangverständnis und webt (und das ist hier mal fast wörtlich zu nehmen) ein sehr zartes und transparentes gespinst mit einer, technisch gesehen, für eine 10” geradezu unglaublich langen spielzeit. musikalisch / atmosphärisch dann mit diesem zeit-ausschalt-faktor, den nur wirklich packender ambient schafft. daher: volle empfehlung (auch wenn die superlange spielzeit ihren vinyltribut fordert)." [N, Unruhr.de]
"This release marks the comeback of the legendary duo from New Mexico, USA, consisting of BONNIE McNAIRN and JIM WILSON! Over a decade ago (1992-1995) VOICE OF EYE released three albums with their unique style combining ethnic, ritualistic & folklore influences in an experimental and highly organic way to create a kind of "transcendental drone ambience", using only "real" instruments & self-built devices and an array of electronic effects. In November 1994 they released an EP entitled "Sprocket" on Drone Records (DR-09), which is still one of the absolute highlights in the Drone series.
After this first phase of musical creation VOICE OF EYE focused on building an incredible "Earthship" house in the deserts of New Mexico. In 2007 they returned doing shows in the States, Germany, France & Italy and releasing two limited CDRs. This 10" has 3 tracks with NEW material (entitled "VIRYA", "DHYANA" and "PURUSA") inspired by the wisdom of Buddhist / Advaitic meditation & philosophy, where the contemplation within music & sounds appears as a tool to reach a higher consciousness & awareness of reality.
This highly sublime & emotional "other-dimensional" ambience is based on lots of ethereal vocal material, flute-sounds and their typical self-built string-instruments, full of yearning and beauty - almost 39 minutes of material coming on clear vinyl with golden striae, with superb artwork by THOMAS DOHMEN.
This is the celebration of the "Unknown", seen as a state of mind where the Ego dissolves into a timeless universal consciousness." [label description]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Sprocket (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
released November 1994
"This band from Houston, Texas, is one of the main groups being active in a field of music one could name "New Sensitivity" , or, according to the group, "Somnambulart". After their two great CDs 'Mariner Sonique' (1992) and 'Vespers' (1994) Drone Records can offer the very first VOICE OF EYE-vinyl. The opening track 'Belladonna' is a timeless manifestation of deepest emotional expression; a wonderful sad and yearnful piece of music based on magic flute-playing. The other tracks are perfect examples of exploring new scopes of sound and building strange environments, finding 'gateways' to trigger Otherworldliness; using bicycle-sounds and 'oscillations' of a forest in an improvised and intuitive way. VOICE OF EYE take you to a voyage to most precious inner treasures - this music may melt your heart & soul!" [label info]
"What we are expressing is not traditional notes but VIBRATIONS OF THE SOUL" [V.O.E., ND #17, 1993]
|
1994 |
€ |
|
|
Seven directions divergent |
CD |
Endlich das erste offizielle "volle" Album nach der Wiederbelebung des Ethno-Drone Paars, die stets alle Instrumente selber einspielen. Sie erweitern hier ihren Transzendental-Ambient mit psychedelischen und Song-orientierten Einflüssen, es wird gesungen, alles versinkt in wattigen Echo-Effekten und halluzinogenen Klangpulsen. Die sieben Stücke wirken in der Tat wie sieben verschiedene Richtungen ihres neuen Musik-Kosmos. Perkussive Bass-Gerüste bilden oft die Basis für die höchst harmonischen, warmen Stücke, die einen stark indisch-orientalen Touch aufweisen. Wunderbar z.B. das fünfte Stücke OM SHANTI, ein dronig-sanft & sphärisch-melancholisches Sehnen... engelshafte Gesänge und butterweiche Instrumentalparts bilden oft einen fast ozeanisches Flair, das letzte Stück "Transformational Birth " ist ein grossartiges schamanistisches Geister-Drone-Stück (18 Minuten) mit unheimlicher Sog-Wirkung !! Zwischen Transzendental-Pop und drone-basierter Psychedelic, VOICE OF EYE's Musik bleibt faszinierend spirituell & kontemplativ !
"Seven Directions Divergent (2009) is the latest release by Taos, New Mexico based artists Voice of Eye. Taking over a year to produce, Seven Directions Divergent is the third CD to be released on Conundrum Unlimited, and the fifth full-length Voice of Eye CD.
As artists experimenting with sound we have been inspired by many different styles of music and noise. Seven Directions Divergent pays homage to some of the diverse musical sources that have influenced us over the years from traditional Sanskrit chants to Steve Hillage to cute Euro pop to shamanic transcendence. This is an ambitious project melding many different sources together with the ethereal beauty and yearning magnificence you expect from Voice of Eye. This CD transports the listener along a narrative history of our personal journeys of change and transformation as told through the medium of sound. Seven Directions Divergent was mastered by award winning engineer Jon Gold for the best sounding Voice of Eye release to date. Comes in a Digipack with beautiful full color artwork by Jim Wilson.
Voice of Eye formed in 1991 out of the ashes of experimental bands Esoterica Landscapes 7 and Cruor. Through Voice of Eye, members Bonnie McNairn and Jim Wilson explore profound aspects of consciousness as the music is shared as a tool for entering different states of consciousness. The motivation behind forming Voice of Eye was to connect to a deeper truth we first sensed within our music. This unformed presence first revealed itself to us through music and has continued to manifest taking shape throughout our life’s journey leading to profound mystery.
Voice of Eye’s modus operandi is to take sound sources that are acoustic in origin, then process them through little black boxes to warp time and widen sonic perception. Voice of Eye’s sound shifts from gentle soundscapes to primal wrenching malevolence with such ease that the listener is unaware of the transition until it is too late and they are fully immersed in the voyage.
Voice of Eye took a hiatus from music in 1997 to build an off-the-grid sustainable home and studio in Taos, New Mexico. The process would take the next ten years. The result is an enormous sculptural free flowing work of art built entirely by the hands of Jim and Bonnie. Living in the open and empty spaces of the desert had the additional effect of deeply connecting them to the truth of their being as begun through music. The desert is the fire that burns away everything. Both members are now focused on the healing arts. Their journey has transformed what was begun through music into a way of life. Please see www.voiceofeye.com and www.myspace.com/voiceofeyemusic for discography, photographs and more information" [label info]
www.voiceofeye.com
"Since some time Jim Wilson and Bonnie McNairn, together known as Voice Of Eye are back. In 1997 they stopped creating music to 'build an off-the-grid sustainable home and studio in Taos, New Mexico', which took them ten years to build. Since their return their have been a couple of releases, which saw them return to their fine of lengthy, warm ambient electronics with great emphasis on the psychedelic quality of the pieces. Maybe therefore the opening piece here on their twelfth CD 'Seven Directions Divergent' is quite a surprise: its almost popmusic, slow rhythm, e-bow on the guitar, and Bonnie McNairn on some heavenly voice trip, and sounding a bit like Cosey Fanni Tutti. Laid-back popmusic. Almost. This is continued in the following piece 'Where Are You?', which is, me think, even better. Voice Of Eye changed that radical? Hard to believe, and no, they didn't. At least not to that extent. Throughout it seems indeed that elements of popmusic have been brought in, without losing the original ambient sound. 'Transformational Birth', the piece that closes this CD is one of those typical lengthy Voice Of Eye ambient excursions. A bit without any sense of direction, sounds flowing about, like being in space. They drift in and out of the mix, without any synthesizers (according to the cover), like the real cosmic music thing. That makes this a great CD. Drifting, flowing in all pieces, bouncing back and forth towards the more 'pop' like tunes and lengthy, atmospheric excursions. A great album, I'd say, an excellent combination of both ends, making a very mature album. Great psychedelic music." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Emergence & Immersion |
do-CD |
"In 2007 Voice of Eye ended their 12-year silence with 2 CD-R improvisation volumes: Emergence and Immersion. The works were released for their European tour in editions of only 100 each and sold out fast. Now those impossible-to-find, extremely limited releases are finally available on factory-pressed CD’s!
Old Europa Cafe of Italy has re-released Emergence & Immersion in a fine 2-CD 4 page full-color digifolder, re- mastered with a new bonus track, “Peacock Symphony”, offering 2 and a half hours of music. Spontaneity and raw emotional expression punctuate and keen throughout. Although completely improvised, the music seems amazingly composed. One can intuit that the musical re-uniting of this duo created a vortex in the worlds. Wildness, beauty, humor, darkness, fear, horror, yearning, grief and vast spaciousness inhabit this mysterious lively music. Herein one finds some of the source material for their recent live shows: “Immersion”, “Dark Ritual”, “The Gates of Oblivion”, “Free”. A large array of instruments are used here including guitars, trombone, flutes, double-reeds, percussion, voices as well as Voice of Eye’s self-made instruments: Squawk Box, Bass-Thing, Jeemna, Thing and Thing-mini. Step into the vortex!" [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Primaera |
mCD-R |
"founded in the late 80's on the ashes of esoterica landscapes 7, voice of eye is the duo of bonnie mcnairn and jim wilson. they released several discs during the first part of the 90's on their own cyclotron industries, a 7" on drone records, a live lp on anomalous records as well as collaborations with another ethno/experimental/ambient band life garden, all of them documenting their fascinating and captivating atmospheres mostly made from self-built instruments, creating a unique sound.
after a 12-years hiatus, voice of eye was back in 2007 for a us & europe tour together with ure thrall, unleashing two new self-produced discs (recently re-released by old europa cafe) proving the magic wasn't gone. this 18min track, especially recorded for taâlem in 2008 confirms bonnie & jim haven't lost the touch!" [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Primaera; the first creation. Follow the journey of sound from its inception in silence as it enters the fertile soil of your mind and evolves through the yearning to know its purpose and fulfill its destiny only to expire back into silence. Recorded in the coastal redwood forests of northern California, Primaera is one 18 minute track released on CDr by French label Taalem. Full color disc artwork by delphine ancelle-b. January 2010." [Voice of Eye]
"Voice Of Eye is also a duo, but then from Houston and after a hiatus of several years, they seem to be fully back on track. This one is from last year and shows Voice Of Eye in a somewhat improvised mood, I think. All the machines they have at their disposal are set to play something, guitars are plugged in, microphones are open and here we go. A bit more experimental than y'r average drone release I'd say, but in its rawness I'd say this is a great piece. The edges are rough, like that howl of feedback towards the end of 'Primaera'. Great psychedelic mood music." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Anthology One: 1989-91 |
do-LP |
"Anthology One is culled from the first three cassette releases by Voice of Eye; Isolation, Voice of Eye and Resonant Fields / Hot Gypsy Fink Hell, all three Tapes released on their own Cyclotron Industries Label between 1989-1991. These are the earliest recordings by Voice of Eye. Voice of Eye can be doubtlessly described as the protagonists and godfathers of the special genre of Ambient-Ritual-Music. Their
speciality is "organic sound sculpting": a form of electronic ethnic ambient music that relies mainly on electronic drones and manipulated instruments including instrumentation with special self-built instruments. The music is all improvised over a period of two years and covers the evolution of their early sound. It will immediately catch your attention and pulls you into an altered but extremely positive state of mind. This is the first in a series of Anthology releases documenting hard to find Voice of Eye material and previously unreleased recordings to be released on several labels
in the near future." [label info]
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2010 |
€28.00 |
|
| |
Anthology 2 (1992-1996) |
do-CD |
"Since a few years Texan group Voice Of Eye are back. Their various new releases have been reviewed before. But its the second incarnation of the group, a duo, which existed before from 1989 to 1996. They were pretty active back then too, with lots of releases, like CDs, cassettes, 7"s (for Drone Records among others) and contributions to compilations. Last year Vinyl On Demand already released a double LP of that older stuff, but now Troum's Transgredient label goes out even more, with a double CD of material from 1992 to 1996 (and makes it the first non-Troum release on the label). To say that Voice Of Eye play ambient music is not entirely true. Their music is indeed based on all things 'atmospheric', using an array of drone like sounds, percussion and the heavenly voice of Bonnie McNairm, but what sets Voice Of Eye apart from so many others is their free flowing sound, almost psychedelic, always full of sound effects (the reverb is hard to avoid here), widely meandering ab out.
There is always a rough edge with Voice Of Eye that makes them a bit different from many other drone artists, which is perhaps due to the fact that they use many effects and maybe due to the fact that the recording medium is not the greatest. Also they use various bits of percussion, acoustic objects (one track is entirely made of bicycle wheels). Its great to have this collection of rare CD compilation pieces, 7" vinyl and long unreleased pieces - especially the very free floating space of 'Sonic Works Live Dress Rehearsal'. Two long CDs of highly weightless space music. Excellent stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| VOIGT, REINHARD |
Apokalypse Mau |
12inch |
Als einer von Kompakts Mitbegründern und –besitzern zeichnet REINHARD VOIGT für ein Gesamtwerk verantwortlich. das unsere musikalische Historie von Anfang an entscheidend geprägt hat - sei es als Ambient-Tanz-Projekt Sturm. Techno-Raufbold S.R.I.. experimenteller Profan-Mitstreiter Pentax. ein Drittel von Kölns legendärer House-Boyband Forever Sweet oder einfach unterm eigenen Klarnamen. mit unentbehrlichen Releases wie etwa der frühe Speicher-Hit “Supertiel” (KOM EX 2) oder die jüngsten Solo-EPs “Kontraste” (KOM 351) und “Reisen & Speisen” (KOM 338). Voigts Produktionen fanden eine Heimat auf Kultlabels Mille Plateaux oder Harvest. helfen aber auch beim Anschieben jüngerer Plattformen wie Kompakt-Nachwuchs KX. Zurück auf dem Mutterschiff. präsentiert er die neue 12” APOKALYPSE MAU. deren zwei Tracks für rohen. brutzelnden. zielstrebigen Techno plädieren – die Sorte Techno. die unerwartete Dynamik aus reduziertesten Synthie-Motiven sowie scheinbar willkürlichen Bleeps herausschält und in selbstbewusste Schieber für gierige Tanzflure verwandelt.
"Reinhard Voigt heads upriver into cavernous darkroom styles with the polka pumpy pumpy of Apocalypse Mau, then racks up a numbed minimal techno sound with the bony drums and nagging buzz of Seven Lines." [Boomkat]
|
2018 |
€10.00 |
|
| VOISEY, VEN (V.V.) |
Note |
CD |
"C.I.P. and crank satori are proud to announce their co-release of the first CD by v.v., "note." v.v. are the initials of Ven Voisey, a sound artist and sculptor from Oakland, California. "note" evolves as a series of meticulously crafted sound events drawn from myriad sources, including a dynamic range of hisses, crackles, and tonal hums, field recordings, electronics, and acoustic instruments. While his work has been placed in the same arena as artists such as Joe Colley (Crawl Unit) and Toshiya Tsunoda, Ven's deft composing skills and innate sense of sound elements clearly define him as an artist with a unique vision for realizing captivating and rewarding audio. Ven's previous titles on cassette and CDR has been met with critical acclaim; with the release of "note," C.I.P. and crank satori hope to introduce v.v. to a much wider and deserving audience." [label info]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOLCANO THE BEAR |
Classic Erasmus Fusion |
do-CD |
Was soll man zu dem britischen Quartett VOLCANO THE BEAR noch sagen? Wer auf der Suche nach überraschender & neuer, (noch) nicht klassifizierbarer Musik ist, die nicht am Computer entsteht, muss hier einfach mal reinhören!! Ihre Musik mit Einflüssen aus Folk, Drone, Avant-Rock & Impro-Jazz ist nicht nur oft irgendwie “weird” und verquer, sondern weist auch streckenweise grosse harmonische & elegante Schönheit auf... wie immer ist vokales Material omni-präsent!
“.... zeigt Antifolk flippernd zwischen Didgeridoo und Handy, Daumenklavier und elektrischer Störung, als Folklore des Absurden, die es fertig bringt, in raffinierter Unschuld zerebralen Goldstaub aufzuwirbeln..” [Bad Alchemy # 51]
„...Describing Volcano the Bear's music is about as difficult as identifying the instruments. The quartet's arsenal of gear is transcendant of time and space, culled from different cultures and different eras, from classically orchestral woodwinds (albeit sometimes just blowing through the mouthpiece) to African thumb piano, helicopter sounds, thunderstorm and rain and running water, medieval squeeze boxes, squeak toys, chirping or crying bird sounds, and Asian stringed things. While improvisation has been integral to the band's development, Volcano the Bear can always be counted on very cold-calculated and composed songs appearing on their official studio albums. Their arrangement is loose but never wanky or show-offey. Perhaps it's this lack of soloing and pretention that has kept them from appropriate recognition by some of the major experimental media in favor for a whole "free folk"/"weird rock"/"new weird America" obsession.“ [Brainwashed]
"VTB have crafted a strange geometry in their musique concrete between celestial duck honks and what sounds like a flood in the living room, there are more than a few occasions of heads cocked at the speaker in mundus caninus. Of course, this bodes well for humans, too. Augmented by all the dog friendly moments is a double album of sprawling musical invention. Record one births gently into a lo-fi-adelic Comus-like saline that even might even win over the Devendra crowd, if the Devendra crowd had ingested just a little too much mushroom tea on that day and left their ironic trucker hats at the door. Song becomes fever dream and then pitches into a barren place of low estate and low chanting whose Residents might well be Eskimos. With typical minimalist pageantry, VTB mutate from piece to piece, punctuating along the way with surprise sounds that the aforementioned dogs love so well; the kinds of quirks that make Nurse With Wound and P16.D4 records such fun listens. VTB spin some very melodious tales, which are subliminally hooky, after a fashion. Spiritual and surreal are sisters. Quiet ritualism queues with dadaistic and with progressive harmonies, together on the same fractured, out world, sing-along journey. And that's just record one. Record two crawls slowly from the echoey ooze, grows legs and then presents as a different and, in many ways, more dramatic creature. A long, shifting organ drone becomes a deeply psychedelic statement that bleats loud and strong like an acid bleached Spiral Insana or a sneaky This Heat.” [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Egg and two books |
CD |
"Egg and two books was recorded live at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, England in June 2006. The concert was the first time in 4 years that the full quartet had played together in Leicester. The town in which they all met and started the group together in 1995. 2006 has seen a vast increase in live performances from Volcano The Bear, playing in many countries across Europe. Volcano The Bear have released numerous live documents over the years and Egg and Two Books is a perfect example of how the quartet currently sounds live.
more details & sound samples: http://vivo.pl
/vtb/" [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The birth of Streissand |
7inch |
Rare Single der britischen (ja man darf das jetzt wohl sagen?) Kult-Band, die die experimentelle Erweiterung des Impro-"Folks" wie wohl keine andere Gruppe betreiben... leider teuer!
"Second release from the new Newcastle-based No-Fidelity label, after the first recording from scene-legend Sir Richard Bishop (of the Sun City Girls) sold out in a whistle. Something a bit special. Having built their career upon a reputation for incendiary live appearances and a heap of self-released CD-Rs and cassettes, Leicester's Volcano The Bear have slowly been gathering steam, becoming one of this country's most exciting experimental improv outfits. This startling new 7" for No-Fi showcases the group at their most abstract, the A-side a sinister brew of creaking violin and string plucks. It sounds something like No-Neck Blues Band collaborating with Wolf Eyes on a re-take of the Saragossa Manuscript soundtrack. The B-side goes further down the path paved by Olsen and co. with some metallic clanking and utterly gnarled noise eruptions." [press release]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Amidst the Noise and Twigs |
CD |
"Die vier buchdeckelartigen Hochglanzseiten mit surrealen Bilderwelten des Nick Mott – Würfelkopfgestalt, gesichtslose Männchen fliegen durch die Luft, eines legt seine Stielaugen vor sich auf den Tisch – würden den Kauf von VOLCANO THE BEARs Admidst The Noise and Twigs (mt204a) fast schon alleine rechtfertigen. Umso besser, wenn dann die Musik auch noch überzeugt. Neben dem Artworker zeichnen für diese wieder Aaron Moore, Clarence Manuelo und Daniel Padden verantwortlich. Sie jagen den Hörer durch eine scheinbar zufällig chaotische Dadaund Patchwork-Welt, die bisweilen Dilettantismus höchst gekonnt suggeriert und mit allen musikalischen und technischen Tricks Illusionen aufbaut und zerstört. Hippiegeschrammel trifft auf orientalische Flöten und Gongs der Chinaoper. Dann paaren sich Flötengedudel, Geklapper und Geknarze ’Before We Came To This Religion’. Auf ’Larslovesnicks Farm’ steht ein altes verstimmtes Klavier, auf dem ein Langweiler vier Töne tonleiteraufwärts stetig wiederholt, dazu scheinen Türen zu knarzen und Wasser wird verspritzt. Ein Banjo beschränkt sich auf 2 Töne, die während des Anschlagens getunet
werden. ’Cassettes Of Berlin’ ist eine negativländlerische Collage aus Geräuschen, Stimmfetzen und Radioeinspielungen, abgehackt, weil am Frequenzeinstellrad weitergedreht wird. ’Splendid Goose’ ähnelt den langen Mothers-Stücken der zweiten Freak Out-Scheibe. Das Schlagzeug unterbreitet den treibenden Rhythmus, über dem sich monotone Frequenzteppiche ausbreiten, gestört und unterbrochen von Kracheinspielungen und begleitet von brummiger Stimmakrobatik oder Flötengequengel. ’She Vang Moon’ kreiert eine Atmosphäre tibetanischer Klöster mit Mönchsgesang, Harmonium, Gonggeschepper, verzerrt dann immer mehr durch unsaubere Frequenzen. Es geht auch gefühlvoll, wenn die Trompete zu einer Art Hymne ansetzt, aber dann wird gegrunzt, gejammert und durch den Kamm geblasen. Das letzte Stück, ’The Three Twins’, beginnt in getragenem Tempo mit 3 Tönen und der tiefgreifenden Aussage “Hi-a-o, Hijä-jah...“ (oder so ähnlich), geht über in dilettantisches Geklopfe, Kindergeschrei, Klaviergeklimper - das Schlagzeug wuselt im Hintergrund – und entwickelt sich tatsächlich noch zu einem Song, der am Ende vom Sax regelrecht ’zerquetscht’ wird." [Bad Alchemy]
"The first 1000 copies are packaged in a full color book bound case with an eight page booklet. Volcano The Bear "Amidst The Noise And Twigs" is the follow up to the critically acclaimed "Classic Erasmus Fusion" album. Who knew that amidst the noise and the twigs there was music…sweet, sweet music?! This world is Volcano the Bear’s womb. At last, the year that VTB gets a shot at Top Of The Pops, assuming the pops finally snaps out of its vapid trance and embraces the standards of Comus, 3 Hurel, early Residents and 12th century Arabo-Andalusian music. As usual, our heroes are found keeping things stripped to the bone trumpet, but dripping with a juicy, melodic marrow. The record pours slowly and resolutely like a folk-psych dream urn, loaded with full metal banjoes; crumhorns at 12 O’clock; and autoharps at defcon 5. The experimentalism is this time couched in shifting tides of self-spun acidic harvest ballads that noisily well up into proto-Kraut thrums and tribal night t rips around the pyre. A rural, squelchy, DIY delicacy which stinks of occidental embouchure so crystal crisp that every skkrrrr, pphaaapph and brrruuuummmm resonates like a small, sound-specific god, intertwined with beautifully skewed notes, voices and rhythms. "Amidst The Noise And Twigs" plays like a recently discovered field recording of some obscured Celtic clan who accidentally stumbled onto psychedelia 600 years ahead of its time. These pipers truly rock the gates of dawn." [label notes]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Mountains among us |
CD |
Die bereits 200ste Katalognummer des Portlander Labels ist für VOLCANO THE BEAR reserviert, und diese präsentieren hier ganz besonderes Material, 2 urlange Stücke mit sehr geräuschhaften Instrumental- Drones & field recording-Quellen, sehr frei & voller überraschender Wendungen und wunderbarer dunkler Parts. Das Album weist mitunter fast schon neo-klassische Qualitäten auf, ist
überraschend atmosphärisch, dabei aber von unheimlicher Stringenz. Unser definitiver Lieblingsrelease der britischen Band! Anklänge an NOISE MAKERS FIFES, ZEITKRATZER, MORPHOGENESIS.... erschien übrigens vor einigen Jahren bereits auf Beta-Lactam als LP in einer Auflage von nur 100 Stück!
"Die wohl beste Band des CTM Festivals 2006 mit zwei über 20 Minuten langen Tracks in oberdickem und teurem Pappcover. Natürlich werden VTB in keinem Weird Folk Artikel erwähnt, dafür sind sie viel zu weit draußen, zu windig, hölzern, befremdlich und abseits von allem. Es blasen alte, nach Gauklerfest klingende Tröten, aber nur selten zum Tanz oder Marsch. Streicher werden gekappt und geschnitten, Vögel und ein anonymes Publikum schauen teilnahmslos zu, an der Harfe wird semi-improvisiert, Gesang in die Länge gezogen etc etc. Trotz aller Experimentierfreude an den Instrumenten steht deutlich VTBs famose Studioarbeit im Vordergrund. Alle Spuren sind meisterhaft abgemischt, so dass klar der Eindruck des steten Machens über dem der fertigen Arbeit steht. Unheimlich, mysteriös und spitzengut." [Ed Benndorf / DE BUG]
"First edition of 500 numbered copies in a full color book bound cd case. This year sees the eruption of the Volcano with a myriad of releases leaving the town folk covered in a fine and mysterious silt of musical entropy. The limited release of "Mountains" finds our boy’s spelunking the creepiest of dream spawned caves, excavating crystalline fragments along the way, which are then set in beautiful mental jewelry appropriate for any formal occasion. Arpeggiated blurs and disinterred voices snap, crackle and pop as an unnamed rusted hulk is slowly pushed across an ever morphing open landscape. More accurately still, it's like that weird wind harp record from the 70's with a mid period NWW and Mauve Sideshow marching up opposite sides of the hill to claim the giant harp. And that's just in the first 19 minutes!. Afterwards, there is a slo-mo interlude battle between rarified VTB brand chamber music and the sounds of...things. As promised, the denouement is a brief, dare I say, pretty little whisper of pizzicato and drone. So pretty and little, in fact, that it caught the attention of my otherwise weirdness deaf partner. A real symphony of the spheres that showcases this Volcano's ability to blow its top and rain sweet tweeky kittens on the valley below." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
That People don't know they are Monsters |
7 |
Seite A: Ein quäkendes Stück Melancholie. Seite B: perkussiver Mantra-Folk. Leider viel zu schnell vorbei. Fabulöse Single auf dem ukrainischen Quasi-Pop Records, Vollfarbcover..
"QPOP REC02. 7-inches vinyl (black). limited edition 500. total time: aprox. 10 min
1. Side A: “That People Don't Know They Are Monsters”
2. Side B: “Bow Heavier My Lord”
You may think it's a ballad, noise, tribal shamanism, folk or acoustic.
But it's not really." [label info]
www.quasipop.org
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Planetary Betlehem |
LP |
"New planetary compositions by the always genre defying cosmic collective that is Volcano the Bear. For this journey, The Bear present reworkings / collages of material originally recorded in 1995/1996 performed by Nick Mott, Aaron Moore, and Clarence Manuelo. Electro-acoustique doom? To be issued early Dec. 2010 as an edition of a one time press of 300 numbered copies on 220 gram vinyl and book bound sleeve. No CD edition will be made available."
[label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Golden Rhythm / Ink Musik |
LP |
"Das brandneue Studioalbum von VOLCANO THE BEAR ist eine kalkuliert-hysterische Verschmelzung von THIS HEAT, ROBERT WYATT, FAUST und THE RESIDENTS, aus Musique Concrete und Ethnofolk, gesehen durch ein Kaleidoskop aus theatralischer Improvisation. Gegründet 1995 waren es VOLCANO THE BEAR, die Steven Stapleton von NURSE WITH WOUND derart in Aufregung versetzten, dass er sein United Diaries Label wiedererweckte, nur um 2000 ihr erstes Album ,The Inhazer Decline" herauszubringen. Seitdem haben VOLCANO THE BEAR Alben auf einer ganzen Stange von Labels (und ihrem eigenen!) veröffentlicht, von denen ,Classic Erasmus Fusion" von 2006 ein definitives Highlight ist. Wenn die Band aufnimmt, dann geht es darum, krasse Absurditäten auf bizarr-schönste Weise darzustellen. "Golden Rhythm/Ink Music" ist ihr erstes "richtiges" Studioalbum seit "Amidst The Noise And Twigs" von 2007. Das neue Album konzentriert sich auf die soundtechnische Trennlinie zwischen Aaron Moore und Daniel Padden und dürfte das fokussierteste Album von VOLCANO THE BEAR überhaupt sein. Es zeigt ,Rockmusik" aus der leicht verdrehten Perspektive von VOLCANO THE BEAR und wartet mit mehr Schlagzeug/Gitarren Kombinationen auf als jemals zuvor. ,Golden Rhythm/Ink Musik" übersetzt die bizarre Energie der VOLCANO THE BEAR Liveperformance in die Umwelt des Studios.
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Rune Grammofon presents the brand-new studio album from Volcano The Bear, a calculated, hysterical melting-pot of This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Faust and The Residents, of musique concrète and ethno-folk, all seen through a prism of theatrical improvisations and unhinged set pieces. Formed in 1995, and after several self-released tapes and CD-Rs, VTB so excited Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton, that he brought his United Dairies label out of cold storage to release their first album proper, The Inhazer Decline, in 2000. Since then they've released music on such labels as Misra, Beta Lactam Ring, Textile, Digitalis, Pickled Egg, Alt Vinyl as well as their own imprints Volucan and Volfurten with the exceptional Classic Erasmus Fusion from 2006 being a possible highlight. On record, VTB offer stark and stunning absurdities in the most bizarrely beautiful way. Recycling and re-contextualizing their material is an innate habit, and the variety of recording options they might choose (be it a highly-equipped professional studio or a second-hand dictaphone) allows their craft to be formed in a myriad of different ways. VTB have toured extensively throughout Europe and North America and in concert they are the duo of Daniel Padden and Aaron Moore. Absurd humor and eclectic ways of producing sounds are characteristic of their live performances and their extensive knowledge of the traditions of experimental and folk music makes the band difficult to categorize. The band record everything they play and will often use these recordings as raw material for their albums. VTB have released a number of records since the start, often mixing studio, live and home recordings. Golden Rhythm/Ink Music is their first more or less "proper" studio album since Amidst The Noise And Twigs back in 2007. Largely based on the sonic fault-line between Aaron Moore and Daniel Padden, it's also the most focused and driven of VTB's prolific output so far, showcasing the duo's unique musicality and interplay, while retaining their trademark eccentricity and humor throughout. It presents "rock music" as seen through VTB's skewed eye, featuring more of Padden and Moore's drum/guitar combination than on previous albums. Taking the bizarre energy of their live duo performances into a studio environment, and combining it with VTB's eclectic instrumentation and Clarence Manuelo's singular audio-work, GR/IM shows VTB making their most vital work to date. Includes mp3 download code." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com |
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| VOLCANO THE BEAR / LA STPO |
The Shy Volcanic Society at the Beat and Bird Parade |
CD |
"A split CD containing five tracks from Volcano the Bear and four by STPO. The French group STPO is a long existing and very underestimated group with limited releases over the years. Their history of dadaist and experimental music started in 1984. Beta-lactam Ring released and re-released some of their older material. For this release they choose four tracks that were recorded in 2003 and were not included on earlier releases. These tracks again illustrate their very odd musical universe. I admire them for staying close to their unique musical vision and language. For Volcano the Bear things are opposite in at least one aspect. Namely, they released already a bulk of records in the past. Less bizarre then STPO Volcano the Bear refer in their experimental music to folkmusic. Their compositions stay somewhere in the middle between song-structure and soundcollage. Also they are one dimensional compared to the compositions of STPO that are structured along the inimitable logic of their musical fantasies. The same for their carefully worked out arrangements. The over the top and very expressive vocal work by Pascal Godjikian is the heart of most of the tracks on this CD. Can't get enough from them." [DM, Vital Weekly]
"CD issued early May 2009 as an edition of 500 copies in a full color gatefold sleeve. A split album with Volcano the Bear and La STPO. VTB tracks 1-5 and STPO tracks 6-9. Bears and Birds, oh my! One side keeps the hot hot. And the other keeps the weird weird. VTB’s typically atypical entomological set scratches like a hive that has evolved just to the point of thumping out tribal fealties to its giant insect God-Thing. Environmentally ritualized sub-rhythms mix musique-concrete with actual concrete, forming freakishly minimal foundations for the hive of whatevers to swarm within. Noise, once again, for heroes. All this, of course, juxtaposed against France’s hidden reverse: La STPO, who absolutely let it blurt. Their pounding system of post-post-punk-neo-Zeuhl cracks the mantle, with bass lines thicker than Sequoias. And louder than screaming Sequoias. La STPO vacillates between two extreme extremes: something approximating a kind of industrial strength nouveaux bâtiments s'effondrants (German buildings are not the only ones susceptible to collapse), and crushing riffs ala SunnO))). Pascal Godjikian’s fierce grunts and barks keep the hive on the other side believing he is their God-thing. He is someone’s God-thing, that’s for sure." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
"Diese Split-CD vereint Stücke zweier experimenteller Bands, Volcano the Bear aus England und La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux aus Frankreich. Beide bieten, so viel vorweg, alles andere als leichte Kost.
Volcano the Bear zeigen sich bereits reichlich unkonventionell. Die bis auf einige textlose Lautäußerungen instrumentale Musik wälzt sich wie ein zeitlupenartiger Klangstrom aus den Boxen, ohne dabei eine rechte Form anzunehmen. Streich- und Blasinstrumente mäandern entlang, allerlei Schlagwerk rumpelt vor sich hin, dazu knurrt oder brummt ab und zu jemand, was letztlich wie ein weiteres Instrument klingt. Einige undefinierbare Geräusche vervollkommnen das Ganze. Da hört man gelegentlich schrilles Kreischen wie von einer Kreissäge, oder wurde da ein Instrument malträtiert? Wer weiß. Ein andermal spielt eine einsame Flöte (oder ähnliches) eine seltsam schiefe Melodie, nur von sporadischen Beckenschlägen begleitet, oder Blechbläser stimmen eine Art ländliche Weise an. Äußerst kurios.
So strukturlos diese Klänge sich über weite Strecken zunächst präsentieren, herrscht doch nicht völlige Planlosigkeit, es scheint doch irgendein System dahinterzustecken. Auf jeden Fall entwickelt diese Musik nach anfänglicher Skepsis eine starke Faszination.
LaSTPO agieren hier noch ein ganzes Stück avantgardistischer als auf ihren mir bisher bekannten Alben. Vor allem die Stimme von Sänger Pascal Godjikian schlägt hier noch wildere Kapriolen, es ist kaum möglich, dieses permanente Knurren, Bellen, Heulen, Brüllen, Würgen mit Worten adäquat zu beschreiben. Da glaubt man, der selige Demetrios Stratos von Area sei wieder auferstanden! Dazu liefern seine Mitstreiter Klänge, die mit dem üblichen Verständnis von Rockmusik, auch von progressiver, kaum noch etwas gemein haben. Das ist zu großen Teilen schon radikale Anti-Musik! Da knarzen Streicher in Zeitlupe, als würde ein alter Holzschrank quälend langsam über einen Dielenboden gezerrt, Bläser schnarren, Schlagwerk rasselt, bis unvermittelt eine gigantische Lärmeruption einsetzt, in der die einzelnen Instrumente nur noch durcheinander purzeln. Les Oreilles Internationales treibt es in dieser Hinsicht auf die Spitze, es wirkt wie ein einziges Konglomerat unterschiedlichster Arten von Lärm. Und immer wieder die brutalen Lautäußerungen, als deren Urheber man kein menschliches Wesen annehmen möchte.
Diese Lärmorgien sind wirklich so ziemlich das krasseste, das ich je gehört habe. In Worten lässt sich kaum beschreiben, was hier auf den Hörer einprasselt. Grandios! Mehr davon! Warum gibt es nur so wenige CDs von LaSTPO? Tipp für alle abenteuerlustige Hörer! Und wer die Gelegenheit hat, die Band live zu sehen: Hingehen! Es lohnt sich!" [Jochen Rindfrey / Babyblaue Seiten]
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| VOLGA |
Pomol |
CD |
Trancig-tribale, durchaus ungewöhnliche hypnotische und z.T. sehr wuchtige Beats, ost-europäisch anmutender weiblicher Gesang, harmonische Flächen & Instrumenteneinsatz, manchmal hat das sogar einen Orient-touch, manchmal klingt es mehr nach Electro-Wave der 80er.. . Atmosphärischer, einnehmender Avant-Pop aus Russland!
"VOLGA stammen aus Moskau, kamen 1997 zusammen und arbeiten seitdem extrem hart: auf Touren haben sie einiges der Welt gesehen und zehn Jahre nach ihrer Gründung steht mit "Pomol" ihr insgesamt siebtes (und fünftes Studio-) Album in den Startlöchern. Mit Alexei Borisov, der als bekannter Solokünstler elektronische Soundkunst erschafft, weben VOLGA einen dichten Electronica-Klangteppich, der mit bunten Mustern aus elektroakustischen Elementen, mantrischen Tanzrhythmen und traditionellen, schamanischen Folktexten glänzt. Die Texte von Sängerin Angela Manukjan stammen aus der russischen Folklore des 19. Jahrhunderts und lässt die Volksgesänge umso einzigartiger wirken. ,Pomol' ist auf der einen Seite eingängig und heimelig, auf der anderen Seite düster und akustisch kontrovers; aus den beiden Polen entsteht Musik, die das lose Konzept des Pop gründlich auf links zieht." [Cargo]
"The latest album by this Moscow-based group, scheduled to go into production anytime shortly, alongside the above release. Thirteen wonderful tracks that, helmed by the powerful, dynamic, expressive and unique voice of Angela Manukjan, sway between electronica's moody yet accessible outer reaches, folk and other traditional music, plus the same kind of sensibilities ensnared so well by
contemporary pop's more wayward souls such as Bjork and Sigur Ros." [label info]
www.lumbertontrading.com |
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| VOLLMER, CARSTEN |
Arbeit Nr. 23 - Ich arbeite mit Frequenzen Teil 1 - 3 (ansteigend / abfallend / 2600 Hertz / Phreaking) |
3 x CDR set |
The last part of the trilogy Ich arbeite mit Frequenzen forms a trilogy in itself: it is made up of three tracks while its two predecessors only contain one long track each. And while parts 1 and 2 work through a frequency grid of apparently mathematical rigour, this one focuses on the particularly distortion-rich frequency band around 2600 hertz. The two 2600 Hertz tracks are live recordings of a performance by Carsten Vollmer. Here, and on the opening track Phreaking, the first non-electronic sounds of the whole trilogy can be heard: the performer's screams put into relief the expressive quality of noise that was consciously underexposed on the 'antihumanist' parts 1 and 2.
The fact that all of Carsten Vollmer's releases come as numbered Arbeiten (works), but in particular the verb arbeiten (to work) in the title of this release, emphasise the (physical) labour of building up his walls of sound. Thus, part 3 of Ich arbeite mit Frequenzen once more enacts the drama of 'man vs machine' or 'body vs bodily harmful frequencies and volumes' through which the noise genre time and again confronts existential and social alienation with an ecstatic, but 'parole-less protest' against it (to borrow a phrase from Carsten Vollmer's fellow noisician Anton Kaun aka Rumpeln).
The first track of the album, Phreaking, also features a list, but not one of frequencies, but a list of textual references to Ron Rosenbaum's classic 1971 feature story The Secrets of the Little Blue Box about the hardware-hacking network of the Phone Phreaks, who built a counter-network within the official telephone network of the U.S.A. From the vantage point of the officially sanctioned telephone signals, these subversive actions were undoubtedly noise, and it is plain to see that Carsten Vollmer's Phreaking is a sympathetic homage. In a 'communication guerilla' practice such as this, Michel Foucault's basic tenet 'Where there's power, there's also resistance' meets the axiom of information theory: 'Where there's a signal, there's also noise'. The fact that this third and final album comes not as one monolithic track, but as an object fragmented within itself, is programmatic for ways in which noise can stand for the freeing of spaces in political contexts: instead of the monologue of an author(itarian) voice – 'I, and only I, work with frequencies' –, this album signals within itself the clamourous debate of different, dissenting voices, which in the political field is always preferable to the undisputed monologue of an absolute power. At the end of the live recordings, one eventually hears the voices of the audience; the author is no longer alone within his work, and someone says: 'It continues here, in the next room.' Thus the album ends with an invitation to claim new spaces of possibility.
File under: Noise
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/arbeit-nummer-23-ich-arbeite-mit-frequenzen-teil-1-ansteigend
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/arbeit-nummer-23-ich-arbeite-mit-frequenzen-teil-2-abfallend
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/arbeit-nummer-23-ich-arbeite-mit-frequenzen-teil-3-2600-hertz-phreaking
***
Der letzte Teil der Trilogie “Ich arbeite mit Frequenzen” bildet selbst eine Trilogie in sich – anders als die beiden Vorgänger, die jeweils nur aus einem langen Track bestehen, umfasst er drei Stücke. Statt ein mathematisch-kalkuliert wirkendes Frequenzschema durchzuarbeiten wie Teil 1 und Teil 2, wird hier auf 2600 Hertz in einem in Sachen Verzerrung besonders effektiven Frequenzbereich gearbeitet. Die beiden “2600 Hertz”-Tracks sind Livemitschnitte von einer Performance von Carsten Vollmer. Hier, aber auch auf dem Opener “Phreaking”, sind erstmals auch nicht-elektronische Klänge zu hören: Schreie des Performers rücken jene expressive Qualität von Noise in den Fokus, die auf den beiden “antihumanistischen” Teilen 1 und 2 betont ausgespart blieb.
Nicht nur die Titulierung von allen Veröffentlichungen Carsten Vollmers als durchnummerierte “Arbeiten”, sondern speziell das Verb im Titel dieser Veröffentlichung betont die (physische) Anstrengung, die in die Errichtung seiner Klangwände einfließt. So führt auch Teil 3 von “Ich arbeite mit Frequenzen” das Drama “Mensch vs. Maschine” bzw. “Körper vs. körperfeindliche Frequenzen und Lautstärken” auf, mit dem das Genre Noise immer wieder existenzielle und gesellschaftliche Entfremdung sowie den ekstatischen, aber “parolenlosen Protest” dagegen (eine Formulierung von Carsten Vollmers Noise-Kollegen Anton Kaun aka Rumpeln) inszeniert.
Das erste Stück des Albums, “Phreaking”, führt ebenfalls eine Liste auf, allerdings keine mit Frequenzen, sondern eine mit textlichen Anspielungen auf Ron Rosenbaums klassische Reportage “The Secrets of the Little Blue Box” von 1971 über das Hardware-Hacker-Netzwerk der “Phone Phreaks”, die im offiziellen Telefonnetzwerk der USA ein Gegen-Netzwerk aufbauten. Aus Sicht der offiziell im Telefonnetz vorgesehenen Signale waren diese subversiven Aktionen zweifellos “Noise”, und es ist unschwer zu erkennen, dass Carsten Vollmers “Phreaking” eine von Sympathie geprägte Hommage ist. In einer “Kommunikationsguerilla”-Praxis wie dieser trifft sich Michel Foucaults Grundsatz “Wo Macht ist, ist immer auch Widerstand” mit dem Axiom der Informationstheorie: “Wo Signale sind, da ist immer auch Rauschen”. Dass dieses dritte und letzte Album nicht als ein monolithischer Track, sondern in sich fragmentiert daherkommt, kann dabei programmatisch dafür gelesen werden, wie Noise auch im politischen Raum für das Schaffen von Freiräumen stehen kann: Statt des Monologs der Autor(itäts)stimme – “Ich, und nur ich arbeite mit Frequenzen” – wird hier innerhalb des Albums der lautstarke Widerstreit von verschiedenen Stimmen angedeutet, der im politischen Feld allemal wünschenswerter ist als der unumstrittene Monolog einer absoluten Herrschaft. Auf den Liveaufnahmen hört man dann am Ende auch die Stimmen des Publikums, der Autor ist nicht mehr allein in seiner Arbeit, und jemand sagt: “Hier im nächsten Raum geht es weiter.” So endet das Album ausdrücklich mit der Eröffnung von Möglichkeitsräumen, die es zu nutzen gilt.
File under: Noise
-----
VITAL WEEKLY
Origami derives from ori, meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper". The mathematics of the fold is relevant, is analogical to 'the fold'. This can be understood as the new mathematics of the curve, of changing quantities which is often difficult for non-mathematicians, of which I am one. Put simply in simple geometry of a flat surface, say a chessboard, a piece, pawn, knight etc. can be located by two coordinates. These are static set properties, which Deleuze via Leibniz relates to Descartes. Complex curves, changing velocities, cannot be precisely modelled using such a method. This was accomplished by using mathematics to model dynamically changing events, the Calculus. If modernism in its linear development fixes and finalizes itself in a Cartesian / Euclidean fixed point, a null event, the Baroque does not. The metaphor of calculus is useful, for around it are mathematical objects such as the limit. In simple non-mathematical terms, a series of calculations can approach a limit but never reach it, and in getting closer, to a potential infinity of numbers. For non-mathematicians, this is best seen in the obvious Baroque of The Mandelbrot Set. Folding can produce an infinite variation. Associated with 'folding' in Deleuze derives the aesthetic, especially the visual aesthetic in the Baroque, one of the dynamic curves and dramatic events. “Leibniz is endlessly drawing up linear and numerical tables. With them he denotes the inner walls of the monad. Folds replace holes...” (The Fold). Elsewhere (in The Logic of Sense) Tenth series of the ideal game -”of which we speak cannot be played by either man or God. It can only be thought as nonsense. But precisely for this reason, it is the reality of thought itself and the unconscious of pure thought. This game is reserved then for thought and art.” Baroque music of the 'classical period' - (late 17thC- 18thC) used accomplished improvisation, complex polyphony, multiple independent melody lines, the fugue and ricercar (which explore the permutations of a given motif). The 'metaphysics' that the Baroque produced was significant in music. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Purcell, Telemann... such that with Bach there is the deployment of a pure abstract formalism which could be regarded as a metaphysics of the free play of the potentialities of the abstract (windowless) structures of music. And in thinking the Baroque we also arrive at Leibniz and German Idealism, but also the more recent 'idealism' of Deleuze and the Speculative Realists and Object Oriented Ontologists. To judge these metaphysics in 'scientific', empirical terms, would then be to miss the point. They are not in all cases Monads, as they are not closed off to ourselves. They are like Monads in that they seem closed in on themselves. The point is that 'Baroque Folding' is an internal programme. Thus it typically appears when genres become exhausted or fully mature. A very early classical example is the development of Corinthian Architecture from that of the Doric & Ionic, or the much more recent, post-modernism, especially noticeable in Architecture. A certain playfulness which can and does in Po-Mo reduce, at times, to mere sensation and irony. Within contemporary music, 'noise music' and 'harsh noise' was to lead to a reductionist, 'analytics' of the extreme minimalism of Harsh Noise Wall's monolithic unchanging noise. This cul-de-sac has an obvious problem, and various methodologies have evolved in order to circumvent its effective closure of the noise genre, from abandoning noise altogether (Wolf Eyes), to alternatives, such as shit folk and ultra shit folk (Romain Perrot). The process of 'folding' is synthetic, not analytic (reductionist, minimalist walls). Both processes are to be found in Metaphysics and Art. In The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant sets out to establish an a priori basis for his transcendental metaphysics and makes two distinctions, that of the analytic a priori and the synthetic a priori. The philosophy of this needn't concern us. What is useful is concerning the idea of The Fold. The epistemological, philosophical implications disputed by some also need not bother us here. For us, what is significant in Kant is that Kant maintains that the Synthetic can produce (a priori) new objects without recourse to finding them in the outside world. In Analysis, something is broken down or examined to find its fundamental form or origin (The Wall of Noise). This is normally regarded as a task that will arrive at something fundamental. In early philosophy – the Atom – in Jungian analysis the archetype. It may well be that such a final analysis is not possible, that analysis is potentially infinite, or results in a void. Synthesis is the reverse. Given some fundamental objects, we can create new objects and structures – out of what is already given. A triangle can be analyzed into its basic three sides of straight lines, but we can synthesize new objects given a triangle. We can make a quadrilateral with two triangles and continue – pentagons, hexagons, and no limit – and no recourse to anything external to our basic element. And whereas Analysis is contained by the analysis of 'what is there' synthesis creates new objects that are not 'already there'. The Baroque is this distinction between the Analytic A Priori and Kant's idea of a Synthetic A Priori. An example in the arts is that of Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. Whereas Analytical Cubism broke up the picture plane into its elements, Synthetic Cubism used these basic 'elements' to synthesize new compositions. The tendency in modernism was analytical. “What is painting?” “What is music?” “What is Art?”, the analytical desire of what is “essential”. In Cubism, the 'Analytical' phase was relatively short-lived, the Synthetic move allowing Picasso and others an alternative continuous productive methodology. The (Baroque) fold is a synthetic methodology. At the most pedantic Origami – (from ori "folding", and kami "paper"). An origami Swan is a synthesis of a flat sheet of paper. All creations of Origami are in the last analysis, flat sheets of paper. The methodology of Origami, of 'folding', is Synthetic and offers an infinity of productions. Which is occasioned in Noise – here! which is not the abandonment of noise or a retrograde movement back into music. The baroque fold, abstractly using the tropes, forms etc., of noise music not as an external expression but as internal work exploring the permutations and improvisational possibilities of a given motif. The tropes of Harsh Noise, the motifs of feedback, oscillator sweeps, distortion, white noise etc. Abstract sounds, found in Harsh Noise before its collapse into a minimal wall. What is removed is the idea of a linear 'progress' (modernism) replaced by that of infinite synthesis. Ansteigend, Abfallend and 2600 Hertz_Phreaking are 3 parts of Arbeit Nummer 23 - Ich Arbeite Mit Frequenzen.
www.vitalweekly.net/1316.html
"Steht 'Frequenzarbeiter' schon im Duden? CARSTEN VOLLMER arbeitet jedenfalls daran, mit seiner Arbeit Nr. 23: Ich arbeite mit Frequenzen (3xCDr, jeweils in DVD-Schuber). Dieser nächste Arbeitsschritt nach der bad alchemystischen „Arbeit Nr. 22“ (BA 103) ist ein in strenger Schwarzweiß-Optik vereinter Triptychon, den drei Labels stemmen: Teil 1 – Ansteigend (ACU 1027), Teil 2 – Abfallend (Cat Killer), Teil 3 – 2600 Hertz / Phreaking (Krater Recordings, KR05-010). Das oft genug unangebracht verwendete 'experimentell' ist dabei halbwegs gerechtfertigt durch die demonstrativen 'Versuchs'-Reihen mit 55 – 77 - 160 – 300 – 666 – 800 – 1000 – 2000 – 4400 – 5000 – 9000 Hz rauf und runter ('Ansteigend'/ 'Abfallend') sowie drei Episoden mit 2600 Hz. Darunter, neben zwei Live-Exzerpten vom Schrei/Ende/Ohren-Festival, eine Hommage an das in den 70ern popularisierte und bis in die 90er mögliche Phone-Freaking in den USA, wo die von Hackern entdeckte, von den Yippies popularisierte Freischaltung auf eben der 2600 Hz-Frequenz als Akt des zivilen Widerstands aufgefasst wurde. Aber diese Frequenz-Folklore erscheint wie ein narratives Surplus in Vollmers bildlos purer Darbietung eines Blizzard-Kontinuums, in dem McLuhans 'kalte' und 'heiße' Medialität verwischt. Indem ein schrillendes, zerrendes Zuviel mit myriodophonem Rausch überwältigt und lähmt, doch in seinem informatorischen Überschuss zugleich nach Kryptologen schreit. Für einen auch merkwürdig flötenden Code. Aber vor allem für ein Unsagbares, das sich als kataklysmische Schallmauer zeigt wie bei Wittgenstein das Mystische. Dass in allem, was der Fall ist, atomare Niagarafälle toben, die jedes menschliche Maß übersteigen. Der infernalische 'Gesang' der Neuronen, das heulende Elend der Elektronen, das universale Alpha, Vollmer hat es zwischen Infra und Ultra brachial orchestriert als kakophon schillernde Metapher für das Mega-, Giga-, Tera-Chaos im elektromagnetischen Radio- und Mikrowellendschungel. Als Sturz der Erkenntnis über die Marmorklippen durch die Stahlgewitter ins Spektrum der Strahlungen, als total mo-bilgemachter Black Metal vor einem Schwarzlicht-Horizont. Das von Ernst Jünger immer wieder gebrauchte Tat Tvam Asi [Das bist du] zeigt dazu seinen technologisch fitten 'Ar-beiter', der als 'organische Konstruktion' mit der technoiden Mobilmachung heißläuft. Und einige wenige, die, obwohl gleichermaßen involviert, in kühler Desinvoltura dazu Distanz halten. Vollmers akribische Abbildungen, 48 + 48 + 50 Minuten intensive Immersion, können als stoischer Härtetest erscheinen. Als stockholm-syndromatische Affirmation eines Factum brutum. Oder sogar als akzelerationistisches Vorwärts (Nick Land), das die transhumane Umgestaltung des Menschen (durch die aggressiven Metastasen des Kapitalismus) ins Auge fasst. Mit der Utopie einer KI-generierten 'technologischen Singularität' würde Jüngers 'organische Konstruktion' zum Pionier der transhumanen Erlösung. Jede durchgestandene Noisattacke wäre, gerade indem sie das hinfällige Fleisch von den Knochen schabt, ein Evolutionsschritt dorthin. Der Geist, schon bei Hegel ein harter Knochen, steckt seinen Kopf, wie sein Renaissance-Vorgänger durch die Käseglocke seiner Scheibenwelt, unter die Bremsscheiben eines endlosen Güterzuges, in einen brausenden Bienenstock, der Züge von StanisławLems Partikelschwarm auf Regis III trägt. Steht Hz auch für neuen Horizont, für abenteuerliches Herz? Vollmer gibt sich, wenn er 'ich arbeite...' sagt, beeindruckend cool und souverän. Oder verdolmetscht er so bloß die Mutter der Teilchen und Wellen? Alan Moores Parent of suns and substance, she! Womb of all possibility! Als menschliche Spur im Dauertrommelfeuer der Klangpartikelstrahlung bleiben dann nur die Schreie, die Vollmer zuletzt, von 2600 Hz-Stacheln an die Wand gespießt, ausstößt. Kein 'Banzai!', aber doch wie mit geballter Faust und mehr als nur Schmerz und Angst. Noise als Waffe der Kritik an Betonköpfen, verkrusteten Strukturen, Kalk, Rost, marmornen Popanzen. Als, o Killer-Kaninchen von Caerbannog, o schwarze Bestie von Aaa, als Speer, der die Wunde heilt, die von ihm herrührt?" [Bad Alchemy]
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| VOMIR |
Musique de l'Indifference |
LP + CD |
"One continuous track of battering, unmoving and crude walled noise, spread across side one of the LP at 33rpm, then the CD, then the second side of the LP at 45rpm. Simultaneous play is also encouraged. Artwork by STROM_VARX. Edition of 350." [label info]
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
| VON BIEL, MICHAEL |
Streichquartett No. 1, etc |
CD |
Unglaubliche Klänge auf dieser beeindruckenden Zusammenstellung mit Kompositionen von MICHAEL VON BIEL, aufgenommen 1962 – 1966 (!), z.T. auf klassische Instrumenten eingespielt, z.T. aber auch elektronische Quellen einsetzend....
"Quartet No. 1" (1962) and even more, "Quartet No. 2" (1963) are noise compositions whose expressiveness rests essentially on the discovery of new sonic possibilities and performance techniques. On "Fassung" (1964) Michael von Biel using only noise, sinus and impulse generators, he created sound particles and formed them into sensually comprehensible structures. The compositions "Quartet with Accompaniment for string quartet and cello" (1965) and "Jagdstück (Hunting Piece) for 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 horns, 2 tenor tubas, contrabass, tape, e-guitars and electronically amplified barbecue grills" (1966) are based on the contrast of divergent sound worlds.
1. Streichquartett Nr. 1 (1962; WDR 2003)
[Pellegrini-Quartett: Antonio Pellegrini, 1. Violine; Thomas Hofer, 2. Violine; Fabio Maarano, Viola; Helmut Menzler, Violoncello]
2. Streichquartett Nr. 2 (Urfassung, 1963; WDR 2003)
[Pellegrini-Quartett]
3. Quartett mit Begleitung (Quartett Nr. 3, 1965; WDR 1967)
12:05 [Egon Mayer, Violine; Dagmar Apel, Violine; Johannes Fritsch, Viola; Magdalene Bröckel, Violoncello; Michael von Biel, Violoncello]
4. Jagdstück für Bläserinstrumentalisten und Live-Elektronik (1966; WDR 1968)
28:05 [Franz-Willy Neugebauer, Trompete; Kurt Schmidt, Trompete; Gerhard Burdack, Horn und Tenortuba; Konrad Alfing, Horn und Tenortuba; Willy Walther, Posaune; Josef Feck, Posaune; Emil Morneweg, Kontrabaß; Wilhelm Bruck und Michael von Biel, Begleitung; Ltg. Bernhard Kontarsky]
5. Fassung (elektronische Tonbandmusik, 1964; WDR 1964)
13:34 [Studio für elektronische Musik des WDR]“ [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2004 |
€15.50 |
|
| VON EULER-DONNERSPERG, DITTERICH |
Weisheit aus des Kindes Mund tut uns stets die Wahrheit kund |
LP |
Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg, also known as Uli Rehberg and most certainty other names, is a mythologized figure in Germany's industrial underground. The man behind Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien, a label responsible for early releases by Throbbing Gristle and SPK and for being the home of the enigmatic Werkbund, it is long believed that Ditterich is part of, or completely behind, Werkbund himself. A Colourful Storm presents another piece of his puzzle.
Wisdom from the child’s mouth always tells us the truth.
It’s hard to overstate the influence of Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg on A Colourful Storm; indeed, it’s almost impossible to imagine the label’s existence without it. A figure whose movements within Germany’s industrial avant-garde span almost forty years, it would be in 2010 that he unknowingly entered our orbit through two important releases. At the time, SPK’s Auto-Da-Fé and Throbbing Gristle’s Journey Through A Body left some impression on us, their discovery propelling an interest in the possibilities opened up by industrial music that we still explore today. Responsible for publishing these releases was Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien - who, or what, were they?
Founded in 1980 by Hamburg-based Uli Rehberg, Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien was a base for Laibach, Asmus Tietchens and Werkbund as well as Rehberg’s own artistic endeavours: the most devilishly humorous his adopting of the name Dr. Kurt Euler, spokesperson of a satirical political party comprised of musicians Felix Kubin and Gregor Hartz. The project would foreshadow the life of Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg, an alias unveiled in 1998 with the first in a series of spoken word 7” picture discs that have since become highly collectable.
Attracting an enviable list of collaborators throughout his career (John Duncan, Thomas Köner and Column One have all lent their expertise), it is perhaps the enigmatic Werkbund project that remains most coveted within the world of von Euler-Donnersperg. Cloistered and clandestine since their inception in 1987, their brooding, synthetik atmospheres have long been speculated to be the work of von Euler-Donnersperg himself. Listen to Werkbund’s Skagerrak or Stahlhof and tell us we’re wrong...
The culmination of decades of sound research and electroacoustic investigation, Weisheit aus des Kindes Mund tut uns stets die Wahrheit kund is significantly also a tribute to von Euler-Donnersperg’s children, their voices and spoken word hocus-pocus conjuring clairvoyant visions amongst soaring metallic sheen and spectralist digital debris. Cybernetic ooze spilling into servers and causing subdued bleep signals and static. A slasher film soundtrack starring the German avant-garde dressed in laboratory coats. The latest piece of von Euler-Donnersperg’s peerless, endlessly imaginative puzzle.
https://acolourfulstorm.com/album/weisheit-aus-des-kindes-mund-tut-uns-stets-die-wahrheit-kund
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| VON EULER-DONNERSPERG, DITTERICH / FELIX KUBIN |
NNOI#01 |
LP |
NNOI#...
In this series, the recordings and documents of the actors of the NNOI Festival gather and reveal the primitive anatomy of the NNOI that sinks onto the frosted glass of nature, like the printing ink unconscious in the letters of the newspaper.
The design of the entire series is based on drawings by Frank Diersch - made for this project.
forthcoming: NNOI#2: Rashad Becker & Robert Schalinski, NNOI#3: Asmus Tietchens & Frieder Butzmann, NNOI#4: Air Cushion Finish
D.v. Euler-Donnersperg - side: unreleased tracks from his wild beehive.
Felix Kubin - side: Felix Kubin accompanies René Clair‘s silent film »Entr’acte« from 1924 live with a new electro-acoustic soundtrack, which refers to the surreal choreography, the contrasts in content and the fast editing sequences of the film in rhythmic cut-ups.
Rene Clair‘s film „Entr‘acte“ from 1924 is a real jewel of surrealism and is largely unknown to this day. The director radically experiments with cinematographic effects, provokes absurd exaggerations, which sometimes take on blasphemous proportions, and is not afraid to commit violence. The staff of actors is made up of famous artists such as Erik Satie, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, who, quite self-ironically, bounce through the image rather than stride. Men and women roles are reversed, a death procession turns into a roller coaster ride. The bizarre humor of the film also testifies, among other things, to the artistic daring of its time.
Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg
»I hate long announcements now. Everyone writes something and brags about all kinds of information (especially celebrity names). Something has become completely uniform over time. I hate that. Simply state briefly: „The old gray gurnard from the Waterkant creaks and growls its funny and less funny ways ..“ GLÜCKAUF!
Felix Kubin„I am a child living in the body of Juri Gagarin. He is empty like a corpse. His eyes move slowly like radars. First comes the idea then the technology. Children are angels, sometimes they fall into nothingness. I am Juri‘s ventriloquist.“
Felix Kubin, messenger of exploding lungs, lives and works against gravitation. At the age of 12 he started composing electronic 4-track music. His activities comprise futurist pop, electroacoustic and chamber orchestra music, radio plays, lectures, workshops and his label Gagarin Records. He has been involved with the noise project Klangkrieg, the communist singing group Liedertafel Margot Honecker and the tetchy teenage bands Die Egozentrischen 2 and x2.
Frank Diersch - a German draftsman and painter.
NNOI - festival for 12,756 tone music, obscure teaching & organ of the world-ventriloquist-lodge.
https://www.facebook.com/donnersperg/
www.frank-diersch.de/
www.felixkubin.com
www.nnoi.de
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YxuYqL52is
https://www.facebook.com/nnoi.festival/
NNOI - festival for 12,756 tone music, obscure teaching & organ of the world-ventriloquist-lodge
"In der NNOI Festival-Reihe werden Aufnahmen von Künstlerinnen und Künstlern veröffentlicht, die auf dem gleichnamigen Festival , “für 12,756 Tonmusik, obskure Lehren & Organ der Weltbauchrednerloge”, gespielt haben (u.a. werden noch Asmus Tietchens und Frieder Butzmann folgen). Den Auftakt macht eine Split-Veröffentlichung: Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg, Sachwalter des Werkbunds, selbst so titulierter „Knurrhahn“ hat mit den zwischen 1996 und 2014 erschienenen “Pelzwurstliedern”, sogenannten „Reimdichtungen im Geiste Klopstocks mit elektronischem Zuspielband“, originellste, kaum kategorisierbare und von beißendem Humor durchzogene Lyrik herausgebracht. Felix Kubin hat neben zahllosen musikalischen Veröffentlichngen, auf denen auch immer ein absurder Humor deutlich wurde (im Presseinfo heißt es: „„I am a child living in the body of Juri Gagarin.“), eine ganze Reihe von Hörspielen produziert.
Auf der ersten Seite befinden sich acht bisher unveröffentliche Stücke von Euler-Donnersperg, bei denen sich das Ausgangsmaterial, was bearbeitet wurde, nur erahnen lässt: „Krebs im Schlafrock“ beginnt mit einem ratterndem Loop, man hört zerhäckselte Stimmen. Einem Teil der Stücke haftet etwas Fragementiertes an. So auch bei „Kleiner Irrtum“ mit den hektischen Wassersounds, flirrenden Tönen und dann so etwas, das sich wie ein Echolot anhört. Auf „Mit geknickten Dichterschwingen“ hört man einen Loop, der an Jahrmarktsmusik erinnert, auf „Ein letzter großer Seher“ muss man zwischenzeitlich an Vogelkreischen denken. Die drei dann folgenden Stücke nehmen das Hektisch-Fragentierte zurück: „Verlangen, den Regenbogen zu fangen“ ist von ruhigen, kristallinen, flächigen Sounds durchzogen, die teilweise an ein Theremin denken lassen. Auf „Verknausertes Korn“ dröhnt und knistert es. Bei „Angenehm müde“ meint man das Ticken eines Metronoms zu hören, am Ende scheint eine bearbeitete Stimme aufzutauchen.
Kubins Beitrag ist ein langes Stück, das als neuer Soundtrack für den 1924 entstandenen Stummfilm “Entr’acte” von René Clair konzipiert ist. Bei dem Film wirkten damals Erik Satie, Francis Picabia und Marcel Duchamp mit und gerade durch Clairs Einsatz von Effekten wie Zeitlupe und Überblendungen (ein Gesicht starrt einen aus dem Wasser an, ein Papierboot durchpflügt die Dächer von Paris) erzeugt Clair eine durchaus kurios-absurde Atmosphäre (Puppen verlieren ihre Köpfe, der Rock einer Tänzerin scheint eine Blume zu sein, ein Zauberer entsteigt einem Sarg). Der Track beginnt mit kuriosen Knarzen, Brummen, Loops, Fiepen, am Ende meint man ein Sample aus Coils “Things Happen” zu hören – in Passagen ist das durchaus nicht so weit entfernt von manchen Arbeiten Steven Stapletons und von der Stimmung und Herangehensweise ist das ein mehr als passender Soundtrack zu “Entr’acte”." [MG / African Paper]
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M. (CARL MICHAEL) |
The wonderful World of male Intuition |
CD |
Wieder ein herrlich absonderliches Werk des schwedischen Parapsycho-Soundwerkers: Sinuston-drones & -tunes in verschiedenen Ausprägungen und verdeckte & verzerrte Zitate diverser berühmter Leute, die wie aus einer Geisterwelt zu uns sprechen, sind die Ingredienzen dieses Albums... VON HAUSSWOLFF ist wieder so weit vom Alltäglichen das es eine wahre Freude ist !
'The wonderful world of male intuition is an astounding masterpiece dedicated to male intuition : all a program. It will be followed by a second opus later this year dealing with the Horrible sides of male intuition...' [label info]
"Probably the name Carl Micheal von Hauswolff doesn't need much introduction. His conceptually edged releases on labels as Sub Rosa, Touch and Raster Noton deal with such subjects as architecture and voices from beyond. Here 'The Wonderful World Of Male Intuition' is the subject. To shed some light on it, he uses sine wave oscillators, field recordings (sea, land, outer space) but also the voices of persons important as 'positive energies in a world that obviously is feasting on itself without knowing how to go to the toilet', being the Dalai Lama, Willem de Ridder, Gregory Bateson, Alvin Lucier, John C. Lilly, Albert Hofmann, Friedrich Jürgenon and Brion Gysin. Many of these voices are processed through the use of the sine waves, in some way or another, which makes the voices hard to understand, but of course that is not the intent anyway. Throughout the forty some minutes, I learned nothing much about the male intuition (if that exists at all), but purely as a work of sine waves and field recordings I must say that this is a particular strong work by Hausswolff. Not too overtly minimal, leaning on his sine waves, but it's the combination of all three components works quite well, the sine waves, field recordings and voices. It might perhaps even the best Hausswolff I ever heard (despite not having heard all, he admitted straight away)." (FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.oral.qc.ca
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
There are no Crows flying around the Hancock Building |
CD |
Typisch ober-obskures Konzept bei diesem neuen Soundscape des schwedischen Klangkünstlers: Als Grundlage dienten Feld-Aufnahmen die auf der Spitze eines 100stöckigen Hochhauses in Chicago gemacht wurden, später wurden “elektronische Krähen” dazugemischt, das alles in ein knarzendes, höchst pulsierendes Fliessmusster gegossen... One-tracker, 40 minutes.
“In August 2003, Lampo invited Swedish artist CM von hausswolff to do a project specific to Chicago. Intrepid traveler that he is, hausswolff ascended to the top of the 100-story John Hancock Building and collected sounds from the open-air observation deck. While taking in the sights, he recorded building vibrations, passing breezes and overheard speech from tourists. Later, in his Stockholm studio, he added a series of feedback rotations to suggest crows (guardians or enemies?) encircling the conceptual tower. The result is this belching, super dense, low-end drone work. hausswolff's new piece is his rumination on security and paranoia. What makes us safe? Is it better to dwell in a cave or in a skyscraper penthouse? Could be another lecture on sound and architecture. We hear a secret gastrointestinal message. Say what?!“ [label description]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Perhaps I Arrive - music for Atatürk Airport, Istanbul |
do-CD |
"This double disc set includes some of the most unusual sounds you will have heard from Carl Michael von Hausswolff. The story goes like this. Von Hausswolff was chosen by the 1997 Istanbul Biennal to create a sound installation for Atatürk Airport. His classic sound combining low frequency rumblings, very monotonous oscillations and hissy non-narrative sequences was deemed too confusing for the commutors. It was feared, von Hausswolff’s sound installation might be mistaken for an alarm and would be capable of causing serious panic at the airport. Hence the original soundtrack for “Perhaps I Arrive” was neglected. This music can now be heard for the first time on disc 1. Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s response to the artistic restrictions was to produce the four tracks you hear on the second disc. These only make use of the very basic pre-set industry sounds included in the Yamaha QY22 and show a new side to the von Hausswolff sound. Very simple, post-nuclear lounge music. These four tracks you guessed it! ¬were happily used in the context of the Biennal exhibition. Art is a three-letter word (William S Burroughs)" [label info]
"Nothing is for a musician more annoying than a response like: whatever you are doing, it sounds like a test tone, alarm signal, hiss or worse: I think your equipment is broken. So when Carl Micheal von Hauswolff was asked by the Istanbul Biennale to make a site specific work at their airport, he was probably very annoyed when they turned down his piece of low rumbling, because it could have caused alarm. So instead he created something else, on a Yamaha QY22, using preset sounds only - probably to annoy the organizers. Now both versions are released as part of this double CD - the rejected piece on one CD, and the accepted on the other. The rejected piece is indeed a piece of low rumbling, a bit of hiss sounds (long waves picked up from the ether I think) which may not have worked at the airport - depends of course on how things are presented - but for home listening I must say this is quite nice. Perfect Hauswolff styled hiss music. And what a difference indeed with the accepted version. Four pieces there of lounge like music, but with a more forceful rhythm underneath, so it wouldn't entirely work in lounge bar. But you can imagine people at an airport, hastily walking along Hauswolff march like beats and bittersweet keyboards with a vague trace of arab-like sounds. This is a side that we haven't heard from him before, and it's not something he should do a lot (or in fact never did again, as far as I can recall), but it's surely a curious album. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2008 |
€18.00 |
|
|
800000 Seconds in Harar |
CD |
" CD digipak. CM von Hausswolff says: 'I was approached by my old friend and Radium 226.05 colleague Ulrich Hillebrand, now director of Angered Theatre in Göteborg. He informed me that there was a new play in the process of being written by author and theorist Michael Azar called 'Jag r en annan' (I is another) stemming form the famous letter written by Arthur Rimbaud in his youth. The play uses Rimbaud's life from being a young poet in Charleville ending with him being the trader in Harar, Ethiopia. Hillebrand asked me if I was willing to compose the music to this play. I accepted. I told Hillebrand that I needed to use material that had something to do with Rimbaud's life and as he had connections in Ethiopia and in the small city of Harar he said: why don't you go to Harar for 10 days and see what you can find ? So I went to Addis Ababa where a guy was waiting for me and drove me the 10 hours beautiful ride to Harar. I made recordings and looked for other useful material. There are 2 tracks. On the first track, which consists of three 'parts' I have used material from Harar. The long dronic sounds are taken form an instrument that I, after searching for days, bought in Harar - it's called a 'krar' and is a string instruments (it's quite clear that I have used a string instrument- also if you study Ethiopian music you came across the name of Saint Yared and he was the first to construct a notation system for music... much earlier than the Europeans). As I could not really master the actual playing of this instrument, I bought a bow for a violin and some rosin and with this I got one good tone out from this krar. Then the computer helped me to sort the modes and pitches out. On this piece there also two location recordings: the first one you hear is a recording I did outside Harar on a hill where there are next to no car sounds or other machine sounds - just the wind, insects, some kids and that (I wanted this recording to be more or less timeless or at least 19th century and forward...). The second location recording was done in the night in my hotel, where I woke up one night and became fascinated by the leaking taps in my bathroom so I decided to records this. On the second there are only oscillators used... several of them... And using one low pitch oscillator I ran a sound filtered through. This sound is the low 'rhythm' you can hear, and it's a low pitched morse code signal... and the text is the famous poem Rimbaud wrote in his youth called Le Dormeur Du Val (The Sleeper in the Valley). This poem is a beautiful text starting off in the nature, where a person is sleeping in the grass. Slowly Rimbaud zooms in and we read that it's a soldier and at the very end we are told he has two red wounds on his chest - the guy is dead!'
Arthur Rimbaud lived in Harar from 1884 until shortly before his death in 1891. This is Carl Michael von Hausswolff's first album for Touch, but the connection goes back many years, of course. Carl Michael von Hausswolff was born in 1956 in Linköping, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm. Since the end of the 1970s, Hausswolff has worked as a composer using the tape recorder as his main instrument and as a conceptual visual artist working with performance art, light and sound installations and photography.' [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"Dem Minimalismus wird definitiv in der heutigen Zeit viel Raum gewährt. Vergleichbar dem graphischen Design einer Designer Republic wird Weniger zum Mehr, ist die Leerstelle längst
Ausdrucksmittel für den mondänen Zeitgeist. Hausswolff fährt diese Schiene seit Jahren
erfolgreich, verlässt sie aber nur für kurze konkrete Zwischenhalte (siehe das Triptych für das Laton-Label) um dann wieder drei Alben mit konsequent kurzgeschnittener Konzeption und
Kuration zu veröffentlichen, deren Sinn sich in stehenden Tönen auf Viertelstundenbasis und
kraftvollen Feldaufnahmen äußert. Die Vergangenheit die Hausswolff hier besingt, schleicht sich auch in Künstlerreichweite, denn die Kuration aus alter skandinavischer Galeristenarbeit wirkt auch Jahrzehnte später bei Hausswolff nach. Sicherlich ist »800 000 Seconds in Harar« ein im heutigen Sinne weitaus ausgewogeneres Werk, auch wenn die spärlichen
Akkordwechsel der Drones eher lange auf sich warten lassen. Geduld muss vorhanden sein,
das Goutieren der Musik wird schlagartig zum Spiel mit Zeit und Raum. Erst im dritten Stück
entfalten sich orgelartige Strukturen, auf die John Cage angesichts seines Jahrtausendwerkes
ORGAN2 stolz sein dürfte. Ähnlich verlangsamt, aber mit präsenten Bassschwingungen hallen
die organischen Zutaten eines Besuchs in Harar umso mehr am Hörknochen noch. Nichtsdestotrotz ist Hausswolff auf dünnem Eis. Das sorgfältige Konstrukt aus Schwebungssummern und genau präzisierter Hertzzahl gerät angesichts der emotionalen Verortung in der Musik bisweilen ins Wanken. Dann muss man Geduld aufbringen, um dieses Werk in seiner vollen Länge zu würdigen.
4/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
"Selbst wenn man die Hintergrundinfos zu dieser CD nicht kennt, ist es immer wieder ein Vergnügen dem "Meister des Drones" zu lauschen. - Nun, auf CD ist das bei CM von Hausswolff immer so eine Sache, da seine meisten Tracks sehr lang und auch abhängig sind von der Qualität der Stereoanlage, denn der Herr hier bevorzugt extrem tieftönendes Klänge. Live und direkt ein unglaubliches Erlebnis, wenn er die Filter zum glühen bringt, man in den Sitz gepresst wird und die Kleidung wie Folie sich um den ganzen Körper spannt und das nur durch einen herrvoragend aufeinander abgestimmten Drone. Für diese Veröffentlichung, die gleichzeitig Musik für eine Theaterstück über die letzten Lebensjahre von Arthur Rimbaud in Harhar ist, wurde CM kurzer Hand in ein Flugzeug verfrachtet und zehn Tage nach Äthopien geschickt und das nur, weil er sagte, er bräuchte Basicmaterial für seine Kompositionen. Also hört man hier die bearbeiteten Klänge der Originalschauplätze, Reiseeindrücke und Aufnahmen auf der Grundlage traditionellen äthiopischen Musikinstrumenten. Wunderbare und meditative fließende Drones umschmeicheln den Hörer und nehmen ihn mit auf diese (Traum)Reise!" [Carsten Vollmer / OX]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Plays John Cage II |
flexi-7inch |
"When John Cage was about to celebrate his 80th birthday in 1992, the Stockholm electronic Music Festival invited CM von Hausswolff to interpret Cage's piece Imaginary Landscape #5. At the time of the performance Cage had already passed away a month earlier. The piece was recorded and Joe Colley's label Povertech Industries agreed to release it. The second side contained Hausswolff's first version of Cage's legendary work 4'33'. The 7' was released in 1996.
In 1995 Hausswolff dedicated a second work to John Cage composed in Berlin and released on an LP by London based Ash International in 1997. The piece was called As Quiet As A Campfire Or Analogue Motoric And Electro-Magnetic Silence Disturbed By Intuitive Slumber.
In 2010 CM von Hausswolff and Petri Kuljuntausta performed 4'33' at IHME Contemporary Art Festival in Helsinki, Finland. This version was for two electric guitars and amplifiers.
CM von Hausswolff Plays John Cage II contains a new recorded version: 4'33' - for electric guitar (broken amplifier version)Êand was recorded as an hommage to Cage's 100 years anniversary in 2012. A white square 7' flexi disc limited to 200 copies." [label info]
idealrecordings.tumblr.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Squared |
CD |
"digipak designed by Richard Francis. Ltd. to 300 copies
On “Squared”: Squared consists of two longer pieces. a) is a recording of a live performance executed at ZKM in Karlsruhe. It is an abstract piece of music that has evolved during the time the composer has performed live - since 1980. For the composer, generally, a live performance
is always the "same thing", but listening to the early recordings it occurs that the music has changed drastically - only the format is still there. This is analogue to life in general - Earth looks the same like always, but,
of course, it isn't. This piece won the Karl Sczuka Price Price in 2014. The piece is a co-production with ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe and Südwestrundfunk (SWR).
b) is a piece using the sound generated from the soil in the German cemetery in Montevideo, Uruguay. With a technique called emission spectroscopy the composer has experimented with the frequencies that emits from the actual
material in the ground and by pulling out samples from these recordings, organising them and looping some this piece became the soundtrack for the film "North Cemetery, Montevideo, Uruguay" directed by Jan Håfström, CM von Hausswolff and Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena.
Biography:
Carl Michael von Hausswolff lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden Since the end of the 70s, von Hausswolff has worked as a composer using
recording technology as his main instrument and as a visual artist using video and still photography as well as other media.
He currently curates the sound-installation FREQ_OUT (including artists like Jana Winderen, JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Anna Ceeh and others) and collaborates with artist Leif Elggren, film-maker Thomas Nordanstad, EVP
re-searcher Michael Esposito and author Leslie Winer. He has exhibited in documenta, Kassel, the biennials in Venice, Moscow, Liverpool, Istanbul, Sarajevo etc and in Rijeka, Stockholm, Nicosia, Tokyo, London, New York etc. His music has been played in festivals such as Sonar (Barcelona), Red Bull Adademy, CTM (Berlin), L’audible (Paris), el niche
Aural (Mexico City) etc. and released on record by labels alike RasterNoton (Berlin), Touch (London), Laton (Wien), auf abwegen (Cologne), iDeal (Göteborg) and MonoType (Warszaw).
www.cmvonhausswolff.net" [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Addressing the Fallen Angel |
LP |
"Two part sound piece based on sound installations at Pierogi Gallery (Brooklyn), Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City) and ZKM (Karlsruhe), presented in 2001 - 2003." [label info]
"Renowned EVP expert and dark interpreter CMvH gets down to the nitty gritty of morality in art with a fascinating, newly augmented collection of sound installation recordings made 2001-2003 in response to Stockhausen’s controversial comments on 9/11 and now released by Sähko.
‘Addressing the Fallen Spirit’ employs an oblique collage of recordings from various installation works as the vehicle for Carl Michael Von Hausswolff’s thoughts on the intersection of art and morality. It’s obviously a dead sticky subject but one that CMvH tackles in the accompanying liner notes, which are crucial to understanding the LP, and take on a particular resonance in 2019 when discussions about political and moral responsibility are more urgent than ever.
The premise of the LP lies in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s 2001 assertions that Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in NYC, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania constituted a work of art. Stockhausen would later clarify his comments and condemn the attack as “Lucifer’s greatest work of art”, but CMvH finds fault with both assertions, essentially saying that a) the attack wasn’t a work of art because it caused death and tragedy, and b) that in qualifying his statement by invoking the mythological fabrication of Lucifer, and by extension Christianity, he was deferring responsibility to the big spirit in the sky.
As CMvH outlines in the liner notes, the argument is more complicated, and applies to a vast history of art in the last 50 years. This includes CMvH’s own highly controversial use of ashes from the victims of the Holocaust at Nazi concentration camp Majdanek in a painting at his 2012 gallery show, which was quickly cancelled.
Bookended by brief vocal snippets, concluding with the voice of Stockhausen, the piece’s collage of distressed radio signals, 666 Hz sine waves, guitar amp hum recorded at multiple CMvH installations between 2001-2003 thus act as a charred sponge or carbon sink for thoughts on the matter of “religious dogma and artistic pomp”, and society’s inability to properly grasp and take responsibility for its actions, or at least not even discuss the matter maturely. Taken in context of impending ecological disaster, too, he suggests that humans, even the ones we massively respect (CMvH is hugely inspired by Stockhausen), have difficulty coming to terms with objective reality and taking responsibility; now is the time to act." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| VON MAGNET |
Ni Predateur Ni Proie |
CD |
"Das schon mit dem Begriff "Flamenco-Industrial" charakterisierte spanische Kult-Projekt mit einem Album auf ANT ZEN. Sehr wuchtig, tribal & expressiv, vermählen sich hier ethnische Rhythmen & Gesänge mit Elektronik und neoklassischen filmischen Elementen zu einem recht einmaligen Ganzen. PHIL VON bringt diverse Musiker zusammen, die orientale Instrumente wie NEY oder OUD beisteuern, Filmzitate geben ein poetisches Flair, elektronische Beats & Sounds sorgen für "industriellen" Druck, das ganze ist hochpolitisch & poetisch ausgerichtet gegen die heutigen Polarisierungen auf der Welt, experimentelle "One World"-Musik ohne Kitsch. Herausragend und keinem der üblichen Genres klar einzuordnen." [DRone Rec info]
"VON MAGNET dreams of the existence of other possible paths; thin and minute. Those tightrope walking paths almost invisible. Bouncing in between two perils, two poles, above empires, across frames, which can slip through the breaches of any walls. That is the story of this album. When rage is accompanied by tears. This album is our reaction facing the brutal reality of our world today. A world under pressure where all is put into opposition, where everything would like to divide us and where we are being arbitrarily dictated the absolute necessity of a choice. But with 'Ni Prédateur Ni Proie' (neither predator nor prey) we will not choose our side. There between partial / impartial, north / south, subjective / objective, orient / occident, coward / hero, poor / rich, indifferent / partisan . We will remain bare handed, like astonished and turbulent children dancing on a mine field. We will just stare at you, we will fall into rage and boil into tears. Within this emotional turmoil, flore magnet and the turkish actress esra bezen bilgin replace women where they are never welcome. Women of multiplicity, violence, engagement and resistance. Phil Von gives way to the voices of the Rom kids of Mostar and the Jewish and Palestinian actors from Amos Gitai and Hany Abu-Assad movies. At their side, Def sharpens his analogue bass lines and darkens atmospherical ambiances which often feel like 'war'. Scattered explosions, shots, crackles, complaints or laments. Only our guest, Kurdish Sufi musician Mübin Dunen softens the crawling tension. His ney bringing our clamour down to a silent light thread. Now Von Magnet signs a harsh, raw, urgent and poetical piece, mixed and produced flawlessly by Master Norscq. Another dary fusion which binds classical music flavours with oriental rhythms, tribal percussions within neo-industrial electronic soundscapes. Here orient is not any more sensual and phantasmagoric, it is rigid and almost cold. Here occident is no more sparkling and victorious, it is sad and decadent. Nevertheless 'neither predator nor prey' is the length of rope which suddenly ties them up, confronting our hearts to dive close to the abyss. Digipak packaging." [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| VORTEX |
Phanopoeia |
CD |
"... Phanopoeia erschafft so einen dunklen, atmosphärischen Spannungsbogen, der einen immer wieder in die Finsternis führen kann, ohne dass man dort verharren müsste. Alles in allem keine Musik die sich anbiedert, und ganz gewiss kein Album, das es einem sehr leicht macht, es zu erschliessen, aber eines, dessen Erschliessung sich lohnt." [KMF, BLACK Magazin]
"The German ritual drone project Vortex is dedicated to the British art movement of Vorticism of the early Twentieth Century (1913-1920). Founded as an own vision of Futurism by Wyndham Lewis and expressed in the legendary magazine Blast (1914) Vorticism defined the artist as someone gaining creative power and inspiration out of the chaotic vortex of creative energy. The name was introduced by the Vorticist protagonist Ezra Pound who also coined the phrase 'phanopoeia': the idea of creating poetry for all senses. The music of Vortex pays audiovisual homage to the great Vorticist art. Psychedelic drones, ritual drums, processed sounds, glimpses of acoustic harmony, and original sound documents are blended to grant a holistic sensory experience. Vortex, the solo-project of a :Golgatha: -member, transcends the limits of dark ambient soundtracks on a quest for the unknown. Vortex is pure psychoactive energy. (TESCO) Tesco 074 http://www.myspace.com/vortexphanopoeia"
[label info]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| VOUDOURIS, DIMITRI |
NPFAI.1/PALMOS/NPFAI.3/PRAXIS |
CD |
Vier interessante Arbeiten eines südafrikanischen Komponisten (geboren 1961 in Athen); so werden bei NPFAI.1 Originalklänge von afrikanischen Zeremonial-Instrumenten (Kundi & M'Bira / bzw. Kalimba) computergestützt in mysteriöse Granularwellen & -welten verwandelt, die die ursprüngliche Klang-Atmosphäre der Objekte beibehält.
Ähnlich werden bei den anderen Stücken Klangdetails einzelner Instrumente analysiert und elektro-akustisch bearbeitet, so daß bestimmte musikalische Parameter wie durch ein Mikroskop näher betrachtbar werden. Besonders gut gefällt das letzte Stück PRAXIS, wo ein griechisch-orthodoxer Chor herhalten muss für VOUDOURIS unheimliche Transformationen, die sich bis ins Unkenntliche auflösen, um dann wieder zurückzukehren zum Ausgangsmaterial. Genial! Wieder erstaunlich, zu welchen Neuentdeckungen das POGUS-Label animiert !
"South African composer Dimitri Voudouris (b.1961 Athens, Greece) began composing in the 90¹s. He composes for acoustic instruments, electronic sound sources, multimedia, including dance and theatre. He bases his technical and theoretical compositional approach in research of cognitive psycho-acoustic behavioral patterns in humans and the behavior of sound in relationship to continued environmental changes. His socio-cultural interests have led him to research the survival of music in the 21st century and the impact that media and technology have on the composer.
NPFAI. 1 (New Possibilities for African Instrument) is an electro-acoustic composition for kundi and m'bira with computer assisted processing. Kalimba or m'bira is a finger piano made of wood and metal strips used in ceremonial music. In Western Africa this instrument is known as m'bira and in Eastern Africa it is called a kalimba. The kundi a bowed harp is a ceremonial instrument originating from the Mangbetu tribe of the Congo. In NPFAI.1, working with each individual layer gave Voudouris better control in the change of sound characteristics as some sound phenomena changed, disappeared and new sound phenomena surfaced creating new possibilities. In Palmos, Voudouris chose three Western instruments - the Hammond organ, oboe, and the bandoneon - whose overtone and harmonic capabilities allowed for interlocking moments to take place, a phenomenon that is ever present in African traditional music. Spectrographic analysis of sounds produced by each individual instrument was carefully monitored which allowed for a deeper understanding of timbre [harmonic content], attack, decay and vibrato. Subtractive synthesis further allowed for the isolation of certain inaudible frequencies to be enhanced to an audible level and the elimination of others. These compositional elements allow the listener to perceive the sound as stable individual tone and noise spectra, frequently of surprising purity.
NPFAI. 3, third in a series of electro-acoustic studies, is for African marimba and computer assisted processing. The African marimba used in this work is a tenor marimba, used traditionally as a rhythm instrument. The marimba is tuned in Xhosa tuning with just intonation in Eb (with added A's). The instrument was played with traditional mallets; the recording was processed and constructed on computer. Granular, algorithmic and subtractive sound syntheses were used in the construction of NPFAI.3. These procedures were not to defamiliarize the sound of the instrument but rather to explore the deeper analogies of organic identity in the construction of micro sound environments, focusing on capturing the physical properties of the instrument and its organic sound textures. PRAXIS is a four-channel tape piece using a recording of Christian Orthodox Greek male choir and computer assisted processing. 566 sound compartments were created that ranged from 10 to 40 seconds in time duration. Each sound compartment was constructed and manipulated individually, allowing for better control in maintaining individuality in the sound structures. The computer further allowed for the individual micro-rearrangement of pitches in each sound compartment, leading to the notion of continuous macro-timbre. The methods used allowed for greater control in spacial differentiation of each sound. The distorted nature of the sound source was not eliminated but was build into the composition." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOWINCKEL, ANTJE |
Terra Prosodia |
CD |
"Sound composition with dialects and disappearing languages from Europe
With: George Cadéac, Nesa Engler, Don Eoil, Remy Graillon, Ingvar Larsson, Peter Meyer und Ingrid Wahlgren
1. Rumansch
2. Gutamal
3. Provencal
4. Wallis-Deutsch
5. Provencal
6. Gascon
8. Scottish-Gaelic
8 Tracks (33′46″)
CD (500 copies)
Currently about 6000 languages are spoken on the world. Most of them will disappear soon – and together with them a meldodic richness of human expressivness. However, the fact, that dialects and disappearing languages are only spoken by a few people has one advantage: only if one does not understand the contents it is possible to really listen tot he sound, saying far away from their homeland these languages unfold their musical enchantment (charme?). What you find are melodies that nobody invented (conceived of?). They arise in the process of impulsive speaking, on the grounds of oral tradition. Landscapes seem to continue there with melodic heights and valleys. Often single sentences remain in our heads as catchy tunes.
In Terra Prosodia people tell a short spontanuous story based on a personal experience. Stories about storms, excursions, accidents and so on. Particularly speakers who have spent their lifes in remote valleys or islands often speak with much more distinct modulation. This expressiveness gets lost quickly one cou live in a big city.
In the compositions the contents of these stories do not matter any longer. The pieces focus on the melodies in the dialects and add second instrumental or humed melodic voice. By this also the melody of the speaking voice is underlined. In the beginning the second voice will imitate the speaking voice, later becomes indpendent and follows own directions. As soon as the focus of perception is on the melody, you can listen to both lines as independent voices.
During my work I found out, that an even more exact decoding and mapping oft he intervalls (which would be possible technically) on no account lead to better results. Quite the contraray the effect of a catchy tune that occurs when you remember the melodies is based on the fact the our brain is already during hearing looking for characteristic figures and intervalls. Our ear behaves like the eye in a stalagtite cave. In a vast array of stalagtites and stalagmites we always remember nothing then typical single shapes. „Look, that looks like….“. Only this mechanism allows us to remember something of huge amount of shapes.
(Antje Vowinckel, translation: Chris Heenan)
Text by Christina Kubisch:
Many things disappear and only then gets attention. Images, texts, sounds appear in archives in audio-visual documentations in the net.
But archiving the no more living existence is partial maybe even sometimes absurd or naiv. Language only can remain vivid and interesting, if it is spoken everyday. When it is staying in a process of change, articulated by different persons, when it is depicting facts, information, thoughts, emotions and so on.
Antje Vowinckel’s Terra Prosodia makes happy and sad at the same time. The musicality of the spoken word sinks in even more by the melodical adaption as in case of pure listening of an unknown lanugage. You admire the beautiness and complexity. You instantly wish to speak one of these languages yourself for not leaving them to archivars and linguists but forward them to people who would use them in future.
In Terra Prosodia Antje Vowinckel succeeds in a wonderful mixture of a political important theme, a formally convincing process and a subtle and profound humour, that is hard to find. Once you have listened to the voices you will listen differently to spoken language in every day life." [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOX POPULI! |
Soft Entrance to Nature's Camino de Luz |
mCD-R |
Wohl die ersten neuen veröffentlichten Aufnahmen nach der Wiederaktivierung, auffällig die vielen Tiersounds (z.B. Frösche), field recordings (aus Japan, Frankreich & Burkina Faso) & Glocken & Glöckchensounds die zum Einsatz kommen... insgesamt eine sehr ruhige, softe, meditative Atmo, absolute day dreaming music..
"finally some new music from this legendary experimental french band!!! mostly a solo work by axel kyrou in in a more experimental/surrealistic/environmental vein.please note that those three releases are also available as downloadable
FLAC files." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
|
La Cathedrale Morte |
LP |
Backwards is very pleased to present the REISSUE of this amazing VOX POPULI! album originally released on cassette (1985) by Cause And Effect in the United States.
Self-labeled as an ethno-industrial project, Vox Populi! is one of the most intriguing and original band emerged from French underground.
These recordings were made between 1980 and 1985.
This amazing release presents 7 tracks of analog experimental ethno industrial music!
https://backwardsrec.bandcamp.com/album/la-cathedrale-morte
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Psyko Tropix |
LP |
Touch Sensitive is honoured to dig into the vaults of legendary cult French group Vox Populi! with a collection primarily pulling from their creative highpoint of 1986-1990. The vast majority of the works are unreleased and all make their first appearance on vinyl. The recordings have been licensed from the group's extensive archive, mastered by Rupert Clervaux and cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnitstelle. The release is completed by liner notes focusing on Vox Populi!'s creative process and prolific output. Springing from the rip it up restart of post-punk in 1980 and primarily active throughout that decade, Vox Populi!'s discography is a perfect showcase of an almost unclassifiable group. The often-used 'ethno-industrial' tag - even if not approved by the group - goes some way to describing a melting pot of primarily self-taught techniques and vast cultural influences. Founding member Axel Kyrou's parents were avant-garde musicians and filmmakers resulting in a heavy cultural immersion from a young age. His partner and bandmate Mitra moved from Iran to Paris in 1978 - followed a few years later by her virtuoso brother Arash who joined the group at the age of 14. Based in their 14th arronidissement studio - previously Axel and his brother's family playroom - Vox Populi! quickly became a lynchpin in the Parisian experimental scene and beyond through the burgeoning mail-art scene. The group contributed work to a huge number of independent labels. Their music and approach quickly progressed from rudimentary experiments to harness transcendental spiritual qualities and moments of intense beauty. In this collection, we can feel the vibrations of Don Cherry's Organic Music Society, Faust's communal explorations and King Tubby's forward-thinking studio experimentation. "We recorded everything - every idea. We would always have a cassette or a reel running. We made such different styles - freaky, alternative, experimental, industrial etc. We had no rules and no plans - our main motives were play and pleasure. I think that many people can feel that in the music." Three tracks recorded in 2017 by a reconfigured Vox Populi! sit perfectly with music from 30 years previous - "We were never defined by fashion or the zeitgeist. So we remained ourselves. Our sound is still natural. We had to be turned on by our own music and we wanted the music to have an impact on consciousness. We were the subjects of our own experiments and there was also a kind of mystery - even for us." The Psyko Tropix collection is another magical and mysterious addition to the open-hearted and open-eared world of Vox Populi! "The music of Vox Populi! found me several years ago and it was one of my record digging highlights. Their stark contrast of dark and light paints a beautiful picture of the physical and mental world we all live in. This new album doesn't miss a step in exploring further in both directions" Cut Chemist
https://touchsensitiverecords.bandcamp.com/album/psyko-tropix
|
2022 |
€29.50 |
|
| VRESNIT |
Seed Solar |
CD |
"Joint release of Aquarellist and Vetvei labels - new Vresnit album recorded in winter-autumn 2010 in cooperation with Kshatriy, Hladna and Neznamo. Qualitatively new in project creativity a five-part ambient space dedicated to the Culture Solar beginnings and transfiguring seeds disseminating. Vresnit art is turned to research primary being experience, - human consciousness conditions being resonant to the general nature. Sparkling cosmogonic Drone Ambient twined from voices, string and wind instruments, bells, singing bowls, electronic instruments and field recordings. Great Kshatriy mastering, solar full-colored envelope and card Vresnit & Vetvei Art. First 13 copies incl. 4 additional cards and 30x27 foto on big wooden board." [label info]
www.vetvei.ohms.ru
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| VRIL |
The fatal Duckpond |
CD |
"Award-winning soundtrack to the film by Horst Gack,(Prix Ultra de Concourse Lumiere, Ulm, 2009: Best Soundtrack). After a break of six years, Chris Cutler, Bob Drake and Lukas Simonis, now with added ingredient Pierre Omer, present the second volume of recordings by the elusive VRIL - a band who revive and update both the great institution of the guitar instrumental and the now sadly neglected practice of collective arrangement, intense rehearsal and live studio performance. Appropriate to the half century that has passed since the birth of the form, these hits dodge about, get bored easily and blend both concentration and complexity with the still indispensable traditional qualities that made the genre great: hummability, crafted sounds, nifty arrangements, ridiculous gimmicks and ensemble playing. 'Neither tribute nor parody, these enigmatic pieces are never more nor less than exactly what they are'.... wrote Lothar Preen in his Melbourne concert review....'but perfectly realised'. With film stills, misleading sleeve-notes and storyboard by the Diogenesian recluse Frank Key." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| VROMB |
Jeux de Terre |
CD |
Das erste VROMB – Album erschien 1993 auf Tesco und wird inzwischen zurecht als Klassiker betrachtet – irgendwo in der Grauzone zwischen dunklem ambient Industrial und rhythmisch-futuristischer Elektronik siedelte VROMB seinen ureigenen Stil an..
"until 1993, hugo girard's only appearance on record had been on a canadian compilation cd (adolphe présente), but these new ambient industrial sounds caused enthusiastic reactions in europe and canada. the first full length release was a canadian / german label collaboration: 'jeux de terre' . this cd was beautifully packaged in a 7"x10" cover and the disc was in a hand numbered paper sleeve. also included was a postcard and several large prints of nicely drawn insects - the text was in both french and english. the original 'jeux de terre' has been deleted for years. now there is the opportunity for vromb addicts to get it again. this re-release is in celebration of the ten year anniversary of vromb. the concept behind 'jeux de terre' (earth plays) was of a journey through an imaginary world of
insects. insects that had not been identified yet - as you can now read in english for the first time. 'insects, go for food or discovery, warzone, life purpose at the insect dimension' as girard explains it. the sound on this disc is less beat oriented than later vromb releases, but nevertheless it is partly rhythmic. drones and basses create a hypnotic and sometimes threatening atmosphere. you might seem to hear natural, even sampled, insect sounds but there were no samplers used. just 'strictly analog and digital synthesis'. you can hear what makes vromb's music unique even on his debut.
a soundtrack to a film yet completed. the ant-zen re-release contains one unreleased extra track which was intended for the original version and an 8 page booklet which includes a modified version of the original artwork."
[label info]
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Rayons |
LP |
Konzeptuell und musikalisch wieder überzeugend – das neue VROMB-Album beschäftigt sich mit der akustischen Umsetzung von STRAHLEN...
“ vromb's intention on 'rayons' is to translate several kinds of rays into music - ranging from sunbeams to optical rays. so, 'rayons' can also be seen as an aural sight-seeing tour. the 'speed' factor is that of a person moving (whether by foot or in different vehicles). this movement was transformed into rhythmic patterns. imagine the aural equivalent of taking a walk during a thunderstorm ('éclairs') or feeling the sun peaking through a clouded sky while window shopping ('boulevard'). all sounds were generated with analog and digital synthesizers. the listener might believe that they are hearing modulated samples but this is not true. it is once again, an example of girard's virtuosity in creating 'naturalistic' soundscapes with pure electronic equipment. for the images on the album cover, girard gave the photographer, alain gauvin the basic audio tracks for inspiration. the final musical structure on 'rayons' is based on inspirations from gauvin's pictures which were taken in the montreal area. so close your eyes, let yourself go and feel the rays coming out of your speakers.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Chorégraphie. Electro-Bruits et Tonalites Low-Fi |
CD |
"for more than twenty years the canadian project vromb a.k.a. hugo girard has masterly transformed a plethora of different inspirations into sound, resulting in a multitude of releases based on many topics. for the realization of his recent opus, girard drastically changed his approach: instead of choosing an exterior subject he wanted to transcribe the tones and voices generated in his own mind, keep hold of them and etch them onto record, and thus he is the choreographer of imaginary sounds which become physical musical entities.
'chorégraphie' demonstrates vromb's incredible skills at handling his' analog electronic equipment, which means in large part the sound manipulations are created by directly using the machines with only a little part of computer assisted sequencing, audio montages and overdubs. subliminal trance-inducing beats, mighty pulsating sub basses and repetitive sequencer textures enriched with surrealistic ambient dronescapes and hugo girard's recognizable voice generate a steady but everchanging semi-ritualistic flow which was, is, and will be associated uniquely with the sonic world of vromb.
a wonderfully composed album which allegorizes the disposal of the sounds created by an artist's inner self, and at the same time an essential listening for those with a different view. highly recommended." [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Polygonie |
LP |
vromb creates unique soundscapes consisting of analog synthesizers, pure electronic music, fascinating subtle music layers and sci-fi sounds. he explores the possibilities offered by geometric shapes and repetitions translated into sonic patterns and plays with the eruption of both known and unidentified sounds.
on 'polygonie', hugo girard aka vromb explains: “invaders do exist, they are everywhere surrounding us. and certainly in my head, they are sonic'. at first, created by vibrations in the air, they evolve into physical forms: triangles, squares, spheres. free and constantly transmuting, they become airborne, moving around and above us. some of us might perceive them, and i could swear at certain moments i see them. their abstract movements dance and get enmeshed in a synchronized choreography within a constant progression, reshaping and reforming. 'polygonie' is like recalling of memories from childhood, where i witness the intriguing beauty of electronic music. the contour of a tridimensional object that could provide us multiple shapes to see, to hear, to feel.”
in the independent underground electronic music scene, veteran producer vromb has such a solid and well respected reputation for his releases as well as for his intense sonic live presentations. since 1993, the canadian hugo girard has released about two dozen records and cds on reputed labels from germany, austria, canada, the united states and france such as ant-zen, hymen records tesco organisation, klanggalerie, angle rec and hushush. as the audio live mixer at the legendary maschinenfest told us: we love the music of vromb - with his analogue gear and his production techniques we always can reach the maximum of dynamics on our sound system. it is rare, that an artist is able to produce such are pureness of power and sound
https://ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/polygonie
vromb creates unique soundscapes consisting of analog synthesizers, pure electronic music, fascinating subtle music layers and sci-fi sounds. he explores the possibilities offered by geometric shapes and repetitions translated into sonic patterns and plays with the eruption of both known and unidentified sounds.
on 'polygonie', hugo girard aka vromb explains: “invaders do exist, they are everywhere surrounding us. and certainly in my head, they are sonic'. at first, created by vibrations in the air, they evolve into physical forms: triangles, squares, spheres. free and constantly transmuting, they become airborne, moving around and above us. some of us might perceive them, and i could swear at certain moments i see them. their abstract movements dance and get enmeshed in a synchronized choreography within a constant progression, reshaping and reforming. 'polygonie' is like recalling of memories from childhood, where i witness the intriguing beauty of electronic music. the contour of a tridimensional object that could provide us multiple shapes to see, to hear, to feel.”
in the independent underground electronic music scene, veteran producer vromb has such a solid and well respected reputation for his releases as well as for his intense sonic live presentations. since 1993, the canadian hugo girard has released about two dozen records and cds on reputed labels from germany, austria, canada, the united states and france such as ant-zen, hymen records tesco organisation, klanggalerie, angle rec and hushush. as the audio live mixer at the legendary maschinenfest told us: we love the music of vromb - with his analogue gear and his production techniques we always can reach the maximum of dynamics on our sound system. it is rare, that an artist is able to produce such are pureness of power and sound
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| VROMB / SZKIEVE |
Le pavillon des oiseaux / Le monorail |
7 |
Kanadische Collaboration-Single mit einem tiefpulsierenden Klangobjekt von VROMB und industrieller Hypnosis von SZKIEVE.
“ The monorail provided by les Enterprises Hushush will take you on a journey to our own World Fair, an exhibition for advanced technologies and oddities. Recorded on this seven inch vinyl is a visit to the Birds Pavilion, “le pavillon des oiseaux” as well as
an overview of the site. Often remembered for the showing of tomorrow’s technological advancements, World Fairs presented many mechanical, electronic and magnetic types of equipment. Thought to be the way of the future, some of them remain now very odd pieces of history, yesterday’s tomorrows. This recording is the first collaboration effort for Vromb. The Montreal dark electronica wonder has teamed up with an almost Canadian fellow, Hushush’s headhoncho project, Szkieve. Only 500 copies were made, this is guarenteed to be a very fast seller." [label description]
|
2003 |
€7.50 |
|
| VULTURE CLUB |
Live young, die fast and leave an exquisite Corpse |
CD |
"Released: January 20, 2007. Recorded: July-September, 2006. Amps-gtrs-programming by Thomas Lee. 'The guitar is not dead. It is still humming and I believe in it. Copper wound is copper wound, today and yesterday. Magnets are magnetic, today and yesterday. Wood is wooden, today and yesterday. Electricity is electric, today and yesterday. These things shift in their own time and on their own basis. They are not forced and in my own capacity, I do not force them. The editor's role is Advocate. The rattle you hear, that is the energy and the idea. It is not all mine and it is not all theirs and it is not all yours. But it is all ours.' 'There was darkness before there was light, I guess. We live in between. Name is Thomas Lee born somewhere and will die somewhere too currently living in Lawrence, Kansas. I reside here because neighbors are not so close and most of them are old and deaf already. Downtown where the hipsters are, I can walk amongst them and no one knows about the amps and guitars. No need to scream about the weirdness because I am invisible and alive they let me walk fast and away. These are my people is one way or another and I refuse to belong to them. Live Young, Die Fast and Leave an Exquisite Corpse. I can't explain it any better than that." [label info]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| W>A>S>P>S / NACHT UND NEBEL |
split |
7inch |
"Comes on black vinyl, with red, green or white cover. nacht und nebel - 3 tracks of rumbling, scraping 'cello misuse.
W>A>S>P>S - 1 track of brutally heavy bass surf wall and electricity shock. "Stark and potentially horrifying sounds within"
[label info]
https://nachtundnebel.bandcamp.com/album/split-7-w-w-a-s-p-s
"I love that this singles like this exist. This split from experimental musicians W>A>S>P>S and Nacht Und Nebel is a conceptual single who's mere existence without even putting it on the turntable is proof enough of the vision and intent. This record isn't intended to be music for the livingroom or to illicit some kind of emotional response. Instead they're the the conclusion to their equation. A proof of a theory and making the conceptual an actual object you can hold in your hand to reenact this document of a particular set of circumstances. A crazy vision that they had to follow to it's end point.
In the case of W>A>S>P>S, Benjamin Hallat is presenting a sound, a long droning speaker-breaking low end crackle that would make anyone check their needle and amp, which hasn't ever existed in nature. This is a completely man made sound that exists entirely because of electricity. It's a humming dangerous sound. It's a transformer overhead jammed between poles of power lines that's shorting out in the acid rain. The lower end hum shifts through a narrow spectrum of tones because now we have to mention the limitations of whatever this was recorded on. The mic and tape have been turned up to maximum input which boosts that rumble and obscures everything else. Like some kind of circuitry didgeridoo it warbles and melts away under a static crackle that comes from malfunction. It could be a simple conversation on a telephone, a sample recorded off the tv...which was then successively rerecorded over and over. Each time a new one was made from the record of the last time, getting exponentially more broken. W>A>S>P>S have transformed it into something else completely that will never exist as a 'live' sound. It's a weird world we live in. Welcome to the future.
Nacht Und Nebel (or Night and Fog, which has equally ominous connotations as Nazi coined 'Joy Division') on the B-Side is the solo project, of Henry Davies. The press release says the three tracks on this side are manipulations of a cello but you wouldn't know it on "Those That Tremble as if They Were Mad" that features a cycling warm wooden sound that slowly works it's way through digital sounding crunches and crushes of various bit sizes, turning into a deadly swarm. A hiss of digital swarming bees from the '50s. Theremin warps and old synths sparkle and give off tesla sparks of lightning. It ends up underwater as a long past memory you'll want to forget in this stark apocolpytic future. "Derinkuyu" is the sound of a far off thunderous footstep from a massive robot and you're listening through an old tin can telephone, the only technology left. It's also on the heels of those fucking digital bees and walks ever so closer with pinging noises from an equally deadly submarine. It's as if we're listening to creatures who can't even hear and have no use for sound waves. These tracks are the leftover detritus of a forgotten way they used to communicate before theygave up on the whole damn thing.
Those bees are stuck inside an old Atari on "Anareta". I even forgot this came from a cello? Basically unimportant except for the fact there's deliberately no reference whatsoever to the original source. Henry is saying it doesn't make a difference how this started, it's been bent into a completely new thing. The traditional organic sound has been obliterated. This one skitters around in waves after the initial bzzzzz and fades out as the EQ was pushed down into negative Db's above 500hz. It's not happy, you aren't going to put it on in the car on the way to work but it's inspiring as hell.
Head over here to get one of these 250 copies, xerox sleeves, minimal as hell. Stark and potentially horrifying sounds within." [Jason /7inchesblogspot]
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| WADA, TASHI |
Gradient |
7inch |
"In service to TASHI WADA’s ongoing work with sound perception as a basis for direct modes of listening, he and Marc Sabat produce two sustained tones, a fourth apart, positioned along a wall, one at each end—a very slow glissando from one pitch to the other while moving accordingly. In other words, the string players' physical locations in space correspond with pitches of the sounds. One of his adapted violas of Harry Partch, who often worked with this type of harmony, was used for the recording of Gradient. The result is a sculpture-like presence shifting through all the blue notes." [label info]
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| WADA, YOSHI |
Earth Horns with Electronic Drone |
CD |
Bisher unveröffentlichte Aufnahmen eines Konzertes von 1974 (New York City)! Handgespielte Ritual & Transzendental-Drones at its best !!
"A world premiere from Yoshi Wada and EM Records-Omega Point: the first-ever release of Earth Horns with Electronic Drone, recorded live in 1974. Combining four of Wada's self-made pipehorns (made from plumbing materials, over three meters in length), with an electronic drone tuned to the electrical current of the performance space, this is a lost masterpiece of early minimalism, placing Wada rightfully in the pantheon with La Monte Young, Phill Niblock, Maryanne Amacher and Alvin Lucier. Recorded live in Syracuse, New York, this recording captures the room-filling complex overtones generated by the ever-shifting interplay of the breathing horns and the constant electronic drone. This is a music of ritual hypnotic power, its heavy low end mass and sense of change within constancy engendering a meditative transcendency. 'Earth Horns with Electronic Drone' is the fourth and ultimate release in our Yoshi Wada series, a must for all fans of minimalism, heavy drones, ritual, mystery and world-shaking transcendence. From an original performance of almost three hours, the CD features a 77 minute excerpt; we are especially honored to also offer the full performance as a triple LP set (sold out !). From Earth Horns to beyond the firmament: prepare to be elevated ! Composition by Yoshi Wada. Recorded at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York on February 24, 1974. Pipehorns constructed by Yoshi Wada. Electronic equipment designed by Liz Phillips and Yoshi Wada. Electronics: Liz Phillips. Pipehorn Players: Jim Burton, Garrett List, Barbara Stewart and Yoshi Wada. Recorded by Yoshi Wada."
[label info] |
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Singing in Unison |
3 x LP |
" 'Singing in unison' is the latest in a series of recordings from acclaimed sound artist, composer and performer Yoshi Wada. Recorded live over two nights, March 14 and 15, in 1978, at New York City's legendary performance space The Kitchen, Singing in Unison is a dramatic yet meditative work: modal improvisations for three male voices, singing, with great gravitas, in purposeful unison. These previously unreleased recordings, featuring vocalists Richard Hayman, Imani Smith and Wada himself are extremely powerful, with a glacial majesty and a sense of timeless wonder. Wada's earliest musical memories are of hearing Zen Buddhist ritual chants in his native Japan, and those memories are reflected in the deep vocalisations here; also evident is Wada's period of intense study with Indian master singer Pandit Pran Nath. Thus there is a definite Eastern feeling to Singing in Unison, with further elements added by Imani Smith's Sufi background and Wada's interest in Eastern European vocal styles, but the music is also informed by Wada's experiences in the Fluxus movement and as a member of the New York avant-garde community. The edgy atmosphere of 1970s New York City pervades these recordings, adding a hint of menace. Despite the fact that this is purely vocal music, fans of the slow-moving heaviosity of Sunn 0))) will appreciate Singing in Unison. It is available in two formats: a single CD of the March 15 performance, with gatefold sleeve; or a triple LP set featuring a complete version of both performances, March 14 and 15. 'Singing in Unison' is a massive, monumental, monolith of vocal sound. Unstoppable! Triple 12' LP set for the complete version of both performances on March 14 and 15. Two and a half hours in total. Quality pressing + liners." [label info]
www.emrecords.net
|
2012 |
€45.00 |
|
| WAKHEVITCH, IGOR |
Hathor |
LP |
"Subtitled "LITURGIE Du SOUFFLE POUR LA RESURRECTION DES MORTS", this is probably Wakhevitch's most esoteric and occult-influenced work. Some sort of dark ritual for synthesizer and orchestra inspired by Kabbalistic writings where Igor's trademark bottom heavy electronics pulse, wizz and sweep to a backdrop of heavy tribal drumming. Elsewhere, menacing and majestic spoken word passages open us the doors to the netherworld, leading you into an esoteric sound ritual that sounds spooky, virulent, powerful, droning, entrancing and mystical at the same time. Again Wakhevitch brings together disparate elements, bridging apparently unrelated musical forms and integrate them in order to deliver another unique work that sounds strangely prescient and recalling at the same time works from Mort Garson (Black Mass), Ruth White (Flowers Of Evil), Terry Riley (Surgery Persian Dervishes), Stockhausen (Stimmung), Tangerine Dream (Zeit) or early Klaus Schulze (Irrlicht)." [label info]
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
|
Les Fous d'Or |
LP |
"Released by Pathe Marconi in 1975 and housed in a fantastic surrealist cover designed by his father, Russian painter/art director Georges Wakhevitch, this album marks the debut of Wakhevitch's long-standing collaboration with american dancer/choreographer Carolyn Carlson. It also shows the composer's progression into a more esoteric and lyrical grounds: a departure from the violence of his first three albums into quieter yet equally dark and mysterious regions. Divided in two sides (called "CORNERSTONE"/"LES FOUS D'OR") the whole record oozes a dreamy, mysterious, surrealist atmosphere enhaced by the spoken word introductions that open a series of mesmerising electronic pieces which range from the gentle to the hypnotic. Animal sounds, ritual horns, wordless vocals and assorted metal banging and scrapping add to the whole mix for a landmark sound that will evolve in future albums. Six different pieces that take off where Hathors' 'Aurore' left before moving into a crazy and disjointed landscape that echoes the crazyness of Docteur Faust yet in a subtle, stranger, more warped way. Strictly limited to 500 copies on transparent clear vinyl. Single cover reproducing the original 1975 artwork. Includes insert with liner notes reproduction of the original Les Fous d'Or insert." [label info]
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
|
Nagual |
LP |
"Originally released in 1977, this was (once again) a product of the fruitful association between Wakhevitch and american dancer/choreographer Carolyn Carlson. Compiling some of the pieces specially written for Carlson's "This, that and the other" (created for the Groupe de recherche Théâtrale de l'Opéra de Paris), the album follows the otherwordly steps of it's predecessor ("Les Fous D'or") in a more calm, relaxed, almost nocturnal way. Inspired by Carlos Castaneda's writings, Nagual is another mysterious and intriguing statement of musical esoterica: a collection of twelve musical vignettes covering a whole range of styles, from majestic electronic pieces to echo-drenched concrete-like sketches via impressionistic piano compositions. A bewitching musical journey, built around Wakhevitch's keys where electronics give way to more acoustic sonorities (piano, harp) for a highly-charged magical sound. A very special record!!! Strictly limited to 500 copies. Single cover reproducing the original 1977 artwork. Includes insert with liner notes reproduction of the original Nagual insert." [label info]
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Let's Start |
LP |
"Originally released in 1979, Wakhevitch's last album before definitely settling down in Auroville (India) was his most meditative and relaxed effort to date. Fruit of his 1978 stay in Israel invited by the "Mishkenot Shaananim" Foundation, the album was again completely dominated by the composer's keyboards - hypnotic, majestic, enchanting and delicate: from the sweeping synths and fractured vocal loops of the title track to the fragility of Taddy's Fruit Garden, the lyrical spaciness of Eriador or the otherwordly impressionism of Taddy's Dream: Ramallah's Road. A masterful closing statement by this french master and a must for anyone into meditative keyboard music in the vein of Terry Riley, Deuter, JD Emmanuel or Peter Michael Hamel, to name a few. Strictly limited to 500 copies. Single cover reproducing the original 1979 artwork - includes insert with liner notes." [label info]
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| WAKINYAN |
Copal Flow |
LP |
"In November 2011, after 20 years, the Italian band TERRORITMO became "WAKINYAN". "Copal Flow" is the first step in Wakinyan's exploration. Like the strong scent of copal brings ancient memories and visions, each track here depicts a scenery and involves the listener directly, totally. Introduced by the obscure night of "Notturno", like in a wood, crowded with spirits and animals, you're guided through 9 gates, each one opening on a different space and time. As if the purpose was to awake the slumbering ancestral memory of man, this record is fundamentally based on the dualism of elements strictly relating to the human being: "voice" and "iron". Whispers and screams, heartbeats and metal clashes, pulsing rhythms and voodoo drumming, ancient chants of the earth. Anything takes place all around you... and inside you.
Enjoy your journey!
Backwards released this record in a limited edition of 350 copies as gatefold sleeve. First 50 copies are in coloured vinyl with a special silkscreened insert and an additional DVD by Davide Pepe. The remaining 300 copies are in standard black wax." [label info]
about the band:
"In November 2011, after 20 years, Wakinyan became the new name for Terroritmo. Since the very beginning, in 1991, this Italian collective has explored unconventional music, using any kind of instruments, objects and tools to create its distinctive sound, with roots in industrial music and musique brut. Metal pipes and springs, glasses, Tibetan bowls, gongs, metal sheets, oil bins, knives, custom drums, rattles create hypnotic rhythms or powerful crescendos, while subtle drones made of processed voices, harmonics and noises fill up the atmosphere. Chants inflate Life in these layers of primal cadences. The industrial meets the organic. Fire and darkness.
Wakinyan's act is a modern ritual. What's below and what's above get connected. The emotional and the spiritual, the individual and the shared, they all melt into each other. Sounds perceived physically, almost unconsciously, take the listener into a mysterious place, the unknown, the hidden. Out of space and time."
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| WALDRON, M.S./ STEVEN STAPLETON / S.B. SIGMARSSON / JIM HAYNES / R.K.FAULHABER |
The Sleeping Moustache |
CD |
Akustischer Surrealismus in Reinform auf dieser aufwendige Ketten-Collaboration, Drones und Collagiertes zu gleichen Teilen, Sprachexperimente, Geräuschaftes, Weirdes, abenteuerlich und schön!
Anhören und staunen !
„... Im fünfmaligen Wechsel von gut 10-minütigen mit 2- bis 3-minütigen Tracks jonglieren die Fünf mit den elektronischen Schatten von Nähmaschinen und Regenschirmen, wuchten nackte Eselskadaver auf Konzertflügel, klingen nach der Nachtschwester und lassen sich das Schamhaar neu friesieren [...].. Auch wenn sie das Pissoir nicht neu erfindet, ist sie doch Frucht einer langen Erfahrung aquis submersus.“ [Bad Alchemy #51]
“....Each with a peculiar understanding of the audio arts, these five artists came to the proverbial table and thought it a good idea to collaborate. Given the predilection for the surreal and the sidereal that each of these five employ in their many audio and visual projects, those agendas oozed from the recordings that became known as The Sleeping Moustache.
An epiphany of controlled disorder, a convulsion of beauty, a cascade of thought from delirious minds, The Sleeping Moustache is an exquisite manifestation of sound poetry scattered into a tortuous collage mired in an oblique melancholy. Magnetic tones extracted from the ether, mechanical sounds smeared into a lugubrious growls, horns trumpeting straight out of John's Book of Revelation, ululations sliced into information overload that Schwitters himself would be proud of. The Sleeping Moustache presents a psychically instable landscape, where dreams and nightmares wreak havoc upon the drudgery of daily life. The closest audible territory for The Sleeping Moustache might be the psychoactive constructions of Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie, although the characters in this drama happened upon an entirely different map of that terrain.
The artwork for the first edition of The Sleeping Moustache features five letterpress prints from each of the artists with an edition of 1700.” [from the label description]
"You know it's gotta be an amazing record when we start a review by stating "we don't know where to begin with this record" and then we blather on and on for another 500 words pretty much demonstrating that while we may not where to begin, we certainly have a lot to say. And that totally applies to The Sleeping Moustache, the latest release from the enigmatic Helen Scarsdale Agency. The most well known of these five audio contortionists is Steven Stapleton who is the brains behind Nurse With Wound, who convolutedly reconstitute Surrealism, avant-garde aesthetics, and krautrock expressivity, resulting in some of the most profoundly brilliant and disturbing records we've ever heard. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson is one of the drunken pilots of Stilluppsteypa, an Icelandic project of electro-absurdity capable of magnificent minimalism. M.S. Waldron is responsible for irr. app. (ext.), (an unwieldy moniker for sure) which has produced an amazing body of post-Surrealist expressivity in recent years. When he's not manning the fron counter here at Aquarius, Jim Haynes has developed a peculiar knack for rust-inflected dronescaping, and finally R.K. Faulhaber, who is the mystery man amongst the bunch, although we've been told his unpublished works offer a byzantine array of mutilated sonic collages. The album that these five produced is a weighty proposition to say the least, with detours a plenty within this mangled concoction of delirious dronescaping punctuated with glossalaic vocalizations. Delicate plinks and plonks sprinkled across sublime, gaping tones which transition to a convulsive beauty with mechanical spasms and nightmarish creakings. Throughout The Sleeping Moustache, ghostly reminders of each of the contributors' refined aesthetics emerge as a Gordon knot of convoluted logic, unsettling shifts between horror and comedy, psychological instability, and disquieting soundscapes. If you're even remotely a fan of Nurse With Wound or irr. app. (ext.) or Stilluppsteypa, this album is not just recommended... it's absolutely required." [Aquarius Records] |
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| WALKER, SCOTT & SUNN O))) |
Soused |
CD |
"Freigeister unter sich: Der US-Chansonier trifft auf die Drone-Doom-Band: Als Sunn O))) im Jahre 2009 erstmals bei Scott Walker anfragten, ob er einen Beitrag zu ihrem Album "Monoliths & Dimensions" beisteuern wolle, ahnte niemand, dass es einmal eine echte Zusammenarbeit geben würde. Vier Jahre später meldete sich Scott Walker schließlich bei der US-amerikanischen Drone-Doom-Band: Er habe neue Musik geschrieben und dabei stets eine Kollaboration mit Sunn O))) im Sinn gehabt. "Soused" ist das beeindruckend wuchtige Ergebnis einer Kooperation zweier Freigeister. Scott Walker feierte in den 60ern weltweite Erfolge mit den Walker Brothers, veröffentlichte in Folge viel beachtete Soloplatten und etablierte sich als Chansonier mit teils bitterböser Lyrik. In den 80ern erfolgte ein radikaler Stilwechsel und zudem eine Änderung seiner Arbeitsweise. Alben wie "Climate Of Hunter" (1984), "Tilt" (1996) und "The Drift" (2006) zeigten einen wandlungsfreudigen Künstler, der 2013 mit dem komplexen Meisterwerk "Bish Bosh" seinen Weg fortsetzte. Mit "Soused" folgt die logische Konsequenz Walkers künstlerischen Schaffens. Das Vinyl erscheint mit Downloadcode.
///
When Sunn O))) first approached Scott Walker about appearing on their 2009 album Monoliths & Dimensions, little did they know what it would actually lead to. Four years on, Scott was back with something even more enticing, collaborating on Soused, a body of work he was writing with them in mind.
Recorded in London in early 2014 and produced by Scott Walker and long-time ally Peter Walsh with the assistance of musical director Mark Warman, Soused is a 5-track 50-minute body of work that cements both acts’ wide-reaching and otherworldly renown." [label info]
www.4ad.com
www.4ad.com
|
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Soused |
do-LP |
"Freigeister unter sich: Der US-Chansonier trifft auf die Drone-Doom-Band: Als Sunn O))) im Jahre 2009 erstmals bei Scott Walker anfragten, ob er einen Beitrag zu ihrem Album "Monoliths & Dimensions" beisteuern wolle, ahnte niemand, dass es einmal eine echte Zusammenarbeit geben würde. Vier Jahre später meldete sich Scott Walker schließlich bei der US-amerikanischen Drone-Doom-Band: Er habe neue Musik geschrieben und dabei stets eine Kollaboration mit Sunn O))) im Sinn gehabt. "Soused" ist das beeindruckend wuchtige Ergebnis einer Kooperation zweier Freigeister. Scott Walker feierte in den 60ern weltweite Erfolge mit den Walker Brothers, veröffentlichte in Folge viel beachtete Soloplatten und etablierte sich als Chansonier mit teils bitterböser Lyrik. In den 80ern erfolgte ein radikaler Stilwechsel und zudem eine Änderung seiner Arbeitsweise. Alben wie "Climate Of Hunter" (1984), "Tilt" (1996) und "The Drift" (2006) zeigten einen wandlungsfreudigen Künstler, der 2013 mit dem komplexen Meisterwerk "Bish Bosh" seinen Weg fortsetzte. Mit "Soused" folgt die logische Konsequenz Walkers künstlerischen Schaffens. Das Vinyl erscheint mit Downloadcode.
///
When Sunn O))) first approached Scott Walker about appearing on their 2009 album Monoliths & Dimensions, little did they know what it would actually lead to. Four years on, Scott was back with something even more enticing, collaborating on Soused, a body of work he was writing with them in mind.
Recorded in London in early 2014 and produced by Scott Walker and long-time ally Peter Walsh with the assistance of musical director Mark Warman, Soused is a 5-track 50-minute body of work that cements both acts’ wide-reaching and otherworldly renown." [label info]
www.4ad.com
"When we first heard about the collaboration, it sounded like a joke, like some internet meme. It did seem crazy, and on the surface, pretty hilarious, but eventually it was proven to be an actual thing. Then when we first heard a little snippet online, we weren’t entirely sold, Walker sounded even more over the top than usual, and the title Soused seems to indicate that maybe Walker was in fact completely wasted when he recorded his vocals, cuz it definitely sounded like it. But when we finally got to hear the whole thing, it suddenly all made sense, Walker’s vocals, while still insanely dramatic and over the top, were somehow perfect, and SUNNO))), instead of just doing the guitars-against-the-amps drone thing, really seem to be working way outside their comfort zone, and in fact, lots of this record sounds extremely, sonically uncomfortable. Fantastically so. We were so smitten by opener “Brando”, we had trouble digging any deeper into the record. Right from the get go, opening with Walker crooning over a whirring organ, shimmery and sun dappled, and what sounds suspiciously like the Guns ’N Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” guitar lick, but then the thick, viscous drones creep in, accompanied by strange ticks and pulsations, as well as what sounds like a bull whip, as well as the occasional burst of distorto guitar, the combination of that low end creep, and Walker’s vocals, as well as a cool feedback/high end that seems to echo the vocal melody, it’s pretty powerful, and stunning, weird, but also weirdly beautiful. “Herod 2014” was our next obsession, with it’s weird squelchy electronic rhythm, buried in thick rumbling thrum, it’s Walker who carries the song, some sort of demented, and yeah, likely seriously soused, torch song, flecked with static, and driven by a slo-mo Sabbath riff stretched out into near static sprawl, Walker’s vocals wreathed in lots of mysterious noise, the whole track peppered with what sounds like some strange banshee wail, or pterodactyl cry, but it’s somehow so perfect, that it becomes as integral to the song as any other element.
“Bull” is downright balladic after the previous heaving monoliths, but not for long, the song exploding into some serious Swans like pummel, with Walker kicking it up a notch, some loose chaotic drum damage, some junkyard percussion, and a ‘hook’ that manages to be the catchiest bit on the whole record, the song slipping into slo-mo somnambulant creeps, before launching right back into that ‘chorus’. We have to be honest, the first three songs are so perfect, it’s not until maybe the 20th listen that we even made it to the last two, but they’re similarly broody and bombastic, “Fetish” featuring some seriously buzzed out bass (assuming that’s a bass), and like “Bull” before it, another killer ‘chorus’, that sounds like Swans gone haywire, dosed on some serious narcotics, a wild cacophony of elephant like electronic bleats, churning metallic riffing, monstrous drumming, before settling into what sounds like some sick, mutant strain of kraut-doom. And don’t even get us started on Walker’s INSANE lyrics, in this case, a refrain of “Choo Choo, Choo Choo mama”, which sounds ridiculous, but in the context of the song, it sounds mad, maniacal, and like some sort of twisted genius, which we’re assuming it is. Finally, there’s “Lullaby”, which is one, at least for a moment, until another blurt of atonal, moaning, keening, doom cabaret explodes from the murk, only to settle right back down, most of the track spent in hushed lowercase mode, finishing off super dramatically, a field of barely there guitar rumble, distant sonar like pings, ominous swells, mysterious insectoid clicking, and one final, haunting stanza from Walker. Most definitely a twisted outsider masterpiece, and considering how skeptical we were, it’s even more surprising that this might just end up being a record of the year contender for some of us!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€29.50 |
|
| WALLACE, ZACH |
Glass Armonica |
CD |
"Glass Armonica is the first solo CD by musician Zach Wallace. When not counting fauna in the Montana wilderness, Zach can be seen performing across the incense sticks from Greg Davis in their stoic long form drone duo Sun Circle. Zach's Armonica, based loosely on Benjamin Franklin's 1761 design, is built entirely from thrift store bought wine glasses and has been modified to handle multiple players. The performances captured here were recorded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the spring of 2007. The results are not too far off from what you might imagine if you've ever coaxed sound waves from the rim of a wine glass with your finger. Now just imagine multiplying that sound a few times over until you arrive at a dense fog of resonant tones that hover in mid air while concurrently penetrating your pituitary glad. That's getting close. Edition of 500 in an offset white case with silver ink." [label info]
www.rootstrata.com
|
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| WALLS, BRENDAN |
Cassia Fistula |
CD |
Fulminant und vollmundig schwingend, hart an der Grenze zum Feedback-Meer, aber auch soft-minimal statisch oder in tiefe Bruzzel-Fragmente zerbrechend.. abstrakt-atmosphärische Drones und Geräusche, das erste (?) Album des Australiers BRENDAN WALLS. Im Edel-Cover.
"An out-of-nowhere release from an intriguing one-man studio project, 'Cassia Fistula' is Sydney based Brendan Walls' debut solo outing. Utilizing prepared and found sound objects- Brendan uses crudely built homemade machines to create this music without the use of digital technology or effects processing. The result is a minimal static sound of rich warmth and beauty. 'Cassia Fistula' comprises of three distinctive tonal explorations that are quite hallucinatory. Tumultuous and shifting yet gargantuan and immovable, these works create a state where movement and stasis co-exist. Unfolding the monumental within the intimate, the results are beautiful, surrealist, organic blocks of sound. 'A Dark Horse drone.' Mr. Walls is now Collaborating on projects with Mirror Folks Heemann & Chalk, including a forthcoming Remix of Mirror of the Sea. A man to watch. CD in miniature gatefold jacket. Design by Tina Frank & Judith Scheikl. Mirror will Remix Cassia Fistula for a ltd ed.7"
[label info]
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| WANDER |
same |
CD |
Viermal pure Drone / Minimal Music–Stücke vom BEEQUEENSeitenprojekt, warm und analog und sachte schwingend.... klingt sehr
„klassisch“ wie die Vorbilder aus den 70er Jahren.... am besten das vierte Stück wenn sich zu tiefen Drones Wassergeräusche mischen...
Dies ist die EINZIGE jemals erscheinende WANDER CD, da sie auf jeden Format nur einmal veröffentlichen!
“Wander are Freek Kinkelaar and Frans de Waard, also known as Beequeen. Since changing Beequeen's musical direction in the summer
of 2000 (drones out and 'popmusic' in). However, since they both love drone music, they founded Wander in 2001. In Wander they explore
drone music in it's widest possible form, with each new release exploring a specific concept. Wander will release their music on various
formats, but every format only once. Each release is called Wander, and there is a total absense of any information on the cover. So far they have released a 10" on their own Plinkity Plonk label, a LP for En/Of, a split 7" on Plinkity Plonk (a split single with Beequeen), a CDR on XZF and a 7" on Edition... and a forthcoming split 7" recorded in collaboration with Andrew Liles. The material was recorded in the analogue studio Geluidswerkplaats
Extrapool in late 2004 and early 2005, using a wide variety of vintage synthesizers (juno 60, korg MS20, roland SH 102 and Arp synthesizer)
and a Philicordia organ. The four long pieces breath an atmospheric, pastoral sound of slow and deep evolving drones. The CD was mastered by Raymond Steeg of The Legendary Pink Dots' fame. The images on the cover and the disc were made with the help of Elise de Waard. Released in a special cardboard package with varnished
images. Strictly limited edition of 600 copies only. Wander live performances are as rare as hen's teeth. So far two took place: providing a new soundtrack to Derek Jarman's 'In The Shadow
Of The Sun' and a gallery-show in Amsterdam (to much ignorance of a snotty and arty audience - but then we wouldn't have expected otherwise). official website at http://www.beequeen.nl/wander.htm“ [label info] |
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
Ähnlich wie bei FRANS DE WAARDS (leider nicht mehr aktiven) Projekt SHIFTS geht es bei WANDER um ruhigen Minimalismus und Drones, allerdings hier nicht mit Gitarren erzeugt sondern mit reinen elektronisch-analogen Frequenzen, gar nicht so unähnlich von z.B. den letzten ELEH-Sachen, aber mit mehr Entwicklung im Drone...
"Ok, so Wander promised to release only once in each possible format, but Divine Frequency insisted on doing another full length CD, and who are Wander to refuse such a request? Wander is Beequeen in drone disguise. This piece (in two parts), was recorded in the summer of 2008, with subsequent mixing afterwards. All analogue synthesizers humming away. Just in to catch the next synth revival? If only. Wander never cared about hypes, but this is a great piece." [label info]
www.divinefrequency.com
"... As ever the release itself is simply titled Wander and organ drones lay again at the foundation of this album. The CD is divided into two tracks and that does not live up to what it might suggest. It starts off with airy hiss and rumble, while a steady organ drone slowly rises up along the way; getting stronger in force and eventually slowly fading away into a more silent passage. After that a new movement in the piece shows it face: a fieldrecording of crickets guided by low end pulses that secretly take us into that second track and it's not before a louder organ sequence starts to play when you actually realize that you've reached yet another movement. And that will happen again... and again. So it's more like one long track instead of the earlier supposed two. With lots of dynamics to keep it exciting and a very pleasant listen at the same time. Oh yes, yet another fine example in that ever growing line of Wander releases." [SDT/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| WAPPENHALTER, EDGAR |
On the Beach |
LP |
"About Edgar Wappenhalter: Wellknown facts: Edgar Wappenhalter is Steve Marreyt, co-founder of belgian psych-rockers Sylvester Anfang, and the Funeral Folk label, and is currently working for the Kraak-label. After leaving Sylvester Anfang II last year, Steve focussed on a string of tape-releases as Edgar Wappenhalter, his psychedelic fuzzed out dronefolk act, released on labels as divers as Goaty Tapes, Cabin Floor Esoterica and Young Girls Records. On The Beach is Wappenhalter's vinyl debut. Lesser known facts: Steve debuted ten years ago on Morc, with a comp-track of his band Elo vs Saturn, and did a few EPs as John Merrick Band on Morc as well. Although Wappenhalter creates a psychedelic sound world, he uses a very straight-ahead approach. About On The Beach: Whereas Edgar Wappenhalter's earlier tapereleases focussed on either his reverb-drenched folksongs, or his ecstatic tapeloop-experiments, On The Beach brings a perfect symbiosis of these two sides of mr Marreyt.. So you can expect plenty of songs that blend shoegaze and psychfolk, or that sound like a beachparty heard from so far away that you can't tell what the DJ is playing, only that it sounds familiar and that you like it. The LP is pressed in an edition of approx. 180 copies. The jackets were silkscreened by Levi Seeldraeyers of Smeraldina-Rima. Press quotes: Music for the missing link (Digitalis Industries). A blast of righteous lo-fi psychedelic-folk, beautifully crisp around the edges and soft n squishy in the centre (Kid Shirt). Recommended if you like drone, folk, experimental singer-songwriting, ecstatic psychpop, Ariel Pink, Drekka, Fabulous Diamonds, Urdog, The Doozer." [label info]
www.morctapes.com
|
2010 |
€17.00 |
|
| WARDROBE MEMORIES |
Life after Suicide |
LP |
"After the last album "The Mean" on Voluntary Whores (in Cassette-only format), this project comes to surface again with a way more depressive and sad follow-up. Still composed as an imaginary movie soundtrack, the new direction aims towards a virtual post-life-construction in ghosty environments. Eerie ambient and a lot of piano work, inspired not only by the Blade-Runner soundtrack, but carves in wounds and tears in a heavily intimate way, opening doors to a surreal and unreachable vacuum death may soak us in. A limited vinyl-version on clear wax is going to be released, too. If you love ambient without borders, this may be the right album for darker hours." [label info]
www.voluntarywhores.de/felineferal/
https://felineferal.bandcamp.com/album/life-after-suicide
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| WARMDESK |
InvalidObject Series (function) |
mCD |
Das irische FÄLLT-Label hat auf einen Schlag ein Kompendium zur neuen digitalen laptop / click / glitch / IDM – Musik herausgebracht ! Das sind 24 mCDs mit allerlei bekannten und unbekannte Vertretern dieses jungen Genres. Wir haben die meisten da, hier eine Übersicht ! Limitiert jeweils auf schamlose 250 Stck ! Preis pro mcD : € 9.50
Better priced now, last copies of this absolute compendium of IDM. € 9.50
“ The invalidObject Series was established in 2000 as a sublabel of Fällt to release a finite series of twenty four 3"CD/.mp3 works.
Offering a unique perspective on a diverse range of musical output at the turn of the millennium, the Series features work by some of the most respected artists operating within the field of '.microsound' and has been described as "a remarkable document of a vibrant artistic community and a critical moment in the evolution of digital music" (Philip Sherburne), "a showcase for the extraordinary range of practical approaches within contemporary electronic music" (Matt Ffytche, The Wire) and, simply, "impressive" (Rob Young, Editor, The Wire). “ [label press release}
|
2000 |
€9.50 |
|
| WASHBURN, SEAN |
Wave Mantra |
CD |
"We step into the year of 2015 with a retrospective look on an album that has since become quite scarce in the marketplace. Wave Mantra was originally released by Sean himself fifteen years ago. It is best described as a sonic journey through an enigmatic and absorbing soundworld with a very rich organic flavour. A beautiful tale that we are very happy to see back in print again. This reissue has, like so many other gterma titles, also been gently remastered by Anders Peterson. Comes in a jewel case with 16-page booklet." [label info]
gterma.blogspot.de
gterma.blogspot.de
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| WATERMANN, JOHN |
Calcutta Gas Chamber |
pic-LP |
Wiederveröffentlichung dieses Klassikers, jetzt als picture Vinyl!
"....ein dunkles, dichtes Werk mit elektro-akustischen Qualitäten, viele konkrete Geräusche & Sounds & Cut-ups, meist undefinierbar, aber voll von unheimlich beseeltem maschinellen Leben... absolut packend!" [Drone Records]
"Re-release of the long out-of-print album by the late John Watermann. The idea for this project came about after a visit to Calcutta in 1990, and through the nightmarish experiences during that short visit. The concept of aurally conveying the horror of a gas chamber was realised through field recordings in an abandoned electrical power station in Brisbane in 1992. The sounds are grating and harsh, a mixture of field recordings and electronic manipulations. One can rarely pinpoint a location or action but the images the sounds conjure up are of all sorts of nefarious activites related to death by machinery. The sleeve notes take you into the horror that is the Calcutta Gas Chamber. John Watermann started the re-design for this re-issue (originally released in 1993 on US label ND), but tragically passed away in 2002 before its realisation. A beautifully composed and produced album, completely remastered and feat. new artwork. This special picture LP is limited to 444 numbered copies. A CD version of 'Calcutta Gas Chamber' was released by Cold Spring in late 2006." [label info]
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Calcutta Gas Chamber |
CD |
Re-Release dieses Klassikers von 1993 (ND CD 003) des im Jahre 2002 verstorbenen Deutsch-Australiers - ein dunkles, dichtes Werk mit elektro-akustischen Qualitäten, viele konkrete Geräusche & Sounds & Cut-ups, meist undefinierbar, aber voll von unheimlich beseeltem maschinellen Leben... absolut packend!
"The concept of aurally conveying the horror of a gas chamber was realised through field recordings in an abandoned electrical power station in Brisbane in 1992. The sounds are grating and harsh, a mixture of field recordings and electronic manipulations. One can rarely pinpoint a location or action but the images the sounds conjure up are of all sorts of nefarious activites related to death by machinery. The sleeve notes take you into the horror that is the Calcutta Gas Chamber. A beautifully composed and produced CD, completely remastered and re-packaged." [label press release]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The dead calm of bashing Coca Cola |
CD-R |
Re-issue der zweiten WATERMANN LP von 1989 (Nightshift NR002) - eine hohe Dichte an wirren Stimmen-Loops und überfordernden Samples, krachige Cut-Ups vermischen sich mit found sounds und quasi-rhythmischen Elementen. Mutierte Industrial-Sample-Plunderphonics, lange bevor es den Begriff gab...
kommt im Vollfarb-Cover, nummerierte Auflage,
bedruckte Cases, lightscribed CDR.
"One of the best in WATERMANN'S discography. Very specific postindustrial with plenty of various sampling styles, cut-ups and incridible sound
set-up. Album was digital remastered." [label info]
www.myspace.com/impulsystetoskopu
|
2009 |
€9.50 |
|
| WATKISS, THOMAS |
Ancestor |
7 |
"Side 1 of this dark ambient single features a fragment of one part from the album, while side 2, "Southern Venom/Trail," would fit very well with the other pieces on the album. Quite long for a 7", this is eerie, foreboding and at points distinctly malevolent. Packed in a full color hardboard sleeve with similar design to the album art." [label info]
www.thomaswatkiss.net
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Ancestor Phase I : Silence |
CD |
Dark Ambient & Experimental Drone Newcomer aus Pennsylvania (USA), sein Debut-Album ist Sitting Bull gewidmet und taucht thematisch ein in die Mythen von Abstammung & Geschichte der Menschheit. Illustriert wird das von zum Teil archaischen, recht rauhen & gurgelnden Drones, aber auch sanftere Elektronik-Wallungen kommen vor und geheimnisvolles Oberton-Geflüster... das alles wurde effektvoll in Szene gesetzte mit Gitarre, Bass & Synth / Computer.
"This ambitious, hour-long dark-ambient soundscape composition is certainly one of the finest we've heard in years. The basic concept seems to be rooted in the depths of human history and experience on Earth, and this is expressed primarily through gentle washes of electronics, computer generated sounds, and very heavily processed electric guitar and bass, occasionally building to dramatic intensity. This is divided into 12 parts, each of which stands alone with its individual theme, but also works naturally with the others to form the entire composition. Comes in triple-fold digipak." [label info]
www.thomaswatkiss.net
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| WATSON, CHRIS & MARCUS DAVIDSON |
Cross-Pollination |
CD |
"Touch presents a piece by British environmental sound archivist Chris Watson and a collaboration between Watson and British composer, producer and keyboard player Marcus Davidson (Spire). "Midnight At The Oasis" is a 28-minute time compression from sunset to sunrise in South Africa's Kalahari Desert and features the dense and harmonic mosaic of delicate animal rhythms recorded in this remote habitat. The piece was first performed at the Marquee in Parliament Street, York, on September 13th, 2007 as part of SightSonic's contribution to the BA Festival of Science. The Kalahari Desert is a vast and open space where most of the wildlife is nocturnal. After sunset, the dunes, grasses and thorn bushes are patrolled by an emerging alien empire -- the insects. "Midnight At The Oasis" presents an unseen soundscape from this beautiful and hostile environment. "The Bee Symphony" is a project by Chris Watson originally for Pestival (an international arts festival dedicated to "insects in the arts and the art of being an insect") in 2009 to explore the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees in a unique choral collaboration around and within the hives of an English country garden. Recorded live at The Rymer Auditorium, Music Research Centre, University of York, England on December 17th, 2010 by Tony Myatt, using a Soundfield SPS200 microphone recorded onto an Edirol R4 (surround version) and 2 x Neumann U87 microphones via Grace Microphone Preamplifiers, recorded onto an Edirol R44 (stereo version). Composed and arranged by Marcus Davidson using recordings made by Chris Watson & Mike Harding and diffused through a 4.1 Genelec system by Chris Watson." [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"What on earth am I doing inside the house? The sun is bursting, with a totally friendly temperature, which scream: walk! walk! walk! But no, I am inside, listening to music. Music made with the use of field recordings to be precise, as is certainly the case with the first piece by Chris Watson. Entirely recorded in the Kalahari desert, from sunset to sunrise, but then trimmed down to twenty-eight minutes. A remote area, where most of the wildlife is awake at night - with lots of insect chirping and buzzing. Its almost an electronic piece of music, which I guess is exactly why this is such a great piece of music. With much of the field recording artists who merely capture the environment, Watson takes it all a step further and actually composes with those sounds into quite a captivating piece of music. No by looping sounds, or putting on fancy plug-ins, but merely a process of editing and fading. Simple but difficult in order to create such an overwhelming mass of sound. And masses of
sounds is also what's happening on the second piece, which is by Watson and one Marcus Davidson. It explores the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees. Watson is here responsible for the field recordings used (which he did with label honcho Mike Harding), while Davidson gets the credit as composer. The bee choir consists of five human voices, who buzz like bees. If you are melissophobic then this will surely be a scary piece. A lovely CD of music derived from nature, as well as an interaction of human activity and animal sounds. Now its time to go out and the hear the real action." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
| WATSON, DAVID |
Fingering an Idea |
do-CD |
Die perfekte Platte für den "Drone-Nerd" (wir zählen uns übrigens auch dazu) - ein Album mit experimentellen Dudelsack-Drones!!
Obwohl der Dudelsack eines DER Drone-Instrumente par excellence ist, wird er im "experimentellen" Bereichen nur äussert selten eingesetzt. Der Australier DAVID WATSON aber kreiert hier auf verschiedene komplexe Arten wunderbare Dudelsack-Drones, z.T. mit einem ganzen Ensemble live aufgenommen, so entstehen acht verschiedene "Movements" auf CD 1, polyphon & obertonreich. In verschiedensten Harmonie- und Obertonvariationen bewegen sich die hyper-organisch klingenden Dudelsäcke, manchmal sehr dynamisch & schillernd, dann mit Entwicklungen die an HAFLER TRIO's Drone-Werke denken lassen.... unsere besondere Empfehlung!
Auf der CD 2 als Bonus etwas ganz anderes, nämlich Kompositionen für elektrische & akustische Gitarre, hier werden alte Cassetten-Aufnahmen von 1987 mit zusätzlichen Tunes versehen...
"Whoever David Watson is doesn't become very clear. But he's from Australia and it seems that his two prime instruments, well at least covered on this release is bagpipes and guitar. Both have a single CD at their disposal here, and the result is quite different. 'Dexter' is the first disc and it has the bagpipes. It's been a while since I last heard that instrument, probably on a Nocturnal Emissions disc, but if you think of it, it's the perfect instrument to play drone music on. There are three recordings here, blending together in a natural way. There is an ensemble piece, a multi-tracked solo piece and one with recorded material going through an eight-channel MSP patch. Cut into eight pieces this is wonderful drone music, slowly moving and changing, almost in a Phill Niblock like manner (he's the man from the label, so go figure). Absolute great stuff and nothing outdated or old-fashioned, or whatever you think of bagpipes." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| WE LIKE WE & JACOB KIRKEGAARD |
Time is Local |
LP |
Time is Local is a project by Danish collective We like We and sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard built around a 12-hour live sound installation and performance at Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen.
The piece was initiated and performed by the artists during the G((o))ng Tomorrow Festival in 2017. As they slowly wandered the halls and rooms of the museum for a whole day, they performed extended sound compositions for a visiting audience at each of the 12 chambers for a longer session - a haunting experience as the outside world disappeared and the focus was on quiet sonic moments unfolding in midst of the grand, reverberous space. For this album they have collected 12 fragments revolving around the chambers in the museum. Each chamber is being represented by its own handful of tones, instruments and voice. The statues within, depicted by neo-classicist sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen get their own soundtrack of quiet emanating gusts. Barely heard frequencies reflect through the walls. The marble carved busts of Greek gods that line the museum hallways gaze eternally with a blank stare as decades pass and new audience arrives.
Although We like We should need no introduction to followers of the Sonic Pieces label, the Danish all female sound quartet consists of Katrine Grarup Elbo (violin), Josefine Opsahl (cello), Sara Nigard Rosendal (percussion) and Katinka Fogh Vindelev (voice). Together they have forged a dynamic and intuitional sound beyond genres through the last decade. Only two years ago they released the nordic neo-classical opus Next to the entire All. This time they emerge in collaboration with sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard. Jacob’s works are sonic reflections on complex aspects of the human civilisation, treating themes such as radioactivity, melting ice, border walls and tones emitted by the ears. Through the last decades he has released records and sound documents through labels such as Touch, Important Records and more. As a document of their 12h performance, Time is Local is a beautiful sonic evocation that shines as a bright line of sun through the cracks of a tomb.
https://welikewe.bandcamp.com/album/time-is-local
|
2019 |
€29.00 |
|
| WE STOOD LIKE KINGS |
USA 1982. A new Soundtrack for the Movie Koyaanisqatsi |
do-LP |
"The Brussels-based post-rock band We Stood Like Kings announces the release of a new film music project entitled USA 1982, intended as an alternative soundtrack for the American cult movie Koyaanisqatsi directed by Godfrey Reggio.
After BERLIN 1927 and USSR 1926, this third opus USA 1982 – the band’s most ambitious project to this day, a musical reinterpretation of a movie famous for its original score by Philip Glass – embodies the musical maturity of the band which since 2012 has devoted itself to the accompaniment of masterworks of silent cinema.
In 2017, despite celebrating its 35th birthday, Koyaanisqatsi remains profoundly modern. The relationship between humanity, nature and technology illustrated by Godfrey Reggio, Ron Fricke and co. in the movie finds itself at the heart of the challenges of today’s society.
USA 1982 will be released on Friday, September 22, 2017 on CD, LP and digital through the German label Kapitän Platte.
At the crossroads between Chopin, Pink Floyd and Explosions In The Sky, We Stood Like plays instrumental progressive rock tinted with neoclassical influences thanks to the central presence of the piano."
https://kapitaenplatte.bandcamp.com/album/we-stood-like-kings-usa-1982
|
2017 |
€22.50 |
|
| WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW |
Lullabies from our Dreams |
CD |
"We Wait For The Snow project was born in the Winter season of 2004/05. The founding member of the project is Andrea Penso, alredy active with Selaxon Lutberg and Cold Current label , helped by her old friend Simone Zuccolin. The sound is deliberately lo-fi, and it is created exclusively with economical instruments: acoustic and electric guitars, cheap keyboards, accordeon, farfisa, varius non-musical objects, flute, toys, percussions, tapes ...The aim is creating a confidential atmosphere through the balance between "dream" and "sadness". You can find this sense of precarious balance in the songs that alternate moments of pure improvisation with much more studied and controlled tracks. "Lullabies From Our Dreams" is the band's first official album; the songs are about dreams, lullabies and tales from the forest, stories of stones, woods, leaves, dead men, big trees, and girls that speak with demons ...for fans of raw, occult and lo-fi recordings, Fursaxa, Troum, Current 93, Jackie O'Motherfu**er, Islaja, drone music and neo psych-folk, folk noir, field recordings, concrete noise and acoustic melodies...in few words, Troum meet Espers, or something like that! Beautiful digi-sleeve, limited to 600 copies." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| WEHOWSKY, RALF / JOHANNES FRISCH |
Tränende Würger |
CD |
RLW COLLAB(or)IERT wieder ! Diesmal mit dem uns unbekannten JOHANNES FRISCH, der aus der Impro-Szene stammt.... Vier Stücke voller Überraschungen !
“ 1) Johannes Frisch: works since the late 1970s as a performer, composer and improviser of contemporary music between experimental rock, free jazz and other openminded styles. on his main instrument, the double bass, he works for more than three decades consequently on an individual expressive language. he played with lot of musicians of the international scene of free improvisation and all experimental fields - among others Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Johannes Bauer, Le Quan Ninh, Paul Hubweber, Michael Vorfeld, Misha Feigin. Compositions for theatre, film and dance theater actual projects: Kammerflimmer Kollektief; Home of the beast, with Peter Hollinger und Helmut Bieler-Wendt; Ensemble Sondarc, music for six double basses; rat'n'X; trio with Paul Wirkus & Mikolaj Trzaska; concerts & festivals all over europe.
2) Ralf Wehowsky: founded the group P.D. (in 1981 renamed P16.D4) and the label Wahrnehmungen (in 1982 renamed Selektion) in 1980. P16.D4 were one of the most influential groups of experimental industrial music. They developed concepts of materialaustausch long before the term remix was even coined. for their live appearances they were equally at home at punk and no wave festivals as at the holy grails of academic avantgarde like the Ferientage Neuer Musik, Darmstadt. since the early 90s Wehowsky worked under his own name (rlw). the quiet, highly complex style of composition, based on artifacts of instrumental and electronic lateral noises, evolving out of his collaboration with bernhard günter was influential for numerous artists in the fields of electronic and improvised music. some reflections on his work can be found on TULPAS, a 5CD-box-set, featuring more than 50 artists performing their versions of rlw pieces (incl. Jim O´Rourke, Brume, Achim Wollscheid, Toshiya Tsunoda, John Duncan, Antanas Jasenka, Ryoji Ikeda, John Watermann a.o.). the new decennium started with a surprise for many as first releases showed a new approach of integrating improvised music and composition (as can be found on the CDs VIEWS and SIGHTS, the latter w/ long-time collaborator Bruce Russell).
3) Tränende Würger: is based on free improvisations by the Frisch/Wehowsky duo, reworked with electro-acoustic means. the compositional process did not intend to mask the nonlinear nature of the improvisations. quite on the contrary their organic character has been emphasized by crystal-clear sharpening of details. you´ll find complex structures and dark atmospheres, not unlike those on some P16.D4-, This Heat- or Mnemonists- releases, though absolutely rooted in the 21st century. beauty and posoning are not far from each other.
'Tränende Würger' comes in a plastic bag, 15x15cm with the artwork on six seperate sheets, dealing with poisenious plants. Design by Meeuw.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Which Head are you dancing in? |
CD |
"An album 'Which head you're dancing in?' is full of weird rhythms and glitches but the most amazing thing here is the main inspiration. All of the pieces from this release wouldn't have been created without Ornette Coleman. Both Frisch and Wehowsky found many inspiring moments in music played by the father of free jazz. Their own work is full of glitches and noisy ornaments. In some parts one can find rhythmical structures reminiscing discotheque for spoilt laptops, other compositions show beautiness of contrasts between silence and prolonged, dark and wiry bass phrases.
Johannes Frisch works since the late 1970s as a performer, composer and improviser of contemporary music between experimental rock, free jazz and other openminded styles. on his main instrument, the double bass, he works for more than three decades consequently on an individual expressive language. he played with lot of musicians of the international scene of free improvisation and all experimental fields - among others Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Johannes Bauer, Lê Quan Ninh, Paul Hubweber, Michael Vorfeld, Misha Feigin compositions for theatre, film and dance theater actual projects include Kammerflimmer Kollektief; and collaborations with Helmut Bieler-Wendt.
Ralf Wehowsky founded the group P.D. (in 1981 renamed P16.D4) and the label Wahrnehmungen (in 1982 renamed Selektion) in 1980. P16.D4 were one of the most influential groups of experimental industrial music. They developed concepts of materialaustausch long before the term remix was even coined. For their live appearances they were equally at home, at punk and no wave festivals and at the holy grails of academic avantgarde like the Ferientage Neuer Musik or Darmstadt. Since the early 90s Wehowsky works under his own name (rlw). The quiet, highly complex style of composition based on artifacts of instrumental and electronic lateral noises, evolving out of his collaboration with bernhard günter was influential for numerous artists in the fields of electronic and improvised music. Some reflections on his work can be found on TULPAS, a 5CD-box-set, featuring more than 50 artists performing their versions of rlw pieces (incl. Jim O«Rourke Brume, Achim Wollscheid, Toshiya Tsunoda, John Duncan, Antanas Jasenka, Ryoji Ikeda, John Watermann a.o.). The new millennium showed a new approach of integrating improvised music and composition (as can be found on the CDs 'VIEWS' and 'SIGHTS', the latter w/long-time collaborators Bruce Russell and Johannes Frisch)."
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| WEIS, MIKE |
Don't know, just Walk |
LP |
" “I used to think that music was my escape from reality, now I think it’s an escape into reality.” – Mike Weis, 2014.
Mike Weis is probably best known for sitting behind a plethora of drums and gongs in long- running Chicago three-piece Zelienople, but his music is just as potent unaccompanied. Weis might be an obsessive collaborator (his work with Scott Tuma, Mind Over Mirrors and Kwaidan is also essential), but on his own, he is able to allow his unique percussive skills to bubble to the surface, without the intervention of conflicting egos.
He began working on Don’t Know, Just Walk under particularly difficult circumstances. It was 2013, he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and was gearing up for a punishing year of “man-diapers and boner pills,” that could very well have been his last. Thankfully though, the time wasn’t entirely spent holed up in a hospital bed under the watch of urologists – Weis managed to spend choice moments in the woods or on prairies with a microphone, and in the Zelienople studio (which has long been in his basement) while the family slept upstairs.
These late night sessions weren’t only musical – Weis used the time to meditate, and to clear his head of the mental baggage that was clouding his view of the world. In spending time using Zen Buddhist techniques (which the title references), this allowed him to not only meditate on life (and its brevity), but also to inform his compositional and recording techniques. At this point, the music came naturally, and Weis began experimenting and recording without hindrance.
Using loops of field-recordings, gongs, radios, home-made instruments, drums and traditional Korean percussion, Weis pieced together an album that is as reflective as it is mesmerizing. Solo percussion albums are rare, certainly, but Weis uses his drumming simply as the record’s backbone, allowing his ideas to flourish overhead.
Don’t Know, Just Walk is a complicated record – an album about death that doesn’t dwell on the negative, and one created by a drummer that doesn’t contain a whole lot of rhythms. It’s right to expect the unexpected, and as Weis found solace in the recording process, we too can find solace in the listening. " [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| WESTBERG, NORMAN |
The All most quiet |
LP + CD |
"Since SWANS‘ 1983 debut album “Filth”, Norman Westberg has essentially been a permanent member of this project. Anyone who has experienced SWANS live on one of their recent tours will know who Norman Westberg is: the almost stoic, tall man, who coaxes rhythmic sounds from his guitar with an incomparably minimalist power and elegance.
With “The All Most Quiet,” Norman Westberg has returned to Hallow Ground with a new solo album. The play on words in the title can be applied to Westberg’s own musical work, because whereas SWANS are hard to surpass in terms of brute force, the artist’s solo work is much more subtle, and therefore also quieter. The resulting juxtaposition between the dense metropolis of New York, where “The All Most Quiet” was recorded, and the album’s minimalistic strains open up virtual spaces for attentive listeners. The opening, nearly twenty-minute title track begins with a lucid echo-like and extensive sound that seems to expand spatially and then contracts again. At the same time the piece is evocative of lighting effects: mostly the music is slightly cool but rather bright. Individual beams break open or darken the mood. The consistent subtlety of the collages provokes the increased attention of the listener and every sonic shift is consciously perceived. The track “Sound 2,” which fills the entire B-side, begins with atonal and slightly bumpy delays, which become increasingly confused and develop an unpleasant undertow. It is a kind of clamorous minimalism combined with an ability to conjure up sounds from a guitar that hardly sounds like guitar that makes Norman Westberg’s music so unique." [label info]
www.hallowground.com
"While MRI, released by Room40 in February, was a reissue of a 2012 album, The All Most Quiet contains new material in the shape of two long-form tracks. Like its predecessor, The All Most Quiet is radically different from his contributions to Swans. The fact he’s actually found the time to compose and record new material is impressive in itself: the latest Swans album, The Glowing Man was released on 10 June, and the two-hour colossus of a sonic experience was developed and recorded off the back of a full year spent touring its predecessor, To Be Kind. Given the duration and intensity of a Swans live show, it’s remarkable that Norman Westberg’s had time to piss and still has the energy to stand, let along record a new album. But then, perhaps his solo work has therapeutic benefits, and affords him the opportunity to decompress after long days spent in the Swans pressure-cooker.
The All Most Quiet is, as the title suggests, not a loud album. It is also a gentle album. But that doesn’t mean it lacks dynamic tension, and while it is calming, it’s also not completely undemanding.
The title track starts its long, meandering journey as a mid-range drone which pulsates subtly. The tonal changes which emerge are gradual. It’s easy to let it simply drift by, and it’s pleasant enough to appreciate in this way, but attentive listening brings its rewards. The introduction of new layers, textures and tones, shifts in the scale and pace of oscillations change the mood, subtly, inconspicuously, but no less definitely. And while The All Most Quiet bears no obvious resemblance to Swans, it is possible to hear a certain correlation in the way Westberg builds on slow-burning transitions to hypnotic effect. There are hints of ominousness and darkness, but the sense of scale and grandeur seeps through the very fabric of the sound. The second track, ‘Sound 2’ maintains the atmosphere, and the absence of any clear highs or lows builds a tension beneath the calm surface.
The All Most Quiet once again highlights the trait I most admire in Norman Westberg’s approach to guitar laying: patience. No heroics. No sense of the ego common to guitar layers. His playing is focused on achieving texture and an overall listening experience. Whether he’s peeling off shards of noise, as on early Swans’ releases or creating more sculpted sound, as on their later releases, and in his solo recordings, at no point dos one ever find oneself thinking ‘what fretwork! What guitar wizardry!’ In fact, much of the time, Westberg’s guitar doesn’t sound like a guitar, particularly on The All Most Quiet. And for the most part, the sound is too immersive for one to really think at all." [Christopher Nosnibor/Aural Aggravation] |
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
| WESTERHUS, STIAN |
Pitch Black Star Spangled |
LP |
"Stian Westerhus is the most exciting guitarist on the Norwegian experimental music scene, his vinyl only release ”Galore” (TLRC1) and this new solo album ”Pitch Black Star Spangled” showing a musician challenging and stretching the limits of his instrument beyond the normal confines of the electric guitar, balancing raw expressiveness against virtuosity and melodic instinct. He is a founder member of Puma and the Monolithic duo with Motorpsycho drummer Kenneth Kapstad, he was for a short period a member of Jaga Jazzist and played on their ”One-Armed Bandit” album and is currently a member of Nils Petter Molvær´s new trio." [label info]
www.runegrammofon.com
"The second solo release by Stian Westerhus further confirms both his interest, and that of the Rune Grammofon label, in exploring the idea of what jazz can mean to new limits. Pitch Black Star Spangled, its very title suggestive of a jumble of approaches, could just as easily have the label of dark ambient or experimental or whatever else might apply. From the start and the sawing arc of feedback on "Don't Tell Me This is Home," Westerhus seems intent on ignoring an easy label. If the initial blasts of the album seem overwhelming, the quiet, focused tones he creates for the start and center of "Sing with Me Somehow" aim more at a fragile beauty, as does the drone-touched flow of "Empty Hands Mirrored Softly," which feels less like guitar and more like a sarangi or sitar. At other extremes, as with much of the 12-minute long title track and the entirety of "Music for Leaving," among others, he more readily compares to the most open-ended electronic stutter and buzz approach of someone like Loren Mazzacane Connors. Where he is arguably his most traditional, he always seems to find other possibilities: the central bass-heavy groove of "Thy Gospel" could be something from 1955, but with the screech of extra guitar noises eventually supplanting it entirely, is something of an unsettled meditation, free jazz-inspired possible logical conclusion. One also has to credit him for a sense of humor that would result in a song title like "Trailer Trash Ballad," even if (or especially because) the music suggests more of a yearning epic release somewhere in a blasted American Southwest." [Allmusic.com]
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| WESTON, MATT |
For Alexandros Grigoropoulos |
CD-R |
"it was early december 2008 when the 15 year old alexandros grigoropoulos dropped dead by the bullet of the cop, epaminodas korkoneas (an action that bursted into some of the most severe riots greece had lived for at least the last 3 decades). at that time we were nuts with the work of matt weston, the us percussionist whose sounds were recorded and then were given a more musique concrete approach turning his improvisations to more vital electroacoustics. under our enthusiasm for his work we asked him for a recording for 'a question of re_entry" which upon landing on our desk set our office in amphissa on fire with its intense electroacoustics but also astounded as it was recorded as a kind of memorial for the late alexandros which, as a tribute to his memory was issued on his name day the 30th of august 2009. www.mattweston.com " [label info]
http://absurd.noise-below.org/
"But sunday afternoons can get disturbed. In December 2008 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot by the police. US percussion player Matt Weston, of whom I think I never heard, created a tribute to Grigoropoulos' memory, which is a powerful, loud work of electronics, turntablism (it seems, it might also be the kaos pad), and percussive instrumental bits, all recorded loud, in your face, without becoming too obvious noise based. This is also only partly rooted in the world of improvised music, but perhaps owes more to old good musique concrete in the old analogue sense of the word. Quite a powerful work of heavy electronics for a heavy subject." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2009 |
€7.00 |
|
| WETTERLÄUTEN (WETTERLAEUTEN) |
same |
LP |
"There were times, blessed times when man had not yet lost the sense of his connection to both Nature and the Sacred, when church bells used to be heard across the countryside to banish approaching storms from hamlets and villages. In our Teutonic regions, this was called “Wetterläuten” – the “chiming away” of bad weather. Anyone who ever had the privilege of experiencing the ecstatic and all-embracing live improvisations of WERNER CEE (e-chin / lapsteel guitar / electronics), NORBERT GROSSMAN (synth / church organ) and EVA KORN (gongs), will understand why the South-German trio choose this archaic name for their project. WETTERLÄUTEN’s atmospheric manipulations range from dreamy sunset drones to heavy pre-storm electricity to apocalyptic orchestral deluge, penetrating and bringing into motion the very cosmic fabric around them. Their unmistakable sound owes much to their unusual instrumentation, especially the combination of e-chin (an electric version of the ancestral Chinese Guqin zither) and live electronics, and of course Eva’s virtuosic gong playing. Understanding themselves more as a musical concept than a band, WETTERLÄUTEN regularly involve other musicians, especially Norwegian guitarist ALF TERJE HANA and drummer MICHAEL HOFMANN. Reue um Reue is excessively proud to present their first ever official release. Welcome in the eye of the cyclone." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2014 |
€7.50 |
|
| WHETHAM, SIMON |
D/R |
CD-R |
"October 2008, I join a group of UK based performance artists in Tallinn, Estonia, to produce new collaborative works as guests of Non Grata. The project, Co-LAB‘08, is organised and run by Orion Maxted and protopPLAY. The theme of the project is 'Deconstruction/Reconstruction‘, appropriate as this reflects my composing using field recordings.
The first performances are solo, showcasing existing work. I spend two days recording and composing in Tallinn, performing a 30 minute sound piece for the group. The second performance has barely begun when the power is cut and a hole is smashed in the wall of the performance space with a sledgehammer.
The third performance is a group reaction to this, starting loud and intense, gradually becoming calm and peaceful.
Throughout the fourth performance, individuals reacted to artists actions during the previous performance. My subject, Yoko Ishiguro, carried out the following: smoking, cooking, washing her hair, eating a banana, attempting all simultaneously. (Simon Whetham, 2009)" [label info]
www.1000füssler.com
|
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Prayers Unheard |
CD-R |
"In February 2010, Simon Whetham was invited to perform at Audio Art in Krakow by Marek Choloniewsky, for which he proposed visiting the city for three or four days prior to the performance in order to record the sounds of the place, to compose a site specific piece for the event.
Whetham stayed in the Kazimierz area of Krakow, the old Jewish area that during the Second World War became a ghetto through Nazi persecution. Walking the streets, he felt a certain sadness and longing that was almost tangible. The buildings, the very fabric of the city there, had to bear witness to the atrocities of that time. The walls still stand, unable to impart their testament to the horrors committed - the roads that bore tanks and trucks that took hordes of innocents to nearby Auschwitz unable to show us the despair of families torn apart...
The Jewish people of Krakow believed their God would save them, and yet they still suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis. Their prayers, along with the sounds of pain and suffering, have long since died away, unheard. But perhaps the stone and metal of the city retains some echo, some imprint from that time..." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Velvet |
mCD-R |
"Using field recordings made in south wales, WHETHAM has composed here a very subtle and detailed 24min long piece which will reveal its richness listenings after listenings..." [label info]
www.taalem.org
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Hydrostatic |
CD |
" ‘Hydrostatic’ was commissioned by the McNeill Street Pumping Station New Music Festival, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA in November 2011, and presented as a multi-channel performance.
Simon Whetham spent more than a week exploring the site, capturing the sounds of the space, the vibrations of the buildings, the spirit of the community and perhaps the echoes of past activity…
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais..
Simon Whetham – Biography 2013
Over the past eight years Simon Whetham has developed a practice of working with sound recordings as a raw material for composition. These are often environmental sounds he has captured employing a variety of methods and techniques, in order to obtain discreet or obscured sonic phenomena.
In removing sound from it’s source, sometimes amplifying it significantly, it becomes abstract – familiar yet otherworldly. More recently, when presenting work in a performance or installation, for him the space and the objects within become instruments to be played.
Simon has a large number of works published through many specialist organisations, including Touch Music, Cronica, Dragon’s Eye, Monochrome Vision and Entr’acte; has performed extensively internationally; collaborated with artists from musicians to performance artists, painters to video artists, dancers to poets; has run listening and field recording workshops in UK, Colombia, Chile and Australia; and received a large number of commissions and awards for projects and installations – notably ‘Active Crossover’. Supported by the Arts Council England and PRS for Music Foundation, the project comprises sound installation, performance, collaboration and workshops. ‘Active Crossover’ has toured six cities in the UK, and also been hosted in Estonia, Argentina, Australia, Chile and Colombia, with future residencies in Germany and Norway in 2013." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
"SIMON WHETHAM, dem wir zuletzt als Eyjafjallajökull-Gestrandeten im April 2010 in Lissabon begegnet sind, treffen wir wieder im November 2011 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Das dort stattfindende McNeill Street Pumping Station New Music Festival hatte ihn mit einem Beitrag beauftragt. Er verbrachte eine ganze Woche in dem einstigen Pumpwerk, um den hydrophonen und postindustrialen Genius loci oder Hausgeist zu begegnen. Das Rauschen von Wasser, der Geschmack von Eisen, Rost und Patina wurden zu Ingredienzen seines Dröhnscapes Hydrostatic (aatp39), den nicht zuletzt der Fluss der Zeit durchströmt. Pfeifende Laute und geisterhaft summende evozieren dabei etwas Älteres als das Industriezeitalter. Hölzernes und metallisches Gestöber suggeriert eine verlassene Geisterstätte, eine Ruine, die nach noch Brauchbarem durchsucht wird. Organum hat schon auf Vacant Lights solche Klänge eingefangen, Ephraim Wegner hat kürzlich ähnliche in verlassenen Hotelruinen gefunden. Immer ist damit ein ‘Danach’ verbunden, ein ‘Vorbei’. Latten scharren über den Boden, der Wind faucht, als wollte er noch den letzten Eindringling verjagen. 1887 in Betrieb gegangen, wurde bis 1980 dampfbetrieben, heute ist das McNeill-Pumpwerk ein National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Whetham erschafft mit droneüberwölbtem Getröpfel und Geplätscher die Illusion einer Quelle, des verborgenen Anfangs einer Lebensader, die hier mit nahezu kultischer Aura widerhallt und wieder als pumpende Mechanik zu ‘atmen’ beginnt. Das Elementare, das das vermeintlich so rationale und funktionale Maschinenzeitalter ignoriert und verdrängt hat, kommt wieder im Denkmal zum Vorschein, nachdem die Funktionalität modernisiert und inzwischen noch unbewusster geworden ist. Ich glaube, es war Ernst Jünger, der zuletzt Zweifel an einer Freiheit hatte, die davon abhängt, dass Wasser, Strom und Gas in unsichtbarer guter Hand sind." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
"The ever so busy bee Simon Whetham and his multiple travels around the world. Here we find him guest of the McNeill Street Pumping Station New Music Festival in Shreveport, Louisiana in November 2011 where Whetham spend a week going about this pumping installation to create a multi-channel performance of his music. It's not only the pumps, but the complete site, the buildings and the people around it that have been captured by him and collages into five pieces of music, totaling around 53 minutes. With Whetham, I must admit, I am never sure what it is that he does. Obviously he picks up sounds from the environment, that's hardly a secret, but then what does he do? Is he playing them one at a time (which I doubt), is he layering them together, or is there any sort of electronic treatment going on? I assume the latter is the case, but I might be wrong altogether. Whetham does apply 'musical' techniques to create his music, like using loops in the fifth part of a jackhammer, the
melodic drone touch in the third part and such like. He creates all these little touches which stretches it far beyond the mere documentation of a certain area. Spooky and mysterious at times, this is another fine addition to what mounts to a vast amount of releases by now. It's almost on par with his recent 'Never So Alone' (see Vital Weekly 870), which I thought was his best so far. This one is almost as refined I am to say. It's only in the smaller, somewhat untouchable details that I think this is just a bit less. Just a bit, I may add. If the name Whetham is new to you, then 'Hydrostatic' is an equal fine starting point." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"The globe-trotting British sound artist Simon Whetham found himself in Shreveport, Louisiana in 2011 where he was commissioned to develop a body of work based on the defunct MacNeill Street Pumping Station. This artifact of the 19th Century was the last known steampowered water plant in the United States and has been a historical site for several decades now. He was one of many acclaimed artists asked to contribute to the seemingly inactive MacNeill Street Pumping Station New Music Festival, alongside Tim Hecker, Lawrence English, Mark Fell, Eli Kezler, and about a dozen other denizens of avant-garde soundcraft. It was a great idea to have all of these artists develop compositions, installations, and performances within such an interesting space; and we can hope that the festival is merely on temporary hiatus. Needless to say, here we have the stereo mix of Whetham's multichannel installation that he presented at the festival. His source material consists of drones from the huge metal pools and the network of pipes from that space, focusing mostly on the resonant frequencies of the ghostly drones and watery tones. Overlapping, sinewy electric vibrations tumble into a pool of isolationist dank at the beginning of the album before a reverberant flute utters a solitary bellow amidst the metallic klang reverb articulating two of the techniques of Whetham's sound-hunting - that of the contact microphone on sonorous objects and the open-air recordings of those reflective surfaces. Deep, low-end rattlings gird the bulk of Hydrotasic with wind-swept thrumming, agitated found objects, and plenty of nocturnal clutter being moved around by the ghosts that lurk in the sticky humidity of a Louisiana swamp, or at least that's what it sounds like. Brilliantly akin to the processed field recording work of Jonathan Coleclough, Thomas Koner, and BJ Nilsen." [Aquarius Records]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Un Ano Tranquilo |
CD-R |
"Throughout 2012 Simon Whetham embarked on a round the world tour, one man travelling across land, sea and air to gain new sensory-filled experiences.
"Un Año Tranquilo" is the result of Simon’s year-long journey; his adventure into, not only sonic landscapes, but also into an intensely personal experience, one that brings together emotion and empathy with place, though is not restricted to location.
A cavalcade of resonant objects, whirring portals, the squarks, clicks and rattles of birds and insects, the honks and snuffles of beasts, and the changeability and ultimate power of the weather, all punctuated by the hustle and bustle of Man and its technology—ancient (bells) and modern (phone rings)—sweep by, swirling the listener into a seemingly trance-like state, an out of body experience.
In this complex and diverse work, Simon has opened a window onto sound’s ability to link a listener to place (be that an earthly reality or an imagined place), as well as to separate us from the world, freeing the listener to explore a sensory imagination beyond sound.
Where possible, listen to this work in the dark—remove yourself from your own reality—and step into Simon’s care-worn shoes. Open yourself to a journey of the mind, your ears as compass…" [Helen Frosi]
www.3leaves-label.com
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Never so Alone |
CD |
During an extended stay in Lisbon, courtesy of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupting and causing european airspace to be closed, Simon Whetham explored the sonorities of city, and the surrounding countryside, using the various microphones he employs in his work. In addition to a Sennheiser shotgun microphone and two Tram lavalier mics, which capture ambient sounds we all hear, he uses contact microphones and hydrophones to expose sound vibrations that travel through objects, an electromagentic coil pickup and a radio receiver.
Simon then composed with these sound materials, in part responding to the geography and architecture of the location, the inhabitants, the weather even, but also the broad spectrum of feelings and emotions felt while investigating the place.
Field recordists tend to work alone when gathering their recordings, entering a state removed from their surroundings, but simultaneously absorbing them and becoming part of them. The loneliness alluded to in the title should therefore not be read as negative, but positive, and essential for the creation of this work.
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/never-so-alone
"In 2010 the volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupted and made air traffic impossible for some time in Europe. Simon Whetham was in Portugal and has to extend his stay. He decided to capture the sounds of the city, using a Sennheiser shotgun microphone, two Tram lavalier mics, contact microphones and hydrophones, and later on composed pieces of music that are now released by, how appropriate, a label from Portugal (though not Lisbon). The title of the CD reflects the lonely state the field recordist does his work with, but it's not to seen in a negative way. This is a long album, close to 80 minutes and that is a bit much, considering the careful nature of the music, I think. Whetham does a fine job capturing sounds from the city and melting them together into seven pieces of music. Whetham knows how to create sustaining sounds from those city sounds and waves in between, down there and on top smaller blocks of sound, crackles, someone walking a tunnel and that sort of thing in single play mode or in loop form and makes some beautiful collage of sounds. Whetham has a particular interest in the world of ambient music, rather than just pure field recordings or heavy computer processing. This makes his music very delicate and spacious even at times. It's long, but it's great. I almost track of time when I was playing this, dreaming away. Maybe of a sunny city as opposed to a grey day in February. Very delicate, very refined indeed. Maybe the best thing I heard from him so far." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| WHETHAM, SIMON & FRIENDS |
Meditations on Light |
do-CD |
"In 2009 Simon Whetham was commissioned by painter Kathryn Thomas to compose a surround sound composition and installation to accompany her Darkspace project, a series of paintings inspired by the infinity of the cosmos, which was exhibited as part of her biggest solo exhibition to date, 'Lightyears'. The composition was also mixed down to a stereo version, mastered by Scanner, and released on Simon's own label, Traceable Echoes, to be available to visitors of the exhibition. Many other artists heard the work and gave praise to this departure from Simon's work up until that point, as for the first time he had composed with much more musical elements, and an idea
emerged. Simon was already planning his own reworking of the raw materials of 'Lightyears', as he felt the brief was very restrictive, and wanted to hear the results of using the same material without these constraints. He also offered the opportunity to all artists who responded positively to the work to produce their own characteristic interpretation of the composition.Here are the results; a common thread is evident, but very individual voices are heard, leading you on an immersive, engaging journey..." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| WHITE STATIC DEMON |
Apparitions |
CD |
"Bleak analog electronics and voice from Justin K Broadrick. Apparitions is a dark insalutary recording of sub bass throb, scathing frequencies and sheets of feedback unleashed with the ferocity of early power electronics sides. A material electric attack from places unknown. Photographs by Paul Lee." [label info]
www.utechrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| WHITE, FRANCES |
In the Library of Dreams |
CD |
"I was going to write about how this is an absolutely beautiful and disturbing record, but I think quoting from the liner notes of James Pritchett really does sum it up. 'Frances White invites us to take a walk through her Resonant Landscape. Where are we going? We are walking through the woods, marshes, and streams of New Jersey. She points out the birds and frogs that make their home there, the water that flows through it and the wind that shakes the trees. But then we turn and there is that other sound world, the one in which these woodland sounds are transformed, or in which we find sounds altogether new: spectral birds singing to us through a sparkly haze; distant colored winds, like the breath of giants; the air around us, alive, charged with long, low drones and sudden electric crashes. There is something magical about this other world, and (like most magic) there is something disturbing here as well. We move between the two worlds almost at random, bumping into one sound after another. We find ourselves rising off the path and floating, then falling abruptly into silence, reappearing in a marsh full of geese and blackbirds. This is more than a sonic postcard from Princeton: it is a journey into the inner world of Frances White. We could call it an electroacoustic dream drawn from her memories of hikes in the woods. As in a dream, real experience is placed in a surreal context, a play of inner and outer. We fill in the gaps, supplying connections among the random fragments of reality, memory, and imagination. This gets to the heart of White's music. She has made a body of work in which she takes the real, brings it into her being, transforms it there, and then brings it out again in her compositions. Technically, she works by using the computer to manipulate recorded sounds and to synthesize wholly new ones. She mixes her timbres by hand as a painter would mix colors, and she applies them lovingly and painstakingly to her canvas of silence. But the power of her work comes from her ability to take listeners on journeys through her inner sense of sound, finding something luminous, exalted, dramatic, and at times frightening there. Her music is like the work of dreams, both the pleasant ones and the nightmares. It is not by accident that Gus Van Sant set the calmly-executed bloodbath of his film Elephant to one of White's Walks through 'Resonant Landscape'. White's unsettling juxtapositions of real and imagined sound work well with Van Sant's matter-of-fact treatment of almost unwatchable violence. Frances White studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. She has received awards, grants, commissions, and fellowships from organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Prix Ars Electronica, the International Computer Music Association, ASCAP, the Bang On A Can Festival, and the Other Minds Festival. Ms. White's music can be heard on CD on the Wergo, Centaur, Nonsequitur, Harmonia Mundi, and Bridge Records labels. A CD devoted to her chamber works, Centre Bridge, was released in August of 2007 on the Mode label. Ms. White's music was featured as part of the soundtrack of three of Gus Van Sant movies." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"This new Pogus release is a work of a composer who is completely new to me. White studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. Some of her work has been released by labels like Mode, Bridge, Harmonia Mundi, etc. This new release gathers six compositions for very different line ups. The first one, ‘Chosi’ is for solo shakuhachi, beautifully played by Ralph Samuelson. White studied Shakuhachi herself and feels inspired by traditional music that has shakuhachi in a main role. Also she feels inspired by nature. No wonder that she often uses natural field recordings in her electronic work. Just like Jonas Braasch, White has a comparable fascination for space and environment in her musical output, like titles as ‘Walk through Resonant Landscape 5.1’and ‘Walk through Resonant Landscape 5.2’ indicate. Both titles provide a picture or metaphor that describes how one can experience these pieces: it feels like a travel through different parts of a jungle. Here birdcalls dominate, there sounds from insects. The works are built up as a series of waves of manipulated environmental sounds. The works have a fine balance of acoustical natural sounds and electronics. White builds successful imaginary landscapes and surroundings. Also I would say she is searching for some spiritual quality in sound. The title piece ‘In the Library of Dreams’ is written for viola d’amore played here by David Cerutti, against a background of electronic sounds. Only one piece is for an ensemble, ‘The Ocean Inside’ played by Eight Blackbird, an ensemble of six musicians. It is a romantic piece of work of slowly moving patterns that disappear in a background of fragile sounds. The closing piece ‘The Book of Roses and Memory’ has very sensible playing by Liuh Wen Ting on viola and Thomas Buckner as narrator. The electroacoustic music of White takes you into dreamy atmospheres, with compositions that are not extremely complicated. In fact her work is very accessible. It is also very solid work and far from some easy romantic pastiche." [DM/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| WHITEHOUSE |
Halogen |
LP |
"First vinyl release of this classic Whitehouse album, "Halogen". Recorded by Steve Albini December 1993 at Electrical Audio, Chicago USA, and now remastered and cut By Noel Summerville. Art-work by Trevor Brown. The LP comes pressed in audiophile 180gm vinyl and a stunning gloss lami-nate sleeve." [label info]
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
| WHITELODGE |
Stream of Dreams |
10inch |
Da ist sie, die letzte 10” in der LACTAMASE-Serie, und wieder präsentiert das Portlander Label einen ungewöhnlichen Newcomer. WHITELODGE zeigen sich als songorientierte, melancholisch sanfte Psychedelic-Experimentalisten, mit großem Potential.
Und jetzt kommts: wer sich artig alle 12 LACTAMASE 10“es besorgt und die entsprechenden Coupons darin nicht verloren hat, bekommt dafür UMSONST eine bonus-10“ mit exklusiven Stücken ALLER Beteiligten! Diese Bonus-10“ ist NICHT VERKÄUFLICH!
“A fragment of celestial shrapnel: Whitelodge does indeed "lodge" itself deep into the mind, restoring with it the body, and being of general benefit to one's overall constitution. Or, perhaps, it's just the little lobotomy you have always dreamed of. This 10" EP reveals a band capable of great magick and prodigious evolution. Whitelodge has become adept at marrying atmosphere to song structure without surrendering to a belabored posture, and this even beyond the debut magnum opus. There has been found a solid footing where each sound, each note, is perfectly placed and paced. Beginnings are given to pregnant, breathing intros, allowing the music to develop and resonate before the fully formed imagoes emerge, which ARE songs, but also tone poems. While not sounding at all like them, Whitelodge's methodology is something akin to My Bloody Valentine on "Loveless," where pieces are sewn together, each ending making a subtle statement tow ards the birth of the next; textures taking equal place next to structure. The EP showcases Whitelodge's exploration of quiet cosmics, both evoking psych-folk of old and more modern elements, like the gentler psychedelic moments found in Cindytalk (when growling through the hush, buzzing in the rushes) or Karl Blake seduced Sol Invictus (tiptoe, through the bassline). Because of timing and tone Red House Painters is a close cousin in many respects except that Whitelodge frames its songs with a greater emphasis towards experimentalism and certainly occupies a more ghostly plane. Repeated listenings virtually leave traces of ectoplasm on the speakers. Dustin Gilbert's voice is a patient and subdued instrument, confident and softly percussive and, by and by, very compelling. A beautiful and mysterious riddle of a release, which, if unraveled, may well, be a key to Heaven.” [label description]
www.blrrecords.com |
2003 |
€12.50 |
|
| WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON |
live |
7 |
Atmosphärische, experimentelle Gitarren-Pickings für Freunde von TORAL, MAZZACANE-CONNERS, KRANKY Records..
“ this is the second release by keith fullerton whitman as keith fullerton whitman - and it's a beautiful diversion to his mighty drill'n'bass productions as hrvatski (on his own label reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge) or dj hekla (recently on planet mu). you could witness that already last year on his first release on apartement b, a stunning guitar-cum-laptop cd. although "live (at the tremont theater)" also consists of these elements the result differs from that cd for it's more a coalition between the fragile
sound of the acoustic guitar and the punctual sparkling electronic
interruptions by the computer processing. the sublime beauty of the two long pieces – the 7" contains almost 14 minutes of music - of, say, loren-mazzacane connors or some of o'rourkes early pieces which results in a strumming drone-fest. this live recording was the opening slot for a peter kowald-daniel carter-lawrence cook-jonathan lamaster quartet show at the tremont theatre in boston's thriving theatre district and shows once more whitman's ability to combine different aspects of experimental and electronic music. imagine godspeed you black emperor! stripped down to a solo project - watch out for his longplayer on kranky soon.” [press-release]
www.tonschacht.com |
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| WHOTE (=THOMAS WATKISS) |
Align |
LP |
"A nine track apocalyptic experience of heavy guitar textures layered over dense, terrestrial dark ambient movements. All new instrumental material produced by Thomas Watkiss in New York City featuring additional synth by Petri Eskelinen (Famine Year, Rapture)." [label info]
whote.thomaswatkiss.net
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| WICKED MESSENGER |
Officium Nocturnum |
do-CD |
"Each disc has its own catalog number, Plague 017 & Plague 018, and is housed separately in smartly designed cardboard jacket.
Do not file under dark ambient.
Tracklisting
1-1. Movement I (27:38)
1-2. Movement II (26:57)
2-1. Movement III (51:27)" [label info]
Reviews
"Some important dates and facts ...
539 bc: Cyrus II The Great concurs Babylon.
June 11th 323 bc: Alexander The Great dies.
64: Saint Peter dies in Rome.
June 8th, 632: Mohammed dies in Medina.
April 2, 747: Charles The Great is born in Herstal.
November 10th, 1483: Luther is born in Eisleben.
June 22nd, 1812: Napoleon declares war to Russia.
1913: Luigi Russollo introduces his "Intonorumori" to the world.
1959: Ornette Coleman releases The Shape Of Jazz To Come on Atlantic.
1986: Hellbastard releases their Ripper Crust demo.
March 2010: Wicked Messengers double CD Officium Nocturnum is released on Plague Recordings.
2013: The BBC broadcasts a documentary about undercover reporters that have filmed in dark rooms, watching 70 year old Catholic priests doing a bizarre occult ritual. Is it drugs? Is it a spiritual experience? Is it a religious experience? Questions that are not asked by the reporter but are asked by the music that accompanies this documentary. Music that makes you start to think about what is and what is not. The kindergarten-version of this documentary uses Sunn O)))'s Monoliths & Dimensions as soundtrack. The adult version of the documentary uses Officium Nocturnum as soundtrack.
2023: Vinyl-on-demand releases a Wicked Messenger 6XLP box.
3078: The human race is exterminated.
That's it folks."
(mudbirdshivers.blogspot.com)
***
"A new direction for Mr Messenger, evocative of medieval europe, the inquisition, dark monasteries, fire, torture and death. Followed by cataclysm, disaster and doom. It is intriguing, unsettling and hypnotic all at the same time and I really enjoy it.
New sound elements are very welcome such as church bells, monk chanting etc as well as the general mass destruction we have come to enjoy from WM. I was surprised by the spoken word section on the second movement but fascinated by the dark tones from a sacred text.
I'm glad that WM has continued to produce excellent work and it is a departure from the last album Vision Rites, showing that there is continued innovation in the areas of deep dark horror soundscapes and Grand Ambient.
Congratulations!"
(B.L.Underwood, UK)
www.plaguerecordings.com
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Dreamer / Redeemer |
CD |
"Wicked Messenger was created in autumn 2006 in Germany by Martin Kränzel, as a means of bringing truly dark and grand ambient music to the world. The music of Wicked Messenger juxtaposes the religiousity of music with modernism, creating an anarchic hybrid of monumental sounds and expressions. A soundscape like no other. A rite of passage. Dreamer|Redeemer is a continuation and a further development of what has been achieved with 'Officium Nocturnum', an exploration of the realms where the within and the without coincide. It consists of two movements and an interlude. It is monumental." [label info]
www.plaguerecordings.com |
2012 |
€11.00 |
|
| WICKHAM-SMITH, SIMON |
Love & Lamentation |
CD |
Eine kaum zu beschreibende, faszinierende Klangwelt (basierend auf Bearbeitungen von vokalem Material) betritt man auf der neuen CD von SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH. Ob er ein buddhistisches Gebet verfremdet, einen poetischen Text von mehreren Personen gelesen multipel übereinanderlegt, oder Klagegesänge von Psalmen mit dem Sazspiel & der Stimme des türkischen "Troubadours" ASIK VEYSEL SIRSOGLU auf seltsamste Weise verbindet: stets schafft er so ungewöhnliche Ergebnisse dass man das Gefühl hat, etwas derartiges garantiert noch nie vorher gehört zu haben - auch die emotionale Wirkung beim Hören hat etwas ungeahntes, noch nicht eindeutiges...
"... Its not easy to describe the music of Wickham-Smith, both from how it was made and how it sounds. Perhaps he uses a computer to alter his sounds, but I tend to believe that's only in the final stage of the process. I envisage his music as generated with lo-fi means: worn out cassettes, cheap samplers, reel-to-reel tape loops. There are three pieces on this album, all of which seem to be dealing with voices, altered and otherwise. Wickham-Smith takes these, makes loops out of them and crafts a minimalist changing pattern with them. Through the various techniques, which I hope to be lo-fi as outlined before, the sounds are a bit hissy, static, crumbled, warped, folded and of a lower resolution. Chanting like in 'Sandokai' or the three parts of the title piece, or more poetry spoken word in 'The Kin-Kindness Of Beforehand', this is all excellent stuff, bringing back the good memories of his older work (which, if Vital Weekly wouldn't consume so much of my ear-time, I would grab out and play again). Wickham-Smith's music is like an anthropologic quest for voices connected of rituals, all over the world, from Tibet to Egypt, but he manages to give things a twist of his own, while maintaining a zen-like character to them. Great one." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"... The "Sandokai" ("The Harmony of Difference and Equality") is a prayer written by the eighth century Japanese Zen teacher Sekito Kisen. The basis for this piece was a tape given to Wickham-Smith by a nun of a recital at her monastery. He wanted to create of this sample a prayer without borders, a follow-up to an earlier work, Ave Regina Caelorum (2000, released on Extreme Bukake [VHF65]), in which he used the Latin plainsong of a prayer to the Virgin Mary in much the same way. The organ sample at the end is from a piece by Erik Satie, whose spirituality was equally strange and eclectic. All the samples have been stretched and pitch-shifted beyond (immediate) recognition; to the ears they have melded into something that seems at once both ethereal and solid.
"The Kin-kindness of Beforehand" grew out of his "Multiple Tongues" project, a series of pieces in which Wickham-Smith exposed the spoken word in many different languages to a series of digital manipulations. The Kin-kindness of Beforehand is divided up into several distinct sections, each of which took on a particular persona during its creation. For the composer, this was the most complex of all the "Multiple Tongues" works, because he wanted to use specific strings of words and the quality of writer Rachel Becker¹s voice somehow to comment on each another.
"love & lamentation" started life as a setting for voice and electronics of part of the biblical Book of Lamentation, but it quickly became clear that the literal setting of words was not going to convey the melancholic intimacy that needed to be expressed. As a teenager Wickham-Smith had heard Alain Gheerbrant¹s wonderful ethnomusicological recordings of a blind Turkish troubador and had fallen hopelessly in love with his voice and exquisite playing of the saz. About the same time, through his friend Richard Youngs, he had discovered also the ex tempore psalm singing of the Scottish Isle of Lewis. Fifteen years later, he decided that these two could be made somehow to work together to show the love and lamentation which he felt they both held in their deeper recesses, and which he wanted to present in this new piece. The result is a strange melée of feelings, repetitions and textures. From time to time we hear a somewhat bizarre percussion sample, which he had first worked on in 2000. Part 3 opens with an offcut from an unreleased (and now never-to-be-released) piece from 1999 called Deaf Piano. Veysel¹s voice starts the piece and revolves through Part 2 in a kind of hippy trance love-in fashion. The congregation from Lewis sing their melancholy in a sparser and maybe wilder ways and die slowly away into the distance at the close." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| WIEMAN |
Alive Futarist Minifesta |
CD |
"In 1914 Luigi Russolo wrote his famous 'Art Of Noise' manifest. The 100th anniversary of 'Futurism' was celebrated all over the world but also in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Wieman was invited to perform their meltpot of futurist noise and since Tilburg is the hometown of their close friend Jos Smolders, and since he has switched to modular synthesis (and his synthesizer looks like a space ship control unit anyway), it was decided we would join forces for this project. In the usual fashion of home preparation and then spending a day to sort out the sequence of the tracks, Wieman and Smolders set to work, plundering freely from recordings of Russolo's original 'Intonarumori' instruments, via the sixties soundtracks of sci-fi movies (Star Trek, 2001 A Space Odyssey), Vivenza's machine recordings, industrial music and afro futurism, Wieman applied their usual meltpop techniques, while Smolders added his modular synth madness. It's bursting with mechanical rhythms, spacey choirs, and machine noise as well as sampled spoken word. In accordance with true meltpop the guessing game (hmmm, where have I hear this before?) is yours.
Wieman is the project of Roel Meelkop & Frans de Waard; the logical runner-up to Goem, first called Zèbra, but in 2012 they changed their name to Wieman. They call their music meltpop and take conceptual approaches to create new music. They created new pieces out of the catalogue of Factory Records, worked with music that had the word 'music' in it, remixed music from the cassette label Limbabwe Tapes, provided music for a performance leading up to screening of 'El Topo' by Alejandro Jodorowsky (together with Ben Schot), worked with Wally van Middendorp (of Minny Pops), reworked Cybe (80s synth musician) for an LP, dissected classical notions in pop music and even mined their own Goem catalogue as the source of music for a new piece of music. They only work on commissioned music.
Jos Smolders is a composer and mastering engineer, who recorded for Korm Plastics, Quiet Artworks and Staalplaat, is a member of THU20 and WaSm (together with Frans de Waard) and whose motto is that "Getting into the headspace and understanding the perspective of the artist is essential". His mastering clients include Merzbow, Pierre Henry and Scanner among many others." [label info]
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Cryptonesia |
LP |
"Ini.itu is releasing a new vinyl LP, composed by Wíeman (Roel Meelkop and Frans de Waard).
Roel Meelkop studied visual arts and art theory at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He is a member of Goem, Kapotte Muziek and THU20. In the last couple of years, Meelkop has focused on solo works in composition and installation work.
Frans de Waard is making music since more than 25 years under many aliases and in different line-ups, the most well-known being Kapotte Muziek, Goem, THU 20, Beequeen, Ezdanitoff, the Tobacconists and of course Freiband, under which name he already released an LP on ini.itu a few years ago.
Wíeman is their «meltpop» duo, which was previously known as Zèbra.
The project for this LP started when some obscure tapes released under the moniker Cybe in the early 80’s found their way to one of those MegaUpload accounts that disappeared a few months later.
So “Positive Movement Muzak / New Age Synthesis” “Cybernetika” and “Cybonesië -Tropische Klankbeelden” were temporarily out in the world again.
With the help of some synth forums the man behind that name could be located. With his approval and upon request from ini.itu, Wíeman, already famous for their reappropriation of Martin Hannett samples on “Live in Leugen”, used snippets from those Cybe tapes to create new pieces. What you have now with “Cryptonesia” is the unexpected meltpop child of dangdut and krautrock, filtered through electronica and post - exotica lenses. Refusing the temptation of going subtropical gabber, the good-natured beats, boisterous and carefree, exhale a cheerful and joyous mood. The epic 18 minutes long B-side is a freewheeling and energetic construction of meandering and hypnotic pseudo-gamelan riffs, resulting into trippy and lush washes of bliss. A record to enjoy, not only for its hedonistic take on music history reverse engineering, but also for the sake of its ecstatic feeling. The LP was mastered by Taylor Deupree." [label info]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| WIESE, JOHN |
Circle Snare |
LP |
"PPM31 - JOHN WIESE LP. FIRST PRESSING OF 500. BLACK VINYL. HEAVY UNCOATED PAPER STOCK. PRINTED INNER SLEEVES.
Description - John Wiese is an artist and composer from Los Angeles, California. His
ongoing projects include LHD and Sissy Spacek, with plenty of freelance work with many artists as diverse as Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, Evan Parker, Smegma, Kevin Drumm, Cattle Decapitation, and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning
Star Core). He has toured extensively throughout the world, covering Europe,
Scandinavia and Australia as a member of Sunn O))), the UK as part of the Free Noise tour (a tentet including Evan Parker, C. Spencer Yeh, Yellow Swans, etc.), the United States alongside Wolf Eyes, and recently performed
in the 52nd Venice Biennale with artist Nico Vascellari. Consider “Circle Snare” a hard-wrought souvenir. Composed and realized in
the midst of a comprehensive Scandinavian/European tour in 2008, John
Wiese found himself tangled deep in dialogue with his instruments and ideas. wiese increasingly scrutinized his native tongue and vocabulary, seeking new forms of grammar and cadence, as only extensive dives in unfamiliar waters can inspire. his given electronic anatomy of drum machine, microphones, tapes, and msp folded out of their hard accustomed formations, breaking out into a more cogent and vital arsenal.
“circle snare” is the cumulative result, a finely detailed and dimensional evolution of an already unique voice. the circle is a spiral from the side, and the greatest trap is standing still. cd version released on no fun productions in 2009, this vinyl version is limited to 500 copies."
[label info]
www.postpresentmedium.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Deviate from Balance |
do-LP |
"John Wiese's long awaited Deviate From Balance is the artist's first album since 2011's Seven Of Wands (PAN). Recorded throughout Europe/UK, Australia, and the US, the album includes scored ensemble pieces including over 20 musicians on each, recorded in Melbourne and Portland, as well as audio documentation of installation pieces Wind Changed Direction, a four-channel sound piece presented in the garden of the Getty Center (curated by Liars), and Battery Instruments, an eight-channel piece presented at HSP in New Zealand, now heard for the first time. Also included are various collaborations and recordings from live performances. At over 80 minutes, Deviate From Balance has been packaged as a 2×LP with tip-on gatefold jackets. Musicians appearing include Joseph Hammer, Ikue Mori, Evan Parker, C Spencer Yeh, Joe Preston, Smegma and countless more. The material is extremely diverse and services as a comprehensive and detailed document of this prolific individuals work over the past several years." [label info]
www.gilgongorecords.com
|
2015 |
€32.00 |
|
| WIESE, KLAUS |
Perfume |
CD |
Eines der letzten Alben von KLAUS WIESE (ehemaliges Mitglied von POPOL VUH), der im Januar 2009 verstarb. 12 Stücke mit synth-basierten, meditativem Ambient, parfürmiert mit subtilen Einsatz von Ethno-Instrumenten....
"These 12 brand new colorful electro-acoustic recordings were written, recorded and produced by Klaus Wiese playing keyboards, Tibetan singing bowls, chello, tabla and using natural sounds of wind and ocean. The perfect introduction for those who haven't yet discovered the beauty of the ambient music.
Klaus Wiese explains: "Ambient music is - in my view - a kind of diving into the uncharted, in terms of the time-map as well as the melodic landscapes. It is much about an expression of the in-between of certain atmospheres and of ambiguity. This album plays with common notions of obvious melodic structures on the outside, but it points at something else behind. In this context, sequence and abrupt change into the essential are as important as the dosis of the unknown. This makes it similar to a perfume-code and its calligraphy. So I chose the direct title Perfume for this album. May the listener decide about the choice of flavours." Composed, performed and produced by Klaus Wiese in winter 2005. 24-BIT Digital Mastering by Karel Kourek at RA Studio, Prague, Czech Republic." [label info]
www.nextera.cz
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| WIESE, NICOLAS |
Unrelated |
LP |
#3 in the PERIKLAS series comes from NICOLAS WIESE, a Berlin based electronic and audio-visual artist. “Unrelated” is available as handnumbered lim.ed. clear vinyl LP in silk-screened sleeve and download.
Born 1976, NICOLAS WIESE studied design, illustration sound art, philosophy and sociology and has since been working on various fields: his (audio-)visual art has been presented in galleries and at exhibitions in Teheran, Gent, London, Vienna, St. Louis, Istanbul, Madrid a.o. As musician / composer, he released a number of solo and collaborative albums under the [-Hyph-] moniker and his civilian name on labels like WALTER ULBRICHT SCHALLFOLIEN or CORVO RECORDS. WIESE’s latest effort “Unrelated” contains seven new pieces, constructed from sonic elements of various compositions, audiovisual works, fragments, remixes and experiments from a time span of 6 years, drawn from different contexts and a wide range of international musicians and collaborators. WIESE's trademark working method is to combine complex sample-based layers with modulated feedback which is triggered by the samples, their overtones and harmonic properties. This playing technique, using the mixing board as a feedback-instrument, adds a special live feel to the meticulous musique concrète constructions based on the original acoustic source material.
Rich in details, “Unrelated” is a vital proof of WIESE’s artistic skills and a highly entertaining concern, melting electro-acoustic, musique concrète and sampledelia!
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/unrelated
|
2018 |
€22.50 |
|
| WINDY & CARL |
The Dream House |
do-CD |
„ 'The eternal Struggle', der Titel des ersten Tracks auf dieser zwei CDs umfassenden und achtzig Minuten dauernden Huldigung der Langsamkeit, beschreibt die Musik von Windy Weber und Carl Hultgren treffender und prägnanter, als dies Horden von Kritikern in Dutzenden Reviews zustande bringen könnten. Langsam und zäh entfaltet sich ein nahezu dreißig Minuten langes Stück, das trotz seiner Dauer und Viskosität genau das vollbringt, was guter Ambientmusik heutzutage oft fehlt, nämlich die Fähigkeit, den Hörer stundenlang in den bequemen Ohrensessel drücken zu können. 'I have been waiting to hear your voice' knüpft hingegen eher an älteres Windy and Carl-Material an, wie es beispielsweise auf „Antarctica“ bereits zu hören gewesen war. Hier liegt der Fokus auf lang anhaltenden Drones, die jedoch nie nach Laptop klingen, sondern so organisch wirken, als hätte man sie in einer großen Konzerthalle oder Kathedrale aufgenommen. Die zwei auf der zweiten CD „Dedications to Flea“ enthaltenen Stücke sind dem gleichnamigen, verstorbenen Hund gewidmet und bewegen sich musikalisch auf dem gleichen Niveau, das Windy and Carl mit „The Dream House“ als Maßstab ausgegeben hatten. Um den Bezug zu dem Verblichenen herzustellen, wurden jedoch einige Field Recordings integriert und die Stimmung gegen Ende der zwei Tracks etwas gedämpft. Auch mit ihrem ersten Lebenszeichen seit fünf Jahren gelingt Windy and Carl der eindrucksvolle Beleg, dass sie auf dem Gebiet der sich langsam entfaltenden Musik ein einzigartiges Gespür für den richtigen Ton zur richtigen Zeit besitzen und damit zu den Besten des Genres gehören.“ [Echoes-online.de]
"The Dream House is the first album of new material from Windy & Carl in five years. Recorded at their home studio in Dearborn, MI it consists of two tracks. The Dream House is in many ways the duo's simplest and most straight-forward release, concentrated as it is on two evolving pieces. It is also Windy & Carl's most ambitious recording, with the duo deliberating on longer forms. Windy & Carl are capable of sustaining melodic ideas and patiently apply attention to singular musical gestures. Windy Weber describes the album as being about 'death and dreams and beliefs and leaving and moving on.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| WINER, LESLIE |
When I hit you, you'll feel it |
do-LP |
Light in the Attic is ecstatic to announce When I Hit You—You’ll Feel It: a 16-track anthology that celebrates the extraordinary work of musician, poet, and author, Leslie Winer. When I Hit You—You’ll Feel It spans Winer’s three-decade-long musical career: from her groundbreaking solo work in the early ‘90s to her latest inspired projects. Featuring musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave’s Karl Bonnie, and others, the collection also spotlights Winer’s diverse collaborations, and unearths previously-unreleased recordings.
Newly remastered by the GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin, When I Hit You—You’ll Feel It will be available in multiple special 2xLP editions, on CD, and across digital platforms. The album includes a new interview with Winer, captured by the compilation’s co-producer, acclaimed author and critic Wyndham Wallace. Rounding out the package is an insightful essay by the award-winning writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei and an original cover collage by the renowned British photographer and artist, Linder, and design by designer Christopher Shannon.
"The definition of a hidden gem" - John Peel / "The world seems finally to be catching up to Leslie Winer, whose startling intelligence and singular vision shine through her copious recording life." - Max Richter / "She might just be the coolest woman on the planet!" - Boy George "When I Hit You - You'll Feel It" is a 16-track anthology that celebrates the extraordinary work of musician, poet, and author, Leslie Winer. The collection spans Winer's three-decade-long musical career: from her groundbreaking solo work in the early '90s to her latest inspired projects. Featuring musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave's Karl Bonnie, and others, the collection also spotlights Winer's diverse collaborations, unearths previously-unreleased recordings and was newly remastered by the GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin. The album includes a new interview with Winer, captured by the compilation's co-producer, acclaimed author and critic Wyndham Wallace. Rounding out the package is an insightful essay by the award-winning writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei and an original cover collage by the renowned British photographer and artist, Linder, featuring photography by Mondino, and design by designer Christopher Shannon. Musician, poet, iconoclast, model, artist, enigma. Leslie Winer is many things. She grew up in Boston with a voracious appetite for music and the written word and embraced the city's lively jazz and folk scene in the '70s. Moving to New York for art school, she formed an unlikely friendship with writer and artist William S. Burroughs and lived on-and-off with Jean-Michel Basquiat. In London, where Winer began her musical ventures in earnest, she was a regular at Leigh Bowery's underground club Taboo, where she met many of her collaborators, including filmmaker John Maybury, Kevin Mooney (of Adam and the Ants), and Boy George. Winer's striking looks also attracted fashion designers and photographers. Throughout the early '80s, she was an in-demand model-appearing in campaigns for Valentino, Christian Dior, and Yohji Yamamoto, and serving as a muse for a young Jean-Paul Gaultier, who later dubbed Winer "the first androgynous model." She posed for Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Pierre et Gilles, and graced the covers of The Face, French and Italian editions of Vogue, and Mademoiselle. But music was Winer's true passion and, at the turn of the '90s, she would unknowingly help invent the massively popular genre known today as trip-hop. On her debut, Witch, Winer masterfully blended the uninhibited sampling of early hip-hop with dancehall basslines and programmed beats, while weaving mesmerizing - and coolly-detached - spoken-word vocals into her ambient tracks. It was unorthodox in the most delicious ways. While Witch was finished in 1990, it wouldn't be released for three years, due to the whims of Winer's label. By the time the album saw the light of day (released under the pseudonym "c"), trip-hop was gaining mainstream traction via acts like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Madonna. Although Winer eventually gained wider acknowledgment (prompting the NME to give her the dubious distinction of "The Grandmother of Trip-Hop"), Witch initially went sorely unnoticed. Winer continued to record, undeterred by the elusive nature of mainstream success in the modern music business. Her network of inspired collaborators continued to grow and expand, yet her influence remained largely a secret except to those in the know, such as Grace Jones and Sinead O'Connor, who would cover her songs. In the modern era, one is hard-pressed to find an artist who continues to push the creative envelope as much as Winer does. And yet, three decades after her revolutionary debut, her work remains just as startling and fresh.
https://lesliewiner.bandcamp.com/album/when-i-hit-you-youll-feel-it |
2021 |
€39.50 |
|
| WINER, LESLIE & VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M |
1 |
LP |
Leslie Winer is an artist and author living and working in France. Earlier releases include Witch (recorded in 1990, released in 1993), & That Dead Horse (recorded in 1994, released in 2010), Always Already (2011), and the retrospective compilation Leslie Winer &c. (WHO 003CD, 2012). She has collaborated with Jon Hassell, Bomb the Bass, Mekon, and her words and voice were heard on a track on CI by Diamond Version (Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender) (2014). As of 2015, she is co-editor and co-executor for the estate of beat writer Herbert Huncke. (1), by Winer and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, is Winer's first full-length original release to be recorded since 1994. CM von Hausswolff divides his time between the worlds of music and visual art. His records, which he has been releasing since 1979, have been released by such labels as Radium 226.05, Ash International, Raster-Noton, Laton, iDEAL, and Touch. He curates Freq_Out, a collaborative sound installation shown in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Marrakesh, and beyond, with such artists as JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Jana Winderen, and Christine Ödlund. He makes films with Thomas Nordanstad and music with Martin Rössel (as Gomila Park), Jean-Louis Huhta and Graham Lewis (as Ocsid), and Joachim Nordwall and Jason Lescalleet (as ENOUGH!!!). Leslie Winer and Carl Michael von Hausswolff met in 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal, via Philip Marshall, co-owner of The Tapeworm. They decided to make a vocal/electronic music collaboration just for fun, with no intentions to have it on any kind of phonogram. Time proved different! Text and vocals by Winer; music by von Hausswolff, except for "Talked to some of them," which features music by von Hausswolff and Nordanstad, from their 2009 film Electra, Texas 2008. Recorded, mixed, and treated in Vigny, France, and Stockholm, Sweden, 2012-13.
#####################################
"Leslie Winer has long been an intriguing figure to me, an eighties fashion model who while in London frequented Leigh Bowery's infamous Taboo nightclub. In New York in the seventies she lived with Jean Michael Basquiat and became acquainted with the Beats in the form of William S. Burroughs and Herbert Huncke. But it is her association with musicians connected to Adam And The Ants that really gets me. She had a short lived marriage to Kevin Mooney, and was instrumental in his post Ants projects Max and Wide Boy Awake.
This is her first proper album since Witch, a cult album with a turbulent history which first surfaced as a white label before its official release in 1993 on Transglobal Underground's own label. Its hazy atmosphere, spoken passages laced with samples and dub infused beats, has as many commentators pointed out laid down something of a blueprint to what became known as trip hop - something which Winer herself has reservations about. Witch featured a rich ensemble of artists including bassist Jah Wobble, filmmaker John Maybury, and various ex-Ants musicians including Mooney and Matthew Ashman, alongside Mooney's former Max/Wide Boy Awake associate John Keogh, as well as Karl Bonnie of Renegade Soundwave. Winer also featured on Sinead O'Connor\'s The Lion and the Cobra which in various formations also included Mooney, Marco Pirroni, and O'Connor\'s ex-husband John Reynolds, who also turns up on Witch. The interconnectedness between these players beggars belief and that\'s without bringing in John Gosling's Mekon whose releases feature many of the aforementioned, as well as Winer herself.
But that's just the backstory. In 2010 The Tapeworm released & That Dead Horse, a collection of unreleased recordings, while 2012 saw the release of & © on The Wormhole, containing material from the aforementioned Witch with other material recorded in Miami and collaborations with Vincent Gallo and Christophe Van Huffel. Van Huffel would go on to work with Winer as Purity Supreme releasing the guitar strewn atmospherics of Always Already as a 12-inch on Ash International. It was around this point The Tapeworm's Philip Marshall brought together Leslie Winer and Swedish sound artist and composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff, who agreed to collaborate on music. The results are (1).
It's easy to regard Winer's delivery as a stream of consciousness, but there's thought behind her lyrics and particularly in the emphasis found within her phrasing. Lines appear and then reappear later in another form, as she plays with reality, in a voice deeper and more lived in than the mischievous delivery of Witch. It's difficult to ascertain Winer's viewpoint in her words on (1), as they sway between the poetic and the philosophical, especially on the longer tracks found on the first side. On 'I'll Be Mother' over a discreet ringing drone, she ruminates about "the next generation" and the need for "a pharmacological method of making people love." Her husky drawl, speaks of a susceptible populace where "we are creators, yet we have also been created". "I'll Be Mother" she repeats, adopting the role of the maternal figure characterised in the ritual of making tea. Winer, as executor to the works of Herbert Huncke, has long been associated with the Beats, but it is in the following track the friendship and the education learned from William Burroughs comes to the fore. 'I'll Be Mother' may have touched upon the Control Process that Burroughs dwelt on, but 'This Discreet Organ' looks to transformative powers of interconnectedness, touching upon observation and evolutionary evidence to question "long held notions of who and what we think we are" where time, sequence, speech, language and pattern recognition play a role. This is Winer in full-on philosopher mode: "The concept of what a thing looks like takes precedence over direct observation". In measured breathless tones she reflects on human development and the need for sleep, questioning evolution, biology and gender roles when she inquires "Did women throw enough spears?" Mirroring Burroughs she asks "Who is running the show?" over Von Hausswolff's lingering drone.
More than ever on 'Can I Take Your Order' her husky, hesitant delivery apes the sardonic drawl of a Burroughs reading. The text concerning culture and patriarchy is cut-up with various sections reappearing and reformed over the powerful undulating drones of von Hausswolff. While much of von Hausswolff's score is understated and subtle it is much more prevalent here - and in all the tracks on side 2 - gently swelling around Winer's fragmented oblique text entwining biographies of an aspiring writer and isolated academic. Juddering glacial tones form a frosted layer to the treated, distant and hard to discern delivery of Winer on 'Weatherman'. The closing track 'Talked To Some Of Them', additionally features and is credited to Thomas Nordanstad. It is taken from Electra, Texas 2008, the third in a series of films by CM von Hausswolff and filmmaker Thomas Nordanstad. The music is reduced to arching electronics, rising and falling behind Winer's fragmented musings, recycling text that originally surfaced on 'I'll Be Mother'. "This seems to be the final revolution", she muses, over effects resembling distant tolling bells.
Last year, Leslie Winer, in a photographic session by Juergen Teller, became the face of Vivienne Westwood's 2014 campaign, and amidst all the Tapeworm associated releases it seems Leslie Winer, from her reclusive life in France, is making tentative steps back to into the public arena. Without downplaying von Hausswolff's contribution here my focus on (1) is in on Winer, her voice and the spoken word text giving form to her philosophy and current thinking. (1) won't garner the gushing words that surround Witch, recently reissued by Superior Viaduct, but (1) does show she still has much to say, and (1) is worth seeking out, especially if either artist is of interest. For more information go to Monotype Records" [Compulsion Online]
|
2015 |
€26.00 |
|
| WINTER FAMILY |
Red Sugar |
CD |
"Second long awaited album by duo Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine, actually based in Brooklyn.
A rare and unique audio worldview expressed by the singular approach of Ruth Rosenthal (voice) and Xavier Klaine (harmonium, organ etc..).
From the first bares of Searching Donkeys this new album creates a glowering and intense atmospheric...part nightmare, part uplifting dreamscape. It permeates and builds into a compelling whole. a reference point might be some of the output of Constellation records - indeed GYBEs Norsola Johnson plays on this record..
However it is doubtful whether any of those artists ever produced anything to match the taut tension of the title track Red Sugar..an hymn to absence. The ambition of Winter Family is evident on the expansive, orchestral epic dancing in the sun..crank your speakers, sit back and open your mind.. it WILL blow you away." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| WISHART, TREVOR |
Journey into Space |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung einer obskuren do-LP von 1973, die in unbekannter Höhe erschien. Vor allen Dingen werden hier field-recordings und found sounds (Alltagsgegenstände, konkrete Materialien) verarbeitet, um eine sound-allegorische Reise des Menschen hin zur Selbst-Bewußtwerdung zu symbolisieren: Der Mensch wacht auf wie aus einem Traum und begibt sich auf eine Reise, an deren Ende eine weitere Geburt steht...(deshalb auch die drei Teile BIRTH DREAM, JOURNEY und ARRIVAL)..
aufgenommen im „Electronic Music Studio“ der
Universität von York zwischen Jan. 1970 un Dez. 1972. Sehr außergewöhnlich, detailreich und schön !!!
Re-release of an obscure do-LP from 1973, in which WISHART wants to symbolize the journey of man from a dream-like state into a higher sphere of self-realization (at the end there’s a new birth).
“ York University's music department houses one of the UK's first ever electronic music studios, and during the early seventies it was a hotbed of creative activity. Much of the released output from the studio at this time revolved around the work of the dynamic composer Trevor Wishart. Journey Into Space was his first release, composed between 1970 and 72, and was privately pressed (shortly before the formation of YES records), as two
separate LP's in 1973. (The CD cover amalgamates the 2 original designs). Along with other early private releases of experimental music in the UK (ie the LP of sound poems by Cobbing/Jandl, or the LP of musique concrète by Desmond Leslie), this record is also a total anomaly in the canon of British experimental music and has little to do with the current, or even subsequent work by Wishart.
The vast length of this piece has many different styles. There are acoustic sections, mostly of junk and toys (bike bells, squeeze horns, bottles, metal tubes, combs etc.) as well as flute and brass sections that are used as raw material. There are also sections of everyday field recordings, scraps of NASA Apollo transmissions, as well as plenty of multitracking, editing, vocal acrobatics and musique concrète.” [from the label press release]
|
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Machine |
CD |
Endlich wiederveröffentlicht, das erste grössere Werk des britischen Elektronikers von 1971, erschienen zuerst als Teil der "Electronic Music from York" 3LP-Box 1973. Bearbeitete Field Recordings von Maschinen und Fabriken kombiniert er mit "spoken word" und Chor-Elementen, "echte" Instrumente kommen gar nicht zum Einsatz!
"Although Machine was completed in 1971 it was not released until 1972, shortly after the release of Journey Into Space. Machine is therefore the first major composition by Trevor Wishart. It was composed at York University and was originally issued on vinyl as 3 sides of a highly adventurous 3LP box set called Electronic Music From York, released by the University's own record label. In common with Journey Into Space (also on Paradigm Discs), Machine makes use of a large number of volunteer contributors, mostly from the student body at York. With this recording, however, there are no instruments used. Instead, the music of Machine is made up entirely from a combination of spoken text and carefully directed improvising choirs that take their lead from prerecorded factory sounds. These are extensively mixed and edited with yet more collected Machine sounds and other sources of musique concrète, as well as occasional use of basic electronic sources. The scale of this work, and the degree of preparation involved in scoring it, seem to have more resonances with the world of theatre or film rather than tape composition. Much of Wishart's early work involved the use of musicians and artists being directed to perform in new ways, outside of their usual remit. A combination of late 60s openness, detailed scores that provide frameworks for improvisation and slavish editing have resulted in an incomparable sound work. With a continuous playing time of one hour, the wild and previously unexplored terrain covered by this pioneering work of British experimental music moves in turn through the full range of possible audio landscapes from the oceanic calm of the doldrums to earsplitting factory mayhem. Jewel case cd with 12 page booklet." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOLF EYES |
Human Animal |
CD |
Material von 2006, das erste Album ohne AARON DILLOWAY, der sich jetzt seiner Solo-"Karriere" widmet. HUMAN ANIMAL ist ein mitunter ziemlich aggressives Noise-Brett mit sehr spannenden "Hinführungen", wie immer schwelend und bis zum zerbersten gespannt...
Wir meinen: WOLF EYES sind einer der wenigen Noise / Rock / Industrial - Bands zur Zeit, die es verstehen, "intelligent", d.h. mit Spannungsbögen & interessanten Sounds, zu agieren.. und wenn sogar das HELLDRIVER-Magazin schreibt: "....manchmal klingts auch ein bisschen nach Geisterbahn. Kurz und gut: Das ist gequirlte Scheisse, reiner Krach und versprengte, teilweise angejazzte Tonsprengsel ohne jede Struktur oder gar Wiedererkennungswert! Im Endeffekt nur anstrengend, könnte ich mir prima in den Top 10 der internationalen Foltercharts vorstellen – ich würde wohl nach ein paar „Songs“ alles Mögliche und unmögliche gestehen – wo soll ich unterschreiben Mr. Bush?" ... dann ist das für den geneigten Noise-Hörer doch eher als Auszeichnung zu verstehen ;)
"After a year of non-stop touring in support of 2004's Burned Mind, Wolf Eyes were ready; seasoned to travel through horrible new areas of sound. During one four-week period at the dawn of '06, they laid down ideas in their studio, the Terror Tank. Those ideas would shape what would be the new album, Human Animal. This new slab is the first with Mike Connelly (of Hair Police and the Gods of Tundra label) replacing Aaron Dilloway. Though he no longer tours with the band, Dilloway remains involved and helped to mix the new record with BMG (who also did the deed on Burned Mind). These songs are rotten with metal, reeds, consciousness-erasing islands of black doom. Bass-heavy rippers, late-night free-terror jams, afflicted dog-hearts, underwater crabs: pure mayhem. The new double bass attack is showcased on "Human Animal"/"Rusted Mange" with scraping strings and a full terror-shriek workout re-organized by Dilloway. New directions are countered by "Rationed Rot," which revisits the eerie Throbbing Gristle-esque vocal deployment that dates from Wolf Eyes' Dread LP. The album also features the band's first ever cover song: a dead-on rendering of No Fucker's rotten hXc anthem, "Noise Not Music," which closed out a lot of shows on Wolf Eyes' recent European tour. As ever, Wolf Eyes will be living on the road, with Australian and American tours in the works, and an invitation from Thurston Moore to play at All Tomorrow's Parties in December 2006 alongside Sonic Youth and The Stooges." [press release]
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| WOLF EYES / SKULL DEFEKTS |
Yes I am your Angel |
LP |
Split-LP mit einem fantastischen, sehr experimentellen track von WOLF EYES auf der einen (ein reiner Geräusch-Sounds Maelstrom, spannend arrangiert), und den schwedischen SKULL DEFECTS, die hier schleppend & schwelend noisy in repetitiven Mustern eher nach WOLF EYES klingen. Weiss-marmoriertes Vinyl.
"A dark split LP battle featuring noise gigants Wolf Eyes and experienced Swedish newcomers The Skull Defekts. Wolf Eyes needs no further introduction, and neither would The Skull Defekts, had you already known the musical history of these men, ranging from Union Carbide Productions and Kid Commando to Alvars Orkester, as well as Anticimex, Cortex, and Lucky People Center. Hear feedback and rhythm merge and/or collide, slowly." [label info]
www.fangbomb.com
|
2006 |
€16.50 |
|
| WOLFARTH, CHRISTIAN |
Acoustic Solo Percussion - Vol. 1 |
7inch |
"This is the first release of a series of four releases with acoustic solo works on 7" vinyl by Swiss Percussionist Christian Wolfarth on hiddenbell records. Christian Wolfarth has already published two solo-cd's 3-3-2 (1996 on Percaso) and wolfarth (2005 on For4ears). They are followed now by a serial of solo releases on 7" vinyl, which shows facettes of his focussed playing. All the releases are carefully produced and designed and will be available only in a limited edition." [label info]
|
2009 |
€7.50 |
|
| WOLFF, CHRISTIAN |
Kompositionen 1950-1972 |
do-CD |
" 'Schließlich wurde mir klar, dass die Art des Klangs, der in unbestimmten Situationen erzeugt wird, etwas einschließt, das auf keine andere Weise entstehen kann, etwa der Klang eines Spielers, der eine Entscheidung trifft oder sie ändern muss. Tatsächlich ist die unbestimmte Notierung, die ich verwende, meines Wissens die einzig mögliche für die Art des Klangs, den ich gern hätte. Und vergiss nicht, wir lassen uns auch gern überraschen. ...und der Rhythmus, der so entsteht, gleicht keinem anderen.'
Die meisten der in diesem Portrait versammelten Werke geben Zeugnis von Christian Wolffs früher Schaffensphase. Sie wurden zumeist zur Zeit ihrer Entstehung aufgenommen. So liefert jede der Aufnahmen den ihrer Zeit eigenen, besonderen Klang der Stücke Wolffs.
############################################
»Finally I realized that the kind of sound made in an indeterminate situation includes what could result in no other way; for example, the sound of a player making up his mind, or having to change it. In fact, the indeterminate notation I’ve used is, as far as I know, the only possible one for the kind of sound I should like. And don’t forget, we also like to be surprised. ...and the rhythm produced by that situation is like no other rhythm.«
Most of the pieces collected for this portrait of Christian Wolff document the composer’s early activity and were mainly recorded around the time of their composition. Each recording
exemplifies the sound gestures from their time." [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2011 |
€22.50 |
|
| WOLFRAM |
Atol Drones |
CD-R |
WOLFRAM aka Dominik Kowalczyk ist schon seit längerer Zeit mit seinem Label POLYCEPHAL in der polnischen Experimentalszene aktiv. Mit WOLFRAM wagt er sich hier in submarine Drone-Welten, sehr kontemplative und elegante Drone-Flächen & Pulsationen. Excellent submarine drones and pulsations from this polish project.
Recommended !!
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| WOLFSKIN |
O Ajuntar das Sombras |
CD |
"Finally, after years of delay, O Ajuntas das Sombras by Portugals Wolfskin is finally unleashed. Initally intended to be a re-issue of 2001s lmtd CDr The Gather of Shadows by the Setting Sun (Ajna), it eventually evolved into a re-working of three tracks from that
release, complimented by 7 newly recorded tracks. As the Wolfskin era comes to end , this release represents a glimpse into their pasts more organic, flowing ambient record than what you may find today, and perhaps the least conceptual of all their releases.
That being said, it most certainly will go down as one of their more stunning, darker visions; a masterpiece of shadowy atmospheres and drifting currents, featuring multiple layers of archaic sounds, foggy, nebulous textures, and ritual invocations, perfectly combined to form a release of intense depth and complexity. In elegant 4 panel digipak designed by A. Coelho.
O Ajuntar das Sombras is Wolfskins fourth full length CD, following releases on Cynfeirdd, Essence Music, and Neuropa." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOLFSKIN FEAT. OBJEKT4 |
The hidden Fortress: A Revisitation |
CD |
"Wolfskin is one of Europe's finest and most original ritual ambient acts. Over the years they, along with their partners of Forgotten Blood, are surely responsable for putting Portugal on the dark-ambient map. 'The Hidden Fortress' is both their first and last output: originally released as a cassette tape back in 1995, Johan Aernus decided to close the Wolfskin circle with a remastered and partially re-recorded edition of that same record. On his last journey to the hidden fortress, he took a companion with him: Swedish audio-genius Objekt4 gave the whole record a new life & dynamic. This record was years in the making, no risks were taken to prevent this from becoming a worthy testament for one of the most exciting dark-ambient acts Europe has known." [label info]
www.neuropa.be
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOLLSCHEID, ACHIM |
Moves |
CD |
“A CD of lovely, resonating installation sound from Selektion founder Wollscheid. "Once I had the idea to play a house. This happened when the city of Frankfurt, in charge of an investment company and intending to raise the acceptance of a deserted industrial complex, planned to perform a vernissage (make over) in this place. Therefore they needed an artist and an artwork. When I was asked, I thought that it would be apt to the situation to leave the huge space empty of artworks and instead attach a compute-generated clapper to each of the 1400 windows to transform the space into a poly-rhythm box. I liked the plan, but the investors didn't. Nevertheless, I pursued the idea to activate the resonance frequencies of given objects in a space in order to arrive at site- and space-specific compositions which would change with every place and given situation.” Wollscheid."[label info]
|
1996 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM |
Celestite |
CD |
"Seit der Bandgründung 2002 haben WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM über 4 Studioalben und hunderte von Konzerten hinweg die transzendenten und mythischen Aspekte des Black Metal durch ihr ganz eigenes Prisma gebrochen und Musik erschaffen, die in direkter Beziehung zu den wilden Landschaften des pazifischen Nordwestens steht.
"Celestite" bricht auf zu einer Reise, die tiefer in den kristallinen, Synthie-getriebenen Herrschaftsbereich vordringt, der WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM schon seit langem fasziniert.
Mit Unterstützung des Produzenten Randall Dunn (EARTH, SUNN0))), MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE) hebt die Band eine versteckte Soundlandschaft aus, die sich nur lose an den gewohnte Sound bindet und doch jederzeit als WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM zu erkennen ist.
Während sich das Album entfaltet, entwickelt sich eine meerestiefe psychedelische Soundlandschaft; Portale öffnen sich und geben den Blick auf eine Zauberwelt frei, die nur in Träumen, Visionen und Musik zu betreten ist.
"Celestite" wurde in den Avast Studios in Seattle und in der bandeigenen Owl Lodge in Olympia realisiert, wo die Band ein ganzes Arsenal an Vintage Synthies und Effekten aufreihte; dazu gesellten sich ein Ensemble aus Bläsern und die klassischen API und Neve Konsolen.
Kommentar der Band: "Um 'Celestite' zu machen, tauchten wir tief in die unterirdischen Sounds, die im Mix von ,Celestial Lineage verborgen lagen.
Wir isolierten sie, entwickelten sie weiter und wählten die so gewonnene Soundlandschaft als Startpunkt.
Auf diesem Fundament errichteten wir das ganze neue Album. Manche Melodien von "Celestial Lineage" sind wiedererkennbar, doch diese vertrauten Sounds erscheinen als Geister, die nur lose mit den Originalkompositionen verbunden sind." "Celestite" ist der erste Release auf dem bandeigenen Artemisia Records Label." [label info]
https://artemisiarecords.bandcamp.com
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Celestite |
do-LP |
"Seit der Bandgründung 2002 haben WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM über 4 Studioalben und hunderte von Konzerten hinweg die transzendenten und mythischen Aspekte des Black Metal durch ihr ganz eigenes Prisma gebrochen und Musik erschaffen, die in direkter Beziehung zu den wilden Landschaften des pazifischen Nordwestens steht. "Celestite" bricht auf zu einer Reise, die tiefer in den kristallinen, Synthie-getriebenen Herrschaftsbereich vordringt, der WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM schon seit langem fasziniert. Mit Unterstützung des Produzenten Randall Dunn (EARTH, SUNN0))), MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE) hebt die Band eine versteckte Soundlandschaft aus, die sich nur lose an den gewohnte Sound bindet und doch jederzeit als WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM zu erkennen ist. Während sich das Album entfaltet, entwickelt sich eine meerestiefe psychedelische Soundlandschaft; Portale öffnen sich und geben den Blick auf eine Zauberwelt frei, die nur in Träumen, Visionen und Musik zu betreten ist. "Celestite" wurde in den Avast Studios in Seattle und in der bandeigenen Owl Lodge in Olympia realisiert, wo die Band ein ganzes Arsenal an Vintage Synthies und Effekten aufreihte; dazu gesellten sich ein Ensemble aus Bläsern und die klassischen API und Neve Konsolen. Kommentar der Band: "Um 'Celestite' zu machen, tauchten wir tief in die unterirdischen Sounds, die im Mix von ,Celestial Lineage verborgen lagen. Wir isolierten sie, entwickelten sie weiter und wählten die so gewonnene Soundlandschaft als Startpunkt.
Auf diesem Fundament errichteten wir das ganze neue Album. Manche Melodien von "Celestial Lineage" sind wiedererkennbar, doch diese vertrauten Sounds erscheinen als Geister, die nur lose mit den Originalkompositionen verbunden sind." "Celestite" ist der erste Release auf dem bandeigenen Artemisia Records Label." [label info]
https://artemisiarecords.bandcamp.com
"We're super into this, but avant black metallers Wolves In The Throne Room have gotten a lot of flack for this new record of theirs, which seems to be more based on them as a band, than the record itself; like Deafheaven or Liturgy, the fact that they're 'hip' and 'cool' and lots of non metalheads dig them makes them ripe for criticism from the 'troo cvlt' black metal crowd. Also that they're doing something a bit different. A LOT different, here. And we applaud it! 'Cause taken objectively, as in, if you didn't even know this was WITTR, you might find yourself pretty into it.
The deal is, there's really no black metal here, just pure spaced-out synth shimmer, completely cosmic and kinda New Agey, even. It's total Tangerine Dream worship, but with plenty of dense bombast and thick layered drones. More like Emeralds than Emperor. The sort of thing some black metal bands dabble in as "intro music", taken to the full-length extreme. And it's pretty good - the first track sounds like it could be an alternate soundtrack to Bladerunner. Haunting and ominous, lush drones and buried melodies... Elsewhere, the swaths of thick synth-iness sound almost like Salem, some beatless almost witch-housiness... There's even some Carpenter-y electro beats on "Sleeping Gold Storm". The moaning horns and other elements, in the more cacophonous crescendos, builds up the drama and edginess, but it never gets metal, nope. It's the intro to itself, instead.
Thumbs up from us! And, black metal and/or WITTR fans who aren't open-minded enough to approve of this, don't fret, it's just meant as an electronic "companion" to their last album, 2011's Celestial Lineage, not a follow-up. You still gotta keep waiting for that, but in the meantime, you could try to relax and enjoy these surprisingly spaced-out sounds. Plus, it's not like there's not precedence for stuff like this in the realms of black metal, from Neptune Towers to Alturaz... And for other folks, more into synths and drones than metal, this could easily be the first (only?) WITTR you'll ever need." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€30.00 |
|
| WOMEN IN TRAGEDY |
The Shame |
CD-R |
Experimental one-man project from Canada with limited CDR release on the french Underground-Label RURALFAUNE, comes in handmade cover and reminds on typical 80's / 90's cassette-scene style..
"From the North came the plague... Drifted noises, distorted voices & murky electronics in the land of the spectral moose. The ghost of the beast whistles in the tunnel of dark forest. You are lost in the woods ? it will find you, it will come to teach you the music of the damned souls.. No shame, no tragedy, just another obscure and brilliant tale.
- Hidden behind a granulous veined green paper cover - " [label info]
www.myspace.com/ruralfaunelovesyou
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| WOODEN VEIL |
same |
CD |
"Wow! - Ist das nun Großstadtschamanismus, Neo-Hippietum oder die neue Kraft durch globale Spiritualität? Auf jeden Fall ist das sehr kompakt, emotional und wunderbar verschroben. Inwieweit das esoterische Trendkost ist oder künstlerisches Großeinsatzkommando wird sich sicher noch herausstellen, auf jeden Fall sind WOODEN VEIL aus Berlin mit ihrer Mischung aus Tribelsounds, kosmischer Elektronik und wirren Folk/Freak-Out/Kraut-Rockversatzstücken das berührenste was ich aus dieser Richtung in letzter Zeit gehört habe. Friedlich, atonal und kraftvoll mischen sie ihren eigenen Zaubertrank und verwischen damit entgültig jegliche Genre- oder Mediumgrenze, denn auch performancetechnisch und bildnerischkünstlerisch ist dieses Gruppe in sich geschlossen und projeziert ihr Heiligstes und Innerste auf die Umwelt. CURRENT 93, SILVESTER ANFANG und PINK FLOYD bilden ein magisches Dreieck. Abgefahren und bitte nie, nie, nie ankommen..." [Carsten Vollmer, Die Elektrische Zone]
"Wooden Veil is a Berlin-based art group formed in 2007. Inspired by the shared hauntedness of their respective homelands, they combine elements from forgotten and misremembered traditions to create a microcosmic world which only Wooden Veil inhabits, complete with its own symbols, clothing, food and shelters. Performances, installations and videos are characterized by an expansive wardrobe of ritual dress, and the creation of shrines, relics and talismans used to create music.
The group consists of artists Marcel Türkowsky (also a composer, founder of Snake Figures Arkestra, Cones, Uuhuu, collaborations with Datashock and Christoph Heemann), Hanayo (known for her solo work as a photographer and singer, collaborating with the likes of Christoph Schlingensief, Merzbow, Red Crayola, and Kai Althoff), Christopher Kline (Valkenburg Hermitage, †, Night Music, and Soft Peace), Dominik Noé (member of krautrock legends Lustfaust), and Jan Pfeiffer (Songs For Rocks, Soft Peace, Purple).
To understand:
Hold right hand, cupped near right ear; turn hand back and forth slightly with wrist. Bring left hand to opposite eye with the second finger pointing in the direction one is looking. With index and thumb of right hand, form an incomplete circle, space of one inch between tips; hold hand towards the earth, then move it in a curve across the heavens and back toward the horizon." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOOLEY, NATE |
The Almond |
CD |
"The Almond started as a short study for trumpet for the British website Compost and Height. Wooley, a rising young composer known mostly for his radical recontextualization of the trumpet in improvisation and jazz music, was, at the time, feeling constricted by the sound based language he had been using up to that point in both his live solo playing and his earlier solo records. His goal was to make a true solo trumpet record, using only the trumpet as it was intended to be played with no extended techniques. This challenge spawned a 20-minute piece that, at the surface level, was a quick, arcing narrative made up glacially shifting textures of pure pitched sound. The process behind the piece was much more complex, however, as each pitch heard in the piece was made up of anywhere from three to ten different recordings of the trumpet recorded in different mutes, tunings, with different microphones, and in different rooms. The result was each note of the piece, now expanded to 70 minutes in its final version, takes on a synthesized aspect, sometimes sounding like a voice, others like an organ, but always maintaining some timbral tie to the trumpet. With the exception of one very low pedal tone, all the pitches are played on a regular embouchure, again a far cry from Wooley's usual work." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
| WORLD DOWNFALL |
When the World ends |
CD |
"Steeve Bouchard with 12 new tracks from WORLD DOWNFALL / this album is a nightmare of power-electronics / last track is a collaboration with BARRIKAD." [label info]
"...Have you ever listened to a harsh noise PE album that actually manages to make you feel slightly light-headed? Well, this latest effort from Steeve Bouchard’s (Bleak Existence) World Downfall project achieved just that very thing with me. After listening, on headphones, to the sound of rasping industrial machines drilling into my pleasure centres and boring them out for something close to an hour, I almost felt like I was just about to burst through to a higher form of consciousness – either that or my brains were attempting to dribble out of my ears. All flippancy aside, this is a harsh, unforgiving album, simple in execution but devastating in effect. Utilising a very Whitehouse-esque line of attack, with most of the tracks consisting of a buzzing, rasping backing of grating electronics, augmented here and there with industrial strength machine noises and topped off with distorted vocals, both spoken and shouted, it’s in essence a very direct aural assault. It’s unrelenting and not for the faint-hearted; and in some respects requires a feat of endurance on the part of the listener, as after a while the sameness of a lot of the tracks can become something of a monotone blur. Occasionally even I found myself losing the thread somewhat...." [S:M:J63 / Heathen Harvest]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
| WRIGHT, PETER |
Air Guitar (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Neuseeländischer Gitarren-Drone pur vom Wahl-Londoner PETER WRIGHT, Musik wie ein Tagtraum, der mit delikaten Obertönen & Resonanzräumen aromatisiert ist...
„Welcome to the Dance of Overtones! New Zealand's PETER WRIGHT (residing for some time in London, UK) has raised a reputation over the last few years with his music built mainly by guitar & field recordings. This 3-piece EP #Air Guitar# consists of little fluxion-mantras, made by waving guitar-overtones & sounds of air & water, with little additional sounds of daily room-noises. Ultra-minimal & harmonic, but with a certain raw directness & concreteness that creates a unique atmosphere, these wonderful over-tonic vibrations & sounds seem to tell little stories or daydream-phantasies... Filed under: Guitar-Mantra drones. BEAUTIFUL STENCIL-COLOURED SLEEVES (ORANGE / WHITE / BLACK). ORANGE VINYL & ORANGE INLAYS” [label description]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Desolation beauty violence |
CD |
Langsam scheint sich herumzusprechen, welche aussergewöhnliche Drone-Klänge der Neuseeländer PETER WRIGHT zu erschaffen in der Lage ist. Wir feiern das in kürze auf Drone Records mit einer komplett orangen (denn so ist seine Musik) 7“ EP! DESOLATION BEAUTY VIOLENCE, das dritte „richtige“ Album nach diversen CDRs, basiert alleine auf 12-saitiger Gitarre, Effekten und field recordings. Seine sich sehr weit öffnenden Drone-Harmonics & auch die Titelgebung der 8 Stücke verweisen auf Natur- und Reiseerlebnisse - wenn der fremde Ort mit magischer Atmosphäre aufgeladen zu sein scheint...
“Recorded in London, spring 2003 along with Yellow Horizon, Desolation Beauty Violence is a very personal take on environment and landscape. Peter Wright uses a 12 string guitar and a handful of effects to illustrate an instrumental journey through the human detritus of city living juxtaposed with a wistful remembrance of pastural isolation, it's author torn between a desire to be part of a larger community and a need for space and solitude. Far from being just another drone record, Desolation Beauty Violence is a dichotomy of musical visions that are at once both blissfully dreamlike and expressively manic." [label info]
www.ikuisuus.net
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Red Lion |
CD |
Londoner Aufnahmen von 2004: field recordings von verschiedenen Plätzen Londons (Red Lion Square, Tate Modern, etc.), feedbackin’ hyper-effektierte Drone-Guitars, merkwürdige Obertonräume entstehen, Daydream-Akustikgitarren verschmelzen mit Environmentals, sowas wie Helikopter-Vibrationen(?), einzelne metallische Töne ziehen Resonanzen wie Schweife hinter sich her, himmlische Vibratos, die in der Luft schweben & zu schimmern scheinen, sirrend-fräsende Klangwolken mit Siren-Effekt...
Wie fast kein Zweiter ruft PETER WRIGHT aus seinen Gitarren manchmal fast aberwitzig zu nennende Obertonresonanzenschwälle hervor, schafft sirrend-schwirrenden Singsang par excellence, der nie in langweiligen tumben Noise oder Drone abgleitet, sondern immer in fein- ästhetischer Balance bleiben....
RED LION ist ein poetisch-verträumtes Werk mit vielen Facetten und sei hiermit allen die PETER WRIGHT noch nicht kennen ans Herz gelegt. 9 tracks, ca. 55 min.
“You can remove a Kiwi from New Zealand but you sure as hell can't remove New Zealand from a Kiwi. Such is the case with Christchurch transplant, Peter Wright. Over the course of a decade, Wright has etched his name in glass in the annals of drone-world superstardom. And while I'm not sure what that really means, the point is that when it comes to soaring dronescapes, few do it better than Peter Wright. He has helped pave the way with contemporaries such as Birchville Cat Motel and Double Leopards, but clearly has his own distinct voice. With his past few albums, Wright seems the logical successor to native Kiwi, sound manipulator extraordinaire, Roy Montgomery.
"Red Lion" is Wright's latest incarnation and, once again, pushes the boundaries of what he can do with his trademark 12 string Danelectro to the absolute outer limits. He pushes the limits of simplicity without ever breaking. Wright's albums are a thing of sheer, pure beauty, existing in a vacuum where nothing on the outside can tamper with their grace. Even with his lofty intentions, "Red Lion" is immediately approachable and grabs the listener from the opening notes. As always, Peter Wright offers up something wholly infectious and undebatably magnificent.
Press about Peter Wright: "The finest in underground free noise / drone...mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound." - Aquarius Records
"This is easily some of the most evocative proto-drone work to reach these ears in a while, with beautiful almost folk melodies that flutter on the edge of audibility cut up with a thick soup of early-evening smog and long forgotten geographies. Somewhere between early Flying Saucer Attack, Mirror and William Basinski. Highly recommended." - David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue
"If Windy & Carl's vision of Antarctica is your idea of bliss, you will drool over this soundscape depiction of Peter Wright's home in New Zealand. Now living in London, these are what the label calls "love-drones," as Wright's memories of his home's wide open spaces inspire slowly unfolding waves of lush guitar." - Jim Steed, Fakejazz “ [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Unvarnished, untreated, unzipped |
CD-R |
Zweimal live-Extrakte vom neuseeländischen Pendant zu AIDAN BAKER, Gitarrenozeane und field recordings in unnachahmlicher Manier, mit unglaublich druckvollem Ende auf dem zweiten Stück…. Limitierte maxi-CDR.
“ 2 incredible live trks recorded during Peter Wrights 2005 UK tour. Perhaps nothing more needs to be said? Well, ok then... The 1st trk was recorded in London and is built up from field recs and guitar loops in an ocean of reverb and is reminiscent of his work on Yellow Horizon and Desolation Beauty Violence. The 2nd trk was recorded in Aberdeen and features feed back loops and delayed strumming patterns that get more and more intense until they reach a truely spinetingling crescendo. Essential!“ [label info]
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Magpie Attack on the .. |
7 |
"New 2-song single by New Zealand-born, London-based Peter Wright. Aquarius Records says Peter is one of the most compelling sound makers we have ever heardä and has released records on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Drone, Last Visible Dog, Digitalis, aRCHIVE, and PseudoArcana. Peter uses a 12-string guitar, effects, amplified mini tambura, bells, chimes, and other gizmos to create powerful, organic noise. For fans of Smith and Youngs, Matthew Bower, and Birchville Cat Motel. Mastered by John Golden for maximum volume and pressed on thick vinyl." [label info] |
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Snow Blind |
do-CD |
"Peter Wright is a true veteran of the experimental scene, hailing from New Zealand with a catalogue that goes back over a full decade. We're very proud to present you with his newest offering, a mammoth double-album called Snow Blind. Anyone familiar with Peter's music will be happy to hear lots of the layered guitar drones and textural interplay that his records have been known for, however we feel this is a totally accessible record to anyone who enjoys dense drones or ambient music. Wright coaxes otherworldly harmonies out of thick slabs of rocky chords that tower nearly endlessly like cliffs overlooking a black ocean, with some pieces keeping a calm, stately mood and others bursting with hot yellow energies. Altogether this is one of the finest collections of guitar music we've heard in a very long time, and should not be missed. Presented on a limited run of 300 copies with sprawling and unique artwork by Peter himself." [label info]
www.installsound.net
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Let's hide under the House until they're gone |
LP |
"NZ sound artist Peter Wright is back with his very first solo recordings since 2008's ‘An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover’.
For this new offering he took the label’s name to heart and reconnected with his old bass guitar, gathering dust in storage for 7 years or more, using it as a new source of inspiration, in the process creating enough material over a two week period to fill at least three LPs. Combined with a down-tuned guitar and an assortment of laptop based effects the addition of the bass gives this record an atmospheric range that is both heterogenous in it’s vibes and homogenous in it’s inspiration.
I am then extremely excited to release this new album that has been recorded specifically for Basses Frequences !
180gr black vinyl with download code. Edition of 300." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/lets-hide-under-the-house-until-theyve-gone
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| WYATT, OLIVIA |
Staring into the Sun |
DVD / CD / BOOK |
"Staring Into The Sun is the latest ethno-folk cinema classic from Sublime Frequencies. Ethiopia is known to be one of the oldest areas inhabited by humans and presently has over 80 diverse ethnic groups. In 2009, photographer/filmmaker Olivia Wyatt explored 13 different tribes throughout Ethiopia in this visually stunning film on DVD with accompanying 136-page book of Polaroid photographs and audio CD of field recordings. Traveling from the northern highlands to the lower Omo Valley via bush taxi, Isuzu cargo trucks, and by any means possible, Wyatt brings together the worlds of Zar spirit possession, Hamer tribal wedding ceremonies, Borena water well polyphonic singing, wild hyena feedings and bizarre Ethiopian TV segments, presenting an enchanting look at these otherworldly images, stark landscapes and captivating sounds from the horn of Africa. The featured tribes are captured with an unflinching sense of realism and poetic admiration resulting in a visual and aural feast of the senses. 136-page hardcover photography book with one music CD and one film on DVD. 5 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, landscape format. 117 color photographs and liner notes by Olivia Wyatt. Sublime Frequencies' most elaborate package yet. One-time limited edition pressing of 1,000 copies. DVD is NTSC format, All Region; length of film: 60 minutes, Color, Stereo." [label info]
www.sublimefrequencies.com
|
2011 |
€28.00 |
|
| WYNESS, JAMES |
Stultifera Navis |
CD |
"Steeped in Scottish panorama, ears-educator James Wyness brings theory and practice face to face…armed with a PhD in electroacoustic composition and keen on biological sciences, semiotics and anthropology, using field recordings as well as hand-made instruments, and found objects, he weaves detailed sonic universes & audio-environments attentive to timbres & spectra…
these often acquire an extra dimension in the live context of installations & performances…
Most of his works so far are self-releases, though he has some out on netlabels like Impulsive Habitat, Green Field Recordings, and also one on Gruenrekorder…he has recently set up his own structure and a further bunch of ltd edition releases is scheduled to appear on his Reekin Lum Records label…through the convergence of mutual interests, he is in the process of collaborating with Giancarlo Toniutti…
“stultifera navis” has already had some public presentation during his 2013 Czech residency at my Školská 28 in Prague…
Deep down bubble barely visible lifeforms,
an unrecognized language of ridges and folds,
and sibylline marks…
Once skimming the surface, they’re welcomed with wind moanings, trembling wires, and rustlings in interlaced layers…
Dry wood, an entanglement of clear scratches and wild weed line old doors, like openings to dormant wonders…
“stultifera navis” is a dense trip where the past lurks into the present, within the very heart of learning…
an hamper of new found significances…" [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Objects wrapped in Objects wrapped in Objects |
mCDR |
"james wyness is a rare scottish sound artist with only a handful of releases on various labels like gruenrekorder, conv or mystery sea.
for "objects wrapped in objects wrapped in objects", james has gathered two delicate and precise compositions.
"the hearth" was composed in response to the theme of sound and rural architecture following a three week residency in northern portugal with "binuaral/nodar" in april 2012 as part of the "festival som e arquitetura rural". the piece investigates the sounds of open and closed hearths recorded in the san macario region of northern portugal. it reveals the dense dynamic textures and sonic morphologies of one of the fundamentals of architecture.
"foil" is an investigation of materiality and recursive procedures in which tin foil was set in a picture frame, played by hand and recorded using contact microphones. the recorded sounds were then played back through the foil using transducers, the foil was performed simultaneously and the results mixed live to tape.
www.taalem.com
"James Wyness has a great title of his release: it leaves stuff to imagine. He has two pieces, of exactly ten minutes each. In the first he uses 'metal wood burning stoves, open domestic fires and domestic utensils' and in the other 'tin foil, transducers and contact microphones'. I don't like long quotes, but the website says it better than I can do: "the hearth" investigates the sounds of open and closed hearths recorded in the san macario region of northern Portugal. It reveals the dense dynamic textures and sonic morphologies of one of the fundamentals of architecture. "Foil" is an investigation of materiality and recursive procedures in which tin foil was set in a picture frame, played by hand and recorded using contact microphones. The recorded sounds were then played back through the foil using transducers, the foil was performed simultaneously and the results mixed live to tape." In the first of these pieces we hear something of light crackling nature, the burning of something inside a small hollow, metallic space, whereas in the tin foil piece it becomes all a bit darker and even percussive, slowed down. The tin foil has great sonic qualities but here it sounds very much unlike that. Dark and obscured sounds, but with a fine imaginative headspace. Two excellent pieces and also perhaps something that sounds less like what you would expect on Taalem." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| WYRM |
Divination Bones |
pic-7 |
"We are happy to present the second ever PICTURE 7" in the Drone-series (first one was CRANIO-CLAST / DR-44) by this promising project from the United States formed by ALLAN ZANE and LIZ LANG. ALLAN has worked with JOHN MURPHY (SPK, SWORD VOLCANO COMPLEX, etc.) in the past and also released with RATS WITH WINGS, GX JUPITTER-LARSEN, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, IRR.APP.(EXT.), etc.. and solo works. Forthcoming CD includes the works of VAL DENHAM and PBK. LIZ is also active as AURACENE and has had a very successful CD with RIVER GUERGUERIAN.
The droning world of WYRM (an old word for "serpent") appears to be at the same time raw & inaccessible, but then also subtle and mysterious. Crackling noises, granular sounds, waving drones, and more undescribable acoustic objects form an "other dimension" of its very own. The music seems to point to existential archaic areas in our mind that are unaccessible but somehow known.
A definite must for fans of abstract drone experimentalism in the way of early HAFLER TRIO or BRUME.
Filed under: DIVINATION DRONES
PICTURE 7" DESIGNED BY ALLAN ZANE. EXTREME HANDPAINTED COVER WITH STICKER DESIGNED BY LIZ AND ALLAN ZANE. BEAUTIFUL PARCHMENT INLAYS. PLAYS ON 45 RPM !!" [label info]
|
2010 |
€8.50 |
|
| WYRM FEATURING KENJI SIRATORI |
Artificial Sun |
CD-R |
One of the many collabs of cyber-poet KENJI SIRATORI is the one with US-project WYRM (aka ALLAN ZANE, here with help of MYKEL BOYD and JOHN MURPHY), a CD-EP of 31 min. playtime where SIRATORIs words sound very alien & dehuminated and are set into contrast with myriades of mysterious noises for a great effect. The full text consisting of 5 chapters is readable in the booklet. SIRATORIs poetry reminds on cut-up authors like BURROUGHS and creates an impression of following a mind during consciousness-processes..
A lovely release with enough depth on the uprising US-label for "intelligent noises" from Kansas City, ROIL NOISE !
http://roilnoise.com
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| WZT HEARTS |
Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones |
LP |
Bemerkenswertes Album einer Combo aus Baltimore, läuft lt. press-release unter "psych-rock", ist aber vielmehr eine Art komplexer Impro-Drone, wo sich vielerlei elektronische und instrumentelle Quellen zu rauschenden Soundformen vermählen.
"The second full-length from Baltimore’s WZT HEARTS (pronounced “wet hearts”). Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones is an album of improvised electronic psych-rock action at times reminiscent of sound sculptors like Fennesz, but with a nice krautrock touch throughout. A blend of the organic and synthetic, digital and analog, difficult and easy." [label info]
"Baltimore band bundles digital noise and tasteful drumming with unstable organ drones and long stretches of shaped hiss, evoking urbanity with a loose, folk-like quality.
There's a boring trope in responses to noise-based music that goes something like, "You won't get it unless you turn it up so loud that," and follows with the grisly description of a physical ailment or violation of a city ordinance. But the logic of only understanding music when it inspires you to nausea is about a step away from saying it's easier to agree with conservatives on C-SPAN if you vacuum while they talk-- volume can obscure as much as it might reveal. Listen to Baltimore's Wzt Hearts loud if you have an arbitrary preference for loudness.
But there's nothing on Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones that suggests you have to, and there's plenty to suggest you shouldn't. Though at times trenchant and aggressively noisy, there's nothing particularly bodily about the album. So, caution to the horror and viscera freaks, who won't find anything that sounds like a yeast infection (too sexual and gross, too intimate) or the breaking of a fever (too glorious and climactic, too confused). Instead, Wzt Hearts bundle digital noise and the tasteful drumming of Shaun Flynn with unstable organ drones and long stretches of shaped hiss. Though the record evokes urbanity, the feeling isn't industrial or militaristic-- there's a loose, folk-like quality to it.
In that sense, it's just as reasonable to listen to it at a normal volume, to let its waxes and wanes crest at the level of distant traffic. But listening to it as ambience-- admittedly, this is a very tough quality to talk about-- reveals a certain "unstickiness," for lack of a better term. Though Wzt Hearts clearly suggest a chromed-out, decaying city through their sound, it's painted to varying degrees of clarity; as a listener, I find myself sliding around under the drum flutters of "Hearth Carver" or the terminal wooziness of "Viszla", but other pieces remind me that I left the oven on or that it's sunny outside. This might have something to do with inertia, it might have to do with composition-- Threads isn't exactly a record of discrete or easily articulated qualities. And for however refreshing the digital ambience is-- the elements on Threads pickle in static but never surrender to a big, warm, nasty picture-- much of it feels curiously stuck in 2D.
But there's no point in harping on the band's shortcomings considering how great how great "Hearth Carver" and "Viszla" are, and how much better they sound than on last year's live Heat Chief (Zach Baron, in his Pitchfork review, rated it higher than I would have). Though it's not something you'd often say about doomsayers, with Wzt Hearts, it's worth hoping for the future." [Pitchfork]
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| WÄLDCHENGARTEN |
Beautyboxer |
mCD-R |
Material from 2002 & 2003 on this mCDR by our now favourite danish experimental-drone & ambience project. Strange feedbacking guitar-sounds, small loop noises, backwards-pulses, rather raw stuff... mCD-R in 5”-metal cover !
„Five excellent pieces of experimental noises, effects and sound arrangments. Brilliant music consists of distorted electronics, hypnotic sounds and drowning grooves.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Distractions |
CD |
Trotz diverser hervorragender Releases sind die Dänen WÄLDCHENGARTEN weiterhin ein Geheimtip für Drone-Freunde. Elektronische, rauhe & majestätische Drones voller amorpher Elemente sind ihre Spezialität, Soundquellen sind kaum auszumachen, im Klang liegende Wellenbewegungen bestimmen das Bild. "Distractions" ist ihr drittes "full-length" Album.
"The senses are hit by a typhoon of charged electricity, which sends your mind into a cabinet of mirrors where darkness folds and unfolds. The sound image presents itself as an inseparable unity in which myriads of parallel sequences are constantly undergoing transformations. Transcend through ethereal radiation!" [label info]
"Since seven years Wäldchengarten exists as a lone but strong voice in the world of Danish experimental music. They have had a couple of releases (see for instance Vital Weekly 510, 465, 380, 338 or 265) which all can be noted for the strong love of noise and drones. Everything they do deals with electronics, from the samples they use to the sound effects and the analog electronics. Noise is never the end result: rather Waldchengarten use noise to create an effect that is trance inducing. Also Waldchengarten has no theme, it seems. No track titles, no obscured nazi images or any such things known to the world of noise, all they (the two brothers Hansen) care about is playing mind altering ambient industrial music, and they do a great job. They can easily be compared with the likes of Troum. Forcefully present, but twistin' the senses. With 'Distractions' they created an even finer balance in the music, moving slowly forward with their sound. Every new release is an improvement from the previous, slightly refining the music. Waldchengarten doesn't take big steps, nor are they in for a radical change, but with releases at this rather slow speed, it's quite alright. So far their best release." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.phisteria.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Reservated |
CD-R / object |
"Wäldchengarten ist der Soundtrack zu Teilen des Buches "Reservatet" von Christian Haun. Wäldchengarten kommen aus Dänemark. Die Musik dazu ist ein einziges, 30 minütiges Drone-Stück. Es ist ausufernd, weit, laut und eher schwer wie schimmernd und licht. Es hat etwas von Post-Rock und wirkt erdig und dann und wann psychedelisch. Das Artwork suggeriert eher, dass es sich bei der CD um den Soundtrack zu einem Film handelt, auf der Innenseite des Booklets sind Auszüge aus dem Buch von Christian Haun abgedruckt." [Creative-Eclipse]
" `Reservated´ is the result of a sounds-and-words event held by Lyd og Litteratur in Aarhus, Denmark in 2003. The recordings are the `soundtrack´ to parts of a book written by Christian Haun." [label info]
www.verato-project.de
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND |
Early Singles |
LP |
"Gothics” - a time before the word goth had even taken shape - believed in the do-it-yourself punk ethos that anyone could pick up an instrument. Gray clouds were starting to form and in the unlikely city of Hamburg, a brazen and haunting gang of five women formed Xmal Deutschland. As any true punk would, Xmal Deutschland’s members Caro May, Rita Simon, Manuela Rickers, Fiona Sangster and Anja Huwe, started the band despite any previous musical experience.
The “Schwarze Welt” seven-inch was released on the local punk label, ZickZack, in 1981 and introduced the band as an unsettling swarm of intensity. There’s an urgency in its repetitive dirge, a swirling mania that persists on the b-side with “Die Wolken” and “Großstadtindianer” whose crude synthesizer noises escalate intention. Most of all, Huwe’s uniquely venomous German vocals quickly became embedded in the unbridled and burgeoning scene of glamorous gloom.
Punk’s independence from the stiff grip of tradition allowed the band to find solace in anti-establishment art and music, far from the conventions of the past.With their peacocked hair and thick kohl-lined eyes, Xmal Deutschland’s music retained both a restlessness and delicacy, transcending any confines of the “Neue Deutsche Welle” movement (much like their colleagues and friends DAF and Einstürzende Neubauten) with the release of the “Incubus Succubus”single in 1982. It instantly became a post-punk classic. The guitar’s buzz ransacks through the melody as the ghoulish primitiveness of Huwe’s voice teases that maybe, just maybe, she is the nightmarish creature of which to be aware. The b-sides, “Zu Jung Zu Alt” and “Blut Ist Liebe,” keep strict militaristic dance beats as they teem in agitation.
That same year, the band performed in London as support for the Cocteau Twins; it was the platform they needed to ricochet into the arms of the ripped fishnet masses. Early Singles (1981-1982), is a map of the foundational movements of Xmal Deutschland, just seconds before takeoff. Bonus tracks on the compilation, “Kaelbermarsch” and a gritty live version of “Allein,” further accentuate their fusion of toughness with the quixotic decadence of atmospheric synthesizers.
The band’s pursuit of something greater is palpable with this release, a reflection of a time that introduced accessibility to new means of making music following the onset of punk.
https://xmaldeutschland.bandcamp.com/album/early-singles-1981-1982
|
2024 |
€25.00 |
|
| X-NAVI:ET |
Dead City Voice |
LP |
"Dead City Voice" is the second vinyl album by Rafał Iwański aka X-Navi:Et(of HATI, Voices of the Cosmos, KAPITAL, Innercity Ensemble fame). It's the follow-up to acclaimed "Soundtracks for the Dying Moments" LP released on Instant Classic last year. It contains 6 new electroacoustic compositions recorded from 2010 to 2013.
The theme of the city has appeared in the modern art territory quite a few times before. Wim Wenders, a cult German director, once said that "thecity shapes people, leaves its stigma on them and deforms them to its own likeness." Murray Schafer, a Canadian composer, while working on the concept of "soundscape", claimed that many of the surrounding sonic incidents infiltrates the music of our times. Following the footsteps of Charles Baudelaire among others, urban artists, Rafał Iwański and Ewa Bińczyk, replayed the city, penetrated its spirit and echoed it in their activities. Telling the city by means of sound and vision is becoming an inward journey as well.
Inside the cover one can also find the literary text by Dariusz Brzostek (Ph.D. at the University of Toruń, Poland) - a literari, anthropologist and music journalist who has collaborated with many magazines, such as Glissando, Trans/Wizje, Antena Krzyku, Teksty Drugie, Magazyn Fragile.
Visually the album is of the highest value. The gatefold cover is adorned with works by Ewa Bińczyk. Additionally, a special edition of 33 copies will include genuine intaglio prints signed by the author making it a true collector's item.
The album was released by Zoharum in collaboration with Eter Records, a label set up by Rafał Iwański to release music by his projects X-Navi:Et, HATI, Voices of the Cosmos in digital and analogue formats.
The album is released in a gatefold cover in a strictly limited edition of 250 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"On vinyl, in a fine fold out cover, we find Hati's Rafal Iwanski's solo project X-Navi:et. Both this and his Hati project are quite active when it comes to releasing music, so you could wonder: do they ever sleep? The main concept behind the six pieces on his new LP is the 'city', but not in a very strict sense I would think. This is not twice 20 minutes of city sounds, or something like that set to music, but pieces that depict the sounds of city through musical means. He uses analog filter machine, analog synthesizer, sampling pad, loop system, hulusi, bells, rattles, metal objects, field and found recordings and effects. Me think that a lot of the acoustic sources here have been sampled and treated extensively before finding their place inside a composition. Take for instance 'Tinnitus Auris': the tinkling of bells are the sounds that a lorry makes when trying to park. Next to that we hear a conveyer belt like sound - the other cars on the same street. Below that is a fiery drone-ventilation shafts on the side walk. That's what I heard. In the other pieces there is a similar liveliness, which we find a big cities - not in the street where I live, and not many cars or people pass on an ordinary working day. But of course all of this is easily said, when you look at the title(s), the picture, the text and such like and make these connections with a big city. I wonder what someone would imagine playing this music as it is, without knowing these references; it might not be the city. But who cares about that? We know what it is about and it's the gesamtkunstwerk that counts. This is a beautiful record of some fine, dark ambient music, with a nice industrial touch to it, very occasionally. Great release!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| X3D5 |
Vertical Manifestation |
CD-R |
"X3D5 is the project of Vitaly S. from Volgograd, Russia. He is an artist with academic music education now passionately engaged in electronic music and traditionalist philosophy. This 5th release presents interweaving classical dark ambient, post-industrial sounds, field recordings and IDM." [label info]
www.essentiamundi.com
|
2012 |
€9.00 |
|
| XABEC |
Dark massive |
7inch |
Zweiter Teil der schönen ELECTRIC MANDALA-Serie, hier weitaus dark ambienter und droniger, beautiful streams of sound-lava with pulsative elements..
“ LIMITED NUM. EDITION 400 COPIES THIS IS THE SECOND 7“ OF FOUR ELECTRIC MANDALA 7“S. THESE 4 ELECTRIC MANDALAS WILL SHOW YOU THE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF XABEC’S WORK. ON DARK MASSIVE MANUEL RICHTER SHOWS YOU HIS DARK AMBIENT SIDE. DEEP FLOATING SOUNDSCAPES WITH PULSATING SOUNDS.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€7.50 |
|
|
Feuerstern (SOLD OUT) |
7inch + box |
"Feuerstern (DR-92, 7“ EP in Kartonschachtel, dunkelrotes Vinyl) bringt zuerst das erhaben dröhnende Zentralmotiv des Auftritts von XABEC
beim Audioframes Sonic Art Festival in Herne 2006 zu Gehör. Der Musiktherapeut Manuel G. Richter, der sich mit dem The Electric Mandala-Quartett (Hands, 2003-05) als Zengärtner profiliert hat, lässt meine blühende Phantasie wie Münchhausen auf einer dröhnenden Klangkugel zu den Sternen sausen, und macht dazu klackende Gaumenlaute. Für die B-Seite rahmt das von MNortham in Herne eingefangene Feuerwerk zur Performance und weiterer O-Ton Xabecs Dröhnen und Klacken ein und verortet es im Hier und Jetzt." [Bad Alchemy]
"DRONE RECORDS is very proud to finally issue this long planned Drone by this prolific German artist! FEUERSTERN (which translates as "Firestar") captures two tracks of luminous tones & magnetic resonances which create a warm and floating aural flux. With mellow concrete material setting the counterpoint, very subtle hisses, smacking & clicking sounds can be distinguished. These are enriched further on Side B with field recordings by MICHAEL NORTHAM made in September 2006 at the Audioframes Sonic Art Festival in Herne. This was where FEUERSTERN was also performed in a choreographed way using fireworks! Very delicate tone colours and a perfectly balanced sound pattern allow for contemplative listening sessions...
The 7" comes in a golden lettered & embossed grey cardboard box with golden printed grey inlay.
Filed under: GLOWING DRONE-AMBIENCE more info: www.xabec.com
DARK RED VINYL. COMES IN CARDBOARD-BOX WITH GOLDEN EMBOSSING." [label info]
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Transformed (Remixes) |
CD |
"12 XABEC Tracks aus den Jahren 2000-2006 werden von 12 Künstlern aus den Bereichen Ambient, Industrial und Klangkunst transformiert. Mit dabei sind AH CAMA-SOTZ, ORPHX, SCHACHTANLAGE GEGENORT, NORTHAUNT, INCITE, WILD SHORES, THE EMPATH, ALIO DIE, PATRICK FRANKE, ELEKTRONENGEHIRN, ATMOGAT und CONTAGIOUS ORGASM.
TRACKLISTING: 01. GUMMAFF TRANSFORMED BY NORTHAUNT 02. TRANSFORMATION TRANSFORMED BY INCITE 03. LIQUID JOURNEYS TRANSFORMED BY WILD SHORES 04. SŽGE TRANSFORMED BY EMPATH 05. LEAVES TRANSFORMED BY ALIO DIE 06. PUMPENWASSER TRANSFORMED BY PATRICK FRANKE 07. DER RISS TRANSFORMED BY SCHACHTANLAGE GEGENORT 08. OPEN STATE TRANSFORMED BY ELEKTRONENGEHIRN 09. IF TRANSFORMED BY ATMOGAT 10. SCI-FI TRANSFORMED BY ORPHX 11. CONNECTED TRANSFORMED BY CONTAGIOUS ORGASM 12. OPEN STATE TRANSFORMED BY AH CAMA-SOTZ" [label info]
www.handsproductions.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Closing the Circle |
CD |
"Through the last 15 years Xabec developed his own and unique blend of experimental Ambient
and Electronica. Now time has come to close the circle, but before Manuel G. Richter focuses on
his new Drone and Experimental project Silent Walls, the final Xabec album 'Closing The Circle' shows once again the full musical range, energy and depth of Xabec. The album is limited on 300 numbered copies in handmade boxes with an embossed printing of the album logo on the front. 'Closing The Circle' captures a full live show in exquisite audio quality, recorded on multitrack including ambience microphones. It also contains new, unreleased and rare songs, collaborations
with Architect and Adjacency Pair and live appearances of Spherical Disrupted and Moogulator.
Listen online at Bandcamp www.xabec.bandcamp.com/album/closing-the-circle-2." [label info]
www.xabec.com
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| XEDH |
Serpents |
mCD-R |
Reverberating metall-percussion, monumentally vibrating drones & odd effects, alienated vocals at the end, real archaic “handmade” industrial.... destructive and authentic stuff, recommended ! Comes in greenly oxidated copper-sheet cover !
“Since 1995, Miguel A. Garcia, through his project "XEDH", has been developing an incessant search of new musical proposals within the more industrial and noisy side of music. More familiar to old bands, such as Throbbing Gristle or Esplendor Geometrico than current panorama which has a more conventional attitude. Garcia's sound forms are strengthened by noises and rhythms trying to create an environment that reflects simultaneously the self-destruction of the human being and the decline of a society that becomes less and less human. "Serpents" is a good example of that: obsessive rhythms that evoke in the distance the sound of the human machinery into action. Sounds are based on dissonance, manipulated voices, noise "increscendo" no exempted from influences within the most brutal noise panorama and the light fragments of most conventional music (that calles melody). The soundtrack of a world on the verge of extinction, the present time, and the mortality through the personal apocalypse of a single human being.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€7.50 |
|
| XEDH & CARLOS SUAREZ |
Cuculacanto |
CD |
"About: This album shows a series of improvisations that I realized with the Galician composer Carlos Suárez. His work, heir of a certain electroacustic tradition but subverted to a more visceral and private plane, is interesting for the reality that it reflects: his music is a result of an intense personal vision about the world, a music that it's real in essence.
For our live collaboration I didn't try to adjust me to the particularities of his sound, it has gradually growing in unconscious forms of working that I abandoned long ago, but without falling in the imitation or the falsifications, using techniques and perspectives that I currently use. Our meeting, I want to believe, was so real as Carlos´s music. This CD serves as a small tribute to its work into the filed of electoacoustic, ethnomusicology and fieldrecording that he captured and developed away from the moder civilisation for many years. (M.A.G. / Xedh)
German translation: Dieses Album zeigt eine Reihe von Improvisationen, dass ich mit der galizischen Komponist Carlos Suárez erstellt hatte. Seine Arbeit, die Erben eines bestimmten Elektroakustik Tradition, sondern unterwandert zu einer viszeralen und privater Ebene, ist interessant für die Realität, dass es reflektiert: Seine Musik ist ein Ergebnis einer intensiven persönlichen Vision von der Welt, eine Musik, dass es 'wirklich' im Kern ist.
Für unsere Live-Zusammenarbeit habe ich nicht versuchen, mich auf die Besonderheiten seines Sounds einzustellen, wurde es allmählich in unbewussten Formen des Arbeitens, die ich vor langer Zeit aufgegeben, aber ohne zu fallen oder in der Nachahmung der Fälschungen, mit Hilfe von Techniken und Perspektiven, die ich derzeit verwenden. Unser Treffen, Ich möchte glauben, war so real, als Carlos Musik. Diese CD dient als kleine Hommage an seine Arbeit in den von Electoacoustic, Ethnomusicology und Fieldrecording, dass er genommen und entwickelt hat seit vielen Jahren aber entfernt vom 'Moderne Zivilisation.' "(M.A.G. / Xedh)
"This is a sonorous eclectic offering. Collaboration album, abstract dark ambient, highly inspiring sound art work from two dedicated electro-acoustic and ethnomusicologists.
Tracks:
01. Regresión afín
02. Varios errores
03. Sacrá nemesis
04. Juntos hacia la gran reverberación de los tiempos
05. Una última bienvenida
Total run: ~ 42 min.
Recorded live at Larraskito, Bilbao-Basque country. Edition by Miguel A. García." [label info]
www.essentiamundi.com
"Miguel A. Garcia sometimes works under his own name and sometimes as Xedh, and I am never sure when one comes into play and when the other. Maybe there is no separation? Here he works with one Carlos Suarez, of whom I think I never heard. He is from Galicia in Spain and works inside the field of electro-acoustic music. If I am well informed the pieces here were recorded through live improvisation in the studio which was then edited by Garcia. Garcia is at his best, at least for me, when he too works with electro-acoustic music, and stays away from overtly noise based excursions which he sometimes also does. Here he does stay away and together with Suarez he created five excellent pieces of electro-acoustic music which suggest lots of space between the cracks, sometimes artificially enhanced by the use of reverb. There is computer processing, analogue knob turning, field recordings of water and metallic rumble, looped and toyed around with. The overall mood of the pieces is more ambient and atmospheric than is perhaps usually the case with this kind of electro-acoustic sounds. More ambient than microsound I would say. Garcia has reconstructed the live recordings accordingly and without losing the aspect of a live recording, these five pieces are very good, well done and reshaped into the form of compositions, with heads and tails and fine structure. This is the Garcia I like and this CD is a fine addition to his rapidly expanding discography." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| XELA |
Divine |
LP |
" "The Divine" marks the second phase in the trilogy proposed by John Twells aka Xela. Crawling out of a castle dungeon in pursuit of its predecessor, "The Illuminated", this LP finds itself trapped in an abandoned church somewhere in a damp Southern wilderness. Church bells chime and rattle through the record's first piece, echoing and distorting through a fog of chattering voices and prayers. Tape loops stumble over tape loops and the solemn, ecclesiastical drone slowly decomposes into thick, crackling noise. Through the mists choirs sing, heralding the introduction of the second side of "The Divine" which takes the human voice into cavernous and smudged, yet strangely alluring territories. There is almost a Basinski-like charm to this work as the choirs effortlessly degrade into an unrecognisable mud of harmony and abrasiveness. This is music informed by a religious world; Xela has edged from the scriptures of cults and secret societies to the spires of organisation and power. God is in the detail.
Limited edition of 500 copies!" [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| XIPHOID DEMENTIA |
Secular Hymns |
CD |
"Actively recording since 2002, Egan Budd’s Xiphoid Dementia has become known in the underground and in numerous live situations for creating meticulously crafted yet hard to define, post industrial soundscapes, navigating between textured ambience, scourging noise, junk metal , field recordings, and surreal atmospheres, sometimes all in one track. Still, there’s a hyper-focus here that ties it altogether, and makes for something that is dynamic, unpredictable, and clearly ambitious. For those that question if there’s originality left in industrial music, Xiphoid Dementia answers with a resounding yes, though not so much in the sounds themselves, but rather how they are layered and placed.
The first track, Abortion Rites, manages to capture the essence of Xiphoid right off the bat; starting calm enough with a singular drone and a rising apocalyptic choir, only to be eventually engulfed in a firestorm of brain rattling noise and straining machine vibrations, before shifting gears into sprawling cosmic drones, deep bass drops, and processed vocal squall. Subsequent tracks follow a similar path, constantly moving from the cerebral to the physical, adding structural elements, then obliterating it in a mass of debris, mechanized whir, and sharp edged clutter. Of the four tracks here, the last track is perhaps the most focused, and certainly the bleakest; a 13 + minute excursion into a dystopian society full of utterly hopeless and dark, resonating atmospherics, and ending in a cyclonic blur of destructive noise and blackened filth . It’s perfectly executed and a suitable ending to what equates to an intensely visceral and creative listen. Hard to find comparisons here, but those that appreciate the dynamics of Navicon Torture Technologies, Prurient, and Propergol will certainly find something to like." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| XYRAMAT / THORSTEN SOLTAU |
Lack klebt auf Schwarzgeld nicht |
7 |
www.myspace.com/mmlabel
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| Y CREATE |
Madadayo |
CD |
Y CREATE ist ein neuer Name auf EE TAPES, das Projekt aus NL ist aber schon seit vielen Jahren aktiv. Auf MADADAYO sind 8 lange Stücke mit perkussivem, melancholischem ambient Industrial enthalten - getragene Stimmung verbreitend mit Synths & schwermütige Samples, die nach Trennung und Trauer klingen..
“After years of silence, Hessel Veldman, main person behind the legendary 70-80ies label Exart from Holland returns with astonishing new solo work! So you probably ask: Y Create? I didn't ask this question, as I knew Y Create was the solo project by one Hessel Veldman, from IJmuiden, The Netherlands. In the days when I was a little boy, he was the main man for experimental and electronic in The Netherlands and he ran Exart Tapes, worked with Willem de Ridder in FNTC (with a release on Staalplaat) and contributed a track to the very first cassette I released (also as Y Create, but with Gert-Jan Prins on percussion. With Prins he also was in a band called Gorgonzola Legs. Somewhere in the earlyb nineties I lost contact with him and he went on to do other things. But he's back, with Y Create and his old passion for radio plays. The recordings on 'Madadayo' were recorded between 1979 and 2002 and remixed in 2002-2003 for this release. Y Create uses the full eighty minutes a CD can offer to play his music, but with only eight tracks, you can imagine they are lenghty affairs. Y Create's pieces usually start out with a piece of drones, with lots of small variations in the EQ-ing, and percussion comes in. The percussive bits move around constantly in the background, being fed through an enormous amount of delay and reverb lines and in some case even develop into a banging rhythm with hints of techno. All of these eight pieces have a great ambient feel to them, but Y Create is pushing the boundaries a little bit more and things are just a bit more adventurous here. Great come-back album.“ [Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| Y-TON-G / ASMUS TIETCHENS / KOUHEI MATSUNAGA |
YAK |
CD |
8 tracks of mainly rather concrete silent & mysterious microsound-works from these three sound-researchers from Germany & Japan in collaboration, all have delivered basic materials and worked on stuff from the others, so it's quite a variable and out-balanced release...
"An infinite and sometimes not easy to grasp recycled process. That's what Asmus Tietchens, at least to me, is known for. Here he teams up with Kouhei Matsunaga from Japan (of whom we haven't heard much lately, but he had a couple of nice releases on his own Flying Swimming label) and an even more obscure Y-Ton-G, who hails from Hamburg (just like Tietchens) and has been around since the dawn of cassettes and still releases CDRs to this date. Each of them supplied sound material to somebody else who then composed a piece of music. Two of them have sound material by a duo (Y-Ton-G and Kouhei and Asmus and Kouhei) - see, not easy to grasp these processes. Not that it really matters when it comes to appreciating this release. The eight tracks here make quite a coherent flow of music. The starting point - say the rumble on the surface - is processed through means unknown. That is: Asmus in his studio, Y-Ton-G through tapeloops and sound effects and Kouhei through laptop, things are altered, changed, deformed and sound like anything else and the starting point as such can no longer recognized. Through whatever means each of the composer uses here it still sounds pretty coherent. It's hard to tell who does what here if one is not looking at the cover. One could argue that the composers are perhaps interchangeable, but I like to take an opposite view. Through different working methods, arriving at similar results one gets a great example of various ways in reaching goals in modern musique concrete. Both Y-Ton-G and Kouhei Matsunaga show great respect for the music of Asmus Tietchens and its an album that surely will appeal to fans of Asmus. A very refined work." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label: www.monochromevision.ru |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| Y.ANN |
Valytheme |
CD-R |
Wiederveröffentlichung des raren und einzigen Solo-Tapes vom ULTRA MILKMAIDS-Zwillingsbruder YANN JAFFIOL - fast 50 Minuten feinste & hauchzarte Gitarren-Echo-Drones & Verwebungen, in die sich kleine Soundeffekte mischen....
"reissue of the tape self-released in 1997 by y.ann on the u mohol label, "valytheme" is the first & only tape of one ultra milkmaids twin.
close to the early milkies sound, maybe in a more ambient approach, it contains some tracks that were in fact demos for the ultra milkmaids. everything was carefully remastered for this this reissue." [label info]
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| YANAGISAWA, EISUKE |
Into the Cave |
CD-R |
"On the same label more field recordings by Eisuke Yanagisawa, who, this time, recorded sounds in a lime stone cave. Water sounds resonate all over the place. The six pieces document these resonant, echoing drops of water from various points and rooms in these caves. Sometimes close by, sometimes a bit further way. Thirty-seven minutes of dripping sounds make you look, rather nervously for the bathroom, but the recordings themselves are actually quite nice. As said, this is very much a document of said place, and no interference took place to 'do' something with the recordings. Things are presented as they are, and that's it. Only the last piece sound 'different': much darker due to the fact hydrophonic microphones were used. A nice work for sure." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.licht-ung.de
|
2012 |
€9.00 |
|
| YELDHAM, JUSTICE & THE DYNAMIC RIBBON DEVICE |
Birthdays |
LP |
Dokumentation zweier live-Gigs vom Mai 2007 (Marseille und Porto) von diesem extrem freakigen Body-Performer, der sich eine (mit Kontaktmikros abgenommene) Glasscheibe ins Gesicht presst und durch diese hindurch orales / vokales Lautmaterial hindurchgibt, während er mit den Füssen Effekte bedient. Der Sound der dabei entsteht ist höchst abartig, am Ende zerschlägt er die Glasplatte aus einem Kopf was stets in einem kleinen Blutbad endet. Die starke Physis dieser Performance wirkt natürlich am besten "live", aber auch der Mitschnitt sorgt bestimmt für einigen Eindruck!
"Birthdays consists of two live sets by maverick amplified-glass player Justice Yeldham recorded during his & Keg's recent tour of Europe. If you've never heard of the guy you are in for a bloody treat. Using concert-grade piano contact mics, he amplifies a sheet of glass and plays it with his mouth and face, processing it with pedals attached to his belt, usually barefooted. The results are unworldly, and hearing it you would never imagine what created it, something an Aussie could especially achieve. Like careening assaults of insect spaceships, he transports the listener to other worlds of sound, ending most often in a crash of the glass upon his head. He survives, bloody but alive, never worse for wear in the morning. Side A was captured in Marseille on the eve of Justice's 35th birthday while side B was recorded on Kegs birthday in Porto (for a preview listen at myspace.com/justiceyeldham). And to top off the birthday cheer Keg also did the cover illustration as a gift for Justice's Birthday. Mastered by the god-like Rasheed of Dubplates (Berlin), the record has been collaboratively released in an edition of 600 copies across the world by Anarchymoon Recordings (North America), Turgid Animal (Europe) & All Thumbs Press (Australia). Black vinyl, B-on-W labels, 2-sided glue-on cover art (lim 600)." [label notes]
www.anarchymoon.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| YELLOW SWANS |
Psychic Secession |
CD |
"I woke up to the end of electricity. I woke up outside of time. I woke up with my dreams in my life.'" [I Woke up] Ziemlich genialer Ambient-Noise im Stile von WOLF EYES, pulsierend, einnehmend, gefährlich, spannend - schwelend noisig aber nicht kakophonisch, genial perkussiv mitreissend das dritte stück "I woke up". "Das neue Album der YELLOW SWANS "Psychic Secession" schaut aus dem Himmel wohlwollend auf uns herab, um uns vor uns selbst zu retten. Nach "Bringing The Neon War Home" beehren uns die gelben Schwäne mit einem Werk voller kompromissloser Visionen, in denen sich alle losen Fäden, die das Duo jemals geknüpft hat, an ihrem Bestimmungsort in kunstvolle Knoten legen. Momente von leisem Summen lehnen sich an lautsprecherberstende Ausbrüche, die "Psychic Secession" zu einem Muss machen. In den letzten Jahren sind die YELLOW SWANS mit ihren fast schon legendären Liveaktionen einmal um die ganze Welt gezogen, um das neue Material auf den Opfertisch hungriger Augen und Ohren im Publikum zu legen. "Psychic Secession" wurde ursprünglich in Australien veröffentlich und kommt in seiner jetzigen Inkarnation als remasterte Version. Hier hört man jedes Flüstern, jede polyrhythmische Atacke und jedes noch so kleine Quietschen // Beaming down from the sky like a ray of white-hot light intent on saving us from ourselves, the Yellow Swans come up with their second studio record. Psychic Secession is a work of uncompromising vision, weaving together all sides of this duo's 20-sided die. Moments of quiet hum but up against crunchy speaker burners to make this record essential listening. The last few years have seen the Yellow Swans coat the planet with live dates in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Songs on this record were road tested in front of this planet's hungry eyes... you might have heard 'True Union,' which has been a staple of many of these live sets. This record was originally released in Australia by the Numerical Thief label, and comes to you on Load in a remastered format." [press release] |
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| YELLOW6 |
Melt Inside |
CD |
"After 7 years and almost 50 releases on nearly as many labels (Enraptured, Ochre, Rocket Racer, to name but a few), Yellow6 returns after a 2 year break with a new album, Melt Inside. While retaining the melodic, enveloping guitar soundscapes of previous releases, Melt Inside is different in one key element. On this occasion, Jons mesmerising, minimalist, guitar-based arrangements are enhanced by the divine vocals of Ally Todd.The album features 9 tracks, composed and recorded between Lund, Sweden and Leicestershire, UK during 2004-5. But it is more than simply a collection of songs. These are vibrant, emotional stories of love and loathing, of mystery and intrigue, of despair and elation. With her deep and, at times, bizarre lyrics, and the ability to switch from sounding sultry and sexy to quite menacing, often within the same song, Ally brings a completely new dimension to Yellow6." [label info]
www.makeminemusic.co.uk |
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| YEN POX |
Deliver (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
this newcomer sets your mind in fire with the most alien and deepest possible spacey landscape - not from this world
"LIMITED+NUMBERED FIRST EDITION OF 250 COPIES.
RED VINYL, HANDMADE SILK-SCREENED COVERS
THIS DUO FROM THE U.S. MAY BE KNOWN ONLY TO VERY FEW LISTENERS OF EXTREME MUSIC SO FAR. YEN POX ONLY RELEASED ONE FULL-LENGTH-TAPE IN 1994, WHICH WAS SO AWE INSPIRING THAT DRONE RECORDS DECIDED TO RELEASE A FIRST 7" AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IN THE MEANTIME, YEN POX ALSO APPEARED ON THE OUTSTANDING CD-COMPILATION "INVISIBLE DOMAINS" (MALIGNANT RECORDS) - THE SAME LABEL THAT HAS JUST RELEASED THEIR DEBUT-CD. THE YEN POX SOUND CAN BEST BE DESCRIBED AS DEEPLY DRONING POLY-DIMENSIONAL SOUNDSCAPES, RATHER DREAMSCAPES, THAT TRANSPORT THE LISTENER THROUGH ALIEN, DARK AN SURREAL ATMOSPHERES, COMBINED WITH A KIND OF STRANGE ENERGY THAT DOESN'T LET YOU STAND STILL. THE TWO TRACKS ON THIS E.P.,'DELIVER' and 'REMOVE' SHOW YEN POX WORKING IN THE MOST DARK, GLOWING AMBIENT MOOD POSSIBLE. THIS IS STIRRING FOOD FOR YOUR BURNING SOUL!
"LET ATMOSPHERE SPEAK THROUGH THESE UNIQUE
POLY-DIMENSIONAL SOUND-WAVES"
DRONE RECORDS DR-15/ DECEMBER 1995 |
1995 |
€ |
|
|
Between the Horizon and the Abyss |
CD |
"Arriving on the scene in 1993 with their self-titled demo, Yen Pox immediately made their presence known with an ability to create monumental, light devouring soundscapes that transcended all that had come before it. Proceeding releases, including their debut CD, Blood Music, 2000’s New Dark Age, and the collaborative CD with Troum only solidified their standing and reputation. With Between the Horizon and the Abyss just being their first full length recording in over 15 years, Yen Pox will never be accused of being prolific. After all, with the two members spread out between Indiana and Washington State, creating new material doesn't exactly lend itself to convenience. But on the rare occasion that recordings do arise, it’s nothing short of masterful, reminding listeners why they’ve achieved such notoriety with such a limited discography, and why their recordings are consistently recognized as benchmarks within the dark ambient genre.
Time between releases has been well spent, with the new material taking the early template and expounding upon it greatly, adding layers of industrial churn and structure to the infernal kosmische sprawl they’re so adept at creating. And yet throughout its entirety, Between the Horizon and the Abyss is remarkably polished and fluid. Within its realm, no seconds feel wasted, and every sound feels purposefully placed, even as it moves and flows in perpetual motion; strains of a distant angelic choirs fall beneath a complex array of arcing tones, liquidous, molten textures, & harrowing orchestral shimmer, with fervent masses of malevolent atmospherics billowing forth in glorious detail.
While this technically falls under the banner of dark ambient, what Yen Pox has managed to create goes far beyond genre specifications and boundaries, crafting a new benchmark and adding a high water mark to an already stellar discography." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
"The year is 1995 and an extremely young label from Maryland has just begun to open its eyes to the world. Prior to this moment, its entire three-year existence had been dedicated to a ‘zine/compilation combination known as Audio Drudge, with a more official birth coming with a compilation of a different kind in 1994 that featured noise/industrial artists that ran the gamut from celebrated veterans in Illusion of Safety, Maeror Tri, and Contrastate, to what was at the time excruciatingly obscure in Söldnergeist, Vromb, and Kirchenkampf. It was an artist from the latter side of this list that was destined to give rise to one of the most important labels that post-industrial music has seen to this day—a label that, in the absence of Cold Meat Industry, has rightly taken its place at the helm as the leading name releasing the new generation of old-school industrial and dark ambient music today. That label is of course Malignant Records. And the artist? Yen Pox, the duo of Steven Hall and Michael J.V. Hensley, who tomorrow (May 5th) will be making their return after a full decade and a half of silence, save for a notable collaboration with another seminal dark ambient duo in Troum, Mnemonic Induction, and a little-known two-track 10″ on Drone Records, Universal Emptiness. This also requires one to overlook their respective solo projects in Veil of Secrecy and Blood Box, both of which have also been agonizingly slow to realize new music over the years.
Yes, this is the project that began the maelstrom of high-quality releases that would make Malignant the monolith of the genre that it has become today, and that in itself should leave expectations at an absurdly high level for any curious ear. For the uninitiated, the project’s name should be enough of a hint to bring about hallucinatory visions of slow-rolling drones and desperate metallic chatter. “Yen Pox” was famously written by William S. Burroughs in Naked Lunch as being “the ash of smoked opium,” which should immediately lead one towards assumptions of the surreal brilliance held therein. Indeed, “The Awakening” arrives with a bass-end rumble that moves with enough sluggish grandeur, complex drones, and vastly cinematic space that it warrants comparisons to some of the finest names in the genre including deep audio extraordinaire Bad Sector and the aforementioned Troum. It is with this impressive track that Between the Horizon and the Abyss opens with the full force of a black hole, slowing down time and stretching it infinitely over an unimaginably monstrous mass, ripping metallic atoms apart with the pulsing black heart of the cosmos. Even “Tomorrow in Ruins” somehow leaves a similar astral impression as that of Ben Frost‘s incredible recent work with A U R O R A.
There is a ritual edge present on some tracks as well, from the percussive clamoring and distant feedback howling of “Cold Summer Sun,” to the distant whispers and unnerving climaxing noise of “Grief Ritual.” However, this is only a minimal part of Yen Pox’s identity, as everything about Between the Horizon and the Abyss feels about as purely nihilistic as anything I’ve heard in recent years. The apocalyptic atmosphere present on the album is almost overwhelming at times, imparting an unforgiving amount of dread upon the listener as they float not through dreamy ethereal dimensions, but rather through the smokey black veils of what lies at the end of our journey. The intense album artwork and concise yet visionary track titles certainly don’t help one get an opposite impression though the radiant golds are an interesting and effective choice for such an atmosphere, but the music stands on its own as one of the most defining albums for dark ambient music of the past decade. Truly, at least to some degree, it sets a bar that leaves other modern releases from the genre sounding dry at best.
Between the Horizon and the Abyss is one of the few releases of the past few years that has simply come as advertised. It is a triumph of the genre and is destined to be a celebrated gem. One can only imagine that it is the lack of quantity that has provided such astounding quality on Between the Horizon and the Abyss, but with this reminder that there are still new levels to achieve, we can only hope that it isn’t another 15 years of near-dormancy before another full-length surfaces." [S.L.Weatherford / Heathen Harvest]
"A colossal record like this doesn't get made in a day, or even a year for that matter. It's actually been 15 years since Yen Pox has produced a new album. There was an excellent collaborative project the American industrial-ambient technicians did with the German pioneers Troum; and M.V. Hensley from Yen Pox has released a handful of albums under his moniker Blood Box. But, the last proper Yen Pox album, New Dark Age, arrived in the cold months of 2000. Not quite as slow in production as Giancarlo Toniutti, who took well over 20 years to issue a new solo album. But like Toniutti's immaculately conceived electro-acoustic wastelands, the records of Yen Pox are the stuff of epochal change, slowly revealing themselves through the dark veil between this world and another, or as the title implies between the horizon and the abyss. The scope of this work is suitably grandiose, following the template for the entire dark ambient genre that Yen Pox helped sculpt so many years ago alongside the likeminded projects Lustmord and Inade. The horror-laden drones that Yen Pox conceives are hardly static, as they spiral as if thrown from stable orbit by the all-consuming gravity of a black hole. The deep female vocal utterances are courtesy of the gothic siren Ruby Smith (aka Dark Muse) whose bellows and moans sporadically break through the dense clouds of Yen Pox' subterranean echo and reverb as the only ghosts of humanity to be found within this album. Bleak and heavy, to say the least." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Between the Horizon and the Abyss |
do-LP |
"Released on cd on Malignant in 2015 First time ever released on vinyl, a corelease with Malignant in the US Limited to 500 copies worldwide on yellow and black vinyl Between the Horizon and the Abyss is one of the few releases of the past few years that has simply come as advertised." [label info]
"It is a triumph of the genre and is destined to be a celebrated gem. One can only imagine that it is the lack of quantity that has provided such astounding quality on Between the Horizon and the Abyss, but with this reminder that there are still new levels to achieve, we can only hope that it isn't another 15 years of near-dormancy before another full-length surfaces." - Heathen Harvest -
www.burningworldrecords.com
"A colossal record like this doesn't get made in a day, or even a year for that matter. It's actually been 15 years since Yen Pox has produced a new album. The records of Yen Pox are the stuff of epochal change, slowly revealing themselves through the dark veil between this world and another, or as the title implies between the horizon and the abyss. The scope of this work is suitably grandiose, following the template for the entire dark ambient genre that Yen Pox helped sculpt so many years ago alongside the like-minded projects Lustmord and Inade. The horror-laden drones that Yen Pox conceives are hardly static, as they spiral as if thrown from stable orbit by the all-consuming gravity of a black hole. The deep female vocal utterances are courtesy of the gothic siren Ruby Smith (aka Dark Muse) whose bellows and moans sporadically break through the dense clouds of Yen Pox' subterranean echo and reverb as the only ghosts of humanity to be found within this album. Bleak and heavy, to say the least." [Aquarius Records] |
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| ÜL |
III |
CD-R |
Das St. Petersburger Label ZHELEZOBETON gehört z.Zt. mit MONOCHROME VISION sicher zu den interessanten russischen Labels. Inzwischen wird hier nicht nur die lokale Szene Russland veröffentlicht, sondern auch spannende Musik von anderen Kontinenten. ÜL ist ein Projekt mit dem altbekannten ex-REYNOLS ALAN COURTIS, der hier mit zwei Landsleuten schwelend-feedbackende Drone-Sphären mit Gitarren erzeugt - dabei allerdings kaum harmonisch oder tonal operierend, sondern mit Effekten & Feedbacks, low-fi und rauh und sehr variabel auf 8 Stücken..
"ÜL was formed in 2006 by Argentinians Alan Courtis (Reynols), Fernando Perales and Charly Zaragoza. They have performed live many times in Argentina and released two albums: "Astropecuario" on the Scottish label Pjorn Records and "II" on the Argentinian Facon Records. This is their third disk containing material recorded in 2007. The goal of ÜL is the exploration of timbric possibilities of electric guitars in their own way, combining elements of noise, drone music and free atonal improvisation. Their compositions immerse the listener into an abstract world of electromagnetic interaction between acoustic and electronic medium. A world glutted with raw sounds of string vibrations, droney feedback resonances, acute work of limiting amplifiers and layering echoes of effects." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| YOUNG, DENNIS |
Bella |
LP |
As a founding member of Liquid Liquid, the brilliantly influential and oft-sampled post-punk/funk pioneers of the early '80s, Dennis Young has been well-versed in audio experimentation for around 40 years now. From rhythmic no wave tastemaker to new age champion to experimental guitar explorer, Young's fearless pursuit of new methods and new sounds continues undiminished by trends. And so it goes with "Bella," Young's first solo album of entirely new material in more than 15 years. For "Bella" charts yet another new direction in Young's unpredictable career. This collection of instrumental pieces may surprise those familiar with Young's previous solo projects (issued by labels such as Bureau B, Athens of the North, and Staubgold, among others), but his willingness to explore timbres of all kinds should have prepared us all to expect the unexpected. If Liquid Liquid were roughly analogous to A Certain Ratio, "Bella" is closer to The Durutti Column in its guitar-based examination of textures and moods. But Young's voice, as composer and architect of sound environments, remains his own. From the occasionally harsh to the sublimely sensitive, “Bella” proves yet again that Dennis Young’s ear for intricacy and depth is as strong as ever.
"'Bella' is a recording that happened by accident. I purchased a new guitar pedal back in the fall of 2018 to see how it sounded with the rest of the chain of pedals I had in place. As I started recording, to my surprise, songs started to appear, and over the next 4-6 weeks, I had enough material to produce and mix the music that was to become 'Bella.' I was also lucky to find Colin Sheffield whose label was the perfect outlet for this work. Sometimes the stars line up! As always, thanks for listening!"
- Dennis / Fall 2019
https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/bella
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| YOUNG, JOHN |
La limite du bruit |
CD |
Fünf Stücke von diesem neuseeländischen Komponisten, geräuschhaft-dynamisch-nah-ungeheuer vital-partitioniert-detailreich; fantastisch das 12minütige INNER welches auf menschlichen ATEM-Geräuschen besteht! Für Explorer !
“Pythagoras’s curtain” (2001), “Inner” (1995), “Virtual” (1997), “Time, motion and memory” (1997-2001), “Liquid sky” (1998). “From New Zealand and now living in the UK, John Young’s main interest in composition continues to be in acousmatic music, particularly forms based on the interplay between recognizable natural sound sources and computer-based studio transformations. The 5 works on La limite du bruit (The Edge of Noise) are all truly acousmatic. With Pythagoras’s Curtain this shift between recognizable and disembodied sound (or invisible worlds) is develop through sounds of intimately tactile origin. The suite made of Inner, Virtual and is exploring movement between sound sources which are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to human sensibility. Liquid Sky is an exploration of the sound-image of rain.” [label info]
www.electrocd.com
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| YRSEL |
Abraxas |
CD |
"The album «Abraxas» is recorded during 2011-2013 and contains some of the bands most challenging and yet accessible music so far. On this album the band has taken in some guests to contribute with sounds. Denis Del Nista (Moon, Burning Emptiness label) appears with sounds on the track «Simon Magus» and Alice Dourlen (Chicaloyoh) contributes with vocals on the tracks «Asat» and «Nequaquam Vacuum».
YRSEL is a collaboration between Julien Louvet (Austrasian Goat, Death To Pigs, 14:13) and CJ Larsgarden (Ondo, APF, Forest City). Though hailing from different musical genres and from France and Sweden respectively, the two artists bonded following a split release on the label Burning Emptiness. YRSEL create complex, multi-layered and atmospheric music that fully explodes the genres of drone, doom and electronica resulting in a glacial melt of sound and texture." [label info]
www.pactasuntservanda.se
"A duo from France and Sweden, consisting of Julien Louvet (who you might know from Austrasian Goat, Death To Pigs, 14:13) and CJ Larsgarden (whom we know as Ondo, APF and Forest City), who already released two albums in 2010 and played some concerts shortly after in France and Belgium. A collaboration of humans meeting up and not gigabytes being exchanged. They spend two years making this album of nine tracks, which lasts nearly 80 minutes (and it is also available as a double CD). Instruments aren't specified as such, but me thinks there is lots of guitar sounds, electronics, processed acoustic instruments and such like. I wouldn't bet my life on it, though. There is guest vocals by Alice Dourlen on 'Asat', but I must admit I wasn't blown away by that piece. Her vocals are drenched in reverb to add something mysterious to the music but it's a bit too much, maybe because of the length of the piece - seventeen minutes. All of these pieces are hardcore atmospheric: lots of sustain on the strings, lots of reverb in and out of place, mumbling vocals and the overall color is grey towards black, rather than towards white. Perhaps doom drone is the best description of this. I enjoyed it however, maybe because I was trying to continue to read 'Game Of Thrones' (or whatever it is called) and Yrsel provided the best bleak soundtrack for a book on murder and deceit, and when it came to vocals here, I was a bit less interested, but mainly because it wasn't my cup of tea. It's music that works well on CD, I thought, as you flow from one piece into the next, rather then interrupt your flow and switch to the next side of the record. Very nice indeed, very dramatic." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Abraxas |
do-LP |
"The album «Abraxas» is recorded during 2011-2013 and contains some of the bands most challenging and yet accessible music so far. On this album the band has taken in some guests to contribute with sounds. Denis Del Nista (Moon, Burning Emptiness label) appears with sounds on the track «Simon Magus» and Alice Dourlen (Chicaloyoh) contributes with vocals on the tracks «Asat» and «Nequaquam Vacuum».
YRSEL is a collaboration between Julien Louvet (Austrasian Goat, Death To Pigs, 14:13) and CJ Larsgarden (Ondo, APF, Forest City). Though hailing from different musical genres and from France and Sweden respectively, the two artists bonded following a split release on the label Burning Emptiness. YRSEL create complex, multi- layered and atmospheric music that fully explodes the genres of drone, doom and electronica resulting in a glacial melt of sound and texture." [label info]
www.pactasuntservanda.se
"A duo from France and Sweden, consisting of Julien Louvet (who you might know from Austrasian Goat, Death To Pigs, 14:13) and CJ Larsgarden (whom we know as Ondo, APF and Forest City), who already released two albums in 2010 and played some concerts shortly after in France and Belgium. A collaboration of humans meeting up and not gigabytes being exchanged. They spend two years making this album of nine tracks, which lasts nearly 80 minutes (and it is also available as a double CD). Instruments aren't specified as such, but me thinks there is lots of guitar sounds, electronics, processed acoustic instruments and such like. I wouldn't bet my life on it, though. There is guest vocals by Alice Dourlen on 'Asat', but I must admit I wasn't blown away by that piece. Her vocals are drenched in reverb to add something mysterious to the music but it's a bit too much, maybe because of the length of the piece - seventeen minutes. All of these pieces are hardcore atmospheric: lots of sustain on the strings, lots of reverb in and out of place, mumbling vocals and the overall color is grey towards black, rather than towards white. Perhaps doom drone is the best description of this. I enjoyed it however, maybe because I was trying to continue to read 'Game Of Thrones' (or whatever it is called) and Yrsel provided the best bleak soundtrack for a book on murder and deceit, and when it came to vocals here, I was a bit less interested, but mainly because it wasn't my cup of tea. It's music that works well on CD, I thought, as you flow from one piece into the next, rather then interrupt your flow and switch to the next side of the record. Very nice indeed, very dramatic." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| YULCHIEVA, MUNADJAT & ENSEMBLE SHAVKAT MIRZAEV |
same |
CD |
Traditionelle Musik aus USBEKISTAN, die der SUFI-Musik nahesteht, gesungen von MUNADJAT YULCHIEVA. Melancholische & sehnsuchtsvolle Liebeslieder, Stücke die die schöne Natur besingen, Religiöses, .. v.a. auf Klängen der Langhalslaute "Rubab", der "Gidjak" (Spießgeige), der "Doira" (Rahmentrommel), und der "Nay" (Querflöte) basierend. Besonders beeindruckend aber die Stimme von YULCHIEVA, die wie ein eigenständiges Instrument für sich steht !
"This CD submerges the listener in the musical culture of Uzbekistan. The main attraction is the voice of the country’s most distinguished traditional singer, Munadjat Yulchieva, whose dark vibrant tones already exerted their particular fascination on "Sufi Soul". Meantime, the unique quality of Munadjat’s voice, her power of expression, and her natural charisma have charmed audiences in the most eminent international concert halls, where sometimes people are so touched as to shed tears, as was recently the case in London. These recordings were made by Network in spring 1997 at the radio and television studio in Tashkent, the capital of the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. The famous rubab player and professor at the Tashkent conservatoire Shavkat Mirzaev complemented his ensemble with additional outstanding local soloist so as to be able to present all his country’s countless instruments and styles. The lutes, string instruments and zithers played on this recording demand great concentration and skill in order to achieve the incredible glissando and vibrato effects. They are joined by flutes and percussion. The slow hypnotic build-up in the pieces ends in a dramatic climax during which the tremendous mastery of the singer and the ensemble highlight whole new facets of the melody." [label description]
www.networkmedien.de
|
1997 |
€15.00 |
|
| YULEMAN, MOMBI |
Hours Lost |
MC |
In September of 1961, an event happened that would become one of the most widely publicized alien abduction cases in history. After having an encounter with a bright light in the sky that appeared to follow them on their late drive home (Portsmouth, New Hampshire, US), Betty and Barney Hill pulled over and got out of the car to investigate. The light turned out to be a metallic object as big as a jet and it hovered above them. Gray beings with large eyes could be seen in the windows. Fleeing the scene, they both heard a series of buzzing sounds and lost consciousness. Upon a second series of sounds they found themselves arriving home much later with no recollection of what had happened after their encounter. Only through months of sessions through hypnosis were they able to come to understand what had happened during that missing time. This album is inspired by these events and what happened during those hours lost.
https://zerok.bandcamp.com/album/hours-lost
"The latest release from the ever cool Zero K label is inspired by a case of alien abduction in 1961 and the idea of “missing time” that alien abductees experience. This is an impressive album of dark ambient / drone music, with skillfully blended glitch and post-industrial soundscapes. It’s eerie, otherworldly stuff, and it does a wonderful job of creating an unsettling and alien mood. I’ve had this on continuous play since I first heard it, and I will be listening to this for a long time to come. Very highly recommended!" [This is Darkness] |
2022 |
€9.00 |
|
| Z'EV |
An Uns Memento |
CD |
Re-Release einer Cassette, die 1996 in einer 100er Auflage auf Subterranean erschien.
“Best known for his innovative percussive work, Z'EV's short-lived (1980-82) uns project combined his interest in sound poetics and voice treatments with dense sonic landscapes; the result was-and still is-challenging, unique, and rewarding. This 70 minute CD features two long-unavailable recordings: Life Sentense, originally released in 1986 in a cassette-only edition of 100, and "Save What?", a document of the final uns performance, originally released in 1982 in a cassette-only edition of 50. 100 copies (sold out) were specially packaged, signed and numbered. Both editions come with a complete Life Sentense "texts" and the first-ever extensive writing by Z'EV on the uns project.”[label info]
“In the early '80s, Z'ev had developed the Uns persona to stand outside of the percussive heavy physicality of Z'ev. Uns built a portable unit of 4 Lenco turntables (which have the unique ability to pitch speeds from 0 - 78 rpm), a few tape decks, echo-plex, and a fire-damaged organ to generate a scraping mid-range rumble over which he barked out a cyclical stream of fragmented vocal elements. While the noise elements definitely predate / parallel some of the early noise constructions from Merzbow, the vocals are what keep this record interesting-as Z'ev would rant and mumble as if caught in a manic fit of Tourette's Syndrome, before catching one interesting phrase in a lock groove for a four or five repetitions ("and you don't know my problem - and it's like crash grass - it's like crash glass - it's like crash glass - and it's uh a clean cut") before continuing on the strange vocalizations. While the noise elements from all of the tracks retain a very similar timbre, the vocals offer the major differentiation for Uns. Fortunately, this piece has ample room between the numerous (99?) tracks for the audience to catch its breath before Z'ev picks up with another semi-comprehensible ramble. This holds up quite well under the test of time, in spite of / because of the fact that Uns sounds like any of the totally flyin' speed freaks that buzz around the 16th & Mission Bart station.”[Aquarius Records]
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ghost Stories |
CD |
"Previously unreleased material, recorded in 1990 in Amsterdam. Best document of his "wild style."
[label info]
|
1998 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Headphone Musics 1 to 6 |
CD |
"In 1967 Z'EV took a tape music class at the UCLA night school. The leader of the course was Joseph Byrd who was the founder and theoretician of the first electronic rock band; The United States of America. So while it's almost 40 years now that he has been involved in the production of electro-acoustic music, Headphone Musics marks the first release of a product exclusively featuring this form of music. All of the source material is drawn from the collection of cassette tapes Z'EV has amassed over the last 30 years -- sounds and soundscapes he has either recorded himself or witnessed, or tapes that have been given to him by various peoples on his travels or been received by him through the mail from fans etc. Technically he remains a bit orthodox in that basically he still plies the old tools of the tape manipulation trade in the current digital sphere. What this means is that he concentrates on editing, phase relationships, time dilation, and inherent and 3rd harmonic distortion as his only means of processing the information he is transforming. There is no looping involved, although #2 features a recording he made in 1984 using his controlled-skipping Lenco turntable. 'As Is As' is a live recording of a sound poem Z'EV produced and performed under the name 'S. Weisser' at a Sound Poetry Festival in 1976 at the La Mamelle art space in San Francisco. It was produced using 2 reel to reel tape decks, 3 cassette decks, and 2 microphones." [label info] |
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Production and Decay of spacial Relations vs. Reproduction and Decay of Spatial Relations |
do-CD |
"Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the very first Z'EV studio album which originally came out on Backlash in 1981, DIE STADT is proud to announce the re-release of 'Production and Decay of spacial Relations' for the first time on CD. It features the original seven tracks from the vinyl plus six 'recodings' entitled 'Reproduction and Decay of spatial Relations' made by Z'EV in May/June 2005.
Back in the day Z'EV used to bring boxes over from Holland when he would come back to New York City which he would sell to Bleeker Bob (a famous Record Shop situated in the East Village of NY) who told him: "this is the best industrial record ever and I sell it to every japanese buyer who comes into the store". The CD is housed in a reproduction of the original LP (!) cover and comes with a special handmade insert. First edition of 500 copies. Total playing time: 79'57 min." [press release]
"...This was z'ev's first studio LP from 1981, recorded and released in Rotterdam on a curious and regrettable long forgotten experimental music label Backlash Records (who also released Tuxedo Moon and Nyrabakiga). Up to that point z'ev in various guises just released live recorded material. It is where the interests of z'ev started to mingle: the live playing of percussion and the studio techniques, which he used in several other projects, such as Stefan Weisser. I don't what the studio of Backlash looked like, but it's a pretty interesting production. The sound gets processed, slowed down, but then new layers are added and strange muffled but strong rhythmic sounds occurs. None of the original power has been lost here. It was in its day
already a masterpiece of 'industrial' music, and still is. On the same CD all the material gets a treatment in 2005, through some of the techniques z'ev uses these days. The layers are much thicker and fatter and lays less on the rhythm aspect. It makes this a great document. And with the first 500 copies there is also a second CD with three pieces from 1982. The first one is a live piece of metal percussion, which gives an idea what it sounded like in the day: raw and untamed. The second piece is a sound poetry/tape piece of heavily layered voices and 'Element/L' is a highly deformed piece of layered percussion, until it becomes an engine like sound." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Forwaard |
CD |
Great drone-work from Z'EV, very slow & otherwordly movements with lots of strange sounds... recommended for any dark drone fan looking for something special !!
"Since almost forty years z'ev belongs to the absolute fore front of experimental music. Playing percussive music he gained a lot of attention, but in more recent years he returned to working with electronic tape manipulation. One aspect is working with other people, such as Francisco Lopez or Kasper Toeplitz. On 'Forwaard' he uses field recordings made by Frans de Waard (hence the title), which are 'recoded' by z'ev into a forty minute, densely layered pattern of musique concrete. Many of the water like sounds disappear in the 'recoded' version and makes a particular strong work. The cover contains field photography Frans de Waard and was designed by Meeuw Muzak. It comes in the 15x15 cm cover that Korm Plastics has used before." [label info] |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Outwaard |
CD |
Einen ganz anderen Charakter als "Inwaard" nimmt der zweite Teil der Zusammenarbeit von Z'EV & FRANS DE WAARD an. OUTWAARD wird dominiert von schwer ächzenden & tiefbassigen organischen Klängen, Tiergeräusche sind vernehmbar aber so sehr verfemdet dass man sich wie in einem fremden Dschungel mit 10facher Gravitationskraft vorkommt.. (in der Tat beruhen alle Sounds auf field recordings von Frans die er in einem Kleintier-Zoo machte). Z'EV hat sich stilistisch mehrfach gewandelt, und OUTWAARD ist wieder ein beeindruckendes Zeugnis von seiner Transformationsfähigkeit.
Beängstigend gut !!
"For close to forty years z'ev has been at the absolute fore front of new musics. Playing his unique brand of percussive music he gained a lot of attention, but in more recent years he returned to working with electro-acoustic manipulations. Since 2003 he has also begun a wide ranging series of collaborations, working with Francisco Lopez, Stephen O'Malley, David Jackman/Organum and Oren Ambarchi among others. One such ongoing collaboration is with Frans de Waard, with whom he released 'Forwaard' in April 2007 and 'Outwaard' is the next installment. Whereas the sound sources used on 'Forwaard' where of a varying nature, on 'Outwaard' they were all made at a petting zoo in Kleve, Germany. These recordings which are 'recoded' by z'ev into a forty minute, densely layered pattern of musique concrete. Many of the animal call like sounds disappear in the 'recoded' version and makes a particular strong work, but occasionally one returns and leaves a no less than haunting listening experience. The cover contains field photography Frans de Waard and was designed by Meeuw Muzak. It comes in the 15x15 cm cover that Korm Plastics has used before." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| Z'EV & HATI |
Heart of a Wolf |
do-CD |
"The second collaborative effort between an industrial legend Z'EV and Polish sound artists using the moniker Hati. Two excellent live performances captured on silver and black discs. The Torun gig is a very dynamic percussive adventure, whereas Gdansk concert concentrates on building slow-moving images. This special 2CD edition is limited to 423 copies only." [label info] |
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| Z'EV & RAMONA PONZINI |
Ankoku |
CD |
"... »Ankoku« entführt den Zuhörer auf eine filigrane, düstere Reise zwischen flirrenden Feedback-Drones, den für Z'EV typischen, aber sehr zurückgenommenen Stahlpercussions und der traumwandler-ischen Stimme Ponzinis, die klingt, als ob es sich dabei um eine Geisterbeschwörung einer japanischen Yūrei oder um mit Schattenwesen aus der Zwischenwelt bevölkerte Filmsequenzen handeln würde: Wenn schon Magick, dann so etwas wie »Ankoku«, dessen spirituelle Kraft an Coil erinnert und auf der die italienische Sängerin/Musikerin ihr Debüt gibt." [Skug]
"ANKOKU: Ramona's personal touch is certainly her own particular Japanese chant, together with the use of traditional percussions, bells and cymbals from Japan. Z'EV has been enchanted by all those elements (listening to Praxinoscope), asking to Ramona for this cooperation. This is the result of this "long-distance encounter". ANKOKU is a Japanese word which means "deep darkness". For this debut Ramona's voice and percussions has been registered by My Cat is an Alien in their mysterious studio, placed somewhere in Western Alps, adding some field recordings. Recordings has then been sent to Z'EV who has processed them with some of his typical percussions. Z'EV deconstruct the sweetness of Ramona's chants, enfolding the pieces with a darker atmosphere. We have an obscure 5 tracks album, structured on charming vocal melodies moving out from a "haunted house"." [label description]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| Z'EV / DAVID LINTON |
Untitled |
CD |
Diese CD erschien zum Anlass des - leider sehr mässig - besuchten Konzertes in Bremen am 11.November 2006, wo die Besucher Zeuge eines fantastischen DAVID LINTON-Konzertes werden durften.
Auch die CD überzeugt mit 4 Stücken: ein kurzer obskurer Z'EV live-Mitschnitt mit cut-up voices aus London vom April 1990, ein exzellentes fast 20minütiges neues Power-Ätherdrone-Stück (Zusammenarbeit von LINTON und Z'EV), ein Live-Mitschnitt einer LINTON-Performance (New York Mai 2006), und ein ebenfalls sehr frischer Remix von LINTON von Z'EV source-Material. Ein kleiner, fast unauffälliger Release, der dem geneigten Drone-Fan aber sehr ans Herz gelegt sei!!
"A four track CD released in conjunction with a live concert on the 11. November 2006 in the 'Lagerhaus' Bremen, feat. Exclusive tracks by
Industrial Music legend Z'EV and New York based percussionist and multimedia artist DAVID LINTON who has worked with among others: Lee Ranaldo, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Diamanda Galas, Christian Marclay and Elliot Sharp. Each artist is featured with a solo track plus a remix of the other artists material. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies. Playing time: 60:36 min.
Track listing:
1. Z'EV 'Soliloquy #1' 11'11
2. Z'EV 'Not Nil' 19'58
3. DAVID LINTON 'Emerald Portal Excerpt - Part 1' 22'27
4. DAVID LINTON '7/11 elective-RE:mix_Z'EV' 7'00" [label info]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| Z'EV / FRANCISCO LOPEZ |
Buzzin' fly / Dormant spores |
CD |
Zwei lange Stücke auf dieser beeindruckenden CD, die auf gemeinsam erstellten Klangquellen beruht. Das 32 minütige "buzzin fly" von Z'EV ist ein atemberaubendes Dronescape voller aufblitzender und schneidender Sounds, bei LOPEZ wird daraus eine 40minütige Versenkungsübung, wenn mächtige Eisberg-Drones auftauchen und wieder verschwinden gerinnt die Zeit, hier tun sich furiose Welten auf ..... genius stuff !!!!
"A sensational collaborative album between Z’EV, one of the forefathers of industrial music, and renowned Spanish artist Francisco Lopez, known for his releases performances and installations worldwide. Z’EV’s ‘buzzin’ fly (in loving memory of Tim Buckley)’ is a full spectrum 32 minute piece full of dynamic shifts, sonic worlds and can be described as oceanic in feel. Lopez’s ‘dormant spores’ takes 40 minutes to run it’s course, and is perhaps a more meditative piece than Z’EV’s, but no less challenging. Lopez skilfully crafts minimalist hypnotics that can be as destructive to delicate eardrums as they are captivating. Both
works complement each other and form a powerful album that Lapilli and Black Rose Recordings are happy to release." [label info]
"...Lopez more than Z'EV, but both are avid collectors of sound material from the world that surrounds us. Lopez is the man with the microphone, while Z'EV does that too, but he also is on the look out for material to play his percussive music on. Throughout Z'EV's career percussion music has played an important role, but the studio has had a likewise big role in his work. Using the studio (no doubt a harddisc these days) to its extreme, using as many tracks as possible to make subtle shifts and changing patterns throughout the piece. Perhaps the opposite of how Francisco Lopez: using sometimes just one or two sound sources and exploring them through radical equalization. Before he did this using a very low audible range for his music, but lately he has shifted towards audible material, but in cut-up/collage way. Here it is no different. The sound sources of both are presented in a strong collage form, in which loud/soft material, sometimes with smaller blocks of silence in between them. A very intense piece of music.
In the five pieces by Z'EV things stay throughout on a more equal level, in which sounds seem to shift and phase along side each other. The whole thing, rather one piece in five blocks than five separate pieces makes a highly psychedelic pattern of sounds moving in and out of phase. Two sides of the coin called field recordings and both sides, even when so different, are equally great. Powerful, intense and illusionary. Great stuff." [Fdw / Vital Weekly]
"Sadly, this is music that some would describe as “ambient”, simply because that seems to be the going term for music that doesn’t have drums or traditional style guitars. The problem with that definition is that it is considered synonymous with “nothing really happens” and there is a world of chthonic wonder to be found in the depths of the sounds herein. It’s virtually impossible that any fan of experimental or concrete music will not have happened upon the works of either Z’ev or Lopez in their travels. Each is prolific, respected and established within the community. The album is a split, rather than a collaboration (hence the divided title) with the first half, comprised of five shorter linked tracks, belongs to Z’ev, the second, a long single piece, to Lopez. The two halves are a nice match, with the almost blissful organic drift of the former leading nicely into the intense rise and fall of the latter. This release is all about the texture and progression of sound, so if you are looking for something that truly is ambient- something inoffensive that meekly fades to the background- you might want to look elsewhere. If you’d prefer to throw on headphones for something that will reveal itself more with each subsequent listen, you could do a lot worse." [KM, Adverse Effects]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| ZAFFIRI, ENORE |
Riverberazioni Sonore |
7inch + magazine |
Author: Enore Zaffiri
Title: "Riverberazioni Sonore"
Label: Rossbin
Format: 7” + Magazine
Catalog #: Rsep001
Time: 11:00
SIDE A:
Riverberazioni Sonore n° 31 (05:26:00)
Recorded in Torino / Year 1998
SIDE B:
Sonetto CXLIV (02:37:00)
Recorded in Torino / Year 1973
Riverberazioni Sonore n° 31 02:59:00
Recorded in Torino / Year 1998
Enore Zaffiri was born in Turin on March 29, 1928. He studied in Turin at the "Conservatorio G. Verdi", taking a diploma in composition, choral music and pianoforte, and subsequently in Paris at the "Conservatoire National" with Tony Aubin. He perfected his piano studies with Guido Agosti in Siena at the "Accademia Musicale Chigiana". From 1954 to 1982 he held the Chair of General Music Culture at the "Conservatorio G. Verdi" in Turin.
As a composer he won various awards. In 1964, he turned his interest to electronic music and founded SMET (Studio di Musica Elettronica di Torino) which made its headquarters in Turin at the Conservatorio, and he also became a lecturer in this subject.
Zaffiri’s first objective was to overcome the historical elementary principles which coordinated the relationships between the sounds of traditional musical language for acoustic instruments and then concentrate his efforts on electronic means, searching for new sound perspectives originating from a structural principle based on the Euclidian plane geometrical figure by which means the various sound parameters can be coordinated and the formal and spatial dimension extracted.
In 1965, together with other operators in the visual field, he set up the Studio di Informazione Estetica and started an interdisciplinary research into sound and visual phenomena.
The main objective of the research was to generate the elements relevant to the sound and visual fields from a single basic structure. The extreme limit of the formal rigorism was achieved in 1968 with the project Musica per un anno, the purpose of which was the sonorization of environments.
From 1970, Zaffiri turned his attention towards the live performance of electronic music. He combined electronic sound with the human voice - sometimes crossing the border into total theatre (Il giuoco dell’oca from the novel by E. Sanguineti and Raptus based on a text by M. Châtel). In the period, the first scores for synthesizers appeared, permitting the live performance of pieces specifically written for this instrument.
At the end of the seventies, he extended his research into visuals to the video, maintaining the interdisciplinary process using the instruments that technology offered and which represented, for the author, the means and support for what he intended to express.
At the end of the eighties, he produced the video L’arte nella Storia published by Cooperativa Books and Video in Turin.
www.rossbin.com/rsep001.htm
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| ZAHGURIM |
Moral Rearmament - Special Edition |
CD |
"Zahgurim was a TOPY-affilated band formed in the mid Eighties by Paul Ackerley and William Vince. They recorded one album, "Moral Rearmament" for Dossier side label Atonal. It was produced and mixed by Paul Ackerley and William Vince with Simon Crabtree and Julian Gilbert (both of Bourbonese Qualk) at The Old Ambulance Station, Old Kent Road, London on October 24 and 25 1984. This new and first digital edition celebrates the 30th anniversary of a classic Industrial album. A lot of percussion meets heavy Industrial beats, voices seem to come from nowhere and lose themselves in the sound. If you need comparison think Bourbonese Qualk, Psychic TV, Test Dept., Z'ev. Zahgurim later went on to form Left Hand Right Hand, but that's a different story." [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| ZAMMUTO |
Solutiore of Stareau: Disc One |
CD |
Ungewöhnlicher minimal/digital-Ambient auf einem neuen Label der RIOUXS-Betreiber! Dies ist die Wiederveröffentlichung einer CD eines ursprünglich als 3 xCDR erschienenen Werkes, mit warmen Klangfarben & -flächen, die aber stark fragmentiert werden durch klicks & cuts, immer wieder gibt es kleine Veränderungen im Sound, trotzdem „fliesst es“ sehr eindringlich, und Harmonien tauchen aus dem Untergrund auf.. entspannend und beruhigend und doch nicht gewöhnlich oder langweilig..
“This disc one is a quiet atmospheric minimal soundscape. Distant radio waves floating in the night, warm drones rising and falling, punctured by a faint yet insistant pulsing rhythm. Deep listening in which surface variation is so subtle - getting lost in the recording for hours is almost inevitable IF YOU give it the time. Time well spent.” [press-release].
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Zammuto |
LP |
"ZAMMUTO entspringt den gleichen Hirnwindungen wie THE BOOKS - als eine der anerkanntesten und kreativsten Band des letzten Jahrzehnts - und kennzeichnet einen weiteren Schritt des gleichen detallierten, genre-missachtenden Geistes, der Album wie ,The Lemon Of Pink" und ,The Way Out" möglich machte.
Ausgehend vom Erfolg von THE BOOKS als experimentelles Popcollagen-Projekt wäre es für Gründer und Namensgeber Nick Zammuto ein Leichtes gewesen, den Faden einfach weiterzuspinnen.
Stattdessen setzt er und mit ,Zammuto" eine Platte vor, die progressiv nach vorn geht, intensivst und unter Volldanpf mit ganz unterschiedlichen Rhythmen und Melodien beeindruckt.
Der geflüsterte, folkige Gesang, der zum Charaktermerkmal der BOOKS wurde, wird abgelöst von einem untypischen, zum Himmel strebenden Selbstbewusstsein, das oft von einer breiten Palette von Gesangseffekten angereichert wird.
Das Resultat ist eine delikate Balance zwischen Mensch und Maschine, die schließlich die emotionale Eindrücklichkeit der Songs unterstreicht.
Mit dichten und wunderschönen Streicherarrangements von Gene Back (THE BOOKS) und einer das Hirn verknotenden Schlagzeugperformance von Sean Dixon springt der Sound von ,Zammuto" mit unbedingter Direktheit aus den Boxen.
Musik zu machen, die gänzlich unbekannt klingt, ist nichts Neues für ZAMMUTO, doch Musik zu machen, die nicht einmal wie seine eigene Vergangenheit klingt, ist eine sehr beeindruckende Leistung." [label info]
temporaryresidence.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Zammuto |
CD |
"ZAMMUTO entspringt den gleichen Hirnwindungen wie THE BOOKS - als eine der anerkanntesten und kreativsten Band des letzten Jahrzehnts - und kennzeichnet einen weiteren Schritt des gleichen detallierten, genre-missachtenden Geistes, der Album wie ,The Lemon Of Pink" und ,The Way Out" möglich machte.
Ausgehend vom Erfolg von THE BOOKS als experimentelles Popcollagen-Projekt wäre es für Gründer und Namensgeber Nick Zammuto ein Leichtes gewesen, den Faden einfach weiterzuspinnen.
Stattdessen setzt er und mit ,Zammuto" eine Platte vor, die progressiv nach vorn geht, intensivst und unter Volldanpf mit ganz unterschiedlichen Rhythmen und Melodien beeindruckt.
Der geflüsterte, folkige Gesang, der zum Charaktermerkmal der BOOKS wurde, wird abgelöst von einem untypischen, zum Himmel strebenden Selbstbewusstsein, das oft von einer breiten Palette von Gesangseffekten angereichert wird.
Das Resultat ist eine delikate Balance zwischen Mensch und Maschine, die schließlich die emotionale Eindrücklichkeit der Songs unterstreicht.
Mit dichten und wunderschönen Streicherarrangements von Gene Back (THE BOOKS) und einer das Hirn verknotenden Schlagzeugperformance von Sean Dixon springt der Sound von ,Zammuto" mit unbedingter Direktheit aus den Boxen.
Musik zu machen, die gänzlich unbekannt klingt, ist nichts Neues für ZAMMUTO, doch Musik zu machen, die nicht einmal wie seine eigene Vergangenheit klingt, ist eine sehr beeindruckende Leistung." [label info]
temporaryresidence.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ZANANA |
Holding Patterns |
CD |
Äusserst sphärische Kompositionen mit Trombone und Gesang (und andere gesampelte Geräuschen), von diesem « electro-acoustic chamber music duo » von Kristin Norderval und Monique Buzzarte; beschwört eine kaum fassbare, intensiv hypnotisch-surrealistische Atmosphäre herauf..... auf dem PAULINE OLIVEROS-Label.
„Zanana (za-NAH-nah) is an electro-acoustic chamber music duo featuring Kristin Norderval, (voice) and Monique Buzzarté (trombone) collaboratively composing and performing improvised music blending acoustic sounds, electronics and live processing. Zanana's inception dates from an all-night peace vigil concert in the fall of 2002 when Kristin invited Monique and poet Barbara Barg to join her for an evening of improvised music and spoken word. Since then Monique and Kristin have continued developing repertoire as a live processing duo, recording and performing in venues ranging from concert halls to clubs to abandoned buildings. Zanana uses improvisation as the foundation of their compositional process. While some works are free improvisations, some are structured improvisations and some are composed works with aleatoric elements, all are rooted in the expansive practices of Deep Listening. Zanana takes its name from a variant spelling of "zenana," the portion of a house in southwestern Asian countries exclusively dedicated to women.
Holding Patterns is a compilation of live recordings selected from Zanana's first season of performances. Gasholder Duet is an improvised duo of unprocessed acoustic sounds recorded live inside the historic Gasholder Building in Troy, NY. Doorjam and Ghost Dog combine live processing of both the voice and trombone sampled in real-time with prerecorded soundfiles of ambient recordings made at the Gasholder Building and prerecorded and electronically processed voice soundfiles. Flags, Title X, and What a Pretty Dog were recorded live in concert in New York City. Poet Barbara Barg provides the text for Flags and joins the duo on spoken word on What a Pretty Dog in honor of Monique's dog Suki, who was accustomed to hearing this phrase regularly from strangers throughout her life.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| ZAVOLOKA |
Suspenzia |
CD |
Hinter "ZAVOLOKA" steckt eine Frau namens KATERYNA ZAVOLOKA aus der Ukraine, die hier sehr spröde und gewagte Elektronik produziert hat, real experimental stuff for explorers, Stimmenexperimente, mad rhythms, Sinuston-Attacken, mal verspielt rhythmisch , mal die-hard digital, schwierig mit irgendwas anderem zu vergleichen.....
Dies ist die Re-edition des Debut-Albums CD (vorher auf ZEROMOON erschienen).
“ Kateryna Zavoloka is a musician from Kyiv city, Ukraine. This is an extended version of her first release Suspenzia. The sound of Zavoloka is very impuslive mixture of rich and dense however sometimes abstract analogue and digital noises, melodies and idm-like drums. Often unexpected music design and courses create an impression of body motion of a fighter in kung-fu drunken style. This release however called SUSPENZIA (in regards of Natalia Zhizchenko essay) that is "suspension" or "slip" in russian or ukrainian.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| ZEBRA |
The Black & White Album |
CD |
Das "Pop"-Projekt (sozusagen die Nachfolge von den eher technoiden GOEM) von FRANS DE WAARD und ROEL MEELKOP überrascht mit zum Teil sehr gradlinigen Beats, Pop-Versatzstücken in neuem Gewand, einem 70er Jahre Disco-Feeling, Glitch-Effekten und weiteren Dingen die nicht unbedingt zusammenpassen, aber es darf hier auch mal etwas "unseriöser" zugehen, oder???
"The long awaited debut album of Roel Meelkop and Frans de Waard's post Goem project. They show their love for a good pop song and their love for a bad song also - hacked and spliced together, held together by a set of groovy beats (beasts?). They call it 'Meltpop', symphonic macrosound disco glitch. Includes new versions of their hit single 'Leif Is Leif/Last Night A DJ Saved By File' (final copies of the 7" still available). Great liner notes, great cover by Meeuw." [label info]
"Zèbra's The Black & White Album is something of a shaggy dog stray finding a welcome within the SI homestead. According to Roel Meelkop and Frans de Waard (the man who gave you Goem, Kapotte Muziek, and Beequeen, among others), the recording was passed on by any number of potential patrons for being too off-kilter. And in fact much conceptual mischief and general oddity manifests, initially in external dressing, e.g. in scientific graphs with impenetrable textual commentaries, and track durations misrepresenting actual times. The set itself is a collage of techno and disco, noise-mongering, and sampledelic antics, “Dream Music for Diamand Redheads” being representative; it makes a tentative gestural nod towards Romanticist euphony before morphing into a marching slab of upright techno and a looped voice sample. “Last Night A DJ Saves My File” digitally as well as morphologically mangles Indeep’s 80s classic, peppering it with telephone rings and sundry spicy interpolations. In terms of sonic-conceptual forebears, de Waard and Meelkop's exercise in bricolage-styled playroom mischief - self-styled “meltpop” - bears a loop-y stamp that nods clearly towards the spirit of :zoviet*france, while the loony leaps from avant- to electro-/disco to pop remind of the likes of KLF or 808 State, or, in brief orgies of low-end technoid minimalism, nudge towards Pan Sonic." [Ear-Rational]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ZEH, JASON |
Heraclitus |
CD |
JASON ZEH bearbeitet Magnettonbänder auf höchst physische / jede erdenkliche Weise, mit Feuer, Wasser, Demagnetisierungsspulen, etc... nach diversen Cassetten-veröffentlichungen ist dies die erste CD von ihm, auf dem Label von "VERTONEN"-Macher Blake Edwards ! "Experimentalmusik" im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes !
"For folks who have not had the pleasure of either seeing Jason perform live or hearing his work, he manipulates multiple spools of cassette tape (and their shells, reels, guide rollers, and pressure pads) with fire, water, hand held demagnetizers, and manual tweaking-and that's just the starting point. Each cassette component may be disassembled, reassembled (with parts added or expelled), stretched, shrunk, or otherwise permutated into a condition it was likely never intended to be put into. The result is rewarding listening for dedicated ears." [label notes]
www.cipsite.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| ZEIT |
Waves from the Sky |
CD |
"The first solo CD by Zeit is a true revelation… After the two album in collaboration with Alio Die with a more acoustic quality, in 'Waves from the sky' Tommaso Cimò undertake electronic orchestrations with inserts of guitars and bass perfectly integrated, you can find attachments with the best mystic and cosmic music of the 70', translated with a subtle sensibility into new territories of ambient music with a very fine touch. CD packaged in an elegant three sides digipack!!" [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| ZEITKRATZER |
(Old School) James Tenney |
CD |
"“Critical Band” (1988), “Harmonium #2” (1976), “Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion” (1971). Zeitkratzer directed by Reinhold Friedl: Frank Gratkowski (clarinet), Hayden Chisholm (alto saxophone), Matt Davis (trumpet), Hilary Jeffery (trombone), Reinhold Friedl (piano), Maurice de Martin (percussion), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Uli Phillipp (doublebass), Ralf Meinz (sound ). Recorded live at Philharmonie Luxembourg, Luxembourg, October 3, 2009. Recorded and mixed by Ralf Meinz and Reinhold Friedl, produced by Burkhard Schlothauer, executive producer: Reinhold Friedl.
“The internationally acclaimed “hilarious releases” [vital weekly] of Zeitkratzer records will continue with the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] are now released together. The collaboration of Zeitkratzer with William Bennett /Whitehouse [zkr0007], recorded live in 2009 in Marseille/France and Den Haag/Netherlands, will follow this summer. Later in 2010, the [old school] series will continue with two more releases, dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] and Morton Feldman [zkr0012] respectively. James Tenney’s music has been part of Zeitkratzer’s repertoire for almost a decade. This CD presents a new recording of Critical Band – Tenney’s late classic – with maximum clarity. Also included is the first recording of Harmonium #2. Both works demonstrate the remarkable power and resplendent sharpness which Tenney achieved by composing with pure tunings. Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion for tam-tam completes this CD with an orgiastic listening experience in the form of a huge crescendo on this wonderfully simple instrument - from whispering to singing, culminating in shrill roaring and blustering – and it’s dark decay. Tenney’s music as a sensual sound adventure !" [label info / credits]
www.zeitkratzer.de
"...I'm less familiar with the ideas and music of James Tenney, so its a bit hard to say anything about it that is connected to historical knowledge. I learned from the booklet that Tenney created 'swell pieces': music for long sustaining sounds, played on traditional instruments (same list as above), which have an almost electronic feel to it. It works in the region of overtones. Its great music. Sounds swell, rise from below and beyond and make a dome like sound. Think Alvin Lucier or Phill Niblock and you get my drift. But whereas they seem to be operating from a more studio based environment this is all live, which makes it even more remarkable, since it sounds like many voices at once, more than what the list of instruments suggest. In 'Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion' the tam-tam is played, making a low rumble, that swells up like a giant roar. Indeed a swell piece. Whereas the Cage CD is a fine release but perhaps something we already heard before, this Tenney release is mind blowing." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Das hochkarätig besetze Ensemble zeitkratzer streckt sich je nach Aufgabenstellung zum Himmel, wenn es sein muss. Bekannt geworden ist die Gruppe um Reinhold Friedl durch ihre pop-avantgardistischen Diskurs-Pogos im Grauland zwischen Neuer Musik und Improvisation, zwischen Noise und strenger Reduktion. Nach einem eher durchwachsenen Gastspiel auf der MusikTriennale Köln in diesem Frühjahr kehrt das Ensemble mit seinen beiden old school/Klassiker-Einspielungen zu konzentrierter Strärke zurück. Besonders die CD mit den Tenney Stücken, darunter der Klassiker Critical Band, zeigt, wie reizvoll es doch sein kann, jegliche Tonalität zu zerstören nach einem akkuraten Schlachtplan. In Koan: Never Written A Note For Percussion (1971) kommt dieser Ansatz zu einem grandios blitzflackernden, elektrisierten Finale. Die Cage Aufnahmen, mit den Stücken Four6, Five und Hymnkus weiß auch durch präzise Durchführung zu gefallen, hier sind es die Stücke selbst, die altersmilde aber auch weise anmuten." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
|
(Old School) John Cage |
CD |
" 'Four' (1992), 'Five' (1988), 'Hymnkus' (1986). Zeitkratzer directed by Reinhold Friedl: Frank Gratkowski (bassclarinet, clarinet), Hayden Chisholm (clarinet), Franz Hautzinger (trumpet), Reinhold Friedl (piano), Maurice de Martin (percussion), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Uli Phillipp (doublebass), Ralf Meinz (sound). Recorded live at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK, November 26, 2006. Recorded and mixed by Ralf Meinz and Reinhold Friedl, produced by Burkhard Schlothauer, executive producer: Reinhold Friedl.' 'The internationally acclaimed 'hilarious releases' [vital weekly] of Zeitkratzer records will continue with the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] are now released together. The collaboration of Zeitkratzer with William Bennett (Whitehouse) [zkr0007], recorded live in 2009 in Marseille, France and Den Haag, Netherlands, will follow this summer. Later in 2010, the [old school] series will continue with two more releases, dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] and Morton Feldman [zkr0012] respectively. John Cage's compositions have been part of Zeitkratzer's repertoire since the very first day. The pieces presented here justify Zeitkratzer's reputation as sound specialists. Avant-garde composer Cage is played in a conservative, precise and sensual way, apart from all philosophical ambitions, and hopefully as seductive as a Schubert quintet! The 'Wire Magazine' acclaimed: Zeitkratzer convinced us that CageÔs music can still live with all its complexities, stripped of the debris of its iconic-ironic status, if we only give ourselves time, space and ears to hear !" [label info]
www.zeitkratzer.de
"So far we learned that Zeitkratzer played new scores by current artists, such as Alva Noto, Francisco Lopez and John Duncan (to name just three) or interpretations of works by Lou Reed and Throbbing Gristle (to name another two). Perhaps its merely a logical next step that they start playing modern classical music from the 'old' school. Coming up are works by Alvin Lucier and Morton Feldman, but the new series '[Old School]' start off with John Cage and James Tenney. From Cage they performed three pieces, all composed in the last years of Cage's life, a highly productive era. It would have been nice to see them play say 'Cartridge Music' or 'Variations', but here they go for the pieces 'Four', 'Five' and 'Hymnkus'. The first and the third last thirty minutes and 'Five' only five minutes. All of these pieces are rather 'open' for interpretation. It would be a bit far out to explain the way they work, with time frames and how to play them, but its exactly the sort of material that Zeitkratzer is happy with. The ensemble's instruments (bass clarinet, clarinet, melodica, piano, trumpet, percussion, violin, violincello and double bass), played by those who have a background in improvised music, are well cut to play music that leaves much room for the players to choose their own sound material within given time frames. In 'Hymkus' they stay close to the ensemble feeling with repeating notes on the wind instruments, but in 'Four' they go all out. Wildly scraping of instruments, improvised playing of wind instruments and all of that making a great piece. The short 'Five' is along similar lines, but perhaps a bit more structured - as per Cage's instructions." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
|
(Old School) KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN |
CD |
"The internationally acclaimed 'hilarious releases' [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records go on. This is the fourth release in the series [old school]. The first three CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009], James Tenney [zkr0010] and Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] have been highly acclaimed. London's Wire Magazine wrote: 'The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to this compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.' The new release is dedicated to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen.' 'I do not want a spiritualistic session. I want music.' Karlheinz Stockhausen is one of the most outstanding composers of the 20th century. After his early super organised compositions as Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte or Studien 1 and 2, he realised 'Aus den Sieben Tagen' ('From the Seven Days') as a precisely organised text composition. Not one single note is written, but it is exactly defined, what kind of material the musicians should choose, - and how they shall play it. Length, tempi, etc are not given. zeitkratzer had the chance to work on this pieces in Ljubljana in spring 2011, and tried to develop the approach to interpret the texts as precisely as possible, what means in a traditional way of score-reading. As Stockhausen pointed out: 'musical meditation is not sentimentality, but ultra alertness and - in the lightest moments - creative ecstasy.' Set Sail for the sun!' Zeitkratzer under the direction of Reinhold Friedl with Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Ulrich Phillipp (doublebass), Reinhold Friedl (piano), Marc Weiser (electric guitar), Christian Lillinger (percussion), Frank Gratkowski (clarinet), Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn), Hilary Jeffery (trombone) and Martin Wurmnest (sound). 5 pieces taken from Stockhausen's intuitive music cycle 'Aus den Sieben Tagen' (1968) : 'Unbegrentz', 'Verbindung', 'Nachtmusik', 'Intensitt', 'Setz die Segel zur Sonne'." [label info]
www.zeitkratzer.com
"Apart from some of his fifties electronic works, I have never been a great fan of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Perhaps I didn't hear enough or perhaps I simply don't understand a lot of it. In the sixties he composed a piece 'From The Seven Days', which consisted of open ended instructions for the players, such as 'play a vibration in the rhythm of the universe/play a vibration in the rhythm of dreaming//play a vibration in the rhythm of dreaming/and slowly transform it/into the rhythm of the universe/repeat this as often as you can'. A very fluxus way of composing music, but his ensemble would in return ask for partial authorship of the piece for this composition and quickly Stockhausen returned to notating his pieces accurately. For 'From The Seven Days' stands as a bit of an odd-ball in his oeuvre, but its not difficult to see why its so attractive for the musicians of Zeitkratzer to perform this piece. They love performing such open ended pieces on their extended instruments (violin, violoncello, double bass, piano, electric guitar, percussion, clarinets, french horn, trombone), since many of the players have a background in improvised music, and this sort of score leaves enough space for them to play with the notes. Its highly irrelevant to say whether these five pieces, are 'accurately' played, its 'just' an interpretation of whatever is possible and I think Zeitkratzer deliver and outstanding job, especially in 'Setz Die Segele Zur Sonne', a long, dense piece of glissandi played with a sinister undercurrent. The other pieces are shorter, and offer a variety of insights: moody, loud, fierce, introspective. An excellent performance all around." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Grand Orchestra |
CD |
"Grand Orchestra, for mixed orchestra and bagpipes. Composed and directed by Reinhold Friedl. Performed by zeitkratzer & guest at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, August 21, 2011.
'The score for Grand Orchestra has been developed for musicians, laymen, old people, children, adolescents, for anyone who likes to join in. Grand Orchestra is not for education. It’s not about explaining, intellectual understanding or the training of cultural values; rather it’s about having faith in the abilities and intuition of the players and their performance. The musicians of zeitkratzer and additional guests took over the voice-leading of the instrumental groups, distributed in the space and enabling their amplification. In this way it was possible to create not only pure intensity but also dense and complex sound aggregates, through the blurring of playing techniques inside the different instrumental groups. Which orchestra is capable of playing such complex sounds as this group of forty wind players, chorally building a simultaneous crescendo of breaths? Who can play more ecstatically and wilder than a group of sixty musicians, playing against and doing their best to keep up with a Scottish bagpipe ensemble? It’s precisely due to unclearly played single sounds, unfolding from an orchestra dominated by amateurs. Unique sounds with a complex character that no professional orchestra could reproduce.' (Reinhold Friedl, from the liner notes)
zeitkratzer is sound made visible, tangible, bodily – a truly unforgettable corporal experience of live music. The physicality of sound is celebrated through extended instrumental techniques, mutual understanding and amplification of traditional instruments. A midpoint between instrumental and electronic music turns out to be more bizarre and surprising than either of these. zeitkratzer, founded in 1999, gathers nine musicians, light and sound engineers living in different European cities from Amsterdam to London to Oslo meeting for working phases in Berlin. They have performed critically acclaimed versions of classical music by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann and James Tenney, as well as orchestral versions of electronic/noise music by Whitehouse, Merzbow, John Duncan, Dror Feiler and Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music'." [label info]
www.tochnit-aleph.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Songs |
LP |
"Zeitkratzer releasing songs ? Isn't zeitkratzer a contemporary music group ? Or a noise band ? Songs ? These songs actually have been developed over several years and evolved from a fashion show zeitkratzer was making the music for. Marc Weiser a.k.a. rechenzentrum, since then a member of zeitkratzer, sings. Marc has already caused some furore as Mark Markowitch, singing fake songs in fake languages in some hidden Berlin bars. So now all of those together: zeitkratzer's noise, zeitkratzer's unfathomable electro-like sound layers and Mark's voice, flying above, croaking, reciting, disappearing inside the noise, singing the falsetto or just floating on a repetitive prepared piano loop... What a beautiful goodbye to Pop - back to the real song, the real air, with orchestral density and minimalistic sound layers: Songs ! zeitkratzer directed by Reinhold Friedl. Marc Weiser (voice), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (violoncello), Ulrich Phillipp doublebass), Frank Gratkowski (reeds), Hild Sofie Tafjord (french horn), Hilary Jeffery (trombone), Reinhold Friedl (piano), Christian Lillinger (drums, percussion)." [label info]
www.bocianrecords.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| ZEITKRATZER & CARSTEN NICOLAI |
Electronics |
CD |
"This cd documents the cooperation between Zeitkratzer and Carsten Nicolai, started nearly a decade ago; a cooperation between an avantgarde ensemble and a non-academic electronic musician. The electronic music of Carsten Nicolai - partly being of even aseptic clearness and quality suddenly becomes sensual and physical through Zeitkratzer's instrumental sounds. Inversely, Zeitkratzer sounds different too: in '5 min' the musicians play only electric sound generators: humming of plugs, the peeping of the synchronised Zeitkratzer-clocks, white noise, TV cheeping at 10 kHz. 'Synchron Bitwave', the latest piece is the most sensual and warmest; no other sounds than a small third and its electric derivates, finally leading to high, dabbed string spiccati. While 'c1' transfers electronically conceived asymmetrical loops into a 19-16th rhythm. A strange undertow results, partly because of the pieces' grounding with merging split sounds. Here, Carsten Nicolai virtually becomes metaphysical, perhaps even romantic...'
[label info]
".. So, when taking on a collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, who is best known for his swaggering rhythms for pure tone and minuscule glitches as Alva Noto, we had to ask how this would work. Well, essentially, Nicolai has adapted his sound for Zeitkratzer, not the other way around, which might have been a real challenge for Zeitkratzer to attempt to adopt the thud and rumble of something like the Transall series. Instead, Nicolai and Zeitkratzer pursue long-form compositions, mostly for electronics, but occasionally with the assistance of a particular instrumental coloring from say a clarinet, a cello, or a piano. Each of the three pieces here were performed live, commissioned for this sound art festival or that in Europe. The first of which swarms around static-laden drones and crackling hiss which spirals around a Niblockian drone from a sustained clarinet, eventually a rhythmic undercarriage from a softly tapped piano ebbs against the slow- building arc of sound. The second piece seems to be staged from prepared piano, amplified televisions, and tone generators, offering another skeletal rhythm to the clinical frequencies. The third piece returns to the ideas of the first with the reprise of that piano, but here a semblance of a melody encroaches the slow-motion raga drone from low-thumbing electronics and rasping sustained strings. It's not all that far from another of Nicolai's storied collaborations, with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both Zeitkratzer and Nicolai are guilty of playing it safe on these three pieces, but the results are striking and lovely nonetheless." [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| ZELIENOPLE |
Give it up |
CD |
"Der weite Weg zum Popsong: das Chicagoer Trio zwischen Doom und Ambient:
Das Trio Zelienople gehört zu den festen Größen der Underground-Szene Chicagos. Der Perkussionist Mike Weis spielt regelmäßig mit der Alternative-Folk-Legende Scott Tuma, zusammen mit dem Zelienople-Gitarristen und -Sänger Matt Christensen bilden sie die Band Good Stuff House. Doch trotz aller Nebenprojekte liegt das Hauptaugenmerk auf Zelienople, die mit dem Multiinstrumentalisten Brian Harding komplettiert werden. Mit "Give It Up" entstand das bis dato ausgereifteste Werk des Trios. Die Band bewegt sich weg von früheren Vergleichen mit Talk Talk, Slowdive und Bark Psychosis und entwickelt einen
wagemutigen, frischen Sound. "Give It Up" ist zudem "poppiger" als der Vorgänger "His/Hers", ist eine Sammlung sich langsam wälzender Songs. Von dem an Bohren und der Club Of Gore erinnernden Opener "Aging" über den Americana-Doom von "All I Want Is Calm" bis zum diesigen Ambient von "Water Saw" reicht
die Klangpalette. Und das perkussive und traumhafte "I Can Put All My Faith In Her" kommt dem Popgedanken des Trios am nächsten. Musik für den Abend am Kamin." [label info]
"Another fantastic disc of gauzy, shimmery otherworldly dronemusic, from the seemingly infallible Type label. Long time aQ faves, Chicago's Zelienople moved to Type, after a handful of releases on PseudoArcana, Digitalis and Root Strata, and it was a pretty perfect match. Rameses III, Alps, Goldmund, Grouper, Xela, North Sea, Helios, Svarte Greiner, Black To Comm, it's not difficult to see that maybe this was where Zelienople belonged all along.
On Give It Up, the group deftly mix light and dark, weaving softly smoldering dreamscapes, all muted and hushed, with sun dappled dronefolk, all chiming soft focus guitars, and minimal percussion, hazy and gauzy and slightly blurred, vocals surfacing here and there throughout. A sort of ethereal slowcore, pop songs pulled apart and set in amber, this record a shadow produced by the muted sunlight
shining through.
Some tracks are brooding and doomy, laced with ominous creaks and deep moaning low end tones, wheezing organs, and layered ambience, others are folky and reverbed, strummed guitars wreathed in a patina of muted thrum, spread out over some almost Neil Young sounding vox, but buried way down in the mix, still others are skeletal and barely there, voices drifting in the ether, over spare tendrils of melody, only to slowly shift, and get lost in a cloud of prismatic chordal hum. Absolutely gorgeous, the perfect blend of minimal doom folk, hushed slowcore and abstract dronemusic.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd (NOT a cd-r, an actual pressed cd), featuring Zelienople's soundtrack for a film called Gone, stunningly beautiful, even more minimal than the record proper, the first half of the disc all gauzy drones, the second half, bleary eyed
slow motion chamber music. Be careful removing the cd from the lp, it's attached by a little dollop of glue or something, but a quick
pull will take some of the lp sleeve with it..." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
His/Hers |
CD |
"Zelienople (named after a borough in Pennsylvania) is the moniker of Chicago based musicians Matt Christensen (guitar/vocals), Mike Weis (percussion) and Brian Harding (guitar/clarinet) and between them, in a desolate suburban basement, they have come up with a record of pure psych-rock sludge. Now on their fifth album, the band have struck upon their finest moment yet, honing their skills to create something singular and utterly unique. There is certainly no shortage of acts willing to throw down waves of experimental guitar noise and clattering percussion, but with the benefit of focus and experience, Zelienople sound like something totally out of time and almost impossible to place.
Residing in a hazy drunken world in-between slow-core pioneers Low, psych-folk outsiders Charalambides, Japanese overlords Boris and Dead Man era Neil Young 'His/Hers' is a faded photograph of rock music past, yet still manages to keep a firm footing in the present.
Guitars echo like disappearing ghosts and vocals moan and wail mercilessly while percussion bubbles up in glorious waterlogged waves.
'His/Hers' isn't a concept album, but it might as well be with five bravely sculpted tracks acting like chapters, taking you through a whole gamut of emotions, from pensive and lonely through to aggressive and impulsive and beyond. Fusing the warring factions of blues, noise, metal, folk and jazz the trio have made as breathtaking a psychedelic album as you're likely to find, and unlike so many others in the scene it never threatens to overwhelm you with meaningless academia or pretension. This is an album made for listening, for enjoying and sinking in to, an album that is made as an illicit treat for the discerning music fans among us. Grab hold and step aboard, Zelienople are just about ready to take you on a universal journey into the subconscious, and it's gonna be quite some ride." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| ZENI GEVA |
Maximum Money Monster |
CD |
"Re-issue of the legendary debut CD by Zeni Geva. Prepare yourself for the pounding, monolithic Japanese noise / doom / post-rock barrage that is Zeni Geva. For fans of early Swans. Zeni Geva is Kazuyuki K. Null, Mitsuru Tabata (ex-Boredoms), Ikuo Taketani and Tatsuya Yoshida.Comes with 3 bonus, previously unreleased tracks, recorded live in Tokyo 1988-1989." [label info]
".... Musically, is like listening to an extreme version of Black Flag on acid and by the way guitars are treated you can understand the reason why K.K. Null collaborated with Merzbow later. I saw Zeni Geva live twice at the times of "Desire for agony" and I assure you that their nihilism was throbbing and alive, on and off stage (the guitar player that time was so angry for some reason that he beat his head against a wall of the bathroom). Thanks to this new Cold Spring reissue you can check their live sound on the three bonus tracks: "War pig" and "Skullfuck" (coming from this album) plus "Dead car, sun crash"." [Noisebrigade]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| ZENIAL |
Connection Reset by Peer |
CD |
"It's Zenial's first album in 6 years, and it shows his creativity in the context of live activity. It does not mean that 'Connection Reset by Peer' is a live album as such. Yes, the source material for the record was recorded live during sonic experiments and creating sound installations over the past few years. The album is not a compilation though-it's a well-weighed entity, thematically and sonically coherent. 'Connection Reset by Peer' is a result of interferences of environment sounds based to a large extent on electricity, radio feedback, electromagnetic field sounds emitted by current generators and elements of the so-called field recordings." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"After six years Zenial, also known as Lukasz Szakankiewicz, returns with a release. Apparently he was occupied with playing live music in between, bringing him all of the world, even into Peru, Ecuador, Luxembourg and Kazakhstan. The four pieces on this new CD deal with works that were recorded over the past few years, live in concert or from sound installations. Zenial uses environmental sounds, but mainly those which deal with electricity, radio feedback and electromagnetic fields. Music which is entirely different than the one produced by Inner Vision Laboratory. Music that owes equal portions to musique concrete, noise and microsound, not necessarily in that order. This is where I think noise is interesting. Things buzz, crackle, hiss and form long wave sine tones, radio interceptions, stuck together in an interesting collage of sound. It reminds me of the work of Francisco Meirino with some minor differences. Zenial is through a bit louder on an overall level and is therefora little less dynamic. Also more than Meirino does, Zenial works with computer treatments and not straight with the sound material itself. Quite a loud release but one that works pretty well. For the strict lovers of noise probably too intelligent and perhaps that's why I quite enjoy it. The most curious thing is probably the inclusion of a remix by Michel Banabila, from The Netherlands. Best known for his (fourth) world music, but here he proofs he knows his way around with more abstract material, although far away, an ethnic influence can be heard. Maybe working on a new career as a remixer? It fits well here." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| ZINC ROOM |
In Wooden Room |
CD |
"Fifth album of the Siberian project Zinc Room shows further development from the realm of deadening distorted industrial noise to the depths of dark ambient and death industrial, continuing the line started on its previous work "Shifting Soil". The author utilizes wider pallette of acoustic elements: voice, mouth harp and sounds of soil, branches, stones and glass, which brings more ritual atmosphere to the album, still sometimes he plunges everything into the electrolysis bath with already known trademark dense cocktail of metal percussion and roaring bass guitar. The album features several special guests: Vitaly Maklakov (Kromeshna, Obozdur, Light Collapse, etc.), Kein (Carved Image Of Emptiness, Scratching Soil, Prognostic Zero) and Isawald (Transistorwald, Tmavy Kruh, Esche)." [label info] |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Shifting Soil |
CD |
"New album of a Russian project Zinc Room, which previously released several works on CD-Rs and one split-CD with another Siberian project Carved Image Of Emptiness. Unlike previous works, completely soaked in rusty distorted yell of bass buitar and metal percussion, here the things are less violent. Zinc Room's trademark sound is still here, but now it's become a part of more calm and dark scene created also with the use of synthesizers, recordings of soil, samples and mouth harp. Five unhurried ritual dark ambient composition with strong industrial spirit. Special guest on this album was t.b.Kein (Scratching Soil, Carved Image Of Emptiness, Prognostic Zero)." [label info]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Ash |
CD |
"The sixth album of Zinc Room coming from Ekaterinburg was recorded last for today, but thematically stands as a beginning of the spontaneously formed trilogy of "Ash / Shifting Soil / In Wooden Room". The author is traditionally true to himself in terms of sound sources and general approach - bass guitar, spiral springs, samples and natural elements (steel slabs, sand, dry branches, stones). Once again he was aided by the fellow Kein (Scratching Soil, Carved Image Of Emptiness, Prognostic Zero) who played keyboards and added some atmospheres. The music can be described as a mix of harsh industrial noise and cemetary dark ambient. For the fans of old school!" [label info]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ZOS KIA / COIL |
Transparent |
CD |
ZOS KIA was formed by John Gosling (MEKON), John Balance (COIL) and Min - with guest Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson (THROBBING GRISTLE). Their one and only album, Transparent, was released August 23rd 1983 in a cassette only edition on the now defunct Nekrophile label, Austria. They were the first released recordings of both COIL and ZOS KIA. It was reissued years later by COIL (Threshold House / Eskaton) in an edited edition. The entire recordings are now released on CD/vinyl for the first time and are completely remastered from the unedited tapes. Includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks by AKE (pre-ZOS KIA).
The music on Transparent is genuinely unsettling and disturbing, with a more primal Industrial feel than the Coil album which followed; 'Scatology'. An essential insight into the very early work of these extraordinary artists and an undeniable link between Coil and Throbbing Gristle.
Double vinyl edition in a sumptuous gatefold sleeve with 12" booklet of unseen images, with download card.
CD edition presented in a 6-panel digipak with booklet containing unseen images.
CD Tracks: 1. ZOS KIA 'Sicktone' | 2. ZOS KIA 'Baptism Of Fire' | 3. ZOS KIA 'Violations' | 4. ZOS KIA 'Poisons' | 5. ZOS KIA 'Truth' | 6. COIL / ZOS KIA 'Sewn Open' | 7. COIL / ZOS KIA 'Sicktone' | 8. COIL / ZOS KIA 'Silence And Sorcery (Section)' | 9. COIL / ZOS KIA 'Truth (Version)' | 10. COIL / ZOS KIA 'Stealing The Words' | 11. COIL / ZOS KIA 'On Balance' | 12. AKE 'No Mas' | 13. AKE 'Rape Live @ Equinox'
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE |
Tables are Turning |
do-LP |
"Somewhere in the rainy, misty forests of the Pacific Northwest of America, three ladies have the unlikely task of sewing together the packaging for a new album by :zoviet*france:.
:zoviet*france: are releasing ‘The Tables Are Turning’ on compact disc and double LP through Soleilmoon Recordings. The music was composed as the soundtrack to ‘Designer Body’, a dance that toured England from 2008 to 2009. The work explores the transformational relationship between humans and the clothing they wear. Seven dancers, performing on continuously rotating plinths, slowly remove layers of their costumes, revealing the sensuous nude bodies beneath. The music accompanying the dancers is by turns dense and moody, then lyrical and soaring, underlining the mounting vulnerability of the dancers as they undress.
Liv Lorent, balletLORENT's artistic director and choreographer, spoke with Kelly Apter, writer for The List, saying “At the beginning, the body is the most designed it can be. They’re wearing hats, coats, heavy costumes and make-up – all the man-made and artificial things we do to disguise ourselves everyday. Then, over 50 minutes, we take it all away. And because there are several layers, there’s a real sense of metamorphosis.”
The members of :zoviet*france:, who prefer to remain annonymous, write “We've known Liv Lorent for a long time. When she started to conceive 'Designer Body', which she wanted to be a hybrid of contemporary dance and performance art, she decided that an unconventional performance needed an unconventional soundtrack. The composition of the soundtrack and the choreography evolved alongside each other so it became a dialogue between Liv and ourselves. The main inspiration that we took from the production's concept was rotation; throughout the one hour performance, the dancers are located on turntables that turn continuously, at varying speeds and changing direction. We mirrored this in much of the soundtrack, with circular and rotating sounds.”
Both formats (CD and double LP) are presented in a deluxe dual-layer green satin bag with fold-over flap. The letters ‘ZF’ are hand-stitched into the flap in white thread, and a two-sided color insert printed on sturdy cardstock completes the package. There are 400 LPs and 600 compact discs in the first edition. The LP, with music on three of the four sides of the records, will go out of print when the initial pressing sells out." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
"With hindsight it is of course not easy to tell when you first heard something, let's say the music of :Zoviet*France:. I think, in my case, this must have been at my friend Peter, when staying over one night after a concert, and he would proceed to play me records, as that was the kind of stuff he was into, unlike me, who was more into cassettes (and waking up, always, to the sound of 'Erector' by Whitehouse). I am however pretty sure I knew the name before as their records where sold by the then existing mail order of Ding Dong Records. Slowly over the years in the mid 80s I got to hear and see those crazy packed records and was immersed by them. In 1990 or so I saw them play live, in the UK, where Peter's band was due to play also, in a multiple day event. I think one night just had :Zoviet*France:, and they played for what I remember as two hours in a seated theatre. Their extended sound tapestries of acoustic sounds, lots of electronics went on and on, from mood to mood.
A bit later I remember them playing at the Dutch radio station, VPRO in this case, for a recording that later turned out to be 'Mort Aux Vaches'. They were downstairs fiddling with the soundcheck and I was up in the control room. 'You can start the recording', one member said, and after 90 minutes the DAT was full. One of the radio people went down and told them it might be time to stop, which they did with a quick fade out. Now I could have been disappointed by that, being cut out of such beautiful music, but I wasn't. Seeing them playing around with the simplest of means, tea cups, flutes, and electronic devices was great. Following the extreme productivity of the 80s, there were some releases in the 90s, and in the 00s? One CD, and one 12"/10"/7"if I recall well. Zoviet*France, since many years a duo do play live and share live recordings easily but for whatever reason it never comes to a release that easily. Maybe they foresee that physical releases may disappear, maybe their sometimes complex packaging proofs to be difficult (this new one comes in a 'dual layer green satin bag with fold over flap') but more realistic: :Zoviet*France: are no longer part of the world of concerts, CDs and such like. For quite some time now they create soundtracks for dance companies and performances, and you don't sell CDs at those gigs (I guess, actually). 'The Tables Are Turning' was created for Ballet Lorent in 2008 and I am sure this is not a live recording, but I am also not sure how it works. There are twelve pieces here, quite distinctive pieces, so maybe these are used in this order, no breaks in between or maybe in some other configuration. There is an interesting distinction between the live releases by :Zoviet*France: and their studio work. A typical live CD has one or two pieces in which everything flows right into each other, like an endless stream of subconscious sounds. In their studio work they perform much shorter pieces which occasionally have an odd start or ending , like it's being cut out of a bigger whole. In the dance piece, the dancers are located on turntables - hence the title - and the revolving sound, the looping sound is something that returns in the music. From spacious and melodic in 'Prophecy Loved A Child' to the processed music boxes of 'Green Air' to the gritty organ opening of 'The Grit In The Cloud'. In the past :Zoviet*France: would refer to this as 'songlets', as opposed to real songs, but the shorter ditties here like 'The Fire Of Revolution', 'Sandbox', and 'A Moment Of Film' hark back the best days of 'Popular Soviet Songs' or 'Lohland'. I played this pretty much everyday for a week, and decided this is a great :Zoviet*France: release; not their best, which would be for me 'Mohnomishe', 'Shouting At The Ground', 'Digilogue' and 'What Is Not True', but it's up there with pretty much everything else I know by them, and which is a lot. This christmas will be spend with an entire day of :Zoviet*France: music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€65.00 |
|
|
Look into Me |
do-LP |
"First vinyl reissue of ZF’s elusive ambient noises, originally transmitted in 1990 on their Charrm label and including parts used for a Stan Brakhage soundtrack, now resurfacing as part of V-O-D’s ongoing archaeological survey of the Northumbrians’ seminal early years.
Far as we can make out, ‘Look Into Me’ marks one of the last Zoviet France appearances of Mark Spybey, who was a band member 1987-1989. Alongside founding members Ben Ponton and Robin Storey they conjure a rawer, coarsely hypnagogic sequence of events and textures that recalls a folk drone symphony played by wraiths on high moorlands and in the pits of derelict collierys.
A section of the 24’ opening side’s wizened strings loops and windswept ambient noise in ‘Cair Camouflet’ was used as part of the soundtrack to the film ‘Loud Visual Noises’ (1987) by Stan Brakhage, and the rest of the record follows in a fittingly enigmatic allegory of synaesthetic sound abstraction and experimental de/composition, to deeply psychedelic tracts of drone noise reminiscent of Two Daughters, mottled voices reminding of Delia Derbyshire’s Dreams records, and clangorous, feral ambient noise that could really only come from these epochal shaman and masters of their craft." [Boomkat]
"Look Into Me contains a combination of industrial grinding, modified guitar and electronics. Other tracks apply synthesizers and tape loops with far more sophistication and impact than on the earlier albums. Zoviet France cycle and recycle abstract noises into a constantly changing texture, composed of sonorous drones, grindings, scrapings, squeakings and so on. It's atmospheric without conjuring up any obvious imagery at all, thanks to the unreality of most of the sounds used. Occasionally, the overtly machine-like nature of some sounds has a familiar feel. The LP consists of the spacious and disjointed side-long Cair Camouflet, backed by ten other tracks, and the 45rpm companion record provides another three. Enjoyable and imaginative.." [Soundohm]
|
2020 |
€32.50 |
|
|
Collusion (WHITE vinyl) |
do-LP |
"First vinyl pressing of ZF’s 1992 compilation of tracks for Mute’s Grey Area, spanning obscure cuts 1984-1991 ranging from signature, weathered ambient to grinding rhythmic noise and mindbending enigmas that affirm faith in music of the most mysterious sort." [Boomkat]
Original liner notes: “For many years we avoided participation in compilation projects, although opportunities were frequently presented to us. We have developed our music in such a way that it is most appropriately experienced in isolation. Therefore, allowing it to be presented in a form where it could be preceded and succeeded by other recordings, over which we would have no control, was alien to our intention. It also seemed (and in many cases still does) that compilation projects serve little purpose other than to fulfil the collector or editorial aspirations of the originator. In such circumstances the listener becomes little more than the end-user.
In 1984, following an approach from Jon Wozencroft of Touch seeking a contribution to Lands End, we revised our policy: we inverted the criticisms outlined above and sought to exaggerate them so that they became a positive technique in their own right. We encouraged the active and overt participation of the compiler so that the project would become more than the sum of its parts. In practice this required us to produce music akin to the incidental music produced for film and television soundtracks, music that could be cut up, manipulated and re-worked into new contexts, yet still retain its inherent characteristics. Now, with the general availability of sampling technology, the appropriation and translocation of music in this way is widespread, elevating the end user to a position of experiential collusion.
More recently, we have adopted a more closely defined stance, working only with those projects behind which we can perceive a unifying concept, either of form or purpose. Most of the recordings on this CD were created in this context and therefore represent a degree of creative input on the part of the labels concerned – Prometheans all!” |
2020 |
€30.00 |
|
| |
Vienna 1990 |
LP |
Maiden vinyl voyage for ZF’s spaced-out 1991 release, spliced from recordings made in Austria the year before, and originally issued on their Charrm label, now as part of Vinyl-On-Demand’s comprehensive reissue programme.
For the performances at Szene Wien, Austria, 9 and 10 November 1990 as part of the 'Ohrenschrauben' festival, Zoviet France were Andy Eardley with co-founders Ben Ponton and Robin Storey. The CD’s original 64’ piece has been cut in two to fit vinyl, and features elements of both shows woven into a deeply seductive, oneiric gauze, drifting from steepled reverbs and a sort of stately Viennese feel to stranger and disorienting cascades of pounding drum loops, etheric voices and psychedelic wheeze swept up in their singular, dub-like FX matrix.
"One long, slowly-unfolding live track, Vienna 1990, originally released as a CD-R, is a single disc-length improvisation which explores the outer limits of ominous minimalism. These recordings are taken from two performances at Szene Wien, Austria, 9 and 10 November 1990 as part of the 'Ohrenschrauben' festival." [Soundohm] |
2020 |
€18.50 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE & FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT [ZFAMP] |
Flexible Pooling |
7inch flexi |
"Ltd edition 7 inch ep white flexidisc at 33rpm in custom packaging with insert and accompanying free download. this is two sides of audio at 11minutes and a download for a further 18 minutes...a 29 minute 'mini LP' in all...
:zoviet*france: and Fossil Aerosol Mining Project take their collaboration, which resulted in last year’s ‘Patina Pooling’ double album release by alt.vinyl, a stage further – into the realm of pliable reverberation. Using the near-redundant record format of the 7-inch flexidisc, ‘Flexible Pooling’ consists of two new tracks that have been devised with the lo-fi quality of the format in mind. The low grade sound fidelity and susceptibility to physical degradation of flexidiscs intentionally becomes an additional layer to the recordings, a surface audio patina analogous to the rusting of the steel sleeves of last year’s album.
Coded access to the free download of an additional, extended track will be supplied exclusively with the single.
Flexible Pooling will be released by alt.vinyl and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art this month, in conjunction with the Baltic 39 exhibition, The Curves of the Needle." [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
"In 2014, we were blessed with a few copies of the first collaboration between the like-minded alchemists :zoviet*france: and the Fossil Aerosol Mining Projects, which came to us as a double lp, housed in a beefy slab of metal. Those few copies did not take long disappear, and we certainly expect that same fate to fall upon this outing as well. Flexible Pooling is intended to be the material antipode to the heft and durability of that first, with this 7" being a mere flexidisc and housed in a thin paper sleeve, with various printed ephemera gracing the package as well. There's two tracks found on the flexidisc and a download track, making the entire program an honest 30 minutes in length. It's a radioactive blizzard of tape machined errata, countervailed with subcutaneous drones and slippery layers of bedraggled, haptic noise compressed and / or exhumed from the vaults of some deep sea science station collecting data on thermal vents at the ocean floor before it was abandoned. The two entities organically sift through their material, sending various flutters, glissandos, snippets of unknowable dialogue, and electrical malfunctions into accreted and aggregated chorales of raw hypnogogia. Beautiful and eerie, Flexible Pooling represents a perfectly realized sound between two already exceptional authors of the sublime drift. Extremely limited." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| ZWEITRÄUME |
Flicker / Flutter |
CD-R |
„Alles fließt. Die Klänge schwimmen ineinander und umeinander, Entwicklungen ergeben sich im Kleinen, über lange Strecken. Das spielt dem Zeitempfinden Streiche: Der Fluss der Sekunden löst sich auf in Rotation. Hier tönen: Computer-Innereien, Schreibtischutensilien, Schellack-Platten, Klaviere, Heimorgeln, Feuer, Wasser, Flöten. Willkommen zum Tanz.” [label info]
Dark slowly feedbackin’ drone-ambience, smouldering foggy low-fi noises, delays and strange synth-lines, many little concrete details appearing.... the second CD-R of ZWEITRÄUME, again something to explore.....
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| ZYLO, ARVO |
UPHEAVAL |
CD-R |
In 2005, Arvo Zylo constructed a drone piece out of several layered samples from pop divas holding sustained notes. It was submitted to a compilation with this information ahead of time, and rejected out of fear of copyright retribution. Thinking that since no single sample therein is easily recognizable in the slightest, "Upheaval" was reworked in a total of 100 different versions, the final version being four hours long ("The torture has been transcended" - WIRE Magazine).
This release, which has been released in a cassette edition at Czech label Nova Alternativa, is now available on pro CDR in the states. More than just drone material, it traverses several different approaches, from soundtracky ambient "vistas" to abrasive industrial repetition.
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/upheaval-2
"It has been a while since I last heard some new music from Arvo Zylo, following quite a bit of his work on LP, CDR and cassette. Much of his work is about noise, but not exclusively, which he proofs on 'Upheaval'. In 2005 he "constructed a drone piece out of several layered samples from pop divas holding sustained notes", and submitted to a compilation, who refused out of being sued by said (sad?) pop divas. That piece was worked over by Zylo for 100 times and on this CDR we get 'Upheaval Version 93' to 'Upheaval 99". It was previously available as a cassette by Nova Alternativa, and now as a great looking CDR. As is to expected you couldn't recognize any pop diva in here and let it be known I could not name many pop divas, old or new, but the nature of Zylo's processing means that is surely not the case to recognize any of it. As his tools, Zylo uses, so I believe, a combination of digital and analogue tools. The digital ones to pitch the material up and down and to get a loop going, while analogue stompboxes are used to further colour the material. At various times these transformations are taken to the extreme, enter Zylo's love for noise, with loops and sounds from the conveyor belts of an industry in decay, but also decay of a more subtle origin can be spotted in not so ambient but also not so noisy excursions such as 'Upheaval 96', which reminded me of Vivenza. I prefer that more 'subtle but not too subtle' approach by Zylo, perhaps more than the blunt noise of 'Upheaval 99'. It is, however, the variety of approaches here that makes this a most enjoyable release, even when the noise pieces could have been shorter." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€9.00 |
|
| [AD]VANCE[D] |
poem#red128dot |
CD-R |
"Der erste Schritt Mars F. Wellinks nach der Auflösung des Vance Orchesters ist diese vermutlich limitierte CDR-Produktion im übergroßen Cardboard-Cover in Plastik aus Griechenland. Ein gegen 40 Minuten tendierendes langes Stück im entspannten Spannungsfeld zwischen Musique Concrete, experimenteller Elektronik mit ambienten Charakter inkl. wohl eingesetzten Fieldrecordings. Hier findet sich alles wieder, was das Vance Orchestra so unverwechselbar gemacht hat, eine organische Entwicklung, die den Hörer nie ganz losläßt, aber auch nicht knebelt und fesselt. Hervorragendes ambient noir, das aus meiner Sicht gar nicht hoch genug geschätzt werden kann. Gewidmet dem Andenken Geert Feytons (Noisemaker's Five, Negative Entropy und NMT Productions), der im Juli 2006 gestorben ist." [ [cs] / Bad Alchemy]
VANCE ORCHESTRA is dead, long live AD]VANCE[D]! This is the first release of the follow-up project of the split-up VANCE ORCHESTRA, Arnhem-based musician and designer MARS F WELLINK does it now alone! "Poem#red128dot" is dedicated to GEERT FEYTONS from NOISE-MAKER'S-FIFES, who died last year. A real sound-poem.
"Vance Orchestra from Arnhem are no more, but out of his ashes new paths are chosen. Robert Deters plays around with various people from the local scene, including Machinefabriek, while Mars Wellink goes on solo. As (ad)vance(d) he now presents his first solo work, I think, for the Absurd label. It has been around in their offices for a while, but it's release comes in handy. In various cities (Arnhem, Leiden, Molovos) Mars recorded some field sounds which he knits together to a thirty six minute sound poem. Voices play a role, but more over it's here to create an atmospheric piece of music. The backdrop is a sort of ambient piece of a wall of synthesizers, but it's too angular to be a dull piece of music. On top of that hotbed, Mars lets his recordings drop in and out of the mix, bird calls, insects, people walking and talking. Over the course of the piece things move away from the ambient patterns played at the beginning and moving into the world of strict soundscaping and then spiral back into the ambient backing of the start. A highly atmospheric work that is more like a sound picture, be it of different places, of sound moving in and from various directions than a strict music piece, more like a sound environment." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Flushing the Veins |
DVD |
The second release for the "post"-VANCE ORCHESTRA project is a DVD with four films & new music, combining colourful vivid & floating shapes with field recordings and electronic sounds & drones... lovely stuff, contemplative & little bit bizarrre as always...
Comes in nicely designed handmade DVD-box, with colour-booklet, lim. 300
"Hier auf dem Moskauer Kleinlabel für Sammlereditionen, das auch schon Merzbow, PBK, Troum, Maeror Tri und Telepherique veröffentlicht hat, folgt im reizenden Leinendesign mit farbigem Booklet dann die Kombination aus den beiden Interessen-schwerpunkten von Mars F. Wellink mit Support durch den audiovisuellen Produzenten Moreezz. Visuell erinnert mich das Ganze weitgehend an Derek Jarmans TG-Film "In The Shadow Of The Sun" - verfremdete, monochrome & fluktuierende Gebilde. Selbiges läßt sich fast ebenso vom musikalischen Teil sagen. Im Gegensatz zur Erstveröffentlichung von (Ad)Vance(d) geht es hier aber mit mehr Kontrast und Tiefenschärfe zur Sache. Verschiedene Geräusche des Alltags (Fieldrecordings in Deutsch) werden bewußt extrahiert, präsentiert und betont bis hin zur Aufdringlichkeit. Hier wird zielstrebig und kultiviert nach innen gebohrt in Bereiche, derer man sich vorher gar nicht bewußt war oder werden wollte, unterteilt in 4 Kapitel. [cs]
"...Wellink was one half of the Vance Orchestra, 'which lost after 10 years most of his magic', as we read in the booklet. We also read that Wellink was treated for cancer and that this new DVD 'symbolizes my feelings' and hence the title. The images and sounds were created by Wellink and processed by one Mooreezz. Like Telepherique (Ad)Vance(d) likes to use loops, but whereas they are simple in the 'Stahl Und Steine' release of Telepherique, with (Ad)Vance(d) they are produced on a wider scale and he takes the listener on a more coherent journey. Tinkling bells, animal sounds, voices, street sounds, they all rotate with a constant tempo. The images have a similar process: colored fields rotate about, return, change shape and color, and keep on rotating. Music and images have a hallucinatory effect if you watch and listen this closely on a TV screen and with the sound quite loud. Or it works as a nice ambient environment to which glance every now and then, while having the music. Many possibilities there." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.waystyx.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Unseen Intelligence |
mCD-R |
"once half of the wonderful VANCE ORCHESTRA, mars f. wellink still creates multi-layered soundscapes full of details. not very productive, his past works were released on absurd (one cd-r), waystyx (one lp and one dvd) and more recently on the 10" series of drone records, substantia illuminata. "unseen intelligence" is a wonderful "sound travelogue", as stefan knappe described his 10"." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Mars F. Wellink came from Ain Towh and Vance Orchestra and since some years is (Ad)Vance(d), which is never very active with releases, but always creates a fine piece of drone music. Here he works with one Jan Dekker and its never known what they use sound wise. For all I know there is a bunch of field recordings, voices and tons of processing on going, but then its hard to say which kind of processing. Does (Ad)Vance(d) use a lot of analogue electronics, or is it perhaps in the world of computers? Its all not easy, if not impossible to tell. 'Unseen Intelligence' consists of three distinct parts. The first has a slight light metallic ring to it, with voices taped on a dictaphone. The second part, with some ten minutes also the longest, an obscure piece of crackling sounds (radio?), voices, and some sounds of scraping metal, which grows in intensity and the short third piece builds in a log fade up to the conclusion and contains, perhaps, all sounds elements as before. Its once again an excellent piece of music of a highly atmospheric nature, which should appeal to drone-heads world-wide." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE, THE |
Vesuvius |
12 |
Neues US-Label mit neuer 12“-Serie, wo um es die akustische Darstellung von Naturkatastrophen geht. Den Anfang macht das
[LAW RAH]-COLLECTIVE aus den Niederlanden mit einer bedrohlich-dark ambienten Umsetzung des Vesuvausbruchs! Goldenes Vinyl.
“...'vesuvius' is the second vinyl release on force of nature and the first in a series, where each release will be describing a different natural disaster. both tracks are around fifteen minutes in length and created with analog sound sources only. while the first side of the 12" describes the expulsion of volcanic gasses - solfataras - poisoning the air, the second side sketches a picture of Pompeii, herculaneum, oplonti and stabiae, each hidden under 10 to 75 feet of tephra (ashes). two days of volcanic activity killed over 3300 people. the design and packaging of 'Vesuvius' is explosive itself; slightly transparent golden vinyl resembling the power of the magma hidden deep inside the earth. An ash and smoke colored cover insert designed by dominick fernow of hospital productions not only gives a brief history of the volcano; it also acts as a guardian protecting the gold of an once so prosperous city which is no more.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Inspiration |
CD |
"this time the [law-rah] collective is martijn pieck and bauke van der wal. bauke is the founder and original member of the collective, hence the first releases were the result of his twisted mind. during the years of law-rah's existence, he has collaborated with several people and re-evaluated the collective nature of the project. this in turn has changed a solo project with a weird name to a true collective of artists in both the audio and visual arenas. martijn and bauke have known each other since 1993 and shared many hours making music together. however, in the mid 90's both martijn and bauke went in different directions when it came to creating electronic music. in the autumn of 2007 the time was right and they once again started making music together. with this release martijn has become a full member of the collective and ideas for many future projects are already locked into their collective minds. "it's a new collective now. so a new i ... i (me) becomes us. after incarnation and isolation, now inspiration." (bauke van der wal)
compared with the collective's conceptual works like '1953', which was an earlier release by bauke and dutch writer, vocalist and member of the collective hiekelien van den herik, this album's subject is a more private and subliminal one. all track titles are related to baukes and martijns home town utrecht, and to the history they shared there over the years. a quote from a band both bauke and martijn appreciate is printed on the cover as a good example of their 'inspiration' and perfectly illustrates their thoughts about this town:
"this is the place where all roads meet, the place where all is secret. the place where time stands still in the comfort of night and love becomes will in the presence of light. i never want to leave..." (taken from 'terminus' by psychic tv)
musically, 'inspiration' can be clearly identified as a new step in the [law-rah] collective's exploration of their electronic microcosm. sub-bass lines and drones interact with beautiful idm'ish melodic lines that are complimented by pulsing beat sequences - inducing an overall majestic and sometimes melancholic impression. this music is filled with deep, haunting and phantasmagorial sounds that are expertly adapted to give one's fancy a full scope of emotion. more simply put, this is a inspired journey through two persons' past and present.
"the basics from the [law-rah] collective always was that you create your own imaginary movie and we'll take care of the soundtrack..." (bauke van der wal)
[full label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Solitaire |
CD |
"Like on the 2008 Ant-Zen album 'Inspiration', the duo Martijn Pieck and Bauke van der Wal upped the ante with the collective's 7th full release. Sound wise they return to the collective's origins: a combination of ambient structures and deep drones with sudden breaks in the sound spectrum. 'Solitaire's threatening and oppressive mood will leave you in a state and in a place where you haven't been before. A new reality which is more then the sum of its parts." [label info]
"Wer das Niederländische [Law-Rah] Collective auf seinem Konzert in Berlin (24.10.2009) gesehen hat und den experimentalektronisch Sound mit ätherischem Frauengesang und Spoken word-Einlagen goutierte, wird vermutlich über das aktuelle Album 'Solitaire' überrascht sein: In dem stimmungsvoll gestalteten Cover wartet ein erstklassiges Instrumentalalbum.
'Solitaire' hört man seine sorgfältig konstruierten Klangwelten deutlich an: Mit Fieldrecordings, langen Drones, gelegentlichen dumpfen Beats und filigranen Keyboard- und Piano-Melodien entadfltet sich ein geisterhafter Soundtrack, der sich großartig mit der im Artwork angelegten Bildwelt ergänzt. Melancholisch und unheimliche Passagen gehen über in wohlige Erinnerungsfetzen - 'Solitaire' ist ein großartiger Soundtrack zum Schwelgen im Persönlichsten.
Mit ihrem aktuellen Album ist dem [Law-Rah] Collective eine wunderbare impressionsitsische Komposition gelungen, die auf überdeutliche Samples und esoterische Gimmicks leicht verzichten kann. Glaklarer Ambient für das Innere Kino." [Marcus Stiglegger, Ikonen] |
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Field of View |
CD |
"additional engineering by manuel g. richter
photographs & layout by salt
by now it should be common knowledge that no two albums by our dutch friends of the [law-rah] collective are alike - their output is a constant journey of discovery. 'field of view', the eighth full-length cd in their discography, is no exception. for the first time the collective wrote and produced the music as a trio: bauke van der wal - the original initiator of the project - is joined by hiekelien van den herik (member of the collective on the albums '1953' and '...as it is...') as well as martijn pieck (a.o. 'solitaire', 'inspiration', '[ans]werk' and the soundtrack of the documentary 'verzet in indië').
this collaboration resulted in an album which has the typical [law-rah] signature: massive deep drones and minimalistic sound collages are accompanied by minimal sequences and (un)steady beats that blend into the alienating soundscapes or set the pace for memorably haunting, atmospheric melodies. in the vocal department hiekelien proves herself to be an amazing singer, alternating between spoken word recitations as known from earlier [law-rah] albums and one-of-a-kind songs.
'field of view' delivers a new chapter in the history of this prolific project's output - a fascinating insight into different perspectives, exhibited in a surprising and captivating album. the whole view we have of things, how we observe, what we see ... what is reality?... is reality really what we see?" [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2012 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Tess |
mCD-R |
at first a solo dark ambient project created by bauke van der wal more than 20 years ago, the [law-rah] collective has evolved through the years for more diverse sounds while more and more collaborators were added (including martijn "cinema perdu" pieck).
"tess" is a kind of special release as it's a solo droney piece made by bauke.
tess
(19:53)
forever in our hearts
this time the [law-rah] collective is bauke van der wal
www.darkambient.net
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/tess-alm-141
"The [Law-Rah] Collective started as the solo project of Bauke van der Wal and later became a duo, with the addition of Martijn Pieck (also known as Cinema Perdu). 'Tess', however, "is a kind of special release" by Van der Wal solo. Now, when I think of Taalem releases, over 140 of them (and not sure how many I heard, but a lot surely), this would be the sound to describe the label. The music here is dark, sad, electronic, and thoughtful. It doesn't stay in one place but is on a constant shift. These shifts are minimal, but they all happen at the right moment. I have no idea how Van der Wal works (somehow, I think I may not have seen a live concert by him/them), whether this is modular electronics or computer-generated music, but it has a great warm feeling. From the opening drone, the pieces move on, paces the drones and slowly adds a metallic percussion in the background. Metallic and mechanic, I should think, like machines at work on a construction site or a life support system in the hospital. A sombre piece, but maybe that's also because of the 'special release' and 'forever in our hearts' note that comes with this. An excellent release, this one, very moving." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| ØE & ENRICO CONIGLIO |
Inner Frost |
mCD-R |
" 'inner frost' is the first collaboration between enrico coniglio and øe aka fabio perletta, two respected italian musicians.
guitarist, environmental sound recordist and sound artist, enrico coniglio already has a solid body of physical works, alone or in collaboration with oophoi (aqua dorsa) or giovanni lami (lemures) on silentes, psychonavigation records, glacial movement, hypnos and netreleases on cronica or touch. he's also the co-curator of the great galaverna netlabel.
fabio perletta is a sound and multimedia artist. his works include electronic music, sound and light installations, live performances and graphic design. over the years he has collaborated with many international artists such as richard chartier, yann novak, lawrence english, simon whetham fabio orsi and many others. he also runs the farmacia901 label.
for this two-track release, enrico and fabio wanted to create pure glacial ambient. the release was ready last spring but we all decided to postpone it to a more appropriate release date. we're now in december, you can now have the pleasure to enjoy "inner frost"..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
|
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